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[[foldercontrol]]

!Main Characters

[[folder:Ichi]]
!!Ichi/Hajime Shiroishi

-> ''"Don't cry. If you cry, you'll lose."''
--> '''Portrayed by:''' Nao Omori
--> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/ChihiroSuzuki (Japanese), Creator/MichaelSinterniklaas (credited as Michael Tremain) (English)

[[quoteright:216:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/11538_6956.jpg]]

The Killer of the title. Ichi is a 22-year-old man-child, who lives by himself in a big house. A childlike loner, he gets bullied around by almost everyone he meets and reacts by apologizing. He spends most of his days working at a metal factory and going to the red-light district. At night, he is a deadly assassin. Whenever pushed to the brink emotionally and past the DespairEventHorizon, he becomes a monster, capable of tearing men to shreds. At first, he only kills when his mysterious guardian Jijii orders him to.

* AbsurdlySharpBlade: His boot razors, which he makes in the welding factory where he works.
* AlmightyJanitor: Has unbelievable [[CharlesAtlasSuperPower lower body strength]] and has spent quite some time practicing karate, yet he remains a white belt. This of course is by his own choice due to his low self-esteem, as Ichi thinks he doesn't deserve anything better than a beginner belt.
* AntiHero: An extreme example of an UnscrupulousHero at best, since he only kills under the orders of Jijii and his victims are usually the Yakuza members or [[AssholeVictim bullies]] who [[BullyingtheDragon pick on him]]. That being said, he is the closest thing this [[CrapsackWorld setting]] has to a hero, and the most sympathetic.
* AntiVillain: Of the Woobie sort.
* AxeCrazy: Whenever he starts to cry, run as far as you can.
* BerserkButton: In ''Ichi'', his was being called "Ichi the Bitch" after his bully started to associate the name with him.
* BerserkerTears: Ichi cries when he's in his killing trance, since he both hates his own repressed ultra-violent tendencies and is simultaneously fueled by rage at the bullies who made his childhood a living hell.
* BewareTheQuietOnes: He won't bother you as long as you don't set off his high school memories... but if you do, may God have mercy on your soul.
* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Ichi has a strong sense of justice tied to using his strength to overcome his weaknesses, but when he gets into killing mood, his attitude drastically changes. Everyone who has nothing to do with his trauma is okay at the moment, but anyone whose the bullies must be destroyed.
* BullyHunter: In a twisted sense. He couldn't stand up for himself as a child, and as an adult only teaches kids how to stand up to bullies, not hunt them himself. However, he becomes delusional when killing his targets and associates them with the bullies from his past, taking vengeance on them for their cruelty.
* CharacterDevelopment: [[spoiler: At the very end of the manga, although we don't get to see much of it, Ichi seems to have become more sociable and able to speak with girls normally, as seen in the hostess club; but he maintains his freaky smile and killer impulse.]]
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Extremely skilled in martial arts and has amazing lower body strength.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: A cowardly unassuming young man who can turn into a killing machine when pushed to the edge.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath / DeathByAdaptation: In the movie, he's kicked to death by a angered and dissapointed Takeshi.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: His original backstory bills him as a kid who'd get bullied wherever he went, and along the way manipulated into becoming a killer. His altered memories give him a worse backstory.
* DespairEventHorizon: He is pushed past it whenever someone attacks him in a way reminiscent of the bullies in his childhood.
* EmbarrassingNickname: At least in ''Ichi'', the origin for his nickname "Ichi" came from a high school bully bastardizing his last name and turning it into the mocking moniker "Ichi the Bitch".
* ExpositoryHairStyleChange: [[spoiler: In the epilogue set three years later, Ichi has grown his hair out into a longer, flared out style; highlighting his more sociable and confident nature, but also foils Takeshi's hairstyle change.]]
* ExtremityExtremist: His most powerful weapons (and most well developed muscles) are his legs, which he uses for most of the fights shown in the manga. He even customizes his boots to make a weapon for his dominant leg. By contrast, his punches are ''profoundly'' average. When his punch strength is gaged by an arcade game, his score is significantly below a retired kickboxer's.
* FakeMemories: [[spoiler: It's implied throughout the manga given Jijii's better memory of Ichi's past than Ichi himself. Jijii uses this to his advantage, as he would manipulate Ichi's memories and Ichi's imagination would expand and fill in details after being prompted, to the point that it's unclear how the events actually happened or if the events even happened at all. This would be his tactic when killing--associating his memories with his targets.]]
* FromNobodyToNightmare: By all accounts in both his memories and in ''Ichi'', the boy was just a really strong but mousy young man who kept running into trouble with bullies. Whatever made him snap turned him into a killing machine that even seasoned mobsters feared.
%%* IKnowMortalKombat
* LonersAreFreaks: In high school, he wasn't known to socialize much, and many of his schoolmates shied away from him due to his quiet nature.
* MoralityPet: His friendship with with Kaneko's son Takeshi, who views him as "my wimpy big brother". Also Ichi's earlier friendship with the bullied kid Norio, where he teaches the kid how to fight off the bullies.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: His reaction after killing Shiela by accident.
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: With puppy eyes and a sweet smile: "No. I didn't want to have sex. I wanted to rape her."
* OrgasmicCombat: Literally. The only way he can achieve an orgasm is through beating and killing others.
* PetTheDog: Consoling the poor abused prostitute, and even giving her money so she can have her nose fixed. They even have a romantic moment and he promises to kill her abusive pimp for her... that ends badly.
* PsychopathicManchild: Ichi is one of ''the'' top examples of this trope. Jijii's manipulations ensure that he's constantly back in his state of mind as a bullied teenager, and beyond that, he doesn't comprehend concepts like rape. He also gets along well with kids and can understand their mindsets.
* RetiredBadass: [[spoiler: The epilogue reveals that spending a year in Shinjuku made Ichi lose most of his killing edge, so Jijii let him go. While he's still monstrously strong, he doesn't seem near the wreck he was three years prior.]]
* SecretTestOfCharacter: In ''Ichi'', his fending off a gang of hoodlums and slaughtering them all gave him the opportunity to become a professional hitman, beneath his notice.
* TheUnSmile: His creepy nervous "smile". [[spoiler: By the epilogue, he's managed to make a real one.]]
* UnstoppableRage: Whenever he goes into his killing trance.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: It's hard not to feel bad for this guy, especially since he knows that he's insane and wants to be normal.
* ZorroMark: Jijii and the gang leave a bloody '1' on the floor after his first mission in the apartment complex, to warn the Anjou clan about what's to come for them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Kakihara]]
!!Masao Kakihara

-> ''"Moral code, what's that?"''
--> '''Portrayed by:''' Creator/TadanobuAsano
--> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/TakashiMiike (Japanese)

Arguably the VillainProtagonist of this story. A high-ranking Yakuza mobster of the Anjougumi, who is equal parts sadist and masochist, he loves both receiving pain and dishing it out. He cuts, burns and pierces his body, and has twin friends who engage in S&M with him. His story begins when he finds out his boss and lover, Anjo, has gone missing. Kakihara is intrigued and goes in pursuit of Anjo's killer, but along the way takes over the gang. He eventually decides that Anjo's killer - Ichi - is the ultimate sadist he's been searching for.

%%* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Towards Ichi.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: He's a lot more handsome in the live-action movie, as his constant WideEyesAndShrunkenIrises are absent and he has a thinner frame and less squashed-looking nose.
* AdaptationDyeJob: Has bleached blond hair in the movie.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: He has his penis, arm and three of his fingers sliced off by Ichi as well, as all of his teeth knocked out by him and then falls to his death by pigeon crapping on his index finger and losing his grip. While that is a rather brutal fate, Kakihara himself was so subhuman, that there's hardly anyone who would shed a tear for such a despicable monster.]]
* AxCrazy: He really enjoys torture and murder.
* BeardOfEvil: He has his trademark PermaStubble and he's a psychopathic monster.
* BerserkButton: Belittle his former boss or the Anjou Clan at your own risk.
* BigBad: While he is the main point-of-view character in the manga, Kakihara is also the leader of the {{Yakuza}} that Ichi and Jijii are trying to take down, making him the leading antagonistic force.
* BondageIsBad: In addition to his clan owning several BDSM sex dungeons among other sex shops, Kakihara himself is into extreme masochist play. We get a glimpse of his usual during a scene with Karen.
* ColdBloodedTorture: Oh, God. Since he's an extreme masochist, he is an expert at the human body and its physical limits, and applies this knowledge to his victims. His specialty is genital mutilation and keeping his victim conscious as long as possible.
* CombatSadomasochist: He routinely tortures his enemies to death and enjoys every moment of their suffering. On the flip side, he also loves being hurt himself and had his GlasgowGrin given to him to enjoy the rush from the pain. (He's also this trope's current page illustration.)
* DeadpanSnarker: He's just as sarcastic as he is sadistic.
* DecoyProtagonist: Of a sort in the live action movie, [[AdvertisedExtra he appears on the cover]] and is featured prominently in the trailer and movie self before Ichi is properly introduced, which leaves an impression that he's the titular character.
* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: Downplayed. In both the manga and live-action film he [[spoiler:fell to his death. In the live-action version, he hallucinated Ichi beheading Takeshi and gets stabbed in the head by him, causing him to fall off the roof of the apartment complex. But the manga has him [[AnArmAndALeg lose body parts]] before attempting to run away and dangled on a railing with only a finger left in his hand before a bird defecates on him, causing him to lose his grip and fall to his death.]]
* DisneyVillainDeath: In both the manga and live-action film, [[spoiler:he goes out by falling from a great height. [[DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation Though what leads up to it differs in the adaptation.]]]]
* DragonAscendant: He was once a high ranked enforcer until his boss was killed and spends the manga taking over his gang and trying to get revenge on Jijii and his cronies.
* ExoticEquipment: It's implied that Kakihara has body modifications in...''interesting'' places.
* GlasgowGrin: Kakihara has one given to him by Jiro and Saburo back in the day, held together by piercings. He's also fond of giving the Glasgow Grin to other people. He takes the piercings out to [[spoiler: swallow and bite off people's hands when they try to punch him in the face]], and at one point has them torn out, which doesn't faze him at all.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: He has a horizontal scar running across his cheeks and nose, a horizontal scar across his forehead, and a vertical scar that connects both over his left eye. In addition to a GlasgowGrin held together by piercings at the edge of his lips.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: He has a pack of sharp needles which he uses for both combat and torture.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: He feels this way when seeing Ichi's killings.
* NightmareFetishist: Kakihara's hobbies are torturing people and being tortured.
* ObviouslyEvil: He has a wild, hungry look in his eyes and his face is covered in intimidating scars, with even a GlasgowGrin as the cherry on top. To make it even more blatant, he doesn't even bother hiding how twisted he is.
%%* OrgasmicCombat
* TheSociopath: As you can already tell, Kakihara a depraved monster with no morals or humanity.
* SexIsViolence: "There's no love in your punches!"
* TooKinkyToTorture: That is until [[spoiler:Ichi slices his [[GroinAttack cock and balls in half.]]]]
%%* {{Yakuza}}
[[/folder]]

! Jijii's gang

[[folder:Jijii]]
!!Jijii

--> '''Portrayed by:''' Shinya Tsukamoto
--> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/ShinpachiTsuji (Japanese), Tristan Goddard (English)
Ichi's guardian, who has turned the man-child into an unstoppable killer through MindRape and brainwashing. A mysterious old man who has dedicated his entire life to balance out the good and evil in the city -- well, rather, the greater evil and the lesser evil.


* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: [[spoiler: In the film, he's a former cop, whose goal is to eradicate the Yakuza from the city. Not so much in the manga, where he's got no professional ties of note.]]
* TheChessmaster: He's behind everything that went on in the series, wrapping entire gangs under his little finger with ease. Everything goes according to his plans, as he escapes the story with very few loose ends and [[spoiler: Shinjuku a little bit safer.]]
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: He betrayed almost every member of his own little gang of excommunicated gangsters. [[spoiler: He even went on to get Karen killed to wrap up all of his loose ends.]]
%%* ClarkKentOutfit
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: His real name is never given and is only ever called "Jijii."
%%* GambitRoulette: Oh, so very much.
* GoodIsNotNice: He's a real bastard to many of the major players, but he's sincere in that he wants criminals like the yakuza off his streets.
* MindRape: What he did to Ichi. No one deserves to have these horrendous "memories" implanted in them. [[spoiler: In the final chapter when Ichi runs into Takeshi, Takeshi has no memory of Ichi; implying that Jijii is using the same tactics on Takeshi.]]
%%* MrExposition
* ObfuscatingStupidity: He's a sharp old man, but to make his plan work, he portrayed himself as a feeble and ignorant elder to take the Anjou Clan off his trail.
* OldMaster: Subverted; after he breaks Takayama's neck with one hand, he reveals that that he's in his 30's, but had plastic surgery to make him look older. On the other hand, he might be an old man and lying. Jijii isn't exactly known for his honesty.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Siccing [[PsychopathicManchild Ichi]] on the Yakuza is just about one of the cruelest things he could ever do, but he feels they deserve it for being corrupt thugs.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: The shortest male in the cast by far, even shorter than the women in the story, but he's strong in his own right and managed to take down a seasoned yakuza barehanded.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Both continuities reveal that he starts his war on the mob apartment complex because [[spoiler: he's trying to make Shinjuku safer by force. If that means he has to use criminals and groom kids into sadistic monsters, then so be it.]]
* WolfInSheepsClothing: He often uses his plain and oafish looks to fool his victims, often throwing them off his trail.
* YoungerThanHeLooks: He looks like a geezer but he's actually on his late 30s... [[UnreliableNarrator supposedly]]. This is thanks to MagicPlasticSurgery.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Noboru]]
!! Noboru

* [[spoiler: AnArmAndALeg]]: [[spoiler: While being interrogated by Jiro, he physically rips out both of his arms; simply to see if he could.]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Ichi shows up and kills Jiro, saving Noboru, but then immediately turns around and kills Noboru. It's revealed Jijii orchestrated it, as Ichi and Jijii's gang have never met, and had given Noboru as one of Ichi's targets.]]
* GroinAttack: [[spoiler: Kakihara splices his genitals while being interrogated.]]
* [[spoiler: LastOfHisKind]]: [[spoiler: He's the last member of Jijii's gang to get killed.]]
* NoOneSeesTheBoss: He, Ryou, and Inoue have never met Ichi, only cleaning up after him. [[spoiler: Noboru is the only one who meets Ichi, but since Ichi has never met him and Jijii used his master manipulation abilities, he has Ichi off Noboru.]]
* ThoseTwoGuys: He, Ryou, and Inoue are the members of Jijii's gang, but the three of them are really only in charge of cleaning up after Ichi and are oftentimes forced to just stay back in their hideout.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Ryou]]
!! Ryou

--> '''Portrayed by:''' KEE

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: It's no secret that Miyu-Miyu adores Ryou, however, he seems to just be using her to make money. [[spoiler: When they're both abducted by Kakihara, Ryou reveals he really does care about her and his final words are telling her sorry.]]
* GroinAttack: [[spoiler: Jiro punches and then Saburo slices his genitals, mocking him by saying "how can you be a pimp without your money maker?" The latter's assault on his groin is what kills him.]]
* LovableSexManiac: His main source of income is that he's a pimp, having about twenty or so girls under his belt, one being his girlfriend. [[spoiler: He reveals that he does this as a means to love girls that find themselves incapable of being loved.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: Ryou has Miyu deposit her earnings in their shared bank account in hopes of opening a tea shop, Noboru believes it's just Ryou is conning her out of her money and he essentially admits to it. [[spoiler: Then you learn he actually cares about her.]]
* TokenMinority: While there are a few minority characters in the criminal underworld, Ryou's the only Chinese guy important to the cast. His minority status also plays into the plot, with Jijii using him as a fake Chinese yakuza and Kakihara tracking him down easily due to being one of the very few Chinese pimps in the area.
%%* ThoseTwoGuys: With Noboru and Inoue.
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler: He and Miyu-Miyu, his girlfriend and one of the girls he pimps, die shortly after each other at the hands of Jiro and Saburo.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Inoue]]
!! Inoue
--> '''Portrayed by:''' Satoshi Niizuma

* AddledAddict: [[spoiler: What ultimately leads to his end was his addiction to cocaine and heroin. He enters withdrawal after being cooped up in a hotel room with no drugs, and tells his dealer, who's being used by Kakihara, the address of their gang's hideout to get his fix.]]
* [[ThoseTwoGuys Those Three Guys]]: With Ryou and Noboru.
* ILoveTheDead: He likes to rape the corpses of the people he cleans up after. [[DepravedBisexual It doesn't matter the gender]], but he prefers pretty girls.
* MagicPlasticSurgery: [[spoiler: He got plastic surgery done on his face after being excommunicated from the Anjou clan so he could stay in Shinjuku. When Kakihara's gang catches him, all the members say he doesn't look anything like how he used to.]]
* TheMole: Inoue used to be part of the Anjou clan. Before being excommunicated, he used this connection to plant bugs throughout the Yakuza Mansion, so Jijii and his gang could listen in and spy on Anjougumi's activities.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler: He is the first of Jijii's gang to die, being killed off about a third of the way through the manga.]]
[[/folder]]

! Anjougumi and Criminal Underworld

[[folder:Kaneko]]
!!Kaneko

--> '''Portrayed by:''' SABU (under the alias Hiroyuki)

An enforcer for Anjougumi.

* EtTuBrute: Ichi has this reaction once they learn which sides of the conflict they're on, [[spoiler: resulting in Kaneko getting killed]]. Ichi likens him to a boy in high school who was friendly with him outside of bullying incidents, where he'd only join in so he wouldn't get killed himself.
* {{Foil}}: To Ichi. [[spoiler: Ichi is a coward and timid while Kaneko carries himself with strong, self-assured confidence; when working, Ichi is calm and collected while Kaneko shakes in genuine fear, even tripping as soon as he enters an apartment when searching for Ichi in the final volume and dropping his gun when Karen unexpectedly shows up and thinks it's Ichi.]]
%%* HitmanWithAHeart
* IfIDoNotReturn: He asks Ichi to look after Takeshi in case anything happens to him. [[spoiler: Ichi doesn't understand what he means, until he realizes that Kaneko is one of his targets that he has to kill.]]
* LastRequest: [[spoiler: His last words are tearfully asking Ichi to take care of Takeshi for him.]]
* MoralityPet: Strangely enough, ''Ichi'' is this to Kaneko. His company brings out Ichi's best sides, and Ichi views him as a cool big brother.
* OnlySaneMan: When there's only him left in the gang, with Kakihara and Saburo.
* ProfessionalKiller: A low-ranking hitman for Anjougumi.
* [[spoiler: TearsOfBlood]]: [[spoiler: Has these when he's dying and asking Ichi to look after his son.]]
* TokenGoodTeammate: The most moral member of the Anjou clan, which puts him into a bind as the other members think he's too soft for his line of work.
* UndyingLoyalty: Towards his deceased boss, Yoshio Anjo, and Anjougumi as a whole, even when it was turned into a street gang under Kakihara's leadership.
%%* {{Yakuza}}
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Jiro and Saburo]]
!!Jiro and Saburo

--> '''Portrayed by:''' Suzuki Matsuo (Jiro)

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Both are killed by Ichi. Jiro had his {{neck snap}}ped from Ichi's kick, and Saburo had the top of his head slashed off by Ichi's bladed shoes.]]
* BadassInANiceSuit: In shiny [[VillainInAWhiteSuit white business suits]], no less.
* BerserkButton: Don't try to pick which brother is better. The one who wasn't picked won't take it well.
* CharlesAtlasSuperPower: Jiro has nearly inhuman strength, especially his grip. He can [[{{Gorn}} pulverize a breast with one punch]] and can tear an arm off with his bare hands. He's the one who gave Kakihara his GlasgowGrin... with his ''thumbs''.
* CoDragons: They are Kakihara's most trusted enforcers and comrades from his past days, and before Ichi can finally face Kakihara, he has to kill both of them.
* CreepyTwins: Forceful, brutish, and nearly always in sync, Jiro and Saburo fit the trope well.
* FamilyThemeNaming: Together with their late brother, Ichiro. Ichiro, Jiro and Saburo means "First Son", "Second Son" and "Third Son".
* ForceAndFinesse: Jiro is the "Force" as he has inhuman strength and can tear through flesh and bone as easily as a sharp blade, and Saburo is the "Finesse" as while he's of average strength, he has mind-boggling skills with his ''dosu'', and can easily slice through the nerves of somebody with pin-point accuracy.
%%* ForTheEvulz
* IdenticalTwinIDTag: They both have the exact same face and dress the same way too. The only way to distinguish them is that Jiro is the super strong one with a pompadour, and Saburo is the one with dreadlocks who carries a ''dosu'' on his person..
* MasterSwordsman: Saburo fights with a ''dosu'', a short sword favored by Yakuza. His overall strength is said to be unremarkable, but his skills with a blade are so refined that he can cut two nipples off while drawing from the hip and sever the nerves that control the index finger before his enemy can pull a trigger.
%%* PsychoForHire
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: They rape their way through the series. Almost every woman they're alone with is raped and brutalized by them.
* SiblingMurder: Apparently they had an older triplet but killed him in an argument over who was strongest. When Jiro is killed by Ichi, Saburo is furious because he always wanted to be the one to kill Jiro to prove he was the ultimate brother. It's implied Jiro felt the same way towards Saburo.
* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: Being CreepyTwins aren't enough for Jiro and Saburo. Their manga background shows that they were originally in a group of triplets, all of them monsters who wondered who was the one their father's ''sperm'' had blessed the most, so they have been trying to top each other in the "most heinous actions" scale, where the winner apparently kills the others. The third brother, their elder Ichiro, never made it to the main storyline... because his younger brothers murdered him prior. Ichi didn't give the remaining two siblings the time to finish their competition.
* TwinBanter: It starts out as normal sibling banter, and often devolves into a furious competition that frequently ends up with those around the twins being harmed or killed.
* TwinTelepathy: One can detect when the other [[spoiler: has been killed.]]
* UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:Saburo dies completely as a result of him accidentally fumbling with his knife and leaving him open to getting the top of his skull cut off by Ichi in such a way that he didn't even realize it happened at first.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Takayama]]
!! Takayama
--> '''Portrayed by:''' Shun Sugata
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fujiwara]]
!! Fujiwara
--> '''Portrayed by:''' Toru Tezuki
* ButtMonkey: He gets stuck with unpleasant tasks, like being forced to commit same-sex necrophilia on Masao's behalf.
* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: [[spoiler:His fate. He leaves due to being too frightened and doesn't get any sort of punishment for his cowardice.]]
* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:He winds up getting so freaked out by the situation that he leaves, crying in fear and shame and never appears ever again. This results in him getting away with his life.]]
* ThrowTheDogABone: [[spoiler:He's the only member of the Anjougumi to survive thanks to him making the wise decision to leave and never come back.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Suzuki]]
!! Suzuki
--> '''Portrayed by:''' Susumu Terajima
A member of the Funaki clan, who was abducted and tortured by Kakihara for his "involvement" in Anjou's disappearance.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Funaki]]
!! Funaki
--> '''Portrayed by:''' Jun Kunimura
[[/folder]]

! Other
[[folder:Karen]]
!!Karen
--> '''Portrayed by:''' Paulyn Sun (under Alien Sun)

A Kabuki-cho hostess Kakihara relies on for information.
* DumbBlonde: Appears to be this initially in the manga. She isn't.
* KnowledgeBroker: Serves as Kakihara's informant for most of the manga, since she has more connections to the rumor mill of Shinjuku and its social scene. She's also in on most of his plans.
%%* ManipulativeBitch
* TheMole: [[spoiler: Works for Jijii.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Like every other person who knew about the mission, Karen is quickly offed to leave no notable witnesses.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Takeshi]]
!!Takeshi Kaneko

Kaneko's son and Ichi's latest friend.

* [[spoiler: BloodSplatteredInnocents]]: [[spoiler: In the epilogue, Takeshi clumsily falls out of an alleyway, holding a bloodstained knife with blood stains on his face; implying he has recently begun his job as Jijii's latest killing machine.]]
* CharacterTic: For a good portion of his appearances, he always has his hand covering his forehead. [[spoiler: It's to hide that his bullies cut some of his bangs, leaving them uneven.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: While most of his panel time is just talking to Ichi, Takeshi is instrumental to [[spoiler: Kaneko discovering the identity of the hitman tearing through the apartment complex.]]
* EnfantTerrible: He was actually a normal kid throughout this nonsense, but the very end of the manga has him [[spoiler:become an addled killer]].
* ExpositoryHairStyleChange: [[spoiler: In the epilogue, he has grown his hair out in a style very similar to the one Ichi currently has; but it's moreso to display that he is being subjected to what Ichi experienced.]]
* [[spoiler: FakeMemories]]: [[spoiler: As Jijii did with Ichi prior, it's implied he's implanting fake memories into Takeshi. As a result, he doesn't remember Ichi when they run into each other at the end of the manga.]]
* SinisterSwitchblade: [[spoiler: He uses a switchblade as Jijii's assassin.]]
* TykeBomb: He [[spoiler: ends up as Jijii's newest assassin.]]
* WhenYouComingHomeDad: Used in the most tragic way.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: After his father dies and Jijii takes him in.]]
[[/folder]]