Nagisa Shiota

Nagisa Shiota is the main protagonist from the Assassination Classroom anime and manga.

Nagisa is a student in Korosensei's Class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High School. Despite his overall passive nature, Nagisa has a natural talent for assassination.

Appearance
Nagisa is a petite-framed boy with blue hair and azure eyes. His hair goes past his shoulders due to his mother forcing him to keep it that way. He kept it in a long ponytail until Kaede Kayano joined the classroom and styled it in two pigtails. He is known for his androgynous appearance which has often been poked fun at by many people - most notably, Rio Nakamura and Karma Akabane.

Seven years after graduation, his hair is noticeably shorter and no longer tied in pigtails, though he still keeps his bangs. He retains his signature uniform waist coat when working as a teacher.

Personality
Nagisa is a calm, collected, and friendly individual who can be exceptionally observant and circumspect of his surroundings and the situations that develop around him. He tends to pay strict attention to Korosensei in hopes to understand the motives of this mysterious being and compiles the information he has gathered in his notes for reference.

Nagisa is noticeably more reserved and shy than other students in his class, thinking much more than actually talking and referring to himself as "invisible" because of this. He seems to be commonly nervous about what he says in important situations, being hesitant and harboring a slight stutter, which is possibly due to his mother telling him he "isn't good enough". However, Nagisa is not easily fazed by things that would unnerve the average person, as shown with his interactions with Karma and the prospect of using a real knife.

Despite his calm and empathetic demeanor, Nagisa harbored deep insecurity about his talents and how he was perceived by the people around him. This was reflected by a lack of goals and general pessimism about his own future, which caused him to be put in Class 3-E. However, Nagisa eventually gained more self-esteem, became even more objective, and found his own goals thanks to his experiences with his classmates and Korosensei.

Abilities
Assassination: Nagisa's physical abilities are mediocre, and it is worthy to note that he is one of the weakest amongst the boys as his constitution and strength are more easily comparable to a female of his age. However, Nagisa has an extraordinary amount of natural talent as an assassin due to his impressive observant nature, his remarkable stealthy movements, and his immense bloodlust. This inclination has also been made apparent numerous times during the span of the story, such as his duels against Takaoka, his fight against Karma, and Korosensei respectively. Several other characters such as Karma and Maehara have noted that he is full of surprises - one can never know when or where Nagisa will aim to strike, and his talent in the art of assassination has garnered respect from even those who are not his peers to the point that others have commented on the potential Nagisa possessed that could be fulfilled in the role of a professional hitman. In the end, though, Nagisa does not pursue this path and decides to use his abilities to help others in the same way Korosensei did: teaching to a "problematic class".
 * Bloodlust: Nagisa possesses a massive amount of hidden bloodlust despite his initial character, impression and appearance which can affect his opponents in varying ways; the most significant, powerful reaction can involve immobilization and an inability to counterattack or to fight back, and this type of reaction affects even trained professional assassins. This is made very clearly evident for the first time during his mock assassination with Takaoka, and another early event is the incident when two of his old classmates threatened him, sparked the interest of all three of Class E's main faculty. When Nagisa's bloodlust is released or directed at someone, it is metaphorically represented as a large, blood-soaked snake coiled around his target with its fangs bared and ready to strike at any moment. In later chapters, his bloodlust takes the form of a flaming aura around him in a way that either mimics or reflects that of the God of Death. However, if Nagisa were to lose control of his bloodlust due to emotional provocation, his inability to rein his bloodlust back under control is indicated in his eyes, which are illustrated as dull, and as such can cause him to grow reckless or lack foresight during combat while focusing on his target, apart that would cause that opponents with bloodlust that exceeds Nagisa's own are not affected in the slightest.


 * People Reading/Discernment: Nagisa developed the ability to read people's expressions, intentions, and most of their actions' reasons with ease as a result of his past experiences with his mother, Hiromi Shiota, and after being placed in the Class 3-E, even more after meeting Koro-sensei. There are occasions when he can detect if a person is lying or not being entirely truthful, such when Terasaka was plotting with Shiro. After being placed on the receiving end of the God of Death's improved Clap Stunner, this ability later evolves, now allowing Nagisa to analyze a person's state of mind simply by looking at them, being described as "wavelengths" or "wavelengths of consciousness" of people that represent their breathing, line of sight, facial expression, body language and more. This allows Nagisa to find a person's "gap in consciousness" or "openings" where they let their guard down, as well as their "peak in consciousness", which is the state of mind that happens when a person is highly susceptible to outside stimuli such as the Clap Stunner, which he has made effective use of in different ways, from stunning enemies before attacking them to simple, almost trivial things such as being able to remove a size label from clothing without the person wearing it noticing, etc.


 * Marksmanship: In June, Nagisa scored 84/200 in Marksmanship, making him the fifth best among the boys and seventh overall amongst his class.


 * Kiss of Death: Nagisa has shown some level of skill when using Irina's "Kiss of Death" technique, able to acquire 15 "Hits" off of Kaede. Irina has remarked that Nagisa's training in indiscriminate French kisses have bestowed on him remarkable enough skill to exceed his classmates by a large margin, as he is supposedly capable of registering a total of 40 "Hits" if he were to place more effort into his kiss.

Trivia

 * Nagisa is one of the few people in the entire manga who is referred to by his first name (similar to Karma) when nearly everyone else is referred by their family name. According to Koro-sensei in his talk with Nagisa's father, it is because Nagisa asked everyone to call him by his given name so he could easily make the transition back to his old name if his parents ever ended up getting back together.


 * Nagisa was called "Gender" due to his feminine appearance during the class 3-E training using code names. Nakamura was the one who gave him his codename.
 * He also is the shortest male student of Class 3-E.


 * Nagisa is usually represented by a snake due to his ability to hide his bloodlust and strike at the least expected moment. In Chapter 147, this is taken a step further where instead of simply being represented by a snake, he is represented, in Karma's perspective, by a version of himself that resembles a Gorgon due to snakes being heavily involved in their appearance.
 * In the popularity poll of Volume 12, Nagisa was ranked 2nd.
 * In the art rankings of Volume 5, he placed 5th among the male students.
 * His favorite subject is English while his least favorite subject is Science.
 * His past club before dropping to Class E was Concert Club.
 * His hobby is researching.
 * His favorite food is sushi according to Chapter 2.
 * He is later seen eating it with his father.
 * For Nagisa himself, a word "Kill" directly when being threatened, is much like a magic word for him that enables him to use his assassination abilities, even in his adulthood.
 * If he earned the reward from killing Korosensei, Nagisa would like to buy himself some height.
 * Nagisa was noted as the most prodigious and the best assassin at the Class 3-E, mainly noted by Karma, because he considers Nagisa as a prodigy and Kayano, who claims Nagisa is the best killer on the class.
 * Nagisa is the only student that takes note of every weakness of Korosensei, even the ones which appear to be "insignificant".
 * By the end of the Class 3-E Civil War, Nagisa is the last man standing with a score of five kills (including Karma's surrender), the highest of the class followed by Rinka Hayami (four) and Yukiko Kanzaki (three). He is also noted as the fastest kill streak in just a second (four kills in one second) and shares the kill streak with Hayami in terms of kill with four kill streak (Exclude Karma who surrenders).
 * He also is the only person on the no-kill team that never got tracked by Mimura.
 * In episode 24, there are various messages left on a blackboard by Korosensei and 3-E students. Nagisa's message was "It's great to meet you guys!"
 * Nagisa was the one to complete the assassination by stabbing Korosensei in the heart with an anti-sensei knife after he volunteers to be the one to end Korosensei's life.
 * In the Assassination Classroom extras, a girl named Hotaru working in a restaurant with her mother appears to resemble Nagisa, with only slight differences such as hair.
 * In the Graduation Album, it stated that even after his parents are back together. His parents decided for Nagisa change his surname when he wants to, should he run into trouble and gain public attention.
 * In the Assassination Classroom spin-off, Nagisa's bug is that when he takes a step forward with a strong will, it will have a random effect.


 * Nagisa appears as a Story Mode NPC in the PS3 game J-Stars Victory Vs, along with Irina and Karasuma.
 * In the tankobon extras, his statistics were listed as:
 * Physical strength: 2
 * Mobility: 3.5
 * Close-range assassination: 3.5
 * Long-range assassination: 3.5
 * Academic ability: 3.5
 * Characteristic skill: 5 (Anti-human assassination)