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Don't joke around. What are you? You're dirty.

The Owner, displaying the personality that so endears her to the fan-base

The designation Owner Of "James" is used here for an otherwise unnamed character.

In the series[]

This woman claimed that Mayu's dog, Wanta, was her dog, James. Seeing the pair on the beach, she grabbed the dog from Mayu, accused her of stealing him (in the manga), and contemptuously dismissed Mayu's request to visit him sometimes. At an unknown point very shortly after that, Wanta left this woman and went to Maple House, just as Mayu agreed to live there. Despite Mayu's worries, she has not been seen again.

Manga panels before their confrontation indicate that this woman was possibly following Mayu. She confronted her only when the two were alone, leaving room for possible doubt as to the truth of her claims of ownership. Another possibility is that Wanta had bonded so thoroughly with Mayu, this woman no longer mattered to him. Wanta did not bite or struggle against her when she seized him. An even simpler possibility is that Wanta chose to leave someone who saw him as a possession in favor of someone who was his friend.

Trivia[]

  • Why this woman never reappeared to challenge or chastise Mayu once again is not known. A common fan theory is that she was among the many killed by Lucy. A slight resemblance between this woman and a victim of the re-emergent Lucy after she escapes and kills Professor Kakuzawa exists, but after all, these were from the same mangaka and many of his character designs are very similar especially how he often re-uses the same designs for minor and background characters causing many of them to look identical (such as how many of Kurama’s secretaries look like copies of Kisaragi and Shirakawa with very slight differences and how Number 3 in the manga looks nearly identical to Nana.) If Lucy did kill her, it's likely this was not done on Mayu's behalf, as it was only much later in the manga series that Lucy showed any real regard for anyone at Maple House besides Kouta. A similar resemblance occurs in My Hero Academia, wherein the Doctor who tells the protagonist Deku that he has no discernible 'Quirk' greatly resembles the later character simply called 'Doctor', a mad scientist in the vein of the Kakuzawas. While any twist is possible, at the moment it seems they were separate characters, though series' creators have been known to elaborate or even change their minds years after a series is done with.
  • Given how the name of “James” is foreign to Japan, it could be possible that the woman is a foreigner or gaijin, traveler, or tourist who is visiting Japan. Perhaps she knew someone in Japan and is visiting them or was just touring or living in the place very briefly. Perhaps she lived in some hotel in the town or prefecture, someone else’s house or a temporary home for herself and whoever may be there. Kamakura is a hotspot for tourists as it is a huge attraction in real life. So while uncertain if it’s true, it could have been likely the woman was meant to be a foreigner or someone who lived far away but was visiting Kamakura and/or the Kanagawa Prefecture. While it is possible for people to give their pets and children all kinds of names from all over the world (see Nousou and his foreign names for his clones) it could have been possible the foreign name of the dog could have been an indicator he once belonged to someone who normally lived far away. One thing that could probably hugely debunk the foreigner theory is how Lynn Okamoto never seemed to have thought how the Diclonius infection would realistically infect more people in the world rather than being contained in a singular prefecture for a near decade, especially in a real-life place that attracts many foreigners. However it doesn’t make it entirely impossible he still thought of the woman as someone who was a gaijin either.
    • Another thing that could put this theory/speculation into question is just how long Mayu was homeless for which is never made clear, as she had Wanta for a while.
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