Tenchi Masaki
Lineage & Heritage
In the OVA continuities, Tenchi is the grandson of Yosho, a Juraian prince, and Airi, an Airaian priestess. He grew up attending school in the city with his father, but spent summers at his grandfather's shrine training in Shinto priesthood and learning his family's swordmanship style—a technique exclusive to Jurai's royal bloodline. After a fight between Ryoko and Ayeka destroyed the school, Tenchi and the house relocated permanently next to the shrine, where he's lived ever since with the household's various residents.
Powers & Abilities
Tenchi is arguably the series' most powerful character, though his youth and immaturity keep him from fully controlling what he's got. He possesses a Master Key called the Tenchi Sword, which forms a lightsaber-like blade, and received a special ring from Tsunami that generates a Juraian battlesuit and acts as a Guardian System. More notably, he's the only non-ship entity able to create kou-ou-yoku (Light Hawk Wings)—he's also got some ill-defined "material conversion" ability. His Juraian blood makes him a genuinely competent swordsman and martial artist capable of superhuman feats, though he usually keeps his more exotic talents locked down except during emergencies like his duel with Kagato or his final confrontation with Z.
The thing is, his powers sometimes rage out of control entirely, forcing the Goddesses to intervene and prevent disaster. Airi has noted (in GXP, same continuity) that they've barely scratched the surface of what Tenchi can actually do—he's casually teleported off-planet when Z destroyed Earth, zipped to Saturn mid-combat, and somehow kept pace with his friend Seina in a race despite Seina having body enhancements and a downhill bicycle advantage. There's also an unexplained connection Tenchi has to some high-level entity that apparently outranks even the three Goddesses.
Personal Life & Relationships
Tenchi spends most of his time stressed out trying to be a gentleman while nearly everyone in the house makes it pretty obvious they're attracted to him. In the third OVA series, it's revealed he's actually engaged to Noike (Ayeka and Sasami's aunt), thanks to an arrangement made by his great-great grandmother, the so-called "Devil Princess of Jurai." Around the same time, he discovers he has an 80-year-old sister named Tennyo Masaki who looks exactly like his late mother, Kiyone.
His grandfather Katsuhito eventually explains that Earth is still developing, so the Masaki clan has to stay hidden—they don't age like regular humans, and family members are kept in the dark about their true heritage until they reach adulthood. After the three Goddesses' climactic battle and their decision to alter the timeline to fix what they'd broken, Tenchi no longer meets Noike in the new version. But Noike and Fuku traveled back anyway and messed with Mihoshi's message (which had been altered by Z in the first place) specifically so she would meet him.
Later Years
In "Ai Tenchi Muyo," Tenchi works as a student teacher at Junai Girls Academy, sporting a more professional look with glasses. Only Sasami, Ayeka, and Ryoko live with him at this point.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
