Characters from the manga Phantom Seer
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Shamans
Nabari
Iori
Iori Katanagi
The protagonist. A shaman with the power to control shadows and that controls a greatly powerful demon called Ongyoki. He has no interest in using his powers for anything good but is forced to do by his sister and protect Riku.
- Anti-Hero: Despite his powers, he has no interest in helping others. He's lazy, selfish, prone to lying and using others for his goals, and is mostly heroic because Riku and Yayoi's influences force him to be so.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Iori dislikes the life of a shaman and does whatever he can to avoid working, but he is a very powerful shaman and a very intelligent boy as well, being a capable investigator in phantom cases.
- Casting a Shadow: He has the power to control shadows thanks to having the control over a powerful shadow demon.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Iori hates his abilities as a Shaman and seeks almost any excuse to back out on his job. Chapter 3 shows that he is looking for a Phantom with the power to remove his powers and make him a “normal kid.”
- Informed Attribute: He's allegedly a slacker, but isn't especially less active than any other character
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Iori constantly tries to get out of his duties as a Shaman, and only does his job if Yayoi forces him, seemingly with no regard for the people who will get hurt if he doesn’t act. However, he doesn’t back out once involved with a case and refuses to let anyone else get hurt on his behalf.
- Meaningful Name: His last name, Katanagi, includes the kanji 儺 (read as "na"), which stands for "exorcism".
- My Greatest Failure: In his first fight with the Senjudoji, she killed the girl he was protecting, which he carries around his neck ever since.
Riku
Riku Aibetsu
"So, if I can be of some help, and get a smile as well, then I feel really happy."
The lead heroine. A kind-hearted girl interested in finding ways to help others, but with the unfortunate power to attract phantoms towards her and those around her. She is brought under the protection of Iori under his sister's orders.
- The Bait: Iori gladly calls her one, as she is very useful as a magnet for his target phantoms.
- Barrier Warrior: After her training, she obtains the skill to summon disintegrating barriers that can harm phantoms that try to attack her, she is capable of mastering them fast enough she can use them against Senjudoji.
- Damsel in Distress: Having no shamanic powers, plus the innate ability to attract Phantoms, leads Riku to be captured or endangered by them quite often.
- Doom Magnet: She works as a "Beckoning Hand", which means she attracts dangerous phantoms to herself and to those around her. She has been taken in by the Shamans because of those powers, both to protect her from phantoms and because she is useful to their hunts.
- Meaningful Name: The "Ai" in her name is written with the kanji 哀, which means sorrow, misery, grief or pity, fitting for someone who is capable of attracting these very things due to being a Beckoning Hand.
- Non-Action Guy: She isn't a shaman, so she is more of someone used to lure enemies to shamans that can actually take on phantoms. She eventually gets tired of this, feeling like The Load, and Yayoi promises to train her to fight so she can defend herself.
- Sensor Character: She is taught by Kenma to sense phantoms at will. While she is capable of sensing enemies, she learns to be able to sense any phantom within her range.
Yayoi
Yayoi Katanagi
Riku: Something's coming... it's far away... it might be scarier than those other phantoms. It's coming from above.
Iori: Aibetsu, you have good instincts. That's my sister.
Iori's older sister, the leader of their shaman group, and a powerful shaman in her own right. She commands her little brother into acting as a proper shaman and protecting Riku.
- Big Good: Yayoi is the leader of a group called Nabari to which Kenma, Yojiro, and Iori all belong to, making her their boss, and she's invested in making everyone use their powers for good and exorcise dangerous phantoms.
- Body Motifs: Eye, specifically, a single eye. She has her eyes covered with talismans with a circle in the middle, which gives the impression of a single eye. In fighting, she summons a single eye above her as her phantom.
- Dark Is Not Evil: She's quite the terrifying presence, and Riku even mistakes her presence as that of a ghost scarier than an agglomeration of them. Her design is all black from her hair to her clothes, and her powers include invoking a black eye that vanishes everything. That said, she seems to be a very good person and is invested in using her powers as well as other shamans' powers to helping the general populace.
- Lady of War: Yayoi wears a black outfit composed of high heels and a dress that shows off her legs, she has straight long hair, and can kick major ass.
- Mission Control: Her job thus far has been mostly to force Iori into action and is capable of giving him and Riku instructions from afar. She is later shown to also do it to other shamans and rules over a group called Nabari, which is a small force of elite shamans.
- Seers: Her powers seem to have something related to omniscience. She's able to know what her brother and Riku are up to, and even calls them on a phone automatically when she needs to talk with them, even if she doesn't know their number.
Yojiro
Yojiro Satake
"Deception is a fox's work"
A younger shaman and Iori's kouhai, who helps him out in his search to become normal, clean up after his adventures, and acts as a broker to inform shamans of jobs.
- Clean Up Crew: He is responsible for cleaning up after the phantom exorcised Iori gets up to.
- Eyes Always Closed: His eyes are always closed, this seems to be partly a motif to further connect him to foxes.
- Support Party Member: Yojiro doesn't really fight on the front lines, he works as a support for the Nabari group by brokering information between them, keeping everyone updated about jobs, and working as a cleaner when exorcisms are done.
Kenma
Kenma Oigawa
A rival shaman to Iori. Unlike him, Kenma is driven by his desire to help those in need and despises Iori for rejecting his duties and powers as a shaman. In a fight, he uses a Khakkara Staff and is capable of summoning three tengus to help him, Goro, Rokuro, and Shichiro.
- The Comically Serious: He hardly ever changes his stoic outlook, even when his face is being slobbered by his tengus.
- Embarrassing Nickname: he hates when Iori calls him "Tengu-sitter".
- The Rival: Kenma Oigawa, another Shaman, is this to Iori, as Kenma hates Iori’s slacker attitude and Iori is annoyed by Kenma’s mature and rule-abiding nature. The two have known each other since middle school, and Kenma readily confesses that he’s hated Iori since then.
- Stock Shōnen Rival: While Iori isn't a Stock Shōnen Hero, Kenma fits the rival description well. Kenma is well-spoken, polite, respected, acts by the books. This aspect is subverted as far as morality and disposition go, as Kenma takes great pleasure in helping others and is very polite.
- Tsurime Eyes: His eyes are upward and sharp, which further his personality as reliable and strong-willed.
Koreikai
Kurose
Chihiro Kurose
A flashy shaman member of the Koreikai and that loves hitting on women. He fights by controlling flames via a lighter.
- Abhorrent Admirer: He seems to be interested in at least impressing Yayoi, but she couldn't care less about him aside from him as a shaman.
- The Casanova: He flirts with women a lot, even on the job, which Iori finds irritating.
- Playing with Fire: He has the power to control flames, via a fancy lighter he keeps in his coat pocket.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: He's outfitted in a good-looking suit.
Kondo
Kondo
A cool, but rude, shaman of the Koreikai. She fights by summoning a mountain dog spirit, Guhin.
- Drives Like Crazy: She drives at high speed and making a lot of dangerous maneuvers that scare her boss and passengers.
- Little Bit Beastly: She can fuse with her mountain dog phantom to become a half-dog half-woman being that can attack very hard and very fast.
Moritsugu
Moritsugu Akama
"If you keep complimenting like that, I'll think you're planning something. You're making me nervous."
An executive member of the Koreikai and a bit of a worrywart.- Face of a Thug: He looks quite scary and occasionally loses the awareness of it, making it even worse.You've Got a huge head and a scary face so please be mindful.
School
Students
Tsumuji
Tsumuji Komachi
A younger student with a pretty big crush on Iori. She is secretly like Senjudoji in which she is a phantom and a human mixed together, and asks for his help to
- Abhorrent Admirer: Her crush on Iori is not at all reciprocated, but she twists his words and follows him around, convinced that it is, or that at least it will be at some point.
- I Just Want to Be Special: She admired Iori after he saved her from a Phantom, but found his mysterious air made him inaccessible to her. This is what leads her to admit to Kanzaki that she wants special abilities so Iori will notice her, and what leads Kanzaki to turn her into a Phantom.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Whatever process fused her body with a phantom also erased memories of the event that caused it. She only vaguely recalls a hospital-like room and someone in a lab coat, and most importantly, she doesn't even remember the school physical where that probably occurred even happened.
- Little Bit Beastly: When she activates her phantom powers, she gets animal ears and mark around her eyes like a raccoon. She also gets a large tail that ends on a big, jagged, and sharp tail, similar to a scythe. She is turned into an entire monster when Kanzaki further mixes her.
Teachers
Kanzaki
Masamichi Kanzaki / Seido Kanzaki
The mysterious and shady looking, but effective and popular guidance counselor of Iori and Aibetsu's school.
- Evil Teacher: Acting as a guidance counselor in school, Kanzaki is a man that is secretly mixing students with phantoms to turn them into monstrous beings.
- Older Than He Looks: He's actually an elderly man, kept young by the power gifted to him by Senjudoji
- Sweet Tooth: In one of his early scenes, he is pouring an inordinate amount of cream in his coffee, leaving a pile of packages all around his table.
- Torso with a View: How he is killed by the other Senjudoji's servants. Most of his torso simply becomes a hole out of nowhere.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After being arrested by the shamans, he is killed by other Senjudoji's servants to make sure he won't spill the beans about her and her plans.
Phantoms
Ally Phantoms
Ongyoki
Ongyoki
An extremely powerful phantom under Iori's control that gives him the power to rule overshadows.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Ongyoki will likely destroy anything in its path, however, this applies to both enemies and allies alike, so Iori can't really just summon him and be done with it. In Chapter 2, for example, he can't summon him to defeat a phantom because it's taking a student hostage and Ongyoki would just kill her as well.
- Meaningful Name: The kanjis that compose his name, 隠形鬼, can roughly mean "Devil of Hidden Shape", fitting for a phantom that must be kept away for its dangerous might. The last kanji of his name, 鬼, is the kanji for Oni, the ogre yokai that is clearly an influence in his design, considering his mask and horns.
- Living Shadow: He's a hulking shadow creature.
Kenma's Tengus
Goro, Rokuro, and Shichiro
Three Tengus Kenma can summon to help him, Goro, Rokuro, and Shichiro.
- Alliterative Family: An unusual example, but all three of them have their name ending on "rou" (郎; in kanji, which stands for "son").
- Numerical Theme Naming: Their names are written in two kanjis, with the first one being different numbers from 5 to 7. Goro is written with the kanji for 5 (五, "Go"), Rokuro is written with the kanji for 6 (六, "Roku"), and Shichiro is written with the kanji for 7 (七, "Shichi").
- Tengu: The three are tengus, though not the usual kind and Riku even mention being surprised by them. Unlike the humanoid tengus with big wings and masks, Goro, Rokuro, and Shichiro are small, crow-sized, and seem to don't quite have human intelligence, being more like animals.
Mr. Uchigami
A Saka-Bashira and the caretaker of the Tsukuyomi mansion.
- Token Heroic Orc: While other ally phantoms seem to be mindless weapons for the shamans, Uchigami seems to be genuinely nice and kind-hearted, capable of speech, and helps the shamans by taking care of the mansions where the shamans under Yayoi's commands live.
Enemy Phantoms
Saka Bashira
A kind of phantom born out of an inverted column that haunts houses.
Sangankyo
A mirror phantom that kidnaps people that messes with their mirror.
- Doppelgänger: The Mirror Phantom creates fakes of Iori and Riku when it drags them into the mirror world in chapters 4 and 5. The fakes have elements of their clothes and hairstyle inverted, making them easy for Shamans to spot.
Senjudoji's Group
Senjudoji
Senjudoji
"Hee hee hee, I thought you looked familiar. It's the cowardly kid!"
The mysterious phantom of a girl with the power of making other phantoms huge and powerful. Iori blames himself for her existence and is dedicated to hunting her down.
- Arch-Nemesis: To Iori. When Iori first fought Senjudoji, she killed the beckoning hand he was protecting, and he has carried the burden of it ever since, so he's bent on killing her as part of his goal to become "normal".
- Body Motifs: Hands. Senjudoji summons hands and makes giant hands made out of hands to attack and to manipulate other objects.
- Body Surf: Her current form is a fusion of a phantom and a human body. For unknown reasons, she's now on the lookout for a new host for herself, which prompts her to kidnap Beckoning Hands for experiments. Yayoi theorizes that she came across a new method to meld herself with humans.
- Creepy Child: She takes the form of a little girl who has a strange fixation with "bounciness", in the form of making huge balls of hands she can kill people with.
- Evil Counterpart: To Yayoi. Yayoi is a grown woman wearing an all-black western style night dress, an exorcist that acts as Iori's boss and eliminates phantoms, and is very nice to the Beckoning Hand Aibetsu; Senjudoji takes the form of a little girl wearing a clear colored kimono, a dangerous phantom that makes other like her more powerful and dangerous, and killed the last Beckoning Hand the entered in contact with.
- Hidden Eyes: Up until her appearance to Iori and Kurose, she was only shown with her bangs covering and hiding her eyes.
- Make My Monster Grow: Her powers can make other phantoms more powerful. When hunting her down, Iori and Kurose find that she turned a phantom normally the size of a centipede into a massive monster.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Once Riku shows up in the fight against her, she realizes she will be in real trouble if Yayoi comes as well, so she summons a lot of small phantoms to distract them while she escapes through a portal.
Conceiving Hands
General
Currently, there are 5 of them: Rain Man, Puppet Master, Thumbelina Ogre, Omen, and Ensemble.
- Fairy Tale Motif: Thumbelina is the name of a lesser-known fairy tale about a very tiny girl. To a lesser degree, "Thumbelina and the Ogre" is the name of a french short animated movie too.
- Shout-Out: Three of them seem to be named after movies: Rain Man, Puppet Master and The Omen.
Puppet Master
Amelia / Puppet Master
"I'll become these dolls' agent to exact their vengeance."
One of the Beckoning Hands, a beautiful looking and mild-mannered woman.
- Bait-and-Switch: She at first seems to simply hate the name Puppet Master, which is why she rebukes it when she's called that. Then it turns out that Amelia is really just another doll, the Puppet Master is someone else.
