Useless Tenchi

Anime => Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki => Topic started by: Ryo-Okay on November 18, 2020, 10:54:14 PM

Title: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Ryo-Okay on November 18, 2020, 10:54:14 PM
I've been struggling to find anime to watch lately, so I decided to give Ai another shot. This was my introduction to the series back in 2015, but the format made me drop it pretty quick. I still don't like that it is 3-minute episodes, but it makes it easy to squeeze one in here and there.

So far it hasn't been too bad. I'm only 10 episodes in though, so things could change. I still really like Ryoko and the rest of the Tenchi cast's redesigns. I've been a fan of Yasuda longer than I've been a fan of Tenchi though, so I'm a bit biased. I think the new girls designs are pretty boring though. I think glasses suit Tenchi pretty well.

We'll see how far I actually end up getting with it. I have a bad habit of dropping off shows half way through, even shows I really enjoy.

(https://i.imgur.com/MxWd4Lf.jpg)(https://i.imgur.com/7NBWMVs.png)
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Harls on November 19, 2020, 01:36:11 AM
I agree that format was the biggest issue with me. I stuck it out, though.
As long as you don't take it for more than a romp, it's not that bad.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Nonsuch Ned on November 19, 2020, 09:38:52 AM
How are you watching it? I decided to be a good little completest and franchise supporter and bought the DVD... or BD, forget.
I haven't gotten up the courage to play it though (I have a HUGE backlog though... and mostly watch bits and pieces of Tenchi to double-check wiki articles).

I'm wondering if they just went ahead and removed EDs and OPs for most of them. If they just let them play for the 4 weekly episodes (? - the fifth was the weekly recap, right?  :stonk: )  without a break it would improve things.

I got through it during the initial run... or a little after. I didn't watch every day.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Harls on November 19, 2020, 05:10:33 PM
QuoteI'm wondering if they just went ahead and removed EDs and OPs for most of them.

Nope.
It's the short format, without the recaps. I have it, too.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Ryo-Okay on November 19, 2020, 06:25:32 PM
Quote from: Nonsuch Ned on November 19, 2020, 09:38:52 AM
How are you watching it?
It's on youtube in 3 1-hour parts. No OPs or EDs, just one episode after another. Recaps are still in though.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Eff Efferson on November 20, 2020, 10:23:57 AM
the hardest part for me was watching tenchi get raped repeadedly by girls he doesnt know
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Ryo-Okay on November 21, 2020, 09:12:26 PM
I'm about a third of the way through now. The format still sucks, and the constant recaps are annoying. The blonde girl reminds me of Wahan from Geminar.

Tenchi is gonna crossdress next episode for some reason...  :christ:
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: darkofficer on November 23, 2020, 08:51:59 AM
The only thing I remember is that he has an picture with him and salami as background
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Ryo-Okay on November 23, 2020, 10:27:27 AM
Quote from: darkofficer on November 23, 2020, 08:51:59 AM
an picture with him and salami as background
Sounds tasty.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: takahata on November 23, 2020, 02:12:31 PM
My main problem with the series was the lack of emphasis on the past,  By the end of the series, there is an important reference about the Masaki Family and Momo. When you watch the last episode, keep an eye on the story.  You will figure out what is the connection between Jurai, the Masaki Family on Earth,  Momo and the present.


:Hek: :gtfo: :merchant:
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Ryo-Okay on November 24, 2020, 05:21:53 PM
I just started the sports festival arc, and I'm a bit confused about something. The show keeps beating down the science club and expects me to find it funny, but they haven't actually done anything wrong. Instead, it just makes the student council look like assholes.

The science club asked for more funding in the first couple of episodes, but was refused because they "didn't give a good reason." Now 20 episodes in I can only assume that was a lie, and the only reason they didn't get more funding was because the student council doesn't like them. The student council cheated them at the beauty pageant by forcing them to compete as 1 entry but split the score they earned 3 ways. And then at the sports festival they were cheated again. Yuki and the katana girl were in a race that allowed weapons. Katana girl had her katana, obviously, and Yuki used the robot from earlier in the show. The science club broke no rules, but, because they are supposed to be the antagonists, the student council cheats and hacks the robot.

The only bad thing the science club has done is attempt to molest Tenchi, but the student council did that as well.

TL;DR the student council is trash. The science club did nothing wrong.
(https://i.imgur.com/WvLpSWQ.png)
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: vegeta1215 on December 01, 2020, 11:02:44 PM
Ai Tenchi Muyo was a pleasant surprise. The format isn't ideal, but it was a fun show and felt like Tenchi again (esp after OVA 3, which I was not fond of). I wish Momo's story (and who she really is) was woven into the show more though, cause a lot of it is sprung on you at the end. It was so good to hear everyone's voices again who returned. It's a shame that after they got Petra Burchard back after so long Jennifer Darling and KT Vogt had retried from voice acting.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Ryo-Okay on December 02, 2020, 10:46:53 AM
Quote from: vegeta1215 on December 01, 2020, 11:02:44 PM
it was a fun show and felt like Tenchi again
In what way does it feel like Tenchi? I'm over halfway through and so far it is some of the most generic and forgettable haremshit I've seen. Give the Tenchi characters different names and this wouldn't even be a Tecnhi show.

Does Ryo-Ohki just not appear in this show? Or does she just show up way late in the series like Mihoshi did?
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: vegeta1215 on December 02, 2020, 12:11:51 PM
It was Petrea. All Petrea :)

j/k I think it was just a fun watch and it reminded me of the fun I had watching earlier Tenchi shows, that's all.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: antvasima on December 02, 2020, 04:43:14 PM
I personally agree that Tenchi in Tokyo, and especially Ai Tenchi, were awful. Sorry.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: WaitoKon on December 07, 2020, 03:35:45 PM
Well this is my perplexion about Tenchi media following Geminar, just why? The same folks who rebooted or remastered the Space Battleship Yamato franchise (who later got absorbed into Sunrise or formed Troyca) they were ready to do something for Muyo! But with Ai Tenchi, which didn't go nearly into the same amount of effort as the SBY reboot, or otherwise approach Geminar S1, did they just not have the monies?
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Nonsuch Ned on January 03, 2021, 05:27:03 PM
I got through it over the last two days. I wanted to rush through it because I remembered that the structure was such a big problem. i figured if I kept it fresh in my mind, things might be better.

The last third certainly improves things, there is a core of a decent tale within (credits say the original story was Kaishima's). But it "improves" from being dreadful to "almost adequate." The majority of it, the first two thirds... absolutely painful. I lost track of how many times I said "this is trash" to myself.

Nonsensical abuse humor, a rivalry that makes no sense. Tenchi himself is absolutely pathetic. Trope after trope after trope.

And while the last third improves... it's not like it actually makes sense. Then it just ENDS, leaving dozens of questions.

Maybe the biggest oddity... who makes a Tenchi show without Ryo-Ohki? One of the last stills in the last episode is of Ryo eating carrots off the floor. I guess they just left her to scavenge.  :stonk:
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: WaitoKon on January 04, 2021, 12:52:01 PM
That might have been a nod to the ongoing Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-Ohki main series?
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Nonsuch Ned on January 04, 2021, 02:38:22 PM
Quote from: WaitoKon on January 04, 2021, 12:52:01 PM
That might have been a nod to the ongoing Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-Ohki main series?

There is a bit of trivia that Ryo-Ohki is reading Momotaro in OVA4- which came out soon after this.

... maybe we can assume that the whole thing is Ryo's twisted fever dream.
:cat:
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: WaitoKon on January 04, 2021, 11:14:07 PM
If Ai Tenchi is by the same director(s) for Universe, maybe it was Ken-Ohki's fever dream. Someone get the smelling salts.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Ryo-Okay on January 05, 2021, 11:44:53 PM
I'm still trying to get through it, but I'm struggling. It's like someone took the most obnoxious and annoying things I've seen in anime and crammed them into one show. But at least those characters I like show up for 10 seconds every 5 episodes and act completely out of character! This show makes Kajishima's info dump episodes look like fine art.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Nonsuch Ned on January 06, 2021, 08:09:58 PM
Since I went through it, I figured I should at least write a synopsis for the wiki.

With it fresh in my memory, I wrote a first draft from memory. Now I'm double-checking.

And on my first check I find one of its cases of astoundingly shitty story-telling.

As I remembered it (or my mind made sense of it), when Tenchi first showed up to save Momo and Beni in the past and found them... these things happened:
He pressed his button,
the ground opened up to swallow the ship and his phone,
Momo and Beni get sucked into the dimensional rift and Tenchi is retrieved by Washu.
... and when they get back to the story 4 episodes later, that's basically how Washu explains it. Momo AND Beni got sucked into the rift and bounced around history... but that's not what happened. What actually happens is that Momo and Tenchi got sucked in (Tenchi popped back into Washu's lab). But Beni? She was still in the ship, and in fact, while the phone fell into a crevice... the ship did not.

I thought the worst bit of that section was that Ryoko and Mihoshi's appearance made no sense and was never followed up on.
Nope, the entire set-up of the story was fucked up.

I HAD succeeded in writing a synopsis that did not insult it... not sure if I can do it now.
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Nonsuch Ned on January 06, 2021, 09:45:41 PM
Quote from: Ryo-Okay on November 24, 2020, 05:21:53 PM
I just started the sports festival arc, and I'm a bit confused about something. The show keeps beating down the science club and expects me to find it funny, but they haven't actually done anything wrong. Instead, it just makes the student council look like assholes.

The science club asked for more funding in the first couple of episodes, but was refused because they "didn't give a good reason." Now 20 episodes in I can only assume that was a lie, and the only reason they didn't get more funding was because the student council doesn't like them. The student council cheated them at the beauty pageant by forcing them to compete as 1 entry but split the score they earned 3 ways. And then at the sports festival they were cheated again. Yuki and the katana girl were in a race that allowed weapons. Katana girl had her katana, obviously, and Yuki used the robot from earlier in the show. The science club broke no rules, but, because they are supposed to be the antagonists, the student council cheats and hacks the robot.

The only bad thing the science club has done is attempt to molest Tenchi, but the student council did that as well.

TL;DR the student council is trash. The science club did nothing wrong.
(https://i.imgur.com/WvLpSWQ.png)

That's a little off though. Not sure of your translation. The Discs also don't have any recaps, not even as extras (I searched them out again to see if the recaps explain the story in the past, they don't include them in any recaps).

the reason they are refused funding is legitimate. They're misappropriating the funds they are given and do not explain the club's activities. They're taking any funds they get (like money given to do a presentation for the school festival) to excavate the cavern beneath the old school- hiring diggers and the like. They need money because they can't afford to pay anyone (Mihoshi works for free).

...but otherwise,it's a stupid conflict because, if they actually explained what they were doing, there's no real reason why the council wouldn't help them. Is there a reason to deny a group that has found a mysterious cavern and given proof there's a treasure there? I guess the Science club wants to keep it to themselves?
Title: Re: I'm Watching Ai Tenchi Muyo
Post by: Ryo-Okay on January 09, 2021, 12:31:51 AM
Forced myself to finish it tonight. I have no idea what the hell was happening by the end. I get that Momo needed to be reverted to a child so she could go back to the time she was displaced from, but why didn't Beni need to be reverted to her previous self and have her memory erased?

Anyways, I'm glad I finally finished it. Now I just need to force myself to finish Universe.