Death the Kid

"Symmetry is key here. Everything must be aesthetically pleasing."

- Death the Kid Death the Kid is one of the main protagonists in the anime/manga series Soul Eater. He is the youngest son of Lord Death who suffers from OCD (Obsessive Compulsion Disorder) for Symmetry which is actually from his father being the madness embodiment of Law and Order.

He is voiced by Mamoru Miyano in the Japanese version of the anime and Todd Haberkorn in the English version, both of whom also voice Ling Yao.

Appearance
Death the Kid appeared as a thin, teenaged young man who is a bit shorter then Liz and Patty and reaches only up a little past the latter's shoulder, possess eyes with two shades of yellow ringing around his pupil. The outside ring is a bright yellow while the inner ring is a dark yellow, similar to the color of gold. He typically sports a standard black suit with white rectangles. The rectangles are placed in a manner that is completely symmetrical. There are at least six small rectangles along the seam where the sleeves attach to the jacket, and four small rectangles run along the front of his jacket. His undershirt is a formal white dress shirt, and a metallic skull rests under his collar, and could be used as a tie. His color scheme is meant to copy his father's. He also sports black hair with white stripes along the left side of his hairline.

When observed by an individual with Soul Perception in account of his personality, his soul appears in a orange-red color with white stripes representing the Lines of Sanzu. When expanding, however, the colour of his soul changes to that of blue hue with white lines, along with dark, Death Claws surrounding the soul. Later in the manga, his soul expands, gaining a large skull mask on the surface of his soul along with black skull masks surrounding the soul. They resemble Death's current mask.

On some missions, Kid dons a cloak and mask that resemble his father's current wear out of pure enjoyment of liking it. Kid also wore a similar cloak during his mission to infiltrate Baba Yaga Castle, although this cloak resembled not his father's Shinigami robe but his usual dress jacket, except as a longcoat. Kid also will don different clothing during other activities, such as as a white dress suit for the Death Weapon Meister Academy Eve Anniversary party, looser (and even asymmetrical) clothing for playing basketball, warmer attire for the battle for Brew on Lost Island, and formal-casual clothing for parties at Gallows Mansion or Maka and Soul's apartment.

After the time-skip and being rescued by Spartoi and joining, he appears slightly more aged and gotten slightly taller, enough to almost reach to his father's shoulder. His attire changed to that of alater attire that consists of white dress shirt, black tie, a white sports jacket similar to that of Liz and Patty, a white suit jacket with the Spartoi symbol on its left sleeve, navy pants, and white shoes.

He later wears a simple black shirt with a black jacket along with black shoes when acting independently. His color scheme have further seem to mimic his father, the only variation in color now from his face. Upon his departure from the Moon to negotiate with the witches, Kid returns to his previous look before the timeskip.

During his time under the influence of the Madness of Power inside the Book of Eibon, Kid sports a black suit with white stripes and a white cravat along with black pants and black shoes. He also appears to have 5 black lines on the area of the mouth and lips, appears as If his mouth is sewed shut.

According to both Liz and Patty, Kid shares a resemblance to Asura.

Personality
Kid suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, which is manifested as an obsession over symmetry, otherwise known as asymmetriphobia. Objects and surroundings that are symmetrical can distract him from missions, and will usually start to break down and have fits if he notices asymmetrical objects around him. Thus if anything is wrong by any measurement (a picture frame crooked, or not folding his toilet paper, for example), he will try to correct it right away, even at the expense of the mission at hand. His favorite number is 8, not only for its symmetry, but for the fact it divides out evenly. He is so obsessed with symmetry that Kid refuses to fight a battle unless everything is symmetrical, as he would be asymmetrical holding only one gun. Even if an enemy is symmetrical in appearance, he will refuse to fight it and harm its symmetry. The fact that the left half of his bangs is marked with three white stripes causes him much stress. As a result of his OCD, Kid can be very hard on himself if the asymmetry of the stripes in his hair are pointed out by someone, calling himself "useless asymmetrical garbage". The Index of the Book of Eibon referred to this obsession as Madness of Order.

He is usually very mature and precise in his ways. Kid is naturally calm and collected, and as such is perfectly fine with other people making their own decisions when it comes to symmetry or otherwise, even if he disagrees with their choices. However, there are times when his obsession with symmetry can greatly affect his usually calm personality and cause him to break down into childish fits.

He doesn't appear to have any problem socializing and genuinely cares for his friends. He is seen expressing concern about Soul's scar at one point, and also threatens Gopher that he will never forgive him if he hurts Maka after Gopher threatens to hurt her in revenge for their original fight. He also threw Patti and Liz away from him before being sucked into the Book of Eibon, not wanting them to be taken with him.

It is mentioned by Maka that it is normally hard to match soul wavelengths with more than one weapon, but Kid as a highly skilled Meister is able to do so since Liz and Patti have a strong connection with each other and admiration for Kid who gave them a better life.

His father, Death, has mentioned that Kid is a Shinigami ("death god") and does not need to collect souls, but Kid says he wants to make a weapon of his own specifications. His father also says that since he uses two weapons and the guns do not count as a set, he will have to collect twice as many souls: 198 evil human souls and two Witch souls instead of 99 souls and one witch soul. However, he seems perfectly fine with this.

Kid shares a side rivalry with Black☆Star, and seems to be stronger, however it is possible that he is more susceptible to madness than Black☆Star or Maka, for both were able to pull themselves from madness while he quickly succumbed to the Madness of Order in the Book of Eibon, while Black☆Star is able to quickly snap himself out of it. This may be because of his OCD, or simply because of his strong drive to create a perfect world. It is also possible that being a Shinigami (Species), Kid was weaker against the Madness.

Powers and Abilities
Expert Meister:Kid is shown to be very skilled Meister capable to use two Weapons at once with ease. As stated by Maka achieving harmony between three souls at once is not easy thing. Best proof of this ability is number of different Soul Resonance techniques that Kid and Thompson sisters are capable to perform.
 * Execution Mode:It's combat mode that causes Patti and Liz pistol form change into large cannon and black rods that appear on the back of Kid's arm.
 * Death Cannon:Kid's Soul Resonance attack. When activated, Kid's lower arms are covered with metal and resemble cannon barrels. Three black spikes come out of each of the upper arms. He then charges his attack and fires two giant blasts of energy from the cannons that impact with the opponent, leaving behind a series of skull shaped smoke.
 * Sanzu Death Cannon:After all three Sanzu Lines connected when Kid was near death, his Death Cannon became two oversized cannon barrels, and shooting a soul wavelength strong enough to destroy the larger-than-life Asura reverting him back to his original form.
 * Sanzu River Shot:Is a simple, quick stream of bullet form both Weapons.

Expert Marksmanship:Naturally, Kid is very skilled with guns as he uses the Twin Demon Guns as his weapons of choice whether using them for long-range combat, melee attacks or to mix his gunslinging with his advanced hand-to-hand combat skills. He holds his weapons in an unorthodox manner. The guns are held upside-down, with his pinkies used to pull the triggers. In addition, rather than normal bullets his weapons have the ability to compress his soul wavelength and fire it at the target. This allows him to blast his soul wavelength through the opponent (as shown when used against Soul and Black☆Star in their first encounter). The attack is more of a dark-like 'stream' of energy that fires through the enemy, though it won't open a hole through the opponent or his/her clothing.

Expert Martial Artist:With or without his guns Kid is also skilled in terms of close combat in a Martial Art dubbed "Death God Martial Arts". This distinctive art is divided into different "stances", each focusing on attack or defense. As shown use of it allows Kid to fight equally matched with such opponents like Black☆Star who is very skilled in martial arts and one of rare users of powerful Soul Menace.
 * Death God Martial Art - Stance of "Crime":This fighting style is like Kid's normal style, but without using Liz and Patti, and therefore focuses on chops, kicks, and hammer blows (all of which can be symmetrical).

Aerial Skateboarding:Kid has a flight-capable skateboard called Beelzebub, which he uses as a form of short distance transportation, though it could be used for long distance as well, as seen to be used for flying to Egypt.
 * Death Slide:This is not necessarily an attack itself. He uses it when he rides down railings and the like with Beezlebub.
 * Tornado Flip:Kid launches his skateboard, spinning, at an opponent, possibly cutting them in half. Not much is known as it was only used to save Patti and Liz once when they were being constricted by the Wrath of Pharaoh.

Soul Perception:Kid poses highly developed ability to see souls of others, which is superior to other Meisters with exception of Maka.

Unknown Shinigami Potential:As a Shinigami, Kid's potential power is technically far above that of his fellow Shibusen students. However, the details of Kid's, or his father's, nature as Shinigami have not been revealed. Both share a skull motif (in Shinigami's mask and Kid's rings and neck-tie) and dark, vaguely monstrous, shadows appear around them when either use their abilities, such as Shinigami attacking Asura and Kid using Soul Resonance.
 * Konso:The ability to store a soul without actually consuming it. This is a ability specific to Grim Reapers. It was only mentioned during the mission on the Black Dragon ship, but was not used.
 * The Lines of Sanzu:Not much is currently known about the Lines of Sanzu, other than they are represented by the white lines present within Kid's hair. They seem to be directly linked to the Shinigami's own natural special abilities, as he was able to access some of his father's abilities after connecting one line. There also appears to be some direct connection to Shinigami himself, as he displays visible signs of pain after the first connection occurred.
 * Skull Shield:A technique that allows Kid to use his father's skull shields to block attacks.
 * Shadow Skull Arms:A technique that allows Kid to produce skull like arms made of shadows for various purposes like summoning Beelzebub or even reattach severed arm.
 * Shinigami Jets:Like his father, Kid has the ability to produce jets to fly. It should be noted that he has not been witnessed using them without activating his Lines of Sanzu, indicating that it might be a power only achieved when Kid nears his full strength.

Madness: While in the Book of Eibon, Kid was influenced by madness and fought Black☆Star. While under the influence of Madness Kid has five vertical lines running across his mouth. When they exited they fought Noah while under the influence of Madness. The ability to access this later reappears when Kid is fighting on the Moon.
 * Madness Release:A powerful boost technique that allows Kid to release the hidden inner Madness of Order to increase his strength. Also activation of this technique changes Kid usual attire drastically.