Monday, December 19, 2022

Tenchi in Tokyo Part 3 Episodes 11-15

Following a tearful confession from Sakuya, Tenchi must finally come to terms with how he feels about this mysterious and beautiful girl who he might want to be with.  His indecision creates an opening for Yugi to attack the Masaki Household, proving far more powerful than even Ryoko can handle. Meanwhile, Sasami finds herself drawn to a mysterious girl, blinding her to the danger surrounding her family.  None of these events are coincidence and Yugi’s manipulations are at last beginning to take their toll on Tenchi and the bonds he shares with his six alien friends.  Is there a chance their bond will be broken?
 
Confusion.  Irritation.  Frustration.  Pure Anger.  These are the four general emotions I have towards Tenchi in Tokyo: Confusion that this show ever made it past the initial proposal stage; Irritation that they keep finding new ways of making a terrible show even worse; Frustration that very little is being done to right the sinking ship; and Pure Anger…because there’s about 95% of this show I really, really don’t like.  After a couple of positive strides last week, we’re back to the low bar of Tenchi in Tokyo.  Tenchi might have some promise with Sakuya…and that’s kind of bad when I could care less about what happens to everyone else. 
 
I’m actually equally confused about Yugi.  For a while I thought that she was sending monsters to make everyones life Hell cause she couldn’t cross over into our dimension or whatever.  Well, turns out she can cross over, split herself into multiple forms, and she comes damn near close to eliminating Team Tenchi all by herself.  So the question now is…why the hell hasn’t she done this from the get go?  I’m not a fan of Yugi, she’s been floating around giggling and speaking in riddles so much she’s more of an annoyance than a threat.  But with the amount of power on display and the fact that Ryoko did indeed almost die, what need does Yugi have to hold back when no one can stop her?  Even her pointless tack on of having her Generals play against her to gain the trust of Team Tenchi doesn’t make sense?  You know what makes even less sense: the fact that I’m pointing out ways for the villain to take out the main characters so that this show can be over and done with?
 
And after what went down in the first episode of this set alone, I think I’ve had it with each of the main girls in this little universe.  Last week I said that Sasami seemed the most untouched of the bunch from her previous versions.  But even she wasn’t safe from the unfair pen of whoever wrote this disaster of an Anime.  The Sasami of Tenchi in Tokyo is way too gullible and easily manipulated, to the point where she doesn’t seem to care that there are explosions happening in the distance and she just assumes Ryoko’s throwing a fit.  Hell Ryoko and Ayeka manage to convince Sasami that Ryo-Ohki is to blame for a mess they themselves caused.  Seeing Sasami lash out at Ryo-Ohki broke my heart (even if they did make up later).  But the fact that Sasami even considered Ryo-Ohki is enough to put the eventual final score for this series on the very, very low end of the 10 scale.  Also, Sasami heads off to dreamland with Yugi (who is so incredibly suss and Sasami cant see it, the bad guys deserve to win) and she doesn’t even seem to care or mention that there’s a giant mess from a battle and everyone looks beaten to heck?  It isn’t much better that no sooner has the dust settled from Yugi’s one sided beatdown of Team Tenchi that the girls are right back to planning to sabotage Tenchi and Sakuya’s growing romance instead of dealing with the obvious threat at hand. Like I said, I’m trying to find logic in a show devoid of it.
 
Well I guess Tenchi in Tokyo has won in one regard: I’m rooting for Tenchi and Sakuya.  There’s a tiny bit of me hoping for Ryoko to come through but it’s so tiny its negligible.  The series has taken a few steps back to allow a gradual build to what we all know is coming for Tenchi and Sakuya and in a series where the stars are all psychotic nutjobs who don’t realize they have two spaceships that could take them to Tokyo and they don’t need to hitchhike…it’s surprisingly welcome.  Further backing the Tenchi/Sakuya pairing is Nobuyuki, who, like Ryo-Ohki, got an episode in the spotlight.  I can say that neither of these two supporting characters have ever gotten this yet across the franchise, so this is a plus (even bigger since Nobuyuki saved Tenchi and Sakuya and got to be the hero for a change).  And yeah, ill admit it: a Moon field filled with Ryo-Ohkis is super cute (why don’t we have Tachikomatic Days spin off shorts with the cutest mascot in Anime?).
 
Tenchi in Tokyo is the Anti Tenchi Muyo, a series that is working overtime to make a cast of characters look absoltuley despicable just to push for a fresh new romance that is clearly going to bite Tenchi in the ass at some point…and even then I might feel bad.  When you find yourself not caring if the Villains, who aren’t that intimidated, menacing or memorable themselves, actually succeed in their evil plan…something is very wrong with your story.  Sigh, just 11 more episodes to plow through.  Next Monday we start a special week long closure to The Tenchi Toonami Saga with the two part finale of Tenchi in Tokyo Monday and Tuesday, followed by bonus reviews of the Tenchi Movies Wednesday-Friday to close out 2022.  I really hope those three flicks are better than what I’ve had to sit through for 15 crappy episodes.  Deep breaths…lets finish this out strong, or at least get some more decent rants out of it.  Tenchi in Tokyo starts wrapping up Next Monday right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.

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