Tobi Otogiri

Tobi in the How to Eat Life MV

**Tobi Otogiri** (弟切飛) is the protagonist of How to Eat Life and is a main character in the *Kara no Kioku* manga.

## Personality

Tobi comes off as rude and somewhat abrasive in his first appearance in the manga. Rei notes that he looks displeased and is normally in a grumpy mood. Tobi offers advice and help to Rei which shows that he is not as unpleasant as first shown. He is generally reserved and doesn’t talk too much about himself, normally he only questions other people. He seems to be slightly annoyed by Noppo and other small, for most Zingai. But from time to time he does show kindness and has the ability to read people's emotions. And he seems to get agitated when Rei talks about Hitotsume.

The animator of How to Eat Life described him as listless with an 'unpleasant' look on his face.

## Appearance

Tobi wears black pants, boots, and a black jacket with an orange interior. Underneath, he wears a black shirt. He's often seen with Noppo, in a large duffel bag form, slung over his shoulder. His hair is short beige blonde with straight bangs that sometimes cover one of his eyes. He has shihaku eyes (四白眼), meaning that the whites can be seen on all sides and has small pupils, and his eyelashes are the same color of his hair.

When he goes into Nagi's house, his eyes look more tired, dreaded and also sharp.

## History

In the beginning of the How to Eat Life novel, its shown that Seki, his older brother was carrying him in a piggyback while they're heading to the park, Seki drops him to play while he watches him over a bench, later on, they were running away; they were being chased. Many people were chasing the both of them, and all Tobi could do was hang onto Seki's hand until he carried him in his back. But their pursuers increased, including more police cars and unknown people. To protect Tobi, Seki took him to an abandoned house, and told Tobi to wait until he said it was safe to go out.

Tobi noticed how it was taking a weird amount of time for Seki to come back, and hearing the many sounds of gunshots, he began to worry. Tobi was terrified for his brother's well being, but was also scared of the situation outside. After a long time, the door opened, and light came pouring in.

He was excited to go out, but also nervous for what awaits him. Outside, Tobi was greeted with the eerie view of a blood splattered scene and a strange entity by the door, a one-eyed man.

The creature silently dropped a bag, who was known as Baku.

## Plot

Tobi appears as a cliffhanger in chapter 2, when he’s out searching for a shadow.

In chapter 3 he saves Rei, the main protagonist of the series, from an attack by a shadow. After that, he sees Rei and asks who he is, and what Q-ta is. He tells him what shadows are, and gives him his phone number for if he’s in danger. He starts to doubt that Q-Ta is really Rei's heart, as it is too childish and the idea that people haven't been corrupted in this world is only a theory but that if he is then that means…. His inner monologue gets interrupted, and therefore we don't know what he would say in the last part. When his phone call with Rei is interrupted, he immediately knows there is danger and rushes to Rei.

After going to Rei’s school, he goes to the roof and fights Yuu. He uses his special ability, "Mole", but Yuu flees. Tobi is surprised when he sees Yuu resist Mole, and yells when he flees. He then appears out of nowhere when Rei talking to Nagi, tells Nagi that he is Rei’s advisor and says he needs to keep an eye on Nagi.

When Rei's school gets canceled, he appears in his window. He and Rei exchange ideas, and they decide to live together for a while. He then goes to Nagi's house with Rei, and sees that Nagi has been devoured by his own shadow. He finds Yuu and fights him outside the house. He uses "Erosion" and attacks with his tail. Yuu takes Rei as a hostage. Tobi stabs Yuu's heart, and kills him.

After the battle, he searches Rei’s house and confirms that Rei lives alone. He offers Rei hope by saying that they will find his memories and allow him to have a normal life. Later, he receives a call from Pattun who asks if everything is alright, and that something came up, he says he can handle it.

Pattun makes a call to Tobi, to tell him that something came up. He is then “punished” or “praised’ by Mai

## Relationships

### Noppo

Noppo is Tobi's alter, who he often wears as a duffel bag. They have been shown to be together at all times. Noppo seems to care a lot for Tobi, as whenever Tobi tries to smoke, he'll take the cigarette, frustrating Tobi in the process.

### Rei Tsukumo

Tobi and Rei formally meet in chapter 4, when Tobi saves Rei from a shadow that tried to devour him. He looks at him displeased, maybe because of his heart form, and doesn’t seem to like his personality.

Tobi thinks that he can get close to Hitotsume by being around Rei, so he proposes they form an alliance. Tobi will sometimes check in on Rei, but otherwise doesn't interact much.

### Hitotsume

Tobi first met Hitotsume 8 or 9 years ago. He was inside a room in an alleyway, which his brother told him to stay and hide inside until he came back. When the doors opened he thought his brother returned, but instead he saw a tall man, wearing a black coat and only had one eye (Hitotsume) holding a bag. Hitotsume then threw the bag at him. (The bag being Noppo/Baku). Tobi looked at the bag and saw that Hitotsume disappeared when looking back up.

### Yuu

Yuu and Tobi have a fight on the rooftop. Tobi is very suspicious of Yuu while Yuu is interested in Tobi, as he considers them two of the same "odd kind".
They barely know each other and Yuu seems amused by him, but he sees him as an enemy.

### Monika

Monika is a close friend of Tobi, who works as the unit's watchman. They work together and both share some similarities.

### Pattun

Pattun appears to be working with him for an organization that takes care of Zingai activity.

## Music Video Appearances

### How to Eat Life

Tobi is the protagonist of How to Devour Life. Throughout the first half of the video, he and Noppo chase down The Headless Dragon. At the end, after running when the dragon finally decides to fight back, Noppo helps Inochi by eating it.

### Fight Song

Tobi reappears as the protagonist of Fight Song. Throughout the video, he and Noppo fight against a number of Zingais who are trying to hunt down the Headless Dragon in her new form.

## Abilities

### Devouring Shadows

He can eat shadows to become stronger, but he doesn’t do it for that purpose. When a heart is separated from it's host and becomes corrupted he eats it, so he can put the heart at rest which saves it's host. He also mentions the existence of "a way to Devour life" but has not elaborated on it as of yet.

### Dragon Slaying Technique

Noppo merges with Tobi's palm and his hand becomes that of a dragon. A mouth also forms on Tobi's left cheek. This ability, as noted by Yuu, is part of "parasitism style".

* Mole (土竜 Mogura, lit. Earth Dragon): A slashing attack that uses his transformed hand as a dragon's claw.
* Lizard (石龍 Sekiryou, lit. Stone Dragon): A focused attack that gathers force in a single point.
* Final Stroke (画竜 Garyou, lit. Painted Dragon): A piercing attack that uses the transformed hand as a spear. Tobi has only be shown performing this technique while using Erosion.

### Erosion

Erosion is a technique that makes the shadow switch places with him, covering his body and giving him immense strength. He isn’t allowed to raise it normally, so he only uses it for self defence. He needs extreme control because once he uses it he can’t contain the shadow in himself. However his corrosion is in an imperfect form. Corrosion in general is a prohibited act that cannot be used outside barriers because normal people can see the shadow corrosion.

His right eye becomes black and forms another eye beneath it. He gets almost completely covered by his shadow and most of his face has teeth. He also grows a tail with spine like teeth.

## Stats

Maxed out on attack 5/5

Sloppy defense. 5/10

Speed 4.5/5

Skill 3/5

HP 3.5/5

## Trivia

* Tobi is the first MV protagonist to receive a namedrop in the manga. Hitotsume is the first MV character overall.
* **Eve** gave him the name "Tobi" on January 15, 2021. Prior to this, most fans called him "Inochi", as in Mariyasu's concept art, he was listed as "Inochi-kun".
* Tobi's first name, 飛 can mean "fly" or refer to the rook piece in shogi. His family name, 弟切, means "earnest younger brother".
* In the Eve gacha, it says that one of his hobbies is parkour.
* In Japanese, the name of his ability "Mole" is written with characters for "earth" and "dragon".
* His cigarette box only has 6 cigarettes.
* He normally doesn’t have dreams.
* Eve says Tobi is flexible.
* He sucks at playing video games because he has bad virtual reflexes and coordination, on the contrary of the same conditions in the real world.

## References

1. ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/mariyasu\_ame/status/1263775612893712385
2. ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/mariyasu\_ame/status/1263775612893712385
3. ↑ Kara no Kioku Chapter 10
4. ↑ Kara no Kioku Chapter 9: Four Shadows
5. Kara no kioku LN chapter 0https://www.tumblr.com/q-talations/701162548343537664/how-to-eat-life-ln-chapter-0-translations?source=share