Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar, Part 2 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

The latest chapter in the Tenchi franchise continues with an onslaught of epic mecha battles waged by beautiful space vixens! Young Kenshi Masaki has his hands full catering to the whims of an entire academy of oversexed school girls, but a darkness looms on the horizon that will soon cast his life into chaos. The mysterious and enchanting Doll, controlled from afar by a power hungry madman, leads an unthinkable invasion that attacks the nubile students of the academy from inside its once protective walls. To save his bevy of galactic playmates, Kenshi must summon the power of a Sacred Mechanoid and fight to preserve peace in a world that hovers on the brink of destruction. Should he survive, Kenshi will be mobbed by a hoard of comely coeds who want to make the hero their husband! Contains the final six episodes (approximately 45 minutes each). As the OAV Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar (2009) continues, it undergoes a major shift in tone: mecha battles come to the fore and proposals of marriage replace jiggle shots. The evil Babalun has been using his nephew Dagmyer, his brother Ulyte, and a cadre of mercenaries as pawns in his scheme to conquer all of Geminar. He unleashes a string of surprise attacks, secret weapons, and new "Mechanoids." Naturally, Kenchi defeats everything Babalun throws at him. But the viewer is often as surprised by these attacks as Kenchi and the princesses, elves, and students in his fan club. Episodes eight and nine feel a bit late to introduce the quasi-magical ancient "Shield of Gaia," or the idea that Kenchi may be the legendary "Light Type." Having wasted much of the first half of the series in pointless attempts at comedy, the filmmakers resort to long Morris the Explainer scenes to fill in missing chunks of plot. Too many elements have been borrowed too obviously from Neon Genesis Evangelion: the pseudo-mythological weapons, the designs of the "Sacred Mechanoids," the artificially created heroine, the mysterious cabal operating behind the scenes of the conflict. The series ends on a minor cliffhanger, leaving open the possibility of future sequels. As a jiggle/mecha series, War on Geminar is neither better nor worse than many other entries in those genres. But it has none of the elements that made the original Tenchi franchise so popular on both sides of the Pacific, and adding that name to the title feels like a cynical marketing ploy. (Rated TV MA: violence, violence against women, nudity, risqué humor, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon

(8. Invasion, 9. Expectation, 10. Home, 11. Barrier Workshop, 12. Successful, 13. Gaia)