Tenamonya Voyagers

Original Title: てなもんやボイジャーズ
Romanized: Tenamonya Boijaazu
Literal: Tenamonya Voyagers

Plot Synopsis

Ayako, a freshly graduated high school teacher, and Wakana, a star athlete on a sports scholarship, arrive at their new school only to find that it's gone out of business. That leaves them broke and stranded on the far side of the galaxy, with nowhere to go but back to the middle of nowhere--Earth. Fortunately for them, Paraila, another "high school student" falls out of the sky (literally) and just happens to be going to the same place. Of course, in her case it's because an obscure legal loophole erases the criminal record of anybody who sets foot on Earth, but that's an unnecessary detail. That puts two clueless Earthlings and one of the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy on the run from both the police (including the madwoman who commands them) and the gang that Paraila's unsuccessful coup de tat was supposed to make her the boss of. Add one more young gangster trying to show her worth, and you've got four women up against a good portion of the military might in space.

Quick Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-07-12

Tenamonya Voyagers is a hit-and-miss pure-comedy romp. On the up side, it's got a hefty budget, there's no annoying plot or drama to get in the way, and the silly humor and parodies of sci-fi and classic anime are certainly funny for fans of either. On the down side, the world and plot are devoid of solidity, a large percentage of the classic pop culture humor is going to be totally lost on a non-Japanese audience, the subtitles and dub do little to make up for the untranslatable humor, and considering the volume of stupidity in the show, laugh-out-loud moments are rather sparse. Even the high-budget animation goes to waste on account of the visuals, particularly the action scenes, being so chaotic. At least the acting is quite good in both languages, even if the humor is hard to catch in the Japanese and not carried over into the dub.

It's not a bad straightforward comedy, and fans of quirky parodies might love it, but if you can't stomach straightforward silly girls in space action, don't even touch Tenamonya Voyagers--you might have an allergic reaction.

US DVD Review

The DVD isn't remarkable except for its low price (even when it was initially released, and it's cheaper now), but is another solid Bandai production. The only extra is an image gallery, but the menus are cute and the disc features a very sharp video transfer and crisp 3-channel Dolby audio in Japanese and English, plus of course a subtitle track.

Content Guide

Mostly quite clean, but the vast not-quite-nudity in the final episode easily brings it into the 13-up category, if not 16-up.

Violence: 2 - Lots and lots of fighting, and mass havoc, but nothing bloody or very serious.

Nudity: 3 - You don't technically "see anything", but the sheer volume of skin (and fetish-like items used to cover the rest) in the last episode rates a 3 at minimum.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - An off color joke or two.

Language: 2 - Paraila has a bit of a dirty mouth, but the language in the subtitles isn't too bad.

Notes and Trivia

This series is absolutely loaded with in-jokes, parodies, and references. A couple of major ones that most non-Japanese viewers will totally miss: The opening theme is the "Geba Geba March", the opening theme from "Geba Geba Kyuu-juppun," a live action sketch comedy series that was very popular about 30 years ago (but taken off the air on account of being a bad influence on kids). Similarly, the end theme is a very old classic pop song.

Making a list of the rest would be an interesting pop culture exercise, but would also take a very long time. The Galaxy Express 999 train will most likely ring a bell, and if you're well versed in old anime, you may notice other references.

Availability

Available in the US from Bandai on one hybrid DVD volume.

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