Admit it—at the core of things, Tenchi Muyo! is about seeing Ryoko. Whether it’s her conflict with Ayeka, or watching her develop into a complete person. She’s got such a great personality, complex in ways that most harem characters can only dream of.
The first of the women introduced into Tenchi’s life, she makes his world more interesting from the beginning no matter the canon she’s in. Whether it’s tricking Tenchi into helping her beat Mihoshi while she’s in a robot, or being awesome enough to battle Ayeka’s powerful Juraian ship, she basically pushes the plot forward. And here’s all the information fans could ever want about her.
10 VOICED BY QUATRE
Ryoko is voiced by three separate actors. Her Japanese voice is the legendary Orikasa Ai, who’s been voicing characters for four decades and is probably most recognized by 90’s fans as Gundam Wing’s Quatre Winner. In English she’s been voiced by Petrea Burchard, who’s iconic voice for Ryoko is one of the best reasons to watch the dub. She voiced the character for the first wave of Tenchi stuff, but was gone for GXP and the third OVA, while Mona Marshall worked on the character during that interim. Recently Petrea returned to voice the character in Tenchi Muyo! Ai.
9 ENSLAVED BY KAGATO
Ryoko was never meant to be such a powerful instrument of terror. Unfortunately, shortly after she was created, Washu’s assistant Kagato trapped her inside of the alternate dimension of her ship the Soja. Afterwards, he took advantage of the infant Ryoko and began to use her to further his goals. Along the way, he gained complete control of her, taking all of her emotions away so she would more willingly follow his goals. Between the power of Ryoko, Ryo-Ohki, and the Soja, he became one of the more dangerous people around.
8 DAUGHTER OF A GODDESS
Washu is one of the Choushin, who helped create the universe itself. Washu’s incredible scientific abilities might make people believe Ryoko is simply an invention of Washu. But actually, Washu took her own DNA and merged it with a creature known as mass. Mass is generally a peaceful sea creature, preferring not to fight and can even be easily scared away. However, they can be imprinted on easily, while also merging to form an entirely new creature as well.
7 THE THREE GEMS
What initially made Ryoko so deadly and near unbeatable were three gems she had. These gems were placed inside her by Washu, and contained all of her energy as a Choushin. With her full power, Ryoko is a nearly unstoppable warrior that can beat any would-be challenger. The only problem is, the gems were removed from her body during her battle with Yosho. Since then she’s only been granted one of the three gems, and they appear to be easily taken from her, as Zero was able to easily take the one gem given back to her by Tenchi.
6 WATCHED TENCHI GROW UP
One of the reasons Ryoko seems to be so infatuated with Tenchi is she actually saw him grow up. She was sealed by Yosho and was unable to actually interact with anyone for several hundred years, but that didn’t mean she was completely out for all that time.
Instead, Ryoko managed to astral project herself a certain distance from her tomb. She was able to see Tenchi at several points in his life, watching as he grew from a baby all the way up into being the teenager when she finally meets him. It’s believed this was part of Yosho’s plan, as he believed seeing someone experience an actual childhood could help her develop eventually.
5 MERGES WITH A ROBOT
In the second OVA, one of the actual plotlines of the story involves an attempt to bring Washu to Tokimi. To do so, they intend to use Ryoko as a way to get close to Washu—creating a clone with a robot named Zero. Zero completely copies Ryoko’s body and memories...but gets her emotions as well, thus becoming unable to control herself around Tenchi. She’s much nicer and more honest about her feelings, and likes being Ryoko so much that Washu decides it’d be better to simply have Zero fuse with Ryoko. The result is for a while Ryoko loses control of her emotions.
4 RYO-OHKI'S SISTER
It’s easy to view Ryoko as only the pilot of Ryo-Ohki, but this actually isn’t only the case. Both Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki were created from the aquatic creature known as mass. While Ryoko was created using an ova from Washu, Ryo-Ohki was created using mineral cells. The two are still close however, and Ryoko actually knows where Ryo-Ohki is at all times. They’ve even shown a link between the two, with Ryoko being capable of helping Ryo-Ohki’s inner mapping system work better.
3 THE SPACE PIRATE
Ryoko is one of the more legendary space pirates thanks to some of her early escapades. Used by Kagato as a means to sew terror, Ryoko wound up attacking 28 planets and 69 colonies in her younger years.
Her ship Ryo-Ohki is capable of keeping up with even the most powerful Juraian ships (logically, as it was created by a goddess), and as such she had no problem battling against anyone in the galaxy. Her legend is so powerful that centuries after she vanished, pirates still name their children after her, which is why a new popular space pirate, Ryoko Balta, shares her name.
2 THE DEVIL CALLER
Ryoko’s name is said to mean “devil caller”, and we’ve seen her actually use powers indicating this is literal. The power of the gems allows her to summon spirits, as she did in the first OVA series. This is doubtlessly how she managed to inflict such terror on so many planets. But she hasn’t used this ability recently because she needs at least two of the three gems: one to summon the spirits, and the other to control them. Without them, whatever she summons will be completely uncontrollable.
1 HAS A CHILD WITH TENCHI
It takes what seems to be decades, but it’s been shown that Ryoko eventually has a kid by her beloved. Masaki Kajishima has created multiple comics set in the future, with one showing a Ryoko that’s grown older and actually has at the least one child that seems to have her hairstyle and Tenchi’s face. These are canon storylines, and the actual OVAs that are still going seem to be building towards this eventual future.