Tenchi Muyo : Info - Washu Hakubi
Name: Washu Hakubi
Physical Age: 12
Chronological Age: >20,000 (OAV) >700 (TV1)
Birthday: 6th February*
Height: 4' 4" / 133 cm
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red
Blood Type: B
Known Relatives: Ryoko ("daughter"/creation - OAV)
Ryo-Ohki (creation - OAV)
Mikamo Niwase (husband - OAV)
Mikumo (son - OAV)
Mihoshi (great-great-granddaughter - OAV)
Tsunami (sister - OAV)
Lady Tokimi (sister - OAV)
Japanese Voice: Yuko Kobayashi
English Voice: K. T. Vogt
Notes: There are many differences in the history of the character of Washu in the OAVs and TV series. Most notably, in the OAV series she is credited with the creation of Ryoko, Ryo-Ohki, and Kagato's ship, Soja.. She was Kagato's teacher before he turned to evil, has had a husband and child, and is one of the three goddesses (this story arc has not yet been concluded, pending the release of the third OAV series). She has no memory before 20,000 years ago when she was reborn as a child, and she may be considerably older than that.
The history of Washu in the TV series is not so deeply explored. In the first ("Tenchi Universe"), she is a professor at the Galactic Academy, exiled 700 years previously because her work was considered too dangerous. Since then, she had been imprisoned in a cave on Earth until Ryoko freed her. In the second series ("Tenchi in Tokyo"), she is a renegade scientist who was hired by Ryoko to help her steal a precious artefact from planet Jurai.
However, in all incarnations she is considered the finest scientific mind in the galaxy, if not the universe. Her expansive laboratory, covering five whole planets, is set up in a closet under the stairs in the Masaki home (although this is actually only the doorway to some other dimension where the lab itself resides).
Some of her more interesting facets are only explored in the second OAV series. We are given some explanation as to why she resembles a young girl. A traumatic event in her young life lead her to turn her back on the world of adults, and never grow old.
* Birthdays indicated are taken from Japanese seiyuu's birthday, as opposed to any official date.
Facts: In the original concept for Tenchi Muyo, Washu was supposed to have two forms; an illusory male form, and her true female form. She/he was also intended as the lead villain in the original OAV series, and to have killed Tenchi at the end of the fifth episode. OAV Kagato is, essentially, a logical progression of this idea, since he is a student of Washu.
Yuko Kobayashi, Washu's Japanese voice, has had a long and varied voice acting career, appearing in many anime from "Armitage III" to "Kiki's Delivery Service". She has also appeared in "Dragonball Z", "The Moomins" and "Pocket Monsters" (Pokémon).
K.T. Vogt, who provides Washu's English voice, has more roles in front of the camera than the microphone, putting in bit-parts in such films as "Lonesome Dove" and "Conspiracy Theory". However, since acting in Tenchi, she has also appeared in the Disney dub of "Princess Mononoke".