Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki's Day

Ryo-ohki's Day
— by Peter Cahill

Pioneer Entertainment is publishing a line of black-and-white comics with original stories based on anime titles, under the name P Anime. Instead of translating manga from Japan and printing them here, these are new stories written and drawn by North Americans. One such title is the new TENCHI MUYO! RYO-OHKI'S DAY, which came out in March.
Anyone who reads both Japanese and stateside manga and comics will immediately notice the difference in styles. Generally speaking, these characters are drawn softer, more rounded, and with more detail, a contrast to the typical Japanese character designs using fewer, stronger lines. In this case, however, the added details do not seem to make the characters more expressive--just different.
In a way, that can be seen as the point. After all, this is an original story; it's just based on the TENCHI anime. It will not follow exactly the same plot line, so the artwork certainly does not have to be a photocopy of the animation cels. In fact, most would agree that it should not. It may be more TENCHI on paper, but it is different TENCHI. Most fans of the show, purists aside, will be pleased with it.

Having said that, the artwork itself is nothing spectacular. It is often very good, but most of the frames are filled up and tightly packed, giving the comic a slightly cluttered look. This is mostly a point of opinion and personal taste, but in this style the whole thing loses a bit of the charm that attracted me to the anime series.
The story is much better; entertainment that is typical TENCHI style. Lots of goofy premises, wild coincidences, and the constant bickering between Ryouko and Ayeka. All the major characters are living in Tenchi's house, including Kiyone. Ryo-oh-ki, however, does not change into humanoid form, at least not in this first issue.
The dialogue is not stilted or jarring, since it is not translated from another language. But the rampant use of bold lettering is a bit distacting and makes the story feel like some sort of musical or opera.
Now for the inevitable comparison to Viz's NO NEED FOR TENCHI! translated manga. Viz's artwork is cleaner, more articulate, and retains more of the feel of the anime. This is both expected and a slightly unfair comparison, since P Anime's comic is North American. It could be argued that RYO-OHKI'S DAY has a broader appeal to stateside readers because of its "native" stylistic techniques. But obviously, Viz's manga looks and feels much more Japanese, and the original anime is Japanese. It is a simple question of personal taste.
In the end, die-hard fans, who cannot get enough TENCHI and will not mind the subtle changes, will be happy with this new story. But this is by no means the definitive TENCHI comic.