Tsukune Aono

Overview

History

Relationships

Image Gallery

Powers

Skills

Techniques

Transformations

Tsukune Aono
Kana	青野 月音
Romaji	Aono Tsukune
Debut
Manga	Rosario + Vampire Chapter 001
Anime	Rosario + Vampire Episode 01
Game	Rosario + Vampire: Tanabata's Miss Yokai Academy
Profile
Birthday	June 22
Gender	Male
Age	18
Status	Alive
Race	Human (formerly) Ghoul (formerly) Shinso Vampire
Hair Color	Black Silver (transformed)
Eye Color	Brown
Technique	Youjutsu
Equipment	Holy Lock (formerly) Belmont (formerly)
Personal Status
Relatives	Moka Akashiya (fiance) Kasumi Aono (mother) Koji Aono (father) Kyouko Aono (cousin) Issa Shuzen (future father-in-law) Kokoa Shuzen (future younger stepsister-in-law) Kahlua Shuzen (future older stepsister-in-law) Akua Shuzen (future older stepsister-in-law)
Affiliations	Newspaper Club Yokai Academy Huang Family Miao Family Shuzen Family
Class	S-Class
Voice Actor	Daisuke Kishio (Japanese) Todd Haberkorn (English)

Tsukune Aono (nicknamed Tsuki by his cousin Kyouko) is a former human and the main male protagonist of the series. He is mistakenly enrolled in Yokai Academy, a high school dedicated to teaching monsters to peacefully live alongside humans in disguise, where he meets and falls in love with Moka Akashiya, a vampire who takes a mutual interest in him and the sweet flavor of his blood. Tsukune becomes a member of the school’s Newspaper Club and eventually befriends several monster girls including Kurumu Kurono, Yukari Sendo, Ruby Tojo, and Mizore Shirayuki—all of whom become infatuated with him and form an unwanted harem—as well as Kokoa Shuzen, Moka’s younger half-sister. He also makes friends with several male monsters such as Ginei Morioka, Hokuto Kaneshiro, Fang-Fang Huang and Haiji Miyamoto. They support Tsukune’s belief that monsters and humans can coexist and be more than just enemies, their friendship with him being a prime example of that sentiment. As time goes by, Tsukune’s body undergoes several transformations: he first faces the danger of turning into a mindless ghoul after receiving multiple blood transfusions from Moka when gravely injured by several powerful monsters as the series progresses. He maintains his humanity by wearing a Holy Lock that keeps him from changing while allowing him to access some of his newfound vampiric powers gained as a result of Moka’s transfusions. Later on, he subjects himself the human modification ritual in order to become stronger and learn the magical arts of Youjutsu. Not long after, Tsukune finally gains full control over his vampiric powers by removing his Holy Lock and becoming a Shinso vampire.

Appearance

Tsukune’s typical appearance is that of an average human teenager: he has black hair, brown eyes and a relatively athletic physique. Whenever he is injected with some of Moka’s blood, his eyes develop slitted pupils, much like those a true vampire when they exert their power. After becoming a modified human, blue patterns that resemble the conductive tracks of a printed circuit board appear on Tsukune’s skin when using his newly-learned spells and powers. His eyes also appear to change from brown to blue when using certain Youjutsu techniques. The wounds he often sustains from altercations with monsters leave several scars on his body, the most prominent being an X-shaped mark on his torso he received from a monstrel that possessed blades for arms.

During his initial transformation into a ghoul, he develops the aforementioned vampiric eyes in addition to a black, web-shaped mark on his neck and face, originating from the puncture marks made by Moka’s fangs. When he experiences a complete—albeit temporary—transformation into a ghoul during his human modification ritual, he gains silver hair, empty white eyes, fangs and bat-like wings. His skin also turns mostly black with red patches over some of his muscles and crack-like patterns on his face, arms and torso. After undoing the first and second seal of his Holy Lock while aboard the Hanging Garden, Tsukune’s third transformation into a ghoul is slow but obvious: a black layer of skin gradually spreads over his body, wings begin to sprout from his back and parts of his body, such as his right arm, sporadically mutate due to being in close proximity to an awakening Alucard, the Shinso blood of whom having been directly passed onto him by Moka and her mother interacting with the supernatural energy of its original owner through his body.

After tearing off his Holy Lock to become a Shinso vampire to and learning how to control his new abilities with his friends’ aid, Tsukune can use his now immense Wealth of Power to change his physical appearance. He can now make his black hair silver, his round pupils slitted and create a black layer of skin that covers most of his body save for his face. This greater access to his aura allows him to sprout large bat-like wings from his back and likely make a full transformation into a rat or bat. He can also use his Creation ability to form a suit of flexible steel armor around his upper body, protecting him from injury to a certain extent.

For most of the series, Tsukune has worn the traditional Yokai Academy uniform with little personal modification: a white button-up shirt, a red tie, a green jacket, a black belt, light brown khakis and dark loafers. In the anime, he has occasionally worn uwabaki slippers with green soles. After the battle with Alucard at the end of the manga, he abandons the jacket of his uniform entirely. His casual attire consists of a green button-up shirt, a white T-shirt, a black belt, brown cargo pants and white sneakers. At the beach, he is shown to wear dark blue swimming trunks and sandals.

Personality

It should be noted that Tsukune is perhaps the most decent, chivalrous and compassionate character in the entire series. During his time at Yokai Academy, he comes to see monsters as equals and share the hope that they can live peacefully alongside humans. Despite there being many instances where he has been put into dangerous, even life-threatening situations, he is seemingly unable to bear hatred or hold a grudge and has forgiven those who have previously tried to do him harm. On certain occasions, the extent of this kindness has made Tsukune naive to certain truths or overly trusting of certain individuals, such as Hokuto, whom he views as a friend in spite of the the latter's true natura and intentions. Nevertheless, his selflessness and courage often comes out when he or someone from his group of friends is faced with the possibility of injury or even death. He is also willing to sacrifice anything order to protect the people he holds dear, even his own humanity. This is what has ultimately gained him friends at the academy as well as the affections of Moka, Kurumu, Mizore, Ruby and Yukari.

As an idealist who strives for peace, he favors diplomacy over violence. He has expressed his desire to simply reason with some monsters such as Lady Oyakata and Gyokuro Shuzen rather than fight them. While he has certainly regarded many of his encountered enemies with anger, he does not appear to truly wish them ill will or death. This is not without exceptions, though: he butchered some the ghouls of the Black Parade before confronting Gyokuro, an act that, when one considers the fact that they were once vampires who had been turned into mindless creatures, can be viewed a kind of mercy-killing. Before that, he verbally threatened Kuyou’s life during their rematch, though this was likely a side-effect of Tsukune’s own ghoulish nature surfacing after removing the first seal of his Holy Lock. The use of his Creation ability to nearly obliterate Alucard’s body conveys lethal intent as well, which is not at all unjustified given that Alucard was too large and resilient to be damaged by much else.

Tsukune is well aware of the fact that most of his female friends fawn over him. While he cares for all of them very much, the fact of the matter is that he is only in love with Moka and does not feel the same way about them as they do him. This, however, does not stop him from becoming flustered or sexually excited by their many attempts at seducing him or garnering his affection. The knowledge of their feelings for him would also explain his rather chivalrous, passive approach towards these propositions, as a blunt refusal and rejection of would probably break their hearts. Nevertheless, he has succeeded in subtly turning down every single pass made at him by Kurumu, Mizore, Yukari and Ruby, even when some of them have done so while partly undressed or completely naked.

Even after becoming a vampire, Tsukune has not changed as a person. He considers himself as much a human on the inside as he once was outside. To him, what he is does not matter so long as his personality remains intact and he can protect and be with the people he cares about, especially Moka.

Equipment

• Holy Lock (formerly): After turning into a ghoul for the first time, the academy’s headmaster, Tenmei Mikogami, presented Tsukune with a Holy Lock, a magical trinket that he wore around his wrist to remain human and suppress the unstable vampire blood in his veins. While the Lock allowed him to safely use some of the powers given to him by Moka’s blood, it would sometimes suffer a broken link in the event that he overexerted himself. By his second year, Tsukune made it his goal to become stronger by learning how to control his vampiric powers. After his training with Inner Moka and Ruby, he gained some level of refined control over his aura, being able to utilize his powers on command without damaging the Holy Lock. As a modified human, Tsukune learned to release the Lock's seals through magic to gain greater access to his powers. When he chose to become a true vampire in order to revive a mortally wounded Moka through blood transfusion, he ripped the entire Lock off of his wrist and has forsaken it ever since. Not long after that, Alucard reveals that the Holy Lock’s true purpose is to adapt the body of its wearer to the power that is seal off whilst simultaneously suppressing the side effects essentially making it a tool used to safely turn a human into a monster.
  • Unlock First Seal: After training with Touhou Fuhai, Tsukune learns how to undo the first seal of his Holy Lock. Doing so allows him to use his vampiric powers to a greater extent than when the Lock is fully sealed. However, this leaves him vulnerable to a slow yet gradual mutation into a ghoul.
  • Unlock Second Seal: After undoing the first seal of the Holy Lock, Tsukune is able to do the same with the second seal, in order to use more of his powers should the need arise. Unfortunately, this accelerates his transformation into a ghoul to the point where his body begins to visibly mutate.
• Belmont (formerly): When Tsukune first started training to use his vampire powers, due to him not having any experience in manipulating his Yoki he was loaned Belmont by Tenmei Mikogami. This legendary whip once belonged to a monster hunter in the past can cancel out magic such his holy lock and Moka's Rosary. By having his holy lock connected to something such as Ruby the excess energy can be transferred to her when he releases it by using belmont's magic cancellation property thus allowing him to utilize his powers without having it consume him. Though after his training in Yoki Detection by Moka he never used this whip again.

Quotes

• "Moka-san"
• "Kyō"
• (To Outer Moka) "S... surely... I'm a... weak... worthless guy... Moka-san, but I realized, it wasn't right running back home and parting with you like that... because I, want to be your friend Moka-san, even if you are a vampire, I like you Moka-san."
• (To Inner Moka) That's why one day... regardless of Inner or Outer, I hope that the two of you become one. For me, both of you are just as important.
• (To Outer Moka) "Moka-san, I always thought that you were someone who was kind and constantly smiling. Yet you're... Moka-san... It's the same for me too. Ever since I first met you, I liked you. And I want to stay by your side... Stay by your side forever and ever.
• (To Touhou Fuhai) "Even so... I need to become stronger. Even if I can just ;earn to block the Jigentou that slices through everything, even if I can just become a shield for everyone... I beg of you! Please give me the strength to protect Moka...!"
• (To Kurumu) "It-It'll be fine Kurumu-chan! I mean... my body is tough right!? And I also have vampire blood flowing through me that I got from Moka-san! And since we share the same blood... I can somehow feel it even though we're separated... Moka-san is feeling insecure right now. She's aloe, surrounded by enemies. She's scared and worried. I bet she's shaking like a small child... I need to hurry up and go to her side, and be their to comfort her."
• (To Kuyō) Out of my way, Kuyō. Or I'll kill you...
• (To Inner Moka) Don't say that protecting is the only thing you have left. Don't take it upon yourself to do everything. All this time, I've been chasing and chasing... and finally, I've come this far. This time, it's my turn to protect you.
• (To Inner Moka) Come on, Moka-san. Please don't make me out to be some pitiful soul... well, I admit I'm scared... but... I know I won't regret what happens from now on.
• (To Inner Moka) Hey... Moka-san, if I'm able to hear your voice in my final moment, do you think you can tell me...? Was I able to treasure you? Was I able to protect you with my two hands? Hey... even if it's just a smile and a nod, there's... nothing more I could ask for.
• (To Outer Moka) Until I met you... I had nothing... every day was as empty as the one before... but you... changed that. You lit up my days, you gave me a reason to live... I love you, Moka-san. I love so, so much... I can't imagine a day without you...
• (To Akua) Humans, Creatures, Really, I don't care about any of that. Nothing is more important to me, than the one I love. (Referring to Moka)
• (To Alucard) Our diferences are what let us understand each other. We've worked together to come this far, there are no doubts or regrets anymore. I'll over come this fight, and prove that even we can come to an understanding.
• (To Mikogami) Resent..? Of course not. I chose this path myself.
• "I was the one who was thankful... but I didn't get the chance to say it..."
• "Let's go back, to our Yōkai Academy."
• (To Issa) I was just hoping vampires and humans could get along better!
• "Moka-san has changed. That's why I was conflicted. Underneath Moka-san's gentle smile, I saw traces of the person I love. But if they share the same soul, it must mean... and I've noticed another change recently... the tips Moka-san's hair, had began to tinge of pale pink. Like the two souls... had started to become one."

Trivia

• Tsukune gets a bloody nose whenever he sees breasts. (mostly Kurumu's breasts)". 
• From the start of Season 2, Tsukune's hair begins losing its spikiness and becomes more smooth, similar to his mother's own hair.
• In the anime, Tsukune does not become a ghoul or a vampire. He has, though, been given Moka's blood, causing his eyes to turn red. He was also able to move at much faster speeds than even Moka was able to, though he was a bit confused as to what had happened. In addition to the natural, regenerative properties given to him by the injection, he undergoes similar physical changes, such as brighter hair and red eyes containing slitted pupils, all of which are a super-vampire's signature traits. Unlike Moka, Tsukune does not develop another personality, keeping his consciousness intact, although he did initially have memory issues.
• Tsukune's removal of his Holy Lock to save Moka is a good example of how far Tsukune will go for love and his friends.
• According to Alucard, Tsukune is the "trump card" in defeating him. Later on, Mikogami reveals that he had used Tsukune as Alucard pointed out and that they needed him for the final battle, meaning that from the beginning Mikogami was preparing him for that battle and that he was purposely having Tsukune evolve into a Shinso vampire by having him wear the Holy Lock.
• It could be hinted that after the battle against Fairy Tale and Alucard, Tsukune may have went to go see his parents and cousin explaining them about Yōkai Academy and his transformation becoming a shinso vampire before returning back to the monster realm.   
• Tsukune is Mikogami's successor becoming the new Headmaster of Yōkai Academy.
• Despite being liked by most girls, Tsukune only desires to be with Moka as shown on how much she means to him and that he loves her very much.
• Tsukune gave up both his life and his humanity twice to save Moka. The first time he did it was to save her from Midou, the second was to give her his blood, (Which incidentally, is her blood to begin with. When he said, "My life, and many memories, you were the one that gave me these things originally. So I'm returning them now." he was refering to that fact.)
• In the epilogue, Tsukune was so conflicted due to the change of Inner Moka, however, Issa told him that Outer Moka still lives inside Inner Moka to which made Tsukune see that the woman he loves still lives and both souls of the two Mokas are becoming one as Tsukune notices the tips of Inner Moka's hair are turning pale pink.
• Though Tsukune felt being beaten in thirty seconds by Issa Shuzen was bad, he didn't realize with Issa being on par with the Three Dark Lords and the strongest Vampire remaining, that 30 seconds is a major feat to behold.
• Now a vampire, Tsukune can now be considered a member of the Shuzen Family since Nurari hired Issa to become his mentor and bodyguard.
• In the Manga Epilogue, it is revealed that Tsukune officially ended up together with Moka, as both Kurumu and Mizore were sadly admitting that's a "Moka ending" (they don't seem to want to give up on him though).