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Introduction
I owe my life to him, and all I have and all I am belong to him alone.

—Miyuki, Volume 5, Summer Break

Shiba Miyuki (司波 深雪) is the main female protagonist of the "The Irregular in Magic High School" light novel and animated series. She is the biological sister of the main protagonist, Shiba Tatsuya and just like him, is a student of First High School.[1]

The spin-off manga, Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei, has Miyuki as the main protagonist, depicting her point-of-view in a timeline parallel to when the original series began.

Appearance and Personality

There is no way I am lacking in my pigmentation. It’s just that my hair is a shade of black too deep.

Could it be hereditary? But, my family line is not supposed to be intermingled with Europeans for the past five generations...well, since I do not know any farther than that; the possibility that this comes from some long ago genetic ancestor is not nonexistent. However, even Okaa-sama becomes a little darker in the summer and Ani’s complexion could be called tanned, since it so splendidly soaks up the sun so much that I can no longer tell what his original color is, so I do not believe it could be called a hereditary thing.

—Miyuki contemplating her appearance and genes, Volume 8, Chapter 2

Miyuki is described as a lovely, beautiful girl who captivates whoever sets their eyes on her. Her arms and legs are slim, slender without looking too unhealthy. It was mentioned by Mayumi that the number of perfectly symmetrical features in Miyuki was overwhelming to the point that "her confidence in herself wavered."[2] This might be caused by her magic prowess which is very formidable and greatly balanced. Miyuki has noted that her features are not entirely similar to that of her family. Her figure has become more defined and curvaceous over her first two years spent at Magic High and has developed a much more mature appearance in her last year at First High.[3]

Because of her openness, modesty, well-brought up manners and behavior, coupled with her lovely, beautiful appearance, Miyuki is popular not just among male freshmen students of their school, but also among females and upperclassmen, and even to magicians from other schools and outsiders that may or may not follow the Nine School Competitions' news.

Outsiders or strangers will normally be rendered speechless or flustered by her presence. Her speech and movement patterns are completely different from Tatsuya's, something their deceased mother should be given credit for, and she is referred as a real Yamato Nadeshiko which is a Japanese term meaning the "personification of an idealized Japanese woman", or "the epitome of pure, feminine beauty".

Miyuki's beauty has been emphasised and acknowledged by most of the characters in the series, both male and female, as unparalled. Even Tatsuya, who is her brother, cannot help but be enthralled by her, despite his limited emotions. It could be said that because she might be the only person to whom he still has natural affection for before his emotions were removed years ago, thus, he is still susceptible to her. The only character that has ever been mentioned as having beauty rivaling Miyuki's was Lina.[4]

Miyuki has a slightly mischievous side to her. She teases both Mikihiko and Mizuki about the way they talk to each other in the middle of the war zone during the Scorched Halloween event. She once purposefully acted over-affectionately with her brother in order to mess with Mizuki, Erika, and Leo (It apparently had a great effect on Mizuki as she became completely lost in her dream world). [5] However, she has been constantly revealed to harbour forbidden feelings for Tatsuya, even lamenting once on the fact that she was born as his little sister, clearly indicating that she wishes to have a romantic relationship with him.[6]

The thought and recommendations of marrying another boy repulses and disgusts Miyuki to a large extent. It is not a biological issue, so something like dancing was still acceptable to her. However, in Miyuki’s heart, the only one who was allowed to touch her intimately is Tatsuya. Although Miyuki is willing to do her duty and marry for the sake of the family, his revulsion she feels extends to the point that any marriage the family forced upon her would simply be a chaste contract marriage, with the obligatory offspring manufactured at Institute Four and then raised by a nanny.[7] The only one who could do as he wished with her was Tatsuya himself alone. Her love for her brother comes to such an extent that she is willing to offer her heart, body and soul to Tatsuya. For her, "no matter if it was her body or heart, everything that she has belonged to Onii-sama."[8] As a candidate, and before becoming officially in Volume 16 to be the future head of the Yotsuba clan, she is used to and is even often displeased with flattery and compliments since many of these are coated with a mix of jealousy, envy, and malicious intent. However, she is always filled with bliss whenever Tatsuya compliments her abilities and often seeks to please him.

Miyuki is extremely sensitive when it comes to her brother's whereabouts and who he hangs out with. She vehemently dislikes the fact that people do not see her brother's real worth and states it openly, but she is often brushed off as being biased.[9] She also feels very guilty and laments the fact that she is the reason her brother has to be 'chained' but is conflicted as she also feels selfish since that is the only way for him to be hers. Thus, she becomes careful to ask anything of the Yotsuba so as to prevent the clan from making Tatsuya do their bidding and prevent them from restricting Tatsuya's freedom in case he chooses to revolt.

Miyuki gains great pleasure and satisfaction in meticulously taking care of Tatsuya. In place of her brother, it is Miyuki who often gets angry whenever people look down on Tatsuya. She also gets irked and jealous several times when other girls crowd around Tatsuya, mostly due to her own feelings for him. She is happy that there are people to see him for what he is worth but is sadden that others are able to horde his time. While she can control her actions at times like this, she often uncontrollably reduces the temperature around her due to her inability to control her magic when she's agitated. It isn't limited to her jealousy but instead whenever she has strong emotions (when she tries to calm down in order to not "go causing a frost on the beach in Okinawa in the middle of summer"). [10]

Like Tatsuya, it seems Miyuki puts him as the center of her world and always put him before herself in any matter, but for her it’s out of authenticity and not forced like him. Likewise, because Miyuki is afraid one day they will have to be separated due to various reasons and just like how normal sibling would be parted once they are grown up, she intentionally put on an act in front of her brother by not being overly smart, not showing her real maturity, letting Tatsuya thinks her as a good girl, a soft and unreliable sister, so that he would never think of the line "My sister doesn't need me anymore...".

This is the notion that shows how much she feels about the results of the operation conducted by her mother that caused Tatsuya to own her as his only source of emotions and her own feelings towards Tatsuya. She wants her brother to stay with her for as long as they can, that she does not care even if others have seen her as an undependable sister. All in all, Miyuki actually has wears a facade that sometimes disguised her true personalities and opinions on every matter in the series, especially when in the presence of her brother. Ever since Tatsuya saved Miyuki from dying after being shot in Okinawa, she has devoted her life and service to him. As a result, her personality, everything that she does/has done, how she acts/thinks, how she interacts with others, what she is involved in or what her personality is like, etc. is because of Tatsuya. In short, everything involving/revolving around her, good or bad, is because of her feelings for Tatsuya.

Background

Miyuki is the daughter of Shiba Tatsurou and the late Shiba Miya and is eleven months younger than her only elder brother, Tatsuya (her birthday falls on March 25, a month before Tatsuya's birthday). They are mostly mistaken as twins for being in the same year.[1]

Prior to the beginning of the series, their father remarried six months after their mother's death, and the two of them lived alone in a house, which is described as a place that vastly exceeds the average size. The siblings lived alone at first, however, later on Minami joins them as Miyuki's second guardian. [11]

Miyuki, The Masterpiece of Yotsuba

It is revealed that she is an augmented magician (akin to Sakura Series) which is made especially for Tatsuya to have a life partner, and so that he would not go berserk and destroy the world. According to Maya, much technology was used in her modification, making Miyuki an extremely unique magician. Due to the modification done on her, Miyuki is a unique magician in an entire class of her own and even the Yotsuba will be unable to create another one like her. Compared to Minoru, who also has received similar modification done by Kudou Makoto before birth, Miyuki is a far more perfect and successful product proved by her stable health and lifespan. Because both of them are somehow similar in the aspect of their makings, this is actually the reason why they both have distinctive similarities; formidable magic abilities and striking ethereal-otherworldly physical appearances. [12]

Yotsuba

Main Articles: Yotsuba | Reminiscence Chapter

Miyuki is a descendant of the Yotsuba Family and was born with superior and formidable magical abilities. Due to this, she grew up as a pampered child and was raised in a manner befitting one of the candidates to succeed the family's Head position sometime in the future. Like other descendants of prestigious families, she attends the various type of classes with special tutors such as arts and more.
Unlike her brother, who was technically demoted from an heir to being a mere servant, Miyuki enjoyed the privileges a Yotsuba deserves. She is now the number one potential successor.
In Volume 8 of the light novel series, it is stated how unequally she and Tatsuya were treated by their family and relatives. The Reminiscence Chapter also showed how vastly different Miyuki's opinions and actions towards her brother were three years before the current timeline.

Okinawa Defense Navel Battle (2092)

Main Article: Okinawa Defense Navel Battle
When the Great Asian Union attacked Okinawa in 2092, Miyuki — along with her mother Miya and her mother's guardian, Honami — took refuge in the army's shelter but due to some conflict with the Left-Bloods, were caught in a dire situation. Under the effects of Cast Jamming, they couldn't defend themselves; however, when the Psion waves weakened, Miyuki activated Cocytus and froze the enemy holding the jamming device.
As a result, they were shot by the man's other companions. Lying in a state of near death, Miyuki was then saved by Tatsuya who used his innate ability Regrowth for the first time on another person. After this incident, Miyuki changed her front attitude towards her brother and was shocked when she learned about Tatsuya's emotions.

Abilities

Miyuki Ability

Miyuki is very intelligent, earning top grades on all her assignments/homework, exams, classes, etc. In addition, she is very talented with various kinds of magic due to being part of the Yotsuba. To fulfil her duties to the family, Miyuki has been extensively trained as a lady, undertaking extensive classes on the subjects and training required, including social dances, etiquette, musical instruments and many other subjects. Combined with her magic training since she was very young, Miyuki was left with little personal time for herself.[13]

Physical Abilities

Like Tatsuya, Miyuki also received martial arts training from Kokonoe Yakumo, albeit to a lesser degree. While Miyuki is by no means a physical combatant, she remains in excellent shape and has far more physical strength than her appearance would imply.

Magical Abilities

Again, like Tatsuya, Miyuki boasts a tremendous Psion count and has great magical endurance. Unlike Tatsuya, however, Miyuki excels in all forms of standard modern magic, having great magical power, interference strength, and invocation speed. In fact, even as a first year, her magic power is said to be so great that no student at First High School (both in her year and the years above) could match her, to the point that both Mayumi and Mari finds it is difficult if not impossible to believe that someone in the same age bracket as her (which refers to Lina) could stand up to her Magic Power. Furthermore, Miyuki boasts tremendous offensive and defensive magic power that she can easily pull off magic of the highest levels proving she is a formidable magician. Despite not being an apostle, the scale of her magic is on strategic class level and her control over her magic focuses more on reducing the area of effect than strengthening it[14].

She is also adept at cyclical breathing.

As her magic abilities are revealed bit by bit throughout the series, it is shown that Miyuki possesses the traits of the first Yotsuba lineage; a mental manipulation ability that was strengthened or unique.

Sensory Abilities

Miyuki has the ability to detect the state of Eidos, or "information," through touch and smell. Not much is known about the extent of her sensory abilities, but she is able to use her senses to "smell" that Tatsuya had been in a fight with over 10 people and was injured in that fight. She also later, used her touch to receive the information from Tatsuya which he captures by his special eyes, in order to let her become informed of the whereabouts of enemies before using her magic to render their weapons useless.

Just as Tatsuya could use sight to capture "information", so too could Miyuki detect "information" through touch. However, Miyuki was more capable than that, as she could also use smell to receive knowledge that was practically instinct.

—Tatsuya on Miyuki's sensory abilities, Volume 11, Chapter 14

Systematic Magic

MKnR-AN-Rem-TVSpecial-GIF-12

Miyuki practicing Niflheim

While Miyuki is very talented at magic, her specialty is Speed typed magic and one of the division of speed type magic is Freezing magic,[15] which slow downs vibrations, her magic is suited for large scale magic over a wide area. It is hinted that this tendency is a manifestation of her sui generis innate magic, Mental Interference Magic Cocytus. She is a skilled magician, and while she does not specialize in precision targeting, she is still able to accurately snipe 16 targets at once and can pick out target among many or vast range easily.

Inferno is a Medium-Scale Oscillation-Type Magic. A magic which reverses the heat energy within a set area. Areas of bitter cold and scorching heat occur in adjacent regions. By dividing the target area into two sections and decreasing the kinetic and rotational energy of all objects within one section, this surplus energy could be released into the other section in the form of heat. This way, conservation of energy is still maintained while applying the principle of reverse entropy from thermodynamics. It is mentioned that this spell is used in the examination to become a Rank A Magicians.[16]
Niflheim is a Wide-Area Deceleration-Attribute Oscillation-Type Magic and considered a Rank A Freezing Magic that is able to produce dry ice and even liquid nitrogen from the air. This technique ignores heat and appearance, using magic to uniformly cool down all the objects within a set area.[17]
Glacial Age is an ultra-wide area effect cooling magic on par with Strategic Class Magic. The spell is an extension of the Deceleration/Oscillation type wide-area magic ‘Niflhiem’ and invoked using the process of ‘Chain-Casting’ utilized by ‘Tuman Bomba’ and ‘Ocean Blast’. In the situation where it is used in an area of open sea, it reaches up to about twenty kilometers in diameter, and because it requires aiming from such a difficult long distance, it uses an exclusive specialized CAD with the potential to invoke at long distances.[18]
Freeze Flame is a Wide-Area Deceleration-Attribute Oscillation-Type Magic that freezes fire. It is a conceptual magic that prevented anything from burning. This magic can suppress the temperature of targets within a certain threshold. Against this spell, most firearms become useless as it becomes impossible to ignite gunpowder and fire projectiles.[19]
Miyuki's Counter Magic. It is used solely to shut down all magic with the exception of your own. Miyuki's Zone Interference is one of the best in the world and is so powerful that even Tatsuya and Lina have troubles under it.[20]
Deceleration Zone is a fairly common magic used to slow down movement of objects within a target area. But when Miyuki uses it, the targets extended to gas molecules too. Miyuki utilizes this spell, which is only used in battle as a second option to reduce the impact of projectiles when lacking the power to outright stop them, as a two-fold anti-personnel magic due to her overwhelming magic power. This is illustrated in her fight against Angelina Kudou Shields.[21]

Outer-Systematic Magic

This is Miyuki's true magic specialty and the category of magic that covers her innate ability: Mental Interference Magic. Outer-Systematic Magic does not manipulate the Eidos to produce phenomenon like Systematic Magic nor does it manipulate Psions like Non-Systematic Magic, but it manipulates the spirits themselves.[22]

In the Yotsuba family, each individual possessed a unique inherited ability which varied into two types.[22] For some, they would have calculation area that was warped by a strong power, produce strong and unique/specialized magics for them (i.e. Kuroba Ayako's Perfect Diffusion,[23] Tatsuya's Decomposition). For others, they would have some form of Mental Interference Magic ability unique to them that could not be classified within Systematic Magic. For examples, Miya, Miyuki's mother, possessed an Outer-Systematic Magic called Mental Design Interference,[24] and Fumiya has Direct Pain.[25]

However, in Miyuki's case, she possesses both traits; a strong and unique/specialized Mental Interference Magic ability.

Cocytus is Miyuki's innate unique magic. Unlike her other Freezing Magic spells, Cocytus doesn't affect physical temperature. Instead, it freezes the mind and spirit. Miyuki is skilled enough with this magic to selectively choose whose minds to freeze even if the target is among a closely-packed people. However, because she serves as Tatsuya's magic limiter, this very unique and powerful ability becomes more available to her when she removes the seal to Tatsuya's magic power.[22] During the events of the Master Clans Conference, it is revealed that Miyuki almost uses Cocytus while maintaining the seal.[26]
  • Mental Interference Magic - Magic Limiter - Pledge
Miyuki is able to seal away a large portion of another person's power. Under Maya's orders, Miyuki uses this ability to seal most of Tatsuya's power, including his Material Burst spell. This costs her half of her Magic Calculation Area and her impeccable control of her magic power. This loss of control causes her to subconsciously freeze her surroundings when she loses control of her emotions.
It is later revealed that at the cost of all her Magic Calculation Area, Miyuki can seal away Tatsuya's Elemental Sight. It has been implied that once Miyuki places this particular seal because she no longer has any space in her magic processor, she is unable to use the magic to undo the seal or any other magic.
At present, Pledge was removed permanently.
Luna Strike paralyzes the mind by forcibly loosening the bonds of will so that emotions will run rampant through a phantom blow.[27]

Non-Systematic Magic

Freeze Gram is a counter magic that Miyuki learned with the help of Tatsuya. It is most effective against non-systematic magic, including Cast Jamming. She is able to freeze the magic sequences in the activation stage and render CADs useless.[28]

Achievements

Nine-Schools Competition - 1st Year (AD 2095)

Miyuki is selected as one of the athletes for their school's team and participates the competition in two events for Newcomer Division. She is known by many people as the Ace of First High School's freshmen team and become popular quickly for various reasons during the competition.

Mirage Bat

She was initially registered for the Newcomers' Mirage Bat competition. But due to an accident befalling Mari, she was moved to the Official Division. In the Official Division, she used the Flying Magic Specialized CAD that her brother made recently as Taurus Silver and claimed the First Place in the match by a large margin.

Ice Pillar Break

MKnR-AN-S1-E13-SC-IcePillarMiyuki

Miyuki in Ice Pillar Break

Miyuki participated in the Newcomer's Division and won the first place after a magnificent match against Kitayama Shizuku, displaying a high level of magic skills on a level that exceeded that expected of a high school student.

Nine-Schools Competition - 2st Year (AD 2096)

Ice Pillar Break - Solo

She won first place again.

Steeplechase Cross-Country

She won 1st place in women division.

Trivia

  • Shiba Miyuki was probably based on the Hindu goddess Parvati, with whom she shares many similarities and parallels to. Parvati is often hailed as the most beautiful of all the goddesses and the most powerful; she was also extremely devoted to her husband, Shiva, and is his great love and the main reason for getting involved in earthly affairs despite his general indifference to everything. Moreover, Parvati's name in Chinese (雪山神女) and one of her names in Japanese (雪冰天女) bear the "snow" (雪) character and roughly translate into "Snow Mountain Goddess" and "Celestial Snow Maiden" respectively.
  • Some of Miyuki's spells (such as Inferno, Niflheim, and Cocytus) are named after a certain place or aspect of the underworld or afterlife.
  • The kanji of "Miyuki" means "deep snow".
  • True to her name, most of the spells Miyuki has displayed so far in the series are related to ice and/or freezing.
  • Miyuki appears as a cameo in Durarara!! series. She appears as a painting in the side of Kyohei Kadota's van. After the door is broken by Shizuo Heiwajima during Saika arc, since then, Miyuki always appears in Durarara!! manga and anime series.
  • An image of Tatsuya and Miyuki can be found in the ending credits of season 1 episode 24 of Accel World's anime, a poster advertising the manga appears episode 6.
  • In a character popularity poll held on the official anime website of Mahouka, Miyuki was voted by fans as the 2nd most popular character in the series, just behind Tatsuya, amassing a total of 5,770 votes.
  • Miyuki and Yukinoshita Yukino from the OreGairu series shares several similarities such as: they are both voiced by Saori Hayami, both have the "snow" (雪) (yuki) character in their names, being the top honor student in their respective schools, both are the deuteragonist of their series, they are both the second born child of their respective families while their love interest is the protagonist and the first born child. Coincidentally, Miyuki's mother: Shiba Miya and Yukino's mother are voiced by Kikuko Inoue making Inoue and Hayami once again portray a mother and daughter role respectively.

References

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