Seina Yamada

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Seina Yamada
Code Name: Lorelei
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Seiyū: Shigeru Mogi
Voice actor: Tony Oliver (credited as "Raphael Antonio")
Hair color: Black
Eye color: Brown

Seina Yamada (山田 西南 Yamada Seina?) is a fictional character in the Tenchi Muyo! series and serves as the main character of Tenchi Muyo! GXP, a television spinoff from the original OVAs.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Unlucky boy

Seina Yamada is a good friend of Tenchi Masaki and his parents run a small grocery at the beginning of the series. However, aside from Tenchi, Kiriko Masaki and Kiriko's brother Kai, Seina has very few friends; mostly because he has the worst luck in the universe. Minor disasters often occur in his presence, and anyone near him stays a good distance away from him. Seina's usual (lack of) luck almost ends when a spaceship nearly crashlands on his head at the Masaki residence. Its driver, Galaxy Police Detective Second Class Amane Kaunaq, had meant to present Tenchi a pamphlet for joining the G.P., but mistakenly offers Seina the application instead, under the impression that Tenchi was training the boy.

His family persuades him - via forcibly nabbing his signature and thumb print - to fill out the application, with the hope that Seina would win a prize. When he wakes from sleep for the night, he finds himself aboard a spaceship, recruited to be the newest member of the G.P. Academy. He also meets Mitoto Kuramitsu, the ditzy mother of Mihoshi and cleaning lady extraordinaire, before discovering his friend Kiriko is also a GP officer. From there, Seina is thrown into a plan to stop the Daluma pirate guild from taking over the galaxy.

When Seina's bad luck was found to have an effect of attracting space pirates, the G.P. capitalized on it by placing Seina in command of one of the Decoy Fleet's newest ships, the Kamidake (which included systems designed by Tenchi's sister Tennyo Masaki). However, when the ship was irreparably damaged as a result of an encounter with space pirate Tarant Shank, Seto then presented Seina with a ship designed by Washu Hakubi, which was named the Kamidake II by Seina. The ship consist of the main ship body and a cabbit, similar to Ryo-Ohki, named Fuku by Seina. Fuku differ from Ryo-Ohki in that Fuku serves as a terminal body and more importantly, the power source for the ship, thus is not able to transform into a ship. However, according to Washu Hakubi, it is possible for Fuku to turn into a cabbit girl like Ryo-Ohki if Fuku wishes for it as she matures.

Later, the ship became a hybrid, when under Seto Kamiki Jurai's supervision, it was fused together with Kiriko's second generation royal tree Mizuki (enabling it to generate Light Hawk Wings for protection). The main pod, which house the royal tree in a Juraian Royal Tree ship, was used for the fusion.

[edit] Battles with pirates and resulting revelations

During the time Seina commanded the Kamidake and Kamidake II, he was earning an equivalent to a fleet commander's salary. However, because he was still a cadet, that money was kept in a special account until he graduated and was given what he would normally earn. The interest the money accumulated, however, was forwarded to his family on Earth. It was so much money that the Yamada family used it to build a huge new home, as well as building a huge supermarket in place of their small grocery. While Seina was visiting Tenchi back on Earth, Amane, Kiriko, Ryoko Balta, and Neju, who was visiting at the time, worked at the Yamada's supermarket, where they were worked until exhausted.

It was later in the series when Seina, who was trying to rescue Fuku from rogue elements of the Galaxy Army, was found by a tribe of Wau, who mistake him for their savior and threw him into an ancient mecha, (which bears a striking reselance to Dual!'s Zinv). Somehow, Seina was able to activate the mecha, which he used to save not only Fuku, but cabbit clones made from Fuku's cells by Tarant, who had allied himself with the rogue G.A. faction. Angered by this, Seina fought Shank and his allies. But in doing this, the mecha was able to integrate itself to the Kamidake II, which was captured with Fuku. And even more startling, the mecha formed Light Hawk Wings, even though it was not bonded with Mizuki.

Afterward, it was revealed by Emperor Azusa and Empresses Funaho and Misaki that the mecha had as its power source a first generation Jurai tree seed, with the seed bonding itself with Seina. As a result, Seina is now third-in-line to the Jurai throne, behind Yosho and Tenchi. As a result, a political marriage between Seina, Amane, Kiriko, Ryoko Balta, Neju and Fuku was made. However, Seto's ladies-in-waiting, who were actually agents of the Renza Federation, kidnapped Seina and publicly seduced him to ensure their non-Galactic Union organization's survival. Seina ends up marrying the four spies as well, and now commands a crew made up entirely of his wives, still patrolling for pirates and illegal activities in space.

[edit] Trivia

  • Seina's luck changes for the better throughout the series, as it's determined by Washu that garnering the interest of the four girls (Amane, Kiriko, Ryoko Balta, and Neju) offsets his natural precursor for disaster. Not unlike the Western superstition with the number thirteen, four is considered unlucky by the Japanese, with the original character being avoided when possible; four, when pronounced shi, is a homophone for "death". Likewise, the number of wives Seina has at the series' ending is also a bad omen; nine, when pronounced ku, is a homophone for "suffering".
  • His friends on Earth call Seina "Sainan", making his name a take-off of the Japanese word for "calamity".
  • His infamy amongst the pirate guilds has also earned him the derogatory name Lorelei, after the mythological Germanic nix who lured sailors to their deaths.
  • He has a brief appearance in Tenchi Muyo OVA episode 20, where Kiyone (Tenchi's mother) is in the hospital with him as a toddler. She writes "baka" (idiot) on his forehead with a marking pen. (This is often mistaken for Tenchi, who was home with the measles at the time).
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