Umi Matsuzaki
| “ | After my dad was killed in the Korean War, that was that. But I never stopped raising those flags...I never missed a day. | „ |
| ~ Umi speaking to Shun about the signal flags she that raises |
Umi Matsuzaki (松崎海 Matsuzaki Umi) is the main character of From Up On Poppy Hill. She is voiced in English by Sarah Bolger, who also played Mallory Grace.
Background
Umi is a 16 year old girl who is known as "the girl who raises flags", as she raises the same pair of signal flags every single morning and takes them down every night. She does this because her father told her to do so when she was young, her father, a ship captain explained that the flags meant "safe voyages" and she would raise them every time her father left port and will only taken them down when her dad's ship moored at the harbor. However, her dad was killed in the Korean War when his supply ship struck a mine. So instead she didn't stop raising them, to keep her memories of her father alive. To add to that she also pays her respects to her father with a fresh flowers and a glass of water every morning.
Apart from honoring her father, she cooks and cares for the family, doing most of the chores like washing, cleaning, cooking and shopping. Her mother is currently in America studying. She meets Shun Kazama, a boy she believed to "be summoned to her by her dad" and falls in love with him. Umi is also known as the "goddess of good luck" by the Latin Quarter boys, due to the fact that she brought up the idea of fixing up and repairing the building. Shun eventually tells her about the possiblity of them being siblings which greatly affected their relationship. Despite the possibilty of them being siblings, he falls in love with her and they both confess their feelings for each other.
After the issue of Quartier Latin's demolition is resolved, Shun and Umi are summoned to the harbor by a man named Yoshio Onodera, the third man in the photo both Umi and Shun have of their fathers (which was also the photo responsible for their beliefs that they could possibly related) who is now a ship's captain. He confirms that Umi and Shun are not related by blood.
Looks
In casual, she wears a lilac shirt with a pink coat and pink dress. During school she wears a Japanese high school uniform that features a white shirt with dark blue trim, a dark blue skirt, a red ribbon (second year) Her hair is done in braided pigtails.