Hayato Ike

Hayato Ike is one of Yuji Sakai’s longtime friends and is close enough to be called his best friend.

Although he stays near Yuji, Shana, and the others, he is a normal person with no connection to the Crimson Realm.

He is an excellent student with a pleasant personality and a natural ability to handle many things better than average.

Without seeming to force it, he often rises to the top of a group and keeps everyone organized, showing an inborn talent for leadership.

Because of this, he serves as a class representative and is jokingly nicknamed "the glasses-wearing champion of justice."

His strong sense of responsibility and dependable nature make him stand out in the everyday scenes of the story.

Ike is smart, friendly, and highly capable, the kind of person who can smoothly take charge when needed.

He often gives off the impression of someone who naturally becomes the center of a group.

In the early part of the series, he appears frequently as Yuji’s close friend in the school-life sections.

Even though he is often around Yuji and Shana, he never learns about the existence of the Crimson Denizens or the Flame Haze, remaining an ordinary civilian from beginning to end.

That makes him a somewhat unfortunate character in hindsight.

As the story goes on, friends like Kazumi Yoshida, Keisaku Satou, and Eita Tanaka become involved in the main plot, while Ike, along with Matake Ogata, is left outside the central supernatural conflict.

Ike notices that Kazumi Yoshida has feelings for Yuji Sakai.

Trying to help the two grow closer, he begins supporting Kazumi in her efforts.

While doing so, however, he gradually develops feelings for Kazumi himself.

This leaves him painfully caught between Kazumi’s love for Yuji, his own emotions, and his sense of reason.

His inner struggle becomes one of his more human and relatable traits.

He sees that Yuji and the others may look unchanged on the surface, but in truth they are changing, and this makes him wonder whether he too must change.

In the original novels, Ike is not especially comedic in tone.

In the anime, however, he is often treated as a gag character.

This is pushed even further in the Shana-tan parody series.

There, just as in the main story, he still has feelings for Kazumi, but his behavior becomes so exaggerated that it is almost like stalking.

Even when Kazumi rejects him directly or treats him coldly, he somehow reacts with happiness.

That exaggerated version gives him a very different flavor from his more grounded role in the main narrative.

Hayato Ike is voiced by Hirofumi Nojima.

A fun family connection exists in the anime cast.

Hirofumi Nojima, who plays Ike, is the older brother of Kenji Nojima, who voices Keisaku Satou.

In the third anime season, their father, Akio Nojima, also appeared as the staff chief of the Flame Haze army, Samuel Demantius.

That season therefore featured a parent-child performance connection within the cast.

Hirofumi Nojima also played Takemikazuchi, the Crimson Lord contracted to Sophie Sawallisch, in the third season.