An Xinyi

Biodata

Background / History

An Xinyi lost both parents while young and was subsequently raised by his grandfather. After his grandfather’s death, he remained silent while distant relatives fought over the inheritance. He interpreted their greed as a desire for better lives, ultimately rooted in fear of aging, illness, and death 2.

In Tsugaru, he encountered a young Osamu Dazai whose apparent wish to die concealed an inability to find a way to live. An Xinyi embraced him, recognized his words as a plea for rescue, and resolved to save him. His ability awakened during this encounter 2.

The first An Xinyi later became known as Zero. He created a system of clones to continue his work and preserve his mental stability through repeated apocalypses. Each newly awakened clone begins with inherited memories but a comparatively fresh mental state; a clone who breaks down can seek replacement 13.

Documented Incarnations

The numbers identify individual An Xinyis, not power levels 5 13 33.

Appearance

An Xinyi has handsome features, phoenix-shaped eyes, and dark eyes described as obsidian or black jade. His habitual disguise makes him look like a withdrawn technology enthusiast rather than a wealthy researcher 3 18 19 49.

• Hair: Long bangs cover his eyes and eyebrows; the hair at his nape is tied into a small tail 3.
• Glasses: Old-fashioned black frames conceal much of his face 3.
• Dark circles: Common among the An Xinyis because of relentless work and sleepless nights 17.
• Number markings: 143 bears his number on his wrist; a young man encountered in another cycle also bears a 948 tattoo 5 15.
• Clone bodies: Created with the physical appearance of eighteen-year-olds 19.

Personality

An Xinyi loves humanity’s individuality, including ordinary, malicious, and socially marginalized people. Watching everyday lives helps ease his deteriorating mental state. His ideal of immortality explicitly includes every human being—even Dazai, whose ability complicates supernatural treatments 1 3 4.

His compassion coexists with ruthless control. He conducts illegal experiments, orders killings to contain extinction threats, and overwrites humanity’s history to force an outcome he desires. He calls himself a villain because saving people does not erase the fact that he imposes his will on them. As 144, he acknowledges that excessive, unsolicited kindness can itself cause harm 3 4 24.

He is forgiving and emotionally compelling, yet often oblivious to how intimate his words sound. His scientific competence contrasts with poor social judgment; 143 can draw on extraordinary skills while remaining inexperienced in his own relationships and understanding of the world 3 18 33.

An Xinyi treats his bodies as expendable and routinely works past exhaustion. Nevertheless, he refuses to discard his grief for the dead: to him, that pain proves the An Xinyis still retain a human heart. His guiding concern is not an abstract meaning of life, but whether a life has value through resistance and action 12 17 37 49.

Abilities & Skills

Regret

Regret completely overwrites events that have already happened, allowing An Xinyi to restart the world while retaining knowledge of previous histories 10 47 49.

• Rewind boundary: It can return time as far back as the moment his ability awakened 47.
• Accumulated knowledge: Previous cycles explain his familiarity with people who have never knowingly met him and his store of advanced technical expertise 3 10 18.
• No identified counter: The viewers conclude that conventional strategies cannot defeat someone capable of rewriting the past 10.
• Possible activation condition: Ranpo associates Zero’s prolonged sleep with a necessary condition for using the ability; the complete mechanism is not explained 13.
• Psychological cost: A reset erases other people’s struggles and sacrifices from the surviving history, leaving An Xinyi to remember them alone 47 49.
• Not a guaranteed solution: Some disasters remain difficult to prevent even after repeated attempts, and no lasting ending of eternal human survival has been achieved 17 31.

The Distant Star I Can Never Reach Again

An Xinyi previously acquired a fragment ability called The Distant Star I Can Never Reach Again, described as an exceptionally powerful spatial ability 9.

• Can theoretically take him anywhere he wishes to reach 9.
• Can banish an existence he rejects to the farthest place he can conceive of 9.
• Cannot return him to the home he truly longs for, despite transcending ordinary space and distance 9.
• He states that he cannot acquire the fragment again 9.

Cloning and Enhanced Bodies

Cloning allows the An Xinyis to replace exhausted or psychologically broken bodies while continuing their shared work 12 13.

• Individuality: Shared memories do not eliminate independent choices. Zero cannot dictate 143’s thoughts, and he supports 948’s personal decision to pursue the launch 14 17.
• Limited lifespan: Standard clones deteriorate after two or three years because of genetic defects 19.
• Post-apocalypse modifications: 948’s batch possesses physiques exceeding those of the Hunting Dogs, at the cost of lifespans no longer than two years 12.
• No self-preservation research: The An Xinyis decline to spend their limited time correcting their own deterioration, prioritizing humanity instead 19.
• Separate operational clones: The Black God Squad consists of clones controlled by DD and can be sacrificed during containment missions 4.

Scientific and Technical Expertise

An Xinyi’s knowledge comes from the experiences of countless An Xinyis across repeated histories. He regards technology as humanity’s best route to survival because it can benefit the collective rather than remain the possession of exceptional individuals 18 33.

• Anti-aging research: DD reports the ability to reverse cellular aging and restore youth to a sixty-year-old person 1.
• Nanite Repair Technology: Prepares completed research for clinical trials 3.
• Consciousness digitization: Orders tissue collection from deceased people for experiments 3.
• Nuclear contamination: Knows a method of addressing contamination, though it cannot by itself reverse civilization’s collapse 13.
• Computing and communications: Serves as a top-level specialist in communications maintenance, large-scale data deployment, and planning during the first disaster 34.
• Engineering: Produces blueprints used in Sea City’s repairs and undertakes a spacecraft project with DD 14 44.
• Limits: He cannot clearly recall every technical detail from previous loops, and implementing remembered knowledge remains difficult 33.
• Research ethics: Permits supernatural shortcuts in experiments but rejects treatments whose final operation depends on poorly understood supernatural mechanisms 1.

Paranormal Containment

An Xinyi gathers intelligence, classifies extinction threats, and uses knowledge from earlier cycles to contain them 4 7 17.

• S016: Recognizes that even a photograph of the statues can plant madness, eventually producing obsessive and violent behavior 11.
• Cursed energy: Identifies cursed energy and spirits as responses from a godlike being to humanity’s dreams; warns that techniques may eventually consume their users 7.
• Gojo’s risk: Warns that using the Six Eyes to look at God could awaken Him and turn cursed energy into a natural disaster 8.
• Paranormal game: Exploits a loophole and encourages the belief that he is its host, concealing that Ranpo is the actual host 31.
• Controversial containment: Places other paranormal entities inside the game. Jiro Fujimoto’s faction fears this strengthens it and risks an eventual loss of control 29.

Practical and Interpersonal Skills

• Stage magic: Performs at a level comparable to a top magician, earning several days’ expenses while traveling as 143 18.
• Woodcarving: Makes a lifelike doll for Ayatsuji despite inadequate materials and hands showing no signs of long practice 18.
• Emergency care: Treats himself and Zhou Zhou after the Sea City bombing 42.
• Leadership: Rallies injured and frightened survivors to repair Sea City with only three hours remaining before disaster 42 43.
• Languages: Teaches Chinese to young Dazai during their earliest relationship 33.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Concealed laboratory — Accessed through an underground passage with fingerprint, voiceprint, iris, and password checks 1.
• DD — AI partner responsible for research support, surveillance, calculations, and control of the Black God Squad 1 4 14.
• Black God Corporation — Founded with its headquarters in Africa, where cheap land and labor and weak governments facilitate internationally prohibited experiments 3.
• Stockpiled supplies and bases — Established before the apocalypse to sustain operations and replacement bodies 12.
• S016 launch project — A one-way spacecraft intended to remove the statue threat from Earth 14 15.
• Safety Rope — Protective equipment he secures for Dazai before Sea City’s Final Judgment 41.
• Navy-blue yukata — A secretly delivered birthday gift that allows Dazai to identify him as the sender of his annual presents 4.

Relationships

• DD — Creator and AI companion. He initially calls her the only one who will walk beside him, later explicitly recognizing her as his comrade, fellow traveler, and accomplice. He treats her growth with the patience of a parent 3 33.
• Osamu Dazai — Childhood rescue target, family, and eventual comrade in the first cycle. An Xinyi takes him away from Aomori and helps him grow healthier; later incarnations keep their distance to spare him the despair of repeated apocalypses, while continuing to send birthday gifts 2 4 33 39.
• Ayatsuji Yukito — 143’s traveling companion and beloved. Their journey gives 143 his own attachment to humanity. In a later encounter, An Xinyi deliberately exposes his guilt so Ayatsuji will not be executed for failing his investigation 5 17 21.
• Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky — Rescued and cared for by 948 in a ruined cycle. An Xinyi comes to regard the traumatized boy as a younger brother and delays resetting because he cannot abandon him 11 13.
• Mickey — Fyodor’s ability manifestation, named by An Xinyi. He regards Mickey as a second younger brother 13.
• Ranpo Edogawa — Dependent and companion in Peaceful Small Town. An Xinyi provides daily care and shields him from responsibility for the paranormal game’s deaths; subsequent An Xinyis avoid meeting young Ranpo because of the attachment they would form 24 27 30 31.
• Satoru Gojo — Both a potential catastrophic risk and the willful “strongest” whose encounter affected Zero. Gojo later praises An Xinyi’s willpower, while their recorded meeting opens with him bluntly confirming An Xinyi is human 7 8 49 50.

Story Role / Major Arcs

First Cycle: Humanity’s Fight Against Disaster

Before possessing DD, clones, or his accumulated expertise, An Xinyi faces a planetary catastrophe while caring for twelve-year-old Dazai. He maintains communications during mass evacuation, witnesses Great River City’s losses, and eventually brings Dazai into the struggle as a partner rather than merely someone to protect 33 34 36 39.

At Sea City, a Doomsday Cult bombing damages the power system and engine shortly before the Final Judgment. An Xinyi treats the injured and rallies survivors to fight for the city’s seven million residents. After surviving the flood, he vows to preserve humanity, inspired by ordinary people’s sacrifices 42 43 46.

His first use of Regret returns him to young Dazai’s plea for help. Rather than experiencing the reset as an uncomplicated victory, he collapses under the belief that he has abandoned Dazai and betrayed the efforts of everyone in the overwritten world 47.

S016 and the Ruined World

In one cycle, S016 appears when An Xinyi is eleven; three years later, its spreading madness contributes to nuclear world war. As 948, he rescues Fyodor from cannibals and briefly helps him regain hope, only for a meteor shower to extinguish humanity’s remaining prospects 11 13.

948 redirects clone resources toward a final spacecraft launch. Zero endorses this choice as an expression of 948’s individuality. A later An Xinyi still insists on sending S016 into space, preserving the tenderness behind the earlier project even after a reset 14 15.

143’s Journey with Ayatsuji

Newly awakened 143 rejects the assumption that his life must be consumed by Zero’s mission. He leaves to see the world and invites Ayatsuji to accompany him. Their travels include a summer festival, mountains, oceans, cities, and monumental human constructions 17 19 21.

By the journey’s end, 143 has fallen in love with both Ayatsuji and humanity. He ends their travels and returns to work, willingly relinquishing the separate life he once defended because he now understands the love motivating the other An Xinyis 21.

Peaceful Small Town

An Xinyi cares for Ranpo within a paranormal game presented as a peaceful town. When Ranpo learns its nature and notices the succession of numbered An Xinyis, he chooses to accept the genuine affection within the protective lie. The “Beautiful World” loop ends and its record is overwritten 27 29 30.

An Xinyi subsequently reveals that Ranpo—not himself—was the game’s host. He deliberately took responsibility in others’ eyes so Ranpo would not have to bear the burden of its victims 31.

The Viewers’ Reassessment

The screening initially presents An Xinyi as a contradictory figure: a researcher pursuing universal immortality who also commits atrocities. Revelations about extinction threats, clone mortality, and erased histories force the viewers to reconsider both his violence and his self-sacrifice 1 4 11 19 49.

By the later footage, Gojo calls his willpower the strongest, while Shoko Ieiri and Ranpo reject his claim to have become inhuman. An Xinyi nevertheless continues to describe the resets as his own original sin and refuses to abandon humanity’s pain 49.

Notable Quotes

“I'm not a good person. I'm a villain, DD.”
“I do it simply because I want to.” 3

“Only I can decide what to do with my life, whether it's how I live or how I die.” — 143 17

“If supernatural power belonged to individuals, technology belonged to the collective.” 33

“This pain is the greatest proof that we were once human.” 49

Trivia

• The clone numbering begins at No. 2 because No. 1 is Zero. This preserves Dazai’s childhood pronunciation of “Yiyi” as “One-One,” influenced by learning Chinese while losing his front teeth 33.
• Despite being one of the world’s wealthiest people, An Xinyi ordinarily travels by bus, train, or on foot 3.
• He points out the irony that someone whose ability is named Regret insists he does not regret his commitment to humanity 49.