Miyuki Irie (入江 みゆき Irie Miyuki) is the drummer of Girls Dead Monster and one of the prominent characters to appear in the Angel Beats manga, Heaven's Door. Originally a person who didn't know a thing or two about instruments, she was forced to partake in strict training in order for her to achieve a level of proficiency in order to participate in the band.
Appearance[]
Irie is a girl of average height with a slim figure with long, lavender hair and purple eyes.
She dons the standard SSS uniform and a black band on her right thigh with the words “GDM”.
Personality[]
Irie is a shy, young girl who, despite being dead herself, is bad with hearing stories about ghosts or spirits. She has a very gentle, kind, innocent personality but her softness can allow someone to pressure her or take advantage of her. Her best friend Sekine is often a more mischievious and bold person, which contrasts well with her personality.
Because she is soft spoken, she often just goes along with anything that occurs, sometimes protesting sheepishly or even outright participating in activities that she disagrees with.
Irie has a tendency to severely berate herself for not being able to do any task she was given correctly or amounting to anything, especially when given tasks to practice by Hisako.
Background[]
This section contains spoiler content from a collaboration between AB and mobile game, Heaven Burns Red.
Irie in her past life was a student who didn't like to stand out, didn't like attention, and was self critical. She struggled to talk to people and would become flustered. If she was caught at the center of attention, she felt like she couldn't breathe and wanted to run away. Due to her nature, she was constantly teased as a kid. In her third year of middle school, she was nominated to be the class chairman. Other people thought it was funny and voted, to the point where she had won the vote. Throughout her time in school, she was forced into positions where she would stand out. In the second semester of her second year of Owari West High School, she became student council president as everyone voted for the fun of it.
A student council meeting is called.
At one point, the student council, whose member comprised of vice president Shinnosuke, secretary Mayu, Nabe, and Kana, who was a childhood friend of Irie, and Irie herself, held a meeting to deal with the panics caused by students playing a game similar to Ouija, which would summon a ghost called Satoko. They were to record the "ritual" in video in attempt to prove that it was all a hoax, but it did not go to plan when the coin used for the game moved, suggesting that Satoko existed.
Summoning the ghost.
The student council then decided to cover up the incident by throwing away the paper that was used for the ritual. However, Irie returned home and noticed that the sheet used to communicate with Satoko was present amongst her belongings, albeit in pristine condition. Around the same time, Nabe phoned Irie and stated that everyone else has received the same sheet, and when asked if Irie received one, she denied so and burned the paper in a panic.
Mayu failed to appear in the next meeting, and Nabe showed a text from Mayu claiming that Satoko existed. The remaining members then decided to investigate Satoko, and found a photo of her funeral as well as her address in a graduation album stored in school library. However, the address led to an empty plot of land, with its neighbors stating that it was unused for the past twenty years. After returning home, Irie received a text from Shinnosuke, instructing her not to turn around if someone tapped her on the shoulder. The message, together with previous unexplained phenomenons, as well as Shinnosuke's absence and Kana claiming that she could be next on the next day, caused much distress to Irie. She then took time to rest in the school infirmary before heading back home. However, as she was waiting for the train on the platform, someone tapped her on the shoulder, and Irie, scared for her life, accidentally ran towards the train tracks, resulting in her death.
Irie's death caused much distress to the whole student council: Kana blamed herself for directly causing her childhood friend's death, Nabe admitted that the whole incident was an elaborate prank was supposed to be a plan to make the upcoming school festival livelier, but admitted that they overdid it, while Shinnosuke blamed her death on the school. Shinnosuke would succeed Irie as the next student council president, but all other members eventually resigned due to their disagreement with his new administration and attitude.
The former student council members would revisit Irie's grave from time to time, while grieving how their lives have changed since then and blamed their misfortunes on her in one way or another. Eventually Shinnosuke, who did not revisit Irie's grave in between, finally came over to stop each member from further derailing their own lives. It was then Shinnosuke revealed that he had a crush on Irie and planned to confess to her via a letter after the school festival, which did not happen due to her death. His dream was to reunite all members of the 22nd student council on a field of cosmos, Irie's favorite flower, which he managed to fulfill during his tenure as student council president by volunteering in various public activities and gaining sponsorships.
Over time, each former member of the student council got married and moved on with their life. Shinnosuke was the last one to do so, who visited the field of cosmos one last time, stating that while his love for Irie never changed even after thirty years, it was time for him to move on and marry his partner, whom he had co-lived with for ten years. He bid Irie farewell and wished she would also move on if she hadn't done so already. Hearing his last words, Irie felt ready to move on with no regrets left in her mind.
A crying Irie discovered by Fujimaki and Matsushita. Image from a translated version of Heaven's Door: Chapter 71.
This section contains spoiler content from the manga Heaven's Door.
Irie's arrival in the Afterlife was when she was spotted in a corner crying by Matsushita and Fujimaki. They asked her if she was alright and they escorted her to the Battlefront's headquarters where she introduced herself to Yuri. Utilizing her cute looks, Yuri sought to place her in Beautiful The Blood (Girls Dead Monster's prior name) and called on Iwasawa and Hisako to bring her into the fold.
However, Irie had no prior experience with any sort of musical instruments. Hisako began to place her under a very strict training regiment, which pushed her to a breaking point as she began to reveal the details about being bullied and not being 'enough' for anyone. Hisako comforts her and encourages her to keep practicing as well as maintaining her hygiene.
Through Hisako's comfort but also very strict training was when she found resolve to keep practicing the drums.
Relationships[]
Afterlife[]
Etymology[]
- Miyuki's surname Irie means "entering" (入) (iri) and "bay, inlet" (江) (e).
Trivia[]
- Irie was a contestant of the voting contest Anime Saimoe Tournament 2010 but lost to Yuno in the first round of the main tournament.
- Irie plays a Pearl FZ725/C-CX drum set.
- Irie always seems to be with Sekine.
- Irie and Shiori Sekine look very much alike together as they both seem to have strands at both sides, but the only difference is that:
- Irie has lavender hair
- Sekine has blond hair
- Alongside Sekine, in both the Angel Beats manga and visual novel adaptations, Irie thinks that Otonashi and Iwasawa would make a good couple. Although Irie is not as forward about it as her best friend, she does offer her support to Otonashi and tells him that she is rooting for him.
- Depending upon the players choices in Angel Beats 1st Beat, Irie can participate in the plan to dethrone Kanade as the Student Council president. This is something that she did not do in the anime. Additionally, if Otonashi (i.e. the player) makes the suggestion, Yuri will get Irie to make a love confession to Kanade instead of Ooyama, much to the poor girls embarrassment.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ As of May 2021, there has not been any official source for any character's date of birth, or age.
- ↑ This height comes from a settei sheet of the cast that has been examined by this wiki's administrators. The sheet hasn't been uploaded publicly yet, but will be linked to once it has. Only Otonashi, Kanade and Yuri had their heights explicitly mentioned. Everyone else is a close estimation of their height. All heights were originally in metric but converted to feet and inches.