Shiver

"You think you're cool? Sharks call ME cold-blooded. But you can call me Shiver!"

- Shiver introducing herself in Return of the Mammalians

Shiver is a character in and one of the three members of the band Deep Cut, alongside Frye and Big Man, with whom she co-hosts both Anarchy Splatcast, the news show of Splatsville, and Splatfests. She is also the third reachable boss of Return of the Mammalians. Her signature color is blue.

She is voiced by Anna Sato.

Appearance
Shiver is an Octoling with pale skin and a wide, oval-shaped face, with slender eyes under sharp blue triangle eyebrows. Her irises are red, with light red pupils in the shape of an infinity symbol, similar to Marina's pupils, (and matching octopuses in real life). Her Octoling eye mask is thin and sharp, almost appearing to be cat-eyeliner makeup, with red eye shadow blended underneath.

Shiver's tentacles are shoulder length, with the left side styled over her face, hiding her left eye from view. Her tentacles have a slight gradient from a light blue to navy blue, and are curled upwards slightly at the ends. In addition to the eye makeup, Shiver also appears to be wearing a light red lip gloss.

Shiver has a cool, yet rebellious sense of fashion, with a clear root in traditional Japanese culture. She wears a white sarashi chest wrap, under a long purple shawl made from a shiny translucent material. Attached to the left side of the shawl is a large silver octopus charm with two red tassels tied through holes in the ornament. On her legs are low-cut black leggings decorated with two slashes on her right thigh, resembling shark gills. She wears black tabi-like shoes with red wedge heels. Additionally, Shiver's fingertips are dyed a bright red color. Her right ear is pierced with three shark tooth-shaped earrings. On the back of her head, circling a large suction cup on one of her tentacles, is a length of white twisted cloth tied in a knot; not unlike the traditional Japanese hachimaki headband. Hachimaki have a variety of styles, and the one worn by Shiver in particular is a common sight during certain Japanese festivals.

During the Anarchy Splatcast and Splatfest performances, Shiver can be seen holding a white sensu fan, painted with her family crest in blue which many think the bottom half resembles the marbling of fat in salmon. In Alterna, she also wears a shark mask, which takes inspiration from Japanese kitsune masks with it's characteristic red and white design.

During Splatfests, any part of Shiver's appearance that is normally blue changes to match the color of her Splatfest team, with the exception of her fingertips, her tongue, her wedge heels, and her octopus charm tassels; which are instead painted with a color directly opposite of her Splatfest team.

Personality and traits
Shiver presents herself as aloof and cold-blooded, a ruthless fighter who is certain of her victory. However, she is particularly quick to anger due to her competitive nature. As soon as she starts to lose to Agent 3, she begins to get visibly annoyed with the player and Master Mega. She also seems to enjoy puns.

Still, she appears to be the most mature member of Deep Cut, often remaining calm, pragmatic, and composed while Frye and Big Man loudly express themselves. This maturity makes her a sort of leader of Deep Cut, in charge of opening and closing every Anarchy Splatcast and announcing important events like Splatfest themes and game updates. She also occasionally comes down quite severely on her bandmates and is a deep perfectionist, sending Big Man back to the drawing board with Anarchy Rainbow several times, and often criticizing both Frye and Big Man's battle techniques. Nevertheless, she greatly cares for her bandmates, poking fun at them and sometimes even showing admiration for their boldness.

Despite her perfectionism and brash persona, Shiver can be surprisingly humble and understanding when she lets herself relax, as she was willing to put aside her differences and work with the New Squidbeak Splatoon, even being the one to suggest that Marie becomes their boss, and happily referring to the Squid Sisters as the band's "bosses". In contrast to her bandmates' impulsiveness, Shiver seems to enjoy predictability and does not like being caught off-guard. She has stated that she listens to Sheldon's rambles and takes his advice, believing herself to be one of the only people who is willing to do so.

Early life
Shiver was born into a clan of shark tamers, well-known for representing the Splatlands. As a child, she participated in gruelling training to learn shark-taming, eventually gaining the ability to tame giant sharks, a rarity even in her family. She met Master Mega during this period, bonding with him through ritual. She met Frye and Big Man through their familial ties, but remained acquaintances with them. By the time she was in middle school, she took an interest in Frye, whose fiery and brave personality caught her eye. The two started looking out for each other, with Shiver often being concerned about her recklessness, before the two started to bond over their shared love of singing. They would often go to the school rooftop and sing together, before deciding they wanted accompaniment and seeking out Big Man, a pianist. This led to the formation of Deep Cut as it is known today.

Deep Cut was discovered several years later, where they were presumably signed to a label and made the hosts of the Anarchy Splatcast.

Splatoon 3
By the time of Splatoon 3, Deep Cut had become relatively well known within the Splatlands for both their music and the Anarchy Splatcast. As part of Deep Cut, Shiver announces Big Runs, reports stage rotations, and hosts Splatfest events, performing her solo song, Anarchy Poisons (Bird Mix), and Anarchy Rainbow for the entire event. They are also the ones who initially report the news of the Great Zapfish's third disappearance.

Return of the Mammalians
Shiver and the rest of Deep Cut are initially hostile to Agent 3 and the New Squidbeak Splatoon, declaring that all treasure in Alterna is theirs to plunder and that they will not let anyone else have it. Later, when the New Squidbeak Splatoon team agrees to give Deep Cut the treasure (after using it to remove Fuzzy Ooze), they explain that their bandit activities were to give back to the people of the Splatlands, and never meant harm to the New Squidbeak Splatoon. They decide to become Marie's employees and the player's allies, and help them in defeating Mr. Grizz. Shiver briefly lends her pet shark Master Mega to Agent 3 to help boost them into outer space.

Boss
Shiver is the third boss of the single-player campaign, Return of the Mammalians, and the second Deep Cut boss. Her boss kettle is found on the Landfill Dreamland Site.

Gender
When Shiver was first revealed in the Splatoon 3 Direct, neither the presentation nor any promotional material (such as the announcement dialogue for the Splatoon 3 Splatfest World Premiere and references to Deep Cut on the official website) specifically referred to Shiver's gender. This was consistent across all languages, and dialogue in languages that are heavily gendered (French, Italian, and Spanish) did not refer to Shiver in ways that would require inflecting adjectives or verbs for gender. This did not apply to Shiver's bandmates Frye and Big Man, who were referred to explicitly as female and male, respectively.

When referring to herself, Shiver's dialogue used plural forms, as part of the group, or used the passive voice. The Japanese text did not have Shiver use any common first-person pronouns that traditionally connote gender (such as atashi or boku). In the Direct, Shiver used the pronouns "uchi" (an informal pronoun usually used by younger women, especially in Kansai dialects) and "onore" (an archaic pronoun used poetically meaning "oneself" or "yourself"). In game, "onore" was used only in one occasion, in which Shiver talks about a general "oneself", rather than using the pronoun for herself. These pronouns may be portraying Shiver's Kansai dialect through the use of yakuwarigo ("role language"). Most official social media posts referring to Shiver also made no mention of her gender, except for one Nintendo Portugal message that used "pela", implying Shiver to be female.

In contrast, Shiver's bandmates Big Man and Frye at reveal were referred to with terms connoting male and female grammatical gender. For example, Frye introduces herself in French as "the queen of eels", Spanish as the "[female] marine choreographer", and she uses a feminine definite article in her Portuguese introduction.

This resulted in speculation about Shiver's gender and the possibility of her being non-binary or ambiguously gendered. However, official sources such as interviews with Nintendo of America executives and the media's preview game access soon clarified that Shiver is female and is referred to using the pronouns "she" and "her" in-game.

Trivia

 * In Japanese, Shiver behaves and speaks like a Kamigata (Kyoto) rakugoka, a traditional Japanese comic storyteller who specializes in expressing stories with the wave of fan and the tilting of the head. In line with Splatsville's chaotic nature and Deep Cut's music style, Kamigata rakugo is known for its usage of musical performance and less "refined" style compared to Edo (Tokyo) rakugo. As such, Shiver speaks with a very pronounced Kyoto variant of Kansai dialect, including referring to her Splatfest team with the second-person pronoun あんさんら ansanra, using the idiom おきばりやす okibariyasu ("Hang in there!"), using the copula どす dosu instead of です desu, using 何いうてはん nani iute-han ("What are you saying?"), including many other examples.
 * In Splatoon 3's Sunken Scroll 10, it is revealed that Shiver is a descendant from a line of shark tamers, much like how Frye is likely descended from the Onaga clan in Sunken Scroll 11. The scroll depicts an Octoling with an extremely similar appearance to Shiver. A family tree can be seen on the left side of the scroll, and implies that Shiver is the youngest heir to her clan, in contrast to Frye and Big Man who are implied to be the oldest heirs to their respective clans.
 * Shiver is described to have a singing style reminiscent of traditional Japanese tastes, as performed by her voice actress (Anna Sato) who has a background in Japanese folk music. More specifically, her voice actress sings Amami folk songs. Shiver has been known to even include kakegoe, a style of traditional shouting, during live performances.
 * The hachimaki headband Shiver wears resembles the Traditional Headband and the Twisty Headband, pieces of headgear.
 * On Shiver's in-game model, the position of her teeth change depending on her facial expressions. While just barely visible, in her Tableturf card icon, Shiver appears to have been given symmetrical teeth typical of Inklings. However, her concert model and renders depict her with asymmetrical teeth similar to the playable Octolings, although they are mirrored.
 * Curiously, during the first half of the Gear vs. Grub vs. Fun Splatfest, Shiver's fingers were the only accent color to change; her octopus charm tassels and shoes turned yellow only after the halftime report.
 * While most media depicts Shiver using her right hand dominantly, such as holding her fan with her right hand, the official artwork for the Spicy vs. Sweet vs. Sour Splatfest depicts Shiver holding chopsticks in her left hand. This may imply her to be ambidextrous.
 * In the trailer presenting Fresh Season 2023's Big Run, Shiver states that she is an artist.
 * Shiver's hobby is counting money.
 * Shiver's Tableturf Battle Deck implies that she prefers to use Stringers, as it has both the Tri-Stringer and the REEF-LUX 450.

Etymology
"Shivering" refers to the reaction of shaking in response to cold or fear, in contrast to Frye's name, which suggests heat and warmth. A "shiver" is also one of the collective terms for a group of sharks.

Fūka is a common Japanese female given name, usually written with kanji 風花 (wind-flower) or 風香 (wind-scent). It is also a pun on 鱶 fuka (with a short u), the Japanese word for "shark". This relates to Shiver being descended from a lineage of shark trainers.