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This article is about a manga character. For Japanese cherry, see Prunus × yedoensis.
Yoshino Somei
Spriggan character
File:Yoshino Somei.jpg
Yoshino confronting Yu Ominae and Bowman in Phantom Isle
First appearance Forest of No Return Arc (Canon)
First Mission (Gaiden)
Created by Hiroshi Takashige and Ryōji Minagawa
Profile
Alias Sakura Himeno[1]
Relatives Unknown Mother (Deceased), Unknown Father (Unknown, possibly deceased)
Nationality Japanese
Weapons GIAT FAMAS F1[2][3]
IMI Uzi[4]
Glock 19[4]
Equipment Hangglider
Unknown quantity of explosives
Skills Known expertise in small arms
Explosives/Booby trap specialist
Necromancer and Mediumship skills used to communicate with dead spirits and control certain monsters
Martial arts expert
Hangglider user

Yoshino Somei (染井芳乃 Somei Yoshino?) is a fictional character in the manga series Spriggan created by Hiroshi Takashige and Ryōji Minagawa. A teenaged mercenary, she specializes in hunting down various kinds of out-of-place artifacts from around the globe.

History[]

Born and raised by her single secret agent mother,[5] Yoshino's mother was an agent trained in the arts of necromancy and mediumship for an unnamed intelligence agency.[6] Yoshino was soon orphaned after her mother was assassinated by her employers, suggesting that her skills were a potential threat.[7]

Before Yoshino's mother died, she taught her only daughter everything she knew, including her skills in necromancy and mediumship in order to help her fend for herself. Realizing that she wouldn't like to be caught dead by those who have killed her own mother, Yoshino decides to be a mercenary instead of having a normal life mainly because of the thrill of it as a means of honoring her deceased mother.[8]

Appearances[]

Her first appearance was in the one shot story Spriggan: First Mission, where Yoshino had infiltrated a Machiner's Platoon research center in Japan disguised as a civilian staff member under the alias Sakura Himeno in order to obtain the Megiddo Flame, which was recently taken by Machiner's Platoon soldiers from archaeologists in the Middle East. She encountered Yu Ominae when he tossed a skeleton knife at an area where he taught an armed soldier was hiding; it was later discovered that Yoshino was hiding in a corner nearby to hide from the gunfire.

After waiting for Yu to defeat Humming Bat, Yoshino gassed him after he took the Megiddo Flame from the building's control room. Though she had the artifact with him, Yu was able to recover from the effects of the gas and forced her to hand over the Megiddo Flame to him.

At the end of the mission, the two see other again. But this time in school uniforms.

In the later series, Yoshino first made her appearance in the Forest of No Return chapter, seen trying to steal the Rama sculpture. Lost in the cursed forest with Yu Ominae after pissing him off for doing a stunt.[9], the two eventually were forced to join forces Iwao Akatsuki, forcing the trio to eliminate the curse that was responsible for making the forest full of horrific demons that prey on humans. During an operation to acquire the Holy Grail, she nearly lost her life when she was critically injured from a gunshot wound. Her life was saved by the Adolf Hitler clone's good personality before it was overwhelmed by his evil personality later on.

Yoshino again teamed up with Yu to investigate Phantom Island to locate out-of-place artifacts, but instead got into a fight with Trident agent Bowman, who happened to be Yu's ex-Spriggans combat instructor. The two once again escaped their fate of disappearing with the island when Phantom Island disappeared once again under a space/time continuum. Yoshino then continues to fight alongside Yu and sometimes, Oboro and other ARCAM staff members in Thailand, Japan and eventually, the South Pole where she was recruited to harness the power hidden from the South Pole Shrine before she used her necromancy powers to sabotage Trident's operations in the region.

Character[]

Yoshino is mainly in the mercenary business in order to sell acquired out-of-place artifacts to the highest bidder, making people think that she happens to be a greedy, selfish and avaricious person. On the other hand, she appears to be an average high school girl who enjoys teasing Yu at every opportunity that Yoshino can throw at him ever since their first encounter in the Forest of No Return.[10]

However, she has some reservation about the ARCAM Corporation since they're in the way to prevent her from acquiring out-of-place artifacts. She thinks of other out-of-place artifacts-hunting organizations like the Trident Corporation as players in the same game that ARCAM does, which does not suit well for Yu, who was defending ARCAM's prestige against her.[11]

See also[]

References[]

  1. Also used in the First Mission Gaiden
  2. Spriggan Bunkoban Volume 3 - Forest of No Return Arc (Shogakukan), page 28 - ISBN 4-09-126743-2 (in Japanese)
  3. Spriggan Bunkoban Volume 3 - Forest of No Return Arc (Shogakukan), page 52 - ISBN 4-09-126743-2 (in Japanese)
  4. 4.0 4.1 "火器管理室" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2008-11-02. 
  5. There is no information to what happened to her father, it's assumed that he died before the series started
  6. It is possible to suggest that a Western intelligence agency such as the CIA is her employer since early parts of Spriggan were written in the last few years of the Cold War.
  7. Yoshino said that her mother was assassinated because she was "a threat to national security"
  8. Yoshino: "I decided I wasn't going to waste my talents and youth!! So I became a thief! I steal everything those jerks who run things want, and sell 'em for a huge profit." (Striker: Volume 3, Striker vs. the Third Reich. Viz Media) - ISBN 978-1569313534.
  9. Yu scolded her for trying to steal the sculpture since she tried to swing her way towards the makeshift altar, losing her grip on the rope.
  10. The Forest of No Return encounter is considered if the First Mission one shot story were to be disregarded.
  11. Yoshino: "I see. So they're an ARCAM copycat."
    Yu: "Don't mention us in the same breath as those bastards! We're not weapons merchants." (Striker: Volume 2 - The Forest of No Return. - Viz Media) - ISBN 978-1569312902.


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