Tenchi Muyo Special: The Night Before the Carnival

Good lord. I wasn't really a Tenchi fan to begin with, but still salvaged some entertainment value from the previous OAVs and movies. So I made the big mistake of thinking, "One more Tenchi video can't hurt, right?". Who knows, it might've even made a fan out of me.

Of course, it only took about five minutes of this drivel before I was swearing off watching a Tenchi video ever again. I can honestly not remember when I've watched something more moronic. The plot, the characters, the attempted humor; someone please shoot me now. Or better yet, burn the video so I never have to look at it again.

The "story line" which attempts to hold this rubbish together is simply about Ayeka and Ryoko vying for Tenchi's affections. We get treated to nothing more than scene after scene of utter pointlessness. While some parts related to the main story, others looked like they were thrown in simply for filler (I must've said "Where did *that* come from?" about five or six times). The end result is something which is completely muddled and generally pointless. Even the title makes no sense. What carnival? If it's supposed to be some sort of metaphor, I have no idea what for.

If you've read my other Tenchi reviews, you'll know I'm not a big fan of the characters. Of course, this video seemed determined to take them to new levels of stupidity (except for Mihoshi, of course). Even Ryoko, who I used to like, managed to annoy me on more than one occasion. On the plus side, Washu had a couple funny (and rather disturbing) moments.

The art and animation were okay, but I spent too much time cringing to really pay attention to it. The English voice-acting didn't seem as good as other Tenchi offerings, but it could have simply been the painful dialog the characters kept dribbling. The soundtrack was pretty good, though, highlighted by the main theme song.

In the end, I'm not even sure a Tenchi fan could enjoy this. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch some Akira to recover.

The Verdict: * (awful)