Shinonome Akito

Personality

Akito appears to be an easygoing guy at first. However, his personality drastically changes when music is involved, becoming hot-blooded and passionate to the point where people find him scary. He respects anyone who is passionate about their interest and hates half-hearted people. He acts polite towards acquaintances and strangers, but when in the presence of people he is familiar with, he drops this act, showing his true gruff personality. Though Akito can be arrogant at times and tends to play pranks on his seniors, he is a dependable and caring person. When Akito meets someone new, he puts on a charming persona, which Toya calls his "nice-guy persona" and seems to dislike. He is good at maintaining his polite facade and uses it when interacting with customers at his workplace.

Appearance

Akito has green eyes and messy orange hair with a dyed yellow streak on the left side of his center bangs. His voice is tough and powerful. His height is 5'9" (176 cm). He has piercings on his ears.

Unit Outfit

He wears a pale yellow hoodie underneath a black-and-yellow jacket. He wears black athletic pants, with two white stripes on the sides, alongside a red checkered jacket tied around his waist. He has black and white shoes with blue undertones and yellow shoelaces. His second outfit consists of a white hoodie with the word "TRACK" printed on the front underneath a dark gray-and-orange jacket with the word "SCORCHING" printed diagonally across the front. He wears baggy black pants with a hot pink cloth around his left knee and a blue-and-white belt, and dark gray-and-black running shoes accented with orange. His earrings are different, with the left attached to a chain.

Appellations

Akito (An, Ena, Toya, Tsukasa) Akito-kun (Airi, Emu, Mafuyu, Mizuki, Shizuku) Shinonome-kun (Ichika, Kohane, Minori, Nene, Rui, Shiho) Shinonome-san (Honami) Lil' bro / Lil' brosef (Mizuki)

Gender / Pronouns

Male, man. He, him, his.

Birthday and age

His birthday is in November 12. He is 17 years old.

School

He's a second-year (class 2-A) student at Kamiyama High School.

Likes

Pancakes, cheesecake, sweet things.

Dislikes

Dogs, carrots.

Speciality

Beatboxing.

Music group

He is a member of the street music group Vivid BAD SQUAD along with Shiraishi An, Aoyagi Toya and Azusawa Kohane.

Background

Akito was inspired to get into music by An's dad. He sings with his partner Toya at the BAD DOGS clubhouse. He seems like a gentle-mannered boy, but there's also another side to his personality. When Akito was in elementary school, he played for a soccer team named Shibuya Diamonds. While he was one of the best on the team, he decided to quit after him and his team lost an important tournament. Some time after he quit playing soccer, his sister Ena brought him to a summer festival where she encouraged him to try singing. This kickstarted his interest in street music, which eventually grew into the dream of surpassing the legendary music event RAD WEEKEND. He looks up to Shiraishi Ken, An's father who performed in RAD WEEKEND, and practices hard to achieve his dream. He sang together with Toya under the name BAD DOGS before forming Vivid BAD SQUAD with An and Kohane. Even after joining Vivid BAD SQUAD, he still operates under the BAD DOGS unit with Toya. His father, Shinonome Shinei, is an artist, and is shown to be emotionally neglectful to both him and his older sister. Their mother is rarely mentioned in-game. As a second year, Akito is classmates with An and Nene in class 2-A.

Etymology

Last name: Shinonome (東雲) means "dawn". It also refers to his image color. Name: Akito (彰人): Aki (彰) means "clear, obvious", and To (人) means "person, human".

Azusawa Kohane (Friend and acquaintance)

Fellow group member. In the main story, Akito saw her as a newbie who had no idea what she was getting into and was critical toward her, but he changed his mind after seeing her and An's performance later on. In many area conversations, Akito tells Kohane to keep her head up and gives her advice about music. He occasionally bullies Kohane to get a humorous reaction out of her, much to the disapproval of An and Toya. As of recent event stories, Akito has extended his older brotherly role to his interactions with Kohane.

Shiraishi An (Friend and acquaintance)

Akito is at times shown to be exasperated with An’s excitable personality. For example, in An’s Nuanced Language side story, he becomes frustrated with An’s inability to give him a straight opinion on the demo he made without using sound effects and vague phrases in a context he doesn’t understand. However, Akito was also the first to notice An's complicated feelings toward's Kohane's astounding improvements in her skills, taking time to worry about her and talk to her one-on-one about her feelings of inferiority. After the shock of Kohane's opening solo hits An, he notices her disbelief and confirms with her that she can put on a great show as well.

Aoyagi Toya (Friend and acquaintance)

Fellow group member and singing partner. Around two years before the Vivid BAD SQUAD unit story took place, Akito met Toya when he was performing on the street, and Akito was intrigued by him, inviting him to sing together. They quickly formed BAD DOGS after that. Akito trusts Toya completely and is aware about his negative relationship with his father. They are very close and often rely on each other while performing. In the main story, Toya believes that his resolve is too weak and that he will drag Akito down, so he breaks up his partnership with Akito. However, Akito confronts him at Ken's cafe, recognizing his skill, his dedication, and the strength of their bond. This makes Toya realize that he truly does want to pursue the dream of surpassing RAD WEEKEND together with Akito. They reunite as stronger partners than ever.

Momoi Airi (Acquaintance)

Ena's friend from middle school and Akito's acquaintance. The two became acquainted through her visits to the Shinonome household to see Ena. It's implied that they aren't particularly close, as Akito regards her with the same distance and false politeness that he does other acquaintances, and Airi has said on occasion that they don't talk much. In a side story, it was revealed in that Airi once went to Akito about Ena's issues with their father when they were in Junior High, as Ena neglected to tell Airi about her situation. Worried that she couldn’t do much for Ena herself despite all Ena had done for her, Airi enlisted Akito’s help to look after Ena in her place. Akito is appreciative towards Airi for being Ena's friend, as in the Hermit Searcher card story he reminds Ena that Airi was the only good friend that she had until she met Mizuki.

Tenma Tsukasa (Friend and acquaintance)

Akito's upperclassman. Akito considers him a weirdo, and seems to enjoy teasing him, playing pranks on him. It is hinted that he was initially jealous of Tsukasa, due to Toya's attachment towards him and him not understanding why Toya trusts him so much. After learning more about their history, Akito mentions that he owes Tsukasa his thanks for encouraging Toya to pursue what he likes, which allowed Akito and Toya to meet. He's in love with Tsukasa, but he doesn't acknowledges it.

Otori Emu (Acquaintance)

Akito's acquaintance. While he was already vaguely aware of her through her work with Wonderlands x Showtime, they are only officially introduced to each other when they meet at the Arcade for the arcade game tornament. Similarly to Tsukasa, Akito is put off by her loudness and eccentricity.

Kamishiro Rui (Acquaintance)

Akito is acquainted to Rui through their attending the same school. He is the second half of the pair that Akito has deemed "Weirdo One and Two", with "Weirdo One" being Tsukasa. Akito dislikes Rui for his manipulative tendencies, as seen in An Ode for the Pure of Heart where he quickly realizes that Rui was using reverse psychology on him and gets angry. While he does end up helping Rui as a wedding extra, he reminds Rui that he's only doing it for Toya's sake. The two interact again in At This Festival Bathed in Twilight, where Akito reluctantly helps Rui to the medical tent after Rui injures his arm. It's implied that he does this because he doesn't want Rui's injury to jeopardize his theater troupe's performance and he's shown to worry when it appears that Rui won't make it back to his group in time, easing up when he does. In Rui's side story, Akito also gives Rui ice for his arm when Rui attempts to downplay the pain he felt from his injury and help from his teammates, likely relating back to when he also rejected help from his teammates who worried about him in STRAY BAD DOG. Despite the two appearing to grow closer through these interactions, he still refuses to participate in Rui's wacky stunts that he often forces Tsukasa to perform in.

Kusanagi Nene (Acquaintance)

Akito's acquaintance. They attend the same school and occasionally see each other in passing. However, they aren't close, and Nene is openly intimidated by him. Nene seems to be aware of his double-sided personality, as when Emu is surprised that he stops politely smiling after he's forced to introduce himself to her, she says that Akito is "that kind of person". They are in class 2-A together.

Shinonome Ena (Older sister)

Akito's older sister. Initially it is shown that Ena rarely pays attention to him, as she is always focused on chatting with her online friends. Due to Ena attending school at night, they rarely see each other during the day. They have similar food preferences, both liking pancakes and cheesecake while disliking carrots. Ena tends to use him as her errand boy, much to his annoyance; despite this, they seem to care for one another, as Akito once advised their father to be gentler with Ena when giving her advice. Ena is responsible for Akito taking an interest in street music, as she showed him a live performance following him giving up on playing soccer and urged him to give music a try instead.

Akiyama Mizuki (Friend and Acquaintance)

Akito's schoolmate. Mizuki enjoys teasing him and often calls him "little brother-kun"/"lil' bro" or "lil' brosef" ("弟くん", "otouto-kun"), much to his chagrin. They first met during the Kamiyama School Festival. Mizuki recognized his voice from the background of Ena's calls. Later on they start growing closer as they went to the chocolate factory together and also bond over fashion.

Shiraishi Ken

An's father, the man who participated in RAD WEEKEND, and Akito's role model. Since becoming interested in street music, Akito has a strong attachment to him and is hinted to be jealous that An gets special treatment from him due to being his daughter. Ken acts as a pseudo-parental figure to Akito in place of Akito's actual father and is implied to have been mentoring Akito and Toya since before the main story took place.

Extra

• Akito started being afraid of dogs after he was bit by one. He is afraid of all dogs, no matter their size. • Akito's favorite foods are pancakes and cheesecake, the same as his sister. However, according to the "Project Message" in 2nd Anniversary Thanks Festival, if he had to choose which one he prefers, he'd pick pancakes. • Akito is the only character who has dyed hair. Despite popular misconception, Akito's hair is naturally orange, and the yellow streak is the dyed part. • Akito chose the name "BAD DOGS" for his team with Toya. The name represents the pair's dedication to achieving their dream, despite it being a seemingly impossible goal. • Akito is the same height as "about 60 fluffy pancakes stacked on top of each other." • Akito's weakest school subject is maths.