Voiced by Yuko Goto (Japanese)
Stephanie Sheh (English)
Profile
Gender Female
Species Human
Occupation North High student (third year; junior in English anime) / SOS Brigade Deputy Vice Commander & "mascot" / time traveler
Mikuru Asahina (朝比奈 みくる Asahina Mikuru) is a fictional character from the Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series. She is the fourth member to make an appearance, and is also the only character other than Kyon to be brought into the SOS Brigade against her will. She is defined by Kyon to be extremely cute, and is often sexually harassed by Haruhi Suzumiya. She is in fact a time traveler from the future with the purpose of observing Haruhi Suzumiya during the course of the story line. One possible way of writing her name in kanji is 未来, meaning "future". She is voiced by Yuko Goto in the Japanese anime adaption and Stephanie Sheh in English version.
Background
Considered one of the most beautiful girls in high school, Mikuru, a second-year high school student (a junior in the English anime), is described as being an "untouchable flower on the mountain" by the male student body. Her popularity among the boys, however, doesn't detract her from being very shy and easily embarrassed. Before being forced to join the SOS Brigade, she was originally a member of the Calligraphy Club. She's best friends with Tsuruya, who is also a second-year student. In addition to starring in the SOS Brigade's amateur-movie in the first episode, both Mikuru and Tsuruya were waitresses for The Acorn, a short-stop dine-in for fried soba that was run by all the girls in Mikuru's class during the school festival.
Unlike Haruhi and Yuki, Mikuru has no athletic ability. She does, however, show a gift for brewing and making tea and is often praised for it by Kyon.
Mikuru is actually a time traveler, sent back to investigate a massive timequake that occurred three years prior, the cause of which is Haruhi. As a result of this event, time-travel beyond that point had become impossible. Mikuru is very knowledgeable about the science and theories of time and time-travel and shows it when giving Kyon a brief explanation about why she is in his time plane. She refers to her presence in the past as like adding an extra picture in a flip book. Because of the dangers involved with time-travel, as well as the sensitivity of the mission, most information regarding the future, Haruhi, Yuki, Itsuki and herself are highly classified. She states this whenever Kyon asks her questions involving such topics. There have been instances when she was instructed by Kyon, without the consent from her future peers, to travel back in time in order to alter certain events relative to the Brigade. For the most part, Mikuru strictly follows standard protocol and obeys any orders given by her superiors in her organization. Additionally, she is forbidden in engaging in any romantic relationships with anyone outside of her original time span.
An older, adult Mikuru from farther into the future traveled back in time to give Kyon some critical information regarding future events relative to his time span. However, like her younger time-variant, she was still unable to go into much detail and was only able to provide short, rather vague pieces of information. Also, she was strictly prohibited from letting her younger self become aware of her presence in the same time and had to plan accordingly.
Yet, despite all these precautions and limitations, she accidentally let slip a small bit regarding the star-shaped mole on her chest, which she never knew she had until Kyon told her about it, when proving that she really was Mikuru. Kyon was completely unaware of this mole until she told him it was there, despite the past fact that she didn't know about it until he told her, thus creating a minor time loop.
In order to differentiate between the older and younger versions, whenever the older self is present in the same time span, Kyon refers to her older self as Asahina-san (big) and to the younger Mikuru as Asahina-san (small). Despite both names ending in -san, the differentiation is in the inclusion of (big) and (small) that is written in the light novels. Kyon never uses the -chan suffix to refer to Mikuru.
Personality
A shy and timid girl with a childish naïveté, Mikuru is depicted as kind, caring and thoughtful. She easily gets scared or flustered, more so in times whenever Haruhi is involved and makes her do embarrassing things. Apparently prone to daydreaming, she can also be rather clumsy at times. Nevertheless, she can be surprisingly resilient and is capable of recovering from even the most discomforting of situations. However, because of her gentle nature she seems rather helpless most of the time. Kyon sees it as his duty to always watch over and protect her; although when it comes to Haruhi there is no rescue.
Despite being reluctant to continue after the bunny-girl incident, where she was forced to wear a bunny-girl costume and pass out fliers on school grounds, Mikuru remains loyal and dedicated to the Brigade as well as her mission as a time-traveler.
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