Natsuki Kuga
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Natsuki Kuga (玖我 なつき Kuga Natsuki) is a character in the Anime My-HiME and My Otome, as well as their manga spinoffs. In My-Otome, her name was changed to Natsuki Kruger.
Natsuki is voiced in both series by Chiba Saeko.
Natsuki In My-HiME
Seventeen years old, Natsuki Kuga appears in the opening of the My-Hime series as a strong-willed and forceful individual who rarely comes to class. Balancing between acts of villainy and simple dedication towards her personal mission, Natsuki at first behaves like a typical lone wolf; indifferent to other people's lives, as long as they remain unrelated to her interests. She has difficulties with expressing her feelings, as well as placing trust in anyone around her.
Natsuki's entire life revolves around the mystery concerning her mother's passing away in shady circumstances - A mystery, that also involves the existence of HiMEs, twelve girls with supernatural powers, and people of which Natsuki herself is a part of. Apparently her mother was working for a group known as the Searrs Foundation, that ran a research on the HiMEs. Finding out what this research is about, how it resulted in her mother's death, and taking vengeance against those responsible form the basis of Natsuki's existence, or so she thinks.
As the series goes on, Natsuki begins to open up, bit by bit, and reveals more sensitive sides of her personality. She realises she has caring friends around her and eventually relinquishes her vendetta and makes peace with herself.
Natsuki's Element consists of a pair of small pistols that can fire an apparently infinite number of ice bullets. Her Child is called Duran, and it resembles a wolf-like entity, which is named after a pet she once had. Duran has a pair of cannons on its back, and is capable of executing different kinds of cartridge attacks: Silver releases a burst of icicles, Chrome is likeness of regular explosive rounds, and Flash produces blinding light to stun all enemies.
At first, Natsuki has no Most Important Person, but in the end she accepts her friend Shizuru as one, being finally able to release her full power.
Natsuki In My-Otome
In the alternate universe version of the original story, Natsuki Kruger is the headmaster of the Garderobe Academy - a school which trains young girls to become honoured Otomes. Shizuru is now her assistant and a former upperclassman, and it is strongly implied that their friendship has been upgraded into an actual intimate relationship. Natsuki appears much more mature and contained than her My-HiME counterpart, probably due to her age. The responsibility of Garderobe and the future Otome makes Natsuki a strong leader who is able to exert an air of confidence, though she does show exhasperation to those close to her in private.
On a funnier note, her love/hate relationship with Nao remains intact, though it is signifigantly less antagonistic between them and is more on par with bickering siblings than the all-out feud present in My-HiME.
Natsuki is #2 of the Five Columns, the strongest Otomes in the world, and her GEM, of which the power of an Otome derives, is known as the Ice Silver Crystal (氷雪の銀水晶 Hyōsetsu no Ginsuishō). She is from the remote region of Count Kruger's territory (クルーガー伯辺境領). During her days as a student, she and Mai were rivals and roommates. She was also Shizuru's room attendant, and later Rosalie's (Florince's Otome) onee-sama.
Her Element is a massive energy cannon capable of executing an attack called Howling Silver Wolf.
Manga
My-HiME
In the My-HiME manga, certain traits of Natsuki's personality have been slightly amplified. She is more ruthless and cares even less of other people, although her relationship with Shizuru remains undeveloped. Her mother is still alive in the manga, and Alyssa Searrs is her sister. The manga also introduces her odd dining habits: she can't cook, and mayonnaise is the only "food" she eats.
My-Otome
In the My-Otome manga, two versions of Natsuki exist, as with every other HiME from the HiME manga.
The first is the "native" Kruger, who is this time the daughter of Aries' president, although Alyssa remains her sister. Although her Robe remains the same, she gets to use it later than in the anime (38/44 chapters into the manga VS 17/26 episodes into the anime) and a running gag was made of her being deprived of the opportunity to Materialise just as she was about to. She displays a more forceful personality than in the anime, taking it upon herself to scold Manshiro a few times for his misdeeds.
The second is Kuga revived from the dead. This Natsuki has a larger bust than any of her other incarnations (which the small size of the image provided belies). She mocks the looks of others while having a deadly hatred for those with larger chests than her own. She has a good relationship with the revived Yuuki, who sees her as an elder sister, rather than the vicious feuding between the two in HiME.
Miscellaneous
- In early episodes of My-HiME Natsuki is often the victim of severe bad luck that put her in extremely embarassing situations (such as the wind blowing her skirt up after he panties were stolen by an Orphan) usually in the prescence of Takeda, a schoolmate who seems to have an infatuation with her. In My-Otome and the corresponding manga series several references are made to Natsuki's extremely bad luck, often involving her losing a piece of clothing.
- Natsuki's character song is Flower by the Pond (Mitsube no Hana), performed by Chiba Saeko. Saeko also sings along with the two other lead voice actresses for an other insert song, Parade.