Archen's Tenchi Muyo Page


You could say that Tenchi led an ordinary life... Even if his dad is a pervert, and there is that mysterious cave that according to legend, held an ancient demon captive. But one day Tenchi did get into that cave, and found out that the legend was true! Of course soon after, Tenchi's life changed quite a bit. It didn't seem long at all, before that demon he found in the cave fell in love with him, and was pawing at his door like a cat to get into his room. And there is her mother, who not only is the greatest genius in the galaxy, but would also like to play doctor with Tenchi. That combined with the two princesses from another planet, and the klutziest detective in the galaxy police, all of whom also have a fondness for Tenchi. And of course you can't forget the space battleship, which wears the form of a small creature that likes carrots. If simply meeting these people wouldn't be enough to make Tenchi's life abnormal, living with them certainly would be.



Out of the entire Tenchi series, I don't think any of the plots ever lived up to the unusual intricacy of the original Tenchi OAV. The strange relations between characters, and the way everything fits together makes for a thoroughly interesting story. It's the strangeness of the oav which continues to make it my favorite. I'm not saying that the OAV is the best Tenchi series, since that's mainly based off of opinion anyhow, but the first Tenchi series still has the most intricate plot. For the TV series, it seems that a lot of things were simplified which to some extent dismayed me. For those who haven't seen any Tenchi whatsoever, I'd recommend checking out the OAV first. Hey, this is the series that started it everything after all.

The first series of OAV's mainly covers the introduction of characters, along with small side stories. Episode 1 - The demon Ryoko gets revived and she chaises Tenchi around his school. Episode 2 - Aeka arrives, and she chaises Ryoko (and Tenchi) around in space. Episode 3 - Everyone goes to the hot springs for a relaxing bath... but of course nothing is relaxing with Ryoko and Aeka around. Luckily Mihoshi saves the day!... eh.... sort of. Episode 5 - Everything seems normal, until the arrival of Ryoko's old master Kageto, who is bent on getting the secrets of Jurai. Kageto kidnaps Ryoko, and awaits Tenchi's challenge. Episode 6 - Ryoko manages to escape and challenge Kageto to no avail. Aeka isn't powerful enough, and Mihoshi is stuck in another dimension with the genius Washu. Even the power of Tsunami doesn't seem to be able to help much. Only Tenchi can save the day. The first OAV special is... well an odds and end collection of events, but of course you wouldn't want to miss nurse Washu playing doctor on Tenchi!

The second OAV series is where things really start to get interesting. More weird plots, more weird adventures, more Tenchi! Episode 8 - The Tenchi gang have adventures in babysitting. Episode 9 - We learn of the special relationship between Tsunami and Sasami. Episode 10 - poor Ryo-oki just wants to help. Unfortunately everything goes into chaos, when a blob intent on helping Tenchi might blow him up! Episode 11 - strange things are amiss, and Washu's old enemy Dr. Clay is going to kidnap her. So a Ryoko clone takes Ryoko's place. But that's such inappropriate behavior for a clone! Episode 12 - Everyone's off to rescue Ryoko again, but this time Washu has a score to settle. Episode 13 - Aieee!! It's Aeka's family come to visit!

Special Note:
Make sure you watch the end of Here comes Jurai. There's actually a second part on the tape. You won't want to miss Washu's experiment on Ryoko.


Episode Listing for OAV
  1. The Revival of Ryoko
  2. Aeka Arrives
  3. Hello! Ryo-oh-ki
  4. Mihoshi Falls From the Stars
  5. Kagato Attacks!
  6. We Need Tenchi
  7. Night Before the Carnival (Special)
  8. Hello Baby
  9. Sasami and Tsunami
  10. I Love Tenchi
  11. The Advent of the Goddess
  12. Zero Ryouko
  13. Here Comes Jurai
    Mihoshi Special

The Tenchi OAV (and all other Tenchi series for that matter), are released by Pioneer. Currently the individual OAV episodes are discontinued (but still available on LD). Instead the series was re-released as the Tenchi Muyo Collection. This new release has the same OAV episodes, but there are two episodes per tape, which is a better deal. An hour of Tenchi per tape is certainly a better than buying one half an hour episode per tape (which adds up damn fast!).

Unfortunately Pioneer prices the English dub at $20, while the Subtitled version is $25! This continued discrimination against subtitles pisses me off to no end, yet I still rented the dub. If it had come down to me buying Tenchi... I probably would have just skipped it, since this pricing scheme is VERY unfair (even though so many companies do it), and I refuse to support it.

Overall the dub wasn't bad. Pioneer seems to go all the way with dubbing which is not always a good thing... I think dubbing songs is quite often a mistake since usually only second rate singers are hired to do the songs. Oddly enough, the second series intro ‘Pioneer' actually didn't sound that bad! And as a final note I'd like to thank Pioneer for no stupid previews at the beginning of tapes. Your pricing may suck, but at least you do something right.



Tenchi Main
Masaki Family Tree
Anime Page

© 1999 archen@scythe.net