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Tsunami (津名魅) is a character appearing in several Tenchi Muyo! continuities, including Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, the No Need For Tenchi! manga by Hitoshi Okuda, as well as Magical Girl Pretty Sammy and Magical Project S.

In the OVA continuity and Okuda's manga, Tsunami is one of the Chousin, three omnipotent goddesses who created the universe, with the other two being Washu Hakubi and Tokimi. She is the founder of the empire of the planet Jurai, patron to its Royal Family, and creator/mother of its mighty Royal Trees. Additionally, she has assimilated with Sasami, and they will become essentially one and the same some time in the future.

Meanwhile, in both Pretty Sammy series, Tsunami is a woman from the magical kingdom of Juraihelm who approaches Sasami Kawai to turn her into the magical girl Pretty Sammy and perform tasks that will allow Tsunami to become Juraihlem's new queen.

Background

Tsunami-kami-sama

Tsunamiyall

Tsunami-kami-sama in the original Royal Treeship, Tsunami-fune.

Tsunami-kami-sama (津名魅神様, Tsunami-kamisama), along with her sisters, Washu-kami-sama and Tokimi-kami-sama were in existence before time and space began, and have spent billions of years working towards locating a certain individual, someone who is greater then they are. In fact, the sum total of creation was started by them after an unknown length of time spent trying to theorize the existence of such a being. They came to the conclusion that a more practical approach was needed. Tsunami, like Washu, descended to the third dimension to conduct her search.

Over one billion years before the birth of Tenchi, Tsunami encountered an unknown member of an unknown race. For reasons that have not been revealed, Tsunami gave this being two seeds of what would be known as the Royal Trees of Jurai. One, a First Generation Tree, would become Zinv, the other, suggested to be a Second Generation, would become HIMC.

150,000 years ago, a sleeping Tsunami met with the boy who would be the first Emperor of Jurai. Tsunami (in giant form), had been asleep on the planet for so long that she had begun to turn into a tree. Tsunami recognized within him the seeds of what she and her sisters were searching for. She agreed to provide him with her descendants, "Royal Trees of the Imperial Family." These trees are sapient and powerful beings who bond with certain Juraians, providing them with great power and long life-spans. They are also the central core of Juraian ships, acting as their 'heart' and computer unit, far more powerful than anything else, thus allowing Jurai to become a galactic superpower. Tsunami promised to watch over the Royal Family of Jurai as she waited for the superior being that she and her sisters were searching for as well as for the birth of princess Sasami Masaki Jurai whom she was destined to assimilate with.

Sasami Masaki Jurai

Sasamiandtsunami

Sasami and Tsunami

Sasami summon tsunami

Sasami summoning Tsunami.

During Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki's attack on Jurai, three year old Princess Sasami fell from a walkway in the Royal Arboretum, into a septic where the royal trees are grown near the roots of the original royal tree, Tsunami-no-ki. Sasami was fatally injured and Tsunami assimilated with her in order to save her life. Tsunami and Sasami are merging and one day the two of them will be a single being. In episode 19, it is established that the personalities and wills of the two are one and the same; for example, when Sasami fears for Tenchi Masaki's safety, Tsunami must act, even at the risk of a confrontation with Tokimi. When Sasami reaches physical maturity, she will take on the appearance of Tsunami -- supporting the fact that it was always meant for the two to be one.

Tenju

Tenju

Interior of the Tenju: the Royal Arboretum.

The largest tree on Jurai standing at 5,000 meters high, the Tenju (天 樹, "Heaven Tree") acts as the Royal Palace of Jurai, housing the current Emperor and his family and the main homes of all of the Imperial Houses, as well as the Royal Arboretum, and much more. It is here that all of the Royal Trees await a partner that they will bond with. Tenju was created from the giant body of Tsunami-kami-sama and is the progenitor of all further generation Tree-ships.

Tsunami-no-ki

Main article: Royal Tree

Like "-kami-sama," "-no-ki" (or just "-ki") is a suffix meaning that the preceding name refers to a royal tree. After creating Tenju, Tsunami-no-ki came into being at the very base of the Royal Arboretum. It was from this tree that Tsunami, through Tenju, created first generation seeds that would become the first generation Royal Trees of Jurai. It is unclear how Zinv and HIMC are related to this history, it is known that their genesis is "the same" as the other royal trees but the seeds apparently appeared before Tsunami started the slumber that produced Tenju. Details from this time are sketchy at best. When Sasami was injured during Ryoko's attack on Jurai, she landed near Tsunami-no-ki and it was here that they assimilated. Tsunami-no-ki has now been moved to become the central core of Tsunami-fune, its ship form. Tsunami-no-ki, as the mother of the rest of the ships, is considered a Zero-Generation Tree-ship.

Although very powerful, later generations of the Royal Treeships gradually became less powerful as they progress from Tsunami-no-ki. They also apparently lose their 'will' (that is, their minds and/or soul) in the 4th generation and beyond, or if they are rooted on another planet. Funaho-no-ki was believed to be an example of this, but the tree did not lose its will because of Washu's powerful gems on the pommel end of Tenchi-ken, the Master Key which provided the tree with power. According to information in chapters of the GXP Novels, they may still have some consciousness, but are unable to communicate with the pilots/partners of these ships and cannot exert their own will.

The "Knights" used in The Renza Federation, mecha powered with lower generation royal seeds, were largely produced through a "splicing" technique that creates clones of a seed in a process similar to growing a new plant by cutting part of it from the original. However, unbeknownst to them, this process also strips the ships of their limited consciousness, leaving them powerful, but in a state similar to being lobotomized. The first generation seed powered mecha, Zinv, can sense (and is disturbed by) this damage, and calls them "broken."

Tsunami-fune

Tsunami light hawk wings

Tsunami royal space ship

-fune is used for names of the spaceships Tsunami-fune is the the most powerful of all ships. Tsunami-fune is able to control all ships of Jurai, since it is from her that the ships' power is derived. Also, Tsunami-fune's defenses are 100% impenetrable by any form of attack in our three dimensions, due to her ability to produce ten Light Hawk Wings. Ten Wings represent the maximum force that can be generated at any one point in our dimensions. Any more would completely shatter the multiverse. Tsunami-fune has demonstrated matter-transportation, multiple-environment generation, energy-based weaponry, and sub-space travel. Tsunami-fune is officially listed as belonging to Sasami. It is unknown exactly when or how Tsunami-fune was created, but it is estimated to be between 700 and 695 years ago. An alternate possibility is that the ship has always existed, but remains hidden except for select periods when Tsunami decides it is needed, although considering the nature of Jurai ships, this is unlikely.

Tsunami-fune first appears in the penultimate episode of OVA 1, where Sasami joins with Funaho-no-ki to summon her to Earth. This was all a ploy by Kagato to lure her and claim her power for himself. He was foiled in this attempt by the appearance of Tenchi. In the final episode of OVA 1, Washu reveals that Kagato had Ryoko attack planet Jurai 700 years ago for this exact reason, ironically foiled similarly by Tenchi's grandfather, Yosho.

Trivia

  • It should be noted that Tsunami has not gone from one form to another, but that she exists in all forms simultaneously, with the possible exception of the Tenju.
  • As Tsunami and Sasami are merging into one, either one of their names can be used to address them/her after the merger is complete. This should be interpreted as saying that Sasami is not becoming Tsunami, they are combining to make a new whole with aspects of both.

Tenchi Universe

Tsunami is introduced in the Universe continuity in the manga adaptation to the second movie, Tenchi Muyo! in Love: Eternal Memory also known as Tenchi Forever! Six months after Tenchi has gone missing, Sasami travels to Jurai to search for clues. Sasami is taken into a sacred place in the Jurai palace with a girl named Izumi as her guide. Izumi and Sasami pass challenges in order to reach Tsunami, whose power Sasami plans to use to free Tenchi from the parallel world that he is trapped in thanks to a woman named Haruna. Meanwhile, Sasami reflects on her true feelings for Tenchi, revealing that even though she is possibly too young to "even know what love means," she loves Tenchi with all her heart. Tsunami makes Sasami realize that Tenchi will choose who he wants to be with and that she cannot force him to leave Haruna's world. However, Sasami comes to assimilate with Tsunami just as she had done in the OVA continuity. She reveals to the reader that although the others believe that Washu's instruments are what allowed the door to Haruna's world to be opened, Washu's plan failed and it is actually Sasami using her power due to her bond with Tsunami keeping the door open, hoping Tenchi would choose to return to them...to her.

Pretty Sammy

In both Pretty Sammy series (Magical Girl Pretty Sammy and Magical Project S), Tsunami is one of the candidates to be the Queen of Juraihelm. After she was chosen, she chose Sasami Kawai to act as her representative on Earth. In doing so, Sasami became known as the magical girl, Pretty Sammy.

Personality-wise, Tsunami is very different from her OVA and Manga incarnations. Instead of being very eloquent and courteous, she's shown being more carefree, relaxed, even slightly ditzy and reckless; similar to Misaki and Mihoshi. For example, when she and Sasami first met, she had mistaken the music of Mozart for Beethoven. When Ramia used a cheesy-looking doll to stand-in for her during the episode involving Bif Standard, Tsunami actually thought it was the genuine article.

Tsunami is also clueless about Ramia's efforts to derail her chances to be queen of Juraihelm. When Ramia had disappeared after a caper went wrong, Tsunami, who was grief-stricken, put up posters asking for Ramia's return.

In Magical Project S, Tsunami also has a great love for flowers; in fact, one of her goals as Queen of Juraihelm was to "plant flowers across the entire galaxy". Despite this, she eventually managed to win the candidacy.

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