Hikaru is the shortest, the oldest among the Knights and the cutest character in this story, even though she doesn't know what an RPG is. She is a 14 years old student of an ordinary girls school in her second year and her school uniform consists of a black skirt, a red jacket, a big white bow in front, red socks and black shoes. Her magic powers derive from the fire element and she can use some spells like Flame Arrow (Honou no Ya) and Red Lightning (Akai Inazuma). Her Mashin is Rayearth, which formerly took the form of a flame furred lion (or a wolf? It's unclear).

Her magic weapon is a sword, made by Presea the sword smith  from Escudo, that would turn into flames if touched by anyone but herself. This weapon suits her well since she has developed a great skill in kendo (Japanese fencing) since her early childhood.

Her  personality is overly fiery (she gets excited about anything and everything) but when it comes to fighting she handles the responsibility maturely and competently. Hikaru is also an honest, simple, energetic, and athletic girl whose height and youthful exuberance for the simple joys of life often get her mistaken for an elementary schoolgirl. She has three older brothers, Satoru, Masaru and Kakeru, and it may come from living with them that she sometimes acts rather boyishly.
She gets along with Mokona very well, on the contrary of Umi. She is also the very only one who can understand its puuing. Despite of her cheerfulness and innocence, she is the bravest, the most powerful and the most determinate of the group. She's the first among them who accepts to become a Magic Knight and it's her  who initially holds the trio together: before both Umi and Fuu got their own reason to battle they found comfort in her courage, in her accepting each challenge without reservation, always pledging to do her best to fulfill her quest. Sometimes she's just too innocent, pure and is always so full of life no matter what happens to be anybody real. She changes a bit in the second season, but she can't really stay gloomy for long. Hikaru is the typical kind of person who easily trusts others, managing to understand who they really are and not hastily judging them from the front they put up. She hates seeing other people in pain and she'd sacrifice her life  to protect friends. She definitely gets along with everybody and believes in others, but has a tendency to avoid telling her troubles to her fellows, and rather keeps them to herself.
In the 2nd anime season she falls in love with Lantis, while in manga she likes both Lantis and Eagle...She is the one responsible for abolishing the Pillar system in either case -- after she becomes the Pillar, she wishes that Cephiro could be a world where Pillars were not necessary to uphold world peace.

Hikaru Shidou ()
Personal Interests:

Age: 14
Birthday: August 8th (Leo)
Height: 1,45 m
Blood Type: 0
Grade: 8th
Favorite food: Ice Cream
Least favorite food: Anything spicy
Favorite color: Red
Favorite subject: Biology
Least favorite subject: Music
Extracurricular activity: Kendo
Hobby: Playing with her dog Hikari
Specialties: Kendo, talking to animals
Career goal: Seeing-eye dog trainer
Family: Father (a Kendo pro who left home when Hikaru was little in order to become stronger), mother, three older brothers
Mashin: Rayearth
Comic profile:

Hikaru's an honest, straight-forward girl. She may be short, but she makes up for it with her athletic prowess. She's handy with a sword thanks to her years of Kendo training. Her magical element is Fire.

Did you know that...

In Japanese Hikaru Shidou means "Light of the Lion shrine".
In the Italian version of MKR Hikaru is named "Luce".
In the Brazilian version she's named "Lucy".
Her first appearance is in ep. 1

Voice actress: Hekiru Shiina
Voice samples:

Sayonara Hikari (16KB)
Watashi Hiku (11KB)
Hikaru's presentation (34KB)
"Shidou Hikaru, ju-yon-sai, chu-gaku ni-nen"
(Hikaru Shidou, 14 years old, 8th grader.)

Magic Knight Rayearth © CLAMP