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MANGA INFORMATION:
This page tackles information on the characters in Aquarian Age: Juvenile Orion Manga series where possible. Information on this page is still incomplete, and will be updated regularly as information becomes available. Names are given in western format for ease of viewing.
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS.
UPDATED: 07:00 AM 04/15/2004 HK Time

Juvenile Orion

Volume 1

Seven years ago, young Mana Kirishima left Tokyo under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind her childhood friend Kaname Kusakabe. Fast-forward to today, she returns to her hometown and discovers there is more to her childhood sweetheart than first expected, not the least of which his unexplainable avoidance of her. Pretty soon, she is tested by Kaname's best friend Naoya, and the first truths about the Aquarian Age are revealed. Meanwhile, other forces work behind the scenes. Priest Tomonori Nakaura is convinced that Kaname is a demon and seeks to destroy him, despite the fact that Kaname doesn't want to have anything to do with the battles. On the flip side, Nakaura is unwittingly the guardian of a far more powerful being--an amnesiac Eraser by the name of Tsukasa Amou.

The game is set into motion once Itsuki recruits the smitten Isshin Shiba to their cause, and is about to mend bridges with Kaname when disaster strikes. A chance meeting between Tsukasa and Mana has caught the attention of another midnbreaker-one with dark plans of his or her own. The next phase of the Aquarian Age has begun!

CHARACTERS:

MINDBREAKERS

Mana Kirishima
For that past seven years, Mana Kirishima has been raised in a rural area outside of Tokyo, only returning to finish her High School. She has vague memories of her childhood friend Kaname, but other than fleeting glimpses of her own past, there is nothing completely clear about what happened. All that is known is that she lost her parents at an early age, at around the same time she met Kaname. She has mixed feelings about the Aquarian Age and everything that has been happening, but as things progress, she feels she has no choice; if only to protect her beloved Kaname.

Mana is portrayed as a fairly typical shoujo manga character--cute, klutzy, a crybaby, but fairly adorable in a lot of ways, even if she tends to be a bit scatterbrained at times. Unfortunately her character isn't too well-developed in the first volume as of yet; the five faction characters are infinitely better fleshed out.
(Though Mana gets points in my book for being the cutest Mindbreaker of them all)

DARKLORE

Kaname Kusakabe (Shinigami)
Kaname is Mana's childhood friend, possessing a dark secret. Within him lies the heart of a winged demon, and one of the prime reasons he does not want to associate with Mana any longer is because of her ability to awaken the beast within him. He has a perennial air of depression and is quite standoffish. In fact, his attitude is summed up in one sentence: "You can't possibly understand my problems so I won't bother to tell you what's wrong". In that sense, he's almost like your typical angst-ridden teen, except for the fact that Kaname really -can't- control his powers at the outset. (The succeeding volumes will show if he manages to master control over them, eventually).

Kaname's main abilities are typical Darklore; bat-wings (I'm told female fans find those sexy), claws, enhanced speed and strength, the ability to deflect psionic attacks, and what appears to be a highly controlled berserker rage in combat. Considering how easily he wiped the floor with Naoya (himself no slouch in the powers department), Kaname is shaping up to be one of the main heavy hitters of the group.

E.G.O.

Naoya Itsuki (Psionic)
Kaname's best friend and one of the few male members of EGO, Naoya also seems to be the one most familiar with the true scope of the Aquarian Age. He's also the most mercurial of the characters; light-hearted and humorous one second, icy cold and cruel the next--and often these attitudes switch at the drop of a hat. Naoya initially attacks Mana to test the extent of her powers, but eventually falls in as one of her best allies.His mother is descended directly from the line of EGO founders. By his own admission then, he is a descendant of Sarashina. It is possibly because of those like him Evolutionary Girls Organization was later renamed the Evolutionary Generation Organization.

Naoya's abilities seem to be related to wind, or at least a force that manifests as a blast of air (no exact explanation of it yet in the manga). He can manipulate this force at will, and is quite accomplished with its use. His other ability is to constantly get under Shiba's nerves.

ARAYASHIKI

Yi-Xin (Isshin) Shiba (Martial Artist)
Tall, tough-looking, and the most senior member of the Basketball team, Shiba is a martial artist and representative of Arayashiki. He is highly respected by the junior students (Except for Naoya) and he tries to appear quite serious in demeanor, though he doesn't seem all too bright. It was literally love at first sight when Shiba first met Mana, and he hasn't been able to get his mind off her since. He's also potentially one of Naoya's targets for gags.

All that is shown of Shiba in the first volume is that he is a powerful martial artist. Succeeding volumes will tell just how capable he is, though Naoya does note that his powers are more than sufficient to constitute a threat. Also, Shiba prefers to use the Mandarin PinYin pronunciation of his name as Yi-Xin instead of the Japanese Isshin--seeing that Osaka has a well-known Isshin Temple (probably another one of those Osaka jokes we non-Japanese will never understand).

WIZ-DOM

Tomonori Nakaura (Devil Hunter)
Bespectacled, stone-faced, and hopelessly serious, Nakaura is a teacher and Catholic priest at Seika High school. Not much is known about him, save that he is an avowed hunter of Darklore creatures, whom he perceives as evil incarnate. Alternately, he takes good care of his young charge Tsukasa, most likely not knowing that the latter is an Eraser.

No powers have manifested as of yet in Volume 1 of the series.