Shou Kanou

Kanou Shou was a disciple of Hongou Akira and the original leader of Yomi. As the leader, he was arguably the most powerful member of Yomi and the toughest opponent that Kenichi has ever fought. 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 defeated by Kenichi. He is nicknamed Suparna, a mythical creature in Hindu mythology said to possess beautiful wings. While it was never truly said that Shou was the strongest in Yomi, but was the one believed to have the most potential.

Shou was a tall well-built man with long light-blue hair that hung in a ponytail down to his waist. 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 and sports pants and ties back his long silver hair with a band.

Shou 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. Shou 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, Shou appears to indeed respect his master.

Shou 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.” Shou’s motives were focused mainly on Miu throughout the D of D plot, and on defeating Kenichi because Shou thought Kenichi was unable to protect her. Shou’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.

Nevertheless, even Shou, who was considered “perfect,” was disapproved of by Sehrul Rahman, Ro Jisei and Kushinada Mikumo, 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 Hongou Akira and Ogata Isshinsai, 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 type fighter, and later incorporated the Sei type, making him predominantly Dou despite possessing both Ki.

Shou was trained harshly and extensively in almost all his life, and bought as a young child from the Kuremisago by Yami. He quickly became Hongou Akira’s disciple, defeating many opponents, but was believed to have a weak heart that lacked mercilessness and therefore was not allowed to inherit anything. He was even considered to be killed, but defended by his master and told to kill the baby bird he housed in front of the group, which he did without a moment’s hesitation, though he secretly crushed the grapes he picked.

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 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 Hongou, Sho said that Silat is as awesome next to Karate, and it can adapt to anything is freely changable, has so many moves, it’s 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 Kyuu Geki Issatsu.

At some point, he would meet Tanimoto Natsu and would eventually become good friends. The time he met him would be when Tanimoto was still the Sixth Fist of Ragnarok. Shou would reveal some personal things about his life and the two were close towards one another. Shou would later be shocked by his defeat at the hands of Kenichi and decide to fight him someday.