masaki kajishima, portrait of an abused content creator

[Eff Efferson]

... you know now that I've done all this translating and research... I just had to write an article to rant about something... and that something is how AIC has seemingly systematically abused the content creating powerhouse of masaki kajishima over the years,

as you all should know, kajishima and hiroko hayashi, some small fry's from bubblegum crisis spun off a flunked onsen episode of bubblegum crisis into a show of it's own, one where basically maki got all the girls from bubblegum crisis and then some.

kajishima was the character and world designer and hayashi was the director/storyboarder, naoko hasegawa was the screenplay writer.

obviously they split after the end of the first ova and episode 7 on was a different team with kajishima still on since well it was his characters and world, and then AIC fucking ended it on a clifhanger with a half episode while they clearly had plans for ova 3 as seen in the cut boards in the AIC art books that showed an alternate end to OVA 2 where tenchi finds his mother unexpectedly alive.

Now keep in mind an average anime was at the time 26 episodes for tv.

Instead of continuing the Tenchi OVAs AIC decided to take the franchise... and give it to hiroshi negishi... someone who had nothing to do with the product... so they could make a family friendly neutered version of OVA 1... let that sink in...

ok so... like i said 26 episodes, and that weird half episode OVA 13.5.... wtf was that... did they just cut the episode short? was it supposed to be a part of episode 14?

now also keep in mind, OVA 3 episode one was 90% filler because of how much damn time was allowed to pass in between ova 2 and 3

so really OVA 3 as we got it was about... 6.5 episodes... but there's more to talk about there i'll get back to that.

first off after OVA 2 ended which was obviously not what he expected, he went off and tried to make a computer game that was a cousin to the tenchi series, this side up's cousin series, Caution fragile, ... you've probably never heard of this story,  but... this was a pc game that was in development while coincidentally... it's anime side story adaption got produced...  this is the show that Masquerade came out of.

Masquerade from what i can gather from what i can bear to watch of it and what i read in kajishima's doujin is well... a witch and vampire story. far from the scifi of tenchi's world until you remember kajishima has renza in his series so fantasy in space... totally a thing for the tenchi verse.  in fact from heseiban it seems like he had a ton of ideas to pitch at that time, specifically masquerade aggaruter, issekai and photon and dual. but for those of you who don't know caution fragile was about a bunch of female representations of the Shishin (the gods of the cardinal directions)  and a boy who crosses paths with them

http://tenchimuyotranslationblog.blogspot.com/2017/03/kajishima-onsen-vol1-hesei-ban-1.html

"It is a monstrously big game plot wise, it has about 3-4 books worth of plot and is about 940 kilobytes in file size, It's taken me eight months just to write it all up."

it was never finished apparently it was very hard to get coded with all those story scenarios he wanted so the more complicated stuff he cut out and had made into masquerade, the anime made to promote the game which never released.

now masquerade has little to nothing to do with the tenchi series... or that's how it seems now, but don't forget... the tenchi if nanika series seems to tie both into it and into tenchi and  the rarely talked about GAP*P is somehow linked to the GP academy and GXP and
is about a spirit set free so it's not farfetched that it is a part of the tenchiverse...

I got off topic... my point is, again his game failed... and the anime was released despite it... leaving his story incomplete the second in a long line of this happening... who made the anime btw... Green bunny and AIC...and then AIC  and green bunny later released two TWO ova "sequals" to masquerade... no kajishima involvement ... no adaption of the huge ass story he made for the game that tied into the original... but hey they showed tenchi-ken cause let's use his ideas to trick people into thinking he made it for a porn cash grab..

now while he was working on that whole entire project, which AIC fucking knew he was busy with they unexpectedly picked up Photon.....

very suddenly, he was not directly in charge of it but it was close to his intended story with some changes and obviously stuff left out like the opening in the novel describing how the aho energy furnace came to be.
but the ending... oh no that sadistic fucked up ending was everrrrrrrrrrrrry thing he wanted it to be despite rumors that that was because he wasn't involved on that episode (I've read in places that... not true he even apologizes for how messed up it was in his doujin) but this is a pattern... AIC messed up his shit to make some cash even if this time it wasn't a total mess.


at this point he discussed making the true tenchi novels too...  and interestingly in one doujin heisei 2 he shows scenes he wanted to put in the ova but wasn't able to... including the chou chou (butterfly) chase story from the true tenchi novels which to me indicates, OVA 2 would have taken a break originally after kiyone's reveal to go into prequal movies but again ill get back to that.

the point is his works kept getting Fucked over by AIC.
from aggaruter ban you can tell that he pitched a non porn version of aggaruter to AIC, and they went with the porn version sales were crap so they cut it two episodes early, and it had a bonus episode which somehow made it out as a video game...


Aggaruter seems like it was important... it began to dive into the ancient history of the tenchiverse... if you didn't notice, janus is from an ancient species affected by the washu bioroid war/ original tsunami seed war. Kei is that societies technology, she clearly has what seem to be washu gem replica's all the ancient tech they find is prehistoric civilization tech... the show is set during the time when jurai was at war with the shank guild because they made the Daedalus class ships using bad washu gem copies. the shank guild killed taiyo's parents (mostly why i think he's a balta) and kei is Zero's sister tech... a cheaper version of what zero is according to kajishima.

and they doomed it to failure and also canceled it... so.... ok... AIC for a company that is milking this guy and his ideas for all there worth you sure Fuckin hate him and love to see him fail while reaping the benefits.

.... Next came DUAL... he wanted that... but instead of 26 episodes they gave him 13 + an ova... some things were cut... again the pre amble to the story explaining D and the mech was relegated only to his doujin when he published the plot outline version of what he pitched so people would know.... at least this part seems a bit in order... obviously you have Aggaruter to explain the washu war, dual to follow up on it and then.... well he wanted to make war on geminar... AND THAT TOOK HIM DAMN NEAR OVER A DECADE TO GET RELEASED PAST WHEN IT WAS SUPPOSED TO COME OUT.... but more importantly...

They forced GXP out... a show which he hadn't even really talked about... a show that clearly needed to come out after tenchi OVA 3... 

also at this time true tenchi was done inbetween that release and well we all know the rumors of mihoshi's novel getting canned for some unknown reason (ill tell you why I think it was canned)
and then they attached nabeshin a meme comedy show producer who had maybe 2 shows under his belt and was probably just connected to kaji through rikudo maker of excel saga who is such a big fan he made a very very well made tenchi doujin... and he even had the screenplay writer of the true tenchi novels and ova 2 and photon and dual and project and the photon novels, Yōsuke Kuroda work on the anime of his show excel saga.... in case you ever wonder how that happened... that  seems like the most obvious way nabeshin got on board.

well shit you released the sequal and side story to OVA 3  before OVA 3... GREAT JOB AIC and it was so messed up and filled with director self insert to prevent it from being the sequal to dual it was meant to be that they agreed to finally just let kajishima re-write it all as novels... its been 15 years... 15 he has been working on novelizing what was messed up in animation and the entire story depends on it... its the backbone of his multiverse. a multiverse which seems broken and disorientated because AIC fucks him at every turn to milk his creation instead of letting him do it right...

... alright... ok... so... onto why i brought up 26 episodes.


for those of you who don't know... OVA 3 was not meant to be 7 episodes... it was  clearly meant to be 13...


the 7th episode we got was never intended... it was his last hurrah because they had to fight for it when it came out i remember no one knew if it was certain.

keep in mind... OVA 2 has a 7 minit half episode... and OVA 3 starts with a mostly recap setup episode... was that supposed to be one episode? it seems like it was... because well... OVA 3 episode one if you remember starts off showing the same scene that 13.5 ended with just with a flashy battle... 13.5 ends with tokimi saying to Z... don't go fucking starting shit with tenchi... and 14 starts with him blowing shit up and then... tokimi: dont start shit with tenchi.... so

Im going to give it the benefit of the doubt and count OVA 3 ep 1 as a full episode even if its a bit short when put together like that

and then we got 6 more episodes...  20 but one was forced... and for that were going to call it 19... because....

OVA 4 was meant to be part of OVA 3 and OVA 3's mihoshi plot was supposed to be alot more then just here's two characters we don't know getting married instead of tenchi. it was mihoshi's ark....

first ayeka got her ark and found yosho, Sasami get's hers sort of in true tenchi coming to terms with the loneliness of leaving her family on jurai, not that there is much to it. Ryoko got her ark in ova 2 ending with her assimilating zero to become a better version of herself. washu started her ark  which isn't really wrapped up till GXP novel 11 (except was it blammed out of the anime leaving a huge plothole of why the fuck is the military suddenly taking fuku... and what happens to the cabbit clones seina saved which are never seen again.) But mihoshi... mihoshi was getting hers in ova 3. and now i will tell you why....

Who appears in OVA 3 for the first time if gxp never existed.


Airi...

and seto, who's memories of being naja unlock when she passes out after seeing washu.

... ok... but also...

and bear with me on this...

IF OVA 4 was OVA 3

Minaho who gives the story of how airi was shunned for being responsible for the widow disaster on airai, and how she experimented on her


as i bring up time and time again...

there's that kamidake onsen cover..

http://tenchimuyotranslationblog.blogspot.com/p/true-tenchi-novels.html

.... we know GXP runs Concurrent to the second half of GXP...

I believe GXP was meant to run on tv as OVA 3 was being released to promote it and compliment it.

and just as it's clear that OVA 2 was set up for Washu Jurai and Yosho novels... serving as promo for them essentially, (tsunami episode, taro episode, here comes jurai which also is a gxp set up with seiryo)

OVA 3 was set up for the second and still unreleased true tenchi novels about seto: her freindship with mikami at the academy, the war with shank guild  the first fleet commander she was said to have assasinated who we know now wasn't... and kanemitsu's wife

the novel about Airi: widow's attack on her planet, fleeing with minaho, having yosho contact kanemitsu while she was with him having kiyone and her marrying kanemitsu

and the novel about  mihoshi.

I believe the true tenchi ova was supposed to be an ova of it's own really... 6 episodes... or possibly movies...  but most likely a prequal ova series all of it's own.

so anyways... OVA 4 was 4 episodes... except not it wasn't it was 3 and a half... 

why do i say that? the big long fansevice scene in the last episode... wasn't there in the original novel... and also... that is where kajishima says "this was where i planned to originally end tenchi.



so what was the other half... it was what ended up as the last episode of OVA 3... but that's still 24- 23 episodes... right...  that means about 2-3 episodes were cut from what was intended.


... and that is what i think it the real reason for tenchi OVA and kajishima's work seems so damn janky... thanks for coming to my ted talk

[antvasima]

Thank you for the information. I also think that Kajishima has been treated in a terrible manner.

[Monster Man]

I thought it was already common knowledge that AIC were sketchy buggers. Ultimately they're still a company out for profits like all others, so make what you will of that.

What you describe sounds similar to Battered Wife Syndrome.

[WarOmnimon]

*Place massive wall of text that is too big to quote in its entirety but makes complete sense here*

And don't forget everything else that Negishi was allowed to do even after Universe and GXP in his attempts to flush Kajishima's vision down the toilet... *cough*aitenchimuyo*cough*

But yeah, this is exactly why I've been saying for a long time now that Kadokawa needs to decide "@#$% it, we're gonna take Tenchi out of AIC's hands", and why they need to do so ASAP.  Corporate meddling ends badly for everyone, and it's very clear that AIC is just being a bunch of corporate meddlers at this point.

[Eff Efferson]

*Place massive wall of text that is too big to quote in its entirety but makes complete sense here*

And don't forget everything else that Negishi was allowed to do even after Universe and GXP in his attempts to flush Kajishima's vision down the toilet... *cough*aitenchimuyo*cough*

But yeah, this is exactly why I've been saying for a long time now that Kadokawa needs to decide "@#$% it, we're gonna take Tenchi out of AIC's hands", and why they need to do so ASAP.  Corporate meddling ends badly for everyone, and it's very clear that AIC is just being a bunch of corporate meddlers at this point.

GOD i forgot all about how tenchi if was pitched as ai... and they said fuck that and went to negishi... who hasn't touched tenchi since ova 1...

[WarOmnimon]

GOD i forgot all about how tenchi if was pitched as ai... and they said fuck that and went to negishi... who hasn't touched tenchi since ova 1...

Well, excuse me for thinking that Ai was bad enough already... now I see it in a MUCH worse light.  That's actually news to me; I didn't even know that Kajishima actually tried to pitch IF to AIC and then they said "nope, we're doing Ai instead".  Knowing that we actually could have gotten an anime based on IF for the 20th anniversary makes Ai that much more of a cancer to society in my book.  Of all the things AIC has done to basically spit on Kajishima, this one's going down as my biggest personal "What the FLIP were they thinking?!" moment.   

KADOKAWA PLS-

[Y_Anthony_Who]

I remember when it seemed as if IF was being made, and how devastated I was when they turned Kajishima away and made Ai.

Fap, the stuff you wrote is the kind of stuff I think about all the time. Then I need to sit down and watch a happy unrelated show to stop the spiraling in my brain. It's so fucking sad. I LOVE TENCHI TOO MUCH!

I remember when OVA3 was supposed to have more episodes. MY TENCHI MEMORY IS MADE OF STEEL! I REMEMBER IT ALL! ALL THE HEARTBREAK!

If I could traverse the multiverse my first priority would be visiting earths where OAV3 was made earlier and longer. Then I'd go see Time Burton's third Batman film.

[WarOmnimon]

If I could traverse the multiverse my first priority would be visiting earths where OAV3 was made earlier and longer. Then I'd go see Time Burton's third Batman film.

^ This.  And I'd not only go to those Earths, but I'd also visit the Earths where OAV4's story was handled better (Did we REALLY need Nobuyuki and Rea's wedding AGAIN?), where we got an anime of IF instead of Ai, and then to that one Earth where OAV5 (Which if what Based Fap said is any logical indication then yeah, we're gonna get Tenchi's wedding during that) just started... and I'd stay there until it was over.

And then I'd come back with a t-shirt and possibly some extra merch.  But probably just a t-shirt.

Just saying. 

[AstroNerdBoy]

Instead of continuing the Tenchi OVAs AIC decided to take the franchise... and give it to hiroshi negishi... someone who had nothing to do with the product... so they could make a family friendly neutered version of OVA 1... let that sink in...

I'd long heard that this was done because Pioneer, AIC's distribution partner for TM!R, demanded it. From what I had been told way back when, Pioneer convinced AIC to go the TV route because the profits were greater for a TV series as OVA series were more expensive to make due to their higher quality. And their proof was the "Mihoshi's Adventure" OVA, which set the groundwork to do both "Tenchi Universe" and "Pretty Sammy" series.

They forced GXP out... a show which he hadn't even really talked about... a show that clearly needed to come out after tenchi OVA 3... 

Yeah, I know that after AIC and Pioneer parted ways, AIC would only agree to do OVA 3 if GXP was done first AND GXP had to be a success. Thankfully, it was. And based on what I had previously been told about Pioneer's objections to doing less profitable OVA series, I think the only reason OVA 3 was even given the green light with conditions was because Pioneer (now Geneon) was out of the picture and VAP came in as distributor to replace them. At least AIC did allow OVA 3 to continue.

But I agree with you, GXP should have come second. AND, it didn't help that Watanabe (aka: Nabeshin) decided to insert himself into the GXP story and change things up. From what I was told, the reason Kajishima-sensei personally directed episode 17, where the GXP crew meet Tenchi and harem, is so Watanabe couldn't do something that would conflict with OVA 3. And, Kajishima-sensei expressed his displeasure with Watanabe by putting his Nabeshin character literally into a doghouse.

But yeah, this is exactly why I've been saying for a long time now that Kadokawa needs to decide "@#$% it, we're gonna take Tenchi out of AIC's hands", and why they need to do so ASAP.  Corporate meddling ends badly for everyone, and it's very clear that AIC is just being a bunch of corporate meddlers at this point.

I don't know that Kodakawa has a say here. In my mind, AIC should be the copyright owner to all things Tenchi since Tenchi originated with them. My understanding is that Kodaka just has a license to do the stuff.

As an aside, it appears that the copyright ownership of the True Tenchi Muyo! novels is now split between Kuroda-sensei and Kajishima-sensei only. In the Japanese copies I have, AIC/Pioneer are also co-copyright owners.

(Did we REALLY need Nobuyuki and Rea's wedding AGAIN?)

I think that was Kajishima-sensei, not AIC. Why? Although I can't prove it, I do believe that OVA 3 was supposed to be longer, but ended up getting nixed. I honestly believe Kajishima-sensei wanted to do the story of Nobuyuki's and Rea's wedding, but was forced to just do some still shots. OVA 4 allowed him to tell that story, but if you weren't versed in the GXP novels or War on Geminar, you were SOL when it came to understanding what the heck was happening in OVA 4.

[Eff Efferson]

... what if i told you it also had a good 5 minit section dedicated to setting up paradise war... cause it did lol. minahos latenight bedtime speach to tenchi

[AstroNerdBoy]

... what if i told you it also had a good 5 minit section dedicated to setting up paradise war... cause it did lol. minahos latenight bedtime speach to tenchi

I still have yet to watch episode 4, but I assume that's where this is depicted?

[Harls]

That would have been episode 2.

[Eff Efferson]

yes ep 2

[جبريل 無道]

Instead of continuing the Tenchi OVAs AIC decided to take the franchise... and give it to hiroshi negishi... someone who had nothing to do with the product... so they could make a family friendly neutered version of OVA 1... let that sink in...

I'd long heard that this was done because Pioneer, AIC's distribution partner for TM!R, demanded it. From what I had been told way back when, Pioneer convinced AIC to go the TV route because the profits were greater for a TV series as OVA series were more expensive to make due to their higher quality. And their proof was the "Mihoshi's Adventure" OVA, which set the groundwork to do both "Tenchi Universe" and "Pretty Sammy" series.

I have heard the same thing as well.  Make it a love triangle and keep it going and going and going.

That Tenchi formula was very boring to me.

But I wasn't a fan of OAV3/4 either.  Ultimately you have to work with the powers that be and make a compelling story.  IF was somewhat compelling.  OAV4 started well but then absolutely fizzled imo.

Between that and Ai, I have resigned myself to the fact that the good Tenchi (as in strictly Tenchi Masaki and girls) has been done.  Anything now will be icing but I'm not anticipating it.

[Ryo-Okay]

It's certainly a bummer how the main cast has been sidelined in their own show. I've found a series that does what I liked about Tenchi much better, so I'm not really all that upset about how Tenchi is an unfocused mess. I do hope that Kajishima eventually shifts his focus back to Tenchi and his harem, but I'm not really holding my breath. I would at least like to see Tenchi's wedding.