Anna Kyoyama
Anna Kyōyama (恐山アンナ Kyōyama An'na) is a fictional character created by manga author Hiroyuki Takei. She appears in Butsu Zone, Itako no Anna, and Shaman King. Takei notes in an interview, that she is like his own personal mascot or good luck charm, because Anna appears (albeit usually in cameos) in so many of his works.
Her seiyū in the original Japanese Shaman King anime is Megumi Hayashibara and is Tara Jayne in the English anime. In the English anime and English video games, her last name is not revealed. In some Japanese products and in Shaman King: Master of Sprits, her name is spelled Anna Kyohyama.
Anna in Shaman King
Character
In Shaman King, 13-year old Anna is the fiancée of Yoh Asakura, and is an itako - a traditional Japanese shaman. Her specialty is channeling, and she can summon a spirit from anywhere, even from heaven where normal shamans can't reach. In the English anime, she is called a "spirit medium".
She was adopted by Kino Asakura, so the date of her birth was a mystery. In a fanbook however, it was said that her birthday was on July 22, 1985. But it is not known if this is her real birthday or the day she was found by Kino.
Aggressive and decisive as she is beautiful and shrewd, Anna is a pragmatic person who appears cold and almost selfish. However, she has shown that she genuinely cares for those important to her, especially Yoh. She firmly believes that Yoh Asakura is destined to become the Shaman King. Anna wants to become the First Lady of the Shaman King, or the Shaman Queen.
Her strength is shown as she was able to seal in Hao Asakura's guardian spirits (called as shikigami)- Zenki and Kouki, and was able to control them. Anna and Hao seem to have an odd relationship- Anna even very boldly slapped Hao once, but he did not kill her. It has also been hinted that Anna is the reincarnation of the original Asakura Hao's mother from 1000 years ago, Asano-Ha. It also speculated that Hao loved Anna and wanted her for himself.
It is obvious that she loves Yoh (despite how badly she seems to treat him sometimes) - she even said it once to his friend Manta Oyamada, and again to Silva, a commissioner for the Shaman Fight. She broke down crying when she thought that Yoh was about to be killed while being possessed by Tokagero (spelled Togakeroh in the English anime, Togakero in the English manga). She is extremely possessive of Yoh, and beat him up when she thought that the Oracle Bell he brought home was a woman's pager. She also reacted jealously when Yoh asked Tamao Tamamura to cook him a meal in the English anime.
Anna attends Shinra Private Academy along with Yoh and Manta.
Her favourite singer in the manga, Ringo Awaya, is a reference to Japanese singer and guitarist Shiina Ringo.
History
Anna was abandoned because she was born with the ability to see into other people's minds without willing to. As a result, she was found and raised by Yoh's grandmother, Kino. Anna's ability to master the arts of the Itako, even though fully sighted, is a testament to her strength. Because of this, Anna and Yoh's grandparents paired them up in an arranged marriage in order to keep the family bloodline going.
Before meeting Yoh, Anna's mind reading power known as reishi (soul sight) was one that she could not fully control. She couldn't help but pick up the negative emotions of others every time she was around other people; because of this, she began to hate others, and this hatred would involuntarily manifest itself as an Oni (demonic ogres, akin to boogeyman in Western cultures). Thus she tried to avoid going out as much as possible, usually confining herself to her room.
Read manga volume 19 and 20 to better understand their past
Anna and Yoh met when they were ten years old in the year 1995 at Mt. Osore (The kanji for "Mt. Osore" is the same as the kanji for Anna's family name, Kyōyama (恐山)). Yoh was travelling with Matamune to visit Kino. Yoh then saw Anna on the stop after going out of a store to run after Matamune. It was not love at first sight because Anna scared the heck out of him. He also ran into an Oni on his way home, if Matamune didn't arrive in time, Yoh would've been beaten up badly. The Oni of course came from Anna.
Yoh eventually learned that Anna doesn't release the Oni intentionally; it comes out of its own will. Anna seems to have gotten used to the Oni, saying that it won't return unless it destroys something. The second time that the oni came out in front of Yoh, it was an Oni which was bigger than the pervious oni, it was now called as the Naka-Oni. Yoh tried to fight the Naka-Oni just to protect the people from destruction; Anna, seeing Yoh's determination, was able to sub-conciously call back the oni.
They arrived home after the Oni ordeal and Yoh made a promise to her that they will go to the temple shrine to make a promise that he will free Anna from the demon. Anna agrees reluctantly, fearing the worst possible outcome.
The worst has arrived then when they were at the temple. When Matamune arrived to check up on Yoh and Anna, he saw the Naka-Oni out once again. He knocked it down and went to Yoh who was supporting Anna who was seemed to have a hard time breathing because of the too much power. Since they were at the temple, a lot of people visited, therefore, Anna couldn't control her power to read other peoples thoughts escpecially during the new year when they speak their thoughts out loudly to make a new year's wish. The demon eventaully grew into an Oh-Oni by absorbing the power of the near by Onis.
This Oni could now talk and it was unique since Oni's can't talk and they know only destruction. In order to have more power, the Oh-Oni grabbed Anna and took her to Mount Osore to help it absorb the power of the lurking spirits. Yoh and Matamune realized that there are a lot of spirits in Mount Osorezan, if the Oh-Oni will use Anna's power there, she would die of exaustion or absence of Furyoku.
Upon arriving at Mount Osore, the Oh-Oni grew into a Powered Up Oh-Oni; he seemed to have Anna go under a trance after using her to absorb power. Yoh decided that this has to end once and for all, so using Matamune's necklace as a medium, Matamune was sacrificed and he became a sword (slightly similar to the final form of the merged Harusame and Futsonomitama). Yoh was able to beat the easier when Anna was able to overcome it.
They were able to beat the Oni and Anna was free from the curse, unfortunatelly, Matamune was gone and the only thing remaining was a necklace with three black claws. Anna then grew to love Yoh because he was able to free her from the darkness that haunted her everyday.
From there on, she constantly training him to become a better and stronger shaman as a gratitude, and almost never gave him any reprieve.
The story of Yoh and Anna's past cannot be seen in the anime, maybe the reason for that is that their past was too dark for a show which has a target for audiences probably between 8-14. However, the story has been released as two drama CDs.
Abilities/Techniques
Kuchiyose (口寄せ) - the ability to summon a spirit anytime and anywhere, given that she knows a little information about who she is summoning.
GoumaChoubuku (降魔調伏) - she used this technique to gain control over Hao Asakura (Zeke Asakura)'s shikigamis: Zenki and Kouki. She also uses the shikigamis as something like her guardian spirits, and they are very powerful.
Reishi (霊視) - the ability she was born with, which enables her to read the hearts and minds of others.
Anna is also physically very strong, something that most people do not suspect from her appearance. She has demonstrated several times that she is not afraid to use her fists to subdue anyone, making her "right hand slap" and "phantom left hand slap (幻の左)" (or "legendary left", so called when someone is foolish enough to think they have subdued Anna by stopping her right hand and the person is completely caught off guard by the left hand's unusually strong slap) somewhat infamous among Anna's group of friends, especially Manta (Morty) and Tamao (Tamara).
Trivia
- In Takei's short story Funbari no Uta, the main character, Hana Asakura, is the son of Yoh and Anna.
- Anna is the mascot of the Aomori prefectural police (seen here); Takei, Anna's creator, was born in Aomori.