Tenchi Muyo! - Anime's Comedy Standard.

Since the film "Akira" was released, there seems to be a growing interest in Japanese animation which is now more commonly known as ANIME.

This animation form may not be the best because of the commonality among titles of having characters with large eyes and small mouths and the fact that even in the best films/shows, mouth movements only consist of "open" and "closed", but the art that the animation is based on can even surpass the most stunning elements of Disney animated features and more importantly the subject matter is no different than live action films.

The goal of AnimeFlow (my 2002 website that Angelfire still gives life to) is to act as a guide for those who are huge otakus (Japanese term for fans) of anime to what titles they have to see, and to give those who are trying to find great animated entertainment viewing recommendations which may encourage them to give this genre more attention.

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Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki 8/9

Genre: comedy (could be considered romantic/sci-fi) Length: 60 minutes (2 episodes) Audience Age: 12+ (this is not the Cartoon Network version)

Opinion: Great writing, a cool art style, and very neurotic characters...so far so good.

This is a review of the dubbed, out of print VHS version.

This is one of the most popular titles in all of anime spawning multiple spin off series and films.

Anyone who knows anything about anime knows of "Tenchi Muyo!" It is great to know that high-quality Japanimation can crossover into the mainstream since it is now part of Cartoon Network's Toonami line up. Great writing, a cool art style, and very neurotic characters put this series above the Japanese standby situation of a normal guy in an unusual scenario with three or more unstable women. 

Unfortunately, American producers feel any show that is imported from another country must make sacrifices to become mainstream. I will not even tell you where the producers can stick this idea. Tenchi just is not Tenchi without the sake jokes, the brief comedic nudity scenes, and other jokes that are more or less meant for a PG-13 audience, so if you can afford to, buy at least one of the Tenchi Muyo! videos to see how much better it can be when you have a little more open sense of humor.

In the first episode, Tenchi Misaki's, the series hero, cousin needs a babysitter, so our hero's aunt drops little cousin Taro off at the Misaki residence. Hilarious scenes are bound to occur when four alien girls care for someone who is not potty trained. 

The second episode seems to start out well for Tenchi and company as they are invited back to an inn that Ryoko, space pirate and demoness, destroyed a year ago in a battle with Ayeka, princess of planet Jurai. As it turns out, this trip was not meant to be a weekend holiday when the inn keeper hands them all tools to repair the place. 

The past year for this broken down inn must have been a strange one because it now appears to be haunted, and Tenchi's grandfather seems to know why. That is not the weirdest thing about this trip because Sasami seems to be wandering around the inn in a depressed stupor, but what would a 10 year-old princess have to be depressed about?

To explain why this is not a review of episodes 1 and 2 of the Tenchi Muyo! Collection, these are the first two episodes of the second set of OVAs (original video animation) which were added to the original collection. I thought this would be as good a place to start from. That and at the time I purchased this VHS tape, it was the only cassette that contained two episodes.

The two episodes on this tape have stories that go in some what opposite directions from each other, episode eight with the use of a lot of slap stick and episode nine being a little more dramatic by focusing on Sasami's dilemma. Fortunately, great writing for both episodes make it so neither half hour can be considered the weaker one. Another plus about this series is that the character design is probably the best you will see on the Toonami afternoon line up. As long as you watch the Cartoon Network versions of these episodes, Tenchi Muyo can be enjoyed and viewable by anyone which maybe the most important aspect of this series.

Image from the CG Shrines