Tenchi Muyo RPG

This is a /co/ related article, which we allow because we find it interesting or we can't be bothered to delete it.

A gameset published by Guardians of Order, which consisted of a single book that functions both as player handbook and DM guide, a DM screen, and a single adventure booklet. Tenchi Muyo, in regards to 4chan, is rarely discuss on /a/ due to being an older anime and not as moekawaidesudesu or bwooding bwoody gwimdawkness as modern anime tends to be, although on /co/ it has a decent following and discussion as it was one of the first anime shown on Toonami and many children had it as either their first exposure to anime in general or as their first exposure to the harem genre. Although largely forgotten in the tabletop gaming community, the Tenchi Muyo RPG has been cited as one of Guardians of Order's most influential works due to it being the baby-step between the flawed but popular Big Eyes, Small Mouth first edition and the reworked second.

Setting

In the RPG and Resource book, the description of the setting summarizes the episodes of the first season of the OVA for the first 29 pages, the characters and their stats from 92 through 133, the setting itself from 152 through 170, and for the final 20 pages until character sheets and advertisements is advice for DMs to create campaigns using all of the preceding information. Here will be presented all you need to know of that, including what was left out either because it hadn't been made yet or wasn't included for some reason, which has been made expandable and collapsible for convenience. The Tenchi Muyo RPG takes place in, as you would have guessed, the Tenchi Muyo universe. Tenchi Muyo has a reputation as an interesting classic anime, dating back to the golden age of the early 1990's. While Urusei Yatsura was technically the first "harem" anime, Tenchi Muyo was the first work to solidify the core concepts; geeky or unintelligent but pure-hearted boy (or, less often, a girl) becomes the romantic fixation of a group of the (mostly, usually) opposite gender who are far more interesting characters (a fact the series itself is known to lampshade). The series had many spinoffs surpassed only by Dragonball, Pokemon, and western comics like Marvel and DC, although every Tenchi Muyo derivative was a totally different universe. The side universes range from one where most characters have somewhat or entirely different origins and become more slapstick but otherwise remain the same in appearance and personality, a "magical girl" genre universe with nothing except the same basic character personalities remaining, and so on. The one dear to the heart of the creator Masaki Kajishima however is known as the OVA universe, the first creation. Virtually all additional plot is added to that universe, and it is expanded on heavily in licensed comics, audio "episodes" released on CD and internet radio, and even unlicensed dojinshi works that Kajishima writes. Of the latter, the copyright owners allow him to continue along and keep this canon even if not directly profiting them despite the continuing strangeness of his writing and the outright pornographic content in many cases due to respect for his creative interest, plus the fact it's free advertising and that he's always willing to return to write more when they want to milk that Tenchi brandname again. The word "Tenchi" means "heaven" in English, and most of the series have a pun of some kind in the title. Many of the character names are borrowed from locations in Japan.

The works are sorted into the following categories:

• Tenchi Muyo! OVA (also known as "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki" to differentiate it from the other series that came after) ran for the first six episodes from September 25, 1992 to March 25, 1993. The seventh episode was made as a special due to popularity and shown on January 25,1994. Another six episodes were made as part of a second OVA series (considered a season rather than a new series by most), airing from September 25, 1994 to September 25, 1995 which ended in a massive cliffhanger that was continued in the comics. A full eight years later the third OVA series was made, running from September 18, 2003 to March 16, 2005 with five episodes, then a final special on September 9, 2005. The core concepts of Tenchi Muyo are based heavily on Japanese Shinto mythology but with aliens instead of gods...sort of. Alien gods at any rate. As one would expect from something borrowing from mythology, there's quite a bit of incest. Rather than alter things or ignore it, the creator simply shrugged it off with the explanation "humans are really weak genetically, that's why incest is a problem for us" and saying that anything not of Earth is totally fine up to half siblings. This goes further when Tenchi's children with the female cast (the ENTIRE female cast, who all become his wives) grow up with most marrying the kids of his cousin, with the exception of the one who marries the mother of the entire human race. At the resolution of the main OVA series, Tenchi is revealed to actually be the mortal incarnation of the omnipotent God, who pulled an Eru and created three gods called Choushin (two of whom he marries) to create all of reality, including life, because he was ronery and needed waifus for his own entertainment and more unknowable reasons. Tenchi deals with this knowledge by...going back to being a shrine priest for the Shinto religion, farming carrots, and finally marrying the women who have been courting him for years.
• Tenchi Muyo! GXP, which ran from April 3, 2002 to September 25, 2002. It is canon to the above OVAs and stars Tenchi's cousin Seina Yamada, who may or may not be the main villain from the third OVA series thrown out of time and space before reappearing as a relative (a fan theory, with enough evidence to make it possibly canon). The cast of the original series only make a few appearances, and are never important to the plot. Seina is "cursed" with extreme bad luck like a reverse Mihoshi, and accidentally fills out a form sent by the Galaxy Police who were looking to recruit Tenchi into their ranks resulting in him becoming the captain of his own cruiser with his bad luck making him encounter pirates and mobsters often, until he is one of the best officers in Galaxy Police history. Like his cousin, Seina marries each of the women who are interested in him and in tie-in comics made by Kajishima his children are raised alongside Tenchi's.
• Ai Tenchi Muyo! is the newest Tenchi series, released for television to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Tenchi Muyo and ran from October 6, 2014 to December 26, 2014. The series was sponsored by the city of Takahashi, Okayama in order to promote tourism and is the Tenchi Muyo version of the Japanese fairy tale "Momotaro", which also known as Peach Boy when translated (plotwise it mixes elements of Thumbelina and Superman, with an old couple praying for a child being granted one born out of a peach who goes on adventures with his animal friends). Ai Tenchi Muyo! consists of 50 four-minute episodes (with 30 seconds of credits), with 10 that are simply recaps of the events until that point. The series is loosely canon with the OVA series, after the events of the third season. The plot begins when Washu accidentally brings down a celestial entity named Momoka to Earth, where she becomes class president of an all-girls high school. This sets the world in Chaos as the school is something of a nexus for women of various backgrounds and powers (like Tenchi, as a building) which forces Tenchi to go undercover as a teachers assistant to figure out the situation. Despite being extremely powerful, Tenchi spends the series hiding his powers and generally suffering a fair amount of abuse to keep his identity secret. The main character is actually Momoka herself rather than Tenchi, and although several of the girls at the school develop crushes on him none are portrayed as actual romantic interests. Momoka spends the series treasure-hunting with her three friends, who have personalities similar to a a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant (like the original Momotaro story) and fighting against the science club, who like to experiment with demons and magic (in reality, something closer to human Jurai powers). At the end, several suggestions are made that Earth has begun establishing contact with the rest of the universe (including Sasami donning sunglasses and using a neuralizer straight out of Men In Black).
• No Need For Tenchi is the series of comics written by Kajishima that ran for twelve volumes from December 16, 1994 to June 9, 2000, with another series called The All-New Tenchi Muyo! that consisted of ten volumes from July 26, 2000 to December 9, 2005 which was merely a continuation under a new name. Although technically canon to the OVA with it continuing where the series left off at the end of the second "season" and referencing events from it, their actual hard canonicity is dubious in the eyes of some fans as characters break the 4th wall quite often, so many consider it another offshot. Washu will sometimes explain to the audience directly any background knowledge required from the series, at one point Mihoshi states that the fact a planet of people who look similar to her are one shade of printing grayscale darker in skin tone than her are thus are a totally different species, and Tenchi directly interacts with Kajishima and the artists at several points in attempts to make his life easier. The comic also had shorter, one page comics at the end of certain chapters which are more humorous like Tenchi lamenting being the single least popular character in the show after a survey, although many of these dropped hints at future works (such as "Tenchi's daughter" Mayuka appearing). Furthermore canon lines are blurred, with Kiyone from the Universe canon appearing at several points in unimportant roles and being referenced by Mihoshi trying to recall is she has a partner or not, and Sasami turning into a Magical Girl or debating internally whether to do it occurring at several points. The comic also became slightly more sexual at times, with Ayeka donning a dominatrix outfit to extract information through torture and almost kill her victim in her enthusiasm in one story (all to the abject horror of Sasami), and Ryoko making implying she was masturbating up in the rafters of the living room and does so somewhat frequently in another story. Many of the plots of this series would be recycled elsewhere in the other Tenchi series such as Universe.
• Tenchi Universe, the first series with its own continuity, ran from April 2, 1995 to September 24, 1995. Viewers of Tenchi reruns, or viewers in other countries watching translations, often confuse this series with the OVA as they are usually run back to back, causing some confusion at the sudden differences in the same cartoon (think Ben 10). The power levels for this series were dropped, character personalities became much more extreme (Washu became more Hubert Farnsworth, Mihoshi became irredeemably idiotic with little positive traits, and so on) and a few characters were added. The series was much more television-friendly as well with a tie-in soundtrack where characters sing their theme songs, and no nudity with the sexual humor toned down in favor of more fights between the women. A major feature of Universe is there is no incest in the backstories of the characters, nor any cosmic gods. Only Tenchi and Ayeka are related, and only distantly. Washu was simply being a scientist Ryoko (space pirate warlord in the present tense) hired for a heist, Ryoko is an orphan who met Ayeka at several points in their young lives with each encounter making them hate each other more and more, Mihoshi has no backstory. Noike does not exist in the Universe universe. Azaka and Kamidake are actually the spirits of ancient Jurai warriors sworn to protect the royal family, rather than being magic robots made of carved wood. Kagato is the main villain of the series, the brother of Yosho who became obsessed with power and eventually tried to take the crown of Jurai by force. Ryoko has a rival who appears similar to her, a bounty hunter named Nagi who has a male cabbit named Ken-Ohki. Ryo-Ohki does not transform into a humanoid in this canon, instead romancing Ken-Ohki. Repeatedly over the course of the series, the women try to leave the household (with either the destruction of their ships, or their affection for Tenchi holding them back). Ryoko appears to die in the final episode, although at the end she returns to Earth alive with the other women also returning not long after. In this continuity Tenchi is monogamous, and was confirmed by Kajishima to end up with Ryoko ultimately (heavily suggested by the first Tenchi movie as well). Universe also features the only girl not romantically interested in Tenchi, Mihoshi's partner in the Galaxy Police named Kiyone (with Tenchi's mother being called Achika in the Universe canon). Universe also had a comic series, which adds more stories to the series rather than continuing the plot.
• Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love is the first movie, canon to the Universe series and released on April 20, 1996. A powerful cosmic entity named Kain kills Tenchi's mother Achika on the day she and his father fell in love, and destroys the Galaxy Police in the past in order to eliminate the entire cast as the beings who will defeat him, which causes the current timeline to flicker; Washu managed to remove them from the constraints of time (barring Tenchi not being able to meet his parents, because paradox) so they can continue to exist, and travel back in time to stop him. The ensuing actions of the cast returns them to the main timeline, which is then revealed to have always happened that as Achika using her Jurai powers in a massive way without training is actually what caused her to die young in the first place.
• Tenchi the Movie 2: The Daughter of Darkness is the second movie, released August 2, 1997. It borrows from both the OVA and Universe continuities and is set as a result in its own universe (which only worsened the confusion of viewers who wondered why some new character named Kiyone was mentioned as always having been Mihoshi's partner, or why Washu is referred to as Ryoko's mother despite actually being her partner as a space pirate). Yosho's childhood friend, a demon/fey being named Yuzuha, was slain by the royal guards without his knowledge which gave her a hatred of him. When she returned to the mortal plane, she found Yosho as an old man at Christmas time with Tenchi and his suitors. Wanting to get in on the celebration and cause mischief at the same time, she created a woman from a lock of Tenchi's hair designed to be a mix between Ryoko and Ayeka (demonic/cosmic, with Juraian powers) named Mayuka. Mayuka claimed to be Tenchi's daughter with very few other memories, and in a fight between her and Ryoko (who called bullshit on the story and attacked) Mayuka manifested what appeared to be Lighthawk Wings. Washu later confirmed she genetically was a relative. The cast then believed she was from the future and had amnesia, trying to pry information from her on who Tenchi will eventually end up with while Yuzuha controlled the unwitting Mayuka to wreak havoc in the household and to bring Tenchi to her. Losing her patience after several failed kidnapping attempts, she instead took Sasami and lured the family to the underworld where their powers either did not work or were diminished. There Mayuka, her mind almost completely erased, attacked them in the form of a giant monster which was killed and resurrected as a bigger monster after an emotional appeal from Sasami makes her hesitate. After defeating Yuzuha and trapping her in the underworld for another 700 years, they took a red crystal that contained Mayuka's soul back to the household where Washu resurrected it using a process similar to the one that created Ryoko, and in a rare show of sentimentalism towards someone not Tenchi Ryoko behaved as an older sister to Mayuka who was seen as a toddler at the next Christmas.
• Tenchi Forever! The Movie (also known as Tenchi Muyo in Love 2 - Distant Memories, making two #2 movies) was the last 90's Tenchi work, airing on April 24, 1999. Although canon to Tenchi Universe, the movie was extremely sexual and slightly dark making it even further on the rating scale than the original OVA was. The story begins when Tenchi has a dream in which he is much older, is an artist, and is in a longterm relationship with a woman named Haruna, and believes the Universe canon life was the real dream. In reality, Tenchi had suddenly disappeared and for six months the cast searched desperately for him and began to break apart and go their separate ways. Ryoko and Ayeka moved to Tokyo to look for him, falling back on minimum wage jobs to survive and taking turns consoling each other or lashing out to deal emotionally while Washu buried herself in study, Mihoshi and Kiyone returned to space, and Sasami returned to Jurai. Meanwhile, Tenchi's mind had begun to unwravel as his two sets of memories conflicted, while Haruna received visions of Tenchi's other family until the pair decided to finally get engaged in order shake off their woes. Ryoko and Ayeka one night saw Tenchi with a mysterious woman in the diner where they were working before the two suddenly vanish into thin air, with Washu then realizing Tenchi had fallen into a parallel dimension. In their own universe, Haruna was an old love of Yosho's from Jurai who died when he followed Kagato to Earth and was buried at the shrine, and her spirit had lingered and created a separate universe where she could be happy without realizing what she was doing or that she was dead. The women used a portal from Haruna's grave to reach the other universe, although a highly confused Tenchi angrily banished them back to their own universe. The shock sent Tenchi's soul into turmoil, which caused the idealized world to begin to fail to logic (the young couple suddenly having no money because neither were employed, the beautiful days turning stormy and cold as summer gave way to winter, and the new and fresh city started to fall into disrepair). As a final measure to save his grandson, Katsuhito destroyed the tree growing from Haruna's grave and communed with her in an exorcism. She realized the truth, that she was dead and only living the life she wanted with him and causing Tenchi suffering to do so. Her spirit passed on although Tenchi was left in a collapsing world. Washu created a one-person portal for a rescue attempt, with Ayeka conceding to Ryoko that she was the person with the best chance at rescue. Tenchi's memories of the false world faded when Ryoko took his hand, although upon return he continued drawing and grew far closer to Ryoko with the final scene in the movie being the same as Tenchi's parents shown in love in the first Tenchi movie. In a comic tie-in, Sasami was shown to be instrumental to Washu's sudden realization of what was happening as she communed with Jurai royal trees to see both alternate universes and even parallel timelines (one is featured in particular which appears to resemble the OVA universe, where Sasami holds her newborn daughter from Tenchi which interestingly suggests either that Kami Tenchi (the OVA God) created parallel universes the Choushin were unaware of or that something exists above Kami Tenchi).
• Tenchi in Tokyo, the second series with its own canon, ran from April 1, 1997 to December 23, 1997. In this series the sexuality and humor is scaled back even further to appeal more to a broader audience. Gags are more reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons, and almost all backstory is unmentioned with what little there is being Universe canon. The series begins with Tenchi having to leave for Tokyo to get an apprenticeship with a monk so he can replace the aging Katsuhito as the priest of the shrine, with the women remaining in the Masaki house although controlling a portal directly to his apartment which can be shut off on his end by blocking it. He meets a new woman named Sakuya Kumashiro, who he slowly falls in love with due to her amazing good looks, intelligence, and overall good nature without any of the bad tendencies of the others. The romance drives the women at the Masaki household apart slowly, and any attempts by the cast to discover more information about Sakuya or break up the relationship are derailed by mysterious spirit beings (each of whom die during the run). By the end of the series Ayeka had gone somewhat mad and turned the Masaki house into a deathtrap causing Nobuyuki to sleep in the woods, Washu to completely isolate herself in her laboratory, Mihoshi back into space, and Ryoko driven the furthest away when after seeing Tenchi kiss Sakuya she immediately returned to the space pirate empire she had built and after a misunderstanding thought that Mihoshi had attempted to use their friendship to arrest her had attempted a suicidal robbery of Jurai's treasury. Tenchi eventually realized that the situation had driven his new family apart (after a burst of rage caused by one of the spirits to drive him to almost strike Washu for telling him the truth about what had been going on). Sakuya herself realized she was not a real person but merely the mental creation of a godlike child named Yugi who had been sealed away by ancient Juraians due to her immense power until she grew to control them, no different from the spirits who had repeatedly tried to kill or drive away the cast. After Tenchi refused to fight Yugi and hugged her instead, she willingly returned to her hibernation, now in love with him and set to eventually become the woman Sakuya was created to be (so basically OVA Sasami). No resolution is given on the romantic plot in this series, although Tenchi is far more resistant to their affection and even often irritated by their advances rather than flustered or confused like the OVA version.
• Magical Girl Pretty Sammy is a short series running from March 24, 1995 to August 24, 1997, which had dedicated comic tie-ins as well as shorts in comics from the OVA or Universe timelines. The story began in an audio story canon to the OVA universe where the cast accidentally damage a device of Washu's creating multiple side universes like a Chicago gangster version Tenchi Muyo and a sports drama Tenchi Muyo, with the Magical Girl setting as the last one before they restore their own universe to its proper state. The story was later remade as an episode of Universe. It later became its own OVA series, mostly just a giant parody of Magical Girl anime that was played straight later on. Sasami is more or less Sailor Moon, empowered by a distant magical queen named Tsunami of the land of Juraihelm and Ryo-Ohki is Sasami's token magical talking animal sidekick. Tsunami's rival for the throne Ramia created her own Magical Girl, Pixy Misa, out of Sasami's best friend. No backstories are canon from any other universe, with the entire cast being the same basic character personalities but as ordinary humans. Tenchi is a character and a friend of Sasami's, although nobody is romantically interested in him. Instead, one episode and several comics imply that Ryoko and Ayeka are secretly lesbian lovers who's rivalry is an act to throw off suspicion of their teenage homosexuality, which a lot of fans suspected about them in other continuities. Upon being magically forced by Sasami to "become friends" after she misinterpreted their relationship as actual hatred, the two passionately kissed in front of their entire school. Washu and Mihoshi were teachers in the series.
• Magical Project S or Magical Girl Pretty Sammy TV is a continuation of Magical Girl Pretty Sammy, and ran from October 4, 1996 to March 28, 1997. Rather than being a parody, the story was played straight and most of the Tenchi cast only had minor appearances.
• Sasami: Magical Girls Club is its own universe, and features a team instead of Sasami as the solo lead. It ran from April 13, 2006 to December 29, 2006. Less of the usual Tenchi cast is present in this series with Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ayeka only having minor roles as schoolkids. Sasami was born as a special type of human with magical powers although her parents forbade her from using them. One day a new teacher named Washu arrived to the school with her pet...something Ryo-Ohki, and took several girls including Sasami with magical powers into a magical world to learn how to be witches. The Chief Sorceress wanted to use them to take over the human world, which she saw as having become corrupt and evil. They eventually proved her wrong using the power of friendship and (platonic) love. Mihoshi is their air-headed human teacher, who is easy to confuse and accepts explanations of how five of her students are never actually in class without fuss.
• Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure is a series within its own continuity, described as an alternate universe to the OVA series, that ran from April 8, 1999 to July 1, 1999 with thirteen episodes and one special. Kazuki Yotsuga, a geeky high school student, is thrown back and forth between two universes; one where his construction worker father discovered alien artifacts leading to a sudden boom in Earth's technology including robots and spaceships, and his own where his dad accidentally destroyed it without ever seeing what it was. He attracted multiple women from both universes, and at the end of the series the two merge into one universe where all the girls are in love with him. No classic Tenchi Muyo characters appear in the series, although some are visually similar to others from every other Tenchi continuity.
• Tenchi Muyo! Game Hen (or Tenchi Muyo RPG) was a Super Famicom (Japanese version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System) game which was released on October 27, 1995 and was never released in the western world. It played as a turn-based tactics game. In it, a small girl named Mizuki kidnaps Sasami and releases robots and monsters all over the Masaki Shrine and household. She states that she will return Sasami if they can physically harm her, although once they do she gives them the coordinates to a planet for a rematch and disappears. Washu was unable to be found by the cast, and Mizuki references testing their strengths. The game plot was written by Kajishima and is thus canon, but it was never given resolution or mentioned again as it was the only Tenchi Muyo video game ever made and what universe it fits into is not clear (most likely OVA as Kiyone is not in the game).
• Kajishima released several minor series as dojinshi (short comic runs sold by creators, often pornographic or parodies but sometimes are an original work that serve as something of a resume which if popular they hope will be picked up as a licensed distributor) including the Tenchi: If series. Almost all are canon to the OVA or GPX, and focus on giving resolution to the plots of the romantic interests with special focus on the pregnancies of the cast and the lives of their children. One particular idea seen in several works is one of Tenchi's sons somehow restoring life to Misaki Jurai (the mother to all humans in the OVA continuity, who died and became a ghost on the moon before human history began) and marrying her to become space archaeologists at Washu's request. Kajishima has said he will one day tell that story, either through a series of official work or through his dojinshi.

Furthermore, Tenchi Muyo is technically canon within the DC comics multiverse despite never having actually been in DC comics. The Sandman series of stories from Vertigo (DCs old "adults-only" publisher, which no longer exists as DC no longer feels the need to keep sex and violence out of their main comics) created by Neil Gaiman go at length on how everything that ever happened, including every myth and story ever told, really did happen in a sense and nothing is actually more real than anything else (for example, all cats in our own reality (or one like it) dream of being giants who chase adult humans and there's very little keeping that version of reality from suddenly becoming true, and in another story the titular Sandman is offered a crystal globe that he takes a great interest in which was created to contain all superhero universes). Sandman is canon to DC due to DC's continuity snarl where anything popular that sells must be canon; Death has appeared at a wedding to give a gift and her congratulations before vanishing, Dream told one of the Green Lanterns he would be the greatest man to ever hold the title despite many prophesies saying otherwise, and Despair convinced the sun of Krypton to destroy the planet by accident as a sign of love for it thinking that the last son of Krypton would be a being of misery.

In the DC event Kingdom Come the logo for Tenchi Muyo is spray-painted graffiti on a wall. By Sandman rules, which is also DC rules, that means somewhere in the DC multiverse all Tenchi Muyo continuities lie (although it gets more complicated when you consider how Superman has crossed over with many characters like Predator and even visited our own universe, and infinitely moreso with DC and Marvel having crossed over from time to time and that both have implied the rival company is simply another cluster of universes in their own universe).

Tenchi In Gotham/Tenchi: Agent Of Shield when?

Story

The Tenchi Muyo tabletop game relies mostly on the canon for the OVA, although references are made to Tenchi Universe. The OVA canon will be relayed here, although players are obviously more than able to pull from any Tenchi universe they want.

Choushin

In the beginning, there was three god entities called the Choushin. They were called Tsunami, Washu, and Tokimi. They wielded supreme power as far as they knew, and created the multiverse (within the same OVA reality, not the multiverse as in "all Tenchi Muyo works" which are standalone and don't have anywhere near this level of development) made up of 22 different dimensions, with subordinate beings that watched over them, then set it all in harmony with itself. What the sisters did during the time before the four dimensions of our reality began isn't known (or likely understandable by us), other than at one point they realized there was a being above themselves which they called the "Kami" which had created them. Since the being was as far beyond them as mortals are to the Choushin they had no means of approaching it or understanding it. Unable to progress further in understanding the Kami through harmony, each of the Choushin then attempted to discover more about the being by creating chaos (not THAT Chaos) in the multiverse in a different way. Tsunami and Washu chose to focus on the third dimension, while Tokimi remained a multi-dimensional being.

Tsunami

Tsunami created life by seeding a planet that would later be called Jurai with her own life force and most of her divinity, then created a giant tree called Tenju and collapsed in it's branches exhausted. In time the first "humans" which called themselves Juraians evolved, and one day a Juraian man found her by climbing Tenju while looking for his sister Masaki after an argument between them. Despite him being a former pirate and a general scoundrel, Tsunami recognized greatness in him and believed that one day the Kami would be born in mortal form as one of his descendants. She then reformed her body into a tree and gave him her seeds to grow what she called the "Royal Trees of the Imperial Family" for his people to use for all things. She also blessed him and his family with the ability to call on her divine power, which manifests in energy called "Light Hawk Wings" that are so powerful the third dimension can only have ten active at one time before it will collapse on itself. Tenju grew to become the palace and in time capital city of the planet Jurai. Thus satisfied Tsunami grew her roots deep and became known as Tsunami-no-ki (which, for clarification, is a magic tree that sometimes granted visions to members of the royal family) and waited for the day when she would merge with one of the man's descendants and find the Kami as her distant relative. The firstborn trees surrounded her in the royal arboretum and each, like herself, had the power to merge with descendants of the man who had found her which would become a ritual for nobility to be recognized by the court of Jurai. He became the First Emperor of Jurai, although he did not want the power and instead planned to crown his sister Masaki instead. Masaki knew his plans and instead took one of the Royal Trees that had grown on a ship and flew it into space (becoming the first mortal being ever to invent space-travel). She crossed the stars until she found a place to settle and enjoy the solitude, which she then (MANY years later) established officially as a colony of Jurai called Earth. She had children with the few brave colonists who answered her call and became what we know as the Mitochondrial Eve. At some point she attempted to leave the planet and crashed her ship into the moon, and although she died her soul remained and haunted it's surface where she watched over mankind.

Juraians, the purest form of sapient life, are very long-lived and their genetics are strong enough to resist almost all disease or mutation...as well as be able to fuck their half siblings without hemophilia or webbed toes appearing in the family tree (no pun intended). Humans on the other hand suffered greatly from lack of contact with Tsunami, and we became weak and short-lived. Earth was forgotten by the Juraian people as soon as contact with the colonists was lost, and the Terran Juraians had to relearn and rebuild. It's been said some of Earth's governments are in contact with Jurai although how, when this occurred, and how Earth is perceived in the galactic community (other than being sneered at by many Juraians) is unknown.

Tokimi

Tokimi influenced the universe in subtle ways, shifting galaxies, causing energy to pool or dwindle, and otherwise mucked up and sabotaged the peace she and her sisters had created. Although much of the results of her actions can be characterized as "evil", she did not do so out of malice. Her perspective was that of a classical polytheistic god where the concept of mortal suffering is beyond her understanding or awareness. She simply wanted to bend the fabric of reality, shake it up, and see if there was light shining through from behind more or less. For much of the history of...everything, Tokimi continued this and watched with disinterest as each new thing that appeared followed the same formula (usually just madmen and dictators, blackholes and supernovas, and the like). More and more she wondered about her sisters as they had changed beyond recognition to her, and as time went on she became more and more interested in reuniting with them to hear what they had learned (which happens during the OVA, after which she becomes a much more benevolent being).

Washu Hakubi

Washu believed that it was not beyond the ability of the Choushin to understand the Kami, but that they had become too set in their way of thinking through their otherwise omniscient power and knowledge they would never discover the means. Washu chose to seal away most of her divine power and knowledge in three magic gems. She floated through the cosmos still possessing a degree of godlike intelligence as a giant woman the size of a large planet trying to find some inspiration for new perspective somewhere. Early Juraians, not knowing what to make of her since their mythology only included a Juraian-sized woman who became a tree, attacked and sealed her within a planet-sized research facility. There they managed to convert the three gems into living children through experimentation, and after one fell in love with a young man at the facility the others fought her in a massively destructive battle. Tsunami, partially awakened by the destruction they caused, sent a shock that killed all three beings before returning to hibernation. After the facility was abandoned and deteriorated for 100,000,000 years, Washu was able to break free and reclaim her gems.

Washu believed the failure of her experiment was the result of the only partial surrender of her divinity. This time Washu sealed away all of her knowledge and power other than her immortality within the gems and reverted her body to that of a three year old which was teleported a Juraian monastery planet called Kanemitsu. Not knowing her origins, and not quite caring either, Washu grew up as an assumed orphan of Juraian descent and took the surname Hakubi, and after becoming interested in science during her mortal childhood set out to become the greatest mind that the universe had ever known. She began her research on life (not knowing it was her sister's power she was learning about) and on her own gems at a nearby academy where she met a fellow student named Naja Akara. They developed artificial methods of creating life, from constructs to AI that ran on divine energy and had limitless form. In time she and Naja became members of the faculty and peacefully seceded the academy planet from Jurai control, keeping it as a neutral entity between Jurai and the other governments of the universe which had removed themselves from the Jurai Empire in rebellions.

Some time after this event, Washu met and fell in love with a man who claimed to be called Mikamo Niwase, who in reality was heir to the second most powerful royal line in the universe after the Juraian Emperors, Mikamo Kuramitsu. Kuramitsus were dark-skinned and light-haired (yep, a ganguro race), and their people were militaristic and isolationist. Not long after Washu gave birth to a son named Mikumo, the Kuramitsu Emperor who had pushed for opening their civilization to the others died and Mikamo's father, upon taking the throne, immediately closed their territory to all outsiders and ordered all Kuramitsu people to return to their homelands. Washu, thought to be merely a Juraian peasant orphan, was left alone as Mikamo suddenly revealed his true identity and took their son to the Kuramitsu homeworld. Enraged, Washu spent years gaining entry to the royal palace to steal her son back, although upon seeing him having grown to an adolescent age without knowing her the desire to take him from the only home he'd ever known died. She left her son, who would one day marry the daughter of his father's Kuramitsu wife. Many generations later the Kuramitsu people would make peace with the rest of the universe and form what is essentially the galactic United Nations, with the former Kuramitsu military becoming the police of the universe (called the Galaxy Police).

Washu's sanity began to slip after this, and she reshaped her body into that of a very young girl while retaining the ability to take on adult form if needed. This kept all connection with others on terms she could dictate fully while keeping future suitors from trying to seek a relationship with her.

Kagato

Naja attempted to steer Washu in a more constructive direction and their attempts to create new lifeforms focused on humanoids. They succeeded in creating two beings grown from single cells of Mass, a mysterious aquatic lifeform that they had discovered. Mass were made of base elements and could take a variety of shapes for self-defense. The experiments grew into the bodies of humanoid infants, although both exploded before "birth" creating permanent craters on the academy planet (needless to say this didn't help Washu's mental state). At this point, after 15,000 years of friendship, Naja was said to have been killed (although no body was found) by space pirates while trying to evacuate the facility they were raiding. Washu, inexperienced with grief, attempted to clone Naja and accelerate the clone's development, then installed memories from Naja in it. Washu then encouraged the clone to continue working on the project that she and Naja had been working on; creating new lifeforms that could harness the powers of Washu's mysterious gems out of Mass. The clone was careless however and accidentally came into contact with a male humanoid body that the pair were attempting to shape the Mass into. The clone of Naja and the male body merged, and the resulting being called itself Kagato and was possessed with fantastic power and perception somewhat on par with a demigod. The remains of the female body reformed into a small girl, which Kagato sealed away as it disgusted him. The girl would later be known as Noike, and thanks to a rip in space and time would escape her prison in the far future.

Ryoko Hakubi

Now mourning the loss of her friend, the reconstructed version of her friend, and her son and husband, Washu became cold and cruel with Kagato's personality taking after this state as well. The two openly made games of attempting to kill each other, and while Kagato devoted his time to studying the gems Washu's research into creating life took on a new meaning; replacement. In time, she used one of her own egg cells and inserted it into fragments of Mass then utilized energy channeled through her gems to shock it into a new state. The Mass developed into a fetus, which grew and took the shape of a girl. Washu also managed to shape additional Mass into a creature that could fold itself into raw potential and shapeshift, with it's active form being an EXTREMELY powerful spaceship while also having a neutral form resembling a small animal (yes, Washu made a housepet that can turn into a fucking battleship). The knowledge gained from the animal/ship was applied towards the creation of a massive cruiser called the Soja, which served no purpose other than to be another amusing doomsday device in Washu's collection.

Although finally with her own child, Washu was no longer capable of being a loving mother. The Mass girl, named Ryoko, was subjected to a life of cruel and painful experimentation without any form of social contact at all. Ryoko only knew Washu as a mysterious bringer of pain and as a bizarre godlike being (ironically enough), without any motive or sympathy. The small animal/ship, called Ryo-Ohki, was telepathically bound to Ryoko as an experiment and Ryoko took advantage of this to escape with Washu's gems. Ryoko became the biggest pirate in universal history, feared everywhere. Washu, no longer interested in the project, continued on with her research using data obtained from Ryoko. However, Kagato had begun to suspect the powers of Washu and Tsunami, and he sealed away Washu within a pocket dimension on Soja. He then took credit for her life's work, and turned the academy into his personal laboratory where he studied the nature of life and the divine. After realizing that he needed to study the secrets of the Jurai royal family, he captured Ryoko and used Washu's gems (at this point more a part of Ryoko's life force than simply power-boosting magical talismans) to control her. He used Ryoko as a living weapon for 5,000 years, wiping out entire chunks of the universe in pursuit of artifacts to aid in attempts to uncover the location of Tsunami.

Azusa Masaki Jurai

Here, the story branches back to Jurai. A young woman named Amame Yotsuga of House Masaki, a prominent noble family of Jurai, fell in love with a young Galaxy Police officer named Kazuki Yotsuga after helping him defeat a gang of thugs intent on beating him to death after he rescued a young woman from several of its drunken members (in that era part of the Galaxy Police graduation ceremony was to do something similar in a staged event, but this turned out to be quite real). She trained him in the Juraian royal fighting style to aid him in his line of work as he had told her he was not fond of guns (something she found endearing), and wound up falling in love with him. The only way for a member of the nobility of Jurai to marry below their station was to plant the tree bound to them from their personal ship in non-Juraian soil which forever rendered it's connection to Tsunami dead, and after doing this she and her new husband left for a new Juraian colony where they had a child named Azusa. Meanwhile the political situation on Jurai was heating up; the Emperor's adopted daughter Seto Kamiki Jurai, the last survivor of a colony destroyed by space pirates (where does that sound familiar? Beyond vidya references however, it's been implied by the author in various places that Seto was an amnesiac Naja who survived the space pirate attack) was pulling the strings of the entire civilization. Seto had wielded the power of the court for many years, obliterating space pirates with the Juraian military and controlling the families and marriages of every noble on Jurai one way or another, sometimes intentionally creating chaos for mere amusement.

Seto reached out to Amame, simply informing her that House Masaki lacked leadership and the boy should be groomed to take on the role of its patriarch. Although initially unwilling, Seto had manipulated him into trusting her by patiently becoming a resident of the household and a motherly figure towards him, and after space pirates attacked the colony the powers granted by Tsunami's blessing of his royal lineage enabled him to fend off a small attacking group which gave him the desire to defend the innocent of the universe. He was schooled on Jurai by Seto in every way, and her manipulation was so perfect that even him running away to play rather than learn to dance was another test and lesson. In time, House Masaki was restored and Azusa was among the nobleman who were candidates for Emperor. While Azusa roamed the universe, Seto manipulated his journey so that particularly nasty space pirates were continually in his path to give him a hatred of their ways. At one point, Kagato attacked his ship and used Ryoko to counter its Light Hawk Wings defenses. The energies unleashed in the engagement almost tore a rift in reality until Tsunami's spirit stirred and broke up the fight, causing the wounded Azusa to land on the nearby planet Earth (which was still in a primitive state of mankind's development). A young woman from pre-feudal Japan named Funaho nursed him back to health and he fell in love with her, defeating a band of space pirates planning on using Earth as a base before returning to Jurai with her. He met the ghost of Misaki on the moon on the way back although he did not recognize who she was. Upon returning, he found that the current Emperor had died of old age with no legitimate heir and the election cycle for the next Emperor had begun.

Through Seto's manipulations, Azusa should have been a sure win although when he introduced what was essentially a neanderthal woman from a planet with no civilized life (as far as Juraians were concerned) her plan began to fall apart. However, Azusa brought Funaho to the place where Juraians are bound to Tsunami's tree descendants to extend their lives and become their future personal ship against all logic (as they only bond to Juraian nobility) in hopes of giving her a Juraian lifespan. When a tree, furthermore a second generation tree rather than one of the recent ones, chose her it was discovered that Earths Juraian-like inhabitants were the descendants of Masaki, which made Funaho (and indeed all of humanity) not only Juraian but of royal blood. With this legitimacy, Azusa was elected Emperor of Jurai and several years later Seto convinced him to take her young daughter Misaki as his second wife.

Yosho Masaki Jurai

Funaho would give birth to a boy named Yosho while Mitsuki had two daughters, Ayeka and Sasami. Funaho being human had made her something of a non-entity in the court and subject to much mockery when Azusa was not around, and Yosho grew up feeling ashamed of his blood while also protective of his family. Misaki on the other hand was very fond of both Funaho and Yosho, and saw him as her own son. Early in Yosho's puberty he had begun to form an attraction to this step-mother, and realizing the political danger of what could happen Seto convinced Asuza to send Yosho to the Galaxy Police Academy to learn discipline. Here he became close friends with a woman named Airi who came from a planet called Airai which worshiped the Choishin and hated Juraians for keeping the connection of Tsunami (believed to be the singular supreme creator by Jurai) out of their hands. Airi became pregnant with Yosho's child, which she kept a secret due to the fact she would be forced to abort it by her family. She had it medically removed and kept in stasis so she could return home and renounce her claim to her planet's throne, then return and have it placed back within her to bring to term. Both she and the child she gave birth to became pawns of Seto, who manipulated them into positions of power within the Galaxy Police. Yosho, unaware he had a daughter, had returned to Jurai where he was engaged to Ayeka through Seto's manipulations. Although he was fond of Ayeka he really did think of her as a sister (as we understand it, not as Juraians do) and not a potential partner, and like the other notable members of his family had no desires to lead their people or the Masaki house despite Seto grooming him as Azusa's heir.

It was around this time that Kagato had become desperate for SOMETHING he could use to find the essence of Tsunami, and so he commanded Ryoko to rain destruction on the planet Jurai. In a massive bloodbath she killed much of it's population and destroyed both city and landscape alike. As the planet defenders rushed to their doom, the young Sasami had wandered into the room containing Tsunami-no-ki while trying to find her parents and fell to her death near its roots from a quake caused by an explosion outside. This awakened Tsunami, who's soul left the tree and entered into the body of the princess, reviving her. Their souls began a process of learning and growing with each other until she becomes a fully grown woman and the two souls will finish merging into one completely.

Yosho, both wanting to punish Ryoko for her attempted genocide (as the fact that Kagato was behind Ryoko's attacks was unknown) and to get away from his destiny, launched in pursuit of her. He engaged her repeatedly in battle and finally dueled her on Earth, where he defeated her and removed Washu's gems forcibly from her body. Ryoko was left in a state as close to death as can be imagined from their removal, although Yosho was unwilling to deal the finishing blow as at some point he had realized she was a victim rather than a monster. He inserted the gems into the object he used to form the energy of Tsunami's divinity as a weapon, a wooden sword hilt which he called the Tenchi-ken. During the battle he had rescued a woman named Kasumi, who was his cousin.

He took on the name Katsuhito Masaki and became the local priest (possibly beginning the Shinto faith based on the truth of the universe), and used his position to fabricate a story that a nearby cave was home to an ancient and horrible demon that long ago a hero had defeated. In reality, he had left Ryoko naked and wearing a demon mask in a pool of water with his sword hilt (disguised by having a metal blade paced in it) in a chamber that only a Juraian of royal blood could open. Here she would remain alive, although she would waste away to a skeleton and be unable to harm anyone. Unbeknownst to him, Ryoko's growing madness in the claustrophobia of the cave while her body rotted down to bones severed her soul and freed her from Kagato's control, allowing her to wander as an astral being and observe the landscape further and further the longer she was trapped. After planting his royal tree at the shrine to renounce all claim to the throne of Jurai, he married Kasumi and had four children, one of them beginning a family line that would include a boy named Nobuyuki Masaki. After Kasumi died, Yosho married his first love Airi and had a daughter named Kiyone sometime in the 1700's (Earth years). Jurai would not hear of the Masaki family or Yosho for many years, each child taking on false identities when leaving Earth as adults. At some point during Kiyone's youthful adventures in space, she found an artificially created woman named Rea who was adopted into the family as a servant.

Tenchi Masaki

Nobuyuki journeyed to become a member of the Galaxy Police where he was decorated, and eventually retired home where he married Kiyone and had a daughter named Tennyo. During the 1970's, Nobuyuki and Kiyone had a son named Tenchi (yep, we finally get to him). Due to their similar appearance and the fact both used illusions to keep humans from suspecting they were actually the same people surviving multiple generations of humans, both Tennyo and Kiyone would pretend to be each other and raise Tenchi without him ever knowing he had an older sister until much later in life. Neither were exceptionally kind to the young Tenchi, as both were addicted to practical jokes and while not neglectful were not emotionally supportive (drawing "I am stupid" on your 2 year old baby's face in marker and intentionally scaring him are not exactly marks of being a good parent). During this time, Ryoko's spirit had fixated on Tenchi. She observed his entire childhood, almost never leaving his side (as a spirit that is). Kiyone finally died at the (young, for a Juraian) age of 248 during Tenchi's childhood, and Tennyo immediately left Earth to maintain the facade of the family being humans. Rea stepped in and raised Tenchi as best he could before departing as well in his adolescence, and as an adult Tenchi wouldn't recall his actual mother but instead mixed Rea's mothering with his few memories of the appearance Kiyone/Tennyo (Tenchi would later discover the truth from Rea directly because after asking for more information about her, his father and grandfather told him horrifying stories leading up to how she seemed to die before at the end she would survive through her Juraian powers, all of which came from a script that she, Kiyone, and Tennyo had writen as part of her will many years before). In time, Nobuyuki would marry Rea as his second wife. At some point Airi died, and Yosho/Katsuhito decided to stop prolonging his life and allow the Earth to take him through age rather than use his Juraian lifeline any longer. Although still using an illusion to appear as an old man (when in reality he barely looks out of his 20's), in time it would become reality.

The OVA series begins with Tenchi Masaki being completely unaware of ANYTHING outside of what a normal human boy would know; he's an average high school student, his mother died while he was young, his father is an architect in Toyko that's especially fond of Pioneer brand electronics (the company that paid for the OVA to be produced, which got PLENTY of product placement in the series), and he works at his grandfather's shrine where the two practice sword-fighting a lot. Throughout his life Tenchi was always FASCINATED by the cave that his grandfather had always told him held the corpse of the demon known as Ryoko. One day during a sparring match he managed to steal the key to Ryoko's tomb (in reality Yosho had allowed him to take it, thinking that Tenchi could calm Ryoko and that the event would be a good way to let him in on who he really is), and he immediately went and explored it.

Characters

The characters most important in Tenchi canon. Once again, the OVA will take precedence here. As the tabletop Tenchi game encourages players to simply play as the main cast, most important ones are given stats.

Tenchi Masaki

The titular star of the series, Tenchi Masaki is the culmination of the Choushin's manipulations to engineer the birth of the ultimate higher-dimensional being. In essence, he is the living vessel of the entity that best suits the title of "God". He is a human/Jurain/Airai mix, the result of several generations strengthened by notable amounts of inbreeding - his dad, Nobuyuki, is Tenchi's grandfather Yosho's descendant of an unknown number of generations by Yosho's human wife Kasumi, whilst his mom Kiyone was Yosho's youngest half-human daughter.

Tenchi is a kind-hearted, good-natured, sweet-tempered and sincere sort of boy, with the right mixture of innocence, friendliness, chivalry, trust and understanding that causes him to draw women like a magnet draws iron filings. He is also very forgiving, being quick to befriend Ryoko despite believing her to be an evil being who tried to kill him and has shown much mercy on his villains (in Tenchi in Tokyo, he confronted Yugi with a light slap to end her monologue about death and destruction followed a hug despite everything she done including trying to kill most his friends). By the end of the series he becomes a living conscience to Ryoko by being one of the few individuals in her long life to see her as a woman rather than a weapon, experiment, or monster, and after taking a deal of abuse from Ayeka they form a relationship of equals without social expectations rather than peasant and princess. He allows Mihoshi to stay in his home despite her causing MASSIVE bills through constantly destroying the house, puts up with Washu's periodic kidnappings and experimentation, and despite being uncomfortable with the idea of a relationship with a small cat/rabbit animal with the mind of a child who can turn into a woman he humors her and in time reciprocates her feelings.

Much of the series' internal romantic conflict is born of the fact that all of the various love interests want him, but he sincerely wants to make them happy and not only has bonded to all of them, but he can't bear to hurt any by choosing one. Fortunately, as a Jurain royal-heir, polygamy is not only legal for him, but expected; once the ladies accept that they would rather share him than lose him, they all marry him and eventually bear his children.

Tenchi appears to be an average-looking Japanese man in his late teens to early twenties, with a small frame but muscular from his years of martial arts training, his childhood spent outdoors on the Masaki Shrine grounds, and life working the fields of the self-sufficient shrine. His hair is black and short, with a rat-tail in the back.

Because his mother Kiyone died while he was very young, his sister Tennyo left for space as a result, and his nurse Rea following suit as soon as he was an adolescent, Tenchi's formative years had very little female influence outside of visitors to his grandfather's shrine and the old woman who runs a hotsprings his family would take vacations to. As a result he tends to treat women like guests or family members, frustrating his father after the women start arriving in the Masaki house with Tenchi making no romantic passes at any of them. He also has difficulty understanding women, being confused at both ends of the spectrum by Ryoko's openness towards sexuality or nudity and well as her general non-feminine nature as well as Ayeka's behavior in regards to courtship and strict predetermined gender roles. Being a young man with no romantic experience, throughout the series he is highly nervous when situations like his father and grandfather peeping on the girls or the various methods of the women in his life courting him occur. He may have something of a minor emotional complex regarding his mother as when Washu (a woman who regularly makes romantic advances on him either in the interest of studying his sperm or in having a child) cared for his nephew he was visibly uncomfortable with her telling him the way she was holding the baby was the same way his mother held him, and showed a much more startled reaction to hearing Mihoshi bathing with said baby and saying "No, stop that, I can't make milk yet!" than Ryoko sticking her hand down his pants and fondling him in front of the entire rest of the household. Furthermore, he showed his rare genuine anger when he found out his mother was much less gentle and caring than he remembered her to be, with her actual care bordering somewhat on abuse.

Tenchi is something of the only sane man of the crew, being the most level-headed and rational-thinking of them all. He often finds himself overwhelmed by the craziness his various love-interests get up to. When actual danger is present however, Tenchi becomes impatient and will act rather than plan in order to save the lives of others. He is incredibly slow to anger, although once he's reached that state his innate Jurai powers manifest. Only with the use of his grandfather's Master Key (devices carved from the wood of Jurai trees that are bound to royal trees) which resembles a sword hilt, the Tenchi-ken (possibly his namesake), can he control them and reach his full potential early on in the series.

After being nearly killed when his lower body was blown off by a laser destroying the ship Ryu-Oh he was in while attempting to rescue Ryoko from Kagato in the first season, Azaka and Kamidake placed him in a protective barrier that kept him alive long enough for Tsunami's spirit to contact him and heal his wounds. Only after that point was be able to access Jurai powers exceeding even his grandfather, gaining three lines on his forehead that glow blue when expending Jurai energy. Lighthawk Wings are a representation of Tsunami's power, and are virtually always only manifested by tree-ships made from Tsunami's firstborn trees in Jurai's fleet. Tenchi can manifest 3 after his first near-death experience around his body. To illustrate how impressive that is, any more than 10 Wings manifesting in the 3rd dimension would cause it to collapse in on itself (so even having a ship that can make 3 is a big deal, physically making 3 is unheard of). He also gained a silver ring he wears on the middle finger of his right hand where a Jurai battle suit emerges from (although he cannot remove it, as doing so simply activates it). After manifesting Lighthawk Wings the suit becomes much more elaborate, resembling Jurai royalty rather than soldiery. While the Wings are present he can use one of them as a sword of immense power. Some fans, and the writers of the RPG book, theorize it was actually Ayeka teaching him to control Ryu-Oh's Lighthawk Wings shortly before being cut in half that granted him the ability to use them rather than Tsunami's contact.

Tenchi manifests as "god" when killed by Z in the third season, which almost destroyed all of reality. As his return to the divine had been forced unnaturally and (painfully) progressed through the dimensions that make up reality like Alice Liddell eating a mushroom and going through a house, it was impeded long enough for him to regain control of his godlike self through his mortal self's love of family. He proceeded to calm the mortal manifestation of the concept of destruction, the opposite to the Choushin, by kissing it and draining its power before the two vanished. He returned later in a resurrected mortal body. After this Tenchi is able to call upon much more Jurai power, manifesting 6 Lighthawk Wings rather than only 3. In the continued comics, Tenchi is considered a noble of Jurai despite not being from Jurai by birth, being of mixed blood outside Jurai citizens (including a people somewhat hostile to Jurai politically), and not being bonded to any Jurai tree-ship. It is possible his ability to manifest the Lighthawk Wings is considered an equivalent by the court or that Azusa made some form of proclamation.

Due to Yosho telling Tenchi ghost stories as a youth, Tenchi is somewhat easily scared by the paranormal and has worse than average reaction to death and the idea of corpses. This quickly vanishes when seemingly any kind of explanation is offered, being paralyzed with fear by the idea of a ghost only to immediately relax when told it was only the soul of an ancient alien god of unknownable power possessing a little girl...

Body 5 Mind 4 Soul 11

HP 80 Energy Points 125 Attack Combat Value 8 Defense Combat Value 6 Total Character Points 55 Total Skill Points 40

Attributes

Combat Mastery L2,

Divine Relationship L2,

Energy Bonus L5,

Highly Skilled L2,

Item of Power (Master Key) L3,

Jurai Power L5,

Speed L1

Jurai Power Sub-Attributes

Battle Costume L1,

Force Field (extendable)

• Lighthawk Wings Shield, Stops 105 (Uses Energy 2x) L5
• Energy Shield, Stops 75 (Uses Energy) L4

Space Flight L2

Special Attacks

Lighthawk Sword, Damage 80 L6

• Field-penetrating, No Rejuvenation, Contact, Uses Energy x2
• Energy Sword, Damage 70 L5
• Field-penetrating, Contact, Uses Energy

Skills

Acrobatics (Balance) L2

Gardening (Vegetable) L1

Melee Attack (Sword) L2

Melee Defense (Sword) L2

Ranged Defense (Personal) L1

Sleight of Hand (Pick Pocketing) L1

Stealth (Silent Movement) L1

Unarmed Defense (Striking) L1

Defects

Girl Magnet 1

Item Dependency (Master Key) 1

Latent Jurai Power 1

Weakened Jurai Power 2

Latent Jurai Power

Lighthawk Wings, Lighthawk Sword, and Space Flight (Only useable in danger or emotional duress)

Battle Costume (Not in control of when it will appear)

Energy Sword (Difficulty manifesting outside of danger)

Energy Sword/Energy Shield (Requires Master Key to use)

Master Key

• Must accept rightful owner, has moderate sentience, lineage of Masaki or worthy wielder in extreme situations only.
• Control Jurai tree-ships and access their logs remotely.
• Deals 40 points of Field-Penetrating electric damage per round to anyone attempting to hold the Master Key who is unworthy of it, 60 points when connected to a ::Jurai tree. Will not harm Jurai nobility unless it recognizes them as an enemy of it's primary master.
• Immediately manifests Jurai power to those successfully using it, regardless of ordinary degree of training. Does nothing for those without potential for Jurai power.
• Yosho and Tenchi require it to perform advanced Jurai powers.
• Can contain Washu's gems, granting additional powers. At will, these gems may be returned to Ryoko or Washu or restored to the Master Key.

Ryoko Hakubi

After the trauma of having her son stolen from her began to clear from her mind, Washu felt a surge of maternal loneliness. Having begun experimenting with the polymorphic protoplasmic entity called Mass, she decided to make herself a new child; she extracted an ovum, fused it with Mass, and energized the hybrid to become Ryoko, her new daughter. Washu's emotional trauma had rendered her cruel however, and Ryoko was treated as an experiment rather than a daughter. After seizing on the opportunity to escape with Washu's three mysterious gems and Ryo-Ohki, Ryoko became a notorious space pirate. What exactly she did during these years is never brought up. She became the single most notorious and feared space pirate to ever live, however whatever she did was not considered sufficiently antagonistic to put her on the Galaxy Police's "Eternally Wanted" list and whatever crimes she committed in her early life were canceled by the statute of limitations. She repeatedly exhibits a great deal of pride in this period and still thinks of herself as a great space pirate warlord.

Unfortunately, Washu's accidental creation, Kagato, sealed Washu away and abducted Ryoko to force her into serving him. Ryoko became his absolute slave, terrorizing the galaxy under Kagato's command for ages before making a blatant assault on Jurai itself causing massive widespread death and damage; there, the current Royal Heir, Yosho Masaki Jurai, led a one-man attack to capture her after she fled. The two shot each other down on Earth, and Yosho sealed Ryoko away inside of cave around which he built himself a shrine. There, she remained as a mummy for over 700 years, and during that time she learned to project her spirit and observe the world. She spent Tenchi's childhood following him around the lands surrounding the Masaki shrine, initially as mere entertainment although after watching Tenchi grieve his grandmothers death and seeing him grow up mostly alone she felt kinship and longed to physically meet him and play games. As a young adult Tenchi unsealed her from her tomb and accidentally returned the gems that give her power, allowing her to rejuvenate and leave her prison which directly led to Tenchi's life taking its official turn for the weird. She followed him to his school and waited until he was alone to appear, and due to her lack of social skills attacked him with enough force to destroy a large chunk of the campus in a game of cat and mouse. By calling out her attacks and giving him time to safely evade energy beams that could explode with the force of dynamite, she reasoned it really was just a game in which she had the advantage. After he accidentally cut off her hand with the Master Key and reclaimed one of her gems, she made a show of regrowing her hand instantly and when he apologized for hurting her she let out an amused chuckle and vanished. She went to wait for him in his bed, having decided he would make a good consort although her seduction was interrupted when Ayeka appeared, having been drawn by her ship picking up a power like Yosho's. Ayeka quickly established herself as an enemy by attacking Ryoko with intent to kill, and later potential rival when Ryoko heard that Tenchi and Ayeka had taken refuge from a storm in a shed together for the night. Ryoko was quick to become territorial, and Ayeka became the target of any frustration she had throughout the series. In time Ryoko's lust would grow to genuine love as Tenchi remained one of the few beings who had ever treated her like a person with thoughts and feelings, and when his disapproval of killing or abandoning responsibility threatened their connection she began to develop a sense of right and wrong as well.

Ryoko appears to be a somewhat muscular, otherwise lean woman in her mid 20's with yellow eyes that sometimes glow and a very large mane of unkempt teal hair that reaches halfway down her back and equally long sideburns in the front. She has pronounced canine teeth like her mother, and long ears that are round at the end rather than pointed like an Elf. In her initial leisure costume it appears as if she has a tail, although in reality it is a part of her belt that responds to her emotions (curling, tensing, and so on) and is not present in a costume she grows on her body when in battle, or when she is naked. Whenever sitting she is almost always cross-legged and likes to hover in midair in this position, and when asleep at night can be found lying on top of a ceiling beam somewhere in the Masaki house rather than in a bed (although she does from time to time sleep in one like the others, and when Tenchi is away will claim his bed to herself). She is a heavy sleeper and can not only sleep through a small battle happening in the room below her, but can actually be rolled around and shot with laser beams without stirring. In Japanese, Ryoko uses quite a lot of slang words, talks in a way normally associated with thuggish male characters, and mixes in English words from time to time. In English, she speaks in an alto voice similar to other "sexy action heroines" in translated anime like Faye Valentine.

Ryoko has myriad powers of her own, thanks to being a hybrid of a Choushin-avatar and Mass, including levitation, intangibility, regeneration, super strength, and hurling energy blasts. When empowered by all three gems, she has the powers available to an omnipotent Choushin although she is limited in practice by what her body can physically handle and what she has the desire to do; with only two she can easily split herself into two versions of herself acting independently of each other, use many different kinds of attacks like shooting small fragments of her hair like needles or forming explosive bursts of energy, heal from anything that does not kill her almost instantly, and seemingly cannot be harmed by extreme heat or shockwaves including direct explosions. At one point in the comics Sasami accidentally drops a precision cooking knife, shattering the blade edge until Ryoko simply pinches her fingers and slides the knife through them sharpening it instantly. She can pool some of the energy still left in her body to create fake replacement gems, which keep her alive and healthy. Without any gems she loses much of her power and will decay into an unliving mummy, although it isn't clear if she is capable of being truly killed. The gems she controls will sink into her body, one in each wrist and the final gem in her abdomen. Despite being an adult (she considers herself 2,000 years old, although she was created before that and may only consider her "birth" the date of her escape from Washu) she will continually recover from the damage her 700 years as a mummy caused then stronger still until one day she actually use all three gems in the same way the fully empowered goddess version of Washu could. She has a bad tendency to forget the direct correlation between her access to her gems and her power limits; for example, she can summon "demons" made of energy with only the one gem, but she needs at least two to be able to control them. Despite Washu's omnipotent knowledge also being present in the gems, Ryoko never accesses it. It's unknown if she can or is even aware of it.

Ryoko is brash and arrogant - truthfully, her life has left her a lot more messed up than she cares to admit. Though she acts the part of the carefree, laidback, hard-fighting partygirl, she's also got quite a few vulnerabilities. Any suggestion of her as a monster or a corpse either causes her to go into a rage without restraint of her powers or openly crying depending on the source and her current emotional vulnerability. She feels a great deal of guilt for what she did under Kagato's control, and despite her name being cleared later on and the Emperor of Jurai granting her a pardon both for her actions and the financial damages, any reference to the destruction she wrought can sober her out of even outright murderous intent. Though the most casually flirtatious and sexual of Tenchi's love interests, she also has one of the deepest bonds to him, having watched over him in astral form since he was very young and forming an intense love for him as a result of seeing him grow up. In the alternate continuity of the anime series (Tenchi Universe), this leads to her being promoted as more of the Official Love Interest than just One Of The Love Interests. She has a greatly stunted sense of social expectations and norms, and her behavior is split between a woman finally able to experience childhood (as she spends days doing activities that she saw Tenchi do as a small boy like fishing by the stream near her cave, as well as playing video games on what appears to be a Gameboy Pocket) and a street thug (drinking all day every day, looking for any excuse to fight with anyone, and taking advantage of an opportunity to spread her notoriety). She has absolutely no concept of the idea of motherhood prior to actually becoming one as Washu had only cared for her in the way a researcher would keep a specimen alive, Ryo-Ohki shared a mental bond and only had a slightly above animal degree of intelligence, and Ryoko's observations of Kiyone and Tennyo were of something bordering on abuse. After absorbing a computer AI named Zero created by Dr. Clay which had been given a Mass body and programmed to feel her same emotions (without her insecurities) in order to infiltrate the household and kidnap Tenchi, Ryoko dropped most of her facades and behaved according to how she felt openly which lead to becoming closer to Tenchi and Ayeka. Despite having a soft side and mental scars, Ryoko is extremely confident and only actual betrayal can shake her (displayed best in another series, Tenchi In Tokyo, where Tenchi openly romancing a woman outside the household caused her to immediately return to space in tears to return to her space pirate life, and after believing Mihoshi had tried to use their friendship to apprehend her became vicious and notorious once more).

Ryoko does not get on with Ayeka at all for the bulk of the series across all canons (with the exception of the Pretty Sammy universe), and they are most serious "rivals" for Tenchi's heart - Ayeka's attitude and history as a pampered princess both manage to rub Ryoko the wrong way, and she responds by pricking Ayeka right where it hurts; in her own overinflated ego. The fact Ayeka immediately attacked Ryoko upon finding her to avenge the loss of Yosho and the destruction wrought on Jurai began the antagonism, which only worsened from there with Ryoko's one attempt at getting along resulting in (a very drunk) Ayeka laughing about the idea a mummy pirate romancing a lost nobleman of Jurai causing (an also incredibly drunk) Ryoko to cry. This began to change when the two had to work together to save Tenchi's life on the Soja. Their relationship progresses to periodic full-power sparring over pranks and matters like Ryoko stealing food from her plate during meals or Ayeka making not-so veiled references to Ryoko's age or imprisonment, and eventually the two manage to settle down to a level where they realize that they cannot remember the last time they even argued. Likewise, Ryoko is not receptive to Washu's attempts to bond with her and form a mother and daughter relationship. Ryoko only knew Washu in the abstract during her childhood as a towering and cruel figure that she feared more than anything else, and had no memories of any actual meeting of either her or Kagato as an adult (merely his orders and life as a slave on the Soja). When finally meeting her first captor, an adolescent girl that critiqued her body before asking to be called "mommy" that then immediately turned into a fully-grown woman and attempted to seduce Tenchi, Ryoko responded predictably with open hostility. Washu would spend most of their new relationship trying to control Ryoko (such as electrocuting her painfully to her to keep her in the house while Ayeka enjoyed a date with Tenchi earned from a wager between the two), verbally abusing her (critiquing Ryoko's adult body with "Your breasts are sagging." and periodically bringing up any and every misdeed Ryoko ever committed in conversation for the purpose of causing her guilt), experimenting on her using restraints Ryoko could not break, and otherwise simply being shut away in her lab and being a non-factor. The acquired sadistic streak runs deep in Washu, and when Ryoko was emotionally vulnerable for the first time around her after absorbing Zero she immediately locked Ryoko away in a dark claustrophobic room with a live camera feed and gleefully recorded it when Ryoko broke down weeping and begged her as "mommy" to be let go. The turning point in their relationship came in a comic where Washu decided to turn Ryoko back into a toddler for her own amusement until she called her "mommy" in front of the rest of the household. Upon actually hearing a toddler version Ryoko calling her this however, Washu suddenly felt the repressed guilt of having spent that portion of Ryoko's life keeping her in a cage like an animal, and hugged with tears in her eyes resulting in a confused Ryoko gently hugging her back with Ayeka's laughter dying at the sight of the scene (although upon Washu then attempting to make Ryoko call Tenchi "daddy", Ryoko broke a table over her head). The two are able to speak telepathically when near each other, and Washu has the same degree of control over Ryoko that Kagato did although only once in the comics did she actually use it and only to force Ryoko to hold off from attacking and possibly killing someone innocent. Early on Ryoko had a short temper around Mihoshi, and after the house is demolished during a peaceful nap on the roof Ryoko physically threw her ship into space telling her to never come back. Nobuyuki was angered by this and took Ryoko aside to tell her that Mihoshi garnishes her wages to try to repay him for house repairs (which is not nearly enough). After that Ryoko develops more respect (or at least tolerance) for her. Ryoko's exploits made her very familiar with Galaxy Police command, patrols, policies, and uniforms, more so than Mihoshi herself. Ryoko is fond of Sasami, although upon realizing that Sasami would grow up to become Tsunami she began to see her as a potential rival, telling her that any attempt to date Tenchi is against the law and she'd be put to death for it (Ayeka immediately stepped in and said it was a lie, although at Ryoko suggesting Tenchi could develop a Lolita-complex if Sasami pursued him Ayeka told Sasami the actual punishment is being banished from civilization instead to Ryoko's amusement). Ryoko resents Katsuhito for his defeat of her and for her imprisonment, although as the events lead to her finding Tenchi and being freed from Kagato she never pursued any grudge against him. Ryoko loves Ryo-Ohki as the closest she had ever had to family as well as the representation of freedom to her. Prior to the time when the group entered into a polygamous relationship with Tenchi, Ryo-Ohki was the only being Ryoko showed no jealousy or resentment towards in pursuit of him.

Ryoko has a noted phobia of the dark and a serious drinking problem, although she can purge the alcohol from her system in moments if need be (if it's not life or death however, she won't). Ryoko has no sense of taste and does not require nutrients from food, nor any water or oxygen to survive and only eats either socially or for the feel of being full (although later comics involve Ryoko complimenting Sasami on cooking, so this may not have remained canon). She is also somewhat physically numb, with Ayeka's attempt at torture via electrical shock in their first meeting resulting in a sexually aroused Ryoko. Kagato's assault of her, Misaki's rough handling of her, and a shock from Tenchi's Master Key only elicited an actual ordinary pain response however. Ryoko claims to be a sadist although this is never actually presented. She is extremely lazy and despite being in restraint for almost a millennium will still spend most of every day sleeping, although when enthusiastic about working (usually because of some connection to Tenchi, such as cleaning the house to impress him or working minimum wage jobs in Tokyo to earn money to buy him a gift) she will do so cheerfully and with dedication. While not without empathy as Ryoko has volunteered to help people in need from time to time, she is motivated primarily by her own interests for most of the OVA itself and a good portion of the comics canon to it.

Ryoko and Ayeka both marry Tenchi together as his first brides, although their wedding night is ruined by Mihoshi sleepwalking into his bed in the dark during the honeymoon and becoming his first lover while the two rekindled a forgotten rivalry over who would take his virginity. Ryoko gave birth to Tenchi's first child, a girl, around the same time as Ayeka's pregnancy neared its third trimester, with a third baby boy being born after them that resembles Tenchi and who's mother is never identified. Ryoko's daughter looked mostly like her mother, except with smaller ears and brown eyes. She had the ability to float through the air as a baby (something that made Ryoko proud, and Ayeka horrified) although the extent of her other powers isn't known. Ryoko and Ayeka's children were raised together by the former rivals, being very close through their childhoods and going to school in Japan together like humans. Ayeka taught the adolescent girl to knit, and unlike her mother became studious in higher grades. Ryoko wasn't happy with her daughter growing up so fast, showing visible consternation at the idea of her needing a bra. After a night spent in a shed taking refuge from a storm with his sisters similar to how Tenchi had with Ayeka years before, Ryoko became angry at Tenchi's son for things he may have done (but didn't) just like she had their father. In time both Ryoko and Ayeka's daughters would marry the Tenchi look-alike (making it likely he was neither Ayeka or Ryoko's son, unless the Masaki line had officially thrown the "half is as close as you get" rule out the window in regards to incest).

Body 10 Mind 4 Soul 7

HP 115 Energy Points 85 Attack Combat Value 8 Defense Combat Value 6 Total Character Points 60 Total Skill Points 55

Attributes

Appearance L2

Combat Mastery L1

Damn Healthy! L3

Energy Bonus L3

Heightened Mass Power L1

Highly Skilled L3

Jurai Power L3

Mass Power L5

Speed L2

Jurai Sub-Attributes

Battle Costume L2

Control Servant L4

Illusionary Disguise L2

Summon Servant L4

Special Attacks

Energy Sword, Damage 60 L4

• Field-penetrating, Contact, Uses Energy

Explosive Blast, Damage 50 L4

• Area-Effect, Short Range, Uses Energy

Rapid Fire Energy Blase, Damage 50 L4

• Auto-Fire, Short Range, Uses Energy

Hair Needles, Damage 30 L3

• Auto-Fire, Spreading, Short Range, Limited Shots

Mass Power Sub-Attributes

Astral Projection L1

Duplicate (twin) L1

Flight (can hover) L2

Incorporeal Form L3

Life Support L2

Mind Control (Ryo-Ohki only) L1

Rejuvenation L3

Teleport L1

Space Flight L1

Super Strenghth L1

Unique Mass Power (create minor illusions) L1

Skills

Acrobatics (Flying) L2

Electronics (Computers) L1

Melee Attack (Sword) L1

Melee Defense (Sword) L2

Navigation (Space) L1

Piloting (Spaceship) L1

Ranged Defense (Personal) L1

Stealth (Silent Movement) L1

Thrown Weapons (Energy Blasts) L1

Unarmed Attack (Striking) L1

Unarmed Defense (Striking) L1

Defects

Easily Distracted (love of Tenchi, own looks) 2

Item Dependency (Washu's Gems) 1

Phobia (claustrophobia, caves) 1

Servitude (Wahsu, Kagato) 1

Weakened Jurai Power 2

Unique Defect (numbness, no sense of taste)

Item Dependency

Can use three gems containing all the power of the Choushin goddess version of Washu, with one in each wrist and one located inside her abdomen. Can create false gems to limp along without a real one using Rejuvenation with 10 Energy Points from scratch or 5 Energy Points to transmute a stone or piece of jewelry.

• No Gems: Will begin to die (no crunch effects).
• With only false gems: Loses all Jurai Powers.
• Abdomen Gem: Grants all Jurai Powers other than those noted below, theorized by RPG book writers it allows her to pierce the defenses of Jurai.
• Right Wrist: Gains Control Servant equal to Summon Servant level. Possibly has other effects, unstated by rules as unconfirmed in canon.
• Left Wrist: Grants Mind Control (Ryo-Ohki) and Summon Servant.
• All Gems: Unspecified in anime, theorized by Funaho to be able to manifest Light Hawk Wings. Possibly equal, or near equal, to Tsunami herself.
• Characters can aim using a blade to separate a Gem from Ryoko at a 4+ Penalty. Success causes Ryoko to lose 17 HP in addition to attack damage, unless already below 1/5 max HP. True Gems are removed from her body, if removed by the Master Key it immediately absorbs them. False Gems explode.

Ayeka Jurai

Tenchi's great aunt and the crown princess of Jurai, daughter of Misaki. As a small child having been told she would marry Yosho one day she considered herself deeply in love with him, and Yosho running off to chase Ryoko while Jurai burned caused her to launch a one-woman crusade as a young women in pursuit of him and Ryoko. During the hundreds of years she searched she kept a holographic projection of him in her quarters on her tree-ship, Ryu-Oh, gradually falling into speaking to it while crying each night. When she reached the age where she would have married Yosho, she began to utilize a process similar to cryogenic sleep to stay youthful while she searched. Her crusade became more personal when she was informed Ryoko had been cleared of all crimes by a council controlled by her grandmother Seto, with Ayeka launching in one last sweep through the universe with her sister Sasami onboard while she could still claim ignorance of the message. As fate would have it her guardians Azaka and Kamidake detected the energy radiated when Tenchi activated the Master Key for the first time. She did battle with the ancient Ryo-Ohki and captured Tenchi (who was immediately imprisoned) and Ryoko. After her frustration at her attempts to torture and intimidate Ryoko were met with pleasure and ridicule respectively, she took Tenchi's Master Key which she recognized as Yosho's and tortured her with it happily although when Tenchi managed to escape from Azaka and Kamidake and activate the Master Key she was horrified; a direct relative of herself using Yosho's sword to save Ryoko, who in her eyes was the single most horrible being to ever live. Once Ryu-Oh crashed into the Masaki lake Ayeka was devastated, having to live under the same roof as Ryoko at the generosity of a primitive alien peasant (as Ayeka's love for Funaho and Yosho apparently didn't connect to the rest of humanity in her mind).

Early in her stay in the Masaki house, she showed herself as demanding and abusive although Tenchi is well-aware of the fact her behavior only stemmed from her frustration (guy doesn't understand women, but he does understand people). Ryoko quickly realized that implying a deep connection between herself and Tenchi struck a nerve, and exploited it from implying Ryo-Ohki's egg was Tenchi's child to speaking of him as a husband. Ayeka soon shut herself in the room she had been given to stay in and refused to come out until Sasami reminded her it was Ayeka's duty to request the hospitality they had already been given for days. After she informed Katsuhito of her gratitude (without realizing who he was) and securing the promise of continued food and shelter as long as it was needed, she lapsed into a deep depression where she dreamed of her brother's corpse until, of all beings, the newly reborn Ryo-Ohki came to her and refused to leave, showing affection as a pet would, until she accepted her situation and smiled again. As she began to venture further from the house Ayeka came one day to watch Tenchi practice his swordsmanship and realized that his technique was that of the secret Jurai royal style. As the two returned along the path to the house she sprained her ankle which required Tenchi to carry her until a fierce storm came, causing the two to take refuge in a nearby shack. They dried their clothes with a fire Tenchi built, and he acted the chivalrous gentleman when it came time to look away. When the storm cleared she realized the large sacred tree along the road was Yosho's own royal tree from his tree-ship, called Funaho after his mother. Tenchi used the Master Key to access the tree Funaho's memories and Ayeka saw that he had won his battle with Ryoko and believed once again he was alive. Afterwards Ayeka made Tenchi her champion and asked for protection for her and her sister until rescue could come. She also began to fall in love with him at that point.

When Azusa, Misaki, and Funaho arrived at the Masaki household to bring her home, Ayeka stated she was so in love with Tenchi that she would renounce her ties to Jurai and claim to the throne by planting Ryu-Oh and severing her ties with Tsunami if she had to. Luckily that wasn't necessary as all Azusa demanded was for Tenchi to best the man he had chosen to be Ayeka's new arranged husband in a duel (winner: the bottom of Mihoshi's ship).

Ayeka continued hostility to Ryoko, and when Ryoko came to the bathhouse bearing sake and the story of how she watched Tenchi grow up she took the opportunity to mock her for the story. When Tenchi had been kidnapped by Kagato and Ryoko came along with in the rescue attempt, Ayeka dropped all hostility and treated her as a comrade during the pursuit and the two fought together side by side after they had believed Tenchi to be dead from the Soja's blast. Once she learned Ryoko had only been Kagato's puppet during the attack on Jurai Ayeka stopped openly deriding her although the two would continue to get into periodic scrapes ranging from the two battling in full combat regalia above the Masaki house over food stolen from the other's plate during a meal to sarcastic comments made whenever possible. It would take many years before the two would stop bickering. After the incident with Kagato, Ayeka learned Katsuhito was Yosho. He fools her with his illusion of being an old man and gives her his blessing to pursue Tenchi without any regrets or thoughts to the past.

Early on in the series, Ayeka's Japanese voice actress spoke in prim and proper language not dissimilar to how a period actor playing a older noblewoman in a story about medieval Japan would speak. As the story progressed Ayeka's speech became more normalized as barked orders gave way to requests, polite words entered into her vocabulary, and while Ayeka rarely lets out a slang word many shorter words were used in her vocabulary. She would give shrill chortling laughs to the back of her hand early on as a court custom, later giving way to open-mouth laughter with abandon. The English equivalent would be going from sophisticated Shakespearean speech to Elizabethan to that of a modern business woman. Ayeka's English voice actress mostly kept the same method of speech throughout, although early on the commanding tone was played up while later trying to sound like merely a refined lady walking on the wild side. Only when addressing Azaka and Kamidake does her regal authority slip out regardless of when in the series it occurs, making a marked shift when transitioning from giving the two a command to responding to a question from Tenchi almost in the same breath. In the comics Ayeka will periodically show ignorance about Earth speech and use slang wrong, or attempt to use a metaphor or expression and either say it wrong or say something completely random and nonsensical, although this only exists in the comics.

Like Tenchi she is quick to action, usually responding first with one open threat and after provocation with swift violence against the offender (usually Ryoko). Unlike Tenchi she is not one to abandon a fight unless a mutual cessation of hostilities is enacted (usually Sasami requesting her to stop a scuffle with her rival). She obsesses over her beauty, although not quite to the same degree that Ryoko does, and never removes the ornamental jewelry in her bangs. As Ayeka's entire behavior set stems from her royal upbringing full of tradition and ceremony, many issues of her new life shock her. Ideas like housework, sexuality, and rural living left her speechless although she quickly acclimated in order to remain close to Tenchi. By the end of the first season, Ayeka has taken up a great deal of the household chores upon herself and shares the work with Sasami. In the Tenchi In Tokyo series when dealing with loneliness and abandonment by the entire rest of the cast she loses her mind somewhat and turns the house into a deathtrap that could withstand the invasion of an army in an almost Macbethian mental state (driving Nobuyuki into the surrounding forests as he fled for his life after trying to come home to visit).

While not extraordinarily intelligent, Ayeka is very well-versed in shiplore as well as the myths and traditions of Jurai. She is able to point out information about Ryo-Ohki, the Soja, and even her own ship that many including Washu would miss althuogh the only ships she knows how to actually pilot are the tree-ships of Jurai and similar classes. She is similarly able to "resurrect" Ryu-Oh by planting it within the soil of Earth without severing its bond to Tsunami. Furthermore she was able to give Tenchi training that allowed him to manifest Lighthawk Wings, something she herself is also capable of as a member of the Jurai royal family.

Among her powers are the ability to command a swarm of small sticks which look like miniatures of Azaka and Kamidake, which can generate energy within them to cause damage or contain a foe. She passively generates a force field around herself in dangerous situations that she can extend to protect others, and has enhanced healing allowing her to recover from a sprained ankle within hours. She is also physically fit, and although she does not train contantly in the Jurai fighting style like Tenchi does she did learn it and is still capable of fighting with it. After prolonged semi-friendly relationship with Ryoko, Ayeka develops a drinking habit despite having nearly no tolerance level and combines drunkenness with denial (something she is prone to do as well when sober) when presented with a negative factor.

Ayeka's relationship with Mihoshi is defined mostly by the frustration the entire cast feel with her after the peroidic destruction of the Masaki household although otherwise acts neutrally towards her. Similarly Ayeka has little relationship with Washu beyond frustration when an experiment that clearly should not have been conducted for the reason of plain common sense gets out of hand. Ayeka is more fond of Ryo-Ohki than she is the others, and treats her as the child of the house. Ayeka's relationship with Sasami is mostly defined by Ayeka's attempts to set a good example for her as the way a lady should behave, and is quick to chide her for adopting bad habits (or getting close to "the ugly old pirate mummy") although Ayeka has a small amount of jealousy for the belief Sasami will become more beautiful and intelligent than her one day. Ayeka loves Tenchi deeply and is just as willing to give her life for him as Ryoko.

The rivalry between Ayeka and Ryoko temporarily resumes on the night the two marry him; even though they actually wed Tenchi first, it was a sleepwalking Mihoshi who managed to take Tenchi's virginity on their wedding night; they were that wrapped up in bickering with each other. The hostility dies again when their children are born, Ryoko's first and Ayeka's soon after. The two raise their daughters together, Ayeka's daughter being especially interested in Tenchi's son with an unknown member of the household even from a young age. She would make herself the boss of Ryo-Ohki's triplet daughters and dole out punishments in the form of chores despite also being a child. Ayeka was quick to realize the girls were growing up, and was the one who suggested to the displeased Ryoko that it was time to buy the girls bras. Although Ryoko was angered when Tenchi's son and the two girls were stranded in a shed, Ayeka merely looked glum due to the realization of where the story was going. In her teenage years, Ayeka's daughter would become a class-president at her school and eventually marry Tenchi's son with Ryoko's daughter (copy/paste generation).

Body 4 Mind 4 Soul 7

HP 55 Energy Points 55 Attack Combat Value 5 Defense Combat Value 3 Total Character Points 60 Total Skill Points 30

Attributes

Appearance L2

Highly Skilled L1

Item of Power (Ship Key & Capture Field) L1

Item of Power (Door Portal Trap) L1

Jurai Power L2

More Powerful Mecha L3

Own a Big Mecha (Ryu-Oh, Guardians (Azaka and Kamidake)) L8

Jurai Power Sub-Attributes

Battle Costume L1

Force Field, extendable (Stops 45, Uses Energy) L2

Mind Shield L2

Space Flight L1

Special Attacks

Energy Fist, Damage 50 L2

• Contact, Uses Energy)

Energy Balls, Damage 30 L1

• Short Range, Uses Energy)

Skills

Interrogation (Physical, Diplomacy) L1

Piloting (Spaceship) L1

Ranged Defense (Personal) L1

Social Science (Politics) L3

Unarmed Attack (Striking) L1

Unique Skill (Domestic Crafts) L2

Unique Skill (Escape from Bonds) L1

Defects

Easily Distracted (love of Tenchi, Ryoko) 2

Recurring Nightmares 1

Unique Defect (Royal Responsibilities) 2

Items of Power

Ryu-Oh's Ship Key & Capture Field

• Ship Key appears as a tiara. Controls Ayeka's Jurai tree-ship Ryu-Oh. Can summon a swarm of small floating logs as a Weapon Attack L2 (Damage 30, Tangle, Slow).
• Door Portal Trap (also simply called a force field in the translation) functions as a Teleport device when attached to openings that can be closed such as windows or doors, letting out at a specified location up to 500 feet away. Works one-way, opening the portal from the inside causes it to function normally.

Mecha

• Guardians of Jurai are Azaka and Kamidake (see below).
• Ryo-Oh is a powerful Jurai tree-ship that answers to Ayeka. It is destroyed repeatedly in the series, and grows again within months from a seed recovered from the wreckage.

Sasami Jurai

Ayeka's little sister, who was seriously injured when she fell from a high platform near the physical avatar of Tsunami, the Choushin patron of Jurai. Tsunami merged her spiritual self with Sasami to save her life, and so when Sasami comes of age, she will basically become the mortal avatar of Tsunami.

Unlike her sister, who arrogantly boasts of her superiority due to her noble lineage, Sasami acts the part of the quietly confident noble; she's sweet, gentle, kindly natured and supportive, making her the second most sensible person besides Tenchi, and only because she is still very much a child, her sensibility speaks more of how immature Ayeka acts than anything else. Most of the time. She actively enjoys doing household chores because it makes the rest of her family happy, and is the primary cook for the family as a result, being very good at it. Although sincerely interested in Tenchi herself, neither Ryoko nor Ayeka can seriously bring themselves to get upset about it; the idea feels wrong to them. She changes very little in other continuities.

Body 3 Mind 5 Soul 10

HP 65 Energy Points 85 Attack Combat Value 6 Defense Combat Value 4 Total Character Points 50 Total Skill Points 10

Attributes

Appearance (Cute) L1

Divine Relationship L6

Energy Bonus L1

Heightened Jurai Power L3

Jurai Power L1

Own a Big Mecha L6

Jurai Power Sub-Attributes

Astral Projection L2

Mind Shield L2

Precognition L1

Unique Jurai Power (Juraian Tree Gateway) L3

Skills

Cooking (Home) L5

Defects

Ageism 1

Conditional Ownership (Tsunami) 1

Latent Jurai Power 1

Marked (Tsunami's reflection, symbol on forehead) 1

Recurring Nightmares 1

Unskilled 1

Latent Jurai Power

Astral Projection-Sasami's Astral Projection can only be used when her Tsunami personality takes over. This normally occurs only in times of emotional stress, or when Sasami has been absorbed into the Tsunami spaceship, or when she is sleeping. Sasami's astral image always appears as Tsunami, a mature version of herself.

Mecha

Tsunami, Ship of the Beginning-Tsunami is a spaceship, a royal tree, and Sasami's future self. The Tsunami ship has the Summonable (Becomes A Mecha) Sub-Attribute at Level 1. To summon Tsunami, Sasami must use a Juraian Tree Gateway. Sasami's essence then enters Tsunami, who appears somewhere in nearby space. Sasami's Conditional Ownership of Tsunami means she shares ownership of the ship with her "future self" and will not summon the vessel frivolously.

Unique Jurai Power

Juraian Tree Gateway-Sasami's ability to open gateways between royal Juraian trees stems from her connection to Tsunami. When Sasami appraoches a tree and chants a special verse, she creates a portal that can transport her to any other Juraian tree.

Ryo-Ohki

Ryo-Ohki is a genetically engineered lifeform created by Washu from the protoplasmic entity Mass. She created Ryo-Ohki at about the same time that she was creating Ryoko, and so the two formed a telepathic bond. While Ryoko was made from Washu's own egg cell and Mass cells Ryo-Ohki was somehow created by combining Mass and minerals together. Ryo-Ohki is a shapeshifter, able to transform from a massive, multi-spined crystalline spaceship with enough shielding, firepower and self-repair capabilities to decimate armadas of enemy vessels singlehandedly and even assault the heavily fortified planet of Jurai to a small, fuzzy organism that resembles a brown and cream colored meowing rabbit with the head of a cat (hence fans commonly refer to her as a cabbit) that possesses exaggeratedly huge ears as long as her body and a gem in her forehead. She mostly eats carrots, and after she became a member of the household Tenchi began planting more of them at the Masaki Shrine fields to Ryo-Ohki's delight.

After Ryoko's rejuvenation, she sensed that her rebirth had stirred the corpse of the old Ryo-Ohki who had been destroyed by Yosho's ship. She immediately activated the ancient vessel, and was attacked shortly after by Ayeka and in a dogfight between Ryu-Oh and Ryo-Ohki both crashed into the lack nearby the Masaki house. Only a few days later, while Ayeka and Sasami debated if their ship would ever be able to fly again, Ryoko retrieved a large black egg early in the morning and for amusement tricked Ayeka into thinking Ryoko had laid it and it contained Tenchi's child. Shortly after it hatched, revealing a reborn Ryo-Ohki. Later in the series Ryo-Ohki accidentally duplicates herself, and after being cautious of the each other they realized they were the same being. Ryoko became bored with their exchange and scooped both back into their egg, shook it, and dumped out a singular (and dizzy) Ryo-Ohki once again.

Ryo-Ohki one day wandered into Washu's lab, and became frightened by a tank full of unspecialized Mass which Washu explained were only fascinated by her advanced form. They read her mind and saw the desire to help Tenchi in the fields as a larger version of herself, causing them to transform into a feminine humanoid shape which walked to the field Tenchi was working on. It initially began working by mimicking him, although after noticing it he became frightened which startled the Mass woman causing it to attack him in fear. Washu threw Ryo-Ohki at it, which caused them to merge and Ryo-Ohki to gain increased capacity for intelligence as well as the ability to turn into an anthropomorphic version of herself. Her humanoid form is covered in tufts of brown and cream hair with teal bangs crowning her head with long brown hair otherwise. She is skinny like Mihoshi, although not as tall. In both forms her eyes are yellow. She shapeshifted into a small child form to become more comfortable with bipedal movement and to learn about the world around her better. She became an ever-present companion of Sasami either as a little girl or a small cabbit afterwards. She began learning how to walk and talk, spurred along by a desire to court Tenchi as a mate which was encouraged by Sasami (and horrified Ayeka and Ryoko).

Ryo-Ohki has a very simplistic mind, roughly analogous to a small child. She is a creature of instinct and impulse, but benevolent and caring despite that. She possesses animal instincts and acts very hostile via hissing and growling at an imposter Ryoko at one point. Ryoko has the ability to control Ryo-Ohki with command and telepathy, although without Washu's gems she cannot perform this ability. Her dominance of Ryo-Ohki is not as complete as Kagato's over her without possessing all three gems, and Ryo-Ohki is able to put up mild resistance if need be while Ryoko only has two (which is the bulk of the series).

Eventually, she mastered her full humanoid form and married Tenchi alongside the others. Ryo-Ohki would give birth to three girls, each looking like herself with less fur in their humanoid forms and when transformed appearing as normal Cabbits. Despite their strange appearance they attended kindergarten with Tenchi's other children and Tenchi's cousin Seina's son via Amane Kaunaq (who was born around the same time as the three). Each has different hair than their mother; one has slightly less teal on the sides, one has a shock of teal at the widows peak and teal eyebrows, and one has brown forehead bangs although all three have forehead gems. The final Cabbit daughter had difficulty transforming into a human and was not able to attend school until she managed to transform in order to grab the hand of Amane's son thinking he was going to trip and fall off a cliff (in reality, he was barely a few feet off the ground). It is unknown if the three Cabbit daughters can transform into spaceships. One would become a class president in her teenage years, one became bookish, and one became an athlete. All three would eventually marry Seina's son (with Ryo-Ohki appearing make it somewhat of a shotgun wedding considering her expression in the silent comic).

Whether or not Ryo-Ohki ever learned to speak in the OVA is unknown, although she is seen in a silent comic (as in no text) consoling Ryoko and Ayeka's daughters after they were frightened when the final stage of her pregnancy turned her into a giant crystal.

In the Universe series, Ryo-Ohki cannot assume a human form and is one of a race of beings similar to herself. Ryoko's rival, Nagi, has a tan male named Ken-Ohki who Ryo-Ohki is romantically interested in. She has no backstory in this series, but Ken-Ohki's presence implies that she is not a unique creature there is in fact an entire species of them.

In Tenchi in Tokyo, Ryo-Ohki starts off as Sasami's pet and has no association with Ryoko. Along with turning into a spaceship, she can turn into a giant pink robot.

Mihoshi Kuramitsu

Descendant of Washu and Mikamo, Mihoshi is a Galaxy Police officer who operated near Earth. Starting with Mikumo onwards, her family is known both for their great luck and strange abilities that appear generation to generation (for example, Mihoshi's mother Mitoto Kuramitsu seems to be able to teleport randomly around reality and despite merely being a janitor for the Galaxy Police can suddenly appear almost anywhere without realizing she's not mopping the floor of Galaxy Police headquarters anymore).

Mihoshi is dark-skinned, blond-haired , and blue-eyed. She is lanky and tall, and has large canine teeth. This last feature may be an indication of her lineage from Washu rather than a trait of Kurumitsu peoples. Her hair is always tied, and appears to be styled and have lots of volume.

After her rescue by Tenchi she came to live at the Masaki house, and destroys it on an almost daily basis due to her inability to land her ship and her refusal to allow her computer partner, Yukinojo, pilot. She gives half of her salary to Nobuyuki each month to pay for the repairs, but she is unaware just how much it costs to fix each time and believes she is actually covering it. Washu has attempted many different methods of saving the house in the comics, from repairbots living in the walls (which grew to be feral and predatory due to exhaustion) to homing beacons (which Mihoshi inevitably either places in the wrong location (such as keeping it inside the ship while it plummets towards the house at maximum speed), or simply doesn't turn on), all to absolutely no success.

Her grandfather Marshal Anderson is the current head of the Galaxy Police, and although it's unstated if the Kuramitsu still have an Emperor Mihoshi or her descendants would be eligible to take the position if so. Much of Mihoshi's intended backstory is unexplained, as Kajishima has yet to write the background novel centered around her he intended to while appearances in later works are minimal and usually only pertain to jokes or plot devices.

Originally one of the best and brightest officers, an incident that has only been hinted at damaged her mind and made her unable to focus on almost anything for prolonged periods of time. It involved an arranged marriage of some kind, with her fiance abandoning her resulting in a suicide which lead to her family paying a great deal of money to have her resurrected somehow. The results of the resurrection are something that was apparently planned by the Choushin before they parted ways (which makes little sense as Tsunami had not even created life yet) and directly resulted in Tenchi ascending as the Kami. Furthermore, Mihoshi has demonstrated the ability to travel safely between dimensions at will without even realizing what she has done, something Washu cannot understand or explain despite extensive research. Kajishima has stated that Mihoshi rarely lets her hair down as it results in slow memory loss (yep, she's Dori). Fans have theorized based on the appearance of the catatonically depressed Mihoshi in flashbacks that she may have somehow become involved in Tokimi's extra-dimensional powers or events, although that is purely speculation.

Mihoshi eats constantly, is the epitome of the "dumb blond" (although in the OVA she is the most intelligent and competent of all the versions of Mihoshi in the other series), lives like a slob with the inside of her ship looking more like a bachelor pad than a police officer's vehicle with underwear and half-eaten containers of food on every surface, and while not selfish will show a lack of understanding of others until something is pointed out to her (when asked to stop Ryoko and Ayeka from destroying the house during a fight she called on them to think of how that would ruin her dinner until she realized that it would ruin EVERYONE'S dinners and became more frantic in her attempts). The paperwork submitted to her superiors contains every bit of detail she can think of, repeated constantly and in the first person, which forces them to hire a small team solely for the purpose of deciphering what she's trying to say and censor it if it contains sensitive information (such as the weaknesses of Jurai's defenses, or the fact that the all powerful God lives on Earth and she's pregnant with his child). Like all Galaxy Police officers she carries sidearms, has a patrol ship which can turn into a mecha, and must regularly patrol her sector and respond to alerts. She also has a cube that functions like a Bag of Holding, while pocket dimensions seem to be a rarity unless being created liberally by an advanced scientific mind like Washu. No explanation is ever given on the cube.

Mihoshi is a sleepwalker, and after Ryoko and Ayeka's marriage to Tenchi she unintentionally claims his virginity in the dark while the two fight to see who is his first. She and Noike become pregnant with Tenchi's children around the same time, after Ryoko and Ayeka however, with her giving birth to a daughter that cried frequently as an infant, and as an older child was never seen not laughing or smiling. Along with Nioke and the wives of Tenchi's cousin Seina, Mihoshi took a great deal of sadistic joy dressing up Seina's blond-haired son in drag as the Disney Cinderalla and wore a look of concern when the young boy pretended to show interest in Tenchi.

Washu Hakubi

One of the three Choushin who created the universe, taking on a more mortal form to interact with her creations. Washu has been severely hurt in the past when she fell in love with an alien noble and bore him a son, only for the man's parents to forcibly seperate her from her family(Ironically, said family are Mihoshi's ancestors). As a result, she spends most of her time in the guise of a child version of herself, usually returning to adult form only to make a point or to try and seduce Tenchi.

Although a genius, Washu is also playful and arguably kind of crazy. She has her own extradimensional lab the size of a planet accessible through the cupboard under the stairs in the Masaki shrine, but is fond of bizarre tricks and of tormenting others, especially Tenchi and her daughter, Ryoko.

In the alternate continuity anime series, Tenchi Universe, due to the abandoning of the incest-laden Choushin plotline, Washu was re-envisioned by amplifying her craziness; here, she's a mortal (but still incredibly brilliant) mad scientist who was sealed away by her peers for her reckless endangerment of the universe by creating multiple doomsday weapons, which she didn't even consider to be a big deal. Her irresponsibility comes up again when she creates a machines that bends reality and not doing much to stop the cast from messing with it resulting in the creation of multiple alternate realities (with everyone but Ryoko's and Sasami's ideal realities going bad), a robot version of herself that she put weapons on for no good reason, and a humorous mention by Tenchi that post series she nearly destroyed the universe.

In Tenchi in Tokyo, Washu is instead Ryoko's partner, and plays a considerably less role than in Universe, which already downplayed her role from the OVA.

Noike Kamiki Jurai

Katsuhito Masaki/Yosho Masaki Jurai

The former Prince of Jurai who was stranded on Earth after capturing Ryoko. Having grown to dislike his throne, he was happy to set himself up for a comfortable life in self-imposed exile, posing as a humble kendo-practicing shrine keeper and marrying a succession of human brides. He is Ayeka's half-brother on their father's side and was originally engaged to marry her. A master swordsman, he taught Tenchi everything he knows.

Nobuyuki Masaki

Yosho's son-in-law (and a descendant of Yosho by one of Yosho's previous human brides), Tenchi's widower father. A successful architect, he lives on his own back in Kurashiki whilst Tenchi lives with his aspiring harem in the Masaki Shrine in Okayama. A nice guy, but a bit of a lech. He later remarries a woman named Rhea, and their son Kenshi ends up getting Isekai-ed to his mother's home dimension where, true to form, he ends up piloting a magical mecha, compressing a mountain into a sword, and getting a bigger harem than Tenchi's.

Emperor Azusa Masaki Jurai

Misaki Jurai

Funaho Jurai

Kiyone Makibi

Outside of the OAV continuity, Kiyone is the Long-suffering Galaxy Police partner of Mihoshi. She actually became fairly popular in the fandom, to the point that many fanfic writers would include Kiyone in stories otherwise set in the OAV continuity. The third OAV series then introduced Noike, who is pretty much Kiyone in everything but name.

Seina Yamada

Tenchi's classmate, and protagonist of the Anime spinoff Tenchi Muyo GXP. Seina has horrible luck. If something bad can happen, it will happen, and it will happen to him. Standing too close to him can even cause his bad luck to temporarily rub off on you. He ends up getting accidentally(and forcibly, thanks to his greedy family) recruited into the Galaxy Police. The GP soon learns to weaponize his bad luck(If he keeps accidentally jumping right onto the middle of Space pirate fleets, then you know right where said pirates are going to be, and can set a trap for them), and he soon ends captaining his own ship. This being Tenchi Muyo, of course, most of his crew is female(including the GP officer who recruited him, his Childhood crush((a distant cousin of Tenchi's who turns out to be a GP officer herself, and a stone cold killer when Seina is in real danger), a Space Pirate spy, and an alien priestess who's older than she looks), and he ends up marrying them all(and four alien princesses at the last minute. Blame Lady Seto). He ends up having three sons who all wind up marrying Tenchi's seven daughters.

Kagato

Dr. Clay

One of Washu's former rivals from the Galactic Science Academy, an ugly, overweight, overbearing asshole who styles his hair and beard to look like an octopus (to counteract Washu's hair resembling a crab). He creates a fake-Ryoko that kidnaps Tenchi before going rogue and turning against him for his abuse.

Tokimi

Washu and Tsunami's sister-Choushin, who decided to pursue the experiment by creating her own universe and plunging it into endless, pointless wars that resulted in countless casualties. This helped engineer the superhuman she wanted, but came back to bite her in the ass when he decided he wanted to use his power to kill her for creating them as just her playthings. Not evil, but ignorant, unthinking and without a lot of empathy for lower-dimensional beings.

Z-0001332536893

Tokimi's ultimate creation, her universe's analogue to Tenshi, driven into a theocidal fury by the destruction of his family and the torturous experiments he underwent to achieve his power. Tries to kill Tokimi and then chases her into Tenchi's universe, where his willingness to destroy Earth - and everything else - as collateral damage in his fight against Tokimi induces Tenchi to fight him. Also not quite evil: he intended to rewind time and put everything back once he'd gotten his revenge.

Exactly what happens to him in the end is ambiguous, but the most popular theories involve either Tokimi sending him back in time to live out his life with his family in a rebuilt version of his original universe, or Tokimi reincarnating him into Tenchi's half-brother and spin-off protagonist Kenshi Masaki, potentially with an eye towards taking a swing at him herself eventually, after seeing how happy being with Tenchi made her sisters and getting interested in the idea.

Seiryo

A Pink-haired Jurarian noble who was chosen by Emperor Azusa to be Ayeka's fiance. He challenges Tenchi to a duel for her hand, which is brutally interrupted when Seiryo chose to start the duel just outside Mihoshi's "landing" spot. He reappears in GXP, now sporting a hate-boner against Earthlings, which causes problems for poor Seina.

Misao Kuramitsu

Ships, Robots, and Mecha

Spaceship Ryo-Ohki

Guardians of Jurai: Azaka and Kamidake

Ryu-Oh

Mihoshi's Battle Suit

Mihoshi's Patrol Shuttle

Kagato's Giant Cobra Robots

The Soja

Kagato's Floating Head Robots

Tsunami: "The Ship of the Beginning"

Washu's Ethereal Laptop and Floating Cushion

Washu Dolls

Washu's Subspace Laboratory

Battleship Shunga

Dr. Clay's Escape Ship

Octopus Head Robots

Locations

Locations in the Tenchi OVA are also explored at length to help establish the setting for DMs.

Crunch

Due to the fact the game is INCREDIBLY easy to break and is more intended to revolve around situation than actual combat, its outright encouraged for players to choose fun powers and character quirks rather than simply to min/max. Any players should also expect a DM to be prepared to shut certain characters out of the action if need be, as that's exactly what happens in the show from time to time (because logically Ryoko or Washu can eliminate almost any threat short of Kagato and Tokimi, making characters like Mihoshi and Ayeka redundant). Players are encouraged to talk about the plot of the game with the DM prior to creating characters, including the tone of the game (drama, action, tragedy, comedy?) and the timeline (one single plot event, or an ongoing series of hanging around the Masaki household trying to make things work and multiple villains invading?), and the Character Points available to use for new characters (which are decided by the DM, and not all players or NPC's are required to be the same level).

Character Creation

The rules involving statting characters, including NPCs.

Background

Characters suggested by the rulebook come in the following varieties:

• Central characters canon to the series, such as playing Ryo-Okhi or Katsuhito.
• Players are allowed to be the villains with DM approval.
• Original characters that fit logically into the universe such as Tenchi's classmates, a fourth Choushin, or a space mercenary like Dr. Clay.

Then it is suggested to decide on character background.

• House of Jurai characters begin with the Jurai Power ability, and have access to advanced technology although the character requires a background more extensive than most and their backstory will almost certainly factor into the plot in an ongoing series game.
• Jurai-Earthling Mix characters most resemble the main cast of the series, such as Tenchi and Katsuhito making them the "Human" race of the game. Human mixes prior to Azusa and Funaho would have to have been kept secret or else the humans would have died normally (as an extreme version of the Elf/Human romance where most of human civilization is younger than the Elf analogue), since the revelation of Masaki's descendants being the people of Earth to the general galactic public came with them.
• Galactic Citizen characters are of the other alien races in the setting. Only the Kuramitsu and Airai are given much background, with several aliens of different minor variations from humans and a few looking like bipedal animals appearing at various points in the series, usually as Galaxy Police. One arc of the comics involved the cast traveling the universe and meeting other races, most of which were unnamed and looked identical to normal humans (on a planet of darker skinned people, Ayeka asks if they are Kuramitsu with Mihoshi identifying their skin tone as being one shade lighter than hers in printing terms and goes on to say that means the're a totally different species). In another series, Tenchi and the cast also cross the universe and barring Juraians all people simply look and act like 1980's humans. Galactic Citizen characters have access to the more technological powers and have the suggested Galaxy Police, space pirate, or super-scientist archtypes.
• Earthling characters are a non-factor in the OVA series, only being important in other Tenchi Muyo universes, but are nonetheless presented as an option. Unless you plan on the character being Sasami without any of the Tsunami moments however, giving a reason to have a giant robot is important (with "helped save a Galaxy Police officer and recruited into their ranks" being suggested by the rulebook).
• Unique Entity characters are the final presented character type, representing fusion backgrounds (beware, Mary Sue potential is high) like Sasami being both a House of Jurai character in addition to being a Choushin, Washu being a super-scientist who is secretly a Choushin, Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki being Mass beings who are empowered by the energy of a Choushin, or Tenchi being Jurai-Earthling and also God and created the Choushin. So long story short, probably a Choushin related character.

It is important to note that Mass Power characters are presented as an option, and it is shown by Dr. Clay that the Academy still has the research Washu had done on Mass while being able to create lifeforms without using her gems. Thus Mass characters are possible if somehow tied to the Academy, or a character from the Academy.

Stats

As the Tenchi Muyo RPG still used the Tri-stat system, character attributes consisted of the Body Stat, the Mind Stat, and the Soul Stat. Body obviously represented STR and CON, Mind was INT and part of WIS, Soul combines WIS and all "magic". Ryoko is the example of Body superiority (hehe), Washu mind, and Tenchi Soul. Stats are put on a scale of 1-12.

• 0 Useless or unable.
• 1 Failure.
• 2 Significantly below human average.
• 3 Below average.
• 4 Average (the D&D 10).
• 5 Above average.
• 6 Significantly above average.
• 7 Highly capable.
• 8 Extremely capable.
• 9 Best around.
• 10 Best on Earth.
• 11 Historical skill.
• 12 The best in the universe, without equal.

Stats are attained by spending Character Points on them, but as Character Points are also spent on abilities called Character Attributes you will have to choose where they will go. Barring special circumstances the characters must have at least one point in each stat (special circumstances may be playing a ghost with 0 Body, being essentially an animal like some non-OVA versions of Ryo-Ohki with 0 Mind, or being an extension of another character's will like Azaka and Kamidake (the giant totem pole robots that follow Ayeka around) with 0 Soul. A suggested point amount given to players is 55 for a Season 1 version of the OVA.

The Body stat grants a bonus level of the Speed Character Attribute at rank 10-12, making a character with 12 Body and all 6 ranks in Speed moving at damn near an attosecond.

The game has no experience or level system to speak of, with any further boons (sometimes specific things added to the character, sometimes just more blank check Character Points) being granted at the DM's discretion. Generally speaking, only in a campaign running for a long period of in-universe time will characters grow while specific adventures will likely see characters stay as created.

Character Attributes

Character Attributes come in 6 levels each. They combine what would be character class and feats. Each is tied to one of the three core stats if it requires a dice-roll. Some can be used in conjunction with each other (with a given example being Appearance also working with Art of Distraction), and the rulebook specifies players must discuss if the DM will allow different combinations than specificed before attempting it (so a player could try to use Damn Healthy! with Reincarnation to be restored faster). With permission from the DM players can go beyond the 6 levels, and villains are suggested to get more than that if a single character is supposed to be against a group so they don't become cookie-cutters with points in everything.

Some give Power Points in the Mecha, Jurai, or Mass categories. These are used to buy Sub-Attributes, or special abilities, in those categories.

The rulebook has statted each member of the main cast and provided examples of where they fall for comparison, although since the rulebook only relies on the first season of the OVA they do not reflect later lore, and are also very subject to interpretation.

Appearance

Each rank costs 1 point. Rolls involve the Body stat.

Older D&D players would know this as Comeliness. It's the physical aspect of CHA, although it's required by players to identify what they are going for when taking ranks in this (as Sasami would (hopefully) inspire affection rather than arousal, while Ryoko taking ranks in this would be different from Ryo-Ohki doing the same). Although not identified by the rulebook, one could also go with something like "Intimidating" or "Forgettable" which may factor into the need to discuss with DM's before playing. The rulebook identifies character parallels for this.

• 0 Average. Tenchi tier.
• 1 Moderate. Kagato/Sasami tier.
• 2 Quite (chosen appearance). Ayeka, Washu, Ryoko tier.
• 3 Very (chosen appearance). Adult Sasami/Tsunami tier.
• 4 Extremely (chosen appearance). Art of Distraction increased by 1. Ryo-Ohki in Cabbit or child form for cuteness.
• 5 Legendary (chosen appearance). Art of Distraction increased by 2.
• 6 Unparallelled (chosen appearance). Art of Distraction increased by 3.

Art of Distraction

Each rank costs 1 point. Rolls involve the Body stat for physical distraction through sex appeal or misdirection, or Soul stat if trying to persuade, use words, sheer willpower, or by playing on emotion.

The first use is simply distracting the opponent, although as Starlord (who?) proved this can be VERY useful and it's reflected in the mechanics. The second is what most Diplomancers would use frequently. Gains a bonus from high Appearance if the Body stat version is being used. This can be used at any time, making it VERY useful to have for at least one rank on one character. Multiple characters can pool their Art of Distraction ranks if working together on the same dice roll.

• 0 Nobody pays any more attention to you than anyone else.
• 1 Can distract one target intentionally. Mihoshi and pre-modifier Ryo-Ohki tier.
• 2 Can distract two targets. Ryo-Ohki due to Appearance synergy.
• 3 Can distract a small crowd of 1-10.
• 4 Can distract a medium crowd of 11-50.
• 5 Can distract a large crowd of 50-200.
• 6 Can distract a very large crowd of 200-1000.

Combat Mastery

Each rank costs 2 points.

Covers a character's knowledge and/or training in fighting with all weapon types including unarmed. While you can advance your abilities in specific weapons, this gives the character better all-around knowledge.

• 0 Your character is as good at using a new weapon as you yourself would be.
• 1 Combat Value increased by 1.
• 2 Combat Value increased by 2. Tenchi tier.
• 3 Combat Value increased by 3. Katsuhito tier.
• 4 Combat Value increased by 4.
• 5 Combat Value increased by 5.
• 6 Combat Value increased by 6.

Damn Healthy!

Each rank costs 1 point.

Increases HP of characters, and works with the Body stat for overall CON related saves.

• 0 As healthy as your Body stat allows.
• 1 +10 HP.
• 2 +20 HP. Mihoshi level.
• 3 +30 HP. Ryoko level, with her high Body and Soul making her almost indestructible.
• 4 +40 HP.
• 5 +50 HP.
• 6 +60 HP.

Divine Relationship

Each rank costs 1 point.

This is the Luck stat of the game, and can represent anything from the will of the universe guiding them or just being a moron that the plot requires to survive. Since this power works with "game sessions", it gets weaker in prolonged sessions requiring a lot of dice rolls. As a result, players may want to houserule it stronger or weaker as needed.

• 0 No masters.
• 1 Can reroll one dice per game.
• 2 Can reroll two dice per game. Tenchi is at this level due to having Tsunami's favor, and also being lucky in general.
• 3 Can reroll three dice per game.
• 4 Can reroll four dice per game.
• 5 Can reroll five dice per game.
• 6 Can reroll six dice per game. Sasami (being Tsunami herself) and Mihoshi (having little other redeeming abilities) are in this rank.

Energy Bonus

Each rank costs 1 point.

Characters can use more Energy in combat.

• 0 You channel energy as much as anyone else "average" could.
• 1 +10 Energy Points.
• 2 +20 Energy Points.
• 3 +30 Energy Points.
• 4 +40 Energy Points.
• 5 +50 Energy Points. Tenchi's ability to manifest Light Hawk Wings at an almost divine level puts him here.
• 6 +60 Energy Points.

Focused Damage

Each rank costs 1 point.

Character chooses a type of attack, such as a martial arts ability or a specific weapon, which becomes much stronger.

• 0 You don't have a signature move.
• 1 +10 damage.
• 2 +20 damage. Since Ryo-Okhi is strong enough to chew through metal, her biting attacks have this.
• 3 +30 damage.
• 4 +40 damage.
• 5 +50 damage.
• 6 +60 damage.

Heightened Jurai Power

Each rank costs 1 point.

This adds on to the Jurai Power abilities. These give less Power Points for the same amount of Character Points than Jurai Power, and thus should only be taken if maxed out in that unless you only need a few more points (for example, needing 47 points instead of just 50) for what you want to do. You can't take this without one rank of Jurai Power obviously. These abilities primarily represent the bullshit Tenchi is capable of.

• 0 You are average (as a Juraian).
• 1 +2 Power Points.
• 2 +5 Power Points.
• 3 +7 Power Points.
• 4 +10 Power Points.
• 5 +12 Power Points.
• 6 +15 Power Points.

Heightened Mass Power

Each rank costs 1 point.

The same as above, but for Mass Power.

• 0 You are a normal...creature made of Mass.
• 1 +2 Power Points.
• 2 +5 Power Points.
• 3 +7 Power Points.
• 4 +10 Power Points.
• 5 +12 Power Points.
• 6 +15 Power Points.

Heightened Senses

Each rank costs 1 point. Rolls involve the Body stat.

The senses of the character are naturally improved. These can be taken to greatly improve one sense (taste, touch, sight, smell, or hearing), or a general rank for all of the above slightly.

• 0 Daredevil with a headcold.
• 1 Slight heightening (or x2 single sense). Katsuhito has this.
• 2 x2 heightening (or x4 single sense).
• 3 x3 heightening (or x6 single sense).
• 4 x4 (or x8 single sense).
• 5 x5 (or x10 single sense).
• 6 x6 (or x12 single sense).

Highly Skilled

Each rank costs 1 point. Rolls involve different stats.

Gives additional Skill Points, and can be taken as many times as you want even without DM permission.

• 0 Your skill is weak!
• 1 +10 Skill Points.
• 2 +20 Skill Points. Tenchi's years of training at the Masaki Shrine have put him here.
• 3 +30 Skill Points.
• 4 +40 Skill Points.
• 5 +50 Skill Points. Katsuhito's long life of experience has put him here.
• 6 +60 Skill Points.

Item of Power

Each rank costs 2 points. Rolls sometimes require Soul.

Grants the character a powerful item they can use. The rough idea of the item is it grants a boost to Mecha, Jurai, or Mass Power Points. However some can come with different powers beyond this and may be a higher rank than the actual bonuses granted, which fall on the DM to approve (which would be basically starting with a magic item). Obviously the item has to still belong to the character, and if lost the bonus it provides is gone as well.

• 0 No phat lewt for you.
• 1 Small advantage, or 5 Mecha/Jurai/Mass Power Points.
• 2 Moderate advantage, or 6-10 Mecha/Jurai/Mass Power Points.
• 3 Good advantage, or 11-15 Mecha/Jurai/Mass Power Points. Tenchi's Master Key sword hilt is at this level.
• 4 Great advantage, or 16-20 Mecha/Jurai/Mass Power Points.
• 5 Extreme advantage, or 21-15 Mecha/Jurai/Mass Power Points.
• 6 "Primal" advantage, or 26-30 Mecha/Jurai/Mass Power Points.

Jurai Power

Each rank costs 4 points. Roll stat varies.

Jurai power is holy energy channeled from Tsunami through Jurai royal trees, and can be used by characters related to the Jurai nobility or character tied to another member of the Choushin. There are exceptions to this rule, such as Ryoko being a blood-daughter of Washu and being able to use Jurai Power through the gems containing all of Washu's divinity, or Kagato using the Soja to empower himself as it's power is based on the energy radiated by the gems.

Jurai Power characters can use an Item of Power (even one belonging to another character if it accepts them) to control Jurai ships, and have natural energy powers including energy swords and projectiles, force fields, psychic powers, and transmutation.

• 0 You ain't Choushin powered. Feel free to hate those rich assholes and their hippy spaceships.
• 1 +10 Power Points.
• 2 +20 Power Points.
• 3 +30 Power Points.
• 4 +40 Power Points.
• 5 +50 Power Points. This is where Tenchi falls on the scale according to the rulebook.
• 6 +60 Power Points.

Mass Power

Each rank costs 4 points.

Mass Powers are granted to characters who were created or altered using Mass, like Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki, or to characters who have Items of Power derived from Mass (usually a crystalline form) like Kagato with his fancy space pimpmobile. Mass biology is strange, and so are the abilities they grant which range from selective incorporeability to duplicating yourself to physical transformation. Mass beings can merge with each other, with the resulting creature possessing memories and the physical attributes of the components. There is sometimes a byproduct or remaining being, and these can by connected somehow. Examples are Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki's side by side creation linking the two somehow, Kagato being the result of an unnamed Mass biped merging with Naja's clone and leaving a small girl linked to Kagato, Ryoko merging with a physical copy of herself to become more emotionally open, and Ryo-Ohki merging with a hivemind Mass biped to gain a humanoid form and the capacity for advanced learning.

• 0 You are not Massamatical.
• 1 +10 Power Points.
• 2 +20 Power Points. Ryo-Ohki is here.
• 3 +30 Power Points.
• 4 +40 Power Points.
• 5 +50 Power Points. Ryoko is here.
• 6 +60 Power Points.

Mechanical Genius

Each rank costs 2 points. Rolls require the Mind stat.

While ranking up the Electronics and Mechanics skills represents training or practice, this represents advanced knowledge or simply natural skill. They can repair, build, or alter machines slightly better and much faster than simply skilled characters can.

• 0 You have to look up how to program a 1990's VCR.
• 1 Repairs and builds at x2 speed, + 1 Mechanics and +1 Electronics skills.
• 2 Repairs and builds at x5 speed, +1 Mechanics and +1 Electronics skills.
• 3 Repairs and builds at x10 speed, +2 Mechanics and Electronics skills.
• 4 Repairs and builds at x20 speed, +2 Mechanics and Electronics skills.
• 5 Repairs and builds at x50 speed, +3 Mechanics and Electronics skills.
• 6 Repairs and builds at x100 speed, +3 Mechanics and Electronics skills. Washu is here.

More Powerful Mecha

Each rank costs 1 point.

The same for the Mecha abilities as Heightened ______ is for Jurai and Mass Power.

• 0 Your Mecha is average. Hang your head in shame.
• 1 +5 Mecha Points.
• 2 +10 Mecha Points.
• 3 +15 Mecha Points. Ayeka is given this rather than having another rank in Own A Big Mecha for crunch reasons.
• 4 +20 Mecha Points.
• 5 +25 Mecha Points.
• 6 +30 Mecha Points.

Own A Big Mecha

Each rank costs 4 points.

Character has a robot, spaceship, laboratory, or some other artificial cool thing. These are built like a separate character your main character uses, but unlike a character with Jurai or Mass Power, Own A Big Mecha points only affect the Mecha itself; if separated or it is destroyed, the main character doesn't get those points back (although they can be repaired or rebuilt usually).

Unless otherwise specified, the Mecha defaults to power armor. The Mecha gains its own stats if it is granted AI. By technicality, Ryo-Ohki is a Mecha although the game treats her as a PC (or NPC) due to the fact she has her own mind.

Multiple characters can invest their Own A Big Mecha ranks into one single device. This is usually to represent a ship, such as a Galaxy Police cruiser, but can be used for other things (such as Washu's pocket-dimension bathhouse?).

• 0 You have no Mecha. What's wrong with you?
• 1 +20 Mecha Power Points.
• 2 +40 Mecha Power Points.
• 3 +60 Mecha Power Points.
• 4 +80 Mecha Power Points.
• 5 +100 Mecha Power Points.
• 6 +120 Mecha Power Points.

Personal Gear

Each rank costs 1 point.

This represents specialized gear like special weapons or rare materials. Things such as radios, flashlights, extra clothes, and so forth are not part of the Personal Gear ability. Advanced technology only works if it is common enough to the tech level of the campaign, for example a game taking place on Jurai may allow Personal Gear to include shit straight out of Star Trek while a campaign based around Tenchi's friends as the PC's may not allow that. Each rank allows four minor items and one major item, although players can take eight minor items instead. Minor items are rare or expensive and would require the average person a month of wages to purchase, and include things like handguns, swords, medical kits, night vision equipment, camping gear, burglary tools, and computers. Major items are likely illegal, expensive, or highly restricted items like automatic weapons, laboratory supplies, energy weapons, a furnished room of some kind like a workshop, vehicles, RPG's, or space suits and ends where the Own A Mecha and Item of Power abilities begin.

• 0 Entry-level murderhobo.
• 1 1 major, 4 minor.
• 2 2 major, 8 minor. Mihoshi is here with her basic Galaxy Police equipment, although the Dimensional Cube is an Item of Power and her ship is Own A Big Mecha.
• 3 3 major, 12 minor.
• 4 4 major, 16 minor.
• 5 5 major, 20 minor.
• 6 6 major, 24 minor.

Speed

Each rank costs 1 point. Rolls require the Body stat.

Represents the extreme speed of movement a character is capable of. At Body 10, characters receive 1 free rank in Speed, 2 ranks at Body 11, and 3 bonus ranks at 12 points of Body.

• 0 100% playback speed.
• 1 x1.5 speed. Ryoko is here before counting her Body stat.
• 2 x2 speed. Ryoko is here after counting her Body stat.
• 3 x3 speed, +1 Initiative.
• 4 x4 speed, +2 Initiative, +1 Combat Value.
• 5 x5 speed, +3 Initiative, +1 Combat Value.
• 6 x6 speed, +4 Initiative, +1 Combat Value.

Unique Character Attribute

Each rank costs between 1 and 4 points. Roll stat varies.

This category is the blank slate for extra things to be houseruled in. Rather than increasing rank for greater effect, a single effect may be taken multiple times. Obviously this entire option requires DM approval.

• 0 You are average water.
• 1 Small character or game effect. Ryo-Ohki has two of level this from the small crystals that function as her control system in spaceship form, and when not in that state can turn into weak versions of herself for labor or distraction.
• 2 Moderate character or game effect.
• 3 Large character or game effect.
• 4 Major character or game effect.
• 5 Extreme character or game effect.
• 6 "Primal" character or game effect.

Sub-Attributes

Defects

Skills

Derived Values

Background Points

The book reiterates the importance of making a character rather than making stats and applying tropes, or making a character rather than an attention-whore that will solve all the problems themselves and win all the luv. DMs are actually given the ability to grant 1-3 more points for character creation if they approve of the character created, giving incentive to work together.

Playing

The rules used in playing the game.

Dice

Dice Checks

Actions

Combat

Mecha and Spaceships

Example Campaigns

The given campaigns in the rulebook, and the separate campaign book.

Miniatures

Although no licensed miniatures have ever been made for Tenchi Muyo (a small chibi set was released, and Gashapons (approximately 3-6 inch sized figures sold in blind boxes or vending machines) exist which tend to be very expensive in addition to greatly oversized for tabletop gaming and usually don't include Tenchi himself) there are models released by various companies which make good alternatives.

• By removing the spear and replacing it with a sword or open hand, the "Wood Elf Goddess" from Dark Sword Miniatures is an excellent Ryoko or adult Washu.

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• "Nami" from Shadowforge, despite the absolutely nightmarish paintjob used to advertise it, looks quite similar to Ryoko although modelers would want to replace the pistol with a light sword.

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• "Liela Mordollwen Dark Elf Sorceress" from Reaper Miniatures resembles both Ryoko and Washu although many of the medieval details and both weapons should be removed.

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