Ruby Moon (Cardcaptor Sakura)
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Ruby Moon (ルビー・ムーン Rubī Mūn?) is a fictional character in CLAMP's anime and manga series Cardcaptor Sakura.
She is also known by her alias, Nakuru Akizuki (秋月 奈久留 Akizuki Nakuru?).
In the English adaptation Cardcaptors she is known as Ruby Moon in both forms, as "Ruby" and "Moon" make sense in English as given name and surname respectively.
[edit] Character and Role
Ruby Moon is one of the mystical guardians created by sorcerer Eriol Hiiragizawa (Eli Moon in Cardcaptors) as his counterpart to Yue. When Eriol transfers to Tomoeda Elementary, Ruby Moon takes on the disguise of Nakuru Akizuki and enrolls at Seijou High School in the same class as Toya Kinomoto (Tori Avalon) and Yukito Tsukishiro (Julian Star). Once there, she becomes a general nuisance, continually barging in on and "glomping" Toya and sending Yukito away on errands, often with enigmatic statements.
Nakuru is well aware that Yue's magical energy is rapidly running out and that Toya could renew it. She plans to take that energy for herself, which would render Toya powerless and result in Yue's destruction. However, her efforts in that direction prove fruitless and Toya eventually hands over his power to Yue. Nakuru then gives up on her pursuit of Toya and returns to focus on helping Eriol as his guardian.
In the final confrontation with Sakura Kinomoto (Sakura Avalon) in Episode 69, Ruby Moon fights Yue in her true form. Although they fight evenly for most of the battle, Yue eventually proves to be more determined. After Yue and Cerberus successfully rush past Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun, Ruby Moon declares that she and Spinel are stronger in terms of power. Spinel responds in favor of Yue and Cerberus, saying "it must be the power of the heart that believes in their owner."
In Episode 70, Ruby Moon serves the sweets at Eriol's final meeting with Sakura before returning with him to England.
[edit] Powers, Abilities, and Personality
In her true form, Ruby Moon is capable of flying (with her butterfly-like wings) as well as firing ruby shards from her hands. She is much younger than Yue and is apparently neither as skilled nor as flexible, which may be why she tries to get rid of Yue through deception rather than direct confrontation.
Both Ruby Moon and Nakuru are actually genderless, as they are not technically human, but Nakuru chooses to adopt female dress and mannerisms. Nakuru has said that she chooses the girl's uniform over the boy's because it is "cuter." However, Nakuru adopts feminine mannerisms to a frequently alarming degree, and her efforts to ingratiate herself with Toya tend to result in his becoming extremely annoyed. (Her tendency to cling to others is somewhat of a parody of the stereotypical "girly girl" traits.) Nakuru appears to be aware of -- and annoyed by -- Yukito's true feelings for Toya and the likelihood that Toya might return them. She warns Yukito several times that he should not interfere in her pursuit of Toya if he's not serious about him; however, she does not attack him directly until the final duel between Sakura and Eriol.
Apparently Ruby Moon's efforts to syphon off Toya's power is something she has done before to others, as she has mentioned having done it before. It is never specified how this works, whether it requires at least the tacit consent of the "victim" or not. It is also never specified if this is something Ruby Moon requires to survive or if she simply does it for her amusement.
Toya is constantly annoyed by her glomping, and in Episode 47, he is seen looking around closely and suspiciously.
Nakuru has a sort of squabbling-sibling relationship with Eriol's Sun guardian, Spinel Sun. She teases him constantly and gives him the nickname "Suppi," which he detests.
In spite of everything, Ruby Moon is fiercely loyal to Eriol, just as Yue is to Clow. With her combat abilities she is a more-than-capable bodyguard for him. She is also a good and faithful friend who occasionally pulls on his cheeks in the manga.
[edit] Fanwork and Speculation
Although her intentions towards Toya in the series are mostly predatory, most fanwork in which Nakuru and Toya interact assumes that she retains her fixation on him and carries it to romantic levels. In most such stories this is a source of great annoyance for Toya, who would usually rather not have anything to do with her. Since Ruby Moon is an essentially asexual being, this is almost entirely comedy relief rather than a serious bid to establish a relationship. Sadly, at times this ends up as character bashing, since some Toya/Yukito fans see Nakuru as a serious hindrance and over-exaggerate her bad traits to make Nakuru look less worthy of Toya's love.
In most fanwork, the perkiness of Nakuru's personality is carried over to comical and frequently extreme degrees, as is her love of getting on Suppi's nerves. A commonly-used gag is her taking advantage of Suppi's reactions to sweets by forcing or tricking him into consuming it and merrily enjoying the resulting chaos.
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| Episode Guide: Clow Card Arc: 1-18, 19-35, 36-46 | Sakura Card Arc: 47-59, 60-70 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
