Shadow Star/Characters

A reference sheet for notable characters in the manga/anime series Shadow Star. Expect SPOILERS for the whole thing. Also be warned that this sheet is written with the assumption that readers have at least a small amount of familiarity with the series, meaning that some early and/or minor spoilers may be unmarked.

Shiina Tamai

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Abusive Parents: Her mother treats her very coldly, tending to chastise her for her poor grades. She also apparently tried to strangle her to death in the past, blaming her for the death of Shiina's older sister Mishou. Yeah, Shiina has mommy issues.
Action Girl
Asami Sanada: Her seiyuu in the anime. Hello, Sawa-chan!
Book Dumb: She's way more interested in sports and cooking than studying, and it shows. Subverted, though, when she manages to get a scholarship for the incredibly exclusive Banda Academy.
Break the Cutie: Goes through this throughout the whole series, culminating in her crossing the Despair Event Horizon and bringing about The End of the World as We Know It alongside Mamiko.
Celibate Heroine: Despite her young age, she's already adamant that she'll never get married or have kids. Eventually subverted in the manga; she gradually develops feelings for Takeo and even has sex with him near the end, with their daughter going on to be the new Eve of the "cleansed" Earth.
Decoy Protagonist: Seemingly played straight with her death in the manga but she gets better so this is subverted. See Stuffed Into the Fridge.
Despair Event Horizon: By the final chapters, her father's dead, her mother gets shot to death right in front of her, her best friend falls out of a window in what's either a murder or suicide, her boyfriend (and father of her unborn daughter) is dead and has failed to become an Otohime, and people want her dead. Is it any wonder that she wipes out the human race after that?
Embarrassing First Name: She makes a point of writing her first name in katakana because she hates the kanji character used for it, which means "empty husk" or "seed that shall never sprout". (It was given to her by her mother, which doesn't exactly help with her mommy issues.) It becomes a critical plot point near the end of the manga, where it turns out that the name has a positive meaning after all; Misono simply didn't want Shiina to "leave" her like Mishou did. Once Shiina comes to accept her name, she's finally able to link with her real shadow dragon... Sheol, the Earth itself.
Genki Girl: To begin with, at least. Then shit starts hitting the fan, and her genki ways start to steadily break down...
Heroic BSOD: Given the nature of the series, she gets a few of these...
I Just Want to Be Special: Even though she's unable to "link" with Hoshimaru, she desperately wants to be able to control him in the same way as the other bearers. Then it turns out he isn't even hers, and she doesn't respond well. Then it turns out she's special in an entirely different way...
Idiot Hair: Gains one of these after her Important Haircut - ironically, after she's stopped being Book Dumb!
Important Haircut: After wearing her hair in distinctive Girlish Pigtails for half the manga (most of the anime), she gets it cut to bob length when she enters middle school.
Kid Heroine
Naive Everygirl: She starts as one of these. Needless to say, she doesn't stay that way...
No Periods, Period: Averted, she gets her first period right after being brought back to life.
Scars Are Forever: After getting stabbed through her left hand during the whole mess with Oni, she has a fairly conspicuous little scar there for the rest of the manga. Even when she dies and comes back to life, it's still there.
Scholarship Student: In the second half of the manga. Other characters comment that she's the first girl in over fourteen years to get a scholarship into Banda.
Stuffed Into the Fridge: Subverted. Shiina gets killed off very suddenly and very gruesomely after it's revealed that Hoshimaru isn't actually her shadow dragon, almost as if she's outlived her usefulness to the story; however, she's brought back to life a couple of chapters later, and very much remains the heroine.
This Is Something I've Got To Do Myself
Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Akira and Hiroko's girly-girls.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Turns into this by the end of the manga.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Akira Sakura

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Abusive Parents: Her father, who is implied to have molested her in the past. Dialogue from the first volume also suggests he may have physically abused her as well.
Armor-Piercing Slap: To Shiina, near the end of the manga. See Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! further down.
Beware the Nice Ones: While she's usually characterised as hating the idea of hurting others, her manner of Calling the Old Man Out makes her qualify. Also, early on, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it implication that she might have tried to kill Ain-Soph before; note how she already knows that Shiina won't be able to do much of anything to Push Dagger.
Break the Cutie: She was broken before we even meet her in-series, and she breaks further as the story progresses.
Calling the Old Man Out: By stabbing him to death.
Cute and Psycho, to a certain extent.
Dojikko: Akira is shown to be on the clumsy side when she's helping out at her parents' restaurant. It isn't played for laughs.
Driven to Suicide: She makes at least two attempts on her own life in the series, but either can't bring herself to go through with it or is stopped by other characters. Whether or not her death in the final chapter is a suicide is up for debate, as it's left ambiguous as to whether she threw herself out or was pushed out by an unknown assailant.
Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Lt. Watanabe, a minor character and soldier of the Japanese Special Defence Force, pulls this on her when she grabs his gun and tries to kill herself with it. In the final volume, Akira herself pulls it on a BSOD-ing Shiina, reminding her that she still has family and urging her to patch things up with her mother.
Hates Being Touched: By her father, specifically. When he puts a hand on her shoulder after the East Fuji incident, she shrieks and swats it away. Who can blame her?
I Just Want to Be Normal: In direct contrast with Shiina. Akira hates her connection with Ain-Soph because it's given her recurring nightmares in which she's falling - plus when she first "linked" with it, the feeling of flying made her sick.
Important Haircut: Akira chops off her own hair soon after Komori tells her it's beautiful (while creeping her out in general), which makes this case almost border on Traumatic Haircut.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Her hair slowly grows back out in later manga volumes.
Mamiko Noto: Her seiyuu. Hey there, Komo and Nodoka!
Parental Incest: Strongly implied to have been a victim of this. And her dad wonders why she isn't the cheerful girl she used to be as a child...
Scars Are Forever: Akira has scars on her left wrist from past suicide attempts, which are seen several times in the manga. In the anime, the scars are never shown on-screen, but they're implied to be there.
Shrinking Violet / Shy Blue-Haired Girl: One of the most tragic and socially crippled examples of these tropes. Stuttering when she speaks is the least of it.
Thousand Origami Cranes: She shuts herself in her room to make these following the East Fuji incident, where she witnessed the deaths of hundreds of soldiers.

Tomonori Komori

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Akira Ishida: His seiyuu. 'Sup, Koyemshi.
Beware the Nice Ones: Apparently, he was known to his neighbourhood and school as a friendly and polite (albeit sickly) boy who was popular with girls and wanted to become a doctor. None of them knew of his true intentions, of course.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Subverted. Not too long after his death, it's revealed that he had an invalid mother he was taking care of; however, the reader already knows by then that the weak and sickly were among the sorts of people he wanted to kill off.
Fate Worse Than Death: In the manga. It's eventually revealed that after he died, he was found by government agents just when Push Dagger was beginning to absorb his body in order to transform him into an Otohime. When Sudo takes Akira to see what's become of him, Komori's half-transformed body is hooked up to machines that slow down the process of becoming an Otohime, effectively keeping him from either fully dying or being reborn. It ain't pretty.
Hoist by His Own Petard: In the anime, as a result of a few things being switched around. Rather than being run through with a broken plane strut, Hoshimaru replicates Komori's own Push Dagger and spears him with it.
Intelligence Equals Isolation
Knife Nut: As well as his Mon being shaped like a knife, he's always carrying a dagger with him.
Sacrificial Lamb: Didn't last long, did he?
Social Darwinist: Not content with wanting to kill off five billion people, the next part of his plan for the world involves testing what's left of the human population for "physical endurance".
Utopia Justifies the Means: It says a lot that his idea of "utopia" involves turning society back to the Stone Age...
We Can Rule Together: Komori tries this on Akira, saying that he'll be the king and she'll be the queen of his ideal world; it doesn't actually work, but it does leave a very strong impression on her that influences some of her later actions.
White-Haired Pretty Boy

Hiroko Kaizuka (a.k.a. "Hiro-chan")

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Abusive Parents: Her father berates her for getting anything less than 100% on tests and disapproves of her friendship with Shiina, saying that the other girl is a "bad influence" on her. While her mother isn't shown abusing her in the same way, she doesn't seem to be very supportive of her either.
All of the Other Reindeer: She's relentlessly bullied solely because of her grades and being a model student in general.
Beware the Nice Ones: Probably the best example in the series.
Break the Cutie: And how.
Despair Event Horizon: As if being raped by Aki Honda and the other bullies didn't break her enough, she goes irreversably over the edge when her father tries to cut off all ties between her and Shiina. Naturally, he ends up being her first kill.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: In the anime, after Hoshimaru kills her.
Famous Last Words: "Shiina, you can't save everybody with kindness. Say goodbye to your father."
Girlish Pigtails: Her braids are a trademake.
Intelligence Equals Isolation: She flat-out admits that Shiina is her only real friend...
Lonely Rich Kid: And her parents don't even want her being friends with Shiina.
The Ojou: A young, light-haired example, complete with Big Fancy House.
Rape as Drama: With a test tube, no less!
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Played with. Her use of Oni is unmistakably violent and angry, yet when Shiina confronts her in person, she's eerily calm even while she's having Oni torture Shiina's dad.
Sakura Nogawa: Her seiyuu. You may know her as Shiho or Kaorin.
Self-Made Orphan: When she goes mad and begins to use Oni, her parents are the very first people she kills. When Shiina arrives to her home, she finds Hiro-chan hugging her father's lifeless body which sits on his favorite couch.
Suicide by Cop: Maybe. It's possible that she actually wanted to die by Shiina's hands, and was holding Shunji hostage in order to ensure that. Note how she does nothing to stop Shiina or Hoshimaru from strangling her to death.
We Can Rule Together: Sort-of tries this on Shiina when confronted by her. It doesn't go well.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Other way round, really; it's her descent into madness that "activates" Oni.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
Yandere: As a side effect of Break the Cutie. Besides killing everyone who ever abused her, Hiro-chan also tries to eliminate anything and anyone she believes to be an obstacle to her and Shiina's friendship... even if that means trying to kill Shiina's father.

Satomi Ozawa

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Affably Evil
Adaptation Dye Job: She's got green hair in the anime, as opposed to the black hair she has in the manga.
Armor-Piercing Slap: Delivers one of these to Shiina as soon as they meet. She also does this to Bungo at least once.
Berserk Button: She won't stand to have her pride bruised. Dare to insinuate that she's weak, and she will try to prove otherwise; sadly for her, she won't necessarily succeed...
Break the Haughty: Eventually, in the manga, after one too many failures. Her defeat at the hands of the Otohime (Mishou) leaves her so shattered that she pretty much gives up on fighting, instead choosing to stay by Bungo's side. If the manga had a bigger fandom, she'd probably be accused of Chickification... even though her inability to be a strong as she'd like is one of the biggest themes surrounding her character.
Bring My Brown Pants: Wets herself when Amaborea is cut by a Helicopter Blender.
Can't Catch Up: This is basically the core of her issues.
Disproportionate Retribution: The murderous grudge she gets against Shiina started just because the kid made fun of the name of her school.
He Is Not My Boyfriend: She often denies that she has any feelings for Bungo anymore. Even thirteen-year-olds aren't convinced by that.
Purple Eyes: In the anime. On the manga covers she appears on, they're closer to grey.
Rich Bitch: She certainly has the attitude of one of these. Subverted, as she's not actually rich at all.
Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
Tsundere: A rather dark take on Type A.
Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Tends to sum up her relationship with Bungo for most of the series...

Bungo Takano

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Affably Evil
Beware the Nice Ones: One moment, he's goodnaturedly offering Shiina a tissue for her bloody nose and apologising for Satomi's behaviour; next, his Mon is blowing up planes like it's a game.
Berserk Button: Do not hurt Satomi when he's around, or he will kick you in the ribs.
Dub Name Change: The Dark Horse release of the manga calls him Kazuyuki, for some reason.
Expository Hairstyle Change: He bleaches his hair fairly early on, and starts slicking it back after the manga's halfway point.
Gatling Good: He likes to have Hainuwele equip high-power vulcans, perfect for shooting down fighter jets and attack choppers.
Macross Missile Massacre: His second favorite attack is to use rocket nests.
Otaku: He's a military nut, and fairly knowledgeable about different kinds of guns.

Naozumi Sudo

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

A God Am I
Asexuality: He flat-out states that human sexuality is of no concern to him.
Beware the Nice Ones: He might seem pleasant enough to people meeting him for the first time, and he's known to his school as a particularly bright student, but aside from that, he's creepy.
Blond Guys Are Evil: Well, blondish, at least. Definitely evil, though.
Creepy Monotone: In the anime.
Disproportionate Retribution: In the manga, he shoots two delinquents to death just for throwing a bag of trash into a river.
Intelligence Equals Isolation
Manipulative Bastard, especially towards poor Akira.
Parental Abandonment: His parents and older brother are "missing", though it's never really explained what happened to them.
- Self-Made Orphan: That said, it's suggested at one point that Sudo himself may have been responsible for his family's "disappearance"...
The Stoic
Ubermensch
Utopia Justifies the Means
We Can Rule Together: Rather fond of siccing this on Akira.

Takeo Tsurumaru

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

All Girls Want Bad Boys: Very popular with the ladies, despite his attitude. Then there's the fact that Shiina eventually falls for him...
- Even the Guys Want Him: Norio's secretly in love with him, too.
Anti-Hero: He's basically on Shiina's side, but his jerkishness (and the series' Black and Gray Morality) makes it difficult to really class him as a hero...
Badass Normal: Even without a shadow dragon, he's not afraid of heading onto the field in dangerous situations. Subverted when it's revealed he's been in control of a dragon - namely, Hoshimaru - since at least the start of the manga.
Casanova: A somewhat twisted case in that to him, it's all about reproduction; as a result of that, he's gotten more than a few girls pregnant and already has about five kids. It takes a loooong time for him to learn that there's a difference between love and procreation...
Death by Sex: He and Shiina have sex in the penultimate chapter. Guess what happens to him after that.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Shiina finds him dead in his hideout in the final chapter; how he died is never shown, though it's made obvious that he was killed by the same angry mob that's after Shiina. May also count as Stuffed Into the Fridge, as his death is what really pushes Shiina over the Despair Event Horizon...
Jerkass: He can be quite a douchebag, especially towards his "girlfriends" and one girl (Kaori) he rescues as part of a job. He eventually gets better in the manga, though only after losing both the people he cared most about, and being caught in a nuclear explosion and suffering the effects of radiation poisioning.
Made of Iron: In the manga, he can apparently take a point-blank shotgun wound to the chest and barely even flinch.
Manipulative Bastard: He has a tendency to withhold important information from Shiina, which usually forces her to find it out the hard way. He also chooses the worst possible time to reveal to her that Hoshimaru is actually his shadow dragon. She doesn't take it well at all.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Norio.

Norio Koga

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Cruel and Unusual Death: He gets one of the nastiest deaths in the whole manga. To elaborate, he gets crippled by having a tendon sliced in his leg, raped, eviscerated, possibly castrated as well... and when he's about to die from all that, he's drugged up and effectively brought back to "life" for a few more painful moments. All of this is done by a gang of Complete Monster city thugs who had no reason other than the fact that Norio was there and Takeo wasn't.
Deadpan Snarker
Determinator: He'll go to any length to protect Takeo, no matter what the cost...
Dude Looks Like a Lady: Nearly every character who interacts with him in the manga mistakes him for a girl at first.
Famous Last Words: "I... I can't tell you... anymore..."
Go Out with a Smile: Played with. His dying smile is ironic because he's regretting that he could never tell Takeo his real feelings (though one could also see it as a neat "fuck you, you couldn't break me" to his killers). Also, he's definitely not smiling when Takeo comes home to find his severed head.
In-Series Nickname: He's called "Nori-rin" by one of Takeo's ex-girlfriends. (Fun fact: One of Kitoh's latest manga, currently^[when?] running in Kodansha's Evening magazine, is called Noririn. It's a cycling manga, so the name is probably a coincidence.)
Incompatible Orientation: It sure sucks to be in love with a straight guy who isn't interested in anything he can't make babies with.
Long-Haired Pretty Boy
Mister Seahorse: No, no, he doesn't actually get pregnant! It's just that his deepest, most secret wish is to bear Takeo's child. When he's about to die, his wish is symbolised by Vagina Dentata "evolving" into a form that resembles a winged, toothy womb with a human foetus inside.
Off with His Head: As if his actual murder wasn't horrible enough already, his killers cut his head off his corpse and mount it onto one of his own dolls for Takeo to come home to.
Rape as Drama
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil
The Runaway: It's hinted that he had issues with his family that led to him running away from home, but nothing is explained in detail.
Stuffed Into the Fridge: His horrendous death seems to serve little purpose other than to break Takeo further than other events of volume 10 already have (and maybe to stack the odds against Shiina even more by eliminating one of her strongest allies). On the other hand, the amount of focus on him as a character during his death scene means that at least he isn't totally reduced to a plot device like many Fridge victims.
Tsundere: A male example of tsun-tsun, with heavy emphasis on "tsun".
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Takeo, as already mentioned.
Wholesome Crossdresser: His taste in clothes tends to be rather feminine. Funnily enough, when he has to actually disguise himself as a girl for a mission, he complains like hell.

Mamiko Kuri

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Creepy Child: In a series full of kooky kids, her otherworldly stoicism stands out. She's also weirdly knowledgable about other people, which creeps Bungo out.
Demoted to Extra: Barely appears in the anime and doesn't even get to be in the ED animation, despite being critically important in the manga.
Emotionless Girl: Apathy and cynicism are about the extent of her emotional range.
Foot Focus: Footwear seems to be her second least favourite type in clothing aside from panties, given that she only wears shoes in all of two appearances. Many of her scenes include close-ups of her bare feet.
Full-Frontal Assault: When she finally gains control of her shadow dragon Sheol, she goes on her first killing spree while half-naked. Her targets in this case? The thugs who'd just raped her.
Going Commando: Mamiko never wears panties, and has no qualms about proving this fact to Bungo when he first sees her wearing clothes at all.
Innocent Fanservice Girl, though "innocent" and "fanservice" aren't really the right words to use for her. In any case, she prefers to go around naked if she can, and even when she does wear clothing, it's usually just a flimsy dress.
Little Miss Badass: It's best to not mess with her, otherwise she will take care of you calmly and efficiently - and turn you into a gory mess while she's at it.
Naked on Arrival: Much to the shock of Bungo and Satomi (to say nothing of unsuspecting readers).
- Please Put Some Clothes On: How people tend to react to her.
Satsuki Yukino (uh, hi, Kaname and Kagome...?)
- Playing Against Type (and holy shit, HOW.)
Shadow Archetype: She's basically the "shadow" to Shiina's "light", and they effectively share the same shadow dragon.

Aki Honda

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Alpha Bitch: Just about the cruellest and most monstrous Alpha Bitch ever written.
Break the Haughty: At the hands of the very cutie she broke, at that.
Brother-Sister Incest: Has this sort of relationship with her older brother Yasuhito.
For the Evulz: Why does she treat Hiroko so horribly? Because she can, pretty much.
- Driven by Envy: The other reason? She's envious of Hiroko's brilliant grades.
Girl Posse: Consisting of Mihaya Ozaki, Hiroka Takamura, and Miyoko Shitou. Out of all of them, Miyoko is the only one who ever shows reluctance and remorse for their actions against Hiroko. She's also the only one who doesn't get killed by Hiroko's Mon, albeit only thanks to Shiina's intervention.
Half The Girl She Used To Be: Her final fate in the manga. The page showing this, which includes some downright disturbing Fan Disservice, was completely cut out of Dark Horse's release of the English translation.
Karmic Death / Hoist By Her Own Petard: She is killed by Hiroko's shadow dragon Oni in a way that mirrors her own torture methods. It speaks volumes about the series' Crapsack World when death by claw rape can be described as "karmic".

Aki's posse (Mihaya Ohzaki, Hiroka Takamura, Miyoko Shitou)

A description of these characters goes here.

Tropes exhibited by these characters include:

Anti-Villain (Miyoko is the only of these girls who shows something similar to human decency)
Big No: Hiroka, before she's thrown off a window and to her death by Oni.)
Fat Bastard (Hiroka was noticeably chubbier than the other girls)
Girl Posse (only comparable to Otome's "friends" from School Days. See Aki's secion.
Jerkass (Mihaya and Hiroka, who simply can't rival Aki's over-the-top cruelty)
Karmic Death (dealed to them by Oni. Mihaya is almost as bad as Aki? She gets splattered in a dark alley, her remains almost unrecognizable. Hiroka is a mere thug? Oni throws her off a window in front of the whole class. Miyoko is the only one who repents? Shiina manages to save her life, but Oni still breaks her arm and rips a leg off her.
Peer Pressure Makes You Evil (Miyoko. She's not a super bad person, but bullies Hiroko because she's shit scared of the other girls. Heck, they beat her up when she's late for the test tube incident.)
Satellite Characters (their motivations are all centered on Aki's actions)
Shrinking Violet (Miyoko)
Sole Survivor (Miyoko, but only because of Shiina. She loses a leg and gets her arm broken, too.)
Tears of Fear (Miyoko, when she explains to the whole class what happened with Hiroko.)

Mishou Tamai

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Back from the Dead: Sorta, as the Virgin Princess
Big Sister Instinct: As a Virgin Princess, she pulls more than one Big Damn Heroes to protect her little sister.
Dead Little Sister: And her death completely tore her family aside, specially Misono.
Driven to Suicide: Subverted. While she is found alone and in a pool of her own blood, there are no injuries in her lifeless body.
Facial Markings (As Virgin Princess)
Genki Girl: At first. By the time Shiina is born, however, she's fallen into depression
- Emotionless Girl: Later, as the Virgin Princess
White-Haired Pretty Girl

Shiina's parents (Shunji and Misono Tamai)

A description of these characters goes here.

Tropes exhibited by these characters include:

Abusive Parents: Shunji is an okay guy, but Misono is very cold and strict to Shiina.
Despair Event Horizon: What made Misono so abusive to Shiina was how her birth and Mishou's death basically overlapped together. Since Misono went off the deep end when Mishou died, guess what happened.
Heroic Sacrifice: Shunji uses his plane to kill off Bungo's dragonet.
Kick the Dog: Misono trying to strangle baby!Shiina while despairing for Mishou's loss.
Parents as People: Shunji is a good guy, but he can barely stay by Shiina when she needs it. He still tries to do what he can for her.
Redemption Equals Death: Right after Misono and Shiina rekindle their bond, Misono is killed by a mob.

Back to Shadow Star