July 22nd, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari OVA Ep. 02
異世界の聖機師物語 OAV Episode 02 (Blu-ray/DVD version)
Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar 02
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
As Queen Lashara of Straiou’s flying castle and grounds (know as the Swan) continues to its destination, Lashara has a conversation with Chiaia about Kenshi and his being a Seikishi — one who can pilot the Seiki-jin units. Lashara has decided that officially, Kenshi will be her servant when it comes to the public. They make their way to where Kenshi is as he attempts to flee naked from the women trying to give him a bath. This results in his running into Chiaia, who’s not happy about the situation at all. Kenshi is subdued and returned to the bath, leading Lashara to be curious to see more but the older woman in charge puts an end to that.
Lashara tells Kenshi of her offer to officially make him her servant and he ends up accepting the offer. Lashara, Chiaia, and Kenshi get into an elevator to the grounds of the Swan where Kenshi is awed by all the ships that are flying to the holy land, the final destination of the Swan and where they will be attending school. Upon entering the gates of the holy land and arriving at their destination, Lashara is annoyed to see the ship from the country of Havonia there already. Kenshi is still awed by everything, forcing Chiaia to get him to straighten up as he’s supposed to be Lashara’s servant and is being observed by the students.
A male and female student come out to greet Lashara. The male, Dagmyer Mest, expresses concern about the attack on the Swan and Lashara assures him everything is fine now, even requesting he relay the message to his father, Babaren. Chiaia observes her childhood friend and has a brief thought he might be involved in the attack but then sweeps it aside. Kenshi notices that she appears to have feelings for Dagmyer. With their departure, Lashara and Chiaia show Kenshi around a bit, taking time to look down at the Seibukai — an arena for Seikishi to train in. Kenshi takes the opportunity to congratulate Chiaia on officially becoming a Seikishi along with Wahanly.
Inside one of the buildings, Lashara is not happy to see Maria, who’s the same age as she in addition to being Lashara’s cousin and the Queen of Havonia. Maria is there with her female servant Yukine. Soon, Lashara and Maria are verbally going back and forth and flipping each others skirts until they demand that Kenshi tell them which slip he likes best. He doesn’t want to pick but when Yukine quietly includes herself into the mix, Kenshi quickly picks her. After going back outside, Kenshi explains that picking Lashara wouldn’t have solved anything. An annoyed Lashara asks if Yukine is his type, then coyly mentions that as a rare male Seikishi, he may have to marry her in order to breed more Seikishi.
Chiaia explains the importance of this to Kenshi since the church only allows a certain number of Seiki-jin to be created. Thus for a nation to gain an edge over another nation, having Seikishi who are bred to be better than mere training can provide is essential. Kenshi is not keen on the idea of being in an arranged marriage so Chiaia reminds him of the debt he owes them considering he tried to kill Lashara. Seeing Kenshi depressed, Chiaia states that as an underaged male, he won’t be forced to marry just yet and before he comes of age, he may find a way back to his own world. Kenshi likes this idea, then mentions that it is possible he may have to marry Chiaia if he doesn’t get to return home.
Wahanly has been challenged by a rounin Seikishi in the hopes that by defeating Wahanly, Lashara might bring them into her service and thus giving them a master. Wahanly asks Chiaia to officially observe the match and she agrees. Two Dou Armor units are used to simulate Seiki-jin combat in the match grounds and the fight is on. Mexiah-sensei (who insists Kenshi address her as “Mexiah-oneechan”) and Ulyte-sensei come to watch the match as well. The rounin Seikishi scores some hits and looks to have the advantage, but Kenshi sees otherwise. Sure enough, Wahanly wins and Lashara is vindicated in choosing her as one of her personal Seikishi. Mexiah is impressed by Kenshi’s observations.
After the match is over, Lashara, Chiaia, and Kenshi are taken to their residence, which is a small castle due to Lashara being a queen. Chiaia shows Kenshi to his room and asks that he not wander. Naturally, he looks out the window and is off. In some nearby woods, he finds all manner of edible foods and is harvesting some when he senses two presences. He is attacked and dodges repeatedly, surprising his attackers. Their attack is stopped when Princess Aura arrives and orders them to stand down. Observing what Kenshi has gathered, she is impressed with his skills and he is informed that this land belongs to the Shurifon, though she gives permission for him to come whenever he wants.
One of the items Kenshi gathered is a rare mushroom which they treat like gold. Kenshi gives it to them as thanks for Aura saving his life previously. Aura’s two men are very happy and are off with this priceless mushroom leaving Aura and Kenshi alone. Since Aura is a Seikishi, Kenshi asks her about her opinion regarding these forced marriages. She explains why it is important and how the Seiki-jin are important for world peace. After she leaves, Kenshi finds Ulyte-sensei nearby apparently feeling faint. Kenshi makes him a concoction that knocks him out but ends up doing wonders for the teacher. However, Dagmyer is not happy about what has happened to his uncle.
Kenshi leaves and finds Yukine tending a flower garden. She notices he’s not very cheerful and he mentions how he ended up knocking Ulyte-sensei out. She tries to comfort him on this and he remembers Lashara teasing him about possibly being forced to marry Yukine. As such, he asks Yukine about these arranged marriages to get her opinion. She tells him that these kinds of marriages as well as having people and even young rulers from all over the world attend this academy helps world peace and so she’s OK with the Seikishi marriage system. It is here that an irritated Chiaia finds Kenshi and drags him back to their residence.
Kenshi is tasked with helping Wahanly in her mobile workshop to organize the place before her induction as an official Seikishi. Kenshi notices the severely damaged Seiki-jin and asks about it. Wahanly states that it is too damaged to be repaired here so it will have to be taken to the church. He notices the pure mechanical robot next to the Seiki-jin and asks about it. Wahanly is impressed that Kenshi knew it was a robot and says she calls it “Kikoujin.” It uses a different energy source than the ahou energy used by the Seiki-jin, but she sees it as having an important, non-military function. This leads Wahanly to talk about how the histories of the world (Ena) are traced back to a single event and that the church rules most of the countries, which she finds strange.
Their conversation is interrupted when Mexiah arrives and plans to join them for lunch. She’s cozying up to Kenshi when a large group of female students arrive, demanding that she keep her promise to have lunch with them. Realizing she can’t get out of it, Mexiah kisses one girl on the cheek and goes off with her, followed by an excited group of students. Chiaia seems a bit embarrassed by this and Kenshi notes how popular she is with the girls.
In his residence, Ulyte-sensei is contacted by a voice, whom he’s spoken with before. Their talk is interrupted when Kenshi arrives to see how he’s doing. Kenshi is relieved to see that his drink has worked so well. Ulyte-sensei asks if there is something on Kenshi’s mind, so Kenshi mentions the Seikishi marriage issue. This leads Ulyte-sensei to believe Kenshi has a girl in mind but asks him to bear with it.
Back at the residence, Lashara is not happy with this flashy bath she’s been furnished since her own bath is broke. So Wahanly, Chiaia, and Kenshi head down to repair the boiler of Lashara’s own bath. As a reward, they’ll get to use it but upon making the repairs, Chiaia discovers that Kenshi has wandered off again. She finds him and accidentally knocks him into the water that feeds into the boiler and through to Lashara’s bath, where he naturally arrives. This causes the elderly head of Lashara’s staff to be horrified, though Lashara isn’t too concerned and simply requests Chiaia and Kenshi be more careful.
The next day, Chiaia and Wahanly are inducted as Seikishi in a ceremony along with many other girls from other nations. Kenshi sees Chiaia get inducted first, which consists of putting on her head what appears to be ear muffs with cat ears on them.
Thoughts/Review:
Wow! Forty-five minutes of OVA and a lot of material and characters to cover. ^_^;
I’m actually stunned that we have another 45-minute episode. Actually, the DVD version of episode one is over 51-minutes long (the pay-per-view version was 45-minutes however) but I figured that was just to get things going, after which we’d have a bunch of 30-minute episodes. However, Kajishima-sensei may surprise me by having every episode be 45-minutes in length. Unlike most OVA/OAD’s released today where they still use the TV-format when it comes to episode length, Kajishima-sensei is thumbing his nose at all that. Heh! That’s pretty typical of the man and I’m not going to complain. ^_^
First, the OP and ED sequences have that pointless female nudity that we’ve come to expect from Kajishima-sensei. Of course, he likes all that pointless fanservice and ecchi content, which is why it is sprinkled throughout all his anime titles. This time though, he gave some for the other side as well by having Kenshi naked and giving a butt shot.
The other well-known Kajishima-sensei trademark is the harem concept and this title is no different. However, Kajishima-sensei is setting things up a bit differently than he has in the past. For TM!R and GXP, the political aspects of the hero ending up with a bunch of babes is secondary to the notion of a bunch of hot babes of all ages and girl-types falling in love and/or lust with the hero, no matter how young he might be. In a title like Masquerade (which is a hentai title) or Photon, the harems are very small so it is simply about some girls going for the nice guy hero.
For ISM, Kajishima-sensei is first establishing the political and practical need for a Seikishi male to possibly marry multiple Seikishi females for the purposes of genetically breeding a superior Seikishi to pilot the Seiki-jin’s. Naturally, there would be few males who become Seikishi and so Kajishima-sensei has created a nifty little scenario to happily play the harem card without totally being the same as before.
What I especially find interesting here is Kenshi’s concerns about marrying someone whom you don’t love just for the purposes of breeding. Kenshi isn’t concerned about the harem aspects of this, which is natural considering his half-brother is married (or shacking up with ) quite a few women at the same time. However in that case, Kenshi knows that Tenchi loves all the girls in his harem. Kenshi obviously has no love at present but the ground work is being laid for Kenshi to have his own harem to love by the time the series is over. His concerns made him feel more like a real person to me.
I take note of the speculation within the episode that Doll may be from another world. Well, that’s likely going to be true considering that a similar character was in Dual! and in the background materials for Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki, Kajishima-sensei also has a similar character if I recall correctly (I’m too lazy to sift through the mounds of materials I have to attempt to see if it is TM!R or another series Kajishima-sensei did).
I still like the character of Lashara a lot but even last week, I wondered what it would take to foil someone as clever as she (for a young girl, she has her act together). The moment she made a face and remark about the Havonia ship, I instantly knew what that foil would be — a female rival. Sure enough, introduce Queen Maria, who’s apparently the same age as Lashara and is the one person who can make Lashara act her age. Well, it had to be done because you can’t have Lashara being perfect.
Going back to Kenshi, I liked the sense of awe and wonder he expressed every new place he went. I was reminded of the first Harry Potter movie and seeing how Harry acted when introduced to the strange new world of magic. So kudo’s to Kajishima-sensei there for making Kenshi feel like a real person in that regard.
I’m still not entirely sure what the Seiki-shin really is but I guess I’ll learn more later.
There was just an incredible amount of table setting being done with this episode and a lot of characters to be introduced and previous ones given some face time as well. Overall, I did enjoy this a fair amount as there is a lot of fun and items of interest though the pacing drags a bit in places. I do look forward to seeing the next episode, whenever that happens to be. ^_^
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just saw these pics… can’t help but notice that guy looks like Tenchi…
I thought it was common knowledge that this was initially developed as a TV anime, but they had some trouble getting a timeslot on an non-PPV network, so they decided to double up the TV-size episodes into 45-minute OVAs.
That’s because Kenshi is Tenchi’s half-brother.
@guess not — I was unaware of that.
I never heard of this series until you posted about it. Where’d you pick it up? Fansub?
Oh. I finally picked up the rest of OVA 3 of Tenchi. Took me long enough.
P.S.: The scanlation of Negima 258 is out.
P.P.S: What’s with the Scientology ad? Goofy UFO cults annoy me. >:(
One group did episode 1 (PPV version) then appears to be having internal problems. Another group picked it up with the Blu-ray version of episode 2. They are going to release the BD version of episode 1 as well.
I didn’t realize there were Scientology ads. Hmmm. Well, I don’t choose the ads, Google does. That said, if you want to make them pay, just click the ad. *lol*
Review for 258 is going up tomorrow. ^_^
I’ll go try to hunt down a fansub for the show. I haven’t downloaded any fansubs since my computer got fixed a few months back (and I was using an old computer that could barely play videos for a long while before then), so I’m going to have to re-download a bittorrent client and head on over to AnimeSuki or whoever. Considering the R1 industry’s contraction as of late, odds are a lot of interesting shows that might’ve been licensed had they come out 3 years ago won’t be. I vastly prefer DVDs to streaming or downloaded videos off the net (fansubs or legit), but until things improve in the R1 industry, the latter might be the only alternative.
Ok. I’m rambling again. What else? Oh. Re: the ads. It would be nice to have some control over ad content. Some sites have ads that are themed to the content of the page, or at least correspond to a keyword in the page’s title. I guess Blogger isn’t one of those. One wonders how a Scientology ad winds up on an anime blog? Xenu does not approve. :p
This show has surprised me in how enjoyable it has been. I think Kajishima is back on his game.
Shadow — try Tokyo Toshokan. You can find both fansubs and the raws too.
Well, I like this episode, It up their with the best of MK TMRs. In fact it is good enough to shut you know who up.
While Dolly does look like DEE, and Neeju, her personality seem more self-centered than those two and seem almost like Washu, or maybe Tokimi.
The concept of having Kenchi the center of not just a Harem, but what seem to develop into a cult is going to be interesting. I beginning to wonder what will happen when Tenchi goes to Juria.
I beginning to think that the voice we heard was the orginal Mech. If so then that may be to of Tsunami’s missing seeds, and that dealing with sometime akind to Tokomi-sama’s battlefield field culling process (which may mean I right about Kenchi’s real identity.)
As 50 minute time lenght, that is a standard lenght for a 1 hour TV broadcast.
And for those concern about todays ads, the blog company ANB uses sells the ads, so don’t complain to ANB about that.
As mentioned, Tokyo Toshokan has picked up both of the released subs so far. They’ve also got raws for the first three episodes, but you have to look elsewhere for the raw of the fourth (I found a copy split into two pieces using Google, but it took some time and effort; unfortunately, I no longer remember where I got it so I can’t help you find it if you’re interested in it). And unfortunately the quality isn’t so good on some of the raws. I’m particularly waiting for a better quality version of episode 4, as there are some scenes that are difficult to make out in the poor quality version that I have. For the most part, the raws aren’t too hard to follow along although you do miss some of the important stuff. For instance, watching episode 2 raw obviously won’t fill you in on the usefulness of male mecha pilots. And there’s something very odd that happens in episode 3 that will undoubtedly make much more sense with a translation (it’s still pretty humorous even without the sub, though). But by and large the raws are easy enough to follow.
Within the summary –
No mention that Dagmyer is the masked ringleader from episode 1? He’s clearly shown without his mask at the end of episode 1, making it easy to recognize him in this episode (particularly since he and Ulyte are the only two blonde-haired males so far, and Ulyte has long hair).
I’ve mentioned it elsewhere, but the voice (based on the similar distortion) that Ulyte is talking to in this episode appears to be the same masked female who was piloting the masked and cloaked mecha in episode 1. Ulyte also seems to indicate that his collapse wasn’t random, but was instead the result of him doing some poking around out in the forest and getting poked back.
And as something to toss out… When Chiaia and Kenshi are moving the containers for Wahanly, note who does what toward the end of that sequence. So far as I know, this particular scene is more or less a throwaway. But the actions of the characters within the scene fits with something that will be focused on a lot more in the next episode (and don’t drive yourself nuts over this – it’s just a little something extra if you pick up on it and won’t affect your enjoyment of the next episode if you don’t).
😛
And one more item – the discussion in this episode regarding the value and expected “duties” of male mecha pilots puts Lashara’s comments in episode 1 (when most of the cast is outside Kenshi’s bird cage, just before Chiaia shows up) about Kenshi being an “asset” that needs to keep his body strong in an entirely different (and unintended by Lashara) context…
heh
Apparently, Scientology paid Google a lot of money, which is why the ads would show up even on an anime blog. I’ve seen ads here for Pizza Hut, Target, Office Max, and other non-anime companies. I’d guess they pay more than most people for ad space.
@ShadowOfTheVoid — Google’s AdSense tool is a puzzler to me both in terms of what ads it ultimately chooses and how much I get paid when people click. I’ve had a low-click day with a high dollar return and a high-click day with a low-dollar return. It’s all strange.
Anyway, when I eventually get to OVA 3’s blog entry, hopefully you’ll post your own thoughts there. ^_^
@Anon — thanks for providing that link.
@Shadow_s — I look forward to seeing more about Doll and hopefully her connections out of this universe. As to Tsunami’s seeds, I wonder if we’ll see them or not.
I’m still hoping for a Tenchi cameo at the very least before all is said and done.
@Junior — “No mention that Dagmyer is the masked ringleader from episode 1? “
I write summaries from memory and if I consult the episode too much, my summaries go way too long IMO.
As to Dagmyer, I get the feeling that Lashara knows full well he and his father are behind the attack, which is why her conversation to him amused me.
I’ll try to rewatch the scene you mention in Wah’s workshop.
Yikes — is that the time? Got to run. ^_^;;;;;;
There’s a familiar… uh… character… shown in episode 4, which so far as I know constitutes the first concrete link within the series to Tenchi Muyo. The character is shown as a very brief flashback. Up until then, I don’t think any recognizeable characters have appeared.
I wouldn’t compare Doll to Washu or Tokimi. She seems to get too much enjoyment out of her complete dominance of Aura in their battle – and not in a “Ryoko chasing Tenchi around the school” sort of way. We don’t know much about Doll, but she laughs while she’s trying to kill Aura. That’s generally a bad sign (though, since Kajishima is involved in this, I’m sure that she’ll turn out okay in the end).
Regarding the scene in Wahanly’s lab – don’t worry about it too much. It’s primarily of interest to me because it shows that Kajishima is paying attention to the little things even when no one’s looking – stuff that you don’t really notice until you go back and watch the episode again, like Lashara’s unintended context while Kenshi’s in the bird cage in episode 1. Not recognizing it doesn’t affect enjoyment of the plot in any way.
@shadow_s_writer – based on one of the scenes in the first episode, I get the impression that the Church is using Dagmyer’s father to try and locate the “item” (as I’ll refer to it), and his father is using Dagmyer and Ulyte as his point-people at the school What I gathered was that Ulyte was setting up sensors to try and locate it but one of the sensors injured him right before Kenshi found him. Based on comments from others in the first episode (particularly Aura), I get the feeling that the mecha that we’ve already seen Kenshi piloting is noteworthy in its own right.
“Regarding the scene in Wahanly’s lab – don’t worry about it too much. It’s primarily of interest to me because it shows that Kajishima is paying attention to the little things even when no one’s looking – stuff that you don’t really notice until you go back and watch the episode again, like Lashara’s unintended context while Kenshi’s in the bird cage in episode 1. Not recognizing it doesn’t affect enjoyment of the plot in any way.”
This is the element of TM!R which made it my favorite anime and why I’m so wanting TM!R to be retranslated from scratch. Normally, translators can play things a little loose and it doesn’t matter too much. With TM!R, there were all sorts of little things that I think a lot of people missed. It is always fun when people have their eyes opened to these little things because of the FAQ or the like.
Anyway, I’m glad to hear that the little things are still at play in this series. ^_^
I neglected to mention this in my review, but Kajishima-sensei has linked this series with “Photon” via the “ahou energy.”
>>I neglected to mention this in my review, but Kajishima-sensei has linked this series with “Photon” via the “ahou energy.”<< Don’t forget those twin-tailed ferret like animals called “Koro”. Kiine from Photon happened to have one of those as a mascot. Furthermore, Lashara’s full name is “Lashara Earth”. Photon’s surname was Earth as well. And Maria’s surname is “Nanadan”, which happened to be the surname of Photon’s comic villain too. Connections (or maybe just inside jokes) all around. 🙂
Wee translation! \o/
There is a lot itself in this series alone, yet I just can’t stop wonder about Kenshi. He is quite young so maybe not really knows his “true family” tho’ if Ryo-chan and the Tenchi-gang is around a lot harder to keep it secret. Still, the kid is amazing in fighting, waaay better than Tenchi was at his age, and (as seen in ep3 – preair version) strong as hell too.
I don’t want to speculate the current plot yet, I yet to see the new translation of ep1 and watch the 2 episodes right, not at 3 in the night 😀 For now, someone compaired Doll to Washu… I think Lashara would better fit. I was impressed how she is usually calm and perceptive, play with the people around her, and almost always seem to be know what is happening. Her rivalry with Maria, or her comment ‘You’re getting fun without me’ to Chiaia and Kenshi was a must I think, she was too “great”.
I’d like to see a tenchi-gang cameo, but I think it’s unlikely. This is Kenshi’s adventure. However I do think it’s all Tokimi’s work 😀
But I hope to see at least a doujin about earth. When Kenshi disappears, there is no way his family won’t start to look after him, and of course find him. Poor Reia-san, I hope she’s all right ^_^°
One question: can we know who was the “oneechan” Kenshi called out in the cage, in his dreams? Somewhere I read it is revealed, but can’t remember where and wasn’t there who :\
Oh… and the bunny suit and cat ears… WTF – someone created this world from the wrong kind of fantasies ^_^°
Photon is also Kajishima’s??? WOW! I never knew that it was K-sensei’s (also I just checked Wikipeadia amd anidb and there isn’t any mention about Kajishima). That’s pretty interesting. I guess, I’ll watch Photon all over again.
Anyway, regarding Photon, I found the Photon manga. Unfortunately it was scanlated till the first chapter of the second volume. Does anyone want to continue the scanlation? Please!!! It’s one of my favorite series!
Meglivorn:
“Oh… and the bunny suit and cat ears… WTF – someone created this world from the wrong kind of fantasies ^_^°”
This reminds me of “Zero no Tsukaima” (“The Familiar of Zero” in English). In the OVA there were swimsuits from Earth that were found by some priestess in the parallel world (or whatever that worlds is) and were used in their ceremonies (since they didn’t know what that stuff was) until the swimsuits were brought to the Magic Academy. It was quite hilarious.
“Don’t forget those twin-tailed ferret like animals called “Koro”. “
Ah yes, I had forgotten about them. And I didn’t realize that Lashara’s full name is “Lashara Earth.” *lol* Well now, well now.
“One question: can we know who was the “oneechan” Kenshi called out in the cage, in his dreams? Somewhere I read it is revealed, but can’t remember where and wasn’t there who :\”
I thought someone mentioned that in the comments for episode 1 but I guess not. It may have been AFC or even FUNimation’s forums then.
“Photon is also Kajishima’s??? WOW! I never knew that it was K-sensei’s (also I just checked Wikipeadia amd anidb and there isn’t any mention about Kajishima). That’s pretty interesting. I guess, I’ll watch Photon all over again.”
Wikipedia is evil. ^_~
If you watch “Photon” in Japanese, Ryoko’s seiyuu has a part. ^_^
“If you watch “Photon” in Japanese, Ryoko’s seiyuu has a part. ^_^”
Who is that character?
“Wikipedia is evil. ^_~”
Not always! Only when it’s incorrect or incomplete.
“I thought someone mentioned that in the comments for episode 1 but I guess not. It may have been AFC or even FUNimation’s forums then.”
Nah! It was in this blog somewhere. But I’m to lazy to check. And I don’t think we figured it out who the “onee-chan” was. But I guess he thought about Tenchi’s sister (I forgot her name; guess I’ll watch TM!R as well 🙂 ).
Oh, just something I forgot to tell you – I don’t know Japanese, not to mention written Japanese. So, there’s no way I’d know that K-sensei had created Photon as well. Unless it’s written in the subtitles or in Wikipedia and/or anidb. And the later two were wrong again! 🙁 *sniff, sniff!* 🙁
Wikipedia and anidb are so mean… 🙁 *sniff, sniff!* 🙁
P.S. You should really put an edit button in this blog.
*sniff*
Where are my tissues?
iirc, the name of Tenchi’s sister is Tennyo – though I might be confusing who is who.
Yup, it’d her.