More Triad Saga notes

So...recently I rewatched Tenchi Muyo! OVAs 1-3 and Tenchi Universe. I actually watched the first two OVAs twice and tried to watch the third again, but...the voice actress Funimation cast to dub Ryoko is awful. I guess there were reasons why the only VA to not return, Petrea Burchard, did not come back, even though that sucks. She was the English voice of Ryoko. Mona Marshall's lines all sound like she's plain reading from a piece of paper. She redubbed some lines in the flashback sequence in the first episode, and there was no feeling at all. I could watch in Japanese, but my DVDs are in storage and I was watching them all on YouTube. I'll have to wait to see the subs when I dig my hard copies out.

Anyway! Not my point. So what is it then as I tend to ramble quite a lot? I visited a website that had a forum and read a topic on OVA 3 and how fans believe that the creator, dubbed K-sensei by fans, ruined the show with his comics and the third OVA. Aside from the failed English dub, I liked the third. However, the direction he took it in was not something I was thinking hence my story. I have not read any of his comics as they are all Japanese and put out on small scale (the actual term starts with dou- but I cannot remember the rest). Those who have or who have found out from Japanese fans do not like those either. They were saying even Shin Tenchi Muyo was better (Tenchi in Tokyo- apparently his continuation of Muyo is that bad). Bring back those days of Tenchi.

I guess I kind of agree. I know it is his universe and everything he says only is canon, but I liked the freedom before things were resolved to such a point. Eventually Tenchi and the girls all go to Jurai. He becomes emperor. He marries all of them (harem anime is apparently K-sensei's specialty). He is the kami that Tokimi and her sisters were looking for (more than likely, even though they all take a liking to him and decide not to worry too much about that and just live with Tenchi for the time). He has a son and a daughter, whose mother(s) is/are not specified. Ryoko has a daughter, and so does Ryo-ohki. There's a lot more, but I don't have patience to sort everything I have learned out.

At the same time, I feel the original incarnations of the characters are better developed (at least in the first two OVAs) compared to Universe and Tokyo. They have far more back story, and it is interesting. I still like the other two because they present new situations plus Kiyone is there. The last Tenchi movie more than overtly hints that Universe Tenchi would choose Ryoko. The manga written after the fact I feel was purely fan service to the Tenchi/Sasami base, which is apparently large in Japan. I feel Tenchi marrying all of the girls in Muyo! is cheap. Either he picks one or he finds someone else. The girls will not leave him no matter anything else. They are all family. I just don't like the whole harem thing, I guess.

Besides, in Universe, he has the chance to be emperor of the most powerful planet in the galaxy, but he leaves it all to go home. He does not leave Ayeka or Sasami, just the life that was not meant for him. Ayeka even seems to dislike it herself hence her staying on extended vacation and then running away. In Universe it truly is a love triangle. In the last episode, he daydreams of seeing Ryo-ohki and then Ryoko. One could argue it was because they were the only ones he did not know the whereabouts of, but I like to think it was deeper. When she did reappear, what she said to him made me think she had matured a little bit, and he was clearly glad to have her leap into his arms. It was a cute scene. Then there's the last movie where he kept seeing her and drawing her. Everything else from his life was blocked, but his memories of her kept coming through, even above Ayeka. One would have to have strong feelings for that to happen. In Tenchi in Tokyo, they even go on a date. He says he's attracted to her, even though she is violent, crazy, and impulsive. The last scene of the show they practically kiss. That show seems geared toward a T/R pairing also. Yeah, I know, he fell in love with Sakuya. They dated and were very much in love. The way I see it is the same as Haruna from the third movie. He needed to have strong feelings for someone who was "normal." Haruna gave him a normal albeit fake life. Sakuya gave him love and affection and trust. She was a normal high school student despite her secret connection with Yugi. He needed to mature, and so did the girls by having to watch him grow up and accept that he was changing. So were they.

So blah. All I was intending to say was that I like the idea of forgetting everything else that came after OVA 2 and go back to what we knew in the day. That's where my story is rooted, after all. I won't touch anything that occurs after OVA episode 13 and Daughter of Darkness. Technically I already screwed up since DoD happens in an off shoot manga series after OVA 6, We Need Tenchi where he defeats Kagato and meets Washu. But oh well. Too late for that now. ^_^'