Character page for the manga Cat's Eye and its anime adaptation.
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The Kisugi Sisters
In General
Three sisters who run a café by day and secretly steal the works of art their missing father made at night, in the hope of finding his whereabouts.
- Action Girls: All three can be pretty fast and agile (Hitomi above all, as the most athletic), and Hitomi and Rui are Kick Chicks on occasion.
- Advance Notice Crime: They love to send cards to the police announcing their next theft, usually because they are factoring the police's attempts at creating countermeasures into their plan.
- Animal Motifs: Cats, if it wasn't obvious.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn:
- Beauty: Rui, very fashionable and considered the most beautiful in-universe.
- Brains: Ai, Gadgeteer Genius and Wrench Wench.
- Brawn: Hitomi, extremely athletic and the main Action Girl of the series.
- Note that all 3 have have these attributes to some degree — all 3 are beautiful, all 3 have brains, and Rui can kick much ass too if the situation calls for it.
- But Not Too Foreign: The Kisugi sisters are hāfu, having a German father and a Japanese mother. They don't seem to have much European features. Partially subverted by Hitomi: as a child she was blonde like her father and grandmother, and halfway during the series she has to dye her hair due to the return of blonde strands in her hair.
- Calling Card: A literal calling card with a stylized cat and the words Cat's Eye on it, left to mark their success or to send messages, including what will be their next heist. It's part of their attempt at contacting Michael Heintz.
- Classy Cat Burglars: And cat-themed to boot.
- Combat Stilettos: Their catsuits sport conspicuous high heels which would be quite impractical for roofhopping in Real Life, let alone running.
- Con Men Hate Guns: They never use firearms to commit heists.
- Crimefighting with Cash: Sort of: the Kisugi sisters are filthy rich, and use their money to finance their thefts, occasionally help people (which made them even richer once), and to expose a sale of fake painting by paying for a squadron of F-15 to move the real ones from New York to Japan and then exhibit them the next door from the fakes' sale.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: The Kisugi sisters could be very successful professional athletes in multiple disciplines, art critics, actresses, police officers and, in Ai's case, as a scientist, yet they only use these abilities to steal and run a café.
- Subverted with their skills as art critics: Ai used her knowledge of arts (that is noted to be superior to her sisters') to unmask a sale of fake paintings.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The Kisugi sisters' father disappeared in a fire when they were children, with all his paintings being stolen and themselves and their mother being hunted down by the killers until they managed to disappear.
- Dressing as the Enemy: One of their favourite tricks is to disguise themselves as generic police officers, with Rui disguising herself as Toshio in a memorable occasion (leading to him being Mistaken for Gay due Rui's inability to act manly) and Hitomi taking Mitsuko's place in multiple occasions (including two in the same chapter).
- Fiction 500: The properties of the Kisugi sisters include a gigantic golf club, and they can casually create a pharmaceutical company capable of buying out half the Japanese market.
- Head-Turning Beauty: They all qualify but Hitomi and Rui are especially known for this, Ai being still a bit young for this but she's on her way.
- Hero Insurance: They don't have it, but they don't even have to pay for the immense amount of collateral damage they leave behind.
- Improbable Weapon User: Hitomi and Rui have metallic versions of their calling cards to throw at people. Also, they have weaponized the paper version.
- Latex Perfection: Including gloves with fake fingerprints.
- Masters of Disguise: Often use excellent disguises during their heists, routinely fooling the police in spite of many of them knowing them in their real identities.
- Meaningful Name: Cat's Eye is the name of Michael Heintz's favourite cocktail, that he invented himself. Naming the gang and the bar Cat's Eye is part of their call for him.
- Ms. Fanservice: Ai just a little less than her sisters, but they all qualify.
- Parental Abandonment: The Kisugi sisters' father, Michael Heintz, was apparently killed in a fire when they were little (Ai was so young she didn't even know his face), and their mother died sometime later. The search for their father drives half of the plot.
- Phantom Thieves: They're nigh-impossible to catch.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: In City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes they're furious at their cafe being blown up under Miki and Umibozu's watch, but they quickly make clear they don't hold it against the two sweepers and are instead furious at the ones who blew up the place.
- Refuge in Audacity: They get away with most of what they do because the police won't expect them to be that crazy. Among what they do, they have a coffee house called Cat's Eye placed right behind a police station, and that includes half the personnel of the police station among their patrons.
- Revenge: In City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes, the men of the film's Big Bad destroy the Cat's Eye café when trying to kill Umibozu and Miki (who have been left in charge of it). The sisters then help Kaori Makimura get into the Big Bad's building out of revenge.
- Roof Hopping: Their specialty. They're all very skilled acrobats and very physically fit.
- Rule of Cool: Many of Cat's Eye's heists refuses functionality specifically to call for more attention. It's part of their attempt at contacting Michael Heintz.
- Secret Identity: The Kisugi sisters' identity as both Cat's Eye and the daughters of Michael Heintz are kept secret. On the other hand, at one point of the manga Hitomi's Cat's Eye persona admits being Heintz's daughter...
- Serious Business: Art in general and paintings in particular. Faking paintings and selling them as the original is a good way to get on their shit list.
- She-Fu: They often use acrobatics and back flip when they fight.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: For the Rat, who was the most famous Phantom Thief of Japan before they started stealing.
- Spy Catsuit: A bit more realistic version of this trope. The sisters wear spandex jumpsuits that are close to Real Life gymnastic suits, not the impossibly tight leather\latex ones. They still wear Combat Stilettos, though.
- Stuff Blowing Up: They tend to use generous amounts of explosive whenever they're sure they won't hurt anyone.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: In the City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes crossover film, the sisters help Kaori Makimura get into the Big Bad's building out of revenge for the destruction of the Cat's Eye café. They parachute on the building's roof with Kaori, kick the guards unconscious and entrust Kaori to accomplish their revenge, but then they do not partake in the action inside the building otherwise, preferring to stay outside and watch.
- The Three Faces of Eve: They're a quite strange variation with Ai as the Child (youngest and most naïve of the three), Hitomi as the Wife (her role as Toshio's woman is the driving force of the series) and Rui as the Seductress (the sultriest and most seductive of the three despite being the oldest).
- Town Girls: The youngest sister Ai is a tech-savvy tomboy (butch), the oldest sister Rui is elegant and fashion forward (femme), and the middle sister and main heroine Hitomi is neither.
- We Help the Helpless: Rather downplayed. They'll sometimes stop and help people for no reason other than they can and it's the right thing, like how the pharmaceutical company mentioned above was created to get Mitsuko out of a forced marriage. But don't expect it too often though.
- Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Ai builds some of them, and the rest (and the parts for Ai's inventions) are bought with their insane wealth.
Hitomi
Hitomi Kisugi
- Voiced by: Keiko Toda (Japanese, 1982 radio drama, anime, pachinko, City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes, Lupin III Vs Cat's Eye), Alexis Tipton (English, City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes), Alicyn Packard (English, Lupin III Vs Cat's Eye), Marie-Laure Dougnac (European French, anime, City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes)
The main protagonist and the middle sister. Her love story with Toshio drives most of the plot. A very beautiful and highly trained Action Girl, her fortitude under stress also makes her the most physically competent of the three and the most venturesome as well.
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: She takes offense when it looks Toshio is going to ravish her but actually isn't, or does something pervert to her by accident and explain that he would have not done it if he could have chosen.
- But Not Too Foreign: Partially subverted: as mentioned above, she's the only one of the sisters who partially looks like she has a German father. She looks European enough to convincingly impersonate the thief Lupin's Bride, a blonde white Frenchwoman, early in the manga.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Gets jealous very easily whenever she sees another woman hitting on Toshio or if she just suspects it's happening. Also her main beef with Ms. Asatani is because she often tries to seduce Toshio in front of her.
- Death Dealer: She can throw sharp Cat's Eye Calling Cards with great accuracy, although never to kill anyone (only to disarm and cut things).
- Determinator: Rather than a Plucky Girl, mostly because as the series progresses, she takes gradually higher risks to complete her heists and remains resolute all the way through.
- I Work Alone: Zigzagged. Depending on the type of burgling she has to do, she either does it by herself or she works with her sisters.
- Identical Ancestor: Hitomi is a dead-ringer for her German paternal grandmother, except for the hair and eye colour (she has black hair and brown eyes, while the grandmother had blonde hair and green eyes). Halfway during the manga she invokes this by dying her hair, wearing green lenses and presenting herself to Toshio as a member of Cat's Eye and Michael Heintz's daughter while standing right next to a portrait of her grandmother.
- Like Parent, Like Spouse: Toshio is noted to really resemble her father.
- Master of Unlocking: She's an expert at lockpicking.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: When in her Blonde Cat's Eye persona she tends to act like a Dumb Blonde valley girl, remaining extremely competent all the time.
- Official Couple: With Toshio, but not at the beginning.
- Omniglot: Is also fluent in a number of languages, like her big sister.
- Outdoorsy Gal: An adult example. Out of the three, she's the one who does most of the reconnaissance work, if not the heists themselves.
- Rule of Cool: Even more than her sisters, Hitomi does extremely dangerous things during the heists to grab even more attention.
- Secret-Identity Identity: When the girls decide to try and make Toshio join Cat's Eye, Hitomi tries to seduce him into joining as the Blonde Cat's Eye, only to discover she's jealous of her blonde persona... And the Blonde Cat's Eye is jealous of Hitomi. She also wonders what's wrong with her. In the end, the situation is solved when Hitomi admits to herself and to Toshio that everyday Hitomi and the Blonde Cat's Eye are just sides of Hitomi's personality.
- Super-Speed: She's by far the fastest and most agile character in the series, with Rui once wondering if she was even human.
- True Blue Femininity: Subverted. She wears a blue catsuit but she's a rather adventurous Action Girl.
- Villainesses Want Heroes: Downplayed. She's not exactly a villainess but she's an antagonist to Toshio as a Cat's Eye member indeed.
- You Can't Fight Fate: In her Blonde Cat's Eye persona she loves to invoke this on Toshio, stating there's a bond, created by fate, between herself, Heintz and Toshio... Alluding to the fact Toshio will become Heintz's son-in-law if he marries Hitomi.
Rui
Rui Kisugi
- Voiced by: Kumiko Takizawa (1982 radio drama), Toshiko Fujita (anime, pachinko), Keiko Toda (City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes) note , Rica Fukami (Lupin III Vs Cat's Eye, City Hunter The Movie: Angel Dust) (Japanese), Dawn M. Bennett (English, City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes), Cristina Vee (English, Lupin III Vs Cat's Eye), Geneviève Taillade (European French, anime, City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes)
The older and wiser of the Kisugi sisters. Responsible, reliable and quite serious at her job, she starts as the trio's leader and then lets Hitomi takes the lead or act alone as her sister gains more experience. A very sultry and elegant woman, she's also the most ladylike of the three, acting as mother figure.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: She once disguised as a man to prove she could, and Mitsuko fell for her at first sight. Also, she once disguised herself as Toshio... And was sexier than the real thing.
- Fixing the Game: Don't bet against her at anything that involves her throwing or spinning something, she can calculate how much strength she needs to use to get her desired result. She has been shown doing this with French-style roulette, American-style roulette, and Russian Roulette (the guy who bet against her on the latter soiled himself when Rui grabbed the gun on his turn and showed he was about to kill himself).
- The Gadfly: She often pranks her sisters and makes ludicrous claims just for the hell of it.
- Girly Bruiser: Very feminine and elegant, but she also knows martial arts and is a skilled fighter.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her catsuit is purple, fitting her elegant personality.
- Guile Heroine: She is an excellent manipulator and psychologist, always able to fool any antagonists the sisters encounter.
- The Lancer: As Hitomi gains in experience and confidence, she lets her take the lead and acts as a reliable mentor figure.
- Lascivious Beauty Mark: She's the Heroic Seductress of the thieving trio and has a beauty mark under her mouth. Considered in-universe to be the most beautiful woman around, she uses her good looks and master manipulation skills to help her and her sisters navigate their way into even the most secured and guarded areas for their work. Off the clock, she's The Tease, flirting with Toshio just to get a rise out of Hitomi who has a thing for him.
- The Leader: Initially due to being the most experienced. Later, she lets Hitomi do her thing and intervenes more sporadically in the heists.
- Not a Morning Person: Often sleeps in. According to Toshio it's because she has low blood pressure, but considering he's the only one in that house who doesn't know about Cat's Eye's secret it could be an excuse for when Rui pulls an all-nighter for some plan.
- Omniglot: Is fluent in a number of languages, including English, French, and German. Due to her family background, German is likely her other native language, along with Japanese.
- Promotion to Parent: She acts as a mother for her sisters.
- Shipper on Deck: Ships Hitomi/Toshio.
- Ship Tease: With Toshio, mostly to troll Hitomi but she also develops a liking for him.
- Spotting the Thread: A mole on her cheek, right near the lips. Becomes a plot point later in the series when a photo of her father and her at age 6 is discovered. Though the upper part of her face is obscured by her hat in the photo, the lower part is visible, along with the mole, which would threaten her exposure as The Cat.
- Statuesque Stunner: Very tall, to the point she was surprised to find out that Toshio is slightly taller.
- The Stoic: She doesn't display much emotions in City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes, though she does have a Tranquil Fury moment in it.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She looks like her mother, right down to the mole.
- The Tease: Her favourite way of trolling Hitomi is to woo Toshio so as to make her dear sister jealous. But she's more about using her beauty for a purpose rather than actually doing the nasty.
- Tranquil Fury: In City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes, she's mad about the film's Big Bad's men destroying the Cat's Eye café, but one wouldn't know it if she didn't calmly mention it to a guard after kicking him unconscious to help Kaori Makimura get into the villains' building.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: In-Universe she's considered the most beautiful woman around.
Ai
Ai Kisugi
- Voiced by: Saeko Shimazu (1982 radio drama), Chika Sakamoto (anime, pachinko, City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes, Lupin III Vs Cat's Eye) (Japanese), Megan Shipman (English, City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes), Deneen Melody (English, Lupin III Vs Cat's Eye), Annabelle Roux (European French, anime, City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes)
The youngest of the Kisugi sisters, still a high school student. A short-haired cutie on her way to womanhood, she's also the resident tech and is often in charge of fixing the gear of her sisters. She eventually participates more actively in their heists as the series progresses.
- The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest and most childlike of the three sisters.
- Covert Pervert: The whole thing about the mole on the thigh that sent the police on a skirt-flipping spree was her idea, much to Hitomi's chagrin.
- Gadgeteer Genius: More pronounced in the anime, but still present in the manga.
- Genius Ditz: She's a bit scatterbrained given her young age but she's very good at technical work and is much more perceptive than what people credit her for.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Rather beautiful, even if not as much as her sisters. Ironically, she's the one with the most in-universe fans, as Hitomi and Rui are so beautiful that they subdue their admirers with their presence alone.
- Hidden Depths: She's a ditz and quite childish. She's also the finest art critic in the series and can recognize a very good fake from the original with a single glance.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: A variation. She wears a bright orange catsuit that makes her particularly easy to spot, even by night, compared to her sisters (Hitomi's blue and Rui's purple are much less conspicuous by night). The chosen color itself might be to highlight her rather feisty and sunny personality.
- Identical Ancestor: She's growing up very similar to her mother and oldest sister, only without the mole.
- The Prankster: Loves to prank Toshio and her sisters, to varying results.
- Rollerblade Good: Very good at rollerskating, it's her favourite method of locomotion.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: A particularly extreme example, as the only thing she needs to graduate from "cute girl" to "drop-dead gorgeous woman", is to squint her eyes. By making her eyes appear smaller her face is much more mature, and her natural good looks do the rest.
- Support Party Member: At first, she mostly remained in reserve since she was just to young to participate actively in her sister's activities as Cat's Eye and would limit herself as scouting for them, serving as the Getaway Driver (a role sometimes shared with Rui, depending on the heist) or fixing their gear. Later, she becomes much more active.
- Tomboy: The most tomboyish of the three, mostly due to her short hair and her brash and childlike behavior.
- Troll: While the three of them are this to the police to some degree, Ai is the one who enjoys making the cops look like idiots the most, even the one who is a live-in at her and her sisters' home.
- Wrench Wench: A very effective technician and good at fixing mechanics.
Family & Affiliates of the Kisugi Sisters
Michael Heintz
A genius painter, and the father of the Kisugi Sisters. Their main goal is to find him.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Near the end of the manga it's revealed he did decipher his daughters' call, but is staying on the run due the Cranaff Syndicate and him knowing the location of the Athenai Aphrodite, a statue that hundreds of art collectors are willing to kill for, and how to recover it. The girls recover the statue and give it back to the Greek government specifically to eliminate this reason.
- Faking the Dead: Twice: first during World War II, and then after his disciples betrayed him and tried to murder him and his daughters.
- La Résistance: Part of the German opposition to the Nazi regime during World War II.
Mr. Nagaishi
Sadatsugu Nagaishi
- Voiced by: Tamio Ōki (1982 series), Mugihito (Lupin III Vs Cat's Eye)
An old friend of Michael Heintz. He administrates the girls' immense properties and sometimes helps for the heists.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He mentioned having been a mercenary.
- Drop-In Character: Often simply appears at the café in narratives involving him (even his first appearance was surprisingly low-key given his prominence in the second half of the manga and throughout the anime's run).
- Eyes Always Shut: Not always per se, but he often appears to have his eyes shut or a pronounced squint, to imply wisdom.
- Parental Substitute: The closest thing the girls have to a father.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He once borrowed a squadron of F-15 fighters and a flying tanker with a phone call to the President of the United States.
- Uncle Pennybags: Whenever the sisters need funds, they ask him.
Moriya
Moriya
Another friend of Heintz, who was supposed to care for his daughters but didn't find them before they disappeared.
- An Arm and a Leg: Lost the left arm during one of the many assassinations attempted on him by the Cranaff Syndicate.
- Parental Substitute: Wanted to be this, but the Kisugi sisters disappeared on him before he could start doing it.
- Still manages to be one for Ai.
- Put on a Bus: Disappears with no apparent reason at the end of the arc that introduced the Cranaff Syndicate, and his role is taken by Nagaishi.
Anti-Cat's Eye Special Squad
In General
Formerly part of the first squad of the Inunari Precint, these are the guys assigned to arrest Cat's Eye.
- Accidental Pervert: The incident that resulted with the squad being formed involved Cat's Eye convincing the future members of the squad to look under women's skirts searching for a mole.
- Badass Crew: Every single one: Hirano is an improbably good shot, Kizaki is possibly the best boxer of the precinct, Toshio is an even better shot than Hirano, as good as Kizaki as a boxer and really agile, Takeuchi is a master karateka, Asatani is an unstoppable Action Girl, Shige can casually disarm a criminal by stealing the magazine of his gun, and Murakami can keep them in line.
- Butt-Monkey: All of them to different degrees, but mainly Toshio, Hirano, and Takeuchi.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: They're very good cops. It's just that Cat's Eye is even better.
- Police Are Useless: Averted: while the police seems useless at first, it's because they're dealing with the titular thieves. They do a good job at keeping order, and the chapter in which the squad is formed has them arresting a dangerous criminal in a very awesome and funny way.
- Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: Lampshaded.
- Reassignment Backfire: As soon as the squad is formed, Cat's Eye proceeds to humiliate the first squad in a heist, and doesn't get away with the loot only because the Special Squad manages to steal it back from her.
- Reassigned to Antarctica:
- The squad was initially formed because the members had embarrassed the police too many times during the hunt for Cat's Eye (the aforementioned skirt-flipping incident being the last straw), with Kizaki later being assigned to them for an unrelated screwup.
- The anime has this by way of Involuntary Group Split in one episode where Toshio, Murakami, and Asatani get split up and reassigned further to more demeaning tasks. They are eventually brought back together after the police realize the squad's the only one who can actually keep up with Cat's Eye to any degree.
- Worthy Opponent: Positively identified as such by Cat's Eye.
Toshio Utsumi
Toshio Utsumi
- Voiced by:: Ryūsei Nakao (Japanese, 1982 radio drama), Yoshito Yasuhara (Japanese, anime, pachinko), Ryan Colt Levy (English, Lupin III Vs Cat's Eye), Pierre Laurent (European French, anime)
Cat's Eye main foe, and Hitomi's boyfriend since high school.
- Accidental Pervert: Rather often. Including that one time he managed to grab a member of Cat's Eye (actually Hitomi, but he couldn't see her face due to darkness) and groped her by accident.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Toshio once crossdressed, and was downright sexy.
- Blessed with Suck: Moved in with the Kisugi sisters after his house burned down. He now lives with his gorgeous girlfriend, her even more beautiful older sister, and her cute younger sister... And because of that most males are horribly envious and prone to spiteful pranks, the sisters' casual treatment of him made him doubt of his own virility, and he has nightmares about marrying Hitomi only to be treated like a parasite by her sisters because his income is much lower than the Cat's Eye's. He's also an unwilling Chick Magnet. His coworkers' envy and Hitomi's jealousy makes so he couldn't enjoy it even if he wanted.
- Brick Joke: The grabbing incident allowed the police to identify at least one member of Cat's Eye as a woman.
- Chick Magnet: He has an immense success with women without even trying (or wanting). According to Mitsuko and Hitomi, it's mostly because his determination at capturing Cat's Eye makes him incredibly sexy, and it's shown that his genuinely nice personality plays a part.
- Clark Kent Outfit: His costume hides it very well but he's aptly athletic the rare times we see him shirtless.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's not too intelligent. Can also run almost as fast as Cat's Eye, can overpower any one of the girls (not easy due to their martial arts knowledge), has a mean right punch, he's a crack shot and nearly trapped them more than once.
- Dating Catwoman: Bonus point for his girlfriend being cat-themed. Hitomi's attempts to stop him from realizing her 'side job' provide part of the story's drama.
- Does Not Like Guns: He once fooled around with his service weapon and shot himself in the leg, and is terrified by guns ever since. He's still a crack shot and is implied to having got over it late in the series when he starts carrying his service gun.
- Fair Cop: Not too bad on the eyes, and even has a legion of fangirls.
- The Kirk: Always split between his determination to succeed and his kindheartedness.
- Hidden Depths: In spite of his usual idiocy, he's the only one who has ever identified part of Cat's Eye's apparently random pattern of heists, even identifying one of their targets before them.
- Hot-Blooded: It's not apparent when you first see him but he's very eager to run into the action.
- Idiot Hero: He's a sufficiently competent a police officer, but still not the brightest bulb.
- Loves My Alter Ego: Played with; he has feelings for both Hitomi and Cat's Eye, unaware that they are the same woman.
- Men Can't Keep House: When in episode 22 the audience gets to see his place for the first time, Toshio is shown to have a very messy apartment, with trash and dirty clothes on the floor, and lots of unwashed plates in the sink.
- Nice Guy: One of the main reasons Hitomi reciprocates his feelings is because Toshio is a genuinely kind man.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: He often comes near capturing Cat's Eye, and he's the only cop who has ever grabbed one of them.
- Screw Destiny: Toshio's usual answer to the Blonde Cat's Eye declaration that You Can't Fight Fate: he's in love with Hitomi, and to hell with fate's will.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Played with. Toshio has many gorgeous women attracted to him, but he has eyes only for Hitomi. However, over the course of the story he also develops feelings for Cat's Eye, unaware that Cat's Eye and Hitomi are one and the same. Subverted with Rui, whose charms even affect him.
- Trash of the Titans: Downplayed; his house isn't flooded with trash, but is very messy for any person with normal standards of cleanliness.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Terrified of female underwear due a childhood trauma.
Chief Murakami
The chief of the cops assigned to arrest Cat's Eye.
- Da Chief: Passes most of his time berating his men for their latest failure.
- Only Sane Man: Even if not as much as Mitsuko.
- Reasonable Authority Figure
Mitsuko Asatani
- Voiced by: Yoshiko Sakakibara
An elite officer who moved to the Inunari Precinct from the headquarters, and Hitomi's rival in love.
- Action Girl: A given for a female cop but she proves time and again that she has rightfully earned her place.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: She found herself in this situation. When the girls removed the situation that was forcing her to get married, she still insisted for the ceremony
just to tell her husband wannabe she would not marry him and hit him in the face with a pie. - Berserk Button: Do not mention her apparent lack of femininity or her status as an Old Maid.
- Blind Without 'Em: Not exactly blind, but very short-sighted.
- Cassandra Truth: She quickly realizes that the Kisugi sisters are Cat's Eye, but is unable to prove it.
- Covert Pervert: As long as it's with Toshio (or, later, Kamiya)...
- Cowboy Cop: Skirts the line between this and By-the-Book Cop. This is especially evident when she gets briefly demoted to the traffic division in the anime, as she runs a speeding biker off the road with her patrol car after he openly smacks his ass in front of her over the simple act of being asked to pull over.
- Date Peepers: She has peeped on Hitomi and Toshio's dates at least once, and was promptly called out on it by Kazumi.
- Dating Catwoman: Starts dating Kamiya late in the manga. Before that, she fell for Rui disguised as a male member of Cat's Eye.
- Deadpan Snarker: Her stock in trade, being a very competent and demanding Go-Getter Girl, she will never miss an opportunity to snipe at her colleagues.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: More prominent in the manga than in the anime. Her initial appearances depict her as extremely cold and temperamental, yet as the manga progresses, bearing witness to Toshio and Hitomi's relationship and Kamiya's 'accidental' romantic gestures reveals her as a sharp-tongued but sympathetic woman longing for love.
- The Determinator: She's very short-sighted, but taking away her glasses only means she can't drive or shoot, not that she can't bite the perps until they bleed.
- Fair Cop: Very good looking and proud of it.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: What she is to Toshio, which lands her a reputation of being a castrating bitch, much to her dismay.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: At one point she renounces to Toshio because of this.
- Inspector Javert: Towards all three Kisugi sisters but to Hitomi especially.
- Lethal Chef: Most of her dishes have laxative effects, and some are potentially lethal. On the other hand, she can prepare a good coffee, if she does it with love. She never does it with love.
- Love Triangle: She was in one with Toshio and Hitomi. Later in the manga she believes to be in one with Rui and Rui's alter ego as a male member of Cat's Eye.
- Man Bites Man: She's not above biting if it can stop a suspect or Cat's Eye, as Hitomi discovered the wrong way.
- No Guy Wants an Amazon: One of the two reasons she got turned down so many times: while rather feminine, her extreme competence as a cop and refusal to be a traditional Office Lady scares them away. As for the others... Well, they can't take her cooking, but who can?
- Not So Stoic: Her attempts at being classy are regularly foiled by the crazy antics of her colleagues, and she later showed she's almost as crazy.
- Oblivious to Love: It took her a week to realize she had received a love declaration from Kamiya.
- Office Lady: Deconstructed by showing what happens when you force a capable and ambitious woman (who is also a Lethal Chef) in this role.
- Old Maid: She's a notorious spinster, something she's very sensitive about. After renouncing to marry Toshio, gets rather cranky whenever she gets turn down by a possible suitor.
- Only Sane Woman: The only member of the Precinct and the Special Squad to realize that discussing plans to catch Cat's Eye in a public place (and the Cat's Eye cafe to boot) is a bad idea.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: She is legitimately good at her job, it's just that her adversaries are Cat's Eye. In the span of one episode she correctly figures out that the Kisugi sisters are Cat's Eye, but sees herself constantly unable to prove that due to the sisters' elaborated schemes.
- The Rival: To Cat's Eye, particularly Hitomi, as she remains convinced that Hitomi is Cat's Eye and for more than once tries to prove it.
Takeshi Hirano
A young officer who idolizes Toshio.
- Author Avatar: Looks a lot like Hojo Tsukasa's self-portrayal.
- Berserk Button: Don't touch his glasses.
- Cool Bike: Has a Harley Davidson.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: As Takeuchi said, flirting with Rui means you'll never go back at the Cat's Eye for fear of getting shot. God helps you if you are being clingy.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's a trigger-happy idiot, but give him a clear shot and he'll hit the target or do a Bullet Outline, depending on what's appropriate for the situation.
- '80s Hair: Sports a rather impressive mullet. It got him mistaken for a rapist murderer and kicked in the face by Takeuchi (who didn't know him yet and then Lampshaded it once he knew him)... And he still continues with it.
- Face of a Thug: He looks more like a Yakuza than a cop. Endlessly Lampshaded, with Hitomi neutralizing him by crying he was a pervert and a murderer during a chase (him swinging his Hand Cannon didn't help his case).
- Gun Nut: Rather obsessed with guns in general and his Hand Cannon in particular. He's even called a gun nut to his face...
- Hand Cannon: Doesn't carry the standard issue .38 Special revolver (either the Smith & Wesson Model 36, the S&W Model 37 or the New Nambu M60) but the Smith & Wesson Model 686 chambered in .357 Magnum (can still fire the .38 Special), and is rather good with it.
- Shipper on Deck: Ships Toshio and Hitomi... So Toshio will stay away from Rui!
- Sunglasses at Night: Always wears his sunglasses due to his insecurities. That, and he has ridiculous small eyes.
- Trigger-Happy: Most of his problems come from his tendency to shoot more often than it's safe. Got the rather justified nicknames "Gun Nut" and "Mad Shooter" for that...
- Yakuza: Gets often mistaken for one due to his fashion sense.
Tetsuro Takeuchi
An old friend of Toshio since the police academy who was transferred to the Inunari Precinct only after a few chapters.
- Berserk Button: If you're a criminal (or he mistakes you for one), don't call him shorty, or you'll receive a flying kick in the face.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Passes most of his time annoying people with speeches on the Japanese Spirit or trying to woo Ai. He's also a master karateka capable of taking down much bigger opponents.
- The Determinator: During a chase, he kept up with Hitomi's motorbike using a bicycle.
- Ephebophile: He fell in love with Ai at first sight.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Regarding his crush on the younger Ai, pretty much everyone else has called him a pedophile and/or lolicon at least once.
- Pint Sized Power House: He's very short and a master karateka.
- Shipper on Deck: Ships Toshio and Hitomi... So Toshio will stay away from Ai!
Juzo Unno
An old but experienced officer, assigned to the Anti-Cat's Eye Squad due to his embarrassing habits.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Even more than the rest of the squad: he's a pervert with the habit of traveling on trains without ticket (he'll steal someone else's) and casually pickpocketing people, and a scarily competent cop who once dealt with a dangerous criminal by stealing the magazine of his gun (with the train ticket, of course) and luring him where he knew there were half a dozen other cops.
- Five-Finger Discount: He's an expert on pickpockets, and a capable pickpocket himself.
- Only Known By His Nickname: His real name is known, but almost everyone calls him Shige.
Nobuhiko Kizaki
Toshio's replacement in the first squad. Later transferred to the Anti-Cat's Eye squad due to an undisclosed screw-up.
- Camp Straight: For Japanese standards, to the point that he's often called gay to his face to piss him off (although a lot of this perception comes from one occasion when Hitomi disguised herself as him and couldn't hide her body language too well). Part of his (failed) efforts to get this to stop include him taking up boxing.
- Casanova Wannabe: His first plan to capture Cat's Eye was to charm her with what he called his angelic face. It failed miserably. He also brags about his supposed charm quite often.
- The Comically Serious: Provides a lot of humor by saying ridiculous things with an utterly serious face.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Only for the sake of arresting criminals.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He may get humiliated most of the times we see him, but that's because he tackles with Cat's Eye. He's also prone to capture dangerous criminals off-screen, and a decent pugilist.
- Fair Cop: He's rather good-looking and proud of it.
- Insufferable Genius: Seems more a Miles Gloriosus, as his bragging about his skills as a cop is always followed by him getting humiliated, but aside from that one screw-up that got him demoted he had an awesome career off-page, and when he joins the Special Squad he comes up with a plan that would have worked had he trusted the rest of the team aside from Asatani (leading to Hitomi to realize what he had done and succeeded anyway).
- Noodle Incident: We never find out why he was demoted and transferred to the Anti-Cat's Eye Squad.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: After the attempt to charm Cat's Eye failed he put together a good plan to catch at least one member of the group, and failed only because Hitomi managed to see through it.
- Shipper on Deck: Ships Toshio and Hitomi... So Toshio will stay away from Rui!
Cranaff Syndicate
In General
The men who tried to kill Heintz to get his paintings, composed by his disciples and various buyers.
- Chekhov's Gun: A number of paintings and jewels stolen by Cat's Eye before their introduction are revealed to have been in possession of Syndicate members at the moment of the heist.
- Kick the Dog: After apparently killing Heintz they tried to do the same with his family and friends.
- Killed Off for Real: Various members of the Syndicate die facing the girls, and the survivors are blown up by Cranaff.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Aside from Cranaff, they initially decide that Cat's Eye cannot be Heintz's vengeful children because they're females.
Cranaff
Heintz's main disciple, and the leader of the group. He's also Heint'z twin brother.
- No Name Given: Cranaff is a fake name, with his true given name remaining unknown.
Hiroyuki Seguchi
The Syndicate's most prominent member, a rich man with political connections.
- Butt-Monkey: He appears three times. The first time, he gets arrested (he gets out thanks to his connections and money), the second time Ai sends him crashing in the Inunari Precinct and makes him believe his car was possessed by a ghost, and the third is covered under Humiliation Conga.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He first appears as the unnamed Jerkass owning a museum targeted by Cat's Eye. Various chapters later, Cat's Eye warns the police they'll steal a supposedly burned painting from him, thus introducing the whole Cranaff Syndicate.
- Frame-Up: Tries to frame Cat's Eye for murder. The police see through it as he described Cat's Eye as a group of tall men (Cat's Eye including at least one woman was not known outside of the police yet), but they let him do it to have the chance of getting evidence against him and try and arrest Cat's Eye too.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In his final appearance he confided in a group of armored dog to kill at least the member of Cat's Eye whose smell they had sniffed (Ai). Ai successfully dodges the armored dogs in the garden and uses them to deal with his men inside the mansion. Happens to the armored dogs too: some of them are neutralized when they hit each other with the spikes on their armors.
- Humiliation Conga: His last appearance has his mansion devastated by Ai fending off armored dogs and ax-wielding cops trying to save her, one of the outer walls is destroyed by Ai to run away with a painting, then he's arrested for the murder he tried to pin on Cat's Eye, the attempted murder of Cat's Eye and perjury, and Toshio decides to humiliate him further by revealing the police saw through his frame up since the start and that Cat's Eye is composed of women.
- Put on a Bus: After the failed frame-up he's arrested for murder and attempted murder, and isn't seen again.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money! and Connections: In his first appearance he's caught in possession of various stolen paintings and arrested. In a later chapter, we see Toshio complaining about his release and the disappearance of the evidence, obtained either due to corruption or his political connections, or both. He later uses his money to get away with some other crimes, before being arrested again for murder and attempted murder.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Invoked: after seizing a piece of Ai's clothes, he has a group of armored dogs smell it so they'll chase Cat's Eye until they murder the member who lost the piece of cloth. Ultimately subverted, as Ai uses the armored dogs to neutralize his guards before defeating them.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: In his final appearance. Before then, any foe faced by the girls was easily fooled and defeated, Seguchi included. Then Hitomi nearly dies to steal a painting from him, the painting is revealed being a fake on live TV, he convincingly frames Cat's Eye for murder (the police sees through it only because they know Cat's Eye is a band of women while he described them as tall men), and Kamiya and Ai are nearly killed by his armored dogs. Also, his first confrontation with Cat's Eye involved the girls getting in a desperate fight with a Giant Mook tough enough to shrug off being hit on the head with a bottle.
Other Villains
Ambassador of Country S
A foreign ambassador implicated in art smuggling.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: It's one of his musings that make Toshio realize that Cat's Eye mainly steals only a particular batch of Cranaff's paintings.
Owner of the illegal casinos
The owner of a chain of underground casinos and of the 'Cranaff' painting "Dangerous Woman", that Hitomi plans to win from her. Keeps secret her identity and gender.
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Accepts Hitomi's stakes of an undisclosed but ludicrously high amount of money against the painting "Dangerous Woman".
- Affably Evil: She may be a criminal, but that's only because her casinos, administrated honestly and with fair play, are illegal.
- The Casino: Owns at least three of them one of which on a ship. They're all illegal.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The Reveal surprised Hitomi, Rui (who had earlier befriended her) and most of the casino personnel.
- Graceful Loser: Immediately pays the stakes upon losing, and offers a trip back to shore. Her caretaker, on the other hand, needs to be threatened with a torpedo...
- King Incognito: Rui meets her as one of the showgirls at the casino.
- Noble Demon: The main reason she is a villain is because she is a criminal and owns casinos (illegal under Japanese law).
- Properly Paranoid: Chooses her croupier at the last moment to ensure fairness, and, upon realizing that her chosen croupier Rui is most probably an accomplice of Hitomi and capable of sending the ball wherever she wants, she has their game played the French way, with bets placed after the wheel is spun. Hitomi and Rui still manage to fix the game.
- Worthy Opponent: Picks her opponents in bets among the best and luckiest players of her casinos. To challenge her, Hitomi had to cheat her way into simulating having almost impossible luck.
Shin Kaibara
A mysterious criminal mastermind who is trying to move a treasure from Japan to the US.
- Ambiguously Gay: Looks and acts straight, yet he continuously says that Toshio is exactly his type. It's not clear if he's serious or just doing it to creep out Toshio.
- Faux Affably Evil: He acts like a gentleman while threatening to murder Cat's Eye.
- Karma Houdini: He's ultimately foiled, but escapes arrest and disappears.
- Troll: Spends half his interactions with Toshio and the sisters putting them in weird situations for his own amusement.
Other characters
Tsukasa Hojo
The manga's author himself.
Masato Kamiya
A rival thief and occasional accomplice of Cat's Eye, nicknamed the Rat by the police. Initially tries wooing Hitomi, but starts dating Mitsuko near the end of the manga.
He is also notable for being a prototype version of Tsukasa Hojo's next creation, Ryo Saeba from City Hunter.
- Boring Yet Practical: When compared to Cat's Eye: they use larger-than-life stunts, while he uses disguises, clever tricks, sleights of hands and the occasional Roof Hopping and is just as effective if not more.
- Calling Card: He leaves a coin mounted on a pendant on the site of his heists.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Often disguises himself as a cop.
- Embarrassing Nickname: He protests his nickname being Rat, and wants to be called Gentleman Thief.
- Gentleman Thief: He calls himself one (and once demanded that the police started calling him that), but he's a bit too perverted to fully qualify.
- Intrepid Reporter: His cover to justify his interest on the police's doing. He's rather good at it.
- Master of Disguise: Very good at it. The Kisugi sisters usually recognize him, but he finally succeeded in fooling Rui after various attempts.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: In spite of his antics and generally acting like an idiot, he's really smart, and managed to uncover Cat's Eye secret.
- Only Sane Man: Often lampshades Cat's Eye rather 'passionate' approach to stealing.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: As a thief he's just as good as Cat's Eye (and possibly even better: he can sneak up on them, while they never managed to sneak up on him), but their methods just get them more fame.
- Also Inverted, as he proved many times he's just as good if not better than the girls.
- Pair the Spares: He ends up with Mitsuko.
- Phantom Thief: A professional one, differently from Cat's Eye, and specialized on jewels (a secondary target for Cat's Eye).
- Pressure Point: Can easily paralyze someone's arm by blowing a senbon on a pressure point, without the victim realizing why he can't move his arm, and un-paralyze it by simply removing the senbon.
- The Rival: To Cat's Eye. Also to Toshio for Hitomi's love.
- Roof Hopping: Used as last resort, as he favours less dangerous approaches.
- Running Gag: The girls calling him Rat in public. In one occasion they needed a distraction, Ai went so far to point at him entering the cafe and cried "A RAT!" to cause a ruckus.
Tetsu Kono
Ai's schoolmate and boyfriend.
- Dating Catwoman: He plans to become a cop and is dating a professional thief.
- Morality Chain: Cat's Eye renounced to a theft because it would get his father fired.
Kazumi
- Voiced by: Chiyoko Kawashima
Another of Ai's classmates, and her rival in love.
- Brutal Honesty: And poor Hirano and Takeuchi are at the receiving end of it.
- Not So Harmless: At first she's only annoying due to her attempts at seducing Kono, and the only reason she gets involved in the story is that she photographed Hitomi as Cat's Eye by chance (the camera was set to photograph the moon, so she only got a silhouette). Then she sees one of the Cat's Eye in action, recognizes her as Hitomi, and starts helping Mitsuko...
- School Newspaper Newshound: She's in charge of her school's newspaper and always craves for the latest scoop, and turns out to be much sharper than she looks.
Keiko Natsume
A girl Toshio saved from a fire when she was eleven. Now older, she arrives in Tokyo to marry him.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She renounces to Toshio as soon as she realizes he's happy with Hitomi... And is still in love with him, and has no qualms to admit it.
- Kitsch Collection: She has a ginormous collection of lingerie, that she let the police borrow to bait a Panty Thief.
- Younger than She Looks: She appears in her early twenties, but is actually seventeen.
Mr. Asatani
Mitsuko's father, he's the owner of a small pharmaceutical company that sells larger companies' products in franchising. Supports her relationship with Kamiya after he proves himself a "real man" with his epic Accidental Proposal.
- Good Parents: He wants the best for his daughter.
- Open-Minded Parent: He wouldn't mind Mitsuko to remain unmarried if that's what she really wanted.
Yukiko
Toshio's cousin, that runs away from home to visit him in Tokyo.
- Contrived Coincidence: When she arrives at Tokyo, she's almost ran over by a car and is saved in the last second by Hitomi, the woman her cousin is trying to catch and arrest.
- Precocious Crush: Has one on Toshio, her much older cousin.
- Troll: She acts like this most of the time, particularly noticeable when she makes Toshio make a digital portrait of Cat's Eye just to tell in the end that the portrait doesn't look like her at all and blame the machine for it, and when she doesn't tell Mitsuko that Hitomi is Cat's Eye when a picture of her is shown in the digital portrait machine. It's implied she didn't want to sell out the woman that saved her life.
Toshio's grandmother
Toshio's maternal grandmother, who raised him after his parents' deaths. She wants him to take over the family business of making lingerie.
- The Dreaded: The one person who can scare Hitomi.
- Evil Matriarch: She doesn't care that Toshio fears lingerie or he wants to remain a cop, he has to take over the family business. In a twist, it's because her daughter, Toshio's late mom, wanted him to.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Her role when she shows up... At least until she accepts Hitomi as a proper wife for Toshio.
- Parental Neglect: She was just too obsessed with the family business to properly take care of Toshio when he was a child.
