Characters / Choujin X

Main Characters

In General

• Animal-Motif Team: All of them, sans Ely, are intrinsically connected to an animal. Tokio is represented by a vulture, Azuma a lion, and Palma a hyena. These animals all have one key overlap—they're scavengers. Interestingly, while Ely's symbol (Thieves) is distinctly human, it still ties into the scavenger theming.
• Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: While neither are full-on couples, the two romantic subplots among the main characters are wildly different from each other. Tokio's and Palma's relationship is very straightforward and to-the-point, with Palma falling for Tokio after he saves her and both of them expressing physical attraction toward each other on multiple occasions. Azuma's and Ely's relationship, by contrast, is very messy and awkward from both ends. Azuma explicitly crushes hard on Ely yet doesn't really know how to approach the subject with her. Ely prefers to treat romance as secondary to whatever her immediate concerns are and while there are definitely hints that she might be into Azuma, there's enough mixed signals that one could reasonably interpret it either way. This actually reflects in their powers: Tokio and Palma are both bestial choujin whereas Ely's and Azuma's powers are both specifically tied to human civilization. For animals, mating is very simple and straightforward, but with humans it's oftentimes a huge mess.
• Deuteragonist: Decidedly both Ely and Azuma, with both of them receiving major focus and play critical roles for the progression of the plot. Likewise, Tokio's development hinges heavily on his relationships with both of them.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Tokio is the fighter, being the most physically powerful of the main trio and has the ability to deal permanent damage to choujin. Azuma is the mage, having a far more utility-centric powerset which allows him to create an infinite amount of tools for any scenario. Ely is the thief, being the most nimble but fragile of the group and seems to specialize far more in being stealthy with her opponents. Also worth noting that the "thief" label with Ely is entirely literal.
• Freudian Trio: Tokio, Ely, and Azuma are all foils to each other. A major point of focus in the development of all three characters is how their ideals and decision-making processes change, and as such the three of them can be mapped onto this in a lot of different ways.
  • One could argue that Azuma is the Id, Ely is the Superego, and Tokio is the Ego. Azuma has a fascination with violence and, of all the protagonists, is the most willing to be brutal while working in the field. Ely, conversely, is opposed to violence on principle. While she's by no means soft on those she deems evil, she refuses to take a life under any circumstances, viewing it as the ultimate "theft" that can never be returned under any circumstances. Tokio, while a genuinely Nice Guy, is still figuring out the kind of person he wants to be. He doesn't really have any kind of plan to how he approaches things most of the time and just sort of plays things by ear, putting him in a middle ground between Ely and Azuma.
  • One could also argue that Azuma is the Superego, Ely is the Id, and Tokio is the Ego. Azuma closely bases his morality around society's values and bases his sense of self around society's expectations. He subscribes to something of a Black-and-White Morality, considering people to be either innocents who follow the rules or criminals who disobey them. Ely, on the other hand, bases her morality entirely around her personal values and refuses to compromise on them under any circumstances. She shares Azuma's Black-and-White Morality, with the key difference being that she judges people based on whether they "give" or "take" from others. Tokio, again, is kind of in the middle. He doesn't really have a fully concrete ideology like Ely and Azuma do and instead just plays things by what he believes to be right at any given moment. Tellingly, while Azuma and Ely support and oppose Sora's offer respectively, Tokio doesn't come to an answer like they do, instead opting to talk things out and come to a decision later.
  • One could also argue that Tokio is the Id, Azuma is the Ego, and Ely is the Superego. Tokio is very much The Ditherer, basing most of his decisions on spur-of-the-moment hunches rather than on any sort of established principles. When he does have to make a decision that he's forced to think long and hard on, Tokio oftentimes gets hung up on being too scared to make a decision at all. Ely, by contrast, has a defined worldview and set of principles from the get-go. She doesn't really need to think on whether something is right or wrong. If something goes according to her principles, she'll do it. If not, she won't do it. Her worldview, although it works wonders at stopping her from getting bogged down with indecision, also lacks a lot of nuance, leading Ely to somewhat ignore a lot of the messier implications of her decisions. Azuma is kind of in the middle where he certainly places a lot of importance on having principles, but it's clear that he's still figuring out what exactly he wants those principles to be. While he does more-or-less try to stick with whatever principles society tells him, he's noticeably not that consistent about it either, and will decide to go against them in more messier personal matters. This is probably best seen in how all three of them respond to their experiences at the Tower. Tokio is very split on Zora's ideology, saying that Both Sides Have a Point, and even a year later is unable to really comes to a decision on whether she's right or wrong. Ely, after seeing the casualties created by Zora, sticks to her guns and goes against her and refuses to even entertain anything she's saying. Azuma is sort of in the middle. He agrees with Zora at first, but after seeing that Zora is flat-out insane, he quickly goes back on it.
• Irony: Each of their powers are practically the opposite of their personalities.
  • Tokio is a shy, weak teenager living in the shadow of his best friend Azuma. His powers as a choujin, however, turn him into a physical front-line fighter who, more often than not, resolves situations through his own strengths.
  • Ely based her life's philosophy around being a "giver" instead of a "taker" like her mother was. Her powers, however, force her to do exactly that, putting her into situations where she needs to become a thief and steal her opponents' powers or die against them.
  • Azuma is a prideful, insecure prodigy with a major fixation on combat and violence. His powers, however, are actually better suited for support than they are for solo combat. Tellingly, his best performance in a fight is against a chaosified Palma in which he swallows his pride and works alongside Tokio. Despite Tokio seriously struggling against her solo, he and Azuma together are able to easily resolve the situation in less than a chapter.
  • Palma is a shy, meek girl who, above all else, just wants to have genuine connections with others. Her powers, however, essentially turns corpses into her mindless drones. While this typically isn't too big of a deal, as her zombies are mostly nothing more than mindless monsters, it definitely raises an eyebrow in cases such as Nude when said zombies are actually sentient, yet are still effectively Palma's property.
• Legacy Character: All of them seem to have inherited the powers of a Choujin X. Tokio is indicated to take after Sora Siruha. Azuma is heavily implied to have the powers of Queem Macman. Palma explicitly inherited the powers of Bill Morse. The sole exception is Ely who, in-universe, is considered to be a total anomaly.
• Superpower Lottery: All of them, with the exception of Ely who in-universe is an anomaly, are heavily implied to have directly inherited the powers of a historical Choujin X.

Tokio Kurohara

Tokio Kurohara

Voiced by: Yūma Uchida (vomic)

Vulture Choujin

^{Click here to see his beastified form}

^{Click here to see his chaos form}

The protagonist of Choujin X. A meek high schooler who lives in the shadow of his best friend Azuma, he one day becomes a choujin after coming into contact with a mysterious drug.

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• Animal Motifs: Vultures. Tokio initially bases his entire life around following Azuma, tying in to how vultures are scavengers that live off the leftover prey from other animals. However, vultures are capable of flying higher than any other bird on the planet, reflecting how Tokio has an abundance of untapped potential.
• Animorphism: He's a beast choujin who can shapeshift his body with vulture abilities and features.
• Birds of a Feather: With Palma. Both of them are very meek and awkward individuals with the ability to transform into a scavenger animal. Both of them are also rather perverted underneath their shy exterior. Unsurprisingly, a romance subplot starts to develop between the two of them.
• Both Sides Have a Point: When meeting with Zora, Tokio comes to the conclusion that both Azuma and Ely made good points on whether or not to take Zora's power and that they should have a discussion with the rest of Yamato Mori before making a decision. Unfortunately for him, Zora is not looking to negotiate. After the timeskip, Tokio still has yet to come to a decision on whether to believe Zora or not. Even when he confides in Ely that he's starting to believe in Zora's prophecy, he immediately follows it with "I think," indicating that he's not even sure what he believes.
• Bridal Carry: Ely carries Tokio like this when she saves him from Chandra. Tokio even comments in embarrassment that he's being carried like a princess.
• Broken Pedestal: His relationship with Azuma throughout the series is a rare positive example. At the start, Tokio puts Azuma on a pedestal and practically worships him, with the two of them having a deeply codependent relationship to each other. However, this idolization of Azuma gradually begins to dissipate over the course of the series as it becomes clear that Azuma is just as imperfect and riddled with flaws as Tokio himself. Interestingly, Tokio putting Azuma on less of a pedestal is shown to be actively good for both of them; when neither of them live chained to one another, both of them are able to grow and meet in the middle as equals.
• The Chosen One: It's complicated. Tokio is a candidate for receiving Zora's powers, which would supposedly allow him to prevent the "dark calamity" which is foretold to bring an end to the world as they know it if left unchecked. Now, it must be noted that there is a lot of grey area here. Tokio is one in a long line of candidates, all of whom died after inheriting her powers; there is genuinely no guarantee that taking Zora's powers won't kill Tokio just like it did all the others. Even among characters relevant in the story, Tokio isn't exactly the only one who could fulfill the prophesied role. With the discovery that XEMBER works on choujin to give them additional abilities, Batista singles out Azuma and Palma as potential candidates for Zora's powers. Putting all of that into doubt, however, is the strong implication that the entire meaning of prophecy has been completely warped by Sora's deluded mind: the "dark calamity" is, in all likelihood, of an entirely nature than how she describes it. If Mado's foresights are to be favored over Sora's, then Sora seemingly is the very calamity she's so desperate to stop, or at the very least is unknowingly bringing it into fruition. Accepting Zora's mark won't necessarily stop the Calamity; it might cause it. All in all, Tokio is a confused, meek kid who's thrown into the center of a gigantic mess, which he barely understands the context of, and is forced to make a decision which will either save or doom everyone and everything he's ever known. No pressure.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Yep. At the start of the story, Tokio is extremely meek and bases his entire life around following in Azuma's footsteps. While he does grow more of a spine as the story goes on, he never completely loses his meek nature.
• Coming of Age Story: Tokio's development throughout the entire series can be read as him slowly taking charge of his own life, having his fair share of both mistakes and triumphs along the way.
• Covered in Scars: After the Timeskip, Tokio's back is covered in scars he gained during his time at Iwato. Interestingly, he has a particular scar on the bottom-left of his back in the shape of a six-pointed star, which just so happens to be located at the same place his third arm extends from in chaos state. However, none of his scars as visible most of the time due to him usually wearing a shirt.
• Covert Pervert:
  • Tokio is enamored with watching Momoma play in the ocean when Sato lets the group play around for a bit on Ojima.
  • He also constantly shows to still be attracted to Nari, even after she tried to kill him, to the point he has Erotic Dreams about her.
• Creepy Good: He takes on a somewhat skeletal appearance when in full beastification, but he's a thoroughly good-natured guy.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: One of the core internal conflicts with Tokio's character is his search for a goal in his life. At first, he's content with simply being Azuma's "sidekick" and living vicariously through him. Once he makes the decision to stand up on his own feet, he still finds himself basing his newfound goals in life on those around him, namely Azuma and Ely. After the timeskip, Tokio seems to start settling more into being Sandek's successor in Yamato Mori, yet even then it's pointed out by multiple other characters that this is a role that Sato is more or less pressuring him into when Sato isn't exactly someone who should be getting Tokio's complete trust.
• The Ditherer: Oh boy. Tokio pretty much bases his identity around those close to him, Azuma and Ely in particular, striving to be like them because he has no idea who he is to begin with. As the story goes on, Tokio gradually begins to carve out his own identity, yet he still finds himself receding back to relying on others from time to time.
• Experienced Protagonist: After returning from Iwato, Tokio has become far more confident and experienced in the field, being able to offer constructive criticism towards Arthur's plans on finding Zora's opium supply. With that being said, Tokio still holds on to his dorky awkwardness from the start of the series.
• Extreme Doormat: At first, Tokio lives his entire life going along with whatever Azuma is doing. Tokio does begin to find his own footing as the series goes on, but he never entirely loses his meek nature.
• Fighting Your Friend: He ends up coming to blows with his best friend Azuma after the latter is forced into his chaos state and his crippling insecurities are brought to the surface.
• Foil:
  • With Azuma, although the two of them turn out to be far more similar than you would initially expect. Tokio at the start of the story lives in Azuma's shadow and considers him to be his personal hero. In his mind, he's just a vulture living off of the lion's scraps. In actuality, Azuma under the surface is a hot mess of insecurities and is just as emotionally dependent on Tokio as Tokio is on him. Both of them express their insecurities in two very different ways. Tokio became withdrawn and meek so that he won't screw up and disappoint others. Azuma became standoff-ish and eager to please while being just as terrified of disappointing others. While Tokio decides to take a leap of faith and goes off to Iwato to get stronger and stop Sora's prophecy, Azuma does what's expected of him and stays in Yamato Mori. Both of them end up developing two very different mindsets. Tokio above all else wants to avoid being too scared to make a decision, believing that nothing will go right unless he tries to take a chance. Azuma, meanwhile, lives his life trying to avoid making the wrong decision, always thinking long and hard about what the "right" choice is. Both mindsets are shown to have their pros and cons. On one hand, Azuma misses out a lot of opportunities that someone like Tokio probably would have gotten. On the other hand, Tokio is shown to make a lot of mistakes that someone like Azuma probably wouldn't have made.
  • With Ely. From the get-go, Tokio is extremely meek and looks to others for guidance on what he should do. Ely meanwhile is self-assured and is always headstrong and confident in what she does. Tokio at the start of the story doesn't really have any dreams, but eventually develops a desire of wanting to use his powers as a choujin to protect others. Ely, on the other hand, just keeps it simple—she wants to make money and stop bad guys. While she still is a good person and enjoys helping others, she's mainly participating in Yamato Mori to make some cash and support her family back home, and she's entirely okay with that. The two of them also develop opposing attitudes on how to handle Zora. Tokio has begun to believe in Zora's prophecy, but doesn't really have any plan on what to do about it and is instead continuing to go along with Yamato Mori despite his serious personal reservations. Ely confesses that she doesn't believe in either Zora or Mado's prophecies, instead resolving to steal Zora's power for herself to put an end to the whole issue right then and there.
• Gift-Giving Gaffe: In Chapter 49, he gives Ely fake breasts for her birthday. Suffice to say, no one takes it very well.
• Grew a Spine: It doesn't happen immediately, and he still does have a tendency to downplay himself and rely on others for guidance, but as the series goes on Tokio slowly starts to gain agency over his life and choose for himself who he wants to be.
• Has a Type: Tokio seems to have a preference for women with large breasts, considering his attraction to Momoma and Nari, and later seems pretty fixated on Yubiko's and Nari's breast sizes while discussing Yamato Mori's enemies.
• Heroic Resolve: Ely is attacked by an enraged Chandra, Tokio manages to put all his thoughts off self-doubt aside and, in a moment of adrenaline, grow wings to headbutt Chandra midair and save Ely.
• Hero Worship: At the start of the story, he puts his friend Azuma on a pedestal, basing his entire like around wanting to be as similar to Azuma as possible. As the story goes on, Tokio's idolization of Azuma is gradually shown to be unhealthy and outright inaccurate because, under the surface, Azuma is just as much of a neurotic mess as Tokio, if not moreso. While Tokio never thinks poorly of Azuma per se, he begins to realize that Azuma isn't exactly someone who Tokio should consider a goal either.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: He's a meek and insecure guy whose hair is constantly covering his left eye.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Played for laughs early on. When Tokio meets Nari at the zoo, she is blatantly suspicious and barely bothers to hide that she's a choujin, yet Tokio doesn't pick up on any of the signs.
• Like Brother and Sister: His relationship with Ely. While the two of them don't feel romantically about each other, they share a very deep friendship, with them giving each other a reliable shoulder to lean on and confide in each other about their fears and insecurities. The two of them more or less come off like siblings.
• Nice Guy: Very much so. Tokio's default behavior is to treat everyone with common decency and courtesy.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Over the Time Skip, Tokio, Sato, and a group of keepers from Iwato managed to kill Haken King, a tyrannical choujin warlord who had been controlling Iwato. For his role in saving Iwato from Haken King, Tokio earned himself the title of "Iwato's Hero."
• Older and Wiser: While it isn't shown in the story, it's clear that his experiences in Iwato had a major impact on Tokio. In a rather notable contrast to his earlier behavior, he (respectfully) objects to Arthur's plans on how to handle Zora's poppies and gives some constructive criticism, before proposing an alternative idea. Although the reader doesn't actually see the adventures Tokio went on during the timeskip, it's clear that his trials and tribulations in Iwato shaped him into a far more confident and headstrong young man.
• Power Incontinence: During the first couple chapters, Tokio is stuck in his bestial form after his fight with Johnny and tries to hide it from everyone else. He manages to turn back to normal after joining Yamato Mori, however.
• Sapient Pet: Over the Time Skip, Tokio gains an eagle companion who Tokio is actually able to talk to thanks to being a vulture choujin. In an unusual twist, the eagle isn't Tokio's pet but rather his mentor.
• Satellite Character: A very strange example where it actually applies to the main character, at least at the start. Throughout the first couple of arcs, Tokio bases his entire sense of self around his best friend Azuma. When Sandek asks him and Ely what their dreams are, Tokio's left at a total blank, not having any vision of his own future beyond supporting Azuma. A major part of Tokio's character arc is him moving out of this role and gaining agency over his own life.
• Ship Tease: He gets quite a bit with Palma, with perhaps the most blatant examble being him carrying her back to Yamato Mori princess-style after he and Azuma save her from chaos state.
• Shipper on Deck: When Azuma comes clean to Tokio about having feelings for Ely, Tokio's shown smiling at the thought of the two of them going out on a date. Afterward, Tokio shows a lot of self-consciousness when interacting with both of them (such as when he checks in with Azuma before taking Ely on a mission), seemingly paranoid of getting in the way of Ely's and Azuma's relationsjip.
• Shrinking Violet: Male example. Tokio is a meek and shy individual, especially at the start of the story. While he does grow more confident as the series goes on, he never completely loses his shy personality.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Tokio is the series' protagonist and he's very meek in social situations. It does become a bit more downplayed as the series goes on and Tokio begins to meet more people, but he never entirely loses his meek personality.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Upon awakening to his powers as a vulture choujin, he gains the ability to talk to birds.
• Sympathy for the Devil: In contrast to the Black-and-White Morality of Yamato Mori's higher ups, Tokio makes an active effort to understand what his enemies fight for. In the case of Zora, it's shown that Tokio feels genuine pity for her and her situation.
• Vicariously Ambitious: At the start of the story, Tokio really has no ambitions or dreams of his own, instead living vicariously though Azuma and taking pleasure in his achievements as though they were his own.
• Vile Vulture: Averted. Tokio is a vulture choujin and he's a thoroughly good-hearted individual.
• Warrior Therapist: During his fight against Shiozaki, Tokio manages to get him out of his chaos state by giving him closure for that pitch he was never able to make in the tournament.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Zigzagged. Tokio's kindness and desire to understand his enemies are shown to be valid and reasonable for the most part. Rather than simply viewing those in chaos state as a liability to be put down before they can cause any collateral damage, Tokio genuinely seeks to save them, a mindset which saved the lives of at least three of his friends—Shiozaki, Azuma, and Palma. Similarly, Tokio seeks to understand the mindset of those at the Tower and even save Zora from what she's become. His first attempt to do this with Cabirol completely backfires, with Tokio getting nothing more than spite and curses from him. Moreover, it is later made abundantly clear that Zora is far, FAR past the point of being saved. For as valuable as communicating with others and forming an understanding is, there are always going to be those who simply cannot be reasoned with, as unfortunate as it may be.
• The Worf Effect: Tokio in his second chaos state took down a chaosified Azuma in seconds. However, when this form goes up against Zora, she immediately decimates him using a far larger version of the same harpe Tokio uses.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: A key part of Tokio's entire character arc. Throughout the story, Tokio suffers from a major case of imposter syndrome and repeatedly leans on others as a crutch to base his sense of self around. However, as Tokio forms more connections and learns about all the unique ways that other people look at their own lives, Tokio is slowly able to figure out who he is and realize his own desires.

Ely Otta

Ely Otta

Voiced by: Yuka Terasaki (vomic)

Thief Choujin

A teenage girl from Gaga. She is awakened as an choujin after being killed by Chandra on a flight to Yamato, and later becomes wrapped up in Yamato Mori.

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• A-Cup Angst: She's shown to be insecure over her flat figure. When swimming with Momoma on Ojima, Ely expresses a bit of envy over her friend's buxom figure and when Tokio sees her naked after she accidentally burns off her clothes, he tells her it's fine because she's so flat that he won't remember it, causing her to get pissed and punch him.
• Badass Adorable: Ely is very badass and very adorable, being a goofy country bumpkin who is more than capable of holding her own in a fight.
• Birds of a Feather: While her relationship with Azuma seems to intentionally evoke Opposites Attract, Ely and Azuma are actually very similar when you get down to it. They're both intelligent, have strong moral compasses, are extremely stubborn, and, underneath the surface, are both deeply insecure about themselves. While they both certainly come from two different walks of life, they're really not as different as you would initially think.
• Book Dumb: Ely was born and raised in the rural prefecture of Gaga, and as such struggles quite a bit in school. However, she repeatedly displays that she's very smart when it comes to practical, hands-on matters, so it's not that she's "dumb" but rather that she's merely uneducated.
• Chaste Heroine: Downplayed. While Ely is very open about having a crush on Sandek, she makes it clear that romance is generally something she treats as secondary to whatever her immediate concerns as a keeper are. It's probably part of the reason why Ely doesn't seem to pick up that Azuma has feelings for her.
• Clothing Damage: While she herself doesn't get damaged by her heat powers, her clothes can get damaged by them.
• Country Mouse: She's a country bumpkin hailing from the prefecture of Gaga, and she's something of a Fish out of Water in the early chapters of the story after arriving at the more urban Yamato. Though even after she becomes more adjusted to urban life, one can still see the clear effect that being raised in the countryside had on her. She views all things as belonging to the earth first and foremost, with life itself being something that people merely "borrow" from the earth.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Ely may be a thoroughly good-natured girl, but she absolutely has it out for Chandra Hume as she watched him kill several friendly people she had been talking to and later killed the kid who she had borrowed a Roller-B from.
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Ely's mother was an infamous thief, but her last wish was for Ely to not turn out like her.
• Expository Pronoun: Ely refers to herself with the pronoun "Ora" (おら), reflecting her rural and uneducated background. However, during her conversation with Tokio in chapter 47 in which she expresses her plan to steal Zora's powers, she refers to herself with the more formal pronoun "Watashi" (わたし).
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Downplayed. Ely is an atheist who, in her fight with Cabirol 16, declares her belief that there is no afterlife and that a person disappears entirely after death. However, Palma's powers strongly indicate that this isn't quite the case; she couldn't communicate with the dead if there wasn't at least something of a person remaining after death.
• Foil:
  • With Tokio. From the get-go, Tokio is extremely meek and looks to others for guidance on what he should do. Ely meanwhile is self-assured and is always headstrong and confident in what she does. Tokio at the start of the story doesn't really have any dreams, but eventually develops a desire of wanting to use his powers as a choujin to protect others. Ely, on the other hand, just keeps it simple—she wants to make money and stop bad guys. While she still is a good person and enjoys helping others, she's mainly participating in Yamato Mori to make some cash and support her family back home, and she's entirely okay with that. The two of them also develop opposing attitudes on how to handle Zora. Tokio has begun to believe in Zora's prophecy, but doesn't really have any plan on what to do about it and is instead continuing to go along with Yamato Mori despite his serious personal reservations. Ely confesses that she doesn't believe in either Zora or Mado's prophecies, instead resolving to steal Zora's power for herself to put an end to the whole issue right then and there.
  • With Azuma. Ely is the daughter of a criminal and grew up poor in the countryside while Azuma is the son of a cop and is indicated to have come from at least a decently well-off family. Azuma has a complex around becoming a "protector of justice" like his father while Ely has a complex around not becoming like her mother. Ely bases her morality around her personal values while Azuma bases his morality around society's values (The two of them do share something of a Black-and-White Morality mindset, albeit with different criteria on what a "bad" versus "good" person is). Azuma is indicated to be religious, as evidenced by him tuning in to a Christian prayer broadcast and praying when he comes upon a dead body. Ely is an atheist who believes that all things of the Earth belong to the Earth—nothing more nothing less. Azuma is a creator choujin whose performance in combat revolves around utilizing his powers in creative and inventive ways. Ely meanwhile is a thief choujin whose performance in combat revolves around depriving other people of their powers and making them her own. Tellingly, the two of them have polar opposite reactions to Sora's offer. Azuma is won over by her ideology and urges Tokio to accept her powers as his own. Ely completely shuts down the discussion and refuses to even entertain the idea, noting that Sora has killed hundreds if not thousands for a prophecy which might not even be true. It's worth mentioning that it develops into an Opposites Attract situation from Azuma's end, although it isn't known if Ely feels the same way about him.
  • Fittingly, with Chandra Hume—the man who awakened her as a choujin. Both of them are Hot-Blooded and use the exact same powers, but the similiarities end there. Chandra, like the rest of the Tower, subscribes to an "ends justify the means" mindset, outright performing terrorist attacks in an attempt to fulfill Sora's prophecy. Ely considers murder to be indefensibly wrong and refuses to budge on the issue any further. Chandra is an Upper-Class Twit who, despite his tendency to fly off the handle, prides himself on being cultured and "beautiful." Ely is a Country Mouse and, at least pre-timeskip, typically wears cheap lower-class clothing to save on money. Chandra is a fervent adherent to Zora's religion and has devoted his life to making her ideals a reality. Ely is an atheist who believes that all things of the Earth belong only to the Earth, nothing more nothing less. Additionally, out of all the protagonists, Ely is the most diametrically opposed to what Zora stands for. Rather than basing her worldview off of another person's ideals, Ely's morality is based entirely on her own personal moral code.
  • To Palma. Both of them are immigrants from outside Yamato, yet while Ely arrived through entirely legitimate avenues, Palma got there illegally via swimming across an ocean. Moreover, both of them have completely opposing ideologies on life and death. Ely views life as belonging to the earth and death, although unfortunate, as something ultimately necessary to keep the world going. Palma, on the other hand, seems to regard life as the one thing a person can truly own and views death as a disease that ought to be eradicated.
• Good Is Not Soft: Ely may be a thoroughly good-natured girl, but she will not hesitate to put someone in their place if they step out of line or hurt others.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Less so early on, but following the Timeskip Ely flies into a blind rage somewhat easily, emphasized with her black smoke literally fuming from her head. It's implied that this is at least partly a result of Ely absorbing Chandra Hume's powers. Since a choujin's powers are an expression of their own mental complexes, by stealing Chandra's powers Ely also takes on whatever complexes said powers are an expression of.
• Has a Type: Ely has a thing for strong, blonde men. Played for laughs when Sandek fits the exact description of her idealized future husband. Played for drama with the reveal that Azuma, who also fits that description, has feelings for her, although it isn't known whether or not Ely feels the same way about him.
• Heroic Resolve: Part of her Establishing Character Moment. When the sheep-masked biker gang who had been chasing her is about to fall to their deaths, Ely with zero hesitations stabs herself in the hand to call out her smoke and cushion their fall, showing off her confident and heroic personality.
• Hidden Depths: Although she's pretty good at hiding her issues compared to Tokio and Azuma, deep down Ely is every bit as insecure as they are. Unlike them, however, Ely never struggles much with her morality or ideals, instead choosing to keep everything simply and straightforward for herself. Gaining money is good, but not if you get it through illegitimate means. Those who hurt others are "bad guys," and those who give to others are "good guys." It's a simple, agreeable worldview that she doesn't need to think further on. The obvious problem here though is that this mindset oftentimes leads her to oversimply nuanced situations. While it is true that overthinking a situation can be harmful, the same is true for underthinking it. Perhaps the most clear example of this is Ely resolving to steal Zora's powers simply so that people like Tokio won't need to worry whether or not Zora is wrong, a plan which has extremely obvious problems when you actually sit down to think about it. All that is to say, Ely chooses to keep everything cut-and-dry, because she doesn't want to deal with any serious moral or emotional baggage. Moreover, much of Ely's advice to other characters throughout the series is blatant Psychological Projection on her part. For instance, when Batista reveals to Tokio and Azuma that they got their power from Zora, Ely tells them that it doesn't matter where you get power from. Considering the issues Ely has with her mother, it's very clear that she's projecting her insecurities.
• Like an Old Married Couple: She and Azuma, while genuine friends, are constantly bickering and butting heads. After all, both of them are just as stubborn as each other.
• Like Brother and Sister: Her relationship with Tokio. While the two of them don't feel romantically about each other, they share a very deep friendship, with them giving each other a reliable shoulder to lean on and confide in each other about their fears and insecurities. The two of them more or less come off like siblings.
• Like Mother, Like Daughter: As much as Ely would hate to admit it, her life has begun to play out in a manner not unlike her mother's. The two of them left their home in Gaga at the age of 16 seeking money and became thieves in the process, albeit in very different ways. Exactly how far the similarities will end up going is still unknown.
• Nice Girl: Very much so. Ely is generally very polite and has a strong moral compass. That said, she has little sympathy for those she regards as wrongdoers.
• The Not-Love Interest: Ely is the series' female lead and shares a deep friendship with Tokio, yet the two of them don't seem to have any romantic feelings for each other as they're simply not each other's type.
• Not Quite Flight: She's able to "fly" by creating smoke clouds to propel herself into the air.
• Oblivious to Love: Ely doesn't seem to notice that Azuma is into her, with her expressing confusion as to why Azuma acts so insecure with her in regards to other guys, Tokio in particular. It also applies to cases outside of herself, as she doesn't seem to notice Palma's blatant crush on Tokio until Sandek literally spells it out, despite having literally walked in on Palma trying to make out with Tokio in his sleep. Justified, as romance isn't really something Ely focuses on as she views it as secondary to more immediate concerns. It's somewhat reflective of the limits of her simple-and-straightforward worldview. While such a worldview certainly does help her not have to deal with any major anxieties, it sort of falls apart when it comes to more complex interpersonal situations.
• Older Than They Look: As a result of her short height, Ely can easily seem like a child at first glance. However, she's actually the same age as Tokio and Azuma.^note Ironically, she's slightly older than either of them It's more downplayed after the timeskip, as her character design definitely comes off as more mature-looking.
• Only in It for the Money: Ely is a genuinely heroic individual who won't hesitate to put her life on the line for complete strangers. However, Ely is completely open about the fact that her core motives are entirely self-serving, wanting to gain money so she can live out a life of ease. With that being said, Ely is very adamant about gaining said money through legitimate means, refusing to go down the same path as her mother.
• Only Sane Man: Subverted. Ely seems to be the level-headed, emotionally stable member of the trio. In reality, Ely is just as flawed and insecure as Tokio and Azuma; she's just better at hiding it. Notably, much of her advice to others can easily come off as Psychological Projection on her part.
• Positive Friend Influence: To Tokio. Right from the get-go, Ely's headstrong and confident personality rubs off on Tokio when she heroically risks her own life to save him from Nari. Ely's heroism is actually what inspires Tokio to take a chance and try fighting against Nari.
• Power Parasite: The true nature of Ely's powers. Ely is able to steal the powers of other choujin via physically touching them, which is why she awakened to the exact same powers as Chandra originally.
• Precocious Crush: She's head over heels for Sandek, even though he's far older than her.
• Sleep Cute: After Tokio and Ely have their adventure at the department store, Ely ends up falling asleep on the train home with her head resting on Tokio's shoulder. It's a cute scene... at least until the reader notices Umezawa sitting next to them.
• Super Smoke: Ely's primary ability is to manipulate superheated smoke. Although she can take other powers as well, she doesn't like the idea of stealing and so returns all the other powers she takes.
• Third-Party Peacekeeper: Following the Time Skip, Tokio and Azuma have a falling out with each other. As Ely is on good terms with both of them, she repeatedly tries to nudge them into repairing their relationship. She eventually gets so fed-up with both of them avoiding the issue that she literally explodes at them to get other themselves and finally talk to each other.
• Torso with a View: After Azuma is put into chaos state, he punches Ely straight through the chest, showing that he's not differing between friend and foe at all. Ely however survives due to being a choujin.
• Turn Out Like Her Mother: Ely's mother was a notorious bandit who stole from and killed various people for the sake of satiating her greed. In her dying moments, however, Ely's mother returned home and entrusted her parents with her infant child, asking them to raise Ely so that she wouldn't turn out like she did. Ely, knowing of her mother's criminal lifestyle, has always felt deeply insecure about being her child, fearing that she'd inevitably end up like her mother somehow. It's perhaps because of this insecurity that Ely became a thief choujin, enabling her to steal the powers of other choujin for herself.
• Übermensch: A heroic example. The series contains several allusions to Nietzsche, yet Ely seems to be the character who most fits the Nietzschen ideal of the Übermensch. Ely's morality is entirely based on her personal code, with society's values not factoring into her worldview. Now it should be noted that Ely's values are not contradictory to conventional morality, but rather that her worldview was simply developed independently of society's values. Furthermore, much like Nieztsche himself. Ely believes that all things belong to the Earth and rejects all higher ideals which allude to the existence of any forces above the Earth. While the development of all 3 main characters reflect aspects of the Three Metamorphoses described by Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Ely represents the final stage: the child, those who fully unshackled from society and are free to create their own world.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With her partner Azuma. An omake in volume 7 shows the two of them furiously arguing with each other, but it's clear that they're friends at the end of the day.

Azuma Higashi

Azuma Higashi

Voiced by: Gen Satō (vomic)

Iron Choujin

^{Click here to see his choujin form}

Tokio's best friend. He and Tokio both take a drug that is able to force those with aptitude into becoming choujin, but Azuma isn't affected like Tokio is. Later, however, it turns out that Azuma actually did become a choujin, even if it just took him longer to awaken to his powers.

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• Animal Motifs: Azuma is heavily associated with lions, reflecting his outwardly "perfect" persona which he uses to cover up the total mess of insecurities he is underneath. It also ties back into Tokio's vulture motif. While lions have a reputation for being ferocious apex predators, many overlook the fact that lions are also scavengers, reflecting the codependent nature of Tokio's and Azuma's friendship; they're mutually reliant on each other and each of them define their sense of self around the other.
  • Azuma's association with lions also ties into much of the manga's Nietzschen subtext. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche compares the second metamorphosis of the spirit to a lion. According to Nietzsche, the goal of the "lion" is to reject duty and society's values and, ultimately, to create freedom for itself, which is heavily reflected in Azuma's powers. When Azuma awakens as a choujin, he quite literally breaks free of his chains and goes on a chaosified-induced rampage. Appropriately, Azuma's powers literally revolve around creation—reflecting Nietzsche's allegory of the lion achieving freedom to create its own meaning.
• Anti-Hero: He shows shades of this. Although he's by no means a bad person, he has a fascination with violence and is the most willing of all the main characters to get brutal in combat.
• Badass Bookworm: Azuma excels in both studies and combat. Tellingly, he's able to use his iron manipulation abilities to create sophisticated machinery like firearms and motorcycles at a moment's notice.
• Best Friend: Tokio's beloved best friend and personal hero.
• Birds of a Feather: While his relationship with Ely seems to intentionally evoke Opposites Attract, Azuma and Ely are actually very similar when you get down to it. They're both intelligent, have strong moral compasses, are extremely stubborn, and, underneath the surface, are both deeply insecure about themselves. While they both certainly come from two different walks of life, they're really not as different as you would initially think.
• Blood Knight: Azuma has a fascination with war and seems to actively enjoy violence. However, after he awakens as a chouijn, he makes an active effort to keep his violent outbursts in check. He's certainly getting better at it, although it's still a work in progress.
• Broken Ace: While Azuma, on the surface, is an ideal kid who has his entire life figured out, deep down he's a total mess of insecurities who is emotionally dependent on his best friend for the sake of keeping up his self-esteem.
• Can't Take Criticism: Actually averted. Despite Azuma being a rather prideful person who is extremely self-conscious with how other people see him, he's surprisingly receptive to critcism. When Sandek talks to Azuma in chapter 24 about his personal failings, Azuma takes it with zero hesitation, making it clear that he doesn't blind himself to his own flaws. Furthermore, Ely's willingness to call him out on his behavior is indicated to be a big part of why Azuma develops romantic feelings for her. While Azuma is prideful, it's largely based on his father's lessons to him that he needs to take the right path in life, and he needs to take accountability for when he does screw up, even if it's not easy for him.
• Celibate Hero: In the first chapter, Tokio makes a point of telling his sister that the girls all swoon over Azuma, though for Azuma's part he doesn't seem particularly interested in girls. When one of his friends in chapter 18 suggests that he try getting with a girl, Azuma laughs it off. In chapter 26, when Ely and Momoma are swimming in the ocean, Azuma is more interested in building a sand castle than in watching the girls (unlike Tokio and Simon). Ironically, Azuma is the first character to explicitly confess his feelings for a girl. The fact that he falls for Ely despite not normally being interested in girls makes it clear that he's attracted to her personality rather than her appearance.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Azuma is a believer in his father's philosophy: "To shirk justice is cowardice." A key part of Azuma's character is his fear of making the "wrong" decision, and as such he makes an active effort to put himself on the line for others, believing that doing anything else would be cowardice on his part.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: It's subtle, but early on Azuma seems to develop some jealousy towards Ely for taking Tokio's attention away from him, with Azuma privately expressing his frustration that he's being "left behind" by Tokio. Tellingly, when Azuma goes into chaos state he immediately goes for Ely, indicating that he's completely letting out his pent-up jealousy. After Tokio beats him and pulls him out of chaos state, however, Azuma and Ely do make amends. This whole dynamic between the three of them does a 180 after the timeskip, with Azuma feeling jealous of Tokio for being close friends with Ely. With Azuma confessing that he has romantic feelings for Ely, one can retroactively look back at Azuma's interactions with both of them after the timeskip and tell that he's terrified of the idea that Ely might see him as "less" than Tokio. Once Azuma and Tokio finally start opening up to each other again, Azuma comes clean to Tokio about having feelings for Ely, and you can tell by Tokio's face that he understands exactly where Azuma is coming from. From that point on, he acts far more mature and rational about Tokio and Ely being friends, indicating that his previous jealousy was a result of his deepseated insecurities causing him to overanalyze the situation.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Always Someone Better best friend archetype. Compared to most of these character archetypes drifting apart because the friend takes their own path into darker territory, this friend is so reliant on the protagonist being there for him that Tokio taking his own path drives Azuma into a co-dependent Inferiority Superiority Complex that creates a larger gap between the two as the story progresses. It takes beating the crap out of each other to finally air their emotions out and reconcile, but it's taken as the pair venting and opening up rather than closing in further on themselves or one having to rescue the other.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: A more minor example, Tokio beating Azuma in their fistfight seems to help the two of them deal with their turbulent emotions toward each other. Azuma is actually able to show vulnerablity to Tokio after their fight, coming clean to him about having romantic feelings for Ely. Granted, it's clear that the issues between the two of them still aren't resolved, but it's certainly still a step in the right direction.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Azuma is an iron choujin, allowing him to manipulate metal and re-shape it at will. He seems particularly fond of chains, though he also uses it to create armor as well as a motorcycle.
• Fatal Flaw: Lack of self control. For all of Azuma's talents, he frequently lets his insecurites dominate him and seems to base his life around the expectations of others. When he's awakened to his powers as a choujin, Azuma goes into chaos state, lashing out at Tokio over his jealousy of him and committing random violence against those around him. Although he does make an active effort to improve himself from that point on, he still does frequently let his insecurities and his enjoyment of violence get the better of him. When he and Ely are saving a plane from the Tower, for example, Azuma shows more focus on taking down his enemies than he does on saving civilians, to the point that Ely has to remind him that the civilians' safety should be their first concern. Later on, Azuma actually goes against orders from his higher-ups by going to Minami for the sake of trying to prove to himself that he's better than Tokio.
• Foil:
  • With Tokio, although the two of them turn out to be far more similar than you would initially expect. Tokio at the start of the story lives in Azuma's shadow and considers him to be his personal hero. In his mind, he's just a vulture living off of the lion's scraps. In actuality, Azuma under the surface is a hot mess of insecurities and is just as emotionally dependent on Tokio as Tokio is on him. Both of them express their insecurities in two very different ways. Tokio became withdrawn and meek so that he won't screw up and disappoint others. Azuma became standoff-ish and eager to please while being just as terrified of disappointing others. While Tokio decides to take a leap of faith and goes off to Iwato to get stronger and stop Sora's prophecy, Azuma does what's expected of him and stays in Yamato Mori. Both of them end up developing two very different mindsets. Tokio above all else wants to avoid being too scared to make a decision, believing that nothing will go right unless he tries to take a chance. Azuma, meanwhile, lives his life trying to avoid making the wrong decision, always thinking long and hard about what the "right" choice is. Both mindsets are shown to have their pros and cons. On one hand, Azuma misses out a lot of opportunities that someone like Tokio probably would have gotten. On the other hand, Tokio is shown to make a lot of mistakes that someone like Azuma probably wouldn't have made.
  • With Ely. Ely is the daughter of a criminal and grew up poor in the countryside while Azuma is the son of a cop and is indicated to have come from at least a decently well-off family. Azuma has a complex around becoming a "protector of justice" like his father while Ely has a complex around not becoming like her mother. Ely bases her morality around her personal values while Azuma bases his morality around society's values (The two of them do share something of a Black-and-White Morality mindset, albeit with different criteria on what a "bad" versus "good" person is). Azuma is indicated to be religious, as evidenced by him tuning in to a Christian prayer broadcast and praying when he comes upon a dead body. Ely is an atheist who believes that all things of the Earth belong to the Earth—nothing more nothing less. Azuma is a creator choujin whose performance in combat revolves around utilizing his powers in creative and inventive ways. Ely meanwhile is a thief choujin whose performance in combat revolves around depriving other people of their powers and making them her own. Tellingly, the two of them have polar opposite reactions to Sora's offer. Azuma is won over by her ideology and urges Tokio to accept her powers as his own. Ely completely shuts down the discussion and refuses to even entertain the idea, noting that Sora has killed hundreds if not thousands for a prophecy which might not even be true. It's worth mentioning that it develops into an Opposites Attract situation from Azuma's end, although it isn't known if Ely feels the same way about him.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Although a genuine friend to Tokio, Azuma has always held a lot of deep-seated jealousy towards him, but always bottled it up instead of actually expressing it. Eventually, he developed an outright Inferiority Superiority Complex, basing his entire self-esteem around Tokio's reliance on him. Considering the symbolism with Azuma coming across the hyena being devoured by birds, it's heavily implied Azuma's scared of Tokio no longer needing him and leaving him behind, which is one of the reasons he's so hurt by Tokio going off on his own over the Time Skip.
• Hidden Depths: Azuma's initially presented as a flat-out Nice Guy who, in contrast to Tokio, has his shit completely figured out. Once the reader gets a proper look at who he really is under the surface, it becomes abundantly clear that he's just as much of an insecure mess Tokio, if not moreso.
• Hypocrite: He calls Tokio out for trying to save the chaosified hyena choujin rather than going in for the kill as per Yamato Mori guidelines. However, once Azuma realizes that said choujin is Palma, someone he's personally met, he (after a push from Ely) agrees to help Tokio save her. Despite Azuma's belief in the justice of the system, he really isn't able to live up to those beliefs when it comes to a matter he's personally involved in.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: When Tokio awakens as a choujin while Azuma (seemingly) is unaffected by XEMBER, Azuma is evidently very jealous of Tokio and feels extremely insecure over the prospect of no longer being Tokio's "hero." In a case of Be Careful What You Wish For, Azuma does get his wish of becoming a choujin, but he awakens under horrible circumstances and goes on a chaos-induced rampage, with several innocent bystanders getting caught in the crossfire. It ends up being a major wake-up call for Azuma that forces him to confront his own personal failings, with him outright asking Tokio to kill him if he ever goes on a rampage like that again.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Azuma early on is indicated to be extremely popular at school, and as such has no shortage of female admirers. However, he ends up falling for Ely in the end because, unlike most girls he comes across, she actually gives him shit when he needs it and actively demands for him to be better when he screws up.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: A core part of Azuma's character. While Azuma seemingly has his life figured out, under the surface he's filled with insecurities, particularly over wanting to remain as Tokio's personal hero and not be left in his own friend's shadow.
• Irony:
  • At one point, Tokio is considered similar to a vulture, for "picking up the scraps" Azuma leaves behind. Tokio is completely fine with this, and Azuma ends up calling him out to think for himself. And yet Azuma secretly and unwittingly depends on Tokio being there to help keep up his Inferiority Superiority Complex so that he can function, demonstrating that deep down he meant that a lot less than he thought he did without even realizing it.
  • After jumping in during Tokio's battle with a chaosified Palma, Azuma goes straight in for the kill and attempts to put her down before she can cause any collateral damage from those nearby. When Tokio responds with horror, Azuma criticizes him for not following the keepers' guidelines handling chaosification. This is in spite of the fact that Azuma himself awakened to his powers as a choujin under similarly violent circumstances.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Azuma has a lot of issues under the surface, which frequently leads to him lashing out at or even hurting those around him, especially when it comes to Tokio. Despite his many flaws, however, it's clear that at the of the day Azuma genuinely wants to do the right thing and become a better person, even if that's not an easy task for him.
• Like an Old Married Couple: He and Ely, while genuine friends, are constantly bickering and butting heads. After all, both of them are just as stubborn as each other. Appropriately enough, Azuma develops a massive crush on Ely because, unlike most girls he comes across, she actually gives him shit when he messes up and actively demands him to do better.
• New Friend Envy: Azuma gets very uncomfortable over Tokio's and Ely's friendship throughout the first couple of volumes. Given Azuma's deep-seated insecurity over remaining Tokio's "hero," it doesn't escape his notice when Tokio starts hanging out with Ely far more than him, with Azuma expressing his fear in private that he's being "left behind" by the two of them. Tellingly, when Azuma comes back from the dead after being killed by Umezawa and enters chaos state, as soon as he takes out Ricardo and Umezawa he goes straight after Ely and punches her through the chest. In a very ironic twist, this dynamic actually flips as the series goes on, with Azuma eventually falling for Ely and getting very insecure over her friendship with Tokio, in no small part because of Azuma's inferiority complex towards Tokio.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After joining Yamato Mori, Azuma takes a walk on the beach, at which point he discovers the corpse of the hyena he met earlier being pecked apart by birds. Azuma completely freaks out and chases the birds away before sobbing while cradling the hyena's body.
• Opposites Attract: Azuma develops feelings for Ely, with her straightforward, honest personality completely contrasting his serious-minded and insecure nature. With that being said, the two of them actually have a lot more similarities than one might initially expect, such as a similar moral compass and intolerance for those who hurt others, even if Ely struggles with it far less than Azuma does.
• Out of Focus: An interesting example where it's done deliberately. Although the first chapter makes it clear that Azuma is going to be an important character and his friendship with Tokio is going to be a major driving force in the narrative, he's noticeably not really a part of the story in the first couple of arcs. He isn't really involved with Yamato Mori, and he's pretty much only seen interacting with Tokio. Effectively, the reader initially only sees Azuma through Tokio's perspective. Tokio puts Azuma on a pedestal, and as such completely overlooks his best friend's flaws. From the Moon Beast arc onwards, however, Azuma gets a lot more focus, allowing the reader to see the person Azuma really is underneath his "perfect" exterior.
• Pet the Dog: In chapter 44, Azuma checks in on Tokio to comfort him after he seemingly hits a dead-end with his investigation. It's pretty refreshing to see Azuma making an active effort to reconnect with his best friend after more-or-less giving him the silent treatment since the timeskip.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Azuma feels deeply hurt after Tokio goes off to train on his own without telling him. It takes a while for the two of them to open up to each other again, but they do manage to somewhat break the ice between each other after a fistfight.
• Repression Never Ends Well: Azuma has a very unhealthy tendency to bottle up his emotions instead of legitimately dealing with them. This causes him to develop a major Inferiority Superiority Complex towards Tokio, basing his entire self-esteem around the perception Tokio (and later Ely) has of him. Tellingly, Azuma and Tokio breaking out into a fistfight is actively portrayed as a good thing for their friendship. The two of them are able to let out their feelings of resentment toward the other, in turn allowing them to start opening up to each other again.
• Senseless Sacrifice: He attempts to save Tokio from Umezawa by picking a fight with her but he expectedly doesn't stand much of a chance against her, prompting Umezawa to slice him into pieces after Azuma pisses her off. However, Azuma was in truth a choujin awakened by Noh Mask's drug, causing him to raise and go into chaos state.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Despite being an iron choujin, Azuma is capable of talking with hyenas. Exactly why this is the case is unknown.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Azuma has the ability to manipulate iron. After doing some research, he’s able to create fully functional firearms on a moment's notice.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Azuma is a... difficult person, to say the least. He's a neurotic insecure mess of a teenager, but he's by no means a bad person either. While it isn't too apparent at first, especially after the timeskip, Azuma does legitimately have a nice side underneath all his issues. It's probably best seen with Ely and, once they start talking again, with Tokio. He's somewhat subtle about it, but in chapter 38 he (in his own way) discourages Ely from overworking herself at her job and later tries to comfort Tokio when he seemingly messes up the plan with Nude. When you get down to it, Azuma is a flawed person who's really just trying his best, even if he does sometimes need those around him to set him straight when he messes up.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Upon realizing that Palma is the chaosified hyena Tokio's fighting against, Azuma puts aside his pride and teams up with him to save her. It's the first sign that, despite their falling out, Tokio's and Azuma's relationship isn’t past the point of no return.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Azuma awakens to his powers as a choujin after being brutally mauled, mutilated, and cut in half by Umezawa. Due to Azuma's pre-existing lack of self control, he immediately goes into chaos state and rampages across the city, severely injuring and/or killing several civilians before being stopped by Tokio. Once Azuma comes to his senses, he's horrified at what he did and realizes that he needs to keep his impulses in check, to the point that he actually asks Tokio to kill him if he ever tries anything like that ever again.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With his partner Ely. An omake in volume 7 shows the two of them furiously arguing with each other, but it's clear that they're friends at the end of the day.
• You Remind Me of X: Sandek notes that Azuma reminds him of his younger brother, Batista, who is in fact the true identity of Noh Mask.

Palma Shishinegura

Palma Shishinegura

Zombie Maker Choujin / Hyena Choujin

^{Click here to see her chaos form}

A zombie-maker choujin who reanimates dead bodies and sells them on the black market for a living.

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• Adoptive Name Change: Her surname, "Shishinegura," is taken from a medical researcher who adopted Palma for a number of years.
• The Aloner: Palma witnessed her homeland literally cannibalize itself during her formative years, leaving her completely alone for much of her life. However, she met and befriended a medical researcher at one point, although it's heavily implied that something very tragic later happened to him, which Palma blames herself for.
• Animal Motifs: Hyenas. After being attacked by one of her zombies after it's enhanced with the Xember, Palma is forced to use the drug on herself to save her life, turning her into a hyena bestial choujin in the process. Hyenas are scavengers, which ties into how Palma quite literally collects dead bodies and reanimates them for a living.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Although she's effectively a necromancer, Palma is a remarkably compassionate person. With that being said, she certainly does have some... questionable ethics in regard to her zombies, as at no point does she seem to think she's doing anything wrong when she takes corpses from accidents and experiments on them to sell on the black market.
• Birds of a Feather: With Tokio. Both of them are very meek and awkward individuals with the ability to transform into a scavenger animal. Both of them are also rather perverted underneath their shy exterior. Unsurprisingly, a romance subplot starts to develop between the two of them.
• Covert Pervert: In chapter 50, Palma tries to kiss Tokio while he's sleeping. Ely actually calls her a creep for trying to do that without his consent.
• Damsel in Distress: Palma and Tokio meet when Tokio rescues her when she goes into chaos state and then saves her from Batista. And in classic Rescue Romance fashion, this causes Palma to fall for Tokio.
• Exotic Eye Designs: After Palma injects herself with XEMBER in a last-ditch effort to save her own life, she develops strange Y-shaped pupils. It seems to be related to her ability to control the undead, as her eyes glow when she orders Nude to participate in the fight against Cabirol.
• Foil: To Ely. Both of them are immigrants from outside Yamato, yet while Ely arrived through entirely legitimate avenues, Palma got there illegally via swimming across an ocean. Moreover, both of them have completely opposing ideologies on life and death. Ely views life as belonging to the earth and death, although unfortunate, as something ultimately necessary to keep the world going. Palma, on the other hand, seems to regard life as the one thing a person can truly own and views death as a disease that ought to be eradicated.
• Hanging Around: Tokio and Azuma are able to force her out of chaos state by hanging her with chains created by Azuma.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Palma is absolutely desperate for any kind of companionship, to the point that she gives her zombies the nickname of "buddies," despite them being glorified meat puppets for the most part. Tellingly, she seems to emotionally latch on to Azuma after he gives her some onigiri which, for his part, was him going undercover and trying to use her as a source of intel.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: Palma has a huge crush on Tokio, but she doesn't think she has a shot with him due to his friendship with Ely. Due to Palma not really having much in the way of social skills given her background, she projects romantic interest between the two of them when that isn't really the case in reality. It takes Nude spelling out how Tokio and Ely blatantly aren't each other's type, becoming something of a Romantic Wingman for Palma to realize that she's exactly Tokio's type.
• It's All My Fault: She seems to blame herself for the implied death of her caretaker Shishinegura, as evidenced by a nightmare she has where his corpse curses her and tries to drag her down into some abyss.
• Magical Eye: For some reason, the shape of Palma's pupil changes when she's using her powers. What exactly this signifies is still unknown.
• Ms. Fanservice: She wears nothing but overalls when working on her zombies, showing off a lot of skin. In chapter 47, she's shown topless at the very end with nothing being left up to the imagination.
• Necromancer: She has the power to reanimate the dead as mindless zombies. Unlike most examples, however, Palma is also shown to be a deeply kindhearted individual, always making sure to treat her zombies with morphine so that they won't be in as much pain.
• No Poker Face: When Palma and Ely are playing a game of Old Maid, Ely is easily able to see straight through her based on her facial reactions.
• No Social Skills: Palma's shown to be very socially awkward, even beating out Tokio in this regard. Spending years living alongside dead bodies clearly didn't do her people skills any favors.
• Rescue Romance: Palma falls for Tokio after he saves her life and accepts her into Yamato Mori.
• Self-Harm–Induced Superpower: In order for Palma to reanimate the dead, she need to give up her own blood. In the case of bringing someone back to a near-lifelike state, it requires bringing serious bodily harm to herself. Unsurprisingly, Palma has lived a positively miserable life as a result of her powers.
• Shrinking Violet: Palma typically has a very meek personality as she rarely receives any attention from others.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Palma may be Shrinking Violet, but do not confuse that with being an Extreme Doormat. Keep in mind that this is a girl who witnessed her entire country cannibalize itself, swam across an entire ocean, and survived the cut-throat prefecture of Minami for years. When push comes to shove, Palma will push back.
• Sixth Ranger: Tokio, Ely, and Azuma are all introduced in the very first chapter. Palma isn't introduced until Chapter 36, yet since then has gotten far more focus than the large bulk of the supporting cast do, to the point that she's decidedly received the most development outside of only Tokio, Azuma, and Ely. Furthermore, like Tokio and Azuma, she inherited the powers of a Choujin X and has attracted the specific interest of Batista Hoshi. On top of that, she's shown alongside Tokio, Ely, and Azuma in a lot of promotional material. Overall despite her late introduction, the vast majority of the fanbase considers her to be the fourth main character.
• Sole Survivor: She's the only survivor from her homeland, Morth, after the people literally cannibalized themselves.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Palma's second awakening is, to put it bluntly, absolutely horrific. She's attacked and mutilated by her zombie and then, in a fit of desperation, injects herself with XEMBER. This gives her a bestial choujin ability, and forces her to go into chaos state. While it's not the first chaos state shown thus far, Palma is in total agony throughout the entire ordeal.
• Unwitting Pawn: It's all but explicitly stated that Batista knew there was a good chance that administering the Xember drug to Palma's zombies would go horribly awry, as shown by how he tries to kidnap her after she's forced out of her chaos state.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Although she works with Noh Mask, Palma is by no means a bad person, just being an innocent girl who's in way over her head. She's genuinely shocked to learn that the dead bodies he supplied her with were from murder victims, never once suspecting that Noh Mask had any unsavory intentions.

Yamato Mori

Leadership

Tsukiko Mado

Tsukiko Mado

Nightmare Choujin

A prophet who has authority over Yamato Mori.

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• Ambiguously Evil: While she certainly comes across as a Reasonable Authority Figure, A fragment of Batista's flashback shows her commanding Sandek to kill his brother. The lack of context makes it hard to definitively judge her, although it's definitely not a good look for her. However, it turns out to be a Bait-and-Switch, as Mado wasn't really ordering Sandek to kill him, only telling him to be prepared to do it in the future should Mado's prophecy concerning Batista come true. In Chapter 49, it's pretty much dispelled entirely. Prior to this point, the reader had always seen Mado through the perspectives of other characters, but once the reader sees Mado's side of the story, they quickly realize that they had simply been making assumptions about her and that she's in truth a very fair and reasonable leader.
• Arch-Enemy: Zora, unsurprisingly, absolutely despises Mado, as it was Mado's prophecies that led to Zora being expelled from the very organization that she founded.
• Big Good: She is The Leader of Yamato Mori, the organization that opposes the Big Bad Zora.
• Caring Gardener: In chapter 49, Mado is shown to enjoy gardening as a hobby. It's rather notable since, before this point, Mado was always framed as a distant and suspicious figure, so seeing her partake in an everyday hobby goes a long way in humanizing her.
• Duality Motif: She has a black-white motif, with her hair being black and white and split evenly in separate pigtails and her having heterochromia, with her left eye being light while her right eye is black.
• Once More, with Clarity: The schism between her and Sora is initially presented as a purely ideological disagreement in which Mado, implicitly painted as a kind of power-hungry usurper, stole Sora's own people from her. However, this is entirely Sora's version of the story and, surprisingly enough, she isn't exactly the most reliable source. Once the reader sees Mado's perspective, the entire schism is completely recontextualized. Mado's account of the events in chapter 49 paints the picture of a terrified child who watched her beloved hero and mentor slowly devolve into a monstrous, genocidal tyrant. Upon receiving a prophecy of the beast that Zora would become, a premonition backed up by Sora's own monstrous actions, Mado chose to stand up for what was right against overwhelming odds.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Although the story seems to deliberately frame Mado in a suspicious light for a considerable period of time, she ultimately turns out to be a very fair and reasonable leader. Even in the case of stopping Batista from being a choujin—by far Mado's most questionable decision—it's clear that she was at the very least trying to do right by him and was taking his own wellbeing into consideration.
• Seers: She gets premonitions of possible futures in her dreams.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Mado is seemingly set up as a morally ambiguous figure early on, especially as much of what the reader initially knows about her is based on information coming from Zora. However, as the reader learns more about Mado, the more it becomes clear that she's a reasonable and fair woman who legitimately wants the best for others. It's telling that even her most morally questionable action, forcing Batista to give up his career as a keeper, is still infinitely more benevolent than what her predecessor would have done in that exact same situation.
• The Stoic: She always has a stern, no-nonsense expression.

Sandek Hoshi

Sandek Hoshi

Gravity Choujin

The second-in-command at Yamato Mori.

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• The Ace: Sandek is probably the strongest non-X character in the series, and as such he serves as the central pillar holding up Yamato Mori.
• Big Brother Instinct: Batista's flashback shows that, back in the day, Sandek tried his hardest to support his younger brother in his ambitions.
• Big Damn Heroes: He saves Ely from Chandra in the second chapter, forcing the smoke choujin to run away to avoid being captured by Yamato Mori. Sandek swoops in to save Tokio, Ely, and Azuma from Zora and Batista. While Sandek ultimately isn't able to defeat Zora, the fact that he's able to do anything against a Choujin X is extremely impressive regardless.
• Cain and Abel: Sandek is the Abel to Batista's Cain. It's indicated that while they did get along at some point, a lot of unspecified stuff happened between them that caused them to go down two very different routes.
• The Cape: His design is very similar to that of a superhero's, and Sandek has just the heroic personality to match.
• The Fettered: Sandek is a major believer in the value of self-control, considering it essential that all choujin learn to keep their impulses in check.
• Gravity Master: As a gravity choujin Sandek has the power to manipulate gravity, allowing him to levitate nearby people and objects and throw them around at will.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: His goofy appearance aside, Sandek is repeatedly shown to be a genuinely heroic and kindhearted man.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Sandek was ordered to kill his younger brother Batista if Mado's prophecy about him comes true. Considering that Batista would later go down a very dark path as Noh Mask and that he's still alive, it clearly didn't pan out.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Sandek has an outright comically shaped jawline which fits squarely into his superhero aesthetic.
• Number Two: He's the second-in-command of the Yamato Mori, and the more hands-on of the organization's day-to-day activities.
• The Paragon: Sandek is considered Yamato Mori's shining becon, being its second-in-command and strongest member.
• Shipper on Deck: Sandek is pretty on-board with the idea of Tokio and Palma becoming a couple when he sees the two of them training together.

Ichiiro Sato

Ichiiro Sato

Image Transmitting Choujin

Sandek's top pupil who works as an officer at Yamato Mori.

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• Above Good and Evil: Sato explicitly lays out that, in his mind, he and the rest of Yamato Mori transcend the collective morality of society due to being choujin. As such, Sato has zero reservations about resorting to morally dubious tactics such as forcing Palma to mutilate herself in order to resurrect Nude.^note Although it is worth noting that Palma herself consented to this operation, Sato's lack of hesitation at ordering his subordinate to cut Palma's neck still shows a general lack of empathy on his part
  If we let ourselves be limited by collective morals, we'll come to a standstill, grow weak, and decline. We are choujin. We have a higher ethical viewpoint that transcends the law. We have the duty and qualifications to act as judges in this case.
• Cynical Mentor: He trains Tokio under his supervision during the Time Skip and is far less idealistic than his pupil.
• The Dreaded: Comedic example. Most keepers at Yamato Mori are scared shitless of him, and for very good reason.
• Establishing Character Moment: While Sato first appears a couple chapters prior, Sato's interrogation with Nari is the moment that really establishes the kind of person he is. Sato initially has an amicable chat with her while showing off his telepathy abilities. And then he describes how he plans to make her talk.
  "I will now transmit the image of countless fly eggs hatching inside each of your orifices while countless larvae crawl across your skin, slowly devouring you."
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Sato's usage of Mind Rape is frequently played for Black Comedy, though it's downplayed in that he does have a couple Pet the Dog moments here and there.
• Mentor Archetype: Sato becomes Tokio's mentor from the Time Skip onwards, leaving Yamato Mori for a year to personally train Tokio.
• Mind Rape: Sato has the power to transmit mental images. He certainly finds some rather... interesting uses for such a power.
• Non-Action Guy: Zigzagged. Sato claims he can't do much in a fight, and sure enough his abilities don't exactly let him do much physical damage to his enemies. Despite this, one could very easily make the argument that Sato's method for dealing with enemies is far scarier than any physical attack.
• Not So Above It All: While Sato's generally a pretty serious guy, he agrees to Ely's request to have some fun when they arrive on Ojima, even building a sand castle with Azuma.
• Psychic Nosebleed: Sato's nose frequently bleeds after using his powers, even being depicted covering up a nosebleed in official art.
• Trickster Mentor: When Tokio goes on the hunt for the Tower's poppy fields, Sato makes him think he has two weeks to operate when in reality he has a full month. In a conversation with Arthur, Sato says that he wants Tokio to feel extra pressure and show that he can operate under unreasonably tight deadlines.

Arthur One

Arthur One

Sand Choujin

Yamato Mori's Chief Administrator.

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• Mr. Exposition: He delivers a lengthy monologue about Sora's action during the War of Nanasu in chapter 38.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Arthur's shown to have a pretty good head on his shoulders, taking Tokio's constructive criticism of his plans pretty well and agreeing to adjust them.

Keepers

Simon Kagomura

Simon Kagomura

Sword Choujin

A keeper at Yamato Mori and Momoma's partner.

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• Big Damn Heroes: Kagomura makes his initial appearance by defeating Nari just as she's about to kill Tokio and Ely.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Non-romantic example. Kagomura is brooding, aloof, and business-like whereas his partner Momoma is sisterly, affectionate, and doting. It's downplayed as the series goes on, however, with Simon gradually loosening up around the others at Yamato Mori.
• Can't Catch Up: Lampshaded. While he and Momoma are still competent keepers, after the Time Skip they've begun to lag behind Ely and Azuma.
• Covert Pervert: In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in chapter 26, he actually joins Tokio in watching Momoma and Ely on the beach. And as it just so happens, the trail of Simon's thought-bubble is shaped like a heart. One can easily get the impression that Simon has a bit of a crush on his partner.
• Cracks in the Icy Façade: As the series goes on, the more it becomes clear that, underneath his stoic and self-serious demeanor, Simon is honestly just a very socially awkward guy who has trouble connecting with people and gradually learns to ease up around others.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Tokio. After their repeated missions together, Simon begins to let down his cold exterior around him and loosen up a bit.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Simon tends to keep people at an arm's distance, but it's clear that he's a good person when you get down to it. While training on Ojima island, Simon sets some time aside to help Tokio with his training and even expresses genuine excitement at watching Tokio improve.
• Manly Tears: When Tokio, Ely, and Azuma are kidnapped by Noh Mask, Simon cries as he notes that he promised Tokio that he'd protect him.
• Not So Stoic: While Simon keeps up a very serious and business-like exterior, he's actually shown to be rather socially awkward underneath. In chapter 43, for example, Simon simply expresses shock in silence as Momoma divulges some major Brutal Honesty to Azuma and Tokio. He even comments afterward that she can be a real piece of work at times.
• Power Tattoo: The "Loaned Sword" that he can summon come from the Kagomura clan tattoos inked onto his skin. Each corresponds to a different blade from one of his ancestors and is summoned by him touching said tattoo.
• Serious Business: An omake for volume 7 has Simon going to a donut shop to buy something for Tokio. He gets really worked up when he can't figure out which one Tokio would want.
• Signature Headgear: He's almost always wearing his officer cap, a sign of his authoritative and professional demeanor. Notably, he starts wearing it less once he Took a Level in Kindness and becomes more friendly towards Tokio.
• Sole Survivor: Downplayed. The majority of his clan was killed in an attack lead by a Nue Chimera looking to take their powers. As one of the very few remaining, Simon has dedicated his life to trying to prove the worth of his family line ever since.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: His choujin powers allow him to manifest swords from out of thin air.
• The Worf Effect: While Simon's first appearance has him easily defeating Nari, he gets hit with this hard as the series goes on. Simon loses against Shiozaki in his chaos state, Azuma in his chaos state, and is on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle from Noh Mask. It gets to the point where Sato even chides him and Momoma for falling behind Ely and Azuma.

Maiko Momoma

Maiko Momoma

Super Strength Choujin

A keeper at Yamato Mori and Kagomura's partner.

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• Big Sister Instinct: She becomes friends with Ely after taking her under her wing to teach her how city life works.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Non-romantic example. Momoma is sisterly, affectionate, and doting whereas her partner Kagomura is brooding, aloof, and business-like.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She has a buxom figure, which is one of the reasons Tokio is so attracted to her and Ely expresses some A-Cup Angst when she compares herself to her.
• Can't Catch Up: Lampshaded. While she and Kagomura are still competent keepers, after the Time Skip they've begun to lag behind Ely and Azuma.
• Gaslighting: A rare benevolent example in chapter 43. Momoma tells both Tokio and Azuma individually that they solely are responsible for their falling out and as such they are obligated to reach out to the other. It ends up being a much-needed wakeup call that pushes both of them to finally get over themselves and start making amends with each other. Additionally, both Tokio and Azuma admit that they're waiting for the other to open up to them, heavily implying that they'd continue being in limbo with each other indefinitely if Momoma didn't step in and set them straight.
• Ms. Fanservice: Momoma has a very curvaceous figure, which is emphasized during the Beach Episode. Part of the reason why Tokio has a big crush on her.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite her Super-Strength powers, she doesn't grow any muscles and still looks like a rather slim girl.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Momoma has pink hair and has a very sweet personality.
• The Social Expert: Momoma is clearly the most emotionally mature and stable of the gang, both being able to handle her own life really well and having enough sense to set the others straight when they need it.
• Super-Strength: Her powers grant her super strength, although she's rather embarrassed by it.
• Troubled Fetal Position: On the cover of Volume 9, Momoma is depicted sitting in a fetal position with a melancholic expression and a bloody handprint on her chest.
• Waif-Fu: Momoma's physical strength far exceeds what you'd expect from her slim frame.
• The Worf Effect: While not quite to the extent of her partner, Momoma loses most of her onscreen battles, losing against a chaosified Shiozaki and Azuma respectively. It even gets to the point where Sato chides her and Simon for falling behind Ely and Azuma.

Michael

Michael

Psychic Choujin

A keeper at Yamato Mori. A psychic choujin and Michelangelo's partner.

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• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He immediately starts giving Tokio a hard time as soon as he returns from Iwato. However when he, Tokio, and Michelangelo work together on a recon mission, Michael begins to show that he's honestly a pretty alright guy. Even Michael's initial resentment of Tokio is clearly more out of respect for Arthur than anything else, taking it as a personal attack when Tokio criticizes his mentor's plans.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's far more energetic and abrasive than his friend Michelangelo.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: It's shown that the offscreen battle against Zora did a huge number on Michael, as he starts drifting into a traumatic flashback when looking up at Omega Tower.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Surprisingly averted. While he and Tokio certainly start off on the wrong foot, as they continue working together during the mission in Minami the two of them eventually manage to hit it off pretty well.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Insect Choujin

A keeper at Yamato Mori. An insect choujin and Michael's partner.

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• Friend to Bugs: His choujin powers allow him to communicate with bugs and work with them to his advantage.
• Nice Guy: He's much nicer and friendly towards Tokio than Michael is.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the calmer, more collected counterpart to his friend Michael.

The Tower of Mourning

Zora

Sora Siruha

Choujin X

^{Click here to see her current appearance}

The leader of the Tower of Mourning. The founder of Yamato Mori who protected the land of Yamato from Queem, she is the Choujin X of the previous generation.

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• A God Am I: A more subtle and downplayed example. The halo Sora wears is adorned with spikes, harkening to the crown of thorns Christ wore during the Crucifixion. Sora as a woman of God doesn't view herself as any sort of divine being. However, as the X and Yamato's hero Sora amassed a cult of personality who regarded as a god-like figure. Sora, believing it to be her duty, tried her best to live up to that image, further contributing to the downward spiral that brought her to where she is today.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Very much so. Zora is a borderline-psychopath who was twisted into what she currently is by her trauma at the hands of Queem, a lifetime of relying on prophecies, debilitating drug addiction, degrading sanity, and a massive savior complex. In spite of all of her horrid actions, Zora is ultimately a deeply tragic and pitiable character.
• Bad Boss: While chasing Tokio, Ely, and Azuma, Zora is so fixtated on catching them that she crushes several of her followers beneath her. Over the Time Skip, Zora grows so desperate to find an heir for her powers that she attempts to bestow it onto her followers en masse, killing all of them. When Chandra protests, Zora takes it as a sign of rebellion and attempts to kill him as well.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: In a number of ways, Zora has become strikingly similar to her old enemy, Queem. Like Queem, Zora has lost control of her powers to the point that she's physically unable to return to her humanoid form and is entirely dependent on opiods to stave off the constant pain she experiences. Similarly, while Queem in his later days would attack civilians at random, seemingly as a result of his decaying sanity, Zora is also extremely prone to going on rampages, as shown by the battle before the Time Skip. It's shown via flashback that Sora herself was entirely aware that she was ultimately fated to walk in the same path as Queem. Despite knowing that she would one day forget who she was, she urged Cabirol to believe that, no matter what happened, Sora Siruha would always fight for the people.
• Big Bad: The main antagonist of the series, at least as of the current chapter.
• Brought Down to Badass: In her youth, Sora Siruha was an all-powerful choujin known as Choujin X who managed to defeat another Choujin X on multiple occasions. Her powers have waned considerably over the years and she's developed a crippling dependency on opiods, yet she's still easily the most powerful character active in the story. Tellingly, it took the entirety of Yamato Mori ganging up on her just to make Zora retreat.
• Combo Platter Powers: She's able to use the same abilities as several other characters, whether that be Tokio's beastification, Sandek's gravity, or Chandra's smoke. Justified, as many of them awakened their powers as choujin because of Zora.
  "She possessed the powers of divination, beastification, gravity manipulation, high-heat fumes, iron creation and modification... her abilities were endless. She unveiled each new power like a magician revealing one new trick after another."
• Creepy Catholicism: Zora invokes both this and Light Is Good. Zora is a former nun, and as such her appearance during her younger days invokes the image of an angel. By the time of the current story, however, Omega Tower is filled with decaying religious iconography, reflecting her own worsening mental state.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: She's done so many raises that she's become completely dependent on opioids to bear the intense pain.
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: Sora's tragic yet inevitable fate as a Choujin X. In her youth, Sora Siruha was a beautiful, angelic woman. As years of constant raises have eroded her mind, however, Sora was gradually reduced into a shell of her former self to the point that she's unable to leave chaos state—with her deformed appearance reflecting her decayed sanity.
• Evil Matriarch: Zora is the leader of the Tower of Mourning and is one nasty piece of work, to say the least. Trauma, drug addiction, paranoia, and an inflated ego all twisted Zora into being a self-righteous, delusional Knight Templar who is so deeply convinced in her own benevolence that she'll treat even the slightest defiance from her followers as a betrayal.
• Fallen Hero: The celebrated Choujin X who defended her homeland from Queem's invasion. As the years have gone by, Zora's mind has slowly decayed from overextending her powers, to the point where she's gone insane with paranoia over her prophecies.
• Freudian Excuse: Looking at her life as a whole, Zora's current state was, in all likelihood, inevitable from the very day Queem awakened her as a choujin. Sora foresaw Queem's massacre of her fellow clergymen yet was entirely powerless to stop it, instilling in her a deepseated faith in her own prophecies and a gripping paranoia of stopping anyone like Queem ever again rising up. Combine that with years of drug addiction, an inflated ego propped up by a cult of personality, and her overall decaying mental state, and it's really not hard to see how Zora was twisted into the pitiful monster she currently is.
• He Who Fights Monsters: As the hero who saved Yamato from Queem's conquest, Sora is determined to ensure that no tyrant on his level ever emerges again. However, she pursues this goal with so much fanaticism and single-mindedness that she herself became a tyrant no better than her old enemy. Worse yet, if Mado's prophecies are to be taken at face value, then despite Zora is the very calamity she's so obsessed with stopping but is so blinded by her warped mind that she's unable to see it.
• Irony: When Zora meets with the main trio at Omega Tower, the one who is the most sympathetic to her ideology is Azuma, who is heavily implied to have inherited Queem's powers. The one who is the least sympathetic to Zora's ideals is Ely whose powers are the exact opposite of Queem's. Furthermore, while Tokio and Azuma both had their powers awakened through the help of an individual from outside of the Tower (Noh Mask), Ely was awakened through the actions of Chandra Hume—one of Zora's most devout and fervent followers.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Sora is the individual chosen as the X, and this title has brought her nothing but genuine misery. Having witnessed Queem murder her entire procession of clergy when she was but a teenager, Sora was instilled with a deepseated trauma that taught her to trust her own prophecies above anything and, thanks her immense power upon raising, Sora believed that she personally had the duty to ensure that none of her prophecies came to pass. When Sora received the vision that her comrade and friend, Antitise, would one day become a tyrant who brings ruin to Yamato, Sora was brought to the point of tears yet still resolved to raise an army against Antoland and slaughter Antitise's entire bloodline. She's ultimately a deconstructed example, as Sora's status as the X twisted her into the tyrant she is today.
• Jeanne d'Archétype: Sora is a woman of God who was bestowed with the power of foresight and raised an army against Queem's onslaught when she was only 18 years old. However, Sora's arguably a rare a deconstructed example. Whereas Saint Joan of Arc was a major leader and symbol for her conflict, she was still seen as a servant of God. Sora, however, amassed a Cult of Personality who worshipped and idolized her as though she were God. This, alongside her own trauma, drug addiction, and declining sanity, instilled within her a messiah complex which caused her to accept her own prophecies as fact without question. However, it is heavily implied that Sora's prophecies over time became drastically distorted by her own deluded mind, prompting her to commit horrid atrocities for the sake of preventing prophecies which, in all likelihood, aren't even true.
• Knight Templar: Zora is so convinced in their prophecies' truthfulness that she'll unhesitatingly commit horrible atrocities before considering the possibility that her prophecies might be wrong, to the point that she commits genocide.
• Moral Myopia: Zora is so far gone that she genuinely, truly cannot understand why anyone would be opposed to what she's doing. In chapter 34 when she encounters Sandek, she goes on a tangent about how they're all being lead astray by Mado and questioning how Yamato Mori could possibly have turned against her. It's especially glaring once the reader finds out the real reason behind the schism is that Zora devolved into a tyrant who committed genocide for a prophecy that might not even be true. The fact that Zora is so far gone that she can't wrap her head around such a blatant, obvious reason for why Mado would turn against her is just... genuinely sad. Zora is so lost in her own, messed-up world that she's completely disconnected from reality.
• Odd Friendship: Despite their wildly contrasting personalities, Sora seems to have held a genuine friendship with her comrade-in-arms Antitise. Although Sora did ultimately take Antitise's life after receiving a premonition that he would one day become an enemy, Sora made it clear that she took no pleasure in cutting down her comrade, even being brought to the point of tears.
• Orcus on His Throne: Justified. She doesn't have any reason to personally attack the heroes, as she wants her followers to find a suitable heir for her powers. Furthermore, Zora is so powerful that she lives in a tower overlooking a major city, and Yamato Mori is absolutely unable to do anything about it.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Naturally, as Zora received the title of Choujin X for her immense power. She's easily the strongest character in the story, and she was even more powerful in her younger days, surpassing even Queem on the battlefield.
• Tragic Villain: At her core, Sora Siruha is simply a broken woman who has been reduced to a miserable, barely-lucid shell of her former self by the inevitable marches of time. It's really hard not to feel some pity for her situation, especially as she was sent down this path by genuine good intentions.
• Villains Out Shopping: An omake in volume 6 shows Zora and Chandra playing a game of rock-paper-scissors. Zora actually turns out to be quite the Sore Loser.
• Was Once a Man: While she currently looks like a grotesque Eldritch Abomination, she once looked like a regular human being. Using her choujin powers to this extent did a huge number on her.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Deconstructed. Zora's intentions, from her perspective, truly are in Yamato's best interests, but they're still just that—intentions. The actual cause said intentions support is completely delusional and futile, taking thousands upon thousands of innocent lives in order to stop a prophecy that's heavily implied to not even be true. Zora is fundamentally incapable of considering the possibility that her prophecies might be wrong.^note Undoubtedly a result of her decaying mind and her trauma from being unable to stop her fellow clergymen's death at Queem's hands when she was a teenager. Part of what makes Zora so messed up is that she wholeheartedly believes that what she's doing is right, with her atrocities being spurned on by her very own conscience. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, after all, and Zora is well on her way there.
• Winged Humanoid: Sora oftentimes used partial beastification to give herself wings resembling those of an angel. It's indicated to be somewhat performative on her part to live up to her followers' image of the X as a divine figure.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Zora's tragic yet inevitable fate.

Chandra Hume

Chandra Hume

Voiced by: Tōru Ōkawa (vomic)

Smoke Choujin

An officer of the Tower of Mourning who awakened Ely's powers as a choujin when carrying out a terrorist attack on a plane.

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• Arch-Nemesis: To Ely, being the one who awakened her powers and killed several people in front of her. Even after Chandra loses his powers, Ely still wants to put him behind bars.
• Brain in a Jar: Chandra explodes into a bloody mess after taking Xember. However, Yubiko, who allegedly just so happened to be walking by, comes across Chandra's still-living head and stores it in a jar in her apartment. As you might expect, Chandra isn't exactly pleased.
• Break the Haughty: And how. At the start of the story, Chandra is a pompous, self-important man who takes great pride in serving Zora. And then he's defeated by Ely and Tokio, has his powers stolen, is exiled from the Tower of Mourning, and goes into poverty. And then he's blown up after using the Xember drug on himself in a last-ditch effort to get his powers back, only for Yubiko to come across his still-living head and keep it suspended in a jar.
• Butt-Monkey: While he's a serious threat, his defeats always tend to be humiliating, which is played for laughs due to his arrogant personality.
• Character Development: Chandra surprisingly goes through a lot of growth over the course of the series. He starts off as a rather comical, yet completely unhinged villain who bases his entire identity around his devotion to Zora. Then in the Beast Island arc, Chandra loses everything after beign defeated by Ely. He's deprived of his powers, and by extension his usefulness to Zora, and then over the timeskip Zora exiles him from the Tower for daring to question her. As a result, Chandra now lives out a sad, lonely life as one of the "humans" he once thought himself so superior to. However, Chandra's story doesn't end there. When approached by the Tower to inject himself with XEMBER and possibly become a choujin again, Chandra jumps on it in a heartbeat to get a shot at serving Zora again. It horribly backfires, causing him to explode and seemingly die. In a twist of luck, his (still-living) severed head is picked up by Yubiko, who places him in a jar for her own amusement so she can see if he can regenerate from his injuries. After four months of torment from Yubiko, Chandra is eventually able to regain (most) of his body. One day, a half-dead Yubiko comes back and collapses in front of him, allowing Chandra to break free. However, instead of merely running for the hills like he would have done earlier, Chandra actually shows compassion to Yubiko and helps bandage up her injuries. When he's about to leave, Chandra realizes that there's nothing waiting for him in the outside world. He's useless to Zora, and as such he has no purpose in life anymore. Instead, he stays with Yubiko, and the two of them bask in their fucked-up relationship together.
• Covert Pervert: When bandaging up an unconscious Yubiko, Chandra shows an interest in her panties but doesn't take it any farther than that.
• Depower: After Chandra is defeated by Ely and Tokio, Ely ends up absorbing Chandra. While Chandra is eventually released due to Zora intervening, in the process he's completely lost his powers as a choujin.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Chandra is the final major opponent Tokio and Ely face prior to the Time Skip. While they and Azuma do come into conflict with Noh Mask and Zora shortly thereafter, the heroes don't actually try to fight them^note Justified, of course, as Zora is far too powerful for them to put up any kind of fight against.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Despite his less savory attributes, Chandra is shown to genuinely care about his "mother" Zora, comforting her after her defeat at the hands of Yamato Mori.
• Foil:
  • Fittingly as the man who awakened her as a choujin, with Ely Otta. Both of them are Hot-Blooded and use the exact same powers, but the similiarities end there. Chandra, like the rest of the Tower, subscribes to an "ends justify the means" mindset, outright performing terrorist attacks in an attempt to fulfill Sora's prophecy. Ely considers murder to be indefensibly wrong and refuses to budge on the issue any further. Chandra is an Upper-Class Twit who, despite his tendency to fly off the handle, prides himself on being cultured and "beautiful." Ely is a Country Mouse and, at least pre-timeskip, typically wears cheap lower-class clothing to save on money. Chandra is a fervent adherent to Zora's religion and has devoted his life to making her ideals a reality. Ely is an atheist who believes that all things of the Earth belong only to the Earth, nothing more nothing less. Additionally, out of all the protagonists, Ely is the most diametrically opposed to what Zora stands for. Rather than basing her worldview off of another person's ideals, Ely's morality is based entirely on her own personal moral code.
  • Surprisingly enough, to Tokio. At the start of the story, Chandra centers his entire sense of self around Zora, just as Tokio does with Azuma. Tokio is eventually forced to stop relying on after becoming a choujin, before slowly discovering his own identity. In a mirror of Tokio's arc, Chandra is forced to stop relying on Zora after becoming a human and losing usefulness to her. Just like Tokio, Chandra is forced to confront how empty his life is outside of Zora, and gradually starts to carve out his own independent sense of self beyond her.
• Glass Cannon: In his character profile in volume 2, Chandra is shown to have high stats across the board... with the notable exception of having an extremely low endurance stat. And sure enough, a single punch from an unbeastified Tokio is enough to hurt him.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He flies off the handle extremely easily.
• Hidden Depths: Chandra's loyalty to Zora is initially presented as a redeeming quality to an otherwise thoroughly unhinged (but funny) individual. As time goes on, however, it becomes clear that Chandra genuinely has zero purpose in life beyond serving her. Once he's cast out by Zora, Chandra is left with nothing to live for. Rather than his story ending there, however, Chandra is forced to develop a sense of self beyond her and discover his own purpose in life.
• Laughably Evil: While Chandra may fly off the handle at the slightest provocation, the guy's so over-the-top with his mannerisms that he becomes a source of comedy.
• Lean and Mean: He's quite lanky and is very mean to boot.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Chandra is a sharply-dressed man who enjoys fine dining and drinking expensive wine on his off-hours. It makes his massive anger issues stick out all the more.
• Minor Insult Meltdown: Even the tiniest insult will send Chandra into a blind rage.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Over the Time Skip, Zora grows increasingly desperate and attempts to bestow her powers en masse to her followers, killing all of them. Chandra pleads with her to stop this pointless death, only for Zora to see his protests as rebellion and attempt to kill him. Chandra (somehow) manages to escape, but he's entirely stripped of his position in the process.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After Zora's defeat at the hands of Yamato Mori, Chandra stands by her side and comforts her, showing that, if nothing else, he truly does care about her.
  • Despite all the torment Yubiko had put him through, she still did save his life. When she's on death's door, Chandra chooses to return the favor by bandaging up her wounds. Furthermore, while he does express some physical attraction towards her, he doesn't act on it at all, making it clear that he isn't a creep.
• Riches to Rags: Chandra begins to live paycheck-to-paycheck working at an Udon shop after being exiled from the Tower of Mourning. And that's not even mentioning how he's currently a still-breathing severed head living in Yubiko's apartment.
• Seers: In Chapter 50, it's revealed that, in spite of the side effects, the XEMBER actually did work on Chandra, with him now having similar powers of foresight as Zora and Mado.
• Ship Tease: And with the absolute last person you would expect. Despite him and Yubiko hating each other at first, when the two of them save each other's lives, they seem to form something of an actual friendship. Considering that this is on top of Chandra expressing some physical attraction toward her and the fact that Chandra is now living with her of his own volition, they come off more like an extremely dysfunctional couple.
• Super Smoke: Chandra is a smoke choujin, allowing him to manipulate superheated smoke at will.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: After he agrees to team up with Noh Mask to capture Tokio, Chandra is paired up with Yubiko and Hori, both of whom Chandra absolutely cannot stand.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Chandra losing everything and falling to the bottom honestly seems to have made him a better person. Despite everything Yubiko did to him, he shows her compassion when she's at death's door.
• Undying Loyalty: Despite Chandra's temper and callousness, his devotion to Zora is unquestionably genuine. Even when Chandra is disgraced and exiled from the Tower by Zora over the timeskip, his devotion to her remains just as strong as ever, even risking his life when he consents to Ice treating him with XEMBER just so he can continue serving her.
• Villainous Friendship: It's the last thing you would expect, but he and Yubiko legitimately seem to become friends. Despite all her torment of him, she still did save his life, a favor which Chandra returns by saving hers. Although he initially tries to bail after that, he stays with her once he realizes that there's nothing waiting for him outside. After that, the two of them enjoy a nice smoke together, suggesting that they're starting to develop a genuine bond.
• Villains Out Shopping: An omake in volume 6 shows Chandra and Zora playing a game of rock-paper-scissors.
• Wardrobe Wound: Due to his pompous and arrogant nature, he gets very angry when his suit gets dirtied or damaged in combat.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: While Chandra initially seems like an unhinged lunatic who kills people for the hell of it, it's eventually revealed that he does genuinely support Zora's cause to find the "beast of prophecy" and use it to prevent the calamity, although Chandra easily loses sight of this due to his temper.
• Would Hurt a Child: He doesn't discriminate at all when picking out those to force into a chaos state. As the family of that poor kid who Ely borrowed a Roller-B from can attest to.

The Swordsman

An unnamed swordsman serving Zora.

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• Ambiguously Related: As a swordsman serving Zora, it's hinted that he might be related to the Kagomura clan, though it's not confirmed as of right now.
• Lady and Knight: The knight to Zora's lady. Though he's not so much her bodyguard (as Zora obviously isn't someone who needs that kind of protection) as much as he is her devoted servant.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He attempted to silence Nude by killing him but, unfortunately for the Tower, this had the effect of ensuring that Yamato Mori was able to find the Tower's poppy fields. As Palma was able to resurrect Nude as a sentient zombie, they were able to interrogate him for information while using his need for Palma's blood as leverage he couldn't afford to ignore.
• Number Two: He's all but outright stated to be Zora's right-hand man.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: It's indicated that he never truly recovered from the war against Queem, as to this day he's still incoherently rambling about "Guelta scum."

Elder Bador Vlad

Elder Vlad

A leader of the Tower of Mourning.

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• 0% Approval Rating: The rest of the Tower of Mourning pretty much hates him. When Batista discusses picking out a choujin test subject for them to use the refined Xember drug on, Tawashi suggests using Elder Vlad because no one would miss him if things went wrong.
• Bad Boss: Has Tawashi, Jing, and Ice tortured for screwing up their mission.
• The Dragon: To Zora, having been at her side since even the War of Nanasu.
• Irony: Zora is a former nun, yet Elder Vlad's chaos form is reminiscent of a demon.
• Undying Loyalty: He's wholeheartedly devoted to Zora.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Just like Zora, Vlad is permanently locked into his chaos form, and his mental state seems to be just as bad of a situation as hers.

Tawashi Minami

Tawashi Minami

Insect Choujin

A member of the Tower of Mourning.

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• Animorphism: She's a beast choujin who can shapeshift her body with mantis features and abilities.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: She's a Genki Girl who wears a midriff-baring outfit in contrast to her male partner who wears a sensible suit.
• Genki Girl: She's pretty upbeat, even as she's about to commit a terrorist attack on a civilian plane.
• A God Am I: A rare example that's Played for Laughs. Chapter 36 opens with her having a strange conversation with Jing about how she wants to become a god and assemble a harem of bodybuilders.
• Exotic Eye Designs: She has swirly eyes to illustrate her eccentric and upbeat personality.
• Laughably Evil: Very much so. Her Cloudcuckoolander antics are generally played for comedy.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to Jing's blue oni, being upbeat and energetic in contrast to his stoic, serious demeanor.
• The Worf Effect: She's quickly taken out by Ely, establishing how much stronger she's gotten over the Time Skip.

Jing

Jing

Modding Choujin

A member of the Tower of Mourning.

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• Comically Serious: He keeps a straight face even when falling out of a plane in midair.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue Oni to Tawashi's red, being serious and stoic in contrast to her energetic and upbeat demeanor.
• Treasure Chest Cavity: His choujin powers allow him to store at all sorts of objects inside his body, without any regard for his physiology, and he can pull them out at will.
• The Worf Effect: He's quickly taken out by Azuma, establishing how much stronger he's gotten over the Time Skip.

I. C. Ice

I. C. Ice

Freeze Choujin

A member of the Tower of Mourning.

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• Even Evil Has Standards: After administering Xember to Chandra causes him to explode into a bloody mess, Ice expresses disdain for Batista for using him as a test subject.
• An Ice Person: As a freeze choujin, he can manipulate ice.
• Punny Name: Icy Ice.
• Undying Loyalty: Just like Chandra, Ice is shown to be genuinely loyal to Zora.
• Villainous Friendship: He seems to have genuine respect for Chandra, even expressing some actual sympathy for him after he's seemingly killed by the Xember drug.
• Weaksauce Weakness: He has the power to manipulate ice, which ends up being melted by Ely's superheated smoke.

Cabirol 16

Cabirol 16

Golem Choujin

The caretaker of Zora's poppy field.

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• Depower: After Tokio knocks him off of one of his golems, Ely gets the jump on him and steals his power.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: He's apparently a man, though you wouldn't think that at first glance.
• Legacy of Service: According to him, he comes from a long line of servants to Sora Siruha.
• Undying Loyalty: He's fanatically devoted to Sora Siruha and gets extremely pissed at Ely disrespecting her.

Noh Mask's Contacts

Noh Mask (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Batista Hoshi

Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (vomic)

Nue Chimera

^{Click here to see him unmasked}

A mysterious individual responsible for a drug that forces those with aptitude into becoming choujin. Currently allied with the Tower of Mourning. He is later revealed to be the younger brother of Yamato Mori's second-in-command, Sandek Hoshi: Batista Hoshi.

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• Affably Evil: Straddles the line between this and Faux Affably Evil. Batista has no qualms with killing teenagers and taking their powers, yet he has a rather sociable demeanor and oftentimes makes small talk to pass the time.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to Sandek's Abel. They actually used to get along quite well, but they ended up going down two very different paths in life.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Heavily implied. It's indicated that something happened to him that turned him into what he currently is, particularly concerning his wife Hartley, yet it isn't exactly clear what.
• Dragon with an Agenda: He may be working with Zora, but it's clear that his motives differ significantly from hers.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's clear that Batista genuinely, truly loves his wife Hartley. While his motives are still largely a mystery, it's heavily implied that he's doing this for her above all else.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: After kidnapping Tokio, Ely, and Azuma, Batista "jokingly" convinces Tokio that he killed his friends.
• Fallen Hero: Batista claims to Nari that he originally pursued research on the Ember drug in order to save someone, but he ended up going down a much darker path. His flashbacks indicates that this is entirely true, as Batista used to be a legitimate scientist who helped others by developing new medicines.
• Fantastic Drug: Noh Mask is the creator of Xember, a drug that turns those with aptitude into choujin using the blood of Zora herself.
• The Gadfly: He lies to Tokido that his friends have been killed just so he can laugh at his reaction.
• The Heavy: While Zora is the Big Bad that the story centers around and whom he himself works for, he still acts as the primary antagonistic figure in the story, being the one who interacts the most with the protagonist and having his backstory and plans being shrouded in mystery and slowly revealed as the plot progresses.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Exactly why he does the things he does are completely unknown.
• The Lost Lenore: Batista at one point was Happily Married to a woman named Hartley, with her supporting him in all of his endeavors. It's heavily implied that she was killed, but it isn't exactly clear how.
• Mad Scientist: Noh Mask is the individual responsible for the creation of the Xember drug, and seeks to bring it to its fullest potential. His flashback shows that Batista pursued a career in science after being forced to drop his future as a choujin, but had a lot of trouble finding support for his projects from Yamato Mori.
• Masking the Deformity: Underneath his mask, Batista's face is a grotesque amalgam of different eyes taken from those he's killed and crudely stitched together.
• Noose Necktie: Noh Mask is dressed in a business suit, which only makes the noose around his neck that much more noticeable.
• Power Parasite: A far more malicious example than Ely. Batista is a Nue Chimera: a choujin who hunts down powerful choujin, kills them, and surgically replaces his body parts with theirs. And judging by Batista's face, he has quite the kill count.
• Shadow Archetype: While he's still very much shrouded in mystery, there's some notable parallels between him and the main characters.
  • Paralleling Tokio's relationship to Azuma, Batista spent his formative years playing second best to his brother Sandek, and that was before he was forced to give up his future as a choujin. While Sandek was celebrated as the beacon of Yamato Mori, Batista was left in his shadow to the point that he was largely unknown.
  • Batista falling into obscurity while his brother achieved fame and success reflects Azuma's deepseated fear of being surpassed by Tokio, thus not living up to the expectations set up by those around him. Likewise, Batista seems to have developed a personal interest in Azuma, or at least in his powers. Batista is at one point watching an unsuspecting Azuma cry over a deceased hyena on the beach. Later on during the Tower arc, Batista is insistent on taking Azuma's powers for himself. To drive the point home, Sandek at one point even explicitly compares Azuma to his younger brother. Furthermore, Batista's profession as a scientist ties into Azuma's own academic prowess, being able to recreate complex machinery at a moment's notice using his powers.
  • Finally, just like Ely, Batista gets stronger by depriving other choujin of their powers, even if it's in a far more violent manner than what Ely does. While Ely is extremely hesistant on stealing powers from others, even returning them to her enemies after she defeats them, Batista has gone all-in on being a Nue Chimera, taking joy in finding a new power to add to his arsenal. Batista represents what Ely could one day become if she put her morality to the wind and fully embraced her nature as a thief.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: Batista's flashback indicates that he always felt like he was living in Sandek's shadow, which wasn't helped by Mado forcing Batista to give up being a choujin altogether.

Nari Tsumuji

Nari Tsumuji

White Snake Choujin

A choujin mercenary hired by Noh Mask.

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• Animal Motifs: Snakes, as she is a snake choujin who wears clothes with snake scales on them.
• Animorphism: She's a beast choujin who can shapeshift her body with snake features and abilities. In full beastification, she transforms into a giant white snake.
• The Berserker: Once she fully transforms into a giant snake, she loses a lot of her intelligence and just becomes a savage and berserk snake monstrosity.
• Big-Breast Pride: The "G" she has marked on her sports bra is her bragging about her cup size.
• Big Damn Heroes: A villainous example, as she rescues Jing and Tawashi just as they're about to be arrested by Azuma and Ely.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • She pretends to just be a normal girl when luring Tokio deeper into the Zoo, before revealing she's a choujin and attacking him.
  • After she's arrested, she attempts to pretend she was just being a "rough" mentor to Tokio as a fellow beast choujin, but everyone can tell she's obviously lying, even if they can't tell the exact nature of her employer.
• The Bus Came Back: She broke out of prison over the Time Skip and goes right back to working with Noh Mask.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Her large breasts are the first thing Tokio notices about her, and he tends to fixate on them whenever he talks about her.
• Faux Affably Evil: She initially acts playful and flirty with Tokio while trying to test him, but completely drops the friendliness when Ely pisses her off.
• Femme Fatale: She uses her feminine wiles in order to manipulate Tokio, stringing him along with her to explore an abandoned zoo as if they were on a date, but it's all so she can get the drop on him.
• Lust Object: Tokio can't help but remain attracted to her even after she reveals she's a hostile opponent, and he occasionally thinks about her even long after she's been defeated.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's a woman with a voluptuous figure and flirtatious demeanor whose jacket is zipped down in order to better show off her assets. Tokio even notes that Nari looks like a supermodel and can't help but be Distracted by the Sexy when around her.
• Nerves of Steel: Sato uses his psychic abilities to try to force her to confess who her employer is, making her have a living nightmare of larvas growing all over her skin. But her mental fortitude ends up surprising Sato and she endures the torture without telling him anything, though it does horrify her enough that she ends up fainting.
• The Paralyser: The snake head she creates have a poisononed bite with a paralyzing effect, though it takes several minutes for it to go active.
• Proud Beauty: She seems to greatly value her appearance, enjoying Tokio's flustered reactions towards her flirting, dressing provocatively, and putting on make-up even during important meetings with her superiors.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Tokio cries out for help during her "test," Nari delivers a very biting rant about how much she dislikes him. While it's certainly mean, she isn't exactly wrong about what she says.
  Seriously? You lack strength, ingenuity, even mutability, Most of all, you lack a sense of responsibility for your own life. You're ordinary. You've failed.
• Rebel Relaxation: She's often seen hanging around Noh Mask while casually leaning against the wall or other objects.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: She transforms her arms into an array of snake heads that she uses them as weapons, binding or bitting her opponents.
• Snakes Are Sexy: She's a snake choujin and is probably the most direct Ms. Fanservice in the series.
• Snakes Are Sinister: She's a snake choujin and one of the manga's villains.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: As a Snake Choujin, she can communicate with snakes.
• Snake People: Her partial beastification form has her lower half being snake while her upper half remains humanoid, much like a Lamia.
• Stripperriffic: Her outfit consists of a zipped-down jacket with nothing but black leather undergarments underneath, and she ditches the jacket the moment the fighting starts.
• Sultry Bangs: Her bangs tend to cover her left eye whenever she's being particularly flirtatious.
• Super-Toughness: Her snake scales are extremely tough and durable. Even when Tokio manages to land a punch of her, he just ends up breaking his arm.
• Tail Slap: She can transform her lower half into a giant snake tail, and uses it to wrap or slam her enemies with.
• The Tease: She's often flirting and toying with Tokio, particularly enjoying invading his personal space to make him nervous.
• Unskilled, but Strong: She becomes much stronger in her full beastification form, but also becomes much more savage and beatial, meaning she's much easier to trick or outplay.
• Villainous Friendship: Post Time Skip it's shown she's not just some random merc but actually has a close working relationship with Noh Mask, to the point of working together with him alongside The Tower. And they know each other enough that they have casual conversations about their plans regarding their partnership with Zora and she's aware he has his own agenda when it comes to Zora.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: While Johnny is the first choujin Tokio fights, Nari is the first opponent who poses a serious threat to him and who Tokio straight-up isn't able to beat without outside intervention and she's meant to show the viewer the full potential of a beast choujin powers, and the potential growth Tokio can have.
• Worf Effect: She's introduced as a powerful beast choujin that Tokio has no chance against, but gets defeated in seconds by Simon when he interrupts the fight.

Ricardo Terror

Ricardo Terror

Dread Choujin

A choujin mercenary hired by Noh Mask and Umezawa's partner-in-crime.

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• Affably Evil: While he may be a career criminal, Ricardo is honestly a pretty friendly guy. He even offers Tokio some pizza when he and Umezawa kidnap him.
• Beware the Silly Ones: While Ricardo is a friendly guy with a juvenile sense of humor, Ricardo's noted to have killed everyone in his criminal organization.
• The Bus Came Back: He and Umezawa show up again after the Time Skip when disposing of leftover samples of the Xember drug in Palma's lab.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Ricardo is visibly dismayed when Umezawa (seemingly) kills Azuma and expresses sympathy for the kid.
• Losing Your Head: He has his head punted off by Azuma, but he survives due to being a choujin.
• Nightmare Face: Ricardo has four eyes and tentacles sprouting from his face. He uses his appearance to scare a civilian for fun and Tokio notes that he looks terrifying.
• Odd Friendship: He and Umezawa are about as different as you can get, but the two of them have been partners in crime for years and seem to be legitimate friends with each other.
• Only in It for the Money: He's a mercenary whose connection to Moh Mask is purely professional.
• Pet the Dog: When he and Umezawa are holding Tokio captive, Ricardo notices that Tokio is hungry and orders a pizza.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer: His powers, which allow him to take on the form of whatever one's greatest fears are.
• Villains Out Shopping: While he and Umezawa are preparing to start tracking Tokio, Ricardo eats some fast food while watching baseball on the TV.

Ririka Umezawa

Ririka Umezawa

Paper-Cutout Choujin

A choujin mercenary hired by Noh Mask and Ricardo's partner-in-crime.

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• Art Attacker: She has the power to weaponize her origami creations.
• The Bus Came Back: She and Ricardo show up again after the Time Skip when she uses paper birds to dispose of leftover Xember samples in Palma's lab.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Umezawa completely wipes the floor with Tokio and Ely after jumping them. Likewise, Azuma doesn't stand any kind of chance against her when trying to save Tokio, but it's completely the other way around after Umezawa causes him to go into chaos state after killing him.
• Kick Chick: Umezawa has a tendency to kick her opponents, as she kicks both Ely and Azuma in the face during her fights against them.
• Kick the Dog: She endangers an entire train of civilians by throwing a bomb onboard, knowing that Tokio would take himself out by jumping on it.
• Masking the Deformity: She has quite the Glasgow Grin underneath her mask and she becomes very pissed at anyone who sees it.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Unlike most other antagonists, Umezawa immediately goes all-out without pausing for any kind of banter or conversation.
• Not So Stoic: While Umezawa initially comes across as a completely cold-blooded assassin, she becomes absolutely pissed at anyone who sees the Glasgow Grin underneath her mask.
• Odd Friendship: She and Ricardo are about as different as you can get, but the two of them have been partners in crime for years and seem to be legitimate friends with each other.
• Only in It for the Money: Sh's a mercenary whose connection to Moh Mask is purely professional.
• Paper Master: Umezawa has the ability to make origami take on the properties of whatever object it's depicting. She can also turn anything she touches, including herself, into paper.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Umezawa has the ability to make origami take on the properties of whatever it's supposed to be representing, including things such as knives and bombs.
• Stalker without a Crush: Before she actually makes a move to kidnap him, Umezawa can repeatedly be seen stalking Tokio in plain sight.
• Torso with a View: Azuma in chaos state kicks Umezawa through the chest. While she survives due to being a choujin, it's still rather graphic.
• Villains Out Shopping: Although Umezawa clearly focuses far less on her personal hobbies than her partner does, she's shown reading a fashion magazine in chapter 42, making it clear that she does have interests unrelated to her work.

Yubiko

Yubiko

Mandala Body Choujin

A choujin mercenary hired by Noh Mask.

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• Affably Evil: She speaks to everyone in a casual and irreverent tone that sounds friendly, which betrays what an utter psycho she is.
• An Arm and a Leg: Yubiko gets absolutely decimated by Zora's swordsman, with him cutting off both her hands and one of her legs. The swordsman seems to wield an anti-choujin blade, allowing him to inflict wounds that cannot be healed using Raise. He comes just short of killing her, with Yubiko being able to escape and return to her apartment, at which point she's surprisingly saved by Chandra.
• Ax-Crazy: Yubiko seems to actively enjoy bloodshed and murder, considering it "company" to keep the dead bodies of the crew while using the boat she and Chandra steal and visibly taking pleasure in tormenting Azuma during their fight. This is heavily implied to be a direct consequence of her status as a chaos choujin: she's gone into chaos state so many times that she's completely lost contact with her humanity.
• Blood Knight: She's a bloodthirsty Psycho for Hire who enjoys the thrill of combat, especially if her opponents turn out to be challenging.
• Body Horror: Her choujin powers have her growing extra limbs and body parts all over her body, such as twisted arms coming of her ribcage, heads with elongated necks or fingers coming out of her eyes. And her chaos form is just a twisted amalgam of contorted limbs.
• Braids of Action: She has pretty long hair, but ties it in a bun when she's fighting so it doesn't get in her way.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She has a prominent bust, which is one of the few things Tokio remembers about her when he's reminiscing about his enemies.
• Dark Action Girl: Yubiko is a very capable and sadistic female fighter who is trained in martial arts that she's able to use to even greater effect thanks to her Spare Body Parts.
• Dissonant Serenity: She's a sadistic, violent Psycho for Hire with Body Horror powers, but always acts with a lax demeanor and speaks in a casual manner, which works in making her even more creepy.
• Extendable Arms: Her most common method of attack is creating elongated arms to attack her opponents.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Getting her extra body parts destroyed or cut off never seems to bother her. It's unclear if her Spare Body Parts don't feel pain or if she just ignores it.
• Ms. Fanservice: Yubiko is a very voluptuous woman, which is highlighted quite a bit given powers.
• Multiple Head Case: She can grow multiple heads with elongated necks, and bizarrely they each seem to have their own identities and personalities, though the "main" Yubiko seems to always have full control of the entire body.
• Psycho for Hire: While most of the other mercenaries seem to be doing it as a job, Yubiko clearly does it for personal enjoyment. When fighting Azuma, Yubiko outright says she doesn't care if he's the beast of prophecy or not; she just wants to have fun beating him to a bloody pulp.
• Ship Tease: With Chandra. Yes, really. Despite them hating each other at first, when the two of them save each other's lives, they seem to form something of an actual friendship. Considering that this is on top of Chandra expressing some physical attraction toward her and the fact that Chandra is now living with her of his own volition, they come off more like an extremely dysfunctional couple.
• Smug Smiler: She often has a taunting Psychotic Smirk on her face befitting of her being a powerful and arrogant Psycho for Hire.
• Scary Teeth: She has pointy, shark-like teeth, which helps to look more psychotic and dangerous. But she does actually use them in combat, making extra heads and using her sharp teeth to bite her enemies.
• Spare Body Parts: As a Mandala Body Choujin, Yubiko can multiply her body parts at will, creating extra arms, extra heads, and whatever else she feels like.
• Tattooed Crook: Yubiko has a large Mañjuśrī tattoo on her back and she's a mercenary whose personality is extremely violent.
• Villainous Friendship: It's the last thing you would expect, but she and Chandra legitimately seem to become friends. Despite all her torment of him, she still did save his life, a favor which Chandra returns by saving hers. After that, she genuinely seems to enjoy his company after that with the two of them enjoying a smoke together.
• Villainous Rescue: Yubiko saves Chandra by storing his still-living severed head in a jar of fluid. While she does it entirely to torment the man, she still did save his life, a favor which Chandra later returns when she appears half-dead before him. After that, the two of them surprisingly seem to form something of a genuine bond with each other.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Yubiko is a chaos choujin—a choujin who willingly enters chaos state for the sake of gaining an edge in battle. As a consequence, Yubiko has completely lost contact with her humanity.
• The Worf Effect: Yubiko pre-timeskip is established to be an incredibly dangerous combatant, but in her first battle post-timeskip she's defeated by the unnamed swordsman working for the Tower, showing that he is not someone to be taken lightly.^note With that being said, it could be argued that he was a hard-counter to Yubiko's flesh-based abilities
• Worthy Opponent: Yubiko gains some respect for Azuma after he puts up far more of a fight than she anticipated, noting that he's one of the "truly strong" choujin.

Hiroto Mori

Hiroto Mori

Death Growl Choujin

A choujin mercenary hired by Noh Mask.

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• The Dead Can Dance: As a death growl choujin, Mori can sing songs that cause even the dead to break out dancing. It just so happens that their definition of "dancing" is to attack Mori's opponents.
• Driven to Madness: Sato completely destroys Mori's sanity by sending visions of God's wrath into his mind. He may be a terrorist, but you can kinda feel sorry for the guy...
• Musical Assassin: Mori's powers revolve around sending out vibrations to manipulate the dead and to attack enemies, and as such adopts the mannerisms of an eccentric rockstar during combat.
• Necromancer: As a Death Growl Choujin, he has the power to animate the dead with his screams, creating skeleton armies who obey his orders.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: His shades often turn white when he's being creepy or sinister.
• Super-Scream: He can shout loud enough to blast people away. His screams are also loud enough to wake Ely and Monoma, despite being quite far away.
• Vibration Manipulation: On top of his Super-Scream, Mori can use vibrations to feel the space around him. This allows him to know everything happening on Beast Island.

Other

Tobisuke and Kinako Kurohara

Tobisuke and Kinako Kurohara

Tokio's father and older sister.

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• Back for the Finale: They both appear in chapter 35, the last chapter before the Time Skip, while discussing Tokio's decision to leave school.
• Good Parents: Tobisuke is shown to be a genuinely good father, supporting Tokio's decision to leave school if his heart is truly set on it.
• Hippie Parents: Tobisuke admits to Tokio that he tried to be a hippie, but it never quite panned out. However, he still doesn't regret his choice to try to become one, as that was how he ended up meeting his wife. It's part of the reason why he supports Tokio's decision to leave school; he believes his son should be able to find his own path just as he did.
• Locked Out of the Loop: They have no idea that Tokio is a choujin. Though it's implied that he comes clean to them after leaving them a note before going off to train during the Time Skip.
• Promotion to Parent: Following the death of their mother, Kinako has more or less stepped up as Tokio's mom.

Johnny Kiyoshi Takeyama

Johnny Kiyoshi Takeyama

Mollusk Choujin

A thug who comes into conflict with Tokio and Azuma, and later is awakened as a choujin thanks to Noh Mask's drug.

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• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Even before his transformation, Johnny was a prick who was introduced harrasing a woman. Despite this, his first thoughts after getting his arms broken by Azuma is that he won't be able to buy his mom an air mattress for her bad back. His two lackeys even call him a "kinda naughty mama's boy".
• Pet the Dog: Once Johnny's calmed down, he refuses to give Noh Mask Tokio's identity, understanding that Noh Mask probably intends to kill him.
• Starter Villain: He's the first choujin opponent that Tokio faces in the series.

Tezuya Shiozaki

Tezuya Shiozaki

Sinker Choujin

^{Click here to see his chaos form}

A student with a class-B registration at Yamato Mori.

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• Back for the Finale: Shiozaki makes a re-appearance in chapter 35, the last chapter before the Time Skip, where he has a conversation with Tokio about his life decisions over a game of catch.
• Blessed with Suck: Becoming a choujin has completely ruined the guy's life, as he was forced to quit baseball due to the unfair advantage choujin are given over humans.
• Forced into Evil: He commits crimes for the sake of bringing his younger siblings out of a bad neighborhood.
• Gag Penis: Shiozaki's chaos form has a large trophy sticking out of his pants.
• Heel–Face Turn: While not a huge heel to begin with, he decides to quit crime after going into his chaos state.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Being a choujin has completely screwed over Shiozaki, as it prevented him from pursuing his passion of being a baseball player as well as making him lose out on a major source of income to support his siblings. Although Shiozaki gains back a bit of his optimism after his arc, he still admits that he's content with living out a normal life.
• Jaded Washout: Shiozaki's become very bitter at his prospects in life ever since becoming a choujin derailed his career as a baseball player. After his arc, however, Shiozaki gains back a bit of the optimism he had in his highschool days.
• Promotion to Parent: He never knew his father and his mother disappeared at an early age, leaving his two younger siblings to rely on him for income.

Package Choujin

Masao Chikabo

Package Choujin

A choujin who Tokio and Ely encounter in a department store.

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• Captive Audience: A more lighthearted example. He forces people into packaging so they can listen to his rants about the state of society.
• Depower: Over the timeskip, he gave up his power to Ely after deciding to turn his life around.
• Harmless Villain: Even calling him a villain is a stretch. Poor guy just had a mental breakdown from being so overworked at his job.
• Soapbox Sadie: The guy has some very outspoken views on modern society, and he will make sure people hear him out.

Shadowl Shant

Shadowl Shant

Darkness Choujin

A keeper from Nagamata Mori.

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• Casting a Shadow: He's able to create and manipulate darkness. He's even able to envelop his body in shadows to enhance his physical strength.
• The Comically Serious: He gets very upset at Ely coming up with moves based around poop.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He has the power to emit dark energy and he's an ally to the main cast.
• Hidden Eyes: His eyes are constantly hidden by shadows.

Roja Hachimaki

Roja Hachimaki

Bramble Choujin

A keeper from Nagamata Mori.

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• Does This Remind You of Anything?: She's a dominatrix-like woman who has the power to make anything she touches thorny.
• Ms. Fanservice: Considering that she's themed around being a dominatrix, that's a given.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: She shows to have the "o ho ho" laughter associated with haughty women like her.
• Sultry Bangs: Her curly bangs are always covering her right eye, befitting her domineering demeanor.
• Whip of Dominance: She's a Dominatrix themed instructor who uses a whip as her primary weapon, and relentlessly whips Tokio when training his beastification powers. Given his own submissive kinks, he doesn't mind.

Masamune

Masamune

An eagle who Tokio befriends in Iwato. He serves as something of a mentor-figure to him.

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• The Confidant: Tokio is repeatedly shown talking to Masamune about his personal issues, confiding in him his concerns about both his missions and his personal life.
• The Mentor: Masamune serves as one of Tokio's main mentors alongside Sato.

Nude

Nude

A drug dealer from Minami who had been dealing opium through a website.

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• Asshole Victim: Actually averted. While Nude is certainly a bit of a dick, it's made clear that he didn't deserve what happened to him. Nude slowly losing contact with everything that made him who he is after being resurrected by Palma is portrayed in a genuinely sympathetic light.
• Cards of Power: Nude's choujin power manifests as this, requiring him to shuffle, draw and reveal special cards to create various effects. The design of the side not representing the result can be freely customized too, letting him potentially bait others into setting off negative ones.
• Jerkass: When you get down to it, Nude is pretty much just a loser who got caught in the middle of a gigantic mess. With that being said, Nude being brought back as a zombie and slowly losing contact with everything that made him human certainly does evoke sympathy from the audience; asshole or not, he's still a victim of circumstance.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While he comes off as a bit of a coward when he refuses to help out Ely and Tokio in their fight with Cabirol 16, he isn't wrong when he says that the situation is completely out of their control. Even though Palma is able to force him to help out, he's only able to buy Tokio and Ely a bit of time.
• Romantic Wingman: In a pretty surprising Pet the Dog moment, Nude gives Palma some genuine advice on trying to get with Tokio, agreeing to become something of a wingman for her.
• Ungrateful Bastard: You'd think that he'd feel indebted to Palma for bringing him back to life, but Nude is constantly chewing her out. It's telling that Palma of all characters calls him out on being a hypocrite.

Haken King

Haken King

Rock Lizard Choujin

A powerful Choujin criminal terrorizing Iwato who Tokio fights while training under Sato.

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• Dead Guy on Display: Frequently hanged victims' bodies outside of the villages he destroyed as a means of causing terror.
• Eye Scream: Likely due to how hard his skin is, when Haken King is shown finally killed by the Yamato Mori fighters there are spears stuck into his eyes.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: A reptile-based Choujin and evil mass murderer known for wiping out entire villages.
• Shout-Out: Haken King seems to be a deliberate reference to the great dragon described by Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which ties into many of the manga's allusions to the "Three Metamorphoses" and how they relate to the main characters.
• Villain of Another Story: Tokio's battle with him happens offscreen but he was a threatening Choujin and Hero Killer who wiped out many of Tokio's companions.

Ms. Anzai

Ms. Anzai

Tokio's and Azuma's teacher.

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• Cool Teacher: Although she's rather abrasive at school, when she runs into Tokio in chapter 52, she talks with her student like he's an old friend and shows genuine interest in how his life's been going.
• Hidden Depths: She's developed a desire to study abroad and see how education is taught in other prefectures, feeling a disconnect from the teacher she wants to be and Yamato's school system.
• Ms. Fanservice: I mean... the image speaks for itself.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She's honestly very open-minded about Tokio dropping out of school, understanding that he had his reasons and doesn't judge him one bit for his decision.
• Recurring Extra: For a large chunk of the series, she's effectively a background character popping in whenever there's a scene going on at school. However, she has a more notable appearance in chapter 52 in which the audience sees a surprisingly genuine side to her.
• Took a Level in Kindness: She acts pretty abrasive early on, but she's remarkable amicable when she runs into Tokio in chapter 52. She implies that Tokio's decision to drop out of school inspired her to spread her own wings and look ahead for new opportunities.

Historical Characters

Queem Macman

Queem Macman

Choujin X

^{Click here to see his chaos form}

The president of Guelta who started the Great Choujin War in an effort to expand his territories. An extremely powerful choujin who earned the label of Choujin X.

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• Bad Boss: Queem horribly mistreated his troops, forcing them to Raise despite the painful side effects after dying in the Great Choujin War to the point many began refusing to use their ability to revive and choosing to die rather than keep serving him.
• Blasphemous Boast: Queem would frequently murder processions of clergy for the sake of striking fear into the hearts of his enemies, as in the process he was implicitly placing himself above even God.
• The Caligula: Took power over Guelta via a military coup and expanded it by conquering nearby territories and declared himself "President of Great Guelta".
• Create Your Own Hero: Queem awakened the new Choujin X, Sora Siruha, when murdering a procession of clergy. Sora Siruha proved to be one of the two figures alongside Antitise who put an end to Queem's ambitions.
• Hand Blast: In Sora Siruha's backstory, Queem is shown shooting some strange explosives from guns protruding out of his fingers.
• Irony: Queem wanted to unite the world under a single government, but in the end the only thing he accomplished was spreading chaos around the world and causing the collapse of the nation-state system.
• Mechanical Abomination: Queem could have his body take on the form of any war machine he created. In a flashback, he's shown taking on the form of a B-2 Spirit with multiple giant hands sticking out from underneath.
• Misanthrope Supreme: While Queem himself has been long-dead by the time the story takes place, certain quotes from him show that he had a very negative view on humanity.
  "So long as one person is joined by another, they shall, whether consciously or not, battle to the death."
• Naytheist: Judging by his quotes, Queem seems to have believed in the existence of a God. For one reason or another, he absolutely despised any worship of a higher power. However, it is worth noting that it seems as though he only started doing this when he was trapped in chaos state, indicating that it was at least partially a result of his decaying mental state.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Queem is very blatantly based on Adolf Hitler, being a choujin supremacist with the title "Fuhrer" who plunged the world into a bloody war in the mid 20th century. Though interestingly, the timeline of Queem's life lines up more with World War I than it does its successor.
• The Paranoiac: Queem was an extremely paranoid dictator throughout his life, purguing anyone who knew of his true nature as a choujin.
  "In actuality, God has provisioned man with but one emotion: the ability to sense when another may be a threat. That is to say, fear."
• Person of Mass Destruction: As you would expect from someone bearing the label of Choujin X, Queem was an immensely powerful individual. With an army of only 300 choujin soldiers, Queem was able to plunge the entire planet into a chaotic war. He personally created powerful weaponry for his soldiers, to the point that several military historians estimate that Queem's existence advanced the development of weaponry by 70 years.
• Predecessor Villain: Queem was the primary figure behind the Great Choujin War: a massive conflict spanning the entire world that took countless lives, both human and choujin.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Queem seemingly had a burning hatred for religion and even God as a whole, going out of his way to murder clergy even when they posed zero threat to him and his forces.
• Shadow Archetype: Ultimately to Sora. Queem's actions in the war left a major impact on Sora's psyche, leaving her with a deep-seated fixation on stopping another figure like Queem from ever emerging. In the process, however, Sora becomes so blinded by her sense of justice and unquestioning belief in her prophecies that she devolves into a paranoid, warmongering, genocidal tyrant. In a twist of tragic irony, Sora's obsession with preventing another Queem ultimately creates one: herself.
• Was Once a Man: In Queem's earlier years, he was able to maintain a humanoid appearance and even be able to keep his powers as a choujin secret from the public. Fast-forward to the later years of the war, Queem has become physically incapable of leaving his chaos form due to how much he's overused his powers.

Antitise

Antitise

The prince of Antoland during the Great Choujin War. He and Sora Siruha were the two primary figures who put an end to Queem's ambitions.

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• Defiant to the End: It's implied that Antitise's quote in which he tells Sora to "read the Bible to her dog" comes from Antitise's death at the hands of Sora's right-hand-man.
• Fratbro: Antitise was well-known for his debauchery, frequently indulging in alcohol and women. While he turned out to be quite the hero to his homeland, his debauchery never subsided even after ascending to the throne.
• Hero of Another Story: Antitise was the one who ultimately defeated Queem, although he never appears in the actual story.
• Ironic Name: He was called "Andona Titis" (Useless Prince) by the people, though he proved to be anything but.
• Mr. Fanservice: An extra in volume 7 shows Antitise lounging about shirtless with a six-pack on display.
• Odd Friendship: Despite their wildly contrasting personalities, Antitise seems to have held a genuine friendship with his comrade-in-arms Sora Siruha. Although Sora did ultimately take Antitise's life after receiving a premonition that he would one day become an enemy, Sora made it clear that she took no pleasure in cutting down her comrade, even being brought to the point of tears.
• Off with His Head!: In Mado's flashback, Antitise is shown to have been beheaded by Sora's unnamed right-hand man during Yamato Mori's invasion (and subsequent genocide) of Antoland.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He was able to defeat 1000 choujin on the battlefield, with his lightning being so fierce that even other choujin couldn't raise.
• Red Baron: He was dubbed "Thunder Emperor" following the war.
• Shock and Awe: Antitise was capable of wielding lightning.
• Spare to the Throne: Antitise was the younger son of King Muchadas while his older and more responsible brother Mandis was expected to take the throne in his stead. As fate would have it, however, both Muchadas and Mandis were killed during Queem's invasion, leaving Antitise to take up the throne.
• Warrior Prince: The prince of Antoland who fought side-by-side with Sora Siruha herself.

Bill Morse

Bill Morse

Choujin X

The "Immortal Emperor" of the island of Morse.

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• The Good King: Little is known about Bill Morse, but he does seem to have been a genuinely well-intentioned ruler, giving up his own blood so that his people could be immortal. Unfortunately, this proved to have horrible consequences in the long-run.
• Irony: Bill Morse wanted to create an undying, eternal kingdom. His actions ultimately caused the total destruction of his people, causing them to literally cannibalize each other until only a single survivor remained.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Par for the course for anyone who had achieved the label of "Choujin X." According to legends, Bill Morse defeated an army of 10,000 soldiers on his own and united the land of Morse as its king.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Bill Morse gave up his blood for his people so that they could be immortal in what seems to have been an act of genuine compassion. While this certainly was a blessing at first, as generations passed and Bill Morse's power weakened, so too did the effect of his blood on his people. As a result of no longer receiving their king's blood, the people of Morse gradually grew insane and eventually cannibalized each other to death.

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