Katsuya Serizawa

Katsuya Serizawa (芹沢 克也, Serizawa Katsuya) is a powerful Esper who was formerly a part of the Claw's Ultimate 5. Currently, Serizawa works at Spirits and Such Consultation Office.

Appearance


Serizawa has curly dark-brown hair, messy eyebrows and eye bags, is quite tall and has broad shoulders and a handsome face.

During his time at Claw, Serizawa had long hair with tight curls, a thin mustache, and stubble. He wore an orange hanten over a black long-sleeve shirt with grey sweatpants, and bright green crocs. He carried his white umbrella with him at all times. After the fall of Claw, he no longer carries his umbrella casually.

After being invited to work with Reigen and Mob at the agency, Reigen trims Serizawa's hair and shaves his face. When working at the agency, he wears a blue two-piece business suit.

Personality
Serizawa was a withdrawn and naive person before leaving Claw. All of his trust was solely placed in Toichiro, looked up to him as a personal savior, and followed his orders without question. Before beginning his work at the Spirits and Such Consultation Office, if he were separated from his umbrella he would panic and completely lose control of his psychic power, which would cause heavy damage to his surroundings. He was haunted by a deep fear of his own power.

Serizawa's constant fear of losing control of his powers made him incredibly anxious. Due to his years under Toichiro Suzuki, he seems to have difficulty acting without guidance from others. However, after the fall of Claw, joining Reigen's agency, and starting to attend night school, Serizawa begins to come out of his shell and be more independent.

Serizawa is shown to care about others' well-being, even going as far as keeping himself in his room for the sake of others' safety. At present, he's more careful with his feelings and considers his thoughts more before giving advice or commentary. He's gained a little more confidence by working alongside Reigen and making friends with the people in his classes.

By the time of the REIGEN spin-off, Serizawa seems to be competent and quite confident. His personality growth is displayed when he shows off his powers for Tome and gives a lecture to help her become a psychic.

History
Throughout his adolescence, Serizawa's powers often acted out on their own, leading to others becoming scared of him, scolding him, or rejecting him for the problems that they caused. The subsequent emotions only made his powers act out more. At age 12, after years of being bullied, rejected, and punished for the problems that his powers caused, Serizawa decided to retreat from society entirely, and locked himself in his room out of shame. Lacking guidance and companionship, not helped by the counselors his mother had hired, Serizawa remained in his bedroom for 15 years. His self-imposed confinement lasted until he met Toichiro, who offered to teach him how to use his powers, and gave him an umbrella to help calm his anxieties about leaving his room. Being offered the normalcy and acceptance that he desperately craved his entire life, Serizawa chose to follow Suzuki and join Claw.

With his lack of self-confidence, Serizawa was convinced that he could not achieve anything on his own, making Claw his chance to rejoin society, and espers his chance to be accepted and have friends. Serizawa became dependent on Suzuki, as he was scared to lose the small bits of normalcy, love, and acceptance that he had received, leading to Serizawa helping Claw achieve their goals. To further instill himself with a sense of normalcy, he would often refer to Claw as a company, with Suzuki as its president, and him his employee, often omitting the crime-related portion of his job entirely. He was aware of his actions and crimes, as well as Claw’s true purpose, but was able to delude himself of guilt with Suzuki’s encouragement and his own desperation for normalcy and companionship.

World Domination Arc
When Joseph reveals his status as a double agent to Toichiro, Serizawa appears and lectures him about how lying isn't a very nice thing to do. Joseph tries to restrain him with his smoke, but he breaks free and uses his powers to blast him out the window.

Climbing the stairs to confront Suzuki, Mob encounters Serizawa and bluntly opines that he is being used. Serizawa refuses to believe Mob's opinion and argues against it, and Mob retorts that he was following the wrong person. Accepting the inevitable, Serizawa fights Mob using his umbrella as both a weapon and a shield, but is eventually won over by the sincerity and empathy of Mob's 100% Friendship. By sharing his energy with Serizawa, Mob shared his memories of true friendship with Serizawa, allowing him to understand the true nature of his relationship with Suzuki.

Serizawa would later use his umbrella to save Reigen from Suzuki's wrath. Suzuki retaliated by blasting Serizawa with psychic energy until his umbrella was torn to shreds, then draining Serizawa's power to use for himself.

Serizawa is present at Toichiro's arrest. His former boss then tells him that he never really viewed him or any of the Ultimate 5 as his comrades, so there was no need to worry about him. Then, in his first show of actual affection and consideration, Toichiro tells Serizawa that people would try to manipulate him because of his lack of self-confidence, and to not let them.

Divine Tree Arc
Serizawa accepts Reigen's offer and begins working at Spirits and Such Consultation Office, hoping to improve his life and style. By helping Reigen with exorcisms, he hopes to help make the world a better place, and he soon starts taking night classes at a local school to make up for his lack of formal education.

Before starting with his first client Reigen decides to cut his hair and shave his beard.

He and Mob exorcise Yokai, drawn to the Divine Tree.

Telepathy Club Mini-Arc
Reigen invites Serizawa out for drinks on New Year's Eve, but he already has plans with friends from school.

 ???% Arc 

When ???% destroys the city, Serizawa and Reigen go check out what is happening and see the tornado. Reigen suspects that Mob is in the middle of it, and asks Serizawa to help escort him to the center. Serizawa agrees and protects Reigen with his umbrella as they walk through it. However, his power begins to be sapped away by Mob's tornado, and at the request of Reigen, he retreats.

REIGEN Manga
In the spinoff, Serizawa continues participating in daily work at Spirits and Such. By this time, he is promoted to the role of Deputy Director of Spirits and Such. He convinces Reigen to allow Tome to come along on some of their exorcisms and joins Reigen in following Tome on her trip with Origo Hoshida. He then helps with the subsequent rescue by dissipating the illusion of Reigen that was dragging Tome and Hoshida deeper into the woods.

When Tome is cursed, Serizawa immediately tries to remove the curse, but fails and is thrown against a wall, knocking him unconscious.

Epilogue
Serizawa participates in Reigen's birthday party and invites Sho.

Powers & Abilities
When he was a member of Claw, Toichiro stated that Serizawa is the most powerful of the Ultimate 5. He is strong enough to block an attack from Suzuki at 3% of his power output as well as to put up a fight against Mob and hold the edge against him for most of their battle. Serizawa is also shown to be a rather talented esper, as seen when he was demonstrating his psychic powers to Tome and was handling multiple tasks at the same time (watering plants, sorted papers in the file cabinet, cleaning floors, preparing tea, moving Tome to sit on a chair and speaking through a radio). His psychic aura takes on a purple color with a TV static pattern within.

Quotes

 * (To Mob) "Please... don't make me angry. Do you know how much your words hurt?"
 * "Ability... I can build... plastic models really well. Ah... What else..."
 * "How awesome is that... I talked to the prime minister."

Etymology

 * The name Katsuya means "overcome" (克) (katsu) and "to be, also" (也) (ya).
 * Katsuya's surname Serizawa means "celery" (芹) (seri) and "swamp, marsh" (沢) (sawa/zawa).

Notes & Trivia

 * By the time Serizawa begins working at Spirits & Such, he lives alone.
 * Serizawa's favourite food is gyudon.
 * Serizawa is reluctant to try spicy foods. And MP100 Official Fanbook confirms that Serizawa's least favourite food is very spicy stuff, because his stomach cannot handle it.
 * Serizawa regularly consumes cup noodles.
 * Serizawa's strong point is that he knows how to tie a necktie, and his weak point is that he gets nervous far too easily.
 * Serizawa's special skill is pouring tea.
 * Serizawa's hobby is looking up western clothing on shopping sites.
 * Serizawa's favourite music is (something) calming.
 * Serizawa's favourite movies are the ones which has work as their theme.
 * Serizawa's motto is "If I can do it now, I will".
 * Serizawa recently got into studying.
 * Serizawa is shown to be very fond of children - he is friendly toward Sho, the only esper who doesn't want to fight Mob (because he is a middle schooler), and protective of Tome in the REIGEN spinoff manga.
 * Serizawa has not told his mother about his terrorist past - she is unaware of what Claw is as well.
 * Serizawa considers Reigen to be a respectable person.
 * Serizawa is described as being honest and sincere, but too estranged from the world.
 * Character Designer Yoshimichi Kameda states that he did not use the umbrella when it was raining.
 * When asked about Serizawa's preferences during the summer break, ONE tells that he likes to spend his time indoors, heavily involved in TV, games, and the internet.
 * During his episode of Salt Middle School Broadcasting Club, Serizawa describes carrying tea leaves, a teapot, and a travel umbrella around with him.
 * Serizawa's voice actor Takanori Hoshino imagines him with the blood type AB, a Taurus, born in April.