What's Kimiko's backstory in The Boys, and how did she gain her superhuman abilities? In Garth Ennis' comic book The Boys, the fifth member of the group is known only as The Female - but viewers of the show know her as Kimiko. Mysterious, violent and not much of a talker, Kimiko is arguably the biggest change Eric Kripke makes to the foundation of The Boys, altering not just the character's name, but also her origin story and fighting abilities. Although Butcher was initially distrustful towards Kimiko, Frenchie persisted to champion the girl's good heart, empathizing with her desire to go home.
In The Boys, Kimiko is eventually accepted by Butcher as a full member of the group because of her sheer tenacity and loyalty. Kimiko even takes on Soldier Boy in The Boys season 3 and loses her powers, but regains them later. Played by Karen Fukuhara, Kimiko is not only markedly different from her comic book counterpart, but her origin is also more expansive in live-action, and she's a much more complex character than her relatively straightforward powers let on. Here's everything The Boys has revealed about Kimiko's origins and her powers.
Kimiko Is Name "The Female Of The Species" In The Comics
One of the biggest differences with Kimiko is her name, which was entirely invented for TV. In Ennis' version of The Boys, the character is simply known as The Female, or The Female of the Species. Another major alteration is Kimiko's superpowers, since the rules surrounding Compound V are somewhat different between the two mediums. Notably, the Billy Butcher of the printed world pumps himself and his fellow Boys with diluted Compound V to compete with supes on an even level. Meanwhile, though Compound V also created Supes in the show, Butcher and Hughie use Temp V instead to gain powerful but temporary abilities.
In the comics, The Female's backstory takes place in her native Japan. The daughter of a negligent employee at a Japanese company similar to Vought, Kimiko one day falls into a vat of Compound V. Having been completely immersed in the blue super-juice as an infant, The Female was granted enhanced strength, agility, and resistance, but at the cost of an insatiable bloodlust. Following her incident, The Female was used as a guinea pig by Japanese scientists looking to recreate Vought's superhero success, until she was rescued from captivity by The Boys.
Despite these changes, Kimiko and The Female do share many traits. Both are mute, and share a strong, oft-misunderstood bond with Frenchie above all the other Boys. Just like Fukuhara's character, the original iteration of The Female was prone to outbursts and mercilessly violent. Unlike the TV series, however, The Female is a loyal and trusted member of The Boys from her very first chapter, and was part of the initial group started by Mallory, whereas Kimiko's rescue didn't take place until after Hughie came on board in Amazon's The Boys.
Kimiko's Background & Origins Explained
Kimiko's tragic origin follows the comic story of The Boys in broad strokes but makes a litany of changes along the way. Hailing from Japan, a young Kimiko lived happily with her brother, Kenji, and their parents in a quiet village by the sea. One night, the Shining Light Liberation army attacked the village and forcibly recruited Kimiko and Kenji as child soldiers for their cause after killing their parents — the trauma from this is the reason why Kimiko can't speak in The Boys. Kimiko remained close with her brother during their Shining Light enslavement, with the pair desperately helping each other to stay alive.
With the traumatic events rendering Kimiko mute, she and Kenji devised their own bespoke form of sign language in order to communicate between themselves. Kimiko was eventually taken away from her beloved brother and trafficked to a nail salon owner into the United States, falling into the possession of the Triad which was involved in Homelander's conspiracy to create supervillains. In The Boys' season 1 finale, Homelander explains how he hatched a plan to smuggle Compound V to terrorists, thereby forcing the U.S. government to accept superheroes into their armed forces.
Powered-up terrorists are now littered across the globe, but Homelander reveals that experimenting with Compound V on adults was a messy endeavor, yielding only a select few success stories — The Boys' Kimiko was evidently among them. Drugged full of Compound V while held captive by Chinese Triad members, Kimiko developed the abilities of a supe and was kept caged by the gang underneath a grocery store. In The Boys season 2, Kenji reveals that since Kimiko proved to be a viable recipient of Compound V, he too was experimented on and gained powers, albeit different ones to his sister.
Kimiko's Powers Explained
As mentioned previously, The Female's superpowers in the comic telling of The Boys are entirely accidental — the result of poor parenting and terrible security. She's certainly not a "supe" in the traditional sense, but she does possess inhuman strength, enhanced toughness, and improved agility and speed, and these abilities are permanent, rather than when her colleagues in The Boys take a hit of Compound V for a temporary boost. But on-screen, Kimiko is the only member of the Boys with Compound V, not just Temp V, coursing through her veins.
The effects of Compound V on Kimiko have been demostrated extensively throughout The Boys. Kimiko breaks A-Train's leg, fights competitively with Black Noir and effortlessly crushes Mesmer's hand, demonstrating her superhuman strength. The Female is also seen recovering from several grievous attacks — having her head rammed into a wall at super-speed, being viciously stabbed by Black Noir, and fighting toe-to-toe against Stormfront in season 2. This demonstrates some level of increased resistance and regenerative ability. Furthermore, when protecting Frenchie from Black Noir, she charges the silent superhero at great speed. Kimiko never uses this power when running away from pursuers, which would suggest her speed is limited to a general quickness of movement, rather than the kind A-Train or Shockwave possesses.
Most of the supes in The Boys, particularly Homelander and The Seven, were imbued with Compound V during their early childhood, but Kimiko was experimented on as an adult. Usually, this is a risky process that doesn't result in success, but Kimiko was a rare exception who was able to walk away with superpowers. Kimiko has been repeatedly abused in her life, firstly by the Shining Light Liberation Army who killed her parents, then indirectly by Homelander's super-terrorist plot, and then by the Triad who kept her captive to carry out potentially fatal experiments. Meeting The Boys finally breaks Kimiko away from that hardship, and gives her a semblance of something resembling friendship. That said, Kimiko's tenure as one of the Boys under Butcher's iron fist isn't exactly free from abuse.
Why Losing Her Powers Made Kimiko Happy
In The Boys Kimiko loses her powers in season 3 after fighting Soldier Boy, but this makes her happy. For Kimiko, powers are why she has had such a hard life, and being a super is inherently tied to intense trauma. From being enslaved by the Shining Light Liberation Army to following Butcher's orders, Kimiko has never had the chance to live a normal life because of her superhuman abilities. As revealed throughout the show, Kimiko is fascinated by art and music, and would rather surround herself with beauty and culture rather than use her powers to violently pursue Butcher's goals. Moreover, after meeting and having a relationship with Frenchie, Kimiko now has someone to share a normal life with.
Amazon's The Boys actually gives the onscreen version of The Female much more character development in this part of Kimiko's story. In fact, it is Frenchie and Kimiko's relationship that ultimately pushes Kimiko to take Compound V again and regain her powers. Though Frenchie could've taken the Compound V in order to protect them both from incoming assailants, Kimiko tells Frenchie to inject her instead because she didn't want Frenchie to experience what she had gone through herself. This was Kimiko's biggest sacrifice in The Boys, as it showed that she would rather protect Frenchie instead of pursue a chance at being normal. That said, if Kimiko and Frenchie survive in The Boys season 4, they could still have a normal life together, even if Kimiko's a supe.