Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Tenchi Muyo! Daughter of Darkness Blu-ray Movie Review

Didn't Tom Jones have a song about her?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 14, 2012

Note: This film is currently available only in this set: Tenchi Muyo!: Movie Collection.

Tenchi Masaki, the focal character of the huge Tenchi Muyo! franchise, has never been a model of discretion or smart thinking. One of the central conceits of the original set of OVAs which gave birth to a huge glut of various properties was the fact that Tenchi openly disobeyed his Grandfather (not to mention disbelieved him) by opening a padlocked gate to a cave near his family shrine, and through a series of mishaps, letting out a sort of demonic female alien named Ryoko who had been imprisoned there for 700 years. Now it’s arguable that that decision wasn’t ultimately horrible, as it set the Tenchi Muyo! universe into motion, delivering several more alien females straight into Tenchi’s harem, but it indicates the sort of impulsive behavior this young man repeatedly demonstrates in many of the different offerings that Tenchi Muyo! provides. So in a way no one should be overly surprised when a blue haired young lass shows up one day at Tenchi’s family shrine claiming to be his daughter. Tenchi himself seems to be somewhat confused, though it’s never explicitly stated whether or not he’s been sexually active enough to actually procreate. But we’ve already been let in on the fact that this ostensible daughter may in fact be part of a larger revenge drama that is playing out across untold generations and which involves Yosho. While that revenge drama lurks in the background and actually explodes into this rather short film’s final act, a lot of this installment in the Tenchi Muyo! franchise tends to feel like a kind of warped version of Sister Wives, with various members of Tenchi’s harem, notably Ryoko herself, not being all that pleased to have a new female in their midst, even if that female is Tenchi’s own daughter.

The opening few minutes of Tenchi Muyo: Daughter of Darkness may be extremely confusing even to those well acquainted with the sometimes lunatic world of this franchise. A bunch of quick cuts seems to be indicating some sort of epochal battle evidently involving a bizarre furry character who looks kind of like a cross between a cat and a werewolf. That 700 year trope that defined the original Tenchi Muyo! OVAs rears its female alien head again when it turns out this weird creature has been asleep for 700 years and has simply been dreaming of a long ago conflict. Her name is Yuzuha and she obviously has revenge on her mind. She’s able to divine the far away happenings of Tenchi and his harem and decides that he’s the perfect person on whom to exact her revenge, once again kind of echoing Ryoko’s motivations in the original OVA series.

That’s when the action switches to Tenchi, who almost stumbles over the young blue haired girl, who is named Mayuka, as he walks down some stairs near his family’s shrine. Mayuka speaks in a little girl’s voice and immediately calls Tenchi “Daddy”, which obviously confuses the young man. Tenchi is never one to turn away any female, daughter or not, as this franchise has proven repeatedly in virtually all of its many iterations. When Tenchi brings Mayuka back to the house, he’s met with a bunch of furious other women, most noticeably Ryoko, who flies off the handle in her usual comic manner.

Tenchi Muyo: Daughter of Darkness clocks in at barely an hour, and it feels more like a half baked “very special episode” of the Tenchi Universe anime series, for it tries to deal with a bunch of interpersonal relationships too quickly and discursively to ever build up any momentum. The film also has a pretty uneasy balance between its supposed heart string tugging moments and its flat out goofy, almost slapstick, comedic elements, comedy that is quite reminiscent of a lot of that opening OVA series.

Ryoko, for example, has always been a kind of quasi-tsundere character, a sharp tongued woman who takes no prisoners. But here we actually see her crying in despair over having to “share” Tenchi with this new girl. It’s an odd sight and one that isn’t completely in keeping with the character, though truth be told, the Tenchi universe is so wide and so varied that continuity has never been one of its strengths. This film also has a very unusual moment of Tenchi actually striking out and slapping Ryoko across the face, something distinctly at odds with the more formal battles that the two have undertaken from time to time in their sort of squabbling sibling rivalry.

The weird dichotomy between the comedic elements (as when Mayuka attempts to bathe with Tenchi) and the dramatic (as evidenced by the simmering tensions between Tenchi and his harem) makes the final showdown with Yuzuha all the stranger. This sequence, which taken on its own is rather impressive, with some fantastic animation that’s somewhat reminiscent of the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence from Fantasia and a really aggressive sound mix, just seems to be from another film, partly because the whole revenge scenario is so poorly developed to begin with, but also due to all the kind of soap operatic silliness that has come before.

Fans of Tenchi Muyo! will probably be willing to overlook the manifest shortcomings of this film, for it does have a lot of what made the original OVA series so enjoyable, including a lot of crazy comedy and some good interactions between the principal cast. But this is probably the least effective of the three Tenchi Muyo! feature films and as such is most likely mostly for that diehard fan base.

Tenchi Muyo! Daughter of Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tenchi Muyo! Daughter of Darkness is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. As with Tenchi Muyo in Love, I only have discs, no packaging, but my gut feeling is this is another SD native upconversion, though this one looks at least relatively better than the first film, with stronger, more stable line detail and better saturated color. There's an appealing layer of grain throughout this presentation and the elements are in very good condition, but the overall look here is, like in the first film, pretty soft looking and lacking the punch and sharpness that some fans may have been hoping to see.

Tenchi Muyo! Daughter of Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tenchi Muyo! Daughter of Darkness features two Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes, one in the original Japanese and another English dub. As with the first film, the English dub sounds just slightly more aggressive. Of all three films released together in the new FUNimation box set, Tenchi Muyo! Daughter of Darkness has some of the most effective sound design, with some incredibly effective surround activity and really boisterous, floorboard rumbling LFE in the final action set piece. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and dynamic range is extremely wide.

Tenchi Muyo! Daughter of Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements included on this disc.

Tenchi Muyo! Daughter of Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tenchi Muyo! Daughter of Darkness is simply too short and undeveloped to ever generate much momentum. There's some good stuff here, to be sure, but this is the slightest entry in the Tenchi Muyo! feature film canon, and not just because it's the shortest film by far. The final showdown scene is a lot of fun, and longtime fans may want to check out this film for that alone. The video quality here is marginally better than in the first film, but the audio is probably the best of all three films.