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     Satou Matsuzaka 
Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hsl_satou.jpg

The main Big Bad and the Villain Protagonist. A 15-year-old girl who falls in love with Shio and keeps her in her apartment. She maintains a kind facade in public in order to earn money for her lifestyle, but will resort to anything in order to protect Shio.


  • Affably Evil: While she’s mainly Faux Affably Evil to everyone else, she seems genuinely friendly with her best friend Shouko at least before Satou kills her and her “partner” Shio.
  • Anti-Hero: A very Downplayed example, and of the Nominal Hero variety at best. She might oppose some disgusting people like the Princess Imperial manager or her perverted teacher, but it’s not out of a desire to see them put to justice but merely because they got in her way.
  • Anti-Villain: Satou is a kidnapper and groomer with more Pragmatic Villainy than she has morals and is the Big Bad to boot, but she at least did anything she could to ensure Shio grows up independently and happily, something that her biological family couldn't.
  • Arch-Enemy: Becomes one to Asahi because she abducted his biological sister from the streets.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Completely and utterly crushes Asahi by keeping Shio away from him and killing Shouko, the only person who unconditionally and genuinely cared about him. Even after death, her relationship with Shio is so ingrained that she already ensured Asahi can't get Shio back and is doomed to wander the streets as a lone vagrant.
  • Berserk Button: Even knowing about Shio's existence is enough to put you in danger with Satou. Trying to hurt Shio or separate her from Satou, meanwhile, is practically signing your death warrant.
  • Big Bad: Holds the most weight in the series' conflict, since almost everything about it can be tied to her kidnapping Shio.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Acts polite and bubbly when out in public or dealing with Shio. If someone else tries to go a step near Shio, however, she transitions into a psychotic and manipulative young woman who will do basically anything she could get away with.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Her moral compass is entirely centered on love, or better said, what she believes love is. Said "love" boils down to grooming Shio or acting as if she owned her, which she defines as "sweet" and genuinely considers as caring about her in her own, weird way, but rape or sexual advances, or just about anyone or anything who stands in her way from spending time with Shio somehow betrays that concept of "love" and is thus "bitter". Thus, murdering Shouko to protect her life with Shio is okay; but if Shouko tells her that she loves her as a friend just to get her not to groom Shio in anything but name and give the girl back to Asahi, that is unforgivable. She also gets pissed whenever someone uses the word "love" to describe a feeling she doesn't recognize as such.
  • Broken Ace: She is pretty, gets good grades in school, her friendly personality makes everyone like her… and she has a seriously unbalanced mind that can rationalize any crime she could get away with if it’s for the sake of "love".
  • Can't Default to Murder: This is one thing that separates her from most characters of the Yandere archetype. She has killed, but she mostly uses subterfuge and cunning to get rid of any threats to her life with Shio. Granted, because in the manga's setting one can seemingly do almost anything as long as it can be covered up, but covering up a murder is difficult.
  • The Corrupter: It tells a lot when despite her toxic-at-worst relationship with Shio, the latter still chooses Satou over her brother after her death, and she even starts to pick up some of Satou's mannerisms as well.
  • Crazy-Prepared: How else would you describe a person with enough self-defense weapons to fill an entire bag with?
  • Death Equals Redemption: Her only truly redeeming moment is at the end, where she sacrifices her own life to save Shio's rather than going through with a mutual suicide.
  • Depraved Bisexual: It's... really hard to discern Satou's true orientation. She's had mindless sex with quite a few boys, but her obsession/love for Shio is seemingly very romantic, although not necessarily sexual. Satou is also quite willing to seduce other girls as a mean to an end, as she does to her coworker.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Her plan to fake her death and run away with Shio by having Shoko's corpse be mistaken for her own. Even if she didn't just go back for her wedding ring, the police still correctly identify Shouko's charred remains, meaning them looking for her was inevitable.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Never raises her voice by a pitch even when threatening or killing someone. The most you'll get from her is a cold stare before it's too late.
  • Entitled Bitch: Satou forces her aunt into assisting her with her getaway scheme, claiming that she deserved some form of compensation for being "poisoned" by her aunt's views on love. To be fair, she is right about what her aunt did.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Regardless of how warped it is, it's made clear that Shio means the world to Satou and is genuinely affectionate towards the young girl as a result. To a lesser extent, Satou also seems to genuinely consider Shouko as a friend she really cares for on a personal level. While this wasn't enough to save Shouko from being murdered by Satou later on, her death by her hands did have an effect on Satou in the aftermath, even if it was for just a little while.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: While she herself is no saint, even she draws the line on rape and Attempted Rape, and never forces or manipulates Shio into anything sexual beyond a quick kiss.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Asahi. Much like Satou, Asahi was raised in an abusive household, with Satou majorly suffering from psychological abuse from an insane aunt who somehow cares about her in her own weird way and Asahi from a man who only treats him like an object he can beat and subjugate to his content, and both have an obsession with Shio, Satou treating her like an object to fill in her void and Asahi because he had to find back his biological sister. What separates them, however, is their methods. Asahi chooses to not use violent tactics to get what he wants, and even reacts disgustedly to the idea of extracting information from Mitsuboshi through torture. Satou, on the other hand, has no issue with having to get her hands dirty.
  • Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Her adorable appearance and her bubbly public persona hide a determination to do absolutely anything to protect her life with Shio, up to and including murder.
  • Fan Disservice: In the chapters between killing Shouko and enacting her final cover-up (Chapter 24 to 25), she's seen half-naked with only her lingerie on. However, she's in a particularly unstable state under the belief that Shio will reject her for finding out what she had done.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Don't even be fooled for a second by her seemingly polite and soft-spoken demeanor if you manage to piss her off. She makes it clear that your free trial to your life or sanity ends there and she will go straight into business.
  • Foil:
    • To Mitsuboshi. Much like with Mitsuboshi, she is obsessed with Shio, but from the looks of it, her definition of love is maternalistic with there being no blatant hint that she views Shio that way. Mitsuboshi, however, physically wants Shio for himself, and even contemplates "touching her" in return for her petting his head to make his boo boos go away. On the other hand, she is willing to commit any crime for Shio and doesn't think that would be wrong, while Mitsuboshi is emotionally frail due to his trauma and has some self-awareness left to admit he has issues (which is ironically ruined by Satou herself).
    • Also serves as one to Asahi. While Asahi refuses to use violence in his search for Shio, Satou commits violent acts with no reservations. Their development also contrasts heavily in the anime; Asahi grows increasingly unhinged in his quest to find Shio, eventually using torture and blackmail to get what he wants and is hellbent on achieving his goal regardless of Shio's wishes, while Satou ends up having an epiphany when she murders Shouko and is called out by Shio for viewing her more of a prize than an actual person, and starts being more considerate of Shio's feelings.
  • Freudian Excuse: She lost her parents at a young age and had to live with an unstable relative who wasn't concerned in the slightest with the needs of a small child. It's not that surprising that she grown up as a manipulative psychopath who's totally insane.
  • The Heavy: While there are all sorts of jerks running around in the setting, it's Satou who is responsible for most of the dirty work. Satou's aunt and the Kobe sibling's dad did set up the framework, but the story still revolves around Satou's abduction of Shio.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In one of the only good things that she had done throughout the series, Satou takes the full blunt of the plummet off the building so that Shio herself wouldn't die.
  • Hidden Buxom: Some of the panels where she's wearing lingerie shows that she's pretty well-endowed on the chest.
  • Hoist by Her Own Petard: She ordered her aunt to burn down the apartment while she and Shio escapes overseas as cover-up for Shouko's murder. The setup is flawless and she would had been escaped scot-free if not for her insisting to get back to the burning apartment for her missing wedding ring, leading to her to be killed by the otherwise perfect crime she staged.
  • Hypocrite: She tells her boss that she isn't supposed to date underaged kids... even though Satou herself has Shio. At other points she even says things like killing is wrong, or accusing other people of being dirty sexual deviants.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Berates one of her classmates for wanting to kill someone, even though she herself is guilty of this and she's only reluctant to resort to murder because covering up one is hard.
  • Idiot Hair: Has one, but despite her murderous tendencies, she's no idiot. Satou can be chillingly intelligent, manipulative and pragmatic when necessary. She shares this physical trait with her aunt.
  • Ignored Epiphany:
    • Satou appears to feel some remorse for killing Shouko as of Chapter 39, but in the end, she mentally crosses her out of her mind, much like with anyone else.
    • This is subverted in the anime: Satou never crosses Shouko out of her mind, and upon looking at her face her lip begins to tremble with sadness before Shio's voice pulls her back to the task at hand. Satou even all but acknowledges that it was something that had to be done.
  • Improbable Age: She's only 15 years old, but she lives alone, goes to work in a restaurant, then a maid cafe, has enough expenses to take care of both herself and a stepchild, and is a master of blackmail and manipulation.
  • Invincible Villain: Satou is seemingly impossible to outmaeuver throughout the story and there's not much that can prevent her from keeping Shio out from Asahi's hands, especially after Shouko dies. If she didn't go back to her apartment to get her wedding ring, she would had been committed the perfect crime and became a full-blown Karma Houdini. And even after she dies, she leaves a mess so massive that it's all but impossible to clean up, especially from Asahi's end.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: After realizing Asahi is connected to Shio, she starts referring to him as "this thing". In her inner monologues, no less, as if her mind couldn’t perceive him as a human being anymore.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Any argument that she’s a Justified Criminal who only kills as a last resort vanishes in the final episode when she tries to burn the upper room of her apartment building down to cover her escape, putting dozens of lives at risk.
  • Karma Houdini: Subverted. She's virtually unstoppable for almost the entire manga and would had been got away scot-free...if not for her attempt to get back the wedding ring while she can already go overseas with Shio and escape committing the perfect crime.
  • The Kindnapper:
    • She gives this excuse to Mitsuboshi, claiming that she feels that only she can make Shio happy, as there's no telling if being with her family would actually be good for her. Though it's unknown how much she actually believes this as opposed to her justifying her kidnapping of Shio.
    • Ultimately she is playing this straight, as Shio's mother had abandoned her in the street, and neither her nor Asahi are in any condition to raise her while Satou, for all her faults, is the only one who has been able to give her a happy life.
  • Lack of Empathy: To anyone that isn't Shio. Best exemplified when she plans to burn the upper level of her apartment complex to cover her escape.
  • A Lighter Shade of Black: It tells when the most sympathetic antagonist out there is the actual Big Bad, a rather complex and unrepentant kidnapper who will do literally anything if she could get away with it, but at least she genuinely did everything for Shio's well-being. Compare this to things like the Princess Imperial Manager and the Kobe family patriarch, who will gleefully commit some of the most domestically explotative acts over the slightest of provocations.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Once she met Shio, she will literally do anything she could get away with just to protect her and prevent anyone from knowing her disappearance. Given she did come up with the idea of nabbing Shio from the streets though, she's likely not totally innocent from the get-go.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Very much so, as her violent tendencies fully emerged after encountering Shio and falling in "love" with her.
  • Love Redeems: Averted hard at first. Satou operates under the impression that as long as it's for her love for Shio, anything that she does is perfectly fine. Including threats, assault, and outright murder. Played straight in the end as its her love for Shio that ultimately causes her to sacrifice herself for her sake, as she now realizes that the true meaning of love is unselfishly giving your all for the ones you love the most and making sure they're happy and safe. By the end she's arguably the only character who has grown past loving Shio selfishly and possessively, and who cares the most about what Shio herself wants and needs.
  • Madness Mantra: "Bitter, bitter, it's so bitter..." Whenever Satou is stressed out, faced with any obstacles, or experiencing unpleasant memories - expect her to start uttering these words.
  • Mama Bear: Never mess with Shio when Satou's around. Just ask those two assailants who got their eyes gouged out for their trouble and the former owner of her apartment.
  • Manipulative Bitch: Is very good at manipulating others into doing her dirty work. She also groomed Shio to be so devoted to her, that she turns against her biological brother Asahi to defend her and actively denies him even after she dies.
  • Mask of Sanity: She's good at pretending to be a sweet, bubbly girl in public, but looking into her thought processes reveals that she's actually a very unstable psychopath with a Lack of Empathy who operates on Blue-and-Orange Morality.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: Downplayed. Satou has pink hair and red eyes, has a unique hairdo and wears brighter clothes as opposed to other characters who have plain designs and blue or purple-colored eyes or hair, making her stick out like a sore thumb.
  • The Ophelia: While Satou is a pretty and attractive young girl, she's also an unstable psychopath with a very alien way of thinking.
  • Parental Abandonment: Her parents died when she was young, so she was left in the care of her aunt. Unfortunately, said aunt happens to be really unstable.
  • Parental Substitute: While she claims to be in love with Shio, her relationship with her amounts to working extra jobs to provide for her, and feeding her. Episode 10 even has Satou appearing in a similar position as Shio's birth mother shortly after killing Shouko.
  • Pet the Dog: Her rescuing Mitsuboshi from their former manager at the Princess Imperial cafe even though she only went against the manager over getting underpaid.
  • Posthumous Villain Victory: It's eventually Satou's love (and not Asahi's determination and blood bonds) that wins over Shio in the end, even after death.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Despite having already killed a person before the events of the series, murder is always Satou's last option when she has to deal with people who may ruin her life with Shio. After all, now she knows how hard it is to safely get rid of bodies and clean bloodstains. It's much more efficient to bribe and manipulate them into doing what she wants.
  • Really Gets Around: Satou used to sleep around with lots of different boys before she met Shio, earning her a reputation for it to the point they say that she changes partners every three days. By her own admission, she even says that she's been with millions of boys before.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: In contrast to her bubblegum pink hair, Satou's eyes are an ominous blood red, hinting at her true, more dangerous nature.
  • Rose-Haired Sweetie: Subverted; despite having bubblegum pink hair and a seemingly friendly public persona, her real personality is anything but sweet.
  • Satanic Archetype: She exhibits several traits pertaining to a satanic figure. Much like with descriptions where Satan is described taking the appearance as an angel of light, Satou outwardly appears bubbly and friendly to mask her true personality that being a psychotic, obsessed young lady. She is manipulative and makes several deals with other characters to serve her purposes.
  • Self-Disposing Villain: She would had been committed the perfect crime and got away scot-free after ordering the burning of her apartment. Unfortunately, she went back to get her wedding ring knowing that she shouldn't turn back, and that's her only and final mistake.
  • Single-Target Sexuality: There's never any indication that Satou experiences any sort of sexual feelings for Shio, but she is clearly obsessed with her and believes she is completely in love with Shio and only Shio.
  • Start of Darkness: While she did come up with the idea to abduct Shio, is an unrepentant and manipulative psychopath willing to do anything, including murder, to protect the person she loves and went to bed with a bunch of men even way before then, it was being raised by an unstable relative clearly unfit to be a parental figure that laid the groundwork for Satou's character and attitude in the present.
  • Stepford Smiler: Her smile in public hides her disdain for the "dirty" world around her and her own unstable nature. Around Shio, however, her smile is always the real deal.
  • Tragic Villain: At the most basic level she is an emotionally damaged girl who is trying to protect her only source of happiness, and slips further into darkness in order to do so until she can no longer turn back.
  • Villainous Legacy: Days after her death, Shio exhibits several of her mannerisms as she vows to keep her "happy sugar life" with Satou in her heart for as long as she lived.
  • Villain Protagonist: And how! She is holding a child captive in her apartment, and is willing to resort to threats, bribery and even murder to keep her there.
  • Weak, but Skilled: Despite being a small teenage girl with no fighting experience or training, she is able to defeat bigger people in physical confrontations: such as pushing adult women to the ground, repelling two thugs in a park at night using her swiftness and weapons, and (at least in the pilot chapter) killing her former boyfriend in his own apartment in a face-to-face encounter and chopping his body to pieces, albeit he first had his lips bitten by her in a kiss and got real scared as a result.
  • What Is This Feeling?: After realizing Asahi knows Shio, she impulsively tries to kill him, stopping in the last second only when it hits her that she won't get away with murdering someone in her own workplace. She is very confused by her own actions, as she is usually more self-controlled and pragmatic. It takes a while for her to realize she was feeling jealousy.
  • What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Satou grew up not knowing what love truly is, which wasn't helped by being raised by her aunt and her twisted views on the subject. All her life she's been searching for love, dating and having sex with many guys (and possibly women) but never feeling anything. Shio is the first person to inspire such strong emotions in her, and therefore she seeks to protect her "love" at any cost.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: She is very good at tweaking her plans when the situation presents itself. When Asahi becomes a problem, Satou manipulates Mitsuboshi into helping her throw him off which succeeds despite Mitsuboshi nearly endangering the plan. After killing Shouko, Satou then changes the plan again and decides to pass Shouko's corpse off as her own which would give her enough time to escape with Shio. All of these only fell apart because Satou lost her wedding ring and wanted to go back to get it.
  • Yandere: Kidnapped the person she loves, keeps her far away from any contact she may have with the outside world, and is willing to do all sorts of criminal acts to keep her safe in their Gilded Cage. And in the regular sick sense, she can't even lie about loving another person without wanting to vomit. That's totally normal behaviour for a teenage girl in love.

     Shio Kobe 
Voiced by: Misaki Kuno
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hsl_shio.jpg

An eight-year-old innocent girl who stays in Satou's apartment. She cares for Satou deeply but often remains unaware of what she is involved in as she is not allowed outside of the apartment.


  • Am I Just a Toy to You?: After Satou's perfect life starts to crack, Shiou asks if Satou really loves her as a person at all given that she only wants the girl to "smile and wait" for her. Eventually, she does let the subject go once she makes peace with her past and Satou tells her about her murder of Hida.
  • Blind Obedience: Shio displays this time and time again to Satou, believing her entirely with no room for doubt in her mind that she has anything but her best interests at heart. Her age may have a lot to do with it.
  • Break the Cutie: Most likely unintentional on Satou's part, but it is made clear that Shio was emotionally broken by Satou's sacrifice, and she rejects her brother in favor of cherishing her memories with Satou.
  • Child by Rape: She is the result of her mother getting raped by her father, and being conceived in a bathtub.
  • Cosmic Motifs: The Moon. Shio is explicitly compared to the moon by Asahi, and a later spread shows a picture of her while also describing lunacy as people being driven mad by the moon's light. Shio (unwittingly and unconsciously) drives Satou, Mitsuboshi and Asahi, to commit deranged or desperate acts over her innocent beauty, though for Asahi's case, he only cared because that's his sister. Night is also when Satou always comes home to Shio.
  • Corrupt the Cutie: Eventually, Satou's influence and her death led to Shio becoming no different from her personality-wise and preferring Satou over Asahi. Asahi is rightfully shocked about this.
  • Cute Little Fang: She has one of these, which is a trait she shares with her brother Asahi.
  • Devoted to You: Despite being a young child, she has a positively uncanny ability to cause Satou to become intensely devoted to her, doing anything possible to keep her close and make her happy. Also applies to Mitsuboshi, though it's not mutual affection but a sign of his broken mental state.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Towards the climax of Episode 12, even she is off-put by Mitsuboshi's stalker mannerisms.
  • Face Death with Dignity: She's content to die alongside Satou when their getaway plans fail and they're trapped on the roof of their burning tenement.
  • Father, I Want to Marry My Brother: Prior to their separation, her mother would recite wedding vows with Asahi. This may have ended up contributing to her not caring about her "love's" sharp age difference.
  • Girlish Pigtails: By default she sports her hair in a pair of short fluffy pigtails to emphasize her pureness and naivety.
  • Go Through Me: In Episode 12, she shields Satou with her body as Asahi tries to strike her with his bat, forcing him to stop in his tracks. Later, she even picks up a shard of broken glass to wield as a weapon if Asahi doesn't stand down.
  • Her Heart Will Go On: After Satou's sacrifice. She rejects her biological family in favor of cherishing her memories of Satou, Asahi even briefly sees Shio as Satou when he visits her in the hospital. This retains when she was close to 17 years old, where she revisits the apartment she burnt with a stuffed toy and a cupcake in memoriam of her, although she still doesn't understand why she would let her live.
  • Horrifying the Horror: A few years years after Satou's death, she was taken hostage by a burglar on her way to buying a stuffed animal as a Replacement Goldfish for Satou. A burglar takes her hostage, only for her to not fear it at all and dare him to cut her instead. The burglar was noticably freaked out.
  • I Choose to Stay: She decides to stay with Satou even when she learns the truth about her abandonment.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Often how she is portrayed by the manga and viewed by other characters. Eventually becomes subvertedliving with what amounts to a mentally unstable groomer for a long amount of time does take a huge toll on her psyche and make her nuts.
  • Likes Older Women: She certainly doesn't mind the idea of marrying someone almost twice her age. Though whether she started off liking Satou romantically, Satou believing their love is romantic rubbed off on her or it's a Shared Family Quirk inherited from Asahi is hard to say.
  • Living MacGuffin: The whole plot kicks off due to her kidnapping, and the main cast wants to use her to give themselves peace of mind — Satou wanted a person to fill in her inner void, Taiyou because he was so psychologically crippled that he was attracted to her and Asahi who just wants to find his missing sister back.
  • A Match Made in Stockholm: At the end, Satou groomed and seasoned her so throughly that she's willing to protect Satou for her sake when Asahi just wanted to get his biological sister back. Even when Satou dies and Asahi was given a chance to meet Shio, he wins nothing because Shio rejects him and considers Satou a better caretaker than him.
  • Morality Chain: Serves as one for Satou as it's clear that she's the only thing that gives Satou any peace of mind. This is deconstructed by Shio herself as she calls out Satou and accuses her of viewing her more of a treasure than a person.
  • Sailor Fuku: Often seen wearing one.
  • The Shut-In: Shio is often left alone for most of the day because of Satou having to go out of the apartment to attend school and go to work so she can earn money to support them. She is perfectly capable of leaving the apartment, but does not do so due to Satou telling her that the outside world is dangerous. Even to the point where she's asked not to open the balcony door and step outside, likely due to Satou wanting to prevent Shio from being seen by anyone, since she knows someone is looking for Shio. Though Shio later loses the ability to leave the apartment due to Satou installing a lock on the outside of the door to prevent her from leaving under her own power.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Keeps Satou's ribbon around her arm as something to remember her by.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Once her memories return, it becomes abundantly clear that Shio is far more emotionally mature and perceptive of other people's feelings than a child her age has any right to be. The implication is that she had to grow up fast to be able to live in the horrible family situation she was born in. In the Extra Life epilogue, it's revealed that she has grown to become an independent young woman who can life a higher living standard compared to her brother, but still re-visits the apartment burnt by Satou with a stuffed animal and a self-made cupcake in memoriam of her.

     Asahi Kobe 
Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hsl_asahi.jpg

The Hero Antagonist of the manga, Asahi is a vagrant boy in a hood who is searching for the whereabouts of his younger sister, Shio.


  • Abusive Dad: His father was horribly abusive to him and her mother. When Shio was born, Asahi let his mother and sister escape to spare her of his father's abuse, while he stayed behind so that he wouldn't go after them. And he endured horrible abuse at the hands of said father for five years in order to protect them.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: In the manga, Asahi reacts sickly at the idea of having to use torture to get an answer from Mitsuboshi. Anime-wise? He has no such standards, most likely as a result of desperation.
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: There was no love lost when his father died. As soon as Asahi saw the jerk flipped over in a puddle of booze, he ran for the door in high spirits.
  • All for Nothing: At the end, he was not rewarded for his dedication for finding his sister Shio back, since Satou corrupted her beyond any sort of recognition and rejected him as he finds out when they reunite.
  • Big Brother Instinct: He is determined to reunite with his missing younger sister, Shio, no matter what gets in his way.
  • Beta Couple: His budding romance with Shouko is portrayed in a more normal and healthy manner compared to Satou’s relationship with Shio.
  • Break the Cutie : His father's abuse, along with the events of the story have broken him very badly.
  • Broken Bird: Boy he's got issues. His missing sister is just the beginning and it just goes From Bad to Worse.
  • Broken Tears: Cries them after his first encounter with Mitsuboshi, trying to find a lead to Shio with no avail.
  • Child by Rape: As revealed in a flashback later on. After Yuuna bumped into her future husband and pissed him off, he decided that she "make it up to him" somehow. One visit to his house later, and she was pregnant with Asahi.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Suffered inhuman abuse at the hands of his father from a very young age. Oh, and the reason he's looking for Shio? She is the only family he has left and his only source of happiness after having gone through all that crap for years.
  • The Determinator: He will try find his sister, no matter the cost. Too bad for him, he has no idea how ingrained Satou's unconscious grooming is for his sister's psyche...
  • Fingore: His abusive father was willing to tear off his fingernails just to see how long he could endure the pain. He later threatens to do this to Mitsuboshi after Mitsuboshi almost tricks him into leaving the city.
  • Foil: To Satou. Both of them are obsessed with Shio, but they differ in their methods regarding the young girl.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: By the time of his confrontation with Satou, he's used torture, blackmail and even attempts to kill a defenseless Satou out of anger and her murder of Shoko— all things that his Arch-Enemy Satou has done.
  • Hero Antagonist: He is the main threat to Satou's "Happy Sugar Life" with Shio, and also one of the few genuinely good persons in the manga.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: A non-fatal example. He endured his father's abuse alone for five years, just to spare Shio from going through the same horrible experiences as him and Yuuna. This includes getting all of his nails ripped off, going to the market in that condition to buy alcohol, etc.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: He attempts to kill Satou in the climax of the story because he caught her with Shio red-handed, exposing her as Shio's abductor.
  • Like Father, Like Son: A rather dark example of this. One of the ways his father abused him was by ripping his fingernails clean off. When he forces Taiyou to look up Satou's address, he threatens to rip off his fingernails in the same fashion his father did.
  • Nice Guy: Wants nothing more than living a happy life with his family, but unlike Satou he doesn’t plan on hurting people to achieve that.
  • No Social Skills: Primarily because of being abused endlessly for years by his father and thus never knowing even a single person in the outside would, Asahi lacks savviness when dealing with other people.
  • Parental Abandonment: By the time the story starts, he let his mother run with Shio to deal with his father, an abusive drunkard (who thankfully was dead).
  • The Pollyanna: Was one as a kid, as he always tried to cheer up his mother despite the horrible conditions they were forced to live in. Even when his mother and Shio were escaping, he kept a smile on his face the whole time and reassured her that everything would be fine, despite knowing what fate had in store for him after they left.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: His entire journey to bring Shio home ends in failure. Even after Satou's death, Stockholm Syndrome denies him the win.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: His face greatly resembles his sister's, particularly their eyes and their Cute Little Fang.
  • Took a Level in Badass: At the beginning he's just a timid guy but as he finally gets a lead on Shio's whereabouts, he becomes way bolder, to the point of holding nothing back when he confronts Satou on the way out from the burnt apartment.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Later in the manga he decides that he will have to stop being a Nice Guy to find Shio, so he gets a baseball bat to help him extract info of Taiyou. Subverted when it turns out to be a façade to scare Taiyou into helping him. When he actually does hit him with the bat (because Taiyou provoked him into doing it), he starts feeling sick for hurting people like his father hurt him. He does do some pretty jerkish acts later on though, spitefully leaving Mitsuboshi tied up in the burning apartment and rejecting his pleas for help because he lied about Shio.
  • Trauma Button: As of the Extra Life chapters, he's now horrifically afraid of seeing stray animals on the streets. An old woman lost a cat and he instantly believed it was like Shio over again, motivating him to give it back to its owner. Losing his sister to Stockholm Syndrome definitely left a heavy impact on his psyche.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Things never, never look better for this poor kid. He was a Child by Rape who had to endure abuse from an utterly hateful man for 5 years to protect his mother and sister, said sister, Shio, was abducted on the streets and groomed by Satou, His new friend Shouko was murdered by his sister's groomer, and to rub salt in the wound even after Satou's death, his sister rejects him, choosing Satou over her brother.
  • Tragic Keepsake: He still has the stack of missing person posters for Shio even after she rejects her in favor of Satou.
  • You Are Too Late: When he was able to talk with Shio at the climax of the story, Satou already molded her to the point that there's basically nothing he can do to convince her to return to his side. He might have the determination, but being too slow and desperate to outmaneuver Satou becomes his undoing.

     Taiyou Mitsuboshi 
Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hsl_mitsuboshi.jpg

A boy who works alongside Satou at a family restaurant. After being sexually assaulted by his boss, he finds comfort in Shio's innocence and becomes obsessed with her.


  • Bound and Gagged: Poor kid is prone to getting caught in such a hitch.
    • During his time of captivity, his manager has him locked away in a closet while naked, bound and gagged.
    • When Asahi tries to torture information out of him, he has Taiyou bound with duct tapes.
    • Satou's aunt ties him up in her apartment room and seems intent to keep him there for an indefinite amount of time.
  • Break the Cutie:
    • He was kidnapped and raped for a week by his boss, and the trauma from the incidence turned him into a weirdo who obsess after Shio.
    • Round two of this, at the hands of Satou's aunt, appears to have broken him completely. The credits portray him as sitting alone in his room, a blank look on his face, staring at nothing as he quietly talks nonsense to himself.
  • Butt-Monkey: Deconstructed and Played for Horror — things never go well for this guy. He was an ordinary man at the start of the series, only to be raped by the Princess Imperial Manager for a week and be so traumatized that he becomes heavily engrossed with Shio, laying himself bare as the target for slapstick comedy, blackmail and extortion from both Satou and Asahi. His second rape in the hands of Satou's aunt is the finishing blow that reduced him into an apathetic and broken wreck.
  • Comedic Lolicon: Mitsuboshi’s obsession with Shio post-rape - while there is no proof he wants to make sexual advances on her, the most he did being asking her to pat his head and make his pain go away, and it's portrayed dramatically to highlight his shift in personality and actions caused by the trauma - is often frequently exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness through his over-the-top view of and reactions towards Shio. The anime director even considers Mitsuboshi to be the best character for any funny scenes, in his own opinion.
  • Defiled Forever: Rare male example. After being raped by the manager of the Princess Imperial, he starts seeing himself as "dirty". His obsession with Shio comes from a twisted belief that her pureness can "cleanse his soul".
  • Did Not Think This Through: Asahi seems to fall for the trap Satou had laid out for him, but what Mitsuboshi didn't anticipate was Asahi pointing out the inconsistencies in his story, namely he not saying anything about Shio before in spite of them having met each other when he saved him from the two thugs way back in Episode 2.
  • Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted in Mitsuboshi's case. He's shown to be incredibly traumatized by this event, Satou herself highlights how much of a criminal act it is, and the fact that it occurred is taken extremely seriously.
  • Foil: To Satou. Much like with her, Mitsuboshi is obsessed with Shio, but in that regard, he wants to physically be with her whereas there is no indication that Satou views Shio with any sexual interest. Conversely, she is willing to do anything for Shio, while Mitsuboshi never shows that kind of resolve.
  • Hates Being Touched: Given his past experience with being kidnapped and raped by his former manager, this is not at all surprising. He is shown to get freaked out if a girl his own age so much as touches him, and that's when he outright states that he considers girls his own age not as scary to him as older women. Though he is perfectly fine, and even desires it, when it's Shio.
  • Ignored Epiphany: He actually does realize how screwed up he has become and vows to go back to being a normal person. Then Satou comes and throws Shio's sock at him, bringing his obsession towards her back for good.
  • Likes Older Women: Inverted strongly. Following being raped by his female manager, Mitsuboshi will not only experience a panic attack if an older woman so much as taps his shoulder; but now leans towards girls of a… much younger persuasion, such as Shio particularly.
  • Minion with an F in Evil: Agrees to work with Satou in getting rid of Asahi in return for seeing Shio. While he follows Satou's scheme without issue, he ends up botching it because Asahi points out the inconsistency in his story.
  • Oh, Crap!: Has this reaction upon realizing that Satou's aunt lured him into the room to assuredly rape him.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Tries to warn Shouko about Satou, but mostly because he's afraid that Shouko might fall in love with Shio.
  • Pretty Boy: He is noted by his female colleagues to be very good-looking.
  • Rape Leads to Insanity: Mitsuboshi was a perfectly normal young man, attracted to Satou, and generally good-natured prior to being raped; but afterwards, he temporarily becomes a Hikikomori, suffers from panic attacks if touched by any older women, and most vitally, develops a disturbingly predatory and sexualised obsession with Shio - to the point of him hoarding her missing posters, sniffing anything remotely associated with her, and drooling and moaning uncontrollably from merely her touch (which he believes will help to ‘purify his dirtied self’). Thanks to Satou's aunt raping him, he is left completely broken at the end of the series.
  • Reluctant Psycho: Downplayed. Mitsuboshi knows that his obsession with Shio is unhealthy, and makes some effort to give up on her and return to normal. However, Satou breaks his resolve by giving him Shio's socks, and he lapses to his former obsession, and makes no other attempts to recover afterwards.
  • Security Blanket: Shio’s missing poster serves as a rather sad and creepy example for Mitsuboshi, to the point that he not only plasters the walls of his bedroom with them - but, in the midst of a relapse at one point, even genuinely considers carrying one in his pocket for the rest of his life growing up.
  • Start of Darkness: Mitsuboshi's kidnapping and subsequent sexual assault when he was working at the Princess Imperial can be counted as this. As it's what started his fear of women and triggered the feelings which would later cause him to become obsessed with Shio.
  • Trauma Button: After the Princess Imperial Manager raped him, he's deathly afraid of older women. He can be set off just because one tried to hold him up.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Sure, Mitsuboshi, trust the creepy bandaged lady you just met with opening the door to Satou's apartment room. Surely nothing bad could come from it. In the anime however, this is averted, as he enters the apartment room himself.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unknown what happened to him 8 years after Satou died, since unlike Asahi and Shio he was neither mentioned nor is he shown in the Extra Life chapters. It's possible he's so broken that he offed himself.

     Shouko Hida 
Voiced by: Aya Suzaki
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hsl_shouko.jpg

Satou's best friend who constantly worries for her, but is unaware of her real nature.


  • Ambiguously Bi: She has been with boys before the start of the series, but she is a little too interested in discovering who Satou's lover is and getting her to go back to chasing boys with her. Coupled with how often she is hugging Satou and clinging to her arm, it's easy to read her as having a case of Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?. She gives Satou an ambiguous Love Confession in Chapter 15, but later gives an indirect but totally unambiguous one to Asahi.
  • Audience Surrogate: Thanks to her being the Only Sane Man, she frequently says and thinks the same things the audience does, particularly regarding other characters' twisted sense of love.
  • Beta Couple: Her budding romance with Asahi is portrayed in a more normal and healthy manner compared to Satou’s relationship with Shio.
  • Character Death: Was rewarded for her insistence to return Satou's humanity with a slit in the throat.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: She's determined to help out both Asahi and Satou, not knowing what kind of person Satou really is. Despite Satou's warnings to not get involved for her own good, she also explicitly attempts to separate her from Shio even if that will assuredly trigger Satou's wrath.
  • Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: After continually probing into Satou's affairs, she is killed for her effort.
  • Dies Wide Open: :After her death, her eyes remained open for several days until Asahi finds her corpse and closes them. Oddly enough, her body is well preserved and shows zero signs of decomposition.
  • Drop Dead Gorgeous: After Satou kills her, she's left with her undressed, eyes wide open and lifeless body.
  • Edible Theme Naming: Just like Satou and the Kobe siblings, she's named after the Hida brand of wagyu beef.
  • Et Tu, Brute?: Poor girl cares about Satou with her genuine heart, and really tries to "rescue her from her own immorality" with no hostile intention, and a slit in the throat is what Satou gives her in exchange. Well justified because not only she tried to snitch on Satou for Asahi (if not to the police), she also believed that separating Satou from Shio would help her despite that just provokes the worst out of her.
  • Fatal Flaw: Her desire to help people without fully understanding their situation, and despite warnings not to get involved. This ultimately gets her murdered by Satou when she pushes too far.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: She manages to send a photo of Satou and Shio to Asahi at the cost of her life.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Decides to keep trusting Satou in spite of all the odd circumstances pertaining to her home life, which inevitably leads to terrible consequences.
  • Imagine Spot: Has a brief one in the anime after Satou asks if she still wants to be her friend even after meeting her aunt, imagining that she confidently brushed off the experience and told her yes... only for the scene to distort and rewind to her being shaken and unable to answer her.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: She's the only character to not suffer some sort of mental illness, have been deeply traumatized, or be downright evil. It's also Deconstructed as a Fatal Flaw when she tries to help Satou in a way that explicitly pushes all of her Berserk Buttons. Needless to say, this does not end up well for her.
  • Irony: Unlike the other characters, she never finds her own definition of what love is, yet she performs what perhaps is the most selfless act in the series is by snapping a picture of Shio and Satou and sending it to Asahi.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: She would much rather have been born into a happy, normal family than a rich one.
  • Love Confession: Gives one to Satou in Chapter 15 that is just ambiguous enough to be interpreted as either friendly or romantic love. In Chapter 24, she also kisses Asahi and indirectly confesses that she would like to have him as a boyfriend.
  • Messianic Archetype: Is very compassionate, refusing to abandon Satou no matter what and taking it upon herself to free her from her own darkness, which results in her death. She also performs an act of true love by sending a picture to Asahi at the cost of her life.
  • Moment of Weakness: In Chapter 17, after Shouko visits Satou's apartment and meets her aunt. When Satou asks her if she still wants to be her friend knowing that she's related to such a person, Shouko can't meet her gaze. At this moment, Satou stops trusting Shouko and breaks off their friendship, which later leads to Satou murdering Shouko when Shouko takes a picture of her and Shio and Satou doesn't trust her not to go to the police.
  • Nice Girl: Actually called such In-Universe by Satou. She expresses doubt over it, but her actions later show that Satou was correct, as Shouko may actually be the most forgiving and compassionate character in the series.
  • Only Friend: Subtle, but you can see that Shouko is the only person Satou really cares for on a personal level. Satou becomes more unhinged after she kills Shouko, and in the spread where she mentally crosses out pictures of her acquaintances, Shouko's face is the only one left unmarked.
  • Only Sane Man: The only character among the main cast to neither show mental instability nor experience prior trauma.
  • She Knows Too Much: She had evidence of Satou holding Shio at her apartment on her phone and unfortunately for her, even after she decided to hand it over, Satou still refused to trust her to keep the secret and slashed her throat.
  • Sacrificial Lion: Her death establishes that Satou doesn't care if you're her best friend, she will cut loose ends with you as soon as you stand in-between her and her beloved. It also permanently sets the story to a darker tone, shifting the focus to Satou trying to cover up for the murder.
  • Stupid Good: Her idea of "helping Satou" sums up as trying to separate her from Shio and hand the child back to Asahi, completely ignorant to that being one of the best ways to inure her wrath. Predictably, this does not end well for her.
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth: A genuinely kind, friendly, and empathetic girl who reaches out to help Asahi. Her kindness only wavers once, and she ultimately does what she can to make up for it. Unfortunately, Satou isn't the type to forgive anyone from trying to separate her from Shio...
  • Uptown Girl: She comes from a well off family, while Asahi’s father wasted his inheritance on alcohol. They grow quite fond of each other regardless.

Secondary Characters

     The Princess Imperial Manager 
Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/princess_imperial_manager.png

A nameless woman who ran a restaurant that Satou decided to work at. She was the one responsible for Mitsuboshi's obsession with Shio.


  • Ambiguously Bi: Apart from sexually abusing Mitsuboshi, it's also implied she would do the same to her female workers, since she tells Satou she's cute and tells her she loves her.
  • Attention Whore: The fact that Satou is more popular than her is what drives her to do what she did. She believes she deserves all the love from her employees.
  • Bad Boss: If anyone doesn't kiss her feet, she will deny them their paycheck and force them to work overtime. And then there's the rape against Mitsuboshi.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She presents herself as a friendly and benevolent boss, but is really a narcissistic, slimy, perverted creep with delusions of grandeur who expects her workers to worship and love her like a goddess, and has no qualms preying on and sexually abusing young teenage boys.
  • Dirty Coward: For the most part, she is arrogant and loves throwing her weight around, however when Satou threatens to expose her to the authorities with recorded evidence, she turns into a pathetic weakling while begging Satou not to do so. But Satou does it anyways.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Forces Satou to work longer hours as punishment for catching Mitsuboshi's interests.
  • Entitled Bitch: She expects her workers to love her and worship her, even though she treats them like dirt and does nothing in return for them.
  • Evil Is Petty: Becomes envious of Satou because of how much attention she was receiving from her employees. Mitsuboshi asking Satou out was the straw that broke the camel's back.
  • Faux Affably Evil: She puts on a friendly and charming facade in public, but behind closed doors, she's the complete opposite of that.
  • A God Am I: Believes that she is the goddess of her restaurant and would sabotage and even rape those who don't display absolute obedience.
  • Hate Sink: Alongside Asahi's father, the manager is one of the more reprehensible and most hated characters of the series. Denying Satou her paycheck just because she doesn't like her is bad enough, but her rape of Mitsuboshi that irreversibly scarred him cements her to be as hateful as she could be.
  • It's All About Me: She ensures that all of her employees pay attention to her, and when Mitsuboshi goes against that intended purpose by asking Satou out on a date, she doesn't take it lightly.
  • Jerkass: Even if you put aside her sexual abuse of Mitsuboshi, she's still a thoroughly unpleasant, petty, and unrepentant bitch who regularly abuses her power over others and has no empathy.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: For all of her jerkassery, she tells Satou that "she thinks she can get away just because she is cute" during their private confrontation. At least to a few people, she isn't wrong about that certain line, considering that Satou also acts like a nice girl in public but in reality, she is a murderous psychopath and a Yandere. That still does not make the manager any better, so even though she is oblivious to what Satou did, both of them are pretty bad people anyway (although Satou is somewhat milder than her).
  • Jerkass to One: Despite being a selfish woman who only cares about herself and treats her workers like trash, her nasty and cruel behaviour is now directly towards Satou. Since Satou gains a lot of attention from other employees, she becomes the main target for the manager due to her beauty and cuteness. When she found out that Mitsuboshi confesses to Satou, she kidnaps and sexually assaults him until he becomes emotionally broken, and she tried to order her workers to bully Satou and give her nothing in return after Satou works a longer time.
  • Karma Houdini: Downplayed-while shes survives to the end of the series, she's either been fired or had her reputation damaged and it's possible she now fears Satou, so she didn't get off completely unscathed.
  • Lack of Empathy: She views her own workers as little more than slaves to be used for own selfish desires.
  • Manipulative Bitch: She uses fear and intimidation to get her own way. Unfortunately, Satou shows her who's the superior Manipulative Bitch.
  • Mugging the Monster: Made Satou work longer hours and do menial labor with less pay to punish her for her suddenly becoming popular with her employees. Unfortunately for her, Satou is no chew toy but a vicious Manipulative Bastard, so she's not letting her get her way.
  • Narcissist: She believes everyone in her "kingdom" should love their "queen." Satou gaining the attention of the rest of the staff is a sore spot for her, so she does everything she can to undermine her popularity while punishing her for the perceived slight against her ego.
  • No Name Given: She is never referred to as anything other than her position.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Despite being obviously a full-grown woman, she acts more like a overgrown, spoiled brat who craves unconditional praise from her employees and is willing to rape or underpay them just because they don't kiss her feet.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Kidnaps and rapes Mitsuboshi for a week. Satou calls her out for this, and she ultimately caused Mitsuboshi to develop a phobia of older women as well as his obsessing over Shio.
  • Slime Ball: She's very sleazy, best shown when she denies Satou her paycheck because she didn't kiss her feet like the lowly servant she should be. And this is excluding her raping Mitsuboshi for a week...
  • Small Role, Big Impact: Despite being merely a one-time character who shows up in the first chapter and vanishes afterwards, she's responsible for Mitsuboshi's Start of Darkness and eventual collapse.
  • The Sociopath: She has a very high opinion of herself, so much so that she kidnaps and rapes Mitsuboshi out of envy that he asked Satou out on a date. All the while, she manipulates the staff to hate Satou and forces her to work overtime without intending to pay her for it. The only remorse she shows is over the fact that she could get caught.
  • Smug Snake: Her cocky attitude wears off when she finds out Satou was recording her admititng she kidnapped Mitsuboshi.
  • Starter Villain: She is the first person Satou has to deal with, and an undeniably nasty one at that too.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Because of her actions, she greatly traumatized Mitsuboshi to the point that he obsesses over Shio, believing that only she could purify him of his wickedness.
  • Uncertain Doom: Though the show ended instead of being cancelled. After she was exposed offscreen and quitted or was fired, she vanishes from the scene permanently. It's likely that she killed herself after being exposed or her life was ruined.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Goes on a huge rant fully admitting to having kidnapped Mitsuboshi, and she breaks down in fear when Satou threatened to expose her to the authorities. after Mitsuboshi was freed Satou possibly uploaded the video and ruined her life.

     Daichi Kitaumekawa 
Voiced by: Kaito Ishikawa
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hsl_kitaumekawa.jpg

Satou's teacher, whose good looks and popularity among his students hide a twisted personality.


  • Attempted Rape: It's made crystal clear that he was planning on having his way with Satou the moment she confronted him in the alleyway during Episode 2 after she reveals that she knew he was her stalker this whole time. He only stops himself after Satou pulls out a rape alarm she had with her on her bag to avoid being caught.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He is very good at pretending to be a good teacher who is concerned about his students who seem to be facing trouble. Nobody suspects that he is hitting on his own students because he "wants to love as many women as he can".
  • The Bus Came Back: At first he seemed to just be the second Starter Villain of the series, as he disappeared after Satou first dealt with him. He comes back several chapters later playing the rather important role of leading the characters to a big revelation.
  • Foil: To Satou's aunt. While Satou's aunt makes it abundantly clear that she derives pleasure from being beaten and abused, Daichi is at least sane enough to keep his sadomasochistic desires under wrap.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: He is a huge masochist, so Satou threatening to expose his crimes only makes him aroused. With that being said, he still has enough rationality left to try to avoid intentionally ruining his life, so he does what she says. Doesn't stop him from meddling into her business one more time to feel that thrill again, though.

     Shio and Asahi's Father 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/father_as_a_shadow_monster.png
See his uncorrupted form here 

A man who was the father of the Kobe siblings by rape, his whole existence revolves around making the life of the woman he raped and the children she birthed hell. Thankfully, he died before the story started.


  • Abusive Parents: To say he was a Jerkass would be a huge Understatement. To put it into perspective, he once tore off his son's fingernails just to see how long he could endure the pain. And then made him get liquor afterwards. It's only fortunate that the asshole died of alcohol poisoning later, but it took five years after his sister and his mom left.
  • Adapted Out: In the anime adaptation, his most horrifying acts, such as his "bright idea" to irreversibly ruin Yuuna's life because she bumped into him and his squandering of his father's inheritance money are omitted.
  • Death by Irony: Dying of alcohol poisoning is the most fitting death possible for an abusive alcoholic like him. It becomes even more ironic when we later learn that he celebrated his father's death, just like how his son celebrated his own death in turn.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Exaggerated and Played for Horror. He irreversibly ruins Yuna's life just because she accidentally bumps into him.
  • The Faceless: Asahi has a more extreme version of Shio's problems with remembering painful memories. In his flashbacks, his father has his entire body scribbled, representing how he sees him as a demon rather than a person. And even in the flashbacks of other people, his face is never shown until much later in the series.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: While Satou drives the majority of the setting's conflict, it was his abuse against Yuuna that led to Shio and Asahi's birth, her dumping Shio on the streets and thus everything that happens afterwards.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: The man can be set off by someone accidentally pushing him. He's really no better in his married life.
  • Hate Sink: Even in a series full of psychopaths, he stands out as the single most unlikeable person on the planet. An abusive alcoholic, he shows no love for his wife and children, beating them frequently and using them to fuel his unhealthy habits. A flashback would later reveal that he also raped his future wife because she accidentally pushed him, celebrated the death of his own father because it left him with a large inheritance, left his wife and son, and only came back after spending all his money. The only good thing about him is he's dead.
  • The Hedonist: All he cares about is booze and sex. When he receives an inheritance, it doesn't take very long for him to squander it.
  • Jerkass: Quite frankly, that's the mildest way to describe how monstrous he is.
  • Karmic Death: Killed by alcohol poisoning courtesy of Yuuna.
  • Posthumous Character: The only good thing about this man is he died before the story started, but not without having significantly impacted the lives of his wife and his children by rape.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: His entire character is basically the egocentrism and impulsiveness of a spoiled child combined with the desires and drives of a grown man.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He originally raped his future wife merely for her hesitation in apologizing for bumping into him. Afterwards, there is plenty of evidence that he continued to rape her throughout the duration of their marriage.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: Despite being a Posthumous Character who only appears in flashbacks and his direct role in the story is over by the time Satou shows up to abduct Shio, everything that happened in the manga itself can be traced directly back his rape of Yuuna.
  • The Sociopath: A low functioning one, he lacks any empathy towards anyone, even his own family, a primary example being him blowing his inheritance on himself, only returning to his family because he was now broke. He also has that impulsive need to stimulate himself by abusing anyone he came across.
  • Unnamed Parent: Much like with most of the adults in the series, he doesn't go by an official name.

     Sumire Miyazaki 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hsl_suu.jpg

An employee at Cure á Cute whose admiration for Satou is revealed to be much deeper than it first appears.


  • Abhorrent Admirer: Sumire isn't ugly by any means, but Satou is disgusted by Sumire's obsession with her, calling her a "dirty person" in her internal monologue in Episode 9 with zero irony.
  • The Bus Came Back: She returns in Chapter 35/Episode 11 to give Satou her and her sister's passports to help Satou and Shio escape together on their "honeymoon."
  • Perverted Sniffing: Does this to Satou's jacket while in her underwear in The Stinger of Episode 4.
  • Psycho Lesbian: She is not murderous like Satou, but sniffing the clothes of your crush and trying to imitate them to the point of wearing the same underwear as them are not the actions of a mentally healthy person.
  • Put on a Bus: She apparently quits her job at the cosplay cafe after Satou confronts her, and she isn't seen for quite a while after that.
  • Shadow Archetype: Sumire is this to Satou, right down to sharing the same first and last initials. Satou finds herself repelled by Sumire's obsessive lust for her and how said lust is an outlet for Sumire to feel better about her own self image and outlook on her life, even when this isn't too far removed from how Satou is like in regards to Shio. That Satou can see some of her own broken self in Sumire is implied to be a partial reason for Satou to deal with her how she did.
  • Stalker with a Crush: She's so infatuated with Satou that she even knows what brand of underwear she uses. She also begins digging into Satou's home life, which prompts a "Shut Up" Kiss from Satou in order to get her to stop prying.

Walking Spoiler Characters

     Satou's Aunt 
Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hsl_auntie.png

Satou’s legal guardian since her parents died. Despite being her only relative, none of Satou’s acquaintances or teachers have ever seen her. And this is probably for good measure...


  • Abusive Parents: While there's no indication that she has ever harmed Satou physically, she is very clearly not a good role model nor stable enough to be trusted with caring for a child. Satou growing up with her aunt likely damaged her to a far greater extent than losing her parents. It's well justified since the woman was so insane that she likely doesn't even have moral agency.
  • Affably Evil: Despite being an insane sex maniac, she can come across as genuinely friendly and will gleefully do anything her niece tells her to.
  • All-Loving Heroine: A villainous example Played for Horror. She's certainly no heroine, however she loves everyone all the same, but in her own twisted way.
  • Ax-Crazy: A given. She even happily takes credit for burning the apartment building to the ground at the final act.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Satou's aunt openly welcomes any and all forms of love there is, stating that she'd consume all of it. Even when she forces herself onto others such as the police officer or Mitsuboshi, she seems to do so not out of malicious intent, but because she felt that she was "curing" his loneliness.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: A Male Gaze closeup of her in her debut episode reveals she has an ample rack, which she uses to seduce men.
  • The Corrupter: She's the reason Satou has such a warped view of love, not to mention how she's implied to have been successful in seducing the male policeman.
  • Creepy Uncle: Creepy Aunt, but it's all the same. She acts unsettingly touchy-feely with Satou when she comes to her apartment during a police investigation, despite Satou's expressions and body language making it clear that she is very uncomfortable being around her aunt for any length of time. That's not even getting into her unashamedly parading her sexual conquests and deviant behaviour in front of her niece, Satou, from when she was still a child; judging from Satou's earliest memories of her.
  • Creepy Blue Eyes: In the anime, her radiant blue eyes only add to her rather discomforting presence.
  • Depraved Bisexual: After forcing herself on the male police officer, she then expresses interest in satiating the female officer's loneliness. She also makes a few passes towards Shouko, but she does wish her the best of luck when it came to finding her prince.
  • Dissonant Serenity: In the anime, she is serenely calm in her first appearance, even when she tries to goad the police officer into hitting her without ever raising the volume of her voice.
  • Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted, big time. Her rape of Mitsuboshi is portrayed as absolutely horrifying.
  • Drives Like Crazy: But it's fine, because she doesn't have any citations.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: She might be a depraved sex maniac, but in the original manga she did warn Satou not to make her relationship with Shio sexual since they're not in that age. This is notably omitted in the anime adaptation.
  • Fan Disservice: Is a pretty-looking woman, but because of her bandages and her casual tone of voice, she ends up repelling people.
  • Foil: To Daichi. While Daichi would try to keep his urges under lock and key for the sake of his reputation, Satou's aunt revels in her sadomasochistic desires, actively looking to get hurt or abused.
  • Forceful Kiss: Delivers one to Mitsuboshi when he comes to her apartment looking for Shio. He does not take it well.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Satou herself is the Villain Protagonist while her aunt is the reason for her alien mindset.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Her most terrifying feature is how she's able to read another person like a book, manipulating them to give in to their desires and her demands.
  • The Hedonist: Lives for deriving pleasure from being beaten.
  • Idiot Hair: Has one, just like her niece, though she's not so much of an idiot, more so just lacking any common sense or inhibitions.
  • Laughably Evil: She is darkly hilarious in her mannerisms, despite being one of the most disturbing characters in the series.
  • Love Freak: Constantly talks about her rather... unique definition of love with other characters, like Satou and Shouko. She's not shy about showing off this "love" to anyone she meets, in practice, either - whether they want it or not.
  • Marshmallow Hell: She forces her breasts into a male police officer’s face in her attempt to seduce him.
  • Motherly Side Plait: Definitely averted. She has the hair and is a Parental Substitute to Satou, however, she's anything but motherly.
  • No Name Given: Her first name isn't revealed to the audience.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Any pretense that she's just an incredibly odd and nutty aunt with a dirty apartment and strange views on love gets thrown out the window when she rapes Mitsuboshi, and later starts the fire in Satou's apartment floor per her niece's orders.
  • The Ophelia: She's a pretty young woman, but she's wrapped in bandages, walks barefoot for most of the time, has a house filled with garbage and is extremely mentally unstable.
  • Perpetual Smiler: It is rare to see her without a creepy smile on her face.
  • Pet the Dog: Takes a liking to Shouko, wishing her the best of luck with finding her prince. She's also indicated to genuinely care about Satou, though in an extremely warped and bizarre way.
  • Really Gets Around: She used to openly go to bed with men, often right in front of Satou. If she didn't, her "garbage room" wouldn't be such a mess. In her very first scene, she also hits on two police officers who went to her house on duty, and then on a friend of her niece.
  • Red Herring: Early in the plot she only seems to be mentioned to remind the viewer that nobody has ever seen her. Satou also clearly gets uncomfortable whenever she has to talk about her aunt. Everything seems to point to her being the person Satou killed before the start of the series. She is actually still alive and has no (direct) connection to Satou’s actions in the series.
  • Slasher Smile: If she's feeling like she's going to force herself on someone, she flashes one that isn't very different from the Princess Imperial Manager's. Which also irreversibly scars Mitsuboshi when she decides to force herself on him.
  • Softspoken Sadist: She has a light, pleasant voice that haunts her victims as she emotionally undresses them and pries her way into their heads. Though unlike most examples, she is convinced she is helping her victims.
  • So Proud of You: Is pleased to learn Satou found someone to love even though her niece called her out on her version of love being wrong.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: Openly invites a police officer to slap and abuse her without care, because she simply sees such things as part of her twisted version of "love".
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She is directly responsible for Satou becoming who she is in the present, meaning she is indirectly responsible for every crime she commits.
  • Walking Spoiler: Given that the only information on her we are given early in the plot is that nobody knows anything about her, it should be no surprise that she turns out to be this.

     Unnamed Neighbor 

A painter who used to own the apartment that Satou and Shio currently reside in. Died before the story officially began.


  • Asshole Victim: Was going to strangle Shio for the incredibly grievous sin of making Satou look happy for the first time.
  • The Faceless: We never see his face, as the entire chapter they star in is from his POV.
  • Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: From what little we see of them, he smokes fairly often. He end up snapping and trying to murder Shio, after seeing how much their muse, Satou, has changed upon meeting her.
  • Mad Artist: Was a painter who draws portraits of Satou. He tries to strangle Shio after Satou brought her to his apartment and is thus repaid with his death.
  • No Name Given: We never learn his name.
  • Posthumous Character: Dead before the story began, as he was the source of the bloodstained room and the bags presumably full of body parts that Satou was trying to get rid of in early chapters.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: With his death, Satou became a mentally unhinged psychopath who's not far from outright grooming a child and doing anything she can get away with to protect her.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His attempted murder of Shio would spark Satou into becoming viciously protective of her, which makes him posthumously responsible for Satou's actions.
  • Walking Spoiler: He would be the source of quite a few mysteries early in the story, such as how Satou got ahold of the apartment and who she killed that caused the bloodstains and body bags in the locked room.
  • Yandere: The first thing he tries to do when they meet Shio, after realizing how much Satou cares for her, is attempt to strangle her because Satou holds affection for her and not for him.

     Yuuna Kobe 
Voiced by: Yūko Gotō
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shios_mother.JPG
See her uncorrupted form. 

The mother of Shio and Asahi Kobe. Seen only in the flashbacks of her children.


  • All Take and No Give: The "Give" part of the relationship with her husband. Whether an arranged marriage or not, she is unable to leave him and is constantly forced to give him whatever he wants of her as she has no other way out of it.
  • Ambiguous Situation: She can be seen standing outside the hospital in the last chapter and episode, but it's left unclear if it's truly her or a hallucination Shio and/or Asahi are seeing.
  • The Dog Bites Back: She was the reason her husband died. She poisoned his alcohol, which resulted in his demise.
  • Domestic Abuse: A former victim of it at the hands of her late husband. She herself also begins to be abusive towards Shio after they escape from her husband, smacking her when she disobeys and eventually deciding to lock her in the house. She realizes that she's being abusive just like her husband, and her inability to stop herself leads to her mental breakdown.
  • Extreme Doormat: Must comply with every single one of her husband's demands, with no means or confidence to fight or disobey him. He himself constantly refers to her as his "toy" to do as he wishes with. Only eventually ended when she gathered the nerve to run away from him with her daughter.
  • The Faceless: At certain parts, at least. Most times when Shio visualizes her mother, save certain points, she appears with large, black scribbles which obscure the majority of her face.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: When she strikes Shio for disobeying her and realizes that she's acting just like her hated husband, complete with Big "NO!".
  • Parental Abandonment:
    • She is not seen anywhere near either of her children, if she is even still alive. Shio is currently in the possession of Satou and Asahi let himself get abused by his dad just to spare her and Shio the troubles, sleeping in the streets. Later we learn that she outright abandoned Shio on the street Satou finds her at, with only a "goodbye" as her condolence.
    • Doubly so depending on how you see it, as she took Shio and fled from her abusive husband, leaving young Asahi behind to bear the brunt of the Kobe patriarch's abuse. She did want to bring Asahi together, but he insisted in staying behind so that his abusive father wouldn't try to find them.
  • Parents as People: She is a mother, but the stress of her abusive married life and her crumbling household circumstances made her unable to be a good parental figure for either of her children, leading to her abandoning Shio.
  • Rape Leads to Insanity: She used to be a pretty cheerful and carefree young girl...and all it takes is that one bad day where she bumped into a rapey sociopath to turn her into a devastated wreck of a young woman.
  • Shotgun Wedding: With a "relationship" like theirs, Yuuna and her husband wouldn't even try to get married. However, since Yuuna was unmistakably pregnant, the boy's father forced them to get married instead, coercing Yuuna's parents to go along with it to avoid shame and for the boy to take responsibility.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: She has more or less appearance, mostly in the flashbacks, but her abandonment of Shio is the reason why Shio starts living with Satou and form a rather disturbing relationship with each other and everything what happen afterwards.
  • Teen Pregnancy: She was only 16 when she was raped and impregnated, before giving birth to Asahi.
  • Walking Spoiler: What is in Shio’s lost memories and how her life was before meeting Satou are some of the most important mysteries of the series, and obviously her mother is involved in those events. To give any meaningful information about her person would require spoiling those mysteries.

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