Miki Steinbeck is a character in the Tenchi Muyo OVA series, mainly appearing in the novelizations of the Tenchi Muyo! GXP series. She was created as an AI, eventually becoming a humanoid/cabbit hybrid. She has been revealed to be a reincarnation of Mitsuki Sanada, the main heroine of Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure.
Appearance
In her original body and in her humanoid form after becoming a cabbit she is a pretty young woman with long brown hair and considered an idol with an enthusiastic fanbase at the Galaxy Police Academy. She is practically identical in appearance to Mitsuki Sanada (although her hair is a shade lighter in color than Mitsuki Sanada's) but also has a resemblance to her quasi-relatives Tsukiko Masaki and Kiriko Masaki. As a cabbit she is a clone of Fuku.
Personality
She is seen as a cool student of GP Academy, she developed feelings for Seina Yamada (reincarnation of Kazuki), she is similar to Kiriko and Karen in terms of feelings, hot-blooded, and being the "tsundere", due to her being the reincarnation of Mitsuki Sanada. She is somehow more open of her feelings, but also known for disdain of her father's reckless behavior, as well of Seto's sadistic habit of making trouble for them in any way.
Biography
Miki was created as an AI in an artificial humanoid body (a type of AI known as a "Pinocchio") by Hiroshi Manada. Hiroshi modeled her body and initial personality after Tsukiko Masaki, with whom he carried an unrequited love, but she married another man, Ken Raraiba Steinbeck. He began work on MIki after Tsukiko and Ken introduced HIroshi to their newborn daughter, Kiriko, when he idly wondered what it would be like if he and Tsukiko had a daughter instead. As an AI, he also designed her, in part, as a "dream girlfriend." Unexpectedly though, he found that she had an astral (basically a soul). In the Galaxy Federation it is illegal to destroy an AI with an astral (considered murder) so Hiroshi reverted her artificial body from an adult body and consciousness to that of a baby and responsibly raised her as a human daughter, letting her develop her own personality. While Ken was a romantic rival for Tsukiko, Hiroshi still greatly respected him, and gave his daughter the last name "Steinbeck." after his reported death.
Almost two decades later, when Seina Yamada (a reincarnation of Kazuki Yotsuga from Dual) entered Galaxy Police Academy, Miki was a senior student and she initiated contact with him. Her initial goal was to kidnap him so her father could secretly research his probability bias. Unfortunately for Hiroshi, his initial scans caused immediate and catastrophic malfunctions in his equipment and destroyed his secret lab under the Academy's exercise grounds, collapsing the entire area and revealing his plans to the rest of the school. Miki apologized to Seina, explaining that she wanted her father to fail in order to dissuade what she saw as delusions of grandeur, and started a close relationship with him. They also shared how Hiroshi's experiment prompted a strong sense of déjà vu, what seemed like old memories. These memories come from the time Mitsuki lured Kazuki to take part in Ken Sanada's experiments that sent him to the other dimension.
Soon after becoming acquainted with Seina she was assigned to a training mission in the pirate decoy division. A couple days after she left, Seina was woken up in his room to his NB partially transforming into her appearance and trying to tell him a message before reverting. It was revealed that the base where she was located was attacked by the pirate Tarant Shank and everyone on board was killed.[1] For Miki however it was a case of killing her body but releasing her astral. It stunned Miki, having never known she was an AI, but she was able to inhabit the computer of Tarant's ship and attempted to send herself to Seina's NB. Unknown to Miki though, NB was already being inhabited by the AI astral of Kirche and she refused Miki from entering. There was also evidence that the transfer was interrupted and she might have been destroyed if she hadn't been turned back in time. From Tarant's ship she was later able to transfer to the computer system on his home base planet. While she was a Ghost in his Machine she was able to aid a prisoner escape that also resulted in the recovery of "The Original J" royal tree seed that Tarant had possession of.
When Tarant Shank and the Galaxy Federation military shadow group took Kamidake II and kidnapped Fuku they also busted Doctor Clay out of prison so hie could experiment on the ship and Fuku along with his own scientists. He quickly discovered Miki in the system but kept her secret and instead they struck a bargain, she would give Clay secret information and research The Shank Guild possessed and he would aid her escape. To make good on his part of the deal he transferred her astral into one of the clones of Fuku that Tarant's scientists created (as well as transferring the astrals of D and Kirche into the other clones) and she was able to escape with Seina in Zinv.
Tarant's scientists were not able to replicate Fuku's abilities in the clones but Washu was able to bio-enhance Miki and the others so they could all transform into their humanoid forms and also have close to the same abilities as Fuku, becoming able to control the Kamidake II just as Fuku can, although Fuku always has priority.
This is most likely Miki being held by Misaki Masaki Jurai
Upon returning, Hiroshi introduces Miki to Tsukiko and, while having reservations about her, she recognizes her as the mother she never knew she had. However she also immediately recognizes her as another rival for Seina's affection.
During the events of Paradise War Miki and the other cabbit girls accompany Seina (in his Minamida alias) on the island, almost exclusively staying in their cabbit forms, helping to fix his bad luck to a degree and aiding him in his duties. During this time they all changed their fur color to white. They also became Shou Kukoma's support team, with Miki leading the group in training him how to operate his Guardian.
Trivia
- Miki has two best friends, Miranda and Caliche, while Miki was getting closer to Seina they ended up becoming close to Seina's GP roommates Kenneth and Rajau.
- In Tenchi Muyo! OVA 5, Miki is voiced by Rie Tanaka, the same voice actress who voiced Mitsuki Sanada. (Kirche and Fuku are also voiced by their Dual counterparts- D has not spoken- her voice actress seems to have retired).
- All four voice actresses return to voice their respective characters in Paradise Starting.
- When Seina talks to Tsukiko about Miki on Earth, he still thinks she is dead.[2]