Mikage

* Daisan no Shinzou
* Hotaru wa Inakatta
* School Uniform
* Pajamas
* Child
* Gen'ei AP
* Unmei

Mikage (みかげ / 美影) is the protagonist of the album Envy Phantom.

## Appearance

Mikage has short, brown hair with bangs and a yellow headband. Her skin is pale, and she has blue eyes.

She often wears a school uniform, which consists of a white blouse, a navy blue blazer, knife-pleated skirt and long socks with yellow accents, and a yellow ribbon, along with a pair of brown shoes. In Daisan no Shinzou, she wears this uniform except her hair is drawn as black and her shoes are drawn as dark blue.

In Hotaru wa Inakatta, she wears her PE uniform, which is a green jacket with white stripes and yellow accents, and a yellow knife-pleated skirt, along with green shoes with yellow laces and long yellow socks. Her eyes also appear to be light green instead of blue in some scenes.

In Unmei her appearance has greatly changed as her color pallette has turned entirely into the color white. She wears a jacket with a sailor collar, a knife-pleated skirt and rubber boots along with wearing a pair of goggles atop her head instead of her headband.

As for her phantoms, her appearance has changed drastically. Her hair is now light blue, and her headband is pink. Her eyes are light blue and pink, and her skin is even paler. She wears a light blue sweater with dark blue accents. On top of this sweater, she wears a pink poncho that fades into transparent, is very sparkly, and has pink and dark blue accents. On the back, the poncho is much more similar to insect wings, having two long points on each side with a floating pink diamond attached to each of them. She wears light blue boots with light pink accents on the sides.

In the album cover, she is wearing what is essentially her school uniform but with the color palette of her outfit in Gen'ei, only the colors are reversed. She is also wearing her boots from Gen'ei although the colors aren't reversed.

## Personality

Mikage is a quiet, socially anxious girl. She isn't good at talking people and often refuses to tell people anything about herself, closing herself off from the world. She describes herself as a timid and melancholic person and wishes she could be a better, brighter and more honest person. She seems to often doubt herself and easily ends up regretting her actions.

## Relationships

### Tomodachi

Tomodachi and Mikage are friends, although they don't seem to know each other very well, along with Mikage being a bit awkward around her.

### Spica

Mikage and Spica are good friends, Mikage seems to care a great deal about her and is seen ranking the things she likes, likely because she wants her to be happy and please her. In the manga, Mikage wanted to go to school in Tokyo since Spica did. There are various hints Mikage may have romantic feelings for her, such as her blushing and her eyes widening when Spica approached her and her relationship to Spica on the relationship chart showed in the exhibition simply being Mikage blushing at the end of Hotaru Wa Inakatta.

### Yuuhi

Mikage and Yuuhi are childhood friends, and Yuuhi could be considered her closest friend, knowing most things about Mikage, from her personality, to her home life. Yuuhi is the only person Mikage can talk about herself with, showing she trusts Yuuhi.

### Urara

They're friends but not very close, Mikage thinks of Urara as a mystery.

### Mikage's Phantom

Mikage seems to trust her more than she trusts herself, usually listening to whatever she tells her to do, even if it means lying or it upsets her.

## Theories

### Unmei

The protagonist of Unmei is a girl with a very similar hairstyle to Mikage. This girl also wears a head accessory that stretches across the top of her head, but for her, they are goggles. However, in the very last scene of Unmei, the girl wakes up in her bed, and instead of goggles, she is wearing a headband identical to Mikage's. Also, despite the rest of the frame being in black and white, the headband has a subtle yellow tint. While there has been no official confirmation from Harumaki Gohan that the girl from Unmei is Mikage, their similar designs have led some fans to believe that Unmei takes place some time after Daisan no Shinzou, where Mikage has lost her connection with Tomodachi and is lonely.

As of update 1.1 of Gen'ei-AP Empty Heart, it has been confirmed that Unmei is one of Mikage's nightmares. However, there is a possibility that the specific version of Mikage in the MV is actually Mikage's phantom.

### Dead

When run through DeepL Translator, Mikage's name translates to "divine spirit/spirit of the dead". While this translation is from a machine, and should be taken with a grain of salt, this may suggest that Mikage is dead.

As of the release of the album and the concert, this has been disproven.

### Autism

According to the game, she has a problem with communication, doesn't really like August Rainy because of loud sounds and always wears headphones without music in the classroom for the same reason. Some people think that it's because Mikage is autistic.

## Trivia

* Her name is written in hiragana, but the name Mikage could be composed of the characters 見 (to see) or 美 (beautiful) and 影 (shadow).
	+ In the artbook, her name is written as 美影 next to her Daisan no Shinzou reference sheet.
	+ A Tumblr post by Harumaki Gohan that features an animation of Mikage on the swing is captioned "Passing Shadow." Since her name is written as 美影 in the artbook next to her Daisan no Shinzou reference and because of her shadows, it's highly likely this is what her name was intended to mean.
	+ Since "mi" could also mean three (三), her name can be translate to Third Shadow, which is most likely relevant considering the lyric "三番目の影が走り去って行った (The third shadow ran away)" in Gen'ei.
* Before the release of Hotaru wa Inakatta, which introduced Yuuhi and Urara, Mikage and Nana were the only characters to have Japanese names.
* Harumaki Gohan stated in a tweet that Mikage's eyes are usually square, but they become round/widen when she's nervous.
* It's implied in Gen'ei AP-Empty Heart that Mikage has been to the Melty Land at least once.
* Mikage really likes the color yellow.
* Mikage sometimes keeps her friends company by eating ice cream with them.
* She loves music.
* According to a card, Harumaki Gohan used to call her Mikan.
* Mikage's experiences throughout the story show heavy parallels to dissociative disorders, mainly Dissociative Identity Disorder and OSDD.

## Gallery

Art of Mikage by Shannon, posted after the release of Daisan no Shinzou.[1]Art of Mikage and Tomo by o\_mozi\_R, posted after the release of Daisan no Shinzou.[2]Drawing of Mikage looking out her classroom window, drawn to commemorate Daisan no Shinzou reaching 100,000 views.[3]Sketch of Mikage and Tomodachi to commemorate Daisan no Shinzou reaching 100,000 views on bilibili. [4]A sketch of Mikage looking confused.[5]Art of Mikage and Tomodachi announcing that Daisan no Shinzou has been released on Joysound and DAM.[6]A collaboration between Harumaki Gohan and Iyowa.[7]A drawing to celebrate Happy New Year 2022.[8]https://twitter.com/harumaki\_gohan/status/1476891191761588224Commentary art for 100,000 view of Hotaru wa Inakatta.[9]A draft scene of Hotaru wa Inakatta.[10]A draft scene of Hotaru wa Inakatta.[11]A drawing of all characters, count back from Hotaru wa Inakatta celebrate 8th anniversary.[12]Commentary art for 10,000 download of Genei AP-Empty Heart.[13]A drawing of Envy Phantom characters. Titled "Training Camp".[14]A drawing on the pedal that Animal Pedal sells. Titled "PINKIE".[15]Close up drawing of Envy Phantom characters of collaboration campaign with Tower Record.[16]Commeration art for Unmei's release on JoySound.[17]A drawing of Mikage as a child.[18]A poster for the Gen'ei LV - A Tale of Shadows.[19]A memo and pen sold as exclusive Gen'ei LV - A Tale of Shadows merch.[20]A poster for the Harumaki Gohan x Magic Spice collab.[21]A photo taken of the Phantom Exhibit. You can see Mikage peeking from behind a tree. [22]Doodles of Urara, Mikage, Spica and Yuuhi from the doodle space in the Phantom Exhibit. [23]An image of Mikage and Yuuhi cutouts shown in the Phantom Exhibit.[24]Digital version of art used for acrylic stands.[25]Digital version of illustration used for exclusive Gen'ei LV - A Tale of Shadows bag. [26]Digital version of art used for exclusive Gen'ei LV merch, for a keychain. [27]Digital version of art used for exclusive Gen'ei LV - A Tale of Shadows merch, for a sweater.[28]Cutouts of Mikage, Spica, Yuuhi and Urara advertising the release of Envy Phantom. [29]A doodle of Mikage.[30]A drawing of Yuuhi and Mikage, posted by @kuwhen to celebrate the release of Envy Phantom.[31]A drawing of Mikage, Spica, Yuuhi and Urara to celebrate the release of Envy Phantom.[32]A plate made for the Harumaki Gohan x Magic Spice collab.[33]A drawing of Mikage for the Harumaki Gohan x Magic Spice collab. [34]A drawing of Mikage, Yuuhi, Spica and Urara for the Harumaki Gohan x Magic Spice collab. [35]A drawing of Mikage for the Harumaki x Magic Spice collab t-shirt.[36]A doodle of Spica and Mikage.A poster board advertising the release of Envy Phantom.A doodle of Mikage.A tiny doodle of Mikage.Mikage's desk, as recreated in real life in the Phantom Exhibit.Mikage's design in Mikage Nikki. [37]Artwork to commemorate 1,000,000 views on Himitsu, Suisei ni Nareta Nara and Daisan no Shinzou featuring Lili, Nana and Mikage.[38]A drawing to celebrate Happy New Year 2023.[39]A drawing to celebrate 9th anniversary.[40]"In search of the second star."[41]Mug design depicting some characters.[42]Art of Nana and Mikage made as an announment that tickets for the LIVE "Second Star Watching Party" had sold out.[43]