Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki is a 21 episode collection of OVAs including three episode specials. This will focus on the first six episodes of the series.
Warning: in episode 4 and 5 there are brief scenes of nudity.
"Ryo-Ohki"
If you love heram and slapstick comedy then this anime is for you! This is my MOST favorite anime of ALL time!!!
Tenchi Muyo! means "no need for Tenchi!" The anime is titled this because, even though Tenchi is the main character he is not needed to push the plot forwards, the girls do that enough. Only in the 3rd OVA and major fights is he important, his unimportance is shown more so in the manga series which I encourage you all to buy, it is a really good read and I might post pics on the Facebook page if guys want. Make sure to let me know.
Now it is time for my signature character profiling! But I will only write what one would be able to know from only episodes 1-6. This is because a LOT is revealed about the character's back stories and personalities as the series goes on. Note: the characters are listed in order in which we meet them with the exception of Tenchi's dad and grandfather.
Tenchi Masaki- A teenager that accidentally releases an alien space pirate (Ryoko), thereby drawing the attention of other space faring individuals (Ayeka and Sasami). His actions unintentionally cause the destruction of his school (at the hands of Ryoko) and the revelation that he himself is part of the powerful Juraian race, and a member of their royal family. In episode 6 it is revealed that he can create Light Hawk Wings (the power of the Jurai ships) himself without the aid of a royal tree (Tenchi has no Royal Tree but possesses both Yosho's sword key for tree Funaho and a bracelet to draw power from tree Tsunami [he also has a ring that allows him to activate his Jurain battle armor). When generating his own Light Hawk Wings, Tenchi can also perform energy-matter conversion which catches the eye of someone.
Ryoko Hakubi- A creation of the scientist Washu Hakubi (of her own egg and a substance called Masu [pronounced mass, we do not see this creature until episode 10]). Ryoko was a space pirate in the service of Kagato until she was sealed in a cave for 700 years (by Yosho), she is released by Tenchi in the first episode. She draws most of her powers from three mysterious gems and is partnered with her sister the cabbit-spaceship Ryo-Ohki. Ryoko has a deep love for Tenchi which was formed from watching him grow up in front of her cave. She also wants "to do this and that with Tenchi" - Washu Hakubi episode 6.
Ayeka Masaki Jurai- A princess of the Jurai Royal Family (the singal most powerful family in the galaxy, she is searching the galaxy for her half-brother Yosho with her sister Sasami when she detects Ryoko (whom Yosho had been pursuing prior to his disappearance) her tree-ship Ryu-Oh crashes on Earth during a confrontation with Ryoko (episode 2), where she reluctantly joins Tenchi and Ryoko at the newly relocated Masaki House. She a "pure" love for Tench, meaning she is not interested in sex but rather a traditional relationship.
Sasami Masaki Jurai- A princess of the Jurai Royal Family and as her and her sister's nomen suggest (fancy word for first last name) they are both related to Tenchi via Yosho, she tags along on her sister's search for Yosho. Sasami frequently cooks for the household and is paired with the tree-ship Tsunami (the original and most powerful tree-ship). She first sees Tenchi an older brother but starts to form a brother complex in OVA 2.
Mihoshi Kuramitsu- A member of the powerful Kuramitsu family of the Seniwa empire (not revealed until later) and a Detective of the Galaxy Police (which is also under Kuramitsu control [also not revealed until later]). Mihoshi is prone to clumsiness and can act ditsy, despite being highly intelligent. Mihoshi is distantly related to a very bright women (I wont tell you who :P) and through that lineage has the power of improbably good luck. She crashes on Earth while looking for Kagato (episode 4). She believes Tenchi to be her destiny since he rescued her from a sub-space hole.
Washu Hakubi- Is ranked among the top scientists in the galaxy and is self-pronounced "Greatest Scientific Mind in Universe!" She was trapped by Kagato and later released by Mihoshi (episode 6). She states that Tenchi is cute and because she was connected to Ryoko she also has the same feelings for Tenchi as she does, though these don't start to appear yet. (Washu is my favorite character and is my favorite redhead. Now you might say I have a thing for lolicon and I would reply, "Only if it is Washu!")
Katsuhito Masaki- Is Tenchi's grandfather. His full true name is Yosho Masaki Jurai and he is half-brother to Ayeka and Sasami. He is half earthling and half Jurain like his mother, therefore so is Tenchi.
Nobuyuki Masaki- Is Tenchi's Father. He is only an earthling.
It all began when Tenchi opened the gate...
At the Masaki shrine where Tenchi's grandfather is the priest, there is a cave that by shrine laws no one is allowed to enter. One day Tench Masaki steals the keys to the gate locking the cave so that he could get a look inside. He unknowingly releases a "demon" who is really the notorious space pirate Ryoko from her 700 year imprisonment, who after following Tenchi to school destroys the entire building while blowing off steam on Tenchi. Later after Tenchi is able to cut off her right hand removing the last of the three gems that give her power (don't worry her hand regenerates), she disappears to never be seen again. Yeah right, see turns up taking a nap in Tenchi's bed waiting for him to come home with the master key, or sword Tenchi (the sword that kept Ryoko imprisoned which contains now all three gems in its hilt). This was the first episode which was titled "Ryoko Resurrected" very fitting don't you think?
At the beginning of episode two, titled "Here comes Ayeka" we met Ayeka, the first princess of Jurai. Blah blah blah, you know why she came to earth. She captures both Ryoko and Tenchi and questions Ryoko as to the whereabouts of her brother. "Half-brother you mean," - Ryoko Hakubi, "Thank you Ryoko," - Admin. After Ayeka is ordered to bed by the Queen of Jurai (it is not known whether it is her mother or not [to be explained in OVA 2 review]) via an unnamed AI unite we meet the second princess of Jurai Sasami outside Tenchi's sell. She agrees to release Tenchi and bring him back to earth if he plays with her and steals her sister's headdress while she sleeps, yes it is still on her head while she sleeps which makes it a tad difficult to do. And of course Ayeka wakes up but while Tenchi is trying to get the sword from her hands not the headdress. This puts Tenchi in an awkward position, literally since he is kneeling over her in her bed. She kicks him out of the bed and orders Azaka and Kamidake to attack Tenchi, chasing him all the way to where Sasami is waiting and laughing at him. Eventually they reach Ryoko's cell and with a little help from Ryo-Ohki Tenchi and Ryoko manage to escape, but thats not the end of it, Ryoko uses Ryo-Ohki to push Ryu-Oh, Ayeka's ship, through earth's atmosphere and crash into the Great Seto Bridge. This causes both ships to crash into the pond by Tenchi's grandfather's shrine where the Masaki house is now located due to the crash of Ryoko's ship which held the house that had been shrunken. The episode ends with Ayeka's ship sinking into the pond beyond salvaging.
The third episode is called "Hello Ryo-Ohki!" and yeas this is the same Ryo-Ohki that is Ryoko's ship. It has been a week since the Masaki house relocation and apparently Ayeka has spend the entire time in her room without even saying thank you to the Masakis for letting her and Sasami stay there. Sasami was able to manipulate Ayeka into thinking that she had to go down stairs to thank the Masaskis (in later episodes in the second OVA and beginning of the third OVA she becomes quite skilled in "handling" the other girls of the house). When Ayeka finally makes it down stairs, expecting to see Tenchi in the living room, sees Ryoko and becomes angry. Ryoko is holding an egg which Sasami rushes over just to see it and questions her about it: did she lay it? Is she married? Who's the father? At the last question Ryoko leans in and whispers to Sasami who then backs away startled and yells, "Tenchi's the father!" This startles Ayeka too and she quickly turns her head towards a half asleep Tenchi that came into the room moments ago, who is even more confused since he didn't register what Sasami said and didn't know that Ryoko had an egg with her. Ryoko then walks over to Tenchi and says "I'm so happy, to bare the child of the man I love," she then places the egg in Tenchi's hands and he becomes even more confused. Then suddenly the egg begins to shake and crack, the next a tiny furry foot popped out of a crack in the egg startling Tenchi causing him to drop the egg cracking the rest of the shell. And guess who emerges from it, that right cute adorable little Ryo-Ohki! (check the face book page for a photo in the album: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki (OVA) at
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Anime-Central/231887816966996). Ryoko then explains that it is indeed the same Ryo-Ohki that is her spaceship. Ayeka gets fed up and thinks that everyone is making fun of her and leaves to stand outside by the pond where her ship is. Ryo-Ohki then goes outside to cheer up the saddened Ayeka but instead startles her. Later she and Ryo-Ohki stumble across Tenchi and Katsuhito practicing sword play, but right as she was about to ask them why their sword play was just like that of the Jurai royal family, she slips and fall off a small ledge and sprains her leg/ankle, they're not specific but my money is on that it is her ankle. Tenchi is then ordered by his grandfather to carry Ayeka home on his back they are caught in the rain and take shelter in a small shed-like cabin until it passes. Afterwards Tenchi brings Ayeka to the holy tree of Masaki Shrine where Ayeka reveals that it is really Funaho, Yohso's tree-ship giving her hope that he is still alive somewhere on earth.
The fourth episode is titled "Mihoshi Falls to the Land of Stars" and you guessed it, we meet Mihoshi in this episode. But first we see seventh headquarters of the Galaxy Police and meet its commander, we also meet one of the head marshals of the GP who is also Mihoshi's grandfather. We also meet Mihoshi's immediate superior (name not given at this time,but it is Captian Nobeyama), he tells Mihoshi to keep a look out in "The Solar System" (yes this is our solar system they are referring to, and they always refer to it as this) for the ruthless space pirate Kagato. Instead Mihoshi thinks she has to do her duty by capturing Kagato instead of calling seventh headquarters for the attack squad, which frightens her superior greatly. So she asks Yukinojyo, her ship's AI, for information on Kagato as they fly around the "Solar System." Meanwhile back on earth Masaki and company go to a hot spring inn run by Tenchi's aunt, you what they say, no good could come from a hot spring in an anime. And as I stated above this episode does contain some nudity for a short prolonged time (I know oxymoron, but I couldn't think of another way to describe it). So the princesses hop out of a van and run over to a coy pond while Nobuyuki is talking to the inn keeper, Tenchi's great aunt, and Tenchi is unpacking the van by himself. While he is doing this Ryoko explains that she is upset that he was flirting with Ayeka in the cabin (at this point she is assuming but later explains to Ayeka that she knows what happened by looking into Ryo-Ohki's memory since she was there too) and wants Tenchi to flirt with her too. Tenchi indirectly says no and Ryoko gates mad so she covers him in the luggage. The next scene starts off with Tenchi and his father in the men's bath and Nobuyuki is trying to convince his son to peek on the girls in the women's bath with him, what kind of father is he? He then dons the traditional attiar for peeping and climb up the hill to have a look into the women's bath without his so because Tenchi is a man of morals. But Ryoko meet Nobuyuki up there and startles him causing him to fall into the water and loose consciousness. Ryoko then flies down (while naked) and carries Tenchi off to the women's bath with her. Ayeka gets mad that Ryoko brought Tenchi to the women's bath and took her towel off in front of him, Ayeka was really not happy about that. Sooooo Ryoko and Ayeka fight leading to Ryoko summoning a water demon monster to attack Ayeka, but without the gem in her right wrist (still in Tenchi's sword) she couldn't control the monster so it decided to attack her along with everyone else at the hot spring. Now remember our friend flying around in space, well the energy pocket created by the water monster is now drawing Mihoshi's shuttle dangerously close to earth and at a high speed. This causes the shuttle to tear a hole in sub-space drawing everything including Tenchi, the monster, and Mihoshi's shuttle into it (actually that was all that was being drawn in). Ryoko was able to save Tenchi from being sucked in and Tenchi was able to save Mihoshi from a similar fate. As the hole in sub-space closes Tenchi and Mihoshi fall back to earth landing in the bath, this causes Tenchi to loose consciousness while Mihoshi is already unconscious. Later, Mihoshi is the first one to regain consciousness and explains who she is and why she is here (*cough* Ryoko's fault *cough*), she re-looses consciousness again once she realizes that Ryo-Ohki is the space pirate Ryo-Ohki and she eats Mihoshi's gun. At this Tenchi now regains consciousness and is clueless as to who the girl lying on the ground is. Needless to say the inn keeper was not happy about the damages done to the inn and hot springs.
The fifth episode is called "Kagato Attacks!" and you know what, some space pirate named Kagato attacks, who would have guessed (and yes this is the same Kagato that Mihoshi was trying to capture). But first we start in a hotspring floating over the pond by the Masaki house (I have no idea how this go here, where it came from, or who built it. It is a complete mystery to me, if anyone finds out please leave a comment or pm the facebook page it would mean a lot), and like I said before there is nudity in this episode as well but it is brief. Ryoko, Ayeka, and Mihoshi are having some drinks in the bath (no drinking until you're 21) while talking about Tenchi and how eachone feels about him. Then Sasami comes to try and get everyone out but instead there is another visitor, that's right it's Kagato and he has come to take Ryoko away. Mihoshi, using her expert detective skills lead Tenchi and the girls to Funaho (or the holy tree of Masaki Shrine) where Kagato appears stating that he is simply trying to take Ryoko back with him and to "talk" with the princesses aboard Shoja, his ship. There is a (very short) small fight between Kagato and Tenchi then Katsuhito arrives to help out. He then fights against Kagato and Ryoko who is now under Kagato's control again where at the end of the battle with victor decided Kagato retreats to the Shoja with Ryoko, Katsuhito reveals that he is really Yosho, crown prince of Jurai. Afterwards Tenchi decides that he MUST go rescue Ryoko and in need of a ship to travel in Ryo-Ohki fuses in her spaceship form with Ryu-oh's sub-space contianer (If you would like to know what this is please pm the facebook page and I would be more than happy to explain as well as anything else you may have questions about) to create a ship for the crew to go save Ryoko. During a space-style firefight with the Shoja, Tenchi goes to Ryu-Oh to activate the Light Hawk wings, though mainly used as defence they can be used to attack though it leaves the ship vulnerable to attack. Once Tenchi was able to fire, the Shoja also fired and its power was greater and blew up Ryu-Oh while Tenchi was still inside. Thinking Tenchi was dead Ryoko was over come with rage and shatered her prison and rushed to look for Tenchi in the debris, but all she found was his towel, soaked in blood.
The sixth and for this reviews purposes the last episode is titled "We Need Tenchi!" and wouldn't you agree that this is true. Ryoko makes it back to Ryo-Ohki to meet with the others to show them the towel. She then removes her earring that turns out to be one of the three gems and inserts it into her right wrist she with Ayeka, in her Juraian battle armor, and Mihoshi, dressed almost like an orange and purple bunny minus the ears, infiltrate the Shoja and seek out Kagato to make him pay. T this time Kagato is playing some awesome organ music and we see that Tenchi wasn't killed but was instead saved by Azaka and Kamidake and Tsunami comes to rescue him (come on, I know the show is called "Tenchi Muyo!" and all but don't tell me that you actually thought he was dead). As Ryoko and Ayeka are about to reach Kagato, Mihoshi's control cube, that can be seen in episode 4 but serves no purpose until now, places her in the reversed world of the ship (this will be explained a little soon but again message the page if you want to know more than what I'm going to put in the review). As you can guess this puts her in a different plane or dimension. As Ayeka and Ryoko begin to do battle with Kagato, Mihoshi is wandering around the reversed world until she stumbles across something interesting: a giant crystal that is protected by two giant stone snakes that attack her. She very easily subdues the snakes and we get a better glance at the crystal which has a small girl in it and it is obvious now that they, the snakes, are guarding her. As the snakes attempt to escape the ice Mihoshi put them in she plays with her cube to try and find a way to stop them, but instead weakens the seal restraining the girl, until finally the seal is broken, the snakes freeze, and the girl escapes. The girl then brings Ryoko in her astral form to the reversed world where we will soon find out a thing or too, or at least you will (I've seen this anime six times already XD). First you find out that this girl was once a science academy student along time ago. Second that visual-physiological tactics are your sex appeal. Third you learn that this girl is Ryoko's mother though not by birth but indeed by DNA. Fourth she created Ryo-Ohki and the Shoja as well. Fifth: she is Washu "and I just happen to be the top scientific genius in the universe!"- Washu Hakubi. Sixth: Ryoko is 2,000 years old. Seventh: Washu explains that the ship has a two layers, a top and a bottom with the space in the middle being only one way. And Eighth the last thing for now: Washu is connected to Ryoko the same way Ryoko is with Ryo-Ohki. With that Washu sends Ryoko's astral body back to her corporeal body in the normal dimension or plane where she continues her fight against Kagato. We then go visit Tenchi abaord Tsunami, and again Tenchi is confused (I'm not going to explain it right now you can message the page if you want to find out why he is confused), Tsunami explains to Tenchi that Ryoko and the others are fighting on the Shoja against Kagato. Meanwhile on the Shoja: Washu is attempting to explain to Mihoshi, still, that there is no way out of the reversed world while on the normal plane Ryoko continues her fight against Kagato. Soon Mihoshi finally grasps that there is no escape until Kagato is defeated, though I'm sure as to why there is no escape she still doesn't understand, so then Washu suggests they do one of the few things they can do on there side: watch the fighting and cheer on. While watching washu discovers that Ryoko isn't using her full strength and the reason why is that Ayeka would be hurt by the blast, so she uses Mihoshi's control cube to bring Ayeka, corporeal body and all, to the reversed world to be safe since forces in the normal plane can't affect those in another. Now you learn that Kagato was once Washu's student when she was a professor at the academy. Kagato then redirects the power from Ryoko's gems to the Shoja's main cannon and aims it straight at earth, but Tsunami's Light Hawk wings absorb all of the energy and then vanish and as they do the Shoja is under fire by Tsunami as well. As Kagato is about to defeat the weakened Ryoko, our star: Tenchi returns in full Juraian battle armor to save her. He then begins to fight Kagato with his sword, Kagato then explains that the master key is a tool to control or activate the ship and is useless when separated from the ship's power, Tenchi then uses a bracelet that harnesses the power of Tsunami against him, but Kagato's shield is too strong. Kagato is now in full control of all the gems and Washu states that there is only one more thing they could do in the Reversed world: pray real hard. When all seemed lost Tenchi remembered what Tsunami told hi, that he can't rely on the sword solely but rather the power he possesses inside himself. He then throws the sword on the ground and take one of Kagato's attacks head on, but Tenchi uses his own Light Hawk wings to reflect the blast. His armor is then altered (to what I like to call his god armor) and he uses his material conversion ability to change one of his wings into a tangible sword/boomer rang that he uses to destroy crystals attacking him and turns the shield he created to block a laser blast attack into another sword that he used to kill Kagato, ending it once and for all. Tenchi's Light Hawk wings then disappear bringing his armor back to normal and all the girls arrive from the reversed world and shower him in love. Washu then thanks Tenchi for saving her and then states that he is cute and asks if he wants to be a guinea pig for her experiments. But all conversations are cut short as they realize that not only did Tenchi cut Kagato in half but he also managed to cut the entire (HUGE) Shoja in half also. We then see Azaka and Kamidake on earth by the front gate to the Masaki property, where they will reside for most of the rest of the series. We then see a few explosions behind the gate and hear shout from everyone, the Masaki house now has one more occupant and this is the end of episode six.
I loved this anime and so many things about it were in play when I decided my rating:
- The simplicity of the backgrounds used
- The simplictic yet detailed drawing of the characters
- The fact that there was a large over all plot along with four sub-plots
- The character's personalities
- And even though there wasn't much, the character's backgrounds
I give this anime a 10/10 and i hope you enjoy it to.
Remember if you have any questions leave a comment or for more immediate response you can message the facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Anime-Central/231887816966996). See you later for the next review!
