Tenchi Universe - Volume 8 - The Last Battle

BASIC PLOT:
It's hard to describe this series because there are so many twists and turns in the plot, but I'll try my best. The story follows a young man named Tenchi Masaki, who has just returned to school from a long break. Soon enough, he meets up with a rather strange cast of characters, and discovers that he may be the last hope for saving the universe! To make things even more difficult for him, many of these strange characters he has met fall in love with him, and this creates some competition amongst them that results in some rather comical scenes.

SERIES OPINIONS:
Why is this series so underrated in America? This is one of the best animes out there. It combines the samurai-style action of Dragon Ball Z with the romance/slapstick humor stylings of Sailor Moon, and this creates a series that is universally appealing. And believe me, over time this series will grow on you.

THE DUB:
Surprisingly, the dub version of this series isn't that bad. A few scenes have been mistranslated or toned down for American audiences, but it's nothing major like with other animes. Here's a little tip, if you're curious about what has been changed - while you're watching the Japanese subtitled version of the DVD, hit the Audio button on your DVD remote and switch to the dub track. This way you can watch the English dub with the English subtitles for the Japanese version - there's no better way to see how different some of the translations are!

DVD:
Once again, DVDs featuring an uncut dub and an uncut sub have been released. This is great because you get both versions of the series. There are also some bonus features as well. There aren't a whole lot of bonuses, but at least there are some - a number of anime DVDs don't have any at all!

OVERALL:
Overall this is an excellent DVD set, and it's good to have all the episodes of this classic series on DVD at long last. Still, the DVDs could have been done a little better. If you're an anime fan, this is a strongly recommended release.

Tenchi Defeats the evil ruler of planet Jurai, but not easily. After the battle, Tenchi goes back to Earth. Akeya seems downhearted that Tenchi has returned to Earth. Tenchi and the gang gets help from the Bounty hunter Nagi along with Ken-ohki. Ryoko takes Tenchi to the palace of Jurai, but it seems the Ryoko was badly hurt when she was attacked by Kagato. A great ending!

But overall, the final episodes show the true insights of the characters (most of them or let's say some), especially Grandfather and Tenchi.

The best one is the final episode of the Tenchi Universe series, 'No Need For a Conclusion.' This is basically all a flashback episode, with Tenchi thinking back to what happened after the battle with Kagato. We learn what has happened to every single character within the first fifteen minutes of this episode... except for one. The whole thing with the snapshot-like scenes is really well and gets the point across further, and then the end of the episode is just incredible.

The second best episode is 'No Need For Ryoko,' episode #24. This episode is quite emotional, and really focuses on Ryoko the most, although the main point of the episode is that Tenchi decides to go save Ayeka, and initially all of the people of Juraian Royal Family lineage. Most of the other characters take a backseat to Ryoko and Tenchi during this episode, even though nagi has more of a role that matters very much to the storyline in this episode than in the previous episodes. The end of this episode is such a cliffhanger, and will leave you hanging by a thread that is not picked up by the next episode, either.

Overall, this is just the best DVD of the Tenchi Universe series. If you are going to buy only one DVD of Tenchi Universe (and why you would buy only one Tenchi Universe DVD is beyond me) this is the one you should purchase. It is surely worth the price tag on it.