Tenchi Muyo! Tenchi Universe Episode 7: No Need for Carnivals!
Welcome dear readers to yet another look at Tenchi Muyo, the show that says: You think your life sucks? At least you’re not hosting an intergalactic bed and breakfast for a harem of aliens who are constantly trying to molest you.
It’s carnival time here in, whatever part of Japan this show takes place in, and most of the beautiful alien residents of the Masaki house have attractions set up. For Tenchi, this means he gets a reprieve from Ryoko constantly trying to seduce him with all the grace and subtlety of an elephant on a unicycle playing Ave Maria on a giant trombone. Instead, Tenchi’s been tasked with taking young Sasami to her first carnival on Earth.
I really like the scene between the two at the beginning of the episode. Most of the time, we see Tenchi, he’s stuck in a permanent state of terrified frustration. This isn’t Tenchi’s fault, as you’d probably react the same way if you lived with a group of super-powered aliens who are constantly wrecking your house with fights to the death when they’re not trying to make you their sex slave or turn your bathroom into their own personal star gate. However, in this scene, we actually get to see Tenchi’s more kind-hearted and sweet side as he plays big brother to Sasami. For example, when Sasami is having a tough time with at the Goldfish catching booth, Tenchi gives her his fish to make her feel better.
Speaking of goldfish catching booths, Ryoko appears to have set up one of her own, but it’s not getting a whole lot of business at the moment. We soon see why as we learn that instead of Gold fish, Ryoko’s filled her little pond with man-eathing space piranhas the size of Volkswagens. Her booth is soon shut down. (Gee I wonder why.)
Elsewhere, Ayeka has set up a shooting gallery, and all the targets have been made to look like Ryoko, which she, and I, find hilarious.
The next stop for Tenchi and Sasami is Kiyone and Mihoshi’s soup stand, which Kiyone hopes will help with their financial deficit. However, like last episode, things go bad for the two space cops, but for once, it’s not Mihoshi’s fault, but instead, it’s because Ryo-Ohki has eaten all their ingredients.
Meanwhile, Ryoko, after failing to get people to pay to getting eaten by killer fish, hatches another scheme to get money from some unsuspecting suckers. To that end, Ryoko reveals that among her many superpowers is the ability to create dopplegangers of herself. Using this ability, she plants her doppleganger in an unsuspecting crowd and uses it to dupe them into believing that toad sweat is some kind of magical wonder drug. Unfortunately, Tenchi’s kind of a nark and puts the kybosh on her whole operation.
Meanwhile, we see that Ayeka is having the time of her life shooting effigies of Ryoko, so much so in fact that she doesn’t seem to care that she’s losing customers because of it.
Next stop for Tenchi and Sasami is Washu’s haunted mansion. Given what Washu did to Tenchi’s bathroom, God only knows what kind of horrible abomination she’s created with this attraction, especially considering that she’s named it “The Eight Worst Hells.” Tenchi and Sasami are not afraid, but that soon changes when we learn that Washu has used her unique brand of mad science to open up an actual portal to hell complete with moats of lava, corpses impaled on pitchforks, mountains made of razor sharp blades and bottomless pits that lead only to a dark oblivion. Tenchi and Sasami fortunately manage to emerge in one piece. The sequence is highly amusing, but I’m just sincerely hoping that all those corpses we saw weren’t Washu’s previous customers.
Next up, after Kiyone and Mihoshi’s soup stand didn’t work out, they’ve set up a cotton candy booth that seems to be doing much better, but once again, things go bad for them, this time because their cotton candy machine was designed by Washu. Given that everything Washu touches turns into a hellish nightmare of science, naturally, the cotton candy maker starts going into overdrive and creates an unstoppable cotton candy explosion
While the others try to deal with this sugary Armageddon, Ryoko has decided to put one over on Ayeka by setting up a shooting gallery right next to hers where all the targets are made to resemble Ayeka. Naturally, this begins yet another chapter in the ongoing blood feud between Ryoko and Ayeka. Like in the episode in which Ayeka was introduced, Ayeka shares a story from her and Ryoko’s childhood, this time recalling a time when Ryoko robbed her at a fair just like this one. Again, like last time, Ryoko’s version is quite different, as Ryoko remembers Ayeka cruelly destroying the pottery she worked so hard on to sell at the fair. Enraged by one another’s alleged lies, it looks like it’s finally time to come to blows, but, fortunately, Ryoko and Ayeka’s day of reckoning will have to wait for another day as their interrupted by a tidal wave of cotton candy.
Later that night, Sasami is lying awake in bed (I guess the issue of the cataclysmic candy floss carnage sorted itself out) staring at the goldfish that Tenchi won for her and remarking on the great day she had at the fair. This episode was very much a filler episode, but a much better one than last one, primarily because the entire chance got a chance to shine, not just Kiyone and Mihoshi. Every character’s personality got to shine through and all the moments were great, be it the sweet moments between Tenchi and Sasami, the hilarious bickering between Ayeka and Ryoko and Washu being her usual insane self. Overall, an absolute blast of an episode.