Kai Shimako (甲斐 志摩子) is a side character featured in the Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse anime.
Total Eclipse[]
A person of samurai descent, Shimako attended the same eishi training school as Takamura Yui, Yamashiro Kazusa, Iwami Aki and Noto Izumi, maintaining good relations with all of them. Unlike her friends, Shimako was more gentle and ordinary in her mannerisms. She eventually completed her training, and was posted to the same unit as Yui and her friends during the BETA invasion of Japan.
Shimako had romantic feelings for her childhood friend, Yui. She knew that given their positions, she would never be able to admit these feelings. Before her deployment, she quietly bid her family goodbye and asked for their forgiveness. Thinking of Yui, she said that she would follow her anywhere regardless of whether her feelings were ever requited. She gazed longingly at her school uniform, forlornly wishing that those pleasant days would never end.
During the BETA's push towards Kyoto, Shimako was deployed alongside Yui in an effort to defend the Arashiyama Supply Base. While the rest of her squadron quickly resupplied, Shimako lagged behind and was forced to stay on the ground while the rest of them took flight to get over the Destroyer-class. Shimako then began to panick and fire into the advancing Destroyers with her 120mm rounds, quickly running out of ammunition. She finally heard the rest of her squadron ordering her to take flight and did so just in time, avoiding the enemy's charge. Thrown into a frenzy, Shimako flew across the battlefield blasting the Destroyer-class, refusing to be a burden to Yui. At the climax of battle, she shouted Yui's name and almost revealed her feelings as she desperately fought to protect her friends.
Kisaragi ordered her to lower her altitude just as she was starting to reach the crest of the covering mountain range. Soon, her friends were shouting for her too, but Shimako didn't understand what they meant. A laser beam intercepted her Zuikaku, but Shimako didn't realize this until it was too late, and the beam quickly burned through her TSF's anti-laser coating and reached the cockpit. Shimako was engulfed in flames for only a moment before her Zuikaku exploded, the remnants falling to earth in a blazing fireball.
In the anime version, she was overly-elated from her success and failed to take note of her TSF's flying height, and as a result, was shot down and killed when Laser-class BETA fired upon her unit, making her the first casualty of her squadron.
Etymology[]
- Kai means "worth, avail, effect, result, use" (甲斐).
- Shimako means "will, purpose" (志) (shi), "chafe, rub, polish, grind, scrape" (摩) (ma) and "child" (子) (ko).
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