Yumiko Takagi

Yumiko Takagi (高木 由美子), also known as Yumie (由美江), was a supporting character in the Hellsing series created by Kohta Hirano

She was a nun working for Section XIII. She usually partners on missions with Heinkel Wulf. She was also one of the two main protagonists in Crossfire, alongside Heinkel Wulf. Yumiko is voiced by Yuuko Kaida in Hellsing: Ultimate, and the special Drama CD of Crossfire. In the English dub of the OVA, she is voiced by Siobhan Flynn.

Appearance
Yumiko always dresses in a standard Catholic nun's uniform, which consists of a black habit, a nun's hooded cowl, a white scarf, white gloves, white stockings held with a garter belt, and black boots. In the Crossfire miniseries, Yumiko is shown wearing glasses to prevent her more violent personality, Yumie, out. On the back of her gloves, it was seen to have an inscription similar to that of Anderson's.

She has long black hair which becomes visible when she removes the cowl to fight. Her eyes are colored dark brown or red at different points during the OVA. When her glasses comes off, Yumie "comes out." Yumie prefers to remove the nun's cowl, keeping the scarf around her neck and letting her hair flow free. Yumie also has slightly narrower eyes and usually can be seen with a maniacal grin. She also carries her katana, holding the sheath in one hand and the blade in the other when in use. She wields the sword in either hand.

Yumiko is noted to be the only named Hellsing character stated to be of Japanese ethnicity.

Personality
Yumiko is mentioned to have a split personality like that of her Crossfire counterpart. Yumie was impulsive and violent, showing no fear of anything and preferring to negotiate using the sharp end of her katana. She seems to genuinely enjoy killing people and monsters. She was loyal to her fellow Iscariots but doesn't hesitate to argue or chide them for actions she disagrees with.

In Crossfire, her personality is a bit more explored; here, we see that Yumiko has a split personality;


 * The ultra-violent Yumie, who'll gladly kill sinners without remorse;
 * The gentle, violence-hating Yumiko, who's timid and quite innocent.

Both Yumiko and Yumie are devout to their religion; however, Yumie is a fanatical Catholic and seems to genuinely enjoy killing people with her almost superhuman sword skills. Yumiko has commented how hard it is for her to "get Yumie to sleep" after she has been provoked into action. Her personalities switch places, either by dueling for control inside of their mind, or a strong blow. Heinkel uses this technique to awaken the latent Yumie and have her brutally kill several terrorists in the first volume of the manga's extra Crossfire feature.

To put it simply, Yumiko was a shy, quiet nun who gets easily frightened, whereas Yumie provides raw, unfettered violence with her nigh-superhuman strength, fearlessness, and fearsome katana skills that make her the ideal partner to Heinkel. Maxwell often berates the pair, not because of their excessive violence, but rather because of their activities as assassins, mentioned as to have been dressed in the raiment's of the Catholic Church, indicating a connection to the Vatican and by proxy to Iscariot, which is supposed to be a secret agency outside normal knowledge.

History
Hellsing=

Yumiko Takagi was raised with Heinkel Wulf and Enrico Maxwell in Alexander Anderson's orphanage and first appears in Volume 6 of the manga and Volume 5 of the OVA, and was born with a split personality; which made her quite tired all the time.

She was formally introduced alongside Heinkel after Anderson rescues Integra Hellsing from Millennium troops. The two reprimand Anderson for his actions but join him in the battle against the vampires. Afterward, they repeatedly worry and argue about violating orders given by Maxwell to either not interfere or take Integra into custody. Yumie starts to draw her sword on Integra and must be directed by Heinkel to stand down. Anderson decides to walk Integra home and Yumie becomes a reluctant part of the escort until Maxwell reaches London with the rest of the papal forces and Alucard arrives soon after. Yumie and the rest of Iscariot's advanced guard are deserted by Anderson after he helps Alucard's familiars kill Maxwell and states his intent to fight Alucard. She and Heinkel are distressed and protest his plan after being told to leave.

Yumie was next seen during the battle between Anderson and Alucard when she and Heinkel lead a charge of Armed Priest Vanguard to assist him. She and the others are once again told to go home but they insist it is their duty to remain and join the combat. Anderson eventually reaches Alucard with their help and Yumie was shocked when he pulls out the Nail of Helena and turns himself into a Monster of God.

She mourns his death after his defeat until Walter C. Dornez arrives and desecrates Anderson's remains while speaking contemptuously about the man. Yumie was completely enraged and immediately attacks Walter. Although moving extremely swiftly, she was outmatched and cut into pieces by Walter's wires. Heinkel is hysterical and aims her guns at Walter, only to be shot and wounded by The Captain afterwards. TBA
 * -|Crossfire=

Overview
While it's hard to imagine this gentle, violence-hating pacifist would actually turn out to be one of the deadliest assassins alive at her time, along with Heinkel, her other personality, however, was a character that's meant to be feared; she was capable of smashing heads into walls and genuinely enjoys killing people. Yumie's raw strength, fearlessness, and fearsome katana skills make her the ideal partner to Heinkel, who is imperturbable, cool-headed, and analytical despite the snarky and trigger-happy side of her personality. Usually, Yumiko and Yumie switch control over her body when Yumiko's glasses come off, or when either is knocked unconscious.

Physical Abilities

 * Superhuman Strength: She was capable of smashing men's heads into walls with her bare hands, as shown in Crossfire. She's strong enough to cut through crowds of vampires and familiars without tiring.
 * Superhuman Speed: Yumie was extremely fast to the point of moving as a blur at times and leaps from a multistory building without blinking.

Skills
Swordsmanship: Yumie knows various Battō-jutsu (sword drawing) techniques and was adept enough to kill even from outside the room where her victim was.

As stated above, she knows a variety of Battō-jutsu, including that of "Shimabara Battōryū (島原抜刀流)"; where Yumie draws her sword slowly and then, strikes the enemy multiple times without breaking a sweat and was fast enough to cut them into pieces before they even realize it. Sub techniques of Shimabara Battōryū includes "Shinden (震電)"; where Yumie slices her opponent in half swiftly, and "Tenzan (天山)"; where Yumie slices her opponent's eye in a swift cut with her katana.

In attacking Walter, she used something called the Shimabara Style quick-draw attack named; "Zhong Kui (钟馗鍾馗), where she seemed to turn into some sort of blue-white light and rushes at her opponent. Further details of the attack were not seen as Walter immediately countered the move and killed her afterwards.

Etymology
The Japanese characters for "Yumiko" (由美子) and "Yumie" (由美江) differ only on the last syllable. Many people tend to make the mistake of Yumie "Yumee", pronounced with two syllables, instead of the correct name, "Yum-ee-eh" (three syllables). Yumi (由美), Yumiko (由美子), and Yumie (由美江) are all different names. Yumi, however, forms the base name for both Yumiko and Yumie. Yumi, as written, is composed of the kanji for "Significance/Reason" and "Beauty". The name 'Yumiko' adds the character for "Child" to the end (子 ko) — which seems to be metaphorically symbolic of Yumiko, who is more innocent and childlike than violent Yumie. The name Yumie adds the character for "Inlet" (江 e).

Trivia

 * Despite the "Yumiko" personality never appearing or being mentioned in either the main Hellsing manga or the OVA, it was confirmed that her split personality exists in the main story of Hellsing by Hirano in the Hellsing Official Guide Book.
 * Yumiko is a character brought back by Hirano from one of his short stories back when Hirano was under the "Comic Master" label, but her prototype design goes way back to Hi-and-Low with Sir Integra, and Angel Dust with Anderson.
 * Laura, a character from the original Hellsing anime, shares the same English voice actor as Yumiko.