Shiro

Shiro is a childhood friend of Ganta Igarashi and Hagire Rinichirō's adopted daughter. Sorae Igarashi and Hagire experimented on her in order to gain insight in how to heighten a person's immune system. This experimentation unintentionally caused Shiro to become the very first Deadman. Shiro developed a second personality called the Wretched Egg or the Red Man in order to cope with her suffering. Shiro is a young albino girl. She has snow-white hair, pale skin and red eyes; even her eyebrows and eyelashes are white. Her hair is very long and reaches down to her knees. She dresses in a peach, skintight bodysuit (white in the anime), decorated with red circles and stripes and with her toes and heels sticking out. She also wears big brown mittens and a white neck warmer, though has been seen wearing black mittens with a black neck warmer and also black winter boots. Ganta has mentioned that she looks like Mimi. When the Wretched Egg takes over her body and Shiro becomes trapped in her own mind, she is seen wearing a white nightgown. The Wretched Eggs appearance is, for the most part, that of Shiro's, however, she always has a hooded and lazy look to her eyes and a wicked bloodthirsty smile on her face. She used to wear a red, worn-out cape with a mask that covered her nose and eyes, without any holes. As the Red Man, she also wore a heavy suit of armor that defends her body, legs and arms. This outfit actually makes her look like Aceman, a superhero Shiro looked up to and what she calls the Wretched Egg. The Wretched Egg ends up changing her look. Now, she has a light purple and lavender lace bodysuit with long sleeves that are torn at the ends. She also wears a metal collar with a small chain attached to it. Shiro is a clumsy and bubbly young girl. She has lots of energy, most likely from the fact she eats nothing but sweets. She is shown to have loved sweets throughout her life, particularly cookies, and her sweet tooth may be her way of staying connected to her childhood. She has a very childlike outlook on life; this leads to her not understanding much: Shiro didn't even understand the concept of a girlfriend and had a simplified outlook on love. Despite this, she knows she loves Ganta Igarashi and only wants him to be happy, even if that means resorting to drastic measures. She is also very concerned about his safety. Shiro does her best to protect Ganta, regardless of the danger. Throughout the series, it is shown that all Shiro really wants is Ganta's approval, and it is surprisingly easy for him to hurt her feelings. However, with the exception of him stating that he "hated" her in the Forgery arc (which was only for Shiro's protection), Ganta has never meant to hurt Shiro and has always regretted his actions afterward. Shiro is incredibly strong, and she uses her immense strength to keep Ganta safe as much as possible after a childhood incident when Shiro became Ganta's "Aceman". One example of this is manifested during the dog race show. Shiro appeared to be oblivious to the dangers of the game and occasionally got in the way of Ganta's progression as well as his survival. But it is only at the end, when Ganta notices her cuts and scratches, that he discovers that she was discreetly keeping him out of harm's way, consequently taking his blows for him. It is revealed in Chapter 36 that Ganta actually has strong feelings of love towards Shiro and that said feelings are mutual. As the series progresses, Shiro comes to understand the profound concepts of love and friendship while still retaining her pure heart. This helps her see the right course of action and also galvanizes the more jaded characters into action. She also begins acting and speaking more like an adult, though her innocent nature remains intact. Eventually, the Shiro and Wretched Egg personas fuse together to form Shiro's true self. This final, genuine persona contains characteristics of both personalities: it has Shiro's strong love for Ganta and desire for happiness, yet with the Wretched Egg's bleak outlook on life and evident hatred (towards others as well as herself). Shiro's 'true self' also appears to remember everything from her life, both as 'Shiro' and 'Wretched Egg'. In the end, it is discovered that the reason she wanted Ganta to become a Deadman was for him to kill her and end her suffering. It is also revealed that Shiro's wish to die was evident 10 years ago, when she caused the Great Tokyo Earthquake in an attempt to destroy her body before it could regenerate, therefore trying to kill herself. In Chapter 57, Ganta finally understands her and states that dying is not Shiro's 'true wish'. At the realization, Shiro begins to cry and says that she wanted to 'go to school, play with friends, ride on the Ferris wheel', but she couldn't do any of these things. She states that she has done so many horrible things and doesn't deserve to live, but at the same time, she doesn't want to die. In the end, all she really wanted was to be happy. The Wretched Egg is the opposite of Shiro. She is sadistic, appearing to value solitude over companionship and doesn't enjoy sweets but instead, eats large amounts of meat (whereas Shiro adores sweets and never eats meat). The most obvious difference is that Shiro is naïve and sweet while the Wretched Egg is vicious, merciless and cruel. The only thing that the two share is their affection for Ganta (though the Wretched Egg's feelings for him are much more warped when compared to the innocent love Shiro harbors for him). Eventually, the Wretched Egg becomes the dominant persona with the Mother Goose System's lullaby no longer affecting her. The persona that was created caused her to go mad. She hopes that either Ganta or Hagire Rinichirō will be the one to satisfy her desires, though what she wants from the former isn't quite the same thing as what she wants from the latter. The Wretched Egg is shown not to be completely bloodthirsty or mad. Despite being attacked by Azami, she did not fight back and even answered all of her questions as to why she wanted to kill Ganta, but was unable to complete her answers before Hagire killed Azami. She appeared to be surprised when Azami died and noted she was like a bird trapped in a cage showing that she held her in a slightly, friendly regard. It is hinted in Chapter 54 that the Wretched Egg's feelings may not be as twisted as first appeared as she stated to Azami that "Aceman didn't come to save me... but he would always come to defeat the villains"; she thinks of Ganta while saying this which implies that: she thought of Ganta as Aceman. It is still unknown what this meant to her as Azami was killed before the Wretched Egg could explain further. This comes full circle in Chapter 55, in which she confessed her love for Ganta, and then stated that her wish was for him to kill her all along, and even embed the red stone into Ganta's chest for that sole purpose. She even admitted that she killed his classmates out of jealousy, though whether she was jealous of them for being close to Ganta, or jealous of Ganta himself for being able to live such a happy, carefree life after forgetting about her while she was being tortured isn't clear (it's likely both).