Miho Amakata

Miho Amakata (天方 美帆 Amakata Miho) is a supporting character in the anime series Free!. She is a classical literature teacher at Iwatobi High School and the homeroom teacher of Haruka Nanase and Makoto Tachibana, as well as the club advisor to the Iwatobi High School Swim Club.

Appearance
Miho is of average height and has a slender figure. Her medium brown hair is shoulder-length, slightly wavy and parted down the center so that her bangs fall to either side of her face. She has brown eyes. She often wears a white shirt with a neckline edged with blue fabric and a loose green cardigan over her shirt. Occasionally, she wears a white shirt with a neckline edged with pink fabric and a loose peach cardigan. She consistently wears blue jeans, white shoes and a necklace.

Personality
Miho is a quirky, intelligent and soft-spoken individual who enjoys reading and teaching her students about great literature. She usually has a quote at the ready from famous historical figures, but they often make no sense or have nothing to do with the topic at hand. She is quite girly and uses this to her advantage in getting her way with certain individuals. She's also somewhat clumsy and seems to be slightly nervous when people ask her a question or look her directly in the eye. Although her original dream of becoming a swimwear designer did not come true, she's neither bitter nor sad, but has told herself that she'll never wear a swimsuit ever again. Miho indirectly describes herself as old, although she isn't. She owns a pink car and likes girly stuff. Makoto describes her as "a little strange."

History
Miho's previous occupation before coming to Iwatobi High School as a new teacher is a swimsuit model where she was known as "Marin-chan." It is unspecified why she quit her job and vowed "never to wear a swimsuit again" but she seems to enjoy her current occupation as a teacher. In her role as such, she strives to keep the knowledge of her previous career a secret and becomes quite agitated when anyone brings up the subject. Miho is reluctant to be the advisor of the swim club, at first, but when Nanase, Makoto and Nagisa Hazuki beg her for help, she finds she can't resist and agrees providing they are willing to clean up the school's abandoned pool and recruit two more members. Once the team is complete with the addition of Gou Matsuoka as their manager and Rei Ryugazaki as their fourth swimmer, Ms. A, as she is known, is a staunch supporter of their efforts. attending their summer training camp and most of their tournaments. She remains as advisor to the club after Makoto and Haruka graduate.

Creation and Conception
"I, happily, was able to put a lot of my own preferences in her," Futoshi Nishiya, the animation director of Free! says, "however, utmost was that she feels like a teacher." Initially, Miho was supposed to have straight hair so she would appear a little immature, but that settled into her current look. Her character was determined quickly. Gou is the beauty, so the animators considered Amakata-sensei to be the cutie. However, they trimmed down points and trimmed down her character. "A good literature teacher would be able to quote suitable phrases,", Hiroko Utsumi, the director of Free! said, "so we thought it’d be cute if she wasn’t able to do it well."

Trivia

 * The name Miho means "beautiful" (美) (mi) and "grain" (穂) (ho).
 * It can also mean "beautiful sail"
 * Miho's surname means Amakata means "rain" (雨) (ama) and "single" (片) (kata).
 * It can also mean "compass" ("ama"=sky, "kata"=direction) (amakata)
 * Miho is the first known teacher in the series.
 * Miho was voted Sexiest Anime Woman of 2013 by winning over Blue Rose from Tiger and Bunny with 22433 votes.

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Miho Amakata