I've been trying to gather my thoughts on this for a while

So what happens when you start something and then come back to finish it seven years later? It defies your original plans but for the better. You grow older, you read more, you learn more. You become better at what you are doing.

I started a story back in 2001. In those days my love was for two shows currently on Toonami, Cartoon Network's anime block on weekday afternoons. My best friend Jon told me of some commercials advertising some guy walking up steps holding an umbrella as snow fell. It was from a movie he saw when he was younger. It was Tenchi Muyo! However, it was severely edited. As I watch it now in its uncut form, it is so much more hilarious. Tea means sake, and a certain space pirate has no qualms about fighting the princess in the buff. Also, said princess is actually a very likable character even though I used to hate her for no reason (maybe because I've always been a Tenchi/Ryoko fan).

I also started watching Dragonball Z after making fun of the show with Jon, calling it Dragonballz. I started mid Namek Saga when Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan set off for the planet. I still remember Chi-Chi fretting over her son and Krillin making fun of Gohan's bowl cut. I remember Goku transforming for the first time and Vegeta's tears over the life that was stolen from him by Frieza.

Then over this past summer, I stayed at UCR for my internship. I've always been slow to make new friends and more of a quiet person than someone to go out clubbing and drinking (though karaoke night was fun even if I didn't sing or drink anything but soda). I usually spent the nights in my room watching YouTube videos of Gohan and Videl. Don't know why so much but I did. My long dormant DBZ fan reawoke, and I started buying DVDs left and right. Now I nearly have all of DBZ and half of DBGT plus about half of the movies. I've been online reading more and more, finding out I knew nothing (such is life as you grow older, I guess).

Then recently for some curious reason I started to watch Tenchi again. Not really to my surprise, I remembered very little of the actual OVA storyline. I own all of the Tenchi stuff, even GXP and the Mihoshi special, but since they're all in storage, I watched the OVA on...you guessed it, YouTube. I also grabbed Tenchi Forever and Manatsu no Eve from the "shed." So I've been reading up on Tenchi lately and damn, I really knew nothing of the series. I don't even remember the third OVA, which came out here in 2005. I bought it and watched it all. There are three series, three movies, and a spin-off. There are many novels and manga though the mange is not considered canon. There are also four versions of canon between everything. Tenchi in Tokyo, the final series, is its own canon. Tenchi Universe, the second series and the movies Tenchi Muyo! in Love and Tenchi Forever are another canon. Once it was my second favorite series, but now I think it's my fav. They make Ayeka more snooty and annoying, which I don't like, but overall it wins me over. Plus it also has going for it the fact Tenchi actually does choose (if not in words) one of the girls, my favorite character.

When it comes to the OVA, there are two versions of canon. One is the original creator. It includes OVA 1, 2, and 3, GXP, and the Mihoshi Special. The other is by the woman who wrote the first OVA. Hers includes OVA 1 (and 2 according to one site), her novels, and Manatsu no Eve aka Daughter of Darkness (based on one of her novels). She does not include the Mihoshi special, and she is the one who designed the characters of Kiyone Makibi, Mihoshi's partner and Achika Masaki, Tenchi's mom, both of whom are from the universe series.

So confused yet? Me too. The OVA world is more intricate and has much more back story. Apparently the creator had been thinking of his Tenchi universe since he was in high school. I know how he feels then as my own original creation is not exactly simple. I started my original story the same time I started writing fanfiction, so it took a backseat for a while. This is precisely when I started the story I opened with.

Now why have I spent so much time talking about Tenchi? Simple. Because I knew none of the above when I started. All I knew was Tenchi was royal and hella powerful. Washu was a goddess with sisters Tokimi (who was interested in Tenchi) and Tsunami, who had merged with Sasami. Yosho was really Katsuhito, Tenchi's gramps and the princesses' half-bother. Ryoko was Washu's daughter, and episode 13 left us all going what next? So I made stuff up. I also turned Gohan from DBZ into the Legendary Super Saiyan, even though many consider Broly, the three movies of him, and that idea to be non-canon. Also, it kind of seems evident by the last episode before the time skip to ten years later that he and Videl were probably a couple at that point (or just really friendly). But my story went onward anyway.

I made up my own canon for Tenchi (this is what I wanted to get to most). I liked certain elements from all of Tenchi-verse so I combined stuff. My canon, the one used in the Legend of the Triad series, is as follows:

-OVAs 1 and 2 happen (3 wasn't even out in Japan at that point)
-Tenchi Universe happens but the character backgrounds stay the same so no new intros to them except Kiyone, who comes looking for her former partner and is coupled with her again (poor Kiyone :O( )
-Tenchi Muyo! in Love happens
-Daughter of Darkness happens
-Triad Saga happens and they all meet the Dragonball peeps

Looking back, I wish I hadn't included Mayuka from DoD, but she's important in her own way now and I couldn't remove her just as I couldn't remove Mirai Pan and Mirai Trunks. Granted this makes Tenchi older than Gohan...but I'll ignore that because it isn't a core fact here. They have to face each other, their feelings, and save the universe...again. Their ages are of least concern, I think.

I also created several own characters and made up the background of Kiyone. She needed one, man. Next to Ryoko, she's my fav Tenchi girl. It explains why she is career driven and not infatuated with Tenchi (without her liking Mihoshi that way, which is cool and all but...no).

So yeah. I have spent so much time on this planning since August. I'm glad I waited to finish it because now it will what I wanted. It will be my master work of fanfiction. I will be proud when it's all over. I can't wait for that.