Tenchi Forever - Tenchi the Movie
The thirdTenchifeature has a less playful tone than the popular television and OAV series. Annoyed by the endless bickering between Ayeka and Ryoko, Tenchi goes for a walk in the hills above the Masami family shrine--and vanishes. His extraterrestrial friends organize a search: Wasshu dispatches Galactic Police Agents Mihoshi and Kiyoni to hack the gargantuan computer at the Science Academy; Sasami does research on Jurai; Ayeka and Ryoko get jobs as waitresses while they search Tokyo for clues. Haruna, a mysterious girl linked to an ancient camellia bush, has taken Tenchi to a parallel world, where he lives a seemingly normal life as an art student. But he's troubled by headaches and the images of Ryoko that turn up in his work. Tenchi grows a bit older there, which allows director Hiroshi Negishi to depict some very mild cartoon sex between his hero and the eerily beautiful Haruna. The animation is a little more fluid than the television episodes, and there's a welter of computer-animated effects when Wasshu works her high-tech devices and the characters travel between dimensions. ButTenchifans will miss the endearing silliness that gives the shorter adventures much of their appeal.--Charles Solomon