I'll do anything for deer crackers!
Noko, to Anko
Noko Shikanoko (鹿乃子のこ, Shikanoko Noko), or simply Nokotan (のこたん), is a unique human-deer hybrid and the founder and mascot of the Deer Club at Hino Minami High School.
She is a transfer student who becomes the best friend, classmate, and clubmate of Torako Koshi.
She is the titular character of the Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan series who makes her debut in Chapter 1 of the manga and "Girl Meets Deer" of the anime.
Appearance[]
Shikanoko Noko has large, expressive green eyes with fine, delicate eyelashes that subtly frame her eyes. She has light brown hair styled into a neat bob cut that falls just above her shoulders. Her bangs are straight and slightly parted in the middle, gently curving to frame her forehead and blend seamlessly with the rest of her hair.
One of her most distinctive features is the pair of large, light-colored antlers protruding from the sides of her head, resembling those of a deer. These antlers are rough and extend outward and upward.
She wears a traditional Japanese school uniform. The top is a crisp white sailor-style shirt with a classic dark blue collar edged with a lighter blue stripe. A light blue scarf is neatly tied at the front. The sleeves of her top are long and extend to her wrists, with dark blue cuffs that match the collar, also trimmed with a light blue stripe.
Her outfit includes a pleated navy blue skirt that reaches mid-thigh. The pleats are sharp and well-defined, suggesting that the uniform is well-kept. Her legs are clad in white knee-high socks that reach just below her knees, contrasting with the navy blue of her skirt. She completes her outfit with brown loafers that are practical and stylish. The loafers are polished and well-maintained, indicating attention to detail in her appearance.
Personality[]
Shikanoko Noko is shown to have a bubbly personality, always happy but yet is still clueless and clumsy. Unlike her titular counterpart, she is an excitable, fun-loving girl who lets her immaturity shine, from encouraging and finding sex jokes funny, to picking fights with others who have the high ground against her.
She is carefree, energetic, and is constantly unpredictable due to her supposed naivete. She engages in many quirky behaviors that would normally shock others and catch them off-guard.
Despite this, it seems that her antics only affect the sanity of Koshi Torako, who more often than not ends up questioning her tendency to be the only one seemingly self-aware of what is happening.
As opposed to being seemingly naive, she has times where she lets her true intelligence shine, more often than not in the form of psychological manipulation against Koshi herself, which the latter never fails to fall victim to.
Abilities[]
- Charisma - Noko has the natural ability to befriend almost anyone immediately, or even get those who antagonize her into liking her just by being herself. Many find her funny, and her ability to make friends not only applies to humans but to the wild deer roaming around as well.
- Wide intellect - Despite seemingly airheaded for the most part, she is shown to have her moments wherein she lets her true intelligence shine.
- Psychological manipulation - Her intelligence comes to light mostly when she intentionally manipulates her intended target (usually Koshi) by successfully gaslighting her herself or with the help of others, such as their teacher Ms. Ukai.
- Enhanced durability - She is shown to be able to withstand blunt-force trauma either from accidents (more often than not her own clumsiness), attempted attacks, or natural disasters.
- High-pain tolerance - On top of her body being able to withstand such injuries, she is also shown to be able to not feel the pain that comes with it, or entirely suppresses it.
Skillset[]
- Enhanced agility - When need be, she is able to easily dodge attacks aimed at her, such as Anko's barrage of kunai.
- Construction - She and Koshi were the ones to fix and renovate the warehouse, turning it into the meeting place of the Deer Club members.
- Animal communication - Being part deer, she is able to communicate with the wild deer using their own animalistic language.
- Musical talent - She is shown to be able to sing, as she teasingly sings a line of Koshi's original song about herself in "Bashame Enrolls", this skill is later highlighted upon in the following episode, "The Deer Club in the Crosshairs", wherein Noko sings her own original song.
- Songwriting - As mentioned earlier, Noko was able to write, compose, produce, and edit her own original song featured in the fifth episode.
- Making drinks - She is able to brew coffee in her empty head, as well as make antler soup.
- Harvesting mushrooms - She is secretly harvesting mushrooms in the gym storage's vaulting box.
- Digging - TBA
- Botany - TBA
- Guitar-playing - TBA
Unique Abilities[]
- Deer antlers - She is the only deer-human hybrid shown so far, thus having a pair of deer antlers.
- Antler sensors - Her antlers can sense a lot of things, usually a person's true nature/secrets and the like. When this happens, her antlers tend to glow a faint red.
- Compact storage antlers - At times, she can use her antlers to store a single banana as a snack.
- Detachable antlers - She also has a tendency to detach them, and sometimes chew at them. They also tend to come off depending on the situation. Additionally, this can also extend to include the top of her forehead, making an empty storage space within her head.
- Regenerative antlers - Since deer horns naturally grow at its own pace, her horns are also shown to be able to do the same. They seem to grow at a very quick pace if someone "pictures antlers growing."
- Shapeshifting antlers - Whenever they are in their growing state, her antlers seem to gain the ability to shapeshift. Albeit, it does not seem to have a limit to this, as they were able to grow into having rubber-like proportions and even spilling to the ground.
- Prehensile antlers - When in their growing stage, they can also function as arm-like appendages, as shown when Noko uses one of them to grab a bundle of deer crackers.
- Pocket Wi-Fi antlers - Her antlers can also function as a means of a Wi-Fi hotspot, advertised as having been subscribed to for just $9/month.
- Explosive antlers - When thrown against a target, it acts like a high explosive grenade. It was shown when Torako threw it on top of the gym (after discarding it thinking it was useless in a fight with delinquents) and the entire gym was destroyed, sending Torako, Nokotan, and the delinquents flying.
- Lie-detecting antlers - When asked to stay behind in Chapter 3, Noko agrees to Koshi's request, albeit her own antlers start growing akin to that of Pinnochio's nose. Later on, Noko follows Koshi anyway.
- Stamp antlers - Her antlers are also sold as customizable name stamps.
- Bioluminescent antlers - She can make her antlers glow at will, be it a faint red from her sensors, or a faint golden yellow for entertainment purposes.
- Respiratory antlers - TBA
- Rice seasoning antler flakes - Her antlers can be shaved into small flakes and used to season rice, apparently being rather tasty.
- Flight - TBA
- Head storage - She uses her hollow head for storing her belongings, she also takes off her head to let it cool off at times.
- Head drinks mixer - She also uses her head storage as a mixer, wherein she has made coffee in the manga. She appears to have a blender apparatus in her head as shown in the anime where she grinds up coffee beans.
- Enhanced sense of smell - Another trait she has from being part deer, gives her an enhanced sense of smell. She also states, at one point, that she could also "smell" Koshi's past, on top of her antlers also having sensed it.
- Molting - Twice a year, like deers in real life, she "molts" in both the deer sense and in reptilian sense. The molted skin is a beloved body suit worn by Bashame.
Trivia[]
- Her surname, Shikanoko, has the kanji for the word "deer" (鹿), following the animal-naming convention as the rest of the Deer Club members.
- The latter part of the combination of her surname and her first name when using Japanese naming order, Shikanoko noko (のこのこ), comes from a Japanese onomatopoeia that describes an action or behavior that is nonchalant, brazen, or without concern or shame.
- Despite the official English name of the series being My Deer Friend Nokotan, the transliteration of the original title is just a combination of Noko's full name, Shikanoko Noko, and Koshi's nickname, Koshitan.
- Putting the transliteration of the two names into account, Noko's full name may roughly mean "Deer Girl who is unbothered", while the nickname Koshitan also works as an idiom, meaning "to watch intently (like a tiger)" - making the literal meaning of the original title as "Deer Girl is unbothered by the tiger watching her intently".
- Despite the official English name of the series being My Deer Friend Nokotan, the transliteration of the original title is just a combination of Noko's full name, Shikanoko Noko, and Koshi's nickname, Koshitan.
- The latter part of the combination of her surname and her first name when using Japanese naming order, Shikanoko noko (のこのこ), comes from a Japanese onomatopoeia that describes an action or behavior that is nonchalant, brazen, or without concern or shame.
- Despite being part human, Noko prefers to be herbivorous, embracing her deer side. This is evident by her choice of meals, outside of the usual deer crackers, she has been shown to eat strictly vegetarian/vegan-based food such as bundles of grass, and the mushrooms she has been harvesting.
- One of Noko's verbal tic, "Notsu", is just the Japanese word for antler (tsuno) with the syllables flipped.
- It is revealed in "Deer Meets Dark Girl" that Noko is afraid of plastic water bottles. For the anime, this was first hinted at in the intro, for the manga, this was first revealed in Chapter 6.
- Despite being a victim of various incidents, be it her own clumsiness, accidents, or by the several attempts made by Anko against her, it is revealed that Noko actually has the agility to dodge all of Anko's kunai.
- As of "Bashame Enrolls", she and Koshi are now third-year students.
- It is revealed in "The Deer Club in the Crosshairs" that Noko snores while saying the word "Deer" repeatedly.
- Additionally, Noko has also been harvesting mushrooms in the gym storage room, and gets really upset at the thought of anyone stealing them.
- Chapter 3/"Grab Her Weakness!" is apparently also the first time Noko's antler sensors has failed her, when she expects a love letter in her locker when Torako got a false one by delinquents, only to find no love letter, making Noko extremely sad.
- Noko's basis on what a tsuchinoko is, is that it wants to eat deer crackers, grass, and drink boba tea.
- Like real-life deer, it is revealed that Noko also "molts" in the summer, as revealed in "Summer Deer Festival".
- Megumi Han and Saki Fujita, Koshi and Noko's voice actresses, respectively, posted a picture on Twitter reenacting the scene in which Noko attaches antlers to Koshitan in the episode "DeerColle, Streaming, Hospitality, etc.".[2]
- In Chapter 12/"Goodbye Old Deer, Hello New Deer", it is revealed that Noko works as a shrine maiden annually at the local Deer God Shrine, wherein she also puts on a different persona.
- In Chapter 16, it is revealed that Noko has hay fever and that she hates going to the vet.
- To promote the episode, "Blame It On Spring...", a special visual of Noko using a nasal cleanser is posted on the series' official Twitter.[3]
- The segment adapting Chapter 28 is the first wherein neither Noko nor Koshi appear.
- It is revealed in "The pursuer and the pursued.", that, for the most part, Noko is a heavy sleeper.
- Noko is classified as student #12 of Class 3-B.
References[]
- ↑ Anko, Torako's younger sister, is revealed to be 15 in "Bashame Enrolls"; Noko also refers to Torako as "onee-san", making her younger than Torako
- ↑ Megumi Han's status
- ↑ Nokotan using a nasal cleanser