Kanade Tachibana (立華奏, Tachibana Kanade) is a girl who acts as the Student Council President at the afterlife school. Her nickname, Angel (天使,Tenshi), is coined by Hinata and was later used by SSS leader Yuri to refer to her,[1] despite her nickname that means "angel" in Japanese. She is a regular human just like the rest of the SSS. Yuri apparently knew this all along, but most of the SSS actually thought she was a real Angel.
AppearanceKanade is a girl with long silvery-white hair and gold-yellow eyes. She possesses features of someone young for a middle school student. She wears the standard uniform of the afterlife school, white knee-high socks and brown loafers and a pale blue barrette on the back of her hair. She is one of the shortest characters in the series, being only 160 cm (5'3")
Kanade does not appear to be less than a typical human being in physical form, but this is contrasted by her lack of emotion, even in skirmishes with the SSS which usually end up with her being injured. It is difficult to understand what she is thinking due to her rarely showing any outward emotion. In later events, she is shown to have abandoned being friendly because of the rules of the world she is in, as her newly-found friends tend to leave her when they disappear.[2]As the series progresses, she has shown a liitle of her emotions, mostly to Otonashi.
She is fond of eating Mapo tofu, even going so far as to ignore school rules to eat it, she also goes on to include it in her self-made school anthem.[2]. She spends some of her free time gardening.[3] She has recently become friends with Otonashi, even though she didn't realize this until Otonashi said so. Although this didn't change her personality much, she now allows him to call her by her first name, Kanade, and seems to exclusively talk to and hang around him. Tenshi, in later events, has helped him to fight Naoi and has saved him from being eaten by the River Monster.[3]
Later on, she opens up to Otonashi, talking to him casually and she even helps out in Otonashi's plans to help the SSS get over their regrets. After spending more time with her, Otonashi discovers more of her personality and somewhat lack of common sense. Otonashi describes her as a "Clumsy Angel". She seems to have a large amount of endurance to pains, as she has been shot several times by the SSS without showing any reaction or indication of suffering.
She fights with supernatural abilities, whose origin is probably artificial in nature. Her abilities are voice-activated, and can take effect almost immediately. Combined with her advanced skill in hand to hand combat, this makes her a formidable opponent for the members of the SSS.
In SSS's attempt to infiltrate Kanade's dormitory room, they gain information about her abilities, which are compiled in her personal computer. This discovery deeply disturbs Yuri, who wonders why Angel is not getting her abilities from God like she first assumed. This leads her to question if there is even a God, meaning that at all of their fighting has been for nothing. Later events support their earlier discovery and a manual called Angel Player is even discovered which is related to the program they discovered.
Hand Sonic: Calls forth a single blade or a pair of blades on each hand. The blades are capable of slicing through steel or even easily dispatching of Shadows. Kanade has shown variations to its form:
Hand Sonic [Version One]: Regular shape resembling a longsword. The main version she uses when fighting the SSS.
Hand Sonic [Version Two]: A thinner longer version than the previous, with a curved-diamond shape on its tip. She made this version thinner for higher speed.
Hand Sonic [Version Three]: Is shaped like a traditional sai. She once remarked that this version is "inelegant".
Hand Sonic [Version Four]: A variation which is shaped like a lotus flower with no edges other than, perhaps, its petals. Apparently more of a bludgeoning weapon than a slicing one. Kanade admits to have created it in her attempt to make her weapon "cuter"[2].
Hand Sonic [Version Five]: Kanade's most recent variation of Hand Sonic. Is basically a pair of pincers secured on the arm by a blue gauntlet-like accessory that resembles a demon's head, horns and shape. She created this version out of Otonashi's advice to make a more ruthless image. She used this version as a makeshift slingshot and for dispatching the Shadows.
Distortion: Allows her to deflects bullets or other projectiles away using an invisible shield in front of her. The drawback of this technique is that she has to take it down should she wants to switch from defense to offense.
Delay: Creates a sort of after-image for close range. It is effective in dodging melee attacks by confusing the enemy into attacking elsewhere.
Harmonics: Makes a clone of herself which is identical to her except the clone has blood-red eyes. Clones created through this ability has their own consciousness and has all the abilities of the original - including Harmonics itself. This ability is apparently sightly glitched, as her clones was shown to rebel against her to the extent of almost killing her.
Absorb: A "hidden ability" which acts as the reverse of Harmonics. It allows the reintegration of clones created through Harmonics into the original's body. This, however, poses some risks as Harmonics clones also possess their own consciousness. This ability is connected to Harmonics using a command called timewait, which is simply a wait command which delays the execution of this ability. This ability was created by Yuri as method of dealing with the Harmonics clones.
Overdrive: A passive ability that gives her superhuman strength.
Howling: Emits powerful high-frequency, high-amplitude sound-waves from crossed Hand Sonic blades, meant to make an enemy faint. Created by one of the Harmonics clones.
Angel Wings: Sprouts wings from her back that, while they don't enable her to fly, can be used to slow descent and let her survive drops such as jumping from the roof of a building. However, this technique seems to only be a decoration, created also out of Otonashi's advice, as one of the Harmonics clones has shown the ability to jump from the rooftop to the schoolyard with ease.
Active: It was not specified what the skill does, it was listed as one of her programmed skills in episode 11. This skill could possibly be the skill that gives Kanade her martial art skills.
Sonic Rotation: This unnamed technique produces a blue aura when used. Kanade produces a Version One Hand Sonic on each arm and spins rapidly, effectively destroying everything in the vincity. It was stated to be as powerful as a bomb by Naoi, after it demolished a mass of Shadows and left a round crater in the ground.
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