Ryoko Forever Fan Club
Oryo-san's Page

Cover of Pretty Samy TV laserdisc 12 (import)

Warning: This page contains spoilers for the later parts of the Magical Girl Pretty Samy TV series. Read at your peril!

All unique images on this page are from the Magical Girl Pretty Samy TV series laserdisc set, and are copyright AIC/Pioneer. All except the three cover and insert scans are video captures from the show itself.

For information about Oryo-san's name, see the Tenchi Muyo! Names in Kanji page.

But then episode 23 came along. Pretty Samy was in deepest do-dos. She'd completely and permanently defeated Pixy Misa, but the arrival of supervillain Romio (who looked like a deranged version of Aeka, and was even more Darth Vader-ish than the original) along with Magical Girl LoveMe Eimi and her Lovely Monsters, Lady Left and Lady Right, were more than Samy could handle.

(You may be wondering why there's so much Romio on an RFFC web page. Well, to be honest, I like Romio. She's an immensely entertaining villain, much funnier than Aeka, and has a wonderful range of bizarre facial expressions.)

Oryo-san is a denizen of Juraihelm, and like Tsunami, Ramia, Ryo-Ohki and all the other people of that place, she is magical by nature. Her personality can be described as "comic book good": she smiles a lot, is nice to most people, and makes interminable speeches to villains about the errors of their ways before beating the crap out of them. She's very unlike the Ryoko we're used to.

Her second outfit is her Ku Rangers outfit. I have a strong suspicion that this was meant to be a big surprise thing, that the Ku Rangers Sensei would turn up, beat the Lovely Monsters to a pulp, and then turn out to everyone's surprise to be a Ryoko look-alike. Unfortunately, if that was the intent of the show's creators, it didn't come off; it was obvious who was going to be inside that jumpsuit pretty much the moment she appeared. Oryo-san only wears that costume for the battle against the Lovely Monsters, and afterwards reverts to her Juraihelm outfit.

The third outfit is seen only in the last episode (see final image at bottom left of page). Because it's a still-frame shot, it's hard to tell exactly what's going on, but it appears that Oryo-san is following Tsunami around in a black stage costume (meaning "I'm a stage hand, I'm not here, ignore me") ready to lend support to that heavy crown whenever Tsunami habitually tilts her head.

One remaining question is whether Oryo-san was one of the actual Ku Rangers who appeared in Tenchi's TV show. I don't have a certain answer, but I think she wasn't; or if she was, she did a very good job of disguising her voice. For all her talents, I don't think Ai Orikasa is capable of sounding so male.

• Flight: Like Ryoko, she can fly freely and hover.
• Quick change: While fighting Lady Left and Lady Right, she's wearing her Ku Ranger outfit; shortly after defeating it, she's wearing her red/blue Juraihelm costume, and we don't see the change.
• Energy blast: Oryo-san can hurl energy blasts from her hands, like Ryoko.
• Energy sword: She can create an energy sword which, surprise surprise, is just like Ryoko's. (But see Weapons, below.)
• Gate: Like Tsunami and Ramia, Oryo-san can open a hyperdimensional gateway between wherever she is and Juraihelm.

Notice that the laserdisc cover (above) shows Oryo-san fighting with two swords (both with red blades). She never does this in the show itself.

Insert for laserdisc volume 12

Although Oryo-san can fire energy blasts from her hand and create an energy sword, she has a few physical weapons as shown in the insert and in the video captures:

• Blaster: A hand-held blaster pistol. I think it's just for show, it may even be nothing more than a toy.
• Energy sword: A sword not unlike the Tenchiken, but with a simpler, cylindrical handle. It produces a green blade, and is also dependent on the magical energy of Juraihelm. Notice that the sword she actually uses when attacking Romio has a different hilt to the one shown in the character design sketches.

I also don't care for Oryo-san's personality, at least as little of it as was shown. Frankly, she's bland, and that's one thing Ryoko could never be.