Shadow Star/Characters: Difference between revisions

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* [[Abusive Parents]]: Her mother treats her very coldly, tending to chastise her for her poor grades. {{spoiler|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]]

* [[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.

* [[Celibate Hero|Celibate Heroine]]: Despite her young age, she's already adamant that she'll never get married or have kids. {{spoiler|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.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Decoy Protagonist]]: Seemingly played straight with her death in the manga but she gets better so this is subverted. See [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]].}}

* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]]

 

* [[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.

* {{spoiler|[[Armor-Piercing Slap]]: To Shiina, near the end of the manga. See [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!]] further down.}}

** [[Expository Hairstyle Change]]: Her hair slowly grows back out in later manga volumes.

* [[Mamiko Noto]]: Her seiyuu. [[Hey, It's That Voice!|Hey there]], [[Bokurano|Komo]] and [[Mahou Sensei Negima|Nodoka]]!

* [[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.

 

* [[Akira Ishida]]: His seiyuu. [[Hey, It's That Voice!|'Sup]], [[Bokurano|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.

* {{spoiler|[[Fate Worse Than Death]]}}: In the manga. {{spoiler|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.

* [[Intelligence Equals Isolation]]

* [[Knife Nut]]: As well as his Mon being shaped like a knife, he's always carrying a dagger with him.

* [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]]

 

* [[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.

* [[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]].

* {{spoiler|[[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: Played with. Her use of Oni is unmistakably violent and angry, yet when Shiina confronts her in person, she's [[Dissonant Serenity|eerily calm]] even while she's having Oni torture Shiina's dad.}}

* {{spoiler|[[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.}}

* {{spoiler|[[We Can Rule Together]]: Sort-of tries this on Shiina when confronted by her. It doesn't go well.}}

* {{spoiler|[[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]: Other way round, really; it's her descent into madness that "activates" Oni.}}

* {{spoiler|[[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''.}}

 

* [[Affably Evil]]

* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]: She's got green hair in the anime, as opposed to the black hair she has in the manga.

* [[Well, Excuse Me, Princess!]]: Tends to sum up her relationship with Bungo for most of the series...

 

* [[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.

* [[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.

 

* [[A God Am I]]

* [[Asexuality]]: He flat-out states that human sexuality is of no concern to him.

* [[We Can Rule Together]]: Rather fond of siccing this on Akira.

 

* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: Very popular with the ladies, despite his attitude. {{spoiler|Then there's the fact that Shiina eventually falls for him...}}

** [[Even the Guys Want Him]]: Norio's secretly in love with him, too.

* [[Badass Normal]]: Even without a shadow dragon, he's not afraid of heading onto the field in dangerous situations. {{spoiler|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...

* [[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 {{spoiler|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 {{spoiler|take a point-blank shotgun wound to the chest and barely even ''flinch''}}.

* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: With Norio.

 

* {{spoiler|[[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]]

* {{spoiler|[[Famous Last Words]]: ''"I... I can't tell you... anymore..."''}}

* {{spoiler|[[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.}}

* [[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. {{spoiler|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.}}

* [[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.

* {{spoiler|[[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.}}

* [[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''.

 

* [[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.

* [[Innocent Fanservice Girl]], though "innocent" and "[[Fan Disservice|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.

** [[Please Put Some Clothes On]]: How people tend to react to her.

** [[Playing Against Type]] (and holy shit, HOW.)

* [[Shadow Archetype]]: {{spoiler|She's basically the "shadow" to Shiina's "light", and they effectively share the same shadow dragon.}}

 

* [[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.

* [[Girl Posse]]: Consisting of Mihaya Ozaki, Hiroka Takamura, and Miyoko Shitou. Out of all of them, [[Shrinking Violet|Miyoko]] is the only one who ever shows reluctance and remorse for their actions against Hiroko. {{spoiler|She's also the only one who doesn't get ''killed'' by Hiroko's Mon, albeit only thanks to Shiina's intervention.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Half the Man He Used To Be|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.

 

* [[Anti-Villain]] (Miyoko is the ''only'' of these girls who shows something similar to human decency)

* [[Big No]]: {{spoiler|Hiroka, before she's thrown off a window and to her death by Oni.)}}

* [[Fat Bastard]] (Hiroka was noticeably chubbier than the other girls)

* [[Jerkass]] (Mihaya and Hiroka, who simply ''can't'' rival Aki's over-the-top cruelty)

* {{spoiler|[[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.}}

* [[Tears of Fear]] (Miyoko, when {{spoiler|she explains to the whole class what happened with Hiroko.}})

 

* [[Big Brother Instinct|Big Sister Instinct]]: {{spoiler|As a Virgin Princess, she pulls more than one [[Big Damn Heroes]] to protect her little sister.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Dead Little Sister]]: And her death completely tore her family aside, specially Misono.}}

* [[White-Haired Pretty Girl]]

 

* [[Abusive Parents]]: Shunji is an okay guy, but Misono is ''very'' cold and strict to Shiina.

* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: {{spoiler|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.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Shunji uses his plane to kill off Bungo's dragonet.}}

* [[Kick the Dog]]: {{spoiler|Misono trying to strangle baby!Shiina while despairing for Mishou's loss.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Redemption Equals Death]]: Right after Misono and Shiina rekindle their bond, Misono is killed by a mob.}}