At 10:49 01/11/96 -0800, Gregory Matteson wrote:

>        About one of the attendants being Nagi instead of Minagi (that would
>make it TV-Tenchi-verse).  Sorry I lost your letter, but I havn't seen the
>TV episodes.  You say they are easy to tell apart?  Tall, skinny, resemble
>Ryoko, with blue hair(but not sharp spiky), with Juraian war-paint; and we
>don't see a lot of detail or color about Minagi. So, till I can watch the TV
>episodes, clue me in, how do you tell Minagi from Nagi? Reliably? BTW: how
>the heck does a bounty hunter after Ryoko end up being an attendant at her
>wedding to the undocumented royal heir?

        About half this answer comes from what little concrete info can be
found in English, including the AIC Home Page. The rest is a personal
observation (I'll note which is which). All of it should be considered
spoiler material...


        1) As Hanny Lee has noted, Minagi is a near exact double for Ryoko,
but for the 'warpaint'; her clothes styles aren't too far removed from
Ryoko's, though in this illustration it wouldn't be a valid point anyway.
Nagi has the warpaint but never really resembles Ryoko. I believe the
hairstyle should be the tipoff, since Nagi does usually wear something in
her hair and it doesn't seem to be as long as Ryoko's.

        2) The AIC page features some very short descriptions of some of the
early TV episodes, and there they note that Nagi has a perfect record of
bagging her prey, with one notable exception. And this is presumably a
matter of professional honor for her, so whether there's real hate involved
the two becomes moot, after their respective 'pets' (Roy-ohki and Ken-ohki)
intervene before anyone gets seriously hurt. I believe what may change
everyone's perspective on this is that it is overshadowed by the conflict
between Tenchi (and his friends) and most of the Jurai Empire, which is the
focus of the "Space Episodes" and something I haven't seen all of just yet.

        3) While Tenchi is an heir to the Jurai throne (or at least, I
assume he still is in the TV series after the final battle), I get the idea
he has chosen to return to Earth by the end of the TV series, and is turning
his back on his Jurai title. Which probably explains why the wedding is
taking place on Earth, Japanese style. In any case, I assumed the
illustration is more along the lines of a cherished dream, sort of like what
all the characters live through near the end of the "Earth episodes". So it
isn't necessarily a future reality or a foregone conclusion.

Howard Tom
howard@cam.org