A time-travel plot that actually uses its premise to gut you: Tenchi watching his mother die in real time, knowing he's fighting to be born. The show earns the emotional weight by never letting the jokes stop, so when things turn dark they hit different because you've been laughing with these people the whole time. A villain who doesn't want to conquer anything, just erase one woman from existence, makes this feel smaller and meaner than it has any right to be.

The intergalactic criminal Kain breaks out of prison and wrecks the Galaxy Police headquarters, then turns his attention to Earth. To make sure the Jurai cannot stand against him, he goes back to 1970 to eliminate Tenchi's mother, Achika, before Tenchi is born. While Tenchi and his companions watch old home videos of her, Achika starts to fade from the footage, and Tenchi begins to vanish too. A device built by Washuu keeps him from disappearing for good. Once the group learns about Kain and realizes time has been altered, Tenchi travels into the past with the girls to protect his mother and save his own existence. The film mixes action, comedy, romance and science fiction.