*my thanks to Brazil for writing this character profile on Washu
At first glance, Washu is a mad scientist. However, you could probably lose a galaxy or two in the true depths of her character.
For starters, she`s an ex-goddess. She is very closely linked to the other two goddesses in Tenchi Muyo, Tsunami and Tokimi. In fact, their relation is so close that Tokimi calls the other two her sisters, although beings of that level of power probably don`t know such things as kinship. Some 20,000 years ago, for reasons as yet unknown, she lost (or maybe gave up) her powers and her memory of her previous life and became a mortal.
She did, however, keep possession of three gems which held the powers she had lost and therefore were sources of power unmatched in this universe, save by other beings of divine status.
Washu still had an intellect above genius level and so she joined the Royal Space Academy of Jurai. It was there that she met a man she fell in love with and had a son. But the man was from a noble family which didn`t approve of the marriage and her child and husband were taken away from Washu.
This loss hurt her so much that even now, almost 20,000 years later, she hasn`t yet gotten over it. She sought relief in her work as a scientist, making it the focus of her life. So great was her fear of being hurt emotionally and her disdain for the status-oriented thinking of the adult world that she chose to keep the physical appearance of a 12 year old girl, to avoid close personal relationships. To emphasize this, she even insisted on being called "Washu-chan" (or "little Washu in the English dubbed version) as a child would be.
With the passing of time, and her being immortal either because of her goddess origin or because of her scientific knowledge, Washu became the top scientist of the galaxy and the director of the Academy. One competitor for the position was a resentful power-maniac named Dr. Clay whom she had the misfortune to meet again during the series. But still the pain of losing her child haunted Washu so badly that she stayed an eternal child herself.
Then after an almost 15,000-year-long life devoted solely to science, she finally had the courage to have another child. This time, she made sure that it could not be taken away. She took her own genes and spliced them together with a strange life-form called "the Masses". She also gave her child the ability to use the gems that she had possessed since her own childhood, making her daughter Ryouko a force to be reckoned with. Along with Ryouko, but using a mineral life form instead of her own genes, Washu created the incredibly cute cabbit spaceship Ryo-ohki which was probably designed as a guardian for Ryouko, since only she can control it effectively.
However, it was not meant to be. A talented but malignant student of Washu called Kagato managed to trap Washu in one of her own creations, the mighty spaceship Soujah. For 5000 years he roamed the galaxy, using the knowledge gained from Washu, the Souja and also Washu`s daughter Ryouko, who had never known her mother, for his evil ends.
Through a rather peculiar coincidence, Washu is freed after 5000 years by a Galaxy Police officer named Mihoshi who is on a mission trying to rescue Ryouko from Kagato and arrest Kagato himself.
The reunion of mother and child is not very successful, since Ryouko doesn`t know her mother and has trouble believing that this little girl could be her mother. But she can`t deny it anymore after it turns out that Washu can read Ryouko's mind through a link based on Ryouko`s usage of the gems, which, after all, are a part of Washu herself.
When Washu sees Tenchi create the Light Hawk Wings while defeating Kagato, she instantly decides to make him her guinea pig! But even though she examines Tenchi really closely, she can`t find out why and how he can create LHWs. She also shows some personal interest in Tenchi, but it`s difficult to say if she`s serious (I`d say not). Her relationship to Ryouko isn`t very close (which must be painful for Washu), but improving steadily. Ryouko now even volountarily calls Washu "mom" sometimes.
When Tenchi`s baby cousin Taro lives at the Masaki residence for a while, all the painful memories from the past come back again, and Washu tells the others about it. However, Taro`s visit along with her being able to live together with her daughter also seems to have helped her get out of her shell and relate to other people, as evidenced by her behaviour during Sasami`s identity crisis in episode 9.
In episodes 11 and 12 Washu`s past reemerges in the form of Dr. Clay who now works as an agent for Lady Tokimi, looking for his revenge on Washu. His plan to kidnap Washu with the aid of a fake Ryoko does not work, and the connection between Washu, Tsunami and Tokimi is left unresolved. Washu merges the fake Ryoko and the original one together into a "new", more honest Ryoko.
In episode 13, the Royal family of Jurai visits Earth. They are disturbed by the fact that with Ryoko and Ryo-ohki, Washu has created a fighting force that is on an equal level to Juraian battleships, thereby threatening Jurai`s dominance of the Galaxy. Washu makes it clear that she will not help anybody and especially not create another Ryoko, since she sees Ryoko as a daughter, not as a creation.
All in all Washu is a very sensitive and caring person, though sometimes she still plays the "mad scientist", but that is only a substitute personality she used to avoid becoming emotionally involved with anybody. But in the short time she has spent on earth, she has become a lot more open and outgoing. After such a long time, she really has deserved all the happiness in the world. However, there still is the mysterious, connection to Tokimi that needs to be resolved before there can be a happy ending.
Another interesting thing about Washu-chan is that she seems to regard crabs as her personal "trademark". It begins with her hair which looks like a crab, especially when she wears that eye-like black things in episode 8. Other occurances of the "crab theme" are the milk powder and bottle she makes for Taro, the screensaver on her computer and the doorbell thing on the entrance to her lab.
Author`s Note:
The image of Washu I give here is based on my personal perception and
feelings, and I love her very much indeed. So other people`s impression of
Washu may be less affectionate. Those people need to be enlightened, which
is the reason why I wrote this. Another thing is that Washu`s past isn`t
explained this detailed in the OAV series, but the hints are there and it
does fit together.
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