Beyond the first six OAV episodes, there is no 'Canon'

Jibril · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 2:21 am

This is a myth.

OAV3 is not canon. Actually, if you want to be picky, neither is OAV2 (but I like it). OAV1 was made by 2 CO-creators - Masaki Kajishima and Hayashi Hiroki. Kajishima likes hogging the credit, but Hayashi always refers to himself as co-creator in his interviews and is credited as such by AIC. After OAV1 ended, the two had a fight and Hayashi just left, basically saying "Whatever."

Now, Kajishima can claim "canon" and the company can say it (and can take it back and reclaim something else canon the next year) but I don't go by that since I read a lot of books - if for instance two people wrote a trilogy. And one decided to quit and call it a day and the other kept writing - the canon would be looked upon as the orignal trilogy and the later books by the single author would be looked upon as a branched off continuity (2 authors, 2 branches possible).

Hayashi also made excellent animes like El-Hazard and some atrocious ones (some El-Hazard sequels). Here is an interview by Hayashi that I scanned last year if you want to learn about the man:
http://www.filedropper.com/hayashiinterview

bkev · **Joined:** Wed Oct 05, 2005 9:30 pm **Posts:** 2591

So both of them had hit-and-misses, once they split? Sounds about right. Happens to the best of teams.

Jibril · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 2:57 am

Kajishima had more misses. The only thing after OAV1 he produced was OAV2. The rest of the anime you never heard of and some, like the Photon Adventures are truly idiotic. I think GXP was a repackage anime from Photon in a way.

Hayashi came out with Mihoshi Special, Pretty Sammies, and El-Hazard(s). Maybe more by now, but I'm not into anime all that much.

bkev · **Joined:** Wed Oct 05, 2005 9:30 pm **Posts:** 2591

Hayashi did the Mihoshi Special? That was fun. I always thought it was Hasegawa for some reason...

Anyway, the one thing after OVA 1 (minus Tenchi Universe, which I love) to truly capture the spirit of Tenchi, albeit in a more comedical style, was Hitoshi Okuda's manga. Often ignored in discussions (as it is not quite as well-known amoung casual fans), it had that feeling of a good story you can sit down and read; hell, I almost missed my Super Smash Bros Melee tourney round I was so engulfed in a volume one time. Characters like Minagi were likable, yet not forced upon you.

Tha Prime Legend Champion · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 3:21 am

Well, you do pose a good point Rolf, about the whole canon thing. However, I think I can shed a little more light on it.

See, bkev and I were just talking about this over AIM, and we noticed a couple of things, one of which being that between the OVA, Universe, and Shin, we've seen 72 episodes of Tenchi Muyo produced. Going by what you just said, only 6 of all those 72, which is only 8.3%, are of absolute true canon material. How embarrassing.

Another thing he said was that the way the show shifted towards making the harem so obvious starting in the middle of OVA 2, was not Kajishima's original vision and direction.

But, as I told him, I actually do disagree with that a little bit. I really do think it was the way Kajishima wanted to go all along. Hayashi was probably the reason the battle for Tenchi was basically centered around Ayeka and Ryoko the first six episodes (and then, by extension, in Universe and Shin, because their authors liked it).

Kajishima, though, unable to let go of the teenage fantasies which first bred Tenchi in his mind for the good of the show itself, chases Hayashi off and really pushes the harem vision with a fast foot forward in OVA 2, though he manages to do so without a shove down people's throat. But then comes OVA 3, in which he throws in so many new people, makes the harem thing so obvious, spikes the powers so much, and abandons so many of the awesome traits of OVA 1 & 2, that there is no point to making an OVA 4 because we've practically already seen it.

But that's where the disagreement stops. See, with the main thing in itself, Rolf, you were absolutely right. Anything Kajishima-sensei did after chasing off Hayashi should not be counted as official canon, no matter what he claims. The original official canon material started with him and Hayashi co-creating the series together. And perhaps Hayashi's contribution to the plan involved either doing the harem in a way so that somehow Tenchi still managed to choose one main wife in the middle of it, or just scrapping the whole harem idea altogether, thus watering down the nature of the meaning to the episode 6 "die before forsaking" comment.

Going with that, my best guess would be that after looking at OVA 1, Kajishima probably saw how different this co-created show thing was going from his vision and didn't like it, so he badgered Hayashi's half of total control away from him so he could take it over and steer the course, after which he would go unquestioned in giving the "anime meek god" version of himself, Tenchi, every single piece of his ideal woman fantasy.

So kicking out Hayashi would be the case against anything after OVA ep. 6 being canon, and the sudden K-centered shift in the program observed since would be the evidence.

Jibril · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 3:21 am

Jibril · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:45 am

Tha Prime Legend Champion · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:00 pm

I'm not saying he's anti-harem. He could very well be a big fan of harem in general. All I'm saying is maybe he had a different idea for this show so that the harem would be superceded somehow by "one true love" (now that you think about it, possibly Sasami-Tsunami) or at least wasn't so blatantly obvious it bit you in the ass in five seconds.

Oh, yeah. And factoring in the Mihoshi Special also makes Tenchi even less canon.

Jibril · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:42 pm

Tha Prime Legend Champion · **Posted:** Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:36 am

So there's no way of knowing what Hayashi wanted, or how he would get there… he had his own complicated grand design that nobody could understand…

…yep. The increased blatancy of the harem was clearly all Kajishima.

Jibril · **Posted:** Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:55 am

Cerebrate Araq · **Posted:** Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:06 am

Jibril · **Posted:** Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:13 am

AstroNerdBoy · **Joined:** Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:24 pm **Posts:** 277

If OVA 3 is not canon, then the above image from Rolf doesn't exist, does it? Oh wait! No Tokimi either since her name wasn't introduced until "Night Before Carnival" which is NOT part of OVA 1. ^_~

Jibril · **Posted:** Thu Jul 31, 2008 12:42 am

Like Kiyone Makibi, the good elements can be cherry picked from their originating continuity without taking the baggage. That means OAV2 is worth taking in it's entirety for most people because it was excellent...

OAV3 had some good moments, but if it meant I had to take all the baggage with it, the few good ideas/moments/characters are not worth it.

In OAV3, I liked:
Child Tokimi
Sasami Fighting
Tsunami Fighting for Tenchi
Ryoko babying Ryo-ohki

but besides these moments or ideas, I don't like it that much else.

Beyond the first six OAV episodes, there is no 'Canon'

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