Meaning of Name:         Heaven and Earth
                                    Date of Birth:                24 April 1975
                                    Place of Birth:               Masaki Shrine, Japan
                                    Age:                            17 (As of the release of the first OVA)
                                    Hair:                             Black
                                    Eyes:                           Brown

Masaki Tenchi was born 24 April 1975, the son of Masaki Nobuyuki and Masaki Kiyone (yes, in the OVA, his mother is NOT Achika, but is referred to as Kiyone… who is completely unrelated to the Galaxy Police Officer Mabi Kiyone), and the grandson of Masaki Katsuhito, the keeper of the Masaki Shinto Shrine.  At the age of 10 (roughly), his mother passed away, leaving only Nobuyuki and Katsuhito to raise the young boy.  He was trained by his grandfather in the ways of the Shinto Priests, as well as an unusual style of swordfighting, during school breaks, and after school/on weekends during the school year.  And, until his 17th year, Tenchi lived a relatively normal life.

As a child, Katsuhito had told his grandson the story of how the Masaki Shrine had come to be:

Many years ago, a demon came to this place.  It terrorized the local villagers, and destroyed their homes.  But then a great warrior came, riding a dragon of fire, and carrying a sword of great spiritual strength.  He defeated the demon, and banished it into a cave.  It was in the defense of this cave that the Masaki Shrine was born.  This warrior was named Yosho.

Tenchi had been trying to get into this cave for as long as he could remember, but it had a locked gate on the front, and could only be opened by a key which Katsuhito carried.  And getting this key, as the young man had learned, was no small task.  But one day, he did manage to get these keys, and snuck into the forbidden cave… where he found a sword hilt, stuck into a mound of solid rock!  Pulling it out, he found the blade to be completely rusted… and as he struck the rock, testing the tale he’d been told of this great sword, a sword that could cut through solid rock… the blade shattered.  However, the rock did split in half, perfectly, opening a secret door in the back… one with a sudden drop off at the end, as Tenchi found out, rather abruptly.  At the bottom of this tunnel, he found a cave… with a mummy laying ceremonially inside it.  A mummy who came alive as he approached, and seemed to reach out to him.  But as it touched the pommel of the broken sword, which Tenchi still had in his hand, it seemed to be hit with a burst of pain, and backed off.  Tenchi quickly scrambled back up the tunnel, and tied up the rock with a vine… which was not split by the sword after all, but had instead been part of a mechanism to open the secret door.  After relocking the gate, and leaving, it seemed that the “mummy” was more than it appeared to be, as streams of light began to come from the cave.

A time later, after returning to school, Tenchi had a rather unusual encounter.  After school, after having fallen asleep laying under the sun, he encountered a beautiful, but flying, woman who called herself Ryoko… and revealed herself as the same creature he had encountered in the cave.  And this Ryoko, apparently, desired revenge for her time in that cave… over 800 years, she said… revenge in which she began to take out on Tenchi himself!  After running and ducking through the entire school, she managed to blow up half the school by igniting a broken gas line with one of her energy bursts.  Tenchi did escape before taking much injury (but not before being blown back by the explosion), but ended up meeting up with Ryoko outside the school.  Her energy sword would have cut through him, but it was blocked by something Tenchi had in his book bag… the sword pommel.  Sliding itself into his hand, it grew an energy blade of its own, and began to lead Tenchi through a complex series of sword fighting maneuvers… eventually cutting off one of Ryoko’s hands!  Of course, she regrew it… and then disappeared.

Returning home… his father’s home in the city, not the Shrine… Tenchi found that he had not escaped Ryoko… as she was now laying on his bed, waiting for him.  Pinning him down, she tried to get the sword from him, saying she required two of the three gems built into its base.  In the end, by telling him of an evil woman who was coming to destroy her… and, because they were in the way, Tenchi and his entire house… she was able to coerce him into giving her one gem, in order to activate her ship, Ryo-Ohki.  Unfortunately, Aeka… the “evil” woman… showed up before Ryo-Ohki could arrive, and began firing on their position.  In the end, Ryoko took herself, Tenchi, and the entire house (along with his father) into Ryo-Ohki, and went into space.  Tenchi and Ryoko were taken prisoner, and, through a little persuasion of Ryoko (AKA torture), she discovered that the sword had the same name as the young man she had taken on board… Tenchi.  It is then we discover that Aeka is a princess or a space empire, the Empire of Jurai, who was supposed to marry a prince named Yosho (remember Yosho?) 800 years ago.

And, as for Tenchi, he was being held in a separate area… but was released by Aeka’s sister, Sasami.  She wanted to use him to play a little game with her sister, saying that she would show him how to get out if he got her Aeka’s headband.  As he snuck in, he found the princess asleep, his sword in her hands, and her headband still on her head.  He got the sword, but before he could get the headband, she woke up and knocked him off.  At this point, Ryoko managed to contact Ryo-Ohki, causing it to ram into Aeka’s ship, Ryo-Oh.  Both ships crashed to earth, and though the passengers did survive, the ships sunk into the lake by the Masaki Shrine, after depositing the house close by.  As Nobuyuki said: “Well, at least the house is closer to the Shrine now!”

And now the home had three new visitors… Ryoko, infamous space pirate, Aeka, princess of the Juraian Empire, and Sasami, also princess of the Juraian Empire.  But the family would soon have another guest… an egg, which contained inside it a Cabbit named Ryo-Ohki, and was indeed the child of Ryoko’s former ship, Ryo-Ohki.  Tenchi’s life would only become more complicated a few days later, as, during Ryoko’s failed demon summoning, Galaxy Police Detective Mabi Mihoshi nearly crash landed on Earth… saved only by the vortex her ship created, as well as quick thinking by Tenchi, who caught her in mid-leap.

For a time, everything seemed normal… as normal as it could, anyway, considering Tenchi’s new houseguests, and even considering the fact that all involved seemed to have a newfound affection for Tenchi… but as with anything in Tenchi’s life, that did not last.  Kagato, ancient enemy of Jurai… and the original commander of Ryoko… came to Earth to reclaim Ryoko, and to take the ancient power of Jurai.  But someone stepped in to fight… Masaki Katsuhito.  Or, as it turned out… Yosho himself.  He held Kagato to a standstill, but the villain was able to leave with Ryoko.  But on their trail… was Tenchi, Mihoshi, Sasami, and Aeka, flying in Ryo-Ohki, which had, as it turned out, the power to transform into a giant spaceship (as could it’s “parent”).

The chase was noble, and they did manage to find Kagato… but not before Tenchi was seemingly killed.  Ryoko snapped out of the trance she was in, and took Aeka and Mihoshi on board Kagato’s ship, out to avenge Tenchi’s “death.”  However, Sasami, through means not understood at the time, was able to contact Tsunami, the flagship of Jurai… who’s Avatar healed Tenchi, and taught him that the power he had was not from his sword, as he’d thought… but from inside himself.

Meanwhile, the battle inside Kagato’s ship was to start soon.  After fighting off his defenses, Mihoshi accidentally managed to slip into a shadow dimension, where she met Washuu, the greatest scientific genius in the universe, and the “mother” of Ryoko herself.  The other two went on to fight Kagato, but seemed to have little luck… even with the help of Aeka’s log-like guardians, Asaka and Kamadaki, and even when Tenchi came in with the sword, the fight seemed hopeless.  Until Tenchi took the lessons of Tsunami to heart, and summoned forth his Jurian power, the power inherited from his Mother, the daughter of Yosho, Crown Prince of Jurai… AKA Masaki Katsuhito.  Using this power, he brought forth the Lighthawk wings as a shield, and then used the blades of it to create a sword, shield, and even a throwing boomerang of some kind.  Using the sword, he was able to kill Kagato, and rescue everyone involved.

This should have been the end of it, and would have been, had Washuu not come along with them.  Not only did he gain yet another woman who had her eyes set on his affections, but, inadvertently, she brought a new form of attention on the group… in the form of Doctor Clay.  He wanted to take revenge for his past failures on his old nemesis and rival, Washuu.  Mostly, this event only proved to show Ryoko’s true affections for Tenchi, as Zero, Clay’s shapeshifting robot, had taken Ryoko’s form and thoughts… and found itself unable to hide those feelings as Ryoko had.  Washuu was the one who truly defeated Clay, in the end.

Tenchi’s magnetism towards females, which was totally unintentional, was apparently not limited to humanoids.  For, as Ryo-Ohki grew to know him, so did she begin to want his affections.  Eventually, this lead to part of her creation matrix… a group of beings called the Mass, to escape, and go after Tenchi.  Ryo-Ohki, however, was able to merge with the Mass, and gain the ability to take a humanoid form.

And the final event of Tenchi’s known history, as of yet, was the arrival of none other than the King of Jurai himself… the father of Aeka and Sasami… along with his wife, and another member of the royal family.  Claiming Tenchi was not worthy of being Aeka’s suitor, which confused Tenchi just a bit, but he found himself being challenged to fight, by the King of Jurai, Aeka’s CHOSEN suitor… a young, effeminate prince.  Fortunately for Tenchi, Mihoshi, who had since left in her ship, had returned… crashing into the lake, and nearly drowning the prince… causing Tenchi to win by default.

After that… as they say… what could possibly go wrong?