Kazuya Shinoda

Kazuya Shinoda
Japanese Name	篠田 かずや (かず) (Shinoda Kazuya (Kazu))
Age	Adult
Sex	Male
Abilities	See Witches, Familiars, barriers, and Kyubey
Occupation	Teacher, Counselor
Japanese VA	Daisuke Hirakawa

Kazuya Shinoda is a resident of Tomoyoko City. He is a supporting character that appears in Puer Magi Soma Magica: The Sibyl of Tomoyoko. He is a teacher and childhood friend of Makoto and Anima, and the one who knows the most about "The Sibyl of Tomoyoko" and the magical girl system.

General Info

Bio

A longtime friend of Makoto and Anima from Tomoyoko's Southern District, originally from out-of-town. He currently works as a teacher and counselor in the Central School District, notably as Chiaki's (and later Soma's) homeroom teacher.

When he was younger, Kazuya was bullied for not only being an outsider, but a shy and cowardly person who had difficulty speaking to others with Makoto as his only friend. His bullying worsened and he ended up getting witch kissed into nearly committing suicide by throwing himself off at the ports and into the sea. Makoto tried and failed to save him, and both would've died had Anima not stepped in. Ever since that day, Kazuya came to deeply admire Anima and see her as his hero, feeling the need to repay her for saving his life. Even as the years went by he remained friends with her and Makoto, often helping them with whatever they needed, especially if it concerned Anima's magical girl duties or Soma.

It was him who gave Anima her title as the Sibyl, seeing her as special compared to other magical girls due to his hero worship of her. He and Makoto are her couriers, their job being to locate Witches, along with identifying and anonymously contacting magical girls among their classes and other schools for Anima. Because of their jobs as teachers and being normal civilians, no magical girl would ever guess that they were connected to the Sibyl.

When Anima began witching out other magical girls to keep herself alive, he feared that she would hurt him or Makoto if he refused to obey her. Kazuya became ashamed of himself for supporting her actions, so he tried to prevent more deaths by contacting magical girls to covertly warn them away. But he knew it wouldn't be enough since Anima herself needed to be stopped and he had no courage to do so.

After Makoto's confrontation ended in disaster and destruction of the house, the police got involved and labeled Kazuya as their prime suspect due to their connection. He was detained and held under suspicion not only for murder of the Mikami family, but for the disappearances of several girls within the city (as some were his students) with little hope of getting out. He felt like no one would believe the truth of what happened and couldn't tell anyone without being called insane.

But then Kazuya was suddenly released from custody due to lack of solid evidence of his involvement, which he later learned was because of his niece Amaya making a wish to free him. He was upset that Amaya became a magical girl for his sake, but there was ultimately nothing he could do to revert the decision. He could only support her through her hardships to hopefully prevent another Witch from being born.

He still blames himself for Makoto, Anima, and the fallen magical girls's deaths, believing he was at fault and that he deserves to be punished for not doing anything to stop it.

Personality

A bit shy and cowardly, especially when he was younger, but Kazuya is very caring and deeply loyal to those he cares about, willing to do anything for them. He dislikes seeing others suffer for any reason. He is quick to blame himself when things go wrong however.

He loved Anima a lot for saving his life, and still remained friends with her even when he couldn't be as close to her as Makoto was.

Powers And Abilities

Because of Anima, he possesses the ability to sense magic patterns and see Witches, Familiars, barriers, and Kyubey, though he has no real power to stop them. Such magic has persisted on him to this very day.