- For the Mai-Otome counterpart, see Haruka Armitage.
Hot-tempered Haruka Suzushiro (珠洲城 遥 ) is a member of the Fuuka Academy Student Council. She is first introduced when interrogating Mai Tokiha.
The daughter of the rich Suzushiro family who own their own construction company as they helped build the Fuuka Academy. Their vast wealth lets them own at least 25 villas. A forceful character with a habit of malapropisms, often corrected by her childhood friend Yukino Kikukawa. She is prideful as Student Council president in her own right often throwing herself into her work for long periods, sustained only by curry bread. Her hands-on approach leads her to express disdain for her Council colleagues, who she views as tea drinking layabouts. Her bravery is often called into action as part of her role as she imagines herself the campus’ first line of defense, as seen from her battle with the tank and her dauntless attempts to snag the panty thief.
When Shizuru goes missing to take care of an injured Natsuki Kuga, Yukino tracks her down with Haruka following. From their hideout, they observe Shizuru stealing a kiss from the sleeping Natsuki, with Haruka giving their presence away by her shocked reaction. In a confrontation with Shizuru, Haruka declares her horror at the other girl's actions and calls her infatuation with Natsuki "disgusting" and ends up slapping Shizuru. Because Haruka is the most important person of Yukino she ends up "dying" because of Shizuru's retaliation attack on Diana. Before she "dies", however, she manages to headbutt Shizuru and reassure Yukino, to whom she gives her council badge as she fades away. Haruka is later resurrected by Mashiro and appears floating before Yukino before comically falling to the ground. By the end of the series, she passes her position in the student council to Yukino, but not before making one more spelling mistake on a warning sign. In an extended ending of the final episode, it reveals that Haruka and Shizuru have ended up in the same university, and that Shizuru has once again beaten Haruka in the top standings, much to Haruka's chagrin.
Abilities[]
Though Haruka is not a HiME, but she possesses strength near the human limit, able to engage Searrs Foundation soldiers in hand-to-hand combat even if only for a short time and carry a massive fish around without external assistance, along with the ability to stay up for days on end with only curry bread keeping her going. This level of stamina is explained by her comfortable family background stemming from construction management (the name Suzushiro is written on a logo on a building being rebuilt in the final episode) as her family owns a seaside mansion large enough as to have multiple guest bedrooms, though Yukino indicates in a DVD special that Haruka's family was not always so well off.
Relationships[]
- Yukino Kikukawa: Haruka's best friend who share a protective relationship of the latter, as she protects her shy friend from playground bullies when they were young. However, Haruka can be somewhat overbearing and Yukino keen to serve her often leading to be her guinea pig in all of Yukino’s situations in support. Haruka’s protective instinct towards Yukino is even seen at Haruka’s “death”: Haruka, as Yukino’s Most Important Person, begins to fade away upon Diana’s defeat at the hands of Shizuru Fujino and Kiyohime. However, despite her pain, Haruka still manages to show “bravery in the face of the enemy”, headbutting Shizuru and “passing the mantle” of Director on to Yukino, smiling as she disappears.
- Shizuru Fujino: Haruka's rival who she often refers to as a “bubuzuke woman” (bubuzuke being a Kyoto form of ochazuke, meaning “tea with rice” and referring perhaps – likely unwittingly, this being Haruka – to Shizuru’s Kyoto accent). Much of her strong dislike of Shizuru comes from the result of the Student Council Elections where Shizuru won by a landslide of 817 votes leaving only 12 for Haruka. Haruka is disgusted by Shizuru’s obsessive behaviour towards Natsuki Kuga late in the anime, leading to a confrontation between the two which results in Shizuru’s Child Kiyohime defeating Yukino’s Diana in short order. Haruka, however, manages to go out with a bang, as seen earlier.At the very end of the series, it is shown that Haruka attends the same university as her rival, who is still one step ahead, much to Haruka’s annoyance.
My-HiME manga[]
In the manga, Haruka is actually a HiME who portrays a larger role. Her element is a massive mace that she fights with that causes heavy damage to her foes. Her Child is a large and grotesque angler fish called Koumokuten. It fires destructive laser beams from its mouth. Sshe tag teams with her Key partner Yukino, to form a perfectly balanced fighting pair: she handles offense while Yukino handles defense, with both of them covering each other's backs. The two are even able to combine their Childs into a single being, capable of firing an incredibly destructive laser at their opponents.
Haruka's commanding personality remains from the anime, and she feels that Mai and Natsuki's attempts to stop the Orphan attacks are unsatisfactory and runs her own subset of HiME known as the Ori-HiME team, of which she is the commander. However, she later teams up with her rivals in order to stop the forces invading the Academy. Her zealous dedication to protect the academy itself; her father was the chief construction worker who helped build the school.
During the approach of the HiME Star, Yukariko Sanada trapped both Haruka and Yukino inside her child, St. Vlas, which in turn trapped them inside a winding illusion; in it, Shizuru Fujino was revealed to have tampered with the votes to make her win the presidential election. While Haruka was initially not fooled by the illusion, she fell under its thrall once the mass began chanting her name. However after noticing a slight unfamiliarity with Shizuru, she manages to break free from the illusion and destroy St. Vlas from the inside out, freeing both her and Yukino, though the effort causes her to fall unconscious.
She later battles against Marie Antoinette inside the HiME Star alongside Yukino and Midori Sugiura where the three manage to destroy the Queen's child, though the subsequent explosion seems to kill all three HiME as well. After the HiME Star is destroyed, Shizuru holds a funeral service for Haruka along with Yukino, to burst through the wall, the two of them, along with Midori and Marie herself, alive and well. As it turned out, the service was yet another way for Shizuru to mock Haruka, which once again riles Haruka's hackles.