Making the Switch

"Making the Switch" is the third issue of the Tenchi Muyo! American comic series.

Summary

U.S. Comic Issue #3
Published	(June 1, 1997)
Language	English
Navigation
Previous	Criminal Minds
Next	Time for Inferno!
Guide	1. The Postman Always 'Shoots' Twice 2. Criminal Minds 3. Making the Switch 4. Time for Inferno! 5. Quenching Inferno! 6. And When the Hunter Fell

The story begins with Tenchi training with his grandfather, Katsuhito Masaki. He is once again given possession of the Tenchi-ken sword to help his friends. Katsuhito imparts words of wisdom, stating that succumbing to cruelty is easier than practicing forgiveness and understanding.

Meanwhile, Ayeka orders the mysterious cabbit hunter to cease his pursuit of Ryo-Ohki, invoking her authority as the princess of Jurai. The mysterious cabbit hunter refuses to comply, identifying Jurai's space designation as "subsection 4, prefix code 2789221036," and stating that it is "not in his route," thus refusing her command. Ryoko engages him in combat, and the two brawl.

Simultaneously, Washu breathes a sigh of relief as she prevents a hand-sized device from falling and obliterating space within a 100 light-year radius.

Back to Ryoko, she struggles against the cabbit hunter, who dodges her punch and knocks her unconscious with an energy attack from a concealed device. He is on the verge of finishing her with a pair of twin wrist blades when Tenchi rescues her, wielding the Tenchi-ken sword. This forces the cabbit hunter to feign begging for his life. However, he seizes the opportunity when Tenchi turns his back to check on Sasami and escapes in his cabbit ship, "Astroth." Meanwhile, Sasami is abducted.

Washu, Katsuhito Masaki, and Nobuyuki join as spectators, even sharing popcorn. Washu becomes excited when Yagami makes an appearance. Inside Yagami, Mihoshi and Kiyone decide to attack the cabbit hunter's ship with missiles (not before Mihoshi confuses Star Trek with their situation by wanting to use photon torpedoes, which Yagami clearly lacks). While they succeed in hitting him, the cabbit hunter manages to disable Yagami with his ship, Astroth. Yagami is heavily damaged, and Kiyone and Mihoshi start to crash, but they are saved at the last second by Washu (who is further incentivized by being praised as a genius). Once Washu stabilizes the ship, Tenchi and Ayeka join the others in Yagami.

Inside Ryo-Ohki, both Sasami and Ryoko pursue the fleeing cabbit hunter, but they are interrupted by Dante Mixx, seemingly a young man, who boards their ship. Dante Mixx praises Ryoko, revealing himself to be a fan. He admires her powers, skill, and A1 criminal rank (the highest rank), while he is a lowly A5.

Ryoko underestimates the situation, planning to quickly deal with him and continue her chase. This proves to be a huge mistake, as Dante uses the opportunity to restrain her with mummy-like bindings. Dante doesn't just want to be like Ryoko; he wants to literally be her.

Meanwhile, Sasami, whom Dante ignored, manages to escape and warn the others. However, it is too late, as Dante succeeds in using a machine to merge with Ryoko, becoming one with her. The result is a woman identical to Ryoko except for her new hairstyle, long red hair, and Dante in control of her body and powers. This new fusion refers to herself as "Inferno."

Characters

• Dante Mixx (Original character): A seemingly young, low-ranking A5 criminal.
• Rob-Mysterious Cabbit Hunter (Original character)
• Katsuhito Masaki
• Nobuyuki Masaki
• Tenchi Masaki
• Mihoshi
• Kiyone
• Ayeka
• Sasami

Trivia

• The designation the cabbit hunter gave to Jurai closely resembles a space postal code, hinting at his true identity as a space mail carrier.
• There is a reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation, with Mihoshi wanting to use "photon torpedeos". Spock and Captain Picard, borgified as Locutus, make a cameo appearance alongside a parody of the Starship Enterprise humorously referred to as the "USS Coughdrop" during Mihoshi's daydreaming scene.
• Dante’s plan might had been inspired by a similar concept in Star Trek; voyager which also merged two characters into a third one in an episode called “Tuvix” which fused Tuvok and Neelix into an hybrid called Tuvix. However while Tuvix was created due to an accident, Inferno was intentional. Inferno also seems to have Dante in control of the fusion thus overriding Ryoko’s will.
• It's hinted that Star Trek, or at least a version close to it exists as a tv show and that both Kiyone and Mihoshi have watched it. Mihoshi in particular seems to be a big fan judging by her day dreaming.
• There is a meta-reference to the "villain monologues and explains their evil plan" trope. Dante refuses to explain how he achieves his plan to avoid the cliche, but still brags about taking Ryoko's place, thus still utilizing the evil gloat trope.
• The package sent to Sasami had the space address "Earth-616," a reference to Marvel Comics. Both the MCU and the main canon comic continuity use the Earth-616 designation for their reality.
• Rob’s cabbit name “Astroth” might be an intentional misspelling of the name “Astaroth” a name of a mythological demon, and a popular fantasy name in anime such as Gundam’s Astaroth mech.
• The issues' name "making the switch" is a reference to how the tenchi gang switches their main antagonist from Rob, the cabbit hunter, to Dante. It also is a reference to how Dante merged with Ryoko to switch places with her.