OVA
Description
Nancy Makuhari, known by the codename Miss Deep, is a twenty-six-year-old agent of the British Library’s Special Operations Division. She is a clone of the historical spy Mata Hari and took the identity of a real Library agent who had been hospitalized shortly before the events of the story. In the light novels, she manages an antique shop in Australia between missions, but in the original video animation she operates as a field agent dispatched around the world. Her appearance is striking: she has dark blue hair cut to shoulder length and brown or magenta eyes, and she typically wears a skintight black jumpsuit with gloves and boots.
Nancy’s personality is layered and sometimes contradictory. On missions she is all business, cool and professional, with a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. She is a woman of action who relies on quick thinking and decisive force. However, beneath that icy exterior she is capable of genuine warmth. When she first meets fellow agent Yomiko Readman, she is distant and strictly official, but after they fight together she opens up, showing a friendlier, teasing side. She treats Yomiko like a younger sister, playfully pinching her cheeks and braiding her hair, and Yomiko in turn looks up to Nancy. Despite her tough demeanor, Nancy is a kind person who is ultimately persuaded by her bond with Yomiko to abandon the destructive plan of her love interest, Ikkyu Soujun.
Her motivations are initially ambiguous. She is assigned to steal a rare book from Yomiko, and she feigns friendship to get close to her target. Yet as she spends time with Yomiko, her feelings become genuine. She finds herself torn between her loyalty to Ikkyu, the leader of the I-Jin group of clones, and her growing affection for Yomiko. Ikkyu’s scheme to wipe out humanity strikes Nancy as wrong, and she decides to side with Yomiko, a choice that puts her in direct opposition to her lover. This inner conflict is the core of her character: she is a double agent in the most literal sense, a clone who was created to serve one purpose but who develops a conscience and a will of her own.
Nancy’s role in the story is that of a deuteragonist and foil to Yomiko. Where Yomiko is naive, bookish, and openly emotional, Nancy is worldly, cynical about romance (she dismisses love stories as unrealistic), and emotionally guarded. She is the one who teaches Yomiko that real love is complicated and that people are not simply heroes or villains. Her combat skills complement Yomiko’s paper manipulation: Nancy is a formidable hand‑to‑hand fighter, trained in a form of karate that incorporates acrobatics, and she carries a Glock 18 automatic pistol. She also has a mastery of disguise and is an expert markswoman.
Her key relationship is with Yomiko, which develops from mutual suspicion to deep friendship and arguably a romantic undertone. Nancy’s bond with Yomiko is what ultimately redeems her and gives her the strength to defy Ikkyu. Her relationship with Ikkyu is more tragic: she loves him, but he is manipulative and eventually replaces her with a second, more loyal clone of Mata Hari. When the second clone attacks Nancy and appears to kill her, Nancy’s character arc reaches its climax. She survives, but the final scene of the original video animation shows the second clone outside a mental institution, having lost the memories of what happened—a subtle coda that emphasizes the cost of Nancy’s choices.
Development-wise, Nancy undergoes a transformation from a cold, mission‑focused agent into a woman willing to sacrifice her own happiness and even her life for the people she cares about. She learns to trust and to love outside the pages of a book, mirroring Yomiko’s own growth.
Her notable ability is phasing, also called diving, which allows her to become intangible and pass through solid objects or allow objects such as bullets to pass through her. She can selectively phase parts of her body, for example making one arm intangible while the other remains solid, enabling her to fire a gun through a wall. She can also phase her hand into a living body and solidify it just enough to crush a heart, a lethal technique. The power requires concentration: if she makes a mistake she could become stuck inside an object or be fatally injured. It is depicted with a bright shower of sparks when something passes through her. In combat, she uses phasing defensively to dodge attacks and offensively to surprise enemies, and she can combine it with her athletic martial arts to perform moves such as catching a weapon by letting it partially pass through her body.
Nancy is left‑handed, a detail that becomes crucial when she confronts the second clone of herself, who is right‑handed. She uses the knowledge that signs can be faked to trick her enemies, once stating that if you can fool your friends you can fool your enemies. This cunning, combined with her physical prowess and unique power, makes her one of the most resourceful and memorable characters in the Read or Die franchise.
Nancy’s personality is layered and sometimes contradictory. On missions she is all business, cool and professional, with a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. She is a woman of action who relies on quick thinking and decisive force. However, beneath that icy exterior she is capable of genuine warmth. When she first meets fellow agent Yomiko Readman, she is distant and strictly official, but after they fight together she opens up, showing a friendlier, teasing side. She treats Yomiko like a younger sister, playfully pinching her cheeks and braiding her hair, and Yomiko in turn looks up to Nancy. Despite her tough demeanor, Nancy is a kind person who is ultimately persuaded by her bond with Yomiko to abandon the destructive plan of her love interest, Ikkyu Soujun.
Her motivations are initially ambiguous. She is assigned to steal a rare book from Yomiko, and she feigns friendship to get close to her target. Yet as she spends time with Yomiko, her feelings become genuine. She finds herself torn between her loyalty to Ikkyu, the leader of the I-Jin group of clones, and her growing affection for Yomiko. Ikkyu’s scheme to wipe out humanity strikes Nancy as wrong, and she decides to side with Yomiko, a choice that puts her in direct opposition to her lover. This inner conflict is the core of her character: she is a double agent in the most literal sense, a clone who was created to serve one purpose but who develops a conscience and a will of her own.
Nancy’s role in the story is that of a deuteragonist and foil to Yomiko. Where Yomiko is naive, bookish, and openly emotional, Nancy is worldly, cynical about romance (she dismisses love stories as unrealistic), and emotionally guarded. She is the one who teaches Yomiko that real love is complicated and that people are not simply heroes or villains. Her combat skills complement Yomiko’s paper manipulation: Nancy is a formidable hand‑to‑hand fighter, trained in a form of karate that incorporates acrobatics, and she carries a Glock 18 automatic pistol. She also has a mastery of disguise and is an expert markswoman.
Her key relationship is with Yomiko, which develops from mutual suspicion to deep friendship and arguably a romantic undertone. Nancy’s bond with Yomiko is what ultimately redeems her and gives her the strength to defy Ikkyu. Her relationship with Ikkyu is more tragic: she loves him, but he is manipulative and eventually replaces her with a second, more loyal clone of Mata Hari. When the second clone attacks Nancy and appears to kill her, Nancy’s character arc reaches its climax. She survives, but the final scene of the original video animation shows the second clone outside a mental institution, having lost the memories of what happened—a subtle coda that emphasizes the cost of Nancy’s choices.
Development-wise, Nancy undergoes a transformation from a cold, mission‑focused agent into a woman willing to sacrifice her own happiness and even her life for the people she cares about. She learns to trust and to love outside the pages of a book, mirroring Yomiko’s own growth.
Her notable ability is phasing, also called diving, which allows her to become intangible and pass through solid objects or allow objects such as bullets to pass through her. She can selectively phase parts of her body, for example making one arm intangible while the other remains solid, enabling her to fire a gun through a wall. She can also phase her hand into a living body and solidify it just enough to crush a heart, a lethal technique. The power requires concentration: if she makes a mistake she could become stuck inside an object or be fatally injured. It is depicted with a bright shower of sparks when something passes through her. In combat, she uses phasing defensively to dodge attacks and offensively to surprise enemies, and she can combine it with her athletic martial arts to perform moves such as catching a weapon by letting it partially pass through her body.
Nancy is left‑handed, a detail that becomes crucial when she confronts the second clone of herself, who is right‑handed. She uses the knowledge that signs can be faked to trick her enemies, once stating that if you can fool your friends you can fool your enemies. This cunning, combined with her physical prowess and unique power, makes her one of the most resourceful and memorable characters in the Read or Die franchise.