, which was released in North America as Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar is a Japanese OVA series. It is a spin-off of the Tenchi Muyo! series, which was created by Masaki Kajishima. Produced by AIC Spirits and BeSTACK, the series aired thirteen episodes on pay-per-view network Animax between March 20, 2009, and March 19, 2010.
It chronicles the story of a young boy named Kenshi Masaki, the younger half-brother of Tenchi Muyo!s protagonist Tenchi, who is transported to the world of Geminar. The story shares some character names and general terms from the anime Photon, another series created by Masaki Kajishima.
A light novel adaptation by Atsushi Wada was published by Fujimi Shobo on August 20, 2009, under their Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint. A manga adaptation was serialized in Comic REX and published by Ichijinsha on June 9, 2010, spanning two volumes. At Otakon 2012, Funimation Entertainment announced they had licensed the series for release in North America.
The anime is part of the Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki continuity, taking place 15 years after the events of Tenchi Muyo! GXP.
Plot Kenshi Masaki is a 15-year-old boy that has unwillingly traveled from his home on Earth to the alternate world of . On Geminar, the countries wage wars using Sacred Mechanoids, humanoid exoskeletal weapons that were originally discovered within ancient ruins and developed over centuries. After being tricked by a mysterious organization into participating in an attempt to assassinate Lashara Earth XXVIII, the young ruler of the Shtrayu Empire, he ends up captured after he chooses not to kill her. Deducing enough about Kenshi to interest her and because his abilities make him an extremely valuable property, Lashara decides to take Kenshi under her protection.
Disguised as her attendant, Kenshi travels with her and her bodyguard Chiaia Flann to the Holy Land, a virtually impregnable fortress that serves as an academy to train Sacred Mechanoid pilots (Mechamasters), most of whom are female. With his kindness, tenacity, and skills that vary from carpentry and cooking to advanced survival techniques, Kenshi eventually becomes a celebrity in the academy as well as the object of affection of many female students, making some of the male students envious. However, the same organization that deceived Kenshi is secretly working inside and against the academy, and a worldwide conflict is about to begin.
Characters
Main
Kenshi, the main protagonist of the series, is a 15-year-old boy from Earth. He is the younger half-brother of Tenchi Masaki, son of Tenchi's father Nobuyuki Masaki and his second wife, Rea. Just like his brother, Kenshi's kindness, strength and courage have led most of the girls he befriends to become infatuated with him. Kenshi is a boy of many talents, ranging from swordsmanship to cooking and housekeeping, which revealed that he was trained and learned from his family. It is suggested he might have feelings for Yukine, Aura and Doll/Mexiah.
Lashara is the 12-year-old ruler of the Shtrayu Empire. She inherited the throne following her father's death, but as the series begins she is traveling away to school in the Holy Land. She slowly loses her position of power to Babalun as the series progresses. She is notorious for being extremely thrifty, as her kingdom is currently in debt. She takes Kenshi in as an attendant and she and Chiaia keep Kenshi's identity a secret until he shows his capabilities in battling the Sacred Mechanoids of Dagmyer. Lashara is the niece of Queen Flora and always refers to herself using the majestic plural. It is hinted that she has romantic feelings for Kenshi, but given her circumstances, she is not allowed to show such emotions. Her personal vessel is the . Her name is a reference to Lashara Moon and Photon Earth from Kajishima's earlier work, Photon.
Chiaia is Lashara's personal escort and bodyguard, charged with protecting her life at all costs. She also attends Holy Land Academy to complete her Sacred Mechamaster training, and officially becomes a Sacred Mechamaster at the end of Episode 2. She is very skilled at combat, being able to imitate Kenshi's unusual Sacred Mechanoid fighting style after only seeing it once. She has a crush on her childhood friend Dagmyer, which caused her to ignore clues regarding his schemes until it was too late. She frequently gets upset with both Kenshi and Lashara, and Chiaia's temper is one of the few things that both Lashara and Kenshi seem to be wary of. While not happy about it, she agrees to go along with Lashara's scheme to hide the fact that Kenshi is both the Sacred Mechanoid pilot that tried to kill her and from another world. Her Sacred Mechanoid is pink and red with a fox-like tail, and uses a longsword as her primary weapon. She realizes she might have feelings for Kenshi when she sees him wearing the pendant with the red cord she made. Another instance is when she is manipulated by Dagmyer to kill Kenshi, but cannot bring herself to do it. Her reactions around Kenshi have caused others to remark that they act like a pair of siblings (with her as the older sister), and despite her complaining that he always causes trouble, she is ready to risk her own life for Kenshi and joins in the chase for him at the end of the final episode.
Maria is the young princess from the country of Havoniwa who currently attends Holy Land Academy along with Lashara. She and Lashara are cousins, but they are not fond of each other and constantly engage in contests of one-upmanship. She, like Lashara, refers to herself with the majestic plural. She is very close to her servant Yukine and is rarely seen without her. Maria is the daughter of Queen Flora, and is frequently embarrassed by her mother's antics. She supports Yukine into having Kenshi fall for her (Yukine), and has recently shown that she too has feelings for him. Her family name is a reference to Sir Papacharino Nanadan from Kajishima's earlier work Photon.
Yukine is the faithful personal servant of Maria, with her quiet and shy demeanor hiding both a very talented skillset and expert combat skills; during the attack on the resort, she wields a sword similar to a khanda. Yukine acts as Maria's primary information-gatherer, and the two of them are able to figure out that Kenshi is the Sacred Mechanoid pilot that attacked Lashara. There is a clear mutual attraction between Kenshi and Yukine, and the two have been mistaken for a couple on multiple occasions. She is from a clan that protects a temple dedicated to the Choushin, but lets Kenshi compress it into a sword. Her Sacred Mechanoid is a mixture of light colors with moth antennae and a mane armed with a railgun and jets that allows her to travel at supersonic speeds.
Nicknamed , she is a good friend of Lashara, a brilliant inventor and a genius when it comes to heavy artillery and gunpowder despite her poor aim. While she may appear to be a 15-year-old girl, her actual age is 97 due to difference in time flow at the Barrier Workshop, where she lived prior to moving to the Swan with the others. She later invented the Mechaworker, a steam-powered mechanoid resembling an Uchikoma with greater maneuverability than that which a Sacred Mechanoid would provide. Her Sacred Mechanoid is brown with bull's horns made for heavy combat. Like Lashara and Chiaia, she has feelings for Kenshi, although she usually tries to test her machines' destructive abilities on him.
Lithia is the granddaughter of the current Pope of Geminar and President of The Holy Land Academy's Student Council. She is a harsh and sarcastic woman who often thinks of and refers to Kenshi as a , and after the "massage" that was given to her (courtesy of Mexiah), she has referred to him as that ever since. She suffers from extreme stress due to the intense amount of work she has, and tends to pass out when she's overworked. However, she begins to feel more relaxed and enervated after Kenshi makes her some energy-increasing tea, though her sarcastic nature still remains. She also seems to fear Morga, the former Student Council President, because Morga, while extremely talented as a Sacred Mechamaster, does not work well with others and is also something of a lunatic in combat. Only in the last few episodes, although she still refers to Kenshi as a "wild beast", it is shown that she gets flustered around him and even when speaking about him, hinting she may also have feelings for him, and there is no doubt that she has grown to respect Kenshi greatly.
The Dark Elf Princess of the Shurifon Kingdom and a member of the Pilgrimage Route Guard. While she initially shows a very serious and sober personality, it is later revealed that her personality shifts based on the time of day; at certain times such as in the early morning, she has a much more innocent and girlish personality (this is because her kind were summoned by the Senshi Civilization to pilot the Sacred Mechalord, and her time of weakness shows that her people have not yet fully stabilized in this world). Initially, she admires Kenshi's wilderness skills, but grows to develop a romantic interest in him, even going so far as to feed him water mouth-to-mouth after he has passed out and then attempting to confess her feelings; on a few occasions, she and Kenchi have worked well together as a scouting team. When not dealing with school-related tasks, she is nearly always accompanied by two male retainers. Her Sacred Mechanoid is green and brown, armed with a crossbow, and has the ability to generate the Dark Elf Field, a powerful but physically taxing force field that can repel any enemy that comes in range.
Holy Land Academy Students , , , and Yeliss Bwoole Gryino Wreda A quartet of students at Holy Land Academy, each having a crush on Kenshi. Each of the girls is named after a color, represented by their hair color and the Sacred Mechanoids they pilot; Yeliss is named after the color yellow, Bwoole after the color blue, Gryino after the color green, and Wreda after the color red. Out of the four, Wreda appears to be the de facto leader of the group.
A student at Holy Land Academy and Lithia's assistant. It is shown that she has feelings for Kenshi, and her devotion to Lithia is such that she stays by Lithia's bedside while Lithia is recovering from her fever, then later risks her own life to protect Lithia when they are attacked by Dagmyer's cronies in their Sacred Mechanoids and in the battle in the ravine at the re-taking of The Holy Land defeats an enemy Sacred Mechanoid that has the upper hand over Lithia. Her own Sacred Mechanoid is yellow with a puff-tipped tail and a spear as her primary weapon.
A student at Holy Land Academy who is in the same class as Kenshi. He is also a Sacred Mechamaster, but unlike most Sacred Mechamasters who are born in nobility, he was born into a common family. He is in love with a young girl named , but because of his Sacred Mechamaster status, he cannot be seen with her. He was taken prisoner by Cordyline and her bandit group and later forced against his will to kill Kenshi when Cliff Clees, Lan and the bandits held Hazuki hostage, using a bomb installed on his Sacred Mechanoid's back to take both Kenshi and himself out. After the failed attempt, he and Hazuki later join Kenshi onboard the Swan following the events of "Barrier Workshop", and Ceres assists in the making of the Tenchi sword.
The previous Student Council President who is now a knight for the Trible Royal Court. She only makes a brief appearance in the anime, but it is hinted that she and Lithia are not on good terms and that everyone who either knows or remembers her is extremely wary of her. Morga was shown to be a strong-headed and reckless Sacred Mechamaster who obliterates anything in her path. Her Sacred Mechanoid is red and black, and she uses a pair of axes to fight. Lithia states that while Morga is a skilled fighter, she lacks the ability to work as a member of a team.
Faculty