Akabayashi Rubi

**Akabayashi Rubi**「赤林瑠美衣」is one of the protagonists of the *Guardian Angels Of The Sky* series. Rubi is the clumsy but outgoing and energetic captain of her school’s girls basketball team. She is the born team player, who likes to take lead in actions but still relies on her team mates during the match. She always tries her best to score the best endgame possible and will never give up until she has reached her goals. Yet, from time to time, Rubi can also appear like a big klutz to someone else. She’s pretty lazy and can be very unreliable as well. Rubi’s greatest flaws are her grades in school as she doesn’t pay much attention to school in general and would rather play basketball all day long instead of sitting in class. She also is not happy that she has to work at her family’s restaurant and usually leaves her duties with her twin sister Robin, which causes Rubi to get in trouble with her parents quite often.

Among the protagonists, Rubi was the first one to encounter the Bishoujas and also the first one to have her powers, that were previously sleeping within her soul, awakened. With Scarlett’s powers, Rubi was able to transform into **Guardian Angel Chimaira**, the Guardian Angel of fire and passion, who has the power to fight off the darkness threatening earth. Yet, before even thinking about facing the darkness, Chimaira’s first task was to guide the Bishoujas and find the remaining Angels.

Rubi’s cheerful attitude can also be seen in the way she talks. Whenever someone is worried about something she will try to cheer them up with her signature catchphrase **”Don't worry about it!”** ( しんぱいご無用！?). Another of Rubi’s signature catchphrases is **”I'll do my best!”** ( がんばくる！?).

## Basic Information

* **Full name:** Akabayashi, Rubi
* **In Japanese:** 赤林瑠美衣 (あかばやし るびい)
* **Alias:** N/A
* **Nickname:** Rubs
* **Birthdate:** July 21st
* **Birthplace:** Hisakata, Toyama (Japan)
* **Zodiac:** Cancer
* **Height:** 1.57 m (5″2)
* **Weight:** 58 kg
* **Blood Type:** AB

### Fears and Dreams

Due to being the elder twin, Rubi is used to playing the protective sister and thus seems to be fearless. While it sometimes seems like there’s nothing that can scare her, Rubi, just like any other person, has got her own fair share of fears, even though she doesn’t react towards them like another person – especially her sister – would. As a child, Rubi used to be afraid of fire. When there was a flame somewhere around Rubi, she would freak and start to cry. She would try her best to avoid the flame and get no where close. She couldn’t even sit next to a bonfire without hiding behind someone else. By now, however, Rubi has overcome her childhood fear and doesn’t seem to have much problems with fires anymore. She still is not too fond of them but has realized that now, since she is the Guardian Angel of Fire, has to get along with the element. One more current fear of Rubi’s is her fear of snakes. If anyone asked her why she was afraid of them, Rubi couldn’t find any words to explain and would find the conclusion “They are just simply creepy”. Additionally, Rubi usually finds herself creeped out by clowns.

For the most time of her life, Rubi thought that one day she would play basketball professionally and then would never have to stop playing basketball. But one day, during her last year in middle school, Rubi realized that being a professional basketballer wasn’t her dream and basketball was nothing more than a hobby for her. She thought that, even if she would continue on that path, one day she might look at herself and wonder why she didn’t try something else. Also, she didn’t want to think of basketball of something that “she has to do to earn money”. It should just stay her most favorite free time activity. Though basketball was never the only thing she was good in. Even though she would usually skip her shifts at the family restaurant, Rubi is a quite talented cook, being able to somewhat keep up with her father. At first, she never considered, but during the same time, as she decided that she didn’t want to become a professional basketballer, Rubi began to consider taking over the Suzaku once day.

### Skills

* **Athletic skills:** As her twin sister Robin would say, Rubi is born for sports. May it be soccer, American Football, basketball or softball, Rubi is good in any of these kinds of sports, but her favorite one will always be basketball. Rubi has a great stamina and great sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, which makes her a great leader. Additionally, she is a fast runner. The only thing she is not very good at is accepting loss. Due to her big pride, she always wants to win and when she can’t win, she will get pretty upset.
* **Academic skills:** Rubi’s academic skills are the exact opposite of her athletic skills and are way below the average. Due to her attitude towards studying, Rubi fails in any subject that has got nothing to do with athletic abilities, with her worst classes being Math. Literature, Science and English. Especially English, as Rubi just can’t see the necessity to know another language besides her native tongue.
* **Additional skills:** As mentioned above, Rubi is a very talented cook. Rubi is a lot like her father, especially when it comes to pride: while Rubi shows pride during matches, her father shows pride in the kitchen. Sure, Rubi and Robin have to help at the family restaurant now and then – every day for several hours –, but he would never let them into the kitchen, cook with them. At least he didn’t. Until one day Rubi invited herself into the kitchen and has proven to him that she can cook as well. Ever since then, Rubi has gained a lot cooking experience and has gotten the permission to help in the kitchen as well.

## History

*Main article: Akabayashi Rubi / History*
Rubi and her sister Robin are twins, with Rubi being born a few minutes earlier than Robin. Even though their age difference is nothing more than a banality, Rubi has always liked to act more superior towards Robin, which would usually end in up in a sisterly fight between the two of them. And that’s pretty much how Rubi’s life has looked like before she met the Bishoujas. Between school, practice and hanging out with her best friend Yuuka, Rubi would always find time to fight with her twin sister, or to get punished by her parents for skipping her restaurant duties.

Rubi’s life has always been pretty simple. She was born in Hisakata and grew up in the family’s restaurant, the Suzaku, together with her twin sister Robin. While Robin was reading picture books in Kindergarten, Rubi got more and more interested in playing basketball with the older kids. She would befriend with them but would never play a greater role for Rubi’s later life, as they were quite older than her anyway. The only friend she made back then was her current best friend, Kawabata Yuuka, who also was as interested in basketball as Rubi. The more the two played basketball together, the better friends they became and after a few years, they even started middle school together – and they even got in the same class in their first year.

## Physical Appearance

### Appearance

Rubi has short, dark red colored hair, that slightly touches her shoulders. She usually keeps them opened, except when practicing and playing basketball, and whenever she would cook along with her father. Then, she has her hair tied up in low pigtails. She also has red eyes. In the second half of the series, Rubi’s hair has grown quite longer, now reaching over her shoulders when worn opened. She now usually wears them tied into a low ponytail, which sometimes hangs down her back or put over her right shoulder. In terms of height form Rubi, who is 1.57 m (5″2) tall, is, along with Amashiro Kiyomi - who is just slightly shorter than her –, the shortest member of the team.

### Clothing Style

Casually and practically, Rubi is a girl who loves sports and doesn’t care much about her appearance. Rubi wears anything that feels comfortable and that is easy to move in. She mostly wears shirts and tops that are either colored in only one color or are dual colored and show a number, name or even a symbol at the back or sometimes even at the front. Her favorite colors are red and black, which is why she likes to wear clothes that are red or black colored. The only thing Rubi really dislikes wearing are skirts. She likes shorts and pants, but will never wear skirts.

#### Outfits

In civilian, in the first two seasons, Rubi wears a simple, red colored top with slightly puffy sleeves. The top covers the waistband of the grey pants she wears. The pants reach down to the middle of her lower legs, but as Rubi has rolled up both pant legs, none of them reach that far. The right leg is rolled up to far above the knee, while the left one reaches slightly over the knee. Rubi wears red sneakers with white laces and pale yellow socks. During winter, she wears a black colored shirt. She has the sleeves of the shirt rolled up to her elbows. And around her neck she wears a red and white checkered scarf, which covers the collar of the shirt she wears. Rubi wears dark grey colored pants, red sneaker boots and black socks, which are usually covered by the pants she wears.

In the latter two seasons, Rubi wears a black colored T-shirt with red trims, which she wears underneath a reseda green colored jacket. The jacket has no sleeves but a one big pocket on each side. The button of that pocket is star-shaped. She wears dark grey colored baggy shorts that reach down to her knees and black high tops with red stars on each side. She wears white sneaker songs, which are only revealed if Rubi puts off her shoes. During winter, she wears pastel pink colored boucle knit sweater and a dark red and black checkered neck scarf. The sleeves of the sweater slightly reach over her hands, but don’t cover her fingers. She also wears black cargo pants and dark blue knitted wedge boots.

While doing her shifts at the Suzaku restaurant, Rubi usually wears a simple, red colored, long sleeved top, which she wears underneath a black colored T-shirt with the name and logo of the Suzaku written on it in a bright red color. She wears a dark blue colored skinny jeans and simple red sneakers.

While attending middle school, Rubi wore the official uniform for girls of the Private Southern Lights Academy. The uniform consisted of a grey-ish white blouse, which had puffy sleeves, with a dark green sailor-style collar. A purple ribbon was tied around her neck and she was wearing a dark grey, almost black colored skirt with white buttons. Inside the school’s building, she wore dark blue colored penny loafers for shoes with white stockings that each had a green stripe at the top. The winter uniform was identical, with the only difference being the blouse, which was long sleeved in winter. The girls were also allowed to wear a black blazer, whose color fit with the color of the skirt. When leaving the house, they had special coats during winter.

## General Information

### Personality

Rubi is a energetic and outgoing young girl, who loves nothing more than playing basketball. She is usually in a bright mood and will always do her best. She is unwilling to give up and a “not possible” does not exist for Rubi. She truly believes that there’s a way to achieve anything. And she even lives along with her believes – as long as this path does have nothing to do with studying. When studying is involved, Rubi believes in the big “not possible” and has accepted her fate of being a bad student. But in any other situation, Rubi will try as hard as possible and will not give in until she has reached the solution she was hoping for. May it be winning a match or baking the perfect apple pie. It doesn’t matter, she will always give her best.

But Rubi is not the brightest. She tends to mix up thing or say the exact opposite of what she meant and thus comes off a little stupid, which in fact is not correct. Rubi just simply has a hard time understanding things that are out of the ordinary for her – and out of the ordinary for her means anything that has got nothing to do with sports or cooking. When dealing with these things, Rubi first tries her best in understanding them, and sometimes it’s successful, meaning that Rubi will grasp what’s going on, while other times, she’ll end up even more confused than before. Then, she will most likely get frustrated and just accept the fact that she doesn’t get it. She, however, will still try to get along with the situation, even though she doesn’t understand it. In worst cases, Rubi will fully give up upon trying to understand or dealing with the situation and will let her lazy side take over – that’s basically what has happened to school matters. Since Rubi can’t grasp why these lessons are so important, she has given up and has stopped caring about them. The only thing she still cares about is when her parents get mad at her for her bad grades. But she knows that even if she tried they wouldn’t get better, and thus she has accepted that there’s nothing she can do to improve it.

At least that’s how it was until she met everyone else. For a certain time, Rubi thought she was the only one who couldn’t understand things or would mix things up, as for the most time, she was the only one who had to deal with that. But after meeting Sapphie and the others, she finally stopped feeling alone with that and her whole attitude towards studying changed. While she still thinks school is not that important, she at least has gotten some motivation to improve her grades, even if it’s just a bit. She also has understood that it isn’t enough to rely on your friends’ strength to be a good leader, but also be the kind of person other people can rely on. And that asking for help on things that frustrate or embarrass you isn’t something to be ashamed of.

### Relationships

*Main article: Akabayashi Rubi / Relationships*
Rubi’s family consists of her father Akabayashi Daisuke and her mother Akabayashi Ayane, who both work full time at the family restaurant which had belonged to the Akabayashi family for several generations. The both are hard workers and quite strict towards Rubi and her twin sister Robin, but mainly towards Rubi, as she is the one who usually skips her shifts at the restaurant. Whenever Rubi does that, Robin has to jump in. By now, she is quite used to it, but that doesn’t mean that she’s happy to hear that she has to work Rubi’s shifts again. While she usually keeps quiet about it, there are times when Robin decides to confront her sister with her issues and this conversation then usually ends up in them having a fight, which is not a rare situation. Rubi and Robin are bound to fight, as both of them see it. Yet, there are times when the twins can work together peacefully too.

Besides her family, Rubi has also got her very good friend Kawabata Yuuka, who used to be in the same basketball team as her until she stopped playing basketball. One day, Yuuka realized that there was one sport she would like to try, even if that meant to stop playing basketball along with Rubi. And this sport was Lacrosse. Even though the two play two different games now, the two are still the best friends.

### Etymology

**Akabayashi** - Akabayashi comes from **Aka** (赤?) meaning “red”, combined with **Bayashi** (林?) meaning “forest”. Combined, the name means “red forest” and is an obvious reference to Rubi’s theme color which is red.

**Rubi** - Rubi comes from **Ru** (瑠?) meaning “lapis lazuli”, **Bi** (美?) meaning “beauty” and **I** (衣?) meaning “garment” or “clothes”. Combined, the name means “beautiful lapis lazuli garment”. It is also possible that Rubi comes from the usually red colored jewel named Ruby, which then would also be a reference towards Rubi’s theme color, as well as the red rainbow, which is the origin of Guardian Angel Chimaira’s powers.

## Akabayashi Rubi: Discography

The character Akabayashi Rubi is voiced by the Japanese voice actress Hirano Aya, who has provided several image and character songs for her. These songs either appear in Rubi's featured episodes or are released within the vocal albums of the series. The songs provided for Rubi are either solos, sung by Hirano Aya alone, or are duets/group songs along with other characters.

### Solo Songs

* **Burning in the Starry Sky the Petit Red Constellation**「ほしぞらを燃えます☆プチ赤い星座」: Rubi's first character song produced for the first season of the series. It is featured in the first vocal album released for the season.
* **Never give up!**「ネバギバ！」: Rubi's second character song produced for the first season of the series. It is featured in the second vocal album released for the season.
* **Firefly ღ Deep red**「Firefly ღ アカイ」: Rubi's third character song produced for the second season of the series. It is featured in the first vocal album released for the season.
* **Summer Rose**「なつのRose」: Rubi's fourth character song produced for the second season of the series. It is featured in the first vocal album released for the season.
* **Glittering Blue♦Silver Carreau**「きらめきブルー♦銀のCarreau」: Rubi's fifth character song produced for the third season of the series. It is featured in the first vocal album released for the season.
* **Indigo ※ Heat Fever**「藍の※熱々」: Rubi's sixth character song produced for the third season of the series. It is featured in the special Christmas album released for the season.
* **Midnight Prayer**「Midnight Prayer」: Rubi's seventh character song produced for the final season of the series. It is featured in the first vocal album released for the season.

### Duets & Group Songs

* **"Gemini"**「「双子座」」: A duet between Rubi and Robin's voice actresses.
* **☻ happiness\*a smiling face ☺**「☻ happiness\*smileえがお ☺」: A group song of Rubi, Ririan and Amber's voice actresses.
* **Essence of Smiles and Courage**「笑顔とゆうきのEssence」: A group song performed by the voice actresses of the main characters of the first season.
* **living my dream**「living my dream」: A group song performed by the voice actresses of the main characters of the first season. It appears in the second vocal album.
* **My Future, Hope and Destiny!**「みらい、きぼう、Destiny！」: A group song performed by the voice actresses of the eight protagonists of the *Guardian Angels Of The Sky* series.
* **P R I S M**「プ・リ・ズ・ム」: A group song performed by the voice actresses of the eight protagonists of the *Guardian Angels Of The Sky* series.
* **Crossing・Mirage**「クロシング・ミラージュ」: A group song performed by the voice actresses of the eight protagonists of the *Guardian Angels Of The Sky* series.
* **Wächter des Himmels#Angels Ver.**「天空の守り神#エンジェル Ver.」: Cover of the opening song of the fourth season provided by the voice actresses of the eight protagonists.

## Trivia

* Rubi could be represented by peony, which means "bravery" in the language of flowers.

## References

*1. ↑  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reseda\_green*