Ai Tenchi Muyo! Manga Thread

translation thread, which might not have been the best option. Now that we have an actual discussion thread, it seems more natural to have this here. ^^v[/size]

Chapter 11 brings Haruna Nakazato’s manga adaptation of 2014’s Ai Tenchi Muyo! to a close. This final segment reflects events in Episodes 51-60 of the anime, but with substantial reduction.

The chapter opens with the Galaxy Police headquarters appearing in orbit of Earth directly above the Japanese islands. In a video conference, the director-general of the GP is questioned by the high commissioner of some Terran organization, presumably the United Nations or Earth’s “extraterrestrial civilization department”. Specifically, the director-general brought the entire headquarters, a fully armed military or paramilitary space station, into orbit to handle only a small number of people, which can be easily construed as an act of aggression and force. However, the director-general defends his action by stating that the individuals in question, namely Momo and Beni, are from another time axis and are straining the spacetime continuum to the point of singularity, threatening the entire universe.

The conversation here is not that dissimilar from Episode 51, though the manga keeps the director-general much more matter-of-fact and less condescending than his anime counterpart. Later in the chapter, the director-general launches a dimension-oscillating bullet at Junai Academy. Sadly, the manga does not have the discussion between the director-general and his subordinate, named “Gishou” in the anime, where the bullet’s purpose is explained. Specifically, the bullet’s oscillation would stabilize the growing rift caused by Momo and Beni’s presence long enough for the GP SWAT to detain them.

Chapter 11 and Episode 51 highlight some details uniquely explained in this incarnation of Tenchi Muyo!. First, the Galaxy Police have a standard protocol with the governments of Earth, particularly when concerned with Okayama prefecture. Considering that the GP are a law-enforcement agency, this should be expected once official first contact and diplomatic relations are established. Hints of this are mentioned in the third OVA series, that the Jurai royal family has significant political sway in the government in and around Okayama, though nothing is specifically stated in regard to the Galaxy Police. Considering the main thrust of the third OVA series, Jurai and the Galaxy Police are distinct entities, so arrangements for one need not affect the other.

Second, the Galaxy Police headquarters is first revealed to be mobile, having the capability to teleport itself into orbit around a planet. The headquarters was first seen in the Episode 4 of the first OVA series when Mihoshi was introduced, though its abilities and armament are not described in the OVA. The headquarters appears more prevalently in Tenchi Universe in Episode 15, where Mihoshi and her partner Kiyone Makibi return to headquarters for the latter’s promotion. This episode has the two discover more intrigue surrounding the coup d’etat on Jurai, which has ties to corruption in the Galaxy Police. Upon discovering this connection, the two detectives must escape legions of armed officers, as well as the station’s own batteries of cannons upon its hull. The station is seen again in the 1996 film Tenchi Muyo! in Love, when the headquarters is heavily damaged, if not outright destroyed, by the Super-A criminal Kain’s escape from the subspace prison aboard the station.

As a bit of trivia, the dimension-oscillating bullet also arose from Tenchi Universe in Episode 8, where Washu recalls the crimes that first had her sent into exile. One of those very crimes was developing the dimension-oscillating bullet.

Meanwhile, the burst of light around Momo from the end of the last chapter has started to unlock her memories of 1300 years ago. Tenchi finally reveals to both her and Beni that they are not from this Earth, that they arrived on a spaceship and were caught in the dimensional warp. His dialogue is very similar to Episode 53, though the manga has him expound that Beni was locked into cryostatis while Momo was pulled through the distortion to the modern era.

However, here is where the manga diverges significantly from the anime. The manga has Tenchi offer Momo’s sword to her, so that she might set all to right once more. Yet, Momo is afraid to lose all the memories and friends she has made in this era, to lose what she has become. Frustrated, Ryoko demands that Momo just do what she must, lest the planet be destroyed because of her hesitation. Beni once again comes to Momo’s defense, and the two have a moment, Momo asking her protector if she can condone losing what she is to be what she was.

This is a difficult question, one that Beni has been confronting throughout the entire story. Beni’s entire character conflict has been to regain her memories, to know who she is, why she has such strength, why she is so different. On the precipice of that knowledge, Momo would have to sacrifice her entire identity and revert to the child seen in the feudal episodes of the anime. In a sense, for Beni to reach her goal, she would have to lose the Momo she has come to know. This action would contradict her own instincts to protect Momo.

Beni, however, turns to Momo and declares that she will stand beside Momo whatever she decides. This declaration closes her character arc, returning her to the role of Momo’s protector, regardless of any temporal reset. She embraces who she is, memories or not.

At this point, I would like to recognize that Beni seems much more the protagonist in the manga. She has often been the proactive party and the one who has matured the most through the events of the story. Seeing her embrace her role as Momo’s protector gives a great bit of closure, just as it gives Momo peace of mind to make the choice that she must.

Indeed, with the fate of the Earth in the balance, Momo chooses to return to their original time, setting right the temporal anomaly set in motion by Washu.

Sadly, Momo’s development in the manga has lagged behind Beni’s. While Chapters 9-11 have focused much more on the pink-haired princess, she does not have the same resonance that her amber-eyed guardian has garnered in Chapters 3-8. The pathos for her choice is far weaker at this point than seeing Beni’s quest fulfilled. Admittedly, her choice is all but decided already, since the alternative is the apparent destruction of Earth.

Compare the manga’s interpretation of Momo to the anime, where the student body president has just overcome a scandal, only for her body now to phase and disintegrate due to the distortion affecting the planet. The very fabric of her being was being torn asunder, held together only by Tenchi’s use of Tenchiken to stabilize her. Indeed, Momo’s plight here is starkly similar to Tenchi’s in Tenchi Muyo! in Love, where a temporal paradox threatened to erase him from time. Similarly, Tenchi himself grew with Momo, guiding her through using her sword alongside his to contact the sleeping Toshika below them. Upon awaking, Toshika envelops Tenchi and Momo, sending them into the timeline, always missing one another. The entire affair is very reminiscent of Doctor Who stories, such as “Girl in the Fireplace”. After having multiple hours to endear herself to the audience, Momo herself shows increasingly more resolve, first guided by Tenchi and then on her own when they are struggling to reach each other.

After Momo chooses to return to her place in history, Mihoshi alerts everyone to the incoming GP attack. Ryoko and the rest of the Masaki household boldly step forward to confront the GP, Ryoko relishing a chance to fight her old adversaries. Ayeka, of course, stands on principle as the GP have broken with protocol, an act that she will not overlook.

Sadly again, the story suffers from the manga’s brevity. The anime spends episodes 51-58 showing the Masaki household standing side-by-side with the students of Junai Academy to repel the GP. These episodes are action-packed and exciting, littered with numerous references to earlier incarnations of the franchise, as well as visual references to some other series, like FLCL and Alien. While the story of Beni and Momo has benefited from the compressed storytelling, the other characters have had little if any focus.

Momo’s goodbye to Tenchi is similar to Episode 58, though it lacks the same catharsis. By this point in the anime, Tenchi and Momo had been isolated from the others and were using their Juraian keys to maneuver through Momo’s timeline, missing each other and growing ever more desperate to rescue the other.

That said, Momo’s plea for Tenchi to remember her still resonates. On some level, this incarnation of Momo is ceasing to exist, despite that she will be renewed in her previous being. Much like the anime, the ending of the story is bittersweet, our young protagonists returning to their rightful place, presumably with no memory of the adventure. This is not unlike Tenchi’s mother, Achika Masaki, in the finale of Tenchi Muyo! in Love, where her memory needed to be wiped to preserve the timeline.

In conclusion, while I did criticize the manga heavily due to its compression of the anime’s story, it has a rather poignant and bittersweet conclusion. At several junctures, it cleaned some of the finer details of the anime, and certainly gave Beni a more focused character arc.

— Rogue Thoughts