Shū Kannogi

Shū looks like a small boy, with tousled brown hair and grey eyes. At first he is dressed in an oversized white kimono topped by a blue vest, and for his wedding to Rurichiyo he instead wears a blue kimono paired with beige trousers.

Shū's affection for Rurichiyo runs deep, and he does whatever he can to keep her safe. Sheltered to the point that he has scarcely left the manor except when carried in his chair, he is easily bored and far less daring than his spirited betrothed. He feels most secure at Ichigo and Rukia's side, and his heartfelt devotion is remarkable given that theirs is an arranged union.

During the Kasumiōji Conspiracy, an arc told only in the anime, Shū is left fretting over Rurichiyo's absence when Gyōkaku Kumoi summons him before the assembled clan and proposes that the boy occupy the family seat in her place. When members object, Kumoi murders them, and an uneasy Shū accepts the post without protest while the schemer runs the clan's affairs. Rurichiyo's eventual return delights him, but their wedding is crashed when Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki burst in and expose the bride as an impostor.

Eager to help recover the real Rurichiyo, Shū stages his own kidnapping so the two can slip past the Second Division surrounding the manor, then rides along on Ichigo's back, at one point throwing himself between Ichigo and the Third Division's freshly installed captain, Shūsuke Amagai, to beg for a truce. After Kumoi's assassins are turned back and Amagai kills Kumoi and spirits Rurichiyo away, Ichigo pursues and defeats him, letting Shū and Rurichiyo reunite and return home. Later the pair work to organize a kemari match meant to warm relations with the common folk of Rukongai.