Ryoko (Tenchi Muyo!)
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| Ryoko | |
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| Name Translation: | 'Bringer of Demons' 'Spirit Caller' |
|---|---|
| Gender: | Female |
| Seiyū: | Ai Orikasa |
| Voice actress: | Petrea Burchard Mona Marshall (OVA3 and GXP) |
| Height: | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) |
| Hair color: | Cyan |
| Eye color: | Amber |
| Bloodtype: | AB |
Ryoko (魎呼 Ryōko?) is a key character in the various Tenchi Muyo! anime series by AIC. While details of her character differ between the various series, Ryoko is typically shown as an attractive, semi-reformed powerful space pirate who is madly in love with the series main character, Tenchi Masaki. In the various series, Ryoko is portrayed as being impulsive, hedonistic (with a penchant for sake), poor-mannered, often immodest, and hot-tempered, but good-hearted at her core.
In the anime, Ryoko universally holds a rivalry with the character Ayeka, who also fights for Tenchi's affections. Often the conflict between the two comes out of their decidedly different personalities, with Ryoko being the tomboyish troublemaker and Ayeka being the well-mannered, but often snooty aristocrat. The level of the rivalry can vary between being equitable to a pair of bickering siblings to an all-out feud.
Many cite Ryoko as an archetypical example of a tomboy character among American anime fans due to excessive sake drinking, and outgoing personality.
While the name Ryoko is a common feminine given name in Japan, in this instance it is written with very uncommon kanji. Ryoko's name can be translated as "bringer of demons" and is stated as meaning "The Devil Caller" in the OVA series.
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[edit] OVA
In this series, Ryoko is known as Ryoko Hakubi, and was a space pirate who was defeated by Yosho nearly 700 years before her release by Tenchi. Before that, she was a slave to Kagato. Her age is over 5,000 - although she claims to be 'only' 2,000. She was created by Washu, using her egg cells as a base, so she's indirectly Washu's daughter. Washu's DNA was combined with that of amorphous creatures called the Masu to create Ryoko. She has three Gems that are the source of her full energy, which also came from Washu.
The Gem on her left wrist allows her to summon a demon, the Gem on her right wrist allows her to control the demon she summons, and the last Gem, which goes on her neck, gives her full power. She also has the ability to create false gems, as one that is kept as an earring. This false Gem is not as powerful as the originals, but allow her to balance her power and abilities. False gems also last for only a limited time, while the originals have an inexhuastible supply of energy. In OAV 3, it was revealed that the true Gems contain the powers and godhead of Washu-kami-sama (who is one of the three Chousin Goddesses). It is debatable just how much of her mother's power she is borrowing and how much she is capable of using on her own, but her relatively young age prevents her from drawing upon their full power.
Powers Ryoko posses include telepathy with Washu and Ryo-Ohki, flight, teleporting, phasing through solid objects, regenerating missing limbs, creating doppelgängers (a double of herself), telekinesis, creating forcefields, doing matter formation (manipulating matter and changing into that form. (As in OVA Episode 6, when she morphed with the stone pillar), hair needles and creating energy swords and energy blasts. Some of these abilities are known to have been inherited from Washu, while others are likely the result of her Masu genes.
As a character, Ryoko is very emotional. She gets upset easily, and she's short tempered, especially around Ayeka. But she's deeply in love with Tenchi, though not fully admitting how deeply until Episodes 5 & 6, When she tells Ayeka how she first met Tenchi, and later when she offers up her own life in place of his. While she was trapped in the cave, she was able to create an astral body (sort of like a ghostly consciousness) and venture outside the cave a short distance. She watched Tenchi grow up over the years, and she wished more than anything to be with him. However, the way she introduced herself to him was terribly frightening to Tenchi, so he distanced himself from her for a long time. Also when Washu is first introduced she tells Ryoko that she knows how she (Ryoko) feels about Tenchi and says that Ryoko wants to do "this and that" with Tenchi.
Ryoko also has a bit of an ambiguous relation with Washu, her "mother." When Washu first appears, she critiques her daughter's sex appeal and asks Ryoko to refer to her as "mommy." As the series progresses, she starts to fear Washu, especially when Washu starts doing some of her experiments on an unwilling Ryoko. In fact, Ryoko becomes slightly cautious whenever Washu is looking at her with a michievious smile and intimidating eyes.
Physically, Ryoko has no tastebuds, and has no need to eat; all the energy she gets comes from the gem created by Washu on her wrist. Ryoko eats to be social, but has a taste for sake. Although she can get drunk like normal humans, Ryoko has the ability to nullify the effects of alcohol, which comes in handy if she has to go into battle. She can also instantly nullify any other toxic chemicals within her body. In addition, Ryoko does not need to breathe, and can survive unaided in the vacuum of space.
[edit] Tenchi Universe
In this series, Ryoko is once again a space pirate, but she isn't a slave to anybody. She was introduced to Tenchi by crashlanding into Earth during a dogfight with Mihoshi. Tenchi found her and it was almost love at first sight (for her, of course).
We have no idea who her parents are or what her origins are. Those are never revealed to us.
She can still summon an energy sword and shoot ki blasts, but she doesn't have any gems which would be the source of her power. She can also fly around and teleport, make copies of herself, but she can no longer summon demons.
Again, she's very emotional and brash, but not as much as in the OVA, and enjoys doing things to make Ayeka mad, which includes flirting with Tenchi.
By the end of the series, her love for Tenchi has become very powerful—to the point that she nearly dies for him.
In this series, Ryoko still has Ryo-Ohki, her pet (or partner-in-crime) cabbit, a cute cat/rabbit animal which can transform into a well-armed spaceship. She also has an arch-rival, Nagi, who has her own cabbit, a male named Ken-Ohki. Ryo-Ohki and Ken-Ohki love each other, which complicates the lives of their mistresses.
Ryoko has tastebuds in this series as well as a need to eat or feed herself.
[edit] Tenchi in Tokyo
Once again, Ryoko is a space pirate in this series. She was in the process of running away with the Jurai Lightstone, which consequently brings everybody to Tenchi's planet all at once. She pilots a pink Soja, which looks identical to OVA Kagato's ship, except for its color.
Her physical appearance is considerably different in comparison with the other series due to the artwork. Her attitude is also very different. She's more violent, and screams a lot more. Many things get blown up around her.
Her obsession over Tenchi is still there, but that's basically the only characteristic that remains consistent throughout every series. However, it develops to a greater extent in this series after she goes on a date with Tenchi, and later sees him with Sakuya.
She still retains the ability to summon an energy sword and fire energy blasts, but Ryo-Ohki doesn't belong to her. Also she cannot survive without oxygen unlike the previous series.
She falls in love with Tenchi after a major battle between her and everybody else. Unfortunately, she was severely injured, but Tenchi remained by her bedside, taking care of her, and because nobody had done that for her before, it sparked her love for him there.
[edit] Pretty Sammy
Ryoko appears in both Pretty Sammy series in very different roles. In the OVA series, Ryoko appears as a schoolgirl, Ryoko Orikasa (折笠 魎呼 Orikasa Ryōko?) (she was given the last name of her Japanese seiyū Ai Orikasa), a juvenile delinquent. She and Ayeka constantly bicker over Tenchi Kawai's affections. Ryoko is obsessed with Tenchi, to the point where she even hides out inside his bedroom for one night, and even kidnaps him and carries him off against his will. Ryoko was briefly transformed with Ayeka into one of Pixy Misa's Love-Love Monsters in the first episode and became more obsessive over Tenchi, until Tenchi was able to get through to Ryoko, enabling for Pretty Sammy to return her to normal. But even after that Ryoko hadn't changed.
In the Pretty Sammy TV series (Magical Project S), Ryoko appears in the last few episodes as Oryo... or "Overly Splendid" Oryo (素晴らしすぎるお魎 Subarashi Sugiru Oryō?), bodyguard to Queen Tsunami of Juraihelm. In contrast to Ryoko's usual characterization, Oryo is a dignified and honorable warrior, ready to lay down her life for Tsunami. Her appearance and powers remain roughly the same, except that Oryo has normal human ears. She fights alongside Pretty Sammy and Pixy Misa against Romio, the would-be usurper. Fittingly, the name Oryo can be read "most honorable demon." In her first appearance, she posed as "Cool Red", a character from the series Blue Sky Cool Rangers (a spoof of Japan's live-action Super Sentai series) and easily destroyed Love-Me Emmy's Lovely Monsters Right and Left, after Pretty Sammy had destroyed the antenna that Romio was using to control Eimi.
| Tenchi Muyo! characters | |
|---|---|
| Main Characters | |
| Tenchi | Ryoko | Ayeka | Sasami | Mihoshi | Washu | Kiyone | Ryo-Ohki | Noike | |
| The Chousin | |
| Washu | Tsunami | Tokimi | |
| Villains | |
| Kagato | Dr. Clay | Z | Yugi | Kain | Yuzuha | Haruna | Seiryo | Tarant | Yakage | Shima Brothers | Yume | Mikamo & Yataka | Garyu | Dark Washu | |
| Masaki Family | |
| Katsuhito | Nobuyuki | Achika | Tennyo | Airi | Rea | |
| Guardians & Royalty of Jurai | |
| Azaka & Kamidake | Azusa | Funaho | Misaki | Seto | |
| Galaxy Police | |
| Seina | Minami | Misao | Sabato | |
| Pretty Sammy | |
| Sasami Kawai | Pixy Misa | Ramia | Rumiya | Chief Pretty Sammy characters | Chief Magical Project S characters | |
| Others | |
| Nagi | Sakuya | Mayuka | Zero | Minagi | Hiwa | Asahi | Kazuma | Tama | Chief GXP characters | |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki | Tenchi Universe | Tenchi in Tokyo | Tenchi Muyo! GXP | Pretty Sammy | Sasami: Mahou Shoujo Club |
