Tora

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## Tora

* Anime
* Manga
* Shagakusha (A)
* Shagakusha (M)
* ~800 Years Old (A)
* ~800 Years Old (M)

### Also Known As

Nagatobimaru (長飛丸(ながとびまる))
Azafuse (字伏(あざふせ))
Raiju (雷獣(らいじゅう))

## Profile

### Species

Yokai (Azafuse)
Human (Originally)

### Weight

250kg (Visible)
0kg (Invisible)

### Hair Color

Orange/Red/White (Yokai)
Black (Human)

### Eye Color

No irises (Yokai)
Brown (Human)

## Details

### Status

Deceased (reborn at some point in the future)

### Relatives& Relations

Hakumen no Mono
(Shared human body)
Ushio Aotsuki (Partner)
Rama (Former Attendant)
Rama's Sister (Former Lover)

### Goals

1. Defeat Hakumen
2. "Eat" Ushio and then Mayuko for dessert

### Kirlian Level

5400 ndl (Normal)
108,000~ ndl (Serious)

## Media

### Final Appearance

Chapter 313
Episode 39

### Japanese Voice

Koyama Rikiya (Anime)
Yu Hayashi (Young)
Ootsuka Chikao (OVA)

### English Voice

Brett Weaver (OVA)

**Tora** (とら, literally *Tiger*) is the deuteragonist of the *Ushio and Tora* series and was given his name by Ushio Aotsuki. He is a large tiger-like yokai that was born in India, 2491 years before the start of the story.

Born in 500 BCE as a human named **Shagakusha** (シャガクシャ), he was called a cursed child due to the fall of a meteor that killed everyone within its vicinity except for him when he was a baby. Several years later as an adult, he stood at the vanguard of his country's army and was revered as a hero.

After transforming into an Azafuse due to wielding the Beast spear, he was known as **Nagatobimaru** (長飛丸(ながとびまる), literally *Flying Long Distance*) and has been in many battles with both humans and yokai. His sheer power gave him an infamous reputation among humans and yokai alike.

Tora is capable of a variety of abilities, including remaining invisible and intangible to humans, physically appearing at will, extending his hair, making dolls from his hair that can resemble someone else, locating whoever holds a strand of his hair, shapeshifting, and manipulating fire, lightning, and wind.

## Appearance

Tora is a gigantic orange yokai in the form of a humanoid tiger. His hair is thick, spiky, extremely wide, and goes down to his legs. In the anime, the majority of his hair is a darker shade of orange than his skin color, whereas his bangs are mainly red with a small spiky white patch in the center. In the manga covers, his hair is mostly the same color as his skin with red and white highlights spread throughout. His upper body resembles a human's with a similar type of chest, biceps, and hands. However, his five fingers have sharp claws. Tora's lower body is similar to a tiger's hind legs, as he has thick thighs and thin lower legs. He has three toes on each foot. While Tora is capable of standing and fighting bipedally, he typically stays in a crouching position with his hands touching the ground in front of his feet. To move around, he either flies or runs in a quadrupedal manner.

Tora's eyes are completely white, devoid of any pupils or irises. He has long black eyelashes pointed diagonally upward which extends beyond the front of his bangs. His eyelashes converge in the center of his face above his nose, connecting to two black stripes underneath both eyes. He has a pair of similar black stripes with a spiky pattern on his forearms, near his wrists. Tora's cheeks are slightly round along with a pointed chin. He has a black nose in the shape of a tiger's, as well as sharp fangs.

When he was a human, Shagakusha had brown skin, brown eyes, a muscular body, and black mid-length hair up to his neck. His clothing was all white, consisting of a turban, a mundu, and an open sleeveless shirt. As an adult, his muscle mass largely increased and he wore the same type of clothing except for having sandals and jewelry. He was adorned with a gold cuff bracelet on his right wrist, one gold armband on his left bicep, a metal bracelet on his left wrist, as well as a red choker necklace.

Around 800 years later, Shagakusha had several wrinkles and became extremely thin compared to his past physique but still had visible biceps, triceps and abdominal muscles. He grew a long moustache and beard, and his hair grew to the length of his upper back. He was shirtless and wore a white cape over his shoulders. His mundu was firmly wrapped around his waist and he had slightly loose brown trousers cut above the knee. He lost all of his old jewelry but instead had three gold bangle bracelets on his left wrist. His right shoulder remained torn open due to Hakumen no Mono bursting out of it centuries ago.

## Personality

Tora is direct and rude to others (including his elders), he is very conceited and confident in his abilities, and he is often fully capable of proving his boasting with his sheer power. However, Tora isn't sometimes the brightest, and even acts like an immature child. He hates humans, always saying that he wants to eat them; nevertheless, he ends up saving Ushio and his friends anyway. Upon being freed into the modern world, he is very curious of the technological advancements of humanity, and has an interest in history (owed to being stuck in a cellar for 500 years). Thanks to Mayuko, he gains a taste for burgers.

## Relationships

### Women

#### Mayuko Inoue

Tora has vowed to eat Mayuko, although he never threatens her or actually tries to eat her, primarily because he knows if he ate her before eating Ushio, the latter would hunt him down to the ends of the earth. Instead, he plans to eat Ushio first, before having Mayuko as dessert. He met Mayuko when he helped save her from the Gamin Yokai, mostly because he chose to eat her before they showed up to kill her. Mayuko has since had a friendship with "Tora-chan", often giving him burgers to eat. Her romantic affection towards him often confuses and embarrasses him, though he reciprocates it in his own gruff manner and becomes quite protective of her. He frequently tries to deny that he cares for her with the excuse that he protects her only so no other monster can eat her. Later it was revealed how deeply Tora is fond of Mayuko, since he gets so enraged that the other yokai captured her just so they can use her to make another beast spear. He was also upset when he heard Mayuko was going to be the next Oyakume, promising her that he will kill Hakumen so that she doesn't need to.

### Friends

#### Ushio Aotsuki

Tora's bane of existence (and as much as he denies it, his best friend) is Ushio Aotsuki, the boy who freed him and wields the Beast Spear. Tora has vowed to haunt Ushio until he eats him. Despite Tora always reminding Ushio that someday he will eat him, he always protects Ushio from other Yokai. He says it's to make sure they don't eat him before he does, but it is clear that, as much as he denies it, Tora does care about Ushio. They constantly fight side by side and get into arguments similar to that of brothers in sibling rivalry. There have also been signs that Tora genuinely cares for Ushio, such as when he answered that he stays with Ushio because he's never bored around him, and (although he tried to do so once) he never tries to eat Ushio in his sleep, implying that he wants a fair fight.

## Major Battles

* Tora vs. Ushio (Basement) *[Lost, Tora Retreated]* - Chapter 1
* Tora and Ushio vs. Fish and Bug Yokai *[Won]* - Chapter 1
* Tora vs. Ushio (Near School) *[Lost]* - Chapter 2
* Tora and Ushio vs. Ishikui *[Won]* - Chapter 2, Chapter 3
* Tora, Ushio, and Kenichi vs. Michio Hanyu (Oni) *[Won]* - Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9
* Tora vs. Ushio (Outside Shrine) *[Misunderstanding, Tora Retreated]*
* Tora vs. Hitouban Family (Rooftop) *[Won]*
* Tora and Ushio vs. Ayakashi *[Won]*
* Tora vs. Ushio (Bedroom) *[Won]*

## Trivia

* Tora is often symbolized as the sun, while Ushio is symbolized as the moon (Aotsuki means blue moon).
* In the two Japanese fan polls conducted by Weekly Shonen Sunday, Tora was consistently the most popular character, beating Ushio who ranked second both times.
* Tora's birth name, Shagakusha, has a few different meanings from Japanese, Hinduism, Sanskrit, and Buddhism.
	+ The *Iris japonica* (fringed iris) flower is called shaga in Japanese, which is naturally found in China, Japan, and tropical regions of Asia. Shagakusha gives a white flower to Rama's Sister.
	+ Kusha is the son of Rama (the 7th avatar of Vishnu) and Sita from the Ramayana. In *Ushio and Tora*, Rama is the name of the boy who is Shagakusha's attendant.
	+ The *Desmostachya bipinnata* plant is called kusha in India, and known for having sharp edges. Kusha is the root of the Sanskrit word kushala, meaning expert, tactful, or sharp in the sense of keen intelligence (because of the sharp tips of the grass). Kusha grass is mentioned in the Rig Veda for its use in sacred ceremonies and is specifically recommended by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita as part of the ideal seat for meditation. Various Puranas and Upanishads mention that kusha grass was formed by the hairs of Vishnu's Kurma avatar, granting it with spiritual and purifying properties. Tora is capable of manipulating his hair to an extreme degree, and extending his hair into sharp weapons is one of his specialties.
* Tora made a cameo appearance in *USO MAKOTO Yōkai Hyaku Monogatari* series by Natsuhiko Kyōgoku along with many other famous fictional characters.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 20: Sea of the Ayakashi Part 1, Ushio and Tora Go to Sea
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 25: Sea of the Ayakashi Part 6, To the Limits of the Soul
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 291: Tora Part 2, Perspective I
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 292: Tora Part 3, Perspective II
5. ↑ Chapter 290: Tora Part 1, He Who Returned
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 The Pictorial Book of Ushio and Tora
7. ↑ Chapter 313: Ushio and Tora Part 3, The Fate of Ushio and Tora
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 228: *TATARI BREAKER Part 8, DEATH FLOOR*