In/Spectre / Characters

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Protagonists

Both

Age-Gap Romance: There's a 4-year age gap between Iwanaga and Kurō. While it's not a big gap, they first met when Kurō was in college and Iwanaga was just starting high school. When Iwanaga first asked Kurō out, his main concern was he could get arrested for dating a minor (definitely not helped by Iwanaga looking even younger than she is). They started dating when Iwanaga was of college age.
Brains and Brawn: Iwanaga, being the Goddess of Wisdom, mainly deals with yokai problems by using her wit and speculation skills. Meanwhile, Kurō mostly handles the physical combat because his immortality makes him unbeatable.
Like an Old Married Couple: Most of the time, Kurō openly expresses Iwanaga is annoying to him and she gets mad at him for treating her like a pain in the butt, but Saki realizes they get along more than Kurō would like to admit.
A Man Is Always Eager: Inverted. Iwanaga is very open about enjoying sex with Kurō, but much to her chagrin, Kurō isn't as enthusiastic about sex as she is and turns it down more often than not. It's actually speculated In-Universe that the reason why Kurō's libido is very low is that he's essentially an immortal and thus doesn't feel the natural urge to reproduce.
Official Couple: They're technically already dating by the time the first story arc begins, although Kurō doesn't like Iwanaga to talk too openly about their relationship, especially their sex life.
Opposites Attract: Iwanaga and Kurō are polar opposites, with her being expressive and spirited while he's stoic and calm. Despite their differences, they have a mostly functional relationship.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Iwanaga is the lively, passionate Red Oni and Kurō is the serene, dispassionate Blue Oni.
Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: Iwanaga completely ignores social norms for decency and openly makes very vulgar statements about sex to complete strangers, with the more well-adjusted Kurō usually being around to shut her up before she says too much about their sex life in public.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Iwanaga is cheerful and bubbly while Kurō is aloof and no-nonsense.
Sleeping Single: During the Steel Lady Nanase case, Iwanaga and Kurō stay at the same hotel, but he gets his own room because he wants Iwanaga to focus her energy on the case, much to her dismay because she would like Kurō to "not let her sleep".
Star-Crossed Lovers: They're presented this way at the end of the Giraffe case. Iwanaga's duty is to protect the order between the human and supernatural sides, but her boyfriend Kurō's very existence already goes against said order because his grandmother's experiment made him both immortal and able to control fate. Iwanaga doesn't see how this could be a problem for her romantic relationship with Kurō until Rikka points out how easily Iwanaga casts aside human emotions and morals for the sake of protecting the natural order. If Kurō stays immortal, Iwanaga will almost definitely have to dispose of him at some point, either by sealing him or outright killing him. Iwanaga realizes she doesn't want a future where she has to kill Kurō, so she reluctantly agrees to make a truce with Rikka and find a way to make her and Kurō into normal humans. However, Kurō isn't sure if he wants that because he might not be able to stay together with Iwanaga if he becomes normal while she stays the "Goddess of Wisdom" for monsters.

Kotoko Iwanaga

Voiced by: Akari Kitou (Japanese), Lizzie Freeman (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7420cb2b_b24b_4025_95d0_c273804246f7.png

A 20-year-old college student. When Iwanaga was 11 years old, she was kidnapped for 2 weeks by a group of yokai, who pleaded for her to become their "Goddess of Wisdom" to give them guidance and make peace among them. She agreed, and in exchange she lost her right eye and left leg. Since then, yokai, ayakashi and all kinds of ghosts and spectres have crossed the country to ask for her help as a mediator.

Action Girl: When Iwanaga needs to fight, she'll do it with no hesitation.
Amateur Sleuth: She is still attending university, but acts as a consultant and mystery solver especially when the supernatural is involved.
An Arm and a Leg: In exchange for becoming a Goddess of Wisdom for yokai, she lost her left leg along with an eye.
Artificial Limbs: Due to yokai severing her left leg when she was a child, she wears a prosthetic leg and uses a cane to move on her own.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first glance, she's polite, ladylike and affable. In reality, she's extremely crass, vulgar, insensitive, amoral and twisted.
Blemished Beauty: Her left leg and right eye are prosthetics, having lost them when she was made the Goddess of Wisdom. She's also described as cute like a doll.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: Iwanaga is the link between the human world and the world of the supernatural, which is why she doesn't feel bound by the laws of the mortal world. What she seeks is balance between the two worlds and to keep the natural order in check. She also is a strong believer of karmic justice. As the Goddess of Wisdom she feels obligated to interfere if a supernatural being asks for help, but she doesn't necessarily do the same if a human comes to her. She will not report a murderer if she feels they are not a bad person, or will not stop someone from committing suicide if she thinks it would bring karmic balance as a result of their previous actions. This is one of the reasons why Rikka finds her scary to begin with and why she hopes Kurō comes to the same realization — eventually Rikka is able to weaponize this against Iwanaga and force her into a deal.
Brutal Honesty: Iwanaga doesn't mince words and can be viewed as very insensible if she deems it necessary. This is best shown at the climax of the Sleeping Murder case, where she fulfills the original intent of the advisee who wanted to atone for using paranormal means that disturbed the natural order and to teach his heirs that murder is never the best solution, even though she knows the Awful Truth will have negative consequences for the entire family.
Casual Danger Dialogue: While still taking things seriously, she's fairly nonchalant in life-threatening situations. For example, when Steel Lady Nanase is walking toward her and about to attack her with a steel I-beam, her reaction is to comment on the monster's big breasts.
The Chosen One: She was chosen by youkai as their "Goddess of Wisdom" who has the mission of protecting the order between humans and youkai, as well as acting as a private consultant for youkai.
Classy Cane: She uses a customized cane to help her walk with her prosthetic leg. The tip of the cane is shaped like a cat curled up and sleeping. The manga/novel mentions that she can walk fine, but her family is concerned that the stress of moving around a lot with her prosthetic leg can cause it to fall down, which justifies the use of a cane.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Iwanaga gets pretty jealous of Saki when she and Kurō have a reunion after their breakup and attempts to assert herself as Kurō's only girlfriend.
Color-Coded Eyes: She's a Goddess of Wisdom to youkai, but is actually a human girl with unique purple eyes.
Consummate Liar: She's a specialist in making up very complex and detailed lies to compel others to believe her false deductions and theories over the truth.
Covert Pervert: While she's a Proper Lady most of the time, she's very lascivious when it comes to discussions about sex, much to Kurō's chagrin.
Cruel to Be Kind: In the Yuki-Onna case, Iwanaga accuses Masayuki of using Yuki-Onna's blind love and trust in him to manipulate her into letting him get away with murder. This sends Yuki-Onna into a crisis of faith, since youkai shouldn't question the reasoning of the "Goddess of Wisdom" yet she can't stand to let the good-natured Masayuki be accused of such evil. After a terrified Yuki-Onna does stand up for Masayuki's innocence, Iwanaga reveals she already knows Masayuki isn't a murderer, but saw the need to make him stop resisting Yuki-Onna's romantic advances by showing him that Yuki-Onna loves him enough to contradict the logic of someone she venerates as a goddess for his sake.
Deep Sleep: After finishing a case, she usually falls asleep due to the mental exhaustion from overworking her brain. In particular, coming up for multiple theories to take down Steel Lady Nanase causes to sleep soundly for 27 hours.
Deity of Human Origin: Subverted. Iwanaga isn't actually a literal goddess, merely the chosen peacekeeper of the supernatural community.
Disabled Deity: Invoked. Although she isn't actually divine, youkai severed her left leg and removed her right eye because of the belief that people with one leg and/or one eye are gods/messengers of the gods.
Do Not Call Me "Paul": She doesn't like being called by her given name, which is why she even asks her boyfriend to call her by her surname. Only Rikka calls her Kotoko, to annoy her.
Everyone Has Standards:
- Iwanaga is normally incredibly vulgar and makes casual commentaries about sex with no concern of how this makes people uncomfortable. However, she still abstains from saying what she can deduce Sayoko's father did to her for her to kill him in self-defense. Kurō is baffled to learn Iwanaga does have standards for indecency after all.
- Invoked by Rikka later on. Rikka tells Iwanaga that she wouldn't think twice to seal away both her and Kurō to keep them from messing with the order with their powers. Realizing that she could very well end up killing her own boyfriend, Iwanaga agrees to look for the more humane option of making Kurō and Rikka into normal humans, but she still hates that joining Rikka's side could end up putting the supernatural order at risk.
Experienced Protagonist: She's been the Goddess of Wisdom for six years at the start of the series.
Extreme Libido: In contrast to her lady-like appearance, she can be really horny and tries goading Kurō into sex whenever they're alone together. For instance, she once visits an unagi restaurant because she's going to spend the night at Kurō's apartment and eating eel is said to increase one's sex drive.
Eye Scream: As part of her deal with the yokai, her right eye was removed. She wears a Glass Eye as a replacement.
Fake Boobs: One bonus chapter from the manga has Iwanaga wearing Steel Lady Nanase's dress, with large breast pads to feel out the chest area. The pads almost immediately fall off due to being pressed against her completely flat chest.
Formal Characters Use Keigo: As the daughter of the wealthy and respected Iwanaga family, Kotoko always speaks in a very formal manner. Her manner of speech often comes at odds with her overly vulgar comments about sex.
Genius Cripple: As part of making her the Goddess of Wisdom, Iwanaga had one leg and one eye removed. Due to scientific advances, she can still live a relatively normal life and she makes up for her disability with her intelligence.
Glass Eye: Her right eye is artificial.
Guile Hero: Iwanaga's greatest (and truly only) power is in her head. She can guide people to believe her propositions and manipulate the circumstances by cleverly influencing others' opinions and perceptions.
Handicapped Badass: She may have a prosthetic leg, but that doesn't stop her from trying to fight the Steel Nanase spirit.
Heel Realization: At the end of the Giraffe case, Rikka tells Iwanaga that she'll mercilessly kill Kurō one day because she's cruel enough to do that if she believes it's the duty of the "Goddess of Wisdom". Despite her unconventional morals, Iwanaga didn't think she could ever sacrifice her own boyfriend without batting an eye, but realizes she isn't afraid or disturbed by the thought of killing Kurō. Iwanaga starts thinking she might really be as heartless as Rikka says she is.
Hero with Bad Publicity: Whenever she runs into people that have had contact with Rikka first. Taken to the next step when Rikka basically comes up with plan that could cause Iwanaga to lose the faith of the Yokai and Kurō because of her actions.
Hiding the Handicap: She wears thigh high socks to hide her prosthetic leg.
Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Anything that she thinks is sexy is anything but. She likes paisley underwear to seduce Kurō, who immediately tells her that she has no sex appeal and her clothes only make it worse.
In Love with Your Carnage: Saki is quite freaked out when she sees Kurō snapping Steel Lady Nanase's neck, but Iwanaga actually finds it hot.
Innocently Insensitive: She rarely bears ill will (mainly due to her twisted morals), but her overly blunt statements and habit of saying more than needed tend to make her get on people's bad sides.
Karmic Butt-Monkey: Iwanaga making inappropriate comments about sex and comically abusing Kurō's immortality is almost always followed by Kurō giving her physical punishment, usually through a Facepalm Of Doom.
Lack of Empathy: It's frequently pointed out that Iwanaga has a disturbing lack of regard for people's feelings and safety, not caring who gets hurt or even dies as long as it's within the natural order and laws of the world.
Last-Name Basis: She detests her first name, so she asks everyone to refer to her by her family name.
Like a God to Me: While she's a human, all the yokai adore her as their goddess of wisdom because they need her intelligence and imaginative reasoning to solve matters with humans they can't understand.
Likes Older Men: She's attracted to Kurō, who is a few years older than her.
Little Miss Snarker: She looks like a middle school student and is often snarky when delivering her lines.
Living with the Villain: After Rikka got discharged from the hospital, Iwanaga let her freeload at her house. It wasn't until Rikka went on the run that Iwanaga realized Rikka had caused Steel Lady Nanase's creation through the forums of a website made by Rikka herself.
Lovable Sex Maniac: She rarely can have a casual conversation without cracking a sexual joke or making vulgar comments about her own sex life, which annoys her boyfriend to no end.
Love at First Sight: She fell in love with Kurō at first sight when she was 15 years old, but didn't make a move on him until two years later because of his relationship with Saki.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: While Kurō wasn't really normal, his life turns upside down when the upbeat Iwanaga gets him wrapped up in her Occult Detective work.
Manipulative Bitch: In the Sleeping Murder case, she deliberately guides the participants into coming up with a suicide theory to force an actual confession from the husband of the real murderer.
No Social Skills: She has mostly interacted with youkai that worship her since her childhood, and it shows in her interactions with other humans. She either doesn't know or particularly care about what people see as socially acceptable behavior, often being way too blunt and openly talking about sex in public without realizing she makes those around her uncomfortable.
Not Afraid to Die: Iwanaga has no fear to die because she sees her own life as secondary to maintaining balance for monsters and she knows a new God of Wisdom will replace her when she dies. Kurō gets worried about her lack of concern for her own safety and puts himself in harm's way to protect her, taking advantage that he can't die thanks to being immortal.
Not So Above It All: For all her serious demenor, when it comes to Saki, Iwanaga loves to screw with her from introducing herself as Kurō's new girlfriend, sending spirits to freak her out, and setting the ghost of a Dirty Kid on her. One of her potential solutions for the Steel Lady Nanase ghost has her give a profile for the murderer that's explicitly based off Saki.
Occult Detective: As a human who is linked with the supernatural, she is often asked by yokai to help solve mysteries that often involve the paranormal.
Ojou: Iwanaga is publicly known to be the heiress of an upper-class family and the supernatural community treat her as such. They address her as "お姫様" (ohii-sama, princess) or "my lady" in English.
Older Than She Looks: To anyone else, she looks like a 14-year-old girl. She's actually 15 when she first appears, and is 19 by the time the story starts in earnest. Iwanaga reaches adulthood after the end of the Nanase arc by a few months, but she still looks the same.
Omniscient Hero: Often times the mysteries aren't actually any mystery for Iwanaga. She can just ask local yokai and spirits who act as witnesses to tell her what happened. Iwanaga's task is to instead make people believe a mundane solution that makes sense to them. That said, even without the assistance of the yokai, she is able to figure out things quickly, just by mere extrapolation from just a few facts.
Pet the Dog: In the Guillotine Sanchiro story, even though she believes herself to be a "Goddess of Wisdom" with no obligation to help humans, Iwanaga still sympathizes with Sayoko Morino's plight and promises to ask youkai to help cover her Patricide as she doesn't believe Sayoko is a bad person.
Pride Before a Fall: Iwanaga is very proud of her role as "Goddess of Wisdom", including the actions she takes to preserve the order of things. Rikka is able to weaponize this against her, to the point that Iwanaga realizes that she walked right into Rikka's latest trap simply by being the perfect "Goddess of Wisdom" halfway through Rikka delivering a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to her; in fact, Rikka tells her as much as well, which just makes the sting worse.
Proper Lady: She dresses in fancy clothing and behaves in a professional manner.
Second Love: To Kurō. After his fiancée Saki broke up with him due to finding out his supernatural nature, Iwanaga took the chance to confess to him and they started dating shortly before she entered his college.
Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: Played With. She often brags about her relationship with Kurō, but he rarely agrees with her about being a couple and claims she's just a weirdo who calls herself his girlfriend. Despite that, he does occasionally admit to be dating her.
Shipper on Deck: She approves of Masayuki and Yuki-Onna being a couple and pretends to accuse him of using her to make them become closer. She just warns them to not have children together because half-yokai have harsh lives.
Shorter Means Smarter: She's very short, often being mistaken for a middle school student despite being in college, and youkai call her their Goddess of Wisdom because of her high intelligence and cunning mind.
Signature Headgear: Iwanaga says she wears a beret because she thinks it's a trademark of a human who has been elevated to a god. This is a reference to Osamu Tezuka's Artsy Beret.
Sociopathic Hero: While not completely heartless, Iwanaga regards human feelings such as empathy and compassion are unneeded to fulfill her duties as the "Goddess of Wisdom" for monsters. If she deems it the best course of action to maintain order between humans and monsters, she won't hesitate to set up humans into the path to misery and self-destruction, only to continue her life with no concern of the lives she ruined in the name of "order". Rikka eventually turns Iwanaga's sociopathic behavior against her by making her realize she would definitely apply it to Kurō if she ever decides she can't allow Kurō's and Rikka's existence as immortals. Not wanting to reach a future where she has to dispose of Kurō, Iwanaga reluctantly agrees to find a way to get rid of the mermaid and kudan powers so Kurō and Rikka can be normal again.
Sore Loser: She's very bitter after Rikka manages to win an argument against her for the first time to pressure her into making an alliance with her.
Tautological Templar: In Iwanaga's mind, as the "Goddess of Wisdom", she can do no wrong and whatever she does for the sake of "order" makes her righteous. She deems whoever gets screwed over by her got what they deserved because they threatened the "balance" between the human and the supernatural sides, so she won't feel any semblance of guilt or pity. Rikka eventually uses this against her, by arguing that Iwanaga would be perfectly willing to seal and/or kill her own boyfriend without remorse, just because him being immortal goes against the "order" she judges as correct. Iwanaga realizes Rikka is right and agrees to look for a way to make her and Kurō into normal humans.
Too Much Information: She frequently makes several references that she is sexually active with her boyfriend, even when talking to complete strangers, much to his annoyance.
The Unfettered: Her sole goal is to maintain order between humans and monsters. Since she's a "Goddess of Wisdom", she deems she doesn't need to take human morals and feelings into account for her actions to keep the balance. If she considers it the best solution to eliminate a threat to the order, she'll ruthlessly let humans fall into ruin or even die. Rikka eventually confronts her about this and forces her to realize she would willingly sacrifice her own boyfriend for the sake of protecting "order". Rikka pressures her into agreeing she needs to make her and Kurō into normal humans, or else she'll end up sealing them away forever one day.
Unscrupulous Hero: Her only purpose is to keep order between humans and supernatural beings. For the sake of it, she uses very underhanded and manipulative methods. As long as it doesn't endanger order, she's almost completely apathetic towards the lives of others. Rikka eventually exploits this and actually manages to make Iwanaga have a breakdown by forcing her to recognize she wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice her own boyfriend for the sake of order if the need arises.
Wise Beyond Their Years: Downplayed as she is 19, but she is certainly full of wisdom and knowledge after becoming a Goddess of Wisdom.
Women Prefer Strong Men: She fell in love with Kurō because he's strong and agile like a goat. Yokai tried to warn her Kurō is a deadly being that even they fear, but Iwanaga thinks Kurō being unkillable is one of his attractive features.

Kurō Sakuragawa

Voiced by: Mamoru Miyano, Kaori Motoyama [child] (Japanese), Brandon Winckler (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/986781f8_6304_4fb3_95cf_731a9da0f073.png

A 24-year-old college student who gained immortality from eating mermaid flesh when he was 11. He often visited his university hospital where his cousin was stationed, which is where Iwanaga met and fell in love with him. After his girlfriend, Saki, broke up with him, he became Iwanaga's boyfriend.

Animal Motifs: Iwanaga compares Kurō to a goat because he's "scrawny and oblivious", but has a formidable vitality and strength that's not obvious at first glance.
Bloody Murder: His blood is revealed to be toxic towards yokai, which is why they avoid him most of the time.
Cannibalism Superpower: His grandmother fed him the flesh of a mermaid and a kudan, granting him immortality and the power to control possibility.
The Champion: Kurō admits that he helps Iwanaga keep order between the humans and yokai because she can be reckless and get hurt if he leaves her alone, so he's willing to die as many times he needs to assure a future where Iwanaga is safe and happy.
Cloudcuckoolander: Due to his immortality, he isn't exactly normal, which makes it more difficult for him to blend in and causes him to sometimes say outrageous things without realizing it.
Koya: How are you alive?! I shot you in the head!
Kurō: It's like, you know, that thing. You see it in historical dramas all the time, where they hit people with the non-lethal side.
Koya: And what exactly is the non-lethal side of a bullet?!
Clueless Chick-Magnet: His good looks coupled with his nice personality makes many girls fall for him. For Iwanaga it was Love at First Sight and many nurses tried to approach him only to be rebuffed by his clingy jealous girlfriend, Saki.
Death-Activated Superpower: Having consumed the flesh of a kudan yokai, right before he dies Kurō has the ability to look into the future and choose a possibility to make it certain. He can abuse this because of the Resurrective Immortality he gained after eating mermaid flesh.
Dissonant Serenity: Because he's immortal, he has an astonishing disregard for life-threatening circumstances.
The Dreaded: To any yokai he comes across, who genuinely see him as an insidious monster.
Feels No Pain: Contrary to Immortality Hurts, Kurō has developed a complete disregard for pain and self-preservation. It's implied that this is the result of the experiments his grandmother submitted him to. This is first showcased when Kurō willingly lets his arm be devoured by a rabid yokai without flinching.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Kurō can regenerate from pretty much any injury. Coupled with his power to see and choose a future upon death, he is prone to injury and gruesome deaths.
Guinea Pig Family: Kurō was one of the two successful test subjects in his grandmother's messed up experiment to create an immortal seer.
Healing Factor: His immortality comes with the power of regeneration. If he doesn't die, he will completely regenerate, even if he loses an arm or his head.
Humanoid Abomination: Most yokai perceive Kurō as a horrifying monster that should be avoided at all cost.
Kissing Cousins: He has feelings for his cousin, Rikka. Saki assumes that he was attracted to her because she resembles Rikka.
Likes Older Women: Except for Iwanaga, the women Kurō has been attracted to (Rikka and Saki) are older than him.
Living Forever is No Big Deal: In contrast to Rikka, Kurō isn't particularly bothered by having been forcibly made immortal by his grandmother. While he likes to think he eventually will die of old age, he doesn't let his immortality get in the way of him leading a normal lifestyle and actually finds it convenient for taking several part-time jobs without the effects of overwork. When Rikka forces Iwanaga into agreeing to help her find a way to get rid of the mermaid immortality, Kurō admits he doesn't actually care about staying immortal, but wouldn't like to become a normal mortal if it means losing his relationship with Iwanaga.
Love Martyr: Iwanaga is quite ruthless and borderline sociopathic when it comes to fulfilling her duties as a "Goddess of Wisdom". Rikka and other people flat out call Iwanaga awful and Kurō doesn't disagree, but he still believes she deserves to be happy and is willing to repeatedly get himself killed for her sake. Rikka is particularly concerned about this because from her perspective, Kurō is dating a girl who would kill him without mercy or remorse just because his powers disrupt the "balance" of the supernatural.
Lust Object: Iwanaga tries to entice Kurō into having sex with her whenever she gets the chance, but is endlessly annoyed by Kurō's apparent lack of libido.
Married to the Job: Iwanaga complains that Kurō takes so many part-time jobs that he rarely has time to go on dates with her, even during holidays.
Mistaken for Pedophile: Iwanaga is a college student, but her young-looking appearance causes Kurō's neighbors to spread rumors about him doing lewd stuff to a minor.
Morality Pet: To Iwanaga. Kurō is the only person Iwanaga has any attachment to and her love for him is the one thing that can make her act like a human instead of a pragmatic and ruthless "Goddess of Wisdom". Rikka eventually exploits this by forcing Iwanaga to realize that she wouldn't hesitate to Kick the Morality Pet if she ever deems Kurō's existence is a danger to the order of the supernatural world. Iwanaga finally agrees to find a way to make Kurō a normal human to avoid a possible scenario where she hurts or even gets rid of Kurō.
Necessary Drawback: His Immortality and his Winds of Destiny, Change! powers interact to keep him from getting completely broken. Ordinarily, kudan have all the time in the world to choose whatever futures they want after their deaths, allowing them to control the destinies of families, towns, and entire nations. However, since Kurō comes back after a few seconds, he only has time to grab threads of destiny that are already close at hand before being dragged away, meaning he can only control the immediate future and only set it on to paths that were already within a certain threshold of likeliness.
One Head Taller: He's a full head taller than his girlfriend Iwanaga.
Perpetual Frowner: His default expression is always frowning. This is mostly likely caused by the trauma he experienced in his childhood, although there are times where he does genuinely show a smile.
Required Secondary Powers: Although eating kudan flesh gives the person the ability to see the future, it is extremely fatal when ingested. To counteract this side-effect, a mermaid flesh is also ingested as it would make the person immortal and capable of healing quickly from any injuries. Kurō also developed the inability to feel pain after his grandmother subjected him to experiments related to his immortality and future sight.
Resurrective Immortality: Kurō's immortality not only comes with a Healing Factor. He literally cannot be permanently killed. If he dies, he will quickly return to life.
Sarcastic Devotee: To Iwanaga. He frequently insults her and makes her mad by refusing to act romantic with her, but he sticks to her side because he does love her and wants to protect her.
Seers: Kurō has the ability of a kudan yokai, giving him future sight. The catch is that it only happens when he dies, but since he is immortal, he can use this repeatedly.
She Is Not My Girlfriend: While Kurō and Iwanaga are "officially" a couple, he still denies having anything to do with her, which always makes her mad and clingy to him.
Spell My Name With An S: His name is pronounced くろう. As a result, there are multiple ways to write his name, like Kurō, Kurou, or Kuro, and the official English translation goes with Kurô.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: His immortality has made him quite aloof and detached from others, but he does show to care for others in his own way. While he seems distant when interacting with Iwanaga, he's dating her because he actually enjoys her company.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: His gold eyes signal his supernatural powers of immortality and precognition.
True Love is Exceptional: His childhood crush/cousin Rikka and ex-girlfriend Saki are tall, mature dark-haired women who are older than he is. However, Kurō's current girlfriend Iwanaga is younger than him, petite, light-haired and energetic; basically the opposite of the type of woman he normally likes.
Tsundere: Kurō is exasperated by Iwanaga's antics, pretends to not particularly care about her, and tends to get physical with her when she gets too annoying. He also hangs out with her to make sure she doesn't do anything reckless and calls her "prettier than a flower".
Weak, but Skilled: Kurō doesn't exactly know any martial arts and isn't the strongest person, but he does know how to play safe in a fight and wait for an opportunity to counter.
Winds of Destiny, Change!: Whenever he temporarily dies and resurrects, he can see many possible futures and choose which one happens.

Antagonists

Rikka Sakuragawa

Voiced by: Mayumi Sako (Japanese), Cristina Vee (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ab1bad7a_5f53_4769_86f9_cafec3d4166e.jpeg

Kurō's older cousin, whom he regularly visits at the hospital.

0% Approval Rating: Not her, but that's her plan for Iwanaga after her loss during the Steel Lady Nanase incident. First, she sows the seeds in the Sleeping Murder case for Kurō, then for the yokai in the Giraffe's Curse incident.
Affably Evil: Zig Zags with Faux Affably Evil, as third parties not involved in the conflict between Iwanaga and Rikka often see Rikka as more approachable, and it's hard to tell whether she's being facetious or not, beyond the constant barbs she throws at Iwanaga whenever describing her.
Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She's black-haired, tall, pretty, standoffish, and imposing in a way that makes people find her dazzling or frightening.
Arch-Enemy: From the Steel Lady Nanase case, Rikka sets herself up as Iwanaga's most powerful and troublesome enemy, as she can control possibility and create monsters far harder to deal with than normal for Iwanaga. At the end of the Giraffe case, Rikka points out that making herself Iwanaga's nemesis is what's keeping the latter's relationship with Kurō at peace because Iwanaga needs someone with the same powers as Rikka to challenge her equally. She uses this to force Iwanaga into a deal that'll make both her and Kurō mortals once more, by arguing that just stopping her enmity with Iwanaga will eventually lead the latter to decide she must get rid of Kurō and Rikka for the sake of "order".
Batman Gambit: During the Giraffe case, Rikka saves the life of the only survivor from the ghost giraffe's attack. Iwanaga, thinking Rikka is just trying to set her up to make a mistake as a Goddess of Wisdom, does her job perfectly by subduing the giraffe and takes advantage of the suicidal survivor's warped mind state to have him claim responsibility for the death of the humans killed by the giraffe. After the case is solved, Rikka reveals she knew Iwanaga would do whatever it took to conceal the giraffe's existence, even if it meant letting someone else take the blame and kill himself. Rikka argues that Iwanaga's coldhearted and unscrupulous methods to maintain the natural order will inevitably lead her to seal and/or kill Kurō if Rikka ever stops antagonizing her. Iwanaga can't deny any of Rikka's points and ultimately gives into her demands of making a deal that'll force Iwanaga to make Rikka and Kurō into normal humans.
Big Bad: She's Iwanaga's main enemy in the series, as Rikka triggers particularly difficult cases and tries to give Kurō reasons to stop helping Iwanaga.
Break Them by Talking: Iwanaga has a mental breakdown when Rikka confronts her over the possibility of Iwanaga sacrificing even Kurō to maintain order.
Cannibalism Superpower: Like Kurō, Rikka was fed with the flesh of a mermaid and a kudan, granting her immortality and the power to control possibility.
Color Contrast: Her red and black attire acts as a contrast to Iwanaga's white and blue when being shown next to each other.
Cop Killer: Rikka's indirectly responsible for killing Terada through her spectre proxy.
Delicate and Sickly: Subverted. She gives out the impression of being sickly at first, due to constantly being in the hospital. However, she isn't actually sick and was actually hospitalized because she wanted the doctors to find a way to get rid of her immortality.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She has black hair and unhealthy-looking skin due to being hospitalized for years. She's also described as giving off a dark aura that corrupts everything around her.
Evil Counterpart:
- She has the same powers as Kurō, due to also having eaten yokai flesh.
- Like Iwanaga, she is a patient from the same hospital with abnormalities and use brains and strategy.
First-Name Basis: Rikka and Iwanaga call each other by their first names. Ironically, instead of friendliness, this is one of Rikka's ways to express enmity for Iwanaga because she knows the latter doesn't like to be called by her first name, Kotoko.
Flaw Exploitation: At the end of the Giraffe case, Rikka exploits Iwanaga's unscrupulousness and borderline sociopathic mindset to argue that she's the sort of woman who would be capable of killing her own boyfriend without batting an eye while convincing herself she did the "right thing" to defend the order of the supernatural world. Realizing Rikka has a point, Iwanaga ends up making a truce with her by promising to make her and Kurō into normal humans so she doesn't have to use inhumane methods to get rid of them due to their immortality.
Greater-Scope Villain: Rikka's not directly antagonistic towards Iwanaga and Kurō, at least not at first, but the nature of what she's doing puts her in direct conflict with Iwanaga. Losing to Iwanaga in the Steel Lady Nanase case is what actually changes the dynamic.
Guinea Pig Family: Along with Kurō, Rikka was one of the two successful test subjects in their grandmother's messed up experiment to create an immortal seer.
Hate at First Sight: She hated Iwanaga right from their first meeting, bluntly disapproving of Kurō's relationship with her.
Healing Factor: Like Kurō, Rikka can heal from fatal wounds in an instant.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Her ultimate goal is to create a being that can reverse the effects of the Mermaid and Kudan flesh on her to become a normal human again.
Kill the God: During the Giraffe's Curse arc, Iwanaga and Rikka talk about why the latter hasn't killed the former if the former is an obstacle to the latter's goals — but then Iwanaga reminds Rikka that if she's killed, whoever is chosen to be the next God of Wisdom might take serious reprisals for said killing and would likely give Rikka a Fate Worse than Death given her status as an immortal. Rikka then mentions she hadn't thought of that but she had not really considered killing Iwanaga anyways because that would likely cause Kurō and Rikka to fight each other, and she'd ultimately lose against him. Kurō, for his part, mostly remains indifferent towards this.
Knight Templar Big Sister: She functions as this to her younger cousin Kurō. Besides Iwanaga directly interfering with her plans, Rikka opposes her because she believes that her warped values will eventually put Kurō into mortal danger. She's not entirely wrong.
Lean and Mean: Rikka's shown to be sickly thin.
The Man Behind the Man: She's the one who is really behind the Steel Lady Nanase incident. Rikka started a website where the forums post comments about Steel Lady Nanase and with the help of Rikka's power to control possibility, she made her creation take physical form by reinforcing people's belief in her.
Mistaken for Dying: Saki believed that Rikka suffered from a terminal disease, so she didn't question anything when she heard Rikka had passed away after she broke up with Kurō. It's until Rikka is revealed to be the one pulling Steel Lady Nanase's strings that Saki learns from Kurō that Rikka is also an immortal who ate mermaid flesh.
Mundane Utility: She earns money by using her powers to repeatedly win the lottery and gambles at horse races.
Nature Versus Nurture: Rikka claims she has become twisted because her grandmother made her immortal against her will and she has experienced death countless times because of it, but Kurō actually wonders if Rikka could have always been evil, but he was too infatuated with her to see the dark side of her in their childhood.
Necessarily Evil: Rikka sees her actions to antagonize Iwanaga and defy the natural order as necessary to find a way for herself and Kurō to become normal again. Later on, she claims that being Iwanaga's enemy is her own way of protecting Kurō from Iwanaga, since the latter can't dispose of Kurō as long as she needs someone else with mermaid and kudan powers to oppose Rikka's own powers. She only stops antagonizing Iwanaga by forcing her into a deal that gives her the obligation to turn Kurō and Rikka into normal humans.
NEET: She spent many years in a hospital. After she was discharged, she crashed at Iwanaga's place until she went on the run and made a living by using her powers to keep winning lottery money. After she manages to force Iwanaga into an alliance, Kurō points out that Rikka would need to find herself a job if she accomplishes her goal of becoming normal. Rikka has a minor freak out as she completely missed the fact that becoming normal means having to work for a living.
Non-Action Big Bad: Even though she's immortal, Rikka never uses physical violence to antagonize Iwanaga as she knows Kurō would never forgive her if she laid a finger on Iwanaga. She prefers to only make Iwanaga solve challenging cases with her wit.
Pragmatic Villainy: She once saved Iwanaga from getting stabbed only because she didn't want Kurō to get mad at her for letting his girlfriend get hurt.
Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: She's a beautiful woman with black hair and pale skin.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Iwanaga, making her confront the dangers of being "The Goddess of Wisdom" to someone as Kurō. This ends up breaking Iwanaga enough to force her into a deal to end the curse once and for all.
Reckless Pacifist: Rikka never tries to kill people directly, but her actions to defy the order still endanger a lot of lives. During the Steel Lady Nanase case, the tulpa she created kills the police officer Tokonosuke Terada and while she does express remorse over someone dying at the hands of her creation, it's unclear if her remorse is earnest. She also orchestrates a few cases to get Iwanaga involved while fully expecting Iwanaga's actions to lead to people's deaths, as Rika wants Kurō to become scared of Iwanaga and leave her.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Her red dress and black shawl make her stand out as the villainess opposing the heroine wearing white and blue.
Resurrective Immortality: Like Kurō, Rikka's mermaid immortality makes her come back to life every time she dies.
Shipping Torpedo: From the moment she first met Iwanaga, Rikka was blunt about not finding her a suitable girlfriend for Kurō.
Statuesque Stunner: Rikka is considered very attractive and is even taller than her already tall male cousin.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like Kurō, she's an immortal seer with gold eyes.
Too Much Alike: Rikka and Iwanaga are actually quite similar, as they're both very ruthless, calculating, shrewd, coldhearted, and single-minded about their goals. However, these goals collide because Rikka intends to achieve hers by defying the order that Iwanaga is determined to maintain, which causes their similarities to fuel Rikka's hatred for Iwanaga.
Unaffected by Spice: Rikka's inability to feel pain comes to play in a spicy ramen challenge as it actually makes her immune to the pain caused by said spicy food.
The Unfettered: She won't stop at anything to reach her goal of creating a being that defies the laws of nature, with no consideration to who might get hurt or killed because of her actions.
Villain Has a Point: As much as Iwanaga has a reason to deliver her judgments in such ways to ensure the balance of the worlds remain, Rikka is not amiss to point out how Iwanaga's convictions can appear needlessly cruel at times. Honestly, it's not hard to see Rikka has a point — in fact, she makes such a good point she forces Iwanaga into a mental breakdown when confronting her with the idea that she'd kill Kurō without batting an eyelash, if needed be, to keep the order and realizing Rikka is right.
Villain with Good Publicity: Due to Rikka's affability, strangers give her the benefit of the doubt, with some wondering what kind of evil woman is chasing after her.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: Rikka's grandmother turned her and Kurō immortal against their will. While Kurō does his best to lead a normal life despite his condition, Rikka's main goal is becoming mortal again. She spent years letting doctors use her for experiments to see if they could undo her immortality, but once she realized that won't be possible through human means, she decided to create a supernatural being that can grant her wish. This puts her at direct odds with Iwanaga.
Winds of Destiny, Change!: Having also eating kudan meet, Rikka has the power to choose possible futures when she temporarily dies.

Steel Lady Nanase Case

Saki Yumihara

Voiced by: Misato Fukuen (Japanese), Lauren Landa (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0ca3d3a1_ba59_427f_9cfb_9df66930e4b6.jpeg

A police officer and Kurō's ex-girlfriend.

Action Girl: As a police officer, Saki possesses basic combat abilities. She also tried to take on Steel Lady Nanase, but her fists went through her.
Agent Mulder: Because of her earlier encounter with a kappa, Saki does seriously consider the possibility that Steel Lady Nanase is a ghost or other supernatural being and tries to convince Terada to not get too deep into the case since it's too dangerous for humans to confront such beings.
Amicable Exes: Despite their messy breakup, Saki and Kurō manage to part ways on good terms after the Steel Lady Nanase case is over.
Clingy Jealous Girl: She wasn't as overt about it as Iwanaga, but Saki did dislike other women approaching Kurō when they were dating. Because of Saki's intervention, Iwanaga couldn't get close to Kurō until Saki broke up with him.
Does Not Like Spam: Ever since she broke up with Kurō, she came to hate eating beef and just trying to taste it makes her nauseous.
Fair Cop: Her coworkers at the police station call her gorgeous like a model.
The First Cut Is the Deepest: Even though she broke up with Kurō, she takes longer to move on from their breakup and doesn't even consider start dating again until after she learns Kurō already has a new girlfriend.
Friend on the Force: She's a police officer and ends up helping Iwanaga and Kurō in the Steel Lady Nanase case.
High-School Sweethearts: Subverted. Saki started dating Kurō in high school, went to college with him and they planned to get married, but she broke up with him when she discovered yokai fear his supernatural nature.
Informed Attractiveness: Other characters comment on her beauty and compare her to a model.
The Missus and the Ex: During the Steel Lady Nanase case, Saki ends up hanging out with Kurō's new girlfriend Iwanaga. There's quite a bit of tension between them, especially due to Iwanaga being paranoid about the possibility of Saki trying to take back Kurō from her.
Nervous Wreck: She's normally calm and thoughtful, but because of her encounter with a kappa yokai while walking with Kurō, she gets easily scared of yokai whenever they appear. It doesn't help when yokai always appear with Iwanaga whenever she visits.
Nice Girl: Even after Saki called off her relationship with Kurō, she was still nice enough to ask him how he's doing and doesn't blame him (or his heritage) for the PTSD she experienced. With Iwanaga on the other hand, it's 50:50 with majority of the time wanting to punch the girl for harassing her.
Only Sane Woman: She's the only one who questions everything about yokai activity. It makes sense since she's the only normal one in the group and that any other person in her position would probably fear yokai too.
Statuesque Stunner: She's noted to be taller than Kurō and quite attractive.
Stress Vomit: Recalling the time when she saw Kurō's injured hand heal itself makes her run to vomit at the toilet.
The Team Normal: Saki's the only one who doesn't have any special abilities like Iwanaga and Kurō, but she is physically fit and athletic.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's terrified of yokai and ghosts, which gives her a hard time when helping Iwanaga and Kurō solve the Steel Lady Nanase case.
Working with the Ex: During the Steel Lady Nanase case, she's forced to help her ex-boyfriend Kurō and his new girlfriend Iwanaga get the information from the police that they need.

Tokonosuke Terada

Voiced by: Kenji Hamada (Japanese), Mick Lauer (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5924d0f2_093b_44ec_a179_1250ddb88f55.jpeg

A plainclothes officer from the Criminal Investigation Section with the rank of Sergeant.

Agent Scully: He refuses to believe Steel Lady Nanase is a supernatural being and insists she's a regular human that must be arrested. This ends up costing him his life when he tries to physically fight her and he can't touch her, but she can kill him.
Embarrassing First Name: He didn't mention his given name, Tokonosuke, to many people because he thought it was old-fashioned and sounded clumsy.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Terada doesn't judge Saki's breakup with Kurō when he hears of her PTSD with eating beef.
Sacrificial Lion: His death shows how the stakes have gone up in regards to the Steel Lady Nanase case.

Steel Lady Nanase

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5f09e5e8_eded_46ef_abee_4a20e361ceb3.jpeg

A murderous yokai that resembles the deceased idol Karin Nanase.

Art Initiates Life: She was created in the image of a painting of Nanase Karin that Rikka made.
The Blank: She just has an empty black void where her face should be.
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: She's a Tulpa created by people's belief in her, and only exists as long as people believe she does.
Cop Killer: She kills Terada, though at Rikka's command.
The Heavy: She's the villain who does all the fighting, while Rikka just manipulates events from behind the scenes.
Improbable Weapon: She wields a steel I-beam, similar to the one that smashed Karin Nanase's face and took her life.
Super-Strength: Steel Lady's inhuman strength makes her a deadly combatant, outmatched both Iwanaga and Saki. She is also able to 'kill' Kurō multiple times if it wasn't for Kurō's immortality.
Tulpa: Instead of Karin Nanase's ghost, Steel Lady Nanase is a manifestation of people's idea of her created by a website that spread her image around the internet.

Karin Nanase

Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka (Japanese), Kayli Mills (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fc64988b_39b9_45df_999a_545f721b1ca3.jpeg

The basis for Steel Lady Nanase. Karin was a 19-year-old aspiring idol who went into hiding after she was accused of killing her father. While staying in Makurazaka, she sneaked out for a smoke on a construction site during a storm, where she was tragically hit by a falling steel beam that crushed her face.

Abusive Parents: She's said to have an abusive father, who wrote notes that accused her for his death.
Buxom Beauty Standard: Her ample E-cup chest was the reason she was spotted and scouted to be an idol. She deliberately wore an outfit with a low neckline to exhibit her impressive cleavage because it would gain her even more male fans.
Cigarette of Anxiety: She smokes when she gets depressed.
Driven to Suicide: Borderline example. Despite putting on a strong front, she become deeply depressed after she was accused of murdering her own father and her own sister blamed her for their parents' deaths. When she saw the steel I-beam about to crush her, she didn't try to dodge it and let it crush her to death.
Facial Horror: She died when a steel I-beam fell right on her head, leaving her face horribly mutilated beyond recognition.
Girlish Pigtails: Her hair was tied into two ponytails at the base of her head, possibly to emphasize her appeal as an idol.
Idol Singer: She got her start doing mostly gravure shoots, but eventually got her big break with a tv show using both her likeness and song.
Impossibly-Low Neckline: Her idol dress is strapless and shows off her impressive cleavage.
Love Martyr: It seems she still cared for her abusive father and delivered him food after he and her mother divorced. One of Iwanaga's fake theories exploits this angle by painting Karin as a loving daughter who got viciously framed by her own father after he got jealous of her success and wrote a note claiming she would murder him before killing himself, just so he could ruin her career.
Ms. Fanservice: She invoked the trope in an attempt to increase her popularity. She had impressive E-cup breasts and wore a dress that exhibited her cleavage and legs.
Nice Girl: From what's seen of her in flashbacks, she was a kind and charismatic person.
Posthumous Character: She died several months before the Steel Lady Nanase case happened in the story.
The Scapegoat: Iwanaga posthumously scapegoats Karin for Steel Lady Nanase's crimes, as she makes up a fake theory about Karin faking her accidental death by using a Body Double to be crused by the steel I-beam. Due to Karin being really dead, Iwanaga doesn't have to worry about pinning the blame on living person who would try to defend their innocence.
Stage Names: As it is customary for most Japanese idols and celebrities, Karin Nanase is a stage name. Her actual name is Haruko Nanase.

Yuki-Onna Case

Masayuki Muroi

Voiced by: Makoto Furukawa (Japanese), Kaiji Tang (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_masayuki_pc.png

A 32-year-old man, who eleven years prior was pushed down by his friend during a mountain climb. Masayuki made it back to civilization because a yuki-onna appeared and rescued him. Using the reparations he was paid as compensation, he started his own business and later married. However, his wife cheated on him and tried to murder him, and he was eventually ousted from his company by his colleagues.

Fed up with being betrayed over and over again, he returns to the town close to the mountains where he met the yuki-onna to live his life in seclusion and coincidentally finds Yuki-Onna again. They start spending time together and live a peaceful life, until the police visit him and inform him that his ex-wife was murdered. Masayuki becomes a suspect, but since the only witness for his alibi is Yuki-Onna, Yuki-Onna reaches out to Iwanaga to help clear Masayuki's name.

Clueless Chick-Magnet: His good looks, personality and his riches attract quite a lot of women, which he is not aware of. Unfortunately, a lot of them only cause him trouble.
Devoted to You:
- Yuki-Onna grows to love Masayuki over time. Her trust in him runs so deep that Iwanaga points out how easily he could have tricked her into murdering all his enemies if he had been an evil Manipulative Bastard. Yuki-Onna doesn't deny it, but she defies Iwanaga's (feigned) accusation and defends Masayuki, as she has seen his kind heart.
- Masayuki's ex-wife's murderer, Iizuka, is the Yandere variant of this. She would also do anything for him, but after he divorced his wife and was forced to leave his company, he did not come to her or try to find a new job and instead secluded himself in his house with Yuki-Onna. Seeing as he didn't need her, she created a scenario where she could vent her frustrations and at the same time put Masayuki in a bad situation where she could become his Living Emotional Crutch.
Face of a Thug: He has a stern-looking face, but is actually a very nice person. Since he's wealthy yet unemployed, living with a beautiful kimono wearing woman who is thought to be his wife, the neighborhood children are convinced he's a Yakuza leader.
Fatal Attractor: Masayuki tends to attract women that spell trouble for him. His high school friend tried to kill him out of jealousy because his crush wanted to confess her feelings to Masayuki, and his wife had an affair and spiked his drink with sleeping pills to kill him. His ex-employee Iizuka is a yandere who killed his ex-wife out of jealousy and resentment and tried to frame Masayuki so she could play the faithful support he could rely on. Iwanaga decides to spare him the truth about this to not shatter his last belief in goodness, at least until the police eventually find out the truth and tell him. Ironically, Yuki-Onna, a supernatural yokai who could kill him at any time, is actually the most decent woman around him.
Ignore the Fanservice: He initially seems unaffected by Yuki-Onna's beauty, stating that the human imagination has come up with more beautiful people. He also refuses several invitations of hers for sex, but this has more to do with him not feeling worthy of being her partner.
Insecure Love Interest: He clearly has feelings for Yuki-Onna ever since she saved his life, but does not believe he should pursue a relationship with her because he feels he's not a good person and she deserves better.
Interspecies Romance: Masayuki and Yuki-Onna are attracted to each other, but he doesn't want to commit to an actual relationship and refuses her advances, as he doesn't believe he deserves her. They get together at the end of the case after Iwanaga shows him that there is a person out there who deeply trusts him and stands up for him.
Loving a Shadow: Masayuki married a woman who has a striking resemblance to the yuki-onna that saved his life. As he did not truly love his wife and was preoccupied with work, she started having an affair and eventually tried to kill him to steal his entire fortune. He fully understands why she cheated and doesn't blame her for that, which is why he decides to keep quiet about her murder attempt and just divorce her normally while leaving her with a part of his money to compensate.
Madden Into Misanthropy: He is a self-admitted misanthrope. Being betrayed by people he trusts again and again will do that to a person. After moving to a remote town near the mountains, he has not interacted with anyone but Yuki-Onna, which makes people wary of him.
Mayfly–December Romance: Yuki-Onna's lifespan is far greater than a human's, so she will eventually outlive Masayuki. He doesn't care about this though and just wants to enjoy his present life with her.
Nice Guy: Despite having the Face of a Thug, Masayuki is actually a very kind person.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After his wife Miharu attempted to murder him so she could get his money then publicly get together with her then-lover, instead of taking her to court, Masayuki covered the incident up and privately divorced her with a sizeable finance split, in part since he felt responsible for neglecting her to the point that she'd cheat on him to begin with. However, Miharu instead saw this undeserved kindness as the start of a long, convoluted revenge scheme where he'd kill her years later, in part since she heard about how his friend who tried to kill him while mountain climbing died some time after in a car accident and assumed he must have had a hand in it. As a result, she writes a formal accusation against him in the event that she's murdered for the police to find, ensuring that he'd at least have to go through the stress of being a murder suspect, which he does when she's later killed by someone else.
Self-Made Man: Masayuki is not the smartest person, but his boldness to invest attracted a lot of skilled people who used his capital well. He made quite a lot of money with his company before he was kicked out. When Yuki-Onna asks him if he could really take care of both himself and her, Masayuki assures her that he has so much money that they could live the next thirty years in luxury without any problems.
Single-Target Sexuality: It's clear his heart has belonged to Yuki-Onna since she saved him. He even admits to himself that he only married Miharu because her looks reminded him of Yuki-Onna.
Supreme Chef: He has learned how to cook and offers to cook for Yuki-Onna. She is quite satisfied with the food.
Turn the Other Cheek: He is extremely forgiving and incapable of holding grudges. He doesn't blame his ex-wife for cheating on him, though he does think she went too far when she tried to kill him and steal his fortune. However, he decides to not press charges against her or tell anyone, quietly divorces her and leaves her a part of his money according to the law.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Acts like an Amateur Sleuth in an attempt to clear his name, not so much out of hubris but due to a lack of options. Reading excerpts or watching clips of the two of them in isolation would make one think that he and Yuki-Onna are the principle protagonists when they're actually more like clients who lack the skills to truly solve the case they're entwined in.

Yuki-Onna

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (Japanese), Emi Lo (English)

The snow woman, a yokai who found Masayuki Muroi alone and injured in the mountains after someone tried to kill him. She decided to save him if he kept quiet about her and gave her some money. Eleven years later, they meet again and he invites her to food when she feels like it. Over time they become good friends. When Masayuki is accused of murdering his ex-wife, Yuki-Onna contacts Iwanaga to help Masayuki.

Act of True Love: She deeply trusts Masayuki and Iwanaga tricks her into speaking up against her, her Deity of Human Origin, to show Masayuki this. They get together after Iwanaga tells Masayuki who the real murderer is and that the police don't suspect him anymore.
The Ageless: It's implied she doesn't age. Over ten years pass between her saving Masayuki's life and meeting him again after he returns, but she hasn't changed physically at all. It's also mentioned that their different lifespans will eventually become an issue.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: After hearing the village children call her Masayuki's gangster wife, she watches several yakuza films and she develops a fondness for Masayuki looking like one.
Antiquated Linguistics: She speaks like a noblewoman predating the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Big Eater: She loves human food and thus loves spending time with Masayuki, as he is a great cook. Her sister nicknames her, the Glutton, for having a bottomless stomach.
Bridal Carry: She holds Masayuki in her arms when flying him to a location.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Seeing as Masayuki attracts many women (though mostly unsavory women), she is very concerned about him. In a bonus comic, she sends a delivery woman, who shows attraction to him, packing by scaring her.
Cute Little Fangs: Her small fangs emphasize her playfulness.
Cute Monster Girl: Yuki-Onna is a very attractive woman with Cute Little Fangs.
Elemental Hair Colors: Her hair is partly white, connecting to her ice powers.
Evil Counterpart: Inverted. She is the Good Counterpart to Masayuki's ex-wife, Miharu Harada, and his ex-employee, Nagisa Iizuka.
- Miharu looks very similarly to Yuki-Onna (in fact, Masayuki was attracted to her for this reason), but they didn't spend much time together and she eventually tried to kill him to steal his entire fortune. After he divorces her normally and leaves her with a good part of his money, she begins to distrust him because she doesn't believe he could have forgiven her so easily. Yuki-Onna on the other hand saved his life and was fine taking a bit of his money, so she could buy some human food. When they meet again, he happily tells her he doesn't mind spending the rest of his money together with her to live a luxurious life. Yuki-Onna sees that Masayuki is just a genuinely good person and trusts him.
- Yuki-Onna loves Masayuki and would do anything for him. She is the emotional support he always needed, which kept him alive. Iizuka also loves Masayuki, but she becomes obsessive and resorts to murder to vent her anger and frustration at the woman who cheated on him. She murders his ex-wife and frames Masayuki as the murderer, so that she could appear as emotional support once he's isolated.
Going Commando: Following old Japanese traditions, she doesn't wear anything under her kimono.
An Ice Person: As a snow demon, she naturally controls ice and snow.
Icy Blue Eyes: She's a Yuki-onna with pale blue eyes.
Interspecies Romance: With Masayuki. They start out as friends and both fall in love as he lets her live with him. At the end of the case, they become a couple and Iwanaga suspects that they will soon take it to the next level.
Living Emotional Crutch: She becomes this to Masayuki. He was betrayed by many people that he trusted, but the only person who was truly kind to him was Yuki-Onna. He tried to love a woman who looked similar to Yuki-Onna, and after his wife almost killed him, he divorced her and moved to a remote town, emotionally hurt and tired of life. Meeting Yuki-Onna again and spending time with her gave him peace.
Mayfly–December Romance: Yuki-Onna's lifespan is far greater than a human's, so she will eventually outlive Masayuki.
Never Gets Fat: She can eat ten thousand calories a day and never gains a single pound of weight. In addition, while she's quite endowed, Yuki-Onna does not have an unusually immense chest the trope typically solves for where the calories get deposited.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The fact someone unfailingly proud as Yuki-Onna was willing to beg on her hands and knees to plea disagreement with someone she considers infallible, proved her Undying Loyalty for Masayuki.
Pose of Supplication: She throws away her pride and performs a dogeza of abject humiliation when pleading to Iwanaga that Masayuki is innocent.
Pretty Freeloader: Masayuki lets her crash at his place and gives her all the food she wants to eat for free.
Proud Beauty: Yuki-onna are known for being stunning beauties and this one knows this, too, and frequently comments on how surely Masayuki must be charmed by her beauty.
Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Her skin is white and pale as snow, and she has deep black hair. Together with her white kimono, she appears to look like a Yamato Nadeshiko, though her personality doesn't exactly fit.
Really 700 Years Old: Her appearance is always that of a young woman, but she has been around since the Edo period at the very least.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: One of the reasons why she falls for Masayuki is his kind and forgiving heart, despite him getting betrayed and hurt so many times that he has developed deep trust issues.
Through Her Stomach: Masayuki cooking for her is one of the things that kicks off their relationship.
Time Dissonance: Since youkai live longer than humans, Yuki-Onna doesn't keep up with dates of calendars. Iwanaga uses this to accuse Masayuki of lying about the date of his ex-wife's murder to convince Yuki-Onna of his innocence.
Undying Loyalty: Masayuki points out Yuki-Onna is the only one close to him who has never betrayed him and is so devoted to him that she stands up for him when Iwanaga pretends to accuse him of using Yuki-Onna for his own benefit. While making said plea, she confirms she would kill for Masayuki because he is devoid of malice.
Yamato Nadeshiko: In contrast to her mature appearance, she doesn't act submissively and looks very lively. She loves Masayuki dearly though and is absolutely loyal to him. In fact, Iwanaga points out that she would believe and do anything for him, which could have been a problem if he had been a bad person.
Yuki-onna: She's a classical portrayal of a yuki-onna; an ice-controlling woman clad in a white kimono.

Miharu Harada

Voiced by: Kaori Motoyama (Japanese)

Masayuki's ex-wife. Masayuki is suspected of her murder.

Asshole Victim: Considering she cheated on Masayuki and tried to murder him just to keep his money, it's hard to feel sorry for her after she's murdered herself by another woman obsessed with Masayuki.
Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: Deconstructed. Masayuki married Miharu because she resembles Yuki-Onna, but that only lead to Miharu cheating on him because she somehow knew she was just a stand-in for someone else.
Easily Forgiven: Masayuki doesn't resent or blame Miharu for cheating on him and trying to kill him, even believing he brought it upon himself by neglecting her for work.
Eyes Out of Sight: In both the manga and anime, her eyes are hidden by her hair.
Greed: Instead of simply divorcing Masayuki, she tried to murder him because she didn't want to lose the right to his money.
Identical Stranger: She looks like Yuki-Onna, which is why Masayuki married her in the first place.
Improperly Paranoid: She heard Masayuki's former best friend died some time after failing to murder Masayuki. It was really just a car accident, but Miharu became paranoid about Masayuki having had a hand in it and planning to kill her in a similar way.
Karma Houdini Warranty: Masayuki let her go scot-free after her failed attempt to murder him. She still ended up getting murdered later by a woman who hated her for cheating on Masayuki.
Psychological Projection: Due to her own cold-blooded and sly attempt to murder Masayuki, she found it impossible to believe he would really have enough forgiveness in his heart to let her get off easy and became convinced he was planning to murder her in revenge.
Ungrateful Bitch: She betrayed Masayuki by cheating on him and trying to murder him. Even though Masayuki just divorced her with no grudges, Miharu was so paranoid about him planning to murder her that she wrote an accusation against him that made him her murder's prime suspect.

Nagisa Iizuka (Unmarked Spoilers)

Nagisa Iizuka

Voiced by: Saya Hirose (Japanese)

Masayuki's ex-employee and Miharu's real murderer.

Didn't See That Coming: While she placed fake evidence to make the police suspect Masayuki, she didn't expect his paranoid ex-wife would have left behind a written accusation to incriminate Masayuki in case she was murdered. As Kurō points out, Iizuka's plan to keep Masayuki to herself would have completely failed if he had been arrested.
Ignored Enamored Underling: Deconstructed. She's the only one of Masayuki's former employees who stayed on his side and wanted to work for him again because she was in love with him. Once she realized Masayuki wasn't interested in starting a new business with her, she murdered his ex-wife and made him suspected of the crime because she wanted him all to herself.
Yandere: She's obsessively in love with Masayuki, driving her to murder his ex-wife and frame him for the crime to force him to become dependant on her.

Unagi Restaurant

Takaya Kajio

Voiced by: Hiroki Takahashi (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_kajio_pc.png

An architect that runs into Kotoko Iwanaga at an unagi restaurant. He murdered his wife and is haunted by her ghost.

Exhausted Eye Bags: He has visible eye bags resulting from the insomnia induced by his wife's ghost.
Graceful Loser: Zig-Zagged. After Kotoko exposes him, informs him of the true cause of his insomnia, and gives him a "Reason You Suck" Speech over his selfishness, Takaya contemplates killing her before deciding to simply question her on why she was at the Unagi restaurant like he and Ryotaro discussed, before letting her go, in part out of bafflement at her answer.
The Insomniac: He suffered from insomnia ever since he killed his wife. He thought it was caused by his guilty conscience, but Iwanaga reveals his wife's ghost is what doesn't allow him to sleep well.
Laser-Guided Karma: After he murdered his wife, she became a Vengeful Ghost and according to Iwanaga, she plans to haunt him for the rest of his days even if he turns himself in.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: After killing his wife, he assumed the sudden weight he felt on him as he slept was guilt-induced insomnia, and so he decided to turn himself in to alleviate it. While turning himself in is certainly the right thing to do, Kotoko spells out to him that what he was feeling wasn't guilt; his wife just came back as a vengeful spirit and was the cause of the weight increase.
Secretly Selfish: So secret, not even he realised it. He assumed that the weight he felt on him as he slept was guilt over killing his wife, and he thought turning himself in would alleviate it. Kotoko reveals the true reason, that being his wife haunting him in revenge and is quick to call him out on coming to the conclusion that painted him in the best light.
The Sociopath: He's an utterly selfish, possessive man who murdered his own wife and made it look like a mugger killed her to give himself an alibi. He only thought he felt remorse because he was unable to sleep well since the murder, but Iwanaga affirms that's all the doing of his wife's ghost and he isn't a human being with enough of a conscience to truly regret his evil deeds.
Villains Want Mercy: After Iwanaga reveals that Yukie's ghost will haunt him for life, Kajio begs her to exorcise Yukie to free him from her curse. Unsurprisingly, Iwanaga shows him No Sympathy because he deserves to be cursed for killing his own wife out of obsessive jealousy and helping humans isn't part of her duties anyway.
Yandere: He was so insanely possessive of his wife that he murdered her so no man could get close to her.

Ryotaro Jujoji

Voiced by: Takuya Eguchi (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_jujoji_pc.png

A freelance programmer and Takaya's friend.

Excellent Judge of Character: He's spot–on about the evil, sociopathic person that Kajio is. He could perfectly guess Kajio murdered Yukie and only pretended to grieve to dispel suspicions. He started to doubt his judgement when he realized Kajio was in real pain after Yukie died, but he doesn't know that was caused by her ghost cursing him.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: An after chapter shows he has a cat named Madeleine that he treats well.
Satellite Character: He's only present in the Unagi Restaurant story to discuss with Kajio about Iwanaga's visit to the restaurant and his wife's murder.

Electroshock Pinocchio Case

Tae Shimai

Voiced by: Tomoko Miyadera (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_tae_pc.png

Tae is the most influential person in the town of Totomizu, who lives together with a monster cat who revealed his status as a yokai to her. When the pinocchio doll appears, the local yokai ask Iwanaga for help, and since Tae knows more than anyone else about the circumstances of the doll, she is asked by the cat to cooperate with Iwanaga.

Coat Cape: She wears a track jacket over her shoulders like a cape.
Cool Old Lady: Tae is a relaxed lady who lives her life together with a talking monster cat, who enjoys her company. She also hits it off with Iwanaga and Kurō, and Iwanaga sympathizes with her.
Death Seeker: Zig-Zagged. This is coupled with Tae Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life. Her children and husband are all dead, yet she still lives on. She is content with her life, has everything she needs, actively works out and stays healthy, yet she feels terribly lonesome. When she learns about Zenta's pinocchio doll causing trouble for her town, she imagined a scenario where she could make a Heroic Sacrifice to give the end of her life meaning, but this wish is denied to her. She still wishes the monster cat she lives with would just eat her and take over her body.
Fitness Nut: Tae spends most of her time working out and is very fit for her age thanks to it.
I Own This Town: In her own words, she is so influential that both the mayor and the governor have less authority than her.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: Tae picked up a dying cat that was near her doorstep and nursed it back to health. Even after the cat was healthy again, she kept it in her house and she doesn't mind the fact that the cat is actually a yokai who can talk and begs her for alcohol.
Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Tae is in a position where people would assume she is a Corrupt Corporate Executive who tyrannically controls the town she lives in. Behind her back people call her an evil greedy Black Widow who lives off of the money of her dead family, but that was just her moving on and making the best out of her life. This has earned her the resent of many people in town, including Zenta, who wanted to punish her with his Voodoo Doll because unlike her he could not move on and find some happiness in life after losing a loved one.
Outliving One's Offspring: Her children died in an accident. Instead of mourning them forever, she decided to live on and use the money she was given as settlement to invest, which eventually earned her so much money and influence that she is practically the most powerful person in her town.
Unfazed Everyman: Downplayed. She coincidentally learns of the paranormal world after the cat she picked up asked her for some alcohol. She takes this in stride and also doesn't seem too fazed when she learns of Iwanaga and Kurō's abilities. On the other hand, the more monstrous spirits and the pinocchio puppet do scare her.

Bake-neko

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese), Brook Chalmers (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_neko_pc.png

A cat youkai who freeloads at Tae Shimai's house.

Bakeneko and Nekomata: He's a bakeneko, a type of cat youkai, but doesn't seem to have any supernatural powers other than speaking human language.
Interspecies Friendship: He's a bakeneko who is friends and roommates with Tae, the elderly human woman who took him in when he was injured.
Monster Roommate: Tae took him in, having mistaken him for an injured stray cat until he started talking. While she got surprised, Tae still lets him live at her house.
Talking Animal: He's a youkai, but looks and acts like a cat that just happens to talk.
Trademark Favorite Food: He loves drinking sake.

Zenta Tohira

Voiced by: Yasuhiro Kikuchi (Japanese)

A man who also lived in the town of Totomizu. He's the creator of the pinocchio doll, but died shortly after completing it. It's presumed that his curse is what brought the doll to life.

Evil Counterpart: To Tae. Zenta tragically lost his grandson in a traffic accident, similarly to how Tae lost her children in an accident. While Tae accepted her loss and kept living without hating anyone, Zenta became consummed by hatred for the town and the tourists that killed his grandson, driving him to create the pinocchio doll to make it carry out his revenge plot after his death.
Outliving One's Offspring: His grandson died after being ran over by a car.
Posthumous Character: He's already dead during the case that involves him. All information about him comes from Tae, who knew him when he was alive.
Revenge: He made the pinocchio doll as part of a plot to take revenge on the townsfolk that let tourists get away with it. Every day, the pinocchio doll killed the fish at the town's bay to hurt the economy. He also planned to take revenge on the tourists that killed his grandson in an accident by writing their names on the doll, so they would die when it was destroyed, but turns out the curse wasn't strong enough for that.

Guillotine Sanchiro Case

Sayoko Morino

An artist who likes to draw morbid pictures and Maneki Neko.

Intergenerational Friendship: As a teenager, she was best friends with the elderly Kojiro Miyaigawa, having bonded with him over their mutual interest in the guillotine. He cared for her so much that he did everything he could to cover her Patricide.
Nightmare Fetishist: Ever since she was young, Sayoko has felt fascinated by torture devices and macabre places, with these being the main themes of her art.
Patricide: She accidentally killed her father when she was a teenager.
Sympathetic Murderer: Even though Sayoko murdered her own father, Iwanaga doesn't believe she's a bad person and can deduce she only acted in self-defense because her father was abusing her in some way.

Stigmatized Property Case

Kazuyuki Konno

Voiced by: Shimba Tsuchiya (Japanese), Ryan Colt Levy (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_kazuyuki_pc.png

The manager of the apartment complex that Rikka moved into.

Haunted House Historian: He tells Rikka about the dark story of serial suicides that occurred in the apartment's Room 305, where Rikka temporarily stays at. He and his girlfriend thought the room might be cursed, but Iwanaga confirms that wasn't the case.
Nepotism: He manages the apartment complex that his uncle owns.
Nice Guy: He's a pleasing and cordial man.

Marumi Oki

Voiced by: Kana Ichinose (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_marumi_pc.png

Kazuyuki's girlfriend.

Nice Girl: She's very friendly to Rikka, as seen when she invites her to eat with her and Kazuyuki.
Satellite Love Interest: Her only role is being Kazuyuki's girlfriend and doesn't have much characterization.

Sleeping Murder Case

Goichi Otonashi

Voiced by: Hiroshi Yanaka (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_goichi_pc.png

The president of the Otonashi Group who took over after his wife was murdered 23 years ago. He made a deal with a fox spirit in exchange of it killing his wife, but asks Kotoko Iwanaga to make up an explanation with him as the culprit to give a lesson to his family about murder being wrong.

The Atoner: His plan for the family reunion is to claim responsibility for Sumi's murder and make his death by cancer an example of Laser-Guided Karma for his family to learn murder is never a good solution. However, Iwanaga ruins his plans by revealing his daughter killed Sumi.
Be Careful What You Wish For: He wanted to teach his family a lesson about every crime needing a fitting punishment and asked Iwanaga to create an explanation for Sumi's death with him as the culprit. Iwanaga does what he wanted, but since she still believes Goichi needed to regret making a deal with a spirit, she reveals his daughter was the real murderer and leaves his family to deal with the Awful Truth while Goichi reaches his deathbed faster because of it.
Deal with the Devil: He made a deal with the fox spirit Fubuki, who promised to kill his wife in exchange of Goichi building a hotel to drive away a rival fox clan from the mountains.
Death by Despair: Because of Iwanaga exposing the Awful Truth of Kaoruko murdering Sumi, Goichi's stress causes cancer to kill him faster than expected.
Graceful Loser: Despite how her revealing the truth that his daughter killed Sumi caused his disease to worsen, he does invite Iwanaga to his home to tell her that he bears no resentment towards her, and actually gives him and Kuro information on Rikka, namely that she was the one who directed him to Iwanaga in the first place.
Horrible Judge of Character: Because of his deal with Fubuki making him overly trusting of supernatural forces, he expected Iwanaga to help him and his family reach an amicable solution he wanted without any repercussions. However, Iwanaga is the "Goddess of Wisdom", not a neutral and self-serving spirit like Fubuki. Therefore, Iwanaga doesn't consider it "right" to create a resolution that leaves Goichi satisfied with his past deal as it went against the order between humans and monsters. At the end of the case, she exposes Goichi's daughter Kaoruko as the real murderer and leaves the family to deal with the consequences, making Goichi regret asking Iwanaga to get involved.
Karma Houdini Warranty: He asked a fox spirit to kill his wife and avoided consequences for 23 years. He sees dying by cancer as a long-due karmic retribution, but Iwanaga deemed he deserved to suffer more and manipulated the family reunion to expose his daughter as the real murderer.
Knight Templar Parent: Part of his motive for having Sumi killed was that her ambition was turning her into a Control Freak in regards to their children, with her denying their first son's desire to become a chef and trying to force him to take over the company, disregarding the second son's desire to take over and help the company due to the former, and taking issue with their daughter's boyfriend because she was planning Arranged Marriage for her.
Took the Wife's Name: He took the Otonashi surname when he married Sumi because his wife's family owns a very wealthy and successful chain of hotels.
Your Days Are Numbered: He has terminal cancer and doesn't have much time left to live.

Fubuki

Voiced by: Shinji Kawada (Japanese)

The fox spirit who made a deal with Goichi Otonashi 23 years ago.

Asian Fox Spirit: He's a fox spirit with shapeshifting abilities.
Silent Scapegoat: He really didn't kill Sumi Otonashi. Her daughter Kaoruko stole the kill from him, but he still created fake evidence to cover for her and claimed the blame for the murder so Goichi would hold up his end of their deal.

Sumi Otonashi

Voiced by: Yuki Ominami (Japanese)

Goichi Otonashi's deceased wife who was murdered 23 years ago.

Ambition Is Evil: More "reckless". Part of the reason Goichi had her killed by Fubuki is because he realized that her expansion of her father's company was more than what it could handle in the long run and, with her refusing to listen to reason, the only way to save it was for her to be out of the picture.
Arranged Marriage: Her marriage to Goichi was arranged by her father. This is one of the reasons why she insisted on choosing her daughter's husband and disapproved of the man Kaoruko chose by herself.
Fantasy-Forbidding Mother: She was opposed to her eldest son's wish to become a chef and gave him extra work at her company so he wouldn't have time to practice cooking in secret.
Follow in My Footsteps: She wanted her eldest son Ryoma to inherit the Otonashi Group, but his dream was to become a chef and he plotted to murder her with his brother's help so they could pursue their preferred careers.
Freudian Excuse: According to her eldest son, the reason why Sumi was so inflexible about her plans for her children's future was because she was following her father's ideals that had shaped her entire life. She wasn't willing to listen to her children's own wishes, as it would have gone against the beliefs she held onto for her family's success.
Karmic Death: Sumi's Control Freak behavior and reckless ambition earned her the ill will and resentment from her husband and children. Goichi asked Fubuki to kill her because everyone in the family thought getting rid of her was the only way to prevent a future where Sumi would ruin her own company along with her family's happiness. The trope applies even more after it's revealed Sumi was killed by her own daughter after she threatened to ruin Kaoruko's boyfriend's company if she didn't break up with him.
My Beloved Smother: Her family saw her as a terribly strict and controlling mother who forced her own beliefs and wishes on them, without even wanting to consider what they wanted for their future. Her three children felt so suffocated by her rules and perfectionism that they all plotted to kill her. However, years after her death, her eldest son can understand that she wanted her children to become successful like her, but only knew how to do it through the rigid teachings of her father.
Parental Marriage Veto: She disapproved of the man her daughter wanted to marry and went as far as to threaten to ruin his company if she didn't break up with him. Her daughter killed her for it.
Posthumous Character: The Sleeping Murder Case centers around the circumstances and motives surrounding Sumi's murder 23 years prior.

Ryoma Otonashi

Voiced by: Katsumi Fukuhara (Japanese)

Goichi Otonashi's eldest son.

Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Sumi, his mother was very strict in his and his siblings' upbringing, while Sumi's father was not any better. Ryoma himself seems to get along fine with his daughter Rion, most likely giving her more freedom than he or his mother had.
Matricide: He planned to murder his own mother and asked his brother to be his accomplice. However, the brothers' mother was murdered by their sister before they could carry out their own murder plan.
Sympathy for the Devil: Back when Sumi was murdered, everyone in the family saw her as a tyrannical, selfish and cruel woman who was going to ruin her company and the dreams of her own children because of her unreasonable expectations. Two decades later, Ryoma can sympathize with his mother as he can now understand that she was also a victim of her own father's controlling upbringing and she wanted what she thought was best for her children even though she refused to listen to what they wanted for themselves.

Kaoruko Otonashi (Unmarked Spoilers)

Kaoruko Otonashi

Voiced by: Nodoka Hasegawa (Japanese)

Goichi Otonashi's only daughter

Bungled Suicide: After Iwanaga exposes her as Sumi's real murderer to the family, Kaoruko tries to kill herself. Koya gets her help on time, but she's still hospitalized during the case's aftermath.
Karma Houdini Warranty: She murdered her mother so she could marry Koya. Thanks to the fox spirit covering for her, she managed to escape consequences for 23 years, until Iwanaga exposes her as the true culprit to bring karmic retribution for her and her father as she finds it unforgivable that they received help from a spirit to get away with murder.
Love Makes You Evil: She wanted to marry with Koya so desperately that she murdered her own mother because she wouldn't allow them to be together.
Matricide: She killed her own mother because she threatened to break off her relationship with Koya.
Small Role, Big Impact: She doesn't directly participate in the Sleeping Murder case because her husband attends the family reunion in her place, but her murder of her mother 23 years ago completely changes the expected resolution of the case.
Wounded Gazelle Gambit: She murdered Sumi and broke her own leg to get a fake alibi.

Susumu Otonashi

Voiced by: Naoya Uchida (Japanese), SungWon Cho (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_susumu_pc.png

Goichi Otonashi's second son.

The Dutiful Son: His older brother quit the Otonashi Group to open a restaurant, while Susumu stayed and took over the company.
The Un-Favourite: He always resented that his mother favored his older brother Ryoma as her successor in the Family Business, even though he knows Ryoma had dreams of his own and refused to inherit the Otonashi Group.

Koya Fujinuma

Voiced by: Masaki Terasoma (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_kouya_pc.png

Kaoruko's husband.

I Never Said It Was Poison: Iwanaga makes Koya feel cornered and tricks him into admitting Kaoruko checked Sumi's breathing after killing her.
One Degree of Separation: He's the uncle of the former president of Iwanaga's high school mystery fan club.
Outlaw Couple: With Kaoruko. He claims that he was her accomplice in her murder plot against her mother, but they couldn't go through with it because Kaoruko injured her leg. However, Kaoruko did kill Sumi, but Koya wasn't aware of it until shortly before the Sleeping Murder case. When Iwanaga exposes Kaoruko as the culprit, he shoots Kurō and tries to kill Iwanaga to cover his wife's crime.

Rion Otonashi

Voiced by: Manaka Iwami (Japanese), Madeline Dorroh (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_img_rion_pc.png

Goichi Otonashi's granddaughter.

Excellent Judge of Character: Unlike her grandfather, Rion feels very uneasy around Iwanaga throughout the entire family reunion. Even though she just met her, Rion can tell Iwanaga isn't the sort of person who would agree to Goichi's request with the family's best interests in mind.
Penny Among Diamonds: Her father gave up the wealthy lifestyle to become a regular chef. Because of this, Rion was raised in the middle-class, and feels out of place in the family reunion where everyone else is rich and well-dressed.
White Sheep: Rion is the only one of Goichi's direct relatives who never plotted to kill Sumi, as her grandmother was long dead by the time Rion was born.

The Giraffe Case

Toji Okamachi (Unmarked Spoilers)

Toji Okamachi

A guy who a hiking group that met Rikka and got attacked by the ghost giraffe while on their way to find the giraffe's shrine. Because of Rikka's intervention, he survived the giraffe's attack.

Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Iwanaga thinks that Okamachi and his hiking group actually caused the ghost giraffe to attack them because they all believed the giraffe cursed them due to Hiiragi's death.
Crazy Jealous Guy: He refuses to accept Akira Nagatsuka's claims of dating Hiiragi and stole his murder plan so Akira wouldn't have the "honor" of claiming he loved Hiiragi the most.
Driven to Suicide: After giving the police a false confession about murdering the rest of the hiking group, Toji kills himself by jumping off the window of his hospital room.
Evil Is Petty: Before his murder plan got foiled by the ghost giraffe, he crushed Rikka's skull because she heard another guy claim he was dating Hiiragi and Okamachi wanted to elimanate the possibility of Rikka testifying that he killed the hiking group over another guy's girlfriend.
Faking Amnesia: After Rikka saves him from the ghost giraffe, both agree to pretend Toji lost his memory of what happened before the hiking group fell off the cliff, until they come up with an explanation that doesn't involve the giraffe.
Laser-Guided Karma: Okamachi and his friends assumed Hiiragi's "curse" got passed to them because they all suffered from bad luck after they got close to her. They left Hiiragi to die after a car ran her over to get rid of the "curse", but their bad luck only got worse afterwards.
Love Makes You Evil: He planned to murder the rest of the hiking group because none of them called an ambulance for a dying Hiiragi, believing that avenging her death would be the ultimate act of devotion to her.
Murder by Inaction: When Hiiragi got run over by a car, Okamachi and his friends didn't call an ambulance because they all thought the "giraffe's curse" would end with Hiiragi's death.
Silent Scapegoat: Using information Iwanaga gives him through a spirit, he claims to have murdered the other victims of the ghost giraffe's attack, in order to paint himself as a martyr who killed those who didn't help a dying Hiiragi after her car accident, including himself.

Hiiragi Owada

A girl from Okamachi's university. Okamachi and all of his friends had a crush on her, but she kept distance because she believed the "giraffe's curse" made her unlucky. She died in a car accident.

Born Unlucky: Her entire life was plagued by bad luck.
Embarrassing Last Name: She didn't like to be called by her surname because she thought it sounded too manly for a girl.
Hereditary Curse: Subverted. Hiiragi believed her bad luck was caused by a ghost giraffe that cursed her family, but Iwanaga confirms there was never a curse and Hiiragi was just very unlucky.
The Jinx: Okamachi's group began suffering from a streak of bad luck shortly after they begun hanging out with Hiiragi, causing them to start believing in the "giraffe's curse" even though it was all in their heads.
Look Both Ways: She died after she was ran over by a car.
The Lost Lenore: Okamachi and all of his hiking group had a crush on Hiiragi, but none of them tried to help her when she got run over by a car because she was "cursed". The guilt they all felt over her death triggered the events of the Giraffe case.

Slain Yuki-Onna Case

Hanbei Shirokura

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/in_spectre_vol17.png

A swordsman from the Edo period. He became known for his claims of slaying a yuki-onna to master the perfected Muhen-ryu sword style.

Amazon Chaser: He fell in love with his yuki-onna teacher because of her powerful and graceful mastery of the Muhen-ryu sword style.
Badass Normal: He was a normal human who supposedly defeated a yuki-onna wwith only his sword. He really couldn't defeat her, but he was able to put a decent fight against her enough as to convince her to make him her disciple in swordsmanship.
Broken Ace: By fighting a yuki-onna and fully mastering the Muhen-ryu sword style, he became the greatest swordsman of his time. However, in his final years, he felt empty and dissatisfied with his success because he couldn't tell anyone about his yuki-onna teacher, the true master who refined Mataemon's sword style. Tired of living a lie and being broken by hearing about the yuki-onna's death, he killed himself.
Celibate Hero: He was so devoted to perfecting the Muhen-ryu sword style that he had no interest in love and rejected tons of marriage proposals. He actually didn't want to get married because of his unrequited feelings for the yuki-onna who taught him her sword techniques.
Challenge Seeker: When he realized he couldn't improve his skill in the Muhen-ryu on his own, he left on a journey to seek an opponent stronger than himself and even challenged a yuki-onna.
Competing with a Corpse: He was in love with his yuki-onna teacher, but she was utterly devoted to her deceased lover, Mataemon. When she finally died, he knew her soul would reunite with Mataemon, but he still chose to follow her in death.
Despair Event Horizon: He spent fifteen years devoting himself to fulfilling his yuki-onna teacher's wish to pass on the perfected Muhen-ryu sword style, but he always felt empty because his fame was based on a lie. Once he heard the news of his yuki-onna teacher's death, Hanbei lost all will to live and killed himself.
Driven to Suicide: He cut his own throat after he received the news of his yuki-onna teacher's demise.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: Because of his slender figure and feminine features, people often confused him for a woman.
Fake Ultimate Hero: The story of how he killed a yuki-onna and mastered the Muhen-ryu sword style was all a lie that the yuki-onna herself asked him to spread to make a name for himself. He really learned the perfected sword techniques from the yuki-onna in exchange of fulfilling her wish of passing on her teachings to other humans as a way to preserve Mataemon's legacy.
Good Parents: He was a very good and caring father to his adopted son Yushiro.
Heartbroken Badass: He was known as a genius swordsman who could put up a fight against a yuki-onna, but he never married because he suffered from unrequited love for said yuki-onna. After he heard she had passed on, he couldn't take it and killed himself.
Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He was a very beautiful man with long white hair.
Love at First Punch: He claimed to have killed a yuki-onna, but in reality, she defeated him in a sword fight and only spared his life to make him into her disciple. He fell in love with the yuki-onna because of the prowess with the sword she showed in that fight.
Master Swordsman: He was a prodigy at the sword, to the point only a youkai surpassed his skill.
Parental Substitute: He adopted a young boy named Yushiro and raised him as his own son. Although, there's suspicions that Yushiro was in fact his biological son by a yuki-onna. Double Subverted; Yushiro was actually the grandson of a yuki-onna who left the boy in his care after he lost his real parents.
Posthumous Character: He lived and died during the Edo period. His case centers around Iwanaga finding an explanation for the mysterious circumstances of his death.
Samurai Ponytail: He was a samurai with his long hair tied back into a ponytail.
Single-Target Sexuality: No woman ever captivated him except for his yuki-onna teacher, even though she was loyal to her dead lover Mataemon.
Talented, but Trained: Hanbei was a very talented and prodigious swordsman, but he only managed to fully master the Muhen-ryu sword style through rigorous training under a yuki-onna.
Teacher/Student Romance: The yuki-onna took him as her disciple and taught him the perfected Muhen-ryu sword style. Hanbei fell in love with her, but the feeling wasn't mutual.
Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: The only woman he ever loved was a widow who was devoted to preserving her dead lover's legacy. Hanbei knew his feelings would be forever unrequited, but he still refused to marry anyone else and stayed single to the end of his days.

Yuki-Onna's Sister

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/in_spectre_vol18.png

The older sister of the yuki-onna who sought Kotoko Iwanaga's help. She has a mysterious connection to Hanbei Shirokura who claimed to have killed her.

Death Faked for You: She asked Hanbei to tell the villagers that he had killed her, as she no longer had a reason to attack humans after she took Hanbei as her disciple and it would help Hanbei gain fame for the Muhen-ryu sword style.
Determinator: In order to perfect Mataemon's sword techniques, she spent more than thirty years training with the sword with little to no rest.
Elemental Weapon: She wielded a sword made of ice.
Feminine Women Can Cook: She was excellent at domestic tasks, especially cooking. She got good at it by taking care of her lover Mataemon.
Fights Like a Normal: Despite being a yuki-onna, she didn't use her ice powers to freeze her opponents and instead, preferred to make an ice sword to cut them down.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: When compared to her gluttonous freeloader of a sister, she was much more responsible and hardworking, having diligently dedicated decades to her sword training.
Her Heart Will Go On: Her lover Mataemon died before he could achieve his life goal to polish the sword style that he created. To honor his memory, she spent thirty years refining the sword techniques that Mataemon taught her until she mastered them to the level even Mataemon could never reach. She then passed the techniques on to Hanbei and helped him come up with the story of how he killed a yuki-onna to make the sword style famous. She finally died once she was fully satisfied with having preserved Mataemon's legacy and accomplishing his goals in his stead.
I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: An omake is dedicated to her unknowingly tempting Hanbei's carnal desires by flashing her bare legs in front of him during training. Hanbei tries to convince her to put on some leggings, but this only makes it worse when the leggings turn out to be too tight for her and she can't get them through her thighs.
Interspecies Romance: At first, it's assumed she might have been Hanbei's secret lover and the real mother of his child Yushiro. Turns out her relationship with Hanbei wasn't sexual, but she was in fact Yushiro's grandmother since she did have a child with Mataemon Masakatsu Inoue.
Lady of War: Her movements as she swung her sword were all incredibly precise and graceful.
Leg Focus: She leaves her kimono's skirt unwrapped, showing off her long, slender legs. When she swings the sword, a lot of shots focus on her legs.
Magic Knight: Being a yuki-onna, she had ice magic, but still trained herself to become a swordswoman without equal.
Master Swordswoman: She was a deadly swordswoman and helped Hanbei perfect the Muhen-ryu sword style.
Mayfly–December Romance: She was an ageless youkai who fell in love with the elderly human Mataemon and became pregnant with his child shortly before he died from old age.
The Mourning After: After her lover Mataemon died, she dedicated the rest of her life to perfecting his sword techniques and passed these on to Hanbei to keep Mataemon's legacy alive. Once her goals were fulfilled through Hanbei, she followed Mataemon in death.
Nothing Left to Do but Die: Being ageless and having outlived her lover Mataemon, her sole reason to live was to perfect his sword techniques and pass them on to a human. Fifteen years after she finished training Hanbei, she was satisfied with the fame he brought for the Muhen-ryu sword style and finally, she let herself die.
Outliving One's Offspring: Her only son died in a flood, but she managed to rescue her grandson, Yushiro.
Parental Abandonment: After Mataemon's death, she abandoned their son and left him in the care of a childless human couple.
Posthumous Character: Like Hanbei, she has been dead for centuries and is only seen in flashbacks.
Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Much like her sister, she was a beauty with long black hair and skin white like the snow.
Sexy Mentor: She was very beautiful and taught the perfected Muhen-ryu sword style to Hanbei who fell in love with both her power and beauty. An omake makes a joke about it, with Hanbei having a hard time focusing on training because he can't look away from his teacher's bare legs.
Sexy Slit Dress: Her kimono has a slit up to the top of her thigh.
Strong Family Resemblance: She closely resembles her sister, with only the hairstyle and eye color being different.
Surpassed the Teacher: Mataemon taught her the incomplete Muhen-ryu sword style and after thirty years of training by herself, she mastered the Shizuri Yuki technique that even Mataemon could never polish to perfection.
Teacher/Student Romance: She was Mataemon's last disciple, having learned the incomplete Muhen-ryu sword style from him. She was also the mother of his only son.
Tragic Keepsake: She kept Mataemon's sword after his death and this was her most treasured possession.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: She's a gorgeous and eternally youthful yuki-onna while her de facto husband, Mataemon, was large and hairy man in his fifties.
Withholding Their Name: When Hanbei asked for her name, she refused to tell him. According to her sister, the only human who ever knew her name was likely her lover Mataemon.
Yuki-onna: Same as her sister, she's an ice youkai appearing as a woman clad in a white kimono.

Shizuya Shirokura

The descendant of Yushiro Shirokura, Hanbei's adopted son.

Identical Grandson: He bears an uncanny resemblance to his yuki-onna ancestor.
Long-Lost Relative: He's a distant descendant of Masayuki's Yuki-Onna, with her older sister being one of his ancestors.
Uneven Hybrid: One of his ancestors was a yuki-onna. The youkai blood has diluted after several generations of mixing with humans, but it has manifested strongly in him.

Characters / In/Spectre

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