Nagisa Shiowatari (潮渡渚, Shiowatari Nagisa?) is a cross-dressing waiter and Ryūnosuke's fiancé. His father was a close friend of Ryūnosuke's Father and the two of them ran a seaside beach café before their deaths. Though a male, he was raised as, and therefore looks and behaves like, a female.
Biography[]
Appearing in only four chapters total in the manga, Nagisa Shiowatari's history is largely a mystery to readers. Nagisa was born the son of his father, Mr. Shiowatari, and an unnamed mother. Somehow, his mother came to leave the family, whether by death or divorce, and his father became Nagisa's sole custodian. Having always desired a daughter to help him run his seaside beach café, and in particular to fulfill a promise to his best friend Mr. Fujinami that their children would be wed, Nagisa's father chose to raise his son Nagisa as a female. He does not seem to have been as abusive in rearing Nagisa as his friend was with Ryūnosuke, to his credit.
The Shiowataris lived as a poor but loving family. Nagisa worked hard from an early age, learning the feminine arts of homemaking as well as the rigors of being a waitress at a beach-side café. To supplement the family's meagre profit margins, Nagisa taught himself the art of Sumo, competing in yearly tournaments held on the beaches where the Shiowataris lived. Despite refusing to sully his slender, girlish physique with the bulk traditionally expected of a sumo wrestler, Nagisa proved a natural master in the art and by the time he was a teenager, he was renowned as an official Yokozuna of the Beach Sumo tournament circuit, winning bales of rice and other provisions that helped his father keep them fed and clothed.
About a year before the events of the manga, Nagisa and his father came to own a small island, on which they set up their family beach café. This proved a disastrous choice, as the island they bought was a tiny, uninhabited spit of land that lay four miles offshore from the nearest village. Desperate to attract customers, they attempted to think of a signature dish that would compensate for their poor location, and fixated upon the idea of kakigori flavored with sea urchin. The problem was that this dish tasted absolutely disgusting, mixing as it did sweet shaved ice with raw mollusk. Undaunted, the two tried again and again to refine the recipe into something that would appeal, eating bowl after bowl without stopping, until finally their stomachs gave out and first father and then son perished from overeating.
But death wasn't the end for the Shiowataris, for they were filled with regret. Thus, their spirits clung to earth and haunted their island cafe as a pair of ghosts. A year later, Mr. Shiowatari sent a letter to his old friend Fujinami, offering to sell him the island for 300 yen. Considering it a bargain, the Fujinamis soon arrived, and the ghostly Nagisa finally met his fiancée (or, as their fathers insisted, his fiancé) Ryūnosuke for the first time. Whereas Ryūnosuke had been brought up in ignorance of her father's plan to engage her to the child of his friend Shiowatari, Nagisa had grown up knowing he was to marry Ryūnosuke, and he was smitten with her at first sight.
So much so that whilst Nagisa's father was content to pass on to the afterlife after his friend Fujinami promised to care for the café, Nagisa pleaded for something more meaningful: a kiss from Ryūnosuke. This proved tricky to get, both because Ryūnosuke was unwilling to kiss what she initially presumed to be another girl and because, as a ghost, Nagisa was incapable of touching a living person. Fortunately for Nagisa, the island on which they stood was visited once a year by a giant sea urchin to lay her eggs, and drinking the tear of this mother sea urchin could restore Nagisa to life. As luck so happened, that night was the very night that the sea urchin was scheduled to come ashore. Although Nagisa failed to get his kiss, he did return to being a living boy, and also cleared up his gender with Ryūnosuke.
With Nagisa's father having passed on to the afterlife, Nagisa's would-be father-in-law, Mr. Fujinami, took the crossdressing boy in and brought him back to Tomobiki with them, where he began living with the Fujinamis. This was much to Ryūnosuke's displeasure. Things came to a head one night when Mr. Fujinami left for a trip, leaving the engaged teens behind on his own. Determined to be rid of her unwanted fiancé, Ryūnosuke challenged Nagisa to a fight, only to learn firsthand that he was far stronger and more martially talented than he had let on. Despite his unwillingness to fight, Nagisa defeated Ryūnosuke almost effortlessly, and then did so in a rematch. After this, he nearly left town, dismayed by Ryūnosuke's continued rejection, but she ordered him to stay, telling him that she wouldn't let him leave until she had defeated him. This greatly cheered Nagisa up, inspiring the hope in him that she may come to reciprocate his feelings after all.
He was rather disappointed that night when Ryūnosuke would lock him in a nearby cupboard as a result of him flailing around in his sleep and touching her breast.
Appearance[]
Nagisa has dark blue eyes and long brown hair, which is secured at the back with a yellow ribbon. His bangs fall lightly on his forehead, covering his eyebrows and two strands of hair hang down from his ears. He is almost of the same height as Ryūnosuke and is shown wearing a sleeveless yellow full-length frock.
Personality[]
Just like his appearance, Nagisa's character also resembles that of a girl, the exact opposite of Ryūnosuke's, who has a male-like appearance and personality. He is showcased to be soft and polite, and tends to get very emotional at times. He falls in love with Ryūnosuke at first sight, and is adamant that only by receiving a kiss from her he can rest in peace. After he is brought to life and left an orphan, he begs them to let him move in with them - partly because he has nowhere else to go, but mostly because he truly wants to uphold the engagement between them.
In contrast to his fiancée, Nagisa is dutiful, obedient and respectful towards his father. He was so devoted to his father that he willingly ate himself to death trying to perfect the recipe for sea urchin kakigori to honor his father. That he never once considered that sea urchin kakigori would probably be a terrible seller suggests he is rather naïve and overly optimistic in some senses.
However, Nagisa also has some very masculine traits, much like how Ryūnosuke has some feminine ones. He's extremely fond of food, and his gluttony is cited by Ryūnosuke as one of the things she dislikes about him. He's also a very deep sleeper. Though he is usually demure and polite, he can be fierce when roused to anger; he bludgeons Ataru with a giant mallet for trying to kiss Ryūnosuke, and notes that he would be happy to play the "dominant one" if that's Ryūnosuke's type in guys - when "playfighting" with her after her father initially leaves, he calmly overpowers her and slings her over his shoulders, treating it as a game. Perhaps his most masculine trait is that he's very lustful; he's implied to have recurring dreams of himself and Ryūnosuke in coitus, although his only shown dream depicts Ryūnosuke as the aggressor, and it makes him prone to getting very grabby in his sleep.
Nagisa's biggest personality failing is that he's a bit of a crybaby, with a tendency to sniffle and shed tears whenever he is scolded or Ryūnosuke is otherwise too harsh with him. This is another of his failings that Ryūnosuke declares that she can't stand.
Powers and Abilities[]
In contrast to his appearance and personality, he is a very strong young man and was the Yokuzuna of the Annual Beach Sumo Tournament. His strength is so much greater than Ryūnosuke's that the latter cannot compete with him.
Despite his slender, girlish figure and trim waist, Nagisa has a formidable appetite and can consume large quantities of food in a sitting. Whilst his father perished after consuming his 98th successive bowl of sea urchin-flavored kakigori, Nagisa didn't die until he had consumed his 166th successive bowl.
Although Nagisa displays no actual ghostly abilities after his resurrection, he retains a possibly psychosomatic aversion to spirit wards; Sakura was able to drive him away in terror by placing a ward on his forehead, in a traditional act of exorcism, and she subsequently gave Ryunosuke several more that she used to barricade him in another room that night after he proved too clingy in his sleep.
Relationships[]
In contrast to Ryūnosuke Fujinami and her dad, Nagisa and his father have a very strong and stable relationship. Despite his father sharing similar delusions to Ryūnosuke's that cause him to insist that Nagisa is a female, Mr. Shiowatari is shown to be gentle, patient, affectionate and loving with his son, who dotes on him in return. Whilst Ryūnosuke fights against her father's efforts to make her act like a man instead of a lady, Nagisa willingly complies in order to make his father happy. The two are never seen fighting or arguing with each other, unlike their Fujinami counterparts. Despite his delusions, Mr. Shiowatari is shown to want Nagisa to be happy, and willingly gives Nagisa the giant sea urchin's tear for resurrection and chooses to remain a ghost so his son can have a second chance at life.
Nagisa absolutely adores Ryūnosuke, being smitten at his first sight of her. He is ecstatic that they are engaged and would love nothing less than to marry her. When they first meet whilst he is a ghost, he pleads with her to allow him to kiss her, so that he may pass on peacefully to the afterlife (or "attain Buddhahood" in the Viz translation). Unfortunately for Nagisa, his affections are depicted as mostly if not solely one-sided; Ryūnosuke is not happy to be engaged to him and she is put off by his feminine behaviors (complete with voluntary crossdressing), his laziness, and his love of eating. Whilst his second story appearance does end with the suggestion she is not entirely unattracted to his strength and sincere feelings, she is hardly intent on rushing into his arms, and in fact finds his tendency to try and cuddle with her in his sleep very annoying.
Nagisa may be the one person who could be said to be unironically fond of Mr. Fujinami. He treats the man with genuine respect, patience and acceptance, but this may be because Mr. Fujinami is uncharacteristically supportive and gentle towards Nagisa. Ryūnosuke's father fully buys into Mr. Shiowatari's delusion that Nagisa is a girl, and he has fully accepted "her" as his future "daughter-in-law". He seems to greatly desire the eventual success of their union, encouraging Ryūnosuke to think of herself as lucky for having a "fiancée" like Nagisa. He even worries over Nagisa's virtue when left home alone with Ryūnosuke for the first time, which the enraged Ryūnosuke points out is completely backwards.
Nagisa's relationship with Ataru is, as is often the case with Ataru, very conflicted. For the most part, Nagisa seems to view Ataru as at least polite company, and arguably even a friend. However, it enrages Nagisa that Ataru is so shamelessly intent on pursuing Ryūnosuke's affections, and Nagisa hitting Ataru with a mallet for trying to kiss Ryūnosuke whilst angrily demanding to know what Ataru thinks he's doing marks one of the only times Nagisa gets angry in his limited appearances in canon.
Quotes[]
- "You don't... like me? It's because I'm a ghost, isn't it? Of course... that must be it..."
- "I...before I leave this realm... just once... I'd like to kiss my fiancé, Ryūnosuke."
- "Let me achieve Buddhahood!"
- "Hey, you! Keep your hands off my fiancée!"
- "Why, Ryunosuke! You bad thing! Why didn't you say so sooner?!"
- "That Ryunosuke! Preparing to rush into my arms!"
- "Are you afraid of me?"
- "Don't underestimate the strength of a beach kid!"
- "Kyaa! Get your mind out of the gutter!"
- "You want me to knock you down? I couldn't do that to you!"
- "Well... could you hit a girl? Especially if she was the girl you had a crush on?"
- "Oh, come on! I was asleep! I didn't know what I was doing! Don't be so mean, Ryūnosuke!"
Trivia[]
- The name Nagisa means "beach, shore, water's edge" (渚). His surname Shiowatari means "tide, ebb, opportunity" (潮) (shio) and "transit, ford, ferry, cross, import, deliver, diameter, migrate" (渡) (watari).
- Despite being an important character to Ryūnosuke's story, Nagisa is introduced extremely late in both continuities - his manga debut is in chapters 341 and 342 of the manga's 366 chapter run, whilst his anime debut is in the OVA adaptation of those chapters. He also has one of the most limited appearances in canon outside of the various one-shot characters, appearing only in two two-parter manga stories and that singular OVA.
- Much like how Ryūnosuke Fujinami can be considered the indirect inspiration for Ranma Saotome and the direct inspiration for Ukyo Kuonji in Rumiko Takahashi's subsequent series Ranma 1/2, Nagisa could be considered the direct inspiration for two characters in Ranma 1/2 as well. These characters are Tsubasa Kurenai, a crossdressing master of disguise infatuated with Ukyo, and Konatsu, a crossdressing ninja with a very abusive family who develops a deep, one-sided crush on Ukyo. Interestingly, his character design is very reminiscent of a third Ranma 1/2 character; Kasumi Tendo.
Media Appearances[]
Manga
Anime
- 1981
- 2022
Gallery[]
2022 Anime[]
