Name: Mihoshi Kuramitsu
Occupation: Galaxy Police Detective, First Class
PERSONALITY
One of the easiest things to do with Mihoshi is to dismiss her as an airhead or just as the Tenchi series' answer to comic relief. It's true that her original characterisation in the OVA part 1 and 2 is probably intended to be her most serious incarnation, as she is given as a police officer of good background, with prior successes. She is also depicted as extremely pedantic to detail, writing exhaustive and thorough reports about every case she investigates which often require summarising before they can be officially filed. Somewhere in Mihoshi's OVA history a dark event occured - although it's not entirely clear from the television show what this event is, the OVA 3 (blah) hints that it was something to do with a man. In any case, it's enough to make her younger brother want to kill Tenchi to prevent his sister from being hurt again.
Despite the apparent demons in her OVA past, however, Mihoshi is a sunshiny individual not given to bearing grudges or holding on to past nightmares. This can often grate on the nerves of her companions, but in many ways is a source of light relief - when the situation is dire, somehow Mihoshi's bumbling attempts to keep up manage to make things a little bit lighter. She is always eager to help and to please even if she's not entirely sure what she's got involved in, and mention is often made of her luck - which seems to have been a part of the reason why she was able to free Washu. Despite not knowing precisely how to operate her control cube, she is able to accidentally unseal the lock on Washu's prison and Washu is consequently ressurrected. However Mihoshi is completely ignorant to how she achieved this fact - despite her best attempts, Washu's scientific logic is somewhat beyond her.
Mihoshi is also a romantic, and the OVA is the one series where there is indication that she has romantic thoughts for Tenchi. However, her Kuramitsu upbringing often seems to shade through - she's polite and obliging and she doesn't really consider herself in the Tenchi picture until Yosho/Katsuhito asks her if she has a boyfriend. She also hoes in and helps with the tasks around the house - her main drive is to be friendly, happy and helpful, even if those around her are not always appreciative.
In the other series, many fans have dismissed Mihoshi's role as being undermined and claim that she has become little more than comic relief. I would disagree with those fans, who appear to only have scraped the surface of her character by making such a claim. Mihoshi is a big contradiction in many ways - guileless and absent-minded and yet sensitive and startlingly perceptive to what is going on around her. I always find that the most interesting glimpses into Mihoshi's way of thinking are in the brief moments we get into 'her' world. Which brings me to the Mihoshi Special - a factor which cannot be ignored.
Also dismissed by many, the truth or otherwise of the events in the Mihoshi special (as according to that awful, restrictive thing fans like to call 'official canon') are completely irrelevant. The show is not about whether or not Mihoshi makes up the story, but more importantly, the way in which she sees her fellow characters. Very interesting is the portrayal of Ayeka, Ryoko, Tenchi, Sasami, Washu and even Kiyone. Whilst where it fits into the 'canon' debate is still fiercely debated (does anyone really care that much, though?), it's worth spending a moment pointing out some of her more astute observations. By assigning each of the characters in her story the name of one of her current housemates, she is essentially passing judgement on them and telling them how she really views them. If it's not interesting enough that the show begins with her 'dream' of Ayeka, the wicked witch, and Ryoko as sleeping beauty...it's worth noting the remarks she makes about Ayeka's marital status - "she's afraid to become an old maid", "Tenchi is her last chance at marriage", etc. This is a theme she also brings up in the TV series Tenchi Universe, where in her Time And Space World Ayeka is the unmarried sister of her husband and the 'old maid' character. Nobody could ever call Mihoshi tactful, but judging by Ayeka's reaction, she's probably hitting closer to the Princess's true fears than Ayeka would ever admit.
In the case of Ryoko, when she goes to speak to the pirate in the prison bay, she says something very strange - that she knows Ryoko is a good person deep down. The way in which she says it doesn't make it sound like the characters in her story speaking - but almost that she is talking about the real Ryoko. This theme rears it's head again in Tenchi in Tokyo, where Mihoshi tells Kiyone that something must have happened to make Ryoko take off, since she's sensitive.
Her judgement on Tenchi is also somewhat damning - in the Mihoshi Special she actually calls him a bonehead and the implication is that she thinks he's a fool for allowing himself to be abducted. However, whether she's passing judgement on the story character or the real Tenchi is unclear - maybe Mihoshi feels that Tenchi lets himself get walked over far too much?
Yep, tact is reallynot a word that exists in Mihoshi's vocabulary and most of the time she has no sense of occasion. But she is deeply loyal and in a way this is one of her greatest strengths and weaknesses both. In her partnership with Kiyone she puts up with a lot of complaints, blame and just down right abuse from time to time and yet she still defends Kiyone to anyone who asks, willing to put their friendship first and in the Tokyo series, even taking a bullet for her. Her partnership with Noike (if you believe that she even met Noike before they dreamed up OVA3, sceptic here) is even more callous..Mihoshi offers everything and receives only abuse in return. And yet she is ever forgiving and supportive towards Noike, despite the negativity of their relationship. (She even wants her brother to maybe marry Noike!).
It is true that she is clumsy, forgetful and a million other things that would be the most distracting things to live with on a daily basis. And yet beneath that happy-go-lucky exterior is someone who thinks and cares very deeply about her friends. She just hasn't worked out how to pick her times to express them - that's all :)