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by Lisa Klassen |
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Episode 1: "No Need for Discussions!"
Tenchi Masaki, an ordinary adolescent boy, witnesses a crash coming home from high school. Rushing to help, he finds a
girl, Ryoko, unconscious on the ground, whom he tries to revive by splashing water on her face. Waking, she barely has time
to tell Tenchi that a space pirate is pursuing her before the very same pirate comes crashing through the bushes and a
chase ensues. A chink in the pirate's armor, however, opens an avenue for escape, and the two run to Tenchi's home, where
Ryoko enchants Tenchi's father and grandfather, who assume she is Tenchi's fiancée (an error he just can't ever manage to
clear up). Later that night the alleged evil space pirate makes her way to the Tenchi household to reveal herself as inept
Galaxy Police space officer Mihoshi. Ryoko, it turns out, is the true evil space pirate. Peeved, Ryoko throws a scary temper
tantrum. But after all the dust settles, both girls stay as visitors at the Masaki home, formerly a bachelor pad.
Episode 2: "No Need for a Princess!"
Princess Ayeka of the Jurai royal family cruises about the galaxy performing her royal duties when she hears a distress
signal sent by the eternally maudlin Mihoshi. Ayeka lands to rescue Mihoshi only to find her hated childhood rival Ryoko on
the premises. Both girls confuse Tenchi with very different sides of the same story. But it isn't long before the bad blood
that flows between these girls drives them to battle in the sky, despite Mihoshi's earnest pleas to simply leave. Ryoko
somehow conjures up another one of her spaceships for the bellicose occasion, but before Tenchi has time to ponder this
mystery, the clash destroys both spaceships, leaving Ayeka just as stranded as Mihoshi. A third girl takes up residence at
the Masaki home.
Episode 3: "No Need for Worries!"
Tenchi gets caught in a love triangle. While Mihoshi loses herself in her own strange little world, Ryoko and Ayeka
begin a new rivalry over Tenchi. Ryoko claims that she is pregnant with Tenchi's baby (his emphatic denials on this matter
go completely overlooked by everyone). Just as Ryoko had hoped, Ayeka goes berserk with jealousy, although she can't help
doubting the weird, shiny black egg is actually a baby. Ayeka's little sister Sasami arrives in the middle of this to take
her sister home. Eventually, though, both Ayeka and Ryoko eye Sasami suspiciously as she seems to spend an awful lot of time
with Tenchi. Tenchi and Ryoko's supposed baby hatches, and out pops Ryo-Ohki, a cabbit (a cloyingly cute cross between a cat
and a rabbit) that doubles as a spaceship. While this ship is many things, it's definitely not a human baby and the riddle
of Ryoko's spaceship producing abilities suddenly becomes clear. Between Ryo-Ohki's passion for carrots and Ayeka's jealousy
the inevitable happens. Yep, another spaceship crashes. There are now four girls and counting at the Masaki home.
Episode 4: "No Need for Monsters!"
Tenchi's grandfather Matsuhito tells a story about a demon sealed in a cave in the Masaki Shrine. This intrigues Ryoko
who wants to go investigate. But she can't manage to find a companion on this adventure until she ropes Tenchi into going
with her…literally. Jealous Ayeka tracks them down with the aid of Ryo-Ohki's bloodhound-like nose. Mihoshi and Sasami tag
along. Inevitably, the two rivals engage in a jealous fight, which arouses the legendary "demon." The demon turns out to
be Washu, a genius mad scientist exiled on Earth for 700 years. She takes a liking to Tenchi as well and moves into the
basement of the Masaki household. The commune grows with five girls, Tenchi, his father, grandfather and a cabbit/spaceship.
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The "Tenchi Universe Collection" lacks much of the charm of the "Tenchi Muyo" TV show and falls into the same trap as so
many other spin-offs of a TV series - an assumption that the understood premise of the franchise is enough to drive the story.
This assumption leaves scriptwriters Ryge Tsukimura and Yosuke Kuroda's storyline patchy and flimsy, the two raising more
questions than they answer by the close of episode four. One by one, women fall out of the sky and into Tenchi's life, turning
the Masaki household upside down. Tenchi Masaki is at first indignant about the intrusions, then resigned, then...? It's hard
to figure out what he wants as an individual; there is no real indication that he likes ANY of the women, although he has a
soft spot for Ayeka. He's an ineffectual lead, a hapless victim of far more dynamic personalities.
Tenchi spends most of these episodes soothing Ayeka's feelings, trying to stop Mihoshi from crying, fending off the
advances of Ryoko and eating Sasami's food before it gets cold. Ayeka's fondest reoccurring memory of Tenchi involves him
passing her a hot potato, which apparently is the high point of their relationship. The Tenchi Masaki portrayed in this series
demonstrates no hint of his warrior side, and, therefore, provides no reason why so many women are making a fuss over this
sycophantic high school boy in the first place.
These first few episodes have also excised all but a few of the references to ancient Japanese culture that makes the TV
series so interesting for North American audiences. The presence of grandfather hints at Tenchi's awesome heritage, but his
appearances are so brief and poorly explained that it lessens the effect of the cultural richness he offers.
Hiroshi Negishi, director of the hyper-violent "Burn Up W" series, tries his hand at sculpting more romantic plot lines.
With this in mind, "Tenchi Universe" takes an unexpected route: no direct violence, little implied violence, and only subtle
allusions to sex. Gone are the shower screens through which Tenchi's lecherous father tries to peep, the heated catfights that
shape these girls' personalities, and the steamy, tension-tinged atmosphere of the TV series (and damn it, that's too bad).
One of the attractive aspects of a teenage boy living with a group of girls is the sexual tension, and Pioneer has released an
anime a collection in which the sexual tension has become sexual slack.
Though this series has some major flaws, the animation for these episodes flows seamlessly with contrasting colors and
artful backgrounds. The lovely black and white scenes at the start of Episode 4 and the different styles of drawing used in
Masaki Kajishima's character design makes up for the shallow development of characters in these first few episodes.
The flawless dubbing also saves this series. And while the voices of Ryoko and Washu are too much like an older Lucille
Ball to be suitable, the rest of the English voice actors do a fair job of speaking their roles. Hardly surprising,
considering that most of the cast have done voices for all of the Tenchi series and those who haven't are no strangers to
voice acting.
With a story line that banks on suspending reason for long periods of time and comical, mostly disregarded, protests by
Tenchi over Ryoko's insinuations, the series elicits many laughs whether intentional or not. Innocent and non-violent, with
overly saccharine characters, this first installment of "Tenchi Universe" serves up a blander version of its predecessors.
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