Tenchi Muyo OVA Best (PICD 1005A)
This has some very good music, some very moving selections; unfortunately it also has some selections that you want to move right on by and get to the next one. Overall a good album; just be prepared to skip two or three of the songs.
Tenchi the Movie music by Christopher Franke
Christopher Franke is the person who has written the music for Babylon 5. This is good music to listen to although highly repetitive; there are probably only three of four actual musical pieces; everything else is the same piece played again, or played again but with only minor variations. Still, I like it and listen to it quite often (Note: I took the picture disc out of the folder and put it into a separate container; it didn't come packaged that way.)
The cd at the right is the Son May version of the sound track. For those unfamiliar with the controversy, Son May is a group that puts out what are basically pirate versions of regular Japanese cds. This is, of course, totally illegal as far as the U.S. goes and many people in anime oppose this practice very strongly.
On the other hand, I would like to point out that many of these cds you simply can't find anywhere, period, even with doing a web search. To some degree if a person really likes a series and wants music from it the Son May versions may be the only ones they can get (plus they are much, much cheaper than the "original" versions).
In this case there is a difference between the versions. In the "real" version there is an extra 22nd track that is not on the Son May version. On the other hand the Son May version has a beautiful booklet added while the "official" version has what amounts to a small booklet that is more advertisement than anything else.
Tenchi Muyo Ryo Oh Ki Ongaku Hen Volume 3. (SM309). Ok, I'm just starting to learn Japanese so I might be wrong, but I think Ongaku means "music" and Hen means "funny". This is basically a radio play with some tracks being all dialogue and most tracks being music. Part of track 6 reminds me of music from Vampire Princess Miyu, and part of track 9 is quite pretty. I think I was actually able to make some sense out of what was happening.
This cd consists of dialogue and musical selections. Pretty good cd, worth getting.
This one features 25 selections, and many of them are very good ones, mostly instrumental. Almost like a "best of" sort of cd. Definitely get your money's worth on this one.
Chisa Yokoyama is the voice of Sasami, Pretty Sammy, and other anime characters. On this CD you'll find the Tenchi Muyo theme, two versions of "I'm a Pioneer"(one of my personal favorites), music from Pretty Sammy, and the Talent for Love song from Tenchi Muyo. Some of the songs are sung in English, some in Japanese. This is a lot of fun to listen to!
If someone had set out to make a soundtrack as un-Tenchi as possible, then the result would be pretty close to this one. The overall tone of the music bears virtually no resemblance at all to any of the other Tenchi music cds. I knew there was going to be a problem when the first track reminded me of Conan the Barbarian.
The second track made things worse with its annoying whale-like sounds which, very unfortunately, are repeated elsewhere on the soundtrack. When I say annoying, I really mean ANNOYING!!!
One of the things with Tenchi music has been that, overall, it has been a fairly "happy" type of music. Granted, the Christoper Franke music for the first movie was not really "happy", but it still had that Tenchi Muyo "feeling" to it. This soundtrack, though, is basically depressing and un-Tenchi at the same time.
Definitely not one to bother adding to your collection.
Thank goodness I had bought this music cd and listened to it after listening to the previous one. This one is the true Tenchi "feeling" with 23 tracks of delightful music. Some of the familiar songs are done both in Japanese and English, allowing you to compare and see which one you like the most. Granted, the English translation on some of the lyrics leaves something to think about such as "Thirsty you may be some time, say the magic word and you will have a drink."
One of my favorite songs is "Sleeping Beauty on the Balcony" as done in English; this is one of the rare times when I actually prefer the English version to the Japanese version.
Of all my Tenchi soundtracks I think this one is my favorite. Definitely one that you should get.
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