Natsuru Senō

Natsuru Senō [瀬能 ナツル, Senō Natsuru] is a second year student of Seitetsu Gakuin High School. He is the only known instance for a male to be chosen to fight as a Kämpfer. He was transformed into a Kämpfer upon recieving an Entrails Animal, Harakiri Tora, from his crush, Kaede Sakura.

Natsuru lived a regular life until he woke up to find that he was a girl. Harakiri Tora revealed itself as his Messenger and went on to inform him of the existence of Moderators and Kämpfer, and their purpose of fighting other Kämpfer. While initially adamant, Natsuru eventually accepted the fact that he was indeed a Kämpfer. Natsuru fought with many Kämpfer, though later befriending some of them. He seeks to discover the reason and extent of Kaede's involvement with the Moderators.

Becoming a Kämpfer
At seventeen years old, Natsuru was just an average student, attending the Seitetsu Gakuin High School. He lived alone, his parents having jobs in other countries. One day, he woke up to find a young girl in his bathroom, thinking her so beautiful that she would have been the kind of person to appear in a men's magazine. To his horror, he discovered that the girl was in fact a reflection of himself in the mirror. He also found that he was wearing a blue metal bracelet that he could not remove. Although his body underwent a full transformation, his voice sounded as it normally did.



A voice told him that he had 'been chosen'. Natsuru found the voice to belong to a stuffed animal, Harakiri Tora. Natsuru refused to believe something so crazy could have happened to him, and threw Harakiri Tora around the room. Later, though, he resigned himself to listen to it to try and figure out what was going on.

Through Harakiri Tora, Natsuru learned of the existence of Moderators, Messengers, and Kämpfer. It revealed that the metal bracelet on Natsuru's arm was called a Contract Bracelet. When asked why he was chosen as a Kämpfer, especially since he was a boy, Harakiri Tora simply replied that he had an 'optimum talent'. Wanting to simply get to school and try and forget about the experience, Natsuru requested that Harakiri Tora turn him back into a boy. Obeying it's instruction to close his eyes, Natsuru gets hit in the gut by Harakiri Tora, and is knocked out.



Battle with a Blue Kämpfer
Natsuru woke up to find himself a guy again. Thinking it was all a dream, his heart sank to find the Contract Bracelet still on his arm. Natsuru eventually packed his books and set out for school.

Already very late, Natsuru ran to school, only stopping to grab an onigiri. Somewhere along the way, he bumped into Kaede, his crush and one of the Two Beauties of Seitetsu, who was also running late. Natsuru asks Kaede to encompany him to school, to which she agrees since she is late anyway. She asks Natsuru about the plush doll, which reminds him that it was her that gave him the Harakiri Tora plushie.

Natsuru's bracelet suddenly glows, and he finds himself face to face with a 'vicious dog woman'. Natsuru notices she wears the same school uniform as they do. She introduces herself as Mishima Akane, and threatens to shoot Natsuru when his bracelet glows again. His bracelet forcefully drags him around the street corner and Natsuru finds himself transformed into a girl.

Akane catches up to him and begins firing on him with her gun. Natsuru runs away, dodging her bullets, but not before noticing that she too has a Contract Bracelet, and he deduces that she is a Kämpfer like him. Kaede shows up, and Akane, annoyed at her presence, turns her gun towards Kaede instead. Natsuru instinctively reaches out and a large ball of flame erupted from his hand, shattering the wall just behind Akane.

Akane comments on his new ability, calling it Zauber. She raises her gun to finish the fight, but suddenly pauses. Natsuru notices that she is staring at his bracelet. Akane unexpectedly turns around and walk away.

The girl named Akane
Natsuru is relieved that he survived the assault, but leaves the scene immediately when he realised that Kaede was nearby. He eventually arrived late to school, transforming back into a guy somewhere along the way.

During lunch break, Natsuru's classmate, Higashida, informed him that a girl had arrived looking for him. This was a rare event, as Seitetsu Gakuin has separate sections for male students and female students. Natsuru immediately assumed it was Kaede from earlier, though Higashida was quick to correct his assumption. He described Kaede as one of the Two Beauties of Seitetsu, the other being the the student council president, Sangou Shizuku. He claims that if Kaede were to come over to meet him, Natsuru would have had hordes of male students hunting him down.

Natsuru went to meet the mysterious girl. Outside the class, he saw a girl his age, noting her 'out of trend' hairband and her glasses. She introduced herself as a librarian from the school library, thus allowing her access to both sides of the school. When asked for her name, the girl introduced herself as Mishima Akane.

The two move to the library, as Akane was uncomfortable being in the boys section. Once there, Akane confirmed Natsuru's suspicion that she was a Kämpfer. Natsuru immediately interrogates Akane for threatening him earlier that morning, to which Akane replies she had no choice. He learns from Akane that her personality and appearance changes when she transforms, much like his genderswap. He also learns that Kämpfer are grouped according to the colour of their Contract Bracelet; Akane discovered they were allies as they were both blue Kämpfer, the reason why they stopped fighting earlier. Blue Kämpfer, he learned, fight Red Kämpfer.

Akane helped to fill many of the gaps that Harakiri Tora failed to explain. Natsuru finds that he can easily trust Akane, and later asks her to go out with him to pick out clothes that would fit his female self. He starts to leave when his Contract Bracelet glows. He feels the barrel of a gun resting on the back of his head and is surprised to find Akane has transformed. He questions why Akane had transformed for seemingly no reason when she reminds him of one important fact about Kämpfer: they transfrom when another Kämpfer is close by.

The Red Kämpfer
A knife blade slices through the air between Akane and Natsuru, and they are forced to find cover. By the time the dust clears from the initial attack, Natsuru finds that he has transformed into a girl yet again.

As Natsuru does not yet fully understand his Zauber, his is forced to run decoy by Akane, as she attemps to find the enemy Kämpfer. The ruse does not work however, and Akane and Natsuru again are forced to hide. Kaede appears from behind a bookcase, trying to find a way out of the library. Akane fires at Kaede, thinking she is the Kämpfer, who is saved only by Natsuru's intervention. The blades strike again, from a distance, confirming Natsuru's assertion that Kaede is not a Kämpfer. Kaede, meanwhile, has fainted.

Eventually the school bell rings, signifying the end of lunch break and the beginning of class, and both Akane and Natsuru are surprised to find that the attacks have stopped. Natsuru assumes that like Akane, the Kämpfer is an honours student, and would insist on being punctual for class. Akane leaves the library, forcing Natsuru to carry the unconcious Kaede to the nurse's office.



Later Natsuru went on a date with Kaede in his female form and Akane stayed close by in case he will change back into his normal form. Kaede asked if Natsuru could be her girlfriend. Natsuru excuses himself and goes the restroom wondering how to answer her, Akane had transformed asking the same thing to him. He deicides to say no, but when he goes back to find Kaede he meets Shizuku Sangō, a fellow student of Seitetsu Gakuin High School, at a restaurant. She claims to have kidnapped Kaede Sakura and says she won't release her unless Natsuru and Akane fight her. They both agree to fight Shizuku in two nights at the school. Natsuru and Akane defeated Shizuku and made a truce.

After a fight with Shizuku, he exposed his Kämpfer form to other students of the school. Shizuku arranged to have him enrolled in girl's class to fulfill public curiosity in a way that diverts attentions away from Kämpfer battle. His Kämpfer form has subsequently been ranked among the Three Beauties of Seitetsu (there used to be only two) and, much to his own dismay, become subject of intense affections from Kaede Sakura (who has displayed no particular interest in his Normal form) and the female student body.

Normal Appearance
Natsuru is a seventeen year-old teenager. He is very tall, and has a slim body type. He is depicted as having blue hair and eyes. He keeps his hair long, shaggy, and unruly. Although he describes it as curly, Natsuru's hair is relatively straight, hanging just over his eyebrows, and long on both sides and back.

He is most often seen with his school uniform, which consists of a short sleeved shirt with a black undershirt, long black trousers, and leather shoes. His Contract Bracelet is worn on his right arm.

Kämpfer Appearance
Natsuru is the only Kämpfer to be born a male. As such, when he transforms, he undergoes a genderswap. Natsuru still retains some traits as a girl, for example, he retains his hair and eye colour. His hair grows out much longer, and he keeps it in a high ponytail.

As a girl, Natsuru is slightly shorter than when he was a guy, but still taller than most other girls. He develops a more feminine figure and switches sexual organs. His underwear also changes to blue-and-white striped panties, likely to accomodate the loss of his 'equipment'.

If he is wearing his school uniform, is will transform with him to the Seitetsu girls' school uniform.

Personality
Natsuru is independant, having lived alone for a good part of his student life, and is comfortable when doing things his way. However, when placed in an unexpected situation, he often responds with nervousness or even anger at times. Though not as an able fighter as his teammates, Natsuru is very loyal to them, and will fight for them even if that brings him outside of his comfort zone. Natsuru is not afraid to fight for what he believes in, and there is very little that can change his mind.

Natsuru will not take charge in a situation he is not interested in, and if he cannot avoid it, will often allow others to make decisions for him and he will simply go with the flow.

As he has never had a girlfriend, Natsuru often does not know how to react around them. The clearest indicator is the regular occurance of nosebleeds whenever he sees a beautiful woman; even himself as a Kämpfer.

His friends will often show annoyance at his complete failure to understand the emotions of other people. He is not as perceptive as other people, and will often be left wondering on why people are arguing or why they are annoyed with him.

Trivia

 * Both Natsuru and Shizuku make a short cameo appearance in episode 3 of "Asobi ni Iku yo!". They can both be seen in their Kämpfer form holding their respective Messangers just as the episode starts at 1:58, on the left side of the screen among the people observing the Cathian mothership.


 * In the light novel and manga, Natsuru keeps his male voice, whereas in the anime his voice becomes much more feminine.
 * In the anime, Natsuru's voice actress, Marina Inoue, voices both the male and female Natsuru. There is a distinct change in both voices, the male one being much lower than the other.