| Gyokuro Shuzen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Kana | 朱染 玉露 |
| Romaji | Shuzen Gyokuro |
| Debut | |
| Manga | Rosario + Vampire II Chapter 013 (cameo)
Rosario + Vampire II Chapter 042 (official) |
| Profile | |
| Birthday | April 22nd |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | Unknown |
| Status | Deceased |
| Death | Devoured by Alucard |
| Race | Vampire |
| Hair Color | Light Blond |
| Eye Color | Violet |
| Technique | Enemy Zero |
| Equipment | Rosary Hair Clip Rosario Cross (formerly) |
| Personal Status | |
| Relatives | Issa Shuzen (Husband) Akasha Bloodriver (Fellow Wife) Kahlua Shuzen (Older Daughter) Kokoa Shuzen (Younger Daughter) Akua Shuzen (Older Stepdaughter) Moka Akashiya (Younger Stepdaughter) Tsukune Aono (Future Stepson-In-Law) |
| Affiliations | Fairy Tale Shuzen Family |
| Class | S-Class |
Gyokuro Shuzen (朱染 玉露 Shuzen Gyokuro<spanpadding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0.1em; padding-right: 0.1em; font: bold 80% sans-serif; color: #00e; text-decoration: none; padding-top: 0px>?) was the first wife of Issa Shuzen and matriarch of the Shuzen Family (by usurping Issa's position as head) as well as the biological mother of Kokoa and Kahlua Shuzen. She served at the commander-in-chief of Fairy Tale and perhaps the most powerful enemy faced by Tsukune Aono and the Newspaper Club second to Alucard.
Appearance
Gyokuro was an attractive young woman with violet eyes and a rather ganguro-like appearance: tan skin and light blond, shoulder-length hair which is held back by a silver cross that doubles as her body's limiter and hair looks almost white. While it is possible that she merely follows the ganguro fashion trend, her daughter Kahlua shares these physical traits with her, suggesting that Gyokuro's ethnic/racial backgrounds are mixed. She appears to be in her late twenties or early thirties, though she is probably older than this as vampires have considerably longer lifespans than humans. Just like Kahlua, she was the spitting image proof that vampires are not solely pale-skinned, although her daughter's was much darker than hers, Gyokuro's skin being the color of Moka's namesake, being tan instead of dark brown like Kahlua's skin.
Gyokuro's attire consists of a black, oversized commander jacket, under which is a short black dress with an empire halter and a necklace with multiple cross-shaped pendants. She also wears gladiator-like sandals. Seven years before the events of the manga, Gyokuro was shown to have worn a longer version of her Fairy Tale dress.
Personality
Gyokuro is known to be cunning and manipulative as a vampire of the Shuzen house. She is always after power and she enjoys watching those who oppose her plans suffer. Gyokuro hates Akasha Bloodriver, due to her stealing Issa away from her. After losing to Tsukune, Gyokuro expressed hatred for his wish to see humans and monsters becoming friends, because that is the same wish which Akasha held strongly. By all accounts, Gyokuro's hatred for Moka and Akasha stems from the love her husband shows them and her hatred towards humanity is actually just done to scorn Akasha, meaning that she literally wants to wipe out mankind simply to scorn the ideals of Issa's mistress.
She is also shown to have a strong bias pride in her eldest daughter Kahlua. Examples of this are displayed when she chastises Akua for letting her emotions overcome her in battle, which is a central part of Kahlua's whole style of fighting, and when she showed no remorse what so ever towards her youngest daughter Kokoa. Gyokuro even actually ordered Kahlua to kill Kokoa and was annoyed to find the latter exceeding her expectations and managing to defend herself. Sadistic to the last, she shows great joy in the agony of her enemies, especially Akasha and those around her, to the point where she tormented Moka about Tsukune's ghoul mutation for the hell of it. Even when her army of vampires turned into ghouls, not only was she directly responsible, she displayed no remorse in the least and actually seemed to be under the impression, perhaps from her own vanity, that they were improved.
Perhaps her most obvious trait, and clearly her greatest weakness, is Gyokuro's sheer arrogance. Her pride in her position as head of the Shuzen family, Fairy Tale's Commander-in Chief, and her overall power and intelligence vastly exceeds any tendency for caution. As a result of this, Gyokuro has a habit of underestimating her foes or prematurely declaring victory, as she has been repeatedly surprised to find her foes stronger than she believed they'd be or still alive after a supposedly devastating attack. The first such case was in thinking she'd shot the Huang family airship out of the sky without first confirming a crash of said vessel, thus causing the reinforcements onboard to arrive safely. She continued to underestimate both Tsukune, thinking him dead from just one blow, and also her own daughter, Kokoa, whom she believed to still be inferior to her older sister in every way, but she was proven wrong both times. She has pride in the Shuzen family name and assumed her Vampire Army to be unbeatable because of it, but was not above turning them into ghouls when they did fail. Her overconfidence finally caught up to her when she mocked Moka about Tsukune's transformation into a Ghoul, after which an enraged Tsukune proceeded to overwhelm and defeat her.
All in all, Gyokuro is amoral, narcissistic, arrogant, highly ambitious and very begrudging, but the heart of her actions, all of them in fact, seem rooted solely around her hatred for Issa's mistress Akasha for stealing him away from her.
Eventually after fusing with Alucard, Gyokuro became insane all together with the explicit desire to kill Moka while taunting her about Akasha's sacrifice. Touhou Fuhai noted that Gyokuro's lust for power completely corrupted her as this is first spurred from failing to regain Issa's affections from Akasha and Moka. When Touhou Fuhai contradicted Gyokuro's research on the Rosario Cross being able to control Alucard by revealing that it's actually linked to Akasha fused inside Alucard, Gyokuro became desperate and hysterical by proclaiming denial over her research being false. Her new desperation caused her to begged Moka to not take away the Rosary that's keeping Alucard from devouring her while still retaining her arrogance by proclaiming that only she can stop the Floating Garden from crashing into the human world, something that was immediately proven wrong by Touhou Fuhai and Nurari. She continues to beg for her life after being proven wrong on this account causing Moka to snag the Rosary away while telling Gyokuro to ask mercy from Akasha if she wants it and when Alucard was about devour her all together Gyokuro screamed Moka's name in hysteria and desperation thus showing that Gyokuro is also very cowardly in spite of her arrogance.
Manga
Gyokuro first appears in chapter 42 of the second season manga. She is seen talking to Miyabi Fujisaki, colluding what to do with the captured Moka Akashiya.
Later, Gyokuro addresses her monster followers, announcing Fairy Tale's plan by using Moka to wake the sleeping Alucard and using it to destroy the human world. When Tsukune Aono and his friends arrive at Fairy Tale Headquarters to rescue Moka, their Yōkai is detected by Gyokuro, who throws a stone pillar at Tsukune before commanding her followers to attack. Tsukune blocks her pillar and defeats the monsters in the room before leaving with his friends and Hokuto Kaneshiro to search for Moka. Gyokuro once again detects their Yōkai and locates them effortlessly, cryptically stating that they will not be escaping there alive.
In chapter 54 of the second season both Kahlua and her notice that Alucard has began to awaken. She also watches as Akua continues her battle against Tsukune and Moka, where they note that Akua is on the defensive. Calling Akua weak, she and Kahlua move out.
Gyokuro appears behind Tsukune and, just as Moka shouts out a warning, she slams him with one of her arms while Kahlua restrains Moka. She then rips off Moka's Rosario and tells Moka that it is actually a device that was made to control Alucard. Placing the Rosario inside a machine, she then tells everyone that Alucard is now her faithful servant.
When Tsukune tells her to give the Rosario back, she is surprised; having thought her blow killed him. She then tells Alucard to kill Tsukune, only for Hokuto to save him. She is shocked to see a Huang ship coming down, having thought that she had shot it out of the sky.
Equipment
- Limiter: Like Kahlua, Gyokuro posses a limiter to keep her true power sealed which is a hair clip she wears on her head, but once she removes it her powers are unleashed revealing eyes in the palm of her hands.
- Rosary Control Device (formerly): Gyokuro studied Moka's Rosary after the initial sealing took place in order to discover what kind of seal Akasha had invented, however, she discovered that the seal's intended function was actually something more sinister: the ability to control Alucard. Desiring to take advantage of this power, Gyokuro created a control device capable of tapping into it, thus granting her the power to control Alucard after he was awoken and Moka's seal was removed. Unfortunately due to Gyokuro's grave misunderstanding, it's revealed by Touhou that the rosary isn't linked to Alucard in controlling his body, but rather it's linked to Akasha sleeping inside of Alucard's body.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Vampirism: Though the full extent of her abilities are only briefly shown, Gyokuro is considered to be extremely powerful as far as vampires go. Given that she is the wife of Issa Shuzen, who is argued to be the strongest vampire alive, being titled the head of the Shuzen Family after her coup, and her musing on personally killing Touhou Fuhai, one of the Three Dark Lords, it is entirely possible that she is on par with or close to her husband and the Dark Lords in terms of power.
- Immense Strength: Gyokuro possesses monstrous physical strength, being able to tear an enormous stone column out of the foundation of the Hanging Garden and hurl it a great distance with ease. She can also send Tsukune flying with a backhanded slap from her fist that would have killed him were it not for his body's resilience.
- Immense Speed: Gyokuro is extremely fast, capable of leaping from one roof to the next on the Hanging Garden in seconds. She also managed to fight on almost equal terms against Tsukune in his Second Holy Lock release.
- Immense Agility: Gyokuro is very agile and is able to swiftly jump from one of the Hanging Garden roofs to another during her fight with Tsukune and even managed to continue fighting whilst in mid-air as well.
- Immense Durability: During her battle with Tsukune, Gyokuro was able to withstand most of his attacks, including one that damaged her ribs and some of her internal organs. She later took several hard blows from him during her fistfight with him before a punch to the abdomen from his mutated fright arm left her incapacitated. She recovered less than a minute later and had enough strength to stand up before fusing with Alucard to continue fighting.
- Immense Reflexes: Gyokuro proved fast enough to retaliate and punch Moka before the latter's attack managed to hit her despite the distance between them bring mere inches. She also proved fast enough to evade most of Tsukune's attacks and deliver twice as many blows to him as he did her.
- Yoki Detection: According to Hokuto, Gyokuro has the strongest supernatrual energy detection ability of any living vampire, being able to sense a monster's aura and emotional state from within a three-dimensional range that encompasses the entire Hanging Garden itself. The scope of this power was demonstrated when she sensed the negative sentiments of Tsukune and co. regarding Fairy Tale's plan to destroy the human world among an enormous crowd of monsters who were all eager to see the human world's destruction.
- Enemy Zero: This is her signature yoki detection ability where she spreads her senses throughout the entire Floating Garden and is able to tell the energies of allies and enemies at the same time thus distinguishing them in seconds to warn the soldiers of Tsukune and his friends' presence. After removing her limiter, Gyokuro's enemy zero ability can allow her to imitate techniques she has seen in the past and analyzed with a pair of eyes upon the palms of her hands. She has displayed four abilities thus far:
- Kitsunebi: a flame manipulating ability of the fire Yōkai, Kitsune. Copied from Kuyō.
- Electro Asyl-Bop: An electrical ability learned from the lightning Yōkai, Raiju. Copied from Raika.
- Jigen-tou: dimensional sword, invented by Touhou Fuhai. By shifting between dimensions, Gyokuro can use her body as a blade capable of cutting through all matter without resistance. Copied from Akua (presumed).
- Fusion: By using the Rosary Control Device to manipulate Alucard and then synchronizing him with her Enemy Zero, Gyokuro was capable of fusing herself to Alucard and gaining full access to, and control over, all of his power. Undergoing this fusion also appears to let her borrow Aucard's healing abilities, as she overcame her wounds from the previous fight almost instantly. Also if she further delves herself in Alucard's power then eventually her own body mutates in a similar manner to the Shuzen vampires and Tsukune when they obtain Alucard's flesh and blood respectively though with the rosary, Gyokuro is able to maintain her sanity.
- Enemy Zero: This is her signature yoki detection ability where she spreads her senses throughout the entire Floating Garden and is able to tell the energies of allies and enemies at the same time thus distinguishing them in seconds to warn the soldiers of Tsukune and his friends' presence. After removing her limiter, Gyokuro's enemy zero ability can allow her to imitate techniques she has seen in the past and analyzed with a pair of eyes upon the palms of her hands. She has displayed four abilities thus far:
- Great Demonic Aura: When first entering the halls of the Hanging Garden, Tsukune is temporarily unnerved by Gyokuro's supernatural energy after briefly sensing it and describes it as being pitch-black in color.
Abilities
Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Gyokuro is very good in combat using her punches and kicks during her battle with Tsukune shown that that she can keep up with him in his second release form even though she was ultimately defeated by Tsukune.
Expert Researcher: Due to her lust for power and tenacity towards destroying Akasha's dream of coexistence with humans, Gyokuro researched all forms of power that she can use to her advantage in her ambition to being the most dominant. This was shown 7 years ago when after Inner Moka was initially sealed by Akasha, Gyokuro researched the use of the rosary and eventually came to the conclusion that it links to Alucard's body and allows one in control of it to command him to a certain extent. However this was proven false in that the only reason why it even allowed the small amount of control over Alucard that Gyokuro managed to acquire was because Akasha was inside Alucard at the time which was what the rosary was really connected to. Also in her countless research for power Gyokuro also eventually found out that Akasha was only able to defeat and seal Alucard because she dived into Alucard's body to seal him from the inside out and that their Shinso blood eventually mixed and synchronized. During her research of Alucard's body she proceeded to implant parts of his flesh into the Shuzen vampires thus mutating them to ghouls when they resonated with Alucard himself.
Quotes
- "AKASHIYA MOKA!!"
- "Kill the Humans, slice their meat, cut their bones, and use their blood and guts to hold the most extravagant party. Come now! And we will engrave into their corpses, our everlasting fantasy world!"
- "...Oh? This is strange... I sense someone who opposes my speech, seven of you. It seems like, some rats have found their way in."
- (To Miyabi) "As her mother, I must welcome the important man Moka has brought to me."
- (To Moka) "You... Little... How dare you kick me... Argh. Kick me... Your own mother...You're not getting away with this Mokaaa!!"
- (To Moka) "Hehe... I bet Akasha would be screaming... If she knew her own creation would cause the death of her daughter. I can just imagine her down on her knees weeping and begging me to stop..."
- (To Moka) "What Akasha left you wasn't love, it was despair and death."
- "You're... Kidding... So from the beginning, the rosary was never going to get me my revenge...? Then... Then what has everything I've done been for...?"
Trivia
- Gyokuro follows the Shuzen Family's tradition of being named after beverages: Gyokuro is a fine and expensive variety of Japanese green tea.
- Despite and however the fact that Gyokuro is a fine, expensive Japanese green tea, the suffix of the name "-kuro" does have a meaning in the Japanese language - "black" - as in the color.
- Unlike the majority of Rosario + Vampire's female characters, Gyokuro is one of the few to have not been given a moment of fan-service, such as a panties shot.
- Gyokuro is similar to Lady Oyakata and possibly Hokuto in the sense that she was driven to madness as a result of unfair treatment; in this case, her husband's mistake of neglecting her in favor of Akasha.
- Despite being a vampire whom are noted for their strength, Gyokuro is shown to be very weak in mind as her fall from grace into madness and death were indirectly caused by her reliance on Issa Shuzen's love just like how Akua Shuzen is dependent on her sister to go on in life despite her overwhelming strength (albeit Akua later learned not to monopolize Moka in order to retain her love).
