Marika Kato

Marika Kato (加藤 茉莉香, Katō Marika) is the main protagonist of the Miniskirt Pirates/Mouretsu Pirates series and the current captain of the pirate ship Bentenmaru.

Light Novel
Marika has long pink/orange hair and light blue eyes. Two sections of hair come down either side of her face to chest level and spiral slightly towards the ends.

As captain of the Bentenmaru, she wears a black captain's coat with gold highlights, open at the lower and upper front, and the lower rear. The coat has white cuffs with gold highlights, shoulder guards, a plated section hanging around the left shoulder, and white frills along the open sections, the ends of the sleeves and the neck. An oversized belt at the waist holds her sword. She also wears a bicorne with the same colour scheme as the coat, with a pirate emblem in the middle of the front, white frills along the top and tuft coming out the middle-left side. She also wears a red checkered skirt and black boots.

Over the course of the novels, certain details of Marika's design have been changed along with the general art style (as seen on the covers), such as her facial design, her hair colour and the emblem on her hat, becoming a little more similar to her anime design.

Anime
Marika has light blue eyes and long orange hair that extends slightly above her waist. She usually wears two hairclips on a clump of hair beside her left eye.

At school, Marika wears the standard Hakuoh Academy uniform, consisting of a blazer with a white collared shirt underneath and a red ribbon situated at the front of her chest, and a thigh-length skirt. During work hours at theLamp House and during Yacht Club activities, Marika wears a maid outfit and a blue Yacht Club hoodie respectively.

As captain of the Bentenmaru, Marika wears parts of her school attire (namely, the collared shirt, skirt, and footwear) underneath a black coat with gold highlights that is open at the lower front. The coat has white cuffs and frills at the ends of the sleeves and white skull emblems on the upper arms. Marika also wears a pale-yellow ribbon with a green gem-clip, and a brown waistcoat underneath. A black cape with a maroon tint inside is attached behind the coat via the shoulder guards. Her sword is attached to the left side of a red belt at her waist. She also wears a bicorne hat with the same colour scheme as the coat, the secondary Bentenmaru emblem in the centre, a red string at the front-left and a white tuft located at its middle-left side.

During the Hakuoh Pirates and Nebula Cup arcs, Marika's uniform sports a few changes, courtesy of her good friend Mami Endo. The usual ribbon on the neck is replaced by a large orange one. The cuffs at the ends of the sleeves become red with yellow frills, and the black/maroon cape is replaced by a white cape that splits into several feather-like ends (with red tips).

In Abyss of Hyperspace, during the search for Professor Mugen's legacy, Marika wears a red version of her captain's uniform with a black cape, a green strap going across her right shoulder and a brown belt.

Manga
Marika's character design in the web-manga contains elements from both her novel and anime designs. She has blue eyes and long pink-orange hair, with a section curling outwards and a section coming down to chest level on either side of her face. Her captain's uniform consists of a black coat with gold highlights and large gold buttons, white cuffs, frills on the sleeves, a neck-ribbon, and shoulder guards. She also wears a checkered orange-red skirt, boots, a bicorne with a tuft out the side and a pirate emblem on the front, and a red belt around her waist with a sword fastened to it.

Personality
Marika is cheerful, optimistic and charismatic. She can be naïve and a little clumsy at times, and can come across as a bit of an airhead, however behind this lies a cunning, intelligent and slightly devious persona. She is quite capable of taking into account every option open to her and whatever tools she has available, and utilizing them to great effect, in order to achieve her goals.

As a captain, Marika values the safety of her crew and ship above all else, however she is willing to take considerable risks if doing so would be beneficial to them in the long run. She is a hard worker and frequently pushes herself to exhaustion, but she does ask for help when it is necessary. Partly as a result of this, she often oversleeps and is quite difficult to wake up.