Episode 13: Violent conflicts... black moon, dark night and lightning
- of the Shin Tenchi Muyo! series -

by Ben Lang

OK seems my little pictures have caused quite a response. Here's a synopsis. We open with Yuugi in some sort of surelistic dream w/ Sasami. She's holding a red balloon. Sasami tries to get close to Yuugi and the balloon pops and the dream is over.

It's Sasami's dream. It's the nice Yuugi she met in the 5th episode. I think Yuugi is inviting Sasami to meet her the next night, and Sasami asks if Ryou-oh-ki can come. She says yes.

Now we see Yuugi and Cat Girl (sigh) talking.

I think Yuugi refers to Sasami as a friend here.

Then Sasami is doing laundry and being very happy about it. Ryo-Ohki's pretty hyped up too.

She's telling Ryou-oh-ki about meeting Yuugi.

Nobiuki is coming back on the train and seems pretty pleased with himself.He's happy about Tenchi and Sakuya getting back together. I think Sakuya reminds him of Achika and he told Tenchi that last ep. Then Tenchi and his friend are practicing martial arts in the gym. Tenchi is kicking some ass (now we know Tenchi isn't a wimp in this world).

It's judo, and he throws Luke Perry to the floor.

He looks out the window and all of Sakuyas friends are waving with her at him. Sakuya looks really embarased.

The two friends (Nosy Girl [dark hair] and Ditzy Girl [glasses]) are holding each of Sakuya's hands and waving for her, since they're afraid Sakuya isn't being aggressive enough. The Beanpole isn't there.

The teacher sneaks up and yells at Sakuya and co.

She bashes all three of them with her megaphone (with one blow!)

While Tenchi is distracted his friend flattens him to the ground. Ryoko is watching the sun rise (a theme in STM).

The sun is setting, actually.

She seems sad. She does some martial arts (someone out there loves me. PERFECT for my tenchi game from the side and long shots :) :) ) and gets depressed. Suddenly glasses guy shows up. Ryoko and glasses guy fight. He has the upper hand but does not kill her when he has the opertunity. They talk at the end of the fight and do not seem altogether unfriendly. Sasami witnessed the explosions from the fight and shrugged them off and walked away she had something else to do.

I think that Sasami thinks that Ryouko is just blowing things up again. Ryouko was pining for Tenchi just a second ago.

Yoshu senses a coming storm and we switch to Nobiuki. He has just come back and the girls wanted to know where he was. Aparantly he tells them about Tenchi and Sakuya. They are not pleased to say the least. Actually now that I think about it Glasses Guy told Ryoko about what happened w/ Sakuya.

That's what I got out of it. He's telling Ryouko that Tenchi's interested in some other girl, and Ryouko finds this laughable because she's thinking Ayeka, but Hotsuma tells her its Sakuya.

Each girl takes her turn yelling at him. Until Aeka the one he is most afraid of. Aeka string him up from the ceiling (where he shall stay the rest of the ep.) and the guardians whip him while she laughs. Ryoko imagines what's happening on the date w/ Sakuya (remind you of Skuld anyone?)

Her imagination features pretty ugly representations of Sakuya.

and Aeka gets angry and trys to fly through the portal.

She bounces off Mihoshi's head to reach the ceiling.

Cat-girl(sigh) however is sitting on Tenchi's bed doing her nails (sigh) and thus the portal is deactivated.

More precisely, she's taken the comforter off the bed, folded it up, and put it on the floor. She's sitting on the comforter. The warp appears between Tenchi's bed and the comforter.

Ayeka throttles Washuu, Ryouko further punishes Nobuyuki, Mihoshi is crying, and even Kiyone is not happy.

...and Yuugi is looking at her crystals, the ones that represent Tenchi and friends. The big white crystal represents Tenchi, a smaller pink one floating nearby represents Sakuya. Circling the white Tenchi crystal are several crystals representing the rest of the Tenchi family. As this fight breaks out, all of the crystals, except the pink one, fly away from the Tenchi crystal. And Yuugi laughs.

Sasami goes to FUNHAO and waits until Yuugi shows up. She does not find it unusual that she appears out of thin air. Sasami is extremely happy to see Yuugi (so is Ryo-Ohki).

Again, this is the nice Yuugi. When she first appears, she's frowning, and when she does smile, it does not look very pleasant. She greets Sasami.

Glass crystals thrust from the ground around theMasaki house and everyone (sans Nobiuki who's tied up) runs outside. Yuugi makes her first appearance to the girls.

And this is the scheming Yuugi. Yup, two Yuugis at the same time! Yuugi introduces herself, and for all I know explains everything that will happen in the new Tenchi movie, but since I don't speak Japanese, I don't know.

Then we switch to Tenchi and Sakuya's date. She certainly seems to be enjoying herself. Tenchi I'm not so sure about.

Sakuya is very excitedly running and grabbing Tenchi by the hand. Tenchi can barely keep up.

Yuugi starts to attack w/ huge energy bolts. She hits everyone one by one until only Ryoko's left standing.

Yuugi is just flinging bolts around, scattering everyone.

We switch to Yuugi (aparantly she's got a split personality) playing w/ Sasami. Sasami is jumping rope w/ Ryo-Ohki turning the rope (other end tied to a tree). yuugi looks confused and Sasami encourages her to join in. Yuugi tries to and they both fall.

This is a nice scene. Sasami is singing a jump rope rhyme and holding out her hand, inviting Yuugi to join in. Yuugi, though she looks like a little girl, isn't very familar with this, but she tries to join in, and knocks Sasami to the ground. Sasami thinks it's pretty funny.

More fight for a while...

Kamadake is taken out while the other guardian protects Ayeka. Ryouko flies up to attack.

and then we're back w/ Sasami Yuugi (wow I'm having Fushigi Yuugi flashbacks all of a sudden :) :) ). Sasami is playing cat's craddle. She's REALLY good. She makes Tokyo Tower (inside joke) and Yuugi tries to make something she eventually makes a halfway decent cradle.

She's very happy at this. Ryou-oh-ki manages to tie herself up into a ball.

They talk a little after this. I think Sasami is inviting Yuugi to make a crown of flowers.

Now we switch to Yuugi vs. Ryoko. Yuugi has her hand INSIDE Ryoko's neck and blasts her. Ryoko flies back into a tree and lies there looking VERY dead. Everyone reacts w/ horror esp. Washuu who has to be held back by Yoshu (def. a connection here.) Tenchi recoils in shock and then shakes it off. The crystal on Ryoko's wrist begins to glow.

Ryouko calls to Tenchi....

Tenchi is just about to pay the bill for sakuya and him when he sees one of the crystals on the ground. Tenchi picks it up and suddenly Ryoko is bathed in green swirling lights (there have been three breathtaking animations in this season of anime the sword drawing in Perfume de la Rose, Dragon Slave from Slayers Try and this one it is incredible animation). All of the gems start to glow

everyone sees the crystals light up. "Tenchi...." they think. Columns of light shoot out from the ground to the sky. Ryouko is restored. The nice Yuugi with Sasami collapses while they're making crowns and Sasami is worried. The scheming Yuugi is in pain.

Ryouko blasts Yuugi with a huge discharge of energy, but Yuugi is still able to block it. Ryouko is spent.

and Ryoko prepares a huge blast. Which she unleashes on Yuugi (and i mean HUGE). Yuugi barely blocks it all. The other Yuugi w/ Sasami collapses. Sasami is very woried. Yuugi fires a huge blast of her own. Ryoko is weak and helpless.The blast is blocked by...GLASSES GUY!!?!?!?! What the. Baggy sleaves shows up to block it too.

I think Pirate Person (Tsugara) blocks it. Hotsuma shields Ryouko.

Aparantly they we're stoping Yuugi from doing something she shouldn't do (killing Ryoko?). Both Yuugi's leave. We pan out to see HUGE craters littering the lawn and the girls lying exahausted and beat on the ground.Sasami is then asleep in front of Funaho and wakes up w/ no memory of what happened.

I don't think so.... The crown is still there....

Tenchi tries calling home but all the girls are asleep and Ryoko blasts the phone.

The discharge is powerful enough to knock Tenchi off of his chair, even though we in the USA can't even transmit enough energy to communicate at 56Kb.

Yuugi is back home and is winded. She looks slightly frightened for a second but soon is back to normal. She laughs and the ep is over (Nobiuki still on the ceiling :)

The crystals return to their orbit around the Tenchi crystal. She talks with Matori, probably saying something like her plan (whatever it is) will still bear fruit, and she laughs.

Did Yuugi show her hand too early?

Will Sakuya reveal herself to be a hopping vampire?

Will Tony Gwynn, Larry Walker, or .400 emerge victorious?

Tune in tomorrow to learn the answers to none of these questions!

 
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Since September 21, 1998