Himi (ヒミ) is a supporting protagonist in the film The Boy and the Heron. She is referred to as Lady Himi, who can cast flame magic to fend off monsters and animals in the world, powers that are granted by the world stone.
History[]
Mahito first encounters her when she attacks the pelicans who are trying to eat the Warawara using her powers. He at first yells at her to stop as some of her flames are killing the warawara, but Kiriko tells him it is fine because it means more Warawara will be able to be born.
Later on, Lady Himi saves Mahito when he is nearly killed by the parakeets at the blacksmith's house. At first, telling him off as the brat who interrupted her earlier, she is intrigued when he explains he is looking for his stepmother Natsuko, whom Himi recognizes as her sister (to Mahito's confusion). She takes him to her house and feeds him bread, which he remarks is identical to what his mother used to make. She uses her magic to guide him to the World Stone to track down Natsuko, but the Stone's powers incapacitate the two.
The Parakeet King finds the unconscious Lady Himi and decides to return her to Mahito's Great Uncle, her own Uncle, hoping to use this to become the new ruler of the World of the Dead. Himi is reunited with her Great Uncle, who had earlier tried to get Mahito to take his place, but has come to realize that both of them need to return to the real world. Himi reunites with Mahito before bringing him to the Great Uncle. Eventually, due to the Parakeet King's actions, the world is destroyed, but Mahito and Himi are able to escape with the Gray Heron and Kiriko, respectively. Mahito asks Himi to come with him, but Himi tells him she cannot, as they have both come to realize she is actually the younger version of his mother, Hisako and she must return to her own time so that she can eventually give birth to him. They bid each other a fond farewell before returning to their respective timelines.
Trivia[]
- Himi's English dub voice actor, Karen Fukuhara, is a native speaker of Japanese (it having been her first language). Owing to her fluency in the language, Fukuhara initially modeled her vocal performance as Himi after the original Japanese voice track, utilizing similar intonations and vocal choices as Aimyon. However, as production on the dub continued, voice director Michael Sinterniklaas realized that Fukuhara's performance matched Aimyon's so well that it did not entirely mesh with the other English voices, a common problem among Japanese-to-English dubs. Fukuhara was encouraged to instead focus on giving Himi more emotional vulnerability than in the original recording.[1]
References[]
- ↑ "‘The Boy and the Heron’: How GKIDS Pulled Off One of the Most Important Dubs in Anime History". Indiewire. December 7 2023.