Tenchi Muyou! GXP

It's hard to review this one, but the standard I will use is not to treat it as part of the franchise it belongs to, but as a wholly separate entity.

Story:The Tenchi Muyo OVA's are marked by having an unusually strong plotline despite being a "harem" anime. GxP however, takes a step away from that. Directed by the frequently manic Watanabe Shinichi (aka Nabeshin, aka the guy who dropped Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemi upon an unsuspecting world) the maestro himself jumps from plot-point to plot-point with reckless abandon. While obviously having some respect for the original material, he takes ... liberty with the original canon when it suits him and creates the giant continuity cluster$#@! that was the 3rd OVA (and the scramble to fit it in with the original plot). The series takes a different slant from the other series in that it's got a lot more slapstick, and it's more risque in many places.
I will say that the crossover attempts and the AWFUL episode 17 (people at Funimation are going to hell for the dubbing of that episode BTW) were weak and really not necessary. The fact that this series came out before OVA 3 but referenced many parts of it, was also very disconcerting.

Art: Nothing stood out. Again, the artwork was heavily influenced by the director's style and his input is very clear.

Sound: I liked the opening credits music. But then all the Tenchi series have strong music.

Character: Enter the main character, Seina Yamada, the hopelessly cursed young man with legendary bad luck. While dropping by to see his friend Tenchi (who's also related to his best friend...don't get me started on the first of many continuity snafus) he's present for a Mihoshi-style crash landing of a Galaxy Police shuttle. The pilot, the sex object/mentor figure Amane, mistakenly things he's "in-the-know" to the wacky condition as Casa de Tenchi and hands him a recruitment brochure.
Seina then finds himself in the GP. I'm drifting into a synopsis, but work with me.
The GP, and the Jurai royals, soon discover Seina's unique ability to draw space pirates in like moths to a flame and they quickly decide to make use of that fact.
Seina is joined by the aforementioned Amane, model turned detective. His crush from back on Earth joins them as well, Kiriko. It's a mindbending rip of belief how Kiriko gets to GP HQ ahead of Seina, and if she was already aware of her royal status (yes, not even Tenchi knows that even his cousins on Earth get the royal treatment as well) what the heck she was doing on Earth before this point (reality bending, a Nabeshin special!)
Others include Ryoko Balta, who disappointingly does not share any of the roguish charm of her namesake but is also horribly miscast as a polite, almost prissy space pirate.
Then there is the child-like Neju, who true to anime stereotype, calls Seina "big brother" but is really 10,000 years old and also has designs on him.
The one standout character is the "Devil Princess of Jurai" Lady Seito. Her character is the one unique standout and plays very well in the 3rd OVA off of Washu. The other characters are quickly forgettable, but Seito will remain as one of the franchise's more memorable characters.

Enjoyment: This series was fun. It didn't wow me, it didn't make me think. It did give me headaches when they decided to screw with the established canon, but since it was continued in the 3rd OVA we have to assume that the Director and writers had some sort of blessing in this.
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a raunchy slapstick comedy. However, this series did lack the tenderness of the rest of the franchise and will doubtlessly turn off female fans. (I know this because the series is one of my wife's favorites).

Overall: Watanabe Shinichi's unique take on the Tenchi world is refreshing and entertaining, especially after the semi-flop of Tenchi in Tokyo. It's clearly in it's own little section of the universe and is certainly a different take on things. The satire of the Galaxy Police (shown as vain and fashion obsessed) and the Jurai family (shown as a little kooky and not completely sane) is very fun given that one has seen other installments of the Tenchi franchise (namely the OVAs)

Tenchi Muyo was part of my early childhood thanks to my father, who to this day still loves the series. About a year ago I tackled the most popular of the Tenchi series, Tenchi Muyo Universe, which was a fun adventure with a likeable cast and some occasionally good humor and antics. It’s not a perfect show by any means but it’s still a lot of fun and has some enjoyable science fiction concepts.And it’s also a prevalent part of my childhood, which is a probably reason it’s so endearing and loveable for me.

GXP came out in 2002 and has literally nothing to do with ... Tenchi, instead focusing on a character named Seina (AKA Not-Tenchi) who is recruited into the Galaxy Police. From there the typical hijinks ensue as he’s surrounded by a harem of women who all want his crotch, he faces off against bad guys, and everyone fights over him.

The series starts pretty strong and funny, building Seina to be a guy with terrible luck (which works for the Galaxy Police since it means he’s always running into pirates) and giving us a group of likeable girls to be his companions. But as the show progresses it flat lines in every department.

One of the reasons I think Tenchi worked was the lovable cast. Tenchi as our hero was likeable, Ryoko and Ayeka’s constant bickering and fighting led to good moments of comedy. The cast was diverse and interesting and it wasn’t so much about the dynamics of the harem as much as the dynamics of the individual characters that kept us watching. The characters were interesting and it was hard to choose a favorite.

GXP forgoes that though. While initially I found the characters to be slightly different, none took on personalities of their own through the course of the series. It’s like their basic attributes were taken into account but not so much any development. Amane is the daughter of a fashion mogul and a model. She likes Seina. Kiriko’s Seina’s childhood friend who randomly is part of the GP. She likes Seina. Ryoko is a pirate who turns straight and likes Seina. There’s a loli named Neju whose two thousand years old and likes Seina.

That’s about the only character trait they have too. They like Seina. Usually I can discuss characters in an anime on a level that’s a little deeper but I can’t say I can here. Even Seina himself is not interesting in the least. He has bad luck…and that’s about it. The bad guy is boring; the side characters are all pretty weak with the exception of Kamiki Jurai whose manipulative nature is enjoyable.

Even the story is pretty lame, and the little bit there is means a lot of padding takes place, none of it well done. The show shines when all the characters are in a formal setting and bickering but for the most part the women work together and no humor is made from their differences. If there had been a focus on that, the show would have been much more comedic. Instead the humor comes from sexual jokes that, while occasionally funny, shouldn’t be the only chuckle I get.

There are some good instances of humor in the facial expressions though, which I found completely hilarious. While the animation isn’t very good, there are still some wonderfully devious or evil faces that illicit a good laugh here and there.

But all that said, this is a very underwhelming show. When it involves Tenchi and shows us our favorite characters, I kept wondering why I wasn’t just watching Tenchi Muyo proper. There’s a whole episode dedicated to Seina returning to Earth and hanging with Tenchi and the gang and we see that hilarious interaction between Ayeka and Ryoko that made Universe and the OVA’s so funny. It’s kind of sad they even included that episode because, while connecting the story to the previously established one, it also leaves us begging for more of what we’ve come to love from the series.

GXP has good intentions and helps expand the universe of Tenchi, but it also isn’t very good. Even newcomers will find a lack of anything worthwhile in the twenty-six episodes. It’s a show yearning for the glory of the previous series, but never quite reaching those heights.

Fans of the series might want to give this a go for the sake of fan service, others will be better off watching the OVA’s and Universe.

I'd say that this is a Tenchi story that certainly had potential. The focus was changed from Tenchi Misaki and Earth to a new character and outer space. The problems were different and instead of the cast simply staying in a house until some new alien came to blow things up, here people were moving around and trying to do their job. The premise is definitely one that could work. The problem is the execution.

The main character, Seina Yamadal, doesn't show much in the way of character and frankly really isn't that different from any other harem anime protagonist. He's unlucky, average in looks, knowledge ... and physical capabilities and only obtained his chance at life in the Galactic Police by accident. If he was made a Juraian who obtained a sudden superpower when a girl was imperiled he'd basically be Tenchi-lite.

Seina's life prior to the series and his family effect almost nothing in the story. Indeed, his parents barely seem to care that he's left and his new life and friends don't seem to faze them in any way. His poor luck which has prevented Seina from making more than one friend prior to the series only appears for comedy's sake and honestly doesn't seem to mentally affect him any more than typical bad luck affects any harem lead.

His harem cast is equally average. They're all good looking women of the standard variety for a harem anime who are attracted to Seina for reasons that aren't really explained. There is little effort given to develop them beyond perhaps a single episode each for a few of the characters and several of the harem members never receive even that. Indeed, one of them had more personality while in disguise than as herself.

The villains are mostly weak and unimpressive. Admittedly there are two who have enough color to be interesting to watch, but sadly one fell from being a menacing threat to a joke and the other was only there to be a joke.

Ultimately I'd say that the problem with the story was the problem with Seina. It was just Tenchi-lite. A regular boy being forcibly introduced to an interstellar community, being forced to struggle to match his fellow recruits and not realizing that he's joined an organization that goes to the front lines of fighting crime until it's too late for him to get out could have provided one of the best stories in the Tenchi Muyo series and its most compelling character. Instead they went with what was safe and easy and for the last episode seemed to give up on a decent story altogether in favor of trying to keep hardcore fans of harem anime happy.