Tenchicast EP1: No Need for the Future!

Dagon:

Hey guys, this is Dagon123, and welcome to…

ALL:

Tenchicast!

(Intro Music)

Dagon:

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the first ever episode of Tenchicast: No Need for a Podcast, presented by Tenchiforum.com.  Today with me I have two great members, Akawoa and Devilbecka.

No Need for the Future: a multitude of anime are getting rebooted, getting new story arcs animated, and of course, Saint Knight’s Tale.  So, in this episode we will be talking about the future of Tenchi.  We see a lot of anime being brought back from what seems like the dead: Berserk Golden Arc is being animated, Trigun is getting a new movie called Badlands Rumble after ten years…what are your thoughts on that?  And what do you think the likeliest Tenchi remake possibility would be?

Akawoa:

That’s a really good question.  If they were to go back and remake anything, I think the most likely thing that they might want to remake would probably be the OVA, just because, I don’t know, it’s hard for me to say why, I just feel like they might not give the other series as much attention (like Tenchi in Tokyo or Tenchi Universe).  I don’t know, I think it could benefit from a reboot, you know, go back and, rather than making more and twisting the story up in all these side plots like it’s kind of been doing recently, just go back and update it and put a new spin on the animation and maybe get younger people into it that missed out on it last generation.  Yeah, that’s a good question.

Devilbecka:

So we’ll probably have a scenario where you have the ova—O-V-A, sorry—and Tenchi in Tokyo, or Tenchi Universe, where I think it would be something like Final Fantasy, basically.  You know?

Dagon:

I’m glad you brought up that point, Akawoa about bringing Tenchi to a new generation of people.  The last time that we saw animation from Tenchi was the OVA (the main cast, anyway), even though it hadn’t really been all that long since Tenchi Forever…I’m gonna exclude GXP for now, but even taking that one into account, the style in three or four years was radically different, and with the way Moe as a design choice has taken over the market, will that affect Tenchi’s design?  Even though Tenchi’s designs are by Masaki Kajishima, looking at Tenchi in Tokyo, AIC had a very distinct style around that time, which reflected all of their series for a while—from Tenchi to El Hazard to a little bit of Dual.  If Tenchi was made today by AIC, would the designs for Tenchi be different?

Akawoa:

It very well could be different, just because the old character designs were made in the nineties, and back then it was a little bit different with how they did character designs (as far as I know, I’ve kind of looked into it a little bit).  They aim for a different look now than they used to, and they might want to—I’m almost afraid to say that, if they did do something, they might want to update everyone—make them look less “crazy,” less “out there” with their hair and stuff, and I can’t really say I’m all for that, because I do like the original character designs a lot.  I just don’t know how well or how much respect they might give to it or not, or if they might just try to do what the new Devil May Cry is doing and just kind of revamp the character look and keep the story, or something similar.

Dagon:

That’s a good point, and as we’ve seen from the Tenchi fan base, they’re very fierce when it comes to even the simplest of changes.  For instance, let’s look at pronunciations: when FUNimation decided to go with “SA-sami” instead of “Sa-SA-mi”… yes, it’s phonetically correct, but people didn’t like it.  They very much did not like it, because that’s how they had always heard it.  And if we look at OVA3…well, that pretty much speaks for itself.  You have to be mindful of the changes you make.

Akawoa:

Absolutely, yeah.

Devilbecka:

Yep.

Dagon:

Well, as for me, I think if it was made by AIC, it would be hard to tell whether or not we would get a design change.  Looking at Saint Knight’s Tale, the designs resemble OVA3, but of course, it’s not the same as it was years before.  But you have to keep things comfortable for the fans.  As we all know, even the smallest changes like Sasami’s name change in Magical Girl’s Club can be hugely negative.  Looking forward at what we should see from Tenchi, it’s not so much “what” but “who.”  The biggest reason people are negative at the OVA line now—besides the ham-fisted, convoluted story—is the characters: Ryoko laying down for Airi, for Noike?  Pft.  I’m not really watching “Tenchi” anymore at this point.  It’s become way too cluttered with new characters, and we need to focus on what’s already there in the OVA, and what plots and subplots we need to wrap up (I’ve always been a fan of, and have pushed for, the throne of Jurai plot that arises at the end of OVA2).

Akawoa:

Certainly, I think that’s a good way to put it.  I think really the only way that they could even go back and efficiently do something without going forward would be if they animated the True Tenchi novels (that’s the only thing that comes to mind that they could do), and try to fill in the backstory.  But I’m almost afraid that if they did that, then the canon might get really cluttered up, and then we’ll get a bunch of people coming out and complaining about it.

Devilbecka:

Yeah.

Dagon:

It would be a great way to introduce Azusa as an antagonist.  He fits the bill (after the end of OVA2).  You know, do the whole “Funaho-Misaki visiting” then do a plot kind of like the end of Universe: somehow the throne comes back into everyone’s mind (probably through Funaho and her sister’s visit).  Turmoil on the way, tumultuousness ensues, people love it.  Tenchi gets nerfed to give him the underdog appeal, which gives us a great avenue to introduce the OVA’s narrow “everybody wins” scenario (in a way people can stomach).  It’s certainly better than two episodes of soulless recap, three episodes of characters no one cares about, and one episode of “oh shit, we forgot the plot!”  Tenchi’s been shoe-horned into this corner where it can’t be itself in the name of posterity, and it sucks.

Akawoa:

Absolutely.  I kind of feel like…like you said, it was shoe-horned in, and kind of half-arsed, because it seemed like, at the time, he was fixated with doing GXP and he really just used it as a filler to bring in some GXP cameo the whole time.  He put an awful lot of emphasis on Misao.  He even had some references to GXP characters that were more-or-less random and just didn’t need to be there.  I can understand if he wants to do GXP, but don’t give us Tenchi and half-ass it and ruin the series for us.  I think that was an excellent point you made.

Devilbecka:

I think they ruined it when they introduced Airi….

Dagon:

Our next point: Saint Knight’s Tale (Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari), the latest installment in the Tenchi universe, follows the accolades of Tenchi’s half-brother Kenshi Masaki—son of Rea and Nobuyuki Masaki—as he is transported to the world of Geminar, where we follow his adventures.  What are your thoughts on it?

Devilbecka:

It was pretty good.  Really good, actually.

Akawoa:

I thought it was pretty good.  I mean, I thought in a lot of ways it felt like “old Kajishima style” like he was really trying to channel that old Tenchi feeling.  He made it a bit more edgy in terms of fan service than he normally would, but I think that’s just kind of the direction he’s gone.  He’s matured, gotten a little older, he’s gotten a little bit more into including that sort of thing (and maybe it’s better for the market if that’s in there) but I thought it was really good.  It was a lot of fun, and being an OVA, it was a little bit shorter, but it had the longer episodes (forty-five minutes per episode) so it felt more like you were watching a big TV special; every time you’d get that new episode, it was really exciting to see how much they could do with that time slot.

Dagon:

I like that you brought up that “it feels like Tenchi” (or how Tenchi used to) because it does feel very much like Tenchi used to.  It feels like Kajishima really put a lot of effort into it.  The show itself is great: I love the Mechs (our main White Mech of course being a reference to Dual’s Heartzina) and Kenshi himself.  You know, it’s funny, we look at Kenshi and…I don’t want to use the word “god” but, I think it’s in episode seven or eight where he walks on the ceiling and kicks that guy in the face and…that’s normal for him, like “Meh, defying gravity…all in a day’s work.”

Akawoa:

Yeah, it’s almost like he’s an amalgam of the entire Tenchi household.  I’ve seen some people mention it before, they say he’s got traits of all the other characters (almost) as though he’s learned the skills from them (like maybe they taught him).  He brings this up an awful lot, too.

Dagon:

Oh, definitely.  In the first couple episodes, we see cameos of Washu and Ryo-Ohki, as well as constant references such as “oh yeah, that reminds me of my sister who’s lazy all the time,” or “oh yeah, just like my sister who loves to cook,” and that’s a grab at the Tenchi fans Kajishima knows are watching, because…duh, Kenshi is related to Tenchi.

One interesting point on that is that he references the girls as his “sisters,” and we know in Japanese culture that younger boys often refer to older girls as their “onee-chan” (or “older sisters”) but this also has relevance because of Tenchi’s foreshadowed wedding to everybody.  So that begs the question: has it already happened at this point?  Did he already go to Jurai, are they all doing with him what we saw in that omake that nobody wants to remember?  It’s a great rib on Kajishima’s part, because it does drive us fans nuts; we’re going back and forth and discussing it (of course, he knows we’re going to do that).

Akawoa:

Yeah I noticed that as well, it was really interesting how they did that.  He described them so that you could generally tell who he was talking about, but he never referred to them by name.  Hopefully we’ll see maybe a license or something in the future, and then a little bit more information about it.

Dagon:

I’d love to see a license.  SKT also had a very great cast of characters.  I loved everybody, and that’s kind of surprising from a show that’s related to Tenchi.  Even Maria, who I thought was going to be the “archetypal Ayeka” character, ended up being really cool (every character was, except for Dagmeyer).

Akawoa:

Yeah, I mean, I can’t think of anybody I really hated except maybe Dagmeyer (or as I call him “Douche-meyer”).  Everyone else was pretty much spot-on, and cool, and granted I liked some more than others—it’s no secret I’m a big Chiaya fan—but Lashara’s really cool, and Aura…I noticed a lot of people gravitated towards Yukine, but other characters as well.

Devilbecka:

My favorites were Chiaya and Kenshi.

Dagon:

The way Chiaya was set up, she felt like she was going to have that “Ryoko attitude” (very strong and true to her values).

Akawoa:

Yeah I kind of felt like she has one of the more active roles in the story.  I thought that towards the end, it seemed like we saw a little bit less of some of the characters, like Yukine; I felt like we saw less of her as it went on.  There were a few episodes where she really didn’t make too many appearances.  It seems like they kind of took the spotlight from her, because it seemed like, as they went through the story, each of the girls had at least one deep, emotional “moment” with Kenshi.  I’m not sure if you guys caught that, but Lashara had one, Aura had the kiss in the running episode…I can’t think of the others because it’s been like three or four months since I saw it, and it was Chinese fan subs the last couple episodes so I’m not even a hundred percent on what all happened for a while, but…I think you guys know what I’m talking about.

Dagon:

Yeah I think Chiaya’s was when she decided not to kill him, you know, I don’t remember if he was awake or not, but I mean…it’s Kenshi, he knew what was going on, he has eyes in the back of his head, but that was a very strong emotional moment for her.  I think overall Saint Knight’s Tale (Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari) was a great inclusion into the OVA line; I think it was a step in the right direction.

Akawoa:

Yeah, I kind of think of it as, if Kajishima were to make another OVA and rejuvenate the Tenchi franchise’s roots, I would like to see something of a similar vein in style, you know, the way he handled the harem setting was a little bit better, for the most part, and it had some good humor in it, and I think if he brings it back…it felt more like Tenchi’s original OVA’s where it was like “what’s going to happen today?” in their slice-of-life world, you know?  And occasionally they toss in a baddie, you know, it wasn’t always just like “Oh, Jurai!  Politics!  Political intrigue!  Gundam Wing!”

Dagon:

They also did a good job with all the action.  The Mecha action was extremely well done.  It was balanced very well.

Akawoa:

Absolutely.  I love seeing some of the scenes in particular where Kenshi would be fighting somebody, and he’d just kick the crap out of them, and then they’d get so scared they’d have snot running down their face, or they’d be crying, like in a couple of the earlier episodes.

Dagon:

Well, I know I look forward to seeing more great things from Tenchi in the future.  You know, people have always said, after OVA3, “Well, there’s nowhere else for Tenchi to go, you’re beating a dead horse, you’re beating a dead horse,” but I don’t believe that at all.  I think there are many, many doors, and many directions Tenchi can go in.

Devilbecka:

Yeah, because remember, the guy’s about fifty-something, so I think he’s got a long way to go.  It’s not over yet!

Akawoa:

Yeah I think there’s a lot they can explore still, and I can’t help but mention how many people, when Saint Knight’s Tale was coming out, were asking after every episode “When’s the Tenchi cameo?  When is the Tenchi main cast going to come in there and make their cameo?” and it never happened (we saw Washu and Ryo-Ohki in the one episode, and everybody got really excited), it ended up being a big tease.  I’m hoping that means he’s not giving them the cameo because he’s going to put them in “something” soon, because I would love to see more.  In fact, I’d love to see more of all the alternate universes too, not just canon, like something in the same vein as Universe like we were talking about a little while ago, with characters like Kiyone or Nagi or Ken-Ohki in it.

Dagon:

Thank you guys very much for coming in and doing Tenchicast today, Akawoa, Devilbecka.

Devilbecka:

No problem!

Akawoa:

Anytime!  It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it.

Dagon:

Until next time…stay gold!

(Outro Music)