almost good...

being a big ol' tenchi muyo fan, i decided to plunk down the money and found an inexpensive set of the first 18 or so episodes of this new series by the original creator. i'm not going to spoil the plot, but i will say this for those of you who, like me and having seen all the other series, were left hungry for more: gxp is not about tenchi and his gang. now, this is not to say that it doesnt have its own merits, but if you're only interested in finding out "what happens next" (this series ignores "tenchi universe" and "tenchi in tokyo" and follows only the ova) hang tight for a while. a new tenchi series is in the works that will complete the ova. gxp does recapture the loopy implausability that makes tenchi muyo so much fun. the lead character is much like tenchi his boyish innocence, yet is admirable in his own way. he has a similar following of devoted females, although none so annoying as princess aeka. (thank god!)

now, having said all that, gxp is NOT for kids. it is rife with sexual innuendo, and that was a little disapointing. the ova was by far the raciest of the three series, but it is tame by comparison to gxp. that it will never ever in a million years get the "toonami makeover" is no great loss. be warned, the english subtitles on the cheap chinese dvd's commonly available on ebay are terrible. they seem to have been done by someone who doesn't understand english very well.

(fast forward about a year)

having now seen the rest of the series and had time to digest it all, i thought i might post the rest of my comments. while entertaining, the lessons of tenchi muyo seem to have been forgotten by gxp. (please refer to my comments to "tenchi in tokyo" for more thoughts on the subject) what we should have learned from tenchi is that there is a difference between love and sex, between family and marriage. one implies depth while the other does not necessarily. i admired tenchi's stauch refusal to "choose" one girl or another. all of those in tenchi's extended family have the same need to be loved and accepted for who they are, and were he to single out one or the other, the rest would feel left behind. gxp's solution in the final episode however seems pretty preposterous.

as a side note, i was informed that the "giant robot" at the end of gxp may be the same as the one featured in "dual! parallel trouble adventure." i discovered that series captures the charms that gxp (as well as evangelion, which it seems to directly parody) ultimately lacked.