Schools: Abydos High School | Arius Satellite School | Gehenna Academy | Highlander Railway Academy | Hyakkiyako Alliance Academy | Kronos School of Journalism | Millennium Science School | Red Winter Federal Academy | Shanhaijing Senior Secondary School | SRT Special Academy | Trinity General School | Valkyrie Police Academy | Others
Organizations: General Student Council | SCHALE | Other organizations & characters
Enemies: Decagrammaton | Gematria | Others
One of the ten playable schools in Blue Archive, where it is similar to Hyakkiyako in that it has a deep history of tradition. Its Student Council is called Genryumon. Some fans refer to it as Xuanlong, as the Chinese do.
Currently, there is a conflict between the student council and the Black Tortoise Promenade for control over the school.
Their learning of heaven and earth comes through these tropes:
- Anime Chinese Girl: Every student here is this by default, highlighted by their clothes usually being qipaos or other cultural hallmarks like Rumi the chef cooking Chinese cuisine.
- Dub Pronunciation Change: During the Playing Tag at Neverland event, Japanese voice actors pronounce Shanhaijing as "Sengaikyō," because of the differences in Kanji and Hanji pronunciation.
- Meaningful Name: Shanhaijing is named after Shanhaijing (山海經/山海经, "The Classic of Mountains and Seas"), a Chinese classic text about myths.
- The Rival: In Playing Tag at Neverland, Shun and Kirino tell Sensei about the dispute between Genryumon and Black Tortoise Promenade. Rumi, the head of Black Tortoise Promenade combines cuisine from various schools and invents fusion food, but Genryumon considers her new cuisine as a threat to the school's tradition and peace.
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Genryumon
Associated Tropes
- Appeal to Tradition: They're all about preserving tradition, which naturally puts them at odds with the forward-thinking Black Tortoise Promenade.
- The Triads and the Tongs: Ruthless (at least according to Rumi) but honorable Chinese in nice suits. You may have seen men like these girls in some Hong Kong movies.
Ryuuge Kisaki
Even if I am the head of Genryumon, I can't stand idly by and just watch this crisis take over Shanhaijing.
Affiliation: Genryumon
Age: N/A
Birthday: N/A
Height: N/A
Hobbies: N/A
Illustrator: YutokaMizu
Voiced by: N/A
- Batman Gambit: During the The Dragon and Tortoise, she sends Mina to meet the Black Tortoise Promenade knowing she'd likely pick a fight with them, but that it'd be resolved non-lethally due to Sensei and Rumi's presence and predicting they'd forge an alliance of convenience afterward. She tells Sensei she makes these kinds of ploys often as head of Genryumon.
- The Dreaded: She has a dreadful reputation in Shanhaijing, with even her own underlings being afraid to speak to her.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Shows up as a hologram in Volume F during the defense of Shanhaijing before her proper debut in The Dragon and Tortoise.
- Excellent Judge of Character: She governs because of her good judgment, and even gets a read of what kind of person Sensei is from their very first meeting.
- Iron Lady: She tries to keep a cold and emotionless facade due to her position as president of Genryumon.
- The Leader: She's the president of Genryumon, and despite her ruthless reputation, is actually far more reasonable and flexible than the rest of the faction.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Possibly the most well-adjusted of the student council presidents of Kivotos. Kisaki is stern and somewhat reluctant to allow things to change, but her maturity and willingness to see things from a different perspective (figuratively and literally, as she hops on Sensei's back) make her much easier to work alongside than the likes of Cherino and Makoto.
- Tiny Tyrannical Girl: Kisaki isn't very tall (in spite of her mostly fruitless attempts at remedying it), yet has almost complete control of Shanhaijing as the head of Genryumon. In spite of her status as The Dreaded, however, Kisaki is shown to be somewhat amicable and willing to listen to opinions, and notes that being at the top can sometimes cloud her judgement when it comes to more commonplace matters in the school.
- We Used to Be Friends: Downplayed. She's an old friend of Rumi, but she keeps her distance due to them being leaders of rival factions.
Konoe Mina
Let's catch the sparks alone. That's the best way.
Affiliation: Genryumon
Age: 16
Birthday: Sep. 9th
Height: 5'5" (166cm)
Hobbies: Watching movies (mostly hardboiled ones)
Illustrator: MISOM150
Voiced by: Rina Sato
- Chuunibyou: She's a huge fan of Chinese Heroic Bloodshed movies and keeps reciting lines from them to mostly humorous effect.
- Clueless Detective: She wants to be a Hardboiled Detective from a noir film, but neither Sensei or Rumi are impressed by her poor deductive skills and it quickly becomes apparent brains aren't her forte.
- Cool Shades: She wears sunglasses worn on the forehead in an effort to make herself look "cool".
- A Day in the Limelight: One of the focus students of the event, The Dragon and Tortoise ~Working Together for a Better Future~.
- Dumb Muscle: She's a capable field officer, but isn't very smart and tends to jump to conclusions.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Makes her first unplayable appearance in VFC2 during the defense of Shanhaijing.
- The Lancer: The second-in-command to Kisaki. It's also the reason why an underling turned to illegal dealings in The Dragon and Tortoise, wanting money to take the position and get closer to the club's head.
- Shout-Out:
- Much of her character references Chow Yun-fat's Heroic Bloodshed roles, with her burning a paper note (famously seen in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow) in her EX skill animation and wielding Beretta 92s Guns Akimbo
- During her first bond story, she ponders what to call you, as she thinks "Sensei" is just too plain. Among the possibilities she offers up are Commander and Doctor.
- Smoking Is Cool: Played for Laughs. She says she wants to smoke just for the coolness factor, but doesn't do it because it's bad for her health.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Pina and Aru are similarly fans hugely inspired by hardboiled movies and act out their inspirations with mixed results.
- Undying Loyalty: She's so loyal and devoted to Genryumon that she can't conceive of the fact there would be backstabbing within the faction.
Plum Blossom Garden
Sunohara Shun
Great, great. Everyone did well!
Click to see Kid appearance.
Affiliation: Plum Blossom Garden
Age: TOP SECRET
Birthday: Feb. 5th
Height: 5'8" (174 cm)
Hobbies: Playing with children
Illustrator: 9ml
Voiced by: Shizuka Itō
- Age Insecurity: She is very sensitive about discussing her age, or even the slightest suggestion of it. It is of course incredibly obvious that despite being a "third year student", Shun is the first playable adult of the cast and the nearest thing Sensei has to a peer on the playable cast.
- Berserk Button: Never, ever ask her age.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Her large bust is one of the reasons she's considered a Hot Teacher, with her outfit exposing a lot of cleavage. It's also a hint she's older than she portrays herself as.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: During the Playing Tag in Neverland event, she grows increasingly frustrated with other students interfering with her impromptu date with Sensei.
- Cool Big Sis: As one of the older students, she has the reputation of being the "big sister type" due to her mature and responsible personality. She is also the actual older sister of Kokona and tries her best to be a cool and responsible older figure.
- Cool Teacher: To her students at Plum Blossom Garden, who she treats like her own children and even personally plays with them.
- D-Cup Distress: She often complains that her shoulders hurt, which is implied to be due to her chest.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She is Kokona's older sister, and is ultimately the more reliable of the two.
- Fountain of Youth: Her "Shunling" is a variant of her that got de-aged after taking Saya's medicine.
- Friendly Sniper: She's a sniper, but one with a friendly and affable personality.
- Growing Up Sucks: She starts to feel this way after experiencing the joys and freedom of being a child once again due to a Fountain of Youth incident. Despite wielding authority and power as an instructor, she always feels burdened by the responsibilities that come with them. She reconsiders when she sees how much Kokona is struggling with the students without her.Shun: I want to stay as a kid forever, it's stress free!
- Hot Teacher: A gentile, shapely lady dressed in a qipao baring her sides, accentuated with a motherly air to watch over her young students. Very much qualifies for the trope.
- I Call It "Vera": Her QBU-88 sniper rifle is nicknamed "Rod of Love".
- Sexy Slit Dress: The dress she has one her portrait has a slit on her side to show off her dress.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Her "Small" version seems to struggle with carrying around her "Rod of Love" that, unlike herself, did not shrink.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's noted for being a very tall and beautiful woman.
- Stern Teacher: While she's caring and motherly towards her students, she adopts a much more stern and scary persona when they do act up or misbehave.
- Token Minority: Unlike the rest of the cast of Blue Archive who are high-school-aged students, Shun is of highly undefined age, and a (elementary school) teacher as well. She's definitely still a third-year student, though.
- Vapor Wear: Based on her portrait, she doesn't appear to be wearing underwear of any sort.
- Womanchild: She displays childlike tendencies from time-to-time, most notably when Sensei is playing with her students. Played straight when she gets de-aged and becomes "Shunling," who very much acts like the child she appears to be.
Sunohara Kokona
It's not Kokona-chan, it's Instructor Kokona!
Affiliation: Plum Blossom Garden
Age: 11
Birthday: June 1st
Height: 4'6" (139 cm)
Hobbies: Reading picture books
Illustrator: seicoh
Voiced by: Hiromi Igarashi
- Apathetic Teacher: She is not as highly respected as her older sister amongst their students, and has a tendency to pass her responsibilities onto Shun.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: The Plum Blossom Garden students often call her "Kokona-chan" (or just "Kokona" instead of "Instructor Kokona" in Global), which annoys her to no end no thanks to her young age, diminutive stature, her childish tendencies to hate eating carrots and her insistence that she's a lady. Her first Relationship Story is all about this, where Sensei addresses the girl as "Instructor Kokona", getting the students to do the same after a day of merely calling her "Kokona"... only for them to drop the title quick at the end.
- Good Behavior Points: Part of her skills involve giving stamps to her team with her EX and basic skills. Her stamps also become actual physical merchandise.
- Token Mini-Moe: Being the youngest playable student, at just 11 years old, and standing at a tiny 139cm, Kokona ends up being this, much to her chagrin.
- Unwitting Pawn: She gets manipulated into doing the dirty work of Shintani Kai during the The Dragon and Tortoise event, as her encouraging her students to make deliveries for Shanhaijing as training is used to smuggle the ten-thousand-year-old ginseng.
Eastern Alchemy Society
Yakushi Saya
I'm here! So where's my next test subject?
Click to see Casual appearance.
Affiliation: Eastern Alchemy Society
Age: 16
Birthday: Jan. 3rd
Height: 4'11" (149 cm)
Hobbies: Researching
Illustrator: whoisshe
Voiced by: Yukari Tamura
- Animal Testing:
- Nezusuke, the unfortunate primary target of Saya's creations. Her EX Skill has her strap Nezusuke onto one of her poison bombs and launch it. She does consider the rat family, however, and Nezusuke has yet to consider leaving.
- Her appearance is also intended to invoke the trope, with the clear subject tag on her left ear.
- Child Prodigy: Her description notes she "earned six degrees while still in primary school". The Dragon and Tortoise event also has one moment where she's dismissive of ten-thousand-year-old ginseng's brain-boosting properties, stating she only needs a reread of her study materials to get a perfect score (unless there were surprise questions). Sensei tells her she's the only one capable of that.
- The Lab Rat: A more literal example than some.
- Little Bit Beastly: Has mouse ears, a tail, and likes cheese a bit too much.
- Mad Scientist: Of the Mad Chemist variety. Often tries to test various creations on unsuspecting students and Sensei, like the anti-aging potion she gave Shun in the prelude to Playing Tag in Neverland.
Black Tortoise Promenade
Associated Tropes
- Appeal to Novelty: They combine cuisine from various schools and cultures to make new types of food. This is what makes them controversial with Genryumon who thinks they should stick to tradition.
- A Day in the Limelight: They get their first event centered around them (alongside Mina) in The Dragon and Tortoise ~Working Together for a Better Future~.
- Frame-Up: The The Dragon and Tortoise event has them being framed by Shintani Kai for smuggling ten-thousand-year-old ginseng that is precious to Genryumon, which gets Genryumon to sanction them. Sensei helps them clear their name.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Reijo and Rumi respectively, the former being prone to blowing up while the latter keeps cool.
Akeshiro Rumi
Who's hungry?
Affiliation: Black Tortoise Promenade
Age: 17
Birthday: Mar. 5th
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Hobbies: Cooking, Food product development
Illustrator: カンザリン
Voiced by: Yoshino Aoyama
The president of Black Tortoise Promenade, whose specialty dishes came from other academies, something the conservative Genryumon despises.
- Big-Breast Pride: She's proud of her figure, and smugly teases Sensei when he catches them staring are her chest.
- Buxom Beauty Standard Her large chest is pretty prominent, and it catches the attention of Sensei in the Memorial Lobby where she gets her shirt soaked from sweat.
- The Chains of Commanding: In The Dragon and Tortoise event story, she confesses to Sensei that she prefers to be a chef bringing about joy through serving customers, but she can't turn away from her responsibilities as a president.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: She's a chef who likes to get creative with her cooking, trying several different kinds of food mixtures and even encouraging everyone at the Black Tortoise Promenade to do the same. But according to Reijo, despite Rumi being a Supreme Chef, some of the dishes she makes as part of her experiments can be rather questionable.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Before her official debut, she shows up in the Shanhaijing Sub-story to give Kokona Shun's secret purchase, as well as running a stall in Get Set Go!.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: Her EX Skill has her throw a plate of fried rice that heals a student before bouncing to nearby allies including herself, up to four times, though the effect is reduced for the second and third targets.
- Good with Numbers: She's a naturally talented manager, which is why she's so successful as the president of Black Tortoise Promenade.
- The Leader: President of the Black Tortoise Promenade, having grown the place from a humble shopping street into one of the best gourmet districts in Kivotos.
- Little Bit Beastly: She has the large pointy ears of a fennec fox, which are the same color as her hair.
- Only Sane Woman: Throughout all of The Dragon and Tortoise, she is the only one who consistently stays calm even when her own club gets insulted and obstructed by Genryumon, and clearly views the school's political climate from an outsider's lens.
- Politeness Judo: While working, she keeps a polite and friendly attitude even when dealing with troublesome customers or outright hostile Genryumon members, as she thinks any outbursts will reflect badly on her business.
- The Smart Girl: She has to be as the Promenade's president, striking a contrast to her more impulsive right-hand woman, Reijo.
- Supreme Chef: She's quite good at her job cooking Chinese cuisine, though she'll expect her eaters to have a big stomach for the long courses she makes. Outside of that, she pursues whatever new ways she could find to improve herself... even if it'll make people sick in more ways than one.
- The Tease: She seems to enjoy acting flirtatiously, especially towards Sensei.
- In her Recollection Lobby, she sweats enough to make her top go transparent, notices Sensei staring... then starts grinning and muses that she should've brought better underwear.
- One of her lines in The Dragon and Tortoise event menu is her wanting a massage for her stiff shoulders—then tentatively asking Sensei to do it.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Kisaki... sort of. Really they're largely still friends, but as the head of the very conservative Genryumon, Kisaki can't get away with treating the leader of the Black Tortoise Promenade nicely in public. Rumi regularly uses that to tease Genryumon members, cracking jokes about how she knows their president better than they ever will.
Kayama Reijo
Affiliation: Black Tortoise Promenade
Age: N/A
Birthday: N/A
Height: N/A
Hobbies: N/A
Illustrator: N/A
Voiced by: N/A
- All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: A student of a Chinese-themed school who watches about, practices, and invites others to love kung fu like she does.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: She notably lacks a gun on her sprite, most likely because of her devotion to bare-handed martial arts. After a fight to take down ginseng smugglers in The Dragon and Tortoise, Mina comments that Reijo's aim is poor, which makes it certain she traded off training with guns for her obsession but remains effective in combat.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: She acts as Rumi's bodyguard, even though Rumi is capable of taking care of herself.
- Brutal Honesty: Reijo always speaks her mind, even though Rumi often advises her to try to be polite and keep a lid on her emotions.
- Dumb Muscle: In a Lovable Jock kind of way with her obsession for kung fu, but her role is to be out on the field running the Promenade's operations and, in The Dragon and Tortoise event, always watches out for Sensei's safety.
- The Lancer: To Rumi, being the brawn to her brains.
