The boy wonder genius, the real deal, the kawaii-est Seishi of them all...
Profile:
Full Real Name: Ou Doukun
Age and Birthday: 13, born March 19
Birthplace: Jouzen-shi, Konan country
Seishi Name: Chiriko
Seishi Character: The kanji for "Stretching", on his
right foot
Seishi Ability: When his Seishi character appears, he possesses
the intelligence of a genius (however, he has no control over
when his character will appear)
First Appears in: Episode 23 of the anime
Height: 148 cm --> 4'10"
Hair Color: Light Brown, perhaps pinkish
Eye Color: Brown
Personality:
Thanks to Tasuki no Miko's marvelous manga-translating skills, I can tell you what Watase
Yuu herself said about Chiriko:
"Being small for his age, he looks rather young. Has an
extremely high IQ. From a very young age he displayed an interest
in learning. He studies by reading just about every book in the
world. But that's only while the "character" appears on
his foot. When it disappears he becomes a very stupid child. And
a crybaby as well. Having a complex about that and his body, he
tends to have quite a strong attraction to "strong
men". A kind hearted, gentle, honor student type of
boy."
My own thoughts:
I think Chiriko just may be the most under-exposed and
under-developed Seishi in the series (even Mits got a background
story and all). In the anime version, anyway. I can't speak for
the manga version (what you see above is all that I know), but I
really couldn't glean much about Chiriko from the anime. He just
seemed like your run of the mill, precocious 13-year old. Nothing
too special. This is largely due to the fact that in the anime,
Chiriko is smart all the time, not only when his character
appears. So there's not that interesting duality to him like
there is in the manga. As a result, I really can't say much more
about Chiriko that other's haven't already said.
Thoughts:
In the anime, the reason given for Chiriko's delay in appearing
to Miaka and the other shichiseishi is that he was preparing for
the civil service exams. This, I feel, did a real injustice to
Chiriko's character, giving the impression that he would rather
write an exam or read a book than help to save his country in the
way that he was blessed by Suzaku to do. It just made him seem
immature and inconsiderate, which contrasted with his later
actions in the series. In the manga, however (from what I've been
told), Chiriko confides in Tasuki, telling him that the real
reason why he didn't appear when he was needed was that his Seishi character was not appearing and he was afraid. The two
shichiseishi become kind of close, with Chiriko drawn to Tasuki's
strength, and Tasuki moved to protect Chiriko's fragile
self-image and innocence. Which I think is cool and all. Well,
this actually had no point to it, but that's all I had to say.
A favorite Chiriko quote of mine: "I am a Suzaku Seishi!"
Last updated 03/01/03.