Washu: Tenchi Muyo-

Tenchi Universe//Tenchi in Tokyo

"The greatest scientific genius in the whole entire universe", Washu is the biological mother of Ryoko and the great grandmother of Mihoshi (here it goes).  Once, Washu fell in love with her fellow student at the space academy.  She eventually married him and together they had a baby.  But her husband was from a very prestigious family, equal in power and great rivals of the Jurai Royal family.  His family disapproved of the marriage and her husband and child were taken away from her.  Her "husband" then met someone else and the got married, they had a daughter who married the son he'd had with Washu, their children then went on to be Mihoshi's Grandparents (there is a LOT of incest with these noble families-and you thought Ayeka and Yosho was disgusting?!)

Anyway, in her depression, Washu created Ryoko  by combining her ova with "mass", and aquarius life form from which Ryoko gets her special abilities.  Soon after, she was captured by her former scientific student, Kagato, who trapped her in a parallel dimension.  This is when Ryoko turns "evil" etc.  She is later released when Kagato is defeated by Tenchi, and goes to live on earth with the rest of the gang.  She is always busy with her experiments in her laboratory, and is always using the others (mainly Tenchi and occasionally Ryoko) as "gini pigs" for her experiments.

But what you see with Washu isn't what you get.  Her past is very cloudy and we don't know much if any thing about it.  The truth is that Washu has two sisters, Tsunami, and Tokimi.  Sound familiar?  Tsunami is the most powerful being on Jurai, and Lady Tokimi plays a role in the series, in which she is surrounded in mystery and is known to be VERY powerful and influential.  The three were once Goddesses in a parallel dimension, Washu was forced to leave and Tsunami left of her own free will for some unknown reason to leave Tokimi to rein by herself.  Washu lost all memories of her previous life, and all her powers and everything that made her a goddess were contained within 3 gems (which she later gives to Ryoko, which is why Ryoko eventually becomes so powerful, equal to Tsunami).  This story doesn't play much of a role in the actual series, it just explains a lot. lol.

Washu is a very cheerful and up beat person.  She likes to be called "little Washu", which, as Ayeka points out, is weird considering she is 20 thousand years old.  Like the others, she has a crush on Tenchi, but nothing ever comes of it.