Yuuki Miaka
Miaka is the girl who happens to be the Suzaku no Miko, and she's basically just
a typical girl in middle-school who hates to study and loves to eat.
Despite occasional displays of ditziness, she does have some courageous
qualities. Still, she's very young and incredibly naive at
times. She succumbs to fits of hysteria and can let loose more tears
than a leaky faucet. Hotohori finds himself falling in love with her
because he believes that he's finally found a woman who will love him not
as an Emperor, but just as a man. He has held on to this dream for some
time, and I believe that if Miaka turned out to be bald with five missing
front teeth, our Hotohori-sama would have still fallen for her.
Unfortunately, Miaka is in love with another drop-dead gorgeous
bishounen type who happens to be one of Hotohori's seven fellow seishi.
Yes, we're talking about Tamahome himself, known to every
single anime otaku as Mr "Wo Ai Ni". So our poor emperor
gets jilted and must face the sting of rejection.
I don't believe that these two could ever
have formed a lasting relationship. Miaka is
too inexperienced to deal with the pressures that come
with ruling a kingdom. And no,let's
not get into the "he could have been reincarnated into the real
world" argument because that just won't fly. He'd never abandon
his country. Besides the fact that Miaka would
have made a terrible empress, I believe that Hotohori
has too many responsibilities on his shoulders to give her the 24-7
attention that she requires. Still, even though Hotohori couldn't make Miaka
fall in love with him, I believe that she's
one of the first true friends our emperor has ever
had. And goodness knows our Hori-sama needs more loyal buddies,
since he seems so utterly lonely at times.
Does Hotohori really love her? On this question I'd love to shout an
emphatic "NO!" and keep denying any proof to the contrary. However,
evidence does show that he might harbor feelings for
Miaka, especially in the earlier part of the series.
He risks his own life a countless number of times to save her,
and he gets upset when Tamahome tries to kill her. Hell,
he calls out her name before he dies!
Which of course I believe to be completely horrifying
for reasons which I will mention later, but if you're curious you
can scroll down to read the section on Houki. One reason why
I refuse to believe that Hotohori
truly loves Miaka is because I don't think he's able to distinguish
between Miaka as an individual and the fact that she's the miko.
Since childhood, he's been building up this incredible image
of how perfect the miko is and how she'll be
able to love him for just being himself. He
seems to be in love with an ideal that he's created more than
Miaka herself.
Chou Ryuuen ~ Nuriko
Who's Nuriko? *megitsune screams and falls over in a hemorraghic
nosebleed* Ahem. Before I go on to give a summary of Nuriko's relationship
with Hotohori,I feel that I must first warn all the
readers that I love Nuriko way too much to be unbiased
=) But as for his relationship with our Hotohori, that
would be another matter entirely.
When Nuriko first appears, he's introduced as one
of the women in Hotohori's harem *ahem...his "consort"*
He's classy, stylish, mischeivous and knows how to let
loose and have fun. The problem is that Nuriko's a man.
Due to the tragic death of his sister Kourin, Nuriko has
been cross-dressing in order to look more like his sister
(and I suppose in order to feel that she's still with him).
And not only does he make an awesome
woman, he's also got a crush on Hotohori! But of course Hotohori
remains oblivious and doesn't see Nuriko as more than a fellow seishi.
And then our loveable cross-dresser ends up falling for Miaka
*yes I'm utterly jealous* and the whole Nuriko-Hotohori relationship
is at a dead end.
I believe that this relationship would have been a match
made in heaven. Nuriko has a fun, vivacious personality
that I believe would be a good balance to Hotohori's serious
and official demeanor. He'd be the perfect person to liven
up the emperor's day! Not only that, but Nuriko's
also incredibly perceptive and gives great advice. Just look
at the way he's always advising Tamahome! He seems
to sympathize with Hotohori because of his unrequited love
of Miaka and is always there to bash Tasuki on the head when he makes
insensitive comments =) Though I believe that Hotohori would never
see Nuriko as anything more than a friend, I do think that Nuriko is
someone who would be the most inclined to understand him.
Now the fact that Hotohori marries a woman who looks
incredibly like Nuriko is obviously going to raise a
few questioning eyebrows. And that takes us onto the next
and last love in the life of our
Hotohori-sama...his wife Houki.
Empress Houki
Houki is the woman whom Hotohori finally decides to settle down with.
Apparently she looks very much like Nuriko, except that she's a woman,
not a cross-dresser. I assume that Houki is part of Hotohori's incredibly
large harem *grins* He marries her while Miaka and the other seishi
are off searching for the shinzaho and fighting the Seiryuu seishi, since
he was stuck doing work while the rest of his buddies were out kicking some
Seiryuu behind (oh don't get me wrong, I love the Seiryuu guys as much as
the Suzaku ones, but hey, the Suzaku seishi are the protagonists!). Well
after Hotohori marries Houki, he soon goes off to war and ends up fighting
with Nakago, getting himself killed by one of his blue ki balls. And
he ends up leaving behind a wife and an unborn son whom he never will meet.
I do believe that Houki is the best woman for Hotohori. First off,
she has experience being around royalty, considering the fact that she has
spent some time in the harem as one of the women chosen for the Emperor.
Now, another thing is that she seems to understand Hotohori and the
many issues he must face as the ruler of a great country. Unlike Miaka,
she seems to have the
sense and calm attitude necessary to deal with those kinds of pressures.
Also, Houki seems to love love Hotohori as well. She falls deathly
ill after he dies and basically ends up in a comatose state until Miaka,
Taka, and the others show up to look for the memory globes. But I don't
believe that makes her weak; on the contrary, I think that Hotohori should
be grateful to finally have someone love him that much, especially since
he's been lonely his entire life.
Boushin is the son that Hotohori has never known while alive. The little
boy is horribly adorable and waddles like the best of them...however the
size of his head could be reduced a great deal. Isn't it just scary!!!
Well, because he's so sad about not having a father, Boushin has never
spoken a single word since he was born even though he understands everyone
around him. He clings desperately to the teddy bear Miaka gave Hotohori
before leaving to search for the shinzaho. In the OAV's, Tamahome (aka
Taka) lends Hotohori his body so that Hotohori can finally hold his son for
the first time, and Boushin is so happy that he utters his very first words!
Not only that, but it appears that he is also the keeper of one of
Tamahome's memory globes! One of the reasons I
think Hotohori loves Houki is that she is Boushin's mother. Nobody
can deny the fact that our Hori-sama loves his son, and I strongly believe
that this love would extend to Houki as well. Plus he goes haring off
to see her after saving Boushin from the evil demons hiding in Miaka's teddy
bear and seems to genuinely care for her. Simply put, I think these
two are definitely right for each other and would have lived happily ever
after if it wasn't for Nakago's ki ball.
Now you're all probably wondering why if Hotohori loved Houki, he called
out
Miaka's name before dying from Nakago's ki blast. Well, Miaka happened
to be talking to him through the "Shi Jin Tian Shi Sho" from the modern world.
And combined with the fact that she's the miko he's sworn to protect,
I'd assume he'd like to have a word with her before leaveing the living world.
And he DOES think of Houki and his unborn child afterwards. He regrets
leaving her and never being able to see his son for the first time. I
just think that given the circumstances, he and Miaka had some
unfinished business that needed to be cleared up, and this doesn't in any
way take away from Hotohori's feelings towards Houki. Besides, he married
her didn't he? The man has Konan at his fingertips, so why would he
choose to hook himself up with someone he can't stand? On another
note, why would he marry someone who looks like Nuriko's twin? *evil
grin* But that's another story for another time... |
