Himawari Kunogi

Himawari Kunogi (九軒ひまわり, Himawari Kunogi?) is a fictional character in the Clamp manga, and anime, "xxxHolic". The manga is currently ongoing and the anime series started 6 April 2006. Her given name Himawari literally means "Sunflower" in Japanese. She is voiced in the anime series by Shizuka Itō.

Character

Himawari is the crush of Watanuki Kimihiro. She has a cheerful attitude and is very friendly around Watanuki and Doumeki. She is often cheering for them, if not commenting them on their "comedy acts" together. She does share and give food to Shizuka Doumeki and Watanuki, yet they are never handmade by herself, which has become a running gag in the series. Himawari's birthday is November 27, making her a Sagittarius. She likes sweets, romantic novels, astrology, and ghost stories, and she is an only child.

Despite the fact that Watanuki is very open in showing his feelings and admiration for her, she seems very oblivious to the fact that he likes her. She has never shown any favoritism between the two, but Watanuki always thinks that Doumeki is more favored.

She is also the only human besides Watanuki, Doumeki and Yuuko that Mokona interacts with regularly.

Role

In the beginning of the manga when Himawari was first introduced Yuuko had already said that Himawari was "not Watanuki's goddess of good luck" and this has been suggested strongly throughout subsequent storylines.

During the case of the Lady with Bad Habits, Watanuki met up with Himawari just before the girl was killed in a car accident (this scene was altered in the anime to exclude Himawari's presence and to thus let the girl survive). After, in the Monkey's Paw case, the university student-teacher at some point drops the item in the school hallway. Being nearby, Himawari offers to help pick it up. At the moment she touches the item, the seal of the monkey's paw opens resulting in the student-teacher's high curiosity only to lead to her tragic fate. Even more alluding to Himawari's role against luck, the student-teacher often ironically boasted about her case of lucky streaks before her death.

In the 100 Ghost Stories chapter, Yuuko said that "all the players" were present; being Watanuki, Doumeki, herself, the dead man in the other room and Himawari. Each had a role to play, as Yuuko explained at the end of the ceremony. While she mentions that Watanuki and Doumeki were necessary to draw out and then exorcise the spirit while Yuuko herself was required to explain what they needed to do, she fails to reveal Himawari's role because Doumeki has returned with sake, Yuuko's favourite drink.

Yuuko did not further comment what role Himawari was to play in that group. Himawari's presence seems to always foreshadow bad luck, such was when Watanuki has a seemingly prophetic dream on the day he gave his eye to the spider, in which he saw Himawari through half of his vision. The Ame-Warashi is cautious of her presence (Although it may just be because Himawari's name means 'Sunflower' while Ame-Warashi is a rain sprite). Speculations may also add that Doumeki himself may know/feel something strange about Himawari since he has always accompanied Watanuki whenever the two should be alone.By chapter 116 of the manga Watanuki was slowly sensing the difference in Himawari.

In chapter 118, after Watanuki nearly died after falling from the 2nd story of their school, Himawari for the first time was seen inside Yuuko's shop to pay the price to stop Watanuki from death. It is here revealed that she is aware to the fact she is bad luck not only to Watanuki, but to everyone around her and has since been waiting for him to point it out.

After this incident, she tried to say goodbye for the last time to Watanuki; however, Watanuki refused to let her go and slightly confesses to her that he likes being with her and that her presence makes him happy. Himawari reluctantly agreed to continue being friends with him and is seen crying out of happiness because it was the first time anyone told her that they were happy to be with her. It was at this moment where it is shown the price she paid to prevent Watanuki from dying is by forever bearing all of his scars from the fall. Subsequently, Himawari lets her hair down (as opposed to tying two long ponytails), likely to hide the scars from Watanuki lest he gets upset.

Recently Watanuki gave Himawari a magical bird that according to Yuuko, is immune to her bad luck (it is revealed that her "power" also does not affect Doumeki). Himawari asked him to give a name to it and Watanuki chose to name him "Tanpopo" (the Japanese name for dandelion) because of its yellow color.

Her Relationship with Watanuki, Doumeki and Yuuko

: Watanuki - Watanuki sees her as his crush, but little is known yet how deep her feelings for him run. She has been trying to avoid hurting Watanuki with her bad luck while secretly hoping one day he would notice it as he did later on in the manga. She cares very much for Watanuki and Domeki as good friends, who maybe are the only real friends she has. She avoids going home alone with Watanuki even though he is now aware of her "bad luck".:Her greatest act of kindness and subliminal way of indicating that she likes Watanuki was bearing his scars from falling out of the window at school and her help in saving his life. Then again that may have been due to her feeling responsible for the incident.: In this point of the series it is still unclear whether Himawari will respond to Watanuki's affections. She is still afraid that becoming close to people she cares about will only end up hurting them, but Watanuki is slowing talking her out of her shell.

: Doumeki - Much to Watanuki's jealousy and annoyance, Doumeki hangs around her and Watanuki at every chance when they could be alone. Nonetheless, Himawari treats them equally as friends and often teases or compliments on how the two get along. Doumeki is one of the few that can actually sense the difference in Himawari, he is also aware of Watanuki's feelings for her. He seems to keep a close eye on Watanuki and Himawari when they are together since Watanuki often gets affected by her bad luck. He is also helping her to be more open about hanging out with them rather than hiding and running away from her friends.

:Yuuko and Mokona - Himawari is a person that Yuuko is fascinated with, much to the annoyance of Watanuki; because Yuuko always teases him that she is not his "Goddess of Luck". She was quick to notice bad luck around Himawari, but treated her with good cheer and even invited her on small picnics and outings she sets up for the trio. Mokona, being cute as he is, can always be seen playing with Himawari when they meet. The two of them do not seem to be affected by Himawari's bad luck.

Bad Luck

As Yuuko has previously stated, Himawari is a normal human. She possesses no special powers or unusual abilities. In chapter 118, Himawari explains to Watanuki that he is not the only one affected by the bad luck she seems to bring.

Since childhood, no matter where Himawari goes, unfortunate things seem to happen. By simply picking up a ball near her home, the house next door became the target of arson. People she was connected to were hurt, including all her friends, a girl in the neighbourhood who ended up committing suicide, and her class teacher was stabbed by his wife when he was caught in an affair.

Concerned that Himawari may be possessed or using occult magic, her grandmother took her to a priest who found nothing evil attached to her. While this was the priest's conclusion, he regarded Himawari sadly and informed her grandmother that the only people immune to Himawari's tendency to bring bad luck were her parents by virtue of the fact they brought her into this world. Not long afterwards, Himawari's grandmother died; though Himawari realizes her grandmother was ill and also elderly, she believes that she contributed to her grandmother's death.

Name Origins

* The character "九" (ku) of Himawari's family name is the same as the kanji for the number 9, which the Japanese consider unlucky because it sounds similar to the word for pain ("kutsū") and coincides with her role of bringing bad luck and pain to Watanuki.

ee also

List of fictional characters who can alter probability

References

1. The manga itself- XxxHolic