Ama Shigure

nihongo|Ama Shigure|時雨亜麻|Shigure Ama is a character in Navel's "Shuffle!" media franchise. Ama is the young mother of Asa Shigure. Ama appears as secondary character in the first "Shuffle!" visual novel and will also appear as a secondary character in "Really? Really!", the third in the series. She is voiced by YURIA, who also sings the opening and ending songs to the game and anime, and was designed by Hiro Suzuhira. She is voiced by Jamie Marchi in the English version of the anime.

The characters of "Shuffle!" have a theme of being named after plants. In this case, her given name, "ama" (亜麻) refers to "Linum usitatissimum", commonly known as flax. Her surname however, "shigure" (時雨), is a Japanese word that refers to the frequent rains that occur during late Autumn or early Winter in Japan. [The meaning of her surname is confirmed in the caption "this dry world will benefit from the scattered shower..." taken from an official background image produced by Navel.
cite web
url = http://www.project-navel.com/navel/_image/wp_shuffle_1-04_1024x768.jpg
title = Asa Shigure 1024x768 background
format = .jpg
publisher = Navel
language = English
accessdate = 2006-11-22]

Background

In fact, Ama is not a human, but the first artificial life-form [While Ama still refers to herself as a devil, the King of Devils refers to Primula, the third artificial life-form, as neither devil nor god. Therefore, "artificial life-forms" are to be considered as a separate race.] by the Yggdrasil project. She wears a cat-eared or tanuki-eared cap in order to hide her ears.

Originally a devil, she was the first volunteer for the project (a joint effort by both the god and devil races). Her reason for joining was that she saw no purpose in her life or future. The project involved enhancing Ama's magical powers to extraordinary levels, thinking that this could give her extraordinary magical powers, include the power to perform resurrections or to prevent aging.

Unfortunately, the experiment proved to be too much for Ama. The experiment went awry and an explosion caused by Ama vaporized the lab. Ama, however, survived the ordeal because she was teleported to the human world, by means unknown even by herself. Here, completely naked and lost, she was rescued by a human, with whom she fell in love. She later gave birth to Asa, and by heredity transferred her magical powers into Asa. Because Asa is born with a human body, her physiology cannot handle the magical powers she receives. Thus, she is often ill and in bed.

In the "Shuffle!" visual novel

Ama is somewhat of a secret character, as she's the only character not promoted for the game [cite web
url = http://www.project-navel.com/navel/shuffle/characters/
title = "Shuffle!" characters
format = Adobe Flash
publisher = Navel
language = Japanese
accessdate = 2006-11-22] and only appears if the player gets Asa to be their destined character. She firsts appears in front of Rin while he is with Kaede, Sia, Nerine, Mayumi, and Itsuki. Itsuki proceeds to compliment Ama, addressing her as "ojō-san" (young lady) and calling her cute. Ama is flattered and embarrassed at the praise Itsuki gives her, saying that it's the first time anyone's called her cute. Itsuki is surprised at this, assuming that men must flock around her. Rin and Kaede, who know Ama beforehand, then inform the others that Ama is actually Asa's mother. The others are shocked to the point of figurative petrifaction to learn this, given Ama's young age. Ama happily confirms this and states that she should probably be called "oba-chan" (lit. "aunt", but is the form of addressing middle-aged women) instead.

The second time, Ama appears while Rin is walking home with Asa. Ama is going to go buy ingredients so that Asa can bake a cake, to which Asa replies that she should have just asked her to pick them up on the walk home. Ama says she doesn't mind though, as she likes to go on walks. Shortly after this, Asa suddenly collapses, scaring both Rin and Ama. Asa claims to be ok, but Ama asks Rin to take Asa home just to be sure.

The third time Ama is present is just before the second H scene with Asa. Ama asks Rin if she's come to see Asa and is disappointed to know that she has to go elsewhere. Basically just setting up the fact that Rin and Asa will be alone in the house together.

The final time Ama appears in the game is when Rin meets her alone in the city. She confirms that she is an artificially made lifeform and explains how that's caused Asa to be weak.

In the "Shuffle!" anime

Ama is first introduced in episode two when she meets Rin and Primula. After staring at Primula for a bit, she notices something strange about Primula but does not say anything.

At the end of the series, both the devil and god kings meet Ama when they are walk past her downtown. The two pause for a bit, ponder, then eventually leave, noting that she looks very familiar. Ama turns around as they walk away, takes off her hat, and bows as a thank you to them. The kings knew who Ama was but decided it was best to let her live her own life and note that if they could meet her again, they would apologize as they did something terrible to her.

In "Really? Really!"

Ama returns as a secondary character in "Really? Really!" While still not a pursuable character, she does have multiple CG scenes where she appears nude.

References

External links

*languageicon|jp|Japanese [http://www.project-navel.com/navel/reallyreally/char13.html Ama Shigure's character profile for "Really? Really!"]