- "I work as a mermaid at a gaudy maid cafe called Sunfish Pocket."
- —Amame in the nirvanA Initiative Character Trailer
Amame Doi (土居 亜麻芽, Doi Amame) simply known as Mermaid (マーメイド, Māmeido) in the first game, is is a minor character in both both AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES and the Lemniscate YouTube series, and a major supporting character in AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative.
Amame is a third-year at Sekiba High and a member of the dance club. She's good friends with her club mates Iris Sagan and Kizuna Chieda, as well as with Mizuki Okiura and Ota Matsushita. Amame works part-time as a maid at Sunfish Pocket, and she has a sharped-tongued side to her. She occasionally goes on haunted tours and UFO sightings with Iris, Mizuki, and Ota.
In AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES, Amame assists Kaname Date in the investigation into the Murder of Shoko Nadami. However, in nirvanA Initiative, she is a person of interest in the investigation of the Half Body Serial Killings.
Design
Amame is a young woman with pink eyes and long blue hair with pink accents. In AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES, she wears a Sunfish Pocket mermaid uniform, and puts her hair in high pigtails behind her fin design headband. Her uniform includes a white button-up blouse with a large pink flower at the collar, and long sleeves puffed at the shoulder with a cursive "M" design on them. On top, she wears a blue bodice with two large golden shells on the chest, and four smaller shells along the seams down the front. At her hips, it it ends in a scalloped edge resembling scales, and her skirt consists of several more layers of "scales" that fade to yellow. She also wears a belt resembling a string of pearls with a small fish charm hanging from it. Her thigh high stockings are pink, and her shoes are light blue.
In AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative, Amame wears her pigtails lower, and a small section of the bangs above her left eye is colored pink. She wears a Sekiba High uniform, consisting of a white collared shirt, red tie, and long-sleeved black dress with an "SJ" emblem on the left sleeve. Amame also wears a golden shell pin on the left side of her chest. In other scenes, Amame also wears a thick blue sweater with the shell pin on her wide knit collar.
Personality
Amame has a generally friendly, kind, and loving personality. She's very supportive of her friends and loved ones, and a very hard worker. She is very loving to her friends and family, and is willing to go to great lengths to protect them, even to the point of self-sacrifice, and is shown to be very accepting of others in spite of their appearance and circumstances, indicating a lack of prejudice in how she treats others.
When working at Sunfish Pocket, Amame is professional, charismatic, and polite, but is quite skilled at manipulating customers into spending more money at the cafe (even while being quite explicit about her intentions). Although she is similar to her friend Iris, being generally quite plucky and sweet, she can be brutally honest and has a fairly sharp tongue, and is better that picking up on dirty jokes than Iris is, indicating that she is the less innocent and naive of the two. However, she can be just as silly and "out there" as Iris is. Like her friends Iris and Kizuna, she enjoys dancing and singing, and is considered quite good at it.
Despite her chipper exterior, Amame is actually quite world-weary and worn out. Due to her parents divorce and a myriad of other struggles, Amame puts up with a lot of stress and long hours of work, but tries not to show her frustration or the effect the stress has on her. She works very hard to be helpful to her loved ones, even willing to sacrifice her own happiness and well-being for their sake. This honorable side leads her to become quite secretive as; although she's usually quite straight-laced, she can also be sneaky and dishonest when pushed, as she was willing to lie about her age to get additional hours at work, or to cover up secrets that would endanger her. She is often forced to make decisions on who to prioritize, and these decisions weigh heavily on her, especially after the death of her father.
Although generally very level-headed, Amame has her limits. Partially due to her grief and trauma, Amame is prone to panicking, or taking rash action when she feels cornered or at her very limit. Unfortunately, these decisions have tended to cause great misfortune on herself and others, or make already-tense situations worse. Additionally, in extreme situations, she can be vindictive and vicious towards others who she feels have seriously wronged her. However, true to her nature, she quickly comes to agonize and feel deep remorse over these actions, even when those extreme actions are arguably justifiable and forgiven by others, indicating that such extreme actions only come about in similarly extreme circumstances. All in all, she is a kind person who is unfortunately defined by her unfortunate choices, circumstances, and desperation.
Story
Before the games
Amame lived with Shoma, her mother, and her father, Andes Komeji until her parents' divorce. When Shoma was in 1st grade, she gifted him a radio-controlled toy, sparking his lifelong interest in robotics. She helped kindle this passion, taking him to expos and other events and encouraging him to pursue the subject.
When her parents divorced, she was given the option to live with her father, or her mother. Ultimately, she chose to stay with her mother, while her younger brother Shoma stayed with Komeji.
While choosing a part time job, she chose Sunfish Pocket because she could get a lot of money from the customers, something she wanted to support her family. During her interview, she lied to the manager that she was actually 20 years old even though she was really 18, so that she could work long hours after school that wouldn’t be legal if she was a minor.
She says that at her job at Sunfish Pocket, she met her schoolmate Iris as another mermaid and became close with her.
At an unknown point, Amame meets Gen Ishyagane. She sees him without his mask and is one of the very few people who isn't afraid of his real face and accepts him even after seeing it.
In AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES
On Day 3 GyoukAI, Amame was working at Sunfish Pocket serving Ota when Date came searching for Renju. Amame didn’t know where Renju was at the time, but after Date and Ota left, Renju came, injured from the car accident he’d been in. He asked Amame about Iris, but as Ota had said while Amame was serving him, Iris was missing, and Amame presumably told Renju as much.
On Day 4 SyuurAI, Amame was working at Sunfish Pocket again, this time serving Mizuki. She’d been taking care of Mizuki since Date wasn’t around, and Mizuki had been crying to Amame, though she’d stopped by the time Date and Iris arrived at the maid cafe. Amame informed them that Renju had come around looking for Iris, and talked to Date about her friendship with Iris. When Date asked Mizuki about why she was there, Amame pulled Date aside to tell him to try to understand how Mizuki was feeling, since she’d been through a lot in the past several days.
3 months later, Amame saw Date again after he’d swapped back to his original body.
In nirvanA Initiative
Six years ago
On the night of February 10th, both Iris and Komeji call Amame after the discovery of Jin's body at Studio Dvaita. Though torn over who to see, she chooses to spend time comforting Iris instead of visiting her father.
At some point during the day of February 11th (Anyone Imagines), Amame receives a call from Komeji asking for help with a situation later in the day. Despite it being a holiday, Amame and Iris decide to go to Sekiba High for the day, as they want to spend more time there before they graduate. She meets Ryuki there and introduces herself as a student in the same dance club as Iris and as a mermaid at Sunfish Pocket. Amame later goes to visit Komeji as requested, and she learns that he had drunkenly picked up the right half of Jin Furue's body in his suitcase. After yelling at him angrily for picking up the corpse, she works with Gen to hide the body in the freezer of Brahman World Cuisine, with Gen throwing away the key afterwards to protect their secret.
A dream version of Amame appears in Gen's Somnium as experienced by Mizuki Kuranushi on February 12th, acting as one of the judges for the cooking competition alongside Ota Matsushita. Though declaring Aiba the winner of the competition, she reveals that the decision was because Gen's cooking was held back by the lack of self-love.
On February 13th (Farewell), Ryuki stumbles across Amame and Gen at Marble, where Mama explains that the two have been arguing over whether The Statue of Liberty is on Ellis Island or Liberty Island. After asking Ryuki to help decide, Tama explains that Amame was right all along, and the two make up.
In the Explosion Route, Amame is eating dinner with Iris and Kizuna on the night of the 13th (Smiles for Tears) when Iris gets a message telling her that Shoma is in ABIS custody. The three girls meet up with Shoma and bring him back to his house, where Ryuki and Komeji are searching for Komeji's suitcase. Shortly after, the latter two leave to meet Tearer at Studio Dvaita, leaving Amame and the rest of the girls to look after Shoma. After deliberating for a few hours, the four of them decide to follow Ryuki and Komeji to the studio. While Kizuna attempts to pay the taxi driver for their ride there, Amame runs out and enters the studio alone. After taking in the scene, she runs over to begin untying Ryuki, but is interrupted by Tearer re-entering the studio with Komeji's corpse. She flees to the west doors, not realizing they are locked, and is consequently cornered by Tearer at gunpoint. Before Tearer can kill her, he is forced to flee due to the other girls approaching the studio. It is implied that Tearer develops an obsession with Amame during this encounter, as he notes in his journal that he met the "person of [his] destiny" on that day. He tells Amame not to say anything about his presence before he runs to hide. Amame does not reveal anything to Ryuki as he awakens and discovers half of the corpse of her father, Andes. After this encounter, she begins to harbor a hatred for Tearer.
Though the timing is not stated explicitly, it is likely that some time between these events and the present Gen writes and records a song called "The Flower that Blooms in Snow," and gives Amame a cassette copy. This song becomes an important emotional memory for Amame, and she begins to carry the tape around with her everywhere in her Vokeman music player.
Present
On February 10th, roughly six years after Amame met Uru Somezuki, he calls her to meet him in Horadori Institute of Genetics’s basement, deciding to inform her about the Nirvana Initiative and the teachings of Naixatloz. Though Amame had initially decided to meet Uru to hear him out, she descends into a fit of rage knowing that he had killed Komeji for his plan and is openly laughing about his death. Amame grabs a nearby wrench and hits Uru on the head, knocking him out. She takes his body to the slicer, and when he wakes up, she tells him that she wishes for him to feel the same pain that her father did before slicing him in half.
Amame's murder of Uru is witnessed by Tokiko Shigure, who blackmails her by telling Amame that one of her subordinates will expose her crime to the police if Amame doesn't cooperate with her plan. Amame, believing she has no choice, agrees. Later that same day, on February 10th (A Strange Tale), she steals Shoma’s robot and uses it to carefully maneuver the left half of Uru’s body onto the field in Tokyo National Stadium. Amame then sends anonymous NILE messages to Mizuki to guide her to the stadium and get her to discover the body. Tokiko also gives Amame the master key to the East Cathedral of Naixatloz so that she can take the right half of Tokiko's corpse to the Naix HQ via the back entrance after Tokiko slices herself in half in 2 days. At some point between this date and the 15th, Amame tells Gen that she murdered Uru, which Gen admits to in the epilogue (Braver Than All Flowers).
On February 11th (Pass Mildly Away), Mizuki comes across a somber Amame at Brahman World Cuisine. Amame mentions hearing that a new ViewQube video that has been causing mysterious disappearances and that a dangerous plan called the Nirvana Initiative is in motion, though she lies and claims that these were just rumors she read online.
On February 12th (Nothing to be Done), Ryuki runs into Amame at Brahman in a similar state she was in when Mizuki found her. Her heart rate spikes when Ryuki brings up Naix and the Nirvana Initiative, but she refuses to talk at first. She begins to open back up after Gen plays "The Flower that Blooms in Snow" for her, but she lies and claims that she only knows about Tokiko and the Nirvana Initiative from vague sources online, and that she was only upset due to losing big at Pachinko. Later that day, she sneaks out to carry out the second half of Tokiko's plan. After Tokiko kills herself with the slicer at the Horadori Institute, Amame sneaks the right half of her body into her office at Naix HQ, using the secret entryway through the East Cathedral. She notes later that she was never given instructions on what to do with the left half of the body, so she leaves it on the slicer where it was discovered by Lien and Mizuki later that night. Amame is still in the cathedral when Ryuki discovers the secret entrance down from the Naix HQ (Go); she escapes from him during a chase sequence where she throws a handful of torches at him while being chased up a ladder, before collapsing a bridge behind her as Ryuki runs on it, causing him to fall and causing Tama to become damaged. Due to Ryuki being infected with TC-PERGE, he sees her as a blue silhouette during the sequence. Since Tama cannot make a backup before losing her memory, neither one can definitively confirm that this was Amame.
During the early morning of the 13th, around 1:00 AM (The Expense of Spirit), Amame attempts to re-enter the secret room in the Horadori institute to check on the left half of Tokiko's corpse. However, she hears Mizuki and Lien talking and leaves before being detected by Aiba.
On the 14th (Well-Known), Ryuki realizes the truth about Amame meeting Tearer 6 years earlier and attempts to track her down. He gleans that Amame first went to Brahman to give Gen some Valentine's day chocolate, then went to Iris's house. At some point during the day, she loses her voice; during the visit to Iris's house, she doesn't say a word to Hitomi. Iris and Amame go out somewhere, then Amame clocks in for a Valentine's Day shift at Sunfish Pocket, where Ryuki finds her with Lien. She isn't able to talk, so Ryuki takes her to ABIS HQ and Psyncs with her to question her about Tearer. Amame's Somnium comprises a quiz-show style game where the main prize is a chance to speak with her. Playing the quiz reveals various details about Amame's past and personality. After completing the Somnium, Ryuki hears the dream version of Amame repeat (part of) what she was told by Tearer: "Nirvana.. Collected… Genocide" before he is forced to leave the Psync.
Early morning on the 15th (Births), Ryuki, Date, Bibi and Mizuki go to meet Amame, realizing she has vital information about the case after syncing their information. The group finds her, Gen, and Shoma at Shoma's house. When confronted, she confesses to working with Gen to hide the left half of Jin's body in the freezer of Brahman 6 years ago. The ABIS group attempts to take her back to ABIS HQ to question her further about Tearer, but Gen and Shoma attempt to prevent this. Amame refuses to answer any questions, and Gen and Shoma continue to threaten to physically defend Amame, but after the group discovers the thermite bombs that Shoma built, Amame agrees to go with the group to ABIS HQ and to allow Mizuki to Psync with her.
Amame's second Somnium continues from her first, with Mizuki using the hints found from Ryuki's Psync to push deeper into her consciousness. After her first four Mental Locks are broken, the dream version of Amame guides Mizuki through a long sequence detailing the difficult choices that she made after her parents' divorce and the doubts she was left with. After waking up, she explains the truth behind her actions over the past few days to the ABIS members. After confessing to killing Uru and complying with Tokiko's plan, she breaks down into tears over the guilt of killing another human and for betraying the trust of Shoma and Gen. Amame then tells the group that she doesn't have any further information about the location of the Nirvana Initiative, and they leave her in Pewter and Boss's custody.
Sometime in the week after the showdown at the stadium, Amame is taken to a detention center to await the trial for her murder of Uru. On the 22nd (Braver Than All Flowers), Shoma explains to Mizuki and Bibi that he and Gen have been visiting her every day since she was taken away, but that she hasn't been talking much and is always crying. According to Shoma, her lawyer thinks that she will get off with a light sentence as the person she killed was a murderous villain who had put a plan for mass brainwashing and genocide into motion. Both Ota and Gen believe that Amame is a hero for killing Uru and should not face jail time for her actions, which appears to be a common sentiment among others according to Aiba.
In the Gen and Amame Route, Amame and Kaname Date (disguised as Gen) enter Brahman World Cuisine on the night of the 14th (Who's There), just after Mizuki and Lien break into the freezer and discover the left half of Jin Furue's corpse. As the date ticks over to the 15th (All That We Are), SAT officers are dispatched to apprehend Gen and Mizuki. After a brief fight, Amame flees to Yoyagi Park with Date, Mizuki and the real Gen. The group hides briefly in the machine room before being surrounded again by the SAT. Mizuki, Aiba, and Date attempt to surrender, but Amame grabs the Evolver MC out of Mizuki's hands and aims it at the SAT forces, imploring her friends to escape. In an attempt to clear a path for her, Gen runs into the SAT officers to fight them while Amame continues aiming the gun at them. After Gen is downed, Amame screams at the SAT to stop, before firing wildly into the air. The SAT forces open fire on her, but Gen rushes back to protect her, taking several fatal shots to his back in the process. Amame sings "The Flower that Blooms in Snow" one last time to Gen as he dies, before he tells her how much he appreciated her friendship and reflects on the fact that he had truly loved her.
In the Diverge route, Amame is one of the people Ryuki meets in Yoyagi Park in the present (All This Happened, More or Less). In this timeline, she had no motivation or opportunity to kill Uru, and Ryuki and Komeji helped cover up her involvement in hiding the left half of Jin's corpse, meaning that she never suffered any jail time. She lives a relatively carefree life, helping Gen run Brahman and spending time with Shoma and Komeji.
Appearances
| AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1: sigAI | |||||
| Absent | |||||
| BRaiN | |||||
| Absent | |||||
| Day 2: saikAI | |||||
| Absent | |||||
| PaiN | |||||
| Absent | |||||
| Day 2: meikAI | Day 2: keitAI | ||||
| Absent | Absent | ||||
| Day 3: syokubAI | Day 3: gyoukAI | ||||
| Absent | Appears | ||||
| VaiN | VILLaiN | ||||
| Absent | Absent | ||||
| Day 3: rihAI | Day 3: gumAI | Day 3: kyuusAI | |||
| Absent | Absent | Absent | |||
| Day 4: youdAI | Day 4: jukkAI | Day 4: syuurAI | |||
| Absent | Absent | Appears | |||
| SWaiN | CURTaiN | MaiN: 1 | |||
| Absent | Absent | Absent | |||
| Day 4: jikAI | Day 4: syougAI | Day 4: kikAI | Day 4: irAI | Day 5: kenzAI | |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | |
| Day 5: zugAI | Day 5: seisAI | Day 5: jinnAI | Day 5: dakkAI | Day 5: jutAI | |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Mentioned | Mentioned | |
| SUSTaiN | REFRaiN | MaiN: 2 | MOUNTaiN | ||
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | ||
| Day 5: syokuzAI | Day 5: ihAI | Day 6: kekkAI | Day 5: kokkAI | ||
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | ||
| Ota: END | Day 6: hiAI | Annihilation: END | Iris: END | Day 6: sousAI | |
| Absent | Absent | ||||
| CAPTaiN | CHaiN | ||||
| Absent | Absent | ||||
| Day 6: sanpAI | Day 6: hakAI | ||||
| Absent | Absent | ||||
| Mizuki: END | Three Months Later: kassAI | ||||
| Appears | |||||
| Resolution: END | |||||
| AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Years Ago | Present | ||||
| Converge Ch 0: A Strange Tale (Past) Absent |
Converge Ch 0: A Strange Tale (Present) Absent |
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| Mizuki Ch 0: New Investigation Absent |
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| Ryuki Ch 0: Dispossessed Absent |
Mizuki Ch 0: Alone Absent |
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| Ryuki Ch 1: Anyone Imagines Appears |
Mizuki Ch 1: Pass Mildly Away Appears |
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| Ryuki Ch 1: Nefarious Institute Absent |
Mizuki Ch 1: Nostalgic Idol Absent |
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| Ryuki Diverge: 遐ｴ邯ｻ逋ｾ蜃ｺ Absent |
Ryuki Ch 1: Ought to Know Absent |
Mizuki Ch 1: End Where I Begun Absent |
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| Mizuki Ch 2: Traveler Absent |
Ryuki Ch 2: Nothing to Be Done Absent |
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| Mizuki Ch 2: Necessary Intervention Appears |
Ryuki Ch 2: Naixatloz's Intentions Figure |
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| Mizuki Ch 2: Left Behind Absent |
Ryuki Ch 2: Go Appears |
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| Ryuki Ch 3: Farewell Appears |
Mizuki Ch 3: The Expense of Spirit Appears |
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| Ryuki Ch 3: Need Info Absent |
Mizuki Ch 3: Neurotic Inception Absent |
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| Ryuki Ch 3 R2: Joy for Anguish Absent |
Ryuki Ch 3 R1: Smiles for Tears Appears |
Mizuki Ch 3 M1: Hell Absent |
Mizuki Ch 3 M2: All Living Things Absent |
||
| Ryuki Ch 4 R2: I Found Me Absent |
Mizuki Ch 4 M1: Visions Absent |
Ryuki Ch 4 R1: Well-Known Appears |
Mizuki Ch 4 M2: Of Arms and Of Man Mentioned |
||
| Ryuki Ch 4 R2: Nested Insecurities Absent |
Mizuki Ch 4 M1: Nonentity Incognito Absent |
Ryuki Ch 4 R1: Nearly Interesting Appears |
Mizuki Ch 4 M2: Novel Ingress Absent |
||
| Ryuki Ch 4 R2: Past Its Ken Absent |
Mizuki Ch 4 M1: In Truth Absent |
Ryuki Ch 4 R1: The Mind of God Appears |
Mizuki Ch 4 M2: Who's There Appears |
Mizuki Ch 4 M3: Bid the Soldiers Shoot Absent | |
| Komeji and Shoma: END | Ryuki Ch 5 R1: Not All A Dream Absent |
Mizuki Ch 5 M1: Births Appears |
Mizuki Ch 5 M2: All That We Are Appears |
Mizuki Ch 5 M3: Sweet Silent Thought Absent | |
| Ryuki Ch 5 R1: Nemesis Identified Absent |
Mizuki Ch 5 M1: Nightmare Irreconcilable Appears |
Gen and Amame: END | Kizuna and Lien: END | ||
| Ryuki Ch 5 R1: She Was the Universe Absent |
Mizuki Ch 5 M1: The End of Craving Appears |
Ryuki Diverge: All This Happened, More or Less Appears | |||
| Explosion: END | Mizuki Epilogue: Braver Than All Flowers Mentioned |
閭｡陜ｶ荵句､｢邱ｨEND | |||
| Resolution: END | |||||
Gallery
Trivia
Etymology
- The name Amame means "second, Asia" (亜) (a), "hemp, flax" (麻) (ma) and "bud, sprout" (芽) (me).
- Amame's surname Doi means "soil, earth" (土) (do) and "home, dwelling, habitat, reside, to be, exist, live with" (居) (i).
- The syllables in her name are an anagram of "maameido" (マーメイド) or "mermaid" in Japanese.
General
- Amame is based off the Japanese legend Amabie, a one-eyed mermaid with 3 legs. According to legend, when an amabie appears, it brings about either a good harvest or an epidemic, and it spoke to a town official saying "If disease spreads, show a picture of me to those who fall ill and they will be cured."[1]
- During the worldwide COVID-19 epidemic, the amabie became a popular internet symbol in Japan throughout the internet, spawning various art renditions of her. Kotaro Uchikoshi shared an image of both the amabie and Amame Doi during this time to bring good fortune.[2]
- Amame is the first (and currently only) character in the series to have been upgraded from a minor "nameless" role (as in, not mentioned by name by other characters) from one game (AI) into a larger supporting role tied directly into the mystery in a following game (AINI).
- According to Ota Matsushita, Amame is his second-favorite Mermaid, behind the retired Iris Sagan. He has received her services since he had a Bronze Trident at the Sunfish Pocket, and by 2019 he has already received the Gold Trident.[3]
- In a fan-made Character Poll for AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES held on Twitter, Amame Doi came in 16th place.
- Amame shares her English voice actress, Faye Mata, with Manaka Iwai.