- Note: This article covers both versions of Yumiko appearing in Crossfire and Hellsing. Information covering Crossfire may, or may not be canon, as Hirano stated that Crossfire is somehow a connected, yet unconnected world.
Yumiko Takagi (高木 由美子?), also known as Yumie (由美江?), is a supporting antagonist in the Hellsing series created by Kohta Hirano. She is voiced by Yuuko Kaida in the Japanese sub and Siobhan Flynn in the English dub.
She was a nun working for Section XIII. A skilled swordswoman, she usually partners on missions with Heinkel Wulf, Yumiko is one of the key members of Iscariot and was an orphan under the teaching of Alexander Anderson.
Appearance[]
She has long black hair which becomes visible when she removes the cowl to fight. Her eyes are colored dark brown or red at different points during the OVA. Yumie prefers to remove the nun's cowl, keeping the scarf around her neck and letting her hair flow free. Yumie also has slightly narrower eyes and usually can be seen with a maniacal grin. She also carries her katana, holding the sheath in one hand and the blade in the other when in use. She wields the sword in either hand.
Yumiko always dresses in a standard Catholic nun's uniform, which consists of a black habit, a nun's hooded cowl, a white scarf, white gloves, white stockings held with a garter belt, and black boots. In the Crossfire miniseries, Yumiko is shown wearing glasses to prevent her more violent personality, Yumie, out. In the manga and on the back of her gloves, it was seen to have an inscription similar to that of Anderson's.
Personality[]
Yumie was impulsive and violent, showing no fear of anything and preferring to negotiate using the sharp end of her katana. She seems to genuinely enjoy killing those who opposes them and monsters.[3][4] She was loyal to her fellow Iscariots but doesn't hesitate to argue or chide them for actions she disagrees with.[5][6]
In Crossfire, her personality is a bit more explored. Here, we see that Yumiko has a split personality[7]:
- The gentle, violence-hating Yumiko, who's timid and quite innocent.[8]
- The ultra-violent Yumie, who'll gladly kill sinners without remorse.[9]
Both Yumiko and Yumie are devout to their religion; however, Yumie is a fanatical Catholic and seems to genuinely enjoy killing "heathens" and "unbelievers" with her superhuman sword skills.[10] Yumiko has commented how hard it is for her to "get Yumie to sleep" after she has been provoked into action.[11] Her personalities switch places, either by dueling for control inside of their mind[12], or a strong blow.[13] Heinkel uses this technique to awaken the latent Yumie and have her brutally kill several terrorists in chapter 1 of Crossfire.[14]
To put it simply, Yumiko was a shy, quiet nun who gets easily frightened, whereas Yumie provides raw, unfettered violence with her nigh-superhuman strength, fearlessness, and fearsome katana skills that make her the ideal partner to Heinkel.[15] Maxwell often berates the pair, not because of their excessive violence, but rather because of their activities as assassins, mentioned as to have been dressed in the raiment's of the Catholic Church, indicating a connection to the Vatican and by proxy to Iscariot, which is supposed to be a secret agency outside normal knowledge.[16]
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- Heinkel Wulf: Yumiko maintains a close relationship with Heinkel, someone she grew up with alongside Maxwell under the care and direct teachings of Anderson.[17][18] Heinkel is also her partner during agency missions from Iscariot, both are extremely competent duo with skills although widely different, compliments one and another.[19] Heinkel was able to kept her composure when Anderson's remains were stepped on, but Yumiko went berserk and hastily confronted Walter. It was not until Yumiko's death Heinkel went to make a move herself in a fit of rage, however was put to a stop by The Captain.[20] Heinkel later pursued Walter in the name of revenge for the deaths of Yumiko and stepping on Anderson's remains.[21]
- Alexander Anderson: Yumiko was among of those raised and taught by Anderson personally. With Anderson's teachings, Yumiko climbed up the ranks of the Vatican with Maxwell and Heinkel.[22][23] Although Anderson and Yumiko both have had their share fair of conflicts with one and another, Yumiko greatly respects Anderson.[24] When Anderson fell, Heinkel and Yumiko both cried. After Anderson's remains were disrespected by the vampirized Walter, Yumiko was the one who took hasty action to kill Walter that ended up causing her death.[25] Heinkel later sought revenge on Walter for the two.[26]
Enemies[]
- Walter C. Dornez: When Walter stepped on Anderson's remains, Yumiko was greatly enraged and the midst of the former Master and Servant bantering with each other, Yumiko stepped in and unleashed Zhong Kui on Walter, who countered it without moving an inch and instantly killed the angered Yumiko; who proclaimed that, she does not care about their master-and-servant crap.[27]
Powers and Abilities[]
- Note: Although the violent personality of Yumiko, the one capable of smashing heads into walls with ease, are referred to with a different name; they are nonetheless the same person, so she will entirely be referred to as "Yumiko" to avoid confusion.
Abilities and Skills | ||
---|---|---|
While it's hard to imagine this gentle, violence-hating pacifist would actually turn out to be one of the deadliest assassins alive at her time, along with Heinkel, her other personality, however, was a character that's meant to be feared; she was capable of smashing heads into walls and genuinely enjoys killing herethics.[28][29] Yumie's raw strength, fearlessness, and fearsome katana skills make her the ideal partner to Heinkel, who is imperturbable, cool-headed, and analytical despite the snarky and trigger-happy side of her personality. | ||
Superhuman Strength: She was capable of smashing men's heads into walls with her bare hands, as shown in Crossfire.[30] She's strong enough to cut through crowds of vampires and familiars without tiring.[31][32] In particular, she was able to cleanly slice through a brute familiar that Anderson couldn't get through.[33] | ||
Superhuman Speed and Reflexes: In Hellsing, Yumiko was shown to be very fast that she turned into a streak of blue light that even artificial vampires can't react to fast enough.[34][35][36] This ability is showcased more in depth in the OVA, where she directly dodged a bullet before slicing multiple Millennium Battalion in seconds.[37] Overconfident, she was killed by Walter because of her hasty decision of using Zhong Kui, which also enables the use of this ability.[38] | ||
Swordsmanship: Yumiko, unlike Heinkel, is a superb swordswoman. Even without her battoujutsu techniques, she was able to skillfully slice through familiars and artificial vampires with much ease.[39][40][41] This makes a contrast with Heinkel's marksmanship, making them a quite imposing duo among heretics and freaks alike.[42] | ||
Combat Experience: Trained under the teaching of Father Anderson, Yumiko has gone through so much assassination missions under the orders of Iscariot; therefore, gaining much experience in the process.[43] When half of the Iscariot's Armed Priest Vanguard died in battle during their first encounter with Millennium Vampires, Yumiko was one of the few that had survived.[44] Yumiko also later survived the encounter with Alucard's familiars[45], though died shortly afterwards at the hands of Walter.[46] | ||
Battoujutsu Techniques | ||
Yumiko knows various Battoujutsu (抜刀術 lit. "The Art of Sword Drawing"?) techniques. Techniques she's adept and mastered in includes that of "Shimabara Battouryuu (島原抜刀流?)[47]" and "Shimabara Battouiai-ryuu (島原抜刀居合流?).[48]" | ||
Shimabara Battouryuu | ||
Syu-sui (秋水?):[49] The art of drawing a sword, before slashing and dismembering attackers all fast enough before they could even react. First used by Yumiko quickly after awakening Yumie, and her actions shortly after announcing her awakening to the armed terrorists. | ||
Zhong Kui (鍾馗?):[50] The art of approaching your enemy, slash them, then go behind their backs and eliminate them fast enough before they could even react; ability is used with Yumiko's superhuman speed. Possibly used only on strong opponents. First and last used by Yumiko on Walter, though the ability was countered by Walter's filament which caused Yumiko's death shortly after hastily using Zhong Kui in a fit of rage. | ||
Shimabara Battouiai-ryuu | ||
Shinden (震電?):[51] An assassination technique used by Yumiko, where enemies are caught off-guard before they are then cut in half swiftly by the user of Shinden. Used by Yumiko to start the attack on the compound of Ilyushin. | ||
Tenzan (天山?):[52] An assassination technique used by Yumiko, where enemies are swiftly blinded before getting finished afterwards; even blocking the attack is futile. Used by Yumiko to land the winning blow against Ilyushin, who hopelessly tried to block the attack; causing her knife to get sliced in two while her eyes are sliced, blinding her. |
Equipment[]
Yumiko, in her missions for the Iscariot Organization, likes to use a Katana (刀?) to carry out her objectives, which usually involve violence and slicing enemies to shreds. Her Katana may be blessed due to the fact that in the OVAs, the katana was seen flashing blue, like how Anderson's bayonets and ammo from Alucard's guns glow. Her katana was destroyed by Walter's microfiliament wires. |
Concept and Creation[]
Yumiko, like Heinkel, is a character brought back from the Crossfire mini-series by Hirano. Although the canonicity of Crossfire is left ambiguous with Hirano's contradictions with his statements for the series, including stating that the world of Crossfire is somehow a connected, yet unconnected world, Hirano states that Yumie does indeed retains her split personality in the Hellsing series just like her Crossfire counterpart.[53] However, Hirano found it difficult to utilize her split personality into the main story of Hellsing, and also thought that there were too many side characters to handle.[54] Yumiko is noted to be the only named Hellsing character stated to be of Japanese ethnicity.
Name[]
The Japanese characters for "Yumiko" (由美子) and "Yumie" (由美江) differ only on the last syllable. Many people tend to make the mistake of Yumie "Yumee", pronounced with two syllables, instead of the correct name, "Yum-ee-eh" (three syllables). Yumi (由美), Yumiko (由美子), and Yumie (由美江) are all different names. Yumi, however, forms the base name for both Yumiko and Yumie. Yumi, as written, is composed of the kanji for "Significance/Reason" and "Beauty". The name "Yumiko" adds the character for "Child" to the end (子 ko) — which seems to be metaphorically symbolic of Yumiko, who is more innocent and childlike than violent Yumie. The name Yumie adds the character for "Inlet" (江 e).
Trivia[]
- Laura, a character from the original Hellsing anime, shares the same English voice actor as Yumiko.
- Yumiko, Sir Arthur Hellsing, Sir Shelby M. Penwood, Enrico Maxwell, Rip Van Winkle, and Schrödinger are the only characters in Hellsing that doesn't have many name variants across Japanese sources and official translations.
References[]
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 10
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate V
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate V
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate VI
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 10
- ↑ During the times she's Yumiko, she's so gentle she wouldn't even harm an insect.
- ↑ But when she's Yumie, she possesses a power which more than compensates for problems. If I must say it, well I suppose... She's a berserker.
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 12, 17
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 6
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 6
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 7
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 7
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 10
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 pp. 21-22
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate VIII ending
- ↑ Order 66: Might and Magic (2) chapter cover
- ↑ Crossfire
- ↑ Order 71: Relics pp. 4-10
- ↑ Order 73: Finesthour (1) pp. 4-6
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate VIII ending
- ↑ Order 66: Might and Magic (2) chapter cover
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate VIII
- ↑ Order 71: Relics pp. 4-6
- ↑ Order 73: Finesthour (1) pp. 4-6
- ↑ Order 71: Relics pp. 4-6
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 11
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 2
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 11
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate V
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate VIII
- ↑ Order 64: Hundred Swords (3) p. 9
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate V
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate VIII
- ↑ Order 71: Relics pp. 4-6
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate V
- ↑ Order 71: Relics pp. 4-6
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate V
- ↑ Hellsing: Ultimate VIII
- ↑ Order 64: Hundred Swords (3) p. 9
- ↑ Crossfire
- ↑ Crossfire
- ↑ Order 43: Gun Bullet
- ↑ Order 65: Might and Magic (1)
- ↑ Order 71: Relics
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 p. 13
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 2 p. 10
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 1 pp. 13-15
- ↑ Order 71: Relics pp. 4-6; Alternatively known as "Shoki"
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 2 p. 10
- ↑ Crossfire: Chapter 2 p. 17
- ↑ HELLSING official guide book Kohta Hirano Vs. Interviewer: Battle 01
- ↑ HELLSING official guide book Kohta Hirano Vs. Interviewer: Battle 02