Haruka Suzushiro
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Haruka Suzushiro (珠洲城遥 Suzushiro Haruka?) is a character from the My-HiME and My-Otome anime and manga series. Her name is Haruka Armitage (ハルカ・アーミテージ Haruka Āmitēji) in the My-Otome series. She is voiced in both series by Ryōka Yuzuki.
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[edit] My-HiME anime
Hot-tempered Haruka Suzushiro is a member of the Fuuka Academy Student Council. She is first introduced when interrogating Mai Tokiha. She has a tendency to mispronounce or mispell words.
She is Yukino Kikukawa's best friend and often protected the younger girl in earlier years, but also bosses her around. She has a strong (and mostly one-sided) rivalry with Shizuru Fujino, who she often refers to as "bubuzuke" (tea with rice). Much of her strong dislike of Shizuru comes from the result of the Student Council Elections in which they both ran, where Shizuru won in landslide of 817 with only 12 votes for Haruka. However, Haruka recovered from this loss and became the passionate and commanding Executive Director of the Suzushiro Executive Team, and oftentimes deals with the dirty work or otherwise humiliating tasks that the Student Council would rather not do.
Haruka is not a HiME, but she possesses strength near the human upper limit, able to engage Searrs Foundation soldiers in hand-to-hand combat even if only for a short time and carry a massive fish around without external assistance. She is also of comfortable family background as her family owns a seaside mansion large enough as to have multiple guest bedrooms, though Yukino indicates in a DVD special that Haruka's family was not always so well off.
When Shizuru goes missing to take care of an injured Natsuki Kuga Yukino tracks her down with Haruka following. From their hideout they observe Shizuru stealing a kiss from the sleeping Natsuki, with Haruka giving their presence away by her shocked reaction. In a confrontation with Shizuru, Haruka declares her horror at the other girl's actions and calls her infatuation with Natsuki "disgusting" and slaps Shizuru. Because Haruka is the most important person of Yukino she ends up "dying" because of Shizuru's retaliation attack on Diana. Before she "dies", however, she manages to headbutt Shizuru and reassure Yukino. Haruka is later resurrected by Mashiro and appears floating before Yukino before comically falling to the ground.
[edit] My-HiME manga
In the My-HiME manga, Haruka is actually a HiME. Her element is a massive ball and chain weapon that causes heavy damage to her foes. Haruka's commanding personality remains from the My-HiME anime, and she feels that Mai and Natsuki's attempts to stop the Orphan attacks are unsatisfactory and runs her own subset of HiME, of which she is the commander.
[edit] My-Otome anime
In the alternate universe version of the original story, Haruka Armitage is a Brigadier General in the Aries military and President Yukino Chrysant's Otome. This is a reversal of their My-HiME anime relationship, where Yukino was the one protecting Haruka.
Her Otome title is the Continental Orb Topaz (珠洲の黄玉 Suzu no Kōgyoku). Early in the story Haruka is a role model for Arika Yumemiya, and tells her that an Otome needs "Strength, beauty and guts" before hurtling a spaceship away bare handed.
Haruka still retains her tendency to mispronounce words, and is often reprimanded for it by Yukino or Five Column member Sarah Gallagher in a later episode. She was classmates with Shizuru Viola, and, like in My-HiME, considered her a rival. Her Element is a ball and chain mace weapon, just like her My-HiME manga incarnation.
Note that the surname of the Otome-Universe Haruka "Armitage" is a subtle but tongue-in-cheek reference to Naomi Armitage, a previous role played by Haruka's voice actress Ryōka Yuzuki.
[edit] My-Otome manga
In the My-Otome manga, two versions of Haruka exist.
The first is Haruka Armitage. No longer an Otome, she is reduced to being a member of the Windbloom police force and a low-ranking one at that. Yukino is her partner. She has a dislike for Otome, but ironically enough comes to their aid often. She has a penchant for heavy artillery. The miniskirt she wears as part of her uniform often makes her the victim of blatant pantyshots, although apparently this is only visible to the reader as no character comments on this.
The second is Haruka Suzushiro revived from the dead. All the revived HiMEs from the manga have altered personalities and this one is no different, being subservient to Yukino, which comes as a disturbing discovery for the other Haruka.
[edit] Trivia
- In both anime series her inability to correctly pronounce and spell words, her constant rivalry with Shizuru, and her usage of the word "Bubuzuke" are all running gags. The only difference is in My-Otome Yukino had to use a megaphone just to make herself heard.
- In the My-Otome anime, there is an Aries ship named the Suzushiro, that was Haruka Armitage's favorite. This is a reference to her previous surname.
