Tenchi Muyo
Tenchi Muyo (Japanese天地 无用! Tenchi Muyo! ) Is the title of several anime OVA and television series, which was implemented on the basis of their success in Japan as manga, light novel and radio play. The first Tenchi Muyo -! Anime was released in 1992 under the title Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki - (天地 无用!魉 皇 鬼) in the form of an OVA. In 1994 a second OVA series, followed by the television series Tenchi Universe 1995 with 26 episodes. Appeared in 1997, the second television series Shin Tenchi Muyo! with a further 26 episodes. Was published in 2001 Tenchi Muyo GXP and 2003, a third OVA series. Between 1996 and 1999, three feature films were made. There were other series after 2000.
The actions of the various series contradict each other largely. While most characters come in all series before, but their relationships are different from each other and be built in the various series in part in different kind of scratch.
Title and name
The title can be, among others, to Tenchi ( is ) unnecessary / superfluous, or Tenchi No one needs (English title: " No need for Tenchi " ) translate. However Tenchi also means heaven and earth. The names of the other characters also often describe their properties so Ryoko and Mihoshi Dämonenbeschwörerin means pretty and star, or come from places in the Okayama Prefecture.
Series concept
All parts of the series deal with the young Tenchi Masaki. This freed accidentally a demon who was detained by one of his ancestors in a cave several hundred years ago. This turns out to be Weltraumpiratin and Tenchi as a descendant of a prince from another solar system out. Gradually, more female aliens come to a space cop, two princesses ( and youthful sisters of the grandfather ) and a scientist ( who is also the mother of the female pirate ) who want to seduce Tenchi, or abuse it for their own purposes.
The series was in her humor influenced by American films and series, so called director Hiroki Hayashi especially Tom and Jerry. The traditional Japanese Noh theater and Kabuki can be found in Tenchi Muyo again, resound Noh noises whenever Ryoko enters the scene. Antonia Levi also sees the myth of Amaterasu and Susanoo as a basis of action.
Versions
OVA main series
The OVA series is based on a concept by Hiroki Hayashi and Masaki Kajishima, where Hayashi who also directed and Kajishima designed the character design. Artistic director Takeshi Waki was. The series was produced by Anime International Company and distributed by Pioneer LDC.
The first Tenchi Muyo OVA series Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki - (天地 无用!魉 皇 鬼) started in 1992 with six episodes. In the OVA Tenchi freed the Weltraumpiratin Ryoko and has to deal soon with the alien princesses Ayeka and Sasami. 1999 appeared the OVA in German on VHS.
The second part of the Tenchi series was released September 1993 as a 45 - minute special. All is calm and Ryoko Tenchi tries with information from manga to win for themselves. Ayeka you come on the ropes and tries to turn their fortunes. In 2000, the Special appeared in German.
In March 1994, appeared with Tenchi Muyo! Special Mihoshi OVA and the third associated with the first and second OVA. Mihoshi tells the story itself and also introduces her partner Kiyone.
A six-part OVA continues the first series of 1994 and forms the second OVA season. She appeared in Japan in 1994 and in Germany in 2002 on VHS.
This OVA was released in 2003 and includes six episodes. It forms the third season of the OVA series and puts Tenchi Muyo! Ryōōki from 1994 on.
Other television series and OVAs
Tenchi Universe (天地 无用! (ねぎし 版 天地) ) started in 1995 with 26 episodes on Japanese TV. It is a stand-alone series, where the characters and the background were changed slightly.
1995-1997 appeared the three-part OVA maho shōjo Pretty Sammy. In 1996 he was a 26- part television series of the same name. The series play in a different world than the previous one. Sasami has held a role as a Magical Girl here. The Special can still be found in the third volume of the manga.
1997 appeared a second, also independent, television series Shin Tenchi Muyo (新·天地 无用! ) With a further 26 episodes. The characters and the background were greatly changed again in this series. The series is also known as the Tenchi in Tokyo.
Tenchi Muyo! GXP is the third series in the Tenchi Universe. It includes 26 episodes and was released in 2002. The main character is this time not Tenchi, but his friend Seina Yamada. He is lucky to be confused by ( Un) with Tenchi and recruited for the GXP. The series itself is classified according to the third OVA.
2006, the 13 - part TV series, Sasami was in Japan maho shōjo Club broadcast, which continued with a second season.
Mangas
The manga by Hitoshi Okuda appeared from 1994 to 2000 in Japan Kadokawa Shoten in the magazine Comic Dragon Jr and in twelve volumes. In the German-speaking area of Carlsen Verlag published the twelve reams of 2001 and 2003. The manga follows on from the second OVA series. Some events in the following OVAs contradict with those of the manga.
2001-2005 the continuation of the manga by Hitoshi Okuda appeared in the magazine Comic Dragon Age by Kadokawa Shoten. The chapter were summarized in ten anthologies. Carlsen Comics has also published this in German, Viz Media in English.
In 2002 he released a single volume with this manga spin-off series in Kadokawa Shoten, also by Hitoshi Okuda.
2002 appeared at Kadokawa Shoten also a manga adaptation of the series Tenchi Muyo! GXP
Movies
Between 1996 and 1999, three feature films, Tenchi Muyo released! In Love (天地 无用! Into LOVE ) Tenchi Muyo! Manatsu no Eve (天地 无用!真夏 の イヴ) and Tenchi Muyo! In Love 2: Haruka naru omoi (天地 无用in LOVE2遙 か なる 想い).
The theme song to Tenchi Muyo! In Love, Alchemy of Love, comes from Christopher Franke and Nina Hagen.
Radio plays and Light Novels
Light plays and novels yet been marketed in Japan.
Merchandise
Merchandise is still produced in Japan and some other countries such as art books, video games, trading cards and figures to the series.
In 2000, the Canadian publisher Guardians of Order, a pen & paper role-playing game to Tenchi Muyo! published. There were several video games, which are, however, to get outside of Japan hardly.
Analysis and reception
In The Complete Anime Guide Tenchi Muyo is! placed in a series with the series Urusei Yatsura by Rumiko Takahashi, who previously had a similar slapstick humor and the more and more aliens vying for the favor of a young people. The Occupy of familiar roles with new, quirky characters bring the series a new style. The appeal of the series lies in the fact that the viewer constantly ask how the characters behave next.
Antonia Levi sees Tenchi Muyo many influences of Shinto, let the story of the liberation Ryoko on the myth of Amaterasu back. The trees with the braided ropes that serve as aircraft are derived from the Shimenawa. So Masaki Kajishima interpret the myths new, with great freedom and creates, similar to the Japanese creation myths, different variants. It never come to a mere retelling of the plot elements and properties of mythological figures were recombined. Tenchi Masaki called Antonia Levi as a typical passive male character, as occurs in some anime. Although he initially WOULD strong, but will increasingly unsettled by the incoming female aliens and his own origins.
According to Patrick Drazen the Tenchi Muyo was successful not only in Japan but also in the United States. He sees in the series occurring in the trees, flying or diehnen as guardians of Jurai, not just the Shimenawa, but also a position on the importance of nature and the environment.
The journal describes Animania 1999, the first OVA, Tenchi Muyo Ryo Ohki - as one of the best comedies on the market, with comedy from slapstick as well as from the interaction of the characters, but not degenerating to dud. The characters are likeable and complex than in other comedies. The German dubbing is well taken. In the 5th and 6th episode, the series offers more drama and excitement, but still a lot of humor. The Special The Night before the Carnival fancy a " furious, chaotic completion " of the first season, the purely replaced on comedy. This seventh episode of the series was one of their highlights, even if the German synchronization have subsided. The second season of the OVA offer still plenty of humor, but also have some weaknesses in the plot. The comedy routines that are placed between serious parts of the plot would indeed break up, but often annoying.
For manga Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki - writes the AnimaniA that funny deposit the desire to get more. Draw Risch, the manga orienting to the OVA series, it would have worked a lot with scanning film, so the images looked quite dark, but this does not disturb. The plot was well thought out and mountains surprising twists.