[OOC] Background Information
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character: So there’s this hip and happening place known as the Shibuya district in Tokyo , where fashions collide and people end up looking like spicy tuna rolls in their fashion style fail. What people don’t know is that a parallel Shibuya exists, called the “UG”, in which the Reapers’ Game is played out. Essentially, the Game was set up to give dead people- known in the Game as Players- a second chance at life-- if they win. If they lose, they’re gone for good.
The Game takes place over seven days, in which the Game Master assigns a different mission each day for the Players to complete within a certain time limit. The Players are all in the same pool, so if any Player successfully completes the mission, everyone is safe for the day, although points are accorded unbeknownst to the Players for completion; the winner of the Game is the Player with the most points. The reverse is also true: fail, and face erasure- which is pretty self-explanatory. Along the way, the Players must overcome challenges presented by their “opposition”, the Reapers. There are two types of Reapers: Support, whose jobs are to maintain the Game and set up (literal and figurative) walls for the Players to overcome, and Harrier, who aim to erase the Players as they scramble to complete the missions. Reapers cannot easily neglect their duties, as they too must accumulate points in order to resist erasure.
The Game is run and overseen by a higher being/angel known as the Composer, who is assisted in his overseeing duties by the Conductor and the Producer. In this particular Composer’s case, his Producer is Sanae Hanekoma, one savvy café barista and underground graffiti artist- but that’s for later.
In order to become an angel- or what is described as “a being from a higher plane”- one must follow the following steps:
1. Die in the RG and become a Player
2. Win the Game and become a Reaper
3. Via erasing unworthy Players, move up in the ranks of the Reapers
4. Get promoted so many times that you eventually graduate from Reaper to Angel
Therefore, Hanekoma’s story presumably begins with his death. He followed the steps shown above, eventually rising to the position of Producer, the guardian over the Game. As his job is mainly observational, he must sometimes travel from the Higher Plane to the UG and all other lower planes. The Producer, additionally, has the ability to communicate with all beings in the UG, although he is forbidden from revealing his identity as the Producer to anyone, as the very existence of such a position threatens the stability of the rules in the UG and RG. Thus, the only person the Producer can contact as the Producer is the Composer.
But enough about Hanekoma’s job. On with the story.
So everything was chill until one day the Composer decided he wasn’t too fond of Shibuya and its ideals warfare anymore. By his logic, the only thing he could do now was destroy the place and rebuild from its ashes, and he announced this plan. Naturally, there were objections, the loudest of which came from the Conductor, Megumi Kitaniji. The Conductor was fond of Shibuya and its variety, and he told the Composer that he would do anything to save it, which included changing Shibuya permanently to something more to his superior’s approval. The Composer, probably impressed by the Conductor’s intense love for such a chaotic and headache-inducing place, compromised…by starting a Game. Pitting himself against the Conductor, the Composer gave his minion one month to change Shibuya for the better. If the Conductor won, Shibuya would stay, but if the new Shibuya failed to please, both the Conductor and Shibuya would be erased.
Hanekoma was also among those who wished to see Shibuya preserved, and after the start of the Game between the Composer and Conductor, he began making contingency plans: in case the Conductor lost, Hanekoma secretly provided a high-ranking Reaper officer, Sho Minamimoto, with the forbidden instructions on how to make Taboo Noise, which would attack both Player and Reaper alike, unlike regular Noise. His hope was that if the Conductor lost, Minamimoto, an ambitious Reaper with little respect for authority, would be able to stage a coup aided by his newfound powers and defeat the current Composer, thus saving Shibuya. Contingency plans made, Hanekoma set out to set up the stage for the upcoming Game.
Now, special rules were set in place for this Game, one of which was that the Composer, usually present during the Reaper’s Game, would instead have to be absent, although he could be represented by a Player- a proxy of sorts. In order to determine an appropriate proxy, Hanekoma imprinted two orders into his/CAT’s graffiti around Shibuya: “Enjoy the moment more” and “Gather”. The former was to strengthen Imagination, the source of power for those in the Game, and the other was to attract (covertly) the attention of all those with strong Imagination. After that, it was a mere matter of the Composer showing up at the right place at the right time; he did so, finding one Neku Sakuraba standing in front of one of Hanekoma’s murals in the Udagawa district. Minamimoto, acting a little ahead of schedule, showed up as well, intent on murdering the Composer. After thwarting his plans, the Composer then claimed his proxy of choice, Neku, by shooting him.
Hanekoma does not formally greet Neku until day two of his first Game, preventing the Harrier Reaper Uzuki Yashiro from illegally forcing the young man into erasing his partner, Shiki. He gives a flood of details out to Neku, including the nature of the Game and some of its rules, and also gives the kid a nickname (“Phones”) and a Harmonizer Pin, the latter to stabilize Neku’s Soul, or energy. Hanekoma later goes beyond his typical duties as guardian of the Game to assist the Player Beat, whose partner Rhyme was erased in the process of saving him from a trap: he traps Rhyme’s Noise form in a pin and has Beat form a pact with the pin, thereby preserving the player’s continued existence in the game.
As the end of Neku’s first game draws nearer, Hanekoma receives a request from the Composer for increased phone abilities in the next game: the Composer has decided to join the Game as Neku’s partner for the sake of not only protecting and educating his chosen Player, but also to discern the strategy of the Conductor. Hanekoma already had a vague idea to the nature of this strategy, having received a pin request from the Conductor, but was previously unable to fully understand the Conductor’s intentions.
Neku’s second week in the Game opens, this time with Sho Minamimoto at the helm as Game Master. Minamimoto, however, neglects his duties as Game Master, and Neku, accompanied by his partner “Joshua” (in reality, the Composer), is compelled to drop by Hanekoma’s café Wild Kat. Hanekoma delivers the Composer’s order as promised, in the process catching up with Neku, who in particular wants to know more about his enigmatic partner. Hanekoma tells Neku that he and Joshua have known each other for a long time: Joshua apparently had the ability to see the Game in motion even though he was in the RG; whenever he felt like talking about it, he would swing by Wild Kat and chat. Additionally, in the midst of their conversation, Hanekoma deals out a bit more advice to “Phones”, telling him to “Enjoy every moment with what you’ve got.” As it turns out, that exact phrase is in fact the motto of CAT, Shibuya’s famous graffiti artist and the one person Neku respects. Eventually, Neku learns that Hanekoma is indeed CAT.
Meanwhile, Minamimoto is exercising his new powers, creating and unleashing his own army of Taboo Noise to the detriment of Reapers and Players alike. Minamimoto’s knowledge of otherwise forbidden topics alerts the angels to the presence of a Fallen Angel, who we know to be Hanekoma. However, he himself is not aware of this fact: as a result of parallel universes, alternate versions of a single person can exist at the same time; the version currently tuning into the UG Shibuya is one such alternate. This is due to the very nature of parallel worlds: a parallel world is created when a choice is made; the other option splits off and forms its own separate world. The current UG Shibuya has taken the path in which Hanekoma did not choose to educate Minamimoto on Taboo Noise at all; however, since angels can travel from one parallel dimension to another, another Hanekoma would be able to slip into that world and do the job instead.
The end of the week brings a mission direct from the Conductor: erase Minamimoto in Pork City . Joshua and Neku defeat the Game Master, but Minamimoto seemingly has the last say when he unleashes a level i flare. Joshua appears to take the brunt of it, but in actuality teleports at the last second to another alternate dimension. Neku wins the Game, but thanks to the illegal participation of Joshua (or the Composer) is forced to play one last time.
Now, previously, the Composer, using a tracker in his phone (previously installed by Hanekoma), had managed to locate spikes of the Conductor’s Imagination, centered on certain Red Skull pins, the very same pins which Hanekoma was previously commissioned for. These pins would be used for mass imprinting, thus forcing the wearers to bend to the Conductor’s will. However, at the end of the second week, barely half of Shibuya was wearing a Red Skull pin- not nearly enough for the Conductor’s strategy to be a success. Thus, Hanekoma begins carefully monitoring the Conductor’s actions to determine his real strategy. In the process, he comes across a Taboo Noise refinery sigil made by Minamimoto, for the purpose of reviving him as a Taboo Noise. Hanekoma notes in his Secret Report for the day that Minamimoto is a great outside threat to the Game's completion, and thus decides to neutralize Minamimoto’s sigil. In actuality, he completes the flawed array for Minamimoto, allowing him to be revived. This paradox in plans is again due in part to the parallel nature of dimensions.
Meanwhile, Neku’s third Game has started. The Conductor, in an attempt to remove the threat of the Composer’s proxy, reduces the player count to one, but Neku manages to form a pact with Player-turned-Reaper-turned-Player Beat, which the Conductor uses as an excuse to issue an Emergency Call, thus suspending all of the Composer’s rules. The Conductor’s strategy starts locking into place, as he makes Red Skull pins mandatory for all Reapers, additionally blocking off each section of the UG with walls. This puts a stopper on Hanekoma’s movement: as he is unable to leave the UG, he cannot bypass the walls by leaving; additionally, the Composer has not yet informed him of which parallel world he is hiding in.
However, on day five, Minamimoto returns with a mission: find the Composer and erase him personally. In tracking the movements of the Composer, Minamimoto also knows one important fact: the Composer frequented Wild Kat. Thus, Hanekoma predicts that the ex-Game Master will soon arrive on his café’s doorstep, and makes plans to contact his alternate selves to search for the Composer. He does manage to locate Joshua, finding him in an alternate Shibuya where Tin Pin Slammer, a popular game, rules supreme. Noting that Minamimoto has indeed targeted the café with ill intentions, Hanekoma heads off to retrieve Joshua, leaving the keypin to the Shibuya River at the café for Neku.
Upon arriving in the alternate world, Hanekoma contacts the Composer, who reveals that the reason why he had not previously told him his whereabouts was that he was too busy playing Tin Pin. After telling the Composer to meet him at the Shibuya River , Hanekoma goes into hiding in order to avoid the version of him in this parallel world, lest the alternate version of himself report him as the Fallen Angel. However, Hanekoma notes in his final Secret Report that he happily accepts the title of Fallen Angel for the sake of protecting Shibuya.
While hiding out in Pork City , Hanekoma is unknowingly followed in by the parallel world’s version of Neku. Neku, assuming that this is his world’s Hanekoma that he’s speaking to, asks him what he could do to help out; Hanekoma, seeing some time to spare before the Composer’s arrival, asks Neku if he could participate in a little test....and transforms into his two-part Noise form, intent on testing Neku’s abilities. A battle predictably ensues. Upon defeating the “ultimate life form”, however, Neku notices that Hanekoma is still unharmed.
Back to the main world! In the end, the Composer defeats both the Conductor and his proxy, presumably signaling the end of Shibuya. However, through a change of heart, he decides not to and restores Neku and his friends to the RG in addition to sparing Shibuya. As Hanekoma notes, Shibuya has shifted to the “optimal parallel world” as a result of the individual efforts put forth by all those in the Game. He indulges in one last conversation with the Composer before summoning his angel wings and soaring up into the heavens after Joshua.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality: Sanae’s personality is all about enjoying the moment, keyword being “enjoying”. This being his kind of mantra, it reflects in the fact that he is a very casual, laidback person; his style of dress, casual yet thought out, also reflects this. Hanekoma’s matter of speaking also reflects his casual personality: when speaking to Uzuki, he addresses her as “sister”, bringing the conversation to a more personal or intimate level. He also commonly calls people by nicknames, such as Neku (“Phones”) or Joshua (“Josh”), again bringing the atmosphere down to a more personal level and discarding formalities. He also seems quite extroverted, shown by when he introduces himself to Neku and Shiki: when asked who he is, Hanekoma gives not only his name, but a deluge of (unnecessary?) details such as his favorite word and food, occupation, and passions. He also shows great enthusiasm in helping people out (naturally in this case, the Players), although he won’t hold back from teasing or sticking someone in the spotlight if he feels like it (this seems to coincide with his giving of nicknames).
Additionally, some further insight to Hanekoma’s personality may be garnered from his blood type, which he announces to be A. According to popular belief in Japan, a person’s blood type may be predicative of their personality; those with a blood type of A are typically “earnest, creative, and sensible”, reflected in Hanekoma’s abilities as an artist and his advice-giving tendencies.
Of note, however, is that Hanekoma is also an enigmatic figure. For example, as seen previously in his introduction to Neku, Hanekoma releases a great deal of information about his person; however, he mostly includes details that could be considered irrelevant. Additionally, Hanekoma is revealed to have a great deal of talents, but chooses to never discuss them (in fact, CAT, his graffiti artist identity, has never granted an interview), adding more weight to his habit of “show, don’t tell.”
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character: Sanae has a slim build; in a way, he looks almost like a stork. He is of about average height and perhaps a tad underweight, given his slight frame.
Sanae has dark brown eyes. His slightly pale complexion sets off a poof of black hair that looks like it hasn’t been properly combed (or else had great pains taken to make it looked mussed and rakish). Sanae also enjoys a sort of five o’ clock shadow look.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?: I’m taking Sanae from the end of the game, right after he has his final [one-sided] conversation with Joshua.
What kinds of magical/special/crazy powers does your character have, if any?: Sanae has a Noise form, which he activates from two feathers. Essentially, he morphs into both a blue lion and a red tiger; his Noise form has been described as “the ultimate existence”.
Also, Sanae has the ability to manipulate Imagination, a sort of ethereal force that allows him to exist in both the Underground and the Realground. With this, he is able to do things such as imprint ideas or suggestions (called memes in-game) in people’s minds, as well as code Souls into various forms; the only instance of this in-game is when he codes Rhyme’s soul into a Noise pin.
Other Angel abilities include the ability to travel between parallel worlds and “second sight”, which is only briefly mentioned.
If present, how do you plan to tweak those powers to make him/her appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?: At Landel’s, Sanae will be unable to access his Noise form or any of his usual Imagination powers. However, he will still be able to somewhat imprint things, although they’ll come out as fragments. For instance, if he were trying to imprint “Meeting on Saturday” into someone’s mind, it might come out as “Meet…on” or even simply “…on”.
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?: Sanae is quite prolific when it comes to graffiti. His art, spread under the alias of CAT, currently covers much of Shibuya’s landscape.
The Game takes place over seven days, in which the Game Master assigns a different mission each day for the Players to complete within a certain time limit. The Players are all in the same pool, so if any Player successfully completes the mission, everyone is safe for the day, although points are accorded unbeknownst to the Players for completion; the winner of the Game is the Player with the most points. The reverse is also true: fail, and face erasure- which is pretty self-explanatory. Along the way, the Players must overcome challenges presented by their “opposition”, the Reapers. There are two types of Reapers: Support, whose jobs are to maintain the Game and set up (literal and figurative) walls for the Players to overcome, and Harrier, who aim to erase the Players as they scramble to complete the missions. Reapers cannot easily neglect their duties, as they too must accumulate points in order to resist erasure.
The Game is run and overseen by a higher being/angel known as the Composer, who is assisted in his overseeing duties by the Conductor and the Producer. In this particular Composer’s case, his Producer is Sanae Hanekoma, one savvy café barista and underground graffiti artist- but that’s for later.
In order to become an angel- or what is described as “a being from a higher plane”- one must follow the following steps:
1. Die in the RG and become a Player
2. Win the Game and become a Reaper
3. Via erasing unworthy Players, move up in the ranks of the Reapers
4. Get promoted so many times that you eventually graduate from Reaper to Angel
Therefore, Hanekoma’s story presumably begins with his death. He followed the steps shown above, eventually rising to the position of Producer, the guardian over the Game. As his job is mainly observational, he must sometimes travel from the Higher Plane to the UG and all other lower planes. The Producer, additionally, has the ability to communicate with all beings in the UG, although he is forbidden from revealing his identity as the Producer to anyone, as the very existence of such a position threatens the stability of the rules in the UG and RG. Thus, the only person the Producer can contact as the Producer is the Composer.
But enough about Hanekoma’s job. On with the story.
So everything was chill until one day the Composer decided he wasn’t too fond of Shibuya and its ideals warfare anymore. By his logic, the only thing he could do now was destroy the place and rebuild from its ashes, and he announced this plan. Naturally, there were objections, the loudest of which came from the Conductor, Megumi Kitaniji. The Conductor was fond of Shibuya and its variety, and he told the Composer that he would do anything to save it, which included changing Shibuya permanently to something more to his superior’s approval. The Composer, probably impressed by the Conductor’s intense love for such a chaotic and headache-inducing place, compromised…by starting a Game. Pitting himself against the Conductor, the Composer gave his minion one month to change Shibuya for the better. If the Conductor won, Shibuya would stay, but if the new Shibuya failed to please, both the Conductor and Shibuya would be erased.
Hanekoma was also among those who wished to see Shibuya preserved, and after the start of the Game between the Composer and Conductor, he began making contingency plans: in case the Conductor lost, Hanekoma secretly provided a high-ranking Reaper officer, Sho Minamimoto, with the forbidden instructions on how to make Taboo Noise, which would attack both Player and Reaper alike, unlike regular Noise. His hope was that if the Conductor lost, Minamimoto, an ambitious Reaper with little respect for authority, would be able to stage a coup aided by his newfound powers and defeat the current Composer, thus saving Shibuya. Contingency plans made, Hanekoma set out to set up the stage for the upcoming Game.
Now, special rules were set in place for this Game, one of which was that the Composer, usually present during the Reaper’s Game, would instead have to be absent, although he could be represented by a Player- a proxy of sorts. In order to determine an appropriate proxy, Hanekoma imprinted two orders into his/CAT’s graffiti around Shibuya: “Enjoy the moment more” and “Gather”. The former was to strengthen Imagination, the source of power for those in the Game, and the other was to attract (covertly) the attention of all those with strong Imagination. After that, it was a mere matter of the Composer showing up at the right place at the right time; he did so, finding one Neku Sakuraba standing in front of one of Hanekoma’s murals in the Udagawa district. Minamimoto, acting a little ahead of schedule, showed up as well, intent on murdering the Composer. After thwarting his plans, the Composer then claimed his proxy of choice, Neku, by shooting him.
Hanekoma does not formally greet Neku until day two of his first Game, preventing the Harrier Reaper Uzuki Yashiro from illegally forcing the young man into erasing his partner, Shiki. He gives a flood of details out to Neku, including the nature of the Game and some of its rules, and also gives the kid a nickname (“Phones”) and a Harmonizer Pin, the latter to stabilize Neku’s Soul, or energy. Hanekoma later goes beyond his typical duties as guardian of the Game to assist the Player Beat, whose partner Rhyme was erased in the process of saving him from a trap: he traps Rhyme’s Noise form in a pin and has Beat form a pact with the pin, thereby preserving the player’s continued existence in the game.
As the end of Neku’s first game draws nearer, Hanekoma receives a request from the Composer for increased phone abilities in the next game: the Composer has decided to join the Game as Neku’s partner for the sake of not only protecting and educating his chosen Player, but also to discern the strategy of the Conductor. Hanekoma already had a vague idea to the nature of this strategy, having received a pin request from the Conductor, but was previously unable to fully understand the Conductor’s intentions.
Neku’s second week in the Game opens, this time with Sho Minamimoto at the helm as Game Master. Minamimoto, however, neglects his duties as Game Master, and Neku, accompanied by his partner “Joshua” (in reality, the Composer), is compelled to drop by Hanekoma’s café Wild Kat. Hanekoma delivers the Composer’s order as promised, in the process catching up with Neku, who in particular wants to know more about his enigmatic partner. Hanekoma tells Neku that he and Joshua have known each other for a long time: Joshua apparently had the ability to see the Game in motion even though he was in the RG; whenever he felt like talking about it, he would swing by Wild Kat and chat. Additionally, in the midst of their conversation, Hanekoma deals out a bit more advice to “Phones”, telling him to “Enjoy every moment with what you’ve got.” As it turns out, that exact phrase is in fact the motto of CAT, Shibuya’s famous graffiti artist and the one person Neku respects. Eventually, Neku learns that Hanekoma is indeed CAT.
Meanwhile, Minamimoto is exercising his new powers, creating and unleashing his own army of Taboo Noise to the detriment of Reapers and Players alike. Minamimoto’s knowledge of otherwise forbidden topics alerts the angels to the presence of a Fallen Angel, who we know to be Hanekoma. However, he himself is not aware of this fact: as a result of parallel universes, alternate versions of a single person can exist at the same time; the version currently tuning into the UG Shibuya is one such alternate. This is due to the very nature of parallel worlds: a parallel world is created when a choice is made; the other option splits off and forms its own separate world. The current UG Shibuya has taken the path in which Hanekoma did not choose to educate Minamimoto on Taboo Noise at all; however, since angels can travel from one parallel dimension to another, another Hanekoma would be able to slip into that world and do the job instead.
The end of the week brings a mission direct from the Conductor: erase Minamimoto in Pork City . Joshua and Neku defeat the Game Master, but Minamimoto seemingly has the last say when he unleashes a level i flare. Joshua appears to take the brunt of it, but in actuality teleports at the last second to another alternate dimension. Neku wins the Game, but thanks to the illegal participation of Joshua (or the Composer) is forced to play one last time.
Now, previously, the Composer, using a tracker in his phone (previously installed by Hanekoma), had managed to locate spikes of the Conductor’s Imagination, centered on certain Red Skull pins, the very same pins which Hanekoma was previously commissioned for. These pins would be used for mass imprinting, thus forcing the wearers to bend to the Conductor’s will. However, at the end of the second week, barely half of Shibuya was wearing a Red Skull pin- not nearly enough for the Conductor’s strategy to be a success. Thus, Hanekoma begins carefully monitoring the Conductor’s actions to determine his real strategy. In the process, he comes across a Taboo Noise refinery sigil made by Minamimoto, for the purpose of reviving him as a Taboo Noise. Hanekoma notes in his Secret Report for the day that Minamimoto is a great outside threat to the Game's completion, and thus decides to neutralize Minamimoto’s sigil. In actuality, he completes the flawed array for Minamimoto, allowing him to be revived. This paradox in plans is again due in part to the parallel nature of dimensions.
Meanwhile, Neku’s third Game has started. The Conductor, in an attempt to remove the threat of the Composer’s proxy, reduces the player count to one, but Neku manages to form a pact with Player-turned-Reaper-turned-Player Beat, which the Conductor uses as an excuse to issue an Emergency Call, thus suspending all of the Composer’s rules. The Conductor’s strategy starts locking into place, as he makes Red Skull pins mandatory for all Reapers, additionally blocking off each section of the UG with walls. This puts a stopper on Hanekoma’s movement: as he is unable to leave the UG, he cannot bypass the walls by leaving; additionally, the Composer has not yet informed him of which parallel world he is hiding in.
However, on day five, Minamimoto returns with a mission: find the Composer and erase him personally. In tracking the movements of the Composer, Minamimoto also knows one important fact: the Composer frequented Wild Kat. Thus, Hanekoma predicts that the ex-Game Master will soon arrive on his café’s doorstep, and makes plans to contact his alternate selves to search for the Composer. He does manage to locate Joshua, finding him in an alternate Shibuya where Tin Pin Slammer, a popular game, rules supreme. Noting that Minamimoto has indeed targeted the café with ill intentions, Hanekoma heads off to retrieve Joshua, leaving the keypin to the Shibuya River at the café for Neku.
Upon arriving in the alternate world, Hanekoma contacts the Composer, who reveals that the reason why he had not previously told him his whereabouts was that he was too busy playing Tin Pin. After telling the Composer to meet him at the Shibuya River , Hanekoma goes into hiding in order to avoid the version of him in this parallel world, lest the alternate version of himself report him as the Fallen Angel. However, Hanekoma notes in his final Secret Report that he happily accepts the title of Fallen Angel for the sake of protecting Shibuya.
While hiding out in Pork City , Hanekoma is unknowingly followed in by the parallel world’s version of Neku. Neku, assuming that this is his world’s Hanekoma that he’s speaking to, asks him what he could do to help out; Hanekoma, seeing some time to spare before the Composer’s arrival, asks Neku if he could participate in a little test....and transforms into his two-part Noise form, intent on testing Neku’s abilities. A battle predictably ensues. Upon defeating the “ultimate life form”, however, Neku notices that Hanekoma is still unharmed.
Back to the main world! In the end, the Composer defeats both the Conductor and his proxy, presumably signaling the end of Shibuya. However, through a change of heart, he decides not to and restores Neku and his friends to the RG in addition to sparing Shibuya. As Hanekoma notes, Shibuya has shifted to the “optimal parallel world” as a result of the individual efforts put forth by all those in the Game. He indulges in one last conversation with the Composer before summoning his angel wings and soaring up into the heavens after Joshua.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality: Sanae’s personality is all about enjoying the moment, keyword being “enjoying”. This being his kind of mantra, it reflects in the fact that he is a very casual, laidback person; his style of dress, casual yet thought out, also reflects this. Hanekoma’s matter of speaking also reflects his casual personality: when speaking to Uzuki, he addresses her as “sister”, bringing the conversation to a more personal or intimate level. He also commonly calls people by nicknames, such as Neku (“Phones”) or Joshua (“Josh”), again bringing the atmosphere down to a more personal level and discarding formalities. He also seems quite extroverted, shown by when he introduces himself to Neku and Shiki: when asked who he is, Hanekoma gives not only his name, but a deluge of (unnecessary?) details such as his favorite word and food, occupation, and passions. He also shows great enthusiasm in helping people out (naturally in this case, the Players), although he won’t hold back from teasing or sticking someone in the spotlight if he feels like it (this seems to coincide with his giving of nicknames).
Additionally, some further insight to Hanekoma’s personality may be garnered from his blood type, which he announces to be A. According to popular belief in Japan, a person’s blood type may be predicative of their personality; those with a blood type of A are typically “earnest, creative, and sensible”, reflected in Hanekoma’s abilities as an artist and his advice-giving tendencies.
Of note, however, is that Hanekoma is also an enigmatic figure. For example, as seen previously in his introduction to Neku, Hanekoma releases a great deal of information about his person; however, he mostly includes details that could be considered irrelevant. Additionally, Hanekoma is revealed to have a great deal of talents, but chooses to never discuss them (in fact, CAT, his graffiti artist identity, has never granted an interview), adding more weight to his habit of “show, don’t tell.”
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character: Sanae has a slim build; in a way, he looks almost like a stork. He is of about average height and perhaps a tad underweight, given his slight frame.
Sanae has dark brown eyes. His slightly pale complexion sets off a poof of black hair that looks like it hasn’t been properly combed (or else had great pains taken to make it looked mussed and rakish). Sanae also enjoys a sort of five o’ clock shadow look.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?: I’m taking Sanae from the end of the game, right after he has his final [one-sided] conversation with Joshua.
What kinds of magical/special/crazy powers does your character have, if any?: Sanae has a Noise form, which he activates from two feathers. Essentially, he morphs into both a blue lion and a red tiger; his Noise form has been described as “the ultimate existence”.
Also, Sanae has the ability to manipulate Imagination, a sort of ethereal force that allows him to exist in both the Underground and the Realground. With this, he is able to do things such as imprint ideas or suggestions (called memes in-game) in people’s minds, as well as code Souls into various forms; the only instance of this in-game is when he codes Rhyme’s soul into a Noise pin.
Other Angel abilities include the ability to travel between parallel worlds and “second sight”, which is only briefly mentioned.
If present, how do you plan to tweak those powers to make him/her appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?: At Landel’s, Sanae will be unable to access his Noise form or any of his usual Imagination powers. However, he will still be able to somewhat imprint things, although they’ll come out as fragments. For instance, if he were trying to imprint “Meeting on Saturday” into someone’s mind, it might come out as “Meet…on” or even simply “…on”.
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?: Sanae is quite prolific when it comes to graffiti. His art, spread under the alias of CAT, currently covers much of Shibuya’s landscape.