Monday, December 26, 2022

Tenchi in Tokyo Part 4 Episodes 16-20

Under the Moon of the School Festival, Tenchi and Sakuya admit their feelings for each other…and the downfall of the Tenchi Household begins.  Much to Yugi’s delight, Tenchi’s choice begins splintering the bewildered group, especially a heartbroken Ryoko.  With the team now more vulnerable than ever, Yugi is now free to carry out her plan of revenge.  Can the group find a way to mend fences and reunite before Yugi’s plans come to fruition?  Or will Tenchi’s newfound romance with Sakuya keep him blind to the world that’s falling apart around him?

I cant believe how conflicted I’ve become over Tenchi in Tokyo.  On the one hand, I should take this series as the separate spin off that it is and be thankful it has no impact or bearing on anything that’s come before it or since.  It’s a pointless cash grab that came and went without much fanfare and the legacies of the much better Tenchi Muyo and Tenchi Universe are still intact.  But almost every minute of Tenchi in Tokyo I continue to watch feel like an insult to those legacies.  The main cast has become unbearable, the Villains annoying to the point of pure rage that theyre getting the best of the heroes cause they’re portrayed as gullible and just plain unobservant until its too late, and the comedy just isn’t funny…like at all.  All of this reaches a new peak, it’s highest yet, with this penultimate set of episodes…and it all starts with a kiss.
 
Yes, after many episodes of actual proper build up, Tenchi finally kissed Sakuya.  A true Tenchi fan probably shouldn’t be ok with this for many reasons: 1. Sakuya is most likely another Yugi manipulation, 2. Ryoko is clearly the best girl for Tenchi in any version (sorry, not sorry Ayeka) and 3…actually I think it’s just those two points really.  And yet, very little has endeared me to this version of Team Tenchi, to the point where I’ve stated clearly none of them deserve to end up with Tenchi.  The last straw came when Ayeka, Sasami, Washu, Mihoshi and Kiyone all came to Tenchi’s School Festival and laid waste to it cause they’re all idiots.  Not for a single second do I believe that any of these girls have lived on Earth for TWO YEARS and don’t know about the concept of a School Festival in Japan.  They act like it’s completely foreign to them after having been on Earth 1-2 weeks tops.  Did they really not do anything besides pester Tenchi at home the whole time (wouldn’t surprise me it’s what convinced him to eventually leave).  Let’s compare this to the Masaki Shrine Carnival from Tenchi Universe.  In that episode, everyone was there and running their own spots and scams during the event.  Things got a little bombastic but rarely to the level of anything in Tenchi in Tokyo.  And Sasami had a fun adventure with Tenchi as her guide.  Here in Tenchi in Tokyo, the School Festival is just another casualty of the stupidity of this universes Team Tenchi.  So yeah, Tenchi angrily told everyone to go home and I don’t blame him.
 
The only member of Team Tenchi I feel the slightest bit of pity for is Ryoko, who witnessed the kiss and it shattered her worse than anyone (yes, even Ayeka).  However, any chance of mining some good drama and character study from this vanished when Ryoko was manipulated into leaving Earth with Yugi’s minion Hotsuma to return to life as a Space Pirate.  There’s another problem: Everyone’s so lost without Tenchi they cant see when something bad is right in front of their faces and should be looked into.  Last week, Yugi nearly killed everyone and after the dust settled, it’s not “Let’s find this chick and make her pay,” it’s, “We have to find Tenchi and get Sakuya out of his life.”  When Sasami woke from her dream play date with Yugi, she never asked about the damage to the area or why Ryoko almost died…but she’s totally focused on making the perfect meal for Ayeka.  And, here’s a thought, WHY HASN’T ANYONE TOLD TENCHI ABOUT YUGI!!!???  Ugh, I’m yelling about stuff that should have been addressed several episodes ago and now Ayeka is struggling to play catch up and reunite her scattered family while Washu’s locked up in her lab probably doing what everyone should have been doing in the first place…but we’ll find out what that is in the finale probably.
 
Honestly, it’s hard to care about the scattered Tenchi Family because they haven’t given me much reason to care about them.  Sasami’s obsessed with her cooking.  Ryoko’s back to being a murderous Space Pirate through Hotsuma whispering in her ear (is he legit pining for her, probably not).  And Kiyone, dear God what’s happened to my favorite girl from Tenchi Universe?  She and Mihoshi haven’t had any meaty parts in Tenchi in Tokyo until this set…and most of it is Kiyone going full on psychotic trying to attain the promotion she needs to leave Earth and make it big in the Galaxy Police.  Like Sasami being blissfully unaware of an attack on her family, it’s Kiyone’s turn this set to be presented as just a terrible and gullible person…just like just about everyone else in this series.  As for Tenchi, whether I like it or not, he’s gonna have to realize soon that something’s driven his crazy family apart and he’ll have to do something about it, even if it means leaving Sakuya.  Seriously though, I blame everyone else for not saying anything about the growing threat to Tenchi more than Tenchi being unaware due to his official romance with Sakuya.  Hell, his Grandfather can sense something so pick up the damn phone and talk to him, if anyone can get through to Tenchi it would be Katsuhito.
 
Mercifully, there’s only six episodes left to go.  Will Yugi quit giggling and actually follow through on whatever her plan is?  How will Team Tenchi reunite to stop her and will Tenchi have to let go of Sakuya in order to do so?  Can Tenchi in Tokyo make me give a damn about anyone I love and adore in two other universes?  The answer to that last one is surely no and Tomorrow I look forward to giving this trash heap the low score it deserves.  That’s right, this bad boy gets torn a new one, more than likely, in the Series Finale of Tenchi in Tokyo, Tomorrow right here at the Gundam Anime Corner…let’s do this.

No comments:

Post a Comment