Tenchi Muyo!

Release Date: December 2000
Set Size: 12 Buttons
Publisher: Unpublished
Designers: Ted Mantuano, Nick Sauer

Tenchi Muyo! was intended as a follow up set to the Sailor Moon series of buttons, published by the same publisher. After development of the set, however, pre-orders were insufficient to cover the production expense and the set was cancelled. The assets for the set were then sent to a member of the Button Men Online site. The license was granted for this set both for the development of Button Men and for the intellectual property, however, due to the non-retail and non-physical release, this set is considered unofficial.

This set is the third to have set-wide Button Special Abilities, many of which were activated in-game and multiple times. Which ability the button had was indicated by one of five symbols on the button above the name.

Button Abilities

Alt: The Alter Icon allows the player to swap a starting die for a reserve die for the rest of the match. The rules document does not clarify when the ability is to be used.

Com: The Combat Icon allows the player to make a Speed attack per use spent. No characters have greater than Combat: 1, so the use of a number on top of the icon wasn't needed.

Con: The Control Icon allows the player to use a single die of an opponent's in a skill attack. (This ability is only on Dr. Clay.)

Morph: In addition to changing a Reserve Die into an Active Die, Ryo-ohki can exchange any of her Active Dice for any of her Reserve Dice after losing a round. (As indicated by the rules text, this was only on Ryo-ohki.)

Jur: The Jurai Icon allows the player to disallow an attack for a turn. The opponent must make another attack but cannot use any of the dice in the disallowed attack. (This ability was reused for Sailor Moon Crystal Challenge in 2018.)

Original buttons, blanks, and stats

Ayeka (6) (8) (10) (10) r(4) r(4) r(10) r(20) Jurai: 1	Dr. Clay (6) (10) (10) (10) r(4) r(4) r(12) r(12) Control: 2	Kagato (4) (6) (20) (20) r(10) r(12) r(12) r(20) Combat: 1
Ayeka is the First Princess of the Jurai Empire. She likes acting regal, trying to be an ideal wife for Tenchi, and beating people up.	Dr. Clay was a wannabe mad scientist, now he's just mad. He likes being obscure, taunting people into attacking him, and beating people up.	Kagato is the penultimate evil scientist. He likes committing crimes, torturing the innocent, and beating people up
Kiyone (4) (4) (10) (12) r(6) r(10) r(10) r(20) Combat: 1	Mihoshi (4) (8) (12) (12) r(8) r(10) r(12) r(20) Combat: 1	Ryo-Ohki (4) (4) (4) (12) r(10) r(12) r(20) r(30)
Kiyone Makibi is a very competent Detective (First-Class) in the Galaxy Police. She is also Mihoshi's partner, which annoys her to no end. She likes screaming at Mihoshi, fighting crime, and beating criminals up.	Mihoshi Kuramitsu is a Detective (First-Class) in the Galaxy Police. She is incompetent but manages to keep her job due to nepotism. She likes junk food, arresting criminals, and beating people up.	Ryo-Ohki is a spaceship that can turn into a small furry creature. It has destroyed 28 planets and 69 colonies (and counting). It likes to eat carrots and be cute.
Ryoko (8) (10) (12) (12) r(4) r(10) r(20) r(20) Combat: 1	Sasami (4) (4) (6) (8) r(12) r(12) r(20) r(20) Jurai: 3	Soja's Guardians (4) (4) (4) (4) r(4) r(10) r(10) r(12) Alter: 1
Ryoko is a space pirate who loves her job. She is also Washu's daughter. She likes sleeping, drinking, irritating Ayeka, and beating people up	Sasami is the Second Princess of the Jurai Empire, and Ayeka's little sister. She has the spirit of the Space Tree, Tsunami. She likes cooking, cleaning, and cheering people up."	The Guardians just like to beat people up.
Tenchi (4) (10) (12) (20) r(4) r(12) r(20) r(20) Jurai: 2	Washu (4) (6) (12) (X) r(6) r(8) r(10) r(20) Alter: 2	Zero (Echo functional reprint that also copies special abilities)
Tenchi Masaki is the Crown Prince of the Jurai Empire, something he does not want to be. He likes carrot farming, sword training. He beats people up, but doesn't like to."	Washu Hakubi is the greatest genius scientist in the universe. She likes experimenting, proving herself right, and beating people up to prove scientific theory.	Zero is a robotic creation of Dr. Clay. It can mimic individuals simply by touching them. It likes wrecking people's lives and beating people up.

Original Post-Cancelation Documents

• 
• 
• 
• 

Drive-Thru Cards templates

These templates are for the different characters in the Tenchi Muyo set already formatted for DriveThru Cards. They are intended to have white names with no card text. These were created to allow a larger choice of artworks for the characters in card form. The first image is from the same frame as the original buttons. Later ones are alternate appearances of the character. Judgement on when and how often the abilities could be used had to be made, so these cards do not match the above set identically when it comes to abilities, but the dice for each character remains the same. Any other alterations will be addressed below.

Ayeka

Dr. Clay

Guardians

There were two other Guardians in Tenchi Muyo who had a bigger part in the series than the spaceship guards chosen in the original set. They were used as alternate choices for Tenchi fans. Also, Alter was changed from a single-use ability to a general two-use-per-match ability to put the Guardians more in-line with Washu, a stronger character overall.

Azaka and Kamidake
Soja Guardians

Kagato

Kiyone

Mihoshi

Mihoshi's ability was changed from Combat to Clumsy as suggested in the release documents. Clumsy allows Mihoshi to do a Trip attack, not a Speed attack like the Combat ability. This change fits her character much better than the Combat ability's Speed attack.

Ryo-Ohki

The original Ryo-Ohki image shows her as a spaceship. She rarely appears as such in the series. These various images allow for customization of your DTC-printed set.

Ryoko

Sasami

Tenchi

Washu

Zero