Yuna Kamihara (上原ユウナ; Kamihara Yūna) is a young 10-year-old (11 to 13-year-old in Stitch! ~Best Friends Forever~), tomboyish, Okinawan fourth grade elementary school student, and the human protagonist of the Stitch! anime series.
Background[]
Yuna lived a rather normal cherished life with her grandmother on Izayoi Island, learning and studying karate. She learned it from her grandpa, who did the honor of giving her a special type of moonsand as a good luck charm in her study of karate before he left, and became the sensei of her island's dojo as a black belt. However, her life took a turn for the extraordinary when she met Stitch, who became her new best friend. Through Stitch, she also befriends Jumba, Pleakley, and Jumba's other experiments (Stitch's "cousins"), and she and Stitch also befriend various yokai, such as Kijimunaa. During the second season, Stitch! ~The Mischievous Alien's Great Adventure~, her bullying cousin Tigerlily moves in with her. In the third season, Stitch! ~Best Friends Forever~, she (now an 11-year-old) and Stitch move along with Tigerlily, Jumba, and Pleakley off the island to live in a house in New Town.
Personality[]
She is one of Stitch's best friends and his caretaker after Stitch runs off to Izayoi Island. After a few shenanigans, the two became best friends with a pinky swear. Yuna's personality comes off as kind, polite and sweet at first; however, she can turn feisty, defensive and angry if she spots something she doesn't like, such as evil, bullying, crime, or the like. She also can be very confident and overbearing at times, often taking charge into situations when needed, and acting without thinking. With her being a black belt, she uses her karate skills as a way to help her loved ones, not hurt them. She will also use her karate skills to fight back if needed. Yuna also has a playful yet competitive side to her personality, often playfighting or competing with her friends, Stitch included (usually just for fun), but it can go beyond if she is devoted enough. She also has an attitude that shows quite often too, usually through jealousy or wit.
However, despite her personality, she does have a limit to her emotional side, and while she does keep her emotions to herself (in a way not to let anyone worry), she can break down or act up if enough pressure is on her, coming between either yelling or acting out of anger, or crying and resenting when frustrated or in despair. But with help from her friends and Stitch, she often feels better. Her only known fear is lightning/thunderstorms. She believes that after a storm, she will receive good luck if she rubs her belly button (of which she makes fun of Stitch for not having one).
Biography[]
The beginning of a new stage in life for Yuna and Stitch.
In "Ichariba Chodei", Yuna begins her day of karate training with her students, who first go over the tenets of their dojo, the main one being Ichariba Chodei, which means that once you become friends, you become related forever. Taro arrives in tears and Yuna demands an explanation from him, to which he, still crying, says that he was playing his handheld console but Kenny took it away, which enrages Yuna, so she comes to him and his gang to sort things out. They get the console back, but demand an apology from Taro and tells him to do the same, but the boy is too afraid of Kenny to fight back himself, so he tremblingly says that they shouldn't anger Yuna because she is a karate master. Ted says that she got the dojo from her decrepit grandfather and the gang thinks that Kenny will easily defeat Yuna, because according to Penny, he is trained by a professional master, but Yuna easily knocked Kenny down by simply kicking his cap, causing him to run away in fear along with Ted and Marvin. Penny tried to intervene, but was scared when Yuna broke a sugar cane in front of her. Yuna and Taro then see Officer Suzuki riding by on a bicycle, he informed them about some blue monster that was causing chaos in the city and causing disorder. Yuna is determined to find it, unlike Taro, who wanted to go home, but she, taking his hand, insisted that he go with her. The girl learns that the blue creature went into the forest and she saw it sleeping on the ground. She fearfully poked him with a stick, woke him up and was going to teach him a lesson. During the fight, the monster had the advantage, but they fell into the water during the process, and then Yuna realized that her opponent did not know how to swim at all, so she helped him. Having reached the shore, they reached a small cave, where they took shelter from the rain and began to have a normal conversation, during which Yuna learns that the monster is not bad and that his name is Stitch. Stitch sees that Yuna is scared because of the thunder and promises to protect her. When the rain stopped, she tells her friend that after thunder, you need to rub your belly button for good luck. She noticed that Stitch does not have a belly button and laughed at this, but told him that he can still be good without a belly button. They went on and along the way, they noticed the sacred stone of Chitama. Then Yuna's grandmother came and said that the sacred stone can grant the wish of someone who does good deeds, which gives Stitch an idea to get unlimited power, so he decided to stay with Yuna, which makes her delighted, and together with her grandmother they go home.
Biology[]
Appearance[]
Yuna is a small, white-skinned girl with brown hair, which she wears in two spiky-looking ponytails, which are braided with blue beads in the first two seasons, and with green scrunchies in the third season and both post-series specials. She wears a red, sleeveless dress with yellow flowers on it. In the first two seasons, she wears sweatpants with light blue stripes on the inside and outside legs, and pink sandals with a heart in the middle. In the third season and the post-series specials, she wears blue denims rolled up midway up her calves, and orange sneakers with white soles.
When Yuna goes to bed, she puts on a pink nightgown. When she goes swimming, she puts on a red bathing suit. In her karate classes, she wears a white karategi with a black belt.
Family and relatives[]
Yuna's mother died before the events of the series, and her father often works away from the island, so they rarely see each other, but she still loves him and waits, cherishing every moment when they are together. Yuna lives with her grandmother, who is a very old and wise woman who can give advice and support.
Trivia[]
- In the English dub of "A Recurring Nightmare", when Remmy shows Yuna the memory of her mother humming a tune to her when she was a baby, the tune she is humming is "Baby Mine" from the Disney movie Dumbo. The sequences are very similar, as it shows Dumbo's mother cradling her calf in her trunk.
- This brings her closer to Lilo, as in the first film, a plush Dumbo can be seen in her room.
- According to the official booklet,[1] Yuna is 10 years old at the beginning of the anime, meaning she celebrates her 11th birthday in "The Surprise Party". Between "We Wishy You a Washy Christmas" and "A Very Stinky Christmas", she turns 12, which is confirmed in "Pleakley Loves Hollywood". Based on this, she turns 13 in "Stitch's Dreams".
- She celebrates her 11th birthday on February 25, 2009, considering that this happens after the episode "Stitch and Santa" Yuna has been living with Stitch since 2008. Also, knowing this information, it is possible that the end of the third season takes place in 2011 and Yuna and Stitch have been living together for three years.
- Yuna's exact date of birth is February 25, 1998. Unlike Lilo, Ai, and Meison, her date of birth is known.
- However, this official booklet contains errors that say Lilo is 5 years old in the original series, which is incorrect since she turns 7 at the end of the first movie based on the number of candles on her cake, and also that Penny is in a grade lower than Yuna, which is a lie since they are in the same grade in the series, so there is a chance that the booklet could be lying about Yuna's age as well, but it is likely that the information about Yuna is correct, as revealed in the aforementioned "Pleakley Loves Hollywood".
- She is the first protagonist from Japan, the second being Yamato Meison from the manga Stitch & the Samurai.
- Yuna is never referred to with a surname in either the Japanese original or the international edit (including the English dub); she is only ever referred to by her given name. However, the original Japanese version of the season three premiere episode "New Town" reveals her full name written in kanji to be 上原ユウナ when her new teacher Mr. Matsuda introduces her to his class at New Town Elementary School. While the kanji for her given name (ユウナ) unambiguously means Yūna, the kanji representing her surname (上原) actually has different pronunciations depending on the location. In standard Japanese, it's usually pronounced as Uehara, but in the Ryūkyū Islands (which includes the Okinawa Prefecture where the entire show is set), it is often pronounced as Kamihara.[2] Since Yuna is an Okinawan, it is thus presumed that Kamihara is the proper romanization of her surname.
- The kanji 上原 itself means "upper plain".[2]
- It has been mentioned in various episodes that Yuna has a poor academic record in mathematics and sometimes low scores on tests.
- Throughout the first two seasons, there are hints that Yuna and Penny might eventually become friends, putting aside their feud, they worked together in "Link-age" and Penny invited her to her birthday party at Disneyland, even Stitch thinks that they could be friends, but they just laugh it off. In "New Town", when Yuna moved to Okinawa, she considers one of the perks of moving to a new place is that Penny is not there, so they are still feuding.
- For her young age, Yuna is very strong, as she is a karate instructor and has fought against many experiments when they attacked her and was able to fight back and win in most cases.
Gallery[]
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References[]
- ↑ Confirmation of Yuna's age at the beginning of the series.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Origin and popularity of the name UEHARA". Geneanet. Retrieved on November 12, 2023.
