Yeesh. I really oughta clean up in here.
Speaking of cleaning up, I've still been working on this ghastly thing. And this is, in part, thanks to my gaining an even better understanding of Tenchi Muyo.
Now, the most important thing to understand about TM is that it has a number of different continuities for you to choose from.
The most controversial being the original OVA series, guided primarily by Masaki Kajishima. Why? Because this show - this specific continuity, even - was the trope-namer for the ultimate solution of who to marry: The Tenchi Solution (aka Marry Them All).
Once this tidbit came out, there were a lot of Ryoko-fanboys here in the USA (the largest faction by far in this theater of the Waifu Wars) that had autistic meltdowns over this because, in their head-canons, Ryoko should be Tenchi's one and only, and all the others are trash. And from that point on, all of them just kept looking for ways to hate on the OVA series, including spreading the rumor that Masaki Kajishima drove all the other creative minds away.
(BTW: This rumor is utterly false, and the people he supposedly "drove away" would dearly wish for you to stop spreading that rumor. This rumor came by way of Masaki Kajishima and Hayashi Hiroki talking things out after the production of OVA 1, and coming to the realization that their creative visions differed quite wildly. So, rather than be at loggerheads over it, they agreed amicably to part ways. Kajishima has otherwise been kind, generous, and supportive of everyone else's endeavors, going as far as to even share his own story notes and character designs with others like Naoko Hasegawa.)
And despite some of the hate this continuity gets, it's the one that's most popular with fans back in Japan. Probably because Kajishima-sensei's vision for this has always been something like the old Japanese TV-serial period dramas about feudal samurai lords and their intrigues, served up with a scoop of romantic comedy, and garnished with science-fiction.
And then there's the sheer scope of this story.
It literally spans eons, outdoing other more well known franchises like Star Wars or Frank Herbert's Dune saga.
And this isn't just something that's buried in apocrypha. Both animes, Proton: The Idiot Adventures and Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure are part of this continuity, and occur millions of years before the events of the OVA series.
In essence? Maskai Kajishima is telling a never-ending story.
But even here on The Forums, the show has it's detractors.
I know Bob doesn't like it because of something that Washu did to Ryoko. To which I contest that the other incarnations of Washu are even more screwball - one continuity even has her as an outright criminal and Ryoko was an actual space pirate and her partner in crime. As for what happened in Kajishima's rendition that Bob didn't like? It was the whole thing at the end of OVA 2 where Washu had locked up Ryoko in her lab in what was pretty much a sensory deprivation chamber. (Which is actually a thing some psychologists may prescribe, though this is usually with the patient's consent or that of the patient's parent/guardian. It is considered to be especially therapeutic for people with severe Autism as it grants a momentary respite from the outside world that overwhelms their senses.)
But Washu had a purpose in mind when she did that - that being breaking Ryoko's psyche so that she could be rehabilitated. The whole thing with her making Ryoko "cry for mommy" was supposed to get her back in touch with her own humanity, which had been buried under hundreds of years of heinous acts when she was under the control of Kagato.
But even so, it rubbed Bob wrong to have it done that way. It probably isn't helped by the fact that Washu was actually enjoying hearing Ryoko cry for mommy. But this is one of those things you have to take with a grain of salt. Washu literally has 20,000+ years of contiguous life-experience, and with all the highs and lows that such a long life implies. She's gonna have a bit of Blue-and-Orange morality going on, and thus come off as being at least somewhat unhinged. (Also, keep in mind that Washu's feelings towards Ryoko are similar to that of Hild towards Urd in Oh! My Goddess - she wants Ryoko to acknowledge her as her mother without any reservation.)
And I know Brent doesn't like it because they took his favorite dojiko from the series, Mihoshi, and gave her background a story that has actual substance to it. He didn't seem to like the idea that Mihoshi inherited an ability to passively warp causality to her favor from her several-greats grandmother, Washu, and that she often does so unwittingly as she bumbles around. Or that she was once-upon-a-time a very competent (if still kinda clumsy) police detective and the reason she seems so airheaded now is because of an accident she suffered while in the pursuit of her duties as a detective.
But this all makes sense if you think of the Galaxy Police in Tenchi Muyo as an actual organization committed to upholding the law in the greater galaxy, and not just a collection of straight-men who only seem to exist so that a punchline can be pinned on them. Otherwise, if Mihoshi had always been like that? Then she would never have made the cut to become a detective.
Instead, Brent much prefers the idea that Mihoshi is just an adorable airhead who is incredibly clumsy and somehow has the luck of the heavens on her side. It's a much more simple, cut-and-dry archetype that is an easy source of comedy.
In fact, from what I've pieced together, he seems to like most of his characters to be simple as he grew up on Carl Barks's Disney comics. With certain exceptions, of course - those being the Hero-That-Saves-The-Universe archetypes like Utena Tenjou and Tsukino Usagi.
But that's not to take anything away from Brent. I myself grew up on Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and it shows whenever my Sneaky-Playful Trickster side comes to the fore. But some part of me, even back then, knew and understood that these were simply caricatures.
To me, real "characters" were the ones who had incredible and utterly life-altering adventures - like Atreyu and Sebastian in The NeverEnding Story, and Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in Star Wars. And characters like Bugs Bunny and Jerry Mouse simply existed to show you how to pull the rug out from under someone.
Thus, unlike Bob and Brent, this is why I like Kajishima's Tenchi Muyo. I deeply appreciate stories where, even if they are following the basic archetypes, each character is their own person with their own story, and it just happens to tie into this greater story like threads in a tapestry. Everyone has a motive. Everyone's actions have repercussions. From the drollest of side-characters to the most heinous of villains. There is no true status quo as everything is in motion and ever changing. And even though it may often rhyme, history is not repeating itself over and over again.
That said, I'm still going to be borrowing a bit from the mangas drawn by Hitoshi Okuda in order to inject a little more space opera into the overall plot. It's not too hard to transplant the characters and events since the Okuda manga diverge from the OVA timeline after OVA 2. However, there are still changes that I need to make to make them all compliant with Masaki Kajishima's cosmology.
As for Garrick here? He's still based on me, but with a few caveats.
Here's something to wrap your heads around: what would a Mary Sue in real life be like? What drives a person to be that kind of "perfect"? What happens when you deconstruct the trope and build up a living, breathing person around that framework?
I can assure you from my past experiences: What causes someone to become Mary Sue is nothing good. Nothing good at all.
You see, this is one of my biggest personality flaws - that I have the in-born autistic trait of wanting to get everything right. And my stepfather made it even worse by demanding utter perfection in everything I did, and punishing me every time I failed to meet his expectations... which were so extreme that even a competent adult would have difficulty doing.
And as if that wasn't enough, that led to me pretty much being brainwashed to think that I am nothing special. After all, how could I be anything but pond scum if I can't even accomplish "simple tasks"?
And, unfortunately, this is something that Real Life has done a very, very good job of reinforcing with this world becoming ever more demanding that people do everything perfectly and the slightest fuck-up is severely punished by sheer dint of "consequences" no matter what the boss might say otherwise.
(BTW, if you think using the term "brainwashing" is a bit strong here, then you obviously have no idea what child abuse is like. See here: https://recovery.com/resources/mind-cont...ex-trauma/)
Naturally, this means that I'd constantly bend over backwards, trying to please everyone, unknowingly seeking validation for my very right to even *exist*, until my anxieties cause me to implode on myself. So it's easy to imagine that even if I'm able to charm someone at first, they eventually leave me because my need to be perfect and validated is just too much to handle.
As you may have guessed, this means there is gonna be some serious deconstruction. After all, this is a self-insert we're dealing with, and it's been long-established that the best way to do these kinds of stories is by deconstructing (and sometimes even reconstructing) the relevant tropes.
But this is gonna go a step further. We're gonna be outright destroying a lot of the comedy tropes. And you're gonna get to vicariously experience what it's like to be as uncertain, insecure, and isolated as I am. And I don't mean that in the way most people typically are. I'm talking about actual Anxiety Disorder and Pretender Syndrome - the seriously unhealthy shit that makes you scream, "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?"
Guess what? You're gonna find out exactly why. And whether or not you've ever seen or heard of some of the things that makes a person like this? It might even hurt to see it. Because this shit is literally psychologically damaging to experience first-hand.
And in a setting like Tenchi Muyo where the most outrageously unlikely things can happen? Where the unexpected can literally be lurking around the corner? Where lives can be fundamentally altered like it's a "Tuesday" kinda thing? You can crank that anxiety to the "11" that someone wrote in sharpie marker just past the spot on the dial that reads "10".
Why? Because even if the end result is something someone might say is "a good thing", that doesn't always mean that the road there is a pleasant one. Especially in deconstructions.
Also, going ahead, I've changed things a bit to having my SI yoinked at about 20 years in the future from the present me. I passively hope that maybe things with my family will get straightened out and I'll finally be able to go to a university and get those engineering degrees I so dearly want to have.
Maybe when pigs fly.
One last thing, just so you know. Most of this will be told in a Third-Person narrative style - this makes it easier to tell the story from multiple perspectives - but there will be introspectives that can only really be told as a First-Person narrative, so expect those sudden shifts accordingly. And I'll try to find spots where I can inject some "Unreliable Narrator" into the narrative. Just to keep you on your toes. I know I may be preaching to the choir here, but you must always remember that it's all about the character's perspective, not yours.
Chapter One will be coming up next in it's own thread momentarily.
Speaking of cleaning up, I've still been working on this ghastly thing. And this is, in part, thanks to my gaining an even better understanding of Tenchi Muyo.
Now, the most important thing to understand about TM is that it has a number of different continuities for you to choose from.
The most controversial being the original OVA series, guided primarily by Masaki Kajishima. Why? Because this show - this specific continuity, even - was the trope-namer for the ultimate solution of who to marry: The Tenchi Solution (aka Marry Them All).
Once this tidbit came out, there were a lot of Ryoko-fanboys here in the USA (the largest faction by far in this theater of the Waifu Wars) that had autistic meltdowns over this because, in their head-canons, Ryoko should be Tenchi's one and only, and all the others are trash. And from that point on, all of them just kept looking for ways to hate on the OVA series, including spreading the rumor that Masaki Kajishima drove all the other creative minds away.
(BTW: This rumor is utterly false, and the people he supposedly "drove away" would dearly wish for you to stop spreading that rumor. This rumor came by way of Masaki Kajishima and Hayashi Hiroki talking things out after the production of OVA 1, and coming to the realization that their creative visions differed quite wildly. So, rather than be at loggerheads over it, they agreed amicably to part ways. Kajishima has otherwise been kind, generous, and supportive of everyone else's endeavors, going as far as to even share his own story notes and character designs with others like Naoko Hasegawa.)
And despite some of the hate this continuity gets, it's the one that's most popular with fans back in Japan. Probably because Kajishima-sensei's vision for this has always been something like the old Japanese TV-serial period dramas about feudal samurai lords and their intrigues, served up with a scoop of romantic comedy, and garnished with science-fiction.
And then there's the sheer scope of this story.
It literally spans eons, outdoing other more well known franchises like Star Wars or Frank Herbert's Dune saga.
And this isn't just something that's buried in apocrypha. Both animes, Proton: The Idiot Adventures and Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure are part of this continuity, and occur millions of years before the events of the OVA series.
In essence? Maskai Kajishima is telling a never-ending story.
But even here on The Forums, the show has it's detractors.
I know Bob doesn't like it because of something that Washu did to Ryoko. To which I contest that the other incarnations of Washu are even more screwball - one continuity even has her as an outright criminal and Ryoko was an actual space pirate and her partner in crime. As for what happened in Kajishima's rendition that Bob didn't like? It was the whole thing at the end of OVA 2 where Washu had locked up Ryoko in her lab in what was pretty much a sensory deprivation chamber. (Which is actually a thing some psychologists may prescribe, though this is usually with the patient's consent or that of the patient's parent/guardian. It is considered to be especially therapeutic for people with severe Autism as it grants a momentary respite from the outside world that overwhelms their senses.)
But Washu had a purpose in mind when she did that - that being breaking Ryoko's psyche so that she could be rehabilitated. The whole thing with her making Ryoko "cry for mommy" was supposed to get her back in touch with her own humanity, which had been buried under hundreds of years of heinous acts when she was under the control of Kagato.
But even so, it rubbed Bob wrong to have it done that way. It probably isn't helped by the fact that Washu was actually enjoying hearing Ryoko cry for mommy. But this is one of those things you have to take with a grain of salt. Washu literally has 20,000+ years of contiguous life-experience, and with all the highs and lows that such a long life implies. She's gonna have a bit of Blue-and-Orange morality going on, and thus come off as being at least somewhat unhinged. (Also, keep in mind that Washu's feelings towards Ryoko are similar to that of Hild towards Urd in Oh! My Goddess - she wants Ryoko to acknowledge her as her mother without any reservation.)
And I know Brent doesn't like it because they took his favorite dojiko from the series, Mihoshi, and gave her background a story that has actual substance to it. He didn't seem to like the idea that Mihoshi inherited an ability to passively warp causality to her favor from her several-greats grandmother, Washu, and that she often does so unwittingly as she bumbles around. Or that she was once-upon-a-time a very competent (if still kinda clumsy) police detective and the reason she seems so airheaded now is because of an accident she suffered while in the pursuit of her duties as a detective.
But this all makes sense if you think of the Galaxy Police in Tenchi Muyo as an actual organization committed to upholding the law in the greater galaxy, and not just a collection of straight-men who only seem to exist so that a punchline can be pinned on them. Otherwise, if Mihoshi had always been like that? Then she would never have made the cut to become a detective.
Instead, Brent much prefers the idea that Mihoshi is just an adorable airhead who is incredibly clumsy and somehow has the luck of the heavens on her side. It's a much more simple, cut-and-dry archetype that is an easy source of comedy.
In fact, from what I've pieced together, he seems to like most of his characters to be simple as he grew up on Carl Barks's Disney comics. With certain exceptions, of course - those being the Hero-That-Saves-The-Universe archetypes like Utena Tenjou and Tsukino Usagi.
But that's not to take anything away from Brent. I myself grew up on Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and it shows whenever my Sneaky-Playful Trickster side comes to the fore. But some part of me, even back then, knew and understood that these were simply caricatures.
To me, real "characters" were the ones who had incredible and utterly life-altering adventures - like Atreyu and Sebastian in The NeverEnding Story, and Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in Star Wars. And characters like Bugs Bunny and Jerry Mouse simply existed to show you how to pull the rug out from under someone.
Thus, unlike Bob and Brent, this is why I like Kajishima's Tenchi Muyo. I deeply appreciate stories where, even if they are following the basic archetypes, each character is their own person with their own story, and it just happens to tie into this greater story like threads in a tapestry. Everyone has a motive. Everyone's actions have repercussions. From the drollest of side-characters to the most heinous of villains. There is no true status quo as everything is in motion and ever changing. And even though it may often rhyme, history is not repeating itself over and over again.
That said, I'm still going to be borrowing a bit from the mangas drawn by Hitoshi Okuda in order to inject a little more space opera into the overall plot. It's not too hard to transplant the characters and events since the Okuda manga diverge from the OVA timeline after OVA 2. However, there are still changes that I need to make to make them all compliant with Masaki Kajishima's cosmology.
As for Garrick here? He's still based on me, but with a few caveats.
Here's something to wrap your heads around: what would a Mary Sue in real life be like? What drives a person to be that kind of "perfect"? What happens when you deconstruct the trope and build up a living, breathing person around that framework?
I can assure you from my past experiences: What causes someone to become Mary Sue is nothing good. Nothing good at all.
You see, this is one of my biggest personality flaws - that I have the in-born autistic trait of wanting to get everything right. And my stepfather made it even worse by demanding utter perfection in everything I did, and punishing me every time I failed to meet his expectations... which were so extreme that even a competent adult would have difficulty doing.
And as if that wasn't enough, that led to me pretty much being brainwashed to think that I am nothing special. After all, how could I be anything but pond scum if I can't even accomplish "simple tasks"?
And, unfortunately, this is something that Real Life has done a very, very good job of reinforcing with this world becoming ever more demanding that people do everything perfectly and the slightest fuck-up is severely punished by sheer dint of "consequences" no matter what the boss might say otherwise.
(BTW, if you think using the term "brainwashing" is a bit strong here, then you obviously have no idea what child abuse is like. See here: https://recovery.com/resources/mind-cont...ex-trauma/)
Naturally, this means that I'd constantly bend over backwards, trying to please everyone, unknowingly seeking validation for my very right to even *exist*, until my anxieties cause me to implode on myself. So it's easy to imagine that even if I'm able to charm someone at first, they eventually leave me because my need to be perfect and validated is just too much to handle.
As you may have guessed, this means there is gonna be some serious deconstruction. After all, this is a self-insert we're dealing with, and it's been long-established that the best way to do these kinds of stories is by deconstructing (and sometimes even reconstructing) the relevant tropes.
But this is gonna go a step further. We're gonna be outright destroying a lot of the comedy tropes. And you're gonna get to vicariously experience what it's like to be as uncertain, insecure, and isolated as I am. And I don't mean that in the way most people typically are. I'm talking about actual Anxiety Disorder and Pretender Syndrome - the seriously unhealthy shit that makes you scream, "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?"
Guess what? You're gonna find out exactly why. And whether or not you've ever seen or heard of some of the things that makes a person like this? It might even hurt to see it. Because this shit is literally psychologically damaging to experience first-hand.
And in a setting like Tenchi Muyo where the most outrageously unlikely things can happen? Where the unexpected can literally be lurking around the corner? Where lives can be fundamentally altered like it's a "Tuesday" kinda thing? You can crank that anxiety to the "11" that someone wrote in sharpie marker just past the spot on the dial that reads "10".
Why? Because even if the end result is something someone might say is "a good thing", that doesn't always mean that the road there is a pleasant one. Especially in deconstructions.
Also, going ahead, I've changed things a bit to having my SI yoinked at about 20 years in the future from the present me. I passively hope that maybe things with my family will get straightened out and I'll finally be able to go to a university and get those engineering degrees I so dearly want to have.
Maybe when pigs fly.
One last thing, just so you know. Most of this will be told in a Third-Person narrative style - this makes it easier to tell the story from multiple perspectives - but there will be introspectives that can only really be told as a First-Person narrative, so expect those sudden shifts accordingly. And I'll try to find spots where I can inject some "Unreliable Narrator" into the narrative. Just to keep you on your toes. I know I may be preaching to the choir here, but you must always remember that it's all about the character's perspective, not yours.
Chapter One will be coming up next in it's own thread momentarily.
