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Episode 12 -	Stupid Cupid
	NISE OYAJI / RATIN no RIZUMU de / PAPA iyan
	[Fake father, Latin rhythm, no Dad!]
First aired -	17th June 1997

With Sasami out of action with the 'flu, Tenchi's father Nobuyuki has taken over the household duties. Between his inedible cooking, endless chores and precious little help from the girls, he decides that enough is enough, and goes to visit Tenchi in Tokyo.

In his apartment in Tokyo, Tenchi is brooding over the photographs of himself and Ryoko on their date, and how his actions have affected Sakuya. Elsewhere in the city, Nobuyuki is searching for his son's apartment, having neglected to remember the address. The ever-present Yugi is on hand to assist him, and sends out her servant Matori with a task to perform. Matori trips Nobuyuki up, and Sakuya, who happened to be passing, helps him back to his feet. Nobuyuki recognises her from her visit to Okayama, and asks her to direct him to Tenchi's apartment.

Once Nobuyuki has arrived at Tenchi's apartment, bringing Sakuya with him, he notices how the two of them are uncomfortably quiet. He reaches the conclusion that they must be in love with each other, and decides to help them break the ice a little. His attempts at proving he is "with it" by talking about baseball and telling jokes are pretty feeble, and he spares himself further embarrassment by stepping out to buy cold drinks.

Meanwhile, at the Masaki home, the girls are after Sasami's money again. Being incapable of cooking a decent meal between them, they want to go out to a restaurant, but Ryo-Ohki won't let them near Sasami's money box, and she packs a mean kick when threatened!

In Tokyo, Nobuyuki is cursing himself for his incompetence. As he walks back from the store, Matori follows him. She picks up his discarded cigarette butt and transforms it into a duplicate of Nobuyuki, who she dubs 'pseudo-Dad'. She gives the duplicate the mission to bring Tenchi and Sakuya together. However, the dim-witted doppelgänger rushes off before Matori can finish explaining the mission.

Back at the apartment, Sakuya spots the photos of Tenchi and Ryoko and, feeling uncomfortable, leaves. Outside, she meets what she assumes is Nobuyuki, but is actually his duplicate. Pseudo-Dad grabs Sakuya and charges through the streets bellowing that he is in love with her. He stops when he comes across another attractive woman, drops Sakuya and sprints off with the new object of his misguided affections under his arm. Sakuya is completely baffled. After a while, Matori manages to catch up with her errant creation and finishes briefing him on his mission. Now correctly programmed, the duplicate finds Sakuya again and carries her off under his arm. Dashing through the streets, pseudo-Dad passes Tenchi, who was out searching for Sakuya, and draws to a halt. When he declares his love for Sakuya, Tenchi quickly realises that pseudo-Dad is a fake. He chases the duplicate to a nearby shrine, and confronts it. Determined to stop Tenchi, the duplicate grabs him around the neck and lifts him clear off the ground. Luckily, the real Nobuyuki turns up just in time and threatens to destroy it. He buys a hamaya* (a demon exorcising arrow) from the shrine store and hurls it at the duplicate. It lands right on target and the duplicate disintegrates.

After the battle, Nobuyuki is left to talk to Tenchi. He tells Tenchi that he shouldn't miss his opportunity to talk to Sakuya, and to speak to her from the heart. Tenchi finally opens up to Sakuya, and tells her that although he isn't sure if he is in love with her yet, he only needs a little more time before he can tell her for sure. Ultimately, Tenchi's real father has done a better job in drawing Sakuya and Tenchi together than any duplicate, and Yugi is pleased that she has, in the end, achieved her latest goal.

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Episode 13 - The Eye of the Destroyer >>

* hamaya - demon exorcising arrows - are good luck charms traditionally given as gifts at New Year in Japan. What Nobuyuki manages to buy is a "traffic safety arrow", which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist! It still seems to do the job, though...

When Nobuyuki is desperately trying to prove to Tenchi and Sakuya that he is "with it", he suggests that "it's fashionable to meet at the Hachiko statue". This is a reference to the bronze statue of a dog outside the Shibuya railway station in Tokyo. The true story of Hachiko is that he would accompany his master, a university professor, to the train station every morning, then wait there until he returned from work in the evening. After his master died in 1925, Hachiko continued his vigil at the station until his own death ten years later. People were so touched by the dog's loyalty that they erected a statue in his honour, which still stands today (although the current statue is a replica produced by the original sculptor's son - the original one was melted down during the second World War). The statue is such a well-known landmark that it is frequently used as a meeting place.

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