Kannabi-no-Mikoto

"Mother never lies! So, if I don't do it well, that will make her a liar! Mother! Mother!"

- Kannabi-no-Mikoto

Kannabi-no-Mikoto is a character in Air.

Appearance
Kanna is an exceptionally beautiful light-skinned girl of high school age with flowing purple/blue hair that she ties in the front with red ribbons with two bells at the ends and blue eyes. She is usually seen wearing a large pink kimono and a light tan/green kimono when she escaped from the shrine. She also has a set of white wings, which she usually keeps hidden to look like an ordinary girl.

Background
Kannabi no Mikoto (or simply Kanna) was the last of the winged race. At the age of 16, she escaped the shrine with Ryūya and Uraha to visit Yao Bikuni (Kanna's mother) who is locked in her prison in the mountain which resided in Reizan Territory. Along the way, she was drawn close to Ryuuya, who she treated as a guard earlier. Uraha taught her how to juggle, and Kanna, practicing and failing to catch the beanbags, became a running joke throughout the episodes and the mini series called Air in Summer.

Visiting her mother
When Kanna, Uraha and Ryūya finally got to the prison, they saw Yao Bikuni (Kanna's mother) locked in cage. Ryuya used his sword to get her out, and when Kanna went to hug her, Kanna's mother told her not to touch her because her body was cursed. They escaped, but didn't get far. Kanna's mother was shot with an arrow. While saying her last words, she told Kanna a special prayer, a code among the winged beings. After that she asked how Kanna was and Kanna told her the story of their trip. Uraha then told Kanna to show her mother her juggling act, and Kanna tried, and failed. While her mother praised her, Kanna believed it was bad, and kept trying. While practicing, her mother told Ryuya that once she died, he was not to touch her, and leave her as she was. With that, she died. However, Ryuya ignored her words, and removed the arrow after Kanna's mother had passed, resulting for him to be cursed too, which was found out later. The same goes for Kanna, who cried on her mother's body, resulting in her inheriting the curse of the Winged Ones.

Death
After the death of Yao Bikuni (Kanna's mother), they continued their way. Kanna asked Ryūya and Uraha if they had any wishes. They told Kanna a lot about the ocean and how great life they would have if they lived by the sea. Kanna knew that the warriors were near, so after kissing Ryuuya, she used her wings to protect her friends. When she was flying in the sky, the monks put a curse on her just like they did to her mother. Kanna was shot by arrows while flying then caught by the curse and disappeared.

Appearances outside AIR
Kanna appears as the Final Boss, and playable character, in the doujin fighting game Eternal Fighter Zero by Twilight Frontier. She's an extremely fast and powerful character who uses her divine powers to crush her opponents. She serves as the True Final Boss of the game (Debuting in Eternal Fighter Zero: Blue Sky Edition, and relocating Unknown as a Sub Boss). Due to her playable version (Debuting in Eternal Fighter Zero -Memorial-) not being different at all from her boss version (Unlike Unknown), She's completely unbalanced and is inherently stronger than any other character. Because of this, she's banned from EFZ tournaments.

Trivia

 * In Air: The Movie, the name of Kanna's mother is Yao Bikuni, who according to Japanese folklore, was a woman who accidentally ate the flesh of a mermaid, gaining eternal youth and beauty as the result. "Yao" refers to the fact that she lived for 800 years, and "Bikuni" implies that she was a nun.
 * Kanna doesn't like her wings as she has been imprisoned for almost all her life because of them.
 * Kanna had never been able to reach but the bottom most tree branches, until the day she died, when she flew up into the sky and tried to protect Uraha and Ryūya.
 * Kanna lived in a shrine deep in the forest until she escaped with Uraha and Ryuya.
 * Kanna had never seen the ocean, having been living from shrine to shrine, time after time, never being allowed to leave the grounds of her current residence.
 * On the day that Kanna died, Uraha and Ryuya told Kanna their wish for the future, which was to live in a small residence, on an ocean in western Japan. Misuzu Kamio (Kanna's reincarnation) lived by the sea, and her past reincarnation (before Misuzu), that Mrs. Kunisaki (Yukito Kunisaki's mother) knew, always said that she had "wanted to see the ocean".
 * In Air: The Movie, Kanna lived in a shrine, which Misuzu and Yukito visited for Misuzu's summer project.
 * Kanna never had the chance to grow up, along with all of her reincarnations.
 * This is why Misuzu acts rather childish.
 * Kanna's curse, passed on by touching her mother, entails that she and the person she becomes attached to will fall ill, neither one surviving.
 * Kanna's last order for Ryuya was to "live a long time and be happy".
 * "Kannabi" means "Princess Kanna" and "no-Mikoto" is an honorific meaning that the person is worshiped and is applied to heavenly beings (gods).