The World Ends With You is about a teenage boy, Neku Sakuraba, who is forced to play a dangerous game in Shibuya. The players are all people who have died, and the prize is a chance to come back to life. However, the cost to enter is the thing that the player values the most.
During his first round, Neku is paired up with a girl named Shiki Misaki. Shiki is an ordinary girl whose entry fee was her appearance. Throughout the game, Shiki physically looks like her friend Eri, who she envied for being pretty, popular, and talented. There is a lot of depth to her character, and even her smallest of actions reveals something about her that could be easily missed.
10 She Kept Looking At Eri’s Picture In An Attempt To Mimic Her
When Shiki first entered the game with Eri’s appearance, she decided to mimic her personality as well, assuming that she would become more likable if she acted bubbly and cute.
However, she was partnered with Neku, who initially liked no one. He wasn’t afraid to tell her that she was annoying. Every time he rejected her attempts at building a friendship, she kept looking at her picture of Eri and wondering what she was doing wrong. This was her way of trying to copy Eri’s personality as best as she could.
9 She Never Realized Neku Had No Memory Until He Told Her
Until Neku expressly stated that he had no memory, Shiki never figured out that he had no memory. It’s strange that she didn’t, since Neku seemed completely unfamiliar with Shibuya’s layout. He was also a complete stranger to Hachiko, the most prominently known statue in the city.
On top of that, he had absolutely no knowledge of the game, and his constant confusion was made obvious to her even though he wasn’t trying to work with her.
8 She Has An Eye For Small Details
Shiki has the ability to spot tiny things that most other people would miss. When something is off, she gets easily agitated. When tasked with lifting Hachiko’s curse, she notices something off about the statue from a distance, long before the player spots it.
It is not until they get close that the blue markings become obvious. She also noticed that one of Neku’s buttons on his shorts was coming loose, and although she tried to ignore it, she eventually couldn’t hold in her frustration anymore.
7 She Is Quick To Help Others
When she notices 777 is having some trouble, she doesn’t hesitate to approach him. This aspect of her is not her attempting to copy Eri, as she rushes over and tells Neku that even if they can’t help, the least they could do was listen.
She completely forgot that they were dead and that normal people couldn’t see them. Neku attempts to tell her that 777 is a reaper but she’s too wrapped up in her attempt to help someone out.
6 No One Recognizes Her
Eri is the type of person who is always surrounded by friends. The fact that she is so social, outgoing, and popular is what made Shiki so jealous of her. However, no one seems to recognize Shiki while she is disguised as Eri.
Every store in the game has a decal on the front that allows the game’s players to be seen by the people who are still alive, yet no one ever mistakes Shiki for Eri. Either this is a coincidence or the living people see Shiki as herself rather than as Eri.
5 She’s Stronger Than Neku Outside Of Battle
In battle, Neku is the stronger of the two. He is the only player capable of using every pin in the game, which grants him a large variety of powers. However, Shiki was seen overpowering Neku once.
When she noticed the loose button on his shorts, she demanded that he take them off in the middle of the street. Naturally, he refused, but a few moments later, Shiki had managed to pry them off of him, all for the sake of fixing a button.
4 She Made Eri’s Clothes
When Shiki talks to Neku about her aspirations to become a designer, she tells Neku that she was the one who made her clothes. This impresses Neku, and he tells her that they look like they were done by a professional.
In reality, given that Eri is wearing the exact same outfit when they first spot her, Shiki technically made Eri’s clothes. The fact that Eri is wearing them after Shiki died was a nice, subtle way of showing how much she missed Shiki.
3 Eri Envied Her
For the longest time, Shiki felt inadequate compared to Eri. Those feelings festered inside of her, and she remained unaware of her own worth until she heard Eri talking about her.
Eri stated that she felt insecure too, to the point where she was willing to give up her passion for designing clothes because she was nothing without Shiki. By saying this, Eri admitted to envying Shiki’s skill as a seamstress, as she was always able to perfect Eri’s designs.
2 She Could Lose Her Character Growth If She’s Not Careful
Shiki lived a simple life in which she went to school, talked to Eri, ate, watched television, and slept. It sounds mundane, but she grew to appreciate the simplicity of her life after she completed The Game.
Before she left, she asked Neku if they could still be friends after he met the real her. She still displays some negativity towards herself, putting herself down in an attempt to convince the Conductor to allow Neku to have a second chance at life instead of her.
1 She Promises To Wait In Front Of Hachiko As A Symbol Of Her Loyalty
After they learned that Neku had to play The Game for at least one more week, Shiki promised to wait in front of the Hachiko statue every day until he came back to life.
Hachiko was a dog famous for waiting for its owner every day, and continued to wait for its owner for a decade following their death. By stating that she would wait in front of Hachiko, she expressed how much she valued Neku, which touched him so much that she became the most important person to him.
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