Beagle-san

And what do we have? Well, SPOILERS FOR ONE THING. You’ve been warned.

A whole lot of talking going on. AKA: Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-Ohki-The InfoDump!

The setting? Everyone’s gathering for the wedding of Nobuyuki and Rea’s wedding, while Seina is off having his adventures with the GXP. The 3 girls who we see a lot of? They’re all Masaki family members from Earth. Much is made of the longing Minaho Masaki has for her nephew, Tenchi.

The theme we get throughout is the double lives the members of the Masaki clan lead, and here’s where the casual viewer needs some info:

WARNING!!!! Taking a shot every time you come upon someone who is related to another character can cause a fatal consumption of alcohol!!!

Once upon a time there was a dude named Yosho, who had the hots for this chick from a distant planet, named Airi, who likewise had the hots for him, despite problems due to their planets’ rivalry. They met at the Academy. But things were looking bleak for their chances, not even counting that Yosho was betrothed to his half-sister, Aeka. And lo and behold, a pirate named Ryoko attacked Jurai, on the orders of her master, a gent named Kagato. During said attack, Sasami nearly dies, only living by being saved by Tsunami. A teenage Aeka is the only one to put up a fight with a not-ready-yet Ryu-Oh, giving the pirate even more pleasure in tangling with the princess than sex (an unfulfilling exercise for Ryoko at that point; no “Big O” for Ryoko). Yosho arrives, chases off Ryoko…and he takes off after her, realizing it is the perfect chance to get away from this whole marriage mess, though Aeka thinks it’s just to chase after Ryoko, who she blames for Yosho’s disappearance.

But, surprise, Ryoko flees to Earth, where Yosho has it out with her, winning and imprisoning the pirate, but “stranding” him there. Not interesting in marrying Aeka, and thinking things are over between him and Airi, Yosho falls in love with and marries a girl who nurses him after his fight. Her name is Kasumi. Oh, yeah, Earth…why would that planet be familiar to Yosho? Well, his Dad, Azusa, went to Earth a while back and met this hot babe named Funaho. One thing led to another and they got married with another wife named Misaki. Misaki and Azusa had two daughters, Aeka and Sasami, while Azusa and Funaho had a son, Yosho.

So what are the odds Kasumi might know about this Funaho person? Pretty darn good, since Funaho is her aunt. So, yes, that’s what I’m saying: Yosho married his cousin.

And as Syndrome put it in The Incredibles, they “got busy!” The result is you have a bunch of Yosho’s descendants running around medieval Japan.

After Kasumi dies, Yosho decides to be not-so-stranded, and puts in call to an intergalactic Uber Service that’s run by this really wild MILF named Seto Kamiki. Hmm, oh, yeah, that name. I mean Seto Kamiki Jurai, aka Yosho’s step-grandma, the mother of Lady Misaki and the granny of Aeka and Sasami.

One thing leads to another and Yosho and Airi hook up and have two daughters, Minaho and Kiyone. Yosho also decides that since health insurance in Japan sucked a few centuries back, that upon reaching a certain age, the descendants of he and Kasumi got to go to space and visit a dentist for the first time.

At some point, daughter Kiyone Masaki met Nobuyuki Masaki, a descendant of Yosho and Kasumi and they started knocking boots and had two kids, a daughter named Tennyo, who is now about 80, and a son, Tenchi Masaki.

And they all had incest happily ever after. The End.

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So what we learn is that everyone in Masaki village is related to everyone, and that they all “know” the family secret.

The old onsen lady? Yep, she knows. Taro’s mother? Yep, she knows. Kiriko’s mother? Yep, well, duh…

More fun info:

– Basically everyone in Masaki village will likely become Juraian royalty once Yosho’s surivial secret comes out.

– Seina has a shot at a mother-daughter threesome, as episode 2 reveals that not only does Kiriko have the hots for Seina, but so does her Mom (this all takes place prior to the end of GXP and Seina’s 4-way marriage that later becomes an 8-way marriage).

– Minaho has the hots for her nephew, Tenchi, and is yet another prospective harem member. We’ll see where this goes throughout the OVA, as it could be that she sees in him her lost sister, or since Seto’s been scaring everyone off through her marriage meeting attempts, her own desire for family. But since this is Kajishima we’re talking about, I lean towards harem, and a full time mother figure for the harem.

– Like father like male descendant: Yosho isn’t the only one in disguise. It turns out Nobuyuki is also disguising his appearance. Apparently he looks like he’s in his 20s. Remember, he’s old enough to have a daughter, Tennyo, who is in her 80s.

– Kai goes on a class trip, without condoms, but with some spending money.

– Minaho spends the night with Tenchi (and Ryo-Ohki) where she lets him know of a future possibility: That the Masaki clan might have to leave Earth. It’s actually a really solid point, since they’re not supposed to be there. Earth is not yet a developed planet, and isn’t supposed to have it’s development interfered with by aliens, including the knowledge of aliens. It’s getting harder to hide with the advances in technology, including all the members of the Masaki clan who’ve gone to the Academy and have had body strengthening. He’s told how Seina underwent that. So he’s given that to chew on, although no worries; Washu says she’ll just bring along everything to Jurai, which relieves Ryoko.

– Both Sasami and Aeka kick Tenchi’s butt in sparring. During the bath sequence Minaho talks with Tenchi about his training, and he says he’s never been able to beat either of the two girls.

More random thoughts:

It’s an OVA, it’s bathtime, and no nipples to show by Minaho. 1990s Kajishima would be ashamed of his older self.

The character designs were…bleh. I think we’re looking at a way too small budget here.

The time setting on here is well before episode 17 of GXP. Rea and Nobu aren’t yet married, while Ep. 17 shows a visibly pregnant Rea. Even if the two got an early start on Kenshi Masaki, she’s still months away from looking like we see in ep. 17.

I felt that ep. 1 was easily the worst OVA episode to date. It was disjointed, with no decent introduction of any of the cast, especially the 3 new girls.

Ep. 2 was better, actually touching on some logical problems that would go with hiding an alien clan on Earth, with those problems getting tougher in the years to come.

It looks like this 4th OVA is really meant for the hardcore faithful (even more than OVA 3!). I pity anyone taking this in for the first time, as you really need to see the previous 3 OVA and GXP to make any sense of what’s going on here. So far it’s all info dump and back filler info, essentially putting onscreen much of the info that’s gone into years of the Kamidake Onsen doujinshis that Kajishima has been putting out. Which is fine, but this OVA is looking to be like Seinfeld – A show about nothing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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As for the series itself: Fun, but the format wasn’t the wisest way to do this show. This kind of short format works better for slice-of-life 4-koma style shows, and/or quick comedy than for Tenchi Muyo! So, what about the show?

The Good: The new girls were a lot of fun, with enjoyable characters abounding. Momo is a truly sweet character and Hachiko was a riot.

The Bad: At least partly due to the format, but something easily within the purvey of the director and production team to take care of, ask yourself: Aside form Momo and Beni, what do we know about these characters? Answer: Other than some general overbroad characteristics, nothing. No depth was given to the girls, even Momo and Beni. We’ve no idea why Beni was in trouble with Jurai, why they trusted her as being Momo’s protector, why they were going to Earth, etc. What’s the deal with Hachiko and swords? In short, the new girls don’t get the depth they deserved. We just get some stereotypical tropes in the form of some cute girls.

The Good: Aeka, Sasami and Ryoko all get good time and good moments. There was a distinct worry about whether the veteran girls would lose time and not have much to do, as was all too often the case in OVA 3.

The Bad: Ryoko so evenly matched against Beni, Aeka and Sasami being detained by the GP – the gals seemed a trifle underpowered, even by Universe standards. Sure, they kick the tushies of high school students, but the GP? fyeah1

More The Bad: Universe. The first dilution of the OVA cast and templates brought its weaknesses over to this show. Aeka able to take care of a human student, but not the GP? C’mon, man! Ryoko relatively weak, but especially compared to Beni, she of no background.

Really More Bad: Washu and Mihoshi. Absent for waaay too much of the show, we get Mihoshi appearing back in time with a demonic Ryoko, seemingly as a tribute to the OVA origin, but we hardly ever see her until the end. Washu appears a bit more, but not much, and then, alas, in full blown Universe mad scientist mode. Given that Washu had some of the best screen time in OVA 3 of the original gal cast, it’s a shame to see her character stripped of wisdom, maturity and a degree of competence. Mihoshi is pretty much her Universe self, lacking that certain mystique, but she comes out far better.

AWOL: It appears that there can be only one, Kiyone, that is, in any of the Tenchi continuities. No Noboyuki, and Katsuhiko is also MIA. But especially, a few seconds of Ryo-Ohki eating carrots outside Washu’s lab door in the final episode does not excuse the horrific misuse of one of the best mascot characters of all time! rageblow1 dawohki1 wtfisthis1

So, this show managed to show off a number of characters having good moments, some nostalgia tie-ins, some nice new characters, but ended with a shallow story, no depth to any of the new cast, far too many loose ends and unexplained events (such as Ryoko and Mihoshi in the past and the rift they went through), and the blatant nonuse of a great income generating character.

I can’t decide if this show’s problem was that it wasn’t ambitious enough, or if it was overly ambitious. Because there was a really nice chance here, one which would’ve made great sense for an anniversary show: Do a Dr. Who special, a continuity crossover. They touched on it back in the feudal period, but didn’t follow up on it. In the end, the feudal time period ends up being wasted programming. Negishi would’ve been better off slimming down the story and consolidating the feudal episodes and spending some time on character and story development. Either way it was a wasted opportunity.

In the end, this show brought in some nice things for the fans, and is certainly not the worst of the Tenchi shows out there. But after the depth of GXP and OVA 3, despite the flaws, especially of OVA 3, this show is shallow in comparison. Say what you will about Kajishima, he fleshed out his universe. Negishi didn’t and it shows.