Haruhiko Ichijo

Haruhiko Ichijo (一条 晴彦) is the protagonist of the Musaigen no Phantom World series. He is is a first-year student at Hosea Academy who has a special ability, and is a Phantom Hunter along with his friends in Team E.

Appearance
Haruhiko is a teenager who is noted to be handsome by people around him with short, messy and somewhat thick dark green hair that has a single piece of hair pointing up, blue eyes and an average build and height.

He is usually seen with a normal Hosea Academy school uniform for boys.

Personality
Haruhiko is a very kind boy who has gained a vast amount of knowledge that allows him to answer just about any question thrown at him. He has a slightly robust exterior and is very knowledgeable about the phantoms and the things that changed over the decades. He is also calm and takes everything nicely, but sometimes his first meeting with others turn out to be awkward or embarrassing. He is the "Information Source" for his team.

Haruhiko is very supportive and caring towards his friends. When they have problems, he will always try to help them. Throughout the series, he has become closer with the girls in his group. Despite his childhood, Haruhiko remained happy, but exactly because of his childhood, he doesn't want anyone to suffer like he did. Due to Haruhiko's kindness and supportiveness, many girls, especially the girls in his own group, have been hinted to be attracted to him.

Haruhiko also has a quite laid-back and care-free personality. He is also very intelligent and is seen talking and explaining various things at the start of the episodes. He is also quick to accept other peoples faults easily, despite their background or attitude towards him.

Background
Haruhiko lived a lonely childhood, deprived of proper parental attention. Haruhiko's mother had left home when he was a child, as his parents hadn't gotten along. In the anime it is mentioned that she married another man. He claimed that ever since then, he has been waiting for his mother to come home.

Haruhiko's father constantly travels around the world for work.

Plot
Haruhiko was woken up one day by Ruru, a phantom that has been his companion, reminding him that he was late. Afraid of getting hit by Mai, he rushes until he arrives at Hosea Academy. Mai is revealed to be fighting a phantom that has been interrupting the school's gym class and wrecking the garden, as part of the task given to their team in the "Phantom-hunting club". Haruhiko takes out his sketchbook and starts to draw the phantom,as his ability is sealing a phantom whenever its complete appearance is drawn out. Having difficulty in sketching due to the phantom constantly moving, Mai makes it crash in the academy's clock tower, preventing the phantom from moving temporarily. Haruhiko immediately takes the chance to complete the phantom's sketch, sealing in his sketchbook. However, he and Mai didn't receive any monetary reward for sealing the phantom because of the damage to the academy's infrastructure. Both of them are disappointed, and Mai suggests that they need to add members to their team for possible improvements.

Going home from school that day, Haruhiko finds the way odd as he observed that he was in a cemetery, in which he comments that there is no cemetery on his way back home. Ruru notices phantoms, and calls out to Haruhiko to look. Haruhiko sees Reina and just as he was about to save her, he witnessed Reina eating the phantoms and he was impressed. He immediately invited Reina to be a part of his team and she declined. Haruhiko accidentally sees Reina's underwear when he attempted to keep Reina from falling onto the ground after she tripped. She throws him in return. Haruhiko the other day persisted Reina to join him and after she declined again, he invited her to the school cafeteria as his treat. In the cafeteria he explained Reina the existence of Phantoms and told her that she will get paid in goods if she accomplishes a task. Haruhiko then intoduced her to Mai, in which Mai said that they are given another task again.

The three of them went to the site of their task. They saw Tsukumogamis dancing Limbo, causing radio disturbances in the area. After Mai failed to defeat them, Haruhiko devised a plan to dance with them since he learned that they want to be honored by humans. The plan succeeded, and on their way to report to Arisu back in the academy, they encountered Koito whom Mai and Haruhiko were not familiar with.

Regarding the events of the final chapter of volume 1. After all his friends and classmates alongside a large portion of the world's population vanish due to Ruupa's ability, Haruhiko goes to meet Arisu. There she informs him he is actually an artificial Ability User enginered by Alayashiki, codenamed ART. As his consciousness grows hazzy he realizes that even if his existence is artificial, all the bonds he built with his friend will never be an illusion. He goes to meet Ruupa after awakening his full capabilities as ART. Their battle is of such an scale it results in the earth being erased. Although Haruhiko is able to recreate it after attaining victory, alongside all the people that disappeared as a result of Ruupa. This single event is what leads to the plot of volume 2.

Ability
Haruhiko's ability is called The Book of Thoth and is art-based since he has art as his hobby. He has to draw the phantoms on his sketchbook to "seal" or "capture" them. But with his ability, he can also summon phantoms. Currently, his most recurring phantoms are Cthulu and Marchosias. The known phantoms that he sealed are Marchosias and potentially Chuthulu. Since he has the ability to summon phantoms, with the Abramelin finger (which is a rare gift of communication with the metaphysical), Haruhiko is able to copy another person skills, and he can also get into people's minds and memories. The incantation for summoning phantoms:

Open, Open... Open, gates of Hell! Invoke, (name of phantom who is summoning)''"
 * "''Oh, holiness. Oh, mortal. Blessings to the silent lord!

Haruhiko in his full capacity as ART has the power to control memory and language, which can be said to be the building blocks that make up the world, granting him a degree of control over reality itself. During his fight with Ruupa at the climax of the first volume he is able to call forth all the phantoms he encountered during his adventures simply by reviving the memory of them inside his mind. Further, he was also able to defeat Ruupa in hand to hand by reviving the memories of Mai and Reina. His enhanced brain's capacity to store memory also grants him resistance to Ruupa's ability to erase the memories making up the world. He can also bestow Parole abilities to other people. As he granted Reina the godly power of destruction which has the capacity to erase memory. At the climax of their battle, Ruupa, who had stolen this Parole ability from Reina, decided to use it as a last resort, causing the Earth itself to vanish in it's entirety. By mustering the last of his power Haruhiko activates his ultimate Parole ability that revives the universe and defeats whatever is trying to destroy it. Thanks to this he was able to defeat Ruupa and recreate the earth that disappeared from space, alongside all the lives that were lost as a result of her rampage.

Etymology

 * The name Haruhiko means "clear weather" (晴) (haru) and "boy, prince" (彦) (hiko).
 * Haruhiko's surname Ichijo means "one" (一) (ichi) and "article" (条) (jo).

Trivia

 * Haruhiko is strongly fascinated with books that he often reads them in the library. He finished reading all the books in the school library so he goes to the public library to read more, although he gets teased by his friends in which they call him "useless".
 * The bag Haruhiko always carries with him is a gift from his mother.
 * It is suggested that Haruhiko is attracted to females with large breasts.
 * As a child, Haruhiko was afraid of thunder.
 * Although Haruhiko is a main character, he is not featured in TV Anime: Musaigen No Phantom World - Character Song Mini-Album and it is unknown if he is going to have a character song or not.
 * Haruhiko has the same voice actor as Taketo Aida from the Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon series, another anime produced by Kyoto Animation.