Mrs. Mizunokōji (, Mrs. Mizunokōji?) is the matriarch of the Mizunokōji family, being the wife of Mr. Mizunokōji and the mother of Tobimaro and Asuka.
Biography[]
Mrs. Mizunokōji is the previous heir to the Mizunokōji family, who have attained great wealth through their sporting goods empire. She married a man who took her family name, and eventually became mother to two children; a son named Tobimaro and a daughter named Asuka. When the possibility arose of an arranged marriage between her daughter Asuka and the wealthy heir Shūtarō Mendō, she gave the engagement her support and was eager to see if her daughter would find love as she had. She was greatly disappointed; her daughter developed intense androphobia after encountering Ataru Moroboshi, and this led to both the cancelling of the engagement and to Asuka developing a strong, incestuous infatuation with her brother Tobimaro.
She would make several attempts to cure her daughter of both afflictions over the course of her canonical appearances, but never managed to succeed.
Appearance[]
Mrs. Mizunokōji is a very classically beautiful woman with a distinct star-shape pupil, a trait passed on to both of her children. It is noted that her face seems to be perpetually locked in a polite, mildly amused, smiled, regardless of her actual emotional state at the moment, something that leads to her often needing to clarify how she's actually feeling.
When she is angry, her head is depicted as swelling to a massive size and ominiously staring down the cause of her anger, usually Asuka. This gag does appear with other characters, but it is particularly synonymous with Mrs. Mizunokōji.
Personality[]
Mrs. Mizunokōji appears to be a traditional "Yamato Nadeshiko", or classic Japanese beauty; gentle, demure, polite, and soft-spoken. Under that soft and frilly exterior lies a heart of steel; she is prone to fiery outbursts of temper when enraged, and can be very ruthless, even towards her own children. She values tradition greatly, having brought up her daughter in total isolation from men to ensure her purity. She is strong-willed, and clearly the dominant figure in the household, with both her children being terrified of her wrath. She doesn't admit defeat easily.
Her single greatest quirk is that, in the manga, she has a rather warped idea of what constitutes "handsomeness", to the point she dismisses Ryūnosuke Fujinami, widely regarded as the best looking boy (despite being a girl) at Tomobiki High School, as "not being much of a looker".
Abilities[]
Mrs. Mizunokōji underwent the exact same training and conditioning as her daughter Asuka, and is implied to continue it to the present day. Because of this, combined with her being fully mature, she has superhuman levels of strength and speed, making her the only person in the cast who is canonically capable of wrangling her daughter when she is in one of her panic-stricken rampages.
Relationships[]
The Mizunokōji couple's relationship is not focused upon in the story, but they are depicted as a happy couple, with her husband cheerfully deferring to her wishes in most things. She notes that she regards him as very handsome.
The relationship between mother and son can be thought of as "strained". Mrs. Mizunokōji honestly doesn't seem to regard Tobimaro very highly; she is perfectly happy to threaten his safety and even physically injure him if it will suit her goals, and she actively blames him for Asuka's crush despite his actively rejecting her. Whilst Tobimaro does love her, he also fears her to some extent, and he has called her out on her less than motherly attitude in canon.
Mrs. Mizunokōji's relationship with her daughter is one of deep frustration; whilst she does love Asuka, Asuka's terror when it comes to interacting with men and her incestuous feelings for Tobimaro drive her to distraction. She is constantly trying to push Asuka to get over her failings, and can go from gentle encouragement to angry shouts and even physical violence depending on the situation. She has both created a customized, more feminine suit of armor to simultaneously make Asuka look more womanly whilst also acknowledging the psychological comfort she gets from her armor, and gone after her daughter with spiked iron knuckleguards in a brutal fist fight to literally beat her incestuous desires out of her.
Mrs. Mizunokōji is never anything less than polite when interacting with the Mendō heir, and she supports the engagement between him and Asuka.
Despite the fact she can blame her daughter's fear of men and incestuous infatuation on Ataru, Mrs. Mizunokōji has never been shown to hold a grudge against him. She has even agreed to the idea of making Asuka spend time in his company as a form of radical shock therapy.
Trivia[]
- When Mrs. Mizunokōji discusses handsomeness, in the manga, the three images used to display what she considers handsome are her husband, the SALT #1 monkey-chef-computer used by the Three Girls Gang, and an ukiyo-e image of an old priest.
- Mrs. Mizunokoji's warped idea of what handsomeness means could be her side-effect from the masculine isolation training she underwent as a child, similar to Asuka's androphobia.
- Her first seiyu also voiced Ran's Mother.
Media Appearances[]
Manga
- Chapters 225-227 (223-225 in wideban)
- Chapters 237-239
- Chapters 252-256 (255-259 in wideban)
- Chapters 292-293
- Chapters 340-342
- Chapter 340
Anime
- 1981
- 2022