This semester, CJAS will be showing a few episodes of the 26-episode Tenchi Muyo! TV series. Tenchi was first created in 1992 as an original animation video (OAV) series. Because of its great success, it was later made into a TV series, set in a different universe. Because CJAS is only showing 3 episodes of this TV series, we have decided to jump to episode 5 for our first showing. The first four episodes are basically character introductions for Ryoko, Mihoshi, Aeka, Sasami, and Washu, all of whom were prominent in the OAV series. Episode 5 is the first appearance of Kiyone in either of the regular Tenchi universes (Kiyone did appear in Tenchi Muyo in Love, but that movie actually takes place after episode 26 of this TV series). Below are descriptions for Tenchi and the other 5 aforementioned characters.

Tenchi: seemingly an ordinary high school boy until Ryoko and Mihoshi literally dropped out of the sky near his house in episode 1. Ryoko and Aeka constantly fight over him, though he shies away from the attention. His grandfather takes care of the Masaki shrine, and his father is an architect.

Ryoko: a notorious space pirate who was chased by Mihoshi to Earth in episode 1. She and Aeka have been bickering since childhood. Her spaceship, named Ryo-oh-ki, can transform into a cute cabbit (cat/rabbit). Ryo-oh-ki loves carrots.

Mihoshi: a very incompetent Galaxy Police officer. She and Kiyone are partners, much to Kiyone's despair. Unlike in the OAV series, where even with her incompetence, everything tends to work out well in the end for Mihoshi, in the TV series, everything seems to stay bad for her. It is almost always Kiyone who bails her out. In episode 1, Mihoshi's spaceship was trashed after crashing near Tenchi's house.

Aeka: a Juraian princess who was taking a vacation before going to Earth in episode 2 in response to Mihoshi's distress signal. Upon seeing Ryoko there, they took their spaceships up, and in the ensuing fight, Aeka's ship was destroyed after it crashed to Earth.

Sasami: Aeka's younger sister, she made her first appearance in episode 3. Sasami cooks for everybody, and she is especially close with Ryo-oh-ki.

Washu: the smartest mad scientist in the universe, she was enprisoned in a huge crystal and lay dormant for 700 years in the Masaki shrine before being accidentally set free during a fight between Ryoko and Aeka in episode 4. She then proceeded to convert one of the closets in Tenchi's house into her personal lab by moving it to another dimension.