Shido Itsuka

"If people refuse to accept you, I'll just accept you even more!"

- Shido Itsuka, to Tohka Yatogami

Shido Itsuka (born: Shido Takamiya) is the main protagonist of the light novel and anime series Date A Live. He was adopted into the Itsuka family at a young age, and he has a younger foster sister named Kotori Itsuka, as well as a biological younger sister named Mana Takamiya.

He is voiced by Nobunaga Shimizaki in the Japanese version of the anime and Josh Grelle in the English version, the former of whom also voices Shinichi Izumi.

Appearance
Shido has all the looks of an average young man in high school. With blue hair down to his neck, amber brown eyes, and has straight hair and bangs. He is usually seen wearing his school uniform. His height is stated to be 170 cm in the anime. During the events of Miku Lily Arch, Shido crossdresses as a girl in order to interact with Miku Izayoi, and he disguised himself as his alternate identity, Shiori Itsuka. During the time he crossdressed, he was seen with long blue hair, and he wore the standard female Raizen High School uniform. He also had a hair clip, which seemed to be a flower of some sort.

Psychological Description
An average young man that originally had no interests in the opposite gender until he got forced to be by his little sister. Basically, he has to deal with females on a constant basis, which he is not used to. Another interesting personality Shido has as described by Kotori: "onii-chan had become strangely sensitive to the despair inside people.—Mm. Something like everyone rejecting oneself—thinking that one will never be loved by anyone else. Well, basically what he had been like back then. If there was someone with such a melancholic expression, even if it was a complete stranger, he would probably go help them without a second thought."

Shido is also a very kind-hearted person, and can sympathize with others; these traits are what caused most of the Spirits to fall in love with him, as the thing they seem to lack most of all has always been a person who can do exactly this: i.e. accept and understand them. Even Miku, who treated everyone like puppets, ended up changing her world view because of him. He also possesses a strong will and a friendly willingness to forgive others. He will press on to save the Spirits despite great personal risk to himself. When responding to Natsumi's comment about the trouble she caused him, he compares her actions to what he went through during all of his past attempts to help spirits and can only call her actions childish pranks: this is a girl who nearly ruined his reputation and erased all his friends and would've then erased him had she succeeded.

History
The past of  Shido is wrapped in mystery and steeped in questions. It is not known who was his parents, why he was abandoned, why Shido is only human in the world able to seal the Spirits, what is his relationship with the Phantom, what is the involvement of his past with Sir Isaac Ray Peram Westcott and most importantly; "what is Shido Itsuka".

Abandoned by his birth mother, Shido was adopted into the Itsuka household at a young age. Five years ago, an incident caused Kotori to become a Spirit due to a misunderstanding on her part and was tricked into becoming one, but neither of them can remember anything about that incident until Kotori personally used her powers again five years later, which awakened those memories in both of them again. It was discovered that Shido possesses the ability to seal the powers of Spirits around the time Kotori became a Spirit, but it is not known how he got it in the first place. Before the incident, Shido seems to have met Origami Tobiichi, who lived in the same district, since she claimed to know him when they first met at the school while Shido couldn't recall anything about their meeting.

During the events of Tobiichi Devil, it is revealed that this is because Origami met the future Shido, who traveled back 5 years to the past using Kurumi's Yud Bet and eventually shrunk his body with Natsumi's power to find out the reason for Origami's Inversion. After saving the 11-year-old Origami from being crushed by a part of a burning building, Shido comforts Origami, who, at the moment, on the verge of despair. He said that she can give anything to him and don't feel despair in which Origami replied that she will give him her tears, smile, happiness, enjoyment and everything with the exception of her anger towards the spirit who killed her parents.

Powers & Abilities
Shido has the mysterious, and unique ability to seal the powers of the Spirits into his own body, which was first discovered sometime in the past when Kotori was turned into a Spirit. To use his ability to seal a Spirit’s power, the Spirit in question must meet a certain condition or requirement. Those conditions or requirements are that, the Spirit in question must show affection, trust, closeness, and/or intimacy towards Shido. Once these conditions of affection are high enough between Shido and the Spirit in question, he can seal their power by kissing them on the lips.

Depending on the Spirit itself and how much power they originally had, Shido can either seal a majority of their power or all of it. Shido can also “borrow” the power of a Spirit he sealed, but it depends on how close or intimate he is with that Spirit. This explains the nature of his regenerative abilities. However, it seems that using a Spirit's power (other than regeneration) taxes his body with great pain.

Thus far, he has automatically used Kotori's healing powers and has learned to use Tohka's Sandalphon, and later even summon Yoshino's ice. He was, however, unable to call these powers out of his own free will until the case with Natsumi, where he finally pulled out Sandalphon intentionally. Also, due to the sheer amount of Spirit energy sealed inside of his body, Shido has been shown to possess a level of protection or immunity towards the abilities of other Spirits, being able to withstand Kurumi Tokisaki's City of Devouring Time with little effort, as well as being unaffected by Miku's Solo.

Should the Spirits' emotions become unstable enough, their powers will begin to return to them and leave Shido. This means he'll have to seal them again should their powers fully return to them, but usually this only results in the Spirits temporarily regaining portions of their original power. However, as shown in the cases of Kotori, and much later on Tohka, it is possible for the Spirits to take back their full powers without the need to become emotionally unstable.

Additionally, in terms of other abilities, Shido also possesses good cooking skills and, much to his own dismay, due to having to crossdress in order to interact with Miku, Shido learned how to utilize makeup on a level comparable to most girls, enough that he was the one asked to use said skills on Natsumi. His acting skills proved effective enough to deceive his schoolmates and Miku herself, who was, at the time, a serious man hater.

Trivia

 * Shido has two little sisters. Kotori Itsuka as his foster sister and Mana Takamiya as his real sister. Both Shido and Mana have amnesia about their pasts, while both Shido and Kotori had their memories of 5 years ago erased by Phantom.
 * Isaac Westcott seems to know Shido's true identity, calling him by his real surname, "Takamiya", before retreating near the end of Volume 7. (Season 2: Episode 10 in the anime)
 * Shido is the one who gave the black ribbons to Kotori due to the day being her birthday after he sealed her powers in the past.
 * His family name "Itsuka" means "Five Streams/Rivers".
 * His first name means "Samurai's Code", an reference to his loyal personality and dedicated nature.
 * The powers of the spirits Shido has sealed have been used in the order he sealed them.
 * He sealed Kotori first and can use her regeneration ability, while he can use Tohka's Sandalphon and Yoshino's ice powers who he sealed 2nd and 3rd respectively.
 * This is eventually contradicted with Natsumi, who at the time was the last one he sealed, but he used her powers before Miku's or Yamai's.
 * Due to a promise to Tohka that he wouldn't kiss any other girl besides her, Shido always tries to seal a Spirit's powers when Tohka isn't looking. Unfortunately for Shido, Tohka always ends up walking onto the scene as it happens.
 * Tohka ended up walking in on the Yamai twins' powers being sealed.
 * This happened again when Miku's power was being sealed in the anime.
 * It happened a third time with Natsumi after stopping the artificial satellite  from crashing onto Tenguu city.
 * In all three cases, they kissed him when he wasn't expecting it.
 * Shido couldn't recall the meeting with Origami even though she claimed to know him when they first met. In Volume 11 it is revealed that this is because she first met him when he traveled back 5 years into the past.
 * Shido was also indirectly responsible for creating her new personality after her parents were killed.