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Daughter of Darkness

Tenchi Muyō! Manatsu no IVU

[Tenchi Muyo! Midsummer's Eve]

Original release (Japan) - August 1997

It is the eve of the summer Startica festival on Jurai, and the planet's populace is rejoicing in the spirit of the season. On a hill above a city, a boy, young prince Yosho, meets a young girl. She has brought him a gift; a cylindrical box that projects beautiful holograms of the Startica celebrations. As Yosho reaches to take it, a Juraian police ship swoops in and a dozen policemen rush out. They chase the young girl and beat her with their batons. One of the men steps forward, draws a light sword and slashes the girl. Her body vanishes, and moments later she reappears as a demon child. With a scream, she disappears.

Yuzuha, the demon child, awakes from her nightmare, wondering what it meant. Sitting in her room, filled with toys and lined with hundreds of monitor screens, she watches the world around her. One particular monitor grabs her attention. It is displaying the rowdy Christmas celebrations at the Masaki home. Yuzuha is in disbelief to see a Juraian prince amongst their number, and gets an idea. Without Tenchi noticing, Yuzuha snips a lock of his hair from his pigtail and pulls out a few hairs from her own head. In her laboratory, she places the two hair samples in a large vat, triumphantly declaring that she will fulfil her promise to the prince.

Six months later, on a glorious summer day, the Masaki household (with the usual exception of Ryoko) is hard at work with their chores. Tenchi is returning from the family graves when he passes a young girl sitting on the stone steps. She walks towards Tenchi and hugs him. "Papa," she says, "Sorry I'm late".

Back at the house, the girls are mildly surprised to find Tenchi returning home with a young girl following him, but not nearly as surprised as when she calls him "Papa" again! A short while later, the girl, whose name is Mayuka, joins Tenchi and the others for cold drinks inside the house. The girls are keen to hear an explanation for the situation, but Ryoko is particularly angry. She is extremely suspicious of Mayuka, and chases her with her plasma sword to try and wring the truth out of her. Cornered by Ryoko, the terrified Mayuka screams and, much to everyone's disbelief, summons up a Light Hawk Sword. She lunges at Ryoko, but Katsuhito steps in and pulls her away, ordering that there should be no fighting in the house. Unbeknownst to everyone, the scene is being scrutinised by Yuzuha.

Later that day, the family, now with one new member, settle down to a meal of sōmen (white noodles). Ryoko and Ayeka are still cross about the appearance of this girl claiming to be Tenchi's daughter, and soon a fierce argument between Mayuka and Ryoko starts. Tenchi hastily excuses himself and goes to take a bath, but Mayuka decides she wants to bathe with him, and runs after him!

After lunch, the girls question Mayuka about her intentions. Mayuka claims that she doesn't remember anything but her father's face. Tenchi is eavesdropping on their conversation when Washu steps out of her lab bearing important news; she has performed a genetic test on one of Mayuka's hairs, and she is indeed his daughter! Washu breaks the news to the girls as well. She also reports that she detected an anomaly in the space-time continuum at around the same time as her arrival, meaning she may be from the future and that one of the girls could be the mother!

As Tenchi takes his bath in the floating onsen, he ponders the likelihood of him being a father. While he is bathing, Mayuka sneaks into the onsen and leaps on him. Moments later, Ryoko and Ayeka burst in on Mayuka and the embarrassed Tenchi. Ryoko is furious and chases Mayuka around the onsen until Katsuhito separates them again.

From her playroom, Yuzuha watches. Katsuhito has interfered once again, and she is not happy. She remembers when she lived on Jurai, and when she met Katsuhito as young prince Yosho. She was little more than a vicious monster, killing people and eating their souls, until she met Yosho on the day before Startica. Yosho gave her a berry, a traditional festival charm, with the promise that they should meet again on Startica. Yuzuha's human side began to emerge that day...

That afternoon, Washu is deep in thought; she has found Tenchi's DNA in Mayuka's genetic makeup with no problems, but the other half of her DNA is a complete mystery. Meanwhile, Kiyone, Mihoshi and Sasami wash Mayuka's hair and give her a change of clothes. Mihoshi finds a shiny silver hair in the brush she used on Mayuka's hair, and Washu takes it to her lab for examination. Mayuka rushes off to see Tenchi, but Ryoko and Ayeka are sitting guard outside his room where he is taking a lie down. Sasami invites Mayuka to play instead, and she shows her how to fold an origami crane. Mayuka says she is going to make one for Tenchi as a present, and then remembers she already has a gift for him. She picks up a small wooden box, the same box she was clutching when she appeared on the stone steps. She shows it to Sasami and Mihoshi; it is a music box with a round lens inside, and it projects holograms of the Juraian summer Startica festival. Sasami thinks it looks a little like Christmas, and points out the similarity between Startica and the Japanese Tanabata festival combined with Christmas.

Evening draws in, and the girls have all dozed off. Mayuka's music box, which lies open on the table, suddenly lights up, and Yuzuha's image appears from it. She commands Mayuka to wake, and Mayuka, in a trance, goes to find Tenchi. She leads him up the stone steps and, halfway up, turns to Tenchi and tells him she loves him. She kisses him, and they are both enveloped by a glowing green light. Ryoko bursts onto the scene and the green light vanishes. Mayuka snaps out of her trance and cannot remember what she was doing. Furious with her, Ryoko picks up Mayuka and flies into the air with her. She demands to know what Mayuka is up to, and when Mayuka protests her innocence, she lets her drop towards the ground below.

Night is approaching, and the family search for the missing Mayuka. Mayuka is alive and well, but, inexplicably, several hundred feet up in a cedar tree. With no sign of her back at the house, the family sits down to their evening meal. Tenchi is still worried about Mayuka, however, and decides he would rather search for her. Luckily, Katsuhito has found her and helped her down from the tree. No sooner has Mayuka entered the house than she runs at Ryoko and slaps her across the face, screaming that she hates her. Ryoko retorts by telling Mayuka that she just gets in the way, and she throws her to the floor. Seeing a fight brewing, Tenchi steps in between them and tries to keep them from each other's throats, but Ryoko persists, clawing at Mayuka and warning Tenchi that he is in danger. In the heat and the fuss and the confusion, Tenchi loses control and fetches Ryoko a ringing slap across the face. The whole family is stunned, most of all Tenchi and Ryoko, neither of whom can quite believe what just happened. Tenchi tries to cool the situation by telling Ryoko that Mayuka is just like all the other girls staying at the house, and that he is willing to accept her into the family. Ryoko however, more hurt than she has ever been, slopes away alone.

Washu is still hard at work in her lab, trying to decode the DNA sequence in the silver hair, when Katsuhito arrives with a tray of food for her. Washu takes the opportunity to question him about the silver hair, but he admits that he is equally clueless. However, he believes that if Ryoko is suspicious it's not without reason, and Mayuka may well be hiding something. He advises that the best course of action is simply to wait until the identity of her mother can be determined.

Ryoko, meanwhile, is still upset about the earlier confrontation, and sits at foot of the holy tree, wondering if she is being irrational about envying Mayuka. Ayeka joins her, and, as they talk under the moonlight, the princess admits that she too is jealous.

Back at the house, the girls play with fireworks (although Ryoko stays apart from the festivities). Yuzuha watches them with fascination, and remembers the fireworks of the night of Startica, the night she tried to befriend Yosho, and the night she was beaten by the Juraians for daring to do so. Overcome with rage, she orders Mayuka to burn them all. In a trance, Mayuka grabs a handful of fireworks and plunges them into the flames of a Roman candle. Ayeka leaps to her rescue, and Tenchi pours a bucket of water on the flames.

That night, as the girls settle down to sleep, Mayuka apologises for the way she behaved, and admits that she is scared she might act uncontrollably again. She also asks Sasami to tell her more about Christmas. Sasami shows her the family photo album, and Mayuka tells everyone that she would love to spend the next Christmas with everyone.

Meanwhile, Tenchi locates Ryoko on the roof of the house. He has come to apologise for slapping her, and asks her not to worry about him so much. Ryoko protests that she is only concerned for his safety.

As the girls sleep, Mayuka's music box lights up again and Yuzuha appears. She orders Mayuka to stop getting so friendly with the Masaki family and to carry out her mission to kidnap Tenchi. Mayuka enters Tenchi's room and, under Yuzuha's control, crawls over his sleeping form and runs her tongue down his face and onto his chest. They are enveloped by the green light again. Suddenly, Washu, Ryoko and Katsuhito burst into the room. Katsuhito recognises Yuzuha instantly and lunges at her with a Light Hawk Sword, but Yuzuha quickly disappears and Mayuka snaps out of her trance. In fear and confusion, Mayuka runs out of the house. Tenchi goes to follow her, but Ryoko grabs him and begs him not to.

As Mihoshi and Kiyone search for Mayuka, Katsuhito fills everyone in; Mayuka is under control of Yuzuha and was trying to draw Tenchi into the World of Darkness where Yuzuha resides. Sasami is very worried about Mayuka, and runs off to find her.

Mayuka dashes panic-stricken through the woods, and as she runs she begins to remember what she has been doing while being controlled by Yuzuha. Devastated that she should be trying to hurt Tenchi, she drops her music box. Yuzuha appears from it, and, angry with Mayuka for daring to disobey her orders, zaps the gem embedded in Mayuka's chest and erases her memory. Sasami is the first to arrive on the scene, and Mayuka, acting under Yuzuha's control again, grabs Sasami and carries her back to the World of Darkness with her.

A short while later, Washu opens a portal to the World of Darkness to allow Tenchi and Ryoko to enter and rescue Sasami. They arrive in the World of Darkness in the middle of Yuzuha's room. After fending off an attack from Yuzuha's vicious toys, Ryoko and Tenchi find themselves in Yuzuha's main chamber, where Mayuka is waiting for them along with the imprisoned Sasami. Mayuka, now permanently under Yuzuha's control, attacks them, and Ryoko fights back. The gem in Mayuka's chest glows and her body transforms into that of a demon. Yuzuha attacks by sending waves of party streamers snaking across the chamber that tie Ryoko and Tenchi up. Ryoko manages to break free and escapes with Tenchi, but Yuzuha is not far behind.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Katsuhito is concerned about how Tenchi and Ryoko can defend themselves in the World of Darkness. He knows that it is impossible to use Jurai energy there, and even Ryoko's gem power is limited. However, he has a plan; a branch from a Juraian royal tree could provide enough Jurai energy for Tenchi to use the Light Hawk Sword, and Ayeka rushes to pluck a branch from Katsuhito's tree, Funaho.

Back in the World of Darkness, Ryoko's powers are running out, and she and Tenchi have been easily beaten by Yuzuha. Tenchi quickly strikes a deal with her; if she lets Ryoko and Sasami go, he will remain in the World of Darkness, and Yuzuha agrees. Mayuka attacks Tenchi, tearing at him with her claws. Sasami, who has regained consciousness, begs Mayuka to stop hurting him. Sasami's pleas manage to break through to Mayuka's human side and her memories return. However, Yuzuha has had enough of her mutinous creation, and zaps her with her strongest attack. Mayuka collapses and, with a final promise to spend Christmas with the family, she expires. All that remains of her is a tiny red gem. Having killed her remaining human side within Mayuka, Yuzuha changes, becoming a pure demon. She attacks Tenchi and manages to capture him and Ryoko. Just as all seems lost, Ayeka appears carrying a branch from the royal tree. The light from the branch envelopes Tenchi and he changes into his Juraian warrior guise, wielding the Light Hawk Sword. He charges at Yuzuha and, as he brings the blade down on her demonic form, he sees her memories of Jurai and her meeting with Yosho. "Imagine," Yuzuha weeps, "the darkness in love with the light."

Tenchi awakes, alive and well, back in the real world. Mayuka and Yuzuha are dead; a small jewel remaining of one, and a music box containing a berry of promise of the other. Having lost such a dear friend as Mayuka, the bright summer's day is tinged with sorrow. Washu calls the family together to ask them all a question. She asks permission to use the red gem containing Mayuka's spirit to recreate Tenchi's deceased daughter. She is particularly concerned that Ryoko agrees to this, as it was her that took the greatest exception to her arrival. Ryoko remembers the moment she knew that Mayuka was as much a part of the family as she; the moment she dropped her from the sky, then turned and scooped her up again. Finally, Washu asks the gem, and it glows brightly in response. Mayuka's life can begin all over again from her childhood, growing up in a family that loves her.

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DVD Hidden Extras (applicable to R1 (North American) DVD release only) Throughout the DVD there are design drawings and model sheets from the movie hidden as alternate angles. To view them, press the ANGLE button on your DVD remote and select angle 2 (for computer-based DVD playback, click the ANGLE button, often represented as a camera, on your software's control panel). Here is a list of the chapter numbers and approximate time codes for each of the hidden bits.

Chapter:	Time:	Content:
3	04:07 - 04:16	Yuzuha's flying saucer (drawing)
8	16:53 - 16:56	Yuzuha's face (model sheet)
10	20:10 - 20:15 20:15 - 20:25 21:15 - 21:25 21:40 - 21:48	Mayuka's music box - 1 (drawing) Mayuka's music box - 2 (drawing) Tenchi's door (drawing) Mayuka's music box - 3 (drawing)
13	28:15 - 28:26	Washu's test-tube stand (drawing)
15	31:05 - 31:15	Yuzuha's music box (drawing)
21	44:00 - 44:09 44:41 - 44:51 46:10 - 46:20 48:12 - 48:18	Mayuka's Santa outfit (model sheet) Mayuka - fighting version (model sheet) Stuffed bear (drawing) Tenchi scratched (drawing)
25	56:03 - 1:00:19	Original Japanese credits, including the "raising Mayuka" water-colour paintings at a larger size than in the English credits!