Kōji Tanaka

Kōji Tanaka
Manga Anime
Information
Name	Kōji Tanaka
Kanji	田中 功次
Rōmaji	Tanaka Kōji
Status	Alive
Age	20s - 30s
Gender	Male
Hair Color	Black
Eye Color	Black (manga), Red (anime)
Occupations	Terrorist
Height	187cm. (approximately 6'1ft.)
Voice Actor	Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese), Keith Silverstein (English)
First Appearance	Chapter 1
Image Gallery

Kōji Tanaka (田中 功次, Tanaka Kōji) is the second confirmed Ajin discovered in Japan. He is a terrorist, and second in command to Satō until he was betrayed by Satō and left the group.

Appearance

Tanaka is a tall man with broad shoulders. He has small, piercing eyes. His face has rather angular features, and his expression tends to be one of anger or determination. His hair is mildly long and black, and he always keeps it slicked back. A colored page of the manga depicts him as having a medium light complexion, while the anime depicts him as being pale. In a flashback sequence, he is shown to have had bangs and a leaner physique in his youth. In the anime, he is consistently seen wearing a simplified version of his apparently red and white jacket from the earlier chapters of the manga.

Personality

Tanaka shows a rather intense resentment towards humanity after the daily torture and experimentation he was subjected to during his capture. Other than this, he starts off as rather impassive, and unafraid to go to violent means to stop anyone who opposes his cause or gets in his way.

However, he is shown to still have some degree of compassion. This was first shown when he warned two girls about an upcoming terrorist attack, with the intent to keep them from becoming collateral damage. Another instance was later on, when he actively aided one of his (former) targets in escaping during the Forge attack after deciding her remorse over her actions deemed her no longer right to kill. Such compassion has given rise to doubt over whether or not his means of achieving rights for Ajin are justified. But this doubt was also present during a confrontation with Reiji Akiyama where he told Tanaka that violent action would likely only make matters worse, and during his group's first mission upon watching Satō crash a plane directly into a building.

History

Tanaka first died at a seemingly young age, much like Kei Nagai and Izumi Shimomura. As the second confirmed Ajin discovered in Japan, he was pursued by the government, attempting to flee with his parents, before being captured and taken 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 is shown to have been loaned out to various companies to test products as well, including serving as a crash test dummy and firearm target.

After 10 years of being experimented upon, Tanaka is rescued by Satō and escapes the facility. From there, he becomes an enemy to Kei, and a key member of an Ajin terrorist group. He serves as Satō's second in command, leading the rest of his team through their missions.

He views most of the main protagonists as enemies, as well as all those involved in his capture and torture. Satō, Takahashi, Gen, and Masumi Okuyama are his allies within the Ajin terrorist group. However, due to recent events, and his abandonment by his group over conflicting interests, these relationships are becoming subject to change.

Relationships

Satō

Sato saved Tanaka from the research facility after he was held captive there for 10 years. Tanaka worked alongside Sato for a long time, helping him in his schemes, until Sato recently betrayed him. Tanaka now feels resentment and betrayal towards Sato, and works with Kei's team to try defeat him.

Izumi Shimomura

While working with Sato, Tanaka hated Izumi, angered by the fact that he had to go through years of torture for being an ajin while she was given a comfortable job, working under the people who had been responsible for his capture. After being betrayed by Sato, Izumi saves Tanaka from being captured a second time. Tanaka reluctantly agrees to work with Izumi to stop Sato, saying that he does not want to be in her debt.

In the final part of the manga, Izumi is revealed to have obtained documents for him to change his identity, and invites him to stay at her place, implying the connection they forged when their IBMs collided as well as their teaming up to stop Sato created a level of depth and trust between them.

Abilities And Powers

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 paralyze others around him by screaming, as it is a basic trait among 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, he has developed an extremely high pain tolerance. This tolerance has come in handy during missions with his team.

IBM

Tanaka's ghost impaling Izumi Shimomura

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 such. His 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 bird-like 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, it has a wide mouth full of 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. However, he is shown to improve significantly later on.
• According to the anime, he had to cut out his own organs for Satō to sell in exchange for money to buy firearms and video games. However, it is not confirmed if this was also the case in the manga.
• His family name 田中 (Tanaka) means "middle of the rice field". His given name 功次 (Koji) uses kanji that have the meanings of "next" (次) and "success" or "achievement" (功).