Tenchi Muyo! Characters: Ryoko

Ryoko
Character: Ryoko

Character History:

Meaning of Name: Demon Summoner
Date of Birth: August 8th
Place of Birth: Masaki Shrine, Japan
Age: 5,000+ (Appears 17)
Hair: Blue-green
Eyes: Amber
Height: 5'6"

Powers: Teleportation
Bukujutsu (flight)
Growth
Energy Sword
Laser
Summon Demons (requires left wrist gem)
Control Demons (requires right wrist gem)
Regeneration
Split Form
Force Field
Hair Needles
Telepathy with Ryo-Oki (requires left wrist gem)
Phase with matter

While Tenchi seems to be the main character of Tenchi Muyo!, Ryoko is, in a
way, the main protagonist of the series. This is because while Tenchi is
fighting for good, Ryoko is fighting to gain Tenchi's love, even though the
odds are against her.

Ryoko was created by Washuu thousands of years ago, when Washuu combined a
simple life form called Mass with her own ovum. Because of this, Washuu
considers Ryoko as more of a daughter than an invention. Washuu created
Ryoko in order to harness the power of 3 gems, where her power and memories
were sealed over 20,000 years ago. Ryoko is capable of channeling this
power. With each gem she obtains, she gains a wider range of abilities. If
she were to possess all 3 gems, she would be able to wield a great amount of
power that has not yet completely been tapped.

Apparently Ryoko never met, or at least never knew her mother Washuu until
the day she was freed from the Soja. Some time after Ryoko's creation,
Kagato trapped Washuu within a large crystal inside the mirror dimension of
Soja. Kagato learned how Ryoko's gems worked, and used mind control to
brainwash Ryoko in order to use her and the gems' power for his own evil
purposes. Little is known about Ryoko and her personality before Kagato
entered the scene, although it is revealed that she was a space pirate before
Kagato controlled her. Only Ryoko, and perhaps Washuu, know much about her
past before this event.

While under the control of Kagato, Ryoko's personality was much different -
she was MEAN. Imagine the most bloodthirsty, cutthroat pirate... and you
have her. She didn't kill all the time, but if it were necessary, she would
slaughter anyone with no problems.
Skipping briefly to the present Ryoko, there are times that she can remember
what sort of things she did while under Kagato's influence. Although she was
under his control, deep down Ryoko still feels guilty about the suffering and
death she caused during those years. She does regret what happened, but she
would never willingly show such a weakness. Thus, Ryoko does everything
possible to hide this weakness, and for that reason she never talks about it.
Whenever someone asks, she tells them she doesn't remember anything.
However, inside, she only wishes this were true.

Back to Ryoko's history… again, little is known about her past before her
battle with Yosho. Kagato finally used Ryoko to lead the only successful
attack on Jurai. The power in her gems is so similar to that of Jurai's
trees that she managed to slip by the Juraian border. Kagato sent Ryoko
there to find the goddess Tsunami and capture her. She could not find Tsunami
and was forced to retreat. Yosho pursued Ryoko in a long chase, and
eventually caught her on Earth. Although she harnessed the power of the 3
gems, Yosho defeated her in battle with the Master Key (his sword), and
sealed her in a cave just outside the Masaki Shrine. She remained imprisoned
in this cave for 700 years.

During her later years in the cave, she began to watch a boy who came from
time to time near the shrine. The boy, named Tenchi Masaki, often stayed
with his grandfather nearby, especially in the summer, to train in particular
sword-fighting techniques. Using her special powers, Ryoko was able to
project her minds eye outside the cave in order to watch Tenchi as he grew
from boyhood to manhood. She saw Tenchi when he was very young, as he cried
over the death of his mother. Ryoko felt for him in the deepest realms of
her heart, and as she watched Tenchi grow up, over a course of many years she
fell in love with the boy.

One day, the 17-year old Tenchi entered the Masaki shrine and unknowingly
released Ryoko from her prison. Upon her release, she "thanks" Tenchi by
following him to his high school and attacking him. Although her actions
seem strange, the reasons behind her behavior stem from the long 700 years
she was imprisoned in the Masaki shrine, isolated from all outside contact.
After several hundred years of isolation, sudden freedom and instant contact
with the outside world could make anyone a little crazy. Only after the week
or two does Ryoko really begin to "settle down", if you could call it that.

According to Ryoko, she attacked Tenchi to vent her intense anger at her
imprisonment by Yosho, Tenchi's ancestor. Ryoko manages to blow up half the
school before Tenchi can draw her outside again. Out of the air, Ryoko
formed an energy sword between her hands, and with a wicked grin, began
swinging at the unarmed Tenchi. However, he pulled the rusted sword hilt
from his pack and it somehow became a lightsaber-like sword. The two
proceeded to sword fight, and seemed about equal in skill until Tenchi swung
by instinct and accidentally chopped off Ryoko's hand. Desperately he
apologized, but Ryoko just smiled, magically healed herself and teleported
away. She flew to his house and fell asleep in his bed, where Tenchi found
her when he arrived home. She demands that he give her the three gems in the
hilt of his sword, explaining that an evil woman was on her way to Earth to
destroy them. Tenchi gives her only one, but it is enough to call her
spaceship Ryo-Ohki to the scene.

The Juraian princess Ayeka strongly dislikes Ryoko because of all the damage
and the chaos she had caused to the Juraian empire while under Kagato's
influence. To Ayeka, Ryoko is nothing more than a conniving criminal, a
dirty space pirate seeking to escape the punishment due her. However, Ayeka
cannot arrest Ryoko, because according to the Juraian Statute of Limitations,
her Galaxy Police Record was erased after 700 years - right in front of
Ayeka's eyes upon her arrival to Earth. Even so, Ayeka vows to take her
revenge on the woman somehow. Knowing this, Ryoko warns Tenchi of her
approaching ship.

Unfortunately for Ryoko, Ayeka arrives before Ryo-Ohki and fires at the
house. To protect them both, Ryoko took the entire house into Ryo-Ohki and
into space, but it wasn't long before they were both captured. Now tied and
held upside-down, Ryoko is tortured for information by Ayeka until she
reveals that the human boy bears the same name as the sword he carries,
Tenchi. When Ayeka retires to her chamber, Ryoko contacts Ryo-Ohki and it
ram into Ayeka's ship Ryo-Oh. Both ships crash-landed on Earth and sank to
the bottom of the lake by the Masaki shrine after depositing Tenchi's house
nearby.

At that point, Ryoko, Ayeka and Sasami were all invited by Tenchi to stay at
his house, since they didn't have anywhere else to go. Soon Ryo-Ohki joined
them in Cabbit form, but things were still a long way from settling down.

Ryoko and Ayeka's personalities clashed terribly, especially the first
several days. As the crowned princess of Jurai, Ayeka has the mannerisms and
powers that come with her position. She is also Ryoko's chief rival for the
affections of Tenchi. Ryoko considers Ayeka a soft, stuck-up princess who
cares mostly about herself. While Ryoko is outgoing and brash, Ayeka is more
withdrawn and proper. Ryoko will constantly try to push Ayeka into doing
something she doesn't really want to do, just to embarrass her and make her
feel uncomfortable around Tenchi. For example, at the bathhouse, Ryoko
doesn't mind being nude at all, even around Tenchi. She simply doesn't care.
Ayeka on the other hand, is modest about her body. At one point, Ryoko rips
the towel from her waist, completely exposing her right in front of Tenchi
(who practically faints). One might think that, by Ryoko's logic, it would
be better to keep Ayeka as far from Tenchi as possible. However, Ryoko makes
every effort to embarrass the princess in front of him, in order to prove to
both Ayeka and Tenchi that SHE is the better of the two.

While at the bathhouse, Ryoko eventually became fed up with Ayeka and
summoned a water demon to sic on her. The only problem was, Ryoko forgot
that she needed the second gem, which belongs on her right wrist, in order to
CONTROL the demon. The result was a wild water demon running amok at the
bathhouse, sending the girls scrambling for safety while Tenchi ran to fight
it. That's when Galaxy Police Detective Mabi Mihoshi appeared and was saved
by Tenchi, adding yet another houseguest to the growing list.

Everything seemed to be settling down for a while, or at least as much as one
could expect. All the girls seemed to be developing strong feelings for
Tenchi in one way or another. Dreading this, Ryoko tries everything in her
power to win Tenchi's love, and to keep Ayeka and the other girls out of the
picture. During this slight lull in the action itself, Ryoko does eventually
get her second gem, so that she now has one on each wrist. Despite their
differences, Ryoko gets along with Sasami and Mihoshi quite well. Ryoko
tries her hand at cooking during this time, her intention to please Tenchi
with a fabulous meal, but she fails miserably. She even goes so far as to
read stacks of Nobuyuki's romance novels in order to have a good idea of how
she can lure Tenchi into her snare. Unfortunately, she relies on them a bit
too strictly, and practically makes a fool of herself in front of Tenchi.
However, Ryoko never gives up on her hope that one day, she might win
Tenchi's heart.

A month or so down the road, the ancient enemy of Jurai, Kagato, appears on
Earth seeking to reclaim Ryoko and to take the ancient power of the Jurai.
Masaki Katsuhito stepped in to fight, surprising everyone by revealing his
true identity as Yosho, who had imprisoned Ryoko in the Masaki shrine more
than 700 years ago. He kept Kagato at a standstill, but the villain still
escaped with Ryoko, who was crying for Tenchi to save her as she was carried
off.

Tenchi and the girls followed in hot pursuit to save Ryoko. Inside the ship,
Ryoko repeatedly told Kagato she would never be his mind slave again,
believing Tenchi would rescue her and stop Kagato. Tenchi and the gang did
manage to find Kagato, but when Tenchi tried to get closer to his ship Soja,
Kagato fired at him and seemingly killed him. When Ryoko saw this, she
snapped out of the trance she was in and screamed at Kagato in a rage,
"You'll pay!!" At that, she broke out of the ship and flew through space.
Being part Mass, she didn't need air to breathe, and so she flew to Ryo-Ohki
and plotted with the other girls on how to defeat Kagato.

Once inside the ship, Ryoko viciously attacked Kagato, but was holding back
some of her power so that she would not destroy Ayeka in the crossfire. She
fought valiantly, but Kagato still overpowered her. It looked like the end,
until… surprise! Tenchi shows up, ALIVE, and ready to fight. He does not
fight well against Kagato at first, and it seems that he might lose, until he
remembers what Tsunami told him, and summoned forth his Juraian power to
finally defeat Kagato.

With this done, the story would have been over, had it not been for the
discovery of Washuu, who had been imprisoned in the ship for thousands of
years. Washuu reveals herself as Ryoko's biological mother, and asks Ryoko
to call her mom. However, Ryoko almost never does, unless she's angry with
Washuu or feeling sarcastic. Again, things at the Masaki residence calmed
down for a little while, as Ryoko and Ayeka briefly teamed up to get some of
the other girls out of the way. They convinced Mihoshi that she needed to
report back to Galaxy Police Headquarters, and made plans to have Tenchi all
to themselves. That night Ryoko sneaked toward Tenchi's room, plotting to
sleep with him that night, but she was ultimately foiled by Ayeka's own plans
to have Tenchi all to herself.

The trouble was long from over when a rival scientist Doctor Clay came to
Earth looking for Washuu. With his shape-changing robot Zero, he plots to
get revenge on Washuu for his past failures by having Zero take on Ryoko's
form and kidnap Washuu. Doctor Clay successfully captures Ryoko and has Zero
take her shape. His plans were going smoothly until something very
unexpected happened. Whenever Zero transforms into someone, she receives all
of their memories as well, but being a robot they disappear when she shifts
back. However, there are times that Zero gets such strong emotions that she
absorbs them into her person, and they become part of her "personality,"
which develops over time. When Zero became Ryoko, the intensity of her
feelings for Tenchi were so strong that she simply could not think about her
mission, or anything else. Although her programming was for her to obey
Doctor Clay without question, she simply could not deny such feelings that
made her stop and blush continually every time he spoke to her or looked her
way. As a result, Washuu realized that she wasn't the true Ryoko, partially
because of the way Ryoko now expressed her feelings openly for a change, and
also the fact that she retained Doctor Clay's logo on her body. Realizing
the truth, Washuu continued to observe how Zero was so strongly affected by
Ryoko's feelings for Tenchi.

Zero eventually turned on Doctor Clay when he ordered her to drop Ryoko's
form. She did not want to give up her feelings for Tenchi and forget him,
now that she knew such happiness. In her mind, she WAS Ryoko, and she was
going to stay that way. With the help of Zero, Doctor Clay was captured and
taken into custody. Since the robot helped to stop Doctor Clay, Washuu gave
Zero the opportunity to fuse with Ryoko permanently (with Ryoko's hesitant
permission of course). The result of this fusion of Ryoko and Zero was a
Ryoko quite open about her feelings. For at least a week she found herself
unable to hide her deep affection for Tenchi, something she'd kept under
wraps before. Now that it was out in the open, Ryoko eventually came to
terms with her own feelings a little more.

A few other things happened that related less directly to Ryoko, such as
Ryo-Ohki's fusion with the escaped Mass, and the arrival of the royal family
of Jurai. After Ayeka and Sasami both turn down their parents for a trip back
to Jurai, Ryoko knows that she will still have them to deal with, Ayeka in
particular, before she has a chance at winning Tenchi's love.