Back to episode list

Episode 20 -	Bright and Sunny Tenchi, But With High Waves?
	Tenchi seirō naredo hakōshi?
Release date -	9th September 2005

Screenshot gallery

Despite the chōshin having changed history, the arrival of the Chobimaru and its vengeful captain Misao has still played out the same (thanks to Noike sending Mihoshi's email at the end of episode 19). Although Z is no longer a threat, Tenchi is still called upon to use his powers to protect the Earth one more time when a blast from the Chobimaru, apparently triggered deliberately by Noike, threatens to destroy it. Tenchi places himself in the path of the beam and summons his Light Hawk Wings, but he is overcome, and wakes to find himself once again in the strange nexus of time and space he passed through before he rescued the young girl in the previous episode. "So that's how it happens this time..." he muses.

After the Chobimaru incident, the Kuramitsu family holds a meeting to discuss the futures of the those involved. GP Academy principal Mikami, GP marshal Minami, and Princess Seto preside over the meeting. Misao and Mashisu attend in person, while Tenchi and the girls participate via a video link from Earth. Also in attendance is a strange, cute little girl. Ryoko makes the mistake of acting condescending to her, and gets punched right back, even through her video screen; the little girl is actually the child form of Tokimi! Tokimi excuses herself from the meeting to go and put right other anomalies left over from the Z incident, and the meeting begins in earnest. The first order of business is punishing Minami for his part in the Chobimaru incident. His sister, Mikami, demotes him from marshal to head of maintenance. Next she put Mashisu on six months of toilet cleaning duties at Galaxy Police headquarters. Finally, she gives Misao, probably the most guilty party in the whole affair, ten years of service in the Kuramitsu family labour service, a group of men who perform large-scale manual jobs such as deforestation. Misao accepts his punishment, but requests that his beloved Mashisu be allowed to come with him. Noike points out that only a worker's immediate family are allowed to accompany them; Misao and Mashisu have no choice but to marry if they are to stay together! Minami is outraged by the suggestion that his first-born grandson should wed someone "unworthy", and points out that the family council will never agree to the marriage. Seto comes up with a suggestion; that she adopt Mashisu herself, just as she did Noike, to render Mashisu worthy of marrying into the prestigious Kuramitsu family. Minami is about to protest again when Mitoto, Mihoshi's mother, enters and declares her support for the marriage. She goes on to explain that she has already pleaded with the other members of the family council to approve the wedding, and the marriage of Mashisu and Misao has been given the go-ahead!

The meeting ends, and in walks Tenchi's sister Tennyo. She and Airi have just returned from a holiday in Hawaii. With the whole family reunited, they sit around the table for a meeting of their own. The time has come, explains Katsuhito, to tell Tenchi about the death of his mother. He recounts the story of how, when Tenchi was a child, he was badly injured, and his mother Kiyone went into the mountains to retrieve some medicinal herbs. There, she slipped and fell, injuring herself terribly, but she made it to a hospital. While recovering, Tenchi came down with the measles, and once again Kiyone set out to try and help him, but staggering down the road in the dark and pouring rain was hit by a car. Again, she was only wounded, and once again was hospitalised while her injuries healed. By this time Tenchi is losing patience with his grandfather's story — these stories of her remarkable survival seem to have nothing to do with her eventual death. Katsuhito finally reveals that Kiyone passed away peacefully one winter's morning. She was 248 years old, and somewhat senile by then. Realising that the story about the mountain and the car accident had nothing to do with his mother's death from natural causes, Tenchi loses his temper, accusing Katsuhito of making fun of him. Nobuyuki's fiancée Rea interjects, remarking that the entire story was scripted by the late Kiyone. Nobuyuki admits that the stories were indeed made up, and it was Kiyone's last wish that Tenchi be told this scripted tale first. Upset, Tenchi storms out.

Later, Rea finds Tenchi sitting at the entrance to Ryoko's cave, and tries to console him. Tenchi still refuses to believe that his mother was a slightly batty practical jokester, his clearest memories being of her kindly, smiling face. Rea, however, remembers otherwise — Kiyone was a kind mother, but was prone to pulling chidish practical jokes. Rea remarks that Tenchi's image of his mother is just that — no more than an image. She does, however, console him by telling him that it was just his mother's way of expressing her love. Rea leaves Tenchi with his thoughts, and as she leaves she prompts Noike, who was eavesdropping further down the shrine steps, to take over. Noike sits down beside Tenchi and offers more comforting words, telling Tenchi that the happy-go-lucky aspect of Kiyone's personality was just one part of her. Noike goes on to remark that she was brought up in an orphanage, She tells Tenchi how she used to wonder why her parents abandoned her, hoping to come up with a reason that she could understand. When she left the orphanage and eventually came to join the Galaxy Police, she finally met her mother when attending a car crash scene, and asked her why she abandoned her. Noike tells Tenchi how she learned that her father had left as soon as her mother fell pregnant, and that when her mother went off with another man she was just "in the way", so was given over to the orphanage. Noike catches Tenchi looking at him with sympathy, their eyes meet for a moment, and she blushes. With a sigh Tenchi accepts that everyone carries an idealised image of their parents with them, and that maybe it was Rea's kindness that he remembers more than his mother's.

Washu listens in on the conversation from atop Ryoko's cave (having pulled her favourite trick of tying the other girls up to stop them interfering). She muses that only Noike could have managed to comfort Tenchi this time.

That evening, Tenchi talks with Nobuyuki at the lake's edge. He apologises for losing his temper earlier, but Nobuyuki quite understands — the bizarre script they were obliged to act out was the reason they hesitated to tell him for so long. Nobuyuki points out that Kiyone's behaviour is not that surprising, given that she was Airi's daughter!

He then goes on to talk about Rea. However, Tenchi is one step ahead of his father, and already knows about his plans to marry her. Tenchi says he doesn't mind; after all, Rea has been a part of the family for so long it won't be much different.

After Rea and Nobuyuki's wedding ceremony, Tenchi and the girls look through the wedding photographs, the girls brooding about their own future marriage prospects. Ryoko questions Tokimi, who is hanging around in her child form again, about why she was standing at the altar during the ceremony. Tokimi answers that she has her reasons, but refuses to tell anyone. Changing the subject, Tenchi remembers that he forgot to tell Washu about what happened when he was cut by Z. Taking up the subject of Z again, Ryoko and Ayeka butt in to ask Washu why Noike was acting so oddly before. Washu admits that she knew Z was spying on them through Noike's eyes. To assuage everyone's fears, she sets up a series of scientific tests on Noike, and assures them that Noike was not consciously spying on them. When the test results come in, Washu is not surprised to see Dr. Clay's emblem (as seen in episodes 11 and 12) embossed onto the very cells of Noike's body — Clay has been tampering with her, or something inside her. Tokimi steps in to reveal the truth. She swipes her hand through Noike's body, pulling out a ball of energy that forms into the young girl whose life Tenchi saved in the previous episode. She bears Clay's emblem on her forehead. Washu explains that due to Tenchi's altering of history, along with Clay's tampering, the girl's astral body was split and became absorbed into Noike's (which explains Noike's vivid dreams of the young girl in Tenchi's arms). The girl thanks Tenchi once again for saving her life, and Tenchi asks her what she meant when she said she was also Kagato. She explains that she is Kagato's female side. Washu confirms this, explaining that Kagato was originally a hermaphrodite, but hated femininity and cast off his female half. Kagato asks if Washu can remove Clay's seal on her forehead, allowing her to assimilate fully with Noike. Noike agrees, and Washu lifts the protective seal on Kagato. As she disappears into Noike's body again, she asks Tenchi if they can eat and bathe together again, a remark that sets off a tidal wave of jealous rage as Ayeka and Ryoko demand an explanation! Some things never change...

<< Episode 19 - Z

Back to episode list