Karen is a character in the Tenchi Muyo! OVA continuity, mainly appearing in Tenchi Muyo! GXP, featuring much more prominently in the novels. She, along with her partners, Hakuren, Gyokuren, & Suiren, eventually becomes a wife of Seina Yamada.
History
Karen is 3rd in line to the throne of the Kasen Kingdom in the Renza Federation. The eldest child of the eldest child of the crown prince. Her real name is Lady Shien Rengoku Kasen.
She, along with her Renza partners, becomes a Lady-in-waiting to Lady Seto. This was initially part of a plan to steal secrets, possibly a Juraian Royal Treeship, so they could gain enough power to battle the pirates in their home territory.
Karen is the youngest and most practical of the group but also a bit of a tomboy type who dreamed of being a mecha pilot as a child. She is much more modest than her anime version and is probably the least likely to throw herself at Seina.
Haruken gathered Karen and the others to her cause of finding a way to battle the pirates that were plaguing their federation. This was actually against the wishes of their kingdoms but Hakuren convinced them of the righteousness of the cause.
As a princess, when she first arrived, she had no idea how to cook or do any housework but Seto made her learn, as cooking is a necessity of her ladies-in-waiting. She now seems to greatly enjoy it.
Karen's is at bio-enhancement level 5, the lowest of the 4, but she makes up for it by being highly trained in combat.
Meeting Seina
Karen and the others meet Seina much earlier in the novels than the anime, in fact the four of them escorted Seina and the others to Mikagami after he had gathered the pirates for Seto to capture and she had them follow him almost constantly. She served as a secret guard to Seina at the Academy, crew on his ships and even a maid in Amane's house with the other three.
When Karen and the others visited Seina's home, Karen was exposed to Japanese anime and Tokusatsu shows featuring giant robots and bonded with Seina over their mutual love of giant robots, with him telling her it is every boy's dream to pilot a mecha robot.
A Scandalous Wedding Day and Escape to Renza
On the day Seina was to marry Kiriko, Amane, Ryoko, and Neju, the girls revealed their true identities to him just as he was about to be married and took him aboard their ship to go to the Federation. The brides, infuriated, chased after on the Kamidake II.
In the anime, to make themselves faster, the girls got rid of their and Seina's clothes, as well as several items on their ship, The brides demanded him back, but they refused, claiming Seina had "eloped" with them and to prove it, proceeded to molest him on video in the full view of the various delegates and dignitaries who had been invited to the wedding. The anime ends with a flash forward of them all working together on the Kamidake II.
In the novels it was a more conventional kidnapping. The quartet escaped to Racepshi, a planet sized entertainment starship that they contracted to jump them from the Galactic Federation to Renza Federation territory, with Kiriko and the girls barely sneaking in before the jump.
Being a neutral area, both they and Kiriko's group can set up their headquarters there without having to commit to one Renza nation or run afoul of Galaxy Federation policies.
Karen and the others only got a few fruitless trips with Seina and Zinv to find and take out space pirates, (being stopped each time by royal forces who claimed the pirates were their prey) before Seina was lost in a fight with HIMC, having to randomly jump to a location no one knows the location of.
Karen and the others now work with Kiriko and company on two fronts, to continue battling pirates and also to search for Seina. Flash forward sections do show all get back together and fight in tandem.
Karen's father, King Kasem, is the first to bring up the possibility of making Seina the new king of his nation.
After the still ambiguous end of their time in Renza, Karen and the others return to Earth, now married to Seina (presumably done partially to solidify ties with Jurai and The Galaxy Federation).
While visiting Earth, Karen seems to be a representative of their group, being the only one to attend meetings with others on the ground.
Trivia
- Karen's saliva can heal minor wounds. She has used this on Seina. The first time Kiriko and others saw this (when they discovered her in the bath with him) caused an understandable misunderstanding.
- In the anime, after their reveal as Renza Federation Agents, Karen and the other girls wear nearly identical uniforms with only their sleeves having a different color. The colors are the same colors as the other girls' GP uniforms. Karen & Amane in red, Gyokuren & Ryoko in orange, Hakuren & Neju in yellow, and Suiren & Kiriko in green. In the final scene on the Kamidake the pairs a seating next to each other and appear to be doing the same duty. This does not correspond well with the situation in the novels where their specialties in these pairings do not exactly correspond to the girls they are paired to here.
- Seto apparently knew who Karen and the others really were all along, most likely because of her spy network, but had her own designs that they were useful to accomplish (most likely to give her legal/political leverage over the Renza Federation).