Friday, January 4, 2008

Kamichu! (Teenage Goddess)


Yurie is a petite, shy, and otherwise ordinary middle-school girl who suddenly discovers that, overnight, she has become a kami, a god in the Shinto sense. She has no idea what kind of god she is or what her powers are. Her friends give her the nickname kamichu from kami (god) and chūgakusei (middle school student). In her journey she meets many gods and learns the ways of the gods in order to become a great god herself. During the course of the series, Yurie grows more in being a better god, but she also grows as a person.

Kamichu! is set in the city of Onomichi in Hiroshima prefecture, on the shores of Japan's Inland Sea. Many of the temples and landmarks shown in the anime are real places in and around the city, faithfully depicted. It is set in the Spring of 1983 to Spring of 1984[2]

Main characters

Yurie Hitotsubashi ( Hitotsubashi Yurie)

Voiced by: MAKO (Japanese), Megan Harvey (English)
Yurie is the main protagonist in the series. In the very first episode, she tells her best friend Mitsue that overnight she became a goddess. It is not explained how she became one throughout the entire series. She is remarkably naive and simple-minded but always has the best intentions. She has had a crush on Kenji Ninomiya for a very long time, and gets very nervous and red around him.
Matsuri Saegusa ( Saegusa Matsuri)

Voiced by: Rika Morinaga (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)
Matsuri is the person in charge of the Raifuku Shrine in Onomichi. She runs the shrine with her sister, Miko. Unlike Miko, she cannot see spirits without the charms that Yurie usually writes (thought it is stated in the manga by Miko, that she too could see spirits before). Her name means "worship".
Mitsue Shijo ( Shijō Mitsue)

Voiced by: Kaori Mine (Japanese), Erika Weinstein (English)
Mitsue is Yurie's best friend. She's very down to earth but wishes that more interesting things would happen to her throughout the series (her love life). Yurie often goes to her for advice and although her advice is simple, and usually is just common sense, she is always right. She is usually possessed by Yashima when he needs to communicate with people or when he wants to perform.
Miko Saegusa ( Saegusa Miko)

Voiced by: Ai Nonaka (Japanese), Rachel Hirschfeld (English)
Miko is Matsuri's shy younger sister. She does the cooking in the house, and is patient with her sister's ideas. She helps out in the shrine and has the ability to see spirits. She has a crush on Yashima. A miko is a shinto shrine attendent.
Kenji Ninomiya ( Ninomiya Kenji)

Voiced by: Issei Miyazaki (Japanese), Johnny Yong Bosch (English)
Kenji is the president and only member of his school's calligraphy club. He is quite aloof and a bit slow at realizing things. He loves his brushes, and He often does calligraphy for the Raifuku shrine. He only does calligraphy when he is 'inspired', yet it takes him a while to realize that most of his sources of inspiration revolve around Yurie.
Yashima-sama ( Yashima-sama)

Voiced by: Kousuke Okano (Japanese), Yuri Lowenthal (English)
Yashima is the local god of the Raifuku shrine. He wishes to be a rock star thus resulting in him possessing Mitsue (who is totally against this). He is also often seen with an Akita Inu that talks. He seems to be close friends with Miko Saegusa and it is implied that he is actually in love with Matsuri.
Shoukichi Hitotsubashi
Voiced by: Makoto Tsumura (Japanese), J.D. Stone (English)
Shoukichi is Yurie's younger brother, who like Miko attends the same school as his older sister, one grade below. Often he acts more mature than his sister, and he often teases her, but he does love her. He has a crush on Miko, and acts differently and blushes whenever he's around her.
Bin-chan

A poverty god Yurie takes in after he saves Tama's life. He shares Tama's body.
Tama

Yurie's pet cat. After she began to share her body with Bin-chan, she exhibits a number of human traits which make Shoukichi suspicious.

Opening Theme:
"Hare nochi HARE [Fine Weather Followed by Fine Weather]" by Maho Tomita

Ending Theme:
"Ice Candy" by MAKO

Dear Boys


At the outset of the manga the team is in trouble, as there are not enough players to play a game. Additionally, the coach has left after a conflict with Fujiwara. However, Aikawa transfers to Mizuho and through his enthusiasm and sheer love of the game, infuses the few remaining members with a sense of purpose.

Despite the fact that there are only five of them (i.e., they have no substitutes), they manage to get the coach of the girls' team to coach them as well. At first, she seems very strict, but later reveals her attachment to her "Dear Boys". Together, they do their best to make their dreams come true.

The manga is not only focused on the Mizuho team, but also on several rival teams. In fact, the mangaka spends a bit of time developing the characters of other teams' members.


Characters

Mizuho High School

Kazuhiko Aikawa

( Aikawa Kazuhiko) Voiced by: Kōhei Kiyasu

  • Basketball Jersey: Number 7
  • Height: 175cm
  • Nickname: Aika, Ai-chan
  • Birthday: 9th June

Aikawa, often nicknamed as Aika is a 'tensai' or genius in basketball. He transferred from Tendōji High School to Mizuho High School because he thinks that playing basketball in Tendōji High is not meaningful at all.

He is the one who convinced Takumi and the others to play basketball again. He was once the trump card and captain of the Tendōji High's basketball team. He plays the position of small forward in the team.

Takumi Fujiwara

( Fujiwara Takumi) Voiced by: Masaya Matsukaze

  • Basketball Jersey: Number 4
  • Height: 184cm
  • Nickname: Fujiwara-chan, Taku

Takumi is a student in Mizuho High School. He is often nicknamed as Taku. He is actually involved in an incident when he punches the coach in his first year. The coach is transferred to another school and Mizuho High School's boys basketball team is banned from any tournament for one year.

He has an old injury on his right knee during one of his games involve with Miura and was ordered by Anzaki to rehabilitate his knee and make it flexible.

Takumi is the captain of Mizuho basketball team and plays the position of point guard. He can shoot 3-pointers as well.

Ranmaru Miura

( Miura Ranmaru) Voiced by: Ken Takeuchi

Basketball Jersey: Number 8
Height: 173cm

Ranmaru is a calm and quiet person. He is Takumi's best friend since middle school. Ranmaru was seen not to have good stamina at the beginning of the series. He plays the shooting guard position as mention in the manga that he will rather be scoring points then being the playmaker of the team. He is also one of the five that can shoot 3 pointers pretty well and also he is good at stealing balls from his opponents. In the manga, he shot a NBA 3-pointer when versus Kadena Nishi team and helps the team to win the game, but was injured caused by a foul from Kenta Shimabukuro.

In the anime, Keiko Ogami of the Girls' Basketball Team seems to have a crush on him.

Tsutomu Ishii

( Ishii Tsutomu)

  • Basketball Jersey: Number 6
  • Height: 190cm

Tsutomu is a short-tempered person. He plays the position of power forward in the team.

Kenji Dobashi

( Dobashi Kenji) Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi

  • Basketball Jersey: Number 5
  • Height: 192cm
  • Nickname: Dobashi-chan

Kenji is the largest man in the Mizuho basketball team. He is also a calm person like Miura. Although his legs are not strong, however he proves to his other team members that he can steal rebound balls and defend better than last time. He plays the position of Centre in the team.

He is often called "old man" by Ishii often because of his old style hair and old looking appearance. In the anime, before the prefectural championship, he changed his hair style.

Tōya Takashina

( Takashina Tōya)

  • Basketball Jersey: Number 9
  • Height: 187cm

He is first seen practicing alone in one episode, and later he became the 6th member in the boys team. It was said that he can play any positions in the team. He can shoot 3 pointers really well. He was a friend of Ayumi Fuse during middle school.

Hitoshi Unomoto

( Unomoto Hitoshi)

Basketball Jersey: Number 15

First-year students of Mizuho High School. In the early parts of the manga Act 2, Takumi has refered him similar to middle school Ranmaru, arrogant and daring, although deny by Ranmaru.

Kiyoshi Suizenji

(Suizenji Kiyoshi)

Basketball Jersey: Number 14

He admired Takumi very much

Jōichirō Kurebayashi

( Kurebayashi Jōichirō)

Basketball Jersey: Number 11
Height: 210cm

He is very tall, in fact the tallest in the team.

Eiji Kondo

( Kondō Eiji)

Basketball Jersey: Number 13

He is the younger brother of Kondo. A complete beginner of basketball.

Isamu Kuwata

(Kuwata Isamu)

Shun Minamiyama

(Minamiyama Shun)

Mutsumi Akiyoshi

( Akiyoshi Mutsumi)

  • Basketball Jersey: 4
  • Position: Forward
  • Nickname: Mu-chan

Mutsumi is Takumi's girlfriend. She's the captain of the girl's basketball team.

Mai Moritaka

(Moritaka Mai)Voiced by: Akiko Kawase

  • Basketball Jersey: Number 7
  • Nicknames: Pony

Mai is Aikawa girlfriend,later in the manga. Aikawa nicknames her "Pony" because of her long ponytail-like hair when he first saw her. She is a 3-pointer in the girls team.

Keiko Ōgami

(Ōgami Keiko) Voiced by: Miho Yamada

Basketball Jersey: Number 5

Keiko is the center player of the Mizuho girls team. She has a crush on Miura and is proven in one of the episodes when she gave Miura a "victory sign".

Satomi Anzaki

( Anzaki Satomi) Voiced by: Mamiko Noto

Satomi is a junior of Ranmaru and Takumi from grade school. She is also a student in Mizuho High School. She plays basketball but due to an injury that prevents her from playing anymore, she became the team manager for the boys' team.

Kyoko Himuro

( Himuro Kyōko) Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka

Miss Himuro is the coach for the Mizuho High School girl's basketball team. But when the boy's basketball is reformed, she became the coach for both teams.

In Episode 7, the premelinary round for the girl's basketball team is reaching and she wanted to focus on the girls, so she appointed Satomi to be the boy's team manager.

Yokohama Academy

Kazuya Satō ( Satō Kazuya)
Satō is the captain of the Yokohama Academy's boys basketball team. He is a bit shorter than Aikawa.
Tōru Koizumi ( Koizumi Tōru)
Naoki Aizawa (Aizawa Naoki)
Tatsuya Hirose Hirose Tatsuya)
Kōji Yoshino ( Yoshino Kōji)
Yūji Takano (Takano Yūji)
Junko Manabe ( Manabe Jiyunko)
Eizō Maruyama ( Maruyama Eizō)

Opening Theme:
"Sound of Bounce" by DA PUMP
Ending Theme:
"Baller" by F Chris

Slam Dunk


The main character of this manga is Hanamichi Sakuragi, who started out as an outcast who fights as a method to gain power and publicity, becoming the leader of a gang. Hanamichi, being very unpopular with girls, has been rejected by them fifty times. Yet, he finds out that Haruko Akagi is the girl of his dreams, and is happy when she's not scared of him like all the other girls he has asked out.

Haruko, who recognizes Hanamichi's athleticism, introduces him to the Shohoku basketball team. Hanamichi was reluctant to join the team at first because he had no previous background in any sports and thought that basketball was a game for losers (also because the fiftieth girl rejected him for a basketball player). Sakuragi, despite his immaturity and hot temper, proves to be a natural athlete with potential and joins the team in order to impress Haruko and prove that he is worthy of her. Kadae Rukawa - Sakuragi's bitter rival (both on the basketball court and love, even when Rukawa doesn't acknowledge Haruko's crush on him), the star rookie and a "girl magnet" - joins the team at the same time. Hisashi Mitsui, an ex-junior high school MVP, and Ryota Miyagi , a short but fast player, both also rejoin the team and together these four struggle to complete team captain Takenori Akagi's dream of making Shohoku the national champion. Together, these misfits gain publicity and the once little known Shohoku basketball team becomes an all-star contender in Japan.

Teams

Except where otherwise noted, the following basketball teams appear in both the anime and manga.

[edit] Aiwa High School

Aiwa is ranked 4th in Japan and was favored to win the Aichi Interhigh Tournament, but was upset by Meihou. Shohoku faces them in the third round of the National Championship and loses to them because they were exhausted from the Sannoh match. The team's captain, Dai Moroboshi, is known as the "Star of Aichi" and knows Maki. He was injured by Meiho's Hiroshi Morishige during the Aichi Interhigh finals, and despite returning to the game later, could not push Aiwa over the top. Some consider Moroboshi as the only one who can beat Sannoh's Eiji Sawakita in a one-on-one, though Moroboshi himself does not think so.

[edit] Daiei High School

Daiei (Daiei Gakuen) is the lead representative for Osaka in the National Championship, having beaten Toyotama. Their captain, Atsushi Tsuchiya, is also the top player for the team, and proved key in their victory.

[edit] Jousei High School

Jousei is ranked 8th in Japan, and the main representative for the Shizuoka Prefecture. Their coach is a former pupil of Coach Anzai's, and prior to the start of the National Championship, Shohoku (minus Sakuragi, who undergoes a weeklong training on how to shoot from Coach Anzai) visits them for a weeklong training camp that includes three matches, resulting in a win, loss, and tie for Shohoku. They are knocked out of the National Championship in the second round by Meihou, in a match where Morishige alone eclipses the whole opposite team, leaving the team captain, Mikoshiba, greatly depressed.

[edit] Kainan University Affiliated High School

[edit] Meihou High School

Meihou is a surprise newcomer to the National Championship, knocking off the favorite Aiwa to qualify as the lead representative for Aichi. They are spearheaded by a massive first year student, Hiroshi Morishige (so massive, he can take Sakuragi down with a mere nudge - given by Sakuragi himself). Meihou beat Jousei in the second round of the National Championship.

[edit] Miuradai High School

Miuradai faces Shohoku in the first round of the Interhigh Tournament. They do well at first, because Takenori Akagi is the only one of the five starters to actually start the game, the other four being temporarily benched by Coach Anzai for fighting. The tide turns against Miuradai once the other four starters enter the court and Shohoku is restored to full strength. Miuradai is quite a self-confident team, whose members - particularly their captain, Kengo Murasame - only respect Kainan as an opponent.

One character who only appears in the anime, Tetsuya Naito, is enrolled in the ranks of Miuradai as a substitute Power forward and a brute physical force - he used to play for the Miuradai rugby team, but he was dissatisfied with the lack of challenge and dropped out after Murasame approached him. Naito's inexperience as a basketball player is quickly exposed by Rukawa though, and Shohoku go on to win decisively. In the end, Naito ends up knocked out after Sakuragi (who was pissed off after Naito blocked him several times successfully) tries to use a slam dunk, yet ends up bashing him on the head by mistake.

[edit] Ryonan High School

[edit] Ryofuku High School

Ryofuku appears in the third OVA, inviting Shohoku for a friendly match right after their defeat from Kainan. They are a relatively new team, but were a force to be feared as their ranks included star players from junior high, including their half-American ace, Michael Okita.

[edit] Sannoh Industry Affiliated High School

[edit] Shohoku High School

[edit] Shoyo High School

[edit] Takezato High School

Takezato was seeded first in its respective bracket in the Kanagawa Interhigh Tournament and makes the final four. However, they prove to be the weakest team present, losing to Shohoku, Ryonan, and Kainan and finishing fourth.

[edit] Takezono High School

Takezono is the team for which Tatsumasa Oda, the boy for whom Sakuragi suffered his 50th rejection, plays. Unluckily, their last match in the Kanagawa Tournament is against the reigning champion Kainan, who beats them handily with a reserve team, the only starters to play being Jin and Muto.

Sakuragi, who at first mistakenly thought that Oda was mistreating his girlfriend Yoko Shimamura, wanted Takezono to win so he could face Oda again (Shohoku and Takezono face each other in the first Slam Dunk OVA, in a friendly match). Oda was injured, but played all the same. However, none of these events are mentioned in the manga. That Oda is playing in Takezono or that Shohoku played them are also not mentioned.

[edit] Toyotama High School

Toyotama is the runner-up team from Osaka in the National Championship, having lost to Daiei. They are an A ranked team and almost all of their starters are third years.

Shohoku faces them in the first round of the National Championship, where Toyotama show a talent for getting away with violent, flagrant fouls, not to mention the constant teasing from the crowd, that constantly yells, swears and threatens the opposite team. They have mastered the run and gun style of play and divide their effort between 80% offense and 20% defense. Their main weakness was the replacement of their coach, Jiei, who nurtured the team's offensive philosophy and is widely respected by the players. His replacement, on the other hand, Kitano, emphasizes defensive basketball, which the players have difficulty adjusting to. Because of this, they prefer to play their own way than listening to their new coach.

The Toyotama match only appears in the manga. One of the reserve players, Teruo Okawa, is a friend of Hikoichi Aida's from junior high. Toyotama has an ace in the form of Minori Kishimoto, who earns not only Hikoichi's enmity for Toyotama after he dismisses Sendoh's abilities as a player (Hikoichi in retribution gives Shohoku information on Toyotama), but also from Sakuragi, who spent the first half under intense pressure and could not perform well enough, being substituted for by Yasuda early in the match. Their other ace and captain is Tsuyoshi Minami (who Sakuragi calls "chick-face" after the bird), who is the most aggressive of the players. He is known as the "Ace Killer", and lives up to this nickname by hitting Rukawa in the face with his elbow as he once did to Kenji Fujima from Shoyo, leaving him with a black eye for the whole second half of the game. Minami however makes up for it later, as the night before the match against Sannoh, he gives Rukawa an ointment to help his eye heal and warns him about Sawakita. The other players include Mitsuaki Iwata (center), Kyohei Yajima (shooting guard) and Daijiro Itakura (point guard).

[edit] Tsukubu High School

Tsukubu used to be a high-leaguer team before the rise of Shohoku. They were the fourth team Shohoku faced in the Prefectural Tournament and, after a good start, they let their defense be breached by Miyagi's fast play and lost concentration, leading to a rather shameful loss.

Tsukubu is featured prominently in the second OVA (which portrays the tournament match), where their star rookie, Koichiro Nango, falls in love with Haruko and becomes a bitter rival to Sakuragi, to the point of betting with Sakuragi: whoever wins the game will have the right to ask Haruko out. Their coach, Kazuma Kawasaki, was a former pupil of Anzai, while their captain, Tomokazu Godai, attended Kogure and Akagi's former junior high and is on friendly terms with them, but is kicked out of the game after losing his temper.

[edit] Other characters

[edit] Haruko Akagi

(赤木晴子 Akagi Haruko)

Year: 1st Year
Voice Actors: Akiko Hiramatsu (Japan), Connie Madera and Cristina Hernández (Latin America), Martha McIsaac (USA), Federica Valenti (Italy)

Haruko is Takenori's younger sister and Sakuragi's love interest. Sweet and with a captivating personality, Haruko is always around to cheer on the players, especially her brother Takenori (who is extremely protective of her and taught her the basics of basketball) and Sakuragi, whom she considers as her best friend. Haruko often appears at matches together with Sakuragi's cohorts and her two best friends, Fujii and Matsui. She, like most girls in Shohoku High, only has eyes for Kaede, although he never reciprocates her feelings and, later in the anime, she acknowledges that he won't love her the way she wants him to and tries to let go of her crush, however not successful.

Haruko was responsible for uncovering Sakuragi's athletic talent after seeing him try to dunk a ball at her request - she was impressed by the height of his jump and considered him good enough to join the team. Hanamichi always listens to Haruko, due to his deep affection for her. They have gone on some (what Sakuragi considers) non-official dates and have occasionally trained together.

Despite her emotional denseness and sweetness, Haruko is a pretty good student (she helped Akagi tutor Sakuragi and the other three starters when they had to retake some tests) and is not afraid to stand up for others when needed. She confronted Sakuragi when she mistakenly thought that he had attacked Rukawa, and she also defended him many times from Kaede's most rabid fangirls (one of them even knocked her to the ground in the anime series).

[edit] Sakuragi's Gang

(桜木軍団 Sakuragi Gundan)

Yohei Mito (水戸洋平 Mito Yōhei) Chuichirou Noma
(野間忠一郎 Noma Chūichirō)
Yuji Ohkusu
(大楠雄二 Ōkusu Yūji)
Nozomi Takamiya
(高宮望 Takamiya Nozomi)
Image:SD07 75 Yohei.jpg Image:SD07 32 Noma.jpg Image:SD07 75 Okusu.jpg Image:SD07 75 Takamiya.jpg
Year: 1st Year Year: 1st Year Year: 1st Year Year: 1st Year
Voice Actor: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japan),

Yamil Atala and Oliver Magaña (Latin America)

Voice Actor: Yūji Mikimoto (Japan),

José Luis Reza (Latin America)

Voice Actor: Nobutoshi Canna (Japan),

Irwin Daayán (Latin America)

Voice Actor: Kōzō Shioya (Japan),

Luis Daniel Ramírez (Latin America)

Sakuragi's best friend from childhood. He and the rest of his gang are always there to help him in whatever he needs, although Yohei is the only one able to help with actual advice. He also appears to be the best fighter out of the four aside from Sakuragi himself. Three other students who often hang around Sakuragi and Yohei, who they also attended Wakoh Junior High with. Despite offering a hand whenever convenient, they often tease Sakuragi, for which they receive headbutts on their foreheads. They also take advantage of him by frequently placing bets on whether his endeavors will succeed, and even charge admission to see Sakuragi's new hairstyle. In spite of all this, along with Yohei they are among Sakuragi's most loyal supporters, going to all his games to cheer him on, and helping him out when he had to make 20,000 shots in one week to prepare for the National Championships. According to Yohei, they are known as "The Three Stooges of Wakoh Junior High".

[edit] Tatsuhiko Aota

(青田龍彦 Aota Tatsuhiko)

Year: 3rd Year
Voice Actors: Hideyuki Umezu (Japan), Mario Castañeda (Latin America)

The captain of the Shohoku judo team, Tatsuhiko is a childhood friend of the Akagi siblings, having argued with Takenori over which sport was better, judo or basketball, since their youth. This grudge continued until their present age, where their feud is over which team will be National Champion first. He once tried to make Sakuragi join the judo team because he considered his fighting skills exceptional, and to achieve this, "bribed" him with some photos of Haruko when she was younger. Still, Sakuragi refused, saying simply, "because I'm a basketball player" (actually because he knew he would actually be closer to Haruko if he stayed with the basketball team). But Tatsuhiko does not give up on trying once in a while. He is rather loyal to Takenori when the need arises, cheering him on when he is outplayed and hard-pressed during the second Ryonan match.

Despite his inability to physically coerce Sakuragi into joining the judo team, Tatsuhiko has proven that he is skilled, as he is the sole member of the judo team to qualify for the National Championships in judo. However unlike Takenori, he has to beg for the chance to retake the exams that he failed or else face academic disqualification - much like the other four starters of the basketball team. It is also worth noting that Tatsuhiko has had a crush on Haruko since they were young. She calls him "Ta-chan" instead of by his last name, which irritates Sakuragi immensely.

[edit] Norio Hotta

(Hotta Norio)

Year: 3rd Year
Voice Actors: Hōchū Ōtsuka (Japan), Arturo Mercado (Latin America)

Hotta is the leader of a gang of fellow Third Year students who are the reigning delinquents at Shohoku. Sakuragi catches his attention on the first day of school when he gets into an altercation with two of his cronies, resulting in his issuing a direct challenge to Sakuragi by interrupting one of his classes. Before Sakuragi and his Gang arrive, Hotta and his cronies run into Rukawa on the school roof, who singlehandedly knocks out all four of them.

Hotta is a good friend of Mitsui, and backed him up when he challenged Miyagi to a fight a year ago. He and his friends provide the muscle again after Miyagi returns, and they join Mitsui in his attack on the basketball team. From Kogure’s revelation of Mitsui’s prior history with basketball, Hotta realizes that Mitsui deep down wants to play again, and is persuaded by Sakuragi’s Gang to share the blame with them for attacking the team, getting the team off the hook for fighting. It should be noted that though Hotta and his friends failed to win in fights against Sakuragi’s Gang or even Rukawa, they are portrayed as among the best fighters in Shohoku. Hotta and his cronies later become supporters of the basketball team during the National Championship Tournament (though even they get scared by the aggressiveness of the Toyotama crowd), largely because of their friendship with Mitsui, who they give the epithet Honoo no Otoko (lit. "Flaming Man").

[edit] Tetsuo

(鉄男 Tetsuo)

Voice Actor: Masaharu Sato

Tetsuo is a biker and the only adult member of Mitsui’s gang, which included Norio Hotta and his cronies, in addition to some other delinquent high school students. It would appear that he is the gang leader, although he largely defers to Mitsui when they launch their attack on the Shohoku basketball team. He appears to be in his late 20's/30s, and is the gang’s most experienced and capable fighter. Tetsuo succeeds in knocking out five Shohoku players, among them Rukawa and Miyagi, but meets his match in Sakuragi.

After Mitsui leaves the gang and rejoins the team, Tetsuo later runs into him after the former is heading home after getting his knee checked. He accepts Mitsui as an athlete, reaffirming the latter’s decision to rejoin the team. Because he refuses to wear a helmet when riding, Tetsuo has to constantly watch out for the police. Tetsuo makes an additional appearance in the anime when on the morning of Shohoku’s match with Shoyo, he is chased and cornered by the non-Shohoku members of his gang, who beat him up in a bid to challenge his leadership. Mitsui comes upon them, but refuses to fight because of the promise he made to Coach Anzai not to fight again. Tetsuo stands up for him, but gets knocked out. However the timely intervention of Sakuragi and his Gang enables the two basketball players to leave the scene, resulting in Tetsuo teaming up with Sakuragi’s Gang to take out Ryu and his cronies.

[edit] Yayoi Aida

(相田弥生 Aida Yayoi)

Voice Actor: Yuko Nagashima

Hikoichi's older sister, she is a reporter for a weekly basketball magazine. Even though her brother plays for Ryonan, she is mostly designated to cover Shohoku matches, in which she is always impressesed about Shohoku players' performances, as they mostly play stronger opponents like Kainan or Sannoh. In the National Championship though, she gets to watch Sannoh's exercise training routines. She is almost always accompanied by a bubbly trainee called Nakamura, who does the driving when they need to go from gym to gym even though he drives slowly, as he had just gotten his driving license.

[edit] Fujii and Matsui

(藤井) and (松井)

Year: 1st Year
Voice Actor: Etsuko Nishimoto, Tomomi Sugimoto and Machiko Toyoshima (Japan) and Patricia Acevedo (Latin America) (Fujii), Hiromi Nishikawa (Japan) and Martha Ceceña (Latin America) (Matsui)

Haruko's classmates and friends from Junior High. They often appear together with or without her. They do not trust Sakuragi too much at first, but try their best to deal with him for Haruko's sake, and gradually become more fond of him. Fujii is shy, soft-spoken and has short hair, while Matsui has her hair tied in pigtails, has thick lips and is rather sassy at times. Their first names are not known.

[edit] Ryu

(竜 Ryu)

Voice Actor: Nobuhiko Kazama

Ryu is one of the non-Shohoku members of Mitsui’s gang and the only other non-Shohoku member besides Tetsuo given the most depth. During Mitsui’s attack on the basketball team, he is matched up with Rukawa, giving him a bloody head wound with a broken mop head, but in turn gets knocked out by Rukawa.

In the anime, Ryu challenges Tetsuo’s leadership by recruiting new members and targeting him after Mitsui rejoins the basketball team. He takes advantage of Mitsui’s reluctance to fight to attempt to break his hands, but is interrupted by Sakuragi’s appearance. To his surprise, Sakuragi thanks him for beating up Rukawa. The arrival of Sakuragi’s Gang enables Mitsui and Sakuragi to break away and head to the Shoyo match (which they are late for), and results in the trouncing of Ryu and all his gang members.

[edit] Dr. T

Dr. T is the avatar of Takehiko Inoue in the story. Every once in a while he appears in a short segment called Dr. T no Basukettobooru no Nyuumon ("Dr. T's Introduction to Basketball" or, more loosely speaking, "Basketball for Dummies"), where he breaks the fourth wall by explaining to the reader (or the viewer in the case of the anime) the rules of basketball, usually when Sakuragi makes a mistake for not knowing the rules, or a new basketball concept is introduced. He appears once in the manga as an unnamed "manga artist" outside the Kanagawa Interhigh Tournament arena just before Shohoku faces Ryonan in the league round.

[edit] Kawai Mari

Year: 2nd Year
Voice Actor: Nanae Sumitomo (Japan), Patricia Acevedo (Latin America)

A good friend of Ayako and an apparently classmate of hers and Miyagi, Mari is a member of the Shohoku school newspaper and a skilled reporter, always followed by two of her clubmates. Sassy and outspoken, she likes to tease Ayako off-court, and like other girls from the school she has a huge crush on Rukawa, even when she considered him a rude brat at first.

[edit] The owner of Chieko Sports

Voice Actor: Hideyuki Umezu (when Sakuragi buys the Air Jordan Series VI), Hirohiko Kakegawa (when Sakuragi is offered the Air Jordan Series I)

The unnamed owner of Chieko Sports also runs the store, which specializes in basketball gear. He collects Air Jordan basketball shoes, which he doesn’t mind wearing himself. Haruko takes Sakuragi here to buy his first pair of basketball shoes. Sakuragi intimidates the owner into selling him a pair of his Air Jordan Series VI shoes that he’s wearing (because they are both currently the same shoe size) for 30 yen, justifying the discount on the grounds that they’re used.

Sakuragi and Haruko return to Chieko Sports a second time when Sakuragi wears out this pair of shoes following Shohoku’s defeat of Ryonan in the Kanagawa National Championship Qualifying Tournament and Sakuragi's 20,000-shot training. The owner reveals that he was a member of the Minowa basketball team, which Kainan defeated in the Tournament 17 years ago to start their championship run. Every morning he wakes up regretting not being able to bring his team to victory, and has since then followed the League Round of the tournament closely. This is how he discovers that Sakuragi is on the Shohoku team, which he claims has been the only team since Minowa that made Kainan struggle for their win. He also remembers Akagi because of a run-in he had with him during the tournament matches two years prior because he couldn’t get Shohoku’s name straight. This time around, he willingly gives Sakuragi a pair of his Air Jordan Series I shoes that are black and red (Shohoku’s colors), in return receiving 100 yen for them, after having turned down a diehard shoe collector’s offer to buy them.

[edit] Rukawa's Fan Club

Voice Actors: Nanae Sumitomo, Hiromi Nishikawa, Tomomi Sugimoto, Sara Nakayama et al.

Rukawa’s Fan Club originally starts out as a trio of unnamed female Shohoku students who watch the team practice and go nuts whenever Rukawa scores a basket. They then start to attend Shohoku’s matches, during which they dress up as cheerleaders and act as Rukawa’s very loud rooting section. The fan club later grows in numbers during the League Round of the Kanagawa Interhigh Tournament (though, in the anime, the three original members pictured on the left appear isolated from the other girls). Although Rukawa is aware of them, he only acknowledges their presence a few times, which does not seem to bother the members of his fan club one bit.

Opening Theme:
#1: "Kimi ga Suki da to Sakebitai (君が好きだと叫びたい; I Want to Shout 'I Love You')" by BAAD
#2: "Sekai ga Owaru Made wa (世界が終わるまでは; Until the World Comes to an End)" by Wands
#2: "Zettai ni Daremo" by ZYYG (eps 62-101)
Ending Theme:
#1: "Anata Dake Mitsumete'ru" by Ooguro Maki
#2: "Sekai ga Owaru Made Wa" by WANDS (eps 28-49)
#2: "Zettai ni Daremo" by Zyyg
#3: "Kirameku Toki ni Torawarete" by Manish
#4: "My Friend" by Zard

Cardcaptor Sakura


The series begins as a simple girls' comic of the magical girl genre. Ten-year-old fourth grader Sakura Kinomoto opens a mysterious book in her father's study and accidentally lets loose the magical Clow Cards. By her ability to open the seal, Sakura is revealed to have special powers, and it becomes her responsibility to retrieve the missing cards.

The task involves finding each card, battling its magical personification, and sealing it away. She is assisted by Cerberus (Kerberos, also known as Kero-chan), the Beast of the Seal assigned to protect the cards, who was asleep when Sakura opened the Clow Book (He was on a "nap" at the time, which lasted 30 years). Kero, who looks like an animated plush toy throughout most of the series (his "borrowed" form), guides Sakura as she develops her Cardcaptor powers. In the first episode, he presents her with the Key of the Seal, which allows her to fight and capture the Clow Cards.

Clow Card Arc (クロウカード編 Kurō Kādo-hen?)
The first six volumes of the manga and the first and second seasons of the anime focus on Sakura's attempts to capture the released Clow Cards. Cerberus acts as her guide and mentor throughout the quest, while classmate and best friend Tomoyo Daidouji (who is also her second cousin) assists in designing Sakura's battle costumes and filming her adventures.

Sakura also competes with Syaoran Li, the descendant of the Clow Cards' creator, Clow Reed, in capturing the Cards. The first half of the series ends after the Final Judgment, in which those who have attempted to capture the Clow Cards are tested by the mysterious Yue for the right to become Master of the Clow.

Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie (劇場版カードキャプターさくら Gekijōban Kādokyaputā Sakura?)
Occurring between episodes 35 and 36 of the 1st and 2nd seasons, respectively, (or the middle of the 1st season in international releases), the first movie takes Sakura and company to Hong Kong during winter break.

Still in her quest to capture all the Clow Cards, Sakura encounters new challenges, some of which take place in ominous dreams. Sakura must defeat a vengeful sorceress called Madoushi who was rejected by Clow Reed in the past or risk losing her family and friends.

Sakura Card Arc (さくらカード編 Sakura Kādo-hen?)
The latter six volumes of the manga and third season of the anime introduce several new characters, including the enigmatic Eriol Hiiragizawa. Since Sakura has now become the new Master of the Clow Cards, she must transform them under her own magic into Sakura Cards. At the same time, new strange disturbances are occurring in Tomoeda, which adds further pressure to Sakura's task. Meanwhile, Syaoran falls in love with Sakura and tries to find a way to admit his feelings to her.

Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card (劇場版カードキャプターさくら 封印されたカード Gekijōban Kādokyaputā Sakura: Fūin Sareta Kādo?)
Occurring after the end of the 3rd season (2nd in international releases), the 2nd movie brings closure to the relationship questions between Sakura and Syaoran, which were left somewhat unanswered in the last episode of the TV series.

Like the 1st movie, the 2nd movie does not follow or adapt from any events depicted in the manga and, therefore, closes the anime series in a different manner. Syaoran has already admitted his feelings to Sakura, but she has yet to answer him. Chances become good when Syaoran visits Tomoeda from Hong Kong over the summer and participates in a school play with Sakura during the Nadeshiko Festival. However, Sakura has more issues challenging her than finding the right moment to confess to Syaoran. A strange force begins stealing the Sakura Cards and erasing portions of Tomoeda. Sakura soon encounters a mysterious Clow Card called The Nothing, the antithesis of the 52 Sakura Cards with as much negative power as all their positive powers combined.


Characters and cards

While several characters can be considered main characters due to their importance to the plot, Sakura Kinomoto is the protagonist of the story. Other characters who have supporting roles often have recurring appearances in the story.

[edit] Characters

Kinomoto Household Li Household Daidōji Household Clow Reed Magical Creatures Classmates Other characters
Sakura Kinomoto Syaoran Li Tomoyo Daidōji Clow Reed Cerberus Chiharu Mihara Maki Matsumoto
Toya Kinomoto Meiling Li Sonomi Daidouji Eriol Hiiragizawa Yue Rika Sasaki Yoshiyuki Terada
Fujitaka Kinomoto Syaoran's 4 sisters Kaho Mizuki Spinel Sun Naoko Yanagisawa Yukito Tsukishiro
Nadeshiko Kinomoto Yelan Li Ruby Moon Takashi Yamazaki

Opening Theme:
#1: "Catch You Catch Me" by Gumi (eps 1-35)
#2: "Tobira wo Akete" by ANZA (eps 36-46)
#3: "Platinum" by Maaya Sakamoto (eps 47-70)
Ending Theme:
#1: "Groovy!" by Koumi Hirose (eps 1-35)
#2: "Honey" by Chihiro (eps 36-46)
#3: "Fruits Candy" by Megumi Kojima (eps 47-69)
#4: "Platinum" by Maaya Sakamoto (ep 70)

The Law Of Ueki


The story starts out with the Battle of the Supernatural Powers, a tournament to decide who will be the next God of Heaven (rendered as Kami (天界人) in the Japanese version).

Each candidate (100 in total) is required to choose a junior high school student (middle school) to act as their fighter. Each student is given a unique power and the winning God Candidate will become The New God of Heaven and the winning student will receive the Blank Zai (or talent), a talent that can be anything they choose.

While this leads many students to thoughts of greed and selfishness, Kosuke Ueki has decided to take it upon himself to win this tournament to keep that power away from those that would abuse such a gift.

Kosuke Ueki

(植木 耕助 Ueki Kōsuke?) Voiced by: Romi Paku (Japanese), Cole Howard (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Age: 13
  • Birth date: 4th July
  • Blood type: A
  • Ability: Change trash into trees

Kosuke Ueki is the main character in the series. He is in Class 1-C at Hinokuni Junior High School. Ueki's ability was given by Kobayashi (a.k.a. Mr. K), who is also Ueki's homeroom teacher. His level 2 power is to reverse the power of his enemy. He is also seen wearing pinkish-red shoes during his first fight with Robert Haydn.

Ueki is an unusually calm individual, and doesn't care about what happens to him. He can be found snoozing in class, letting children use him as a target for shooting soccer balls (or in one case, a surfboard),and also calling the police without panicking when he faced a gang of rowdy teenagers. However, he cares for people around them, even going as far as saving Robert Haydn from falling debris in the Dogura Mansion.

According to a short profile of the main characters of The Law of Ueki (published in the end of manga vol. 16 by the author), Ueki's hobbies include cleaning up his town. In the first volume of the manga, Ueki is seen planting trees in the town park.

Ueki is a genuinely kind person who is always trying to help people. Ueki is actually a heavenly being sent to Earth by his father in order to take part in this tournament. Being a heavenly being allows him powers beyond his tree-making skills.

It seems he may have a crush on Ai (especially in the manga), but it is not admitted in the anime series.

[edit] Ai Mori

(森 あい Mori Ai?) Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (Japanese), Lori Barnes-Smith (English)

  • Gender: Female
  • Age: 13
  • Birth date: 8th August
  • Blood type: A
  • Ability: Change her opponent into a glasses-lover (any glasses)

Ai Mori is one of Ueki's classmates at Hinokuni Junior High School. When in a casual mood, Ai is usually upbeat and friendly, although she is often shown with a very shallow side, initially believing that all power-users (with the exception of Ueki) were dangerous enemies that couldn't be trusted. Still, Ai cares deeply for her friends, especially Ueki. She discovers Ueki's power early on, coming to a rather unusual conclusion and at first believing him to be an alien. Upon learning of the competition Ueki is in, she decides to back him up, to keep him from losing all his talents and disappearing because of it.

She is strict with Ueki at times, especially when he looks like he is about to do something rash. Ai continuously tries to be his voice of reason, although her shallow antics and outspoken personality often annoys him. Later on in the series, she was given an ability. The ability was given by the King of the Celestial World Candidate, Wanko, during Ueki's fight with Sano. However, her power's condition is that her opponent must perform a goody-two-shoes pose (raising the right leg backwards while putting both of the fists close to the mouth region). Once this power is activated, her opponent falls totally in love with Ai's glasses and will do anything to keep them from harm, even defeat themselves.

The food she cooks tends to look rather odd and off-putting (usually with squirming octopus tentacles), but it still tastes good. It seems she may have a crush on Ueki, but it is not admitted in the series.

[edit] Kobayashi

(小林 Kobayashi?) Voiced by: Katsuji Mori (Japanese), Ben Jeffrey (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Nickname: Mr. K (English), (コバセン Kobasen?)

Kobayashi, nicknamed as Mr. K (Kobasen in the Japanese versions), is a teacher at Hinokuni Junior High School. Mr. K is also a King of the Celestial World Candidate who gives Ueki his power. He is Ueki's homeroom teacher and had been carefully studying him in order to judge his worth for the tournament.

Kobayashi is usually a laid-back, forgetful, and friendly man, although he can be quite serious, depending on the situation. He has a very strong sense of justice, actually inspiring Ueki long ago when he saved him from falling off a building, and acts as both his mentor and role model. He was sent to Hell for saving (and thus helping) Ueki in his first fight against Robert Haydn.

It is mentioned in the show that Kobayashi's least favourite food is pickled crickets.

[edit] Seiichiro Sano

(佐野 清一郎 Sano Seiichirō?) Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (Japanese), Beau Thompson (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Age: 15
  • Birth date: 6th February
  • Blood type: O
  • Ability: Change towels into steel

Sano can change towels into steel by holding his breath, however as of late it now works as if it where voice activated, no longer does it show Sano holding his breath at all but rather giving out commands to the towels.

Sano, a 9th grader at Inaho Junior High School, was known as the Genius of Robert's Ten while he was part of it. But he had joined because the leader of Robert's Ten (Karlpaccho) had placed a Death Pentagon on Sano's King of the Celestial World Candidate Inumaru that would kill him by removing all his blood unless he listened to Robert.

Sano can be creative with his power, creating shields, springboards (spring) and even boomerangs which he calls "boomerang cutter".

He has a burn over his left eye which was caused during an accident with a hot spring. Still, he does love those hot springs and hopes to get the blank talent to obtain the talent of discovery in order to find a hot spring of his own.

His Level 2 makes his steel towels into powerful magnets. Seems to possess a ridiculous amount of his necessary towels, pulling them out of his robe in rapid succession. Sano is seen teaming up with Rinko in various episodes.

[edit] Inumaru

(犬丸 Inumaru?) Voiced by: Akira Ishida (Japanese), Scott Roberts (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Nicknames: Wanko (ワンコ?)

The King of the Celestial World Candidate who gave Sano his powers. The two officially paired up for the tournament when Sano risked his life to save a child from a burning building, and Inumaru did likewise despite Sano threatening that he would not join if Inumaru did so.

Inumaru had said that he could not ignore people in danger regardless of the reason, which prompted Sano to join, and to think of Inumaru as his friend rather than his Candidate. In Dogura Mansion, after being told that Sano joined Robert's Ten to save him from the Death Pentagon (a small black bug that Karlpacchio attached to Wanko's neck, that would suck all of Wanko's blood out of him on command, thus killing him).

He gave Mori a power, thus breaking the most important rule of the tournament, in order to force himself to go to Hell so that the others would be saved from certain circumstances that threatened the rest of the Ueki Team.

[edit] Rinko Jerrard

(鈴子・ジェラード Rinko Jerādo?) Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Angie Beers (English)

  • Gender: Female
  • Age: 15
  • Birth date: 24th December
  • Blood type: AB
  • Ability: Change beads into bombs

She creates special accessories in order to use her beads in more constructive ways such as:

  • Platform shoes - Made of a special alloy and then filled with beads she can detonate to perform what she calls the Rinko Rocket. She uses this to blast herself up into the air
  • Beads Cannon - Special metal tubes that are filled with beads and then go over her fingers so that she can detonate one bead and send the rest of them rapidly at her opponents.

She came from a rich family and many people had pretended to be her friend so that she would buy them things. Rinko has a crush on Robert since he treated her as a real friend, and so she joined Robert's Ten, but she eventually saw that he just wanted to use her as well and joined up with Ueki.

Rinko's Celestial King Candidate is a man named Nikay, one of Margarette's followers whom she hasn't seen since the battle began.

She loves all animals, taking an immediate liking to Tenko (which she tried to change his name into "Tenki"), but her weakness for cute things makes her vulnerable to Ban's power.

Her recent accessory is a special glove hidden with beads inside when used with her power, producing a force impact that claims to be as great as a missile.

Note that it is wise not to insult her no matter what, or another personality of her's will surface that will turn hell for the person who insulted her.

She doesn't seem to realise that she has an "evil" side and fortunately for her that she forgets whatever her "evil" side says or does. This "evil" side seems to be activated whenever someone insults her.

The only example of this is when Ban called her an 'insect' which caused her to become furious and unlock her "evil" side. In the end of the manga series, she confessed her love to Robert, but Robert insults her and bring her "evil" side surface. Robert became her second victim and had to be hospitalized for a fortnight.

In the epilogue at the last episode of the anime, Ai said that Rinko and Robert only dated once but Rinko dumped Robert because she suddenly felt a strange feeling about Sano.

She is seen teaming up with Sano in various episodes.

[edit] Hideyoshi Soya

(宗屋 ヒデヨシ Sōya Hideyoshi?) Voiced by: Kappei Yamaguchi (Japanese), Chris Ippolito (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Birth date: 5th May
  • Blood type: O
  • Ability: Turn voices into portraits

His ability to turn voices into portraits can make voices come out of them. The condition is that he needs to bend his fingers or toes.

He is a power user that Ueki and Mori meet. He is prone to deception, using various novelty gags and tricks in a fight such as soy sauce bomber. He looks out for a group of kids at a place called the Sun House.

His first King of the Celestial World Candidate, Nero, was a kind heavenly being that did not want to become the King of the Celestial World; he simply wanted to help out humans which he did at the Sun House. Soya offered to become gifted so that Nero could stay longer on Earth. Unfortunately, he helped Soya during a fight and was sent to Hell.

Then, Soya received a new King of the Celestial World Candidate, Zack, whom he hates for turning out to be a jerk and wanting him to join forces with a nasty bunch of power users. He agrees to help Ueki when he hears that they can save Nero. Although sometimes cowardly and weak when Soya performs his sneak attacks in conjunction with his power he can be a formidable foe.

In one occasion, he combined Sano's power with his to make a shock wave made out of sound. In addition, his ability to use his opponent voices as well work with his tricks making it easier to deceive his foes.

At the end of the series, Ai refers him as the useless member of Team Ueki.

[edit] Tenko

(テンコ?) Voiced by: Chiwa Saitō (Japanese), Mariette Sluyter (English) (small) and Voiced by: Takashi Nagasako (Japanese), Jonathan Love (English) (big)

A large tailess yellow fox-like creature with a duiker-like horns on his head, ten blue beady eyes with the main pair three to six times larger than the other pairs, black bat-like wings, brown stripes on his limbs and with no visible ears that helps Ueki awaken his celestial powers.

He can also change his shape to fit onto Ueki's wrist like an arm protector used by goaltenders in ice hockey to give him advice,he seems to be able to communicate with Ueki telepathically. He is a Heavenly Beast that is something of a mutation among his kind (he is born as an ancient version of Heavenly Beast, which is a ferocious-looking Godzilla-sized fox-like creature instead of an adorable cat-sized genetically-engineered house pet).

He was treated very poorly by Heavenly Beings and Ueki was the first to actually treat him with some kindness and respect. He is able to detect the power level of Heavenly Beings (his eyes lights up and changes colour to red depending on which level the Heavenly Being is on) and because of his mutations has a bigger version of what is called the "awakening organ" that can awaken the hidden powers within Ueki.

Unfortunately, He can only use it to train Heavenly Beings up to 7 levels without dying for every Heavenly Being. This means that he can still use it to another Heavenly Being. Has an ability to spit out a large, roundish bunny creature that enveloped Ueki and heals him within 12 hours.

Fairly harsh with Ueki at times, but he is happy to have found someone who actually needs him. He also is very useful at giving advice in a fight (he is not allowed to fight or he will be sent to Hell); in the jump rope fight he told Ueki when the rope was coming and against the Marilyn team he warns Ueki about their location in the smoke.

[edit] Anon

(アノン?) Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama (Japanese), Sean Broadhurst (English)

Hanon in the English dub. He is from a race known as the Hellions, who come from the Protector clan. Anon can swallow and absorb people within himself, thus making their bodies his, as well as gaining whatever abilities they have such as Robert's power to make the ideal thing and his sacred treasures.

With a surprisingly humble nature, he has a hard time understanding humans and tends to experiment on them with reckless curiosity. Although it appears that Margarette is his father it is actually a Hellion who swallowed Margarette using his appearance.

Later in the series, he swallows King of the Celestial World and changes up the rules of round 4. He first told Ueki that his dream is to destroy everything, but in fact, his real dream is to have someone who can beat him.


[edit] Robert Haydn

(ロベルト・ハイドン Roberuto Haidon?) Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (Japanese), Sean Broadhurst (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Age: 14 (1 year younger than Rinko)
  • Ability: The power to turn ideas into reality
  • Hate: Nothing
  • Hobby: reading a book

Robert Haydn is a frightening person with an equally frightening power. He can boost his own natural sacred treasures by modifying them to a perfect ideal like absolute accuracy or ideal protection. The fault in this is that for every time he creates an ideal, he loses a year of his life, but once he creates this ideal he can use it any time he wants to. His abilites can't be used on living things, however, but his changes change as his ideals change, such as turning an unblockable Kurogane into a rapid-fire version. His level 2 power allows him to change gravity.

That is also why the reason he formed Robert's Ten. They act as his brawn, doing the fighting for him in order to save those precious years. He is a fairly nasty character, not caring who he harms and how badly they are harmed. Like Ueki, he is a Heavenly Being with more power than the gift given by his King of the Celestial World Candidate.

But unlike Ueki, however, Robert has been training in his power for quite a long time. Robert has an unfortunate past in which he was treated as a monster by the people of his town. After being betrayed by his friends, he starts to hate humanity and destroyed the entire village where he lived (1/3 in the manga).

At the end of the series, he becomes a nice person like his childhood self, having been touched by Ueki and his friends.[1]

[edit] Margarette

Voiced by: Shūichi Ikeda (Japanese), Jonathan Love (English)

He is Robert's father and the King of the Celestial World Candidate who gave him his power. Margarette sent his own son to Earth so that he could choose him for the tournament. Not above sneaky tactics to ensure his son's victory.

His body was possessed by a Hellion with the intention of taking over Heaven. He later puts Ueki in his awakening organ (It turns out that he also absorbed Heavenly Beasts similar to Tenko), and advances Ueki to his 9 and 10 star treasures.[2]

[edit] Robert's Ten

The secret group of gifted students who fight for Robert Haydn.

[edit] Kageo Kuroki

(黒木影男 Kuroki Kageo?) Voiced by: Yusei Oda (Japanese), Jeffrey Watson (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Nickname: Black Shadow
  • Ability: Change his shadows into clay men

He can create more than one clay man - even altering their appearance - which can confuse the enemy and thus keep them from finding the real Black Shadow. His favorite technique though is to create a giant clay man. If the sun disappears, so does his power.

He was the captain of his school basketball team, but because of an unfair ruling that disqualified his team from entering a tournament, he became the unemotional person who joined ranks with Robert.

During his fight with Ueki, he was defeated by a fellow member of Robert's Ten. Ueki luckily got through to him (with the help of Kuroki's little brother) and even though he was knocked unconscious he becomes good again.

[edit] Kamui Rosso

Voiced by: Harumi Sakurai (Japanese), Annika Odegard (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Nickname: White Shadow
  • Ability: Change his shadows into robots

Kamui has little respect for anyone, adhering to the motto “I don’t need any robots that won’t listen to me.” After knocking Kageo, his fellow teammate out, Ueki knocks him out of the tournament with some cunning tree manipulation.

[edit] Alessio Juliano

Voiced by: Ken Narita (Japanese), Charles Heffernan (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Change dirt into a scythe

He is very loyal to Robert and will not stand for just anyone to join the group. He is a very short-tempered individual whom Ueki cannot help but irritate. Upon realizing his heavenly powers, Ueki puts him down for the count with Kurogane.

[edit] Don

Voiced by: Kōji Ishii (Japanese), Ben Jeffery (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Change his ring into a rocket

Don is very proud of his strength and he always has a huge smile on his face even though he has a very large mean streak to him. Don has 320 different talents, all of which have to do with brute strength.

In the manga, Don only has 52 talents, but their strength more than makes up for their number. Don presumably lost his talents by indiscriminately beating up people outside the tournament to show his power. Ueki retires him from the tournament with his newfound ability of Masshu.

[edit] Marco Maldini

Voiced by: Shō Hayami (Japanese), Randy Brososky (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Change tomatoes into magma

An expert chef who is in charge of cooking for Robert's Ten. He gets very angry when anyone insults his cooking (like Ueki did when he dumped the soup on Alessio's head).

Marco is one of the members who considers victory all that matters, nearly killing former teammates Don and Alessio with his magma, and threatening Rinko when she defects. Again, Masshu was the method Ueki used to defeat him.

[edit] Rinko Jerrard

She was one of Robert's Ten, but she changes allegiances to Ueki's group. See above for more information.

[edit] Oni

(?) Voiced by: Chikao Ōtsuka

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Change bamboo swords into hedge clippers

Ogre wears an all black outfit with horns and a forehead protector which is actually a form of chain mail. He doesn't say much, but he is able to defeat most opponents quickly. He is shown defeating an unnamed opponent (Kagura in the anime) with the power to change leaves into blades, but because he defeated him so quickly, it is unknown if he used his sword or his hedge clippers. Usually seen with Becky. Ueki defeats him with Ranma.

[edit] Becky Wolf

Voiced by: Yumiko Kobayashi (Japanese), Suzette Mattar (English)

  • Gender: Female
  • Ability: Change BB bullets into meteorites

The shortest member of the Ten, she hates to be ignored or being called small or a child. In spite of her tough appearance, in the Japanese version, she ends most of her sentences with the word, desu. Ueki retires her with Masshu.

[edit] Taro Myojin

(明神太郎 Myōjin Tarō?) Voiced by: Mayumi Yamaguchi (Japanese), Mike Thiessen (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Abilities: Change his whistle (the sound, not the object) into a laser, change fans/cards (menko) into buzzsaws".

The buzzsaw can only be avoided by jumping. Dodging it will only result in it following the target. This is used in combination with the laser so that when they jump from the buzzsaw, they are easy targets for the laser.

He was given powers by two King of the Celestial World Candidates who were in cahoots with each other, but changed their minds after seeing Robert in action.

In the Japanese version, he has a speech impediment that often causes him to elongate his pronunciation of the consonant "s," but in the American dub he instead appends "like" to nearly each sentence he utters. Neither of these carries over into the English translation of the manga.

Myojin fits the same personality type as most of the other Ten members, seeing friendship as weakness and showing no mercy. This makes for a very hard character shift from his goofy simpleton looks. Myojin was the one who recruited Ueki to join Robert's Ten. Ueki retires him with Masshu.

[edit] Carl P. Accio

Voiced by: Wataru Takagi (Japanese), Roger Rhodes (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Nickname: Carpaccio
  • Ability: Copy another person's power

Carl , Robert's second in command, has the power to copy another person's power. The condition is that he has to spend 24 hours within 10 meters of them. He used this to acquire the powers of all of the other members of Robert's Ten.

He has two powers from outside the Ten which are the power to change the opponent's thoughts to a cell phone Text-message and the power to reverse one's position with the opponent's.

He uses all of these powers in combat and may actually have had more, but it is unknown as he was knocked out by Ueki's Masshu. Carl is a very sneaky (yet ironically loud) type who isn't above underhanded tactics to get what he or Robert wants.

In the manga, he is portrayed as somewhat girl-crazy.[3]

[edit] Yunpao

(ユンパオ?) Voiced by: Akiko Yajima (Japanese), Caitlynne Medrek (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Change electricity into sugar

A rotund youth with "the power to " when he keeps his eyes open. A replacement member of Robert's Ten. Utilises his limiting condition, as when he closes his eyes, the sugar turns back into electricity which can make for a devastating attack. This is changed to opening his eyes very wide in the anime.

Also, Yunpao uses strange poses to distract his enemies from his large eyes and appears to be quite acrobatic as well. Loves sweets. Ueki retires him with a Pick. Yunpao seems unsuited to being in Robert's Ten, seemingly possessing no evil. He does, however, become very annoyed when he is interrupted while eating.

[edit] Ancho Kabara

(カバラ?) Voiced by: Noriaki Sugiyama (Japanese), Jordan Schartner (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Change cloaks into wings

He is a replacement member of Robert's Ten. He can also shoot out the feathers on his wings as he turns them into wing shurikens. He is an expert hunter (assassin in the English manga) and is able to shoot pachinko balls with as much power as a bullet (In the manga, he throws kunais instead of pachinko balls).

He is very fond of showing off his marksmanship skills, even to the point where he will shoot any target in front of him. Due to an exploding cossack hat during his battle with Ai at the Dogura Mansion, he is bald the second time he appears. Kabara fits with most of the Robert's Ten because of his cold hunter nature.

He felt no qualms about letting Ai suffocate during the Cossack Dance Battle, and believes that friendship is weakness. Rinko retires him with a combination of her powers with her new made weapons.

[edit] Tournament Teams

There are five teams that made it to the final round of the tournament to choose the next King of the Celestial World. Other than Ueki's team, there is the Caption Team, Gurono Team, Marilyn Team and Barou Team. There is also Anon (disguised as Robert) and Li Ho who made it as teams of one each. Here are the various teams and their respective members.

[edit] Team Capucho

[edit] Capucho

Voiced by: Yu Asakawa (Japanese), Annika Odegard (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Turn his voice into a freezing gas that encases whatever it covers

Leader of Capucho Team. He has a level two power which is a red gas that freezes things and makes them easily shattered by his attack alone. He wants Hideyoshi to join his group so that he could use his own power to send his freezing voice from multiple directions. Tends to get impatient and repeat certain words and phrases. His name is also written as Kapucho and Caption.

[edit] Mario

Voiced by: Hiroshi Kamiya (Japanese), Paul Hudson (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Turn his body into a giant billiard ball

He likes to give his attacks English names that sound absolutely absurd, such as calling his billiard attack Super Dynamic Elegant Ball. This is because the anime states that English is his best subject.

[edit] Ugo

Voiced by: Kouki Miyata (Japanese), Ethan Cole (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Turn rubber balls into acid

One of the power users that is trying to get Soya to join up with them. He is quite gullible and constantly falls for Soya's tricks, even though he claims he won't be fooled. Soya defeats him by stuffing nattō soybeans down his shirt and squirting wasabi sauce up his nose.

[edit] Nico

Voiced by: Masaya Matsukaze (Japanese), Jordan Schartner (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Turn his hair into a high-powered drill

He likes to attack from the ground where he can surprise people. One of the gifted that is trying to get Soya to join up with them.

He is very vain, especially when it comes to his hair, and also tends to use the word beautiful in his sentences. He looks more like a beautiful girl rather than a boy and has a tendency to wear girlish clothes.

[edit] Zack

Voiced by: Osamu Ichikawa (Japanese), James D. Hopkins (English)

  • Gender: Male

Soya's current King of the Celestial World Candidate who is actually a malicious individual who wants Soya to join his newly formed group to win the tournament.

[edit] Team Grano

[edit] Grano Kuwahara

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Turn a toy model into a real life working version

He is the leader of Team Gurano. He has the ability to turn a toy model (even a broken one) into a real life working version but he is required to play the toy model once. His level Two power is that he can control whatever he makes come to life. The condition for this power is that he has to believe whatever he is doing is right. He claims this is easy, because as far as he is concerned, anyone who stands in his way is evil.

He loves toy models and know about everything related to toys. Seems to put up a nice guy front but is actually quite mean. Beaten by Ueki and his model clone created by Gurano himself.

[edit] Pecol

Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese), Jordan Henkleman (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Create photos into toy models

He is a very timid individual and has the ability to create photos into toy models. When teamed with Pecol, Grano is unstoppable because he has endless supply of models to use.

Pecol once saw his friend getting beaten up, but did nothing to help him because he was too afraid. He longs to be strong, but ends up being duped by Grano. He is later inspired by Ueki to follow his own path towards finding strength.

[edit] Guitar

Voiced by: Kentaro Ito (Japanese), Lucas Gilbertson (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Turn his clothing into a barrier

He is able to turn his clothing into a barrier. His level Two is to attack within the barrier he makes on his opponent, but he cannot do both at the same time. He lied about his power saying he was invulnerable and that he could send out soundwaves, but that was just to scare his enemies.

He loves music, particularly karaoke, thus his name rhyming with a musical instrument but he is not very good at it.

[edit] Mūnin

Voiced by: Toshio Furukawa (Japanese), Ryan Stockert (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Make bad puns to become real

He enjoys traditional poetry and tends to talk in a haiku pattern. He has the power to make bad puns become real on his opponents once he/she laughs. He is also able to turn the word attack on himself to attack his enemies.

He is seen wearing a ratty scarecrow-style hat.

[edit] Pastello

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Make his drawing into a portal

Pastello likes painting and expresses himself through colors like "lucky purple" and "happy pink". He can make his drawings into a portal and using his large brush, he can tickle the opponent through the portal, thus making them laugh and become exposed to Mūnin's word attacks.

[edit] Team Marilyn

[edit] Marilyn Carrey

(マリリン・キャリー Maririn Kyarī?) Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (Japanese), Carol-Anne Day (English)

  • Gender: Female
  • Ability: Turn one second into ten seconds for herself

She uses this power to make her look like she's using super speed. Her Level 2 is the ability to double her attack power, but it's only limited to 10 minutes. When she activates it, a gauge appears on her neck and she will collapse after the gauge empties.

She claims to be proud of her upbringing and how she only feels truly alive when she is fighting, but this is a facade. She holds onto a childhood promise that forces her to keep fighting, despite her actual distaste for the act.

[edit] Memory

(メモリー Memorī?) Voiced by: Miri Kayahara (Japanese), Morgan Partridge (English)

  • Gender: Female
  • Ability: Creating traps from raw materials by sketching them

She uses her power with Putting's to make a combination attack. She is the first "victim" of Mori's power. A very competent field leader who acts as a spotter from higher ground.

She is also the smartest and the strictest of the team.

[edit] Matthew

(マシュー Mashū?) Voiced by: Shinichiro Miki (Japanese), Ryan Stockert (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Triple his pair of hands

His power is the ability to triple his pair of hands, making him have six arms.

Matthew is something of a flirt when it comes to ladies. Like all the members of the Marilyn team, he just wants to see Marilyn smile.

[edit] Baron

(バロン Baron?) Voiced by: Banjou Ginga (Japanese), Adam Hunter (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Able to move to wherever his knife is when he throws it

Baron is a knife user. He has the ability to move to wherever his knife is when he throws it. His level two is to immobilize himself and his opponent to the ground if he teleports within one meter of the person.

An honest and naive fellow and he always refers to himself in the third person in the Japanese version. He is very loyal to Marilyn and can be quite gullible due to the fact that he is tricked by Ueki repeatedly.

[edit] Putting

(プティング Putingu?)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Changing his mouth into a dimensional portal

He uses his power with Memori's to transport materials above the enemy, while she uses her power to change them into traps.

[edit] Team Barou

[edit] Balo Escarotte

(バロウ・エシャロット Barou Esharotto?) Voiced by: Shihou Kawaragi

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Turn past visions into reality

He used this power in conjunction with his Sacred Treasures to create endless attacks. Largely concerned with achieving his goals, throwing aside anything that gets in the way of said objective.

He has a very sad past because he accidentally used Kurogane on his adoptive mother when he mistakes her as a burglar breaking into their home. She fell into a coma for several years and wakes up terrified when he actually does use his Kurogane on several burglars.

At that point, he ran out of their house thinking that he is a monster and joined Robert along with the rest of the team. He is a talented artist.

[edit] Ban Dicoot

(バン・ディクート Ban Dikūto?) Voiced by: Eiji Takamoto

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: To animate and make things come alive

He has the ability to animate and make things come alive, usually with adorable faces attached to them. Likes to use the phrase To the max a lot.

He sports a green ducktail hairdo. Like Rinko, he adores all things cute, but he is the first person to fall victim to Rinko's "evil" side for calling her an insect and a small fry. He resembles Inuyama as a Rez-Boa-Dogz team leader in Air Gear

[edit] Diegostar

(ディエゴスター Diegosutā?) Voiced by: Toru Ohkawa

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Turn all things invisible and colorless

He has the ability to turn all things invisible and colorless. He is prone to talks of manliness and wisdom.

[edit] Kilnorton

(キルノートン Kirunōton?) Voiced by: Susumu Chiba

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Unknown

He has an I.Q. of 179, but strangely, even though he has a high I.Q., he is constantly outsmarted by Ai. He also has the talent of calculating. He named his glasses Bianca.

Mori suspects he is a pervert, but he denies these claims and states that he has an I.Q of 179 as a counter.

Mori defeated Kilnorton using her I.Q. Kilnorton's ability was not revealed during the series.

[edit] Heavenly Beings and God Candidates

[edit] God

(神様 Kami-sama?) Voiced by: Juurouta Kosugi (Japanese), Roger Rhodes (English)

He is the current King of the Celestial World who sets up this whole tournament. As shown in the anime, God is a pervert who likes women and drinking. In a flashback, he was inspired to start the tournament, due to the actions of Ueki's adoptive mother, Haruko Ueki, who at the time was a high school student just before she was deceased.

He started the tournament to give all beings, whether human or heavenly being, a chance to create their own futures. Although his front is a mindless idiot who likes to slack off, he actually very wise and powerful.

He's considered the best King of the Celestial World in history, which is a fact that he is very proud of.

[edit] Yodogawa

(淀川 Yodogawa?) Voiced by: Katsumi Toriumi (Japanese), Brendan Hunter (English)

  • Nickname: (よっちゃん Yo-chan?)

Yodogawa replaces Kobayashi as Ueki’s King of the Celestial World candidate. Yo-chan had a deal with another more promising King of the Celestial World Candidate, Margarette, to get Ueki to lose as soon as possible in order to take a cushy job as his assistant advisor.

He does his best to persuade Ueki to quit the tournament, but never succeeds. He rejoins to help Ueki later and apologizes for his previous behavior when Ueki is forming his team. He is at least a level 6 Heavenly Being, since in one episode, he used Raika.

[edit] Ueki's Father (Pag)

Voiced by: Kouji Tsujitani (Japanese), Paul Cowling (English)

A heavenly being who sent his son, Kosuke, to Earth as a baby with the same selfish intents as Margarette; to choose his son for the tournament so that he himself could benefit.

Unfortunately for him, he was not chosen as a King of the Celestial World Candidate, as Margarette was. He does, however, seem to express regret when he meets up with Ueki and company later in the anime, not revealing his true identity to Ueki due to his shame.

Pag also teaches Ueki a way to advance to his Level 2 power stating that it would be "the first and last time" he would aid Ueki. It is to be known in a later episode that he is Ueki's real father.

[edit] Rafati

Voiced by: Etsuko Kozakura (Japanese), Suzette Mattar (English)

The King of the Celestial World Candidate who gave Taira his powers. He tried to cheat during a fight by giving Taira more water and was sent to Hell for it.

[edit] Ganju

The King of the Celestial World Candidate who gave Li Ho his powers. He is also Li Ho's coach.

[edit] Other power users

[edit] Maruo Taira

(平丸男 Taira Maruo?) Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (Japanese), Jonathan Love (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Change water that he gargles in his mouth into fire

Usually likes to just blast fire, but he can manipulate it by gargling, sometimes making it into an explosive fireball. He wants the talent of manipulation if he wins. He was Ueki's first fight, and he lost after being hit by one tree.

[edit] Hayao Adachi

(足立駿夫 Adachi Hayao?) Voiced by: Motoki Takagi (Japanese), Brett Bauer (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Change cotton into stakes

Adachi wants to obtain the talent of running because he absolutely loves track but he is not a very good runner. He loses when he meets Ueki, who Adachi is envious of for his talent to run, but promises to keep running and maybe even beat him someday.

[edit] Li Ho

(李崩 Ri Hō?) Voiced by: Koyasu Takehito (Japanese), Roger Rhodes (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Put his fighting spirit into a punch.

While he has the ability to put his fighting spirit into a punch, he prefers to fight with his own Taijutsu skills rather than his power (he never uses his power in the anime).

Li Ho considers Ueki his rival and wants to become a strong fighter in honor of his father, who fell victim to the plague. Originally, he fights Ueki using a move he calls the Secret of the Count of Monte Cristo (秘鍵巌窟王 hiken gankutsuou?) but succumbs to its weakness when Ueki grabs hold of his shoulders.

During the third round, Li Ho displays a distinct growth in power, utilizing his inner power to perform powerful attacks. Channeling his power into his feet, for instance, allows him rapid movement.

Li Ho has developed a defense called Tai Chi Chuan which is a circular strike used to repel any attack.

[edit] Junichi Baba

(馬場淳一 Baba Jun'ichi?) Voiced by: Kisho Taniyama (Japanese), Jason Booker (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Nickname: B・J
  • Ability: Change coins into whirlwinds

B.J. loves hip-hop music. He has a tendency to lie a lot, particularly about who he is when fighting other power users.

When we first meet him he convinces another power user that he is Robert Haydn. His defeat at the real Robert Haydn's hands spurs Ueki to challenge him the first time.

He is somewhat a pervert especially towards Ai. During Ueki's first battle with him, he maximizes the speed of his whirlwinds to see her underwear and during their second meeting, he rubbed her body which resulted with a punch his face.

[edit] Bolo T

Voiced by: Yasuyuki Kase (Japanese), Scott Roberts (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Turn his forehead into diamond whenever he puts his hands in his pockets

He tends to just headbutt his opponents. Has many talents which he uses quite skillfully in battle. He often incorporates the word “jyan” at the end of his sentences. This is changed to "yo" in the English anime.

[edit] Monjiro Oniyama

(鬼山紋次郎 Oniyama Monjirō?)Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (Japanese), Randy Brososky (English)

  • Gender: Male
  • Ability: Change dirt into cannonballs
  • Nickname: Onimon

He believes in fair and square fights. He has a tendency to shorten words and phrases, and he has 299 talents.

He loves his home village and wants the village building talent if he wins in order to build his own village back up.

He teaches Ueki some basic fighting techniques to help win the fight against the Black Shadow, (Kurokage) the first person Ueki meets of Robert's 10.

[edit] Manga only

[edit] Fukusuke Hibiki

Appeared exclusively in the manga. Ueki is pursued by a boy named Fukusuke Hibiki, who is convinced that Ueki is a "tree demon king" from a children's book.

When Myojin holds up his card the first time he uses his power in the manga, it is a card with the title "The Tree Demon King and The Hero".

[edit] Ueki's family

[edit] Gengoro Ueki

(植木 減頃 Ueki Gengoro?) Voiced by: Shigeru Chiba (Japanese), Jonathan Love (English)

  • Gender: Male

Ueki's adoptive father. He is a writer and likes anything weird or unusual. Rather than being shocked or scared at peculiar things, he shouts in excitement. He also enjoys sports very much. Extremely energetic. He often says, Reality is Stranger than Fiction!

[edit] Shoko Ueki

(植木 諸子 Ueki Shoko?) Voiced by: Akira Kosaka (Japanese), Morgan Partridge (English)

  • Gender: Female

Ueki's stunningly beautiful adoptive sister, she is a student in a nursing school. She is extremely protective of Ueki, and when she first hears that he has taken part in the battle game, she reacts by complaining about all the bruises and scraped knees he will get, and that she could not bare the thought of him getting hurt.

In the series, she likes to play video games, owning a myriad of games along with the Playstation 2, a Dreamcast and a Game Cube consoles. She is very enthusiastic about playing video games with Ai.

[edit] Haruko Ueki

(植木 晴子 Ueki Haruko?) Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara

  • Gender: Female

Ueki's adoptive mother. She died in a car accident the same day in which Ueki arrived on Earth. She is the first person God meets while on a trip on Earth twenty years before when he is a newly elected god, when she was but a high school student.

Oddly enough, her surname is Ueki and she mentions that she has a boyfriend who is a writer (possibly referring to Gengoro). This could mean that either she's related to her husband, that they have the same surname by coincidence, that she lied and they were already married, or Gengoro took on her surname after their marriage, which is not all that uncommon in Japan. Her daughter is her spitting image with the exception that Haruko wears her hair in a ponytail.


Opening Theme:
#1: "Falco" by Hitomi Shimatani (eps 1-32)
#2: "No Regret" by Kumi Koda (eps 33-51)
Ending Theme:
#1: "こころの惑星~Little planets~" by Aiko Kayo (eps 1-15)
#2: "Earthship ~宇宙船地球号~" by SweetS (eps 16-32)
#3: "Kono machi de wa dare mo ga mina jibun igai no nani ka ni naritagaru" by The Ivory Brothers (eps 33-42)
#4: "Bokutachi Ni Aru Mono" by Romi Paku (eps 43-50)
#5: "True Blue" by Hitomi Shimatani (ep 51)