Characters / Ayakashi Triangle - Main Characters

Ayakashi Triangle Main Character Index
Main Characters | Humans | Ayakashi

Matsuri Kazamaki

Matsuri Kazamaki (風巻祭里)

Male Matsuri voiced by: Shoya Chiba (anime), Hiromu Mineta (vomic)
Female Matsuri voiced by: Miyu Tomita (anime), Yūki Kyoka (vomic)

Matsuri in his current form

^{Click here for Matsuri's original form.}

A fifteen year-old boy trained by his family to fight evil ayakashi. An encounter with Shirogane in the first chapter caused him to be transformed into a girl.

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• Adaptational Dye-Job: The anime lightens male Matsuri's hair color, making the near-black parts the same shade of dark red only his highlights were in the manga. Female Matsuri's hair is also potrayed as a pinkish-white despite explicitly being called silver, which is how it looks in the manga.
• Affection-Hating Kid: He was very affectionate with Suzu as a young boy, but then became more distant and aloof in middle school, going so far as to avoid Suzu's hug with a Ninja Log. This carries over to the start of the series in high school, where he learns to reluctantly enjoy the close company of Suzu and his other friends—when it doesn't lead to lecherous groping, that is.
• Affluent Ascetic: The Kazamaki clan have saved up a lot of money, but Matsuri doesn't have anything more extravagant than a smartphone. Visiting Lu's lavish estate, and the limo ride there, leaves him completely floored.
• Aggressive Submissive: For as trigger-happy, overprotective, and sometimes abrasive Matsuri can be, he definitely lets Suzu take the lead romantically and (sometimes reluctantly) enjoys it that way.
• Always Save the Girl: Although he takes his duty of protecting people from ayakashi seriously, them threatening Suzu specifically was what really spurred him to take up the job. And though Matsuri would be personally fine being stuck as a girl to serve The Needs of the Many, he changes his mind because Suzu says otherwise.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: Matsuri spends the overwhelmingly majority of the story explicitly identifying as male and wanting his original male sex restored. However, he repeatedly acknowledges the upsides of his experience and his masculine identity seems tied almost entirely to his ideal relationship with Suzu. When able to change back after half a year, Matsuri elects to stay a girl for another two-and-a-half years at least. They cite both identifying their female social experiences as an important part of their life but also feeling they're currently prepared to date Suzu only as a girl. Matsuri's long-term feelings are thus left a distant Riddle for the Ages.
• Ambiguously Related: Matsuri's resemblance to Iyo's bodyguard Shion, in looks and personality, makes Kanade and Shadow Mei wonder if Matsuri is Shion's reincarnation. Neither is sure, and Kanade calls it unimportant, so it's also possible she just caught interest in Matsuri for being an Identical Grandson or Identical Stranger.
• Anger Born of Worry: Ever since learning Suzu was an ayakashi medium, his fear for her life has made him frequently abrasive toward her.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Matsuri is regarded as a pretty girl by Suzu, Soga, Reo, most of his male classmates, and even his female friends who aren't specifically attracted to him. Though most of the boys write Matsuri off as a weird tomboy because of his behavior, he still occasionally gets leered at or hit on.
• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Since he began his training, Matsuri has favored traditional Japanese clothes. His standard outfit is a jinbei with sandals, and even at school he wears his battle suit's "ninja shoes". He actually wears a fundoshi instead of modern underwear at all times—even as a girl! In a bonus page in Jump Giga, he explains the fundoshi is part of the exorcist ninja uniform and he finds them comfortable.
• Badass Adorable: Transforming into a short, busty teenage girl hasn't made Matsuri any less powerful. Flashbacks show that even after he become an exorcist ninja, but was still male, he had some cute moments of childish glee.
• Bad "Bad Acting": In chapter 9, he wears a wig (Shirogane transformed) to try to inconspicuously check on Suzu and Soga in the former's family store. His attempts at seeming like some "regular" girl they'd never met were so bad that the two figures it was him instantly.
• Beneath the Mask: Matsuri's generally serious demeanor is often portrayed as a front to project strength, especially around Suzu, beneath which he is actually very goofy and cheerful.
• Blow You Away: Almost all his spiritual abilities involve manipulating wind, and he even incorporates them into exorcising ayakashi from people's bodies.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Suzu's control of her powers eventually grows to equal or surpass Matsuri's, but Matsuri still thinks it's his duty to protect her, even if it distracts him while they're trying to fight together.
• Boomerang Bigot: Despite still identifying as male, Matsuri tends to think guys are generally perverts, probably because of how much-unwanted attention they've paid him as a girl.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Matsuri is incredibly old-fashioned in several respects: His clothing of choice is traditional down to the underwear. Even something like air-conditioning his room he sees as wasteful, and Suzu was surprised he has a cellphone (which he may have only gotten to receive alerts about ayakashi activity). He thinks boys and girls should hold off on kissing until they're married.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: The sizable chest he now has gets him a lot of attention from other men, something he's distressed about.
• Celibate Hero: A conditional variant. Even after becoming female, Matsuri shows no attraction to guys, but also writes off the idea of romance with other girls. Matsuri seemingly figures he can only date anyone (Suzu, he hopes) if and when he becomes male again.
• Characterization Marches On: In the first chapter, when Matsuri is still male, he blithely grabs Suzu's thighs because he randomly assumes they had been affected by an ayakashi spell. For the rest of the series he is shown as incredibly averse to touching girls, even after spending months as a girl.
• Character Tics: Often puts one or both arms akimbo, most commonly with the back of his wrists on his hips, but also with his hands on the back of his neck. Relatedly, Matsuri always carries his book bag slung over his right shoulder with his wrist pointed outward. Despite coming off as a somewhat feminine gesture (he's almost in a Head-and-Hip Pose when carrying his bag), he did so even when he was male.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Matsuri can run at incredible speeds and jump huge distances, apparently thanks to training alone.
• Childhood Friend: He and Suzu have known each other since they were little.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: While still male, Matsuri subconsciously ignored Suzu's attraction to him, but flat-out missed Reo's. After becoming female, Matsuri becomes intensely unaware of the attraction directed toward him. He's repeatedly surprised when it comes from guys unaware he was male, and Soga doing so while knowing never occurs to Matsuri despite all the times he's seen Soga suddenly act nervous or evasive. Likewise, girls falling for him as he is now seems like the furthest thing from Matsuri's mind, despite Suzu repeatedly getting physically close to him and Reo becoming far more affectionate, if not openly lustful, since his change.
  Matsuri: [Suzu's] kind to any ayakashi. Maybe she's just being nice to me in a similar way.
  Soga (thinking): What is he talking about?! A woman wouldn't hug a man like that if she didn't like him! You have such low self-esteem, Kazamaki! Even though he's strong, he's brainless when it comes to love!
• Closet Key: Though Matsuri is the only one Suzu is attracted to, that attraction gradually becomes less and less contingent on viewing him as a boy. Her sexual thoughts eventually go from focused just on how Matsuri was to imagining Matsuri in female form even in sexual fantasies and even openly lusting at her boobs and ass.
• Combat Haircomb: Matsuri initially kept his pinwheel either tucked into his arm bangle or held in his mouth, but after his transformation lengthened his hair, Matsuri starts wearing it as a (decorative) hairpin.
• Compressed Hair: That little tuft of tied up hair unfolds into a wild mane that reaches halfway down his back, even while sticking out all around.
• Consistent Clothing Style: Outside of school uniforms and ninja gear, Matsuri usually wears a jinbei, but both it and any other outfits he wears include sandals and shorts, usually baggy ones.
• Covert Pervert: Matsuri is very chaste for the most part, but can't always keep himself from Eating the Eye Candy when Suzu's undressed around him. After Suzu reacts suggestively to Matsuri cooling her off with his wind, he is clearly aroused, and even starts volunteering to do it again. Matsuri also wanted them to keep studying in his room because it's hotter than her house, and he likes to see Suzu sweating (earning a Dope Slap from Shirogane, who sensed "shamelessness"). He initially thought Suzu's ayakashi medium costume was strange, but changed his mind after noticing all the different parts of her body it exposes.
• Crush Filter: When Tanumaro gives him Identity Amnesia to make him believe that he was always a girl, he immediately develops a crush on Soga, the only male around his age who he regularly interacted with beforehand. This is displayed from Matsuri's point-of-view as Soga having much softer features than usual.
• Cursed with Awesome:
  • Though Matsuri was turned female as an act of spite, living as a girl has helped restore his relationship with Suzu, led him to make other friends for the first time, and improved his general demeanour. Although Matsuri still doesn't like being a girl, he acknowledges he may be better off being one.
  • The actual spell provides a situational advantage when Matsuri's Life Energy is attacked. It wraps his body in haku to take effect, providing a sort of Mana Shield that takes the blow instead (though he'll still be temporarily immobilized until his own, displaced energy flows back).
• Cute Bruiser: Matsuri was short for his age as a guy, and is even smaller as a girl. But even without weapons or ninjutsu, he can punch a man off his feet.
• Deflector Shields: He can form a wind shield in front of himself to block attacks.
• Detect Evil: Anyone with spiritual powers can sense those of others to an extent, but Matsuri's pinwheel helps by spinning in the presence of malevolent ayakashi. There are, however, some ayakashi so weak or well-hidden that even it won't detect.
• Double Jump: Matsuri can "step" on the wind to propel himself in any direction in midair.
• Dream Walker: Matsuri cannot directly enter dreams, but creates a mental copy of himself in the dreams of people sleeping while he performs an exorcism on them. However, while the copy does what Matsuri would (albeit apparently being unable to talk), the real Matsuri still has no awareness of what happens in the dream.
• Elemental Speed: He can use his control of wind to lower air resistance and propel himself forward, though he first used this is to make Ninokuru faster while Matsuri clings onto him.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Matsuri's female form has caught the attention of many of his male classmates, left Soga flustered, makes Suzu question her sexuality, and Reo is, if anything, more attracted to him now than when he was male. Even Yayo and Lu half-jokingly describe him as a "hottie" at one point. When a series of misunderstandings results in a rumor that Matsuri is in a bisexual relationship with multiple women and one man, everyone starts calling Matsuri an "enchantress".
• Expy:
  • Of the namesake protagonist from Reo x Leo, the predecessor to this manga. Both are teens well-versed in martial arts, have close ties to female childhood friends, get hit with a technique that turns them into girls themselves (down to their female forms being near carbon copies of each other), and neither is particularly willing to act more feminine beyond wearing a girl's uniform to school. Reo's personality, however, is very cheerful and flighty, almost the opposite of Matsuri's.
  • Matsuri is also much like Shion, the protagonist of Kentaro Yabuki's first Jump manga Yamato Gensouki. Both act serious and withdrawn, have trained to fight for years from a young age, and become bodyguards to a young woman they admire more than anyone else. Visually, Yabuki deliberately gave Matsuri's design a similar silhouette, including baggy pants and a flowing cape/sash. Matsuri's female form also has very similar hair, creating an especially strong resemblance to Yabuki's more recent drawings of Shion. Toward the end of the story, the first ayakashi medium is revealed to be Iyo from the aforementioned manga, with her bodyguard shown to be (though not explicitly named as) Shion. In the last chapter, Shadow Mei and Kanade wonder if Matsuri is Shion's reincarnation.
• Fanservice Pack: Matsuri's breasts become more visually prominent over the course of the first four volumes. His school uniform, jinbei, and chainmail underlayer fit very tight in more drawings, while the vest of his battle suit subtly narrowed, showing more sideboob.
• Fantastic Racism: After learning that Suzu is an Ayakashi Medium and coupling with his training to be an exorcist ninja, Matsuri went from being friends with ayakashi to treating them all like potential enemies. He would violently chase away any that hung around Suzu. This behavior is brought up when Suzu becomes the Ayakashi King, and Matsuri himself admits his reaction was ignorant and childish.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: His jinbei is white on the right half, black on the left half.
• Fetish: More than once he's found Suzu especially attractive when she's drenched in sweat.
• First Friend: He was the first human Suzu made friends with, and she thinks she'd have grown up a total misanthrope if he hadn't.
• First Law of Gender Bending: Shirogane transforms him into a girl just before having most of his power sealed, and the jutsu cannot be undone without allowing Shirogane to regain his power and threaten Suzu's life again. Killing Shirogane would supposedly just make the transformation permanent. Then Shirogane undergoes a Heel–Face Turn, only to lose his powers entirely, leaving any possibility of changing back up to Suzu to master her ayakashi medium powers to restore that lost power. And then Suzu's full power turns out to be split into three entities, one of which is an Evil Doppleganger of her past life who's more interested in taking over Suzu's body to destroy humanity than helping solve their problems. The road back to masculinity is a long one indeed.
• For Your Own Good: His attempts to protect Suzu obtrude into her interest in ayakashi and damage their friendship, which isn't helped by how long he refused to explain why she was in danger.
• Friendless Background: Until he met Suzu he didn't have any friends, and she was his Only Friend (not including the ayakashi that hung around Suzu) through elementary and middle school, though he made a few exorcist ninja colleagues. Suzu only discovers this when questioning his inability to communicate with girls.
  Matsuri: I don't know what to say to girls.
  Suzu: What do you talk about with your guy friends?
  Matsuri: I don't have guy friends either.
• Gag Penis: Shirogane's cold courtesy of Rochka's ice powers destabilizes the Gender Swap Awakened jutsu, leaving Matsuri incapitated by abdominal pain from the mark. While Rochka is taking care of him, the jutsu weakens just enough that he temporarily regains his penis (apparently without replacing his female genitals), which is represented by a bowhead whale surfacing, then diving back down as it disappears again.
• Gender Bender: Turned female by Shirogane's curse, which seemingly a fully-powered Shirogane alone can remove. Shirogane has no reason to do so until he's already lost his power permanently, so Matsuri may well stay that way for the rest of his life. Only people aware of the existence of ayakashi know who he was before being cursed. While this initially started out with just Suzu and his grandfather, the series has expanded such that Soga, Matsuri's mother and both Yayo and Lu are aware that Matsuri was previously a boy.
• Gender Bender Angst: Double Subverted; Matsuri starts with little personal problem with his female body; he still considers himself male and he found it outright novel for a while. But though his initial attitude seemed flippant, coming to grips with the indefinite nature of his transformation has made him come to believe he's "not his real self" until it's reversed. Ironically, his biggest grievance over this—that he can't be more than Suzu's "girl friend" while female—is entirely self-imposed.
• Gender-Blender Name: Not only is the name "Matsuri" unisex, his name's spelling in kanji is usually feminine. That he was eventually turned female borders on the prophetic.
• Hates Being Called Cute: Though mostly fine being seen as a girl, Matsuri feels emasculated being called "cute/pretty". It's outright distressing coming from boys hitting on him, but he gets annoyed even by Suzu uncomfortably joking about it. This seems to have calmed down after a few months as a girl, as Matsuri was merely silent when Haya says he looks cute in her school uniform, and was outright pleased that Suzu said he looked "good" in girls clothes.
• Hates Wearing Dresses: Matsuri is generally OK with living as a girl, but isn't comfortable with any feminine clothing besides the skirt of his school uniform.
• Heroic Safe Mode: Though Matsuri quickly becomes a lot more emotionally open, any sign of danger sends him into a stoic, hyper-focused mode where he's ready to fight. This shift is frequently played for laughs in sexual situations, where Matsuri sharply swings between being horribly flustered by slightly suggestive things and undisturbed even by frontal nudity.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: For all the skills he's developed in just three years of training, Matsuri is ashamed any time he comes up short, and worries he's only good at dealing with ayakashi by force. Soga even points out it should be obvious Suzu loves him, but his self-esteem is too low for him to accept it.
• Hidden Weapons: Even without deploying his suit, Matsuri carries numerous shuriken on his person, including the breast pocket of his uniform at school. He also keeps a kunai in his jinbei.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Matsuri can be stealthy, but wears a bright red waist sash and many of his attacks are conspicuous wind-based spells. Technically, his ninja garb actually makes him invisible to most... but not the ayakashi he's fighting.
• Home Nudist: Matsuri is often shown lounging around his house with a bra but no shirt, even in front of his grandfather. Some time after Rochka and Une moved in, he's casually dressed the same even in front of them.
• Hyper-Awareness: Matsuri's senses are so acute, he can instantly react to attackers even in his sleep.
• Iconic Item: Matsuri is rarely seen without his pinwheel.
• Incompatible Orientation: The series indulges in blatant romantic overtones between Matsuri and Soga, but stops short of showing Matsuri reciprocating Soga's sexual attraction, outside of one incident where he was brainwashed. He even considers Haya's idea of becoming Soga's "girlfriend" purely to help him out with his issues related to girls.
• Indifferent Beauty: Muses that as a girl he has "a pretty hot bod", but besides hating the occasional leering, he doesn't dwell on it.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl:
  • Depending on the situation, he may show off his female body accidentally or shamelessly. On the "innocent" side, he has accidentally flashed people because he's not used to wearing a skirt, flustered Suzu in an omake by casually pulling his skirt up to show he can keep wearing the same underwear, and repeatedly driven Soga off by unknowingly inciting his Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality. On the "shameless" side, he's thwarted Shirogane's attempt at Defeat by Modesty by running into battle naked and is (disgustedly) aware that his body tends to be something his male classmates ogle at, especially during gym classes. Matsuri seems to gradually get more conscious of his female body, to the point of getting embarrassed wearing a skimpy swimsuit and being attacked while undressed, but he still tends to get more physically close to Soga than the latter is comfortable with.
  • In male form, he's fine being seen in as little as a fundoshi, at least by Suzu.
• Innocent Bigot: There is a recurring implication that Matsuri cannot conceive of same-sex attraction, or is even a bit dismissive of the idea. Even after Soga and Seigen encourage him to pursue Suzu while he's still a girl, Matsuri is convinced it makes dating her impossible. Matsuri's Selective Obliviousness to several of his friends' attraction to his female form seems partially based on how such feelings could be considered "gay", by one metric or another.
• Insecure Love Interest: Matsuri thinks of Suzu so highly that he can't see himself as worthy of her affection, even when he's dedicating his life to protecting her. Despite this, and his own claims to the contrary, the idea of Suzu actually dating someone else makes Matsuri very uncomfortable. Suzu's potential for incredible power, rather than inspiring hope that she could make Matsuri male again, only worries him that she'll end up leaving him behind. Eventually, Matsuri stops worrying Suzu will leave him and considers she may love him, but with much less certainty than his experience warrants.
• Ironic Name: "祭里 (Matsuri)" means "festival", but Matsuri is neither social nor jubilant.
• Knows the Ropes: The tassel hanging off Matsuri's scabbard is actually the end of a rope which he can swing around to bind his enemies.
• Light Girl, Dark Boy: Becoming female changed his short black hair with red highlights into shoulder-length silver hair with a slight pink shade. It also made his skin slightly more pale.
• Lightning/Wind Juxtaposition: The Wind to Soga's Lightning, having actual wind powers.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Matsuri was the first person Suzu was able to bond with over their ability to perceive ayakashi, and her powers as an ayakashi medium are intensified by her feelings toward him. Kanade admits that he saved her from becoming a full-on misanthrope like Shadow Mei, as she was born with Past-Life Memories of humanity persecuting her. When Hinojiki seemingly kills him to spice up Suzu with her despair, her offer to let Shirogane eat her was just as much about losing the will to live as helping the cat ayakashi.
• Living Motion Detector: Calm Formation is the seemingly unimpressive use of ninjutsu to still the wind around the user. This allows him to notice movement that disturbs the air, and ignore illusions that don't, coming from any direction.
• Locked into Strangeness: Shirogane's Curse not only inflicts a Gender Bender, but also turns his hair silver. When the Gogyosen's corruption spell results in two of him, the fact that the female Matsuri's hair is still silver is used as evidence that she is an Ayakashi born from the curse.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: Played with; Matsuri's female form has hair much longer than before the transformation (though it's usually tied up in a knot). However, his personality remains masculine, and he contrasts with the very feminine Suzu, whose hair is short.
• Loss of Identity: Matsuri seems to have a dissociative view of his transformation, identifying as male but "not really [himself]" so long as his body is female. However, this only distresses him for the comically-ridiculous reasoning that dating Suzu as a girl would mean she's cheating on the "real" him.
• Loving a Shadow: Seigen points out that Matsuri puts Suzu on such a pedestal as to be beyond reproach, even if that means ignoring her desire to get close to him. Living close to Suzu in female form helped Matsuri, in his own words, "see Suzu as a girl".
• Magic Enhancement: When Garaku paints seals on his body to temporarily prevent him from externally releasing wind, Matsuri creates the Inner Storm jutsu to control his spiritual energy within his body much the same way he normally controls wind, giving him brief bouts of superhuman strength and durability. It can also be used to expel curses.
• Magic Kiss: Without his pinwheel, Matsuri can still suck spirits out from people's bodies, but has to do it mouth to mouth.
• Magic Knight: Fights with a combination of wind ninjutsu and Stock Ninja Weaponry.
• Magic Wand: Casting ninjutsu causes Matsuri's pinwheel to start spinning, and one caption says it helps him concentrate. It's also used to suck out evil spirits possessing human bodies through their mouths, or drain the spiritual energy out of ayakashi themselves. How much Matsuri needs it is unclear, as he's only shown using the exorcism technique without it.
• Manly Tears: Bizarrely, the first time we see Matsuri cry past early childhood, it's with a stoic expression on his face, despite being for his lost underwear.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His surname begins with the kanji "風", which means "wind", and his family have several ninjutsu and devices related to wind.
  • The Chinese reading of his given name "祭里" means "sacrifice", and Matsuri is very self-sacrificing in his duties and at protecting Suzu.
• Mistaken for Gay: Whether one wants to consider Matsuri a hetero guy (he still identifies as male) or a lesbian (due to his physical gender) is debatable, but his classmate have thought "she" was a straight girl, then a lesbian, then a bisexual girl.
• Morality Chain: Mei Hirasaka lost faith in humanity to the point that she was strongly considering Kill All Humans. It was meeting Matsuri that influenced her into trying to believe in humans again, which is also why Shadow Mei, an omokage created from said grudge, considers Matsuri her biggest obstacle. At first Mei tries to kill Matsuri, but Garaku convinces her that could simply make Matsuri a Morality Chain Beyond the Grave.
• Ms. Fanservice: His female form has one of the largest chests in the story, and is often shown with little to no clothing.
• Mundane Utility: While he's trained himself to ignore heat, he'll use his wind powers to fan Suzu so she doesn't try to strip down.
  Matsuri: Exorcist Ninja Art, Cooling Fan!!
  Shirogane: So now he's using jutsu to become a household appliance?
• The Needs of the Many: Matsuri is willing to make great personal sacrifices (like losing any chance of being male again) to protect humanity from ayakashi. However, even this is secondary to his dedication to Suzu.
• Ninja: He is an exorcist ninja, which for the most part means a typical depiction of a ninja (black outfit, focus on speed, ninjutsu) except specialized in fighting evil spirits.
• Not So Above It All: He was so excited to ride in Lu's limo, she caught a picture of him drooling with his mouth agape like a puppy, which he insists she delete.
• Oblivious to Love: While he comes to terms with his feelings toward Suzu early on, Soga is bewildered that he doesn't recognize Suzu's reciprocation. Reo's proclamation that Matsuri will always be her client also goes over his head as a declaration of war toward Suzu.
• One of the Girls: Four of Matsuri's five friends are girls, and all but Suzu he only befriended after literally becoming a girl. Likely because Suzu was his only friend for so long, Matsuri is fine spending his time in a group of girls, though he appreciates having Soga to talk to about certain things. Matsuri never even considered romantic tension could hinder an opposite-sex friendship until Yayo told him so.
• Perpetual Frowner: His default expression isn't exactly a scowl, but Matsuri initially looked very serious most of the time and almost never smiled, even when he seemed happy or relaxed. By the end of the second volume, he's visibly cheerier.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: When Matsuri is in uncomfortable social situations (like riding the bus when starting school as a girl or being around Suzu's friends before actually getting close to them), he plays mobile games with his eyes glued to the phone screen, either to deal with it or just indirectly show his displeasure. Ironically, he doesn't use the actual phone very much—before high school he didn't have anyone on his contact list but his grandfather, not even Suzu.
• Punny Name: Although Matsuri's name being a homophone for "festival" is ironic in one sense, it can also be considered a pun on his preference for fundoshi, an undergarment that nowadays is usually only worn for ceremonial purposes at festivals.
• Raised by Grandparents: Seigen has always been Matsuri's primary or sole caregiver, as his father was seemingly always absent, and his mother was always busy with work even before she moved away when he was seven. Even when Matoi comes back to town, it's part of a mission and she decides to stay in a hotel room, though she tries to reconnect with Matsuri as she trains him.
• Razor Wind: Many of his attacks are projectile blades which come out of his sword slashes or his empty palm.
• Real Men Hate Affection: Matsuri stands out from the other girls by being more aloof and distant. He grows to open up emotionally, but is still taken aback by physical contact and almost never initiates it himself. Unusually, this is limited mostly to girls, as Matsuri thinks touching any of them is wrong so long as he still thinks of himself as a boy (even if he doesn't demand girls show the same restraint). Toward Soga, he's usually cheerful, adoring, and even a bit of a Cuddle Bug.
• Real Name as an Alias: "Matsuri" is a unisex name and he had very little social life in middle school. When he starts high school under an assumed female identity, he can easily use his real name without raising suspicion—not even from students he went to middle school with.
• Red Is Heroic: A protagonist with red eyes that wears a red sash and pinwheel. His hair has dark red streaks in male form, and is shaded pink in female form.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Matsuri is a more openly expressive "red" to Soga's "blue". On the other hand, Matsuri still comes off as very reserved and serious compared to Suzu and her friends, especially in the beginning.
• Reinforce Field: By controlling the kon within himself, Matsuri can give himself brief moments of extreme physical strength and durability, even when unable to release it from his body.
• Residual Self-Image: Matsuri's thoughts often show his original, male form alongside his current body. This goes beyond a visual for the audience, as this appearance is shared by a brief glimpse of his soul self that Lu sees (unaware that she was seeing Matsuri's true self). One omake also shows him as male in his dream. After a few in-series months, Matsuri is visualized in female form when he's affected by a second transformation, but it's unclear if this was just a contrivance or if the "shape of his spirit" has been changed as Reo theorized.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Matsuri always had limited social experience, which got even worse in middle school when he dedicated all his time to exorcist ninja training. Correspondingly he's quite bad at personal conversation with anyone but Suzu and his grandfather, and he's not always open to them either.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Matsuri often emasculates himself in female form with high-pitch squealing in sexual situations, and is even surprised by the sound he makes the first time. Most often, it's some variant of "hya(n)" in Japanese, or "(m)eep" in English.
• Second Law of Gender-Bending: Zig-zagged; day-to-day, Matsuri is fairly mellow about living as a girl and has explicitly acknowledged its upsides, but he still wants to become a boy again and rarely even considers a future where he stays female. However, Matsuri's issues seemed dependent on very questionable assumptions about a "proper" romantic relationship with Suzu. Time spent split apart as a boy and girl seemingly made Matsuri see value in either sex after the halves merge back together. When Shirogane regains his powers in the finale, Matsuri decides against having the Gender Swap Awakened jutsu released until at least graduation, as he's grown accustomed to the social life he didn't have before the sex change (he also doesn't feel ready to handle Suzu in bed). However, he's now open to dating Suzu as a girl.
• Secretly Selfish: As badly as he tries to be completely selfless in his dedication to Suzu, Matsuri still longs for her attention and admiration. He's in denial about fearing that Suzu would date someone else, and frequently bases his actions on trying to seem "cool" to her. He isn't very receptive to the idea Suzu could gain the power to protect herself; Matsuri doesn't just want her to be safe, he wants to remain the one keeping her safe.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Played for Drama, Matsuri tries his hardest to keep Suzu in the dark and just be a normal girl so he keeps information from her, even important stuff that pertains to her safety, which ends up backfiring in the expected ways.
• Security Blanket: He's gotten so attached to his fundoshi, switching to another kind of underwear made him too timid to speak up in front of his class or even go up to a high place like the roof.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend:
  • When Shirogane accuses him of playing up his rescue attempt to impress Suzu, Matsuri says to stop talking nonsense. He likewise rejects his grandfather's assessment that Suzu wants to be something to Matsuri besides an idol to worship.
  • Since Lu and Yayo only know Matsuri as a girl, to them it's Soga whom Matsuri denies any romance with. Despite knowing Matsuri was originally male, Muga reaches the same conclusion and gets the same response. In this case, his statement is much more sincere, though partially because he doesn't notice Soga's crush.
• Shower Shy: Living as a girl has forced Matsuri to undress or appear naked alongside other girls, such as in the gym dressing room or while bathing, and he tries to avoid looking at them. No one but Suzu knows he's a boy, so they simply think Matsuri is being shy, but that doesn't make him feel any less like a voyeur. Being seen naked doesn't bother him, though he's alarmed at just the suggestion of Suzu washing his body.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift:
  • His attitude took a drastic change when he started his exorcist ninja training, after which he switched from a T-shirt and tennis shoes to a jinbei and sandals.
  • He'd been inspired by his grandfather to wear a fundoshi at a young age, but his mother convinces him to start wearing panties as a girl so he can improve his kon by stepping out of his comfort zone (she's also really enjoying having a daughter). During the final battle against the Gogyosen, Matsuri unleashes his stocked-up power by changing back to a fundoshi, but the last chapter shows Matsuri is back in panties again, right as they explain they want to stay a girl for the next couple years. It's left to our imagination if Matsuri is trying to store up more spiritual energy or just sees it as a regular part of being a girl.
• Skilled, but Naive: Despite his skill as an exorcist ninja and self-serious attitude, Matsuri can be incredibly short-sighted, easily flustered, and very suggestible to his friends' statements without really understanding their intentions.
• Sky Surfing: He can create gusts of wind powerful enough to propel an object through the air as he rides it.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: His exorcist ninja suit has gloves that go slightly above the elbow, but his shoulders are fully exposed. In gym class, he rolls up the sleeves of his gym shirt.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: As he grew up male, Matsuri doesn't like the attention guys give him as a girl. It also makes things with Soga more complicated, not that Matsuri's noticed.
  Matsuri's classmates: Matsuri! Did you think over our idea about streaming videos?
  (Matsuri flees)
  Lu: It must be tough being popular.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Matsuri is used to fighting dangerous spirits, but very evasive when it comes to social situations like making friends or being honest with Suzu.
• Spiky Hair: His original form's hair consists almost entirely of triangular tufts. His female form has less pointy bangs, but the hair in the back flares up and outward into more points, and it borders on Wild Hair when it's not up in a knot.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: Wields a ninjato or a kunai, throws shuriken, and his various forms of Razor Wind have been called "kunai" and "kama".
• Strong Family Resemblance: Matsuri's female form looks like his mother, but with light, spikier hair.
• Super Gender-Bender: Played with; Reo's analysis shows Matsuri's physical transformation affected his physical abilities, but not enough that it's become plot-relevant. However, because acting like a girl does not come naturally to Matsuri, getting used to it trains mental strength, and thus spiritual power. Thus far, simply changing to girls' underwear provided a considerable boost.
  Matsuri: I'm not a girl just for show!
• Swiss-Army Superpower: His wind powers are incredibly versatile, being capable of cutting, blasting, pushing, lifting, shielding, and aiding his movement in a variety of ways.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Matsuri's girl form is drawn with thick eyelashes, long fingernails, and glossy lips like other female characters, even though he's definitely not wearing makeup or doing his nails.
• They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: For as close as Matsuri and Suzu are, the latter complains that he never talks about himself. Basically any detail of his social life as an exorcist ninja or things like the reason Matoi move out when Matsuri was a child come as a complete surprise to Suzu.
• Third Law of Gender-Bending: Played for Laughs. When an ayakashi jutsu brainwashes Matsuri into thinking he was always a girl, he displays an exaggeratedly feminine personality, wanting to cuddle with cute animals, becoming more delicate, and feeling safe around Soga, who ends up being the one capable of breaking the brainwashing in a matter of seconds.
• Tomboy: Matsuri identifies as male regardless of his transformation, and though it's gotten him to publicly present himself as female, his mannerisms, speech patterns, and body language remain as boyish as before. Outside of his school uniform, the only change to his wardrobe is the addition of a sports bra. As such, Suzu's friends think of "her" as a tomboy — a reputation that the rest of the school would pick up on. Needless to say, he's the tomboy in Suzu's group of friends, who display their relative femininity to varying degrees.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak:
  • Even though girl Matsuri is seen as a tomboy, his default temperament is reserved and gentle, sometimes even shy.
  • Though Matsuri is uncomfortable wearing most girls' clothes, he let his hair stay long after it suddenly grew out, uses his pinwheel as a hairpin, and his Transformation Trinket is a choker. It's possible these are for pragmatic reasons (using the pinwheel as a hairpin lets him carry it around less conspicuously), but Matsuri's never concerned if they make him look too feminine (the tankobon version of chapter 1 even shows him wearing the choker when he was male).
  • Matsuri eventually elects to expand his wardrobe as a girl, and his new clothes are of a "boyish" style (i.e. subtly feminine twists on otherwise masculine/unisex apparel). When Suzu compliments his look, Matsuri is slightly embarrassed, but still obviously pleased.
  • He does most of the cooking and cleaning around the house for his grandfather (even wearing an apron). This isn't a side-effect of the transformation as Shirogane initially believed it to be; he did all those things even when he was a boy.
  • Not only does Matsuri act very deferential to Suzu, it's heavily implied and eventually outright shown he's very sexually submissive.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Socializing with Suzu and her friends has made Matsuri more expressive and upbeat.
• Transformation Trinket: His choker can instantly change into his ninja suit (sword included), hence he wears it even while bathing.
• Uke: Many of Matsuri's interactions with Suzu and Reo indicate he's very sexually submissive to girls. Matoi even advises Reo to be aggressive to gain his affection, literally using the terms "seme" and "uke" in the Japanese version. The situation is reversed with Soga, as Matsuri is the unknowingly-dominant one because he is unafraid of close contact with his one guy friend.
• Urban Legend Love Life: After Suzu very publicly shows her affection for Matsuri, he diverts everyone's attention from her by pretending to flirt with Reo. He succeeds better than he hoped, as people believe he's also hitting on Soga.
  Matsuri I need to up my seduction game!
  Suzu: Nope, no need for that.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: As a young child, he was much more energetic and friendly. Oddly, he's shown acting that way just six months ago, when he first began fighting as an exorcist ninja, though he may have been more open without Suzu around.
• Vapor Wear: Matsuri's ninja suit has some openings on the side that expose his mesh undershirt. It was tailored when he was still male, so now the front stretches out further, showing from some angles that there's his fundoshi, but no bra, underneath (even if he was wearing one before changing outfit).
• Voices Are Mental: Inverted in the anime; girl Matsuri's internal monologue is in his female form's voice even right after the change.
• Wasted Beauty: Many guys find Matsuri's female form very good-looking, but because he never tries to act differently from when he was still male, those guys are put-off by "her" incredibly brash and tomboyish personality.
• Weapon of X-Slaying: Matsuri's sword is capable of exorcising ayakashi even if they're ephemeral and presumably immune to physical damage. However, the first chapter shows even it won't work against an ayakashi as strong as Shirogane was.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: He wouldn't even use his substitution jutsu properly to avoid Suzu kneeing him in the face, because then she might hurt her leg on the Ninja Log.

Suzu Kanade

Suzu Kanade (花奏すず)

Voiced by: Kana Ichinose (anime), Saya Aizawa (vomic)

^{Click here for Suzu in her ayakashi medium costume.}

^{Click here for Suzu merged with Shirogane.}

A fifteen-year-old girl with the ability to see ayakashi. She learns she is an ayakashi medium, whose power attracts ayakashi for both good and ill.

---

• #1 Dime: Suzu treasures her hairpin because it was made from Matsuri performing an exorcism on her in middle school, when he was otherwise barely talking to her. Wearing it makes her feel like he's always by her side.
• A-Cup Angst: The anime (adopting a Volume 1 omake) has a single, downplayed display of this when she's introducing the newly feminized Matsuri to bras, internally expressing frustration that all of her old bras are way too small for him.
• Accidental Pervert: A rare female version, but Suzu has the clumsiness, grabby hands, and awful timing on par with any Harem MC.
• Actual Pacifist: Suzu does not generally object to her friends killing malicious ayakashi, but can't bring herself to hurt them, at least when they're sapient. Eventually, Suzu comes to realize some ayakashi are inherently violent and malicious, and really do have to be exorcised.
• All-Loving Hero: Humans and ayakashi alike inspire empathy in Suzu, even when they're trying to kill her. That she could see things from the ayakashi's perspective convinces Shirogane she's worthy to be his successor. Even when Suzu knows an ayakashi needs to be exorcised, she prays that they'll be reincarnated into another that doesn't.
• All of the Other Reindeer: When she was young, Suzu was thought of as a Creepy Loner Girl because no one else could see the ayakashi she befriended. After finding someone else who shares her experience, she became much more socially-adjusted. Nowadays, she gets along with average humans well enough, but most of the exorcists view her as an extremely dangerous threat. While they are currently waiting and watching, and Matsuri is determined to prove them wrong, it is implied that they are already thinking about exterminating her.
• Ambiguously Bi: Suzu has been in love with Matsuri for a while and finds even his female form sexually attractive, though much less than his male form. However, it's ambiguous how much this shows an attraction to girls versus Suzu still being able to see Matsuri as a guy. Suzu reacts very negatively to the idea of Matsuri acting more feminine or identifying as female, though it's hard to tell what comes from lack of attraction, discomfort in her attraction, or concern that it would prevent Matsuri from loving her back. Eventually, Suzu becomes quite unreserved and aggressive in pursuing female Matsuri, even fantasizing about him with his current form, suggesting gender really isn't an obstacle to Suzu's sexual attraction. In chapter 88 Suzu realizes when given the opportunity to prevent Matsuri from ever becoming a girl, that she has fallen in love with the girl version as well, and no longer regrets the change.
• Ambiguously Human: According to ayakashi folklore, ayakashi mediums don't just attract the spirits but are themselves a combination of ayakashi and human, which Soga thinks can be just as dangerous. However, Matsuri has known her since childhood and never saw any signs that she wasn't fully human, bringing to question what exactly she is.
• Animal Battle Aura: Suzu has her sexual lust emanate an aura symbolized with a roaring (male) lion.
• Anti-Magic: Suzu can use her control of haku to cancel certain ayakashi spells, even through her origami.
• Art Initiates Life: Suzu's most versatile ability is to bring origami figures to life. They specifically have to be modeled after living creatures, not something inanimate like a paper airplane. On the plus side, they can duplicate the abilities of the things they resemble, even ones you'd wouldn't expect from something made of paper—for instance, her origami dog even has a sense of smell.
• Attack Drone: The first offensive ability she learns is animating paper cranes to use as guided projectiles. Originally, the energy she infuses in them produced a numbing effect on contact. In a bout of anger, she learned to make them explode.
• The Beastmaster: Ayakashi that don't want to eat Suzu tend to follow her orders, though she initially didn't use the ability for combat. Once Shirogane is captured, even he is quick to warm up to her, though he'd still eat her at the first opportunity. When her powers start to awaken, she outright forces one of Utagawa's drawings to fight on her side. Later, she starts creating paper servants, which have to be modeled after living things.
• Better as Friends: When girl Matsuri becomes excessively flirtatious to distract Suzu from boy Matsuri (who is obliviously carrying a curse that will kill her if they have sex), Suzu concludes that the girl was simply desperate for attention after her aquarium date with the boy, and vows to maintain a clean and platonic relationship with both (much to Shirogane's delight). Girl Matsuri reluctantly accepts her decision because it will still keep her safe from the curse, but then the Gogyosen resort to Lippy...
• Big Eater: Rarely is she seen for very long without chowing down on something, usually some sort of candy or pastry.
• Bodyguard Crush: Both inverted and played straight. For a long while, Matsuri's attempts to protect Suzu got in the way of her attraction to him, because they seemed unnecessary and were often invasive. Once there are actual threats for Matsuri to defend against, Suzu finds his efforts quite romantic, even after Matsuri is turned female. She even prefers Matsuri as her sole protector when someone else more capable offers to take his place.
• Book Dumb: Suzu doesn't do well academically, mostly because she's too Obsessed with Food to focus while studying.
• Boyish Short Hair: Inverted; Suzu is the most traditionally feminine amongst her group of girls, but also has the shortest hair.
• Cannot Spit It Out: While she's hardly shy about her sexual attraction toward Matsuri, Suzu struggles to work up the nerve to romantically confess to him, to the point that she involuntarily spawns an omokage that nearly does so in her stead.
• Cat Girl: When Suzu channels Shirogane's power, she gains his cat ears (above her regular ones), tail (which phases through her clothes), and hair as well as fangs and claws. She becomes much faster and more agile, but also acts like a cat (licking herself, Running on All Fours, carrying things in her mouth).
• Catchphrase: Whenever describing something as extreme, she uses "mōretsu", which is generally translated as "colossal".
• Childhood Friend: She and Matsuri have known each other since they were little.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She doesn't like when Matsuri is close to anyone she suspects is a romantic rival, which has included basically any girl that knows of him as a boy and even Soga. These feelings don't generally inspire hostility, but when Soga's father says he approves of Soga and Matsuri getting married, she actually attacks him.
• Closet Bi: Suzu is attracted to Matsuri's female form, if not generally bisexual, and almost immediately wondered if they could start a relationship even as girls. However, Suzu starts off uncomfortable dwelling on the subject herself, much less admitting it to Matsuri or anyone else. She eventually becomes completely comfortable being in love with a female Matsuri and all her friends knowing it, and quickly outs herself to their whole school by making out with Matsuri in public. Suzu is embarrassed in the aftermath, but it's vague whether that's over being attracted to a girl (which most people think Matsuri always was) or being seen an promiscuous.
• Consistent Clothing Style: Suzu covers her upper body with various types of hoodies, and leaves her legs mostly bare, usually wearing short shorts. Even her pajamas have a hood. She gets close to the same look at school by wearing a cardigan instead of a blazer. When she gains some Ayakashi Medium Gear it also has the look of a long hoody but with disconnect sleeves and thigh high stockings.
• Covert Pervert: She tends to have a randy imagination. Shirogane has picked up on it and has dubbed her a "shameless" woman. It's implied or outright shown a couple times she wants to have sex with Matsuri (preferably the male form) though anytime someone almost catches wind she plays it off. It's also shown that the usual Accidental Pervert hijinks like walking in on her naked or Not-What-It-Looks-Like moments actually turn her on, and instead of getting mad she is often disappointed things don't go further. Over time, the "covert" aspect disappears, with Suzu becoming very upfront with her lust toward Matsuri.
• Cuteness Proximity: She pets and coos over Shirogane's small form, even as he explains how powerful and fearsome he is.
• Damsel out of Distress: Zig-zagged. She needs to be saved quite often by Matsuri and it's partly why she loves him, but as the story progresses and her powers grow she becomes more able to take care of herself, eventually fighting by Matsuri's side and protecting him on more than one occasion.
• Deity of Human Origin: Gods Need Prayer Badly turned her predecessor, Queen Himiko, into a goddess, and the power was passed on to her first life, Queen Iyo.
• Deuteragonist: Her status and evolution as the Ayakashi Medium are just as much the focus of the story as Matsuri's predicament, if not more, to the point she eventually becomes equally involved in action scenes as well. Her general charisma and the fact she's by far the more romantically (and sexually) dominant of the two further contribute to make her feel like a co-protagonist rather than a mere love interest.
• Eating the Eye Candy: The most obvious sign that Suzu finds female Matsuri attractive is just how often she is shown staring at his female form. At first it started as a subtle blush and a darting glance but as with everything about her growing attraction it has since blown up into full on lusting, with winding eyes and even drooling.
• Expy:
  • To Fuuka from Reo X Leo. Besides a largely-similar appearance, she essentially plays the feminine foil to her decidedly unfeminine genderbent best friend, while secretly building up feelings for them.
  • Suzu has a notably similar role to Yamato Gensoki's depiction of Empress Iyo, especially once Shirogane names her his successor as King of the Ayakashi. Both are fifteen-year-old girls in positions of authority, are very charismatic and empathetic, have a mysterious connection to the supernatural, and are the object of the protagonist's fierce loyalty and protection. Suzu's ayakashi medium costume (being derived from Mei's) even bears the same emblem (a circle with two diagonal prongs on top). It's implied and then later confirmed the historical Empress Iyo in Ayakashi Triangle was Suzu's first past life.
• Extreme Libido: Her lust for Matsuri steadily ramps up from present to intense. Once she finds out Matsuri loves her as well, Suzu regularly tries to make a move on him and begins having graphic sexual fantasies with little provocation. Matsuri thinks Suzu's compensating for multiple past lives that died too young to experience any kind of romance.
  Shirogane: A mere nightmare... cannot possibly beat Suzu's 1000 years of lust!
• False Friend: Suzu dotes on Shirogane in hopes he'll give up his plans to eat her. She does want them to be actual friends, at least as much as any other ayakashi.
• Fetish: Suzu seem to think Erotic Eating is great a way to combine her sweet tooth and sexual lust. She gets to play it out in a dream where she covers Matsuri with condensed milk that she licks off, which she calls "something [she] always wanted to do".
• First Friend: Suzu was Matsuri's Only Friend up until high school, but once she discovers this, she pushes him to at least befriend Lu and Yayo.
• Flechette Storm: Origami servants are stored throughout Suzu's ayakashi medium costume, which she can launch all at once. They're even drawn with contrails like an Itano Circus.
• Friend to All Living Things: Most ayakashi drawn to her just want to be in her presence, and she's happy to play with them.
• Gayngst: Suzu gets uncomfortable upon realizing she's attracted to Matsuri even in his female form. It's one reason she wants Matsuri to change back, possibly even more than Matsuri himself. She also worries that Matsuri being female long-term could cause him to become solely attracted to men.
• Girl Next Door: A kindhearted Childhood Friend of the protagonist who expresses romantic interest in him in the first chapter. They even literally live very close to each other. She also plays a part in training Matsuri to be more feminine in adapting to his new body, although it hasn't stuck.
• God in Human Form: The true identity of the Ayakashi Medium is the Goddess Amaterasu, incarnated into a mortal body. Queen Iyo of Yamato was the first incarnation.
• Good Bad Girl: Suzu is a very kind, empathetic individual, and though her feelings for Matsuri are monogamous, they include very explicit sexual desires. When he was temporarily made male again, Suzu readily accepted what she mistook as a proposition, even in the middle of a forest.
• Having a Blast: The haku that animates Suzu's origami servants can be expended at will to create an explosion.
• Healing Hands: One of the first uses she finds for her powers is healing and reinvigorating injured ayakashi. The energy she needs is proportional to the ayakashi's own strength, so while she can heal critical-injured small ones instantly, there are others she can't yet help in any reasonable timeframe.
• The Hedonist: Garaku theorizes that Suzu "presiding over life" gives her strong desires, causing her Sweet Tooth and fairly strong libido.
• Hereditary Hairstyle: Suzu has a bob cut just like her brother and mother. The point when she changed it from a longer style signified Kanade creating Suzu's personality without memories of her old life or any other family.
• Heroic BSoD: Hinojiki seeks to drive her into despair to make her taste better, and he succeeds by devouring most of Matsuri's haku, seemingly killing him (he survives because the consumed haku was actually Shirogane's from the Gender Swap Awakened mark). When she believes he died, she starts hyperventilating while sobbing, not even reacting to Hinojiki's attempt to eat her before Shirogane swoops in to save her. She even offers her life to Shirogane, who chastises her for giving up and disregarding Matsuri's apparent sacrifice despite that being his original goal.
• Hypocritical Humor: Even as Suzu gets increasingly and openly aggressive in affection for Matsuri, she'll claim it's wrong for other girls to get too close to him, because he's actually a guy—even if they don't know it. She even calls Lu "shameless" for sharing a bath with Matsuri as Suzu herself spies on them.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable: Earlier on, Suzu was disturbed by the idea of Matsuri in girls clothes. Once she is largely used to Matsuri being a girl, Suzu tells him he looks nice in them while squealing behind his back about how cute he is. After Suzu admits to herself she loves Matsuri even as a girl, she's next shown happily dressing Matsuri up in a girl's yukata for a summer festival.
• Ideal Illness Immunity: Suzu mentions she's never gotten sick, and guesses that's because she's an ayakashi medium, which Mei later confirms is typical. The one time Suzu seemingly had a cold, it was actually a result of overstressing herself.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Suzu pretty quickly realizes she's still attracted to Matsuri after he's turned female. She's still very hesitant to think of their relationship going forward that way, especially when Matsuri definitely wants to change back. Once Suzu gets her feelings out to Matsuri and learns he feels the same, Suzu is completely fine dating or even getting married as two girls, and Matsuri's hesitancy is the actual obstacle. When she's presented with an opportunity to travel back into the past and prevent Shirogane from turning Matsuri into a girl, Suzu rejects it by arguing that she had gotten closer to Matsuri through his transformation, and acknowledges she's in love with Matsuri even as a girl.
• Important Haircut: She once had fairly long hair, but cut it down to shoulder-length after Matsuri suggested it would get in the way. This was also when "Kanade", her original personality, decided to seal off her Past-Life Memories and allow Suzu an ordinary life with him.
• It's All My Fault: Suzu blames herself for Matsuri being turned into a girl, as it happened while he was defending her, and so refuses to let him exorcise Shirogane for her safety when that means Matsuri can't ever change back. Afterward, she takes the initiative in trying to "tame" Shirogane into doing as they need.
• Ki Manipulation: While humans can usually only manipulate spiritual energy, ayakashi mediums like Suzu can weave life energy. Her most common uses are to heal, temporarily animate objects, and create or modify a copy of herself. Less common uses include taking over one of Garaku's paintings and nullifying ayakashi jutsu.
• Liminal Being: Biologically, Suzu appears to be entirely human, but spiritually she and her powers are more like that of an ayakashi.
• Magnetic Hero: Even apart from the sway her power gives her over ayakashi, Suzu is rather charismatic. Over the course of one lunch, her casual warmth takes Soga from thinking of her as a potential threat to practically worshiping her.
• Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: Suzu is implied and eventually outright shown to masturbate while thinking about Matsuri to compensate for her inability to consummate a relationship with him.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Suzu means "bell", in particular the spherical kind hung over shrines, which is indicative of Suzu's spiritual powers.
  • Suzu's given name is spelled with two different forms of the same hiragana, reflecting her ability to make a duplicate of herself.
• Nerves of Steel: Many threats to Suzu's life cause minimal reaction from her, partly because she's confident in Matsuri's ability to protect her.
• Nice Girl: Suzu is very sweet and cheerful, especially to ayakashi.
• Not Quite Flight: Sticking a flying paper servant under the sole of each of her shoes lets Suzu fly, and generally increase her movement speed.
• Out with a Bang: The Gogyosen plans for creating a Boy-Matsuri turns out to be this, if he and Suzu consummate it will activate the God Killing Curse, which will effectively poison Suzu, killing her and destroying the spirit of Amaterasu so she will never be reborn again.
• Only Sane Woman: Tends to act as a levelheaded foil to Matsuri's intensity, though she is a bit naive.
• Pervert Revenge Mode: One instance has Matsuri examine her thighs up close and questions if Shirogane thickened them. Suzu knees him in the face in retaliation. Ironically for a shonen manga, this is the only time she does it, later arcs show that being spied upon is something of a fetish for her, to the point she just shows disappointment when its revealed Matsuri is too much of a nice guy or distracted by a mission to actually spy on her.
• Positive Friend Influence: It's only thanks to Suzu's insistent that Matsuri actually even tried to become Yayo and Lu's friend. Matsuri admits to himself that she also taught him the value of things besides attacking, which let him use Calm Formation and become more diplomatic in dealing with ayakashi.
• Power Parasite: The first time Suzu actively uses her power as an ayakashi medium, she wills Utagawa's octopus drawing to stop trying to steal the scroll from her, and it starts fighting to defend her.
• Power Perversion Potential:
  • She gets the idea to manifest her hands from a distance to invisibly grope Matsuri's breasts and thighs in the middle of class. Neither of her other personalities are amused.
  • Once Matsuri is OK with being Suzu's girlfriend, Suzu decides she wants to learn the Gender Swap Awakened herself to "fully enjoy both sides of [Matsuri]". Matsuri is confused, and Shirogane shows up to slap her before she can elaborate.
• Powers via Possession: She can absorb unconscious ayakashi to take on some of their physical features, personality traits, and power. Her past life self, Kanade, had no idea this was possible.
• Protectorate: Matsuri has sworn to protect Suzu, becoming an exorcist ninja after learning that she might be preyed on as an ayakashi medium. Neither her estrangement from him or his own transformation into a girl have stopped Matsuri from trying to uphold this vow, even going so far as to ask Suzu to make him one of her "girl friends" so that he can remain close to her whenever an ayakashi attacks.
• Psychoactive Powers: Suzu's powers often act up in response to intense emotion, usually ones related to Matsuri. Garaku concludes they're specifically most active when Suzu can't get something she wants, but isn't so disheartened as to give up entirely. Comically, one of the most effective emotions seems to be sexual lust.
  Shirogane: Reo is an unprecedented pervert... but Suzu's overwhelming shamelessness goes far beyond that!
• Puberty Superpower: Suzu's power has attracted ayakashi all her life, but it's only as a young adult that she's drawn ayakashi strong enough to eat her or gained any ability to use her power to her advantage.
• Really Fond of Sleeping: Suzu loves sleeping, and even exercises before bed just so she'll be more restful overnight.
  The moment when you first lie down is the best!♥
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: We don't see Suzu naked nearly as much as Matsuri, but she's much more embarrassed when it happens. Though occasionally, she's unashamed because she's trying to seduce Matsuri.
• Secret-Keeper: She's initially the only person at school who knew Matsuri used to be a boy, though she's quickly joined by Soga and later Reo. She would later also tell Yayoi and Lucy.
• Secretly Selfish:
  • Suzu has gone to a lot of trouble and taken personal risks to reverse Matsuri's transformation, primarily because Matsuri wishes to be male again, and Suzu sees his transformation as her fault. However, Suzu also wants Matsuri to be male again because she finds him more attractive that way, and even though she's open to loving him in his female form as well, the idea makes her uncomfortable. Suzu also doesn't think Matsuri wanting to be a girl would render the problem moot; she fears and wishes to prevent it.
  • In a more comical case, Suzu gets worried Matsuri will ogle the girls while changing clothes, but it's pretty obvious her actual concern is that he's looking at someone besides her. This leads to an Imagine Spot of her blocking his view by undressing directly in front of him.
    Suzu: I… uh… need to protect everyone!
  • Suzu attacks Muga when he says Matsuri should remain female and get together with his son, insisting that Matsuri is a boy. Nominally, this was because Muga was ignoring the pair's feelings, including how Matsuri still considers himself a guy, but her envious rage is rather transparently showing through.
• Self-Duplication: She eventually learns to create omokage, ayakashi duplicates of her that fulfill her desires, at will. Thus far, she's only able to use either one full-sized one at a time or multiple mini selves.
• She Is the King: After Shirogane gets his power taken from him by Jinyo, knowing it will take a long long time to regain said power, he asks Suzu to become the Ayakashi King in his place. The title in Japanese is "Ayakashi-no-Ō (妖の王)", which is gender-neutral and would more literally translate as "Monarch of Ayakashi".
• Single-Target Sexuality: Suzu is Matsuri-sexual, whether or not he stays female. She does read quite a lot of porn, though the only specifics are a yuri book whose leads somewhat resemble Suzu and Matsuri.
• Split-Personality Makeover: In chapter 28, in order to escape the jutsu of the lost house ayakashi, a "Suzu" whose demeanor is similar to Suzu's before she befriended Matsuri takes over her body. While doing so, her hair grew long as she displayed power and control that the current Suzu had yet to accomplish, then shrank back to normal as Suzu's regular self regained consciousness.
• Split-Personality Merge: Like Shadow Mei, she wishes to recombine with her, and also like Shadow Mei, she wants to recombine with her under her own terms, convincing Shadow Mei to accept humans again.
• Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious: As an ayakashi medium, most ayakashi just want to be around her, but the malevolent type want to eat her to become more powerful themselves. In a more amusing sidenote, when she hand-makes food, her Life Energy leaks in and make it taste amazing to ayakashi.
• Sweet Tooth: She's often shown eating pastries, often carrying several with her at once, and is easily distracted by them. Makes sense since her family owns a café.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Suzu pities Sosuke, even after he nearly killed her, Matsuri and Shirogane, because he doesn't just treat other people as a food source, he seems incapable of seeing them any other way. Later arcs show she always feels a level of remorse when exorcising Ayakashi no matter how evil they are, as they were generally made that way from human malice.
• Take a Third Option: When Matsuri decides to hold off on changing back into a boy for a couple of years, Suzu reveals an interest in learning how to use the Gender Swap Awakening spell herself so she could freely change his physical gender meaning that she wouldn’t have to choose between the male and female Matsuri, though it’s also partly to fulfill her bisexual desires.
• Team Mom: She's the most emotionally mature in Kachofugetsu, and mediates between them.
• Took a Level in Badass: Suzu spends most of the series improving her abilities, to the point of starting to fight by Matsuri's side in the sixth volume.
• Tranquil Fury: When Muga insists Matsuri is a girl who can and should marry his son, Suzu sends an exploding attack his way. Without raising her voice, she insists that Matsuri is a boy, her anger showing through her Dull Eyes of Unhappiness and absentmindedly crushing Shirogane in her free hand.
• Twin Threesome Fantasy: When Matsuri is split into male and female versions of himself, she has an erotic fantasy of the two of them fighting over her.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Because they were already friends with her before, the weak ayakashi are quick to accept Suzu as their king, especially once they see how her powers are developing.
• Weight Woe: She worries the sweets she eat are going to her thighs.
• Wingding Eyes: Sometimes gets swirls in her pupils when comically panicked.
• Women Prefer Strong Men: Suzu frequently admires how "cool" Matsuri's exorcist ninja feats are, especially when they're done on her behalf, and it's the first sign she is also attracted to his female form. This does not stop Suzu from being the sexually dominant half of their relationship or being charmed by his more vulnerable moments.
• Yuri Fan: Kanade points out Suzu keeps yuri books under her bed—which she was keeping hidden even after getting rid of the rest of her Porn Stash.
• Zigzag Paper Tassel: Suzu has a shide hairpin, which represents the spiritual power within her. In middle school, Matsuri used a necklace it hung on to exorcize a curse from Suzu, and she made the hairpin from the only one left.

Shirogane

Shirogane (シロガネ)

Voiced by: Tesshō Genda (anime), Mitsuteru Nagato (vomic, small form), Hikaru Fujikura (vomic, true form)

Shirogane in his small form

^{Click here for Shirogane's true form.}

^{Click here for Shirogane disguised as a mundane cat.}

A cat ayakashi known and worshipped as the "King of Ayakashi". He came to devour Suzu to make himself even more powerful, but ended up with most of his powers sealed away in Grandpa Kazamaki's scroll.

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• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: A cat-like spirit who wears a red scarf, which changes to a shimenawa in his giant form. His origin flashback implies his worshipers put it around his neck when they gave him a shrine, and Shirogane keeps wearing it as a reminder of his glory days.
• Acrofatic: Despite his pudgy exterior, he can run much faster and jump much higher than a regular in-shape cat.
• Adopted to the House: After being captured and spared by Matsuri, Shirogane starts living at the Kazamaki residence so Matsuri can keep an eye on him. After Shirogane proves he's not a danger to Suzu anymore, he moves into Suzu's house to assist in her ayakashi medium training. The rest of her family are initially unaware of his presence, until he uses his normal cat form to become the family's pet.
• Anachronistic Animal: His small form has the distinct ears of a Scottish fold, a breed created in the 1960s, even though he's hundreds of years older than that. It is technically possible he could have changed his form more recently, however.
• Animals Lack Attributes: Averted; his small form has visible testicles.
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Shirogane is disgusted that the ikon and their spawn indiscriminately consume other ayakashi, and considered it his duty as king to destroy the jinyo that would become Sosuke.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's an ayakashi "king" primarily because he was the strongest around, though he did earn the respect of some of his subjects as well. With most of his power sealed, he can't actually get anyone to do anything. After his power is taken away for good, he decides to name Suzu as his successor until she can restore it.
• Ass Kicks You: He usually Dope Slaps people (mainly Suzu to punish her perverted antics) by throwing his full body at them butt-first.
• Bad Liar: Tries to claim he's given up on eating Suzu even as the drool overflows from his mouth, and is stunned that Matsuri saw through him.
• Bilingual Animal: He can talk to both humans and regular cats.
  Suzu: Aren't you supposed to be at the cats' meeting?
  Shirogane: Not many cats came today, so the meeting was dismissed.
• Boy Meets Ghoul: Even after becoming an ayakashi, Shirogane can be attracted to mundane female cats, though he's generally averse to romance.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Matsuri captures Shirogane but does not exorcise him because he's the only one who can return Matsuri to being male. Although even that was Suzu's idea, as on his own Matsuri was willing to get rid of Shirogane and live with it.
• Catchphrase: Mixing with Phrase Catcher, he regularly calls Suzu "shameless (harenchi)" for showing her libido. It's a phrase he has in common with Yui from To Love Ru.
• Cats Are Magic: A cat spirit that was able to turn Matsuri female, and even after losing his power remains a Shapeshifting Trickster.
• Celibate Hero: He insists he's a "strong being" who doesn't need love, though only an instant before seeing another cat he likes.
• De-power: Thanks to Sosuke's haku-draining, Shirogane's power goes from sealed away to outright gone. His only chance for a Re-Power is from Suzu mastering her ayakashi medium powers.
• Dead Man Switch: Possibly; Shirogane claims that if he dies, the spell he cast on Matsuri will "become a curse" that's totally permanent. It's not clear if Shirogane meant his death will directly render the transformation irreversible, or just that he's the only one that can remove it. In either case, Shirogane may be overestimating the strength of his power or bluffing, because Garaku believes Suzu could eventually change Matsuri back herself.
• Debt Detester: Despite their continued animosity, Shirogane appreciated Matsuri saving him from Soga. Soon after, Shirogane points out to him that Yayo is being possessed by an ayakashi to settle things, and knowing this allows Matsuri to save her life.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After Matsuri captures Shirogane, Suzu plans to make friends with him as a means to get him to reverse Matsuri's transformation. She makes some quick headway, but he still openly admits his desire to eat her. At some point, he really had given up on eating her, and even considers her worthy of taking his place as King of Ayakashi.
• Dislikes the New Guy: Shirogane rather passively-aggressively objects to Suzu's attempts to win over Sosuke after Mei revives him, even advising Rochka to kill him behind her back.
• The Dog Is an Alien: He sometimes alters his smaller form to look like a regular stray cat visible to normal humans. At first this was to deter Soga from attacking him as he hangs around Hokusai High School, but he also enjoys the attention and treats the students give him (so long as he can avoid Mr. Sujimori's Bear Hugs). After a while of staying at the Kanade residence purely in ayakashi form, Shirogane uses his visible form to become their pet.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite Suzu ultimately restoring his powers, the ayakashi village has grown more attached to her as their substitute king, much to his frustration.
• Eating Optional: Matsuri guesses Shirogane doesn't need to eat regular food because he's an ayakashi (Shirogane doesn't confirm or deny this), but he's definitely able to and enjoys good food.
• Evil Is Petty: He's an incredibly spiteful individual, and thought the worst thing about being sealed away is the prospect of Matsuri getting a date out of it, and so turns Matsuri into a woman to sabotage whatever romantic potential he has with Suzu. He only even knew the technique in the first place to punish couples that hung around his shrine.
• Eyes Always Shut: His small forms' eyes are mostly closed, and usually open for sinister effect.
• Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Normally, he's on all fours, but will lean back on his hind legs to use the other pair for certain (typically comical) gestures.
• Freudian Excuse: He's generally very bitter toward humans because they worshiped him for a while, but eventually his influence faded to the point his whole shrine was torn down to build a dam. He's also such a prude because his shrine became a Makeout Point in its waning days.
• Fusion Dance: After he gets severely injured Taking the Bullet for Suzu from a Brainwashed and Crazy Une, Suzu absorbs him to facilitate his recovery with her haku. While merged, Suzu gains his white hair, feline ears, gold eyes, claws, tail, and even cat-like behavior. They split apart once he regains consciousness, but Kanade remains merged to him as life support. Their combined body alternates between Kanade's (with the same features as Suzu's fusion) and Shirogane's depending on who's in control.
• God Needs Prayer Badly: Being worshipped and feared by humans made Shirogane more powerful. His power didn't fade when that stopped, though it did cease growing stronger.
• The Good King: Shirogane used his power and authority as King of the Ayakashi to protect the weak and maintain peace, often personally. Though he tried to kill a human for his own ends, he can be reasonably diplomatic toward them, for instance agreeing it's fair for less malicious ayakashi to be exiled from where humans live for causing them trouble.
• Great White Feline: His true form is a monstrous cat the size of a small building.
• Hairball Humor: Firing grapefruit-sized hairballs is an actual combat technique of his, albeit one weak enough to only matter as a distraction. He doesn't cough up the hairballs, though, he just launches them off his abdomen.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The story will occasionally have "Shirogane-sensei" wear an academic cap and dress (but no pants) to explain something to the audience.
• Hates Baths: Vigorously objects when Suzu washes him off in the bath, probably because Cats Hate Water.
• Heel–Face Turn: Some point after moving into the Kazamaki household, he abandons trying to kill Suzu for her power, and only wanted to regain what the scroll had taken from him. Once Sosuke shows up and Shirogane's power is unleashed, he outright refuses to eat Suzu even when she volunteers her own life as a means to save himself.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Shirogane hates human romance in general, but he's particularly opposed to same-sex relationships. He was completely certain that Matsuri turning female would stop any romantic relationship with Suzu. When Suzu makes romantic advances or shows attraction to Matsuri anyway, Shirogane is shocked, and takes it as further evidence of how "shameless" she is. This is seemingly ignored later on, as he doesn't react negatively to Reo mentioning she's bisexual (contrast to every genuinely perverted thing she does).
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Once a super-powerful being worshiped as a god, he's since been stripped of his following, shrine, and most recently his power and authority amongst ayakashi. Thinking back to this reduces Shirogane to tears.
• Humans Are Insects: Shirogane is rather contemptuous of humanity, and was eager to eat Suzu for his own gain. He's not being honest about either. Shirogane has regularly befriended humans, but been jaded by how they fear and abandon him, and wasn't seeking Suzu's power just for selfish reasons.
  I don't like humans. They fear and persecute you, then worship and revere you. Only to forget and abandon you. Every time I tell myself I'll never get involved with them again. But then I get close to them, and they turn out to be not so bad. That's why I hate them.
• Hypocritical Humor: Despite his contempt for romance, when he encounters a female cat (actually Matsuri), he pursues her just as aggressively as he often chastises Suzu for.
• I Was Just Passing Through: He tries to frame helping Matsuri save Suzu from her omokage by saying it's so he can prey on her himself later and keep her able to make food for him in the meantime.
• In-Universe Nickname: Matsuri often calls him nekodaruma ("cat daruma"), which the English version translates to "the Flabby Feline", though he gradually stops as their relationship improves.
• Jerkass Gods: For a time, humans worshipped Shirogane as a god. When couples started using his shrine as Makeout Point, he figured an involuntary sex-change (that he likely planned to never reverse) was an appropriate punishment.
• Keeping the Enemy Close: Matsuri captures Shirogane, but is convinced to spare him, deciding to keep him as a pet. Shirogane ends up sticking around, at first just for more chances to steal the god-sealing scroll, then as protection from Soga. Once their standoff becomes a permanent alliance, Matsuri allows Shirogane to move into Suzu's house.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: At full strength, he fights primary with his claws and teeth, but can also cast powerful spells, including the one that made Matsuri female, turning his fur into a shower of needles, and breathing a stream of purple fire.
• Laughably Evil: A frequently comic, somewhat bumbling villain, especially after the scroll leaves him stuck in a rather nonthreatening form.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: Fond of describing all his abilities and actions as "overwhelmingly [x]". He stops doing this after a couple volumes, except in a later flashback to the first chapter.
• Maneki Neko: His small form takes visual cues from a maneki neko: his fur is white while his red scarf with a gold emblem calls to mind the red collar and gold bell. Shirogane has also raised one paw several times to recall its iconic gesture.
• Mark of the Supernatural: His true form has a Third Eye-evoking marking, though the emblem moves his to scarf in his small form.
• Mega Neko: His true form is about as large as an elephant, and could treat his shrine roof like a bed.
• Mind over Matter: He has telekinesis he activates by holding his forelegs outward. In his reduced state, he strains himself to move a single coin, and it's weak enough that Matsuri can push it back with literally a single finger.
• Moral Myopia: He made the Gender Swap Awakened to punish people for disrespecting his shrine, yet Kanade has to scold him for stealing shrine offerings for other gods.
• Necessarily Evil: Shirogane did not try to eat Suzu purely to satisfy his hunger or obtain power for its own sake. It was the only way he knew to gain the power to defeat a jinyo who had become a threat to many ayakashi and even other humans.
• Never My Fault: Shirogane becomes smitten with Matsuri when he's transformed into a female cat, but despite Matsuri constantly running from him and even scratching his face to reject his advances, he accuses Matsuri of "playing with his heart" when the transformation wears off.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He turned Matsuri into a girl to sabotage any potential relationship with Suzu, but it instead brought the two back together after they'd drifted apart for years, and ultimately helps them realize their feelings for each other. It's only obstructing their relationship because of Matsuri's self-imposed restraint from dating until regaining his manhood.
• No Ontological Inertia: He claims that Gender Swap Awakened is an aversion; killing him will simply leave Matsuri stuck as a girl forever. However, the jutsu was destabilized when he merely caught a cold.
• Objectshifting: He's shapeshifted into objects, such as a(n inedible) crepe and a wig.
• Powers via Possession: He can extend his shapeshifting abilities to others when in close contact, temporarily merging both parties together.
• Pride: Even when trying to lay low, he's quick to assert his name and power. Once he's Brought Down to Normal, Shirogane resorts to many deceitful and cowardly tactics to survive, but always describes them as if they were signs of his power and brilliance.
• Really 700 Years Old: He's 400 years old.
• Redemption Demotion: Double Subverted; Shirogane spent most of his time as a villain depowered, but with the potential to be dangerous again if he just released the scroll. His Heel–Face Turn is cemented when he regains his power and uses it to protect Suzu, but quickly loses them again in a manner that made them much harder to restore.
• Relationship Sabotage: He curses Matsuri with a female form to prevent him and Suzu from copulating and conceiving.
• Sealed Evil in a Teddy Bear: After the scroll seals away most of his power, Shirogane becomes stuck in his smaller form. The energy in the scroll is released but then taken by Sosuke in short order, leaving him in the same form even more permanently.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: Originally, his true form was a giant cat and his small form a means to conceal himself. After losing his power, his small form (sometimes altered to look like a regular cat) either became his true form or is just what he prefers if his true form is unavailable.
• Shapeshifting Trickster: Transforms into Suzu at one point to deceive Matsuri. Shirogane pointed out Matsuri could have sensed his presence anyway, but seeing Suzu lowered his guard. He can also make himself look like an entirely normal cat, even making himself visible to regular humans.
• Shouldn't You Stop Stealing?: He spends the entire series bitterly opposing any romance between Matsuri and Suzu. At first, this was a villainous trait mostly out of spite to the heroes who defeated him. After befriending them, Shirogane still tries to get in their way because he basically hates all romance, and has since couples started hanging out at his shrine.
• Sleep-Mode Size: He can go from a towering, monstrous form to a regular-sized, round Fat Cat with a cute scarf. It makes him less conspicuous, and conceals his true power from the spiritually attuned.
• Smart Animal, Inconvenient Instincts: Shirogane can be manipulated in the same way as any other cat. Even though he knows exactly what you are trying to do, he cannot help but submit to his nature as a cat ayakashi.
• So Proud of You: Shirogane cheers on and sheds Tears of Joy when Suzu decides that, if there are two Matsuri, she'll only be friends with either of them.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Shirogane is actually hurt by humans fearing or avoiding him. His bluster about them being beneath him is essentially sour grapes.
• Static Electricity: The Feline Thunderclap, an ayakashi jutsu passed down through generations of cat ayakashi, is simply rubbing his fur to get an electric charge before discharging it by touching his target.
• Super-Toughness: The density of Shirogane's haku at full power makes his body incredibly durable. Matsuri's sword is specifically designed to purify ayakashi, and it still ineffectually snapped in half against his hide. Shirogane losing his power rendered him much less durable.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: He's a powerful cat ayakashi with gold eyes, which are more apparent in his true form than his slit-eyed Sleep-Mode Size.
• Too Powerful to Live: He starts the series as possibly the most powerful being on Earth, but is massively weakened by the end of the first chapter. Within a few chapters of being restored, this time to fight alongside the protagonists, his strength is removed even more permanently.
• To Serve Man: Originally arrived to eat Suzu to absorb her power.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Suzu's handmade dango, enhanced by her haku. She often bribes him with large helpings into cooperating with her.
• Tsundere: Though Shirogane grows incredibly attached to Suzu, he's still quite prone to making snide remarks at her goofy behavior or angrily denouncing her as a pervert.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Most ayakashi that don't want the title for themselves respected Shirogane as king, even if they do think he was pretty bossy (and sheds too much).
• Uplifted Animal: He was originally a mundane white cat, but then became a fully-sapient ayakashi.
• Verbal Tic: In Japanese, he ends many sentences with "de aru" (a lesser-used alternate to "desu"), in reference to I Am a Cat.
• Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: Though otherwise cat-like, Shirogane's true form has six legs; two pairs of forelegs, one pair are hind legs.
• Villains Want Mercy: When Matsuri captures and threatens to exorcise him, Shirogane accuses him of "animal abuse", and resorts to his "overwhelmingly powerful survival skill" of rolling over to Suzu and rubbing his cheek against her while purring.
• Voice of the Legion: Shirogane's voice reverberates while in his monstrous true form.
• What You Are in the Dark: In the middle of his confrontation with Hinojiki, Shirogane gains everything he initially wanted: his true form, Matsuri seemingly dead, and a devastated Suzu practically offering herself as a meal. Despite this, Shirogane ends up permanently losing most of his haku, and nearly his life altogether, to protect Suzu.
• With a Foot on the Bus: In the penultimate chapter, Shirogane announces his leave, as he's given up on keeping Suzu and Matsuri apart and can finally make Matsuri a boy again. Halfway into the final chapter, Shirogane shows up out-of-the-blue to Dope Slap Suzu for saying she wants to learn the Gender Swap Awakened for her own perverted purposes. It's left to our imagination how much Shirogane wants to keep their company or just decided to get in their way again.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: After Matsuri finds him sneaking up on Suzu, he plays into Suzu's assumption that he's just a harmless little cat.

Spoiler Characters

Two Matsuris (2人祭里)

When the Gogyosen sent a spell in a flying insect after Suzu, Matsuri shielded her with his hand and was affected instead. Somehow this produced a separate male and female Matsuri, the latter keeping the Gender Swap Mark. Each had the same memories and personality from before, but the actual nature of each isn't initially clear. Eventually, it's revealed the female Matsuri is physically human, while the male Matsuri is their male form extracted from their body and turned into an ayakashi.

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Tropes that apply to either or both

• Ambiguously Human: Every test Reo runs shows them both as humans, but Matoi's sure only one has Matsuri's physical body and the other is an ayakashi. It turns out to the boy Matsuri is something like a jinyo and/or omokage, while girl Matsuri is still human, the jutsu only making her incapable of becoming male again.
• Born of Magic: One of them was created by the Gogyosen's jutsu. At first it's wonder if the girl Matsuri was the Gender Swap Awaken turned into an ayakashi. The reality is that boy Matsuri is an ayakashi made from Matsuri's dormant male form.
• Clone Angst: Both become very upset about determining which is the "real" Matsuri. Most likely, one of them is the original, and the other is an ayakashi duplicate. But it comes up that even if they identify which is the clone, can a perfect duplicate of his personality be considered "fake"?
• Cloning Splits Attributes: The clone's creation did not duplicate the Gender Swap Awakened jutsu, resulting in one Matsuri who has a female body, silver hair, and the mark, while the other Matsuri has his original male form. This was achieved by taking Matsuri's male form ("my manhood", in girl Matsuri's words) out of their human body.
• Fake Twin Gambit: They both attend school by pretending boy Matsuri is the girl's elder twin. Thanks to a charm Reo gave him, they can both use the same name without anyone batting an eye.
• God in Human Form: Exaggerated; the clone and original are visibly human in nearly every way known to science or magic.
• Grand Theft Me: An unusual and complicated case. Girl Matsuri believes the Gogyosen did not steal Matsuri's physical body, rather they took his original male form to make boy Matsuri, who has his own will but is under their control.
• Human Outside, Alien Inside: Defied; unlike the humanoid ayakashi seen so far, each Matsuri is human to every medical test Reo performed on them. Kanade points out omokage can be anatomically human even on the inside, even if Suzu's isn't.
• Hourglass Plot: Shortly after the split, girl Matsuri becomes convinced she's a Third Wheel between Suzu and boy Matsuri and runs off. After girl Matsuri makes peace with possibly being an ayakashi and returns, boy Matsuri starts to think Suzu loves girl Matsuri more.
• Literal Split Personality: They have bodies of Matsuri's opposite-sex forms, and were both mentally identical at the moment of the split/cloning.
• Mental Fusion: After merging back together, the recombined Matsuri keeps all the memories of when they were apart. Surprisingly, both give Matsuri a better opinion of being a girl: Girl Matsuri realized how much of their bond with Suzu was as girls and could accept never be able to change back. Boy Matsuri thought nearly having sex with Suzu was amazing, but too much for him now, and missed spending time with Kachofugetsu as a girl.
• Mutual Envy: Somehow, neither is happy with how they split apart. Girl Matsuri hasn't stopped wanting to be a boy, still convinced she can't date Suzu otherwise. However, Boy Matsuri deduces Suzu actually likes his female self better—so much he wonders if he'd have been better off staying a girl.
• Naked on Arrival: When they split apart, each Matsuri was thrown naked some distance apart. The clothes Matsuri was wearing before stayed in place.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: As they each have memories of having the other's body, either Matsuri can see the other completely naked—and even wrestle each other in the nude—without getting flustered at all.
• One Curse Limit: The Gogyosen's curse and Shirogane's Gender Swap Awakened had some strange reaction when placed on the same person, causing the split. It turns out the Gender Swap Awakened stayed attached to girl Matsuri's human body, while the curse became male Matsuri's body.
• Opposite-Sex Clone: They are the opposite sex versions of the same person. At first it appeared girl Matsuri was an ayakashi clone split off the original male. Instead it turns boy Matsuri is an inversion: a clone that is Matsuri's original sex created after his was changed.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Their relationship starts out highly antagonistic, as each wants to assert themselves as "real", usually at the other's expense. This enmity eventually disappears, but for different reasons on each side: boy Matsuri because he realizes his counterpart has an equal right to their life, girl Matsuri because she learns her counterpart is the Gogyosen's unwilling puppet.
• Outside Context Magic: While we've seen plenty of human-like ayakashi, the original and clone Matsuri both have spiritual energy indistinguishable from a human's even on direct examination, when ayakashi are supposed to be fundamentally differentiated by their lack of kon. This either means the clone's haku can appear completely identical to kon or that they actually have kon (which may technically mean they're not an ayakashi or a human, but some other type of spiritual being). It's eventually shown to be thanks to the Gogyosen's manipulation of yin and yang, which seems to be beyond the kon/haku divide.
• Split-Personality Merge: After the Gogyosen form their avatar within boy Matsuri, Suzu uses the Life Halo to rip him apart from it and merge him back together with girl Matsuri.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Neither started out with any ability to know if they were human or ayakashi.
• Two-Person Love Triangle: Each Matsuri wants Suzu for themselves, even literally fighting over her once. This ends up showing how much Suzu prefers Matsuri to be a boy or girl.

Boy Matsuri (男子の祭里)

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• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Becoming a guy again excessively boosts Matsuri's ego. He thinks having Matsuri's original form unequivocally makes him the only real one, refuses to consider he could be the clone, is somewhat callous to his girl self's existential angst, and is annoyed at Suzu calling him "boy Matsuri".
• Aesop Amnesia: Though Matsuri still wanted to be a boy, he credited becoming a girl with making them emotionally close enough to realize he loved her. After he does become a boy, Matsuri ends up backpedaling to a more distant relation, literally gazing at Suzu from afar and not even attempting to socialize with her or the rest of Kachofugetsu.
• Alternate Identity Amnesia: Boy Matsuri completely loses consciousness when the Gogyosen first start controlling him, leaving him confused afterward by the Missing Time.
• Entitled to Have You: Though Suzu does love boy Matsuri, he thinks being the boy that "the real Matsuri's always been" automatically makes him more deserving of her sole affection than his girl self. When Suzu acts more emotionally and physically close to girl Matsuri, boy Matsuri responds as if he's been wronged. He ends up backing off considerably after Suzu goes on a date with him, even holding Shirogane back so girl Matsuri can have her "turn" with Suzu uninterrupted.
• Fighting from the Inside: He manages to resist the Gogyosen's control briefly in an attempt to let his original kill him before the Gogyosen can force him to kill Suzu, but fails to hold on for long enough.
• Gaslighting: After the Gogyosen's first couple timing controlling boy Matsuri to push him on Suzu, they use his actual feelings for her to make him believe he's acting on his own free will.
• Green-Eyed Monster: As soon as his girl self returns home, boy Matsuri becomes jealous of the close, casual relationship she still has with Suzu.
• Honey Trap: Suzu is bisexual, but finds boys and girls appealing in different ways. The Gogyosen take advantage of this to use him as an assassin against her and mind control him into seducing her.
• I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After initially acting entitled to Suzu, boy Matsuri seems to realize and accept Suzu likes her at least as much as himself. After girl Matsuri gives boy Matsuri and Suzu a private moment on a date, he does the same for girl Matsuri, suggesting he could take being passed over for someone Suzu loved more or is open to a polyamorous relationship.
• Mind-Control Eyes: His eyes are drawn a few different ways when his body is taken over. Sometimes he has Dull Eyes of Unhappiness that may include the pentagram the Gogyosen are standing around. In other scenes, his eyes are not drawn; unless he's talking, his nose and mouth also disappear.
• Never My Fault: Boy Matsuri notices he's doing worse with Suzu than his girl self, but doesn't reassess his recent behavior or attempt to get close to her. He simply reasserts that he's the original, implying that Suzu would be wrong to like the clone more.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Double Subverted; boy Matsuri acts very uncharacteristically forward when the Gogyosen have it him seduce Suzu, but she's at first unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth. However, once Suzu decides against sex with only male Matsuri, in favor of a three-way with both, the Gogyosen impatiently have him push her down to force himself on her. That makes Suzu finally sees through their charade and breaks their curse.
• Out with a Bang: If he were to ever mate with Suzu, the Gogyosen's god killing curse will be able to put the Ayakashi Medium down for good.
• People Puppets: Matsuri's original personality has been perfectly duplicated, meaning he would never willingly hurt Suzu, but as a creation of the Gogyosen, he is ultimately under their control.
• Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: He initially spends class time looking for his runaway girl self, and then hanging around the school grounds in his exorcist gear. Eventually, he gets sick of waiting around a home and starts attending school as the girl Matsuri's older twin brother.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: A comically ridiculous example; he abandons the underwear training and triumphantly switches back to fundoshi, as wearing panties with a guy's body was apparently a bridge too far.
• Typhoid Mary: The Gogyosen's curse still exists after the split, it's just dormant inside boy Matsuri until it senses the ayakashi medium's presence.
• Wanting Is Better Than Having: Before the split, Matsuri spent most of his time as a girl assuming he'd easily hook up with Suzu if he became a boy again. After this one does so, he discovers Suzu may have liked Matsuri better as a girl—or at least how he acted when he was a girl. He also finds himself left out of the social life he'd developed after becoming a girl. After the two Matsuris merge back together, the loneliness that his separate male self had experienced heavily influences Matsuri's decision to stay female.

Girl Matsuri (女子の祭里)

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• Be a Whore to Get Your Man: Girl Matsuri tries to get Suzu's affection by using their "girl time" to hit on her, wearing a cuter bra, and basically inviting Suzu to have her way with her. Though the primary purpose was to keep Suzu safely away from boy Matsuri. Suzu is aroused, but also disturbed by the sudden change, concluding girl Matsuri was sad at Suzu getting so close to boy Matsuri.
• First Law of Gender Bending: Double Subverted; it seemed as if the split would force girl Matsuri to exorcise boy Matsuri, getting her stuck as a girl permanently. But instead of rendering her incapable of changing back, the ordeal made Matsuri realize they don't want to for the next couple years.
• Gut Feeling: Girl Matsuri says she can "feel" boy Matsuri is an "embodiment of [her] manhood", and so even if she's human, destroying him will leave her female permanently.
• Heroic BSoD: When Une suggests that she's simply an ayakashi personification of Gender Swap Awakened, Girl Matsuri runs away from home, further depressing herself with the notion that she's irrelevant toward Suzu now that there's a male version of him. Soga finds her crying and lets her stay at his house, only to drive her away over her uncharacteristic self-loathing, which she initially just interprets as more proof of being fake. Only after helping Hinojiki protect Lucy does she realize that Soga just wanted her to stay true to her dedication toward Suzu and finally returns home.
• I Am What I Am: Completing an exorcist job alongside Hinojiki, as he protects Lu, convinces girl Matsuri that, even if she is an ayakashi, she still belongs with Suzu.
  No matter what form my body takes, I want to protect Suzu from right by her side. As long as my wind revolves around her, I am Matsuri Kazamaki.
• Identity Breakdown: When the female Matsuri hears Ungaikyo's theory that she's an ayakashi created by the two jutsu acting together, she has a breakdown and flees the scene in depression, having trouble accepting that she's an ayakashi and feeling as if she is in the way of the relationship between her original and Suzu.
• Jumping the Gender Barrier:
  • After girl Matsuri assumes Suzu would get with her boy self, and that she doesn't even belong in the Kazamaki home, she asks Soga if she'd be happy becoming his bride and living with him. Soga rejects her because the Matsuri he knows wouldn't leave Suzu so easily.
  • A much more unusual case occurs when girl Matsuri decides to go after Suzu despite her boy self. While Suzu is attracted to both, she seems to prefer girl Matsuri—not as a result of sexual orientation, but because of their Gender-Bender Friendship. This ultimately becomes one reason Matsuri elects to stay a girl for the next several years.
• Meido: She spends a mission at Lu's mansion dressed as a traditional maid outfit to blend in.
• "Not So Different" Remark: After seeing what Hinojiki really wanted was someone to protect, girl Matsuri tells herself "we have the same goal", which puts her at ease with the possibility of being an ayakashi herself.
• Pronoun Trouble: In the Japanese version, girl Matsuri is largely referred to as before (masculine first-person pronouns, gender-neutral grammar by other characters), albeit called a girl more consistently. By contrast, the English version has all the characters aware of the split refer to girl Matsuri as "she/her". At first, it had Shadow Mei (who knew girl Matsuri was human) avoid gendered pronouns, but even she uses "she" once girl Matsuri is willing to stay a girl for life.
• The Runaway: When girl Matsuri believes she's an ayakashi, she runs away from home, thinking she doesn't belong around Suzu or anywhere in the "real" Matsuri's life. She comes back about a day later when she decides she's still Matsuri Kazamaki regardless.
• Secret-Keeper: Shadow Mei tells girl Matsuri that boy Matsuri is carrying a curse and is probably an omokage on the condition that she keeps it a secret, and Matsuri agrees.
• Second Law of Gender-Bending: Since Matsuri had long treated romance with Suzu as the highest reason to become a boy, girl Matsuri seriously rethinks things when it seems Suzu likes her more than her boy self. She's quite troubled that saving Suzu could require being stuck female permanently, but doesn't just resolve to do so anyway, the combined Matsuri voluntarily stays that way for longer.
  I'm actually pretty happy! For the first time, I might be glad I became a girl. Is that possible? Could I really date Suzu as the girl Matsuri Kazamaki?
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Despite still having their human body, girl Matsuri cannot become male again so long as boy Matsuri is separate from her. His destruction would rendered Matsuri irrervisibly female, which is visualized as the Gender Swap Mark shattering.
• Sweet and Sour Grapes:
  • Girl Matsuri thought her boy self was far more likely to get with Suzu, but decided to still try with Suzu and protect her in any case. Shortly thereafter, she learns Suzu's willingness to date girl Matsuri wasn't just libido—Suzu actually has a better emotional connection to the girl Matsuri.
  • Girl Matsuri accepts the possibility she's the ayakashi clone. Then Shadow Mei becomes convinced the real human is girl Matsuri, who's the first one Mei tells. She's happy to be told she's "the real one", though not instantly convinced, and more concerned with figuring boy Matsuri out to protect Suzu from the curse within him.
  • Girl Matsuri reluctantly accepts exorcizing boy Matsuri and being stuck as a girl to save Suzu, but then Suzu manages to save boy Matsuri and merge them back together. Ironically, this makes both of Matsuri's halves realize they don't want be guy for at least another couple years.
• Third Law of Gender-Bending: Girl Matsuri undergoes a temporary Girliness Upgrade in an attempt to seduce Suzu. She shoes away her male self by insisting on "girls only" time, gets far more affectionate to Suzu, displays demure and obviously feminine body language, and (deliberately) wears a frilly bra for the first time.
• Warts and All: She brushes off the Gogyosen questioning her for loving someone as horny and hedonistic as Suzu.
  Matsuri: Yeah, she may eat a lot and have thick legs. Sure she sweats a lot and might even be a bit of a pervert..
  Suzu: ...
  Matsuri: But that's exactly why I like her!

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