What are you Watching?

Discuss anime, especially but not limited to 1950's~1990's series, and related sub-topics
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llj
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Re: What are you Watching?

Post by llj »

FInished the Tenchi Muyo movies "trilogy". I like to call it a loose trilogy because there are certain recurring themes that are emphasized in the movies if watched together.

I first watched Tenchi Muyo in Love back near the end of high school. Though I was never terribly interested in the TV series and OVAs, I dug the first movie since it took he best elements of the series and downplayed the ones I was less interested in--mainly all the harem and sitcom stuff, which got quite repetitive. Tenchi Muyo in Love is also an example of a movie extension of an anime series done right--it adds something new to the franchise while still standing on its own as a film.

This was my first time watching Daughter of Darkness and Tenchi Forever though.

Daughter of Darkness is probably the weakest of the 3 movies, with much of it devoted mostly to household sitcom antics between the girls. It's only about an hour, and there's a sense of the film being a cash-in placeholder of sorts. Was Mayuka ever seen again? It seems like this movie's events have been ignored by most people when placing it in a continuity.

Tenchi Forever (or Tenchi Muyo in Love 2) is probably the most interesting film of the bunch, although at this point the franchise was starting to slow down in popularity. The animation quality in this film is fairly weak for a film, and there are some fairly sloppy character drawings throughout. That said, it's a slow burn kind of film, with a sort of meditative pace. In some ways it reminds me of one of the better episodes of Haruhi Suzumiya, and even at times the great The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya in tone and atmosphere. It also comes closest to resolving who Tenchi ultimately likes the most, so it does really feel like the "last word" on the franchise, even though there would be more Tenchi stuff and reboots after this movies was released.

Though I feel the movies are all I really need out of this franchise, I might just rewatch some of the TV series and OVAs again sometime.
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Drew_Sutton
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Re: What are you Watching?

Post by Drew_Sutton »

I wasn't a huge fan of Tenchi Muyo! but a few people in my circle were into it, so I wound up watching quite a bit of it, especially the first two OAV sets and Tenchi TV (Tenchi Universe). There were some facets I liked about it - some of the sci fi setting and trappings, some of the characterization but the harem stuff never jived with me much either.
llj wrote:Daughter of Darkness is probably the weakest of the 3 movies, with much of it devoted mostly to household sitcom antics between the girls. It's only about an hour, and there's a sense of the film being a cash-in placeholder of sorts. Was Mayuka ever seen again? It seems like this movie's events have been ignored by most people when placing it in a continuity.
My opinion is in line with your analysis - this film is just there, adding or removing nothing to the franchise and is entirely skippable with no impact. I think the Mayuka character does appear again, maybe in Shin Tenchi Muyo! (Tenchi In Tokyo), but as with most Tenchi Muyo! pieces, everything is a set piece with semi-familiar characters and scenarios.
llj wrote:Tenchi Forever (or Tenchi Muyo in Love 2) is probably the most interesting film of the bunch, although at this point the franchise was starting to slow down in popularity. The animation quality in this film is fairly weak for a film, and there are some fairly sloppy character drawings throughout. That said, it's a slow burn kind of film, with a sort of meditative pace. In some ways it reminds me of one of the better episodes of Haruhi Suzumiya, and even at times the great The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya in tone and atmosphere. It also comes closest to resolving who Tenchi ultimately likes the most, so it does really feel like the "last word" on the franchise, even though there would be more Tenchi stuff and reboots after this movies was released.
I'm inline with this analysis, too. I liked the film when I first saw it, even if I wasn't that excited about seeing it in the first place. I really enjoyed the pacing, which was much different than the wacky-harem-sitcom styling of Tenchi TV and Shin Tenchi. I think, since Tenchi Muyo! In Love and In Love 2 are both based on the first TV series characterizations, it's a good end-cap for that particular story and trying to relate any of the properties that came later (Ryou-oh-ki OAV 3, that other TV series whose name escapes me now) you really cannot try to tie them together.
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llj
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Re: What are you Watching?

Post by llj »

I know a lot of diehard Tenchi fans don't like Tenchi Muyo! in Love 2 because it strays so far from the tone of the original property. But I've always felt that movies should be treated as their own entity. and used to experiment. The most memorable anime films based on franchises always tend to be the ones that were a bit more daring. GoShogun: The Time Etranger, Kimagure Orange Road: I Want to Return to that Day, Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer all stood out because they weren't just the latest "business as usual" theatrical placeholders for some long running franchise.

BTW, it's about time KOR: I Want to Return to that Day saw a proper re-release in North America. I'd even settle for a DVD-only release if it is at least anamorphic.
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Re: What are you Watching?

Post by DKop »

Anything I own of Tenchi is on VHS. One being the first movie (which surprisingly I liked when I watched it) and a tape that I think has the first four episodes on it I got for a couple of bucks from a long forgotten video store in my college town years ago.
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llj
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Re: What are you Watching?

Post by llj »

I re-watched Kimagure Orange Road: I Want to Return to that Day yesterday.

First off, as I mentioned in other threads in here, I think this is one of the great "sleeper" anime films of the 80s. It's artful, succinct, and paced well. I suppose you could argue it's a little slim at 65 minutes, but no scene is wasted. It takes a typically silly sitcom TV series about a love triangle and ends it in brutal neo-realist manner. What makes this film great, in my opinion, is that it is also one of the things many anime fans don't like about the film.


With that said, although I already liked the film before, this re-watch breaks a few misconceptions I had about the film. I had, for the longest time, thought that Kyosuke was portrayed as having handled his "breaking up" with Hikaru rather poorly and seemed a bit unnecessarily cruel.

However, on this viewing, I now see his actions as painful yet necessary. When he finally decides that it's Madoka he wants, he actually does clearly and without ambiguity express this to Hikaru initially--something that I had forgotten over the years. However, Hikaru, quite understandably, simply didn't want to give up. After so many dozens of episodes and OVAs, Kyosuke understood that if he weakened even an inch to her advances, she would get her hopes up again and she would never quit. By cutting it off cleanly, cruelly and suddenly--and sticking with it--the love triangle would be definitively broken as Hikaru would finally realize that this time it's for real: she has zero chance with Kyosuke. This is where this film is at its most astute: sometimes there simply is no "good" way to break it off with someone.

I do still think, however, Madoka comes off somewhat poorly in the film. Of the 3 leads, she seems the most willing to destroy years of childhood friendship with Hikaru to get what she wants.

Then again, I know many generally decent people who subscribe to the adage "All's fair in love and war". Even friendships. Madoka knows what she wants and who she wants and decided that enough was enough. I can't begrudge her for that.
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Re: What are you Watching?

Post by karageko »

I watched through the Sengoku Majin Goshogun TV series and the movie compilation and if anyone listened to Dawn's podcast episode about Time Etranger you may recall that khoda mentioned something along the lines of how the movie compilation changed the ending completely. This is not an exaggeration, although I'd probably say that it wasn't changed so much as they just left out the last third of the TV series. Honestly, the TV series was mildly amusing from time to time but nothing extraordinary. Supposedly it was supposed to be a parody (?) of super robot shows from that era but I don't have the breadth of viewing experience to recognize that. If anything, watching the original TV series only further emphasizes the enigma that is how did The Time Etranger even come about (I'm working on a little thingy that may add clarity to this).

I also watched Twilight Q; enjoyed both episodes! The second one being something I would probably rewatch with someone given how heavy and full with dialogue it is, but given my prior exposure to a bunch of the weirder Oshii catalog no surprises ultimately. Some day I'll actually get to the stuff he's the most famous for.

Also going through Fist of the North Star 2; the first series I had finish a while ago back in high school and it was so dangerously powerful that I had to put it down and I just never got to taking a stab at the second series until recently.

Also continuing in my hunger for Dezaki + Sugino material, I've been going through The Rose of Versailles. Only a few episodes into it so far though.

I actually normally don't do more than one series at a time but somehow I ended up juggle three different series (Goshogun was started around the same time), so perhaps a bit strange that it ended up happening like that.
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Re: What are you Watching?

Post by karageko »

karageko wrote:I watched through the Sengoku Majin Goshogun TV series and the movie compilation and if anyone listened to Dawn's podcast episode about Time Etranger you may recall that khoda mentioned something along the lines of how the movie compilation changed the ending completely.
Just updating what I said to add that I just have poor memory because khoda totally did say that the compilation didn't cover the ending ;) Silly me.
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Re: What are you Watching?

Post by usamimi »

Yeah they purposely left out the ending...not sure why!

As for the Goshogun movie, supposedly the novels get a little more serious & dark from time to time from what Khoda said & that was were a lot of the movie came from I believe!
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Re: What are you Watching?

Post by Char Aznable »

Just started Godannar, and it's a mixed bag. The story is the same basic giant robot vs. giant alien monster plot we've seen a thousand times and the characters don't do much to stand out. I'm about 9 episodes in, so maybe things will pick up soon. It's not that the show's "bad" per se, just not very engaging. I do like the homage to '70s era giant robot anime, which Godannar pulls off well, plus they didn't skimp on production values here, so the show looks slick.
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llj
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Re: What are you Watching?

Post by llj »

Started watching Tekkaman Blade II on blu-ray. As is expected with not quite-renowned OVAs, there are parts of it where the original materials were obviously lost. In episodes 1 and 2, the second half of both episodes are from SD sources. Thankfully, episodes 3-6 seems to be fully in HD.
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