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REVIEW: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki season 4


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Spastic Minnow
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 26, 2020 3:35 pm Reply with quote
Thespacemaster wrote:


Bottom Line: The Ryo-ohki verse should end for good and just give Tenchi and his gang the final curtain and move on, They should instead switch to Geminar and those events as those are more interesting than what we got lately. Hell i would not mind another GXP sequal as long as they stop doing more Ryo-ohki verse ovas as they seem somewhat pointless at this stage.


I was with you in the beginning but boy do we diverge.

Yes, if you watch the recent OVA's by themselves they are woefully inadequate, as they really are only complimentary to the novels and other stories, and absolutely everyone who only wants to only watch them and not search out more is completely within their right to complain and quit... but the point is that it is YOU who should quit. Not them. Books are being published, there's still an ongoing interest and OVA are still being made because there is still an audience. Even IF that audience is not YOU. They are not being made for an audience only familiar with what has been officially released in the U.S.

Really, these OVA are just glorified OAD and should maybe be released directly in conjunction with the novels- because that's what they are- companions to the novels.

But just know, that if you want more Geminar or GXP, you want more of the original series -they are inextricably linked. Not separate entities like the others.

I would be fascinated by Geminar continuation because I also loved it and if it ended with the Tenchi cast "saving" Kenshi, as planned,when he gets out, thousands of years will have probably elapsed in his couple years there.
That would definitely be one way to jump start the franchise... Tenchi in the 41st century!

I would like a GXP Renza anime arc but with the way the novels have been integrated into the overall series by the OVA, I don't know if it would be a continuation of the anime as it was presented. it would probably be a version incorporating the novel's versions of the cast and tied into the wider story- as these OVA are. Suddenly the Renza girls would be actual characters instead of horny girls trying to jump Seina and there would be three more quasi-cabbits that can all turn into grown women.

I love the extended story.

The other part we diverge is that I've even lost respect for Tenchi Unverse. There are good parts, but I consider all the other versions to be cartoon caricatures of the original.
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Cardcaptor Takato



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PostPosted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 1:54 am Reply with quote
Spastic Minnow wrote:


The other part we diverge is that I've even lost respect for Tenchi Unverse. There are good parts, but I consider all the other versions to be cartoon caricatures of the original.
Aside from Mihoshi who basically got split into two characters, everyone of the main cast has mostly the same roles and personalty that they did in the OVAs. It's just Universe is a more laid back slice of life of comedy until the backend of the show and Universe trimmed down the world building exposition fat of the OVAs that ultimately never really went anywhere. In Tokyo has more drastic rewrites to the characters' backgrounds but even In Tokyo the cast still has their core personalities. Though one could argue Tenchi has more of a backbone in Tokyo which I don't really see as a bad thing for him. But if the main draw to Tenchi for you was the harem hijinks and Ryoko vs Ayeka with some sci-fi action on the side that a lot of fans feel are missing from recent OVA entries, Universe is basically that.
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Spastic Minnow
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 10:26 am Reply with quote
I find them simplified versions of the originals. Pure tropes. Aeka is a bitter laughing Ojosama almost all the time. Ryoko is just unbearably selfish for most of Universe. Washu is just a mad scientist.

The offshoots were given templates that they just ran with. Core personalities that have no back story that you really know, weird arbitrary changes that if were fully implemented WOULD change them.
For instance, why does Ryoko love Tenchi? There is a reason in the OVA but that reason was actually deleted in the other versions (transferred to Washu- but that captivity doesn't seem to affect HER much). Ryoko spent 700 years developing her undeveloped emotions and eventually falls in love with Tenchi as she witnesses him grow up. So why would a free space pirate slum it on Earth and fall in love with a potato? You can only assume each version has some version of an unexplained Kagoto fight and they came together for that but it's still a mystery. I understand the motivations for the characters in the OVA, the others are what they are because they inherited a personality.
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Cardcaptor Takato



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PostPosted: Sun Jun 28, 2020 12:45 am Reply with quote
That's my problem with the OVA canon though because in the OVA canon it ultimately doesn't matter why Ryoko loves Tenchi because everyone gets railroaded into a political marriage where everyone gets what they want either because of Kajishima's personal harem fantasies or marketing purposes because they can't afford to offend any of the shippers in the fanbase at this point by having Tenchi pick someone like last time they did it with Sakuya in Tokyo. You can argue Universe simplifies things but it knows what story it wants to tell and how it's going to end it and what expectations it sets for it's audience. And for all that Universe is criticized for being a simplified version of the characters, I would say Tenchi Forever has some of the most complicated examinations of the cast and their feelings with choices that are made that have consequences and sacrifices.
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Nobuyuki



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PostPosted: Sun Jun 28, 2020 11:52 pm Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
You can argue Universe simplifies things but it knows what story it wants to tell and how it's going to end it and what expectations it sets for it's audience. And for all that Universe is criticized for being a simplified version of the characters,

Both of these things can be, and are, true at the same time.
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Cardcaptor Takato



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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2020 12:30 am Reply with quote
Nobuyuki wrote:

Both of these things can be, and are, true at the same time.
My point is yes the characters are more "simplified" in Tenchi Universe but I don't really see that as a drawback for the show.
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Spastic Minnow
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2020 4:32 pm Reply with quote
After I posted my last response I did have second thoughts. After all, it's just my opinion.
Plus, it's been years since I made myself watch it. and I may not have watched Tokyo since it was on Cartoon Network.

Still. You seem to answer my criticism of Universe's lack of any backstory by deflecting and criticizing your displeasure with the OVA.
If you don't like the Harem route, that's your loss but it is not a compromise to avoid shipping, it is a cornerstone of the story introduced as soon as you know Aeka expects to marry her half-brother. Yosho and Aeka are half-siblings because the Emperor has two wives.

I do suggest at least reading the True Tenchi novels. So much background. He's been mapping out the overarching plot since the beginning.

Whatever... I even forgot that that a version of Kagato IS the villain of Universe so their reason for meeting and creating a harem couldn't have to do with that backstory either.


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But to go back to my earlier post. I just came upon a part of the GXP novels that partially contradicts my criticism of the one-sided polygamy. Seina is pleading with Yosho to help keep Airi under control (she continually tries to insert herself into his harem) and Yosho explains he can't do a thing. It is perfectly normal in their society for BOTH halves of a marriage to have other partners. they've known each other for 700 years, reunited and married for 550 years, he has no problem with her being with other men and she doesn't seem to mind his serial marriages... and village of offspring. It doesn't say outright that she can have more husbands, but when you live for hundreds and thousands of years you simply seem to need variety... apparently.

Then again, they also strongly imply that they are not currently in the best relationship at that point... which Washu "fixes" by twisted means. spoiler[If you read the Yosho novel you know they began their friendship when he was 12 and she was about 15. They conceived Minaho when he was 15. Apparently Airi has been a shotacon ever since. SO, Washu age regresses them so they're even younger than when they met. They then spend time on Earth together as children for a vacation... and rekindle their relationship. With gossip following that if these types of vacations continue Tenchi could be getting another aunt or uncle.]

Also, interestingly, the books do present a couple examples of monogamous relationships among Jurians and the other long-lived races, even at least one minor Jurian character who is a widow and has taken an oath to not marry again. Still, there is a weird section where Seto is talking with Mikami and/or Airi and they half-jokingly suggest that if Seto wants to get a new husband they might help get rid of her current one.

It's a little more contradictory than I remember.


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And one more little comment about how the franchise has moved on from Tenchi and more to Seina (or maybe more appropriately- Seto)... Well yeah. It's a weird animal. Tenchi is a crown prince of Jurai but a big part of every series has always been that he is very far off from wanting to be a part of it.
So unless you accept the story fast-forwarding thousands of years for a period when he is ready to stop farming carrots and participate, the business of Unifying the rule of the Galaxy will rest on others.
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Cardcaptor Takato



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2020 3:31 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Still. You seem to answer my criticism of Universe's lack of any backstory by deflecting and criticizing your displeasure with the OVA.
It's not a deflection. I just don't consider the issues you have with Universe to be a detraction for me and I like Tenchi for different reasons than you do.
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