Nani Pelekai

**Nani Pelekai** is the tritagonist of Disney's 2002 animated feature film, *Lilo & Stitch*, and a major character of the overall franchise. She is the older sister and legal guardian of Lilo, due to their parents' death.

## Background

Nani is the older sister of Lilo Pelekai, and after their parents were unexpectedly killed in a car accident one night during a storm, Nani, as Lilo's closest living relative, was appointed as her legal guardian some time afterward. In the movie, Nani is said to be nineteen, and Lilo is said to be seven, making them twelve years apart in age.

As a result of having to support herself and Lilo, she is often stressed and busy. Her intense schedule often interferes with her relationship with her boyfriend, David, and somewhat prevents her from having friends. He makes several attempts to treat Nani on a date, only to meet rejection due to her busy schedule. Despite their sometimes rocky relationship, Nani and Lilo care deeply for each other, and this strong bond is shown continuously throughout the film. Through her sister and the loss of their folks, Nani is shown to have a motherly side, and often makes decisions based on Lilo's best interest, alone. In the original film, her custody over Lilo was put to the test at the hands of social worker Cobra Bubbles, who, despite regretting the thought of having to separate the two sisters, is looking out for Lilo's best interest, as well, knowing she needs a figure who can handle the task of raising a child.

Two things that Nani is known for are her inability to hold down a full-time job, partly due to the antics of her sister and Stitch, and for being a terrible cook, although she excels greatly in math and chemistry.

## Appearance

Nani is a beautiful young woman; strongly built though fairly slender with wide hips, with olive skin, black hair that reaches a little past her shoulders and brown eyes. Throughout the film, she can be seen wearing a number of outfits, though her most prominent (in the film) tends to be a pinkish beige short-sleeved belly shirt with a heart designed onto it, blue jean shorts, white socks, brown hiking boots, blue (sometimes brown or dark yellow) sandals (on her occasion). In subsequent appearances in the franchise, and in certain points of the original movie, Nani is often seen wearing a blue belly-shirt, beige calf-long pants, and sandals. One of her more iconic outfits is her blue and green striped bikini, which she wears during the "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" scene.

## Personality

Nani is a kind, mature, and caring individual. Unfortunately, as a result of her busy job and the stress of taking care of and providing for her ohana (at first Lilo and then including Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley), she tends to be fairly temperamental and sarcastic with everyone. Jumba at one point refers to her wrath scarier than his former partner Dr. Hämsterviel's. While this is usually reasonable, considering how Lilo and Stitch tend to disobey the rules and get into trouble with society, at times her temper gets the better of her and she jumps to conclusions, which causes her not to listen to the whole story. An example is a time Lilo and Stitch were talking with Mertle's mother in front of the movie theater, which made Nani think they were going to the movies when she said not to (when in reality they were actually experiment hunting) and didn't even let them explain. When she really stressed and angry, she tends to uncharacteristically snap at Lilo, only to regret it when Lilo's not in sight.

Nonetheless, she is protective of her family, particularly Lilo, and will attack anyone who harms them and defend them from any threat. She loves Lilo more than anyone or anything in the world and does all she can to keep her from harm. She is kind and hardworking, and she proves that while she is somewhat irritable, she can also be compassionate and understanding as she usually forgives Lilo and Stitch for their antics. Just like her little sister, she loves and misses her parents very much and is usually depressed on the anniversary of the day they died.

She is the breadwinner of her family and loves Lilo more than anything, but at times is ashamed she didn't make more of her life. From the number of surfing trophies she has in her room, it is possible that she could've had a successful career in surfing or even had gone to college had it not been for the death of her parents. As a result of their death, she decided to devote her time to taking care of Lilo which resulted in her having to put Lilo's future over her own, which includes giving up her chances of a huge surfing career for Lilo's sake, proving how devoted she is to Lilo, the one person she loves and cares for more than everything else in the world. Since Lilo is what Nani values most, her worst fear, in fact (expressed by Spooky), is Lilo being taken away from her or losing Lilo in any way possible as shown with. Overall, she has the most common sense and is the most normal of her "unconventional" *ʻohana*.

She is very mature and wise for someone her age and the voice of reason, possibly as a result of losing her parents, having to grow up and be independent at such a young age, as she is shown to teach Lilo important life lessons, such as taking responsibility for her actions, not making fun of people based on their appearances, and having friends like you for who you are, not your appearances. Nani also is concerned with Lilo's naive belief that Mertle, Elena, Teresa, and Yuki are her friends, despite the fact they are mean to her (which she points out in one episode).

## Role in Sora’s Adventures

She appeared in Sora’s Adventures in Deep Space, Sora's Adventures in Hawaii...With Stitch!, and Sora's Experiment Madness