Main Characters | Main Antagonists | Kongrong Mountains | Kingo Islands | Yin | Zhou | Others
A list of the unaffiliated characters from Hoshin Engi.
Watch out for spoilers!
Taijo Rokun
Paopei: Taikyokuzu, Keisei Genjo, Unnamed Sleeping Suit Paopei
The last of the Three Great Sennin alongside Genshi Tenson and Tsuten Kyoshu, he's the most reclusive and mysterious of the three. After the Sennin War arc, Taikoubou searches for him and finds out that he build a country on an isolated plateau called "Tosenkyuu" (Utopia). He spends most of his time in deep slumber, not bothering with meddling with the outside world, and he's so lazy he talks through other animals because he finds even speaking with his own mouth too tiresome. Turns out his slumber allowed him to keep an eye on Joka and her soul. When the time comes, he joins Shinkouhyo and the others in their battle against the Signpost of History.
- All-Powerful Bystander: He's one of the three Great Sennin, but he'd rather spend years asleep in a remote village surrounded by sheep.
- Anti-Magic: Wields the "Anti-Paopei" Taikyokuzu (Chart of Universe), which can forcibly block the powers of all Paopei in the area. It can even work against other Super Paopei.
- Berserk Button: Force him asleep and he'll be a tad annoyed. Damage his suit and he will use his Sennin abilities on you.
- Bishōnen: Despite being as old as Genshi Tenson and Tsuten Kyoshu, he's handsome and fair. Possibly because the sleep preserves his beauty?
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Yeah, you know his years and years of sleeping? Seemingly not giving an ass about everything? He was the first to learn the truth about Joka, and his slumber was actually a way to keep tracking Joka's soul while she was manipulating the world.
- Dream Land: By falling asleep near him, Taikoubou manages to meet Roshi inside a dream world he can freely manipulate to make a Training from Hell for Taikoubou, unleashing a prehistoric chaos on him so that he can handle Taikyokuzu.
- Feed It with Fire: Since he loves to sleep above all else, being hit by Sangashasshokuzu (a blank, dark dimension where one hour inside is a 1/10th of second outside) just gives him "his perfect habitat".
- Heavy Sleeper: He sleeps two years by time, claims that even staying awake can consume brain cells and has designed an almost invulnerable suit Paopei just to sleep in peace.
- Instant Runes: He menifests the Taikyokuzu as a giant, beautifully scripted series of kanji and symbols in the sky.
- Lazy Bum: He cannot be motivated to do anything. Shinkouhyo managed to become his disciple by having the patience to interact with him and the perseverance to force him to be his teacher.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Inside his suit, made for his sleep, he can withstands Earth-Shattering Kaboom attacks. And no, that's not an hyperbole! A barrage of said attacks is required to crack the visor.
- Non-Indicative Name: He's known as "Roshi", which means "Old Master". He looks younger than most of the cast.
- Ventriloquism: He's too lazy to talk himself, so he tends, even as an hologram, to speak through the surrounding animals.
Shinkohyo
Paopei: Raikouben
The disciple of Taijo Rokun and the most powerful doushi in the entire sennin world. Although he easily surpasses most sennin, the 5000 years old Shinkohyou chooses to remain a doushi because he does not want to be bothered with taking a disciple, as all sennins are required to do. He rides the spirit beast Kokutenko and wields the most powerful paopei, Raikouben. He is an ambiguous character who doesn't seem to take any definitive sides, and he helps Taikobou as often as he helps Dakki (mostly because Dakki can give him access to a luxurious lifestyle in the capital). He has a strange sense of beauty and will interfere in events if he considers something to be against his beauty standards. He also dresses strangely, but does not stand to be criticized on that particular aspect. Probably because of his ancient age, Shinkohyou is always looking for interesting events, and will sometimes cause them himself if he thinks they fail to appear soon enough. He is aware of Joka's presence, but doesn't seem to know anything about Fukki's plan.
- Aloof Ally: He alternates being this to both Taikobou and Dakki. The reason? He wants to be entertained and will step in if he thinks things are moving too slowly or are too boring.
- Animal Motifs: Some elements of his design, like his eyes and his clawed gloves, are reminiscent of a cat.
- Attention Whore: During his first encounter with Taikoubou it's made clear that he loves being noticed, as Taikoubou, Suupuu and Kokutenkou noticed.
- Berserk Button: Never insult his fashion sense. Taikoubou learnt this at his expense.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While he's indifferent to the suffering of the people, he's clearly not smiling when he sees Dakki feeding the Kyou slaves to the snake pit. He's also disgusted by Joka's plan.
- Facial Markings: Has several large dots under his eyes.
- Karma Houdini: While he didn't partake into the villainous acts of Dakki and cohorts, he still didn't do a thing to stop the bad guys and he gets away with his inaction scot free.
- Lack of Empathy: Shinkouhyo doesn't care too much about anyone else who's not him or related to his current interest.
- Moral Myopia: When the two princes of Yin escape the capital and meet up with Taikobou, Shinkouhyou shows up and goes on a rant over how the princes should have fulfilled their duty as royals and remained in the capital to support their father and their people, and how the people will pay for their actions. He goes as far as to forbid Taikobou from taking them and is perfectly willing to use force. Leaving aside the fact that the two princes are defenselesss in Dakki's Decadent Court and will most certainly die if they return to Chouka, Shinkouhyou seemingly forgets that he himself lives in the palace as Dakki's guest, enjoying a luxurious lifestyle provided at the expense of the very people whom he rants about. So the princes aren't allowed to leave the people and must remain and face certain death for the sake of their title and the people's morale, but Shinkouhyou can go around enjoying luxury and aiding Dakki while she torments and starves the people at her whim.
- Mundane Utility: He uses his Super Paopei to zaps Taijo Rokun to awake him. It says something about the latter as a Super Paopei is required to wake him up.
- Nightmare Fetishist: He seems to find Joka's One-Winged Angel form truly beautiful.
- Not So Harmless: Shinkouhyou looks like a clown, but is one of the most powerful beings on the planet, as Taikoubou finds out.
- Person of Mass Destruction: His Raikouben (Thunder Lord's Whip) can summon lightning bolts large enough to be seen from space and powerful enough to annihilate anything with one blast. According to Taikoubou and Youzen, Shinkouhyo is the only Doshi who can use such a powerful technique repeatedly.
- Shock and Awe: Taikoubou's first on the list is The Trickster Shinkohyou. Fitting his trickster type, Shinkohyou's Raikouben is styled as an ice cream with long ribbons. Taikoubou learned the hard way not to challenge someone that can wield a super paopei.
- The Trickster: He nudges the forces at play in one direction or the other, but doesn't seem to have an agenda. He just wants to be entertained.
- World's Strongest Man: As stated as soon as the first chapter, Shinkouhyo is the strongest Doshi, rides the strongest Spiritual Beast and wields the most powerful Paopei.
Kokutenko
Shinkohyo's Spiritual beast and constant companion, Kokutenko is shaped like a giant cat. He is considered to be the most powerful riding beast that ever lived, and has the ability to stare into the distance and see and hear things that are very far away. On top of that, he is also very fast and highly intelligent, although he is yet to decipher the mystery that is his master.
- Cats Are Mean: Averted. Although not as caring as Suupuushan, he doesn't have a mean streak.
- Death Glare: He does it once when Suupuu asks why he's siding with Dakki. Shinkoukyo tells him to stop it.
- Informed Ability: He's described as the strongest spiritual beast, capable of eating Youkai for dinner. Aside from clairvoyancy, he doesn't show any special skill.
- Intellectual Animal: He is one of the most intelligent spiritual beasts.
- Mega Neko: He looks just like a giant cat.
- Only Sane Man: He's more serious and snarking than Shinkouhyo, in one case even telling him to stop hogging the camera with his face.
- Talking Animal: He is Shinkohyou's main conversation partner.
- Vocal Dissonance: In the first anime he has a surprisingly high and childish voice.
Sei Li
Paopei: Reiroutou
A former Doshi and the officer in charge of Chintou Pass, Sei Li is a shady individual whom Taikobo meets early in the story. He trained to become a Sennin, but found the training too hard, so he gave up and returned to the Human World, where he acquired a minor position as keeper of the Chintou Pass. He is married to the beautiful, but air-headed Inshi and has three sons: Kintaku, Nataku and Mokutaku. Hates his son Nataku and destroyed his grave, which caused him to try and kill him in revenge. Luckily, Taikobo arrives in the middle of the Li family crisis and is able to solve it. Afterwards, Sei Li is motivated enough to go to the Sennin World and try to complete his training, this time receiving a paope, but slides in the background.
- Abusive Parents: Zigzagged, he really hates Nataku, but's otherwise fine with his two other sons. And Nataku himself didn't do himself any favors.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: For all his hatred of Nataku, he looks genuinely shocked and sorry when Kijin rips his chest open, seemingly killing him.
- Awesome, but Impractical: His Paopei Reiroutou (Resplendant Tower) allows him to curse people to death. Unfortunately, 1) it's a giant tower bigger than him and 2) Nataku, the intended victim, is immune to curses.
- Butt-Monkey: He's never taken seriously, and out of all Taikoubou's allies he plays the smallest role.
- Curse: The power of his Paopei releases ghostly skulls that curse people until they die a painful death. Unfortunately for him, these curses don't work on Nataku.
- Dirty Coward: Runs like hell from Nataku's wrath and tries to lie to Taikobou about why Nataku is so angry with him. He decides to train hard enough to get a Paopei so that he can defend himself.
- Foil: To Ryo Gaku of Kingo: they're both Doshi from different worlds and both are "fathers" to a Human Paopei. While Li Sei's son hates his guts and the feeling is mutual, Sei does have some regards for his son and aside from that he's a good person with no outstanding ambition. Ryo Gaku was adored by his adoptive son and turned him into a grotesque Human Paopei against his will, using him as soldier and even disregarding that he's an unbearable piece of crap who won't stop at nothing.
- Freudian Excuse: His complicated relationship with Nataku. He is never shown to be hostile towards his other two sons, and the story strongly implies that his hatred of Nataku stems from his belief that Nataku is not his son (he's not entirely wrong, but it is a complicated issue - Nataku certainly shares a resemblance with his brother Kintaku, for example, but is the product of a paopei experiment). Add to that the odd circumstances surrounding Nataku's birth and his strange behavior and one can understand Li Sei's aversion towards the boy. It does not, however, excuse his actions, and nobody in the story condones them.
- Happily Married: To Yinshi. In spite of his rotten attitude towards Nataku, he truly loves her and they appear to be very happy together. By the end of the Manga, he decides to spend his last days with her in Chintou Pass rather than going on Horai Island with the other Sennin.
- Lazy Bum: He admits that he fled Konron because the training was too hard for him. After the whole story is set, he feels motivated enough to go back to the mountain and train again, so that he can fight his son without help.
- Jerkass: He steps firmly into this territory after he destroys the tomb his heartbroken wife had lovingly made for her son and throws his core into the water.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He claims that he was afraid that the Spiritual Beast King would get angry again if he saw the tomb made for his son's murderer. Plus, given Nataku's attitude towards anything not named Yinshi, he's right to be wary of him.
- Offing the Offspring: Sort of: when he first see the formless mass of flesh that's Nataku he tries to chop it in half so that his wife doesn't have to see that abomination. When Nataku comes back from the dead to kill him he tries to have Taikoubou kill him, and later during the Great Paopei Tournament he secretly wishes that Nataku dies. He's however shocked when Nataku seemingly dies.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Calls Nataku on slaying the river Dragon who was threatening he and Yinshi. While he did saved her, he brought the wrath of the Spiritual Beast King on the entire Chintou Pass.
The wife of Sei Li and mother to Nataku, Kintaku and Mokutaku, she is a gentle, if somewhat air-headed woman who lives with her husband in the Chintou Pass. During her pregnancy, the fetus she was carrying died and essentially became a tumor. One of the twelve great Sennin, Taiitsu Shinjin, took this opportunity to offer her a deal in a dream: if she accepted Taiitsu's Raiju, the greatest paope of the Sennin, the lifeless mass of flesh in her womb would become a living thing. Yinshi accepted and gave birth to a boy who was already equipped with paope. They named the boy Nataku, and she and her husband had opposite attitudes toward him: in spite of Nataku's cold behavior, Yinshi loved and doted upon him and was angry at her husband for his hateful behavior.
When Taikobou meets her, she is experiencing a family crisis caused by Nataku's attempts to kill Li Sei. After Taikobou sorts things out between Nataku and his family, Yinshi agrees to send Nataku to the sennin world with Taiitsu Shinjin. Aside Nataku, she also gave birth to two other sons, Mokutaku and Kintaku.
- Brainless Beauty: She's not very intelligent, and fails to correctly assess many situations.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: With shades of The Ditz. She seems oblivious to the seriousness of the situation her family is in. Her son is trying to kill her husband and she brushes it off as if it were nothing. She is also seemingly unaffected by Nataku's cold behavior towards her, although she is brought to tears when he calls her mother for the first time. Sei Li also has to pull her out of danger way more than once.
- Doting Parent: Adores Nataku in spite of his cold and strange behavior, and is the only person whom Nataku truly loves.
- Happily Married: To Sei Li. He is an unsavory character, but to his credit, he loves her very much, to the point that by the end of the manga they're still together.
- Hostage Situation: She is taken hostage during the great sennin war, but is rescued and returned to the human world, much to Nataku's relief.
- Longest Pregnancy Ever: Her pregnancy lasted for three years and six months, because the baby had died and morphed into a lump of flesh.
- Morality Pet: She is the person Nataku loves, respects and obeys most. The only one, actually.
- Take Me Instead: She offered her own life in exchange for Nataku's when the dragon king appeared over Chintou pass to exact revenge for the death of his son.
The Elder
Leader of the people of Tousenkyuu, he's a venerable 150 old man with a white beard and an overwhelming aura who claims to know everything. Except that he doesn't and is essentially a Large Ham with too many special effects in his hands.
- Large Ham: Running Gag has him quietly inviting the heroes to test his incredible knowledge, only for him to hammily admit that it's fake or that he doesn't know what they're talking about.
- Not So Omniscient After All: Parodied, he's seemingly an all-knowing and wise leader, but he knows nothing.
- Puppet King: Technically the leader of Tousenkyuu, it's implied that his presence isn't really necessary. Or useful for that matter.
- Special Effects: Invoked Trope, a veritable lightshow follows his Large Ham moments, to the point that Taikoubou tells him to quit it.
Shinnou
Paopei: Kinkouza
A Gaiden character, Shinnou is one of the five ancestral people alongside Dakki and Fukki who merged with plant life. He can occasionally manifests himself in those places where the Qi is strong, and even take human form. He's the keeper of a secret Super Paopei, the most dangerou one, Kinkoza, a Paope which allows to travel through time.
- All-Powerful Bystander: He's one of the Ancestors and wields the most dangerous Paopei ever devised. Justified, as he no longer can interact with the outer world, unless specific circumstances are met.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Merged with plantlife in the remote past, just like his companions did with animals and minerals.
- Bishōnen: His human form is rather easy on the eye.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Normally in the form of a Gray alien, he assumes a human form so that Suupuu won't freak out.
- Time Travel: His Super Paopei Kinkouza (File of the Forbidden Light) is an oddly-shaped, kanji-covered mass he can use to travel through time and monitor changes in the timeline and continuum. Even Fukki was worried about its whereabouts and relieved to hear it was in possession of Shinnou.
- Troll: The whole Gaiden story starts because Shinnou asked Taikoubou and Suupuu if they wanted to see how his Paopei worked and used it on them without waiting for an answer. His smiling face implies it was deliberate.
Kousei
A Gaiden character, Kousei is a Chikeisei with the power to stop and rewind time and Kou Kibi's brother. He spends entire timelines doing nothing and leaving the surrounding world alone, but this causes his "killing urges" to slowly grow until he's forced to appease them. He's the main antagonist of Gaiden.
- Ax-Crazy: Normally he's a fine guy who wouldn't harm a fly. However, his Killing Urges he suffers from leads to him wanting to fight and kill everything it catches his attention. Fortunately, a good fight will lower said urges... for a while.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist of the Gaiden series.
- Cain and Abel: Shockingly enough, he's the Cain to Kou Kibi's Abel. Yes, really.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Due to his nature as a Chikeisei, his mere presence inside a timeline can mess things up to the point that it could alter the entire timeline.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Zigzagged: Taikoubou's first attempt to calm him down causes him to become hostile again... but then relents when Suupuu reveals that he's bethroded to his sister. Unfortunately his Killing Urges resurfaces again.
- Time Stands Still: Unlike Kibi, he cannot regress the time of people. He can, however, literally pause and rewing time as if it was a recorder. He uses this power to make sure the enemy won't evade him.
- Tragic Monster: He's not an evil being per se, and his Killing Urges are something he cannot control, like an illness. When Taikoubou explains the situation he's even willing to go away in the future, so that he won't threaten the current timeline.
- Winged Humanoid: Unlike Kibi, he costantly shows feathery wings on his back paired with a long peacock-like tail.
