Mikuru Asahina

Mikuru Asahina (朝比奈 みくる Asahina Mikuru) is the fourth member to join the SOS Brigade, and the only person other than Kyon to join against her will. She is a shy and cute "moe" girl, often harassed by Haruhi Suzumiya.

She is secretly a time traveler from the future who came back in time to observe Haruhi. She is best friends with Tsuruya and shows a great talent for brewing tea. Asahina often has trouble talking to Kyon because many of the things he asks about are "classified" (禁則事項, kinsoku jikō). Asahina is the mascot for the SOS Brigade, mainly as a way to attract attention. Because she is so popular, Haruhi uses her as eye candy. She starred in The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00.

Description
Asahina is a time traveler who comes from an unknown point in the future. Apparently, Asahina's future is such that things like boats do not exist, and instead of the Internet, knowledge is stored within people's heads (as well as the TPDD, in a sense).

She is 5' 0" tall. She weighs somewhere around 73 lbs. Her zodiac sign is Libra (♎). She has red/brown hair. Her birthday is on October 21. Year of birth is unknown, due to her being a time traveler from future times. Currently unknown if she would tell anyone.

Asahina is not as important as a character in the anime, but has a great deal of significance (mainly character development) in the later novels such as The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya, The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya, and even has a sole chapter entitled The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina.

Asahina is implied to have feelings for Kyon; however, she is unable to act on these feelings both because engaging in a romantic relationship would incense Haruhi into destroying the world (as seen in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) and because she cannot become involved with anyone while time traveling.

She has long, reddish brown hair and has brown eyes. Despite her being mostly petite, she has a large bust which Haruhi sometimes gropes. However, later on in the series, this action appears less frequently as Asahina becomes closer to Haruhi.

Biography
Before embarking on the mission to solve the case that Haruhi has created a time-quake three years prior to the series' beginning, preventing time travel beyond that point, Asahina underwent mental preparation and hypnosis so that if she reveals anything unnecessary, information regarding time travel will be blocked off from her mind. Thus, whenever she is asked to give information about the future and/or time travel, she is often forced to reply that it is "classified information" (禁則事項, kinsoku jikō).

Asahina resides in Kyon's time as a second-year in high school, thus an upperclassman to the first years Kyon, Haruhi, Yuki, and Itsuki, and yet Haruhi ignores this fact and kidnaps Asahina to be in the SOS Brigade as the fourth member because of her boy attraction. She says that in every interesting story, there is always an alluring, "moe"-looking character present. From then on, Asahina becomes a symbol of cosplay/mascot to Haruhi's whim. Before being forced to join the SOS Brigade, she was a member of the calligraphy club.

Asahina often is forced to take Kyon back in time to perform certain actions, such as taking him to meet the younger Haruhi or helping him save himself from getting killed. However, because of the intervention of a self from a further future, she is often put to sleep and wakes up confused as to what she has accomplished and whether her presence was meaningful or not. Often, Asahina gets to witness historical events that contribute to time travel being possible, but because she cannot take an action to instigate it (Kyon is usually the instigator), it leads to a sense of hopelessness and uselessness in her.

In The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya, Asahina is asked by her future self to have Kyon do certain actions that contribute to the invention of time travel by traveling eight days into the past and assisting Kyon in doing so. One task involved inspiring the Bespectacled Boy to think about time travel theories. She is also kidnapped by Fujiwara and Kyouko Tachibana as a bargaining chip with the future authorities, therefore standing in for her past self as otherwise her past self would be kidnapped instead, right in front of Haruhi. Eventually, she is rescued by Kyon, Arakawa, and Sonou Mori.

Mikuru Asahina (Older)


A future version of Asahina, from a farther future than the one the original Asahina was from, makes her first appearance briefly in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, in order to tell him two things: "Snow White", a clue that helps Kyon get out of an alternate universe he is trapped in with Haruhi, and not to get too close to her past self.

This future Asahina appears again in Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, putting her younger self to sleep and warning Kyon not to let her younger self know about her. She directs Kyon to Little Haruhi. In The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon returns to that same time and enlists the older Asahina to help him get back to his original time and universe along with the past Yuki.

Future Asahina's final appearance is in The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya. After sending Kyon multiple notes about random odd jobs that eventually lead to the invention of time travel and preventing the original Asahina from getting kidnapped, she appears in person to Kyon and tells him about predetermined events. Kyon begins to show resentment towards the older Asahina from forcing her past self to witness history and become depressed as a result.

In order to differentiate between the older and younger versions, whenever the older self is present in the same time span, Kyon refers to her older self as Asahina-san (Big) and to the younger Asahina as Asahina-san (Small). Kyon states himself that the reason he does not try to develop Asahina into a more mature and strong person is because he has already seen her as a mature person, namely this future Asahina. According to Itsuki, this older Asahina cannot be trusted. Kyon often wonders if the "superiors" Asahina often refers to are actually the older Asahina. Kyon notes in The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya that the original Asahina is coming to resemble the older Asahina, signifying that they must part soon.

In The Surprise, Asahina (Big) meets with Koizumi as the alternate realities merge. He used his esper abilities to get him and her into the combined closed spaces of Haruhi Suzumiya and Sasaki.

Once there, Asashina confronted Fujiwara. Both Fujiwara and Asahina agreed that the TPDD could not be used to change the future, but Fujiwara planned on using Haruhi's powers (implanted into Sasaki) to bypass this restriction. He would be able to change the time plane completely this way, in order to restore an alternate future where he and his older sister existed (his sister was "lost" somehow). He said that his older sister was Asahina, but Asahina said that she didn't have a younger brother. If Fujiwara's plan succeeded, Asahina would effectively become "his" Asahina, and not be someone from another future.

Asahina said Fujiwara's actions were "unforgivable" and "time crime". Fujiwara couldn't get her agreement, and Koizumi used his esper powers to confront Fujiwara.

Kyon himself vanished from that time period temporarily, due to an unusual interaction with a celestial while trying to rescue Haruhi.

Fujiwara's continuity
In one alternate reality or future, Fujiwara is the younger brother of Mikuru Asahina. Somehow she was "lost" in that reality, and Fujiwara went to great lengths to retrieve her by hijacking Haruhi Suzumiya's powers and using them for that purpose. The familiar Asahina (Older) says she is not the same person as Fujiwara's sister.

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan
In the alternate universe spinoff The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan, Asahina is not a time traveler and is a native of the other characters' time, rather than being born many years in the future. As in the original universe, she is friends with Tsuruya and becomes a favored plaything of Haruhi. Her role is much smaller than in the original series; she plays no part in the central romantic conflict (unlike the original universe, Kyon never exhibits any romantic interest in her in the spinoff), and is completely absent from a number of episodes.

Powers
Asahina owns a device called a TPDD also known as "Temporal Plane Destruction Device" (according to the older Mikuru Asahina in The Disappearance film) that acts like a time machine which brings the user and anyone he or she wished to bring, into the past or future. The TPDD cannot bring someone into the past beyond year -3 however.

Asahina's TPDD was taken by the Older Asahina in Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody. However, Asahina recovers this device by some later point and was seen using her time travel abilities in The Intrigues.

Asahina's watch has additional time-keeping properties. Asahina does not carry any weapons, as this is considered dangerous.

Her alternate version (in The Disappearance) displayed martial arts skills.

Outfits
Asahina is seen wearing many outfits.

Haruhi's ideas
Being the mascot of the SOS Brigade, Haruhi makes Asahina wear many outfits, most having to do with "moe".

Haruhi Suzumiya
Although Asahina is subjected to several types of abuse by Haruhi, Asahina still has a large amount of respect for her, especially when she finds that Haruhi created the fundamental time plane theory in The Indignation of Haruhi Suzumiya. As the series goes on, Asahina appears to grow closer to Haruhi, as if she considers Haruhi a good friend. In Endless Eight, at the end of the repeating days, Asahina is sleeping peacefully, curled up next to a sleeping Haruhi's side, the two leaning against each other's shoulders. In The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya (First Part) and The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya (Final Part), Haruhi appears to take situations much more seriously in regards to the SOS Brigade, showing she is seemingly growing to care for them as friends in turn.

Kyon
Asahina's relationship with Kyon is generally ambiguous, although she has on several occasions acted as if she were attracted to him, such as asking him to call her by her personal name, or giving him a water bottle she had already drank from (in Japanese culture, this is like giving someone an "indirect kiss"). Her older self advises him not to get too close to her, implying that doing so might result in a love affair with her, which is forbidden because time travelers are not allowed to date people in the past.

Although Kyon has offered to protect or look after Asahina on several occasions, she has generally declined, often more concerned with her mission. She only turns to him when she is specifically ordered to by her superiors, such as in Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody and The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina.

Yuki Nagato
Asahina is intimidated by Yuki because of her stony, alien demeanor. In particular, Yuki often stares at her for no apparent reason at all; Asahina believes this to be because Yuki wants to be like her, independent in her actions. Nagato said this was a logical but inaccurate inference.

When Kyon "stood up" Nagato in The Intrigues, Asahina called him out on this.

By The Disappearance, Asahina along with Kyon appears to consider Yuki as a "friend" of the whole team, which would include Asahina herself.

Itsuki Koizumi
Asahina's time traveling faction and Itsuki's 'Agency' disagree on several counts, so Asahina rarely speaks with him; however, she does occasionally speak up when she voices an opinion about whether she agrees or disagrees with him. Itsuki believes that Asahina acts the way she does to get Kyon distracted from Haruhi Suzumiya. Itsuki and Asahina also have different opinions on how much Haruhi can control.

In certain situations, such as when she lost the ability to travel through time in Endless Eight, Asahina will turn to Koizumi for help.

Etymology

 * One possible way of writing the name Mikuru in kanji is 未来る, meaning "yet to come" (i.e. "future").
 * Mikuru's surname Asahina means "morning" (朝) (asa), "ratio" (比) (hi) and "apple tree" (奈) (na).

Trivia

 * Mikuru's birthday is October 21st. The Japanese school year begins around April 1st and ends in late March of the following year. Due to this, her birthday is only about 5-6 months after the Japanese school year first begins, meaning if she was a real student (or the actual age of a Japanese high school student in her grade), she'd age not long after the Japanese school year begins, as well as before the timeline point of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (light novel), which is winter (December), as October 21st occurs before December 18, the timeframe of the novel.
 * Second-year high schoolers in Japan begin 11th grade at 16 and age to 17 when their birthday occurs. Mikuru would thus be 17 by this method if her actual age matched her presentation by the time of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (light novel), and 18 not much later on in the series (she is a grade above Haruhi, Kyon, and other 10th graders, and later on in the series, Kyon is in 11th grade as well.)
 * She is one of the few characters to have a canonical birthday, aside from Tsuruya, whose birthday is December 6, and Haruhi Suzumiya herself, whose birthday is October 8th.
 * As well, Mikuru's birthday is only 13 days after Haruhi's.