Ok, so I was fooling around at lunch, clicking random links and somewhow I ended up on SDB’s Tenchi post, back when he and I were discussing GXP. I really enjoyed watching the series and it provided the base for a lot of fun discussions, at the time, but as I was re-reading the comments
Then an odd thought hit me: We see three cabbits in all the Tench continuity (except Universe, which I’m pretending doesn’t exist). Fuku, Ryo-ohki and the name of one slips my mind now. But here’s what I realized: On several occasions, we see Fuku inside her spaceship; in other words, she manifests as cabbit and spaceship at the same time. I can’t recall that either of the other two ever did that.
Now Fuku is practically a baby, and lacks the ability to assume a somewhat humaniform appearance that the others have. But do they lack the ability to manifest two forms at once? If so, why? Just a simple “well, Washu refined the design along the way and added that ability?” Or did Nabeshin goof, or did he choose to ignore that point, because the plot needed (or at least was helped) by a cowering Fuku cabbit inside a Fuku ship? And how did Washu screw up and release a cabbit while it was too young? Pressure from Seto? It was necessary for the meta-plot that Fuku be young and vulnerable, but what’s the story justification?
Gah, stupid questions that occur to me for no reason…
[spoiler]It manifests somewhat differently, but Ryo Ohki is show existing as girl and/or cabbit simultaneously with her ship at least twice in the original OVA. First, after Kagato kidnaps Ryoko, Ryo Ohki in cabbit form leads the others to the lake, and stands on the edge of it while her ship form lifts out of the water.
Second, in the third OVA Ryoko in the ship is out beating up the battle moon, and Ryo Ohki in girl form is at the party, spinning around and getting dizzy.
Also, in GXP I think that Ryo Ohki in girl form visits inside the first Kamidake while her ship hovers outside.
It’s true that Washu changed the design somewhat before creating V2 aka Fuku. She doesn’t act quite the same, but the evidence is that Fuku’s ship form is something that she creates, and can change if she needs it changed. For instance, there’s the way that she melted it and fused it with the statue. It also partially melted in order to allow the docking and merger with Mizuki.[/spoiler]
And by the way, your count of cabbits is way off. [spoiler]There’s also the ones that were created by the pirates attempting to clone Fuku.[/spoiler]
Well yes, but I didn’t list them because [spoiler] we have no evidence that they can change into spaceships. The pirates considered them failures, with none of Fuku’s abilities. Of course, they did have some psychic abilities at least; arguably they were a fifth element to the fusion of ship, Idol, Tree, and Seina.[/spoiler]
Their disposition is one of the blank areas of the aftermath; [spoiler] if they can’t become spaceships, they’re still worth studying to determine what they can do, and if they can form spaceships with anything remotely like Ryo-Okhi’s power, there’s no way Jurai would just leave them at loose ends. I don’t see Washu adopting the entire litter either though. [/spoiler]
The reason they couldn’t become ships is that they didn’t have the forehead jewels, which only Washu knows how to create.
In the original series, at one point there are two Ryo Ohki cabbits. Ryoko grabs them and does some sort of kneading, and after she’s done there’s only one of them. The fate of those other Fuku’s was something of a loose string, but what I’ve always assumed was that Washu figured out a way to incorporate them back into the original Fuku.