Zettai Karen Children/Characters

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Minamoto Koichi

• Above the Influence: Despite the persistent efforts of The Children (and Kyosuke, and Fujiko, and the entire free world...).
• Badass Normal: subverted in the pilot chapter where he's (although completely oblivious of it) a level 7 anti anti ESP-er link... which still makes him a normal guy... but in the serialized manga (and anime) he is just a Normal.
• Batman Gambit: His most common means of surviving in a world filled with people of mass destruction
• Beware the Nice Ones
• Butt Monkey: Minamoto starts out this way in the manga, being thrown into walls by Kaoru at the slightest provocation, taking the fall for the Children's collateral damage, or being messed with by Kyosuke.
• Bishonen
• Celibate Hero: Minamoto's life revolves around keeping The Children safe and happy. On the rare occassions when does manage a date he's completely clueless.
• Cunning Linguist: English, Russian, German, French, Italian, Chinese; and some proficiency with Spanish and Korean.
• Guile Hero: Wins using brainpower.
• Heroic Willpower: Strong enough to resist the more drastic forms of mind control Kyosuke tries to inflict on him.
• Lolicon: He's not. Everyone else either thinks he is or wants him to be one.
• Megane
• Minored in Asskicking
• Moe
• Morality Chain: Initially. Later on in the series The Children become mature enough to make their own decisions.
• Mr. Fanservice: Photographs of Minamoto in his unmentionables are popular among BABEL's female staff.
• Only Sane Employee
• Otaku: a very high functioning one. The man squees like a six year old when he goes to a space museum.
• Papa Wolf
• Parental Substitute: He is a full time parental figure and role model to at least five very powerful ESPers.
• Poor Communication Kills: Chooses not to share the full details of the prophecy where he kills Kaoru. Hard to blame him, but it still leads to lots of misunderstandings and hilarity.
• Sexy Mentor: Male example.
• Single Girls Seek Good Man: Minamoto's the first person who has ever shown the Children any genuine respect, love or kindness. They all fall in love with him.
• The Strategist
• Team Mom
• Tsundere: Type B, and completely understandable in his situation.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: To Kaoru, though the usual gender roles are reversed.
• Wife Husbandry: Zigzagged. He's not trying to do this, but the kids want him to, not that they want him to wait that long. Everyone else thinks he's trying to, Fujiko wants him to, and in the future, one way or another he'll end up with Kaoru.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: According to Sakaki, he'll "make a good bride."
• Yuuichi Nakamura

Kaoru Akashi

• Anything That Moves: Kaoru loves the ladies, but that doesn't prevent her from hitting on several males.
• Aya Hirano
• Berserk Button: Do not hurt her friends. Ever.
  • That goes double for the one she loves. Hurt Minamoto, suffer horribly.
• Dark Messiah: According to the prophecy, she will lead espers in a war against humans before Minamoto kills her.
• Dating Catwoman: Kaoru and Kyosuke do go on a couple of dates and are attracted to each other, though they're not quite a couple.
• Depraved Bisexual: Borderline case, and Played for Laughs. She gets better about it as she gets older.
• Dirty Old Man: Called this on several occasions.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Tomboy that she is, she gets this a fair bit. Usually from girls she's not chasing after, though.
• Freudian Excuse: Averted. Despite some horrific treatment at Suma's hands, a prejudice, as well as a childhood of being feared by her family, Kaoru is a kind hearted person. Even as a villain, her stated goal is protecting ESPers rather than hatred of the human race. Still, it's lucky she met Minamoto when she did.
• Future Badass
• Likes Older Women
• Living MacGuffin: Kaoru's the prize for BABEL and PANDRA. Whether the prophecy is fulfilled is up to her, so both sides work very hard to win her heart and mind.
• Loveable Sex Maniac
• Mind Over Matter
• The Messiah
• Redheaded Hero
• Tsundere: Child Kaoru is Type A, Adult Kaoru is Type B.

Aoi Nogami

• A-Cup Angst: Played for Laughs. She once pulled buttons off her school uniform when the other girls' uniforms popped open due to their "development."
• Covert Pervert: She may claim to be sweet and pure, but she's also the one who got the idea of having Kaoru "train" Naomi by tearing off her clothes.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted a couple times. She gets a better test result than Kaoru or Shiho by studying hard and not goofing off.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: So she claims.
• Kansai Regional Accent: Not The Idiot From Osaka, though, as she's the smartest of the Power Trio. And she's from Kyoto, anyway.
• Meganekko
• Precocious Crush: Like everyone else, she likes Minamoto, though Aoi is almost as serious about it as Kaoru.
• Teleporters and Transporters
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit
• Yamato Nadeshiko

Shiho Sannomiya

• Blessed with Suck: As a psychometer, she can read people's darkest secrets and feelings, leading her to have a very cynical view of people and also leading many people to being afraid of touching her.
• Broken Bird: Shiho mentions in one of her arcs that she learned very early on what kind of a world she lives in. Later, for laughs, she frequently lampshades that she's a "dark" character.
• Covert Pervert: Knows quite a bit about what goes on behind closed doors, and is not afraid to make completely age-inappropriate comments from time to time.
• Creepy Child: As with Osaka, this aspect of her personality is often played for laughs...except when it isn't.
• The Empath
• The Gunslinger: Before the timeskip, Shiho uses a two shot derringer. It is a kid's version.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Shiho really loves that taser of hers...
• Improbable Aiming Skills: One manifestation of her psychometry.
• Mind Over Manners: Averted. Shiho is not above using her powers to jerk Minamoto's chain, or even lie about what she sees in his mind to get him in trouble for the lulz.
• Precocious Crush: Like the other girls, she's crushing on Minamoto. She mostly expresses it by messing with his head and getting him in trouble.
• Stepford Smiler: Very mildly, all things considered. IF she doesn't want to deal with you, she'll smile, listen politely, and ignore you until you go away.

Taizo Kiritsubo

The leader of BABEL in terms of most day to day matters.

• Adult Child
• Badass Normal
• Charles Atlas Superpower
• Hot-Blooded
• I Was Quite a Looker
• Large Ham
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Subverted in every imaginable way
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Though "reasonable" may be pushing it a little, he backs The Children all the way.
• Uncle Pennybags: If Minamoto is the main parent figure to The Children, then Chief Kiritsubo is the over indulgent Honorary Uncle.

Shuuji Sakaki

BABEL's chief physician and Minamoto's close friend.

• Adult Child: Not nearly as bad as some... but in BABEL that's damning with faint praise.
• Big Brother Mentor: Attempts to be this to Tim Toy and Bullet.
• Chivalrous Pervert
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Comes off as a skirt chaser and a slacker... until you threaten his friends.
• Healing Hands: His psychometry greatly enhances his abilities as a doctor.
• Jerkass Facade: His personality before meeting Minamoto.
• Mind Over Manners: In contrast to Shiho, Sakaki uses his powers more or less ethically. (He does examine his female patients' chests a little more often than he should, but in BABEL that's negligible.)
• Minored in Asskicking: Rarely participates in combat, but is more than proficient when he does.
• The Resenter: Mildly. Sakaki barely conceals his wishes that he had a parent like Minamoto, and can get catty with Shiho over it.
• Unknown Rival: To Shiho.

Naomi Umegae

Another ESPer on BABEL's payroll who occasionally assists the children in the field.

• Ambiguously Gay: We don't see her in any relationships on-screen, but she isn't interested in Tanizaki (though not many girls would be) and she's the heroine in the Marimite parody episode. Easy to come to conclusions.
• Catholic School Girls Rule
• Hero of Another Story
• Mind Over Matter
• Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
• Tsundere: Ken calls her one, but she actually doesn't fit the type; she's dere to everyone except Tanizaki, who is not her love interest. And deserves the violence he receives. And likes it, anyway.
• Wife Husbandry: Possibly one of the funniest subversions ever.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Tanizaki's pet project is to turn her into one. And mostly succeeds: Naomi is simply a very calm, kind young woman who is far too strong willed to put up with her supervisor's crap.

Ichiro Tanizaki

Naomi's supervisor, and would be suitor

• Butt Monkey: He sexually harasses a woman who can juggle trucks with her mind, so he's really got it coming.
• Characterization Marches On: His behavior towards Naomi was originally portrayed as more Squicky than funny.
• Gratuitous English: In the anime.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Made of Iron
• The Not Love Interest: He's placed in the Love Interest slot for Naomi (by his design) and is the most important person in her life, but he is never getting a chance at her.
• Porn Stache
• Rule of Funny: Why he's funny and not squicky.
• Shower of Angst: Played for laughs.
• Stalker with a Crush
• Wife Husbandry: Unlike Minamoto he is trying to invoke this trope, but it's backfiring badly. And by badly, we mean hilariously.

Bullet

An Esper brainwashed by Black Phantom

• Bad Future: It looks like he's in for this. In a recent chapter, Feather shows Minamoto a vision of the future. In said vision, Bullet dies (or at least is critically wounded) after getting in the way of a trap set up for Aoi.
• Brainwashed and Crazy
• Cold Sniper: Pre- Face Heel Turn
• Child Soldier
• Easy Amnesia: Averted. He still has no memory of who he is.
• Genre Savvy: As befits an Otaku, but mostly Played for Laughs.
• The Gunslinger
• I Owe You My Life: Bullet is deeply loyal to the Children, though he's not quite sure why.
• Meaningful Name: possibly subverted as we don't know if it is his real name.
• Otaku

Tim Toy

Another of Black Phantom's victims who finds himself on Babel's pay roll.

• Brainwashed and Crazy
• Enfant Terrible: Prior to being freed of Black Phantom's control.
• Otaku
• I Owe You My Life: Loyal to The Children for the same reasons as Bullet
• Properly Paranoid: When he's dealing with Kyosuke he verifies the identities of the people he's dealing using retina scans and finger prints.

Fujiko Tsubomi

The official head of BABEL. An esper from the earlier generation.

• Adult Child
• Anything That Moves
• Bait and Switch Tyrant: Starts out by taking Minamoto off duty, but while it's something of a dick move on her part, it's actually a Secret Test of Character, and she does become somewhat less nasty afterwards.
• Big Good
• Bisexual Energy Vampire
• Berserk Button: Do not remind her how old she is...
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: She founded an organization like BABEL. Of course she's completely nuts.
• Cute and Psycho: She doesn't let up with the Kawaiiko act, even when she's discussing shooting someone.
• Depraved Bisexual: Played for Laughs.
• Gainaxing
• Horny Devils: She lives by draining Life Energy through kisses (and, it's implied, This and That too).
• Kawaiiko: She really overdoes the cute sometimes, even though she's a bit too old for it.
• Lolicon: She steals The Children's Sacred First Kiss. Generally doesn't have much of an issue with that "age of consent" thing. (Or that consent thing, for that matter.)
• Lovable Sex Maniac
• Ms. Fanservice
• Ojou
• Omniscient Morality License: Of course she's going to screw with Kaoru and Minamoto's lives, because it's the only way to Screw Destiny.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Called out multiple times by Minamoto.
• Older Than They Look: She's in her 80s...
  • Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: ...and looks barely twenty, with smooth skin and a rack to match.
  • Vain Sorceress: It's her powers at work.
• Person of Mass Destruction: She's nearly a match for Kyosuke in power.
• Shipper on Deck: Minamoto/The Children OT4.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Takes a nap after founding BABEL, and only wakes up in the second season.
• Sociopathic Hero
• Stay in the Kitchen: When she was younger, she defied this trope by joining the ESPer special unit.
• Third Person Person: When she thinks she's being cute.
• Tsundere: Type A as a teenager.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist
• White-Haired Pretty Girl
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?
• Yukana

PANDRA

A group of rogue Espers dedicated to securing ESPer supremacy, often through violent means.

Kyosuke Hyobu

• Abusive Parent: Minor case. His father shouted at him and forced to repress his powers. But it's implied he may have even beaten him for using them.
• Adult Child: Kyosuke is defective in basic organizational and living skills.
• A Father to His Men: Kyosuke has genuine, no-strings-attached feelings of affection and responsibility for his followers, up to taking over a country just to let the kids go to school.
• Affably Evil: Very.
• Anti-Villain: Kaoru sees him as such, though Kyosuke is always zigzagging across the Moral Event Horizon. Regardless, his intentions are at least understandable, and he is providing a home and support network for the espers that BABEL isn't able to find or help.
• Brilliant but Lazy: Kyosuke is as intelligent as Minamoto, but is too whimsical to match him tactically.
• But Not Too Foreign: Backstory tells us his mother is 'from the continent' i.e. Asia.
• Creepy Child: Had his moments after joining military.
• Characterization Marches On: In his first appearance, he seemed somewhat more evil and less whimsical.
• Depraved Bisexual: Either this or If It's You It's Okay toward Minamoto. Or just a massive tease.
• Draco in Leather Pants: In-universe, Kaoru is unbelievably willing to forgive his crimes.
• Foe Yay: With Minamoto. Lots with Minamoto. Crosses from subtext to text on several occasions, but is not reciprocated.
• Friendly Enemy: To BABEL, particularly Minamoto and The Children.
• Like Brother and Sister: With Fujiko, before and during the war. He even called her "sis".
• Lolicon : Accused frequently of being one by Sakaki, Minamoto and members of PANDRA. He does want Kaoru as his queen, after all.
• Master of Illusion
• Older Than They Look
• Parental Substitute: Seemed he found one in commander of his ESP unit. Poor kid.
• Physical God
• Psychopathic Manchild
• Reality Warper: Between his highly-refined telekinesis and hypnosis, Kyosuke can do just about anything.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Before his beloved commander tried to kill him.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: There will be a war between humans and espers. Kyosuke wants to make sure the esper side wins, whatever the cost.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Momotaro.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Played with as Kyosuke is well into his eighties, but his body got frozen in a time. Biologically he is in his late teens.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: His Start of Darkness. He himself averts this utterly; see A Father to His Men above.

Mio Tsukishi

A young level 6 teleporter in PANDRA. Mio spends a great deal of time trying to gain Kaoru's affection without admitting that she wants to be friends.

• And Your Little Dog, Too: Frequently makes threats against against Kaoru before she admits that she really wants Karou's friendship.
• Body Horror: Her first fight has her teleportation powers run amok.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Implied.
• Dark Magical Girl: Much more vicious than The Children.
• The Ditz: Can be a bit slow to realize things like "having no air will kill you."
• Green-Eyed Monster: Mio resents that The Children, Kaoru especially, received many opportunities that she was denied.
• I Just Want to Be Normal
• Rie Kugimiya
• She Cleans Up Nicely: When Minamoto washes her clothes.
• Social Services Does Not Exist: Until Kyosuke reorganized PANDRA, Mio was living in a cabin, on her own, eating virtually nothing but ramen.
• Teleporters and Transporters: Her teleportation allows her to teleport only a part instead of the whole like the others. The parts are still connected and if they are too far apart or too far away from Mio, they will reattach on one side.
• Tsundere
• Vitriolic Best Buds: To Kaoru.
• Zettai Ryouiki

Shiro Magi

Kyosuke's right hand man and secretary.

• Awesome but Impractical: His Prehensile Hair incorporates carbon microfibres, which allows them to double as Combat Tentacles... and makes him especially susceptible to Shiho's taser.
• Badass in a Nice Suit
• Boring but Practical: A lot of the stuff he does for PANDRA is low flash but highly effective.
• But Not Too Foreign: Magi says he and other members of PANDRA were war orphans or refugees.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Not a match for Kyosuke in power, but he's the one who has to clean up after him and make sure PANDRA is still functioning well enough for him to go off on his larks.
• Not So Different: Though it's not explicitly stated, it's clear that he has a lot in common with Minamoto.
• Only Sane Employee: You get the feeling that he, Oboro and Minamoto meet for drinks on the weekends.
• Prehensile Hair, which he can use as Combat Tentacles or Hair Wings.
• Promotion to Parent: Kyosuke sticks him with three kids.
• Punch Clock Villain: Magi treats PANDRA like it's a job: objectives are set, paperwork is organized and you put in overtime to get the big projects done on time. All this makes him more dangerous than the rank and file who treat PANDRA like a hobby or a game.
• Ship Tease: With Momiji, who decides very early on that he's marriage material. More so when the only time we see Magi lose his cool is when she gets hurt.
• Sugar and Ice Personality: Deeply cares about Kyosuke, but admitting it is like pulling teeth.
• Team Dad: The one who gets stuck trying to establish rules and discipline. Also had to raise at least three ESPers. He's more detached and stern than Minamoto, but given that he works for Kyosuke that's something of a necessity.
• The Trains Run On Time: Handles PANDRA's logistics and planning.
• The Worf Effect: Gets pounded by Mirage but we then learn it's just Kysouke's high-level hypno. He's not happy about being such a pushover.

Muscle Okama

One of PANDRA's ESPers and Mio's most frequent partner in crime.

• Adult Child
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Only when someone makes him wear one.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: Has a hidden talent for diplomacy. Why hasn't this man been sent to the Middle East?
• Camp Gay
• Groin Attack: WHY WAS I BORN A MAAAAN!?
• Hard Gay
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Certainly comes of as much more malicious then usual during the Infamous Colony Drop Incident.
• Taken for Granite: His ESPer power.
  • Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig Magnuuuuuuuuum

Takashi Kugutsu/Mr.9

• Adaptation Expansion: The anime gives him stronger motives for Face Heel Turn, making him more sympathetic.
• The Dog Bites Back: Being always mocked for his hobbies by Sakaki makes it that much easier for him to join PANDRA for good; he nearly murders Sakaki in the process.
  • In the anime, BABEL really had it coming when Kaoru blackmailed him into building an anatomically-correct Oboro doll for her, then just left him holding the bag when it was discovered, causing him to lose out on his chance to take his girl out.
• Freudian Excuse: His coworkers' general disdain for his hobby gives him another reason to spy on them for PANDRA.
• Marionette Master: As an esper, Kugutsu can manipulate dolls with life-like accuracy. Also, this.
• Otaku: A doll/figurine otaku to boot. Never to be seen without a LiccaMoga-chan doll.
• The Mole
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Subverted. Kugutsu is truly appreciated in PANDRA for his abilities, otakuism notwithstanding.
• Spoof Aesop: for Tim and Bullet's sake.

Momiji Kanou

A PANDRA ESPer who is another one of Kyosuke's primary assistants.

• Anti-Villain: one of the more level headed PANDRA ESPers. Though, as with BABEL, that's not saying much.
• A Day in the Limelight: "A Scandal With Her"
• Cool Shades
• Friendly Enemy: Like most of PANDRA, but also points out weaknesses in BABEL's security to them.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: High-tech blinders to force her to use her spatial awareness as a teleporter.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Momiji's actual power is a synthetic power that allows her to anchor herself in space, effectively giving her super strength.
• No Accounting for Taste: See below.
• Ship Tease: With Magi and Kiritsubo of all people.
• Shoot the Dog: When she first meets Kaoru, Momiji is willing to engage in unethical behaviour to get her objectives. Then Kaoru tells her that sort of crap won't fly.
• Teleporters and Transporters
• Wise Beyond Their Years

Black Phantom

The leader of the organization of the same name, which brainwashes Espers and uses them as assassins.

• Big Bad
• Face Framed in Shadow
• No Name Given: He's always referred to as "Black Phantom", "Boss", "Father", etc.

Theodore

• Battle Butler: A notable aversion: despite the way he dresses and his loyalty to Black Phantom, he lacks Psychic Powers or other combat abilities.

Phantom Daughter/Yuri Kumoi/Mirage/Phantom

One of The Children's classmates. Actually Black Phantom's daughter, a Hypno user with a split personality. The Yuri personality knows nothing about Black Phantom and has no special abilities; Mirage, who considers herself the main personality, created her to fool Psychometers.

• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Black Phantom agents she controls. She's not entirely acting of her own free will either.
• The Dragon: to Black Phantom.
• Heel Face Turn
• Freudian Trio: Mirage is the superego, Yuri is the ego, and Phantom is the id.
• Les Yay: All three personalities towards Kaoru. The affection seems to be mutual.
• Living with the Villain
• Master of Illusion

Nai

A young girl who is a Black Phantom agent.

• Brainwashed and Crazy
• Casting a Shadow
• Creepy Child: So brainwashed that she smiles when revealing that Black Phantom has put a device in her forehead that will kill her if Kaoru removes her brainwashing.

Ninja Hanzo

An adult Black Phantom agent.

• Bishonen
• Brainwashed and Crazy
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Justified by his synthetic Esper powers.
• Ninja
• Otaku: Naruto fanboy. Even whips out the Sharingan once as part of a gag.

Feather

A mysterious, very powerful Esper whose mind can be transferred between bodies using raremetal quartz. She has amnesia, but has a vague idea that her goal is to "change the future". In love with Minamoto (even more so than everyone else). Originally implied to be Kaoru from the future, she's actually an amalgamation of the memories of all 3 children (and possibly others as well) from the future, with Kaoru as the nexus.

• Grand Theft Me: Does this to Phantom Daughter, although she doesn't really take over, just hide among the other three personalities.
• Meaningful Name: She gets turned into a bird for a while. Actually, her name probably refers to Kaoru's angelic wings.
• Mental Time Travel
• Mind Over Matter
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Her Psychokinesis is said to be beyond Level 7.
• Superpower Lottery: She has Psychokinesis, Teleportation, AND Psychometry, all at Level 7 or higher
• Wild Card