Playable Characters: Calamity Trigger (Part 1 | Part 2) | Continuum Shift | ChronoPhantasma | Central Fiction
Others: Non-Player Characters | Remix Heart | Light Novel Characters | XBlaze (Code: Embryo | Lost: Memories) | Alternative: Dark War
Spin-offs: Cross Tag Battle (BlazBlue | Persona 4: Arena | Under Night In-Birth | RWBY)
Individual Characters: Ragna the Bloodedge | Jin Kisaragi | Noel Vermillion | Hazama | Yuuki Terumi

BlazBlue, much like Guilty Gear, has plenty of Rummage Sale Rejects to go around. This is a list of the playable characters who are introduced in Blazblue: Central Fiction. Voice actors are listed as Japanese/English.

It also contains unmarked spoilers. You may wish to finish the game's story modes before reading.

Shout Outs, Captain Ersatz, Expy, "No Celebrities Were Harmed", Continuity Nods and Mythology Gags regarding to specific characters should go to the game's own Shout Out page. This is also true for memes, which go here.

Introduced in Arcade Version

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Hibiki Kohaku

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bbdw_hibiki.png

Levi seems to have found a new occupation.

Profile

Height: 168 cm
Weight: 51 kg
Blood type: A
Date of Birth: November 7
Birthplace: Unknown
Hobbies: Pottery
Likes: Japanese confectionery
Dislikes: Sloppy people

"I don't have a wish. I am and always will be...empty."

Voiced by:
JP: Mitsuhiro Ichiki
EN: Steve Staley

Kagura's personal assistant, a serious and rather androgynous-looking boy. As Kagura's personal assistant, he is the one largely in charge of planning and setting up Kagura's plans.

It has been revealed that Hibiki is now a playable character in Central Fiction. As revealed in Chronophantasma Extend, his family is a clan of assassins, and as such he uses a very fast and deceptive fighting style, armed with twin swords.

His Drive is Double Chase, which allows Hibiki to create illusory copies of himself. These shadow clones can be used either as simple decoys, or he can choose to immediately teleport to the clone's current location. His Overdrive, Schwarz Reis, increases the clones' travel speed.

His Exceed Accel Sakuougi: Haraebina/Mark: Purification has him doing 2 somersault kicks that launches the foe upward, then doing a powerful circular slash as they come down that knocks the foe far away. His Astral, Amatsugomori Nakikarasu/Divine Nightfall: Raven has him doing a crossing slash and then the screen turns black. Switching the imagery to a moonlit foggy night, Hibiki distracts the confused opponent with his clone and then proceeds to deliver some beatdown, ending with him and his clone doing a cross slash across the foe, killing them.

Almighty Janitor: He's said to be about as tough as Jin, despite being lower rank.
Animal Motifs: Crows. His portrait in the fourth game has a flock of crows in the background, his shadow clones dissipate into shadow crows when they disappear, and he himself disappear into crows in one of his win poses. Even most of his move-set contains a bird/avian motif.
Ax-Crazy: Act 3 of Central Fiction reveals that the kind, loyal, hardworking young man we saw in Chronophantasma was a mask that hides a deeply disturbed individual.
Badass Longcoat: A standard NOL one, which he trades in for a Badass Cape in his playable appearance.
Battle Butler: To the Mutsuki family. His family has served under them as bodyguards and assassins for generations. He's also the second to appear after the debut of his fellow Battle Butler, Valkenhayn.
Beleaguered Assistant: Naturally given who he directly works for.
Blade Spam: His DD Tsugaimai: Oboro Ootori has him throwing his swords at his opponent and then does a multitude of slashes on the enemy back and forth. The effect of the slashes only occur after he's done slashing.
Bodyguarding a Badass: His master is at a very high pecking order in the NOL and also a strong and talented fighter, but like Valkenhayn, he still does his job out of loyalty.
The Captain: His rank in the NOL.
Casting a Shadow: To an extent; he can extend his shadow then makes a clone (or himself) appear from below, make clones out of shadow, and surround his foe with darkness as seen in his Astral.
Ceiling Cling: One of his intro poses has him poking out of the screen's top edge before falling down.
Characterization Marches On: Perhaps because he didn't much screentime, but in Chronophatasma Hibiki seemed like a relatively normal, mild mannered, young man who was simply loyal to Kagura and nothing else. Then Central Fiction comes around and fleshes him out a bit and shows just what was Beneath the Mask the whole time.
Confusion Fu: His general playstyle is to confuse his opponents using his Drive. He might be sending his clone forward, or sending himself forward while leaving a clone in his place. Some of his special attacks will also leave the opponent guessing.
The Consigliere: for Kagura.
Counter-Attack: His Maga Uchi special is one; following up from another special move (Zanshoukyaku), if this move is performed and he's attacked, he'll retaliate with a quick Rolling Attack.
Corrupted Character Copy: He is this for Levi Ackerman. Aside from the obvious appearance and choice of weapons, as well as being the most loyal subordinate to their respective superiors (Erwin Smith for Levi, Kagura Mutsuki for Hibiki), that's where the similarities end. Levi was originally far more unscrupulous and he was originally going to kill Erwin before becoming his most loyal subordinate whereas Hibiki is revealed to be far more dangerous and unhinged to the extend that he's willing to kill his superior Kagura to become the ultimate killing machine.
Deconstructed Trope: Of the Battle Butler with Undying Loyalty archetype. Hibiki is so defined by his service to Kagura, it's left him little in the way of normal emotions and desires. As a result, he's more than a little unhinged when it comes to "protecting" Kagura, and might have some deeper feelings of resentment toward him.
Deadly Lunge: His Hizanshou special is one, where he dashes forward with his swords pointing towards the opponent, impaling them if they hit, then forcefully dislodge them like a lever. Subverted with Hizanshou Kai where he instead appears on the opponent's back, doing an upper slash.
Deadpan Snarker/Servile Snarker: With a heavy emphasis on deadpan.
Death from Above: One of his moves, Senshijin (Tipped Beak Blade) has him diving from above blade-first. His DD Kuremi Kazuchi: Nue has him teleporting directly on top of his opponent and then delivering a powerful slash downward. In Overdrive, he follows it up with a Spinning Piledriver for a good measure.
Detachable Blades: His swords have detachable cutter-esque blades that he's shown replacing at the end of each match round. His Tsugaimai: Oboro Otori DD also start with him throwing the blades of his swords.
Doppelgänger Attack: His Drive.
Dual Wielding: In his playable appearance, he wields 2 short rectangular swords.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: When he was revealed, most people assumed he was actually a she, until they heard his voice. Apparently, most people didn't recognized what uniform Hibiki's wearing actually.
Bullet: invokedYou've got some weird techniques. Are you a mercenary? As a fellow woman, I should tell... What? You're a man?
Early-Bird Cameo: Shortly before he was confirmed playable, data miners managed to find Arcade quotes of him within Chronophantasma Extend's data. Central Fiction was announced almost a week later.
Easter Egg: His Senba special normally throws knives downward. If his opponent is Kagura, however, he'll throw paperwork downward.
Extreme Doormat: By his own admission in the trailer for Central Fiction. He claims to have no real desires of his own and has devoted his entire life to serving Kagura. Dummied Out material from CPE suggests Hakumen is not impressed.
Hakumen: One of the Mutsuki children? Begone. You lack the power necessary to create change.
- Nine also mercilessly lampshades this, especially since others have desires of their own and yet Hibiki doesn't.
- As the story goes on, it's revealed that this aspect of his personality is played extremely darkly. Because Hibiki has no ambitions of his own and because his main skill is assassination, Nine deduces that his ultimate desire is to become the perfect killing machine, with no emotional attachments whatsoever, and slay Kagura. Although Hibiki denies it, it's made very clear later on, especially in Act 3, that his emptiness has birthed a terrible insanity.
Foil: To Valkenhayn, his fellow Battle Butler as both characters display Undying Loyalty to their charge. However, Valkenhayn is wholly devoted to Rachel and genuinely trusts her judgment on things, even if he constantly worries for her safety. By contrast, Hibiki is quite literally obsessed with "protecting" Kagura at all costs, taking actions that Kagura himself would disapprove of. It's also implied that he secretly desires to kill him and that protecting him is just a front so nobody can steal his chance to do so. Their backgrounds also contrast a bit; Valkenhayn had quite the history of being a hitman (who's after Rachel's dad's life, no less) before becoming Rachel's liege, and is even a part of the Six Heroes while Hibiki's entire life was being taught to serve Kagura and nothing else.
Fragile Speedster: Hibiki's fast as hell, and his attacks are made to confuse the opponent and rush them down, but he is tied with Taokaka, Carl, Ragna, Celica, and the Murakumos (except Lambda) for having the lowest health in the game at 10000.
Haughty Help: Hibiki is normally humble and soft spoken to most people, but he often throws snark at his boss as he has to rein his boss in from his "fratboy" and perverted antics.
Highly-Visible Ninja: Not as bad as Bang, but still a bright blue poncho isn't exactly something you'd wear in the assassination business.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: And it's mercilessly lamp-shaded too. Practically everybody agrees that he's way too good to be working for someone like Kagura.
Insane Troll Logic: Despite knowing full well that Noel cannot be killed by conventional methods due to her status as "Successor", he futilely continues to cut at her, rationalizing that "if he keeps attacking, she will eventually die." It's just as crazy as it sounds in-universe too.
Killing Intent: Nine senses it from him when he's triggered by her saying that she'll kill Kagura. Then, as Nine shows him his deepest desire - to be a tool for killing - she concludes that he indeed has this.
Nine (directly translated): "Natural Killers"^note. No anger, no hatred, no grief... their only emotion is the urge to kill. That is your desire - yourself as a tool that is pointed toward everything.
Nine (official subtitles): The purest form of murder... Not anger, remorse, or even revenge...just, murder. This is your dream. Unwavering, a pure and efficient instrument...
Leitmotif: "In the Shadows"
Mask of Sanity: Act 3 reveals that he's been wearing this since his introduction.
Numerological Motif: Downplayed. It is never brought up, but Hibiki is associated a lot with the number two. He is Kagura's Number Two, can create the illusion of there being two of him with his Drive (appropriately named "Double Chase"), wields two short swords, is the second Battle Butler to appear in the series after Valkenhayn, and becomes playable in the second game he appears in. Two, as mentioned on the main trope page, represents duality, and this ties in brilliantly to Hibiki's dual nature: he's a hardworking servant to Kagura on the outside and an emotionless killer on the inside.
Promoted to Playable: Gets to show off his fighting skills in Central Fiction.
Psychopathic Manchild: As shown on his bio, one of his likes is Eastern confectionery and it's coupled with a rather youthful appearance. He is also a disturbed individual inside, but he tries to hide it.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Kagura's red.
Reverse Grip: He holds his swords in this manner.
Sanity Slippage: Hibiki's actions and words become increasingly insane as his Act 3 story progresses, to the point where his stated purpose (enforcing Kagura's will) no longer falls in line with what he's actually doing (betraying Kagura's will). Tsubaki asks him if Kagura is involved in trying to kill Noel, Hibiki just brushes her off. Kokonoe telling him that he can't kill Noel and his wish can't be granted because Noel is an Observer (a powerful one at that)? Hibiki just states that he'll become an Observer too and kill her that way, which isn't even possible, by the way. Noel proving Kokonoe right by making it so all of Hibiki's attacks are ineffective? Simple solution: just keep doing it until she finally dies. It takes Hazama of all people to finally call him out on this and, since it's Hazama we're talking about, manipulate him.
Satellite Character: Much of his characterization revolves around his master Kagura. Considering the direction his character is being taken, it's understandable.
Shoryuken: His Souyokusen (Twin Wing Spin) is this, done with his swords while spinning. His Exceed Accel "Sakuougi: Haraebina" also starts with him doing an anti-air kick.
Slide Attack: One version of his Hiyokujin special (where he and his clone rushes towards the opponent) has the real Hibiki doing a sweep to the opponent's leg. The other version has the real Hibiki being the one that jumps and delivers a kick to the head.
Spinning Piledriver: One of his special moves (Misago Kudaki/Osprey Smasher) is the Izuna Drop version of this.
Spread Shot: His Senba special (followup from Zanshoukyaku) has him firing 3 cutter blades downward in a spread.
The Starscream: His ending involves Nine revealing his innermost desire - that he wants to actually kill Kagura for the thrill of the kill and to truly become emotionless. Hibiki is naturally horrified and tries to deny it.
Stealth Expert: Being raised as an assassin gives him great skill in stealth.
Stealth Hi/Bye: These skills allow him to suddenly appear behind people without them sensing him, even sneaking up on characters like Jin and Tager.
The Stoic: He's always stern and serious, rarely emoting. That makes his rare moments of anger all the more chilling.
Supreme Chef: An excellent cook and Rachel actually is impressed by the tea he makes. Dummied Out commentary confirms that his skills aren't limited to tea.
Rachel: Your cooking is exquisite. Why not leave the service of that cad and enter mine instead?
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: He was raised as an assassin - a "tool" for killing - before becoming Kagura's bodyguard. Even as he tries to act civil, he's still have a mind of a killer deep down - and CF explores this side of him.
Sword Pointing: He does this to Izanami in his CF Act 2 ending. He doesn't believe it when she shows the future in which Kagura is executed by the masses who rebel against the NOL, thinking that she's lying. He lowers it when she says that the future may change if he kills the "superior entitled" that made the events fixed.
Theme Naming: A ton of his moves are bird-themed, possibly as the "phoenix foil" to Kagura's dragon.
Three-Strike Combo: His Exceed Accel works like this.
Trademark Favorite Food: Japanese sweets.
Tyke Bomb: As Central Fiction shows, being this has affected his mind to a terrifying degree.
Undying Loyalty: To Kagura and the Mutsuki family, to the point where he has no issues conspiring behind the NOL's back to assist him in his cause. Deconstructed later, however, in that this loyalty (combined with Izanami's manipulations) makes him make questionable decisions, some of them going against Kagura's wishes, and his innermost desire is actually "to murder Kagura" and that his loyalty may be a way of presenting himself to be The Only One Allowed to Defeat You.
What You Are in the Dark: As his ending reveals, Hibiki is told by Nine he wants to kill Kagura and be an emotionless tool that can kill anyone. And if Act 3 is any indication, she may have had a point.

Naoto Kurogane

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bbdw_naoto.png

Ready to paint the town red.

Profile

Height: 176 cm
Weight: 69 kg
Blood type: B
Date of Birth: December 1
Birthplace: Japan
Hobbies: Tending to cats
Likes: Rest
Dislikes: Eye drops (because it's hard to use them)

"Forgive me, but if that's one of the Murakumo Units, I'm going to have to destroy it."

Voiced by:
JP: Nobunaga Shimazaki
EN: Billy Kametz (Cross Tag Battle)

The protagonist of the supplementary novel Bloodedge Experience, joining the main series as a playable character in Central Fiction.

He starts off as your everyday high school student... with a strange ability named Hunter's Eye, which lets him see the life force of other people in numbers. He lives in an apartment in the same building as his cousin, Haruka Hayami. His life starts to change once a mysterious blonde girl came into the picture; the girl was being chased by a strange man with a life force of 0. Out of curiosity, he ran after the two; in the dead-end, he saved her from said strange, grotesque insect man, but Naoto got his right arm cut off in the process and was slowly bleeding to death. The girl, named Raquel Alucard, offered to save his life in exchange for him to find the Azure. In the next morning, he wakes up to find that he's technically dead (his life force being 0) but Raquel has shared her immense life force with him, but doing so would eventually turn him into a vampire within a year's time - unless he does what she made him promise to.

His drive is Bloodedge, which lets him create weapons using his own blood. He also has a special trait known as Enhancer, which gives his drive, specials, and Distortion Drives additional properties if you use them in the middle of a dash. In the case of his drive, this can also be achieved by holding the drive button. His Overdrive, Blood Repulsor, not only makes his Drive attacks automatically enhanced, but it also changes Naoto's appearance: his hair becomes white and spikes up.

His Exceed Accel Grim of Phantom (GOP) starts with him punching the foe in the gut. Then he knees them upward and then forms a giant axe made of blood and chops down on his opponent as he falls. His Astral, Edge of Eternity (EOE), has him create a large scythe out of blood and repeatedly slash his opponent with it before charging the blade with dark energy and unleashing a final strike that creates a wave of blood, erasing his opponent from existence.

11th-Hour Superpower: During his battle with Spinner Superior, Spinner fuses with Raquel, weakening Naoto’s connection with her and causing his right arm to dissolve into blood, and proceeds to cut of Naoto’s left arm and right leg. Naoto is about to die when a mysterious man appears in his mind, approaches Naoto and punches him in the chest with a black arm, which causes him to wake up, create new limbs out of black fog and create a scythe from his blood to rip Raquel out of Spinner.
Accidental Pervert: Due to the fact that Raquel does not like wearing clothes and doesn't care if she is naked, he ends up in this situation a lot.
- Happens again when he and Makoto are in free-fall and he ends up landing in her breasts. He gets uppercutted for his trouble. Makoto even lampshades this trope directly afterward.
  Makoto: I bet you're the type of guy who "accidentally" finds himself in perverted situations.
Adaptation Dye-Job: His normal eyes are green in Bloodedge Experience but are changed to brown in Central Fiction.
Ambiguously Related: If you read between the lines or dialogue and foreshadowing, he may in fact indirectly be the uncle of Ragna, Jin, and Saya. Their mother (a Prime Field Device) is implied to be based on Naoto's sister, Saya Terumi. It is never explicitly spelled out for the audience.
An Arm and a Leg: Happens to the point of parody. He loses his right arm and Raquel makes him one out of her blood. Then Clavis cuts off that arm, before reattaching it in a way that unlocked his vampiric powers. Finally he loses his right arm again when Spinner Superior’s Fusion Dance weakens his link with Raquel and Spinner cuts off his left arm and right leg. Naoto then creates temporary limbs out of a black fog that he loses after the fight before his blood arm returns and Relius gives him Artificial Limbs for the other two.
Artificial Limbs: Naoto's left leg is the only limb he has that is actually normal. His left arm and right leg are both mechanical, made by Relius as replacement. His right arm is made of Raquel Alucard's blood.
Back from the Dead: He died really early on in his own novel, but was brought back by Raquel Alucard, who shared her life force with him, although this process threatens to turn him into a vampire in a year's time.
Badass Transplant: Said right arm is where he mainly uses his Drive ability from.
Bad Powers, Good People: He has the power to manipulate his own blood but he is overall a pretty friendly guy.
Betty and Veronica: Haruka and Raquel, respectively, for him. Haruka is his cousin whom he lives with in her apartment and is a gentle person (most of the time) who tends to him a lot. Raquel the goth-loli vampire is a new girl to his life, everything about her screams "foreign", she has some weird habits and she's also the Herald for his new adventures.
Big Brother Instinct: Despite all she has done to him, Naoto still wants to protect his sister, Saya Terumi. When Naoto was fighting Spinner’s strongest bug that had kidnapped her he has the perfect opportunity to kill her, but after a mysterious voice asks if he wanted to kill her, Naoto screamed that he would save her and killed the bug.
Big Damn Heroes: When his teacher-turned-Apostle tried to force Haruka to take part in his masochistic sexual acts, Naoto kicked down the door and punched him in the face. Likewise, in Central Fiction, Naoto arrived just in time to fight an angered Ragna (courtesy of Hazama) and managing to calm him down before he goes into a deep end that he'll never be able to return from.
Bloody Murder: Bloodedge, which lets him manipulate his blood.
Butt-Monkey: In Central Fiction, everyone tries to beat him up on sight for one reason or another (minus Celica, but even then, Minerva goes berserk on him). The most common reason being that he is similar to Ragna.
Cain and Abel: The Abel to his sister, Saya Terumi's, Cain.
Calling the Old Man Out: Does so on Raquel’s behalf, calling Clavis selfish when he refuses to let her have a say in whether or not she stays with Naoto. Clavis apologizes but cuts off Naoto’s arm as well. When he sees Raquel made the arm he reattaches it, unlocks the positive traits of his vampire transformation, and listens to her wishes.
Canon Immigrant: Like Celica, he was primarily a novel exclusive character and now he has a starring role in the main series.
Can't Live Without You: Naoto is technically dead. Biting him lets Raquel give Naoto her life force to keep him alive.
Cast from Lifespan: After being bitten by Raquel Alucard, he is effectively immortal, since he can instantly heal from fatal wounds. However, healing his injuries takes away from Raquel's life force.
Casting a Shadow: After losing his left arm and right leg while fighting Spinner Superior (and his right arm reverting to blood due to his weakened link with Raquel), he, in his subconscious, meets a mysterious figure who struck him, which shook him awake and giving him the temporary ability to make new limbs out of shadows.
Claustrophobia: Does not like being in places with a lot of people in a small area, so he has to walk for 30 minutes to get to school to avoid public transportation.
Charged Attack: His Drive attacks can be charged, increasing their range and letting them break guards.
Close-Range Combatant: He has arguably the shortest range of the the entire roster when he doesn't use his drive, but is rewarded with good damage and screen carrying into the corner if he lands a hit.
Cool Uncle: In an incredibly twisted way, it's revealed that Naoto is technically this to Ragna, Jin, and Noel/Saya. The 5th Prime Field Device was implied to be modeled after Saya Terumi, and it was able to conceive children by mating with a Black Beast.
Covert Pervert: Plays video games that seem to be of the Harem Genre. He says it's only because his best friend Shinnosuke bought them.
Curtains Match the Windows: Normally both his hair and his eyes are brown. No longer applies when he uses Bloodedge.
Dark and Troubled Past: He saw his sister kill his entire clan and then was nearly killed himself via Kiss of Death.
Dash Attack: His unique ability Enhancer makes his drive, specials and DD have a modified effect if used after a dash.
Dead Alternate Counterpart: Relius revealed that the Naoto he knew died by Clavis' hand and he didn’t meet a Hazama at the time. The current Naoto isn’t from the past, he is from a completely separate “possibility”.
Determinator: Naoto will never give up, even when the odds are stacked against him. This, combined with his Healing Factor, makes him nigh-impossible to kill.
Difficult, but Awesome: Naoto has an extremely steep learning curve. His special ability, Enhancer, requires you to master dash cancelling in the middle of your combos just to increase his damage output and alter his specials' properties for longer combos. If you pull it off, Naoto boasts some of the highest damage in the game, but prepare to have your fingers tested to their limits.
Dimensional Traveler: After his world was destroyed Raquel brought him to an alternate future, the main timeline.
Doomed Hometown: Or rather, doomed home universe. Because of the events in Central Fiction, all of the alternate “possibilities” are disappearing. Raquel is only able to save Naoto because, being an Embryo, she is tied to the Boundary and sends him to the present so he can stop whatever is causing the alternate possibilities to disappear and save his world.
Dying Deal Upgrade: He lets Raquel bite him to save his life, sharing her life force at the cost of being her servant and having to help her find the Azure within a year to stop his transformation into a vampire.
Eye Color Change: Whenever he uses Bloodedge, his eyes change color from brown to red.
Famous Ancestor: He has Mei Amanohokosaka as his ancestor, courtesy of his family, the Terumi family, being an offshoot of the Amanohokosaka clan. In the novels, Mei is mentioned to be the then-current head of the clan.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Only his right arm, the one with Bloodedge, is fully sleeved.
First-Episode Resurrection: He died quite early in the first book and then gets resurrected almost immediately after.
Foreshadowing: In his Act 1 arcade play, he mentions that while Nine is dangerous, she's still less of a menace than a "monster" he fought some time ago. That "monster" is implied to be his own sister, Saya Terumi, when Relius mentioned that the 5th Prime Field Device (the one who "gave birth" to Ragna and siblings) was based on a "monster" who was killed by her "brother".
Gone to the Future: In CF, it's implied that he jumps to the future with a cauldron. Subverted. He didn't come from the past, but rather from an alternate timeline and he didn't jump into the Cauldron, Raquel sent him there so he could survive the destruction of their world.
Good Thing You Can Heal: He would have died about a dozen more times if not for Raquel’s life force keeping him alive and healing his wounds.
Healing Factor: Naoto can instantly heal wounds that would normally be fatal, although he cannot regrow limbs. This is due to his connection with Raquel letting him feed off of her immense life force.
Heir to the Dojo: He was chosen as the heir to the Terumi clan because he inherited the Hunter's Eye.
Heroes Fight Barehanded: Outside of Bloodedge, he fights using mainly his fists. He's also the main character of his own set of novels.
Hero of Another Story: Quite literally, he's the main character of an entirely different series that takes place sometime before the series.
Hey, You!: Taokaka aside, who is The Nicknamer, there are several other characters who don't call him by his name. Ragna calls him "shitty brat", Valkenhayn calls him "greenhorn", Izanami calls him an "outsider", and Nu calls him "who".
Hot-Blooded: Just listen to how he calls his Divine Smasher Distortion Drive.
Identical Stranger: Not normally but when he activates Bloodedge, he's almost a dead ringer for Ragna. In CF, some characters (notably Rachel and Nu) note that Naoto feels like Ragna to them, and Rachel even points out that his existence makes Ragna's own thinner. In gameplay, many of his moves are his own equivalents of one that Ragna has. For example, his Shoryuken Inferno Crusader is identical to Ragna's Inferno Divider, the complete Overdrive version of his Divine Reaper has elements of Ragna's Dead Spike and Carnage Scissors, and Edge of Eternity is one to Black Onslaught, even ending with the opponent being disintegrated.
Idiot Hair: His ahoge, which adds to his rather generic protagonist design.
Immortal Life Is Cheap: Since Naoto’s connection to Raquel keeps him from dying, he takes a lot of abuse, even more than Ragna. He has received fatal or near-fatal wounds from Valkenhayn, Clavis, Spinner’s Apostles as well as his bugs, Saya and from Spinner himself.
Improvised Weapon: Saves Raquel from one of Spinner’s Apostles by hitting him with a fire extinguisher.
Inconsistent Spelling: In Bloodedge Experience, "Kurogane" is written in kanji, but in Central Fiction, it is written in katakana.
Invocation: Like Ragna, he has a special quote that he uses during his Astral Heat.
"Edge of Eternity! Behold, the bloodstained blade. Not a shred of your soul shall remain! Let darkness...CONSUME YOU!
I Will Find You: The ending of the second novel has Raquel telling him to find the Azure, and to find her later. In CF, Naoto comes from another world looking for her.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: Much like Ragna, he loves cats.
Kissing Cousins: He has feelings for his cousin, Haruka Hayami. She returns his feelings and she has kissed him. However, Naoto’s stubbornness gets in the way of him acting on his feelings.
Lady and Knight: The Knight to Raquel's Lady.
Lag Cancel: Using Shift Sway or Drive and then cancelling to a dash makes it easier for Naoto to do an "enhanced" version of his special moves after his normal attacks.
Leitmotif: "Jaeger" (read: yeager), which is German for "hunter", but without written with an umlaut which is normally used for the "ae" portion (ä).
Lightning Bruiser: Compared to Ragna, Naoto has a higher damage output, better defense, and higher health. The only thing he lacks compared to Ragna is a projectile and has shorter range.
Magical Eye: His right eye is the Hunter’s Eye, which lets him see people's remaining life force as a number.
Mark of the Supernatural: While it's currently unclear what it actually signifies, Naoto has the same tattoo on his body as Ragna◊ and Es◊ (WARNING NSFW), not to mention it appearing in several other characters' clothes. Notably, he didn’t have it in ''Bloodedge Experience'' (WARNING NSFW) meaning it has to be connected to events that happened after the end of that series and before he was brought into the present.
Megaton Punch: His Divine Smasher DD has him dashing forward with a powerful bloody punch.
Mistaken Identity: Is on both the giving and receiving end of this trope. A majority of the cast mistakes him for Ragna at first and he mistakes several characters for people he knows. He thought Rachel was Raquel, Lambda and Nu were Kiiro, Makoto was his aunt Yuki, Izanami was Saya Terumi, Celica was Haruka (at least in his Gag Reel), Hakumen was a currently unknown “Ally of Justice” and Hazama was a different person named Hazama. Story Mode reveals that him being mistaken for Ragna is intentional: Naoto is technically his uncle because Ragna's mother, the 5th Prime Field Device, is implied to be a replica of Saya Terumi, Naoto's sister. Also it's implied by the end of the game that when Hazama jumped into the cauldron, he'll end up in where Naoto came from.
Mistress and Servant Boy: Raquel often orders him to do errands such as making tea or bringing her stuff. Sometimes in the middle of class. Naoto then gets joked as being her "servant" by his friends at school.
Moment Killer: Twice, he had his moments with Haruka ruined. The first by Raquel and Haruka's mother, and the second by Saya; subverted for the second, however, as Haruka immediately pulled him back and then went to kiss him.
Nice Guy: Despite the tragedies in his life, such as having lost most of his family, Naoto never lets the trauma surface, and instead aims to live a normal life. Regardless, Naoto can never stop himself from helping those in trouble, even if it means disrupting his ordinary life. There are times when he doesn't think out his good-willed actions, diving headfirst into any kind of situation where he thinks he can help others.
Nom de Mom: Chooses to go by his mother’s last name, Kurogane, as opposed to the name of his clan, Terumi.
Nonchalant Dodge: His Shift Sway special lets him do this to enemy attacks. If used after dashing, he can also shift to the opponent's back.
Noodle Incident: Naoto says to Nine that he "paid a high price" to come to the future. He also says that he once fought a "monster" that is scarier than Nine in the past. Exactly what he meant by those is not yet explained.
Not What It Looks Like: His cousin Haruka walks in and sees him fumbling around with a naked girl and her reaction is to find something to stab the two with.
Only Sane Man: He feels that he is this in BE. Between the insanity of his situation, getting suddenly attacked at various points by Valkenhayn, Clavis and Spinner, and having to constantly keep track of Raquel, he can only snark about how ridiculous his life has become. He's still this in Central Fiction, constantly commenting on the weirdness of this new world and its inhabitants.
Ordinary High-School Student: Appears to be this at first. Subverted in that he was already the heir to the Terumi clan, possessed the Hunter's Eye and was taught how to fight by his mother at a young age.
Our Vampires Are Different: Naoto is not a vampire, although he will become one a full year after being bitten. Until then he is in a state between life and death, reliant on Raquel.
Outside-Context Hero: In CF, as Naoto is a newcomer from the past, he's "alien" to the present world and, in particular, Nine's plans.
Please Put Some Clothes On: Asks Raquel to wear clothes and tries to put them on her himself when she refuses and struggles against him. In his victory quotes, he asks the same to Makoto and he also offers his jacket to Mai.
Power Dyes Your Hair: Using his Drive's full power (translates into using Overdrive in gameplay) will turn his hair white, making him look similar to Ragna.
Promoted to Playable: Like Celica, he comes from a series of novels before being inserted in the main games as playable.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Whenever he activates Bloodedge, his eyes change color from brown to red.
Reluctant Warrior: Unlike Ragna, who's always ready to fight anyone who gets on his nerves, Naoto actually doesn't like to fight and constantly tries to talk things out and only uses violence as a means for self-defense. Unfortunately, he's a playable character in a fighting game.
Sacred First Kiss: When Haruka kisses him he lies and says it’s his first. Considering his first kiss was stolen by Saya using Soul Eater on him when she wiped out the Terumi Clan, he had a pretty good reason to lie.
Saving the World: Raquel tasks him with saving their world in his Act 3 ending. Because the main timeline, which is the source of all the possible universes, is in jeopardy, his world disappeared. In order to restore his world he must stop whatever is threatening the creation of “possibilities”.
Shaping Your Attacks: He can shape his blood into weapons. So far he has used a sword, a spear, claws, an axe and a scythe. In his Divine Reaper DD, he also shapes his blood into a monstrous head like Ragna's Dead Spike.
Shoryuken: He has one that mimics Sol Badguy's Volcanic Viper move, named Inferno Crusader (named after Ragna's Inferno Divider of course). He also has a kick version, named Phantom Pain.
Shower of Awkward: Naoto experiences this since Raquel has no problem walking in on him when he is in the bath and demanding he wash her hair. He begrudgingly obliges but has to beg her to not make him wash her body.
Stat-O-Vision: His Hunter's Eye displays a person's remaining life force as a decreasing number.
Synchronization: For some reason, his and Kiiro's heartbeats are completely synchronized with each other. CF also reveals that he has a life-link with Rachel somehow.
Theme Naming: Hell and darkness, like Ragna.
Three-Strike Combo: His Banishing Fang can be followed up twice, with the finishing one either a front kick or a launching uppercut.
Unblockable Attack: How Bloodedge works, if charged; it will guard crush the opponent unless they use barrier guard. His Phantom Pain special is also unblockable.
Unskilled, but Strong: At first, he would simply rely on his Healing Factor and enhanced strength to beat his opponents into submission. After gaining Bloodedge, Raquel starts training him to be a better fighter. Completely averted by the time he appears in CF.
Warm Bloodbags Are Everywhere: If he becomes a vampire he will attack those close to him in his thirst for blood. He helps Raquel with her quest to find the Azure so he can stop the transformation and avoid this.

Nine the Phantom

Nine the Phantom (ナイン＝ザ＝ファントム)

Don't screw with this witch.

^{Click to see her outfit in Dark War.}

Profile

Height: 171cm
Weight: 56kg
Blood type: AB
Date of Birth: April 30
Birthplace: Unknown (presumably Ishana)
Hobbies: Unknown
Likes: Celica & Family (Jubei and Kokonoe)
Dislikes: Shiitake mushrooms

"Just so you know...there is no such thing as the 'truth' in this world. Just illusions..."

Voiced by:
JP: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese, Chronophantasma-Cross Tag Battle; relinquished), Rie Tanaka (Japanese, Cross Tag Battle Ver 2.0 onward)
EN: Amanda Céline Miller

Real name Konoe A. Mercury. Another one of the Six Heroes, "Nine" (as she prefers to be called) is the one who taught humans how to use magic. She's Jubei's wife and Kokonoe's mother. Her sister Celica ran the orphanage where Ragna, Jin, and Saya lived. Additionally, she used human transmutation to create the Nox Nyctores. She died at the hands of Terumi after the Dark War. This was his revenge for being strong-armed into working with the other heroes and was also done to prevent Nine from releasing the souls that powered his Nox Nyctores. Sometime after this event, she was reanimated as his puppet, the mysterious Phantom. After the events of Chronophantasma, Nine ends up freed from her enslavement by the Imperator, and is now putting into motion a plan of her own. She becomes a playable character in Central Fiction, serving as the boss of Act I of the game's Arcade Mode story, titled "Phantom of Labyrinth".

Nine's "ability" is called The Abyss Diver, but is not a Drive per se but rather magic attacks, which depend upon a stock system similar to Platinum. Certain moves will cause one of three kinds of ribbon-esque rings to appear around Nine, each one color-coded to a specific element (red = fire, blue = water, green = wind). She can only stock up to three elements at a time, and by using each combination she can use a wide variety of special moves, giving her the largest move-list of the entire roster. Her Overdrive is called Burning Red, and makes it so that all of her moves build elemental rings even when whiffed, in addition to adding automatic elemental buff whenever she uses a spell.

Her Exceed Accel Scarlet Vein has her knock the foe upward, then commands a demon named Hi-no-Kagutsuchi to crush the foe between its fists. Her Astral, Colorless Void, involves her trapping the opponent in a raised crevice from the earth as it transforms into Hi-no-Kagutsuchi which swallows them whole and envelops them in a circle of fire. She then rises up, creates a giant portal with a pentagram symbol, and rains dozens of meteors upon the opponent.

For info about her younger self, Me, see XBlaze Lost: Memories.

The Ace: Magic, real magic, is considered an incredible Story-Breaker Power in the BlazBlue universe, and she's one of the finest mages in the series. That said, she's not exactly sane (even when not under Terumi's control).
Action Mom: She doesn't become a mom until the end of the Dark War... and after being a mom, she doesn't become an "action" one until she becomes Phantom, and even more in CF.
Actually a Doombot: In Terumi's CF arcade ending, it's revealed that he has been fighting a "phantom" of Nine all along. Terumi actually is aware of it, saying "are you happy now that I've played around?" She also creates phantoms of other characters in others' arcade routes, such as Ragna's and Hakumen's.
Aerith and Bob: She has a Japanese name and her sister... has a Portuguese one. Then again, it is implied that they came from a mixed marriage family.
Alliterative Name: The English names of her spells are named in this fashion such as Coral of Catastrophe, Garnet of Gall, and Rubellite of Rage.
All Men Are Perverts: Apparently holds this belief considering she nearly roasted Bloodedge alive when she thought he was trying to make a move on Celica. She also attempts to instill this belief in Celica as well, but it always fails because Celica is too damn nice.
Nine: Listen, Celica. I'm going to explain this to you one more time. Any man who acts nicely around a cute and innocent little girl like you probably has one thing on their mind. And this pathetic excuse for a man is no exception. It would be best for society if I just took him out of the gene pool right here.
All Witches Have Cats: She's a witch (both figuratively and literally) and her husband's Jubei's a cat beastkin. Now do the math.
Always Accurate Attack: A number of her spells, as well as her Navy Pressure special, automatically tracks the enemy's position. Note that some of them have delayed activation so as to give the opponent a dodging, blocking or preventing chance.
And Then What?: Near the end of the trailer for Central Fiction, she pretty much says this word-for-word to Rachel. Even if Izanami is stopped, what will humanity do once it discovers the unchangeable truth (the titular Central Fiction)?
Anti-Air: Aside from her Shoryuken special, her 6A/6B/6C normal moves are also used to cover vertical range. Also with her spell Celestite of the Covenant, which brings airborne opponent to the ground.
Anti-Villain: In contrast to the majority of BlazBlue villains, Nine is driven to do what she thinks is right, to fix the world and end the suffering it causes for her as well as the other cast. The problem is that she's using similar methods to what said villains do in destroying the Amaterasu Unit and forcibly remaking the world to do so.
Arch-Enemy: Considers Terumi and Imperator this, as they've been using her and now she wants payback after she's free.
The Archmage: Is hailed by many as the greatest magic user in the world. And Central Fiction gives her the opportunity to prove it.
Ascended Extra: After three games of sitting on the sidelines, Nine finally gets to throw down with the rest of the cast as the boss of Act I with a very big role in the fourth game.
Assist Character: The demon Hi-no-Kagutsuchi will assist her in some attacks. There's also her spell Taaffeite of Temptation, which has her summon a small fairy that does 3 attacks on the opponent to assist her.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Her demon, Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, is huge, so much so that only half of its body is shown during one of her intros. Also, Nine never fully summons the demon, just uses its limbs to attack enemies.
Badass Bookworm: A powerful sorceress and one of the Six Heroes who created the Nox Nyctores and taught humanity everything about magic and Ars Magus.
Badass Cape: Her CF appearance has her wearing a long purple cape. She's able to block attacks with it, bring it to life, and change its shape at will.
Bastard Understudy: It turns out that she is this to Izanami as of Central Fiction. With her limiters released at the end of Chronophantasma and Terumi temporarily out of commission, she is no longer under anyone's control and is now enacting her own plan to change the world through destruction and recreation.
Battle Couple: With Jubei.
Beating A Dead Player: Ironically taking a page from Terumi's playbook, one of her winposes has her grind her heels onto the unconscious opponent's head.
Berserk Button:
- Anyone who wishes to visit harm upon Celica or try to fool around with her (Being a male in Celica's presence is all it takes to make her think that) will spend the final minutes of their lives in terrible agony.
Nine: Let me help you remember by beating it back into you! No one fools around with my kid sister! When I'm done with you, your limbs may no longer be attached to your body!
- Also, referring to her age in any way is very ill-advised unless you wish to stand in the heat of an inferno. Nu learned this the hard way.
Bestiality Is Depraved: She went with what is basically the equivalent of a Funny Animal for her husband.
Big Sister Instinct:
- Really. Harming Celica is basically telling Nine "I want to die in the most horrifying manner available."
- Act 2, however, reveals that this aspect of her is played extremely darkly. Celica is about the brightest spot of her otherwise bleak life, so Nine treasures her so much that she's willing to end the world for her sake, and remake it so that the two of them can find happiness, while leaving everyone else to their fates and likely making them all disappear if the world is remade per her plans. And considering Celica's protests and Nine's treatment, it seems that Celica isn't allowed to have a say about it.
Black Cloak: A variant. Her Phantom form acts as one, though it's more of a big, dark purple Robe and Wizard Hat that conceals her entire body. One of her intro poses involves her burning it off.
Black Eyes of Crazy: Her Central Fiction artwork shows that the irises of her eyes are still amber-colored, but the sclera are completely black. While originally believed to be Mind-Control Eyes, it's actually the result of her resurrection.
Bound and Gagged: In Terumi's CF ending, he ties her like this with his Ouroboros and taunts her. Though it turns out to be a phantom of her.
Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: She goes by either Nine or Phantom. Her playable appearance decides to just put them together.
Breath Weapon: Her standard attack has her blowing a gust of wind at her opponent. The Overdrive version of her DD Flame Punisher has Kagutsuchi breathing a powerful torrent of fire from its mouth.
Broken Bird:
- Beneath this snarky, hot-tempered witch is a woman whose life has been torn apart by parental abandonment and betrayal, all because of certain individuals' mad obsession with killing an artificial god - and, if she's to be believed, the "god" itself.
- And then Act 2 reveals exactly just how broken she really is. She's willing to end the world, and everyone else she knew, friend and foe alike, all to create a world where she and Celica can be happy.
Broken Pedestal: Her Motive Rant ends up causing this to some of the cast, like Kokonoe who now acknowledges that her mother died in the distant past.
The Bully: Gives off this impression most of the time. Especially evident in Phase Shift 1 given the way she treats Kazuma. Hell, if Trinity wasn't befriending him, she probably wouldn't give the guy the time of day. In Hazama's CF arcade, she fights him not just to see what his desire is, but also because he reminds her of Kazuma, who she really doesn't like.
Nine: I didn't mean to spoil the fun, but seeing your face again... I couldn't stand idly by. This is just like back then, when we were staring into each other's eyes. Ah yes. The sheer thought of it makes me sick!
Nine: (winquote vs. Hazama) That face of yours... It never fails to get on my nerves. I'll smash you to pieces, and you'll be FUBARed for good.
Call-Back:
- When she teleports Naoto to her location, he says that a teleportation magic or Phenomenon Intervention has occurred; Nine remarks at how he knows difficult words for a stranger. This is a reference to how she says the similar thing to Bloodedge in the past, where, despite his amnesia, he blurts out words like Ars Magus or Six Heroes.
- Her Overdrive is Burning Red, the alternate name for the Crimson Grimoire, an ultimate Grimoire she previously researched that could grant anyone immense magical power. Since Hazama obtained it at the end of Remix Heart, it's possible Nine is currently using it. Mai's winquote against her also references this.
Mai: (winquote vs Nine) Real magic... It's so powerful. One of the Six Heroes who created the Burning Red...!
- The Story Mode has her do a Heroic Sacrifice by trying to hold back Izanami and the Doomsday for a week, and Jubei helping the others escape so Ragna and others can find a way to defeat Izanami in a week's time. It's a call back to the Phase 0 novel where Bloodedge holds the Black Beast for a year with Jubei helping Celica, Trinity and Nine escape so they can find a way to defeat it in a year.
Cape Wings: Her cape can occasionally turn into a pair of wings, most notable in her Astral.
Captain Morgan Pose: She does this in her winning animation, by using the body of her defeated opponent as her footstool.
Casting a Shadow: A lot of her attacks involve dark magic. Her Everlasting Schrol has her thrusting a blade of dark energy forward, her Andradite of Accord has her firing a black and red Energy Ball that explodes in a + shape, her Nephrite of Nullification has her summoning pillars of dark energy after a countdown, her DD Flame Punisher has her shooting 2 beams of dark energy, and her other DD Azurite Inferno has her firing spears of dark energy and on Overdrive, summoning pillars of dark energy to finish the opponent off.
Character Tic: Is often seen holding the rim of her hat, twirling her hat on her finger, or holding an ember of fire in her hand.
Chekhov's Gun: Her not having a Drive is important to the story. With her never using a Drive, she doesn't get her soul sucked into the Boundary unlike other Entitled, thus staying strong.
Cleavage Window: Her outfit in CF gives a clear view of her cleavage.
Clothing Combat: She will use her cloak as a weapon in some attacks, mostly to block attacks and turning it into large hands to grab and throw opponents.
The Coats Are Off: In the Chronophantasma True Ending, Izanami removes the cloak that obscured her body, which apparently doubled as a Power Limiter. She then proceeds to engage her former lover in battle.
Color-Coded Elements: in gameplay, she'll gain colored tags as she uses her normals: Water Is Blue, Wind Is Green and Fire Is Red. The same element will also paint her cape with - and give her a Battle Aura of - one of the three colors as you use Flax Nurture.
Combat Stilettos: And if she thinks you're trying to hurt Celica (or make a move on her), she'll grind them into your skull. This is used to a greater effect in CF.
Computer Virus: In CS, she uses one created by magic to disable Takamagahara.
Confusion Fu: Her special moves relies on combining 3 elemental signs together. What she decides to throw at you depends on what sign she stocked, which you really have to memorize right because she has around 20 combinations of them.
Contralto of Strength: If you're wondering where her daughter got her voice from, Nine has a low and powerful voice, which serves to highlight her aggressive personality, on top of being a powerful witch.
Conveniently Timed Distraction: In her last fight with Ragna in story mode, she's got an edge, and she's about to launch a strong attack where she glances at Celica and she sees an image of younger Celica saying "Sis". This stops Nine for a moment, allowing Ragna to do a decisive strike on her and then finish her with a Dead Spike.
Cool Big Sis: Despite her temper, she's very caring on Celica and would even give her Marshmallow Hell.
Critical Hesitation Blunder: During her final fight with Ragna, just when she is about to finish him off she looks over at Celica and sees her as her younger self Little Sister, causing her to hesitate and giving Ragna the opening to mortally wound her.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Fights with her usually end in a draw or with her utterly humiliating the opponent. Her first fight with Ragna in the Story Mode quite literally ends with her foot on the back of his neck.
Dark Is Evil: She's a witch (both figuratively and literally), wears dark clothes, and uses a lot of dark-based attacks, and is also among the antagonists of CF.
Dash Attack: Her special Crimson Raider has her dashing forward while being Wreathed in Flames, releasing an explosion on contact.
Deadpan Snarker: Another trait Kokonoe inherited from her.
Nine: Oh? For someone who'd come up with such an obvious lie, like amnesia, you actually have a pretty solid perspective of the world. If only the higher-ups of this world felt the same way you did...
Bloodedge: Yeah, yeah, yeah, obvious lie, I get it.
Nine: Yes, well... Stupidity is worthless here.
Bloodedge: Why you...
Death Equals Redemption: After Ragna fatally wounds her, she denies Celica healing her and realizes that she needs to put her faith in Ragna as well. She sacrifices the little life she has left to give the heroes a week to find out how to defeat Izanami and activates Requiem, happy seeing Jubei protecting her (from Nu) one last time.
Death from Above: Like her daughter Kokonoe, Nine's Astral involves her summoning a meteor to crash down upon the opponent (after first incapacitating them like Kokonoe's). However, she one-ups her daughter by raining dozens of them. Also, 2 of her spells drop small meteors and a big rock respectively onto the opponent, while her special Navy Pressure has her summon a demonic fist that slams down directly above the foe.
Despair Event Horizon: Act 2 implies that Nine crossed this a long time ago. After being shown the truth of the world, she went insane and decided to cling to Celica as the only way she could retain some sense of mental clarity. Unfortunately, Nine has deluded herself into thinking that only her and Celica's happiness matters, and that everyone else can be thrown away like trash if it means destroying Amaterasu and remaking the world as she sees fit.
Disappeared Dad: Her father, Shuichiro Ayatsuki, left her and Celica to continue his research. She's hated him for it ever since.
Disc-One Final Boss: Quite literally, in fact. She is the final boss of the first Act of the game's arcade story, fittingly titled "Phantom of Labyrinth". She is also this in Central Fiction's story mode proper, being the first of the three primary villains to be defeated (the other two being Izanami and Terumi).
Disproportionate Retribution: Because of her volatile temper, Nine's responses to most things are... Rather extreme.
- Nine thinks Bloodedge's trying to make a move on Celica. Nine's response? Try to blow up Bloodedge with fireballs.
- In CF, Nine is utterly pissed that Kokonoe resurrected Celica in her plot to kill Terumi and then attacks her. Her rage is justified as Kokonoe attempted to do the one thing Nine wouldn't do: sacrifice Celica for Kushinada's Lynchpin, but the response was completely uncalled for. Made worse by the fact that Nine is fully aware that Kokonoe doesn't even remember doing that thanks to the amnesia effects of the Embryo.
- Likewise, in her Act 2 arcade mode. After defeating Ragna, Nine flies into a rage, blaming him for everything bad that's happened, and proceeds to deliver a vicious No-Holds-Barred Beatdown consisting of three Navy Pressures and finally a violent stomp on the back of his head.
Does Not Like Men: Ultimately despises men due to her neglectful relationship with her father as a child. In the light novel Phase 0, Nine almost kills Bloodedge and violently beats him for speaking his opinion due to believing that he deceived her sister Celica. Trinity also states that she dislikes her real name and prefers her title, and her hatred of men men most likely was the reason she started a relationship with Jubei, a two-tailed cat-man.
Does Not Like Spam: Hates shiitake mushrooms.
The Dog Bites Back: How she was killed, as revealed in Phase 4 — she attempted to control Terumi, but then Terumi regained his sentience (thanks to Kazuma's manipulation on Trinity) and killed her. Ironically, since she used to be Terumi's dog upon resurrection, she can now do this to him in Central Fiction, and she is quite pleased at the opportunity.
Domain Holder:
- She currently manages the Lotus-Eater Machine inside of the Embryo and has her thoughts locked into every playable characters at the same time. Also it's shown that Noel, with her Eye of the Azure, has been able to subconsciously affect the domain in her own way, and as Relius' arcade shows, it's prone to influences and changes both from inside and outside. And she claims that there will be a "god of the Embryo" who has been decided from the beginning.
- There's also the Phantom Field, which is linked to the Embryo and is the place where Nine observes everything unfolding in the Embryo. She either pulls people to the field, or they find their way to it themselves (such as Azrael, Izayoi, Hakumen and Relius) for the boss fight.
The Dragon: Initially one for Terumi and Relius, then to Izanami, but...
Dragon with an Agenda: Various characters' Central Fiction arcade mode stories show that, like Hazama, Terumi and Relius, Nine isn't loyal to Izanami either. In fact, Nine wants the current world to end so that changes can be made, but in order to do that, Izanami must be defeated. To that end, she has almost everyone playing into her plans one way or another, mostly with her telling them to defeat Izanami.
Elemental Powers: Her playstyle revolves around three, "Fire", "Water", and "Wind". She can stack up to 3 signs of elements at once, including the same element and combine them for additional effects. That being said, she has access to other elements such as gravity, lightning, nature, ice, and dark magic, though she seems to prefer fire magic.
Embarrassing First Name: Phase 0 reveals she dislikes her given name which is why she goes by Nine.
Everyone Has Standards: Despite her willingness to do pretty much anything to defeat the Black Beast so that Celica is not used to activate Kushinada's Lynchpin, she considers Take-Mikazuchi to be too dangerous for humans to ever use, even against the Black Beast. Which makes it rather jarring now that CF reveals that she intends to end the world by using the Nox Nyctores to complete Take-Mikazuchi. The story mode, however, double-subverts this; it turns out she still has standards, and that the Take-Mikazuchi she intends to summon is not the real one, but an 11th Nox Nyctores that she wishes to use to create Phenomenon Interventions on the scale of what Amaterasu can do, but without someone with a selfish will at its "helm".
Evil Costume Switch: As Phantom, her outfit is changed into an armless cloak with a High Collar of Doom that conceals her face, along with a different witch hat. Her Central Fiction look (which has the cloak opened) seems like a corrupted version of her old Ten Sages outfit. Her special intro with Celica and Kokonoe has her briefly dressed in her old Ten Sages outfit before switching to her current look.
Evil Genius: In Chronophantasma. Even more so in Central Fiction.
Evil Is Not a Toy: She unsealed Yuuki Terumi from the Boundary after Clavis, Valkenhayn, and Jubei sealed him in, placing him under a mind-control spell that forced him to work for her and ignoring the massive threat he posed. She ended up paying for it with her life.
Evil Laugh: She's quite prone to these, particularly in Hazama's CF arcade ending & Carl's Act 3 Arcade.
Evil Matriarch: Oh yea. Not quite as evil as initially thought though, but still pretty far on the extremist end of Well-Intentioned Extremist.
Exact Words: She is very particular in saying that her goal is not to destroy the world, but rather to end it. Her actual plan is to end the God's dream and create a world without a will controlling everything like the Master Unit does.
Face–Heel Turn: She goes from a heroine who saved the world, if certainly far from nice, to a Well-Intentioned Extremist determined to fix the world's problems by any means by the time she returns.
The Faceless: As Phantom, until her face appeared in the shadow on Chronophantasma story mode. Later fully appeared, revealing her Black Eyes of Crazy.
The Fair Folk: Her Taaffeite of Temptation spell has her summon a fairy to bombard opponents with dark energy bolts.
Fallen Heroine: She was one of the six individuals to bring peace back to the world, but after being thrown into the Boundary she saw the "truth" of the world and now seeks out to destroy the Master Unit and take revenge on Terumi and the Imperator for using her. Act 2 reveals her goal for wanting to destroy the Amaterasu Unit: the world she wants to create is one where only she and Celica are happy. Everyone else is just in the way, regardless of whether they were once her comrades.
Family Theme Naming: As Jubei's wife, Nine is named after someone associated with Yagyu Jubei, Jushiro Konoe. (See Named After Someone Famous below.) Her daughter's name is a two-way pun to Nine's/Konoe's own name, extending the association with Yagyu Jubei.
Fangs Are Evil: Played with. The cover◊ of CF portrays her with fangs, complete with Maniac Tongue.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Not her, but her demon Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, has one of its horns broken.
Fate Worse than Death: Nine attempted to make Terumi her bitch, and now as Phantom, first Terumi and Relius's bitch. The ending of CP made it seem like she would become Izanami's, but CF subverts it.
Femme Fatalons: Her current look sports these. Relius' Astral, however, reveals that they are actually black, clawed gloves.
Fiery Redhead: Pink is still a shade of red after all, but from the novels of Phase 0 and Phase 1, Nine had quite the temper... which Kokonoe inherited as well.
Finger-Snap Lighter: In one of her story poses she holds fire on her open palm. This also appears in her official art.
Fireball Eyeballs: Her left eye releases a glowing purple flame when she uses her Astral. This implies that she is using her XBlaze.
Fire-Forged Friends: How she and Jubei first met, as revealed in Phase 0. Nine and Jubei (who called himself Mitsuyoshi at the time), fought over the use of Kushinada's Lynchpin. Jubei wanted to use it to stop the Black Beast, but Nine refused to as doing so would mean sacrificing Celica. With some help from Bloodedge, the two managed to get over their differences. And from there, the two eventually fell in love.
Fire, Water, Wind: Her normal attacks focus on these elements.
Flaming Skulls: three of her spells create this.
Foreshadowing:
- Nine in her Act 2 arcade gets angry at Ragna as she blames him for everything that's wrong with the world. She's not exactly wrong; even disregarding him being (or used to be, in a way) the Black Beast, he's also revealed as the Central Fiction, the focus of The Origin (the girl in Master Unit)'s plays of the world (or the "wretched puppet show" as Nine puts it); The Origin basically repeats the world's times and tragedies, never allowing the world to advance, just so she can somehow meet Ragna. Nine is implied to know all of it.
- Kokonoe's Act 3 arcade has her battling Nine as her final opponent; Kokonoe talks something about what Nine's doing with "that replica" and Nine is amused that her daughter can figure that out. As story mode revealed, they're talking about Requiem, a new Nox Nyctores made as a replica of Take-mikazuchi, located in Nine's secret hiding place, and Kokonoe also figures its whereabouts.
Gameplay and Story Integration: The fact that she does not have a Drive like other characters becomes important since the Embryo sucks in the souls of people who use Drives, making them weaker. Since Nine doesn't use a Drive she remains incredibly strong.
Genius Sweet Tooth: Yet another trait Kokonoe inherited from her. She even admits that sweets are a way for her to clear her head.
Giant Hands of Doom: Her Navy Pressure, Mauvette Roar, and Scarlet Vein attacks have her using Kagutsuchi's limbs to attack opponents, similarly to Bayonetta's Wicked Weaves.
Glacier Waif: Similarly to Hazama, she has poor ground mobility and is tied with Kokonoe for having the lowest health among the cast. That said, her arsenal of powerful, screen-filling, long distance spells makes getting close enough to hit her a challenge.
Glass Cannon: Nine has incredible damage potential, but is tied with Kokonoe for the second lowest health among the cast (10,500).
Go Mad from the Revelation: During her time in the Boundary, she found out the "truth of the world" and the fact that the world has repeated itself and its tragedies over this. This drives her to stop all of this "wretched puppet show". CF story mode details that what she saw was the Prime Field War and how "The Origin" has repeated the world over and over. She wants for their efforts to have meaning and for them (i.e her and those she cares about) to live meaningful lives, and the Master Unit impeded her from those.
Good Is Not Nice: Yeah, despite being hailed as a legendary hero, she's rather temperamental and hostile towards strangers, especially if she feels they're threatening her sister, even before her Face–Heel Turn.
Go Out with a Smile: In her last moments, after she sacrifices her life to power up Requiem for one last time, she sees Jubei trying to hold Nu back from attacking her. She's happy that her husband protects her one last time before she passes away.
Gravity Master: Knows a spell named "Infinite Gravity". With it, she can compress the souls and seithr she needed to be used to power Nox Nyctores. Also, one of her gameplay spells, Celestite of the Covenant, has her create a field of gravity on the ground under the opponent. In that field, the opponent won't be able to jump.
Green Thumb: Her spell Morganite of Malice has her planting a seed to the ground, which grows into roots that attack the opponent.
Hair-Trigger Temper: If you're wondering where Kokonoe got it from, look no further. Underneath the sass and snark is a ticking time bomb of Unstoppable Rage that will explode at even the smallest provocation or for no reason at all. And she can be a nightmare when she flies off the handle. Taken further in CF where some of her arcade interactions with other characters have her literally exploding with anger.
Hates Their Parent: She really hates her father and refuses to acknowledge him as such due to her believing him to be the one behind the Black Beast's appearance. In Phase Shift 1 when Kazuma brings out the subject, this gets her into an argument with Celica due to the latter still loving her father no matter what.
Having a Blast: Given her preference for fire magic, it's only natural that many of her attacks result in Stuff Blowing Up. Her Crimson Raider special has her charge at an opponent while Wreathed in Flames, causing an explosion on impact. Her Air Throw has her grab the opponent with her cape and detonating an explosion to throw them to the ground. The Active Flow version of her Scarlet Vein Exceed Accel has Kagutsuchi's fists causing a small explosion on impact. And her DD Cardinal Nova has her creating a localized explosion in front of her, with the Overdrive version adding more explosions that carry the opponent into the air.
Heel–Face Brainwashing: She did this on Terumi in the past because his expertise was needed in fighting the Black Beast and he's, well, not exactly a cooperative person. Unfortunately for her, he exploited the fact that he's inside a self-aware vessel (Kazuma) who he specifically influenced to go with his will, so while Terumi is brainwashed, Kazuma is not. This is what allowed him to break the brainwashing, by having Kazuma manipulate Trinity to lift Nine's spell on him.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: Outside of her family, Nine also deeply cares for one more individual - Trinity Glassfille, her best friend. Trinity is perhaps the only person that Nine will ever listen to, and at times, will even concede her own will to Trinity's. Throughout their friendship, Nine and Trinity have protected one another, but in recent years, this friendship has ended because of Nine's willingness to burn down the world for her family.
Hey, That's My Line!: In Hakumen's CF Act 1 arcade.
Hakumen: What could you possibly do under the Imperator's spell?
Nine: Imbecile. That's my line. What could YOU possibly do?
- Also in her Act 2 arcade.
Hakumen: Before the world ends, I'll make sure to end you — Phantom.
Nine: That's my line, "Mr. Hero."
Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Her left eye is covered by a really long bang of hair. It hides the imitation Origin of the Grimoire in her eye.
Hijacking Cthulhu: Act 3 reveals that this is her plan. By collecting all 9 of the Nox Nyctores, she will be able to power up Take-Mikazuchi to completely destroy the world in an instant. Played with in that when she calls it forth, she is going to call it forth in a completely berserk state, and she knows it. Story Mode, however, reveals this is a subversion. She's not hijacking Take-Mikazuchi - she's making a new one.
Hot-Blooded: Appropriately enough. She's impulsive, short-tempered, reckless, and uses fire magic.
Hot Witch: Her coat is slipping off her shoulders, helping show her slim figure. In CF, she becomes even hotter, figuratively and literally.
Human Popsicle: 3 of her spells can encase the foe on ice, much like Jin's Drive.
Hypocrite: She once considered Take-Mikazuchi too dangerous for humans to ever use. Her Evil Plan in CF has her using the Nox Nyctores to complete Take-Mikazuchi^note to completely destroy the world. Later subverted in Story Mode when we find out that the Take-Mikazuchi in question isn't actually the original one at all, and serves a different function.
Impossibly-Low Neckline: Her outfit in Central Fiction.
Insufferable Genius: she was hailed as the genius mage of the Ten Sages, who created Ars Magus for the whole humanity to use and is given the most authority regading the Black Beast's matter. Naturally she talks in a condescending manner because of it.
Interspecies Romance: With Jubei.
In the Blood: She's Kokonoe's mother alright; her daughter inherited her hair color, her attitude, her affinity for sweets and even her affinity for magic (though Kokonoe prefers not to use it and rely on science instead). This even extends into their gameplay in CF. Both of their walking animations are a Supermodel Strut, both of their fighting styles involve using the elements (Though Kokonoe uses elemental gadgets while Nine uses elemental magic), both of their Distortion Drives involve firing large beams of energy, and both of their Astral Heats involve trapping the opponent and raining down meteors upon them. She also mentions in her Act 2 arcade play that the two are more alike than it's comfortable for her to be.
Kokonoe: (Winquote vs Nine) Do you think I've been a bad daughter? If that's the case, I probably took after you, mother.
Invulnerable Attack: Her special Flux Nurture and DD Azurite Inferno makes her invincible during execution.
Irony:
- Though Nine would loathe to admit it, she and Terumi have become much alike. Both are extremely powerful and nihilistic individuals who seek to destroy Amaterasu in order to bring about change in the world. She even starts to imitate some of Terumi's traits such as stomping on her opponent's head and being more prone to taunts, Evil Laughs and Slasher Smiles. She also has picked up his habit of using malicious nicknames for other characters, calling Azrael "Little Puppy" and calling Nu "Little Doll". She also twirls her hat like Hazama.
- A Meta example. In the Phase Shift novels and CP, Nine is shown to be an extremely prudish person, having an ingrained belief that All Men Are Perverts out to take advantage of her sister Celica and even scolding Celica for revealing herself. Come CF, her appearance and character have been heavily sexualized to such a degree that her pre-Dark War self would be appalled. She now has a Cleavage Window, talks in a mostly seductive tone, her breasts jiggle, she lifts her leg and shows off her black panties during some attacks, she lies in a seductive pose when defeated, and being caught by Relius' Astral has her taking a bath in a witch's cauldron.
I Take Offense to That Last One: In Carl's Act 1 arcade, she reveals she doesn't like being called a "witch".
Jerkass Has a Point:
- Granted, trying to fry an innocent person alive wasn't the best way to solve it, but Nine does have a point when she criticizes Celica for being too trusting.
- In Hibiki's Act 1 arcade, she tells him that underneath the mask of the humble, mild-mannered servant, he secretly desires to kill Kagura and become a truly emotionless killer. And Act 3 proves she may have been right as his words and actions become progressively more insane and homicidal.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Like daughter, like mother. She's a stubborn, abrasive, and foul-tempered hardass, but she genuinely cares for others, especially Celica, even if you have to literally dig to see the heart of gold. Even after her resurrection, she still has good intentions... even if her methods are a tad too extreme. Ragna says it best:
Ragna: She's nagging, and scary, and always kicking people. She's really strong, though. She kept a ridiculous promise with me, and saved the world. She's someone her sister stands proud of and always boasts of. She's a brave woman.
Jiggle Physics: In CF, her breasts tend to jiggle a lot during gameplay.
Kick Chick: Her legs are registered as lethal weapons. Naturally, this translates into gameplay as most of her physical attacks are kicks. Taken to extremes with her DD Flame Punisher, which has her firing a Wave-Motion Gun with her foot.
Knight Templar Big Brother:
- Nobody touches or harms Celica in front of her. Bloodedge got blasted and beaten to near death when she got the wrong idea about him. And the reason she opted to use the souls from half of Take-Mikazuchi's core to create other Nox Nyctores, letting the war drag on much longer and sacrificing many? Because the other alternative was to plug Celica into the Kushinada's Lynchpin, which would surely kill her. She still felt bad about the sacrificed souls, though, and had planned to release them all.
- If her winquote against Celica is any indications, she plans to save only her, likely leaving everyone else to their fates. Her whole plan, even if well-meaning, also disregards people in the current time, that others protest to her that the current world should be left to the current people.
- Also summed up in Celica's Act 3 arcade final fight against her:
Nine: This world has again and again continuing to repeat the same mistakes! And every time that happens the history is being rewind... And we have to repeat that hell again! Lots of people dying... And you’ll have to carry the same pain again! Saving the world? Don’t screw around... I’ve had enough with going along the god’s nightmare! For that, the world needs to be destroyed once. For you, Celica, not needing to be in pain again... Please, understand.
Kung-Fu Wizard: Aside from her wide-array of magical abilities, she's an expert hand-to-hand combatant as well, relying on kicks helped with her heels.
Lady of Black Magic: Sans the personality, until Central Fiction.
Lady Swears-a-Lot: Surprisingly averted in contrast to Kokonoe, who has pretty much said every swear word in the english dictionary. Nine is surprisingly clean of tongue. Played Straight in CF, where she curses more often.
Leeroy Jenkins: Especially in matters where Celica is involved. Her motto is shoot first and screw the questions. One example, aside from the aforementioned spat with Bloodedge, is in Phase Shift 1 when Celica leaves the island, she immediately suspects Kazuma had something to do with it and storms to his room to flat out interrogate him, nearly strangling the boy had Trinity not been there to stop her.
Leitmotif: Has one in CF fittingly titled Walpurgisnacht. ^note
A Lighter Shade of Black: Nine is a Fallen Heroine with some omnicidal designs for the world, but given that her targets, Terumi and Izanami, have made her life a living hell and have far worse motives than hers, it's easy to sympathize with her.
Long-Range Fighter: Fights mainly at long range with her spells. That being said, she can definitely handle herself up close with physical attacks thanks to her demon's assistance.
Lotus-Eater Machine: The world within the Embryo is one created by Nine to test the strength of the main characters by brutally deconstructing them and their desires in order for them to face the truth of the world.
Love Makes You Evil: This is the real extent of how far Nine has fallen, as revealed in Act 2. The world she wants to create is one where only Celica and her will find happiness, while everyone else is just in the way and can kill themselves for all she cares, regardless of previous alliances. And it doesn't seem to matter what Celica has to say about it. Nine has become so insane since her resurrection that she's now an extremely Knight Templar Big Sister.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Her spell Heliodor of Humility creates a shield in form of a goat head in front of her that automatically guards against one hit.
Ma'am Shock: Nu calls her "Oba-san" during the Arcade fight with Nine. (She also calls Nine this if she's set as the announcer voice.) She's not amused. Nu still calls her "Oba-san" if Nu's voice is set as the game's system voice.
Nu: (selecting Nine the Phantom on the character select screen) "Oba-san."
Nu: (battle ends) "Oba-san. Win./Lose."
Magic Is Feminine: Nine is considered the greatest mage in the world. She is also the one responsible for teaching humans how to use magic and is the creator of the Magic Formula (a force created by fusing science and sorcery) and the Arch-Enemy Event Weapons (weapons created to fight the Black Beast).
Magic Mirror: Her spell Citrine of Change creates a mirror that will block attacks for her, as well as reflecting projectiles.
Major Injury Underreaction: In a variant, if she's knocked to the ground, she'll simply lie down with a look, not giving a damn. A carryover from Slayer.
Male Gaze: The Story Mode artworks for Nine’s debut scene against Ragna have suggestive angles in them, both stances of her stomping Ragna under her heel give great focus on her voluptuous breasts.
Meaningful Name: Hi-no-Kagutsuchi is the name of the Japanese god of fire, a fitting name for a fire-breathing demon.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Nine is the first character in BlazBlue history to not have a Drive. Instead, her D button attacks rely on certain types of elemental magic she can stockpile up to 3 times.
Mind Manipulation: She has the Mind Eater, a spell that can be used to control the mind of another person. It is first seen used on Terumi. The advanced form, Ruby: Mind Eater, is even worse - it lets the user impose their will upon others, making the victim lose themselves to be controlled. She has done so on Tsubaki, and then gives the "steer wheel" to the Imperator.
Morality Pet: Celica is one for her. Though she heavily downplays it - Celica does keep her from totally turning over the edge, but what Nine planned to do for her sake is questionable at best, even for Celica. See Love Makes You Crazy above for more. This becomes her downfall during her last fight with Ragna in the story mode. For the most part, she has Ragna on the ropes and is about to finish him off with a large fireball, but a vision of Celica's younger self causes her to hesitate... giving Ragna an opening to slice her in half with Blood-Scythe, then finish her off with a Dead Spike.
More than Mind Control: It's implied in the trailer for Central Fiction that by being shown the "truth" of the world by Izanami, her spirit became broken, allowing her to become corrupted into what is now Phantom. Hakumen still believes that she's still under Izanami's control as of the fourth game.
Ms. Fanservice: The closest one there is for the Six Heroes. Played completely straight with playable outfit in Central Fiction however. And then there's Relius' Astral, which has her taking a bath in a cauldron◊^note.
My Sister Is Off-Limits: She makes it perfectly and painfully clear that you do not mess with her kid sister.
Named After Somebody Famous: Her first name comes from Jushiro Konoe, the actor who portrayed Yagyu Jubei in the Yagyu Chronicles film series which consisted of nine movies.
Nightmare Face: In Hazama's, Hakumen's, Amane's, Arakune's, and Nu's Act 1 arcade endings, Nine's emotionless gaze is replaced with an absolutely unnerving Slasher Smile, complete with the black sclera in her eye turning a bright crimson red.
No Sense of Direction: Though not as bad as Celica, Nine shows that poor navigational skills run in the family. Naturally, Bloodedge lampshades this.
Nine: Ugh, the last thing we need is for you to become lost here of all places.
Bloodedge: Looks like you have a pretty tough time with that, too.
Nine: Oh, you're asking to die, huh? Stop being so familiar.
Not Quite Dead: Turns out she didn't die when Terumi threw her into the boundary. Her soul was extracted and put into the "vessel" known as Phantom.
"Not So Different" Remark: In her CF Act 2 arcade play, in the fight against Kokonoe, she remarks how she inherits her father's insolence and ego, and that Kokonoe had done the same too. She also says how they're both the same in how they will use any means necessary to achieve their goals.
Not So Stoic:
- In CF she mostly talks with a calm, condescending tone, without raising her tone much even when she's angry (like in Terumi's arcade)... but in Celica's arcade play, naturally, she sounds more distressed, especially at the prospect of meeting her and and her being involved in the whole mess. She even furiously shouts curses at Amaterasu for making Celica involved. Also shown in her Act 2 arcade play, when she encounters Celica.
- Also in Hazama's arcade, after the boss fight, she sounds happier than usual, even offering her hand on realizing his wish.
Numerical Theme Naming: One of the Ten Sages, the leaders of the Magic Guild in Ishana, the City of Magic and magic capital of the world. So far, only six other Sages have been revealed: One,^noteRelius Clover Two, Three ^noteBolverk's first wielder, Four, Seven◊ ^noteYukianesa's first wielder and the only known member whose current status is unknown as opposed to deceased, and Eight.◊ XBlaze introduces the group's predecessors, with Ringo Akagi being Nine's probable ancestor and holder of the title of Zwei, Marcelyn F. Mercury.
- The number nine has two connections to Jubei. Since Jubei is a cat, it's a reference to the famous mythos of cats having nine lives. And because her husband is named after Yagyu Jubei, her first name is based of Jushiro Konoe, an actor who played Yagyu Jubei in a nine-part movie series.
Older Than They Look: She looks like she's in her twenties, but she's actually much older due to being imprisoned in the Boundary for so long.
Optional Boss: In Act 3, if you defeat every arcade opponent with Perfects, Overdrive, Distortion Drive, and Astral finishes, you'll be transported to the Purgatorium stage for a 9th fight with Nine in her Unlimited form.
Outside-Context Problem: Played With. While Nine herself is pretty famous for her exploits as one of the Six Heroes, the fact that true magic (i.e not Ars Magus) is such a rarity in the BlazBlue setting gives her an edge over most of the cast as very few have experience dealing with magic. That she doesn't possess a Drive like the rest of the cast also gives her an edge in the fabricated world of the Embryo as it allows her to fight at full strength while the others have their souls pulled into the Boundary.
Personality Powers: A Hot Witch with a fiery temper and the fire magic to match.
Person of Mass Destruction: Her Astral summons a meteor shower that turns the battlefield into an ocean of flames. That's all that needs to be said.
Pet the Dog: As Phantom not once but twice she saved a victim of Terumi's beating without his consent by teleporting them away, first Valkenhayn then Platinum. In Central Fiction, she urges Ragna to defeat Izanami, but since it's Nine we're talking about here, it involves fighting him to see if he is truly ready to do what needs to be done.
Player-Guided Missile: Her spell Andradite of Accord has her deploying an Energy Ball that can be moved around by holding D; releasing the button (or having the opponent attack it) will make it explode into a + shape.
Playing with Fire: While Nine is a master of all manner of elemental magic, fire is her go-to type of magic. This is best reflected in her gameplay as most of her attacks involve fire and the names of her Overdrive and Distortion Drives reference fire. Her idle pose and official art have her holding an ember of flame in her hand, and two of her battle intros have her engulfed in flames when she transforms into Phantom. And her stage, Purgatorium, resembles Hell. Naturally, she often threatens to burn her opponent to ashes.
Nine: I'll burn you down until not even ashes remain.
Power Glows: The red parts of her outfit glow constantly during gameplay.
The Promise: Makes one with Bloodedge. In exchange for Bloodedge confronting the Black Beast and buying time for the world to prepare for a counterattack, Nine would, within the one year that Bloodedge created for humanity, create a weapon powerful enough to defeat the Black Beast. Ragna in the third game revealed that it was all so Celica wouldn't have to sacrifice herself with Kushinada's Lynchpin.
Promoted to Playable: The fourth member^note of the Six Heroes to make their playable debut.
Psycho Pink: She has pink hair, and is a vengeful Broken Bird who's willing to even cause The End of the World as We Know It and remake it into one where she and her sister can be happy.
Purple Is Powerful: Decked mainly in purple and is a powerful magic user.
Rage Against the Heavens: Her vendetta against Amaterasu goes like this. The thing is implied to have made her live a life filled with tragedy and she sees the whole world as a lie because of this.
Random Effect Spell: The D button for her has her perform a magic spell. The effect will be various, depending on what elemental signs you have collected. Her DD Azurite Inferno also has the same varying effect. Her DD Cardinal Nova also puts random 3-element spells to both her active and stock slots.
Reality Warper: With the 11th Nox Nyctores, Corpus Sepulcro: Requiem, she is able to perform Phenomenon Interventions on the same level as the Master Unit.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: At the end of Hazama's, Nu's, Amane's, Arakune's and Hakumen's arcade endings, the black sclera in her eye is replaced with red. Whether this is intentional or an error is rather ambiguous. Also, the seed she uses for her Morganite of Malice spell has a red eye on it.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Trinity and Celica's Blue.
Restart the World: During her talk with Hakumen in her Act 2 arcade play, she says that the world is so rotten that there's no other way to correct it but to let it die once. In her Act 3 play she details her plans: namely she's going to gather the Nox Nyctores to complete Take-Mikazuchi and then let it loose to destroy the world and Master Unit, then she plans to create a system that creates a new world and new god (Requiem) that isn't affected by emotions, again using the Nox Nyctores and a whole lot of seithr.
Restraining Bolt: As Phantom, she has limiters imposed upon her by Terumi and Izanami. They're unsealed by the time she severs ties with them.
Robe and Wizard Hat: She's got the hat, but the "robe" is worn more like a Badass Cape that compliments a military-like uniform. She gets a more traditional robe as Phantom which also serves as a sort of armored cloak to hide her identity, and in Central Fiction, we finally get to see her revealed form underneath the cloak that was hidden by shadow in the climax of Chronophantasma.
Scarf of Asskicking: Part of Phantom's outfit is two halves of a floating, tattered white scarf. She loses this as Nine the Phantom, however.
Secret Test of Character: It turns out that the events transpiring presently are going on within the Embryo itself. It's a dream world that she concocted in order to find someone who could truly defeat Izanami. It's actually intended for Ragna, but she also does this to everyone else as well, testing their beliefs and brutally deconstructing them and their desires one by one.
Secret Weapon: CF revealed that she has created a new Nox Nyctores, Gaisou (Corpus Sepulcro): Requiem, a device resembling Take-mikazuchi that lets her do powerful Phenomenon Interventions on par with the Master Unit; she plans for it to replace the Master Unit in her planned new world. It's still in an incomplete state in the story. Its usage come at a price: It shaves off her life force whenever she uses it, and for the last time she used it, she gave her life to make the weapon stall Izanami and the Doomsday for a week so Ragna can find a better way to stop Izanami.
Sexy Backless Outfit: Her outfit in CF exposes her back, though you don't see it often.
Shadow Archetype: To Ragna. They're both older siblings that have led incredibly bleak lives and both would do anything for their younger siblings, to the point that both sought power so they’d be able to protect what’s important to them. To drive it further, they both have supernaturally induced heterochromia; Ragna's red right eye a result of his Azure Grimoire, Nine's X-shaped red pupil in her left eye, hidden by her bangs, a result of her imitation Origin of the Grimoire. While Ragna is in possession of the Azure Grimoire that he was gifted, which allows him to control Seithr to perform attacks and magic, Nine planned to create (and is implied to be using as her playable version) the Crimson Grimoire as the counterpart to the Azure Grimoire, and enhances her already powerful ability to control mana to perform attacks and magic. Both are also Glass Cannons in gameplay, while also performing hand-to-hand combat in fights in addition to their abilities, with Ragna's case being Sword and Fist and Nine's case being Kung-Fu Wizard. The difference is that, both embody Good Is Not Nice, but Ragna undergoes Character Development to move on from his bleak past and protect what's in present, becoming a better, more heroic person in the process, while Nine becomes a Fallen Heroine due to being fixated on the past tragedies she's bitter against. This got exemplified in their later goal to recreate a world with possibility for everyone, where Ragna was willing to sacrifice himself to achieve it and won't kill anyone even Amaterasu Unit, however, Nine was ready to beat up whoever stands on her way and was willing to destroy the Amaterasu Unit and replace it with Requiem. Ragna himself also notes on how far Nine has fallen from who he used to know before their final fight.
Shaping Your Attacks: Her Everlasting Schrol spell and her DD Azurite Inferno have her shape darkness into spears. By the same token, many of her other spells give unique forms to the attack.
She Knows Too Much: The reason Terumi killed her. Well, aside from getting back at her for using him.
Shock and Awe: What she uses in an attempt to destroy Kushinada's Lynchpin. One of her gameplay spells, Amethyst of Annihilation, creates a ball of lightning and sends it forward.
Shoryuken: A kick version with her special, Mauvette Roar.
Sibling Yin-Yang: She couldn't be more of Celica's opposite if she tried. Celica is a Cute Witch with an average figure and is an all-around Nice Girl who specializes in healing magic. Nine is a Hot Witch and very buxom with a very violent temperament and tends to use her magic more offensively. This even extends to gameplay, where Celica is a Skill Gate Character with a simple and straightforward moveset, whereas Nine is Difficult, but Awesome with a very complex moveset.
Signature Move: Her Kunzite of Keep Breaker spell (2 fire + 1 water signs) has quickly become this for many players. And it seems the game is aware of this as Nine's act 3 arcade fight with Carl has her tossing three Kunzites at Carl. Her Navy Pressure special closely follows.
Slasher Smile: In contrast to the emotionless look she gives at the end of most arcade endings, Hazama's, Hakumen's, Nu's, Amane's, Arakune's endings, and the cutscene where Izayoi defeats Ragna have her sporting a downright disturbing Slasher Smile. The red sclera in her eye doesn't help. Seems being around Terumi for so long has started to rub off on her.
The Smart Girl: Of the Six Heroes. She's a powerful sorceress and the creator of the Nox Nyctores, and was the one who taught humanity to use Ars Magus. She also was appointed as one of the Ten Sages despite still being a student at the time.
Smug Smiler: If she's not being a Perpetual Frowner, then she has either a Psychotic Smirk or a full blown Slasher Smile. Either one practically oozes condescension.
Smug Super: Nine is one of the most arrogant and smug characters in the series and has all the magical power to back up her ego. This trait truly shines in Central Fiction, where she is this in spades. Everything she does drips with condescension and arrogance, even in gameplay. She laughs off attacks like they were nothing, Relius' Astral has her calmly taking a bath in a cauldron, her win pose has her stomping on the opponent's head, her winquotes are incredibly smug and arrogant and her defeated pose, like Rachel, Slayer, and Elizabeth before her, is simply her laying down casually on the ground, not giving a damn.
Sour Prude: Comes off as this with her All Men Are Perverts mentality. One has to wonder how she ended up marrying Jubei with that mindset...
Spanner in the Works: She considers Naoto and Relius to be interfering with her plans in different ways. Technically she doesn't expect and want Celica to be involved as well, but then Nine chooses to make her a part of the whole plan under the premise of trying to make Celica's desired world come true.
Spell Levels: Her "stack 2/3" spells are basically stronger versions of the spells with less tags. Such as Coral of Catastrophe (1 fire) -> Garnet of Gall (2 fire) -> Rubellite of Rage (3 fire).
Squishy Wizard: Nine is a frighteningly powerful spellcaster, but she's also tied for the lowest HP in the playable roster.
Status Buff: Her special Flax Nurture gives her a buff on her normal attacks. The buff depends on, and affects, the elements you put into the active slot. Aside from strengthening the normal element attack of choice, it also increases the damage of spells done with the particular element.
Stealth Pun: She has Jubei, a cat, as her husband. It means she has a "cat o' nine".
Straw Nihilist: Her quote above says it all. The fact that she has been badly treated by the "god" of the verse and is implied to have seen what's behind the scenes may very well be the explanation.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Like daughter, like mother, the ice part is very prevalent.
Supermodel Strut: Her walking animation has her sashaying with her hips and legs in an assertive manner.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: She has gold eyes and she's a powerful sorceress. They get even more supernatural in Central Fiction where she gains black or occasionally red sclera. Her demon, Hi-no-Kagutsuchi also has four yellow eyes.
Superpower Lottery: Considering that she is one of the most powerful magic users in the world, this is a given. In addition to possessing all manner of elemental magic, Nine can combine her elemental magic together to form a variety of powerful spells for various purposes. She also knows other powerful spells such as Mind Eater and Ruby: Mind Eater which can control a person's mind, she can create weapons powered by souls with her Infinite Gravity, she can manipulate the world within the Embryo in various ways such as creating phantoms of other characters and erasing their memories, her gameplay has her summoning creatures to assist her in battle, she can fly and teleport herself and others anywhere she wants, and on top of her magical prowess, she is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant. Suddenly not having a Drive doesn't seem like a problem for her. The fact that she doesn't have a drive also gives her an edge within the Embryo's fabricated world as she's one of the few people who can fight with all of her strength while everyone else's souls are being pulled into the boundary. Ragna pretty much lampshades this during their first fight in the Story Mode.
Ragna: Your magic is as overpowered as ever.
Sympathy for the Devil: Ragna admits he respects Nine for her attempts to save her sister. As an older sibling himself, he can understand what she's trying to do.
Teleporters and Transporters: She can use teleport spells. In gameplay, her dash move is a teleport.
Theme Naming: Her specials are named after colors, while her spells are named after various gemstones and negative emotions and actions, beffiting Nine's nihilistic mindset. Also, the names of her Overdrive and Distortion Drives reference fire in addition to colors. Her Astral Heat is unique in that it's called "colorless".
This Is Unforgivable!: Her pre-battle quote against Terumi. Also in her Act 2 arcade play, she claimed that she can't forgive her daughter for making "that girl" involved (heavily hinted to be Celica).
Three-Strike Combo: If her Flame Punisher DD is done in Overdrive, after the 2 lasers, Kagutsuchi will add a fiery breath move to finish off the foe.
Too Important to Walk: One of her intros has her demon, Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, literally carrying her into battle, highlighting her Smug Super nature.
Took a Level in Kindness: There is a very subtle one between her portrayals in arcade mode and story mode of Central Fiction. In arcade mode it's implied she will completely destroy the world to create a world only for Celica, anyone else be damned. However in story mode, we learn that her wish extends to freeing all of her loved ones, including her husband, daughter and friends, from Amaterasu's grasp and she doesn't want to destroy anything, merely replace the Master Unit with Requiem, which will run the world without any outside will imposing on it.
Tornado Move: 3 of her spells makes her blow a horizontal tornado forward.
Tragic Hero: Was once revered as one of the legendary Six Heroes only to be betrayed by one of her comrades. Her past is also quite unpleasant if XBlaze: Lost Memories and Phase Shift novels is anything to go.
Tragic Villain: Her tragic story ends up making her nothing more than a vengeful revenant who seeks to end the current world. Though she does have good intentions, it's extreme enough that she's no longer on the good side even when no longer being controlled by the villains.
Transformation Sequence: done in 2 of her Battle Intro: one where she wears the Phantom robe and one where she has the old Phase Shift look (when against Celica or Kokonoe). Both times, she sets herself on fire, which burns those clothes and revealing her current one.
Tsundere: Type A - abrasive to everyone, but shows her sweet side only to Celica, Trinity, and later Jubei.
The Unfettered: Nine will remake this world into the paradise she and Celica deserve. And no one, friend, family, foe, or even Celica herself, will stand in her way.
Unwitting Pawn: She was thrown into the Boundary and came back as Phantom, have soul corrupted and become a brainwashed puppet to both Terumi and Relius, and then to the Imperator.
Villain: Exit, Stage Left: As Phantom she is responsible for this; specifically, she teleports her allies out of the place if they're losing.
Villain Team-Up: Discussed. In her Act 3 Arcade, she forms an alliance with Relius to use Take-Mikazuchi to destroy the world. Even then, she notes that if their plans reach completion, they'll become enemies. So, seeing that this is probably her last chance to, in her words, beat the shit out of him, she and Relius decide to have one last "friendly" competition to decide who's more fit to change the world.
Villain Teleportation: This is usually how Phantom arrives on the scene, and she is usually transporting another villain with her. Terumi relies on Phantom to pull him out of really bad spots, contributing to his unbeatable status.
Victory Pose On Person: One of her Victory Poses sees her stomping on her opponent as they lay on the ground, then putting her foot onto their back and crossing her arms.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Her relationship with Bloodedge. While the two bicker and snark at each other, they do eventually respect each other.
The Voiceless: Her cloaked appearances prior to CP's ending. Even though Phantom appeared in the anime, up until her guest appearance in Buluraji, her seiyuu wasn't aware that there even was a BlazBlue anime because she wasn't in it and Phantom had no lines.
Wave-Motion Gun: Her DD Flame Punisher has her firing 2 purple beams, one after another. The Overdrive version has Kagutsuchi join in by finishing the opponent off with a blast of fire from its mouth.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Story Mode fully cements her as this. It turns out that the reason why she wants to start everything over again under her will is because of not only the suffering of herself and her family, but also the suffering of the entire cast. All that time spent in Act 1 was her getting to know the entire cast's innermost desires, and she intended to make them reality. To do this, she intends to activate a secret 11th Nox Nyctores she created, known as Gaisou: Requiem, to replace Amaterasu as the god of the world. It's a machine that uses her life force to create Phenomenon Interventions on the same scale as the Master Unit. This puts her at odds with Ragna, who intends to devour everyone's wishes, including Amaterasu's, because it's holding them back and not allowing them to move forward. Nine was so determined to succeed that she resorted to antagonizing the people she loved and cared for, refusing to allow even the people she intended to save interfere with her plans.
Why Am I Ticking?: Her spell Nephrite of Nullification has her put a countdown on his opponent. If the opponent fails to hit her before the countdown ends, the opponent will be engulfed in a massive, unblockable Pillar of Light.
A Wizard Did It: Her role in the plot is almost entirely to allow Relius and Hazama to Hand Wave things with "magic did it." At least while she's still under them.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Life (technically, Amaterasu) hasn't been kind to her. Her mother died after giving birth to her sister (although she doesn't hate her sister for this), her father left the two for his scientific works, and eventually working with Relius and Terumi and (indirectly) releasing the Black Beast upon the world, she found out that he survived Black Beast's onslaught but had been driven insane and she has to end his life, she had to endure the mayhem that is the Dark War, and later she got dunked to the Boundary by Terumi after he was released from Nine's curse by her own friend. Then it gets worse: she found out in her time in the Boundary that Master Unit Amaterasu has been deciding the life for everyone by its own whims, and she curses her for making her, her comrades and her family suffer just for "the dream that God observes"; the experiences also did some damage on her sanity. Then she got salvaged by Terumi and the Imperator to be used as their mindless tool, making her face her old comrades as enemies. When she's finally freed from Imperator's control, she aims to destroy her and Terumi for using her, but she also has the same plan as the two: Destroy Amaterasu. Celica's Arcade Mode ending in CF (both in Act 1 and 3) show this.
Nine: Why must Celica go to such lengths?! What is it that "you" wish to make her do — Master Unit Amaterasu?!
World's Best Warrior: She's one of the Ten Sages, and by that she's one of the most powerful witches of her time and one of the most powerful sorcerers on history.
Would Hurt a Child: While she herself says she doesn't like hurting kids, she has no problems fighting some of the younger members of the cast. In her fight with Carl in her Act 3 arcade, she outright threatens to kill him.
You Know the One: Before her real identity was revealed, this is how everyone who knew her identity referred to her as.
Young Future Famous People: In-universe example. She and Celica appear in XBlaze: Lost Memories as children, with Nine being referred to as Me and Celica referred to as Little Sister.

Izanami

The (former) Imperator. Just as flat as her lookalikes.

Profile

Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Blood type: Unknown
Date of Birth: April 22
Birthplace: Unknown
Hobbies: Jigsaw puzzles
Likes: The world
Dislikes: Ragna the Bloodedge

I shall deliver death unto all of the living.

Voiced by:
JP: Yukana
EN: Kate Higgins (credited as Kate Davis in Alter Memory)

Full name Hades Izanami^note. The Imperator Librarius^note — the head of the Novus Orbis Librarium and de facto ruler of the world. Only a few have actually seen the Imperator in person, those few being the heads of the Duodecim and select high-ranking members of the Library. She's shown first in CS true ending and becomes more prominent in CP onward.

Confirmed as a playable character for Central Fiction in the January issue of Famitsu. She serves as the Final Boss of Act II of the game's story, titled "Nightmare Memory". She does not battle in her usual, regally-stylized Shinto priestess kimono, but changes her costume to a less restricting, more revealing outfit, with a giant, floating ring resembling a thunder god drum behind her called the Yasakani no Magatama.

Her Drive is called Sharin (Exodus Arc). By pressing the D button, Izanami activates the Yasakani no Magatama, acting as a stance switching mechanic in the same vein as Izayoi. While in this stance, the Imperator can fire projectiles at the opponent with directional inputs and the D button, and gains several new moves and abilities at the cost of not being able to block. Her Overdrive is called Zekkai (Arc Force). When activated, she gains the ability to use the moves of both her normal stance and Yasakani no Magatama stance, including normal blocking.

Her Exceed Accel Nayuta (Arc Drive)/Melancholy Death involves her trapping the opponent within a seal as several skulls appear beneath their feet. Suddenly, a loud scream rings out as both Izanami transports herself and her opponent into the realm of the dead, with Izanami's face becoming skeletal as she thrusts her hand into the opponent. Her Astral Heat, Tokoyo no Yami/Eternal Darkness, involves her grabbing the opponent and opening a portal to the underworld which unleashes dozens of spirits in a hurricane, which launches the opponent into the air. Still holding on to the opponent, seven skulls appear, crashing into the opponent alongside herself and dragging them into the underworld. She then reappears on the stage.

Abdicate the Throne: In the climax of CP, amidst all the battles, she forfeits her position and name Homura the new Imperator. Not because of any danger to herself, but she has gone far with her plans that she doesn't need to be Imperator anymore.
Always Accurate Attack: Her Shizuku special tracks the opponent's location.
Anthropomorphic Personification: In Rachel's Act 2 story and the preview for Act 3, she says that Izanami is a manifestation of The Origin's Drive.
Anti-Gravity Clothing: Her ring-crown thingy seemingly floats around her head without any visible attachments. Said crown is actually the Yasakani no Magatama, her weapon, which can float as well.
Artificial Human: As revealed in Central Fiction, Saya is actually implied to have been created as a vessel for Izanami. She also has doll-like joints under her arms and her upper legs that seem to hint at this. When electrocuted she also seems to have no skeleton and a doll-like anatomy.
Assist Character: Although she is the one controlling Take-Mikazuchi, the Imperator herself can only fire three Energy Balls at you or summon a trio of Attack Drones, making Take-Mikazuchi do most of the work.
Attack Drone: Aside from the ones she uses in the boss fight with Take-Mikazuchi, her Yasakani no Magatama is also this. She can either use them to attack directly or fire projectiles.
Ax-Crazy: Being obsessed with death and causing it makes her this. She acts calmer than most examples, but that makes it all the more terrifying.
The Bad Guy Wins: In every single appearance since her introduction, Izanami is usually the biggest victor, since she ends up with the most advantages. She takes control of Takamagahara in CS and sets it so that causality has a sequential flow, meaning no more time loops. CP is her biggest victory yet: creating the Embryo by turning the souls of all living beings on the planet into seithr and bringing forth the Amaterasu Unit, then teleporting Hakumen away effortlessly and triggering Ragna's inner Black Beast, making him go berserk and nearly killing everyone in sight. If CF is any indication, she may have actually accomplished her desire for a "world of death" - the secret Judgment Day stage is implied to take place outside of the Embryo, and it shows that the world has become a hellscape. In the end, however, she's finally defeated, and her soul is absorbed into Noel.
Rachel: Truth be told... you won the moment you summoned the Master Unit.
Beating A Dead Player: One of her win poses has her consigning her opponent to the Underworld.
Become a Real Boy: Her Act 3 arcade play has her talk with Relius about the nature of souls. He mentioned that even though she's a Drive-existence of someone, since he sees that she has a "desire" of her own, it makes her a full individual with her own soul. She then says that "granting death to this world" is her desire. This makes it unclear how much of Izanami is, well, Izanami and not a mere amalgamation of outside sources acting out.
Being Tortured Makes You Evil: CF story shows her true origins: she's actually a fragment of Saya's soul that came to be because of Relius' and Terumi's torture towards young Saya.
Berserk Button: While she's normally calm and affable towards ally and enemy alike, there is one specific thing that will trigger her. If you call her "Saya", she'll show you exactly why she calls herself the Goddess of Death. Only Ragna is allowed to call her by that name.
Izanami: (winquote vs Naoto) Is this too, a result of the Embryo? Dare not provoke me... and never utter that name again.
Big Bad: Takes the role at the end of Chronophantasma, after spending the first half of it and the previous two games pulling the strings behind Terumi and Relius. This carries on to Central Fiction, Izanami's desire to create a world of death through the Embryo make her the main enemy to overcome. Upon until she's defeated and Terumi becomes the Final Boss.
The Caligula: A malevolent avatar of death at the topmost seat of the Librarium's hierarchy is never a promising sign. Makoto's story to Tsubaki suggests she may have been on board with Terumi and Relius in igniting the Ikaruga Civil War, and it's later confirmed in Spiral Shift. The Ikaruga Civil War was nothing more than a bloody ritual to increase her power.
Casting a Shadow: She has shrouds of darkness envelop her limbs during most of her attacks, and she can also shape it in her Arms of Sympathy (Renge no Kai) special where she creates a nightmarish face made from shadow and fog and in her Ghost Peak Strike (Gaihou no Geki) special where she turns them into a skeletal T-Rex's head.
Catchphrase: Will always make some reference to death. Also has a tendency to say "...Is what I would say."
Charged Attack: Aside from her Flaming Dome special, her Orchid (Araragi) special (where she throws her drones like a boomerang) can be charged for longer range and changing its trajectory.
The Coats Are Off: Central Fiction shows that the Imperator has a separate battle attire from her regal dress. Her intro with Ragna in her trailer has her discarding it for her current look.
Color Coded Timestop: Two of her Distortion Drives stops time completely; her DD Moment of Benevolence (Kyoumu no Koku) is a Grapple Move and uses 50% heat, and her DD Hour of Nihility (Jindou no Koku) is an instant timestop and uses 100% heat. The stage background becomes monochrome while the characters' mugshots have their color inverted.
Combat Stilettos: Her feet platforms act as these, adding extra damage to her kicks.
Complete Immortality: As the avatar of death, she cannot truly die. The only way she's defeated, then, is to absorb her being (consisting of half of Saya and half of The Origin) into Noel/Mu (who possesses both other halves).
Cool Crown: She wears a golden ring-thingy that accompanies her hairpins. This ring is actually her weapon, the Yasakani no Magatama, and when she dons her battle attire, the crown floats off her head and transforms. While Izanami loses her crown, she gains a new one in the shape of a unicorn's horn.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Kagura's Act 2 arcade has her face to face with the Goddess of Death herself... who proceeds to utterly humiliate him, literally dancing away at his best attacks and literally knocking him on his back.
Dance Battler: Surprisingly for her character, Izanami's attacks include fluidity and grace, and a distinct number of leg movements. Combined that with her Yasakani no Magatama, and Izanami's moveset seems evocative of Shiva's Tandava.
Dark Is Evil: Aside from being named after the Japanese goddess of death, she has dark purple hair, uses a lot of dark-based attacks, and has a lot of demonic and death-related imagery and motifs.
Deadly Lunge: Her Thunderbolt Lance (Tourai no Hoko) special is her doing a very fast lunging attack, either with her palm or her feet.
Deadpan Snarker: In Chronophantasma. Particularly if she's near Hazama.
Hazama: And... How are things on your end, Imperator?
Imperator: I have no problems. If I was forced to give one, it is that your voice hurts my ears.
Hazama: Ahh, sharp-tongued as always. Even I have feelings, too, you know.
Deal with the Devil: Azrael makes one with her in his CF Act 2 ending. In exchange with Azrael defeating the other Entitled and "releasing the Embryo", she promises that he can have a battle really worth his time: with the "Gods outside of the Logic."
Death by Irony: She talks about the inevitably of death and how nobody can escape it. Well that includes herself as her own demise at the hands of Ragna and Noel shows she's just as fearful for her own life as anyone else.
Deflector Shields: Her Shield of Dreams (Mujuu no Tate) special creates a barrier that absorbs attacks for her while she freely moves around. This works like the Barrier Block everyone else has, including how the Barrier Gauge drains while she uses this.
Deliberately Monochrome: During her Distortion Drives and her Exceed Accel, the entire screen turns black and white.
Demonic Possession:
- Relius refers to her body as a "vessel" in which Izanami inhabits. Specifically, Izanami is the manifestation of the Master Unit's drive that possessed Saya's body after part of her soul was driven out.
- She also can manipulate Tsubaki's thoughts from afar, and this gets increasingly intense that in the Japanese version, Izayoi (in cutscenes) starts talking in tandem with Imperator's voice.
Difficult, but Awesome: Izanami has a very steep learning curve due to having different properties than the other characters. She lacks a double jump, instead having a float in its place, which allows her to perform her ground normal attacks in the air, but is quite tricky to get used to. One of her special moves puts up a shield which protects her from all attacks except for throws and unblockables, but costs most of her Barrier gauge in the process, which puts her at a high risk of entering Danger state. Along with her below average health and her changed stance making her unable to block, Izanami is a challenging character to play, but once she is mastered, she has one of the highest damage potentials in her combos besides Carl and Naoto, and her attacks also have fast priority, allowing her to keep up her offensive.
Disc-One Final Boss: More like Disc Two Final Boss, but still, she's one for Act 2 of Central Fiction. This applies to the main story as well. After she's defeated by Ragna and Mu, Terumi shows up and merges with the Susanoo unit to once again take back his position as Big Bad.
Even Evil Has Standards: She hates Terumi just as much as the rest of the cast do, though it's less because she has standards and more because she has part of Saya's soul and Terumi was partially responsible ruining Saya's life completely, even torturing her body before Izanami manifested in her.
Imperator: Do not take that tone with me. We are not peers.
Everybody Hates Hades: In Shinto tradition, Izanami is just the Goddess of the Underworld, who while vengeful towards her husband Izanagi, wasn't really that bad. In BlazBlue however, Izanami is the cruel Greater-Scope Villain who wants to create a "world of death" by corroding all life into seithr using the BlazBlue Embryo. Doubly so in the English version, beforehand, she was just 'Meiou' Izanami, that got localized into 'Hades', who is Greek's Underworld God who's actually one of the more sensible Gods compared to the more volatile dwellers of Mt. Olympus.
Evil Brit: Even moreso than Jin, and with an English accent in the English-language track to boot.
Evil Counterpart:
- Chronophantasma sets her up to be Rachel's counterpart. Both are extremely powerful females outside the normal conventions of life and death, both lead boys with Azure Grimoires (Rachel to Ragna, Imperator to Terumi), and both are surprisingly snarky.
- Central Fiction reveals that she's one to Noel as well since they both possess part of Saya's and the Master Unit's souls, and are the structure maintaining the Embryo itself.
Evil Plan: She plans to create a "world of death", and she created the Embryo for that purpose. She also planned to use the Embryo to create the "True Blazblue" (aka "Book of the Blue Blaze"), but what it is or what it entails is as-of-yet unknown.
Faux Affably Evil: She's a very sophisticated, intelligent, formal speaker that will speak politely while ordering the deaths of millions. She seldom drops the tone but the sick interest she has in creating a "world of death" marks her as far too sinister for this to be genuine.
Fireballs: Her Flaming Dome (Tengai no Hi) special creates a fireball on top of her, then throws it down; the fireball hits multiple times as it comes down, then releases an explosion as it touches the ground that knocks the enemy upward. It can be charged for increasing its size and damage.
Foreshadowing:
- There were hints of Izanami's existence early in the series, like how Saya changed. Likewise, in the ending of Continuum Shift, Takamagahara spoke with dread about the Imperator's awakening; an omniscient collective consciousness would not freak out unless it was completely game-changing. And around the start of CP, Rachel says that she is "death" and not even Hakumen at full power can stand against her.
- In CP's final battle, one of her attacks is her deploying 3 Attack Drones to fly towards your position, surrounding you in a triangle shape, and then each shoot a laser beam. Come CF, she can do a similar thing as one of her special moves, named Shizuku.
Fusion Dance: Izanami herself is a combination of a fragment of Saya's soul and the Master Unit's drive. This is actually how she's defeated since Noel/Mu also is a combination of the souls of Saya and the Master Unit, she tries to assimilate Izanami into herself and succeeds with the help of Ragna.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Inevitable. She may be the "Goddess of Death" and outstrips the fair share of the cast in terms of power, yet other playable characters like Celica and Taokaka can beat her in a round no sweat. Even when she's Nigh-Invulnerable, she's a Glass Cannon in gameplay.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Zig-Zagged. While her presence was revealed in Continuum Shift, the fact that she is the Goddess of Death, and the true extent of her power, is not revealed until Chronophantasma’s True Ending. However, her power is foreshadowed early in the game by Rachel, who says that even Hakumen at his full power might not be able to beat her and that, since she is “death”, the only way to defeat her is to kill her host.
Glass Cannon: For someone who's supposed to be the goddess of death... she isn't that durable, having 10500 HP.
Glowing Eyelights of Undeath: Sports these in her Astral, to terrifying effect.
God Is Evil: She is the malicious God Empress
God Guise: Her power in the game is god-like and her dedication to death is very real, but she ultimately is unrelated to the Shinto deity that she takes her name from.
Grand Theft Me: Saya's body turns out to be a vessel for Izanami. This happens after Saya's soul got split into two and the consciousness of Izanami (as The Origin's Drive) manifested in her body.
Grapple Move: Her Distant Affection (Jiai no Yuu) special is a grab that can suck the foe's Barrier Gauge to replenish hers. Her DD Moment of Benevolence and Astral are also grabs.
Greater-Scope Villain: Of Calamity Trigger, Continuum Shift, and Chronophantasma. She is the true antagonist of the series and the boss of Terumi and Relius, who abducted Saya to serve as Izanami's vessel. At first it seems to be Subverted when Saya appears to be merely a puppet queen for Terumi and Relius, but then it is revealed Izanami is possessing Saya and she had in fact been manipulating them the whole time, and then abandons the two when she no longer needs them. She then takes center stage as the Big Bad in Central Fiction...until she dies and Terumi reveals himself as Susanoo, who quickly upstages and triple subverts her status with the further revelation that her entire existence is nothing more than a product of Susanoo's machinations to cause his "sister" Amaterasu, who Izanami is a fragment of, complete and utter despair before killing her and usurping her position as the "true god".
Hartman Hips: Izanami's build is defined by a slim waist and comparatively large hips.
The Heartless: She's the personification of the Master Unit's drive, specifically the function that desires to bring death upon the world as a result of the torture she endured. She's also the part of Saya's soul that remained after being tortured by Hazama, Terumi, and Relius.
Hell Is That Noise: During her Exceed Accel, the sound of a woman screaming will play when the colors suddenly become monochrome and Izanami has her face covered with a skull with a psychotic grin. That same sound plays during her Astral, which has an even more terrifying Jump Scare to go along with it.
Hidden Depths: Her hobby, "jigsaw puzzles", is both a hint and a joke regarding her nature as The Chessmaster. That is, she views her plans and any impediments to them as a puzzle to be solved. It can also be a reference to her goal, i.e destroying the world and recreating it anew, akin to how jigsaw puzzles are broken and then put together again.
Hijacking Cthulhu: Is powerful enough to pull Take-Mikazuchi out of the atmosphere and use it at full power. Justified in that she's a literal goddess.
Human Sacrifice: It's revealed in Spiral Shift that the whole Ikaruga Civil War was for providing a lot of this to power up Izanami. During the war, Jin stumbles into a facility that contains a cauldron, a coffin hanging above it, and dead bodies being moved on conveyor belt into said cauldron, which fills a "meter" in the coffin. Jin realized what it meant and what the wars are about, and so resolved to not kill anyone from that point and focused only on the head of Ikaruga, Lord Tenjo. Also at the end of the novel, it's revealed Relius monitored the whole thing and Hazama namedropped Izanami when he's talking to the coffin.
Identical Stranger: Naoto thinks that her looks makes her resemble his own sister, which is incidentally also named Saya. This causes a lot of confusion from both. This is because Izanami's body was modeled after the 5th Prime Field Device, who's implied to be based on Naoto's sister.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Her Exceed Accel has her doing this to her opponent... with her hand. It's also what she does to herself at the end of his arcade story in Act 2 using Ragna's sword, to prove how futile defeating her would be.
- Mu-12 does this to her once more with more permanent results.
Insistent Terminology:
- She is to be referred to as Hades Izanami. Only Ragna is allowed to call her Saya.
- On the receiving end, both Ragna and Jin insist on calling her Saya.
Invincible Villain: Not even Hakumen's Time Killer does any harm to her. CF has the good guys trying to find a way to defeat her for good. Only after learning her and Noel's nature that they come up with a plan: have Noel merge with her. With the power of the Godslayer and Ragna's assistance, she manages to do it, ending Izanami.
Knight of Cerebus: Her appearance at the end of CS makes the plot thicken, but it's not until the end of CP that she starts making big impact, and it's continued throughout CF.
Leitmotif: Has one in CF titled YOMOTSUHIRASAKA. ^note She also has an Unlimited theme titled THE WORLD END.
Lethal Chef: Revealed in one of the gag endings, she shares this with Noel, who also adopted it from Saya. She exploits this however by using it as poison.
Let's Get Dangerous!: After spending most of the games as a Greater-Scope Villain who let others do the work for her, in Central Fiction she gets off her throne and decides to personally deal with the heroes intending to stop her Armageddon.
Light Is Not Good: She has a golden halo and some of her attacks emit a white glow, but is so not telling of her evil personality.
Locked into Strangeness: Much like Ragna, Saya no longer sports the golden locks from her childhood, leaving Jin as the only one in the family who is still a natural blond. In fact, thanks to Saya's purple hair and red eyes, it is Noel who more closely resembles the younger Saya, not Saya herself. It's a side-effect of Relius modifying her body to resemble Prime Field Device no.5, who's implied to be based on Saya Terumi, who has purple hair and resembled Izanami a lot.
Lost in Translation: Her name in Japanese is "Meiou Izanami" (冥王イザナミ); that is, "Dark Lord Izanami", Meiou being her title. Meiou is also what the Japanese call "Pluto" (both the Roman god and the planet) and, subsequently, "Hades" (his Greek counterpart), which is what ends up being used in the overseas release.
Miko: Official art reveals she has a stylized version of the red-and-white ensemble under her cape. Her battle outfit shares similar elements.
Misanthrope Supreme: While she may talk politely, her desire for a "world of death" implies this.
Mythical Motifs: She shares her name with Izanami of the Japanese myth, one of the creator gods of Japan who was cursed to be forever trapped in the underworld and swore to kill a thousand men each day (while her husband Izanagi swore that he'll make 1500 men born each day). She and Rachel has a similar conversation near the end of CP. She also desires for a "world of death" and, as her playable version, she has many death/underworld motif to her. The twist, though, is that what she really is is complicated: She was Saya, who was tortured by Relius and Terumi and had her soul broke into 2 pieces, one half remaining on her; at around the same time, the living "Drive" of the Master Unit's user, Izanami, possesses her, warping her mind further, and Relius then modified her body to become similar to that of the 5th Prime Field Device. Izanami is specifically The Origin's desire to end the world as the latter has actually had enough with repeating the world over and over.
Necromancy: Being the Goddess of Death, this is kind of expected. Her playstyle evokes a lot of death themes, primarily skulls, and will-o-wisps.
Nigh-Invulnerable: She's called the Goddess of Death for a reason. Absolutely nothing can come close to dealing permanent damage to her. Even Hakumen's ultimate technique, Time Killer, which does exactly that and erases the recipient from existence upon doing so, has no effect on her because she is literally "death" incarnate - when "time" reaches its end, meaning she doesn't have any "time" to be erased in the first place. The only way to stop her is to destroy her vessel, Saya, which denies her a body to affect the physical world...until Central Fiction when Ragna deicdes to Take a Third Option: fuse her with Noel, as both of them are the manifestations of Saya's old personality, to reincarnate Saya fully with Noel as the dominant personality, which succeeds and kills the Izanami personality for good.
Nightmare Face: Her face changes into that of a skull during her Exceed Accel. One that sports a very unnerving Slasher Smile. She gets another one that's MUCH worse in her Astral Finish, and yet another, even worse one in the Act 3 trailer.
Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Her actions and true nature immediately turn the plot darker, and her moveset is full of brutal, terrifying attacks that are a sight to behold. Her stronger attacks and expressions during story cutscenes completely seal the deal.
No-Sell: An attack from Hakumen does nothing to her; Hakumen's sword kills time and since she's the avatar of death, and time would be inconsequential to her domain, she's invulnerable to it.
No Sense of Personal Space: Izanami can get uncomfortably close to people at times. This trait even extends into gameplay as many of her attacks involve her literally lunging at the opponent.
Nothing but Skulls: Her Exceed Accel, Melancholy Death, has her foe getting shrouded in darkness that forms a pile of skulls. In the Active Flow version, chains are added on top of the skulls.
Oh, Crap!: Her reaction once she realized that Ragna and Noel knew a way to defeat her; merging her with Noel.
Omnicidal Maniac: She wants to create a "world of death."
Izanami: I seek a complete death... to erase every fragment, every trace of this wretched world... repeating itself over and over! That's why I needed the Embryo.
Optional Boss: In Act 3, if you defeat every arcade opponent with Perfects, Overdrive, Distortion Drive, and Astral finishes, you'll be transported to the Sight of Gods stage for a 9th fight with Izanami in her Unlimited form.
Orcus On Her Throne: Despite being the cause of essentially every horrible thing that's happened in the BlazBlue world through her own actions or that of her allies/pawns in Terumi and Relius as well as literally being the Goddess of Death, the Imperator spends most of her time in the background manipulating events, having others do the fighting for her, or just taunting the heroes with her presence. That goes out the window by Central Fiction, however, as she has no intentions of letting anyone, aided by Nine or not, stop her plans.
Physical Goddess: She is Izanami, the Goddess of Death. And she has all the power to go with it. Downplayed in that she only gets to be "physical" by possessing Saya's body.
Pimped-Out Dress: Normally wears a highly-stylized Shinto priestess outfit under a big Black Cloak. In Central Fiction, however...
Power Floats: She can be seen floating freely during some cutscenes. She also floats all the time during the boss fight with Take-Mikazuchi. In Central Fiction, this is her double jump. While hovering she can perform ground attacks, special moves, and even run.
Promoted to Playable: After spending 2 games as a Story Mode NPC, the Imperator has finally decided to show her true power in Central Fiction, after Nine sends the majority of the playable cast after her.
Puppet Queen: She was installed by Relius and Hazama to lead the NOL while they lurk in the shadows.
Purple Is Powerful: Has purple hair and clothing and is far more powerful than she appears.
Razor-Sharp Hand: Her Exceed Accel has her impaling the opponent with her bare hand.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Has red eyes and is the Greater-Scope Villain of the game. Her Unlimited portrait exaggerates this: her eyes are completely red.
The Reveal: Every time she appears, the Wham Line or Wham Episode is right around the corner.
- Continuum Shift: The Imperator is Saya, Ragna and Jin's sister and the template of the Murakumo units Lambda, Mu and Nu.
- Chronophantasma: Saya is actually being possessed by Hades Izanami, named after the Shinto goddess of death.
- Central Fiction: Saya is a living doll designed as a vessel, in much the same way Kazuma and Hazama were designed as host bodies for Terumi. Izanami is the physical manifestation of the The Origin's Drive.
Self-Mutilation Demonstration: Often lets her opponent attack her just to show how futile it is to actually hurt her.
Sexy Backless Outfit: Her battle outfit bares her back, showing some small blue symbol over it.
She Is the King: Holds the title of "Imperator", which implies a male ruler. The Japanese version, "Mikado", is more gender-neutral.
Shock and Awe: Her Droplet (Shizuku) special can shock the opponent.
Side Boob: Despite being not really endowed, her battle outfit still manages to show this.
Slasher Smile: Her Exceed Accel has her face turning skeletal with a wide smile, her Astral has her flashing an even bigger Slasher Smile, complete with Glowing Eyelights of Undeath, Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises, and the Act 3 preview has her briefly appear with Black Eyes of Evil and an even more unnerving smile. Sweet dreams.◊
Slide Attack: Her B version of Thunderbolt Lance is this. Also her 3C move, done with her horned crown.
Smart People Speak the Queen's English: In the English dub, where she's given an RP accent.
The Sociopath: Classically so. Izanami is charismatic, manipulative, and wickedly intelligent, even through her batshit insanity, but is simultaneously utterly bloodthirsty and utterly devoid of anything remotely resembling empathy.
Split-Personality Merge: How she is ultimately defeated. This in turn saves Saya, whose personality and memories are transferred back to Noel.
Stance System: Her Drive fulfills this function, much in the same manner as Izayoi.
The Stoic:
- Despite having facial expressions of anger, surprise, and fear present within the game data, only the Amaterasu Unit is able to invoke a reaction from her, and even then her tone remains the same. She does become rather enthusiastic when she tells others of her plans for the world.
- Averted in Central Fiction, where she displays a much wider range of emotions. This includes an Evil Laugh in the intro, taunting and boasting at her opponent during her pre-match fights, and absolutely losing it when she realizes that Ragna and Noel plan to defeat her by merging her with Noel.
Straw Nihilist: She calls the way the world is supposed to be "a world of death." Of course, being the "Goddess of Death", that's her goal.
Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: Is essentially the Anthropomorphic Personification of The Origin's growing suicidal urges set on killing her the only way a capital-G god can be killed: by killing everything, all the way down to the metaphysical concepts that makes it possible for anything at all to exist.
Teleport Spam: Her DD Stake of Supremacy (Hazen no Kui) has her teleporting multiple times as she beats her foe to multiple directions, like Bang's Fatal Eruption DD. She ends it with dragging the foe along the ground and then knocking them away with an energy blast.
Temporary Platform: She lacks a Double Jump, instead she creates a platform in the air to stand on when the jump button is pressed in midair. She can do regular standing attacks while doing so, including Exceed Accel.
That Man Is Dead: After summoning Take-Mikazuchi and being confronted by Ragna, Jin, and Noel, she insists not to be referred to as "Saya", but rather "Hades Izanami".
Tomato in the Mirror: Rachel's Act 2 arcade ending in CF reveals that Izanami is not actually a goddess of death as she so claims. She was merely programmed with the personality and powers of one. She is, in reality, a "Drive-existence" - a physical manifestation of someone's will. In her case, she is the the physical manifestation of The Origin's (the girl in the Amaterasu Unit's) negative emotions. All of her anger, sorrow, and despair over the world not changing to give her the outcome she wants, in addition to the torture that Terumi and Relius inflicted upon her creations and the various incarnations of her soul eventually drove her mad to the point where she wanted everyone and everything around her to just die, herself included. That's Izanami.
Tornado Move: Done in her Astral.
Villainous Breakdown: Her cool facade comes crumbling down in her final fight with Ragna and Noel. Especially after they figure out the way to defeat her by having Noel merge with her, since they both contain part of Saya's and The Origin's souls. She initially regains her composure when she starts absorbing Noel into herself but once Ragna intervenes, she's reduced to screaming and fearing for her life as her consciousness is absorbed by Noel and calling out to her brother.
Villainous RROD: Terumi anticipated that overuse of the Takamagahara on her will is not doing good for her health and it's implied that she won't make it alive to see the result of her victory, if she is victorious at all. Her being the avatar of death, this wasn't going to work out for him. Although, going in a different way, Act 3 arcade of Central Fiction reveals that her vessel is already starting to deteriorate at a rapid pace as diagnosed by Relius, who customized Saya specifically to house Izanami.
Villainesses Want Heroes: She's very..."adamant" about wanting Ragna on her side. This is because she's one half of Saya's soul, whom had a major case of Big Brother Worship toward Ragna.
Walking Spoiler: It is impossible to discuss anything about her without spoiling critical plot details of all four games in the series. CS reveals that she's both the Imperator AND Ragna's sister Saya, thus retroactively connecting her to the events before and during CT. CP reveals that her true identity is Izanami, that she is possessing Saya's body, and that both her powers and motivations are themed around death, retroactively explaining why the Ikaruga Civil War happened in the first place (to satiate her twisted whims and empower her). CF reveals that she's linked to the Amaterasu Unit, by means of being the embodiment of its negative emotions: anger, despair, and hatred that the world refuses to change for her the way she wants it. Also, that Noel is her good half and that the two must merge in order to fully resurrect Saya.
Weaponized Headgear: Her Yasakani no Magatama rests on her head as her Cool Crown when it's not active, as seen in her sprite.
We Can Rule Together: Half of what she does in Chronophantasma is asking Ragna to join her, trying to taunt him into doing so by using Saya's voice whenever he declines so as to entice him due to Izanami making use of Saya's devotion toward him. Eventually she reanimates Nu to fuse with him, gradually remaking the Black Beast from his flesh, all the while he tries to prolong outright killing Jin, Noel and Celica (he succeeds, but Jin is beaten to an inch of his life in the process).
Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Mixed in with Glowing Eyelights of Undeath on her Astral, used to terrifying effect.
The Woman Behind the Man: Relius and Terumi/Hazama were working for her all throughout Continuum Shift.
Xanatos Speed Chess: She's quick to counteract should she encountered some losses.
- When Ragna moves to activate his Azure Grimoire after stalemating to Nu, she intervenes to jam it. Losing Nu would have thrown her plot to summon the Master Unit off the rails, since Noel was far less likely to comply by this point.
- When Makoto defeats a brainwashed Tsubaki in Bonds, she intervenes to forcibly reinstate Mind Eater and push the fight to a deathmatch. Losing the Izayoi would leave her without a way to kill Rachel Alucard. Likewise, when Makoto tries again to sway Tsubaki away from the Main Branch, she intervened immediately and threw Tsubaki out of character as a result. That near rescue must have really hit home.
- When Rachel sends Ragna to Phase 0 through the Ibukido Cauldron and successfully recalls him after the fact, Izanami ordered Takamagahara's destruction. Between this and Makoto, Noel and Jin's successful rescue of Tsubaki, she must have been real sour.
- After Ragna and Celica emerge with an unconscious Nu in the former's hands, Izanami ejects Hakumen by force, sics Nine on Jubei, and reanimates Nu to hug.exe Ragna, invoking his transformation and near-murder of Jin.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She later commands Phantom to destroy Takamagahara as well after Ragna's plan in CP made intervening with Takamagahara useless.
Your Soul Is Mine!: Her DD Moment of Benevolence visually indicates this. First, she pulls something white and wispy from her target, presumably his or her soul or spirit, and then time stops. In the story mode, she attempts to absorb Noel's soul as Noel attempts to merge with her, but Ragna stops her using his Idea Engine.

Introduced in Console Version

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bbdw_es.png

Two letters are all she needs.

Profile

Height: 149 cm
Weight: 38 kg
Blood type: Unknown
Date of Birth: October 15
Birthplace: Unknown
Hobbies: Intelligence gathering
Likes: Pudding (in her memories)
Dislikes: Chawanmushi (because it was not pudding)

Ragna the Bloodedge. I shall guide you to the gates. That is the will of the Azure.

Voiced by:
JP: Mayuka Nomura
EN: Eden Riegel (Cross Tag Battle)

The main heroine of XBlaze. She makes a cameo appearance in several characters' endings in Act 2 and Act 3. It has been confirmed in the April issue of Famitsu that she is to become a playable character in the console version of Central Fiction, and will have her own Arcade Mode story. At an unspecified point after the events of XBlaze, Es has somehow become the guardian for a mysterious gate that leads to the "realm of the gods." She is fated to encounter Ragna, as the Azure has deemed him the one worthy of opening the gate.

Her Drive, Crest Arts, creates afterimages called "Crests" whenever she swings her sword. These Crests have their own hitbox and can be activated by pressing the drive button. Her Overdrive, Amplifier: "Avalon", adds additional hits to her Crests.

Her Exceed Accel is Type: Braver Lancelot, in which she kicks the opponent up in the air, slashes them four times, and finishes with a downward slash to the ground that summons a large crest. Her Astral Heat Type: Exterminator Artorius has her knocking the opponent into the air as she unseals her blade to reveal the original Murakumo^note. She then leaps after the opponent and slashes them three more times. On the third and final slash, she performs a diagonal slash that shatters the opponent like glass.

This is for tropes pertaining to her appearance in BlazBlue only. For information about her in XBlaze, see that game’s character sheet.

Action Girl: Just like before, a small but powerful girl with a big sword.
All There in the Manual: In one of the strangest examples of a “manual,” Es having the same mark on her body as Ragna and Naoto (see Mark of the Supernatural) was revealed by an official dakimakura of all things. Since her tattoo is located above her crotch as opposed to her upper chest like the other two, for some reason, it’s pretty much impossible to show in the T-Rated game.
Alternate Self: The Es seen in Central Fiction is not the original one, or even real for that matter. As Susano'o brutally explains before curb-stompinig her, she's little more than a last-ditch defense mechanism created by the Azure (and the Origin by extension) to serve as a guide for Ragna and prevent anyone else from reaching the Boundary and Amaterasu. As such, this copy of Es only has faint memories of who she used to be, and once her purpose is fulfilled, she promptly vanishes, never to be seen again.
Ambiguously Human: She became human in XBlaze Lost: Memories but still refers to herself as the Embryo Storage suggesting she’s still a Prime Field Device. This is not helped by the fact that, if she still has the Embryo, then the Phantom Field shouldn't exist (as she used the Embryo to create it), and yet it still does as Nine's stage.^note Story mode has Susanoo explain that she's not the real Es, but a copy of her created by the Azure, explaining her deep connection to it and her seemingly different details.
Badass Adorable: She’s a small girl that looks like a doll, but you’d have to be a badass if you are capable of guarding the entrance to the realm of the gods on your own. Even Amane is intimidated by her, calling her a “scary gatekeeper.”
Beam Spam: In midair she can fire Type: Shooter “Breunor” twice in a row and since it is a surprisingly fast projectile, Es can easily fire over and over again even from the ground.
Because Destiny Says So: She believes that her appearance in the current world, the people that she meets, and her purpose, were because of the "will of the Azure".
BFS: She still wields the Murakumo. The Murakumo in XBlaze was already longer than Es is tall but now it has a sheath that makes it wider than the Dragonslayer. She does unseal the sword, revealing the original blade in her Astral Heat though.
Blue Is Heroic: In addition to her eyes and her outfit, several of her attacks produce blue energy due to her using the power of the Azure.
Braids of Action: Of the one long braid in the back variety.
Canon Immigrant: She comes from a Prequel Visual Novel but has been brought into the main series.
Dash Attack: Her Type: Slasher “Galahad” super, where she summons a Crest in front of her and launches herself through it and does a horizontal Spin Attack when she hits the enemy.
Downloadable Content: For CF.
Emotionless Girl: For currently unknown reasons she has reverted to this despite her Character Development in her home series. She does, however, remember the people she holds dear to her and thinks fondly of them.
Energy Absorption: According to the Library entry, her blade can absorb seithr and then store it in its sheath.
Fish out of Temporal Water: She comes from 150 years in the past in an Alternate Universe.
Fun with Acronyms: Es stands for Embryo Storage. She refers to herself as such, suggesting she still holds the Embryo despite getting a human body in Lost: Memories and leaving it behind to maintain the Phantom Field, which still exists in the current world as Nine’s stage.
Gate Guardian: Protects the gate that leads to the “realm of the gods.”
Goomba Stomp: Her Jump 2B attack (named Type: Assaulter "Tristan") is her stomping her foe from above. Can be done three times in succession.
Guest Fighter: Is technically this. Despite XBlaze existing within the BlazBlue universe, it is considered its own series as opposed to being a side story like the light novels. Because, as Lost Memories revealed, Es' timeline and Me/Nine's timeline are not one and the same, with the timeline branching some time in the past.
Hero of Another Story: She's the most prominent protagonist in the XBlaze series.
Idiot Hair: Has a large ahoge in the shape of a question mark.
Inconsistent Dub: In the English version of XBlaze her sword is named Crystal Sealing Blade: Murakumo but in here it is instead Signati Gladio Crystalis: Murakumo.
Instant Runes: What her Crest Arts is based around. She also creates her opponent’s emblem in her hand in one of her victory animations.
Leitmotif: "conciliation"
Light 'em Up: In contrast to Ragna's and Naoto's Casting a Shadow.
Magic Skirt: The underside of her skirt is completely filled in. This is most noticeable in the flip she in Type: Assaulter “Erec”, which would be a blatant Panty Shot otherwise.
Mark of the Supernatural: While it’s currently unclear what it actually signifies, Es has the same tattoo on her body◊ (WARNING NSFW) as Ragna◊ and Naoto, not to mention it appearing in several other characters' clothes. Notably, she didn’t have it in XBlaze (WARNING NSFW) meaning it has to be the result of whatever circumstances led Es to being the gatekeeper.
Murderous Thighs: Much like Noel’s Muzzle Flitter, her Type: Assaulter “Erec” uses this for a Command Grab.
Mythical Motifs: The later parts of the story calls her "Kukurihime". It refers to a goddess of negotiation and mediation in Japanese myth, and those are things that Es also mainly do here.
Non-Standard Character Design: Downplayed. Visually, she's pretty much in line with the general design of the rest of the cast, but certain other aesthetic elements, such as her musical theme, the visual effect used for her Burst and her name not being in all-caps are strikingly different from the other fighters', to help signify her Guest Fighter status.
Occult Blue Eyes: Has the same kind as Mu-12, signifying her connection to the Azure.
Odd Name Out: A musical variant. Every other character in the series has some mix of metal or orchestral instrumentation, even if they're both downplayed like in Taokaka's theme. Es' theme, however, is pure synth-y techno, and thus sounds like it's from a completely different franchise.
Older Than They Look: Her date of birth is October 15, 2045, so she's over 150 by the time of Central Fiction. Also, she's the only character besides Noel and Nu where a concrete date of birth has been given.
Outside-Context Hero: Like Naoto, she comes from an alternate "possibility" of the verse. She's also well-versed in the power of the Azure unlike the others, and not much people understands her. Downplayed in that she's more of a neutral figure in this game rather than a straight hero.
People Jars: Relius' Astral has her being put on one, similar to the state before she was released in XBlaze.
Promoted to Playable: Becomes a playable character in CF.
Purple Is Powerful: Her outfit is very similar to the one from Code: Embryo except it is purple in parts where it used to be light blue.
Red Baron: Promotional material calls her the Azure of Hope.
Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Most of her attacks have names based on Arthurian Legend.
Sexy Backless Outfit: It's usually hard to notice, but you can see it in one of her victory poses where she stands with her back facing the camera.
Shoryuken: Type: Slasher “Griflet” special, done with her sword.
Skill Gate Characters: She was designed as being easy so as to help the fans of XBlaze playing her. She's got good reach, small stature, easy projectiles and simple specials for most situations. However, she is lacking in pressure, causing her to struggle in maintaining her offensive.
Spock Speak: She retains her exacting, formal speech and occasionally dips into Robo Speak with lines like “Commence termination of the target.”
Status Buff: Type: Enchanter “Bors”, which powers up her next special move (either Gawain, Mordred or Griflet).
Super Mode: Her Type: Enchanter “Percival” DD which applies the power boost of Type: Enchanter “Bors” to all of her special attacks for a limited amount of time.
Sword Beam: Her Crest Arts is a unique variation of this. Her sword attacks leave behind a trail of energy in the air that can be activated at any time, causing them to shoot out spikes as an attack. Her Type: Shooter "Breunor" special and Type: Shooter “Palamedes” Distortion Drive are more traditional versions of the trope.
Took a Level in Badass: While she was plenty strong in XBlaze, she mostly just fought with her enhanced strength and a big sword. Here she has the power of the Azure, and she is strong enough that the will of the Azure itself chose her to guard the gate to the realm of the gods.
Too Many Belts: Her outfit in this game is similar to her original one in Code: Embryo, only with additional belts. The official designer states that it's to signify that she's "bound" to something.
Trademark Favorite Food: Despite her return to being an Emotionless Girl she still remembers her love of pudding.
The Worf Effect: After being mostly The Juggernaut throughout the story, she's beaten by Susanoo to show off the latter's power. As if to rub it in, the Ameterasu even strips her of her status as Gate Keeper after it recognizes that she cannot beat him.
You Remind Me of X: In her arcade play, when she meets Makoto, she says that someone resembling Makoto lingers as an image in her memory.^note

Mai Natsume

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bbdw_mai.png

Not to be confused with other Mais.

Profile

Height: 162 cm
Weight: 51 kg
Blood type: A
Date of Birth: April 4
Birthplace: 3rd Hierarchical City of Iwasu
Hobbies: Appreciation of mysterious creatures
Likes: Reptiles (especially chameleons)
Dislikes: Sour things (in the past)

"I'm really sorry. This is a huge gamble, but it's the only way I can think of right now!!"

Voiced by:
JP: Saori Hayami
EN: Stephanie Sheh

The protagonist of the BlazBlue: Remix Heart and BlazBlue: Variable Heart mangas, as well as the Remix Heart Gaiden section in Chronophantasma Extend. Like Jin and Tsubaki, she is the heir of one of the the Duodecim noble families; in her case the Hazuki family. She was originally a boy, but a grimoire turned her into a girl a week prior to the events of the Remix Heart manga. She was not able to reverse the transformation, and she got enrolled to the Military Academy where she became a classmate and friend of Noel, Tsubaki and Makoto. After leaving the academy she joined Sector Seven and worked for Kokonoe just as Kajun did. She initially has a sheltered and rather timid personality, though over the course of Remix Heart she learns to open up to others and becomes much more self-confident. She is positive, altruistic, valorous and able to stay cool under pressure. Throughout the Remix Heart manga, her friends tried to help her relieve her condition (although she lied about what her "real" condition is). By the end of Remix Heart she has accepted herself as a woman and decided to live her life as a girl.

Her Drive is Outseal/Exseal, which enables her to throw her spear, Gallia Sphyra: Outseal, at her enemy and alter its trajectory mid-flight. She also possess a unique ability called Variable Arts, in which she can follow up any of her attack buttons with another depending on the button pressed, even if the initial attack misses. Similar to the combo system from the Tekken series and Ramlethal Valentine from Arc System Works' Guilty Gear series. Her Overdrive is named Fuukasetsugetsu/Flurry of the Winter Moon which shortens her charged Drive attack and strengthens her Drive and special attacks.

Her Exceed Accel is called Ouka Ranjin/Shearing Cherry Blossom Storm where she stuns her foe and then slashes them multiple times with her spear. Her Astral Heat, Sharin: "Hirensou Sakuya"/Royal Crimson Sprout: "New Moon Lotus", has her hitting her opponent with two spear swipes followed by her jumping up into the stratosphere and launching her spear downward, which causes a massive explosion upon ground impact.

Accidental Kiss: With Taro Sasaga'e, Jin's roommate.
Alternate Character Reading: The Grimoire that she's associated with has been named either 名もなき魔道書 (Nameless Grimoire) at the start, 白紙の魔道書 (Grimoire of White Pages) or 無垢なる魔道書 (Pure Grimoire). In all cases, they're alternatively read as ノーネーム (No Name).
Ambiguously Bi: Mai's currently interested in guys, but otherwise her sexuality, and how changing sex affected it, is a bit of a mystery.
- She treats falling in love with Taro as a girl as a sign she's completely become a girl. However, we see too little of her life as a boy to be sure she wasn't already attracted to guys.
- Mai once assumes she used to be attracted to girls as a boy, but then admits to herself her upbringing never gave her a chance to fall in love with anyone. Shortly after her transformation, she is very flustered when girls undress around her or are physically affectionate to her, but never shows any clear romantic attraction, and gradually acclimates and sees both as normal. This could be seen as Mai losing attraction to girls over time, never being attracted to them in the first place, or simply adjusting to see them less sexually even if she could still be attracted to them. Some of Mai's scenes with Kajun also have a romantic overtones, particularly a scene in Variable Heart Kajun where helped Mai into her new outfit.
Badass Adorable: A Nice Girl who's an utter sweetheart to her friends, and a capable fighter.
Badass Longcoat: Her Variable Heart/Central Fiction outfit includes a red jacket similar to Ragna’s. Although the badass part of it is limited since she throws it away when she actually fights.
Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Her outfit exposes her stomach.
Becoming the Mask: Mai tried to pass for a normal girl at the academy, as she wanted to keep her true identity a secret, even while thinking of herself as a boy in a girl's body. This even extends to deliberately using feminine speech patterns (such as the first person pronoun "watashi" instead of the more masculine "boku" she had used as a boy). However, she enjoyed the life under her female persona much more than her old male one, and so stopped considering it an act.
Bishoujo: Mai was officially marketed as a "kyonyuu bishoujo" ("big-breasted beautiful young woman") for the advertisement of ''Remix Heart", which basically tells you the nature of the manga.
Blade Spam: One of her Variable Arts combo ender is a flurry of quick, painful slashes. Her Exceed Accel is also one.
Blue Is Heroic: Has blue hair and is dressed in blue most of the time in Remix Heart. She's brave, kind and helpful.
Canon Immigrant: Unique in that she's only mentioned by Makoto and Noel at first in Chronophantasma, then makes her game series debut in EXTEND as apart of the recap for the series. And finally her playable debut in the console version of Central Fiction.
Charged Attack: Her Drive spear throw can be charged for more damage and become unblockable. Her Floral Blizzard Blossom DD can also be charged for more damage.
The Chew Toy: In the beginning of the manga, Makoto sure does love to fondle her and make comments on how her flushed reactions to seeing them naked is turning her on. Her roommate, Kajun Faycott likes to tease her as well.
Close to Home: In Central Fiction the fact Relius treats people as things (as he says things like "observation target" and "interesting") makes her furious because of the events in the manga where she's called a thing instead of a person due to a grimoire fusing with her body.
Clothing Damage: She's prone to this.
The Coats Are Off: Tosses her jacket away in one of her pre-fight animations.
Code Name: Real name Mai Hazuki.
Combat Clairvoyance: While she had become the Intermediary Grimoire, she was able to read her opponents' moves even if she couldn't view them.
Combat Stilettos: Mai's new outfit has high heels.
Confusion Fu: Her Variable Arts are specialized combos meant to confuse opponent.
Crucified Hero Shot: Her variant of Relius' Astral Heat ends up with her being put like this.
Cursed with Awesome: Her super taste ability, ironically, means that she feels unwell if she ever eats normal food. Still, the ability helped her and her friends a lot of times. There's also the fact that she finds Noel's cooking delicious, which is a saving grace. It even finds its way to show up with crossovers as well; in Cross Tag Battle, Mai actually gets healed if Teddie throws a plate of Yukiko Amagi's Mystery Food X at her when it normally causes damage otherwise, if only because Yukiko's style of cooking perfectly matches how Noel cooks to a tee.
Dangerous Forbidden Technique: In Variable Heart, using the Outseal's full power would be dangerous to her as it uses Mai's soul to fuel its power. Kajun explains that it needs a "limiter" to be put onto. This happens near the end of the manga.
Dark Secret: The fact that she was a man (and the heir of the Hazuki family) is treated as such by her, and she feared for the time it eventually gets out. Later on Chachakaka lets the secrets out and while it does shock her friends, they apparently don't really care; she's still their dearest friend.
Dash Attack: One of her specials (Setsuna) is a command dash that can be continued by various attacks.
Deadly Lunge: Many of her specials have her rocketing towards a direction along with her spear. One of her distortion drives (Floral Blizzard Blossom) is also one that sends the enemy far back.
Death from Above: Her Moon Blossom special is a command leap backwards that can be continued into a diving spear attack to a certain direction depending on the button pressed. Her distortion drive Sylvan Hurricane Assault also ends with her falling from above with her spear. And her Astral has her throwing her spear at its full power from the skies, causing a big blast that craters the ground.
Delayed Reaction: In Gaiden ch. 1, it sure took Mai almost a minute to understand that she and Kajun are going to do cooking duty for next week when Makoto told her about it.
Discard and Draw: At the end of Remix Heart she loses the powers of the Intermediary Grimoire but becomes the Blank Grimoire.
Downloadable Content: For CF.
Dual Wielding: Is capable of wielding both a sword and dagger and does so at more than one point in Remix Heart.
Early-Bird Cameo:
- Featured in the Remix Heart Scenario of CPEX before making her playable debut in the fourth game.
- Her outfit and weapon as well debuted in Variable Heart before being revealed for her playable debut.
The Empath: Using her super taste ability, she can view the thoughts and memories of living things. She has done this on the watermelon sprout that came alive in Chapter 3, the soul of the dead legendary Student Council President in Chapter 11, Shiori in Chapter 16 and Cypher in chapter 24. Except for the latter, she also manages to solve their inner problems because of it.
Empathic Weapon: Outseal has the ability to automatically teach its wielder how to use it. It also drove her crazy at least once.
Everyone Can See It: Everyone in her team quickly catches on when Mai shows signs of being lovestruck with Taro and they decide to do something about it.
Exotic Eye Designs: While she was the Intermediary Grimoire, she could access a greater power during times of distress, and her eyes gained shining rectangular pupils while she was doing that.
Fangirl: She's pretty easily flustered, especially around Taro after she develops a crush on him.
First Kiss: Courtesy of Makoto, it would seem.
First Law of Gender Bending: A powerful grimoire fused with Mai, who it turned female to better fit its power. Mai spends most of Remix Heart trying to find a way to undo this, with few signs of a solution. She instead completes the fusion with the grimoire, losing any chance whatsoever of becoming male again, to gain the power necessary to protect her friends.
Flight, Strength, Heart: When she was the Intermediary Grimoire she had enhanced strength, super-reflexes and... her super-taste. Interestingly, it's her super-taste power that is emphasized more than her other abilities.
Floral Theme Naming: The majority of Mai's attacks are named after flowers.
Flower Motifs: Some of Mai's attacks have effects that resemble the scattering of petals. In addition, petals appear throughout her trailer and her emblem includes a flower on it.
Flung Clothing: In one of her intros Mai throws off a cape she normally wears when not in combat.
Friendly Rivalry: Makoto refers to Mai as her friend and rival from the academy in her victory quote. They both praise how much the other's fighting skill has improved but then add that they've improved themselves in their victory quotes.
Forgotten First Meeting:
- Her win dialogue against Ragna in CF implies that the two of them met before. She actually did briefly meet a younger Ragna (without knowing who he is) during her time as an Academy Student, unaware that he was in possession of the Azure Grimoire that she and her friends had been searching for at the time. They later meet again during Variable Heart, where the two even get into a fight due to circumstance.
- Also with Platinum as revealed during Mai's Arcade Mode in CF that the latter knows her. Variable Heart reveals that Platinum was once known as Bell, a test model Embryo Storage designated as No.28, whom Mai met during the story and would later protect against Ragna when he tried to kill her.
Gender Bender: Was turned into a female before the start of the first manga series by a mysterious Grimoire and tried to find a cure for most of it.
Gender-Blender Name: While "Mai" is indeed a girl's name, she has had it even when she was a guy.
Godiva Hair: During her naked sequences, her long sidelocks function as this.
Go Through Me: In the CF story, she protects Noel from Hazama and tells him to defeat her if he wants to take Noel.
Going Commando: Her new outfit makes it very clear she's not wearing any underwear.
Hair Antennae: Mai has had them even as a baby.
Hair Color Dissonance: In early art Mai is shown to have blue hair with a green tinge, but later in the manga and in the games she's drawn with blue hair that has a purple tinge.
Hartman Hips: Her hips are noticeably very wide in her character portrait and in-game art, something which was carried over from the Manga.
Healing Factor: Outseal lets her wounds heal at an accelerated rate.
Heart Symbol: Her crest features a big heart shape together with her spear.
Heroes Prefer Swords: Mai is the protagonist of the Remix Heart manga and fights bravely to defend her friends. Her preferred weapons in that series are a longsword accompanied by a parrying dagger. Averted in Variable Heart, however, where she uses a spear.
Hero of Another Story: She's the protagonist of her own manga series, Remix Heart and Variable Heart.
Hidden Depths: Even years after choosing to stay as a girl, it's sporadically implied that Mai still misses being a guy on some level. In BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Merkava points out that her body and soul are still in conflict with each other; while Mai denies this, her voice dips back into the lower, rougher tone she had before she accepted herself. Interactions with other members of the roster also show that she still subsconciously identifies as male to a degree and even reflexively talks and acts like a guy on occasion.
Hyperspace Arsenal: It's unclear where Outseal goes whenever Mai isn't using it.
I Am What I Am: It is essentially what the title of Remix Heart chapter 23 says. In that chapter, after Cypher Albar says that she has lied to her friends about her true nature the entire time, she (after words of encouragement from her friends) affirms that she is what she is, no matter what she may become.
I Can Still Fight!: She wants to continue fighting Relius even after she's been sufficiently injured that she gets hospitalized after the fight. Though after being sent to the hospital she acknowledges her defeat and wants to gather as many allies as she can before going after Relius again. She also says that to her father after he fights her to test her combat abilities and defeats her.
I Choose to Stay: In the end she decides that being a woman is okay, as her new life has given her more lively moments and new, loving friends.
I Have No Son!: In her supernaturally-induced nightmare in Chapter 8, her father comes to her and says that she's worthless as she chose to stay being a woman. He later even sends Chachakaka to kill her. Played with in the epilogue: as Chacha revealed, her father may have sent her away, but Chacha says there's a reason why Mai's father didn't immediately kill her - Chacha was sent to do a Secret Test of Character to test Mai's strength. It's also revealed that he sent her away under a fake name so she could be free and live as her own self.
Immortal Breaker: Like the Zero-Type Izayoi, Gallia Sphyra: Outseal is an Immortal Breaker. This means it is designed to kill immortal beings like Observers by imposing the concept of death on their minds. This makes it the only weapon capable of truly damaging Fuzzies, a vampire with Healing Factor.
Instant Expert: Justified in regards to her wielding Outseal for the first time. The weapon itself immediately gave her the knowledge to wield it effectively.
Invulnerable Attack: One of her distortion drives (Floral Blizzard Blossom), if you hold the attack button, will start with her doing a defensive pose that blocks all attacks before the button is released, where she retaliates with a powerful thrust.
Javelin Thrower: Her Drive is basically this, with a catch: it's also a Player-Guided Missile. Pressing D again after the throw will make the spear fly towards the foe directly.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: In Chapter 9, a grimoire causes her to lose her memories of her school life and gets freaked out by her surroundings. Thanks to her supertaste ability, tasting her own and her close friends' tears allows her to regain her memories.
The Leader: Of her team, Remix Heart.
Leitmotif: "Variable Heart"
Let's Get Dangerous!: Turns out Mai's a skilled fighter in her own right, as shown in ch. 16 when 2 assassins find themselves disarmed and then threatened with their own weapons.
Living MacGuffin:
- Her complete merging with the No-Name Grimoire (that makes her a woman in the first place) makes her a "Remix Heart", which along with the Azure fragment she later absorbed is a component Cypher Albar needed to make the Crimson Grimoire. He tried to forcefully take the Azure fragment from her, and succeeded; although as he didn't have enough souls to complete it, his Crimson Grimoire is incomplete.
- Happens again in Variable Heart where Meifang is after her since she’s the Blank Grimoire. Since Mai can receive a Code and become a Grimoire of that type, including an Azure Grimoire, Meifang wants her for said potential.
Loss of Identity: Oftentimes she feels conflicted when confronted (directly or indirectly) with issues about (her) womanhood and she fears that she'll lose her "true self" the longer she stays a woman. She also acts boyish from time to time. This is no longer the case in the end as she has come to terms with what she is and decided she's happy to live as a woman.
Magic Enhancement: As of Variable Heart her body has become a grimoire called the "Blank Grimoire". It's an empty grimoire, but putting in "Codes" to it can give it new powers related to that code, which can also include turning her into another Azure Grimoire.
Magic Kiss: When Mai fused with an Azure fragment which turned her into the Intermediary Grimoire, she gained the ability to copy information or abilities from one person by tasting them and then transfer those into another person by kissing them. She was not able to use those abilities herself though.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Aside from lacking command normals, the way her normal combo works are nonstandard, so learning her unique combos and using them effectively would require a bit of time.
Meido: She was tricked into wearing an outfit of one by Kajun in Chapter 4 of the Remix Heart manga.
Meta Power: Because Mai Natsume unwittingly absorbed the power of the Azure and it reacted with the power of the mysterious "grimoire" she absorbed, she herself has become a grimoire that can copy abilities from one person and then put it to another, but cannot use them herself.
The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Mai attributes her more feminine personality and attraction to males as a direct result of her now-female body causing her to “become a woman in mind as well as body”. However, the story is more ambiguous as to how much these came from biological as opposed to social reasons.
Ms. Fanservice:
- Her battle outfit really doesn't leave a whole lot to the imagination, while also being one of the bustier females in the cast.
- Inverted in one bath scene in Remix Heart with her, Noel, Tsubaki, Makoto, and Kajun; she's the only one who isn't naked, and gets called out for it.
Nice Girl: Mai was shown no love by her harsh father and was prevented from having friends while in the Hazuki household. As a result she is very devoted to the friends she made at the academy and will do what she can to aid them.
Nosebleed: Of course, being originally a boy, this is somewhat justified the first few times she sees naked bodies of girls. She also apparently faints as an added bonus. Later on she gets used to it and no longer reacts to seeing girls naked or mind being naked in front of them.
Oblivious to Love:
- Played for Laughs during Ragna's Gag Reel in CF. As with the other female fighters, she is entranced into falling in love with Ragna when he dons the Spectacles of Eros for the last time. She manages to reach the last legs of the competition, but drops out to eat Noel and Izanami's cooking. Rachel said that while she was attracted to Ragna, the fact she was unfamiliar with love and her love for Noel's food resulted in her not being affected as strongly as other girls.
- Though outside of that gag reel, Mai seems pretty capable of recognizing love. She's able to immediately realize that Tsubaki is in love with Jin, something that took years for Noel, and after noticing that she's flustered by Taro she thinks it might be love but only denies at the time it because she doesn't want to accept that he mind has been affected by her transformation.
Obsessed with Food: Downplayed; she would at least be obsessed with Noel's cooking because it tastes like heaven to her (and she can't eat any other food due to her condition). She does show an interest in food in general though, saying that she'd like to try the food in the city of Yabiko when she visits it with Noel. In the Spectacles of Eros Finale gag reel from CF, this extends to Izanami's cooking of all people due to its similar quality. Rachel lampshades this, saying that while Mai is affected by the spectacles (i.e making the opposite sex fall in love to the wearer), she's still naive to the whole "love" thing and her obsession with food proves stronger.
Ominous Message from the Future: Okay, to be fair it's more like ominous vision of the future, but in Chapter 8 while Mai's dream is going horribly wrong (because of the effect of an artifact) she sees Noel, Makoto, Tsubaki, and Kajun dueling one another as they appear Continuum Shift weapons and all. As it gets worse she sees Noel and Tsubaki's outfits shift to their Chronophantasma versions and almost immediately shift yet again into Mu and Izayoi. The whole sequence is borderline mind rape session that would make Hazama proud.
Only the Chosen May Wield: Gallia Sphyra: Outseal (or at least its replica) was made specifically for Mai's use and only she can activate its powers. In anyone else's hands it would just be an ordinary spear.
Out-of-Clothes Experience: She has one in ch. 23 where she's talking inside her mind with the grimoire that is sealed inside her.
Player-Guided Missile: For her Drive, Exseal, the player can choose which direction she throws her spear. She can also redirect its movements towards an enemy by pressing D again.
Power Copying:
- A power she gained for a time, when she was the Intermediary Grimoire. She copied the power and abilities of the last person she kissed (or the last thing she tasted) and then gave it to the next person she kissed. Unfortunately, she had eaten Noel's cooking when she accidentally kissed Taro, causing the next thing he cooked to be a death dish like Noel's.
- In Variable Heart the Nameless Grimoire got turned into the Blank Grimoire. Kajun explained that this is an empty grimoire but that it's able to gain new powers by having specific Codes (aka "Ritual") inputted in it. For example, putting a code of earth on her would give her earth-based powers. This is the reason the leader of the Zero Squadron, Meifang, is after her.
Promoted to Playable: Becomes playable in CF.
Properly Paranoid:
- Played straight overall in regards to Shiori, who she suspects as being a bad guy, although she keeps this to herself. Although subverted in one instance: she thought Shiori is putting poison inside the porridge that was meant for Jin and friends, but it turns out it's perfectly safe.
- Mai was also pretty cautious with Cypher. He had to first help save her from a berserk Jin and then from an alchemical monster he deliberately sent after her before he gained Mai's trust.
Put on a Bus: Partway through Central Fiction Hibiki sends her off to guard Homura and she isn’t seen for the rest of the game until her appearance in the epilogue.
Red Is Heroic: Both her jacket and her spear are red and she’s the protagonist of two manga, especially for Variable Heart as she starts using them in that manga.
Roboteching: Outseal can change directions midflight.
Second Law of Gender-Bending: At first, she is uncomfortable in her state as a girl. But later on, she comments that her current state of life is "vivid and radiant, and full of life", and that "being a girl is nice." Later, she ends up falling in love with one of her male seniors. In the end, she decides she's happy lo live as a girl and considers herself a woman. That said, she does still tend to act like a guy from time to time, and as noted in Hidden Depths above, Mai does still subconsiously identify as a man to some degree.
She-Fu: Her fighting style consists of numerous flips and twists so as to show her flexibility and well-toned figure.
Shipper on Deck: Supports Tsubaki's attempts to get closer to Jin, much like the rest of her gang.
Shy Blue-Haired Girl: As a result of growing up without friends and being turned into a girl, but she eventually manages to overcome her shyness. By the end of Remix Heart she's very open and friendly towards others.
Silk Hiding Steel: Mai is very kind, polite and loves helping others. However if she or her friends are physically threatened, then she will not hesitate to fight with great skill and determination.
Skill Gate Characters: Like Celica, she was designed to be easy for beginners, especially for the fans who started from just reading the manga. She has only 2 special moves and all of them does similar things, she lacks command normals (6/forward + attack button), her Variable Arts offer simple yet powerful combos, her Drive is simple to use and aimable, her DDs are simply extensions of her 2 specials and her Overdrive simply strengthens her Drive and special attacks. She's slow on doing mix-ups, however.
Starting a New Life: She pretty much does this after she becomes a woman and starts attending the academy. But it's not until after the last chapter (and the epilogue) of Remix Heart when she fully embraces her new life, with her no longer having desires to go back to her old self.
Stripperiffic: Her new outfit that was given to her by Kajun in Variable Heart and which was carried over to CF. Not only it bares her back and midriff, it also shows her hips from the sides and a plumber's crack. They also make clear she's not wearing any undies. Mai herself finds her outfit embarrassing and remarks it shows too much skin. This outfit does come with a coat though, which Mai removes before entering combat.
Summon to Hand: She can materialize Outseal whenever she wants.
Super Gender-Bender: Merging with a Grimoire made Mai female, but also granted access to its power.
Super-Senses: Taste. Mai can actually hear the thoughts of both the ingredients as well as the chef. Due to this, she normally avoids eating. Ironically, she's the only person who actually loves Noel's cooking, because she can't feel anything but Noel's innocence. She can also use her taste to learn about the properties of objects or to see the memories of people.
Sympathy for the Devil: Towards Shiori after she saw her memories, which caused Mai to empathize with her since she too had been used as a tool by her family, and later Cypher as well.
This Is Unforgivable!: Mai is normally very polite and forgiving, but the way Relius Clover treats others angers her to the point that she shouts this at him. Her anger is also shown by the fact she stops addressing him with "anata" (which is polite and which she normally uses when addressing others) and instead uses "omae" (which is insulting).
Technicolor Eyes: Magenta to be exact, and in fitting with the uniqueness aspect of the trope she is a Remix Heart, a perfect fusion between a human and a Grimoire.
Three-Strike Combo: Her Variable Arts is a set of 3 button combos with, well, varying attacks.
Tomato in the Mirror: In Variable Heart Meifang treats Mai as a grimoire because she had a grimoire fuse with her. Mai however wishes to continue to live as a human instead of becoming something else.
Unishment: As the punishment of breaking the school rules is eating Noel's cooking, she intentionally does it time after time so that she can eat them.
Vocal Evolution: In the English dub. In Chronophantasma, Stephanie Sheh gives Mai a rough and slightly deep voice to reflect that she still thinks of herself as a boy. With Cross Tag Battle being set several years after Mai's acceptance of herself as a woman, her voice has now settled on being traditionally feminine, although that rougher voice still comes around in interactions that remind her she was once male, like with Hyde, Merkava and Mitsuru.
"Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Mai really wants to have the approval of her harsh and distant father. The extremely high expectations he had of her and his apparent rejection of Mai weigh very heavily on her and are the cause of her lack of self-esteem at the start of Remix Heart, as well as the fear she has that everyone she meets will eventually reject her like her father did. By the end of Remix Heart Mai is able to overcome the trust issues and lack of self-confidence caused by her father, but she still wants to earn his approval and respect.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The villain of Variable Heart tells Mai that, due to a grimoire fusing with her, she's now just a thing instead of a person and considers Mai to be nothing but an object to be used. Mai emphatically rejects that and says she's still human.
You Can't Go Home Again: She thinks that she was rejected from the house Hazuki by her father because he no longer found her worthy because of her condition. Later she discovers that this was not the reason he sent her away.

Susano'o

See his section on Terumi's page

Introduced in Arcade Version Update 2.0

Jubei

The Mightiest Swordsman.

Profile

Height: 123 cm
Weight: 25 kg
Blood type: O
Date of Birth: September 3
Birthplace: 12th Hierarchical City of Kukunochi
Hobbies: Travel
Likes: Catnip
Dislikes: Setaria viridis

“Whatever happens, you remember it’s a path ya chose. Accept responsibility for what ya do. And don’t ever make the mistake of thinkin’ that the power of the Azure Grimoire is yers.”

Voiced by:
JP: Masaki Terasoma
EN: Kirk Thornton

Real name Mitsuyoshi. Ragna's teacher and another one of the Six Heroes. He's a Nekomata who is stated to have the "greatest katana in the world." The legends don't lie — he wields the Nox Nyctores Mucro Somnio: Musashi, a pair of blades that can cut through dimensions, magic, and even straight into the opponent's very soul. He's Nine's husband and then Kokonoe's father, and is known as the "strongest living creature in existence." The Kaka tribe are genetically engineered weapons based on his DNA. After the events with Terumi before the start of the series, he went around destroying Cauldrons to ensure he wouldn't return before eventually passing that mission on to Ragna and going into semi-retirement. Terumi's return and the arrival of Phantom however quickly force him back into action.

Finally makes his playable debut being revealed after the Blazblue Grand Finals at Evolution 2017. His Drive, Shiranui, has him perform a quick dash and slashing attack at his opponents marking them with a specific symbol. This symbol enables his 2 offensive Distortion Drives to track his opponents no matter where it's performed on screen. After using his Fudō: Sharenjin/Immovable Object: Lotus Distortion Drive, his drive is upgraded and named Shiranui: Hagane/Steel. While in this state, Jubei's Drive allows him to move in various directions depending on the player's inputs and attacking his opponent along the way. His Overdrive is Rakan: Gorinkō/Five Circles of Nirvana allows him to place Shiranui's symbols on block as well as use Shiranui: Steel/Hagane's movement options indefinitely.

His Exceed Excel, Miroku: Rinshunrō, he performs a palm thrust on the opponent. If it hits, Jubei will slam his opponent into the wall and slashes the opponent with his swords and claws. His Astral Heat is Ashura: Hōrai Burenshō/Thunderbird Rising, which involves him slashing the opponent and marking them, revealing the innermost contents of their soul. He then performs a finishing series of slashes specially made for the opponent.

Absurdly Sharp Blade: His Musashi Blades are described to be able to cut "what normally can't be cut". Using Musashi, he can cut through even magnetic fields and sorcery. He has used them once to cut through the barrier surrounding Lambda.
The Ace: Even though he has the appearance of a mere house-cat, Jubei is one of the strongest creatures in the world. His physical strength is easily enough to block a punch from the muscular and towering Iron Tager with a single paw. Because of his beastkin heritage, Jubei has a long lifespan, and is already over 100 years old. He has a high resistance to seithr and has eyesight and hearing far beyond that of a human.
- Broken Ace: At times, though, Jūbei shows a far more jaded and bitter side. Due to many of his friends having died, Jūbei shows deep-seated guilt over his inability to do anything. As such, he has felt that he is nothing more than a weak coward who runs home with his tail between his legs while leaving good people such as Hakumen and Bloodedge to their fate. The supposed death of his lover, Nine, and having to leave their daughter Kokonoe without a family, only wound him further.
Always Second Best: Despite being The Ace, he is still not as quick as his brother, Tomonori, although Jubei is still extremely fast himself.
The Anti-Nihilist: Despite, or even because of all the losses in his life, Jūbei is even more driven to do what’s right, and will use the power he has to do so.
Arch-Enemy: Despite all his warmth and jovial nature, Jubei is capable of hatred, which is primarily directed at Yuuki Terumi. Terumi took everything away from Jubei, having been responsible for the deaths of his clansmen, his brother, his homeland, his wife, his comrades, and an assassination attempt on his daughter.
Ascended Extra: Seriously, it took nine years as an NPC before he finally made his playable debut.
Badass Adorable: He's a talking cat. A talking cat who killed a demon that could potentially destroy the entire planet.
Battle Couple: With Nine, at least back in the Dark War.
Beware the Nice Ones: In Bang's story mode in CS, when you get to the Joke ending path, Jubei arrives and sees through Bang's lies, smiling evilly and just making things worse for poor Bang.
Big Damn Heroes: When Terumi is about to finish off the weakened Rachel in her CF Act 3 Arcade ending, he appears out of nowhere to protect her.
Big Good: The closest this game has to one, sharing the position with Rachel and Kagura.
Compressed Hair: As seen during his Immovable Object: Lotus DD and Astral, Jubei has a pretty impressive mane◊ for a domestic cat, yet you'd never guess it from his appearance while hooded.
Cone of Shame: If he gets hit by Relius's Astral Heat, the bastard subjects poor Jubei to being stuck with an Elizabethan collar.
Continuity Nod:
- When Jubei uses his Astral Heat on Terumi, Hazama or Susano'o it reveals an image of Terumi's ghost form. This is because Tomonori saw Terumi's true form before his death and Jubei inherited the eye that could therefore reveal it.
- Also, in the story, when Jubei and Trinity wanted to create a copy of Tomonori's sword Hihi'irokane, she has Jubei open Tomonori's eye and then use Platinum's Muchourin to manifest the sword through the eye's image.
Cool Old Guy: Cheerful in a way befitting an old man, Jubei's jovial outlook on life is infectious, and he wants nothing more than peace for his friends and family. Although his speech is generally rough, his sense of humanity is better than most humans, and it does not take much to emotionally sway him.
Counter-Attack: His forward A and forward B moves.
Cutlass Between the Teeth: During Taokaka's Astral Heat, he attacks Tao's opponent wielding Musashi in his mouth. His playable self also puts one sword in his mouth during certain moves.
- In at least one official art in the Material Collection, his younger self also does this, while he holds his other sword with his tails.
Dash Attack: His Drive attack, Shiranui (Unknown Fire); in midair, it's a diagonal dash. His upgraded Drive, Shiranui: Hagane (Unknown Fire: Steel) also has him dash about and bounce off the marks he created in the air, colliding with the opponent along the way.
- Also has his Rekkouzan (Rending Hook Slash) special and his Senju: Todoroki Setsura (Thousand Hands: Thundering Scene).
Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: After the incident with Terumi, he sought to destroy every cauldron and knew it'd be too dangerous to take Kokonoe, so he left her in the care of the NOL.
Difficult, but Awesome: Yes, very much so. He essentially has two different movesets depending whether one of his Super moves are active or not, and the fact that he is constantly in crouching hitstun means he will be taking more damage than most if the player does not have adequate defense, which is made even harder by the fact that he lacks decent defensive options. However, his quick movement and mixup game gives him an edge and he can carry momentum very well if given the chance.
Dimensional Cutter: Jubei's swords are actually powerful magitek items that can cut through anything. This includes creating dimensional portals.
Disappeared Dad: Even he admits that he was a pretty shitty father to Kokonoe.
The Dreaded: Even when he's injured Terumi prefers to give Jubei as wide a berth as humanly possible. Not even Hakumen is confident that he could beat Jubei if the two of them were fighting at their peak, and that's coming from the man who curbstomped Terumi and Relius at once at 15% power in The Wheel of Fate.
Dual Wielding: His Musashi Blades are a pair of twin Kodachi.
Easter Egg: Jubei's Astral Finish begins with a slash that reveals the target's soul. For Terumi and Susano'o, it shows the green Terumi ghost from CS.
Eyepatch of Power: He lost his eye in Phase 0 after a fight with a Black Beast remnant and got it replaced with a magical one, which belonged to his brother. The eyepatch covers it.
Failure Knight: He's never forgiven himself for letting Bloodedge die fighting against the Black Beast. He never tells the world about Bloodedge (perhaps out of shame), so practically no one knows about him.
- He also sometimes becomes bitter and shows his guilt over being unable to do anything to stop Terumi (as well as the loss of 3 of his friends because of him) and being unable to watch over Kokonoe. However, all of them only drives him further to do what is right.
Family Theme Naming: He's named after Yagyu Jubei. His wife is named after an actor who portrayed Jubei in nine films, Jushiro Konoe. His daughter's name is a two-way pun to her mother's name, extending the association with Yagyu Jubei.
Foreshadowing: In one of the Teach Me, Miss Litchi segments in CS, Tao is taught about all the different Nox Nyctores. When the subject of Musashi comes up, Jubei says that everyone will see what it can do soon enough. It took nine years, but "soon" finally came, for what's being billed as the Grand Finale, no less.
Ragna: "Man, are you still keeping that thing under wraps? You'd better bring that sucker out in the next game!"
Fragile Speedster: He has some of the fastest movement speed in the game, and plenty of ways to mix people up and lay down pressure, including the ability to side swap upon dashing up to his opponent. However, due to his short height, the game's combo system considers him to be "always crouching" despite still needing to follow rules such as blocking-high-and-low and needing to dodge-attribute attacks normally, meaning that he takes more hitstun from attacks in neutral.
Funny Animal: He's pretty much a bipedal cat in a hood for the most part.
Furry Reminder: Some of his character tics affirm that he's about as much a cat as he is a person. His love for catnip is an obvious example but some of his in-game animations also emulate real-life cat behavior i.e. falling on all fours, sniffing the air when idle, or arching his back and stretching when getting up from the ground. Relius's Astral also puts him in a Cone of Shame just like a normal cat.
Game-Breaking Injury: The reason he hasn't been all that active in Kagutsuchi lately, courtesy of Phantom.
Happily Married: Lampshaded in CS when he talks about how wonderful marriage is... "until your daughter hits puberty. But even then it's still good!"
High on Catnip: In Hazama's gag reel. It doesn't make Jubei any less frightening for the poor shmuck.
Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Despite being a cat, he somehow managed to procreate with a human woman.
Humble Hero: He's rather modest and easygoing for a legendary hero.
Idiot Ball: In Continuum Shift. There's nothing else to call it, considering that he doesn't STAY with Noel to guard her from Terumi, despite knowing that the girl is the inheritor of the True Azure AND the new Eye of the Master Unit.
In the Hood: He wears a cat-eared hoodie like Taokaka, although it doesn't obscure his face. It does, however, obscure his Barbarian Longhair.
Interspecies Romance: With Nine. Jubei is more cat than man, while Nine is human.
Irony: He loathes the Black Beast for killing his clan and for causing the current state of the world. And yet, he goes to befriend and later train Ragna, the beast's reincarnation. Justified in that he makes sure that Ragna can and will control his powers, lest he turns into said beast.
Killer Rabbit: Who would expect someone dubbed the “strongest creature alive” to be an adorable cat person?
Katanas Are Just Better: Or rather a pair Kodachis. For bonus points, as a reference to both Miyamoto Musashi and Yagyu Jubei, it also comes in a pair.
Lag Cancel: His Rekkozan/Fissure Slash special, if done in Fudo: Sharenjin state, can be easily canceled to most of his other specials.
The Lancer: Towards Hakumen. Jubei is pretty much the closest thing he can call a friend, and one of the few people he shows genuine respect to.
Last of His Kind: Phase 0 reveals his clan was wiped out by the Black Beast when it appeared in Japan. Only he and his brother were left alive.
Leitmotif: "Stand Unrivaled".
Magical Eye: CS reveals that his eye is the Sekigan (One Eye) that allows him to physically switch places with another person. It is inherited from his brother. It also can force Terumi's true form to materialize.
The Mentor: Ragna (and later Jin's) teacher, and the one who put him on his current path.
Multiple-Tailed Beast: He has two tails.
Named After Somebody Famous:
- Jubei's name is based of Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi, albeit written in different kanji. Yagyu Jubei was a famous eyepatch-wearing swordsman. Also, Jubei's real name Mitsuyoshi is written in katakana.
- His Nox Nyctores, Musashi, is named after another famous swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi.
Nice Guy: He may be a bit of a trickster, but he's ultimately a kind soul.
Odd Friendship: He's a feline, but gets along pretty well with Valkenhayn, a canine lyncanthrope.
Odd Name Out: Out of all characters, only Jubei's name is written in kanji (獣兵衛), rather than in katakana. However, since "Jubei" is not his real name, this might be the reason why it's different. His real name Mitsuyoshi (ミツヨシ) is written in katakana like every other name.
Older Sidekick: Towards Hakumen. He's technically older, and arguably stronger.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: In CF, he personally thinks he should be the one stopping his wife, Nine. But then he got injured, and Ragna steps in.
Parental Abandonment: He was forced to do this to the young Kokonoe. This leads to her hating his guts.
Parental Substitute: He has taught Ragna and looked after him all throughout the man's adolescence; from fighting to cooking, Jubei has done his best to fill a parental role.
Pintsized Powerhouse: He is 4'0.42519685'', the absolute smallest member of the cast beating Rachel, Carl, and Platinum. And yet, even Terumi shits his pants at his presence. This was what made him unplayable according to Mori despite being active lore-wise from CP onwards because his hitbox is pretty much around the size of Carl without his tall top hat. They finally solved the situation by simply making his overall model bigger when he is revealed at Evolution 2017.
Poor Communication Kills: An exercise for the reader: see how many Stock Phrases associated with the Trickster Mentor he spouts at one point or another. Also, for all that he warned Ragna not to rely too much on the Azure Grimoire, why didn't he ever explain WHY? This also applies to his half-baked and utterly useless warnings about the people Ragna was going to fight in Kagutsuchi. You'd think he actually wanted Ragna to fail.
Prehensile Tail: Some of his moves as well as his CF character art show that he's perfectly capable of swinging his swords with his tails.
Promoted to Playable: It's been a long 9 years of BlazBlue going on, but EVO 2017 reveals that yes, he is coming to the playable cast.
Punch Catch: One of the few demonstrations of his strength that we've seen is his ability to do this to Tager. Jubei doesn't think it's a big deal, since Tager's heart wasn't in the fight in the first place. This is turned into a gameplay mechanic of his when he's playable as his forward A will have him perform the exact same move and retaliate in kind.
Rapidfire Fisticuffs: His Rekkouzan/Fissuring Slash special has him rushing forward while doing multiple claw slashes, akin to Wolverine's Berserker Barrage and Taokaka's Hexa-Edge.
Retired Badass: At least for some years before the start of the first game. The plot then forces him out of retirement.
Red Baron: The One-Eyed Lotus.
Stable Time Loop: In BlazBlue: Phase 0, it's revealed that the only reason he calls himself Jubei is because Bloodedge kept calling him that instead of his actual name. After Bloodedge's death, he decided to take the name permanently as a way to remember his friend. Then later, he met Ragna, who never learned his real name and only knew him as Jubei...
Stern Teacher: He's an affable and friendly guy, but he's no slouch when it comes to his students, or just Ragna specifically. Though considering who Ragna needs to go up against, it's arguably justified, as he needs Ragna to be prepared for what lies ahead.
Jubei: "Well, that's embarrassing to think that I trained you... Get up Ragna. We start from the basics."
Super-Speed: As well as all his natural abilities, Jubei is exceptionally fast, something which even shocks people like Hibiki Kohaku.
Supreme Chef: Described as a one-man five-star restaurant by Ragna. It's implied that Ragna took his own cooking skills from him.
Tail Slap: His crouching light attack is a jab with one of his tails.
Theme Naming: His moves are named after Buddhist mythology (e.g. Arhat, Maitreya, Niou, Asura).
Unblockable Attack: His Kuro Hyou (Black Leopard) special is a powerful flipping slash done by both his swords that can even go through Barriers.
Wolverine Claws: His secondary weapon.
The Worf Effect: Despite being touted as one of the stronger characters in the series (or perhaps because of that fact), he seems to spend a lot of his time getting injured, Phantom AKA Nine, his wife offscreen him in "Continuum Shift" and she did it again in Chrono Phantasma. In Central Fiction he gets beaten by Nine for the third time and Susano'o.
- Worf Had the Flu: The Game-Breaking Injury he received from Phantom early in Continuum Shift left him considerably weakened in every fight since then. In his Central Fiction Act 3 arcade story, Kokonoe tries to hammer into him how he can't fix anything (at least by himself) with the state he is currently in and even the biggest miracle cannot help him beat Nine. According to her, he was able to cross the Boundary without blinking at his prime while his current state couldn't even tell that he has been fighting in a simulation space made by her.
World's Strongest Man: Well, cat. Jūbei’s powers, or at least the extent of them, have never been shown within the series thus far. However, being one of the Six Heroes, he is likely exceptionally powerful. Claimed by several, amongst them Hakumen and Terumi, to be the strongest creature alive. Hakumen stated during the Dark War, where he was at full power, that even if he were to go all-out, even he may not be able to defeat Jubei. It is implied that Jūbei is nigh-undefeatable in combat as none have dared to engage in battle against him. This is furthered by the fact that when he catches Hazama off guard in Hazama’s gag scenario Hazama seems to just accept the fact that Jūbei will kill him and does not even try to put up a fight. In Taokaka's CS story mode, Relius admits that he would be no match for Jubei. Prior to receiving his injuries, anyway.
Youkai: A nekomata.

Characters / BlazBlue: Central Fiction

Introduced in Arcade Version

Nine the Phantom (ナイン＝ザ＝ファントム)

Izanami

Introduced in Console Version

Introduced in Arcade Version Update 2.0

Alternative Title(s): Blaz Blue Nine The Phantom, Blaz Blue Izanami

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Characters / BlazBlue: Central Fiction

Edit Locked

Introduced in Arcade Version

Nine the Phantom (ナイン＝ザ＝ファントム)

Izanami

Introduced in Console Version

Introduced in Arcade Version Update 2.0

Alternative Title(s): Blaz Blue Nine The Phantom, Blaz Blue Izanami

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Index

Next