Shō Kanō (叶翔, Kanō Shō) was the main disciple of Akira Hongo, the original leader of Yomi, and the "sole disciple" of all 10 masters of the One Shadow Nine Fists. He is nicknamed Suparna, a mythical creature in Hindu mythology said to possess beautiful wings. He is also a descendant of the Kuremisago Clan, which is an infamous tribe of martial artists who were known for their physical superiority.
Appearance
Shō was a tall well-built man with silver hair that hung in a ponytail down to his waist. He noticeably has a very odd eyes, indicating he has heterochromia, meaning he has two differently colored eyes; his right eye is ice blue, while his left eye is red. He has various bird motifs on his clothing, from the caged bird earring on his ear to the mark on the left side of his face, and even his jacket and necklace. He wears what appears to be a blue jacket with a red dragon tattoo on the left sleeve and sports pants and ties back his long silver hair with a band.
Personality
Shō often keeps a smile on his face even when fighting and acts in a goofy and playful manner. But when particularly annoyed or upset, he turns cold and attacks his opponent mercilessly. Shō is a bird lover and a bug hater. He refers to people other than Miu and himself as 'the ones without wings', and terms Kenichi as a 'worm' that must be squashed. He has a bad habit of forgetting to keep his presence concealed while he is preoccupied with something.
Despite his cold nature, he seems to have a compassionate side towards people who share the same imprisonment as he did in his early childhood. He was shown to have spared the life of a young bird in the past despite being ordered to kill it by his master, and he had also assisted the Pankration team in its escape plan by covering up its departure from the island, pretending to have killed its members and even taking the ponytail of Spartacus as proof. He is somewhat afraid of his Master's anger (despite calling him a bug without wings) and feared that his master would kill him if he found out he contacted the enemy. Nevertheless, Shō appears to indeed respect his master and Hongō himself deeply cared for Shō and was very angry that he died and even considered Shō like a son to him.
Shō is deeply infatuated with Miu, having fallen in love with her upon first sight. He describes her as the 'light in the darkness of his life'. Shō's motives were focused mainly on Miu throughout the D of D plot, and on defeating Kenichi because Shō thought Kenichi was unable to protect her. Shō's devotion to Miu was so great that his last wish was for Kenichi to protect Miu in his place, despite the fact that they were enemies.
Shō also has a penchant for motorcycles as seen when he replaces the motorcycle destroyed in his confrontation with Kenichi with a new one while waiting for Boris Ivanov, and hates helicopters because they fly without wings.
Nevertheless, even Shō, who was considered "perfect", was disapproved of by Sehrul Rahman, Ro Jisei and Mikumo Kushinada, particularly for the large amount of emotion he puts into his fighting style, while Sehrul and Mikumo favor the lack of emotions in fighting. In stark contrast are Akira Hongō and Isshinsai Ogata, the former of whom was his original master and the latter of whom taught him many techniques in ancient martial arts, which he incorporated extensively. This could imply that he started fighting as a Dou style fighter, and later incorporated the Sei style, making him predominantly Dou despite possessing both ki.
History
Shō was bought as a young child from the Kuremisago by Yami and was trained harshly and extensively for almost his entire life. He quickly
became Akira Hongō's disciple, defeating many opponents, but was believed to have a weak heart that lacked mercilessness and therefore was not allowed to inherit anything. At one point Yami even considered killing him, but he was defended by his master and had his life spared when he was told to kill a baby bird he had found in front of the members of Yami, which he did without a moment's hesitation, though he secretly crushed some grapes he picked. It is implied from Seta's and Hayami's karate styles that Shō was primarily taught a karate centered on the use of knife hands, and from their anger at his death that they shared a type of camaraderie or friendship during their tutelage under their master.
At some point, he was sent to Silcardo Jenazad to be trained in Pencak Silat. However, before he was trained Silcardo had him fight against Radin Tidat Jihan to see if he was worthy to learn Silat. He prevented one of Jihan's moves and Jenazad liked him and was willing to teach him, just like the One Shadow asked. Later with Hongō, Shō said that Silat is as awesome next to Karate due to the fact that it can adapt to anything, is freely changeable, has so many moves, and is complicated and bizarre.
Later, he was chosen as the leader of Yomi and was taught by the other members of the One Shadow Nine Fists to inherit their martial arts, during which he created his Kyu Geki Issatsu (Nine Strikes One Kill).
At some point, he would meet Natsu Tanimoto and would eventually become good friends. The time he met him would be when Natsu was still the sixth fist of Ragnarok. Shō would reveal some personal things about his life and the two were close towards one another. Shō would later be shocked by Natsu's defeat at the hands of Kenichi and decide to fight him someday.
Skills
Shō was regarded as the strongest member of Yomi. He was described by more than one member of Yomi as being perfect, even to the point of being too perfect where he ended up being defeated by Kenichi. While it was never truly said that Shō was the strongest in YOMI, it was believed that he was the one to have the most potential. He was capable of overwhelming Ikki Takeda, Thor and Kaname Kugatachi with little effort and even keep Miu at bay when the latter was in her Dou Ki berserker mode. Miu claimed she may not have been able to defeat Shō if she fought him.
- Mixed Martial Artist: Like Kenichi Shirahama, Shō Kanō is considered to be a very accomplished Mixed Martial Artist. Although Shō's primary fighting style is Karate, he was chosen as the Sole Successor of the One Shadow Nine Fist's martial arts, similar to how the masters of Ryōzanpaku are training Kenichi to be their sole successor. In earning such a right, he has become highly proficient in all the Yami's master's respective fighting styles and techniques. With these various styles, Shō was very adaptive in battle, able to quickly change his battle style to better suit the situation. What is notable is his fighting style with Kalarippayattu and Jujutsu: when he uses a finger attack on Kenichi with his Kyu Geki Issatsu, he doesn't aim for a particular marma point and aims instead to pierce his skin, and when he uses several Jujitsu throw moves on Kenichi, all of them incorporate some amount of strength, implying that he primarily used Kalaripayattu as another strike-laden martial art and that he was taught normal Jujitsu instead of Kushinada-style Jujitsu. This is further confirmed by both masters' respective disapproval of him after his death. Despite not being worthy of learning the Kushinada-style Jujitsu, and despite only learning Kalaripayattu as a striking martial art, Shō has proven that he was worthy of learning Pencak Silat from Silcardo Jenazad, and was also worthy enough to catch the attention of Ogata Isshinsai and learn various techniques of the Ancient Martial Arts, including the Seidou Gouitsu technique. Based on the fact that he was chosen as their sole successor, it can only be said that possibly all of the masters of the One Shadow Nine Fists (excluding Cyril Rahman and Mikumo Kushinada) has in some way deemed Shō to be worthy of learning their martial art styles. As a decsendent of the Kuremisago Clan, Sho is able to use their instinctive/defensive body style of the clan, how much of it he actually knows is unknown.
- Enhanced Strength: Shō is able to defeat most enemies with a single hand and lift things using one hand. His fingertips can pierce flesh and create potentially lethal wounds and when his hand is used as a fist can knock out other high class disciples like the captains of the Shinpaku Alliance with ease.
- Enhanced Reflexes: Shō is capable of moving so fast that the spy and a guard around him didn't even see his hand move and steal the disk that the spy planned to smuggle away. Sho's reflexes are great enough to protect Miu from a soldier's gunfire.
- Enhanced Speed: Shō moves fast enough to take out the whole Mongolian Sumo team before Diego could even give them a warning. Even when carrying Miu away to kidnap her, he easily took out Thor, Freya and Takeda in a flash and caught Miu before she fell to the ground.
- Enhanced Endurance: Shō was able to fight while taking numerous major injuries during his fight with Kenichi and even continue fighting after losing consciousness alongside with enduring the strain of overusing Seidou Gōitsu for a short amount of time. He was able to take several gunshots to his torso in order to protect Miu, delivered a counter attack to the soldier who shot at Miu immediately afterwards, and remained conscious for some time to impart some last words to Kenichi and Miu before ultimately dying.
- Heightened Senses: Shō is able to know where bullets are coming from just from hearing the pull of the gun's trigger. He then can find the shooter and take him out in an instant.
- Immense Dual Ki: Even without moving he can expel about the same amount of Ki as low ranking master- class martial artist. He obtained the ability to use both Sei and Dou Ki and learned to use them together with the Seidou Goui through his training with Ogata.
Yami/YOMI Saga
Yomi Introduction Arc
Shō is first seen waiting for his master to pick him up and go to the meeting with the Nine Fists. When his master came, he leapt onto his master's
Sho and Hermit
shoulders while making observations of the boat they were to meet at. While on the boat he meets Isshinsai Ogata and listens to the other Fists discussing Kenichi Shirahama and taking away the title of History's Strongest Disciple away from him. He becomes motivated to defeat Kenichi, stepping on a screen that showed his picture. Later, he intercepts a spy trying to steal data on Yami, and lets her go. Only his master was able to see that he quickly took the disk from the spy, and asks him to stop playing around. Sho then sees Kenichi taking Miu to the botanical garden. He notices a bird with its foot caught in a string and tried to free it but noticed that Miu jumped up to do the same. Shō said that she had wings just like him. Later,
Sho kisses Miu goodbye
he mentioned Miu's father and tells her to come with him if she wants to know about him. Kenichi intercepted him and crushed his bike and later tried to attack him but Tanimoto intercepted him and revealed Shō's identity. Later Miu decides not to go so Shō decided to leave, but not before saying they'll meet again and gives her a kiss on her cheek and exchanged his ear ring with her hair clip (greatly upsetting Kenichi).
Later he meets the other Yomi members and gives them lists of dojos in Japan and telling them to beat them for 2 reasons: to place them under Yami's control and signaling war against Ryozanpaku in order to make it worldwide. Shō was not seen much after this but was shown asking the other Yomi members about who will fight now that Kenichi has taken out Radin.
DofD Tournament Arc
After being in a testing facility and hearing of the D of D he immediately asked his master for permission to enter and to take out Kenichi. Throughout most of the Tournament, all he did was watch from a distance, observing how the other contestants were doing. He saw Kenichi's match and later met up with Miu on her balcony.
They gave back each others heirloom, and he asks her to come with him. This time Miu rejected immediately
Sho defeating Thor, Freya and Takeda in a flash with his speed and power
and attacked him, so Shō
Sho defeats Takeda
decided to take her by force and quickly knocked her out. While escaping he runs into Takeda, Freya, and Thor training and quickly knocks out Freya and Thor before they could even attack him. Takeda, being the only one to block Shō's initial attack, tries to counterattack but is quickly dispatched when Shō gets serious. Unfortunately, Miu regains consciousness and unleashes her true nature of Dou and attacks Shō with ferocious attacks. Rather than being surprised and upset he reacted with joy about Miu's heart falling into darkness and saying that she can't be saved. Though Kenichi manages to snap her out of it (by using Kensei's awakening technique i.e. groping her breasts) and since Kenichi knows Miu more than him he says that he will kill him with one strike. However Kenichi more than survives Shō's first attack so Shō decided to finish him off at the tournament and their rivalry started for Miu and for the title of strongest. After he helped the Pankration team escape (which he covers up, claiming he killed them) he took their place in the tournament and quickly defeated the Bufu team to advance on to the semifinals. The Shinpaku Alliance decided to drop out and Shō tells the Gemini team to surrender so he can settle his score with Kenichi in the final. Laughing Fist Diego, upset by the fact that Shō would try and upstage his disciple, gives Castor and Pollux the
Sho gets shot
okay to fight with Shō but there fight is prevented due to the fact the Allied attack on Despair Island had begun. With Castor no longer interested in their fight due to the fact that there was no longer any audience there was nothing left stopping Shō from fighting Kenichi. At the beginning of their fight Shō quickly gained the upperhand but after Kenichi used the Ryusei Seikuken, Shō couldn't land anymore attacks on Kenichi. Later he decided to use his experience fighting Kushinada Style Jujistu and Gamaku that his master taught him. With this he managed to get in a good number of kicks. After hearing Kenichi's belief about martial arts he decides to end the fight quickly by using Seidou Goui and even managed to knock Kenichi out, but Kenichi still fought using basic skills combined with muscle memory. Kenichi managed to regain consciousness and Shō decides to use his ulitmate technique Nine Shots One Kill combined with Seidou Goui but Kenichi counters with his Ryusei Seiku Strongest Combo and drained Shō of all his st
Sho passing away
rength. After Shō uses the one kill, Kenichi uses Mubyoshi and Shō takes a direct hit and their fight ends in a draw but both still tried to get up and fight but before either could the elder announced Kenichi as the winner since he was still standing while Shō was back down. Not long after this, one of Fortuna's men tried to shoot Kenichi and just as Miu pushed him out of the way Shō jumped and took the bullets (whether he intended to shield Miu or Kenichi isleft to the reader to interpret as he had reacted when he saw the gun pointed at Kenichi, but just the same we only see him fall when Miu makes the attempt to move Kenichi out of the way). He managed to take out the soldier by kicking a rock at the soldiers head but loses a lot of blood. Before he dies he asks Kenichi to continue protecting Miu from Yami. Kenichi later takes his ear ring and keep it as a reminder.(Chapter 264)
His body is currently in the possession of the military. His leadership role in YOMI is passed onto Kajima Satomi.
Sakaki and Hongō Arc
It is revealed through Seta and Hayami's respective karate styles that Hongō taught his three disciples karate based upon a particular attack, with Shō's focusing on knife-hand strikes. When Kenichi and Miu are later met by his master Hongō, Hongō finally confirms that Shō was shot trying to prevent the bullets from hitting Miu, and not Kenichi, despite both disciples attempting to deny this. When Miu attacked Hongo for attacking Kenichi and causin him to fall from the top of the building, Hongo was about to retaliate, but stopped after seeing the spirit of Shō protecting her.
The Tidat Kingdom Arc
When Kenichi lost conciousness at the hands of Pengulu Sankan while trying to bring Miu back to her senses, Shō appears in Kenichi's mind telling him to get up reminding him of protecting Miu. He tells Kenichi to gather his strength as a martial artist and to protect her from falling into darkness and anything evil. His words give Kenichi strength to fight Pengulu and finally bring Miu back to her senses.
Battle LogEdit
Past Battle
- with Natsu Tanimoto vs thugs (won)
- vs Radin Tidat Jihan (won)
Battles Present
- vs several matial artists (won)
- vs Takeda, Thor, and Freya (won)
- vs Miu (technically it wasnt a fight as she did not fight him and he snuck behind her and quickly knocked her out before she could do anything)
- vs Miu round 2 (undecided, was trying to get her on his side)
- vs Kenichi round 1 (undecided, left when Miu regained her senses, but was winning)
- vs Mongolian Bufu team (won)
- vs Kenichi round 2 (loss)
- vs soldier (won, died from bullet wounds later)
Trivia
- Shō is the first character to have died in the current storyline outside a flashback, the first YOMI member to have died, and the first Disciple to have died.
- His nickname Suparna is another name for Garuda, a mythological bird creature of Indian Hindu mythology said to possess beautiful wings. This may symbolize his desire for freedom and his love for birds.
- Unlike Kajima Satomi, who is considered to be Kenichi's Satsujinken equivalent, it can be said that Shō was considered to be Kenichi's opposite. It can even be said that he was a more superior, Satsujinken version of Kenichi. He had more training and experience, he had more talent, he was trained by more masters than both of them, and was a descendant of the Kuremisago Clan.
- When he was a child Shō tried to fly, took some fans and fell from a considerable height. Fortunately he got nothing worse than a sprain, because of his natural physical abilities. He kept insisting to Hongō that he "floated a bit". [1]
References
- ↑ Matsuena, S. (2014). Shō Kanō. In HSDK Official Guidebook (p. 185). Shogakukan.