Nao Yasumori Stamp 1.

Irony: First stamp on my stamp account is not devoted to the character that the account was named after. Funny how that works.

Annyyywhhooo...*Blush.* Nao Yasumori (AKA Sadako's older sister, Murphy's Law Bait, Anti-Rule 34) is often set aside as one of the 'minor' characters in Shiki. 'Tis a shame; she's one of the more important minors and fascinating to boot.She's also my current girl-crush.

And yet, I feel nothing perverted towards her. Except that the internet needs to realize the potential of that white shirt. Her split personality grabs me before my libido does. The literary history attached to her keeps me bound (that's bad - you'll see why later). She could take me all the way to hell if she wanted to (and again...).

You may have noticed that I mentioned personality first. It's not that Nao's lacking in looks - she doesn't flaunt them, even though she's pretty damn fine beneath that shirt - but she's simply outshone by several other characters that flaunt their assets. Nao doesn't need to show cleavage to work - that would go against her 'even good girls can be bad' angle. She's a total sweetheart most of the time...

...then the onryou awakens and sinks her fangs into the next member of her foster family. Nao's sweeter side feels the guilt, creating a nasty schism.

A socially-sanctioned schism?!

Actually, yeah. It used to be perfectly OK for Japanese women to escape the pressures of their social position (a friend of mine once described making bento as 'medieval torture,' just to give you all an idea) by claiming that they were possessed. Then it's up to whichever man is in charge to deal with the spirit's wrath. (As the article says, this goes all the way back to Tale of Genji.) That should sound familiar.

She's a vampire that mimics a ghost (and a Twilight vamp? XD). What's not fascinating about that?

What stuns me more is that people don't like her and she did stuff. Her habit of killing her foster relatives encouraged the attack on the Ozaki clinic. She almost single-handedly wiped out one of the most important families in Sotoba. That's pretty damaging in the grand scheme of things.

As a bio-hobbyist, I also get a kick out of her very trackable behaviors. It normally takes more than one bite to kill; hypnosis is part chemical, part technique; Shiki-ness is genetic and may be linked to temperament; the genetic lottery can really, really suck at times. She's fun to observe as a case study.

Finally...her kanji are interesting. The 'na' in her name is the same 'na' in 'naraku,' one of the Japanese words for hell. The 'o' has several meanings, but they mostly boil down to 'strap,' 'cord,' or some such. Dare I suggest a translation of 'hellbound?'

Mind, I do see why she doesn't get as much love as some of the other characters. She lacks the exotic fashion sense of Shiki like Megumi and Chizuru, and she did kill her whole foster family. People can't read her Poker Face might find that split personality hard to handle. Nao's still lovable in her own right, and IMO underrated given the damage she does.

Phew. First post, and it's a doozie.

Nao Yasumori is (c) Shiki and all of its copyright holders. Suing would be very silly at this point.