Tenchi Muyo

The Multiverses

With the overwhelming success of the first Tenchi Muyo OAV series, Pioneer have also produced a number of side stories and other series both as animations and using other media including Manga, Radio, CD Drama, and novels. This page has a look at the different ones, and hilights some of the differences between them. As a result, this page contains spoilers.

OAV Series #1 The original 6 episode series. Some consider this to have the best storyline and artwork out of all the animated Tenchi Muyo.

OAV Special -
The Night Before
The Festival Also referred to as the 7th OAV episode, it is a filler between the first and second OAV series, showing events after Kagato was defeated, and hinting at plot directions of the next series.

OAV Series #2 The second OAV series (episodes 8 to 13), this continues with further character development of Washuu, Sasami and Ryoohki, plus encounters with new characters. (More details to follow once I actually see the last two episodes.) Popular opinion is this isn't as good as the first series, both in artwork and plot. With the hilight being on Washuu, Sasami and Ryoohki, there has certainly been more "cute", and less emphasis on Tenchi, Ryouko and Aeka.

OAV Side Story -
Mihoshi Special Occurring between the first and second OVA series, this contains Mihoshi telling the others a story of her past work as a Galaxy Police Officer, using the other characters as characters in her story.

OAV Side Story -
Pretty Sammy A take-off of Tenchi Muyo, and Magical Girl shows, this is set in an alternate universe where Tenchi is Sasami's brother, Aeka and Ryouko are fellow students of Tenchi's (who still fight over him), and Sasami is transformed into Magical Girl Pretty Sammy by the future queen of the magical kingdom of Juraihelm, Tsunami.

TV Series -
Earth Chapter An alternate telling of the Tenchi OAV series #1, the TV series contains excellent artwork and animation for a TV series. The story contains some major differences to the OAV series. These differences include:

Tsunami does not appear in the TV series.
There is no relationship between Washuu and Ryouko.
Ryouko was a Space Pirate, not Kagato's tool.
Kiyone is a major character in the TV series.

Novel(s) I have some information on the Tenchi Muyo novels, but haven't had the time to enter it in here yet. *sigh*

Manga Unlike most Anime, the Tenchi Muyo manga came out after the OAV series. The Manga follows on straight after the first OAV series, and is being translated into English by Viz.

CD Drama Like many other Anime, some of the Tenchi Muyo CD's contain Drama tracks on them. These are on the whole additional stories in whatever Tenchi-verse the CD is from. There are separate CD's for the OAV series, TV series, and the side stories.

Movie -
Tenchi Muyo in Love The Tenchi Movie is created by the same people who did the TV series, and apparently involves Time Travel. (I'll say more once I've seen it. ^_^)

Card Game -
Ani-Mayhem This is a card game from Pioneer along the lines of Magic: The Gathering, but based on anime. The first release contained cards based on four anime series', including Tenchi Muyo. Designed for single-player as well as multi-player games, decks can be constructed from just one series, or from all the series'.

Last modified at 11:14 PM, on Sunday 04 August 1996.
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OAV Series #1	The original 6 episode series. Some consider this to have the best storyline and artwork out of all the animated Tenchi Muyo.
OAV Special - The Night Before The Festival	Also referred to as the 7th OAV episode, it is a filler between the first and second OAV series, showing events after Kagato was defeated, and hinting at plot directions of the next series.
OAV Series #2	The second OAV series (episodes 8 to 13), this continues with further character development of Washuu, Sasami and Ryoohki, plus encounters with new characters. (More details to follow once I actually see the last two episodes.) Popular opinion is this isn't as good as the first series, both in artwork and plot. With the hilight being on Washuu, Sasami and Ryoohki, there has certainly been more "cute", and less emphasis on Tenchi, Ryouko and Aeka.
OAV Side Story - Mihoshi Special	Occurring between the first and second OVA series, this contains Mihoshi telling the others a story of her past work as a Galaxy Police Officer, using the other characters as characters in her story.
OAV Side Story - Pretty Sammy	A take-off of Tenchi Muyo, and Magical Girl shows, this is set in an alternate universe where Tenchi is Sasami's brother, Aeka and Ryouko are fellow students of Tenchi's (who still fight over him), and Sasami is transformed into Magical Girl Pretty Sammy by the future queen of the magical kingdom of Juraihelm, Tsunami.
TV Series - Earth Chapter	An alternate telling of the Tenchi OAV series #1, the TV series contains excellent artwork and animation for a TV series. The story contains some major differences to the OAV series. These differences include: Tsunami does not appear in the TV series. There is no relationship between Washuu and Ryouko. Ryouko was a Space Pirate, not Kagato's tool. Kiyone is a major character in the TV series.
Novel(s)	I have some information on the Tenchi Muyo novels, but haven't had the time to enter it in here yet. sigh
Manga	Unlike most Anime, the Tenchi Muyo manga came out after the OAV series. The Manga follows on straight after the first OAV series, and is being translated into English by Viz.
CD Drama	Like many other Anime, some of the Tenchi Muyo CD's contain Drama tracks on them. These are on the whole additional stories in whatever Tenchi-verse the CD is from. There are separate CD's for the OAV series, TV series, and the side stories.
Movie - Tenchi Muyo in Love	The Tenchi Movie is created by the same people who did the TV series, and apparently involves Time Travel. (I'll say more once I've seen it. ^_^)
Card Game - Ani-Mayhem	This is a card game from Pioneer along the lines of Magic: The Gathering, but based on anime. The first release contained cards based on four anime series', including Tenchi Muyo. Designed for single-player as well as multi-player games, decks can be constructed from just one series, or from all the series'.