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3%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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7[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tenchi_muyo.png]]
8[[caption-width-right:350:[[Music/JayZ "He's got ninety-nine problems]],[softreturn][[Creator/{{Toonami}} and these bitches are the main ones."]]]]
9
10->''"But the most important discovery he'll make is that six crazy women, living under the same roof, all have the hots... '''for him'''. Now he'll have to deal with bounty hunters, ancient demons, mad scientists... and shared bathroom time.\
11The universe needs a new champion -- Tenchi needs some peace and quiet.\
12''Good luck.''"''
13-->-- '''Creator/{{Toonami}}'''
14
15The {{OVA}} series ''Anime/TenchiMuyoRyoOhki'' (simply ''Tenchi Muyo!'' in the United States) follows the life of Tenchi Masaki (voiced by Creator/MasamiKikuchi), the teenage grandson of a UsefulNotes/{{Shinto}} priest (who has taken it upon himself to teach Tenchi an ancient form of swordplay). When Tenchi steals the keys to -- and intrudes upon -- a sealed cave on the shrine grounds that legends say holds a sleeping demon, he accidentally releases Ryoko (Creator/AiOrikasa), a {{Space Pirate|s}} who had lain in suspended animation for seven centuries. This lone act begins a cascade of events that results in Tenchi moving from Kurashiki to the Okayama countryside, acquiring a half-dozen alien girls in an UnwantedHarem, discovering his own secret heritage, and becoming involved in events of literally cosmic proportions.
16
17''Tenchi Muyo!'', a classic "harem" anime of the '90s created by Masaki Kajishima, rose to popularity during the second major anime wave. The action/comedy science-fiction franchise started in 1992 as a six-episode {{OVA}} series by {{Creator/AIC}}[[note]]who were also responsible for all the following entries, listed below[[/note]]; an additional seven episodes quickly followed after the first six's success, although the second set of episodes ended the OVA's story on something of a {{Cliffhanger}}.
18
19Viewers did not lack for ''Tenchi'' material in the decade-plus between [=OVAs=], however. In addition to the OVA, ''Tenchi Muyo!'' spawned:
20
21* At least two lines of manga by Hitoshi Okuda.[[note]]Which were translated into English by Creator/{{VIZMedia}}.[[/note]]
22* Several spin-off series:
23** ''[[Anime/PrettySammy Magical Girl Pretty Sammy]]'' and its TV series spinoffs, ''[[Anime/PrettySammy Magical Project S]]'' and ''Anime/SasamiMagicalGirlsClub''
24** ''[[Anime/TenchiMuyoGXP Tenchi Muyo! GXP: Galaxy Police Transporter]]'', which is set in and is part of the OVA continuity
25** ''Anime/DualParallelTroubleAdventure'', which is (apparently) now part of the OVA continuity.
26** ''Anime/{{Photon}}'', which is ''also'' retroactively part of the OVA continuity due to its connection with ''War on Geminar''.
27** ''Anime/TenchiMuyoWarOnGeminar'', a spin-off starring Tenchi's half-brother Kenshi and featuring his adventures TrappedInAnotherWorld. This is also set in[=/=]part of in the OVA continuity.
28* ''Literature/TrueTenchiMuyo'', a three-part light novel that revealed otherwise-undisclosed background information on the original {{OVA}} timeline.[[note]]Translated and released in English by Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment in 2018.[[/note]]
29* Three theatrical movies, with two set in the ''Universe'' (see below) Timeline (''Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love!'', and ''Tenchi Forever: The Movie'') and a third that functions standalone as an adaptation of the tenth light novel (''Tenchi the Movie 2: The Daughter of Darkness'').
30* Two TV series (''Anime/TenchiUniverse'' and ''Anime/TenchiInTokyo''), both of which contain independent alternate continuities that share many of the same characters.
31* ''Ai Tenchi Muyo'', the newest show, where Tenchi must go undercover as a student teacher at an all-girls school in order to save the world (which is in danger thanks to Washu). Unlike the two previous television series, this one is composed of 60 four-minute episodes (50 actual episodes + 10 recap episodes).
32
33A third OVA series, which continued the original OVA's plot -- and unveiled a ''lot'' of new surprises in the process -- was produced in 2004. [[SequelGap After a long absence]], a fourth OAV series was released starting on November 2016 to August 2017, with this series setting up the events leading to ''War on Geminar''. A fifth OAV series premiered on February 2020 and concluded in May 2021.
34
35Throughout the majority of the franchise, the story revolves around the same basic core cast:
36
37* '''Tenchi Masaki''', the OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent and unintentional ChickMagnet
38* '''Ryoko''', an uninhibited space pirate, madly in love with Tenchi
39* '''Ayeka''', Royal Princess of Jurai, also in love with Tenchi
40* Ayeka's little sister, '''Sasami''', with a crush on Tenchi
41* '''Ryo-Ohki''', a hybrid rabbit-cat creature that turns into Ryoko's starship
42* '''Washu Hakubi''', The Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe
43* GeniusDitz '''Mihoshi Kuramitsu''' of the Galaxy Police
44** ...and her partner, '''Kiyone Makibi''', in the ''Universe'' and ''Tokyo'' continuities
45** ...or '''Noike Kamiki Jurai''' in the OVA canon, where she plays basically the same role as Kiyone in ''Universe''
46* Tenchi's [[UnflappableGuardian grandfather]] '''Katsuhito'''
47* Tenchi's somewhat perverted widower father '''Nobuyuki'''
48
49The characters and the exact relationships between them may vary from show to show (in the [=OVAs=], Washu is Ryoko's mother; in the TV shows, she's a simply a partner in crime; in ''Pretty Sammy'', she's her ''high school teacher''), but one thing never changes -- Tenchi is always getting chased by far more girls than he can handle.
50
51The series was one of the first anime titles to achieve major popularity in the United States, and one of the first to receive a straight English dub free of a bowdlerized script or any edits. Along with ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', ''Anime/SailorMoon'', and other series in the mid-[[TheNineties '90s]], it helped contribute to the early internet-age "Anime Boom" in the United States. It found an even larger mainstream audience when it premiered on Creator/{{Toonami}} in 2000 (in a package that included the original [=OVAs=], ''Tenchi Universe'', and ''Tenchi in Tokyo''). The show was also what put Pioneer (later Geneon) on the map as a major anime distributor, and Tenchi remained their signature title for much of their existence. Creator/FUNimation now has the American rights to the vast majority of the mainline ''Tenchi'' franchise. The group released ''Tenchi Muyo GXP'', the third OVA series (as ''Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Oh-Ki''), ''Sasami: Magical Girls Club'' (spinoff) and ''Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari'' (renamed ''Anime/TenchiMuyoWarOnGeminar'' for North America) on DVD (and Blu-ray for ''Geminar''); it also secured the licenses for and re-released the original OVA series (a Blu-ray and DVD combo set), ''Universe'' (DVD), ''Tokyo'' (DVD), and the three films (a Blu-ray and DVD combo set containing all the films) after the original American licenses fell into limbo. With the series first arriving in the US in late 1993 on [[Platform/{{VCR}} VHS]] and Platform/LaserDisc, Tenchi Muyo has remained in-print longer than few other anime series, surviving through many different home video formats (VHS, [=LaserDisc=], DVD, Platform/BluRay, legal streaming). However the Mihoshi Special (a part of the original OVA series), the ''Pretty Sammy'' [=OVAs=], and the'' Magical Project S'' spinoff remain in limbo, and can only be found through Pioneer's original now-out-of-print [=DVDs=].
52
53Although it features tropes from many genres (SciFi, ActionAdventure, SliceOfLife, RomanticComedy) ''Tenchi Muyo'' is generally recognized as an influential title in the HaremGenre, and paved way for other major shows such as ''Manga/LoveHina''.
54
55----
56!!''Tenchi Muyo!'' provides examples of:
57
58* AbsentAnimalCompanion: In the original OVA, Sasami has a cute ferret-like pet in her first appearance. It is neither shown nor brought up again, likely because it was functionally replaced with Ryo-Ohki.
59* ACupAngst: Ayeka gets a little of this when she realizes that Sasami will look like Tsunami when she grows up. In one issue of the manga, after some freakiness from Mihoshi breaking one of Washu's inventions causes Tenchi to revert to a baby and characters from one of Mihoshi's '50s sci-fi books to come to life, Ayeka complains that one of the sci-fi characters is [[MarshmallowHell suffocating baby Tenchi with her breasts]] and snatches him away. The character responds that there's "no danger of suffocation if he's with you" and Ayeka [[BerserkButton does not take it well]].
60* AceCustom: Any of the [[SapientShip Royal Tree Ships]], each of which is individually designed and tuned for their user and their [[BondCreatures Royal Tree partner]] serving as its power and control unit. It is actually common for the respective princes and princesses [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething to design their ship themselves]].
61* AdaptedOut: While Katsuhito and Nobuyuki are present in most ''Tenchi'' installments, the two of them are noticeably absent in the latest ''Ai Tenchi Muyo'' series.
62* AlienBlood: Subverted in episode 3 of the first [=OVA=]. When Ayeka injures her leg, Tenchi is genuinely surprised to see that her blood is red.
63* AlienPrincess: Ayeka and Sasami are both HumanoidAliens from Jurai, with a host of strange powers and outlandish hair colors. Ayeka is more concerned with her royal status than Sasami is. The Juraian Emperor enters the story at one point, trying to get his daughters to return home, and setting up an ArrangedMarriage to a Juraian noble named Seiryo, stating that Tenchi must defeat Seiryo in a duel if the girls wish to remain on Earth.
64* AllThereInTheManual: Masaki Kajishima, one of the creators, publishes tie-in novels and doujinshi introducing new concepts to the [[TheVerse OVA continuity]].
65** One of the most notorious manuals was the Tenchi 101 Secrets book, which received a partial FanTranslation and had parts included as an extra on the OAV [=DVDs=].
66* AlternateContinuity: When the show was airing on Toonami, you can bet that children were deeply confused over the frequently changing backstories of characters. Especially Washu and Ryoko.
67** Ditto for those whose first taste of the franchise would have been the first Tenchi movie thru frequent airings on Creator/{{SyFy}}’s Saturday Anime movie block a few years earlier.
68* AlternateUniverse: The OVA and subsequent anime series are each based in similar but notably distinct universes. ''Tenchi Universe'' delved even further with a romp through alternate universes based around various genre and period pieces.
69* AnimeHair: This might be a sit-down read.
70** Ryoko really looks like she's in a [[EightiesHair hair metal band]], or VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog. It helps that her hair's colored the ever-popular for Anime ''silver''.
71** Washu's hair (which is really out of proportion with her usual body) combines an extreme version of Ryoko's style with apparent inspiration from the crablegs-design for a kabuki mask, and pink hair.
72** Washu's highly-appropriate nickname for Dr. Clay? "Octopus-head!" Clay's hair is unique, because he combines his admittedly epic curls with some kind of beard. (Ironic, because he's about as far from badass as Tenchi Muyo ever gets.)
73** Kagato gets some form of...Poofy mullet in the back when absorbing Ryoko's power. Somehow, he still manages to remain intimidating; despite looking ''less'' like he's cruelly draining Ryoko's energy and ''more'' like he stuck his finger in an electrical socket.
74** Seiryo Tennan, the man who was chosen as Ayeka's second fiance gets a mention because his hair is the ''exact'' same color as the sakura petals that he makes his entrance with. And is shaped exactly like Mihoshi's: like someone tied together the ropes of two identical loofas and stuck them on their head.
75** [[BigBad Yugi]] from Anime/TenchiInTokyo combines her AnimeHair with some form of headdress. The result looks startlingly like a ''palm tree.''
76** Tenchi himself still manages to be somewhat of a badass despite having a rat-tail.
77* ArtShift: The third OVA, being produced some time after the rest uses a simplified art style that seems to split the difference between the normal style of the OVA's (and Anime/TenchiUniverse) and that of Anime/TenchiInTokyo.
78* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: The Juraian Royal family is a royal family precisely ''because'' it consists of the most powerful living beings in the Galaxy (or even the whole Universe), their predecessor having entered into an eternal pact with one of the Goddesses who created the Universe, and the family translates this power down the line.
79* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: Ryoko becomes a massive stone version of herself while fighting Kagato, yet he's still able to defeat her.
80* BabiesEverAfter: [[spoiler: At the end of OAV 5, Tenchi has fathered children with Ryoko and Ayeka, with the implication that he's also gotten Ryo-Ohki pregnant.]]
81* BalancedHarem: Even ending with MarryThemAll in effect.[[note]]Yes, the ambiguity is deliberate, because in different timelines Tenchi chooses different options, most popular being MarryThemAll and NoRomanticResolution[[/note]]
82* BarbieDollAnatomy: Averted: During some of the female nudity scenes, the nipples are almost invisible.
83* BatFamilyCrossover: The cast from Anime/TenchiMuyoGXP and the spinoff novel series Paradise War show up in OAV 5 to assist Kenshi's (from Anime/TenchiMuyoWarOnGeminar) training.
84* BerserkButton:
85** The wise know to not insult Ayeka or Sasami in front of Misaki if they value their lives, no matter ''how'' strong, as Misaki seems to have the ability to negate other people's super-strength and invulnerability.
86** Threatening Tenchi in front of Ryoko or Ayeka can be hazardous to one's health.
87*** Ayeka and Ryoko are essentially [[RedOniBlueOni each other's]] [[BerserkButton Berserk Buttons.]]
88** If you threaten anyone Tenchi cares about, he will ''cut you in half''. Kagato learned this the hard way.
89** Do not, at any time, refer to Airi as a grandmother, or you will suffer, as Ryoko learned the hard way.
90* BiggerOnTheInside: Any space that Washu has had a chance to manipulate. And in the [=OVAs=], all Juraian tree-ships, which are about 170 meters long on the outside, while the interior is a subspace pocket containing several planets, star systems, galaxies or even entire universes with accompanying ecosystems and population. Galaxy Police ships are no slouch either, Mihoshi's patrol ship for example, which is no larger than your average sedan, has a subspace pocket containing a fully-equipped apartment.
91%%* BigScrewedUpFamily: Multiple ones.
92%%** The Juraian royal family, in all its size and glory.
93%%** The Kuramitsu family.
94* BladeRun: Used by [[spoiler:Yosho]] in his fight with Kagato. To stand ''on a LaserBlade''!
95* BlandNameProduct: In ''Tenchi Universe'' and ''Tenchi in Tokyo'', the girls are watching a Samy-branded TV, a reference to Creator/{{Sony}}, as well as to Anime/PrettySammy (which is called "Pretty Samy" in Japan).
96* BornLucky: Mihoshi in the OVA.
97* BountyHunter: Nagi in ''Tenchi Universe'' is a bounty hunter who has made it her goal in life to capture Ryoko.
98* {{Bowdlerization}}: In order to air on Creator/{{Toonami}}, lots of material had to be censored or excised from the {{OVA}}s (not so much with ''Tenchi Universe'' and ''Tenchi in Tokyo'', though they didn't get away scot-free); this notably included the hot tub scenes in the OVA, a problem which was solved by digitally-overlaying bikinis over the nudity (and thus, [[DigitalBikini a trope]] was born).
99** When Creator/AdultSwim first started airing more anime than just ''Cowboy Bebop'', they ran several Toonami shows that Cartoon Network still had the rights to; sadly, while they did air ''Tenchi Muyo!'', they aired the Bowdlerized versions. Part of the problem was that the {{OVA}}s are 30-ish minutes long each (except for the 7th and 13th episodes). To make most of the series fit onto TV, enough had to be chopped to make room for commercials, resulting in about 3-5 minutes worth of material being lost per episode (the 7th and 13th episodes, when aired, had sort of the opposite problem, in that they left a GAP at the end that Cartoon Network had to fill with short subjects).
100* BoyfriendBlockingDad: Played comically in the manga, when Azusa threatens to kill a boy who flipped up Sasami's skirt. Washu later implants Azusa's angry face in the boy's mind, which triggers whenever he tries to do it again. It's an effective deterrent.
101* BrawlerLock: Ayeka and Ryoko during the 7th OVA, ''The Night Before the Carnival.'' And other times as well.
102* BrokeEpisode: ''Tenchi Universe'' and ''Tenchi in Tokyo'' have episodes related to this. The first manga series has this across a few volumes, too.
103* BrotherSisterIncest: For Juraians, [[BizarreAlienBiology inbreeding doesn't produce the same problems that it does for humans]]. Thus, they don't have the same cultural taboos against it, so nobody bats an eye at Ayeka and Yosho's betrothal.
104%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * CallToAdventure: Using SchmuckBait in the OVA continuity.
105* CanonForeigner:
106** Kiyone Makibi. She appears in many other Tenchi adaptations including ''Universe'', ''Tenchi in Tokyo'', and the ''Pretty Sammy'' series but was not from the OVA canon.
107** Sakuya from ''Tenchi in Tokyo'' was created specifically for that anime.
108** Momo, Hachiko, Hana, Tori, and many of the other girls at the all-girls school Tenchi teaches at in ''Ai Tenchi Muyo'' are original characters for that particular series.
109* CaptureAndReplicate: In the ''"Zero Ryoko"'' two part mini-arc, Dr. Clay becomes curious about Washuu's interest in Tenchi. So he kidnaps Ryoko, then has his android assistant (Zero) take her form and assimilate her memories, in order to spy on Washuu. Clay had intended to dispose of Ryoko immediately, once the replication was complete, but when Zero notes that a portion of Ryoko's memories was missing and couldn't be accessed, it piques his scientific interest again, so he begrudgingly decides to keep her alive.
110* CharacterDevelopment: Both Ryoko and Ayeka received a significant amount during the OVA continuity -- beginning as bitter enemies, then becoming romantic rivals for Tenchi's affections. Their fights progressively lose much of their earlier hostility and eventually settles into snark and bickering. Their development was further expanded in ''The Daughter of Darkness'' and ''Tenchi Forever'' (movies 2 and 3), by which time, they'd become friends. Ayeka even confides in Ryoko at one point, during the second film, by expressing her jealousy of Mayuka's closeness to Tenchi. Ryoko responds by telling Ayeka she was worrying for nothing and wagered Tenchi was probably out looking for her as they spoke. Ayeka thanks Ryoko for cheering her up, mere moments before Tenchi arrives, as Ryoko had suspected. By the third and final film, they'd become such close friends, that when Ryoko instigates a play fight, they laugh about it. Ayeka notes how long it's been since their last real argument and thanks Ryoko for it with a genuine smile.
111* CharacterExaggeration: Some bits in ''Universe'' from Ryoko and Ayeka. For the latter, we have a case where Tenchi is kidnapped and Ayeka is more angered by Nagi referring to Tenchi as "Ryoko's man" than her kidnapping him, and the former has a case where she's given money to got and buy food for everyone and she uses all of it on herself, forgetting how hungry everyone else was.
112* ChekhovMIA: A ''very'' subtle example. In episode 4 of the OAV, Mihoshi's computer lists a few of Kagato's past crimes. If you pay attention to it as it fades into background noise, one of the crimes is the kidnapping of a "female student" from the Science Academy. Two episodes later, this turns out to be Washu (though she was actually a [[OlderThanTheyLook professor]])
113** Mihoshi asks Washu if she is the student, and Washu face-faults. Her students are pranksters...
114* ChekhovsGun: During the first part of the original series, Ryoko's earring flew completely under the radar. [[spoiler:As it would be revealed in the final episode of the first season, it's actually a 'false gem' to balance her powers if she doesn't have all of the three gems that fuel her abilities.]]
115** The 3rd series has Chekhov's Death Star. Mihoshi's brother Misao brought a planetoid-sized battle station as part of his plan to "rescue" his sister. [[spoiler:It goes unfired - in the first timeline. After the Z incident ends with the timeline reset, everyone just plays around once Misao's team shows up again - until Noike gets MindControlEyes and sets the station's main gun to fire straight at Earth. Ultimately, the point was to make sure Tenchi got knocked out of space-time "[[TimeyWimeyBall again]]" by tanking the blast, so he could meet little-girl-Kagato on schedule.]]
116* CherryBlossoms: Episode 8 of the OVA series, ''Tenchi Muyo! in Love'', and episode 25 of ''Tenchi in Tokyo''.
117* ChickMagnet: Tenchi, and later Seina in ''GXP''. Also, Kenshi in ''Isekai Seikishi Monogatari'' and, generally, most of the protagonists in various [[TheMultiverse Multiverse]] titles.
118* ChildrenAreTenderHearted: Sasami, despite being hundreds of years old, still has the physique and mindset of a young girl about eight years of age. When Tenchi is supposedly killed in a space battle with Kagato, Sasami begins crying. But unlike most examples on this page, Sasami is linked to a PhysicalGoddess, Tsunami, and thus has the power to do something about it.
119* ChildrenDoTheHousework: Sasami is an 8-year-old who spent 700 years in suspended animation. She cooks and cleans for the household because Katsuhito, the closest thing to an adult there, lives in the shrine instead of in the house.
120* ComedicWorkSeriousScene: This is largely a comedic series, but it has its moments of seriousness.
121** Sasami is prone to eerie prophetic dreams that often have her waking in tears. This is not played for laughs at all.
122** In one episode, Sasami has to reveal to her sister Ayeka that "the real Sasami" died, and she was an artificial creation of Tsunami. After she falls asleep from exhaustion, Tsunami clarifies that Sasami was actually still alive, albeit gravely injured, and Tsunami was able to save her by binding herself to the girl, but that Sasami is too young to fully understand what happened.
123* ContinuityNod: Episode 7 of the OVA is filled with this: Mihoshi's spaceship being retrieved by Washu also brings back the demon Ryoko summoned in episode 4 - which is easily destroyed by Washu. Mentions of the Kagato incident, Tenchi shifting into his Juraian battle gear (accidentally), and Ayeka attempts to grow her Royal Tree, Ryu-Oh again.
124* CoolHouse: once Washu shows up, the Masaki residence is never the same.
125* CoolStarship: The Juraian Royal treeships/starships. Dear GOD the Juraian Royal ships.
126** The Galaxy Police shipyards are no slouches either. Though their products don't get to be powered by one of the Universe's creators.
127** Ryo-oh-ki.
128* CorrectiveLecture: In the first movie, after Ayeka and Ryoko accidentally serve as {{Moment Killer}}s to Achika and Nobiyuki, Tenchi has to remind the two of them that if they interfere with his parents in the past, he stands a good chance of [[RetGone never being born.]] They take the lecture to heart.
129* CowboyEpisode: ''Tenchi in Space''. After Tenchi's been kidnapped by the bounty hunter bent on defeating Ryoko, the two agree to meet at a location suspiciously similar to a small western town, complete with tumbleweed, saloons, and an eerie sunset.
130* CreatorProvincialism: Most of the names in the series are based on localities in Masaki Kajishima's native Okayama prefecture where the protagonists also live. Not to mention the fact that the most powerful royal family in the Galaxy, through the unlikely turn of events, ''just happens'' to descend from the ancient Japanese, ''and continues to recruit from there''.
131* CrystalPrison: Washuu's holding chamber in the ''Souja'', where she was held in a gem hidden in a PocketDimension, and which she designed herself. When she was later pointed to that, as its creator, she should've known of all its weakpoints, [[InsufferableGenius Washuu retorted that because she's its creator]], it didn't '' have'' any weakpoints to begin with.
132* CuteLittleFangs: Ryoko and Mihoshi.
133** Subverted by Dr. Clay, whose occasional fangs-flashing makes him look like an especially ugly vampire.
134** Then played straight again by Washu. (Periodically, at least.)
135%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * DebutQueue
136* DefeatMeansRespect: Kagato expresses admiration and respect for both the hero, Tenchi, and the goddess Tsunami, who granted him his power. See the page quote for GracefulLoser.
137* DependingOnTheWriter: Ryoko and Ayeka's rivalry can vary between simply being a pair of bickering siblings to an all-out war.
138* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: This could take a while...
139** Kagato was well on his way and able to smack around Ryoko and Ayeka while obviously not taking it seriously. Tenchi got smacked around, too. [[spoiler:But throw in Tenchi's Lighthawk Wings, and we've got whipped Kagato.]]
140** Considering how dangerous they both are, Ryoko and Ayeka's war for Tenchi's love really amounts to some kind of [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Are Cthulhus Having A Catfight?]]
141** The results of anyone of unnatural strength that [[MamaBear Misaki]] catches insulting/endangering Ayeka and Sasami. (Anyone of normal ability, it's just a regular smackdown.)
142** [[spoiler:And again Misaki, once revealed that she would become the "counter-actor" in the future; she viciously (And almost lethally) attacked both Tokimi-kami-sama and Tsunami-kami-sama; [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Are You Choking Out Cthulhu?]] and [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Did You Just Bitchslap Cthulhu?]], respectively.]]
143* DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu: Arguably the entire basis of the series. [[spoiler: Up to and including, the concept that lesser Cthulhus are romancing a greater Cthulhu - Tenchi]]
144%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * DirtyOldMan: Nobuyuki.
145* DisneyDeath: Ryoko in episode 24 of ''Tenchi Universe''.
146--> '''Ryoko''': I'm lonely. ''[dies]'' Hey Ryo-oh-ki! Where shall we go next?
147%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * DramaticSpaceDrifting
148* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale:
149** [[FridgeHorror If you really stop and think about it]], Washu's attempt to get a sperm sample from Tenchi kinda wanders into this territory, but only slightly, since she doesn't get very far with it. Can also be considered BlackComedyRape.
150** There's also Ryoko attempting to rape Tenchi in the Mihoshi special and in the ''Universe'' continuity.
151* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Sasami has dreams of both Kagato and Tokimi before they are introduced in the OVA.
152* DrumBathing: In ''Tenchi Muyo! In Love'', Kiyone is seen in one just before being teleported out of it by Washu.
153* DubPronunciationChange: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Kagato's name is pronounced "ka-ha-toh", probably because the pronunciation of his name [[CleanDubName sounded too much like "cagado"]] ("shat", as in, "he cagado", meaning "I have shat").
154* EasilyForgiven: The Royal Family of Jurai (including Yosho, excluding Ayeka) don't seem too upset with Ryoko for basically laying waste to their planet 700 years ago. When they see her again, they simply hand her an bill listing the cost of the extensive damages she caused during that incident - which they were willing to ignore the whole thing provided Tenchi wins against the Emperor's chosen fiancee for Ayeka.
155* EpunymousTitle: The title "Tenchi Muyo" [天地無用] is a Japanese phrase that is equivalent to saying "This Side Up." When [天地] and [無用] are interpreted as separate words (the former means "heaven and earth", the latter means "useless" ["no use"]), it can mean "No Need for Tenchi"/"Tenchi is Useless" or "No Need for Heaven and Earth"/"Heaven and Earth are Useless".
156* EveryoneIsRelated: In the fourth OVA series it's revealed that almost everyone who lives in Masaki village with some exceptions including Seina's family until his marriage to Kiriko is, in fact, a Masaki in the fact that they are related to the Jurian royal family in some shape or form. Due to a Jurian's normal life expectancy being ~200 years without (And even then they don't look older than 40 as was the case of Tenchi's mother) the aid of [=GXP=] body modifications or the nigh-immortality granted by being bonded to a first generation Jurian Tree seed many of the Misaki family go into space upon reaching adulthood in order to keep TheMasquerade.
157* EvilRedeemedInACan: Ryoko was reputed to be a demon, who was sealed beneath Misaki Shrine by Yosho after she attacked Jurai. Somewhat subverted in that Ryoko wasn't inherently evil, but under MindControl from Kagato, and she had become quite enamoured of Tenchi as her disembodied spirit watched him grow up. When she was freed, she was free of Kagato's control, though she still has a devilishly mischeivious side ''and'' a bit of a temper.
158* ExcaliburInTheRust: When Tenchi first sees the Master Key, a physical blade had been affixed to the hilt. This blade was in a state of extreme disrepair, prompting Tenchi to exclaim, "What a rusty old piece of junk!"
159%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * {{Facefault}}
160* FacialMarkings: Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ayeka get these whenever they transform into their battle stances, and Achika gets some in her Juraian form in ''Tenchi Muyo in Love''. [[spoiler: Sasami is also capable of this as revealed in ''Tenchi Ban 13.8'']]
161* FantasticRacism: In the OAV, Yosho is half-human. Thus the prejudice he suffered on Jurai, and the reason for his marriage with Ayeka. Another reason why he never returned. Ayeka was more than upset when she learned of this.
162** Not exactly racism, but a case of status/cultural discrimination. The founders of Jurai were human as with most Jurians (and genetically Japanese at that). However, they are also enhanced, near-immortal humans with some bound directly to a literal goddess. Moreover, Jurai is the absolute dominate power of the galaxy, whereas Yosho's mother, Funaho, was a commoner from a backwater Jurai colony inhabited by a backward civilization where basic technologies such as a 'light bulb' would seem utterly alien & unfathomable.
163* FauxAffablyEvil: Kagato has wiped out planets, wreaked chaos throughout the galaxy, enslaved Ryoko, and come very close to killing Tenchi. However, that doesn't mean he can't apologize to the girls for walking in on them in the Onsen, tossing off one liner's in battle, or even congratulating Tenchi on his victory after he is mortally wounded and just before he evaporates.
164 -->Ayeka: Scumbag\
165Kagato: Is that a term of affection, Princess, or do you just not like me?
166** Or:
167 -->Kagato: Tenchi, same name as the sword. [[http://www.astronerdboy.com/tenchi/Section%203/Episode-06.html Tenchi can't be copied]]. Very clever, Tsunami...You've won, boy.
168* TheFederation: The Galactic Union in the OVA canon is a textbook example of the "United Nations" type, consisting of a number of human polities [[WeAreStrugglingTogether in an uneasy truce]], including the protagonists' native [[TheGoodKingdom Empire of Jurai]]; [[TheRival their rivals]], the theocratic nation of Airai that worships [[PhysicalGod the Choushin]], and the oligarchical polity of Seniwa, whose ruling families (especially the Kuramitsu one) are very influential in the [[SpacePolice Galaxy Police]]. With them are allied several non-human nations, most important of whom are the [[CatPeople powerful race of humanoid felines]] called Wau. (It should be noted that rivals to the Jurai are only rivals not because they actually pose any threat to Jurai, which they don't, but a steady relationship is necessary to maintain order within the galaxy and beyond. Militarily speaking, Jurai is absolutely peerless.)
169* {{Filler}}: {{Inverted}} and a major problem with the manga series, since this was AnimeFirst.
170* FirstGirlWins: Ryoko in the ''Tenchi Universe'' continuity. Though it's not directly stated, the implication isn't exactly subtle. Especially after [[TheMovie the second movie in the continuity]].
171* FlyingFirepower: Ryoko in most iterations of the franchise can both fling some kind of energy blast and fly, among her other powers.
172* ForScience: Washu's desire to experiment on Tenchi (and sometimes even Ryoko, despite the fact that Washu should know everything about Ryoko's body, having designed it herself). For Tenchi she probably wants an [[CovertPervert excuse to see him naked]], and it's been established that [[TheGadfly she gets her kicks by tormenting Ryoko]]. She's even worse in ''Universe'', to the point she created many WeaponsOfMassDestruction to see if she could in her backstory.
173** In Episode 07 of the OAV, Washu, in full nurse outfit and latex gloves, has Tenchi completely restrained to a medical device and directly tells him that she is going to collect a sperm sample "for research". Fortunately for Tenchi, Mihoshi's BornLucky power kicks in and causes her to drop in on them, interrupting Washu before the procedure can start.
174* {{Foreshadowing}}:
175** Katsuhito's real identity as [[spoiler:Yosho]] is hinted by his playing up of DirtyOldMan tendencies towards Ryoko by touching her breasts and effortlessly blocking her punch in response. Remember that Ryoko is a notorious {{Space Pirate|s}} who laid waste to 700 planets and has SuperStrength (which he demonstrates later in the episode by knocking down a wall), and this seemingly ordinary old man (albeit Tenchi's OldMaster) residing on Earth was able to get the better of her. [[spoiler:Something only Yosho was known to have done]]. Ayeka is also reminded of [[spoiler:Yosho]] from meeting Katsuhito and observing the swordplay he was teaching Tenchi. The most definitive, though subtle, clue comes from a close-up that reveals Katsuhito's eye color is the same as [[spoiler: Yosho's, as shown in Ayeka's reminiscence earlier in the episode]].
176** In the second OVA, Sasami has a nightmare about Lady Tokimi, who would not be introduced until much later.
177** Sasami's connection with Tsunami.
178** Washu's connection with Tokimi, and by extension, Tsunami. When she makes her presence known to Dr. Clay, two silhouettes where Washu and Tsunami should be appear, suggesting their [[spoiler:divinity and relations with each other]].
179** Z, the BigBad of the 3rd OVA, was framed in a silhouette (with five Light-Hawk Wings) near the end of "Zero Ryoko" during the conversation between Tokimi and her subordinate, D3.
180* FramingDevice:
181** ''Tenchi Universe''.
182** ''Tenchi Muyo Extra Chapter: Galaxy Police Mihoshi's Space Adventure'' (aka ''The Mihoshi Special'').
183* FreeLoveFuture: Polyamorous incestuous marriages are common amongst Juraians and ''Anime/TenchiMuyoGXP'' confirms a lot of other races are like that.
184* FrothyMugsOfWater: Part of the {{Bowdlerization}} of the various series for American television included turning all references of drinking saki to drinking "tea". Must have been pretty strong tea to lay the entire cast out like that.
185* FutureSpandex: Ryoko's skintight battlesuit.
186* GeniusDitz: Mihoshi.
187** In the OVA continuity, at least -- In other series, she kinda drifts more in [[DumbBlonde the 'ditz' direction]].
188** One episode of ''Universe'' had her become a liability in three different ways, one of which could've ended quite badly if they hadn't had some inside help. In ''Universe'' at least, she's graduated to a full-blown case of TheMillstone.
189* GenerationXerox: Doujin images from Kajishima show images of life with Tenchi's kids is much the same as their dad's. Especially with ''three'' {{Childhood Friend Romance}}s between Tenchi's daughters(Ryoko and Ayeka, triplets with Ryo-Ohki, and Mihoshi and Noike) and the sons of Seina Yamada(Kiriko, Amane, and Ryoko(Balouta)).
190* GenreShift: The series is a romantic comedy with plenty of action. The first movie is an action drama with limited comedy. The third and final movie is a romantic drama with zero action.
191* GodivaHair: Most females in the franchise have absurdly long hair, which in many cases would drag on the ground if it weren't [[AnimeHair spiked up to heaven]].
192* GodzillaThreshold: In order to finally get rid of Kain in the first movie, Washu resorts to using a DoomsdayDevice designed to wipe out a galaxy. Fortunately, they're able to chuck Kain into an alternate universe before it goes off.
193* GoneHorriblyRight: Dr. Clay's plan to have his robot assistant Zero transform into an exact copy of Ryoko backfires when Zero also acquires Ryoko's love for Tenchi, which eventually overrides her base programming of absolute obedience to Dr. Clay.
194%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * {{Gonk}}: Amagasaki
195* GratuitousEnglish: Here's an example from episode 14 of ''Tenchi in Tokyo'':
196-->'''Ayeka''' ''[in English]'': Yes, but I have no money! Okay? Thank you! Yay!\
197'''Sasami''' ''[in Japanese]'': What's with the English all of a sudden?
198%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * HandBehindHead
199* HaremAnime: Although [[Manga/UruseiYatsura not quite the first one]], this was the series that opened the floodgates for the harem genre and [[TropeCodifier codified most of the standard conventions]].
200%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * HeavySleeper
201%% * HiccupHijinks: Convincingly PlayedForDrama at the end of the last volume of the comic (in the first series, that is.)
202%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * HolographicTerminal: A favorite for Washu.
203* HigherTechSpecies: Pretty much Jurai in a nutshell. Jurian technology is so advanced that their closest thing to a rival, the Galactic Union, cannot even hope to catch up. The Galactic Union, despite being technologically sophisticated themselves, could only look upon Jurian tech in awe as if witnessing ClarkesThirdLaw in motion.
204* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Washu was able to be imprisoned inside Kagato's ship because she designed it ''too'' well and then let him get control of it.
205* HotSpringsEpisode: Two in the original. The first causes massive property damage. The second? Hammers are passed around... Special note to Washu's personal hot-spring, which is definitely a sight to behold...
206* HotterAndSexier: Masaki Kajishima's series of self-published LightNovels and Doujinshis, not only it is made all too clear than Tenchi ''does'' MarryThemAll, but also doesn't hold back in showing/narrating him consummating with his harem.
207** Since Kajishima doesn't actually own the series (his employer does), this puts him in the somewhat unusual situation of essentially writing {{fanfic}}s of a series that he created. A situation that, presuming the continuation of the series, allows him to definitively canonize more and more of his self-published stories by linking events in the anime.
208* HowDareYouDieOnMe: Manga-only antagonist Yume's response to one of her genetically engineered villains sacrificing himself to save her? Angrily declaring that she hadn't given him permission to die, then breaking down in tears.
209* HumanAliens: Most of the cast [[spoiler: even Tenchi as it turns out, except in ''Tenchi In Tokyo''.]]
210** There's some implication that HumanityCameFromSpace with Earth belonging to the Jurai Empire or {{Panspermia}} by the Great Prehistoric Civilization. The later turns out to be true with the galaxy's human life originating on [[spoiler:the Earth from ''Anime/DualParallelTroubleAdventure''.]]
211* HumongousMecha: Ryo-Ohki in ''Tenchi in Tokyo'' and the Galaxy Police powered armour in ''Tenchi Universe''.
212%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * HyperspaceMallet
213%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * HypnotizeTheCaptive: Ayeka in the manga.
214* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming:
215** In ''Tenchi Universe'', the episode title is referred to as "No Need For (''today's episode theme'')!".
216** The original Japanese titles in ''Tenchi in Tokyo'' take on the form of haiku.
217* ImageSong: Most of the major characters have at least one.
218* ImpliedLoveInterest: Ryoko in the ''Tenchi Universe'' continuity. The series ends with Ryoko showing up at Tenchi's house after supposedly dying, and vowing to him that she's going to win his heart fair and square. In the second movie in that continuity, Ayeka basically concedes defeat to Ryoko and allows her to be the one to rescue Tenchi from Haruna's alternate dimension. The film then ends with a shot of Tenchi and Ryoko enjoying a quiet moment together as a wind shakes the trees, mirroring a scene involving Tenchi's parents from the film ''Tenchi Muyo in Love''. Although it's ambiguous in other continuities which girl Tenchi likes the most, the ''Tenchi Universe'' continuity drops some pretty big hints that he will end up with Ryoko - though the author later wrote [[http://tenchiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&p=21643#p21643 material]] implying that he'll end up marrying both Ryoko and Aeka - and ''both'' the resulting daughters will end up marrying the son of Seina and Kiriko.
219* InappropriatePride: Mihoshi protests that there must be some way to escape the shadow dimension aboard Kagato's battleship, and that as the inventor, Washuu ''should'' be able to find it. Washuu boasts that it's '''because''' she designed it that the trap is so perfectly inescapable (even though she herself is trapped within it). Of course, it means they're powerless to aid in the fight against Kagato.
220* InconvenientSummons: Kiyone gets a rare non-magical example; she's DrumBathing when Washu yanks her through time and space to give her an {{Infodump}} on Kain. When you're friends with a mad scientist with a teleporter, this is to be expected.
221* InsistentTerminology:
222** "No! I'm not gonna help you unless you call me Little Washu!" (Replace "Little Washu" with "Washu-chan" in the Japanese version.)
223** Misaki practically demands that her daughters Ayeka and Sasami call her Oka-san ("Mommy") in a high-pitched voice ''with'' TenderTears, though this applies more to Ayeka. Failure to do so invokes a DeathGlare.
224%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * ItsAllMyFault
225* KabukiSounds: ''Tenchi Universe'' would use them for the title card, and for the eyecatches.
226* KaraokeBox: Happens in ''Tenchi Universe'' and ''Tenchi in Tokyo''
227* LargeHam: Kagato. And he plays a pipe organ like only a super villain can, too.
228* LaserBlade: Many, most notably the Tenchi sword in the OVA continuity.
229* LethalChef: Ryoko. Her first attempt at cooking in the OVA ends up foaming up an odd pink froth that dissolves the stove. Judging by the ingredients, she was ''trying'' to make vegetable soup. It gets toned down considerably in the manga (though she still does things like fry fish by hurling energy bolts at them), which also created the character of Asahi, who meets this criteria with her belief that each ''helping'' of dinner should be seasoned with ''four or five tubes of wasabi'', something that makes her cooking inedible to anyone other than her and her boyfriend.
230** Washu at least has the honesty to declare that she can't even boil water (presumably hyperbole), and instead tries to skip all the middle steps by using her scientific skills to directly create the end product from scratch. [[EpicFail She probably should have started with trying to boil water instead.]]
231* LightningGlare: Aykea and Ryoko often engage in this, to the extent that they are actually the page image.
232* LivingShip: Ryo-Ohki is a living crystalline ship which prefers to laze around as a carrot-eating cabbit.
233** Also, Tsunami and her offspring, the Ouke-no-ki (Sentient trees), that more or less run the Juraian ships just as much as the actual Juraians. However, they're no longer ships, and can never be again, once they take root on a planet's soil.
234* LongLived: Jurai, or at least their royalty, live for hundreds to thousands of years and beyond thanks to the [[ImmortalityInducer Water of Life]], as well as their symbiotic link to their trees. As a result, Tenchi has a ''very'' extended family.
235** This also extends to citizens hailing from member states of the Galactic Union, where life-extension technology and other enhancements are commonplace.
236* LostColony: Earth is a colony of Jurai, formally known as Colony World 0315. The case is somewhat mixed in that Jurai is fully aware of the colony and some governments even maintain contact with their homeworld.
237* LoverTugOfWar: Seen in the opening for the original OVA with Ayeka and Ryoko on either arm of a flustered Tenchi.
238* LoyalPhlebotinum: The Tenchi-ken will only activate for a member of the Juraian royal family.
239* MalignedMixedMarriage: Mixed marriages are looked down upon by Jurai in the OVA continuity. Its the main reason why Yosho left Jurai because he couldn't stand the prejudice. When Ryoko attacked Jurai, he saw it as an opportunity to leave and never return despite his promise to Ayeka that he'd return and marry her.
240* MarketBasedTitle: In the Philippines, both of the Tenchi Muyo television based anime (''Tenchi Universe'' and ''Tenchi in Tokyo'') are aired together as ''Tenchi Muyo TV!''.
241** ''Tenchi Universe'' and ''Tenchi in Tokyo'' themselves are this for the Anglosphere as well, the original Japanese titles for them were ''Tenchi Muyo!'' and ''Shin Tenchi Muyo!'' [[note]]"New Tenchi Muyo!''[[/note]] respectively.
242* MeetCute: Parodied; Ayeka and Ryoko try using ''shojo'' manga as a relationship guide. ... A month or so ''after'' they'd already met Tenchi. Ryoko does CrashIntoHello and Ayeka does the "minor medical aid" variation (using a snare to ensure that Tenchi is in need of aid). Noike plays it straighter by meeting Tenchi in passing and trying to buy some carrots from him and offering to help in the fields as payment, not knowing he's [[spoiler: her fiance]].
243* TheMillstone: Mihoshi, as far as Kiyone is concerned. So long as the two are together, Kiyone's career seems to only slide further into ruin.
244* MindScrew: The last OVA, to the point where some fans [[FanonDiscontinuity prefer to pretend it didn't happen]] because [[ContinuityLockout they couldn't make sense of it]].
245%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * MixAndMatchMan: Ryoko.
246* ModestyTowel
247** Aeka and Sasami used these at times, even in the {{hot spring|sEpisode}}. This would be more of a character decision, though; it's hard to call it censorship when everyone else around them goes without. Ryoko once took the chance to humiliate Aeka by [[ShamefulStrip undoing the tie on her towel]], exposing her in front of Tenchi who predictably had a NakedFreakOut.
248** In ''Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love!'', Kiyone is [[DrumBathing bathing in an oil drum]] when she's suddenly {{teleport|ation}}ed to Washu's laboratory. Washu then gives her a towel to cover herself as a half-hearted apology for the {{Inconvenient Summon|s}}, which Kiyone wears for the rest of the scene.
249* MoodDissonance: During her introduction, Mihoshi's scanner discovers "the infamous criminal" Ryo-Ohki in the immediate vicinity, and she seriously lists the atrocities committed by the ship (and Ryoko), including blowing up a few hundred planets. She then realizes that Ryo-Ohki is the cabbit sitting on Sasami's head. An incomprehending Ryo-Ohki happily eats her gun.
250* MoreThanThreeDimensions: InUniverse, there exist 22 dimensions, each with a 'supervisor' that oversees it. The Choushin Goddesses exist in the 'hyper-dimension' beyond dimensional space, and created the 22 dimensions as an experiment. This is a major plot point of the third OAV.
251* TheMovie:
252** 1996's ''Tenchi Muyo! in Love'' and 1999's ''Tenchi Forever!'', both of which were set in the ''Tenchi Universe'' canon, and 1997's ''Tenchi Muyo! The Daughter of Darkness'', set in its own continuity but based mostly on the [=OVAs=].
253** ''Daughter of Darkness'' is actually set in the continuity of a series of novels that spun off from the first [=OVA=] series. Though those novels (unlike the prequel novels by Kajishima) are fairly obscure even in Japan.
254* MultigenerationalHousehold: Tenchi, his father and his grandfather living together before all the girls arrive.
255* TheMultiverse: By WordOfGod, all [[AlternateContinuity Alternate Continuities]] and many other works of Kajishima, including ''Dual!'' and all incarnations of ''Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld'', are alternate realities in one big Multiverse.
256* MurderTheHypotenuse: Ayeka and Ryoko are involved constantly in this with each other, while their power levels makes it closer to [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Wile E. Coyote vs. Wile E. Coyote]].
257* MyBiologicalClockIsTicking: Although all of the girls want Tenchi (even Sasami likes him), Washu makes the most blunt advances on him in the eighth episode of the OVA series when she assumes a more adult form at the end of an episode and states she wants him to get her pregnant.
258** [[spoiler: And eventually succeeds, being the first of his wives to bear a child, if Kajishima's [=LNs=] and doujinshis are to be trusted.]]
259%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * MythArc
260* NaginatasAreFeminine: When Tenchi or his grandfather uses the weapon Tenchi, it's used as a sword with a LaserBlade. When his mother Achika uses it in the first movie, its handle extends to naginata-like lengths.
261* NamedAfterTheirPlanet: A lot of the aliens. Juraians come from Jurai, Seniwans from Seniwa and Airi from Airai. Notably the Juraian royal family have Jurai as their surname.
262%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample %%* NewSuperPower
263* NeverTrustATrailer: This early Toonami [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzmNRv7yVfk promo]] uses clips from the OVA, ''Tenchi Universe'' and ''Tenchi in Tokyo'', giving the impression that it's one continuous show.
264%%* NiceGuy: Tenchi and all his Expies and variations.
265* NoblewomansLaugh: Ayeka, in the Japanese version.
266* NonChalantDodge: [[spoiler:Yosho]]'s first move in the fight against [[BigBad Kagato]]. Kagato fires an energy beam at [[spoiler:Yosho]]'s face, and he dodges it by simply tilting his head a little to the side.
267%%** He demonstrates the skill again in Episode 9 under less life-threatening circumstances...
268%%* NonhumanSidekick: Ryo-Ohki and, in ''GXP'', Fuku.
269* NoodleIncident: In OVA Episode 3, Tenchi and Ayeka talk in a remote work shed during a rainstorm. Nothing terribly affectionate is seen happening, but in Episode 4, Ryoko (who read Ryo-Ohki's memory) claims Ayeka was "rather aggressive" with him. While it could be a joke, Ayeka's flustered reaction suggests it might have credence...
270* NoPeriodsPeriod: Subtle hints are dropped with this for Sasami in OVA Episodes 8 and 9.
271* TheNoseBleed: Tenchi, especially when looking at a nude Ryoko.
272* NoSenseOfDirection: Mihoshi, as well as her mother Mitoto in ''GXP''. In Mitoto's case her lack of any sense of direction seems to extend to accidental teleportation.
273* NotQuiteTheAlmighty: The Chousin are a trio of super-dimensional gods that are TheOmnipotent for all intents and purposes, but theorize there's a deity [[EvenMoreOmnipotent as above them as they are mortals]]. [[spoiler:They're proven right with the Supreme Being or "Kami Tenchi"]].
274%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * OcularGushers
275%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * TheOjou: Ayeka, and Sasami to a lesser extent.
276* OlderThanTheyLook:
277** In the OVA, EVERYONE except Tenchi. [[spoiler:This ''includes'' his father. There, Tenchi's older sister is over 80 years old...]]
278** [[spoiler:Tenchi too, considering that he is the being that created the Choushin. Sort of.]]
279** Mihoshi seems relatively normal, agewise. (One manga scene has her claiming to be 24, take that how you will.)
280*** The fact that Mihoshi's grandfather is several thousand years old ([[spoiler:and the immortal Washu is her great-great grandmother]]) indicates that she'll get to be older than she looks eventually, even if she's not currently.
281*** Her mother looks not a year older than her, as do her great aunt (centuries old, see below).
282** Generally, it is played with in that the most characters are essentially immortal, and medical technology being what it is in their universe, everyone just adopts the appearance they find the most convenient. For example:
283*** The three Great Princesses (Seto Kamiki, Airi Magma and Mikami Kuramitsu) all naturally look in their thirties, despite being hundreds (or thousands) years old, but Mikami, being the Headmistress of a Galaxy Police Academy, adopts a guise of 50-something matron when on duty, because it helps to keep the unruly cadets in check.
284*** Yosho (who's pushing 1000) and his granddaughter Tennyo (80) all wear elderly guises on Earth, despite their natural youthful appearance, while his son-in-law Nobuyuki (200+) usually looks forty-something.
285*** Washu favourite appearance is ''twelve'', despite her being [[PhysicalGod one of the creators of the Universe]].
286* OldMaster: Katsuhito/[[spoiler:Yosho]] may be grey-haired and wrinkled, but he's still able to take down trained Juraian guards with a wooden sword. The only reason Tenchi can do the same is because Katsuhito trained him. Well, officially.
287* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Nagi in ''Tenchi Universe''; she wanted to be the only person to defeat Ryoko, and she would even help Tenchi's crew just to protect Ryoko from her other enemies.
288%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * OracularUrchin
289%%* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent:
290%%** Tenchi used to think that he was one. He was so very, very wrong.
291%%** Sasami tries to become one in the manga.
292* OrganicTechnology:
293** The [[SapientShip Juraian spacecraft]] are powered by living, semi-sapient trees. [[spoiler: The parent of them all is not only fully sentient, but a goddess - and the alter ego of a main character.]] Also, Ryo-Ohki, who is the cute mascot character that transforms into a LivingShip.
294** All Royal Trees down to the third generation (great-grandchildren of Tsunami-no-Ki) are fully sentient and have an absolute authority in selecting [[BondCreatures their partners]] — which is actually a [[AdoptedIntoRoyalty sole qualifying characteristic defining the Juraian royalty]]: that they are partnered with a Royal Tree. However, while they serve as power and control unit of the individual Prince's (or Princess') ship, these aren't truly organic, just stylized as such, and must be designed and built in the conventional way. Still, they're all AceCustom units and are head and shoulder above the rank-and-file ships. Past third generation, though, the trees' power and sentience rapidly drops, and while fourth-generation trees are still capable enough to power and control the Juraian rank-and-file warships, fifth generations have little use beyond being stationary power generators and sixth generations are but ordinary trees.
295* TheOriginalSeries: ''Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki'' (the OAV episodes continued / finished).
296* ParentalAbandonment: Ayeka and Sasami were pretty much ignored by their parents, as [[TheGoodKing Azusa]] was [[MarriedToTheJob constantly busy with the matters of state]], and [[ActionGirlfriend Misaki]]… well, calling her a CloudCuckoolander is actually quite generous. So, in effect, those two were RaisedByGrandparents.
297%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * PillarOfLight
298* PirateGirl: In the various continuities, there are more named female space pirate characters than male ones.
299* PlanetSpaceship:
300** The Kuramitsu family have a planet-sized spaceship called that can destroy planets and seems to a nod to the Death Star from ''Franchise/StarWars''.
301** Some [[SpaceStation Space Stations]] are larger than planets, like the Galaxy Academy being the size of a solar system.
302* PowerDyesYourHair: When Kagato starts draining Ryoko's energy, his hair floofs with power.
303%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * PowerGivesYouWings: The Light Hawk Wings.
304* PowerPerversionPotential: Ryoko can create copies of herself and likely shapeshift.
305%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
306* {{Precursors}}: A "Great Prehistoric Civilization" that seeded all the [[HumanAliens Human Alien]] planets in the galaxy is occasionally mentioned. The ''Anime/TenchiMuyoGXP'' novels reveal that the civilization originated millions of years ago on [[spoiler:the Earth where ''Anime/DualParallelTroubleAdventure'' is set and that Tenchi's Earth [[EarthAllAlong isn't the original]].]]
307* PreExplosionGlow
308* ProductPlacement: Pioneer camcorders are prominently featured. And are generally very detailed pieces of electronic hardware while onscreen.
309** One notable example is a scene where Ryoko is playing video games on a Nintendo Platform/GameBoy.
310* RammingAlwaysWorks:
311%%** In the early episodes of the original OVA and Universe... between Ayeka and Ryoko both times, naturally.
312** In the OVA, Ryoko uses Ryo-Ohki to ram Ayeka's Ryu-Oh, sending both of them plummeting to Earth in order to either kill her or remove her as a serious threat. In Universe, Ayeka snaps (with maniacal laughter) during a ship duel and rams Ryo-Ohki out of the sky. Both ships in both situations end up out of commission for a long while.
313** This also serves to strand the both of them on Earth.
314* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Or [[spoiler:[[strike: Really Twenty Thousand Years Old]] Really Older Than the Universe]] in Washu's case. Sasami also serves as the TropeNamer.
315* RedOniBlueOni: Ryoko and Ayeka, respectively. Ryoko is brash, quick to action, openly seductive, and loves baiting Ayeka. Ayeka is cultured, restrained, proper, and found of subtly sniping at Ryoko.
316* RedStringOfFate: This happens in episode 2 of ''Tenchi in Tokyo''.
317* RelationshipSue: In-universe, subverted in a most awesome way in ''Tenchi in Tokyo''. Sakuya Kumashiro initially comes across as the poster girl for the trope, [[ThirdOptionLoveInterest snatching Tenchi's interest away from Ryoko and Ayeka]]... [[spoiler: but it was revealed later that she was ''created'' to do so by the BigBad Yugi.]] And as icing on the cake, [[spoiler: Sakuya actually does NOT make it to the end of the series]].
318** [[spoiler: Sakuya is explicitly mentioned to be Yuugi's [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith modified avatar]], who ''[[SatelliteLoveInterest cannot]]''[[SatelliteLoveInterest imagine her life without Tenchi]], [[HeroicBSOD almost has a mental breakdown]] when she starts suspecting she's a TomatoInTheMirror, and finally ''[[DyingMomentOfAwesome disappears telling him to leave her to save the world]]''. She's the evil RealityWarper's Mary Sue… GoneHorriblyRight.]] One of the few examples in which Canon Sueish-ness is actually ''[[FridgeBrilliance plot relevant]]''.
319* RememberTheNewGuy: The third OVA introduces Rea, Nobuyuki's assistant and long-time friend of the family, who has not been seen or mentioned previously (although Nobuyuki's business was out-of-focus beforehand).
320* RemovingTheRival: Being a harem anime, this happens quite frequently in both the original and its various spin-offs. Ryoko and Ayeka in particular often try to use all manner of underhanded tricks to dispose of one another and get Tenchi to themselves.
321* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Ryo-Ohki... [[SarcasmMode who knew that a hybrid of a cat and bunny would end up mixing pretty well?]]
322* RoyallyScrewedUp: Again, Juraian royalty. Other royal families also qualify.
323* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: The Jurai[[note]]Or at least, the Masaki and Kamiki houses; the Tatsuki and Amaki houses don't seem to be doing anything productive and in fact nobody from the Tatsuki house even shows up.[[/note]] and Kuramitsu clans. Seto, for example, is actually much more effective in a fight than the whole fleet of Federation warships. And let's not start on [[PhysicalGod Tenchi]]...
324* ScoobyDooHoax: In the ''True Tenchi Muyo!'' novels, a young Azusa has to rescue Funaho from being sacrificed by bandits to the {{Orochi}}... which was actually a robot used by SpacePirates to help capture valuable primitive slaves.
325* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: The Galaxy Police often finds themselves pissing in their pants after finding out they were messing with Jurian royalty, or Seto, especially Seto.
326* ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers: When you are a faction that is backed by actual super-dimensional beings that can manipulate physics, reality, time & space at will, rules are more like an afterthought.
327* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: The Juraians, particularly its royal family, are responsible for many of the norms, laws and regulations in this galaxy and beyond. Though the Juraians aren't warlike and would prefer not to dictate rules upon anyone. On the other hand, they are often exempt from many of the very rules they had a hand in creating.
328* SealedEvilInACan:
329** Ryoko, who (In the original series) was sealed in the Masaki family shrine; she turned into a "good guy" pretty quickly, although isn't always 'good'. Also in the original series, Washu was trapped within a crystal in the ''Soja's'' reverse-dimension; that ''could'' be a subversion of the evil part, depending on how far Washu is willing to take the MadScientist thing.
330** In ''Universe'' Washu was the one sealed in the shrine. In this continuity she is also far less responsible and far more destructive than in the original OVA - she apparently got sealed for inventing world-destroying superweapons just because she could.
331** She does that kind of stuff in the OVA too. See 'Washu's Pore'. She's just nice enough not to USE it.
332** [[spoiler: Yugi in ''Tenchi in Tokyo'' is eventually to have been this before Tenchi moved away from the other girls. Also, she ends the series sealed again, in the shrine, of her own volition as part of a finale HeelFaceTurn.]]
333%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * SeriesFranchise
334* SharedLifeEnergy: A non-romantic example. A kitten that lived around Masaki Shrine was gravely wounded, and Ryoko lent it life energy to spare it, because Tenchi was fond of it. After Tenchi broke the seal that restrained her, Ryoko took back the life energy to help restore herself. However, she was able to incorporate the kitten's DNA into Ryo-Ohki, which is where the Cat part of our Cabbit comes from.
335* ShesAllGrownUp: Sort of; Tsunami has said that Sasami will grow up to look like her. And, needless to say, this bit of information ''completely'' demoralizes Ayeka and Ryoko.
336* ShoutOut:
337** To ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and ''Franchise/StarWars'', at the very least.
338** It rips-off, er, ''does an homage'' of ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'', compete with floating electric alien woman in love with an earthling[[note]]but born of Juraian blood[[/note]] who forms an intergalactic harem in the end (or at least at the surface level, that's the case).
339* ShowWithinAShow: The unnamed alien SoapOpera.
340* SigilSpam: In the [=OVAs=], Doctor Clay imprints his personal mark on virtually everything he owns. Washu knows this, and is able to first identify his clone of Ryoko thanks to his symbol on her ass, then locate the bridge of his spaceship because it is right behind said mark on the hull.
341* SkinshipGrope: The baby does it to Mihoshi in episode 8 of the OVA.
342%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
343* SmallUniverseAfterAll: The galactic civilizations seem to run on TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay but the Choujin have Dr Clay moving galaxies around and offer him rule of one if he manages to capture Washu.
344* SneezeCut: Ayeka does this in episode 2 of the OVA.
345%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * SoWhatDoWeDoNow
346* SmartCopDumbCop: Mihoshi and Kiyone. Depending on the continuity, Mihoshi can be anything from a BunnyEarsLawyer to a complete idiot. Kiyone isn't quite a genius, but she is very intelligent and has more common sense than anyone else in the cast.
347* SpaceOpera: Most of the spinoffs, but especially ''Anime/TenchiMuyoGXP''.
348* SpacePirates: Ryoko, though she's never doing much of anything pirate related apart from robbing a bank.
349* SpannerInTheWorks: Mihoshi often plays this role in any continuity.
350%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * SpecialEditionTitle
351* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The character Aeka, whose name is spelled as "Ayeka" in the English version; this has the unfortunate side effect of altering the pronunciation of the character's name.
352** In a similar vein, Washu; her name is often spelled "Washuu".
353%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * SpitTake
354%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * SpotlightStealingSquad: Again, Ryoko in the ''Tenchi Universe'' continuity.
355%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * SpotTheImposter
356%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * StageNames: Every voice performer in the English-dubbed version.
357%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * StalkerWithATestTube: Washuu, towards Tenchi.
358%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * StealthClothes
359%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * StuffBlowingUp
360%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: Most of the cast.
361%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * TheSweatDrop
362* TangledFamilyTree: [[https://web.archive.org/web/20080306225336/http://tmau.fateback.com/articles/family_tree.html This says it all, really...]] The Masaki Family Tree is way tangled with Tenchi and Mihoshi being the further-est apart on the family tree.
363* {{Teleportation}}: Some characters like Ryoko can do it and Tenchi at a push. Larger spaceships are usually left in orbit with people beaming down to planets ''Franchise/StarTrek'' style.
364* ThemeNaming: A lot of characters' names come from locations in Japan.
365%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * ThirdOptionLoveInterest: Sakuya in Anime/TenchiInTokyo.
366* ThirdPersonPerson: Sasami, in the Japanese version, which is a common way to shows the character's youth and innocence in the Japanese media.
367* ThoseTwoGuys: One of the first anime series to introduce the trope. Tenchi's two schoolmates serve the purpose to various degrees on Earth, as do Ayeka's bodyguards, Azaka and Kamidake off-Earth.
368* ThreesomeSubtext: Ryoko x Tenchi x Ayeka, and Ayeka and Ryoko hate each other, but plenty subtext occurs [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDiEsyI5Syw in universe.]]
369* TimeTravel: The plot of ''Tenchi Muyo! in Love''.
370* TomatoInTheMirror: Most of the population of Masaki Village are of Juraian descent but aren't told until they're 18 to preserve TheMasquerade.
371* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Ryoko, who's generally a boorish {{Ladette}} and Ayeka, a ProperLady. Subverted in that Ryoko is actually really sensitive and sentimental, while Ayeka is quite a prissy bitch under her prim and proper mask.
372* TooKinkyToTorture: Ryoko's screams when Ayeka is torturing here sound rather more ''orgasmic'' than pained. Justified in that her body isn't capable of feeling much of anything, including pain.
373** Subverted almost immediately after that scene in episode 2; Tenchi (the sword, not the boy) makes a good point on how it doesn't allow anyone unworthy to so much as touch it.
374** Also subverted in episode 13. Washu got some good film of it as well.
375%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * TouchedByVorlons: Tenchi, Sasami.
376* TreeVessel: Juraian ships are all [[OrganicTechnology made of wood]], and empowered by royal trees (the children of Tsunami).
377%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * TheTrickster: Sasami.
378* TropeCodifier: While not the first Harem Anime, ''Tenchi Muyo'' did more to codify and normalize certain harem conventions in anime than Manga/UruseiYatsura did, most importantly having a HumbleHero who's surrounded by beautiful women who all like him precisely for being a decent guy. Since then, most anime with harem elements have taken more cues and basic story/character blueprints from Tenchi than they have [[Manga/UruseiYatsura Ataru]].
379* TheUnfairSex: Notably averted for all the universes. In fact, more often than not, the protagonist is put off by any of the girls' overt advances. Additionally, (most) of the other girls realize this and tend blame each other more than him, and Tenchi is usually portrayed as being in the right.
380* UniversalAdaptorCast as exemplified by the SpinOff of ''Anime/MagicalProjectS''.
381%%* UnresolvedSexualTension: All over the place.
382%%** Tenchi to most of the girls.
383%%** Ayeka and Ryoko in the OAV.
384* UnwantedHarem: ''The'' definitive example, and arguably the ''first'' — [[Manga/UruseiYatsura Ataru]] ''did'' want his harem, he just always failed relating with all the girls in it, due to his JerkAss personality, while Tenchi appeals to more of its target audience. Arguably an UnbuiltTrope; Tenchi Masaki is ''[[LiteralMetaphor literally]]'' an UnluckyEverydude - he is both a ButtMonkey and a NiceGuy. Being a Nice Guy means he's [[AboveTheInfluence too ethical to abuse the girls' affections]], let alone MarryThemAll with any kind of speed. Also, every one of the girls is [[MagicalGirlfriend both jaw-droppingly gorgeous and a prime example of a certain fetish]]... but they're also actual ''people'' with all the complications thereof. As he's a Butt Monkey, those complications ''threaten his life'' - along with the entire '''planet''' and occasionally '''''universe''''' - on a regular basis.
385** ManicPixieDreamGirl Ryoko? A {{Space Pirate|s}} with a price on her head several dozen orders of magnitude greater than Earth's combined GNP.
386** The Princesses? Elegant and refined Aeka is a bossy, prudishly-repressed proto-dominatrix, while adorable homemaker Sasami is a little girl who happens to be [[spoiler:the avatar of one of the three [[GodWasMyCopilot goddesses who created the universe]],]] and they're both half-sisters of his grandfather.
387** The cute lil' MadScientist? She's [[Really700YearsOld really 20,000 years old]], is the mother of the Space Pirate, she [[MrsRobinson wants him anyway]], and she's [[spoiler:''another'' of the three goddesses who created the universe]].
388** Oh, and WordOfGod says that the [[spoiler:third goddess wants in as well]].
389** There's also two [[SpacePolice Galaxy Police Detectives]]; both are interested, but the sensible one is MarriedToTheJob and the other is an absolute ditz who clears cases mostly through blind luck. [[spoiler:The ditz is also the grandchild of the Mad Scientist's disastrous first marriage]].
390* VitriolicBestBuds: Ryoko and Ayeka seemingly make a favorite sport out of arguing and with each other about Tenchi and everything else, and in all continuities their hatred for each other started out as legitimate for some reason or another. Kiyone thinks of Mihoshi as nothing more than the incompetent idiot holding her career back, and no matter how many times she says this or how much she criticizes or chastises Mihoshi over some blunder, Mihoshi just agrees or apologizes and goes right back to merrily assuming their friendship. Despite all this, in both cases we see occasional moments of genuine friendship and whenever things get sticks and the time calls for it, they and everyone else in the UnwantedHarem usually tend to put themselves on the line for each other and fight together without question.
391* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Zero (later merged with Ryoko); Washuu (sort of; it's more like Volunatary ''Age''shifting)
392* WeAreAsMayflies: All of the alien characters live ''much'' longer than humans. The ultimate example is Washu, who looks like she's 12 and actually has been around since [[spoiler:before the dawn of time, making her older than dirt]].
393** Of course, it has been established that it is possible for a person to extend their life artificially and some of the characters are long-lived because of this.
394*** Juraian royalty have the Royal Trees, which further extend a person's life when bonded to them.
395*** Washu's long life span may be due to her [[spoiler: divine personage]] and it is implied Ryoko's long lifespan was due to her having Washu's gems.
396** Actually, if you are from part of the Federation, you are almost guaranteed a natural lifespan significantly longer than humans due to readily available genetic enhancement technology.
397* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Katsuhito's cat appears only in the first episode of the OVA. It was never seen again through the rest of that series. It is implied that Ryoko, upon her release, killed it. Also, Sasami's pet weasel-thing wasn't seen again after Sasami and Ayeki's introduction, it may have died in the crash.
398** Chibi, the cat, was a stray that Tenchi had found and Ryoko was using her powers to keep it alive. She later reabsorbed the power she gave it and used it as the base for the reborn Ryo-ohki. It made a cameo in ''Tenchi Universe''.
399** The weasel can't be dead...the main part of the ship where it was, was in a pocket dimension. It's probably fine, and goofing off in Washu's lab. Offscreen at least.
400* WhiteMaskOfDoom: Kain from ''Tenchi Muyo in Love!'' has one of these; it's also an [[EmpathicWeapon empathic mask]]. It becomes more creepy as he becomes more desperate in the final battle.
401%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * WillfullyWeak
402* WondrousLadiesRoom:
403** Washu sticks a spa in a pocket dimension for the women to use.
404** In the OAV continuity Ryoko used her molecular manipulation, and Washuu's designs from her and Ryo-Ohki's mental database, to create a giant luxury onsen, including waterfalls, hovering in the open above the house. However, it also has a smaller section for Tenchi's use only, according to the writing on the entrances. Somehow, the outside world never notices.
405** They live out in the countryside. Also, it's anime; Japan is such a WeirdnessMagnet (possibly because TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse) that the spa probably doesn't even register as being unusual.
406** Going by ''Anime/TenchiMuyoGXP'' it's probably simply a typical Galaxy Police-fare visual distortion field, and the onsen definitely isn't visible to Seina when he first visits.
407** According to the True Tenchi novels, a large section of the Tenchi 'village' is concealed by Yosho, because his descendants were steadily expanding in numbers. To further remedy the problem, many of Yosho's descendants returned to space.
408* WorldOfActionGirls: Most of the women that appear are pirates, police officers, or users of advanced magic and science, while the guys are bumbling through.
409* WorldOfTechnicolorHair: Ryouko has cyan hair, Ayeka has purple, as does her father, Azusa. Sasami and her mother, Misaki, have light blue, Kiyone has forest green, Washu has a deep red, and at one point we meet a rival Juraian suitor with cotton candy pink hair. This is not treated as anything remarkable.
410%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Misaki as the Counteractor, Z.
411* YouAreNumberSix: Z's full/real name is Z-0001332536893.
412%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * YouWontFeelAThing:
413%% cont. commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample -->'''Ryoko''': I won't hurt you... Too much!
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