Photon: The Idiot Adventures OVA Review
フォトン
Photon

When I first watched this series in 2004, it was primarily because I wanted to watch everything KAJISHIMA Masaki of the Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki franchise produced. I was entertained, but it wasn’t a series I had a desire to rewatch.

However, in 2018, Kajishima-sensei confirmed that the Photon anime took place in the distant past on the world of Geminar. That officially brought it into the canon Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki franchise via the Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar series. As such, I’ve wanted to rewatch the series, but never found the time…until now.

–> Buy Photon: The Idiot Adventures OVA from Amazon.com!

The Story, in Brief

Keyne Aqua flees pursuit from ladies man and buffoon noble Papacharino Nanadan. She manages to break the tracer he put in her underwear. She puts herself into stasis as her ship crashes on a desert planet. Sometime later, a boy named Photon Earth is tasked with going after his childhood friend, Aun. She stole the sacred object (a magic marker that apparently fell from Keyne’s ship) to give to her crush, a rocker named Laman. When bandits intercept Aun, Photon shows up, revealing his insane powers of strength to defeat them.

On the way back, Aun escapes, writing “baka” (idiot) on Photon’s forehead as he sleeps. When he awakens, Photon again pursues Aun, he ends up falling through the ground to where Keyne’s ship is. Eventually, he comes to her stasis pod, where he writes “baka” on her forehead. When she wakes, she thinks “baka” is Photon’s crest. Thus since she has his crest as well, she’s officially married to him despite the age difference.

Meanwhile, Papacha comes to this desert planet, hunting Keyne. When Keyne and Photon finally catch Aun, the two girls take an immediate dislike to each other. This allows Papacha to constantly find them, but thanks to Photon’s insane powers, Papacha’s always defeated. Papacha kicks out Pochi #1, one of the aides sent by Papacha’s fiance, Princess Lashara Moon. Photon rescues Pochi #1. Meanwhile, Princess Lashara comes to the planet with her friend, Chief Commander Bulan.

Eventually, Bulan reveals herself to actually be the bored Emperor, in disguise. Papacha battles him in his desire to rule the universe and have an multi-million girl harem. However, the truth of Photon’s power is revealed, as is the source of Aho energy Papacha longed to harness. However, Photon manages to prevail and gain himself a harem in return.

Everyone’s an Idiot!

Back in my 2004 review, I wrote this about Photon: The Idiot Adventures.

Don’t let the title fool you into thinking that Photon is the only idiot in the series. All of the characters are “baka” to a degree or other. Young Photon is an idiot for so easily being fooled by baloon [sic] dolls that look like his companions. Keyne is an idiot in that she is constantly letting her guard down which allows the Count to put tracers on her. Aun is an idiot for how she treats her adopted brother Photon. Rashara [sic] is an idiot for being so trusting. Papacha-sama is just an idiot period.

That’s all certainly true. If I think about it, probably the only non-idiot character is Aun’s sister (voiced by ORIKASA Ai, who was the voice of Ryoko in the Tenchi franchise). Heck, even the energy at the heart of the series is Aho energy. The term “aho” in Japanese is another term for “idiot”. So basically, Kajishima-sensei decided to have a lot of fun with a cast of idiots.

Wacky, Slapstick Comedy

As befitting a series full of idiots, Photon: The Idiot Adventures is primarily a wacky, slapstick comedy series. Most of the characters are subjected to getting whacked or other slapstick shtick. Papacha end up the brunt of most of it, though. An though it had been 20 years since I watched this series, I still found myself laughing at most of the slapstick gags. Obviously, for a pompous character like Papacha, it is more satisfying to see him take a beating, even if done for comedy.

The rest of the comedy stems from Kajishima-sensei’s love of two girls fighting over a boy. Such was the case with Keyne and Aun. While Aun runs off after every handsome guy that shows up, when she learns that Photon is married to Keyne, suddenly she’s a bit jealous. So Aun and Keyne end up bickering a lot. If you’ve watched the first two Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki OVAs, Keyne’s and Aun’s fights are like Ryoko’s and Aeka’s.

Mostly Serious Final Episode

Oddly enough, the sixth episode of Photon: The Idiot Adventures take a serious turn. Actually, this started at the end of episode 5, but most of episode 6 was serious. Not only that, but we got the infamous Kajishima info-dump, where a ton of exposition gets dumped on us to explain everything. And this is a problem with Kajishima-sensei’s writing. He gets too caught up in the fun of his stories that he forgets the plot until the very end.

As such, when the mysterious female Chief Commander Bulan suddenly is revealed to be the insane emperor, I’m going, “Where the heck did that come from?” We also learn that Papacha thought he had killed the emperor. That didn’t make sense ’cause as far as the series had lain out, the emperor was still alive and kicking. Okay, technically this was true, but not in the way the story presented it.

And speaking of the emperor, good grief. Apparently, this guy took over the whole universe. But he got bored, so all of the events in the episode were set up by him for his amusement. He even did some sort of baby switch so that his actual daughter was raised by the scientist researching Aho energy, and the emperor took his daughter as his own. Why? All for larks and whatever the emperor wanted to do with the energy since his daughter was the key to everything.

Making things further weird was the fact that the emperor kept the head of his wife, preserved in a jar on his person. Naturally, the plot used this so that Keyne could break free from her father’s grip. But man, all of this stuff really comes out of left field and is a shocking shift from the slapstick comedy.

Ecchi Galore!

Since this is a series written by Kajishima-sensei, a certain level of ecchi content is to be expected. However, in Photon: The Idiot Adventures, the ecchi factor is pretty darn high. Keyne is nude for most of episode 1. And she’s nude for much of the final episode. Even Aun gets nude for a bit.

However, Kajishima-sensei didn’t just have the ecchi for the girls. In addition to having the ecchi jokes and such, he had Photon nude at times, complete with dangly bits. For comedic purposes, he had Papacha nude a lot, though with censor bars. Heck, he had Papacha often go without pants for the comedy.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review with some final thoughts.

• While not perfect, Photon: The Idiot Adventures does link in with Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar well enough. Both have Aho energy and the little critter. Both have a thing for mechs and odd tech. And both use the name Lashara. But while in the canon, it isn’t required viewing. Its more of an interesting (and funny) distraction.
• The end of the series comes rather abruptly. I’ve already mentioned the Kajishima info-dump. But in some ways, I think this series could have benefited story-wise from a couple more episodes, and some proper setup of the stuff with the emperor.
• Some folks may have issues with the clearly underaged Photon (unknowingly) marrying Keyne. (Back in the day, U.S. Manga Corp tried to claim everyone was at least 19. 😂) While I could have done without all the nudity in the series, their marriage didn’t bother me. After all, in the culture of ancient Geminar, Photon was a young man, and him getting married wasn’t a big deal to the folks of this world.

In the end, Photon: The Idiot Adventures is hilarious, if you like slapstick comedy, and girls who bicker over a guy they like. The plot isn’t handled well, but other elements like animation and such are good. As such, I found the series well worth a watch.