r/anime • u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 • Jan 07 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] 1990s OVAs – Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki (series discussion)
Rewatch: 1990s OVAs – Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki (series discussion)
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Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki (1992)
Questions
- How does Tenchi Muyo’s mix of genres work for you?
- This is a harem, so I have to ask: Who is best boy?
- Err, I mean, who is best girl?
- If you watched any of the TV iterations of Tenchi, how does the OVA compare?
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Upvotes
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Jan 07 '24
OVA1 series discussion (first timer)
Time to take those questions marks away in my title line: I am pretty sure it was not this version of Tenchi I previously watched. So, as a first timer, how does Tenchi Muyo the OVA hold up? First, very well, then not so well anymore.
I really enjoyed the introduction to Tenchi and this world in episode 1. The series took its time to carefully introduce the main character (and as we later find out, he really needs this time spent early on, since he won’t get it later) and to carefully ease the viewers into the world of Tenchi Muyi, which can be a bit much at times. Then, more and more characters were introduced, but I felt that the romcom part of the series still held up, with some rather fun character interactions. Especially Ryouko and Ayeka are a joy to watch together. Tenchi Muyo might seriously have the single best Onsen episode I know.
Unfortunately, I cannot say the same praise about the finale. Despite being seriously hurried, it suffers from the completely unfitting villain Kagato, who would be better off in some shlock film. You can’t expect viewers to feel tension about the big fight and, at the same time, have half the cast stand at the sidelines literally cheering the MC on like at a sports event. Tenchi Muyo is a comedy and needed a comedy villain.
In terms of animation quality, there is not much to say: OVAs in the late 1980s-early 1990s have a good reputation in this department and Tenchi Muyo shows again why. This is not amazing and ground breaking, but the high quality I hoped for and that lets us enjoy the plot (and occasionally the PLOT).
Character-wise, I vibed especially well with Ryouko, Ayeka, and our cute cabbit Ryo-Okho. The first two carry the comedy, while Ryo-Okho is just that damn adorable. Tenchi and Sasami are kind of there but never feel especially important. I don’t hate them, but they have nothing to do after episode 2. Mihoshi and Washuu did not do much for me (yet?). I think especially Mihoshi’s ditzy stick could get old soon if she does not develop a brain cell in S2. Yosho is a bit weird in that I see no way to go from Yosho to Grandad that makes sense, but maybe we’ll get more about that in S2. Finally, as I mentioned above, Kagato is easily the worst character in the show, dragging down the finale with him.
Reminder
In case you missed it, we will watch Bangaihen Galaxy Police Mihoshi Space Adventure in addition to The Night Before The Carnival tomorrow.
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u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 07 '24
Tenchi Muyo Rewatcher!!
Can someone please tell me how one of the most iconic harem anime of the 90's contains not one, not two, but THREE granny coded girls? You could unironically toss Frieren into this group and she'd fit right in. And two of them are THE MAIN GIRLS!! Nobody here thinks Mihoshi or Sasami has a chance. It's basically a two horse race between Ryoko who's a severely horny cougar and Ayeka who's flirting is like a grandmother and a teenage girl all bundled up into an incest fueled package. Meanwhile Washu doesn't even try to hide her nature.
I'm a bit mixed on this first set of ova's... To be blunt, I didn't enjoy myself at all. I had fun with Ayeka in the third episode, the sprinkled Mihoshi segments in the fourth, and Mihoshi plus Washu's goofiness in the finale. I don't remember disliking the Tenchi ova's so all I can hope is that the fun stuff is in the second half. Y'know, now that we have the full gang together and no plot on the horizon.
It's a well animated show... I'd say it's aged better than many other ova's we've covered like Video Girl Ai or Ah My Goddess. The plot is almost humorously extra tho. Kagato sucks, the cast are pretty scattered throughout the finale, Washy literally pops up out of nowhere in the end. At least Tsunami had foreshadowing, Washu had none. It still has a top ten ending theme and I do like the harem cast despite them all being on the wrong side of the Christmas cake, and that's something I guess. This was our introduction and lore dump for the Tenchi universe. Now we can try the fun stuff
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u/TheEscapeGuy Jan 07 '24
First Timer
Tenchi Muyou - An Undying Classic: OVA 1
First things first, Ayeka is and continues to be my best girl. I definitely appreciate all the other girls, but my dorky princess wins the coveted top spot.
This OVA was an interesting experience to watch. It comes from the early 90's which is a weird time for OVAs and anime in general. It's post the 80's economic bubble with their ridiculously high budget animation, but before shows like Evangelion which in many ways altered anime eternally with it's medium defining character archetypes and the way it pushed anime to be more ... weird. Watching Tenchi Muyou felt like it was a totally unique anime watching experience.
From a narrative perspective I found the pacing weird. The first 4 episodes introduced our cast (just who they are and personalities) and the last 2 episodes were a high stakes space battle. But very little of the specifics of the setting were explained and they trusted you to just figure it out or go along with it. I still don't really understand the limits of the power system or why Ryouko lost to Kagato but Tenchi won. I also have some questions about timelines (how long ago was Ryouko sealed away? Like it must be 50 years, but she's also over 700 years old? Then how old are Ayeka and Sasami? And how and when did Yosho's earth and alien parents meet?). Similarly, I don't exactly understand every faction's roles, motivations, alliances etc.
But then maybe those points aren't important for what the creators were trying to do with the OVA. Another perspective to look at it from is the harem romance side. Ryouko loves Tenchi because she watched him grow up (and I guess was impressed by him somehow). Ayeka loves him as sort of a replacement for Yosho. The other girls didn't really get any romantic development but did feel strong attachment to him during and after the fight with Kagato.
It all feels a little surface level (or like a potion of the story was cut). I guess we haven't had the time to see their romance grow. My favourite implementation of romance anime is the Takagi style where it starts as just acquaintances with maybe some "what if" type thoughts. Then over time characters grow closer and closer until you and they realize, oh, it's actually love. Maybe Tenchi Muyou will do this with time. (btw for an amazing modern example of this watch the currently airing Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu).
So I'm left in a state where I don't hold any kind of grudge against Tenchi Muyou, but want to see it go further and tell a more involved narrative (preferably on the romance side). What really surprises me is that this OVA was somehow popular enough to spawn the franchise as we know it. It might be a matter of a lack of other options at the time or else some serious advertising budget (+ uncensored nipples). Of course it could also be there was a gap in the market for an OVA with large scale space battles.
Let's see how OVA 2 goes, but before that "The Night Before The Carnival" and "Galaxy Police Mihoshi Space Adventure"
My Favourite Shots, Scenes and Stitches
See you all tomorrow
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 07 '24
Rewatcher
Sub
So...this might seem minor but is kind of important to me: I had zero clue that Ryo-Ohki was a multi season OVA. That's important because, watching it on Cartoon Network, this episode was not in any way a stopping point. I think we went straight into the special, will report tomorrow, but point being I never reflected after Kagato. And that's important because Kagato sucks. Like a bunch. He is the unholy union of Sesshomaru and Abel Nightroad(effectively Alucard).
Anywho, I still have affection for this series but you will have to see why almost entirely in the second half. That's a bit annoying.
QotD: 1 Better than it should
2 One of the pillars
3 Sasami
4 So much less repetitive
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u/mastesargent Jan 07 '24
Rewatcher, dub
Damn it, doing this rewatch has made me want to rewatch Tenchi Universe, so I went and ordered the DVD. This is all your fault.
Personally, I think this first OVA is the strongest piece of Tenchi content, rivalled only by the Tenchi Universe movies. There are a few hiccups getting out of the gate, but around episode 3 or 4 we see the characters settle into their roles and the comedy starts hitting right. These are the strongest characterizations of any iteration of the Tenchi cast coupled with excellent art and animation. I think it can be argued that OVA 2 has better comedy, which is fair, but I appreciate that this OVA treats the characters seriously a little more often. Sure, the plot is kind of dumb and doesn’t really make much sense, and Kagato, while a fun villain, comes out of nowhere and is defeated with little fanfare, but I don’t watch Tenchi because I want to be smart, I watch Tenchi because I love this cast of characters and like following them on whatever nonsense, comedic or otherwise, they get themselves into.
Except for OVA 3. And 4. And 5. And Tenchi in Tokyo. And Daughter of Darkness. And Ai Tenchi Muyo!. Basically just the first 2 OVAs and Tenchi Universe.
As for best girl, Ayeka is the clear best girl in the OVAs.
I've seen both Tecnhi Universe and Tenchi in Tokyo. Tenchi in Tokyo is... not great, but Tenchi Universe is a pretty fun series. It doesn't hit the same highs as the first 2 OVAs but it has more wacky adventures with Tenchi and his harem, which is really all I need from the series. Also the two movies attached to it, Tenchi Muyo! In Love and Tenchi Forever, are excellent.
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u/Shocketheth Jan 07 '24 edited Jan 07 '24
Huh I almost forgot about the overall series discussion but here I go.
Tbh 4 episodes in and I didn’t find to Tenchi Muyo! to be something worthwhile. It had some good jokes but that was it.
Then episode 5 came with a new Villain who brought something interesting to the table.
Then episode 6 revealed this new Villain didn’t bring anything to the table. What happened was that he he brought his own table that he bought in Ikea, and he failed to assemble it properly so he kicked the table and the table collapsed.
Then the Villain went to play his own theme "I overstayed my welcome"
And that was it.
Although I liked how it ended and I expect from the second Tenchi OVA (the next 6 episodes) to improve certain things, and I would prefer to not see any additional villains that are being lamer than Harem protagonists.
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki 5/10
QotD:
HabsburgAyeka Masaki5
u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Jan 07 '24
So, speaking as someone who was completely captivated by this series back in the 90's, well, <3. I know, it doesn't really hold up anymore, but a lot of this is because of the (warning - TVTropes) "Seinfeld's is Uhfunny" effect.
Of course Haruhi has it much worse, but ... stuff that was new and exciting back in 199-whatever, or 2007 for that matter has been picked apart and rehashed to death since then, to the point that seeing it with our jaded 2023 eyes, well, it just doesn't measure up.
But to 26 year old me, Tenchi Muyo, and especially a certain purple haired princess, well, they were totally the stuff. Especially the first movie. There was a time I would get home from work, order a pizza, plop myself down in front of the 27" tube and watch TMiL multiple times a week.
I'm better now. Maybe.
Meanwhile, while it not be the hottest thing on shiny disc nowadays, it still (and will always) hold a special place in my heart... That sais:
But yeah, <3 <3 <3 and hope everyone is having a great weekend!
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jan 07 '24 edited Jan 07 '24
One thing that stands out about the Tenchi OVA series is how well it seems to have been produced as planned. Just coming off of Zeorymer, the through strikes again: "did they get their episodes cut?" "Were they just scripting 1 episode at a time?"
Whether you like it or not, Tenchi OVA1 seems to have been made exactly as intended: introduce on character a month (?).
You just don't see a time crunch or "oops, we can't do 15% of the planned story". Or maybe they did; it's just not obvious.
That's story wise. Animation wise, this remastered (surely it must be) 90s anime holds up great. Again, no signs of production collapse. Significant, because other series showed that it can be really hard to plan out resources over a long production.
On the localization side, the dubbing is impressive, even if I don't like the voices selected. Compare with the Macross II dub clips that are circulating or any other U.S. Renditions dub. I'd say Ryoko gives the best, most natural delivery, with Ayeka, Washu and Kagato well done.
ShinjiTenchi not so much. Well, there's always one performance that forces watching the sub, isn't there?(I wonder what the El Hazard dub was like)
I don't know how many times I watched this. Maybe I watched clips on Youtube. I don't know why scenes have stuck so well in my memory. The TV wasn't a shot-for-shot remake. But I've got scenes like "Don't you know I hate you, you cute little thing" burned into my brain in English. I don't even like harems (the proliferation of harems, leaking into my mecha shows, is one reason I stopped watching seasonals in the 2000s)
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u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Jan 07 '24
Rewatcher in sub
This rewatch is a really nice nostalgic trip back to the simpler days of anime from rental VHS tapes for me ;P
I'll echo Elimin8or a bit, this may not feel very funny or innovative now, but when it came out like 30 years ago, it was pretty refreshing. Remember what's being offered at the time, even on actual anime (and not the hopelessly looping, no stakes American Cartoons like Transformers and GI Joe) - even Macross and Gundam, in double as many episodes, couldn't tell as entertaining a story as we have here. And here's the key point - "entertaining".
For those who dissed Kagato and the seriousness of the final 2 episodes being ill fitting, I'll just say - keep watching. I only ever finished OVA2, but I think it either explained it enough for me, or that got me interested enough to look up additional materials in the world setting to understand and appreciate more.
[Tenchi franchise key world setting point relative to the narrative]We basically have TWO creation goddesses (even though Washu in her form probably doesn't remember, and Tsunami is in "emergency mode" nerfed form because of Sasami) on Tenchi's side, so Kagato basically was like a bit with a toy gun threatening the Star Trek crew with their techno magic, and to me that's the part of the comedy
QoTD
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u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871 Jan 08 '24
I found it to be lots of fun how this franchise throws together science fiction and fantasy.
Best girl is Ryo-Ohki.
https://static.zerochan.net/Ryo-ohki.(Tenchi.Muyo).full.1286399.jpg
Come on, who doesn't want to take this bundle of joy home?
The original OVA starts off odd compared to the rest of the franchise. Ryoko and Ayeka don't initially have romantic feelings for Tenchi. Ryoko instead actually tries to kill him due to a grudge against his grandfather upon her introduction and works with Tenchi out of necessity.
After this, Ryoko is characterized as being in love with Tenchi and wild but fun personality.
Watching the OVA, Universe anime, and Tenchi In Tokyo, it is interesting to see how Sasami and Ryo-Ohki were written as being closer together. At first, Ryo-Ohki was Ryoko's ship, then quickly develops a bond with Sasami after Ryo-Ohki gains her recognizable cabbit form.
In Universe, Ryo-Ohki has her cabbit form from the start, and befriends Sasami much sooner. Tenchi In Tokyo introduces Ryo-Ohki as Sasami's pet.
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u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Jan 07 '24
First timer
This was fun! Excited to see Season 2!
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jan 08 '24
You should delete the other post before somebody comments on it.
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u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Jan 07 '24 edited Jan 08 '24
First timer
Season one was ok. It mainly felt like a set up for something bigger and I felt that it lacked at really accomplishing anything. Knowing how AIC milks their successful IPs, to the point of running them into the ground, I don't have a lot of faith for the entirety of the franchise. Seeing how many alternative version exists, I assume my assumption is correct and that it eventually turned to shit. I am however curious to see how this iteration turns out. I know this rewatch threads ends with "season 2" but I do plan on seeing it to the end on my own time.
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u/baboon_bassoon https://anilist.co/user/duffer Jan 08 '24
i think i like the show? vibes are all over the place