Aira Shiratori

WARNING! This article may contain major spoilers for the Dandadan manga series. Please read at your own risk.

Overview

Synopsis

Relationships

Image Gallery

Aira Shiratori
Kanji	白鳥愛羅
Rōmaji	Shiratori Aira
Characteristics
Race	Human
Home Planet	Earth
Gender	Female
Age	16-17
Hair Color	Light Pink
Eye Color	Dark Pink
Personal Status
Status	Alive
Occupation	High School Student
Affiliation	Kami High (History and Culture Research Club) Family
Residence	Kamigoe City
Combat Style	Yokai Powers
Relationships
Relative(s)	Unnamed Father Unnamed Mother †
Portrayal
Japanese Voice	Ayane Sakura Kikuko Inoue (Acrobatic Silky form)
English Voice	Lisa Reimold Amber Lee Connors (Acrobatic Silky form)
Debuts
Manga Debut	Chapter 10
Anime Debut	Episode 5

Aira Shiratori (白鳥 愛羅, Shiratori Aira^?) is one of the main characters of the manga series Dandadan.

She is a former popular student at Kami High who later became one of Momo Ayase and Okarun's main allies whenever the two are faced with the paranormal.

Appearance

Aira is a young woman with short light pink hair that mostly frames the left side of her face and dark-pink eyes. She is recognized as being very attractive by the boys at her school, which she is aware of and greatly takes great pride in.

Her common attire is her school uniform; a dark buttoned up blazer with her school emblem located around the left breast, a collared shirt, a bow, a dark short skirt, long socks and sandals. She also wears a long sleeve sweater that varies underneath her blazer.

Gallery

Aira's anime concept art.

Aira in her school uniform during the Acrobatic Silky Arc.

Aira as a child.

Aira in her school uniform during the Serpo Arc.

Aira in her school uniform during the Kaiju Arc.

Personality

Aira hiding behind her sweet school girl persona.

Initially, Aira reveled in her social status as the popular girl at Kami High and strove to maintain her reputation. Outwardly, she appeared sweet, innocent, and somewhat air headed. However, internally, she was vain, arrogant, and insensitive. Her beauty became a tool for teasing her male classmates, and she looked down upon them for being easily charmed by her facade. She was also not above committing acts of cruelty when provoked by others, having anonymously spread a nasty rumor about Momo after the latter used her powers to drop a tub on her head as a form of retaliation for making fun of Okarun.

Aira trying to exorcise Momo.

Upon discovering Okarun's kintama, Aira developed a grandiose belief that her newfound ability to see spirits, triggered by the golden ball, was a divine sign that she was the chosen one, destined to protect the world from evil. This belief was compounded by her vanity, as she considered her beauty to be a key reason for her selection. She labeled Momo as a demon and an adversary after witnessing the manifestation of her psychic abilities, which she referred to as "demon wings". It was then on that Aira made it her mission to defeat Momo. This side of Aira soon faded by the time the Evil Eye became housed within Jiji.

Despite her self-importance and ruthlessness, Aira is not without a guilty conscience. Overcome with guilt for initiating the unpleasant rumor about Momo after her classmates assumed, based off her false story, that the latter was to blame for Aira's humiliation of being exposed in her underwear at school, Aira confessed to her deplorable actions, absolving Momo's name at the expense of her own popularity. She also sincerely apologized to Momo for endangering her with the Evil Eye after accidently splashing her cold beverage on Jiji. Memory of this incident even drove her to continue fighting against the giants summoned by the Music Room Portraits.

Aira helps Acrobatic Silky achieve Nirvana.

She is also capable of experiencing empathy and demonstrating compassion towards others. Despite nearly dying from being swallowed by Acrobatic Silky, Aira felt sorry for the yokai upon learning from Turbo Granny that she would be forgotten by both the living and the dead once her body crumbled away into nothingness without her aura and ensured she achieved Nirvana by embracing her and acknowledging her as her mother. Along with this, she vowed to always remember her and expressed a heartfelt wish for Acrobatic Silky and her child to find peace together in the next life. Upon witnessing Bamora's memories and comprehending the anguish endured by the alien girl at the hands of the Kur, Aira was moved to tears and pledged to vanquish the exosuit aliens in Bamora's honor.

Aira being strict with Momo, Jiji, and Mr. Mantis Shrimp for their poor training performance.

After losing her popularity at school, Aira ceased the facade she put on for others. Once she integrated into the social circle formed by Momo and Okarun, she is much more open with her true self, which is marked by pride, sternness, and a tendency to be dismissive. As such, she asserts her position as the de facto leader of the gang and expresses a strong aversion to being left out of their endeavors or whenever someone else takes the lead in their battles. She also does not hesitate to speak bluntly when she needs to make her point, such as when she expressed how unfair it was for her, Momo, Okarun, and Seiko to keep monitoring Jiji after he decides to spare the Evil Eye from exorcism. She was also very strict with Momo, Jiji, and Mr. Mantis Shrimp for their poor training performance. Aside from this, Aira cares for them as not only her comrades in arms but as her friends she has grown close to.

Despite her serious disposition, Aira has moments where she can be mischievous and playful. She thought about dropping by Moe Moe Kikoho to tease Momo after learning from Jiji that she works as a maid and poked fun of Momo and Jiji for sleeping close together. She also has a soft spot for things she finds cute. Though she disapproved of Mr. Mantis Shrimp returning to Kamigoe City to become a resident, she immediately changed her mind after meeting Chiquitita, finding him adorable to hug and play with. Enamored by Momo's tiny size, Aira felt the urge to play with her as a doll.

Aira fantasizing about a date with Okarun.

Touched by Okarun's altruistic nature, which had prompted him to come to her aid during her confrontation with Acrobatic Silky, Aira developed a crush on him that she does not hide. Her demeanor with Okarun is noticeably kinder and warmer compared to her interactions with other classmates, and she often finds herself blushing and enchanted by his presence whenever he is near. Aira is prepared to offer her help to Okarun in any manner possible, holding the belief that a girl who supports his virtuous character is deserving of being his companion. She is also shown to be susceptible to jealousy, as she and Momo tried moving Bamora away from Okarun after she approached him too close, while also reprimanding her for addressing him casually. Aira acknowledges her ignorance on how to deal with her romantic feelings, having never felt such emotions for anyone prior to Okarun. In an effort to find clarity, she consulted her father's "books", which ultimately prompted her to make an impulsive attempt to kiss Okarun.

Aira is also modest, as she has moments of being cautious about her skirt accidently flashing her underwear when fighting. Additionally, she dislikes having her clothes ruined in battle, especially her school uniform.

Background

Around the time she was a little girl, Aira had ran into a strange woman in red on the streets and had mistaken her for her deceased mother. Realizing her mistake, Aira returned to walking with her father, but became unaware that the mysterious woman started to follow her throughout her life.

During her childhood, Aira learned how to play the piano and competed against children her age. After losing against a girl named Kouki Yukishiro, Aira became dedicated to improving her skills until she managed to beat her. However, she soon quit playing right after, having found it tedious.

Abilities and Powers

Supernatural Abilities

Spiritual Awareness
Aira was able to see spirits when she was a child but had lost the ability at some point. Her awareness soon reawakened after coming into contact with one of Okarun's kintama.
Acrobatic Silky Form
After being transferred Acrobatic Silky's aura, Aira subsequently inherited the yokai's powers as a result. When choosing to access Acrobatic Silky's powers, Aira enters a form where her hair increases in volume and gains a mask that resembles the yokai's face; covering all the way down to her neck while leaving her left eye exposed. By Aira's account, Acrobatic Silky's personality also ends up influencing her, as she explained to Okarun that she inadvertently starts to become foul mouthed to those who show her disrespect (though this could have very well been an excuse to prevent having Okarun look at her differently).

Enhanced Speed and Agility
	This state grants Aira Acrobatic Silky's extraordinary agility and swiftness to perform graceful acrobatic maneuvers, thus granting her a body that allows balance, flexibility, dexterity, and bodily coordination.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Aira's enhanced body to use Acrobatic Silky's acrobatics allows her to run along walls and execute flips, making her a challenging target to hit. This prowess was evident when she effortlessly evaded all of Mr. Mantis Shrimp's powerful punches and swiftly dodged a Serpo's invisible psychokinetic attack (though only after being hit by it once). In the confrontation with the Music Room Portraits, Aira dodged every explosive musical note, despite the reduced traction on the illusory terrain created by the tulpas. According to Turbo Granny's rhythm analysis, Aira's speed enables her to perform four distinct actions within a single beat, a feat comparable to that of the Evil Eye's speed. A major weakness is Aira's acrobatic movement being hindered, as she was left vulnerable to Mr. Mantis Shrimp's punches after the Serpo used their psychokinesis to bind her. After being casted into an illusionary paddy field by the Music Room Portraits, Aira could not run or evade attacks effectively as she wanted to due to the terrain causing her feet to sink. Aira's opponents can also make it hard for her to find an opening to counterattack if they have her become too occupied with dodging a barrage of incoming attacks. Attacks that are not made visible to the naked eye prove to be difficult for Aira to evade unless anticipated on time from small hints (such as the name of the attack being called out) or if she is aided by an ally who can see the attack to quickly move her out of the way. Additionally, she cannot evade large-scale attacks from giant opponents.
Enhanced Lower Leg Strength
	Along with incredible speed and reflexes, Acrobatic Silky's power bestows above average physical leg strength to Aira's human body, thus granting her the close quarters combat capabilities to fight against powerful enemies by executing powerful kicks. With a single kick, she was capable of sending Mr. Mantis Shrimp up towards a ceiling.
Enhanced Endurance and Durability
Moreover, Aira has displayed immense levels of physical endurance and durability, as she had recovered shortly after taking a devastating blow from Mr. Mantis Shrimp. In addition, she was able to endure taking on direct attacks from the Serpo Dover Demon Nessie whose large size made Mr. Mantis Shrimp's punches much more powerful. During her confrontation with the Music Room Portraits, Aira was able to remain conscious after taking damage from two giants created by the tulpas and was still on her feet by the time she took them down. Most impressively, Aira remained conscious and did not take heavy damage from a direct attack from the enlarged Sumerian God Exosuit.
Acrobatics
	Along with the increase in physical ability, the most prominent power Aira is granted is Acrobatic Silky's special ability to elongate her hair to great lengths, with which she can freely manipulate to perform tasks.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Aira using her hair to pick up cars. The hair is very strong and prehensile, as it can lift people or heavy objects, such as cars, and bind targets. What range limit, if any, there may be for her elongated hair is not known. While strong enough to pick up heavy objects, the resilience of Aira's hair does not change from how it normally is in her base form, thus causing it to be suspectable to damage, such as it being caught on fire. Aira's hair may also be hindered from reaching her intended target if it is hit by an incoming attack.
Usage
Aira's acrobatic fighting style and hair manipulation working in tandem. Aira uses Acrobatics for combat. While relying on her enhanced leg strength to execute strong kicks that are coupled with her acrobatic movement, Aira uses the malleability of her hair to reinforce this fighting style and to grab her enemies. Once entangled by her hair, Aira can choose to pull her opponents towards her to close the distance and attack or pull herself towards them to build up enough force behind her kicks. Other purposes include restraining or blinding her enemies, hurling objects at them, or to cover ground by latching onto large constructs and swinging herself to a desire location. All these capabilities make Aira out to be a formidable hand-to-hand combatant. If choosing to retreat after being at a disadvantage, Aira uses her hair as a diversion by covering herself and her surrounding area, concealing her plan to escape and leave the battlefield unnoticed, along with any nearby allies. Aira forming her hair into a drill. After being informed about the Power of Words and Spiral Power from Momo and Okarun, Aira began utilizing these two abilities in conjunction with her yokai powers to improve her offense. Using Spiral Power, Aira shapes her hair into drills around her legs to pierce through her opponents and penetrate tough material, such as suits of armor. The hair drill legs also help to give her further reach. With the Power of Words, Aira is able to execute even stronger attacks with her hair manipulation. For defensive means, Aira can form a protective dome by wrapping her hair around herself, which can reform if taken damage by a destructive attack.
Techniques
Pirouette Noble Drill (ピルエットおドリル, Piruetto O-Doriru?)
	Using Spiral Power, Aira has her elongated hair wrap around herself to form a full body size drill and launches herself towards her opponent to pierce straight through them. While drilling, Aira uses the Power of Words by shouting out the technique's name in order to increase its attack power. It was first used against the missile suit alien, which proved to be strong enough to drill straight through the hardness of the alien's armored suit.
Power of Words (言霊, Kotodama?)
Aira is able to use the Power of Words to enhance her special attacks when using Acrobatic Silky's power in combat.
Spiral Power (螺旋力, Rasen Chikara?)
Aira is capable of using Spiral Power, as shown when shaping her elongated hair into drills.

Chapter Appearances

Kintama Hunt Saga

Evil Eye Arc
51. We Can All Stay There Together!	Appears
52. The Hayashi Performers Are Here	Appears
53. We Became a Family	Appears
54. Get a Part-Time Job	Appears
55. Moe Moe Tri-Beam	Appears
56. Feeling Kinda Gloomy	Appears
57. Scary Dudes at School	Appears
58. Symphony No. 6	Appears
59. Symphony No. 9	Appears
60. You Can Do It, Okarun!	Appears
61. The Evil Eye's Briefs	Appears
62. I Want to Rebuild the House	Appears

Kaiju Arc
63. School Life	Appears
64. The Secret Art of Being Attractive	Mentioned
65. I Can't See Them!	Absent
66. Hey, It's a Kaiju	Appears
67. The Kaiju's Wicked Strong	Appears
68. Kinta's Imagination	Appears
69. Clash! Space Kaiju vs. Giant Robot!	Appears
70. This Is How You Beat A Kaiju, Okay?	Appears
71. I'm Sick of Robots and Kaiju!	Appears
72. Somebody, Please Translate	Absent
73. Let's Eat Some Takoyaki	Appears

Space Globalists Arc
74. Let's Go to School	Absent
75. Ran Into Someone Deadly	Absent
76. What Do We Do With Her?	Appears
77. This Person is a Pain in the Butt	Appears
78. A Pulse-Pounding Night	Absent
79. Just Who the Heck Is This Person?	Appears
80. Ran Into Some Deadly Dudes 2	Appears
81. What Do We Do About These Deadly Dudes?	Appears
82. Number One Deadliest Dude	Absent
83. At Work	Absent
84. Annoying Dudes	Absent
85. The Power of Nessie	Absent
86. I Just Wanna Leave Already	Absent
87. Can Never Sleep at a Manga Cafe	Appears
88. Spy	Appears
89. Argument	Appears
90. What're We Gonna Do?	Appears
91. Initiate! The Road to Counterattack!	Appears
92. Just Can't Sleep	Appears
93. Astral Body Adventure	Appears
94. Please Tell Me How To Get Back Into My Body	Appears
95. Day of the Decisive Battle	Appears
96. Motivation	Appears
97. What To Do About the Name?	Appears
98. What To Do About My Beauty Treatment	Appears
99. My Turn	Mentioned
100. Close That Gate	Absent
101. Vamola	Appears
102. Vamola 2	Absent
103. Vamola 3	Absent
104. Vamola 4	Absent
105. Banga	Absent
106. Vamola's Reasons	Appears
107. I've Decided On Takoyaki	Absent
108. I'm Gonna Kick Ya Into Tomorrow	Appears
109. Mantis Shrimp's Calculation	Absent
110. Wicked Power	Appears
111. Everyone's Reconvened	Appears
112. Today is a Tuesday	Appears
113. Wreck 'Em	Absent
114. A Persistent Bastard	Appears
115. It's Kinta's Turn Onstage	Appears
116. Howl, Great Kinta!	Absent
117. Out of the Frying Pan	Mentioned
118. The Power of Reiko Kashima	Appears
119. That Note	Appears
120. Reiko Kashima's Maiden Heart	Appears

Onbusuman Arc
121. Who's This Person?	Appears
122. Let's Form a Club	Absent
123. The Class Rep's Secret	Absent
124. Ombusman	Absent
125. Let's Do an Exorcism	Absent
126. It's a Parade Float. It's a Festival. It's Ninomiya	Absent
127. Float Performance Face-Off	Absent
128. Let's Be Idols	Absent

Danmanra Arc
129. Kawabanga	Absent
130. Mission Impossible	Absent
131. It's, Like, Pride	Absent
132. Delinquents' Track Meet	Absent
133. Where's Zuma?	Absent
134. Deadly Magic Object	Absent
135. She Went and Entered It	Absent
136. It's, Like, a Board Game	Absent
137. That Zuma Dude	Absent
138. Start Game	Absent
139. Let 'Em Eat Cake	Absent
140. How to Use Powers	Absent
141. Eatin' Too Many Treats	Absent
142. That's Enough Of Sweets!	Absent
143. Let's Take a Break!	Absent
144. Let's Go On An Adventure!	Absent
145. Commence Castle Siege	Absent
146. Castle Sieges Are Hard	Absent
147. It's a Megabrawl	Absent
148. Game Cleared	Absent
149. That Devil, the Fairy-Tale Card	Absent
150. This Guy's a Pain	Absent
151. Get That Family Jewel Back	Absent
152. Turbo Granny vs. Brella Boy	Absent
153. Unji Zuma	Absent
154. Unji Zuma 2	Absent
155. Unji Zuma 3	Absent
156. 'Brella Boy	Absent
157. Masamichi Bega	Absent
158. That Kawabanga Girl	Absent
159. Escape from the Cursed Trunk!	Absent
160. The Power of the Demonic Fairy-Tale Card	Absent
161. Saint-Germain, the Mysterious Man	Absent
162. Let's Blow the Demonic Fairy-Tale Card Away!	Absent
163. Saviors, Don't Be Late!	Absent
164. She's Gone All Little!	Appears
165. Family Jewels—Intact	Appears

Current Saga

Kozuka Knives Arc
166. Is This a Little Fairy?	Appears
167. Hey, There's Something There	Appears
168. There's Someone Here	Absent
169. Find The Culprit!	Appears
170. A Suspicious Woman	Appears
171. Corner the Perp!	Appears
172. Those Pygmies Are Scary	Appears
173. Corner the Criminal!	Appears
174. Queen Sensei's Infirmary	Absent
175. So Who's the True Perp?	Absent
176. Scattering the Bait	Absent
177. Let's Do Some Kung Fu	Absent
178. The Power of a God	Absent
179. This Seems Kinda Deadly	Absent
180. The Owner of the Kozuka Knives	Appears
181. Must Be the Influence of a Curse	Absent

Etymology

• The name Aira means "love, affection" (愛) (ai) and "lightweight fabric, gauze, thin silk, Rome" (羅) (ra).
• Aira's surname Shiratori means "swan" (白鳥); the word itself being a compound of "white" (白) (shira) and "bird" (鳥) (tori).

Trivia

• Aira is listed as #3 among Yukinobu Tatsu's top 4 favorite characters in the series.
• Aira shares the same full name with a character from Ensemble Stars!.