Rena Sayers

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Rena Sayers (レナ・セイヤーズ Rena Seiyāzu The official spelling of her name is Lena though it is pronounced Rena.) is a character in the anime series My-Otome and its manga counterpart, which began serialization before the airing of the anime series. She is voiced by Tomo Sakurai.

Contents 1 Anime 2 Manga 3 Weapons 4 Trivia 5 References

[edit] Anime

Rena is the first important character to appear, although she is not introduced by name initially. Wounded, she sent the baby princess of the Windbloom royal family down a river along with the Blue Sky Sapphire, but was soon after was caught by the forces of Aswad, and disappeared mysteriously. Sergay Wáng, who at the time was a visiting exchange student, observed Rena at the palace and developed a crush on her.

While Rena's fate is unknown for much of the early episodes it becomes clear during Arika Yumemiya's visit to the Aswad village. Rena died despite fighting bravely against Rad and the other fighters, prompting the Aswad to give her an honorable burial for her bravery. However, John Smith of Schwarz took her body from the Aswad and used it to create the nanomachines and control system of the Valkyries, since only the body of an Otome who has given birth can be used for such a purpose.

Despite initial uncertainty about who was the real princess of Windbloom and who was Rena's daughter, Arika is confirmed to be her daughter by Miyu, who after returning Arika to her grandmother (after rescuing her from the fire at the palace) found the Blue Sky Sapphire in Artai, where it had been sold.

In the final battle Arika destroys her mother's body in order to unlock the Blue Sky Sapphire's true form after a tearful goodbye.

In the anime it is not specified who fathered Arika with her and this remains a subject of speculation. One theory is that the father was Rad/Reito, as it is in the manga, and various clues exist to suggest this in the anime itself. [1]

[edit] Manga

Rena's fate in the manga is vastly different from in the anime. For one, she does not appear as early as in the anime, although her identity as Arika's mother is confirmed very shortly after her appearance. Secondly, she was not dead or used as a Shinso for Schwarz, although she was indeed under their care.

She is first seen in a ruined building in the Black Valley, rocking a basket with a doll in it^[1] and promptly mistakes Manshiro for Arika^[2]. It is revealed that her home village, at Cardair's borders, was destroyed mysteriously and she was the only survivor Rad found^[3]. The result of the attack was mental instability, explaining why she had mistaken Manshiro for Arika. Eventually, however, she showed that she recognises the Blue Sky Sapphire in Manshiro's hands^[4] and then suddenly comes to her senses in time to block an attack from Materialised Akira^[5]. Nina Wáng proceeds to recognise her as the great Rena Sayers, previous user of the Blue Sky Sapphire^[6]. While battling Akira, she instructs Manshiro and Arika to formally make their contract with the Blue Sky Sapphire^[7], shortly before being hurt grievously by Akira. She identifies Rad as being the Reito of the My-Otome manga and instructs him to protect Arika and Manshiro^[8] before fainting. In the aftermath of the Cardair invasion of the Black Valley, she is brought to Garderobe for medical treatment, put under the care of Juliet Nao Zhang.

She returns from her incapacitation in time to push Manshiro out of the way of Mai Tokiha's attack^[9] and tells him and Arika about the Blue Sky Sapphire's Ultimate form, which had to be unlocked by the Master and Otome linking hands^[10], causing it to turn red from blue. This is a sort of reversal from the anime, where the lower level of the Blue Sky Sapphire Robe was pink and its Ultimate form was blue. Nao reveals that Rena had instructed her to place Rena in the Shinso core if anything was to happen to her^[11]. These wishes are carried out and by doing so, Rena becomes the new Shinso and enables the Otome to Materialise again^[12].

It is worth noting that Natsuki addresses her as oneesama^[13], a manner of address that most of the Otome eventually confer on her as well^[14].

[edit] Weapons

Rena was the former user of the Blue Sky Sapphire and was able to use its Ultimate form. Apart from in the 2nd OP, she was never shown fighting in it. After the loss of her Otome powers due to bearing Arika, however, she was still a good enough fighter with a pair of knives while wounded as to earn the respect of the Aswad, who interrupted their attack on Windbloom to give her a honourable burial.

According to screenshots of the upcoming My-Otome game for the PS2, known as "Otome Butou Shi", the Sword of Akatsuki she can use is far bigger than the one Arika could. Assuming that the size of the Sword of Akatsuki is proportionate to the power of the user, she must have been much better than Arika currently is.

In the manga, Rena was also the former user of the Blue Sky Sapphire and able to use its "Ultimate" form. She was not shown fighting in it either. However, even at her advanced age of late 30s to early 40s, she was briefly able to engage a Materialised Akira in combat using only a kunai, suggesting a very high level of combat proficiency in her youth.

[edit] Trivia

• Rena is not based on a character from My-HiME, but instead that of Rena Yuuki from Future GPX Cyber Formula: Road to the Infinity 2. Her "spiritual predecessor" has brown eyes instead of blue.

[edit] References

1. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 20, page 19
2. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 20, page 20
3. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 21, page 1-2
4. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 22, page 16
5. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 22, page 20 and chapter 23, page 1
6. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 23, pages 2-3
7. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 23, pages 3-5
8. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 23, page 13
9. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 37, page 9
10. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 37, page 10
11. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 37, page 18
12. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 38, pages 3 and 12
13. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 24, page 14
14. ^ My-Otome manga; chapter 38, page 7