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“Sorry to keep you waiting, Copen.”
—Nori, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2
Nori is the maid of Copen and Mytyl, and one of the supporting protagonists of Azure Striker Gunvolt 2. Having served the Kamizono family for many years, she serves as Copen's primary benefactor, faithfully carrying out his wishes, while leaving her own goals unknown.
Website Description
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English site
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Japanese site
She’s a super cool and collected maid that works for Copen and Mytyl. She also acts as Copen’s operator when he goes out on missions.
From housework to battle support she can handle it all with the greatest of ease. While most of the time she acts as a maid to Copen and Mytyl, sometimes she steps out of that role and into one that is more like a foster parent; a very strict foster parent.
Copen has enormous amounts of financial assets, which allows him to do technical research and enact his revenge, neither of which she objects to helping him do. As for her own personal assets, well, that is a mystery.*[4]
アキュラたち兄妹に仕えるクールなメイド。
ミッション時にはアキュラのオペレーターを務める。
家事から戦闘のサポートまで、
ありとあらゆることを難なくこなす。
アキュラたち兄妹には侍女として
一歩下がった態度で、
そして親代わりとして時に厳しく接する。
莫大な個人資産からアキュラの研究を援助するなど、
アキュラの復讐にはなぜか協力的。
彼女の個人資産がどこから出ているかは謎。[5]
*This is a mistranslation. Nori uses her mysterious personal fortune to supply Copen, who does not rely on his family assets.
Appearance
Nori is a young looking woman with red eyes and short red hair. She wears a uniform vaguely similar to that of a French maid, white and black with dark magenta highlights, a green tie, and a maid headband, as well as red boots.
Gallery
Main article: Nori/Gallery
History
Background
Nori is a maid sent by the Kamizono family to look after Copen and Mytyl. Its unknown if she was sent before or after the untimely demise of Dr. Kamizono.
When Copen commits himself to eradicating the entire Adept population to avenge his father, Nori ignored the family's orders and supported his endeavors by giving him combat training and funded his research, equipment development, and operations using her own mysterious large fortune and resources. Copen eventually gave up on trying to find out more about her, accepting that it's just something he doesn't need to know about.[6]
Azure Striker Gunvolt
Copen's Story
When Copen discovers Sumeragi's intent to re-instate and mobilize Project Muse on a global scale, Nori procures a spacecraft the "Sabertooth" for Copen to use to infiltrate Sumeragi's orbital space station, Firmament, and acts as his mission control for the infiltration. As the spacecraft is only intended for one occupant, Copen uses it with the assumption that he is going alone, but unbeknownst to him Nori is able to secretly sneak onboard. Following his defeat at Gunvolt's hands, Nori offers to extract him, which Copen retorts is impossible, although he is scared about how easily he can imagine her fighting through Sumeragi soldiers to do it without changing her facial expression.
As Copen retreats to his spacecraft, he runs into Asimov who is about to destroy it, and they battle. When Asimov is about to kill an incapacitated Copen with his own gun "Border", Nori jumps out of the spacecraft and intervenes. After getting Copen on the Sabertooth she destroys the wall to make their escape, forcing Asimov to retreat. Nori apologizes to Copen for failing to retrieve his gun. Copen tells her not to worry about it as she just saved his life.
Azure Striker Gunvolt 2
Prologue
Sometime while Gunvolt is inside the Seraph, Mytyl was kidnapped by an unknown robot and was taken there. Nori relays this to Copen in order to board the airship and rescue her. When Copen catches the sight of a Fazent, she and Copen note that technically, the aircraft wouldn't be flight worthy due to engine problems.
After Copen destroys the Fazent, she informs him that the Seraph is going to crash into the city with Mytyl inside, alarming Copen.
Assisting Copen
After Mytyl's rescue, she is brought back to the sanitorium. Nori would serve as her caretaker, as well as Copen's navigator as he deals with Eden in order to collect all the mirror pieces that contain the Muse's power. She provides support for Copen on two occasions; she would personally rendezvous with Copen with a motorcycle in order to pursue Ghauri who is making a getaway by the highway, and later she provides him with an anti-slip device that will aid him during his trek to the luxurious hotel covered in ice.
Second Kidnapping
After Copen defeated Desna, Asroc, Ghauri and Tenjian of The Seven, Nori sends an urgent message to Copen, saying that two of The Seven, Gibril and Teseo broke into their base and kidnapped Mytyl again.
After Gibril’s defeat, Nori locates Eden's headquarters thanks to Teseo's mention of it: the "Garden", based in Tashkent, a city in an unspecified Central-Asian country.
She also reports a large amount of Eden forces converging on the area, most likely a trap set by Teseo. Copen acknowledges this, but charges off anyway.
In The Garden
In the Garden, after Copen executes the remaining two G7 Milas and Teseo. Teseo, in disbelief at his defeat, uses his remaining power and summons an upgraded Plasma Legion, which surprises Nori given that it's still in development.
As Copen goes further into the Garden, Nori’s commlink with Copen is cut off due to Zonda's Septima.
Epilogue
After Mytyl’s rescue from Eden, she is physically healthier than she ever was before, able to walk and speak now. However, she remembers nothing about her past or her family.
Copen, finally realizing his sister is an Adept and refusing to get her involved in his vengeance, prepares to leave the Kamizono home without a word. Nori asks if he is really going to leave without a goodbye to his sister, to which he replies that Mytyl has no brother now and renounces his family name, becoming merely "Copen". He tells Nori to tell his aunt that he disappeared or died.
A few weeks later, Nori is accompanying Mytyl around the city when suddenly, Mytyl noticed two people who seemed familiar. After the boy clears up the misunderstanding the two groups parted ways, unlikely to ever meet again.
Secret End
This ending is only attainable after clearing 80% of the Challenges for both Gunvolt and Copen. Once the condition is met, clear Garden 3 again as either hero. The cutscene plays after the post-epilogue save prompt.
Xiao thanks an unknown person for providing him a way to get into the Garden. The other person replies that it's no problem.
The scene reveals an unspecified alleyway where Xiao is talking with Nori. She hands over a pendant-shaped Glaive to him, one that apparently contains all of the Muse's power after Zonda's defeat and GV's duel with Copen.
Xiao questions why it's a pendant, Nori just replies that it looks cuter that way.* Nori then talks about how Xiao had planned for Mytyl and Joule's fusion to awaken the Muse and seal it into a pendant. She asks what he plans to do with the pendant, and the power it contains.
Xiao denies any claims, saying that Mytyl had suffered her entire life due to the Muse, but he cannot leave such a power in the hands of Eden or GV. With the Muse's power safely sealed, he claims Mytyl can lead a normal life now. Nori retorts that he's merely telling what she wants to hear, and asks him his real intentions. Xiao promises that it's nothing bad, and that she'll know more soon.
*In the Japanese script[7], Xiao comments that the style didn't seem to fit what he expected of a former witch. Nori responds that she is merely a maid serving the Kamizono family.
Abilities
Although she is a seemingly normal human maid, Nori is a skilled fighter and possesses a very large personal fortune of unknown origin.
Nori assists in Copen's development of subroutines for his gear, allowing him to boost his abilities without having to physically modify his equipment. She was also his instructor in physical training, martial arts and weapons training. She takes care of Mytyl as well while Copen is out on missions.
In official artwork, it appears that she possesses proficiency with firearms, and in one instance, she uses a knife to fight against Asimov in her efforts to rescue Copen. She has also demonstrated great skill at driving a motorcycle, able to keep up with Ghauri's speed on dangerous terrain.
In the Japanese version of Gunvolt 2's secret ending, Xiao casually alludes to Nori being a former witch. This seems to be supported by Nori possessing the occult and scientific knowledge required to create a pendant-shaped Glaive to store Mytyl's Septima. Additionally, in Clockwork Daydream, she was in possession of a pendant that could transform Lola into a human for a day.
Nori has one named technique:
- Stupid Angel's Initiation: Maid Kick (アホ天使直伝、メイドキックッ), used against Asimov on Firmament.
Other Appearances
Mighty Gunvolt Burst
Nori appears as a hidden collectible pixel sticker in the Water Works Bureau stage.
She makes a cameo appearance in the ending of Copen's campaign.
Azure Striker Gunvolt 3
Nori makes an appearance as a passive Image Pulse, which restores health when collecting money.
Designer Notes
Source: Armed Blue: Gunvolt Complete Works
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English fan translation
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Japanese
She’s an all-purpose person who can do anything, so I did submit a draft in which she looked very physically strong and capable of doing it all. But it didn’t totally fit with the character so I calmed myself down by making her have a rather normal maid uniform and a beauty whose facial expressions don’t tell what she’s thinking of. As for the rider suit, I thought that Nori would rationally choose a high-functional one. I wished for it to be cool apart from sexy so I picked a racing suit for her.
-- Munehiro Araki
なんでもこなす万能メイドなので、見るからになんでもできるというか腕っ節の強そうな案も出たんですが、やっぱりイマイチしっくりこないので、わりと普通のメイド服の、何を考えてかわからない表情の美女というところに落ち着きました。
ライダースーツはノワなら合理的に機能性の高いものを選びそうだと思ったのと、セクシーのほかにカッコよさも欲しかったので、レーシング用のスーツにしました。
--荒木宗弘
Trivia
- Nori's English and Japanese names are derived from "noir", the French word for "black".
- She is one of the only characters without a revealed age. One of the Mytyl chats implies she may be significantly older than she appears, as she mentions hitting a TV to make it work when she was a child. When this prompts Copen to ask how old she really is, she claims that is a very rude question. Copen backs off when her response makes him feel some sort of pressure, noting to himself that Nori is scary.
Connections to Kurona
Nori is almost certainly an older version of the demon girl Kurona (Gal*Gun wiki page) using an alias. The evidence:
- In Clockwork Daydream, after Nori decides to take action, Kurona with her voice actor and theme music from Gal*Gun approaches Lola, claims to be good friends with the Kamizono Family head (who's Copen and Mytyl's aunt), and gives Lola a magical pendant that will make her human for a day. With a cough, she returns to being Nori.
- Inti Creates CEO Takuya Aizu has replied to Gal*Gun anniversary art featuring Shinobu Kamizono, Maya Kamizono, and Kurona[8] with "Mother and maid in their younger days."[9] There is strong reason to believe Shinobu is also Copen and Mytyl's mother, as her personality matches what has been described, Mytyl has a bell and ribbon very similar to hers, this trait was added at the behest of the scenario writer Toshiaki Tai, and Tai is also a Gal*Gun writer.
- In the Japanese version of GV2, Xiao implies "Nori" is a fake name and mentions her title "The Bewitching Courtesan" (傾国の誘惑者, Keikoku no Yuuwakusha). In the Japanese version of Gal*Gun Double Peace, Kurona's profile states that she will become known as the Bewitching Courtesan in the future.
- In Gal Guardians: Demon Purge, Kurona's future self is again referred to as 傾国の誘惑者, now localized as "The Eternal Seductress".
- In an optional conversation in-game, Mytyl purchases the entire team charms which are said to ward off evil. When Mytyl tries to give the charm to Nori, Nori expresses shock, refuses to wear the charm, and stumbles out of the room.
- While Nori's name is derived from the French word for "black", Kurona's is derived from the Japanese word for it.
- In the Gunvolt News Channel Episode 38 stream, the connection was alluded to.
Considering all this, Nori's younger self is technically a DLC playable character in Mighty Gunvolt Burst and DLC boss in Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2. For more information on those appearances, see Kurona.
References
- ↑ Gunvolt 2 badge pack
- ↑ Localized equivalent to 傾国の誘惑者 in Gal Guardians: Demon Purge
- ↑ 3DS Striker Pack limited edition height chart
- ↑ English site profile
- ↑ Japanese site profile
- ↑ Copen's Story
- ↑ Prayer (The Garden 4)/Scripts (Copen)#Epilogue
- ↑ https://twitter.com/galgun_official/status/1291214190934257664
- ↑ https://twitter.com/t_aizu/status/1291217241048899584
