Anita King (R.O.D)

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Anita King
R.O.D character
First appearance Read or Dream
Last appearance R.O.D the TV
Voiced by Chiwa Saito (Japanese)
Rachel Hirschfeld (TV, English)
Profile
Aliases Chibikko, brat
Age 12 (manga) 13 (ROD the TV)
Occupation Detective; student; bodyguard to Nenene Sumiregawa (R.O.D the TV only)
Known relatives Michelle Cheung (older sister), Maggie Mui (older sister)

Anita King (アニタ・キング Anita Kingu?) is one of the characters in the R.O.D series of manga and anime created by Hideyuki Kurata. She is a papermaster and one of the three "Paper Sisters," the central trio of heroines in the Read or Dream and also one of the main characters of the TV series, R.O.D the TV.

Contents

[edit] Character Background

Anita is a 13-year-old girl, adopted by her "sisters" Michelle Cheung and Maggie Mui and, despite her young age, works with them as an equal partner in the Paper Sisters Detective Company of Hong Kong. Anita's backhistory Dream and the TV are different, although her general behavior, motives, and abilities remain the same.

[edit] Read or Dream

In vol. 4, a flashback story reveals that an amnesiac Anita was "assigned" to Maggie and Michelle to "look after her." Anita was initially silent and sullen around the girls, resentful of their love of books when she professed to hate them. However, she came to accept them, gradually hanging around them even if there were books around. When the girls gave her a book entitled "The Story of a Giraffe with a Shrunken Neck"--a book that Michelle and Maggie both loved--Anita read it, and her paper mastery awakened and she fainted.

Dokusensha immediately arrived on the scene to take Anita away, explaining that she was genetically engineered to have all the power of a papermaster with none of the faults (such as the extreme bibliomania). They congratulated Maggie and Michelle for their success, but told them their services would no longer be required, and gave each of them a blank check as payment. Dokusensha takes Anita back to their headquarters and strap her into a chair, having returned to her indifferent self. Maggie and Michelle invade the complex, showing they have filled in the payment they want on their checks: "Anita." Michelle recounts the story of the "Giraffe with a Shrunken Neck" and Anita's abilities once again awaken, terrorizing the Dokusensha agents. The three escape, leaving Dokusensha's Hong Kong headquarters destroyed in their wake. They agree to put their abilities to use as local detectives.

[edit] R.O.D the TV

Anita initially believed, as retold in episode 10, that she met her sisters in a run-down church, where she had run away from state care. Cold and starving, Maggie and Michelle took her in. However, Anita later (episode 23) learns from Joker that she was created by the British Library using the genes of some of their best papermasters. As in Dream, they wanted to create a papermaster who was not driven by bibliomania. The result was Anita, but her powers failed to manifest until she needed to defend herself from Yomiko's attack on the British Library. In the confusion, she was kidnapped by Dokusensha.

In order to stabilize Anita, Dokusensha created other papermasters using the British Library's data. Unfortunately, these users were found to be "psychologically defective," so to train them, Dokusensha rewrote their memories to make them live in 'families'. Joker's exposition suggests that the meeting in the church was a false memory implanted into the three papermasters' minds, a "script written by Dokusensha's best writers," although the series ends showing the viewer the Mary statue that contains the three girls' initials, which they carved upon their meeting, suggesting the meeting really happened.

The sisters work together as detectives for two years before they meet Nenene Sumiregawa and become her bodyguards. Anita has never attended school until Nenene insists she enroll in junior high. Anita adapts quickly to the new experience (in Dream, Anita only goes to school when undercover as a bodyguard).

[edit] Appearance and Personality

Anita is a small teenage girl, standing at 141 cm (4' 7") tall. British Library records[1] indicate that she has red hair and brown eyes, though animators depict her with bright pink hair and green eyes. She dresses in a style that is both "cute" and yet is obviously comfortable, suiting her active lifestyle--shorts or roomy dresses. Her Paper battle uniform consists of a Chinese-style tunic in maroon and cream, with short culottes underneath; beneath that is a black unitard that possibly provides some light armor protection. She also has hip "holsters" containing stacks of cards she can use in battle. When dressing up or in her Paper Master battle uniform, she puts her hair up in Chinese-style buns. Anita is extremely quick and agile, which not only makes her extremely dangerous as a fighter; unaware of her more deadly capabilities, her seventh grade class admire her athletic prowess.

Anita is a spitfire--outspoken, pragmatic, and full of energy. At her best, she is confident and deeply, deeply loyal; at her worst, she can be "bratty" and self-important, often failing to take others' feelings into account when making an outburst. She is extremely attached to her sisters, for all that she nags them; when separated from them, her bravado quickly turns to anxiety and despair, though in all but the worst circumstances, she usually keeps her head cool enough to get her job done. She has a great deal of faith in the importance of family and friendship, stating on multiple occasions, "The world is made to help people find each other."

Anita is well liked in her class, and especially admired by classmate named Hisami Hishishii (see below). Anita makes friends with relative ease, from the easily cranky Chihon in Dream to the reticent Junior in the TV.

Unlike most papermasters, she at first dislikes books (in the TV this is related to her traumatic experience in the British Library fire), but comes to appreciate their importance in her life over time. Though not as obsessively as her sisters collect books, Anita collects clothes, toys, and trinkets with a frog motif (many of her frogs have an appearance similar to Keroro in Sgt. Frog).

[edit] Powers and Skills

Anita is almost supernaturally dexterous, able to leap and dodge extremely fast. She is likewise very resilient for a 13-year-old girl, able to land from a giant leap downwards without a bruise. Even without paper to wield as a weapon, Anita is a dangerous hand-to-hand opponent, disarming trained soldiers and kicking them into unconsciousness. Unlike most Paper Masters, Anita usually uses her paper abilities serve to enhance her physical ones, instead of solely relying on paper to fight. Her preferred paper manipulations are simple, usually using a stack of blank white cards as either throwing blades or knives, which she can use to slice through steel as if it were butter. Other tactics include using paper chains as climbing ropes, spreading paper over the floor to hear unseen enemies, and entangling targets in large clouds of paper. She has basic paper 'support' abilities, such as summoning paper (telekinesis) and using it to create clothing. Unfortunately, Anita usually focuses on offense, leaving her wide open for counterattack, and so she often relies on a partner to cover her back.

Anita's defensive abilities are much weaker. She requires large amounts of paper (a thick book) to block projectiles such as bullets and drills, a task that most Paper Masters only require a few or a single sheet to accomplish.

In the TV, Yomiko Readman shares with Anita one of her signature tricks: the giant paper airplane. Despite Anita's protestations that mass transport is beyond her capabilities, with Yomiko's help Anita manages to control the craft while Yomiko concentrates on operating a scanner. This suggests that with further training Anita's powers could be greatly enhanced.

[edit] Relationships

[edit] Maggie Mui

Maggie, as Anita's sister, will do anything to protect Anita, even if it means dying or reluctantly handing Nenene over to the British Library. They trust and love each other, but Anita's thoughtless criticism of Maggie has, at times, affected Maggie's confidence concerning her ability to help and protect her sisters.

[edit] Michelle Cheung

While Anita is down to earth and practical, Michelle is free-spirited and acts on impulse. They two frequently clash over matters of money - when ever Anita thinks that they should be spending money on food, Michelle spends all their money on books. Like Maggie, Michelle would not hesitate to put her life on the line to protect Anita, but does not hesitate when she feels that Anita needs to be disciplined, especially when Anita accuses Maggie of being useless.

[edit] Hisami Hishishii

When Anita begins attending junior high school, she quickly befriends the soft-spoken and shy Hisami Hishaishi and gives her the nickname, "Hisa". While Anita generally dislikes books, she reads them for the sake of Hisa, who loves books and reads often. The two girls become very close friends, and Hisami compares them to Anne Shirley and Diana Barry in Anne of Green Gables.

In the Read or Dream manga, Hisami appears in Hong Kong as a young author and the two soon become friends when the Paper Sisters are hired to protect Hisami from possible kidnappers.

In "Seduced by the Night," Hisami says to an unrequited Tohru that there is someone else she might love; glances exchanged between the characters imply that it might be Anita (especially since Hisami reacts poorly to discovering, right after her confession to Tohru, that Anita has spent the evening chatting alone with Junior). Anita doesn't seem to pick up on this undertone, but continues to be a loyal and supportive friend to Hisami.

[edit] Junior

Anita first encounters Junior when he is attempting to recovering one of Mr. Gentleman's books hidden at her junior high school, but is unaware of who he is because he is masked. She subsequently meets Junior when he poses as a student at the school and befriends him, unaware that he was the assailant at the library. Junior is drawn to Anita because of her kindness and soon finds it difficult to betray her to Joker and his plans. Anita, upon discovering his true identity, feels betrayed and finds herself unable to trust someone she considered a friend, although they eventually reconcile (after a thump on Junior's head for good measure).

[edit] Nenene Sumiregawa

While Michelle and Maggie respect and at times fear Nenene, Anita does not hesitate to speak her mind concerning the author and her work. Nenene becomes another older sister figure to Anita (indeed, Nenene asks her to call her "Nenene-nee," which Anita hastily shortens to "Nene-nee," or "Big Sis Nene") who despite saying otherwise, comes to care and respect Nenene for her courage. Anita also becomes a listening ear for Nenene when she is troubled. At the same time, they also frequently bicker and play-wrestle. The two have similar personalities, being both spunky, outspoken, and short-tempered.

[edit] Yomiko Readman

During the incident where Yomiko burned down the British Library, Anita witnessed Yomiko in the flames and developed a subconscious hatred of books from the sheer terror she felt during that moment. While Dokusensha had erased her memory numerous times, Anita retained that memory, but does not fully recall it until Junior dives into the Book of All Seeing Eyes and she witnesses her past. Anita, upon discovering that Yomiko was responsible for the traumatic memory, despises her, but works with her because she hates those who have taken her sisters, Michelle and Maggie, even more.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Paper Leaf Wood." R.O.D the TV. 2003-12-01. No. 14.

[edit] External links