Sword Play

天地無用! 魎皇鬼 [Tenchi Muyou! Ryououki] #2

by Hitoshi Okuda

A collection of stories about high school student Tenchi, space pirate Ryoko, Princess Ayeka and her sister Sasami, the scientist Washu, and Sasami's friend Ryoohki.

Genres: Manga, Fiction, Science Fiction, Comedy, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

Hitoshi Okuda (奥田ひとし) is a Japanese manga artist, most famous for his characterizations and stories set in the world of Tenchi Muyo!.

Reviews

[Miss Ryoko · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting volume... half of it was actually serious and the rest was the typical silliness that is Tenchi Muyo.

Ryoko is still the best female character EVER!! I love her!!

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It should come as no surprise that I absolutely loved this second volume as much as the first in this series, as it wraps up the story that encompassed the entirety of volume one. There are two additional humorous side stories in this volume, the first about Tenchi catching a cold and the girls fighting over who gets to play nurse for him, and the second regarding Mihoshi attempting to get her driver's license. My heart though, is with the story we had going that introduced us to Minagi as a character, and how wonderfully it wrapped up by the end of its arc. Minagi is a personal favorite character of mine, and I suppose I'll always be partial to stories in which she appears.

That's about all I can give you for the time being, but hopefully a future revisit will give me more opportunities to gush and wax poetic.

[Jack Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was right a year ago when I guessed this Tenchi manga series got republished to read right to left vs. the left to right of the initial publication and sequel series (which I'm putting aside for now since that's technically a sequel/spin-off). Okuda positions this series as having taken pace directly after the first OVA (but before Night of the Carnival), which helps center Yakage as an antagonist for the first story arc. Some of the translation does date the manga a bit (since this initially came out in the late 90s and early 2000s state side), but I still felt the characters had the charm the dub leant to this series. Minagi also serves as a good foil for Zero in OVA 2, yet I think I sympathized with the former more due to her immediate relationship with Yakage. The other character beats also feel good and appropriate so far, so ILLing/buying more volumes in the future (beyond the four I have now thanks to a Mercari seller) will be the route I take until I finish or this loses its charm. TBD on the spin-off, although I did find out the Sasami Stories volume does contain reprint chapters from this series.

[Kirsten Simkiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story line from the previous volume is wrapped up within this one, leaving us with a new version of Ryoko and a semi-satisfying conclusion to the villain who kidnapped Ayeka. There's also a couple of one-off stories about Tenchi getting a cold and Mihoshi getting her driver's license - a disaster to be sure.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Super dramatic and emotional but it comes off as shallow to me as we barely get to meet the characters involved. I just wasn't into it.

[✨Sky✨ ♏ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 stars

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The whole Yakage situation is too similar to the Kagato one.

[Drew Perron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can understand an obsession with creating something truly perfect, but the way that it's played in this volume is weirdly patriarchal, with more than a touch of "no, you can't interfere, his masculine pride etc." Still, pretty fun. The backups are reasonably cute, with the latter having a nice bit of a car chase.

(Also, am I the only one who noticed that the Goodreads summary is actually for volume 3?)

[James Zanghi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much more easier to follow than volume one. I really enjoyed it.