Haruo Niijima is a classmate of Kenichi Shirahama and Miu Fūrinji. Originally a member of the Newspaper Club, Niijima investigates the life of everyone, ranking people on his palm pilot. He later becomes the honorary founder as well as commanding leader of the Shinpaku Alliance, and doubles as the organization's intelligence officer. As noted by Kenichi himself, Niijima is an adept manipulator as well as natural leader. He is also an alien, and as such has several special powers. Niijima is currently a Second-year student at Kōryō High School in class 2-E.
Appearance[]
Haruo has a rather "alienated" appearance. Slightly tall for his age, he has a slim yet solid physique, sharp fingernails and gangly limbs. His facial features are somewhat demonic: a long tongue with sharp nose, long pointed ears, and teeth that switch between jagged, fanged, or even just normal. Not surprisingly, Kenichi and many other characters refers to him as a "Demon-faced space alien" or something similar. He originally sported a puddle-bowl hair cut but later allowed the back to grow sideways. At times, when he is in a state of fierce concentration, two-pointed antenna will pop from the top of his head. Almost always, he wears his school suit as his "Battle" outfit. He usually wears a cloak while in the base of Shinpaku Alliance to claim his leadership and his Demon King" image. During D of D Tournament, the cloak he wore was a new flag which had a painted label and kanji of Shinpaku Alliance. When it comes to some ceremony or event, such as party held by himself and captains of Shinpaku or the assault of Berserker, he has worn slightly nicer clothing than his usual school uniform.
Personality[]
Though Niijima was initially seen as an ambitious power grabber, as the series progressed, it becomes apparent that he is actually more perceptive and empathic than he lets on and is an altruist at heart, with an almost paternal air of leadership towards his subordinates.
His proclaimed dream of one day ruling the world remains, but it is very clear that he prioritizes the well-being of the organization that he set up and everyone who is a part of it, even if it meant withholding from them crucial information and often resigning himself to peril for their sake. He is very adept at running away from dangerous situations, always leaving the fighting to the others, a trait which Kenichi adopted to "face" women in battle. Despite his often-cowardly tactics, he shows himself to be a very cunning individual, thinking many steps ahead and planning for contingencies to the point that both the enemies and allies have complimented on his leadership skills.
He is a very sly person who watches Kenichi's progress with much interest (and keeps his information up to date by bribing Miu with anmitsu, her favorite food) and treats Kenichi as his subordinate. He is very adept at running away from dangerous situations and can even outpace the likes of Kenichi, who can move considerably fast thanks to Ryozanpaku's training, though it only works while he is running away from somebody or something.
Throughout the series, Niijima has proven to be a very skilled escape artist, having shown to be a capable swimmer (he used this method to survive a direct confrontation from Hermit), and a talented dodger (he frequently evades fighters whose fighting skills rank fairly high, and his greatest achievement yet in this regard was seen when he dodged, along with Kenichi, a direct sword strike from a master-class member of Yami's armed division while on top of a speeding truck that cleaved the rear of the vehicle in half. A fact made apparent where he repeatedly thwarted Berserker's (one of Ragnarok's top three) attempts to ensnare him by deliberately stripping his clothes piece-by-piece every time Berserker thought he caught him, and during the DofD Tournament where, after volunteering to be part of the contending players representing the Alliance (since Freya, Thor and Takeda were crippled by Shou, leaving them only with Kisara and Ukita), Niijima more than played his part where he held the captain of the opposing team (long enough for Kisara to beat the remaining opposing fighters) at bay by keeping the distance between them through the use of continuous dodging and running, along with the clever use of minor ambushes. It is also worth noting that after the fight, Niijima alone was the only person from the Shinpaku members who took part in the ordeal and got off practically unharmed.
Despite his often-cowardly tactics, he shows himself to be a very resourceful individual (having once saved the Ryozanpaku dojo from certain bankruptcy after devising a legitimate get-rich-quick scheme, which a desperate Miu adopted at once), thinking many steps ahead and planning for contingencies to the point that both the enemies and allies have complimented on his leadership skills. He is also a skilled tactician, capable of coordinating the combat formations and ploys that the Alliance use at both in and out battle (such as postponing the battle between Kenichi and Chikage by convincing a classmate to invite the latter into a birthday party).
Despite the fact that he, as well as most characters, calls himself evil, he usually finds ways of helping his friends when needed, though he does so in his own odd way. As the series progressed, his character is seen developing from an ambitious and conniving opportunist to an altruistic, understanding and almost paternal leader who, while seemingly will stop at nothing to achieve his goals (and often subsequently getting a comical beating from those who simply find him and his ambitions to be annoying), is actually empathic towards those under his control, and considers their well-being above all else, even if it meant withholding from them crucial information (like not telling Kenichi that another Yomi was in the same school in the form of Chikage to prevent the two from seeking a bout with each other) and risking danger himself for their sake (as seen when he repeatedly provoked Berserker to lure him away from Ukita and Takeda) and even forfeited his team from the DofD Tournament to protect them from getting killed by Sho Kano, something Shigure said is the true capabilities of a leader. For the members of the Alliance itself, they appear to have developed genuine respect towards Niijima overtime as their unquestioned leader, even Kenichi as well as the captains, since their repetitive successes (be it victory or survival-wise) in battle have mostly been influenced by Niijima in one way or another.
While generally a hands-off non-combatant who prefers to keep his distance and coordinate attacks, if forced to exert himself in battle, Niijima usually relies on hit-and-run (mostly run) and psychological tactics to unnerve his opponents and render them more vulnerable and lets the more powerful fighters of Shinpaku to deal the finishing blow. He has a (more or less) finishing move called "Shadowless leap from the charge", which he uses to escape by switching positions with a nearby enemy. He has amazing information gathering and analytical skills (to the point that he can quickly identify a master-level fighter in a very short period of time), which he uses to prepare Kenichi for the many battles that he ends getting tangled into with his opponents' profiles and skills. He has trained the non-combat members of his "alliance" fiercely in the art of gathering information. Niijima's ability to collect data is chillingly effective, and in some cases, supernatural, such as the bizarre "Niijima Scan" technique that enables him to absorb ridiculous amounts of unknowable things about a person (Physical, Personal, Mental, Emotional, Skill Level, all of it...) simply by observing them for a few seconds (He was able to tell that a member of an opposing group had a crush on his ally through eye contact alone). What's more, he can ring his thumb and index fingers around his eyes to literally create a digital HUD of his target's power level and killing intent, and even has a zooming function, allowing him to view from afar as though he's looking through a pair of binoculars. Apparently, his senses are inexplicably unnatural, having once detected incoming missiles locked on to their location, and even discerned the presence of soldiers hiding in the woods to the point where even a Yomi member, Boris Ivanov, commented on Niijima's sensory skills that he immediately ordered his subordinates to distance themselves away from the Shinpaku leader. During the Eternal Sunset Arc, after giving an analysis on Kajima Satomi, the Yomi leader found his evaluation so accurate that he deemed Niijima a very dangerous individual, leading to him attempting to take Niijima's life then and there.
Niijima also has a talent for both tinkering and programming, having once constructed a working desktop computer from spare parts and even created the official web page for the Shinpaku Alliance with considerable security (as Loki found out when he tried to hack the page). He is also skilled engineer and traps master, having constructed rudimentary traps to ambush the Capoeira team captain, while at the same time running around the arena (at high speed), and even took part at supervising the renovation of the Shinpaku Alliance hideout, not to mention the traps that were stationed at Kisara's old hideout (now the Shinpaku's official base) to safeguard the place from infiltration. He is also very adept at espionage, and can occasionally be found casing the scene (with Matsui as his second aid, of course) already before the waited event takes place; he even once stole the keys to Tanimoto's house without him even realizing it (and has apparently made duplicates, granting limitless access to Tanimoto's property indefinitely, much to the latter's chagrin) and, while in a drunken state, once single-handedly hijacked a cargo ship all on his own.
Perhaps his greatest accomplishment in this regard yet was the fact that he once spied on the masters of Ryozanpaku and actually remained undetected for a time, and by the time Shigure sensed his presence, Niijima swiftly switched places with one of Akisame's training dummies, allowing a clean escape. He can even hide his presence from people by pressing his body against a shadowy area, using his bizarre alien abilities to render himself undetectable (though exactly how this works can be anyone's guess). He seems to have access to hammer-space, since he has been known to pull out convenient items (i.e. pepper sprays, striking batons, and of course, his prized PDA) from under his clothes.
Niijima is also very perceptive, and has, on several occasions, perceived minor details that Kenichi himself overlooked. His potential tempted Fortuna enough to try to convert him into one of his children even though he only takes kids with the potential to reach master class. And as stated by Kenichi himself, Niijima has a natural talent at manipulating people (either through persuasive language, or even blackmail, etc.), which would explain how he was able to form a prominent group of diverse martial artists like the Shinpaku Alliance. He also has a problem entering churches and other sacred places, as seen when he tries to enter the church where Loki had Kenichi's little sister captive and becomes weakened to the point where he must be carried. As he was being, carried his shadow could be seen struggling and screaming, and his body smoking. He's also somewhat cowardly in situations where he has to defend for himself, as he typically has to rely on other Alliance members to protect them. Niijima seem to feel kinship with those who can read/predict other people thoughts as he called Tirawit Kōkin a fellow mind reader.
Skills[]
Expert Evasion: One of Niijima's more outstanding skills besides information-gathering is his ability to cleanly evade incoming attacks; and while this often comes off as rather comical, he has been known to successfully dodge maneuvers and the like with consistent succession. In recent chapters, he displayed some skill in Ukemi (Art of Breaking Fall), seen when he used his own body to cushion Freya’s after the two of them got thrown off a speeding vehicle.
Enhanced Speed: Though he had never received any formal training, Niijima is very adept at running away from dangerous situations and can even outpace the likes of Kenichi, who can move considerably fast thanks to Ryozanpaku's training.
Enhanced Flexibility: Niijima displays considerable flexibility of the body to the point where he frequently shows being able to dodge attempts at his life from fighters below Masterclass throughout the series; occasionally, he would end up stripping his cloths piece by piece to slip away from attacks, as seen during his “battle” with Berserker (one of the top fighters of Ragnarok). Most of the time (particularly in the manga), his near-inhuman flexibility is displayed with him being able to contort himself like a snake at high speed, effectively slipping out of any lunges or holds that opponents might use against him. This attribute has served him particularly well from time to time. Most notably “against” the Capoeira Team Captain during the DofD Tournament.
Expert Swimmer: Niijima has considerable skills as a swimmer. In fact, one of his main ways to avert danger is by diving into a large body of water nearby (this happens often) and even managed to survive a direct confrontation against Hermit (who still was not a Shinpaku captain at the time). His skills in this area led to his nickname the “Kappa”. During the camping arc, he ranked fourth, after Ethan, Kenichi, and Boris.
Limited Telekinesis:Niijima has been shown to control extrasensory abilities, such as in Kenichi's fight against Ryuto Asamiya when he causes Kenichi's belt to catch on a pipe so that he doesn't fall down.
Sleight-of-Hand: Niijima has also has some talents at pickpocket, having once stolen Tanimoto’s house keys without him even realizing it (apparently, he’s made dozens of copies of it ever since, allowing unrestrained access to Tanimoto’s house much to the latter's chagrin).
Enhanced Senses: Niijima apparently has a keen sense of hearing, evident by his pointed ears. With this, he once detected the presence of Boris Ivanov (who was cleaning the windows) before Miu and Kenichi did. In the Okinawa arc, Niijima said he could smell the presence of electrical devices.
Self Preservation: Niijima has been shown to have self preservative skills that have been ranked as being very near master class. This skill is shown in his speed when running away from adversaries and also in his evasion of enemies to such a level that he can even evade Master- class fighters, and master level attacks.
Coat: Niijima's coat contains an assortment of items, it contains rope, a grappling hook, 2 cans of pepper spray and a personal defense taser, along with a baton. How he fits all this there confuses Kenichi and therefore got dubbed a portal to another dimension by him.
Alien Abilities[]
Alien Sensors: Niijima's antennae can act as radar of sorts, that operates by erecting from the top of his head and then twirling excitedly around; with this, he has been known to detect incoming danger long before anyone else around with him can. Apparently, his alien-like senses are inexplicably unnatural, having once detected incoming missiles locked on to their location, and even detected the presence of soldiers hiding in the woods to the point where even a Yomi member, Boris Ivanov, commented on Niijima's sensory skills that he immediately ordered his subordinates to distance themselves away from the Shinpaku leader.
Concealment: By leaning against a shadowed corner, Niijima can hide his presence from nearby foes (and even innocent by-passers) for as long as he does not move. This was first seen being used to hide from Kisara and her Deputy after they finished confronting by
Suspicion radar: When someone nearby is up to something suspicious a pointy tip of hair rises from his head, this skill sometimes even reacts to his own suspicious behavior, an example is in e32 when he convinces Ikki to join the Shinpaku federation meeting, the pointy tip of hair appears as he use dirty tactics to convince Ikki to join.
Mental Abilities[]
Leadership Skills: Niijima is able to inspire members of Shinpaku to meet a certain goal and is able to convince others to accompany him to his advantage after convincing them shortly. The other non-fighter members of Shinpaku openly refer to him as their leader, in contrast to the fighter members.
Technical Expert: Niijima designed the waterproof case of his palm pilot by himself. The pilot itself seems to be unbreakable even by someone as strong as Kenichi.
Skilled Tactician: Niijima is able to position Hermit and the members of Shinpaku in strategically advantageous situations in their battle against Fortuna.
Expert Programmer: Niijima personally trains the non-fighters of Shinpaku to gather information, efficiently using digital technology to achieve this means. His programs are so strong that not even Loki, who is an expert himself, can hack into the homepage of the Shinpaku Alliance. Even Koetsuji complimented his skills, asking him for help in hacking the Okinawa Yami database, which Niijima does easily.
Master Manipulator: As stated by Kenichi himself, Niijima has a natural talent at manipulating people (either through persuasive language, or even blackmail, etc.), which would explain how he was able to form a prominent group of diverse martial artists like the Shinpaku Alliance. He is even able to go as far as to manipulate the very nature of probability itself by placing his palms together, but only luck will decide if his wish will be granted. Perhaps his most impressive feat in this regard is the fact that he can, through the use of mere deceptive words, cause Chikage Kushinada to switch into her "child mode" to the point where she seems to be deliberately willing to follow his commands.
Espionage and Information Gathering: One of Niijima's best talents is in the art of spying and information gathering and can occasionally be found casing the scene (with Matsui as his second aid, of course) already before the waited event takes place, ready to extract as much valuable information as possible. He also took care to humiliate Chikage's intellect by correctly "guessing" all of the food she has for lunch. Niijima's worth and skill in this field was proven during the Eternal Sunset, as he was asked to participate along with the rest of the Shinpaku Alliance in disarming the military base. Also, during the Eternal Sunset, Niijima used his "Niijima Eye" technique to gather personality traits and other sensitive information about Kajima Satomi, and not only was he surprised by the accuracy of Niijima's evaluation, but he was impressed/angered up to the point where Kajima openly says that Niijima was more dangerous than he looks, and that he'll definitely kill him.
Musical Aptitude: Niijima exhibits some expertise in the use wind instruments. So far, he has shown to be capable of playing both the (wind-based) accordion and the flute rather well. It is worth noting that this aptitude is what garnered him the loyalty of the former Fifth Fist of Ragnarök, Siegfried (who due to his personal interests, found kinship in Niijima). Apparently, Niijima can summon Siegfried from practically anywhere through the use of such instruments (even from as far as Tibet).
See Also[]
References[]
- ↑ History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi Official Guidebook, page 84.