Mitsuha Miyamizu


 * Warning: content in this article contains spoilers from the movie. Read at your own risk!

Mitsuha Miyamizu (宮水 三葉) is a 17-year old teenage girl living in a small city called Itomori. She is a part of her family's shrine and participates in old traditions with her younger sister Yotsuha Miyamizu. Her dislike of the issues of her family shrine and father, makes Mitsuha want to live in Tokyo as a boy. Her wish would eventually come true, as she would start switching bodies with Taki Tachibana. She is the female protagonist of the movie.

Appearance
Mitsuha is a teenage girl with average build and height. She is noted to be very beautiful like her mother, indicating that she inherited her mother's facial features. However, Mitsuha inherited her father's hair and eye color. She has brown eyes and long and straight black hair which reaches to about her lower back, which she ties into an unique hair style; two braids at each side which she later ties into a bun with a red-colored braided cord. After going to Tokyo to find Taki, she gives away her braided cord to him and cuts her hair to chin-length with two strands framing her face. But she begins wearing the braided cord again when she got it back from Taki when they met at Kataware-doki. In adulthood, Mitsuha grows out her hair to the point it reaches her upper back. However, she has her hair down with small pieces of hair tied into a braid at the back with the braided cord styled on.

Mitsuha was often seen wearing her school uniform, which consisted of a short-sleeved white shirt with a pocket and a red ribbon on the collar. The shirt was tucked down a grey-colored skirt she was wearing. For shoes, she wore brown loafers and black stockings. In winter time, she would wear an orange (later blue) colored sweater on top of the shirt. On the day the comet struck, Mitsuha was seen wearing a blue-colored yukata with white flowers, a red obi and light-brown sandals. In adulthood, Mitsuha usually wears a light-orange colored shirt with a light pink cardigan on top. She wears a pair of peach-colored jeans that reaches down to about her shinbone with a brown belt and a pair of yellow-colored heels. She is seen wearing a necklace and carrying around a brown bag quite often.

Personality
Mitsuha is a kind, caring and supportive girl. She is also determined, sometimes persistent, frank and also adventurous. She is girlish and when switching bodies with Taki she wants him to be careful with skirts and not to take any shower. When Mitsuha inhabits Taki's body, he is considered 'girlish' and feminine, though he still manages to maintain his composure. She also becomes enamored with Tokyo city. Mitsuha has grown to be a bit embarrassed to perform the old traditions of her family, like making miko in rituals for the shrine creating kuchikamizake, where her classmates often laugh and make fun of her. Her stern and strict father makes her slightly insecure as well. Mitsuha is straight-forward and despite being emotional like many others at time, she will not give up on something until it's done, as she was the one who ultimately saved the Itomori residents from the comet.

When it comes to love, and later with her falling in love with Taki, she becomes a bit flustered in his presence but became overjoyed nevertheless when seeing him for the first time for real. She was stated that she was single because she wanted to. She also seemed to give good advices when it came to love, as she gave some to Taki when he was on a date with Okudera in the past. However, Taki noted that she was mocking him. Mitsuha also speaks in a dialect like most Itomori residents, having the suffix -ya in her sentences. She seems to be organized and calm.

When she is in Taki's body, Mitsuha is constatly happy, energetic because Taki's life is exactly what Mitsuha had dreamt for. She treasures every moment, and when going out to cafes with Taki friends she spends a lot of money and takes a lot of pictures (which makes Taki annoyed). This is because Mitsuha lives where there are no cafes. And she insists that it is his body eating. Due to leaving a peaceful and calm life in Itomori, Mitsuha claims that all Taki's part-time jobs are tiring and hard. Due to her acting feminine when as Taki, he has gained the admiration from his crush at the time, Okudera.

Background
Mitsuha is the first child born to Toshiki and Futaba Miyamizu. The early years of her life were filled with joy, love and warmth as she peacefully lived her life with her parents and later younger sister. Her mother and father were both active in the Miyamizu traditions and Mitsuha was also taught about it. However, everything changed when her mother became very sick and eventually died when Mitsuha was about 11-12 years old. Her father was devastated, as he claimed that he couldn't do anything to save his wife. When Mitsuha's grandmother Hitoha told him to pull himself up, he confessed that he only loved his wife Futaba, and not the Miyamizu shrine. After this, he was ordered by Hitoha to leave. As so, Mitsuha and Yotsuha began living with their grandmother.

Itomori Incident (2013)
Mitsuha grew up happily, though she had to stand out with her fathers strict actions sometimes. She enrolled at a high school where she would often hang out with her best friends, Sayaka and Tessie. One day when Mitsuha came to school, everyone was looking at her and was being cautious of her. In class she was looking through her notes in her book, when she saw something written; who are you?, and when the teacher called her, Mitsuha replied with a fast reaction, everyone laughed and commented if she knew her name today, both things making Mitsuha surprised and clueless. Later on, her friends commented that Mitsuha was normal today, and that the day before she was like another person, to which Mitsuha commented that she had felt like she was dreaming of someone else dream. Sayaka theorized that it might be from stress and the upcoming ritual Mitsuha and Yotsuha would do.

Several days later, Mitsuha and Yotsuha performed the ritual for the residents to see where they created kuchikamizake, an ancient traditional way of creating sake involving chewing rice to intake yeast for fermentation, which became "half of Mitsuha". But because of her classmates making for of her because of this and other things, Mitsuha claimed to dislike the city as well as her life, and wished to be handsome Tokyo boy in her next life. Her wish was somewhat granted, as she started switching bodies with a teenage boy in Tokyo called Taki. However, Mitsuha was unaware that she was switching with Taki three years in the future, and the Taki in her timeline didn't experience the switching and therefore didn't know who she was. Mitsuha began loving her life as Taki, where she treasured every moment and enamored Tokyo. Though she stated it was stressful at times due to Taki's part-time jobs, she enjoyed it. They laid up rules to protect each other lifestyles and though they were grateful towards each other at times, they also experienced annoyment and bickering, often leaving messages like fool, idiot at each other bodies.

One day, Mitsuha arranged Taki's date with his crush at the time, Okudera. She was happy for him and thought that they would end up together. However, she later cried as she had supposedly forgot Taki's name for a moment, or another reason unknown. She then decided to go to Tokyo to find Taki and meet him in person. On the way there, she was having thoughts about how he would react when he would see her and so on. When trying to call him, it was to no avail which made Mitsuha hopeless and she mentioned that they could never meet. However, Mitsuha was certain that if they really saw each other, they would know right away, and continued the whole day searching for him. In the evening, a tired Mitsuha was waiting for the train, when something caught her attention. She tried to run up and when the train eventually stopped, she hopped up and went through the crowd, where she found Taki. After a moment of blushing and fixing her hair, she looked up to him, only to be shocked that he didn't react. Mitsuha called out to him but Taki bluntly asked her who she was, which made Mitsuha a bit upset and sad. She let it be but she knew that it really was Taki who she switched bodies with. When arriving at her station, Mitsuha went away without saying anything, only to be stopped by Taki asking for her name. She gave him her name as well as she braided cord she was wearing, which Taki would later wear as a good-luck charm.

Later, Mitsuha asked her grandmother to cut her hair due to her meting with Taki. She then got ready to attend the festival where the comet would also be visible. Mitsuha and her friends Sayaka and Tessie went to an area to watch the comet clearly. Slowly however, Mitsuha saw how the comet was splitting in pieces, and in seconds, the comet hit the whole town, killing Mitsuha and most of the other Itomori residents in process. Three years later, Taki would experience the body switching, though it would be with the Mitsuha before the incident.

Main Story (2016)
Three years later after Mitsuha's death, Taki experienced the body switching with Mitsuha but had absolutely no idea that she had passed away. Once when Taki realized a picture of Itomori at an exhibition, and looked at it in awe, he was noted by Okudera that he was now in love with another person (Mitsuha), instead of her who he had a crush on before. Taki embarrassed denied this, indicating that these statements were indeed true. Later that day, Taki tried to contact Mitsuha by phone but it was to no avail. But after that day, Taki stopped switching bodies with Mitsuha that left him clueless and in shock. Because of this, he decided to meet her in person but because of not knowing the town's name, Taki relied on his memory of the town solely and drew a picture of Itomori. After completing his drawing he found about Itomori's current state and Mitsuha's status; he was absolutely devastated.

Taki tried to prevent Mitsuha and the other Itomori residents deaths by going the Miyamizu shrine and drinking their kuchikamizake; "half of their souls", where he wished to travel back in time to prevent Mitsuha's, as well as the other Itomori residents death. Taki then went through a dream sequence with Mitsuha's braided cord as an connection. He saw her past and the time when Mitsuha switched bodies with himself, though he didn't know about this since Mitsuha switched bodies with himself three years in the future. He then saw when she announced that she would go to Tokyo and later on the festival to watch the comet. Still "dreaming" Taki desperately told Mitsuha to get away from there before the comet struck, and before seeing the comet struck in the dream, Taki woke up in Mitsuha's body, making him overjoyed.

He then went out to try prevent everyone getting killed by the comet by preparing they would do so no one would get killed with Sayaka and Tessie. Taki tried to convince Mitsuha's father and other small children, but with no success. When Taki in Mitsuha's body heard from Yotsuha that she had gone to Tokyo the day before, he was hesitant and shocked. Taki then realized that he had fallen asleep in the cave in the "underworld", Mitsuha should be in his body since they are switching places. Taki started to make his way there, while Mitsuha in Taki's body had realized at that moment three years ago, she had died, making her horrified. Meanwhile while Taki went to find Mitsuha, he was remembering when Mitsuha went to Tokyo to find him before he even got to know her. Meanwhile at evening, Mitsuha now at the mountains, felt a sensation that Taki was there. Taki called out to her, with Mitsuha doing the same. They heard each other and knew they were there, but they couldn't see each other, because of their different timelines. However, they started searching for each other and when they felt like they had passed by each other, they tried to reach out to each other, but failing Hopelessly, as they saw how the sun went down, both Mitsuha and Taki, now in their original bodies and the same timeline, commented on how it was Twilight - "Kataware-doki", surprising them both deeply upon seeing one another. Mitsuha became absolutely overjoyed and emotional, as she started crying with Taki being just as happy. He explained the lengths he had to go through to save her, for example drinking her kuchikamizake, to which Mitsuha commented on Taki being a pervert, also because of him touching her chest, and he apologized. Mitsuha then realized that Taki had her braided cord as an armband. Taki explained that he had kept it for three years and gave it back to Mitsuha to wear. After conversing and enjoying each others company, Taki explained to Mitsuha that she had things to do, since the comet was already visible, with Kataware-doki almost coming to an end. Taki suggested that they should write their name on each others hand so they wouldn't forget each other's name, to which Mitsuha happily agreed to. At first Taki wrote his name, but before Mitsuha could do the same, Mitsuha and Taki where separated by their timelines once again, with Mitsuha being sent back to 2013 to prevent the comet, while Taki was in 2016 trying to not forget Mitsuha's name.

In sadness, Mitsuha ran while trying to not forget Taki's name. She then went to Tessie for preapring teir plan so they could prevent the death of the citizens of the incident that would occur. They set up explosives at an area so people would think that there was an accident, so they could get the citizens to evacuate to the high school for safety. The plan was successful, with Sayaka, also a part of the plan, explained to the citizens to evacuate to the high school in the broadcasting room in their high school. Meanwhile, Mitsuha and Tessie went to the festival and told the remaining citizens to evacuate to the high school because of the "fire". Because of their lack of time, Tessie called out to Mitsuha, only to see her crying because she couldn't remember "his" name. Tessie, in distress told her to go persuade her father since they couldn't evacuate all the citizens by themselves. Mitsuha agreed, and started to make her way to her fathers office, though meanwhile their plan slowly started to fail, as Sayaka was caught and the citizens were ordered by the mayors to stay put. While Mitsuha tried to remember the precious persons name she had forgotten, she saw how the comet was broken as she tripped and fell. She then remembered that this person told her that they should write their names on each other so they wouldn't forget each other. Mitsuha slowly opened her palm, and though she expected his name being written on her, it was written "I love you" instead. Mitsuha, in a state of weakness, commented that she couldn't remember his name with "this" while shedding a few tears with a pained smile. Though, this gave her the motivation to prevent the accident and continued to her father's office. When she arrived there, her father was clearly not very happy seeing her. But Mitsuha came up to him, with a very determined look on her face. Just moments later, the comet struck the town with most of it disappearing.

Since it was revealed that every resident survived the comet, it is presumed that Mitsuha did successfully convince her father to evacuate all the citizens in the end.

Epilogue (2021)
8 years after the comet struck, Mitsuha moved to Tokyo. She moved there along with her high-school friends and younger sister. It is unknown what happened to her father and grandmother, however. It is presumed that Mitsuha finished high school and college, as she is 25-26 years old by the time of 2021.

Mitsuha lives alone in a small apartment. She mentioned that once in a while when she wakes up, she finds herself crying, though she doesn't know why. The feeling that she lost something precious and important to her lingers her for a long time after she wakes up. She looks at her palm at times and remembers that someone had written "I love you". She has had these feelings since the day the comet struck Itomori 8 years ago. One day in winter, Mitsuha was out with an umbrella as it was snowing and happened to pass by Taki. Mitsuha's ribbon caught Taki's attention and he looked back at her, only to see her continue walking. Thinking that he was misunderstood, he continued walking as well. Mitsuha then looked back at Taki, but didn't think much about it as she didn't realize that the young man was indeed Taki, and walked away.

In summer, Mitsuha went out and got on a train. She was standing right by the doors, and when she looked up, she saw Taki, but at a different train. This made Mitsuha very shocked and lost at words and as she stared at Taki in awe, he saw her as well, making a similar reaction as Mitsuha. At this moment, both knew that they had been searching for each other. When they got off the trains they tried to find each other, and after a while of hasty searching, they found each other at a staircase; Taki at the bottom and Mitsuha at the top. Mitsuha was still lost for words and stood still. In Taki's case, despite being shocked, he didn't say anything or react and instead went up while Mitsuha made her way down. This made them both regretful and sad, but when Taki reached the top, he called out to Mitsuha, and noted that they had met before. Mitsuha began crying out of joy and shock and replied that she also thought so. The movie ends with them asking for each other names.

Trivia

 * Since she was switching bodies with Taki from the future in 2013, Mitsuha is indeed 3 years older than Taki.
 * When she met Taki in 2013, she was taller than him.
 * Her name, Mitsuha (三葉) means "three leaves".
 * Her family name, Miyamizu (宮水) means "shrine water".
 * The red braided cord that Mitsuha gave to Taki is a reference to the Japanese myth: "The red string of fate". The two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of time, place or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break.
 * This is also associated with the concept of the movie: "Musubi"; knotting, which has a similar description. Mitsuha and Taki were separated by time, circumstance and memory, but they still found each other in the end.
 * When they met each other at Kataware-doki, it was the only time both Mitsuha and Taki were the same age, as you would experience something "not human" at Twilight (Kataware-doki).