Momiji

**Momiji** is Ryu Hayabusa's apprentice and the Dragon Shrine Maiden of the Hayabusa clan.

Momiji debuted in the 2008 title, *Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword*, though she made her *Dead or Alive* debut in the 2013 title, *Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate*.

She is the keeper of the Dragons Eye, a sacred jewel that is said to hold the spirit of a mighty dragon. In times of great danger, it is her duty to ensure that the jewel makes its way to Hayabusa, as it enhances the power of his Dragon Sword.

## Character

### Appearance

Momiji is a young Japanese lady with amber eyes and long black possibly knee length hair tied in a topknot style ponytail. Like most of the other *DOA* girls, she has a very voluptuous body and is well endowed. She is mostly seen in a relatively modest outfit with a white kunoichi top with red ribboned edges that expose her side and front cleavage and red kunoichi styled pants that show the sides of her outer thighs and have tassels hanging in the back with black Japanese style heel boots worn at the bottom over the pant sleeves.

Her other outfits consist of several ones she wears from *Ninja Gaiden*, including her secondary jumpsuit outfit and leather variant of her main costume, as well as other ones added as DLC. In *Last Round*, she is able to wear her hair cut into a short blunt bob cut, and in *Xtreme 3*, she gains the option to wear her hair down, although it falls to bottom length and is somewhat shorter than what her hair should realistically be when worn down. She can also be seen with her hair down in *Last Round* in the *Fairy Tail* DLC, where she dresses as Kagura.

### Personality

Momiji is a very gentle and caring young woman who is seen by the Hayabusa Village children as an older sister figure, whom they look up to.

Like her mentor, Ryu Hayabusa, Momiji has a strong will and refuses to accept any vulnerabilities and trains extensively to become one of the deadliest warriors in the Hayabusa Village.

She is very polite, even to her opponents, saying to them before a match that it is an honor to meet and combat them. After a match she will thank her opponent or even wish them better luck next time, rather than gloating like many other fighters. However, a slightly mischievous side of her is revealed in her taunts, which have her yawning cutely or sarcastically gasping and complimenting her foe's performance.

## Gameplay

Despite borrowing a few moves from the other ninja characters, Momiji's play style is quite different and distinctive, particularly for her ability to double-jump and perform airborne attacks. Her move set is less diverse than the other ninja, but she compensates with good speed, easy execution, and a wide range of safe moves, making her one of the easiest characters for beginners to pick up and deadly in the hands of experts. She is also a good character to attack from mid to long range distances.

She has single-jump and double-jump stances that can be entered from certain strikes, throws and holds to give more options, and has a weaker but easier variant of Hayabusa's *Shoho-Izuna*throw, called the *Junyo-Izuna*, which can form her most damaging juggle if used in an area with a ceiling following a critical burst. She also has two ways to perform her power blow: one from her neutral stance and one while double-jumping.

### Stats

The following are Momiji's official stats as listed in the games.

***Dead or Alive 5 Last Round***

## Music themes

The following are the music themes used for Momiji throughout the series.

*Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Arcade*
*Dead or Alive 5 Last Round* (default theme)

## TMNT X Pokemon

Momiji is part of Lea's resistance during Season 3. She works with Raven during missions.

## Trivia

* Despite being a ninjutsu practioner like all the shinobi in the series, Momiji also uses principles of aiki-jūjutsu as well, making her the only shinobi in the series to use a different fighting style.
* Even though she was added to *Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate*, it is unknown whether she participated in the tournament or not. Her profile on the official game website, however, states that she does enter in order to test all that she has learned.
* Several of Momiji's techniques, such as double jumping and air-charged attacks, come directly from her gameplay in *Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge*. The air-power blow is taken from her ultimate technique and her prayer beads can be used in combat.
* Momiji's English voice actor is also the current English voice of Tina Armstrong.
* Momiji is the first *Ninja Gaiden* character to appear in the *Dead or Alive Xtreme* sub-series.