Michiru Kagemori

Michiru Kagemori (影森みちる, Kagemori Michiru) is the main protagonist of the Brand New Animal series by Studio Trigger. She is a high school student.

Appearance
Michiru is an Tanuki-Human with blue and dark blue hair and tail. Her eyes are dark teal. She has Tanuki ears sticking through her hair, her ears can get longer. The end of her legs, her hands and a patch in her face are dark brown while the rest of her body is light brown.

She wears a loose, grey sleeveless shirt and a black sports bra underneath with a red jacket over the top and some blue and green shorts with her tail sticking through. She has red and white sneakers. Before she enters Anima City, Michiru wears a red cloak over her normal outfit. During athletic practice and physical activity, she takes off her jacket.

In her human form, she has black short hair, brown eyes, and a light tan skin-tone.

As with other students in her high school, Michiru's standard high school uniform consists of a white short-sleeved collared shirt, a baby blue bow tie, a high waisted teal short skirt, light grey knee-length socks, and black shoes.

Personality
Michiru is best described as compassionate, caring, brave, and energetic.

History
Background

Michiru is a normal high school student. She is best friends with Nazuna. Michiru gets injured and goes to the hospital. Nazuna turns into a beastman and gets taken away. Michiru turns into a beastman too and goes into hiding. Michiru sees an Anima City advert on her phone and begins planning her escape there.

Episode 1/Runaway Raccoon
Michiru attempts to withdraw money from an ATM before a group of thugs comes her away. The thugs vandalize a poster encouraging unity between Beastmen and humans. Avoiding trouble, she hides in an air vent until the group walk away. Outside, a broadcast of the civil unrest against Beastmen plays on a screen as Michiru blitzes past.

She reaches the bus station and hops atop the Route 66 bus as it is departing. The bus leaves the vicinity of the city and passes through a mountainous, coastal road. Feeling more relaxed, she takes the hood off her cloak and stretches out on the roof of the bus, gazing at the sea and Anima City in the horizon.

Michiru powers on her phone and watches an Anima City advert on Facelook. Just as she's settling in for the ride, a motorcycle gang of beast hunters shoots two projectiles at Michiru, knocking her off the bus. Before impact, her tail rapidly expands and cushions her fall. The gang approach her once again, but this time she dodges a few blows as she tries to run away from them. Michiru unfortunately falls off the guard rails she was running on and tumbles down the embankment below.

The bike gang eventually catches up and knocks her down. As a gang member is about to deliver the final blow, Mari Itami interrupts the altercation and asks in a sassy tone for them to stop. She explains that she needs to protect Michiru for one of her clients. The gang doesn't listen and swings at Mari. Enraged, she and her two accomplices transform into their Beastman forms. Her accomplices easily subdue the beast hunters and Mari explains to Michiru that she will escort her to Anima City. She demands payment for her services and Michiru begrudgingly hands over a wad of bills.

They board a boat and Michiru stares off into the distance at Animacity as she reminisces her life as a fugitive. The sun sets and the group arrive in Anima City. Michiru, nervous and on alert, glances around and sees a bright wolf figure on top of a nearby building. Suddenly the lights turn on and the 10 year Animacity festival begins. Chairman Rose gives a brief introduction and the festivities are underway. Michiru explores the festival and bumps into a crying wolf who says he waited 1000 years for this moment. Disgusted, she looks away for a brief moment and the wolf disappears.

Mari meets Michiru and distracts her as a monkey steals her wallet and runs away. Michiru chases and looses the pickpocket underneath some scaffolding and witnesses a wolf in a coat leaving with a briefcase. She bumps into a pillar in frustration, only tip the scaffolding off balance. As it's falling, Michiru frantically rushes to save an elderly goat in the scaffolding's path. In the last second before the scaffolding fell on the two, the crying wolf from earlier pushes them clear of the scaffolding.

The crying wolf accuses her of knocking the scaffolding over, to which she denies and informs him that she witnessed a wolf sneaking away earlier. The wolf leaves and Michiru continues to pursue the pickpocket. They are both interrupted by a large explosion in the city. Right when Michiru appears at the scene, the wolf terrorist from earlier grabs hold of her as hostage. Unfazed, the wolf jumps behind the terrorist and repeatedly beats him down.

Michiru criticizes the wolf for his violence against Beastmen and tells him to stop. The wolf refuses and says that the terrorists ruined the festival and were hired by humans. He kicks the terrorist once more, but Michiru screams to stop and her tail begins to glow and expand. The tail knocks the wolf back. They begin to argue once more; this time Michiru defends the humans and exclaims that she is human too. Unconvinced, the wolf sarcastically remarks her Beastman appearance.

Abilities
Shapeshifting

Michiru appears to not be a proper Beastmen displaying the ability to take on the form of many different species and also many unusual abilities not associated with any known species. She seems to at first unknowingly activate these traits but later on seems to be able to control them to a certain degree.
 * Long Arms: Michiru can extend and bend her arms to reach far away objects.
 * Expandable tail: Michiru's tail can expand to an enormous size easily weighing her down or engulfing and protecting herself and others from harm.
 * Bird Beak: When Michiru yells, her mouth becomes an beak of any bird she has.
 * Gorilla Punch: While preparing to throw an object or throw a punch, Michiru arms enlarge to a massive size due to an increase in muscle mass, easily allowing her to overpower opponents or create bursts of wind with thrown objects. Her throws at least with a baseball seem to be able to dent and break concrete.
 * Cheetah Legs: Michiru's lower half of her body turns into what appears to be a pair of cheetahs legs and tail allowing for incredible burst of speeds. The tail is probably there to act as a real cheetahs tail in the wild would as a way to counteract body torsion while she is turning at high speeds keeping her balanced.
 * Bunny Ears: Michiru's ears can elongate resembling rabbits ears allowing her to hear conversations from far away or listen through walls or doors.