Tenchi Muyo GXP DVD 8: Past, Present, Future
Hawkeye
From the OAV’s to the two most popular television series Tenchi Universe and Tenchi in Tokyo, and even the three Tenchi Muyo movies, the fans attention has never wavered. Now after much anticipation and waiting, another series has been released, and its name is Tenchi Muyo GXP. But can this belated installment satisfy the fans or will it pale in caparison to those who came before it?
Seina starts as an average teenage boy, with normal friends and family. He’s going to school and maintaining a clumsy, if not peaceful life. Everything changes when he’s almost squished by a run away space ship. He essentially gets hijacked and ends up attending the Galaxy Police Academy. The DVD, Tenchi Muyo GXP, Past, Present, Future, takes place 24 episodes later.
Episode 24, Parallel, concludes an apparent cliff hanger where pirates threaten to kill kind villagers who took Seina under their wing. Episode 25, Graduation has a lot less action then the previous episode. It focuses on the personal relationships between the characters when Seina discovers that he could be the next in like to inherit the throne of Jurai. In Episode 26, Final Engagement, Seina discovers the he is to be married to four women, and he also faces an old enemy one last time.
Normally, I would go into depth about how well the character developed with the story, but since I came in at episode 24 that makes it difficult. From the three episodes I did see, the characters were consistent in attitude and seemed to stay true to their concepts. This is one of the few positive things I’m going to say about this series.
The art wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t good. If I was going to call it anything it would be mediocre. The art was boring and generic, there was not a single thing about it that stood out as really unique and beautiful, or even daring and avant-garde. It was just basic, anyone who has taken a basic animation class could produce these camera angles and perspectives. The only thing I really liked of the style was the hilarious ending sequence, which was Seina drawn as a chibi character running across the screen and doing silly things.
The voice acting was terrible. There’s no tactful way to put it, it was just that bad. Seina has several beautiful women after him, all competing for his love and attention, so my question is this: Why does he sound like a prepubescent ten year old? Even the Cabits (creatures that are half rabbit and half cat) didn’t sound cute in this series, they sounded more like annoying squealing rat-children then cute cuddly creatures. The music was at least good, I really liked the opening and ending themes, they were very popish and jazzy, upbeat and fun, but not even good music can hide the horrible English voice acting.
Like each of the Tenchi Series, they should be looked at separately from one another stories wise. How ever in the past, when they made a new Tenchi Muyo series, they at the very least tried to make improvements on the art, sound, or even the depth of the story and development of the characters. Tenchi Muyo GXP had a clean slate to work with, and could have blasted off in a tremendous epic that left the old series looking like yesterday’s news. However, it didn’t. In my opinion, it completely bombed and dropped the ball. Old fans of the Tenchi Muyo series will be disappointed that it has lost its down to earth yet still from outer space charm. Viewers who have never seen any of its predecessors will automatically be turned off from ever checking them out due to the monstrosity that is Tenchi Muyo GPX.
Entertainment: 3
The voice acting was bad, the art was “meh”, and the story wasn’t even all that good either. This DVD was a huge let down.
Technical: 1
The only thing offered was the Japanese language option. Granted I don’t think I would of even bothered to poke through the extras if there had been any but some fans might want more.
Overall: 2
DVD features: Episodes 24-26 Uncut in both English and Japanese with English Subtitles.
