Miku Hinasaki

Miku Hina​saki (雛咲 深紅 Hinasaki Miku; born 1969) is the main character of the first video game.
She was voiced by Rumiko Varnes, who also voiced Jennifer Simpson in . In , she was voiced by , who also voiced Isabela Keyes in , Xian Mei in the games, Dawn Star in , and Nina Einstein & Sayoko Shinozaki in .
==Overview==
Miku comes from a family that is susceptible to the paranormal. Like others in her family, she is able to utilize the Camera Obscura, a unique camera that has the ability to see the impossible and capture images of the other side. She and her brother, Mafuyu, were introduced as the first protagonists of the franchise when they became trapped as soon as they set foot in the haunted Himuro Mansion. With her heightened paranormal abilities, she is again tasked with handling the Camera Obscura to shed light on the surrounding mysteries.
==Biography==
===Background===
Miku is first introduced as a 17-year-old high school (college in American and European versions) student. After her father died and her mother committed suicide, Miku has lived under the care of her older brother, Mafuyu, whom she is very close to. Like their mother and grandmother, Miku and Mafuyu have been gifted with a sixth sense, giving them the ability to see things normal people aren't able to. Miku's mother, after inheriting the Camera Obscura from her mother, suffered because of this sixth sense and went mad, ultimately hanging herself on a tree in their home's garden.
=== Fatal Frame ===
After her brother hasn't returned from his investigation of the Himuro Mansion, Miku becomes worried and decides to look for him herself. She enters the mansion and picks up where he left off, finding the Camera Obscura that Mafuyu had taken with him. However, While on Mafuyu's trail, Miku encounters a powerful ghost - the ghost of the last Rope Shrine Maiden.
She is able to escape the ghost, but not without falling under the curse of the Strangling Ropes that tore the shrine maiden apart in the Strangling Ritual. Now, Miku must find a way to reverse the effects of the Strangling Ritual before the ropes appear on all her limbs and she is swallowed by the darkness.
After thoroughly searching the mansion, Miku uncovers the truth behind the disaster that occurred there, and why all who venture into the mansion never return. The last Strangling Ritual had failed and resulted in the Calamity, spilling Malice throughout the mansion. The Malice consumed the people, killing and driving them mad.
Because of this, the spirit of the Rope Shrine Maiden, Kirie Himuro, became malevolent, inflicting the pain she suffered on all who enter the mansion. Miku also uncovers that in order to fight the malice, she must recover the pieces of a Holy Mirror used to seal the Hell Gate from which the Malice has escaped.
After doing so, Miku frees Kirie from the Malice's grip, as well as her brother Mafuyu. Realizing what has happened, Kirie decides to fulfill her sacred duty as the Rope Shrine Maiden and seals the Hell Gate, binding herself before it so that it may never open again. The mansion grounds begin to collapse, prompting Miku and Mafuyu to escape.
Mafuyu decides not to leave, however, saying that he wishes to stay with Kirie if that will ease her unending pain. Miku reluctantly leaves the mansion, and when she gets out, she sees the souls of the dead rise up the sky and find their peace. Miku notes that from that day on, she was never able to see the impossible again.
=== Fatal Frame III ===
Before Fatal Frame, Mafuyu entrusted Miku under his good friend, Yuu Asou's care should anything happen. Yuu took Miku in after Mafuyu's disappearance, and Miku lived with Yuu and his finaceé, Rei Kurosawa. There, Miku worked as Rei's assistant, helping by researching and accompanying her on photographing sessions. Unfortunately, Yuu was killed in a car crash, which Rei survived. Since then Miku and Rei have been plagued by the Tattooed Curse besetting those who survive death and disaster.
For Miku, part of the Manor of Sleep that she enters in her dreams presents itself as a manifestation of the Himuro Mansion, where she re-lives her harrowing experience. A handmaiden of the Kuze Shrine, however, seeks Miku's help. She asks Miku to save two people, the Tattooed Priestess and the handmaiden's brother. As the handmaiden directs Miku, telling her "big brother's over here", Miku begins to believe that she is being led to Mafuyu.
Miku follows further and further into the Manor of Sleep, eventually until she meets Mafuyu one last time. Miku decides to follow Mafuyu, regretting her survival in the past, and she is consumed by the Tattooed Curse and falls into an endless sleep.
Miku's fate remains the same regardless of the ending achieved in Fatal Frame III. After freeing the souls lost in the Manor of Sleep, Rei effectively reverses the curse of the Holly Tattoo that plagues her and Miku. Miku wakes from her sleep and says that although she never understood why she survived, she realises why they were allowed to live.
=== Fatal Frame V ===
Miku appears as a non-playable character. After Fatal Frame III, she conceived a child, as a result of coming into contact with Mafuyu's spirit. She quit as Rei's assistant and left to give birth to her daughter, Miu. Miku raised her child on her own. Giving birth to a shadow-born used up almost all of Miku's life span, so when Miu was about three years old, Miku sensed her imminent death.
Due to this, Miku travelled to Mt. Hikami after learning of Ghost Marriage, due to the fear of dying alone and the wish of easing Mafuyu's burden as he guards the hell gate. After hugging her daughter goodbye, she travels up the mountain, lured by the sunset, where she enters the house of joining and enters the black box, forming a ghost marriage with Mafuyu.
She is not seen again for fourteen years, until Miu travels to the mountain in search of her. Miu frees her from the black box. Miku's first words to her daughter are an apology, and she then tells her, "Miu, I'm already..." (in the English version, "Miu, it's already too late for me..."), but Miu cuts her off with the insistence that she returns with her and she does not make any further protest.
After returning to the antique shop, Miku falls into a deep sleep for the rest of the game, until near the end, when Miu dreams that she is returning to the mountain. Following Miku into the water, Miku explains to Miu her reasons for leaving her behind and admits that while she mostly just wanted to use her time left to save Mafuyu's spirit, she also was afraid to die alone and had longed to return to her carefree past.
In the good ending, Miu begs Miku not to leave, to which Miku promises that she wasn't going anywhere. After they both fall asleep watching the sunset together, Miu wakes up in a panic, but calms down after seeing that her mother is still laying beside her. She returns to sleep, embracing her. Miku's life is still near its end, due to having birthed a shadow-born, but will live out the rest of her time - as little that remains - by Miu's side.
In the bad ending, after Miku promises Miu not to go anywhere, Miu realizes that this was a promise her mother could not keep, even if she wanted to, because Miku's life is already at its end. Miu calls her a lair, and the faint trace of Miku's spirit the remains, vanishes in the sunset, leaving Miu alone to cry over her death.
==Appearance==
In Fatal Frame, her appearance resembles a Japanese-style school uniform, the most prominent feature being the ribbon in the front of her blouse. She also wears a neck choker similar to her brother's, as well as a comb passed down from her grandmother to tie her long hair.
For the US and Xbox releases of Fatal Frame, Miku's appearance made some noticeable changes. The focal ribbon was removed. Her blouse and skirt were made to look more streamlined and mature. Her face was also edited to be less round. She was also given redder lips, slightly smaller eyes, and lighter hair.
For Fatal Frame III, Miku wears a different outfit, with her basic features unchanged. Her blouse and skirt now have more colour, and she wears black Mary Jane shoes with stockings, rather than boots. Miku's cursed tattoo is also significantly different from all others found in the game; her tattoo is red, instead of the more common blue, with a slightly different pattern from the traditional Snake and Holly.
==Gallery==
MikuHinasakiFace.png|Japanese (left) and US (right) versions.
==Trivia==
* The name "Miku" means "deep" (深) (mi) and "crimson" (紅) (ku).
* The surname "Hinasaki" means "chick, squab, duckling, doll" (雛) (hina) and "blossom" (咲) (saki).
* She is 17 years old in Fatal Frame, 19 in Fatal Frame III, and 37 (though physically 23) in .
* She is similar to Jo-Beth Casey from and Linda Meilinda from ; a ghost-hunting school girl with a camera.
* She is similar to Jennifer Simpson from  and ; both were voiced by Rumiko Varnes, both are orphans, and both are later taken in by a woman (Helen Maxwell and Rei Kurosawa) who involuntarily becomes involved in their previous endeavors (escaping Scissorman and fighting ghosts).
==Licensing==
This article contains content derived from the "Miku Hinasaki" article on the Fatal Frame Wiki, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Category:Female
Category:Psychics
Category:Paranormal Investigators
Category:Tragic
Category:Siblings
Category:Parents
Category:Video Game Heroes
Category:Non-Action
Category:Pacifists
Category:Teenagers
Category:Cursed
Category:Presumed Deceased