Tenchi Muyo!

Reviewed By: Kristy Isla

Geneon DVD

Review based on 1 Disc (episodes 1- 4)

Rating 13+

What it’s (basically) all about: Meet Tenchi, a high school boy who ignored the warning never to go into the shrine in the cave and has now released a demon.  This demon, or space pirate named Ryoko, is a beautiful woman, unfortunately she is wreaking havoc on Tenchi’s life, including blowing up his school.  This isn’t all the trouble Tenchi is in for as the Jurai princess Ayeka and a Galaxy Police Officer named Mihoshi also descend to Earth to capture Ryoko.  These four women bring more trouble to Tenchi’s life than he could have imagined in this fast paced anime.

Nitty Gritty: Tenchi, a high school boy, who works at his family’s shrine, has always been told not to go into the shrine in the cave.  In that shrine is the demon that his ancestor sealed away forever.  This does not stop Tenchi from stealing the keys from his father and sneaking into the Shrine.  Once there he finds the “sword that can cut through rock”, which he finds out that it actually does cut through rock and that opens the seal on the demon Ryoko. 

Ryoko is a beautiful woman, much to Tenchi’s surprise, who actually needs the stones in the sword in order to control her powers.  So she is tied to Tenchi in a strange way.  This leads to many strange and awkward situations including her being asleep in his bed, his father trying to videotape them “together” in order to document the experience, and other adult situations.  However, once Ryoko has been released, the Jurai, a planet, princess comes to capture Ryoko and find her brother, Tenchi, who she was supposed to marry once he captured Ryoko.  Yes, marry her brother.  This also brings the Galaxy Police Officer Mihoshi, another beautiful if not air-headed woman, after Ryoko.

All of these women end up being stranded on Earth, with nowhere else to go except with Tenchi.  So begins a multitude of situations including fighting naked in a hot springs, with full frontal nudity and lots of bloody noses.  There is also an incident when Tenchi’s dad feels up Ryoko as she backs up into him.   The language is pretty much what you would expect, with typical swear words peppered throughout the episodes (no F-bomb here though). There are also a lot of cat-fights as you would expect with four women, and it can actually get pretty violent.

The features on the disc include Bilingual (English & Japanese), subtitles (which follow along pretty closely to what they are saying), Scene access and Previews.  Previews include: Armitage Dual-Matrix, Gate Keepers, Hellsing, The Soul Taker, Fushigi Yugi Eikoden, Vandread the Second Stage and Strawberry Eggs.

Survey says: There is no other place for this anime except in the adult collection.  With the sexual situations and language Tenchi Muyo! is better off here.

Personal Ad: Well, I am not sure if I like this anime or not.  To me this is the stereotypical anime that all the fan boys drool over.  Women with big breasts, plenty of fan service and everything else that people think of when you say anime.  I would have to say that if this was my first experience with anime, I am not sure I would continue on to something else.  Oh, and out of these 4 episodes I could not find one that would be appropriate to show an anime club, unfortunately.  So unless there is a large adult anime audience I can’t find a point to having this in a collection, unless of course the fact that it is one of the most popular older titles.