Tenchi Muyo! Tenchi Universe Episode 5: No Need for Partners!
Welcome back dear readers, to Tenchi Muyo, the show in which a secluded house in the backwoods of Japan is inadvertently turned into a bed and breakfast for wayward alien women who have the hots for our poor hero, Tenchi Masaki. Last time, Washu, the famous mad scientist, joined the Masaki household, making for a grand total of five, count ‘em, five, attractive alien women freeloading with Tenchi and his family.
However, we don’t start with Tenchi this time around. Instead, we open with a girl we’ve never seen before hitting the snooze on her alarm clock. This is Kiyone, Mihoshi’s old partner in the galaxy police. Apparently, Mihoshi has been presumed dead by her fellow officers, and Kiyone, who found Mihoshi to be a constant source of irritation and embarrassment, isn’t exactly shedding any tears over it. However, Kiyone’s freedom celebration is cut short when her superior informs her that Mihoshi may be alive and that she has been assigned to go looking for her, much to her frustration. This must be what everyone who played Final Fantasy X-2 felt like when they learned the whole point of the game was to bring back Tidus.
Anywho we rejoin our main characters back at Casa de Masaki where we learn that Washu has used he scientific and engineering genius to build the Masakis a new bathroom. Washu must have access to Time Lord technology or something because the Masaki’s new bathroom is huge and extravagant and comes complete with an indoor pool that couldn’t possibly fit inside the Masaki’s small backwoods cottage. Washu has apparently used pocket dimension technology to expand the dimensions of the bathroom as well as the pantry that became her laboratory. Tenchi says that Washu really needs to stop opening up dimensional rifts all over the house while Nobuyuki is excited at the prospect of the girls getting naked. Fortunately, the ladies lock him out. Because he’s a bit of a pervert, or possibly just because he really needs to take a piss, Nobuyuki tries to barge in anyway, but fortunately, Washu has put gender locks on the door that make it so when a man opens the door, they just end up in a regular bathroom. When Ryoko says she’d love to take a bath with Tenchi, she and Ayeka take part in their favorite past time, fighting over Tenchi.
Later, Tenchi is doing his chores and wondering which is driving more crazy, the harem of alien girls that are constantly trying to either grope him like a horny octopus or use his house as a science experiment, or his own idiot dad. It’s here that Kiyone enters the picture, something that should be setting off all kinds of “oh crap, not another one” alarms in Tenchi’s brain. When she asks if Tenchi has seen Mihoshi, Tenchi points her out right away. Kiyone, upon seeing Mihoshi napping in the sun, sadly declares that her freedom was fun while it lasted. When Mihoshi spots Kiyone, we learn that she has less respect for Kiyone’s personal space than Ryoko has for Tenchi’s as she immediately starts glomping her poor partner. Tenchi likely wants to feel bad for Kiyone, but he’s probably very relieved to see that someone is being driven crazy and for once it’s not him.
After she and Mihoshi reunite, Kiyone is introduced the the other members of the Masaki household. Kiyone’s introduction to Ryoko, who I would remind you, is a wanted criminal, who simply greets her with a casual, “Hey, how you doing” is particularly hilarious. One thing I really like about Kiyone is that she seems to be the only person in the show besides Tenchi who seems to understand the insanity of this whole situation. As such, when Kiyone is introduced to a wanted space pirate, two princesses who have been reported missing and a seven hundred year old legendary mad scientist all at once, it's far more than she’s able to handle right now. Driven to her breaking point by these weirdoes, Kiyone pulls out a gun and tries to arrest Ryoko.
Next thing we know, the whole gang, including Kiyone, is sitting around a table having the delicious lunch that Sasami cooked for everyone. Kiyone, baffled as to how she found herself in this situation when five minutes ago she was holding a gun to Ryoko’s head, has become so irritated that she actually starts breaking the fourth wall. Once again, Kiyone tries to arrest Ryoko, but apparently, lunchtime is sacred in the Masaki house so she’s going to have to wait until everyone’s finished eating. However, once lunchtime is over, it’s time to throw down and Kiyone and Ryoko take things outside
Kiyone proves herself an excellent markswoman, but she’s simply no match for Ryoko’s overwhelming powers. Fortunately, Kiyone has an ace in the hole, as she summons another ED-209 mech like the one Mihoshi used back in the first episode. However, Kiyone screws up by having Mihoshi pilot it, and given that last time she got taken down by an elderly Japanese man with a stick, you can’t expect this to go well. And indeed, Ryoko sends Mihoshi’s mech suit flying, much to Kiyone’s irritation. However, this may have been a smarter strategy than one may think as Kiyone uses this momentary distraction to elbow Ryoko in the chest and tie her up with what appears to be a lazer yoyo as Ayeka uses her to cylindrical wooden robots to trap her in an electrical force field. Naturally, Ayeka saw an opportunity to get rid of Ryoko and seized it. It seems that not even Ryoko is going to be able to fight her way out of this one, but if there’s one thing that everyone can count on, it’s Mihoshi’s unbelievable incompetence as she comes back and crashes her mech into the force field.
After all this, Kiyone has finally given up. Actually feeling bad for her, Ryoko offers poor Kiyone some sake, which I’m sure she desperately needs. So, after Mihoshi says goodbye to her new friends, she and Kiyone finally depart together, leaving Ryoko behind. And our episode ends with Kiyone and Mihoshi’s superior assigning them to Earth on a permanent basis and Kiyone accepts her dismal fate with sad resignation. I hope for her benefit that Ryoko has more of that sake.
This episode is probably my favorite so far and a lot of that is because of Kiyone, who may be my new favorite character. It’s just really nice to actually see another put-upon character like Tenchi who thinks that this whole situation is crazy. Her reactions to all the madness going on around her is simply priceless. Sure, Kiyone’s celebrating at the possible death of Mihoshi may make her seem cruel, but given what we’ve seen of Mihoshi so far, I think we can give her a pass. This is not to say the other characters aren’t great in this episode, the bathroom scene with Washu and Ryoko and Ayeka’s bickering also get some good laughs. Overall, I loved this episode and continue to love this series.