| Nogi Wakaba | |
|---|---|
| |
| Kanji | 乃木 若葉 |
| Romaji | Nogi Wakaba |
| English | Wakaba Nogi |
| Statistics | |
| Age | 14 |
| Gender | Female |
| Grade | 2nd Year of Middle School (Presumed) |
| Blood Type | A |
| Height | 163 cm |
| Favorite Food | Udon honetsukidori |
| Birthday | June 20 |
| Status | Retired |
| Family | Unnamed Grandmother - Deceased 2 Unnamed Descendants Nogi Sonoko |
| First Appearance | |
| Debut | Nogi Wakaba is a Hero - Chapter 1 |
| Voice Actress/Actor | |
| Japanese Voice | Ayaka Ōhashi |
| English Voice | N/A |
Nogi Wakaba (乃木 若葉 Nogi Wakaba?) is the eponymous main character of the light novel Nogi Wakaba is a Hero. She, along with five other girls, is a part of the first Hero Team. She is also the ancestor of Nogi Sonoko.
Background
Wakaba was the stern class president of her old school until Vertex attacked. She found her sword Ikutachi thanks to an oracle from Uesato Hinata, her best friend, and was able to help lead the people to Kagawa Prefecture.
Appearance
Wakaba has long, dirty-blonde hair that is similar to Sonoko's and goes down to her waist. She ties it in a ponytail with a lavender ribbon and a matching clip. Her eyes are also lavender-colored. Her school uniform consists of a beige shirt with a navy blue jacket and skirt. The ends of her jacket sleeves and parts of her jacket and shirt are light blues.
Wakaba in Hero form.
Her Hero form is a blue suit with white undertones and two coattails. Her hair grows longer and goes down to slightly below her knees and is tied back with a white ribbon.
Personality
Wakaba is a serious, strong-willed girl that believes in rewarding favors. She seeks revenge on the Vertexes and is willing to take risks to get it. She is a natural, charismatic leader who is wildly popular with the general public. However, she is also a kindhearted girl who is dismayed that her serious exterior sometimes scares people off, and she has a hidden soft side which enjoys being spoiled by Hinata. She eventually decides to stop being motivated by getting revenge for the past and instead seeks to protect the present, causing her to become a much better leader.
Abilities
Wakaba fights using a silver and gold sword named Ikutachi. It can cut through vertexes with ease, even if the user is not transformed. Ikutachi is one-handed, meaning she has no need to hold onto it with both hands.
Wakaba can also use Trump Cards and has used two in the story. The first, Yoshitsune, grants her a scarf and the ability to fly and attack at increasingly high speeds. The second, Daitengu, gives her a lavender robe and many decoration bells, along with a pair of black wings and the ability to create and control fire. Daitengu, along with Takashima Yuna's Shuten-douji, is the most powerful Trump Cards used.
Plot
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Wakaba stands atop Marugame Castle, overlooking the Seto Inland Sea. Hinata comes along and takes a photo of her, much to her displeasure. The two later go inside as her ears are cleaned by Hinata, lulling Wakaba into a sense of sleep.
When school semesters begin, Wakaba beats fellow classmate and Hero Doi Tamako to class again, who has personally sworn revenge by one day beating her to the class. She is one of the many girls who tries to pry Tamako away from Hinata (or more specifically, her bust), and scolds her.
The team, now consisting of Tamako, Takashima Yuna, Koori Chikage, Iyojima Anzu, and Hinata, have lunch together, and after a difficult outburst from Tamako manage to go without much fighting. Wakaba starts to worry she isn't cut out for possible leadership, but Hinata assures her she is.
Wakaba's recent conversation with Shiratori Utano, sole protector of fellow surviving prefecture Nagano is starting to fall apart. The line grows more and more unstable, and in the end, Utano leaves her one last message and the line is cut. Angry for what the Vertex did, Wakaba swears to protect the world in Utano's place and heads into her first battle with vigor.
Chapter 3
The team arrives, and they fight successfully. Anzu has difficulty at first, but soon gets the hang of it and the teams are closer to victory. Wakaba even ends up eating a part of a Vertex before chopping it down. Yuna activates a Trump Card for the first time, and they easily win the fight-but Wakaba is worried about Yuna's condition.
The others agree that Wakaba should be the leader, and she graciously accepts, feeling more confident about her position.
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Extra Chapter
Relationships
Uesato Hinata
Wakaba's childhood friend and fellow Hero. She fights alongside her, Koori Chikage, Iyojima Anzu, Takashima Yuna, and Doi Tamako as the first Hero team. Even though Wakaba's seriousness contrasts with Hinata's playfulness, the two are very close.
Shiratori Utano
A fellow Hero based in Nagano, she and Wakaba kept in contact to rally information on how the defenses of Humanity was holding up during the early days of the Invasion and constantly had a food rivalry over which was better between Udon and Soba, til her demise.
Nogi Sonoko
Wakaba's successor and one of the heroes from Yuki Yuna is a Hero and Washio Sumi is a Hero.
Forms of Address
| Person | Nickname |
|---|---|
| Self | Watashi (私) |
| Yuki Yuna | Yuki (結城) |
| Togo Mimori | Togo (東郷) |
| Inubouzaki Fu | Fu-san (風さん) |
| Inubouzaki Itsuki | Itsuki (樹) |
| Miyoshi Karin | Karin (夏凜) |
| Nogi Sonoko (YuYuYu) | Sonoko (園子) |
| Washio Sumi | Sumi (須美) |
| Nogi Sonoko (WaSuYu) | Nogi (乃木) |
| Minowa Gin | Gin (銀) |
| Uesato Hinata | Hinata (ひなた) |
| Takashima Yuna | Yuna (友奈) |
| Koori Chikage | Chikage (千景) |
| Doi Tamako | Tamako (球子) |
| Iyojima Anzu | Anzu (杏) |
| Shiratori Utano | Shiratori-san (白鳥さん) (Nogi Wakaba is a Hero) / Utano (歌野) (Yuki Yuna is a Hero: A Sparkling Flower) |
| Fujimori Mito | Mito (水都) |
| Akihara Sekka | Sekka (雪花) |
| Kohagura Natsume | Natsume-san (棗さん) |
Trivia
- One of her habits is staring at the horizon from Marugame Castle.
- She loves having her ears cleaned.
- Despite being Sonoko's ancestor, she acts more like Washio Sumi in terms of personality and habits. In the Heroes' Room 4koma, she initially believed that Togo Mimori was her descendant, only to be dismayed to learn that Sonoko, her complete opposite in personality, was her actual descendant.
- Wakaba was indirectly referenced during in the Washio Sumi films, having her family's name written on a memorial stone at the Great Seto Bridge marker.
- This is due to her being one of the Heroes who defended the area at the beginning of the Divine Era, the families of her and the rest of her team (with the possible exception of the Koori Family) were given high positions within the Taisha.
- Due to her being the leader of the team, as well as Hinata who supported her, the Nogi and Uesato Families were given preferential treatment, to the point where Washio Sumi notes that even the wealth of the Sumi Family could not compare to theirs.
- Her initial Trump Card, Yoshitsune, is described as taking its powers from the legend of the Hassou Tobi, in which Minamoto no Yoshitsune outmaneuvered his enemies by leaping over eight boats in a row. The term and Yoshitsune himself have gained infamy in the JRPG games Persona 4 and Persona 5 in which Yoshitsune is an endgame Persona who learns the move Hassou Tobi, which hits all enemies eight times.
- In early promotional art, the inner color of the coattails of her Hero outfit was blue, not white.
Flower Motif
Wakaba's flower appears to be the Chinese Bellflower, also known as a Platycoden. In hanatokoba (flower language), it's meaning is "Sincerity", which fits well with Wakaba's sincere desire to protect and care for her friends.
Gallery
