December 29th, 2018 
AstroNerdBoy Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-0hki OVA 5 News From C95
Hey gang! Well, if you didn’t know, Comiket 95 is in full swing. That means that Kajishima-sensei has published two new doujinshi titles. Here’s Tenchi_Zin with his copies, that he received from Kajishima-sensei as part of a courtesy doujinshi exchange. (Tenchi_Zin is also an artist at C95, as well as a Tenchi Muyo! fan. If you’ve read Genshiken, you’ll know that at Comiket, doujinshi artists will sometimes exchange their work with other artists.)
梶島先生にご献本交換していただけました(ﾟ∀ﾟ) pic.twitter.com/sdbPhpJ2Z6
— たけるん@1日目東D-51b (@tenchi_zin) December 29, 2018
Since Kajishima-sensei ALWAYS provides some sort of news communication on his current or future projects, we already knew that Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki OVA 5 was in pre-production (first announced in C92). Then Tenchi_Zin hit us with the C95 news about Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki OVA 5.
【朗報】天地OVA五期は6話構成で制作中 #天地無用
— たけるん@1日目東D-51b (@tenchi_zin) December 29, 2018
Basically, this says that Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki OVA 5 will have six episodes. This is major news, since Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki OVA 4 only had four episodes. And though I have major problems with OVA 4 from a Western perspective (meaning, OVA 4 is expecting the viewer has been reading the GPX novels and has watched the Tenchi Muyo! War in Geminar series).
Anyway, when someone asked Tenchi_Zin if this was really true, he responded thusly.
らしいです！（新刊のあとがきに書いてありました
— たけるん@1日目東D-51b (@tenchi_zin) December 29, 2018
So he confirmed that Kajishima-sensei’s news note did state OVA 5 will be six episodes.
So What Will OVA 5 Be About?
Here’s a little of what we know so far (subject to change with updated information).
- It will take place PRIOR to Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar.
- It will take place AFTER the birth of Tenchi’s two daughters. (See image from the first IF doujinshi.)
- Kenshi from War on Geminar looks to have a major role.
For those interested in Tenchi’s daughters (and Seina’s boy as well), here’s a page from Kajishima-sensei’s IF doujishin.
I believe Kajishima-sensei wanted to do an anime off of his IF doujinshi line (there are several published at this point). They are done like color storyboards with no text. So it will be interesting to see if that turns out to be the case. Normally, Kajishima-sensei seems to not be interested in animating anything he’s already done in some other form. But the IF doujinshi seem to be the exception.
Was OVA 4 Really That Popular in Japan?
While the Tenchi Muyo! franchise as a whole may be seen as something old and obsolete in the West (outside of us hardcore fans, of course), in Japan, the canon Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki stuff is very popular. Fans eagerly look forward to the bi-yearly doujinshi publications from Kajishima-sensei. Kajishima-sensei’s GXP novels are still being created and continue to sell well.
I’ll be the first to admit that OVA 4 has a VERY high wall for Western fans to overcome, more so for casual fans. While OVA 3 did allow many new folks to enter the canon TM!R universe, OVA 4 would not. That’s because in typical Japanese fashion, OVA 4 expects that the viewer is a fan who’s reading the GXP novels and who’s watched Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar. Having watched the GXP anime will only give you some name recognition as Kajishima-sensei used the GXP novels to “fix” what Nabeshin broke. And then he just kept going. ?
But as I understand it, OVA 4 sales were quite good. And certainly, they were good enough for the skittish AIC to decide to grant OVA 5 six episodes.
More News, If It Comes
Now that things are on a more firmer path concerning OVA 5, I’m going to start more closely watching for news. And should anything arise, I’ll make a post. ?
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Six episodes of Washu, Seto, and eight new female characters sitting around a table discussing Juraian political convenience marriages while nothing else happens. Calling it now.
“And certainly, they were good enough for the skittish AIC to decide to grant OVA 5 six episodes.”
Well, WHAT ELSE do they have now to work with anyway? El-Hazard? Yeah, like that’s ever going to happen again.
Haha! I don’t think that will be the case. Maybe they will all sit around and talk babies.
Hahaha! Well, AIC didn’t want to do the content from the IF doujinshi in the first place, if rumors out of Japan are correct. They weren’t sure it would sell. But considering how OVA 4 with its VERY high entry wall did well, I guess AIC felt it was safe enough to allow Kajishima-sensei to have six episodes.
I do want OVA 5 to be a sequel of the Ryo-Ohki series. Right now, OVA 5 is call Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki OVA 5. Oddly in the above images from -if-, there is a clue to the year of the birth of Tenchi’s first two daughters. Sasami has the clue. To honor his mother, Tenchi will likely name one of his daughters Kiyone. I will leave it to Masaki Kajishima to determine the names of Tenchi’s first two daughters. To me, the name of Ryoko’s daughter may be Kiyone. For Ayeka’s and Tenchi’s first daughter, her name can be Achika.
OVA 5 is set before War on Geminar. If OVA 5 is successful, there is the likelihood of another sequel which focus on Tenchi’s oldest son. Tenchi does have one confirmed son. His mother is Washu. It will make a lot of sense for Tenchi to have another son.
I haven’t kept up as much as I should. Has Kajishima-sensei indicated he wants to do another WoG series? I’d be down for it.
These later Tenchi Muyo entries have been lacking greatly, it too much a family-social drama than what it started out as. Scifi-Comedy action series, with silly situation comedy over girls seeming to start falling for a clueless guy who would have been happier to farm in his family farm.
Whatever get up and explode the first series had is now dead unless. Kajishima-sensei seems too stubborn to change things up or living things up. Animate the dulls part of his story seem to be foolish. I guess tastes in Japan are very off from West and how series was popular when Pioneer kicked off the franchise.
Hell, Tenchi Ai was more interesting to watch than OVA 4.
I remember how he equated “chapter 2” of the TM!R story.
That’s why I never thought there’d be an OVA 4. But as he stated back in the 90s, this new round of OVAs are post-war stuff. And it doesn’t help that we in the West haven’t read the GXP novels, which put a lot of OVA 4 into a difficult place to reach, even for me. But for Japanese fans who’ve read the novels and such, they are happy for all of the fanservice references.
Personally, I’m not a fan of Kajishima-sensei’s approach to things. With limited episodes to work with, I can understand that he doesn’t want to cover ground he’s covered in other media. But it really does suck when one doesn’t have access to the other media, in this case, the GXP novels.
The bit that concerns me the most (keep in mind I haven’t seen/read any of GXP but I catch the gist of it) of the recent OVAs have left out the original two components that the creators wanted in 1992, and that was a story surrounding around Ryoko and Tenchi; although after the falling out thinks went FUBAR on Western fans and it got nasty, I mean the last episode of OVA 4 doesn’t even include or mention Ryoko once..to me that’s disturbing since her character has been a focal point for many years. Now the doujinshi that implies a child between the duo is nice, but unlike the Tenchi Universe canon and its conclusion with Tenchi Forever that does leave the Western audience more satisfied. This of course is merely my opinion from someone that prefers to finish what he started before starting something else.
Sorry for the delay. I didn’t get a notification for some reason. 😅😅😅
Although I was a Tenchi x Ryoko shipper back in the day, I’ve come to realize that Kajishima-sensei always wanted a harem ending. So I’m not sure there was more story to be told there, beyond Ryoko fitting into the harem.
Haha. Although not widely known outside Japan, the creator of Tenchi Universe and Tenchi Forever wrote a manga that ties into Tenchi Forever, which throws a monkey wrench into the nice, Tenchi x Ryoko ending of the movie. 😅
That said, Kajishima-sensei’s intention is for Tenchi to have kids with his harem, including Ryoko. That’s long been the case, since the 90s.
Western audiences have changed in the years since Tenchi Universe and Tenchi Forever. While in the nineties harem endings were mostly seen with reluctance in the West and fans tended to root for a single girl splitting fandoms through shipping wars, works like Highschool DXD, In Another World with my Smartphone, To Love Ru, or even the Tenchi OAVs themselves, have left Western fans of recent times much fonder of the idea of harem endings.
That’s true. Back then, I wasn’t keen on the thought of a harem ending. But I remember True Sheol walking me through how this made sense from a story perspective for TM!R.
That’s alright! Lol You’re right about that for sure, western audiences weren’t as happy with the OVA canon as was the Tenchi Universe canon. I find it interesting that the Universe and Forever writers would write a manga to really put a wrench in the ending lol; the harem idea is still not a fav by most, but I think for me I liked the interaction between the girls of the original harem and the stories to be told amongst them (if there were ever more to be written); the Tenchi Muyo! doujinshi I wouldn’t mind having a look at, it kind of puts a silver lining on it if you’re (western audiences) looking for some resolution with intimacy between them and like any respectable piece of art you have to put yourself in the shoes of the creator, and honestly as much hate as it’s been receiving, I don’t have a problem with the concept of the newer OVAs; it’s still good story even if there is a lack of the blue haired mistress in every episode, every character has a role to fill I suppose and she’s been filling it for over 20 years lol.
I appreciate the handy info. Where’s the best corner of the internet to look for for their doujinshi? I’d like to see what it’s all about.
You’re looking for the Kajishima-sensei doujinshi?
That’s correct plus any other and doujinshi you’d recommend.
All of Kajishima-sensei’d doujinshi are on a hentai doujinshi/manga place. So just a warning about that. But here’s the link (and Kajishima-sensei does some H-material as well).
https://e-hentai.org/tag/artist:kajishima+masaki
Thanks! And dually noted about the hentai.