Tenchi Universe, Tenchi In Tokyo, and the films all take place in alternate canons and weren’t created by the original series mastermind Masaki Kajishima yet they’re all decidedly worth watching if outdated alien harem shows are your thing anyway. If any of the post-millennium Tenchi spin-offs and entries were worth writing home about I wouldn’t be so negative in tone. On the flip side to my ‘this is too different and unrecognizable as Tenchi Muyo thus it’s alienating whether it’s good or bad’, you wouldn’t just want more of the same either.
Look, I’m not saying shows and story-tellers can’t change as they go on. Nothing about this is recognizable as the weird light-hearted not-quite a space opera series that we grew up with. He got his own show earlier this decade in the, and I’m laughing as I type this, Tenchi Isekai spin off Tenchi Muyo! War On Geminar. Finally on the left? Some new character that I’m sure we’re all just excited to get to know. The bottom? Kenshi Masaki, half brother of Tenchi, who didn’t exist during the show’s golden era. On the right, you have Kiriko Masaki, one of the leads in the Tenchi Muyo! GXP spin-off. As you can plainly see, none of those characters are pictured above. Is anything about this recognizable as Tenchi? Toonami flooded its fan-base with Tenchi material over the years with the first two OVAs, Tenchi Universe, and Tenchi In Tokyo. Despite all three having different stories and canons, you always had your bumbling do-gooder Tenchi, your obnoxious space pirate Ryoko, and the notoriously uptight Princess Ayeka. That’s the biggest promo image AIC, the studio behind the Tenchi Muyo franchise, associated with the new OVA. Why aren’t we excited? Well that’s the whole point of the article, isn’t it? Look at the image above. The latest in the franchise is another mainline title, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA 5 which is set to start coming out early next year Despite it being a core canon offering, unfortunately, we’re not the least bit excited.
More than one magical girl spin-off, multiple canons with its mainline series having all sorts of novels, doujinshi, and other supplementary material fleshing out its universe, and even two films that on their own really hold up as some prime 90s anime cuts. Yes, those who dropped off after Tenchi In Tokyo when Toonami originally fell by the wayside might be surprised to hear that the series has continued on and off to this day. So much so that the franchise has actually spawned about a dozen series and a handful of films over the years. No, it was and always will be baby’s first harem anime and arguably it’s the most quintessential of them all. However, it’d be a mistake to assume that these science fiction elements were why people liked Tenchi. That’s probably why the powers that be originally sought out the Tenchi franchise with its uncommon mix of traditional Japanese culture and its own vast sci-fi lore. If you original discovered anime during the halcyon Toonami days you might remember a little show called Tenchi Muyo. It was a bit of an oddball sandwiched in amongst shonen giants like Dragon Ball Z, Inuyasha, and Rurouni Kenshin. Toonami always did have sci-fi representation though too though In addition to its own branding, shows like Gundam Wing and The Big O were mainstays of anime’s most famous after-school broadcast block.