Nao Yuuki

Nao Yuuki (結城奈緒) is a character in the anime and manga series My-HiME, as well as in the related My-Otome series, where her name has been changed to Juliet Nao Zhang (ジュリエット・ナオ・チャン). In both the My-HiME and My-Otome anime, she is voiced by Yuuka Nanri, who is best known as the vocalist of the group FictionJunction Yuuka.

Common characteristics
Nao is a morally ambivalent red haired young woman with something of a cruel streak; in particular she enjoys tormenting Natsuki. She is also frequently associated with spiders and uses razor-sharp wires as her weapon of choice.

The director of My-HiME, Masakazu Ohara, has said the following on Nao: "Nao’s an interesting study. She isn’t necessarily friendly, but that doesn’t make her a bad person. The theme surrounding her is that of someone living for herself, and it makes for a good plot device."

Anime
In My-HiME, Nao is a middle school student at Fuka Academy and the roommate of Mai Tokiha's friend Aoi. Although she first appears in the second episode, when a rampaging Mikoto Minagi knocks her down, she is not formally introduced until the seventh, as Mikoto's classmate. At first, she appears to be a child prostitute as she approaches a man who had arranged to meet her over the Internet (where she uses the nickname "Juliet") and they go to a secluded spot. However, before things go any further, she traps the man with the aid of her "Child" familiar and robs him.

She is discovered by Mikoto and they briefly scuffle. Learning of Mikoto's desire to be independent of Mai, her older roommate, and find her brother, she brings the other girl into her morally ambivalent activities. They in turn are caught by Mai and another HiME, Natsuki Kuga, who set free their victim and get into an argument with them. The impending fight is broken up by a drunk Midori Sugiura and Nagi Homura. Nao leaves the area, but not before dropping a set of girders on the others as a parting shot.

After the incident, she forms a rivalry with Natsuki and does not hesitate to tease the older girl. Nao dislikes the idea of joining Midori's "HiME Sentai (Rangers)", but reluctantly agrees in order to combat the Searrs Foundation's invasion. When Nagi informs the HiMEs that they must fight each other's Childs, she leaves the HiME Sentai and declares that she will uphold her own interests first.

Yukariko's deception of the HiMEs into believing that Nao injured her and the subsequent battle against her is the event that precipitates the Ikusahime Carnival proper. After being blinded in the left eye in episode 18, she swears not to forgive any of the other HiMEs and escapes. In episode 19, she sneaks into the hospital where Mai's brother Takumi is warded and attempts to harm him, explaining that she hates Mai, his sister, because the two of them share similarly tragic circumstances, but Mai is liked whereas she is not. Nao's effort does not succeed as Takumi's roommate Akira Okuzaki - who is also a HiME - rescues him and flees into the forest. In Episode 21, Nao injures and captures Natsuki by crashing her motorcycle and holds her hostage, but she is thwarted by Shizuru Fujino, who cuts the cliff side out from under Nao. The redhead survives the fall, however, and captures Natsuki again when the other girl returns to her old apartment after some time under Shizuru's care. Shizuru once again comes to Natsuki's rescue and destroys Nao's Child, Julia, with her own Child, Kiyohime. But before Shizuru can kill Nao, Natsuki defends her tormentor, realizing their similar circumstances and feeling sympathy for the middle schooler's lack of companions while growing up. Her most important person is revealed to be her mother, who is shown lying bandaged on a hospital bed after suffering a robbery that effectively orphaned Nao at a young age and gave rise to her hatred of men.

In episode 26, her myriad of date-robbery victims band together to seek revenge against her, but Mashiro restores her powers (and left eye) and she narrowly escapes an ugly fate. She joins with the rest of the re-empowered HiME to destroy the HiME Star, enabling Mai and Kagutsuchi to destroy the Obsidian Lord. After the conclusion of the Festival she becomes a nun at the Fuuka Academy church along with Miyu Greer, an occupation which fans jokingly suspect will not last long.

Manga
In the manga, Nao's role as an antagonist is much more defined, and her original Key was the leader of the gang who tried to rape Shiho and inflicted an injury on Yuuichi Tate. Her first major act in the manga is an attempted seduction of Tate for blackmail purposes. Julia also appears to be much stronger, as her webs are nearly indestructible and managed to immobilize Mai and Kagutsuchi until Yuuichi freed them. Her character is used to demonstrate the effect a Child's death has on the Key, though Nao shows more concern over Julia. After her Child is defeated by Miyu, it is revealed that a Child can be reborn when Nao forcefully obtains Takeda as her new Key. At the end, she fights Yang Guifei alongside Mikoto and Akira to save the world.

Element and Child
Nao Yuuki's Elements are twin metal claws with red nails. Thin red strings extend from them that can be used to ensnare enemies or cut through objects. She has a habit of licking the claws. In the manga, the nails have been shown to grow longer to fit the situation.

Her Child is Julia, a green and yellow half-human female spider with a scorpion tail. She is capable of firing sticky webbing.

Anime
In My-Otome, Juliet Nao Zhang is one of the Pearl Otome at Garderobe and originates from the nation of Artai, being of the same nationality as Nina Wáng, who is assigned to be her room attendant. Arika Yumemiya is later assigned as her room attendant as well. She dislikes her Western-sounding name and prefers to be addressed by her middle name. She has an intense dislike for fellow Pearl Shiho Huit and enjoys seeing her in awkward situations.

Unlike her callous and unfeeling Hime counterpart, Nao's personality is more mischievous than ruthless. She can be quite civil and sensuously charming, and is shown to be a caring big sister towards younger Otome, giving them assistance and guidance concerning adult life, one way or another, as she sees fit; though the appropriateness of Nao's lessons leaves a lot to be desired, as shown when Arika considers it appropriate to massage soap over Erstin with her own naked body in the school baths thanks to her "lessons."

Although she is a good student, Nao deliberately held back in order to avoid getting into the Trias, as she prefers to spend time in the city, where she is known as Juliet. She has a gang known as the Stripes, in which she is the only female and is amusingly made of the men her My-HiME anime counterpart victimized, the "uniform" including a shirt striped in pink and white.

Exactly what she and the Stripes do on the street has never been divulged fully, but it appears to be for the cause of good. This is evident when Nao seeks out and punishes a person who sold off Arika's uniform. Later, when Miya Clochette's gang attempts to rape Arika, Nao and company arrive to save her and later torture them.

Her goal in life was to find a rich man and live comfortably. Unfortunately, that path is closed off to her when Nao is chosen to become the 4th Column, one of a special group of Meister Otome who work directly for Garderobe and the Founder, Fumi Himeno. Unlike Nina, Nao does not side with Nagi and instead works with the other Columns to free Garderobe from Nagi's invasion.

In the end, Nao's gang teams up with Natsuki and assists in bringing Fumi back online, enabling the Otome to Materialise again. In the last episode she is seen seated with the other Columns in a dress that resembles a qipao with a spider ornament on the front of it.

On a lighter note, her rivalry with and love of teasing Natsuki seems to carried over from the previous series, though it is significantly less antagonistic than in My-HiME. In one of the Drama CDs, Nao pretends to have feelings for Natsuki, in order to trick her into confessing to having a romantic relationship with Shizuru Viola, as part of a bet with Yukino Crysant.

OVA
Nao makes two appearances in the first episode of the new My-Otome Zwei OVA, one at the beginning and another right before the credits roll, though she has no lines. She appears to be traveling in Artai, with members of her gang and one of Mikoto's cats, Jyuubei.

In the second episode, she appears briefly when she is visited by Nina. She and the Stripes have set up a base in what appears to be a bar, though Nao comments that she is bored by the lack of activity she has seen lately. She also expresses the sentiment that Artai is a boring country, and that she apparently went to Garderobe to get away from it.

In the third episode she travels with Nina to an abandoned library in search of a book concerning the entity that has been petrifying Otome, and after making their way through the trap filled library find a cocoon-like chamber. Nao engages in battle with the entity using her wires, though she is eventually petrified, but not before hooking a wire onto the entity's weapon that pulls the building down and allows Nina to escape. Note that when Nao materializes her Robe, she licks her hand which is a similar habit her My-HiME character possessed.

Nao is restored to normal in the final episode, following the defeat of Yuna.

Manga
In the My-Otome manga, Nao shares with her HiME counterpart's a tendency for truancy. It is not stated where she comes from. She is myopic and requires either contact lenses or a large pair of spectacles to see. The Stripes gang is also nonexistent in the manga.

When she first appears in the manga, it is together with the other members of the Trias from the anime. She is already a member, unlike in the anime where she was inducted after Akane ran away with Kazu. However, she is only formally introduced in Chapter 7. Before that happens, though, earlier in the chapter she accidentally enters Manshiro's bathroom and thinks him to be the member of Schwarz that had infiltrated Garderobe. However, Manshiro beat her off. Inadvertently, she sees Manshiro's penis and proceeds to tempt him with an offer of sexual intercourse. Just as they were about to copulate, however, she kicks him away and ties him up with her trademark wires.

Nao is subsequently not seen for a large part of the manga, but after Lena Sayers is sent to Garderobe for medical treatment, the latter falls under her care. Lena had instructed Nao to place her in the Predecessor Core if any serious harm were to come to her, something that was carried out in Chapter 37. In Chapter 39 she saves Manshiro from a combined attack by Kuga and Yuuki, the latter of which she proceeds to battle.

The HiME version of Nao is resurrected by Mashiro along with the other HiME with much of the same personality. The main departure for this version of Nao is that she thinks of the HiME Natsuki as an older-sister figure, as opposed to the all-out-feud that was present in My-HiME.

GEM
Juliet Nao Zhang retains the ability to form claws with her fingernails, an ability implied to be connected to her being an Otome. In her Pearl Robe, she is capable of splitting the standard Otome staff into her distinctive wires.

Chosen late in the My-Otome anime to become the Fourth Column (who might have originally been Mai Tokiha), who answers only to Fumi, Nao is given the Break String Spinel (破絃の尖晶石 Hagen no Senshōseki) as her GEM. Her special attack is called 'Bloody Stripe Circus', a reference to the Stripes Gang. Using Bloody Stripe Circus, she can stabilize her webs and use them as claws. With just one X-mark of this, the attacked will explode. The PS2 game shows a slightly different version of this attack called 'Bloody Stripe Suck': the created webs immobilize the opponent and explode with it.

Nao's robe is no different from Shizuru and Natsuki's robes in the sense that all three are counterparts to their Childs from My-HiME. Nao's reflects Julia's design, giving her a green and yellow Spider-Woman-like costume, except that her main weapon is a large claw on her right hand. When her GEM is not activated, her uniform also has an image of a spider at about waist level.

The manga version retains the Julia-like Robe of the anime, although how she came about it is not divulged exactly as the concept of Columns is anime-exclusive. It seems to be a privilege of being a Trias member as both Akane and Shiho have their Meister Robes from the anime, but the fact that Chie Hallard still uses the standard Pearl Robe argues against this. Given that the manga has been completed without resolving the matter, this may forever be one of the manga's mysteries.

The revived Nao Yuuki bears powers identical to her incarnation originally present in the My-HiME manga, but she also performs a team attack alongside Natsuki Kuga, something which her original incarnation would never have done.

Name Origins

 * Nao's given name in My-HiME can be read as "Enduring thread", while the kanji of her surname can be read as "town or castle" and "to be joined" respectively.
 * The names "Julia" and "Juliet" are a recurring theme in Nao's character, both in her Child's name, her given name in My-Otome, and as a DVD special in My-HiME reveals, her screenname.