Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi in Love!, also known in Japan as Tenchi Muyo in Love! (天地無用 IN LOVE! Tenchi Muyō in Rabu!), is a 1996 Japanese animated film and the first of three films set in the Tenchi Muyo! multi-verse.

The animation is good for the time, especially the background painting. But character animation is a bit of a hit or miss. Sometimes it’s detail and sometimes not.

The music was composed by Christopher Franke (formerly of Tangerine Dream and the main composer for the Babylon 5 series). The end theme song is “Alchemy of Love”, written by Franke and performed by Nina Hagen, with Rick Jude on backing vocals. There is also an Achika version of the song, with new Japanese lyrics, and is performed by Megumi Hayashibara (Achika’s Japanese voice actress).

The first half of the movie was quite dull as almost nothing was happening. A lot of time jump cuts was used to make the setup scenes more engaging, it isn’t. It was almost like a detective story while they investigate and protect Tenchi’s mom.

It was also a bit of a school romance slice-of-life section here, and not the good romance either. If by romance we see Tenchi’s mom and dad blushing every time they talk to each other, then sure, it’s a “romance.” There are so many lost opportunities to expand on their characteristic, but all they do is blush and talking nonsense.

For a big group that came back in time to protect Achika, they sure lost track of her constantly.

I love Tenchi Muyo while growing up, but even I have a hard time watching this movie. The main antagonist is a generic I want to destroy everything kind of villain.

Even for a Tenchi Muyo fan, I would say skip this movie unless you need some kind of achievement for watching every Tenchi anime ever. Tenchi Muyo first movie contains some graphic violence. Intended for young adults.