Mihoshi Kuramitsu (九羅密 美星 ) is a main character in the Tenchi Muyo! franchise. In most of her appearances, Mihoshi is a well-meaning Galaxy Police officer who unfortunately suffers from a combination of being klutzy, scatterbrained, and lazy to some degree.
In Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, Mihoshi is a member of the politically-powerful Kuramitsu family and formerly one of the best Galaxy Police officers, but whose performance declined after an unspecified "incident". After literally falling into Tenchi Masaki's arms one day while on an ill-fated patrol, Mihoshi moves in with him and his newly extended family.
Biography
Like the rest of her family, Mihoshi joined the Galaxy Police, eventually becoming a Detective First Class. Mihoshi was known as one of the finest officers in the Galaxy Police, but her career soon hit a major roadblock after an incident hinted at in the 4th and 5th episodes of the 1st OVA, and the 4th episode of the 3rd one. It has been alluded to that the incident involved an arranged marriage, which would factor in the Chobimaru incident later in the series. There is also mention of brain injuries in the GXP novels from a fight against a spy.
Now, she suffers from frequent difficulties to focus on a single thought track and due to her clumsiness, she causes a lot of collateral damage during her assignments, which eventually causes Mihoshi to be demoted. The desk of the Section 7 commander is covered with misconduct reports and bills from all the damage she causes. As a result, she is assigned to a special remote area of the galaxy, the developing Solar System, which is Juraian territory, in the vain hope that she wouldn't cause any more trouble.
However, when the ruthless Kagato closed in on this area, Mihoshi's immediate superior, Captain Nobeyama, assigned her to monitor the area and report if Kagato came near. However, Mihoshi misinterpreted those orders and took it upon herself to capture him, which panicked Nobeyama. But when she got near Earth, her shuttle is pulled into an energy vortex caused by a monster that space pirate Ryoko had created to attack Juraian Princess Ayeka. Mihoshi almost ends up getting sucked into the black hole that the opening created but Earthling Tenchi Masaki saved her. As a result, Mihoshi moved into Tenchi's home on Earth and becomes a part of the extended Masaki family. Like all the other girls living at the Masaki home, she falls in love with Tenchi though she isn't as forward or aggressive as Ryoko, Ayeka, or even the brilliant Washu.
When Kagato attacks in his ship, the Sōja, Mihoshi's causality-bending causes Washu, the greatest scientific genius in the universe, to be released from her crystal prison on board Soja's 'reversed universe.' When Kagato's serpent guards attack her, Mihoshi uses her control cube in an attempt to stop them and the interference it creates somehow releases Washu. During the battle with Kagato, it is seen that despite Mihoshi's utter ditziness, nothing can harm her. Whatever the circumstance, she is able to withstand almost anything without attempting to do so or even realizing it (although she still fell victim to the "incident").
Family
Mihoshi is from the planet Seniwa and is a member of the prestigious Kuramitsu family whose power in the Galactic Union is second only to the Royal Family of the planet Jurai.
Mihoshi is actually Washu's great-great-granddaughter, being a descendant of Washu's son Mikumo. Mihoshi, like the rest of the Kuramitsu family, was not aware of this until Mikumo, Seniwa's leader, was on his deathbed and Washu made a surprise arrival to reveal the truth[1]. Mihoshi's grandfather is Minami, the Grand Marshall of the Galaxy Police and her great aunt is Mikami, headmaster of the Galaxy Police Academy. Mihoshi's mother Mitoto also works for the Galaxy Police, as a cleaning lady and seems to be almost as ditzy as her daughter and has some sort of comedic ability to appear all over the universe, cleaning, not even realizing where she is, but yet knowing everyone she seems to come into contact with.
Mihoshi also has a younger brother named Misao, another member of the GP. Misao has a "sister complex" when it comes to Mihoshi. Misao is extremely overprotective of her after the "incident," which is what causes the "Chobimaru incident" where he attempts to kill Tenchi for keeping his sister as a "sex slave" in his harem. Misao's infatuation with Mihoshi ends when he discovers his feelings for his co-worker Mashisu.
Whether her kinship with Washu, one of the Chousin goddesses, is correlated with her "condition" is unknown, but there are suggestions that her great-great-grandfather, Washu's husband had a similar ability. Series creator Masaki Kajishima has revealed that it is the result of the Chousin's purpose, which was to find a being superior to them. However, it is noteworthy that her mother Mitoto has a reminiscent and humorous ability to subconsciously travel vast interstellar distances and enter places that are deemed impenetrable. The GXP novels seem to indicate that this probability bias is something the two share, though Minami, Mikami, and Misao apparently don't.
Characteristics
Mihoshi somehow has the ability to unwittingly manipulate causality, called a probability bias in the GXP novels, which she appears to have inherited from her mother. Causality is the relationship between an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect), where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first.
Mihoshi is able to enter Washu's subspace lab in the Masaki's closet and breaks things much to her consternation, as she still can't figure out how Mihoshi can somehow accidentally switch dimensions and bypass all of her lab's security systems. Washu has great respect for her vast causality-bending attributes, and it has been revealed that Mihoshi is the only person who can defeat Washu.
Mihoshi sleeps often, eats like a pig, and is the luckiest officer in the Galaxy Police, though her luck sometimes spells misfortune for others. She often tries to stop the bickering Ryoko and Ayeka from arguing though the result is usually one or all of them being hurt. Although she tends to eat and sleep a lot, Mihoshi is very serious about her job in the Galaxy Police, doesn't mind helping out with regular household work, and seems better at it than Ryoko or Ayeka.
Mihoshi seems to have an ability for perfect recollection of everything that happens to her but due to her condition her recollections are confused, full of minor inconsequential details and long digressions. She has been known to write very extensive and unstructured reports cluttered with details, so it can sometimes take her superiors a while to figure them out. In fact, because her report on the Kagato incident included detailed information on the Jurai Royal Trees, her report is now top secret with Jurai Intelligence. Empress Funaho Masaki Jurai once confessed to Washu that it took Jurai Intelligence four days to summarize the report. A duplicate report omitting the sensitive information was submitted in its place.
In OAV 3 (episodes 14-20), Mihoshi seems to have taken on a few of the characteristics from the other continuities; she becomes less competent and appears more ditzy than usual (though this may simply be a result of her, and much of the regular cast having a bit less screen time than in the other OVA episodes). Additionally, it is revealed that she is the former partner of Noike, Tenchi's arranged fiancee who seems embarrassed by Mihoshi's affectionate behavior, and handles her through yelling.
Taking into account her father and brother's desire to keep her from being hurt "again," it seems that, at some point, Mihoshi was previously romantically involved with a man and that this romance led to "the incident" that caused her current air-headed demeanor. A flashback of the incident shows her body being seemingly "unraveled," possibly in more than three dimensions. This seems to represent something confirmed in the Tenchi Muyo! GXP novels, that Mihoshi was a victim of a poorly done brain-washing, in which someone tried to over-write part of her brain with nanites to make her a spy. It seems to be a specialty of the Shank Pirate Guild (Seina Yamada accidentally uncovered dozens of these spies at one point). It seems likely that this was done to her by this romantic interest that she shouldn't have trusted. Although never elaborated on, it is mentioned that Mihoshi is still receiving treatments to alleviate the damage done to her at this time.
Anecdotally, Masaki Kajishima has also revealed that the reason Mihoshi always keeps her hair tied up is that because if she were to let it down, she would instantly lose her memory though the reasons for this is unknown. This has never been blatantly stated in any of the anime or novels, but it may be part of the damage done during the botched brain-washing.
Kajishima had intended to write a fourth True Tenchi Muyo! novel, entitled "Mihoshi," but plans for that were scrapped for unknown reasons.
Illustrations from some of the author's doujinshi indicate that Mihoshi's mind will recover, at least to a point where the memory loss will no longer happen, as Mihoshi is shown with her hair down, sometime after the birth of her and Noike's daughters.
Etymology
Her given name "Mihoshi," (みほし、美星), literally means "Beautiful Star," and is derived from a town in Okayama Prefecture formerly known as Bisei.
Gallery
References
- ↑ True Tenchi Muyo! GXP 11