Characters / Absolute Duo

Characters of Absolute Duo.

Kouryou Academy

Toru Kokonoe

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese), Ricco Fajardo (English)

A new student in Kouryou Academy who came to become stronger so he can avenge the death of someone precious to him. He is dubbed an Irregular for having a shield for a Blaze. He forms a Duo with the mysterious foreign student Julie.

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• Accidental Pervert: He repeatedly ends up in awkward Not What It Looks Like moments with Julie and the other girls, such as accidentally groping them or seeing them changing clothes.
• Adaptational Dumbass: In the anime, it was quite dumb of him to walk up to Lilith while she was Skipping School to talk to her, and then getting himself physically dragged off to an amusement park, and winding up in trouble with Tsukimi. That's the anime version. In the original light novel, Sakuya summoned him out of class because Lilith wanted to speak with him, and after he got there, then she dragged him off to the park, with Sakuya's blessing.
• An Arm and a Leg: The epilogue of Volume 5 has him getting his left arm, along with his Blaze, sliced off by Sakaki.
• Barrier Warrior: After Toru reached Level IV, he gained the ability to manifest Aegis Desire, a blue energy barrier capable of shielding himself and allies at a large radius.
• Bash Siblings: With Julie. He picks her as his Duo, leading them to quickly form a family-like bond, and they protect each other in battle.
• Calling Your Attacks: Julie decided to dub his special punch attack "Mjolnir", after the destructive hammer wielded by the Norse god Thor.
• Can't Catch Up: To Sakaki. Doesn't help that Sakaki was taken in by a nebulous organization and given super-powers.
• Childhood Friends: He and Tora grew up in the same dojo.
• Covert Pervert: In the anime, when Julie and Lilith play "guess who" on him, he identifies them by their breast size. (Though he doesn't say it out loud, the camera implies it.)
• Cynicism Catalyst: The death of his dojo, especially his little sister, made him decide to become stronger so he could avenge them.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His entire dojo, including his younger sister, were killed right in front of him by Sakaki Narukami, for "being weak." His sister died protecting him.
• Declaration of Protection: He promises Julie he will protect her.
• Does Not Like Spam: He doesn't like vegetables. Tachibana and Hotaka force him to eat them.
• Insecure Love Interest: He feels he is not good enough for any of the girls, because he is not strong enough to protect them.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: His Blaze is a shield.
• Megaton Punch: He has a powerful punch attack which he learned from his days at the dojo.
• Nice Guy: He's nice, considerate and protective.
• One Head Taller: He's a full head taller than Julie.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: He doesn't just want to see Sakaki dead, he wants to be the one who rips that stupid smile off his face with his own two hands. In volume 6, when he meets Sakuya after coming out of the hospital, he's relieved when she says she doesn't care about who beat Tor, not because he's worried that Sakaki will retaliate against Sakuya going after him, but because he's afraid Sakuya will succeed in killing the bastard.
• Picky Eater: He doesn't like vegetables and Tomoe
• Punny Name: In Japanese, his name is homophonous to Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Lampshaded by Julie.
• Revenge: He wants to avenge the people of his dojo, especially his little sister.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Towards Julie. Lasts all of one sentence before Toru gives up and just lets people think that she is.
• Skyward Scream: The first thing he does when he gets out of the hospital in volume 6, and thinks he's alone is scream out his rage at his apparent impotence against Sakaki.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: Has yet to kill anyone. Even after learning the Blaze weapons can be used to kill.
• Trademark Favourite Food: He loves meat, to the point that he rarely wants to eat anything else.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Even after discovering Julie's secret that she's actually an El Awaken whose powers can cause her to go berserk and hurt him, he promises to remain by her side as her Duo and protect her.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: He doesn't like to fight girls and tries to avoid hurting them as much as possible. He will make an exception in actual combat or official matches, though.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: This is his true strength in battle. He can prepare and modify rather intricate and powerful strategies on the fly, in the heat of battle.
• You Remind Me of X: When Tachibana hands him a tray of honeyed lemons after morning practice, he's reminded of his sister because she used to do the same thing.

Julie Sigtuna

Voiced by: Nozomi Yamamoto (Japanese), Bryn Apprill (English)

A beautiful girl with red eyes and silver hair who takes an interest in Toru and after some time she becomes his Duo. She is from a foreign country named Gimlé in Scandinavia. Her Blaze is a Sword Type, known as Twin Blades.

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• A-Cup Angst: Downplayed. In the anime, after sneaking into Toru's bed for the first time, both awake to find Toru's hand on her breast. When he tries to pull away, she grabs his hand and asks if they're okay. He happily praises their softness before catching himself. The light novel plays that event very differently.
• Action Girl: She's an opponent to be feared when she summons her Blaze.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Tor pets her on the head on several occasions. She absolutely adores it when he does.
• Animal Motifs: The light novel refers to her as a wolf on several occasions.
• Badass Adorable: Julie is a cute doll-like little girl who can easily slash right through men twice her size with her twin blades.
• Bash Siblings: With Toru. They form a good Duo and protect each other in battle.
• Bedmate Reveal: She has a habit of sneaking into Toru's bed when she feels lonely.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Taken to ridiculous extremes. She gets drunk from tasting a bit of rum raisin ice cream.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Downplayed and later subverted. Julie doesn't like Lilith making numerous attempts to take Toru away from her, but instead of acting possessive, she cleverly blocks Lilith's advances towards Toru without even letting her know what she's doing until it's over. In cases like Miyabi and Tomoe, Julie has no problem with them loving Toru, since they aren't trying to meddle with her relationship with him, and she actively encourages their feelings for him.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She's weird, spacey and usually gets strange ideas.
• Dark and Troubled Past: When she was little, her father was killed by an unknown person right in front of her eyes. The same person also put a scar on her back. She entered Kouryou Academy to become strong enough to avenge her father.
• Declaration of Protection: Just like Toru promised to protect her, she promises to protect him in return.
• Dual Wielding: Her Blaze manifests as twin blades.
• Every Scar Has a Story: The man who killed her father gave her the scar on her back.
• Expressive Hair: Julie's Idiot Hair wiggles when she's happy or excited about something, usually because of Tooru.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: Julie always uses very formal speech patterns, emphasizing her highly polite personality.
• Girlish Pigtails: She ties her hair twintails, which emphasizes her already childlike appearance.
• Going Commando: In Episode 7, she loses her panties and has to go around without them. At the end of the episode, she asks Toru to carry some emergency panties for her from now on.
• Gorgeous Gaijin: She comes from a foreign country named Gimlé in Scandinavia. Her exotic beauty leaves everyone stunned.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Julie says "Yes" and "No" in Danish/Swedish/Norwegian: "Ja" and "Nej".
• Hates Being Alone: She can't stand being alone, which is why she is so attached to Toru.
• Hime Cut: Julie has blunt bangs, bra strap length sidelocks, and waist length straight hair. The hairstyle goes well with her calm and dignified personality.
• Idiot Hair: Has a cowlick that stands prominently atop her head.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: She sees nothing wrong with sleeping in only a nightshirt and panties, while sharing a room with Toru. In the light novels, Julie even thinks it's okay to invite Toru to take a bath with her after Tsukimi assigned them to be a Duo.
• Lightning Bruiser: Julie is this even compared to other Exceed, because she's actually not an Exceed but one of El Awaken, individuals born with power that Exceed were created to imitate.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: She says Toru reminds her of her father.
• Little Miss Badass: One of the youngest looking girls in the cast, and also one of the strongest.
• Ms. Fanservice: Julie is the girl we get to see the most skin from.
• Mugging the Monster: The prologue of Volume 5 in the light novel shows a scene 4 years before the start of the story. A criminal group fleeing from an Exceed chances upon Julie training in the forest. They decide taking her hostage would be a good idea. It was a big mistake on the criminals' part.
• Mundane Utility: Episode 8 of the anime has her using her Blaze to chop vegetables in mid air, very effectively.
• Mystical White Hair: Her silver hair highlights her mysterious nature and behaviour. Turns out she is not an Exceed like everyone else, but an El Awaken, individuals who unlike Exceeds, are able to materialize Blazes without being injected with Lucifer nanomachines.
• Nice Girl: She's kind, helpful and polite.
• Older Than She Looks: Julie is roughly around the same age as the other characters, yet she is often mistaken as an elementary or middle schooler.
• Power Incontinence: Her powers as an El Awaken cause her to go berserk when she lets her emotions go out of control. When she's in that state, not even Toru is safe.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: Silvery-white hair, red eyes, pale skin, petite, mysterious and troubled past, not a normal human, stoic and weird behaviour, eventually reveals a sweet and emotional side to her love interest.
• Revenge: Like Toru, she has someone she wants to avenge.
• Shipper on Deck: She wants Toru to reciprocate Miyabi and Tomoe's feelings for him because both girls are very close personal friends to her and Toru, and they always defer to her in matters regarding Toru.
• Signature Headgear: Her pigtails are decorated by black ribbons with little bells.
• Significant Birth Date: Her birthday is on April 1st, April Fools.
• The Stoic: She usually shows little to no emotion in front of people other than Toru.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She shows absolutely no emotion in public. When in private with Toru, she reveals a sweet and cute side.
• Super Drowning Skills: She can't swim.
• This Is Unforgivable!: She says this almost word for word when K struck down Toru and boasted of killing him.
• Token Mini-Moe: She happens to be the youngest looking girl in the series after Sakuya.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: She reveals to Toru that her El Awake powers manifested as a direct result of seeing her father struck down, and the killer mocking and blaming her for it.
• Unstoppable Rage: In Episode 9 and 12, she goes completely berserk when K tries to kill Toru. In her rampage, she nearly defeated K on her own.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Don't you ever hurt Toru in front of Julie, because she will enter in an Unstoppable Rage and will try to slash you in half.

Tomoe Tachibana

Voiced by: Ayaka Suwa (Japanese), Whitney Rodgers (English)

Toru and Julie's classmate. She is smart and talented and possesses a dignified atmosphere. She cares very much about the people who are close to her especially Miyabi, whom despite of being weak still chooses her to form a duo. She is very much into martial arts and Shogi. Being a vegetarian, she often gives Toru a plate of vegetables to maintain his stamina and power. Her Blaze is a Kusarigama.

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• Action Girl: A skilled Blaze warrior and martial artista capable of going toe to toe with Julie.
• Alliterative Name: Tomoe Tachibana.
• Apologises a Lot: At least in the anime, every time she realizes that she accuses Tor of some indecent behavior falsely, she runs up to him, apologizes and throws herself to the ground, begging and pleading for forgiveness in a comically exaggerated manner.
• Catchphrase Insult: "Kokonoe, you dog!"
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Miyabi.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: To Miyabi. While Miyabi is barely able to fight, Tomoe stands out as the stronger, smarter, and more talented of the two. This usually makes Miyabi insecure, since she thinks she only pushes Tomoe down.
• Nice Girl: She's polite, friendly and very helpful, especially towards Miyabi.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: She wears black tights with her school uniform, making her look more elegant compared to the other girls.
• Rules Lawyer: The light novel shows this is her primary defense mechanism back at her very, very strict and chauvinistic dojo.
• Samaritan Relationship Starter: During their first practice spar, Tachibana was annoyed that Toru didn't hit her back. Toru replied that while gender is not an issue in actual combat or official matches, he otherwise Would Not Hit a Girl. This is FAR better than the treatment she got back at her dojo and is the primary reason why she starts to like him.
• Satellite Character: As the series progresses, her role is only to be Miyabi's more competent partner and trying to get Miyabi to be more self-confident.
• Signature Headgear: She always wears a yellow headband with a ribbon on the left side.
• Tsundere: Sweet type. She is nice and agreeable, Toru and several of the misunderstandings involving him and Julie, set her off.
• Unknowingly in Love: She has been devoted to martial arts since she was little, leaving her inexperienced in matters of love. Although she appears to be falling in love with Toru, she's completely unaware of it herself.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: She's described as one given her traditional beauty, being smart and talented and possessing a dignified atmosphere.

Miyabi Hotaka

Voiced by: Ayaka Imamura (Japanese), Ashleigh Domangue (English)

Tomoe's Duo. She is also in Toru's class and tends to be shy around others, especially men. Her Blaze is a huge and heavy lance which is capable of doing large scale destruction, however she has a hard time using it.

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• Adaptational Villainy: The anime makes it look like Miyabi joined "The Rebels" willingly. In the light novel, she is specifically tricked into thinking Equipment Smith is one of Sakuya's researchers, acting under her orders. It's not until after K's used her as a puppet to attack her classmates that she learns different.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the anime, Tomoe is able to break K's control with a slap. In the lightnovel, Toru has to punch her into unconsciousness.
• Athletically Challenged: She's lacking in athletic ability, causing her to struggle to keep up with her classmates in PE class.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Her Blaze is a huge lance which would be very effective in both offense and defense except that she has neither the strength nor the stamina to wield it properly for any length of time.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Tor is the first guy she ever met (once she entered puberty) who treats her giant chest as merely part of the package known as Miyabi Hotaka and actually cares for her thoughts and feelings as a person. When she collapses on the track and field, he stands by her and helps her recover. When she sprains her ankle, he carries her to the infirmary. When she's feeling down, he offers words of encouragement. All without ulterior motives. For someone with Miyabi's life experiences, this means a lot.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: She is forced to attack her friends by K using a remote control.
• D-Cup Distress: Prior to Toru, just about every guy she met treated her as nothing more than a walking, talking pair of giant tits, and girls lashed out at her due to sheer jealousy of her figure until she met Tachibana.
• Does Not Like Men: She is afraid of men and has a hard time just being near them.
• Girlish Pigtails: She has her hair tied up into two mini-tails.
• Hair Intakes: The two "cat ears" in her hair.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: She sees herself as worthless and thinks she will only push down Tomoe.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Tomoe. They're very close friends and work together as a Duo.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: She wants to become stronger so she doesn't slow Tomoe down and so Toru looks at her.
• Jousting Lance: Not exactly a jousting lance but Miyabi's Blaze is a lance which is very heavy and very large.
• Love Epiphany: In Episode 7, she realizes that she is in love with Toru.
• Love Makes You Evil: Because of her obsession with Tooru and being rejected by him, Miyabi accepts an Unit, specifically EII.Libel, from Equipment Smith and attacks her friends.
• Ms. Fanservice: In the anime, the camera tends to focus on Miyabi's giant breasts and butt.
• Shrinking Violet: She is very shy and meek, especially around boys.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She falls in love with Tooru because of his kindness and supportiveness to her.
• Yandere: In the anime, briefly during episode 11, due to being Brainwashed and Crazy. Her Duo Tomoe slaps her out of it.

Lilith Bristol

Voiced by: Haruka Yamazaki (Japanese), Caitlin Glass (English)

A transfer student from England came from an affluent family. She is called an "Exception" and due to this, she claims to be able to do anything regardless of the rules. She went to Japan in order to form a Duo with Toru after hearing news about his capability and being special just like Lilith, however Toru rejects her because he is already a Duo with Julie. Her Blaze is a rifle, which breaks the conventions of a typical Blaze.

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• The Ace: Comes from her status as an "Exception". She's talented, smart, beautiful, popular, rich and has a special Blaze.
• Action Girl: The first level 1 to defeat a level 3 wasn't Toru, it was her, and she did it alone, unscathed. Toru was the second to accomplish the same, and he was not only badly injured, but had a lot of help.
• Big-Breast Pride: She loves to show off how well-endowed she is.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Had she put in any effort into her studies and physical training, she wouldn't have fallen behind.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She believes her ample bust size gives her an advantage to win Toru' affections, but it works against her since one of her love rivals (Miyabi) is even bigger than her.
• Character Catchphrase: "Don't make me say it twice!"
• Entitled to Have You: She wants Toru to be her Duo because he has an unusual Blaze like her, and fully expects him to abandon his current Duo, Julie, so he can team up with her. After she develops feelings for him, she decides he will be her future husband, no objections.
• The Gift: She's called an "Exception" because her Blaze breaks the conventions of a typical Blaze and gives her an unusual potential.
• The Gunslinger: Her main role in battle, though she is no slouch at close range either.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Young, beautiful, an elegant Ojou, and a fairly decent person when she wants to.
• It's All About Me: As noted by Toru she thinks very highly of herself.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Selfish, arrogant, haughty and bossy, but later she starts showing she is not a bad person deep down.
• Ms. Fanservice: After Julie, most of the fanservice in the series is from Lilith. Her introduction even has her naked.
• Mundane Utility: The light novel introduces her using her Blaze for hunting deer. Although she does hit the animals, they are not killed and are simply stunned for a few minutes before getting up like nothing happened.
• Naked on Arrival: Introduced while taking a bath in the anime. In the light novel, she is illustrated hunting deer with her Blaze, also in the nude for some reason.
• New Transfer Student: She transferred to Koryo Academy to convince Toru to become her Duo.
• Ojou: She comes from an extremely rich family, has a personal maid, lives in a rather vast estate in another country and travels by private helicopter.
• Ojou Ringlets: She has two sidelocks that curl into ringlets, which highlights her high-class position.
• One-Woman Army: She takes all the 2nd year Class by herself and required a cooperation between Tooru, Julie, Tomoe, Miyabi and Tora to disarm her.
• Punny Name: Her surname Bristol sounds like a pun on "Pistol", referencing the weapon her Blaze manifests as.
• Rebellious Spirit: She just loves to show off her status as an Exception by going around breaking all the rules she can and doing whatever the hell she wants.
• Rescue Romance: She falls in love with Toru after he goes to save her from being taken away by Equipment Smith's troops.
• Rich Bitch: Because of her family status, she thinks she is better than everyone else and lets them know it.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: She uses her vast fortune and contacts to go free of any academy rules. She's always Skipping School with no consequences, for instance.
• Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: After falling in love with him, she declares Toru her future husband.
• Skinship Grope: She gropes Tomoe's breasts in Episode 10. It's her peculiar attempt to cheer Tomoe up after Miyabi's disappearance.
• Skipping School: She always skips class to go sipping tea at the school garden. She claims she doesn't need to go to class because she already finished her studies a long time ago.
• Spoiled Brat: Being a privileged Ojou, she does whatever the hell she wants and when she wants something, she expects to get it right away.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Has a strange sympathy for Sakuya, the creepy Mad Scientist of a principal.
• The Tease: She loves to playfully flirt with Toru and get flustered reactions out of him.
• Took a Level in Kindness: By the end of Volume 4, or episodes 7, 8, and 9, Lilith realizes that if she wants any shot at Toru, she had better not get in the way of the others expressing their feelings for him. So even though she doesn't actively support the others growing closer, she does her best to not try and sabotage them either.
• Trigger-Happy: Ever since she was a child, Lilith has loved guns above anything, and she says they are part of her soul, which is why her Blaze is a rifle.
• Tsundere: She constantly switches from haughty and bossy to cute and affectionate.
• Tsurime Eyes: Her sharp eyes reflect her arrogance and overconfidence.

Aoi "Tora" Torasaki

Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae (Japanese), Anthony Bowling (English)

Toru's childhood friend and martial arts rival. Like Toru, Tora is considered an Irregular. His Blaze is a katar.

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• Ambiguously Gay: Some of his reactions to Toru suggest he might like him as more than an old friend.
• Animal Motifs: 'Tora' is Japanese for tiger.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: While he's no slouch in martial arts, he overestimates himself in every fight scene.
• Bash Brothers: With Tatsu. Being a Duo, they pair up during battle.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: His Blaze manifests as a short-sword that he wields like brass knuckles.
• Childhood Friends: With Toru. They went to the same martial arts school and Tora would usually hang around his house.
• Leeroy Jenkins: His MO is attack first, think later. It seldom works for him though he was one of the top contenders in the "mock combat" festival, and actually held his own quite well in Episodes 7, 9, and 11.
• Locked Out of the Loop: He doesn't know the true story of what happened to Toru's family and dojo.
• Tsundere: He acts harsh and rude towards Toru, but he clearly cares about him more than he's willing to admit.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Tatsu. Toru notes that Tora and Tatsu quarrel frequently, even though Tatsu only speaks through body language.

Ryuutarou "Tatsu" Tatsuno

Voiced by: Yoshihisa Kawahara (Japanese), Tyson Rinehart (English)

Tora's Duo.

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• Bash Brothers: With Tora. They fight well together.
• Eyes Always Shut: He almost never opens his eyes.
• Hunk: He's by far the tallest character in the series, and the most muscular.
• The Silent Bob: Somehow, Tsukimi perfectly understands his answers in class through body language alone.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Toru notes that Tatsu and Tora quarrel frequently despite forming a good team together.

Imari Nagakura

Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu (Japanese), Michelle Rojas (English)

One of the first students Toru meets upon coming to Sakuya's academy, and also his first opponent. Her Blaze is a single sword.

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• Action Girl: She's an efficient swordswoman.
• The Bus Came Back: After losing the match with Toru at the entrance exam, she supposedly drops out. She returns in Episode 7.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Even though she and Toru have already finished their battle at the "entrance exam," either of them could have been hit by a stray blow or debris, but they just stand there chatting like they were on a picnic, or watching a parade.
• Cool Sword: Her Blaze manifests as a sword or katana.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She was annoyed that Tor was hesitant to manifest his Blaze, and (at least in the light novel) actually went easy on her in their match.
• Graceful Loser: She has no hard feelings losing to Toru in the entrance exam, and the two part on good terms.
• Nice Girl: Very nice and friendly. When Toru accidentally touches her breast, she just politely asks him to move his hand instead of getting angry and hysterical.
• Shipper on Deck: She supports Miyabi's crush on Toru and encourages her to act on her feelings.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Because she encouraged Miyabi to confess her feelings to Toru and convinced everyone to leave the two alone at the beach, Miyabi got rejected by Toru and she joined Equipment Smith to gain the strength she wants to protect Toru.

Rito Tsukimi

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Jennifer McDaniel (English)

The first and primary teacher at Kouryou Academy, and the one who basically explains all the minor nuances of being an Exceed. Her Blaze is a whip-sword.

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• Adaptational Badass: In the light novel, blocking K's attack caused her to lose a significant amount of her abdomen, and even with her Blaze Healing Factor, required a significant hospital stay and was still not completely recovered when returning to class. In the anime, she's just bleeding slightly from her forehead though unable to move, and is fully recovered the next day.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed. She's not quite as harsh with Toru in the light novel as in the anime, but she's still highly unpleasant, at least at first.
• Animal-Eared Headband: She wears headband with bunny ears.
• Animal Motifs: She wears rabbit ears, her given name contains the kanji for "rabbit", and her students call her "Usa-Sensei" (taken from "usagi", the Japanese word for rabbit).
• Ax-Crazy: When she reveals her psycho side, she turns bloodthirsty, sadistic, and brutal.
• Badass Adorable: She still wears her maid outfit with bunny ears when she goes to kick ass.
• Badass Teacher: Despite not being nice to them, she's protective of her students when it comes down to it. This is shown when she defended them against K's attack, where Toru saves her life after she's grievously wounded saving the life of another student, Momo, from K.
• BFS: Her Blaze is a Whip Sword that's almost as tall as she is.
• Blood Knight: She really loves combat, especially killing people.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's an eccentric teacher in a maid outfit with bunny ears, yet she is a good teacher and a skilled fighter.
• Curtains Match the Window: Violet hair and eyes.
• Cute and Psycho: She has two personalities; the first one is a child-like, carefree, and happy Sensei-chan, while the second is a foul-mouthed, sadistic, and ruthless Girl with Psycho Weapon.
• Dark Action Girl: She's pretty brutal and nasty in combat.
• Establishing Character Moment: Her entrance has her coming into the classroom through the window, and she only gets stranger after that.
• Even the Girls Want Her: She gains many fangirls after she protects the girls' dorms.
• The Fake Cutie: She acts like a cutesy and childish Sensei-chan, until she switches to her "dark" personality, turning into a foul-mouthed and raging Girl with Psycho Weapon.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Toru, Julie, Tora and Tatsu tolerate her presence after she tries to kill them as part of her job to train Blaze users, but they're still wary of her psycho side.
• French Maid Outfit: She wears a maid outfit, even though she's a teacher.
• Genki Girl: Her Sensei-chan persona is overly energetic and cheerful.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Tsukimi is a Sensei-chan dressed like a maid and wearing bunny ears that make her look adorable, making a sharp contrast with her wielding an oversized Whip Sword as her Blaze weapon.
• Hot Teacher: She's an attractive and buxom teacher dressed in a French Maid Outfit that shows her cleavage.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Episode 9 shows she was holding back in her fight with Toru in the "mock combat" festival. She's actually a level 4.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she is a psychopath, she does care about her students.
• Manipulative Bitch: There is always a method to her madness.
• Nominal Hero: She's an Ax-Crazy Psycho for Hire. The only reasobs why she's one of the good guys is because Sakuya lets her unleash her psycho side to test Blaze users, and she does have enough of a sense of duty towards her students to protect them from the villains.
• One-Woman Army: Once she stops holding back, she shows her true strength by taking down an entire faction of Equipment Smith's troops.
• Psycho for Hire: Principal Sakuya takes advantage of Tsukimi's Ax-Crazy tendencies to have her challenge her students and bring out their potential in life-or-death situations.
• Sadist Teacher: Even though she claims it's part of her job, she attacks her own students to force them to bring out their potential by threatening their lives, and she does it with sadistic glee.
• Sensei-chan: She is an extremely quirky, young and cute teacher in a French Maid Outfit with bunny ears.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: She's more than willing to show off her body, such as letting Toru see her panties because she knows it'll make him annoyed.
• Skinship Grope: She enjoys groping Miyabi and Tomoe when they are bathing at the hot springs.
• Taking the Bullet: More like taking the Wave-Motion Gun. She blocks K's attack with her body, protecting a girl in the light novel and getting grievously harmed in the process. Protecting the entire female dorms in the anime, again getting injured, but not as badly.
• The Tease: She enjoys annoying and frustrating Toru with her perverted behavior and sexual comments.
• Took a Level in Kindness: She never stops being a Drill Sergeant Nasty Blood Knight, but she's become far more amiable as the story progresses, thanks in large part to Toru.
• Whip Sword: Her Blaze is a sword that can be separated into several blades and was used as a whip.

Mikuni

The secondary teacher in Kouryou Academy.

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• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: He plays this role in the light novel, supervising Tsukimi. In the anime, this aspect is completely removed.
• Demoted to Extra: In the light novel, he has a major influence on the story. In the anime, he barely has any presence, not even getting speaking lines.
• Flechette Storm: His Blaze manifests as a dozen knives, that fly.
• No Full Name Given: Only his surname is known.
• One-Man Army: He could easily take down the entire squad of soldiers that Equipment Smith sent to the school.
• Stoic Spectacles: He's a bespectacled man who always has a deadpan facial expression.

Sakuya Tsukumo

Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese), Felecia Angelle (English)

The dean and principal of the Kouryou Academy, where the Exceeds are made and trained.

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• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She has long black hair and pale skin. As for the eerie part, the lengths she is willing to go to achieve the Absolute Duo make her scary.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: She wears a black Gothic style dress.
• Enfante Terrible: She's a diabolical and sadistic ten-year-old.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: She always speaks in keigo to complement her Elegant Gothic Lolita attire, as well as to emphasize her being the academy's principal despite her young age.
• Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair in long pigtails which suits her doll-like look.
• Improbable Age: She's the principal of an academy despite being only 10 years old.
• Insane Troll Logic: In the anime, she mentions that Tsukimi trying to kill Toru, Julie, Tora, and a few others made her the best teacher Sakuya's ever seen because one can't argue with her results of finding a level one student who could defeat a level three.
• Lack of Empathy: She admits that she gives her students a happy school life solely so they have something to fight for, and then if they get killed in combat, they are completely worthless.
• Mad Scientist: She runs an academy in which the students and teachers are injected with nanomachines called "Lucifer" which allows them to manifest Blazes. Tora even said that the Kouryou Academy is Sakuya's "lab" and its students are her "guinea pigs".
• Red Baron: She's known as the "Blaze Diabolica"
• Shipper on Deck: She's rooting for Toru to enter a polyamorous relationship with his multiple love interests, and wishes for all their happiness.
• Token Mini-Moe: The only girl in the series that looks even younger than Julie, who already looks like a preteen.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She's a 10-year-old girl who sees people's lives as nothing more than test subjects for some kind of mad experiment.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: She will do anything to achieve Absolute Duo.

Momo Kibitsu

Voiced by: Mami Uchida (Japanese), Leah Clark (English)

A student whose life was saved by Tsukimi from K's assault in the light novel.

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• Cry into Chest: The first thing she does upon Tsukimi's return to the classroom is run up to her and cry into her chest. Amusingly, Tsukimi is completely flustered by this and has no idea how to handle it, begging Toru to help her.
• Demoted to Extra: In the anime, she only gets a brief cameo in Episode 6.
• It's All My Fault: Says this word for word when Tsukimi is taken to the hospital after rescuing her from K.
• Morality Pet: Tsukimi is Cute and Psycho as she can be, but she develops a soft spot for Momo.
• Rescue Romance: After Tsukimi saves her life from K, Momo develops very strong feelings for Tsukimi.
• Teacher/Student Romance: She has a crush on Tsukimi, her Hot Teacher.
• Tears of Joy: Tsukimu is injured by K while rescuing Momo. Upon seeing a (near fully) recovered Tsukimi, Momo breaks down in tears.

Antagonists

K

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Z. Charles Bolton (English)

A soldier who serves Equipment Smith as the commander of the Rebels.

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• Cruel and Unusual Death: Sakaki slices him in half. Vertically.
• Cynicism Catalyst: The death of his older brother really did a number on him. His family's response didn't help one bit.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His brother was killed in front of him. His family fell apart, and rather than give him the therapy he needs, or help hunt down the killer, his parents sold him to a criminal organization where he was experimented on, abused, and made into a psychotic killer.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The primary action antagonist in the first season of the series.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: In the light novel, he's actually insulted that Tor stepped between him and the berserk Julie because that saved his life. Tor only did it because he was afraid that if berserk Julie killed K, she would never go back to normal.
• Driven by Envy: This is his primary reason for hating and trying to kill Toru. To his eyes, Toru has a happy and healthy relationship with Julie, and K wants to make either or both feel the pain he feels before he dies.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He is disgusted and baffled by Toru's strong desire to protect someone he cares about.
• Faux Affably Evil: A ruthless killing machine who communicates in formal and polite linguistics, he hates the shit out of Toru to the point that K wants to make both him and Julie feel the same pain as K did before he dies.
• Foil: To both Julie and Toru.
• Freudian Excuse: And it's a doozy. After his brother was killed, his parents sold him to Equipment Smith, who made him a ruthless killing machine that only cares about power and results.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: He kills Equipment Smith after being abused one time too often, and steals the epitome of Equipment Smith's research before going after Tor and Julie for revenge.
• One-Letter Name: He is known only by the letter K since his real name was taken from him.
• Only Known By His Nickname: Or codename in this case. His real name (revealed to be Kevin Wayfair) was taken from him.
• Parental Abandonment: When his brother was killed, his parents sold him to Equipment Smith.
• Used to Be a Sweet Child: He was a good boy, until his brother was killed and his parents sold him to Equipment Smith.
• Would Hit a Girl: Has no problem harming and nearly killing Julie.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Chapter 3 of Volume 5 in the light novel has the guy who killed his brother and ruined his life take him out of prison and then summarily cut him in half because his "part in the play" is over.

Equipment Smith

Voiced by: Tomomichi Nishimura (Japanese), Kent Williams (English)

The boss of a criminal organization at odds with the academy where the protagonists study.

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• Evil Old Folks: He looks like a harmless old man, but is in fact the boss of a criminal organization.
• Faux Affably Evil: As long as things are going his way, or he thinks things are going his way, he's calm, polite, and cordial. Once things stop going his way, or he perceives some slight, real or imagined, he flies into a rage and sends death squads after people.
• Smug Snake: He thinks he's in control, and always the smartest man in the room. He seldom is.
• Villain Ball: Kicking, insulting, and yelling at a teenage boy whom you've made into a psychotic killing machine and given super-human powers isn't the brightest of ideas. Especially after he just suffered a humiliating loss to people he considers inferior to himself. Doubly so considering he has plenty of reason to hate you already, and you're waving around a MacGuffin that gives him reason to not need you any more.
• Villainous Breakdown: He took his loss to Sakuya's students especially hard which is odd considering that his "research" to date has been trying to break into Sakyua's labs and kidnap her students. Then again, the comments he heard from all the other organizations trying for 'Absolute Duo' weren't exactly kind.
• Would Hurt a Child: K and quite a few others would happily testify to that.

Sakaki Narukami

Toru's former best friend who is responsible for killing Toru's sister Otoha.

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• Absurdly Sharp Blade: He can cut people in half vertically with a single fluid sword strike.
• Armor-Piercing Question: He uses one to distract Toru before striking him down.

  "Can you protect your friends with bloody hands?"

• Big Bad: The primary antagonist in the story and the one responsible for most of the suffering and heartbreak, all for the sake of "enacting a play."
• Broken Ace: He's handsome, wealthy and exceptionally skilled in martial arts even aside from his swordsmanship. He's also evil, malicious and twisted.
• Creepy Child: He's a teen, roughly Toru's age.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Toru's confrontation with Sakaki ends in shambles for the former, having both his Blaze and left arm sliced off by the latter.
• Dissonant Serenity: His voice and facial expression don't change whether he's talking about the weather or mowing down people like flies.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Oh, he's well aware that Toru is pisssed after what he's done, but he does a good job of at least pretending to not understand why.
• Evil Former Friend: He acted as Toru's best friend until he turned, and killed Toru's dojo and everyone in it, especially Otoha Kokonoe.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He's not at the top of the list of nasty people in the story, but he's far worse than K or Equipment Smith were.
• Hate Sink: Responsible for the majority of the atrocities that occurred throughout the story and holding no remorse for his actions, he has no qualms with demonstrating himself as the most heinous and irredemable character in the series.
• Implacable Man: Nothing Toru does even manages to slow him down, and that's Toru at level IV. If Toru's continued survival wasn't part of the whole "Stage of Darkness" thing, Toru could, and would be easily killed by this guy.
  "Your fang will never reach me. Yes, absolutely."
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: He's always talking about things like "scenes," "lines in a play," or "playing a part." Does he know he's in a light novel? Or is he just crazy?
• Light Is Not Good: He shows off a special skill "Ogre" based off his soul and it takes the form of a glowing sword and used a beam of light to teleport K out of prison, but nothing about this guy, or his behavior is "good."
• Perpetual Smiler: No matter what he's doing or what's going on around him, he just does not stop smiling, ever. One of Toru's goals is to knock that smile off his face, with violence.
• Smug Super: He believes that nobody can touch him. Sadly, as of now, he appears to be right.
• The Sociopath: An evil and twisted Jerkass who commits horrible atrocities for no other reason than to stave off his boredom and because no one is strong enough to stop him.
• Troll: While he had the decency to leave Otoha's grave alone, he did appear at the site of Toru's destroyed dojo purely for the sake of provoking and enraging Toru.

Other Characters

Otoha Kokonoe

Voiced by: Manami Tanaka (Japanese), Lara Woodhull (English)

Toru's younger sister.

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• Big Brother Worship: She adored her big brother.
• Death by Origin Story: Her death serves as a part of Toru's backstory to create a motivation for him.
• Plot-Triggering Death: It's because of her death that Toru joined Kouryou Academy so he could avenge her one day.
• Posthumous Character: She died protecting her brother before the beginning of the series.
• Taking the Bullet: She jumped in the way of a sword strike to save her big brother.

Ouza

The leader of a Yakuza clan that lives near Toru's dojo and pulled his unconscious body (along with his sister's corpse) out of the burning dojo. He is also the one who tells Toru about Kouryou Academy.

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• Brutal Honesty: He doesn't mince words when telling Toru what he lacks in martial skill or physical ability.
• The Don: Runs a yakuza clan and dojo.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Making the arson of Toru's dojo look like an accident only served to let Narukami Sakaki grow stronger and kill more people.
• One Degree of Separation: He used to be the sparring partner of Sakaki's father, so he knows Sakaki, personally.
• Secret-Keeper: Is one of the few people who knows what really happened to Toru's dojo and family.