Miho Amakata

Miho Amakata (天方 美帆 Amakata Miho) is a supporting character in the anime series Free! beginning with 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. She remains a supporter of the previous swim club members.

Appearance
Miho is of average height and has a slender figure. She has brown eyes. 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 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 is also seen wearing blue jeans, white shoes and a necklace.

Personality
She 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 Tachibana describes her as "a little strange."

History
Miho's previous occupation before coming to Iwatobi High School as a new teacher is as a swimsuit model where she was known as "Marin-chan." It is later accidentally revealed that the magazines for which she posed were somewhat racy and she vowed "never to wear a swimsuit again." She does, on the other hand, enjoy her current occupation as a teacher and strives to keep the knowledge of her previous career a secret, becoming quite agitated when anyone brings up the subject.

Miho is reluctant to be the advisor of the swim club, at first, but when Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana and Nagisa Hazuki beg her for help, she finds she can not 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 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.

Navigation
Miho Amakata