Honorary Sidekick: Kanoe

Film: X (or X/1999) (English title)
             Ekkusu (Japanese title)

Voices: Atsuko Takahata (Japanese) (Feature film)
                  Denica Fairman (English) (Feature film)
                 Kaho Kouda (Japanese) (TV series)
                 Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English) (TV series)

The Character

Kanoe is Princess Hinoto’s younger sister (and her only blood relative), although I find it slightly bizarre that Hinoto is referred to as a Princess whilst Kanoe is now. These two sisters could not be any different from each other, in looks and in personality.

While Hinoto supports the Dragons of Heaven, Kanoe supports the Dragons of Earth, although her motive for doing so changes in each format of “X”. In the film and manga, her motivations seem to be out of love for Hinoto, wishing to free from her “prison” as a dreamseer. This truth is more prominent in the film for this confession is said by Kanoe as she lays wounded before dying in Hinoto’s arms. In the film, despite them being on opposite sides, there seems to be no bitterness between them. The TV series shows a far different side to Kanoe: she admits to despising Hinoto whow as always treated better than her for having strong dreamseer powers (whilst Kanoe is also a dreamseer, her powers are limited). Throughout the TV series, Hinoto is tortured by the fact that she has dreamt that the Dragons of the Earth and the “Earth” Kamui will destroy the Dragons of Heaven and the “Heaven” Kamui, bringing the end to humanity. As Hinoto’s predictions have always been correct, Hinoto knows she cannot change it and this sadness tortures her. Kanoe has seen Hinoto’s dreams and plans to make it a reality by bringing the Dragons of Earth together and helping them in order to make her big sister suffer.

Her ability is to enter and leave dreams like Hinoto and Kakyõ but she cannot dream about the future.  However, in the film, Kanoe is a complete dreamseer, an equal to her sister Hinoto in powers and abilities.

She works as a secretary in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building although this is not revealed in the film.

Whilst Kanoe looks like a china doll, to be honest, Kanoe looks and is more promiscuous. In the film, she is dressed in a long robe that shows off her well-endowed chest. She wears stockings that reach up to her thighs. In the TV series, her outfit is toned to that of a business suit.

Her behaviour reflects this as well. In the TV series and manga, she is in a sexual relationship with Yūto but she also flirts with Satsuki and Fūma. It is noticeable that even though she is in a sexual relationship with Yūto, she senses in the TV series that he is going to be late for her tea gathering and shows no emotion when Yūto dies. She is slightly more emotional when Satsuki dies.  

It is her sexual manner that could be responsible for Fūma to be with the Dragons of Earth in the film. In the TV series, Fūma has no contact with Kanoe until he becomes the other Kamui. In the film, she attempts to seduce Fūma into her way of thinking.

Her fate differs in each format as well. In the manga and film, she dies but in the TV series, she lives. Her death varies in each format. In the film, she is killed by Fūma just before the Final Battle. As he lies dying in Hinoto’s arms, she explains her reasons for bringing the Dragons of the Earth together.

Her death is very different in the manga (Volume 19 Chapter 3 pages 13-17). She enters Hinoto’s dreams when she hears Hinoto crying for help (by this point, Dark Hinoto has taken over). Unfortunately, Kanoe discovers that her older sister is trapped in the dreamscape and becomes confused when Hinoto’s dark side appears and directly confronts her. Soon afterwards, Kamui senses Kanoe’s death.  However, it has become a debate on who actually killed her; whether it was Hinoto, Dark Hinoto or even Fuma for he is seen holding up her body (Page 17)

She survives in the TV series and we can imply that she survives the Final Battle between Kamui and Fuma because her last appearance in the series is in “Betrayal” (episode 22). It is here we find out her motives and her hatred for her sister. However, when Hinoto commits suicide, Kanoe cries for her sister and this is the last we see of her.

This final scene is open to interpretation. On first glance, Kanoe looks as if she is grieving for her sister and that maybe, deep down, she did love Hinoto, despite their sibling rivalry. However, Kanoe’s goal throughout the series is to do whatever she could to make her sister suffer and she has never once shown a hint of remorse or sympathy towards her older sister. Now that Hinoto is dead and is no longer in pain, Kanoe cannot see Hinoto’s reaction to the Dragons of Earth winning so in that way, Kanoe has failed and her work has been in vain. Her role is finished for she is one of the few main characters where we do not know her destiny or fate after the Final Battle.

The voices behind the character

In the film, I love Takahata’s Kanoe; she is so dark and seductive and I love her chuckle when she has captured Kotori. She is less wooden than her English counterpart, Denica Fairman.

As with most fans, I think for the most part, the English dub for the feature film is awful….not the worst but awful. Most of the voices sound wooden but I personally feel as with the Japanese dub that Fairman was the only one to come close to perfection. She captures the dark seductive tone of Kaneoe perfectly, almost to the standard of Takahata.

When it comes to the TV series, whilst Kouda is almost the same as Takahata, Kouda does not have the seductive voice as Takahata has and her assertiveness/bitterness is more at the surface, especially when it comes to Kanoe’s confrontations with Hinoto.

They could not have chosen someone so different from Fairman. Whilst McGlynn has the darkness and bitterness is her tone and she is less wooden than Fairman, the seductive tone is completely lost, except for a few scenes. Seriously, even though I am supposed to prefer McGlynn, when it comes to the English, I think Fairman is more perfect as Kanoe.

Honorary Villain: Rumi Hidaka

Film: Perfect Blue (English title)
         Pāfekuto Burū (Japanese title)

Voices: Rica Matsumoto (Japanese)
            Wendee Lee (English)

The Character

The character, Rumi is probably as mysterious as Me-Mania but in many ways, she is much more. Me-Mania does come across as the villain at first. After all, he is obsessed with Mima but when you come to the end, you realise that he has been used as a pawn for a much higher power and it is her who is the main villain. Of course, how many of us were shocked when we discovered that the main villain, the one posting the TRAITOR fax, killing Mima’s fish, sending the bombed letter and killing the photographer and agent was Rumi? This was kinda of a let down, more to the fact that Mima is showing symptoms of DID and in the end, it is Rumi who is suffering from the disorder.

I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. I’ll start at the beginning. Rumi is Mima’s agent but she is more than that. She communicates more with Rumi more than her own mother and in a way Rumi is a mother figure. She is against Mima’s choices to be an actress, especially when she has to do a rape scene but as it is Mima’s choice, Rumi is powerless and can only give advice.

We learn that Rumi was once a pop star, just like Mima and you have to wonder if Rumi’s main concern is to protect Mima and have a long-standing career, something that Rumi may have desired but never got the chance to. She could be compared to a mother who is pushing her child to live her dreams. The concern comes in as she watches Mima act out the rape scene; she cries and flees and it is at this point, we can speculate that she went to Mima’s room and killed her fish.

It could be this longing to be like Mima that the DID developed and that she thought she was Mima. Not just Mima; the real Mima and she sees Mima as the fake Mima out to destroy the real Mima. Of course, instead of getting her hands dirty, she gets Me-Mania to do some of the dirty work. In the climax, as we see Rumi as Mima, we see the floating Mima in real life and Rumi only in mirror reflections. This is significant for this signifies that the Mima persona of Rumi has surfaced and Rumi has been pushed into the background. It should be noted that some of the symptoms of DID include blackouts so it could be that Rumi is unaware of her Mima persona which would make her just a victim of her own mind as Me-Mania and Mima are.

The voices behind the character

Wendee Lee is pretty good as Rumi. She’s really convincing as Rumi and she makes the twist so much more fun and heightens up the theory that Rumi has no idea that she has problems and is actually the one trying to hurt Mima. She gives off the impression of Rumi as a concerned mother rather than a pushy agent. And the fact that she makes Rumi sound almost robotic in the climax works in her favour for we know then that Rumi isn’t conscious of what she is doing.

Rica Matsumoto is softer in her tones than Lee is.  She is less abrasive and angry in her confrontations although the assertive is still there. In the final climax, she is less robotic than Lee but is more girlish almost matching Junko Iwao’s Mima perfectly.