Tenchi Muyo in 33 Minutes

Tenchi

As of January 12… 2022,
I’ve seen all there is to consume of the tenchi muyo franchise.
At least the most essential entries that is.
This is all TV series, all 3 movies, the OVAs, and even non tenchi related spin offs that apparently exist in the Tenchi Lexicon.

I know a lot of you guys out there love Tenchi.

You know there’s something to be said about a franchise that still garners enough interest 30 years after it airs to the point where there are still new anime that come out for it every few years.
There’s even more to be said when you think back and almost choke at the fact that it appealed so well,
that it found it’s way onto the most impactful western anime platform of all time..
The cartoon network toonami block.
Smack dab In the middle of DragonBall Z and Sailor Moon.

A lot of it has to do with the art and animation being ahead of it’s time, a lot of it had to do with the fantasy action elements, the absolutely astounding soundtrack; character designs,
but of course the main reason we all love tenchi is cause of it’s character personalities and how they perfectly nailed the dynamic of interaction between all of them.
And of course..
Seeing this little dude have all these women thirsting for him.

There are so many different variations of the tenchi series, and they have transcended multiple eras of anime.
But which one’s are worth watching?

Per usual, we’ll look over the entire history of tenchi,
The good,
The bad,
The blasphemous,
And I decided only to spend elapsed time on the main heavy hitters from the series that most people wonder if they’re worth tossing on the planned to watch list.

Hopefully this video doesn’t go on,
Too long but if it does…
Then watch some of it now and watch the rest when you get a chance.



1992

The foundation for tenchi muyo is different from many other franchises we get into, where it started from a manga or light novel.
We jump right into the cream of the crop off rip with the release of Tenchi Muyo - Ryo Ohki from September 25, 1992 – March 25, 1993 spanning 6 OVA episodes.

Before i continue; there’s a few different pathways one can take to get into tenchi.
All series pretty much stand alone on their own so you can watch anything randomly, or the release order, but then there is technically a timeline of the universe, the chronological order.
I chose to work my way through this in release order.

Anyways yeah this masterpiece The first OVA is literally a perfect gumbo of everything an anime fan loves.
Slice of life, romance, harem, Action, and even a hint of adventure.
One of tenchi’s ancestors stored a demon away many moons ago with a sword, yeah yeah we heard this before.
This demon is sealed in a cave somewhere in the woods where Tenchi and his grandfather live, and a mysterious Tenchi sneaks over there against gramps orders to fulfill his curiosity.

(Sword scene)
You know from a lifetime of watching anime; cartoons and other dopamine stroking fiction..
I can confidentally tell you that it’s never a great idea to withdraw a strange sword from where it’s been lunged.

Alright well sometimes it works out.

This then releases a millennium old demon, the sexy ryoko, and things progress towards the climactic final battle with kagato.


This OVA right here from AIC is the sole reason why most people are Tenchi fans.
It looks amazing even 30 years later, it didn’t overdo it with the harem, The soundtrack is absolute perfection, it’s a well balanced, and strongly executed production.
The only problem with it is that technically the 7th episode is a standalone ova called the night before the carnival, but it nibbled off the heels of the previous episode and often is promoted as apart of the the ryo ohki first OVA.
It kinda kills the continuity, cause after the battle it regresses things back to the house with all the women fighting for tenchi and not much going on on the action side.
Still a very strong episode.


After this There was a rare laser disc only picture drama called Tenchi Muyou! Ryououki: Heianmuyo! Picture Drama – 10 minutes.
Tenchically it came before the last episode of the first OVA, but who really is gonna stop that, to peep this.
Really you don’t need to watch it, but as a completionist, I couldn’t help myself
   • Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Oh-ki: Heianmuyo! [R...