You're in for a doozy for this one!! I know that dealing with this one, it's a lot to cover, so forgive me if this post seems like forever. The Tenchi Muyo! series has a good few titles under its belt. Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure and Pretty Sammy, while not involved directly with the series, does have some relation.
First we'll talk Tenchi Muyo! The backstory overall is that it deals with the titular charater Tenchi Masaki, a seemingly ordinary teenager, though this is change once he gains knowlegde about his ties to the family of Jurai. Through his adventures, he deals with the infamous space pirate Ryoko, the Jurian princess Ayeka nad her sister Sasami, the Galaxy Police officers Mihoshi and Kiyone, the mad genius Washu, and the cabbit Ryo-Ohki. The true canonality of the series in general can be questioned, as each one pertains different origins and plots. He're a breakdown on what to expect.
Called the Kajishima Canon (named after the original series creator Masaki Kajishima), the animated titles shown in this canon are the 3 OVAs of Tenchi Muyo!: Ryo-Ohki, as well as the spinoff Tenchi Muyo! GXP: Galaxy Police Transporter. Then there's the Hasegawa Canon (named after Naoko Hasegawa, writer of OVA 3 and 5), which contained the 1st Ryo-Ohki OVA, as well as the Mihoshi Special and the movie Daughter of Darnkess (all animated works.) Lastly, there is the Negishi Canon (after Hiroshi Negishi), featuring Tenchi Universe and 2 movies titled Tenchi Muyo! in Love.
Now we get to the anime. Tenchi Muyo!: Ryo-Ohki has 20 episodes, licensed by Geneon, then by Funimation. The Mihoshi Special is also licensed by Geneon. Tenchi Universe is a 26 episode series licensed by Funimation as well, with another series, Tenchi in Tokyo, lasting the same length. Oddly enough, Shinichi Watanabe, who I mentioned earlier when covering Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemi, directed Tenchi Muyo! GXP, which has Seina Yamada as the central character as opposed to Tenchi, though he and a number of characters from the past titles return. The anime is also Funimation-licensed, lasting for 26 episodes. Both Tenchi Muyo! in Love movies are also licensed and distributed by the same company. Another note that while titled Tenchi Muyo! in Love and TMiL2, they respectively bore different titles upon localization. The first movie ended up being titled Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo! in Love, while the second was renamed to Tenchi Forever! In spite of renaming, the two followed after Tenchi Universe storywise. However, the two films bore different tones: TMiL being an action flick, and TMiL2 being a downbeat sexual melodrama. The successor of TMiL, or Tenchi the Movie, is the second film titled Tenchi Muyo!: Daughter of Darkness, which is recognized as Tenchi the Movie 2.
Next we have the spinoffs. Namely, this deals with the Pretty Sammy titles, as well as a recent spinoff Saint Knight's Tale. Magical Girl Pretty Sammy, as well as Magical Project S deals with the magically transformed character of Sasami. Keep in mind that these titles do not succeed one another, but they they're merely related to each other. Pretty Sammy, a 3 episode OVA, and Magical Project S, a 26 episode TV anime, differs in continuity, though it deals with the same character. Another related anime, the 26-episode Sasami: Magical Girls Club, doesn't deal with Sasami, but with a character of her likeness, and the same is true for other characters that bear likeness to those of the Tenchi series. The other spinoff is the 13-episode OVA series Saint Knight's Tale, dealing with Tenchi's half-brother Kenshi Masaki and his trip into another world. while this does tie with the Tenchi series, this OVA series related more to Kajishima's other work Photon.
Lastly we have Dual! Parallel Trouble Advanture, or Dual! PTA, lasting only 13 episodes. The anime, while not featuring the characters as part of the story, is in fact an alternate version of the Tenchi Muyo! universe, according to Kajishima. In this one, Kazuki Yotsuga is a teen shunned as an otaku. Reason being is that he post on his website stories about mecha battles that only he can see. While this is ridiculed, one person, Mitsuki Sanada, claims to be interested, leading him to her father, who is studying parallel worlds. To prove this theory, he is (accidentally) sent to this other possible world. There, his family is unaware of his existence, and he is made into a giant robot pilot after saving a female pilot early in the anime. Apart from it being an alternate version of Tenchi, the anime features a specific mecha call Zinv, a machine that only Kazuki can pilot. There's a machine resembling Zinv in Tenchi Muyo! GXP, and the Light Hawk Wings, though different somewhat, resemble that of the Tenchi Muyo! universe in general.
Like I said, LONG, but it's finally over. Now for the grading. The Tenchi Muyo! anime overall gets a 8.9 of 10, even though the anime changes art styles and directors over time. Pretty Sammy and the works affiliated with that gets an overall 7.6 of 10, while Dual! PTA gets an 8.3 of 10. If you have time, check them out. As for me, talking about this is starting to make my head ache, so I'll stop here.
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