Tsukune Aono

## Voices

**Tsukune Aono** (青野月音, *Aono Tsukune*), nicknamed **Tsuki** {月} by Kyōko Aono) is the main male protagonist of the series **Rosario Vampire**, and a former human. He is mistakenly enrolled in Yōkai Academy, a high school dedicated to teaching monsters to peacefully live alongside humans in disguise, where he meets Moka Akashiya, a Vampire who takes a mutual interest in him and the sweet flavor of his blood.

## Appearance

Tsukune is a very handsome human male teenager with black hair (brown hair in the anime), brown eyes and a relatively athletic and slender physique, and light skin in the manga. Whenever he is injected with some of Moka Akashiya's blood, his eyes develop slit pupils, much like those a true vampire when they exert their power. After becoming a modified human, blue patterns that resemble the conductive tracks of a printed circuit board appear on Tsukune’s skin when using his newly-learned spells and powers. His eyes also appear to change from brown to blue when using certain Yōjutsu techniques. The wounds he often sustains from altercations with monsters leave several scars on his body, the most prominent being an X-shaped mark on his torso he received from a monstrel that possessed blades for arms. In his anime look, he has dark brown hair and light-tan skin instead. In the anime, he has brown eyes same as the manga. During his initial transformation into a ghoul, he develops the aforementioned vampiric eyes in addition to a black, web-shaped mark on his neck and face, originating from the puncture marks made by Moka’s fangs. When he experiences a complete—albeit temporary—transformation into a ghoul during his human modification ritual, he gains silver hair, empty white eyes, fangs and bat-like wings. His skin also turns mostly black with red patches over some of his muscles and crack-like patterns on his face, arms and torso, this transformation was later given the name a Jet Black Monster by Kurumu. After undoing the first and second seal of his Holy Lock while aboard the Hanging Garden, Tsukune’s third transformation into a ghoul is slow but obvious: a black layer of skin gradually spreads over his body, wings begin to sprout from his back and parts of his body, such as his right arm, sporadically mutate due to being in close proximity to an awakening Alucard, the Shinso blood of whom having been directly passed onto him by Moka and her mother interacting with the supernatural energy of its original owner through his body. After tearing off his Holy Lock to become a Shinso vampire to and learning how to control his new abilities with his friends’ aid, Tsukune can use his now immense Wealth of Power to change his physical appearance. He can now make his black hair silver, his round pupils slit and create a black layer of skin that covers most of his body save for his face. This greater access to his aura allows him to sprout large bat-like wings from his back and likely make a full transformation into a rat or bat. He can also use his Creation ability to form a suit of flexible steel armor around his upper body, protecting him from injury to a certain extent. For most of the series, Tsukune has worn the traditional Yokai Academy uniform for males, like Moka with the uniform, albeit the traditional white shirt having the high collar and red bow-tie; with little personal modification: a white buttoned-up shirt, a red necktie, a light-to-medium green uniform jacket, a black belt, tan khaki-looking trouser pants and dark brown loafers or school shoes. In the anime, he has occasionally worn uwabaki slippers with green soles. After the battle with Alucard at the end of the manga, he abandons the jacket of his uniform entirely. His casual attire consists of a green button-up shirt, a white T-shirt, a black belt, brown cargo pants and white sneakers. At the beach, he is shown to wear dark blue swimming trunks and sandals.

## Personality

It should be noted that Tsukune is perhaps the most decent, caring, chivalrous and compassionate character in the entire series. During his time at Yōkai Academy, he comes to see monsters as equals and share the hope that they can live peacefully alongside humans. Despite there being many instances where he has been put into dangerous, even life-threatening situations, he is seemingly unable to bear hatred or hold a grudge and has forgiven those who have previously tried to do him harm. However on certain occasions, the extent of this kindness has rendered Tsukune naïve to certain truths or overly trusting of certain individuals, such as Hokuto Kaneshiro whom he views as a friend in spite of the latter's true nature and intentions. This seemingly bottomless naivety and kindness caused Hokuto to scold Tsukune for it, citing that it's the reason why he couldn't protect Moka and that he should think more deeply in these matters. Nevertheless, his selflessness and courage often comes out when he or someone from his group of friends are not afraid are

faced with the possibility of injury or even death. He is also willing to sacrifice anything in order to protect the people he holds dear, even his own humanity. This is what has ultimately gained him friends at the academy as well as the affections of Moka Akashiya, Kurumu Kurono, Mizore Shirayuki, Ruby Tōjō and Yukari Sendo. As an idealist who strives for peace, he favors diplomacy over violence. He has expressed his desire to simply reason with some monsters such as Lady Oyakata and Gyokuro Shuzen rather than fight them. While he has certainly regarded many of his encountered enemies with anger, he does not appear to truly wish them ill will or death. This is not without exceptions, though: he butchered some the ghouls of the Black Parade before confronting Gyokuro, an act that, when one considers the fact that they were once vampires who had been turned into creatures, can be viewed a kind of mercy-killing. Before that, he verbally threatened Kuyō’s life during their rematch, though this was likely a side-effect of Tsukune’s own ghoulish nature surfacing after removing the first seal of his Holy Lock. The use of his Creation ability to nearly obliterate Alucard’s body conveys lethal intent as well, which is not at all unjustified given that Alucard was too large and resilient to be damaged by much else. Tsukune is well aware of the fact that most of his female friends fawn over him. While he cares for all of them very much, he does not feel the same way towards most of the girls as they do him. This, however, does not stop him from becoming flustered or sexually excited by their many attempts at seducing him or garnering his affection. The knowledge of their feelings for him would also explain his rather chivalrous, passive approach towards these propositions, as a blunt refusal and rejection would probably break their hearts. Nevertheless, he has succeeded in subtly turning down every single pass made on him by Kurumu, Mizore, Yukari and Ruby, even when some of them have done so while partly undressed or completely naked. Even after becoming a vampire, Tsukune has not changed as a person. He considers himself as much a human on the inside as he once was outside. To him, what he *is* does not matter so long as his personality remains intact and he can protect and be with the people he cares about, especially Moka.