February 7th, 2019 
AstroNerdBoy “Tenchi Muyo! GXP” Leaving FUNimation on February 8!
Sophie at FUNimation just posted the news that at 00:01AM on February 8, 2019, FUNimation would be removing Tenchi Muyo! GXP from their streaming service. It will be removed from their store as well.
There’s a part of me that’s kinda bummed out by this news. I was still new to anime back when GXP was airing in Japan. Pioneer was the licensor of all things Tenchi Muyo! up until that point. Since FUNimation’s subtitle policy back then was one I highly approved of, I remember posting somewhere that I hoped FUNimation would license it. Folks lambasted me for this, but I got my wish. That was fifteen years ago.
Today, I’m guessing not a lot of English speaking anime fans are even aware of Tenchi Muyo! GXP, much less trying to watch it. Unlike Japan, where Kajishima-sensei is still cranking out GXP novels, and the Tenchi Muyo! brand is still a very popular one, I get the feeling that for the most part, we in the West are like, “Meh! That’s old crap. Why would I want to watch that?”
I’ve been asked if this might have an impact on FUNimation licensing Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki OVA 4. Ever since I saw the series, I felt fairly sure that no Western publisher of anime is going to pick this series up. OVA 4 was written for Japanese fans of the canon Tenchi Muyo!, who buy everything that Kajishima-sensei produces. That makes it a hard sell outside of Japan, since we only just recently gained access to the True Tenchi Muyo! novels. OVA 4 requires some decent knowledge of the first several GXP novels to understand some of the things going on.
So, if you’ve been on the fence about buying Tenchi Muyo! GXP, I would encourage you to do so now before it goes out of print and the DVD sets start selling for an insane amount of money. And if you want to read my Back to the Vaults article on GXP, click this link.
What do you folks think about this news? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section.
Update! FUNimation has since removed the part of the post about the DVD’s leaving the store. According to ANN, “Funimation told ANN that this was incorrect, as only the digital license has expired, not home video.” Although I already on the original box set, I am glad the DVDs are still going to be there…for now.
Still, may as well pick up GXP if you haven’t done so already. 😉
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Apparently the DVD’s are sticking around:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-02-07/funimation-tenchi-muyo-gxp-anime-digital-rights-expire/.143081
Thanks for the update!
Eesh, i wonder why no one notices it? Is it because its was trapped on Funmation’s exclusive channel? Frankly it’s comedy was bit…lewd at times and wild for audience to take seriously,. I personally found Tenchi’s last OVA was incredibly boring, lacking real humor to make it stand on it’s own.
I do think it should be out for general audience.
Hopefully some day something that captures the energy of the original OVA run (prior to Pioneer going under) be made. Tenchi AI at least felt fresh in sense of comedy and it’s scifi angles despite it’s really weird way releases of minutes long episodes.
Outside of a title like Dragonball, Western anime fans are very generational. So the new, younger anime fans watching anime today aren’t going to be interested in an anime title as old as GXP.
OVA 4 was solely made for Japanese TM!R fans.
OVA 5 may do this, assuming it is based of the IF dounjinshi series from Kajishima-sensei.
AstroNerdBoy, I’m also one of the few anime fans that remember when Funimation first released GXP and it remains one of my favorite anime series to date. It has more heart in it than Tenchi Muyo.
Its a shame that Nabeshin would sometimes sacrifice story for comedy. But I still like the GXP anime.I would be neat to see the novels published, though that’s a massive long shot.