Kaede Fuyou
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kaede Fuyou (芙蓉 楓 Fuyō Kaede?) is a character in Navel's Shuffle! media franchise. She is one of the main characters in both the original Shuffle! and Really? Really! visual novels.
The characters of Shuffle! have a theme of being named after plants. Her given name, kaede (楓), is the Japanese word for maple, and her surname, fuyō (芙蓉), refers to the Hibiscus mutabilis.
Kaede is voiced by Yuko Goto (Japanese) and Carrie Savage (English) and was designed by Aoi Nishimata.
Contents |
[edit] In the Shuffle! anime
[edit] Before the beginning of the series
Eight years prior to the time Shuffle! takes place, both of Rin's parents and Kaede's mother are killed in a car accident. Kaede became traumatized from the incident, losing her will to live. Rin overheard the doctor saying that she needed a reason - any reason - to live. Rin then went to Kaede and told her that on the night of the accident, he was lonely and phoned his parents, asking them to come back. Since his parents and Kaede's mother rode in the same car, he essentially told Kaede that it was his fault that her mother died. This caused Kaede to harbor a deep hatred for Rin. Upon emerging from her stupor, she began to choke him.
Since Kaede's father decided to take Rin into their home, Rin constantly had to endure Kaede's deep hatred of him. While putting on a front of being friends to her father, Kaede performed vengeful acts such as destroying Rin's room and attempting to hurt him.
Later, some time during their junior high years, Kaede found a postcard while rummaging through Rin's possessions after destroying Rin's model ship— one of his most prized possessions. The postcard sparked her memory of the night of the accident, and she remembered that the reason her mother (and Rin's parents) came back was because she had a fever, and she had asked her father to call her mother home. This meant that her mother's death was to be blamed on Kaede herself, rather than Rin. Rin rushed in just as she finished reading the postcard, but he was too late to prevent Kaede from remembering everything and feeling deep guilt for her actions.
In order to atone for her actions in the past, Kaede decided to make herself Rin's personal servant by cooking his meals and doing all the work around the house. Rin does not want this, but he is afraid of causing Kaede a relapse by not allowing her to punish herself in this way.
One should note that a deeper look into the past events surrounding Kaede and Rin's past are explained in deeper detail in episode 19 of the series.
 |
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (December 2007) |
[edit] An Analysis Of Kaede's Psyche Throughout The Anime Series
[edit] First Stage: Subservient
Kaede is the first girl introduced at the start of the series. She wakes up Rin and proceeds to serve him an extremely fancy breakfast. Rin asks her if she can take it easy and make breakfasts that are more modest in the future, but her worried looks force him to withdraw the comment. It is later revealed that Kaede does not only cook overly-exquisite breakfast, but she also cooks lunch and dinner, as well as provide for his other needs, such as laundry and school notes. Throughout all this, she frequently forgets to look after herself. Rin tells Kaede that her father gave him explicit approval to have Kaede as a love interest seeing as how he is the last surviving member in his family. This causes Kaede to blush quite a bit, but Rin does not notice, and instead notes that their close relationship causes other potential candidates for her affection to avoid her.
[edit] Second Stage: Denial
When Lisianthus and Nerine arrive, Kaede faints after they reveal that they came to the human world seeking Rin as a marriage candidate. While many people have made suggestive comments about Rin's relationship with Kaede, he simply shrugs them off. Kaede, however, does not seem to mind these comments. In the second episode, Primula arrives and is adopted by the Fuyou household, so she moves in with Kaede and Rin, and Kaede starts to teach her how to cook. With this, both Kaede and Rin start to spend less and less time together as Kaede works with Primula while both Sia and Nerine try to win over Rin. She convinces herself that as long as Rin is happy, she should be happy, and does not say a word to him of her own emotions.
[edit] Third Stage: Reminiscent/Depressed
As Rin spends more and more time outside the house, Kaede finds herself wishing that the "old days" would come back. As she is friends with Lisianthus and Nerine, she does not complain about the amount of time that Rin spends with them. When Rin starts showing his romantic intentions towards Asa, however, her convictions of her own altruistic acts start to break down, as she becomes more and more occupied with distressing over Rin's social life.
[edit] Fourth Stage: Psychotic/Nervous Breakdown
Her past psychotic behavior reappears when Rin starts to solidify Asa as the object of his romantic interest. Once again, Kaede attempts to tell herself that she is happy so long as Rin is happy, but in reality, the news is too much for her to bear. Primula is the first to notice this, due to several happenings around the house. For instance, upon entering Rin's room, she notices that the purikuris of Rin and Asa all have Asa marked out. Also, in another instance, she tries to ask Kaede if she really is okay with Rin solidifying his ever-growing relationship with Asa, and notes that Kaede has a rather strained smile on her face, all while reiterating that she is happy when he is happy. When Kaede leaves to answer a phone call, Primula checks a pot that Kaede was stirring throughout the whole exchange, and to her horror, discovers that Kaede had been cooking nothing at all. Primula tries to inform Rin, but her concerns fall on deaf ears.
Kaede's pent-up psychotic behavior finally blows over when Rin invites Asa over. In her ensuing breakdown, Kaede viciously attacks Asa and declares that she should die. She is consequently restrained by Rin, during which Asa has an attack and falls to the ground in a dead faint. This leaves Kaede in a deep shock, as Rin tries unsuccessfully to bring Asa out of her unconsciousness.
[edit] Fifth Stage: Desperation
This event causes Rin to visit Asa at the hospital for days at a time, causing Kaede even more emotional anguish. In a last-ditch effort to capture Rin's attention, Kaede climbs into Rin's bed naked, and desperately tells him that she wants to continue caring for him. This, however, only causes Rin to run away in shock. When Primula asks Kaede why she acts like a personal slave for Rin, Kaede states that taking care of Rin is only a mere facade to hide the fact that she simply wants to spend time with Rin. Despite her love for Rin, however, she feels that she does not deserve Rin's love due to their past. Following Kaede's attempt at seducing Rin, Rin informs her that he is moving out of the house. This turn of events nearly causes Kaede to break down again.
[edit] Sixth Stage: Healing and Recovery
After a talk with Asa, Kaede has an epiphany of sorts and reasons that deceiving herself about her own love for Rin will never get her anywhere. After she meets with Rin on the street, Kaede tells Rin about her conversation with Asa, and accepts the reason why Rin is moving out. Rin also confesses his feelings to Kaede about the person he has devoted his whole heart to, and even though it was not Kaede, Rin still says he loves her because she is the person whom he has spent the most time with in his life. Kaede then confesses her love to Rin. She decides that despite her love for Rin and their dark past together, she will move on with her life. Although she has come to terms with her own feelings, she continues to love Rin, which she restates in the last episode.
It should be noted that after the incidents regarding Rin's departure, Kaede is much more relaxed. However, it is apparent that she cannot break the subservient nature she has adopted, seeing as how she still tends the house in the same matter as when Rin still lived in the Fuyou residence. Also, she has a habit of forgetting her own needs, as she makes Primula lunch and forgets her own (similar to the time spent with Rin). This could be a sign that she still hasn't completely gotten over her slave mentality but instead found someone else to serve.
[edit] End credits
The end credits of Shuffle! display a scene of Sia doing a make-up on Kaede. In the scene the two trip over (which is appearently caused by Kikyou) and share a kiss.
[edit] In the games
Kaede's personality in the original Shuffle! visual novel was somewhat different from her anime incarnation; she was simply a shy and gentle character, without the murderous side.[1]
Just as foretold in the anime during their childhood Kaede fell ill while her mother was away on a trip with Rin's parents. Upon hearing this Momoji Fuyou hurries back with Rin's parent's only to be killed in a car accident. Kaede learning of her mother's death loses her will to live and enters a into a coma like state. Rin then lies to Kaede saying "I was the one who called them back because I was lonely" making her believe he is the cause of their parent's death's. Kaede then makes a full recovery due to this. However she ended up trapped in the weakness of her own spirit, as she lied to herself by just continuously blaming Rin.
In "Really? Really!", the sequel to Kaede's path in the original "Shuffle!" game, Kaede discovers why her mother and Rin's parents tried to return, but not through a postcard recovered from Rin's possessions (Rin's shipbuilding skills only exist in the anime). Instead, it's when she overheard Rin and her father, Mikio, debating whether or not it was time to tell her the truth about it. She barges in and demands that they tell her exactly what they are hiding from her. To Rin's surprise, Mikio decides to tell her the whole truth. Just like in the anime, when she realizes what's she's done to Rin, she runs out of the house. However, she runs back to the playground where, several years earlier, she had declared her hatred for Rin. Minutes later, Rin finds Kaede in the playground, who immediately runs up to him and begins apologizing profusely for all the hatred and physical abuse she has inflicted upon him throughout the years.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- (Japanese) Kaede Fuyou's character profile for Shuffle!
- (Japanese) Kaede Fuyou's character profile for Really? Really!
|
|||||||||||
