Tenchi Muyo
No Need for Tenchi!

A Parent's Guide to Anime
Rated: PG
Parental Guidance Advised

Reviewed by Jane Hamilton:

Tenchi Muyo! (Literally, "No need for Tenchi") contains thirteen episodes so far and two movies. Tenchi begins the series by unlocking a demon from an ancient shrine and setting in motion a series of events which leads to his meeting and eventually housing the demon, the demon's scientist-creator, two stellar princesses, a galactic police officer, and a creature seemingly a cross between a cat and a bunny who turns into a space ship. Most of the series is done in a spirit of fun, the humor arising from a combination of bizarre characters and a healthy dose of coincidence. Most episodes contain at least mild nudity and sexual innuendo but no sexual situations. The included violence is not graphic. The first episode contains one uncharacteristically suspensful scene which may frighten small children. The subtitled versions contain some "d*mn"s; the one dubbed episode I watched had no profanity (episodes 8 and 9) but had pretty lousy voice acting. Children will instantly love Ryo-oh-ki.

Reviewed by Hideki Saito:

In my opinion, this series isn't suitable for small children under middle school age. Although this anime seems to be intended for children, not all of the characters are quite so innocent, and some behave in a straightforwardly sexual way.

Reviewed by Ashley M.:

Tenchi Muyo is, like the previous review stated, generally a light-hearted, comic series. Basically, it is the story of a normal boy named Tenchi Masaki who is living with his father and grandfather. The whole saga begins when he accidently frees a demon from the shrine near his house. This leads to a whole mess of trouble, since it seems most of the galaxy is after Ryoko(the demon)! To make matters more complicated everyone who comes to live with the Masaki household seems to fall in love with poor Tenchi, and this leads to a lot of competition when the girls try to win their young host over.

Tenchi soon discovers some secrets about the girls of the new household and about his own lineage. For instance, his grandfather is Princess Ayeka's half-brother and her one-time fiancee. These kind of plot twists may cause some confusion for children, but it's nothing parents shouldn't be able to explain.

The only violence I can see in the series is when Tenchi confronts the villain Kagato with his sword, the Tenchi-ken. There is no blood, but Tenchi does cut Kagato in half, and Kagato speaks one last time to him. This may disturb or frighten younger audiences.

This anime may also help to teach children/teenagers (myself included) about Japanese culture, as it has many references (like Nobuyuki praying to a little stone statuary, or the cooking of squid) that Americans aren't usually exposed to.

Parent's Guide Rating:

yellow (parental guidance advised)

Kagato uses his mind to try and find out information from Princess Ayeka. Parents might want to judge this scene for themselves before showing it. Also, in the subbed version, Ayeka was nude when this happened, but in the dubbed version she was not.

Speaking of nudity, Cartoon Network cut out all nudity and cursing in the dubbed version. There is no sex at all in this series. (though Washu, another female character, does make some not-quite-subtle enough innuendos. This does not make the entire series unenjoyable though)

Children may not understand the relationship between Ayeka and Yosho, Tenchi's grandfather. The key thing to note here is that Ayeka is Yosho's HALF-sister and on Jurai (the planet that Ayeka and Yosho hail from) , that was far enough apart to be considered suitable for marriage. It is no different than what the royal families of Europe did to preserve the blood line.

***Spoiler!*** The one other thing to note is that in one episode, Tenchi sacrifices himself to save the girls, and is rescued by a girl named Tsunami. Only Tenchi's torso appears, but Tsunami soon makes him whole agian and ready to fight with Kagato. This may appear disturbing to children, and it is advised that parents watch this scene for themselves before showing it to their children. A.M.