Kōji Tanaka (田中 功次, Tanaka Kōji) is the secondary antagonist of the anime and manga series, Ajin.
He is the lieutenant of Sato, after he helped him escape from humans. As the second Ajin discovered in Japan, Koji has been captured by the government and tortured during many years for a experimental and a scientific purpose in order to study Ajins' immortality.
He was voiced by Daisuke Hirakawa in the Japanese version (who also voiced Makoto Itou in School Days, Enmu in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Xenolith in Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness) and by Keith Silverstein in the English dubbed (who also voiced Johan Liebert in Monster, Hisoka Morrow in Hunter x Hunter and Reaper in Overwatch).
History[]
After his body's condition were discovered, Tanaka was put into government custody. There, he became a living test subject for various Ajin experimentation by a secret medical facility not known to the public. He was tortured, mutilated and abused. Treated as a non-human or a monster, he was killed many times and used as a living target for biochemical weapons, always resuscitating after death.
After 10 years of being experimented upon, Tanaka is rescued by Sato and escapes the facility. Unlike Kei Nagai, Tanaka was angered and bloodthirsty against humans, who destroyed his life and made it a living hell, swearing vengeance after he left the facility.
Appearance[]
Tanaka is a rather tall man, with a square chin and slightly broad shoulders. He has small, piercing eyes. He has long, slicked back black hair and is often seen wearing a black baseball cap with the letters UCB in them. In the manga, he frequently wears a black leather jacket and olive trousers. In the anime, his black leather jacket is replaced with a red and white jacket instead. He wears a navy shirt underneath. He also wears navy jeans and black shoes.
Personality[]
Tanaka is excessively vituperative and resentful towards humanity after the daily torture and experiments he was subjected to during his capture. Other than this, he is rather impassive and unemotional; not really getting frustrated or angry in many situations, and is completely unresponsive to bloodshed and gore.
However, he is shown to care about some people at times, such as the case when he warned two girls about an upcoming terrorist attack as well as helping a woman escape from Satō. Ultimately, he decides that he's had enough bloodshed and decides that he wants to settle things peacefully, although this causes Sato to betray him.
Powers and Abilities[]
Tanaka has been shown to possess most of the abilities many Ajin possess, as well as some he gained through his capture.
- Immortality: Tanaka has been shown to have complete immortality, unable to die under any circumstance, including being completely crushed and shot point blank in the head.
- Paralysis Scream: While he has never been witnessed to use this, it can be assumed that he can paralyse others around him by screaming, as it is a basic trait amongst Ajin. As explained, by screaming, any person around him will be completely immobilized by a certain period of time, however this loses its effectiveness somewhat if the person is aware that the user is an Ajin, or has ear protection.
- Immense tolerance to pain: Due to his capture by the government and his daily torture, Tanaka has developed an extremely high pain tolerance.
- IBM: Tanaka has been seen to use an ability possessed by many Ajin, the power to produce a strange invisible matter that can form into a Black Ghost, or IBM, as the government refers to them. Tanaka's ghost is fairly basic in its appearance, with a rounded, dome-like head, and a thin body that looks like it is composed of bandages. It has extremely sharp claws capable of cutting flesh, bone, and even other ghosts with ease (although Black Ghosts are unable to be destroyed by cutting blows), as well as sharp teeth that have not been incorporated in combat thus far. It is extremely limber, able to attach itself to walls and "bounce" between foes in combat with lethal effectiveness.
Trivia[]
- There is a running gag in the series on how he's bad at shooting, with Satō mentioning it several times.