Maya Wei

Maya Wei (マヤ・ウェイ Maya U~ei) was the mother of Eva Wei and the wife of Don Wei. She is voiced by: Nicole Oliver (English), Tomoko Kobashi (Japanese), Sarah Bouché de Vitray (French).
==Biography==
===Background===
Maya was a great racing pilot and Don Wei's first champion. By the year 2072, she had become the first woman to have three Earth Star-Racer cups under her belt. In that same year she participated in the first Interplanetary Championship. Her star-racer was damaged in the first round but she chose to keep flying despite Don's worries. In the final race her opponent was Spirit, champion of the Phils. She was winning when her engine suddenly caught fire and exploded. The crash was fatal, and neither her husband nor her daughter were the same since.
===Alwas Cycle===
Maya's first actual appearance in the series is at the beginning of Playful Like Para-Dice when Molly has a dream of seeing her in the hangar with the Whizzing Arrow II. Later in the episode Molly learns from Para-Dice that the Ultimate Prize is the granting of any wish. In Silent Like Spirit, Molly remembers the day of Maya's death and tries to get revenge on Spirit, thinking he caused her to crash. After Molly wrecks her star-racer in vain, Spirit uses telepathy to show her the incident form his perspective; Maya's ship was already damaged when he raced her, and when he tried to help she waved him off just as the ship exploded. In The Will to Win], Molly decides to win the Ultimate Prize to wish Maya back to life and bring her family together again.
===Oban Cycle===
Although Maya is long dead before the Great Race begins, there are times when her spirit seems to be guiding Molly when she flies. Don Wei is often haunted by her memory, and it is Molly's similar flying style to Maya's that causes him to suspect she might really be his daughter Eva. One difficult stunt in particular from Nervous Like Ning & Skun was identical to a stunt Maya performed at a show in 2071, the year before she died. Don recognized the move immediately when Molly used it, but while was watching Maya when she performed it in the past, Molly seemed to have no conscious recollection of the event and assumed it was just instinct.
At the beginning of Monstrous Like Muir, Don remembers going on a formal date with Maya to celebrate their wedding anniversary. When they return home, Eva is up late with a sitter waiting for them. Maya comforts her young daughter, who is annoyed with her parents for leaving her.
In Revelations, while Molly is crossing the Arena of the Heart with Jordan to reach the temple, she sees a hallucination of Maya. The hallucination is so realistic that Molly is able to touch and even embrace her, but as soon as the sun sets the image vanishes and she realizes it was just an illusion.
The most clear instance of Maya's spirit influencing Molly's piloting can be seen the final race of Canaletto's Revenge. When Molly and Kross are sprinting for the last gate, Kross tries to slice her ship from behind, but she spins out of the way just in time. When this happens, Maya's image is superimposed over Molly as she is steering the ship. After she flies through the gate and wins the race, Molly actually sees Maya smiling at her before she fades into an image of blue sky. Later in the following episode Canaletto reveals that he had set into motion the events that led to Maya's death. At the end of The Moment Of Truth, Don Wei and Eva visit Maya's grave together.
== Appearance ==
Maya is a tall, slim young lady. She has very long (waist length), straight, shiny, candy-floss pink hair, small dark eyes and peach coloured skin. She wears a plum purple mini dress with puffball sleeves, matching fingerless gauntlet gloves and matching knee high boots with white soles. She has tattoos on her cheeks of a crescent moon and a stripe. She also wears pink goggles, and had a white racing helmet.
In an earlier design, the neckline of her dress was lower cut, showing off her chest and cleavage.
==Trivia==
*Maya is among the characters who appear in the 2001 pilot film Molly, Star-Racer (short). She looks the same except for her clothing, and her ship is one of the only four star-racers shown in the film.
*The pink goggles Molly always wears are not the same pair Maya had, as hers were burned up in her fatal crash.
*The ship Maya flew on the day of her crash was called the Cloud II.
*The years on Maya's tombstone read 2044-2072, making her 28 years old when she died, and 23 when she had Eva.
Category:Female
Category:Anime Heroes
Category:Tragic
Category:Deceased
Category:Noncorporeal
Category:Parents
Category:Martyr
Category:Science Fantasy Heroes