After the pirate armada is arrested thanks to Seina's extreme unluckiness, Lady Seto invites him onto her ship, the Mikagami, as she is interested in his special gift and wants him to join the Galaxy Police despite being an Earthling. After they leave, Seina and the crew of the GP ship encounter the beautiful and very popular space pirate Ryoko Balta, who also wants to recruit him.
Full Recap[]
The episode picks up just before the end of the previous one, shifting to the perspective of one of the pirate ships chasing the GP ship. Its commander, a woman, is initially excited about being able to capture it, but once she realizes there are hundreds of other ships chasing it, she brings the ship out of warp because she feels as though they’re being “drawn” toward it. Thus, she escapes being ambushed and arrested by Lady Seto and the Juraian fleet like the rest of the pirate ships, and the commander believes that there is a secret aboard that GP ship that she wants to learn about.
As temporary repairs are being conducted on their ship, a Juraian officer invites the guide, Mitoto, and Seina onboard the Mikagami to learn about what happened. There, Mitoto and Seina separate from the guide and are led into a nature area. Seina asks the woman guiding them if they’re on a spaceship, and she answers that this area is posited inside subspace; Seina tells himself he has no idea what that means. They are led to an open building to wait, and while Seina finds a phone that can connect to Earth, the line is currently busy. He later falls into a lake and accidentally grabs onto a baby pig-like creature while trying to get out, angering its nearby mother, and is later seen being chased by an entire habitat's worth of animals.
Meanwhile, Seto is talking to someone over a call about how despite the fact that pureblooded Earthlings are forbidden to join the Galaxy Police, Seina isn’t the first exception. The woman on the other end sounds displeased, but Seto insists that his application was accepted and it’s his decision to join. The call ends, and Minaho notes how Seina supposedly has bad luck. However, Seto believes he has good luck given the slim chances of a pure Earthling making it into space.
Kanemitsu, another of Seto's advisors, makes a snide comment about Seina having bad luck meeting Seto, but as Seto hears this, he changes the subject to his surprise at how Mitoto happened to be on the same ship as Seina. As Minaho notes, Mitoto was in charge of cleaning the Galaxy Police headquarters. Meanwhile, Mitoto is busy quickly hand-cleaning the floor of the room she was drinking tea in.
One of the Mikagami’s crew brings up information on Amane Kaunaq, the first non-Earthling to make contact with Seina. Seto knows her and remembers that she’d promised to find her a husband, but she’s turned most of them down (as in, beating them up). Seto then decides to meet Seina.
In a flashback, before Seina boarded the Mikagami, the guide warns him about not angering Lady Seto, which makes Seina assume that Seto is scary. However, upon meeting her, Seina instead finds her pretty. Minaho greets Seina, but he is confused since her last name is Masaki, the same as his friend Tenchi. Seto greets Mitoto, who she happens to knows, and tells her that they were recently contacted by her family. Mitoto leaves to take a call, and Seto leads Seina to a place to sit down and talk.
Seto tells Seina that she’s impressed with the “gift” he possesses that allowed them to make an arrest on a horde of space pirates and that the GP would welcome his gift as well. However, Kanemitsu arrives and tells Seina that pure-Earthlings are prohibited from going into space, and he’ll have to be returned to Earth with his memory wiped. Seto now asks him if he still wants to join the Galaxy Police despite the dangers his gift brings, and Seina answers that he wants to be in space to see things and go places he never could on Earth. Seto accepts the answer and promises to get the Galaxy Police to make an exception. Of course, Kanemitsu knows this is the same trick Seto pulled on him.
With the temporary repairs on the GP ship completed, Seina, Mitoto, and the guide continue on their journey. As they leave, Kanemitsu asks Seto if she were planning on recruiting Seina, but Seto says that she couldn’t dream of taking “her” fun away, and Minaho notes how Seina is going to be very surprised when he sees “her”.
The GP ship goes into hyperspace again, and yet again, as soon as they get out, they’re confronted by another pirate ship that demands they negotiate in person. Three of the ship's bridge crew, Alan, Barry, and Cohen, notice that this ship belongs to the space pirate Ryoko Balta and immediately begin swooning over her and preparing the ship for her arrival.
Ryoko and one of her lieutenants board the GP ship and are greeted with a surprise party in the rooms set up by the crew. Seina is obviously confused, but one of them explains that Ryoko Balta is an idolized pirate and has a lot of fans even within the Galaxy Police, which clearly includes themselves. Ryoko then asks Mitoto, who she also happens to know since she's cleaned her ship, who the captain of the ship is, but one of the crew explains that the captain is currently “tied up” (that is, literally tied up and gagged under a cardboard box) and that he and his comrades are his substitutes.
Ryoko then explains she was a witness to the earlier incident regarding the pirate armada, and the crew immediately points fingers at Seina since he caused it with his bad luck. Ryoko greets Seina, who tries to apologize for what he did, but to his surprise, she actually wants to invite him into her crew because of his special gift. She even holds his hand and promises to make him the captain of her own ship and let him give her whatever order he wants. However, Seina says he can’t join her crew, both because he’d promised to join the Galaxy Police and because he personally thinks piracy is wrong.
A disappointed Ryoko leaves the ship, telling Seina that they’ll meet as enemies next time, but not before taking a commemorative photo with him and the crew. Back on her own ship, she is looking at the photo as her lieutenant suggests putting Seina on the Pirate Guild’s caution list. She initially agrees, but then changes her mind as she keeps looking at Seina in the photo, clearly charmed by the boy.
Story Revisions Added to the GXP Novels[]
There are many differences between the anime and the novels Masaki Kajishima later wrote. This episode is adapted in Chapter 3 of the novel True Tenchi Muyo! GXP 1. The novels represent the canonical version of events followed in the OVA episodes.
- Hakuren, Gyokuren, Karen, and Suiren are the escorts that bring Seina and Mitoto to the Mikagami, while Minaho is put in charge of repairing the transport ship.
- Seto actually hails Ryoko Balta in the distance and is the one that suggests she intercept the ship to meet Seina.
- Contains the first of a number of highly enigmatic sequences in the early novels in which Seto talks to a mysterious Mirror Seto about how the Mirror has unique memories of Seina that Seto does not. The full explanation of how they are related and what this means isn't revealed until the 14th novel.
Trivia[]
- Ryoko Balta is voiced by Aya Hisakawa, whose other notable roles include, among others, Sailor Mercury in Sailor Moon, Skuld in Oh My Goddess!, and Kero in Cardcaptor Sakura.
- In the English dub, Ryoko is voiced by Barbara Goodson, was was also the voice of Yuzuha and a young Yosho from The Daughter of Darkness