TV-Series
Description
Ayase Kishimoto is a seventeen-year-old second-year student at Suimei Academy who also leads a double life as the vocalist of the popular underground gothic rock band Phantasm, where she performs under the stage name FES. She is a tall, slender girl with short, pale blue hair styled in a pageboy cut and brown eyes. Her birthday is January 29, making her an Aquarius. In her daily life, she typically wears her school uniform and maintains a stoic, expressionless demeanor, but her stage persona is dramatically different, featuring a black leather jacket, red corset, miniskirt, and high heels.
Ayase has a complex background rooted in childhood trauma. From a young age, she exhibited signs of mental disturbance and was raised in a psychiatric care facility. When the technology corporation Shibuya Heavy Industries took over this facility, she was subjected to various forms of torture, including water torture, which ultimately caused her to awaken as a Gigalomaniac, an individual capable of manifesting their delusions into reality. This traumatic past, combined with her resulting abilities, shaped her unique worldview and personality.
Her personality is marked by a profound disconnect from ordinary thinking and behavior. From a distance, she appears emotionless and keeps to herself, rarely interacting with others. She is deeply introverted and spends much of her time reading, with a particular interest in world mythology and legends. She loves chocolate, singing, and contemplating the mysteries and conspiracies of the world, while she dislikes mathematics and waking up early. Her way of speaking and thinking is heavily influenced by mysticism and the occult, which causes those attracted to her mysterious beauty to find it difficult to connect with her on a common level.
Ayase is a devoted believer in a force she calls the Great Will, which she feels guides her actions. This belief fuels her intense interest in the fictional book series the Gladioul Saga, a dark fantasy epic about seven Black Knights battling the evil god Gladioul. She interprets the world through the lens of this saga, believing that real-life Gigalomaniacs are the Black Knights and that the Di-swords they wield are the weapons needed to defeat Gladioul. This fixation leads her to speak in a dramatic, metaphorical manner that others often dismiss as delusional or chuunibyou, a term for middle-school second-year syndrome, though her predictions consistently prove accurate.
Her role in the story is significant, as her song lyrics for Phantasm possess an uncanny ability to predict future events, including the New Generation serial murders. One of her songs, Crucifixion Mass, eerily foreshadowed a specific murder case known as the Staking. This predictive power draws the attention of law enforcement, and when her childhood medical records are leaked online, she becomes overwhelmed with despair and attempts suicide by jumping from the school roof. She is saved by the protagonist, Takumi Nishijou, who unknowingly uses his own Gigalomaniac powers to rescue her. From that moment on, she becomes convinced that Takumi is one of the seven Black Knights destined to defeat Gladioul, and she dedicates herself to helping him awaken to his true power.
Ayase's most important relationship is with Takumi Nishijou. While she shows little interest in others, including Daisuke Misumi who frequently flirts with her, she displays more emotion and engagement when interacting with Takumi. After he saves her life, she sees him as her only hope and forms a pact with him to protect one another. In her character-specific route, this bond deepens significantly, with Takumi coming to see her as his one true friend.
Throughout the story, Ayase undergoes considerable development. Her initial despair gives way to a determined, if obsessive, mission to gather the seven Di-swords. She demonstrates a willingness to do whatever is necessary, including retrieving the Di-swords from fallen Gigalomaniacs, as she believes this is the only way to stop Gladioul and save the world. The culmination of her development comes when she finally understands that her entire life has been viewed through a distorted lens. She has always seen the sky as blood-red, a manifestation of the hidden malice and negative emotions of others that she perceives around her. When she and Takumi successfully use the gathered Di-swords to shatter this false sky, she sees the true blue sky for the first time and breaks down in tears at its beauty, finally understanding the world as others see it.
As a Gigalomaniac, Ayase possesses a Di-sword, a physical manifestation of her delusional power. Her Di-sword is an asymmetrical, streamlined single-handed blade with a continuously curving, serrated edge. She is notable for being the only Gigalomaniac in the story who names her abilities; she can real-boot a river of ice to freeze her enemies, a technique she calls Cocytus after the Greek mythological river of lamentation. More fundamentally, her Gigalomaniac ability allows her to perceive the world differently from others, seeing the malice in people as black mist and the sky as a permanent crimson red, a perspective that likely enables her prophetic visions and songwriting.
Ayase has a complex background rooted in childhood trauma. From a young age, she exhibited signs of mental disturbance and was raised in a psychiatric care facility. When the technology corporation Shibuya Heavy Industries took over this facility, she was subjected to various forms of torture, including water torture, which ultimately caused her to awaken as a Gigalomaniac, an individual capable of manifesting their delusions into reality. This traumatic past, combined with her resulting abilities, shaped her unique worldview and personality.
Her personality is marked by a profound disconnect from ordinary thinking and behavior. From a distance, she appears emotionless and keeps to herself, rarely interacting with others. She is deeply introverted and spends much of her time reading, with a particular interest in world mythology and legends. She loves chocolate, singing, and contemplating the mysteries and conspiracies of the world, while she dislikes mathematics and waking up early. Her way of speaking and thinking is heavily influenced by mysticism and the occult, which causes those attracted to her mysterious beauty to find it difficult to connect with her on a common level.
Ayase is a devoted believer in a force she calls the Great Will, which she feels guides her actions. This belief fuels her intense interest in the fictional book series the Gladioul Saga, a dark fantasy epic about seven Black Knights battling the evil god Gladioul. She interprets the world through the lens of this saga, believing that real-life Gigalomaniacs are the Black Knights and that the Di-swords they wield are the weapons needed to defeat Gladioul. This fixation leads her to speak in a dramatic, metaphorical manner that others often dismiss as delusional or chuunibyou, a term for middle-school second-year syndrome, though her predictions consistently prove accurate.
Her role in the story is significant, as her song lyrics for Phantasm possess an uncanny ability to predict future events, including the New Generation serial murders. One of her songs, Crucifixion Mass, eerily foreshadowed a specific murder case known as the Staking. This predictive power draws the attention of law enforcement, and when her childhood medical records are leaked online, she becomes overwhelmed with despair and attempts suicide by jumping from the school roof. She is saved by the protagonist, Takumi Nishijou, who unknowingly uses his own Gigalomaniac powers to rescue her. From that moment on, she becomes convinced that Takumi is one of the seven Black Knights destined to defeat Gladioul, and she dedicates herself to helping him awaken to his true power.
Ayase's most important relationship is with Takumi Nishijou. While she shows little interest in others, including Daisuke Misumi who frequently flirts with her, she displays more emotion and engagement when interacting with Takumi. After he saves her life, she sees him as her only hope and forms a pact with him to protect one another. In her character-specific route, this bond deepens significantly, with Takumi coming to see her as his one true friend.
Throughout the story, Ayase undergoes considerable development. Her initial despair gives way to a determined, if obsessive, mission to gather the seven Di-swords. She demonstrates a willingness to do whatever is necessary, including retrieving the Di-swords from fallen Gigalomaniacs, as she believes this is the only way to stop Gladioul and save the world. The culmination of her development comes when she finally understands that her entire life has been viewed through a distorted lens. She has always seen the sky as blood-red, a manifestation of the hidden malice and negative emotions of others that she perceives around her. When she and Takumi successfully use the gathered Di-swords to shatter this false sky, she sees the true blue sky for the first time and breaks down in tears at its beauty, finally understanding the world as others see it.
As a Gigalomaniac, Ayase possesses a Di-sword, a physical manifestation of her delusional power. Her Di-sword is an asymmetrical, streamlined single-handed blade with a continuously curving, serrated edge. She is notable for being the only Gigalomaniac in the story who names her abilities; she can real-boot a river of ice to freeze her enemies, a technique she calls Cocytus after the Greek mythological river of lamentation. More fundamentally, her Gigalomaniac ability allows her to perceive the world differently from others, seeing the malice in people as black mist and the sky as a permanent crimson red, a perspective that likely enables her prophetic visions and songwriting.