I have heard her called a tomboy, but I don't actually agree with that judgement. She is simply the complete opposite of the traditional demure maiden or the damsel in distress.

Underneath all of the blatant (sometimes wince-worthy) shows of affection toward Tenchi and the bravado with Ayeka is another Ryoko, however. She's the Ryoko who forged into space to save Tenchi in the OVA, resolved to kill Kagato even if it killed her in vengeance, and who navigated her way through Juraian defences with a near-mortal wound at the end of Universe, just to help Tenchi reach and rescue Ayeka. In fact, since she has so much trouble just talking seriously with Tenchi about how she feels, it seems that actions often speak louder than her words and it's the only way she has of making her feelings known. She's also not fond of being made a fool of - she tends to react angrily if she thinks someone is poking fun (witness her behaviour in Washu's cave in Universe, "No Need For Monsters" episode).

That's not to say she always remembers her responsibilities, or that she always calls it right. Ryoko's strengths are in combat and conflict, which says much for the kind of lifestyle she's probably led up to this point. When Yagami runs out of food in Universe - "No Need For Hunger", Ryoko manages to gamble and spend all of the money Ayeka gives her plus everything she wins on the slots without even remembering that she's supposed to be bringing in the food for a shipful of starving people. It's not even that she maliciously goes out to enjoy herself at Ayeka's expense. It just doesn't occur to her that they are relying on her so much until Ryo Ohki finally manages to get the message through at the end. And even then she solves her problem by making things worse - robbing the bank of Jurai and bringing back money to her hungry crewmates instead of food.

It's safe to say, then, that keeping up with all the responsibilities and domestic necessities of ordinary life is probably not Ryoko's strongest suit.

However, there are many situations in which she can be counted on. She is a brave fighter and a formidable space pilot, navigating Ryo Ohki through space and at one point even taking Mihoshi's chair inside Yagami as they struggle to avoid the flare of a star going supernova. When Ryoko tells Tenchi, "Count on me", Tenchi's response is simply, "I do!".

Ryoko's main weakness, then, is the fact that during her time across space she probably hasn't been in contact with many very nice people. We don't know how she became a space pirate, or why, aside from the Ayeka memories which cannot be 100% verified as 'truth'. What we do know, however, is that she is used to providing for herself, not for others...that her own survival is often foremost in her mind with no regard for the feelings or needs of those around her. It's also blatantly obvious that she's never been in love before, and it can maybe be inferred from her physical attitude towards sex and her sexuality that her experience in that department has been with men whose only interest has been in her physically. Tenchi confuses her because his interest in her is not generally physical - he becomes her friend rather than her lover, and listens to her rather than gropes her (something she knows how to deal with all too well, as she handles Noboyuke and Yosho/Kazuhito on this matter in the OVA and Universe). Her own feelings for Tenchi probably unsettle her, and because she is a competitive person who is used to fighting for what she wants, she becomes competitive with Ayeka over it as well.

This physical attitude to love is highlighted especially in the OVA, where she challenges Ayeka to "go first" and tells her that "if you love someone it's only natural to want to be with him and make love with him." Washu further supports this when she reads her daughter's mind aboard Kagato's ship, claiming Ryoko wants to do 'this and that' with Tenchi as an extension of her 'love' for him. For Ryoko then, seperating emotional love from physical love is something of a challenge...and something she is only really beginning to muddle out by the time the series is over. In truth, I think that inside she feels that Tenchi can't love her over Ayeka because they have too many things in common, so she tries doubly hard to prevent this from happening. Her little chat with herself outside Tenchi's room is revealing - she asks 'herself-as-Tenchi' whether he prefers Ayeka because she (Ryoko) can walk through walls and fly.

In Tenchi In Tokyo, Ryoko's character traits are stretched to almost comedic proportions on occasion. She suffers from severe anger management issues - unlike her displays of normally understandable temper in other series, she does seem to lose her rag at almost anything. If Tenchi is paying attention to someone else, she's angry. If she thinks Sakuya has stolen her 'bond with Tenchi' by taking her gem, she sticks her fist through the wall. Her motto seems to be hit first and ask questions later...a fact which at first makes Tenchi seem more distant from Ryoko than he is in the OVA or the Tenchi Universe series.

In some ways, however, this change in persona is understandable given the backstory of the character in this series. A hardened space pirate who initially claims his home as her new 'hideout' after he nurses her back to full health, she is definitely not used to the gentler side of life and has serious issues expressing any emotion other than anger - therefore she expresses pretty much everything negative as anger. This isn't an uncommon character trait for an anti-hero character in a television show, and there is an element of it in her actions in the other series as well. But it is in this series that the rage issues are mostly defined. I have to say, sometimes it makes even me cringe!

Despite all of that, though, it does provide us with a different view of Ryoko. We never really see her as a space pirate in the other series, but after she sees Sakuya and Tenchi kiss, Ryoko returns to her old life under the guidance of Yugi's associate Hotsuma, and resumes her pillaging and wrecking of the galaxy. Seeing her in that setting, where she is confident and capable, is something of a contrast to the girl on the Earth who is often yelling, complaining, crying or just being plain noisy. In fact, it's fair to say that the best of Ryoko in this series is when she's being who she really is, not the lovesick fool arguing with Ayeka for most of the early episodes. Her love for Tenchi is as strong and as genuine as ever - but until you see her in her 'natural habitat', it's a little hard to get past the face pulling and the screaming and find out who she actually is.

There are odd occasions where she produces glimmers of something else - when remembering how she and Tenchi met, it's clear that pride and her reputation are of great importance to her. But she's also lonely - much in the same way as Yugi is lonely until she meets Sasami. Ryoko's world is an empty one of thefts, heists and escaping the Galaxy Police - but she only realises what's really important when she finds Tenchi.

Some of the things she says in this series are also telling. She comments to Kiyone and Mihoshi (when she thinks they turned her in) that she went back to being a Space Pirate to get away from (or I think wreak havoc on) the world full of backstabbers that she's left behind. And when she overhears Hotsuma moaning about her to Yugi, her thought train is that at least she's upfront about who she is and what she thinks. It has to be said, for all her faults, Ryoko is not much of a liar in this series.

QUIRKS and TRAITS
Ryoko's personal traits are fairly unique. Aside from her plethora of powers - telepathy with Ryo Ohki (Universe) and Ryo Ohki/Washu (OVA), phasing through solid objects, astral projection, the ability to split into two forms, raising of demons from inanimate objects (OVA), teleportation, telekinesis (OVA - cases in the back of the Masaki car when they're at the spa), control of light energy into a sword and balls of electric energy, flying, shape-shifting (OVA, right at the start when she is a cat at Tenchi's school) and probably others I haven't yet remembered, she has other traits as well. All through the series, OVA and Universe, she has an obsession for being up high. Whenever you see her, she seems to be sleeping on roof beams, sitting on the roof of the house or the shrine, flying over this place or that one. Even in the opening credits for Universe, she is sitting first on a cliff edge, then she is flying, and by the end of it, she is sitting on the roof with Tenchi and Ayeka. Being up high is a personal quirk of hers that is really quite endearing. Why walk when you can fly? Why stand when you can hover? This seems to be her train of thought! Leading on further from this is her love for space, the sky, and freedom of movement. In some respects, trapping her in a cave for 700 years is probably the most cruel thing you could do to someone like Ryoko!

Even though she may eat like a starving monkey and drink like a fish, Ryoko is also very conscious of personal hygiene. She spends a lot of time in the bath in both the OVA and Universe, and often is keen to take another bath later on. When Nagi first arrives on the Earth to challenge her, Ayeka thinks she is with Tenchi, but in fact she is just having yet another bath. And when the school starts blowing up around her in the OVA, she stops and examines her reflection, exclaiming that she looks "a mess!".

Something else which is a trademark of Ryoko is her fascination/fixation/interest in death. It might seem a random thing to mention in an analysis such as this one! However, when you start to put things together - in the OVA, she is determined to kill Kagato, even if it kills her. When she is confronting Ayeka, she locks Ryo Ohki onto Ryu Oh in a manoeuvre which seems set to crash them all into the Earth and certain death. In Universe, within only a few hours of meeting Tenchi she is talking about vows to die together and even using the claim to upset Ayeka. Also, of course, she all but sacrifices her life for Tenchi to get him to Ayeka on Jurai. At times she seems to relish the idea of a battle to the death - against Nagi, against Ayeka, even against Hotsuma in Tenchi in Tokyo.

And yet Ryoko is not suicidal in the least. In fact, I think there is another element at work here. Firstly, it's a clue to her melodramatic, all or nothing personality - that when she is commited to something, she's going to take it all the way and beyond if she has to. Secondly, I think it's an adrenalin kick for her. At no point do I think she actually believes she's going to die - except possibly at the end of Tenchi Universe, where it's unclear what exactly she is thinking when Tenchi leaves her. When Nagi has her on the end of her whip, Ryoko claims that the fight isn't over, even though she's in dire straits. Beating death is just another way for her to feel alive - and she is confident enough in her own abilities to believe that she isn't going to get badly hurt. Maybe it's space pirate gambling - it's hard to tell - but she never seems to go into an encounter worried about the outcome. (The one exception to this is possibly her first encounter with Nagi in Universe, when she admits she doesn't know what will happen). She flies into Yosho's battle with Kagato, attacking Kagato without stopping and thinking about what she is doing and taking a serious injury for her trouble. She tends to act first and think later - impulsive to the last.

Finally, there's Ryoko's sense of honour. This has to come under quirks, because it really is a rogue's honour in many ways. When she battles Nagi in particular, there seem to be particular codes of behaviour that are accepted between them. Nagi has stolen Tenchi - Ryoko accepts that to set him free, she has to beat Nagi in a fair fight. Her life is on the line, but she still accepts the challenge, agreeing that it's fair. When they meet again at the beach, Ryoko refuses to battle Nagi until she has competed with Ayeka, since she has already made that challenge and must stand by it. And even when she is seriously injured, she offers to battle Nagi before she takes Tenchi to Jurai - a fight Nagi declines on account of her injury.

CONCLUSION
The rules in Ryoko's world are different from the rules in everyone else's world, and sometimes it means she flounders. Her lack of manners, etiquette and sometimes understanding cause conflict and friction between her and her companions, but she is by no means stupid and perfectly capable of manipulating a situation (particularly if that manipulation involves annoying Ayeka). She's not afraid to lie to her own benefit, but when the chips are down, she is someone who can be relied on one hundred percent and who will never back down from a fight. Brave and determined, if melodramatic and self centred, Ryoko's entire existance screams 'life'. As Kamadake says at the end of No Need For Ryoko (Universe, episode 24) - "Not even one thousand knights could match your spirit, Ryoko." And so it is.