Tenchi the Movie 2: Daughter of Darkness (DVD)

Christmas, she discovers her point of attack… Tenchi. Taking a sample of his hair and combining it with her own, she grows a daughter for Tenchi named Mayuka. With the sudden emergence of a prodigy of Tenchi, the girls are torn between who could be her mother and how close the girl is getting to Tenchi (not to mention the fact that they all like Mayuka). Without too much difficulty, the battle quickly becomes violent thanks to Ryoko and needless to say everyone become more invested in the situation. Controlling Mayuka at critical moments, Yuzuha tries to intensify the battles between the characters while setting up the opportunity to capture Tenchi and bring him to the Domain of Darkness. I won't say any more, other than this movie is vastly superior to the first one.

This movie does suffer from it's length, it is strangely short at only 90 minutes long. This is compounded when you consider how hurried the movie feels at times, Tenchi Muyo! is supposed to be a series where characters are somewhat tortured (or at least suffering internally from their feelings), not one where the characters are so aggressive and pro-active that every scene is of critical importance. I definitely feel that if it were slowed down a bit, the movie would be even better. Otherwise, my only complaint about the DVD is the menu – it can be hard to see what you've selected at times which means you're going to be back tracking quite a bit. The extras on the disc are great, especially the included Tenchi Encyclopedia. It's not as clip-laden as the one disc in the Tenchi Muyo! DVD Collection, but it is a tad more comprehensive, both character-wise and in the OAV vs. TV series descriptions.

All in all, it is a really good Tenchi movie but it probably won't do much for people unfamiliar with the series.

Reviewed by Tazman

"… and for the greater issue of Science versus Religion, I'm going to be issuing a restraining order. Religion must remain 500 yards away from Science at all times."