The Crazy World of Tenchi Shows

Okay so tomorrow I'm going to probably watch and analyze original Tenchi Muyo. But what is original Tenchi. Well I normally mean the Tenchi media that deals with the original characters but even that gets complicated.

Alright in 1992 the original OVA was released in japan. For non-otaku think of OVAs as straight to DVD animated miniseries. It was crazy popular so a second OVA was released in 1994 continuing the story. And that was insanely popular as well so in 1995 they decided to retell the story for a wider audience in a TV show. And by now you know the drill. After that there was a movie, another TV show, two other movies  and a second continuation of the OVA.

Most of this gets parred down to two continuities. The TV continuity and the OVA continuity (there was also a manga. They both tell similar stories but there are some minor differences. Here is the kicker. U.S. audiences weren't really told these were two different shows, U.S.advertising instead focusing on differentiating between the second TV show, Tenchi in Tokyo and everything else, largely because the second TV show wasn't all that well received.

When people think of the Tenchi cannon they're generally talking about

1. The First OVA
2. The Second OVA
3. The First Television Show Tenchi Universe
4. The Second Movie Tenchi Muyo Daughter of Darkness
5. The Third Movie Tenchi Forever

Then in the hierarchy is

1. The First Movie Tenchi In Love
2. The Third OVA Tenchi Muyo-Ryo Ohki
3. The Spinoff Tenchi Muyo GXP Galaxy Police
4. The second TV series Tenchi in Tokyo
5. Tenchi Muyo War on Geminar
6. The Magical Girl Parody Pretty Sammy

That's most of the stuff I know of not counting manga.