AstroNerdBoy

Yeah, that’s the consensus. I’m trying to remember if I have that sourced to something Kajishima-sensei confirmed or not.

I have always been a Tenchi x Ryoko shipper, they were my first OTP ^^ It’s beginning to be a little easier to accept that he marries all of them in the OVA (that’s hard to admit, LOL) because I do like the idea of them being this big, loving family…

You remind me of me several years ago when I was an ardent Tenchi x Ryoko shipper, but folks like True Sheol showed me how story-wise, the harem route was the one that would be done.

When it comes down to the two girls, it always kind of irked me how quick Ayeka seemed to get over Yosho and into Tenchi. Maybe I need to sit down and re watch everything in order, but that seems to happen so quickly. Maybe she still has feelings lingering for Yosho, but… it still seems weird to me. I know they had that nice time together in the third episode, but still… she’s been wanting him for so long. and in that short amount of time she’s now competing with Ryoko for her great nephew?

You can blame Hasegawa-sensei’s influence for that. As I understand it, Kajishima-sensei didn’t want Aeka to be still hung up on Yosho in a romantic way, but Hasegawa-sensei, as script writer, added that element into the final version of the script because she saw Aeka as more of a tragic princess heroine. OVA 1 has three influences — Kajishima, Hasegawa, and Hayashi, which is why there are some inconsistencies.

…but it just feels like Tenchi and Ryoko are the best fit.

I always think about the episode where the two walk off together after Tenchi forgives her for damaging his mother’s kimono.

It’s always been between Aeka and Ryoko.I think the mistake was adding the other girls into the harem.I think it would have made more sense if he simply married Aeka and Ryoko.I think the only reason the others were added was to keep all of the fans happy.

I can understand this line of thought. Of course, back when TM!R came out, there were no harem titles (unlike today, where they are a dime a dozen). However, in terms of story, there is justification for Tenchi marrying the harem, at least as far as Jurai is concerned.

I always thought the story of the series was between Tenchi and ryoko and the others were added because it was a harem series

The story was actually all about Tenchi. Ryoko and the others were always there from the start, at least from Kajishima’s perspective. It is just that how things played out came off differently. (The Ryoko-Tenchi conflict at the beginning is Hayashi’s influence on the story).

This is another thing I wish the OVA would do, is actually take the time to explore the relationships that everyone has, and really go deep with them. Sadly I don’t think we will ever see any kind of real character development anymore. Barring some unforeseen miracles, I imagine anything like that will be in the form of physical plot points (aka “And then the characters did THIS”) and not about making the characters worth liking again, lol

That’s one of the reasons I wish the Shin Tenchi Muyo novels were adapted. Washu gets great character work in the novel Washu (as expected). Ryoko gets good background character work in Yosho (and a bit in Jurai as well). Aeka’s motivations are pretty clear due to Yosho.

But yeah, sadly, I don’t think we’ll get to see the kind of thing you (and me for that matter) want to see.

Yosho (Katsuhito) and Kiyone did everything they could to pique Tenchi’s interest in the oni legend at the family shrine. As I understand it, Yosho’s plan was to have Tenchi go to Jurai with Ryoko and Tenchi-ken, thus proving himself to be the heir of Yosho and removing Yosho from his responsibility of succeeding Azusa in the future, which he would have to do as the partner of a 1st-generation Royal tree.

True Sheol and I disagreed about this, but I’ve always thought that Tenchi-ken was not just a master key created by Funaho-ki, but THE Master Key, giving it power over all other Royal trees, including 1st-gen ones. In my mind, this would give greater weight to Tenchi returning to Jurai and having claim to the throne, more so if the sword were passed down from Azusa (who either had Tenchi-ken or something so similar, it fooled Kagato), to Yosho, and then to Tenchi.

Of course, having Tenchi go to Jurai with Ryoko would be seen in the eyes of Jurai in general as a massive accomplishment, considering how easily she blew past the vaunted Juraian military defenses on every level.

Which upset Aeka when she learned the statue of limitations was over about five minutes after coming out of her hyper-sleep.

Well, she was looking for revenge on Ryoko for what she did to the unfinished Ryu-oh ship, as well as for Ryoko causing her beloved Yoshi-oniisama to leave. She had legal backing to support her revenge until the Statute of Limitations ran out, so yeah, she was very upset. *lol*

Man, I have to carve out time to rewatch the series again.

See now we’re just speculating. None of this was communicated through the anime which is the creators’ fault. I think it’s a bit silly to think she somehow over the course of 700 years gathered energy and was about to break free just a day before Tenchi stumbled into the cave. At any rate, it doesn’t make a difference to the show itself.

She needed the gem as a focal point to break free. She can make faux gems at will, but while sealed up, she could only draw power from the very limited sources available to her, mostly herself.

The power of the jewels would have pretty much had to run down by then for her to have been able to break free without Tenchi going into the cave.IIRC right she’s pretty much a mummy when Tenchi first sees her in

OVA 1.It’s only when he lifts the sword out that she begins to regenerate.

She’s a mummy because she’s using everything she can spare to create a faux gem. However, once Tenchi broke the seal, Ryoko did begin to regenerate because now she could draw in energy from the outside. She no longer needed to just draw energy from herself to put into a faux gem.

That’s another thing I wondered whatever happened to ryoko’s mask? was she wearing a mask when Yosho sealed her or something or did the townsfolk do that to scare off people from going to the cave and she just took it off after she regained her powers

I need to go back and rewatch the episode, but I think it is just a noh mask of some kind, likely an oni mask. After all, in the legend of Yosho, he fought an oni. So in terms of story, having Tenchi encounter a mummy with an oni mask makes it more terrifying for him.

As to what happened, that’s one of those things that the Japanese might say, “you aren’t supposed to worry about that.” *lol* But it would have been cool if the mask were hanging on the wall somewhere near Ryoko, or even inside Ryo-ohki.

In one of the doujinshi, Kajishima-sensei has a different version of the onsen scene between Ryoko and Aeka. When Aeka asks Ryoko why she attacked, Ryoko says it wasn’t serious, but she also says that since Tenchi broke the seal days before Ryoko would have got out on her own, he foiled her surprise on everyone, so she felt like taking out a little frustration on Tenchi.

Ryoko didn’t get serious until Tenchi-ken revealed itself and by then, it was too late. ^_~

As an aside, in reality, I think the Ryoko attack on Tenchi was Hayash’s influence on the story. Kajishima then had to come up with a reason to explain this and why Ryoko would now be an ally of Tenchi, thus the whole, “I wasn’t being serious” stuff that’s in 101 Mysteries.