Review: All New Tenchi Muyo vol. 1

[guyverfanboy]

English Title: All New Tenchi Muyo
Japanese Title: Shin Tenchi Muyou: Ryououki
Subtitle: Alien Nation
Vol. 1 of 4+
Author/Artist: Hitoshi Okuda
Publisher: Viz LLC
Translator: Lillian Olsen
Originally Published by: Kadokawa Shoten
Price: $8.95
Pages: 176
Age Rating: T (Teen)
ISBN: 1-56931-825-5
Release Date: March 2003
Review Date: April 9, 2004
Reviewer: Patrick Kerl

Grading~
Packaging: A
Artwork: A
Text: A
Content: A+

What They Say:
The entire No Need For Tenchi! crew return in the first volume of The All New Tenchi Muyo! And guess what? Nothing much has changed!

Tenchi is back and so are his other worldly housemates: There’s Ryoko, the love-smitten space pirate; Ayeka and Sasami, royal princesses from the planet Jurai; a carrot-topped super genius named Washu; Mihoshi, the ditzy Galaxy Police Officer; and a bioorganic fuzzy spaceship named Ryo-oh-ki. Together this zany bunch battle evil doers from outer space in-between bouts of bickering and flirting.

In this collection, Ryoko decides to get a job, Tenchi and Ayeka go on a date and Sasami bakes a yummy carrot cake. Later, Mihoshi crashes her spacecraft into the lake again (again) and Washu spoils a burglary attempt by a couple of nefarious newts. And in this books final chapter, cute and tiny Ryo-oh-ki transforms herself into sexy and adult Ryo-oh-ki!

Welcome to Alien Nation!

Packaging: Viz uses the original picture fore the cover which you won’t hear an complaints for me. I think it looks great!

Artwork: Hitoshi Okuda’s work is very nice and detailed. He draws the characters the characters very well. The way he draws he draws Tenchi and gang expressing their emotions, whether they are happy or pissed off, it comes off smoothly and nice.


SFX/Orientation: Flipped & translated

Text: Text looks perfectly fine and there are no complaints from me.

Contents (Watch out spoilers ahead):

Ch. 1: In our last episode…
The first chapter opens with some reporter dude digging up stuff on Tenchi and telling this girl who wants to be with Tenchi. @_@ While this chapter isn’t too interesting Ryoko’s and Ayeka’s antic kept me going. Washu discovers them before they can do any harm and wipes their memory of all they learned. Problem solved. ^_^

Ch. 2: Idle Hands
Ryoko goes off to find a part time job after Ayeka makes a comment aobut how Tenchi slaves away to support a freeloader like her. Her first job is a McD’s where a customer starts hitting on her which pisses her off and she blows up the fast food restaurant! Of course she gets fired for this. Onto the next job… a gas station! Well, while serving a customer she tries to shoo away a fly with a cigarette tray ^^; needless to say she moves onto another job. Bummed, Ryoko saves an old man who had fallen off a building. She listens to his sob story about how he wants to take his granddaughter to a theme park. Long story short, she helps out but gets pissed off at his boss when he comments about an uninsured person helping them. Well she smashes his desk and the workers force their boss to give them a nice pay raise.

Ch. 3: The Big Date
Finally! Ayeka and Tenchi go on a date together! Er…. This chapter starts out with Tenchi’s grandpa offering a free invitation to go to a 5 start hotel and poolside for the day! Of course all the girls are very excited. Ayeka wins. Well they both go for a nice swim in the pool and after a little bit of lunch they decide to leave for home. Ayeka notices couples around her holding each other’s arms. She blushes as she tries to ask Tenchi, butt *BAM!* she gets hit by a bank robber as he runs to his get away car! Ayeka gets really mad since her moment with Tenchi was ruined, and she transforms into a her battle outfit and smashes the bank robber’s car with one hit! Tenchi soothes her as she walks away crying and they both go home happily.

Ch. 4: A Carrot A Day
This chapter is all about sisterly love, can’t go wrong there. ^_^

CH. 5: Disaster Area
This chapter focuses on Mihoshi. Of course always making a crash landing when she comes home, Ryoko’s tolerance has been exhausted by this and she yells at Mihoshi to never come back! Tenchi’s dad, Nobuyuki, berates Ryoko and reluctantly she invites Mihoshi back home. (I coulda sworn I saw something similar in the anime…)

Ch. 6: Excellence
In this chapter has 2 newts which try to steal a rather odd looking statue (kinda cute though ^^. Well not exactly the all that great a chapter, it had some amusing moments. The end was the best: “If the house gets wrecked because of the security system, why would we want one?!�-Tenchi

Ch. 7: Strength
In my opinion is the funniest chapter in the whole book. It starts off with Ryoko and Ayeka filling Sasami’s head full of lies about dates. O_o Anyway, it’s a fun read to watch Sasami help Ryo-oh-ki get ready for her date with Tenchi! Good stuff I tell you!