The characters of Insanity. All spoilers are unmarked, so proceed with caution.
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The Six Friends
Keisuke Asai
The de facto leader of the friends. He agrees to accompany them to the mansion to ensure nobody gets hurt.
- Childhood Friend: He's known Kyouko and Ryouji since kindergarten. He possibly has a romantic feelings for the former.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Being trapped in a basement, surrounded by the corpses of his friends, drives Keisuke insane in the bad endings.
- The Leader: He's one of the most levelheaded and proactive members of the group, and tends to be 'volunteered' to do things, or to take charge of his own initiative.
- Would Harm a Senior: Keisuke knocks the elderly Big Bad unconscious to protect his friends. He will also attack him if he killed Riho and/or Kenta.
Kyouko Miyashita
Riho's best friend, and a childhood friend of Keisuke and Ryouji; she may have romantic feelings for Keisuke.
- Best Friend: She and Riho refer to each other as best friends; besides Keisuke, Riho is the character Kyouko is closest to and she even makes a point of telling Shigeki to get away from "[her] best friend" while defending Riho.
- Beware the Nice Ones: As kind as she is, she can smash a chair over Shigeki's head to save Riho.
- Childhood Friend: The character bios state she's been friends with Keisuke and Ryouji since kindergarten; she possibly has a case of Childhood Friend Romance with Keisuke.
- Dramatic Slip: While being chased by Shigeki, she runs into Emiko's old room and trips over, with her hat falling off. Shigeki corners her, but when he sees her without her hat, he notices her resemblance to his late daughter and stops attacking her.
- The Heart: Kyouko is one of the kindest members of the group and shows the most sympathy towards the villain.
- Identical Stranger: She looks quite similar to Emiko Murai, causing Shigeki to believe she is Emiko come back to life.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: She is rather ditzy and described as an "airhead", but she's also one of the sweetest and most compassionate characters in the game. Best exemplified by her trying to tell Shigeki she's not actually his daughter; even though this is the only thing stopping him from going Ax-Crazy on her, she feels bad that he's mistaken her for his daughter and hopes he might be more reasonable now.
- Never Bareheaded: She's constantly wearing a hat. The only time she's seen without it, it accidentally falls off when she trips running from Shigeki, which makes him see her resemblance to Emiko.
- Sailor Fuku: She wears this type of uniform.
Ryouji Satou
Riho's boyfriend, who is interested in the paranormal. After taking pictures of the Murai mansion with Riho, he decides to invite his friends over to explore the mansion with him.
- Affectionate Nickname: Riho calls him "Ryou".
- Boisterous Weakling: He looks and talks tough, but he ends up being taken out of commission early on and spends a lot of the game needing to be rescued. Riho actually admits she knows Ryouji isn't as tough as he pretends to be, but she loves him anyway, and while she says she feels safe with him around, she actually wants to be there to protect him.
- Childhood Friend: To Keisuke and Kyouko, he having known them since kindergarten.
- Distressed Dude: He gets knocked unconscious by Shigeki, then gets abducted and locked up in a cell, with his friends having to find a way to free him.
- Driven to Suicide: In the second bad ending, Ryouji can impulsively take his own life out of grief over Riho's murder.
- Together in Death: If Riho dies, Ryouji kills himself so they can be together.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: At the start of the game, he goes to the abandoned Murai mansion with Riho to take pictures of the place, hoping to capture a ghost. As a result, Shigeki believes he and his friends want to steal his research, especially when all six of them show up the next day, and decides they must be eliminated.
Riho Tanaka
The local gyaru. She is best friends with Kyouko and is Ryouji's girlfriend. She visited the Murai mansion with Ryouji to take pictures and later returns with their friends to explore.
- Best Friend: To Kyouko; besides her boyfriend, Kyouko is the character Riho is closest to. Kyouko even declares Riho as such when she saves her from Shigeki.
- Gyaru Girl: Riho is described as such. She has a Valley Girl-esque way of speaking, blonde hair (possibly dyed) and is very interested in boys, fashion and decorating.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: After being captured, she ends up tied to a hospital gurney, with Kyouko coming to the rescue (or not if you're too slow).
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Riho vows revenge on the one who attacked her boyfriend. It's deconstructed as she foolishly leaves the others to hunt down Shigeki herself and gets captured.
Kenta Sugaya
The smartest of the group, to the point of tutoring two of them. He is also considered the most cowardly of the group, due to being easily frightened by ghosts and the like.
- Cowardly Lion: He tends to be a worry-wart and is not at all keen on his friends' idea to explore a supposedly haunted mansion, but he proves himself to be quite courageous in the face of mortal danger.
- Disney Death: Happens to him, provided the player found the medical book and blood pack. Shigeki stabs and seemingly kills them, but it turns out he's fine; Kenta had stuck the book under his shirt which blocked the blade, while the blood was caused by the knife splitting the blood pack.
- Playing Possum: Kenta does this after seemingly being stabbed, provided he picked up the medical book and blood pack, lying still until Shigeki leaves.
Yuuki Yamada
A chubby yet athletic student who shows an unusual interest in the planned excursion to the Murai mansion and asks to tag along with the others.
- Alliterative Name: Yuuki Yamada.
- Connected All Along: It's revealed that Yuuki is the grandson of Toshiko Yamada, who used to work as a maid for the Murai family and told him a bit about the place.
- Stout Strength: He's noticeably more heavyset than the other characters and is also the physically strongest of the group.
The Murai Family and Servants
Shigeki Murai
The owner of the mansion and the antagonist of the game. The heir to Murai Pharmaceuticals, he was a loving family man and good boss to his servants until the day his daughter Emiko died in a car crash. Since then, he has become obsessed with reviving the dead, and will kill to make his vision come true. And it is good that the kids happened to come to his mansion, because he has been needing some test subjects...
- Affably Evil: Shigeki is completely Ax-Crazy, but he is genuinely kind to Kyouku when he thinks she's his daughter. He also went to the effort of preserving the bodies of Yanase and Takahashi so he could revive them, even though he was the one who murdered them.
- Alas, Poor Villain: In the good endings, Shigeki's death is treated with a degree of tragedy and sympathy; he is deeply remorseful for the harm he caused and the protagonists, in particular Kyouko, express a hope he can find peace at last.
- Ax-Crazy: He's an extremely delusional man prone to violence if angered, or if he believes someone is after his research.
- Bad Boss: He didn't start out as this, but as his insanity took hold, he began murdering his servants for speaking out against him and/or forcing them to cover up his crimes. At the same time though, he still cares for them and wants to resurrect them.
- Big Bad: He is the one stalking and trying to kill the kids in the mansion so he can use them as test subjects for his revival experiments.
- Driven to Suicide: In all the endings, Shigeki attempts suicide with a hidden box cutter. In the good endings, he fails because Yuuki and Ryouji stop him. In the bad endings he succeeds.
- Dying Curse: In the bad endings, Shigeki curses the protagonists to go mad just like him as he dies. In Keisuke's case, it comes true.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He is driven by the love of his daughter to revive her, and even after killing his wife and servants to keep his secrets, he misses them and aims to revive them as well.
- Evil Old Folks: He's an older man who was driven insane by the untimely death of his daughter, killing anyone he sees as a threat to his plan to resurrect her. However, his advanced age combined with general physical frailty takes a toll; in the good endings, chasing a bunch of kids around the mansion takes up the last of his strength and even though they stop him from taking his own life, he dies shortly after from malnutrition.
- Excessive Mourning: He has a really bad case of this, to the point of being in denial anyone's died. Shigeki couldn't face going to his daughter's funeral because it would've felt too final. Six months after Emiko's death, Shigeki still can't really accept she's gone and does little but brood over it in his lab. He then became obsessed with the idea of developing a potion to resurrect her; his wife and servants initially let it slide as a bizarre coping mechanism, but he began to delude himself he could actually bring the dead back. It all went downhill from there. Years later, Shigeki still can't accept that his loved ones cannot be brought back.
- I Reject Your Reality: He spends nearly the whole game insisting he can create a potion to revive the dead. He even thinks he can revive his wife and daughter, who were cremated, and is convinced Kyouko is his daughter despite her plainly stating she's not. Deep down, he knows it isn't possible, but he clings to his delusion because he can't bear to face the reality of what he's done.
- Kick the Dog: In the bad endings, he commits suicide and refuses to use his last moments to tell the kids the code for the elevator - their only chance to escape - telling them they can stay down in the basement and go mad like him.
- Knight Templar: He lies somewhere between being this and a Well-Intentioned Extremist; he's convinced everything he does - no matter how terrible - will be worth it if he succeeds in creating a revival potion to bring back his dead loved ones. He even convinces himself that murdering Takahasi, Miwako and Yanase to protect his research isn't so bad, because if he revives them then technically no crime has been committed.
- Love Makes You Evil: The root of his evil is his love for his daughter, his inability to accept that she died, and desperation to see her again, no matter what.
- Mad Scientist: He's a scientist who went insane after his daughter died; he became fixated on trying to create a revival potion so he could see her again and gradually became even more insane as time passed. The whole reason he's hunting the protagonists is because he's convinced they're after his research.
- Outliving One's Offspring: All his insanity stems from his daughter dying from a car accident and his subsequent desire to revive her.
- Slashed Throat: In the bad endings, he slashes his own throat with a box cutter and bleeds to death.
- Til Murder Do Us Part: Shigeki murdered his wife Miwako in a blind rage, after she found out about his murder of Takahashi and decried his experiments.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: He started out as a kindly family man, but slowly became an obsessive, paranoid and dangerously unhinged murderer after his daughter died and he couldn't accept she was gone.
- Tragic Villain: He was driven insane by the death of his daughter and became obsessed with bringing her back to life, causing him to destroy the rest of his family in the process. In some endings, he regains enough sanity to realize the gravity of what he has done and is so filled with despair and guilt he attempts suicide.
- Walking Spoiler: You really can't talk about him much without revealing most of the game's plot twists.
- Would Hit a Girl: He has no issue attacking and killing women.
Miwako Murai
The wife of Shigeki and Mistress of the mansion. She was kind and fair, especially to the servants. She loved Shigeki, but after the death of their daughter Emiko, she began wishing he would stop burying himself in his experiments.
- Age-Gap Romance: Possibly; she looks younger than Shigeki, whose hair has gone grey while she still has brown hair.
- Alliterative Name: Miwako Murai
- Awful Wedded Life: Her marriage to Shigeki became increasingly unbearable after Emiko died, due to her husband neglecting her to work on his experiments. Then she found out he'd murdered Takahashi...
- Benevolent Boss: She was kind to all the servants and was especially close to Takahashi. She is livid when she discovers Shigeki murdered her.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Like Shigeki, she is devastated by the death of Emiko, though she takes it much better than he does.
- Posthumous Character: She's been dead for a number of years; it's revealed that her husband murdered her in a rage when she called him out for his crazy experiments and the killing of Takahashi.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She looks a lot like her daughter, Emiko.
- This Is Unforgivable!: The flashbacks reveal that the final straw for Miwako was Shigeki killing Takahashi, who was there to support her after Emiko's death, unlike Shigeki, who was too busy with his experiments.
Emiko Murai
The daughter of Shigeki and Miwako. Beloved by all who knew her, she tragically died in a car accident, sparking the events that would tear the Murai family apart.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She has a stuffed toy rabbit on her bed.
- Pink Means Feminine: Her room has a light pink decor and even her funeral urn is pink. She enjoyed shopping with her friends and had a sweet and innocent personality.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Her death several years ago was the catalyst for everything that happens.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She was a kind, bubbly teenager who was loved by many people. She tragically died in a car accident while shopping with her friends.
Yanase
The faithful butler of the Murai family. He helped raise Shigeki and is very loyal to him.
- Break Her Heart to Save Her: A non-romantic example. He told Toshiko she was being relieved of her position and let her believe it was because she was too old, in order to spare her from the same fate as Takahashi.
- Like a Son to Me: His character bio states he helped raise Shigeki, which partly explains why he stood by him for so many years even as he slipped into murderous insanity.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Played with in Yanase's case. He remained a loyal butler to Shigeki for years even though his actions horrified him, although some of this was partly from fear than just loyalty. However, when Yanase learned Shigeki was intending to kill a group of innocent teenagers out of a deluded belief they would steal his research, Yanase couldn't stand by any longer and announced he was going to the police. This didn't end too well for him.
Takahashi
One of the maids serving the Murai family. She's much younger than Toshiko and is especially close to Miwako.
- Posthumous Character: She was killed by Shigeki several years ago. He keeps her skeletal corpse in his lab, intending to resurrect her.
- This Is Unforgivable!: The flashbacks reveal that the final straw for Takahashi was Shigeki removing Emiko's funeral urn for his experiments. She was willing to put up with everything else, but she wouldn't stand for him desecrating Emiko's remains.
- Undying Loyalty: She is deeply loyal to Miwako, treating her more like a friend than just an employer. She is angered by Shigeki neglecting her to obsess over his experiments. She's initially willing to put up with Shigeki's behavior out of loyalty to him as well (including him bringing dead animals into the mansion and getting blood everywhere), but then she finds out he plans to use his late daughter's remains in his experiments...
Toshiko Yamada
One of the maids of the Murai family. She is much older than Takahashi, and is fond of both her employers and colleagues.
- Connected All Along: It's revealed she's Yuuki's grandmother, who told him stories about working in the mansion and her close relationship with the Murai family.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Unlike the rest of the household, she never knew the extent of Shigeki's madness and especially knew nothing of the murders. After Takahashi's death, Yanase fired her out of fear Shigeki would try to hurt her as well. He never told Toshiko the true reason he sent her away, instead letting her believe she was being fired for being too old. Toshiko died still not knowing what really happened, prompting her grandson Yuuki to investigate.
- Posthumous Character: She's been dead for a year; unlike the rest of the Murai household, her cause of death wasn't from anything violent, but from pneumonia.
- Red Herring: The fact she worked for the Murai family, has since died and her grandson is now looking for answers about her past in the mansion suggests she may have befallen a sinister fate at the hands of Shigeki, like the other servants. However, it's revealed this isn't the case; she died of pneumonia, which is completely unrelated to what happened in the mansion, yet never fully understood why she'd been sent away.
