Iris Zero

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

An Iris is a special power in someone's eyes that, basically, allows a person to see an Augmented Reality. These abilities range from telling a person what's for dinner to identifying someone's past lives. Twenty-seven years ago around 1% of children were born with this power; five years later, that began to skyrocket, so that this time the 1% were the children born without it.

Toru Mizushima is part of that 1%; he, like the adults, doesn't have an Iris. In other words, he's an "Iris Zero", and in the past he was a target for discrimination and was frequently bullied because of his lack of an Iris. Now he's getting by according to a principle of "low exposure" - to live without standing out.

Things get complicated when the popular Koyuki Sasamori suddenly appears one day in Toru's classroom and immediately asks him to go out with her...to help with something. You see, Koyuki's Iris is "to see those who are qualified" and thus is frequently tasked to pick officials and staff members. Her task this time is to find the next Student Council President, and she's been looking for days but she still can't find the person suitable for the role. Koyuki then decided to simply look for the person who can help her, and apparently Toru's qualified for the job.

Although reluctant to help considering the amount of attention he'd get, Toru plays along to help her regardless, and gets Koyuki herself elected to be the Student Council President. Unfortunately, much to Toru's exasperation, Koyuki has already become a part of his life, with all the attention that comes with it.

This semi-Shounen (believe it or not, this is a Seinen series) fantasy Manga written by Piro Shiki and Hotaru Takana, Iris Zero, tells of Toru's time in high school as he struggles to maintain his low profile while assisting the ever-annoying (well, to him anyway) Koyuki who stands out too much. Rounding out the cast are Hijiri Shinonuka, Toru's only friend who sees past Toru for being an Iris Zero; Asahi Yuki, Koyuki's friend; Nanase Kuga, who's even more withdrawn than Toru; and Harumi Tokita, Kuga's childhood friend.

Tropes used in Iris Zero include:
  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Inverted; the student council members seem to get exploited heavily by teachers and students to run errands and do busywork. Poor Sasamori, the council president, can't say no, either.
  • Achilles in His Tent: Toru Completely understandable. Nice job, Kuga
  • A-Cup Angst: In volume 1's side comic, Koyuki and Kuga even form a "The No Breast Friends Club":

Koyuki: There's no way the big-chested Asahi-chan would understand how we flat-chested people feel!
Kuga: Yeah!

  • Adults Are Useless: In two ways: first, in that less than 1% of eligible adults possess an Iris (with those older than twenty-seven dropping down to 0% chance), and second in that as of chapter twenty there's only been one significant adult character.
    • During the "Iris Hunter" arc, only the one teacher even cares enough to intervene in any way in something that's obviously afflicting the entire student body, because they don't consider something related to Irises to be their problem.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: Tokita seems to be Unlucky Childhood Friend for Kuga, who likes Houjou, who has unrequited feelings for Sasamori. Sasamori likes Toru, but even if he deeply cares for her, he remains Oblivious to Love. Fortunately, this seems to improve a little within time.
    • And in Hijiri's flashback, Katagiri liked Hijiri who liked Tachibana. Nobody got out of that with the person they wanted, either.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Toru, because he's an Iris Zero. Implied that other Iris Zeroes get this treatment.
  • Almost Everyone Is A Super
  • Awesomeness By Analysis: Toru, developed originally as a mode of social self-defense. Until outed as a Zero, he was even able to trick others into believing he had an Iris that could see how others' Irises worked.
  • Apologises a Lot: Sasamori.
  • Badass Normal: Toru
  • The Beard: Hijiri pretends to be Kuga's boyfirend, because she doesn't have enough courage to inform her mother, that she and Houjou have broken up. At the end she finds out anyway.
  • Becoming the Mask: An unhappy version with Houjou, whose Iris lets him see the "labels" put on people, including himself. Once genuinely nice, if aloof, now unable to see the reason why he should try acting above other people's poor opinions of him.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Yuki narrowly saves Toru from getting his eyes fried.
    • Tokita came and grab Hijiri's knife Kuga tried to commit suicide with.
  • Black and White Insanity: Poor Asahi.
  • Blessed with Suck: Some of the people with Irises would probably be a lot happier without them.
  • Bonus Material: In the volume collections, each usually composed of a short side story, and a Fourth Wall-breaking comic full of the characters mocking the writer, artist, and the series in general.
  • Breather Episode: Chapter 21, also the Sick Episode. After the drama and tension of the Iris Hunter arc, followed by about a volume's worth of chapters focusing on the group adjusting to include Tokita and deal with the fallout of the previous arc.
  • Buffy-Speak: With all those 'things' in the chapter titles... While most are subversions, some are played straight.
  • Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Hijiri has the occasional butterfly motif crop up because his Iris shows butterflies collect around living things as they get closer to death, but the motif also symbolizes his own past full of suicidal tendencies, and his emotional "rebirth" in overcoming those tendencies thanks to Tachibana and then Toru.
    • Kuga sees colored butterfly wings on people that indicate their emotions, which relates into her own emotional crash, near-suicide, and restoration over the Iris Hunter arc.
  • Call Back: A cute girl whose Iris is based on analyzing suitability grabs ahold of Toru and asks him to "please go out with me," much to the surprise of Toru and anyone else around. No, not (just) Sasamori - now an as-yet-unnamed strange new girl with an Iris that can analyze probability, who sees a "100%" next to Toru and so says and does the same thing to him right in front of Sasamori.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Sasamori's crush on Toru, sadly because she literally cannot imagine Toru accepting a confession from her... which actually saves her from the Iris Hunter.
    • Also Tokita to Kuga, which Asahi calls him on when he laments that his feelings "never reached" Kuga.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Hijiri's knife that he once used to cut himself. He tried to prevent Kuga from committing suicide by throwing his knife at her leg when she ran in order to jump off the roof. It also is Kuga's alternative way to commit suicide, good thing Tokita came at the last moment to save her.
  • The Chessmaster: Toru is a budding Chessmaster, by necessity to maintain his minimal exposure while helping people, best displayed in the Iris Hunter arc.
  • Class Is in Room X-01: Averted. The six main characters are in two different classes.
    • Class 2-3: Toru Mizushima, Nanase Kuga, and Harumi Tokita.
    • Class 2-6: Koyuki Sasamori, Hijiri Shinozuka, and Asahi Yuki.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Toru. To his extreme annoyance. Asahi and Sasamori take it as a given that he'll help anyone in need.
  • Crap Saccharine World: It's a manga drawn in a cute art style about a loner boy who teams up with his popular, friendly classmate and begins coming out of his shell, set in a world where most young people have magical powers that let them "see" various things. Sounds pretty sweet, right? Only the loner is the way he is due to years of being viciously bullied for not having a power, and he gets teased even worse after making friends with the aforementioned classmate; meanwhile, many of the people who do have powers are troubled by them, to the point where one person tries to erase everybody's magic. That being said, Iris Zero does emphasize The Power of Friendship and contains some truly heartwarming moments, but it's nowhere near as lighthearted as it appears.
  • The Cynic/Knight in Sour Armor: Toru is a bitter pessimist who wants as little as possible to do with the rest of the world and his peers... except it's incredibly easy to get him to help solve problems and make things better for other people, even someone responsible for his life as an outcast.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Kuga's father used to abuse her and possibly even cheated on her mother, but Kuga couldn't tell her mother because she didn't want to hurt her feelings. It still came out anyway, and led to her parents' divorce.
  • Deadly Decadent School: Given the existence of certain Irises, any number of students are frighteningly skilled at lying and manipulation. Toru is a past master of the latter, but he uses that skill for good Kuga's got the skill, but the ethical use of it? Well, not so much.
    • There is also Hijiri's childhood friend, who has power to tell when danger is coming and where. She uses it to attempt a murder.
  • Distaff Counterpart: After a fashion, Hijiri and Kuga. Their butterfly-themed Irises led to their own lengthy emotionless periods and eventual suicide attempts related to disastrous events with the person they loved. And both were drawn back from the brink directly or indirectly by Toru.
  • Driven to Suicide: When Hijiri thought he failed to save Tachibana, whom he likes. Fortunately, Toru helped him.
    • Kuga, after she learned the trouble she caused to her childhood friend Tokita and realized that she broke her promise to him.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Tokita. He (and his power) appears in the title page of Chapter 1, and he is the guy who starts the meeting to appoint the Student Council President in the same chapter, but he does not feature heavily until later on. Later omakes show that he was supposed to be in the manga from the start as one of the main characters, while no mention of Kuga is made.
  • Emotionless Girl: Kuga looks half-asleep most of the time, and her emotional displays are very low-key - rarely more than a small smile, especially when compared to Asahi and Sasamori. This is because she's just recently started expressing them, having always valued other people's emotions over her own.
  • Everyone Can See It: Played with and then played straight. Because of her initial approach, everyone around assumes something is up with Toru and Sasamori, which gives Toru no end of additional hell piled on top of his normal daily hell. When it comes true, everyone around Toru and Sasamori realize or learn it fairly quickly, though Toru steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the possibility himself.
  • Evil Eye: The Irises are powers that are based around the eye. If someone goes blind or loses their eyes they will lose their Iris power as well.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Hijiri's default state, to go along with the carefree attitude he shows the world. Open eyes are a sure sign that he's thinking about something serious.
  • Eye Scream: Narrowly averted with Toru
  • Face Heel Turn: Kuga, during the Iris Hunter arc.
    • Turned around at the end when it's brought home to Kuga the damage she's doing and how it's going to harm someone she cares about.
  • Fan Service: The lack of fanservice is lampshaded in a side comic published in the first collected volume, where Toru frets that they'll be renamed "Sex Appeal Zero" because the bath scene in chapter 4 is a single panel with someone's arm sticking in from off-panel.
  • Fantastic Racism: Of the super-powered vs. unpowered variety. Life in general is hell for Zeroes, especially since 99+% of Iris-users are still minors and very ready to engage in school-age bullying and ostracism, with little sign of things getting better out in the adult world. It gets to the point where others automatically assume Zeroes are mentally and morally deficient until demonstrated otherwise.

Kuga: There's no way he could figure it out so easily... He himself said this isn't a mystery novel. And Mizushima-kun's an Iris Zero, too.

  • Fiery Redhead: Asahi, who is energetic and temperamental, with a forceful personality. It gets her into trouble when she slaps the one teacher she trusted never to lie, yet who lied about what she thought of Asahi's desire to become a police officer.
  • Five-Man Band:
  • Good Parents: Kuga's mother. She deeply cares about her daughter's happiness.
  • Good Powers, Bad People: Kuga's Iris is able to see other people's emotions through a colored butterfly. She doesn't use this in a very good way....
  • Generation Xerox: Kuga and her mother. Their respective partners have betrayed them in some way. Kuga's mother fears it may also happen in a future.
  • Guile Hero: Given that his backstory involves him hiding his powerlessness from everyone for years, of course Toru ended up one of these.
    • Given the low-action nature of the series, pretty much everyone shows signs of being a Guile Hero (or Magnificent Bastard, if they're holding the Villain Ball) at one time or another, to allow them to participate in the drama. What Toru's got over everyone else is lots and lots of practice at it, and he never stops.
      • Sasamori is pretty much the only one guaranteed to not get a turn playing the Guile Hero. Not because she's stupid (she's not) but because she's extremely bull-headed when it comes to a problem, which Hijiri counts as a titanic strength easily on par with Toru's talents. When the others can't plot or misdirect around a problem, Sasamori can (and will) bear down on it full force with raw idealism and emotional appeals.
  • Headphones Equal Isolation: Explicitly invoked by Toru, who regularly hides behind a MP3 player and a book to help maintain his minimal exposure.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: Almost all of the Irises would be considered a joke in another manga.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Sasamori describes Toru and Hijiri as a "happy couple," with each being the first one the other goes to for anything, including company for lunch despite being in different classes
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: With the rare exception, Toru's peers have universally shunned him, regularly beat him, and generally made his life hell ever since he was outed as an iris zero. One shudders to think what the world will be like for the other zeroes once the iris-dominated generation comes of age. Meanwhile, the older generation just grumbles about the younger as if it was some new game going around and shrugs off responsibility.
  • I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: It's one of the reasons Toru pretends that he doesn't notice Sasamori's feelings for him.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Sasamori admits to Toru that she's a little jealous of his "ability" to see the world as it is, without some kind of filter over it. Toru, meanwhile, is quite bitter about being "normal" by the previous generation's standards and not his own.
  • Important Haircut: Kuga
  • Indirect Kiss: Toru takes a bite out of some cake, offers some to Sasamori... She gets so flustered about it that she can't even taste the cake. And then he offers her a second mouthful...
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: When Sasamori's costume got stolen during the cultural festival, Hijiri suggested that her costume could have been worn underneath another costume. Kuga, overhearing the conversation, rejected the idea because a hakama was too bulky for that to work. Thing is, nobody had mentioned what costume Sasamori's was, allowing Toru to deduce that Kuga was the one who stole the costume.
    • Then later Toru himself fell victim to this when trying to get Hoshimiya to leave him alone he tells her that he isn't interested in helping her find a lost thing. Then she pints out that she never said she was looking for something. Poor guy fell victim to his own Sherlock Scan
  • Irony: Kuga shouting that Irises are useless while Hijiri's black butterflies swarm around her, indicating her fore coming death.
  • Jerkass Facade: Toru, at times.
  • Kids Are Cruel: Toru was constantly bullied when he was younger for being an Iris Zero, and even now if he has high enough exposure. And in a recent chapter, Houjou tries to blind him with a cigarette for finding out something he wanted kept secret.
    • And we find out in chapter 15, that, no, it hasn't gotten better.
  • Living Lie Detector: Asahi's Iris allows her to see when someone is lying via a devilish tail sticking out
  • Loners Are Freaks: Or rather, "Freaks are Loners": Toru, as a rarer-than-1% Iris Zero and automatic "freak," is outcast amongst his peers and strives to remain aloof to avoid harm.
  • Love Chart: a fairly straightforward diagram appears at the beginning of its third volume in an omake section of sorts.
  • Love Confession: Subverted right away in the opening pages of the manga: Sasamori marches into Toru's classroom and grabs his hand, saying, "Please go out with me!" She shortly clarifies that she wanted him to "go out" with her and help her search for a student council president, but not before everyone else in Toru's class assumes the School Idol just asked out the least popular guy in the school. And then she makes the exact same approach again in chapter 2, for another problem.
    • Played straight with Houjou's confession to Kuga except as seen through Asahi, Sasamori, and Hijiri's Irises, which respectively show that Houjou is lying, he's unsuited to be Kuga's partner, and a death butterfly lands on her head at that moment.
    • Once again subverted when Kuga asks Hijiri to "become her boyfriend", because her mother wants to meet her daughter's significant other.
    • And we may be getting a repeat subversion with Toru and the mysterious new girl, who in her brief appearances so far has just repeated Sasamori's initial approach, except outside and with only Sasamori as the spectator.
  • Love Makes You Evil: In Hijiri's flashback, and Kuga being lead on by her boyfriend in the Iris Hunter arc.
  • Love You and Everybody: Sasamori, who else?
  • Manipulative Bitch: Kuga When's the last time you saw an empath use her abilities to create real misery?
  • Muggles: Techincally most adults and all people above age 27.
  • The Matchmaker/Shipper on Deck: Tokita's Iris lets him see "love affections," an arrow over a person's head pointing towards who they have feelings for, meaning he could play matchmaker easily. He tries to do it for his childhood friend Kuga. It doesn't work out so well. Later, he tries to help Toru and Sasamori realize their mutual affections.
  • Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Toru, though he works harder than anyone to bury that heart of gold deep to keep it from being found. Too bad for him that Sasamori is the emotional equivalent of a backhoe.
  • Mundane Utility: Most Irises fall under this, since an Iris is an inherently passive power. Almost any corporation or government bureau would pay top dollar for someone like Sasamori, who could run a human resources department almost single-handedly and always make sure the right person was on the job.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Hijiri's classmate Katagiri was planning to kill Tachibana to have Hijiri to herself. Good thing Toru puts an end to it.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Depending on how much their later actions were already factored into Hijiri's Iris seeing a butterfly on Kuga, Toru and the others' attempts to protect Kuga likely made things much worse. At the least, given that their confrontation with Kuga's boyfriend made her doubt him enough to check him with her Iris, and she immediately sprouted a few new butterflies, it's very likely that Toru's intervention directly led to the emergence of the Iris Hunter. "We may have altered fate," indeed.
    • And as of chapter 22, Tokita seems to think this as well, that Toru's actions either created or made the Iris Hunter incident worse than it had to be. Except it turns out Tokita's just looking for a scapegoat to blame when he's really angry at himself for letting the situation get that bad in the first place.
    • And Tokita turns out to have a bad track record himself when it comes to trying to help and support people. Two different attempts to help out Kuga and Houjou ended up backfiring spectacularly.
  • Not What It Looks Like: A humorous example in the third volume's omake. To get back at Toru, other characters from the main band tell Koyuki about the bathroom scenes. Harumi even says goes as far as saying that Toru pushed him down (and forgets to add "into a trap"). Koyuki's reaction is priceless.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: To quote Hijiri's character profile at the beginning of volume 2: "His slightly carefree attitude and way of talking is something he does on purpose." His playful manner keeps him from succumbing to depression over seeing death approach other people and things, and his frequently sloppy and disheveled appearance in poorly-fit clothing is to cover cutting and suicide attempt scars on his wrist.
  • Oblivious to Love: It seems to be the only thing Toru can't read in other people. Reasonable, given his history. The idea that anyone could take a positive interest in him is still pretty alien at times. Except he's actually pretending not to notice Sasamori's feelings because he's afraid of what a relationship might do to the group's balance and cohesion. As a lifelong unwilling loner, friends matter more to him than love.
    • Meanwhile, Sasamori can't bring herself to believe that Toru could possibly return her interest. Except he's already begun to...
  • Oh Crap: "Exposure Rate: nearly 100%"
  • Only Six Faces: Sasamori, Kuga, and Tachibana have the same rounded face, and fluffy light-colored hair (though in different styles). Sasamori wears ribbons in her hair and it curls a lot at the ends with long strands that tend to fly around; Kuga has straighter hair and usually half-closed eyes; and Tachibana has short hair and is (so far) only seen in flashbacks.
    • Becomes a plot point: Kuga's boyfriend only went out with her because of her noted resemblance to Sasamori. Given that Kuga can see emotions, it doesn't end well. And after the Important Haircut right in front of Hijiri, Kuga's resemblance to Tachibana right after he said he'd keep an eye on Kuga can't not be significant.
  • Ordinary High School Student: Something of an inversion with Toru: by real-life standards, he is completely normal. By the standards of the setting? He's the freak for not having a power.
  • Pay Evil Unto Evil: Hijiri's plan for dealling with Kuga
  • Personality Powers: A person's Iris molds their personality, at least somewhat.
    • Sasamori is a complete aversion. Her Iris is based around judging people and their suitability to an action, almost to the point of predestining people to certain roles. Yet she's the least judgmental person in the school and has spoken strongly against the idea that people can't do something just because an Iris has declared them unsuited.
  • Poisonous Friend: Asahi is the person who outed Toru as a Zero in their shared backstory. Also, Tokita to Kuga.
    • Nope, Tokita's actually supporting Kuga.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Averted. Your death Iris says someone is in danger? Make a beeline for the Awesomeness By Analysis Knight in Sour Armor and let him know.
  • Popularity Food Chain: Sasamori is at the very top. Toru is at the absolute bottom, and receives threatening notes when she first approaches him.
    • Actually, Toru's been receiving those notes even before Sasamori met him. Toru's been suffering all the time, though admittedly It Got Worse when Sasamori approached him.
  • Power Incontinence: Irises are "on" all the time, which sucks when you keep seeing liars and things about to die.
  • Power Nullifier: The Iris Hunter, who can eliminate other people's Irises by manipulating people's emotions in relation to their Iris, making them too full of fear or doubt to even want to see what their Iris shows, repressing the ability. Already having grappled with said fears and doubts makes one resistant to such repression.
  • Precision F-Strike: Sasamori is so impossibly nice and apologetic all the time that she can accomplish this effect without even swearing when she calls Toru an idiot during his Achilles in His Tent moment.
  • Relationship Sabotage: The second "curse" of the Iris Hunter laid by Tokita to redirect attention from Kuga to himself once it unwinds. Also used by Kuga to take Toru and Sasamori out of the picture during the same arc.
  • Running Gag: Despite Toru's masterful ability at reading and guessing people's motivations, he's oblivious to the identities of the people around him to the point of absurdity.
    • In each volume's omake, the characters announce a "new direction" for the series starting next volume:
      • Volume 1: "Iris Zero will aim to become Sex Appeal Zero."
      • Volume 2: "Iris Zero will continue ignoring all expenses!"
      • Volume 3: "Starting from the next chapter, Iris Zero will aim to become a 'toilet manga.'"
      • Volume 4: "Starting next volume, we're going with Toki x Hiji!"
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Sasamori stumbles on a mysterious new female character clinging to Toru, and based on both Sasamori's startlement and Toru's guilty Not What It Looks Like reaction, the new girl asks if they're going out. Both Sasamori and Toru blush and blurt out loud protests entirely too quickly.
  • Sick Episode: Chapter 21, with Sasamori going home early with a fever. The others go to visit her after classes, with Asahi and Kuga ordering the boys to prepare some soup and porridge while they put her back into bed. Those poor innocent vegetables and eggs, they never had a chance...
  • Smug Super: People, especially children with Irises, tend to look down on the Iris Zeroes.
  • Somebody Else's Problem: Most teachers' reaction to anything involving Irises. The one notable exception? Has her own Iris, being born shortly after the very beginning of their occurrence.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Hiziri or Hijiri? The manga translation is inconsistent.
    • A rare case involving the mangaka: most manga sites list the name as "Pro Shiki", but read the name on the manga and it says "Piroshiki". Of course, the latter is hard to find, but if you are observant enough...
  • Spider Sense: Hijiri's former classmate Katagiri had an Iris that allows her to see approaching dangers.
    • Played for Laughs when Toru learns how to sense when Koyuki is coming to allow him to go for a short walk (read: avoid Koyuki to avoid unwanted attention).
    • He is also capable of noticing when somebody tries to take a photo of him and blur the image/move out of focus (you can choose). At least if he isn't trying to deal with Koyuki at the moment. It's one of the skills he acquired from mastering his low exposure technique.
  • Stoic Spectacles: Tokita
  • Sweet Tooth: Toru's thoughts: Minimal Exposure < Cake. He even takes Koyuki on a Not a Date just to get his hands on some cake that was only sold to girls.
    • He proposed feeding Koyuki with cake for a request (with said request being another Not a Date to the same place a week later). She refuses because that would be another Indirect Kiss from the boy she likes, and starts screaming while he tries to feed her with cake. That causes the whole "ladies' only set" to be abolished shortly after.

Cake shop manager: Are my cakes... really that bad...?

  • There Are No Therapists: Having a school full of kids with Irises, from which some may cause serious trauma, may be a good reason to hire a professional psychologist. Yet for teachers this is Somebody Else's Problem. The clousest thing to good therapy characters get is Toru’s help.
  • Toilet Humour: Omake lampshaded how many of the scenes in the story takes place within the bathrooms and one of the character declares that this will be the Manga's new direction. Luckly it's only an Omake
  • True Companions: By the end of the Iris Hunter arc, Toru, Sasamori, Hijiri, and Asahi definitely count, trusting one another implicitly even in a life-or-death situation. Symbolically set in stone and including both Kuga and Tokita in chapter 24 when the group gets a set of matching cell phone straps for Sasamori's birthday.
    • And yet questioned by Asahi in chapter 27, who points out that Hijiri is secretive and refuses to open up about himself, Kuga still feels guilty, Tokita is only there because Kuga is, and Asahi herself can't stop checking to see if the others are lying. If Sasamori was gone they'd fall apart.
  • Two-Teacher School: So far, only two or three teachers have been seen (depending on whether or not you think the older teacher dealing with Asahi's discipline in chapters 2 and 3 is the same as Toru and Kuga's barely-visible homeroom teacher in chapter 7).
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Katagiri to Hijiri (in flashbacks), and possibly definitely Tokita to Kuga.
  • Un-Sorcerer: Compared to his peers, Toru is the only one without an Iris.
  • What Could Have Been: Iris Zero went through a few different forms during planning, mostly outlined in Bonus Material:
    • Toru was originally supposed to have been the only one with an Iris, surrounded by normal people - one old idea was someone who could see the Red String of Fate connecting others but could not fall in love himself - until the creator decided he had no distinguishing features other than his power and switched it around.
    • The original series was supposed to have been a set of one-shots with a different protagonist every chapter, collected into a single volume. (Toru, Koyuki, Asahi, Hijiri, and Harumi in that order.) The publisher decided they liked the idea enough to request serialization instead of a limited run.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Apparently there's an Iris for telling what dish will be served for dinner.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Toru can be one perceptive kid.
  • Zen Survivor: Toru.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Sasamori. From volume 2, anyway.
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