Customer Reviews

Tenchi Muyo - Mihoshi Special and Pretty Sammy

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the Mihoshi Special/Pretty Sammy episodes is that they are more of the same. . . . . a lot more. Unfortunately, that may also be the worst thing that can be said of it.

These unrelated anime features (the Mihoshi Special stands completely apart from the three episode Pretty Sammy story) do actually complement each other in an odd way, as they are both spin-offs of the massively popular Tenchi Muyo/Tenchi Universe/Tenchi in Tokyo anime saga. They are also directed toward a younger audience than the parent series.

The Mihoshi Special, in and of itself, is quite weak, although fans of the scatter-brained Galaxy Police Detective will thoroughly enjoy her antics. In the Special, the blonde police officer is even dittzier than usual, which most Tenchi fans had thought an impossibility. The most intelligent line of dialogue in the story belongs to Mihoshi's long-suffering partner, Kiyone, who brings the story to an end by declaring, "Mihoshi, I'm going to KILL you!"

The lollipop sweet Pretty Sammy story (three episodes) is typical of most anime of its genre. The plot is transparent, dialogue inane, and the rest of the Tenchi cast turns up in roles and situations that are more than a bit strange. However, this is not a weakness, but the strength of the Pretty Sammy - Magical Girl tale.

Many viewers complain that the story is far too juvenile to belong with the rest of the Tenchi saga, and they are correct. However, the Pretty Sammy three-parter was never intended to be included with its parent anime.

The Magical Girl stories are an entire industry unto themselves in Japanese entertainment, much as children's series and true western cartoons are in the United States and Europe. Although the animation style of most Magical Girl productions echoes the more familiar, sophisticated style of main-stream anime, the Magical Girl stories are mostly children's morality tales gently teaching the concepts of personal empowerment, platonic love, honesty and various other virtues. These productions are designed for a very young (elementary school and pre-school), predominantly female audience, and they succeed handsomely in what they are designed for.

The Pretty Sammy adventures will never be high drama, but they were never meant to be. They are colorful, simplistic, thoroughly entertaining yarns meant for a young audience, and they work well in that context. The inclusion of the rest of the Tenchi Muyo cast is a bonus that can serve as an introduction to one of anime's most beloved series as the Pretty Sammy watcher grows up.

Those who consider themselves "sophisticated" anime watchers will likely have no use for this disk.

Those who want a complete collection of the Tenchi Saga need this disk.

Those who want a vehicle to spend some delightful, quality time with younger family members will love this disk.

I'll just tag along with the folks in groups two and three.

The first story is set in the Tenchi Muyo universe. Galaxy Police Mihoshi tells about one of her adventures to prove she is one of the best officers in the galaxy. It seems that she, and her unhappy partner Kiyone, have to solve a tough case together. In the telling of the tall tale Mihoshi casts each of the Tenchi gang into one of the characters in her story. And they're not happy about it at all. The story is funny and a tad mixed up, but that's what you get when Mihoshi is the story teller!
The second story is a three episode series about Magical Girl Pretty Sammy. It's the Tenchi gang's version of a Magical Girl universe. Sasami ends up Tenchi's sister, Ryo-Ohki ends up a male cabbit, Sasami's mother runs a CD shop and things just get weirder after that! Sasami is selected by the Lady Tsunami(from the Magical Kingdom of Juraihelm) to help make the Earth a better place. Think Sailor Moon with Tenchi characters. Don't confuse this OVA with Magical Project S the TV series.
I had to take a point away because, frankly, this two shows in one DVD was not as interesting as the other Tenchi DVDs. Sure, the Mihoshi Special is set in the OVA universe (and I love her character), and allows us to see Kiyone within the OVA setting, the fact is that the DVD lacks any extras and I'm not a fan of the Magical Girl shows.
BUT if you like Tenchi Muyo, Mihoshi or Sasami, I would suggest buying it. IT can be pretty funny at times and with a 165 minutes it's a great buy used or brand new.

The first episode on this disk should be divorced from the other three. The "Mihoshi Special" episode actually takes place in the origonal Tenchi Muyo O.A.V. series. (Between episodes 6 and 7, I think, definetly after the Kagato story arch.) I actually think it should have been included in the regular Tenchi Muyo O.A.V. DVD collection. But anyway. It takes place on a hot summer day. Mihoshi wakes up from sleeping while (almost) everyone eles has been working. Ayeka mentions out loud how Mihosh never seems to be any help and wonders how the blond ever became a cop to begin with. This promts Mihoshi to tell everyone about one of her past cases. However, she seems to have forgotten some of the details, so she casts the other characters in her story-completly against their will, of course. Their pesonalities, relasionships, and roles are still mostly the same in Mihoshi's story; Ryoko becomes a space pirate who steals ultr-energy matter, Tenchi becomes a male Galaxy Police officer who is captured by Ryoko and whom Ryoko falls in love with, Ayeka is a burocrat who is engaged to Tenchi, and so on. This story was a lot of fun to watch, but what I love best about it is that it's the only time in the O.A.V. series that we get to meet Kiyone, Mihoshi's competent, intelligent partner who's cursed with being stuck with Mihoshi. (Kiyone is one of my favorite Tenchi characters, along with Ayeka.) Also, Pretty Sammy and her sidekick the talking Ryo-ohki make an appearence in Mihoshi's story.

Next is the regular Pretty Sammy O.A.V. series. It takes the characters from the orginal Tenchi Muyo series and re-casts them in different roles, although their personalities stay the same. Sasami becomes the protagonist, and she (like most of the other characters,) becomes an ordinary Earth girl, from the Kawai family. Tenchi becomes Sasami's older brother, and the two live in the city, this time with their mother Chihiro, an ex-pop singer who still likes to sing karioke. Ryoko and Ayeka become two high school students. Ryoko has no super powers but is a tough delinquent who can take on multipule enemies in a fight. Ayeka is a rich girl and the class president who has her own clique of followers (much like B-ko from Project A-ko,) and who is an excellent martial artist, so she can hold her own against Ryoko. Mihoshi and Kiyone become two college students who work in the Kawai family's music shop, CD-Vision. One day Sasami is paid a visit from Tsunami, a woman from the magical world of Juraihelm. Tsunami is first in line to become her world's next queen, but for that to happen Tsunami must select a girl to become a magical girl and help make the Earth a better place. Sasami is picked for this role, and she becomes Pretty Sammy. She will be aided by Ryo-ohki, who in this story can talk. However, Ramia, the woman who lost out to Tsunami, isn't going to take defeat lying down, and she gets her younger brother Rumia to select another girl to become a magical girl and try to foil Pretty Sammy. This girl, in an ironic twist, turns out to be Sasami's own best friend Misao, a shy, frail latch key girl who loses her memory and her personality changes whenever she becomes the magical girl Pixy Misa (another favorte character of mine.) The really great thing about Misa is that she also LOOKS different when she transforms, so it's easy to believe that nobody could tell that Misao and Misa are the same person.

If you like Pretty Sammy, it is continued by a two-part story included in the graphic novel "No Need For Tenchi Vol.3. There is also a Pretty Sammy T.V. series, "Magical Project S", however it does NOT continue the "Pretty Sammy" O.A.V. series, but rather goes back and re-tells the story, and there are some differences. Sasami is an only child with a different mother and living with both her mom and dad, Mihoshi and Kiyone are teachers at Sasami's school, and so on.

Finally, the voice acting is great in both Japanese and English. The characters returning from previous shows are spoken for by the same voice actors, which is always nice. (However, in episodes two and three of the "Pretty Sammy" series Kiyone's origonal voice actor Sherry Lynn is replaced with Wendy Lee. Ms. Lee does a nice job, but it takes a little getting used to.) And I really love the person who does the English voice of Misao/ Pixy Misa. In the English version Pixy Misa uses lots of French expressions in her speaches, which are fun to hear. Overall, a great buy.

To answer my own question - nothing! :) This is a very light hearted cutesy show with Sasami (the little girl from Tenchi Muyo) who in the typical magical girl genre acquires magical powers whenever she utters an incantation in order to make the world a better place - or to ward off the monsters her arch-enemy Pixy Misa creates :). Episode 1 of the OVA series is the best and Episode 2 is the funniest and unique because it has someone who pretty much resembles a very important software industry leader (mentioned by name in another review). This show is not meant to be deep (if you want deep watch The Decalogue also available on Amazon) but if you want funny, cutesy and charming do buy this disk. My only complaint was the transformation sequences - I think we see a bit too much of Sasami - but this is corrected very well in the Magical Project S series which I also recommend to Sasami fans!

Well, I haven't seen much Tenchi, but I think that this is good, except for the Mihoshi Special. I know how much Ryoko likes Tenchi, but trying to literally hold him down for herself got creepy. Too much sake at her secret apartment made her more then a little flirtatious ^_^; But, other than that the disc had lots of good spots. The third Pretty Sammy movie was absolutely beautiful! Wait 'til you see Ryo-Ohki in human form! Of course, the original song during the bus ride was a bit odd... I thought that overall the Pretty Sammy movies 1 and 3 were the best, but the 2nd was pretty weird. If you put on the subtitles during the end of the 2nd movie, you see the odd lyrics in "Defeated Battle of Love". WARNING: DON'T confuse the movies with the Pretty Sammy OVA like I did! My suggestion to you: Think about it before you buy and don't trust the package's summary!
Thanks!

For all the Tenchi Muyo fans, this is a great dvd. It is the long awaited dvd from Pioneer.(3 years!!) Anyway this contains the Mihoshi Special, (back when Mihoshi was a top-notch detective) and All three Pretty Sammy Movies. It is a great deal, it is even cheaper then buying the movies separately, which is kind of hard to do, and you also get bilinguility and crisp dvd capabilities, that make this a wonderful dvd. A difinite thing to put on your thanksgiving/christmas list. Or even better get it right when it comes out! IT is worth the time and money! Any tenchi and Pretty Sammy fan will thoroughly enjoy this!

It is a nice DVD to have some fun with two of the characters in Tenchi

Mihoshi special serves to introduce the character of Kiyone (Mihoshi's long suffering Galaxy Police partner), who will feature in the Tenchi Universe series. Pretty Sammy, is the pilot series for the Pretty Sammy spin-off series - a junior version on the Sailor Moon (magical girl) show.

As a whole the various Tenchi offerings have never had logic (in terms of character relationships), a continuing story line or incredible animation and graphics. It what this set features in spades, silly romanic comedy with equal parts fantasy and science fiction.

This DVD has the Mihoshi Special & the whole Pretty Sammy OVA(It's only 3 episodes long!). The Mihoshi Special is about one of Mihoshi's "greatest" cases. Pretty Sammy is spinoff with Tenchi and friends(starring Sasami-chan!). It's a Sailor Moon spinoff that is much more cuter and funnier(Sasami+Ryo-ohki+ Pixy Misa= Super Cute!). If you wanted to get the Mihoshi Special &/or the Pretty Sammy OVA, get this instead of buying it on VHS because you save a lot of money. You get the English & Japanese version plus all the songs have translations when you put on the subtitles(All the other Tenchi DVDs have no translated songs)! The Extras are not too great. The only extras are a Design Gallery & 4 Pioneer Previews. Anyway, this DVD is a great edition to any Tenchi Muyo and/or Anime collection.

The Mihoshi special was the better of the two. But not by too much. Basically it was a mediocre plot only made interesting by occasional 'in-jokes' and using the other characters to 'act out' the story. All of whom resented being made part of the story. But the Pretty Sammy episodes were obviously just used as a testing ground of ideas, some of which carried over to the later much better Pretty Sammy series. However most of them were dropped like a hot potato. Deservedly so. The 3 Sammy stories were just not well thought out, being choppy and jumpy in their storylines. Example, Pixy Misa forgot she was supposed to be French in half of her lines. They should either have added about 10-15 minitues to each episode to make it smoother, or as they did do, give up and start over with the much improved Pretty Sammy series.