Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari OVA Ep. 01
異世界の聖機師物語 OAV Episode 01 (Pay Per View version)
War on Geminar – 01

Note: The review of the Blu-ray version, which had extra scenes, can be found here.

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The flying palace containing Princess Lashara comes under attack by a white bio-mecha unit — a seikijin. The seikijin is odd because it is solid white but it is a threat to the princess, so her seikijin pilot, Chiaia, gets into her own bio-mecha unit to meet this threat. As Chiaia battles, she’s amazed that the pilot is using an unorthodox fighting style. However, a second seikijin has penetrated the palace determined to kill Lashara. This seikijin’s attack is thwarted by another, unexpected seikijin piloted by Lashara’s talented mechanic Wahanly. Their fight takes them out of the palace where Chiaia realizes she’s fighting the decoy.

Wahanly unleashes a new weapon she’s created — a cannon — which does incredible damage to the 2nd seikijin’s body. Another rare seikijin in black comes in and rescues the damaged seikijin as Wahanly blasts away at it. Meanwhile, Chiaia continues her battle with the white seikijin and is joined by Wahanly. Together, they defeat the white seikijin but the young male pilot escapes, having been ordered to kill Lashara. He encounters her, determined to carry out his mission so he can “go back” but he’s defeated by Chiaia, who’s stunned to see that a boy piloted the seikijin — something very rare. Lashara forbids Chiaia from killing the boy, so they toss him into a cage which then is hung outside the back of the flying castle grounds.

The following day, Lashara decides to put a plan into motion to obtain more information about their attackers. Chiaia is concerned since her seikijin suffered major damage, leaving only Wahanly and her seikijin. Wahanly comes in and reports that she’s brought her research lab with her, meaning that in addition to fighting, she’s also working on projects. Since more protection is called for, Chiaia’s older sister (and seikijin trainer) Mexiah comes aboard with her seikijin. Meanwhile, Lashara’s aide Ulyte is able to learn that the captured boy is named MASAKI Kenshi, leading Lashara to suspect that he might not be from their world.

As night falls, Lashara’s trap is sprung when Kenshi’s companions come to retrieve him. Their appearance is also noted by the Dark Elves in their own hover ship, so their leader Aura dispatches in a seikijin. Meanwhile, Kenshi learns that he was just a pawn for the people who wanted to assassinate Lashara as they apparently have no way to send him back to his world. Rather than be killed, Kenshi fights his way out onto the deck of his former comrade’s ship. He’s attacked by the masked person who failed to kill Lashara, leading Kenshi to jump off the ship to avoid death from the masked person’s seikijin.

Instinctively, Aura saves the boy in her seikijin and is met by Chiaia. Together they return to Lashara’s flying palace, where Kenshi is shown to be very ill. A rare herb is needed to heal him, so Aura and Mexiah set out to gather some. At this moment, the people who want Lashara dead attack. Chiaia takes Wahanly’s seikijin and Wahanly uses another of her weapons to defend Lashara. They are outnumbered but when Aura and Mexiah return with the herb, the enemy is forced to retreat. Kenshi is given the medication and recovers and Lashara’s palace continues on its way.

Thoughts/Review:

Back in January, 2001 (sadly, the AIC site is no more), the creator of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki (KAJISHIMA Masaki) made an announcement that thrilled many fans — he’d been given permission to create three series — Tenchi Muyo! GXP, Tenchi Muyo! OVA 3, and Seikishi Monogatari, which would feature Tenchi’s half-brother (then unnamed). The success of GXP and OVA 3 guaranteed that Seikishi Monogatari would be created, but because of the time since Kajishima first wrote this story, he decided to rewrite it, which took more time. However, after all these years of waiting, the first episode of this 13-episode OVA series has now been released. So as I can, I will blog this.

Having the episode start not at the beginning but rather well into the story is not an uncommon practice. Sometimes this works and sometimes it does not. This time it works, fortunately, as we are introduced to many (if not most) of the core cast, we get an idea of their function in this world, we get an idea of the political situation, and we get an idea of what the series will be about. So while not majorly exciting, I did find this all pretty interesting even without the connection to Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki.

As to the episode specifics, the bio-mecha units are certainly very interesting. Again, Kajishima-sensei looks to Neon Genesis Evangelion for inspiration but rather than be a parody of Eva (as I believe Dual! started off as), this series feels like it is its own creation, but is simply advancing the bio-mecha idea to the next level.

Those who are familiar with Kajishima-sensei’s other anime titles will clearly see his trademark ecchi humor here, primarily with Mexiah getting naked and under the covers with Kenshi. Kajishima loves his shoutacon humor and events (as seen way too often in GXP) so I expect a lot more of that before this series is over. That’s going to be a negative from the start for me, depending on how much of it Kajishima-sensei throws at us in his story.

I was a bit disappointed that Kenshi’s ties to Earth and TM!R weren’t shown this episode, but then maybe that’s for the best. After all, ideally this series should stand on its own and the TM!R linkage can be explored later. I do hope to see cameos of Tenchi and company (via flashbacks if nothing else) before the series runs its course.

I do wonder whom Kenshi was referring to when he called out for “neechan” though. Was it Sasami or possibly Ryo-ohki (Kajishima-sensei has a doujinshi story showing a young Kenshi and Ryo-ohki playing and surprising a teenage Sasami who was “meditating” under a tree)? Those are the two “big sister” types that Kenshi would have grown up with since any of Tenchi’s kids would be younger than Kenshi. Of course, there’s the possibility of a new character that Kenshi sees as an “oneechan” whom we longtime Tenchi fans haven’t been introduced to yet.

I think it is safe to say that the character Doll is either a tie-in or a tribute to the character “D” from Dual!. Doll has more emotions than D did (at least, from what I recall) but I will be interested in seeing if Kajishima-sensei provides a greater link than the two characters looking similar.

My favorite character has to be Princess Lashara. Initially, I thought she’d be a stereotypical brat ruler. Instead, she showed herself to be a true ruler. She’s cagey and devious when it came to dealing with the assassins and gaining intelligence from them. She’s smart, clever, and funny and I’m delighted with her character.

As I said earlier, the first episode has nothing to mark it as some incredible anime, but I did find it interesting and fun to watch even without the Tenchi connection. So as I’m able, I’ll keep blogging this series. ^_^