Mitamura Arisa - the Office Lady from Hell. Arisa rocks. Like Nanny Ogg from Terry Pratchett's witch novels, she's one of those characters whose sheer coolness you can only really convey by quoting her directly.

Arisa: Listen, I fly this hunka iron to relieve my stress! We office ladies can get really stressed out, you know.

Kyoko: Where do you get off calling us office ladies?

Arisa: Simple! We're the Secretarial Division, Flying Column - that abbreviates to O.L!

Kyoko: How do those words make O.L?

Arisa: I guess they don't. Never mind!

Arisa, along with her best friend and roommate Kyoko, is Akiko's chief henchperson. Arisa is extremely devoted to Akiko, admiring her independent spirit. She will do anything to serve and protect her - although she does resent how tight Akiko is with money, and how arbitrarily she withholds or cuts her employees' salaries.

Arisa is a total hothead, a person who jumps into situations without considering where she's going to land, except maybe on a pile of the bodies of her enemies. She likes guns. Big guns. Also huge, destructive mecha, and all sorts of gadgetry from the Mishima stables. Her absolute loyalty and affinity for weaponry would make her an ideal enforcer were it not for her tendency to get wildly over-excited and kinda forget the mission in favour of blowing stuff up. She's also a lousy shot.

Although Arisa loves her job, her personal life is not so great. She doesn't have any friends besides Kyoko, and her work leaves her no time for socialising. No-one ever even asks her out. Arisa also has some very curious insecurities: 'I'm too fat-fingered for delicate work.'

When Arisa's not working you can find her stripping down weapons at home, playing cards with Kyoko or sitting in restaurants abusing the 'free refills of coffee' policy. Her personal sense of style ranges from camo pants to a rather elegant red Chinese-style dress. She and Kyoko both have big cat's eyes painted on the helmets they wear when flying the Poison-1 helicopter - I wonder if they came decorated like that, or if the women wanted to personalise them?

Arisa can be impetuous and foolish, but I don't think she's actually stupid. She figured out the irony of Akiko's situation in Phase OIII well before Akiko would have, and is capable of the sort of leaps of logic that the more cautious Kyoko wouldn't attempt, like deducing where Ryunosuke's school is in Phase OI. She dislikes Nuku Nuku intensely, and won't call her by name, preferring to refer to her as the 'schoolgirl android.'

One of the coolest anime villains ever, Arisa reminds me a little of Dilandau from The Vision of Escaflowne - and that's high praise indeed.

Omake for Otaku

Arisa's voice actress is Hisakawa Aya, who has also played the gentle, intellectual Sailormercury in Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon, the cute, oddly-coiffed Mano Yohko in Devil Hunter Yohko and the sweet, spunky Skuld in Oh My Goddess! Talk about versatility!

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