Akaaka Character Profiles
Jan. 10th, 2018 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rikorenAll this information is taken from the character pages in the official art book; side notes from their design pictures are also included.
YUE
Age: 17 (outwardly)
Height: 174cm
Birthday: 1/20
Blood type: AB
Interests: Going back to sleep, casually observing his surroundings while sleeping
Special skill: Traveling to hidden/secret areas
Likes: (food) Fried tofu, sweet things. (people) Rebellious people, people who look after/care for him.
A boy born to be the yorishiro housing Shin's soul. His mother (Akane) got herself pregnant with his father and previous yorishiro (Yoshiki) in order to create a replacement yorishiro. His body grew rapidly due to eating both parents shortly after birth. Though he's actually 7, his outward appearance is around 17.
He's been confined to one room in the shrine for a few years now.
As keeping Shin's soul and body alive exhausts his own physical and mental resources, he's constantly hungry and fatigued.
His hobby being naps also has its practical benefits. Despite his calm and leisurely personality, he has a strong sense of curiosity.
He feels in some ways that he has no choice but to exist as someone's replacement, a fact which naturally led to his forming very few strong desires or attachments. During the process of "preparing for the Meal," he learned about the outside world, and found himself facing emotions he'd never realized before.
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He's more of a liar to himself than to anyone else, so it's impossible to say what it is he truly wants.
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The symbol on his clothes is the same as the mark on his skin, as if it had seeped out and stained his uniform. It seems to be the sign of a yorishiro (or possibly a curse).
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He might be very curious, but he fundamentally lacks ambition.
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KUROGITSUNE
Age: 15 (outwardly)
Height: 158cm
Birthday: Fall
Blood type: Fox type O
Interests: Buying and eating, TV appreciation, playing as a whole
Special skill: Recognizing the sound of monetary offerings
Likes: (food) Takoyaki, traditional snacks, Ranchuu's cooking. Sweets. (people) Kind people. Also he's weak to annoying people, in various senses of the word.
A fox mononoke, and Yue's self-proclaimed older brother. He calls himself Kurogitsune (Black Fox) after his species name. He has bad eyesight, and covers one eye with bandages.
He took Yue, who lives in the shrine, outside on the day of the festival. He usually takes human form when in the shrine, and the form of a black fox when descending the mountain.
He's sick and tired of mononoke "meals," preferring to eat human food instead. He especially loves takoyaki.
He has great respect and affection for Shin, who favored him despite their being different species, and was entrusted with both protecting Shin's yorishiro, and finding new ones for him to dwell in.
He took a strong interest in Yue, who was born and raised in the shrine, and before long, began to hold special feelings for him. Having realized these feelings are the same as those felt when regarding someone as a "meal," he consciously averts his eyes when looking at him.
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A very good boy. For the scenario. lol Of course he was incredibly helpful in moving the story forward, we hadn't originally expected him to become a good boy - or rather, a cool guy, in the narrative. (Because he had the ability to read the mood...) And so without any trouble he became a character who basically was the atmosphere. If he wasn't there the story wouldn't be able to maintain itself...
That's probably the sort of existence he is to Yue, as well. If Kurogitsune weren't there, Yue might have had a slightly more warped personality.
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The somewhat high collar is from Heian-era clothing
Dresses like Ushiwakamaru
The sleeves are stitched in the back
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TOUGO
Age: 17
Height: 174cm
Birthday: 5/10
Blood type: A
Interests: Music appreciation, cooking, playing with his sister
Special skills: Math, curry, soccer
Likes: (food) Food not made by him, ice cream (people) Lonely-seeming people. With girls, he prefers the mature type.
Second year student at Utsuwa High School. His family consists of a father and younger sister. Yue's older half-brother.
Mononoke consider him to be the ultimate meal, "Mitsuboshi;" as a result of their constantly targeting him, he's gone through a lot of dangerous situations since childhood. His idol and the man who'd protected him, Yoshiki, disappeared together with his mother, Akane - a fact he refuses to accept. He holds resentment towards them to this day.
A realist, though he has his occasional moments, he's fundamentally a calm and collected person. He's hoping to get clues about Akane and Yoshiki's disappearance from Yue.
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His scarf is light blue with checks. There's a wealth of rumors within Hacca about what he might be listening to on those headphones.
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Tougo (childhood): He was a good kid, but his dad's a deadbeat and his mom disappeared and a weirdo in a fox mask influenced her into running away...but all that aside he's great. You can't see in the pictures, but he's wearing shorts.
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Though his uniform is perfectly neat, his shoes are a little more casually pointed than Akiyoshi's, at the tips.
He's carrying the Utsuwa High School designated schoolbag.
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AKIYOSHI
age: 17
height: 178cm
birthday: 10/29
blood type: b
interests: morning glory observation, playing the shakuhachi (a traditional japanese bamboo flute)
special skill: geography, history, swimming, all of phys ed
likes: (food) sweet things, things with strong flavor. hamburg steak. (people) he's weak to cheerful, aggressive girls.
Third year at Utsuwa High School. Heir of the Tochika Family, which has governed the land of Utsuwa for generations. Doesn't have many friends. Due to severe allergies, he's inseparable from his mask and tissues most of the year.
As the eldest son of the only family in the human population to know the existence of mononoke, he feels a strong sense of duty which propels him to protect Utsuwa. Also, he's embraced a strong opposition towards his father, who hasn't taken any steps against the mononoke currently running rampant through the town.
He's investigating and monitoring the mononoke behind his parents' backs. He also watches over Tsubaki Tougo, who as a potential yorishiro candidate is often in danger from mononoke, but due to his suspicious methods he's seen as a stalker.
While he couldn't in his wildest dreams imagine this, he's actually also a being capable of becoming a yorishiro.
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His cloak has slits in the sides for his arms to poke through. It's a hand-me-down from his big sister.
His scarf is green-striped. Nicknamed "Melon".
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akiyoshi's talismans: for a variety of reasons he actually just uses simple evil spirit eradication talismans, but he doesn't have any memory of them being particularly useful.
in an emergency he can use his tissues as a substitute.
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akiyoshi's tissue box: Nepure. An arbitrary design by Satoru-san. Celeb-type people might use it on occasion.
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akiyoshi's human version: used in the demo. "wait, how would you put a mask on a human?" "like this, i guess...?"
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akiyoshi (child): he's a rich boy from a good family, and yet he wears a cape like this. we're not sure whether he had allergies at this time. he didn't have glasses yet, though.
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"if you took everything away he'd just be an ikemen, and yet
it feels like it'd be terrible to strip away all the graphic team's hard work
akiyoshi
we hate you"
(from a dying message on akiyoshi's standing portrait file)
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SAGANO
age: 26 (outwardly)
height: 181 cm
birthday: 6/21
blood type: o
interests: eating, sleeping, singing
special skill: the truth is he's surprisingly handy, and can fix a variety of things.
likes: (food) warm food, mikan. (people) people with cute smiles, proactive people.
”Sagano" is the name of the place where he was sealed, not his original name. The misnomer stuck as a result of Yue's misunderstanding his muttering.
His original form having been sealed away by Shin, his soul - Tsubaki Akashi, took Shin's body and was resurrected.
After being sealed away by Shin, he watched the land of Utsuwa change from within the seal; however, having been together with the Shadows the entire time, their nature had a powerful influence on him. When he was resurrected, due to his grudge against Shin and the shadows' corrosion, he decided on the goal of defeating Shin (Yue) in order to release Utsuwa from the shadows.
Concerning his hatred towards Shin, he's aware that he's obsessing over something long-past, and occasionally lets out a smile that seems to be deriding himself, contrary to his actions.
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I was thinking of him as wandering aimlessly around, but then I read the scenario and thought, "He's pretty unfriendly, huh!" Following that, he said "Let's continue" way too much and I started to think "He's a really embarrassing guy." Following that, I thought "Even desperate actions have their limits." When he began simply attacking randomly, going through events where he boasted about righteousness in people's houses and tricked high schoolers, then finally treating himself to food he picked up while wandering around, somewhere along the way I grew attached to him. He acts as a hero of the people who goes without reward, but is actually a pitiful last boss who's lost his way.
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The hood is oversized. Coat edge and sleeves are ribbed. He wears two belts, with a cloth wound round his waist underneath.
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tattoo: a mark from the shadows having eaten a portion of sagano himself, after being together for so long. it's supposed to look like twin foxfire flames but it's mostly unrecognizable..."
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he got his clothes from a kind lady passerby in the shopping district when he was wandering unsteadily after his revival (because he looks cold and also attractive)
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he carries around a staff he'd found lying near the pampas grass field and corroded with shadows (basically as a hoodlum he can't keep his cool without a weapon)
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"what happened to the tail..." "it made me angry so i pulled it out"
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MIKOTO
Age: 7 (outwardly)
Height: 112cm
Birthday: Spring
Blood type: Fox type B
Interests: Taking walks on the mountain, walking around incognito
Special skill: Temari (traditional Japanese handball), cat's cradle, singing games
Likes: (food) Pretty things, sweet things. (people) Pretty people. People who don't listen to her.
The master of the mountain who controls all the mononoke of Utsuwa. She was originally a nine-tailed white fox, but she currently has eight.
Since her younger brother Shin stopped the shadows in the town of Utsuwa, she's watched over generations of yorishiro for the sake of keeping his soul and body alive. However, she somewhat senses that preserving Shin and the town the way they are has produced warped results.
In the past, she gained interest in a dying young man and saved his life, half in fun.
This was the beginning of the Tsubaki family line's "Mitsuboshi" status.
Currently, she's dispatched one of her tails to protect the Tsubaki line, sending her love towards all the generations of Tsubaki children.
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"At first glance she might seem capricious, but when you think about it children and gods are similar in that respect."
"Originally there was another Yue and Mikoto end besides ED7; it was a bad end, but it was really yuri to me so I wanted to see it."
"Even now, I kinda wish there'd been an ending in Tougo Route where Yue and Miko-chan were happily chatting and giggling with each other. lol"
"She's the kind of girl who has all this power, and runs around the mountain with her temari ball, confusing people as "a normal human child".
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SATO
Age: 50 (outwardly)
Height: 180cm
Birthday: Fall
Blood type: Raven type B
Interests: Cleaning, shogi, collecting shiny objects
Special skills: Cleaning, preaching
Likes: (food) Ochazuke, sweet things, Ranchuu's cooking (people) His current masters. Also rash and incautious types.
Mikoto's assistant, and priest of the Utsuwa Shrine. He also raised Yue as his mentor.
Though his masters, Mikoto and Shin, place the land of Utsuwa first and foremost in their thoughts and actions, their optimism offers him a neverending stream of worry. Occasionally he will act on his own rather than waiting for orders.
Though he didn't interfere with the shadow town and yorishiro, both born from Mikoto and Shin's selfishness, he personally does not have many good sentiments towards the situation.
While he's felt something for each of the successive generations of yorishiro, he's always kept a certain emotional distance from them. However, he's had some difficulty holding to that rule in regards to Yue.
After Shin's absence, he took up the role of negotiations for mononoke, and has held deep connections with the Tochika family for generations now.
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Kind of a tsundere.
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The man in AkaAka who we wanted to be "swooshy/stylish/lord and retainer/relatively childish/ikemen", Sato-san. (it's like we're cramming all our dreams into one guy) When he appeared with the rabbits at his sides it was heart-poundingly exciting, like a star performer's entry on the stage.
At first there was a rule that everyone should have scarves, so I wavered between giving him a scarf or a stole, but he'd look great with it fluttering out behind him like wings, so in the end he got something similar wrapped around him. [...] He was wearing gloves in the original draft, but I forgot to draw them later, and then thought...well, he'd look weird wearing them at mealtimes too, so it's fine! He might put them on when doing dirty work.
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"I like withered people, so I was really sad when they wouldn't let me put any in the previous game. So when I heard there was one in this one, I was really happy! But though he's withered on the outside he's actually not on the inside lol. He's very crisp. But that's fine. A very crisp grandpa, that's my favorite."
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"I can't imagine him in any position other than seiza when sitting at attention"
"He looks kinda foreign with a slightly aquiline nose"
"He tucks up his kimono sleeves with a tasuki when making pickled vegetables"
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RANCHUU
Age: 15 (outwardly)
Height: 157.5cm
Birthday: Winter
Blood type: Mouse type A
Interests: Reading, tending the garden
Special skill: Mental arithmetic
Likes: (food) Grains, spicy food (people) Friendly rivals he can respect
A mononoke serving under Mikoto and Sato. He works to take care of everyone in the shrine.
He's yet to experience the "Meal", and is a little worried over his lack of experience as a mononoke. Because of this inferiority complex, he doesn't leave the shrine very often; however, watching his former companions change into akujiki one by one also led him to secretly hold negative opinions on Meals.
He feels a friendly familiarity with Kurogitsune, who's of the same generation as him, but envies his outgoing personality - a fact which leads him to inadvertently act somewhat cold towards him.
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Ranchuu and Kurogitsune both share a similarly good sort of atmosphere...they're refreshing. Despite being novice mononoke, they're both somehow very straightforward. Though they don't have much pull in the story, they're important supporting characters. I'd like to write a story someday with Ranchuu as the main character.
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"Ranchuu was designed to look young and girlish. Am I the only one who thought he was the one character in AkaAka with the biggest chance of being a love god? He's my personal favorite. Making him smile on-screen somehow made me happy."
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GOLDFISH
* All three are shared
Age: Around 7 (outwardly)
Height: Around 120cm (when in human form)
Birthday: Summer
Blood type: Goldfish type B
Interests: Playing with Sato-san; bothering Kurogitsune
Special skill: Tsukkomi (playing the straight man), flying
Likes: (food) Sato-san's cooking (people) Sato-san and Suzuki-kun
Goldfish triplets who live in the shrine. As they're still young and full of curiosity, they're interested in anything and everything.
The red goldfish is Suisen (the most energetic), the black goldfish is Gyokuro (the most calm), the yellow goldfish is Kiimun (the most spoiled).
They love Sato-san as both a foster parent and a friend, but that doesn't mean they'll let up on him when it comes to playing the tsukkomi.
They look forward to meeting Suzuki Sora when they're bigger.
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O Gyokuro, Kiimun, Suisen Human ver.
Designed with the image of Gyokuro as Japan, Kiimun as foreign, and Suisen as China. Their fin-like scarves are a main point.
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"The goldfish's popularity in the demo dropped a lot in the main game, but if I could I'd want to go pour salt in everyone's wounds. I rather enjoy that terrible feeling." - the person who called Ranchuu a love god
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SENNEN CAT
Age: Older than Sato nyaa
Gender: Secret nyaa
Height: ???cm
Birthday: Spring
Blood type: Cat type O
Interests: Basking in the sun
Special skill: Calculation
Likes: (food) Likes meat more than fish (people) Kids who put in all their effort
The signboard cat of the mysterious general store "Sennen Mart". Tends the store in place of the owner, who is often away on business. It's in the neutral position of being neither with humans nor mononoke, but uses that position to carry out an information trading business. (However, people often skip paying the fee.)
When it comes to human customers, it only takes human form to greet them when it happens to feel like it. (Doing so is a pain so it usually pretends to be out.)
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ABE-SAN-TACHI
Age: 28 (outwardly)
Height: 178cm (front), 195cm (center)
Birthday: Winter
Blood type: Centipede type B
Interests: Walking with synchronized limbs, new product development
Special skill: One-night stands
Likes: (food) Things with a refreshing flavor (people) Pretty but dumb girls, stubborn kids.
Mononoke and Sato's subordinates, stationed at the shrine's talisman stand.
They enjoy catching female shrine visitors, regardless of age, and making them their Meals. They're the type with a wide defensive range, who prefer not to go to the trouble of searching for Meals.
There seems to be an agreement between the two Abes that they won't make a Meal of anyone they don't both agree on, but the one in front often chooses to do as he pleases, leading to him getting scolded quite frequently by the one behind.
Very serious about their work.
Unlike the other shrine members, they don't try to have anything to do with the yorishiro. The only exception is Sakura Yoshiki, with whom they shared a deep connection.
Though they live in a different place from the main building Yue lives in, they often appear in main building's living room for meals.
ーーーーー
These guys were probably the start of it all.... When everyone was thinking of weird characters for AkaAka we talked about a character who looks obviously the "Helping Hands" comedy performance, only you can't see the helper guy behind him, then after that probably thought it was a good idea to add the droopy eyes and wavy hair....His haori is made for women, and that's gross. The one in front probably has an easier time approaching people with his comparatively human-like appearance. Ah, no, I mean there isn't anyone in back, of course.
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At present Hacca Works has the only female-oriented game so far with a deadly serious "Helping Hands" performance! Off-topic, but the little taiko drum Yoshiki has on the soundtrack jacket belongs to Abe-san-tachi. Nobody noticed so I wanted to say it here.
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TOMORI
Age: 20 (outwardly)
Height: 175cm (center)
Birthday: Spring
Blood type: Deer type AB
Interests: Enjoying plantlife, fishing
Special skill: Running on the mountain
Likes: (food) Likes tsukemono and kashiwamochi. Also likes to drink. (people) Energetic, cheerful people.
The mononoke responsible for Mikoto's barrier lights, and lights them on the mountain every night. From lighting the lamps at night, to putting them out in the morning, he stands watch over them. Thanks to the barrier they create, the shrine and mountain stay free of the Shadows' influence.
He doesn't have many opportunities to associate with other mononoke due to the nature of his role, but he sometimes passes his free time taking walks, fishing, or doing other things with Kurogitsune and Yue.
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On the original picture we kept theorizing how maybe he was actually a tiny old man in a puppet, but we never got far with that. In any case he's mysteriously soothing. He's got long horns, but sadly they get cut off in the game screen. While we're at it, he looks surprisingly bulky when lined up next to Abe-san-tachi.
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MASHIRO
Age: 26 (outwardly)
Height: 183cm
Birthday: Spring
Blood type: Rabbit type O
Interests: Strolling around by himself
Special skill: Mediation, reading the situation
Likes: (food) Dango. Likes ramen and coffee (people) Smart people. People who don't get tired of being with him
KAGETSU
Age: 26 (outwardly)
Height: 178cm
Birthday: Summer
Blood type: Rabbit type A
Interests: Trimming his bangs, training
Special skill: Moving on uneven ground (stairs, bumpy roads)
Likes: (food) Dango. Also really into soba, and likes cola (people) Strong-willed, cute girls.
They've been together for some reason or other since they were born. An inseparable pair.
Sato's subordinates, in charge of sweeping in the town of Utsuwa. From literal neighborhood garbage cleanup to akujiki extermination, they'll follow any command Satou gives them. (No, more like they have no choice)
They were close friends with Shin from childhood. As it's basically their job, they don't let personal feelings get in the way, but with Shin being the cause of the rapid increase in akujiki, it seems they both share a common interest in someday getting to punch him once.
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Rabbit Masks: The truth is they're in their bags. It seems they're used for effect during surprise attacks and things(?). In Mashiro's case, he doesn't wear it because it gets in the way of his hat.
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Special Weapons and Possessions: Mashiro has a plastic umbrella and a doctor's bag, while Kagetsu has a Western-style umbrella and a suitcase.
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Mashiro wears a ribbon tie and light brown vest under his coat. The mark on his hat isn't for fashion. He's also got riding pants.
Kagetsu's hooded cloak has separate sleeves. He wears a lined shirt underneath. He's got high-waisted pants (they're not sarouels). He wears a pendant with the same mark as on Mashiro's hat (also not for fashion)
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With Sato-san designed to look like a foreigner, his subordinates also look like non-native species "but with minor character faces". Their concepts were "mailman" and "monk", but we added too many things so there's not much left of that. There was a long fight over the original drawings between "Hot glasses guys are cool" and "there's way too many hot guys and glasses", but in the end we settled on plain showy characters who aren't particularly attractive but somehow get your attention anyway.
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MOMIJI
Age: 18 (outwardly)
Height: Washcloth cm
Birthday: Fall
Blood type: Momiji type AB
Interests: Strolling around town, singing songs
Special skill: Weather forecasts
Likes: (food) We don't see him eat so we don't know (people) We don't see him eat so we don't know
A mononoke who loiters around the town of Utsuwa. He's always hungry, and constantly searching for meals. While there's nothing this omnivore can't eat, he's picky with his choices.
His dream is to make a hundred friends.
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Momiji started with the proposal of a mononoke with rodent feet attached to it ⇒ We should give him a teru teru bouzu face ⇒ How sad ⇒ "Then we should change the insides"...and that's the trend we went through to get to this. AkaAka's shadow protagonist. By the way, his full name appears to be Teruyama Momiji. ← a guess by Scenario
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SAKU
age: 18 (outwardly)
height: 161cm
Birthday: Summer
Blood Type: Spider type O
Interests: Walking while eating, makeup, nails
Special Skill: It's impossible to untie what she's bound
Likes: (Food) Sweet things, cute things (people) Cute kids, strong people
Modern high school girl.
Sailor uniform
Miniskirt
Knee socks
Loafers
NAGI
age: 18 (outwardly)
height: 163cm
Birthday: Spring
Blood Type: Praying mantis type A
Interests: Reading, hair care
Special Skill: She can cut anything evenly
Likes: (Food) Things with a dense flavor, Japanese sweets (people) Strong-willed people, timid people
Old-fashioned schoolgirl.
Pinafore
White socks
Boots
A pair of mononoke in Utsuwa who look like high school girls.
Mikoto granted them a portion of the town as their territory. Rather than Mikoto's subordinates, they're in something like a privileged class, and think of themselves as Mikoto's equals. Because of this, they have an unreserved manner of speaking to anyone and everyone they meet, but underneath it all they're basically kind people.
On the subject of Shin's creating the shadow town, while they're disappointed in the shrine's inability to do anything about the gradually warping Utsuwa, they follow the line of logic that it's the concerned party's job to fix their own problem, and so have currently taken up a wait-and-see attitude.
Someday, if the time comes that there's no way things can continue, they'll probably offer a reluctant helping hand.
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The concept was a pair that's cute and strong and totally unaffected by the story. And yet it feels like they've gotten involved with quite a lot of characters. In comparison with all the guys they're involved with, these two shine the most.
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Together they're the strongest of the strong, able to compete with Mikoto and Sagano, but they don't do so well against Sato. They're both attack types, but Nagi's surprisingly the type to start in the front lines.
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SHIN
age: 26 (outwardly)
height: 181cm
Birthday: Spring
Blood Type: Fox type B
Interests: Walks, fishing, wandering around town
Special Skill: Involuntarily making those around him both love and hate him
Likes: (Food) Sweet things, sake, fried tofu. (people) Cute kids, people with a strong core.
Mikoto's counterpart existence, and younger brother. Taking on the role of a shield, he protects Mikoto, the master of the mountain. He used to be in charge of all negotiations with the outside world.
Long ago, the increasing population of humans living on Utsuwa's land and their accompanying increase in influential power brought with it mononoke who, unable to obtain meals, began to weaken. Unable to shut his eyes to the situation, Shin filled Utsuwa with Shadows, successfully stopping time at night.
However, now that Meals had become easier to obtain, there were mononoke who repeatedly overate, and he was stuck with the plight of having to destroy these akujiki with his own hands.
Furthermore, the young boy Tsubaki Akashi, whom Mikoto had given ayakashi powers to on a whim, released the seal that had tied down the shadows, and so Shin used his own body as a tie to reseal them. His now-homeless soul then possessed Akashi's body, and chose to live among humans. Switching out a new yorishiro for his soul whenever the possessed body reached its limit, he reached the present day.
Now, Shin is quietly watching over Utsuwa from within a yorishiro. To Shin, everyone - the mononoke, the children of Tsubaki, and everyone else - are all his precious children.
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There's an unexplainably pleasant feeling in abusing this guy, it's--well--I'm sorry. (lol) Being a character in that sort of situation, he's kind of a problem child in various ways. When his standing portrait came out I felt that even more strongly. In the end, his personality is totally different from how he looks...I wanted to write more scenes between Yue and Shin. After various pasts.
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the siblings give off kind of a clingy image
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he has one tail. rather than a fox, he looks more like a wolf...
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mononoke can all use their powers to look whatever age they want, so shin could be tiny and mikoto could be big if they wanted
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he was drawn with the idea that he'd be allowed to do terrible things if he looked ugly or weird, but he came out looking like a hot guy from a dating sim. As a result, despite him basically being reverse Sagano, they somehow turned out nothing alike - a mysterious development. Personally I get this amazing urge to hit him whenever his ears droop.
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YAICHI
Age: 35
Height: 182cm
Birthday: 1/8
Blood type: AB
Interests: Playing with children, working on an idea for a new book
Special skill: He'll pick up anything. He's also really good at gambling.
Likes: (food) Tougo-kun's cooking (people) He loves Akane-chan, Yoshiki-san, and the children.
Current head of the Tsubaki family, descended from Akashi, and Tougo's father. His main occupation is that of a novelist, but aside from some zealous fans, he's not very well renowned. As he can't make a living off the royalties and manuscript fees alone, he works a lot of part time jobs.
He lost both parents as a child and was raised by his grandparents; due to finding himself without any living relatives so early in life, he has a much stronger longing for and attachment to his family than most people.
In order to fill the chinks in his heart, he acts overly kind and friendly to those around him. His habit of bringing home random animals and people is one aspect of that.
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"Yaichi's always the one left behind, he's pathetic, I liked writing his scenes"
"You might say the broken-hearted Tsubaki family's shouldering all the negative aspects of AkaAka"
"Victims of spiriting away"
"Yaichi gives off the image of someone who's kind to a fault."
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"Somehow...he becomes a useless dad...when I write him... He wears a women's cardigan over a shirt. He gives off the image of always wearing black, as if aiming for the threshold between being overly unfashionable and not quite stylish.
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YOSHIKI
Age: 17 (outwardly)
Height: 176cm
Birthday: 4/6
Blood type: AB
Interests: Fishing, soccer, cleaning
Special skill: This isn't a special skill, but his disturbing public order is relatively annoying to his companions.
Likes: (food) Natto and tamagoyaki (people) He likes older people (though he doesn't realize it).
Yue's real father, and the previous yorishiro. He was born to the Sakura family, a branch of the Tsubaki family, and is Tsubaki Akane's cousin.
He protected and lived with Akane in place of her mother, Tsubaki Akari, who'd become a yorishiro and disappeared. Several years later, when Akari reappeared to make Akane into her Meal, he chose to sacrifice himself and become a yorishiro in Akane's place.
After coming to live at the shrine, he used his position as yorishiro to secretly protect people, and consequently the Tsubaki children, from becoming meals for mononoke. He reunited with Akane by chance, and had relations with her in order to protect Yaichi and Tougo, making a child to sacrifice in their stead.
Unable to make the newborn baby into a Meal, though, he and Akane together became its first Meal instead.
------
"Yoshiki is a righteous person on the surface, contrary to his inner self."
------
The dads in AkaAka are somehow...a set of useless men...I wanted to gather those no-good guys together and beat them up, angrily asking "Why are you like this?" while drawing Yaichi lol, but then the one in charge of Scenario told me "It's because Yaichi's kind of broken," and I finally understood. Ever since, I've loved ED10. It's barely been touched on, but I'd personally like to delve further into their story.
In regards to Yoshiki, I designed him with the idea that he'd look great in a school uniform (but it never happened in-game). I did the face at first with the idea that he'd resemble Yue, with it being difficult to read his true feelings lol.
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HINA
Age: 6
Height: 107cm
Birthday: 7/1
Blood type: Probably AB
Interests: Drawing
Special skill: Flying kicks
Likes: (food) Onii-chan's cooking, fried tofu (people) Dad and Onii-chan. Interesting and kind people.
Tougo's little sister. Yaichi found her in front of the house 6 years ago.
Tougo thinks she's a half-sister Yaichi made elsewhere, but the truth is that she's Mikoto's seventh tail. As with ordinary children, she's grown from a baby to her current size over the past 6 years, but she holds powers surpassing that of your average mononoke.
Mikoto loaned her to Yoshiki when he was alive, giving her a soul and entrusting her with the protection of the Tsubaki family. She was created from Yoshiki's wish that the Tsubaki father and son could be protected even after his death. After gaining perception of herself as "Hina", and with it obviously being her mission, she has since consistently desired to protect the Tsubaki family.
That's what this little girl is, who loves her father and brother so dearly.
----
She wears poofy overalls under a cardigan and either a dress or a culotte skirt.
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AKANE
Age: 27 (age at death)
Height: 162cm
Birthday: 10/10
Blood type: A
Interests: Singing, Western dressmaking
Special skill: Remembering faces, memorization
Likes: (food) Takoyaki (people) Kind people.
Tougo and Yue's real mother. In society, it's said that she ran off with another man when she disappeared.
She left Tougo behind and disappeared when he was very young, but she herself was also abandoned by her mother at a young age. Because of this, she has painful feelings of mixed love and hate towards the mother who suddenly disappeared before her, and her cousin Yoshiki, who followed a similar fate when he disappeared and became the yorishiro.
She treasured Yaichi, who supported her by himself, and Tougo, the child they'd conceived together, from the bottom of her heart; in order to protect them, she decided to conceive a child and make the next yorishiro herself.
However, in the end she and Yoshiki together became Yue's first "Meal".
------
She speaks with a Kyoto accent.
------
The men being failures necessitating the women to become strong is Hacca's usual order of operations.
Akane is like the personification of the complexity of a woman's heart. No-one can say what she really wanted to do, so the players will likely have differing interpretations of it (she's generally pretty frightening lol) that's what the parents' world is like. A soap opera.
Design-wise, we went for a woman that women would hate, to the point that when practically all the staff said "She really looks like the eloping type" we decided "Yup, let's go with this" lol. I don't usually draw this type of character, so it was fun. Despite everything, I personally really like her.
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SORA
Age: 17
Height: 172cm
Birthday: 10/19
Blood type: A
Interests: Going to the library, copying notes
Special skill: History, sewing. Can't read the mood.
Likes: (food) Carbonara. Taiyaki. (people) Likes cool beauties.
A 2nd year at Utsuwa High School, and Tougo's classmate. His parents are policemen, so he's what you'd call a latchkey kid.
He admires Tougo, who can do anything flawlessly. He pours all his enthusiasm into copying notes to give to him for those occasions when he's absent due to family circumstances.
For some reason or other he views Akiyoshi, who also watches over (?) Tougo, as a rival of some sort; however, he's too scared to actually do anything about it.
He's interested in Utsuwa's history, and dreams of becoming a fighting folklorist in the future. He's a Meal candidate for the goldfish.
------
"I personally like his human (shadow) version better."
------
Suzuki Human ver.: Despite being human he's awfully expressive.
------
While Suzuki-kun was the protagonist in the demo, we kept thinking about his part as a supporting role, and somehow came out with a scenario that didn't stress his importance at all - rather, he's just a background character whose sole purpose is to carry notes...unbelievable!
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AKITOSHI
Age: 51
Height: 175cm
Birthday: 8/25
Blood type: A
Interests: Shogi, kendo
Special skill: Kendo, penmanship, shakuhachi
Likes: (food) Japanese food. He likes sweets though. (people) Atmospheric beauties.
Akiyoshi's father, and the current head of the Tochika family. He plays the part of Sarutahiko at the big winter festival.
He was classmates with Sato back in high school. Having been taught to watch out for mononoke since he was a young child, school life with Sato often wore on his nerves. He's vexed at the fact that mononoke run rampant through the land of Utsuwa as if they owned the place, but as he won't carelessly meddle with the situation, he's basically taken on the position of a bystander.
------
Papa Akitoshi is different from the Tsubaki family; it was fun to write a real father type. He and Akiyoshi are the very picture of a rebellious age lol. Sato-san and the Tochika family are the only things I want to write! (I say)
------
Tengu: It's Akitoshi inside. For generations, the Tochika family head has shouldered the role of leading the festival procession. The tengu mask is made in the image of Sarutahiko.
------
He may look somber and subdued, but he wears a high-class kimono.
------
The leftover characters on this page are a mysterious combination, but the setting is "a high schooler who wants to be an archaeologist has come to see the landlord's books". (It's guaranteed nobody will find this fun).
------
He may look harsh now, but back in the day he was more beautiful than his son.
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Girl A (Yuka)
Age： 6 (outwardly) - Height： 110cm - Birthday： Spring - Blood Type: Moth A Type
Interests： Searching for meals - Special Skill: Shoulder massage
Likes (Food) Unknown. (People) Grandpas and grandmas.
A young girl akujiki. With Sagano Kindergarten as her usual hunting grounds, she repeatedly hunts for meals. Older people, particularly the elderly, are her favorite prey, but after eating countless people who weren't her "meal," she became an akujiki.
Because she hasn't actually had a real "meal," and has therefore never known true satisfaction, she holds a strong interest in the supreme meal called Mitsuboshi.
Also, while she has no feelings of companionship towards the male akujiki, but as he arbitrarily decided to work with her, they sometimes hang out together.
------
Young Man B (Oreta)
Age: 19 (outwardly) - Height: 177cm - Birthday: Summer - Blood Type: Fox Type B
Interests: aimless wandering, singing, riddles - Special Skill: Somersaults, wrapping bandages neatly
Likes (Food) Unknown. (People) Attractive people.
A young man akujiki. Often works together with the young girl akujiki.
Though he originally became an akujiki through constantly preying on those who weren't his prey, even in his current akujiki form he still retains his sense of self, to some extent. Whether it's because he was lucky enough to make a meal of someone with strong powers, or because he himself was originally a mononoke with that sort of power, is unknown.
He's idolized Shin since before he became an akujiki, and holds both curiosity and attachment towards Yue, who is Shin's yorishiro, and Sagano, who has Shin's form.
------
Akujiki
Age: various - Height: generally around 2m, able to expand and contract - Birthday: various - Blood Type: various
Interests: wandering around, meals - Special Skill: Appearing in unexpected places/at unexpected moments
Likes (Food) Unknown. (People) Whatever catches their eye.
The ruins of what once were mononoke who indiscriminately ate more "meals" than could be allowed. Gradually detaching from their original forms, they lost most of their intelligence and sense of self, instinctively pursuing more meals. As the Shadows' being stopped in Utsuwa is the underlying cause, their influence on the creatures is strong enough to be noticeable in their appearance.
------
the closer to human form an akujiki is, the more power it has (the sense of self and ability to keep their form gradually weakens the more they act on gluttony - in other words the higher your limit the slower you fall apart)
aside from the factor of ability levels, there are also those mononoke more prone to turning and those who aren't
YUE
Age: 17 (outwardly)
Height: 174cm
Birthday: 1/20
Blood type: AB
Interests: Going back to sleep, casually observing his surroundings while sleeping
Special skill: Traveling to hidden/secret areas
Likes: (food) Fried tofu, sweet things. (people) Rebellious people, people who look after/care for him.
A boy born to be the yorishiro housing Shin's soul. His mother (Akane) got herself pregnant with his father and previous yorishiro (Yoshiki) in order to create a replacement yorishiro. His body grew rapidly due to eating both parents shortly after birth. Though he's actually 7, his outward appearance is around 17.
He's been confined to one room in the shrine for a few years now.
As keeping Shin's soul and body alive exhausts his own physical and mental resources, he's constantly hungry and fatigued.
His hobby being naps also has its practical benefits. Despite his calm and leisurely personality, he has a strong sense of curiosity.
He feels in some ways that he has no choice but to exist as someone's replacement, a fact which naturally led to his forming very few strong desires or attachments. During the process of "preparing for the Meal," he learned about the outside world, and found himself facing emotions he'd never realized before.
――――――
He's more of a liar to himself than to anyone else, so it's impossible to say what it is he truly wants.
――――――
The symbol on his clothes is the same as the mark on his skin, as if it had seeped out and stained his uniform. It seems to be the sign of a yorishiro (or possibly a curse).
――――――
He might be very curious, but he fundamentally lacks ambition.
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KUROGITSUNE
Age: 15 (outwardly)
Height: 158cm
Birthday: Fall
Blood type: Fox type O
Interests: Buying and eating, TV appreciation, playing as a whole
Special skill: Recognizing the sound of monetary offerings
Likes: (food) Takoyaki, traditional snacks, Ranchuu's cooking. Sweets. (people) Kind people. Also he's weak to annoying people, in various senses of the word.
A fox mononoke, and Yue's self-proclaimed older brother. He calls himself Kurogitsune (Black Fox) after his species name. He has bad eyesight, and covers one eye with bandages.
He took Yue, who lives in the shrine, outside on the day of the festival. He usually takes human form when in the shrine, and the form of a black fox when descending the mountain.
He's sick and tired of mononoke "meals," preferring to eat human food instead. He especially loves takoyaki.
He has great respect and affection for Shin, who favored him despite their being different species, and was entrusted with both protecting Shin's yorishiro, and finding new ones for him to dwell in.
He took a strong interest in Yue, who was born and raised in the shrine, and before long, began to hold special feelings for him. Having realized these feelings are the same as those felt when regarding someone as a "meal," he consciously averts his eyes when looking at him.
――――――
A very good boy. For the scenario. lol Of course he was incredibly helpful in moving the story forward, we hadn't originally expected him to become a good boy - or rather, a cool guy, in the narrative. (Because he had the ability to read the mood...) And so without any trouble he became a character who basically was the atmosphere. If he wasn't there the story wouldn't be able to maintain itself...
That's probably the sort of existence he is to Yue, as well. If Kurogitsune weren't there, Yue might have had a slightly more warped personality.
――――――
The somewhat high collar is from Heian-era clothing
Dresses like Ushiwakamaru
The sleeves are stitched in the back
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TOUGO
Age: 17
Height: 174cm
Birthday: 5/10
Blood type: A
Interests: Music appreciation, cooking, playing with his sister
Special skills: Math, curry, soccer
Likes: (food) Food not made by him, ice cream (people) Lonely-seeming people. With girls, he prefers the mature type.
Second year student at Utsuwa High School. His family consists of a father and younger sister. Yue's older half-brother.
Mononoke consider him to be the ultimate meal, "Mitsuboshi;" as a result of their constantly targeting him, he's gone through a lot of dangerous situations since childhood. His idol and the man who'd protected him, Yoshiki, disappeared together with his mother, Akane - a fact he refuses to accept. He holds resentment towards them to this day.
A realist, though he has his occasional moments, he's fundamentally a calm and collected person. He's hoping to get clues about Akane and Yoshiki's disappearance from Yue.
------
His scarf is light blue with checks. There's a wealth of rumors within Hacca about what he might be listening to on those headphones.
------
Tougo (childhood): He was a good kid, but his dad's a deadbeat and his mom disappeared and a weirdo in a fox mask influenced her into running away...but all that aside he's great. You can't see in the pictures, but he's wearing shorts.
------
Though his uniform is perfectly neat, his shoes are a little more casually pointed than Akiyoshi's, at the tips.
He's carrying the Utsuwa High School designated schoolbag.
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AKIYOSHI
age: 17
height: 178cm
birthday: 10/29
blood type: b
interests: morning glory observation, playing the shakuhachi (a traditional japanese bamboo flute)
special skill: geography, history, swimming, all of phys ed
likes: (food) sweet things, things with strong flavor. hamburg steak. (people) he's weak to cheerful, aggressive girls.
Third year at Utsuwa High School. Heir of the Tochika Family, which has governed the land of Utsuwa for generations. Doesn't have many friends. Due to severe allergies, he's inseparable from his mask and tissues most of the year.
As the eldest son of the only family in the human population to know the existence of mononoke, he feels a strong sense of duty which propels him to protect Utsuwa. Also, he's embraced a strong opposition towards his father, who hasn't taken any steps against the mononoke currently running rampant through the town.
He's investigating and monitoring the mononoke behind his parents' backs. He also watches over Tsubaki Tougo, who as a potential yorishiro candidate is often in danger from mononoke, but due to his suspicious methods he's seen as a stalker.
While he couldn't in his wildest dreams imagine this, he's actually also a being capable of becoming a yorishiro.
――――――――――
His cloak has slits in the sides for his arms to poke through. It's a hand-me-down from his big sister.
His scarf is green-striped. Nicknamed "Melon".
――――――――――
akiyoshi's talismans: for a variety of reasons he actually just uses simple evil spirit eradication talismans, but he doesn't have any memory of them being particularly useful.
in an emergency he can use his tissues as a substitute.
――――――――――
akiyoshi's tissue box: Nepure. An arbitrary design by Satoru-san. Celeb-type people might use it on occasion.
――――――――――
akiyoshi's human version: used in the demo. "wait, how would you put a mask on a human?" "like this, i guess...?"
――――――――――
akiyoshi (child): he's a rich boy from a good family, and yet he wears a cape like this. we're not sure whether he had allergies at this time. he didn't have glasses yet, though.
――――――――――
"if you took everything away he'd just be an ikemen, and yet
it feels like it'd be terrible to strip away all the graphic team's hard work
akiyoshi
we hate you"
(from a dying message on akiyoshi's standing portrait file)
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SAGANO
age: 26 (outwardly)
height: 181 cm
birthday: 6/21
blood type: o
interests: eating, sleeping, singing
special skill: the truth is he's surprisingly handy, and can fix a variety of things.
likes: (food) warm food, mikan. (people) people with cute smiles, proactive people.
”Sagano" is the name of the place where he was sealed, not his original name. The misnomer stuck as a result of Yue's misunderstanding his muttering.
His original form having been sealed away by Shin, his soul - Tsubaki Akashi, took Shin's body and was resurrected.
After being sealed away by Shin, he watched the land of Utsuwa change from within the seal; however, having been together with the Shadows the entire time, their nature had a powerful influence on him. When he was resurrected, due to his grudge against Shin and the shadows' corrosion, he decided on the goal of defeating Shin (Yue) in order to release Utsuwa from the shadows.
Concerning his hatred towards Shin, he's aware that he's obsessing over something long-past, and occasionally lets out a smile that seems to be deriding himself, contrary to his actions.
――――――――――
I was thinking of him as wandering aimlessly around, but then I read the scenario and thought, "He's pretty unfriendly, huh!" Following that, he said "Let's continue" way too much and I started to think "He's a really embarrassing guy." Following that, I thought "Even desperate actions have their limits." When he began simply attacking randomly, going through events where he boasted about righteousness in people's houses and tricked high schoolers, then finally treating himself to food he picked up while wandering around, somewhere along the way I grew attached to him. He acts as a hero of the people who goes without reward, but is actually a pitiful last boss who's lost his way.
――――――――――
The hood is oversized. Coat edge and sleeves are ribbed. He wears two belts, with a cloth wound round his waist underneath.
------
tattoo: a mark from the shadows having eaten a portion of sagano himself, after being together for so long. it's supposed to look like twin foxfire flames but it's mostly unrecognizable..."
------
he got his clothes from a kind lady passerby in the shopping district when he was wandering unsteadily after his revival (because he looks cold and also attractive)
------
he carries around a staff he'd found lying near the pampas grass field and corroded with shadows (basically as a hoodlum he can't keep his cool without a weapon)
------
"what happened to the tail..." "it made me angry so i pulled it out"
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MIKOTO
Age: 7 (outwardly)
Height: 112cm
Birthday: Spring
Blood type: Fox type B
Interests: Taking walks on the mountain, walking around incognito
Special skill: Temari (traditional Japanese handball), cat's cradle, singing games
Likes: (food) Pretty things, sweet things. (people) Pretty people. People who don't listen to her.
The master of the mountain who controls all the mononoke of Utsuwa. She was originally a nine-tailed white fox, but she currently has eight.
Since her younger brother Shin stopped the shadows in the town of Utsuwa, she's watched over generations of yorishiro for the sake of keeping his soul and body alive. However, she somewhat senses that preserving Shin and the town the way they are has produced warped results.
In the past, she gained interest in a dying young man and saved his life, half in fun.
This was the beginning of the Tsubaki family line's "Mitsuboshi" status.
Currently, she's dispatched one of her tails to protect the Tsubaki line, sending her love towards all the generations of Tsubaki children.
------
"At first glance she might seem capricious, but when you think about it children and gods are similar in that respect."
"Originally there was another Yue and Mikoto end besides ED7; it was a bad end, but it was really yuri to me so I wanted to see it."
"Even now, I kinda wish there'd been an ending in Tougo Route where Yue and Miko-chan were happily chatting and giggling with each other. lol"
"She's the kind of girl who has all this power, and runs around the mountain with her temari ball, confusing people as "a normal human child".
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SATO
Age: 50 (outwardly)
Height: 180cm
Birthday: Fall
Blood type: Raven type B
Interests: Cleaning, shogi, collecting shiny objects
Special skills: Cleaning, preaching
Likes: (food) Ochazuke, sweet things, Ranchuu's cooking (people) His current masters. Also rash and incautious types.
Mikoto's assistant, and priest of the Utsuwa Shrine. He also raised Yue as his mentor.
Though his masters, Mikoto and Shin, place the land of Utsuwa first and foremost in their thoughts and actions, their optimism offers him a neverending stream of worry. Occasionally he will act on his own rather than waiting for orders.
Though he didn't interfere with the shadow town and yorishiro, both born from Mikoto and Shin's selfishness, he personally does not have many good sentiments towards the situation.
While he's felt something for each of the successive generations of yorishiro, he's always kept a certain emotional distance from them. However, he's had some difficulty holding to that rule in regards to Yue.
After Shin's absence, he took up the role of negotiations for mononoke, and has held deep connections with the Tochika family for generations now.
------
Kind of a tsundere.
------
The man in AkaAka who we wanted to be "swooshy/stylish/lord and retainer/relatively childish/ikemen", Sato-san. (it's like we're cramming all our dreams into one guy) When he appeared with the rabbits at his sides it was heart-poundingly exciting, like a star performer's entry on the stage.
At first there was a rule that everyone should have scarves, so I wavered between giving him a scarf or a stole, but he'd look great with it fluttering out behind him like wings, so in the end he got something similar wrapped around him. [...] He was wearing gloves in the original draft, but I forgot to draw them later, and then thought...well, he'd look weird wearing them at mealtimes too, so it's fine! He might put them on when doing dirty work.
------
"I like withered people, so I was really sad when they wouldn't let me put any in the previous game. So when I heard there was one in this one, I was really happy! But though he's withered on the outside he's actually not on the inside lol. He's very crisp. But that's fine. A very crisp grandpa, that's my favorite."
------
"I can't imagine him in any position other than seiza when sitting at attention"
"He looks kinda foreign with a slightly aquiline nose"
"He tucks up his kimono sleeves with a tasuki when making pickled vegetables"
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RANCHUU
Age: 15 (outwardly)
Height: 157.5cm
Birthday: Winter
Blood type: Mouse type A
Interests: Reading, tending the garden
Special skill: Mental arithmetic
Likes: (food) Grains, spicy food (people) Friendly rivals he can respect
A mononoke serving under Mikoto and Sato. He works to take care of everyone in the shrine.
He's yet to experience the "Meal", and is a little worried over his lack of experience as a mononoke. Because of this inferiority complex, he doesn't leave the shrine very often; however, watching his former companions change into akujiki one by one also led him to secretly hold negative opinions on Meals.
He feels a friendly familiarity with Kurogitsune, who's of the same generation as him, but envies his outgoing personality - a fact which leads him to inadvertently act somewhat cold towards him.
------
Ranchuu and Kurogitsune both share a similarly good sort of atmosphere...they're refreshing. Despite being novice mononoke, they're both somehow very straightforward. Though they don't have much pull in the story, they're important supporting characters. I'd like to write a story someday with Ranchuu as the main character.
------
"Ranchuu was designed to look young and girlish. Am I the only one who thought he was the one character in AkaAka with the biggest chance of being a love god? He's my personal favorite. Making him smile on-screen somehow made me happy."
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GOLDFISH
* All three are shared
Age: Around 7 (outwardly)
Height: Around 120cm (when in human form)
Birthday: Summer
Blood type: Goldfish type B
Interests: Playing with Sato-san; bothering Kurogitsune
Special skill: Tsukkomi (playing the straight man), flying
Likes: (food) Sato-san's cooking (people) Sato-san and Suzuki-kun
Goldfish triplets who live in the shrine. As they're still young and full of curiosity, they're interested in anything and everything.
The red goldfish is Suisen (the most energetic), the black goldfish is Gyokuro (the most calm), the yellow goldfish is Kiimun (the most spoiled).
They love Sato-san as both a foster parent and a friend, but that doesn't mean they'll let up on him when it comes to playing the tsukkomi.
They look forward to meeting Suzuki Sora when they're bigger.
------
O Gyokuro, Kiimun, Suisen Human ver.
Designed with the image of Gyokuro as Japan, Kiimun as foreign, and Suisen as China. Their fin-like scarves are a main point.
------
"The goldfish's popularity in the demo dropped a lot in the main game, but if I could I'd want to go pour salt in everyone's wounds. I rather enjoy that terrible feeling." - the person who called Ranchuu a love god
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SENNEN CAT
Age: Older than Sato nyaa
Gender: Secret nyaa
Height: ???cm
Birthday: Spring
Blood type: Cat type O
Interests: Basking in the sun
Special skill: Calculation
Likes: (food) Likes meat more than fish (people) Kids who put in all their effort
The signboard cat of the mysterious general store "Sennen Mart". Tends the store in place of the owner, who is often away on business. It's in the neutral position of being neither with humans nor mononoke, but uses that position to carry out an information trading business. (However, people often skip paying the fee.)
When it comes to human customers, it only takes human form to greet them when it happens to feel like it. (Doing so is a pain so it usually pretends to be out.)
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ABE-SAN-TACHI
Age: 28 (outwardly)
Height: 178cm (front), 195cm (center)
Birthday: Winter
Blood type: Centipede type B
Interests: Walking with synchronized limbs, new product development
Special skill: One-night stands
Likes: (food) Things with a refreshing flavor (people) Pretty but dumb girls, stubborn kids.
Mononoke and Sato's subordinates, stationed at the shrine's talisman stand.
They enjoy catching female shrine visitors, regardless of age, and making them their Meals. They're the type with a wide defensive range, who prefer not to go to the trouble of searching for Meals.
There seems to be an agreement between the two Abes that they won't make a Meal of anyone they don't both agree on, but the one in front often chooses to do as he pleases, leading to him getting scolded quite frequently by the one behind.
Very serious about their work.
Unlike the other shrine members, they don't try to have anything to do with the yorishiro. The only exception is Sakura Yoshiki, with whom they shared a deep connection.
Though they live in a different place from the main building Yue lives in, they often appear in main building's living room for meals.
ーーーーー
These guys were probably the start of it all.... When everyone was thinking of weird characters for AkaAka we talked about a character who looks obviously the "Helping Hands" comedy performance, only you can't see the helper guy behind him, then after that probably thought it was a good idea to add the droopy eyes and wavy hair....His haori is made for women, and that's gross. The one in front probably has an easier time approaching people with his comparatively human-like appearance. Ah, no, I mean there isn't anyone in back, of course.
------
At present Hacca Works has the only female-oriented game so far with a deadly serious "Helping Hands" performance! Off-topic, but the little taiko drum Yoshiki has on the soundtrack jacket belongs to Abe-san-tachi. Nobody noticed so I wanted to say it here.
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TOMORI
Age: 20 (outwardly)
Height: 175cm (center)
Birthday: Spring
Blood type: Deer type AB
Interests: Enjoying plantlife, fishing
Special skill: Running on the mountain
Likes: (food) Likes tsukemono and kashiwamochi. Also likes to drink. (people) Energetic, cheerful people.
The mononoke responsible for Mikoto's barrier lights, and lights them on the mountain every night. From lighting the lamps at night, to putting them out in the morning, he stands watch over them. Thanks to the barrier they create, the shrine and mountain stay free of the Shadows' influence.
He doesn't have many opportunities to associate with other mononoke due to the nature of his role, but he sometimes passes his free time taking walks, fishing, or doing other things with Kurogitsune and Yue.
------
On the original picture we kept theorizing how maybe he was actually a tiny old man in a puppet, but we never got far with that. In any case he's mysteriously soothing. He's got long horns, but sadly they get cut off in the game screen. While we're at it, he looks surprisingly bulky when lined up next to Abe-san-tachi.
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MASHIRO
Age: 26 (outwardly)
Height: 183cm
Birthday: Spring
Blood type: Rabbit type O
Interests: Strolling around by himself
Special skill: Mediation, reading the situation
Likes: (food) Dango. Likes ramen and coffee (people) Smart people. People who don't get tired of being with him
KAGETSU
Age: 26 (outwardly)
Height: 178cm
Birthday: Summer
Blood type: Rabbit type A
Interests: Trimming his bangs, training
Special skill: Moving on uneven ground (stairs, bumpy roads)
Likes: (food) Dango. Also really into soba, and likes cola (people) Strong-willed, cute girls.
They've been together for some reason or other since they were born. An inseparable pair.
Sato's subordinates, in charge of sweeping in the town of Utsuwa. From literal neighborhood garbage cleanup to akujiki extermination, they'll follow any command Satou gives them. (No, more like they have no choice)
They were close friends with Shin from childhood. As it's basically their job, they don't let personal feelings get in the way, but with Shin being the cause of the rapid increase in akujiki, it seems they both share a common interest in someday getting to punch him once.
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Rabbit Masks: The truth is they're in their bags. It seems they're used for effect during surprise attacks and things(?). In Mashiro's case, he doesn't wear it because it gets in the way of his hat.
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Special Weapons and Possessions: Mashiro has a plastic umbrella and a doctor's bag, while Kagetsu has a Western-style umbrella and a suitcase.
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Mashiro wears a ribbon tie and light brown vest under his coat. The mark on his hat isn't for fashion. He's also got riding pants.
Kagetsu's hooded cloak has separate sleeves. He wears a lined shirt underneath. He's got high-waisted pants (they're not sarouels). He wears a pendant with the same mark as on Mashiro's hat (also not for fashion)
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With Sato-san designed to look like a foreigner, his subordinates also look like non-native species "but with minor character faces". Their concepts were "mailman" and "monk", but we added too many things so there's not much left of that. There was a long fight over the original drawings between "Hot glasses guys are cool" and "there's way too many hot guys and glasses", but in the end we settled on plain showy characters who aren't particularly attractive but somehow get your attention anyway.
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MOMIJI
Age: 18 (outwardly)
Height: Washcloth cm
Birthday: Fall
Blood type: Momiji type AB
Interests: Strolling around town, singing songs
Special skill: Weather forecasts
Likes: (food) We don't see him eat so we don't know (people) We don't see him eat so we don't know
A mononoke who loiters around the town of Utsuwa. He's always hungry, and constantly searching for meals. While there's nothing this omnivore can't eat, he's picky with his choices.
His dream is to make a hundred friends.
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Momiji started with the proposal of a mononoke with rodent feet attached to it ⇒ We should give him a teru teru bouzu face ⇒ How sad ⇒ "Then we should change the insides"...and that's the trend we went through to get to this. AkaAka's shadow protagonist. By the way, his full name appears to be Teruyama Momiji. ← a guess by Scenario
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SAKU
age: 18 (outwardly)
height: 161cm
Birthday: Summer
Blood Type: Spider type O
Interests: Walking while eating, makeup, nails
Special Skill: It's impossible to untie what she's bound
Likes: (Food) Sweet things, cute things (people) Cute kids, strong people
Modern high school girl.
Sailor uniform
Miniskirt
Knee socks
Loafers
NAGI
age: 18 (outwardly)
height: 163cm
Birthday: Spring
Blood Type: Praying mantis type A
Interests: Reading, hair care
Special Skill: She can cut anything evenly
Likes: (Food) Things with a dense flavor, Japanese sweets (people) Strong-willed people, timid people
Old-fashioned schoolgirl.
Pinafore
White socks
Boots
A pair of mononoke in Utsuwa who look like high school girls.
Mikoto granted them a portion of the town as their territory. Rather than Mikoto's subordinates, they're in something like a privileged class, and think of themselves as Mikoto's equals. Because of this, they have an unreserved manner of speaking to anyone and everyone they meet, but underneath it all they're basically kind people.
On the subject of Shin's creating the shadow town, while they're disappointed in the shrine's inability to do anything about the gradually warping Utsuwa, they follow the line of logic that it's the concerned party's job to fix their own problem, and so have currently taken up a wait-and-see attitude.
Someday, if the time comes that there's no way things can continue, they'll probably offer a reluctant helping hand.
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The concept was a pair that's cute and strong and totally unaffected by the story. And yet it feels like they've gotten involved with quite a lot of characters. In comparison with all the guys they're involved with, these two shine the most.
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Together they're the strongest of the strong, able to compete with Mikoto and Sagano, but they don't do so well against Sato. They're both attack types, but Nagi's surprisingly the type to start in the front lines.
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SHIN
age: 26 (outwardly)
height: 181cm
Birthday: Spring
Blood Type: Fox type B
Interests: Walks, fishing, wandering around town
Special Skill: Involuntarily making those around him both love and hate him
Likes: (Food) Sweet things, sake, fried tofu. (people) Cute kids, people with a strong core.
Mikoto's counterpart existence, and younger brother. Taking on the role of a shield, he protects Mikoto, the master of the mountain. He used to be in charge of all negotiations with the outside world.
Long ago, the increasing population of humans living on Utsuwa's land and their accompanying increase in influential power brought with it mononoke who, unable to obtain meals, began to weaken. Unable to shut his eyes to the situation, Shin filled Utsuwa with Shadows, successfully stopping time at night.
However, now that Meals had become easier to obtain, there were mononoke who repeatedly overate, and he was stuck with the plight of having to destroy these akujiki with his own hands.
Furthermore, the young boy Tsubaki Akashi, whom Mikoto had given ayakashi powers to on a whim, released the seal that had tied down the shadows, and so Shin used his own body as a tie to reseal them. His now-homeless soul then possessed Akashi's body, and chose to live among humans. Switching out a new yorishiro for his soul whenever the possessed body reached its limit, he reached the present day.
Now, Shin is quietly watching over Utsuwa from within a yorishiro. To Shin, everyone - the mononoke, the children of Tsubaki, and everyone else - are all his precious children.
――――――――――
There's an unexplainably pleasant feeling in abusing this guy, it's--well--I'm sorry. (lol) Being a character in that sort of situation, he's kind of a problem child in various ways. When his standing portrait came out I felt that even more strongly. In the end, his personality is totally different from how he looks...I wanted to write more scenes between Yue and Shin. After various pasts.
――――――――――
the siblings give off kind of a clingy image
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he has one tail. rather than a fox, he looks more like a wolf...
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mononoke can all use their powers to look whatever age they want, so shin could be tiny and mikoto could be big if they wanted
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he was drawn with the idea that he'd be allowed to do terrible things if he looked ugly or weird, but he came out looking like a hot guy from a dating sim. As a result, despite him basically being reverse Sagano, they somehow turned out nothing alike - a mysterious development. Personally I get this amazing urge to hit him whenever his ears droop.
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YAICHI
Age: 35
Height: 182cm
Birthday: 1/8
Blood type: AB
Interests: Playing with children, working on an idea for a new book
Special skill: He'll pick up anything. He's also really good at gambling.
Likes: (food) Tougo-kun's cooking (people) He loves Akane-chan, Yoshiki-san, and the children.
Current head of the Tsubaki family, descended from Akashi, and Tougo's father. His main occupation is that of a novelist, but aside from some zealous fans, he's not very well renowned. As he can't make a living off the royalties and manuscript fees alone, he works a lot of part time jobs.
He lost both parents as a child and was raised by his grandparents; due to finding himself without any living relatives so early in life, he has a much stronger longing for and attachment to his family than most people.
In order to fill the chinks in his heart, he acts overly kind and friendly to those around him. His habit of bringing home random animals and people is one aspect of that.
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"Yaichi's always the one left behind, he's pathetic, I liked writing his scenes"
"You might say the broken-hearted Tsubaki family's shouldering all the negative aspects of AkaAka"
"Victims of spiriting away"
"Yaichi gives off the image of someone who's kind to a fault."
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"Somehow...he becomes a useless dad...when I write him... He wears a women's cardigan over a shirt. He gives off the image of always wearing black, as if aiming for the threshold between being overly unfashionable and not quite stylish.
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YOSHIKI
Age: 17 (outwardly)
Height: 176cm
Birthday: 4/6
Blood type: AB
Interests: Fishing, soccer, cleaning
Special skill: This isn't a special skill, but his disturbing public order is relatively annoying to his companions.
Likes: (food) Natto and tamagoyaki (people) He likes older people (though he doesn't realize it).
Yue's real father, and the previous yorishiro. He was born to the Sakura family, a branch of the Tsubaki family, and is Tsubaki Akane's cousin.
He protected and lived with Akane in place of her mother, Tsubaki Akari, who'd become a yorishiro and disappeared. Several years later, when Akari reappeared to make Akane into her Meal, he chose to sacrifice himself and become a yorishiro in Akane's place.
After coming to live at the shrine, he used his position as yorishiro to secretly protect people, and consequently the Tsubaki children, from becoming meals for mononoke. He reunited with Akane by chance, and had relations with her in order to protect Yaichi and Tougo, making a child to sacrifice in their stead.
Unable to make the newborn baby into a Meal, though, he and Akane together became its first Meal instead.
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"Yoshiki is a righteous person on the surface, contrary to his inner self."
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The dads in AkaAka are somehow...a set of useless men...I wanted to gather those no-good guys together and beat them up, angrily asking "Why are you like this?" while drawing Yaichi lol, but then the one in charge of Scenario told me "It's because Yaichi's kind of broken," and I finally understood. Ever since, I've loved ED10. It's barely been touched on, but I'd personally like to delve further into their story.
In regards to Yoshiki, I designed him with the idea that he'd look great in a school uniform (but it never happened in-game). I did the face at first with the idea that he'd resemble Yue, with it being difficult to read his true feelings lol.
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HINA
Age: 6
Height: 107cm
Birthday: 7/1
Blood type: Probably AB
Interests: Drawing
Special skill: Flying kicks
Likes: (food) Onii-chan's cooking, fried tofu (people) Dad and Onii-chan. Interesting and kind people.
Tougo's little sister. Yaichi found her in front of the house 6 years ago.
Tougo thinks she's a half-sister Yaichi made elsewhere, but the truth is that she's Mikoto's seventh tail. As with ordinary children, she's grown from a baby to her current size over the past 6 years, but she holds powers surpassing that of your average mononoke.
Mikoto loaned her to Yoshiki when he was alive, giving her a soul and entrusting her with the protection of the Tsubaki family. She was created from Yoshiki's wish that the Tsubaki father and son could be protected even after his death. After gaining perception of herself as "Hina", and with it obviously being her mission, she has since consistently desired to protect the Tsubaki family.
That's what this little girl is, who loves her father and brother so dearly.
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She wears poofy overalls under a cardigan and either a dress or a culotte skirt.
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AKANE
Age: 27 (age at death)
Height: 162cm
Birthday: 10/10
Blood type: A
Interests: Singing, Western dressmaking
Special skill: Remembering faces, memorization
Likes: (food) Takoyaki (people) Kind people.
Tougo and Yue's real mother. In society, it's said that she ran off with another man when she disappeared.
She left Tougo behind and disappeared when he was very young, but she herself was also abandoned by her mother at a young age. Because of this, she has painful feelings of mixed love and hate towards the mother who suddenly disappeared before her, and her cousin Yoshiki, who followed a similar fate when he disappeared and became the yorishiro.
She treasured Yaichi, who supported her by himself, and Tougo, the child they'd conceived together, from the bottom of her heart; in order to protect them, she decided to conceive a child and make the next yorishiro herself.
However, in the end she and Yoshiki together became Yue's first "Meal".
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She speaks with a Kyoto accent.
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The men being failures necessitating the women to become strong is Hacca's usual order of operations.
Akane is like the personification of the complexity of a woman's heart. No-one can say what she really wanted to do, so the players will likely have differing interpretations of it (she's generally pretty frightening lol) that's what the parents' world is like. A soap opera.
Design-wise, we went for a woman that women would hate, to the point that when practically all the staff said "She really looks like the eloping type" we decided "Yup, let's go with this" lol. I don't usually draw this type of character, so it was fun. Despite everything, I personally really like her.
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SORA
Age: 17
Height: 172cm
Birthday: 10/19
Blood type: A
Interests: Going to the library, copying notes
Special skill: History, sewing. Can't read the mood.
Likes: (food) Carbonara. Taiyaki. (people) Likes cool beauties.
A 2nd year at Utsuwa High School, and Tougo's classmate. His parents are policemen, so he's what you'd call a latchkey kid.
He admires Tougo, who can do anything flawlessly. He pours all his enthusiasm into copying notes to give to him for those occasions when he's absent due to family circumstances.
For some reason or other he views Akiyoshi, who also watches over (?) Tougo, as a rival of some sort; however, he's too scared to actually do anything about it.
He's interested in Utsuwa's history, and dreams of becoming a fighting folklorist in the future. He's a Meal candidate for the goldfish.
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"I personally like his human (shadow) version better."
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Suzuki Human ver.: Despite being human he's awfully expressive.
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While Suzuki-kun was the protagonist in the demo, we kept thinking about his part as a supporting role, and somehow came out with a scenario that didn't stress his importance at all - rather, he's just a background character whose sole purpose is to carry notes...unbelievable!
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AKITOSHI
Age: 51
Height: 175cm
Birthday: 8/25
Blood type: A
Interests: Shogi, kendo
Special skill: Kendo, penmanship, shakuhachi
Likes: (food) Japanese food. He likes sweets though. (people) Atmospheric beauties.
Akiyoshi's father, and the current head of the Tochika family. He plays the part of Sarutahiko at the big winter festival.
He was classmates with Sato back in high school. Having been taught to watch out for mononoke since he was a young child, school life with Sato often wore on his nerves. He's vexed at the fact that mononoke run rampant through the land of Utsuwa as if they owned the place, but as he won't carelessly meddle with the situation, he's basically taken on the position of a bystander.
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Papa Akitoshi is different from the Tsubaki family; it was fun to write a real father type. He and Akiyoshi are the very picture of a rebellious age lol. Sato-san and the Tochika family are the only things I want to write! (I say)
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Tengu: It's Akitoshi inside. For generations, the Tochika family head has shouldered the role of leading the festival procession. The tengu mask is made in the image of Sarutahiko.
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He may look somber and subdued, but he wears a high-class kimono.
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The leftover characters on this page are a mysterious combination, but the setting is "a high schooler who wants to be an archaeologist has come to see the landlord's books". (It's guaranteed nobody will find this fun).
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He may look harsh now, but back in the day he was more beautiful than his son.
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Girl A (Yuka)
Age： 6 (outwardly) - Height： 110cm - Birthday： Spring - Blood Type: Moth A Type
Interests： Searching for meals - Special Skill: Shoulder massage
Likes (Food) Unknown. (People) Grandpas and grandmas.
A young girl akujiki. With Sagano Kindergarten as her usual hunting grounds, she repeatedly hunts for meals. Older people, particularly the elderly, are her favorite prey, but after eating countless people who weren't her "meal," she became an akujiki.
Because she hasn't actually had a real "meal," and has therefore never known true satisfaction, she holds a strong interest in the supreme meal called Mitsuboshi.
Also, while she has no feelings of companionship towards the male akujiki, but as he arbitrarily decided to work with her, they sometimes hang out together.
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Young Man B (Oreta)
Age: 19 (outwardly) - Height: 177cm - Birthday: Summer - Blood Type: Fox Type B
Interests: aimless wandering, singing, riddles - Special Skill: Somersaults, wrapping bandages neatly
Likes (Food) Unknown. (People) Attractive people.
A young man akujiki. Often works together with the young girl akujiki.
Though he originally became an akujiki through constantly preying on those who weren't his prey, even in his current akujiki form he still retains his sense of self, to some extent. Whether it's because he was lucky enough to make a meal of someone with strong powers, or because he himself was originally a mononoke with that sort of power, is unknown.
He's idolized Shin since before he became an akujiki, and holds both curiosity and attachment towards Yue, who is Shin's yorishiro, and Sagano, who has Shin's form.
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Akujiki
Age: various - Height: generally around 2m, able to expand and contract - Birthday: various - Blood Type: various
Interests: wandering around, meals - Special Skill: Appearing in unexpected places/at unexpected moments
Likes (Food) Unknown. (People) Whatever catches their eye.
The ruins of what once were mononoke who indiscriminately ate more "meals" than could be allowed. Gradually detaching from their original forms, they lost most of their intelligence and sense of self, instinctively pursuing more meals. As the Shadows' being stopped in Utsuwa is the underlying cause, their influence on the creatures is strong enough to be noticeable in their appearance.
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the closer to human form an akujiki is, the more power it has (the sense of self and ability to keep their form gradually weakens the more they act on gluttony - in other words the higher your limit the slower you fall apart)
aside from the factor of ability levels, there are also those mononoke more prone to turning and those who aren't