The Tenchi Universe is the television series of Tenchi Muyo.  Currently, Pioneer is releasing The Tenchi Universe in the US.  The first volume has four episodes and the other volumes have three episodes each for a total of 26 episodes (which includes the movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love).  In this issue, we will take a look at The Tenchi Universe.

SYNOPSIS

Basically, the plot is the same as Tenchi Muyo.  The story begins with Tenchi walking home from school (or walking to school, one of those) and he hears a meow and turns around.  He thinks it's Ryoohki, but it's only a cat.  Then he thinks back to those "crazy days."  We flashback to where the girls first start to come in. Tenchi is doing something, I can't remember what, but anyhow, he then sees two spaceships crash near his home.  He goes off to investigate.  He reaches the first ship and it's Ryoko's.  Ryoko is unconscious and Tenchi gives her a drink of water and she wakes up.  Then of course, she gives Tenchi a total fabrication of the truth and tells him that a terrible space pirate is after her (of course Ryoko is the space pirate and we all know that Ryoko is the space pirate).

Then a mecha appears in front of them, Tenchi thinking it's the space pirate is scared shitless while Ryoko is having fun and they start to run.  It chases them throughout the forest and to Tenchi's house, up the stairs, and through the second story window at the end of the hall.  And Tenchi's dad, Nobuyuki is sleeping on the couch through all of this.  Then it chases them to a cliff and they seemed doomed, then it trips over a soda can and can't get up.  Ryoko walks behind the mecha and kicks it over the side of the cliff..  Then as they go back home, the "space pirate" appears again and this time they run to the shrine.  And of course, grandpa comes and with one stroke of his wooden sword, destroys the mecha.

After the smoke from the explosion clears, we find a coughing Mihoshi as she tries to arrest Ryoko for being, what else, a space pirate.  Ryoko lets Mihoshi arrest her.  Mihoshi takes out a little pen type of thing and it rolls out to be a tiny screen and she starts to read Ryoko's rights only to have Ryoko destroy the screen.  And being the wonderful detective Mihoshi is, she tries to remember the rights that she would have read to Ryoko,. but fails miserably and cries.  Now she can't arrest Ryoko and she's stuck on Earth.

For the next few episodes, the other characters start to come in.  Ayeka is searching for her brother when she gets a distress signal from Earth.  She flies down onto Earth only to find her arch rival Ryoko and pays no attention to Mihoshi who made the distress signal in the first place.  They both ram their ships and now Ayeka is stuck on Earth.  In another episode, Sasami comes looking for her sister Ayeka, and they decide to stay on Earth for awhile.

In another episode, Yosho, Tenchi's grandpa, tells them not to go in the cave that is next to the shrine because it houses a demon.  Of course, Ryoko ties Tenchi up and takes him into the cave.  There are many traps in the cave, which Ryoko manages to avoid dragging Tenchi beside her.  Then they reach the end and they find a meteor which was supposedly the demon.  Ryoko then puts a boulder in front of the entrance so Tenchi wouldn't escape.  As Ryoko starts to STRIP, a very steamed Ayeka, Sasami, Mihoshi, and Ryoohki enter the room (Ayeka blew up the boulder).  As Ayeka and Ryoko fight (you knew that would happen), Ryoko picks up the meteor and it starts to flash and crack.  Then a ball of light starts to chase after them and they all run out of the cave.  Then come Yosho, who examines the ball of light with his eyes and says, "Could you please stop doing that?"  The light fades and appears Washu, the mad scientist.

There is currently a second Tenchi Muyo television series being released in Japan.  With all of the popularity of Tenchi, I suppose that it will eventually be released in the United States soon after the first series is finished in the US.

MAJOR CHARACTERS (Click on name of character to see image)

Tenchi Masaki
Tenchi is the son of Nobuyuki and Achika.  It is believed that he is part of the royal family of Jurai because he is also the grandson of Yosho, prince of Jurai.  Someday he is expected to assume the thrown of Jurai.  Being part of the royal family gives him special powers and fighting ability.  His weapon is the master key, a sword draws energy from the wielder.

Ryoko
Ryoko is the infamous space pirate that has terrorized the universe.  Ryoko has a space ship/pet, Ryoohki.  They are also telepathically linked to each other.  She instantly falls in love with Tenchi and is always trying to put the moves on him, which of course Ayeka protests all of her actions.  Ryoko has natural powers as well.  She is very strong.  She also has a sword that forms in her hand and she can shoot beams of energy, the same as her sword.

Ayeka
She is the First Princess of Jurai and has a little sister, Sasami.  She is also in love with Tenchi but is not as forward as Ryoko with her feelings.  Being part of the royal family means she also has powers.  When called upon, she can have incredible strength and she produces little floating cylinder shaped pieces of wood which see can control and used as a shield or use to entrap someone.

Sasami
Sasami is the Second Princess of Jurai and little sister to Ayeka.  She is very responsible and helps out around the house and does all of the cooking.  She is also sweet and innocent.  We have not yet seen any of her fighting capabilities.

Washu
She is the mad scientist of the story.  She was kicked out of the Academy of Scientists and exiled to remote regions of the universe but landed on Earth.  At that time meteors were feared and thought to be demons.  So she remained in the cave in which she landed.  She escaped when the group went to explore the cave.  She also loves to used Tenchi as her guinea pig.

Mihoshi
This first class detective of the Galaxy Police is stranded on Earth because she destroyed her ship when chasing Ryoko.  The first episode is the only time she seems competent, the rest of the time she is a clumsy, worrying, forgetful, and basically stupid person.  Her partner, Kiyone, hates her and is the exact opposite of herself. And she always seems to end up where no one can or is supposed to get to.

Kiyone
She a first class detective as well.  However, she is the exact opposite of Mihoshi.  Kiyone despises Mihoshi because she is holding her career back and ruins everything for her.  When it comes to battle, Kiyone kicks ass.  Even though she hasn't any natural powers, she is highly skilled and probably the best officers on the Galaxy Police force.

Yosho
Yosho is the First Prince of Jurai.  He is the father of Achika and grandfather of Tenchi.  It was he who gave Tenchi his name.  There is not too much know about Yosho in the television series.  In the movie, at the end we see Ayeka give Achika and Nobuyuki a seal to make them forget about the incident, however, after that they went back to their own time in the future.  With them, they had a third seal, but did not use it.  We never saw them use it on Yosho to make him forget about their visit.  Also, he would have recognized Ayeka from his past on Jurai.

Achika
When Tenchi was young, his mother, Achika, died from a cause that we do not know, but it might have had something to do with her not being able to use her powers from which she received from Yosho.  We only meet her in the movie.
You must have seen the first OAV series to really understand the movie.  If you remember, when Kagato first met Tenchi, he said that in the hands of the correct owner, the master key is the ultimate weapon in universe.  When Achika wield the sword, it grew in size and power to destroy Kain.  So Achika was the correct owner for the Master Key.  But by the time Kagato came around she was already dead.  She used all of her power to destroy Kain and this might have had something to do with her death.  However she forgot the whole incident and was never trained in using her powers and never knew about them.

Nobuyuki Masaki
Achika and Nobuyuki met in high school and fell in love.  He designed the house that they all now live in and is currently an architect.  When in high school he was kind to Achika and very sweet.  When they married, they had Tenchi.  We don't know exactly how he became the pervert he is now.  He also had forgotten all about the incident with Kain.

Ryo-oh-ki
Ryo-oh-ki is a girl.  Ryoohki is a cabbit (half cat and half rabbit) that transforms into a spaceship.  She and Ryoko are telepathically linked to each other.  Ryo-oh-ki also spends most of her time with Sasami.  Being part rabbit, her greatest love is for carrots. When the spaceship is destroyed, it will lay a black egg and a new Ryo-oh-ki is born from it.

You can also read my review on The Tenchi Universe in my reviews section of The Demon Nest.