Mana Hinoki

**Mana Hinoki** is a 16-year-old human girl from Chugoku who accompanies Shotaro on his journey to find his missing friend Emine. She is one of the protagonists of *B. Ichi*.

## Personality

Mana constantly enters contests in order to earn commendations.

While Mana presents herself as mature, she is inclined to momentary bouts of anger, usually brought on by Shotaro's ignorance and immaturity. When upset, horns form on Mana's hat.

Mana enjoys fortune telling, as it helps her make decisions.

She hates being called garbage as her name can be modified to refer to her as such: the Japanese word for "raw garbage" is "namagomi," so "Mana" spelled backward is "nama," which means "raw," leading to the nickname "raw garbage."

### Relationships

*Main article: Mana Hinoki/Relationships*

 Although Mana carries herself as a primarily mature person, especially for her comparatively young age of 16, she is prone to fits of annoyance, anger, and fury towards even her best friends. Although sad that she has not been able to make friends, she seems to get along very quickly with strangers, such as Shotaro, Yohei, and Tool, and even former enemies such as Assi. She is prone to tease her peers, especially Yohei.

## Appearance

* Mana's initial outfit in Toykyo
* Mana as a child
* Mana's seal outfit
* Mana as a medium
* Mana's fuku uniform
* Mana after Fear Factory destruction
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Mana has green eyes. When a young child and when 16, her blonde hair is short, not extending beyond her shoulders, with long bangs over her face.

As a child, Mana tended to tear a kimono, as part of her martial arts training.

At age 16, Mana has been referred to by Shotaro as a "pipsqueak," even though she is about his height. She has expressed fear that, although still a teenager, she will not grow any taller.

Up until she was released from Fear Factory by Zuno and Assi, Mana wore a hat made of two materials: red fabric and grey metal. The fabric, which is the same red color as part of her dress, forms a shape akin to a cap, with flaps hanging over her ears. The metallic plate is likely held to the hat by its two bolts of the same grey metallic color. When upset, horns would form on her hat.

While in Toykyo, Mana wears a dark t-shirt with light-color circles on the shoulders. Over this shirt, she wears a light-color strapped top with X’s across the fasteners, three buttons pinned over her left breast, and frayed along its bottom hem. The back of the top seems to be fastened in the back. Mana also wears a dark choker around her neck. She wears a dark skirt with a light-color panel across its lap and back, with dark circles along the left of its front panel and stitches along the edges of the back panel. The bottom of her skirt is decorated with light-color triangles pointing down. She also wears dark shoes with light soles, X’s along the back, and light socks.

When riding her scooter through Toykyo, Mana wears a light-color helmet with a line down its middle from its back to its front, a triangle at the front, and dark circles on the left and right hemispheres.

As Toykyo makes mundane activities into games, Mana inadvertently stepped out of line in a pedestrian crosswalk and had to pay a penalty. She chose to imitate a fur seal, complete with a full body-size suit.

While camping at Silent Hill during their trip from Toykyo to IC Prefecture, Mana disguised herself as a spiritual medium to assist Kisuke with reuniting with the spirit of his deceased father. In this disguise, Mana wore a dark cloak that extended to her ankles, which had a hood of the same color to drape over her head. However, the hood left her face exposed--which meant the Elderly Farmer could see her and express attraction at her appearance. The edge of the hood and the hem of the cloak was decorated with a pattern of lighter-color dots and dashes.

While in the IC Prefecture, Mana wore a sleeveless one-piece dress with her hat. The dress was made of three different fabrics, stitched together: the same red as her hat along the collar and bust, light yellow along the torso and skirt, and transparent at the hem. The dress appeared to have green-blue stitches along the collar and hem, as well as where the different color fabrics connected.

After she was knocked unconscious during the Fear Robot's attack on the Fighting Robot Competition Stadium and recovered by Fear Factory, Zuno and Assi helped her to escape, while unconscious, through the garbage chute. However, as the garbage chute leads to a sewage canal, Zuno and Assi dressed her in a Fear Factory wetsuit with an oxygen tank and mask. At that point, Mana was not wearing her hat. Whether she was wearing her dress and shoes underneath is unknown; however, as it would be impractical to wear so much clothing in a wetsuit, as her hat is missing, and as she is not seen in this attire after taking off the wetsuit, it is likely Zuno and Assi removed those clothes and kept them in Fear Factory. Mana's Fear Factory wetsuit was dark and included flippers and an oxygen mask and tank.

After removing the wetsuit, Mana changed into Shotaro's fuku sailor uniform. The uniform was decorated with arrows on its back collar. Mana also wore matching shoes with arrows on them (although these were not worn by Shotaro at the time, and they may have been found elsewhere before Mana followed Shotaro and Tool back into Fear Factory). Mana complained about the lack of a hat to dry her hair, instead using Tool's biker jacket. During her battles at Fear Factory against Dr. Agei's Tatithi 80 and NoFix in the Fear Robot, her fuku uniform is scuffed, ripped, and stained with her own blood. When recovering in between battles, she has her wounds bandaged, whether by herself, Tool, or Yohei. Her skirt, when flipped, reveals her light-colored underwear, such as when her backside lands atop Tool's face (causing him to have a nose bleed and lose consciousness) or when she climbs out of the Fear Robot hangar and up to the street (at which point Tool turns away to avoid seeing up her skirt).

After defeating Fear Factory, Mana has her wounds bandaged again, wearing a large bandage on her left cheek. She changes out of the damaged fuku uniform into a cat-ear hat, oversized hoodie, a baggy skirt, and star-decorated sneakers.

## Abilities and Techniques

* Mana easily defeats Fear Factory lackeys
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Having come from Chugoku, "the Land of Martial Arts," Mana is an adept fighter capable of handling herself in battle against even Dokeshi. Her speed and strength has allowed her to follow a scooter in crowded traffic to retrieve her stolen vehicle and beat its theif. Even with her arms and legs tied, Mana is still able to take blows or knock objects out of her opponents hands.

Her fighting style is Hinoki-ryu, which is only taught within her family. However, her father neglected her in favor of her brother.

**Senkyaku Banrai**: Mana delivers a devasting leaping kick that can knock down even Dokeshi.

**Rising Sun**: With this powerful kick, Mana dashes, then leaps with her leg extended upward while performing a backflip, allowing her kick to land at the head of her opponent. While backflipping, Mana uses one arm and the other leg to push off the ground and keeps the other arm extended for balance.

## Trivia

* Mana's Senkyaku Banrai is a phrase that usually refers to having multiple customers or good business.

### Allusions in Okubo's Other Works

* The three buttons on Mana's overalls are arranged in a way similar to the eyeholes and nosehole on Death's mask in *Soul Eater*, a symbol that appears above the Death Weapon Meister Academy and on DWMA students' uniforms.
* On the cover to Chapter 7, Mana's cowboy hat closely resembles the one later worn by Liz and Patty Thompson in Okubo's subsequent series *Soul Eater*. Mana's height, face, and body shape, along with the cowboy hat, also makes her closely resemble Patty Thompson.
* When wearing Shotaro's fuku sailor uniform with socks and shoes, the outfit has arrows on it, similar to those found on the outfit of the witch Medusa Gorgon in *Soul Eater*, both in Medusa's DWMA nurse outfit and witch outfit. The fuku uniform with arrows on it also resemble the final outfit worn by Medusa's sister, Shaula Gorgon, in the final chapter of the manga *Soul Eater NOT!*
* Also when wearing Shotaro's fuku sailor uniform, Mana's shoes are dark with a criss-cross design along the sides, similar to the boots worn by Maka Albarn throughout much of *Soul Eater* and *Soul Eater NOT!*

## References

1. ↑ Mana is educated in the kenpo style of the Hinoki family
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 *B. Ichi* Manga: Chapter 1
3. ↑ *B. Ichi* Manga: Volume 3, Yen Press English eBook, Pages 45, 189
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 *B. Ichi* Chapter 2
5. ↑ *B. Ichi* Manga: Chapter 4
6. ↑ *B. Ichi* Manga: Volume 2 cover
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 *B. Ichi* Manga: Chapter 19
8. ↑ *B. Ichi* Manga: Volume 1 Chapter 1, Yen Press eBook, Pages 47, Page 189