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Personal statistics
Name Shinichi Izumi
Other Names, etc. Shin
Japanese 泉 新一
Rōmaji Izumi Shin'ichi
Gender Male
Age 16 (Early)
17 (In the middle)
18 (At the end)
Status Alive
Relatives, etc. Kazuyuki Izumi (Father)
Nobuko Izumi (Mother - Deceased)
Satomi Murano (Girlfriend)
Unnamed Uncle
Species Human (Partially Parasite)
Appearance
In the manga, Shinichi is an average height guy with a small build, short black hair and black eyes. In the anime, his hair and eyes are brown, and starts off wearing large square-rimmed glasses.
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| Shinichi's uniform comparison |
He usually wears his school-uniform, consisting of a white shirt and a blue blazer, while in the manga he wears a Gakuran, an all-black, old-style japanese school uniform, with a white shirt underneath. He also tends to wear T-shirts with strangely appropriate words written on them. For example, when he first meets Migi, he has a T-shirt that says "Misery Confusion". This repeats throughout the manga.
After Chapter 12 of the manga, or Episode 5 of the anime, Izumi is left with a scar on the center of his chest and back. He becomes more muscular, and in the anime he removes his glasses, since he no longer needs them. After Chapter 17 of the manga, or Episode 7 of the anime, Shinichi begins spiking his fringe upwards. He claims to like the new look because it "looks more balanced" - symbolizing that he is no longer merely a human, and also referring to his newfound calmness and mental fortitude.
After a confrontation with Gotou, he gains a new smaller scar over his right eye.
After the one-year timeskip, he reverts back to his original hairstyle.
Personality
Shinichi is a thoughtful and nice person who is considered a bit of a wimp. But that changes after the incident in which his mother was killed and taken over by a parasite, resulting in his drastic change in both his mentality and physiology.
As the series progresses, Shinichi becomes somewhat distant and unsympathetic, but also gains resilience. His bond with Migi becomes stronger and he occasionally begins to think like a parasite, as how he described the dead dog's body as 'a lump of dog-shaped meat'. He also loses the ability to empathize with others and even losing his ability to cry. This was shown when he came into his father's room at the hospital, unable to speak as his grieve was too powerful and deep, but he could shed no tears. However, he also gains significant resolve and resilience, and is willing to risk his own life to protect his friends, family, and the public from harm. However due to recent events to the death of Reiko Tamura's death he currently has reverted back into an emotional state, accepting his mother's demise and showing emotion once more.
Background
A young Shinichi comes home from school one afternoon, and asks his mother for an aluminum plate for use in an assignment. Though she tells him to wait for her to get it for him, he tries to reach the high shelf where the plates are stored himself, falling in the process. When he falls he hits the stove, causing a pot of boiling oil to spill over, his mother quickly grabs the pot, saving Shinichi from harm, but getting badly burned in the process. Shinichi often is filled with guilt whenever he catches a glimpse of the burn mark on his mother's forearm.
Years later, Shinichi is seen looking at his results of his high school entrance exams. He is soon approached by a young Satomi, and after a brief misunderstanding, they learn they will be attending the same school. They express their excitement, looking forward to meeting again in April.
History
The story starts with Shinichi sleeping with his ear buds on. A parasite then enters his room and attempts to take over his brain. As it tries to crawl up his arm, he takes the ear bud cord and ties it around his arm to stop it from advancing. It then suddenly disappears.
When Shinichi encounters the parasite again he is horrified to find out that it has eaten his right arm and replaced it. Over time they become companions, necessary for the others survival. He asks the the parasite what his name should be and it replies "Migi", as in right hand.
Shinichi is incredibly weak as the story takes off, letting Migi do all the fighting. He continues to stay like this until his mother is killed by a parasite. It eventually finds Shinichi's home and then supposedly kills him, stabbing him through the heart. Migi then attempts to save Shinichi's life giving him incredible strength, physically and mentally.
Afterwards Shinichi also begins to harbor great hatred towards parasites and declares to wipe them all out. He begins fighting along Migi which increases their strength ten fold.
Powers & Abilities
Before his "death" and "rebirth", Shinichi is an ordinary human teenager who mostly relies on Migi to fight the parasites.
After being saved by Migi from dying, Shinichi developed his own powers, because of having 30% of Migi's body disperse throughout his body. Shinichi can hear, see, and sense better than normal humans. His physical abilities greatly exceed those of normal humans.
- Enhanced Strength: His strength has grown to where he can easily shatter bones if he used enough force. Another testament to his strength is being able to smash through a person ribcage and throw them through a concrete wall, all while ripping out said persons heart, with one arm.
- Enhanced Leap: Due to his newfound physical strength, Shinichi can jump at a height over 20 ft.
- Enhanced Speed & Stamina: Shinichi has shown to be able run faster than a car driving down a road. He stated that he could easily run 100 meters under nine seconds if he really tried. He is able to run and fight for long periods of time and only needs minimal time to recover.
- Enhanced Durability & Endurance: Shinichi is able to withstand injuries that would affect a normal human. He is shown to jump from the school building at a high height while carrying Satomi and land with little consequence, barely flinch from the attacks of a grief stricken Mitsuo, was still able to run despite getting multiple cuts from Gotuo in their first fight, and even withstood the pain of getting stabbed in the left arm by Uragami and retaliate afterward in the series finale. His most epic moment of durability and endurance was shown as he got punched in the stomach by fully transformed Gotou that flung him several feet in the air and onto a pile of trash, and survived.
- Enhanced Vision & Perception: In the anime Shinichi originally needed glasses, though after merging with Migi, he no longer needed them. He's stated himself that he can easily see a persons face from 300 meters away. His brain is able to process visual stimulation to the point where a normal human appears to be standing still, when they're actually attacking him.
- Enhanced Reflexes: Shinichi has demonstrated incredible dodging skills and agility, most notably when he becomes scared, he uses said skills to create distance between him and his opponent(s).
- Mental Fortitude: After merging with Migi, Shinichi gains a high level of mental resilience as he walked through a hallway tainted with decapitated bodies of students with little discomfort.
Weaknesses
At a cost for his newfound abilities, Shinichi's empty expressions and lack of emotions began to make people suspicious of his composure in events that would cause a normal person to break down in fear. After the death of Reiko Tamura, this weakness is no longer a problem.
At the end of the series when confronted by Uragami, Shinichi states that he isn't as strong as when he faced Gotou. It's unknown if he was referring to his actual physical abilities becoming diminished, or the fact that Migi had become dormant, and could no longer assist him. Though it most likely the latter, as Shinichi stated that he isn't a normal human and that Uragami appears to be standing still, right before breaking his jaw with one hit.
Trivia
- Shinichi's design for the anime bears similarity to Peter Parker from Spider Man.
- In the anime, Shinichi starts off with large square-rimmed glasses, but later discards them.
