Hasegawa Novels

[LightHawkWing]

Does anyone know much of anything about these novels? Because they weren't distributed outside of Japan, correct?

[Tenchi Ryu]

Jibs pretty much snorts em like crack, so she's easily the most well versed for the books.

[Harls]

Besides Punistation, but she gone.

books 1-8 info
books 9-12 info

[LightHawkWing]

Thanks for that, Harls! I'm guessing that's the bulk of information we have over here. I was just curious to know how different its continuity was from the OVA and the others. And also, I'm interested in seeing Kiyone fighting for Tenchi.

[جبريل 無道]

Kiyone and Achika were invented by her.

Her Achika is nothing like TMiL Achika.  Her Achika got damaged by the tree sword pulling ceremony (what you see Tenchi doing in ep5 of the OAV) and she got rejected by the tree, Funaho.  Some guy she was in love left her during the recovery and she eventually married an older gentleman (Nobuyuki) and was content because he looked like her father.

Kiyone likes Tenchi.

I don't really like the parts of the books I have seen.  One entire book is Kiyone being sucked into an AU and going on a D&D adventure, fighting ghouls and goblins, and other, what I consider unTenchi-ish, stuff happens.  One book has a female paedophile stalking Sasami.  When you think about clone/incest themes of MnE/DoD movie, a lot of this is par for the course.  MnE is one of the later books.

I don't see the Japanese talk about her books, and there are no reviews for them on Amazon.jp or anything that I can gauge.  Japanese wikipedia doesn't have more information on them.  They don't make any fanart for her characters that I have seen.  Idk why.  It may be the books are too little known, even there.

One of the cooler things I do like is that Kagato has a son.  He comes to get revenge on Tenchi.

 

I got scan of all the books/images if you want them.  Sorry if I can't be more help.

[LightHawkWing]

I've always been interested in the house dynamic if Mayuka was a main character, like stories post-DoD. Also, the Kagato's son bit intrigues me as well. Would OVA Kagato even consider having/creating a child? I doubt it...

Also, how did Kiyone come to stay at the house?

[جبريل 無道]

Well, she was adopted in the novels, but is only a little baby (I forget if the movies resurrected her or just had her stone at the end).  In fact, Tenchi chooses a wife (last story) is based in part on needing a mom for Mayuka.

(Last picture in the novel series)

[LightHawkWing]

Interesting. So she's not Tenchi's actual child in the novel. And yeah, the movie ended with them beginning the resurrection process.

Who did he choose in the end of the novels?

[جبريل 無道]

Well, she is Tenchi's dna just like in the movie.  Perhaps adopted was the wrong connotation.

Ryoko.  Hasegawa was a Ryoko fan.  In fact, she makes Ryoko the "child of destiny":



and made Tenchi seem like a human version of a 1st generation Tree of Tsunami or something as far as I understand.

[Gaston]

So...Ryoko is like a God Mode Mary Sue in those novels ?

[Dr.Soviet]

Looks like I'll be dumping some of my own money into these novels in the future. (after the True Tenchi novels are translated anyway.)

[LightHawkWing]

And the other girls were fine with him choosing Ryoko? Can you shed a little light on the "Child of destiny" thang?

[جبريل 無道]

The child of destiny thing was near the end of the first novel.  Hasegawa uses the beginning of the first novel to recap on on the first OAV but launches into her story.  From the summaries, I don't think there's real overarcing plot like the OAV.  It's more like the first half of TU with loosely interconnected stories.  I don't think the child of destiny really comes into play the rest of the series, there's no grand villain or anything in the end - just a few minor ones like Kagato's son, Yazuha, and a few others.  And Tenchi does much of the fighting.  I don't think Hasegawa has a clue what Kajishima is up to as witness by her first foreword.

In the last book, Ayeka and Sasami have to leave for Jurai to something, and Tenchi and Ryoko get to know each other.  Or rather, Tenchi gets to see Ryoko's softer side or some such.  Sasami and Ayeka are sad at Tenchi choosing.  I think Sasami's sad more that Ayeka will be sad. 

Leaving for Jurai.


Tenchi and Ryoko alone in the house.


Tenchi telling Ayeka.


One final test for the group.


End picture.

[جبريل 無道]

Here is Hasegawa's foreword in Book 1.  It came out after OAV1 but before OAV2.

Hello. I'm Hasegawa, who wrote the screenplay for Tenchi Muyo! OVA volumes 1 through 6. I'm happy to tell you this Tenchi volume has also just been published.

For me, this is my very first novel. (Um... because it's being published by Fujimi Shobo, famous for the Dragon Lance series, my heart is... just too full for words!)

As I look back now, so many things have happened.

When I joined the project as a 5criptwriter for "Tenchi" in December two years ago, a rough draft was already completed by the director, Mr Hiroki Hayashi, and the producer & character designer, Mr Masaki Kajishima, and the first episode even had a completed storyboard. It was a struggle creating a screenplay from the storyboard. I worried about the future...

As a matter of fact, it was a bit of a drama from the second episode through to the last. Things didn't go quite as we planned and it all ended up as what I suppose you know, with lots of little stories behind the big story.

I intended to include those episodes (including my own personal feelings) in these novels to make a funny love comedy.

Didn't you think the main character Tenchi seems just a tad unimpressive after reading this? Let me tell you, some characters cannot just change their core personality that easily. Did you wonder why Aeka and Ryoko seem to be constantly fighting all the time? Well don't you think something must be terribly wrong if things were actually okay between these two? Did you think Mihoshi seemed just a bit too lucky? Well, that's okay because the author loves her so much and it's not like I was nice to all the characters (just look what happened to poor Aeka).

New characters Kiyone-chan and Pete-chan, thank you for throwing so much confusion into the story. Now this author totally understands what happens when you do something from right off the top of your head. Of course, the worst thing is... this author wrote the story from right off the top of her head and had great fun too (People call them featherbrained).

By the way, I would like to say a great big thank you to all the wonderful people who worked with me and helped me.

The Director Mr Hiroki Hayashi gets many thanks for all the wonderful illustrations. He is extremely talented with drawing and even music, and his character you could say is not unlike Mihoshi, for he is a very lucky guy.

The Producer, Character Designer and Original Story Concept Mr Masaki Kajishima, sorry for bugging you so many times with all my questions while we were working. Let me tell you one really funny story about this guy...

When I was working on the latter part of this story one day, this author received a new illustration. The picture was of Jurai with Azusa and his wife, Misaki, and the Meishu Tokimi.

(NOTE: "Meishu" is a term used to describe someone who is transcendent, or on a higher plane of existence. It's a name/title usually given to religious leaders.)


HASEGAWA: "Kajishima sensei, who exactly is this meishu Tokimi?"

KAJISHIMA: "Oh, this thing. This is about the Three Goddesses. There are three goddesses in this universe, Tsunami, Tokimi and Washu, so you could say they are the Goddess Trio.

HASEGAWA: "...huh?"

(I know of Tsunami but I've never heard of this Tokimi lady. And Washu? Wasn't Washu a great scientific genius??" )

This little author turned quite pale.

HASEGAWA: "Well, y'see I've kinda just about finished my first novel. Are you absolutely sure these three are goddesses?"

KAJISHIMA: "Absolutely!" (with great passion) Very Happy

HASEGAWA: "... really?" (Now why didn't I know this?)

KAJISHIMA: "You better believe it!" :evil

HASEGAWA: "... (I'm in trouble. How do I finish this now??)" Sad


This is what it was to work with Kajishima-sensei! Thank you for always turning around and helping me with advice and suggestions on Tenchi. I understand the absurdity of being in the dark. Well, if you look at it this way, this is the man who created the Tenchi world, so of course he would know everything about it.


And lastly, Editor and Editor-in-Chief, Mr Yasuda and Mr Moriyama, thank you for giving me the opportunity to write this novel. One time while I was going to see a dentist, you told me encouraging stories like how someone was splattered while getting her teeth drilled, and someone was garrotted by a co-worker (didn't you, Mr Moriyama?).

And also, thankyou to the readers of this book. It's been decided to produce another OVA of Tenchi, so be sure to enjoy the Tenchi world more and more.


May 1993
Naoko Hasegawa

[For Washuu]

Wow, thanks for the transcript, Mudo!


And I, too, think i'll be paying more attention to these novels from now on.  They sound like fanfiction... if fanfiction was ever to be done the RIGHT way, you know?