Saturday Anime: GXP

In recent weeks, my latent obsession with all things Tenchi Muyo has re-emerged as a passion of mine.  I've been re-watching the OVA, reading up on the continuation of the different continuities that American fans have never seen, and most recently watching GXP.  This show is set in the original Tenchi OVA continuity, and while it features characters from the OVA from time to time, it is it's own story. The show bears clear resemblances to other Series in the Tenchi Franchise, most notably the "Harem" aspect of the relationships between the show's main characters, but the fact that this series was directed by Watanabe Shinichi (Nabeshin of Excel Saga fame, who also appears in this show in the form of a lecherous wise cracking automaton named NB) makes this show uniquely zany.

The protagonist of the series is Yamada Seina, an acquaintance of Masaki Tenchi who lives in the same town.  Seina is largely unremarkable, except for one distinguishing feature, his remarkably bad luck.  The first few episodes mostly cover examples of Seina's terrible luck causing problems for him and everyone around him, including his friend Kai and his older sister Kiriko, who looks out for Seina as if he were her own brother.  One day he decides to take a shortcut through the woods on his bike, and it isn't long before his trademark bad luck lands him with a flat tire.  As he looks for water to repair the tire (is that how bike tires work?) he finds himself at the lake just outside the Masaki House, where Tenchi and the girls all live.  Suddenly he is overcome by an incredible noise like nothing he has ever heard, but it is all to familiar to fans of Tenchi Muyo.  It's the sound of someone crashing a Galaxy Police Patrol ship into the lake (and it isn't Mihoshi for once).  Seina is knocked into the lake and passes out.  He awakens with his head in the lap of one Amane Kaunaq, a blonde GXP officer.  She asks if he is okay, and when he responds that he is, she explains how she came to be there at a tempo that would make Excel Excel proud.  Thinking that Seina is a pupil of Tenchi or his grandfather Katsuhito based on the bruises and scars caused by his bad luck, Amane gives him a recruitment form for the GXP.  When he arrives home, his family physically force him to sign the document, thinking it is for a raffle or lottery.

That night, Seina awakens on board a spaceship.  It is a Galaxy Police ship, and they will be transporting Seina to the GXP academy to begin his training.  However, it quickly becomes clear that Seina's bad luck is still in full effect even in space, as the ship is attacked by a number of space pirates.  Among them is raven-haired space pirate idol Ryoko Balta, who was named after Hakibi Ryoko, Masaki Tenchi's Space Pirate Squeeze.  After receiving aid from the Royal Family of Jurai itself, the most powerful government in the universe, Seina enrolls in the G P Academy.  When he arrives, he finds that Kiriko is already a member of the Galaxy Police, and she begs him to return home for his own safety, worried that his bad luck will doom him in space.  Unable to resist the possibilities that joining an inter-stellar police force brings, he joins the Academy.  Only to become a captain shortly there after to work as a decoy for space pirates, making use of his unique ability to attract trouble.  Along the way he meets a young (looking, think Washu) priestess named Neju, and along with Amane, Kiriko, and Ryoko they make a remarkable discovery towards the end of the series.

Yamada Seina, yet another intergalactic lucky bastard.

As I said, GXP deftly melds two very distinct styles.  The "Fan Service" heavy and sexually frustrated/indecisive protagonist Harem aspects of Tenchi Muyo and the fast paced wackiness of Excel Saga.  And while Seina is not nearly the playboy Tenchi is, he ends up with an impressive group of girls at his side.  The comedy is very well done, with Nabeshin's flare for the ludicrous well represented.

Now, it has come to my attention that there is something of a debate amongst Tenchi Fans regarding this show.  Apparently many consider it the black sheep of the series, some going so far as to refuse to consider it canonical.  There seem to be two primary reasons for this.  One, it is Too crazy for some, with Nabeshin (both the character and the director) taking the art and comedy styles in directions that some fans didn't approve of.  The other is the fact that the name of the show is Tenchi Muyo: GXP, but the primary protagonists of the Tenchi Universe are not the main characters, appearing in only a couple episodes and only speaking in one of them.  Let me go on record as a huge fan of this series and address these two issues.  GXP is gut bustlingly hilarious a lot of the time, but it is also appropriately serious and often touching when the story calls for it.  And this show isn't about Tenchi and the Girls, but it populates the universe they inhabit more completely and adds depth and scope to the canon they are part of.

All in all, I think that GXP is a show that fans should enjoy, and complete newcomers to the Tenchi Franchise could get into without seeing the other shows, particularly if you enjoy Nabeshin's other work.  I recommend it highly and get a big kick out of it whenever I watch it.

And now, your moment of AMV Zen