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Representative

Minami Terano (South)

South Terano

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/south_4.png

The founder and acting leader of Rokuhara Tandai.

Asshole Victim: His death at the hands of Mikey is incredibly gruesome, but he was an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight who congratulated his men over shooting Draken dead earlier so it's hard to feel bad for him.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He recruited the former Tenjiku executives into his gang after brutally beating them.
Ax-Crazy: South suffers from violent thoughts and outbursts which he calls "dark urges", causing him to revel in being as brutal as possible.
Bad Boss: He often beats up his subordinates just for the hell of it and rules through fear and violence. With the exception of Kakucho, none of his men care when he dies.
Blood Knight: South is easily excited by violence and the prospect of assaulting others.
Bludgeoned to Death: Mikey kills South by repeatedly brutalizing his face.
Boss's Unfavorite Employee: His most disliked person is Shion Madarame, one of his executives and series' resident Butt-Monkey.
But Not Too Foreign: South grew up in Brazil but he is largely Japanese. This is also Truth in Television, as Brazil has the largest population of Japanese people outside of Japan.
Children Forced to Kill: His father figure Dino, a gang leader, made him kill people he deemed his "enemies" for the first time at five years old in exchange for money.
Conditioned to Accept Horror: He's experienced so much violence and death at such a young age that he eventually found himself enjoying those things and completely disregarding the value of people's lives.
Dark and Troubled Past: South grew up in the extreme poverty and violence of the Brazilian favelas, with his sick, bedridden mother, an old piano as his only toy and a gangster as his Parental Substitute. He became a gang leader as early as 12 years old after murdering said gangster, and his mother was later killed during a gang raid which left a then-14-year-old South himself on death's door.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: South's mother was killed in a gang raid, and this event did affect him emotionally.
Exotic Eye Designs: South has concentric irises, which are especially noticeable in a series where most characters have fairly normal-looking eyes.
Facial Markings: He has a large tattoo, a hybrid design of a peacock and some sort of creature with many eyes and sharp teeth (possibly a dragon), on the right side of his face down to his right shoulder and chest.
The Giant: The tallest character in the series, dwarfing even Draken, and with a muscle mass to match.
Gratuitous Foreign Language: He tends to yell, "Vivo!", which means, "I'm alive!" in Portuguese.
Hidden Depths: South seems like a vicious, brainless brute, but he's actually a skilled pianist and singer. He also sleeps with several teddy bears.
Join or Die: His main method of recruitment? Beating up people he wants into his gang until they submit. If they don't, well, that's too bad. For them.
Kick The Son Of A Bitch: He beats the thugs who shot Draken to a bloody pulp. Of course, he then proceeds to congratulate them, which kind of cancels out the satisfaction of seeing them get their comeuppance.
Killed Off for Real: Mikey beats him to death.
Klingon Promotion: South joins Dino's gang as a child and later takes it over by killing him at the age of 12.
Lack of Empathy: South doesn't have much, if any, regard for other people. He earns obedience through violence and fear, brutalizes his own subordinates, and doesn't care about any harm they may sustain under his watch. Justified due to the conditions he grew up in, which caused him to internalize the idea that violence was a good thing and forced him to become apathetic to the feelings of others as a means of survival.
Meaningful Name: "Minami" means "south" in Japanese. After he joins Dino's gang, he decides to go by South.
Oh, Crap!: Has a terrified look on his face when he realizes just what he's up against during his fight with Mikey, moments before his death.
Patricide: He killed his father figure in order to take over his gang when he was just 12 years old.
Red Baron: "The Unparalleled South", as a reference to his unmatched strength.
Scars Are Forever: He carries two bullet scars on his chest from the gang incident that killed his mother and nearly cost him his life when he was fourteen.
Small Role, Big Impact: South's men murdering Draken was the last drop for Mikey's already fragile mental state, effectively breaking him and causing him to become a murderer. Despite dying only a few dozen chapters after his introduction into the story, South therefore had a direct role in pushing Mikey past the point of no return.
Smarter Than You Look: A hulking, violent, bloodthirsty maniac who is also surprisingly analytical and perceptive.
Start of Darkness: While his entire backstory is pretty much one big Trauma Conga Line, it's stated that having to kill for money at 5 made him realize the benefits of violence. Considering that he ended up killing the closest thing he had to a father a few years later, it was presumably all downhill from there.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: His extremely tall and muscular build (which he shows off often by wearing his jacket unbuttoned or simply removing it), neck tattoo, tendency to scream at the top of his lungs with bulging eyes, as well as Ax-Crazy tendencies and a gleeful attitude towards cruelty and violence make him very close to Taiju Shiba. Somewhat subverted since Taiju had already been absent from the series for quite a long time by the time South is introduced.
Vague Age: South's age is incredibly hard to gauge, mostly because he already looked fully grown as a 12-year-old, although he is likely 22 at most since he was in juvenile detention when he met the S-62 in 2006, two years before his appearance in the story. Had he been 21 or older at the time, he would have been in jail.
- The fourth character book confirms that he is 20 years old.
Worthy Opponent: Views both Mikey and Senju as this, as his fellow Three Deities.
Would Hit a Girl: He gladly takes on Senju and badly injures her during their duel.