At 11:02 AM 2/27/97 -0800, you wrote:

>        Yes, you missed something.  This has been discussed recently, here
>on the ML; but I have the advantage of a laser disk, which I can stop and
>back up with very high clarity.  I also will give the U.S. release LD frame
>numbers, so anyone else with similar luxury can verify my perceptions(or
>not, B)).

   Everyone should have one, happly I do too.  I can't call out the frame
numbers like u, my disks are CLV.
   I think you are seeing what you want to see in his movements not what is
really going on.

>        Starting with frame #34375, as Ryoko smashes an iron pipe out of the
>way, Tenchi has a clear opening, and lunges foreward, Tenchi-ken in his left
>hand, with Ryoko's neck as his obvious target.  Frame 34402, he is leaning
>over 45 degrees, upper arm straight foreward, forearm across.


   You are right up to a point, but the sword, please note I beleave sword/key
and not him has made a classical move, if it was done in the vertical plain
u could see it more clearly.   Right before it/he swings, his upper arm
points in her direction, forearm more or less perpendicular to her with the
sword pointing behind him.  The sword never leaves a horizontal plain til it
is behind him.
   If you go back to it/his last swing right before she punches him you can
see the same type of move from the begining to a ending with a brite flash
of light when she blocks.
   A two handed move like this, with the hands spred on the grip, pivoting
the sword around the left hand is where the great tip speed of the katana
comes from.



> Frame 34403
>cuts to Ryoko's horrified expression, eyes pinned to the sword about to
>decapitate her.  By frame 34457, our focus has conspicuously shifted to her
>right wrist.  Frame 34493 shows beginning of her wrist being severed.  Frame
>34502 shows Tenchi off balance, right hand on the ground, left arm with
>sword pull back straight from the shoulder, with sword up at a cutting angle
>favorable for the blow to the wrist; Ryoko's hand is severed and flying
>away: Tenchi's face shows what I think is surprise and dismay.  Ryoko then
>jumps back out of reach.



   If you look at her arm as the hand is cut off it is nearlly parallel to
the ground, she even loses some of her fingers, you can see them fall, this
is because the blow is almost parallel to her lower arm.

 

>        Backing up to frame 33601, when Ryoko and Tenchi start fencing with
>their swords, conspicuously the Tenchi-ken jerks Tenchi around, and Tenchi
>complains that it is the sword that is fighting, that he wouldn't fight a
>monster(bakemono) like her.  At the end of this sequence is when Ryoko
>punches him: Also conspicuously the only time Ryoko ever actually hurts
>Tenchi.  Following the punch is when the hand-severing sequence starts.
>        It is significant (to me, anyway) that this sequence and the cutting
>in half of Soja are the only times we see Tenchi fight left handed.  He is
>conspicuously right-handed.



   I don't know if he is left or right handed, but he is holding the Katana
correctly in his left hand about 3/4 of the way up the grip, and I'm sorry
but this is the way he fights with it all the time, left hand near the right
guard, right hand on or near the gem's when making overhead blows.
    See this on disk 3 of the first ova series, about 15 1/2 min's in when
he is practicing with his grandfather.



>        I have done both fencing and martial arts, and have tried these
>moves with a sword of similar proportions and size (a so-called
>"Ninja-too").  While I am nowhere near as lithe as Tenchi(or as young), I
>came to the conclusion that the change-up required to miss Ryoko's neck is
>doable, but extremely awkward and weak, and would probable wind the
>swordsman up with a face-full of pavement.
>        I think the clear indication is that Tenchi-ken was in fact doing
>the fighting, and yanked Tenchi around, just as was happening seconds
>before; and that it was Tenchi-ken that chose to sever Ryoko's hand rather
>than her head.  I am not the first on the ML to post this conclusion, and I
>doubt if I will be the last.



   It is SHE who gets out of the way of the sword, they are nearly face to
face when it swings his arm and she jumps back wards leaving her arm hanging
out.
   (I think) the sword was going for the power gem from the begining of the
blow, she's not nearly as powerfull with it missing.   I like to think that
Tsunami has more power than Ryoko on top of she's gotting out of the shrine.
   She was not attacking him when the sword went after the gem and it does
not continue the attack after the gem is gone.


                             Bart