Manami Aiba, also known as La Brava, is a former Villain associated with Gentle. She is the secondary antagonist of the U.A. School Festival Arc.
During the Final War, Manami sides with the Heroes, aiding Naomasa Tsukauchi and the Counter-Force as a hacker against Skeptic of the Paranormal Liberation Front.[5]
Eight years after the War, Manami has married Gentle and the two have started an IT company called GeL Inc, where she serves as president.[6]
Appearance#
Manami is a very short young woman with quite a large, round head compared to her narrow body. She has raspberry pink hair, which she wears up in two high pigtails: wide and thick at the top and thin at the bottom, the ends curved upwards to the sides at her waist, their edges trimmed straight. She has a single bang in the middle of her forehead, swept pointedly to her right, and very large, pointed-down eyes with dark rings on the underside of each, two longer eyelashes to each far side, which take up most of her face. Her irises are oval-shaped, pink in color, and each has two circles between their small pupils and their rims, giving them a rather hypnotic look. After spending a long time secluded in her home and staring at her computer, she developed dark circles around her eyes.
Manami's outfit is quite elaborate, consisting of a big white bow at her neck, matching the thick white gloves she wears, an indigo shirt with large pink buttons and long, upturned frilly sleeve cuffs, and a pair of white, pinstriped pants which are very poofy, making her legs seem bigger than they are. She sports several heart motifs, such as heart earrings, heart-shaped buckles on the two thin, golden belts around her waist, and a wide heart design over the tops of her legs. She also wears dark tights underneath her pants, over which she wears a pair of shiny high-heeled boots.
When lending her assistance during the Final War, Manami wears her old costume with a few key differences. Instead of the indigo shirt, she wears a white long sleeve shirt with large pink buttons, with a sleeveless indigo jacket over it, along with big pink bow at her neck and small pink earrings.
In middle school, Manami was far smaller, having the appearance of a young child. Her pigtails were much shorter and she wore an ordinary school-issued seifuku, a long-sleeved double breasted shirt with a sailor-style collar and a short red tie with a dark navy blue skirt.
Eight years after the Final War, Manami wears a more casual outfit, such a purple dress with a red belt, black leggings, red shoes, and heart earrings. She and Danjuro also wear a wedding ring on their left hand.
Personality#
Manami is a loyal fan and admirer of Danjuro, making sure to record his acts to subsequently post them online, following Danjuro's instructions to interrupt a stream if needed. Despite knowing about his strength and abilities, Manami becomes worried if Danjuro finds himself in potential danger. Manami is in love with Danjuro, as shown through her Quirk, Love, as well as her undying admiration for him. Having been grateful for Danjuro taking her in and accepting her, Manami is willing to help him no matter what. She also showed to be angry with Danjuro's lack of recognition, as well as angry at the Hero Killer: Stain for having robbed his spotlight with a video of his backstory.
When Manami was a younger girl, she professed her love to a different boy through a love letter, telling him that she was completely smitten. She seems to fall in love quite freely, and when she does, quite deeply. Unfortunately, this also made her sensitive to rejection as seen when her crush rejected her letter and even badmouthed her as a stalker. This caused Manami to fall into a deep depression where she became a withdrawn shut-in who had no aspirations, spending every day glued to her computer and even contemplating suicide. Upon seeing Danjuro's videos, however, her hope and energy were both fully restored, with Manami willing to help and accompany him even with the acts of doing so making her a criminal as well.
While Manami admires Danjuro almost blindly, she has no problem with boasting over herself as well, such as when she pointed out that her hacking expertise was a key component in their plan to infiltrate U.A. High School. She also doesn't mind doing something illegal if it means helping Danjuro or getting closer to him. The first example of this was when she hacked into his account so she could get his address and meet her idol in person, despite apologizing for it.
Abilities#
Hacking Prowess: La Brava has shown herself to be a capable hacker, being able to, when in range, hack into the U.A. security system and accomplish other things that only a person skilled with technology could pull off. It is stated that she is self-taught, only further backing her skills and intelligence. Her hacking skills also easily surpass those of Skeptic, a leader of the Meta Liberation Army and master hacker in his own right, capable of feats such as hacking into every television in the country. When he hacked into U.A.'s defense systems, she was able to override his control, allowing her to triangulate and pinpoint his exact location.[5]
Quirk#
Love: Manami's Quirk allows her to bestow a power boost to the person whom she loves most by telling the recipient how much she loves them. The amount of power her loved one receives increases with the intensity of her love. Manami can only activate her Quirk once per day and the power boost will only last for a limited time.[7][8]
Ultimate Moves#
- Lover Mode: When Manami declares her love towards Danjuro, he is granted a power-up for a limited time. The more intense her love, the stronger the transferred power will be.[7][9]
Stats#
Equipment#
Camera: La Brava uses a camera in order to record Gentle's robberies and other villainous acts and posts them online.
Battles & Events#
U.A. School Festival Arc Deku vs. Gentle Criminal
Relationships#
Gentle Criminal#
Gentle and La Brava are partners as Gentle commits crimes and La Brava records and uploads them. The two are friendly with each other and exchange their motivations. La Brava also admires Gentle and his ideas; in return, Gentle appreciates La Brava's efforts in helping him become a notorious villain. La Brava also has an extreme love interest in Danjuro, a love interest that he seems to have with her as well.
Eight years after the Final War, the two would get married and start a new business venture together: a company called GeL Inc., made from a portmanteau of their aliases.
Chapter Appearances#
debut
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
flash
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
flash
yes
yes
Anime Appearances#
debut
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
flash
flash
flash
flash
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
Trivia#
- Manami's surname contains the kanji for "together, mutually, fellow" and "place, space", and her first name contains "love, affection, care" and "beauty".
- The "ai" in Manami's surname is homophonous with the Japanese word for "love", referencing her Quirk.
- When read together, the characters that make up Manami's surname can mean "market price" or "reputation," and are phonetical of the Japanese word for "partner, colleague".
- Manami's alias, La Brava:
- Matches the Japanese katakanization of the novel La Brava by Elmore Leonard.
- Likely a reference to her character theme of love, as it can also be read as "love lover", which, according to the name list made by Gentle, might be the true sense.
- Means "the good" in Italian, and "the brave" or "the fierce" in Spanish.
- Manami's birth date is the same as Valentine's Day.
- According to Manami's Volume 19 profile:
- Manami's favorite thing is Gentle.[2]
- Kohei Horikoshi received praise from an editor of the Spring Weapon No. 1 series for Manami's creation. He took this as a great delight, seeing as he doesn't often receive such things from anyone outside of his own editing staff.
- Horikoshi regards it as fun to draw small characters such as her, Eri, and the Masegaki Primary School students.
- Manami's English voice actor, Megan Shipman, also voices Mirio Togata as a child.