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Masterful Mademoiselles
"I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." -- Jessica Rabbit, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
After having a Sexy Guys page for years, I finally decided I needed a page for women. I'll leave the sexy aspects of anime females to others out there.
Every anime personality is different, but some stand out more than others. This list of personalities is about women with strength of will and character, women who are highly skilled and highly motivated. They have goals and are determined to see them through -- to whatever conclusion. They are intelligent and passionate and beautiful on many levels.
And they are not men in women's guise.
Kusanagi *Misato * Kaoru * Kagero * Tomoe * Faye * Noa * Megumi * San * Kanuka * Lain * April
Motoko Kusanagi
GHOST IN THE SHELL: STAND ALONE COMPLEX
2030
Age: unknown
Birthday: unknown
Blood type: Do full cyborgs have blood?
Employment: Public Security Section 9
Seiyuu: Atsuko Tanaka
Kusanagi: "What say we shake them up a bit."
In addition to having one of the most commanding and sensually pleasing of female voices in anime, Major Kusanagi is also one of the best characters in animation. She's cool-headed, smart, aware of her sensuality, intimidating, and she knows her job thoroughly. There are no other female characters in animation as competent and confident as the major. She knows who she is and what she can do and how to go about getting the job done.
She commands an elite anticrime-anticorruption-antiterrorist-anti-cybercrime force of six men, a handful of AT-driven light tanks, and a battery of industrious low-key androids in a world where women - and female androids - are still regarded as sexual playthings for wealthy men or as homemakers or as damsels ever in distress. Kusanagi is rarely in distress, even when all odds are against her and her team, she thinks of a way out and comes through scrapping. She will never go quietly into that good night.
Batou and Togusa sit in the older agent's sporty car and receive instructions from Kusanagi.
Togusa: "The major really knows how to order people around."
Batou (with a smirk): "Yeah."She can never be referred to as simply Motoko, not by the men she works with at least, that's not who she is anymore. Motoko was the little girl whose debilitating disease forced the doctors to transplant
her brain into a prosthetic body. The major is most skilled in the use of her artificial body and she's not afraid to slow off that state-of-the-art, highly customized form.
Todakoro Department Store's Chief Todakoro meets with Aramaki and Kusanagi stands in.
Todakoro: "You have good taste."
Aramaki: "She isn't an android."She dresses as she pleases, not fettered by the roving eyes of men or the envy of women. And why should she allow the opinions of others reduced her to hiding behind folds of material? Why should she allow others to take away her agency or her right to mold her spiritual form into whatever shape she chooses?
Kusanagi steps out of the car with Aramaki in white slip dress, low in the front with thin straps that cross in the even lower back; a gold choker about her neck. Paz smiles at her.
Borma: "Wonderful."
(Watching from the video feed) Togusa: "Oi, oi, Isn't that more revealing than what we agreed on?"
Batou: "That's right. She borrowed it from my sister. (PAUSE) Someone just tried to touch her butt."
Ishikawa: "Then that someone's not afraid to die."The past, the pain-filled childhood remains with her and give her adult self strength, determination, and a cool regard for the world that borders on indifferent.
Commander of the Security Detail: "Superintendent-General, there's a possibility of cyberbrain contamination. We'll check the cyberbrain activity of everyone in the hall, even the security detail. Please postpone your speech. Until we can identify those infected with the virus, all personnel stand on F2 Alert...Hey!" [to Kusanagi] "Who are you people? Hold it. State your unit and commander's name!"
Kusanagi [in uniform]: "Be quiet. You people on the Security Detail are the ones most likely to manifest symptoms. Considering that it's a delayed-action virus in your regular check-in signal, there are two possibilities. It's either a command-class with an encryption conversion key or everyone else."
Security Detail Commander [brain hacked]: "The purge begins!" [He attacks the Superintendent-General.]
Kusanagi to the Superintendent-General: "This is pretty good training for your men!" [Watches Paz and others on Security Detail try to subdue the brain-hacked Security Commander.] "If you don't want to spend your golden years in an intensive care unit, stay put!"
Superintendent-General: "Son of a ..."
Kusanagi takes care of the brain-hacked commander in short measure. When the others, including Paz, get the commander on the ground, Kusanagi jumps into the air and down into the commander's cyborg gut, punches him in the same area, and shorts him out. She pulls the cord from the portable gadget attached to the ports on the back of her neck.
Virus Check System Level 1
Kusanagi: "Somebody's copying the virus online! An attack barrier?!" [The attack barrier shorts the gadget on her neck.]
Paz: "Major!"
Kusanagi: "That was close. Going in through a dummy barrier was a good idea."
Paz. "A booby-trapped virus?"
Kusanagi: "I'm not sure." Who the hell was peeking around inside this guy's brain?
The major is anything but apathetic or unemotional. She cares about her friends and coworkers and the people living in the new Japan. She wants to make the world of 2030 a better place, which is why she became a civil servant and why she leads Section 9 with resolve and courage. She dares to pit her sense of fair play and justice against the bad guys, whether they are crime-lords, cyberterrorists, or the Japanese government.
She is guided along her path by Daisuke Aramaki, the politically savvy war veteran who is the Head of Public Security Section 9, the wise and wizened moral compass unerringly pointing Section 9 toward what's just and right. Section 9 so often works far behind the scenes that they hardly ever get a word of thanks. But that suits Kusanagi's personality. She's not in this for the accolades. She and her boys are committed to fighting the just fight, often outside of the law and without much help from the government or the police.
Like the men on her team, she spends more of her time at work than she does at any place labeled home. She is closest to Aramaki, Batou, and Togusa, but in vastly different ways. She respects and relies on Aramaki's sound judgment and strength of character. Batou is her trusted comrade-in-arms, a friend who can make her smile with his antics on and off the job.
Togusa has the role as pet-project/little brother figure. He's the one with the impassioned righteous indignation for wrong-doing, which borders on a kind of intelligent naiveté. Togusa also embodies hope for the future in the form of his family. He's the one she looks out for th
e most, maybe because he is the most quintessentially and physically human of the group.
Android girl: "Major, every terminal in the center just went online."
Batou: "Something must've happened."
Android: "They're trying to decrypt our access codes."
Batou: "His cover was blown?"
Kusanagi: "I don't know. Cut all circuit immediately. What's the hold up?!"
Android: "I'm locked out!"
Surge goes through the terminal and fries the android.
Kusanagi: "Batou, we're pulling Togusa out of there!"
Batou: "You got it!"
Kusanagi: "Ishikawa, gain control of the center's circuits! Saito, secure an evac route!"So, the real question here is why this Kusanagi over the other two versions of her in Shirow's manga and Oshii's movie respectively? In Shirow's crowded, noisy, and often humorous manga setting, Kusanagi's out of control and emotional and occasionally mean. She's more appetite than intellect and it's almost a welcome relief that the Puppet Master seeks her out. In Oshii's masterful film, she's thoughtful and introspective and downright dour. Her decision to merge with the Puppet Master fulfills her raison d'etre, yet not matter how much I can admire her resolve and empathize with her questioning her existence, I can't like her. Manga Kusanagi is all appetite, Film Kusanagi is all intellect, and my favorite Kusanagi, the TV incarnation manages to be human.
More on Ghost In The Shell. Read more about Batou & Togusa.
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Misato Katsuragi
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION
2015
Age: 29
Birthday: December 8
Blood type: A
Employment: Director of Operations, NERV
Seiyuu: Kitano MitsuishiMisato is basically the tactical commander of the EVA units and the supervisor of the CHILDREN. And she is exceptionally good at her job. She has to be, she has to make sure her kids save the world from the attacking ANGELS and she has to face Gendou Ikari should she fail.
Her professional demeanor has nothing to do with her private side. Off duty she is an emotion earthquake about to happen. She has swore to wipe out the ANGELS, which gives her the added incentive she needs when things don't seem to be going her way.
Why such a need for vengeance? Because she was with her father Dr. Katsuragi when the first ANGEL awoke and the Arctic sea became as red as blood. Her father sacrificed himself for her. And she can't come to grips with it because she never really liked her father much.
Which is too bad, since the great love of her life, Ryouji Kaji, is very much like him. So Misato has to cope with the man she loves -- and she does love him -- being like the man she hated. She also has to cope with her stirrings of jealousy when she see Kaji flirting with other women.
And then there's the fact that she is surrogate mother to two needy children, Shinji Ikari and Soryuu Asuka Langley . The former of the two, the savior of humanity and the boy most in need of testicular fortitude. The latter, too smart and too eager to show her skills. Besides, Asuka is infatuated with Kaji (and who wouldn't be?).
Misato has a deceptively strong-willed and tough personality. Why do I say this? Watch the first half of the FILM!! She may have her emotional problems with needing to find men to comfort her, but in the end, she puts her young charge's life before her own and goes above and beyond the call of duty for NERV, the organization she no longer believes in.
More on Evangelion. Read more about Kaji & Commander Ikari.
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Kaoru Kamiya
RUROUNI KENSHIN
Meiji Era
Age: 17
Birthplace: Edo (Tokyo)
Birthday: June 1862
Blood type: A
Employment: Assistant Instructor, Kamiya Dojo
Weapon of Choice: bokken (wooden sword)
Seiyuu: Miki Fujitani"It's rather reckless to fight a real sword with a wooden one. ...A courageous girl." -- Kenshin
Kaoru Kamiya is the second great love of Kenshin Himura’s life and she deserves him! She is kindhearted and courageous to the point of recklessness. She has an innocence that dispels the darkness in Kenshin’s weary soul. She is only 17, but in many ways, she seems older, mostly because she has no parents and runs a dojo on her own. Kaoru is a wholly uncharacteristic female for her times. The world of the late 19th Century -- the ENTIRE world -- was dominated by the dictates of masculinity – hence militarism, nationalism, and imperialism.
That she thrives as a businesswoman and that she is not shunned for allowing a man – even one as gentle as Kenshin – to live on her property says a lot about her character. People trust her. People like her. People feel better, safer when she is around. She is without guile, always wearing her heart on her kimono sleeve.
Although she is much younger than Kenshin, she offers the seemingly “young” man a comfort only a truly ingenious, but intelligent person can give. Kenshin is not good with people. Women and children can tread all over him or completely embarrass him. But Kaoru does not try to take advantage of his awkwardness or even the fact that they live at the same dojo. She is as insanely jealous as she is giving, loving, and compassionate.
Megumi: "I'm sure you can't be his lover. I mean, such a sweaty little girl can't be what dear Ken looks for in a woman."
Sano: "Don't kid her too much, This girl here is really simple-minded, unlike some cunning fox woman I know."Kaoru is the assistant instructor of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, a style founded by her father on the belief that it is a style that revitalizes people and brings out their potential. Her sword style protects, but does not kill, which is a perfect compliment to Kenshin’s vow never to kill again. She has a warrior's compassion and believes in returning a life debt. When something is unjust or unfair, she races in to protect the wronged, to make things right.
Kaoru: "Where are you going?"
Megumi: "That man is different from Beshimi from earlier. There is no way he can win."
Kaoru: "Kenshin is fighting for your sake. It would be cruel to escape while their attention is diverted."
Megumi: "The Oniwaban-shu is a group who think nothing of killing people. They won't even have mercy on women. You might be killed by them, too."
Kaoru: "No matter how strong the enemy, Kenshin will always protected me. Kenshin is not the kind of man to break a promise."
Megumi: "(Sano)'s indescribably strong, What in the world are those two?"
Kaoru: "My comrades, who I'm proud to have."When the serial killer and Shinsengumi manslayer, Jinei, lures Kenshin into a death-match, he uses Kaoru as bait. He uses a super strong version of Shin no Ippou, a paralyzing type of hypnosis, to constrict her breathing and suitably piss Kenshin off. Kenshin comes close to becoming the manslayer to save Kaoru, but it is Kaoru who saves Kenshin. Her swordsman's spirit is stronger that Jinei the manslayer's -- despite all his years of killing. She breaks the extra strong version of Shin no Ippou and stops Kenshin from killing Jinei.
She has two students listed under her direct instruction, Yahiko Myojin and Yutaro Tsukayama. She is an excellent instructor -- when she isn't upset at Yahiko or Kenshin. She knows kenjutsu and some jujitsu. Despite being reckless when allowing herself to get into a fight, during combat she keeps a cool head.
Kaoru: "Don't oppose strength with strength. To turn your opponent's strength to your advantage is another secret of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu."
One of the most positive facets of her personality is that she does not judge a person by his or her past, which allows her to befriend Kenshin, Sano, and Megumi. She also tries really hard even when she not very good at something -- such as cooking.
She also has a strong swordsman's spirit and can hold her own in a fight against impossible odds.
"To learn swordsmanship, you must learn of your own heart."
More on Rurouni Kenshin. Read more about Kenshin & Shishio.
Kagero
NINJA SCROLL
Early 1600s
Seiyuu: Emi Shinohara
Kagero was the lone female warrior in the Koga Ninja clan – until everyone but she was slaughtered by Tessai and Yurimaru, two of the eight Devils of Kimon. Her body is saturated with poison because of the accumulation of toxins ingested because of her duties as the food taster for the lord of a small clan. To touch her, even casually, is to die.
Hanza, the leader of the Koga Ninja, cared deeply for her. He sacrificed his life for hers. Such caring never fails to surprise her because she has a low opinion of her own worth. Based on all impressions from the story, the value of women, whether they are normal or supernatural, is tied to her sexuality. Kagero’s value as a warrior, as a brave, intelligent, strong-willed woman are all lessened, it seems, because of her inability to make love without killing her mate.
As a ninja, she is expendable, for it is her duty to give her life for her lord. So by declaring her willingness to do so, she is, in essence, just doing her job. Her problem is that she cannot reason beyond her former position. In order to prove herself valuable to Jubei Kibagami, she reiterates her willingness to die for him.
It takes her a while to learn that to love and care for another means a willingness to live. Since death is everyone’s end, it is the living that is special and, as friend or lover, that is what one must pledge. She does realize this before she dies and thanks Jubei for the experience of knowing him.
Read more about Jubei & Gemma.
Tomoe Yukishiro
RUROUNI KENSHIN
SAMURAI X/ RnK: Revenge Arc
Meiji Era
Birthday: September 1846
Blood type: AB
Birthplace: Edo
Employment: Avenging Angel
Weapon of Choice: love and affection
Seiyuu: Junko Iwao"Perhaps this woman is bringing softness to his eyes."
Kenshin and Tomoe met in the rain, when the blood from his weapon washed over her. Kenshin, an assassin in the shadows, was targeted for assassination by supporters of the Shogunate. Kenshin willed his would-be slayer, but in doing so caused the bloody rain to fall on a pristine Tomoe.
But their meeting was not a coincidence. Tomoe stalked him in the streets and he had noticed her before, because of the scent of her white plum perfume. Tomoe had turned to supporters of the Shogunate to take revenge on the murderer of her betrothed. She was born to a poor samurai family in Edo, loyal to the Shogunate. Her mother died giving birth to her younger brother, Enishi. When she pledges to get even with her betrothed's assassin, Enishi is present to witness her resolve.
She wanted revenge, but she also wanted to assuage her own guilt. Those women in her beloved's family beloved her to be haughty and vain, demanding a higher position of her fiancé before she deigned to wed him. Akira Kiyosato and Tomoe were childhood sweethearts. Her fiance joined the supporters of the Shogunate to make a name for himself.
Kiyosato: "I will return no later than next Spring. We must try to be patient, both of us. I'll bring you back a ground cherry from my travels."
He was assigned the task of escorting Jubei Shigekura of the Kyoto Shoshidai through volatile Kyoto, who just happened to Kenshin's latest target.
Kenshin gave him a chance to walk away without a fight. But, because Kiyosato felt that he had to make a name for himself to impress his beloved, he forced a duel. Perhaps Kiyosato thought that because his opponent was young that he would not be a challenge, but then again he did watch as the boy sliced through a number of men before facing off against him. Kiyosato gave Kenshin the bleeding scar on his left cheek.
Kenshin: "I have come to inflict the punishment you deserve, old man."
Kiyosato: "Assassin!"
Shigekura: "You think you can change the world with the cut of your sword? ...Get away! You must not die now!"
Kiyosato: "Shigekura-san! ....I must not die now. I will not die."
Kenshin: "Surrender."
Kiyosato: "I will not! I cannot die. I cannot die yet! I do not want to die. I will not. I refuse to die. ...Tomoe."
Iizuka: "Himura, are you hurt?"
Kenshin: "Not seriously."
Iizuka: "I can't believe someone was actually able to mark you. He must have had great skill."
Kenshin: "No. Just spite."Iizuka tells him that a wound made by the sword of someone with a strong hatred wound not heal until revenge has been exacted. Of course, Iizuka would say such a thing, since he will betray Kenshin.
So, Tomoe shows up in Kyoto as the Yaminobu's spy. Her mission was to find a way to get near her betrothed's assassin, in order to learn his weaknesses. She is supposed to help to lay a trap for him with the help of a Shogunate spy within the Choshu Clan. She attaches herself to Kenshin the night he was nearly assassinated by a member of the Oniwaban-shu. She "faints" into his arms and he carries her to the Imperialists' base within the city. She offer her services to the woman proprietor of the Kohagi-Ya house in return for a room; this way, she gets to watch Kenshin and learn more about him.
Landlady: "Is it raining again?"
Tomoe: "Yes."
Landlady: "I'm sick and tired of the rain. ...The rain is depressing, so we should brighten the day by arranging irises. ...You resemble each other. The iris. It is so conspicuous in the rain. But not in the sunshine, you know? ... The iris thrives most in the rain. Even if it is a rain of blood."The first thing she learns is that Kenshin is a boy. He is a boy who sleeps sitting up with a sword leaning against his shoulder, ready to defend, to kill. In his moments of relaxation, he plays with a wooden spinning top, reinforcing the idea to anyone who sees him that he is just a child, a child who kills.
In her anger, she confronts Kogoro Katsura, who is one of the young leaders of the Choshu and the man who brought Kenshin to Kyoto.
Tomoe: “You give a child a sword to preserve your philosophy?”
But it is Katsura’s idea to use Tomoe as a sheath for Kenshin – literally and figuratively. Katsura hopes that Tomoe will tame some of what makes Kenshin a expert assassin. He does not want Kenshin to become a heartless murderer.
Tomoe: "When I look at your wound, it makes me think of what the men you kill see before they die. You say you kill people to make others happy, but ... I don't think it makes you very happy."
Kenshin: "People die every day. I don't choose my targets at random."
Tomoe: "Yes, I guess you are deciding who deserves to live and die. Or, rather, you've entrusted that decision to others whom you follow regardless of how you may feel."
Kenshin: "Knowing more about the people that I will would disrupt my concentration. I do what I do to create a better world. That's all I need to know."Everyone who knows the boy wants Tomoe for him, hoping she will lift the darkness, the coldness from his eyes. They did not bet on Kenshin being extremely courteous and gentlemanly around her. He would never have initiated their brief physical relationship. He even thought of apologizing to her father simply for living with her under the guise of being married.
She does become his sheath and something more than that. She makes Kenshin see that he has more value than just the skill of his sword. The boy sees himself only as a killer, nothing more.
Tomoe: “Have you read all those books?”
Kenshin: “Not even one of them. It’s comfortable to sleep against the stacks, that’s all. An assassin does not need anything else from books.”
Tomoe: “Will you kill people for the rest of your life? Perhaps you shouldfind a place where you could live in peace, a place where you would have the time to read these books. You wouldn’t have to sleep with your sword in your hand.”
Kenshin: “I have done that since I was a child. I have seen too many people killed not to be careful.”
Tomoe: “And this is how you will live your life?”
Kenshin: “That is what has been given to me. Besides, I will not live for long. And there is no reason why you should care anyway. …I am a killer who brings the bloody rain. You don’t want any part of that. You shouldn’t cling to things that smell of blood.”He falls in love with her and the solitude that comes from living with her. For the first time in years, he is allowed to sleep in a futon, without a sword beside him.
And she falls in love with Kenshin and sacrifices herself to save him. She jumps in the way of Kenshin's sword thrust and dies at his hands. It is because of her and her death that Kenshin vows never to kill again once the Revolution has ended. Tomoe gave him a peace he had never known. She loved him when she should have hated him. She betrayed him and then she protected him.
It is Tomoe who completes the cross-shaped scar on his left cheek that would one day become a part of Kenshin's legend. She crosses the bleeding scar made by Kiyosato's spite as she lays dying in Kenshin's arms. She crossed the scar to end the hatred. Kenshin's scar has yet to completely heal.
More on Rurouni Kenshin. Read more on Hitokiri Battousai .
Faye Valentine
COWBOY BEBOP
2071
Age: 23
Birthday: August 14
Sign: Leo
Blood Type: B
Employment: Bounty Hunter
Seiyuu: Megumi HayashibaraFaye is a gun-toting bounty hunter on the Bebop. Despite having been alive for more than a century, she is young and beautiful and extremely cagey. She’s a cardshark of the highest caliber, once known as Poker Alice on the gambling circuit. Gambling is her vice. The money she gains from collecting bounties, she immediately spends at the racetracks.
And she does not mind cheating a friend
Jet: "Evens."
Faye: "Evens, is it?"
Jet: "No, odds after all!"
Faye: "Odds, is it?"
Jet: "Yeah ... odds."
Faye nudges the bracelet on her ankle.
Faye: "Double ace ... even."
The truth about Faye is a sad one. While traveling in space, the engine of the transport exploded. Faye was badly injured. To save her life, she was put in a cryogenic sleep. When she was awakened, she learned that she was in debt so deep that she could never really repay it. When she finally meets the people from her past, she becomes even more disillusioned.
From the moment she told Spike Spiegel this, it was apparent that she liked him more than a little. The Real Folk Blues reveals this when she meets Spike’s Julia. There is a quiet, resigned jealousy. And yet she still helps Julia. The idea that in Spike Faye has finally found a guy she can actually trust is subtle and poignant and very moving.
It's at these moments when you realize that Faye is still quite young and has a good heart beneath the tough, uncaring mask she tries to wear.
Faye: "When I'm dealing with them, it's nothing but trouble. And I don't get squat out of it. So it doesn't matter if I'm there or not."Gren: "You just got scared of losing them, so you distanced yourself from them."
More on Cowboy Bebop. Read more about Spike & Vicious.
Noa Izumi
PATLABOR
Near Future
Age: 19
Birthplace: Hokkaido
Employment: Tokyo Special Vehicles Police Officer
Seiyuu: Miina TominagaIn other words, Noa is the 1st team forward of the notorious 2nd Unit. This spunky redhead is a natural labor pilot and can teach anyone to use it from a prince to a musical princess to a yakuza boss.
In combat she prefers the electric stun baton and jujitsu labor-style to using guns. She is very capable, though she has a tendency to lose control of her emotions in a fight -- especially if Alphonse has taken a scratch in the encounter.
It is not as if she's even well versed in the AV-98 Ingram manual, yet she manages to complete the difficult tasks with only a cry for someone to help her wash her "Pat-chan" when all the work is over. Well, yes, she is a fanatic about her Alphonse, which was the name of her childhood pet dog. But the Alphonse is not a pet to her, but a best friend.
Born far to the north in Hokkaido, she is a different type than her Tokyo-born compatriots. She is full of life, passionate, totally sentimental with almost no objectivity. Though Kanuka Clancy and Captain Kiichi Goto have been her back up, she really only heeds the words of Asuma Shinohara. Maybe it's their close friendship that makes this possible. Well, about as much as their feelings for each other get in the way of things too.
Megumi Takani
RUROUNI KENSHIN
Meiji Era
Age: 22
Birthplace: Aizu
Birthday: December 1857
Blood type: B
Employment: doctor
Weapon of Choice: science and medicine
Seiyuu: Mika DoiMegumi is the youngest child of Ryusei Takani, a doctor in a family of doctors in Aizu spanning many generations. When her family became involved in the Aizu War between the Imperialist Army and the Aizu clan, her father, mother, and brothers were killed. She was the only one spared.
She left Aizu for Tokyo in 1869 to become an apprentice under a doctor who was partners with Takeda Kanryu, a shady entrepreneur and guns/opium peddler. Kanryu murdered the doctor and forced Megumi to make opium in the doctor's place. She wanted to become a skilled and respected doctor, like her father, but instead she became the indirect murderer of innocents through the creation of lethal drugs.
Rather than kill herself, she took the new kind of opium, which could be mass produced cheaply, and fled. She found protection and friendship in Kenshin, Sano, and the rest. Both Kenshin and Sano told her that her death would not bring back the lives that were lost. Kenshin tells her that the advanced techniques of the Takani doctors can save more people than the sword of the Battousai.
She is a strong-willed woman and has learned through the medical field how to make difficult and sometimes painful decisions. She did not get the guy she truly wanted, but she demanded that Kaoru stop feeling sorry for herself and follow the man they both loved to Kyoto.
Megumi: "I'm shocked. You're still here?"
Kaoru: "What are you here for?"
Megumi: "Of course to laugh at the tanooki girl who was dumped by Ken-san!"
Kaoru: "You were left behind, same as me."
Megumi: "Don't say I'm the same as this girl who just sits and weeps!"
Kaoru: "I don't feel like doing anything. You don't understand. ...."
Megumi: "You're afraid that Dear Ken will be cold to you. This ointment for wounds is a family recipe. Dear Ken once commented that it worked very well. I'm sure that it's something he needs right now. But it does no good leaving it with you, because you just sit and weep. ...I'm sure Dear Ken will remember me when he gets this. Even if he forgets about some tanooki girl from somewhere. ..."
Kaoru: "So you choose your patients over Kenshin? Is that all your feelings amount to, Megumi-san?"
Megumi: "... I became a doctor to atone for my sins. Look, this is the path I chose to live. And Ken-san was the very person who showed me this path. Then, no matter what happens, even if Ken-san is here no longer, I will go forward on my path to become a doctor. That also means I am doing everything I can, with feelings for him in my heart!"
Kaoru: "... You'll never understand how I feel, after being told farewell face to face! You'll never understand!"
Megumi: "That's right. But I can say that to you as well. You'll never understand how I feel, since I didn't even get that farewell.Upon first meeting him, she calls Kenshin, Ken-san (dear Ken), which is very familiar and intimate in Japanese culture. But when Kenshin was critically wounded in his battle with Shishio Makoto (plus Sojiro Seta and Aoshi Shinomori), Megumi left Tokyo to care for him and be at his side in Kyoto.
More on Rurouni Kenshin. Read more on Kenshin.
San
MONONOKE HIME
Seiyuu: Yuriko Ishida
English Voice Actor: Claire Danes
San is the savage and proud Princess Mononoke, the princess of the avenging spirit. She was raised as a wolf princess by Moro the Wolf God and Queen of the Forest. She wears a painted face and a domen mask.
To San, all that is good is wild and free. Evil wears a human face. Humans stink of death and destruction. She is as passionate about her cause as her foil, Lady Eboshi is passionate about her ironworks. San too is corrupted by hate. There seems no middle ground and San cannot see the good in her kind, until she meets the noble hero Ashitaka, who has been cursed to die by the Tatari God. She learns to care for him, but not quickly nor easily.
When she and Ashitaka must part, after Nature has recovered, she tells him that she cannot live with him in the town. Her feelings have softened toward him, but not toward the rest of smelly humanity. Ashitaka tells her that he will stay in town and she will stay here in the forest and he will visit her. But it is the best choice for them and it shows the strength of character and determination in both San and Ashitaka. This seems to me a very adult attitude for two so young and who care for each other so deeply. As Shakespeare once wrote, "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove." (Sonnet 116)
Read more about Lady Eboshi & Jiko Bo.
Kanuka Clancy
PATLABOR
Age: 19 (no way!)
Birthplace: Hawaii
Employment: Tokyo Special Vehicles Visiting Police Officer
Seiyuu: You InoueKanuka is a tough, no-nonsense New York cop transplanted to the Tokyo PD to observe and help the newly formed 2nd Unit. She hopes to gain more experience with patrol labors through her six-month trial (and I do mean trial!) in order to head up her own team of patrol labors in New York.
Kanuka is an effective and efficient police officer. Though she works well with others, she is best on her own. She's almost too capable to have others around her, because they get in her way, because she's a perfectionist. And why not? She's pretty much an expert in everything -- explosives, martial arts, weapons, command, languages, piloting, and a list of a thousand other things. She's almost too good to be true.
Ah! But her cool, professional veneer is occasionally cracked when working with the load of misfits and goofs of the infamous 2nd Unit. She is the back up for Officer Isao Ota, who manages to be a good patlabor pilot, as well as a trigger-happy want-to-be Dirty Harry. When obviously Kanuka is the REAL Dirty Harry.
Ota listens to her, which he hardly ever does for Asuma Shinohara or Mikiyasu Shinshi, both of whom have been his back up before. Kanuka fails, however, when she tries to lead Noa has she leads Ota.
Lain
SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN
Age:13
Employment: Cyberjunkie
Seiyuu: Kaori ShimizuLain is a junior high school girl who just doesn't quite fit in. Her friend committed suicide not too long ago and Lain is having visions of her on her computers at school and at home. This is only the beginning of an epiphany of sorts of the odd young girl. She is about to learn that there is one world that we see around us, filled with people and tangible sensations. And there is another world inside of the computer with virtual projections of the real world and a lifestyle all its own.
Through Lain, the boundary between the real and the wired is blurring. Lain finds out that she has an alter ego in the wired world, who is totally unlike the little mouse she seems to be in the real world. So, who is she? Is the family she has her family or one given to her for the moment? Is she the Lain in the real world or the Lain in the wired world? The 13-year-old asks herself these questions again and again.
But once she finds out the answers, she is forced to make a decision no kid or adult should ever have to make. She must decide whether to delete herself to save the real world.
Lain's choices and importance to the world are very much akin to Neon Genesis Evangelion's Shinji Ikari. She is a shy, unassuming mouse who becomes a lot more than she ever thought she was. But unlike Shinji, she does not wimp out at every opportunity. She is strong, intelligent, and courageous.
"I'll delete myself and reset everyone's memory."
And even if you are unsure of whether you like her or the series itself, you must respect her gutsy attitude.
April Bikirk
SOL BIANCA
Employment: Space Pirate
Seiyuu: Rica MatsumotoApril is the second-in-command of the Sol Bianca, though why Feb Fall is captain and not she has not yet to be disclosed. As a pilot and a pirate, April is calm, experienced, and determined. Feb has a problem dealing with reality, she likes to escape it through wine. For Feb the saying, "En vino veritas" is life. Feb is more than capable when sober. But, since Feb is usually out of it, thanks to a good dousing of rotgut, April leads the team.
Not that April is perfect. She is intelligent, but headstrong and impatient. Her crewmates are never doing enough to satisfy her. Of the Sol Bianca crew, April and Feb have known each other longest. They found the ship together. But their relationship is extremely strained at times. Part of the problem is that the people who make the Sol Bianca run aren't exactly friends. So they don't really listen to each other.
April will always take the quickest, easiest way to win a battle or an argument, which may work well when going after the latest-greatest treasure before the next pirate grabs it, but it isn't the best way to deal with the people who are supposedly important to you.
The ideal of the Sol Bianca is to rob from the rich and give to themselves. April likes to collect Earth-side relics, especially guns.
