Tenchi Muyou! Ryououki

Seventeen-year-old Tenchi Masaki grew up hearing stories about how his ancestor used a sword to seal a demon inside a cave seven hundred years ago. When curiosity gets the better of him, Tenchi goes to the cave and stumbles across the sword from the legend. Thinking that the story is nothing more than a fairy tale, he removes the blade and inadvertently releases the demon, who turns out to be a space pirate named Ryouko Hakubi. Furious about being trapped for so long, she attacks Tenchi, but he is able to repel her with the sword, awakening his inner power. After seeing this, Ryouko takes an interest in her unlikely savior and decides to crash at his place.

As if it were a chain reaction, more alien women—Aeka Jurai Masaki, an uptight princess from the planet Jurai; Sasami, Aeka's sweet younger sister; Mihoshi Kuramitsu, a ditzy Galactic Police Officer; and Washuu Hakubi, a wisecracking genius—gradually come in contact with Tenchi and begin living with him. Through his encounters with these five women, Tenchi begins to learn more about his ancestry, newfound power, and the looming threat lurking beyond the skies.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hakubi, Ryouko Main

Orikasa, Ai Japanese

Masaki, Tenchi Main

Kikuchi, Masami Japanese

Masaki, Sasami Jurai Main

Yokoyama, Chisa Japanese

Masaki, Aeka Jurai Main

Takada, Yumi Japanese

Kuramitsu, Mihoshi Main

Mizutani, Yuuko Japanese

Hakubi, Washuu Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuko Japanese

Ryou-Ouki Supporting

Kozakura, Etsuko Japanese

Kagato Supporting

Wakamoto, Norio Japanese

Tsunami Supporting

Masaki, Katsuhito Supporting

Aono, Takeshi Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Inoue, Hiroaki Producer

Hasegawa, Yasuo Producer

Hayashi, Hiroki Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Aug 8, 2022

Vaguelyweebish

Recommended

The definitive Harem anime that spawned a boatload of tropes! And best of all--the fanservice is relatively minimal!

This bizarre but thoroughly fun Science Fantasy rom-com is sadly not widely known by a lot of young folks nowadays. It's definitely not for the kids since there is some nudity, though it feels far more natural and less gratuitous than the cringe-worthy breast physics present in today's trope-filled torrent of junk we need to sift through nowadays, plus some dialogue can get EXTREMELY suggestive. ("I need a sperm sample! How should I get it?" Give the poor kid some privacy!) Every character, from what I can tell, ... is the root of every tsundere, kuudere, (soft) yandere, deredere, and "loli." Plus there's a heccin' cute space puppy-kitty that is also a spaceship and can morph into a surprisingly cute girl. Both the smol and huggable kind and and curvy kind. Yeah, I don't get it either.

It's kind of hard to explain this show without revealing any major plot points or ruining the great worldbuilding. Give it a watch if you're old enough to not giggle at the sight of breasts for a laid-back and (relatively) wholesome rom-com that will take you back to simpler times.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 1, 2021

Neimaj

Recommended

*SPOILER FREE*

I haven't been making many reviews, recently. I've been going through some personal issues, as of late. I was in rehab for a couple of months, because I got addicted to soap, but now I'm clean. HA! You see, that's how you start off the new year, son! Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki. My second favorite harem show next to the Monogatari series. At first glance, Tenchi Muyo seems like a trashy harem comedy that just happens to be a sci-fi. However, if you peel back all of the layers and take a deeper look you get...a trashy harem comedy that just happens to be a ... sci-fi. In all seriousness, Tenchi Muyo's story and lore is so unbelievably dense that you could use it as a weapon and bash the skull of a Puma. There's a lot to explore with this one. Let's get into it.
Many centuries ago, a horrible monster terrorized the planet and brought suffering to the entire world. One day, out of pretty much nowhere, a legendary warrior by the name of Yosho fought the beast and sealed it in a wooden sword and hid it within a deep, deep cave. That story is not inaccurate. Our main lead, Tenchi Masaki, wants to find that sword more than anything. You see, that story was told to Tenchi by his grandfather, and of course, Tenchi finds the sword and releases the dreadful monster. But wait, that monster turned out to be a super hot kawaii desu ne girl. Ryoko, that golden godde- I mean, she's okay. I don't like her or anything. Y-yeah. That's what I meant. She has caused me to spill more seed than Muhammad Ali punching a birdfeeder. Don't fucking judge me.

Without her powers, Ryoko is pretty much harmless at that point, so they keep her around the house. She also has a pet/spaceship named Ryo-Ohki, who is just the cutest little thing. After Ryoko becomes part of the main cast, we're introduced to a gaggle of new girls who will be a part of the harem. You have Ayeka and Sasami Jurai. These girls are Juraian royalty with Ayeka being the older sister and Sasami being the younger sister. Ayeka is on a personal quest to find her older brother, Yosho. That legendary warrior I mentioned earlier, who was next in line for the Juraian throne. I don't know if "Juraian" is an actual word, but I'm keeping it in anyway. Yosho left planet Jurai to defeat Ryoko, since she's a space pirate and tried to conquer their home planet. Sasami doesn't do much. She typically keeps Ayeka under control when Ryoko pisses her off. She does all of the cleaning and cooking, and is just a genuine sweetheart. She also wants to see her brother, but she doesn't care as much as Ayeka. Next we have Mihoshi. Mihoshi is a galaxy police officer who is hunting down Ryoko. Ryoko's influence in the story really creates a domino effect for introducing these characters. Many of them would not even be in the story if it weren't for her evil doing. Mihoshi is terrible at her job and the only reason why she's in the position she's in is because she has family connections. She is such a blatant airhead and is probably my least favorite character in the series. If I had to say one positive thing about her, it would be that she's kind of cute. A lot of the women in this series are pretty cute, honestly. And finally, we have Washu. She's considered to be the greatest scientist in the entire known universe and is thousands of years older than the rest of the cast. OVA Washu is far better than TV Washu. I'm not sure why they did this, but TV Washu is just insufferable in the TV series, because they changed her personality. They gave TV Washu a very smug and egotistical attitude. She knows she's incredible and that's all she spouts. It makes her character more shallow compared to her OVA counterpart who's a lot more entertaining and humble.

I did a surprisingly good job not giving away spoilers. I will admit, a non-spoiler review of a series like this is not very convincing. I'm fully aware that harem shows have a bad reputation in the anime community. Please trust me, this one is exceptional. Watch season two after this one, it does a better job at explaining the world of Tenchi Muyo and gives more context to the first season. And it even foreshadows some future events later in the series. Sadly, it does go downhill after season two. Season three is the proper conclusion to the OVA's, so you have to watch it. Everything after that is a stupid cash grab that you shouldn't watch at all. One last thing, the OP for season one is awesome. It's just a sweet ass nineties jam session and I love it. I don't know who's playing that fretless bass in the background, but that person deserves a medal. My scores:

Story: 8/10
Art: 9/10
Sound: 8/10
Characters: 7/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 23, 2021

Animaniac2020

Not Recommended

First of all, I love old school harem anime and would rate El Hazard, made by the same company (AIC Pioneer) at around the same time, an 8/10. I had heard of Tenchi Muyou! for decades and finally decided to watch the first two seasons.

What a disappointment. It was just bad...on so many levels. The only reason I can think of to explain the very high reviews is nostalgia. But if you're watching this for the first time, be forewarned. The story fails on the most fundamental levels. The harem aspects are poorly crafted and most of ... the screen time is devoted to the girls fighting amongst themselves.

It is as if the writers did not understand the basic importance of conflict at the heart of all great stories. Tenchi is forbidden from entering the family temple by his grandfather but he steals the keys and inadvertently releases a 700 year old demon. Despite this, he faces no repercussions from his grandfather - not even a lecture.

The horrific demon turns into a beautiful woman named Ryouko and begins living in the same house with Tenchi and his grandfather for no reason. Think of every manga, anime, movie or TV show you ever loved and imagine the protagonist and antagonist living together in the same house. This destroys any sense of conflict between them.

When the other women show up they add little to the drama or the harem. Space Princess Aeka, is a prudish, overly-formal woman who would make any guy uncomfortable in her presence. Her little sister, Sasami, is way too young for any appropriate relationship. Plus, they're both related to Tenchi! Then there's Mihoshi, the Space Police Officer who is utterly brainless and Washuu who is even older than the 700 year old Ryouko. Worst of all, there are very few scenes when they compete for Tenchi's affections.

The 6 OVA episodes were very tough to get through. I highly recommend "El Hazard: The Wanderers" or "To LOVE-Ru" (2008) instead. Each is 26 episodes of fantasy adventure with beautiful girls, smart and decent boys plus a whole lot of laughs.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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