Mikamo and Yataka
Encyclopedia
and are fictional characters in the Tenchi Muyo!
franchise, currently exclusive to Hitoshi Okuda's
No Need for Tenchi! manga
series, published in the U.S. by VIZ Media
.
Mikamo is his traveling companion, a sentient robot who acts as A.I. of their spaceship. Yataka likes to think of himself and the machine as partners, but Mikamo has his own agenda: he agrees to play along with the pirate, their deal being "Yataka takes as many things as he wants and Mikamo will enjoy its little hobbies"... that being torture and dissection. Though Yataka poses as the group's spokesperson, Mikamo is the real power behind the scenes, having the thief completely at his mercy.
control (Ryoko's only known failure aside from her raid on Jurai
). Though blasted by Ryo-Ohki
, a transmitter placed on the ship leads them to an uncharted planet shielded from outside tampering and discovery. Mikamo fires on Tenchi and the others from above as Yataka makes good his plan to steal the tree, only to meet up with the tree's guardian Ibara. The pirate's ridicule of others based on first impressions gets him in trouble again, and he flees when he see his technology is helpless against a "piece of stick".
His partner has substantially better luck: Mikamo cloaks itself as Sasami and feigns distress to draw the girl's sister Ayeka into striking distance. Its foul play gaining them a hostage, Mikamo orders Yataka to tell the group they have three hours to hand over the treasure for the princess, elsewise the robot might appease its sick urges. However, Mikamo schemes to have its fun even after obtaining the prize, going so far as threatening Yataka at knifepoint for suggesting otherwise.
Before either can go back on the bargain, Washu devises a way to neutralize their ship's shield, allowing Ryoko to teleport inside. Mikamo takes a cheap shot to try to atomize both women as she and Ayeka quibble over the rescue, before at last bristling over Yataka mewling there was no reason to do such a thing. "Tired of baby-sitting poser criminals", Mikamo decides to slaughter his "useless partner" but is blasted mid-stance by Ryoko, blowing a hole through the A.I. and the side of the ship.
effort, able to stop even the mass of the falling starship.
Unrelenting, the vengeful A.I. chooses to take itself down and drag Tenchi and the others to hell with him, initiating the ship's self-destruct sequence. Taking his frustrations out on Yataka (long past ready to throw in the towel), Mikamo screams at his uselessness as a pawn, although he's quick to stop in the face of something even more maddening - Tenchi wanting to put an end to the fighting by daring to show him mercy.
The countdown reaches zero, and as the ship explodes Ryoko and Tenchi take the full brunt of the impact. Collectively they're able to smash the extraordinary amount of mass into harmless particles instantaneously, saving the planet and everyone on it. Still functional, the machine makes one final play for murder but is ultimately destroyed by Ryoko, as "some guys just don't know when to quit".
His eminence, "Lord Yataka", survives the ordeal, though after being betrayed, losing his ship, and getting blown up and taken into custody hardly gets off easy.
Tenchi Muyo!
, is a Japanese anime, light novel, and manga series created by Masaki Kajishima and Hiroki Hayashi.The generally accepted translation of the title is No Need for Tenchi or Useless Tenchi, though at the time of its appearance it was also translated variably as No Heaven and Earth and This Way Up...
franchise, currently exclusive to Hitoshi Okuda's
Hitoshi Okuda
is a Japanese manga artist, most famous for his characterizations and stories set in the world of Tenchi Muyo!.Okuda got his start as a doujinshi artist before debuting professionally, studying under Nobuteru Yūki and Yutaka Izubuchi....
No Need for Tenchi! manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series, published in the U.S. by VIZ Media
VIZ Media
VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, is an anime, manga, and Japanese entertainment company. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and...
.
An unequal partnership
Yataka is officially a "space pirate", though it might be more fitting to refer to him as a "space hijacker" - a crook among crooks who scavenges others' quarry after they've done the lay-work for him. While he puts on fierce airs, Yataka is not truly cut out for the pirating business, as while he is a liar and a thief he's on occasion too timid to kill in fear of the attention it might draw from the Galaxy Police or the Jurai Royal Family. Despite all this, he has an inflated opinion of himself and his abilities, and is quick to belittle others and suffer for his underestimations.Mikamo is his traveling companion, a sentient robot who acts as A.I. of their spaceship. Yataka likes to think of himself and the machine as partners, but Mikamo has his own agenda: he agrees to play along with the pirate, their deal being "Yataka takes as many things as he wants and Mikamo will enjoy its little hobbies"... that being torture and dissection. Though Yataka poses as the group's spokesperson, Mikamo is the real power behind the scenes, having the thief completely at his mercy.
Business arrangements
They intercept Ryoko and the others as they journey through space, Mikamo uncovering that they're after an awesome treasure - a Juraian Royal Tree she failed to acquire eight hundred years ago when she was under Kagato'sKagato
is a fictional character in the anime Tenchi Muyō!, serving as the main villain of the original OVAs. A second, alternate incarnation of the character was the antagonist of the initial TM! television series, Tenchi Universe...
control (Ryoko's only known failure aside from her raid on Jurai
Jurai
is a planet in the AIC anime Tenchi Muyo!, and also the name of its royal family. The planet and royal family of Jurai appear mostly in the Ryo-Ohki OVA and Tenchi Universe series and briefly in Tenchi in Tokyo...
). Though blasted by Ryo-Ohki
Ryo-Ohki
, is a fictional character in the Japanese anime series Tenchi Muyo! and its spinoffs. Ryo-Ohki's appearance is similar to a cross between a cat and a rabbit, and for this reason Ryo-Ohki is commonly referred to as a cabbit...
, a transmitter placed on the ship leads them to an uncharted planet shielded from outside tampering and discovery. Mikamo fires on Tenchi and the others from above as Yataka makes good his plan to steal the tree, only to meet up with the tree's guardian Ibara. The pirate's ridicule of others based on first impressions gets him in trouble again, and he flees when he see his technology is helpless against a "piece of stick".
His partner has substantially better luck: Mikamo cloaks itself as Sasami and feigns distress to draw the girl's sister Ayeka into striking distance. Its foul play gaining them a hostage, Mikamo orders Yataka to tell the group they have three hours to hand over the treasure for the princess, elsewise the robot might appease its sick urges. However, Mikamo schemes to have its fun even after obtaining the prize, going so far as threatening Yataka at knifepoint for suggesting otherwise.
Before either can go back on the bargain, Washu devises a way to neutralize their ship's shield, allowing Ryoko to teleport inside. Mikamo takes a cheap shot to try to atomize both women as she and Ayeka quibble over the rescue, before at last bristling over Yataka mewling there was no reason to do such a thing. "Tired of baby-sitting poser criminals", Mikamo decides to slaughter his "useless partner" but is blasted mid-stance by Ryoko, blowing a hole through the A.I. and the side of the ship.
Last resorts
Mikamo grows increasingly enraged as he fires repeatedly from orbit, his attempts at reprisal blocked by Tenchi and his Light-Hawk Wings. When Ayeka, Ryoko and Ibara take out his gun torrents the machine grows even more adamant, choosing to sacrifice itself and the ship by bringing it down on his enemies' heads. Through the power of the Light-Hawk Wings working in tandem with Ryoko and her gems, their combined strength halts Mikamo's kamikazeKamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
effort, able to stop even the mass of the falling starship.
Unrelenting, the vengeful A.I. chooses to take itself down and drag Tenchi and the others to hell with him, initiating the ship's self-destruct sequence. Taking his frustrations out on Yataka (long past ready to throw in the towel), Mikamo screams at his uselessness as a pawn, although he's quick to stop in the face of something even more maddening - Tenchi wanting to put an end to the fighting by daring to show him mercy.
The countdown reaches zero, and as the ship explodes Ryoko and Tenchi take the full brunt of the impact. Collectively they're able to smash the extraordinary amount of mass into harmless particles instantaneously, saving the planet and everyone on it. Still functional, the machine makes one final play for murder but is ultimately destroyed by Ryoko, as "some guys just don't know when to quit".
His eminence, "Lord Yataka", survives the ordeal, though after being betrayed, losing his ship, and getting blown up and taken into custody hardly gets off easy.
Trivia
- Aside from their tremulous association as pirates, Mikamo and Yataka have their own niches for speech patterns:
- Mikamo has a tendency to make frequent use of the word "chu" and derivatives of it in a variety of meanings, whether in place of other words, normal speech or curses.
- "Ryoko is taking action for the first chu in 700 years!"; "Damn you all, you chu-ing scum!!" (The Quest for More Money, pgs. 43/143)
- Rather than sounding intimidating, Yataka often opts for casual, informal speech. He has an exceptional penchant for overusing "like" during conversation.
- "A-ahem! So that's the story. I'll give you, like, three hours. S-so, like, we'll be back. Okay?" (The Quest for More Money, pg. 112)
- Mikamo has a tendency to make frequent use of the word "chu" and derivatives of it in a variety of meanings, whether in place of other words, normal speech or curses.
- Since VIZ's initial pressings of No Need for Tenchi! were "flipped" (i.e. reversed horizontally from the original right-to-left for a more natural read to Westerners) the mirror effect caused several errors to Okuda's artwork. Yataka's eyepatch should appear over his right eye, but due to the style change is placed over his left. Currently, a smaller edition of the books is being released in the un-flipped format.