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Meiko "Menma" Honma
Name
Kanji: 本間 芽衣子 (めんま)
Rōmaji: Honma Meiko (Menma)
Information
Hair Color: Silver
Eye Color: Blue
Gender: Female
Race: Human / Spirit
Height: 147 cm
Weight: 36 kg
Blood Type: A
Age: 15
Birthday: September 18th
Affiliation: Super Peace Busters
Status: Deceased
Voice Actors
Japanese: Ai Kayano
English: Xanthe Huynh
First Appearance
Anime: Episode 1 - "Super Peace Busters"

Meiko Honma (本間 芽衣子, Honma Meiko), who is also called by her nickname Menma (めんま), is the female protagonist in the story whose ghost shows up to Jinta Yadomi because of her wish that he and his friends must grant. She is a childlike girl who was part of the Super Peace Busters before she died because of an accident.


Appearance[]

As a child, Meiko appears as a small 10-year-old little girl with long, straight, silver hair that reaches past her shoulders with her bangs cut fringed on top of her forehead. Her eyes are light blue and wide, making her look like a cheerful, innocent young girl.

Her appearance that she could have had if she lived is almost identical to her child appearance. She wears a tiered white dress, fastened with a blue bow. In the anime, Her dress is often described as "a white one piece with a blue ribbon". Since she's a spirit, she always goes barefoot unlike her past self, who always wore simple sandals on her feet. This could be due to the fact that she lost her sandals in the water. In her older version, her hair is about waist-length. Her skin is the palest among the other characters. Unlike her childhood friends, she still has not grown fully yet and has quite the same personality like when she was ten. She is very skinny and very short.

Personality[]

Menma is a very kind and cheerful girl with a very air-headed nature and she often worries about others before herself, especially when it comes to Jinta "Jintan" Yadomi. She is extremely childish (although this may partially be down to the fact she died as a child and has only recently been "resurrected").

Although throughout the series she is surrounded by her friends, she does often get very lonely and upset easily, especially when she visits her family and realizes she no longer belongs to them, nor does she have a home. Also, due to the fact, only Jinta can see her, she can communicate with the others in the group using her notebook, and only her notebook, although Menma does wish to be able to talk to the other members. Despite being "dead", she is a very positive, energetic and lively person. According to Jinta, she is quite selfless and cries very often for others when they are hurt or upset, but not for herself. Jinta calls her "the beast of the summer" as he relates her to being a manifestation of his stress instead of a ghost girl.

Relationships[]

Jintan Yadomi[]

Jinta and Meiko shared a strong relationship when they were little. When Meiko came back to life, Jinta was the only one who could see her. The note that Meiko had given to Jinta in episode 11 stated: "I love you Jinta. It's the kind of love that makes me want to be your wife~."

Satoshi Honma[]

Satoshi was still little when his sister died from an accident. He always wanted to join his older sister whenever Menma would go outside. Menma, however, would tell Satoshi to stay and guard the peace of their house.

History[]

On some particular day in their hideout, Naruko "Anaru" Anjou asked Jinta "Jintan" Yadomi if he liked Menma. With this question he felt embarrassed and acted impulsively, calling Menma "ugly" and ran out. Instead of crying, Menma smiled and chased the embarrassed Jinta. It was never actually shown what happened to Menma, but the anime indicates that she slipped and fell while chasing Jinta and drowned in a river nearby.

Several years later, she appears before Jinta on a summer day. Although she is aware of her death, Meiko is talkative and lively. She greatly values the childhood memories and friendships she once shared with the others but has very few memories other than recollections of her friends and family, including that she had once made a request to Jinta.

When she appears to Jinta, she has aged somewhat, but still retains childlike speech patterns and tendencies. She is also clothed in the dress she was wearing the day that she died. Though only Jinta has the ability to see or hear her, Meiko appears to be able to interact with the world around her: opening doors, cooking food, eating, and even playing video games, with many of these activities shown in scenes without Jinta present.

Characters that she embraces often feel that the air is heavier. She held Jinta in special regard when she was alive and still worries about his current state. The others call her by her childhood nickname 'Menma', and she similarly refers to the Super Peace Busters by their childhood nicknames. Jinta has stated that she is selfless, only crying when others are hurt.

Meiko holds no grudges towards her friends for the accident and hopes to pass on so that she can be reincarnated and once again live in the same world as her friends.

She has feelings for Jinta and even when she returned as a ghost, still held those feelings. In the last episode, she states that her kind of "love" was the love where she wanted to marry him.

It is later revealed that Menma came back in order to fulfill the wish of Jinta's mother to teach Jinta how to cry.

Quotes[]

  • "You found me.."
  • "If the dog of the day on the television is female, Jintan's doing something bad."
  • To Chiriko "Tsuruko" Tsurumi: "I love how gentle you are."
  • To Atsumu "Yukiatsu" Matsuyuki: "I love how you always work so hard."
  • To Tetsudō "Poppo" Hisakawa: "I love how funny you are."
  • To Naruko "Anaru" Anjou: "I love how you're always level-headed."
  • "I don't want you to die! Never ever!"
  • "I know. It's the type of 'like' where you want to marry me, right?"
  • "I love you, Jintan. It's the "I want to marry you" type of I love you."
  • "Thanks for everything today. Tomorrow I'll go to Heaven. Please be my friends until the very end."
  • "I want to spend more time with all of you."
  • "If I would've had a normal life, I wonder if when I got older, I would've married you..."
  • "Even if I'm dead, I want everyone to get along!"
  • "After all, I don't even know why I'm here."
  • "I really like it when you smile.."
  • "I know... I know I'm dead."

Etymology[]

  • The name Meiko means "bud, sprout" (芽) (me), "clothing, garment" (衣) (i) and "child" (子) (ko).
    • Her nickname Menma is derived from combining the beginning of her given name (いこ) with the end of her surname (ほんま). The word menma (メンマ) also refers to a type of pickled bamboo shoots.
  • Meiko's surname Honma means "base, root, origin, source" (本) (hon) and "while, time, interval, space, pause, chamber, room, apartment, leisure, chance, entr'acte, intervening, as" (間) (ma).

Trivia[]

  • Menma makes an appearance in episode 1 of the anime Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata as figurines.
  • Like many other anime girls (and some guys), Menma entered Saimoe Contests.
  • Menma's favorite food was curry.
  • Menma is the youngest character to die in the series as she was only 10 years old at the time of her death.
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