Petrea Burchard. Easily the funnier and more seductive voice; the stand-out performance for the dub cast.

That "You've won, boy." is just awesome.

Yuko Mizutani, the voice actress for Mihoshi, recently passed away at the age of 51. She died on May 17, 2016 due to breast cancer. RIP (T_T)

11:59 It's not that baffling when you consider Ryoko's personality and the circumstances of her first meeting with Tenchi in the cave. When she gave him what she thought to be a very tender and intimate show of affection, he ran away screaming in terror. Given Ryoko's temperament as well as her sensitivity about rejection, it's pretty consistent with her character to throw a massive temper tantrum afterwards.

Gendo being punched in the face needs to be a running gag on Anime Abandoned.

"Maybe he's born with it....Maybe it's bullsh*t!" I'm going to be singing that in my head for weeks to come. Thanks, Sage.

For me it's Tenchi x Ryoko the rest are the harem

@24:37: You gotta love it whenever Sage breaks out the Gendo cosplay. He just looks so f**king awesome in it!

"the second TV series..." NO, KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!! Actually, I love when Tenchi punches that guy; such a realistic reaction from a teenage boy accused of f*cking a corpse. XD

I like to pretend the third season NEVER existed. Seasons 1 and 2, even through its flaws, is still near and dear to my heart and what got me to love the Tenchi series, introducing me to Tenchi Universe which is one of my favorites.

As amazing as Adult Swim was, I will forever look upon Toonami's Midnight Run as the pinnacle of my anime watching. Outlaw Star, followed by Cowboy Bebop, followed by Tenchi...with occasional appearances from other shows...that was the TRUTH!

Man I must be the only person who thought Ryoko was playing with Tenchi in episode one, the way she was acting and down to the lines she said seemed like a little girl who's been let out to play for the first time after a period of grounding.

I first saw Tenchi on Cartoon network.

i fucking loved tenchi muyo! so many good memories of when i was a kid.

#TeamRyoko

I seem to recall that Kagato was originally going to be just a holographic projection and that Washu was meant to be the real "man behind the curtain", but the creators ended up liking her too much, and made her a part of the main cast instead of a villain.

Washu is still my favorite character. She's smart, insane, playful and sexy when she wants to be. Also very manipulative and did I mention insane?

Every harem anime ever made is just a shallow imitation of Tenchi Muyo.

I believe Ryo-Ohki shifted to the smaller form for control reasons. She was so used to living as a little cabbit that being a grown human woman was just too much for her to keep her balance, so she opted to start out with a more compact form and "grow" it up bit by bit.

14:17, come on! How many of you were glad that Sage made that joke?

Wait, the woman who ran up to Sasami after she, for lack of a better word, came back from the dead wasn't her mom, she was a servant! There's no continuity error here! Unless the dub screwed it over, which would just be par for the course. Tenchi Muyo was one of the first anime shows I watched (and the second non-dubbed one I watched after Armitage III) and it has really stuck with me over the years. After watching the first two seasons, I was pretty damn sad that it ended because it didn't actualyy...well, end. A couple of years later, I found out a third season had been made and I was super excited! It was...well, as you said, disappointing. Sticking Tenchi with a completely new love interest and ruining his mom's backstory it...well, it kinda sucked. Doesn't mean I'm not psyched for the next season though! Tenchi Muyo 2016! Woohooh! Teak Ryoko and all dat jazz.

Actually Anime was first put on Cartoon Network via their Toonami programming block in 1998 with Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon. Each year they had a different anime- 1999: Ronin Warriors 2000: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Tenchi Muyo!, Tenchi in Tokyo, Tenchi Universe, And so on. Adult Swim and Toonamil aired anime depending on nelson ratings

THANK YOU for allowing us to see Gendo getting punched in the face! I've been waiting since I first saw Eva around 2001 or so.

Ah, Tenchi Muyo. Along with DBZ and Gundam Wing, this was one of my favourite "first" anime shows.

Wait a minute, a half-alien kind hearted boy lives in a house with numerous women of ancient ages while protecting the world from evil aliens... Tenchi Muyo's the prototype for Steven Universe!

If you think about it, the Jurai royal family are kind of like the Space Hapsburgs: there's a bazillion of them, they're all some degree of royalty, and their lineage trees are so messed up that inbreeding is almost inevitable. The Jurai merely take it one step further and not only recognize this fact, but institutionalize it. And to those who don't know who the Hapsburg family was, look up a KZfaq vid on European history, or tl;dr They were the family that once extended from Austria to Spain and ruled basically everything in and around the Holy Roman Empire, but eventually declined and ended up with just the Austro-Hungarian Empire until that too broke up in World War I. P.S. We do not speak of Season 3. Season 3 never happened.

So Tenchi Muyo was an animated Sleepy Hollow? 1st season- great 2nd season- a whole bunch of flaws saved only by likable characters 3rd season- WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN??? Seriously, though the 2nd season left me wanting more with its open-ended ending, I did get what I wanted with Tenchi Universe and really saw no need to go back to Muyo, so having a season 3 comissioned just made me question what the hell the producers were smoking. Tenchi isn't really the best Harem anime (I prefer Strawberry 100% due to the main character being a filmmaker, like myself) but its influence can clearly be seen in other Harem anime, ESPECIALLY Strawberry 100% (Aya is pretty much a shyer version of Ayeka, and Satsuke is basically Ryoko without powers). I just wish the creators decided to leave the legacy of Tenchi Muyo alone instead of expand on it, or, worst case scenerio, make an entirely new series with the same characters but in an alternate reality, like In Tokyo or Universe. Sometimes dead is better off staying dead.

Also, yeah, third season of this killed all future interest in it for me. I'd honestly rather have been allowed to draw my own conclusions than see the ending that it gave us.

You should see Ayeka's real form in the manga. Very pretty. X3 And thanks, Bennett, you save me money and any fucking rage I might have endured having never watched Season 3. If I want more Tenchi stories, I'll reread my manga.

Anyone else hope his last Adult Swim Month review is Paranoia Agent? That is the first anime I can seriously remember. I was really young, a bit too young to watch such a show, I couldn't grasp it properly at the time, but the imagery is so....haunting and well done that I remember it to this day, I didn't even know it's name for years. Seeing it on Adult Swim was a defining moment for me, got me into anime because it made me realize it existed and I could see it around that time on TV even though I should be asleep. It was, great. And I really want Sage to go over it.

Great review! Out of all the moments I could remember of watching Tenchi Muyo on Toonami, I will ALWAYS remember the scene of Ryoko's mummified body rising out of that tomb.

To answer the question about Ryoko's Gems, In the episode when the group was out in space, and Tenchi was attacked, Ryoko had a 4th Gem hanging from her left ear as an earring. It was the only one that was not embedded in her body so it didn't get absorbed bu the Sword of Jurai. It went unnoticed because it was not a part of her body but thought of as an accessory. Go through the series again and you'll see =)

If I ever do get round to watching _Tenchi Muyo!_ I'm going to be at least partly preoccupied trying to work out which sofa that weasel thing got trapped behind, poor thing.

Petrea Burchard returned for "Ai! Tenchi Muyo".

We do not talk about episode 9. WE DON’T TALK ABOUT EPISODE NINE! I was around that age when I first saw it. I cried myself to sleep. That had long reaching effects that you can still see to this day.

In sad news the voice actress for mihoshi just died.

The problem with Tenchi as a series is that it was made so early in anime's development as a medium. When you get down to it the premise is basically Archie with aliens, and because it lacks both the shlockiness of eechi that would come later and the evolution of storytelling in the medium it has nowhere to go as a premise. It's become so tired that even new attempts to return to the continuity end up not being about Tenchi at all. Maybe if you completely reworked the characters, the formula and the backstory of the world you could tell something interesting but as it stands it's this awkward series that wants to be epic and grand but also be sexy in the most PG way possible but also be funny. It's basically Inuyasha, and we all remember how that went.

"Eheeee space Alabama" ;D"YOU SHUT UP" XDDDD I died

We need more Sage as Bill Murray. Can't tell if it's avoiding low hanging fruit not bringing up Duke or going full throttle with Star Fox Zero

Nice Caddyshack reference, Sage.

*prays for a Paranoia Agent review*

That Gendo bit was funny as hell. XD

Ah, Tenchi Muyo. Home of Baby's First Waifu for millions of current twenty something weebs.

This is probably the only harem story that I actually deeply enjoy.

_Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki_ actually isn't the only _Tenchi_ series to ever air on Adult Swim, _Tenchi Muyo GXP_ aired on the block a couple years ago.

Tenchi Muyo was the anime that got me into anime, and is still one of my all-time favorites. It has some issues, some of which you mentioned, but as you also said, the characters and the comedy were usually so good that those flaws were worth overlooking. If you get really into it you can find little connections that make the plot make more sense (the gem Ryoko used in the first episode was probably just a duplicate; she uses another duplicate gem in episode 6) but yeah sometimes it's kind of a leap (we can assume Tsunami gave Tenchi that ring, but it really does just appear out of nowhere and disappear just as fast). Season one is just plain solid in my opinion, with complaints being few and far between, season two is a little shakier but still well done. Season three... yeah, season three doesn't count, as far as I'm concerned. Sitting through that mess was infuriating. I think the only line I liked was when Tokimi said something like "Oh I'm sorry, I've just been busy fixing that space/time continuum you guys just broke". Kind of funny. The only other thing I want to say real fast is that Sasami didn't die, she and Tsunami just share the same life force now, which actually is kind of important because it explains why Sasami can control the most powerful sentient spaceship in the entire universe. For the record, I actually really like that episode. But yeah, overall, this was a really good and really fair summary of one of my favorite animes, so thanks for making this video. Looking forward to the Samurai Champloo episode, because hell yeah, that's one of my favorites too. Edit: Oh yeah, I also really appreciated what you said about Petrea Burchard, because you're right, she absolutely nailed that role. One of the best performances in anime, as far as I'm concerned, and all from an era when English dubbing was usually terrible.

A childhood anime of my fine. I remember renting the first VHS at Blockbuster back in 1998.

OK..what did Dave do to piss off HAL's cousin?

I loved the first season of Tenchi Muyo when I first saw it. There was a lot of interesting things going on that you didn't really understand but were fun none the less. Unfortunately it seemed like they had a ton of great ideas they just didn't know what to do with and it just kind of fell flat after that. I did watch the second season as well as Tenchi in Tokyo and while I still saw good things in both of those they just weren't as entertaining. I was hoping they would show more of what was going on in places other than Earth, send them on a real space adventure for a whole season before returning home. Instead they just sort of waited around for things to happen and when they did you soon realize it's not what you were looking for in this anime.

Tenchi Muyo! is probably my all-time favorite anime, and Ryo-Ohki my favorite telling of the story - and like Sage, I was introduced to it through the Saturday-night Adult Swim line-up. I love it, and yet - Sage's criticisms are so on point. The show is so charming that I accepted the plotholes and retcons without question - until Season Three. I think that part of the reason Season Three failed is that fans had had ten years (and two manga continuations in the OVA continuity) to patch up and paint over the flaws. So, when Season Three unleashed a whole new set of "fuck yous" against a decade of anticipation and speculation... It was downright heart-stomping. Anyway, very good and fair review, Sage!! It's important to examine even the things we like with a critical eye. :)

Tenchi Muyo series was another part of my childhood my favorite was Gxp cause of random mecha

Ryoko was my favourite character and having watched this series first in the UK this will always be my favourite with Universe just behind it.

OMG YES SAMURAI CHAMPLOO! BEST VOICE ACTING CAST OF ALL FUCKING TIME!

Kagato is my favorite anime villain of all time.

'You've won boy' as he fades away....so badass to the end DAMN RETCONS

i grew up watching Tenchi, and to this day i still say its one of the best animes, hell i fell in love with Ryoko, was bummed as hell her voice actress didnt come back for the third season, maybe we'll get lucky for the fourth

I'm still going to watch the 4th iteration of the Ryo Ohki series.

"A boy growing up mythologizing his dead mom and then she turns out to be nothing like he imagined her..." You mean "Steven Universe"?

I came across Tenchi after watching Evangelion for the first time, then heard of something called Dual Parallel which was described as a more lighthearted Eva, which then led me to Tenchi Muyo. And I gotta say, I sure wish I found this sooner. I love all these characters to death, even Mihoshi. I fully understand why people hate her, but I just can't stay mad at her, specially with the sugary sweet voice her voice actress gave her.

Keep pumping these great reviews out Sage! I was introduced to this OVA by my uncle when i was 10 in 98

When it comes to the Ryoko "trying to kill" Tenchi thing, she did say she was only playing with him. Though, I'll admit, it could've just been a recon job, but I think it fits well with her character. And when it comes to Sasami's and Tenchi's personality shift, they both probably became more docile after realizing all the trouble they caused. Though, I admit that I wished they had explored that avenue.

awwwwww shit son Champloo?! I can't wait to see this one.

Gendo and Suave's cameos made this video about ten times better than it already was. Can't wait for the Samurai Champloo review!

Ok even if you agree with Ben, Episode 9 is in my point of view a very strong episode. It still brings me to tears even when I frist saw it I was a young teen in the late 90s. It's worth watching. The previous episode with Washu looking after a baby is strong too,especially to me because I looked after a family with babies but it was all taken away...

One of my 1st animes. ^^

There are novels which establish a deep backstory.

Regarding Ryoko's jewel in episode 1 the cannon explanation is that Ryoko can create replica jewels that aren't as powerful as the original 3. This also explains the jewel she uses as an earring in episode 5. Sasami showed the ability to summon Tsunami in episode 5 and 6, so they needed a way to explain this. Ep 9 was this explanation. Yosho pretends to be old because he doesn't want his semi-human family to know that he hasn't aged in centuries. In Japan they made a series of books about Tenchi which explained about the 3 Goddesses; mainly to explain who Tsunami was, Ryoko's jewels, and why Tokimi wanted Washu. So to the Japanese fans this plot revelation would make some sense. Washu made Ryoko, mentioned making other things, and was trapped by Kagato. So it's not that odd for her to have made Kagato. Though Kagato originally being a hermaphrodite was weird.

bro, love all your episodes and marathoning your videos, this was very interesting, i have heard alot about it but have never fully seen it but i like discovering old school anime once in a while

Yosho keeping his appearance to look old takes away the original plot of him growing old over time. That's just a stupid twist that should never have happened.

You do know that Toonami ran Tenchi muyo and many other anime before adult swim did as the original Midnight run right?

What you said about Petrea Burchard's performance as Ryoko is 100% true. She _is_ Ryoko. Simply cannot be imitated.

I love the return of the Adult Swim tribute bumpers. Sudden nostalgia rush

Surely you "jest" with Nights and Starfox Zero. Also, that family tree is huge and I wonder if Tenchi's dad know's he married his half grandma.

That middle cutaway brought back some serious nostalgia.

I liked this video like 5 times during the duration of the episode. Jeez, I'm so excited for you to rip open Samurai Clampoo

Great job making the adult swim omage' for this episode! that was awesome and nostalgic bro's.

+BennetTheSage what do you think of Samurai Pizza Cats?

I can already see sage ripping fuu a new one

Watched him grow up while still trapped in the cave but still attacks him. Go with blame it on that 4th gem

Ahh...Tenchi Muyo. One of the very first animes from my childhood. Good Times. ^^

What were they thinking with this dub. WTF is Tenchi supposed to be sounding like?

Masaki Kajishima interestingly enough did a hentai/ecchi title called "Spaceship Agga Ruter" which felt very "Tenchi Muyo" like. Well, by today's standards Spaceship Agga Ruter is very softcore as there is no gential shots or penetration. Just a fun fact. Disregard if this was stated in the review.

The Lady who found Sasami was named "Mama". Sasami wouldn't call her mom "Mama" she would more likely call her "Okasama". Misaki would have been leading the battle against Ryoko, being that she is the head of the royal guards. Ryo ohki doesn't take the adult form because she has a hard time controlling it. she might be able to handle it as time go on.

Thanks for doing this. Tenchi and El-Hazard were my first real exposure to anime. The series were fun but you're right, there are big flaws. I think Tenchi Universe had the characters right with better writing. But I couldn't get through the other spin-offs even though GXP was respectable in the beginning.

The monk who started genetics was Benedictine, not Florentine. The orders for monks are more different than you might think. But then, considering what I suspect your view on Christianity is, I guess you can be forgiven.

Nice Caddyshack joke about the poop, Sage.

Can't help but feel a Marzgurl collab opportunity was sadly missed on this one.

I have never seen a review that was so spot on with my feelings about the Tenchi series amazing job

No. I've gotta point out THESE are the ORIGINAL characterizations and at least to me, these first 13 episodes are the closest the characters ever come to feeling like real human beings. The second two shows and the movies just turned them into anime genre cut outs. Granted Tenchi was creating many of those anime tropes at the time, but THESE episodes were when the ideas were fresh, and literally ANYTHING could happen in the following episodes before the more cliche television shows cut the cast and story into more predictable genre vehicles. Note: All complaints on season 3 are COMPLETELY justified.

The beginning of this review is baffling. Ben knows that this OVA came first, this is where all characters were established. Yet, he speaks as though the producers change their normal behaviors to suit the plot... But this is the first time their behaviors are shown. Tenchi doesn't change from a nice guy to a mischievous delinquent, it's the other way around, Ben! On Toonami, they aired the OVA first, then the first and second tv series in 2000. I don't know what order they showed them on Adult Swim in 2002, but they showed them in chronological order on Toonami. Sasami fused with Tsunami. Also she has two mothers (they're in a polygamous marriage). There really is no point to Yosho masking his face in seclusion.

The transition from Ryo-Ohki to Universe was bizarre to me. I wasn't used to the idea of a continuity reboot at the time, since I grew up during that weird time when franchises weren't rebooted every couple years. The third season...had some interesting ideas. Though it's kinda hilarious how it was used more as an impetus for stories in spin-offs than continuing the franchise. A lot of what they went over with the OVAs, minus the introductions of the new characters, had already been speculated and stated by supplemental materials prior to the 3rd OVA's release. Tenchi Muyo GXP and War on Geminar both added some subtle touches and...well, mostly more branches to the damned Jurai Family Tree.

Been waiting on this one for years. Good points. It's my favorite anime despite narrative flaws and season 3. Glad you brought up Burchard not being in S3, but a little disappointed that you didn't point out how jarring her replacement's take was by comparison.

Personally, I prefer Tenchi Universe to the OVA, but I still think the first two OVAs are mostly enjoyable.

you gonna review gxp

I didn't even know there was a third series of Ryo-Ohki. By the sounds of it I dodged a bullet by going down the manga series instead. It takes it down a route I really enjoyed by expanding on the girls personalities in various ways.

One of my favorite shows ever TY sir! Never knew there was a third season to Tenchi though... kind of glad i didn't know till now since it was so bad :( but heres to hoping you do a Outlaw Star Anime Abandon!

*Fingers crossed* Hopefully he covers FLCL

yup this is the tenchi I grew up with. Never had an interest to see the rest.

This anime was probably one of if not THE introduction to anime for me. Maybe I saw it on adult swim, I can't remember. I just remember sneaking into the TV room as a kid when I couldn't sleep and finding stuff like this. I remember being jealous of Tenchi because he had all these girls fawning over him and he was just a complete dolt, lol. Ryoko also might've been my first crush on a fictional character. One moment from the show that I'll always remember that made me laugh, is Ryoko is trying to figure out how to get Tenchi to notice her, but doesn't understand human customs. She finds a book about dating and such, and what she learns from it is to use the trope of intentionally bumping into someone and dropping stuff as a forced introduction. So even though she's been living with him for like a year, she bumps into him dropping a bunch of books and goes, "Oh silly me, I'm such a clutz. Hi! I'm Ryoko!" and Tenchi just stands there like, "W..t..f...? Yeah, I know who you are..."

+BennettTheSage there was no 4th jewel, as it was explained in the series she can create fakes that help boost her power when she isn't using the 3 real ones(which can give her light hawk wings). They do explode when separated from her as seem in the first episode.