Characters / Bokurano

The Character Sheet for the series Bokurano. Be warned: many spoilers are unmarked.

The Pilots

Takashi Waku

Voiced by: Daisuke Sakaguchi (JP)

• Book Dumb: He isn't particularly good at school, and slacks off on doing his homework.
• Calling Your Attacks: Lampshaded
  Waku: Can I shout when I attack?
  Koyemshi: Whatever floats your boat.
  • Gets a Call-Back in the last episode, where Ushiro wonders if this is the point to shout like Waku did.
• Chekhov's Hobby: In the anime, Moji happens upon him juggling a soccer ball, which is also what he is shown doing in the opening. He uses kicks like that to defeat his opponent. In the manga, he kicks Zearth's severed arm so that it skewers Bayonet's weak spot.
• Chick Magnet: In the manga, girls made a point to go to his soccer games just to see him.
  • Averted in the anime. The only girls you see at the soccer game are cheerleaders who would have been there regardless.
• Death by Falling Over: Subverted. The kids thought that Ushiro accidentally killed him by pushing him off Zearth's shoulder, but Waku was already dead.
• Decoy Protagonist: He is presented in a way that couldn't be mistaken for anything other than the classic Hot-Blooded shonen Kid Hero. At least until he dies after piloting the robot in the second episode (first volume of the manga).
• Hidden Depths: Despite being somewhat boisterous and a self-described man of action, Waku can be surprisingly introspective, as he takes a break from soccer to work through his feelings about it.
• I Know Madden Kombat: Interestingly enough, he's arguably the least skilled pilot of the group.
• Jumped at the Call: He's eager to be Falling into the Cockpit.
• Posthumous Narration: It's presumably Waku's voice that we hear in the opening of episode 1 where said voice talks about the game as if it's already happened.
• Sacrificial Lion: Extremely early-game example, but nonetheless, the first pilot we see die, and with him the central premise is revealed.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: Out of the dozen main characters, Waku gets the most emphasis early on and has the most "stereotypical" shonen protagonist traits, despite the series being seinen. He's boisterous, shouts while attacking, is Book Dumb, and is happy to become a hero. Then things get ugly when Waku gets to see what happens to characters of this type when put in the wrong genre and he dies before the first volume is done (episode 2 of the anime) to set the tone of the series.
• What You Are in the Dark: Ponders this concept. After his father didn't go to his championship game, he started to wonder why he was playing soccer, and took a break from it for a while. When he's chosen to pilot Zearth, he decides it's an opportunity to be the hero even if no one is watching him.

Masaru Kodaka aka "Kodama"

Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (JP)

• Anti-Hero: Nominal Hero. He intends to save the world, but is not only not troubled by collateral damage, but sees it as desirable Except for his father, that is.
• Berserker Tears: He cries these as he performs a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on his opponent after his father dies.
• Cain and Abel: Cain to his brother (or brothers in the manga), who are considerably more responsible and ethical than he and his father are.
• Creepy Child: Nicely demonstrated when he says that he somewhat respects Ushiro because he knows what it's like to kill someone, as he accidentally pushed Waku to his death (or so it seemed at the time).
• Establishing Character Moment: See Kick the Dog. The two overlapping is proof that he's trouble.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: One comment by him about how the pilots should get used to killing people is enough to convince Youko that he's worse than Ushiro, who physically abuses his younger sister.
• Hate Sink: Aside from a single pathetic moment during his fight, Kodama is pretty thoroughly presented as a loathsome human being. All the better to be the second pilot to die and the one to communicate to the rest what happens after you pilot.
• Irony: Has a personal philosophy dedicated to considering himself a born survivor, but he's marked for death the moment he's selected to pilot Zearth. Moreover, he's a very early pilot at that.
• Jerkass: He's cruel, displays little empathy for others, and doesn't even care much about Waku's death.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He says the kids will have to get used to killing, since it will become very common for them. Then comes the realization that not only are the enemy robots piloted by humans, but for every enemy defeated, a universe is destroyed.
• Kick the Dog: Or better said, burn the crab to death.
• Madness Mantra
  Kodama: There's no way my dad could have died... There's no way my dad could have died...
• Moral Myopia: Sees the deaths of thousands as a small price to pay for saving the world, but his father is another matter.
• The Needs of the Many: He follows a particularly twisted and disingenuous variant of this trope, saying that 10,000 casualties are a small price to pay to save the other 10 billion humans on Earth. He gets called on this by Komo (in the anime) and Nakama (in the manga) who say every life has value.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: He's a callous person who believe that people who die are weaklings who deserved their fate. Until he accidentally killed his dad.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Wears Kokopelli's glasses like this, and even lampshades the fact when his older brother notices them.
• The Short Guy with Glasses: Subverted. While he is the shortest of the male pilots, the glasses he wears are Kokopelli's and not his, which he uses as Purely Aesthetic Glasses.
• Token Evil Teammate: While most of the others are troubled in various ways, few of them possess as cavalier an attitude to the loss of human life as he does.
• Übermensch: He believed he and his father were this.
• Unscrupulous Hero His main goal (protecting the Earth) is certainly a heroic one, but pretty much the only remotely heroic thing about him.
• Villain Protagonist: He has no scruples to speak of, but in the end, if he loses, the protagonists' world will be destroyed.

Daiichi Yamura

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (JP)

• Broken Pedestal: Becomes this to his siblings in the anime, who think he ran away, and don't learn of his death until Kana tells them years later in the Distant Finale.
• Disappeared Dad Mr. Yamura was helping a friend who ran into some trouble. He comes back toward the end of the series.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In a sense While he dies, his siblings are safe.
• I Will Wait for You: A major part of the reason why he doesn't take his siblings and move in with his uncle is his belief that his father will eventually return, and that he wants him to be able to come home. His father does come back in the manga.
• Last Request: In the anime, he asks Koyemshi to hide his body, and asks Ushiro to treat Kana kindly before he dies.
• Nice Guy: He's one of the kindest cast members, from supporting his siblings to being surprisingly patient with Ushiro.
• Numerical Theme Naming: He and his siblings have references to numbers in the names in the order they're born- Daiichi (oldest), Futaba (second), Santa (third), and Yoshi (fourth).
• Oh, Crap!:
  • His reaction after seeing his opponent appear, the night before he's to take his siblings to the amusement park.
  "Why today, of all days?"
  • He also reacts with horror when his opponent starts rolling forward while the evacuation is still in progress, crushing many people to death.
• Promotion to Parent: He raises his three younger siblings, with their father missing and their mother dead.
• Ship Tease: He gets a little with Nakama in the manga, when she calls him to see how he's doing and apologize to him. He denies that there's anything between them, but his uncle teases him for being Oblivious to Love.
• Spared by the Adaptation: He's the third pilot in the manga and the fifth in the anime, meaning that he gets to live a little longer.

Mako Nakarai aka "Nakama"

Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi

• All of the Other Reindeer: Due to her beautiful single mother being a bar hostess and ex-prostitute, Mako always faced this from other kids.
• Blackmail: She does this to Koyemshi, threatening to reveal the identity of his mole if he doesn't help her.
• The Dog Bites Back: She’s bullied throughout her whole life, especially getting the Slut-Shaming treatment from her tormentors but in the manga, she gets payback towards an Alpha Bitch who loved to belittle her as an whore due to her mother’s background as an ex-prostitute while she was in the middle of making love to her boyfriend and while Mako herself was in the middle of a battle. She simply slaps the Alpha Bitch and demands she finally handles all the cleaning by herself instead of forcing it on her.
• Enjo Kosai: She almost gets into it to get enough money for the uniforms. Her "client" turns out to be a friend of her mom, and manages to talk her out.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
• Entertainingly Wrong: She claims that Moji is Koyemshi's mole in the group, because of said character's intuition. She's wrong, but she manages to be convincing enough that Koyemshi does as she says.
• Establishing Character Moment: In the manga, she gets on her fellow nature camp attendees' cases for not doing their homework, while in the anime, she gives a speech about duty and responsibility, showing that she's serious to a fault.
• Friendless Background: Due to being the daughter of an ex-prostitute, and partly because of her overly duty-driven personality.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: She admits that part of the reason why she tries to be a "good girl" is because she wants people to like her. She does eventually see the error of her ways, though.
• Little Miss Snarker
• Not So Above It All: In the anime, despite being one of the more serious and mature pilots, she's in favor of continuing to pilot Zearth in Episode 2, albeit because she sees it as her duty.
• Shorttank
• Daughter Of A Whore: She's the daughter of a a ex-prostitute, resulting in her being ostracized by her peers and the community.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: After she makes uniforms for the others, they comment that she's not as gloomy as she first seems.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Is very good at making clothes, as already mentioned above.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In the manga, towards the Alpha Bitch who bullies her, after catching said Alpha Bitch and her boyfriend going at it right before her battle. She punches the girl in the face, then demands that the girl do the cleaning from now on.

Isao Kako

Voiced by: Yoshinori Fujita (JP)

• All of the Other Reindeer: Was heavily bullied at school.
• Attempted Rape: In the manga, he tries this on Chizu soon after he learns he's next in line to pilot. She fends him off, though.
• Death by Adaptation: Of the "Dies earlier" variation. On top of being changed to the third pilot in the anime instead of the fifth, he's killed before he even has a chance to actually do any piloting.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Chizu kills him by stabbing him in the neck in the manga. In the anime, he is killed when a building collapses on him.
• Dirty Coward: In the manga, he doesn't fight back, hoping that if he does nothing, he'll survive. When he does act, he flees the battle, trampling over many houses, until Chizu stabs him.
• Disappeared Dad: His father is never seen, and in the anime, Isao says he abandoned the family.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the manga Chizu stabs him in the neck. In the anime, he's pushed down the stairs, hurt badly enough that he can't move, and dies after the building collapses on him.
• Freak Out:
  • In the middle of his own fight, in the manga. Chizu stabs him, then.
  • In the anime, he already had trouble with the news that the pilot of the winning robot dies, on top of his already screwed-up home life. When he learns he is the next pilot, he doesn't take it well.
• Hope Spot: Seeing the fighter planes attacking his opponent gives him some hope that he will win without having to move. They fail to destroy the enemy.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Because of his own severe self-worth issues, he looks down on Kirie, someone he considers even more pathetic. Ironically, Kirie ends up making significantly more progress in dealing with his own issues than Kako does.
• Jerkass: While he seems more pathetic than anything, he looks down on Kirie so that he will have someone to look down on, and when the time comes to fight, he's far more concerned about his own safety.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He performs one on Kirie after the latter snarks that he "always (was) a fast runner," until Chizu stabs him in the neck.
• Parents as People: His mother cares about him, but is fairly ineffectual at doing anything about his many issues.
• Power Fantasy: In the manga, he has a disturbing dream in which he takes revenge on everyone who was mocking him.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In said dream, he ends up getting one from his sister, who calls him an insecure weakling who's so desperate to have some worth that he looks down on Kirie.
• Would Hit a Girl: In the manga, he fantasizes about beating up his sister, and in the anime, he pushes the door to his room shut, resulting in his mother falling and being hurt.

Chizuru Honda aka "Chizu"

Voiced by: Ao Takahashi (JP)

• Accidental Murder: In the anime, she pushes Kako down some stairs during the rape attempt, and then runs out. The building collapses on him as he's immobilized, killing him.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • In the manga, she plans on using Zearth to kill her rapists without caring how many die as collateral damage (with the exception of her sister). In the anime, she only plans on killing Hatagai, but doesn't go through with it, meaning that she never intentionally causes collateral damage.
  • To a slightly lesser extent, the manga shows that she knows Hatagai is in a relationship and is perfectly fine with being his mistress, but in the anime, doesn't learn that he's dating her sister until after he's betrayed her trust.
  • In the manga, she stabs Kako in the throat and coldly shrugs it off, saying he would have died anyway. In the anime, she accidentally pushes him down the stairs while fending him off, and feels responsible for his death.
• Amoral Nihilist: In the manga, decides that "the death of any one person is meaningless", after learning that she is going to die as Zearth's pilot, and her baby will die with her.
• Big Sister Worship: Downplayed. Chizu sometimes finds her older sister annoying, but she's much closer to her sister than to their parents, and Ichiko is the one person she refuses to harm in her quest for revenge.
• Break the Cutie: Her being raped by Hatagai, particularly the revelation that the man she loved betrayed her.
• Broken Bird: Of the Yandere kind.
• Cheerful Child: She was this way in one anime flashback to her as a young child, when her sister was entering junior high.
• Creepy Monotone: After being betrayed by Hatagai, she speaks this way most of the time in the anime, with the exception of a few moments of emotional. By comparison, her younger self was somewhat more emotional and lively.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A variant, as the only person Chizu cares about enough to not want to kill in her Roaring Rampage of Revenge is her older sister.
• Good Is Dumb: In the manga, she sees her family as overly gullible and idealistic. Subverted, however, as it is eventually IMPLIED that the would-be car thief was merely trying to return a favor.
• Groin Attack: During her fight, she gets Zearth to kick the enemy robot like this. She also does something like this in the anime when she pushes Kako down the stairs when he tries to rape her.
• Heel Realization: After being unable to bring herself to kill Hatagai, she comes to realize how far she's fallen. The wording is different in the manga and anime, but the effect is the same.
• Murder-Suicide: She plans this on Hatagai after finding out that he had her gang raped and is moving on to someone else. The realization that she's pregnant, though, causes her to reconsider, until she learns she'll die anyway as part of her contract.
• Questionable Consent: In the anime, Chizuru is clearly uncomfortable at the idea of having sex with Hatagai, but after some prodding, eventually gives in and enjoys it.
• Rape as Drama: Her backstory is easily the darkest part of the manga for this reason, among others.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In the manga. Using half a kilometre tall Humongous Mecha, no less.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: In the manga, when Tanaka protests her use of Zearth for her revenge:
  Tanaka: What makes you think this is even remotely acceptable? We live under a constitutional government to prevent that from happening!
  Chizu: Constitutional government? Then go ahead and make a world with a perfect government. However, I don't have the time to wait for that to happen.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: In contrast to her compassionate and forgiving sister (as well as their parents), Chizu is shorter-tempered and has something of a vengeful streak.
• Third-Person Person: As a young child in the anime.
• Teen Pregnancy: It's indicated this is why she didn't kill Hatagai at first, and why Zearth has an extra pilot.
• Unmoving Plaid: Her dress in the manga.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She gets this in both versions, especially the manga, when she goes off to kill Hatagai in the middle of her fight, resulting in a great deal of collateral damage.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She's a victim of gang rape and teen pregnancy who nevertheless is responsible for potentially thousands of deaths in the name of her revenge.
• Yandere: Hatagai's betrayal of her sends her over the edge, to the point at which she's willing to kill him.

Kunihiko Moji

Voiced by: Kōki Miyata (JP)

• Awesomeness by Analysis: In the anime, he figures out that the enemy robots are piloted by humans when his strategy to trick the robot into exposing which half is the half with the cockpit by defending himself and going after the one that didn't attack him works.
• Big Brother Mentor: To a degree.
• Karmic Nod: He believes being doomed to die as one of Zearth's pilots is his punishment for wishing for Nagi's death.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Having come to terms with his impending death, he decides to donate his heart to Nagi so that he will be able to be with Tsubasa.
• I Wished You Were Dead: He regrets wishing that.
• Love Triangle: He's in one with his friend Nagi and a girl named Tsubasa Hiiragi.
• "Not So Different" Remark: He sees a certain connection between himself and Chizu, as both are individuals who wanted to use Zearth for selfish goals, and ended up getting punished for it, in a sense.
• Precision F-Strike: He calls his enemy a "suspicious bastard" before delivering the killing blow, using the highly vulgar -me suffix in the original Japanese.
• Secret-Keeper: In the manga, being the one last seen with Waku, he's the only one questioned about his disappearance. He's able to deflect any suspicion from the group.
• Self-Deprecation: "If I had to guess who the most sinful person in the world is, I'd say it's me."
• Two Guys and a Girl: Him, Nagi and Tsubasa, a dynamic that became more complicated when he and Nagi fell in love with Tsubasa.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: He realizes that he doesn't have a chance with Tsubasa, since even though Nagi is hospitalized and in the "worse" position, she's still going after Nagi.

Maki Ano

Voiced by: Kumiko Higa (JP)

• Abusive Parents: In the manga, it's implied that her mother was absolutely terrible, and by the time Maki was removed from the home as a baby, she was on the verge of death. When Maki is about to destroy the enemy cockpit in the manga, she self-deprecatingly notes that "I carry the blood of my good-for-nothing mother in my veins," and so feels that she can do what she must.
• Berserk Button: Ushiro hitting Kana infuriates her.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Her battle happens at the same time as the birth of her baby brother. She manages to witness it right before passing away, even getting to hug the baby and pass away smiling.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Her interest in the military, particularly in the manga, in which she remembers something her father told her to help Zearth evade the enemy's spinning blades.
• Cool Big Sis: She serves this role to Kana, often acting protective of her.
• Death Glare: In the manga, she gives one to Jun when, after having Koyemshi teleport her to the Ushiro residence, she catches him beating up Kana.
• Dying Dream: Maki holding her newborn brother, probably.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Maki concludes that the crib, which actually belongs to Chizu's baby is her own seat, mainly because she has a baby brother on the way. In reality, she was right the first time when she recognized the chair that came from her own house.
• Freudian Excuse: She wonders if the fact that she knows little about her mother, save for the fact that the woman was an awful parent, is why she's hesitant to act femininely.
• Girliness Upgrade: In the manga, she starts doing sewing, goes clothes shopping with Komo and gets an appointment at a hair salon, partly because she regrets letting her insecurities about her mother cause her to repress her feminine side.
• Happily Adopted: She has a few insecurities when her parents get pregnant with a new child but when she teases her father about watching anime while his first child is on the way, he responds by saying she's his first child.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: She's been friends with Komo for a long time.
• Mama Bear: Do NOT harm Kana in front of her. She elaborates in the manga that a major reason why this upsets her is that Ushiro's seemingly using his being related to Kana by blood not that she would know that he isn't, as license to mistreat her, whereas Maki is considered as much her parents' child as their soon to be born son.
• Nice Girl: When she's not consumed by righteous fury over Ushiro mistreating his sister, she's one of the kindest and friendliest pilots.
• Otaku: Both she and her dad have an avid interest in Humongous Mecha, and Maki can also identify various military vehicles. The fact that she can't identify the enemy fighter planes is one clue that they're fighting in another world.
• Posthumous Sibling: Her adoptive brother is born just as she dies.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a surprisingly calm one to Ushiro, regarding his abuse of Kana. She doesn't know that they aren't actually biologically related, but she still has a point, and Ushiro later reflects on her words after learning the truth.
  "You take for granted the security you get from being blood relatives. That's why you think you can hurt Kana and not feel bad about it."
• Team Mom: She serves this role to the group, looking out for the others, especially Kana.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: The fact that she sews and completes the costumes for the group is seen as proof that she's becoming more girly.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the tomboy to Anko, Kana and Komo. According to Komo, she sometimes wishes she'd been born a boy.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's a boyish Otaku with short hair and boyish clothing. Her girly streak comes from a desire to be more feminine for her younger brother.

Yousuke Kirie

Voiced by: Shintarō Asanuma (JP)

• Achilles in His Tent: In the anime, after surviving his first duel by pretty much driving the other pilot to suicide, he seriously ponders not returning. When he sees that his family and specially his mother is doing well, though, Kirie comes back to the fight, wins his duel, unmasks Youko and then dies.
  • In both versions, he has his doubts about fighting to begin with (his first battle in the anime, his only battle in the manga), since he's the first to find out that he's fighting with the existence of other Earths on the line. In the manga, after a talk with Misumi discussing how we live on because of the sacrifices of others, and after the above events in the anime, he regains his will to fight.
• Bad Liar: In the anime, his pilot mark appears on his face, unlike with most of the other pilots, who could hide it under their clothes. He tells his mother that he hit his head, and Ushiro says that she wouldn't believe a lie like that.
• Beware the Nice Ones, manga only: Kirie stabs Hatagai in the stomach after he offers him to teach him his way of life
  • Also his Shut Up, Hannibal! scene. Annoying part is that it turned out to be non-lethal.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's a timid boy with poor self-esteem, but in the anime, he ends up making Zearth jump, impressing even Ushiro as he looks back on it.
  Ushiro: Kirie was something else, to make Zearth move like that.
• Deadpan Snarker: As Kako is fleeing in Zearth, Kirie says Kako "sure (is) a fast runner," hoping to somehow do something to get him out of his funk. It doesn't work out how Kirie had hoped, but Moji realizes what Kirie was trying to accomplish.
• Foil: To Kako. Both suffer bullying and have self-esteem problems, but while Kako is a selfish Dirty Coward, Kirie ultimately makes more progress in overcoming his issues, and is able to fight and win his battle. In the anime, the two have similar backstories, with their respective fathers abandoning their families.
• Gentle Giant: He's significantly larger than the others, and is a kind person at heart.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation In the manga, seeing his Hikiko Mori cousin suffer so much makes him question his own worth. Same goes to his ill mom in the anime.
• Last Request: In the manga, he asks that his cousin be told about him when it is possible to do so.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Stabbing Hatagai, largely to prevent himself from ever becoming like him.
• The Stoic In the anime, he's relatively quiet and reserved.
  • Not So Stoic: In the manga, he loses his cool and stabs Hatagai when Hatagai tries to teach him about his way of life.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Machi notes that Kirie looks a lot like his parents.
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: In his despair, he decides not to fight his first battle in the anime, and when his opponent commits suicide, he lives to pilot Zearth another time, as he had not moved it an inch.
• Tragic Keepsake: In the manga, Chizu gives him her knife before dying. He uses it to stab Hatagai later.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His confrontation with Hatagai causes the teacher to realize that the pilots of Zearth must have been the kids who went on a nature trip together the previous summer. This information being revealed endangers the remaining pilots and their families.
• Wham Line: In the anime, as he, with some of his last words, reveals who isn't in the contract.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: In the anime, he resolves to not move Zearth at all, willing to forfeit his battle and the cast's universe. Then his opponent commits suicide.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: He's surprisingly mature and capable of empathy for others.

Takami Komoda aka "Komo"

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (JP)

• Adaptational Badass: In the anime, she's somewhat more resilient than in the manga, and fights and wins her battle easily, even knowing that her father has died and she will join him at the end. In the manga, she's about to lose her fight when the enemy pilot retreats, and is generally more emotionally vulnerable than her best friend Maki.
• Disappeared Dad: In the anime, Congressman Komoda gets assassinated by members of the conspiracy.
• Elegant Classical Musician: Is an accomplished piano player Turns out to be a plot point in the manga, where she wins without fighting via luring her rival into her last recital.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: She and Maki have been friends for a long time.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Mainly in the manga, when having an admiral for a father meant that she was very lonely until she met Maki. By contrast, in the anime, Maki once points out how well she gets along with everyone else.
• Military Brat: In the manga.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech: In the manga, while playing the piano for the last time, comments on how she has just started to "notice the world."
• The Ojou: Her family is fairly well-off, and you can see their Big Fancy House in the anime.
• Plucky Girl Mere hours after her father is killed, she's willing to fight and die to save her Earth, and is undeterred when Zearth falls into a pit trap that is slowly filling with acid.
  Komo: Compared to the loneliness and frustration that Father felt, I feel nothing for falling into a hole!
• The Stool Pigeon: In both the manga and the anime, she's an Innocent Ingrid, as she is the one who argues in favor of telling people about Zearth.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She greatly resembles her mother, particularly her long dark hair.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: One of the first to realize what they're getting into, even before the more obvious red flags come up that indicate that this is not a game.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: She has the looks, the voice and the Silk Hiding Steel personality, which lets her keep her cool almost all the time like in her Thanatos Gambit from the manga.

Aiko Tokosumi aka "Anko"

Voiced by: Yui Makino (JP)

• Adaptational Personality Change: She's a bit more ditzy and hot-tempered in the early stages of the manga than she is in the anime.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Defied in the manga. She's less than happy with her father's repeated absences, hoping to become an Idol Singer in order to see him on television, and believing he's only talking with her to find out more about Zearth. Then after she gets her legs burned off by acid while saving Youko and Akira decides to keep filming, Youko yells at Akira, saying "And you call yourself a father?", but Anko tells Youko to calm down. Her last words are that she learned how to give a Rousing Speech to Earth by watching her father on television.
• Caught with Your Pants Down By Koyemshi, in the manga. It wasn't anything sexual, mind you! Just her indulging into her Idol's fantasies.
• Dance Battler: Manga only, where she uses her dance experience to catch upon her elusive opponent.
• Death Glare: In the anime, she gives one to Machi, as she is still angry about her being outed as the uncontracted pilot and being responsible for getting them into the game, when she tries to offer advice during her battle.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In the anime, she perishes in Kanji's embrace, smiling.
  • She dies in her father's arms in the manga, but not smiling.
• Dreadful Musician: In the manga, her goal of being an idol singer is rendered hopeless because while she's fairly cute and a good dancer, she's an awful singer.
• Freak Out: After the aforementioned incident with Youko, Koyemshi punishes the girl by choosing her as the next pilot. Understandably, she shuts down. And then she gets better.
• Idol Singer: What she wanted to be, at least in the manga, as a way of being able to connect with her father on television.
• Out of Focus: In the anime. She didn't received as much attention as other pilots during her episode, which focused a great deal of time on the media exploits regarding Zearth.
• Plucky Girl: Especially in the manga, where she continues fighting even after having her legs burned off.
• Rousing Speech In the manga, before dying
• Ship Tease: Her interactions with Kanji in the anime can be seen as this, to a degree.
• Stepford Smiler: In the anime, when her dad is caught in an affair and her mom goes Lady Drunk mode, Anko hides her distress at both this and her position as the next pilot. She acts happy and sweet, but when she and her friend Kanji are alone, she cries in his arms.
• Taking the Bullet: In the manga, she pushes Machi out of the way of corrosive substance that an enemy robot injected into the cockpit. Because of it, she got her legs burned off.
• Token Romance: With Kanji, but only in the anime. Since it occurs with no build up prior to the episode where it happens, it comes as kinda awkward.

Kanji Yoshikawa

Voiced by: Kenji Nojima (JP)

• Childhood Friend: To both Ushiro siblings.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In the manga, after his death, he does a Posthumous Narration wondering who the next pilot is. He rules out Ushiro (who'd recently admitted to not being in the contract), as well as Machi, then is horrified to realize that the only remaining possibility among the children is Kana Ushiro.
• Last Request:
  • In the anime, his last request of Tamotsu is to kill his mother, although it's revealed that he has other plans for her.
  • In the manga, his last request is to ask Tanaka to make sure that his father takes responsibility for the Ascension Towers' construction.
• Missing Mom: In the manga, she committed suicide after the Ascension Towers were constructed, believing them to be unsafe.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the manga, his insistence on fighting near the Ascension Towers essentially leads to many deaths including Seki's Heroic Sacrifice to target Javelin's weakness, which leaves them another pilot short.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives one to Ushiro in the manga, calmly accusing him of abusing Kana to take out his anger towards his mother on her.
• Secret-Keeper: In the manga, he reveals that he didn't tell anyone about Ushiro hurting Kana because Kana herself asked him to do so.
• Self-Made Orphan: Subverted in the anime. He requests that Tamotsu kill his mother after learning about everything she's done, including causing Tanaka's death, but Tamotsu notes that what Kanji really wants is for his mother to watch his fight and see if there's a way to release Ushiro and Seki from their contracts.
• A Shared Suffering: He and Ushiro bond while visiting their mothers' graves. Except Ushiro's biological mother isn't dead.
• Snow Means Death: In the manga, he dies on top of Ascension Tower as it's snowing, with his last thoughts on the weather.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Ushiro. He doesn't hesitate to be frank with Ushiro, even when it angers him (such as regarding why he treats Kana the way he does), but the two remain friends.
• You Monster!: Does this to Koyemshi twice in the anime. Koyemshi is not happy to hear it.

Kana Ushiro

Voiced by: Kana Asumi (JP)

• The Baby of the Bunch: She's the youngest pilot, and most of the group is fairly protective of her.
• Girlish Pigtails: She has these, emphasizing her as the youngest pilot.
• Hidden Depths: She's far from a helpless victim of her brother, since she actually has the wisdom to understand the root of Jun's troubles, and the inner strength to endure his abuse.
• If You Won't, I Will: She gives this ultimatum to Tanaka regarding telling Jun that she's his mother. Kana ends up having to do it when Tanaka's taken hostage, and Jun is wondering why Kana's hesitant to attack the enemy.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Kanji sees her as one to Ushiro.
• Love Martyr: She goes through all kinds of shit at her older brother's hands, but still loves him and tries to take care of him.
• Face Death with Dignity: Heartbreakingly averted in the manga. After she wins her battle, the last time we see her she begins to break down crying because she knows she is about to die.
• Secret-Keeper: She knows that Jun is adopted, since her father told her in order to help her get over her belief that she caused his mother's death.
• Spared by the Adaptation: The anime has Machi enter the contract in Kana's place. As a result, she is the Sole Survivor of the main cast.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She gives one to Tanaka after learning that Tanaka is Ushiro's mother, and that Tanaka still has no desire to reveal herself to Ushiro accusing her of "running away" from her son. To a lesser extent, Kana calls Tanaka out on lying to her about her promise to find Jun's mother
• Wise Beyond Their Years: See the main page for a detailed description, as well as Youko, in her last moments, expressing a desire to be "as strong as Kana-chan".
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Despite being young, she's quite talented with housework and shows a surprisingly strong emotional core, enduring painful physical abuse for her older brother's sake.

Youko Machi

Voiced by: Yuko Sanpei (JP)

• Alcoholic Parent: In the manga. It turns out that it's for the Youko from this universe, in a rare case of people having selves in alternate universes.
• Adaptational Jerkass: in the anime, during a discussion about the contract, she suddenly decides to accuse Komo and Anko of possibly being the uncontracted pilot, likely to divert attention away from herself.
• And This Is for...: Dedicates one of her gunshots on Koyemshi to Yuu, Kokopelli's daughter and one of the victims of Koyemshi's manipulation.
• The Atoner: Many of her actions are to atone for getting the pilots into the game. Koyemshi even chides her for this sort of mentality.
• The Baby of the Bunch: She was this to her Earth's group of Zearth pilots, being Koyemshi's younger sister.
• Becoming the Mask: She was raised in our Earth, comes to truly love our world and, in the anime, she sacrifices herself for us. Her crush on Ushiro helps a bit, too.
• Brain/Computer Interface: In the anime. In episode 20, she reveals she has a port on her neck, hidden by her Sci-Fi Bob Haircut, that's compatible with the lab equipment used to replay what the pilots see within Zearth.
• Cool Big Sis: She eventually develops a friendship of this nature with Kana, partly helped by the fact that both survive until late in the series.
• Dead Person Impersonation: In the manga, during the live broadcast from Zearth's cockpit, she has to impersonate Komo, who was the only other identified pilot of Zearth, as the official story is that she and Anko are the only pilots.
• Dropped a Bridge on Her: In the manga, she was shot by a nameless assassin and is taken off life support.
• Dying Alone: In the anime, She passes on with only the remains of Koyemshi nearby, after saying goodbye to Ushiro and Kana
• Gallows Humor: In the manga, she jokes about assassins coming after the pilots after the boy who claimed to be a Zearth pilot is shot dead; it is implied that the families of those killed in Zearth's battles helped that happen. She ends up being killed that way herself.
• The Generic Girl: Played with in the manga. Every tankobon begins with a list of Zearth's pilots, complete with short descriptions. Throughout the series, Machi remains "That girl with the freckles." Ultimately subverted. She's far from generic.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: After Chizu is unable to bring herself to kill her sister along with Hatagai, Machi shakes her and tells her to snap out of it, reminding Chizu that she'd promised to atone for causing Kako's death.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Subverted. Machi is fully aware that one way or another, the protagonists' universe would have had to fight, but still feels guilty about bringing the pilots into the game and causing their deaths.
• It's All My Fault: Blames herself for the whole mess as she's the one who brought the kids to Kokopelli's cave. She even says as much to Waku's parents in the manga.
• Last-Name Basis: The cast tends to call her "Machi," in contrast to the other girls, who are typically referred to by their first name or a nickname.
• Love Confession: She makes one to Ushiro in the manga shortly before being killed.
• The Mole: She's the only one who isn't in the contract and essentially works for Koyemshi.
• Morality Pet: Kana brings out Youko's kinder side, and ultimately forces her to question her mission. Yu, Youko's friend from the previous Earth, had a similar effect.
• Oh, Crap!: She reacts this way after realizing that the bully picking on Katari's little brother isn't a kid, but actually an assassin who's pointing a gun at her.
• Parental Abandonment: In the anime, it's mentioned in passing that she doesn't have any parents.
• Redemption Equals Death: In the anime, after betraying Koyemshi and helping Ushiro kill him to hijack Zearth, she's the first to go. She wins her battle and dies.
• Scars Are Forever: In the manga, a bit of acid splashes on her cheek and leaves a scar that is mostly covered up with a bandage. She takes off the bandage and uses the scar as proof that she piloted Zearth when meeting with the fake pilot's brother.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With Koyemshi. Koyemshi is quite the Jerkass, while Machi is surprisingly compassionate, and eventually is willing to sacrifice herself for another Earth.
• Snow Means Death: She dies while it's snowing.
• Spanner in the Works: Iin the anime, upon Ushiro's request, she out-gambits and kills Koyemshi, undoing his cruel manipulations on him and Kana and forcing her way into the contract.
• Think Nothing of It: In the anime, after Kana thanks her for killing Koyemshi and preventing her from being entered into the contract, thereby saving her life, she says she didn't do it to be thanked.
• Tomato in the Mirror: She is Koyemshi's little sister.
• Walking Spoiler: She's hard to discuss without spoiling details from her backstory, her brother's, or the existence of alternate Earths.
• Wham Episode: Before she can fight her battle in the manga, she gets shot in the head.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In the manga, accuses Akira of being unsuited to be a father when he continues to record footage after his daughter Aiko/Anko had her legs burned off by acid while protecting Youko. Anko tells Youko to calm down.

Jun Ushiro

Voiced by: Junko Minagawa (JP)

• Accidental Murder: He gives Waku a light shove after the first battle, and while that wouldn't have been enough to knock Waku over, Waku ends up falling to his death. Subverted, when it turns out that Waku was dead before he fell.
• The Atoner: He gradually realizes the error of his ways and how much he hurt Kana. In the anime, he takes Kana's place in the last battle. In the manga, he chooses to volunteer as a pilot so that some stranger won't have to.
• Big Brother Bully: Not Played for Laughs. He hits Kana on a regular basis to let off stress, and, as it's implied, as a means of taking out his frustration over his mother's death.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Though he really took his time.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: In the manga, he asks why Kana's hesitating while Misumi's being held hostage, since, as a contracted pilot, Misumi will die anyway. The point he's missing is that Kana knows Misumi's his mother, and wants her to survive so that they can be reunited.
• Dying Alone: In the anime, at the end of the last battle, he dies in Zearth's cockpit, alone, and it soon falls apart around him.
• Foil: To Koyemshi, mainly in the manga. Ushiro is cold and aloof to most people, and outright abusive to Kana. By comparison, Koyemshi is a Jerkass toward most people, but spares his sister that treatment.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: His character is initially presented this way, on top of being a Jerkass.
• Hidden Depths: In the manga, Machi notes that while Ushiro seems cold and aloof, he's surprisingly observant when it comes to the other pilots, and remembers details Machi herself forgot.
• Kick the Dog: In the manga, when they're running short on pilots, he casually suggests that Kana pilot, not knowing that she's already volunteered for it.
• Lack of Empathy: He's initially a fairly cold and callous individual, but gradually grows out of this. When he's forced to kill all the inhabitants of the enemy universe to make sure he gets the pilot, he imagines that he can hear his victims' screams.
• Missing Mom: He abuses Kana because their mom succumbed to Death by Childbirth. Or so he thought
• Moment Killer: Jun is very inept at picking up cues. Youko gets angry at him for not holding her hand (or doing much of anything) while they are sitting together on a train after she tells him she is afraid to die. He also completely throws her off later in the chapter when she tries to confess her feelings for him. Fortunately she manages to get the confession out. Unfortunately, she gets shot in the head by an assassin moments later.
• Morality Pet: Miku Tanaka, his half-sister, becomes his primary motivation for fighting even though they only met once.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He gradually regrets how much he mistreated Kana. When he confronts Kana about not telling anyone she sealed a contract, he's about to hit her, but stops himself. This abuse is mentioned again during his final battle, as a reminder of just how wrong Ushiro's actions are.
• Oblivious to Love: Poor Youko
• Odd Friendship: With Koyemshi, though only in the manga, and only at the very end. The two end up bonding over Machi's death, and because they're similarly cynical jerks.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • He has this reaction when the assassin who'd just shot Machi points a gun at his face, and gets within inches of putting a bullet in his head.
  • He also reacts this way when during his battle, the opponent starts to fight before the city's even been evacuated, horrified at his enemy's callousness and shocked that he's been taken off guard.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It's mentioned throughout the manga that he likes to sleep- he impatiently wants Daichi's battle to end so that he can go back to bed, he beats up Kana in order to get to sleep more easily and he's shown sleeping under a kotatsu in the manga. Naturally, he ends up having trouble sleeping just before his battle.
  • There's a rather sweet significant OOC moment in the anime: he gently takes Kana's hand and helps her up into a treehouse in one of the last few episodes, showing off his Character Development from an irritable jerk who takes his anger out on his sister to a young boy starved for the love he's pushed away for so long.
• Pet the Dog: In the anime, he volunteers to check up on Kirie, and while he claims that he's only motivated by a desire to make sure Kirie's in the right frame of mind to fight, he's still worried about how he's holding up.
• Survivor Guilt: His mother fears that he will suffer this once she and Kana die, thereby leaving him all alone and thus potentially causing him to be Driven to Suicide or enter the contract.
• Stoic Spectacles
  • Not So Stoic: Has various moments like this, especially when he freaks out after it seems as though he accidentally pushed Waku to his death, and no one seems to think otherwise.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Over time, he goes from a person who has virtually no empathy for anyone else to someone who's so concerned about others that he refuses to cause collateral damage at his last battle, an "away game," despite knowing that the people of that world are going to die anyway if he wins.
• Tragic Keepsake: Kanji's jacket in the manga.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Kanji.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot In the manga, during his battle. He's in an Heroic BSoD because of the stress and throws up on his lap, so he has to put on a custom uniform.
• Wham Line: Manga only:
  Jun: I'm not in the contract.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gets varying degrees of this over his treatment of Kana, especially from Maki. Tanaka also calls him out on suggesting that Daiichi is getting cold feet, saying that "Everyone's afraid."
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In the manga, having suffered the loss of all his friends, his sister and his biological mother, his final task is to kill everyone on the last planet to make sure he kills the enemy pilot.
• Would Hit a Girl: To make matters worse, it's his younger sister.
• Yakuza Prince: In the anime, his father Ichiro was a Yakuza heir, but after he was killed by his enemies, his mom Miko (later, Misumi Tanaka) gave Ushiro away to her cousin so he'd have a normal life.

Others

Kokopelli (Garaku-sensei/Usui-sensei)

Voiced by: Hiroki Tochi (JP)

• Adaptational Heroism: In the manga, he callously shrugs off the death of an SDF pilot that accidentally crashes into Zearth, openly saying that as someone from another planet, he doesn't care for any collateral damage.
• Adaptational Name Change: From "Garaku" in the manga to "Usui" in the anime.
• Adaptation Expansion: In the manga, we don't really learn much about him other than that he came from another Earth and got in a fight with one of his fellow pilots who is heavily implied tobe Koyemshi when he was human, giving them both scars. The anime expands on his personal life, showing he had a wife and daughter.
• Always Save the Girl: In the anime, Koyemshi calls him out on caring more for his daughter Yu than any of the other kids in his class.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Koyemshi considers him this for not telling the kids about the true nature of the battles, snidely noting that he played the good guy until the end.
• Every Scar Has a Story: Kokopelli says in the manga that he had a scar from one of the kids in his group, when the recruiter made the mistake of recruiting too many at the start, but he covered it up.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He dies from piloting Zearth to protect the protagonists' universe.
• Killed Offscreen: He perishes from piloting Zearth offscreen. Several of the other pilots aren't shown at the moments of their deaths, but in his case, it isn't obvious at first that he's dead.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Apologizes when the kids leave his cave. And with good reason.
• Meaningful Name: Kokopelli is a figure in Southwestern Native American Mythology, a complex blend of Trickster God, Food God, Trade God, Love God, and The Storyteller. Typically portrayed as a cosmic Wandering Minstrel and Intrepid Merchant, he has a strong tendency to leave upheaval in his wake as often as deflowered maidens and knowledge and trickets from afar. Doubles as a subtle Ironic Name, however, in that while his arrival is often eventful, he usually leaves a place better off than he found it.
• Metaphorically True: Technically, Zearth battles are games, in the sense that each one is a competition between pilots...He just declined to mention that it was both a fatal and universe-cidal one.
• No Name Given: His real given name is never revealed. His wife simply calls him "anata", a word for "you" that is equivalent to "darling" when wives use it on their husbands.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His daughter Yu dies despite his efforts to prevent it.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Although his status as such is not revealed until later.

Koyemshi/Dung Beetle (Shirou Machi)

Voiced by: Akira Ishida (JP)

• Adaptational Villainy: In the manga, he actually has some redeeming moments. Contrast when he puts Youko out of her misery and grieves for her in his own way in the manga, with him getting killed by Youko in order to save Kana from being forced into the contract in the anime. In fact, he is the closest thing the anime has to a Big Bad, while in the manga, he is just another cog in the machine, being someone from a previously saved world who now has to help a next world.
• Aloof Big Brother: To Youko
• The Atoner: In the manga, after assassinating Machi, he releases the other version of Machi to live an ordinary civilian life on Earth, and voluntarily becomes Zearth's final pilot and the next Kokopelli.
• Berserk Button: Kanji insulting him by calling him a pawn of the Masterminds seems to be this, as he tells him he's gone too far and wants him to be selected next.
• Brutal Honesty: When he becomes Kokopelli, he makes it clear to the pilots that they are going to die.
• Dirty Coward: There's the part where he physically forces a fellow pilot from his Earth to participate, only to break down and beg for his life when it's his turn, and his reaction when Youko is shooting him to death.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: In the manga, he pilots Zearth in the very last chapter.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: As Shirou, he has a huge scar on his face.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the last chapters of the manga.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of the manga, he takes Zearth into battle to protect another universe, which as we know is fatal.
• Hey, You!: The most pleasant he'll get with someone is referring to them by their last name without an honorific. At worst, he enjoys calling them names.
• Hypocrite: See the Dirty Coward entry.
• I Always Wanted to Say That: Koyemshi at the start of his battle at the end of the manga: "Zearth, take-off."
• The Imp
• Jerkass: He's abrasive, rude and uncaring for others.
• Kick the Dog: Too many to list them all, but one nice example is after Anko dies, he comments that he's disappointed that her passing didn't involve more crying and screaming.
• Kid-Appeal Character: He seems like the typical Non-Human Sidekick.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Morality Pet: Machi, who says that he's the only person he doesn't act like a jerk towards.
• Nay-Theist: Manga only— Koyemshi believes that it's better to think of the mecha battles as natural phenomena and God as a yet-undiscovered law of physics, because "it's better that way"... Probably because the idea that God might be behind the pruning is not a comfortable thought.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the manga, after his sister is killed, he is not laughing anymore. He is not smug. He is not condescending. He is angry, and his ''first'' act of anger is to teleport the killer ''somewhere'' which is implied to be very, very bad. He also has a similar reaction when Youko seals her contract, thereby guaranteeing her death, as he refuses to believe it's possible, and ends up giving her the silent treatment for a while after he realizes it.
• Out-Gambitted: In the anime, by Ushiro and Youko.
• Pet the Dog: Koyemshi can appear nearly sympathetic in the manga, when he displays some signs of care for Machi.
  • There's also the talk he has with Ushiro just before the final battle of the manga, encouraging him and giving him a reason to fight for the ones close to him, including his still living sister, Miku Tanaka.
  • When Youko is assassinated near the end, he is utterly furious and teleports the assassin...somewhere. When asked to bring the assassin back, he says it is impossible as the assassin is nothing but ashes now. This does make sense considering he is Youko's brother.
  • In the manga, his last action before taking Zearth into battle is to be completely straightforward with the upcoming pilots about how their fight is absolutely not a game, that there will be collateral damage and dead civilians, and about how the power Zearth grants them to protect their world will ultimately take their lives in exchange. You know, all the things Kokopelli should have given the protagonists a heads-up on?
• Perpetual Smiler: His human form in the manga.
• Portal Cut: His means of severing Seki's hand; he teleports the rest of his body away, then back.
• Redemption Equals Death: In the manga, he becomes the last pilot of Zearth before it moves to a different universe.
• Robot Buddy: Subverted—Koyemshi doesn't always tell the kids things they really ought to know.
• Sadistic Choice: His treatment of Kana and Jun by the end of the anime, when he tries to manipulate Kana into becoming a pilot and threatening her with forcing Ushiro to do so if she hesitates. Ushiro, however, had asked Youko for help behind his back, and she out-gambits and kills him.
• Shoot the Dog: He has to put a mortally injured Youko out of her misery in the manga, which lets him show a slightly softer side.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: His crass mannerisms are conveyed using this trope.
• Stern Teacher: In the manga he retakes his human form, becomes the new Kokopelli and goes to another Earth with Zearth. When he recruits the new pilots, he straightforwardly tells them that they'll die after piloting (unlike Garaku/Kokopelli, who couldn't bring himself to do so), but then he adds that he will be the first pilot and show them how to do it right, which triggers the Redemption Equals Death mentioned above.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Once demands to be called "Koyemshi-sama". He's amused when Tanaka calls him "Koyemshi-san".
• Trickster Mentor: Subverted in the anime; Koyemshi is such a Jerkass that he torments the children simply because he enjoys seeing them suffer.
• Villainous Breakdown: In the anime, as he's being shot to death.
• Was Once a Man: Had a human form from his previous universe. He was even Youko's brother.

Captain Misumi Tanaka (Miho Sato)

Voiced by: Naomi Shindo (JP)

• Ace Pilot: She's an exceptional pilot, and in the manga, takes to the sky to give Kana support during the latter's battle.
• Action Mom: She has a daughter Kana's age and is Jun's mother.
• Adaptation Name Change: Misumi is her real name in the anime, but in the manga, her name is Miho Sato.
• Ascended Extra: While she's not necessarily minor in the manga, she has more scenes in the anime, and more of a role in the plot.
• The Atoner: In a sense. She describes her service in the Self-Defense Force as this, saying that she's caused trouble for others, and can't make it up to them, but can spend her life serving others.
• Cool Big Sis: To the girls of the group, despite being older than the standard.
• Dark and Troubled Past: It varies from version to version, but it involves her ties with the Yakuza in the anime and teen pregnancy in the manga.
• Former Teen Rebel: She's said to have been a delinquent in her youth, during which she got pregnant with Jun.
• Give Him a Normal Life: Her reason for giving up Jun.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: After her old teacher mentions that she's grown strong, Tanaka says that she's still as weak as ever.
• Heroic Suicide: In the manga, she shoots herself in the head after Kana's opponent takes her hostage, in order to get Kana to stop hesitating and defeat the enemy.
• Hidden Depths: Despite seeming like nothing more than a normal pilot, she's quite politically shrewd. Sasami once suggests that she's "wasted" on the SDF.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: In the anime, she says this as she's dying from several gunshot wounds to the chest. Since winter is coming, Tamotsu tries to laugh it off as if she's talking about the weather.
• Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You: To Ushiro. The reasons differ depending on the media, but still damn good.
• Like a Son to Me: In the manga, she tells Kana that she considers the other pilots to be like her children.
• Team Mom: She acts as a supportive figure to the pilots, especially in the anime, which shows her hanging out with the girls at a few points. Rather ironically, her own son is part of the group.
• Wham Line: After meeting Kana's father, she mentions that it's been a while, and that she left Jun in his care.

Masamitsu Seki

Voiced by: Shinji Kawada (JP)

• Adaptational Personality Change: In the anime, as a result of being fused with Shouji, he ends up being a bit more rash than in the manga, and pulls a gun on Koyemshi. In the manga, he instead tells the men to stay calm, and tries to reason with Koyemshi.
• All Love Is Unrequited: It's indicated that he has feelings for Tanaka, but in the manga, she was already married when he met her, while in the anime, she's simply not interested.
• An Arm and a Leg: In the anime, after pointing a gun at Koyemshi, he loses his hand
• Artificial Limbs: His hand in the anime. It's revealed when Koyemshi tells him to use his other hand to sign up to pilot Zearth, and you can hear whirring motors as Seki moves his fingers.
• Composite Character: With Shouji in the anime. In addition to being the main military character besides Tanaka, he's also the one who threatens Koyemshi and loses a hand in the anime.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the manga, he willingly becomes a living target to help Kanji in his battle.
• Scars Are Forever: In the TV series he loses an arm after threatening Koyemshi, then has it replaced with a prosthesis.
• Spared by the Adaptation: He survives in the anime, since Machi and Ushiro insist on piloting for the last two battles.
• So Proud of You: In the last battle of the anime, thinks about how strong Ushiro has become.
• Touché: In the manga, he tries to convince Koyemshi to let him and the other officers investigate Zearth, saying that their country has suffered losses. When Koyemshi points out that since the children are fighting on behalf of the entire Earth, anyone can make that argument, he laughs and concedes that Koyemshi has a point.

Morihiro Hatagai

Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (JP)

• Adaptational Dumbass: In the manga, he managed to organize a blackmail ring, and arranged for a contingency plan if he's incarcerated for more than a month. In the anime, he accidentally tips Chizu off by mistakenly sending her a text about the camera, and while the reasons behind his firing from his position as coach weren't elaborated on, the principal may have been on to him.
• Adaptational Heroism: Downplayed. His anime counterpart is nowhere near a good person, but isn't quite the sociopathic monster his manga version is.
• Adaptation Name Change: He is Morihiro Hatagai in the manga, but Hiroyuki Hatagai in the anime.
• Blackmail: He and his accomplices threaten to release the video of Chizu being raped with her personal information if she doesn't do as they say.
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: A very disturbing example of this is applied in the manga; he claims that the fact that he has never had sex with his girlfriend, Chizu's older sister, is proof of his love for her. It only serves to make him seem even more vile.
• Jerkass: In the anime. His manga incarnation is much worse.
• Karma Houdini: Chizu backs down from killing him, and in the manga, her family doesn't believe they can legitimately press charges against him after Chizu killed innocent people in the pursuit of her revenge against him.
• Kick the Dog: After learning that Chizu is pregnant, he casually suggests that they make a video of Chizu having an abortion and saying that the baby was born dead.
• Manipulative Bastard: He successfully gets Chizu to fall in love with him so that she'll do what he says. In the manga, he also tries to win Kirie over.
• Never My Fault: He refuses to take any responsibility for his actions, and even claims Chizu is to blame.
• The Sociopath: During his conversation with Kirie, he reveals a fairly twisted worldview, feeling no remorse over what he did to Chizu and arguing that she's to blame for what happened to her.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In the anime, he makes himself look like the victim after the principal fires him from his coaching job, callilng his boss a "tyrant" and saying that he didn't deserve it. Considering his highly dishonest nature and misconduct, he probably did.

Sasami

Voiced by: Hiroyuki Kinoshita (JP)

• Hidden Depths: At first, he seems to be just another power-hungry army commander who is only interested in seizing Zearth for their own benefits. Once he learned what's at stake, however, his attitude quickly changed.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Tries his best to help the kids and to protect the Earth.

Tate

Akira Tokosumi

Voiced by: Tōru Furusawa (JP)

• Adults Are Useless Averted in the anime, where he works with other adults (Komo's dad, Kanji's mom, etc.) to find out what is going on and try saving the kids. In the manga he still tries to support Anko as much as he can.
• Intrepid Reporter
• Parents as People: He feels guilty about not spending more time with Anko. In the manga, after sharing some of his reservations with his boss, his boss says that he's not exactly a good father, but he has the mindset of a great journalist.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Anko is unhappy with his constant absence in the manga.

Kunio Shouji

• Adapted Out: He doesn't appear in the anime, and is merged with Seki.
• Fingore In the manga, he threatens Koyemshi with a gun, gets his fingers severed. He later gets them reattatched.

Tamotsu Sakakibara

Voiced by: Takehiro Murozono (JP)

• The Alcoholic
• Canon Foreigner: He only appears in the anime.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander
• My Greatest Failure: Was a friend of Ushiro's deceased father Ichirou, blames himself for his death.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Says a lot about the show when the funniest character is an ex-con.

Kouichi/Tomoe Komoda

Voiced by: Takashi Taniguchi (JP)

• Adaptation Name Change: Tomoe in the manga, Kouichi in the anime.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In the anime, he's somewhat warmer and more emotionally open than his manga counterpart.
• Adults Are Useless: Averted, as mentioned.
• Alliterative Name (anime)
• Blunt "Yes": In the manga, when Takami asks him if she has to get an examination, too, he says yes.
• Foil: In the manga, Anko compares him with her father, thinking that while she has to wonder how much her father cares about her, Tomoe cares for his daughter but can't express it well.
• My Greatest Failure: Komo's death is this for him, in the manga.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In the anime, he's a congressman. In the manga, he's in the military, and Komo talking to him is what gets the military involved.
• Say My Name: In the manga, he screams his daughter's name as she dies.
• The Stoic: In the manga, it's pointed out that he does love his daughter, but is not very good at showing it.
  • Not So Stoic: Screams "NO! TAKAMI!" as his daughter is dying.
• These Hands Have Killed: Asks if he can play the piano- as he had planned to do after retiring from the military- with the same hands that he says killed his daughter.

Ichiko Honda

Voiced by: Saeko Chiba (JP)

• The Atoner: She says that she and her parents are trying to atone for Chizu's actions, on Chizu's behalf.
• Go Through Me: Attempting to snap Chizuru out of her Roaring Rampage of Revenge, she stands between Zearth's arm and Hatagai and tells her little sister to kill her instead, dumping the blame on herself. Chizu stops, but Ichiko can't save her from dying. In the manga, she knows that Chizu is there. In the anime, she shields Hatagai with her body, without ever seeing Chizu.
• Horrible Judge of Character: She's dating Hatagai, 'nuff said. In the manga, she breaks up with him after she learns of what he did to Chizu; in the anime, there's no indication that she finds out about what happened to Chizu.
• Onee-sama: To her little sister Chizu.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: She's compassionate and forgiving, while Chizu is shorter-tempered and more prone to holding grudges.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Chizu's girly girl.

Miko Nakarai

Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (JP)

• Deadpan Snarker: In the manga, during the community cleanup, she manages to snark at Oda during an argument over each other's parenting styles.
  Mrs. Oda: My daughter has decent parents.
  Miko: Is that so? Decent parents who don't help out with the neighborhood cleanup.
• Despair Event Horizon: The last time we see her, she is in the hospital (due to being injured in one of the attacks), and she looks like a shell of her former self, clearly broken over her daughter's death. Youko and Jun bring her some comfort that her daughter gave her life in defense of Earth bravely.
• Hooker Witha Heart Of Gold: She used to be this trope, but it didn’t stop her from being a good person and a loving mother to her daughter.
• Parents as People: While her status as a a ex-prostitute makes things difficult for her daughter, she nevertheless cares for Mako, and Mako deeply respects her.

Tsubasa

Moji and Nagi's childhood friend, as well as the girl they both have a crush on.

• Secret-Keeper: In the manga, she's aware that Moji was the person who donated his heart to Nagi.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Both Nagi and Moji became conscious of the fact that she was a girl when she showed up to a festival in a yukata.

Nagi Namoto

Moji and Tsubasa's childhood friend.

• Alliterative Name: Both his names start with "Na."
• Death Seeker: In the manga, he expresses the hope that Zearth will put him out of his misery.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Moji claims he has an errand to run out of consideration for Nagi and Tsubasa, Nagi gets upset and accuses Moji of pitying him.
• Parental Abandonment: In the anime, he, Tsubasa and Moji are orphans at the same facility.
• Victorious Childhood Friend: To Tsubasa, who ultimately ends up with him.

Ichirou

Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda (JP)

• Death by Origin Story: His murder at the hands of other Yakuza sets off the deal with Tanaka, baby!Jun and the Ushiros.
• Disappeared Dad
• Yakuza: More exactly, a Yakuza heir

Junji "Katari" Karita

A boy who pretends to be a Zearth pilot on TV. He ends up being killed for it.

• Blatant Lies: His claiming to be Zearth's pilot is fairly vague (he says that "There's no story. I was chosen. That's all" when asked about how he became it) and unconvincing, so the only reason he's more convincing than the protagonists is that 1)He beat them to the punch and 2)Aiko is the daughter of a newscaster.
• Cassandra Truth: It's obvious to the Zearth pilots and everyone else working with them that he's lying, but not the public; to them, it's more believable than the word of the rival newscaster's daughter.
• Didn't Think This Through: Not only is claiming to be a Zearth pilot a Too Dumb to Live move, but his plan to convince everyone that he's the pilot by having Zearth do a victory danace after the next battle assumes that the actual pilots will play along, as Ushiro and Machi point out.
• In-Series Nickname: Anko mentioned the Zearth pilots coined one for him despite never having met him.
• Meaningful Name: His nickname means "to deceive" or "cheat," since he's a fake Zearth Pilot.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: The main characters have to keep up the illusion that he's one of them,.
• Spanner in the Works: By coming forward on TV, he essentially derails the main character's plans regarding Zearth in the media, largely because having the daughter of one of the reporters come forward as a Zearth pilot is less believable than what he says.
• Too Dumb to Live: Pretending to be the pilot of a machine that's killed thousands of people is essentially inviting your own death.
• Walking Spoiler: His only appearance involves a somewhat significant plot twist.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Shot dead mere pages after his introduction.

Miku Tanaka

Misumi's daughter, who is about Kana's age. She's Jun's sister

• Morality Pet: While she and Jun Ushiro only meet once and never speak, she serves as his motivation to win the final battle and protect his world.

Mr. Kodaka

Voiced by: Katsuhisa Houki (JP)

Masaru's father, head of a construction company.

• Bad Boss: He abuses his own subordinates for not meeting his standards.
• Bald of Evil
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He intends to profit off of the destruction Zearth wreaks.
• Drunk Driver: In the manga, Kodama says he thinks nothing of driving under the influence.
• Fat Bastard: A rather heavyset and unpleasant man.
• Karmic Death: Dies from the destruction he had hoped to profit off of, and to make it ironic, it was caused by the son who idolized him.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: In the manga, Kodama makes a reference to this, saying "He only feigns being crude and dense."
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He "treats women like objects"
• Show, Don't Tell: In the manga, the viewer has a few pages of exposition on his habits. In the anime, you get to see him at a board meeting, with him saying that he wants to develop the area that was destroyed in Waku's battle, and slapping a subordinate for not closing a deal at its original terms.
• Übermensch: In the eyes of his son.

Shinichi Kodaka

Masaru "Kodama" Kodaka's older brother.

• Adapted Out: His and Masaru's other brother is cut from the anime.
• Adaptational Jerkass: He's a bit more insulting when commenting on Masaru's Purely Aesthetic Glasses in the anime than in the manga, in which it's portrayed as somewhat lighthearted teasing.
• Aloof Big Brother: He's fairly distant from his younger brother, Masaru.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At least in the anime, he's a bit cold toward Masaru, but nevertheless a far more decent human being than his father or younger brother.
• Take This Job and Shove It: He resigns from his job at his father's company after hearing that his father plans on turning the area destroyed in Waku's fight into a golf course, simply for the sake of profit.
• White Sheep: He's one of the few decent members of the family, and the only one to be shown as such.

Kengo Yamura

Daichi's uncle.

• Benevolent Boss: He treats his nephew and other employees well, and even offers Daichi tickets to an amusement park.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The responsible sibling to his older brother, Daichi's father. He's somewhat bitter about his brother disappearing and notes that Daichi is far more responsible.
• Like a Son to Me: He considers Daichi and his siblings to be his own children.
• Nephewism: He looks after Daichi and his siblings, but they don't live with him, since Daichi wants his father to have a place to come home to.

Mr. Ushiro

Kana's biological father and Jun's adoptive father.

• Cool Teacher: His students respect and look up to him. In the anime, he runs a school that teaches non-traditional values.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: He tries to apologize to Jun for how he treated him, but Jun gets teleported away to the final battle mid-sentence. Jun did moved by his father's apology, but as he was in a different room, Mr. Ushiro didn't see that.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Jun in the anime, both his children in the manga.
• Parental Favoritism: He admits that he tried to love Jun the same way he loved Kana, but it's not the same. It's further driven home when he realizes that Kana will pilot next, he's genuinely heartbroken, admitting that he didn't react the same way when he heard about Jun.
• Parents as People: In the manga, he admits that he was scared of getting close to Jun, and so treated him as just another student, which damaged his relationship with both his children.
• Take Me Instead: He asks if he can take Kana's place in her battle. Misumi sadly tells him that doing so isn't possible.

Komo's Opponent

A middle-aged man who's Komo's opponent during their battle.

• Cynicism Catalyst: Shortly before his battle, some of the victims of previous battles killed his daughter.
• Despair Event Horizon: He crosses this after his daughter's death, and no longer cares what happens to his universe.
• Face Death with Dignity: After hearing Komo's performance, he walks off the stage and allows himself to be killed so that Komo's universe can win the battle.
• No Name Given: He's never referred to by name, simply as "the enemy pilot" or some variation thereof.
• Outliving One's Offspring: The death of his daughter deeply impacted him.
• Suicide by Cop: He lets Komo's father shoot him dead, since he has to be killed by an inhabitant of the other Earth in order for them to win.
• Walking Spoiler: It's impossible to talk about him without revealing the twist that Zearth's pilots are fighting humans from other universes.
• You Remind Me of X: It's implied that Komo reminds him of his daughter, which is why he can't bring himself to kill her.

Hasegawa Toyoharu

A corrupt and ruthless politician that shows up near the end of the anime.

• Big Bad Wannabe: He acts as the nearest human threat to the cast near the end, but in the big picture he matters little compared to the powers behind Zearth. Though that said, he is implied to be behind the assassination of Kouichi as well as Misumi and the numerous underground dealings going on.
• Canon Foreigner: He is an exclusive character to the anime.
• Corrupt Politician: Cruel and ruthless and is only out to benefit himself and his allied business interests, even at the cost of everything else.
• Stupid Evil: Even when told of the danger of the Zearth program he insists on implementing it, dismissing the danger completely and similarly tries to destroy Zearth along with its opponent despite being well informed what would happen should Zearth fall.