Shiro

"I'm Ganta's Aceman"

- Shiro

Shiro is a childhood friend of Ganta Igarashi and Hagire Rinichirō's adopted daughter. Along with Sorae Igarashi, Hagire experimented on her in order to heighten a person's immune system, creating the very first Deadman by accident, along with her second personality, the Wretched Egg in order to cope with her suffering.

Appearance
Shiro is an albino. She has snow-white hair, pale skin and red eyes; even her eyebrows and eyelashes are white. Her hair is very long and reaches down to her knees. She dresses in a peach, skintight bodysuit (white in the anime), decorated with red circles and stripes. Her toes stick out of her bodysuit, just as her heels. She also wears big brown mittens and a white neck warmer, though has been seen wearing black mittens with a black neck warmer and also black winter boots.

When the Wretched Egg takes over her body and Shiro becomes trapped in her own mind, she is seen wearing a white nightgown.

Personality
Shiro is a bubbly and a bit clumsy girl. She has lots of energy, most likely from the fact she eats nothing but sweets. She is shown to have loved sweets throughout her life, particularly cookies, and her sweet tooth may be her way of staying connected to her childhood. She has a very childlike outlook on life; this leads to her mind not understanding much: Shiro didn't even understand the concept of a girlfriend and had a simplified outlook on love.

Despite this, she knows she loves Ganta Igarashi and only wants him to be happy, even if that means resorting to drastic measures. She is also very concerned about his safety. She does her best to protect him, regardless of the danger. Throughout the series, it is shown that all Shiro really wants is Ganta's approval, and it is surprisingly easy for Ganta to hurt her feelings. However, with the exception of him stating that he 'hated' her in the Forgery arc (which was only for Shiro's protection), Ganta has never meant to hurt Shiro and has always regretted his actions afterwards.

Shiro is incredibly strong, and she uses her immense strength to keep Ganta safe as much as possible after a childhood incident when Shiro became Ganta's "Aceman". One example of this is during the dog race show. She appeared to be oblivious of the dangers of the game and occasionally got in the way of Ganta's progression (or survival). But it is only at the end when Ganta notices her cuts and scratches that he discovers that she was discreetly keeping him away from harm, consequently taking his blows for him.

It is revealed in Chapter 36 that Ganta actually has strong feelings of love towards Shiro and that the feelings are mutual. As the series progresses, Shiro comes to understand deeper concepts of love and friendship while still retaining her pure heart. This helps her see the right course of action and also galvanizes the more jaded characters into action. She also begins acting and talking more like an adult, though her innocent nature remains intact.

Eventually, the Shiro and Wretched Egg personas fuse together to form Shiro's true self. This final, genuine persona contains characteristics of both personalities: it has Shiro's strong love for Ganta and desire for happiness, yet with Wretched Egg's bleak outlook on life and evident hatred (towards others as well as herself). Shiro's 'true self' also appears to remember everything from her life, both as 'Shiro' and 'Wretched Egg'. In the end, it is discovered that the reason she wanted Ganta to become a Deadman was for him to kill her and end her suffering. It is also revealed that Shiro's wish to die was evident 10 years ago, when she caused the Great Tokyo Earthquake in an attempt to destroy her body before it could regenerate, therefore trying to kill herself.

In Chapter 57, Ganta finally understands her and states that dying is not Shiro's 'true wish'. At the realization, Shiro begins to cry and says that she wanted to 'go to school, play with friends, ride on the ferris wheel', but she could not do any of these things. She states that she has done so many horrible things and doesn't deserve to live, but at the same time, she doesn't want to die.

In the end, all she really wanted was to be happy.

History
Shiro became a test subject of Hagire Rinichirō and Sorae Igarashi.

Before the birth of the Wretched Egg, Ganta and Shiro played quite often, sharing a common admiration of Ace Man. They first met when Ganta saw her sitting by a tree and commented on her white hair. Shiro became embarrassed about her hair, but Ganta told her he liked it, making her feel better and they started playing, eventually becoming good friends.

She and Ganta normally got along well, but once, when Shiro was in grave pain because of the constant injections, they once bickered so violently that Shiro broke his Ace Man action figure and Ganta took his toys and ran away from her in tears. Soon after, he came face-to-face with a rabid, vile dog, one of the other test subjects that escaped from the lab. Ganta dropped to his knees in fear and called for Ace Man to save him. Suddenly, Shiro jumped down from a window and landed on the dog, knocking it out and saving his life. After this, Shiro vowed to become Ganta's "Ace Man" whenever he was in trouble.

Because of Hagire and Sorae's experiments, her body would often deteriorate, and needed to be sewn back together. Her arm fell off once while she and Ganta were playing hide-and-seek. She has also been seen with her leg being sewn back on. She was used in excruciatingly painful nanomachine experiments, causing her to create a separate personality known as the Wretched Egg to cope with the pain. As shown her body has been ripped apart several times possibly when her limbs were removed multiple times to create the Chorus Blocks for the Mother Goose System.

Some time after that, Hagire built Deadman Wonderland and built a room for Shiro, supplying her with all the candy she ever wants.

Prison arc
Shiro is first seen sitting on the roof of Deadman Wonderland, singing the Woodpecker Song. She smells Ganta arriving at Deadman Wonderland, and goes off to see him.

In the manga, she and Ganta first reunite when Shiro jumped through Ganta's cell window, breaking the bars in the process. She overheard Ganta saying he wanted to die, so she began to attack him with a piece of broken glass in an attempt to kill him, believing this would make him happy. Frantically, Ganta dodges out of fear and Shiro understands that Ganta was lying. She then claims that she and Ganta are friends, to which Ganta responds that he's never seen her before and is surprised that she knows his name. Ganta asks if he's really her friend, which Shiro agrees, then he asks why she tried to kill him and continues by saying that he would never kill his friends, thinking back at the Nagano school massacre. One of the prison guards comes in and tells Ganta he should be outside working. Ganta looks behind him, but Shiro has disappeared.

In the anime, these events happened when Ganta was already at work. Shiro uses a metal bar instead of a piece of glass.

While at work, Shiro appears from underground, surprising Ganta. She offers him a cookie, claiming its better to eat with "friends". Some of the other prisoners notice Ganta from the papers of the Nagano school massacre and start taunting him for being a mass murderer, upsetting him. Shiro steps in and pushes one of them, claiming that Ganta "would never kill his friends". The prisoners attempt to attack her, but she easily defeats them. However, one the prisoners hits Shiro on the back of her head with a shovel, knocking her to the ground. Ganta responds by violently attacking the prisoners, but he is easily knocked to the ground and beat up. However, a building is blown up from above them (later revealed to be Tamaki's doing) in an attempt to test Ganta. As the prisoners flee (in the anime, they were all killed), Ganta, refusing to leave Shiro who is still "passed out", finally admits that he doesn't want to die yet and unleashes a blast from his Branch of Sin destroying the falling debris, saving them both.

Later when Ganta is taken to the doctor's office where he formally introduces himself to Yo, Shiro appears from above, surprising both of them. After being told of the upcoming dog race and the stakes, Shiro becomes excited and the two of them join. During the race, Shiro appeared to be oblivious of the brutality and potential danger of the race and usually got in Ganta's way, upsetting him. Towards the end of the race, Ganta notices how tattered and beat up Shiro looks and realizes that she discreetly sacrificed her own safety to assure his. In order to win the race, one person had to be in possession of a ball before time runs out, as Shiro passes the ball to Ganta, the platform she's standing on disappears and she falls under into a pit of spikes. Ganta realizes the victory isn't worth it and saves Shiro instead, much to her shock. Ganta sacrifices the victory and the race ends with no winner. Shiro enjoys the runner up prize with Ganta and leaves. When she leaves, the Red Man appears (at this point, it hasn't been revealed that Shiro is the Red Man) and attacks Ganta, Yo and other inmates and departs. Shiro returns and greets Ganta when he wakes up in the infirmary. She admits to eating his snacks and begins to regret it, thinking Ganta is mad at her.

Deadman arc
When Yo and Ganta talk about the attack, Ganta mentions that all of his friends are dead, which angers Shiro, who considers herself his friend. When the three go to find G-block, Shiro informs them that she knows the way, but refuses to tell them. The security bot, sent by Makina to capture Ganta and kill Yo, arrives, forcing Shiro to tell them and escort them to the G-block, located in a path in the air vents. The security bot follows them and destroys the surroundings. It goes to kill Ganta, but Shiro kicks it away and begins to vent towards Ganta, demanding that he take back what he said about all his friends. Ganta realizes that her and Yo are friends and apologizes to them for dragging them down with him, but Yo says to himself that it's too late to apologize. Shiro is captured by the bot and is about to be killed for not having an inmate number when Senji arrives and destroys the bot. Shiro goes flying and is injured while Senji and Ganta fight. Senji runs into Shiro and her revealing outfit causes him to become uncomfortable. A special unit then arrives and takes away Yo and Shiro to empty rooms to wait as Ganta and Senji compete in the Carnival Corpse. Ganta recalls memories of Shiro and him when they were young this allows him to have the energy to beat Senji. Yo takes Shiro and uses her to escape to G-block, again, and find his sister, Minatsuki. Shiro stops hearing the music that is playing only to her and turns into Wretched Egg. After turning, Shiro passes out and is picked up by a mysterious man, who is soon revealed to be the owner of Deadman Wonderland.

Scar Chain Arc
Shiro goes into a fury as Wretched Egg, killing the owner of Deadman Wonderland. She returns to normal, seemingly having no memory of the events prior and arrives to save Ganta from the attack by Genkaku. She stays in Ganta's room, ordered by Ganta to wait until later to play. When he returns, Shiro asks him to promise to take her on a ferris wheel when they get out. She becomes ecstatic when he does. Shiro is left by Ganta and the others to go riot and escape. She falls alseep and wakes up to find Toto and overhears Nagi calling to inform them about the data chip being a bomb. Toto tells Shiro to catch up with Ganta and the others and dispose of the chip. Shiro does so by finding Ganta and tossing it into fire. It explodes, but Ganta thinks it is the fire reacting to the chip. He yells at her, but Shiro calls him weak and that she needed to. This causes Ganta to hit her and it shocks her. She runs away and finds her way back to the dead owners room. She believes he is just sleeping and invites herself in. She finds the cookies, which she is unaware are spiked with alcohol and eats all of them. Toto finds her and addresses her as Wretched Egg. This annoys Shiro, but she soon discards it, resulting from her becoming drunk off the cookies. As she stumbles around drunk, Shiro finds the captive Karako and Genkaku's layer. She is quickly bound as well, snapping her out of her drunk state. Ganta arrives to save them, but is overpowered. Shiro tries to help Ganta, but finds herself immobile from injures to her ankles. Ganta, which is reverse from usual, protects Shiro, taking all the punches dealt by the crazed Nagi. Ganta activates a higher stage of Branch of sin, which sends Shiro into a stage of Wretched Egg. The red on her suit light up and she mimics Ganta's movements. Shiro snaps out of Wretched Egg in time for Ganta to catch her and show her to the moonlit ferris wheel. He assures his promise to her as other prisoners escape.

Abilities
Regeneration: As the results of Hagire's and Sorae's experiments, Shiro's body has developed the ability to regenerate almost immediately. They have done tests by ripping of pieces of flesh from her body, even removing internal organs, but they keep regenerating. Her legs have been broken more than once in the manga, and once in the anime, and they heal with dramatic speed, visibly snapping back into place. The reason for this, is her exceptional blood (as the first Branch of Sin). Her blood just boils and recreates the flesh or organs.

Branch of Sin: As Shiro, she has shown minimal control of her Branch of Sin and has been able to use it in combat only once. She first discovered her powers when Ganta and Senji were discussing their Branches of Sin. She used it to fight for the first time in Ganta's battle with Shishito Madoka, where she saved Ganta when he was about to get killed. Shiro's Branch of Sin is the same as the Wretched Egg but less powerful. However, it's still strong enough to cut Shishito's Shūen no Ago. In the final chapter it is hinted that Shiro can no longer use her Branch of Sin.

Trivia

 * Shiro's name means White in Japanese.
 * One of Shiro's favorite sweets is Anpan.
 * Shiro is one of the few characters that has appeared on multiple volume covers: Volume 1, 2, 11 and 13. Not including Volume 10 as, technically, that's the Wretched Egg.
 * She refers to the Wretched Egg as Aceman, given that she developed her second personality after crying out for Aceman to help her.
 * Due to her split personality, Shiro is at the same time a supporting character and an antagonist. As Shiro, she would morally support Ganta and help him get through his days in Deadman Wonderland and his severe depression, as well as assisting him in a battle and saving his life on couple occasions (for example, Ganta's battle with Shishito Madoka). As Wretched Egg, she would psychologically torture Ganta by killing his friends and pinning the blame on him, as well as intimidate him by overpowering, leaving Ganta to feel frightful and resentful towards her as a sort of revenge for her pain and suffering in her past.
 * Shiro can be known as a Yandere (ヤンデレ). Yandere is a Japanese glossary term of Anime and Manga for a person who is initially very loving, caring, and gentle to someone they truly like and care for, before their romantic devotion becomes mentally destructive in nature, often through violence and/or brutality.
 * Shiro's bodysuit is an unlockable outfit in the video game Lollipop Chainsaw. The protagonist, Juliet Starling, also takes on her appearance, having white hair and red eyes.

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Shiro