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WASHU HAKUBI!!
Age: Well over 20,000 years old, I think...
Family: Hard to say, really. Ryoko, definitely.
Occupation: Greatest genius in the universe!!
Powers/Abilities: Is a genius, mentioned above, and therefore is very, very smart. She makes inventions up the yin yang, and spends most of her time in her lab. Heck, in Tenchi Universe, with a few mere clicks of her laptop, she reconstructed Ryoko and Ayeka's DNA, therefore turning them both into kappas. If she can turn people into kappas, there's no telling what else she can do.
Weaknesses:...um...well, sometimes her inventions don't work...
Likes: Children, hot springs, science, and using Tenchi as a guinea pig for her latest experiments ^^
Dislikes: ...Not getting attention when she invents something new and wonderful? To tell the truth, not much gets Washu down, except for the threat of destruction of the universe, which Tenchi and crew always manage to avert.
Quote o' da Moment: "Love-- the ultimate truth! Love-- the providence of the universe! Women and men, men and women-- all existence is to love and to be loved and so on and so on, blah blah dee blah..."
Since there are several versions of Tenchi Muyo, there are several different versions of Washu's origins. For example, in Tenchi Universe (the only Tenchi anime that I've seen), Washu was a mad scientist who was locked away in a cave hundreds of years ago for being a menace to society. The Masaki shrine was created to keep the "goblin" locked up tight. Of course, Tenchi Masaki and his gang, who lived in the shrine, ended up releasing Washu, who promptly turned Ryoko and Ayeka into kappas. In the OAVs, Washu used to be a Goddess of some sort, who, for unknown reasons, became a mortal. Granted, a mortal with a ridiculously long life span, but mortal nonetheless. She spent a long time studying at some kind of intergalactic university, and eventually hooked up with some guy who I forget the name of, and had a baby. Unfortunately, because of her lower social status, her husband and child were taken away from her, leaving Washu in the lurch. Disgusted at the whole social status thing, and adult affairs in general, Washu decided to keep her body as that of a twelve year old, which explains why she's so short. She has the ability to turn into a sultry adult, but she looks really scary in that form. In the Magical Girl Pretty Sammy stories, she's some kinda evil child genius, but I won't get into that.
Washu's got a very mischevious demeanor, often doing things just to lighten the mood of a situation. She relentlessly teases her "daughter" Ryoko, just to get a rise out of her, and seems to enjoy teasing main character Tenchi just as much.
Being the greatest scientific genius in the galaxy, Washu's entitled to cook up an invention or two on occasion. Actually, she invents something for nearly every situation, everything from telephones that can hook into the hotlines of major world leaders to vacuum cleaners that warp their collected garbage into hyperspace, and even gigantic robotic Ryo-Oh-Ki's armed with boxing gloves. Speaking of hyperspace, Washu's got her own little alternate dimension right in the comfort of Tenchi's own home. She spends a lot of her time in here, cooking up new scientific theories and inventions and whatnot.
A streak of dramatic flair runs through Washu, as a result, if nobody's around to witness the grand unveiling of her latest invention, she gets kinda discouraged and sulky. She loves showing her stuff off to anybody who will listen.
Given her scientific background, Washu tends to experiment on things. Unfortunately, that "thing" is always main character Tenchi Masaki, her favorite guinea pig. Whenever she's got a new theory about Tenchi's powers or something, she does that evil grin, the infamous Nurse outfit comes out, and Tenchi's suddenly bound, gagged, and generally trussed up like a turkey in Washu's lab. On all of these occasions, Tenchi's always inexplicably in his underwear. ^^;;;
On a more serious note, Washu's got a bit of a thing about parenting. Given the fact that she's technically Ryoko's mother (since some of her DNA was used to create Ryoko), once in a while she actually tries to act it. Unfortunately, Ryoko's not quite used to the idea of suddenly having a mother, and generally brushes off these attempts. Undaunted, Washu instead resorts to teasing Ryoko like mad, as mentioned above. Also worth noting in the motherly department is Taro, Tenchi's baby cousin. For more on that, go check out the Other Piccolo/Gohan-esque Relationships section.
Despite Washu's aforementioned genius, there is one person who always seems to intervene in her plans at the most crucial moment: Mihoshi, a blonde, slightly airheaded, extremely clumsy alien who also lives with Tenchi and co. And when I say clumsy, I mean clumsy. She manages to trip over absolutely nothing, and the resulting fall can knock over everything in the vincinity. Whenever Washu is on the verge of a scientific breakthrough, just this far away from success, in comes Mihoshi, who trips over something and wrecks the joint. If there's a big red button that nobody is allowed to press, in walks Mihoshi, half asleep, who tips over and accidently presses the button. If Washu's about to trap a specimen in a jar, in comes Mihoshi, flailing around miniature mallets, trying to squish a cockroach. Starting to see a pattern? Don't get me wrong, Mihoshi does all this innocently, she doesn't have a grudge against Washu or anything. All this stuff just sorta...happens. Washu's slightly exasperated by it all, but since she knows that Mihoshi doesn't mean to do it, she doesn't really get angry.
I like almost all of the characters in Tenchi Muyo, but I'd have to say that Washu is my favorite, if only because she's the craziest of the bunch. First there's her hair. It's the wildest 'do I've ever seen in...well, anything. Next comes her age. She's over 20,000 years old, and yet she still doesn't look a day over twelve! Not to mention she's got a lighthearted personality (I love it when she puts on a mask and scares the bejeezus out of Mihoshi just because the story was getting too serious!), and can singlehandedly take the story from extremely dramatic to extremely silly in the blink of an eye. She may not have pointed ears, fangs, or an "I-was-bad-but-now-I'm-good" personality complex, but she's got enough brains to get the Tenchi gang in and out of so many weird situations (giant carrots crash-landing in the front lawn, anyone?) that it's near-impossible to dislike her. Add that to her fun-loving, mischevious personality, and you've got one damn cool character ^_^.
WASHU LINKS
Little Washu's Cute Homepage
A really good Washu page. Lots and lots of info and whatnot ^_^Happy Crab!!
Great name, ne? Another great Washu page with lots of stuff to do.The Many Faces of Washu
A really, really, REALLY good Washu page. Tons of info and images and whatnot.