Shana is a young girl with jet black hair which is almost as long as her entire body height. She also has dark brown pupils and a fair complexion. Because of the effects of being a Flame Haze, Shana's body age remains that of a girl of 11 to 12 years old. Upon invoking her powers as a Flame Haze, her hair and eyes change color to a fiery crimson, with embers fluttering from her head down. In her first few years as a Flame Haze, she wears an all-black attire consisting of a shirt, pants, and her Treasure Tool Yogasa in the form of a trench coat. However, after she decided to stay in Misaki City, she is most usually seen with the Misaki City Municipal High School uniform and when in combat, has the Yogasa as a cape worn over her clothes. She is later seen wearing a red-and-black frilly dress on her stay inside the Seireiden. Initially, she is concentrated solely on her duty as a Flame Haze, not even considering getting a name as she didn't see any importance having it. She sees Yuuji only as a Torch, an object, albeit marginally interesting because of his status as a Mystes. However, she slowly opens up to Yuuji, coming to think of him as a person despite being a Torch and eventually, comes to show affection to him. Her duty made her indifferent toward human life at first, but through Yuuji's influence, Shana has opened up slightly, although she still remains confused and disgruntled by some human traits which she considers as pointless, although some of it is used to mask her jealousy of her desired monopoly on Yuuji. Shana has a habit of saying "Urusai! Urusai! Urusai!" ("Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!") whenever Yuuji asks her questions or makes remarks that disturb her original worldview or embarrass her. But in reality they really care for each other. She has a great fondness for anything sweet, eventually putting melon bread above her preference. Shana is shown to be highly intelligent as she has gotten a perfect score on every exam and is talented in Physical Education. She is shown, however, to be naive when it comes to social affairs, once even unabashfully asking Chigusa, "How are babies made?" Known only as the "Flaming-Haired, Blazing-Eyed Hunter," Shana bears no name until she meets Yuuji, who names her after the sword she wields. As a "Flame Haze," Shana is sworn to protect the balance of the world by hunting down the "Guze no Tomogara," monsters from the "Crimson Realm" who come to earth in order to harvest the "Power of Existence" from its denizens. Together with Alastor, "Flame of the Heavens" and Shana's guide who lives within her and speaks to her through a necklace she wears, she has become one of the most powerful Flame Haze in existence. Shana is said to be the most powerful, known and feared by most Crimson Denizens with her title alone. This has allowed her to defeat many powerful Denizens and permits her many different abilities, including her proficiency with the Nietono no Shana, the ability to wield flames, manipulate the Power of Existence, harbor extrasensory traits, and fly with wings of flame. In the third volume of the manga, the first volume of the novel, and the movie, Alastor states that the reason why she did not explode after being shot by Friagne's Trigger Happy was because she held a capacity that existed in dimensional space, who was able to contain the Flame of Heaven's (and more); he has thus stated her as "The Great One." However, she demonstrates a clear lack of experience in battle, as noted by Sophie Sawallisch, who has witnessed her fighting style first-hand. This is once responsible for her defeat against Flame Haze Margery Daw, who is a specialist in Power of Unrestraint. Despite being the title character of the anime, Shana has few character relations with many of the characters in the show. That would be because of the manner she was raised. Wilhelmina, Shiro, and Alastor mostly focused on her physical and mental being, forgetting that being as socially adept is as important. This was, as Alastor said, one of their mistakes, since they thought that they would just teach her these feelings when she grows up a little more, not realizing that these feelings should be developed and could not be taught so hastily. (Although, Shiro did teach her indirectly that love is the most powerful unrestricted spell of all.) Her main social interest is Yuuji, whom she sees as her love interest. Her relationship with Yuuji is one of the driving forces of the series. Shana takes orders and advice from the Crimson Lord she is bound to, Alastor, and has a mentor and guardian in the form of Wilhelmina Carmel. Kazumi Yoshida is her love-rival for Yuuji, and Shana treats her with contempt and disdain. She generally treats most other characters with ignorance and indifference, with the exception of Chigusa Sakai, who she looks to as a source in answering certain difficulties when Alastor or Wilhelmina are unable to do so. Shana eventually starts to be more open to the other characters, especially in regards to her relationship with Kazumi becoming more friendly. After meeting Yuuji, Shana goes through a chaotic phase in she experiences new emotions like love, jealousy, hatred, and loneliness. This leads her to making rash decisions in battle as she's unable to identify or deal with what she's feeling. When Shana finally realizes that having Yuuji with her in battle helps her fight better, she begins to unlock new abilities and becomes more proficient in battle.

Ash Ketchum (known as Satoshi in Japan) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the japanese animation, Pokémon. There are also incarnations of him in the Electric Tale of Pikachu manga, the Pocket Monsters Zensho manga, and the Ash & Pikachu manga. He is loosely based on the male protagonist of the Pokémon Red and Blue. The family name "Ketchum" is a pun of the anime's former tagline and slogan "Gotta catch 'em all!" At the beginning of the series, Ash was 10 years old. In the short called "Pikachu & Pichu" which was attached to Pokémon 3: The Movie, he said the day when the events depicted in the short took place was the day he met Pikachu, meaning his age at that time would be at least 11. However, two seasons later, the official Japanese Pokémon website reported that Ash was the same age as May, who was 10 years old at the time. This and the fact that the two are at the same height suggests that none of the characters have aged since the show began, placing the Pokemon anime in a floating timeline. Ash is a caring and valiant trainer but he can be confident to the point of arrogance and is known for being stubborn at times. He also has quite the reckless streak, which has led him to troublesome situations and even near death. But when in a Pokémon battle, he is highly competitive, and he shows tremendous presence of mind, taking advantage of the battlefield as well the nature of his and the enemy Pokémon's moves to claim victory after victory, though he has been known to lose from time to time. Ash has matured greatly over the course of the series, and has considerably improved his abilities as a trainer, but his earnestness and determination remain the same. During the first season of the series, Ash trained to catch more Pokémon than his childhood rival, Gary Oak, although Gary has caught more. He soon begins to focus more on each of his Pokémon's abilities. He also impresses many trainers by winning battles in which his Pokémon has a type disadvantage. At the Johto League Silver Conference Ash finally won a battle against Gary. Throughout the anime, Ash has met a number of rivals, including Richie, whom he faced in the Indigo League, and Casey, a diehard Electabuzz fanatic. During Pokémon tournaments, Ash has made rivals out of Harrison, Jackson, Morrison, and Tyson (the last of which went on to become the champion of the Hoenn Pokémon league). Near the beginning of Pokémon: Diamond & Pearl, Ash meets an arrogant young trainer named Paul, who quickly becomes his new rival. Ash's primary nemesis is a group of comical antagonists named Team Rocket. Ever since the second episode, "Pokémon Emergency!" two Team Rocket operatives named Jessie and James, along with a talking Meowth, have always tried to steal his first Pokémon Pikachu but have always failed. There are some occasions when they work together like the Pokémon: The Movie 2000. Ash's mother is Delia Ketchum (Hanako in Japan). She is a caring and thoughtful woman, though occasionally oblivious as her son, and in the English version of the anime often pesters him to change his boxer shorts every day, a gag throughout the early episodes of the first few series. The identity of his father has remained unknown. One reference to him exists in the anime. During a phone conversation between Ash and his mother in the second episode, she states to her amazement that he got from Pallet Town to Viridian City in one day. "It took your father four days to get there when he started Pokémon training," she says, "He'll be so proud!" A line from the play, Pokémon Live!, suggests that Delia, at one time, had a relationship with the leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni when she was a teenager, but in the anime, no evidence of Giovanni being Ash's father has been shown currently. In the episode "Showdown at Dark City," Ash went by the name of Tom Ato (tomato) after spotting some ketchup that Pikachu was eating. He had to disguise his name, so that his real name would not get a bad reputation, since he was dealing with the rivaling Yas and Kas gyms. Ash was based off Red, a playable character from the generation l games, Pokémon Red, Blue and Green, he was also based off Satoshi Tajiri's childhood self.