Shiramizu Pinko (白水ピン子 Shiramizu Pinko) is one of three virtual heroines in the popular dating sim game, Love Choriss. Of the possible love candidates, Pinko has the easiest path in the game but is notably different in age and physical appearance. However, like all Love Choriss characters, it is possible for the player to alter Pinko according to their personal tastes through their in-game interactions and through their own sheer willpower. Known Pinko players include Sakata Gintoki, Toujou Ayumu, and Sarutobi Ayame.
Background[]
She is the widow of the late Kadono Takuzou and the mother of Enari. She is also the owner of the protagonist's favorite diner, 'Pain and Pleasure.'
Appearance[]
Unlike the two other possible virtual girlfriends, Pinko has the appearance of a middle-aged woman drawn almost according to a real-world human being. If the player somehow manages to kill Enari through a violent shutdown of the game, Pinko will strap the body of her dead son onto her back. In the anime, her eyes, alongside her son's and late husband's, are censored.
Personality[]
Pinko has a deep love for her late husband and her son, Enari. It is essential for Pinko players to establish a good relationship with her son. At times, Pinko can be extremely vengeful as seen through her incessant haunting of Gintoki. The Pinko chosen by Toujou Ayumu was said to have been a "Pinko from a Pinko cafe", implying that it is also another method of obtaining Pinko. However, this Pinko, having worked at a cafe, will only serve her master as far as she can handle it herself, calling the manager if the situation gets out of hand. Sacchan's modified Pinko was only able to answer questions from a drop-down menu, akin to Dragon Quest, with additional side effects due to the hacked nature of her game.
However, Gintoki has demonstrated that by showing love to Pinko, he is able to bring out some of her more appealing latent characteristics. Doing so enabled him to turn Pinko into a beautiful and relatively young tsundere girl. Additionally, Pinko's desire to kill Gintoki fades away when an equally modified Enari, her son by arranged marriage and not by birth, convinces her to follow her own desires and path.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Kadono Takuzou: Pinko's late husband. She will sometimes ignore the player's chosen nickname in favor of calling the player by her late husband's name. Takuzou is based on the actor of the same name.
- Enari: Pinko's son. She will not hesitate to avenge her son's murderer.
Story[]
Love Choriss Arc[]
In order to reach out to Shinpachi and to break his dating sim fantasy, Kondo instructs Gintoki to enter the world of Love Choriss to defeat Shinpachi in the Love Choriss tournament. Unfortunately, due to the level of difficulty of the game, Gintoki is stuck with the seemingly worst possible love candidate: Shiramizu Pinko. Gintoki, frustrated by the outcome and the tedious nature of the game, slams and shuts down the game. However, due to Gintoki's violent shutdown, Pinko's son Enari is killed. After this, Pinko becomes a soul consumed by vengeance, strapping the cold, dead body of Enari to her back and wielding a knife as to avenge her son's death. She proceeds to haunt Gintoki incessantly in the real world.
Despite Gintoki's train-wreck relationship with his virtual girlfriend, he still decides to enter the Love Choriss tournament. Before the start of the tournament, Gintoki and Kondou encounter several other Pinko players, including Toujo Ayumu and Sarutobi Ayame who have altered their Pinkos to resemble Kyuubei and Gintoki accordingly.
When the tournament commences, both Shinpachi and Okita receive perfect scores on their virtual dates and move onto the finals. The Pinko category is nearly skipped but Gintoki voices his protests. In response, the Pinko players are tasked with taking their Pinkos on a date to a love hotel much to Gintoki's horror. The first Pinko player up is Toujou but he is quickly done in as his Pinko is revealed to be merely a delivery Pinko from a Pinko salon. After his Pinko calls her manager in complaint, he arrives and beats up Toujou. Next is Sarutobi and her Pinko, Pin-san. In her Dragon Quest modified game, Sarutobi soon engages in battle with the manager and his part-timers (including the defeated Toujou) and meets the same fatel.
The two finalists arrive and succeed in entering the love hotel. As the last Pinko player remaining, Gintoki is forced to somehow show his love to his Pinko and to follow the finalists into the love hotel. Seemingly stuck in a corner, Gintoki manages to transform his Pinko to everyone's astonishment. He has transformed his Pinko into an attractive tsundere. After succeeding in this transformation, Gintoki wakes the other players back into reality when he begins to take the game too seriously and takes his pants off.
Trivia[]
- Pinko is based on the real-life actress and singer, Izumi Pinko. This real-life reference results in censorship of her name and image in the anime.