Story: (3) The problem with Tenchi In Tokyo starts with the plot. The creators of this story came up with this neat concept of Tenchi living in Tokyo as a shrine boy, but failed to bring the most important aspect of the show with them... the girls. Instead they create this vapid girl who doesn't have a personality to take the place of the girls left at home. The charm of the Tenchi series is the fact that Tenchi loves all of these girls unconditionally and surrounds himself with family due to the pain of losing his mother early in his life, so the plot device that he leaves them all behind and falls for another girl entirely, doesn't work out. Canon Tenchi would never do this, he knows choosing a girl would hurt the others in the house and do you not believe for a second that Washu would not be able to create some portals to make the living space cozy for all? Come on now!
Art: (5) The art seemed okay, but it wasn't up to par with the other Tenchi series. There was a ton of deformed art and towards the end it was riddled with lazy animation made to fill up the episode. Some of the character designs didn't look right.
Sound: (7) The sound was good. Nobodies voice got annoying with the exception for Yugi's. The only bone I have to pick is the lead background sound track. It became very repetitive and obnoxious after awhile.
Character: (3) Next to the plot this is another pitfall the series had. The characters were decimated in this. The girls were dumbed down to argue and fight among themselves more then usual. Everyone became almost of character of themselves. The most notable were Tenchi and Washu, but everyone's character pretty much got spanked. Tenchi turned into a loner of a character who almost just wanted to be left alone all the time, snapping off at anyone who bothered him. He became downright blasphemous to the original series, seemingly uncaring about the girls feelings towards him, downright scolding them at times for even visiting him, refusing to even spend time with them. Washu, who is usually the voice of reason and usually the helping hand, became even sillier then she was in Universe. Her main shtick became creating inventions only for them to backfire and blow up in her face. And the rest of the girls could not even hold part time jobs/attend normal public functions without ruining something, something their counterparts could actually do until Ryoko or Mihoshi found some way to mess it up. Then there is Sakuya and Yugi. Two characters you just wish the series never introduced. The problem with Sakuya is her constant stalking of Tenchi, making him feel bad for not originally returning her feelings, and constantly demanding he forget about his family in favor of her. Why? This doesn't make sense. He's known her all of a week or two when she is first heavily put into the story. He has known the girls for two years according to show canon. And another problem with Tenchi is he actually eventually listens to her, something that is STILL baffling to me. The problem with Yugi is the constant villain shoving we get with her. If Yugi isn't shown at least three times an episode, you aren't watching Tenchi In Tokyo.
Enjoyment: (5) With that said, there was some aspects of this story that were Tenchi like and that I enjoyed, but it didn't make up for how poor this story was. I would almost say this is a dark comedy, because some parts with the girls are hilarious, but at the original characters expense. I would also say this series could have possibly been shortened to 12 episodes to clean the plot up more, 26 seemed to be milking the series a bit to much.
Overall: (5) I was going to give this series a 4, but there was SOME redeeming factors, just not many. I would only recommend this story as something to watch if you have an open mind and are looking for more Tenchi after watching the OVA's and Universe, but be mindful because some aspects of this series can be very infuriating at times. Watch/rewatch the Tenchi OVA's and Universe first. Those are the best in my opinion.
