It's interesting to compare the TV and OAV series -- actually, it's unavoidable. Even though the OAV series is four years older, it holds up remarkably well. The story differences between the two series takes some getting used to, however. The OAV series in my mind has a definitely edge when it comes to story, character motivations and characterisations -- for example, the driving force behind Ryoko's affections for Tenchi is far more believable in the OAV than the TV series. Animation is a bit of a mixed bag -- backgrounds are very rich in detail and colour, though frame rates again are very limited. The music is not particularily memorable in the first episode (the opening theme is rather non-descript and mixed rather poorly, making some of the instruments annoying, while the end theme is pretty standard stuff. Luckily, Yokoyama Chisa -- who plays Sasami in the series -- has an inoffensive singing voice) Pioneer's attempt at subtitling has a lot to be desired, however. It's bad enough that the translations are at best described as "loose," but even worse is that they're in all caps. LARGE, yellow all caps. Lots of silly slapstick and heavy use of SD abound, serving to remind you to leave tongue firmly in cheek. Despite the better scripting and story in the OAV series, I found the TV series worked better for me, primarily because of the flow. But, you can decide for yourself. - AN

This is where it all began so long ago (1992) and does it show in the animation! While not bad, it's definitely a bit different from how things look now. The animation quality is pretty typical for OAVs and makes liberal use of the SD style, and while Ryoko looks just about exactly as she does now, Tenchi is a bit differently drawn. The music is also nothing particularly fantastic, but is enjoyable. The story itself though is a bit different and is rather interesting. Fairly fast paced, with a lot of action and featuring plenty of property damage. The premise of awakening a demon is nothing particularly new, but they use some interesting little twists in this series which makes it very escapist and lots of fun. The drawback to this episode however are the translations and the subtitles. I had a virtual headache after watching this episode thanks to all the constant SHOUTING from the subtitles. It was hardly necessary for the subtitles to be done in all caps, and the size used was rather large... I will grant that it made for easy reading however. The translations themselves were only fair. They do the job of getting the meaning across, but I found the translations left much to be desired in the areas of dialogue flow and accuracy. I also found that some of the sub-titled translations made the language harsher than necessary as if for the shock value. All that does really is raise the parental guidance rating. Despite the drawbacks to the sub-titles, the episode itself is a good way to unwind. -JYN