Example #218: Ascended Mecha Fangirl

This is the Two-hundred-and-eighteenth week of using the "Perfect Anime Girl Sheet". Notice: This Blog may contain Unmarked Spoilers. Welcome back, readers! Are you excited to find out what girl we're doing today? : Should be pretty obvious, I think : It's Mi- It's not her. : Wait what? : You know darn well that she, as a two-season entry, would have been perfect for today. : Not only that, but people are expecting you to talk about her eventually. All in good time, my fellow internet blogger. But today is not that day. : EMPRY! That's cheating! You can't count shows that didn't air in 2012 in your best of 2012 entries! Perhaps, but instead of doing something expected I decided to do a girl that, while I first watched in 2012 came from a series before then. And Nadesico, being my favorite series from the (relatively small) list means that I'll be talking about Hikaru today. : Stupid Aired-Prior-to-2012-Yet-Still-Seen-That-Year day! You were planning on tripping us all up! That I was. Now, let's get started! Head Hair: Hikaru's hair is shoulder-length and a nice brown color. She'd score better if it were longer. At least she doesn't have it up all that often (though her pilot's suit has basically a tight cap so we don't see her hair while she's piloting). It's a bit messy, but that just fits her disheveled personality. In the back her hair curves out, making an odd curl that I assume is just from it staying that way when brushing it. Her side locks are long as well, reaching the base of her neck and eventually curling inward. Her bangs are big and bushy as well. Grade: B+ : Big Bangs you say... I HAVE MADE MY DECISION! We're doing Hikaru today! : What? I was going to say that large bangs were often common in older anime series. No, I'm pretty sure you came up with that excuse on the fly so congrats for thinking up a completely reasonable idea. : Hey, thanks! : I mean... It wasn't a trick! I figured as much. Now, to continue on with the blog. Eyes: Hikaru's eyes are dark colored, most likely black. They're very round as well and there's not much white either (it's a design choice; most of the female characters in Nadesico have similar eyes). In the movie she gets bags under her eyes when we first see her, but that problem is solved and for the rest of the movie she's fine. She also has eyelashes, but they're not prominent and are often not noticeable due to her glasses. Speaking of her glasses, I should talk about them. It IS a meganekko month, after all. Hikaru's glasses are quite large and round, but the frames themselves are thin. It's not my type (as it looks like it might easily break), but I still appreciate meganekkos of all kinds. Besides, this seemed to be the style back then, judging by other series. The announcer even said that "guys indeed make passes at girls in glasses" during one of the previews, and I appreciate them mentioning Hikaru's defining feature. Fine then, so she has other good characteristics, but you know what I mean... Grade: A Face: Once again, as with the glasses you can tell that Hikaru is from an older anime due to her facial style. I wouldn't say that she's as soft or cutesy as a girl from "moe" shows today would be, but she still has some appeal. Some other features are that her cheek is bubbly (as again, was the thing to do in the 90's) and her chin can get pointed sometimes. She also has a noticeable nose, though that might just be due to her glasses. That said, despite these flaws, and due to the fact that she's so cheerful, she has a very infectious smile. She tends to smile with her whole mouth open, which is sweet. Grade: B Body Build: Hikaru does have a fairly nice body. Not as good as one I'd see in an ecchi series, but still better than average I'd say. She's got a shapely waist in particular. Unfortunately we don't see much of her body. The two bikini moments do help though. An interesting fact that I noticed is that she seems far shorter than most of the other characters (excluding Ruri, who is a loli). I don't mind though, I'm fine with short girls. I can't tell how official these measurements are, but she seems to be 152 cm (5') tall and weighs 42 kg (92 lbs). Her "other" measurements are 82-56-84, and take that with a grain of salt. Grade: B+ Breasts: It's hard to tell how busty Hikaru actually is. Sure, in her introduction she lands breast-first on the male lead (such jealousy), but after that her breasts really aren't focused on. I mean, it's not like this is a fanservice series so I don't expect them to keep talking about them. It's just that between people talking about Yurika's breasts and the fans speaking more of Haruka's chest that I feel that Hikaru gets left out. To be fair, in the latter's case that's probably due to her exposed chest, and Ruri does get talked about far more as she's probably the most common favorite. Anyway, I'm getting off track. Hikaru's breasts are nice *thumbs up*. Grade: B+ Clothes: Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much variety in Hikaru's wardrobe. Most of the time she wears her Aestivalis suit (Aestivalis are what type of mecha are used in this universe). It's essentially a red-ish body suit with black and gray adornment. It also has somewhat suggestive markings as it draws attention to her chest.She also wears a black skirt and pantyhose. Actually, she might have more than one outfit like that, though they're all fairly similar. When we finally see her in her "casual" outfit, it seems that she wears what most doujin artists do, a baggy shirt with a "coat" over it (there's probably a better word for what she's wearing, but I can't think of it). Another outfit that she wears is a Gekigangar suit, complete with a cape (Gekigangar is a show-within-a-show, meant to parody super robot series). Finally, during the beach episode (and other swimsuit moment) she wears a lovely blue bikini with a sarong. Grade: B- Mind Personality: Hikaru is an Aestivalis pilot, though not the best one. She' s not bad at it, mind, she's just not stand-out. She wasn't originally on the Nadesico, but instead was a late reinforcement. In fact, she sort of crashed into the ship with her pod and had to sneak around in vents. After that, she's mostly seen with Izumi and form a sort of "peanut gallery", picking on their fellow pilot Ryouko. Probably the biggest personality point of Hikaru's is her otaku-ness. She's a HUGE fan of Gekigangar III and ruined her hiding by crying during a character's death. She also sings the theme song during a talent show. She even draws her own manga, though to be fair it seems to be mostly self-insert slash fics (for those not informed with fan fiction, that means that she puts a character to represent herself in a pre-established work for the purpose of pairing up with a character). Her dream is to eventually make her own manga, and judging by what we see in the movie we can see that came true. Though it does give her the personality usually associated with writers (having barely enough time to finish before her deadline and hurrying). The only problem is that she's one of "those" types of fans. Yes, she's a YAOI FANGIRL. To her credit, I just wanted to make that sound ominous, but she's not a fanatic. Well, about that at least. She's a fairly hyper girl overall and even talked about some details about herself in her introduction (such as favorite food) just because she likes talking about herself. Overall, with all the energy and optimism Hikaru has it's easy to see why I like her. That said, I will say that I'm not a fan of her voice. Her Japanese VA isn't too bad, but her English one is pretty high pitched. I wouldn't say that she's terrible, she just a bit too high pitched for me (though I did get used to her). I can't say that I like the whistle though (she has what seems to be a party favor hat that lets out a high-pitched whistle at the start). Grade: A Libido: Hikaru is a bit of an oddity. She obviously has a libido as she draws perhaps questionable material in her doujins/comics. She also loves teasing Ryouko for her love of Akito along with their mutual friend Izumi. That said, she also seems to have no interest in Akito herself, and that's what I mean by "oddity". Harems rarely have females that aren't into the lead. She DID get close to another male character, but once he finally admits his love she rejects him. While I would say that they would make a cute couple, I wouldn't see it working either. I mean besides the fact that he's still married, of course. Hikaru still has issues with a past lover that we don't hear much about so she let him down gently. And no, I'm not just saying that due to the fact that he seemed spurred to confess when Hikaru took her glasses off and he thought she was even cuter. I'm not bitter at all! Grade: B Age: From what I've heard, Hikaru is the youngest Aestivalis on the Nadesico. She's still 18, so she's within my perfect range (and since the movie is two years after that, the fact that she's 20 is even better). Grade: A Total Grades: 83 Average score: 9.2 Final Grade: B+