Kōsuke Shirai (白井 コースケ, Shirai Kōsuke?) is Ataru Moroboshi's classmate and best friend, excluded from the first anime series in favor of Lum's Stormtroopers, only to reprise his original role in the 2022 anime series whereas the Stormtroopers rarely appear.
Biography[]
Kōsuke is Ataru and Hokuto's best friend and the three of them are often seen causing trouble together. He has a girlfriend (who was willing to pose as "Shinobi Nobade" for him), and has received Valentine's Day chocolate from other girls, meaning he is somehow popular with girls. Like Shūtarō Mendō and the other male students, he is also in love with Lum and will try to prevent her from kissing Ataru, trying to protect her purity. In the later half of the series, he and Hokuto begin to become victims of the daily shenanigans. In the anime he only ever appears as a background character, and his roles are always given to either Megane or Perm.
He and Hokuto appear in the first chapter of the manga, but are replaced by Lum's Stormtroopers in Chapter 3. Kōsuke reappears shortly after Mendō debuts and quickly claims the position of main supporting character. In the anime, a lot of his major roles are taken by Megane, such as the Shinobi Nobade plot (renamed Kumino Otoko) and receiving a love letter from Lum in "Capture the Heart". In the final scene of Urusei Yatsura: The Final Chapter, Perm watches on in Kōsuke's place when Lum and Ataru embrace.
Personality[]
Kōsuke much like Ataru is a troublesome and moronic student with perverse tendencies, and although these pale in comparison to Ataru's own negative traits, they were still enough to have Onsen-Mark list him and Ataru as the two most dangerous students in the troublesome Class 2-4 in "Farewell, Onsen-Mark".
His handwriting is messy and he has poor writing skills, which Mendō frequently insults him for. However, his writing skills are good enough to trick Ataru in the Shinobi Nobade story.
Etymology[]
- Kōsuke's surname Shirai means "white" (白) (shira) and "well, mine shaft, pit" (井) (i).
Trivia[]
- Kōsuke's name comes from Shirai Kousuke (白井 康介, Shirai Kousuke?), an editor at Shogakukan at the time Urusei Yatsura was being serialized.
- Kōsuke makes various cameos in the animated media:
- In Episode 64, which would be his first appearance in animated form, although he didn't speak.
- In Episode 76, he appears in class.
- In Urusei Yatsura 3: Remember My Love in the opening credits of the movie.
- In Goat and Cheese (OVA) which would be his first time getting a speaking role as a paperboy.
- In Urusei Yatsura: The Final Chapter, although he does not speak and all his lines are given to Lum's Stormtroopers.
- In the OAV The Obstacle Course Swim Meet, he is voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi who is best known for voicing as Ranma Saotome of Ranma ½, Inuyasha of InuYasha, Aisaki-senpai, Bettō, Minoru Furuda of Rumiko Takahashi Anthology and Sabato Rokudō of Kyōkai no Rinne.
- Despite being seemingly absent from the majority of the anime and having his scenes taken by Megane and Perm, in Perm's model sheets from Shonen Sunday Graphic and the final episode of the series it is revealed that Perm's real name is in fact Kōsuke. This combined with the fact that Perm looks nothing like the fourth member of Lum's Stormtroopers from the manga (who was chubbier and had messier hair), his notable resemblance to Kōsuke but with permed hair and that Perm is in Kōsuke's spot in Urusei Yatsura: The Final Chapter indicates that both characters were likely meant to be one and the same all along.[1]
- His third seiyū previously voiced Weasel Man from Hanyō no Yashahime.
Media Appearances[]
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