Mikuru Asahina (朝比奈みくる Asahina Mikuru) is the fourth member to join the SOS Brigade, and the only person other than Kyon to join against her will. She is extremely cute, and is often harassed by Haruhi Suzumiya. She is secretly a time traveler from the future who came back in time to observe Haruhi. She is best friends with Tsuruya and shows a great talent for brewing tea. Mikuru often has trouble talking to Kyon because many of the things he asks about are "classified" (禁則事項, kinsoku jikō). Mikuru is the mascot for the SOS Brigade, mainly as a way to attract attention. Because she is so popular, Haruhi uses her as eye candy. She starred in The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00.
Description[]
Mikuru is a time traveler who comes from an unknown point in the future. Apparently, Mikuru's future is such that things like boats do not exist, and instead of the Internet, knowledge is stored within people's heads (as well as the TPDD, in a sense). Mikuru is not as important as a character in the anime, but has a great deal of significance (mainly character development) in the later novels such as The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya, The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya, and even has a sole chapter entitled The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina. Mikuru is implied to have feelings for Kyon; however, she is unable to act on these feelings both because engaging in a romantic relationship would incense Haruhi into destroying the world (as seen in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) and because she cannot become involved with anyone while time traveling.
Biography[]
Before embarking on the mission to solve the case that Haruhi has created a time-quake three years prior to the series' beginning, preventing time travel beyond that point, Mikuru underwent mental preparation and hypnosis so that if she reveals anything unnecessary, information regarding time travel will be blocked off from her mind. Thus, whenever she is asked to give information about the future and/or time travel, she is often forced to reply that it is "classified information" (禁則事項, kinsoku jikō). Mikuru resides in Kyon's time as a second-year in high school, thus an upperclassman to the first years Kyon, Haruhi, Yuki, and Itsuki, and yet Haruhi ignores this fact and kidnaps Mikuru to be in the SOS Brigade as the fourth member because of her boy attraction and sex appeal. She says that in every interesting story, there is always an alluring, "lolita"-looking character present. From then on, Mikuru becomes a symbol of cosplay/mascot to Haruhi's whim. Before being forced to join the SOS Brigade, she was a member of the calligraphy club before joining the Brigade.
Mikuru often is forced to take Kyon back in time to perform certain actions, such as taking him to meet the younger Haruhi or helping him save himself from getting killed. However, because of the intervention of a self from a further future, she is often put to sleep and wakes up confused as to what she has accomplished and whether her presence was meaningful or not. Often, Mikuru gets to witness historical events that contribute to time travel being possible, but because she cannot take an action to instigate it (Kyon is usually the instigator), it leads to a sense of hopelessness and uselessness in her.
In The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya, Mikuru is asked by her future self to have Kyon do certain actions that contribute to the invention of time travel by traveling eight days into the past and assisting Kyon in doing so. One task involved inspiring the Bespectacled Boy to think about time travel theories. She is also kidnapped by Fujiwara and Kyouko Tachibana as a bargaining chip with the future authorities, therefore standing in for her past self as otherwise her past self would be kidnapped instead, right in front of Haruhi. Eventually, she is rescued by Kyon, Arakawa, and Sonou Mori.
Mikuru Asahina (Older)[]
A future version of Mikuru, from a farther future than the one the original Mikuru was from, makes her first appearance briefly in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, in order to tell him two things: "Snow White", a clue that helps Kyon get out of an alternate universe he is trapped in with Haruhi, and not to get too close to her past self.
This future Mikuru appears again in Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, putting her younger self to sleep and warning Kyon not to let her younger self know about her. She directs Kyon to Little Haruhi. In The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon returns to that same time and enlists the older Mikuru to help him get back to his original time and universe along with the past Yuki.
Future Mikuru's final appearance is in The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya. After sending Kyon multiple notes about random odd jobs that eventually lead to the invention of time travel and preventing the original Mikuru from getting kidnapped, she appears in person to Kyon and tells him about predetermined events. Kyon begins to show resentment towards the older Mikuru from forcing her past self to witness history and become depressed as a result.
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 (Older) and to the younger Asahina as Asahina-san (younger). Kyon states himself that the reason he does not try to develop Mikuru into a more mature and strong person is because he has already seen her as a mature person, namely this future Mikuru. According to Itsuki, this older Mikuru cannot be trusted. Kyon often wonders if the "superiors" Mikuru often refers to are actually the older Mikuru.
Kyon notes in The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya that the original Mikuru is coming to resemble the older Mikuru, signifying that they must part soon.
Trivia[]
- One possible way of writing the name Mikuru in kanji is 未来る, meaning "yet to come" (i.e. "future")