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.

This experimentation accidentally caused Shiro to become the very first Deadman. Shiro developed a second personality called the Wretched Egg (レチッドエッグ, Rechiddo Eggu) or the Red Man (赤い男, Akai Otoko) in order to cope with her suffering.

Background
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 Aceman. 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 quite well, but once, when Shiro was in grave pain because of the constant injections, they once bickered so violently that Shiro broke his Aceman 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 Aceman to save him. Suddenly, Shiro jumped down from a window and landed on the dog, knocking it out and saving Ganta. After this, Shiro vowed to become Ganta's "Aceman" 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.

The Wretched Egg was the cause of the Great Tokyo Earthquake. It was revealed in Chapter 55 that this wasn't an accident; it was actually Wretched Egg attempting to use her powers to such a degree that she could destroy her body faster than it could regenerate, as an attempt to commit suicide. Sorae created the Mother Goose System afterward to prevent her from trying it again, but gave her a small measure of hope by showing her the red crystal, and stating that she could still 'get her wish.' The moment she found out Ganta's class would be taking a field trip to Deadman Wonderland and saw his name on the list, she stole the red crystal, and broke out of the prison entirely to infect him with it.

Hagire built a room for Shiro in Deadman Wonderland, supplying her with all the candy she could ever eat.

Shiro
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.

Wretched Egg
The Wretched Eggs appearance is, for the most part, that of Shiro's. She always has a hooded and lazy look to her eyes and a wicked bloodthirsty smile on her face

She used to wear a red, worn-out cape with a mask that covered her nose and eyes, without any holes. As the Red Man, she also wore a heavy suit of armor that defends her body, legs and arms. This outfit actually makes her look like Aceman, a superhero Shiro looked up to and what she calls the Wretched Egg.

The Wretched Egg ends up changing her look. Now, she has a light purple and lavender lace bodysuit with long sleeves that are torn at the ends. She also wears a metal collar with a small chain attached to it.

Shiro
Shiro is a clumsy and bubbly young 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 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. Shiro does her best to protect Ganta, 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 him 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 afterward.

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 manifested during the dog race show. Shiro appeared to be oblivious of the dangers of the game and occasionally got in the way of Ganta's progression as well as his survival. But it is only at the end, when Ganta notices her cuts and scratches, that he discovers that she was discreetly keeping him out of harm's way, consequently taking his blows for him.

It is revealed in Chapter 36 that Ganta actually has strong feelings of love towards Shiro and that said feelings are mutual. As the series progresses, Shiro comes to understand the profound 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 speaking 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 the 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 couldn't 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.

The Wretched Egg
"I was a forsaken egg. Don't you think that gives me the right to hate this world?"

- Wretched Egg

The Wretched Egg is the opposite of Shiro. She is sadistic, appearing to value solitude over companionship and doesn't enjoy sweets but instead, eats large amounts of meat (whereas Shiro adores sweets and never eats meat). The most obvious difference is that Shiro is naïve and sweet while the Wretched Egg is vicious, merciless and cruel. The only thing that the two share is their affection for Ganta (though the Wretched Egg's feelings for him are much more warped when compared to the innocent love Shiro harbors for him).

Eventually, the Wretched Egg becomes the dominant persona with the Mother Goose System's lullaby no longer affecting her. The persona that was created caused her to go mad. She hopes that either Ganta or Hagire Rinichirō will be the one to satisfy her desires, though what she wants from the former isn't quite the same thing as what she wants from the latter.

The Wretched Egg is shown not to be completely bloodthirsty or mad. Despite being attacked by Azami, she did not fight back and even answered all of her questions as to why she wanted to kill Ganta, but was unable to complete her answers before Hagire killed Azami. She appeared to be surprised when Azami died and noted she was like a bird trapped in a cage showing that she held her in a slightly, friendly regard.

It is hinted in Chapter 54 that the Wretched Egg's feelings may not be as twisted as first appeared as she stated to Azami that "Aceman didn't come to save me... but he would always come to defeat the villains"; she thinks of Ganta while saying this which implies that: she thought of Ganta as Aceman. It is still unknown what this meant to her as Azami was killed before the Wretched Egg could explain any further. This comes full circle in Chapter 55, in which she confessed her love for Ganta, and then stated that her wish was for him to kill her all along, and even embed the red stone into Ganta's chest for that sole purpose. She even admitted that she killed his classmates out of jealousy, though whether she was jealous of them for being close to Ganta, or jealous of Ganta himself for being able to live such a happy, carefree life after forgetting about her while she was being tortured isn't clear. (it's likely both).

Prison arc
The Wretched Egg first appears as the Red Man, floating outside the window of Nagano middle school. When the lullaby plays, the Red Man attacks the class using her Branch of Sin. She kills every student in Ganta's class besides him. When Ganta regains consciousness, she is carrying Mimi's head. She walks towards him, grins, and plants a Red Crystal in his chest. Ganta faints again and the Wretched Egg goes back to Deadman Wonderland.

Shiro is first seen sitting on the roof of Deadman Wonderland, singing the Woodpecker Song. She smells Ganta arriving at the prison 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 it's 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 Yō, 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.

The Wretched Egg appeared before Ganta again in Deadman Wonderland, shortly after the Dog Race. She kills three inmates and nearly kills Yō as well before Ganta shoots her in the chest with his Branch of Sin. Rather than appearing in pain despite the dented armor, she grins, and welcomes Ganta 'home.' Appearing pleased, she flies away, apparently satisfied with Ganta's progression as a Deadman. 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 Yō 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 she and Yō 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 Yo and Shiro away 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.

The next time the Wretched Egg takes over, is when Yō and Shiro search for an entrance to G Ward. Yō tells Shiro to attack the guards in the control tower, so that he can order the central control tower to shut off the power in that area. They do so, and with that, the Chorus Block is shut down as well. With the MGS down, the Wretched Egg takes control of Shiro's body and kills all the guards and destroys the whole tower. She falls down and faints afterward. The twins take Shiro back to the Director. There, she awakens shortly after Ganta's Carnival Corpse match against Minatsuki Takami. The Director asks if she's hungry and offers her candy, to which Wretched Egg declines, stating she hates candy. The Director then says he's ready to 'play' with her again, and they begin fighting. Afterward, with Wretched Egg as the obvious victor, asks the Director if he had written another verse for the Lullaby yet. He responds that there can never be another verse. Wretched Egg then proceeds to put on the 'Red Man' armor, further revealing her identity to the audience.

Scar Chain Arc
Shiro 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 asleep 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 owner's 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 injuries to her ankles. Ganta, which is reverse from usual, protects Shiro, taking all the punches dealt by the crazed Nagi. The Wretched Egg briefly awoke shortly before Ganta used his upgraded version of his Branch of Sin on Genkaku, grinning at him as Genkaku goaded her to attack him. The same markings appearing on her face and arm, opposite the cheek and arm of the markings appearing on Ganta. Naturally, Ganta didn't realize at the time that it wasn't Shiro standing next to him. It is worth mentioning that this scene occurs only in the anime, and not in the manga. 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.

Revolt Arc
After Shiro is affected by Shishito Madoka's poison, Wretched Egg finally has enough pain, and therefore, willpower to overcome the Mother Goose System's effects on her. She permanently awakens after Ganta leaves to find Tsunenaga Tamaki, stating to the nearby Azami that she was going to give Ganta 'a little death.' Horrified and taking that as a threat against Ganta, she attacks Wretched Egg with her Snake Branch of Sin. Even though it's a direct hit, Wretched Egg's healing factor effectively negates the attack completely. Curiously, instead of retaliating, Wretched Egg simply asks Azami if she was really Ganta's friend. Before Azami has a chance to respond, Hagire decapitates her, clearly disappointing Wretched Egg in some way. She then picks up Azami's head, and proceeds to rampage throughout Deadman Wonderland, killing Rei Takashima and several Forgeries in the process, while Hagire went to deal with Tamaki.

Wretched Egg later appears as Hagire was taunting Tamaki about being a mere pawn in a much larger scheme of Hagire's. After Tamaki commits suicide, Wretched Egg begins decimating Makina's army (and leaves Makina herself paralyzed from the waist down), until Ganta appeared. Wretched Egg then showed Azami's severed head to Ganta, goading him into attacking her. Although she narrowly dodges a shot from Ganta's Ganbare Gun, the shot knocked off her mask, revealing her true identity to Ganta for the first time, much to his horror. The fight ultimately ends in a stalemate, though the actual ending of the fight was left ambiguous.

Return to Deadman Wonderland Arc
Wretched Egg comes to greet Ganta and the rest of the team as they arrive onboard the Walfisch. She meets Ganta as he's exiting the sub, scaring him. He then screams at her, asking why is she the Wretched Egg, revealing the truth to the shocked crew. She then pulls out the entire submarine onto the shore with her Branch of Sin, shocking the entire crew with her power. After nobody can believe that Shiro's the Wretched Egg, she corrects them, saying that the real Shiro is trapped inside her birdcage, as she points to her head, when Makina realizes that Shiro has a split personality. Angered, Ganta shoots multiple Ganta Gun bullets at Wretched Egg, wounding her greatly. As Ganta thought he had killed her, she gets back on her feet and heals herself almost instantly, telling Ganta that she's bored and still waits for the continuation of the song. She then leaves, leaving Ganta in a state of fear and anger towards her.

She goes back to her room to change the clothes Ganta ruined. She's then approached by Hagire who wants to figure out the secret behind Ganta's Ganbare Gun so he can unlock the Mother Goose System and free the Wretched Egg's true power. She tells him it's the same power as his Ganta Gun, leaving Hagire with only one possibility, to take over Ganta's body.

While Hagire prepares his machine to take over Ganta's body, Ganta is approached by Wretched Egg. As Ganta charges his attack to kill Wretched Egg, who's not herself, tells Ganta that if he kills her, they're no longer friends, due to Ganta's previous statement that he doesn't kill his friends. She starts to break down and switches to Shiro, who realized what she is and what she's done. Ganta, seeing the sadness and regret, tries to reach out to her. Rejecting his hand in help, she runs away, saying it's alright if Ganta hates her because she hates herself, leaving Ganta, yet again, confused.

She returns after Hagire's battle with Ganta and Senji that left him badly wounded and without two of his right limbs, but was saved by Yosuga. Hagire tells her that all of his doings are for her. He wants the ultimate body that can love and be loved so that together with her, they can love and kill each other. He states that he will be the one to release her true powers, unlike Ganta who wants to stop the Wretched Egg from fully awakening. She sadistically smiles and states that she's looking forward to one of them, fulfilling her desires.

After Hagire's death, she takes advantage of the situation by snatching away the main control of the Mother Goose System and destroys it, thereby releasing her true powers and destroying half of Deadman Wonderland island. She then calls out to Ganta to come after her. While she flies away, she changes back to Shiro and starts recalling Wretched Eggs past. Shiro and Ganta meet in one of the capsules from the Ferris wheel and reminisce about their past. Shiro starts telling Ganta about her horrific past, how she was all alone, constantly forced into battle with Hagire and suffered his experiments. After a brief talk with Shiro, Ganta asks her who is she now, due to her being a much more mature, but not as sadistic, version of Shiro. Shiro then tells Ganta that, like his one-sided coin, there is only one of her, meaning that her personality has been fused with that of the Wretched Eggs. At some point in this time, Wretched Egg ceased to exist.

Shiro
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 off 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.

Wretched Egg
Regeneration: The Wretched Egg has the power to regenerate completely in a very short amount of time. She has displayed this by healing several wounds inflicted by Ganta's Ganta Gun almost immediately.

Manifestation of the Red Crystal: The Wretched Egg can also implant a Red Crystal that houses the Nameless Worm into someone by shooting it in his/her chest. She has only done this once, to Ganta in the Nagano school massacre. The crystal was provided to Shiro by Sorae Igarashi.

Flight: It is unknown if this is because of her Branch of Sin, but the Wretched Egg has the ability to float in mid-air. With her ability to freely control how her blood outside of her body, her ability to fly may simply be lifting and manipulating her blood while its still inside her.

Branch of Sin: As the original Deadman, the Wretched Egg has the power to control her blood freely out of her body.

Branch of Sin: Original Sin/Roots: As the Wretched Egg, her powers are unmatched even by the strongest of opponents while her powers were restrained by the Mother Goose System. She has been shown to massacre dozens of people by creating a whip of blood that can destroy parts of the body instantly. Her Branch of Sin also resembles a hurricane. While unrestrained, she was powerful enough to cause the Great Tokyo Earthquake that submerged a large area of Tokyo. It's possible her power can spread infinitely and be expressed in multiple forms as evidenced by her lifting and slaming down a cargo ship prow first effortlessly after helping Ganta out of the Walfisch.

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.
 * The Wretched Egg refers to the original sin, which is the sin of Adam and Eve in Christianity, resulting in the fall of man.

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