Umineko: When They Cry/Characters/1986 Humans

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


This page lists the human characters of Umineko no Naku Koro ni in the island of Rokkenjima from the year 1986, which includes the Ushiromiya family, servants, and guests. Be warned that from here on, there are unavoidable spoilers from Arc 2 onward.


Cousins

Battler Ushiromiya

The Endless Sorcerer

Voiced by: Daisuke Ono

"Ahh, it's useless! It's all useless!"

The protagonist and 18 year-old son of Rudolf and Asumu (but don't make him say it in red text) and 7th in the line of succession. After Asumu died six years ago, Battler became angry with his father for remarrying Kyrie so fast and went to live with his maternal grandparents. Because of this, he's been fairly out of the loop as to the affairs of the Ushiromiya family. Often, he is teased about being similar to his father for his tendency to try to grope girls. He now has a half-sister named Ange who does not come to Rokkenjima.

After the first arc, he is trapped by Beatrice in time loops where the murders occur over and over again. In order to win, he must explain those murders rejecting the use of magic in them. At the end of Arc 5, he has figured out the truth behind Beato's game, allowing him to receive the title of Game Master and Endless Sorcerer. In Arc 8, it is revealed that Battler survived the Rokkenjima incident, but had lost his memory and was found on the road by Ikuko Hachijo. After regaining his memory years later, he writes EP3 through EP6 with Ikuko as the mystery novelist, Toya Hachijo.

Ange: Save the jokes for your hairstyle.

  • Anti-Magic: His ability to resist magic of up to godlike scale is classified as Endless Nine.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: With all of the plausible, if not necessarily likely, names of the rest of the Ushiromiya family, one must wonder what possessed Ryukishi to name his main character "Battler."
    • Unless Ryukishi saw our Tarot Motifs page (specifically the section on The Magician) and said "Ooooh! There's a name to hide a plot twist behind!"
    • Battler is only one letter away from Battle.
  • Badass Bookworm: Battler "it would be arrogant for somebody who only reads about a hundred books a year to call himself well-read" Ushiromiya.
  • Badass Cape: He wears one as the Endless Sorcerer. At first just a Fanon idea, but became canon in EP6.
  • Bat Deduction: "And then...I...knew."
  • Battle Couple: With Beatrice.
  • Big Brother Instinct: To the extent that there are quite a few corners of the internet that take his relationship with Ange to creepy, creepy places.
  • Bishonen
  • Bookworm: Becomes quite apparent by the time the core arcs begin.
  • Bring My Red Jacket: Flip this one and White Shirt of Death around, and you've got Battler's outfit: white jacket, red shirt. And yes, his luck sucks.
  • Catch Phrase: "Ah, it's useless. It's all useless!"
  • Changeling Fantasy: It's confirmed in EP8 that Kyrie is his real mother, and he was swapped at birth with Asumu's child.
  • Chewbacca Defense: Hey, anything to fight off Beatrice and Bernkastel.
  • Chick Magnet: Largely an Informed Attribute. It is implied that Battler is quite popular with girls, though it seems he's not entirely aware of it himself. However, most of the female cast is already either married or paired off with someone else.
    • However, if this is to be taken seriously...
  • Chivalrous Pervert: It seems like he'll try to grope anyone (Even his cousin!), and at one point even tells little Maria to let him grope her when she gets older, but the one time a girl actually tries to let him, he freaks out and scolds her (after being punched by aforementioned cousin). Note: He thanked the cousin for punching him. He even tells Maria to promise she'll let him "eat her" once she's legal, in the EP2 Tea Party.
    • Hell, he even has a whole Image Song devoted to his love of large-breasted girls. It is called OPPA in Love!, and it is essentially Battler's playing up his own lecherousness to hilarious extents.
    • One of his special moves in the fighting game, the "Sommelier Finger", is a groping attack[1].
    • He even says it's okay being killed over and over again by the Seven Stakes because they have nice breasts and from then on normally refers to them as 'the ass nee chans.'
  • Creepy Cool Crosses: Battler wears one as a fastener for his jacket.
  • Cute Little Fangs
  • Decoy Protagonist: Subverted because he actively fights to remain as the protagonist. And in the end, he has earned it.
  • Determinator: See the first tea party for just one example. Averted in the second arc, however, when he does give up and is explicitly shown why that isn't an acceptable option.
  • Devoted to You: Dear lord, six year later, and Shannon / Beatrice still can't get over him. Whatever cologne he wears, he needs to share with the rest of the world. A lot of guys would thank him.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: If slamming Beatrice's head on a table in EP2 or slapping her in EP3 don't count, then actually managing to punch Bernkastel in the face might.
    • And if you think those mentioned were just damn luck, then he also manage to kick Bernkastel and defeat her armies of kittens with just his bare hand!
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: During his Heroic BSOD in the anime, and while trapped in a logic error during EP6.
  • Evil Counterpart: Black Battler from Ogon Musokyoku Cross.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: In one of the endings for EP8 which takes place in 1998, Battler's hair has turned white and has been cut shorter. On a meta-level, he assumed he was Asumu's son at first, so he had red hair in the novels. Kyrie had white hair at his age as well, so it's somewhat symbolic of him accepting his true parentage.
  • Expy: The guy is half-Adell, half-Phoenix Wright, with a dash of Keiichi. And that's an awesome combination.
  • A Fate Worse Than Death: Battler gets a few of these, one of them actually tying in with A Fete Worse Than Death.
  • Fiery Redhead
  • Flat Earth Atheist
  • Flung Clothing/The Coats Are Off: In EP8, he throws his Endless Sorcerer coat and faces Erika in a closed room duel.
  • Generation Xerox: His relationship with Beatrice plays this theme hard with regard to Kinzo.
    • His actual appearance is identical to young Kinzo.
      • Heck, Battler and young Kinzo even have the same voice actor.
  • Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: His way of Throwing Down the Gauntlet at Beatrice.
  • Gratuitous English: Battler loved this trope back in 1980. In 1986 he's just embarrassed about it and doesn't want to remember. It's a major plot point.
  • Guile Hero: He fooled us (the readers) of his defeat in EP6 all to make a devastating comeback and, along with Beatrice, defeats Bernkastel in EP8. In fact, when he regained his memories after escaping Rokkenjima, Battler created EP3-6, in a huge gambit to defeat Bernkastel in EP8. He planned both Beatrice's Heel Face Turn and his own self-destruction all for this moment; if he is not a Guile Hero then he is a GOOD Magnificent Bastard.
  • Happily Married: With Beatrice after EP6.
  • Heroic Bastard
  • The Heart: At least in the early arcs, he wound up frequently jumping in between two people who were at each other's throats to point out why person X wasn't necessarily the culprit.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Comments by Ange in Twilight allude to Battler being this.
  • Heroic BSOD: "Just who am I?" Freaks him out so badly that not only does his brain shut down, but he physically disappears.
  • Identical Grandson: He looks identical to Kinzo as he appeared in his youth, save for the hair. At least at first.
  • Improvised Weapon User: Whenever Piece Battler is in a situation where he might possibly have to fight, he always seems to go for a hat rack or candlestick as opposed to something a bit more practical.
  • In the Blood: Given his similarities to pre-WWII Kinzo, there seems to be a heavy implication that Battler's just one poorly-ended romance away from going completely nutters like his grandfather.
  • Jerkass Facade: Towards the "incomplete" Beatos in EP6 to an extent, although it may have to do with the fact that the woman he loves refuses to call him anything but Father[2] for a long time. He even threw away her cookies.
  • Leitmotif: Several, most famously Dread of the Grave.
  • Like Father, Like Son: It's a joke among the family members how Battler's way of handling women is very similar to Rudolf's.
  • Logical Fallacies: Small bombs and cardboard boxes. The thing is, Battler is fully aware all his theories are beyond ridiculous. He was just that desperate to deny witches.
  • Manly Tears: Who wouldn't be crying after all the crap he goes through?
  • Meaningful Name: Bateleur is French for a stage magician, someone who uses mundane means to create the illusion of magic while Battler is not too far from what he actually does: battle (with witches and demons).
  • Missing Mom
  • My Greatest Failure: Ange's Heroic Sacrifice in EP4 and solving the game too late and allowing Beatrice to die in EP5. CMOSs arguably ensue both times.
  • My Sister Is Off-Limits: Makes some remarks to this effect in Twilight.
  • Nay Theist: Gets into very involved logic arguments with beings he says do not exist.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: His reason for refusing to play against Lambdadelta in EP5 is that this is between him and Beatrice and no one else.
  • Only Sane Man: At least during the first tea party. "Why have you guys stopped thinking?" Doesn't ever seem to have gotten out of the "trying to explain" phase, though.
  • Prophetic Name: There is unusual emphasis placed on how Battler's name is in English, although it's not spelled the same way English names are usually spelled in Japanese.
  • Redheaded Hero
  • Redheaded Stepchild
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Depending on who he's in a dichotomy with, he can be Maria's red or Beatrice's blue.
  • Selective Obliviousness
  • Switched At Birth: He thinks he's Asumu's son, but he's really Kyrie's.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: Tons, particularly in EP3 and EP5.
  • Talking to the Dead: At least once, Battler addresses his father after Rudolf's corpse has been discovered.
  • Together in Death / You Are Worth Hell: The mystery ending takes the first tone, the fantasy ending the second.
  • Took a Level in Badass: He gets better every arc, and this especially becomes noticeable at Episode 4's tea party. And in Episode 5, he took all his levels in badass and squared them during the hidden tea party. His badass levels seemingly take a dip in EP6 in that he falls into a deep depression and ends up being nearly reduced to a Dude in Distress, with a few Badass moments sprinkled here and there. "Seemingly" being a key word; EP8 spectacularly subverts all that by revealing his dip in badassery was completely intentional.
  • Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Only explained at the end. Battler actually survived the Rokkenjima murders along with Eva. However, he nearly drowned after trying to save Yasu, and lost all of his memories. The entirety of the plot is him trying to put his memories back together. Yes, every instance and scenario beforehand was just Battler brainstorming for the truth..
  • Turn Out Like His Father: Just about the last thing he wants, considering his feud with Rudolf, but all his relatives remark on how alike they are. He turns out to be even more similar to Kinzo--in looks, temperament, and circumstances; once he realizes the truth, this is retroactively implied to be one of the reasons Battler's so upset by the reset Beatrice calling him "Father" in EP6. Lo and behold, some twenty years after surviving the Rokkenjima incident, his hair is bleached white and shortened to the point where he looks exactly like Kinzo when he was his age.
  • Unexpected Successor: Fifth arc.
  • Upper Class Wit
  • White Shirt of Death
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Kumasawa calls him out on some of his less than admirable behavior towards the resurrected Beatrice in EP6. Ange also accuses him of hiding what really happened on Rokkenjima from her in EP8, as she is far more interested in learning the truth than remembering the happy times she had with her family, but she takes it back when she realizes that he wasn't as completely in the wrong, and she in the right, as she first thought.
  • Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Battler's not a fan of his name.

Battler: Battler Ushiromiya. Incredible. Also incredible are the parents who stuck that name one me, and the public official who accepted it. They're all on the top of my must-kill list.

Maria Ushiromiya

The Witch of Origins

Voiced by: Yui Horie

"Uuuuuu~! Beatrice exists!"

9 year-old daughter of Rosa and eighth in the line of inheritance. Maria is nine in 1986. She has a troubled relationship with her mother and thus became absorbed in the occult as a way to cope. Notable for her repeated catch phrase, a sort of whining ("u~~") as well as her very creepy laugh.

Her witch alter-ego is "Maria", the Witch of Origins.

Jessica Ushiromiya

Voiced by: Marina Inoue

"People are capable of creating another part of themselves inside themselves at any time. A part that they can truly like."

18 year-old daughter of Krauss and Natsuhi and fifth in the line of succession. Jessica has a lot of pressure put on her by Natsuhi, being the first heir after Kinzo's sons and daughters. She falls in love with Kanon.

George Ushiromiya

Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura

"Marriage means becoming your wife's ally for your entire life. From the moment I did that, I was prepared to have the whole world as my enemy."

23 year-old son of Eva and Hideyoshi, George is sixth in the line of succession. He has been working as a junior worker at his father's company, but hopes to eventually be able to own his own business. He falls in love with Shannon against his mother's wishes. Being in his twenties, he is by far the oldest of the four cousins, and tends to serve as an older-brother figure to the others. He's very good with young children.

  • Arranged Marriage: Eva was trying to arrange an omiai for George. He wasn't particularly interested and got incredibly sheepish as soon as she brought it up.
  • Barrier Warrior: Using softer light than Shannon. His adds the force of any attacks aimed at him to his own attacks, rather than just plain repelling the enemy.
  • Big Brother Mentor
  • Calling The Old Woman Out: In Episode 6, he finally tells his mother he's proposed to Shannon, and is willing to leave the family rather than lose her. Eva doesn't take it well.
  • The Conscience: Usually winds up playing a supporting role to Battler here.
  • Gentleman and a Scholar
  • Green-Eyed Monster: He admits to Shannon in EP7 that he was jealous of Battler when they were kids because he was so close to Shannon. This gives a common theory that Battler did write Shannon a letter but George hid it from her when he gave her the empty bag because he was still jealous of their relationship. When he finally proposes to her though, he realizes how childish his envy is toward Battler.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: Second arc.
  • Kung Fu Wizard
  • Nice Guy: He used to be one in the most unflattering sense possible (which Shannon trolls him about even now), but now he's much closer to the genuine article.
  • The Power of Love: George invokes this trope in the fourth arc when he and Gaap fight.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Feeds onto theories he's the culprit, along with the weird new expressions he gets in EP4.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Sixth arc, sorta. It was only one. He only killed his mother, not his father.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Similar to Jessica.
  • The Wise Prince: Amply demonstrated in his lectures on leadership in Ep 4 and 6, complete with shiny rapefaces and levels in badassery.
  • Suddenly Always Knew That


Parents

Krauss Ushiromiya

Voiced by: Jurota Kosugi

First successor to Kinzo's fortune, father of Jessica, and husband of Natsuhi. He has poor intuition for investment, and so has squandered a lot of the Ushiromiya family's wealth on failed projects. He is largely resented by his siblings for being very manipulative.

  • Arranged Marriage: Him and Natsuhi
  • Bound and Gagged: Apparently done to him in the fifth arc (well, bound, anyway), as part of a ploy to frame Natsuhi for the murders that occur.
  • The Dutiful Son
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Even after he gets swindled, he's still singing the praises of a few of the swindlers.
  • Inadequate Inheritor
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Introduced as not much more than a manipulative jerk to his siblings, but in arcs three and four, he shows a much softer side with a Pet the Dog moment or two. For all the sexist attitude he can show when he's upset, he really does care about his family.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He shows this very effectively in the first arc, where he successfully turns the tables around in his negotiation with the other parents.
  • Pet the Dog: In episode 17 of the anime he laments that due to being Kinzo's successor he was never as nice to his siblings (especially Eva) as he should have been. Cue Eva-Beatrice strangling him and Natsuhi.
  • Punched Across the Room: In the fourth arc Krauss literally punches a goat man so hard it ends up falling right on top of Virgilia.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Alienated Eva and Rosa with sexism when they were younger and he was competing with Eva over the headship qualifications. Much later, he refuses to let Natsuhi have anything to do with the family funds until it's too late to get out of the hole he dug himself into--very unfortunately for him, as she's got all the common sense.
  • Upper Class Twit: He seems like a good guy, but lacks any business sense whatsoever.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Gotta feel sorry for the poor idiot to some extent. Although he was the heir apparent, Kinzo never really had any faith in him (for good reason) to begin with, and so he was struggling for Kinzo's approval just like Eva. The only difference is that Eva actually deserved it.

Eva Ushiromiya

Voiced by: Miki Ito

Second in the line of inheritance and George's mother. She has a lot of resentment against her older brother, Krauss, and has a rivalry with his wife, Natsuhi. She is also the wife of Hideyoshi. In order to keep her placement in the line of successors, she married Hideyoshi and had him adopt the name of "Ushiromiya".

In the meta-world, Eva-Beatrice is the manifestation of all the theories which place her as the culprit of the Rokkenjima incident. In Arc 3, it is revealed that she survives the Rokkenjima incident and becomes Ange's caretaker while becoming the head of the Ushiromiya corporate. In Arcs 7 and 8, it turns out that she intentionally painted herself as the culprit while hiding the Book of the Single Truth -- her diary which contains the truth of what happened in Rokkenjima.

  • Action Mom
  • Axe Crazy: Episode 3. Turns out not to be true.
  • Ambition Is Evil
  • Break the Haughty: Expected when George or Hideyoshi are found dead and she is still alive.
    • Leads to Unstoppable Rage in EP5 when Natsuhi is declared the culprit; after the trial, Eva loses it in the real world and begins to beat her up in a fit of rage. Not that anyone tries to stop her, besides Battler.
    • Sanity Slippage: Third arc only, where you can really start to see her lose it after Hideyoshi is killed, until the end, where she ultimately goes...
  • Cain and Abel She engages in the actions of Cain, but is morally speaking Abel.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Her martial arts prowess is discussed at the beginning of the first novel. A slightly different example in that the callback turns out to be the fact that she taught those skills to George, allowing him to be a Badass Normal in the fourth novel. Aside from that, it also explains the reason Eva-Beatrice is a melee fighter in Ougon Musou Kyoku.
  • Evil Stepmother: Ange sees Eva this way, but it's subverted to hell and back particularly in the final two arcs.
  • Eye Scream: Once in the fourth arc, she ( or better said, Ange's perception of Eva.) holds Ange at gunpoint. Then, the rifle blows up on her face, and said injuries are so horrible that Ange has to Mercy Kill her.
  • Face Heel Turn: And then it turns out it was a Jerkass Facade.
  • Good Is Not Nice
  • Happily Married: She genuinely loves her husband and arguably has the most stable relationship with her spouse among her siblings.
  • Female Misogynist: Becomes this, to some extent, in her attempts to wrest the succession from Krauss, as she sees the genders of their children as an advantage to her. She feels plenty guilty about it, though.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: In the Bad Future resulting from the third arc. Oddly, you see the scene in which she's implied to have died, but the actual cause of death stated in the TIPS is heart failure. Huh. That must have been some cough.
    • Truth in Television: Heart failure patients tend to develop chronic coughs from fluid in the lungs.
  • My Beloved Smother: To George.
  • Parental Marriage Veto: Eva disapproves of George falling in love with Shannon and makes that very clear.
    • In Episode 6, George calls her on it. The resulting argument has her causing a major case of My Beloved Smother before finally transforming into Eva-Beatrice and trying to beat him into submission with magic. Cue Kung Fu Wizard smackdown.
  • Pet the Dog: She genuinely seems to love her husband Hideyoshi, and gets a touching scene with him in episode 3 of the anime. They find her and Hideyoshi's bodies approximately 90 seconds later. Also, despite (and because of) what you'll hear about Eva-Beatrice, the third arc serves as a giant Pet the Dog moment for Eva. At least until she turns out to be the culprit, or something.
  • Resentful Guardian: To Ange. She didn't have to be, and initially tried to be a good guardian to her. However, things broke down, with Ange acting essentially as a little girl in her situation would. This hit Eva's Berserk Button, and things went downhill from there.
    • Sins of Our Fathers: A lot of the reason that she becomes so miserable toward Ange is because Rudolf and Kyrie--Ange's parents--were the ones responsible for killing the entire rest of the family, or so we're led to believe.
  • Rich Bitch: She acts equivalent to the trope, but usually over position in the hierarchy, rather than actual money, since everyone's filthy rich.
  • Silent Scapegoat: Chose to have Ange hate her forever rather than tell her the truth about what really happened on the island, which she feared would be too much for her.
  • Skirt Over Slacks
  • Sole Survivor: She is believed to be the only survivor of the Rokkenjima Incident. This is not a good thing, for her, or for Ange, the only other living Ushiromiya.
  • Split Personality
  • Stay in the Kitchen: How she was treated by her brothers in her childhood.
  • Unexpected Successor: Third arc. Although she's not actually that far down the chain, there was no reason to expect Krauss to pass away, and after he does, the hope would be that Jessica's husband could succeed after him. In addition, Eva has the Heir Club for Men baggage to deal with.
  • Tragic Hero
  • "Well Done, Daughter" Girl

Rudolf Ushiromiya

Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama

Husband of Kyrie and father of Battler and Ange, Rudolf is third in the line of succession. He's an admitted philanderer. His relationship with Battler has been strained since his first wife, Asumu's, death, due to his quick remarriage to Kyrie.

  • Ax Crazy: EP7, at least, where he declares that killing people is surprisingly easy and very fun.
  • Badass Normal
  • Break the Haughty: EP6. It's one thing to find your wife's body burned alive but it's another thing to lose your son as well.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: After EP4's revelation that Asumu is not Battler's birth mother it was believed that Rudolf was aware of this. And in EP5 it is highly implied during the 19th person talk that Rudolf was going to tell Battler in EP1 after the letter reading, thus his 'I'm going to die' stint. However, he is never actually seen telling Battler nor is he seen telling anybody.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: According to Kyrie's diary entries that Ange reads after the Rokkenjima incident, Rudolf's business practices were rarely ever not skirting the law in some way. It's only recently that it's come to bite him in the ass and get him slapped with a lawsuit, which is why he wants the gold.
  • Duel to the Death: A rare successful one.
  • The Dragon:in Episode 7.
  • Facing the Bullets One-Liner: To Eva in EP7 after killing George.

Rudolf:Go ahead and shoot...I doubt that'll bring you much peace, though.

  • Harem Seeker: In his youth. He later got over it...for the most part...
  • Handsome Lech
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: His voice actor for the anime is the same as the dub voice for Jack Bauer. This is played with in the sound novel's fifth episode, where he sings the first line of Bauer's song.
    • Also played with in the preview for the 16th anime episode, when Rudolf is making calls, has a 24 ringtone, slips up and refers to himself as Jack.
  • Hot Dad: Hey, you can't say that Rudolf hasn't aged well.
  • Leitmotif: With Episode 7, Yomotsu Hirasaka Corruption is now heavily associated with him.
  • Manly Tears: Sheds them when Battler and Kyrie are killed in the sixth arc.
  • Millionaire Playboy
  • Overprotective Dad: To Battler in EP7. Fanon turns it Up to Eleven in doujinshi.
  • Papa Wolf: Toward Battler despite constantly mocking him. Evident in Arc 7 when he constantly tells Kyrie not to go after him when they're massacring everyone else on the island. It's even hinted that he wouldn't have listened to Kyrie to shoot his own son if Battler didn't believe his lies.
    • In EP6 He literally breaks down when he finds Battler's body and refuses to believe it was suicide, and is the first person to take the gun.
  • Parent with New Paramour
  • Smoking Is Cool
  • Taught by Television: "Don't underestimate the western-loving generation!"
    • This actually plays a big role in EP7. He understands how to use the guns that are on the island more easily than anyone else because he's watched so many Western movies.
  • You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You: EP1 he tells Battler and Kyrie that he's going to get killed. Battler doesn't believe him. Next morning, he's in the shed.
    • Turns out he was planning to tell Kyrie that Battler is her real son and was afraid of how she'd react. Oh, the irony.
  • Your Cheating Heart

Rosa Ushiromiya

Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu

"I'm sorry for having been such a bad Mama..."

Mother of Maria and fourth in the line of succession. Although Battler describes her as a calming figure, her relationship with Maria is very troubled.

  • Abusive Parents: The weird case when it overlaps with... Mama Bear.
  • Badass Normal At the end of the second arc, she takes on an army of goats with a rifle, a pen, and a gold ingot. And it is awesome.
    • Continues badassing it up in Episode 8 as well.
  • Black Blood: Used to chilling effect when Maria kills her.
  • The Chew Toy: Being among the first to die in the first arc is getting off easy compared to the hell she goes through in later arcs. Rosa has only survived past the second twilight once, and that's just things involved with the murders. Outside of that, Rosa's life is practically a personalized hell for her.
    • Where do we begin? Being the youngest, she got picked on by her older siblings, according to Rudolf. In addition to that, if EP3 is to be believed, then she watched Beatrice II die and blamed herself for the incident, which both ends up being what drives Kinzo off the edge of insanity and is something she has to be reminded of every time Maria references Beatrice. And then on top of all that, the man she had Maria with runs off to have a family of his own while burdening her with a debt that gives her the futile hope that he'll come back to her if she pays it off, leaving Rosa to raise Maria by herself while taking up a management job she never wanted. Rosa's life is probably the most screwed up among the main siblings bar none, and second only to poor Natsuhi.
      • Though she has her Crowning Moments Of Awesome. At the very least, it shows that the only way to really stop Rosa once she's pissed is to practically gib her.
  • Christmas Cake: In some of the EP4 flashbacks, this seemed to be a large concern of Rosa's, especially because any potential husbands would need to be okay with a daughter who isn't theirs.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Oh, boy, she does deserve a special entry for this. Due to quantity, at least.
  • Curtains Match the Window
  • Cute and Psycho: Like mother, like daughter. Rosa can switch from the sweetest mother to the most abusive one with such ease...
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Mother
  • Good Girls Avoid Abortion: ...Or something. As the series goes on, it becomes more apparent that Maria's birth was, at best, an accident, and an unwelcome one at that. Justified in that the series takes place in 1986, when abortion would have been illegal in Japan except under special circumstances.
  • Guns Akimbo: In Ougon Musoukyoku X and Cross, Rosa's Meta-super move involves Maria giving Rosa and extra gun so that Rosa can launch a mega-combo against her opponent like this.
  • Hime Cut
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Fourth arc, when she's torn apart by her own hands.
  • Hot Mom
  • Improvised Weapon User: Although in the second arc, she has a rifle, some of her other defensive moves when she wasn't armed included a pen and a chair, to varying degrees of effectiveness.
  • Kick the Dog: When she tears up Sakutaro. Does not end well.
  • Knight Templar Parent: To some extent, although there are a few questionable things she does that just don't seem to fall into that category.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: The main reason she's The Chew Toy, at least as far as her deaths in the main story goes. It's most direct in the fourth arc, though...
  • Leitmotif: worldend dominator is heavily associated with Rosa, having played on her best moments.
  • Love Martyr: The reason that Rosa's in debt is that she cosigned a loan with Maria's father. She is hoping that if and when she pays off the debt, the man will finally agree to marry her and become a proper father to poor Maria, even though he's already said he won't.
  • Magical Girl: She, as Magical Rosa, and Eva-Beatrice, as Magical Eva, form the Magical Girl duo "Magical Beatrice" at the end of their scenario in Ougon Musou Kyoku.
  • Mama Bear: Her last act in the second arc is to mow down goat-headed butlers with a rifle and Maria at her side.
    • Then comes EP8, where Erika has the guts to tell Maria her mom doesn't love her. Guess who shoves a rifle barrel down her throat?
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Her general reaction after beating or neglecting Maria (not that it stops her).
    • Truth in Television: It's rather common to have abusers of all kinds regret their actions upon seeing the consequences they bring to their victims, and try to compensate the abuse by acting nicer. Sadly, it's also very usual to restart the abuse cycle with one little mistake...
  • No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Second tea party. ETT'S PAAFEKUTO!
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Despite being frequently called the dumbest of the siblings, she had ended up solving the riddle of the Witch's Epitaph before Eva, but didn't pursue her suspicion until later.
  • Parental Neglect: When she's not abusing Maria, she leaves her on her own to visit her boyfriend.
  • Pistol-Whipping: Rosa does this a lot on Ougon Musoukyoku, but it is justified due to the game mechanics; before Rosa can fire her rifle, she has to charge it first.
  • Resentful Guardian: Maria definitely imagines that this is the case. While it may be true in some part of Rosa's psyche, it's still pretty apparent that she genuinely loves her daughter.
  • Tears of Blood: Sixth arc.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Battler says that Rudolf said this about Rosa a lot, but because of the age difference between her and the rest of her siblings, she got treated pretty nastily by them a lot of the time. Now, of course, she treats Maria quite harshly.
  • Villain Protagonist: The Rosa/Battler scenario on Ougon Musoukyouku ends with Rosa shooting and killing Battler, eerily mimicking the scene where Eva does the same to Battler in EP3.
  • Use Your Head: One of Rosa's many attacks in Ougon Musoukyouku.
  • You Are Too Late: Rosa's practically made of this one. In Episode 2, she and Maria reconcile...just in time for them to die. In Episode 3, she solves the epitaph first, but presumably doesn't act fast enough and Eva arrives before her. In Episode 4, she almost takes out Goldsmith but hesitates a little too long.

Natsuhi Ushiromiya

Voiced by: Emi Shinohara

"Without fail, I will protect all of the Ushiromiya family's honor and glory!"

Mother of Jessica and wife of Krauss, she is ninth in the line of succession. Natsuhi is under a lot of pressure, since it is her and Krauss's responsibility to take care of both Kinzo and the house, and yet she married into the Ushiromiya family, putting her at a fairly low rank on the hierarchy. She gave birth to Jessica after twelve years of being unable to have a child, a fact that Eva attempted to take advantage of.

In Arc 5, it is revealed that Kinzo gave her a child to adopt when she couldn't give birth to a heir. Out of anger and resentment, she pushes a servant holding the child off a cliff. In an alternate world shown in Arc 7 where she accepts the child, she becomes the mother of two children, Lion and Jessica.

  • Anime Hair: Her lower/head hair and her upper/ponytail hair are noticeably different shades of brown. In the novels, the ponytail actually seems to fade to red.
  • Berserk Button: Don't insult the Ushiromiya family name, head, her husband, or her own standing in the family honorably given to her by Kinzo, even if the last one isn't true.
  • Break the Haughty: Natsuhi is oftentimes far too proud for her own good. Pretty much the whole fifth arc is one long Trauma Conga Line for her.
  • The Chew Toy: In addition to Break the Haughty and Trauma Conga Line above, she gets verbally abused by Eva in EP1 to the point Natsuhi ends up running away in tears. She is also one of the first to go in the second, fourth, sixth and seventh games. Suffice to say, Natsuhi is the series punching bag alongside Rosa. To add to the insult, It's hinted that she was actually the first person to die when the massacre started.
  • Dead Person Conversation: A few with Kinzo, although it's implied that it's because she snapped to a certain extent after Kinzo's death, rather than it being a genuine conversation with a ghost.
  • Duel to the Death: In EP1.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Most of the time in the first novel.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: And with all the stress Natsuhi has to deal with, you'd be a little high-strung too.
  • Honor Before Reason
  • I Wished You Were Dead: Her exposition about the child from 19 years ago indicates this trope in action.
  • Impoverished Patrician: Natsuhi's birth family.
  • Law of Inverse Fertility: Feeds into succession tensions, as she and Krauss can't conceive a kid and heir for many years.
  • Mama Bear: Kumasawa refers to Natsuhi as this trope by name in the first arc. She tries to invoke it against Beato to protect Jessica, but it horribly fails.
  • Maternally Challenged: She had no idea how to take care of her first child, leading to his theoretical death.
  • Offing the Offspring: Whether or not it actually happened is a subject of controversy, but Erika suggests this in the fifth arc. Later proven false, though.
  • Pride: Her Fatal Flaw is that she can let her desire to uphold the honor of her husband and the Ushiromiya family as a whole get the best of her.
  • Sanity Slippage: Poor woman seems to have somewhat lost track of reality after Kinzo's death.
  • Stepford Smiler: Natsuhi's goal is similar, although she seems to have some trouble with the "smiler" part.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Tries her hardest to be this, but she ultimately has too much of a Hair-Trigger Temper to truly play this trope straight.

Hideyoshi Ushiromiya

Voiced by: Masashi Hirose

Father of George and husband of Eva, he is tenth in the line of succession. He owns a successful restaurant chain and is a fairly cheerful and sociable man. He was married into Eva's family and took on her family name on a technicality.

Kyrie Ushiromiya, née Sumadera

Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka

"Flip the chessboard around."

The business partner and second wife of Rudolf. Kyrie is Ange's mother and Battler's stepmother (or so she thinks). She is dead last on the chain of succession as far as is known (there is confusion over Maria's father). She is known to have a very strong "flip-the-chessboard" mentality about how to tackle problems, and indeed, seems to have inspired Battler's own.

She was actually in a relationship with Rudolf before Asumu was and is intensely jealous of her, not just for having married Rudolf first, but also for having had a child early: although Kyrie was also pregnant at the time (as the result of an affair with Rudolf), the pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage. She overall has a good relationship with Battler, although she privately resents him as well, since had her own child lived, they may have had Battler's position.

In Arc 8, it is confirmed that Battler is her biological son, who was Switched At Birth with Asumu's child by Rudolf at birth to keep his affair with Kyrie a secret.

  • Action Mom
  • Axe Crazy
  • Badass Longcoat
  • Badass Normal and Badass Bookworm
  • Big Bad: She and Rudolf are the murderers; according to Bernkastel, at least.
  • Convenient Miscarriage Even more so after the big reveal about Battler in EP4, who turns out not to be Asumu's son; it isn't revealed until EP8 that Kyrie is the real mother through a baby switch.
  • Cool Big Sis: Her relationship with Battler is like this.
  • The Chessmaster: While being good at actual chess, her plans for gaining the inheritance always backfire in the worst possible ways.
  • Creepy Cool Crosses
  • Eviler Than Thou: A badass variation; in the third arc, Leviathan explains that it took a couple days after she was born to develop powers, making her extremely envious of her older sisters. Kyrie laughs at her and magnificently counters with what amounts to "What? You think that's envy? I had to watch some bitch steal my man from me for eighteen years!!" then shoots her to death.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Leviathan gives chocolate to Kyrie for Valentines Day, in the Extra Tips "Stakes Valentine Day".
    • EP6: Leviathan saves Kyrie from being killed by Jessica.
  • Firing One-Handed: She's the only one to wield the rifles this way.
  • Foe Yay: After said Eviler Than Thou moment, random Ship Teases with Leviathan ensue.
  • Formulaic Magic
  • Hot Chick in a Badass Suit
  • Insane Troll Logic: Her motive for instigating the Rokkenjima massacre is... Having all the gold to herself. The benefits just don't match up with the risks.
  • Lady Macbeth: In episode 7, she's revealed to be this to Rudolf
  • Leitmotif: As of Episode 7, Ridicule is universally considered to be hers.
  • Love Hurts: Of course, it also gives you enough envy to overpower envy-incarnate, so it all evens out.
  • Mafia Princess: The Sumadera clan can be more-or-less summed up as Expies of the Sonozaki family, and Kyrie herself has plenty of scary moments, particularly in later arcs.
  • Meaningful Name: Possibly, as "Kyrie" means "Lord" in Greek, in addition to being a Japanese name.
    • Or it could just be part of the Christianity-based Theme Naming of the series, as the Kyrie is a Christian prayer.
  • No Guy Wants an Amazon: Kyrie says that Asumu probably drew Rudolf in due to the fact that she was very good at acting the traditional female role. Kyrie tended to serve as a business partner for Rudolf, which she feels probably overwhelmed him to a certain extent.
  • Power Levels
  • Runaway Fiance
  • Smug Snake: In EP7, for all her wit and cunning, she comes across as a nasty murderous thug who seems to be a Karma Houdini... and then Eva shows up with a rifle.
  • The Smart Guy: Gender flip'd
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The plan was initially simply for Yasukashnontrice to find a way to settle her "in-love-with-three-different-people" dilemma in the same way that Kinzo had gambitted to apologize to her, until Kyrie and Rudolf go on a murder spree to claim the inheritance money all for themselves.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl
  • Yandere: Considering the entire Asumu talk, Kyrie's not too far from this for Rudolf.
    • Confirmed in EP6. Kyrie straight up tells Jessica that if Asumu didn't die on her own then she would have just killed her, all to be with Rudolf.
    • Chekhov's Gun: Whether or not she's actually the murderer as Bernkastel suggests, EP3 and onward show that she is capable of extraordinary coldness and violence if it's for Rudolf's sake, which is why it is possible for her piece to act as it does in EP7 (pieces cannot be out-of-character).
      • In addition to this, it's hinted that Kyrie is connected with Lambda in some way, as she mentions "gratitude" towards her "master" when talking about her certain conviction granting her a miracle.

Kinzo Ushiromiya

Goldsmith

Voiced by: Mugihito (elderly), Daisuke Ono (younger)

"BEATORIICHEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

The head of the family, Kinzo is expected to die soon, given his fairly poor health. He is suggested from the beginnning of the series to be mentally unstable, having devoted all of his time to black magic in his study. He is obsessed with reviving the Golden Witch, who claims that she gave him his entire fortune. Adopts the name Goldsmith in the fourth arc, when he shows his powers as a magician.

Arc 4 reveals that he has been dead nearly a year before the start time of all games, except for Arcs 7 and 8.

  • Abusive Parents: Despite his children being adults already, he still has enough power to pull it. And just in case the emotional (and literal) beatdowns weren't enough for you, he also imprisoned his illegitimate daughter in isolation and repeatedly raped her.
  • Adult Child: In Battler's game for Ange, Kinzo is shown horsing around with Maria and Ange.
  • The Atoner: Turns out the whole deal with the epitaph was actually his wild gamble to establish contact with Yasu, grant her the headship, and try to somehow make up for for what he did to his daughter Beatrice.
  • Badass Grandpa: If the fourth arc is to be taken at face value, he managed to summon two of Beatrice's more powerful furniture as well as her mentor. At once.
  • Byronic Hero
  • Call Back: The name "Goldsmith" was from a gag in the first EP, where Battler jokes that Kinzo should join in the Western Theme Naming.
  • Dead All Along But not in EP7.
  • Deal with the Devil
  • Death Seeker: During World War II, he joined the army hoping to be killed in battle, only to be assigned to an engineering job far from the front lines. He got over it when he met Beatrice.
  • Despair Event Horizon: He was implied to have crossed it when Beatrice Castiglioni died, fueling the eventual parental incest with his daughter.
  • Distinguishing Mark: Kinzo was born with six toes on each foot. This fact is almost always used to identify his charred corpse.
  • Drowning My Sorrows
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: Reviving a witch who requires your entire family to be sacrificed doesn't seem like a good idea to begin with, and sure enough, he's found as one of the sacrifices in most of the early arcs. Subverted.
  • Evil Sorceror: Particularly in the fourth arc. Subverted. He's not evil, nor is he a sorceror. Completely out of his mind, yes, but then, who in this family isn't?
  • Evil Old Folks: Well, according to the fourth arc, he sics Beatrice's demons on his entire family. Subverted. See above.
  • Flanderization: In parody works involving him, his eccentricity, drunkenness, frivolous spending, and Crazy Awesomeness are cranked Up to Eleven.
  • Formulaic Magic: His magic is said to be based heavily in probability.
  • Generation Xerox: His young sprite has Battler's face.
  • Grumpy Old Man
  • Jerkass: Full stop. Even in Eva's flashbacks in Arc 3. The candidacy of most of his descendants for, at least Jerkass Woobie can largely be laid at Kinzo's feet.
  • Kick the Dog: Nearly every scene we see him interact with anyone that's not Beatrice is a Kick the Dog moment for him. Even taking into account that he was not actually alive for most of the series.
  • Large Ham: Most of the scenes he appears in, he is screaming at the sky like the insane man he is.
  • Leitmotif: "la divina tragedia", as far as fans are concerned.
  • Love Makes You Crazy/Love Makes You Evil/Love Hurts
  • Mad Love: Given how crazy he is over Beatrice, it's telling that he just about never comes up in any of her speech, except how he relates to the murders. Heck, she actually has her Mooks eat him alive in one ending. This behaviour is very much justified once the true relationship between her and Kinzo is revealed.
  • Madman In The Attic: He may have locked himself in there, but he still fits pretty darn well. Except for the fact that he's dead, of course.
  • Murder by Cremation: Subverted - he was dead for about two years prior.
  • Necromantic: Kinzo had a mistress a long time before named Beatrice, and he seems to be engaging in the ceremony in order to bring her back to life after she died years earlier. This is later proven false, if nothing else because Kinzo wasn't alive in order to orchestrate the ceremony.
  • Not So Above It All: The stern and scary Kinzo of arcs 1-7 gives way to a Kinzo genuinely delighted to see his children and grandchildren to the extent that Genji winds up refraining whenever he says hello to anyone to remember his dignity.
  • Ominous Opera Cape
  • Parental Incest: With his daughter, Beatrice Ushiromiya. He saw it as a Reincarnation Romance, since she looked so much like her mother as she grew older, but unfortunately for him she didn't see it that way...
  • Pater Familicide: Through the summoning of Beatrice. Subverted.
  • The Patriarch
  • Pet the Dog: The scene in the first arc where he tells Natsuhi that even though she isn't qualified to wear the family crest on her clothes, that it's in her heart and to not listen to the family members who would mock her. Subverted, as he was actually dead and Natsuhi was just being delusional.
  • Phrase Catcher: "I wouldn't put it past father/grandfather." Whenever they talk about him doing something Crazy Awesome.
  • Self-Made Man
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Kinzo is revealed to be particularly fussy about his clothes in Twilight.
  • Straw Misogynist: In particular, his behaviour towards Eva in EP3. Dude has some serious issues with women.
  • Summon Magic: The TIPS say that this is his specialty.
  • Spirit Advisor: He served as this for Natsuhi within her delusions. So did Beatrice.
  • Unexpected Successor
  • Unreliable Narrator: A late scene in EP7 implies that Kinzo was the one to suggest that the Japanese steal the Italian gold, a Call Back to scenes in EP 4 where Gaap says he chose to let everyone other than himself and his loved one die. Nowhere does this show up in Kinzo's self-narrated flashbacks.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Not as a kid, but EP7 shows that he was nothing less than a nice guy in his youth, and The Woobie to boot. It Got Worse, horribly, when Beatrice died.
  • Weak but Skilled: Is stated to have utterly no talent in magic whatsoever. However, through absurd amounts of hard work he managed to become a master summoner. The tips discribe him as a magican who can't even cast a spell to heat water, yet can summon a demon that can boil away an ocean.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Apparently, in his youth. If there's another season of the anime, lord only knows how they'll handle that, since they already drew him with dark hair.


Servants and guests

Shannon/Sayo/Yasu

Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya

"George-san and I swore our love to each other. As proof, I accepted the ring. ......With that, our eternal vows were completed! No matter how you torture us with your wicked magic and your malice, you cannot disgrace that for all eternity!"

One of the servants in the Ushiromiya mansion. She is a very sweet and shy girl who shares Kanon's belief in their furniture status within the Ushiromiya household. Despite that, though, she actively cultivates a relationship with George.

She is heavily implied to be both Kanon and Yasu.

  • Ambiguously Evil: Very ambiguously.
  • Artificial Human: According to an anti-mystery perspective.
  • Aside Glance: If she wins on Ougon Musoukyouku against anybody but Kanon, Shannon will do this, after setting a small mat on the floor, and setting a small picnic with cake and tea, as if acknowledging how ridiculous it is for her to be winning against anybody.
  • Barrier Warrior
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Shannon in general is underestimated by the Meta-Character due to her status of being a simple maid who only powers are defensive in nature, yet in all the times she actually is able to fight back she has been able to hold back her attackers reasonably well, culminating in EP6 where she kills Witch!Maria and Sakutarou without breaking a sweat.
  • Big Sister Instinct: Just as Kanon is protective of her, Shannon is very protective of him and encourages him to get into a relationship with Jessica and break out of his shell. That's why she's disgusted with Beatrice in the second arc for using his body when he's already dead to kill more people. Also she prefers to die with Kanon than have him suffer a gruesome death in EP3.
    • However, subverted in EP6 where she outright tells Kanon that as long as he doesn't get in the way of her love for George, he'll be fine. Cue to the end of the arc where they have a Duel to the Death and she kills Kanon because his love for Jessica wasn't strong enough.
  • Bookworm
  • Break the Cutie: EP7 is dedicated to breaking her as it explains what happened before the murders in terms of a person called Yasu and the hell Yasu goes through.
  • Broken Bird: As arc 7 reveals.
  • Can't Have Sex Ever: Ryukishi revealed in an interview that this is the case with Shannon, though if it's due to the wounds she recieved after falling from the cliff as a baby or due to having a male body is unknown. Not suprising she got nervous when George begun talking about them having children after getting married.
  • Chewing the Scenery: Has her moments in the upcoming fighting game, mainly due to the fact that half of everyone's moves are weird references to the novels. For example, in context, you probably thought the line was fine, but "I KEPT MY PROMISE, LADY BEATRICE!!!"
  • The Chick
  • Deal with the Devil: The second arc opens by stating that she made a deal with Beatrice that she would break a mirror at the shrine that disappeared if Beatrice would make George fall in love with her.
  • Dojikko: When upset and flustered, she will instantly take several levels in clumsiness, which tend to get progressively more severe until she's rendered completely ineffectual. Of course, this tends to get her in a lot of trouble with Natsuhi, poor girl.
  • Duel to the Death: In EP6.
  • Fake Boobs: By Word of God.
  • Fighting Clown: On Ougon Musoukyouku Shannon is pretty much a big joke. On most of her stage intro she trips face-in, her normal attack involves attacking with girly slaps and things like carpet beaters yet Shannon is still about as effective as anybody else, using her shields and her normals long range to keep the enemy away from her, playing more defensively that most characters.
  • Fragile Flower
  • Gag Boobs: In the anime and manga, at least.
    • Shannon is the only character on Ougon Musoukyoku with an animated Meta-Declaration, guess what it's used for.
    • Subverted, since Word of God has stated that her breasts are actually fake.
  • The Gunslinger: Kanon outright states in EP6 that Shannon was always the better of two when it came to handling guns.
  • Heroic Safe Mode: In EP7, she basically short-circuits briefly when Will asks her to get Kanon, complete with robotic voice, AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle, and Dull Eyes of Unhappiness.
  • Hidden Depths: We start getting hints that she's more than she seems way at the beginning of EP2, with such gems as the fact that her idea of "cute" runs towards hammerhead sharks.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: On Ougon Musoukyouku Shannon can pull-out carpet-beaters, pulling carts, mats, serving trays, Seagull Feed, umbrellas and endless supply of tea-sets to drop out of nowhere, unlike Virgilia, who clearly uses magic to make her weapons appear.
  • I Just Want to Be Loved
  • Imaginary Friend: Kanon is heavily implied to be a mixture of one of these and a Split Personality. Shannon herself was the original one to Yasu, and took over as the dominant personality of their body when Yasu retreated into her Mental World.
  • Last Kiss: Not quite a kiss, but to similar effect, in the second arc when Beatrice has broken through Shannon's shield, Shannon turns to George and asks him to tell her one last time how much he loves her. He starts, but is cut off.
  • Lethal Harmless Powers: She manages to kill Maria precisely because rather than attacking her, she's "defending herself"... it's only incidental that Maria winds up smashed against the wall in the process.
  • Love Hurts
  • Luminescent Blush
  • Mad Dreamer
  • Meido: Her outfit is actually pretty tame (her skirt is to her knees, even!), but the fetishization aspect smacks you in the face once you realize there's a slit in that skirt that totally bares her thigh, showing off her one-winged bird tat.
  • Meaningful Name: Shannon's (real) name can be read as 3, 4. This could hint about the many personalities inside of her head. Also, didn't Higurashi's Big Bad also have a name involving those numbers?
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Shannon's real name is Sayo, but the only one who ever calls her that is George. When she became a servant for the Ushiromiya family, she changed her name to end in the Japanese character for sound, read as "on."
  • The Ophelia
  • Playing Against Type: One of Rie Kugimiya's non-Tsundere roles.
  • Raised as the Opposite Gender: It's not explicitly stated, since Yasu's gender was essentially left to the audience, but if s/he was originally male, this trope comes into play.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Kanon's blue.
  • Shipper on Deck: For Jessica and Kanon. Even though she and Kanon are the same person.
  • Shrinking Violet: Played straight at the beginning but by EP 6 it's an obvious subversion.
  • Split Personality
    • Many Spirits Inside of One: She has quite a few people inside her. If you just count the ones that are given control of her body, the number is likely three (with Clair being an embodiment of all three at once), but if you count all of her imaginary friends as well, the number quickly shoots into the double-digits. Spoofed here.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: As revealed by EP7, with Battler.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In EP1, she's fairly close to the stereotypical maid archetype; timid, kind, polite... cue EP2 when she's utterly determined to be with George at all costs and stands up to Beatrice, being one of the only people to successfully press the witch's Berserk Button to date. She does it again in the third arc.
  • Tranquil Fury: Her character sprite doesn't allow her to show anything but an expression that shows disgust but never outright anger like Kanon's sprite.
  • Troll: Much, much more subtle about it than Beato and the metaverse crew because of her Fragile Flower nature, but she mercilessly picks on George and Battler about their embarrassing pasts.
  • Wild Card
  • Wholesome Crossdresser or Villainous Crossdresser: EP6 heavily enforces the Epileptic Trees theory that Shannon and Kanon are the same person, and it's more or less confirmed in EP7 and 8. What's more, "she" is strongly hinted to be the "Beatrice" who appeared in EP2 and EP4.
  • Yandere

Kanon/Yoshiya/Yasu

Voiced by: Yuu Kobayashi

"Because... we are furniture..."

One of the servants in the Ushiromiya mansion. He maintains the belief that servants are to be nothing but furniture in the Ushiromiya mansion, which initially hinders him from having a relationship with Jessica. He and Shannon act like brother and sister, although they are not related by blood.

He is heavily implied to be both Shannon and Yasu. Arc 8 confirms in red text that if Shannon dies, Kanon disappears for all eternity, heavily reinforcing this fact.

Genji Ronoue

Voiced by: Masato Funaki

The oldest servant and Kinzo's most trusted confidante. The only one besides Dr. Nanjo usually let into Kinzo's study. Most of the family doesn't trust him, considering him to be a spy for Kinzo.

His meta-world manifestation is Ronove.

  • Artificial Human: Same as Shannon and Kanon.
  • Extreme Doormat
  • I Owe You My Life: Episode 8 reveals this is why he's loyal to Kinzo. He and Kinzo were childhood friends. Kinzo foresaw the political climate in Taiwan getting bad, so he warned his family. Genji was the only one to listen.
  • The Jeeves
  • Knife Nut: Most instances of him defending himself involve throwing knives. Not completely clear whether he carries these around or if he's an Improvised Weapon User, but to manage some of the things he does, it makes sense that he has some experience with them.
  • Old Retainer
  • One Steve Limit: "Ronoue" and "Ronove" are more-or-less the same word (ロノウエ versus ロノウェ).
  • Satellite Character: To Kinzo, and later Yasu.

Chiyo Kumasawa

Voiced by: Yasuko Hatori

A really old servant at the Ushiromiya house. She loves to make jokes about mackerel. She also served as guardian to Kuwadorian Beatrice, and a mother-figure to Yasu, introducing him/her to mystery novels.

Her meta-world manifestation is Virgilia.

Toshiro Gohda

Voiced by: Hitori Bifu

The head chef at the Ushiromiya mansion. Unlike the other servants, he was hired by Krauss, and so most of the servants distrust him. He is also one of the only servants not to wear the one-winged eagle on his clothes, due to Kinzo's lack of trust of him.

Dr. Terumasa Nanjo

Voiced by: Akihiko Ishizumi

Kinzo's personal physician. He is one of the few people that Kinzo trusts in the present, or at least when Kinzo was still alive. After Kinzo and Beatrice's run-in with the Italians, it was Nanjo who treated their wounds and helped Kinzo hide Beatrice's existence from the military.

  • I Have a Family: Nanjo's plea to Eva-Beatrice before she kills him.
  • Satellite Character: Nanjo's role in some of the early arcs seemed to comprised completely of having Cryptic Conversations with Kinzo and letting everyone know that the corpses they had found were, indeed, dead.
  • Secret Keeper: Initially, he is the one who kept the secret of Beatrice Castiglioni's existence from the military.
Back to Umineko: When They Cry/Characters
Back to Umineko: When They Cry
  1. ↑ You can see him in the video grope-attacking both Ange and Kanon
  2. ↑ which EP7 makes squickier in hindsight
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