Fumi Himeno

Fumi Himeno (姫野二三) is a fictional character in the My-HiME and My-Otome series. In My-HiME, she is voiced by Yukana in the original and Wendy Morrison in the English version. In My-Otome, she does not have any spoken dialogue, and her name is written differently in the Japanese original Fumi Himeno (フミ・ヒメノ).

My-HiME
Fumi is a maid serving Mashiro Kazahana, the Director of Fuka Academy. Since Mashiro needs a wheelchair, she is almost always accompanied by Fumi, who propels the wheelchair.

Fumi makes her first appearance, unnamed, in episode 2, when Mai Tokiha runs into her and Mashiro in the flower garden, looking for Mikoto Minagi. Fumi, having apparently mistaken Mikoto for a cat when she ran past them, points Mai in the direction Mikoto went. After Mai leaves, Fumi and Mashiro discuss her being the latest HiME with Nagi Homura, who has been eavesdropping. Fumi formally introduces Mashiro to Mai in the next episode.

Throughout the series, she is normally always seen at Mashiro's side, pushing forward her wheelchair or preparing tea for her and her guests. One notable appearance of Fumi without Mashiro is in episode 10, when she is invited by Midori Sugiura to help students in the cooking re-examination. Fumi is teamed with Mai, Shiho Munakata and Miyu Greer to prepare a cake. During the contest, she demonstrates her agility and skills as a maid by, first, catching an airborne teapot and capturing all of the spilled tea back into it, and then stopping Mikoto running on rampage by hitting her forehead with a spoon, knocking her unconscious.

In episode 18, Fumi reveals herself as a HiME when Midori, annoyed at Mashiro's unwillingness to provide satisfactory answers about her past and the HiME's fate, threatens the Director. The battle between Fumi and Midori is not shown, but Midori is shown defeated afterwards.

In episode 21, she follows Mashiro to confront the Obsidian Lord. It is revealed that the "Mashiro" in the wheelchair is Fumi's Child, Suishou, through which the real Mashiro (encased in a crystal star) speaks. The Child is killed by Mikoto, and Fumi spends the rest of the series at Mikoto and the Obsidian Lord (using the body of Reito Kanzaki)'s side in a zombie-like state.

When Mashiro resurrects the fallen HiME and their most important persons, Fumi returns to normal. After the Obsidian Lord is defeated, she parts ways with Nagi and Mashiro, who leave through a gate at the far end of the library to "go back where they belong". Just before leaving, Nagi hands Fumi his book, which is seen to have the words "Fuka Academy" and the academy logo on its cover, and later, during the graduation ceremony, Fumi addresses the students as the new Director.

Element and Child
Fumi's Element takes the form of a large scythe, and her Child in the anime is actually Mashiro, called Suishouhime (meaning Crystal Princess) in her Child form.

My-Otome
Fumi is not initially seen or mentioned in the My-Otome anime. However, in episode 3, during Shizuru Viola's materialization sequence, her initials are briefly seen on Shizuru's GEM ("S. V. connected F. H."), implying that Shizuru is contracted to her.

In episode 7, when Arika Yumemiya and Princess Mashiro Blan de Windbloom are stranded in the depths of Fuka Castle, they stumble upon a statue of Fumi in her My-HiME maid outfit. Mashiro explains to Arika that Fumi, called the Predecessor in Garderobe, was the first Otome, who ended the War of the Twelve Kings and founded Garderobe 300 years ago. Her GEM was the Pure White Diamond (真白なる金剛石), after which Mashiro herself was named.

In later episodes, it is revealed that Fumi's body is preserved in Garderobe and is the source and Master to all Coral and Pearl GEMs: to produce and support them, a dead Otome who gave birth to a child is needed. In addition, five designated Meister Otome, known as the Five Columns, are contracted to the Predecessor Fumi to protect Garderobe. At the start of My-Otome, these are Sara Gallagher (Column #1), Natsuki Kruger (#2), Shizuru Viola (#3), and Mahya Blythe (#5), while the position of the Fourth Column is at that point vacant. Juliet Nao Zhang is chosen as the Fourth Column in episode 16, shortly before the Schwarz attack on Garderobe.

In episode 17, after Fuka Castle is taken over by Schwarz, the Otome present there retreat to Garderobe. While Natsuki, Shizuru and the students are defending the academy, a blast from Schwarz's castle-mounted cannon damages the Predecessor's connection to her contracted Otome, reversing their materializations, rendering them powerless and forcing Natsuki and Nao to flee. Only Meister Otome contracted to Masters other than Fumi retain their powers.

In episode 25, the Otome, having retaken the academy, briefly restore the Predecessor support system, allowing Natsuki to fire one blast at the castle. Schwarz's counter-blast, however, damages the connection again. In addition, Fumi's system suffers heavy disruption from Schwarz's own Predecessor, Lena Sayers, until the latter is destroyed by Arika Yumemiya, Lena's daughter. The Otome's powers are not restored until the next episode, when Miyu overrides the contracts system with the Administar, temporarily freeing the Otome from the bonds of their contracts.

My-Otome manga
In the My-Otome manga, two versions of Fumi exist. The first is Fumi the Predecessor of Garderobe; the only difference between her and her anime counterpart is that Fumi is able to communicate with the students and staff through various statues and robots of her image scattered throughout the grounds (an enormous, unmoving statue of her holding a scythe can be prominently seen mounted above her own burial site until her ultimate death). The second is Fumi Himeno, the HiME reincarnated by Mashiro blan de Windbloom's magic. She carries a scythe, and is loyal to Mashiro, whom she serves as a maid; however, it is eventually revealed that her true master is Sergay, who orders her to kill Mashiro (she proforms this duty without a second thought).

One interesting note on HiME Fumi's presence is her ability to control the Predecessor Fumi; she is instructed by Mashiro to 'absorb her' (Mashiro refers to the Predecessor as Fumi's 'fragment'". This results in Otome Fumi's teleportation from the Predecessor core to the manga's Ultimate Black Diamond,implying that while there is a direct link between the HiME and their My-Otome counterparts, they do not necessarily share the entirety of a soul.

After the death of princess Mashiro, Sergey summons the Predecessor Fumi from within the diamond, and commands her to fight Manshiro, Nina and Arika. With the addition of Erstin to the fight, this ends in defeat for Fumi. Afterwards, Mashiro sees Fumi and Lena, the former and new Predecessors, together in a vision.

My-Otome Zwei
In the first episode of My-Otome Zwei, an unknown entity that petrifies its victims attacks Garderobe and brings the Predecessor system offline once again. However, having apparently learned the lessons of My-Otome, the Otome now have a backup "Surrogate System", which can temporarily power them in case of the Predecessor's failure.

In the second episode, a winged black Fumi-like figure attacks Windbloom City. As the unknown entity has been shown to be able to replicate the shapes of its victims, it presumably petrified Fumi while inside Garderobe back in episode 1. In the third episode, the figure attacks Nina and Nao and is identified as the Pure White Diamond before petrifying Nao. The figure is also seen summoning a sword that greatly resembles Kagutsuchi's sealing sword from My-HiME in front of an egg-like enclosure that appears to contain a creature. The figure petrified Miyu, Shizuru, Miss Maria, Haruka and Nao.

In the fourth episode the entity, now known to be named Yuma, takes the form of Fumi herself in giant form and does battle with Arika and Nina. After the Garderobe staff disrupt the connection between Fumi's body and the entity Yuna takes Mashiro into itself (taking the form of Mashiro's CHILD form, Suisho, from My-HiME in the process) until Arika and Nina's combined attack destroys it. The petrification victims are also restored after this. On an interesting note, the Robe that Fumi (Yuna) wears is similar to Nina's Ultimate Black Diamond Robe, confirming the fact that Nina's GEM is related to Fumi's GEM.

My-Otome 0~Sifr~
In the first episode of My-Otome 0~S.ifr~, a prequel to the TV series, Fumi appears briefly in a flashback showing the time of the War of the Twelve Kings. She is contracted to a young woman resembling Mashiro, and her Robe looks completely identical to the one used by Yuna when it assumed Fumi's form in My-Otome Zwei.

Name origins
Fumi's given name in My-HiME, written 二三 in kanji, literally means "two-three"; the kanji used are Chinese numerals. It can refer to her birthday, which she shares with Mashiro (February 3, or the third day of the second month). The first kanji in her family name hime (姫) means "princess", and the acronym "HiME" is an often-referred-to pun on it. Thus, "Himeno Fumi" can be read as "HiME no Fumi", or "Fumi of the HiME", possibly referring to her status as Mashiro's guardian.

In My-Otome, Fumi's GEM, the Pure White Diamond (真白なる金剛石) is a reference to Mashiro Kazahana; the first two kanji (真白) are the same ones used in Mashiro's given name in My-HiME, further reaffirming the link between Mashiro and Fumi.