| Asahina Mafuyu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Japanese | 朝比奈まふゆ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Romaji | Asahina Mafuyu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| English | Mafuyu Asahina | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position | Lyricist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birthday | January 27 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 162 cm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Miyamasuzaka Girls Academy (Class 3-B) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Talents |
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| Image color | #8889CC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Seiyuu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- "How nice it must be, for you to have music to call your own..."
- ―Asahina Mafuyu (Original)
- "I... can't understand anything anymore..."
- ―Asahina Mafuyu (Brand New World)
Asahina Mafuyu (朝比奈 まふゆ) is a third-year student at Miyamasuzaka Girls Academy. She's the lyricist of the underground music circle 25-ji, Nightcord de.
Mafuyu goes by the alias Yuki (雪, lit. snow) online.
Background[edit | edit source]
Mafuyu is an honor student, and the only one in her group (Nightcord at 25:00) who regularly attends school. However, not all is what it seems with her. All Mafuyu’s life, her mom has put immense pressure on her. In middle school, she had aspired to become a nurse. Her mom put aside Mafuyu’s feelings, and told her she needed to become a doctor. Now, Mafuyu has no sense of self and what she actually likes and wants. She grew up being exceptionally smart, therefore her mom pressured her into being an “Ideal” student. Students at her school often see her as “perfect”, “without flaws”.
Appearance[edit | edit source]
Mafuyu has dark purple hair, and eyes that start at purple and fade to light blue, from top to bottom, in a gradient. Her hair is curly, long, and kept up in a ponytail that falls over her right shoulder. Mafuyu's fringe is fairly long as well, with the middle section falling past her eyes, and while it is usually tucked to the right, during the final chapters of the 25-ji, Nightcord de. story, it is left down to almost shadow her eyes. She has an ahoge that swoops to the right above her fringe, and her face is framed by short, curly strands on each side.
While Mafuyu's eyes are usually wide and bright, when the Nightcord members meet her in Dare mo Inai Sekai, her eyes are empty, as seen in her character profile.
Mafuyu's unit outfit is a stylized school uniform, and differs from her Miyamasuzaka Girls' Academy uniform. It is grey, with long sleeves that fade to black and tipped with grey frills. Her collar is black, outlined in grey, and her butterfly ribbon consists of two ribbons, one black and one blue, tied at the middle. Her choker is black, with a gold charm. Mafuyu's skirt is long and grey, with two stripes of black near the bottom, and it is covered by two semi-transparent pieces of fabric. The skirt grows longer at the back of the outfit. Her shoes are heeled, as shown in her 3D model.
Her regular Miyamasuzaka Girls' Academy uniform is a lighter shade of grey, with a red butterfly ribbon. Its collar is white with grey stripes. She wears a grey jumper, the shade of grey similar to that of her unit outfit, and her skirt is the same light grey as her shirt. She wears long black stockings.
Her casual outfit consists of a light blue sweater with a grey-and-white striped shirt underneath; and beige bellbottoms.
Personality[edit | edit source]
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 | Spoiler Warning! This section contains spoilers for the 25-ji, Nightcord de. story. Please proceed with caution! |
Mafuyu is admired for her smarts, athleticism, and the humble sincerity she shows that keeps any praise for these talents out of her own mouth. She is known to be kind, generous, and considerate, her words always polite and her voice soft and warm. She is difficult, arguably impossible, to anger, for any hesitation she shows that might betray disagreement or displeasure is immediately covered with a gentle smile. She is someone whom others are not afraid to rely on, and someone whom others often put high hopes on, knowing that she has met expectations before and will continue to do so.
To everyone else, Mafuyu is a "good girl." However, to herself and behind the mask, she is emotionless and depressed: abandoned by her true self a long time ago, and desperately searching to find it once again. Mafuyu's "true personality"—or, at the very least, the person she is when there is no one else watching—is considerably more cold and blunt. Her voice is dull and her face is flat, both holding no feeling for she has none to show. She speaks few words, and the words she does speak tend to be no more than what is needed. The polite consideration she is expected to have, that colors the sentences she crafts for others, is nowhere to be heard. Mafuyu strives to meet these "expectations" under the impression that she needs to make other people happy. Despite this struggle to meet people's expectations, especially her mother's, Mafuyu truly doesn't know what she wants herself. While she is not pleasant or "good," she is honest—as honest as she has the capacity for. It's only within her cold honesty are her true feelings, her true self, given the slightest chance to show themselves, and the other members of 25-ji, Nightcord de. recognize this in their willingness to offer a space where she can be "rehabilitated."
After the incident in the Uninhabited Sekai, as well as the doll exhibit, Mafuyu is encouraged to say what she is truly feeling--or, at least, to try--as long as she is talking to the Nightcord members. To be whoever she feels she is in that very moment, to the best of her ability, and this allows Mafuyu the opportunity to see what it’s like to exist in a space without pressures of what she should and should not do. She no longer assumes the expectation of her warm, gentle voice from the outside world, and instead forgoes pleasant smalltalk for short, flat responses when she is spoken to, seldom speaking herself. She rarely states her opinions, as she doesn’t have many to give, rarely making any decisions of her own, instead saying that she "doesn't know" or "doesn't mind." However, the coldness or the disinterest of her words are not an act to push others away or be cruel, but an honest admission of the fact that Mafuyu genuinely does not know. During the last chapter of Imprisoned Marionette, Mafuyu's voice is flat and dull as she questions Ena about her drawings, but her interest is genuine as she accepts the information, and her following questions indicate that she has honestly cared enough to actually listen and learn.
Relationships[edit | edit source]
- Yoisaki Kanade: Fellow circle member. Kanade has shown much empathy for Mafuyu, and wants to save her with her music due to her savior complex which developed after her father’s breakdown. Kanade is always there for Mafuyu, she even puts aside everything just to help her in any way. She wants to help Mafuyu find her “True Feelings”.
- Shinonome Ena: Fellow circle member. Ena showed disinterest in Mafuyu in the main story, often speaking in a rude tone towards her. This is because Ena was upset that Mafuyu, who has talent, is still discontent while Ena is called talentless. As the story continues the two begin to understand each other better and become good friends, even going on trips and hanging out together, such as in the story of Someday, This Wish Will Transcend the Morning Sky.
- Akiyama Mizuki: Fellow circle member. Mafuyu thinks they're overly obsessed with cuteness. Mizuki often is the first one who notices that something troubles Mafuyu since they had similar experiences, and makes situations easier for Mafuyu to handle (such as in the Scramble Fan Festival story, where Mizuki makes sure Mafuyu can relax without having to put up her “good girl” persona).
- Mochizuki Honami: Colleagues. They are both on the class committee and are honor students.
- Otori Emu: An underclassman she got paired with for the 3-legged race during the sports festival. Emu is scared of her because she sees that her smile is not genuine, though Mafuyu doesn't seem to realize this or understand why. Emu can tell when her smile is fake and wants to make her smile for real.
- Hinomori Shizuku: Friends. They know each other from both being on the Miyamasuzaka Girls archery club. Shizuku asked her for advice in The Two Moon Rabbits., and they compete against each other in an archery tournament in Draw Your Bow in This White World.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Although Mafuyu's name is spelt using only hiragana, an alternate spelling of Mafuyu is "真冬", which includes the kanji 冬 (fuyu) for "winter." When the members of Nightcord first meet offline, Kanade asks if this was the reason why she chose the username Yuki, which Mafuyu confirms.
- Mafuyu is forced to attend cram school on the weekends because of her mother's wishes for Mafuyu to become a doctor.
- Mafuyu keeps a small aquarium in her room, but it does not contain any fish, only sea grass. In a conversation area, Kanade sees Mafuyu and asks where she is going. Mafuyu says that she is getting more sea grass for her aquarium. Kanade comments that Mafuyu must like her aquarium if she's willing to come all the way to get sea grass for it. Mafuyu is unsure if she is, but trusts Kanade. In the comic A Tank Without Fish, Mafuyu states that she likes aquariums because of the way she feels herself become transparent when she stares at one.
- Before Mafuyu's mother wanted Mafuyu to become a doctor, Mafuyu wanted to become a nurse. This was because of how Mafuyu's mom would take care of her and nurse back to health when she was sick as a younger child, shown in the Mirage of lights event.
