Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love
| Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love | |
 Pioneer's North American DVD box cover. For alternate cover art, see the release's gallery. | |
| Japanese | 天地無用! in LOVE |
| Romanization | Tenchi Muyo! in Love |
| Directed by | Hiroshi Negishi |
| Screenplay by | Ryoe Tsukimura Hiroshi Negishi |
| Starring | Masami Kikuchi Ai Orikasa Yumi Takada Chisa Yokoyama Yuko Mizutani Yuri Amano Yuko Kobayashi Megumi Hayashibara Toshiyuki Morikawa Ryuzaburo Ohtomo |
| Edited by | Jay Film Yasue Funami |
| Music by | Christopher Franke |
| Production | AIC Pioneer LDC Tenchi Muyo Theatrical Version Producers Committee |
| Distributed by | Theatrical GAGA communications inc. Home Video  Pioneer Entertainment (USA) L.P. (1996 - 2003) Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. (2004 - 2007) FUNimation Entertainment (2012 - Current) |
| Release date | Theatrical April 20, 1996 Home Video August 25, 1996 (VHS, LaserDisc)[1] August 20, 1996 (VHS) August 27, 1996 (LaserDisc)[2] December 18, 2012 (Blu-ray)[3] |
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | Japan United States |
| Language | Japanese English |
Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love also known as Tenchi Muyo! in Love (天地無用! in LOVE, phonetic: Tenchi Muyou! in Rabu) is the first of three films in the Tenchi Muyo! franchise, and was directed by Hiroshi Negishi. The film takes place after the events of the TV series Tenchi Universe. It was released theatrically in Japan on April 20, 1996.[4]
The film was a co-production of Pioneer Japan and Pioneer America, with all sound production being done in the United States. As such, the film was released on home video first in the United States on VHS on August 20, 1996.[5]
Titles
| Title | Language |
|---|---|
| TENCHI MUYO in LOVE [6] | Official title |
| 天地無用! in LOVE [7] | Japanese title |
| 劇場版 天地無用! in LOVE[8] | Japanese Release |
| MOVIE EDITION TENCHI MUYO! in LOVE[8] | Official Japanese English Release Translation |
| Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love | Official English Title |
| Tenchi Muyo! The Movie [9] |  German |
| Tenchi-Muyo! La película 1 - Tenchi-Muyo enamorado [10] |  Spanish |
| Chi ha bisogno di Tenchi? Tenchi Muyo in Love [11] |  Italian |
| TENCHI MUYO! in Love [12] |  Korean |
| 天地無用! in LOVE 劇場版 後篇 [13] |  Chinese |
Plot Summary
The film opens with the Emperor of Jurai sacrificing himself to imprison Super A-1 class criminal Kain in subspace many centuries ago. With the help of the Galaxy Police, Kain is imprisoned in the GP's headquarters. Kain eventually escapes his bonds and destroys the GP headquarters, traveling through time to take his revenge on the Jurai royal family. Suddenly, in the present time of 1996, Tenchi and all things related to the Masaki family begin to fade out of existence. Washu theorizes that something is messing with the space-time continuum, and uses a special net to keep Tenchi from vanishing. Being only a temporary solution, Washu decides to send the rest of the group back to 1970 to prevent Kain from killing Tenchi's mother, Achika. Ryoko, Ayeka, Mihoshi, & Kiyone all assume roles at Nobuyuki and Achika's high school, while Tenchi himself stays hidden to prevent causing a time paradox. Tenchi and company must also deal with an undercover GP operative bent on seeking revenge on Kain.
After determining that Kain will strike at Tokyo tower, the group tries to defend Achika, only to have Kain escape into subspace taking Achika with him. Tenchi, Ayeka and Ryoko follow them into the other dimension, but even with help from Washu they are still outmatched. Washu sends a powerful weapon, the dimensional cannon, to them from the present. Kiyone is the one to helm the weapon to destroy Kain. After Tenchi is wounded, Achika unlocks her latent Jurai powers to power the sword and deal a near-fatal blow to Kain. Tenchi and company barely escape back through the portal before the dimensional cannon is fired, finally destroying Kain. Once back, Achika asks Ryoko and Ayeka to take care of Tenchi, since she will not be there for him in their present. The final moments of the film see Achika and Nobuyuki sitting together as Nobuyuki is sketching their future home, as well as Achika holding an infant Tenchi.
Cast
Music
Christopher Franke, composer of the Babylon 5 television series and feature film Universal Soldier, was brought on to do the music. For the film, Franke conducted his orchestra in Germany from Los Angeles via the internet.[14]
The theme Alchemy of Love was performed by Nina Hagen and Rick Jude and was released as a single in Japan on April 23, 1996 for ¥1,000. [7] Another version of the single featuring vocals by Achika's voice actress Megumi Hayashibara was released on August 21, 1996 for ¥1,000. [15]
Reception
| Aggregate Scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Rotten Tomatoes |  86%[16] (500+)
|
| MyAnimeList | 7.42/10 [17] (11,000+) |
| Anime News Network | 7.65/10 [18] (1,100+ / Mean Average) |
| Anime-Planet | 3.78/5 [19] (3,900+) |
| IMDb | 7.2/10 [20] (1,400+) |
Retrospective Reviews (After 10+ years)
Carlo Santos reviewed the film for Anime News Network on Jan 23, 2013 as part of a general review for FUNimation's Tenchi Muyo! The Movie Collection release. Carlo's review of the film was mostly positive, noting "The storyline borrows a familiar time-travel concept[...]then serves up the usual humor, romance, and action that the series is known for." Though no individual grade was given to each film, Carlo noted in particular that Tenchi Muyo! In Love was "the pretty good" portion of the boxset. [21]
Distribution
Tenchi Muyo! in Love premiered outside of Japan at Anime Expo '96 in Anaheim, California, which took place June 28 to 30, 1996. [22] The first showing was the English-dubbed version on June 29[23] and over 1,000 people attended the premiere.[24] The subtitled version was also shown the next day on June 30.[23]
On August 26, 1996 Tenchi Muyo! in Love premiered on Sci-Fi channel at 9pm U.S. Eastern time as part of their "Movie Theme Week".[25] The movie would later rerun under Sci-Fi's Saturday Anime programming block.
References
- ↑ TMIL JP Home Video Release Poster
- ↑ Pac de America Vol1 Issue4 Pg3
- ↑ "Tenchi Muyo!: Movie Collection (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)". Amazon.com. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
- ↑ "AIC作品紹介". anime-int.com. Archived from the original. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
- ↑ "Tenchi the Movie - Tenchi Muyo In Love (VHS)". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
- ↑ Pioneer North American DVD Japanese Title
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Tenchi Muyo In Love CD Release Poster
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Theatrical version Tenchi Muyo! In Love LaserDisc Box
- ↑ Mediacs German TMIL DVD Cover
- ↑ Pioneer Spanish Standup
- ↑ Dynit Italian TMIL DVD Cover
- ↑ NOVA Korean TMIL DVD Cover
- ↑ Gets Hong Kong VCD Cover
- ↑ Pac de America Vol1 Issue3 Pg2
- ↑ Alchemy of Love CD Single back cover
- ↑ "TENCHI MUYO IN LOVE". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
- ↑ "Tenchi Muyou! in Love". MyAnimeList. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
- ↑ "Tenchi the Movie - Tenchi Muyo in Love". Anime News Network. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
- ↑ "Tenchi The Movie: Tenchi Muyo! In Love". anime-planet. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
- ↑ "Tenchi the Movie - Tenchi Muyo in Love". IMDb. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
- ↑ Santos, Carlo (Jan 23, 2013). "Tenchi Muyo! The Movie Collection BD+DVD". Anime News Network. Retrieved January 16, 2022.
- ↑ "Memories of Anime Expo 96". usagichan2.com. Archived from the original. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 "The Tenchi Muyo in Love Premiere at Anime Expo '96". cjas.org. Archived from the original. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
- ↑ Pac de America Vol1 Issue4 Pg1
- ↑ "U.S. Syfy Channel schedule for August 1996". innermind.com. Archived from the original. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
