Tenchi Muyo! Tenchi Universe Episode 6: No Need for Resident Officers!

Welcome back to the wonderful world of Tenchi Muyo. For those of you just joining us, here’s a little recap of our cast of characters. We have Tenchi Masaki, a lovable, if not wishy-washy kid who’s constantly driven crazy by the other people in his house, Nobuyuki, Tenchi’s idiot dad, Yoshu, Tenchi’s surprisingly badass grandpa, Ryoko, a lunatic space pirate with superpowers and a sex-drive that makes Captain Kirk look like an impotent monk, Ayeka, a space princess who’s usually sweet and calm unless someone (usually Ryoko) keeps pushing her buttons, Sasami, Ayeka’s little sister who’s totally adorable and loves to cook, Ryo-Ohki, Ryoko’s living space-ship that spends most of its time in the form of a cute little bunny-rabbit as if this were some sort of kawaii version of Beast Wars, Washu, a seven hundred year old mad scientist who is systematically trying to turn Tenchi’s house into the Tardis from Doctor Who, and last but not least, the two characters who take center stage this episode, Mihoshi, a hilariously incompetent and dim-witted space-cop and Kiyone, her partner who is probably the only character in the show who hates their life more than Tenchi does.

Last time around, Kiyone arrived on earth in search of Mihoshi, but at the end, the two were reassigned to Earth on a permanent basis. Since then, they’ve apparently moved out of the Masaki house and found themselves a small apartment in town. This is probably a smart move on their part seeing as how if the Masaki’s take in anymore strays, there isn’t going to be any room for them, even with Washu’s pocket dimension technology. That morning, Kiyone wakes up in her apartment, that resembles a college dorm what with the ramen and beer cans everywhere, and tries to wake up Mihoshi as they’re late for their new part time jobs. This proves no easy task seeing how Mihoshi makes Garfield look like an insomniac.

At their new job at a construction site, Kiyone seems to be doing well, but Mihoshi ends up causing a truck to back into a ditch. During their lunch break, Kiyone laments the fact that she graduated at the top of her class back at the academy, but now she’s saddled with this idiot as her partner. I joke about it, as does the episode, but you really do feel for Kiyone here. You get a sense that she had a lot of ambition regarding her career in space law enforcement but now she’s stuck on this backwater planet with a dead end assignment all because she’s been dragged down by her moronic partner. Kiyone gets even more annoyed when the two are grocery shopping and Mihoshi, acting like that annoying little kid who keeps begging their mother to buy him candy, buys a whole ton of snacks despite their very limited budget. Next, we see Kiyone and Mihoshi at their other other job, a fast food restaurant. Once again, Kiyone is actually pretty good at it, but Mihoshi is ridiculously incompetent, driving Kiyone further and further towards her breaking point. However, no time to dwell on that, as our heroes get an alert from the galactic police. Finally, Kiyone has a chance to work a big case and get her career back on track, or, she could just be helping to fix the spaceship of an old lady who’s tries to set her up with her grandson, seems to be a theme in this show.

Kiyone and Mihoshi return home, exhausted from the day they’ve had, when the rest of the gang stops by for a surprise housewarming party. Everyone’s having a great time, but that of course isn’t meant to last as the show suddenly remembers that Tenchi’s supposed to be the main character and the main target of all the torture and misfortune the universe has to offer. To that end, Ayeka and Ryoko both lay eyes on the last cookie and this quickly devolves into round eighty seven of their ongoing blood feud with poor Tenchi’s affections, only this time, their death match takes place in Kiyone and Mihoshi’s fairly small apartment. In the funniest moment of the episode, the apartment is completely trashed by Ryoko and Ayeka’s fight and everyone just looks at the debris in shock and horror, accept Washu who is completely un-phased thanks to her science force field and just floats there sipping tea like the total boss that she is.

To recover from that insanity, Kiyone and Mihoshi go to a karaoke bar and for once Kiyone actually seems to be genuinely enjoying herself. However, the duet the two perform really does drag on and doesn’t add much to the episode. However, what I found interesting, even though it may not have been intentional, is that for all the things Mihoshi sucks at, she actually sounds to be a much better singer than Kiyone. However, they’re good time draws to a close when their alarm goes off again and they rush out of the bar (without paying, mind you). Mihoshi was in such a hurry apparently that she actually stole the Microphone. After the “emergency alert turns out to be nothing more than a minor spaceship collision with two morons bickering about insurance, Kiyone has finally had it with today and returns to what is left of their apartment and laments her situation, but also takes time to say how envious she is of Mihoshi’s carefree attitude, showing that even though Mihoshi drives her nuts, she doesn’t truly hate her and may even have something of a begrudging admiration for her.

Here’s the problem with this episode. Every episode that came before it had something to accomplish, usually introducing a new character. However, this episode does not do that. At the beginning of the episode, Kiyone hates her life and wishes she wasn’t stuck on this planet with Mihoshi, and by the end of the episode, she feels the same way. I get it, it’s filler, and the episode was still very funny, but we know that these two aren’t the main characters, and we know that what we’re seeing is ultimately inconsequential to the main story. It’s not a horrible episode, it’s just not up to the standard I’ve come to expect for this show.