Warning: Unmarked spoilers ahead. All entries tagged "Heavy in spoilers" will be completely devoid of spoiler tags. Proceed with caution.
Click to see Note 1: About naming conventions.
Click to see Note 2: About alternate endings, canon, and general continuity snarl.
Introduced in Route A
Aoi Hinata (Heavy in spoilers)
Aoi Hinata / HINATA / Shamash / HE
Voiced by: Hagi Michihiko
Click to see his post-cyborgization appearance
- A boy who has left behind his innocence
- Artificial Limbs: After Enlil severely injures him, Nergal replaces 2/3rds of his body with mechanical parts.
- Anti-Hero: Switches from one type to the other. Initially he's a Classical Type, his mental issues causing him to be deeply antisocial and self loathing. After the events of route A he turns into a Byronic type: Cynical, Brooding, and willing to crush anyone in his way.
- Big Brother Instinct: Is downright obsessed with Mutsuki, though this is mostly out of guilt and not anything else. It’s heavily implied that this was not the case in their past, though.
- Blood Knight: As HE, Routes C and D serving as testimony.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He is shown to be very intelligent, but never bothers applying himself because (as he tells Sakuya) "it'd be a pain in the ass". Obviously that's only half of the truth, as he's also suffering from heavy depression and derealization which forbid him from being interested in anything or anyone.
- Character Development: Thanks to the events of Route A and the help of Sakuya, Yayoi, Mayumi, and Mutsuki, he manages to overcome his self loathing and extreme demotivation, becoming very determined in the idea of finding his sister. He also develops in routes D, E, and A', but to a less drastic extent.
- Deadpan Snarker: At the beginning of the story he's quite sarcastic and cynical, often bordering in rude, this is in part because of his mental issues, which have killed all his interest for developing healthy social relationships. As the story progresses he becomes more mature and concerned for the well-being of others, but still drops one or two sarcastic remarks when given the opportunity.
- Determinator: After his development and some tragic events, Hinata takes the identity of the legendary hacker HE and begins a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Enlil and her army. Once this becomes a problem, it takes what's implied to be THOUSANDS of tries to make him back down a little.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Enlil's hand and along with Sakuya. In one of the game-over endings of Route A.
- Literal Transformative Experience: Seeing his new body after he's turned into a cyborg causes him quite a bit of shock, which is eventually one of the reasons he decides to transform into HE.
- Meaningful Name: "Aoi" means "blue", which is the "identity color" he's given in the story.
- Oblivious to Love: Is completely ignorant of Sakuya’s feelings for him. This is revealed to be a subversion in Route A’, where Hinata reveals he was aware of her feelings, he just feigned ignorance.
- Refusal of the Call: It takes him several incetives from several people after the initial text message to finally start looking for Mutsuki. Justified due to the many psychological issues which plague him. In fact one could say that getting Hinata to accept the call is the core motivation behind Route A and one of the most significant parts of the entire story.
- Senseless Sacrifice: During one of the bad endings of Route A he attempts to shield Sakuya from Enlil's katana, only for her to be killed anyway.
- Straight Man: Is the Straight Man in her friendship with Yayoi, who plays the wise guy to a tee. Hinata often asks her for advice expecting serious and straightforward answers, while Yayoi teases him and replies with jokes, sarcastic comments, or esoteric references that might or might not be related to what he's asking. He also has this dynamic with Sakuya although less accentuated.
- Took a Level in Badass: Gains some levels in Route E mostly thanks to HE’s help, but he truly earns this in his own right in Route A’, where he’s the one who suggests the attack on eXarch and actually manages to defeat a guard with his own strength.
- We Can Rebuild Him: Gets turned into a cyborg after almost being killed by Enlil at the end of Route A.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Resents his father for always being busy at work. To the point where he feels almost no emotional connection to him. In part he sees his father's lack of attention as one of the reasons why their family is basically in shambles by the beginning of the story.
Kawahara Sakuya
Kawahara Sakuya / SAKUYA
Voiced by: Tanaka Ryoko
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: It's made evidently clear from the beginning that Miss Kawahara is somehow missing from the family equation, but her absence is not really explained or made a big deal out of until very late into the story. Only in Route E' it is revealed that Sakuya's mother was an employee of Exarch who died at childbirth, having conceived Sakuya without the need of a male partner in a bizarre involuntary asexual process called a "virgin birth". Having no reimaing family left, Sakuya was entrusted to Kawahara Tooru who raised her as his biological daughter.
- Artificial Human: Was born a (mostly) normal human until one fatidic day she got run over by a car and killed. Her (non-biological) father couldn't bear the pain and conducted a series of bizarre experiments where he managed to grow a new Sakuya in a water tank. That second Sakuya is the one who takes part in the story.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Hinata obviously, she likes to pull his ears a lot when angry. Sometimes Hinata genuinely deserves it though.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: Averted in the story but intentionally Invoked by her during one of her bouts of jealousy, Hinata promptly shoots her attempt down.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After all she went through due to Code's and Exarch's actions, she finally reunites with Hinata and they both become a couple at the end of Route A'. Averted in Route B' where she's rather unceremoniusly implied to have died during the final battle. Route E' could also qualify although it's a much much more bizarre case.
- For Want Of A Nail: Her accidental presence in the Exarch Data Center during a terrorist attack single handedly sets forth the entire second half of the story.
- Girlish Pigtails: Arguably her most notorious physical feature.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: At 15 she still treasures a stuffed rabbit she calls "Nanna", although her love to it stems from the fact that it's a gift from Hinata.
- Younger Than They Look: Passes for a 15 year old girl when in truth she's more like 10, having been killed at young age and then resurrected through science.
- Playing Drunk: Tries to do it during her and Hinata's first dive into the Babylon MMORPG, probably just to draw the latter's attention. Hinata quickly notices because that's not something the game can do if you are only wearing VR Headsets.
- Put on a Bus: At the end of Route B she gets caught in the battle between Code and Criminal inside the Exarch Data Center, dissappearing for a great portion of the story. She is strongly implied to have survived the massacre but only brought up about once or twice per route for the entirety of Routes C, D, E, D' and C'. Route B' is not better as it brings her up at the end only to seemingly drop a bridge of her and have Hinata state that he failed to find her.
- The Bus Came Back: Contrary to Route B', Route A' does her justice by focusing almost entirely on Hinata searching for her and giving her a happy ending.
- Shrinking Violet: Was this in the past, before and shortly after her death and resurrection. Partly due to her amnesia and also having been overly sheltered during a great portion of her childhood. Completely averted in the present; when Hinata questions her about the reason of this radical change, she simply states that people grow up.
- Through His Stomach: Likes to cook for Hinata and her food is one of the few things he does not complain about by the beginning of the story.
Aoi Mutsuki
Aoi Mutsuki / Sin / LEM
Voiced by: Nagata Kayo
- Armor-Piercing Question: Makes one at Hinata when she appears on his dreams at the beginning of the story. At Hinata's insistence on getting an answer on whether she's alive or dead, Mutsuki asks him if, in the hypothetical case that she were dead and only a piece of her skull remained in some far away country, he would still make an effort to recover it. When Hinata states that he definitely would, Mutsuki replies that, in that case, her being alive or dead makes no difference whatsoever.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Before her disappearance she deeply treasured a stuffed rabbit called "Moon Bunny" that Hinata gifted to her when they were little. Unlike Sakuya, Mutsuki ended out having a closer relationship with this rabbit than with the person who gave it to her.
- Hikikomori: At some point during the backstory, due to her physical and mental issues she started to become more and more reclusive, cutting off ties with everyone except for people behind her computer screen. Eventually she stumbled upon Babylon and the rest is history.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Due to her disease, in the past she was very often given special treatment by her peers and family. Something which he hated. This eventually led to her being depressed and seeking refuge in the MMORPG Babylon, where everyone can be the person they want to be. In a very ironic twist of events, the decisions she takes during her involvement in this MMORPG end out making her arguably the single biggest cause of war and bloodshed in the entire novel.
- Malaproper: As a child she tended to confuse words for other words in a humorous way, like "DNA" for "DMCA" or "Fairy" for "Ferrari".
- Meaningful Name: As Hinata himself explains, the name "Mutsuki" (夢月) is composed of the Kanji for "Moon" (月) and the Kanji for "Dream"(夢). Both are common motifs in the novel. Mutsuki is often compared to both a "Moon" and a "Dream", because both represent unreachable, untangible things that nonetheless exist and have an impact of peoples lives, just like Mutsuki is far from Hinata's grasp but still haunts his conciousness.
- Techno Wizard: A notably skilled one even in a world full of computer genuises. At 13 years old she had taught herself how to work with Quantum Computers (The first Quantum Computer in the world, no less), and single-handedly created a massive program capable of recreating a person's memories into an Artificial Intelligence replica.
Amane Yayoi
Amane Yayoi / Anu
Voiced by: Airi Yoshida
- Mentor Archetype: Despite her seemingly immature demeanor, she's a figure several characters in the story look up to and respect, and constantly during the story she dedicates herself to helping them achieve their goals or trying to put them on the right track. It's most notable with Hinata during the entire story, Ishtar before the fall of Annunaki and Mayumi after the "incident".
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: It happens to her twice, but only in non-canon game-over endings. And both times it overlaps with Taking the Bullet. The first time happens in Route A, protecting Sakuya, and the second in Route C, protecting Hinata. While its non-canon, it goes to show how much she actually cares about her students.
- Must Have Nicotine: Is addicted to smoking and will often do it compulsively when under heavy stress.
- My Greatest Failure: Considers that an important part of the conflict and tragedy that happens throughout the story is her fault for not being able to prevent the crisis inside Babylon and its subsequent decay, being essentially the most important person in charge of it and the one everyone looked up to. Also blaming herself for not paying attention to Enlil's psychological problems, which were part of the reason she became the monster she is during the story. A big part of her character and actions revolve around using her limited resources to minimize the harm this conflict causes to the netizens of Babylon and to the Imaginary Children in general.
- Senseless Sacrifice: The reason why she only dies in non-canon endings is because the first time her sacrifice fails to save the intended person and the second time it causes a literal time paradox.
- Wise Guy / The Gadfly: Plays this role in her dynamic with Hinata, who is obviously the straight man. Hinata often asks her for advice expecting serious and straightforward answers, while Yayoi teases him and replies with jokes, sarcastic comments, or esoteric references that might or might not be related to what he's asking. One of the best examples comes during a tense moment just after Hinata (accompanied by Sakuya) confronts her over her identity as one of the most important people in the Babylon MMORPG. As they are leaving in anger (Or in Sakuya's case, in a mix of shock and hilarious over-respect), Yayoi shouts the following advice:
"Don't forget that sexual relationships are generally forbidden within the school!
Enlil
Izumo Tsukasa / Enlil
Voiced by: Aida Sayaka
- Archenemy: Becomes this to Hinata in the second part of the story.
- A Father to His Men: For all the below tropes, Enlil truly cares about the members of Code, who all respect deeply Enlil in return.
- Ambiguous Gender: Is never fully identified as a man or a woman. Until Route E, which gives 100% confirmation to the fact Enlil is a woman.
- Bifauxnen: Tall and elegant, with a nice suit and a deep voice. Midori instantly becomes infatuated with her at first sight, with Sakuya later calling her "The Sexy Stalker".
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Threatens to run over pedestrians, badly injures people who annoy her on the street, slashes those who disrespect her without a second thought... However she's a lot more respectful with her soldiers and followers.
- Hate at First Sight: Threatens Hinata with running him over the very first time they met, it doesn't get better from there.
- Heel–Face Turn: Of sorts. While she doesn’t exactly switch alignments, she does stop trying to get in Hinata’s way and helps the group from that point on.
- Good is Not Nice: How she justifies her use of terrorism and mass murder to achieve her goals. She believes someone like Inanna who lacks such callousness cannot be a good leader for her organization.
- Lady of War: Is greatly skilled with a katana, often winning her fights effortlessly in a single blow.
- Master Swordswoman: Fights with a katana and is described as such by HE during their duel. In the events of a certain "game over" she is shown as capable of throwing her sword in such a way that it simultaneously stabs two people in the chest.
Shinozuka Mayumi (Heavy in spoilers)
Shinozuka Mayumi / R / Inanna
Voiced by: Kozue Yoshizumi, Chiaki Takahashi as Inanna
Click to see her "Inanna" appearance in the real world
Click to see her "Inanna" appearance in cyberspace
- A young woman standing in solitude
- Angsty Surviving Twin: Though she seems to treat her sister’s death equally with the rest of her comrade’s deaths.
- Bookworm: Is an avid reader and has vast knowledge is various titles. She tries to get Ishtar into it a couple times but Ishtar only cares about computers.
- Break the Cutie: Is one of the nicest and most innocent characters in the story, but arguably goes through more pain than anyone else. Since childhood she suffered from severe illness and fevers which put her constantly at the brink of death, and could not be permanently cured as they were part of her IC Physiology. She then lost her father at a bizarre incident involving Exarch, who didn't even give them the body back. Grew up being seen as "slow" by her schoolmates, making her victim of mild bullying. Her sister supported her but did it in a way that made Yumi feel even more dumb and useless. Found friends in "Criminal", but they all were killed in the war with Enlil, her mom also being killed. She came very close to losing it at this point, but ultimately managed to channel her inner strength and become the person she is at Routes C and onwards.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Goes from supporting character in Routes A and B to one of the main protagonists.
- Crash-Into Hello: The first time she directly meets Hinata (Not the first time Hinata sees her), is by crashing into him in one of the school's hallways, one day after Masami did the same. Naturally her reaction to this event is much different from her sister's.
- D-Cup Distress: As part of her identity as Inanna her virtual avatar inherits Ishtar's huge breasts. Mayumi is not a big fan of them, stating "they are a pain on the neck".
- Dojikko: Tends to fall over a –lot-.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After all her frankly stunning amount of bad luck, in Route B' she manages to finally set aside the trauma of her friends' deaths and confess her feelings to Hinata. It's heavily implied that she and Hinata become a couple eventually, as Sakuya is now out of the picture for some not entirely disclosed reason. Route E' could also qualify although it's a much much more bizarre case.
- Eye Scream: Gets shot in the eye during the fatidic siege at Exarch's Data Center. She manages to survive though.
- Late for School: The first time she is introduced is as Hinata sees her running behind the bus on the way to school, she doesn't manage to get in and instead falls face-first into the street.
- Legacy Character: Becomes the new Ishtar after the original’s death.
- Love Epiphany: Realizes she loves Hinata in Route B’.
- Oblivious to Love: Is completely unaware of Kosuke’s feelings for her. In an inversion, she herself is unaware that what she feels for Hinata is love until Route B’.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Is easily the last member of Criminal one would expect to get pleasure in hurting others, so naturally all the others freak out when she suggests applying some pretty harsh punishments to Andras after they have defeated and cornered him.
- Shrinking Violet: With strangers, though she’s a lot more open around her friends.
- Sole Survivor: Of "Criminal" after all the others are killed during the battle in Exarch's Data Center.
- Survivor's Guilt: A major part of her character post Route B is that she feels that she was unworthy to survive and that there were many others who should have lived instead, part of what drives her to become the new Ishtar.
- The Heart: Of "Criminal", seeing as how her obliviousness tends to stand out amongst the more aggressive personalities of Masami and Mika.
LEM
LEM
Voiced by: Nagata Kayo
- Cloudcuckoolander: Of different degrees at different times. How much depends on the phase of the moon, and also whether it's the Null we're talking about, and not the Una.
- Malaproper: Occasionally, as a trademark of her (the Null's) personality. Specifically, taking common phrases and substituting one or both words for one that is phonetically close but silly.
Shinozuka Masami
Shinozuka Masami / L
Voiced by: Kozue Yoshizumi
- Fireballs: The preferred form she gives to her attacks while in cyberspace.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Is the Red Oni of the Shinozuka Twins: Brash, Hot-Blooded and also way more distrustful and prone to aggression than her sister.
- The Worf Barrage: During Criminal's battle with HE in cyberspace (Actually with just a fragment of HE) her incresingly desperate attemps to harm him culminate in conjuring a fireball that's described as considerably bigger than the ones she normally uses, but it completely fails to even leave a scratch on HE. Following this, Mayumi and Mika join her and attempt a combined attack, which works just as well if not worse as now HE gets fed up with playing and delivers them a quick Curb-Stomp before leaving.
- Tsundere: Is one for Kosuke, attempting to act intense and often rude around him in order to catch his attention. However this act works about as well as it would in real life and for most of the story Kosuke has no idea about Sami's feelings for him.
- Twin Switch: Attempts to impersonate Yumi in order to extract a kiss from Kosuke. However he notices it almost immediately (Among all the things that she didn't consider in this plan, one is that Yumi's eyes are Yellow while hers are Blue).
Ea
Wadatsumi Megumi / Ea
Voiced by: Yanase Natsumi
- Dead to Begin With: Was murdered by Enlil during Annunaki's collapse, and thus became a null.
Ningirsu
Aoi Mitsuhiko
Aoi Mitsuhiko / Shamash
Aoi Himeka
Inagaki
Hiiragi Midori
Voiced by: Kochi Tamako
- Bungled Suicide: Tries to kill herself after going through Scenario Ashur.
- Put on a Bus: Like Yoshida, the last thing we hear of her is Sakuya telling Hinata that she's waiting for Yoshida.
Yoshida
- Put on a Bus: The last time we see him is when he's being off to jail near the end of Route A.
Introduced in Route B
Ishtar
Akatsuki Akari / Ishtar
Voiced by: Chiaki Takahashi
- A young woman surronded by companions
- Alliterative Name: Akatsuki Akari.
- Catapult Nightmare: Is introduced this way into the story, having had a nightmare and fallen out of bed. Her reaction to it gives the reader a good first insight into her personality.
- Cool Big Sis / Team Mom: Is this for the other members of Criminal.
- Long-Lost Relative: Is actually the daughter of Shinobu Shinozuka (prior to her marriage), making her Masami and Mayumi’s older sister. None of them ever find out, though, despite Ishtar being a literal clone of her mother in everything but the eyes.
- Meaningful Name: "Aka" means "red", which is the "identity color" she's given in the story.
- Our Hero Is Dead: Played straight and subverted: While her physical body dies at the end of Route B, she lives on through her Shadow Null.
- Then played straight for real in Route B’, where her Null is Killed Off for Real.
- Parental Abandonment: Was left at an orphanage right after she was born. A scene in Route B reveals that this is because her mother had no means to raise her at that point in her life.
- Passing the Torch: Gives the rosary Nami gifted to her to Masami once the situation in the Exarch Data Center starts to look bleak.
- Playful Hacker: Greatly enjoys doing her work in new and creative ways. Such as turning a system repair request into a literal bug-catching game, or making a cyberattack take the form of injecting a pile of insults directly into the target's mind, or having spyware programs look like a pair of pills of a color you might be guessing.
- Stepford Smiler: Her cheerful personality is mostly a front to cope with her own loneliness.
- Virtual Ghost: After Route B.
Ayase Mika
Ayase Mika / Magdalene
Voiced by: Kaori Fujisaki
Miyata Kosuke
Miyata Kosuke / Eques
Voiced by: Toriumi Kosuke
- The Big Guy: His role in Criminal.
- Book Dumb: And seemingly proud of it.
- Butt-Monkey: Being the only man in Criminal, he is their designated target of teasing.
- Face–Heel Turn: In Route B Bad Ending 3, where he turns in the team after Ishtar refuses to allow them to face Code.
- Failure Knight: Several comments he makes implies this is what he feels about letting Mika die right in front of him.
- Taking the Bullet: Twice, both times for Mayumi.
- Virtual Ghost: After Route B.
Codebreakers
Nergal
Nergal/Igarashi Kousaku
- Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage: Nergal marries Ereshkigal in order to incubate her without raising suspicion.
Andras
Sin
Nabu
Kawahara Tohru / Nabu
Voiced by: Koga Hiroyuki
An Exarch employee and former member of the Babylon development team.- Not So Stoic: After convincing the entire cast (and the reader) that he only cares about science, his goals and his ideals, and also making the implication that resurrecting young Sakuya was done merely as a scientific experiment, the reader is shown in a flashback that in truth he loved (and loves) Sakuya deeply, her death devastating him and her absence making him lose his mind.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His plan has very noble goals that will ideally benefit all of humanity, but the transformations that plan would bring are absolutely massive and he's not willing to concede a single centimeter of ground out of it.
Tammuz
Introduced in Route C and after.
HE
Izaiah Nagy / HE / Dilmun / The Prophet Isaiah
Voiced by: Hagi Michihiko
- A man with great strength
- Curb-Stomp Battle: In cyberspace he delivers one to Criminal and latter the Codebreakers. In the real world ( Using Hinata's body) he delivers this to anyone not called Ningirsu or Enlil.
- Folk Hero: Is considered a legend of hacking and programming, being hailed as a hero of justice who travels through the net helping people in trouble and delivering punishment to wrongdoers. He's attributed a great series of feats, like preventing a nuclear war or crashing the AT&T network in 1990 (The reader eventually learns he did not do this last thing). Many people consider him an urban legend while others fervently believe in his existence.
Ereshkigal
Izawa Nami / Ereshkigal / LEM
Voiced by: Nagata Kayo
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Her "imaginary vision" provides an in-universe version of this. It allows her to see the different "Aura Colors" of people, which are a direct reflection of someone's personality.
- Passing the Torch: Gives her beloved rosary to Ishtar before leaving to search for HE.
Miyata Masayuki
Flauros
Marduk
Marduk
Voiced by: Kayo Nagata
Ashur
Ashur
Voiced by: Hagi Michihiko
Wadatsumi Kaiji
Shinozuka Takuya
Groups
Imaginary Children
Code
Annunaki
Exarch
