> 
> From: Gregory Himes <gdhimes@yahoo.com>

> I watched the "extras" the other day, and they do have everything
> there.
> Though the staff reviewer seems to be just a touch out of their medium
> in the review.
> I didn't learn anything I didn't know before GXP started -- but casual
> and new viewers don't have the wisdom of some of our mailing lists, at
> their fingers. I did learn for certain, that the Trees pull their power
> from another dimension (which begs the question "Do the trees or the
> Choushin know if that space is unoccupied?").

Well, considering the power the Royal trees draw from comes from the Choushin Realm,
I'd guess the Choushin know that space is indeed occupied. ;-) Tokimi-sama controls
the power (as seen in episode 19) and then for Tsunami and Washu, they have
containers in the 3rd dimension for power to be drawn from the Choushin Realm.  From
there, those containers dispense power.

>  And the reviewer didn't
> even bother to tell you who the "squeaky voiced" actresses were. 
> Granted, the live-action part of the Himitsu Nabe isn't going to appeal
> much to most western viewers. 

Well, unless they haven't been reading the FAQ, ML, or the like, they don't know a
lot about the canon series and I think there'd be a lot of things they'd learn of
interest.

On a related note, it was disturbing hearing Chiyo-chan's voice ("Azumanga Diaoh")
coming from Fuku's seiyuu.  ^_^;

> And, of course, "nothing that occurs
> precludes yet another series," because if Kajishima gets his way, there
> will be two more OVA sequences before the series will officially end
> (at least this semi-continuity, anyway) -- he revealed that, what? four
> or five years ago?.

K-sensei wrapped up "TM!R" with "OAV 3 +1," but has stated he'd like to expore Tenchi's
love life in another OAV series.  But right now, there's no plans for another "TM!R"
OAV.  The next anime is "Saint Knights Tale" (in pre-production) and he may
squeeze in another hentai title before SKT hits the air.  And of course, he'll keep
doing the "GXP" novels and whatever doujinshi.

> From: "Jeff Harris" <JLHOnami@mchsi.com>
> 
> I, personally, think that Kajashima dropped the ball with OVA 3.  There were 
> so many way he could have gone with this, and it just fell flat.  He has 
> spent a decade or more writing an epic that spans tens of thousands of 
> years, with a tremendous amount of back-story available for animation -- and 
> he wasted two episodes out of six on Mashisu and Misao.  I rest my case.

I agree that K-sensei did not handle OAV 3 right.  So why waste two episodes on Mashisu
and Misao?  I'd say "GXP" since both characters have small but important parts to
play. So he obviously decided that this would be of interest to the fans. Plus,
he used them to expore Mihoshi's family rather than Mihoshi herself.  I was disappointed
with that decision, and more so that we never learned the reasons for Mihoshi's apparent
change in behavior, her constant ponytail, and that weird thing that
apparently happened to her years ago. 

> From: nik <silvourbolt@yahoo.com>
>
> I motion for directed verdict in favor of striking the last OVA altogether.

Not carried.  ^_~

> 
> The 1st ep was a recap-cute, but I've seen this before-, 

Well to be fair, there were sure to be lots of anime fans who'd never seen the first
OAV's considering how much time had passed since "OAV 2" completed.  But what about
the great character development of Ryoko?  As a Ryoko fan, I absolutely LOVE
episode 14!  She's come such a long way IMO. 

> the next episode is a cheap con-job.  No Kiyone, but Tenchi's sister?  Laaaame.
Glad to see she contributed *so* heavily to the series and *clearly* had great purpose
and was *not* a gimmick in any way.

I don't know that "gimmick" is the right word, but in lue of a different term I'll
go with it.  I do believe that K-sensei had fun with the "TM!R" fans though.  He did
that with "OAV 2" as well, but it has more impact with "OAV 3" since people have
had years to speculate and write fan-fiction on what happened to Tenchi's mother.
When episode 14 ended, early rumors were that the woman was Kiyone's twin sister.
But then, BAM!  It was Tennyo.

However, having watched this several times now, I see something a bit different, going
beyond my own irritation and cynicism and having been jacked like that.  For the first
13 episodes, Tenchi's immediate family consisted of his father (who wasn't
around much) and his grandfather (who lived in the country).  K-sensei stated in "101
Secrets" that the reason TEnchi accepted all the girls into his home was because he
wanted an extended family around him.  He missed having a mother, brothers, and
sisters.  Now he has them in surrogate form. 

However when Tennyo arrived looking like his mother, the years of pain at the loss
of his mother flowed forth (and the joke Tennyo and Nobuyuki played forshadowed the
Kiyone death joke later but I digress).  His immediate acceptance of her as his
"neesan" showed how much he'd truly longed for siblings. 

>  Then, we get Tennyo, Airi, Noike, Seto in short order... all of whom are pretty
much the
> same kind of personality with no time to develop any of their characters well enough
for
> me to care, and none of whom are particularly interesting.  

Here's where I agree and disagree with you.  K-sensei, writing for a Japanese Tenchi
otaku audience, didn't bother wasting time on developing Airi and Seto because of
"GXP" and the novels "Yosho" and "Jurai."  Both characters are pretty well
developed, so including them into "OAV 3" was what the otaku (this fan included) wanted
to see.  Besides, Airi is his grandmother, the wife of Yosho.  Her NOT showing up,
especially now that Tenchi is going to be told the rest of the secrets of the
Masaki family on Earth would have been weird to me. 

Seto-sama is a hugely popular character in Japan.  Considering she's the most powerful
person on Jurai (the power behind the throne) AND she's the grandmother of Aeka and
Sasami-chan, her arrival seemed natural to me even if they didn't use her
effectively. 

Noike's arrival allowed us to see that Ryoko and Aeka had truly become friends in
love with the same guy.  Noike becomes the glue that holds the harem together IMO.
She loves Tenchi but doesn't allow herself to get baited into the things Aeka and

Ryoko get baited into.  And while Mihoshi may frustrate her, she knows how to control
Mihoshi.

However, for R1 fans who either didn't see "GXP" or didn't know about the novels and
doujinshi, the arrival of these other women and the lack of development isn't good.
And I'll be the first to admit that K-sensei should have been given at least 12
episodes to properly tell "OAV 3." 

> I couldn't care less about
> Mashisu or Misao, or the ridiculous plot that Z comes up with.  The only episode
worth
> watching is "Z" but that episode is a gigantic narrative mess.  Why couldn't THAT
episode
> have been dragged out over several episodes?  

For only having six episodes, too much time was wasted in texture.  K-sensei does
love adding texture (go back and watch the other OAV's and you'll see what I mean)
but he wasted half an episode showing food prep.  The Mashisu and Misao story isn't
a
bad one, but we only had six episodes.  And what STILL has me irritated to this day
is the treatment of the fight between the harem and the GP Special Forces.  We know
the girls would win, but why remove all the drama after building it up, only to
jump to the end of the fight and just glance back at it.  *_*  Bad K-sensei!  BAD!
BAD!  BAD!

If he'd done the fight as it should have been done, I think there would have been
less complaints about the girls taking a back seat.

> Don't even get me started on the last ep,
> which turns Tenchi's mother into a complete joke and is disrespectful to the image

> portrayed in not only the viewer's mind, but Tenchi's as well.  Boo.

That was the point.  Don't get me wrong, when I saw the episode, I was shocked and
irritated.  After all, K-sensei had stated that Kiyone's death was an important piece
to the Tenchi story.  However in typical Kajishima fashion, he threw out just
enough information to get fans speculating, but not enough to let people know where
he was going.  Its the "red herring" effect.  So we fans, myself included, came up
with all sorts of ideas on Kiyone's passing.  We each had an image of her in our
mind, just as Tenchi did (which you point out).  K-sensei's point was that Tenchi
had come up with an idealized image of his mother that had little to do with reality.
When confronted with reality, it can be shocking and devistating, more so when it

is your mother or father. 

But if you think about it, it makes sense that Kiyone has this whacked sense of humor.
Look who she married.  ^_^;;;


> 
> From: "Jeff Harris" <JLHOnami@mchsi.com>
> 
> Z could have been a really neat character, full of pathos and angst and 
> unbridled animosity towards the Chusin.  Phhht....

I agree that Z could have been handled a bit better, but that's why we needed more
episodes than what we got.
> 
> Tenchi's "new family" is pathetic, particularly the bit about his mother. 
> Why couldn't she have died in an act of heroism, leaving behind that Space 
> Tree wreckage seen at the dimensional portal whenever Z drops in to report 
> to the boss?  What a story  that would've been: Tenchi trying to exact 
> revenge for his mother's death at Z's hands, and Z trouncicng him as well --
> it would've taken the whole family to bring Z down.  Now *that* wouldve been 
> an epic.

Well first, that "Space Tree" is supposedly representitive of Yggdrasil.

Yggdrasil: : a huge ash tree in Norse mythology that overspreads the world and binds
earth, hell, and heaven together.

So it makes sense that it would be in the Choushin realm IMO.  And on what may or
may not be a related note, "Tenchi" in the way Kajishima has the Kanji means "heaven
and earth" by the way.  ^_^

BUT, I think that K-sensei purposefully wrote the open of episode 14 just because
he knew that many fans wanted what you wanted.  Heck, I wanted a story of Kiyone fighting
Z, desperate to protect Tenchi, whom she and Nobuyuki knew was special, and
Tenchi fight for revenge.  But then, that's cliched isn't it?  K-sensei said, "You
know, sometimes people just die without it being heroic or the like."  In fact, most
people die and are forgotten.  Do you remember your great, great grandparents?
Unless they were famous, I highly doubt you or do (I don't know mine beyond a bit
that I've read and I can't remember their names).

Ultimately, the story of Tenchi was of a nice Japanese boy who in fact turns out to
be much, much more.

I wish we could get more of a Japanese perspective on the series.  I'd really love
to know how Japanese fans (with greater access to all the extra materials such as
the novels, interviews, and doujinshi) feel.  I hear they either love or hate the

third OAV, but clearly sales were good enough for AIC to greenlight a 20th episode.


Tenchi Muyo! FAQ
http://www.astronerdboy.com/tenchi/  

"Death and Poverty love me so much, they brought friends!"  -- Vash the Stampede,
"Trigun"