It can certainly be said that all of the girls just want Tenchi to be happy, but to me, that was all the Sakuya ever wanted. Ryoko had previously wanted to be a successful space pirate, Ayeka wanted to be a good princess, etc. Sakuya’s obviously at a big advantage because she didn’t exist until Yugi decided to use her to get to Tenchi so Sakuya’s only purpose was to get to Tenchi, which I liked. I think this quote from Sakuya sums it up pretty well. “It’s funny, but sometimes I feel the only reason I exist in this world is to love you. I love you even more now, Tenchi.” As cheesy as it is, I like it.
She does let her feelings for Tenchi affect her, but I suppose I liked it because they affected her in a different way than the other girls. The other girls would hurt each other and do whatever it took to get to Tenchi, which, while understandable, frustrated me. Sakuya on the other hand, became depressed and saddened when things didn’t go her way with Tenchi and she didn’t react by getting angry at the other girls.
I sympathize with her selfish actions of wanting Tenchi to stay with her because she, unlike the other girls, doesn’t really have anything to live for other than Tenchi. Granted, she could probably go out and continue being a popular school girl without Tenchi, but in her mind all she cares about is being with him, so I understood her not wanting him to leave, because without him she was completely lost. I also like that near the end of the series, after Tenchi tells her that he loves her, she “releases” him and lets him leave the dream world that they are in because she knows that he has other things to do, which makes her appear a lot less selfish and shows that she wants what’s best for him.
I agree that they probably should’ve put more effort into showing more of Yugi’s backstory and making it a bigger part of the story, but the series being focused more on the romance between Tenchi and the girls (mainly Sakuya) didn’t really bother me. I’d been waiting for Tenchi to make a decision, and in Tenchi in Tokyo, he finally did.
Nobuyuki, it was definitely annoying that they made Mihoshi so stupid in TiT, although it did lead to some funny moments. It reminds me of Erin from The Office. Both characters started fully competent, but have since become complete idiots.
Sakuya just being a shadow really sucked, but it didn’t bother me as much because she’s part of Yugi and hopefully, Yugi will eventually become her, or at least more like her.
I can understand why people are upset that she got Tenchi’s affection so fast, but for me, that just made me think that if she was able to get Tenchi’s affection so quickly when he had plenty of other girls that had been vying for his affection for who knows how long, then she must be a pretty good match for him.
Sorry if this is a bit long. I tried to address everything I could. I don’t expect people to all of a sudden agree with me, but this is just a more elaborate explanation of my reasoning. For the record, I don’t dislike the other Tenchi girls. Sakuya is just my favorite.
