SYMBOLISM and MUSIC - RYOKO
Where do I even begin? There is so much of this floating through the various series. We'll start with the obvious - Ryoko's love songs. Dimension of Love and Forevermore are both powerful love songs which are used as background for Ryoko and her feelings for Tenchi - one at the end of Time and Space Adventures part 3 and the other at the end of the series proper. There is also the significantly melancholic "Autumn of Life" instrumental which echoes hauntingly through her 'dying' scenes at the end of Universe. The music used for Ryoko moments is usually very dramatic and emphatic - but the fact that two love songs are given to her (in contrast none are given to Ayeka) shows the clear intended focus of the Universe storyline. (Yay!).

Although Dimension of Love shows clips of all of the characters to some degree, the words clearly suggest Ryoko. Firstly, they mention cherry blossom, which is drifting off the trees when she arrives back on the Earth to be with Tenchi. Secondly, it talks of "wandering far and wide", which is the lot of the space pirate, and her 'lonely room', which is reference to her talk with Ryo Ohki - "I'm lonely. I sound stupid, don't I?".

The cherry blossoms also appear at the start of Tenchi Muyo In Love II, and seem to represent 'new beginning' in the Tenchi series in a subliminal kind of way. Certainly that is their impact at the close of the Universe series, as Ryoko's rearrival suggests the start of new adventures -"The carnival may come and go, but it will always come back to you."

RYOKO vs RYOUKO
There are two ways that Ryoko's name gets spelt in 'romanji', and sometimes some dispute as to which one is the correct one. Actually, the dispute seems a little bit pointless to me, since the name isn't actually spelt Ryoko or Ryouko. It's spelt in Kanji characters, for which there are no defined English equivalents ^_^. It's like taking your own name and putting it into Japanese characters - for example, my own name (Beth) would translate as "Besu" since there are no corresponding Japanese sounds for "th".

Ryoko's name appears in roman characters in both forms during the television series - there is a wanted poster which gives her as Ryouko, but when the newspaper articles are circulating in Time and Space Adventures, she is given as Ryoko. I think it's a matter of personal preference, honestly...since the English words used in Tenchi can sometimes be bizarre in themselves - "Antigues" for "Antiques" (Tenchi In Tokyo), and "BBOKE" instead of "BROKE" (Tenchi Universe), I think it's fair to say that their use of English characters is a touch suspect on occasion. Her name is pronounced Ry-oh-ko...so it seems to me that however it's easiest for you to remember that pronunciation is how you should spell her name!