Forum - View topicThe Complete Guide to 25 Years of Tenchi Muyo!
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Kikaioh
 Posts: 1205 Location: Antarctica |
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Geez, looking at Ai Tenchi, they really shamelessly upped the fanservice in the character designs (which look generically modern compared to the original).
My favorite installment is probably Tenchi in Love, since it's such a fantastically entertaining Back to the Future ripoff, with Kiyone to boot (who I always thought was awesome). After that would be Tenchi Universe, the original OVA, the Mihoshi Special, Pretty Sammy, and then, pretty much... nothing after that, though I admittedly haven't watched much else of the franchise (except for Daughter of Darkness, which was kind of meh, and Tenchi in Tokyo, which was annoyingly meh). |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18445 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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You could come up with other examples on this, too (and it isn't even just limited to younger characters - see Nisekoi) but yeah, this is a good point. Pretty Sammy was, AFAIK, the first case of a magical girl spin-off of a non-magical-girl title. |
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belvadeer
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My friend got me into Tenchi via VHS back in the late 90s, and I loved it ever since. The English dub cast is absolutely brilliant and there are so many funny moments that continuously pop up on my head that it's obvious the series has left an impact on me. When anime movies were a thing on Sci-Fi Channel, I taped Tenchi in Love and kept it safe ever since.
While Tenchi in Tokyo was the least favored back in the earlier days, watching spoiler[Ayeka laugh her ass off at Ryoko's attempt at putting makeup on] was a great moment. XD Despite the hate GXP gets, there is one episode that is so absolutely hilarious to watch that it's worth seeing for that alone. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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It is indeed a unique moment hearing Ayeka spoiler[combine The Laugh with laughing herself silly.] 
As for the GXP moment, you'll have to spoil that too, as I pretty much gave up on GXP halfway by the end of the first episode. (And while I'm not practicing what I preach about Tokyo, there just wasn't enough benefit of doubt to expect the core appeal of the series to get better enough...) |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1346 |
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Ah, Tenchi.
The show that made me realize how strange and bizarre anime can really be. I remember renting Tenchi the Movie 2 both times at Blockbuster and being pretty much the world's biggest Tenchi x Ryoko shipper. I also remember seeing it Spanish dubbed on Univision, a Mexican tv channel and thinking "Wow, I guess I'm not the only Mexican who loved Tenchi". I was very surprised to see it on that channel! You can imagine how disappointed I was when I never saw that final kiss happening EVER! Only between him and stupid Sakuya. Ugh. |
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louis6578
 Posts: 1875 |
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I'm disappointed that this guide wasn't like the Lupin the 3rd or Gundam guides which told you how much the writer recommends each franchise entry. Regardless, I want to say a few of my own opinions. Lets split the franchise into four parts. High-tier, which I basically consider to be the best parts of the franchise, mid-tier, which are entertaining enough but not quite required in my opinion, low-tier, which I think are bad and to be avoided, and N/A... which just means I haven't watched them yet.
High - Ryo-Ohki season one, Tenchi Universe, Tenchi Forever (I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I ADORED the more serious direction it was taken in), and Tenchi in Love. Mid - Daughter of Darkness, Mihoshi Special, Pretty Sammy special, and Ryo-Ohki season 2. Low - Ryo-Ohki season 3, Tenchi Muyo: GXP, and ESPECIALLY Tenchi in Tokyo. N/A - Ryo-Ohki season 4. So... I'd be interested to hear others' opinions on the hierarchy of the franchise's parts. |
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Ushio
Posts: 635 |
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You poor sod GXP is the single worst part of the whole Tenchi franchise. |
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Ushio
Posts: 635 |
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Well my favourite parts of the Tenchi franchise
Using the first posts chart Number 1 Okuda continuity the still fun first 90's OVA's plus the sci fi action manga perfection. No new fiancée's is also a plus Number 2 Hasagawa continuity still the great first 6 OVA's plus the second film and novels that are good even if the translations are hard to find now. A shame the translation of light novel's that exists now didn't exist back in the late 90's. Number 3 Universe and films 2 & 3 Number 4 Geminar, Tenchi in Tokyo and the 3 part pretty Sammy OVA Number 5 everything else but what's in number 6 Number 6 Kajishima continuity outside of the 90's OVA's and Geminar ESPECIALLY GXP. Maybe ova 4 can redeem the new characters we will see. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3019 |
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True, although it's also pretty clear that general otaku audiences weren't as into the Sasami shows as stuff like Nanoha and Prisma Illya - if only because one of the central "plot twists" from the later Madoka (i.e. spoiler["magical girls grow up to become witches"]) wouldn't have been as well-received if Sasami had been a more widely-watched sub-franchise. I think that even though it wasn't the first example of the phenomenon, Nanoha was a much better-known show, and was much more influential on magical girl shows in general. |
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Kalessin
 Posts: 931 |
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Seeing Tenchi Muyo in Love on TV back in the 90's is what got me into anime in the first place, so I'm a big fan of Tenchi Muyo in general. The OVAs will always be my favorite timeline, but Universe was very good as well. GXP was quite funny, but it's almost like a parody of the whole thing. Certainly, anyone who sees GXP first is going to get a very wrong impression of what most of the Tenchi Muyo franchise is like. Geminar did a much better job of that, and I'd like to see more of it as much as I'd like to see more of the OVAs.
As for Tenchi in Tokyo, I've never been able to bring myself to finish it. In that series, it seems like they focused on the characters' worst traits, making them terrible shadows of their normal selves, and it quickly becomes unbearable to watch. As a completionist, I'd like to finish it someday, but... it's just too terrible (at least in the beginning). I have yet to see Ai Tenchi Muyo, but the format made it seem like it couldn't possibly be very good. I should still track it down one of these days and check it out though. And I've never bothered with the Magical Sammy stuff. I very much look forward to the 4th OVA though and have been debating whether I should watch fansubs of it or wait for it be licensed in the US.
I think that overall, I'd have to agree with this. I prefer the OVA timeline, and Tenchi Muyo in Love does not fit into that, but that movie makes for some great Tenchi Muyo, and I can say with experience that it's a great introduction to the franchise when you haven't seen any of other Tenchi Muyo. On a side note, I think that it's a fantastic example of how a good soundtrack can take something to a whole new level. IMHO, Christopher Franke's score for that movie is the best score of any anime I've ever seen. That movie would be far poorer with a more pedestrian soundtrack.
I'm definitely more of a fan of the main cast, but I have to say that Geminar is by far the best written and best balanced of the series. It actually has a real plot to it (something that Tenchi in general tends to be bad at), and it does a much better job of balancing the comedy and the action than Tenchi series usually do. As great as the comedy in most Tenchi series usually is, they often focus on it too much, and the more serious side of the story suffers (the OVAs in particular suffer from this; they have some great aciton in them, but it's ultimately a very small percentage of the series). My main complaints with Geminar have to do with the fact that they take the harem aspect of the story to insane levels and that we never really see how the story ties into the main series aside from the fact that we know how Kenshi is related to Tenchi (it would be fantastic to see the actual Tenchi cast from that point in time; as it is, we don't even know for sure who sent Kenshi to Geminar). It's too bad that they've never done a sequel for it which might have answered questions like that, but knowing how it often seems to go with Tenchi Muyo, it was probably all explained in light novels that we don't have access to in North America. 
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MrBonk
Posts: 192 |
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Tenchi is timeless no matter how standard the tropes have become. Definitely was one of the big gateway shows for my friends. I remember renting the vhs tapes quite a few times
Tokyo has always been my favorite of the alt universe entries. Universe is probably my least favorite of all that I have seen. (Yes I even liked ova 3 more. ) It felt like an incredible bland, stock and standard version of the ovas. I still find it hard to bring myself to want to rewatch Universe. An issue I have with none of the others . I enjoyed it when I was younger. Hard pressed today. Geminar looked terrible when it was first released, but given some of the praise I have seen now, I may actually give it a fair shot. GPX is the only other I haven't had a chance to see yet |
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Yugi12
 Posts: 39 |
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Tenchi in Tokyo's underrated.
Tenchi Universe is my second favorite Tenchi series. The OVAs are my least favorite version of Tenchi. |
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KH91
Posts: 6176 |
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And there it is. Never change. 
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ShinraDog
Posts: 15 |
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I thought OVA 3 was bad. That was until I saw the first episode of the 4th. I don't think Tenchi Muyo is even about the main cast anymore. In episode 1 of the latest OVA, Tenchi doesn't have a single conversation with any of the main girls (besides telling Sasami and Noike "bye." Wow.) They brought in a bunch of new characters I don't really care for either and the storyline is dull.
So far I've only seen pictures of the other two episodes, but it looks like more of the same. Meh. I'm sure it will appeal to someone, but I'm not here for Politics With Strangers From Space. |
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akari_house
Posts: 21 |
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I'm a little surprised no one has brought up Rumiko Takahashi's juggernaut alien harem rom-com Urusei Yatsura, which was nothing short of a cultural phenomenom when it was in its prime, with five movies, numerous OVAs and video games, and more.
Not to mention it was clearly a point of inspiration for Tenchi Muyo, given that both start off revolving around an increasingly hapless male protagonist stuck with a flying alien green-haired oni space pirate beauty which leads to his entanglement with a host of other alien girls (and other parallels exist, though more subtle, at least). Tenchi pretty much took Urusei Yatsura's template, remixed it a little and added a stronger SF focus (at least for the initial OVAs). I think it's also notable that the original director/writer team of the first OVA series were not retained as a team beyond that point, effectively making the original OVA set more or less the "pilot" and why even in the OVA canon it feels almost completely different than any other Tenchi works that came afterward. While I enjoyed many of the spin-offs, particularly the under-rated Magical Project S handled by the same staff as the excellent Battle Athletes Victory TV series (and a totally different beast from the Pretty Sammy OVA trilogy), I think there is something particularly special in that mix of creative talent that went into those first six episodes that the later teams could never really fully recapture the flavor of (but not for lack of trying). It seems a shame that the production committee didn't retain the same filmmakers who first captured that lightning in a bottle. |
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