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"I lost my way and ended up here. I felt that in doing so, I reached my goal. But later I realized, this is just a dead-end."
— Rio
Overview[]
Rio Kazumiya is one of the main characters of Sora no Woto. Her full name is Rio Kazumiya Arkadia. She was born as an illegitimate child of Archduke Arkadia of Helvetia and thus mostly kept out of the public, living with her mother in a house outside the capital. Her half-sister, Princess Iliya Arkadia, frequently visited her in her childhood and taught her how to play the trumpet.
After her mothers' and Iliya's death roughly 2 years before the story, Rio was asked to marry the Roman Emperor to end the war between Rome and Helvetia, a plan that had previously existed for Iliya. But Rio refused and fled into military service, where she originally concealed her identity as the Helvetian Princess. During her training to join a tank platoon, she met Filicia and quickly grew close to her. Later both were assigned to the 1121st platoon and stationed in Seize.
Since she is a skilled trumpet player, she becomes Kanata's coach when she joins the platoon at the beginning of the story.
Appearance[]
Aged 17 and 168cm (=5'6) tall, Rio is the second oldest in the platoon. She has long, blue hair and bluish-grey eyes. Around her neck, she wears a silver bell, which is a memento of her dead sister.
Personality[]
In Filicia's accounts of Rio when she was younger, she is described as a spoiled, slightly socially awkward girl, who didn't even know that one has to serve oneself in a cafeteria. This was likely due to the fact that she was kept from the public and couldn't have friends, because of her relation to the Archduke. As a result of that, she seems to be bad at showing open kindness as well. This later becomes evident, when she initially refuses to socialize with the people of Seize and complained about the church and local orphans. The latter especially suggests that Rio tends to lose her temper when around children, as happens in Episode 9. Still, Rio and Filicia quickly formed a bond and ended up together in the 1121st platoon, where they are the oldest members.
Rio's turn to military service was a panic-driven reaction with the goal of hiding from having to marry the Roman Emperor. However, since she does know of her responsibility, she is deeply troubled throughout the show.
At the outset of the story, Rio has already changed dramatically compared to her days as a recruit. After Filicia, she is the most senior member of the platoon and takes her responsibilities seriously. While the younger girls look up to both, Filicia behaves more like a kind of motherly figure towards them, while Rio is more like a tough older sister who appears gruff and masculine in her speech and is often much stricter. Despite that, it's apparent that she cares a great deal about the junior recruits. Both she and Filicia try to hide their own troublesome pasts from the younger platoon members. Like that, they take care of Noël, Kureha and Kanata. For example, when Noël arrived, it was mostly thanks to Rio that she was able to partially recover from her traumatic experiences.
Etymology[]
The surname Kazumiya is written with the Kanji for "Peace" (Kazu - 和) and "palace" or "princess" (miya - 宮). Rio is written with the Kanji for "pear tree" (Ri - 梨) and "flourishing" (o - 旺).
Trivia[]
- In Ep07, Rio prays for her mother and sister after placing a lantern during the Obon festival
- Is 3rd in line to the throne of Helvetia
- At the end of episode 12, she is promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. Her promotion is most likely for political reasons as everyone who is of royalty is usually a commissioned officer. However, she still remains as the second-in-command of the 1121st Platoon
- She is not a really a great cook
- Her mother loved the calvados from Seize, which was most likely brewed by the unit stationed there; a "tradition" of illegal distillation of alcohol the 1121st does due to headquarters often forgetting to pay them