The nefarious Doctor Clay has been dispatched by Lady
Tokimi to retrieve Washu from Earth. To
this end, Clay abducts Ryoko and replaces her with a duplicate who ends up
falling hard for Tenchi. Soon, the
battle for two souls is on and it’s up to Washu to settle the score with her
old foe, Clay. But this conflict is
nothing compared to what’s headed to Earth next: The Jurai Royal family. What kind of craziness will hit when Tenchi
meets his distant relatives from beyond the stars and could it possibly mean
the end of his new family here on Earth?
Or is this just the beginning of a larger story?
About a year ago, I reviewed the original Bubblegum
Crisis OVA and came away incredibly disappointed.
I knew already it was an unfinished project (even
with the subsequent Bubblegum Crash sequel).
Outside of the animation and kick ass soundtrack, BGC was a mess with no
story and some of the worst character writing in all of Anime.
I bring this up because we’ve reached the
stop point of the original Tenchi Muyo OVA that was shown on Toonami, and thus
the only bit of the OVA I’m covering (for now).
There are a lot of unanswered questions, a lack of action or a fun
villain like Kagato.
And yet, unlike
BGC, Tenchi Muyo manages to wrap up incomplete but still on a decent note that
doesn’t leave me the least bit mad.
And
no, that’s not just because we’ve got a lot more Tenchi to look forward to
later in the year but more on that later.
For now, onto the finale.
Two stories were told across three episodes: the Doctor
Clay arc and the extended series finale focusing on the arrival of Ayeka and
Sasami’s family from Jurai (who are also Tenchi’s extended family).
Doctor Clay was such a poor follow up villain
to Kagato.
You replaced a trendy,
glasses sporting Dracula like Warlord with an easily angered and non
threatening little man who just tried to wax metaphysics and whine about not
being as good as Washu at…well basically anything.
And yet, Tenchi Muyo made a big deal about
Clay being the final big bad of the second OVA.
He did nothing but nag and complain and was basically an errand boy for
a far greater threat that we would only glimpse at briefly.
The fact that Tenchi and company had a
problem defeating him feels like they took pity on the poor guy.
Hell, Tenchi didn’t even play much of a role
in the final confrontation, only breaking out the Light Hawk wings again to
save Ayeka and Mihoshi from a black hole.
It’s strange that sometimes Tenchi can feel like a bit player in his own
show and it’s happened a lot in this series, particularly in the second OVA.
Most of the good from the Clay Arc came from his robot
assistant, Zero, duplicating Ryoko and inheriting her love for Tenchi.
Sure she was just copying her but Zero’s
Ryoko act evolving to more than just an act was interesting and showed us what
a Ryoko more open with her feelings would look like.
I really felt bad for her when she was
ordered to kill Tenchi but backed out at the last minute.
Don’t get me wrong, I love our OG Ryoko,
she’s the best character in the series.
But for a girl so free spirited and devil may care, she does have a hard
time expressing her love for Tenchi outside of being a constant
troublemaker.
Perhaps the merging of
Zero and Ryoko via Washu at the end might change some things, then again maybe
not.
The final episode of the Second OVA is probably my
favorite of the entire Tenchi Muyo series.
The arrival of Funaho (Yosho’s mother) and Masaki (Ayeka and Sasami’s
mother) brought both revelations and some of the best comedy.
Funaho is gorgeous, oozing with elegance and
soft spoken mannerisms though she did show signs of being a little miffed she
wouldn’t get her way entirely when it came to Washu or Yosho.
As for Misaki…gah she is freaking hilarious
and was the cause of some of the best jokes, both at poor Ryoko’s expense.
Even the King of Jurai’s appearance gave us
some unexpected laughs when Ryo-Ohki did her cute little dance to try and talk
him into letting Ayeka and Sasami stay on Earth so they didn’t break up the
Tenchi Family.
Once again, Tenchi himself
felt like an observer and bit player but I still loved how stuck in the middle
of everything he was.
But this meeting
of two worlds was everything I wanted out of Tenchi Muyo but didn’t know id get
until right at the very end.
And so Tenchi Muyo ends with a crap ton of unsolved
mysteries.
These include: Those two
figures in shadow on both sides of Lady Tokimi-Are Washu and Tsunami supposed
to be there?
Just how can Tenchi
generate Light Hawk Wings?
Who is Tokimi
sending after Team Tenchi next and what the hell is Tokimi anyway?
What are the King of Jurai’s plans for Yosho
and Tenchi and will we ever see him, Funaho and Masaki again (the latter two
especially since Masaki suggested they come back for a few days)?
And who will win the seemingly eternal war
for Tenchi’s heart-Ryoko or Ayeka?
Those
are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head but I’m sure theyre
more.
Now, I will say that there
probably are some answers in the Third OVA series, titled here in the states as
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki.
However, because
I’m only reviewing the Toonami broadcast titles (plus the movies cause why
not), I wont be getting to that one anytime soon (I know ive seen it once but
it was a very long time ago and I don’t remember it much at all).
That’s not to say that I wont come back to
this OVA and who knows if it will have an actual, absolute conclusion with 5
seasons and counting.
But I guess this
could begin to feed into my final thoughts: when it comes to these first two
OVAs…it doesn’t matter.
The original Tenchi Muyo OVA is a legend and unlike
Bubblegum Crisis it actually merits such acclaim.
It is the quintessential Harem Anime that is
full of fun characters, great action and a great blend of comedy and scifi
storytelling.
Tenchi is the most eligible
bachelor in all of Anime and the girls living with him are all winners in their
own way (Ryoko is the best, feel free to challenge that notion any time).
Also, this is an OVA and from its first
episode to its last, this show looks beyond gorgeous and I hope subsequent
shows can match its level of artistic presentation.
The OVA’s shortcomings are obvious ones: the
cliffhanger ending and the severe lack of action in the second OVA.
And yet, I still found myself enjoying this
one quite a lot.
The character work was
great, especially shoring up Sasami, and even little Ryo-Ohki got some
attention.
Sure Tenchi seemed to take a
backseat to everything happening around him but in a way, Tenchi is us, the
viewer, playing the role of the observer of all these amazing things…and being
at the epicenter of beautiful women fighting for his attention.
Some guys just get all the luck and Tenchi’s
got luck to spare, enough for me to enjoy his first outing even without an
actual ending.
What a guy, no…what a
Legend.
Tenchi Muyo gets an 8/10.
Much like James Bond, Tenchi Masaki will return in
Tenchi
Universe, coming this August to the Gundam Anime Corner.
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