Character Info
In Character Information
character name: Kiyomasa Senji, aka Crow
canon source and the point from which they're taken: Deadman Wonderland, manga - mid-chapter 24, before waking up to find the Forgery mask *canon updated to Chapter 35 ~8/24/10
character's age: Late 20s? Maybe? I couldn't find any reference on it :(
canon powers, skills, pets and equipment:
The Branch of Sin - as a Deadman, Senji has the ability to manipulate his blood and form it into a weapon. In his case it generally takes the form of two scythe blades, dubbed Crow Claw, that protrude from his forearms (he's also able to use a generic whip-type weapon, but does so rarely). He's trained with these extensively and has incredible reflexes that allow him to hit any target perfectly (up to an including ones as small as a flying moth), or to block/disable incoming projectiles. He can also extend the blades enormously without weakening himself by spreading them out like a net. He's described as one of the strongest Deadmen and has a long string of victories in the arena matches held in the prison - basically, he's a damn good fighter.
Physical enhancement - Senji can also use his blood to 'pump up', either as a strength enhancer or purely for aesthetics, something he drunkenly describes as having "harmony with your tendons". Most notably he uses this as the basis for his Invisible Black, a technique he invented that allows him to attack faster than the speed of sound.
Endurance - Like most Deadmen, Senji seems to have a high tolerance for pain and above-average stamina, although it isn't clear whether this is a byproduct of the Branch of Sin ability or just a trait he happens to have.
[Upgraded Abilities]
Speed - An overall increase in his basic speed, bringing him up to more inhuman levels. His faster-than-sound movement is still reserved as a special attack.
Blood Regeneration - Essentially an upgrade to endurance, which will allow him to use more blood and for longer periods of time without collapsing/suffering from anemia (except in ridiculously extreme cases.)
Cleaver - Canon upgrade; it's a giant cleaver that requires an absurd amount of blood/mutilation and is pretty much capable of completely wrecking anything it cuts. He only gets one at a time, though, and it's less maneuverable than his normal attack.
For equipment, aside from his clothes (jeans, combat boots, eyepatch and a... jacket thing) the two main things he has on him are his thumb rings, which have bladed edges that he uses to slash open his arms for combat; and the traditional prisoner's collar all inmates at DW wear - it'll continuously inject him with poison, however, so without any steady supply of the "candy" antidote he'll need to find another way to nullify this (he'll probably have a few candies on him too but not nearly enough to last).
non-canon powers: n/a
canon history: oh god tl;dr
A little backstory: Deadman Wonderland is a prison/themepark, ostensibly created to house criminals after a massive earthquake devastated Tokyo ten years prior to the start of the series. On the outside it has countless attractions for tourists, most of them involving dangerous (if not flat out deadly) games that the inmates must participate in to be able to survive in the prison - participation means earning Cast Points, the money of DW. Cast Points mean being able to afford "candy", the antidote to the poison all prisoners on death row are injected with through their ID collars. Without the candy, the poison will take effect and after three days their death sentence will naturally be carried out on its own.
That's the normal side of Deadman Wonderland.
In reality, the prison was built to house the Deadmen: people infected with something called the Nameless Worm, which enables them to use the Branch of Sin, or the ability to move their own blood. The Deadmen have been appearing ever since the Tokyo earthquake, and since then they've been rounded up and kept secretly in the hidden Sector G below Deadman Wonderland proper.
As for Senji himself, his personal background is largely unknown yet - it's rumored in the upper prison that he was involved in a massive factory explosion at one point before being confined to Sector G, and implied that he caused the death of some close friends. Regardless, over the years he's built a rather savage reputation for himself in DW as the Crow, and he's also the first Deadman that the protagonist Ganta encounters within the prison.
It starts with a fight, naturally.
In fact, Ganta - himself a Deadman, although he doesn't know it yet - mistakes Senji for the "Red Man", an extremely powerful Deadman that murdered Ganta's classmates and infected him with the Branch of Sin. He and his friends run into Senji while trying to find a way into Sector G, and initially Senji is thrilled to be able to fight the Woodpecker (as Ganta's been codenamed) but as the fight continues he realizes that Ganta knows nothing about the Branch of Sin and his battlelust wanes. It isn't until Ganta finally manages to hit him with a powerful shot that he gives the kid enough credit to tell him all about the Deadmen, their power, and how he isn't the mysterious Red Man that Ganta came to defeat. The exposition is interrupted when the group of them are captured, and Ganta and Senji are brought back to Sector G with the other Deadmen.
Now restrained in the medical ward, Senji admits (after having a minor freakout about the female doctor's risque clothing) that he's beginning to like Ganta for his tenacity. When the doctor suggests that his injuries might keep him from participating in the next day's "experiment" he physically threatens her and warns her not to interfere with his fight.
That experiment being the Carnival Corpse: in the hidden section of DW the Deadmen are scheduled to fight against each other, with the loser 'donating' a body part to research. Far more ruthless and experienced than Ganta, Senji dominates the match until the very end when Ganta, by now too weak to use his ranged attacks, knocks him out by attacking him in the same vulnerable spot as last time and suprisingly wins the match - something that the impressed Senji compliments him for afterward.
Soon after he appears as the victim of the Punishment Game, a televised event following the Carnival Corpse. While Ganta is being congratulated on his win by his fellow Deadmen, they watch as a gruesome slot machine determines his loser's fate and his right eye is removed on screen. It isn't until the next Carnival Corpse, where Ganta is forced to fight against a demented girl with a powerful and unpredictable attack, that Senji shows up again - now sporting an eyepatch - to give him advice on how to best her, with the warning that since Ganta managed to defeat him before it's his responsibility not to lose.
He doesn't. Using Senji's advice Ganta manages to win that match too (if in a bit of an unorthodox way) and afterwards Senji railroads him into buying a celebratory bowl of ramen for them both. During their discussion Senji warns him about the dangers of DW, and the predictability of his Branch of Sin attack (something Senji named the Ganta Gun, much to everyone's dismay).
From that point on Senji acts as a sort of mentor for Ganta, encouraging him to exercise his new abilities, to learn his limits and confront them. He's also very knowledgable about DW in general and offers Ganta information on the various inhabitants of the prison. Eventually Ganta is confronted by members of the Scar Chain, a rebel Deadman group organized to break out of DW, and not coincidently encounters the anti-Deadmen soldiers known as Undertakers, several of whom have the ability to 'disable' the Branch of Sin - when Senji learns of this encounter, he scolds Ganta for fighting Undertakers without telling him and then relates the tragic story of the Scar Chain leader, Owl, which helps Ganta make up his mind to join the group.
Senji, for his part, stays out of the Scar Chain's plans to release critical information about DW to the public... a plan which happens to fail spectacularly, due to a double agent sabotaging the mission and causing their leader to be captured. When the Undertakers are brought in to the Scar Chain's headquarters afterward and the deception is revealed, Senji finally arrives to take them out and to one again scold Ganta for not including him in the fight, although his appearance has the better effect of spurring the rebels to fight back. When Senji finds that the Branch of Sin is rendered useless against the Undertaker's "Worm Eater" tactic he moves immediately to a far more effective approach: an attack that moves faster than the speed of sound and uses a sonic boom to circumvent the Worm Eaters, which Senji claims are boring.
The remaining members of Scar Chain ask Senji to join their group but he wants nothing to do with them, claiming that the world outside isn't any better than DW. When a frustrated Ganta later asks Senji to teach him to be stronger, Senji doesn't accept until he's satisfied that Ganta rejects his weakness, and begins a ruthless training system in order to bring Ganta to his full potential. He even destroys all but one of Ganta's remaining candies in order to up the stakes which works eventually, although it brings Ganta to the point of anemia.
Some time later, after the defeat of the Undertakers and the successful release of the data to the world, Senji finds Ganta in a state of apathy due to the loss of most of the Scar Chain members. Senji notes his frail appearance and tells Ganta to stop moping - the idea that nothing ever changes is only for brats. After the information leak the Deadmen of Sector G are allowed outside for the first time and Senji enjoys the fresh air with the others. After witnessing a public Carnival Corpse featuring a mysterious manufactured Deadman, he has a brief encounter with Sakagami Toto, aka Mockingbird, once known as the most powerful Deadman and the only person that Senji seems to panic at seeing again. He attacks but quickly realizes that this Mockingbird is considerably less dangerous than he remembers, and after being grossed out by Toto licking the blood off his arm he moves on to enjoy the festivities by way of getting drunk and showing off.
The following night is when I plan to take him from.
personality:
At his core, Senji is a fighter. Dedicated and ruthless, this helps him to survive in the hellish Deadman Wonderland. He gets excited at the thought of a challenge and loses interest when there isn't any - for example, when he arrives at the Scar Chain's HQ and kills two Undertakers about to execute Ganta, he's disappointed to learn that they were the strongest enemies in the room.
And god help you if you keep him from his fight.
He's aggressive, brash, and presumptuous, as shown when first forcing Ganta to battle (following his demand to fight with the question, "your answer - is it yes, or is it yes?") and regularly imposing himself into other situations, although it's more out of enthusiasm than malice. He's proud of his abilities and can be a show-off, bolstering his physique or making up absurd names for his (and others') attacks, among other things. He even has something of a catchphrase for when he hits "dead center". In many ways he's the perfect competitor for the Carnival Corpse, and is the only Deadman to admit to being here because he wants to. It's no shock that he's described as crazy and it can be seen in an almost pathological desire to fight, although there are times when he seems even more grounded than the others - he's well suited to the DW experience and enjoys it rather than rebelling like most. Unlike others, he doesn't seem to have any streak of hopeful optimism but instead displays a more cynical and rather detached mindset even while he (sometimes unintentionally) helps out the good guys. As a lone wolf he looks down on weakness, but if a person is willing to break through what's holding them back he'll give them a chance.
While not notably above intelligent, he's clever enough to adapt his abilities to the environment and has succeeded in devising a totally unique fighting skill in Invisible Black. He's also a remarkably good sport; as long as someone wins fairly, he's willing to give them the recognition they deserve. Unless he hates them. There are a few characters he's noted as having previous rivalries with - mainly Karako of the Scar Chain and Toto - although the full details aren't known.
Overall he's a bit absurd, being slightly too flashy and into himself, though there are times when a more sober and cautious Senji begin to show. Unless he's near a woman. His encounters with females almost always end with him yelling at them for being too risque, accusing them of temptation, and despairing for their lack of clothing. The root of this quirk isn't known, but apparently the sight of a girl flashing her panties at him is enough to put him out of commission for a bit.