Shido Itsuka (五河 士道 Itsuka Shidō) is the main protagonist of Date-A-Live. He possesses a strange power that allows him to seal the powers of a Spirit in his body with a kiss.
Summary[]
Adopted into the Itsuka’s family household at a very young age, Shido has been living a fairly average normal life until recently. At the start of the series (Volume 1), and his new high school year as a 2nd year student, he accidentally stumbles into a world unknown to him or to the public for that matter of facts. Discovering the real reason behind the spacequakes and the fight between the AST and the Spirits; forcefully or voluntarily, Shido was brought into the secret organization known as Ratatoskr that is commanded by his little sister, which was also a surprise to him. With the only explanation from her being that only he can save the Spirits, Shido reluctantly joins due to his nature to help and/or save people in need. Going about with his normal life and saving Spirits is one thing, but with each new encounter and new Spirits to save, there is always some type of new hardship on Shido's mental health, since he has to deal with the opposite gender, which he does not have much experience dealing with.
Appearance[]
Shido has all the looks of an average young man in high school. With blue hair down to his neck, amber brown eyes, and has straight hair and bangs. He is usually seen wearing his school uniform. His height is stated to be 170 cm in the anime. During the events of Miku Lily, Shido crossdresses as a girl in order to interact with Miku, and he disguised himself as his alternate identity, Shiori Itsuka. During the time he crossdressed, he was seen with long blue hair, and he wore the standard female Raizen High School uniform. He also had a hair clip, which seemed to be a flower of some sort.
Powers and Abilities[]
Shido has the mysterious, and unique ability to seal the powers of the Spirits into his own body, which was first discovered sometime in the past when Kotori was turned into a Spirit. To use his ability to seal a Spirit’s power, the Spirit in question must meet a certain condition or requirement. Those conditions or requirements are that, the Spirit in question must show affection, trust, closeness, and/or intimacy towards Shido. Once these conditions of affection are high enough between Shido and the Spirit in question, he can seal their power by kissing them on the lips. Shido can also “borrow” the power of a Spirit he has sealed, which explains the nature of his regenerative abilities.
Thus far, he has automatically used Kotori's healing powers and has learned to use Tohka's Sandalphon, however use of the latter seems to cause him serious pain, which is slightly mitigated by the former. Later he is even able to summon Yoshino's ice to protect himself and Miku from an attack by Dark Tohka. (who just moments ago completely outmatched Ellen Mira Mathers in battle) He was, however, unable to call these powers out of his own free will until the case with Natsumi where he finally pulled out Sandalphon intentionally. Finally, when Origami went Inverse and started destroying the city, Shido briefly displayed the ability to levitate like the Spirits do, however he was unable to maintain this ability for long after becoming shocked by the despair in Origami's eyes and losing focus.
Also, due to the sheer amount of Spirit energy sealed inside of his body (presently 7 spirits worth), Shido has been shown to possess a level of protection or outright immunity towards the abilities of other Spirits, being able to withstand Kurumi's City of Devouring Time as well as being completely unaffected by Miku's Solo.
Should the Spirits' emotions become unstable enough, their powers will begin to return to them and leave Shido. This means he'll have to seal them again should their powers fully return to them, but usually this only results in the Spirits temporarily regaining portions of their original power. However, as shown in the cases of Kotori, and much later on Tohka, it is possible for the Spirits to take back their full powers without the need to become emotionally unstable. Kotori seems to be capable of choosing exactly how much of her powers she takes back from him at any given time and so far all of the spirits have managed to figure out how to form their partial Astral Dresses, with varying difficulties.
Additionally, in terms of other abilities, Shido also possesses good cooking skills and, much to his own dismay, due to having to crossdress in order to interact with Miku, Shido learned how to utilize makeup on a level comparable to most girls, enough that he was the one asked to use said skills on Natsumi. His acting skills proved effective enough to deceive his schoolmates and Miku herself, who was, at the time, a serious man hater.
After being sent by Kurumi to the past 5 years he managed to use Natsumi's shapeshifting powers due to almost getting caught by a female neighbor in his own house. Since he was a teenager and were about to be misunderstood by another person Shidou would get in trouble. However Shidou got stuck in his child form during a while meaning that he can't or is clueless to control Natsumi's powers yet. However he was able to manifest this powers at will so it's shown his progress when summoning an angel is getting better.
Trivia[]
- Shido Itsuka will make his first appearance in Tino Tonitini Goes to Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone.
- Shido will meet Thomas, Twilight and their friends in Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of Date A Live.