Yoshino Somei

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Yoshino Somei


Yoshino Somei

Publisher Flag of Japan Shogakukan
Flag of Canada Flag of United States VIZ Media (Defunct)
Flag of France Glenat (Defunct)
Flag of Germany Planet Manga
Flag of Hong Kong Jade Dynasty
Flag of Indonesia Elex Media
Flag of Malaysia Komik Remaja (Defunct)
Flag of Netherlands Big Balloon
Flag of Singapore Chuang Yi (English)
Flag of South Korea Junior Special Comics (Original), Daiwon & Gang Dok Mok? (Collector's Edition)
Flag of Spain Planeta DeAgostini
Flag of Republic of China Youth Comic Series
First appearance Spriggan, Volume 1 (Canon)
Spriggan: First Mission (Non-Canon)
Created by Hiroshi Takashige and Ryoji Minagawa
Characteristics
Full name See Character Name
Species Human
Affiliations None. Would work with the ARCAM Private Army, especially with Spriggans such as Yu Ominae if it would be to her advantage.
Supporting
character of
Yu Ominae, Oboro
Notable aliases Sakura Himeno
Abilities

Yoshino Somei (染井芳乃 Somei Yoshino?) is a fictional character in the manga series Spriggan. A teenaged mercenary, she specializes in hunting down various kinds of out-of-place artifacts from around the globe.

Contents

[edit] Origin

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Born and raised by her single secret agent mother,[1] Yoshino's mother was an agent trained in the arts of necromancy and mediumship for an unnamed intelligence agency.[2] Yoshino was soon orphaned after her mother was assassinated by her employers, suggesting that her skills were a potential threat.[3]

Before Yoshino's mother died, she taught her only daughter everything she knew, including her skills in necromancy and mediumship in order to help her fend for herself. Realizing that she wouldn't like to caught dead by those who have killed her own mother, Yoshino decides to be a mercenary instead of having a normal life mainly because of the thrill of it as a means of honoring her deceased mother.[4]

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Non-Canon

Her first apperance was in the one shot story Spriggan: First Mission, where Yoshino had infiltrated a Machiner's Platoon research center in Japan disguised as a civilian staff member under the alias Sakura Himeno in order to obtain the Megiddo Flame, which was recently taken by Machiner's Platoon soldiers from archaeologists in the Middle East. She encountered Yu Ominae when he tossed a skeleton knife at an area where he taught an armed soldier was hiding; it was later discovered that Yoshino was hiding in a corner nearby to hide from the gunfire.

After waiting for Yu to defeat Humming Bat, Yoshino gassed him after he took the Megiddo Flame from the building's control room. Though she had the artifact with him, Yu was able to recover from the effects of the gas and forced her to hand over the Megiddo Flame to him.

At the end of the mission, the two see other again. But this time in school uniforms.

[edit] Canon

Yoshino first made her appearance in the Forest of No Return chapter, seen trying to steal the Rama sculpture. Lost in the cursed forest with Yu Ominae after pissing him off for doing a stunt.[5] The two eventually were forced to join forces Iwao Akatsuki, forcing the trio to eliminate the curse that was responsible for making the forest full of horrific demons that prey on humans. During an operation to acquire the Holy Grail, she nearly lost her life when she was critcally injured from a gunshot wound. Her life was saved by the Adolf Hitler clone's good personality before it was overwhelmed by his evil personality later on.

Yoshino again teamed up with Yu to investigate Phantom Island to locate out-of-place artifacts, but instead got into a fight with Trident agent Bowman, who happened to be Yu's ex-COSMOS combat instructor. The two once again escaped their fate of disappearing with the island when Phantom Island disappeared once again under a space/time continuum. Yoshino then continues to fight alongside Yu and sometimes, Oboro and other ARCAM staff members in Thailand, Japan and eventually, the South Pole where she was recruited to harness the power hidden from the South Pole Shrine before she used her necromancy powers to sabotage Trident's operations in the region.

[edit] Character

Yoshino is mainly in the mercenary business in order to sell acquired out-of-place artifacts to the highest bidder, making people think that she happens to be a greedy, selfish and avaricious person. On the other hand, she appears to be an average high school girl who enjoys teasing Yu at every opportunity that Yoshino can throw at him ever since their first encounter in the Forest of No Return.[6]

However, she has some reservation about the ARCAM Corporation since they're in the way to prevent her from acquiring out-of-place artifacts. She thinks of other out-of-place artifacts-hunting organizations like the Trident Corporation as players in the same game that ARCAM does, which does not suit well for Yu, who was defending ARCAM's prestige against her.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ There is no information to what happened to her father, it's assumed that he died before the series started
  2. ^ It is possible to suggest that a Western intelligence agency such as the CIA is her employer since early parts of Spriggan were written in the last few years of the Cold War.
  3. ^ Yoshino said that her mother was assassinated because she was "a threat to national security"
  4. ^ Yoshino: "I decided I wasn't going to waste my talents and youth!! So I became a thief! I steal everything those jerks who run things want, and sell 'em for a huge profit"
  5. ^ Yu scolded her for trying to steal the sculpture since she tried to swing her way towards the makeshift altar, losing her grip on the rope.
  6. ^ The Forest of No Return encounter is considered if the First Mission one shot story were to be disregarded.
  7. ^ Yoshino: "I see. So they're an ARCAM copycat."
    Yu: "Don't mention us in the same breath as those bastards! We're not weapons merchants."

[edit] See also

Spriggan by Hiroshi Takashige and Ryoji Minagawa
Characters
Yu Ominae | Jean Jacquemonde | Tea Flatte | Oboro | Yamamoto | Rie Yamabishi | Yoshino Somei | Mayzel | Iwao Akatsuki | Bo Brantz | Larry Markson | Henry Garnum | Sho Kanaya | Minor Spriggan characters
Organizations
ARCAM Corporation | ARCAM Private Army | Trident Corporation | COSMOS | Spriggans | Minor Spriggan organizations
Mystical locations
Forest of No Return | Phantom Island | Reverse Babel Tower | South Pole Shrine
Mystical artifacts
Fire Orb | Mask of Palenque | Noah's Ark | Berserker | Crystal Skull | Program YAMA | Holy Grail | Vajrayana | Ark of the Covenant | Megiddo Flame | Gold Statue of Pachacamac
Other mystical items
Armored Machine Suit | Armored Muscle Suit | Hihiirokane | Magical Circle of Chaos | Message Plate | Omihalcon | Soma
Others
Franchise | ISBN Codes