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MEN BE DAMNED!!! |
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—Shinobu Miyake
Shinobu Miyake (三宅しのぶ, Three house endure?) is a major character in Urusei Yatsura.
Biography[]
Shinobu is Ataru Moroboshi's childhood friend and classmate at Tomobiki High School, Class 2-4. She possesses Herculean level super-strength that is easily triggered when Ataru or anyone else harasses or threatens her. This aspect of Shinobu has been relied upon by her classmates and friends during serious situations. A neat and clean young lady, she has horrible luck with men, usually only attracting monsters and perverts. However, towards the end of the series her bad luck seems to end when she meets Inaba, an employee of the Destiny Production Management Bureau.
Personality[]
Shinobu usually acts like a cute, fragile teenage girl who isn't afraid to speak her mind. However, when her temper is pushed too far she gets violently mad, mostly lifting school desks and throwing them to others, her target usually being Ataru. Ataru and she have known each other since kindergarten and they had feelings toward each other in the beginning of the story. She even proposed to Ataru if he could win Lum. However, even though Ataru tried to meet and date Shinobu countless times, she always got disappointed or jealous of Lum, whom she disliked a lot.
After Lum and Shūtarō Mendō transferred into Tomobiki High, Shinobu started to lose interest in Ataru and grow more affection towards Mendō. She still gets disappointed by him as well, since everyone she actually likes seems to like Lum even more. When she forgets Ataru, she accepts Lum as her classmate, though not as her friend.
Appearance[]
Shinobu is very short and skinny. She has short straight brown hair and black eyes (which were ironically stated by Lum). She usually wears her sailor-suit uniform as she is mostly seen in school. She however wears dresses and many t-shirts outside the school.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Incredible strength - Usually very calm and quite normal (compared to the rest of the cast), when angry she seems to become superhumanly strong and throws large objects, usually a desk. This strength also seems to be derived from her anger towards men when they do something she finds wrong.
Relationships[]
At first, Shinobu was Ataru's girlfriend, though she broke up with him due to his lecherous behavior. However shortly after, as Ataru was selected to go against the Oni princess Lum in a game of tag with the fate of the Earth on the line, she promised to marry him if he won. But when Ataru caught Lum, he shouted "Now I can get married", which Lum mistook as a proposal referring to herself, and their engagement began. Even after this, Ataru tried to meet up and date Shinobu many times, but usually Lum got between them, resulting in Shinobu getting the wrong idea and mad on Ataru. When Shūtarō Mendō got transferred into the same school, she started to lose interest in Ataru, though Ataru still likes Shinobu a lot.
When Shūtarō Mendō transferred to Tomobiki, Shinobu fell for him (and all the other female students) and completely gave up on Ataru. Mendō liked her, but he was in love with Lum so nothing ever developed between the two of them. Shinobu was sometimes asked to travel with him, Ataru and Lum so Ataru could change Lum for Shinobu and Mendō would get Lum, but these plans failed. There are a few implications that he and Shinobu were dating until the episode Space Cold Panic! where she dumps him and he is heartbroken; another instance is in Love Raid! Romantic Doesn’t Stop!! where they are seen walking together until the tiny cupid interrupts their date; finally in Urusei Yatsura 4: Lum the Forever they are seen on a date and about to kiss, until Mendō realizes that he didn't recognize Lum passing by during his and Shinobu's date.
Near the end of the series, she meets Inaba from the Fate Production Bureau. In his second appearance, Inaba asks Shinobu to help him recover a flower from the space-time forest while it blooms, as he needs to bring a girl with him. They go through many obstacles but the flower isn't blooming when they make it. However, when Inaba reveals that the only reason he undertook the task in the first place was to spend time with Shinobu, the flower blooms, true love being it's "fertilizer". After that, the two begin dating and are often seen drinking tea together at coffee houses.
Shinobu disliked Lum a lot in the beginning of the series, seeing her more as an obstacle between her and Ataru. Even though Ataru tried to date her many times, Lum always managed to ruin everything. When Lum got transferred into Tomobiki High-School, Shinobu started to lose interest in Ataru and grow affection to Shutaro. This led her not to hate Lum as much as she used to, but they haven't done much to be friends yet they eventually became close allies.
Shinobu can be seen supporting Ryūnosuke at the sideline when she's arguing with her father. She also gets flustered when Ryūnosuke touches her hand. Since she's starting to hate men anyway, it's possible that she started to feel something for Ryūnosuke.
To be added
Speech[]
Appellations[]
Name | What They Call Shinobu | What Shinobu Calls Them |
---|---|---|
Ataru Moroboshi | Shinobu | Ataru-kun |
Lum | Shinobu | Lum |
Shūtarō Mendō | Shinobu-san | Mendō-kun |
Ryūnosuke Fujinami | Shinobu | Ryūnosuke-kun |
Kōsuke Shirai | Shinobu | Unknown |
Ten | (Shinobu)-neechan | Ten-chan |
Cherry | Unknown | Cherry |
Sakura | Shinobu | Sakura-sensei |
Ataru's Mother | Shinobu-chan | Oba-san |
Onsen-Mark | Unknown | Sensei |
Hanawa | Unknown | Sensei |
Principal | Shinobu-kun | Kōchō (Principal) |
Ryūnosuke's Father | Unknown | Oji-san |
Kurama | Zashiki-Warashi (once) | Kurama |
Inaba | Shinobu-san | Inaba-san |
Sōban | Shinobu-san | Unknown |
Tsubame Ozuno | Unknown | Tsubame-san |
Quotes[]
- "Men be damned!! / Who needs men!"
- "You flirtatious scum!"
- "I must go to my sweet Ataru! He needs me! He loves me! Even though I know Lum will be with him, I can't keep away from my beloved, my precious. Although, if he's shagged her... I'LL KILL HIM!"
- "You've got... a bun in your oven???"
- "What ceremony of love? This is just a sick collection. The warm love between a man and a woman can't be frozen like tuna."
Trivia[]
- Her seiyū would later voice characters of other works of Rumiko Takahashi. They include Sayoko Kuroki from Maison Ikkoku and Kodachi Kuno from Ranma ½ and Abi from Inuyasha.
- In Urusei Yatsura 3: Remember My Love it is shown that without Lum being in Tomobiki, Shinobu can't use her herculian strength as she has no reason to be angry.
- Many fans have stated that Shinobu is a less angry Akane from Ranma ½.
- In Chapter 24 (25 in wideban), Shinobu states that her Zodiac Sign is the Libra, which would put her birthday somewhere between September 22 and October 23.
- Shinobu even tried to use her sign to convince Shūtarō Mendō to choose her as his girlfriend, as his sign Aries was compatible with hers.
- Shinobu makes a cameo appearance in Episode 25 of Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel, where she is seen among the people who are waiting for a crepe.
- Her voice actress, Saeko Shimazu, also participated in said series playing Megumi Ayase.
Media Appearances[]
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