^ I was thinking the same thing, but it was never stated how, tenchi didn’t even question how ryoko knew his name as if somehow he knew that she knew his name.
Yeah, well I’m sure Tenchi at some point wondered “How did she know my name?” but all things considered, he was dealing with a whole mess of other stressful details and mental strains to sort through at the time (why is there a demon chasing me? How will I get out of this alive? Why is the demon sexy? Am I secretly enjoying this? etc.) 😆
For the latter, think JG gave a great answer:
It was a stasis/prison… if memory serves she was pretty much “dehydrated” from her energy and outside sources after Yosho took her last gem.
She could float around after a very long time in her astral form because she collected a little energy, but not do anything else. Tenchi had to break the seal.
I think the short answer here is she wasn’t kept at bay primarily by being physically contained as much as it was the fact Yosho somehow–whether it was entirely by removing the three gems or not, but likely imo–drained her of her strength/energy/life. Being imprisoned by the seal, she literally didn’t have the strength to free herself.
However, as mentioned, she had been slowly collecting energy during this time (700 years, not much else to do) and forming her own “pseudo-gems” to replace the ones she had lost (these of course were imperfect imitations, but powerful nonetheless). Thus, by the time Tenchi freed her, she had collected a substantial amount of energy to regain her former strength (& youthful apperance) it’s just that she needed someone to let her out. *cue Tenchi’s entrance, stage right
Again hits on the combining of sci-fi, fantasy and religious/spiritual elements (as seen in
