Where to Even Start with "Tenchi Muyo!?"
Note:
This was originally written and posted on DeviantART on Wednesday October 5, 2022. I know I said in my JJ McCullough Frutiger Aero response that I was going to try to post my Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen review sometime this month. I even rewatched the movie specifically for the occasion. But, I really felt like posting my Tenchi Muyo! review first. Okay, it's not a review, it's more of a discussion about the franchise, and how to get into it. Like, where do you even start with it? There some franchises that are so big, that so expansive, and have so many different installments that it can be kind of intimidating to get into if you weren't already watching them from the beginning. Like, I imagine for people who have never seen Star Wars into their entire lives (I'm not sure how that's possible, but they're out there), and they want to get into it. They wouldn't know where to begin because Star Wars is so big, there's so much Star Wars media out there that you don't know where to start.
For me, a lot of anime franchises are like that. I mention One Piece π΄☠️ because that's one of the prime example for me because One Piece π΄☠️ is one of, if not, the longest running anime and manga series of all time. There are no only so many seasons and episodes of the anime, and countless volumes of the manga, but there also movies as well. At least, two or three of them recently were released theatrically. And of course, there's also countless video games. And it's an on-going story with continuity that you have to keep track of, and you have to start from the beginning to understand what's going on in the newer stuff.
It's just way too much, and I've avoided One Piece π΄☠️ for that reason. I'm not ready to invest that much time into watching One Piece π΄☠️, and getting caught up with it the older seasons to be able to watch the new stuff. If One Piece π΄☠️ was an episodic show with no continuity like SpongeBob 𧽠or even The Simpsons, this wouldn't be as big of an issue. But because it isn't and because it more serialized and does have continuity, it's a huge problem. You have to start all the way at the beginning to get the whole story, and it'll probably take you months or even years to get the more recent stuff.
I'm not willing to do that with One Piece π΄☠️, not just because I value my time, but also because I don't find the plot of One Piece π΄☠️ particularly interesting or intriguing. From what I've heard about the plot and the characters, it doesn't seem very enticing to me. It deals with pirates π΄☠️, and it's about a boy ♂︎ who wants to become the "king of the pirates π΄☠️π," but never does because this show and manga just goes on forever and everyone stays the same age. That's not interesting to me.
It sounds like a way less interesting version of the story of the original Pirates of the Caribbean π΄☠️ trilogy. The third movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End π΄☠️ ends with Elizabeth (Keira Knightly's character) basically becomes the queen of the pirates π΄☠️, even though I don't actually think they call it that. Basically, in At World's End, they reveal that the pirates π΄☠️ have this whole secret society, and a person can become the leader of all the pirates π΄☠️ in the world, and that's what Elizabeth becomes.
Why would I want to watch a similar story, but with a boy ♂︎ with an obnoxious voice, and probably obnoxious personality, and all animed out? I also avoided the recent live action series on Netflix for much the same reason, and also because the live action series just looked kind of bad in its own right. But, even if it's not, and it's actually good for the fans and faithful to the series, I'm still not interested because I have no interest in One Piece π΄☠️ at all.
Of course, it isn't just One Piece π΄☠️ either. There are other anime/manga franchises that are so big that they're kind of unwelcoming to newcomers. Dragonball is another one for me. I've never been able to get into Dragonball in my entire life despite almost every male anime fan ♂︎ I've seen online being fans of it, and seeing memes and references to it all over the Internet. Goku is one of the most iconic characters, not just in anime, but in all of pop culture. He's often in discussions of who's the strongest or who's the most powerful fictional character.
People often to pit him up against Superman, and debate on which one of them would win a fight. And of course, Dragonball: Evolution is not just considered one of the worst live action anime adaptations, but considered one of the worst movies ever made. The backlash against that movie was immense, and expanded beyond the Dragonball fanbase. Most of the review I've seen of Dragonball: Evolution have been by people who are not even Dragonball fans themselves, but people just like watching bad movies and making fun of them.
And yet, despite all that. Despite how popular Dragonball is, it's just never done it for me. It's never appealed to me, or grabbed my attention in any meaningful way. Part of that is my general disinterest in the plot, and the characters, and the overall lore and mythology, but also because how big the franchise is as a whole. You don't just have the anime and the manga, you also have the movies, and the video games. There's just so much stuff, and a lot of it is canon is necessary for you to watch or play to get the full story. It kinds limits the franchise's appeal, and drives away any potential newcomer.
Naruto is another one of those anime/manga series I've never been able to get into despite how popular it is. On the beloved Cartoon Network (and now Adult Swim) block, Toonami, it even claimed Dragonball Z's title as the "greatest action cartoon on TV." My older sister used to watch it. She had the head bands, and had a crush on Sasuke π. But, I have never got into it. I just don't care for the premise, I don't care for any of the characters, and so I'm just avoided it all this time. Even, with the sequel spin-off series, Boruto: The Next Generation, I still have no desire to get into Naruto. There's also so much other media too, so many movies, and video games, that you just lose interest and don't even want to bother touching any of it. It just becomes amorphous sludge that you don't care about at all.
PokΓ©mon is another one. It's the biggest franchise in the world by some metrics, and it so expansive and had so many different kinds of media that it's a bit intimidating, and you don't know where to start. The anime was one of the longest running anime shows of all time, only being surpassed by One Piece π΄☠️, and they just barely ended the Ash Ketchem story recently. Ash is no longer the main focus of the anime anymore. Instead, they created a new series with a new protagonist.
But, with PokΓ©mon, it's a little bit easier to get into than One Piece π΄☠️ or Dragonball because it isn't all a single on-going story, it's a collection of different stories, and there isn't that much continuity between them. They all kind of exist in their own separate continuities. The PokΓ©Park games for example have nothing to do with the anime, or the Ash Ketchem story, as there are no humans in those games at all, just the PokΓ©mon themselves. Same goes for Detective Pikachu, both the games and the movie, even though Detective Pikachu does have human characters, unlike PokΓ©Park Wii: Pikachu's Adventure or PokΓ©Park 2: Wonders Beyond, which have no human characters at all and only have PokΓ©mon characters. And speaking of games, PokΓ©mon started as a video game franchise and then expanded to anime, manga, and movies. So, you can easily just play the games, and not even bother with the anime, manga, or movies.
I'm sure some people have felt the same about Inuyasha as well, but while that show is indeed long, it's not so long that it's time consuming, and you feel like you're wasting your time watching it. It's long enough to have to be a sprawling epic, but not long enough to take you an eternity to come. You can finish the whole series in a month, or two months at most if you're a slow watcher or a particularly busy person. Plus, while Inuyasha is a multimedia franchise with a lot of different stuff, it doesn't have as much stuff as either One Piece π΄☠️ or Dragonball. And most ancillary material is non-canon, so you don't have to play it to understand the story. Even with the Inuyasha movies, even though they are canon, you don't really have to watch them. They aren't required viewing to understand the overall story, and you can easily just skip them, and just watch the main series.
Even with a show like Gintama, which is like a parody or a spoof of ShΕnen anime like One Piece π΄☠️, like Dragonball, like Naruto, that show went gone on for so long that you almost don't even want to watch it. It just barely ended a couple of years ago, it had its series finale in the form of a movie that got a limited theatrical release and was released on Blu-Ray πΏ. It also has continuity, and has an overarching story. So, you do have to kind of watch the entire show from the very beginning, and I'm just unwilling to do that, even if I did think Gintama sounded interesting. I have seen clips from Gintama, and it does seem like a really funny show. It is primarily a comedy as it pokes fun at ShΕnen anime tropes at every turn, every chance it gets.
And for me, Tenchi Muyo! was one of those. Not because it's overly long and goes on forever, but because there's so much stuff. It's a very fragmented franchise, meaning that there isn't a single series, or a single continuity. Most of this franchise is made up of fairly disconnected OVAs that exist in their own continuities. There is a full TV animated series called Tenchi Universe, which was the iteration that aired on Toonami. But, from what I understand, Tenchi Universe isn't actually canon to the main story, and again exists in its own continuity disconnected from everything else. It's like an alternate take on the original OVA, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki.
So, when you try to get into it, you don't know where to really start because there really isn't a definitive Tenchi Muyo! series or OVA to watch to really get a good idea of what it is, and what it's all about. Even when it was aired on Toonami, I don't even think used a single series for the entire run, they used bits and pieces from different OVAs, and made it seem like it was single series, even though it wasn't.
But, I wrote this because I had Tenchi Muyo! on my mind at the time, and I decided to post it here on the blog now because I started thinking about it again when I was scrolling my DeviantART journals trying to find ones to repost on here. It just sounded interesting to me. It is a harem anime yes, but it is a ShΕnen anime since the harem genre is an anime/manga genre that mainly appeals to men ♂︎. Of course it does, harem anime shows are always about a single boy or man ♂︎ who's surrounded by a bunch of hot women ♀︎ who all like him, and fight over him.
That's kind of a fantasy for a lot of guys ♂︎ (a lot of straight guys ⚤♂︎ specifically) out there to have a bunch of attractive ladies ♀︎ being into you, and vying your affection, and even fighting over you. You just have so many to choose from to be your girlfriend, or you can just string them all along, and enjoy all of their affection at once rather just settling on one girl ♀︎. Male anime fans ♂︎ gravitate towards the harem genre because of the waifu factor, and because they can project themselves onto the protagonist and imagine it's them with all these girls ♀︎ in love with them π.
But, I wasn't interested in Tenchi Muyo! for the harem stuff, in fact, the harem stuff was and is the least interesting thing about it to me. In fact, it's a bit weird and creepy in this instance because one of the girls ♀︎ involved in the harem and who are in love with Tenchi, is really young like prepubescent. And yet, she's talking about wanting to marry Tenchi, a boy ♂︎ that's way older than her π£. No, I was interested in it because it was a sci-fi anime because it had space opera elements. There's a straight lightsaber in one of the OVAs, like Tenchi wields a laser sword weapon that looks a lot like a lightsaber. There was just other stuff going on besides just the harem stuff.
I think that's kind of the key to making me interested in a harem anime. There's got to be other stuff going on besides just the harem stuff, and all the romantic interactions π₯°. Just pure romcom stuff or fan service doesn't really do it for me in an anime show, there's got to be more to it than that. And unfortunately, most harem anime don't do that. They don't have other stuff going on, and the harem aspect is the only point, and the harem stuff is only there for fan service, to sexualize the female characters ♀︎ and please the horny guys ♂︎π watching. Just show some tits or ass, and some guys ♂︎ are satisfied, that's enough for them, but it isn't for me. But, Tenchi Muyo! seems like one of the harem anime that actually does have more of a story besides just a generic boring guy hanging with a bunch of girls ♀︎ who all inexplicably have the hots for him π and are all trying to win his affection. On top of that's sci-fi, which is my favorite genre. It kind of looks like it has a similar tone and style as Outlaw Star, which is a show I really like.
The old Toonami promos made it look pretty epic and cool. Like, they made it look like Star Wars or Outlaw Star type of show with lot of action, and cool sci-fi flourishes, some cool weapons and technology. They really downplayed the harem elements in these promos, like they made it seem like a very minor part of the show, which boosted my interest. Though, these promos might be misleading with that and the harem stuff makes up the majority of the show, I don't know. I mean, the promo for Outlaw Star completely misrepresented the show, and gave the wrong impression of what it was actually about.
They made it seem more like this be or be killed type of show where everyone was in it for themselves, and was trying to get by to survive. And while they convey the basic outline of the story of the show in that promo, they kind of made it seem like Gene Starwind stole the Outlaw Star, and is using for his own purposes to be an outlaw and commit crime. But, no, that's not really happen. Gene is basically given the Outlaw Star by Hilda, who is the person who actually found it, and after she dies, he takes command of it and goes after the Galactic Leyline, which is the mission that Hilda kind of set out for him.
So, he's kind of just doing what Hilda told him to, and doing what Hilda intended to do in the first place. They also said in the promo that the Outlaw Star was a "living starship," implying that it might be alive, and perhaps even biomechanical. But, it's not. It's just controlled by an AI called Gilliam, and I'm sure most people would not consider an AI to be a living thing. It's certainly not enough to make the Outlaw Star a "living starship." Tenchi Muyo! was the one that had a living starship, like one of the characters has a starship that's a living thing. It starts out as a cute alien animal (a cute mascot character as is typical in an anime franchise like this) and then it turns into a starship. It's pretty unique, I haven't seen any other piece of science fiction (anime or otherwise) that has a living creature that turns into a spaceship, that's really cool and interesting.
So, Toonami promos can be quite misleading, and kind of false advertising, and that might be the case with the promos for Tenchi Muyo!, but I'm holding out hope that it is, and Tenchi Muyo! isn't a pure harem anime, that is an action anime and there is more of a story to it than just guy ♂︎ hangs out with a bunch of girls ♀︎ who he likes and all like him back, and he has to choose one of them to be his girlfriend. Since revisiting this topic, and reposting this on here, I am kind of interested in the idea of doing a harem anime, but here in America πΊπΈ. A harem cartoon if you will, and see how you could do that. How would adapt that genre for an American audience πΊπΈ? It would something interesting and funny to try, and see if it works out.
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When it comes to Tenchi Muyo! I really don't where to start. I want to get into it, but there's just so much media of Tenchi Muyo! out there, that it's kind of hard to figure what's a good place to start. It's kind of intimidating. I mean, there's OVAs, anime series, movies, manga, and even video games if I'm not mistaken.
On top that, I don't know what's canon and what isn't canon, like where does all this fit into the wider continuity? I watched the two-part video about Tenchi Muyo! that was put out by the anime fact/trivia channel, Did You Know Anime, and I get the sense that there isn't any sort of wider continuity to any of the Tenchi Muyo! media out there. They all seem to be self contained, and they do often contradict each other in terms of continuity.
So, that too makes it difficult to discern where to actually start with this particular franchise, besides the sheer amount of it. A lot of other anime and manga properties are like that too where there's just so much of it that you feel overwhelmed and you don't where to start if you're a newcomer, and Tenchi Muyo! is certainly one of them.
I mean, I've avoided One Piece π΄☠️ altogether because it's the longest-running anime and manga series of all time, or one of the longest, and it's all one continuous story that you have to watch from the very beginning to even remotely understand what's going on. But, it's gone on for so long, there are so many episodes, and there seems to be no actual end in sight, that it's not even worth watching. At least with other long-running animated TV shows like The Simpsons and SpongeBob π§½, those are episodic shows that you can just watch any episode out of order at any time, and there is no overarching story or continuity that you have to keep track of.
But, imagine you have a show that's as long and as seemingly endless as The Simpsons or SpongeBob π§½, but there's also an overarching storyline and there's continuity from episode-to-episode that you need to keep track of, and you basically have One Piece π΄☠️. Plus, add all of those movies and video games that they made of One Piece π΄☠️, and you have something that is completely unapproachable to a newcomer. And for me at least, it's not worth it, it's just not worth it, so One Piece π΄☠️ is one anime and manga franchise that I'm fine with passing on.
Anyway, besides the sheer volume of Tenchi Muyo! media out there, it does look cool and is something I want to try to get into. It actually looks like a harem anime that I might actually like. Mostly because of all the sci-fi elements, like there's spaceships, space travels, there's highly advanced technology, and what appears to be a laser sword. When I originally saw the old Toonami promo for Tenchi Muyo!, I was surprised to see the main character, Tenchi wield a laser sword.
Most other sci-fi or science fantasy shows, movies, books, and video games are hesitant to have laser swords because they don't want to be compared to Star Wars with the lightsaber. Star Wars made it pretty much impossible for any other sci-fi or science fantasy property to have a laser sword in them without people instantly comparing it to a lightsaber. Like, if you put a laser sword in your movie, show, video game, or book, people will think you're copying Star Wars or they'll make Star Wars jokes and references.
So, I was initially surprised to see a laser sword in Tenchi Muyo! when I saw that Toonami promo from back in the day. Unless it isn't a laser sword at all, and I was just mistaken. If it's not, please let me know. And all of the girls ♀︎ that are competing with each other for Tenchi's affection π₯° in this franchise, like the main ones, are all aliens π½, or at least most of them are. I think one or two of them might be humans, but I really don't know. I haven't watched any Tenchi Muyo! stuff, but I really would like to watch some to find out. Which brings me to the reason I even wrote this journal, if you're a Tenchi Muyo! fan and you're reading this, what is a good place to start for a newcomer like myself? Give me your answer in the comments below π, if you can.
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But, yeah, it's so bizarre to me that Sasami got three different spin-offs during this franchise's run. Was she really that popular of a character that people wanted to see her in her own OVA and own TV show? She doesn't seem like that popular of a character here in the States πΊπΈ, but maybe in Japan π―π΅ she is. Sometimes, I don't understand the tastes of Japanese people π―π΅ π↔️. BTW, if you're still confused on who Sasami is, she's the little girl ♀︎ with the long blue pigtails and red eyes, and is seemingly the youngest. She was apart of the harem, and has a crush on Tenchi π just like the other female characters ♀︎, and talks about wanting to marry him π. Which is kind of creepy to me. If Sasami really isn't that young, and is actually immortal and thousands of years old or whatever, why make her look so young? This all feels wrong to me, this character and the scenarios they put her in the main Tenchi Muyo! stuff seems very weird to me and I don't like it π£.
Also, why make her a magical girl ♀︎? It doesn't really seem like it fits the universe that the Tenchi OVAs established, or the overall tone of the Tenchi franchise. And was that really the only thing they could think of for her? Make her a magical girl ♀︎? Because "Hey, she's a girl ♀︎, and girls ♀︎ like magical girls ♀︎, so let's make her a magical girl ♀︎." That is the most stereotypical thing that I could think of. Like, if an anime has a female lead ♀︎, it has to be a magical girl ♀︎ type show? Come on π. At least Magical Girl Spec Ops Asuka did something new and unique with the genre, and played around with the tropes a little bit.
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