Shu Ujigawa

Shu Ujigawa (宇治川 紫夕) is a first-year student who's currently in middle school and one of the vocalists of the band εpsilonΦ.

Personality
Despite looking like an angel, Shu is often compared to a “demon” or “devil”. He believes the world is his “toy box”, which he “flips around” whenever he needs inspiration for his songs. He finds pleasure in the pained, angry and despairing faces of other people and has been ruining lives since a young age. As mentioned by many of the cast members, his musical prowess is the real deal though - going so far as being able to create a highly technical song in the span of a day. At the age of 12, he formed εpsilonΦ, recruiting all the members himself one by one and decided to sign up for the LIVE ROYAL FESTIVAL.

Shu is often sarcastic and has no regard for the feelings of others-- rather, “toying” with people is described as his hobby and “just a thing to kill time” by Reiji, yet he never pulls any punches. The only living creature he’s nice to is his dog back in Kyoto, Momo.

Shu sees people as his toys which he throws away once he had enough-- though he doesn’t like the idea of himself being thrown away. He also “plays” with his bandmates- especially before each of their concerts- to enhance their performances. In Shu’s eyes, they all play better when they’re in agony and pain- which is exactly the sound Shu wants for his music. This is the reason he never stops the twins when they fight and even gives Kanata hints for what Haruka is doing, like in Chapter 4 of Epsilon Phi's Band Story when he tells Kanata that Haruka is hanging out with Yamato.

Backstory
Shu wasn’t always like this. When he was younger, he was generally a normal boy who excelled at all of his practices-- for the sake of being acknowledged by his parents, specifically his father, the president of the company that is holding the LRFes, Duck River. His father is a business man through and through- not caring for anything that won’t move his company forward- and his mother seems distant towards Shu as well. His parents have never attended any events Shu has participated in- not his piano contests, entrance or graduation ceremonies and were never home for Christmas or his birthdays.

As Shu was always alone, Felix became his piano teacher and taught him the way of music- telling him that surely, if he put all his heart into it, he would be able to create a song his father would acknowledge him for. But when that didn't happen, Shu regarded Felix as a liar and felt betrayed. Countless adults, like his parents or Felix, or company employees who tried scouting his musical talent for their own profit, made him feel like he was being played with and one day he was finally fed up with being “tossed around” and decided that, from now on, he would be the one who does the playing. Thus becoming the Shu we know today.

Shu still has the underlying feeling of wanting to be acknowledged by his father, noted both by Tadaomi and Haruka. Tadaomi says the reason Shu created Epsilon Phi and entered the Fes was all for his father’s acknowledgement and Haruka says the only way he and Shu could ever get themselves recognized is through music. It is apparent that Shu’s father still has a major impact on him, even if Shu himself doesn’t want to recognize that.

Appearance
Shu has pink eyes and a light pink bob cut with an underlying layer of hot pink and side parted bangs. His casual wear consists of the standard Kamogawa middle school uniform which follows the typical sailor uniform type. The shirt, just like the shorts he wears with it, are a light blue and the collar is white with blue stripes. The uniform has a white stripe at each sleeve and the bottom of the shorts. The shorts also have a pattern at the bottom. Shu wears a purple tie to his uniform that’s white at the bottom and almost knee high violet socks with black sock garters attached to them. He wears normal black uniform shoes. His standard microphone is black with bright pink highlights.

Practice
To band practice, Shu wears a white shirt with an almost completely unzipped white and light pink hoodie on top and a dark blue pair of pants. The hem of the hoodie, the end of it’s sleeves and it’s zipper are a light yellow. It also has pockets, highlighted by a light pink outline, and belt-like things attached to the hood.

Stage
Shu’s stage outfit consists of a black shirt with a hot pink collar underneath a purple-yellow duel colored jacket, green checkered shorts with hot pink belts attached to them on each side, dark purple socks with a yellow strip at the top and two garter belts and bright purple boots with black highlights. The black undershirt has a purple-hot pink pattern in the middle and the jacket’s sleeves spell out “CHECK”. The boot’s laces are white just like the drawstrings on the hood of the jacket. He also wears a purple choker.

Etymology

 * The name Shu means "purple evening" (紫夕).
 * Shu's surname Ujigawa means "eaves, roof, house, heaven" (宇) (u), "cure" (治) (ji) and "river, stream" (川) (kawa/gawa).

Relationships
Ren Nanahoshi: The story starts out with Shu finding his “new favorite toy” in Ren- he wants to see his innocent face get warped and distorted. Shu burns Wataru’s notebook, let’s their sharehouse get graffitied and sabotages their performance, but Ren doesn’t get angry at Shu which in turn greatly infuriates the middle schooler. Shu ends up hating Ren because of this.

Haruka Nijo: Fellow Bandmate. Shu invited him into Epsilon Phi because of his abilities. Haruka is often fed up with Shu’s antics but rarely does anything about them. Haruka also recognizes both of their longings for acceptance and acknowledgement from other people, specifically their parents, and says they both only have music left to prove themselves. They’ve gone out to eat ramen once.

Kanata Nijo: Fellow Bandmate. Shu thinks Kanata is annoying, but keeps him in the band for his musical skills and ability to infuriate Haruka, something Shu plays into quite often. He understands the twins’ dynamic quite well and is often able to manipulate their actions at will- though he is displeased with Kanata’s focus on blood bonds and disappointed that Kanata acts like he doesn’t know what he’s doing to Haruka.

Tadaomi Kurama: Fellow Bandmate. Tadaomi often tags along with Shu as he finds his “toying” with people interesting and repeatedly states he can’t wait for Shu to “turn his toy box around again”. Tadaomi is the first character who realizes Shu’s true feelings.

Reiji Karasuma: Fellow Bandmate. Reiji has been Shu’s caretaker for years and Kanata describes him as a “yes-man” for Shu. Shu knows Reiji’s true intentions, but uses him as a valuable asset for sabotaging the other bands regardless.

Trivia

 * When ARGONAVIS was still under the BanG Dream! franchise, he was the youngest member in both AAside and Girls Band Party!.
 * He’s the shortest and lightest character in the franchise.
 * His emoji is the teddy bear.
 * Shu shares a birthday month with Kenta.
 * He’s often depicted with puppets- referencing his mentality that the world is his toybox.
 * He has a dog named Momo. She was given to him when his caretakers noticed he was lonely.
 * Most of the time, Shu is shown in shorts rather than full length pants.
 * He had piano lessons in the past, alluding to him being able to play the piano.