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| “ | Judgment desu no! | „ |
| ~ Kuroko's catchphrase. |
| “ | I am Kuroko Shirai, officer of Judgement! You're under arrest! | „ |
| ~ Kuroko's catchphrase in English. |
Kuroko Shirai is a major character in the A Certain Magical Index franchise, being the deuteragonist of A Certain Scientific Railgun.
She is a Level 4 esper and a member of Judgment serving as a part of the 177th Branch Office. Kuroko is also a student at Tokiwadai Middle School and is the roommate and best friend of the level 5 esper Mikoto Misaka.
She is voiced by Satomi Arai in the Japanese version of the anime, and by Alison Viktorin in the English version.
Appearance
Kuroko is a teenage girl with long auburn hair tied into two curly pigtails; the rest of her hair is left to hang as two rows of fringes divided in the middle. Her pigtails are tied in place by a red bow each.
As per ruling of both Academy City and Judgment, she wears the uniform of Tokiwadai Middle School and the Judgment armband.
On her thighs, she secures a pair of black straps where she stores the metal spikes used to secure criminals.
Personality
Growing up in Academy City for most of her life, Kuroko has developed a modernistic worldview due to the city's futuristic advancement. As such, she is shown to be quite ignorant of Japan's old-fashioned customs which are still practiced in the present day, such as the "love umbrella", which students usually use to link their names to the name of their crush, and the conventional technology outside Academy City. She is also quite skeptical of anything remotely unscientific or rational, such as urban legends like a boy with the ability to nullify esper powers (Touma Kamijou) or the existence of Gemstones like Gunha Sogiita as she believing that such a phenomenon couldn't be possible without the Power Curriculum Program.
Aside from this, Kuroko is rather blunt with her opinions, which can often put her odds with her partner Uiharu. Her most notable trait is her lustful obsession with Mikoto Misaka and is just as frank when it comes to these displays of affection, being totally oblivious (or rather, uncaring) of the discomfort that her aggressive expression of lesbianism causes Mikoto. Whenever she and Misaka are together (despite being in public) she will run up to embrace Misaka and indulging herself on Misaka's body, despite knowing she will get shocked as a result of her actions. Her tendencies to get intimate with Misaka are often expressed to almost ridiculous lengths; for example, when the two are forced to clean a pool, Kuroko tries to trick Misaka into drinking an aphrodisiac, of which she ultimately fails and drinks it herself by accident.
Her desire can be aroused by anyone who even resembles Mikoto, such as her beautiful young mother Misuzu Misaka. It is for this reason that Mikoto has tried her best to keep the existence of her clones a secret from Kuroko, though the existence of the Sisters would later be revealed to the entire world in Genesis Testament. Despite her lustful and possessive behavior, Kuroko does truly care about Mikoto and her affections are genuine. She even allows herself to get severely injured in order to do what she can to help Mikoto, though she tends to keep this a secret from her in order not to cause any worry.
As a member of Judgment, Kuroko has an ironclad sense of justice and honor and shows great determination when it comes to stopping crime within Academy City. She demonstrates a level of confidence in her own abilities when she encounters enemies, even to those whom she knows is more powerful than herself. Although she can be melodramatic and immature, Kuroko has proven time and time again to be a very selfless and responsible individual, as she constantly scolds Mikoto for stepping in and helping, saying civilians should stay back and leave the heroics to Judgment and Anti-Skill. She also gets anno
In addition to this, Kuroko shows a surprisingly kind and soft-hearted side towards small children. She presents herself as a strict yet attentive and loving big-sister to any child under her charge.
Abilities
Her ability is instant teleportation and she is called a Teleporter because of this. Such an ability allows her to teleport herself and anything in her possession a certain distance in the blink of an eye. In volume 8 it is stated that her powers do have limits, being able to transport a total weight of 130.7 kilograms, to a distance of 81.5 meters from herself. It was revealed in Volume 3 of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Manga that before she went to Tokiwadai Middle School, she could teleport objects and other people, but not herself. She was eventually able to teleport herself sometime after enrolling in Tokiwadai. She is able to teleport objects inside designated targets, allowing her to "throw" the darts she carries on her thighs with perfect accuracy. One disadvantage of her power is that she has to concentrate on where she, the object(s), and/or person she holds will be teleported to, while working out the special co-ordinates of jumping between 3-dimensional and 11-dimensional space, so any disturbance in her concentration will render her powers useless, as demonstrated in her fight against Sherry Cromwell. Aside from her powers, Kuroko mainly relies on her Martial Arts abilities, which emphasizes throws and take-downs that compensate for her small size.
Other Appearances
Kuroko appears briefly in Ookami-san and her Seven Companions (also produced by JC Staff Animation Studios), smiling mischievously at the audience as a potential bride candidate for the boy millionaire Nezumi Chuutaro. This is, in combination with sharing the same animation studio, a result of Kuroko's voice actor rather blatantly using Kuroko's voice for the part of the series narrator.
Character Art Designs
Design evolution
There is little change in Kuroko's design. Haimura simply read her description and drew her without any real influence in her design. During her role as the primary heroine in volume 8, Kuroko's design was slightly modified to reflect her importance in the story; It is unclear what changes were exactly implemented. By volume 12, Kuroko becomes affected by deformed artstyle that Haimura has for the characters. Kuroko was designed with white ribbons for her winter uniform, but this is not brought up in the anime adaptation. According to Haimura, Kuroko was the easiest character to transfer in manga format, for her detailed design for the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga.
Trivia
- In episode 15 of the Index anime adaption, during the Angel Fall arc, Shirai Kuroko is depicted to have apparently switched with the US President Barack Obama, using his catchphrase "Yes. We. Can". This was not in the Light Novels, and could be seen as a in-joke for the anime producers considering Kuroko can also mean 'black child' in kanji, and also because the episode was aired during U.S.A. presidential elections.
- Satomi Arai's comedic, yet thoughtfully mature performance as Kuroko won her the Best Supporting Actress trophy during the Annual Voice Actor Awards in 2010.
- Although usually displayed and used as comedy relief, Kuroko displays a strong constitution, surviving constantly shocks from Misaka, having her neck dislocated by the Dorm Mother, repeatedly pounding her head on solid objects in fits of rage/terror/stupidity and having her joints pierced by Musujime, from which she recovers quickly.
- There are hints throughout the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun anime which suggest that Kuroko is fairly adept with a camera, and may possess some degree of skill in photography.
- Kuroko also has a collection of Misaka Mikoto's pictures that she keeps in an album named "Onee-sama's secret" as shown in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun anime episode 2.
- Her ability is listed as No. 478 in the Bank.
Gallery
.jpg "Kuroko Shirai (Buriki).jpg (30 KB)")
