Meifon Sakura

"*というわけで、早速始めよか！まいどまいどー！*"
*"At any rate, let's start immediately! Hello, hello!"*
—Meifon, *Valkyrie Drive Mermaid*
**Meifon Sakura** (櫻 美鳳, *Sakura Meifon*) is a supporting protagonist of Valkyrie Drive Mermaid. She is an undercover gambler and one of the survivors from Wärter after being transferred to Mermaid Island long before Mamori Tokonome and Mirei Shikishima. She is half Taiwanese and half Japanese. Her quick-witted, agile movements make the best use of her small figure. She talks with an Osaka (Kansai) dialect (sometimes translated as a humorous Southern accent, which may explain her cowboy hat and boots). She's an entrepreneur who will do anything for money, but is also generous to those in need. Some think her to be reckless, perhaps because of her emotive persona. Despite living a good life at the castle "Feste", making cash as a bookie at the arena, she also makes frequent visits to the countryside.

## Appearance

In Ep. 1, she appears wearing a school uniform and green-rimmed glasses, and has outsized breasts, but in Ep. 2 and 3, she wears a pink cowboy hat, a tied-off halter top, and has a very small chest (an AAA cup in the official character sheet). She wears a short, green skirt with tight, light pink panties. She has light brown hair and bright green eyes. Because of her being lightly dressed throughout the series, her bare chest is often exposed when other characters pull on her shirt.

## Personality

Meifon jokes around often. She has a light personality, but does take extreme situations seriously. She loves money; enough to be able to turn into an arm, while using money as a Liberator. She appears to be extremely comfortable being completely naked in front of other characters, as she does so unabashedly on multiple occasions. She often acts very provocatively in situations she is in control of.

## History

### Arrival of Mamori Tokonome and Mirei Shikishima

Meifon is first seen before the fight with Kibami Saejima and the transfers in a disguise. She projects the odds that she has assigned for the upcoming fight, and proceeds to take bets from onlookers. In the end, she is surprised when the transfers, Mamori and Mirei, defeat Kibami.

### Wedding Aisle

When Mirei is sent to the underground disciplinary room, Meifon arrives to rescue her. Meifon finds Mirei is in a dim room with her hands in iron shackles on the wall behind her. Mirei breaks off the shackle on her left wrist, and throws Meifon to the ground. She offers to tell Mirei where Mamori is, which Mirei accepts.

### Atelier Torino

Meifon picks Mirei and Mamori up from the beach that they had escaped to, and drives them to Atelier Torino. When they arrive, Meifon unloads various boxes full of supplies for the people living outside of Veste's jurisdiction. She reveals that all of the goods that she had brought were stolen, but in a small enough quantity not to be noticed. Torino Kazami enters, and thanks Meifon for the supplies she brought. Meifon and Torino offer to allow Mirei and Mamori to stay there, which they gratefully accept. When Wärter arrives the following day, Meifon leaves in advance as to not be caught.

Meifon returns to Atelier Torino the following day, when she is greatly surprised by the arrival of Nimi Minimi. Mamori convinces Nimi to walk to the castle in order to see Noa Oya again. Meifon, unsure about what might happen, drives Mirei and Mamori to the castle to quell the danger.

### Mermaid Festival

Meifon is next seen drinking grape juice with her accomplices, Hyouko Yundou and Kirii Futaba. She then brings in more supplies to Atelier Torino, which she is thanked again for. She continues to talk with Hyouko and Kirii when they return to their hideout in the side of a mountain, where they discuss the bookmaking for the upcoming pageant. She claims that it is a face-off between Lady J and Charlotte Scherzen, as she expected it to be. She changes one of the prizes of the festival to the Guru-Neko doll, which Mamori earlier mentioned to have wanted. This way, she convinces Mirei to participate on Mamori's behalf. Afterwards, Meifon puts Mirei through a series of pageant training drills.

Appearing at the beauty pageant with her same disguise she wore during the transfers' fight with Kibami, Meifon remarks that the atmosphere is entirely in favor of Mirei, and that she is the most likely to win. To her surprise, Charlotte is announced as the winner, and Meifon suspects that her accomplices Hyouko and Kiri had fixed the results. Meifon confronts the two while they were attempting to destroy the evidence. Although they initially believe she is outnumbered, Meifon reveals that both Mirei and Mamori are with her. When Hyouko diverts Mirei using her decoys, Meifon uses her money as a Liberator to complete her own Drive into her Gold Money Armor. After an intense fight, Meifon uses her Gold Money Armor's electric charge to shock Hyouko with great success as a result of the fire sprinkler that had went off inside the room. After the fixed results were overturned, Meifon grants the doll to Mamori as a reward.

Meifon informs Mamori, Mirei, Torino, and Akira Hiragi of the hostage situation in the abandoned building. After Mamori, Torino, and Akira leave Atelier Torino, Meifon leads them to the cave entrance leading up to the abandoned building. However, she opts not to enter alongside the others.

### Momoka Sagara's Invasion

Akira gives a special mission to Lady J, Rain, Meifon, Mamori, and Mirei, and provides them with a set of coordinates to carry the mission out at. Meifon drives the others to the location, where Lady J creates an opening in the rock that reveals their target location. Meifon leads them all inside, and accidentally discovers a secret corridor after falling down. Meifon is later attacked by the Artificial Arm, but later escapes with Rain and Lady J. Meifon discovers Mirei unconscious after her fight with the Artificial Arm, and carries her with Mamori to the others so the group can escape the collapsing cave.

At Atelier Torino, Meifon informs the others that a new transfer has arrived at Mermaid Island.

Again, Meifon disguises herself and acts as a bookmaker for the upcoming fight between Akira and Charlotte. Meifon is seen visibly surprised after Charlotte defeats Akira.

Meifon finds Mamori and Akira in the castle, and watches after Akira at Mamori's request. After the fight comes to a close, Meifon protects Lady J, Rain, Hibiki, and Kasumi with her Gold Money Armor Drive against Momoka Sagara's attack by creating a forcefield to shield them from the blast.

Momoka absorbs Meifon and the others into Mamori's Arm. After Mirei frees herself from her constraints and finds Mamori, she is able to tear the chains off of Mamori and complete her Drive from inside Mamori's Arm, freeing all the others in the process. Meifon transforms into her Gold Money Armor again to fight against Momoka's Soldier Arm. Her armor disappears as a result of the Armed-virus disappearing from Mermaid Island.

## Powers and Abilities

**Gold Money Armor**: This is triggered when she has money out to Drive in her golden armor body. In this form, she can can generate forcefields and strong electricity based attacks. Although the armor is very fragile, it grants her high offensive ability. When the armor is struck in a particular area, that part of the armor disappears (as seen with her breasts, thighs, and wrists). When the battle is over, the Gold Money Armor vanishes, leaving her naked (apart from a small “foreclosure” tag over her genitals). She has to regain all the money spent for each time she Drives using money as the Liberator.

### Drive Breaks

* **Lucky Trap** (ラッキートラップ *Rakkī Torappu*) - She gently puts her hand on the wet surface by generating electrical shockwaves that surround her foe.

## Etymology

* The name **Meifon** means "beautiful" (美) (**mei**) and "male phoenix bird, male mythical bird" (鳳) (**fon**).
* Meifon's surname **Sakura** means "cherry tree/cherry-blossom" (櫻).

## Trivia

* Meifon steals goods from the Feste warehouses to supply the inhabitants of Atelier Torino Kazami in the countryside (Ep. 3).
* Meifon herself is an Extar, only she does not require another Liberator partner to Drive in combat, rather, her driving partner is money which is an inanimate object. After Drive, she becomes equipped with golden armor.
* Her bare breasts make their first appearance in episode 2, when Mirei lifts up Meifon’s shirt.
* Her date of birth is April 7th.
	+ She is also the first Extar to fight and use a Drive Break.
	+ Compared to the other Extars, Meifon is considered the weakest Extar throughout the series, where only focuses on offensive abilities rather than defense, hence her golden armor having a nigh-fragile durability. Which makes her a "glass cannon".