Character Name

Full Name Saiki Kusuo

Kanji 斉木 楠雄

Furigana さいき くすお

Aliases

Kusuko/Kuriko (Girl Vr.)

Partner/Bro (by Riki)

Kuu-chan (by Saiki Kurumi)

Psi (Cat Vr.)

Cyborg Ciderman II (by Yuuta)

Master (by Reita and Kouta)

Saichael (Stage Name)

Four Eyes (by Makoto)

Personal Info

Epithet

Psychic (Currently)

"Regular Person" (Briefly)

Age 15 (Volume 0)

16 (start of series)

17 years old (Currently)

Birthday August 16

Sign ♌ (Leo)

Blood type Unknown

Gender Male (true gender)[2]

Female (using transformation)

Height 167.6 cm (5’6”) (may vary)[3]

Weight 52 kg (114.6 lbs) (may vary)

Affiliation Occult Club (President)

Family

Saiki Kuniharu (Father)

Saiki Kurumi (Mother)

Saiki Kusuke (Elder Brother)

Saiki Kumagoro (Maternal Grandfather)

Saiki Kumi (Maternal Grandmother)

Maternal Great-aunt

Paternal Grandmother

Paternal Grandfather (Deceased)

Occupation Student

Education

School PK Academy

Year/Course

Year 3 Class 1 1 (Currently)

Year 2 Class 3 3 (Formerly)

Media

Novel Debut Extra Stories of Psychics

Manga Debut Chapter 00

Anime Debut Season 1 Episode 1

Live Action Kento Yamazaki

Voiced By

Japanese Voice Hiroshi Kamiya (Anime)

English Voice

Jerry Jewell (Season 1 only)

Kyle McCarley (Reawakened only)

More Voices

Kusuo Saiki (Japanese: 斉さい木き 楠くす雄お , Hepburn: Saiki Kusuo) is the main protagonist of Saiki Kusuo no Ψ Nan who has all kinds of psychic related abilities. He usually tries to avoid getting involved in problematic or attention-grabbing situations, but his attempts always end up going wrong or having unusual ends to his displeasure. His trademark appearance contains his constant frown, his green-tinted glasses and two pink antennas located slightly above each ear, which have the function of limiting his power. Initially he was always seen alone, but in the course of the story he develops lasting friendships with his classmates and schoolmates, especially with Riki Nendou and Shun Kaido, or with his neighbors like Yuuta Iridatsu. Kusuo was starred by Kento Yamazaki in the live action movie based on the series.

Kusuo CharaFull

Kusuo has an average build and height. He has short hot pink hair, fair skin, and pale purple eyes with no signs of pupils nor emotion. Kusuo wears a pair of controller devices, one on each side of his head, which are never removed except in situations of absolute necessity or by accident. The devices resemble white, cyan antennae, with pink, lollipop-like spheres. Accompanying the devices, Kusuo wears white glasses with lime green lenses to prevent his petrification power. During the days he has school, he wears the standard PK Academy uniform that all male students wear. On his days off from school, he occasionally wears clothes that are sewn by his mother.[5] However, there are times he is forced to buy clothes since his mother has an exotic taste in clothing patterns.

Kusuo's physical appearance is unlimited, since he can transform himself into any other living being, but each transformation has a 2-hour interval. While in his female/genderswap form, Kusuo goes under the name Kuriko[6] (formerly Kusuko[7]). In this form, he has lighter pink hair (slightly larger), lacks visible limiters, wears clear glasses, and is usually wearing the female standard PK Academy uniform. In his cat form, Kusuo is known as Psi/Sai and has white fur. In this form, he still wears his glasses and his limiter is in the form of a collar around his neck.

Young Kusuo Appearances

Kusuo, age 11 (top) and age 7/8 (bottom.)

As a child, depending on the time period, Kusuo does not wear any limiters nor his glasses, showing his pale purple eyes. He has always had his striking hot pink hair, that differs from both of his parents and the rest of the world, until he used mind control.[8]

As of the finale, he no longer wears his limiters or glasses. However, right in the end of the epilogue chapters, he reprises them due to his powers begin to return.

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Personality

As the main character and the story is nearly driven by his narrative, Kusuo is a fully rounded character that changes over the course of the series.

Young Kusuo changing demeanor

Young Kusuo, visibly upset going to his straight face demeanor

When Kusuo was a child, he was more open to his emotions. Part of it was due to the fact that he was unaware of what his powers did, such as breaking a whack-a-mole machine in an arcade and thinking the machine was giving him praise.[9] He was highly mischievous, such as making his parents look for him for 5 hours after he teleported,[10] and smiled around others without a second thought. However over the course of time, with having to hide his psychic powers from others and his abilities slowly ruining experiences for him, he started to close himself up.

Thus, in the present, Kusuo is a reticent, self-centered, reclusive shut-in who hates being the center of attention,[11] he is quite reserved and rarely uses his voice, instead preferring to project his words via telepathy into the minds of others. To avoid interactions, he tries to make other people disinterested in him or avoid others as much as possible. For example, Kusuo hiding from the other characters in the bathroom[12] and Kusuo talking to Imu, knowing Kokomi would not like it.[13] Despite this, Kusuo is very adept at determining what people want and executing plans based on them. He was able to single-handedly raise Chiyo's favorability of Takeru from 54 to 95,[14] and to raise Reita's of Arisu to 98 on a whim.[15]

Despite being completely anti-social, Kusuo is more than capable of making selfless choices, willing to sacrifice his own happiness for the sake of others. He gave up his coffee jelly to get a baseball back to a child,[16] gave Chisato a plane ticket to Okinawa knowing that it will lead to Kokomi winning her way,[17] and preferring to let his father be him, himself being left alone, just so he does not ruin the fun for the other characters.[18] Due in part to this trait, he hates burdening others or owing favors. He always helps Kineshi after he helps him and was visibly disappointed in himself for making his mother keep his abilities a secret.[19] Kusuo is also careful to never disrespect or insult his acquaintances in their faces. With these characteristics, coupled with his reserved nature, those that know him well,[20] and even Kusuo himself,[21] consider him a tsundere.

100 Yen Man

Kusuo, as 100 Yen Man, trying to earn money

Kusuo is one of the most responsible characters in the series. He helps with chores around the house, such as cleaning[22] and buying groceries.[23] Despite being able to get anything he wants without using any money, Kusuo saves up money to buy the things he wants, e.g. the Coffee Jelly Maker.[24] He is capable of cheating in exams to get a good score, but he decides to get average scores to avoid attention.[25] He also protects the other students' privacy and wellbeing.[26][27] Most of all, he tries heavily to not rely on his powers, wanting to achieve things for himself.[28]

In spite of his kind-hearted nature, Kusuo does have some faults. While he is quite intelligent, he lacks some common sense on some concepts, especially when it involves social boundaries and the internet. For example, he nearly got scammed by an online shop, believing an item would be cheap and not checking for delivery details.[29] He can easily be manipulated with any sweets, especially coffee jelly. He likes to pry on the other characters, though it is often for their own good; for example, while he has stated that he personally does not think he will not fall in love,[30] he will watch others who are in love and help them if he can. Examples include deciding to spy on Chiyo and Shun walking together the day after Valentine's Day[31] and helping Satou Hiroshi with his crush on Suzumiya Hii.[32][33] Although he doesn’t believe he will ever fall in love, Aiura Mikoto, a soothsayer, has predicted that they are soulmates. Kusuo is also prideful, such as being irritated at the thought of being pickpocketed as he is an esper,[34] describing how incredible his own powers are throughout the series and sometimes referring himself as a god.[35] Not to mention, he is stubborn, such as the case when he refused to admit his obvious seasickness.[36] Despite this, Kusuo is very good at listening to other people, and accepting that he is wrong when the evidence is very clearly against him; his pride doesn't get to his head.[37] Other flawed characteristics include being somewhat pessimistic.

Kusuo caring for the others

Kusuo, asking Reita, to say hi to the others

As time progresses, he grows from not having any friends in his first year of high school, having no single thought of becoming close to anyone,[38] to later thinking of himself as a friend of several of his classmates after so much nearly endless pestering from Riki, Shun, Kineshi, Kokomi, Chiyo, Reita, Aren and Mikoto. He always takes care of them when they are in trouble and vice versa. He trusts them enough to nearly tell them about his psychic powers but ultimately did not, just so he will not burden them with a big secret.[39]

Due to a combination of his introverted nature and his subconscious ability to read minds, Kusuo holds little interest in social activities. Therefore, he typically spends his free time alone; he is a bookworm, having several books in his room, and is frequently in his school's library.[40] He enjoys watching television, including anime,[41] due to electronics (unless he uses his psychometry) being mostly unaffected by his powers.[42] While not being able to set foot in a movie theater without getting spoilers, he also enjoys watching movies.[43]

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History

Kusuo was born on August 16th by completely normal parents, housewife Kurumi Saiki and manga editor Kuniharu Saiki. He is raised by them alongside with his older brother, Kusuke Saiki.

Baby Kusuo

Kusuo, as a baby, with his parents

During his mother's pregnancy with him, Kusuo was using his transformation ability which can be seen in the CT scans. When he was born in the hospital, he came out as a girl but an hour later he became a boy.[44] Exactly 2 weeks after his birth, he spoke his first words to his parents via telepathy. At 1 month, he started to walk and fly. At 1 year old, he was able to run errands.[45] He enters Kindergarten, where he played rock paper scissors and always won against other children and his teachers. After a teacher got angered from losing and unsuccessfully attempted to punch him, rumors started to spread throughout TV and the internet about him.[46] Possibly due to this, at the age of 4, Kusuo was then pursued by a certain nation’s intelligence agency and he ended up erasing the entire nation.[47] After much effort to resolve matters, Kusuo decided to hide his abilities to avoid trouble; Kusuo always being wary on using his abilities when others are possibly around and distancing himself from classmates.

When he was 6 years old, he slowly started to befriended Touma Asumi, an observant boy who retorts to one of their classmates. They first met in their elementary school's entrance ceremony, Touma wets himself due to nervousness, and Kusuo took him to the restroom. They ended up in the same class and sitting next to each other.[48] One day, after school, Kusuo was about to teleport behind a bush, due to wanting to see a certain television show, and he witnesses his classmates bully Touma. Thinking Touma has passed out, Kusuo healed him by touching the tip of his shoe to Touma's arm.[49]

Young Kusuo Telling Touma

Kusuo telling Touma about himself

Prior to current Kusuo travelling back in time, Touma quickly wakes up and asks young Kusuo if he just healed him and if he is a psychic. Kusuo uses his "playing dumb face" while several other kids were around. The other kids leave but Touma sticks around, still amazed at what he has done. Kusuo takes a liking to him; Touma asks him to show him more and thus he tells Touma about his powers. After some events, Touma ends up telling the class he is a psychic and Kusuo ended up destroying the classroom. Kusuo then swore to himself to never reveal his powers to anyone after that.[50]

After current Kusuo traveled back in time, he influenced the event and everything changed. Young Kusuo leaves before Touma wakes up and unknowingly dropped his name tag. The next day, in PE class, Touma was bullied in front of his classmates. Right before he was about to be hit again, Kusuo uses his powers to their classmate on the pull up bar. At that moment Touma loudly exclaimed that Kusuo is a psychic but Kusuo just uses his "playing dumb face," to deter him.

Kusuo Seeing Touma Bullied

Kusuo seeing Touma get bullied

A year after the pull up bar incident, Touma still talks to Kusuo. They do small talk, such as talking about an art project. Kusuo made a robot for the project, which he later uses to destroy Kusuke’s own robot.[51] Touma thought it was trash but quickly apologizes to him. Touma is soon bullied by their classmates but Kusuo only watches others help him. It became an occurrence where Kusuo sees him get bullied, such as classmates taking his shoes and writing mean things about him in the chalkboard, but does not help him in fear of Touma finding about his abilities. Then one day, Kusuo was walking home when he suddenly heard Touma was in trouble. He runs back to the school and finds that Touma has been knocked out by his classmates and is been made fun of. Kusuo snaps and destroyed the classroom. The next scene shows the destruction of the classroom and the bodies of injured children on the ground with Kusuo standing with a stolid face. He erases their memories of him arriving to the scene and made Touma forget about the pull up bar event. Kusuo soon transfers away, afraid that their memories will come back if he stays.[52]

Sometime closely afterwards, Kusuo started wearing his green-tinted glasses, that he found in his toy box.[53] The glasses block his petrification ability, that grew too much. They are shown when he and the rest of his family visited his maternal grandparents. He got along well with his grandparents in the trip, but neither him nor his parents told them about his powers.[54]

After Kusuo Puts on Limiters

Right after Kusuo puts his control devices for the first time

When he was 11 years old, he started wearing his control devices[55] that he and mostly Kusuke invented.[56] They, along with their parents, initially thought it would completely remove his powers. However, the devices instead weaken his powers, to the point of removing his petrification ability for a brief, undisclosed, period of time. Kusuo quickly figured out that his left device limits his powers but did not understand what his right one did. He soon finds out Kusuke put it as a self destruct switch, which, upon removed, his powers were to be revealed to the whole world. Kusuke made it a competition between the two, where he would try to remove it over the years. Kusuo ended up beating him up every time he attempted to grab it.[57] Eventually, about a year later, Kusuke leaves to England and Kusuo does not see him for several years.[58]

Kusuo and his family lived in a different area in Japan up until he was in middle school.[59] Around Kusuo’s first year of high school, the family needed to move after Kusuo caused another accident with his abilities. His parents ended up buying a house from Kusuke located in Hidari Wakibara and moved in.[60] Thus, at 15 years old, Kusuo transfers into PK Academy.

Kusuo Riki and Shun (1st Year)

Kusuo, Riki, & Shun as 1st years

Once again, Kusuo keeps his distance from classmates to keep his psychic abilities a secret. The only person to talk to him is Riki Nendou. Riki, known as the class delinquent, usually asked Kusuo for his homework to copy it. Kusuo once subtly helped him when everyone else thought Riki stole their classmates' wallets. Riki somehow believed Kusuo was the only one to be on his side through the whole ordeal and started to become friendly with him.[61] After a while, Kusuo discovers he can not read Riki’s thoughts after a day of trying to avoid him. After another attempt to avoid Riki, Kusuo then learns and is surprised that Riki is a nice guy. Riki came to his aid against some punks and allowed himself to get hurt to give Kusuo a chance to run away. Kusuo respects him in this aspect, helps him fight the punks and slowly allows Riki to be around him.[62] After the two got friendly, Shun Kaidou went to befriend Kusuo. Kusuo rejected his quest on finding a mysterious alien, which later turns out to be Kusuo. After learning why Shun is so insistent on looking for the alien, just so Shun can have an excuse to talk to him, Kusuo just gives up. Kusuo transforms into the alien, met Shun later into the evening and teleported away once Shun saw him. With this, it allows Shun to talk to him the next day and ends up meeting Riki.[63] The three started to hangout since then.

In Kusuo's 2nd year in PK Academy, he ends up in the same class again as Riki and Shun. There he also meets his new classmates that will soon be part of his ‘disastrous’ life. Chiyo Yumehara, a girl who initially had a crush on him.[64] His class representative, Kineshi Hairo, a highly charismatic individual that pushes Kusuo to do his best.[65] Kokomi Teruhashi, a beautiful popular girl who also ends up crushing on him.[66]

Around after the summer holidays, he meets Reita Toritsuka, a fellow psychic who can see ghosts.[67] Reita transfers to his school, albeit is in a different class, and after some events he formally meets Reita’s spiritual guardian, Riki Takeuchi, Riki’s dead father who acts like his son.[68]

Riki removing Kusuo's device

Riki removes Kusuo's control device

In the fall, the school has their sports festival, Kusuo having to attend after his parents begging. There his class accidentally finds out he is a fast runner, no one telling him the other students he was competing against were part of the track and field team. Sometime after, Riki removes his left side control device making him go unconscious[69] and nearly causing the near end of the world. Kusuo wakes up after the control device was inputted on his head again, however lacks control of his abilities. He decides to leave, but after feeling guilty that everyone was worried about him, he stays.[70] He participates with the team activities and they nearly won if Kusuo did not have lack of control of his body.[71]

A month later, on Christmas, his family, Riki and himself enjoy dinner and shared presents.[72] A week later, it is the new year, his parents and him, go to the shrine. After praying for a peaceful day, Kusuo runs into Shun, Kineshi, Riki and Kokomi. His parents, happy he has made friends, invite them to the house for snacks. While there his mom accidentally tells them about Kusuo being a psychic.[73] Kusuo makes them forget of what she said but get attached to him more due to the disadvantage of the ability he used.[74]

Sometime afterwards he meets Anpu[75] and later on transforms into his female form to indirectly help Matsuzaki with Takahashi and friends.[76]

Kusuo discovers telepathy ring

Kusuo finding the telepathy blocking ring

One day, after helping his parents get rid of door-to-door salesmen, he discovers a ring that, if worn, makes his telepathy disappear. He finds out the ring contains a metalloid, called Germanium, that can cancel his telepathy. Overjoyed at the discovery, he goes to a movie theater, only to run into Kokomi and