Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar, Part 1 and Part 2
I think I've used this in a Funimation review before, but Girls! Girls! Girls! With their current marketing of "Blow a wad" for this release I think they know who there selling this to. Welcome to a brand new harem anime featuring the most sought after boy in the whole school Kenshi. Oh, did you think I meant Tenchi? Older fans who loved Tenchi will be surprised by his lack of being in this show. Instead we have Kenshi a similar version of him, but I think this one has just a little bit more emotion, nah he's just and air-head with strength. Set in a completely different setting with mech knights and royalty controlled nations instead of Japan and outer space you have a new strange spin-off.
Just look at the cover, they weren't trying to sell you on the story. The story was forgetful to me, I cared little about the "war" and more of the harem antics Kenshi has to deal with in essentially an all girls school.
So the story starts off in the setting of Princess Lashara's air castle ship, a mysterious mech knight that has a dragon's tail like appendage comes aboard and wreaks havoc. An assassin tries to kill Lashara, but drops his knife before he can do it. We are introduced to our hero Kenshi, whose been brainwashed. Along the way we learn Lashara's Uncle intended to do her in as she recently became ruler of her country. We get a bevy of beauties in the mix with Chiaia Flan, a tsundere bodyguard for Lashara and Wahanly Shume an inventor and new knight for Lashara. After a rescue and a fight with the enemies that brain washed Kenshi into attacking Lashara, because Kenshi is of course a hero and not a bad guy we head for high school.
It does take a while for Kenshi's name to even come up. Average episodes are 45 minutes long, this was an OVA Pay Per View in Japan so there's a lot of quality in this.
Hello, high school girls! The way the tie the high school backdrop to the mech knights is that all the cute girls in the series are mech masters. Yes, that's the term for someone who pilots a mech knight. So they all have to go to the "Holy Land" where you train to become a mech master. Kenshi has the entire shool in love with him in a short while first through his skills working on the staff, then as a student.
So shortly after that you get all the classic harem stereotypes, even a dark elf. They just went crazy with sterotypes. There's a girl in charge type, a girl who he saves, a cute shy girl, an older sister type, quiet type and so on. Each girl does share some time with Kenshi to get to know him, which has them fall in love with him. It's your choice as to who best works with Kenshi or who your favorite girl is.
Where it gets even dirtier is in how this world works. It's not the known Tenchi universe, but another dimension, so no space travel. How the world was changed over the years was that like Kenshi there were others taken from other worlds and basically ran the show due to their skills as mech masters. Those people were perverts.
If anything seems kinky like girls wearing ahem* interesting bathing suits it has to be the ancient perverts of old. The girls get Kenshi into many compromising situations from time to time, but mostly Kenshi resists for no explained reason. Multiple times the whole school will go after him. The outfits the girls wear while piloting their mechs either look like lingerie or swim suits.
Special hi-jink episodes include Kenshi learning to do magic massages and a pillow fight and disrobe vacation match. Yes, they take big baths too.
The story slowly build behinds the scenes, remember those bad guys who wanted Princess Lashara dead, well they also want to take over the school and plot to take over the world by using a super mech that was used in ancient times. You'd think technology would become stronger over time, but no. Kenshi's harem must depart and have a series of battles to stop the war even though it all matters if Kenshi can save the day.
So the story is essentially cute girls in robots are mostly princesses and fight along side Kenshi to save their world from tyranny.
There are some very dry arcs you've seen before like a villain questioning there strength and wussing out. To the dumbest ending for a bad guys I haven't seen in a while.The enemies are a bit throw-away. They never seem to powerful and early on Kenshi defeats anyone who crossed his path with ease.
Animation is high-end with robot fights being as good as Gundam or any current anime robot show, but that doesn't mean they don't feel out of place. We have long stories where they don't show up. When you see them again you forget they were even needed. When they are used and the general tech they use is ridiculously complicated. My favorite would be the super condensed sword hat needs a anti- gravity handle to function.
Dialogue wins
-Whoever reversioned this, my hat goes off to you. There's plenty plays on sexual terms and dirty double meanings to get laughs out of you. "Yes, do like whatever you like" caught me off guard as just being funny.
We so many princess you'd think there'd be repeats, but every girl has her own voice actress to fall in love with. At least they were good enough to trick me then if not everyone has their own.
Connections to Tenchi
Only if your a hardcore Tecnhi fan will you figure out the connection between Kenshi and Tenchi. The series is from the Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki continuity, which is telling you a lot if there's more than one continuity. If you want to get into the harcore fans stuff for this show it also ties to an earlier anime, "Photon", so it can get complex if your looking for answers. The series alludes to Tenchi and his harem through a few words and memories Kenshi has, but the ending doesn't just give anything away. Mihoshi's klutziness is legendary, however. It even leads room for a sequel, which doesn't seem likely with it being from 2009. A certain wing makes a cameo for a second, for those Tenchi fans who get that.
Extras
You have one or two episodes with commentary from the US dub team and
This is a well made harem anime. It doesn't beat the original Tenchi series, but it does deliver in fan service. I mean the box set cover alone is fan service. Though 13 episodes long, it's made back to you in episode length.
The Blu-rays were provided by the publisher for review
