< Kara no Kyoukai

Kara no Kyoukai/Characters


This page lists the characters of Kara no Kyoukai and their associated tropes.

Shiki Ryougi

"I can kill anything that exists - even if it's a god."

The female protagonist of the series, she is a beautiful teenage girl who possesses the "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception", a supernatural ability that allows her to see and bring into reality the inherent mortality of everything. She is peaceful and maiden-like in appearance, but fiercely determined, ruthless, and aggressive in mannerisms.

Shiki originally had both a male and female personality due to her upbringing as a member of the Ryougi clan. After recovering from a traumatic accident, Shiki discovers that she can no longer feel the her male personality's presence while also feeling an uncomfortable detachment from her memories before the accident. While she knows that she is Shiki, she does not feel that she is.

In the hopes of regaining her former identity, she puts on a cold façade that is somewhere between the soft, brooding nature of the female persona and the blunt, dissolute male persona. Shiki is often very brusque, businesslike, and aloof, although she does reveal a much more human and compassionate side towards Mikiya.

Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (drama CD), Maaya Sakamoto (anime)

  • Action Girl/Dark Action Girl --> Action Mom
  • Anti-Hero: Type V --> Type III
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: Shiki is the Void/Origin itself.
  • Artificial Limbs: Her left arm is prosthetic, built by Touko. Her original was torn to shreds by Asagami Fujino.
  • Badass
  • Bifauxnen: Often described as both "handsome" and "beautiful," although she definitely possesses a very feminine figure in the movies. In the novel she is described as looking and sounding fairly androgynous. This is actually compensatory behavior for her lost male persona, SHIKI.
  • Blood Knight: Given the right opponent, Shiki is more than happy to engage in a good old-fashioned throwdown.
  • Blue and Orange Morality: The only way to describe some of the distinctions that she draws between 'murder', 'slaughter', and 'massacre'. All of these are completely different things to her. Only one is remotely okay.
  • Bokukko: Notably uses the aggressive-masculine pronoun of ore to refer to herself in spite of being the portrait of a classical dignified Japanese lady. She goes back to using watashi in the post-credits scene of the seventh movie, indicating that she had accepted both her past and present self.
  • Born in the Wrong Century: Oh so very much. She might not show any desire to have been born in another century (or any desire, period, aside from killing, really), but...
    • ...she's a modern day warrior woman who only feels alive in a fight to the death.
    • ...her weapons of choice are the tanto (knife) and katana (sword).
    • ...she wears a traditional kimono whenever possible.
  • Bring My Red Jacket: And how! Shorter than the usual Badass Longcoat, but it definitely counts.
  • The Cameo: In Fate Extra, as a hidden boss.

Shiki: Sorry, but you're gonna have to die. It seems that if I kill a hundred of you guys, I get to return to my home world.

Shiki: Hmph. I see, you really are quite something. In that case...
(cue Psycho Strings) ...I'LL JUST HAVE TO KILL YOU!

  • Sociopathic Hero: So very, very much.
  • Split Personality: To a much more complicated degree than usual. It's more of "United Independent Personalities." The Ryougi Family has the supernatural ability of dual personalities, which resulted in Shiki having both a (dominant) female side and a male side. What's interesting is that Shiki's male side dies, which gives her a connection to death while she's still alive. What's left is the hole that is her so-called "Third Personality."
  • The Stoic: Her disinterest in other human beings started it, but it's her connection to the Root that made her empty.
  • Story-Breaker Power: She discusses the full extent of her powers in the original epilogue to the novels. To be honest, Story-Breaker Power is an Reality Warper
  • Sugar and Ice Girl: Although she can be Tsundere towards Mikiya, this is much more accurate of her cold, standoffish behavior.
  • Super Speed
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
  • Theme Music Power-Up: Whenever Shiki begins doing something particularly epic, a suitably epic background track starts up; the music used in these scenes changes from movie to movie, if not from scene to scene, but manages to stay relatively similar overall (the tracks from her showdown with Araya Souren and her fight with Asagami Fujino are great examples).
  • Tomboy: Almost to the point of being a girl in biology only... However, a lot of this is a conscious front put on as a memorial to her deceased male personality. See Bokukko above.
  • Tomboyish Name: The "Shiki" in Ryougi Shiki is a neutral name, hence Tohno Shiki of Tsukihime.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Twice against Araya Souren. What's more badass than regular Shiki? That would be Shiki with a sword. And what's even more badass than that? Shiki's Third Personality.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Bottled water, of all things (it's the only thing we ever see in her fridge). She says multiple times that she hates sweet food.
    • She's also very much associated with strawberry Häagen-Dazs ice cream, even though her male personality loathes it. As she comes to terms with his loss, however, this becomes Shiki's favourite snack.
  • Tranquil Fury
  • Tsundere: Towards Mikiya.
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend: If you hurt Mikiya, you are dead.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Azaka. See Azaka's entry for more details.
  • When She Smiles: In Episode 3... Aww, I'm Taking Her Home with Me
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Averted, for the most part. While she's definitely one in appearance, in truth, she's just a Dissonantly Serene Blood Knight Knife Nut. Unless you happen to meet the "Third Personality," where if she is not kicking your ass... she is this in full.

Mikiya Kokutou

"I guess it can't be helped. I'll bear your sins in your place."

An unassuming Ordinary High School Student, he is the male protagonist of the series. After initially seeing Shiki in the snow, Mikiya confronts her and becomes her only friend. He becomes more and more attracted to Shiki as she confides in him until an accident leaves Shiki in a coma for two years. After crossing paths with dollmaker Touko Aozaki, he drops out of college to work for her as an investigator.

After Shiki awakens from her coma, Mikiya finds he still has feelings for her and vice versa. Their relationship continues to grow throughout the remainder of the series.

Voiced by: Kentaro Ito (drama CD), Kenichi Suzumura (anime), Eri Kitamura (Child in the sixth movie)

  • Badass Normal: In the seventh movie, Lio crushes his leg and then, just to be a complete dick, stabs it as well. And then, after refusing to take a drug that will prevent him from dying due to the effects of another drug, Lio stabs Mikiya in the face. Does any of this stop Mikiya from limping on said leg and then clawing his way to Shiki? Hell no.
  • Blue Eyes
  • Chick Magnet: Before Shiki Tohno and Shirou Emiya, there was Mikiya Kokutou. I mean, his own sister is in love with him!
    • Not in the same way but his daughter adores him as well.
  • Determinator: Definitely.
  • Different As Night and Day: Very literally to his sister. Mikiya's Origin is Normalcy; her sister's is Taboo. Compare Shiki, who had two just as opposite personalities, and Touko, with her glasses on/glasses off personalities.
  • Disney Death: In the seventh chapter/movie.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: To an insane extent, though he doesn't have a stalker vibe to him.
  • Expy: When Type-Moon designed Shiki Tohno they didn't stray very far from the design of their first male lead.
    • Plus, make him look like he's 14 and take away the glasses and PRESTO! Shinji Ikari.
  • Eye Scream: Loses an eye in the last chapter/movie courtesy of Lio-sempai.
  • The Fettered: For God's sake, in Remaining Sense of Pain he shelters a rapist from street justice so he can turn him over to the police instead, even though he's viscerally disgusted (see the Scary Shiny Glasses example below).
  • Love Martyr: He loves Shiki even though she has tried to kill him.
  • Megane
  • Morality Chain: To Shiki, to a certain extent. Lio knows this and tries to break the chain by trying to kill him
  • Non-Action Nice Guy
  • Occult Detective
  • Ordinary High School Student: At least in the beginning.
  • Peek-a-Bangs: As of the 7th movie. Justified as it covers the eye he lost.
  • Really Dead Montage: In the seventh movie. Subverted in that he was Not Quite Dead; see Badass Normal above.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: The third movie.

Mikiya: You. Shut up.

  • Single-Target Sexuality: Claims that he wouldn't mind if Shiki were male...
  • Sophisticated As Hell: "She is either an eminent virtuoso, or just a big weirdo."
  • Token Good Teammate: Kokutou is a really decent guy and a devout Zen Buddhist. The people he hangs around with are...Neutral at best. He comments on how he'll just have to share the karma of Shiki's sins to be with her. Miraculously, he does this without sounding like a jackass.
  • Unfazed Everyman: A completely normal guy working for a magus. Nothing out of the ordinary there...
    • His Origin is stated to be normalcy, after all.
  • Weirdness Censor: Doesn't have one. In fact, Touko found it odd that he was able to find her and ask her for a job; given that she had spells around her office to make people ignore her.
  • Weirdness Magnet: Arguably.

Touko Aozaki

Touko is an extremely powerful sorceress who masquerades as a puppet maker and occasionally a designer of buildings. Together with Mikiya, she runs a pseudo-detective agency that pursues cases with supernatural or abnormal elements.

She is a powerful Magus, able to reproduce parts of a body that can be used in place of the part that was lost. This proves useful as she can not only reproduce the part to perfection, but can augment it with her magic as well.

She is the sister of Aoko Aozaki and was the creator of the glasses that Shiki Tohno wears, as well as Shirou Emiya's new body in the True End of Heaven's Feel.

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (drama CD), Takako Honda (anime)

Touko: See? The end result doesn't change.

Azaka Kokutou

"I have a confession. I love special things."

Mikiya's younger sister, who is obsessed with him. She becomes an apprentice of Touko due to her rivalry against Shiki and is talented in the magic of ignition.

Azaka actually likes Shiki and vice-versa, but both of them have trouble expressing it due to the fact that they have feelings for Mikiya. She is short-sighted, easily-agitated, and impulsive, but is good-natured at heart and a more-than-competent combatant. She is the protagonist of the sixth movie.

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (drama CD), Ayumi Fujimura (anime)

Souren Araya

A former Buddhist monk who has lived for around 300 years and a previous acquaintance of Touko from the Sorcerer's Association, he is a major antagonist of the series who appears during the fifth movie.

Though he may be an average Magus at face value, he is highly skilled in the creation of Boundary Fields. Over the course of the series, he sets into motion an elaborate scheme involving awakening supernatural powers in others in order to further his own goal of reaching the Origin.

Voiced by: Joji Nakata

  • A Day in the Limelight: Inverted. Despite being one of the most important characters in the series, he only appears in the fifth movie.
    • Actually he's in the seventh one too, but only in flashbacks.
  • Badass: Anyone who can give Shiki that much trouble qualifies.
    • Not to mention how this guy fights. Cut off his left arm? He snaps it back on. Cut off his right? Its hand will be around your throat in a few seconds. Stab him? He'll just shrug it off. Stab him in his point of death, twice? He'll smack you around the first time, and stick around to give a farewell speech the second. Not to mention his barriers and his habit of teleporting around his apartment complex. You do not mess with Araya.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: He started out as one. It Got Worse.
  • Barrier Warrior: Has the ability to manipulate boundary fields, which he can wield offensively.
  • Beat Still My Heart: Rips Touko's heart out of her chest.
  • Big Bad: Arguably the main antagonist of the series seeing as he's pretty much responsible for everything bad that happens to Shiki after she meets Mikiya in high school.
  • Black Eyes of Evil: Almost always.
  • Church Militant: At least in appearance.
  • Expy: Inverted (due to being a prototype). Really old and ugly ? The Big Bad? It sounds like Zouken. Both have their original motives twisted overtime, going from a selfless and logical to ultimately evil.
    • He is also probably Kirei Kotomine's prototype; both being deeply involved with a religious sect before turning evil, both being average magi but possess an uncanny skill in their fields, both possessing exceptional healing abilities, and both being voiced by Joji Nakata.
  • Evil Plan: collect and record the deaths of people and reach the Origin so he can end this world so there can be no more meaningless deaths.
  • Genius Loci: His experimental apartment complex.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Tosses out a few of these every now and again.
  • Harmful Healing: In the third movie, he repairs Fujino's cracked vertebrae and restores her sense of feeling. Yes, this is an evil act. Araya knows good and well why...
  • Implacable Man: His Origin of stillness should give you an indication of just how implacable he is. This Origin bites him in the ass later, when, on the ground with a broken sword sticking in his chest, but with his dream of reaching the Origin a few feet away (Ryougi having been knocked unconscious by the impact), his body refuses to move.

Araya: I see... truly my Origin is stillness.

  • Man Behind the Man
  • Manipulative Bastard: To pretty much everyone, but especially Lio Shirazumi.
  • Meaningful Name: In Buddhism, the collective unconscious of humanity, it's will to survive, and therefore the "collective pool of humankind's selfishness", is called Arayashiki. Touko points out the irony of Araya having the very same name as that which he detests.
    • Fridge Logic: If Araya really was a Buddhist monk, how come he of all people didn't know this (judging from his startled reaction when Touko mentioned the above)?
  • Nigh Invulnerability: Nigh indestructible due to his Origin of "Stillness" and having a Buddha's remains grafted onto his left arm - combined, these were even able to block the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. For a little while, at least.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: More like 300, but who's counting?
  • Start of Darkness: A flashback/dream shows him standing in the aftermath of a bloody conflict 200 years ago, looking at the corpse of a little boy who got caught up in it. He resolves that since he cannot save anybody, he will at least collect and record the deaths of people and reach the Origin so he can end this world so there can be no more meaningless deaths.
  • The Stoic
  • Super Speed: Shown to be able to dodge a bullet after it has been fired.
  • Tragic Villain: When Touko calls him pathetic, she means it in the original sense.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: His reasoning for wanting to eradicate what he considers a Crapsack World.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist

Kirie Fujou

"Can you fly?"

A member of the Fujou clan, she appears as the antagonist of the first movie. As a child, she was stricken with a terminal illness and has been bedridden ever since. Her powers grant her the ability to unconsciously perpetuate the Fujou Building Suicides, which are the main focus of the first movie.

Voiced by: Miki Ito (drama CD), Rie Tanaka (anime)

Since I’m weak, I cannot do as she said. That’s why I cannot overcome this temptation. The flash of light I felt when I was stabbed in the heart. The overwhelming torrent of death and the beat of life. I always thought I had nothing, but there is still that simple thing left in me. What’s there is death. This fear that sends a chill down my spine. I have to feel the most death I can to feel the happiness of life. For everything in my life I have ignored until now. But it probably would be impossible to die like I did that night. I probably cannot hope for such a striking end. That death pierced me like lightning, like a needle, like a sword. That’s why I will try to come as close to that as possible. I don’t have any idea right now but I still have a few days to think about it. And I’ve already decided on the method. I don’t think I even need to say this, but I think my end should be a long fall from a place overlooking the world.

Fujino Asagami

"Bend."

The main focus of the third movie, she is a classmate and friend of Azaka. Fujino is secretly a killer and her murders are seemingly a way of giving her inner peace. She has the ability to bend space/objects with her mind and later gains clairvoyance, allowing her to bend objects without needing to see them.

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto

Tomoe Enjou

"Ah, I wish this spiral was a paradox..."

The central character of the fifth movie, he is a high school student who crosses paths with Shiki Ryougi after she saves him from a group of bullies. He hides out in Shiki's apartment after admitting to her that he was forced to kill his parents because of his recurring dreams of getting killed by his mother.

Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara

Cornelius Alba

Appearing in the fifth movie as an antagonist alongside Souren Araya, he is the Director of the Sponheim Abbey and an old acquaintance of both Araya and Touko from the Sorceror's Association.

He has an inferiority complex regarding Touko and sided with Araya in order to defeat her to prove his superiority. In terms of raw power and ability, he is technically more powerful than either of his colleagues, but lacks the finesse and versatility to make the most of his strength.

Voiced by: Koji Yusa

Misaya Ouji

Appearing in the sixth movie, she is senior at Reien Girl's Academy and known to be strict but fair. Has the power to control "fairies" thanks to Satsuki.

Voiced by: Nana Mizuki

  • Adaptation Dye Job: Has blond hair in the novel.
  • Brother-Sister Incest: In the novel, she's brainwashed by Kurogiri to believe that he is her brother and that she is in love with him so he can use her in his plans more easily. Though it may actually have been true, since she is adopted and it's revealed that Kurogiri really did have a sister.
  • Dark Magical Girl
  • Driven to Suicide: Attempts to do this in the novel to all the girls of Class D in order to punish them for their treatment of Kaori, believing as a devout Catholic that they will go to Hell for committing suicide.
  • Mama Bear: After finding out what happened to Kaori the resulting vengeance is not pretty at all.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh/ Evil Laugh/ Laughing Mad: Only delivers one, but what a laugh it is. It's awesomeness is even lampshaded in the Blu-Ray box's interview. Can possibly overlap with Large Ham.
  • Ojou
  • Rapunzel Hair
  • Ret-Gone: Wants to do this by stealing everyone's memories of what happened to Kaori so as to cleanse them of the "sin" of the event.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo

Satsuki Kurogiri

Appearing as an antagonist in the sixth movie, he is a Magus known as God's Word. He has the ability to manipulate others through words alone.

Voiced by: Ryotaro Okiayu

  • Compelling Voice: Has the ability to control people's minds, as well restore people's memories by recalling them from their souls.
  • Cunning Linguist: The only sorcerer in the world to be able to speak the ancient Unified Language.
  • Demoted to Extra: Though he is the major focus as well as the primary villain of the sixth chapter and the one who orchestrated the events at Reien Academy, his role in the movie is largely as an antagonist for Shiki to fight. Isn't it sad, Sacchin?
  • Foil: To Mikiya Kokutou. It's Lampshaded that the characters in "Kokutou" can also be read as "Kurogiri".
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul
  • Hannibal Lecture: Has a habit of giving these.
  • Last of His Kind: The last person capable of speaking the Unified Language.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: As a result of the below curse, he perceives human morality and behavior in the manner that a 10-year old would.
  • Parental Abandonment: Literally. After he was returned from the fairies subsequent brain damage caused his parents to consider him a freak and give him up for adoption.
  • Phenotype Stereotype: Averted. Although his name is Japanese, he was in fact born in the United Kingdom. His name was changed after he was adopted by a Japanese national.
  • Red Baron: Is known by such alias's as God's Word May Day and Master of Babel: Unified Language Master.
  • Retrograde Amnesia: An unusual case. He was kidnapped by fairies at the age of 10 and cursed so that he is unable to comprehend any new memories or experiences since then as anything but impersonal data. He enlists the help of Misaya Ouji in an attempt to regain his sense of identity by collecting the memories his students have of him and feeding off of them.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses
  • Spell My Name with an "S": His second name is "Godot Word" in the official subtitles.
  • The Unfought: In the anime at least. He gets into a small scuffle with Shiki, but what happens to him afterwards is unknown. In the novel, he dies at the hands of Ouji.

Lio Shirazumi

Introduced in the second movie as an older schoolmate of Mikiya who dropped out of school because he 'found something he wanted to do,' he is in actuality the real person behind the murders of 1995-1996 and takes on a much larger role in the seventh movie.

Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi

Shizune Seo

Azaka's roommate in the Reien Girls' Academy, and a woman who can predict the future through her eyes. She has a cameo appearance in the sixth movie, but her role is expanded upon in the Future Gospel epilogue.

Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi

  • Book Dumb: She's bad at studying and at exams, despite the fact that she could easily use her power to know the answers beforehand.
  • Evil Eye: Her eyes can see the future.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She falls in love with Mikiya, but realizes that she can't possibly hope to be as close to him as Shiki is.
  • Name's the Same: Consensus holds it that she's the older sister of Akira Seo of Tsukihime.
  • Prophecy Twist: Lampshaded by Mikiya. She predicted that Mikiya would die if he gets close to Shiki, he would get killed. In a strange sort of pun, it turns out that she was referring to his "eye".
  • You Can't Fight Fate: She firmly believes in this, until she meets Mikiya.

Mana Ryougi

Introduced in Future Gospel: recalled out summer, she is Shiki and Mikiya's daughter. Her wish is to defeat her mother so she doesn't have to share her father's time.

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