Customer Ratings & Reviews

This set collects the first Tenchi Muyo TV series, which is based on the OVA (Original Video Animation) series called 'Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-Oh-Ki'. The characters are pretty much the same as in the OVA series. Tenchi thinks he is an ordinary Japanese high school student but is unaware that he has a much greater destiny. He also has unusual luck with women, Tenchi tends to attract cute alien women. Within the span fo a few episodes, a space pirate, a mad scientists, a pair of alien princesses (one is named Sasami, who happens to be one of my favorite anime characters), two Galaxy Police officers and a bounty hunter come into Tenchi's life. Tenchi Universe tells a different story from 'Ryo-Oh-Ki', which was done so TV audiences in Japan who had not seen the OVA series could get on board from the beginning. The first half of the series does not have a central storyline, these are self-contained episodes that are played mainly for comedy. And these episodes are among the funniest I have ever seen, always fun viewing. The second half tells the story of a coup on Jurai (where Sasami and her sister Ayeka come from), the second half has a nice amount of action but this is balanced by some great humor (who knew there were sushi bars in outer space?) and a few dramatic epsiodes. In between, we have the 'Time Space Adventures' which are sort of alternate reality versions of Tenchi Muyo. One has a nice 'magical girl' parody and another is a 'Bonny and Clyde' style adventure. The entire series is very well done. The animation is good by TV standards and the story is brilliantly written. The comic, action and dramatic elements all work very well together and feel natural. Tenchi Universe also features some great songs (in the Japanese version at least), the opening theme is a great rock-pop number and there are nice songs throughout. All in all, this is one of the best anime around. The Japanese version features one of the best casts ever assembled. A very talented cast of players that do a fantastic job in this series, the English cast just cannot match the original cast. So make sure you watch the Original Japanese version.

As a child I enjoyed viewing this anime, but now that I'm older this anime is still one of my favorites, if you don't watch and buy this anime your making a big mistake!