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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