Taro Inugawa

Taro Inugawa is a main character from Yu-Gi-Oh! RED. He is a student of Duel Academia enrolled in the Osiris Red Dorm, and the reincarnation of the Duel Spirit Shiba-Warrior Taro.

Appearance
Taro is tall, much taller than most of the other students, and is rather lanky, with long limbs. He has light brown skin, and caramel brown hair that is cut very shaggy and sticks up messily in many places. His eyes are a warm brown. He wears the standard Osiris Red uniform with the standard red jacket, over a black shirt and long white pants with standard issue white and black sneakers. He also carries a green bum bag and wears a green bandanna around his neck with black swirl designs tiled over it.

When relaxed, Taro displays a pair of brown dog ears from the top of his head that are the same color as his hair, as well as a fluffy, slightly curled dog tail with with fur underneath, akin to that of the ears and tail of a shiba-inu. When in disguise, the ears and tail are not visible, and he appears to have normal human ears beneath his hair.

As a third year, Taro hasn't grown too much more, but his hair has gotten a bit shorter. He still wears the first-year Osiris Red jacket rather than the third-year tailed jacket, over a black vest and t-shirt, with jeans and tall brown hiking boots. He is also now wearing a bag slung over his shoulders instead of a bum bag.

Personality
Taro is cheerful and exuberant with a thrill-seeking nature and a desire for adventure. He tends to be a bit impulsive, and will rocket off on an adventure at a moment's notice. He has a strong sense of wanderlust and wants to see as many things in the world as possible. However, he is not ignorant of the dangers inherent in this, and for as much as he enjoys a fun adventure, he can be wary of anything that actually entails severe physical danger.

After the events of Red Days, Taro develops some more anxiety and caution in relation to adventures, especially relating to anything like Armityle or other ancient creatures. However, he overcomes these fears, and develops a mature sense of how to safely face danger without losing his sense of adventure and wanderlust.

Abilities
Taro is a full spirit, however, unlike other full spirits who may inhabit the physical realm, he is capable of staying for an indefinite amount of time without extra help due to inhabiting a full human form. The spell he used as a spirit to reincarnate as a human allows him to stay in the physical realm indefinitely and to grow and mature at the same speed as a normal human.

Taro has the ability to switch into a half-spirit/animal form in which he has dog ears and a tail. He has an enhanced sense of smell and hearing, and tends to be a bit more physically fit naturally compared to other humans. He retains many of the memories of his time as Shiba-Warrior Taro in the other dimensions, so he has a wealth of knowledge about other dimensional landmarks, legends, as well as most Shadow People languages, and can also talk to most regular animals in the physical realm.

Etymology
Taro's name derives from Shiba-Warrior Taro. His first name is written タロ, which is in katakana indicating that it is a foreign or non-Japanese word. It has no particular meaning. His surname is written 犬側 from 犬 (dog) and 側 (side)

History
Taro's original form was Shiba-Warrior Taro, a dog Shadow who inhabited one of the lower spiritual realms. He developed a love of adventure early in his existence, and began to travel the spiritual realms widely in search of strange and beautiful places. Due to an accident during one adventure, however, he cast a special spell that rescued his spiritual form from destruction by sending him into the cycle of rebirth, allowing him to be reborn in a human body to human parents. He grew as a normal human child for many years, save for his strange attributes of dog ears and tail that would pop out on occasion. Sometime during middle school, Taro regained most of his memories of his past life, at which point he tried to share that information with others. However, others simply thought his ears and tails were fake, and he was bullied with the name chuunibyou. He learned to hide his true self from others, until he decided to attend Duel Academia in search of Shadow People legends in the physical realm.

Red Days
During his first year at Duel Academia, Taro was quick to make friends with other students, in particular Nina Orlando, who shared his love of seeking adventure. He spent a lot of his time off mapping the secret places of Duel Academia, and searching for the home of the Three Phantasms, just so that he could see them in person for a moment. When the Osiris Dorm decided to search for Saya's missing sister, Taro got involved. He was one of the students kidnapped to another dimension by Armityle, and then confronted by Armityle during a nightmare spell.

Osiris Blues
During his second year at Duel Academia, Taro moved to the second year dorm with the other second-year students. He and Nina started a new group of "Power Rangers" with a few of the first-year students, and they decided to start training physically and magically in case another incident happened at the school, so that they would be prepared. Taro became involved with the war against Obelisk when some Obelisk students harassed him and the others.

While seeking more information about Armityle, Taro and Mylene searched out a spirit left at the school by Hibike Saito. Upon finding it, Taro managed to defeat it in a shadow game and learn that something bad was happening at the abandoned dorm. Later, Taro and Nina and the other Power Rangers discovered Kylie Harbison entering the abandoned dorm, and went to find Judai for help. They accompanied Judai to a secret location where they discovered the remains of Armityle, and were forced to flee, finding a secret passage to the abandoned dorm where they assisted their friends in escaping.

Nina Orlando
Nina is Taro's best friend and partner in crime. Taro loves Nina's exuberance and adventurous nature, which rivals his own, and they are always running off on some new harebrained scheme together. Taro trusts Nina, but is also sometimes a bit more cautious than her, and will sometimes feel as though he's being dragged along too quickly when he's anxious. Despite this, Nina is the person he cares about the most, and trusts that she'll always understand his limits and provide him the space he needs to calm down after an adventure.

Saki Yamaguchi
Saki is one of Taro's closest friends. Though not as close as he is to Nina, he considers Saki to be a fun, reliable, and sweet person whom he is always more than willing to support when she needs it.

Miu Ueno
Miu is one of Taro's closest friends. While they have a bit of a cat-and-dog relationship, and Miu's sleepiness is a foreign concept to Taro, he loves Miu's blunt nature and enjoys spending time with her.

Minato Fujita
Minato is another one of Taro's friend group. While they aren't the closest of the group, Taro thinks Minato is super cool and nice, an assessment that embarrasses Minato.

Mi-Gyeong Nah
Mi-Gyeong is one of Taro's closest friends, and a fellow member of the Duel Academia Power Rangers. She was the one who introduced him to the Power Rangers when they first formed their training group, and now the two of them are fellow fans and spend a lot of time watching and talking about Power Rangers. Taro thinks of Mi-Gyeong as a great friend and despite being younger, a great leader.

Toitoi
Toitoi is one of Taro's closest friends, and a fellow member of the Duel Academia Power Rangers. Taro

Mylene Masson
Mylene is one of Taro's closest friends, and a fellow member of the Duel Academia Power Rangers. The two of them worked together to defeat a dangerous spirit in a shadow game, and Taro thinks Mylene is one of the bravest and strongest people he knows. Xir easy going nature complements the rest of the Power Ranger team's exuberance, and Taro thinks of Mylene as an extremely stalwart friend.

Pharaoh
Pharaoh is the resident cat of the Osiris Red dorm, whom Taro forcibly befriended in his first year. Though Pharaoh seems indifferent to his friendship, Taro thinks of Pharaoh as a fun adventure buddy and likes to follow him around on campus and bother him.

Taiki Hayashi
Taiki is Taro's roommate. Though they don't spend much time together outside of their room, Taro thinks Taiki is very sweet, and likes to be around him and have fun, though Taiki might call that "fun" teasing.