Mitsuiro Tokuan Shōjō

Mitsuiro Tokuan Shōjō
Tenjho Tenge character
Mitsuiro Tokuan Shōjō, in the manga.
First appearance	Volume 14, Page 145
Created by	Oh! great
Profile
Notable relatives	Tokuan Shōjō (Ancestor)

Mitsuiro Tokuan Shōjō (猩 徳庵 蜜色, Shōjō Tokuan Mitsuiro^?) is a character in the manga series Tenjho Tenge. She is a recent addition to the Executive Council.

Character outline

Mitsuiro is the current head of the Shōjō Family, one of the Red Feather Families of the Takayanagi Family Flying Phoenix. She is the 17th person to be the head of the Shōjō Family.^[1] She seems to be named after her ancestor in Feudal Japan, Tokuan Shōjō, and seeks to continue his work.^[2] Despite her last name and place as the Shojo Family's head, she is actually a member of a Shojo branch family.^[3] Since Sōhaku Kago took over Tokuan's body it ended the Shojo family bloodline. Mitsuiro's family was a relatively weak family that uses inter-family marriages to strengthen their powers back to the true Shojo Family's level over time.

Mitsuiro is one of the three female characters in Tenjho Tenge that has a small chest (the others being Madoka Mawari and Raika Rotsukaku). She has a tattoo/pattern on the left side of her face that extends all the way across to the other side of her nose. She is in love with Hirohiko Myouun Kabane; they also both share the goal of continuing their ancestors work. Sadly she is unable to marry Hirohiko given her family tradition obligates her to marry within the family. However, she doesn’t like being referred to by her last name, she even threatened to slap Hirohiko for using it.^[4]

While she typically seems to be a rather calm and laidback person, Mitsuiro seems to have no problems killing things, as Emi Isuzu notes she even smiles when she kills a bull that she was training with in Mitsuomi's form. She also has a sense of humor since she mocked the size of Aya Natsume’s breasts when she impersonated her.

Hirohiko indicates to Aya that he and Mitsuiro are not her enemies, but after he and Mitsuiro make an appearance in a limo with Dōgen Takayanagi and Mitsuomi Takayanagi. Later, Hirohiko appear on the Executive Council’s roster,^[5] and while Mitsuiro may not be on the roster, this could indicate is that she is going to take Mitsuomi's place in the tournament. So her real stance on the Juken Club is unclear.

Techniques & Abilities

Read and Imprint Ki

Mitsuiro imprinted with Mitsuomi’s ki.

Mitsuiro’s Red Feather Power allows her to read a person’s ki and imprint it on herself or others. By reading and imprinting someone’s ki on herself, Mitsuiro can take on the physical appearance (likely the voice as well), skills, and techniques of others. This is a powerful and versatile ability in the series as she can copy all the person’s strengths without their weaknesses, such as copying Mitsuomi’s abilities without the time limit restraint. The more interesting the face, the better the ability can be performed.^[6]

The weaknesses of this ability that the user cannot show any of their own emotions.^[6] It is also not known if she can permanently retain the traits of others after returning to normal (i.e. can she shape shift back into the person without re-reading their ki) or if returning to normal causes the loss of the traits and abilities.

Much of the understanding of this family power comes from its use by Mitsuiro’s ancestor; however, it is unknown whether or not Mitsuiro's family tradition of inter-marrying has strengthened their power enough for the comparison to be accurate.

Assumptions Based on Tokuan

• She can steal techniques without ever seeing them as Tokuan stole Yoshikatsu Shinjirō Yagyuu’s secret technique despite never seeing it (this took assistance from Reiki, so it's apparently not easy to do).
• The different physical forms can be sustained for very prolonged periods. It is unclear if there is a time limit at all as Tokuan maintained it for weeks; in fact he was only shown in his true form on one page of the entire Feudal Japan Arc.
• Mitsuiro should even be capable of imprinting the ki of more than one person at a time on herself; as Tokuan read and imprinted Yoshikatsu’s ki to use his own technique against him despite retaining the appearance of Tadaaki Jiroemon Ono (this was also done with Reiki's assistance, so it too may be difficult).
• Mitsuiro may also be able to imprint ki onto others, altering their physical form and possibly their abilities as well. Tokuan also managed to imprint Tadaaki’s ki onto Yoshikatsu; thus giving Yoshikatsu, Tadaaki’s face.

Mitsuiro’s ability to mimic and replace people may not be as good as her ancestor’s ability to do so, as the pattern on her face sometimes appears regardless of who’s form she is taking.^[5] This would likely give her away if she tried to kill and replace someone like her ancestor frequently did. This could also be a conscious action to make it easier for the other people to distinguish which one was the real Mitsuomi.

Synopsis

Manga

Mitsuiro was never animated as the anime and OVA's didn't get that far into the storyline. She appears solely in the manga and rather late into it at that. She has yet to play much of a role; however, she will likely increase in importance quickly.

Tournament Arc

Mitsuiro mocks Aya’s breasts.

Misuiro first appears alongside Hirohiko in the Juken Club’s room; Mitsuiro has a long slender case with her (presumably containing a sword). Hirohiko leans over Aya, as she lies on the floor unconscious after the visions of Feudal Japan Reiki gave her which exhausted all of her ki. When Aya awakens, she throws Hirohiko, initially thinking he was an enemy. With all her ki expended, she can’t do much else but lay on the floor. Aya calms down when Mitsuiro takes on her appearance and Hirohiko’s says that they are not enemies. After their introductions Aya thinks of them in comparison to their ancestors from Feudal Japan and the two say they are there to complete their ancestors fight.

Mitsuiro and Hirohiko later appears in a limo with Dogen, Mitsuomi, Shirō Tagami, and Emi.^[7] Shiro points out that this is highly unusual as Mitsuomi tends to dislike members of Red Feather Families, but is more concerned with Dogen’s presence. Mitsuiro conversely seems to be more concerned with the state of affairs that "ripped up" the Flying Phoenix, as the Natsume Family has broken off from the rest of the Flying Phoenix Feathers.

Later Emi notices Mitsuomi has trained with a bull for over 30 minutes (he can only go 3 minutes without his heart rupturing), and even smiles when he kills the bull. She then realizes it is in fact Mitsuiro with Mitsuomi’s ki imprinted on herself and notes that Hirohiko has just been added to the Executive Council’s Roster. Emi notes that Mitsuiro was not on the starting roster to her recollection, this seems to indicate the plan is for Mitsuiro to secretly replace Mitsuomi. Mitsuomi comments that when Mitsuiro killed the bull she was only able to reach 80% of his power. Hirohiko points out that they are inducing the Red Wing Resonance Effect from himself to allow Mitsuiro to use her power^[8] (apparently it’s not that effective, but Hirohiko says there was no one else to use at the time). Strangely Mitsuomi appears in a wheelchair, whether or not Mitsuiro reading and imprinting his ki during this time is related to that is unclear. He later appears fine as he asks Emi if she had anything to do with the strange occurrences during the tournament.

The Executive Council’s plan for the tournament isn’t exactly clear, but it has something to do with Nokimi Mayutsubo, and it is implied Mitsuiro may be replacing Mitsuomi in the tournament. If so determining when it actually is Mitsuomi and when it is Mitsuiro in disguise will be rather difficult. Emi Isuzu postulates that Mistuiro may be taking Mitsuomi's place after he dies.

It is later revealed, Mitsuiro and Hirohiko have been in love since childhood she is however older than he is. Hirohiko wants to end the war so that the strength of Mitsuiro's family won't matter and she will be free to marry him. This seems to be the motivation that made Hirohiko as strong as he is today.

As Hirohiko tries to crush himself and Souichiro/Sohaku beneath the Takayanagi mansion, she rushes to his defense, striking Inue with her weapon before being speared and apparently killed by Sohaku's henchmen.

References

1. ^ "Tenjho Tenge" Manga; volume 16 tankōbon (Chapter 97, Page 109).
2. ^ "Tenjho Tenge" Manga; volume 16 tankōbon (Chapter 97, Page 110-111).
3. ^ "Tenjho Tenge" Manga; volume 18 tankōbon (Chapter 107, Page 09).
4. ^ "Tenjho Tenge" Manga; (Chapter 87, Page 7).
5. ^ ^{a b} "Tenjho Tenge" Manga; volume 16 tankōbon (Chapter 99, Page 164).
6. ^ ^{a b} "Tenjho Tenge" Manga; volume 18 tankōbon (Chapter 107, Page 37).
7. ^ "Tenjho Tenge" Manga; volume 16 tankōbon (Chapter 98, Page 126).
8. ^ "Tenjho Tenge" Manga; volume 16 tankōbon (Chapter 99, Page 163).