Miss Juri Arisugawa is Miki's best friend. He has his family/lover, Kozue, his crush, Anthy, and his other friends, but no one understands him quite like Juri and that's what seperates the two from him and anyone else. Being both quiet and always wanting something they can't have, they have similar personalities.

Their personalities also compliment each other in an interesting way -- while Juri is more the masculine side of the pair, Miki is the feminine part of the two. It works out nicely, and since girls are usually the ones to be protected, Juri acts as a big brother of sorts to Miki.

Jumping back to the mutual understanding, they understand each other in a way that no one else can. Miki knows the pain that Juri is going through, mainly because he's going through the same kind of pain -- he wants his sister back, to be able to play the piano with her again and love her again and have everything like it used to be, and Juri strives to love Shiori without spoiled memories; and for Shiori to love her back. She wants this even after Shiori broke her heart knowingly and viciously, and Miki wants his sister even though she taunts him and purposefully acts the opposite of how he would have liked.

As a beginner's mistake to Utena, I first misunderstood the pair to be potential lovers, even though Juri plays for the other team. But once I saw more and more into the series, I realized that if Juri and Miki ever became more than friends it would just be unexpected and ... odd. Which is why it would never happen, because they each have their own seperate lives and secret loves and lusts, and each other's object of affection is vastly different from the other's. Please note I'm not contradicting myself from the prev. block, I'm saying that the situation in which they don't have their loves is the same; but that their loves themselves are totally different. My goodness, that sounds confusing. But, yeah. As time went on, I discovered that the two could never be any more than friends. Granted, they're extremely close, but hey - I have guy friends that I'm that close to, so =P