The World of Narue/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


These are the characters of the 2003 anime and ongoing manga Narue no Sekai. Spoilers abound, so for those only familiar with the anime, you have been warned.

Main Characters

Narue Nanase

Voiced By: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Veronica Taylor (English)

The titular character, Narue is a pretty middle-schooler hailing from a really low-income family. A self-confessed "alien", it's not too surprising that Narue is considered an eccentric by many people, and had to endure a lot of bullying while she was growing up. Ironically, she really is an alien (well, half-alien anyway), and her mere presence on Earth makes her the focus of a lot of weirdness, to say the least.

Tropes exhibited by Narue include:


Kazuto Iizuka

Voiced By: Daisuke Sakaguchi (Japanese), Jamie Mc Gonnigal (English)

Narue's boyfriend, compared to his significant other Kazuto can be considered a relatively normal boy his age, from a normal middle-class family, though his mother does worry that he watchers too much anime for his own good. Kazuto is very devoted to Narue, and for all the weirdness she seems to attract, he's always there to help her to the best of his (very meager) abilities.

Tropes exhibited by Kazuto include:
  • Accidental Pervert: The poor guy seems to land in situations where it's very easy for people to misinterpret what he's doing.
  • Action Survivor: While he has a sincere wish to protect Narue (and by extension her family and friends), Kazuto doesn't really match up well to the people or organizations trying to take advantage of the her.
  • Nosebleed: Given Kazuto's hyperactive imagination, this tends to happen a lot. While often played for laughs, at the end of one chapter it is mentioned off-hand that he had to take a blood transfusion to survive one instance of this.
  • Ordinary High School Student
  • Otaku: Very mild compared to modern associations with the word, but Kazuto is a big fan of the Show Within a Show Yongo-chan.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Averted. With everything that's happened so far, Kazuto wants this to happen, but as Uni points out he has a long way to go. May happen eventually though...
  • Unfazed Everyman: It's come to the point where Kazuto doesn't panic (as much anyway) whenever something happens because of Narue.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Dark blue, though in Kazuto's case it could be argued that it's just a stylized black.

The Nanase Household

Tadashi Nanase

Voiced By: Junichi Sugawara (Japanese), Dan Green (English)

Narue's father, and the source of the alien half of her heritage. A former employee of the Surveillance Department sent to evaluate the technological level of Earth, he eventually settled down and married Narue's mother despite this being technically against the Union's non-interference rules. These days he does odd jobs, mostly roadwork, but barely makes ends meet for the family, a situation that eventually shapes Narue's perspective on money and spending in general.

Tropes exhibited by Tadashi include:

Kanaka Nanase

Voiced By: Junko Minagawa (Japanese), Rachael Lillis (English)

Narue's sister from her father's previous marriage, Kanaka is chronologically her older sister, a fact that she likes to remind everyone. She looks much younger than her age might suggest however, due to Time Dilation: the ship she stowed away on used "traditional" FTL instead of the near-instantaenous Gate transit, which meant that while only months passed for her, more than a decade had passed by on Earth. For all the babying she receives from Narue, Kanaka tries to look out for her sister as much as she could, as a good older sister should.

Tropes exhibited by Kanaka include:
  • Adaptation Dye Job: Much like her sister Narue, Kanaka has bright auburn hair in the manga. In the anime however this is turned into a very subdued shade of dark brown.
  • Big Sister Instinct
  • Bratty Half-Pint
  • Cool Big Sis: Wants to be seen this way to Narue. Unfortunately her height and physical age makes things difficult, to say the least.
  • Human Alien
  • Missing Mom: Kanaka's mom Haruka is often too busy with her work as a starship captain to even come home, much less drop by for stuff like Parent's Day at school.
  • Odango Hair: If Kanaka's not wearing her hair down, it's usually tied up like this.
  • Purple Eyes: This, despite the two sisters not sharing a mother. Must also be from Tadashi's side of the family.
  • Tsurime Eyes
  • Younger Than They Look: It's easy to forget that she's the older sister.

Bathyscaphe

Voiced By: Mami Kosuge (Japanese), Carol Jacobanis (English)

A battleship of Planet Japan, upon her "retirement" Bathyscaphe was assigned to be Kanaka's guardian after her father never returned from his evaluation assignment on Earth. In practice however this means that she acts more as Kanaka's mother more than anything else. She's acclimatized surprisingly well to the conditions on Earth, but that doesn't mean that she's lost her edge; when push comes to shove, she's still a battleship, and is more than willing to use those abilities to help the Nanase family.

Tropes exhibited by Bathyscaphe include:

Friends and Classmates

Maruo Masaki

Voiced By: Jun Fukuyama (Japanese), Jimmy Zoppi (English)

Kazuto's best buddy, Maruo is a member of the school's baseball team (which means he's a bit of a jock), and a self-styled expert on all things romantic. He's also surprisingly open-minded about a lot of things, which means whenever something strange happens to either Kazuto and Narue, or anyone else for that matter, he takes things in stride.

Tropes exhibited by Maruo include:

Yagi Hajime

Voiced By: Saeko Chiba (Japanese), Michele Knotz (English)

Maruo's childhood friend and next-door neighbor, Yagi is a science-fiction fan, and is particularly interested in subjects related to aliens and UFOs. While initially hostile to Narue (because despite being an "alien", she doesn't really fit the expected imagery of aliens in the fiction that she's read), she eventually becomes close friends with her. Her dream is to become a well-known science fiction novelist.

Tropes exhibited by Yagi include:
  • Agents Mulder and Scully: Yagi somehow manages to be both because while she believes in aliens and other strange things very easily, she turns into a Scully whenever it comes to Narue's claims of being an alien.
  • Childhood Friends: Is one with Maruo.
  • Green Eyes
  • Meganekko
  • Secret-Chaser: Yagi at first for Narue's identity as an alien. Eventually the sheer amount of weirdness she sees and experiences by dint of just being friends with Narue makes her give up on this.
  • Unfazed Everywoman: Has come to accept that weird things just happen around Narue.
  • Writer's Block
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Despite being a normal native of Earth, Yagi has purple hair.

Haruna

Voiced By: Yumi Touma (Japanese), Angora Deb (English)

A high-speed escort ship of Planet Japan's space navy, Haruna ran away during one particularly stressful battle and goes into hiding on Earth. While she is initially terrified at being discovered by Bathyscaphe, once she is convinced that the battleship won't turn her in she quickly becomes close friends with the Nanase household (and indeed, it's the first place she runs to whenever she has problems). Although she started as a mere waitress for the seaside cafe and mountain inn she was working for, she eventually marries her boss, the heir to the inn.

Tropes exhibited by Haruna include:

Shiki Nagaoka

Narue's classmate from grade school and likely her oldest friend, Shiki is the manager of a bookstore specializing in used or old books. And while she doesn't look like it, she's also a member of one of the town's more established families. For the most part, she's content just minding the store, which used to belong to her beloved grandmother Setsu.

Tropes exhibited by Shiki include:

Kyouko Kudou

Voiced By: Kanako Tateno (Japanese), Lisa Ortiz (English)

Pretty and popular, Kyouko is one of Narue and Yagi's classmates. In class she just loves picking on the two for their various eccentricities, making her the Alpha Bitch of their class, but outside of it she's surprisingly thoughtful and nice. She befriends Akira Nitta, due to a shared experience as well as similar lovelife troubles.

Tropes exhibited by Kyouko include:
  • Adaptation Dye Job: In the manga it is revealed (long after the anime ended) that the color of her hair is actually brown, and not light blonde.
  • All Love Is Unrequited
  • Alpha Bitch: Kyouko seems like this, as whenever she shows up in the manga it's to verbally belittle or bully Nanase and Yagi for being "weird". Subverted in later chapters, where it is shown that she can be nice when she tries.
  • Hair of Gold: In the anime. Or at the very least, a very very light blonde.
  • I See Dead People: Aside from Nitta, she was the only one who could see the ghost haunting the school library.
  • Jerkass: Prior to her A Day in the Limelight chapter, this is the only way Kyouko could be seen as, however...
  • Odd Friendship: With Nitta.
  • One Steve Limit: Averted. Kyouko shares her first name with the ghost that was haunting the school library.


Akira Nitta

Another of Kazuto and Narue's classmates, Akira is part of the library committee and is usually left in charge of the library whenever the librarian is out. He and Kyouko have a strange friendship, born out of a shared experience as well as being similar circumstances in love. Incidentally he's also Shiki's cousin.

Tropes exhibited by Akira include:

The Galactic Union

Inspector Suzuki Tail Messer

Voiced By: Tomomichi Nishimura (Japanese), Tristan Goddard (English)

The on-site supervisor of the Galactic Union forces observing Earth. While officially sticking to a "hands-off" policy with regards to the inhabitants of the planet, he gives the Nanase family some leeway with regards to their activities, as long as they don't do anything that would reveal the existence of the Union (or any other stellar power).

Tropes exhibited by Inspector Tail Messer include:


Rin Asakura

Voiced By: Oma Ichimura (Japanese), Zoe Fries (English)

The first member of the Surveillance Trio that Narue and Kazuto meet, Rin is an intelligence-type humanoid mecha with the ability to modify memories. In many ways, Rin is the most down-to-earth of the three Surveillance Bureau mecha, and is the most comfortable in interacting with the locals, making friends very easily.

Tropes exhibited by Rin include:
  • A-Cup Angst: Rin feels... insufficient whenever in the company of more mature-configured mecha, as one chapter demonstrates.
  • Characterization Marches On: Rin was initially introduced as a competent, even outright threatening member of the Surveillance Department, having pretty much brainwashed the people around Narue and Kazuto without much difficulty, and nearly done so to Kazuto himself. Her competence drops considerably though once Rei and Ran are introduced.
  • The Chick/The Heart: Compared to her two friends, Rin is not built for combat, and is a bit of a klutz. However, Rei admits later on that Rin's cheerfulness and unwavering optimism is just as important to their team as the fighters' combat skills.
  • Hair of Gold
  • I Just Want to Be Special: You wouldn't expect it, but Rin apparently feels this way, especially when she is compared to her friends Ran and Rei. Lack of combat prowess aside (she can neither fly -- which means a drop of more than two stories will severely damage her -- nor does she have any built-in weaponry), she was also a mediocre student (an anomaly considering the fact that she's mecha) and pretty much had to work herself hard to be even accepted into the Surveillance Department.
  • Mind Manipulation: Rin's specialty.
  • Paper Fan of Doom: Rin's signature weapon. Not really that effective against most of the threats she and her friends face.
  • Pretty Freeloaders: Surprisingly subverted. When Rin decides to live on Earth, she doesn't move in with Kazuto, and instead moves in with the Nanase family. She also pays for her own meals and expenses (through her salary/allowance as an member of the Surveillance Department), and even helps out with the rent.
  • Ridiculously-Human Robots
  • Theme Naming
  • Winged Gynoid: Rin temporarily gains a pair of small (non-functioning) metallic wings after saving an injured swan.

Ran Tendou

Voiced By: Tomoko Kawakami (Japanese), Vibe Jones (English)

Another member of the Surveillance Bureau team watching over the Nanase family, Ran is a fighter-class mecha, which means that when things become physical she's usually the first to be called in. Compared to her partner Rei, Ran is more prone to emotional outbursts and not thinking things through before acting.

Tropes exhibited by Ran include:

Rei Otonashi

Voiced By: Natsuko Kuwatani (Japanese), Catherine Kim (English)

The last member of the Surveillance Bureau trio, Rei is a fighter-class mecha like her friend Ran. Compared to either Rin or Ran, Rei is much more calm and thoughtful, though she does still have her moments.

Tropes exhibited by Rei include:

Shirase

One of the many Galactic Union starships orbiting Earth, Shirase is the one tasked with filtering and transmitting messages to and from the planet. This makes her as a virtual information hub, and a great source of data, at least in the area of space close to the gate to Planet Japan.

Tropes exhibited by Shirase include:

Captain Haruka Nagoshi

Voiced By: Yumi Hikita (Japanese)

Kanaka's mom and Tadashi's ex-wife, Haruka is a serving captain in Planet Japan's space forces. Her duties usually keep her away from her family for long stretches of time, and as a result she grew estranged from her own daughter. Although she personally thinks it's far too late to make it up to Kanaka, she will still do her best to help her daughter within the limits of her position.

Tropes exhibited by Haruka include:

The United Stars

Uni Milkyway/"Sora Amanogawa"

A member of the Avalonian military, Uni was initially sent to Earth in part to watch over and protect the Nanase family and its friends, as well as collect evidence to help prove the United Stars's theory of the real significance of Earth. She's grown a little too comfortable with her role as a teacher in Narue and Kazuto's school, and on some level questions the motivations of her superiors.

Tropes exhibited by Uni include:
  • Becoming the Mask: Uni is acting less like a spy the longer she stays on Earth, and more and more like an actual teacher.
  • Heel Face Turn: Helps Kanaka in getting her sister and Kazuto back from the United Stars, who are ostensibly her bosses.
  • Hot Teacher
  • Meganekko
  • Open Secret: Everyone at school knows that she has some level of psychic abilities.
  • Phenotype Stereotype: As a citizen of Avalon (essentially a mix of America and Great Britain, except in outer space), Uni is tall, blonde, buxom, and blue-eyed.
  • Psychic Powers: Uni is a powerful psychokinetic. Seems to be a relatively common trait among Avalonians.
  • Ripple Proof Memory: As a Perceptor, Umi's memories remain intact even if the Snakes start messing with space-time. In her case, this is presented as both a good and a bad thing.
  • Smoking Is Cool

President Howard Awason

The current president of the United Stars is, to put it lightly, a man with an agenda. He's fully against the Galactic Union's "intervention" on Earth, and with good reason: like many in the upper echelons of his government, he believes that Earth is the origin of their civilization, though how this is possible is one of the points of contention between his country and the Union. Nominally reasonable, when one gets to the bottom of it he just wants the Galactic Union out... and have the United Stars step in to "oversee" Earth's development.

Tropes exhibited by President Awason include:

Others

Narumi Nanase

Voiced By: Maria Kawamura (Japanese), Zoe Fries (English)

Narue's mother. A poet vacationing at her brother's house, she helped save Tadashi from drowning in the local river. After a misunderstanding with the Surveillance Department, she takes Tadashi and flees to Sakura Town, where the two eventually marry. She dies after saving Narue from being run over by a car, and as of the start of the story she has been deceased for five years, but her influence on Narue still remains strong.

Tropes exhibited by Narumi include:

"Belka" and "Strelka"

A pair of mercenary sisters from Planet Russia that was hired by the United Stars to capture and "escort" Narue and Kazuto to a tense conference between them and the Galactic Union. They don't really care that much for the ideologies of who hire them, but once contracted they will make sure (or at least try anyway) to make sure the conditions are fulfilled.

Tropes exhibited by "Belka" and "Strelka" include:
  • Badass: Both sisters.
  • Hidden Depths: Belka used to paint prior to the incident that prompted her mechanization, and takes it up again after her "job" with Yagi.
  • Hired Guns
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: They're Psychic (Belka anyway) Space Russian Cyborg Humanoid Battleship Mercenaries.
  • Nom De Guerre: The sisters are known by the main characters through their code names. Their real names are Iira (Belka) and Sonya (Strelka) Lanaskaya.
  • Only in It For the Money
  • Punch Clock Villain: Strelka is surprisingly laid-back whenever she isn't on a job, and enjoys just lazing about on her hammock.
  • Prehensile Hair: Belka.
  • Psychic Powers: Belka.
  • Revenge: The initial motivation for the sisters, before they became mercenaries: the sisters and their parents were caught up in a mafia attack. Both their parents died, and Belka was grievously injured, to the point where she had to be completely mechanized in order to survive.
  • Spaceship Girl: Strelka.
  • The Stoic: Belka.
  • Theme Naming: The sisters' codenames come from dogs sent up to space during the USSR's space program. Also their mercenary organization, the Borzoi, is named after a Russian dog breed.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Both sisters have lime green hair.

Tetra

A child that hatched from an egg that Kazuto and Narue found one day while on the way back from school. She seems both mecha and organic at the same time, a fact that confounds the Surveillance Department trio. As her organic segment seems to have based itself on both Kazuto and Narue, this means that Tetra is on some level their daughter. Since the both of them have classes to go to, Tetra is left under Rin's care for the day.

Tropes exhibited by Tetra include:
  • Cheerful Child
  • Chekhov's Gun: The egg that Tetra hatched from was one of the many "evidence" that the United Stars had uncovered several chapters prior.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Really pushing the boundaries of the definition, but as mentioned she's part highly-advanced machine, and part organic "daughter" of Narue and Kazuto.
  • Meaningful Name
  • Mind Manipulation: One of the first abilities Tetra manifests as soon as she is born, where she pretty much scrambles (similar to what Rin does in the beginning of the manga) the memories of Kazuto's family so that they would accept her.
  • Multiple Personalities: "Tetra" seems to be unconsciously hosting at least three different entities inside her head.
  • Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Tetra physically ages from being a newborn baby to having the body of a five-year old in about a week, likely so she could interact verbally with everyone else in the cast.
  • Reality Warper: To a degree that seriously worries the Surveillance Department, as it's done in a way that can't be detected by any of the means available to them.
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