So I was cleaning out my old stuff and found a lot of Tenchi Muyo stuff. Looking bad, I noticed that the main OAV series is actually only 6 or 7 episodes long and it actually covers all the characters. In fact since all the later stuff went off on tangents and random new characters you actually end up with most of the cast already developed in a relatively short time. There are a lot of spinoffs and mangas and again they're all reasonably short. It's nothing like today where stuff runs for 50 volumes of manga or 300 episodes of Anime and it still hasn't gotten anywhere. Sure, Tenchi Muyo is one of those 'mysteries to be revealed later' deal, but honestly it doesn't really matter if the Three Goddesses are always just Deus Ex Machina or that you never know what the heck Ryoko's jewels do other than being a mysterious power source. I think it's not until five years after the original OAV came out you even have a name of Tenchi's sword (True Light Hawk Sword) which is somehow cooler than the light saber he starts with.
Now I do have a problem with the later installments where they have way too many characters (apparently there must be a billion members in the Jurai Royal family) that it doesn't even focus on the main cast anymore but I think those came out a decade or later than the original and can be thought of as an afterthought. Even something like the two Tenchi TV series which I didn't like is at least fairly coherent and consistent and didn't drag on even if it's not particularly good. Also, I don't get why people in the Tenchi universe prefers to a carrot farmer over Emperor of Jurai. It's one thing that being an N-th dimensional entity like Tenchi might be kind of annoying but Emperor of Jurai is just your plain old ruler of the universe. It's a position that's basically exists by divine right so as long as you're backed up by Tsunami, which Tenchi is, there's pretty much no risk and no hassle and you don't even have to know what the emperor of the universe is supposed to do anyway because there are tons of other royal family members that you can delegate.
There's supposed to be a 4th OAV out recently but I can't even find information on it anywhere without trying very hard so I guess there's probably not much interest.
Now I do have a problem with the later installments where they have way too many characters (apparently there must be a billion members in the Jurai Royal family) that it doesn't even focus on the main cast anymore but I think those came out a decade or later than the original and can be thought of as an afterthought. Even something like the two Tenchi TV series which I didn't like is at least fairly coherent and consistent and didn't drag on even if it's not particularly good. Also, I don't get why people in the Tenchi universe prefers to a carrot farmer over Emperor of Jurai. It's one thing that being an N-th dimensional entity like Tenchi might be kind of annoying but Emperor of Jurai is just your plain old ruler of the universe. It's a position that's basically exists by divine right so as long as you're backed up by Tsunami, which Tenchi is, there's pretty much no risk and no hassle and you don't even have to know what the emperor of the universe is supposed to do anyway because there are tons of other royal family members that you can delegate.
There's supposed to be a 4th OAV out recently but I can't even find information on it anywhere without trying very hard so I guess there's probably not much interest.
