Characters / Buddy Daddies

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Main Characters

Kazuki Kurusu

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Toyonaga (Japanese), Landon McDonald (English)

^{Casual outfit} 

Working as an assassin alongside his roommate Rei, Kazuki is responsible for intel gathering and planning for their missions. Off duty, he's the homemaker of the house, as well as a fan of gambling and women.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Miri will sometimes refer to him as "Kazuki-papa".
• Alliterative Name: Kazuki Kurusu.
• The Atoner: He regularly asks Kyu-chan to send large sums of money to a certain someone as if he was paying for alimony and/or child support. That person turns out to be Karin, his sister-in-law. Kazuki feels so guilty about the death of his wife, Yuzuko, that he thinks sending Karin financial help is a way to atone. Karin keeps sending the money back, not wanting Kazuki to feel responsible for something that was never his fault.
• Bad Liar: When his plan doesn't go as he wanted, he has a harder time improvising and lying. As he claims to Rei that returning Miri to her mother would be beneficial for all of them, Rei quietly calls him a "lousy actor".
• Becoming the Mask: A variation in that he's not so much pretending to be Miri's father as he is taking on a surrogate role, but after adopting Miri, he seems to occasionally forget that Miri isn't his or Rei's biological daughter. At one point, he accredits Miri's ability to figure out when her dads are following her to their genes, despite Kazuki and Rei both being men and sharing no blood relation to her.
• Blank White Eyes: When Miri tells him she doesn't like him twice (for emphasis) and sticks out her tongue at him for the first time, he gets so shocked his pupils disappear and he starts crying.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Parodied twice, since Miri is only four years old and is still way too young to have a serious boyfriend.
  • Right after leaving Miri in Kyu's care to go on a mission, Rei mentions how much of a ladyliller Kyu can be, causing Kazuki to have an Imagine Spot of Miri wanting to marry Kyu and kissing him on the cheek, which drives him up the wall enough that he speeds up while driving.
  • The next episode also has him panicking when he spies Miri holding Taiga's hand, quickly imagining the two being a couple when she's in high school, and yells "murder!" He jumps to the conclusion that Taiga is a playboy toying with Miri's heart, ignoring the fact that the boy is around Miri's age.
    Kazuki: You're gonna regret making a move on my little girl! [girly scream] Th-that brat (Taiga)! He's got more than one girl?! Miri's not your plaything! Don't think you'll get away with it.
• Bumbling Dad: Ironically as a result of how committed he becomes to being a parent after adopting Miri. A lot of his misadventures after that point come from him comically overreacting to completely innocuous incidents involving her. Ten years later in the final episode's epilogue, and he's still an overly-emotional worrywart. There's also the fact that he's still a womanizer, which Miri is now old enough to recognize as an annoyance.
• Chick Magnet: He gets lots of attention from the ladies, and even winks at some of the mothers at Miri's daycare. It helps with his job when he seduces women to gain more information or an ID.
• Comical Overreacting: He reacts to everything related to Miri with exaggerated responses and actions. When he thinks a playboy (he's just a preschool kid) is toying with Miri's feelings he goes on an overdramatic rant and has a mental breakdown over it.
• Drama Queen: In contrast with Rei's lukewarm reactions, Kazuki often has an emotional, exaggerated response to everything. He's also prone to having imagine spots of scenarios that are unrealistic or too far in the future and getting worked up over them or over anything concerning Miri in general as he once has a breakdown over her potentially having a boyfriend.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Kazuki mentions that his parents abandoning him made him the assassin he's today.
    Kazuki (to Rei): Look at me! Parental abandonment is the reason I turned out this way! [talking to himself] Parental influence is crucial, isn't it?
  • On a more serious note, his general non-committal womanizing is implied to be a result of him wanting the short-term comforts of sex without having to go through the agonizing process of moving on from his deceased wife, whose death he still blames himself for.
• Good Parents: Overly enthusiastic about his new role as parent and generally inexperienced though he may be, he tries his hardest to be a good father to Miri and is quick to correct himself when he believes he's upset her.
• Hypocrite:
  • Kazuki criticizes Rei for bringing home a cat since it's a big responsibility for someone in such a dangerous line of work, but he ends up bringing home a child which is an undeniably even bigger responsibility. Rei even lampshades it himself.
    Rei: I can't have a cat, but you can have a kid?
  • When Miri reveals to Rei and Kazuki that the paper in the scavenger hunt had "family" written in it which is why she called for them to join the race, Kazuki tells Rei not to cry just to cry like a baby himself over this. Rei is blunt about it again with his response being "Nice hypocrisy, man."
• Identical Stranger: Miri identifies him as her father because they just so happen to bear more than a passing resemblance to each other.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: He blames himself for the death of his wife and unborn child, which was caused by an exploding fuel truck during one of his missions.
• Imagine Spot: As part of Kazuki's overprotectiveness towards Miri, he has a tendency to fantasize about outrageous scenarios involving her and then reacts strongly to them, such as imagining her marrying Kyu-chan, or imagining Miri as a delinquent teenager when he worries that he's not strict enough with her.
• A Lady on Each Arm: When he's on a hot streak in a casino, he's seen laughing proudly with two women on each of his arms and more around him making a toast for his winning streak.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: In Episode 11, Kazuki wistfully sits on a bench in a playground all afternoon, causing the mothers nearby to think he has bad intentions towards the children there.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He accidentally makes Miri's first few days at daycare very difficult for her because his lack of sense when it comes to money caused him to purchase the most expensive clothing for her. The result was none of the children wanted to play with her because of the apparent visible wealth disparity. He does manage to fix his mistake by buying Miri cheaper and more casual outfits, and later impressing the other children with his skill at playing ball.
• Only Friend: To our knowledge, he's the only one Rei ever bothers to socialize with.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Kazuki hates takeouts and would rather home-cook a delicious and healthy meal for his family. So when Misaki takes Miri back to raise her, Kazuk falls into a depression and ends up ordering more takeouts, eating instant noodles and even the sweet cereal Miri likes.
• Papa Wolf: In episode 5, when Miri goes missing from their apartment, he worries that she may have been kidnapped. He then threatens to inflict various forms of torture on whoever may have hurt his kid. He's also the more outwardly protective of the two compared to Rei.
• Parental Abandonment: He grew up as an orphan, never knowing who his parents are.
• Parental Substitute: For Miri, whose parents never exactly wanted her presence in their lives. Quite literally one in the case of the father, who was Kazuki and Rei's first on-screen mark.
• Pretty Freeloaders: The apartment he and Rei are staying at belongs to the latter. Rei even calls him a "couch crasher" under his breath. However, the trope is played with since despite the apartment technically not being his, Kazuki is still the one who does all the cooking and cleaning for both of them while Rei can barely take care of himself.
• Really Gets Around: He has no issues with seducing a hotel employee to make a copy of her ID card for a job, and his encounter with the girls outside a casino reveals he'd slept with one of them just the week before.
• Real Men Cook: He makes the meals since Rei doesn't cook and seems to be genuinely great at it. Miri adores the Christmas cake he baked and stuffs whole handfuls into her mouth.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Miri gets lost in episode 5, he jumps to the conclusion that someone kidnapped her to get back at him and Rei, and then his eyes turn red as he imagines all the forms of torture he would subject the culprit to.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The spontaneous, energetic Red to Rei's calm, somber Blue. He even wears a red windbreaker.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: In the epilogue, while he and Rei do manage to leave their past as hitmen behind and go legit, Kazuki is implied to still retain his womanizing ways, much to Miri's chagrin.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Kazuki's cutthroat hitman career gives him lots of money to throw around, and very little to spend on besides frivolities. When he tries to care for Miri, his first response is to buy her all kinds of expensive brand-name items, no matter how impractical they are for her or him in regard to going to daycare. When he discovers budget department stores, his shock at such cheap items borders on Mundane Object Amazement.
• Ocular Gushers: When he learns that Miri thinks of him and Rei as family, he starts wailing childishly because he's so touched by this despite telling Rei not to cry.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He's the sensitive guy to Rei's manly man. Whereas Rei is The Stoic, Kazuki leans more towards overly and comically expressing his emotions, typically crying or worrying out loud about his problems, especially when Miri is concerned.
• Stepford Smiler: He seems like an extroverted goofball compared to his dour partner, but it turns out he has just as much emotional baggage. Even five years later, he still hasn't moved on from the death of his wife and is afraid that he'll let go of her memory if he ever allows himself to be happy.
• Supreme Chef: He's an excellent cook and everyone who has tasted his food can attest to this. By the events of the final episode's Distant Finale, he's managed to put his cooking to use by running a restaurant with Rei.
• Trauma Button: Has one in Episode 7 when he sees Miri's umbrella get run over by a truck, which has him flashback to when Yuzuko was killed by an exploding truck during one of his missions.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Between himself and Rei, he's far more idealistic and hopeful and tries to involve as few bystanders as possible when on the job. His idealism gets called out by Misaki when he tries to get her to acknowledge her own daughter, someone she didn't want in the first place. Misaki's words come back to haunt him later as he is haunted by the flashbacks of Yuzuko's death, rending him a downtrodden mess doubting his own worth.

Rei Suwa

Voiced by: Kōki Uchiyama (Japanese), David Matranga (English)

^{Casual outfit} 

An assassin working as Kazuki's partner, he's a quiet man with excellent physical abilities alongside amazing marksmanship. Off work, he's a shut-in who spends nearly all of his time playing video games.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Miri calls him "Rei-papa".
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Like Kazuki, Rei is also a big hit with the moms at Miri's daycare, but for his "mysterious, cool hitman look" and Tall, Dark, and Handsome features instead.
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: Rei's mother is never mentioned in the story, while his father plays a major part in the story.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Pictured right. Unlike Kazuki who's often disguised while on the job for infiltration purposes, Rei just seems to wear the same suit and tie every time.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: In episode 8, his father calls him back home to take out a hit on his former teacher for "abandoning" his assassin job. He ends up going through with the hit, even though it pains him. Kazuki and Miri are planning a surprise birthday dinner for Rei, and it's only when he returns home does he even remember it was his birthday.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Rei often shoots people in the arm (or legs).
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: While not to the extremity of Kazuki's, he's shown to be hostile towards Taiga and Miri's closeness in episode 9, scarily saying "he dies, he dies" in a low voice.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: He's not exactly the most capable in the role due to his inexperience, but he at least cares about Miri's wellbeing, which is more than what could be said for his own father, who refused to even acknowledge Rei's existence.
• Bumbling Dad: Though in a less overtly-goofy manner like with Kazuki. Rei does come around to being Miri's parent, but he still remains The Shut-In even afterward. He quite literally has to be dragged outside whenever Kazuki or Miri want to do something that's not work-related. And when left to take care of Miri on his own in episode 7, he basically takes it as an opportunity for both of them to indulge in the food that Kazuki forbids them from eating and is left fumbling around looking for help after Miri gets a cold.
• Career-Ending Injury: When confronting his father in the finale, Rei deliberately cripples his shooting arm by firing at it point-blank. In doing so, he effectively ruins Shigeki’s plan to groom him as heir to the Suwa Family’s assassination business and ensures he and his newfound family will be left alone.
• Character Development: When the series begins, Rei is shown to be an emotionally stunted Manchild who freeloads off of Kazuki while spending his free time playing video games and is also shown to be submissive towards his father Shigeki. As he settles into the role of Miri’s guardian, Rei slowly becomes more responsible and willing to help out around the house, while also gaining the courage to stand up to his father.
• Comically Serious: His stoic face, persistent deadpan tone, and general look of not wanting to be in any of the situations he ends up in make up a portion of the anime's comedy, especially when his demeanor is contrasted against his Manchild tendencies.
• Covered with Scars: A scene of him shirtless in episode 4 shows that he has quite a few scars on his upper body, including a bullet wound in his left shoulder.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Has a much more intimidating veneer compared to Kazuki, highlighted by the fact that his eyes are always shadowed, even when his hair is tied up. He's noticeably lost them by the Time Skip at the end of the final episode, indicating that his health, both physical and mental, is now in a much better place.
• Does Not Like Spam:
  • Kazuki offers to make him some spicy food and Rei says he doesn't like it.
  • He doesn't like tomatoes or mushrooms either.
• Disowned Parent: After years of verbal, mental and physical abuse, Rei finally turns his back on his father when he orders a hit out on Miri and Kazuki, and announces his intent to protect Miri in defiance of his father's orders. He cements this when facing Shigeki in the final episode by shooting himself in the arm and crippling it, declaring himself worthless to his father's plans before walking off.
• Freudian Excuse: Not outright stated like Kazuki's, but in keeping with the theme of ones upbringing determining how they turn out as adults, much of his closed-off nature and Manchild tendencies can be attributed to his abusive upbringing at the hands of his father, who refused to even acknowledge Rei as his child. For all intents and purposes, Rei never had a childhood.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He's an assassin and when Kazuki returns home, the entire apartment is waded in cigarette smoke. When he tries to smoke again, Kazuki points to Miri, leading Rei to solemnly hold his cigarette towards the kitchen fan.
• Hidden Depths: In episode 4, Rei is shown looking after the plants on their balcony.
• Hikikomori: Kazuki calls him this after Rei calls him a "couch crasher". It's implied unless it's for their assassin jobs, he rarely goes outside. Whenever Kazuki drags him somewhere, he groans about wanting to spend his day playing video games instead.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He manages to nail his targets even when blind firing from cover or while in the process of rolling.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: He's implied to have repeatedly brought stray cats home to take care of them, much to Kazuki's chagrin and he can't bring himself to leave Miri behind with the cops who think she's a lost child and willingly calls himself her dad despite refusing to be referred as such at the beginning, hinting at his kindhearted nature.
• Lethal Chef: Downplayed. His first few attempts at cooking aren't stellar, but also not entirely inedible. The first French toast he made got him a scolding from Kazuki, and the rice balls he made for Miri looked like clumpy messes and had sweets inside them. Even in the Distant Finale, the only food he can cook well is French toast and nothing else.
• Letting Her Hair Down: A rare male example. Rei lets his hair down when he's not working as an assassin.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Rei's family is heavily implied to be extremely well-off, he himself lives in a relatively lavish condo by Japanese standards, has a lot of money to throw around to afford his hobbies, and Kazuki is just about his Only Friend. Not that he minds, to be honest, given his sedentary lifestyle when not out on a hit.
• Manchild: Downplayed. While he's very much a cold-blooded assassin when working, he does act a bit more childish when not on the job. He spends most of his time inside playing video games, and his eating habits mimic a lot of the four-year-old Miri's preferences, such as preferring sweet cereal and store-bought hamburg steak compared to Kazuki's more well-prepped meals. Tellingly, in episode 7, when Kazuki returns home and finds out what Rei and Miri got up to in his absence, he scolds both of them in the same tone.
• Men Can't Keep House: The few days Kazuki is away to prep for their next job, Rei quickly fills the apartment with take-out bags, packages and cigarette smoke. Kazuki chides him on this when he returns. A flashback in Episode 8 even demonstrates the absolute landfill his apartment used to be before Kazuki entered his life and started cleaning up after him.
• Mr. Fanservice: He is often shown shirtless while on the treadmill or exercising.
• Newspaper-Thin Disguise: When tailing Miri at the zoo, Rei's idea of a disguise is simply holding up a newspaper to cover his face.
• Not So Above It All: Despite generally not being all that gung-ho about his parental duties, he can't help but smirk at Kazuki when Miri tells Taiga she loves "Rei-papa," leaving out Kazuki, much to his despair. It's also one of the scant few moments he actually smiles.
• An Odd Place to Sleep: He's shown to often sleep in the bathtub. When Miri asks him why he says it's in case of an ambush and he even puts a decoy in his bed.
• One-Note Cook: He manages to graduate from being unable to cook to save his live to making delicious French toasts, earning Kazuki's seal of approval. Ten years later, he's still unable to make anything else, despite running a restaurant together with Kazuki.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Rei isn't the type to help in the kitchen or do house chores, leaving these matters to Kazuki since he's good at it. So when he offers to make rice balls out of nowhere on Miri's field day, Kazuki thinks something must be wrong with him and that he's finally snapping while shaking Rei back and forth.
• Parental Substitute: He's this to Miri just like Kazuki, though he's more reluctant to take on the actual responsibilities. He identifies as Miri's "Papa" when it counts, but he quite literally has to be dragged into whatever Kazuki has in mind to dote on Miri.
• Perpetual Frowner: He's never been shown to be smiling. He says he doesn't smile because of his upbringing. Finally taking in Miri does lead to a few moments when he cracks a grin, but these moments are both few and far between and very subtle.
• Picky Eater: Rei prefers store-bought goods to Kazuki's cooking, much to the latter's annoyance.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calm, somber Blue to Kazuki's spontaneous, energetic Red. He even wears a blue jacket as part of his casual outfit.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Rei was brought up as a Human Weapon, and never learned how to properly take care of himself.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He's The Stoic manly man to Kazuki's sensitive guy.
• The Shut-In: When not out on assignment, Rei spends all of his time at home playing video games for hours on end with the blinds shut. Like many of this type, he has no idea how to operate as an independent adult, relying on Kazuki for things as basic as reheating food.
• Smug Smiler: In episode 6 when Miri tells Kazuki she hates him, she shows more affection towards Rei. When telling her classmate Taiga she loves her Papa Rei, Kazuki is utterly speechless while Rei gives him a smug smirk in response.
• The Stoic: He rarely shows any emotion other than a frown. This changes as he starts becoming fonder of his new family and enjoying their company.
• Sweet Tooth: Much like the four-year-old Miri, Rei's favorite food items are often sugary snacks and cereals with no regard for a healthy diet, much to Kazuki's dismay. Even when he makes custom rice balls for Miri and her friends, the insides have various sweet treats in them.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Has black hair and rather fair skin.
• Tyke Bomb: As the heir to an assassins' guild, Rei has been raised to be a ruthless killing machine.
• When He Smiles: As time goes on and he starts growing fonder of his new family, the generally stoic Rei gets some genuinely heartwarming smiles.
• Would Hurt a Child: In the first episode, he was willing to shoot through Miri when their target held her hostage.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He changes his tune after adopting Miri, and is horrified when his father sees her as nothing more than a loose end.

Miri Unasaka

Voiced by: Hina Kino (Japanese), Emi Lo (English)

A lively and fearless four-year-old who ends up in Kazuki and Rei's care after her father got killed.

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• Blush Sticker: Miri has two of them permanently on her cheeks, highlighting her status as an adorable child. She still has them as a high-school girl.
• Cheerful Child: She's a brave and adventurous kid who nearly always seems to be in a good mood.
• Childish Bangs: She's a four-year-old with short brown bangs.
• Children Are Innocent: So innocent that she didn't even register the bullets whizzing by her in the first episode or the gun pointed directly at her head when she was held hostage. She also looks up to her mother and claims that her mother makes better Hamburg steak than Kazuki does, being too young to realize that her mother actually hates her and that the Hamburg steak she gave Miri was just a cheap store-bought brand.
• Clingy Child: Miri clings to Kazuki and Rei's legs sometimes due to feeling affectionate, excited, or not wanting to be left behind. When Rei is about to leave her and Kazuki, she clings tightly to Rei's leg and inquires about where he's going and if he's going to work but he ignores all her questions and pleas.
• Disappeared Dad: She had never met her father prior to her going to find him on Christmas. She unknowingly meets him briefly during his attempt to hold her hostage right before he is killed by Kazuki and Rei.
• Fearless Fool: Part of it can be attributed to her age, but even then, she shows a serious lack of cognition for the dangerous situations she often ends up in, even when there are literal bullets flying everywhere. She doesn't even get nervous around strangers like many children her age do.
• Gamer Chick: She frequently watches Rei playing video games and occasionally joins him. She also bonds with Taiga over their shared love of Morio Kart.
• Genki Girl: She is a near constant ball of energy. Ten years later, she's still the same old energetic Miri.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She has a whole bunch of stuffed toys sitting around in her room.
• Hairstyle Inertia: In the epilogue of the final episode, which takes place ten years later, she still has the same bangs, with the rest of her hair only looking slightly messier than when she was 5.
• Heroic Bastard: Her father, Atsushi Hayami, was the head of a human trafficking organization. Her mother, Misaki Unasaka, was his lover whom he abandoned after she became pregnant and grew to hate her child. Being only four, Miri doesn't show any trace of their negative qualities.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Miri is by necessity kept in the dark about her two papas' real professions, and what dangers they entail. She is also unaware that her mother sent her away due to her resentment of Miri, that her mother was dying of cancer, and, right after the events episode 11, that her mother is dead. Judging from the epilogue, where teenage Miri says goodbye to her mother via a framed photo of herself and Misaki, she was apparently made aware of her mother's passing at some point when she was older, but how much she was told about her mother's personal struggles remains unsaid.
• The Millstone: Being an overly innocent four-year-old, she's more of a complication to deal with on missions than an asset. And unfortunately, Kazuki can't leave her in his home while he and Rei are out without her crying. This aspect does get somewhat alleviated after Kazuki finds a daycare to drop her off in whenever he and Rei have to work. Shigeki immediately pegs Miri as this upon finding out about her existence and her presence during several of Kazuki and Rei's botched assassinations, leading him to send Ogino to kill her and her mother.
• Nice Girl: She's usually very cheerful and friendly to everyone.
• No Indoor Voice: While she can be quiet, she usually speaks in a loud voice. Being a hyperactive child, she has a hard time regulating her volume.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Miri is uncharacteristically quiet when Kazuki picks her up from her first day at daycare, cluing him in that something's wrong. It's due to her having trouble making friends since the other kids are intimidated by her fancy wardrobe.
• Picky Eater: She isn't a big fan of Kazuki's hamburg steak and prefers her mother's, which turns out to be the cheap store brand.
• Pink Means Feminine: She wears a bright pink jacket, pink shoes, and even a pink bunny backpack.
• Replacement Goldfish: She could be seen as the child that Kazuki and his deceased wife could have had, had she not died. Kazuki actually fears this happening, as he refuses to let go of the memory of the family he failed to form.
• Signature Headgear: She always has a flower hairpin in her hair. As a teenager in the Distant Finale, the same hairpin she wore as a child is pinned to the front of her school uniform's blazer.
• Sore Loser: Implied to be the case, where Rei doesn't like playing Morio Kart with her since she tends to throw a tantrum if she loses.
• Strong Family Resemblance: In the occasional imagine spots Kazuki has of her as a rebellious teenager, Miri is depicted as basically a younger version of her mother. Ultimately subverted as her actual teenage self in the final episode still retains much of her own original features.
• Third-Person Person: She refers to herself in the third person, as is common for very young children in Japanese works.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Downplayed. Miri is still very much a child, but has shown to make very good observations on the emotions of the people around her. When Rei goes back home for a day, she tells Kazuki how he seemed sad, even though Kazuki thought Rei's face was normal. Miri also mentions that she knew her mom was hiding her pain behind her smile.

Supporting Cast

Kyutaro "Kyu" Kugi

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Austin Tindle (English)

Kazuki and Rei's informant who hands out their jobs and payments.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Kazuki refers to him as "Kyu-chan".
• Alliterative Name: Kyutaro Kugi.
• Armor-Piercing Question: He points out that Kazuki and Rei were only raising Miri because they had killed her actual father.
• The Bartender: He runs a little bar that serves as a front for his information dealing with the other assassins he comes across.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Due to being affiliated with the Suwa Clan, Kyu initially thought that by removing Miri from Kazuki and Rei's care, that would avert Shigeki's wrath. Unfortunately for him, as Kyu outright admits, he underestimated how ruthless his boss can be.
• I Did What I Had to Do: He was the one who contacted Miri's mother. Now that the organization discovered the source of what was making Kazuki and Rei's work sloppy, the only option was to take Miri away otherwise she would be killed. He also points out to the two that they were the ones who killed Miri's biological father.
• Informed Attribute. In episode 5, Rei mentions that Kyu is a "ladies man," implying that he's Chick Magnet. However, the only females he's seen interacting with are Miri (who's too young) and Yuzuko's sister, Karin (who doesn't appear to be more than an acquaintance), making this trait of his feel like an Urban Legend Lovelife.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He blames himself entirely for the death of Miri's mother.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite how scared Kazuki is of him, Kyu has been nothing but accomendating to him and Rei, even allowing them to take an extended break and arranging jobs for them as needed. While he was planning on dealing with Miri if she got in the way of jobs, Kyu only gives Kazuki and Rei a firm warning on what it means to raise a child in their business but still encourages them not to regret their decision to adopt her.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: He wears glasses and he's quick to pick up on Miri being the reason Kazuki and Rei are falling behind on their jobs. However, he lets them off the hook by looking after Miri so they can fully focus on their work.
• Tranquil Fury: He starts losing his patience with Kazuki and Rei after they take in Miri since that gets in the way of their assassinations. Even Kazuki gets scared of him when he quietly glares at him for having to clean up their mess.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His decision to contact Misaki to take Miri back leads to the former being killed by Ogino and her daughter nearly suffering the same fate.

Misaki Unasaka

Voiced by: Nanako Mori (Japanese), Morgan Berry (English)

Miri’s mother, the mistress of her father and a singer at a bar, who sends her to find him so he can look after her.

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• Abusive Parents:
  • Downplayed. Misaki strongly resents Miri for the change she brought to her life as an unplanned child, and hoped she was getting rid of her for good by sending her away. When Kazuki confronts her and says Miri misses her cooking, she laughs and reveals she store-bought the food and calls Miri a "cheap date" for liking it. Despite that, Miri doesn't display any resentment towards her mother, and Misaki is never shown saying or doing anything harmful directly to Miri on-screen.
  • Subverted in episode 10 and 11. A terminal cancer diagnosis changes her outlook in life, and makes her determined to be a good mother to Miri, no matter how long she may have left. And despite the sudden and seemingly suspicious change of heart, she ends up being completely genuine in that desire, right up until she's gunned down by Ogino.
• Broken Bird: Misaki's spirit was crushed a long time ago. She was mistress to a man who left her in the lurch, and she couldn't raise her daughter and pursue her singing career at the same time. By the time Kazuki meets her, she's so unhappy and unsatisfied that Miri's innocence makes her angry.
• Career-Ending Injury: She ends up losing her job as a bar singer because of her cancer spreading to her throat, which ruined her singing voice.
• The Chanteuse: This is her job at the bar she works at, and has a very pretty singing voice.
• Clothing-Concealed Injury: Nearly a year after leaving Miri with Kazuki and Rei, she reappears wearing a scarf around her neck. After Miri falls asleep, she reveals to Kazuki and Rei she has cancer and had lost her singing voice as a result. As she unties her scarf, she shows the two men the scar across her throat.
• Destructive Romance: She has a boyfriend, but it's clear their relationship is incredibly toxic and he's highly abusive towards her. However, she still sticks with him and slaps Kazuki for beating him up. He eventually fires her and ends their relationship after her cancer spreads to her throat and leaves her unable to sing.
• Dies Wide Open: Misaki dies with her eyes open after she is fatally shot by Ogino.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: When she appears at Miri's daycare in episode 10, her hair has been cut significantly shorter, showing how she's had a change of heart about her relationship with her daughter.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: She was genuinely trying to be a better mother for Miri, but gets killed by Ogino shortly after her reunion with her daughter.
• Jerkass Has a Point: She outright tells Kazuki she wants nothing to do with Miri. While Kazuki tries to persuade her to be an actual mother, she points out how she never wanted to have a kid in the first place. In fact, Miri's father assaulted her and kicked her to the curb with no money after she got pregnant. While her treatment of Miri may be rather callous and insulting Kazuki's Wide-Eyed Idealist views is over the line, it's still clear that she was forced into a situation that she didn't want or ask for.
  Misaki: She destroyed my dreams, and I'm supposed to laugh about it?!
• Jerkass Realization: She returns in episode 10 (nearly a full year in-universe after sending Miri away) after receiving a phone call from Kyu about certain dangers facing Miri's new fathers. In the time between lashing out at Kazuki and the present, she had received a terminal cancer diagnosis and lost her ability to sing as a result, costing her her job and boyfriend at the same time. After some self-reflection and the realization that she likely doesn't have long left now, she wants to have a second chance with Miri as her mother, and appears more humble for it. Kazuki and Rei are hardly convinced, but eventually acquiesce to keep Miri safe from their lifestyle.
• Lady in Red: As a bar singer, she wears a form-fitting red dress with the right dress string slipped down from her shoulder.
• Missing Mom: Kazuki and Rei spend most of the early episodes trying to figure out the location of Miri's mother so that they can send her back. When Kazuki finds Misaki in Episode 3, it turns out that she intentionally sent Miri away both to get rid of her and to get some child support out of her biological father. She shows no regret over this, nor any desire to have Miri back in her life. That is, until she finds out she has terminal cancer, which causes her to return in Episode 10 to beg for a second chance with her daughter after she has a change of heart. Unfortunately, Misaki winds up going missing in the other sense of the word in Episode 11 when Ogino kills her.
• Not The Illness That Killed Them: She's already dying from cancer, but Ogino finishes the job by shooting her in the stomach.
• Parental Abandonment: The real reason why she sent Miri to look for her father was to get her daughter out of her life. When Kazuki tries to return Miri to her, she refuses to take her daughter back, as she never wanted to have a child in the first place and believes getting pregnant with Miri destroyed her dreams. She then insults Kazuki and his Wide-Eyed Idealist attitude towards everything when he tries to argue that she should naturally have maternal instincts toward Miri. In episode 10, she reappears and begs Kazuki and Rei to let her take Miri back, as she doesn't have much time left to live and wants a second chance with her daughter.
• Redemption Equals Death: Just as she finally comes around and tries to be a better mother for Miri, she gets murdered by Ogino.
• Sacrificial Lion: She's killed off in episode 11 to raise the stakes and show the dangers in Kazuki and Rei going against their boss.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Miri's hair and eye color both come from her. In some imagine spots Kazuki has in which Miri is a teenager, Miri also has a lot of her facial features. The resemblance is subverted during the final episode's actual Time Skip, with the now 15 year-old Miri's appearance still retaining many of the features she had at the age of 5.
• Take Care of the Kids: As she was dying in Kazuki's arms, she tells him to take care of Miri.
• Tears of Remorse: As Misaki dies, she shed these tears on sleepy Miri. Misaki’s last words to her are that she regrets being a selfish mother to the end.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: After coming down with cancer and losing her voice, career and boyfriend because of it, she has a Heel Realization and asks for a second chance to be Miri's mother, only to be gunned down by Ogino just days later.
• Your Days Are Numbered: She has cancer, which is heavily implied to be terminal due to her unsure attitude on how long she has left to live.

Anna Hanyu

Voiced by: Haruka Terui (Japanese), Kelsey Poppen (English)

A nursery teacher who works at Aozora Daycare.

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• Big Beautiful Woman: She's a good-looking round lady.
• Blush Sticker: Has two small ones on her face, adding to her friendliness.
• Dreadful Musician: Miri describes Anna's attempt to sing a song and play the piano for the daycare kids as scary. Her attempt to sing "Silent Night" is also rather off-key.
• Nice Girl: She's a sweet, non-judgemental lady who isn't fazed by Miri having two fathers and gives helpful advice to Kazuki when Miri is isolated from her peers.
• Puni Plush: Unlike the other, more angular adult characters in the show, Anna has a very rounded and child-like appearance to her design that makes her fit in well with the nature of her job as a kindergarten teacher.
• Stout Strength: During the tug-of-war event, she helps her class win their match against their opponents, who have a male teacher assisting them.
  Rei: Might makes right.

Yuzuko Kurusu (spoilers)

Voiced by: Shizuka Itō (Japanese), Emi Lo (English)

The late wife of Kazuki.

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• Dead All Along: The first episode seems to imply that she had been separated from Kazuki and he had been sending her money. Actually, he was sending it to her sister and Yuzuko had died in a truck explosion.
• Edible Theme Naming: With her sister Karin; Yuzuko's name refers to the yuzu fruit, while Karin's name means "quince".
• Flower Motifs: Hydrangea, which appear around her often. Even the umbrella she carried on the day of her death had hydrangeas on it.
• The Lost Lenore: Serves as this to Kazuki, who's guilt-ridden for her death.
• Nice Girl: From what little we see in flashbacks, she was a sweet and caring woman. The first time Kazuki met her in the rain after what seems like a failed job, Yuzuko holds her umbrella over him and asks if he was alright.
• Posthumous Character: She's been dead for years before the story started, with her death being the main reason Kazuki feels he doesn't deserve to be happy.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Her death is what pushes Kazuki to his current state in the story.
• True Blue Femininity: She wears a long blue dress.
• Walking Spoiler: The fact Yuzuko is Dead All Along makes it this.

Karin Izumi

Voiced by: Ikumi Hasegawa (Japanese), Hope Endrenyi (English)

Yuzuko's younger sister and the actual recipient of Kazuki's monetary compensations.

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• Nice Girl: She genuinely wants to help Kazuki move on and offers him some good advice on how.
• Edible Theme Naming: With her sister Yuzuko; Karin's name is Japanese for "quince", while Yuzuko's name refers to the yuzu fruit.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Aside from a small photo in the finale, she only really appears for one episode. She helps Kazuki to move on from his guilt over her sister's death and encourages him to find something to live for. She adds how her sister wouldn't want to see him wallow in his misery for something that wasn't his fault.

Antagonists

Atsushi Hayami

Voiced by: Kazuyuki Okitsu (Japanese)

A human trafficker targetted by Kazuki and Rei in the first episode. He is also the biological father of Miri.

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• Asshole Victim: If his job isn't an indicator of how much of a scumbag he is, he also cheated on his wife with another woman, then abandoned her after she became pregnant. When confronted by the protagonists, he uses a random girl (who turned out to be his own daughter) as a human shield.
• Dramatic Irony: Miri came to the city to look for her father and by pure coincidence, she found him, where she innocently asks him if he is her father. Due to the situation he is in however, Hayami doesn't acknowledge her and most likely doesn't recognize her and simply uses her as a human shield to protect himself from Kazuki and Rei.
• Identical Stranger: Another coincidence is that Hayami and Kazuki bear a resemblance to each other.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears in the first episode, but it’s the hit job on him that Kazuki and Rei are hired for that leads to them adopting Miri, setting the series plot into motion.
• Starter Villain: The very first antagonist the duo targeted in the first episode.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He is killed in the pilot episode.
• Would Hurt a Child: When cornered, he uses Miri as a hostage and threatens to kill her if his assassins do not surrender.

Ryo Ogino

Voiced by: Mitsuaki Madono (Japanese), John Gremillion (English)

An assassin working for the same organization as Kazuki and Rei. Unlike the main duo, who only do their job for a living, he is a ruthless man who actually enjoys his line of work, has a morbid interest in finding out a person's reason to live via killing, and records his victims' last words as a hobby.

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• Always Someone Better: In terms of raw skill, he is actually a far better assassin than Kazuki and Rei. Had it not been for his obsession with hearing his victims' last words, he would have easily killed the both of them during the Suwa mansion raid.
• Asshole Victim: His death in the finale is quite brutal, getting stabbed in the throat with a kitchen knife and left to choke on his own blood by Kazuki and Rei before getting blown up in a gas explosion. But given that he was a sociopath who got a kick out of recording the last words of his victims, had inadvertently killed Yuzuko (which left Kazuki wracked with guilt for years), and murdered Misaki in cold blood while having no qualms about doing the same to Miri if it meant getting paid for it, it is very difficult to feel pity for his final moments.
• Death by Irony: For a man who was obsessed with hearing his victim's last words, he never got to record his own due to being stabbed in the throat.
• Foil: He's essentially the protagonists' antithesis. While the main duo are still capable of feelings and affection, only doing their job for money, Ogino is a sociopath who enjoys taking peoples' lives, more akin to a serial killer.
• Hate Sink: He’s a repugnant sociopathic killer for hire who takes glee in the suffering of his marks.
• The Heavy: Ogino is responsible for the majority of the series' body count. He's first shown doing the hit job that Kazuki and Rei failed in Episode 2, leaving no survivors. Later on, he's revealed to be the one who caused Yuzuko's death, shooting the getaway vehicle of Kazuki's mark, causing it so slam into a fuel truck and resulting in the explosion that killed Yuzuko and her unborn child. He also murdered the lover of Rei's former mentor, who was branded a traitor by his organization for simply wanting to get out. The next time he shows up, he murdered Miri’s mother in cold blood, and would have killed Miri as well had Kazuki arrived a minute later.
• Karmic Death: For all the misery he inflicts on the cast and how he goes out of his way trying to hear his victims’ last words instead of quickly finishing the job, it's very fitting that he gets a knife through the throat, unable to utter a single word before perishing in a gas explosion. To add an extra dose of karma, Yuzuko, Kazuki’s late wife, died by a fuel truck explosion he caused.
• Kick the Dog: A bizarre combination of this trope and Pet the Dog. After Kazuki spitefully informs Ogino that Misaki's last words were her calling her daughter's name, Ogino dismisses the words as "mundane" but follows it up by congratulating Misaki on having achieved some form of mundane happiness before he killed her.
• Knight of Cerebus: His existence serves as a reminder to the audience that Kazuki and Rei are in a very dangerous line of work. Whenever he appears, all the lightheartedness of the series goes out the window.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: In this case records his victims' final words before they die.
• Nothing Personal: Says this to Misaki after shooting her, making him look even more despicable.
• Pet the Dog: Despite being a ruthless killer, his first interaction with Miri in Episode 5 is surprisingly tame, with him simply letting her go unharmed after she apologized for bumping into him. It was about the only act of unambiguous kindness he ever showed throughout the course of the show, as he has no compunctions about killing her once he realizes her importance to Rei and Kazuki later on.
• Psycho for Hire: From the way he does his job, it can be said that he’s essentially a cold-blooded serial killer who happens to be on Shigeki Suwa’s payroll.
• Sadist: Murders people and records their final words to satisfy his obsession with death.
• The Sociopath: He sees killing as a way to satisfy his curiosity about a person's reason for living, records his victims' last words as a hobby, does not give a damn about how many lives he destroys in the process.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: His irises are perpetually shrunk, showing just how emotionally detached he is.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: His actions make him stand out in a light-hearted anime.
• Villainous Breakdown: His machine-like stoicism breaks down during his confrontation with Kazuki and Rei due to the latter two constantly interrupting his attempts to extract their last words. When Rei knocks the gun out of his hands, Ogino finally loses his patience and decides to abandon his MO just to strangle Rei to death.
• Villainous Cheekbones: The first facial feature of this ruthless killer to be seen in his debut.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Due to his "hobby" of recording his victims' last words, he ends up drawing out his killings even when quickly finishing the job is the optimal choice. He could have iced Misaki and Miri quickly but only manages to kill the former and takes his time monologuing to her face, giving Kazuki precious time to intervene before Ogino can do the same to Miri. Eventually, that habit ends up causing his demise during the Suwa mansion raid. He dominates Kazuki and Rei for most, if not the entirety, of their fight, cornering them multiple times, where he can just quickly kill them and end the battle instantly. Instead, he asks Kazuki for Misaki's last words while holding the former at gunpoint, takes his time to comment on them, then tries to get Kazuki's last words, giving Rei a chance to attack him from behind. As Ogino's distracted by Rei, Kazuki manages to throw a knife at the back of his neck.
• Would Hurt a Child: If he wasn't enough of a monster already, he tries to make an attempt on Miri's life after killing Misaki.
• Would Hit a Girl: Three on-screen victims of his are women.

Shigeki Suwa/"Boss"

Voiced by: Shinshu Fuji (Japanese), Robert McCollum (English)

The abusive father of Rei and the powerful leader of the assassin organization Kazuki and Rei work for.

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• Abusive Parents: He's shown to be both physically and emotionally abusive towards Rei. His first onscreen appearance has him forcing young Rei to kill a dog that was sent to attack him, only to up it by telling Rei to never refer to him as his father, only as "Boss".
• Big Bad: He arranges several hits that are carried out by either his son or Ogino.
• Cannot Kill Their Loved Ones: As cold and ruthless as he is, he's unable to bring himself to shoot Rei in the end. Part of it could be a result of Pragmatic Villainy, as his son had deliberately crippled his shooting arm and was thus no longer fit to be heir to the clan, but he easily could have just disposed of him regardless for being useless to him.
• Control Freak: He holds a hard grip over the family business. He has a particularly nasty practice of ordering hits on his underlings’ loved ones should they ever show any sign of not being up to their jobs, which equals betrayal in Shigeki’s view.
• Hate Sink: He’s a cold-blooded schemer who cares about nothing other than his family business, having no qualms about ordering the death of any person whom he sees as a possible inconvenience.
• Karma Houdini: Subverted. On one hand, Shigeki survives the events of the finale and his organization is more or less still intact, save for losing several of his top assassins (including Kazuki and Rei resigning from the organization, and Ogino being killed by the duo). On the other hand, his plans for Rei to inherit control of the organization are ruined by Rei disowning his father and intentionally crippling his shooting arm, ending his career as an assassin and Shigeki’s legacy along with it.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: With his plans to groom Rei as his heir ruined, Shigeki allows him and Kazuki to resign from the organization and leaves them and Miri alone, knowing that there is no point in trying to kill them.
• Orcus on His Throne: As the leader of an assassins' guild, he simply orders his subordinates to do the dirty work.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He chooses against shooting his son but he only does it because his son was now useless to him due to him injuring his own arm. As a result of having no heir to inherit the clan, Shigeki has no reason to go after Rei or his family.
• The Sociopath: Only cares for Rei continuing the family business and actively rejects being referred to as his father. The final episode, however, does imply a very remote possibility that he has just enough paternal instinct to not personally kill his son, even as Rei disowns him.
• Would Hurt a Child: He orders Ogino to kill Miri alongside Kazuki just to ensure that Rei never lets his emotions cloud his judgment.