Kyoho Aitani

"*Leave me alone*."

- Mythical Mew Mew

**Kyoho Aitani** (藍(あい)谷(たに)きょほ) is one of the main heroines of Mythical Mew Mew. Her Mew form is Mew Grape.

* Mythical Mew Mew
* Mythical Mew Mew à la Carte

Kyoho is a tall, light brown-skinned girl with a broad chest and shoulders, a narrow waist, and long, muscled limbs. Her thick, coarse, dark navy hair brushes against her thighs and flops over one eye, occasionally being tied into a simple ponytail or bun for convenience. Her face is angular, with small, dark blue almond-shaped eyes with short eyelashes and dark circles underneath, a long, straight nose, and a down-turned mouth.

She has a very simple and practical fashion sense, frequently wearing baggy jeans, jackets, and band shirts, all in dark or neutral colors. As for shoes, she alternates between two pairs of old, worn sneakers. At school, she wears the Sakuragi Daifuzoku Junior High School girls' uniform with black calf-high socks. The one thing she wears regardless of outfit is a simple necklace with a single, golden pearl, gifted to her by her father.
Along with growing a couple of inches and gaining more muscle, Kyoho's hair has now been cut short, though she still keeps one eye covered. Her fashion sense hasn't changed much, but she'll now occasionally add a small dash of color. She now wears the Sakuragi Daifuzoku High School girls' uniform with black stockings.

Kyoho's café uniform is a dark blue dress that reaches her lower thighs with a white, frilly apron tied into a thin bow at the back. A light blue ribbon is attached to the collar, and the shirt has dark and light blue cuffs attached to the short sleeves.

The skirt has white frills at the bottom and a thin light blue stripe running above the hem, while her legs are covered by white shin-high socks with frilled cuffs and her shoes are dark blue sneakers with white toes, white soles, and white laces. Lastly, a frilly white headband sits on her head and she ties her hair up in a ponytail.

* First Form
* Upgrade

As Mew Grape her hair turns navy and her eyes lighten, while her hair separates into segments that vaguely resemble tentacles, she also gains gray fins in place of her ears. Her outfit is a light blue leotard with four knee-length coattails, two on the front and two on the back. Her simple knee-length boots are a matching light blue color.

She also has light blue garters on both arms, her left thigh and a choker with a gold pendant attached. The tops and bottoms of her garters and choker are lined with dark blue lace. Her Mew Mark, which resembles tentacles attached to a water drop, is pale blue and on her forehead.

After receiving her upgrade, Mew Grape's hair grows a few inches longer. The leg holes of her leotard are now lined with spiky, dark blue lace. The cuffs of her boots are spiky and a dark blue ribbon with a bow on the front is tied around each boot. She also has thin light blue wristbands lined with spiky navy blue lace.

The dark blue lace lining the tops and bottoms of her garters and choker become visibly spikier, she also now has a dark blue ribbon attached to her leg garter. Her usual gold pendant is replaced by a heart-shaped light blue amulet with a golden rim attached to a dark blue ribbon tied around her choker.

Taciturn and unsociable, Kyoho prefers to keep her distance from others and isn't one to wear her heart on her sleeve. She tends to keep her guard up around others, almost constantly wary of their motives and intentions in a manner that borders on paranoia. She's especially cautious of people who are exceptionally selfless and giving, believing that they have to have some kind of hidden agenda.

When Kyoho makes a promise to do something, it's a guarantee that she'll follow through with it. She doesn't like to back out of commitments, only doing so if she has no other choice. Though usually only motivated by the need to fulfil her responsibilities, when Kyoho is given the right incentive or a desirable goal to work towards she'll pursue it with a single-minded determination and refuse to give up until she reaches her objective.

She sees no reason to beat around the bush in order to preserve someone's feelings, instead electing to be direct and honest, but not completely tactless. Kyoho has no issue with lying, and is actually quite skilled at it, but believes that the truth is important and it's better than living a lie. She's sick and tired of people who, instead of taking charge and trying to change things, simply sit around theorising, complaining, or acting like nothing's wrong.

Kyoho finds it very difficult to empathise with those around her and, when faced with emotional situations, will feel awkward and unsure what to do, which many misconstrue as her being inconsiderate or uncaring. She's not the best at regulating her emotions, instead choosing to bottle them up, resulting in her emotionless facade.

Kyoho’s transformation begins with her kissing her Mew Pendant and declaring her metamorphosis. The next scene shows Kyoho with her DNA morphing in the background. She places both feet apart on the ground and her boots appear.

She then leans backwards and allows herself to fall head-first, her body glows and collides with a thin wall of water, she comes out the other side with her outfit on. The remaining drops of water collect and turn into her pendant. Finally, Kyoho lands and poses.

Due to her exercise regime and her time on the Sakuragi Daifuzoku swim team, Kyoho has more physical strength than most of her peers. She has also built up a lot of stamina over the years, both physically and mentally.

Kyoho also has above-average intelligence.

Due to her infusion, Kyoho's body and physical capabilities have been affected; some of these abilities are only available in Mew form, while others can be used at any time. Like the other Mews, she can withstand injuries much better than a regular person, this is most noticeable as Mew Grape, but even outside of Mew form she's still notably resilient.

Much like her DNA animal, Kyoho's body can resist water pressure far better than a regular human, allowing her to reach depths that no other human could. She can also inject a small amount of venom through biting someone; it's not enough to kill, but the venom will cause irritation and pain.

Many of her senses are also increased; she can see further than normal humans and has no blind spot (making it hard to sneak up on her, she can detect scents at a distance, even underwater, and her taste buds are so sensitive that even the smallest trace of a substance will be noticed. Her pressure resistance and venomous bite are only really usable as Mew Grape, but her senses remain enhanced whether she's in Mew form or civilian form.

Her octopus DNA allows her to survive (and even thrive) in cold weather, though she's also highly susceptible to heat.

A lot of Kyoho's tactics could be considered 'underhanded'. She'll use her trident to trip her opponent, throw dirt/sand into their eyes, bite them, and pretend to be injured so they'll let their guard down. She fights with a trident known as the Grape Trident, this weapon allows her to perform an attack named 'Ribbon Grape Splash'.

Hector tried desperately to keep the family together, but Ayako remained apathetic to his attempts. The two eventually divorced when Kyoho was 9, Ayako got custody of Kyoho and moved to Shinjuku.
Kyoho was very upset by the divorce and having to move away from her father. Her bitterness at the whole situation only worsened when her mother entered a relationship with a man named Daisuke Aitani, who had a daughter of his own from a previous marriage. This daughter, named Ichijiku Aitani, was just two years older than Kyoho.
She repeatedly tried to convince her mother to move back to Kamakura or let Kyoho live with her father, but each attempt was met with a refusal. Not long after she reached 12, her mother married Daisuke, forcing Kyoho to get used to a new step-father and an older step-sister, both of whom she detested.
Kyoho was never popular in school due to a combination of her foreign heritage, her towering height, and her near constant glare. Not that she was complaining, the less people bothering her, the better.

"*You know, she's never even bothered to say 'good morning' or ask me how I'm feeling.*"
- Kyoho about Ayako

Kyoho's harbours some resentment towards her mother, blaming Ayako for the divorce and for her emotional problems.

"*Dad was always there for me.*"
- Kyoho about Hector

Kyoho misses her father and wishes that either he could come to Tokyo or she could go to Kamakura to see him.

"*He needs to learn to back off every once in a while.*"
- Kyoho about Daisuke.

She finds her step-father's constant cheeriness and attempts to interact with her annoying and wishes he'd just leave her alone.

"*Just because everyone else hands you whatever you want on a silver platter doesn't mean I will.*"
- Kyoho to Ame

Ame and Kyoho start out with a strained relationship. Kyoho sees her as an arrogant and bratty rich kid who knows nothing about the real world.

"*Blindly rushing into fights will eventually get you killed.*"
- Kyoho to Suguri

Kyoho and Suguri rarely get along and their interactions are full of arguments and fights, though they do have rare moments of peace and tolerance.

"*You don't annoy me, I actually like being around you.*"
- Kyoho to Nashi

Kyoho enjoys Nashi's company, preferring her quiet and polite personality over the more rambunctious attitudes of her teammates. Kyoho even sticks up for Nashi at school.

"*You need to be more careful.*"
- Kyoho to Mikan

Despite Kyoho's dislike of children and loudness, she isn't overly bothered by Mikan, even being a little protective of the younger girl.

"*Honestly, it's like she's never heard of personal space.*"
- Kyoho about Ichijiku

Kyoho feels a lot of frustration towards her step-sister, particularly her laziness, childishness, crybaby tendencies and lack of understanding about boundaries.

"*At least she's competent.*"
- Kyoho about Yasuko

She has neutral feelings towards Professor Ginza, she doesn't particularly hate her but isn't her biggest fan either.

"*I can't believe someone so spoiled and entitled exists.*"
- Kyoho about Yuzu

Kyoho strongly dislikes Yuzu, finding her to be more annoying and bratty than Ame.

"*I just wish she'd take this seriously.*"
- Kyoho about Keke

Kyoho finds Keke tiring, she doesn't hate or even strongly dislike Keke, but just finds her energy level and constant pranks a little frustrating to deal with.

Early on, I'd planned for Kyoho to be an only child, at another point she and Ichijiku were biological sisters before I finally settled on making them step-sisters.

I had two particular characters in mind while initially working on her personality, the first was Ichimatsu Matsuno from an anime series named Osomatsu-San, the other was Sabrina from the Pokémon anime.

**Kyoho** is a type of slip-skin, concord-like grape that is a cross between Ishiharawase and centennial varieties. They are primarily produced in Nagano, Yamanishi, and China.

**Aitani** is made up of two kanji. *Ai*, which means 'indigo' and *Tani*, which translates to valley.

**Grape** refers to a berry that grows in clusters and is often used in wine.

**Claire** is a French girls' name meaning 'clear'.

**Miller** is a British occupational surname referring to someone who works in a grain mill.

**Pútáo** is the Mandarin word for 'grape'.

**Lángǔ** is made up of two characters. *Lán*, which means 'blue' or 'indigo' and *Gǔ*, which translates to 'valley'.

**Nho** is the Vietnamese word for 'grape'.

**Chàmgóc** means 'indigo corner'.

**Carla** is an Italian girls' name meaning 'bright' or 'clear'.

**Aitani** is just her Japanese surname.

**Podo** is the Korean word for 'grape'.

**Kang** is a Korean surname that, when written with a specific hanja, translates to 'river'.

* Roughy Umbrella Octopuses live around the east coast of New Zealand.

* She has the same Japanese voice actress as Riza Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

* Her English voice actress is the same as Shizune from Naruto.