If you have been reading the Trigger Locked series, it’s not hard to tell that the person who is on the cover for A Silent Killer is none other than Hayato Kusanagi.

Well, who in the world has silver hair and uses a tactical pen to kill someone other than him, right?

Knowing me, it shouldn’t come as a surprise here that anime plays a significant role in all of my character design concept.

And Hayato Kusanagi is no different. Can you guess which character inspires the character design for Hayato?

The inspiration behind the character design for Hayato Kusanagi

If you know my love affair with PSYCHO PASS, it shouldn’t come as a surprise here that I always picture Hayato Kusanagi as Makishima Shogo.

Okay, I want Hayato Kusanagi to look like him because I’m Makishima Shogo fangirl. But hey, I can’t think of anyone else who can embody Hayato’s trait other than Makishima Shogo.

And it’s even more befitting when Hayato kills people without mercy. Same goes for Makishima Shogo.

That’s what I think when I envision how Hayato Kusanagi will look like.

I bet that Makishima Shogo will be famous among the women if he’s not the bad guy in PSYCHO PASS.

I admit that the illustration doesn’t seem to do much justice, but please imagine Hayato to look like Makishima Shogo whenever you see him in action.

You can also imagine Hayato to have a similar voice like Makishima Shogo if you want since I always imagine Takahiro Sakurai to be one who will voice Hayato whenever I write Hayato’s dialogues.

I made this decision at the spur moment

When I came up with the initial concept for the Trigger Locked series, I didn’t even plan to make him coming from a ninja clan.

I wasn’t so sure how the idea of him coming from the ninja clan came about. But the influence could be something to do with Kinjou Shirasu, which is one of the characters from Donten ni Warau.

For those who don’t watch Donten ni Warau anime or read the manga, he’s a ninja whose real identity is the leader of the ninja clan, Fuma clan. His real name is Fuma Kotarou.

In case you’re wondering, Kinjou Shirasu is my favorite character in Donten ni Warau.

What’s even better, the seiyuu for Kinjou Shirasu is Takahiro Sakurai. He’s also the same seiyuu for Makishima Shogo as well.

If you’re wondering how Kinjou Shirasu looks like, well, here it is.

I don’t mean to badmouth the anime, but the anime doesn’t do much justice to reflect the original manga artwork. The manga artwork is just amazing.

If you have the chance, I highly recommend you to buy Donten ni Warau manga since the manga artwork is to die for.

Since I love both Kinjou Shirasu and Makishima Shogo, I kind of like the idea of meshing their personality together.

Thus, we now have Hayato who looks like Makishima Shogo with a ninja skill like Kinjou Shirasu.

Of course, I only pick only a handful of their personality traits that are appropriate for Hayato. It’ll be a giant mess if I take all of their personality and mold it into one.

Now, who says that the ninja character should be reserved for the historical anime and manga?

Isn’t it an odd concept?

You may feel that having a ninja character among the group of people who are spies may seem like an odd concept to you.

After all, isn’t ninja a thing of the past?

Well, it’s true that the ninja concept is a thing of the past. And it doesn’t help that the Trigger Locked series takes place in Tokyo in the near future where all the technology that is still in the infancy stage today gains a mainstream adoption.

But from what I see, what ninja does isn’t that different from what a modern spy does.

So, it’s not as odd as it seems if Hayato is helping Kimizuki squad in the shadow. After all, he’s more like a wild card to the team.

When I think about it, I’ve yet to come across any anime character who is a modern ninja.

If you happen to know one, please let me know.

There’ll be more screen time for him

I admit that he doesn’t seem to appear as much as I want him to. But all I can tell for now is he plays the most critical role in how their mission to arrest Satoru Yuuya will end.

I can’t reveal the details for now. But please look forward to it~