Minaho Masaki

**Voice Actors** | (**Japanese:**)
Yoko Nagashima

(**English:**)
Airi Masaki (Mother)
Kiyone Masaki (Younger Sister)
Tenchi Masaki (Nephew)
Tennyo Masaki (Niece)

**Minaho Masaki** is the oldest daughter of Airi and Katsuhito Masaki (her younger sister Kiyone is long since dead) who works closely with Seto Kamiki Jurai.

Minaho is a very efficient worker and often keeps her lady informed about affairs within the Jurai empire as well helping Seto to meddle in the lives with her nephew Tenchi and his friend Seina Yamada, although she has not inherited the playful, almost jokester attitude of her mother...at least most of the time.

## Background

She is the first daughter of Juraian Prince Yosho "Katsuhito" Masaki and Galaxy Police chairwoman Airi Masaki. She is the older sister of Kiyone Masaki which makes her the aunt to series protagonist Tenchi Masaki and his sister Tennyo.

 File:Minahoyall.jpg  Airi got pregnant by Yosho while the two studied at Galaxy Academy prior to Ryoko's attack on Jurai, but removed her embryo because she knew that her people, the Airians, would certainly kill the child because of their hatred of the Imperial Family of Jurai. However, she eventually had the embryo returned to her, and gave birth normally. Minaho has mentioned that she had been born by the time of Ryoko's attack on Jurai.

Airi performed experiments on Minaho that left her badly scarred on her back. This apparently caused the pair to be estranged for some time, though they have apparently reconciled, at least somewhat.

It is revealed that Minaho helped raise Kiyone, as Airi was busy with work at the time.

Minaho works for galactic political figure Lady Seto, otherwise known as the "Devil Princess of Jurai," as her Intelligence Officer, and is apparently the only one who can manage any form of control on Seto, earning her the nickname of Seto's Leash. She was first introduced in Tenchi Muyo! GXP and is seen semi-frequently throughout the series and in one episode of the OVA series to tell Lady Seto that news of her secret meetings with those involved in the Chobimaru incident was spreading throughout the galaxy and then to later attend her brother-in-law Nobuyuki's wedding to Rea and at the wedding she was lectured about not being married yet by her parents. She is a very efficient worker and seems to be aware of all the affairs of the Juraian empire. Minaho is over 248 years old and is shown to be very professional and sometimes regrets working so closely with Lady Seto. She is bonded with a Royal Tree of the planet Jurai which is the cause of her expanded lifespan.

There is a running gag that Minaho is often being goaded by the people around her to get married but she never finds a suitable husband and is always preoccupied by her tasks and responsibilities (some of which are put upon her despite of her will). As of the Dai-Yon Ki OVAs, there have been some wild speculation that Minaho has romantic interest in Tenchi (albeit jokingly). This is in fact a misunderstanding--due to translation issues with context or something else like head-canon from fans. The main reason Minaho decides to spend some time closely with Tenchi and the main reason why Tenchi becomes quite shy around her is due to the fact that Minaho feels a sense of regret and longing for having been away from Tenchi during his childhood even though she should have been acting as his substitute mother figure after her younger sister, Kiyone's death.

Unfortunately, her position in the political affairs of the far away galactic civilizations kept her away for most of Tenchi's childhood, except during Kiyone's wake. A fact which she is saddened of. Fortunately or not, Rea was there as a sister figure for Tenchi which soon later developed into his substitute mother figure in Minaho's place. This is where Tenchi gets bashful from as Rea and Minaho both naturally have the qualities of Tenchi's "ideal mother figure" and as such he sees the image of his mother in the two of them--a fact which Nobuhiko agrees with and puts as "a mother's figure is complicated when seen from the eyes of all children" seeing as no other person can truly replace Kiyone, even her sister Minaho.

***In the Tenchi Muyo! GXP Novels added to canon:***

Minaho's "position" as a character is further established albeit still somewhat out of the focus of the main spotlight within Kajishima's canon Tenchi Muyo! GXP light novels (still ongoing as of 2019). In the novels, she is given presence within various scenes as part of the women who have to deal with Yamada Seina's influence in the world around him, mostly through political means.

She works closely under Seto and along with the latter, receives a gift brooch accessory decorated with very expensive Juraian amber which couldn't simply be purchased even with an exorbitant amount of money. While both gifts (Seto gets earrings) are mostly for thanks, bought by Seina with his first salary, both women are illustrated and shown talking to each other--Minaho unable to even form words due to feeling so much joy, in a scene with the face of "women in love" as they dreamily gaze at the accessories they immediately wore and treasured while thinking of the boy who bought it for them. It is also within the GXP novels that Minaho herself declares that she will also go after Seina (for marriage) albeit there are reasons that are keeping her from going all-out as of the latest volumes.

In the novels it is touched upon that Minaho's team consisting of Mizune Masaki, Otoka Masaki, and Fuuka Masaki, all form another set of "Four Future Wives" meant to be married to Seina for political reasons...A fact that Mizune's trio confirm during an episode of the Ryo-Ohki Dai-Yon Ki OVAs while talking to Tsukiko, saying that their team "is included in the dedicated teams composed to deal with Seina" a.k.a. Seina's future wives that come in sets of four, in order to deal with his Probability Bias. While Minaho spends the day with Tenchi to make up for lost time of being unable to be his mother figure, Mizune complains about Seto not allowing them to see Seina in person for political reasons.

Although it can be assumed Minaho would probably have no issues getting married to Seina as soon as possible, the fact that her other team members (the Masaki trio) are descent from Yosho who is still secretly living on Earth, and the fact that Yosho's survival and the existence of the Masaki Village on Earth still hasn't been publicized is the main reason Seto still doesn't allow the marriage to happen yet. While Minaho herself is exempt from this concern, the Masaki trio of her team will all become instant Jurai royalty the moment Yosho's survival and the existence of his descendants in the Masaki Village is made public. This makes it a big political concern since they are at a time when Seina's exploits are still in the middle of forging a bond between the Galactic Federation/Jurai and the Renza Federation. And might possibly even result in the formation of an intergalactic union led by Seina and all of his future wives who belong to all the important factions.

It should be noted that while Minaho and her team's work is mostly to assist Seto and her schemes, their main goal is to work with Tatsuki Ringo and her accounting team a.k.a. the "Hyena Corps" in order to support Seina behind the scenes. Ringo deals with the logistics (in a very workaholic way) while Minaho deals with the public/political relations. It is not clear whether or not Minaho's team also belongs to the Hyena Corps seeing as Ringo herself reports to Minaho at times, but most of their interactions with Ringo suggest that it might be so.

## **Gallery**

**57ee14af6191cf2cc561387e7287ea771473687804 full.jpgMinaho.jpgMinaho in Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki Season 4Minaho 3.jpgTenchi3.jpgMinaho 13.jpgMinaho 8.jpg**