Funimation announced distribution of the series, along with several other Tenchi properties, on July 2, 2010, at Anime Expo.

Long ago, a legendary warrior and crown prince of the Juraian Empire, Yosho, disappeared and never to be heard again.

Unfortunately, Achika died from illness one snowy winter; Nobuyuki and Katsuhito helped raise Tenchi in the country side, near the Misaki Family Shrine.

When she awakened, she gave a fantastic story of how she's being pursued by a terrible space pirate, temporarily earning the Misaki family's trust and gaining their shelter.

Unfortunately, with Mihoshi's ship destroyed, it was pointless to arrest Ryoko; both girls stayed at the hospitality of the Misaki house.

Desiring to return home, Mihoshi activated an emergency beacon and it was detected by Juraian Princess Ayeka.

Washu was imprisoned in a special crystal prison for her crimes of creating time-space devices with devastating effects upon the galaxy.

Despite the occasional flares in battles between Ayeka and Ryoko, life was relatively alright until the Juraian military had come for the princesses.

Unknown to the princesses, the Juraian royal hierarchy of power was usurped by the sudden return of Yosho; it was actually Kagato in disguise.

Kagato then used his royal authority to have the military arrest and prosecute both princesses in an attempt to solidify his dominance in Jurai.

Framed for crimes of treason and terrorism against the crown, the whole group is on the run from the Juraian Empire and the GXP; they journey to Jurai in attempts to clear their names.

The group had to escape detection from local authorities on top of the GXP, but also make money in between to cover costs for food, fuel, and repairs to their ship.

Washu was able to restore the robots to original size and operation as well as the house within the cargo hold of the ship, which served as the main area, excluding the cockpit, for the entire crew(same as it had on Earth).

On top of that, Ryoko is also evading a long rival, Space Hunter Nagi, while committing major thefts to help sustain the group.

Disguising their ship and themselves as a school group, the team had success infiltrating Juraian security thanks to Washu's anti-detection measures; it was once again fumbled by Mihoshi.

Yosho decided to resurrect two legendary Juraian knights, the real bodies of Azaka and Kamidake, to aid in their quest.

Tenchi always saw himself as a normal high school boy, not heir to a major power in the galaxy; Ayeka was happy about it.

Unfortunately, Kagato found a way to maintain his youth and also increased his powers; the aged Yosho lost the battle.

Ryoko was severely injured helping Tenchi, losing a lot of blood, she lost consciousness due to her injuries and her fate is unknown.

Ayeka decided not to punish anyone involved with Kagato, but the conspirators themselves quietly resigned to avoid retribution.

As for Tenchi, he has no interest in succeeding as Jurai's next ruler; he just wants to return to Earth and live a normal life.

Tenchi resumes life back as it was, but finds it hard to adapt after living with so many girls; he misses them.

The English-dubbed version of Tenchi Universe first appeared on San Jose PBS member station Superstation KTEH (now KQEH) in 1997 in its original, uncut and uncensored form, as part of its Sunday Late-Prime (9pm-after 12) Sci-Fi programming line-up, and was later picked up by Cartoon Network in 2000 for wider broadcast on its Toonami block (US and Europe).