Kimmy Howell(キミー・ハウエル, Kimii Haueru) is a character in the video game No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. She makes an special appearance as an aditional boss in the PS3 remake, No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise.
Appearance and Personality[]
Kimmy has blonde hair and wears a school uniform. She is obsessed with Travis, and claims to be his #1 fan. She always refers to him as "Travis The Great." Her obsession with Travis is similar to a stalker's, as she eventually wants to kill him. Despite her seemingly innocent and timid appearance she is actually a proficient killer, having won a competition for young assassins.
Her later appearance is far more aggressive and sexualized, with a revealing outfit to match her greater bloodlust. She appears to have no further affection for Travis at this point, threatening to castrate him before she kills him.
Story[]
Once Travis reenters his apartment after the cutscene where Sylvia talks about Matt Helms, she becomes available to fight at the now damaged Santa Destroy University. When Travis heads there, he finds Kimmy standing beside a tree. Kimmy is very nervous around Travis, telling him not to stare at her when he merely glances at her. She tells Travis how she saw his fight with Charlie Macdonald before she forces him to read a letter that she wrote expressing her "feelings" for him. Travis complies, stating it's nice to have a dose of innocence for once. While doing this, she proceeds to play a recorder while moving about Travis and at one point sitting back-to-back with him, though her facade of complete innocence ends when the nature of the letter is reveals that Kimmy plans to prove that she is Travis's Number #1 fan by defeating him in a battle "so that no other bitch could get the chance to." Using her double-bladed beam katana, she shows just how tough and skilled she is but Travis inevitably turns out the winner. Travis knocks her down and her katana flies out of her reach. He warns her that the fight had "real consequences" right before he tries to kill her, Kimmy feistily jumped on top of him and put him into a triangle choke, only for Travis to stand up and powerbomb her. Her last words before passing into unconsciousness are "Travis the Great." Travis then says he can't kill a coed and Tells her to fight him again after she graduates.
After Travis' fight with Ryuji, Sylvia tells Travis that anyone that he doesn't kill will be finished off by the UAA, but if this were true, something would have happened to Shinobu in the first No More Heroes game, making Kimmy's fate unknown.
After graduating college, Kimmy trained for years in order to defeat Travis in a final showdown. She returns in No More Heroes III under the name of "Kimmy Love", a rising pop star and assassin. When Travis shows up at her concert to fight Vanishing Point, she kills the Galactic Superhero before challenging Travis to another battle, this time to the death. Travis is victorious and impales her through the chest, her last words expressing her desire to kill him.
Powers and Abilities[]
Kimmy plays a recorder which also doubles as a dual-bladed beam katana. She can also blow explosive bubbles using it. She is skilled fighter, having a much more elegant fighting style than Travis's. According to herself, she also can very quickly learn techniques that would take other years. In No More Heroes 3, Kimmy now uses a stylized microphone that also doubles as a dual-bladed beam katana. She is also much more acrobatic, able to perform flips with ease and leap incredible heights.
Also, all of Kimmy's attacks covers a 360 degree radius.
When Kimmy wins in a clashing battle, she kicks Travis' groin in a comical way in which stars would appear upon hitting him. Then Kimmy will giggle in a girlish way before continuing the battle.
Kimmy's Love Letter[]
To my dearest, Travis the Great.
Hi there Travis the Great.
I am the girl who loves you the most in the entire world.
But in order to prove that I'm you #1.
I need somekind of evidence.
Because no matter how much I insist that I'm you're #1 any other chick or bitch can approach you and say exactly the same thing.
That is why I've decided.
That I should become strong.
By doing so I knew that someday, I'd be able to get closer to you.
Putting my title as Travis the Great's #1 fan is on the line.
I embarked on this path...
And ended up winning the National Student Assassin championship.
I really did my best! But you know, in hindsight it was a cinch.
I guess I'm just blessed...
I could master in one day that would take others years to do.
Pretty awesome, right?
And then, I got greedy, a new urge, a vision
That just maybe I could win a fight against Travis the Great.
Now my goal is to behead Travis the Great, therefore surpassing my hero.
Oops, did I actually write that...?
It's kinda embarrassing, you know.
Well anyways, I've made up my mind.
I made an oath.
I won't be killed by anyone!
I shall defeat Travis the Great in battle!
Only then will Travis the Great be mine and mine only.
Love,
Travis the Great's #1 fan,
Kimmy Howell
Trivia[]
- As seen in the picture to the left, Kimmy had glasses in her original design. However, in the actual game, Kimmy is not once seen wearing these glasses.
- During one of the Japanese No More Heroes 2 launch events, a live stream on Nicovideo, Suda51 was asked why in the final version of the game Kimmy does not wear glasses. One of the reasons, Suda51 stated, was that he felt that a glassless character would appeal more to American audiences than one with glasses.
- The player can actually skip her fight entirely by not returning to the motel following the battle with Charlie MacDonald. This also skips all of Sylvia's subsequent offers for revenge missions.
- It is not stated if Kimmy is actually an American or British. She seems to have an English accent which hints at a possibility she could be a British student attending an American college.
- Travis' use of the Spinning Backdrop Finisher would allow him to increase his knockout strength by using momentum.
- Kimmy's character archetype is clearly that of a "yandere" --- she is at first loving and timid towards Travis, but later shows a deranged murderous side obsessed with the thought of killing him.
- She shows an interest to internet subculture, as she uses a phrases like "For the Lulz" and "OMG".
- Interestingly, during the cutscene before Travis fights Kimmy, Kimmy's Double Katana's blades take exactly the same color as the blade of the Beam Katana Travis is currently using. However, during the battle and beyond, Kimmy's Beam Katana blades are pink. The same thing happens with Thunder Ryu's Beam Katana.
- Confessing her love under a tree is common in anime, like in Tokimeki Memorial.
- For No More Heroes III, Kimmy has been redesigned by Mari Shimazaki, best known for being a character designer on Bayonetta.