I've read more than a few posts in reviews, newsgroups, or bulletin
boards where people express confusion as to why Ryoko and Ayeka, not
to mention the other women of the household, would fawn over Tenchi.
So, I thought I would explore this issue and see what conclusions I
could come up with. I'll deal only with Ryoko and Ayeka since they are
the primary women interested in Tenchi.
Let's start with Ayeka as I believe her feelings are more easily explained.
At first she's not interested at all in Tenchi. When she first sees
him, Tenchi is with the notorious space pirate Ryoko. This is the woman
that caused untold damage to her planet of Jurai not to mention causing
her half-brother/fiancé Yosho to chase her across the galaxy. Certainly
Tenchi does nothing to help his cause by releasing Ryoko from her cell
on Ayeka's ship. The only thing of interest about Tenchi is the fact
that he can wield Yosho's sword, something only a member of the Jurai
royal household can do. However once she's stranded on Earth, she
starts
to see Tenchi as a nice guy rather than a someone who hangs out with
pirates.
Ayeka
seems like the type to naturally be attracted to nice guys. In episode
3, Ayeka is not very happy about being stranded on Earth. However,
she
is grateful to Tenchi for giving her and Sasami lodgings. On touring
the grounds, she sprains her ankle and Tenchi has to carry her on his
back. Tenchi and Ayeka are caught out in the rain (courtesy of Yosho
unless I'm very much mistaken) and forced to take shelter in a storage
shed on the shrine grounds. It is here that Ayeka sees Tenchi as an
honorable, nice young man. He lights a fire in the shed, then stands
outside in the cold so that she can have privacy. Ayeka respects the
gentleman aspects of Tenchi and thus invites him inside the shed with
her. She further warms up to Tenchi by telling him why she was looking
for her half-brother. During this scene, I really felt like Tenchi
and
Ayeka were the perfect match.
Once she realised that Tenchi was related to her by blood, I feel his
stock went up in her eyes. Remember that she was engaged to marry her
half-brother and I believe that she loved Yosho very much too since
she set off to try to find him. My point is that on Jurai, this kind
of relationship within a family was not frowned upon. How many royal
families did this in Earth history?
So now that Ayeka is on an alien (though not unknown) planet with
no way home, Tenchi is a logical choice for her. This is especially
true
after Yosho reveals himself to her as being Tenchi's grandfather. Besides,
once it becomes apparent that Ryoko is interested in Tenchi, there's
no way she's going to lose Tenchi to some low-life space pirate!
Ryoko's
interest in Tenchi is more of a mystery, but I think I can explain
this.
In episode 5, we learn that while Ryoko may have been "sealed"
in the cave, part of her was able to see the goings on outside of her
cave. So she got to see Tenchi grow up and thus develop some sort
of
attachment to the boy. I wonder if as an infant, Tenchi was able to
see (or sense) Ryoko's presence. Certainly, something about Ryoko's
cave had Tenchi's attention since he was constantly drawn to it. So
when this boy grows up to be a young man, he frees her from her long
imprisonment in the cave. Deep down, I'm sure that Ryoko was grateful
to this boy she'd watched grow up for releasing her, though she doesn't
show it at first.
This on its own does not explain Ryoko's interest in Tenchi. It has
to be something deeper. Once freed, Ryoko went to take out her frustrations
on Tenchi. As she explained it, being sealed for 700 years really sucked
and it was cold! In her first confrontation, I think Ryoko would
have killed Tenchi had Yosho's sword not shielded him. She may have
watched him grow up, but right now, she's going to work off some frustrations.
Watching the battle between her and Tenchi, I feel she was mostly
toying
with him the way a cat would a mouse. Should the mouse die, she might
feel a little sad, but life goes on for her. However, once our mouse
Tenchi defeated Ryoko, her frustrations were over and from that point
on she would do nothing further against Tenchi (by her own will that
is). Ryoko respects those who are able to defeat her in battle, especially
considering she started the fight. She'd lost her last battle to
Yosho
and now this one to Tenchi.
Still, I don't think respect of Tenchi's victory, however lucky, is
enough to set Ryoko's affections on him. So why then does she show up
in his bed after the battle? Well, Ryoko knows her ship is near his
house so why not? Besides, he has the gems she needs to return to full
power. She can have some more fun (at Tenchi's expense) while hanging
out... until Ayeka shows up and puts a crimp in those plans.
Tenchi
shows himself to be smarter than his emotions. When Ayeka attacks,
Ryoko
begs Tenchi for the gems in the sword so that she can defend against
this vicious attack. When Ryoko pleads for the gems, we have a combination
of two elements being brought to bear against Tenchi — fear and
sex. Obviously the fear comes from being blasted at by Ayeka's ship.
The sex comes from Ryoko's way of pleading with Tenchi to get the gems.
Tenchi may be a dateless wonder, but he didn't let his emotions rule
him as many other guys like him would have. I think it is safe to say
that in the heat of the moment, most 'nice guys' like Tenchi would
have coughed the gems up. Much to her surprise, Tenchi gave Ryoko
only one
gem. She'd expected him to be like putty in her hands and give her
all three. I think that screamed "challenge!" to Ryoko,
and one she'd deal with once Ayeka was taken care of.
Ryoko showed her first signs of being more than a "monster"
when Ayeka first trapped her in episode 2. Tenchi sees her trapped
and rushes to aid her. Ryoko warned Tenchi to stay away from her
since she
knew he'd get hurt if he touched the force field surrounding her. We
begin to see that Ryoko does indeed now have a bond to Tenchi and
at
some level does care about him. We don't know why she would care if
Tenchi got hurt or not, but at that moment, Ryoko grows beyond the
demon
of legend sealed in the cave.
Later on in that same episode, Tenchi is able to free her a second
time from captivity and I'm sure the irony wasn't lost on Ryoko. When
they crashed on Earth and Ryoko was there to stay, she began to flirt
with Tenchi even more. Through it all, Tenchi didn't fawn over Ryoko
but rather did what he could to keep her at arm's length. He showed
that he cared about her without being interested in her. Considering
that Ryoko is a very attractive woman and certainly would have no trouble
getting guys to buy her a drink in a bar, I'm sure this action caused
her interest in Tenchi to rise considerably. After all, Ryoko appears
to love challenges and Tenchi is challenging her as a woman.
The thing that pushed her over the edge was seeing (through Ryo-ohki)
that Ayeka was interested in Tenchi in episode 3. The fact that he
seemed
to be responding to Ayeka's interest didn't set well with her. "What
does SHE have that I don't have?" I can hear Ryoko think. Certainly
this would explain Ryoko's frustration when she confronts Tenchi
in
episode 4 at the van. Her advances on Tenchi are being rebuffed while
Ayeka's advances are apparently accepted. She's obviously offended
by
this which is why Tenchi ends up buried in suitcases.
At this point, Ryoko decides to remove the competition and steps up
her pursuit of Tenchi by all means possible, including being naked
in
front of him and teleporting him to the women's bath. Thus starts the
first of many (humorous) battles between Ryoko and Ayeka for Tenchi's
attention. Both girls are spurred by their desire to NOT let the other
be with him. In the process, both end up "falling for him"
more than they might have otherwise done. Of the two, Ryoko's falling
for Tenchi is the more severe movement. I get the impression that
in
the time since Ryoko was created, she has never been in love. Unlike
Ayeka, who had been in love with Yosho and thus this feeling wasn't
alien to her, Ryoko's never having been in love before would 
explain
why she had difficulty dealing with her feelings for Tenchi. When
the
raw emotions were brought to the surface via the Ryoko-Zero copy, Ryoko
was forced to actually deal with her feelings for Tenchi. Washu saw
this in episode 12 and this is why she wanted to merge the Ryoko-Zero
personality with Ryoko's in order to help Ryoko better express her
feelings
for Tenchi. Despite feeling somewhat humiliated, Ryoko gave her silent
approval, love overcoming her pride.
So, who does Tenchi pick? It has been reported that series creator
Masaki Kajishima has stated that Tenchi has already made his choice.
That choice will allegedly be brought to light in the forthcoming 3rd
OAV series and that his decision won't please everyone. That has people
talking for sure!
In the TV continuity, Ryoko and Tenchi hook up. I'd say that Ryoko
and Tenchi will hook up in the OAV continuity as well. While Tenchi
is a nice guy and would fight for any of the girls living in his house,
I felt his desire to rescue Ryoko from Kagato in episode 5 went well
beyond that. Ryoko had tried to kill him, caused him to be in a spaceship
crash, nearly destroyed the hot springs where they were guests, and
had in general been a real pain in the butt ever since he met her. Despite
this, he still had a deep, strong desire to save Ryoko and to bring
her home.
Then in episode 11, only Tenchi is able to hear Ryoko's cry when she
is captured outside of their home while he's deep inside Washu's lab.
Yes, she called specifically to him, but I believe the fact that he
could hear her shows how deep the bond is between the two of them. As
stated earlier, Tenchi was drawn to the cave like a moth to the flame
since he was an infant. Ryoko twice brought up the fact that she watched
Tenchi grow up (in episodes 5 and 8). This further shows the bond between
Ryoko and Tenchi is a long one.
Only time will show if I am right or not. However, I can give one last
reason to see Ryoko and Tenchi get together. We've only seen a taste
of how powerful Tenchi and Ryoko really are. Imagine their combined
awakened power? :-D
