Kenshi Masaki is the half brother of intergalactic hero
Tenchi Masaki. He has also been abducted
from his home on Earth in order to participate in an assassination plot on the
far off planet of Geminar. The attempt
fails but Kenshi’s ability to pilot a mecha known as a Sacred Mechalord ignites
the curiosity of Lashara Earth, the girl Kenshi was sent to kill. Now, Kenshi is in Lashara’s care and enrolled
in a prestigious school, where he’s also seemed to inherit his half brothers
ability to attract every single beautiful girl in the cosmos. But those who kidnapped Kenshi are not done
with their plans for Lashara and Kenshi is the only one who can protect
her. A planets future is at stake but
all Kenshi wants is to get back home.
Though it took forever and a day to complete the original
(and first) Tenchi Muyo OVA aka Tenchi Muyo Ryo Ohki, that didn’t stop the
powers that be from keeping the Tenchi train rolling with spin offs and
alternate universes. Earlier today, we
looked at attempting Tenchi without Tenchi with Tenchi Muyo GXP. Now, we look at one of the more recent
continuations of the original saga-Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar. I’m starting to think that maybe my interest
and love for Tenchi piqued with Tenchi Universe (I still haven’t seen all of Ryo
Ohki) all the way through), because this is the fourth Tenchi spin off series
ive seen that I am not bonding to as instantly as I did the original (after Tenchi Universe, Tenchi in Tokyo and Tenchi Muyo GXP).
War on Geminar’s beginning feels like an overlong
prologue for a Final Fantasy game you cant play yourself. One thing I didn’t know going in beforehand
was 1. This series is an OVA and 2. Each episodes is almost an hour long. How exactly can an OVA have that kind of run
time and still not get everything truly set up?
The only reason I know of Kenshi’s lineage is from outside research (yes
I know I did that and still didn’t know this is an OVA). I would love to see a series kick off with
Kenshi interacting with his brother and the rest of the Tenchi gang, if theyre
still around on Earth. Instead, we start
right off on Geminar with a host of new mostly female characters (naturally,
this is a Tenchi series afterall), none of which are truly memorable, seriously
I committed no ones name to memory.
Kenshi himself shows promise but I feel like we spend less time with him
compared to the harem he’ll be interacting with throughout the series. The main plot is pretty basic but feels like
it wants to be more profound than needed.
There’s also the introduction of the Sacred Mechalords which look like
the mecha from Zone of the Enders…just with fur (that’s weird).
One of the reasons I enjoyed the original Tenchi Muyo was
the cast. It was tight knit, mostly
being Tenchi and about six girls, five at minimum. Ryoko, Ayeka, Sasami, Mihoshi, Washu and
Kiyone all stood out in their own way and one never overshadowed the
other. We got to know each one, admire
their quirks and debate which of them would win poor Tenchi’s heart, if he
could survive their manic battles. War
on Geminar’s first episode barely offers any connective tissue to it’s parent
Anime and introduces a cast that doesn’t hold an instantly loveable impression
like Ryoko did in Ryo Ohki’s first episode.
Honestly, Tenchi Muyo was the first Harem Anime I think I ever saw, so
it set the benchmark for the genre for me.
Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar feels like it’s a generic Harem Anime with
little to offer outside of having the Tenchi Muyo name. I’ll say this about War on Geminar and GXP…they
make me want to track down and watch the original OVAs and find their
conclusions. Sometimes the classics
should just stay classics and left alone.
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