Sheena Fujibayashi

Sheena Fujibayashi is a fictional character in Tales of Symphonia, a video game by Namco.

Sheena is considered to be the next in line for the title of Chief of Mizuho and starts the game as an enemy to Lloyd Irving at first. For the heir of a ninja clan, Sheena is something of a klutz (although not nearly as disastrously so as Colette); when the party first encounters her as an enemy at Ossa Trail, she is only called "Clumsy Assassin" (strangely enough, even after her name is revealed, she is called "Resolute Assassin" in the second battle).

Role

A girl from the flourishing world of Tethe'alla, Sheena is originally sent to Sylvarant by the Pope and the King with orders to assassinate Colette Brunel. However, after helping the party save the humans in the Asgard ranch, Sheena joins the party. Sheena is a skilled warrior from Mizuho, a hidden village of ninja. She is tough but kindhearted, and is always accompanied by Corrine, the only man-made Summon Spirit and Sheena's best friend. Because of her good looks and impressive figure, Zelos Wilder loves to flirt with her; but she usually manages to set him straight, often in a violent way.

At the age of nine, Sheena ventured to the Temple of Lightning with people from Mizuho in order to form a pact with Volt, the Summon Spirit of Lightning. Unfortunately, Volt went into a rage, killing a quarter of Mizuho's population and causing the chief of Mizuho (her adoptive grandfather) to fall into a coma. The causes are not explicitly revealed, but presumably, Sheena was too young and inexperienced to attempt to make a pact (which involves fighting the Spirit). Volt later suggests that Sheena's first attempt at pact-making failed because he was unwilling to deal with humans. It is also possible that the attempt failed because no one in the group present at the pact-forming attempt could understand Volt, the only Summon Spirit that does not use human speech; Sheena says "It's just like before! What the hell is he saying?" before Raine translates. It is because of this incident that many of her fellow ninja bear a deep grudge against her. However, Kuchinawa, who lost his parents, seems to the only one to actively seek vengeance; his brother, Orochi insists that it was an accident and that Sheena should not duel Kuchinawa, and other members tell Sheena to persevere when it becomes clear that she must make a pact with Volt.

Armed with a variety of magic-infused seals, Sheena proves a decent melee fighter, and has many techniques that can lower an opponent's statistics or inflict various status ailments or special effects (such as causing them to stagger for longer periods of time). More importantly, however, she can call upon powerful Summon Spirits to aid the party in battle. These summoning abilities are also vital to the storyline, such as when she summons Undine to save the group from falling to their deaths on the Tethe'alla bridge, or uses the Summon Spirits of Tethe'alla to save the world from the out-of-control Giant Tree. With the exception of Corrine, she can only summon when she is in Overlimit mode, and at a heavy cost to her Tech Points; however, because Overlimit prevents the enemy from interrupting Sheena's incantations, Summon Spirits supply guaranteed damage (and a lot of it at that) to any enemies nearby.

Personality

Sheena is a very strong-willed person. In part owing to her ninja upbringing, she tends to act somewhat tomboyish most of the time, but she does possess a sweet side, which becomes more apparent as the story progresses; she unexpectedly shows an interest in the flowers in Zelos' mansion. She has little confidence in her ability to make important decisions, a flaw that was considerably deepened since the disaster with Volt. She dislikes having to be rescued, preferring to rely on her tough facade instead to save face (as demonstrated during a scene in one of the last visits to the Tower of Salvation. Sheena is snagged by one of the Great Tree's roots and pulled over the edge of an abyss, but rejects Lloyd's offer of help, instead choosing to fall).

Like Lloyd, she is a strong believer in altruism. She is willing to bend the rules imposed on her, such as the Pope's orders to kill the Chosen, in order to do what is right, and slightly tends toward idealistic decisions, in contrast to the more pragmatic Raine and Kratos. Despite the anger some of Mizuho bears towards her, she understands that mistakes can be corrected, and absolutely refuses to give up on someone -- even her greatest enemy.

Sheena's tough facade has created an interesting outer personality. She tends to anger easily and is not above disciplining someone with an occasional swift smack. When she is angry, she will most definitely let someone know. However, she is also talkative, despite her troubled past and angry members of society who have cast her out of their circles.

Although she seems to hate Zelos (she uses him as an example of a Chosen she "can't trust" on first reference, adding "I can't stand that guy!"), their relationship is more complex than that. Zelos attempts to help Sheena cope with her grief over Corrine in his own way, showing that he truly cares about her feelings. Likewise, Sheena states that, although Zelos is a pervert, she sincerely believes that he is a good person. Should the party fight and kill Zelos at the Tower of Salvation, Sheena appears to be crying during his final moments. Sheena and Zelos, in fact, seem to have a deep and solid friendship (that some fans believe to be more than that), shown by the multiple skits in which they discuss recent events. Also, when Sheena is on the verge of volunteering to be killed to stop the party being pursued by Kuchinawa, Zelos reacts vehemently and grabs Sheena, taking her through the Otherworldly Gate. Sheena does not find out the truth about Zelos' past during the game.

She harbors a crush on Lloyd, despite sometimes being irritated with him, which becomes more apparent as they travel together; predictably, though, she has a great deal of trouble expressing these feelings. Depending on the choices the player makes throughout the game, it is possible for her to finally express them.

Summon Spirits

Sheena is the only character in the game who can summon various entities to the battlefield whenever their power is needed. As such she plays one of the most important roles in the game being the vessel the summon spirits give their power to. Once she learns to summon Shadow, she becomes the only member of the party able to use a Dark attack.

When Sheena tried to form a pact with Volt again with Lloyd's party, Volt attacks Sheena, but she was saved by Corrine, who was killed. Encouraged by Lloyd, Sheena demanded Volt's power and fought the Summon Spirit, refusing to let Corrine's sacrifice go to waste, as well as conquering her fear of Volt. After this, Sheena could no longer summon Corrine; however, there is a side-quest that allows the player to see Corrine again, in an altered form, but Sheena can never again summon Corrine in battle.

She becomes the successor to Chief of Mizuho later on in the game. Her name is derived from a ninja master of feudal Japan, Sabuji Fujibayashi.

Connection to Suzu Fujibayashi

Sheena's surname is the same as Suzu Fujibayashi, a character from this game's sequel, Tales of Phantasia. Both Sheena and Suzu are ninja warriors, come from hidden ninja villages, and are the granddaughters of the current Chief; in other words, Suzu is possibly a distant relative of Sheena. Their relation is further strengthened by the fact that, in Tales of Symphonia, Sheena can obtain Suzu's costume. Sheena is also named the heir to the chieftainship of the village, supporting the idea that Sheena and Suzu are related. In Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3, the two meet. Sheena notes that they share family names and wonders if they're related. At that point, Zelos enters the conversation and suggests that Suzu may be his and Sheena's daughter, consequently flirting with Sheena.

Trivia
* Sheena's clothes bear a strong resemblance to those of the Ruroni Kenshin character Makimachi Misao; both are of a light blue colour and are fastened around the waist with a pink sash that is tied in a large bow at the back.

Fujibayashi, Sheena
Fujibayashi, Sheena
Fujibayashi, Sheena

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See Also

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