Post by Mana Murakami on Apr 12, 2016 5:01:44 GMT
 | MANA MURAKAMI aka "empress"
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PERSONALITY
Mana has nothing short of a genius-level intellect. Identified as a child prodigy from a young age, despite all the pressure that came with the additional expectations, Mana has faced nearly everything with a calm and cool head, rationally thinking things through. Even in the most dire of situations—she radiates an aura of confidence in her abilities, never giving, playing to the very last card.
However, having stood at the top for nearly her entire life has left Mana isolated from her peers, making her rather socially awkward. At first glance, Mana seems like a cold and distant person, someone that is meant to be admired from afar. In truth, Mana is simply a lonely girl who wishes for friends.
Mana truly does have a kind heart, though it is often lost in her merciless dueling—never holding back her strength. However, she only does so out of respect for her opponent, never taunting or trash talking them, and believing that if she holds back she would be disrespecting her opponents. Thus she gives it her all in every duel. Sadly, this is part of what makes her unapproachable, establishing her appearance as an Ice Queen, and made her an introvert.
Outside of duels, she doesn't really have any friends to show her kind heart to. Though if she did, she would likely be rather attached, if a bit clingy, to them, considering she never really had a real friend in her entire life (family doesn't count).
Other than dueling, Mana interests lie largely in her academics, namely math and science. While she wouldn't mind becoming a professional duelist, she realizes that it would be a good idea to have additional skills and plans on being a capable physicist, computer scientist, and mechanical engineer, knowing that she would be able to acquire a job in her family's company. She often performs maintenance and repair on her own duel disk rather than have others do it for her.
Being a self-proclaimed geek (in additional to basically also being a nerd), Mana's hobbies include the usual anime, manga, and video games. She is also a bit of a movie buff, with a emphasized love for the science fiction genre.
Mana has also expressed an interest in one day acquiring a motorcycle. Early in her childhood, she often idolized her extroverted older sister, of whom owned a motorcycle, seeing it as a symbol of freedom. Obviously as she is still too young, this won't happen for quite some time.
Speaking of family, Mana felt the closest to her older sister, whom she idolized. Her mother and father doted on her, leaving her uncomfortable or embarassed at times, but she loves them nonetheless. She respects her older brother, but out of her immediate family, he's the one whom she feels the least connected to. However, she did maintain a rather competitive relationship with him, with the two often trying to outdo eachother, and it didn't mean they weren't close—just not as close.
However, having stood at the top for nearly her entire life has left Mana isolated from her peers, making her rather socially awkward. At first glance, Mana seems like a cold and distant person, someone that is meant to be admired from afar. In truth, Mana is simply a lonely girl who wishes for friends.
Mana truly does have a kind heart, though it is often lost in her merciless dueling—never holding back her strength. However, she only does so out of respect for her opponent, never taunting or trash talking them, and believing that if she holds back she would be disrespecting her opponents. Thus she gives it her all in every duel. Sadly, this is part of what makes her unapproachable, establishing her appearance as an Ice Queen, and made her an introvert.
Outside of duels, she doesn't really have any friends to show her kind heart to. Though if she did, she would likely be rather attached, if a bit clingy, to them, considering she never really had a real friend in her entire life (family doesn't count).
Other than dueling, Mana interests lie largely in her academics, namely math and science. While she wouldn't mind becoming a professional duelist, she realizes that it would be a good idea to have additional skills and plans on being a capable physicist, computer scientist, and mechanical engineer, knowing that she would be able to acquire a job in her family's company. She often performs maintenance and repair on her own duel disk rather than have others do it for her.
Being a self-proclaimed geek (in additional to basically also being a nerd), Mana's hobbies include the usual anime, manga, and video games. She is also a bit of a movie buff, with a emphasized love for the science fiction genre.
Mana has also expressed an interest in one day acquiring a motorcycle. Early in her childhood, she often idolized her extroverted older sister, of whom owned a motorcycle, seeing it as a symbol of freedom. Obviously as she is still too young, this won't happen for quite some time.
Speaking of family, Mana felt the closest to her older sister, whom she idolized. Her mother and father doted on her, leaving her uncomfortable or embarassed at times, but she loves them nonetheless. She respects her older brother, but out of her immediate family, he's the one whom she feels the least connected to. However, she did maintain a rather competitive relationship with him, with the two often trying to outdo eachother, and it didn't mean they weren't close—just not as close.
HISTORY
The youngest daughter of three children, Mana was born into a wealthy family of the highest class. Her mother was the CEO of a leading developer of electronic hardware while her father was one of the company's top engineers. The company itself had been owned by Mana's maternal family since its conception, and in the present, her older brother, the eldest of the three, is climbing the corporate ranks. Her sister, whom Mana was rather close to, was sort of the family rebel, having a sense of wanderlust,l and had left shortly before Mana enrolled at Duel Academy. While she does write letters to keep in touch, they were few in between and were always from a different country for some odd reason.
Her mother and father were childhood friends but had grown distant after high school. At the time, Mana's grandfather was the CEO of the company, while Mana's mother held the position of president at the young age of twenty-two. Mana's father on the other hand had recently left his previous job after a disagreement with the higher ups and was in need of a new job. By chance, Mana's mother and father meet again and her mother used her position to secure papa a job.
Using your position to get your childhood friend a job isn't always the best of ideas, but Mana's father was more or less a genius, his main flaw being his inability to get along with corporate big wigs. This time, however, they knew him since childhood, essentially at the point of them being a second family to him. This allowed him to quickly make many significant contributions to the company and quickly climb up the ranks.
As Mana's grandfather approached retirement, her mother was acquiring a rather large amount of influence due to her recruitment of Mana's father. His successes quickly added to hers, and it was no surprise to others when she became the CEO after her father. Shortly afterwards, Mana's mother and father began dating. A couple years later, they got married, and shortly afterwards came Mana's brother; two years later, Mana's sister was born; finally, eight years later (honestly, with no lack of trying), Mana was born.
Despite being, by far, the youngest of the trio of siblings, with many—including her rather protective family—offering to pamper and spoil her, Mana tried her best to be independent, wanting her own achievements to be of her own design rather than something obtained from her family's status. Of course that didn't stop her family from trying to spoil her; in fact, whenever they did, she would often accept it only to realize that they were pampering her moments later, going into an adorable rage of fury. Of course, even if she was pampered, that isn't to say Mana wasn't capable herself—in fact, her family would often agree that Mana was the brightest one in the group.
Identified as a child prodigy at an early age, Mana was simply put a genius among geniuses, even by the standards of her already talented family members, all of them having been considered prodigious in their respective specialties. She showed considerable talent in her academic pursuits, especially excelling in the areas of math and science. However, as the Japanese school system did not allow students to skip grades, Mana, despite and probably due to having self-taught herself—with the assistance of her family of course—material well beyond her age, was often left bored and un-engaged in her schoolwork, though she would make sure to achieve perfect scores. Because of this, she often had to pursue other interests to keep herself entertained.
Mana was only three years of age when she first saw her brother and sister play duel monsters amongst one another. She would often watch, effectively learning the rules of the game from examining her siblings' duels. At the age of four, Mana was given her first deck and in her first two duels, to the surprise and shock of her entire family, defeated her sister while nearly defeating her brother, forcing him to pull every stop—showing prodigious talent in dueling. It would only take a few months before Mana was suddenly the strongest duelist of the trio, a fact that wounded her siblings' pride a bit. Given the fact that her schoolwork was laughably easy for her, Mana had plenty of time to polish her dueling.
However, being a genius isn't all that it is made out to be; because of her talents, Mana was often isolated by her peers. Even with the ever popular Duel Monsters, Mana could not find anyone around her age to play with. She had built a reputation of someone who would completely and utterly defeat you with no mercy whatsoever, leaving her with few if any willing opponents. Even when she went to local store tournaments with her siblings, she would only be able play a couple games, with most of her opponents immediately forfeiting and taking splits at the top cut offs rather than dueling her. The only opponents she could readily find were computer AI's, often set to ever increasing difficulty—sometimes even allowing the AI to cheat just to challenge herself.
During her middle school years, Mana, at her own request, enrolled into a prestigious dueling prep school. From the countless duels she had with various AI's—each using different decks and set to the highest available difficulty—Mana had greatly polished her dueling skills, thus quickly establishing herself as the top duelist at the school. She found herself at the throne of popularity, often known as her nickname the "Empress." However, as always, the popularity did the opposite of what she wanted; rather than making friends, she only made fans—fans that were afraid to approach her. She found herself growing more and more distant to those around her, including her own family as her constant isolation from her peers took its toll, especially after her sister left home to pursue her own goals. Aside from the examination duels, Mana found herself continuing her win streak against the AI dueling computers. She also gained the status of the girl you would totally want to date but would likely get killed by every other guy in the school if you tried.
As she graduated from middle school and the dueling prep school, both at the top of her class, Mana took the decision to enroll into Duel Academy. After easily passing the written examination, acquiring the top score, Mana's examination duel was nothing short of stunning.
Giving her opponent the advantage of the first turn, Mana watched as they summoned a full field of monsters on their first turn. While to most people, this would be a difficult obstacle to overcome, to Mana, it worked in her favor. Using four different summoning methods: Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Pendulum, Mana summoned Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon, using its effect to wipe their field and deal damage for every monster destroyed, turning her opponent's field advantage into a fatal flaw, before finishing them off with Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon's successive attacks. Needless to say, she left the stadium in awe and secured her place as a first year Obelisk Blue student. As she left, only one thought went through in Mana's head, "Why did I show off during the examination duel!? Now no one is going to want to be my friend!"
As orientation date approached, Mana received a letter from her sister, congratulating Mana on her acceptance into Duel Academy and a package with an additional note saying, "May the Blue Dragon bring you victory." Mana couldn't believe her eyes when she opened the package to find a Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck core. While hesitant to suddenly change to a new deck, Mana knew the rarity of the cards she was just given and she was having trouble adjusting her deck to meet the new Forbidden and Limited List. Even after Blue-Eyes White Dragon's reprint, it was still a rare card nonetheless, not to mention the various "evolved" counterparts. Furthermore, it was a gift from her sister. Building herself a brand new deck, Mana immediately tested it against an AI opponent. Due to her inexperience with the deck, Mana found herself lacking the fine control and precision she is used to, but immediately saw that power the deck held. Determined to master her new deck, Mana set off for Duel Academy.
Her mother and father were childhood friends but had grown distant after high school. At the time, Mana's grandfather was the CEO of the company, while Mana's mother held the position of president at the young age of twenty-two. Mana's father on the other hand had recently left his previous job after a disagreement with the higher ups and was in need of a new job. By chance, Mana's mother and father meet again and her mother used her position to secure papa a job.
Using your position to get your childhood friend a job isn't always the best of ideas, but Mana's father was more or less a genius, his main flaw being his inability to get along with corporate big wigs. This time, however, they knew him since childhood, essentially at the point of them being a second family to him. This allowed him to quickly make many significant contributions to the company and quickly climb up the ranks.
As Mana's grandfather approached retirement, her mother was acquiring a rather large amount of influence due to her recruitment of Mana's father. His successes quickly added to hers, and it was no surprise to others when she became the CEO after her father. Shortly afterwards, Mana's mother and father began dating. A couple years later, they got married, and shortly afterwards came Mana's brother; two years later, Mana's sister was born; finally, eight years later (honestly, with no lack of trying), Mana was born.
Despite being, by far, the youngest of the trio of siblings, with many—including her rather protective family—offering to pamper and spoil her, Mana tried her best to be independent, wanting her own achievements to be of her own design rather than something obtained from her family's status. Of course that didn't stop her family from trying to spoil her; in fact, whenever they did, she would often accept it only to realize that they were pampering her moments later, going into an adorable rage of fury. Of course, even if she was pampered, that isn't to say Mana wasn't capable herself—in fact, her family would often agree that Mana was the brightest one in the group.
Identified as a child prodigy at an early age, Mana was simply put a genius among geniuses, even by the standards of her already talented family members, all of them having been considered prodigious in their respective specialties. She showed considerable talent in her academic pursuits, especially excelling in the areas of math and science. However, as the Japanese school system did not allow students to skip grades, Mana, despite and probably due to having self-taught herself—with the assistance of her family of course—material well beyond her age, was often left bored and un-engaged in her schoolwork, though she would make sure to achieve perfect scores. Because of this, she often had to pursue other interests to keep herself entertained.
Mana was only three years of age when she first saw her brother and sister play duel monsters amongst one another. She would often watch, effectively learning the rules of the game from examining her siblings' duels. At the age of four, Mana was given her first deck and in her first two duels, to the surprise and shock of her entire family, defeated her sister while nearly defeating her brother, forcing him to pull every stop—showing prodigious talent in dueling. It would only take a few months before Mana was suddenly the strongest duelist of the trio, a fact that wounded her siblings' pride a bit. Given the fact that her schoolwork was laughably easy for her, Mana had plenty of time to polish her dueling.
However, being a genius isn't all that it is made out to be; because of her talents, Mana was often isolated by her peers. Even with the ever popular Duel Monsters, Mana could not find anyone around her age to play with. She had built a reputation of someone who would completely and utterly defeat you with no mercy whatsoever, leaving her with few if any willing opponents. Even when she went to local store tournaments with her siblings, she would only be able play a couple games, with most of her opponents immediately forfeiting and taking splits at the top cut offs rather than dueling her. The only opponents she could readily find were computer AI's, often set to ever increasing difficulty—sometimes even allowing the AI to cheat just to challenge herself.
During her middle school years, Mana, at her own request, enrolled into a prestigious dueling prep school. From the countless duels she had with various AI's—each using different decks and set to the highest available difficulty—Mana had greatly polished her dueling skills, thus quickly establishing herself as the top duelist at the school. She found herself at the throne of popularity, often known as her nickname the "Empress." However, as always, the popularity did the opposite of what she wanted; rather than making friends, she only made fans—fans that were afraid to approach her. She found herself growing more and more distant to those around her, including her own family as her constant isolation from her peers took its toll, especially after her sister left home to pursue her own goals. Aside from the examination duels, Mana found herself continuing her win streak against the AI dueling computers. She also gained the status of the girl you would totally want to date but would likely get killed by every other guy in the school if you tried.
As she graduated from middle school and the dueling prep school, both at the top of her class, Mana took the decision to enroll into Duel Academy. After easily passing the written examination, acquiring the top score, Mana's examination duel was nothing short of stunning.
Giving her opponent the advantage of the first turn, Mana watched as they summoned a full field of monsters on their first turn. While to most people, this would be a difficult obstacle to overcome, to Mana, it worked in her favor. Using four different summoning methods: Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Pendulum, Mana summoned Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon, using its effect to wipe their field and deal damage for every monster destroyed, turning her opponent's field advantage into a fatal flaw, before finishing them off with Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon's successive attacks. Needless to say, she left the stadium in awe and secured her place as a first year Obelisk Blue student. As she left, only one thought went through in Mana's head, "Why did I show off during the examination duel!? Now no one is going to want to be my friend!"
As orientation date approached, Mana received a letter from her sister, congratulating Mana on her acceptance into Duel Academy and a package with an additional note saying, "May the Blue Dragon bring you victory." Mana couldn't believe her eyes when she opened the package to find a Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck core. While hesitant to suddenly change to a new deck, Mana knew the rarity of the cards she was just given and she was having trouble adjusting her deck to meet the new Forbidden and Limited List. Even after Blue-Eyes White Dragon's reprint, it was still a rare card nonetheless, not to mention the various "evolved" counterparts. Furthermore, it was a gift from her sister. Building herself a brand new deck, Mana immediately tested it against an AI opponent. Due to her inexperience with the deck, Mana found herself lacking the fine control and precision she is used to, but immediately saw that power the deck held. Determined to master her new deck, Mana set off for Duel Academy.
Extra
Mana stands at 152 cm, roughly 5', with a petite figure. Her blue hair reaches down to her waist and is usually not in any particular style. In addition, her female features are rather well developed for her age gives her a more mature appearance for someone her age, despite her short stature.
Voice Actor Claim: Saori Hayami
Note: Mana's apperance is based on Mary's Light Novel appearance rather than her anime appearance. Mary's hair style (and clothes) are quite different between the two sources.
Voice Actor Claim: Saori Hayami
Note: Mana's apperance is based on Mary's Light Novel appearance rather than her anime appearance. Mary's hair style (and clothes) are quite different between the two sources.
WRITTEN BY luna
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar; Mary as Mana Murakami
