Nanami’s name could just as easily have been Heather. She is the rich, popular girl in school and she is not above using her influence and popularity to hurt other people who cross her. She is incredibly proud and lacks any sense of empathy, yet she is almost tragically obsessed with how people perceive her. Although she is rather cunning and devious, she often easily tricked.

Her particular “damage” is her obsessive love for her brother Touga and the lengths to which she is willing to do to keep him all to herself. Nanami and her brother have always been close. She adored and idolized him to the exclusion of everyone else. Although he was something of a womanizer, she believed that she would always have a special place right next to him. After all, he could (and usually did) cast the women off immediately, but she would be his sister forever. Whenever it looks like a girl is “buzzing around” her brother, she tries to sabotage her. Despite being quite manipulative, she always fails to see when her brother is manipulating her.

At first Nanami more or less ignores Utena since she considers Anthy the threat. She tricks Anthy into going to a school ball while wearing a dress that will dissolve when it gets wet. Her plan to humiliate Anthy failed when Utena jumped into the scene and clothed her wardrobe challenged friend with a table cloth, creating a dress which was far more stylish than the green mess had been wearing. Further attempts to sabotage Anthy continued to fail.

Soon she realized that Utena was the real threat. When Touga made her a duelist, she challenged Utena to a fight, mostly out of rage and jealousy. Even when the rose was cut from her breast and the duel was lost, she continued to fight until Touga stepped in. Her relationship with Utena continued to be very rocky and she often made fun of Utena for her boy like tendencies. Utena generally seemed to find her a little pathetic and rarely took her very seriously.

When Touga stepped out from his position as Council President, Nanami stepped up and tried to fill in for him. She had very little understanding or knowledge of End of the World, but she didn’t let that stop her. Although neither Juri nor Miki strongly objected to her taking the position, Miki was sometimes surprised at how dense she could be and Juri usually appeared to be amused by her. Still, they had a tenuous respect for her (possibly, because neither of them wanted to give the dreaded chick speech).

After her brother tricked her into thinking they weren’t really brother and sister, she moved in with Utena and Anthy; an arrangement orchestrated by Akio. She continued to be rather rude to both girls, but seemed to like Akio until she caught him and his sister after a sexual encounter. Her hatred seemed to grow and she challenged Utena to a duel, claiming that she would prove that her love for her brother was pure and not dirty like Akio and Anthy’s love.

Although she never really makes peace with Utena, she does try to warn her that Akio and Anthy are dangerous and trying to manipulate her. Utena thanks her, but knows that she can’t back down now. She explains that she is a type B person who gets stuck on things, and Nanami can relate to that. In the end, she gathers with others as Utena goes off to fight the final duel with Akio. While the others wax poetically about the duels, Nanami clearly still doesn’t get the point.

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