open/close all folders
Main
Ryan
Ryan Akagi
- Voiced by: Sekai Murashige
One of the two main characters of Book 4 and the childhood friend of Min-Gi. He ends up on the train after entering an ordinary train and throwing Min-Gi's keys through the portal on impulse.
- Arc Hero: He and Min-Gi are the protagonists of the fourth season.
- Arc Number: 2. His and Min-Gi's book is called "Duet", they're the first protagonists to board the Infinity Train together and both of them start with the number 202.
- Blatant Lies: Vigorously denies that there's anything wrong with his and Min's friendship when Kez questions it, but it's clear he and Min are fooling themselves.
- The Casanova: Ryan is shown to have several romantic conquests in the Twin Tapes montage. Subverted in that he’s always the one being left rather than the one who leaves.
- Childhood Friends: With Min-Gi.
- Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: To Book 3's protagonists Simon and Grace. Simon and Grace met on the train and their friendship was shown to be unhealthy and co-dependent and is eventually dissolved. Ryan and Min were best friends before the train, but their friendship became strained over the issue of their futures, leading them to board. Learning to communicate with Min-Gi, and mending that relationship, leads to their exits. Ryan contrasts Grace, in that they're both the headstrong, fierce one in the relationship and tend to boss others around and pull them along. But whereas it took Grace years to grow out of this mindset, Ryan comes to terms with this particular flaw of his relatively quickly. He even gets an exit long before Min-Gi does, but ultimately decides against taking it.
- Did Not Think This Through: He's impulsive and does whatever he wants in the moment. This is the main reason his career as a musician hasn't taken off and what Min-Gi harps on him for whenever he tries to play by the rules while Ryan does the complete opposite.
- Extreme Omnisexual: When they need The Cat’s help in "The Old West Car", Ryan unbuttons his shirt and tries to seduce a literal Cat.The Cat: And what’s in it for me?Ryan: For someone so beautiful? I'm sure we can arrange... something. Hmm?The Cat: I respect the moxie, but I’ve got plenty.
- Fatal Flaw: Impulsiveness; Ryan jumps headfirst into everything without stopping to think of the consequences, which has caused his musical career to stall out and strains his friendship with Min-Gi.
- Hairstyle Inertia: He seems to have kept the same hairstyle he's had since he was a teen for the most part, though he's seen experimenting with a few other styles in the episode one montage.
- History Repeats: Has to relive Min-Gi abandoning him onstage again, but this time goes to talk to him about it.
- Jumped at the Call: Was all too eager to throw himself into a magical gateway the moment it appeared, no questions asked.
- Manchild: Ryan is spontaneous to a fault and tends to jump in, ask questions later. When he and Min meet after years apart, his attitude has barely changed from when he was a teenager. Deconstructed, as his lack of planning skills and forethought are heavily implied to be the reason his solo career never really took off.
- Meaningful Name: While the show never provides official kanji for "Akagi", there's both a train line (列車) and station (赤城駅) called Akagi/Akagieki in Japan.
- Messy Hair: Ryan's hair is ruffled to represent his free-spirited and impulsive nature, as opposed to the uptight and dutiful Min-Gi whose hair is combed neatly.
- Mr. Fanservice: Unbuttons his shirt sexily to persuade The Cat in "The Old West Car" and strips down to his underwear in "The Party Car". (Although it is to change clothes, he did so in front of a room full of partygoers shamelessly.)
- Parental Issues: It's heavily implied his parents are neglectful and considering how his dad is shown smacking one of their kids with a spatula at the beginning, likely abusive. This adds to Ryan's frustrations when he and Min-Gi lash out at each other in The Art Gallery Car. In The Old West Car Ryan brings up how Min's parents would definitely worry and look for him while his...Ryan: (trying to get the keys to their cell) So, d'you think our parents know where we are?
Min-Gi: In an old west bug jail? I'm gonna say 'no'.
Ryan: But they'll wonder where we went to... At least... yours probably will.
Min-Gi: ...yeah. - Please, Don't Leave Me: He promises Min he's not going anywhere, and he won't leave him on the train.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Has this dynamic with Min-Gi. Is the red due to being more adventurous and determined never to give up on his dreams. He even threw Min-Gi's keys into what was clearly a supernatural portal that opened up in front of them and then jumped in himself, just because something out of the ordinary was happening. His glasses are also red. Word of God would later state he was purposely designed with "warmer" colors in mind being the more naturally free-spirited member of the duo.
- Undying Loyalty: In the trailer, he promises Min that he won't leave the train without him. Deconstructed in that he has a moment he wants to abandon Min-Gi to peril and run away again in the series proper, but reconstructed in that, as Min-Gi says, it's one thing to think it, and another to actually do it.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Only wore a pair of red shorts as a child when singing at his "live concert" and was the first to start changing his clothes when his and Min-Gi's luggage was returned (which at that time he's now shown to wear a tank top rather than just underwear).
Min-Gi
Min-Gi Park
- Voiced by: Johnny Young
One of the two main characters of Book 4 and the childhood friend of Ryan. He ended up on the train after chasing Ryan into an ordinary train and following him through the portal.
- Arc Hero: He and Ryan are the protagonists of the fourth season.
- Arc Number: 2. He and Ryan are the first passengers to board the train in a pair and the initial number on both their palms is 202. Additionally, their book is called "Duet", which is a composition traditionally made for two voices and/or instruments.
- Affectionate Nickname: He's referred to as Min by Ryan, and Kez soon follows suit.
- Ambiguously Gay: He has a prominent blush when Ryan hugs him after he goes out of his way to create a Chicken Choice Judy shirt for him, right before their falling out with each other.
- Asian and Nerdy: Is Korean and while not to Ryan's levels he has his moments. This is also deconstructed, since his parents want him to study finance but he doesn't want to.
- Blatant Lies: When Kez assumes he and Ryan are mortal enemies because of their slightly hostile interactions, he immediately denies this and insists that their relationship is just fine. It’s not.
- Childhood Friends: With Ryan.
- Condescending Compassion: After concluding in "The Pig Baby Car" that only Ryan needs to learn lessons to get their numbers down, he starts being needlessly patronizing and condescending towards him, to the point of treating him like an actual child at times. Ryan gets increasingly annoyed by this and eventually calls him out on it in "The Astro Queue Car".
- Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: To Book 3's protagonists Simon and Grace. Simon and Grace met on the train and their friendship was shown to be unhealthy and co-dependent and is eventually dissolved. Ryan and Min were best friends before the train, but their friendship became strained over the issue of their futures, leading them to board. Learning to communicate with Ryan, and mending that relationship, leads to their exits. Min contrasts Simon, in that they're both somewhat of a Control Freak and have a hard time accepting when they're in the wrong. But contrary to Simon, who only ever doubles down on his worst traits and actively refuses to get better, Min eventually realizes that he can't keep blaming Ryan for all of his problems and steadily learns to let go and approach things in a more relaxed manner.
- The Dutiful Son: Deconstructed. One of Min's defining flaws is his desperation to please his very uptight, traditional parents. He abandons his dreams about being a musician to instead do what they want and follow a more stable career in financing, down to setting aside his instrument of choice in order to learn the viola, a more "sensible" instrument, even though doing so is obviously making him miserable.
- Fatal Flaw: Insecurity; Min rarely ever feels confident in his choices, thanks in no small part to his overbearing parents, which led him to abandon his dreams of becoming a musician for a "safe" career in finance and strain his friendship with Ryan.
- History Repeats: Although Ryan doesn't mean to, he has to relive Ryan abandoning him to his fate again.
- Never My Fault: After his and Ryan's numbers go down for the first time in "The Pig Baby Car" when Ryan finally agrees to slow down and think about their choice of recipe, he assumes that it was actually just Ryan who needed to go on the train and that he himself doesn't have any problems to be fixed. When their numbers go back up again after he vocalizes these thoughts, he pushes the blame for it on Ryan again and theorizes that the lesson must not have stuck.
- Parental Issues: Min-Gi is shown to feel a great deal of pressure in finding balance or subverting expectations in the role of a dutiful son.
- Poor Communication Kills: Ultimately, this is the biggest problem between him and Ryan. They are unable to properly communicate what they both want and need to the other, and or listen to what the other wants. Ryan is too impulsive while Min projects all his own flaws onto Ryan, thinking he doesn't need to learn anything and that everything is Ryan's fault. Min also gets hung up on the minor details and is a perfectionist.
- Punny Name: Min-Gi's instrument of choice is a mini-synthesizer.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Has this dynamic with Ryan. Serving as the blue as he usually tries to come off as reserved, but is still prone to outbursts, and is focused on living a safe, normal life instead of pursuing their former shared dream of music stardom. His clothes seen in flashbacks and present also mainly ranged in shades of blue to bluish gray. Word of God would later go to state he was designed with "cooler" colors in mind to give a sense he's the more closed off half of the duo.
- Undying Loyalty: When the number finally falls to 0 he refuses to leave because Ryan's hadn't.
Kez
Kez
- Voiced by: Minty Lewis
Ryan and Min-Gi's companion throughout their stay on the train. Is a talking and floating concierge bell.
- Accidental Hero: She helped Jeremy find his way off the train by sitting down and talking with him about the tragic car accident he'd been in. Unfortunately, Morgan was furious at this and had not wanted Jeremy to go, because Jeremy had been maintaining her for the past five years and was the only passenger who ever cared about her.
- Animate Inanimate Object: A talking, floating concierge bell.
- Backhanded Apology: Kez when confronted by Min and Ryan.Min Gi: He's right, Kez. You never actually apologize.Kez: What?! Yeah, I do.Min Gi: No. You say you didn't mean to mess up, but you never say sorry.Kez: W... I mean... Well, I mean, it's just, like, misunderstandings and…
- Big Bad Friend: An unintentional example in Book 4. Despite Amelia eventually taking the train from One-One, all the obstacles in Ryan and Min's journey were because of her actions. She is hesitant to take responsibility for them and tries to treat everything she's done as no big deal, but every denizen she's wronged antagonizes the trio as a result of her carelessness.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Deconstructed. Kez seems to float in her own little world most of the time and does things just because, without thinking about whether or not they might have consequences first. This leads to her inadvertently ruining many a denizen's life by screwing with their cars on the basis of some childish whim and never really apologizing or trying to make amends when confronted about it. The majority of the other denizens outright hate her by the time she meets Ryan and Min-Gi.
- Composite Character: Weirdly enough, of Ryan and Min-Gi, in a way. She has both Ryan's overly spontaneous nature, which is the thing that makes her cause so much trouble, as well as Min-Gi's tendency to avoid blame and inability to apologize. Her getting over both of those flaws also coincides with Ryan and Min's eventual character development and them calling her out in "The Castle Car" finally makes her realize that she can't just keep floating around without a care, but should take responsibility for her actions.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Innocently Insensitive Cloudcuckoolander. Kez doesn't mean to cause half the trouble that she does, but that doesn't change the fact that she still causes it and her refusal to apologize and her inability to understand why the other denizens get so mad at her has made her an outcast on the train, to the point that even people merely associated with her have to suffer because of what she did. Ryan and Min-Gi call her out on this in "The Castle Car". Though they also later on admit that all of this doesn't necessarily make her a bad person. Just someone who really needs to get better at being good.
- Easily Forgiven: Played for Laughs. Once she actually apologizes, everyone except Judge Morpho immediately forgives her, despite the extreme lengths they'd gone through to get revenge up until then.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Kez is constantly trailing blue sparkles of light wherever she goes. She can form those sparks into a shape like a hand to point in the right direction.
- Flight: Kez can fly around in the air, and goes wherever she cares to.
- Like Is, Like, a Comma: She, like, talks like this, like, all the time, fitting the valley girl archetype that populated the 80s.
- The Load: While Kez can be helpful at times, her presence causes a lot of trouble because everyone they meet either has a reason to be angry with her or starts being angry with her, which causes them to be hostile to Ryan and Min-Gi by association.
- Meaningful Name: Her name is possibly derived from the KEZ radio station, which focuses on music that came out around the eighties and nineties.
- Mundane Utility: In "The Old West Car", she uses her glitter trail to distract the cowboy bugs and allow her, Ryan and Min-Gi a quick get-away.
- Stomach of Holding: She can store objects inside herself by eating them, even items that look too big to fit inside her.
- Sudden Anatomy: She can manifest hands from her glitter trail as needed.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In "The Castle Car", Ryan and Min call her out for causing a lot of trouble for the denizens of the train, and her not doing anything about it, and brushing it off as a minor accident.
Supporting
The Alien Family
The Alien Family
- Voiced by: Kari Wahlgren
- Evolutionary Levels: The theme of their car, all synced to a thermostat like dial adjacent to the exit door.
- Forced Transformation: Shifting their environment via the reagulator in their car causes them to change with it, much to their chagrin. They later weaponize this in their hunt for Kez, Ryan and Min-Gi.
- Hive Mind: When they're "The One True Thought" they always speak in unison and seem to think and feel as a collective.
- Morphic Resonance: Whatever form they take, they always have a single, curling antenna on their heads and the parkas they originally wore for their skiing trip.
- Oculothorax: In their future-versions they're just giant floating eye-balls. That can shoot lasers.
- Starter Villain: They're the first group of denizens who are angry with Kez that Ryan and Min-Gi meet.
- Transformation Trinket: They use their regulator to shift between forms on pupose in "The Mega Maze Car" to have a leg up on Kez and the boys.
Judge Morpho
Caterpillar Sheriff/Judge Morpho
Click here to see her as Judge Morpho
- Voiced by: Margo Martindale
Sheriff and Judge of the Insect Western-themed car. Initially introduced as a green caterpillar sheriff but becomes the judge by undergoing metamorphosis to enter the butterfly form.
- Accuser of the Brethren: Unlike every other denizen Kez apologized to, she refuses to forgive her and still seeks her brand of justice.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: She's a giant butterfly.
- Butterfly of Transformation: Undergoes metamorphosis just before Ryan and Min-Gi's trial to act as the judge.
- Deus Exit Machina: A rare villainous example. Out of Kez's enemies, she is the only one who can fly, and would have therefore been able to pursue the protagonists into the castle in "The Mega Maze Car". However, she is eaten by Pig Baby before she can do so.
- Disney Death: She gets hit with this repeatedly. In "The Old West Car", she falls into the giant bug zapper, complete with Dead-Hand Shot, but is then revealed to have survived. In "The Mega Maze Car", she gets eaten by Pig Baby, only to emerge from his mouth unharmed in "The Train to Nowhere".
- Hanging Judge: She's all for an execution of Kez and any associates for her crimes, without a very fair trial beforehand, only justifying it by saying that any moderation or fair procedure was lost with the document defining such that Kez ruined.
- Inspector Javert: She will stop at nothing to bring Kez and her passengers to justice.
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: She's both the sheriff and the judge of the Old West Car, and cocoons herself to grow into the butterfly judge when necessary.
- Magic Pants: Her clothing completely changes with her in metamorphosis, even growing a top hat. This is lampshaded by Ryan, who is grossed out at the implication that her clothing and accessories are part of her body.
- Meaningful Name: She is based on a morpho butterfly
. - Small-Town Tyrant: She's both the sheriff and the judge of the Old West Car and she doesn't really think much of being fair in her judgements and arrests. She throws Ryan and Min-Gi in jail together with Kez, even though they had nothing to do with her crimes and then almost executes them, even though Kez had escaped by that point, solely so there's someone the town can take their anger out on.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: She ends up getting knocked out of a chimney by Ryan, resulting in this trope.
Pig Baby
Pig Baby/Pig Toddler
- Voiced by: J. K. Simmons
The namesake of the Pig Baby Car. He's a gigantic talking pig whose parental figure is a much smaller cow creamer with a French accent.
- Alice Allusion: Because apparently a tea-drinking talking cat wasn't obvious enough.
- Big Eater: If the fact that his car is a kitchen and the challenge is making him food didn't tip you off, yes. He's very much this.
- Cooking Duel: The only way out of his car is to make him food. At least so it seems.
- Enfant Terrible: He's a horribly spoiled brat who throws tantrums whenever he doesn't get what he wants.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Downplayed, as he's not really evil, just horribly spoiled. Nevertheless, he does seem to genuinely care for his mother-figure Cow Creamer, breaking into tears and acting worried when she's temporarily reduced to her base components during "The Mega Maze Car".
- Picky Eater: He rejects pretty much everything that Ryan and Min cook until they finally get around to making brownies. Downplayed, as even Ryan and Min-Gi admit that most of the recipes in the cook book sound pretty terrible and they weren't really doing a good job at cooking them either.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Is encountered again as Pig Toddler thanks to the alien family's eon oscillator, carrying the mob of denizens out for revenge on Kez.
- Was Once a Man: According to Cow Creamer, everyone who enters his car has to make him food until he dies and they become "the new Pig Baby". This implies that the current Pig Baby might have once been either a passenger or a regular denizen.
Cow Creamer
Cow Creamer
- Voiced by: Audrey Wasilewski
A sentient cream-holder in the shape of a cow. She acts as Pig Baby's guardian.
- French Cuisine Is Haughty: Downplayed, as she's not the one the boys have to cook for, but she nonetheless has some biting commentary on American post-war food.
- French Jerk: She has a heavy French accent and is an overly entitled Mama Bear, who imprisons people in Pig Baby's car to force them to be his personal chefs.
- Gratuitous French: She often accents her sentences with French words or phrases.
- Mama Bear: She gets really angry with Ryan and Min-Gi whenever they try to feed Pig Baby food he doesn't like and still harbors a grudge for Kez because she wasted all of his butter.
- Morality Chain: Not very much of one, seeing as she frequently enables his horrible behavior and spoiled attitude, but she is pretty much the only person who can keep Pig Baby in check whenever he starts acting out. After she is dissolved into her components in "The Mega Maze Car", Pig Toddler immediately starts to chomp down on Judge Morpho, because he thinks the "Butter" in "Butterfly" is literal.
- Parental Substitute: She acts as a mother-figure to Pig Baby, calming him down whenever he starts crying and making sure he's well-fed.
- Small Parent, Huge Child: Exaggerated. Cow Creamer is as tiny as an actual ceramic cow, and her son Pig Baby is a giant who dwarfs even the main human characters.
Minor
The Docent
The Docent
A terrifying creature that lurks within the Art Gallery Car.
- Body Horror: It seems to be made out of dead passenger-arms and can turn into shadows at will.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: Its presence and influence seems to cause its victims to experience extreme cold. Ryan and Min-Gi feel colder the longer they're in its car and the stronger its influence over them gets, while Kez doesn't seem to feel anything at all and is not affected by its powers, even when it touches her directly.
- Hero Killer: Judging by how many arms it's made out of, one can safely say Min and Ryan weren't its first victims.
- No Name Given: In the show, anyway— Owen said in an AMA that it's called The Docent. Though there is a sign saying to mind it.
- Small Role, Big Impact: It only appears in one episode, but it comes very close to killing Min-Gi and tears open the rift between him and Ryan, which causes their numbers to regress.
Morgan
Morgan
- Voiced by: Margaret Cho
Kez's "roommate."
- Berserk Button: Anything to do with Jeremy is a very touchy subject for her.
- Genius Loci: She's a living castle who can control almost anything outside and within her, as Ryan and Min-Gi learn the hard way.
- I Just Want to Have Friends. Implied. She is heartbroken over Jeremy leaving her, feeling he was the one passenger who treated her like a friend and Kez brings Ryan and Min-Gi to her primarily because she hopes the two of them will ease her loneliness.
- It's All About Me: She only cares about how Jeremy's departure affected her, disregarding the fact that Kez misses him too and that Jeremy was supposed to leave.
- Psychopathic Womanchild: She's extremely violent and destructive when angry, almost killing Ryan and Min-Gi for the crime of being there while Kez is being Innocently Insensitive about Jeremy. She also thinks nothing of siccing a gang of angered denizens on them when Min doesn't immediately take his exit like she orders him to. When Kez does finally give her a sincere apology, she just haughtily remarks that it won't be enough to fix their relationship right now.
- Replacement Goldfish: Violently subverted. Morgan reacts with visceral anger when Kez suggests that Ryan and Min-Gi could take Jeremy's place as her new inhabitants. She gets so offended over the mere suggestion that anyone could ever replace Jeremy that she very nearly strangles the boys to death.
- Sapient House. Sapient castle, to be exact.
- Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about her without mentioning that she's actually the castle in Kez's old picture, not the man.
Jeremy (Unmarked Spoilers)
Jeremy
A former passenger who used to live with Kez and Morgan. Morgan blames Kez for his disappearance.
- Bait-and-Switch: With the way Morgan talks about him being gone and how it clearly did a number on her mental state, you'd assume Kez did something stupid that got him killed. In reality, Kez accidentally helped him realize that he was not at fault for his family's deaths, causing his number to go down to zero and him exiting the train.
- Dark and Troubled Past: His mother and sister died in a car crash and he blamed himself for their deaths, as he was the one driving at the time.
- The Ghost: While we see a picture of him, he is never seen in person because he's already left the train.
- The Lost Lenore: To both Kez and Morgan. Morgan still mourns his disappearance, as she feels he's the only passenger who ever really appreciated her and Kez regrets accidentally helping him to get off the train since it caused a rift between her and Morgan.
- Real Men Wear Pink: In the photo Kez has of him, her and Morgan he's wearing a pink shirt. When Min reads his diary in "The Castle Car", it's revealed he really liked fancy hats.
- That Was the Last Entry: Jeremy’s diary ends without any indication of what happened to him. Subverted when we find out his number merely reached zero and he left the train.
- Token Human: Was this when he still lived with Morgan and Kez.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He loved quiche pies.
- Walking Spoiler: For the majority of the book, Ryan and Min-Gi think he's Kez's roommate Morgan, since he's on the picture Kez carries around with herself. He's not. Morgan is the castle in the background of the photo.
