Synopsis:
Meet Yamada Seina, an average boy who has average looks and athletic ability. Average as he may be, he has the worst luck known to man. As his luck would have it, a meeting with a beautiful woman leads him to a world outside of earth and into the Galaxy Police Academy. From there we are introduced to a number of beautiful women trying to get Seina’s attention, as well as countless space pirates that want his head. With his bad luck, what’s an average boy to do?

Review:
Ah, another Tenchi Muyo series, but this one is a bit different from the others. Tenchi Muyo GXP is actually a spin-off of the Tenchi Muyo OAV universe and retains most of the same charm as the OAV series. From one of the first series that started the harem genre, GXP continues the same trend set by its predecessors. Let’s check off on those clichés in this series: 1) we have the average protagonist, Yamada Seina, who everyone would agree that if he didn’t have the curse of bad luck, would be considered a waste of space. 2) You’ve got to have numerous beautiful females (at least 4) that want Seina’s undying affection. 3) Fanservice. 4) Throw in some slapstick comedy like the standard nosebleeds and finally, 5) a perverted robot.

If you have never seen any of the Tenchi Muyo franchise, it would be good to watch the TM OAV to get a clearer view of the universe, but it’s not really necessary and GXP can be watched on its own. For those that watched the earlier TM series, it takes a lot of formulas from those shows and incorporates them into itself. You can say that this makes it a parody of previous TM series, or another rehash of the series formulas with different characters. Plot-wise, the premise of Seina going through the GP Academy and being a decoy for the space pirates gets old real fast, and the main focus is mainly on Seina and his female entourage. One thing that is different from other harem shows is that the group of females vying for Seina’s attention are significantly older (young adults) than him, which is different from most shows of this genre.

The animation is done quite well, and each of the characters has a distinguishing look to them. The colors are very bright and the characters are easy on the eye. Characters designs also look very nice, but I do have minor complains about the noses, but other than that, it looks like any other TM series that many people grew up watching. Since this is a harem show, the girls have to look pretty, and they pull that off wonderfully with a different set of female body types for every male out there to enjoy.

The Japanese and English voice casts in this series are both pretty decent. Although I tend to give dubbing a little slack when it comes to translation, the dubbing goes the extra mile and tones down the sexual innuendo. They also dubbed the intro and ending songs, which was a poor move to begin with, and made me cringe when I heard them. I would have to recommend the Japanese language track for this one because it just suited the characters better.

Overall, GXP does entertain, but people started to expect great things from the Tenchi Muyo franchise and after the debacle that was Tenchi in Tokyo, they wanted something to put TM back on the map. Well, GXP doesn’t really succeed in that respect, but it does have its own qualities that make this a good series to watch once in a while. Tenchi fans will be somewhat disappointed, but will come to love this series in time. For those that love harem shows, this is one of the better ones, even with all the clichés in full force. For the rest of the people, however, you should definitely check this out as an introduction into the harem genre or check out the Tenchi Muyo series prior to this one. I do suggest borrowing or renting the DVDs before investing some hard cash into this series.

Miscellanies:
The original Tenchi gang does make a cameo in this series for those that miss the original cast as well as the original Japanese voice cast for them.

Tenchi Muyo GXP is 26 episodes long.

Screenshots:

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