The main heroine. Kasumi is the sister of Hayate and half-sister to Ayane, and a practitioner of the Tenshinmon Style of Mugen-Tenshin Ninjutsu. They lived happily together until one day Raidou came for revenge and snapped Hayate's spine, sending him into a coma that everyone thought to be permanent. Kasumi ran away from her village to avenge her brother, knowing full well the consequences of becoming a runaway shinobi - death. After defeating Raidou, she enters the second tournament after hearing that her brother is alive and has been taken by DOATEC for use in Project Epsilon. She finds him suffering from amnesia and going by the name of Ein, and helps him recover his memory. In the 3rd tournament she remains on the run but encounters and fights her brother. By the time of the 4th tournaments she realizes that no assassins have been sent her way as of late, and discovers that they have gone to assault DOATEC and put an end to their evil schemes. She enters the 4th tournament to investigate.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Subverted? Her abilities didn't seem to really show up until she was threatened with clan leadership, which she ran away from.
Berserk Button: Don't try to harm her brother or you'll be dead before long.
Beware the Nice Ones: Kasumi really is a sweet, nice girl. She is also a trained ninja assassin who was in line to be head of a clan, before she ran off to kill the man who harmed her brother, and faced attempts on her life on a daily basis.
Big Brother Instinct: Inverted. She's the one that gets to Raidou when Hayate falls into a coma.
Braids of Action: One of her hair styles. It even was her default in Dead or Alive 2.
Hime Cut: One of her three primary styles, and her default one since Dead or Alive 3. Also kind of the hint that she believed her exile was going to be temporary.
Honor Before Reason is trying to kill her. When trying to rescue her brother, she doesn't ask for help from either his elite super-ninja best friend Ryu, her (at the time) obedient, extremely powerful younger half-sister Ayane, Ayane's mentor Genra, or you know, the entire army of ninja she doubtless had command of.
On the clan's part, they're wasting countless lives by throwing mooks at someone they don't even want to kill and are only trying to because their law demands it.
Ojou: She was the princess of her tribe. This is an oxymoron, being as it's a tribe of ninja. (You know, social outcasts turned assassins/spies/thieves?)
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: If she hasn't already, Kasumi is likely to be reinstated into the clan despite their strict code of responsibility, secrecy, or whatever it is that resulted in her leaving earning her the death sentence in the first place. Incidentally, her brother is chief of said clan, now that he's ok again.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: The reason for running from the clan in the first place is to kill who harmed her brother...and raped her mother, incidently.
The Stoic: She accepts the consequences of her actions and doesn't angst about her fugitive shinobi condition. She's also always pretty calm and doesn't let her emotions to make her rush into battle.
Stripperiffic: Not the worst offender in the game, but still.
Teleport Spam: She has a complete set of counter moves based on teleporting (with some Cherry Blossoms to make them look prettier), so a skilled fighter can pull this off.
Took a Level in Badass: Her fighting style got a pretty deep upgrade in Dead or Alive 4, making her faster and way more agile than in previous games. Most people agree that she's more powerful like that.
However, in Dimensions Tecmo put Kasumi-Alpha as a way for players to use her move set from the first three games.
Vague Age: For some reason Tecmo Koei/Team Ninja refuses to give Kasumi an exact age; although all hints and her school uniforms imply that she can't be much older than Ayane, if not being 16 just like her.
Executive Meddling: The reason why Tecmo Koei/Team Ninja refused to give Kasumi an exact age outside Japan was because they would receive a lot of controversy with their oversexualizing girls who were underage (not to mention the implication of their fighting to the death). Ayane suffers this as well.
Meanwhile IN the Japanese versions, she is 17.
Woman in White: Her second costume (except for some red details), which has a very tight competition for the "fan favorite" title with her default blue costume.
Ayane is the bastard daughter of Kasumi's mother and Raidou, the product of Raidou raping Kasumi's mother. The leader of the Hajinmon sect of the Mugen-Tenshin clan, Genra, sympathized with her, and decided to take her in as her foster father and teacher. Years later, she learned the truth, and dedicated herself to becoming the strongest practitioner of the Hajinmon style. She failed to protect Hayate from Raidou, and after Kasumi left, was ordered to kill her. In the 2nd tournament, she searches for Hayate as well, and encounters Helena, who believes Ayane to be her mother's killer at first, but it turns out to be a misunderstanding. Upon hearing her foster father Genra has been abducted and used as a subject for Project Omega, she enters the 3rd tournament to end his suffering. She then joins her half-brother Hayate to take down DOATEC once and for all.
Age Inappropriate Dress: At age sixteen, she is the youngest female character in the entire series.
Child Prodigy: At her age, she's already participating in a world-class fighting tournament. At 14, she was giving 'Elite Super Ninja' Ryu tips on how to be a ninja. Remember those kunai with the spinny purple flowers? Those were hers. Also overlaps with:
Child Soldier: Ayane's probably been a professional killer since before puberty.
Early-Bird Cameo: She was included as an extra character for the Playstation version of DOA 1 after being designed for the sequel.
Everything's Better with Spinning: More than half of her move set is based on this. You can't help wondering how she doesn't get dizzy after 10 seconds.
Giant Waist Ribbon: Some of her costume, being her default costume in Dead or Alive 2 the most popular.
Happily Adopted: Genra really was a great man to welcome Ayane as his own daughter, Shinden didn't deny her a place to live and the right to live, and Ayame didn't blame her for what Raidou did, with this Ayane loves both Genra and Ayame with passion.
Honor Before Reason: She's willing to kill members of her own family, regardless of her feelings for them, in order to uphold the *ninja code*. Then again, her family is pretty dysfunctional.
It's Justified anyway. To not do so would make you just as marked as your target by another shinobi who might not be as forgiving.
Important Haircut: After her identity and the reason her clan hates her is revealed by her mother.
Lightning Bruiser: Her attacks are among the fastest and most lethal of the roster.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Part of her Rei Ayanami expy, also an indication you might not want to piss her off. (Although she's never shown more than mild irritation.)
The Rival: Is seemingly being set up as one to Hitomi in Dimensions and 5. She also considered Kasumi this, but it was totally one-sided.
Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Not by choice, but given that she was frequently left out in the wilderness (or once for a long time) before being adopted into the Hajin-mon sect to be raised as a killing machine, she probably had little time for formal schooling.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Big purple explosions are as much her trademark as the butterfly motif. In her ending movie for Dead or Alive 2, she makes a major (and distinguishable) contribution to the destruction of DOATEC's Tritower. A Shout Out to this explosive power shows up in Dead Fantasy, where she drops half a building on the other fighters. In Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, her default ranged weapon is exploding kunai. Which she uses for convenience, not necessity, and she apparently has the ability to simply create weapons out of pure ki (i.e. her double-bladed dagger that shows up in DoA 3 and Dead Fantasy). Considering how her life's been so far, and that she's currently a teenager, one has to wonder why she hasn't actually tried destroying the world yet. Seriously, she has more Freudian Excuses than most actual villains.
The fact that her eyebrows match her sister's red hair implies that the purple is a dye job.
Not likely, as she has been shown with that same purple hair as a little girl◊.
It's also possible that she has some demonic blood due to her father.
Zettai Ryouiki: Grade A in her default costume in most of the games. Take note that, with her sometimes Tsundere personality, she's a pair of twin-tails away from being Grade S.
Ret Canon: Whereas the earlier games made it clear that the NES trilogy was set before DOA, the Xbox titles (with their inclusion of Ayane) kinda negated that fact.
Ninja Log: In Dimensions. Used on fellow ninja and good friend Hayate, who had to have seen this at least once. Cue Face Palm by anyone who's seen an episode of Naruto.
Power Creep, Power Seep: Tecmo canon places Ryu as the strongest Ninja in the whole world, not only for his Master Ninja abilities but also for his fiend heritage, capable of fighting hell and back by himself. Needless to say there shouldn't be anyone in here capable of beating him, let alone kill him; still Ryu is balanced to be an equal rival to Hayate.
Recent games at least try to portray Ryu as someone who clearly isn't shaked by any of the DOATEC and other badies threats, acting as he could easily overthrow them, and insisting to let Hayate, Ayane and Kasumi to take care of things by themselves.
Les Yay: Plays with it. She sometimes seems to flirt with her enemies (even the girls) and was quite affectionate with Hitomi in Xtreme Beach Volleyball (one word: strawberry). (Wouldn't that make this Foe Yay too?)
Love Makes You Dumb: Jann Lee's been telling her that she's 'worthless' and treating her like crap since day one. She's still persistently pursuing his love.
She's Got Legs: Forget the jiggle physics. Any leg man immediately clings to Lei-Fang for fanservice!
American Dream: Many consider her an over-the-top depiction of this trope, with the way she is always finding new ways to be a star.
Let's see, Pro Wrestler, model, actress, rock star, in that order. Assuming that Tina is reappearing in Dead or Alive 5, it's likely she's going to have a new way to gain stardom.
Boobs of Steel: Physically, she might be the strongest of all the girls due to being a wrestler.
Clearly demonstrated in the Xtreme spin-offs: her power serves and spikes can easily knock an opponent flat.
And the rock the size of her body that she throws at Lei Fang in DOA2 to try to intimidate her. Lei doesn't even flinch.
More specifically, his P1 outfit in DOA2, and it's "Hollywood" Hogan (given the large amount of biker leather, leather bandanna, shades, and grizzled biker's beard). His 2P outfit is a pretty far cry from any gimmick Hogan has ever used (it's a cowbow-themed outfit).
Overprotective Dad: He's not very fond of letting Tina hang out with other men, or even follow his career path into the squared circle.
Badass Preacher: Some of her victory quotes imply that Helena holds religious beliefs.
But Not Too Foreign: Dimensions indicate that she's part French and part American, and it's implied that the American part was from her father (Her mom was evidentially French).
Death Seeker: Judging by her ending in the 4th game...if it wasn't for Zack, she was willing do go down with the building that she herself set to self-destruct.
In Name Only: Probably gets it the worst of all the characters in The Movie, where she's still the daughter of the former CEO of DOATEC and fights in the tournament, but that's where the resemblance ends.
Absolute Cleavage, Hell-Bent for Leather, and Vapor Wear: Her default costume in DOA4 involves a leather jacket that's open—revealing she's not weating anything underneath yet the jacket somehow covers her. Her trademark costume is a white and green leather catsuit. At least it's not neon pink.
Depraved Bisexual: Strongly indicated to have a fetish for psychologically torturing pretty teenagers of either gender (Read: young Helena and Eliot) and nursing them into maladjusted pretty adults.
The Dragon: She carries out tasks and hits for Donovan. In Dimensions it is shown that she is very involved in decision making, and seems to be his closest ally.
Evil Brit: She sports a sexy upper class English accent in Dimensions.
Evil Laugh: While she's usually no-nonsense, she cracks up after gloating to Helena about killing her mother.
Foreign Fanservice: She's English. Also, besides Kasumi's clone, she is the first unhacked character who has appeared nude (twice, as a matter of fact: First was in the ending to her scenario in Dead or Alive 3 where she is seen showering, and the second was in the opening of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball where she dives off a cliff at night to skinnydip.)
Poisonous Friend: Assigned by Donovan to be Helena's Battle Butler so she can 'keep an eye on her'. Helena seemed to be handling her mother's death better when it happened than she was leading up to the time when Christie revealed She's the one who actually killed her.
White-Haired Pretty Girl: Trailers implied that her white hair was not actually natural, but it was the direct result of an accident relating to a train.
Would Hurt a Child / You Killed My Mother: In Dead Or Alive 4, it was revealed that Christie was the one who killed Helena's mother during an Opera showing. The kicker? Helena's mom wasn't even the target, Helena herself was, all her mom did was take the bullet.
Hitomi
Voiced by: Yui Horie (JP), Eden Riegel (EN, Dimensions)
Breakout Character: To the point that she was revealed to be playable in DOA5 before Kasumi.
But Not Too Foreign: She's part-Japanese and part-German (hailing from the latter country).
Cute Bruiser: Has a notably more aggressive fighting style than the other girls. Basically the faster (and slightly weaker) successor to Ein.
Hey, It's That Voice!: As pointed out by a comment on a YouTubeDead or Alive Xtreme 2 video: "Starfire? Princess Bubblegum? Ah, no it's just Hitomi."
No Nudity Taboo: The beginning of her ending movie for the fourth game. She opens the curtains and dances around for a bit... while nude from a shower.
Too Dumb to Live: Yes, Hitomi, that baby T-Rex is really cute and Jann Lee was "a bit too cruel" for beating up the mama T-Rex before it could, you know, eat you alive! The fact that she was tricked twice regarding a fake DOA invitation*
To put it into perspective, all the female cast who had gone to Zack's Island beforehand in the sequel at least had other reasons to come to Zack's Island besides the fake DOA invitation, or possibly already knew about it being a trick even the first time such as Lisa.
to Zack's Island doesn't help her case, either
Omega (Genra)
Voiced by: Osamu Saka (JP), Andrew Kishino (EN, Dimensions)
Camera Screw: You fight Omega from a completely weird camera angle that is low and behind your fighter, as opposed to in profile as the rest of the matches are conducted.
Demonic Possession: It's strongly implied that he ends up possessed by the same mask that Omega wore. Unlike most examples, however, Donovan seems to do this willingly.
The Ghost: Until Dimensions (or Helena's ending from 4, depending on what you believe), the only time he actually appeared was in The Movie.
You Killed My Father: Although Christie is the one who directly murdered Helena's mother, it is heavily implied that Donovan was the one who arranged for her to murder her mother and presumably her father.
Nicole (Spartan-458)
A guest character created for Dead or Alive 4 during a collab with Bungie.
Ryu Hayabusa's love interest from the Ninja Gaiden games. A CIA agent who uses the codename Sonia, she's been assigned by the agency to investigate the tournament and DOATEC.
Art Shift: Changed from her original NES design to her look in the new Ninja Gaiden games, and then changed again (albeit less drastically) in Dead or Alive Dimensions top match the look of the series.
Distressed Damsel: In the NES games. Also, was captured by Christie during the third DOA tournament (as per Dimensions) to lure Ryu away from the Tenjin ninjas.
