Shiho Munakata

Shiho Munakata (宗像詩帆) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series My-HiME, and also appears in the alternate universe sequel My-Otome, where she is known as Shiho Huit. She is voiced by Sakura Nogawa in both series and by Leda Davies in the English dub.

Common Characteristics
Shiho's distinguishing feature is her four pink twin tails and her tendency to become jealous easily. She is also very mentally unstable, and this is utilized in different ways in respective series.

My-HiME Anime
Shiho Munakata is a childhood friend of Yuuichi Tate, whom she affectionately calls her brother (onii-chan) despite the fact that they are not related. She is in the Fuka Middle school, and quickly makes friends with Mai Tokiha and Mikoto Minagi. She is a miko at her grandfather's shrine. She is very possessive of Yuuichi and is in love with him, and even expresses to Mai that she wishes to marry him. The fact that her hairstyle makes her look like an octopus is something of a running gag in the early episodes of the series, as well as her sporadic movement of her hair and its reaction to her moods.

In the latter half of the season Shiho becomes mentally unbalanced when she realizes that Mai and Tate are developing feelings for each other, despite Mai's earlier vow to cheer for Shiho in her pursuit of Tate. Feeling betrayed and injured when an Orphan attacks her, and because of his extreme guilt Tate stays by her side while she is in the hospital. While Mai is watching Shiho even asks Tate to kiss her in order to hurt the other girl.

At the same time a mysterious figure in a wedding kimono with a flute repeatedly tries to kill Mai, and this eventually comes to a head when Tate is late for his "date" with Shiho in the park due to his helping Mai escape from Yukariko Sanada's illusion, a fact Nagi Homura uses to his advantage to awaken Shiho's dormant HiME powers and summon her Element, a flute that can distort sound waves, and crow-like Child named Yatagarasu. The tension comes to a head when Shiho attacks Mai - a precarious situation since Tate's life force is linked to both Mai and Shiho's Childs, and he will die if either Child is killed. Tate, realizing this, asks Mai to kill Yatagarasu to end the situation, but while Mai is unwilling Mikoto's pendant takes over her body and she takes out the Child, stripping Shiho of her powers and killing Tate.

In the final episode Shiho's powers and sanity are restored and Tate is resurrected, and in the final episode Shiho is still claiming ownership over Tate and appears to have returned to normal. However it also appears that any ill feelings she may have had towards Mai are gone.

My-HiME manga
In the manga Shiho is still the childhood friend of Tate, who is now the protagonist. Tate was kicked out of his former school due to an incident where he tried to stop Shiho's sexual assault by several gang members, which resulted in a long scar on his arm (it is unclear what happened to Shiho after that). She appears later in the storyline as a PRINCESS, an artificially created HiME, to protect Tate and restart her life. She takes control of Mikoto Minagi for a time using her Child's abilities. She is eventually defeated by Mai after Shiho begins to lose her mental balance, due to the approaching influence of the HiME star. After she loses her PRINCESS powers, and is thus freed from the influence of the HiME star, she is seen attempting to help in the battle against the Obsidian Lord, though there is little she can do. In the end she is still clinging to Yuuichi, re-igniting Mai and Natsuki's rivalry over Yuuichi.

Since she is a PRINCESS in the manga, Shiho is without her animated incarnation's element and child. Instead, she has an octopus-like child which has a variety of powers, though its most prominent one is the ability to take control of an enemy through the use of spores, which themselves resemble octopuses.

Element and Child
Her Element, a flute, can manipulate sound waves. She also appears to be able to astrally project part of her soul as a means of attacking Mai in the anime. Her Child in the anime, called Yatagarasu, is a large crow-like creature able to fire its feathers in projectile attacks, as well as a destructive beam attack from its beak. Oddly, this version of the mythical creature has only one leg. In the final episode, her HiME birthmark is revealed to be on her head, which is different from the medical astrology that is normally followed with the birthmark locations; the body parts corresponding to Libra, her astrological sign, are the torso or buttocks.

My-Otome
In the My-Otome anime Shiho Huit is a Pearl Otome along with Chie and Akane, and her mental instability is used as comic relief, in particular her rivalry and attempts to sabotage the careers of those she sees as insulting of Cardair, her homeland. She has a great rivalry with Juliet Nao Zhang.

Shiho is best known for the voodoo-like practices she uses to curse others, a trait that earns her the nickname of "Uzumaki" (literally "spiral") and her chanting of "Maki Maki" (turn turn) which becomes a running gag, as well as the tendency for her sabotage attempts to backfire. After the invasion of Garderobe she takes Lilie Adean and Yayoi Alter into the woods in order to spin for her success, something that eventually allows Chie to break free of her command restraint and take a hit for Arika Yumemiya.

She eventually becomes the Otome for Florince in the place of Akane Soir, who elopes with Kazuya, and gains a Meister GEM known as the Spiral Spin Serpentine (螺旋の蛇紋石 Rasen no Jamonseki) that utilizes her spiraling abilities. Her Robe resembles her Child from the My-HiME anime and has a skull motif. Her element is a voodoo doll, similar to the one she had previously been using, that can literally cause an enemy to spin in a spiral. Shiho also once stated that she is a member of the royal family of Cardair Empire, which gives an impression that her family is supporting her studies in Garderobe. Also, in an omake, Shiho was shown to be 'talking' to her grandmother. Her grandmother advised her not to 'maki-maki' so much as 'the one who spirals too much is the one who will end up getting spiraled'. This also shows that her maki-maki device is a family heirloom.

She is seen briefly in the background of the first episode My-Otome Zwei in the first scene, where she is crouched in the corner and spiraling. In the third episode she is one of the Otome in the bath during the SOLT and reveals her dislike for Rosalie Claudel, the other Otome of Florince. When Shiho's top is stolen by a drunken Anh Lu it is also revealed that Shiho stuffs her bra. In the 4th episode, Shiho and Rosalie fight Yuna's Childs in Florince together and are seen rejoicing together on top of a giant version of Shiho's voodoo doll.

My-Otome manga
In the manga Shiho's role is reduced, and there are actually two of her. The first is Shiho Huit, who is still a Pearl. She initially covets the Blue Sky Sapphire and has Erstin Ho fight Arika for it. Shiho is without the "maki maki" device, but appears to be very fond of drills.

The second is Shiho Munakata, the resurrected HiME, who takes on her counterpart, amusingly claiming to be her identical twin separated at birth (though this is almost certainly false). After Shiho Munakata says this, Shiho Huit claims that she would never have a sister with weird hair like Shiho Munakata's. At this point, Arika, Manshiro and Nina shared a speech bubble which showed that they were speechless as both Shiho Huit's hair is weird as well.

Name Origins

 * Shiho's My-Otome surname, "Huit" is French for the number 8.
 * The name of Shiho's child from the My-HiME anime, Yatagarasu, references a symbol of the Shinto sun goddess, Amaterasu.