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Nanami Kiryuu
Kiryuu Nanami: Insecurity
Student Council Member
Acting Student Council President
Tarot Card: The Moon
Duel Rose: Yellow
Quote: "OniiIIIIIiiisama!"
Name Meaning: Protecting the shoot of the plant
Lost, confused child, so desperate to be understood that she lashes out in violence, her love confused with hate, affection confused with desire... Her heart is tender and fragile, guarded by a shell of remorseless arrogance. She is merely a child, spoiled and uncertain, clinging needfully to the one thing she believes holy and sacred... aren't we all like this sometimes? Who can blame Nanami really?
Her Story
Nanami is your classic scheming, sniping, manipulative girl- the school bully, basically. The younger sister of Touga, some might say her attachment to him extends well beyond simple sisterly devotion; she is usually seen clinging to his arm, or scowling at other girls lucky enough to hold that spot. She answers to no one except Touga and she respects the opinions of no one except Touga.
Her jealousy is boundless, her rages capable of vesting in extreme violence. Her mind is devious and cold. She's basically the school bully, but like all bullies her behavior is clearly a display masking serious inner turmoil. In duels she fights with a curved short sword and a curved dagger, making her unique among the Duellists as the only combatant to use multiple weapons. Her ferocity in battle matches Saionji's for blind force; she also has this little PROBLEM stopping after the destruction of the rose...
Initially her cruelty is vented on Anshi, who arouses her ire for no clear reason. Later, as the series progresses and her situation becomes more unstable, she just becomes generally unpleasant to everyone. She possesses a deep and resounding persecution complex, to boot.
The dark secret of the Kiryuu clan is that BOTH Nanami and Touga were adopted- they are genetic siblings- but Nanami doesn't know that, and Touga carefully eludes telling her the whole truth, which sets her immature, frail ego almost to breaking- to the point where she's forced to turn to Utena and Anshi for help.
Nanami's issues with her desire for her brother are brought to a head when she is unfortunate enough to witness one of Akio and Anshi's late-night 'sessions'; when Touga is finally offered to her wholly by the Ends of the Earth, she screams and shoves him away, thus proving once and for all that her worship of Touga is based not on sexual feelings, but on a need for *someone* who can understand her closely.
As a complete flip side to her dark, torrid emotional nature, Nanami appears to have some kind of curse whereupon animals of every known species will attack her randomly. (This may be the universe punishing her for murdering Touga's kitten in a jealous rage when she was a child...) This has included a boxing kangaroo, no less than an entire herd of elephants that chase her across the world, a rubber inflatable octopus, and a pencilcase full of snails... (!)
Nanami has the largest group of subcharacters in the story- no less than *seven* seperate servants. Her female henchmen are Sonoda Keiko, Wakiya Aiko, and Oose Yuuko. Keiko has a crush on Touga, and, in fact, becomes a Black Rose Duellist over it.. Her 'pet', a young boy who pledges his fealty to her is Tsuwabuki, an underclassman that desires to be her brother and Prince, disapproving of Touga. Her male henchmen are Suzuki, Yamada, Tanaka (or, the Three Stooges) They have no real personalities, but they write Nanami letters of affection every day and will follow her anywhere she goes... they also seem to have crushes on Keiko, Yuuko and Aiko.