From its debut episode in April 2021, To Your Eternity immediately became one of the most bewitching and talked-about shows of the year. Many critics and fans applauded the series’ first episode, which, despite only being 22 minutes in length, managed to feel more like a feature-length film from its astounding artistic execution to its portrayal of raw human emotion.
Based on the manga series written and illustrated by Yoshitoki Oima, To Your Eternity tells the story of an immortal being named Fushi who can assume multiple forms as he tries to understand what it means to be human. The show is scheduled to return for a second season in October 2022. We’ve created this helpful primer to help you brush up on the show’s characters before diving back into this rich and haunting fantasy world.
Table Of Contents
The Nameless Boy
The first episode of To Your Eternity follows a white-haired boy from a snowy unnamed village. Five years prior, most people in his village set out on a trek to the lands beyond the steep mountain ranges surrounding their hamlet. They spoke of a warm paradise filled with tons of food and joy, vastly different from their frigid tundra home. When the Nameless Boy tried to follow them, he was stopped by his pet wolf Joann, and other villagers instructed him to stay behind and care for his grandparents. Someday, they would come back for him.
Sadly, during the five-year period before the start of the series, the boy’s grandparents died. Left alone with Joann, he eventually leaves on his own quest to find the promised paradise but suffers a debilitating leg injury. Without food or medical care, he soon succumbs to his injuries.
Fushi
The true main character of the series, Fushi is an immortal being placed on Earth in order to ‘preserve the world.’ His true identity is that of an orb able to shapeshift into any other object or living creature. When he first came to earth, Fushi was simply a featureless white sphere. Without any consciousness, it soon copied the first thing it came into contact with: a rock. After this, however, a wounded wolf collapsed nearby, and Fushi took on its form once it passed away.
When the wolf approaches the Nameless Boy, he mistakes it for his pet wolf, Joann. Fushi accompanies the boy on his quest to paradise, and when the Nameless Boy eventually passes away, Fushi takes on his likeness, becoming human for the first time. Although his appearance is that of a person, he is, at first, completely helpless, unable to speak, and without any basic knowledge.
While Fushi defaults to the Nameless Boy for his usual appearance, he can take the form of anything that stimulates him, whether it be a person, animal, or object. However, he can only take on the form of a living being if that living being is dead.
March
A young girl from a village in the Ninannah territory, March is an innocent child who dreams of one day becoming a mother. She is chosen as a sacrifice to the Spirit Bear, Oniguma, who is worshipped and feared by the locals. As she is taken from the village to meet her horrid fate, she escapes, meeting Fushi for the first time by chance. While his bizarre behavior frustrates her at first, she soon becomes a mother figure to him, teaching him how to say his first words.
Parona
A teenage girl from Ninannah and March’s close friend, Parona is a skilled archer and a courageous young woman. As a child, her older sister sacrificed to the Spirit Bear Oniguma, leading her to loathe the ritual and actively seek for it to end. Parona manages to save March single-handedly, and when captured, she escapes using a knife kept in her shoe, later breaking out of prison as well. She’s also skilled in crafting her own spears and bows. Despite having no formal training to speak of, Parona can also hold her own in close combat.
Pioran
A grumpy old woman, Pioran is a free-spirit enlisted as a shaman to perform the Spirit Bear ritual. While many characters in the series are young and innocent, viewers first meet Pioran in prison where she is planning a breakout. Escaping from captivity with March, Parona, and Fushi, she later acts as Fushi’s mentor, teaching him how to read, write, and speak in complete sentences. She is in a relationship with Booze Man, and seems to earnestly care for Fushi’s well-being.
Booze Man
Everything you need to know about Booze Man is in the name. Also known as Beer Gramps, the curious and eccentric elderly gentleman is Pioran’s lover. Many in his local village know him as a weird old man who likes to engage in strange experiments. While he’s often seen joking and is rarely serious, Booze Man does grow closer to Fushi as time goes on, and is visibly upset when the immortal leaves on the next part of his journey.
Hayase
A cunning and stoic government official from the powerful country of Yanome, Hayase is sent to collect March as a sacrifice for Oniguma. Upon seeing Fushi’s incredible abilities, she becomes obsessed with him, believing him to be a God. Spending four years searching for the immortal being after they become separated, she slowly loses her grip on reality, eventually becoming enamored with the idea of dying so her form could be used by Fushi.
Hayase has little regard for human life and is a skilled manipulator.
Gugu
A young man from Takunaha, Gugu originally worked at Booze Man’s shop after the elderly man saved his life. As a child, Gugu attempted to save a young girl’s life but nearly dies in the progress. Deformed, he wears a mask to cover what is left of his face. He first meets Fushi when the immortal and Pioran arrive after escaping captivity. While he treats Fushi with contempt for some time, but after some time passes, he declares himself Fushi’s ‘adopted younger brother.’ He fights those seeking to harm Fushi with passion and seeks to create a peaceful world.
Rean
A young girl from Takunaha, Rean was born to a wealthy family and waited on hand and foot by attendants during her childhood. Rather than enjoy her privilege, she finds her home life suffocating and often runs away, only to be brought back by hired thugs. After meeting Gugu and Fushi, she takes comfort in having real friends and a place where she belongs outside of the confines of her previous life.
Gugu is deeply in love with Rean. Upon meeting him, however, she doesn’t realize that he was the one who saved her life.
Tonari
Tonari is a young girl that Fushi meets on the island of Jananda, which houses prisoners and their families. At the age of seven, she awoke to find her mother dead, and her father was named as her killer. Believing him to be innocent, Tonari agreed to be sent to Jananda with him. Growing up in a land filled with murder and distrust turned Tonari into a clever and cunning person, and she is unsure that she will be able to fit into life outside the island if she manages to leave. She sees Fushi as someone irreplaceable, and is seen as having romantic feelings for him.
The Beholder
Fushi’s creator and the narrator of the series, The Beholder is a being of unknown origins. After dropping the Orb onto the Earth and tasking it to preserve and protect the world from the Nokkers, he appears to Fushi from time to time to give vague instructions or directions. Rarely showing any emotion, he appears visibly satisfied when Fushi shows progress in his growth. While Fushi is normally the only one who can see and communicate with The Beholder, he is capable of manifesting before other people if need be.
Nokkers
The Nokkers are unknown creatures who were created in order to impede Fushi’s progress in preserving the world. They were named by The Beholder, who said that they “Knock on the doors of paradise, seeking its destruction.” Nokkers are able to steal Fushi’s forms, along with his memories of that form. Capable of adapting to their environment, they often appear as roots or vines, and are able to control a person’s body, whether they are living or dead.
