hontou ni sou omou?

Given my penchant for yuri, it’s not surprising that I’m highlighting Miharu Amakase. Sure, she’s silly especially with that Kaolla Su taste for bananas but I like how she so openly displays her desire for Nemu. Later she surprised me by being one of the few characters without any hangups and even active support for Nemu x Junichi. Also it’s a relief to have a female character who isn’t attracted to Junichi. Lots of spoilers. (Why do I even bother to warn people? Ok, this will be my last spoiler warning ever.)

Ah, Miharu displaying her love for Nemu via glomping and a lot of cheek-rubbing lo-lo-love. Nemu seems rather resigned to it. :)

Very late into the series, we find out Junichi, Nemu and Miharu were all childhood friends and playmates. Disappointingly, how Miharu’s feelings for Nemu arose were not explored. I would have very much liked to know the “Basis of Attraction” (tm - Stripey). What is it that Miharu loves about Nemu? After the first encounter, Miharu fell out of a tree while trying to help a cat and after Junichi ignored her entreaties for help. (KimiNozu Bakayuki responsibility here?) She was quite badly hurt and was hospitalised at her father’s research facility.

Conveniently, her father then sent out a robot replica to take her place. The robot was able to mimic Miharu’s behaviour and knows everything about her but has very little physical experience and set about gaining sensory and emotional input (like eating bananas, shopping, making friends and hugging Nemu at every opportunity). Although she is not the real Miharu and her plot point about trying to become even more real than the real Miharu for the sake of everyone emphasises that she is an imitator, I prefer to think of her as a substitute for Miharu on medical leave for the rest of Da Capo i.e. I believe that the actions and decisions of the robot Miharu would be representative of the real Miharu if she had not been hospitalised.

The obligatory onsen and bath scene (Episode 13) showed that Miharu’s attraction to Nemu definitely has a sexual element as she tried to wash Nemu’s front (from behind) after washing her back. And was apparently very happy with what her hands found. When Kotori asked if they had “that kind of relationship”, she very happily declared Yes. It was quite hilarous how Nemu’s weak attempt at rebuttal was overwhelmed, not just by Miharu’s further demonstrations of cheek-rubbing love-love but also by sweet, gentle Kotori’s monologue on how love is love and that couples come in many different forms.

Another one of Miharu’s flying tackle glomps, displaying her joy at her beloved Nemu-sempai asking out her out on a movie “date” . In the course of the movie, Nemu discovered that this Miharu was a robot but continued to treat her as a friend after that.

Miharu’s happiness at Nemu’s recovery from her first attack of sakura petal coughing.

Miharu pushing Nemu to have a “date” with Junichi and then stepping aside.

Miharu was the only character to actively support Junichi and Nemu’s relationship by pushing them together (literally, after all that sexual innuendo of the old/new shirt discussion), getting out the way and encouraging Nemu to be open about her feelings to Junichi. Miharu’s realisation that “even though she hated to admit it, Nemu looked cutest when she was with Junichi” showed that she could set aside her own desire to be with Nemu and support what she felt Nemu really wanted. That’s really self-sacrificing true love. Ok, not quite as self-sacrificing as Chikane Himemiya but it’s still pretty good. I must confess I’m a little disappointed that she didn’t manage to sneak a kiss or something from Nemu before her spring wound down a la Mahoromatic System Shutdown.

Miharu gets plenty of Character points from me for her selflessness and her exuberant brand of yuri lo-lo-love!