Introduced in Versus series, Shin (シン) is a legendary being and the progenitor of the Yōma and currently the currently most powerful known entity aside from possibly a fully-awakened Kagura.
As the Yōma's creator, Shin is Kagura's primary target, and according to Sayuri she is the entity responsible for a majority of disasters in the Senran Kagura Universe. Few are aware of Shin's existence though, even among the shinobi that know of the Yōma.
She is an overarching antagonist of second timeline after Dōgen in the first timeline.
She first debuts in Senran Kagura: New Link as the main antagonist of the Shin story arc. It's revealed that she was a human girl name Kokoro (心), Kagura's friend 1000 years ago, who became one with the evil dragon god Jaryu.
Appearance[]
Kagura Millennium Festival in Estival Versus, Shin is vaguely shown as what appears to be a giant baby in a crib, still growing.
In New Link, Shin is shown to be a pallid woman with short-cut black hair and black dress. She has hazel eyes and has a slim busty build like the majority of the cast. When enraged, Shin's eyes become hot pink, and her black dress hardens.
Background[]
1000 years ago, Kokoro was the daughter of the Western Village's chief. She befriended Kagura, the daughter of the Eastern Village's Chief, which was nearby. They were very close and promised they'll always be together.
Every year, people from the Eastern Village did a special dance in order to appease the god Jaryu, whom they worshipped. Unfortunately, one day Kagura's father had a vision about a giant monster devouring the village. Jaryu told him that the Eastern Village could be saved as long as the Western Village was sacrificed.
That night, the people from the Western Village were massacred by Jaryu and the troops working for Kagura's father. Kagura tried to run away with Kokoro, but they were caught. Just as the soldiers were about to kill Kokoro, she somehow resonated with Jaryu and used her newfound powers to kill all the people from the Eastern Village, leaving Kagura as the only survivor. The last thing Kagura saw before fainting was Kokoro being swallowed by Jaryu.
After becoming one with Jaryu, Kokoro became a new entity called Shin, the first and progenitor of the Yōma.
Story[]
Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash[]
There appears to be only one Shin across through dimensions, and it has resulted in the destruction of alternate worlds in the past. The island where the Kagura Millennium Festival takes place is actually on one such Earth, where nothing outside of the island remains except for water. The only way to actually fight Shin is to first lure them into the world's own space-time using a very powerful Shinobi Barrier. Blood must be spilled within in order to attract it. However, as of yet, nobody is prepared to take Shin on should they arrive.
The Peach Beach Splash event is held as a secret way of reinforcing the barriers keeping Shin away for just a little longer to give the shinobi of the world more time to prepare.
Senran Kagura: New Link[]
Kagura finally remembers that her original reason to find Shin was so she could save Kokoro. Over time, frustration, age and her constant reincarnations caused her to forget her original goal, leaving only an unnatural obsession with destroying Yōma.
Note: The following is based on observation of a non-translated ending. Some of it may be inaccurate.
At the end of New Link's story, all the shinobi try and destroy Shin. However, most have to stay behind to fend off yōma swarms. Ultimately, Kagura, Naraku, Homura, and Asuka enter Shin's lair in another dimension to confront her. Kagura and Naruku battle Shin, but both of them are defeated. Since Kagura can't fight any longer, she offers Asuka the chance to fuse with her to be able to defeat Shin at the cost of never being able to return to being a human. Asuka accepts to be able to destroy Shin and prevent other worlds from being destroyed. During the fight, Asuka loses power after Shin tricks Kagura's spirit within Asuka into hesitating. Knowing Asuka's in trouble, Homura accepts Naraku's offer to fuse with her despite initially being hesitant about losing her humanity. Homura then assists Asuka in defeating Shin, and they finish off Shin together. After, Kagura and Kokoro's spirits are reunited.
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Trivia[]
- Daidōji managed to punch her way into Shin's realm, but was repelled by a single finger's movement, namely its pinky.
- Shin's name is written in katakana. However, in Kanji, it can be read as 心 (lit. "heart"), which is also Kokoro's name. However, the opposite of this character is also a pun for "dead" (死ん), possibly referring to the fact that the bodies of the now-evil Kokoro and Jaryu fused into a singular entity that reign over death.
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