Nayuki Minase

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Nayuki Minase
Nayuki Minase from the original game
Nayuki Minase from the original game
Gender: Female
Birthdate: December 23, 1981
Age: 17
Seiyū: Mariko Kōda
Height: 164cm (5'5")
Weight: 47kg (104lbs)
Measurements: 83cm - 57cm - 82cm
(33" - 22" - 32")
Hair color: Blue
Eye color: Blue

Nayuki Minase (水瀬 名雪 Minase Nayuki?) is a fictional character from the Japanese visual novel Kanon, voiced by Mariko Kōda. She is Yuichi's cousin, with whom he moves in with at the beginning of the story. She has always been in love with him (in Japan, such relationships between first cousins are not only acceptable but common) and must learn how to deal with these feelings, especially with the threat that he may fall for one of the other girls. She adores strawberry sundaes, but the mere mention of her mother's "special" homemade jam makes her sick.

Nayuki is a heavy sleeper, which has led her to collect dozens of alarm clocks; they do not work on her, but instead wake Yuichi every morning. Since she has such trouble waking up, she is always running for school and is in fact the school's star runner because of this. Similarly, she became the captain of the school's female track team despite being in her second year. She takes a long time to get up in the morning and will pass out several times during the morning before completely waking up. Despite her attempts to stay conscious, she still tends to fall asleep a lot in class.

Nayuki has a fondness for animals and never misses an opportunity to try to pet one, even wild animals, such as cats, dogs, or even the occasional fox if she can help it. Unfortunately for her, she is allergic to cats. One of her defining features is that she tends to talk slower than the rest of the characters. She will often state the obvious to Yuichi, such as when lunch break occurs or when school ends.

Nayuki is second to Ayu as the most used character in the series' marketing. Also, in both anime adaptations, her story runs at the same time as Ayu's.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

[edit] Story

[edit] Seven years ago

Nayuki seven years ago with the snow bunny.
Nayuki seven years ago with the snow bunny.

Seven years before the beginning of Kanon's story, Yuichi was visting his aunt Akiko's house for the winter break from school, living at her house with his cousin Nayuki until the break ended. Back then, Nayuki wore her hair in pigtail braids, though later gave it up after another couple of years. One of the few things Nayuki and Yuichi did together during this break was do homework together in Nayuki's room, which was something Nayuki enjoyed since during this time he was gone from the house a lot while he was out playing with Ayu Tsukimiya. Nayuki had developed a crush on her cousin over the years, but she never told him about it.

On the last day of winter vacation, Yuichi was at the train station crying due to what happened with Ayu, though Nayuki knew nothing about it. Nayuki had been trying to find him all day because she wanted to say goodbye to him before he left again. She had brought with her what is referred to as a "snow bunny". This is a ball of snow smoothed out in the shape of an oval with two leaves attached to the top for the ears and two pebbles for eyes to resemble a rabbit. Nayuki had made it herself, though because she wasn't very good at it, it took her a long time to finish it. She had wanted to give it to Yuichi as a present before he left, but when she noticed Yuichi crying, she tried to approach him and asked what was wrong. In a fit of rage, Yuichi abruptly stood up and slapped the snow bunny from Nayuki's hands, making it crash to the ground below. Nayuki remembered this event for the next seven years.

[edit] Present

Nayuki after falling into depression over her mother.
Nayuki after falling into depression over her mother.

Nayuki is the first girl to appear in Kanon's story. She meets Yuichi at the train station, asking if he remembered her name or not. The truth is later revealed that Nayuki was scared that Yuichi would have forgotten her name after not being in the city where the story takes place for seven years. Yuichi, after playing with her a little, showed that he had remembered her name, which made Nayuki very happy. Nayuki is equally elated the next day when Yuichi joins her class in high school. This proves to be beneficial for Yuichi since this school was already ahead of his other school in the material and Nayuki helps him out by lending him her notes.

Nayuki's arc begins one day when Nayuki asks her mom to pick up a small strawberry cake from the bakery on her way home from work due to strawberries being her favorite food. On the way home from the bakery, Akiko, while walking across a cross walk, gets inadvertently involved in a traffic accident and is quickly rushed to the hospital. As her mother lies in the intensive care unit of the hospital, Nayuki starts to blame herself for having asked for the strawberry cake and quickly falls under depression from the guilt she feels. Yuichi tries to console her during this time, though Nayuki tries to push him away as much as she can. In the original version of the visual novel, this was the point in her story where Nayuki's H-scene could be viewed. Nayuki eventually comes out of her depression and makes up with Yuichi.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] References