Minako

* Nahanni
* Sri Lanka

**Minako** is a contestant from *Survivor: Nahanni* and *Survivor: Sri Lanka*.

A quiet if determined member of the Wildmint tribe, Minako nonetheless invoked a bit of ire from a few of her fellow Wildmints after her infamous bra-sling strategy for the first immunity challenge was thought to have contributed to the tribe's loss. After Retoree saved herself from a 7-2-2-1 elimination with a Hidden Immunity Idol and forced a revote between herself and Misuzu, Minako's selfless nature caused her to go to several allies and state that she would not mind if they put their votes on her. With already two votes put against her initially, several more Wildmints obliged, making her the first contestant eliminated in a close, 6-4 vote.

However, in a secret twist, Minako (along with all other eliminated contestants save for Jubilee) was instead sent to Redemption Island until the swap auction, when Sunblood leader Fox chose her, Moose, and Oscar to compete in a challenge to return to the game. After a close contest, Minako won and rejoined the game as a Sunblood member alongside fellow ex-Wildmint and Celty Sturluson. The two women forged a fast friendship almost immediately and "allied" with the alliance-less Fox through the rest of Minako's time in the game, allowing the trio to survive deep into the merge with Minako pulling many strings along the way to influence votes without receiving a single one herself. Despite quite a few contestants noticing her strategic prowess and attempting to stop her and her alliance after the merge (most notably Ezreal), her downfall came in the form of a rock draw after the infamous "Bet or Steal" challenge, with her drawing the colored rock and being eliminated at the final six, though not without her professing that she got her wish of "bring[ing] the best to the finals."

Returning for *Sri Lanka*, Minako had a fairly comfortable premerge between a win streak on her original tribe before the swap, a solid majority alliance position afterwards, and a developing romance with fellow *Nahanni* returnee Ezreal. During this time, she also solved the puzzle of the season, resulting in a versatile Insurance advantage, and later acquired a Hidden Immunity Idol from Exile Island. In the early stages of the merge, she remained on the right side of the vote, but while she was on Exile Island, Ezreal's contribution to the unsuccessful attempt to save Aoko resulted in both of them being on the outs. Minako formed a plan to try and flip votes to their side by playing an idol on Ezreal following by forcing a revote with her Insurance advantage. However, this had the opposite effect, as Kanbaru, who had flipped to their side at first, returned to the majority on the revote and sent her ally Amanda out. With no advantages left in her pocket and her bridge to the majority thoroughly burned, Minako was decisively voted out at the next Tribal Council.

## Tribal Council

### Total votes received:

13

* Minako's luxury item in both of her seasons was an MP3 player.
* Minako was the first contestant to officially return to the same game after being voted out, as part of the surprise Redemption Island duel.
* During the Know Your Enemy challenge, Minako received the most votes for the question "Who has surprised you the most this game?" from her fellow Sunbloods.