Tenchi Muyo is a series about a regular highschool boy named Tenchi whose life is turned upside down when he mistakenly frees a demon named Ryoko from his grandfather's shrine. Several other girls follow, including Ayeka, the princess of a planet named Jurai, her little sister Sasami, galaxy police officers Kiyone and Mihoshi, Ryoko's creator Washuu, and several other girls who appear in the movies. As the series develops, its revealed that Tenchi and his grandfather have a mysterious link to royalty on the planet Jurai. This series includes an OAV series which is followed by a TV series as well as three movies.
I fast-forwarded through half the TV series and sat through half the OAV at an anime club meeting -- neither of which I found particularly interesting. Personally, I like the movies a bit better. But only a *little bit* better. First of all, I don't think Tenchi's a strong enough character. Ryoko, Ayeka, and the rest of the girls all seem to be stronger and more interesting than Tenchi himself. Tenchi's the main character, but he plays a relatively static role while the girls are the ones who usually cause all the racket. But then, the term "Tenchi Muyo" translates to "No Need for Tenchi," so I guess I shouldn't have been expecting much anyways. But besides that, I guess Tenchi Muyo's a good-enough show. I mean, I'm not a guy so I probably never completely understand why all my guy friends seem to like it so much, but -- well, none of the characters seem to interest me. I mean, I absolutely love Bubblegum Crisis 2040, but I don't like the characters from Tenchi Muyo nearly as much as those from Bubblegum Crisis.
TV series Rating: PG-13 for mature situations
OAV Rating: PG-16 for mature situations and nudity
Nudity: Quite a bit for OAV's, although almost none for TV series.
Story Line: Not my taste.
Comedy: A lot.
Violence: A bit.
Genre: Sci-fi, comedy, fantasy. Total Rating: 6/10
Because Tenchi Muyo is such a popular series, and not everyone has the same opinions, my friend Gary also did a review on the series. Thanks Gary!
Tenchi Masaki was just an ordinary high school student until a strange woman named Ryoko enters his life. She opens the gate for many other unusual women to enter Tenchi's life, and from there all sorts of crazy things happen! Tenchi is a wonderful romantic comedy that has everything from interesting plot twists to absolutely hilarious situations. However, Tenchi carries with it the burden of the "multiverse", meaning there are many different series consisting of the same basic characters but slightly different plots and character profiles. All of them (with the exception of shin Tenchi, which I haven't seen yet) are just as good as the others and usually the one you start with will be your favorite of the multiverse. Each of the series are great "starter" animes, they show you many of the trademarks of anime without extreme sexual situations or odd anime quirks like popping into Super Deformed mode like in Magic Knights Rayearth. So these can make an easy transition into other animes for the beginner but they are just as funny to the otaku. The only thing that may alienate one that is new to anime is the LARGE amount of characters and tendency to be extremely vague in some places, especially OVA series two. So if you decide to make the commitment and get all the multiveres it may be a good idea to take glance at a Masaki Family Tree and/or an in-depth synopsis to help put together the things they want you to piece together on your own.
This is my favorite series, no matter how many others I see and get into big time for a while; I still end up coming to the Tenchi Series. Its just a good combination of a great story, awesome characters (Ayeka is the Best!) and it takes place in a very cool world which has large trees carved into spaceships by robots and strange powers. Something for the whole family, even though my parents run like I am infested with the plague when I watch it or any anime for that matter. This series gets a 9/10 from me and it only looses that one point because it costs so much to get all of them. ^_^
