Tenchi Muyo - Mihoshi Special and Pretty Sammy

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.


It's a DVD about Sasami! What more could one want?   March 7, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

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!


A pretty good disc   July 25, 2003
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

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!