Shinji Kuroi

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Shinji Kuroi
黒井真二
SMTif SFCSMTif PS SFC artwork from Shin Megami Tensei if... PS artwork from Shin Megami Tensei if...
Other Name(s)	黒井慎二Shin Megami Tensei if... Novel and Trading Card Game Alternate spelling CharlieNickname Charinko CharlieShin Megami Tensei if... Japanese Nickname Chuckin' CharlieAeon Genesis Nickname
Age	16–17
Height	176 cm
School(s)	Karukozaka High School

Shinji Kuroi, also known as Charlie, is a playable character in Shin Megami Tensei if....

Profile

Charlie got his nickname in middle school when he stole a bike (チャリンコ charinko) and was caught by a police officer. However, when he began high school none of his classmates knew this story, so he changed it to Charlie.

• Charlie is the only partner in Shin Megami Tensei if... who hands the Protagonist equipment when joining the party at the beginning.
• He refers to himself with ore (おれ) in hiragana in the Super Famicom version and ore (俺) in kanji in the PlayStation version.

Gameplay

Shin Megami Tensei if...

He gets access to all ～unda type skills through his first guardian.

He will sometimes ask to join in when the Protagonist is doing something sexual with a demon.

Game Appearances

Shin Megami Tensei if...

He is in class 2-E. He introduces himself as Shinji Kuroi but says everyone calls him Charlie. He says everyone is either in a panic or staying put thinking someone will save them, to which Charlie dismisses, thinking that won't ever happen. He says he wants to escape on his own and asks the Protagonist if they want to join him on his planned escape and leave everyone else behind. If they say yes, he'll hand them some equipment and join the party.

If they see Reiko in the school, she comments on him being with the Protagonist and he brushes it off. She then says the two are wasting their time if they're trying to escape, to which Charlie replies she doesn't know that and tells her to sit tight. He calls Reiko "glasses girl" here.

If the Protagonist goes to the sports club rooms, a male student will tell them how Charlie got his nickname and then Charlie will get angry, and then the male student will apologize.

If they go see Ryuichi in the storeroom again, they'll find that Hazama has kidnapped Akiko and Ryuchi says he has to save her.

After saving Sato and after getting an arm terminal from Yahata, Charlie will ponder if they should really use it and the Demon Summoning Program they got from a suspicious disc from Sato.

Then, Hazama's astral projection appears and tells them they're all trapped and if they want to get out, they have to go to the gymnasium and find something there and then vanishes, to which Charlie says Hazama is crazy.

The party heads to the Chamber of Seals after getting the Ring of Humility from the gymnasium and dealing with Otsuki.

Then they gain access to the World of Pride. Here they can find Ryuichi who is trying to save Akiko.

After defeating Vine and finding the Ring of Temperance which breaks the next seal, they head back to the Chamber of Seals to use the ring, and then they eventually head to the World of Gluttony.

Here they learn the "worst" person in their school was imprisoned here, their principal, who was turned into a pig.

After venturing into the principal's stomach, who is known as Orcus in his pig state, they find the true ruler of the World of Gluttony, Parasite. After defeating it, the principal returns to normal and the party finds the Ring of Diligence, which breaks the next seal.

After heading back to the Chamber of Seals and using the new ring, they gain access to the World of Sloth. Here, the students and school staff, excluding Kayama, are being forced to dig tunnels as punishment for their laziness. Hazama puts a deal in place here that would allow the first one to find the ring to leave the school.

Here, they can find Reiko and Yumi. Reiko will notice the Protagonist is with Kuroi and then comment that she's glad they're alright. She calls him Kuroi-kun. Yumi will say she's busy taking care of Reiko and will say that Hazama is horrible and will never forgive him, and in the Aeon Genesis patch, her line here about Hazama was mistakenly given to Reiko. If the Protagonist partners with Reiko instead of Charlie, he will call her Akanezawa-san here.

After retrieving the Ring of Patience from the World of Sloth, Hazama calls off the deal and says the ring was found through foul play so no one gets to go home. Then the party heads back to the Chamber of Seals and uses the new ring to gain access to the World of Wrath.

in the World of Wrath, Hazama taunts the Protagonist, Charlie, and Ryuichi, with Akiko, and he promises he'll let her go if they fulfill his requests. Along the way, Charlie leaves the Protagonist's party because he doesn't wish to waste his time trying to help Akiko and Ryuchi, but then he eventually rejoins because it was too hard surviving on his own.

• The first request is to retrieve the megaton sphere and bring it to him, but the Protagonist will find out that no human can pick it up so they have to get a good enough demon to retrieve it.
• The second is kill Otsuki, who Hazama said was useless and only wished to gain Hazama's favor.
• The third is to worship a statue of himself and then return.

Then after Hazama starts making a fourth request, Ryuichi butts in after getting sick of the unending requests, but then he is taken by Hazama, who then turns him and Akiko both into statues. He tells the Protagonist and Charlie that they might be able to save them if they destroy the statues, but trying to do so results in the statues breaking and them both crumbling to dust. If the Protagonist doesn't try to break the statues, Charlie will instead. He tells Ryuichi to hang on and that he'll save him, but it leads to the same outcome of the two being reduced to dust.

• In the PlayStation version, Charlie's dialogue has a typo where it reads 間ってろ instead of 待ってろ. The Super Famicom version originally put this line in hiragana (まってろ) so it didn't contain this typo originally.

Hazama then mocks the party for rushing into it too quickly because their wrath got the better of them. Among the rubble, the party finds the Ring of Charity, which breaks the next seal. Charlie expresses remorse for Ryuichi and gets frustrated with the Deity Emperor for messing with him.

Then the party heads back to the Chamber of Seals and fights Otsuki one final time, defeating him for good. Then Hazama is faced in the school after the party is warped there. After he is defeated, he lets the party go home but he remains in the Expanse to continue doing what he wants, and that's the end of Charlie's route. Charlie expresses joy at finally being able to go home and says what happened was crazy and the annoying school is gone now. But he then says he wouldn't be able to tell anyone about everything that happened because he might get sent to a psychiatric hospital, and then he says it would be better not to tell anyone. He then ponders what Hazama might be up to now.

Then the ending text crawl plays out and it says the school and several students vanished. It was officially reported as a gas leak explosion, and there was an uproar about it for a while but it was eventually forgotten. Only a few students survived, and one tried to tell the tale but only tabloids would report it. It's pondered if the Deity Emperor was truly defeated, and then it's mentioned the survivors tried their best to live their lives in the face of wondering if the boundary between the worlds would collapse again. It ends: "if..."

Trivia

• Charlie's hairstyle in the PlayStation version is inspired by Mike Score's hairstyle in "A Flock of Seagulls".

Nomenclature

Charlie comes from the word "charinko" (チャリンコ), which means bicycle. This originates from an episode during Kaneko's school days.

• "Charinko" (チャリンコ) as a Japanese slang term, was sometimes shortened to "chari" (チャリ). The nickname possibly serves as a double entendre, as the word "charinko" functioned as a slang term for a child pickpocket.
  • In the unofficial English version by Aeon Genesis, Charlie's backstory was changed to him throwing things and breaking a window, so he got the nickname, "Chuckin' Charlie" instead of "Charinko Charlie" (チャリンコ・チャーリー).
  • The trading card game spells his nickname as "Charley".

• The kanji in his given name in the Super Famicom and PlayStation games and some magazines are true (真) and two (二).
  • (二) is a common suffix for the names of second born sons, so the translation is close to "true second son/true second".
• The kanji in his given name in some magazines, the trading card game, and the novel are cautious (慎) and two (二), so the translation is close to "cautious second son/cautious second".
• The kanji in his family name are "black" (黒) and "well/town" (井).

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	黒井真二 Kuroi Shinji	Shinji Kuroi
	チャーリー Chārī	Charlie
	黒井慎二 Kuroi Shinji	Shinji Kuroi

Gallery

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  Artwork of Charlie and other characters made for Shin Megami Tensei if... Official Guidebook Kaimei-hen
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  Sprite from the PlayStation version of Shin Megami Tensei if...
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  Sprite from the PlayStation version of Shin Megami Tensei if...