List of Tenchi Muyo! characters


The following is a list of the major characters from the anime and manga series Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and its spin-offs Tenchi Muyo! GXP, Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar, Tenchi Universe, Tenchi in Tokyo, and Ai Tenchi Muyo!.

Concept

and Hiroki Hayashi, who both worked on the Bubblegum Crisis OVAs, cite the show as being the inspiration for Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki.
In an interview with AIC, Hayashi described Bubblegum Crisis as " pretty gloomy anime. Serious fighting, complicated human relationships, and dark Mega Tokyo." Hayashi and Kajishima thought it would be fun to create some comedic episodes with ideas like the girls going to the hot springs, but these ideas were rejected by their sponsors. Hayashi explained that having a cast of several characters of one gender and a single one of the other gender was a trend at the time; he wondered what it would be like if Mackey was a main character of a show, reversing the scenario in Bubblegum. This became the basis for the Bubblegum Crisis.
In designing Ryoko, Kajishima and Hayashi were inspired by the American sitcom I Dream of Jeannie and wanted to use her in their works. In the first episode, Tenchi opens the sealed cave, a reference to the Jeannie's bottle, and a "cute witch" jumps out. Hayashi said that Tenchi is "sort of" based on Mackey, and that after Tenchi and Ryoko, the rest of the girls were designed as original characters to balance the picture in the very early concepts of the series.

Main characters

Tenchi Masaki

Tenchi Masaki is the title character of the Tenchi Muyo! series. Tenchi's name means "Heaven and Earth." It is the same as "Tenchi" in the Shinto creation myth detailed within the Kojiki, which contains some of Japan's oldest myths and legends.

''Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki''

In the OVA-based continuities, Tenchi is the first prince of Jurai, grandson of a Juraian prince named Yosho, and of an Airaian priestess named Airi. He obtains of a "'Master Key" called "Tenchi", also known as the Tenchi Sword, that can form a lightsaber-like blade and later receives a special ring from Tsunami that can create a Juraian battle suit for him and acts as a "Guardian System" which protects him. Tenchi also has the innate ability to create kou-ou-yoku , and the ill-defined ability of Material-Energy Conversion. Tenchi initially lives in the city with his father to attend school and visits his grandfather's shrine every summer, where he trains to become a Shinto priest and learn his family's special style of swordsmanship. The house is permanently relocated next to the shrine after a battle between Ryoko and Ayeka, and Tenchi lives in the house with the girls while refusing to get intimate with them. Tenchi no longer attends school, after the school was decimated during the encounter with Ryoko in OVA 1.
Tenchi suffers a great deal of stress as he tries his hardest to be a gentleman while most of the women within the household will take every opportunity to display their attraction for him. In the third OVA series Tenchi is discovered to be engaged to Noike. The arrangement was done by Tenchi's great-great-grandmother, known better as the "Devil Princess of Jurai", Seto Kamiki Jurai. Tenchi also found out around this time that he has an 80-year-old sister named Tennyo Masaki, who looks like his late mother, Kiyone. Tenchi learned from his grandfather, Katsuhito, that since Earth is a developing civilization, the Masaki clan must keep their true presence hidden since they do not age at the same rate as Earthlings, and those who are born into the Masaki family are also kept from these secrets until they reach adulthood. After a climactic battle between the three Goddesses, the truth behind everything that has happened was linked to the three. They decided to change the timeline in order to repair the damage that they have done, and Tenchi, in his altered timeline, doesn't get to meet Noike. However, Noike, along with Fuku, traveled into the past and altered the message Mihoshi was to send to her family so that she would meet Tenchi.
Tenchi is one of the most powerful characters in the series, but is too young and immature to have full control over his Light Hawk Wings and other abilities. He is a competent swordsman and martial artist capable of superhuman feats thanks to his Juraian blood, but has only displayed his abilities during dire situations, such as during his duel with Kagato, his escape from a black hole, and his final confrontation with Z. The full extent of Tenchi's powers is limitless, as he was stated outright by the Choushin to be as powerful as them, the same beings who created all of existence and transcend space and time. When he started to manifest his higher self, it almost instantly destroyed all of existence, forcing the Goddesses and his own future self to intervene and prevent a catastrophe
Tenchi is the human embodiment of a dimensionally-boundless entity, as powerful compared to the three hyper-dimensional Goddesses as they are to ordinary beings. Airi notes in GXP that Tenchi has several powers they haven't discovered yet, namely instantaneous teleportation, and supernatural speed. Tenchi's higher self is the supreme being of the Tenchi Muyo continuity and all its parallel universes, unfathomably transcends infinity by 3-dimensional standards, and has been stated to be above, outside, and beyond even the hyper-dimension that the Choushin occupy. It easily put a stop to Tenchi almost destroying all of existence and effortlessly negated the Counter-Actor, the embodiment of the total sum of the counterforce to the Choushins' experiments in the multiverse over trillions of years.
Although Tenchi is not bound to a royal tree, he is still considered a contender for the Jurai throne, which usually determined by being a part of one of the four royal families; this is due to both to his status as a successor to First Prince Yosho and his singular ability among the Jurai to create Lighthawk Wings on his own. However, Tenchi displays little interest in Jurai politics.
In the Kajishima Onsens, a series of doujinshi by the creator of Tenchi Muyo!, Masaki Kajishima, it is revealed that Tenchi has multiple children with various female characters, most notably with Ryoko; their daughter has briefly appeared in a picture with her half-sister, Ryo-ohki's daughter. In one particular doujinshi, Tenchi Muyo -if-, a pregnant Ryoko, Ayeka, and Ryo-ohki are shown. Within its short story, Ayeka and Ryoko have developed a sisterly bond, caring for each other's child as their own and are shown to be very protective of their children upon discovering their daughters' infatuation with Seina's son. In a separate doujin, Tenchi is shown to have a son with a striking resemblance to Washu, although the boy's mother is never explicitly revealed.

''Tenchi Muyo! GXP''

GXP is a spinoff continuation following the 3rd OVA series, but Tenchi himself does not play a prominent role in this series. The GP tried to recruit Tenchi, but they got Seina instead. Tenchi showed no interest in joining the GP. He only appears in a speaking role in Episode 17, wherein his old friend Seina Yamada comes to his house to see Washu Hakubi to talk about the cabit Fuku that she had given him. During his visit Tenchi is able to cook a meal for Seina, however, Seina is on call and has to be retrieved before he has a chance to eat Tenchi's cooked meal. Tenchi also showed that he can move incredibly fast during a race with Seina, since he can keep up with him despite Seina having drastic body enhancements and going downhill on a bicycle. Tenchi, as well as the other girls, also appear in a brief cameo in Episode 26 in which they attend Seina's wedding.

''Tenchi Universe''

In the first TV series, Tenchi Universe, Tenchi is similar in personality to the Tenchi of the OVA, but has no powers beyond the ability to use Tenchi-ken. The Tenchi sword is just a weapon and is not a Master Key; there are no intelligent Royal Trees in the TV series. Tenchi does attend school, but it is a long commute for him because he lives at his family's shrine in the mountains. After finding out about his grandfather's true identity and defeating Kagato, Tenchi chose to turn down the Jurai throne and head back to Earth, after realizing that like his grandfather before him he wants to live a simple life without much responsibility. Although Tenchi was bored with living on Earth again without the girls around, he is surprised when they return and Ryoko reminds Tenchi that although a carnival would eventually leave, it would always come back again.

''Tenchi in Tokyo''

In the second TV series, Tenchi in Tokyo, Tenchi's personality and background are different. He has no connections to Jurai and his sword is created from seven gems inherited from his late mother. Ryoko separated the gems to prevent the sword from being used against her again. Each of the six girls took one of the gems as a keepsake. Tenchi moved to Tokyo to train as a Shinto priest under a friend of his grandfather's. Eventually, Tenchi got tired of the girls' frequent visits and ordered them never to disturb him again.
At the end of the series, Tenchi finds out that his family are the Planet Guardians whose job is to protect the planet from evil forces when the need arises. Although it was hard for Tenchi after learning about Sakuya Kumashiro's true identity, Tenchi was able to unite the gems together and chose to confront Yugi alone feeling that he was partly responsible for what happened. With some help from Ryoko, Ayeka, Mihoshi, and Kiyone, Tenchi caught up to Yugi and chose to spare her and give her a second chance. Tenchi explained she should have come to the Masaki Shrine in the first place and become friends with him and the others rather than to wallow away in loneliness. After the final battle, Tenchi moved back to the Masaki shrine.