Tenchi Muyo, The All New

The All New Tenchi Muyo series is essentially the second volume of Tenchi manga by Hitoshi Okuda, a man who's artwork is simply awesome. He just seems to "get" the Tenchi style, and every panel is a solid, beautifully constructed dream. It just oozes character, so more power to Viz for translating it!

Set after the big battles of Tenchi Muyo, the girls and Tenchi have settled into a nice routine of life. Tenchi, as usual is out on the fields, while Ayeka and Ryoko are arguing as normal. Sasami is cooking and Washu is busy being a genius. Little do they know that a good deed that Tenchi did a few weeks ago is going to come back to haunt them as a little rich girl, who Tenchi had saved from some bullies, had employed a Private Investigator to spy on them and find out all of their credentials. Can the gang avoid a rush from the nation's press?

Like the other chapters in this book, it shines with everything the OAV's lacked after the 6th episode; great storytelling, character development and some fantastic humour. If only the OAV had followed Okuda's vision, we'd have an anime classic instead of the most wasted opportunity in the last 20 years.

Okuda leaves little notes around the manga to help newcomers get to grips with the Tenchi universe, which is a thoughtful and much appreciated touch, and only goes to show how much the creative talent cares about the readership.

Overall, The All New Tenchi Muyo, Alien Nation, Volume 1 manga is a brilliant read. It has all of our beloved characters from Tenchi Muyo, and adds a new spin on some of them. The humour is the same as the anime, and is very similar to the subbed Japanese versions. The print quality is brilliant. The shading effects on memories, and people who are not crucial to the storyline are as detailed as the other, more important foreground characters, and on the whole it's a fantastic piece of storytelling which anyone can enjoy.