released 03 feb 03 / last mod 01 jun 07 / greg goebel / public domain
* Fans of the anime series TENCHI MUYO (NO NEED FOR TENCHI) know it to be a bit of affectionate and pleasing silliness. This DVD takes some sidetrips off the main Tenchi storyline.
The first of the four episodes focuses on Mihoshi, the infamously-dumb-blonde Galaxy Policewoman. It begins with a dream sequence that recasts Mihoshi in some fun ways, and then leads to Mihoshi reminiscing about one of her typically bumbling and disastrous investigations.
The following three episodes then focus on "Magical Girl Pretty Sammy", a complete retelling of the Tenchi mythology that recasts cute little space princess Sasami into a fourth grader, with Tenchi as her high-school brother and most of the other characters as high-school students and faculty.
The first episode involves Sasami being recruited by Tsunami, candidate queen of the magic kingdom of Juraihelm, to become "Pretty Sammy", Tsunami's champion on Earth. Of course, an evil rival arises as well, in the form of "Pixy Misa", who is the Jekyll-and-Hyde manifestation of Sasami's sweet, shy, frail friend Misao.
This episode is cute and charming, sort of a satire of SAILOR MOON and the like, but the second Pretty Sammy episode falls completely on its face. It concerns a Bill Gates clone trying to take over the world, and is so poorly-written and empty-headed that it's embarrassing to watch the scriptwriters bumbling through it.
The last episode, involving Pretty Sammy's adventures on a trip to the seashore, is at least watchable, if not much more than fluff. Still, it's pretty obvious after sitting through this that the Pretty Sammy idea is cute, but that cutesy only goes so far.
The Mihoshi Special and the first Pretty Sammy episode are silly and fun, and I would give them three stars. Unfortunately, the second Pretty Sammy episode gets one (only because the scale doesn't include none) and the third gets two, which pulls down the average.
Some other comments: the production / artwork values are competent if nothing special. The worst technical feature is that the DVD menu is unusually hard to use, since it's difficult to see what entries have been selected, and not too easy to navigate. Also, just for pacing yourself, the Mihoshi special is a half hour (25 minutes or so in practice) while the Pretty Sammy episodes are an hour (45 minutes or so).
I almost forgot to add that the Mihoshi Special has a nice little extra feature, in that the closing credits include a little Pretty Sammy "mini-adventure" without dialogue that features a junior-high Tenchi as Sasami's "guy in distress" and Kiyone as a cackling, scantily-clad villainness. It may not be enough to raise the overall grade of this disc, but in itself it's an entirely endearing take on the Tenchi mythology.
