Kaoru 清水 Shimizu 瀬戸 燦

KYOWA UNIVERSITY

SOFTBALL PLAYER

FIGHTING WITH TOMUGARAt

MANGA

SHAKUGAN NO SHANA

ANIME J-POP HITS, HISHOKU NO SORA

ANIMAX

"Flaming-Haired, Blazing-Eyed Hunter" (「炎髪灼眼の討ち手」

The female lead of the show and a Flame Haze. Initially she is concentrated solely on her duty as a Flame Haze, going as far as to not bearing even a name. She sees Yuji only as a Torch, an object, marginally interesting because of his status as a Mystes. However, she slowly opens up to Yuji, coming to think of him as a person, despite being a Torch, and eventually comes to love him. Until she met Yuji, she was identified by only her Flame Haze title "Flame-Haired Red-Hot-Eyed Hunter," or her nodachi, Nietono no Shana (贄殿遮那?, "Vairocana of the Offering Room"). Yuji, in his need to humanize her, chose to name her "Shana" after her sword. Shana has a habit of saying "Urusai! Urusai! Urusai!" which means "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" whenever Yuji asks her questions or makes remarks that disturb her original point of view. But in reality they really care for each other. She has a great fondness for melon bread. Shana later comes to the startling conclusion that she loves Yuji, and even confesses it to him in the last episode of the first anime series when she thought she was going to die, but he does not hear what she said. Shana is continually torn between her mission to protect the balance, and her love for Yuji. Due to a decision she made near the end of the first season of the anime version, the closeness they once had begun to erode as Yuji kept a distance from her because of it. However, it seems that Shana and Yuji have repaired the damage from their previous relationship.

Yuji Sakai (坂井 悠二, Sakai Yūji?) (Mystes)

Yuji, the main character of the story, is just an average high school student. However, his world is turned upside down when he discovers that he is already dead and does not have much time before he disappears. Fortunately, Yuji is a Mystes who contains a treasure known as the Reiji Maigo (零時迷子?, "Midnight Lost Child"). Unlike normal torches, the treasure inside him restores his Power of Existence every night at midnight. With the Reiji Maigo, Yuji has the possibility to live on like an average human as long as he makes sure that his Power of Existence does not run out before midnight. Later, he begins to learn to use the yet untapped potential of the treasure kept within him. He cares deeply about Shana, but has yet to reveal if he truly has feelings of love for her; also in the first season anime leading up to the final episode, he starts to see Shana as her old view of the world, where he is just a Torch and she is just a Flame Haze. With this going on, he distanced himself from the closeness than the two originally shared, leaving Shana hurt with the new feelings of love she has developed but cannot explain. However, Yuji and Shana have since repaired the damage to their relationship.