wwwwhhhhoooo

Like you and dagon said, it very much pays pays tribute to the Western genre. So, I think it’s not an accident the name is taken from a very popular American TV western (my dad loves it).

Similar vibe with the names of the settlements (New Oregon and so forth). Not only are they little throw backs to America and “The Old West” but they would be familiar enough to be legitimate names human settlers might give to their towns, while at the same time having a level of unfamiliarity and “foreign” vibe to Japanese audiences.

I remember the first time I was introduced to the Nebraska family I was like “omg! Nebraska mentioned in an anime!”

Cool! As of now, we don’t really have a date pegged down for the next one (Pretty Sammy) but it will be on a Saturday, 3pm Eastern (US). We will post in this forum http://tenchiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=15” class=”bbcode_url”>http://tenchiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=15 more info when we have it, but in case you miss a new post(s), if you’d like to be in the next one (we only request that you have seen Pretty Sammy in some capacity, so you can have something to talk about) we can send you a message to let you know.

Also, any one of us (Dagon’s your best bet) can help you set up Mumble if you need assistance.

Good question. Your opinion is valid, thus I can’t say mine weighs any more heavily than yours, but my response would be she was playing around with him. The rooftop? She’s laughing merrily as she blasts energy bolts at Tenchi just sparsely spaced enough between intervals to allow him to narrowly escape. Tenchi being terrified probably delighted Ryoko (she did say she was a sadist, after all). Plus, she’s been stuck for 700 years! She needed to unwind a bit.

Now, when she saw sword Tenchi, did she get serious at that point? I’d say definitely, that thing symbolizes some bad memories for her.

Opponents of my “theory” will state that Ryoko was only interested in Tenchi after she realized he had sword Tenchi. This was later proven false, as we see via flashback, Ryoko had taken an interest in Tenchi’s life far before he had any knowledge of an heirloom that, for all intents and purposes, would have remained out of his possession for his entire life (if he’d listened to Grampa).

On top of that, as a preemptive defense to “why wouldn’t she want to kill Tenchi?” the more logical query would be what purpose would she have for killing Tenchi? Or more importantly, what motivation would she have for doing so (even if she wasn’t crazy in love with him)?

The verbal taunting on the part of Ryoko, along with her gestures, actions and our accumulated knowledge of how powerful Ryoko actually is (though not her original, the pseudo-gem she possessed granted her much power) and her personality in general all lend towards my belief that she didn’t genuinely want to kill Tenchi at any point.

An analogy I’ve used before: Ryoko is very childlike in certain ways, no? (not in a creepy way, but rather she’s immature despite her advanced years). Not to say this can’t happen with both sexes, but I’ve found girls tend to think about relationships, marriage etc. far sooner than boys do, by and large (yes, they tend to mature physically sooner, but we’re talking even before that). Dunno’ why, but it’s true.

So fellas, remember the girl that would always tease you and pinch you and occasionally trip you or push you on the ground outside at recess, giggling as she did it? At that age, we boys can’t fathom why on Earth anyone would behave that way (other than “she must hate me”) but very often the case is she liked you. Girls (particularly more boorish ones, e.g. Ryoko) will often act seemingly cruel towards the boy they actually have a huge crush on.

So, amplify and apply that to an energy-wielding, sword-bearing, flying demon caller from space, and you’ve got yourself Tenchi Muyo! Episode 1.