Showtaro
The Kyōkotsu
The main character of this story, who is in search of his childhood friend Emine. Very (too?) optimistic and also a huge fan of the TV Show Charisma Justice. He can draw the power of any animal by biting one of its bones, with the condition of achieving one good deed every day.
- Animorphism: His appearance and behavior can change slightly depending on the animal bone he's biting. For example, with the dog bone he will have chops and run on all fours.
- Ascended Fanboy: Sort of. At the end of the series, he has become an acknowledged hero and goes alongside Charisma Justice to fight Emine in the Gathering of the Masks. And the series ends there.
- Catchphrase: "Omae wo ichizen ni suru!" (literally "I'll make you my good deed") and "Good deed complete!"
- Idiot Hero: Each chapter is a new occasion to demonstrate his spectacular stupidity; except in combat, of course.
- Fanboy: He worships Charisma Justice to the point of using his techniques in combat. And they are frightningly effective.
- Finishing Move: Usually uses different versions of the Justice Blade as these.
- The Pollyanna: Nothing can curb his optimism. Nothing. Not even his best friend trying to kill him.
- Sailor Fuku: Yes, he actually intended to infiltrate the Fear Factory in one.
- Spirit Advisor: The Kyōkotsu serves as this to him in volume 4. He is said to be another part of himself.
Mana Hinoki
The daughter of a family of martial artists in the region of Chūgoku, who travels from town to town to collect "diplomas" (rewards) − of any kind. She meets Showtaro by crashing into him with her bike, before helping him to fight the two Clowns who abducted the prefect. She then accompanies him in his search for Emine.
- Bluff the Impostor: In the first chapter, she traps the little brother Tast, who had taken Showtaro's appearance, by making him say the hour of diffusion of Charisma Justice. The real Showtaro never remembers it.
- Catchphrase: "Shōjō GET!" (Diploma obtained!)
- Embarrassing Nickname: Children in her howetown called "Migomana", a play on the word "namagomi" (trash, garbage) because of her weakness in martial arts at the time. Kids Are Cruel indeed.
- Little Miss Badass: Oh, she may be captured or endangered occasionally, but she sure as hell can defend herself. The Fear Factory arc shows that she can send sturdy robots to the junkyard barehanded.
- Only Sane Woman: She claims to be this in chapter 4. She is not.
- The Unfavorite: Her family teaches the ancient martial arts to only one child. Her little brother was chosen, and she had to learn her combat techniques herself; which is all the more impressive when you think about it.
Yowhey Nanami
A genius (and cunning) robotic inventor, who is also very skilled with fire-arms. While rather laid-back and usually pretty nice, he nonetheless won't hesitate to kill his enemies if he thinks he has to… or so he claims. He was once the leader of an Clown-hunting unit, which got entirely wiped out by the King of Spin, Nofix.
- The Atoner: He threw away the Law Abiding Silver Gun in a junkyard to move on from his past as a Clown hunter. Although Tuhl later points out that at the same time, he threw away his trust in other people.
- Deuteragonist: Considering that the Fear Factory arc, which easily covers 60% of the series, is as much about him as about Showtaro, calling him this is hardly an exaggeration.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Can build a machine to neutralize Solens's poison from pieces of Mana's scooter, or a Pintsized Powerhouse robot with an AI from quickly gather goods bought in markets.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: Actually the case since he left the Clown hunters. All the weapons he has built since then are non-lethal, which Solens calls him out on in chapter 3.
- Jerkass: He has his moments, especially in his early appearances.
Tuhl
A Kappa and old acquaintance of Yowhey, who grew up in a garbage dump and can hear the "voice of objects". He is rather feared by the inhabitants of the neighbouring town and usually doesn't meddle with humans, until he meets again with Yowhey and joins Showtaro's group to stop the Fear Factory.
- Calling Your Attacks: His pickaxe techniques all have a snake-themed name.
- Nosebleed: Mana doing stunts + miniskirt = this result if he isn't careful. Despite being a Kappa.
- Only Sane Man: Or at least the closest thing the group has to one.
- Powerful Pick: A huge pickaxe with a rope attached to it.
- Use Your Head: His skull is extremely hard, though not undestructible.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: A non-villainous variant; Kappa can extract the humans' soul by their butt, but since he had very few contacts with humans, he learned to extract the soul of obects instead, which he uses to stop the Robot of Terror.
Captain Solens
The very angry leader of the unit charged with chasing Yowhey, to kill him and get back the control chip of the Robot of Terror (the man ran away after giving them a fake chip which made the robot destroy half of the factory). He can produce all kinds of gases within his body, at the condition of executing a rather ridiculous breathing ritual once in a while.
- Deadly Euphemism: "You will all be fired with me!"
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In their first duel, Yowhey uses his gases against him by having Showtaro cut his pipes and igniting them with a bullet.
- Villainous Valour: He takes trust between the parties in a transaction very seriously. Though Yowhey finds these "valours" completely hypocritical considering the firm's activities.
Rage Agey
The chief scientist of the Fear Factory, who built various combat robots. He looks like a dog for some reason.
- Verbal Tic: "Janai ka?" ("isn't it?") It's even lampshaded.Agey: Aren't you going to fight my Tachihi 80 now?
Tuhl: Why do you ask me, damnit?!
Mana: Tuhl, it's just a Verbal Tic. It's part of his character. You don't really have to answer him.
Vice-president Lodigy
The Lighting Beast
He effectively took the lead of the Fear Factory after the President got injured, and seeks to Take Over the World with the help of the Robot of Terror. He can produce light and lightning from his body, under the condition of regularly bathing in light.
- Badass Armfold: A schtick of his.
- Big Bad: Technically, he's the Disc-One Final Boss, but the series ended before Emine really had the time to do anything as the Big Bad.
- Shock and Awe
- Sinister Schnoz
- Villain with Good Publicity: The Fear Factory is known as the "Happy Factory" on the outside, so he has to make a good reputation to go with it.
Zuno and Ashi
The chief of the Intelligence section of the Fear Factory, and his assistant. Zuno is a walking radio who uses his nose-hair to capture every sound, on the condition of erasing one memory for every information he gets with his power. Ashi is mostly there to remind his boss of the orders he inevitably forgets.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Ashi tries to implement this, but consistently gets his answers wrong.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Ashi's role is similar; his boss isn't that quirky (by the series' standards at least), but has frequent memory-holes due to his Condition.
- Heel–Face Turn: When ordered to kill Mana, they can't do it and let her escape instead.
- Killed Off for Real: Zuno is shot in the head by the vice-president for helping Showtaro.
- Opaque Nerd Glasses: With big As on the lenses. It's a wonder Ashi can see anything.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Both of them.
- Yes-Man: Ashi is this to Zuno.
Nofix
The King of Spin
A professional killer who was hired by the Fear Factory to make the Robot of Terror work after its control chip was lost. He loves killing people more than anything and is not exactly a mentally stable person. As his title indicates, he controls the rotation of everything, from the objects around to the cells of his own body, allowing him to regenerate at will, in exchange for a short lifespan. He was actually partly in league with Emine to destroy the Fear Factory from the inside.
- Boom, Headshot!: Oh you can try. Just don't expect it to work.
- Broken Record: Subverted. He has a habit of repeating a word over and over again but that's only to mask the fact that when he activates his "Field of vision rotation" technique, his projected image will repeat his last words continuously for five seconds. If he does it all the time, the enemy won't suspect something is wrong as easily.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He doesn't try to justify himself for being a psychotic murderer. He just likes to kill people and finds everything else boring.
- Healing Factor: Without blasting him to pieces, this guy is pretty much unkillable. His "spinning cells" power allows him to regenerate not only his own lost limbs, but even those of robots.
- Karma Houdini: In the last chapter, he's still on the loose, as dangerous as ever, although he probably has only a few months left to live.
- Killer Yoyo: Uses one before he starts to use the much more destructive Robot of Terror.
- Knight of Cerebus: The series becomes noticeably more serious (and also bloodier) as soon as he enters the stage.
- The Mole: He actually works with Emine.
- Psycho for Hire: And he only gets more psychotic as the series progresses. Most people are in mortal danger by literally just being in the same room as him.
- Scary Black Man: Despite his short stature, he more than fills the scary part.
- Spectacular Spinning: And everything is more deadly too.
Emine
The Hakutaku
Showtaro's childhood friend, who, according to the latter, wanted to like and be liked by humans, but ended being unable to; because after awakening as a Clown, he had to fill the condition of "one evil deed every day". He stays in the shadows for most of the series.
- Big Bad: He doesn't want to be but he is.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: As a teenager, he sure does. Not surprisingly, his design would later be used as reference for Soul Eater's Crona.
- Healing Factor/Resurrective Immortality: Apparently his main power… according to his description. We never actually get to see it in action.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Although it's more along the lines of "try to stop me if you can, but I'll show no mercy."
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Single Tear: Combined with Tears of Blood. His eye tatoo is supposed to represent this accord to the author's comment.
- Tragic Villain: Emine has a contractual obligation to be evil, so it's no surprise that he ends up wanting to destroy the world. But the little we see of him clearly shows that he never wanted any of this.
- Wolverine Claws: Kamaitachi, one of his powers as the Hakutaku.
Lin-Kimper
Emine's rather enthusiastic servant, who follows him and fills various missions for him, but is also happy to serve other people. With the condition of "devoting herself to someone else", she has the power to freely destroy and reconstruct her own body without pain.
- Abusive Parents: Her father was psychologically and physically violent towards her, which eventually led to the awakening of her Clown powers.
- [Faking the Dead: Her fight and "death" against Nofix was a farce so that he could get the vice-president's trust.
- Improbable Weapon User: Her weapons include forks and serving trays.
- Meido: She kind of has to be something of the sort because of her condition, but she doesn't seem to mind.
Apple Shinoda
The very apple-themed ally of Emine and Lin, who has come to help them eliminate opposing factions before the Gathering of the Masks. He has to feed only on apples and in exchange has total control over his movement ability, allowing him to move incredibly fast or ignore his own weight.
- Flash Step: One of the abilities allowed by his power.
- Super-Reflexes: Another ability related to the suppression of his own weight.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Apples.
Charisma Justice
The hero of a show Showtaro is a huge fan of. The one in the show is based on a real CJ − who is a very real and powerful super-hero.
- Expy: Most likely based on Daredevil, considering the red suit and horns.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: You could think that the real CJ is like the one the TV show and is just a comedian. And he pretty much is. Except the real one's powers aren't special effects.
- Large Ham: He's a super-hero parody, what did you expect?
The Tast Brothers
Two Clown brothers who abduct the prefect of Toykyo in the first chapter and impersonate this very prefect and the hero Charisma Justice. They can copy other people's appearance (among other things) by manipulating the water within their body, under the condition of eating only dried food.
- Making a Splash: Their water-based powers can also be used for attack.
- No Name Given: We only know there is a little and a big brother, but we are never told their names.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The primary ability they use in their plot.
Christina S. Imbroglia
A beautiful medium Clown who works in Toykyo and provides notoriously accurate predictions for free. Showtaro and Mana meet her in the second chapter.
- Mysterious Middle Initial: That S. might stand for something, but… see below.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She appears in chapter 2 and 3 to give a serious prediction about Showtaro in a tense scene… and is never mentioned again, nor does her prediction have any relevance to the plot (we never learn what those "4 powers to fight the darkness" are supposed to be). It's most likely one of the points that would have been elaborated on, had the series not been Cut Short.
