Lady Appreciation Post: Rina Toin
Fri-day, Fri-day, new Lady Post on Fri-day... Yes I have "Friday" stuck in my head and I feel NO SHAME WHATSOEVER.
And a new Young Justice episode to catch up on later. Joy!
"I"ve thawed myself from that icy cold wave and don"t know where my tears lie."
--"Star Jewel", Rina's image song
As I've made pretty clear in the past, my favorite anime is the shoujo series Mermaid Melody, in all its cheesy, hyper-girly, repetitive, frustrating glory.
Today's lady is a big reason why.
I just love Rina. She's yet another badass green Magical Girl that captured my heart with her awesome and hasn't let go. (For some reason I always really like and identify with the green-themed girls. Idk what it is, it's like the color just imbues the lady character with pure distilled amazing and the right combination of character traits that appeal to me.)
Maybe that's just my color bias speaking.
Rina is the mermaid princess of the North Atlantic Ocean. We first meet her on land, appearing as a new student at Luchia and Hanon's school. And, unabashedly, wearing a boy's school uniform.
Let's be fair though, the pink girls' uniform would look silly on her.
I think that's the first thing that attracted me to her character. Like Kino Makoto, Sailor Jupiter, she's a little tomboyish. Still feminine in a lot of ways, but with just a bit of a rebellious masculine edge. (Rina is, in fact, the only mermaid princess who gets into physical altercations during the series.) She's feels no qualms about confronting Kaito with his disturbing resemblance to his (unknown at the time) twin brother Gaito, the villain responsible for the destruction of Rina's kingdom and the capture of her best friend Noel, mermaid princess of the Arctic Ocean. Rina feels personally responsible for both events, and has moments where she withdraws from the companionship of the others and angsts about it.
Most of the time, though, she is a quiet, thoughtful girl with a little bit of a sarcastic streak. She acts as an older sister to Hanon and Luchia, and often helps them out with the trio's zany schemes and romance woes. Oftentimes she's the voice of reason among them.
She also likes to laugh. Japanese comedies are her favorite thing to watch. And plasma TVs her favorite thing to watch them on. Her geekish obsession with them throughout the series is adorable and hilarious. She's strong and independant, sometimes cynical, but always very level-headed and collected.
As the show went on, we saw that in spite of her tough-girl exterior, she's remarkably vulnerable when it comes to love. When sick with a fever and briefly crushing on Kaito, for example, though she stubbornly insisted to herself that the fever was making her feelings all whacky and she wasn't really in love with him, the end of the episode showed her looking a little wistfully after Kaito and Luchia as they spend time together during a festival. Rina manages to get over this brief infatuation with no ill effects upon herself or her relationship with Luchia, but it demonstrated how insecure and fearful she is about opening up fully and allowing herself to love. Rina's a little afraid to love, because she's afraid of losing what she loves.
Rina looking cutely Woobie.
Hence why it was so hard for her to open up to Masahiro at first. Rina has trust issues and worries about having to hide who and what she really is. But with a little warm persistence, Masahiro cracked her shell, and she let him in, and let her anxieties (mostly) drift away on the tide, in favor of seizing a little happiness for herself.
They'resoadorableohgoshIlovethem!
Rina takes her duties to her country very seriously. She loves her people, and wants what's best for them, and worried like heck about them after her kingdom was destroyed. She was overjoyed to find out later that her citizens were okay. Rina always strives to be the best princess she can, even if that means denying herself a more serious relationship with Masahiro. Duty is always tugging at her, always an undercurrent in her thoughts. She is first determined to punish Gaito and rescue Noel. Then to gathering all the mermaid princesses. Then to the efforts to rebuild. Rina's always the most mission conscious of the main trio, and keeps the group focused on their current task at hand.
And she always got the most awesome moments in the series. Like beating up a carful of annoying jerks hitting on her. And having a Big Damn Heroes badass dive into the ocean to save Luchia and Hanon from the song of the Black Beauty Sisters. And jumping off a cliff to save Masahiro.
Oh and her image song was the best too.
Strong and beautiful, cool and competent, Rina has a worthy place in my heart.
"Green Pearl Voice!"
And a new Young Justice episode to catch up on later. Joy!
"I"ve thawed myself from that icy cold wave and don"t know where my tears lie."
--"Star Jewel", Rina's image song
As I've made pretty clear in the past, my favorite anime is the shoujo series Mermaid Melody, in all its cheesy, hyper-girly, repetitive, frustrating glory.
Today's lady is a big reason why.
I just love Rina. She's yet another badass green Magical Girl that captured my heart with her awesome and hasn't let go. (For some reason I always really like and identify with the green-themed girls. Idk what it is, it's like the color just imbues the lady character with pure distilled amazing and the right combination of character traits that appeal to me.)
Maybe that's just my color bias speaking.
Rina is the mermaid princess of the North Atlantic Ocean. We first meet her on land, appearing as a new student at Luchia and Hanon's school. And, unabashedly, wearing a boy's school uniform.
Let's be fair though, the pink girls' uniform would look silly on her.
I think that's the first thing that attracted me to her character. Like Kino Makoto, Sailor Jupiter, she's a little tomboyish. Still feminine in a lot of ways, but with just a bit of a rebellious masculine edge. (Rina is, in fact, the only mermaid princess who gets into physical altercations during the series.) She's feels no qualms about confronting Kaito with his disturbing resemblance to his (unknown at the time) twin brother Gaito, the villain responsible for the destruction of Rina's kingdom and the capture of her best friend Noel, mermaid princess of the Arctic Ocean. Rina feels personally responsible for both events, and has moments where she withdraws from the companionship of the others and angsts about it.
Most of the time, though, she is a quiet, thoughtful girl with a little bit of a sarcastic streak. She acts as an older sister to Hanon and Luchia, and often helps them out with the trio's zany schemes and romance woes. Oftentimes she's the voice of reason among them.
She also likes to laugh. Japanese comedies are her favorite thing to watch. And plasma TVs her favorite thing to watch them on. Her geekish obsession with them throughout the series is adorable and hilarious. She's strong and independant, sometimes cynical, but always very level-headed and collected.
As the show went on, we saw that in spite of her tough-girl exterior, she's remarkably vulnerable when it comes to love. When sick with a fever and briefly crushing on Kaito, for example, though she stubbornly insisted to herself that the fever was making her feelings all whacky and she wasn't really in love with him, the end of the episode showed her looking a little wistfully after Kaito and Luchia as they spend time together during a festival. Rina manages to get over this brief infatuation with no ill effects upon herself or her relationship with Luchia, but it demonstrated how insecure and fearful she is about opening up fully and allowing herself to love. Rina's a little afraid to love, because she's afraid of losing what she loves.
Rina looking cutely Woobie.
Hence why it was so hard for her to open up to Masahiro at first. Rina has trust issues and worries about having to hide who and what she really is. But with a little warm persistence, Masahiro cracked her shell, and she let him in, and let her anxieties (mostly) drift away on the tide, in favor of seizing a little happiness for herself.
They'resoadorableohgoshIlovethem!
Rina takes her duties to her country very seriously. She loves her people, and wants what's best for them, and worried like heck about them after her kingdom was destroyed. She was overjoyed to find out later that her citizens were okay. Rina always strives to be the best princess she can, even if that means denying herself a more serious relationship with Masahiro. Duty is always tugging at her, always an undercurrent in her thoughts. She is first determined to punish Gaito and rescue Noel. Then to gathering all the mermaid princesses. Then to the efforts to rebuild. Rina's always the most mission conscious of the main trio, and keeps the group focused on their current task at hand.
And she always got the most awesome moments in the series. Like beating up a carful of annoying jerks hitting on her. And having a Big Damn Heroes badass dive into the ocean to save Luchia and Hanon from the song of the Black Beauty Sisters. And jumping off a cliff to save Masahiro.
Oh and her image song was the best too.
Strong and beautiful, cool and competent, Rina has a worthy place in my heart.
"Green Pearl Voice!"