Ape Escape/Characters

Spike/Kakeru
The hero of the original Ape Escape and a few of the spinoffs.


 * Multicolored Hair: Red with a yellow tuft up front.
 * Redheaded Hero
 * Spiky Hair

Jake/Buzz/Hiroki
The rival and friend of Spike who has a bad habit of being brainwashed by Specter.


 * All Love Is Unrequited: He has a crush on Natalie in the anime.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Specter captured him and brainwashes him to serve him and fight Spike on TWO different occasions. The second time gets worse when the game's real BigBad transforms him into Dark Jake.
 * Demoted to Extra: Only appears in concept art and a comic strip in Ape Escape 2 (with his original name Hiroki to boot).
 * Fingerless Gloves
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Natalie/Natsumi
The daughter of the Professor, Natalie is a Tomboy who follows in her father's footsteps.

In the anime, she actually goes out and assists Spike in capturing monkeys, more so then any other character. Otherwise, she acts like she did in the games.


 * Girlish Pigtails
 * Lethal Chef: Possibly, She likes cooking and she is the only person to like how they taste. The only reason her Sweet Azuki bean porridge turned out well is because a Monkey changed the spice shaker caps. But upon trying it, she notes it doesn't taste like how she usually makes it.
 * Only Sane Man: She's the only character Subverted midway into the anime's second season, where she is somewhat distraught over the abduction of her father. Averted in the Fredorator cartoon, where she's just as zany as the rest of the cast.

The Professor/Hakase
He appears in the anime with more or less the same role. He is a bit more zany.


 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He created the Pipo Helmet (Peak Point Helmet in the US release) to increase the intelligence of monkeys, although his prototype helmet was unstable and needed to be finished. He left the prototype at the circus where it was ultimately found by Specter, thus beginning the series.
 * It doesn't help that his colleagues also did similar experiments and most of them actually ended up worse for wear. One has a helmet permanently grafted to his head, and another (Helga's father) created the Pipotrons, who eventually kidnapped him years later.
 * No Mouth: It's obscured by his mustache.
 * No Name Given: His actual name hasn't been revealed at all (Hakase is Japanese for Doctor).
 * Only Sane Man: He takes to take things rather seriously, but not as much as his daughter. Subverted in the cartoon and anime, where he's goofier

Jimmy/Hikaru
Jimmy is a friend and cousin of Spike.


 * Put on a Bus: Outside of a minor role in Saru Saru Big Mission, Jimmy hasn't appeared in any subsequent games in the series. He didn't even appear in the anime. However, he was the main character of two short-lived Ape Escape cartoons that aired on Nicktoons (a CGI one made around 2004 by the makers of the games themselves, and a flash cartoon helmed by Doug Ten Napel in 2010).

Kei and Yumi
They made reoccurring appearances in the anime, with Yumi being a major character in three episodes (two involving the Pipotrons kidnapping her, and the third involving a drawing contest between her and Pink Monkey).


 * Expy: Yumi briefly becomes one of Chun-Li in an episode of the anime.
 * Flat Character: Kei is no different then his predecessors, and due to the popularity of his sister (in-universe, that is), he has even less development.
 * Idol Singer: Yumi is one in both the games and anime. This attracts the wrong attention in both, a rivalry with Pink Monkey in the games and being kidnapped twice by the Pipotron Brothers (as part of an attempt to become famous by performing with her) in the anime.
 * Because of this, picking her makes Ape Escape 3 slightly easier, as a handful of the monkeys are part of her fan club, and instead of running away or attacking her, simply fall to the ground and stare at her with hearts in their eyes.

Aki
Kei and Yumi's aunt. She acts as a replacement for Natalie, giving you instructions as well as new gadgets.


 * Hot Aunt: Aunt to Kei and Yumi.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Subverted. She has the largest breasts of any character in the series, though this isn't ever brought up, and she doesn't have any jiggle physics or gainaxing. Her outfit shows barely any skin, as well.
 * Even more, she was given a more realistic bust size in the anime, subverting the trope even further.

Casey/Casi/Charu
An AI created by the Professor.


 * Ascended Extra: Casi plays a bigger role overall in the anime. She is given an android body in order to save Spike and his friends from shapeshifting monkeys. She later plays a key role in breaking Specter's control over Kohta towards the end of the first season, and is ultimately the one who stops Specter in the season two mid-finale.
 * Demoted to Extra: Casi never really did much to begin with, but outside of Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed and Million Monkeys, she never appeared outside of the first game. Interestingly, concept art and even an in-game photo of her and Natalie appear in the second game despite Casi herself not being in it.
 * Dub Name Change: She is called Casey in the original game, then is given her Japanese name in Ape Escape 2 artwork, then called Casi in Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed. Most English fans usually refer to her Ape Escape: Pump & Primed name.
 * Evil Knockoff: Million Monkeys had Virus Casis, which were Evil Twins that were murderous, used machine guns, and could multiply and overwrite Casi herself.
 * Minor Major Character: In the first game, Casi mostly appeared on-screen showing you how many monkeys the player had to catch. The only time she plays an important role in the game is when Spike returns to the present time finding it overrun with monkeys causing havoc. She informs Spike of what happened to the Professor and Natalie and gives him the penultimate gadget, the RC Car.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Casi is this in the anime, almost always wearing a maid outfit from the second season onwards. There's even a scene in one episode where it appears that she's stripping
 * Ninja Maid: Sometimes becomes this in the anime, namely when taking on Ukki Red and Ukki Pink.
 * Robot Girl: Becomes this in Million Monkeys and shortly after her debut in the anime.
 * Super Powered Robot Meter Maid: Quite possibly the strongest character in the anime, even stronger then Ukki Red! She spends the majority of the anime on the sidelines though.
 * You Don't Look Like You: She gets a ponytail in Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed onwards, and later has giant "ear bolts" sticking out of her head in Million Monkeys and the anime.

Playstation Move Hero (No Name Given, seriously)
There's really not much to say about this guy.


 * The Faceless: Other then a brief glance at his mouth, you never the front of his face.
 * Flat Character: Possibly one of the flattest in video game history.
 * Heroic Mime: He doesn't say a single thing during gameplay.
 * The Voiceless: Taken Up to Eleven in the cutscenes. There are moments where he says something, but it is always in text despite everyone else actually having VAs.

Tohko and Tsukushi
Tohko and Tsukushi are sisters who aid the protagonist in the Playstation Move game.


 * Expy: They appear to be that of Natalie. Tohko in terms of personality, Tsukushi is terms of appearance.
 * Tsundere: Tohko comes off as this.

Grandma
The grandmother of Tohko and Tsukushi in the Playstation Move reboot. She went missing after trying to build a machine to find.


 * Distaff Counterpart: Of the Professor from the original series.
 * I Was Quite a Looker:.

Specter
Specter was a famous circus monkey loved and adored by thousands. One day, he found the prototype Peak Point Helmet and put it on, increasing his intelligence, but also twisting his mind. He quickly escapes the amusement park, after giving all of the other monkeys in the zoo peak point helmets of their own, and leads them to try and take over the world.

He is the only character returning for the new storyline of the Playstation Move reboot. .

Specter's portrayal in the anime is a little different. In this version of the story, he is actually a sentient Pipo Helmet that controls whatever unfortunate monkey wears it. Otherwise, he's basically the same as he is in the games.


 * Ax Crazy: Increasingly so in the anime. By the end, he was willing to blow up the entire Earth after being fed up with just about everyone.
 * Big Bad: For most of the series, excluding Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed, where the story is hijacked by a Giant Computer Core From Nowhere, and Million Monkeys, where he is playable and fights against that game's Big Bad..
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: In the first season of the anime, Kohta was the host for Specter.
 * Butt Monkey: In the Fredorator cartoon, usually due to the stupidity of the monkeys themselves.
 * Evil Albino
 * Grand Theft Me: Did this to Kohta at first (as a form of Brainwashed and Crazy), then Pipo Angel (by permanently assimilating it) in the anime.
 * I Surrender, Suckers: When Kei and Yumi go to fight him a second time, they fall for it and get trapped in cages.
 * Large Ham: Specter's UK actor in the first game hammed it up big time.
 * It got taken Up to Eleven in the Fredorator cartoon.
 * Only Sane Man: Ironically, Specter is this in the Fredorator cartoon. He's the only character in it who isn't a Cloudcuckoolander.
 * Plot Hole: It's almost never explained how Specter keeps coming back after he is caught by the heroes. Only Ape Escape 2 and the anime give explanations to his return.
 * Space Is Cold: In the Playstation Move reboot, Specter is shown to greatly dislike the cold. It doesn't help that he's up in space for most of the game,.
 * Villain Protagonist: In Million Monkeys. After Specter discovers that most of his monkey army is under the command of an imposter of him (actually a shift-shaping monkey mutant who is actually working for a human dictator), he and what little remains of his monkeys decide to take action against them. He doesn't team up with Spike and his friends however, and even fights them at one point.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: In Ape Escape 3, Specter's "Double Paradise Plan". He planned to use a giant machine to chop the Earth in half, with Specter and his monkeys ruling one half and the humans owning the other. However, either Specter forgot that the Earth would be destroyed if he did it or he was Ax Crazy at the moment. Regardless, even Kei and Yumi think this plan is crazy.
 * Xanatos Gambit: Specter pulls a huge one in the second season of the anime. As nothing more then a mere helmet, he had a mutated monkey called Pipo Angel trick the Pipotrons by promising them a wish should they grab five feathers from it. After they do so, Specter gave them a car and had them enter a race, which regardless of who would win (ultimately it was a normal monkey), helped him assimilate the body of Pipo Angel into that of his own. Afterwards, he made the Pipotron Brothers his Terrible Trios with hundreds of monkeys at their disposal and had them do odd tasks. Regardless of whether or not Spike and his friends stopped them, the monkeys' activities powered up a machine that was capable of turning every human on Earth into monkeys. He left Earth to make sure that the Pipotron Brothers (who pulled a Heel Face Turn) couldn't lead Spike to him, and when the Professor made a device to repel the monkey conversion, Specter was able to hack it anyway, making it futile. When Spike finally got up to Specter's base, he proved to be too powerful for Spike to attack, and was only defeated because Casi hijacked his space station and tossed him out into deep space.
 * And after that, he STILL had a backup plan, which resulted in creating the Freaky Monkey Five, partially disabling Casi and destroying the teleporter Spike and his friends had been using, freeing all of the monkeys they captured, disabled the Monkey Net, making it useless in capturing them again, and kidnapping the Professor and Kohta. His winning streak more or less stopped there, especially after the Professor was rescued.
 * You Dont Look Like Yourself: Specter wears a tuxedo in Ape Escape 3 and Saru Saru Big Mission, and he gets a red cape and leather pants in Million Monkeys and the anime. The Fredorator cartoon gave him Messy Hair.
 * You Will Be Assimilated: Specter does this quite often in the anime. The first time, the helmet transforms the baby monkey Kohta's body into Specter's form. During the first season finale Kohta's emotions overwhelm the helmet and frees him from it's control. During the second season, he does it again to Pipo Angel, only this time, he uses a machine to slowly morph it into a host body that the helmet itself has permanent control over. Lastly, Specter's Xanatos Gambit in the first half of the second season involved turning every human on Earth into monkeys. He almost succeeds.
 * You Will Be Assimilated: Specter does this quite often in the anime. The first time, the helmet transforms the baby monkey Kohta's body into Specter's form. During the first season finale Kohta's emotions overwhelm the helmet and frees him from it's control. During the second season, he does it again to Pipo Angel, only this time, he uses a machine to slowly morph it into a host body that the helmet itself has permanent control over. Lastly, Specter's Xanatos Gambit in the first half of the second season involved turning every human on Earth into monkeys. He almost succeeds.

Pipo Apes/Monkeys/Pipo Saru
The mascots of the series itself, the Pipo Apes are Specter's minions that cause havoc

The cartoons and anime discarded the multicolored pants in favor of more uniquely dressed monkeys.


 * Beware the Silly Ones: In the Playstation Move game. They act goofy, but are capable of pulling an invasion of Earth off,.
 * The Cameo: The monkeys are so popular in Japan that they frequently appear in other games. Sadly, most of their cameos are removed from the U.S. versions:
 * Monster Rancher 4 would let you unlock three Pipo Apes if the player inserted the original Ape Escape, Ape Escape 2 and the first Splinter Cell.
 * Hot Shots Golf 4 had the Pipo Ape as an caddy (Europe and Japan only).
 * Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal and Ratchet: Deadlocked had a Pipo Ape as a unlockable skin (Japan only).
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater had a Ape Escape-styled minigame called "Snake vs. Monkey", involving Snake catching the Pipo Monkeys.
 * A Pipo Ape costume can be bought for a Sackboy in Little Big Planet.
 * Harmless Villain: The monkeys actions seem to mostly harmless for the most part, consisting of dancing, goofing about, etc. If it weren't for Specter commanding them, these monkeys might not be a threat at all.
 * They become Not So Harmless Villains in Million Monkeys. Due to being ordered around by a human dictator and his four mutated monkeys, the monkeys dress up in military garb and act rather seriously and use hi-tech gear, realistic mechs. Only the six or so monkeys remaining under Specter's command still act this way, although since they are playable, it can become a case of Beware the Silly Ones.
 * The Hat Makes the Man: The apes were granted super-intelligence by the Peak Point/Pipo helmets.
 * This appears to be averted in the PlayStation Move reboot, where the helmets seem to be purely cosmetic. Specter himself isn't even under the influence of one.
 * The Unintelligible: They make typical monkey screeching noises throughout the majority of the games. In Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed's Pipo Ape/Team Monkey cutscenes, Ape Escape 3 (in Mesal Gear Solid and Monkey Theater only) and all three animated adaptations, they "Ukki".

Freaky Monkey Five/Ukki Five
The Freaky Monkey five are Specter's Quirky Miniboss Squad from the second games onward. They are monkeys mutated by Vita-Z Bananas and are usually fought in between levels.


 * Dub Name Change: A odd case in that all the members had their names changed three times in the US. In Ape Escape 2, they were referred to as their color first, then "Monkey" last, in Ape Escape 3, this was swapped around, and in Ape Escape Academy, they were referred to by their Japanese names (example: Blue Monkey in Ape Escape 2, Monkey Blue in Ape Escape 3, and Ukki Blue in Ape Escape Academy).

Monkey Blue/Blue Monkey/Ukki Blue
The First appears as a street cop in Ape Escape 2, a cowboy in Ape Escape 3, and an Indiana Jones wannabe in Saru Saru Big Mission and the anime.

"Monkey Blue: "Then I'll.... I'll ask Pink out for a date! And then....(sinister laughter)"
 * All Love Is Unrequited: In Ape Escape 3, Blue is shown to have a crush on Pink Monkey, and swears that after he defeats either Yumi or Kei that he will go on a date with her.

"Blue Monkey: "Don't take this personally. I'm doing this for all the little monkeys out there!""
 * Badass Biker: More like a Badass Unicycler, but still.
 * Gratuitous English: In the anime, he often says a few short lines in English. To be fair, what he says actually fits in context, and some of his lines are done quite well.
 * King Mook: He is basically a boss version of the monkeys that wear blue shorts, as both are faster then the other types.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: In the anime, his clothes and actions are a Shout-Out to Indiana Jones.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Before his fight against Jimmy, Blue Monkey states he holds nothing against him and claims to be doing it for a good cause:

Monkey Yellow/Yellow Monkey/Ukki Yellow

 * Camp Gay: He's extremely effeminate, and clearly makes Jimmy and Kei feel uncomfortable. This is to the point where he actually blows a kiss to Kei. Then again, he does the same if you pick Yumi.
 * Fat Bastard

Monkey Pink/Pink Monkey/Ukki Pink
Although her pop idol status remains the same throughout the series, her clothes change like the rest of the group. She resembles a typical pop singer in Ape Escape 2, a princess in Ape Escape 3, and a schoolgirl in Saru Saru Big Mission and the anime.

"Don't you see I love you, don't you see I love you I can't spend the rest of my life, I can't spend the rest of my life CRYING So I'll spend the rest of my life, so I'll spend my entire life chasing you! HERE I COME!"
 * Evil Diva: Possibly the crowning example.
 * Idol Singer: Pink desires to be a famous singer, and even sings an Ear Worm in two of the games. Averted in the anime, ironically.
 * Yandere: The song "Banana Heartbreak" implies this, especially the last few lines:

Monkey White/White Monkey/Ukki White

 * King Mook: Although there are white shorted monkeys in the series, he's actually closer to the green shorts monkeys, as both have goggles and use machinery to attack.

Monkey Red/Red Monkey/Ukki Red

 * Gasshole: Uses a fart based martial art in Ape Escape 3.
 * Playing with Fire: He also uses two flaming torches in Ape Escape 3.
 * Real Men Wear Pink: He's forced into this situation in the anime. Due to his multiple losses at the hands of the female protagonists (Casi, Helga and Natalie), Specter makes Ukki Red wear a dress and act as girly as possible. He warms up to it and even knits a quilt with Hegla and Natalie, but afterwards he reverts back to his old self.

Dr. Tomoki
An eccentric scientist who teams up with Specter in Ape Escape 3 with a plan to split the Earth in two. .


 * Ambiguously Gay
 * Big Bad Duumvirate: With Specter.
 * Distracted by My Own Sexy: Doesn't listen to a word Specter says during one of their conversations, and instead chooses to admire himself in a mirror.
 * Heel Face Turn

The Pipotrons/Apetrons/Pipotron Brothers
Three experimental monkeys that escaped the lab in which they were created. The trio includes Red, the calm but strong leader, Blue, the talkative speedster, and Yellow, the unintelligible marksman. The anime portrays them as goofy klutzes with the goal of becoming "big". They started out as the Big Bads of Season Two, demoted to the Quirky Miniboss Squad once Specter hijacks the plot


 * Anti-Hero
 * Attention Whore: In the anime. All of their schemes are wacky attempts to become famous (or "big", as they frequently put it).
 * Big Bads: In the first eight episodes of season two and in Ape Quest.
 * Goldfish Poop Gang: In the anime.
 * Heel Face Turn: In Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:.
 * Humongous Mecha: The Pipotrons use a mecha the size of Earth itself in the finale of the anime. It's crudely made in comparison to the equally huge mechas the heroes and villains are using though.
 * The Unintelligible: In Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed, they speak odd sounding gibberish with distorted voices. Red speaks in a deep murmur, Blue speaks with a higher pitched voiced of mostly vowels, and Yellow speaks only in beep noises. In Ape Escape 3, they sound much like any other monkey. Subverted in Ape Escape Academy and the anime, where Pipotron Red and Blue can speak perfect English or Japanese (still distorted in the games), whereas Pipotron Yellow talks in beeps in the games and Pokémon-Speak in the anime.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Happens to them in both Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed and the anime. Both cases result in their eventual