Tenchi Muyo! GXP Paradise Starting Episode 6 Review
天地無用！GXP パラダイス始動編
Tenchi Muyo! GXP Paradise Shidō-hen Ep. 6

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Banjo Island’s ecosystem is in place, so Seto contacts Seina, stating that the four pirate guild representatives are on their way. Since no infrastructure has been built to handle these representatives or their staff, Seto sends people to build it. She also places Seina in charge of monitoring the battles these pirate representatives will have. Seina scans over the information on the four pirate representatives, who are all young women. To Seina’s surprise, there will be an Earth representative as well.

Otoka (from OVA 4) reaches out to Seina about delivering supplies and workers. The older MASAKI Tomi, Fuuka’s aunt (from OVA 4), introduces herself as the head of the construction team. After discussing what will be where on the island, Tomi and Otoka are astonished at Tsukiko’s use of magic to lay the foundations of homes and such. Sometime later, Tomi and Tsukiko discuss the Masaki family situation, including the fact of Yosho living on Earth.

Seina adopts the name Minamida and wears a weak disguise to try to prevent problems with the pirate representatives. The cabbits all go into cabbit form. The pirate girls Alea, Apuesta, Dird, and Palty arrive. They are initially cocky, but Tsukiko quickly puts them in their place. Meanwhile, the United Nations sends Miron Pham to Banjo Island. She is aware of the aliens on Earth and is eager to assist. Later, a teen male named Shou gets permission to live on Banjo Island after Seina’s mother gave an island pamphlet to an acquaintance of hers. Seina goes to get him and bring him to the island.

Thoughts/Review:

I gotta say, it looks like EXNOA ran out of money making Tenchi Muyo! GXP Paradise Starting Episode 6. This was the worst looking episode of the lot. And while this series is supposed to bridge the gap between the unfinished GXP novels and the completed Paradise War novels, this final episode doesn’t end on a satisfactory note.

Much Ado About Nothing

Clearly, Tenchi Muyo! GXP Paradise Starting Episode 6 is the ultimate prelude to the Paradise War novels. The events of this episode take place just prior to the start of the first volume of the novels. The only overlap is Shou’s journey to the island. And that’s part of the problem. There isn’t going to be another episode continuing the story, as depicted in Paradise War. Folks who only know the anime stuff are going to be left hanging, feeling like this series was a big bunch of nothing if there’s no payoff in anime form.

Not only that, but there’s the Tsukiko problem. In the previous episode, she became OP so fast, it felt like a death flag, especially since she isn’t even in OVA 5. 😅 I figured we might see her die and have a nice moment with Seina, giving her blessing to his marriage to her daughter, Kiriko. But no, nothing like that happened. In fact, Tsukiko is only in this episode to attack Jovia for comedic purpose, as well as show off her OP magical abilities.

Then there’s Masaki. I admit, I was caught up in the jangling keys of seeing her, since I’m versed in canon Tenchi lore. But she served zero purpose in the series, and she’s just removed off camera from this episode ’cause “reasons”. Yeah, I get it–she wasn’t part of the Paradise War novels or OVA 5. So the keys get put away. And to do more would already make more of a mess with her character, based on previously established lore.😑 So why add her at all if she has no purpose?

Ultimately, I felt this episode felt flat in terms of story. And then it just ends ’cause, “Go read the Paradise War novels!”

EXNOA Fails!

While I may have been disappointed with how the story went in Tenchi Muyo! GXP Paradise Starting Episode 6, EXNOA’s handling of the episode was complete and utter trash. The production quality of the episode tanked massively. It was bad enough having scene after scene where characters don’t move while blathering. But at times, it was clear that some other animation studio did the work as the character designs would change. Not only that, but at times, some of the drawings were just flat out painfully terrible and ugly!

The whole reason EXNOA scored the Tenchi property is because AIC is broke. But while I had no issues with how EXNOA had been handling things to date (save for their garbage copyright strike on my YouTube channel, which has since been removed), it was as if EXNOA ran out of time and money. As such, an already subpar episode became even worse.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Lord willing, when I get into my new digs in December, I can do a video episode for the series. In the short term, I’ll do a normal text review. In the meantime, Tenchi Muyo! GXP Paradise Starting Episode 6 was a disappointing outing for me. Jangling keys were put away. Readers of the first volume of Paradise War were rewarded.