For the New Present version of the character, see Shijima Mei
| “ | This Tower is my Art Museum. And I am School Mystery No.4, Mei Shijima! It is my job to serve as a guide for this museum! | ” |
Shijima Mei refers to two characters who share almost the same name, albeit written differently.
The Shijima Mei introduced in Chapter 40, Shijima Mei (シジマメイ Shijima Mei?), is a supernatural and Kamome Gakuen’s School Mystery Number 4, who oversees her boundary from her tower. She was created in the likeness of a former student at Kamome Gakuen, Shijima Mei (四島メイ Shijima Mei?), who likewise also exists as a ghost wandering throughout her boundary.
For clarity, this article refers to School Mystery Number 4 as "Shijima" and the past Kamome Gakuen student as "Mei".
Appearance[]
Shijima has messy locks of golden brown hair with hints of green that she puts into two short braids. Her eyes are a bright turquoise with pale ivory accents. She wears a reddish-brown blazer over a white button-up shirt and grey pleated skirt. A large teal bow is tied from underneath her collar. Her shoes are crimson flats paired with long black socks. She also wears clear round glasses with red frames.
The original Mei does not wear glasses, but shares almost all of the traits seen in Shijima. However, Mei's shoulder-length hair, which she leaves down, is a darker, reddish shade of brown, without the green present in School Mystery No. 4’s. She wears a hospital gown with bandages on her arm.
While Mei was attending Kamome Gakuen, she wore the middle school uniform and had her in braids like that of Shijima's.
Shijima’s paintbrush clone has a handle that is the turquoise color of her eyes. After Hanako almost snapped it entirely in half during the Picture Perfect arc, it reappeared with bandages tied around the damaged area.
In Shijima’s fake world, she takes the place of all the humans outside the school, and also takes on their outfits. She has appeared as a policeman, a bus driver, and many other humans on Hanako and Nene’s path outside the school in order to discourage Nene from escaping.
Personality[]
Shijima projects a cheerful and clueless persona when she first meets Nene, which seems to be her default self when not dealing with any troubles or worries. However, when it comes to her job and her opinions, she is straightforwardly, brutally honest even when it could hurt others’ feelings. She had no qualms with telling Nene that she had to kill someone in order to escape the picture perfect world with a smile, and also states clearly that she hates Hanako’s guts when asked.
She appears to have an interest in art, with her introduction showing her painting. She is also prone to destroying her own artwork in fits of frustration, and as a result, the fabricated characters commonly crumble and disappear.
With the introduction of the true Shijima Mei, it's revealed that the School Mystery Number 4 is simply an idealized and healthy version of her. Because of that, these two share similar personality quirks, such as being fascinated by Nene's ankles upon meeting her. The real Mei is determined and optimistic, stating that she has "no intentions of dying" even when deathly ill.
Shijima is protective and loyal towards the real Mei, having been created by her likeness' hope to live until tomorrow. As a result, she is devastated by her rumor and her inability to change her original's fate. Shijima believes there is no point in fiction and feels little care towards her role as the School Mystery Number 4.
Abilities[]
Number 4's Powers[]
As Kamome Gakuen’s School Mystery Number 4, she haunts the art room of Kamome Gakuen, where Mei’s painting resides. Her boundary is the Atelier tower inside the painting.
With her power, Shijima Mei is able to create worlds within her paintings that reflect wishes deep within people's hearts. The inhabitants of the worlds are additional paintings created by her. They are life-like and identical to their real-life counterpart. If the original painting of the character is destroyed, the version that exists in the picture world crumbles as well. It takes approximately 20-30 minutes for the character to be rebuilt.
Once someone has been pulled into her world, they will have to follow her words or they will remain trapped. The longer someone stays in the fictional world, the more they slowly forget about their original life. In order to escape a fictional world, they have to find the main characters in the fictional world and kill them. It is later revealed that there is an emergency escape within the world, usually placed in an area the main character will never be able to reach. The escape changes frequently in location.
Shijima is aware of everything that happens within her picture world, as she immediately responds to Aoi and Akane spreading her rumor. Other non-real humans outside of Kamome Gakuen can change their appearances into Shijima's, implying everyone within the world is either an extension of her or her clones.
Additionally, she is able to clone herself by drawing herself. She uses this ability to create and oversee the picture worlds, as well as answer any unwanted social interactions. Her original self remains at the Atelier tower, painting. These clones retain reflections of her feelings and have a sense of identity, although any "failed" clones are usually disposed of immediately. It is shown that they have a will of their own and are able to defy Shijima’s will, as seen by her paintbrush clone, which decided to follow its will to save Nene instead of abiding by Hanako’s orders.
The aspect she controls within Kamome Gakuen is currently unknown.
Trivia[]
- As stated on her student card, Shijima Mei was in class 3-E of the Kamome Gakuen High School Division. This places her age at 17-18 at the time of her death.[1]
- On Shijima Mei’s Student Identification Card it states the exact year she was born, that being 1973. This technically makes her the youngest member of the Seven Mysteries until Number 3 was killed and replaced with Mitsuba Sousuke.
- Shijima uses "ワタシ" (watashi, katakana) while the original Mei uses "わたし" (watashi, hiragana).
- Mei enjoys eating fluffy pancakes, which is seen when she and Nene have a brief lunch at a cafe in Chapter 53.[2]
- The 四 (shi) in Shijima means four, a reference to her position as No.4.
- In the pilot chapters, there was a unnamed ghost apparition that had her spot as No. 4 of the Seven School Mysteries.[3]
- The first appearance of Shijima was in Chapter 40 when Tsukasa unveiled her under a tablecloth. Although it doesn't correlate with No.2 or No.5, the other School Wonders aside from Hanako have been introduced in their numeric chapters respectively.[4]
- Shijima is curiously indifferent towards lightning, while the original Mei sees it as an exciting moment.[5]
- Shijima has no feelings towards the snowy weather. However, the original Mei cheerfully claims to like all seasons, despite the fact that cold weather worsens her illness. [6]
- In an Aidairo sketch about how the characters peel oranges, Shijima peels orange skins cleanly before eating them, like Tsuchigomori and Aoi do. However, due to the fact that she peels them almost perfectly, she is drawn with Kou. Meanwhile, Mei cuts the orange in half before eating them, like Akane.[7]
- At the Quarterly S Interview in 2024, Iro revealed that Shijima Mei was supposed to be the female main character alongside Yugi Amane in an earlier draft of Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun without any love or romance elements prior to the Pilot. It focused on the two's interactions with the supernatural and with one another. As the story itself developed and incorporated more of the supernatural and comedic aspects, Mei's role as the female main character was subsequentally replaced by Yashiro Nene.[8]
- Later, in that same interview, Iro stated when planning the initial pilot version for the Picture Perfect Arc, Shijima Mei was supposed to be in love with Hanako, but that element disappeared with the final draft.[9]
References[]
- ↑ Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun manga: Volume 11 (p.69)
- ↑ Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga: Chapter 53
- ↑ Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Pilot: Chapter 2
- ↑ Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga: Chapter 40
- ↑ Aidairo's Twitter Post: Sept. 11th, 2020
- ↑ Aidairo's Twitter Post: Jan. 2nd, 2023
- ↑ Aidairo's Twitter Post: March 21st, 2025
- ↑ Iro: "It was originally a short story I wrote for an assignment that I then turned into a manga. The main characters were Yugi Amane, Hanako-kun in his previous life, and the character who would later become School Mystery Number 4, Shijima Mei. It didn't have any love comedy or ghost story elements, it was just about Amane and Mei's lives as high school students and their interactions. When we added the "seven wonders of the school" element, Jibaku Shōnen Hanako-kun was born. The retro and ghost story elements were added after; the foundation of the story, its darker parts, were there first." From the Quarterly S Interview with AidaIro (December 18, 2024)
- ↑ Iro: "I started writing the Picture Perfect arc with a desire to create a story that you could read as a standalone, like something that could be adapted into a movie. In movie adaptations, the story takes place on a large scale and ends with a dramatic finish, so I kept that in mind while I was writing. Within the pilot version Shijima-san was in love with Number 7 (Hanako-kun), but when she came to the long series adaptation of Jibaku Shōnen Hanako-kun that element disappeared. Since I was writing about school ghost stories, and haunted art rooms are a common theme in those, I wanted to include one here." Ibid
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