Tabane Shinonono (篠ノ之 束, Shinonono Tabane?) is Houki's sister and the creator of the Infinite Stratos (IS). Tabane is perhaps the most influential character in the entire series, having created the IS and played a part in several incidents throughout the story, ultimately making her an antagonist in the series near the end. She has also been regarded as the ultimate human, Renürion[1].
Appearance[]
Tabane is a young woman with red-purple eyes and long dark purple-pink hair that extends to her hips with some loose bangs, which cover her forehead. She usually has a sleepy yet cheerful expression in opposition to Houki's serious one. This stems from her lack of proper sleep in her life.[2]
Like her sister, Tabane has a slim, voluptuous figure and large breasts, though hers are even bigger, being comparable to Maya.[3] She wears a frilly maid-like blue and white dress, ribboned pantyhose on her legs, a pair of robotic rabbit ears, a lab coat, and Mary Jane shoes (similar to that in Alice in Wonderland) revealing a great deal of her cleavage. She also wears a grey bracelet on her wrists.
Personality[]
Tabane Getting hit.
Much to everybody's surprise, Tabane is a very childish person and almost constantly runs around like a happy kid. She often refers to herself as "Tabane the Genius," hinting at a sense of cockiness. She is very fond of the people she loves and will hug them as many times as she feels like. She states that there are only three people in the world that have any meaning to her (Houki, Chifuyu, and Ichika), and the rest of the humans are the same to her (she can't identify one human from another). Ichika notes that she was extremely rude to Cecilia (when she asked Tabane to look at her IS), which she states is an "improvement," as in the past, she would ignore others (other than the three) completely as if they did not exist. Although not explicitly stated, this is later changed to five people with the introduction of Chloe Chronicle and Madoka Orimura.[4] She even has no problem giving these few special people an IS, regardless of who they are, what they've done, or what their intentions may be.
Her explosive entrances and her childish manners often result in her being hit on the head by people like Chifuyu and Houki, but she recovers extremely fast and gets energetic again. Tabane has often acted slightly lecherously, proven when she teases Houki about how much her breasts have grown and groped Maya's breasts.[5] This perverted side of hers is also one of the reasons why Houki and Chifuyu tend to become very annoyed with her. She also has little sense of responsibility for what she does or what her creations cause, as in the case of the IS.
She has the comical tendency, befitting of her childish personality, to manipulate the concept of things falling out of the sky often. More than once, she has jumped distances or landed at speeds far exceeding the human tolerance limit. While it is mostly exaggeration, the times where she has done that have not been few and far between. This may imply that she has fairly high physical endurance and that she doesn't have a weak heart. She can also be fearless and confident when it comes to some things, especially in combat.
Although Tabane sometimes acts like a child, her intelligence is at the top of the world and she can work at a very fast rate, such as adjusting the Akatsubaki to fit Houki's body in less than a minute and declaring that she can finish configuring the Akatsubaki in just seven minutes. She is implied to be the mastermind behind a few incidents, such as the unmanned IS incidents in Volumes 3 and 7. In addition, she identified Madoka Orimura with the latter shocked by her knowledge. She also seems to enjoy watching events happen around her IS', sometimes even playing as an influence in them, although she won't directly interfere with them, even when she can. This suggests that she prefers to observe events rather than stop them.
Despite priding herself as a genius and the smartest person in the world, she's willing to openly admit when she doesn't understand something, such as how Ichika can pilot an IS despite being a boy. She doesn't seem to mind this though, instead becoming more excited at how there are some things in the world even she doesn't understand.
Tabane favors rabbits, with the metal bunny ears on her head and the carrot pod she arrives in to give Houki her IS are proof of that. Her costume choices are centered around children's tales, though oddly so, as she was said to have donned a combination of clothing derived from every character of Hansel and Gretel, and the costume she is seen in at the beach is shown to have been derived from Alice and the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.
Despite her cheery personality, Tabane is surprisingly remorseless, selfish, and self-centered. She's never shown any concern for the trouble that her actions bring or even the damage they cause, irrespective of property and lives. A prime example can be seen when Ichika is declared dead during the Excalibur Incident. Although Tabane is the cause of the whole incident and does consider Ichika one of the few people who has meaning to her, she is completely apathetic about it, which enrages Chifuyu to the point where she wants to kill Tabane. She goes even further by telling Chifuyu that it is her own fault for not going out sooner and mocks her by saying that she still needs to focus on the mission or more of her students will die[6]. She later went further by gleefully revealing the truth of Ichika and Chifuyu's origins as experiments to him before calling him a monster right to his face, filling him with despair before allowing Madoka to fatally stab him, showing no concern about him[7].
Infinite Stratos & Abilities[]
Tabane has been regarded as the ultimate human, being naturally perfect. Project Mosaica, which was trying to create the ultimate human artificially, had been canceled when they discovered Tabane because she was already naturally better than anything that could be created artificially[8].
Tabane fighting Chifuyu on equal ground.
Unarguably, the most well-known trait of Tabane is her unrivaled intellect, being considered the smartest person in the world and a master in several fields of science, especially in engineering and computer science area. As the creator of the IS, she has extensive knowledge of them, creating the Akatsubaki, a 4th generation IS, and several unmanned IS that no country has ever gotten to all by herself. Tabane has created 467 IS cores that nobody can replicate. She is extremely fast at processing electronics. Besides creating IS, Tabane is also able to "teleport" her customized machines from the sky with a single click on her remote control. She is capable of deactivating an IS, possibly through a form of fail-safe she may have installed into the IS core. She has even created devices that can bring IS down and make them (and their pilots) powerless before her[1]. She can also easily complete any unfinished IS another company had developed but couldn't finish on their own and even improve them in a short period of time.[3][9]
Stemming from her immense intelligence, Tabane is also a highly skilled manipulator and planner. More than once, Tabane has created incidents that affected not only countries, but even the whole world, with very few people (such as Chifuyu) realizing she was behind them. Most of these incidents ended with the results that Tabane desired, such as the "White Knight Incident," which caused the entire world to impose laws about the usage of IS, with only Chifuyu (who was the Shirokishi's pilot) knowing that she was the hacker responsible for the incident.
Physically, Tabane is as skilled as she is smart. She claims that this is one of the many reasons she has been called a genius by others. Having increased her body on a cellular level, her speed, strength, durability, and agility allow her to make the best use of her fighting skills. She claims that only Chifuyu, who is renowned as the world's greatest IS pilot and someone with amazing physical capability herself, can fight her on even terms, which only further shows how powerful she really is[10][11]. She later proves this statement true, being able to fight Chifuyu on the equal ground while using a wand against the latter's sword, thus Tabane wasn't completely serious[1]. Squall Meusel, the leader of a Phantom Task squad and someone strong enough to match the likes of Tatenashi Sarashiki, admitted that she would lose to Tabane if she got serious after witnessing Tabane's abilities, even if she got the chance to activate her IS and even when Madoka arrived with her IS on, Tabane simply ripped it off piece by piece barehanded.
Tabane is also a master at infiltration, saying there's nowhere she can't get into[8].
History[]
Tabane first started the creation of the IS for the concept of exploration 10 years ago. Having created the 467 cores and shocked the world of the unit, she disappeared from the face of the earth. Even in the timeline of the novel, she's still the most wanted person by all the organizations related to IS due to her knowledge.
Tabane announces the creation of IS.
Plot Synopsis[]
Episode 9: "Episode 9"[]
Tabane is first introduced to the main storyline working in a secret lab when Houki gives her a call. Tabane at first teases her, but then announces that she is done designing a personal IS.
Episode 10: "Thin Red Line"[]
Tabane makes an explosive entrance (dropping in from the sky in a carrot pod) when Ichika pulls out the robotic ears from the ground. She chats for a short while with him before running off to find Houki. Later, she makes yet another entrance by running down a cliffside, much to Houki's and Chifuyu's chagrin, and attempts to hug Chifuyu, who retaliates by grabbing her head, and teases Houki about her large breasts, with Houki brutally attacking her with her kendo sword. Afterwards, she briefly introduces herself to the others and unveils the IS that she has created especially for Houki and deals with the settings quickly, before putting it to the test.
Later, during the strategy meeting, she pops out of the ceiling, persuading Chifuyu that it is a good chance to let the Akatsubaki be given a test run against the enemy. At the waterfall, as she is explaining the specs to the others, she makes a reference to the "White Knight Incident" and hints that Chifuyu was somehow related (by saying the pilot has an 88cm bust size) before getting smacked on the head.
Episode 12: "Your Name Is"[]
Tabane is attacked by the masked IS user, even though she easily overpowers her, causing the latter's helmet to fall off. She instantly recognizes her and stops the fight to help them, while also revealing her knowledge of the person being Madoka Orimura, to the latter's surprise. Tabane declares she is willing to make a new IS for her and starts calling her Madocchi.
Quotes[]
- (Houki's ringtone)
Tabane: "I know that ringtone~!"
(Tabane picks up the phone)
Tabane: "Hi hi,hi-de-ho~. It's everyone's favourite genius, Tabane Shinonono!"
(Houki, pissed, about to hang up)
Tabane: "Wait, wait! Don't hang-up, Houki-chan~!"
Houki: "Tabane-san.."
Tabane: "No no no, my dear sister! hum hum I know what you want! You want one, right? Your own personal machine! Of course, I have one prepared. Top-of-the-line and also non-standard. And it's even a match for the white one! And the name of this machine is...Akatsubaki!"
- Tabane and Houki on the phone (Episode 9)
(Trivia)
Her actions and convictions are similar to Disney's Pixar Villain "Syndrome" from "the Incredibles". She a genius prodigy who somewhere fell from grace who invents powerful weapon tech and she causes incidents just to make life exciting and climatic for primarily her own amusement!
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Light Novel Volume 10, Chapter 3
- ↑ Light Novel Volume 2 Epilogue
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Light Novel Volume 3, Chapter 3
- ↑ Light Novel Volume 7 Epilogue
- ↑ LN Volume 3 Chapter 3
- ↑ Light Novel Volume 11, Chapter 4
- ↑ LN Volume 12 Ch 4
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Light Novel Volume 12, Chapter 4
- ↑ Light Novel Volume 12, Chapter 3
- ↑ Light Novel Volume 8, Chapter 4
- ↑ World Purge