Hades" Izanami

**Hades: Izanami** (冥王・イザナミ *Meiō: Izanami*), also known as just **Izanami** (イザナミ), is a Drive manifestation of the girl inside the Amaterasu Unit.[1] She is a playable character in *BlazBlue: Centralfiction*.

## Appearance

In Saya’s body, she looks like a young woman with very long, violet hair tied into a ponytail, and soulless red eyes. She wears a white and red Japanese-style outfit reminiscent of an empress, tied with a light blue sash, with a golden crown and a dark cape over her shoulders.

In *Centralfiction*, she does not battle in her normal priestess-styled regalia, but changes to a less restricting, more revealing outfit, with Yasakani no Magatama floating behind her. It’s also shown that she has doll-like parts. One of these doll-like bits is that she does not have proper feet.[2]

## Personality

Hades: Izanami is devoid of all emotion and extremely literal-minded, only smiling when it regards her goals and when her opposition is struggling against her. She is obsessed with making the world die and will stop at nothing to accomplish her goal. She has little to no concern for her comrades, even to the point of offering Ragna Terumi’shead in exchange for joining her side and eventually discarding both Terumi and Relius when they were of no further use to her. In addition, Izanami has no true attachment to her title and announces to the entire world that she willingly hands the role of Emperor to Homura Amanohokosaka and would grant the “gift” of death to the world.

Izanami remarks that she can “feel” the strong attachment that the real Saya has towards Ragna. Throughout the game, she constantly mocks Ragna with Saya’s voice in a playful manner. Like Relius, she has a dislike of Hazama and his “playful” attitude, though it also could be out of Saya’s proxy due to what Terumi did to her in the past.

However, Izanami shows signs of being frantic when Mu-12 successfully absorbs her due to Ragna’s interference, which was a possibility she never expected due to her arrogant and dismissive personality.

## Powers and Abilities

Izanami is known to be extremely powerful, as she manages to damage the Amaterasu Unit easily. The *BlazBlue Material Collection* mentions that her vessel has incredibly high Magic Formula aptitudes. As well as this, she is immortal, in the same way that Rachel is. Not even Hakumen’s Time Killer technique is able to affect her. This is due to her not feeling time. Rachel claims that she is as strong as the Black Beast, if not even stronger, as indifference to the Black Beast, she cannot be killed. Rachel also says that even if Hakumen had access to his full power, he would still have a difficult time defeating her.[5]

Her boss battle in *BlazBlue: Chronophantasma* shows off her skills in battle. She can effortlessly control the Event Weapon Takemikazuchi in battle as well as unleash an extensive myriad of energy projectiles that cause an extraordinary amount of damage against the opponent.

In *BlazBlue: Centralfiction*, it is shown that she can float at will, and has the ability to control time, bringing it to a stop and leaving her opponents completely defenseless for a set duration. She is also capable of conjuring skeletal constructs of spectral energy that shield her from opponent’s attacks or act as an extension of herself in attacking her foes. She can even conjure large orbs of dark magical energies that she sends crashing down on her opponents. She is also a surprisingly skilled and flexible physical fighter. She also has the ability to teleport and drain the life energies from her opponents.

Also in *BlazBlue: Centralfiction* she claims that it would be difficult for her to create an energy blast like one Corpse Burial: Requiem was supposed to make, which was going to atomize the entire planet and the moon with 10 to the power of 31 joules worth of power, but she made it sound like she was actually capable of that.

Her Drive, **Sand Shine <Exodus Ark>** (沙麟＜エクソダスアーク＞ *Sharin <Ekusodasu Āku>*), activates her special Unit, Yasakani no Magatama. While it is active, Izanami’s abilities change, she can shoot Magatama projectiles, but cannot block. Her Overdrive, **Suppressing Realm <Ark Force>** (絶界＜アークフォース＞ *Zekkai <Āku Fōsu>*), gives her access to all of her abilities of both modes, allowing her to block while the Unit is active. Lastly, her Astral Heat, **Eternal Darkness** (常世の闇 *Tokoyo no Yami*), has her launching the opponent high into the air and calling upon the spirits of the afterlife to aid her in dragging her opponent into the netherworld.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Izanami works alone and when meeting the Turtles, she didn't want to be near them because of her arrogance and feels they're gonna ruin her plans of the world dying under her feet. She doesn't even work with Shredder as she feels he'll take advantage of her powers

## Trivia

Naming
* “Hades” is the name of the God of Death and the Underworld in Greek Mythology. *Izanami* is the name of Izanagi no Mikoto’s former wife, Izanami no Mikoto, the Goddess of Death and Creation in Japanese Mythology.
* Despite being female, Izanami’s title of “Hades” refers to a male instead.
* Her theme music is called “YOMOTSUHIRASAKA”. In Shintō religion, Yomotsuhirasaka (黄泉比良坂) was the entrance to the underworld, where Izanami no Mikoto resided. It was sealed off with a giant boulder by Izanagi no Mikoto upon his escape.
* Her move naming theme is mainly nothingness, destruction, and meditation.

Appearance
* She has a strong resemblance to Saya Terumi not only in appearance, but personality and even turns into her during Amane’s Astral Heat. However, Naoto Kurogane said that Izanami is not his sister.
* Her pose in the character select artwork along with the Yasakani no Magatama on her back is based on the Nataraja, a dance performed by Shiva, Hindu god of destruction, that is used to destroy and recreate the world.
* She is the fifth character in the series to be shocked and possess no skeleton, instead an outlined ghost with a constant emitting aura can be seen, which is white normally and black in Overdrive.

Other
* In *BlazBlue: Continuum Shift*’s true ending, Hades: Izanami was actually dubious when she talked about Amaterasu. However, the English dub makes it easy to misunderstand that she destroyed the Unit.
* In Hakumen’s Act II ending in *BlazBlue: Centralfiction*, Izanami describes Saya as a “yorishiro” (依り代), which is a Shintō term for an object that can attract and house spirits.
* In *BlazBlue* manga, during fight between Ragna and Hakumen, the latter says: “Go back to the place you belong, Ragna the Bloodedge! Izanami (, Ruler of the Underworld) calls you!!!”