The package came in yesterday (September 28, 2006) as part of UPS's final stops.  I eagerly signed for it (and the other fun package he had for me) but then found myself in dilemma.  I had already started watching the new Battlestar Galactica 2.5DVD and was loathe to eject the DVD without completing it.  Fortunately, I was near the end of the last episode on that DVD.  Yay!  Now I could pop in my Tenchi DVD.

For hardcore fans, you already know the story contained within.  However, looking back, I was reminded of how much time Kajishima-sensei wasted.  Episode 17 spent a great deal of time showing Noike and Sasami-chan preparing the large meal for celebrating Seto-sama's arrival.   That's not counting the time in the fields gathering ingredients for the meal (eggplant).  I figure at least half the episode sacrifices story (and story flow) in favor of this texture.  That's not to say that texture isn't good, but considering how things had to be packed into episode 19 and what was sacrificed in episode 18, it wasn't a good choice in my opinion.

For episode 18, we can't forget the horrible decision of Kajishima-sensei (and the director) of taking the fight which had been nicely set up in episode 17, and stripping it of any dramatic value, much less excitement.  And fans who haven't seen GXP or who don't know much about Mihoshi's brother Misao aren't going to be as enthused about the time spent looking at his weird attraction to Mihoshi, or his relationship to his aide Mashisu.

MAKE SURE YOU WATCH AFTER THE END CREDITS! 

Episode 19 is the payoff episode.  It is here that Z finally takes an active role and confronts Tenchi.  It is here that we learn the true nature of Tenchi, the purpose of the Choushin, and we also learn a few other interesting items.  However, we are also presented with several new questions.

Mato does an excellent job on the subtitle translations.  So make sure to give him props on FUNimation's Tenchi board.  I would have preferred that the stand-alone "oniichan," "neesan," or the like have been used, but Mato does fine with his translation.  And he does use those terms in the subtitles when they are used as honorifics. 

As to the extras, the music video for Lovely Cooking was already seen by me.  I seem to remember it being on the AIC's website way back when the series was being produced, but the video quality was poor.  Now I have a HQ version.

The Real Tenchi Tour was the one extra I was most keen on seeing.  I was hoping for a documentary showing the various places in Japan that were used as settings or name-sakes of characters.  It was a bit disappointing to see that this appears to have been two videos made for the Japanese Tenchi Muyo! Fan Club.  So the video style is a combination of home movie and small video company production.   I'm not complaining about this, just merely stating my preferred style.

The first video has the two music composers for OAV 3 touring places such as the real Ryoko's Cave and the real shrine used for the Masaki Shrine.  Plus, they climb Mt. Washu and get a look at the Great Seto's Bridge.  The two composures don't say a whole lot other than express a certain level of awe at times or two pray for the success of OAV 3.

The second video is the 2nd day of the tour, sans the male composure.  So even less is said here as she visits places such as Sami Beach (where Sasami-chan got her name), the Bisei observatory that has the same Kanji used for Mihoshi's name,  and a glimpses at some of the other places. 

As I said, I would have preferred an actual documentary, but I'm glad for what we got.

Note: If you want to see some pictures of various locations around Japan that were used as names or locations in the various Tenchi titles, visit here.

Before you ask, yes, FUNimation has its normal ad before the feature (this time for Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid) which can be skipped by pressing the Title Menu button.  The menu is straight forward, but there is techno music used on the menu pages.  I'm not sure where this came from as I didn't think it was from Japan or related to Tenchi.  However, I could be wrong there. The music isn't bad, just unexpected.

So it is a good DVD and I'm glad it is finally out.  Thanks to FUNimation for sending me an advanced copy!

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