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    evilpii
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    Chapter 9 of Haruna Nakazato’s adaptation of Ai Tenchi Muyo! summarizes the cultural festival arc from the 2014 anime, encompassing Episodes 18 through 28. However, it does also take plot elements from Episodes 33 and 34 to advance the plot toward the endgame of the work.

    Resuming from Chapter 8, Momo leads Tenchi to the arm wrestling booth, telling him that she wants to make memories with him that will last a lifetime. Her words have a sadly tragic ring to them, considering Momo’s eventual fate in the anime.

    At the arm wrestling booth, Beni effortlessly wins every match presented to her and seems quite bored as a result. Interestingly, she appears to be quite popular among the other students, despite her aloof demeanor. Momo herself challenges Beni in order to have a moment to speak to the ogre-like high-schooler Beni is taken aback by Momo’s forwardness and desire to be friends, so much so that she has a flashback to holding little Momo’s hand and nearly losing the arm wrestling match. Although, Beni regains her wits and easily dispatches Momo.

    While the arm wrestling competition is taken from Episode 18, Momo and Beni’s conversation is taken from the more ridiculous “butt wrestling” contest from Episode 27, where Tenchi served as referee.

    After defeating Momo, Beni notices Tenchi. The anime has Beni directly challenge him, but the manga simply has the prince laugh that he would be easily beaten. In both media, Ryoko pulls Tenchi away and takes the challenge for herself, though the manga does not show the conclusion of the bout.

    To the anime’s credit, Ryoko and Beni are shown on a even keel, the two straining and eventually destroying the arm wrestling table entirely. The competition then continues in Episode 19, where they take turns bending metal bars like balloons to demonstrate their strength and control.

    The manga then has a page referencing some of the other events of the cultural festival: the maid cafe lead by Ayeka, Sasami sneaking into the festivities in a school uniform, and the play performed by Hachiko and the Drama Club. Sadly, due to the story’s compression at this point, the comedic adventures of the cultural festival are greatly abridged. The anime gives this story arc more time to breathe, letting it expand over eleven 4-minute episodes, roughly equivalent to two 22-minute episodes of a more conventional anime. The subplots interweave, as Tenchi is thrown by Ryoko from the arm wrestling booth to a rebuilt Goriki, who then tosses him into a coffin being used by the Drama Club’s play. Subsequently, he is forced into the Ms. Junai Contest by Ukan, before another day of athletic competition. All of these segments have a nice dose of comedy and action, as well as time to develop the characters and give them chances to interact with the classic cast of Tenchi Muyo!.

    Afterward, Tenchi remarks, “Time flew by so quickly,” as Momo falls asleep on his shoulder, just as she does in Episode 28. As she sleeps, she dreams about her child form and Beni meeting the ship Toshika, bestowed upon them by the head of the Jurai royal family. The dialogue here seems taken from Episode 33, illustrating that Momo too shares some memory of the events 1300 years prior.

    It is also notable that Momo also addresses the ship Toshika herself. A point established in both Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and Tenchi Universe is that the trees of Jurai share some symbiotic relationship with the Jurai royal family, giving them great power, formidable capital ships, and ultimately their massive space empire. Indeed, the trees of Jurai are regarded as sentient beings in the OVA and can choose their masters in a system not unlike marriage. Consequently, Toshika is also a character in this scene, though in a nonspeaking role, and she plays an important role late in the anime.

    Another point here is that Momo has some assigned duty to leave Jurai, and Beni serves as her guardian on this journey with Toshika. The dialogue here and in Episode 33 does not elucidate what this duty is, or why they happened to reach Earth when the dimensional rift occurred.

    Waking from the dream, teenage Momo awkwardly bids Tenchi farewell as she leaves to ponder the dream she just experienced. Upon her departure, Beni confronts Tenchi, revealing her suspicions as she did in Episode 34 of the anime. This deviates from the anime in that it was Tenchi who approached Beni in the anime. The change puts Beni as the proactive party, wanting to understand who Tenchi is, and who she is. She seems far more sensible and thoughtful than her anime counterpart, who just attacks Tenchi to force him to reveal his true colors.

    That said, the anime does have two interesting features to this scene. First, Beni sitting on the roof and looking at the stars is very reminiscent of Ryoko doing the same, again alluding to the parallels between the two. Second, as Beni is attacking Tenchi, Momo arrives and interferes just when Beni swings one last time with all her might. In that moment, a green light emerges and protects Tenchi and Momo from the impact, though they are tossed from the roof. The green light is very similar to the barrier used by little Momo in Episode 8 to fend off a parallel universe version of Ryoko. While left somewhat ambiguous, this is possibly a hint at Momo’s true identity.

    As with the last chapter, I find this chapter very tight and focused on moving the plot forward. I certainly like the development of Beni to this point, as well as the shift of attention to Momo’s true identity. Sadly, however, the compression does mean many humorous moments and poignant allusions are lost for the sake of that tight and concise flow.

    Rogue Thoughts