Minerva

Minerva
Info
Kanji Name	ミネルバ
Romaji Name	Mineruba
Gender	Female
Age	Unknown
Status	Alive
Family	Jupiter Sisters
Possessor	Shiori Shiomiya
Seiyū	Kana Hanazawa
Manga Debut	Chapter 145
Anime Debut	About Me

Minerva (ミネルバ, Mineruba) is the fourth of the Jupiter Sisters and is the fifth goddess revealed. She currently resides within Shiori Shiomiya.

Character Overview

Personality

Minerva possesses a shy and timid nature similar to Shiori's. Just like Shiori, Minerva is shown to be a bookworm, reading books whenever she can. However, unlike Shiori — whose reticence stems from the fear of saying the wrong thing — Minerva's slight lack of communication seems to come from being wary of others. She does not seem to want to talk to anyone until she is sure that they are trustworthy.

Minerva's timidity evidently influences the type of magic she uses. Because of her shyness, when the goddesses engage in an argument over Keima, she casts a force field around herself and Keima, preventing her sisters from getting near. Her indirect approach definitely contrasts from the direct advances of the other goddesses.

Appearance

Minerva's outward look does not take on a fairly modified version of her host's appearance, contrary to her sisters. Rather, whenever she is in control of Shiori, she takes on what is speculated as Shiori's younger self (the reason for this occurrence is currently unknown). In addition to obtaining the form of a child, Minerva is dressed in Shiori's uniform absent the bottom half, giving her the appearance of a child wearing a one-piece dress.

Similar to her sisters, she acquires both wings and a halo. Her hair is extended all the way down to her hips and gets a light-bluish tint. She has Shiori's hairstyle in a longer lighter version as well as having ribbons.

Abilities

Minerva's barrier.

Just like her sisters, Minerva is endowed with divine powers. However, her powers seem to be different from her sisters' because before obtaining her wings, she was able to manifest herself as a separate, metaphysical being that did not rely on the reflections of her host in order to appear.

In terms of ability, Minerva can be considered to belong in the support class. She is adept at constructing powerful force fields that even her sisters cannot penetrate, and according to Vulcan, she can also augment their powers with her own.

Background and Initial Appearance

As one of the Jupiter Sisters, Minerva is one of the goddesses responsible for the sealing of Old Hell. However, the heroics of the goddesses unfortunately trapped them with the spirits they sealed. They are later released along with the spirits when the seal mysteriously breaks. At some point after the breaking of the seal, Minerva entered Shiori, presumably along with Shiori's runaway spirit. However, unlike the spirit, Minerva had no immediate effect on Shiori.

Character History

Old Conquest Arc

During Shiori's re-conquest, Minerva is first seen as a demure child with a halo, carrying a nameless book. When Shiori attempts to make contact with her, she becomes hesitant and teleports away, leaving an already bewildered Shiori even more confused.

In her next appearance, Minerva is seen sitting atop a shelf seemingly reading the nameless book, but is in fact observing the situation between Shiori and Keima — who was cross-dressing at the time. After that, she is seen again (this time in Shiori's room) watching over Shiori as Shiori becomes increasingly irritated at her yet-to-be-written novel.

Reaching her wit's end, Shiori finally gets the resolve to write her novel after Keima reveals his knowledge about her conquest and requests a story about her. Upon hearing Keima's revelation of the truth, Shiori panics and tries to hide in between bookshelves. Minerva then appears before her, asking her if she can finally write. Although, true to her bashful nature, Minerva hastily escapes after asking Shiori such a direct question.

With her novel finished, Shiori succumbs to exhaustion and falls asleep. Keima then arrives and reads her completed work, and when he finishes, Minerva takes over Shiori and appears before him. After Keima asks if Minerva is a goddess, she becomes flustered and tells him that she won't talk with strangers because Apollo told her not to. She then releases her hold on Shiori, resulting in a marginally awkward situation between Keima and Shiori.

Minerva introduces herself to Shiori.

After Shiori finishes her book and Keima promises to visit her, Minerva appears to Shiori.

After a few days, Minerva, Mars and Vulcan are gathered by Keima at Diana's request. Upon awakening, the sisters share a brief moment of delight at their reunion, but their happiness eventually turns into hostility as they each reveal that their respective hosts all harbor feelings for Keima. As Mars confronts Keima about his status as Yui's husband, Minerva interjects and says that he belongs to Shiori. She tries to repel Mars by swatting her book at her, but the situation worsens when Vulcan decides to join the fray. Mars and Vulcan then engage in battle, and the shy Minerva participates in the contest by engulfing both herself and Keima within an impenetrable bubble. The fight continues and ultimately ropes Diana in until Keima settles the whole thing by reminding them why they are there in the first place: Apollo.

As the goddesses scrutinize their unconscious sister, they all comment on her hydration spell and its intricacy. Vulcan then assumes the role of the eldest, and announces that they will summon Apollo. She tells Minerva to boost their powers, and together, the goddesses call out to their lost sister.

Mai-High Festival Arc

At the eve of the festival, Minerva and Shiori are spirited away by Vintage members. Their abduction is not explicitly shown, but it can be inferred from the empty library and scattered books on the floor that they have indeed been captured.

Eventually, Mercury awakens and together with Diana and members of the Runaway Spirit Squad, they rescue their sisters and Keima's previous conquest targets. After the rescue, Minerva and her sisters cast a wide-ranging spell that obliterates the Vintage hideout.

Later, Minerva attends the festival, and watches the debut performance of the 2-B Pencils while sitting beside Vulcan.

Heart of Jupiter Arc

Minerva notices the miasma surrounding the school.

Days after the Mai-High Festival, Minerva is seen looking out of a window at the top floor of the library after noticing the ominous vapor surrounding the school. After recognizing that the miasma is a spell used by the Weiss, Minerva notices that it leads back to the theater and then tries to meet with her sisters.

Minerva then leads her sisters to the source of the miasma immediately after meeting up with them. As she drags a sleep-walking Mercury, Minerva and her sisters spot Elsie kneeling on the ground beside Keima, who is unconscious at the time. Elsie then explains her dilemma, when Tenri suddenly arrives.

Aware of the entire situation, Tenri explains that Keima will be going back ten years into the past. After her disclosure, the goddesses all prepare the teleportation spell meant to transport Keima back in time. When the spell comes into fruition, Keima and Elsie — who is asked by Tenri to accompany Keima — are sent to the past.

Some time after transporting Keima and Elsie back in time, Diana arranges a sleepover at the astronomy club room. Upon meeting, the goddesses indulge themselves in various snacks. Although, probably because she wants more to eat for herself, Apollo kicks Minerva's hand that was about to grab a handful of the goodies. Witnessing the absurdity before her, Diana becomes impatient and confiscates the snack platter, and proceeds to discuss the main reason she gathered her sisters: their hosts' respective relationships with Keima.

As the goddesses each take turns in announcing Keima's faults (mainly by Vulcan, Mars, and Apollo), Vulcan's careless comment regarding forgetting about Keima causes Apollo to sarcastically misinterpret her words as words of surrender, thereby igniting another argument over who will ultimately be Keima's lover. As Mars and Apollo proclaim the advantages of their corresponding hosts, Minerva accrues the will to fight back and implies that Shiori won't be giving up. Impressed by Minerva's ardor, Apollo and Mars decide to tease her childlike appearance. As they harass their small sister, they both find themselves blasted backwards by one of Minerva's spells. The comical argument between the sisters continues, and ends up leading them nowhere.

During another sleepover, the goddesses sense a disturbance in space-time (Minerva is the first to sense it). As they ponder the context behind the disruption, they all realize that Keima has failed his task. Vulcan verifies this by saying that their insurance (orb) has come into play. Minerva worries that altering the past violates the laws of cause and effect, but Vulcan tells her that their doing so is an absolute necessity.

Later, as the goddesses temporarily put their worries behind them, Mars decides to hold a lottery that decides who will be Keima's protector while he is stuck in the past. Initially, her sisters are opposed to the idea of holding the lottery since each of them wanted Keima for their respective hosts without going through any challenges. Despite the complaints, they ultimately submit to deciding by lottery since they cannot agree on where Keima will be staying. Right after the lottery starts, Minerva announces that Vulcan is eliminated; in the end Apollo won the right to have Keima first with Mars being second.

Later at the library, she tells Shiori to meet with Keima and to be nice to him. Much later, back in the library, she and her sisters Vulcan and Mercury took over their respective hosts when a Mobile Colossus attacked. Suddenly a car busts in the library and a man tells them not to fight it and get in. The goddesses and Keima entered the car and they drove away. As they escaped they returned control back to their hosts.

Relationships

Shiori Shiomiya

The bond between Minerva and Shiori is not overtly portrayed since they both have similar personalities. They are both shy, so they cannot communicate with each other very well, but it is apparent that Minerva cares for Shiori very much because she tries to protect Shiori and will do whatever she can to make Shiori happy. She even attempts to overcome her timidness by telling her sisters that Keima should be with Shiori.

Jupiter Sisters

Minerva is very close to her sisters, despite her shy personality. She highly respects her elder sisters and usually does whatever it is they have asked of her. The bond Minerva has with her sisters is further illustrated when she and her sisters are shown to argue about whose host will be with Keima. Notwithstanding their disagreements, they all choose to compete fairly with no resentment towards the eventual victor.

Usually the target of Apollo's and Mars' teasing, Minerva still respects and cares for the both of them very much regardless of it all.

Trivia

• Minerva's name originates from the Roman goddess, Minerva.
• In the Roman mythology, Minerva is the goddess of poetry and wisdom, so it is no surprise that her host would be Shiori.
  
• Aside from the goddess Vulcan, Minerva also has the ability to communicate with her host and other people without always having the need of reflective surfaces or Minerva taking over Shiori.
• Minerva is the only goddess of the goddesses that alters the physical body structure of her host when she is projecting herself through her host.

Quotes

• (To Shiori) "Do you think you can write now ?" (Chapter 148, p.16)
• (To Keima) "I won't talk with... strangers! Because Apollo... said not to." (Chapter 149, p.15)
• (To Mars and other goddess) "Th-Th-This man... belongs to Shiori...!!" (Chapter 158, p.9)