Darker than Black/Characters: Difference between revisions

Content added Content deleted

Inline

Revision as of 16:54, 29 July 2018

Characters from the anime/manga series Darker than Black. When reading these, bear in mind that pretty much all Contractor characters are also Stoic Tin Men with Conditional Powers and display Lack of Empathy, while Dolls are all True Neutral Emotionless Persons verging on Empty Shells.

The protagonists

A special operations team employed by The Syndicate.

Hei

The Hero (well, for a given level of "hero"), a.k.a. Li Shengshun, a.k.a. Lee Hyeonsik, a.k.a. BK-201, a.k.a. LI-KUN!!! a.k.a. The Black Reaper, a.k.a. Chinese Electric Batman. An agent of The Syndicate, doing their dirty work to retrieve items and information related to Hell's Gate. He works undercover as Nice Guy exchange student "Li Shengshun," taking menial jobs wherever the higher-ups need him, relying on his apparent naivety to avoid suspicion. He has the Contractor ability to manipulate electricity and the most awesome coat in the universe, and is a weapons-grade Chick Magnet to boot.

Has an incredibly Dark and Troubled Past featuring war, betrayal, and the disappearance of his younger sister, and bringing it up is generally a really bad idea and one of the few ways to get a reaction out of him.

Adorkable: Li. Very, very much.
Anti-Hero: Type IV..
Anti-Villain
Badass: Extremely:
- Badass Abnormal: He was known as the Black Reaper even before he ended up with his sister's powers. The electrical manipulation just makes him even scarier.
- Badass Longcoat: So badass, in fact, that the coat is bulletproof only when he wears it.
- Badass Nickname
- Badass Normal: Both before the Heaven's Gate event and in season 2.
Berserk Button: His sister, and in fact most anything about Heaven's War.
- And in season 2 anything regarding Yin.
Big Brother Instinct: Towards the aforementioned little sister in the past, and, depending on whether you're wearing Shipping Goggles or not, Yin. Toward the end of the second season, he also starts to treat Suou this way.
Big Eater

Chiaki: You are going to get so fat. Sure, maybe you can get away with it now, but once you hit thirty and your metabolism slows down-- well, if there's any justice in the world...

Bishonen: First manga only. The art is much more stylized than either anime series or the second manga, making him look pretty instead of handsome.
Break the Cutie: Heaven's War and most of the interquel OVA.
Broken Faceplate: One of the most common and effective ways to show that a foe is to be feared is for them to break Hei's mask.
Brought Down to Badass: Second season.
Chick Magnet: Boy howdy. Almost every woman he interacts with either falls in love with him or treats him as an honorary family member, be they an Emotionless Girl, a Magnificent Bastard, the Fair Cop trying to catch him, or someone whose first sight of him was the (apparent) murder of her father.
Combat Pragmatist: Has absolutely no qualms about attacking from ambush, playing dead, using anything handy as a weapon, or using supernatural powers in a fistfight, and will hit girls if he needs to.
Cover-Blowing Superpower: At one point, he's undercover as a waiter in a restaurant, and a violent, drunk customer tries to walk out without paying and he ends up in the way. Hilarious Deadly Dodging ensues.
The Cowl: He fits this almost perfectly except for the fact that a lot of his behavior is far from traditionally heroic. A Fan Nickname ensued.
Dark and Troubled Past: Extremely.
Dating Catwoman: His relationship as Li with Kirihara.
Dead Little Sister: And you will suffer if he thinks you know anything about what happened to her.
Drill Sergeant Nasty: Good luck if you have to train with him.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Permanently. Because his eyes are black, you can count on one hand the number of times you can tell the pupils from the irises, and they get stylized to dark blue-gray. We never once see light reflecting off them.
- Quite a few contractors display this in the series, to signify how they aren't happy, or anything else regarding emotions for that matter. Which makes the revelation that Hei isn't properly a Contractor and doesn't have their sociopathy all the more horrible, because he was already like that before he got powers.
Evil Sounds Deep: Evil is pushing it but Li and Hei sound different.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Mr. Fanservice to Perma Stubbled, long-haired "sexy hobo" between seasons. Then back to normal after he gets to a stash of Hidden Supplies in Tokyo.
Expressive Mask: Very subtly. While his mask's mouth is usually angled upwards in a grin, during serious scenes it's angled downwards (with a little help from the camera) into a much more somber/neutral expression.
Eyes Always Shut: Fits the Obfuscating Stupidity version- "Li" often has these, and you know it's Hei when his eyes open and they're cold, blank, and unreflective.
Face Palm of Doom: All the time; it seems to be his preferred method of frying someone.
Fan Nickname: Chinese Electric Batman, for pretty obvious reasons. In the second season, with the addition of Wild Hair and Perma-Stubble, he has been dubbed "Hobo Hei."
- Or "Heibo", if you're one of those informal types.
Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Watching Hei's eyes in an episode where he's mostly being Li is highly entertaining, just to see if you can spot the moments where his personality switches. In general, as Li, they're either closed or very wide, and narrower the rest of the time.
- This picture gives a pretty good comparison.
Grappling Hook Pistol: Or rather, retractable cables with snap-hooks. Though twice, when he's had to get a cable particularly far away, he used a crossbow.
Half-Human Hybrid: He's not quite a Contractor- he has his sister's powers, but normal emotions and no remuneration.
Heroic Neutral: He'd really prefer to just be left alone, but the Syndicate isn't about to let someone so useful get away from them. Consequently, although he usually just does what he's told, he's still the group's loose cannon and will occasionally ignore orders entirely.
He's Back: While he starts off the second season in rather bad shape, by episodes 8 and 9, he's looking and acting more like his old self, De-Power be damned.
Hey, It's That Voice!: Why is Tenma killing people? With a little bit of Actor Allusion thrown in with the hobo appearance in the second season.
- You might also recognize his dub voice; add a Brooklyn accent and you have Luck Gandor.
Hidenobu Kiuchi
Iconic Item: His Badass Longcoat, White Mask of Doom, and knives.
I Have Many Names: Well, to start with he's Hei, BK-201, and the Black Reaper and uses at least two different aliases (and probably more), not to mention whatever his real name is, Mayu's... description of him, and, if you want to get a bit meta, his Fan Nickname.
Immune to Bullets: Thanks to his coat. Subverted when Huang shoots him in the leg when he isn't wearing it and he spends the rest of the episode limping.
Important Haircut: Once he arrives back in Tokyo in the second season, he does this to illustrate his return to his former self.
Jason Liebrecht
Jerkass: On a bad day. The second season has a very long string of bad days, though.
Jerkass Facade: The entire Black Reaper personality.
Just a Flesh Wound: He doesn't tend to get slowed down much by stuff like a bullet through his leg or a spar of wood a foot long stuck in his shoulder.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Hei has been shipped with everything. Foe Yay, Brother-Sister Incest, Interspecies Romance... everything. It doesn't help that even in-universe he gets written into Slash Fics, or that in a flashback, Amber thought that Hei holding his sister in his arms while she slept off her Remuneration looked "romantic."
Lightning Can Do Anything: Averted most of the time, but given that the ability underlying this is quantum manipulation of matter, there are... exceptions. Especially when Hell's Gate is involved.
Love Makes You Crazy: In season 2 he's willing to kill and torture to death just to find information regarding Yin's location. Doesn't help he was only willing to go back to work when he was told that she was still alive.
Malevolent Masked Man: The way most of the cast sees him. Makes sense.
Mask Power
Meaningful Name: 'Hei' is the Chinese pronunciation of 黒, the character that means 'black' in both Chinese and Japanese.
Mr. Fanservice: A very good-looking Badass with a Dark and Troubled Past who can qualify for both All Girls Want Bad Boys and Nice Guy and can be almost cute when someone gets past his shell? Yeah, there's a reason pretty much every single female he interacts with for any length of time ends up crushing on him or treating him as a surrogate family member. Especially since he's a really good cook.
Mook Horror Show: The Black Reaper earned that name.
Mugging the Monster: Pro tip: if you're going to try to walk out of a restaurant without paying, make sure that the cute, clumsy waiter you attack for getting in your way isn't a superpowered ninja known and feared throughout the criminal underworld who can "accidentally" send you careening into furniture.
Mundane Utility: He can use his abilities to zap people, crack locks, knock people out, defibrillate his own heart... or fix a TV. (Though it might take you a while to realize that's what he did)
Nice Guy: As Li. Even as himself, he's usually way nicer than most Contractors, and given the full extent of his abilities, he could be much, much worse.
No Koreans in Japan: Subverted; Hei uses a Korean alias, Lee Hyeonsik, as a civilian disguise in Season 2.
Not So Stoic: Though he's deeply in denial about most of his feelings, they show through occasionally.
Obfuscating Stupidity: In his Li Shengshun persona. Li isn't stupid per se, but he's a clumsy, naive, and generally harmless dork. Well, unless you attack him with a broken bottle.
Offscreen Teleportation: Once, he managed to disappear from about ten feet in front of Kirihara in the time it took her to put on her glasses, while she was pointing a gun at him and he had a bullet wound in his leg that had him limping badly. And there wasn't anything tall enough to do a Building Swing escape in the area, so that possibility is out.
One Hero, Hold the Weaksauce: Hei doesn't appear to have a Remuneration.
Only Known by Their Nickname: "Hei" is Chinese for "black," and odds are pretty much certain it has nothing to do with his real name.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Played with. When he's on a job, he wears a white mask and a bullet resistant black overcoat. However, it's less of a disguise, more of means to keep witnesses from getting too close a look at him. It works because he moves too fast for anyone to get more than a glimpse of The Black Reaper.
The Paralyzer: Though he uses the "walking downed power line" attack more often, he's also able to knock someone out with a touch.
Psycho Electro: Generally an aversion. Generally.
Punch Clock Villain: See Heroic Neutral.
Reality Warper: Shock and Awe is only one manifestation of a more general quantum-manipulation ability that Dr. Schrader mentioned could even be used for Super Empowering. When he's in the Gate, he can basically restructure everything around him.
Secret Identity Identity: He has distinctly different personalities as Li, Hei, and the Black Reaper.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: While nowhere near as severe as Havock, he still hasn't gotten over Heaven's War.
Shock and Awe
Soul Fragment: The source of his powers is what's left of his sister's mind after Heaven's Gate fused them.
Static Stun Gun
Stealth Hi Bye: He's a master at this, to the point of Offscreen Teleportation.
The Stoic
- Borderline Stoic Woobie; remember his traumatic personal history and that he never wanted to be involved in any of this and the only reason he's working for the Syndicate is that they'd kill him if he tried to leave, and the reason he pretends to be a vicious, emotionless killer becomes a good deal clearer.
Sugar and Ice Personality: Underneath the Obfuscating Stupidity, stoicism, and Jerkass Facade, Hei is actually the result of a Nice Guy being forced to fight since he was a teenager, and he's very protective of his Nakama.
Superpower Lottery: A low-key win at first glance; he's got a pretty powerful attack that can also be scaled back for nonlethal takedowns, and doesn't have to go line up pebbles or anything similarly inconvenient every time he uses it. However, it turns out he really hit the jackpot-- his powers are from his sister, so he's got no remuneration, and under the right circumstances he's an honest-to-god Reality Warper.
Supreme Chef: Oddly enough. Presumably it's due to a lot of practice.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Something happened between him and Yin in the Time Skip between the two seasons, and as a consequence for much of the second season he acts like a drunken, violent jerk.
Touch of Death: If he can touch you, he can zap you to death.
Tranquil Fury: When he's angry, it's a vicious, cold anger.
Underestimating Badassery: You'd think that the fact that he was called the Black Reaper when he was just a Badass Normal Child Soldier would be a tip-off, but apparently a lot of people missed the memo.
When He Smiles: According to Amber, he has the most beautiful smile. Sadly, given the nature of the series, we never get to see the real deal. Aw.
- In a Hope Spot in the Interquel, we see that she has a point.
Villain Protagonist
White Mask of Doom
Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Because he's undercover. Parodied in the omake.
The Worf Effect: The interquels and second season feature quite a few instances of this, though it makes some sense when you consider that he had the element of surprise in almost every fight he got into in the original series.

Yin

A doll assigned to Hei's group. A clairvoyant Emotionless Girl with the ability to project surveillance specters through water, she acts as the group's recon unit.

In the second season, she develops a Super-Powered Evil Side, Izanami, that causes Contractors to turn their powers on themselves and is apparently trying to cause The End of the World as We Know It. She manages to suppress it, but winds up comatose-- and when someone wakes her up, Izanami wakes up with her.

Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain
Apocalypse Maiden: Second season.
Blind Seer: It's not obvious that she's blind until a flashback from before the appearance of the Gates, since her abilities pretty much perfectly compensate for it.
Brina Palencia
Brown Note: In Season Two she triggers Contractors to commit suicide.
The Comically Serious: This is probably the best explanation for why an Emotionless Girl reciting Crack Fic in a Creepy Monotone is so damn funny.
Convenient Coma: Puts herself into one to stop her Super-Powered Evil Side.
Covert Pervert: Apparently Kiko introduced her to slash fic.
Emotionless Girl
Extreme Doormat
Face Heel Turn: Forced into it. Or something.
Frozen Face
Heroic Albino - Fits with her Meaningful Name, which means silver in Chinese.
I Cannot Self-Terminate: Asks Hei to kill her to destroy Izanami. He can't bring himself to.
Living MacGuffin: In the second season.
Mission Control
Morality Chain / Morality Pet: Hei cares for her and gets pretty violent whenever someone tries to kidnap her, and losing her between the interquels and the second season drove him to start drinking and act like a complete jerk.
Misato Fukuen
Mysterious Waif
Not Herself: At one point in the Gaiden OVAs, she speaks up out of the blue and starts coldly analyzing the problems with Hei's plan, then suggests another idea. He's rather creeped out, and it only gets worse a minute later when she says she doesn't remember saying anything.
Not So Stoic: She starts crying in one episode and occasionally shows evidence of a crush on Hei.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Kirsi and she's Finnish
Purple Eyes
Rei Ayanami Expy
Tears From a Stone
The Un-Smile: She uses her fingers. However, unlike most examples of the trope, it's cute rather than disturbing.
White-Haired Pretty Girl

Huang

Hei's "handler," a Syndicate employee who relays his instructions and acts as backup when necessary.

Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain
Badass Normal
Bullying a Dragon: "I'm pissed! Guess I better pick up the Person of Mass Destruction by the front of his shirt and scream in his face!"
Dying Moment of Awesome: "Sorry... you've just caught an old man." *KABOOM*
Friendly Sniper: Not exactly the cuddliest guy, but he has a good heart and he's definitely far from being a Cold Sniper.
Gonk
The Handler / Mission Control: He's the one who relays missions to Hei.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold
Never Gets Drunk: Even when he really wants to.
Noble Bigot with a Badge: He used to be a police officer, even.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Huang, which means yellow, fits the color theme of the group, but his actual name (as revealed in episodes showing his past) is Kuno.
Pretend Prejudice: He never stops calling Contractors monsters or insulting Hei, but is ultimately pretty friendly with the rest of his team.
Taking You with Me
The Team Normal

Mao

A body-swapping contractor trapped in a cat's body who helps Hei's group.

Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain
Body Surf: He has the ability to do this, but only between animals.
Butt Monkey: The second season has a lot of Mao-abuse.
Deadpan Snarker
The Heart: While it's not obvious given his kind of snarky tone, Mao is one of the nicest Contractor characters and tends to bring out the best in Huang and Hei.
Unexplained Recovery: There's no real explanation given for why he's fine again in Season 2.
- Actually, he mentions that he had a backup stored, but he lost all his memories from the gate incident.
Insistent Terminology: Mao is very clear on the point that he's not a squirrel, just a cat temporarily in a squirrel body.
Intellectual Animal
Meaningful Name: "Mao" means "cat" in Chinese and sounds very similar to "meow."
The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: His mind is mostly stored on a computer somewhere; without that, he reverts to being a cat.
Mundane Fantastic: Very few of the people he interacts with are particularly surprised by a Talking Animal. However, this is probably just due to exposure, since several characters are very surprised when he starts talking.
Non-Indicative Name: Mao worked fine when he was in a cat body, but now he's a squirrel...
Not Quite Dead: He comes back in the second season
Only Known by Their Nickname: His original name (Ricardo) isn't revealed until episode 11 of the second season.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: In the second season, where he now inhabits Suo's pet squirrel.
Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Oh yes.
Talking Animal: Well, a human in a cat's body, anyway.
Team Pet
Token Non-Human
Voices Are Mental: His voice sounds exactly the same (and disproportionately deep) as a cat, a bird, or a flying squirrel, and one character who knew him as a human recognizes him by it.

Suō Pavlichenko

The second main protagonist, besides Hei, of Season 2, a half-Japanese half-Russian schoolgirl. Her father is a scientist studying ME and her brother is a Contractor; her mother is a photographer who moved to Japan eight years ago. She gets pulled into the plot because of attempts to capture her twin and winds up hanging around Hei. In the third episode, she develops the Contractor ability to summon an anti-tank rifle and wield it easily despite its size.

Action Girl
Beware the Nice Ones: Harm July and Suo will show no mercy.
BFG
Bokukko
But Not Too Foreign: She is half-Russian, half-Japanese.
Cloning Blues: According to her mother, a copy of the real Suou. According to her father, an Opposite Gender Clone of Shion. Either way, she's upset about it, and angsts until Hei snaps her out of it.
Cold Sniper: When in "Contractor-mode."
Dead All Along
Fake Memories: Her memories are mostly fabricated.
Fan Nickname: Mary Suoh.
Half-Human Hybrid: Like Hei, she has Contractor powers while retaining human emotions/morals. Unlike him though, she does have a Remuneration and temporarily loses those emotions/morals when her powers activate.
Half Identical Twin: Subverted.
Kana Hanazawa
Little Miss Badass
Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Or is she?
Mind Control Eyes: When she's particularly upset.
No Periods, Period: Averted and responsible for temporary Power Incontinence.
Opposite Gender Clone
Precocious Crush: Comes to have one of these on Hei.
Redheaded Hero
Small Girl, Big Gun
Super-Powered Evil Side: When being driven to the brink, her necklace becomes a BFG and she becomes a merciless Contractor, albeit one who wants to kill other Contractors for their evil actions. After this first time though, she retains her morality when using her powers.
Token Mini-Moe
Tomato in the Mirror: When she finally meets her mother, she learns that the real Suou died years ago. She's a clone with Fake Memories. Then she meets her father, who says she's an Opposite Gender Clone of Shion. The timing makes these stories mutually contradictory. Much confusion was had.
Training from Hell: Hei is a sucky teacher, at least when depressed, drunk, and angry at the world.
Tranquil Fury: You don't want to see her mad. Seriously.
Twin Switch
Unperson: After the incident that kicks off the whole mess, she gets wiped from all her friends' and acquaintances' memories.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau

Misaki Kirihara

The head of the TMPD's PSB Foreign Affair Division, Section 4, which covertly deals with contractor-related crimes and terrorism; she takes a special interest in the cases related to BK-201 that starts to grow into an obsession with time.

Action Girl: On a good day.
Badass: Her performances in Shikkoku no Hana. One involved a car.
Big Eater: Not as much as Hei, but she likes greasy food.
Blind Without'Em: When she's not wearing her glasses, she squints all the time.
Christmas Cake
Cool Car: Her blue Porsche 997 Carrera.
Dating Catwoman: Her relationship with "Li"- given the morality of the series, it's hard to tell which of them is the "Catwoman."
Fair Cop
Fatal Attraction: She falls for Hei even though she connects him to BK-201 as early as episode 18. It takes a couple suspicious coincidences, a partially-cracked mask, "Li" slipping into his Black Reaper voice, an accidental Meaningful Echo, and some surprising openness on his part before she figures it out/admits it to herself.
Genre Savvy: Part of the reason she's obsessed with Hei. She's figured out that he's going to be at the center of any world changing event that happens in the future.
Go-Go Enslavement: Alice insists on dressing her in a qipao as punishment for forgetting about her party.
Hero Antagonist
Hot Chick in a Badass Suit
Improbable Aiming Skills: She shot one of Hei's knives out of the air in the OVA.
Meganekko
- Specs of Awesome
- Stoic Spectacles: Her attitude is probably closer to this than Meganekko.
Ms. Fanservice: A mild example.
Nana Mizuki
Nepotism: Her father is ranked above her on the police force. She doesn't appreciate his attempts to ensure the correct progression of her career. In the second season, she quits her job out of frustration and a wish to find Hei.
Stalker with a Crush: She's still trying to find Hei in the second season, even though she's no longer working for the police department. And by "trying to find" I mean "obsessively watching the star BK-201 through a telescope." Kanami informs her that she needs to get over him and find another guy.
- Single-Target Sexuality
The Stoic: And not a contractor!
Sugar and Ice Personality: Generally acts very cool and professional, but gets almost Moe when she opens up a bit.
Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
You Need to Get Laid: Has been informed of this quite a few times in the second season because of her obsession with finding Hei.

Saitou

Kirihara's second-in-command.

Badass Normal: Very occasionally. For instance, in the Interquel, he manages to hurt Harvest in a close-range fight.
The Big Guy
Bodyguard Crush: Towards Kirihara
Christopher Sabat
Plucky Comic Relief
Those Two Guys

Kouno

One of Kirihara's underlings.

Casanova: According to the OVA
Satellite Character: Pretty much never seen without Saitou nearby to play off of.
Those Two Guys
Todd Haberkorn: Hey, It's That Voice!

Matsumoto

Another Division 4 employee.

Badass Grandpa
Cool Old Guy
May–December Romance: In the OVA, he seems to have a crush on Mayu, at least until he reads her fanfiction.

Mayu

A member of the task force and closet Big Name Fan.

Bunny Ears Lawyer: Likes to read and write erotic fanfiction and can be kind of ditzy, but also shows some competence, figuring out BK-201's identity when the rest of the police force failed miserably.
Covert Pervert
Cosplay Otaku Girl
Fan Girl
Female Gaze: Spoofed. Hei's "sexy collarbone" has since become a meme.
In Vino Veritas: A minor personality inversion example, becoming more boisterous when she gets drunk at an office party.
Loony Fan: Quite possibly even loonier than Kiko.
Stalker with a Crush: She stalks Hei for a few days, leading the group to suspect that she's working for someone to try to interfere with their mission.
Too Dumb to Fool: Not dumb exactly, but like the other Wrong Genre Savvy characters, she makes some accurate deductions, despite having odd logic and sometimes the wrong conclusion- she figures out that "Li" is the Black Reaper on account of his "sexy collarbone"
Wrong Genre Savvy
Yaoi Fangirl

Yoshimitsu Horai

Also known as the Director. Kirihara's boss.

Artificial Limbs: He has prosthetic hands; hence the black gloves.
Beard of Evil
Big Bad: The closest thing to one in Season One.
The Man Behind the Man: He's also a leader of The Syndicate.
Red Right Hand
Villainous Breakdown: He really loses his cool in the last episode.

Secret Intelligence Service

November 11, AKA Jack Simon

File:Cit Darker than Black British agent code name November.jpg

MI6's top agent, assigned to Japan to investigate Gate-related activity. He has the power to freeze liquids and a rather James Bond-like attitude.

Affably Evil
Anti-Hero: Type IV Or V
Anti-Villain
Badass: The nature of his powers, his creative use of it, and his suave demeanor cement him as one of the series' premier badasses.
Badass in a Nice Suit
Blond Guys Are Evil: Well, he's blond, and a Contractor.
Captain Ersatz: Of James Bond, but also likely Iceman from X-Men- not only are both blond and have the same powers, but Iceman was Fun Personified, and November 11's warped sense of humor might be a dark take on that.
Catch Phrase: "I Was Just Joking."
Character Filibuster: Against smoking.
Combat Pragmatist: His powers aren't as uniformly offensive as Hei's, so he has to get a little bit more creative with it in combat.
Cryonics Failure: He does this to people intentionally.
Dissonant Serenity
Elemental Eye Colours: He has very light blue eyes that can most definitely be described as "icy". This is appropriate, since he's a sociopath with ice powers.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: he is an emblematic example of the second type of this trope.
Fake Brit: Played by American Troy Baker in the English dub.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: In general, he tends to act like much more of a Jerkass when wearing his shades than when he isn't.
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Has an... interesting relationship with this trope.
Harmless Freezing: Very, very averted. The frostbite he causes can take off limbs. The closest he gets is freezing someone's shoes to the ground.
Hero Antagonist: Hero might be pushing it, but he does genuinely believe that Hei is a dangerous terrorist. Because he is. He wears white while Hei wears black clothes.
Heroic Sacrifice
An Ice Person
Irony: Which is not lost on him: He hates smoking and smokers, but has to smoke for his remuneration.
I Was Just Joking: His Catch Phrase.
Kazuhiko Inoue
Man in White
Mugging the Monster: His first appearance.
Noble Demon: He's quite pleasant for a Contractor and oddly self-sacrificing.
Opaque Lenses
Phenotype Stereotype: Actually used as the page image at the time of writing.
Psycho Sidekick / Token Evil Teammate: Whenever interacting with Kirihara.
Punch Clock Villain
Second Face Smoke: In his introductory scene, he's dealing with some gangsters and voices his extreme disapproval of smoking early on. When they try to double cross him, one of them lights up and contemptuously blows smoke in his face. Big mistake.
Shameless Fanservice Guy: He just doesn't care.
Shout-Out: He is a secret agent. He is an only guy whose name is a month and a date - a certain guy's birthday.
Smoking Is Cool: Sometimes subverted, sometimes played straight; the first time we see him dealing with his remuneration, he starts hacking out the smoke in a decidedly un-cool way, but the rest of the time he makes it look good.
Touch of Death: Like Hei, if he can touch you, he can kill you.
Troy Baker

April

A contractor on November 11's team who can create storms at will.

Actor Allusion / Captain Ersatz: Her Japanese voice actress dubs many Halle Berry characters, including Storm of X-Men, with whom she shares weather-control powers and appearance.
Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain
Back for the Dead
Badass: her performance in Season Two.
Bottle Fairy
Cursed with Awesome: She's the only Contractor we've seen so far who loves her remuneration: she has to drink beer.
Eyes of Gold
Faux Action Girl: In the episode where she's injured, Huang shows Hei a sheet of paper listing her kills which are numerous, but in-series, she just assists November 11 and schleps July around. Although she does manage to score a kill on the enemy contractor Goran. Not to mention nearly killing Hei ... until he kills her of course.
Heart Is an Awesome Power: Her abilities are deadly in combination with November, and she pulls off a Crowning Moment of Awesome against a guy with Super Speed at the start of the second season by giving him a rather painful physics lesson. She then follows up by summoning a swirl of water around her next opponent's head to drown him on his feet.
Making a Splash: The second season shows that her powers extend at least a little beyond rainstorms.
Phenotype Stereotype: The only aversion on the MI6 team, as she's black with blue hair and yellow eyes.
Punch Clock Villain
This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman: The conditions for her only solo kill are rather contrived, though her following showing against Hei is still relatively impressive.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Weirdly, she is introduced with black hair in the second season, which makes you think that her hair might have been dyed. Nope- the black hair is a wig covering her apparently naturally blue hair.

July

The Doll assigned to November 11's team. In the second season, he joins Hei, Suou, and Mao.

Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain
Emotionless Guy: Being a Doll.
Frozen Face
Kiyomi Asai
Nakama: Kirihara is very surprised when he describes November this way.
Phenotype Stereotype: Blond with gray eyes.
Sugar and Ice Personality: Only November 11, April, Kirihara and Suo seem to be aware of the dere side. To be fair, it's mostly for them.
Tagalong Kid: Particularly in the second season, where he just sticks around for lack of other options. Or possibly lack of other reasons to be around Suo.
Team Pet
The Un-Smile: He uses his fingers like Yin. Unlike Yin, his goes back to creepy.
- It even manages to creep out Hei in full Jerkass mode.

August 7

A Contractor introduced in Season 2. He is part of the same team as April and July.

Achilles' Heel: He can pretty much do anything as long as he is looking at you and you at him, but Hei throws his longcoat over August's head and electrocutes him while he is powerless.
Blessed with Suck: He's a former stage magician and received the power to do real magic, something which would make him the greatest magician ever. Unfortunately, his Remuneration is to give away how magic tricks work, something which hurts his pride as a former magician and takes away any professional benefit he could get from his powers.
Disney Death
Expy: He has often been compared to Cornelius Alba of Kara no Kyoukai.
Hollywood Tactics: If you're effectively immune to ranged attacks and you're up against a ninja known for ingenuity, it would seem like a good idea not to let him get close.
Magicians Are Wizards
Masaya Matsukaze
Nice Hat
Reality Warper
Stage Magician
Superpower Lottery: A real winner, since he pretty much has the power to do anything if someone is looking at him.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Referred to by some fans as the "New November 11". Actually an aversion though, as his openly psychotic personality is closer to that of Wei in the first series.
White-Haired Pretty Boy

Evening Primrose

The Contractor La Résistance with a distinctly Social Darwinist cast- think Magneto

Amber

The founder of Evening Primrose, who used to work for The Syndicate, the CIA, and MI6 and betrayed all of them. She was in South America during Heaven's War, and Hei considers her responsible for what happened at its end.

She can manipulate time, and her remuneration is getting younger.

Anti-Villain
Badass Adorable
Big Bad: Kinda-sorta-almost-not-really-AGH my head hurts in Season 1.
Blondes Are Evil: Blonde Contractor, assuming that it isn't actually green, what with her status as a...
Captain Ersatz: Bears a staggering resemblance to C.C. of Code Geass, particularly when we see her as an adult.
Cheerful Child
The Chessmaster: Even after her "death."
Cuteness Proximity: Acts even more cutesy than usual over Mao.
Deliberately Cute Child
Eyes of Gold: The in-universe explanation for her name.
Femme Fatale: Just ask Hei. ...although he'd give you the wrong answer. Hei thinks she is, since she betrayed his group in Heaven's War. However, his sister was in on it too, and they didn't tell him because they both knew that continuing to work for The Syndicate was safer for him in the long run. She still loves him and wants him to be happy.
Meaningful Name: The mineral amber led to the discovery of electricity; see the entry on the main page for details.
Merlin Sickness: Her remuneration.
Necessarily Evil: Seen in how even in her "kill all Japanese humans" plan, she was willing to use the last of her power and seemingly Ret-Gone herself.
Older Than They Look
Omniscient Morality License: Literally: Because she can see into any number of possible futures, she does morally questionable things on the logic that it is the best plan possible.
Oracular Urchin: Since she's a lot older than she looks and has a limited ability to see the future.
Laura Bailey
Ret-Gone: Possibly her ultimate fate.
Social Darwinist: Amber would get along very well with Magneto.
Stepford Smiler
Superpower Lottery: She won. She can control time itself, and her remuneration could theoretically make her immortal.
Time Stands Still
Tomoko Kawakami

Amagiri

Amber's second-in-command. He has the very straightforward power of shooting waves of force.

Anti-Villain
Back for the Dead
Brains and Brawn: Amber's the brains, he's the brawn.
Died Standing Up: When his soul was taken by Yin.
Disney Death: Seemingly burnt to death along with Brita at the end of the first season, he shows up in the third Gaiden, but now is bald with some signs of scarring, and has an Eyepatch of Power over his "shut" eye.
The Dragon
~~Eyes Always Shut~~ Eye Always Shut
Eyepatch of Power: At the end of Season 2.
Hand Blast: Amagiri has the power to shoot concussive force from his hands.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Amber.
Morally Ambiguous Redhead
Stout Strength
Travis Willingham
Your Soul Is Mine: His fate at Yin's hands, along with the rest of the Contractor camp.

Maki

A contractor working for Amber. His power is to blow up anything he's touched, and he has an enormous crush on Amber.

Bad Powers, Bad People
Blond Guys Are Evil: Blond Contractor
Crazy Jealous Guy
Creepy Child
Driven by Envy: He reacts... violently... to the fact that Amber is in love with someone else.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His death. One of the few times where stabbing a little boy is a-ok.
Having a Blast
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Runs around blowing up buildings, hints that he intends to do more, attacks Hei because he's jealous and runs November 11 through a gauntlet for no real reason when his time would be better spent escaping. Not even Amber is sad when he dies.
Mismatched Eyes
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Just about everything he does.
White-Haired Pretty Boy: Or at least very light blond.
Yandere: To Amber.
Yuko Sanpei

Brita

A ridiculously sexy contractor working for Amber as a spy. She can teleport anyone she touches.

Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Her power involves teleporting with the loss of her clothes, and her Remuneration is to kiss people.
- She usually teleports others by kissing them, thus combining the power use and remuneration in one.
Blondes Are Evil: Another blond Contractor.
Censorship Tropes: Censor Shadow, Godiva Hair, Scenery Censor, all unobtrusively used.
Foreign Fanservice
Intimate Healing: Her Remuneration.
Honey Trap / The Mole: infiltrates the CIA by being the secretary of an American official and sleeping with him.
Ms. Fanservice: Isn't she just.
Naked on Arrival: Her teleportation can't carry anything non-living, so this applies to anyone she teleports, including herself. Oddly enough, she does retain her purple lipstick through the teleportation]].
Phenotype Stereotype: A blonde, blue-eyed American.
Please Put Some Clothes On: Requested by Amigiri.
Power Perversion Potential
Sexy Secretary
Shameless Fanservice Girl: More like Sociopathic Fanservice Girl.
Teleport Spam: Her tag-fight with Hei involved a lot of this.
The Vamp
Villain Teleportation

PANDORA

Eric Nishijima

A high-ranking PANDORA official, he is a Japanese citizen who was born overseas. He plays a background role throughout much of the first series.

The Chessmaster
Fantastic Racism: Against Contractors.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul
Smug Snake
You Have Failed Me...: Courtesy of the Director.

Dr. Schroeder

A scientist working at PANDORA's lab at Hell's Gate.

Affably Evil
For Science!: He's actually not upset at all when Hei screws his anti-Gate system up since it gave him something new and interesting to observe.
Mad Scientist
Miniature Senior Citizens
Mister Exposition: He's pretty much the only person who understands the nature of BK-201's powers and how they relate to the Gate.
Non-Standard Character Design: Agh! The hair!
Techno Babble: Speaks almost entirely in it, except when he's making bad jokes.

Meena Khandar Swami

A scientist working at the laboratory in the Gate who got her position by making a deal with The Syndicate. Acts as Hei's contact when he infiltrates the place.

Dropped a Bridge on Him: She gets killed in Shikkoku No Hana for helping Hei, Yin and Azusa. Her superior, Sergei Vectrof even complains about it.
Fantastic Racism: An interesting case, as she mostly just has exaggerated misconceptions and she very quickly develops a crush on Hei despite them.

"Could you be... upset?"

Hot Scientist
Longing Look: Many, many times, none of which Hei seems to notice.
Meganekko
Punch Clock Villain: The only reason she's involved with The Syndicate at all is so she can work at the Gate, and her contact with Hei is apparently the only time she's actually had to do anything for them.
What a Senseless Waste of Human Life: Vectrof points out that Meena was younger, smarter and possibly more useful than he is and certainly should have at least been held hostage. His captors disagree.

Nick Hillman

A cheerful scientist Hei meets while undercover at an observatory.

Affably Evil
Anti-Villain: Big time.
Birds of a Feather: He and "Li" are both Nice Guy borderline-stoics who want to make the world better for their little sisters, and they get along really well. They even have the same powers.
Blond Guys Are Evil
Eric Vale
Evil Counterpart: He even has the same powers as Hei (the main difference is Hei's powers are straight Reality Warping that he uses almost exclusively for electricity, while Nick's are actually electricity)
Nice Guy
Phenotype Stereotype: Of course the American researcher is blond with blue eyes.
Real Men Wear Pink
Shock and Awe

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

A group of Japanese agents introduced in Season 2.

Genma Shizume

Part of the team dedicated to hunting down Hei and Suou, a contractor with the ability to turn solid objects into heavy armor. Has a habit of hitting on everyone he encounters.

Bait the Dog: Genma initially comes across as an affable, jokey Lovable Sex Maniac, and a pushover at that, since Suo "defeats" him by throwing a trash can over his head. Further appearances establish him as a pedophilic sociopath who finds wanton brutality incredibly amusing.
The Brute
Captain Ersatz: He is sometimes jokingly referred to as Emiya Kiritsugu.
Depraved Bisexual / Anything That Moves / general pedophilia: Genma makes so many sexual references that it's not quite clear what "direction" in which he swings or even if he's restricted himself to a "direction". Still, he seems to attracted to children.
Faux Affably Evil
Genre Savvy: He makes a reference to Dark and Troubled Past as adding Moe points.
The Juggernaut: When in "armor mode".
Locked Out of the Loop: Played for laughs; by episode 11, he's pretty much the only one who doesn't know that Suou isn't Shion.
Lovable Sex Maniac: Again, at first glance. Then the creepiness starts to show itself.
Made of Iron: His power involves coating himself with nearly impenetrable armor. However, anti-tank fire can damage it and it doesn't do a damn thing against a laser katana to the eye.
Stupid Evil: He doesn't really think his acts of pointless cruelty through very well.

Mina Hazuki

A contractor with the ability to turn objects into laser katanas. Part of the team hunting Hei and Suou.

Anti-Villain
Badass: Had not one, not two but three fights with Hei. In the final fight with him, she nearly killed him and possibly would've...if Hei had actually been responsible for Yoko's death.
Bifauxnen
Dark Action Girl
Does Not Like Men: Unfortunately for her, her Remuneration is to French kiss them.
Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: Despite being shunned by her family, being informed that her mother is dying distracts her during a fight with Hei, and she muses about still having some caring towards her mother.
Evil Counterpart: Has similar dress sense, weaponry, and personality to Hei; her background as The Ojou who broke from her powerful family is rather similar to that of Kirihara.
Fan Nickname: Japanese Lesbian Catwoman, due to personality and style similarities to Hei and the fact that she's a Psycho Lesbian.
- Also, Lightsaber Lesbian.
Hot Chick in a Badass Suit
Hot Chick with a Sword: Or a boken or a lightsaber.
Intimate Healing: Her remuneration is to make out with guys. This is awkward. It's also the reason one of the only 'ships to get any action is a Crack Pairing.
It's Personal: She takes Youko's death at what she believes to be Hei's hands rather badly.
Katanas Are Just Better: Her power is to transform any object into an energy blade. She carries around a wooden katana for this purpose. That's right, sociopathic Japanese lesbian ninja with a wooden laser katana.
Laser Blade
Mitsuki Saiga
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot
The Ojou: A conversation with her grandfather in episode 9 suggests she was this and much more deferential prior to becoming a Contractor.
Psycho Lesbian: "I got rejected..." Gee, ya think?
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: ...or the nearest Contractor equivalent. She really flips out when Yoko dies.
The Stoic

Yōko Sawasaki

The group's token human, a scientist who worked under Dr. Schrader.

Affably Evil
Bait the Dog: Initially appears very Moe as well as friendly and outgoing, but she follows in the footsteps of the similarly affable Dr. Shrader in having For Science! as a mantra, pursuing "experiments" without concern for human life.
Cruel and Unusual Death - Can't say she didn't have it coming, though.
Eating the Eye Candy/Male Gaze: The target in the "Hazuki-vision" shot in the Interquel OVA. Played for laughs more than anything.
Evil Genius
For Science!: She basically rips Hei's soul in half just to see what happens.
Kozue Yoshizumi: Playing Against Type
Mad Scientist
Meganekko
Mission Control: She is the "token normal" member of the group.
Scary Shiny Glasses: In episode 6.
Stuffed Into the Fridge: Genma kills and rapes her messily to shut her up. Due to circumstances, Hazuki blames it on Hei and makes a very nearly successful attempt at revenge since It's Personal.
The Team Normal

Spoiler

!Misaki Kirihara

See The Japanese Police.

Others

Wei Zhijun

A contractor serving the Chen Long Tang crime family. His power is to blow holes in anything he gets blood on. Later joins Amber's group in order to fight Hei again.

Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: He can't stand losing a fight.
Badass: He's an evil psycho. But in a series where most people can't even come close to standing up to the main character, Wei nearly kills him two or three times.
Bad Powers, Bad People
Battle Butler
- Bodyguard Betrayal
Blood Knight
Bloody Murder
Cursed with Awesome: His remuneration is cutting himself, which he has to do anyway to use his powers.
Dragon with an Agenda: Has to share the post of The Dragon with Amigiri, but otherwise fits in relation to Amber: the only reason he helps her is so he can fight Hei again.
Finger-Lickin' Evil: He's been seen to slurp blood off his hands after killing someone.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Evil ones- his arms are covered with scars due to him cutting himself to use his powers/pay his Renumeration, and after Hei electrocutes him, half of his face and body is burned.
Pointy Ears
Psycho for Hire: Even by Contractor standards
Required Secondary Powers: Never gets faint from blood loss, no matter how much he fights.
Slasher Smile / Psychotic Smirk: Often has either of those.
Two-Faced: After being electrocuted by Hei.
The Triads and the Tongs
Worthy Opponent: Considers Hei to be this.

Alice

The heir to the Chen Long Tang family. She was friends with Kirihara as a teenager, and did not react well to her friend's career choice.

Alice Allusion
Anime Chinese Girl: Subverted.
Ax Crazy
Forgotten Childhood Friend
Mafia Princess
The Triads and the Tongs
Yandere: A platonic version... maybe. It's kind of debatable given her Go-Go Enslavement of Kirihara.

Gai Kurasawa

A rather useless private investigator who accidentally stumbles across the edges of Hei's assignments a couple of times.

Affectionate Parody: Of Hardboiled Detective stereotypes.
Awesome McCoolname: He renamed himself because he thought his real name wasn't cool enough. As with his attempts at Smoking Is Cool, little success was had.
The Fool: He keeps accidentally and unknowingly wandering into extremely dangerous situations, and only the fact that he's an idiot keeps him safe.
Non-Standard Character Design
Plucky Comic Relief
Private Defective
Smoking Is Cool: Attempted with little success.
Too Dumb to Fool: The only person to notice that that one Chinese exchange student keeps showing up in weird situations. However, he quickly decides that it's probably a coincidence and he's being paranoid.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Fate keeps throwing him into situations involving cats. He's terrified of them.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Thinks he lives in a world created by Raymond Chandler.

Kiko

Kurosawa's cheery, excitable secretary, who only works for him because she can watch yaoi at work. She has an over-the-top stalker-crush on "Li."

Cosplay Otaku Girl
Expressive Hair: It even curled into little heart shapes when she first saw Hei.
Fan Girl
Genre Savvy: Has occasional flashes of this amidst a lot of Wrong Genre Savvy; for instance, she accurately diagnosed someone under the influence of ME.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: Although Kiko's kind of weird in her own way, she fits this in respect to Kurosawa.
Emiri Katou
Loony Fan: Towards "Li"
Meta Girl: sometimes
Non-Standard Character Design: She generally uses a lot of standard anime effects that the rest of the series ditches in favor of a more realistic style, and even gets Super-Deformed a few times.
Plucky Comic Relief: Hilariously lampshaded in the second season.
Smitten Teenage Girl
Wrong Genre Savvy: Tends to apply anime tropes towards real life. While this does mean she correctly diagnoses a victim of Laser-Guided Amnesia, it also means she thinks "Li" is a Shojo love interest.
Yaoi Fangirl
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Pink, probably to mark her as a comic character

Havoc AKA Carmine

Quite possibly the most dangerous contractor in existence, she killed hundreds or even thousands in South America- and then something happened that removed her powers and some of her memories but restored her emotions to normal. Now she's wracked with guilt over what she did, leaving her as probably the only case of a Woobie who ate babies in history.

The Atoner
The Butcher: Was the Contractor with the single largest body count.
De-Power
Dies Wide Open: Hei shuts them before going to confront the people who killed her.
Eats Babies: Her Renumeration involved drinking the blood of children.
Evil Redhead: Prior to reforming anyway.
Girl in a Box
Deadly Change-of-Heart: Immediately after she gets her powers back but remains reformed, she is impaled by one of November 11's ice spears.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice
Luci Christian
Names to Run Away From Really Fast: And it was well-earned, even if now she mostly just inspires people to want to give her a hug.
Naomi Shindo
Person of Mass Destruction
Power of the Void
Shell-Shocked Veteran

Bertha and Itzhak

Two Contractors working for FSB to capture Yin. Bertha's power allows her to force objects to resonate, usually breaking them, although it can also stop someone's heart; Itzhak can absorb observation ghosts and use them to manipulate and control the minds of dolls.

Anti-Villain
Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: She's an overweight former opera singer who kills people with her voice.
Beard of Sorrow/Perma-Stubble:Itzhak
Belated Backstory: Bertha's back story comes toward the end of her and Itzhak's arch. And it's devastatingly sad.
Cigar Chomper: Quite literally with Bertha
Make Me Wanna Shout
Musical Assassin
Pillar of Light: A side-effect of Itzhak's power; when he dies, all the observation ghosts he's grabbed disperse at once, creating a huge version.
Warrior Poet: Literally, in Itzhak's case: his remuneration is writing poetry.
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Itzhak has one of the most specialized and useless-in-combat abilities we've seen, which is presumably why he was paired with someone who can kill quietly and almost instantaneously or cause massive structural damage.

Harvest

The primary antagonist of the Interquel manga, Shikkoku no Hana. His power is to dissolve matter, and this ability to manipulate the connections between atoms allows him to give normal humans Contractor abilities.

The Corrupter
Deadly Upgrade: Yeah, he'll give you superpowers. But watch out for that flower...
Deal with the Devil: Has the ability to give humans Contractor-like powers. However, they have to kill their closest friend to do it, and they start turning into walking plants.
Evil Counterpart: His Contractor power involves the ability to manipulate electrons, similar to Hei, and as a result he can also grant normal people powers.
Green Thumb: Those flowers. Creepy as hell.
Hollywood Evolution: He fails biology forever thanks to ranting about Evolutionary Levels.
Manipulative Bastard: Plays off people's emotions to get them to accept his Deal with the Devil.
Mook Maker: Plants seeds into the corpses of his opponents and re-animates them as contractor zombies. Wholesome.
Necromancer: His powers allow him to raise the dead.
Nigh Invulnerability: Since he can break down pretty much anything, bullets are completely useless and even attempts to gas him just result in him chemically decomposing the gas. The cops manage to hit him with tranquilizer darts and electricity.
Super Empowering
Touch of Death: The results are rather gross.

Azusa Tsukimori

A young schoolgirl Hei encounters in Shikkoku no Hana. After being seduced and betrayed by her coach, Daisuke Mioka, she desires to become a Contractor in order to exact revenge. And then she meets Harvest...

After the death of her best friend, his power gives her supernatural leg strength, allowing her to kick people hard enough that they explode or jump twenty feet in the air. But the more she uses it, the larger the black flower attached to her back grows...

Be Careful What You Wish For
The Corruption
Damsel in Distress: She's captured after Meena is killed.
The Dog Bites Back: See Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
Heart Is an Awesome Power: Super-strong legs? What are you going to do, kick him to deat-- Oh. You are. Yuck.
Deadly Change-of-Heart: She's not dead (yet?) but she would be marginally okay if she had spared her teacher. Of course, she WOULD'VE spared him (at Hei's urging, of course) if he had decided to not be a dick at that very moment.
- She lives.
Hot for Teacher: Ends very badly indeed.
In a Single Bound
Interrupted Cooldown Hug: A non-hug version: Hei has pretty much managed to talk her down from her Roaring Rampage of Revenge, when her coach comes up behind her with a taser and knocks her unconscious. Retribution was not long in coming, from both Hei and Azusa.
Kick Chick
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: She seeks out Harvest in the first place in order to go on one of these.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Hei puts a lot of effort into trying to convince her to stop her rampage before the flower blooms and she's completely screwed. She decides to finish it at the last minute anyway, though he kinda deserved it.
Waif Fu
Woman Scorned

Daisuke Mioka

A young coach for a girls' volleyball team in Shikkoku no Hana. Loves teh ladies but goes about it in the most dickish way possible.

Asshole Victim: The only reason anyone cares about his death at all is because it nearly kills Azusa.
Casanova: His most defining trait. As far as he's concerned, if it has a vagina, it's fair game.
The Dog Bites Back: Being an asshole is a good deal more dangerous when your victims can make a Deal with the Devil for superpowers.
Hot for Student: And it's his downfall.
Implausible Deniability: He tries to invoke I'm a Man, I Can't Help It as a defense to someone who can literally kill him with her foot for God's sake.
It's All About Me
Karmic Death: He goes out with a "bang." Kick the Son of a Bitch!
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Literally.
Kissing Cousins: He also macked Kyouko, Azusa's best friend and his kid cousin.
Ludicrous Gibs: Azusa kicks him so hard he explodes
Manipulative Bastard: Do not sleep with this man.
Too Dumb to Live: Really, Daisuke? You're going to taser someone that you know would love NOTHING more than to kill you in the most horrible way possible, right when they decide to spare your life? Really?
- And even if she hadn't killed him for that, Hei certainly would have.

Parcel

A contractor of one of PANDORA's many factions working to kill Harvest. Her power is teleportation through use of black portals. Her Doll is a modified cyborg named "Champ."

Child Prodigy
The Corps Is Mother: Has been a part of PANDORA since she was 5.
Friendship Moment: Between her and Champ as they, Yin and Hei escape their hideout. Champ doesn't make it.
Heroic Sacrifice: Champ.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Champ is enormous. Parcel is... not.
In the Hood: Because it has Unusual Ears.
Little Miss Badass: When she kills Maxfield.
Little Miss Snarker: Hei even lampshades it.
Meganekko
Non-Action Snarker: Justified by her powers being more suited for observation and support.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain:And dropping people into oceans, if necessary.
Our Wormholes Are Different
Teleporters and Transporters
Teleport Spam: Parcel has no compunctions about using her powers all the time, for just about everything, possibly because her remuneration isn't very harsh.
Token Mini-Moe
True Companions: Her, Champ, Meena and Sergei.
Unable to Cry: Not surprising seeing as she's a Contractor. Unfortunately, it means she can't mourn the deaths of her friends as she'd wish to.
Unusual Ears: Wears mouse-ears as her remuneration.
You Killed My Friends: Drops Reynard Maxfield into the ocean from the STRATOSPHERE for causing Champ, Meena and Sergei's deaths.

Shion Pavlichenko

Suo's brother, who was transformed into a Contractor. His power is to produce copies of things and people with one trait changed, and his remuneration paralyzes his legs, putting him in a wheelchair most of the time.

But Not Too Foreign
Creepy Child
Evil Redhead: Sort of.
Half Identical Twin: Or not.
Hikikomori: On account of being imprisoned and his Remuneration, which left him temporarily crippled.
Houko Kuwashima
MacGuffin Girl: A male variant, since the reason everyone's chasing Suou is to catch him. However, it turned out he was a lot more active than we were giving him credit for.
Madwoman in the Attic: After he became a Contractor, his father imprisoned him in a metal room from which he couldn't leave. Or maybe not. Dad and son are in cahoots. It's... complicated.
Manipulative Bastard: He enjoys messing with Suou's head a little too much.
Mind Control Eyes: Only one; see Mismatched Eyes.
Mismatched Eyes: He lost the use of an eye in the explosion which turned him into a Contractor, so while both of his eyes are green, the injured eye is much lighter and missing a pupil.
Power Degeneration: His remuneration makes him very weak, although it seems he can recover with no ill effects given enough time.
(Pre-)Teen Genius
Twin Switch: Has Suo take his clothing in the first episode, so she can escape. However, given later events, it seems more likely to have been so he could escape...

Dr. Pavlichenko

Suo's father and the inventor of a device which can pull memories from people even after they are dead. Later revealed as an early member of The Syndicate.

Evil Redhead: Maybe.
Faking the Dead: The version Hei killed was a copy/clone.
Mad Scientist
Sacrificial Lamb: Subverted. He appears to be killed in the first episode, but see Faking the Dead.

Madame Oreille

A mysterious character with connections to the CIA who is revealed to have been Hei's employer.

The Chessmaster: Apparently she was betting on the fact that Hei would head back to Tokyo.
Foreign Fanservice
Knowledge Broker
Manipulative Bastard: Particularly towards Kirihara and Hei.
Meaningful Name: "Oreille" is French for ears.
Ms. Fanservice: So very, very much.

Mr. Smith

A mysterious CIA agent seen interacting with Madame Oreille.

Character Tics: He quotes The Art of War incessantly.
Cool Shades
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Very evil-looking.
Mismatched Eyes: The reason he wears those glasses all the time is that while one eye is bright blue, the other is completely dead and white with a nasty scar over it.
White-Haired Pretty Boy

Tanya

Suou's best friend who becomes a Contractor at the start of the second season

Bee-Bee Gun: Her power involves summoning a swarm of insects which she can control with her mind.
Blondes Are Evil
Evil Costume Switch: Quickly exchanges her school clothes for a black military uniform.
Deadly Change-of-Heart: She was showing signs of redemption... until Shion shot her.
Transhuman Treachery: The way she immediately turns into a utterly emotionless killing machine seems to conform with all of the worst stereotypes about Contractors, which is pretty jarring after the first season went to all that effort to convince us it wasn't justified.
- Possible Fridge Brilliance here, contractors seem to get better at using logic to work there way around to morals as they live longer.

Ilya Sokoloff

A Russian Contractor featuring in the second series

Ax Crazy: Played with: While most Contractors can kill without much thought, becoming a Contractor actually made him less kill-crazy. Also, theoretically, he now kills in the most painless way possible. But, yes, he's still crazy.
Bishonen
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Looks like he'd be Adorkable, but is actually a total psychopath who is bad even by Contractor standards.
Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: His remuneration.
Serial Killer: Prior to becoming a Contractor.
White-Haired Pretty Boy
Would Hit a Girl: His victims were female.
Yuji Ueda

Claude / Shichi

A Contractor who features as a major antagonist in the Interquel OVAs.

The Bad Guy Wins: Despite being shot and nearly bleeding out, he still manages to slaughter many Contractors that wanted to live in peace and forces Yin into awakening Izanami, creating a worldwide threat that could kill many humans and Contractors and setting up the second season. He still ends up dying due to Izanami, although it is less of a Karmic Death since he seemed to enjoy being killed by Izanami as he knew he had already won.
Attractive Bent Gender: His disguise as Amber actually isn't all that different from his true appearance.
Bishonen: Looks similar to Amber from the first season. But while Amber was an Anti-Villain, Shichi is just evil.
Blond Guys Are Evil: One of the most clear-cut examples in the series.
Evil Is Not a Toy: Yes, it's a wonderful idea to let an Eldritch Abomination loose just to see what happens.
- It was less "just what to see what happens" and more of his desire to see Contractors rise up and dominate humanity due to having superpowers.
Fantastic Racism: Reveals he doesn't like humans to intelligence agencies paying him a ton of money for Yin/Izanami...Shichi tosses their money away and manipulates the situation so everyone there will die. Though he didn't see himself dying, probably, but didn't care because he won in the end of the OVA.
Johnny Yong Bosch: Working for Funimation again.
Manipulative Bastard: His habit of using shape-shifting to trick people into killing their loved ones.
Master of Illusion
The Social Darwinist: Due to being exploited by humans, he began to wonder why Contractors don't exploit humans...after all Contractors have powers and humans don't.
The Sociopath: Seems to have no attachment to others, even killing his partner who he seemed to be friendly with and had no problem killing a lot of Contractors, despite his claims that Contractors are better than humanity and his dream of them ruling humans. Whereas other Contractors have felt some emotion towards others, Shichi's emotions can be summed up as spite against humans.
Smug Snake
Superpower Lottery: He won. He basically has Aizen's Complete Hypnosis as well as a limited ability to control his victims' bodies, and his remuneration is extremely light.

Back to Darker than Black