Tenchi Muyou!

Tenchi Masaki's life changes forever when the ship of an infamous space pirate, Ryouko Hakubi, is shot down and crashes near his family's temple. Little did Tenchi know that by saving Ryouko, he would spark a series of events that would lead alien women from all walks of life to inhabit his home. This includes the delicate Princess Aeka of Jurai and her playful younger sister Princess Sasami; the scatterbrained first-class detective Mihoshi Kuramitsu and her more capable partner Kiyone Makibi; and the eccentric, mad scientist Washuu Hakubi.

The six women do their best to adapt to their new lives, but their more advanced and exotic lifestyle does not mesh well with the simplistic customs on Earth. As a result, they just end up making a mess and causing trouble for poor Tenchi. Though the girls are a pain, Tenchi begins to form a close relationship with each of them, and through their bond, he begins to gain a better understanding of his role in the universe.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hakubi, Ryouko Main

Orikasa, Ai Japanese

Hakubi, Washuu Main

Kobayashi, Yuko Japanese

Masaki, Tenchi Main

Kikuchi, Masami Japanese

Masaki, Sasami Jurai Main

Yokoyama, Chisa Japanese

Masaki, Aeka Jurai Main

Takada, Yumi Japanese

Kuramitsu, Mihoshi Main

Mizutani, Yuuko Japanese

Makibi, Kiyone Main

Amano, Yuri Japanese

Ryou-Ouki Supporting

Kozakura, Etsuko Japanese

Masaki, Katsuhito Supporting

Aono, Takeshi Japanese

Masaki, Nobuyuki Supporting

Aono, Takeshi Japanese

Morijiri, Kazuaki Producer

Negishi, Hiroshi Director

Ishihara, Tatsuya Episode Director, Storyboard

Iwasaki, Yoshiaki Episode Director, Storyboard, 2nd Key Animation

Reviews

Apr 30, 2024

Mintydragons

Recommended

Tenchi Universe and Love Hina are usually what come to mind when someone says “harem anime”, and Tenchi does not deserve this. It’s a space opera with a love-triangle and some of the best-written female characters of 90s anime you are ever likely to find.

Only Aeka and Ryoko are even interested in Tenchi himself, the rest just find themselves in his home through circumstance and become his found-family. Sasami is never sexualised (thank goodness) and has a big-brother-little-sister dynamic with him which is wholesome and inoffensive. Washu plays with him but has her own stuff going on. Mihoshi is a ditz and just happy ... to be somewhere she can relax in, she has more of a relationship with Kiyone who also has very little to do with Tenchi - their interactions are some of the funniest and most “real”, like childhood friends who are stuck together for better or worse. Ryoko doesn’t really take her feelings seriously until the show develops, and seems to enjoy using Tenchi to tease Aeka until she starts to let her walls down and really sit in her feelings.

The girls as usual have archetypes - the sassy one, the ojousama , the sweet child, the ditz, the put-upon voice of reason, the unpredictable crazy one, but that’s not all they are. Each character is multi-faceted and goes through some kind of development, they all have their feelings explored and have a lot to say. Tenchi himself is kind of the bland everyman, but he’s also snarky (at least in the English dub) and genuine - he treats everyone genuinely respectfully and doesn’t necessarily want to be in any of the situations he finds himself in, flirtatious or dangerous. It’s unusual to see a protagonist of this supposed genre be humble and disinterested sexually, and he isn’t OP in any way - if anything Ryoko is portrayed as the most powerful. There are clear reasons why everyone finds themselves in the same vicinity and even though the series feels a little disjointed at times, especially in comparison to the more concise OVA, it builds to a well thought out conclusion which is satisfying and cozy.

It might be nostalgia talking but this is a classic with fewer tropes than people give it credit for. The English dub is by far one of the best that have ever been made which is a miracle for the time in which it was produced, and I honestly would recommend it over the Japanese original (but again I did watch it in English first and at age 11 so there is bias at play here). Give Tenchi Universe (or Tenchi Muyō) a chance if you want to delve into the classics, it is far more accessible and far less gross than most of what came after it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 30, 2023

nomad8

Mixed Feelings

This time I decided to comment only on the final episode, usually I comment episode by episode, but this time I decided to comment everything on the last one, so here we go.
First I'll comment on the characters and their changes from this spin-off to the canonical story:
Ryouko – While in the original story it makes sense that she likes Tenchi, because she lived with him since he was born and nurtured a love, in this spin-off she just falls out of space and falls in love, in fact you can't even call it love since you can only understand this in the final episodes ... where she cries for him, before that it only seemed to be a tease for Aeka or something, considering that in an episode she simply leaves Tenchi hungry and goes to have fun in space, the Ryouko from the original series would never have done that. Another point to be mentioned is that in the original Ryouko is a monster of strength, being able to destroy the city and her plot was precisely that she was very strong to destroy the earth but did not do it because of the tenchi .

Washuu – They simply took away all her genius, in the original series Washuu is very intelligent and there is almost nothing she cannot do, it is almost like a divine intelligence, in this version she leaves a lot to be desired, she was very nerfed intellectually. Another bad point was taking away her connection as a mother with Ryouko and creator of Ryou-Ouki. Another point is that they took away her loving interaction with Tenchi.

Ryou-Ouki – Making her fall in love with another ship of the same species, but male was a shot in the foot, in the original series she likes Tenchi.

Tenchi – Tenchi is almost the same as the original series but has a problem which is the character's background, in the original series his power is much more explained and he is much stronger, he has more impact, in this he is just a jedi, they took away everything Tenchi's role.

Sasami – not much to comment on, it's basically the same character but I think they took her focus away from the series, in the original it's pretty clear that she liked Tenchi and she had more protagonism in this version it's more like she was a child common, not to mention that they severed the connection she had with the Tsunami.

Aeka – honestly for me Aeka's changes were the best, they removed the connection she had with Yosho, thus eliminating her loving interaction with Yosho, improving the character's plot, it was the only character that had an improvement because of the alterations, made her love for Tenchi genuine.

Mihoshi – This version took away the love she had for Tenchi and left her totally as a comic relief character, in the original it makes sense for her to stay with tenchi since she was assigned to the earth sector, in this it makes no sense for her to return to the land at the end.
Kiyone – I don't know much about the character, I know she came from the OVA “Tenchi Muyou!: Galaxy Police Mihoshi Space Adventure” but I still haven't had the courage to see it but I intend to watch it later after the main series is over, I even found the character interesting but it seems that she was underused, she was kind of thrown into the main cast, it seemed that she didn't have a space between the main characters, she didn't have a motivation.

That ends the part of the characters, the rest of the characters are not necessary to comment, basically all the changes they made to the characters made them worse with the exception of Aeka.

Now about the story, due to the content of the story, this much episode was not necessary, most episodes are very monotonous, I overlooked a lot because most of the anime is certainly more focused on Tenchi Muyo's comedy, that is, the anime is not it would have serious parts, it would just be a comedy anime with Tenchi's characters but towards the end the atmosphere of the anime changed completely, bordering on characters "dying", these final episodes were the highlight of the anime, it was possible to make an anime of 6 eps just focusing on the serious parts would make a much better anime.
The penultimate episode was even interesting in terms of the fight but it doesn't come close to the fight it had in the first season of the original series, and the final episode was very good for the drama part but otherwise all the other episodes were so-so.
As I said, these last episodes are even good but in general it's not worth watching all the other episodes to get to them, even because they don't have anything very interesting and don't complement the original series in any way, either for the romance or for some interesting new element, none of which was added.
Before all that, I think this series is at most an OK anime

Score: 6/10



PT-BR

Dessa vez eu decidi comentar só no episódio final, geralmente eu comento episódio por episodio, mas dessa vez decidi comentar tudo no ultimo, então vamos lá.
Primeiro eu vou comentar dos personagens e suas mudanças desse spin-off para a historia canônica:
Ryouko – Enquanto na historia original faz sentido ela gostar do Tenchi,porque ela viveu com ele desde que nasceu e nutriu um amor, nesse spin-off ela simplesmente cai do espaço e já se apaixona, na verdade nem dá para chamar de amor visto que só da para entender isso nos episódios finais ao qual ela chora por ele, antes disso só parecia implicância para com a Aeka ou algo assim, tendo em vista que em um episodio ela simplesmente lagar o Tenchi com fome e vai se divertir no espaço, a Ryouko da série original nunca teria feito isso.Outro ponto a ser mencionado é que no original a Ryouko é um monstro de força,podendo destruir cidade e o plot dela era justamente ela ser muito forte para destruir a terra mas não fazer por causa do tenchi.

Washuu – Simplesmente tiraram toda a genialidade dela,na serie original a Washuu é bastante inteligente e não tem quase nada que ela não consiga fazer,é quase como uma inteligência divina,já nessa versão ela deixa bastante a desejar,ela foi muito nerfada intelectualmente.Outro ponto ruim foi tirar a ligação dela de mãe com a Ryouko e criadora do Ryou-Ouki.Outro ponto é que tiraram a interação amorosa dela para com o Tenchi.

Ryou-Ouki – Fazer ela se apaixonar pela outra nave de mesma espécie só que macho foi um tiro no pé,na serie original ela gosta do Tenchi.

Tenchi – o Tenchi é quase igual a serie original mas tem um problema que é o background do personagem,na serie original o poder dele é bem mais explicado e é bem mais forte,tem mais impacto,nesse ele é só um jedi,tiraram todo o protagonismo do Tenchi.

Sasami – não tem muito o que comentar é basicamente a mesma personagem mas acho que tiraram um pouco do foco dela na serie,no original fica bem nítido que ela gostava do Tenchi e ela tinha mais protagonismo nessa versão é mais como se ela fosse uma criança comum,sem falar que cortaram a ligação que ela tinha com a Tsunami.

Aeka – sinceramente para mim as mudanças da Aeka foram as melhores,tiraram a ligação que ela tinha com o Yosho,eliminando assim a interação amorosa dela para com Yosho,melhorando o plot da personagem,foi o único personagem que teve uma melhora por causa das alterações,fez o amor dela por Tenchi ser genuíno.

Mihoshi – Essa versão tirou o amor que ela tinha por Tenchi e deixou ela totalmente como uma personagem de alivio comico,no original faz sentido ela ficar com tenchi já que ela foi designada para o setor da terra,já nesse não faz sentido ela voltar para a terra no final.
Kiyone – Não conheço muito da personagem,sei que ela veio da OVA “Tenchi Muyou!: Galaxy Police Mihoshi Space Adventure” mas ainda não tive coragem para ver mas pretendo assistir mais tarde depois que acabar a serie principal,até achei a personagem interessante mas parece que ela foi subutilizada,ela ficou meio jogada no elenco principal,parecia que ela não tinha um espaço entre os personagens principais,não tinha uma motivação.

Assim acaba a parte dos personagens, o resto dos personagens não são necessários comentar, basicamente todas as mudanças que fizeram nos personagens pioraram eles com exceção da Aeka.

Agora sobre a história, pelo teor da história não era necessário esse tanto de episódio, a maioria dos episódios são bem monótonos,eu relevei muita coisa por a maior parte do anime com certeza ser mais focada na comedia de Tenchi Muyo ou seja o anime não teria as partes serias, seria só um anime de comedia com os personagens de Tenchi mas chegando no final o clima do anime mudou completamente, beirando a personagens “morrendo”, esses episódios finais foram o ponto alto do anime, dava para fazer um anime de 6 eps só focando nas partes serias que sairia um anime muito melhor.
O penúltimo episodio até foi interessante a parte da luta mas não chega aos pês da luta que teve na primeira temporada da série original, e o episódio final foi muito bom pela parte do drama mas de resto todos os outros episódios foram bem mais ou menos.
Como eu falei,esses últimos episódios até são bons mas no geral não vale a pena assistir todos os outros episódios para chegar neles,até mesmo porque eles não tem nada de muito interessante e não complementam em nada a serie original,seja pela romance ou por algum elemento novo interessante,nada disso foi acrescentado.
De ante disso tudo acho que essa serie é no máximo um anime OK

Nota: 6/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 2, 2016

BowlingJD

Not Recommended

Tenchi Universe is a 26 episode series loosely based off of the original OVA Tenchi series, very loosely. It was directed by Hiroshi Negishi (relatively unknown) and produced by the ever pandering company that is Anime International Corporation (AIC). As a big fan of the OVA series, of course the tv series had much to live up to.

Compared to the entrancing beginning that the OVA had or anything else for that matter, the TV series is mostly just filler side-story nonsense focusing around the strange group of women that end up surrounding the main character Tenchi. Sure, the harem is in full swing, but the ... unique character backgrounds and mystery surrounding a certain family is sort of still there. However, what made the OVA so worth watching and what makes the viewer enjoy each of the unique characteristics of each woman, Tenchi Universe just homes in on pandering to the audience with nonsense panty and boob shots with almost zero story throughout the anime. This is an unfortunate set back to the series for those that truly enjoyed the original. It is not until near of the end of the series (Jurai space arc) where Tenchi Universe finally gets fun. Too bad there is so much filler and side-arc nonsense along the way.

The characters make Tenchi fun, but their reasoning behind their actions and feelings are almost absent, and they just continue to pander as opposed to the OVA which actually created circumstances and choices the characters make to their ultimate decision in the end. How can a 26 episode TV series fall so short compared to a 6 episode OVA?

Naturally, the Tenchi Universe does not look or holds up all that well in terms of animation or in comparison to the fantastic appeal of the OVA. Music is still pretty decent and representative of its time. So, in laments terms, Tenchi Universe falls into the nostalgia category to many fans. Then why not just watch the OVA series instead?

In short, Tenchi Universe in very boring and pandering to the audience. There is little to no content until the group goes to space which is unacceptable for a 26 episode series. Tenchi Universe fall dreadfully into the Ronin Warriors category of, “just because something was on Toonami in the past, does not mean it is good at all.” Go watch the Tenchi OVA, not Universe.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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