Rin Tohsaka

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original version of the Fate/stay night visual novel, written by Type-Moon founder Kinoko Nasu while studying at a high school, one of the opponents of main protagonist Ayaka Sajyo was a ″princess type girl″, who was the master of Lancer. According to Nasu, this girl had a special ″laughing archetype″, which was similar to Luviagelita Edelfelt, a character from the sequel Fate/hollow ataraxia. However, after the protagonist's gender was changed and they were renamed as Shirou Emiya, Nasu and main Type-Moon artist Takashi Takeuchi decided to completely rewrite the character of Lancer's master.

As a result, Nasu decided to make this heroine a positive character, and by the advice of Takeuchi, decided to change her temper to be similar to that of Aoko Aozaki, a character from his earlier novel Mahoutsukai no Yoru. According to the screenwriter, among all his heroines based on Aoko Aozaki (including Rin, Azaka Kokuto from Kara no Kyoukai, and Akiha Tohno from Tsukihime), it was Rin who was the closest to the original character of Aoko. Initially Nasu believed that this new heroine was too similar to Aozaki, but Takeuchi convinced him not to depart from the concept and explained the similarity of Rin and Aoko as a mental relation. Rin was given a troubled background, facing financial problems due to the death of her parents in the background of the game. In order to further define Rin's character, the screenwriter decided to give multiple sides to her personality, designing her as a beautiful woman who would be largely cute and courageous, while at other times swearing and acting aggressively. According to Takeuchi, such a move with the divergence of Rin's appearance and behavior was done with the goal to make her more attractive and adorable for fans.

While designing Rin's visual appearance, Takashi Takeuchi worked with the goal of making her ″possess a sense of perfection and a surrounding atmosphere of inaccessibility″. Takeuchi regarded Rin as a model student and therefore sought to draw a school uniform that would fit her better than any other female character of the game. At the same time, her outside school clothes were designed in a more casual style, that was explained as ″more comfortable for battles″. All of Rin's clothes were drawn in red color to match the suit of her servant — Archer. Takeuchi originally planned to emphasize Rin's temper with a special raised eye shape, used in the anime industry for portraying cold-blooded and sharp characters, but in the final version her eyes are round. Takeuchi also designed her hair with pigtails, believing that this suited her tsundere nature.

After the release of Fate/stay night, Nasu felt that Rin had received the most complete character compared to the other heroes of the game and was his favorite heroine in the visual novel. However, according to the writer, while writing scenes with Rin, he was under severe pressure from Takeuchi and other Type-Moon participants who placed greater emphasis on Saber and Rider. In the end, Nasu decided to make Rin contrasted to Saber, perceived as an ideal girl in her eyes. Takeuchi was also pleased with Rin's final character, as well as the appearance of the prerequisites for this heroine's romantic relationship not only with Shirou, but also with Archer and Lancer, and called Rin a ″face of Fate, but in a different sense than Saber”. Nasu stated that "with a girl like that by his side, even an unsociable person like Shirou loses his presence of mind."[clarification needed]

In the making of the Unlimited Blade Works anime, Ufotable and Nasu agreed to keep her original looks from the visual novel believing it was still considered appealing. Since Nasu found the original Rin too unsociable, he decided that the Rin from the anime should be more social. In order to further develop the new characterization of Shirou Emiya, Ufotable paid attention to the way Rin and Shirou interacted, leading to the latter expressing more joy than in the original version.[clarification needed]

Voice actress Kana Ueda noted that when first voicing Rin, she had a sense of incompatibility with the character. As a result, while the director expressed a similar opinion, Ueda's experience helped her to further connect with Rin. She further described her character as "kind of like the onee-san (elder sister) character, where she is responsible for guiding Shiro through his adventure". English actress Mela Lee regarded Rin, alongside Rozen Maiden 's Shinku and Blade of the Immortal 's Rin Asano, as one of the works where her career improved.

Character
Rin specializes in the transformation of energy, which includes storage of Mana in objects. She stores all of her Mana in jewels that she regularly charges to bypass her body's natural limitations on releasing energy. She can detonate her jewels on contact with an object, resulting in a release of energy equivalent to an "A" rank attack. Her most common offensive spell is Gandr, which fires concentrated Mana in the form of a black orb from her finger. On contact, the spell amplifies physical conditions—a person who is already sick, for example, becomes far sicker upon being hit, but she can imbue it with such power that it instantly knocks weaker beings out on contact. Rin is also proficient with reinforcement sorcery, which she uses on her legs to give herself more speed or strengthen her fists so as to better implement her karate. She is known to be somewhat of a prodigy in magecraft - while most mages are proficient at one, sometimes two elements, Rin possesses the very rare trait of being equally skilled in all five and is thus known as an Average One.

Appearances
Rin is a model student and idol of Shirou's school. She barely talks to other students in her school and exhibits a desire to be left alone, as exemplified by her tendency to stay on the school's rooftop, away from the rest of the students. She is also secretly a mage, and a Master in the Fifth Holy Grail War. In the beginning of the anime, she summons Archer as her Servant, although she originally wanted to summon Saber. Rin is reared as the successor to her family's magecraft, instructed by her father, Tokiomi Tohsaka, to prioritize sorcery over her own interests. When she was young, Rin was separated from her sister Sakura, who was given to the Matou family for adoption. After her father is killed in the Fourth Holy Grail War, Rin continues to perfect her sorcery with some guidance from her guardian, Kirei Kotomine. Several years later, she and Sakura observed a young Shirou Emiya attempting to jump over a high bar for a fitness test, and secretly liked to be with him due to his dogged perseverance. She strives to earn the admiration of her peers to avoid drawing attention to her private life, even though she is secretly stingy, tomboyish, and a slacker. She is perceptive, resourceful and avidly competitive.