Tenchi Muyo! Tenchi Universe collapses the distance between harem comedy and genuine affection. Every woman who crashes into Tenchi's life wants something different from him, and the show cares enough to let those wants contradict each other without resolving them into a joke. By the end you realize the real plot isn't which girl wins, it's that Tenchi has to become someone worth choosing at all, and that transformation happens quietly underneath all the chaos and laser fire.
Seventeen-year-old Tenchi lives a quiet life at his family's temple in the Japanese countryside, unaware that his world is about to get considerably more complicated. When a fugitive space pirate crashes near his home, followed closely by two Galaxy Police officers, the peaceful grounds become the site of an intergalactic incident. Before long, Tenchi is swept off Earth and out into space. A growing group of alien women also settles into his household: the pirate Ryoko, the refined Princess Ayeka of Jurai and her cheerful little sister Sasami, the ditzy detective Mihoshi and her more competent partner Kiyone, and the eccentric scientist Washu. Their advanced ways clash with simple Earth customs, and the resulting messes usually land on Tenchi. Even so, he grows close to each of them, and through those bonds he comes to better understand his place in the universe. The series mixes comedy, romance and science fiction.
