Anri Sonohara

**Anri Sonohara** is the master of ??? in the ??? Holy Grail war.

"*I am lacking in many ways. So I must fill the gaps of what I'm missing...I'm a parasite. I live off of all kinds of things.*" - Anri Sonohara

## Profile

### Background

Anri Sonohara is a bespectacled girl who attends Raira Academy with her close friends Mikado Ryuugamine and Masaomi Kida. Even though she is quiet and timid and possesses a tendency to seclude herself from others, she is intelligent, clever, and resourceful. Her full figure and shy behavior give her the unwanted attention of many males, though she prefers to distance herself from uncomfortable situations and does nothing about the unwanted attention, allowing her friends to defend her. Her timid personality carries over online, where her chat screen name is "Saika." She is a member of the Dollars and the (CO) leader of the Saika Army.

### Appearance

Anri is a petite teen girl with a small figure, large breasts, bobbed black hair, and fair skin. She is usually seen wearing her Raira Academy uniform and a red bowtie. Starting in x2, she is seen wearing a black hooded dress over a pink shirt with red sneakers.

### Personality

Initially, Anri is very introverted and quiet, rarely speaking to anyone for any extended period of time. She is shown to be rather submissive, even when being harassed, and has stated herself that she prefers to view the world as if it were within a picture frame, with her outside looking in. This timid demeanor stems primarily from the trauma she received when her parents died. As the series progresses, she retains her shy personality, though her interactions with Mikado and Masaomi begin to pull her out of her emotional shell, and she becomes much more expressive. Though she believes that the emotional distance she has put between herself and others prevents her from loving others, she is caring and compassionate toward those close to her.

Though Anri tends to let threats and harassment slide, there are moments where she lashes out at others, such as when Izaya taunts her about Saika in episode 24 or when someone threatens her friends.

### Relationships

#### Izaya Orihara

Anri heavily dislikes Izaya Orihara for manipulating her, Mikado and Masaomi as he has and his role in Haruna's slasher attacks. Anri is also unnerved by his personality and is afraid of what would happen if he got his hands on Saika, due to their similar bizarre loves of humanity. Unbeknownst to Anri, Izaya is one of the founders of Heaven's Slave, the drug her father was addicted to, meaning Izaya is indirectly partially responsible for the death of her parents.

## Abilities

Saika: Saika is an entity that manifests itself as a cursed Japanese sword. It has an extreme love for humanity, and, like how humans might express their love by hugging or kissing, Saika expresses its love by cutting and possessing people. Its ultimate goal is to take over all of humanity. Saika lives within the body of its owner and communicates its thoughts through a voice in their head. It is always talking about how it loves humans, how it wants to cut them, and even tells its owner what it wants them to do. The constant nature of this voice is enough to drive most normal people insane, slowly taking them over and turning them into crazed slaves.

A Saika host can store the sword inside their body and produce its blade from their skin or clothes without suffering any damage, or even draw it out completely to wield Saika like a normal sword. While using it their eyes will glow red, and their physical capabilities will be increased. Not only that, the wielder has access to Saika's fighting experience, which includes swordsmanship techniques likely derived from previous hosts. Additionally, if the user is blinded (for example, by an enemy using a flashbang) they will still be able to sense the enemy thanks to Saika being capable of sensing nearby human sounds for them, like their heartbeat, breathing, footsteps, and even the movements of the muscles.

Possession: Saika's ability is that of possession; it possesses people by cutting them and spreading its influence through the pain they feel. When someone is possessed by Saika, they become one of its "children," and any blades they wield become Saika's daughter blades, each having the ability to spread Saika's influence and even create their own daughter blades, as in the case of Haruna Niekawa. Saika's children are able to, for the most part, live their lives normally, but Saika's spirit still lives within them. They gain the ability to sense the voice and presence of their mother from a long distance away, and when they do, Saika's spirit enters their conscience, and they act like underlings. They follow the orders of the mother no matter the consequences to themselves, whether their mother is actually nearby or not. When under Saika's influence, a person's eyes glow red. Those under Saika's influence appear to show immunity to pain and increased physical capabilities. Saika's children have also been shown to act independently in their mother's wishes, as shown when a possessed Yellow Scarves' member prevented Horada from killing Masaomi because he knew that his "mother" would be sad if Masaomi were to die. When there are no orders for them to follow, or if their current orders are not relevant to their situation, they go back to normal and have no memory of anything that happened while they were possessed. However, if their emotions are strong enough, it is possible for a human to resist Saika's influence. Similarly, Saika is unable to possess someone who can't feel pain or a nonhuman like Celty Sturluson.

# References

https://durarara.fandom.com/wiki/Anri\_Sonohara

https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Anri\_Sonohara