Nao Yuuki
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Nao Yuuki (結城奈緒 Yūki Nao?) is a side character in the anime and manga series My-HiME, as well as in the related My-Otome series, where her name has been changed to Juliet Nao Zhang (ジュリエット・ナオ・チャン Jurietto Nao Chan?). In both the My-HiME and My-Otome anime, she is voiced by Yuuka Nanri, who is best known as the vocalist of the group FictionJunction YUUKA.
Contents |
[edit] My-HiME Anime
| Nao Yuuki | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Character Information | |
| Age: | 14 |
| DOB: | June 13 |
| Height: | 153 cm |
| Weight: | 40 kg |
| Blood type: | B |
| B/W/H: | 79/56/78 |
In My-HiME, Nao is a middle school student at Fuka Academy and the roommate of Mai Tokiha's friend Aoi. Although she first appears in the second episode, when a rampaging Mikoto Minagi knocks her down, she is not formally introduced until the seventh. At first, she appears to be a child prostitute as she approaches a man who had arranged to meet her over the Internet and they go to a secluded spot where he proceeds to fondle her. However, before they can proceed to sexual intercourse, she traps the man with the aid of her "Child" familiar and robs him.
She is discovered by Mikoto and they briefly scuffle. Learning of Mikoto's desire to be independent of Mai, her older roommate, and find her brother, she brings the other girl into her morally ambivalent activities. They in turn are caught by Mai and another HiME, Natsuki Kuga, who set free their victim and get into an argument with them. The impending fight is broken up by a drunk Midori Sugiura and Nagi Homura. Nao leaves the area, but not before dropping a set of girders on the others as a parting shot.
After the incident, she forms a rivalry with Natsuki and does not hesitate to tease the older girl. Nao dislikes the idea of joining Midori's "HiME Sentai (Rangers)", but reluctantly agrees in order to combat the Searrs Foundation's invasion. When Nagi informs the HiMEs that they must fight each other's Childs, she leaves the HiME Sentai and declares that she will uphold her own interests first.
Yukariko's deception of the HiMEs into believing that Nao injured her and the subsequent battle against her is the event that precipitates the Ikusahime Carnival proper. After being blinded in the left eye in episode 18, she swears not to forgive any of the other HiMEs and escapes. In episode 19, she sneaks into the hospital where Mai's brother Takumi is warded and attempts to harm him, explaining that she hates Mai, his sister, because the two of them share similarly tragic circumstances, but Mai is liked whereas she is not. Nao's effort does not succeed as Takumi's roommate Akira Okuzaki - who is also a HiME - rescues him and flees into the forest. In Episode 21, Nao injures and captures Natsuki by crashing her motorcycle and holds her hostage, but she is thwarted by Shizuru Fujino, who cuts the cliff side out from under Nao, although the redhead survives the fall. After some time under Shizuru's care Nao captures Natsuki again when the other girl returns to her old apartment to find her waiting. Shizuru once again comes to Natsuki's "rescue" and destroys her Child Julia with her own Child Kiyohime. But before Shizuru can kill Nao, though, Natsuki defends her tormentor, siting their similar circumstances and feeling sympathy for the middle schooler, and Shizuru backs off. Her Most Important Person is revealed to be her mother, who is shown lying on a hospital bed wrapped in bandages after being a victim of a robbery, the sole reason why Nao hates men.
In episode 26, her myriad victims band together to seek revenge against her, but Mashiro restores her powers to her and she narrowly escapes an ugly fate, also gaining back her eye. She joins with the rest of the re-empowered HiME to destroy the HiME Star, enabling Mai and Kagutsuchi to destroy the Obsidian Lord. After the conclusion of the Festival she becomes a nun at the Fuuka Academy church along with Miyu Greer, an occupation which fans jokingly mention will probably not last long.
[edit] My-HiME Manga
In the manga Nao's role as an antagonist is much more defined, and her original Key was the leader of the gang who tried to rape Shiho and inflicted an injury on Yuuichi Tate. Her first major act in the manga is an attempted seduction of Tate for blackmail purposes. After her Child is defeated by Miyu her Key becomes Takeda. Julia also appears to be much stronger, as her webs are nearly indestructible.
[edit] My-Otome Anime
In My-Otome, Juliet Nao Zhang is one of the Pearl Otome at Garderobe and originates from the nation of Artai, being of the same nationality as Nina Wáng, who is assigned to be her room attendant, as is Arika Yumemiya later. She dislikes her Western-sounding name and prefers to be addressed by her middle name. She has an intense dislike for fellow Pearl Shiho Huit and enjoys seeing her in awkward situations.
Although she is a good student, it being revealed that she deliberately held back in order to avoid getting into the top three, she prefers to spend time in the city, where she is known as Juliet. In an extra on the My-HiME DVDs, Yuuki's online alias was revealed to also be Juliet. She has a gang of her own known as the Stripes, in which she is the only female and is amusingly made of the men her My-HiME anime counterpart victimized, the "uniform" including a shirt striped in pink and white.
Exactly what she and the Stripes do on the street has never been divulged fully, but it appears to be for the cause of good. This is evident when Nao seeks out and punishes a person who sold off Arika's uniform. Later, when Miya Clochette's gang attempts to rape Arika, Nao and company arrive to save her and later torture them.
Her goal in life was to find a rich man and live comfortably. Unfortunately, that path is closed off to her when Nao is chosen to become the 4th Column, one of a special group of Meister Otome who work directly for Garderobe and the Founder, Fumi Himeno. Unlike Nina, Nao does not side with Nagi and instead works with the other Columns to free Garderobe from Nagi's invasion.
In the end, Nao's gang teams up with Natsuki and assists in bringing Fumi back online, enabling the Otome to Materialise again. In the last episode she is seen seated with the other Columns in a dress that resembles a qipao with a spider ornament on the front of it.
On a lighter note, her rivalry with and love of teasing Natsuki seems to carried over from the previous series, though it is significantly less antagonistic than in My-HiME.
[edit] OVA
Nao makes two appearances in the first episode of the new My-Otome Zwei OVA, one at the beginning and another right before the credits roll, though she has no lines. She appears to be traveling in a cold region, possibly Artai given her clothing, with members of her gang and one of Mikoto's cats, Jyuubei.
In the second episode, she appears briefly at the end of the episode when she is visited by Nina in Artai. She and the Stripes have set up a base in what appears to be a bar, though Nao comments that she is bored by the lack of activity she has seen lately.
[edit] My-Otome Manga
In the My-Otome manga, Nao shares with her HiME counterpart's a tendency for truancy. It is not stated where she comes from. She is myopic and requires either contact lenses or a large pair of spectacles to see. The Stripes gang is also nonexistent in the manga.
When she first appears in the manga, it is together with the other members of the Trias from the anime. She is already a member, unlike in the anime where she was inducted after Akane ran away with Kazu. However, she is only formally introduced in Chapter 7. Before that happens, though, earlier in the chapter she accidentally enters Manshiro's bathroom and thinks him to be the member of Schwarz that had infiltrated Garderobe. However, Manshiro beat her off. Inadvertently, she sees Manshiro's penis and proceeds to tempt him with an offer of sexual intercourse. Just as they were about to copulate, however, she kicks him away and ties him up with her trademark wires.
Nao is subsequently not seen for a large part of the manga, but after Rena Sayers is sent to Garderobe for medical treatment, the latter falls under her care. Rena had instructed Nao to place her in the Shinso Core if any serious harm were to come to her, something that was carried out in Chapter 37. In Chapter 39 she saves Manshiro from a combined attack by Kuga and Yuuki, the latter of which she proceeds to battle.
The HiME version of Nao is resurrected by Mashiro along with the other HiME with much of the same personality. The main departure for this version of Nao is that she thinks of the HiME Natsuki as an older-sister figure, as opposed to the all-out-feud that was present in My-HiME.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Nao Yuuki's Elements are twin metal claws with red nails. Thin red strings extend from them that can be used to ensnare enemies or cut through objects. She has a habit of licking the claws.
Her Child is Julia, a green and yellow half-human female spider with a scorpion tail. It is capable of firing sticky webbing.
Juliet Nao Zhang retains the ability to form claws with her fingernails, an ability implied to be connected to her being an Otome. In her Pearl Robe, she is capable of splitting the standard Otome staff into her distinctive wires.
[edit] GEM
Chosen late in the My-Otome anime to become the Fourth Column (who might have originally been Mai Tokiha), who answers only to Fumi, Nao is given the Break String Spinel (破絃の尖晶石 Hagen no Senshōseki) as her GEM.
Nao's robe is no different from Shizuru and Natsuki's robes in the sense that all three are counterparts to their Childs from My-HiME. Nao's reflects Julia's design, giving her a green and yellow Spider-Woman-like costume, except that her main weapon is a large claw on her right hand. When her GEM is not activated, her uniform also has an image of a spider at about waist level.
The manga version retains the Julia-like Robe of the anime, although how she came about it is not divulged exactly as the concept of Columns is anime-exclusive. It seems to be a privilege of being a Trias member as both Akane and Shiho have their Meister Robes from the anime, but the fact that Chie Hallard still uses the standard Pearl Robe argues against this. Given that the manga has been completed without resolving the matter, this may forever be one of the manga's mysteries.
The revived Nao Yuuki bears powers identical to her incarnation originally present in the My-HiME manga, but she also performs a team attack alongside Natsuki Kuga, something which her original incarnation would never have done.
[edit] Trivia
- Nao's seiyu Yuuka Nanri previously worked with Saeko Chiba, the seiyu for Natsuki, as part of the singing duo tiaraway, though the group was disbanded in March of 2005. Their playful teasing of each other may be an in-joke in reference to their seiyu's real life relationship.
- Nao's predatory and ruthless character was a departure for Nanri, whose previous roles consisted of fairly timid or helpless girls, such as Karen Ichijō from School Rumble and Henrietta from Gunslinger Girl.
- Amusingly, the men in Nao's gang in the My-Otome manga are the same ones she victimized in My-HiME.
- The names "Julia" and "Juliet" are a recurring theme in Nao's character, both in her Child's name, her given name in My-Otome, and as a DVD special in My-HiME reveals, her screenname.
