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Shinkalion Pilots: "Drivers"
Hayabusa, E5 Hayabusa MKIIA 10-year-old 5th grader from Ōmiya, Saitama. Hayato is the son of Hokuto Hayasugi, one of the core developers of the government's top secret Shinkalion Project. Hayato incidentally stumbles into his dad's secret workplace and became the official Driver of Shinkalion E5 Hayabusa.
Influenced by his father, Hayato is a hopeless Rail Otaku who can only communicate, think, and compare things in "railway languages" to the point where his friends have to use railway terminologies in order to get him to understand various situations.
His E5 Hayabusa serves as the core of all Shinkalions, with its ability allowing it to combine with one of the other Shinkalions for power up, and to serve the Finishing Move in the form of a Wave-Motion Gun.
- Birthday Episode: Episode 41 celebrates Hayato's 11th birthday, with his teammates secretly meeting up in trying to decode his rail language to figure out what type of birthday gift to give him. They end up gifting him a train schedule book issued the month of his birthday, which was October of 2007.
- On the other hand, the Ultra Evolution Institute staff gifted Hayato (along with his teammates) a Grand Class ride on the E5 Hayabusa; which Hayato enjoyed most of episode 42 in Solitary Gourmet style.
- On the other hand, the Ultra Evolution Institute staff gifted Hayato (along with his teammates) a Grand Class ride on the E5 Hayabusa; which Hayato enjoyed most of episode 42 in Solitary Gourmet
- Childhood Friends: Even though they're still kids, Azusa Ueda knew him the longest due to befriending him since kindergarten.
- Like Father, Like Son: Hokuto was as much of a Rail Enthusiast as he is.
KomachiAn 11-year-old 5th grader from Ani, Akita Prefecture who was scouted by The Shinkansen Ultra Evolution Institute: Ōmiya Division for scoring second place in the Shinkalion synchronization game.
Hailing from a family of hunters, Akita is a rifle sportsboy who wants to perfect his shooting skills through national competition. After a long persuasion from Hayato, he agrees to join Hayato in combating The Kitorasus to protect his future ambitions.
His E6 Komachi specializes in long-range precision combat equipped with various shooting styles.
KagayakiAn 11-year-old 5th grader from Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. Like Akita, Tsuranuki was also scouted by The Shinkansen Ultra Evolution Institute: Ōmiya Division for scoring third place in the Shinkalion synchronization game.
Tsuranuki comes from a family of civil engineers, and is inspired to succeed his family business when he grows up.
His E7 Kagayaki specializes in close-range combat, with Tsuranuki preferably drilling holes into his opponents using blunt force. But due to Tsuranuki's lack of martial arts discipline, his precision rate and piloting skills are lower than most drivers on his team.
Tsubasa, E3 Tsubasa Iron WingA 10-year-old 4th grader from Yonezawa, Yamagata specifically recruited for his discipline as a Ninja.
Shinobu comes off as a reserved child who prefers to work solo, but after one combat mission with Akita, he became secure enough to not only befriend Akita, but also to work along with Hayato and Tsuranuki as well.
His E3 Tsubasa specializes in ninja-like abilities, such as creating illusions, and using shurikens fit for his Shinkalion.
A 14-year-old teenager from Nagoya who willingly signs up with The Shinkansen Ultra Evolution Institute: Nagoya Division to be a fully trained Shinkalion Driver, and is by far, effectively the eldest of all under-aged Drivers to be recruited into the institute.
Ryuji is the son of Chikuma Kiyosu, who like Hokuto Hayasugi, is also a core developer of the Shinkalions; making Ryuji of similar background as Hayato. But unlike Hayato, Ryuji was a highly disciplined karate martial artist who had the potential to champion competitions, but dropped out of continuing the art to tend his family due to the death of his father, and hospitalized ill mother. In order to aid his late father's passion for Shinkalions, along with the hopes to earn some financial security from the institute, he voluntarily signs up to be trained as a professional Driver.
His N700A Nozomi specializes in close-range combat with high-powered Bare-Fisted Monk abilities; his Shinkalion also possesses a unique transformation power-up to enhance his abilities output, add Ryuji's own martial arts skills for boost makes his Shinkalion's overall performance near impeccable.
- Aloof Big Brother / Big Brother Mentor: Towards the entire underage bunch of Shinkalion drivers, particularly to Hayato. At first, Ryuji acted distant from the kids in believing he has to "act as the big brother in protecting the young ones." But as Hayato showed respect in his character, along with the willingness and sincerity to ask Ryuji to guide the team, Ryuji gradually warms up to the kids like his own little siblings. Ryuji even agrees to give Hayato some karate training.
- Demoted to Extra: In Shinkalion Z his compatability dropped low enough that he can't pilot the Shinklaion anymore, though he becomes an acting director of Nagoya Branch instead.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Due to his N700A Nozomi being heavily damaged from his battle with Seiryu's Black Shinkalion, Ryuji pilots a newer Shinkalion modeled after the Doctor Yellow series starting episode 38.
and is Ryuji’s little brother.- Ascended Extra: First appeared as an ancillary character in a brief arc focused on his brother. Much later, he became a driver himself, inheriting Ryuji's N 700 A Nozomi.
HayabusaAn 11-year-old 5th grader from Sapporo, Hokkaido scouted by The Shinkansen Ultra Evolution Institute: Hokkaido Division for her Kendo skills, and is by far the only female pilot of all under-aged Shinkalion Drivers.
Although designed from the same series as Hayato's E5 Hayabusa, her H5 Hayabusa doesn't have the E5's central abilities; but instead, holds more of a precise close-range combat output, agility, and extra built-in heaters to weather the cold.
- Adaptational Personality Change: While Miku has no "canon" personality, she's most often depicted as a carefree yet determined Nice Girl in supplementary material. Shinkalion's Miku, in contrast, is more aloof and detached.
- Age Lift: While her Crypton counterpart is officially listed as being 16 years old, the show depicts her as a 11 year old pre-teen.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: She is normally depicted with glasses when not operating her H5 Hayabusa, something her Vocaloid self normally lacks.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Glasses aside, she could easily pass for a child version of the Vocaloid.
- Mythology Gag: Near everything about her is some kind of reference to her actress' most famous role: her Sapporo home,note her age, note and some of the characters she interacts with heavily resemble her Crypton counterpart's costars.
- Out of Focus: Thanks to her status as a character "borrowed" from another IP, she has the least amount of screentime among the pilots. She gets plenty of focus for a while after her introduction, but after the climatic battle with Black Shinkalion, she stops appearing for a long time and her returns become rare.
- Punny Name: The "Hatsu" in her last name is the character for "Departure".
- The Smurfette Principle: She's the only girl of all the preteen pilots.
TsubameRei is a 9-year-old Robotics Engineering Child Prodigy from Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, and is the youngest of all under-aged Drivers to pilot a Shinkalion.
Influenced by his dad, he aspires to become an astronaut when he grows up, and is always seen drinking milk and snacking dried baby fish for calcium, prepping to grow tall enough to hit the astronaut's basic height qualification.
Understanding he's the kouhai to most Drivers, he respects, and admires all Drivers who came before him.
He designed all of the specs for his 800 Tsubame, particularly equipping it with the ability of flight.
- Child Prodigy: Despite being one of the youngest characters, he personally designed his own Shinkalion, and his skill as a driver is as developed as the older members of the team. He's even seen working at a laboratory, presumably as an intern, in the epilogue.
Mizuho (Takatora), 700 Hikari Rail Star (Gin), 700 Nozomi (Jou)Takatora's a 12-year-old boy from Kagoshima City, his family owns a traditional Japanese restaurant and is inspired to become a professional chef when he grows up.
Gin & Jou on the otherhand are a pair of 11-year-old twins from Yamaguchi, belonging to a family of fishermen; and are extremely picky eaters when it comes to fish. Gin is the elder, while Jou is the younger.
Their three Shinkalions makes the Shinkalion 700 Series' "Trinity Combination" mecha—a unique spec that's built specifically to combine the three Shinkalions together. When as separate Shinkalions, each would wield hammers, while when combined, performs Bare-Fisted Monk abilities, along with the Finishing Move of a 3-beam Beam Spam.
- Fusion Dance: While all Shinkalions can combine with others for a power boost, theirs are designed for this to begin with.
- Only the Chosen May Ride: The three children were chosen to pilot the Shinkalion 700 Trinity due to having the exact same compatibility score on their Shinkalion synchronization test. But due to having different values on "food supply" over anything else pins the three pilots down with an extremely rough start.
The Shinkansen Ultra Evolution Institute
- Vocal Dissonance: Sashot's silly mascot voice becomes much manlier and deeper when linked to a Shinkalion. However, this is
somehow dropped when, in the movie, the light particles summon Snow Godzila and he has a brief Oh, Crap! moment.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While he allows using Hayato and the other kids to act as Shinkalion drivers, it's not a decision he makes lightly, and does everything he can to make sure the situation is as bearable for them as possible.
- Fountain of Youth: Gets de-aged to a kid by the Valhallans' Light Particles. Actually he was time-swapped, with the adult version of him temporarily ending in an unknown time/dimension and the young version of him yanked from the past.
- Parents as People: After getting transferred to Kyoto, he worries that he's not doing enough for Hayato or the rest of his family by not being there for them.
- Rail Enthusiast: Flashbacks show that like his son, Hokuto's a train buff, but he's a bit less outspoken about it these days.
- Butt-Monkey: Is on the receiving end of quite a bit of the show's comedy.
- Unlucky Everydude: Is probably among the most normal people in the SUEI – if not the entire show – and seems to take it more on the chin from the show's humorous moments.
- Closet Geek: Hides his geekiness over trains (see Rail Enthusiast) for the sake of maintaining a professional appearance.
- Companion Cube: Secretly keeps a stuffed penguin that he cuddles when no one's looking.
- Rail Enthusiast: Easily as big a train buff as Hayato, if not bigger. When they first meet (without either of them knowing who the other is), they hit it off almost instantly.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Is leery of trusting Seiryu after his Heel–Face Turn, but after seeing how far Seiryu will go for his new teammates, agrees to trust Commander Izumi's judgement.
Friends and Family Members of Drivers
- Camera Fiend: She's a Youtuber and mostly hangs around to find something interesting to blog about. The Evolution Institute let her become their operator of sorts, both because of her observation skills and to keep her occupied (one time she tried to make a scoop on the Institute it didn't end well).
- Muggle Best Friend: She is the only kid in the series to not be a pilot, but she still can help around.
The Hayasugi Family
- Cute Bookworm: Is a huge history buff.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Is fully aware that Hayato is a Shinkalion driver due to Hokuto telling her; however, she has chosen to act like she doesn't so Hayato can have as close to a normal home life as possible.
- Like Father, Like Son: Inherits her odd speech patterns from her father, who displayed them when he was a child.
The Kiyosu Family
The Daimonyama Family
Kitoralsus
- Beneath the Earth: They hid themselves underground million of years ago after meteorite impact. Everyone except Kirin and the Valhallans still use it as their base of operations.
- Dying Race: Their main motivation is finding a way to evolve, as in current state, they can't reproduce normally, and by the start of the series there's just a dozen of them left.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Pretty much everyone who didn't deserve otherwise, joined the Evolution Institute, or got revived and then joined, and cooperates with them to find a solution to their problems.
- The Four Gods: The Agents are named after them.
- A House Divided: In the way to handle their situation. Two went to space and became the Valhallans. Kirin disguised himself as human and lived in comfort. The three of them wanted to take over the surface, but let the rest investigate human society to find some other way. Overtime the disagreement between groups grew even further.
- Humans Through Alien Eyes: Despite being in human society they still don't really understand it, nor do humans understand them. After the conflict was over, while not without difficulties they've managed to learn a lot about each other.
- Monster of the Week: After they find something interesting related to human evolution, they create a monster based on that against humans to test their assumption. Once they feel confident, they use One-Winged Angel themselves to challenge the Shinkalions.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The reason why they advance their plans in multiple small steps, as long as they aren't dead they can learn more from each encounter.
- Secret Identity Apathy: They all want to fight the Shinkalions and always call them by their ID names. Only Byakko (to question their resolve), Seiryu (for personal reasons) and Suzaku (by infiltrating Ultra Evolution Institute so they wouldn't launch the mechas) even care who the pilot is.
- Silicon-Based Life: They are effectively Obsidian rock people with nanomachines.
Agents
- The Stoic: He's not very emotional and prefers to stay focused on the job.
- Big Damn Heroes: Gets one of these when saving Hayato from the hijacked ALFA-X in the movie.
- Heel–Face Turn: The first Kitoralsus to do so, and (barring his getting brainwashed and petrified by Sogyoku), has the best time of it. By The Movie, he's become the driver for the E5 Mk. I, and in Shinkalion Z, he's still with the SUEI.
- Intrigued by Humanity: After seeing how much humans have advanced compared to them and their complex culture, he is the first one to pull a Heel–Face Turn.
- Noble Demon: He values honour a lot, as views Shinkalion as Worthy Opponent.
- The Big Guy: The largest and most physically imposing of the quartet.
- The Baby of the Bunch: He looks and acts about the same age as the human kids, and Suzaku, Byakko, and Genbu treat him like a little brother.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The other Agents are practically the only family he has and he would do anything to keep them happy. He really did not take their apparent deaths well.
- Rail Enthusiast: After he joins the Super Evolution Institute he starts to display reverence for trains at the level of Hayato. Even to the point of saluting the ALFA-X in the movie.
- The Rival: As a pilot of Black Shinkalion, he sees Hayato and his Shinkalion as his mortal enemies, and takes each defeat personally. After Heel–Face Turn he still views Hayato as this, but for different reasons.
- Master of Disguise: She can hide her Kitoralsus skin to blend in with humans and can investigate them directly. It helps that she has an easier time dealing with human culture and customs.
- Team Mom: As far as the four Agents are concerned – Seiryuu in particular.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: He is a dying old man half-merged with a rock throne and has Agents do the work for him.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He is the acting leader of the current group of Kitoralsus. Once confronted, it becomes clear what "current group" implies.
- Fallen Hero: He was the founder of Ultra Evolution Institute, the creator of Shinkalions and Shashot and a good friend of Izumi Hokuto. But after encountering the Kitoralsus in person he decided to stay with them.
- Orcus on His Throne: A literal example – largely because his petrification prevents him from even leaving it.
- Was Once a Man: After a decade Doctor Isaburo Yatsushiro spent underground, he hardly looks human anymore.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: After going missing after the Shinkalion experiment, he found Kitoralsus and learned of their problems. While these weren't good for humans, he proposed several ideas how to save Kitoralsus race and stayed as their commander.
Old Generation
- The Brute: He is a rather bulky Kitoralsus who would prefer to destroy everything he doesn't like.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Agents are not so willing to fight humans anymore? Brainwash Genbu, make humans kill him, take Suzaku hostage, and make Seiryuu swore vengence on humanity. His boss Kairen bites the dust? Go into hiding, then provoke Kirin to stop acting like a human and take the lead. Kirin bites the dust? Goes to Nahane and tell him how Kitoralsus almost solved all their problems and ALFA-X is the last piece they needed, leaving out the part that everyone but him have sided with humans. As of Shinkalion Z, he's still stirring the pot by cooperating with the Teoti.
- The Heavy: Kairen is the Big Bad, but Sougyoku is the one who comes up with the plans that drive much of the plot of the second half of the show. Hell, he drives the plot of The Movie too even though he still isn't the Big Bad.
- Karma Houdini: He was last seen knocked out by Byakko, but still alive. He reappears in Shinkalion Z.
- Monster Clown: He looks like a harlequin and mostly uses trickery and deceit.
- Bad Boss: While he let Iza to try resolve things relatively peacfully, he got incredibly frustrated by the Agents not making significant progress and takes them eventually siding with humans as treason.
- Big Bad: The real leader of Kitoralsus.
- Gaia's Vengeance: All he can see in human society is pollution and destruction of enviroment, and wants to restore Earth to the way it was.
- Lack of Empathy: He refuses to listen that Ultra Evolution Institute could help them if they've asked and considers Kitoralsus growing emotions as a sign of weakness.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: His general idea about humans.
- Sympathy for the Devil: While Hayato wanted to bring all Kitoralsus to his side anyway, his reasoning to unpetrify such dangerous man was that his love for the planet could be a way for further dialogue. It's implied that after he got revived that he gave up on his ambitions and left somewhere.
- Ace Custom: His Black Shinkalion Ogre is a step above all other Shinkalion, requiring teamwork to even match in combat. After he's defeated it's taken by Sougyoku, but ultimately ends up claimed by Byakko.
- Affably Evil: Genuinely would rather work with Hayato and the SUEI than against them. He even goes so far as to defend Azusa from Sogyoku when he tries to kidnap her.
- Awakening the Sleeping Giant: He was first to decide to integrate with human society and was running a rather legitimate business. When Sougyoku calls out to him, he proves to be a bigger threat than Kairen was, being more technologically advanced.
- Evil Knockoff: He establishes New Shinkalion System, which produces copies of Black Shinkalion along with Black Shashot, with main purpose of sabotaging the SUEI.
- Final Boss: The conflict with Kitoralsus ended with Kairen's defeat. After some time he enters the picture and has to be dealt with.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: It's rather telling that there are humans working in his organization. While they are being manipulated, Kirin in general finds human fighting humans ironic.
- We Can Rule Together: Invites Hayato to a chat for this. The boy would like to help, but his disagreement with Kirin's methods makes clear fighting is the only way.
Valhallan
- Big Bad: Of the movie.
- Final-Exam Boss: Valdor took every ability from every Shinkalion unit to take down.
- Light Is Not Good: Compared to the Earth Kitoralsus black and green color scheme, Valhallan use white and blue. They are no less of a threat.
- Honor Before Reason: He lived for thousand of years in space and didn't really care about Earth. After hearing that not only his home has life again but is hosting a civilization of another species, he immediately goes back to take it for himself.
- Oh, Crap!: Despite his haugthy attitude, he displays a gigantic one when Snow Godzilla is teleported behind him at the climax of the movie.
- Time Master: He can jump the Shinkalion ALFA-X across space and time.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unclear what happened to him with Nahane's defeat.
