CHARACTER CLOSE-UP : Asagi Kusanagi

Asagi Kusanagi played by Ayako Fujitani
Identity/Class: Human psychic
Occupation: Avatar/human-link for Gamera
Affiliations: Gamera, Professor Nagamine, Ayana
Enemies: Gyaos, Legion
Known Relatives: Father - Naoya Kusangi (director of a Marine Insurance company)
Base of Operations: Japan
First Appearance: Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995)

Fictional character biography
Powers/Abilities
Asagi had a psychic link to Gamera- she keeps him mindful of humans, gives him power and has the empathic ability to know what he's thinking and feeling. She was able to revive him when he seemed dead, using the hope and energies of a gathering of children (or that's what it looks like, anyway). In the early days of the link, they were so greatly linked that she would also feel his pain and receive his wounds; by 1996, this had ceased. Though her link was severed, she still had some connection to Gamera in 1999 - she had a rudimentary empathic understanding of him and was able to get him to revive Ayana.

History
A dedicated and empathic young girl, Asagi came into contact with the Atlantean oryhalcyon beads and thus gained psychic link to Gamera. She kept him grounded in humanity and helped him in battles, also assisting in proving Gamera was on humanity's side. When he was hideously wounded in the battle against Legion, Asagi was able to use her link to revive him (with the assistance of the hope of small children) but the link was severed in doing so.

Three years later, Asagi became involved with Professor Nagamine (the ornithologist who first encountered the Gyaosu in the first Gamera movies) and her investigations into the return of Gyaosu and the more ruthless Gamera. Both of them became involved in the strange case of Ayana, a girl who loathed Gamera and who was the avatar of the terrifying Iris monster. In the final battle between Gamera and Iris, Asagi tried repeatedly to get Ayana to break her link with Iris; when Iris was beaten and Ayana presumed dead, Asagi was able to get Gamera to revive her.

Trivia
Asagi is played by Ayako Fujitani, daughter of Steven Seagal; this was her first role in acting.
Before meeting Gamera, Asagi had an interest in Atlantis and similar sunken cities due to reading comic books.

CHARACTER CLOSE-UP : Miki Saegusa

Miki Saegusa (三枝 未希 Saegusa Miki), played by Megumi Odaka, is a recurring fictional character from the Heisei (1984-1995) series of Godzilla films. She's notable for being a psychic that uses her powers to communicate with and, in some instances, control the mutant dinosaur Godzilla and is credited for being the most frequently recurring human character in any Kaiju (Japanese giant monster) series.

Fictional character biography
Saegusa made her debut in Godzilla vs. Biollante. As well as being an instructor of an institution for psychic children, she also served as an assistant to Doctor Shiragami, a Saradian born scientist studying the psychic energy of roses. Unbeknownst to Saegusa, Shiragami combines the DNA of one of his roses with genetic material taken from his late daughter Erika and the mutant dinosaur Godzilla. The resulting monster, named Biollante, escapes from the laboratory and takes residence in Lake Ashino. For the duration of the creatures passivity, Saegusa sensed that it was in fact possessed by Erika's spirit. After Godzilla defeats Biollante for the first time, he heads toward a nuclear power plant, intent on absorbing its energy. Saegusa confronts Godzilla and nearly puts herself into a coma by bending Godzilla's will into leaving the area.

Saegusa returns in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, where she joins a time traveling expedition to the Bikini Islands in 1944 in an attempt to alter history by preventing Godzilla's mutation. Miki identifies the Godzillasaurus residing on the island as Godzilla, thus allowing its capture and transportation away from the bomb sites. This plan however proved flawed, as the site where the dinosaur was dropped would later become the site of a nuclear accident which would result in the creation of Godzilla, thus setting history as it was.
Saegusa was a less prominent character in Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth. She is seen working at the JSDF base and appeared to show a moderate concern for Godzilla during his battle with the guardian monster Mothra and her dark twin Battra.

In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Miki is made a member of the newly created G-Force, the military arm of the UNGCC or United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center, a United Nations military alliance dedicated to the containing or destroying monsters such as Godzilla. There, she befriends Baby Godzilla and is appalled to learn that he will be used as bait to lure Godzilla. Despite her protests, Miki is assigned to use her powers to guide Super Mechagodzilla's long range weaponry onto Godzilla's second brain. To her shame, she succeeds in crippling Godzilla and begins crying for it. Godzilla is later revived by Fire Rodan and destroys the mecha. Miki then telepathically convinces Baby Godzilla to leave Japan with Godzilla.

In 1994's Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, she receives a larger role than in previous films. By then she has come to develop a strong sense of empathy and respect towards Godzilla and began advocating methods of sequestering the kaiju that do not include killing him. Throughout the film she defends Godzilla from those who villainize him, while also wrestling with her feelings for a G-Force soldier she held an attraction to and for his enemy, Godzilla.
The UNGCC now has its own department of psychic studies which Miki is director of, and she is met by people who wish to telepathically control Godzilla; the plan is called Project-T. Though she personally believes that it cannot be done and is immoral, her mind is changed after the Cosmos tell her that SpaceGodzilla is coming and that Godzilla must be there to stop him. That, combined with how she sees UNGCC's plan for controlling Godzilla as the lesser of two evils compared with killing him, makes her agrees to Project-T. While on Godzilla's island she meets a cheerful Little Godzilla, a grown up Baby, who recognizes her. When the adult Godzilla does arrive she and her team succeed on placing a mind control device on Godzilla and she does manage to control him. That is interrupted when SpaceGodzilla arrives. Miki is later kidnapped by the Japanese Mafia who had secretly bankrolled Project-T in the hopes of using Godzilla as a mercenary monster. She is later freed by her G-Force friends (which includes a scene of her using telekenesis to levitate the table she is strapped to and help one of her friends), the mobsters are killed by SpaceGodzilla, and she witnesses the last battle. After Godzilla's victory, she telekinetically removes the mind control device she had placed on his neck at which he turns around to look at her. He nods his approval.
She last appeared in 1995's Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Depicted as a fully integrated member of G-Force with a variety of acquired technical skills, she reveals her psychic abilities are waning. At the films ending she says farewell to Godzilla and Godzilla Junior.

Manga
Miki's origins are further explained when it is revealed that her parents were killed during Godzilla's attack in The Return of Godzilla.

Filmography
Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1995) aka "Gojira vs. Desutoroiâ" - Japan (original title)
Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla (1994) aka "Gojira VS Supesugojira" - Japan (original title)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993) aka "Gojira VS Mekagojira" - Japan (original title) aka "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II" - USA (video box title)
Gojira vs. Mosura (1992) aka "Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth" - USA (video title)
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) aka "Gojira vs. Kingu Gidorâ" - Japan (original title)
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) aka "Gojira vs. Biorante" - Japan (original title) aka "Gojira Vs Biorante" - USA