wwwwhhhhoooo

Pretty much, at least I’m willing to bet. Geminar could still have a sequel in some form, and I’d enjoy it, but you wouldn’t be seeing all of what’s in those doujins (unless it’s produced as hentai, and even then it wouldn’t have the budget that the first series had). But that’s neither here nor there for the topic of this post, I apologize and digress.

You’re hitting a lot of stuff square on the nose, Ukinojo. We’re right at the precipice of something, we just don’t know what; and whether one wants to use the term “savior” or not (I’m not opposed), Negishi’s running things artistically now and thus far appears to be slated to be just that. We’ll see what he plans to do with this possible re-release of TMiL and an alternate ending.

But as far as the “start anew” approach, I think a lot of fans and the producers and the artists have all come to the same conclusion in some form or another because that is the inevitable endpoint: there’s precedence for it, Tenchi is diverse enough to pull it off, it’s its best chance of being commercially viable again, and it’s outright needed. Ai Tenchi Muyo! has been just that: a new start. It wasn’t connected to any of the continuities, tried to free itself from all the baggage, and threw in new characters for the ‘next generation’ feel while keeping the classic cast out of necessity.

Is the five minute format enough to do Tenchi justice? No. But the reason we got that was, as you said Ukinojo, twenty something episodes for TV would have been far too ambitious, and may still be yet. What does that leave us? Well, there’s the movie realm, and hearing about how Negishi has wanted to do a TMiL 3 since 2009 makes me believe that’s where he’ll aim next. If it ends up being just that, it won’t be a new continuity, but renewed interest in the franchise could lead to just that: a legit reboot, and a much needed fresh start.

Six? I haven’t OVA 3’d in a while, when did that happen?