Character-Specific Pages: Kazuma Kiryu | Goro Majima | Akira Nishikiyama | Ichiban Kasuga
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Judgment (Takayuki Yagami) | Lost Judgment
These are the characters that debuted in the game Lost Judgment.
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Seiryo High
Teachers and Faculty
Yoko Sawa (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Voiced by: Mai Yamane (Japanese), Erica Lindbeck (English)
- Break the Cutie: From witnessing her classmate getting bullied into jumping off the school roof and ending up in a coma for thirteen years, to seeing her own student getting bullied into suicide and then being forced to keep her mouth shut by the bully's teacher (as well as having to stomach said bully as a peer when he became a teacher), poor Sawa has gone through a lot in her life.
- Cool Teacher: Enthusiastic Newbie Teacher she may be, but she's one of the most helpful in figuring out what is happening to her students.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Soma stabs her in such a way that she's paralyzed and left to bleed out, all the while still being conscious.
- Deadpan Snarker: Most especially around Yagami.Yagami: Because that information's not public. Didn't the police ask you to keep quiet about it?
Sawa: Well, yes, but even so...
Yagami: What sort of questions were they asking you anyway?
Sawa: I thought I was supposed to keep quiet.
Yagami: Cute.
(later on…)
Yagami: I'll be honest. I came here today with a suspicion that you might be more involved in this murder that you're letting on.\\Sawa: A suspicion...?
Yagami: Nothing you've said has made me feel any better about it.
Sawa: And what should I do about that, huh? - Defrosting Ice Queen: At the beginning of the game she's suspicious and standoffish towards Yagami. During Chapter 4 however, she becomes a bit more trusting towards him.
- Dies Wide Open: She's found dead with her eyes open. Kaito makes sure to close them out of respect.
- Dying Clue: It's implied she used her blood to help Yagami find her school yearbook, which would prove crucial in identifying her connection to Kuwana.
- Enthusiastic Newbie Teacher: Being in her early 30s, she's considerably younger than the other teachers seen in Seiryo's faculty office.
- Everyone Has Standards: Naturally, she's none too pleased with the bullying that led both Mitsuru and Toshiro to suicide. In the former's case, she was so sickened by the Lack of Empathy from her former peers that she'd rather visit Mitsuru in his comatose state than attend a high school reunion. And considering the horrific extent of the bullying that Mitsuru went through, who can blame her?
- Sawa was also said to have been very cold to Mikoshiba during his training, and she doesn't seem to have the highest opinion of him as a person after what he did to Toshiro Ehara. Nevertheless, she's understandably shaken after seeing the video of Mikoshiba's murder.
- Foil: To Kuwana. Both have a background in teaching, but while Kuwana turned a blind eye toward his class and the bullying going on inside it, Sawa immediately wanted to take action once she saw the bullying occurring in it, and generally cared for her class and her students quite a lot.
- Forced into Evil: On two counts. The first being forced to tell lies about the whole Mikoshiba bullying incident, due to the pressure from the school, and indirectly the law system itself, and the second being getting threatened by Mamiya and, indirectly, Kuwana at Plage to not talk to Yagami about his case, although, luckily, she opens up to him either way.
- He Had a Name: Invokes this in regards to Ehara's son, who she knew personally.Sawa: His name... was Toshiro.Yagami: Sorry?Sawa: Everyone keeps saying "Ehara's son" like he's just another statistic! He had a name, for heaven's sake—Toshiro!
- Hot Teacher: She's young, easy on the eyes, and has a soothing, deep voice. Kaito clearly took notice, but she isn't interested. It's also mentioned that Sawa was quite popular among the male students; likely because of her looks and kind nature.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Her death is primarily used to make Yagami's quest far more personal and give him and Kuwana angst. Yagami continuously brings her death up in arguments with Kuwana later on and uses it as the main justification to put him to task for his murderous Bully Hunter crusade. Kuwana gets slightly but noticeably emotional at the mention of her death and how he was responsible. Kuwana invokes this as why he claims he and Yagami are no different; for all intents and purposes, Sawa is to Kuwana as to what Emi Terasawa was to Yagami.
- Irony: The only one who not only cared about Mitsuru's bullying to tell Kitakata about it, but also visited him frequently during his coma and she ends up dying as a result of Kitakata's actions. She's also the only one of his former students that Kitakata isn't blackmailing in any way, either.
- Kill the Cutie: Soma murders her when she gets too close to learning about Kuwana's rampage against bullies.
- Leeroy Jenkins: When it comes to bullying, she tends to opt towards the most direct course of action when dealing with it, even if there's possible ramifications, such as the fact that the evidence they have proving the bullying occurring in her class was secretly recorded, which would get the school in trouble if it was used to condemn the students in question. It's rather telling that when the bullying footage from her class is shown to her and she, the chairman and the 99 discuss what to do, Kaito's the only one to really back up her idea of simply exposing it and expelling the students involved despite the dubiousness of their evidence, and Kaito may also be agreeing because he has a thing for her.
- Loved by All: She's beloved by students and staff alike, to the point that the entire school (except Akane) ends up mourning her death.
- Mama Bear: She understandably gets pretty mad at Yagami for beating up her kids, even if it was admittedly in self-defense, and immediately jumps to the call when she hears about Koda's bullying in the principal's office.
- My Greatest Failure: Considers being helpless in preventing Toshiro's death to be this, as she's reduced to tears when she recounts the memory of seeing the poor kid with a bloody face cowering and hiding in fear of Mikoshiba. Tragically, his father Ehara considered her culpable enough in his death to dismiss her death as deserved, at least until Yagami tells him the full story about why she couldn't speak up about what was happening to Toshiro.
- Nice Girl: One of the kindest, most genuine characters in the entire franchise, who actually gives a damn about the people she interacts with on a day-to-day basis.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She cares a great deal about her students. She's not only protective of them toward Yagami, but when she sees Matsui's group harassing Koda, she's naturally horrified.
- Sacrificial Lion: Soma murders her for attempting to dig into the case, revealing the true cost of Kuwana's murderous crusade against bullying.
- She Knows Too Much: Gets killed for getting involved in the case.
- Stuffed into the Fridge: She's in a similar position to Emi from the first game, as her death serves mostly to motivate Yagami on a more personal level, although unlike Emi, Yagami and the audience gets to know her more, and she is killed midway through the plot instead of the tail start.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's kind, caring, and protective to people normally, yet distant and untrusting to Yagami and the crew, due to them coming out of nowhere from her perspective, and with Yagami, he dredged up some pretty unpleasant memories for her. That all changes for the most part, thankfully.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She is one to Emi Terasawa from the first game. They are both kind-hearted women who were killed by a government conspiracy, with their deaths making Yagami's involvement in the plot more personal. Fittingly, both their last names also end with "sawa (澤)".
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She's one of the kindest and most beloved teachers at Seiryo. She gets killed trying to do the right thing.
- Token Good Teammate: The only member of her graduating class to care for Mitsuru Kusumoto, both warning Kitakata of his bullying and repeatedly visiting him in hospital after his failed suicide.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her warnings to Kitakata resulted in him setting up the secret camera and by extension the secret video that he would use to blackmail the former bullies into doing his dirty work several years later.
- Walking Spoiler: Let's just say she's more important to the overall plot and grand scheme of things than it looks on the surface.
Yuzo Okuda
Voiced by: Yusaku Yara (Japanese), Jamieson Price (English)
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: The best he can come up with when Yagami admits to having an altercation with some of his students is to feign ignorance with a fair bit of discomfort.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: He's openly weeping at the idea of Sawa's death because he cannot fathom why such a kind-hearted and innocent woman has to be murdered.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While he brought in Yokohama 99 to investigate the bullying problem partly to cover up anything that could make the school look bad, he's also motivated by a genuine desire to deal with the bullying epidemic itself.
Hiro Mikoshiba
Voiced by: Shohei Kajikawa (Japanese), Andrew Morgado (English)
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In the leaked footage revealing his murder, he begs his killer for forgiveness, tearfully promising to spend the rest of his life making up for the death of Ehara's son. A poor choice of words on his end.
- Asshole Victim: He was an unrepentant bully to Ehara's son Toshiro, regularly stealing his money, beating him up and belittling him when he couldn't pay. As a student teacher, he didn't get any better, forcing his students to perform needlessly rigorous exercises and singling out and encouraging the bullying of any student that fell behind. Yagami even calls out the courtroom for failing to bring him and others like him to justice, even if he can't condone his murder. With the exception of Akane, none of his students really mourned his death.
- Barbaric Bully: He went from "simply" mugging Toshiro for his lunch money to breaking into his house and stealing his lunch.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To his teachers, he was a model student with high grades and later a promising young student teacher. It was when they were out of sight that he let his much more unpleasant side show.
- Body Horror: By the time his body is found, it's been left under a tarp sitting in an abandoned warehouse for months. It's not a pretty sight.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: By way of having his throat slit and being left to bleed to death in an abandoned building as well as being brutally tortured beforehand.
- Even Evil Has Standards: About the only non-deplorable thing about him was the fact that he didn't take advantage of Akane's crush on him. And contrary to the rumours, he did not take advantage of Koda either.
- Evil Is Petty: It's one thing to bully a boy for his lunch money, but it's another thing to break into his house to steal his dinner money.
- Facial Horror: By the time his body is discovered, his face is covered entirely by flies and maggots which have stripped everything to the bone.
- Fingore: It's mentioned that, before he died, all ten of his fingers were broken. When his rotting corpse is first seen, the damage is visible in a close-up of his hands.
- Hate Sink: Once his true nature and what he did in the past is revealed, you would find it hard to refute that he got what was coming to him.
- Ignored Epiphany: There are hints that he was horrified to learn that that Toshiro committed suicide because of his bullying, and that he regretted it in the present before his death. Of course, this didn't stop him from continuing his contemptible behaviour and even encouraging his students to act the same way, seemingly not understanding the possible consequences it could have.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Yeah, that poor kid that he drove to suicide four years prior? He'd pay for it with his life. At the hands of the boy's father, no less.
- Plot-Triggering Death: His death (or rather, the discovery of his decomposing corpse) kicks off the events of the game into high gear.
- Posthumous Character: He's been dead for two months by the time the events of the game begin.
- Sadist Teacher: If Matsui and Sakaki are to be believed, he forced the basketball club students to do incredibly strenuous and exhausting exercises for apparently no reason whenever the other teachers weren't around, then not only pinned the blame on Koda, but encouraged the students to turn against her and bully her.
- Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: He was a bully as a student who grew up to become a bully as a teacher.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He has only one voiced scene with him in the actual game, but his death as well as his actions prior, would kick off the events of the game.
- Villain with Good Publicity: One of the reasons he managed to get away with driving Toshiro to suicide was because, outwardly to his teachers, he was a model student. The school didn't want to risk its reputation by labeling one of its most promising students as a bully.
Yukari Akuta
Voiced by: Mayu Motoori (Japanese)
A teacher and acting advisor to the Seiryo Robotics club. There's friction between her and the club since she opposed them entering the RE Robo Rally.
- Broken Pedestal: At first, she was impressed with Okitegawa's more proactive approach to running the club, since the club previously just sat around reading manga instead of working. But when he entered them into the RE Robo Rally and had club members stay overnight to work on their machines, she quickly grew to despise him since it meant she had to do unpaid overtime.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Downplayed. After pulling one Jerkass move too many by refusing to not disband the Robotics Club despite the members taking back their resignations, she is summarily insulted by Itokura, before Okitegawa does a dogeza in desperation, making it look like she’s forcing him to do it to some nearby students and a fellow teacher, forcing her to let the Robotics Club continue to get him to stop.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While she claims to oppose the Robotics Club entering the RE Robo Rally and treating it as Serious Business since them losing, especially with a sponsorship, would serve to embarrass them if they lose, her complaints about having to work free overtime due to them working overnight makes it clear that she just finds being their advisor troublesome. Her later attempts of Blackmailing them into disbanding with evidence of the Robot Theft being one of them further proves this. Later on, after everyone but Okitegawa and Sakura resign, she approaches him to inform him of this, reveals that she knows about his hometown not sponsoring the club, and shows him a picture of the robot, driving him to a Despair Event Horizon and asking he turn in his resignation so she can dissolve the club. And while she acts like she’s being benevolent by not going to the police with this, Sakura rightfully points out that she’s only doing so to avoid liability.
Students
Mami Koda
Voiced by: Misuzu Togashi (Japanese), Kayli Mills (English)
- Bully Magnet: Before Yagami and his friends decided to take the first step and stand up for her indirectly (physically speaking), she'd be picked on by Akane, Matsui, and Sakaki for little more than simply not being cut out for being a basketball player in the first place. If Matsui is to be believed, even the first-years in the team don't seem to think much of her at all. Becomes a later plot point when Akane sends RK after her.
- D-Cup Distress: Other basketball club members mention that her breasts are on the large side, which contributed to the Slut-Shaming she suffered.
- Despair Event Horizon: It's implied that she was dangerously close to her breaking point due to the bullying of Matsui's posse. Thankfully, Yagami manages to pull her away from the edge and encourages the other students to stand up for her.
- Everyone Has Standards: She may not have held Mikoshiba in the highest regard due to being a victim of his bullying, but she's still shocked by his murder all the same.
- Girlish Pigtails: Natch.
- Grew a Spine: At the end of the game, she publicly stands up to bullies going after another classmate, empowering the other students to do the same.
- Likes Older Men: Is notably impressed with Sugiura's looks when he takes his mask off, though not to the point of outright Squeeing like Akane.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Downplayed; she's a big fan of basketball, but her lack of skill led to her being singled out by Mikoshiba for abuse, which diminished her passion for the sport. Yagami nonetheless encourages her to continue pursuing her love for the sport regardless of what others think.
- Rejected Apology: Zigzagged. She refuses Matsui's apology (though she appears to be on better terms with him and his friends by the end of the game), but she later accepts Akane's.
- Shrinking Violet: She's very quiet, soft-spoken, and reserved, likely as a result of being constantly picked on.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: She joined the Basketball Club because of a basketball manga she read. Despite her lack of experience in the sport, she hoped that her teammates would support her like how it happened in the manga. Unfortunately for her, this only made her a target of bullying by both her teammates and Mikoshiba.
Mei Toribe
Voiced by: ??? (Japanese), Allegra Clark (English)
- Broken Pedestal: Does not take it well when she learns the previous club president, and her mentor and implied crush, is actually working for the Professor in a blackmail scheme.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Pretty much everyone except Amasawa thinks she's confounding at best and annoyingly crazy at worst. After all, this is a girl who believes that snapping photos of others and forcing them to look at themselves will somehow lead to them changing their ways.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Admittedly, some do actually change their ways as a result of her actions, though most still just see her as a nuisance and can't get around her mindset. She is also right that the bikers were still good enough to not just run her over if she got in front of them, no matter how crazy that was.
- Fearless Fool: She has no issue rushing headfirst into dangerous situations, including a Neo Keihin Gang hangout spot, and confronting others, which inevitably leads to Yagami having to step in to save her from being attacked.
- For Great Justice: Her entire motivation stems from her belief that photography can be used to get people to reflect on their actions and change for the better. This extends to her senpai when she finds out he's working for the Professor, as her belief in justice and moral righteousness is greater than her respect for him.
- Gratuitous German: When she confronts targets with photographic evidence of their sins, she tells them "It's time to aufheben!"
- Poor Communication Kills: Because of her complicated words and attitude, most think she just wants to blackmail them.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: She peppers her speech with lots of big, complicated philosophical jargon that tends to fly right over Yagami's head.
Shinnosuke Shikishima
A Seiryo student who recently joined the Ijincho Hounds, serving as their graffiti artist and painting over Blue King's graffiti.
- Anti-Villain: Despite being a member of arguably the more antagonistic skating group, his reasons are revealed to be well-intentioned. He wanted to convince Chiyoda that he can still pursue his dream of being an artist by training with his non-dominant hand, which he demonstrates by doing his graffiti over the Blue King's with his non-dominant right hand.
- Exact Words: At one point, he challenges Yagami due to a skateboarding competition, saying if Yagami wins he'll answer a question about the Professor. When Yagami wins and asks him what the Professor's objective is, he claims that it's an elaborate ad campaign, and when Yagami asks that he elaborates, he says he only promised to answer one question and leaves.
- Freudian Excuse: Chiyoda speculates that Shikishima's antagonism towards him is due to their time in their Middle School art club, with Shikishima quitting partway through their second year due to feeling overshadowed by Chiyoda. It's revealed to be a bit more complicated that that. While he did quit out of feelings of inadequacy, he was a Graceful Loser about it and put his faith in Chiyoda to achieve his dream for the both of them. Upon hearing about Chiyoda's hand surgery and how he gave up on art as a result, he decided to join his rivalling skate group as their graffiti artist using his non-dominant right hand to convince Chiyoda to try achieving his dream by training with his non-dominant left hand.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Yagami realizes that the he's been doing graffiti with his right hand, his non-dominant hand, the whole time. As Yagami correctly deduces, he's done this in an inadvertent attempt to convince Chiyoda to not give up on his dream of being an artist by relying on his non-dominant hand.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: At the climax at the Skateboarding story, both the Ijincho Hounds and the Blue King are attacked by members of the Neo-Keihin Gang.
The Bullies
As a whole (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
- Big Damn Heroes: Just as Yagami Detective Agency are about to be taken away by police officers deployed by Public Security, and after Watanabe's efforts to talk them down proved futile, they come in to record the police officers as a distraction so YDA can make their getaway.
- Bullying a Dragon: An almost literal example as they think trying to get back at someone like Yagami is a brilliant idea.
- Custom Uniform: All three of them wear uniforms that aren't properly done up (Matsui's shirt being untucked, Akane's skirt being shorter, Sakaki not wearing a tie, etc.), perhaps to distinguish them as troublemaking students at Seiryo.
- Easily Forgiven: Subverted. They are genuinely regretful for what they did to Koda and try to apologize. Turns out that after all that bullying, she has resented them too much to just forgive them instantly. Only when they make it clear they truly have changed and stood up for her against other bullies is she able to forgive them.
- Establishing Character Moment: They're introduced to the story trying to actively goad a shop owner into fighting back for his friends causing property damage to his store so that they can record his reaction and humiliate him online for it. It's a good thing Yagami came along when he did.
- Freudian Excuse: Regarding them bullying Koda specifically. Mikoshiba would regularly single Koda out as the weak link in the class and turn the blame to her whenever he forced his students to perform another full round of unnecessarily rigorous exercises.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: That being said, when Yagami hears about this, he's very clearly in Sarcasm Mode when he commends on their "team unity".
- Flunky Boss: As you'd expect from bullies like themselves, you never fight either Matsui or Sakaki alone.
- Gang of Bullies: Matsui, Akane, and Sakaki are a group of this to Koda and anyone that's unfortunate enough to cross their path.
- Heel–Face Turn: By the end of the game they're on the good side now, protecting a bullied girl from another ignorant group of bullies alongside Koda.
- Humble Pie: Yagami practically force-feeds them this at least four times until they finally took the hint that they stood absolutely no chance against him no matter who they had on their side to attack Yagami. He scares them into submission by daring them if they would like to try their luck again, to which they hastily reply they had enough beatings.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Attempted. Had it not been for Yagami stepping in by chance, it's likely the poor shop owner he harasses in Ijincho would've been humiliated online. They successfully use this trick at the end to distract cops trying to arrest Yagami.
- Jerkass: Between picking on a store owner for very little reason and frequently bullying Koda for something as petty as being a weak link to the team, can you even be surprised? They get a bit better after several ass-kickings from Yagami.
- Oh, Crap!: The look on Matsui and Sakaki's face when Yagami tells them that he's now the counselor of the Mystery Research Club and the Dance Club basically screams this.
- Recurring Boss: Matsui and Sakaki are fought four times in the same chapter. However, like Kido in the first game they don't have any health bar or perks of being a boss like heat mortal wound states.
- Reformed Bully: By the end of the game, not only do they drop the bullying but are actively standing up for victims by averting Bystander Syndrome.
- Refuge in Audacity: The very fact that they managed to harass police officers (deployed by Public Security, no less) by trying to record them as mentioned above in Big Damn Heroes is basically this. And if their final scene with Koda is any indication, they got off with flying colors.
- Those Two Guys: Matsui and Sakaki.
Matsui
Voiced by: Sho Karino (Japanese), Sean Chiplock (English)
- Character Development: Matsui has the most notable development, going from an obnoxious bully to a better person who's more willing to stand up for what is right, and who even apologizes to Koda without any prompting from Yagami.
- Combat Pragmatism: After his first humiliating fight with Yagami and Kaito he either sucks up to a senpai for help or use a weapon. Nothing he tries changes the results of his fights.
- Custom Uniform: Compared to his male peers, Matsui wears his shirt untucked, his blazer open, and his tie loose around his collar.
- Dirty Coward: Would rather have his senpais handle Yagami than do it himself, seeing as Yagami kicks his shit in more times than he cares to admit.
- Evil Redhead: While not actually "evil", Matsui is still an obnoxious bully, and he has reddish-brown hair. Then, Character Development kicks in, and he's a much nicer person by the end of the game.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- He might've been an asshole towards Koda, but he's still taken aback by the news of Mikoshiba's murder. He even goes as far as asking Yagami, who he had initial animosity towards, to get to the bottom of the circumstances surrounding his death.
- He also scolds Akane for refusing to mourn the death of their teacher Sawa.
- Heel–Face Turn: The first of the bullies to turn a new leaf and apologize for what they did to Koda.
- Rejected Apology: Matsui's apology to Koda is rejected initially, but if the finale is anything to go by, she eventually forgave him.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Runs to Yokohama 99 when he realizes Akane unwittingly sent RK after Koda.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Matsui's behavior improves after getting his ass handed to him four times by Yagami, eventually warming up to Yagami after the fourth fight against him. By the end of the game, he's actively standing up to bullies and averting Bystander Syndrome together with Koda.
Akane
Voiced by: Anna Yamaki (Japanese), Skyler Davenport (English)
- Alpha Bitch: An especially nasty one towards Koda.
- Custom Uniform: Is the only female student in-game to wear her sleeves rolled up and her blazer open. Not only that, her skirt is shortened in the kogal fashion.
- Everyone Has Standards: Akane may have bragged about not mourning the death of Yoko Sawa, but she's as horrified as Koda is upon coming face-to-face with Soma, then learning that he murdered Sawa.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Seriously underestimates just how villainous RK is when she decides to point them at Mami Koda. She winds up getting kidnapped alongside her classmate.
- Freudian Excuse: According to Matsui, the reason why she's so hostile to everyone is because she had a crush on Mikoshiba and is still trying to deal with his loss.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Points RK at Mami Koda, and ends up kidnapped and tied up right next to her.
- Hot for Teacher: She was interested in student teacher Mikoshiba, but he wasn't interested.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Considering how she easily towers over Koda, stands closely to Matsui and Sakaki in terms of height, and is just shy of Yagami's shoulders when standing next to him, she's quite tall for her age.
- Humble Pie: Getting kidnapped by RK and nearly killed by Soma, both of which would be traumatizing to a teenager like her (even if she was an Alpha Bitch), is what leads to her Heel–Face Turn.
- Jerkass: Is even worse than her friends, openly refusing to mourn the death of Sawa and insulting the rest of her entire class for doing so. And that's before she sends RK after Mami Koda.
- Lady Swears-a-Lot: She's quite profane and foul-mouthed for her age.Akane: So slow. I can't fucking stand you.
- Likes Older Men: Falls for both Sugiura and student teacher Mikoshiba, both of whom are much older than she is.
- Moral Myopia: Calls out her class for being hypocrites when they mourn Sawa's death yet refuse to do the same for Mikoshiba. This is despite the fact that Sawa has been nothing but kind to them, while Mikoshiba was a Sadist Teacher who bullied his students.
- My God, What Have I Done?: More or less immediately after she accidentally sends RK after Mami Koda, Akane has a change of heart and calls Matsui for help. It works out, given that by the time Matsui calls her again, she's also been kidnapped by RK and needs to be rescued.
- Save the Villain: Yagami saves her, alongside Koda, from RK, which leads to her Heel–Face Turn.
- The Smurfette Principle: She's the only female in Seiryo's group of problem kids. With Matsui and Sakaki in particular, she's the only girl in the trio.
- The Unfought: In true RGG Studio fashion, she's the only one of Matsui's posse that doesn't partake in any fights despite being more than capable, as she's pushed to the background the moment the fight begins. In some fights, she can be seen cheering on the sidelines.
- Valley Girl: She's pretty attractive, as far as teenagers go, but definitely not the especially smart type, Plus, she speaks with the typical valley girl affectation in the English dub, reflecting her snobbish attitude.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The A variant. She tries to lead Yagami into a trap by feigning any form of apology, but of course, Yagami can smell the bullshit from a mile away. He goes along with her trap anyway and springs it, leading to an altercation with Seiryo's clan of delinquent third-years.
Sakaki
Voiced by: Chado Horii (Japanese), Kellen Goff (English)
- The Big Guy: Of Matsui's group in particular.
- Blatant Lies: He kicks a signboard right in front of the shop owner's face and tries to pass it off as the wind blowing it away. Yeah, read that last sentence again to see just why that's a bald-faced lie.
- Custom Uniform: Sakaki wears a pink shirt beneath the white shirt of his school uniform, and his trousers are more wrinkled.
- Flat Character: Is nowhere near as fleshed out and doesn't have as much screen-time as Matsui and Akane.
Mystery Research Club
Kyoko Amasawa
Voiced by: Minami Takahashi (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English)
- Agent Scully: In one Side Case, she refuses to believe that aliens do exist. This causes her to butt heads with the President of the Supernatural Research Club.
- Amateur Sleuth: Mostly got her detective skills by reading detective fiction as opposed to the more conventional stuff that Yagami deals with on a day-to-day basis. That said, she's still very competent and at the end of the Curse of the Amasawa Family Heirloom side case, Yagami praises her deductive skills as she's the one who figures out the secret of the lucky cat statue and solves her grandfather's murder.
- Ascended Fangirl: Of a sort. It only makes sense for a fan of Film Noir detective novels such as herself to be working with an actual Private Eye in Yagami.
- The Cameo: She briefly appears in The Kaito Files alongside her brother wearing her disguise, walking past Kaito, Jun and Senda while they are at M Side Cafe.
- Canine Companion: Ranpo, her Shiba Inu. Yagami had the fortune of finding her dog right outside Yokohama 99's office... but not before Ranpo helped Yagami bust a loan shark that was trying to rope an unsuspecting woman into illegal work. Afterwards, Ranpo is available to help Yagami out by sniffing out clues as well as getting involved in some EX-Actions.
- Character Tics: She frequently makes a "finger gun" pose pointing up with her thumb and index finger, especially when making a deduction.
- Determinator: She is very persistent in catching Yagami and outing him as a pervert (which is not entirely wrong since, to her, Yagami technically was trespassing at Seiryo), though later on Yagami discourages her from the more dangerous stuff (i.e., tailing targets). She even offers to help Yagami in the wake of Sawa's murder, but he forbids it fully knowing that he's operating far deadlier territory than she can handle.
- Deuteragonist: Of the School Stories chain. While Yagami does the field work and infiltrates the various groups, she investigates on her own and gives him updates.
- Hypocritical Humor: Bans her brother from joining an Esports club because he needs to study for tests. He and Yagami are quick to point out that she's not studying either due to focusing on her cases, and Tak gets on her case further during the side case related to her grandfather's murder.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: When Kento shoots back at her for not investing time in her studies either, she points out that her grades are still in the upper percentile, whereas Kento's were not.
- Kid Detective: Or ''Teenage⁸' Detective, in this case, seeing as she's a high school student.
- Locked Room Mystery: Her grandfather's seemingly accidental death turns out to be one.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As passionate as she is about her detective work, she takes Yagami's advice to stay out of the main story after Sawa's murder, understanding that this sort of mystery is a bit out of her weight class at the moment.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: She's not entirely wrong in deducing that it was Yagami who placed the hidden camera in the staircase at Seiryo, but she thinks it was for perverted reasons and not for surveillance purposes to uncover Seiryo's bullying problem.
- Shout-Out: Drops a Sherlock Holmes reference/quote at just about every opportunity.
- Xanatos Gambit: Subverted. She pretty much hits Yagami with one, as she forces him into a no-win situation when confronted at the bulletin board at the Seiryo entrance - either he tells her why Yagami is really at Seiryo (which he can't disclose for privacy reasons as it was the Chairman that hired him and the rest of Yokohama 99 in the first place), or she turns him into the police for placing a hidden camera in a high school and ousts him as a sex offender. Fortunately, Yagami manages to turn the tide in his favor as a "win-win" situation, by offering Kyoko to be the MRC's new counselor and agreeing to her test (which in turn saves the MRC from being disbanded), Yagami manages to maintain his cover at Seiryo High.
Kento Amasawa
Voiced by: Shun'ichi Toki (Japanese), Zach Aguilar (English)
- Big Little Brother: He looks exactly like a black belt in karate and is Kyoko's little brother despite physically towering over her.
- Book Dumb: Implied. His sister is quick to nag him about his studying habits, refusing to let him play video games or join the eSports Club due to his poor grades.
- Double Standard: A later Side Case shows that he has a sugar mama. Despite the first MRC case showcasing the danger to a female sugar baby this is mostly brushed off in his case and there's no indication he's stopped doing so given his comments about his 'girlfriends' later on.
- First-Name Basis: Is usually called by his first name, even in situations where he's not with his sister. Conversely, Kyoko is often on proper Last-Name Basis instead.
- Lazy Bum: Barely shows up to the club and when he does, most of the time he ends up napping.
- Nice Guy: He is a bit of a bum, but he is a nice guy at heart. Case in point, he is quick to defend the suspects in the Mystery Research Club's cases, particularly the delinquent Oshikiri when he is believed to be the Payback Boxer.
- Out of Focus: Despite his introduction he mostly stays out of the club's activities. His sister comments that he rarely shows up and is likely there just to keep the club from being disbanded.
- Wife-Basher Basher: He impersonated the Payback Boxer to cover for Kenya, his victims were both domestic abusers, so he did not feel bad about it, although he does mention he barely won and ran away after a few hits.
Dance Club
Sayaka Nishizono
Voiced by: Yui Kondo (Japanese), Jennie Kwan (English)
- All Love Is Unrequited: She has a crush on an upperclassman named Hiiragi, but he later reveals that he's already had a girlfriend.
- Big Damn Heroes: Along with some of the other groups Yagami befriended during the School Stories storyline. Specifically, she and Takanashi are the ones who find out where Koga took Itokura.
- Character Catchphrase: "Dance like nobody's watching," the personal motto she's instilled in the rest of the Rabbits. The Rabbits as a whole also have "Hop, step, Rabbits" before going out on stage.
- Heroic BSoD: She didn't take her crush being taken well to the point she started skipping practice. She snaps out of it when Yagami gets her rival to give her a pep talk.
- Oh, Crap!: In the "Dastardly Detective: Seiryo High in Danger" Side Case, she freaks out when it's revealed she changed in front of a hidden camera in the dance studio when she thought she was all alone.
- Red Herring: She's believed to be a forum poster that requested the Professor to take her rival out in order to win regionals. Later, it turns out to be an imposter; the account is legitimately hers, but it was the Dance Club's previous advisor who requested the hit instead.
Maika Takanashi
Voiced by: Manami Ito (Japanese), Allegra Clark (English)
- The Ace: Is said multiple times to be the best dancer on Seiryo's team, and getting her to attend practice once again is a major task for Yagami.
- The Atoner: The entire reason she became a sugar baby, hoping to apologize to Itokura by helping pay her tuition.
- Compensated Dating: She is the sugar baby that Yagami was sent to investigate in the Dance Club.
- My Greatest Failure: Deeply regrets not standing up for Itokura when the culture festival committee turned their backs on her in the past.
- Too Dumb to Live: Ends up scamming a dangerous gang member, and was only rescued because Yagami happened to be tailing and investigating her.
Robotics Club
Doumu Okitegawa
Voiced by: Atsushi Tamaru (Japanese), Zach Aguilar (English)
- Adults Are Useless: Due to friction with their club advisor, the club is generally distrustful of adults until Yagami shows up, with Okitegawa only agreeing to Yagami's presence in their club provided he doesn't get in their way. As they get to know Yagami however, they start to drop this mindset, to the point that Okitegawa gives Yagami the key to their blueprints storage, having faith that his fellow club members aren't involved with the thief-bots and that Yagami wouldn't use the chance to plant evidence framing them.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After three of his teammates' resignation and a talk with Yagami, Okitegawa decides to apologize to each of those teammates wholeheartedly in person. Shortly afterwards, when the club advisor, Ms. Akuta, threatens to disband the Robotics Club, he prostrates himself before her, begging her to give his club a second chance.
- The Atoner: After apologising to Kurumazaki and convincing him to rejoin the club with Yagami’s help, he insists on apologising to and re-recruiting the rest on his own to atone for his previous actions.
- Break the Haughty: Gets hit with this after all of his clubmates leave his club due to his habits of ignoring others' ideas, which forces him to change for the better and adapt.
- Big Damn Heroes: At the end of the School Stories storyline Okitegawa and the rest of the Robotics Club use the thief-bot to steal Koga's guns and another robot to tase his goons.
- Catchphrase: "That is the most optimal solution." Becomes more of a Madness Mantra as the stress of the competition wears him down and his decisions become increasingly erratic.
- Control Freak: Yagami describes him as a "top down" kind of person, and with good reason—he sets extremely rigid milestones and schedules for the team (even using Agile like a professional engineering firm) and cracks down hard on any deviations from his project planning. While it initially shows results, his humorless micromanagement eventually starts grinding down his teammates and makes him a liability to their success.
- Heroic Second Wind: Snaps out of his stupor, and finally starts changing for the better after his conversation with Kurumazaki.
- It's All About Me: He refuses to listen to the ideas of any of the other members, which eventually causes most of the members to leave.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While a Control Freak with a tendency to not listen to anyone else's idea, that doesn't stop some of his decisions from being reasonable and, in his own words, "optimal".
- When he chooses to have Yagami act as the club's operator instead of their normal guy, he reassures Yagami about this by mentioning how didn't really have his heart in it, since he was more interested in the track and field club. While he does seem to be doing it more out of pragmatism than compassion, letting him quit to pursue his interests is definitely better than forcing him to keep at it.
- When Takamori later protests against Yagami being allowed to customize the robots, Okitegawa counters that if he's going to be their operator, it makes sense that he should some say in what parts they use so he feels comfortable.
- While he's harsher than necessary, he's not wrong to be upset with Sakura for not reporting the bug he was unable to fix to Okitegawa, since it's a serious issue that could affect their performance, with them only winning the scrimmage since it fortunately only started affecting things after the match. Yagami, despite admitting to feeling sorry to Sakura, can't exactly disagree with Okitegawa's point.
- Lonely Rich Kid: It turns out his father is the CEO of an IT Enterprise, which he intentionally keeps to himself out of resentment over how moving due to his father's work caused him to miss out on the last Robo Rally he was a part of, hence his lie about the sponsorship.
- Madness Makeover: Due to his almost obsessive focus on the robotics competition, his hair gets all messy, he grows a stubble, and his eyes become sunken in.
- Red Herring: As president of the robotic club and the reveal that his sponsorship was a lie he is the prime suspect in the thief-bot creation. He has nothing to do with it and his lie about the sponsorship is to hide the fact that he asked his father for the funds, a sensitive point for him as his first shot at the finals was taken away by his parents' divorce.
- Tears of Joy: He visibly sheds tears when the Seiryo Robotics Club wins the tournament after the members reconcile. He also credits his teammates in his victory speech.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: While he’s not behind the thief-bot incidents, he is the indirect instigator; due to his Bad Boss tendencies, he frequently rejected Kurumazaki’s robot ideas, prompting him to post them on his website for like-minded people to see. The Professor ended up seeing them and tricked Kurumazaki into helping the Neo-Keihin Gang.
Tetsuro Kurumazaki
Voiced by: Naoya Miyase (Japanese), Justice Slocum (English)
- Beware the Nice Ones: After Okitegawa refuses to listen to his ideas, Kurumazaki loses his temper and resigns from the club, which surprises everyone.
- Big Damn Heroes: He, Okitegawa, and the rest of the Robotics Club become this towards the end of the School Stories missions.
- Forced into Evil: Downplayed; while Kurumazaki had initially helped the Neo Keihin Gang with creating robots based on his own designs, he initially believed they were a legitimate company. He never intended for them to take advantage of his work to commit crimes, but when he tried to pull out upon realizing this they made him build the thief-bot by force. He's thoroughly ashamed that his robot was being used for crime.
- Rage Quit: He's the first to finally have enough of Okitegawa's It's All About Me attitude and quits. And when Okitegawa suggests that they might have to just go on without him, everyone but Sakura follows suit.
Dento Sakura
Voiced by: Shuichi Uchida (Japanese), Ben Diskin (English)
- Ascended Fanboy: He's a big fan of Itokura's programming skills after seeing a bit of code she made in her first year, and is equally excited when she joins the Robotics Club as a fellow programmer to help with his coding.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Sakura is a first-year student, which makes him the youngest out of everyone in the club.
- Friendless Background: When Yagami decides to treat the Robotics Club to some ramen, Sakura is driven to tears, stating that this is the first time he has a meal with friends.
- Prone to Tears: He often cries very easily, especially whenever the club has bonding moments together. He's also incredibly moved by Okitegawa's happy tears after they win the robotics tournament.
- Undying Loyalty: Sakura was the only member who remained in the club as it was falling apart, even while the other members were turning in their resignation forms.
Shion Takamori
Voiced by: Shoya Ishige (Japanese)
A second-year student in the Robotics Club.- Hot-Blooded: Among the club, he has the shortest fuse and is the most argumentative, which is why Okitegawa has Yagami pilot the robots instead.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Okitegawa seems more wary, and Sakura and Kurumuzaki come off as shy and nervous, Takamori seems a lot more hostile towards Yagami, with frequent annoyed "Tchs" when he first shows up, and he has a bit of a Hair-Trigger Temper, especially in regards to Okitegawa's leadership. However, as the story progresses, he shows himself to be a lot friendlier once he warms up to someone.
- The Lancer: Out of all the club members, he's the most willing to argue with Okitegawa over it's It's All About Me leadership and his "Optimal Solutions."
Made In Heaven
Yuma Suou
Voiced by: Naoyuki Shimozuru (Japanese), Xander Mobus (English)
- Awesome by Analysis: When called by Yagami in the final school story to find and rescue Itokura, he is the first to notice that most of the people Yagami had gathered were part of the cultural festival committee alongside Itokura. From there he quickly deduces that Itokura is the Professor. Yagami even muses to himself that Suou would be right at home with the MRC from that deduction alone.
- Badass Biker: The boy first exhibited his talent in motocross when he was still a middle school student.
- Big Damn Heroes: He and the rest of Made In Heaven at the end of the School Stories. Specifically, Ghost and his crew stand guard outside of Itokura's mother's hospital room, Bakuon Rairyu and the Raging Angels block Koga's backup while Suou and the rest block Koga's final escape attempt.
- Boring, but Practical: As a death race boss, Suou eschews the flashy attacks of his underlings in favor of just trying to ram Yagami. While it's not as much as a spectacle as fireworks, sonic blasts, or machine gun attacks, Suou's ramming attacks have a short windup, giving Yagami precious little time to block them.
- Delinquent Hair: As shown in the accompanying image, he tends to have long, blonde hair not unlike Ryuji Goda whenever he shows up to the Made in Heaven meets. Outside of that, however, he has a more conventional hairstyle as a student at Seiryo High.
- Disappeared Dad: His father abandoned him and his mother for a younger woman when he was in middle school.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Gender-inverted. When he was in middle school, he was a motocross champion under his father's tutelage. However, after his father cheated on his mother and left them for another woman, motocross became a Trauma Button for her and she forbade Suou from participating, encouraging him to study so he can get a job at a good company to support them, choosing to ignore signs and even people telling her what he really wants. While he went along with it as to not hurt his mother, his inability to race always ate away at him, ultimately leading to him integrating himself as Made in Heaven's leader thanks to the Professor's manipulations.
- Final Boss: Naturally, he's the final racer that Yagami faces. He also fights Yagami in hand-to-hand combat in outrage at his decision to disband Made in Heaven.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: He's decked out in a white and gold biker garb and is the head honcho of Made in Heaven.
- Graceful Loser: Subverted. Upon losing to Yagami, he accepts his defeat with grace... until Yagami uses his new status as leader of Made In Heaven to disband the gang, upon which Suou responds with outrage and tries to make Yagami rescind the order by force. When that fails, he's reduced to begging Yagami, saying that he can't bear to live without racing.
- Green-Eyed Monster: He reveals that part of the reason he became Head of the Disciplinary Committee was because he couldn't stand the sight of others being able to openly pursue their interests when he was banned by his mother of pursuing his passion for motocross, and he wanted to use the position as a means to get back at such people.
- Mirror Boss: His main attack in the death race minigame is to ram Yagami with his bike, which is also Yagami's main mode of attack.
- Replacement Goldfish: It turns out Made In Heaven and the Death Races is his for Motocross.
- Straw Hypocrite: Throughout the School Story, he always preached Made in Heaven's "whoever rules the road makes the rules" motto and encouraged those under him to follow it. While disgruntled after Yagami beats him, he accepts the loss and follows the rule by allowing Yagami to take over the gang. But when Yagami disbands the gang, he loses it and attacks Yagami, refusing the accept the decision. As Yagami summarizes after beating him, he didn't truly believe in the rule; he merely used it as a means to fulfil his impossible dream to continue motocross in some capacity.
Reiji Murasaki
- A Father to His Men: Reiji cared deeply about his fellow bikers, and seeing one of his own get horribly injured in a race was enough for him to want to disband Made In Heaven.
- Badass Biker: He wasn't the leader of a motorcycle gang for nothing.
- Delinquent Hair: His hair was dyed blond and styled in a punk-like hairstyle.
- Heel Realization: Seyama recounts how Reiji promised to disband Made In Heaven after one of his guys nearly died in a crash, which had given him a real look at the consequences of the death races. Unfortunately, he dies shortly after making this promise and none of his former gang believed Seyama when he tried telling them his last wish.
- The Lost Lenore: To Rina, which motivates her faction's Death Seeker attitude.
- Magnetic Hero: Reiji was known for being quite a charismatic figure among the rebels of Yokohama, which was how he was able to create Made In Heaven.
- Posthumous Character: He died about a year before the events of the game, but his death has left a huge impact upon the bikers in his gang.
- Retirony: Reiji promised Kotaro Seyama that he would disband Made In Heaven after one last race. Said final race would end up killing him before he could uphold his promise.
Ghost
Voiced by: Yukiya Matsui (Japanese), Ray Chase (English)
Click here to see him unmasked
The leader of the Ghost faction in the Made In Heaven biker gang. His real name is Dan Murasaki, and he's the younger brother of Reiji Murasaki, the first leader.
- Ax-Crazy: The guy is definitely unhinged. When we first meet him, he's attempting to assault Yagami with his men under the assumption that he's a spy (he is), and around the time Yagami starts challenging his faction, he deals with the Motorcycle Prevention Group's extreme protests by threatening to harm their families and loved ones.
- Batter Up!: Wields a bat, which he will use in his fight with Yagami.
- Big Damn Heroes: He and his gang scare off Kasai and Sakakiba, who were holding Itokura's mom hostage in the hospital.
- Blood Knight: He displays shades of this in nearly every scene he's in, especially against the anti-gang group.
- Cluster F-Bomb: After being defeated by Yagami, Dan lets out a string of F-bombs in rage as he punches the ground.
- The Dreaded: He's the most feared member of the Made In Heaven biker gang due to his propensity for violence, so much so that even Yakuza steer clear of him. Kasai basically craps his pants upon seeing Dan in the hospital, having remembered their last physical encounter.
- Freudian Excuse: After being defeated on the road and in the streets by Yagami, Seyama summarizes that the reason for his actions is that he was tired of living in his brother's shadow and being compared to him, and so wanted to make his own mark on Made in Heaven while keeping his identity secret.
- Gatling Good: His gang has bikes that have miniguns attached to them, which they use to shoot at Yagami during Death Races.
- Made of Iron: He's able to survive crashing his bike relatively unscathed, the only real damage being to his helmet.
- Might Makes Right: Of a different vein from Reiji and Suou, believing in the use of violence for power instead of being fastest on the road.
- One-Man Army: After learning that he was duped by the Neo-Keihin Gang, he goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and single-handedly defeats them and members of the Motorcycle Prevention Group, Kasai being among themnote
- Rank Scales Of Asskicking: The leader of the Made In Heaven's Ghost faction, and was said to have defeated some Yakuza who were harassing his boys. His Curb-Stomp Battle with the Neo Keihin Gang shows that he's certainly not all bark and no bite.
- Say My Name: Yells out an enraged "Yagami!" upon being beaten in a Death Race, right before crashing.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Dan bears a strong resemblance to Reiji Murasaki, his older brother. When his face is revealed to everyone, the other bikers even think that he's Reiji back from the dead.
- Successful Sibling Syndrome: Dan faced this when he was growing up, always being looked over in favor of his more popular older brother. As a result, he hides his face with a helmet and openly scorns his brother's rule, even trying to join forces with the Neo Keihin Gang to dominate the Yokohama underworld.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: He bears a shocking amount of resemblance his late brother, Reiji. It was to the point that when he's forced to unmask himself after a crash, everyone present thinks that Reiji came Back from the Dead.
- Unwitting Pawn: Of the Neo Keihin Gang, who attempt to use Ghost and his followers as their muscle in the Yokohama underworld. He doesn't take it well upon finding out.
Rina Minagawa
Voiced by: Kanna Amasawa (Japanese)
- All Love Is Unrequited: Rina was in love with Reiji Murasaki when he was still alive, though she states that it was very much one-sided.
- Amazon Brigade: She leads an all-girl biker gang.
- Death Seeker: Rina— and the Raging Angels, by extension —believe that dying in a race will allow them to go to "Valhalla", or the racers' heaven, with some even warping it to a lovers' suicide type ritual. This is because she was in love with Reiji, and she wanted to die out of a desire to be with him again.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: She wears all-leather clothes, as fitting for her Goth biker look.
- Interrupted Suicide: After she's defeated, Rina attempts to walk in front of an oncoming truck on the freeway, but Yagami quickly pulls her out of the way in time.
- Musical Assassin: She and her group fight in the Death Races using amps and speakers attached to their bikes that pump out loud rock music.
- Parental Neglect: Rina suffered from this as a child.
- Tearful Smile: Rina has one on her face after she decides to quit Made In Heaven.
Junpei Hanasaki
Voiced by: Teppei Akahira (Japanese), Orion Acaba (English)
Click here to see him as a civilian
The leader of Bakuon Rairyu, a firework punk faction of Made In Heaven.
- Delinquent Hair: He has a very notable blue mohawk as a biker.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Shaves off his mohawk when he goes on the straight and narrow.
- Fatal Fireworks: His faction is known for using fireworks as weapons in death races.
- Fireworks of Love: Junpei often fires these for his girlfriend, Hiyori.
- Genre Refugee: He, and the rest of the Bakuon Rainryu, look more like they came from a Mad Max-esque series compared the more grounded in reality one of Like a Dragon.
- Hidden Depths: Junpei is actually well-versed in his knowledge of flowers, according to Hiyori.
- I Have No Son!: Was disowned by his family for joining a biker gang. But after his father witnesses his fireworks skills during his death race against Yagami, they both make amends with one another, and Junpei quits the gang to be welcomed back into his family.
- Uptown Girl: Junpei comes from a prominent family of professional fireworks manufacturers, but he was disowned by his father for joining Made In Heaven. Meanwhile, Hiyori comes from a wealthy family (it's mentioned that her parents are part of the National Diet), and her family openly disapproves of Junpei. However, after Junpei reconciles with his father and quits the gang, Hiyori's parents give him permission to date her.
Asama and Haruna
Voiced by: Hiro Yuzuki (Japanese, Asama)
Two new recruits that Yagami befriends upon infiltrating Made in Heaven.- Affectionate Nickname: They quickly take to calling Yagami "Yagamicchi".
- Delinquent Hair: Asama dons a pompadour while Haruna has bleached blonde hair.
- Fighting Your Friend: After Suou beats all of the followers Yagami accumulated at once, he orders Asama to race Yagami.
- Moveset Clone: When Yagami races Asama, he and his followers use miniguns attached to their bikes and attack Yagami's bike with bludgeons like Ghost and his crew.
- Those Two Guys: Are often seen together.
Todoroki Boxing Gym
Kenya Oshikiri
Voiced by: Seiji Maeda (Japanese), Khoi Dao (English)
- Abusive Parents: Kenya's father was an Omi hitman who forced his son to undergo brutal training to become his successor. Kenya's mother took their son and fled to Ijincho once the Omi disbanded, but the boy lives in fear that his father will come back to claim him.
- Ax-Crazy: He flies into this when in his powered-up side.
- The Berserker: When he gets too heated he starts lashing at Yagami to the point the coach needs to break the fight. Some of his moves are barely boxing like haymakers and superman punches.
- Big Damn Heroes: At the end of the School Stories storyline Kenya and the rest of the Todoroki Gym crew show up to fight an army of Neo Keihin thugs so Yagami can continue looking for Itokura.
- Boxing Battler: Of course.
- Bully Hunter: One of the reasons why Kento is adamant about defending him is because Kenya stood up to him when he was still a first-year and has since taken on karate as a result of this. And he's also among the crowd of people helping Yagami during the School Stories finale against the Neo Keihin Gang, further cementing this.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Together with Yagami, he finally musters up the courage to stand up to his abusive father as he shows him the joys of boxing that he was taught by Yagami and the rest of Todoroki's pupils.
- Covered in Scars: From the neck down he has multiple scars.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Was known for dealing this to anyone he's challenged once his Superpowered Evil Side activates. He beat one pro-boxer so thoroughly that the boxer underwent a downward spiral.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: His first sparring match with Yagami was this. To everyone's surprise, Yagami was able to hold his own against Kenya...until his Superpowered Evil Side comes out. Afterwards, he was beating Yagami into a pulp but even then, Yagami still refused to go down though he would have gotten himself killed had Todoroki not stepped in.
- Dark and Troubled Past: His father was a member of the Omi Alliance who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps of becoming a killer. When the Omi Alliance disbanded, though, Kenya's mom ran off with him in the commotion. Since then, Kenya has been training for when his dad finally finds him.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After telling his father off, his gym trainer offers to sponsor him in the pro boxing circuit.
- Face of a Thug: He might look like an intimidating punk who's liable to beat you for your lunch money (which wouldn't be surprising given the game's themes), but he's actually a sweet kid with a pretty troubled past. Especially since Kento is quite adamant about vouching for him and even proving that he isn't the Payback Boxer. Which, of course, he is, but he had a good cause for it, at least.
- Final Boss: Of the Boxing Gym School Story. He's fought three times as the final opponent Yagami can spar against in Todoroki's Gym.
- Glass Cannon: Kenya's health is fairly low compared to other boxers in his tier, but he's extremely aggressive, hits like a train, and can parry half of Yagami's punches. Averted for his "Unhinged" state, where he has a near-insurmountable health bar on top of an attack boost.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The first story mandated fight against Kenya cannot be won no matter how skilled you are at the boxing minigame, because Yagami will deal no damage and will eventually lose all his stamina.
- The Load: Turned out to be this when he was part of the culture festival committee, frequently butting heads with Itokura and spends most of his time in the committee eating the snacks. When called out by Takanashi, Kenya points out that the only reason why he was even in the committee was because he drew the short straw.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Ever since he escaped, Kenya has spent his entire life living in constant fear of his father finding him and his mom. At the end of the Boxing Gym storyline, Kenya conquers his fear and stands up to his father, telling him point-blank that he's not scared of him anymore, and threatening to beat the living shit out of him if he ever shows his face again.
- Prophet Eyes: When he's in Unhinged Trainee mode.
- Puzzle Boss: His "Unhinged" mode is borderline impossible to beat in a straight slugfest, since his health nearly triples and he knock Yagami out in just a few combos. The best way to fight him is to build up the EX bar and lay him out with a single cross-counter.
- Sequential Boss: Yagami has to defeat Oshikiri in three separate boxing matches: first against Oshikiri's normal self, then against Oshikiri's Superpowered Evil Side, and finally against Oshikiri once he's managed to get his rage under control. This is followed by a two-round boss fight in the normal combat system against Honda and Oshikiri's abusive father.
- Superpowered Evil Side: When he's on the ropes in a boxing match, his skin goes all vein-ey and he goes into a berserker rage and won't relent until his opponent is too wounded to fight.
- Tyke Bomb: His dad trained him to be an Omi assassin.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It's eventually revealed that Kenya, being the first person to quit the culture festival committee as a result of butting heads with Itokura, is what ultimately led to all the others following suit. This led to Itokura becoming "The Professor" to lead all the students part of the committee to turn to crime to get them expelled or even arrested as revenge, which in turn, led her to get in contact with the Keihin Gang.
- Vigilante Man: Subverted. He's the Payback Boxer, but his real motive is to fight his former opponents in situations where they aren't being bribed to lose, and see if he was legitimately that skilled. He doesn't intend to hurt them.
- Volcanic Veins: When he goes into his berserker rages, his veins become very prominent.
- Younger Than He Looks: He's 16 years old and is also built like a brick shithouse. Seems puberty's been kind to him. His father on the other hand...
Go Todoroki
Voiced by: Yasuhiro Mamiya (Japanese), Vic Chao (English)
- Bald Head of Toughness: Todoroki fits this to a T, being a very tough boxing coach at his gym.
- Climax Boss: He serves as this for the Boxing Gym storyline, being the second to last opponent Yagami has to face before he can challenge Kenya Oshikiri.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Drill Sergeant Nasty. While he certainly cares for his boxers and his Training from Hell is meant to toughen them up, his frequent attacks on their self-esteem became too much to bear for some of them, causing them to leave his gym.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: He used to belittle his boxers as a way of motivating them, but it only drove many of them to quit his gym. He does get better, though.
- Glory Days: He was a four-time lightweight OPBF boxing champion during his career before he retired, and now he wants to help ex-prisoners find the joy of boxing to redeem themselves.
- Heel Realization: At first Todoroki forbids people from sparring with Kenya because his previous pupil Takeru quit boxing after their spar, with his self esteem broken. Takeru quit not because he lost but because Todoroki's trademark lashing was the last thing he needed when he was down. Todoroki softens up after this.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He may be an Understatement to the phrase "Stern Teacher", but he does care for those who come to his gym. Along with his general abusive-esque attitude being Tough Love, he got on his knees and begged when some sponsor tried to blacklist his gym after Oshikiri beat up his son in self-defence since his guys would have nowhere else to go, and he's honestly bothered by his inability to help Oshikiri out of his father's conditioning.
- Papa Wolf: Todoroki tries to defend Kenya from Fudo Oshikiri, but is no match for him.
- Purple Is Powerful: He's retired OFPB Champ who's still got some fight in him, and when he tests you when you first enter his gym, he dons a pair of purple boxing gloves. He dons them again when you fight him for real.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Downplayed in that the series as a whole uses heavy swearing, but he still does have a more colorful language than usual.
- Skewed Priorities: Played for Laughs. After hearing about the Professor, he is offended not at what she does, but at the fact that she used the English term, instead of "Sensei". Kenya is predictably embarrassed.
- Took a Level in Kindness: He becomes much nicer by the end of the Boxing Gym storyline.
- Tough Love: He was well known for this approach, which is what drove out several of his gym's members as a result. He softens up on the "tough" part when he realizes he was going too far.
- The Worf Effect: The man is built like a tank and takes hits like one in the ring, but goes down in one punch by Renji Honda of the Neo Keihin Gang.
Gaku Onidake
Voiced by: Takahiro Kageyama (Japanese)
A former Tojo hitman and current Class A boxer.
- Contrived Coincidence: He just so happens to borrow from the same Loan Shark Mikimoto works at.
- Dark Is Not Evil: His boxing gear is almost completely black, and while he's a former hitman, he's a pretty Nice Guy after Yagami beats him.
- Graceful Loser: After Yagami beats him, he accepts the loss gracefully and affirms that he doesn't feel ashamed to have lost to him, much to Todoroki's chagrin. He even invites Yagami out for a drink after the fact.
- Hitman with a Heart: Granted, he's retired, but he's a pretty nice guy for a former Yakuza hitman.
- Red Baron: "The Intrepid Assassin".
- The Worf Effect: Shortly after Yagami beats him in a match, Mikimoto ends up taking Onidake out in one punch when he challenges him to a quick match over his late debts.
Chizuru Sakuma
Voiced by: Suguru Shimizu (Japanese), Chris Sabat (English)
A former trainee of Todoroki gym and current member of the Australian boxing scene, as well as 12th in the OPBF's cruiserweight class. Left due to reservations with Todoroki's training style, but still respects his former coach to a degree.
- Dreadlock Warrior: Wears his hair in a dreadlock ponytail.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: First time he spars with Yagami he was cutting weight for his match, next time he is full power at his regular weight.
- Recurring Boss: He's fought twice in the Boxing School Story, revealing that he'd been holding back the first time.
- Red Baron: Known as "Chizuru the Lancer." Also goes by "Fiendish Knight".
- Token Good Teammate: While none of the Todoroki Boxing Gym members are evil, and are indeed all trying to turn their lives around, Sakuma is by far the nicest, wisest and least violent of them, as well as the one with their life most together and least open to negative temptation. He's a ranked boxer in Australia, but he decides to stick around specifically because he believes Todoroki's coaching style is leading his students down a bad path, intending to provide a more positive touch while he's there.
- We Used to Be Friends: He tried being a good senpai to Mikimoto by sparring and doing roadwork with him. He was rather surprised and disappointed when he abruptly left the gym to become a Loan Shark.
- What the Hell, Hero?: During his You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech to Mikimoto, he takes the time to call out Todoroki on his his Stern Teacher treatment and how it's affected both him and Mikimoto, saying that instead of motivating them like he intended, he just rubbed salt in their wounds.
Takeru Mikimoto
Voiced by: Hiromichi Tezuka (Japanese), Armen Taylor (English)
One of Todoroki's former trainees, who was a rising boxing star. He suffered a defeat from Oshikiri prior to the School Story which, combined with poor communication on Todoroki's part, caused him to quit the gym and become a loan shark.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He's stated to have hated training, but he was an Instant Expert and became a triple-crown champ, with Todoroki even thinking he'd go to the Worlds.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Downplayed. After Yagami finally fights and beats him, he gets belligerent when Todoroki starts berating him and threatens to quit for real. After Chizuru and Yagami give him a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech, he not only decides to keep going, but he also decides to return to the gym.
- Loan Shark: Currently works as one, and happens to be collecting on some of his former fellow trainees.
- Unknown Rival: Despite quitting the Todoroki gym, he's become obsessed with getting stronger than Oshikiri, to the point that he's taken part in the Genbukai upon hearing of how he participated in it. What Oshikiri thinks of him is unclear, but it's evident that he's more concerned about his dad than rival boxers.
- Took a Level in Badass: Todoroki notes that he's somehow gotten better after leaving the gym after he beats Chizuru in a spar. It's revealed that this is because he's been taking part in the Genbukai.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He's not his son per se, but once Yagami finally fights him, it's evident that he's largely motivated by wanting Todoroki to take back what he said to him after his loss to Oshikiri.
Girls' Bite
Haruko Kawasaki
Voiced by:
- Daddy's Girl: Haruko mentions that she and her father were close prior to her getting into a fight before leaving for college.
- Parting-Words Regret: While her father is still very much alive, Haruko does regret having a fight with him and wants to make it up to him somehow.
Ayaha Nara
Voiced by:
- Closet Geek: Ayaha is a huge fan of Captain Cop but keeps her nerdy side hidden out of fear of being shunned. Yagami encourages her not to be ashamed of her interests, and to engage in a conversation with a customer who likes the same show.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Ayaha comes across as a party girl who loves to drink and be the life of the party. This is all just an act: she's actually a die-hard anime fan and loves the Captain Cop tokusatsu show.
Miu Aoyama
Voiced by:
- Girl Next Door: Miu has this image as an idol, and she's genuinely wholesome and sweet even when away from the cameras.
- Idol Singer: Miu is an underground idol who does many live performances, making her more accessible to fans than regular idols.
- Perky Goth: Has a few stereotypically "jirai-kei" fashion choices and speech patterns, though her personality is very sweet.
- Stalker without a Crush: Miu's stalker is initially believed to be an unhinged fan, but it turns out that the stalker was one of Miu's idol senpais, who was jealous of her kohai's success.
RK
As a whole
- Arc Number: The number 1811, which represents their letters' positions in the alphabet. 18 being R and 11 being K.
- Batter Up!: Many of its members are armed with metal baseball bats which they are more than happy to take out and use on Yagami and his allies.
- Boss in Mook's Clothing: There's usually one or two of them per encounter that have much more health than the average mook and are noticeably more proactive. They also show up during random encounters.
- Combat Pragmatist: Due to being violent thugs and uncaring criminals, most of their ranks are almost always armed with bladed or blunt melee weapons to give themselves an advantage. Some even just straight up carry firearms, not the least bit caring about laws and will take any chance they get to get a leg up on Yagami and crew.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To the Tojo Clan, or at least the Matsugane Family in particular; where the Matsugane Family was a bunch of high-class fighters who at least paid lip service to the idea of being a Noble Demon, RK is a bunch of Gangbangers who embrace a rag-tag, ruthless image.
- Elite Mooks: To a degree. Compared to some of the standard yakuza grunts, they're a bit tougher and more difficult to take down, and are almost always packing heat.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Akutsu offers one of his officers a chance to get "first dibs" on Yagami with a chainsaw while he films it on his phone, the officer quickly gets cold feet and that was before Yagami points out that recording it would implicate him in murder.
- Fantastic Rank System: RK has a tier-based ranking system, with F being the lowest and A being the highest. Ex-Tojo members have the privilege of starting off B-rank members (with Kaito being offered by Akutsu to be A). This is done deliberately to entice ex-Tojo disillusioned by the difficulties of climbing the ranks under the old Yakuza hierarchy.
- Gangbangers: In contrast to the Yakuza of previous games, RK is a proudly Hangure
organization who couldn't give a toss about the dress code or manners, instead wearing utilitarian clothing or fashionable street wear. Notable exceptions are Soma and a few high-ranking lieutenants (who are mostly made up of Tojo veterans). - Good Running Evil: For a given value of "Good", but RK was effectively created by the Public Security Bureau to centralize organized crime after the disbanding of the Tojo Clan, though in practice this just means they're just doing the government's dirty work and they're ultimately just as bad as (if not worse) the yakuza of the past.
- Gratuitous English: They use an English name to deliberately distance themselves from the more traditionalist Yakuza.
- He Who Fights Monsters: They were created by the Public Security Bureau to stabilize organized crime after the disbanding of the Tojo Clan. Civilians and even criminals consider them to be even more monstrous and terrifying than the actual yakuza families that preceded them.
- Leitmotif: "1811". A hard-hitting EDM piece that plays in every fight against them in the story.
- Meaningful Name: As per Soma's words, "RK" stands for Red Knife. Sure enough, plenty of their members are almost never without a blade on hand to shank Yagami with.
- Moveset Clone: Ishikawa fights using the pipe-armed moveset of Kuze.
- Oddly Small Organization: Comparatively; It's stated that RK's actual membership count is simply in the 300s, which is small compared to the Tojo and Omi and that most of the grunts are simply contracted goons-for-hire rather than being full-fledged members. Later, it's stated that their numbers have swelled into the thousands - allowing them to control two cities at once - but that most of their members are amateur upstart gangbangers without the experience or clout of their core grou.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Thanks to Soma's contacts, RK can do things even the yakuza could not do under recent anti-gang laws. Soma's contact is Public Security that outright order the police to ignore RK's doing for the sake of controlling the underworld and having their own hit squad.
- Would Hurt a Child: They kidnap Koda and Akane to spite Yagami towards the end of the game.
- Would Hit a Girl: In their encounter with Sawa,, it's implied that either an RK member or Akutsu hit her pretty hard, as evidenced by the bruise on her lip when she opens the door to her house, after the first fight with Akutsu. That, and they have no problems with outright killing her.
Kazuki Soma (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Voiced by: Hiroshi Tamaki (Japanese), Matthew Yang King (English)
In truth, he's actually an undercover officer of the TMPD's Public Security Bureau (under orders from Bando of the NPA's Security Bureau) sent to infiltrate the criminal underworld and created RK as a means to bring a measure of control to the post-Tojo Clan Kamurocho.
- Animal Motif: Vipers. Soma is physically lean and he can get some nasty hits in using the element of surprise, nearly killing Yagami thanks to a good kick to the head that paralyzes him, while his Flash Step in his second boss fight is like a viper striking its prey. Like a viper's fangs, he uses sharp weapons such as his knife or an icepick. Also, it's the name of his battle theme. There's also the chapter where we get to find out Soma's past, which is titled "To Nourish A Viper."
- Arch-Enemy: To both Yagami and Kuwana. While Soma was already their enemy, murdering Yoko Sawa made it personal to both of them, to the point that they formed an Enemy Mine to bring him down.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Being a former hitman of the Nikkyo Consortium as well as an undercover cop, he's formidable enough to run his own gang and has the skill to back it up.
- Bad Boss: He has his main muscle Akutsu killed after Akutsu finds out about his role as a mole for Public Security. He also guns down one of his own men while trying to shoot Kaito.
- Badass Boast: As he says to Yagami when he kidnaps him after his visit to Sawa's apartment:Soma: First comes the pain, then the fear. You have to start with the pain. Fear won't work if you haven't given them a reason.
- He delivers a more sinister one later before he fights Yagami..after stabbing Kaito.
Soma: Have I ever tell you what RK stands for yet? (Soma holds up a stileto covered in blood) it's Red..Knife. - Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work:
- One of his onscreen victims is Akaike, one of Mitsuru's bullies who attacked Yagami more than once. Tellingly, Yagami only brings up Akaike's death once and really only focuses on his murder of Sawa.
- Before that, he had Akutsu killed after he found out about Soma's secret. Since some of Akutsu's actions beforehand were attacking Sawa, nearly killing Yagami with a chainsaw, and threatening Saori, nobody's really gonna miss him.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: He wears a windowpane three-piece suit, which sharply contrasts with the street clothes that his men wear. Unsurprising for someone who's a former (undercover) yakuza.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Like Akutsu, Soma doesn't have the demeanor of a dangerous ex-yakuza. In his case, his allergies and sniffing made him a laughingstock among the yakuza according to him. His former boss, however, remembers more of how he could do a hit like a pro. He is the first villain to beat Yagami by knocking him with a roundhouse kick.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Kuwana may be responsible for the bully murders that jumpstarted the entire story, but Soma is the other major culprit to take down for not only his murder of Sawa, but also his role as The Heavy of a larger and more sinister conspiracy.
- The Bully: In a game where its main theme is centred around the ramifications (both personal and societal) of unchecked bullying, Soma can be likened to a bully on a much larger scale. He leads a gang of thugs who romp the streets and harm innocent civilians with impunity due to Soma's connections to Public Security (who are in effect the apathetic teachers who refuse to rein in such actions for the sake of preserving the social order and their own self-interests).
- Character Tics: Due to having sensitive sinuses he can be seen occasionally holding a handkerchief to his nose.
- Climax Boss: The second-to-last boss in the story.
- Combat Pragmatist: Twice he enters a scene by attacking potential threats from behind, hospitalizing Kaito with two stab wounds in one scene and slitting the throat of Akaike in another. Later, he shoots Akane to distract the detectives as he makes his getaway after kidnapping her and Mami, though she's thankfully fine as he used a realistic-looking paintball gun. The pragmatism shows up again in his final battle with Yagami, where he attacks him in a freezer, using the cold mist to obscure himself. He also tries to go for a sneak attack right before the fight starts, Yagami just barely avoiding getting unceremoniously stabbed in the throat by him.
- Counter-Attack: Much like Yagami and Kuwana, he can parry attacks.
- Cowardly Boss: In the first phase of the showdown with him after having his health reduced he retreats to a meat locker where the real fight begins.
- The Dreaded: Akutsu definitely seems to respect his authority and capabilities and is outright terrified when it occurs to him that Soma's probably gonna off him when he learns that Soma is a mole for Public Security.
- Dual Wielding: He surprises Kaito by stabbing him both with an ice pick and then his stiletto knife. Although he drops the former when he fights Yagami.
- Exact Words: When Soma's interrogating Yagami, the latter asked what did he do to Sawa, to which Soma replies that she is 'sound asleep'. Later, when Yagami returns to her apartment and sees it had been ransacked, he finds Sawa lying on the floor sleeping... forever.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He calls Shinya Kawai, a bully who drove a classmate into attempting suicide, a low-life.
- Eviler than Thou: Played With. While Kuwana is still the overall Big Bad, being the instigator of the plot and the one who goes on to become the Final Boss, Soma and RK are so much of a larger threat, having much less moral scruples compared to Kuwana and being a much larger organization with connections and resources, that combined with him not being held accountable for Sawa's death, Yagami and Kuwana are compelled to pull an Enemy Mine to take them out before dealing with each other.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: The rematch against him takes place in a freezer which complements his Serial Killer aesthetic very well, especially as he vanishes in and out of the mist like a phantom.
- Faux Affably Evil: He constantly speaks in a cordial manner, never raising his voice. That barely conceals the cold-blooded sadist beneath.
- Flash Step: Bizarrely, he is capable of this during his fight in the freezer. It's telegraphed by him dropping his stance to nonchalantly walk away before suddenly zipping right behind Yagami regardless of the distance away from him. He also gets behind Yagami twice in the dynamic intro despite Yagami barely looking away from him both times.
- Gold Digger: According to Irie, Soma caught the Nikkyo Consortium's eye while gambling in one of their casinos, using money belonging to women that he apparently seduced. It's unknown whether this was true, given Soma's background or lack thereof.
- Groin Attack: He nearly stabs Yagami's crotch with his icepick while interrogating him, narrowly missing when Yagami jumped back in time.
- Handicapped Badass: Downplayed. He only has a non-life-threatening infection (chronic sinusitis), but it's still notable enough to mention and it helps make him appear as a non-threatening character at first glance.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The first fight with him ends with Yagami gaining the upper hand only for Soma to daze him with a kick to the head and threatening to kill him right then and there before ultimately making his escape. The final fight's Quick Time Event has Yagami return the favor by knocking him out cold with his own kick to the head.
- He Knows Too Much: Has his right-hand man Akutsu shot dead when he learns the truth about his connections with Public Security. This is also the reason why he killed Sawa, since she nearly connected the Mikoshiba murder and was going to tell Kuwana about it.
- Humiliation Conga: His final battle against Yagami as a whole. His group gets beaten by Yokohama 99, Yagami beats him down at the end of their fight and chokes him unconscious, and before he loses consciousness, Kuwana silently mocks him for his failure.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: After disarming him in their first fight, Yagami seems to think that Soma is done and briefly let his guard down, this brief moment gives Soma a chance hit him with a hard and swift roundhouse kick precisely to the temple, dazing him completely. This shows that Soma has more fight in him than just his knife, and ultimately making him the first villain to beat Yagami in a fight.
- I Gave My Word: An unspoken example, as he could have easily brought a live gun when he meets Yagami and co. after they save Koda and Akane, but elected to bring a paintball gun instead as Kuwana had negotiated for their lives.
- I Shall Taunt You: Uses it extensively during both of his solo fights, where if Yagami attacks him during his taunt, he'll respond with a Counter-Attack.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after his Japanese voice actor, Hiroshi Tamaki.
- Improvised Weapon: Carries around an ice pick that he states to reserve for women.
- Knight of Cerebus: While already a rather dark game, every single scene with Soma is treated with a very high level of gravitas to emphasize how serious of a threat he is to the point where he comes distressingly close to killing both Yagami and Kaito.
- Knight Templar: Soma insists that everything he does is to protect order in Japan. Running a violent street gang and murdering anyone who gets in his way are simply sacrifices he must make to bring about that order.
- Lean and Mean: He has a physically wiry build compared to most characters in the series and is a ruthless crime boss.
- Leitmotif: "Viper", a violin-centric piece that makes extensive use of "Psycho" Strings and Scare Chords to highlight just how dangerous and almost Slasher Movie SerialKiller-esque the man is. For the first phase of his final encounter as detailed under Cowardly Boss above, he uses "1811" to reference that he's fighting alongside other RK members.
- Living Lie Detector: He's stated to be able to see through any lie to the point that Akutsu states that he wouldn't even try to bullshit him.
- The Man Behind the Man: Although he's the brains behind RK, he prefers to leave the heavy lifting to Akutsu who serves as the group's figurehead.
- Marathon Boss: Similar to Kuroiwa, the last fight against Soma has multiple phases with their own health bars with the first phase having 4 health bars, and the second having 6 which would add up to a whopping 10 health bars, but only two health bars need to be taken out in the first phase. In practice, that means he has 8 health bars like Kuroiwa.
- The Mob Boss Is Scarier: Akutsu considers him so terrifying that he states that he would never dare lie to Soma's face.
- Mole in Charge: He's actually a cop who was planted in the Tojo and is now in charge of a Hangure group. And he's willing to resort to murder in order to maintain his cover.
- Mysterious Past: Due to Public Security erasing his records so he could infiltrate the Tojo Clan, nothing is known about Soma's past other than that he's a Public Security agent. The only thing we know is that he hated his Japanese schoolteacher.
- Necessarily Evil: Justifies his horrific actions as this trope as necessary for maintaining order. Yagami doesn't buy it at all.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Like Akutsu, he wasn't a particularly big name in the Tojo Clan but he's still way above the sort of street punks that make up the majority of RK. Unlike Akutsu, though, he has way more connections than he lets on. Kaito figures out Soma is a Public Security agent because his skills and intel are just too good for the yakuza he pretended to be.
- Not So Stoic: He briefly loses his cool when Sugiura kicks his gun away from his hand.Soma: That fucking hurts!
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Soma claims to work for the good of Japan, but aside from being a sadist who uses his job to indulge his bloodlust his actions are ultimately dedicated to enforcing the will of corrupt bureaucrats as well as lining their pockets. He states himself the difference between him and Kuwana is that he enjoys what he does as it gives him purpose. He also snarkily says that his icepick is for "killing women", a crude reference to his murder of Sawa, which truly shows his mindset.
- Pariah Prisoner: It's implied that after being arrested and exposed as an agent of Public Security, he's definitely going to face some serious retribution from the underworld since he's likely the reason so many of them got arrested due to him being a government rat.
- Pet the Dog: In his encounter with Yagami and co. after they rescue Koda and Akane, he asks Yagami to not drop Reiko Kusumoto's name in the court, as she requested, saying that "a mother doesn't want her child branded a murderer's son", showing that even he somehow felt a little sympathy for Kusumoto's situation. Soma even confirms to Yagami that he doesn't tangibly benefit from whether he actually name-drops her or not, further showing that this is at least some show of goodwill for her rather than an act.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Two times he runs away rather than finishing Yagami off because the threat of police makes him wary of being caught. He also shoots Akane with a paintball gun less because of morals and more because Kuwana would likely find out if he broke his word and expose Kawai's corpse.
- Pretty Boy: He's a pretty lean and handsome man, as expected considering the actor he's modeled after. He apparently used this to his advantage when he sought to catch the attention of the Nikkyo Consortium, charming women out of their money which he used to gamble in one of the Consortium's casinos.
- Psycho for Hire: He's ultimately a government spy whose job is to centralize organized crime in the wake of the Tojo Clan's disbandment, but he's also a legitimately cold-blooded psychopath who relishes torture and has no problems killing innocent civilians. Even the Tojo Clan was a bit disturbed by how quick and eager he was when carrying out hits back when he was a member.
- Psycho Knife Nut: Soma's very unhinged and scary, to compliment that he has a strong preference for his stiletto switchblade, as both of his encounters can attest.Soma even named his own organization RK to stand for "Red Knife", which he shows and explains to Yagami after stabbing Kaito. He also carries around an ice pick that he claims he reserves for women.
- Psychotic Smirk: Flashes these several times, the most notable one was when he held Sawa hostage with an ice pick to threaten Yagami.
- Sadist: Openly admits he enjoys his work, perhaps a bit too much.
- Scare Chord: Used extensively in his above-mentioned boss theme, "Viper", which gives him the vibes of a serial killer/slasher movie villain.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: According to Akutsu, he left the Tojo before they officially disbanded to start his own organization. As it turns out, it's because he was tipped off by his superiors in Public Security.
- Shadow Archetype: Soma is a dark reflection of both Yagami and Kuwana, representing the worst aspects of their ideals. Like Yagami, Soma upholds the law but it's because the law is what enabled him to run RK with impunity. Like Kuwana, Soma believes in the concept of a "necessary evil" if it means serving the greater good, but in Soma's case it is merely an excuse to cross any moral boundary for the sake of satiating his sadism (something that Soma himself points out as what differentiates him from Kuwana).
- Sinister Switchblade: He's plenty sinister, his weapon is a stiletto switchblade, and the name of his organization came from what happens when he uses it.
- Smoke Out: Uses this to its fullest extent during the intro and ending QTE to his final encounter a la Hirose. Fitting, since this fight is set in a freezer.
- The Sociopath: He's a self-admitted sadist who is cold and emotionally detached from practically everything. He possesses no strong emotional bonds to anyone and is willing to kill anyone in order to preserve his identity as Public Security's mole. Pretty much the only principle he has is being a man of his word.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: The guy hardly if ever raises his voice, which just makes him all the more terrifying to deal with.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- To Mitsuru Kuroiwa from the previous game. Both of them were Professional Killers for the Yakuza (Kuroiwa did hit jobs for Hamura, while Soma used to work for the Nikkyo Consortium) who enjoy their work a bit too much. They are also the chief enforcers of a government conspiracy, being the ADDC and Public Security respectively. They even use ice picks as a weapon at some point (Kuroiwa used one in his first battle with Yagami, Soma used one to kill Sawa and put Kaito in the hospital). The only difference between them is that Soma's allegiance is opposite of Kuroiwa's: Kuroiwa was a Detective who initially worked as a Yakuza informant, while Soma was instead the mole in the RK for public security, technically putting him on the side of the law. The comparison is indirectly brought up when Kaito brings up how Soma acts as what Americans would call a "mole", much to Yagami's bemusement considering Kuroiwa was dubbed The Mole by Yagami (albeit for different reasons).
- To Hiroaki Arai from Yakuza 4, both being undercover law enforcement officers sent to infiltrate the Tojo Clan in order to control Kamurocho's underworld from within. Difference is, however, that whereas Arai is the Token Good Teammate of that entire conspiracy and even helps stop it in the end, Soma is a part of his own, heinous conspiracy and is far and away one of the most terrifying antagonists in the series since the likes of Lao Gui or Kuroiwa.
- The Spymaster: His true purpose as a crime lord is to use RK as a spy network. Before then he was infamous for his ability to gather information and seemingly know things he shouldn't thanks to having access to the police database.
- Throwing Off the Disability: His allergies take a vacation when he starts fighting. It is entirely possible to be an act too look less threatening as his skills were pretty above a regular yakuza.
- Torture Technician: He's very well-versed in torture, either due to his underworld experience or government training. His skills are good enough that even the usually hard-boiled Yagami is affected.
- To the Pain: Defied; As he states, you start with the pain in order to give your victims a reason to fear you.
- Underestimating Badassery: Much like Akutsu and the other RK members, Soma seems to think Yagami is no threat and prioritizes stabbing Kaito instead, saying killing Yagami would be easy. After their first fight, he learned his lesson.
- Villainous Breakdown: He finally loses his cool at the end of the game when Yagami defeats him, charging in blindly when the detective finally corners him, disarming him in the process.
- Villain Has a Point:
- He scoffs when Kuwana calls him a murderer, pointing out that it's rich coming from him. While Kuwana's targets were all Asshole Victims, he's not actually wrong.
- Earlier when confronting Yagami and the YDA, he mentions that Reiko Kusumoto should not face any kind of justice for her murder of Shinya Kawai. Although he only did this for his own benefits, considering what Shinya Kawai has done, he's still got a point, even adding that Saori would've agreed with this as well.
- Weapon for Intimidation: Brings an extremely realistic paintball pistol to the kidnapping of Mami and Akane, using it as a distraction to escape. Subverted near the end when he carries an actual gun.
- Winter Warfare: Besides the fact that Lost Judgment is set in December (Winter), his final encounter takes place in a freezer. His theme, "Viper", also has parts that would remind one of winter-themed songs.
- The Worf Effect: To show how truly dangerous he is, he's the first person who's ever defeated Yagami in a one-on-one fight (Yagami's sparring match with Kenya Oshikiri in the Boxing sub-story notwithstanding) and would have killed him had it not been for the intervention of Siren's owner.
- Would Hit a Girl: Kills Yoko Sawa and later takes two of her female students as hostages. He even brags about how he typically reserves his icepick for women.
- Would Hurt a Child: Shoots Akane in the stomach with a paint gun. While it isn't fatal, it will still hurt.
- Wreathed in Flames: Visually, his battle aura has a resemblance to fire. Thematically, though Soma is supposed to be on the side of the law, he also relishes in the pain that he's able to give in his unique position; the flames shine bright, but give way to cruelty.
Daimu Akutsu
Voiced by: Kenji Hamada (Japanese), Brent Mukai (English)
- Ax-Crazy: Perhaps a little too excited about torturing people to death whereas one of his henchmen is clearly hesitant when ordered to use a chainsaw to mutilate Yagami.
- Asshole Victim: He's killed by Soma because He Knows Too Much. That said, he's also a brute who was very willing to eviscerate Yagami with a chainsaw, so he didn't go out as the most pleasant of people.
- Bad Boss: When he decides to upload a video of Yagami being chainsawed to death to the internet, Akutsu refuses to step in front of the camera so his men will be arrested for murder instead of him.
- Beware the Silly Ones: His ridiculous outfit, hairdo, and first impressions very much don't take away from how dangerous he is, not to mention that this guy used to be a member of the Nikkyo Consortium.
- The Brute: He's not unintelligent but he's not quite as smart or as competent as Soma. He still packs a lot of muscle perfect for intimidating punks or simply beating them down.
- Call-Back: If you remember the Boss Fight and very minor antagonist Takumi Midorikawa from Yakuza 4, this isn't the first time RGG Studios had a game feature a crazed maniac with dyed blonde hair and an ostentatious sense of fashion using a chainsaw against a much more agile opponent who managed to block and retaliate against it in a Quick Time Event using a conveniently placed mundane metal implement.
- Chainsaw Good: Uses a chainsaw against Yagami during one of his boss fights, Yagami disarms him with a folding steel chair.
- The Dragon: Technically this to Soma being that he's the second-highest ranking member of RK and handles gang's day-to-day business. In practice, he's more of The Brute.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Unceremoniously dies at the hands of some RK members pretending to be police.
- Evil Counterpart: To Kaito, with both being rough around the edges former Yakuza who act as the second in command to their partners. The difference is Kaito left the life and became a heroic private eye while Akutsu became a brute who relishes in thuggery and murder.
- The Face: He says so himself he is the face and frontman of RK while Soma makes the calls. He has the looks of a thug leader and he personally summons hostesses to give them a bonus when they earn well to encourage them to stay with RK.
- Faux Affably Evil: In his introduction, he takes a selfie with Yagami and Kaito, apologizes for his men fighting only to suggest that they might get stabbed in the back without a chance to fight back next time.
- Flunky Boss: Never fights Yagami and company without his boys.
- The Grappler: The majority of his attacks are a grapple move. Even his basic rush combo can lead into a grapple.
- He Knows Too Much: Gunned down by two RK members dressed as policemen after he learns the truth about Soma.
- The Heavy: Serves as Soma's right-hand man and is the public face of the RK.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: According to Higashi, back during his days in the Nikkyo Consortium he was an officer who could have risen higher in the ranks only for the Tojo Clan to disband before that could ever happen.
- Improvised Weapon: He may pick up nearby furniture to swing and toss at Yagami.
- Leitmotif: "K.O.G.", a very hard-hitting EDM track that puts emphasis on his vicious and violent nature.
- Made of Iron: Depleting his health won't make him stay down for long as he always gets back up for another round seconds later. Despite being beaten and restrained by Yagami, he still has enough strength to break free (though Yagami was weakened by the beatdown RK dealt him) and escape. Sugiura even comments on how resilient he is no matter how much he gets beaten. During the last fight against him, the dynamic intro has him No-Sell a flying kick to the chest by Yagami.
- Large and in Charge: As the second-in-command and the most prominent figure of the RK, Akutsu has an absolutely hulking physique, towering over all of his subordinates.
- Large Ham: Oh so much. Particularly in the English dub, where half of his battle lines are him ferociously screaming.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: He gives his underling a chainsaw and invites him to kill the tied up Yagami to "share the fun", to which the latter points out that he's just covering his ass and simply doesn't have the guts to do the deed by himself on camera. Enraged, Akutsu grabs the chainsaw to try and prove him otherwise.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He wasn't a very big name in the Tojo Clan, but simply being an ex-yakuza as opposed to a random street thug puts him way above the majority of RK.
- Obviously Evil: Looks like a quintessential violent street thug with the addition of an unnerving smile. He very much is.
- Oh, Crap!: Starts panicking when he learns Soma is a mole for Public Security, specifically that since he knows Soma is listening in he has now become a liability to liquidate.
- Properly Paranoid: After Kaito correctly deduced that Soma is a Public Security agent, Akutsu's the only one with the sense to suggest getting out of the club, knowing that Soma was listening in on them as they speak.
- Recurring Boss: Fought four separate times throughout the story.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He was a former member of the Nikkyo Consortium who jumped ship alongside Soma before the disbanding of the Tojo Clan.
- Slasher Smile: He flashes a particularly gruesome one in the intro credits, and a couple of times in the main story, particularly in Chapter 7, while he attempts to kill Yagami with a chainsaw.
- Strong, but Unskilled: Apart from his wrestling moves his primary means of combat are wild punches and grabs, relying more on brute strength than any kind of technique.
- Tattooed Crook: Rather than the Irezumi that most Yakuza sport, he has tribal tattoos under his shirt that make him look more like a common street thug.
- Unwitting Pawn: He has no idea that Soma is an undercover cop or that RK are puppets of Public Security. Soma kills him when he learns the truth.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Specializes in several pro-wrestling moves such as a Dropkick, the People's Elbow, the Giant Swing, and the German Suplex.
Yokohama Liumang
Tesso
Voiced by: Jun Kasama (Japanese), SungWon Cho (English)
- Affably Evil: After he's beaten, he's very cordial and polite to Yagami and co, and even helps them deal with a mutual foe in RK.
- Battle in the Rain: It starts raining as part of his Dynamic Intro and for the rest of the fight against the Liumang after he's defeated.
- Blood Knight: Fights Yagami for this reason, since he's not one to back away from a good fight.
- The Cavalry: He's among the characters who helps Yagami out in the ending by having the White Masks deal with Bando's cops so they can make their way to Soma.
- Dark Is Not Evil: A dangerous gang leader dressed in all black and has a scary pair of knife gloves but he doesn't seem interested in causing too much unnecessary trouble and is happy to work with Yagami's group against the much more malevolent RK Gang.
- Duel Boss: The first time he's fought, he insists on facing off with Yagami 1-on-1 despite being surrounded by his henchmen. After his defeat though, they take up the fight in the ensuing clash with Kaito and Kuwana jumping in to give Yagami some support.
- Defeat Equals Friendship: After his second defeat and some explanations from Yagami to clear up any further misunderstandings, he forms a truce with Yagami to deal with RK. It's to the extent that he's willing to call Yagami "brother", effectively tying him to the White Mask Branch of the Yokohama Liumang and granting him and his allies some level of protection.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Yagami suggests calling Reiko Kusumoto from the restaurant that they're currently in, Tesso tells Yagami outright to not lead Public Security to Liumang territory, as even the Yokohama Liumang realize that going up against them is downright suicide.
- He brings up Sawa's (a civilian's) death as a reason to immediately want RK out of the city, though that might just be Pragamtic Villainy.
- He is also shocked at Kuwana having killed seven bullies in the past, he was expecting a lower body count.
- Flunky Boss: Has his men fight alongside him the second time he challenges Yagami.
- Genre Savvy: Played for Laughs. When Yagami and Kuwana have another fight about their ideals after the former's venture into the Geojimul, he and Sugiura clear out and give them some breathing room after clearly reading the room that their fight is about to get physical. Even after the boss fight, the two are still slugging at each other and he remarks that Yagami and Kuwana will tire out eventually.
- Leitmotif: "Liumang's Chant", a very dark and foreboding piece that showcases the true terror of the Yokohama Liumang. Interestingly enough, this only plays the first time he's fought. During the second fight, the more general leitmotif of Liumang's White Mask Branch, "Hydra" plays. It might be since he's fighting with his crew this time instead of fighting Yagami solo like before.
- Malevolent Masked Men: He leads the White Mask Branch of the Yokohama Liumang. The actual white masks they wear are rather basic in design with a single slit for both eyes and a black snake illustrated on one side of the mask but they're rather menacing nonetheless and do their job in completely hiding their wearer's identity, at least until Yagami shatters one of their masks after his first encounter with them. Tesso himself puts one on before your second fight with him despite initially greeting Yagami without it.
- Meaningful Name: His name means "Metal Hands" in Chinese, which is very fitting considering his weapon choice.
- Recurring Boss: He's fought twice in the game.
- Rugged Scar: He has two scars that crisscross on his face.
- Wolverine Claws: He fights Yagami with a pair of knife gloves. Unlike Lau Ka Long's own from Yakuza 3, his have the claws connected to each finger as opposted to jutting from the knuckles, not only making them more flexible but also making them very Freddy Krueger-esque.
- Villain Respect: He shows sincere respect after Yagami bests him in a fight. Enough for him to consider him an honorary brother to the Yokohama Liumang, all but meaning that he has their protection and that they'll back off of him for the time being.
Public Prosecutors
Sadao Takano
Voiced by: Masamichi Kitada (Japanese), Yuri Lowenthal (English)
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Appears during the prologue of the game during Ehara's trial, but starts having voiced appearances during Chapter 11.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's haughty and stiff, but he is on the side of delivering the truth above all else. Despite being antagonistic towards them at the start, once Genda Law proves themselves in court, he's willing to admit that he misjudged them and put too much stock in his own status. He's fully willing to expose Bando's criminal involvements without hesitation even after Bando threatens his career.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Izumida from the first game, though he's far less unscrupulous.
Kanagawa Prefectural Police Department
Kisuke Watanabe
Voiced by: Shigeo Kiyama (Japanese), Edward Bosco (English)
- Deadpan Snarker: Has a pretty solid sense of humor since he and Yagami exchange a few wisecracks.
- Expy: He's Dick Gumshoe if he existed in the Yakuza / Judgment universe, albeit much more cynical.
- Face of a Thug: He might look like your typical thug, but he's actually a very competent police officer who cares about doing his job and is, naturally, not very pleased at the information (and Ehara) being withheld from him by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police since Mikoshiba was killed in Yokohama, which is rightfully Kanagawa jurisdiction.
- Foil: To Ayabe in the first game, both are disheveled looking detectives giving information to Yagami. Ayabe is a Dirty Cop who's only interested lining his pockets for the sake of his own benefits, while Watanabe however, is a Dirty Cop only because his own bosses ask him to be one for the sake of their own Necessary Evil.
- Forced into Evil: He isn't all that bad a man, but he's unfortunately a cog in a corrupt system. He ends up being forced to fight Yagami in order to keep him from investigating Soma's involvement in Sawa's death, as his higher-ups would rather Kuwana take the fall than lose the valuable intel RK could provide.
- Jaded Washout: He is a good detective giving how fast he realized the meaning behind the politics at play but he doesn't care to stand against him even though he claims to be a good cop. Yagami calls him out on this.
- Jurisdiction Friction: He gets one, funny enough, from uniformed Kanagawa Police officers after Yagami and company tried to leave the downtown area of Ijincho to confront RK one last time. Said friction is due to orders from Bando.
- Lawman Baton: When fought as a boss he uses a collapsible baton.
- One-Hit Kill: Fail the Quick Time Event during your fight against him and Yagami's down for the count after being tossed into the nearby body of water.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite initially (and understandably) detaining Yagami for trespassing at the site of Mikoshiba's murder, he's more than willing to hear him out and even reaches a mutual agreement with him in regards to the information that they have on Mikoshiba's case.
- Retractable Weapon: His boss fight has him take out a collapsible baton to take on Yagami.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: With someone like Yagami, this wouldn't be too surprising.
- Sword and Fist: Relies on a collapsible baton to fight but will still perform kicks and knee strikes.
Civilians
Kosuke
Voiced by: Genki Muro (Japanese), Bryce Papenbrook (English)
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When RK invade the Tatami Room that YDA followed him into at the beginning of the game and Yagami tries to find Soma there later on, he begs Yagami - who had got him in trouble with his former employer and cost him his relationship - to save him.
- Loose Lips: After Yagami and Kaito stuff him into the van, Kosuke is surprised to see Keiko inside waiting for him. He quickly tries to explain himself and to not believe what the two detectives tell her. Unfortunately, he accidentally addressed her as “Yuko-Chan”, effectively exposing himself as a womanizing cheater.
- Moveset Clone: As "Hyper" Kosuke-kun, he uses Yoshitaka Mine's moveset from Yakuza 3 though he doesn't share Mine's incredibly high movement speed, instead moving about at a more standard pace.
- Pretty Boy: He's got the looks down pat, at least. Little wonder why Keiko fell for him.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Tries invoking the Tojo Clan's name in a pitiful attempt to scare Yagami. He doesn't buy it.
- Stalking Mission: Notably, he's the only character you tail in the entire story, as the Tailing Missions are kept to a bare minimum in this game compared to the first, and all primarily kept to side content.
- Starter Villain: A relatively minor one, but he's Yagami's first case subject in Lost Judgment and effectively serves as the tutorial of the game.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Thinks that hitting the gym only once a week is a good hill to die on when it comes to his chances against someone like Yagami.
- Super Boss: He serves as one in The Gauntlet, as "Hyper" Kosuke-kun, where he's now treated like an actual Boss encounter instead of the Boss in Mook's Clothing that he was in the beginning. He's a bit more formidable, but not by much, and that's only because Yagami is nerfed to his default skills during his fight.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Has the same exact role as Uzawa from the first Judgment, being the laughable tutorial boss who makes a short return near the end of the game to give the heroes some helpful info. There's even a near-identical scene at the start where Yagami shows off his lawyer badge after beating him up in an alley.
Akihiro Ehara (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Voiced by: Ken Mitsuishi (Japanese), Artt Butler (English)
- Zero-Approval Gambit: Deliberately antagonizes the court to guarantee a guilty verdict in the groping case.
- Blatant Lies: His explanation for how he knew about Mikoshiba's murder is that "it came to him in a dream". No matter how insane it sounds, he knows he's not going to be convicted of homicide either way, which is the point he's trying to make.
- Chekhov's Gun: He's in possession of the knife that he used to murder Mikoshiba with. He's been saving it for the impact it would have when he revealed to the court that he did, in fact, kill Mikoshiba, after his stint for the (faked) groping.
- Confess to a Lesser Crime: His scheme is a roundabout way of doing this; if he is sentenced for sexual battery, his alibi for Mikoshiba's murder becomes legally iron-tight, even if he reveals he murdered Mikoshiba later. This was the whole point; for him to publicly get away with murder over a case that turned out to be deliberately faked on his part would be a massive scandal for the judiciary.
- Dirty Cop: He's a willing accomplice of Kuwana, deliberately taking the fall as a sex offender as part of their shared scheme to humiliate the court. It's more tragic than most examples of this trope, as he's driven by vengeful anger towards the system that allowed the man who drove his son to commit suicide to walk free.
- Dirty Old Man: Invoked and subverted. Ehara faked the groping on the station on Kuwana's orders to get away with murdering Mikoshiba and make a mockery of the justice system.
- Fallen Hero: He went from an honest cop who served the law dutifully to despising the legal system for failing his son.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after his Japanese voice actor, Ken Mitsuishi.
- Killer Cop: He killed Mikoshiba for driving his son to commit suicide.
- My Greatest Failure: He holds just as much personal guilt over the suicide of his son as he does anger over the justice system that let his son's tormentor walk. When he first found out about Toshiro's bullying problem, he scolded his son for being too weak to stand up for himself. He realized too late that he had just ensured that his son would never again open up to him about his problems until it was too late.
- Never My Fault: Despite his personal acknowledgment that he should have been a better father when Toshiro was still alive, he refuses to accept responsibility for the death of Sawa, which was indirectly caused by his murder of Mikoshiba. Yagami counters that by this line of logic, Mikoshiba should be considered innocent because he didn't directly murder Toshiro.
- No Sympathy: Has none for Hiro Mikoshiba, and upon being told that Mikoshiba's last moments were likely spent in a great deal of fear and pain, he responds by saying: "Isn't that great?" Given that Mikoshiba turned out to be an utter asshole in secret, and what he did to Toshiro, it's not hard to see why.
- Outliving One's Offspring: His son committed suicide after facing intense bullying, and after his attempts to seek legal justice failed he wanted nothing more than to take vengeance against Mikoshiba as well as make a mockery of the law.
- Papa Wolf: He dragged Seiryo High into court after his son committed suicide. When Mikoshiba walked away free, Ehara decided to take the law into his own hands with Kuwana's help.
- Quit Your Whining: When he first learned that Toshiro was bullied back in Middle School, rather than offer any sort of support Ehara instead scolded him for perceived weakness, ensuring that Toshiro would not only never open up to anyone but would remain silent about any future bullying until it was too late. Looking back on it, he laments his failure to recognize that coming forth about his pain took a lot of courage itself and how he only succeeded in driving his son away.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When finally forced into confessing his murder to prevent Yagami from destroying the last piece of evidence that Toshiro was victimized, Ehara lets out a venomous rant against the Justice System that failed his family:Ehara: All of you. You're all so incompetent. You see yourselves as these paragons of law and justice, yet the truth slips right through your fingers! (to Takano) And then, my alibi made you a mockery. I made it so real. You passed me off as just another pervert. You were gullible. Every single one of you. Toshiro threw his life away and justice was blind to his pain. Mikoshiba walked free because of you! You condone murder and call yourselves the law?! That's why… That's why I did it. I took Mikoshiba's life with my own hands.
- Revenge Before Reason: He adamantly refuses to admit he murdered Mikoshiba, even if it results in Kuwana being killed by Public Security. All he cares about is humiliating the legal system that allowed his son to die. He only confesses after Yagami threatened to delete the recording of Sawa confessing to her belief that Mikoshiba drove Ehara's son to commit suicide, as it's the only memory Ehara has left of his son.
- Sympathetic Murderer: He's a grieving parent who was given the chance to enact revenge on both the bully who pushed his son to suicide as well as (in his eyes) the justice system that failed them.
- Villainous Breakdown: After venting his frustrations towards the justice system and publicly confessing to Mikoshiba's murder, Ehara breaks down in tears over his son.
Toshiro Ehara
- Bully Magnet: Toshiro suffered from bullying in middle school, and it only got worse when he reached high school and endured relentless torment from Mikoshiba.
- Driven to Suicide: Unable to handle Mikoshiba's constant bullying anymore, Toshiro took his own life in 2018.
- Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Mikoshiba used to steal Toshiro's lunch money, and then escalated to breaking into his house to steal the dinner money that Toshiro's mother left for him.
- Posthumous Character: Toshiro's been dead for almost four years by the time the game starts, but he still plays a significant role in the story.
- Small Role, Big Impact: His suicide would drive Akihiro Ehara to take the law into his own hands by murdering Mikoshiba before staging a groping as an alibi for the murder.
Tetta Chiyoda
The leader of the Blue King, a rival to the Ijincho Hounds.
- Always Someone Better: Was this to Shikishima when they were in the art club.
- Dream-Crushing Handicap: He's revealed to have wanted to be an artist when he was younger, but he needed surgery on his right hand that affected his drawing ability, forcing him to give up on his dream. Shikishima's motivation for joining the Ichinjo Hounds was to convince him to Subvert this by training to draw with his other hand instead. After Shikishima gets exposed by Yagami and he explains his motives, Chiyoda agrees to give art another go.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He smokes despite being underage, which Yagami takes note of. Despite this, he's a Nice Guy despite the Blue King's reputation.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: As he tells Yagami, he and his group just like to skateboard and take no part in things like shakedowns or more serious displays of delinquency. Their bad reputation is just a result of public perception and stereotyping.
- Red Baron: When he was still in the art club, he was called "Tetta Chiyoda, Artistic Genius".
Girlfriends
Of the four girlfriends Yagami can date in the game, only Emily is available in the base game. Tsukino Saotome from the previous game returns as one of the DLC girlfriends (Sana, Amane and Nanami do not); for her tropes, see the first game's character sheet.
Emily S. Mochizuki
Voiced by: Lynn (Japanese), Faye Mata (English)
- But Not Too White: Half-English on her father's side.
- Cloudcuckoolander: She goes with her own flow, to quote her coworkers, and even calls Yagami by her dog's name at first instead of his actual name. Though she reveals later on that it was because he didn't interest her at the time.
- Dude Magnet: Countless students have proposed their love to her back in high school, and to no one's surprise, she declined every single request.
- First-Name Basis: Uniquely for the girlfriends, she calls Yagami by his first name without honorifics. It's likely a byproduct of her partial English heritage, since it's a lot more socially acceptable to refer to close acquaintances with their first names in the West than it is in Japan.
- Funny Foreigner: Played for Drama. Back in high school, her grasp of the Japanese language was very limited, and that caused her classroom friends to tease her and make fun of her constantly over it.
- Mysterious Middle Initial: Played for Drama as she was bullied for having an Embarrassing Middle Name. It's Suzy.
- Official Couple: She's the only dateable girlfriend in the base game. If the player wants to complete all the side cases and fight Juzo Amon; she has to be dated (Yagami can't reject her like he could with the girlfriends in the past game).
- Perfect Play A.I.: When it comes to the countdown game of darts, she will hit her target virtually every time and finish in the least amount of throws possible. The player only has a chance of victory because they always go first, but if you miss even a single throw, you can pretty much kiss any chance of victory good bye.
Kyoko Hakase
Voiced by: Nozomi Yamamoto (Japanese), Kira Buckland (English)
- Afraid of Blood: Despite her profession, she is scared of blood. She's capable of treating bleeding, but her treatments can be painful since her hands shake from her fear.
- Batter Up!: Not a baseball bat, but rather an actual baseball. She can help Yagami out during random encounters by tossing one at a random mook's face, which usually guarantees one less mook to deal with. Alternatively, and humorously, should one fail the QTE whenever she shows up, Yagami will be the one to get decked in the face with the baseball instead!
- Hidden Depths: She's really good at darts and shogi, owing to her attention to detail and dedication to her precise handiwork.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Although she originally wore an apron, she's stuck to a lab coat due to her sensitivity to Seiryo's opinion of her.
- Mythology Gag:
- She used to be a Real Estate Agent before she became a nurse at Seiryo. Real estate, you say?
- She's also a big fan of Ono Michio, even making her own statue of the Hiroshima mascot from scratch.
- One-Steve Limit: Downplayed. She isn't the only Kyoko that Yagami encounters in Seiryo. But then again, both characters go by a Last-Name Basis anyway, thus avoiding confusion.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: If Sawa is comparable to Sadayo Kawakami from Persona 5, then Hakase bears some resemblance to Tae Takemi. Hakase, like Takemi, is very talented at making their own medications, wears a Lab Coat while at work, and also uses the protagonist as her test subject for her homemade medications.
- Worst Aid: She manages to reduce Yagami to a single hit point by attempting to patch him up after he gets into a brawl with unsavory men, and going to her for treatment can deal you damage (she compensates Yagami with an extract in the first case and with healing items in the latter.) This isn't limited to Yagami; a student comes in with a minor scrape from playing rugby and emerges worse for wear.
- Younger than She Looks: She's only 32 years old (and also the oldest potential girlfriend Yagami can date), yet she looks more like she's in her late 30's to early 40's. Being a workaholic who spends lots of late nights at Seiryo tends to do that.
Minato Todo
Voiced by: Hina Tachibana (Japanese), Cristina Pucelli (English)
A young woman with crippling self-esteem issues who works as a mascot.
- Age-Gap Romance: She's 20 years old, as old as Tsukino was in the first game, meaning she and Yagami have an 18 year age gap.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Minato's a big fan of manzai comedy, and the climax of her storyline is her and Yagami performing a routine at a competition; her playing the boke, and Yagami the tsukkomi.
- Flung Clothing: She's able to do the series' iconic shirt rip to take off her full-body Kamulop costume.
- Love at First Sight: Implied. After Yagami helps her and she unofficially hires him to assist her further she whispers under her breath that they'll be together forever. This is after the two have had maybe two conversations at most.
- Shrinking Violet: Her character arc deals with her breaking out of her shell with Yagami's help. She's introduced working as a mascot because it allows her to talk to people without showing her face or looking them in the eyes.
Kaito Files
Main Characters
Mikiko Sadamoto
Voiced by: Eri Miyajima (Japanese), Suzie Yeung (English)
- Action Girl: Flashbacks show that she was capable of putting yakuza in armlocks and able to intimidate members of the Matsugane clan through her sheer determined nature. Evidently, even with the physical trauma she endured before the events of the story, she still hasn't slowed down all that much. Sadamoto orchestrating the deaths of the Crimson Lotus was actually a Race Against the Clock because there was a very real possibility that Mikiko would take them out first during her Roaring Rampage of Revenge and potentially reveal something that could incriminate him.
- Action Mom: Besides knowing how to kick ass, she's also Jun's mom and his mentor, as she taught him martial arts and how to fight.
- Big Sister Instinct: Kaito's introduction to her was her holding another Matsugane man in a painful armlock for manhandling her sister, Maho, and threatening to break the guy's arm, and on top of that once she learned that Maho was harassed by bullies at high-school, she joined and trained at a dojo just to drive the bullies off.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Where to begin? Her biological parents died when she and Maho were still kids, leaving the latter as the only family she had left to look after. Then, just when it looks like her life was looking up, along came Kyoya and him orchestrating the death of her foster family (Maho included). Throw in breaking up with Kaito on a sour note, and getting pushed down a waterfall would be the least of her worries compared to everything else Kyoya puts her (and her son) through for most of the story.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: When she and Kaito were dating, her parents didn't exactly approve of their relationship due to Kaito being with the yakuza at the time.
- Dude Magnet and Ms. Fanservice: She is VERY attractive and easy on the eyes, especially when considering her age (38 years old) and because of that, many men (understandably) show attraction to her, including Kaito, Shirakaba, and Senda. Kaito even asks Igarashi if he too has fallen for her, to which he gives a bit of a non-committal answer but admits he respects her drive and backbone. Ironically enough, one of the only men who shows no hints of love or being truly attracted to her is her own husband.
- Contralto Of Danger: Both Japanese and English audio tracks give her quite the deep voice, matching her fiery personality.
- First-Name Basis: She's the only character in the entirety of the Judgment series that refers to Kaito by his given name "Masaharu."
- Mama Bear: If you hurt either Maho or Jun, there's a pretty big chance that you'll end up with at least a couple of broken bones.
- Made of Iron: The fact that she survives falling down a waterfall and manages to come out of falling down a building relatively unscathed (though not without Kaito taking the brunt of the landing) shows that she isn't one to be taken lightly.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: It's revealed that she's been going after members of the Crimson Lotus who were responsible for the fire that killed her family. And at the top of that list is her husband, who orchestrated the whole thing. Unfortunately, said husband counted on that happening and manipulated events so that Crimson Lotus would go down in a way that solely incriminated her.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Kaito's equivalent of Yumi from the first Yakuza game, down to the former being a much better Parental Substitute to her son than his actual father.
- The One That Got Away: She was in a relationship with Kaito in the past before his loyalty to the Matsugane Clan led to a bitter break-up. They rekindle their romance at the end of the story.
- The Worf Effect: She proved herself capable against typical rank-and-file yakuza grunts in flashbacks. However, she gets overpowered and taken hostage during her Roaring Rampage of Revenge by Kenmochi, demonstrating his monstrous strength.
Jun Sadamoto
Voiced by: Yūki Shin (Japanese), Paul Castro Jr. (English)
- Armor-Piercing Question: At the end of the game, when Mikiko has Kyoya held up at gunpoint, declaring that their entire marriage has been a lie, Jun tearfully asks a question that cuts deep:Jun: Why, Mom!? What happens now? You gonna get locked up? You leaving me again? What was it you said? Everything was a lie? Was I a lie too?!
- Big "WHAT?!": His reaction to finding out Shirakaba is in love with Mikiko. Naturally, being her son, he doesn't exactly take it very well.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: The boy will jump in to help any troubled individual he comes across, confronting thugs who are much bigger and stronger than himself (and possibly armed) without hesitation, even in the middle of tailing someone. Kaito thinks Jun only lacks a mask and a cape.
- Family of Choice: Even though Kaito isn't his biological father, that doesn't stop Jun from seeing him as a far better father figure, especially by the end of the campaign. Kaito in turn also warms up to Jun by the end, having spent much of the DLC looking out for him.
- Fiery Redhead: He has bright red dyed hair and is pretty Hot-Blooded.
- Lampshade Hanging: On a few occasions. Notably when he and Kaito are tailing Kenmochi.Jun: A live stakeout... I've seen that on detective shows before. Don't they get boring after a while?
- Le Parkour: He demonstrates some surprising free-running skills when escaping out of the Bato Detective Agency's hideout.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: He's a passionate and empathetic individual, unlike his cold-blooded and self-serving father. It would be more accurate to say that Jun takes after his mother.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Invoked; Jun thinks he's Kaito's biological son, and leverages it to get Kaito's help. Subverted, as the diary entry he got this from wasn't talking about keeping a fetus, but a loan from Kaito that she didn't need to pay back - he's Kyoya's son, as much as he, his mother, and Kaito would like otherwise.
- Manly Tears: As horrible as his father was, Jun makes no attempt to hide the emotional toll that his death (and also Kyoya holding him hostage at knifepoint) took on him, with Kaito comforting him as his composure breaks.
- Momma's Boy: While he's frosty with his father for very understandable reasons, he has nothing but positive things to say about his mother. The main reason why he wants to stop Mikiko from killing Kyoya is because she'll go to prison for it, and he doesn't want to be separated from his mother again.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: His fear of knives stems from when his father cut him on the arm when he didn't stop messing with them. Since then he's started to be more aware of Sadamoto's darker personality and thus his fear of knives is symbolically a fear of the man. At the end of the DLC when Sadamoto holds him at knife point and threatens Mikiko to shoot Kaito, but seeing Kaito be brave and stand up to his father makes Jun personally end his fear of knives and thus Sadamoto for good.
- Smoking Is Not Cool: Since he's underage, his smoking is not treated as a good thing. When he whips out a pack of cigarettes, Kaito quickly snatches it away and chews him out for it.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Serves as the Haruka to Kaito's Kiryu, especially with how Jun follows Kaito around for most of the game. Though unlike Haruka, he does prove to be helpful, even in gameplay where he provides Kaito with an assist in an EX Action.
- Tagalong Kid: Serves as one for Kaito throughout much of the DLC.
- Trauma Button: Knives. The second he sees someone pull a blade on him, he passes out. For a very good reason since Kyoya cut Jun when he was younger because he played with his knife collection.
- Younger Than He Looks: He's only 14 during the events of the DLC, but he looks like he's midway through high school.
Kyoya Sadamoto (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (Japanese), Stephen Fu (English)
- Abusive Parents: He attacked his own son with a knife in the past just because he caught him playing with his knife collection. And that's not getting into what he puts him through during the events of the DLC.
- Affectionate Nickname: Kenmochi calls him "Kyo-chan". Even when he's strangling him to death, he continues to call him by that nickname.
- Asshole Victim: After his fight with Kaito, he's brutally strangled to death by Kenmochi. Considering the type of person he was, however, he absolutely had it coming.
- Batman Gambit: He counted on Mikiko going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Crimson Lotus and used it as a means of disposing of his criminal connections. The plan was conceptually less full-proof however, as he had to kill them first to ensure that Mikiko couldn't get any incriminating information out of them about him.
- A more subtle but successful one happens before the events of the game. Kyoya confesses his love for Mikiko while she was already deeply involved with Kaito. When she turns him down, he pretends to accept this hoping that when it came down to it, Kaito would choose the Yakuza over her, which is actually what Kaito does. Mikiko leaves him, and Kyoya quickly takes his place and continues his sinister plans for her family. Even if Kaito did consider leaving the Yakuza, he could simply offer whatever else he needed.
- Big Bad: As the one Mikiko is gunning for, he's this for The Kaito Files.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He seems like a concerned if flawed parent and husband when he's introduced. Then it turns out that he's a psychopath willing to cut down anyone just to make a buck.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Subverted. When Kenmochi hears the truth about the fire, Kyoya confirms it due to already poisoning him and the remaining Crimson Lotus members, just as it takes effect. The only reason this backfires anyway (besides being defeated by Kaito) is that Kenmochi ultimately survives long enough to finish him off.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Once his true nature is revealed in the climax, he gleefully gloats about all of his deeds and acts as cartoonishly villainous as possible.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He betrayed his own wife's trust by murdering her entire family through his connections with the Crimson Lotus. The DLC story has him then wipe out the Crimson Lotus in order to free himself of his criminal connections.
- Climax Boss: Is the man responsible for the events of the DLC, the confrontation with him wrapping up the development of Jun and Mikiko. While he's not the Final Boss, the fight against him is the most important one in the story.
- Combat Pragmatist: In his fight, aside from using poisoned knives he also whips out other weapons such as a stun gun and a spray can.
- Complexity Addiction: He already had access to the Natsume family fortune through his marriage to Mikiko, but he decided to plot their deaths just so that he could have it all to himself. And to achieve that, he thought the best course of action was to ingratiate himself into family well enough to drug them with sleeping pills and then get Crimson Lotus to burn the house down by giving them false information. And then, to get rid of his criminal connections, he plotted to kill Crimson Lotus as well. He in effect became a mass murderer for no other reason than thinking that murder would earn him money faster.
- Conspicuous Consumption: Pretty much why he's constantly in the need for money despite his boasts of always turning a profit. The guy spends exorbitant amounts of money on rare but ultimately useless items. Just the watch that Jun frisked off of him to pay for Kaito's services was worth over 19 million yen, and Jun states that he has a whole collection of them. Mikiko was able to afford her whole crusade and some just by pawning her wedding ring Kyoya gave her.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's a CEO who is willing to stoop to murder just to keep his business profitable.
- Counter-Attack: May enter a counter attack stance where he raises his hand in front of his face with the knife end pointing forwards. Attacking him in this state will have him quickly slash horizontally sending Kaito stumbling to the floor.
- Dirty Coward: Despite all his gloating about control, the moment the tides turn against him, he's left a stammering mess unable to even speak properly.
- Dissonant Serenity: Arguably the most disturbing thing about him post-reveal is how his tone and behaviour contrasts his actions and what he says about them. Instead of acting your normal, gleeful Ax-Crazy nutjob you'd usually find in the series, he treats his crimes and murders going off without a hitch like a businessman celebrating a project going well, almost as if giving an enthusiastic toast. Even when Kaito calls him out on the collateral he caused trying to kill a measly four people at the school reunion he organized, he shrugs it off in a tone that one would use when talking about a minor roadwork in a development process.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Downplayed. While Mikiko absolutely despised him after learning the truth and Jun didn't respect him all that much due to his neglectful parenting, it's Implied that Jun did in fact care for him deep down, and is upset by his true nature and subsequent death. He even recounts a time where Kyoya took him out on a drive in a new car he just bought and said they could go anywhere he wanted, though he speculates that it may have just been an excuse to go on a drive. Kaito, having his own experience with an abusive father, is quick to comfort Jun over this. Basically explaining how even people like their fathers can't be held accountable for everything that goes wrong.
- Faux Affably Evil: To the nth degree. He does not drop his charming, happy-go-lucky facade even when he puts a knife on Jun's throat in front of Kaito and Mikiko and shows them how he poisoned everyone in the Crimson Lotus reunion party.
- Foreshadowing:
- Jun attempts to pay for Kaito's services with Sadamoto's watch, which turns out to be worth over 19 million yen and part of a collection. A baffled Kaito is left questioning how anyone could get that kind of money, which hints that Sadamoto has been dipping into his company's funds and would have a need for more money than he was legally earning.
- While he was always established as neglectful to his family, Jun recounting how Sadamoto cut him for playing with his knives is the first sign of his truly despicable nature.
- Mikiko bitterly says that the trigger for her memory coming back was seeing Kyoya looking smug during a televised interview. This hinted at Mikiko's hatred towards her husband.
- Gold Digger: The only reason he married Mikiko was to get his hands on the Natsume family fortune.
- Greed: Making money is literally the only thing he cares about, and he'll lie and kill without remorse just to keep it flowing.
- Hate Sink: He turns out to be a complete scumbag willing to kill his own wife's entire family just to keep his company profitable, all while maintaining an insufferably smug air of superiority. If that was not bad enough, he proceeds to kill off his supposed "friends" and several innocent people, threatening Mikiko to shoot Kaito and herself or else he would kill Jun. Such actions make Sadamoto stand alongside the likes of Jingu, Iwami and Kuroiwa as some of the most repugnantly evil characters in the franchise, that even hardened criminals like Igarashi are disgusted with him.
- Idiot Ball: The entire DLC was the result of him grabbing it, as Lampshaded by Igarashi. In a rare moment for him, he once got drunk, left his computer on, and passed out in his study without locking the door. As a result, Mikiko was able to enter and see the emails between him and Kenmochi, exposing his true nature to her and forcing him to try having her killed, with her surviving and going on to try getting revenge. And while he is able to work her revenge plot into a scheme to remove his ties to the criminal underworld, this one moment of carelessness ultimately leads to him getting killed.
- It's All About Me: As more gets revealed about him, it's made very clear that the only person that Sadamoto cares about is himself, with even his own son being at best leverage against Mikiko.
- Karmic Death: He's brutally strangled to death by Kenmochi, whom he manipulated into killing Mikiko's family and attempted to dispose of via poisoning.
- Lack of Empathy: He recollects how he orchestrated the death of Mikiko's family with an honest to God smile on his face, despite calling them friends in the same breath, and he doesn't even care that his mass poisoning ended up taking the lives of those who just happened to sip at the poisoned table.
- The Man Behind the Man: While he's not an official member, the Crimson Lotus is effectively Sadamoto's brainchild, as it was his business expertise that transformed it from a small-time college event club into a dangerous criminal organisation.
- Manipulative Bastard: As a guy trying to maintain his company's reputation, he pushes others to do his dirty work, usually through outright lies.
- Master Poisoner: His preferred method of taking care of people personally involves poison, whether it be lacing his knives with it or spiking drinks.
- Money Dumb: Not that he'd ever admit it, but he turns out to be exceptionally impulsive when it comes to spending money even if he prides himself on making it. As Kaito lampshades before knowing the greater context, just Sadamoto's watch collection would be nearly impossible to financially maintain through legal funds due to the absurd cost of each individual watch.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Boy howdy does he believe this. His business only got as far as it did because he used Crimson Lotus to murder and intimidate his competition, and when his finances fell into the red, he spent years plotting to murder an entire family just to get their fortune. And when the holes in that plan threatened his reputation, he plotted to murder the founding members of Crimson Lotus.
- Neck Snap: A dying Kenmochi throttles him so hard that he snaps Sadamoto's neck.
- Oh, Crap!: Has a major one when a dying Kenmochi had him dead to rights.
- Parental Neglect: Barring the above-mentioned instance of overt physical abuse, this was mostly how his interactions with Jun went prior to the events of the DLC. According to Jun, he spent most of his time at his job or cooped up in his room. At first, it's framed as him just having workaholic tendencies, but it later turns out that it's because he has no emotional investment in anyone but himself.
- Power Born of Madness: Kaito is surprised that Mikiko was overpowered by Kyoya but as Igarashi points out a sociopath like him is likely capable of greater violence than the average civilian. He is able to take a lot of punishment during his fight.
- Purple Is Powerful: To highlight just how dangerous this man is, his battle aura is purple.
- Psycho Knife Nut: Like Soma, he's very proficient with a knife, but he takes it a step further by being a knife enthusiast in general, having a knife collection he's very protective of, as Jun unfortunately found out.
- Reverse Grip: In a series chock-full of knife user boss fights, the way he relies almost entirely on the "icepick" grip stands out compared to the likes of Majima or Soma who only ever use it situationally in brief instances before switching back to the conventional "saber" grip.
- Sadist: The guy absolutely relishes the fact that he successfully murdered Mikiko's family and the Crimson Lotus. It takes practically nothing to get him to gloat about both acts.
- Satanic Archetype: Several people who discover the truth about him (from Mikiko to Igarashi) make comparisons to him being the devil.
- Shock and Awe: He will occasionally use a taser in tandem with his knife to shock Kaito.
- Slasher Smile: Gives a terrifying one in his dynamic intro as he's about to nick Kaito with his poisoned knife.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Downplayed in that, thanks to his status as a Villain with Good Publicity, the public does genuinely believe he's a successful businessman. But when it comes to his boasts, he doesn't come close to matching the image he projects. He fancies himself a master manipulator and corporate hotshot when in reality he's been spending his time repeatedly trying to pull himself out of the gutter. His business only got as far as he did because he used Crimson Lotus to literally murder the competition, and even then, his own poor decisions caused his finances to go into the red, which was why he was after the Natsume Family fortune in the first place.
- Smug Snake: Once his true colors come out, it turns out the guy loves to gloat about how in control he thinks he is of every situation.
- The Sociopath: Emotional connections mean nothing to this man. As long as he can make a profit in the end, he'll manipulate and kill anyone, and then he'll gloat about it when confronted.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: If Kaito himself can be considered as the Judgment series' version of Kiryu, then this guy is essentially Jingu from the first Yakuza title. Being someone in a position of power, sired a kid with the protagonist's former love interest, has various connections and mooks at his disposal, and has no regard for his own son's life on top of that.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: He poisoned the whole school reunion only to kill the four remaining founders of the Crimson Lotus. It's even more gratuitous since he could have picked them off one by one like he used to do and his narrative barely changes but he couldn't care less about collateral.
- Underestimating Badassery: He legitimately thought that he'd be able to kill Kaito before the cops arrived. Though he does manage to finally down Kaito by cutting him with a poison-laced knife, he's left so battered from the fight that he can't even make an escape.
- Villain with Good Publicity: He's a successful businessman on the surface who is seen as a kind of corporate guru. Underneath that is a guy who has lied and killed to maintain his company's fortune.
- Villainous Breakdown: Kyoya is a Dirty Coward who holds Jun hostage as a human shield in order to blackmail Mikiko into killing Kaito. Once Kaito royally kicks his ass, Kyoya began fearing for his life when Mikiko pins him down and aims her gun at his head. Even though Kaito manages to talk her out of killing the bastard no matter how much he deserves it, Kenmochi does it for them as he used the last of his strength to go over and strangle a horrified Kyoya until he snapped his neck. During the entire scene, he is too terrified to even say a word.
- Virtue Is Weakness: He states that such things as sentimentality and empathy prevent you from taking advantage of opportunities and prevent people like Mikiko from becoming efficient in the business world.
- Walking Spoiler: The fact that the very man who came to Kaito for help would end up not only being the true culprit but an absolutely monstrous human being means that it's difficult to talk about him without revealing the whole story.
- Wall Jump: Can pull off Yagami style wall jump attacks with the added threat of his poisoned knife.
- Weak, but Skilled: He's not physically tough, but he's fairly agile and a skilled knife user, especially once he adds poison to them.
Crimson Lotus
Shusuke Kenmochi
Voiced by: Hiroshi Nakamura (Japanese), Alexander Gross (English)
- Alas, Poor Villain: Given how messed up he was due to the trauma of killing Mikiko's family, as well as being betrayed by his friend, it's hard not to see his final moments in a pitiful light.
- The Alcoholic: In almost all of his appearances, he's seen chugging a bottle of high-quality booze. Turns out he's actually been keeping himself permanently inebriated to numb the guilt he feels over killing Mikiko's family.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: He ends up being the one who kills Sadamoto rather than Mikiko, who ultimately couldn't go through with it.
- Benevolent Boss: While tailing him, Kaito learns that on a good day Kenmochi is actually a cheerful and boisterous person who treats his gang more like a tight-knit group of friends. Aside from the fact that he actively discourages formalities he also states that anyone who wishes to leave is free to do so with no hard feelings.
- Blood Knight: He's always looking for an excuse to throw himself into a fight. In reality, it's less that he enjoys battle and more that he believes the pain from being battered will be enough to temporarily distract him from his guilt over killing Mikiko's family.
- The Brute: With a heart of gold. He may be a drunken Blood Knight, but he's also a Benevolent Boss, and is miles more moral than his boss Kyoya.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Even by the standards of the series he's ridiculously strong. Not only is he capable of ripping a lamppost from the ground and use it as a weapon but when Kaito throws a marble table at him (something that visibly strains him), he catches it with little difficulty, lifts it above his head and flings it back even harder.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- To Akutsu in the main game, both are musclebound gyaru that act boisterous, but Kenmochi doesn't hide a sadistic side like Akutsu, who has been a hardened yakuza before going street gang. Rather, he hides a self-destructive desire to be hurt for accidentally killing Mikiko's family. Kenmochi always admits to joking about his darker threats like feeding someone his own dog, while Akutsu is dead serious when he starts talking about mutilation and murder.
- Surprisingly, to Tsuyoshi Kanda. Both are big, especially compared to their lackeys, have freakish Charles Atlas Superpower (Kanda could tear off a disk that's as big as him fixed to the wall, while Kenmochi can tear a lamppost off the ground and use that as a makeshift hammer), speak with noticeable Kansai, fight half naked in a love hotel against a well dressed opponent, and have a smaller, yet highly more competent friend that becomes their undoing. The contraries? Kenmochi is Benevolent while Kanda is Mean, and Kenmochi has a Heroic Build while Kanda is a Fat Bastard.
- Died Standing Up: Downplayed. Although his neck does go limp at the moment of death, the rest of his body tenses up and doesn't collapse, thus leaving a very chilling sight of his dead body still sitting on top of Sadamoto's, hands wrapped tightly around his neck and blood drooling out of his mouth.
- Drowning My Sorrows: He's been drowning himself in alcohol since he started the fire that killed Mikiko's family.
- Et Tu, Brute?: He actually legitimately thought Sadamoto was his friend. Finding out that Sadamoto manipulated him into killing Mikiko's family devastates him, and when he's strangling his old friend to death, he's crying just as much as he's screaming in rage.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He kidnaps Mikiko, but he tells Kaito after their fight that he never took advantage of her while she was unconscious. He's also so consumed with guilt over murdering an innocent family that he's turned to alcohol to numb the pain.
- A Father to His Men: His men look to him as a cool older brother figure, and he in turn treats everyone in his gang like a group of tightly-knit friends. His camaraderie winds up biting him regarding his decision to trust the gang's true leader, Sadamoto, rather than even entertain the prospect that he was nothing more than a tool to the man.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Downplayed. He has nothing but briefs on during his second fight.
- Fur and Loathing: His attire has a distinctive black fur coat.
- The Idiot from Osaka: He speaks with a Kansai accent and is an unpredictable, bombastic Blood Knight (though he has some Hidden Depths and is overall a reasonable and down-to-earth guy). He's also mainly used as Dumb Muscle for Rhizome.
- I See Dead People: He constantly hallucinates seeing Mikiko's dead family, who he was manipulated into murdering. He's been resorting to severe alcohol abuse to attempt to drown them out but to no avail.
- Man Bites Man: He'll tackle Kaito to the ground and tear into his arm with his teeth during his second fight.
- Mr. Fanservice: His alcoholism and brutish attitude aside, he's a pretty handsome guy in his own rugged punk sort of way, not only that we get a good look of him only in his briefs during his second bossfight.
- Noble Demon: He seems like just a violent brute at first, but it turns out that he has a number of moral lines he won't cross, and his darker threats are just an excuse to get fights out of people and not something he'd actually go through with. He's also shown to be a legitimate Benevolent Boss to his men. Being tricked into killing a family traumatizes him so badly that he spirals into complete self-destruction.
- Noble Top Enforcer: Downplayed. He's The Brute, but he's a Noble Demon who only makes threats as an excuse to get into fights, hardly ever follows through on said threats, and infinitely better morally than his boss.
- Not Too Dead to Save the Day: Despite seemingly dying from the deadly poison Sadamoto slipped into his drink, he manages to get back onto his feet with enough strength to break Sadamoto's neck with his bare hands before finally succumbing to the poison.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Subverted. He makes it appear as if he had his way with Mikiko while she was unconscious in order to make Kaito go all out against him. After the fight, he reveals that he didn't touch her.
- Recurring Boss: Kaito fights him twice, both times in Chapter 3.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Wears a black furcoat over a red t-shirt.
- Red Is Violent: He has a low-cut red t-shirt (showing off his tribal tatto) and his underwear has a red waistband. He was also formerly a vicious underground pitfighter and shows his skills off during his fights with Kaito.
- Smarter Than You Look: He may look (and act) like a vicious brute, but he did go to college and is a real estate broker.
- Taking You with Me: Pulls this on Kyoya Sadamoto, in a very satisfying Karmic Death for the latter.
- Tattooed Crook: Much like Akutsu, Kenmochi is a brash thug with prominent tribal tattoos, specifically a tribal flame that covers his right bicep and pectorial.
- Telephone Polearm: In his first fight, he rips out a lamppost from the ground to swing around like a hammer.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: He sometimes retches due to all the alcohol he drinks, though the mess is always kept offscreen.
- Unskilled, but Strong: In both fights, his raw strength and unscrupulousness serve him more than any kind of technique or finesse. One of his attacks is a flying knee thrown with such poor balance he'll topple over afterward.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He's one of the victims of Sadamoto's mass poisoning to take out his remaining criminal ties.
Bato Detective Agency
Masao Igarashi
Voiced by: Taichi Takeda (Japanese), Peter Jessop (English)
- A Lighter Shade of Black: A yakuza through and through, a blackmailer and conman, but it's ostensibly just business for him, which puts him way above Kyoya Sadamoto, who openly relishes in the fact that he killed Mikiko's family.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: His boss fight shows that he's the clearly the toughest fighter working at his Detective Agency by a pretty fair margin having twice as much health as Senda, the second toughest.
- Consummate Professional: When attempting to help Kaito, his professional pride and adherence to client confidentiality towards Mikiko means that he can't initially tell Kaito what he's gathered on Sadamoto and has to give him just enough information for him to figure it out himself.
- Dual Boss: He's accompanied by Senda during his boss fight.
- Enemy Mine: Igarashi and Senda join forces with Kaito after he saves Mikiko from Crimson Lotus, though not without a fight over their ideals.
- Enraged by Idiocy: He gets amusingly pissed off if Kaito picks anyone other than Kyoya Sadamoto as the true culprit of the case, on account of the very obviously clues he left Kaito regarding Kyoya's true nature.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He might be an unapologetically crooked man, but even he thinks Sadamoto is pure evil, outright comparing him to the Devil.
- Katanas Are Just Better: He wields a katana in his boss fight and is pretty effective with it.
- Moveset Clone: Uses the exact same katana fighting style as Akira Murase from the first Judgment.
- Mr. Exposition: Lays out everything he knows about Kyoya Sadamoto on the drive to Ijinicho so that Kaito can come to the conclusion that he was Bitch in Sheep's Clothing on his own.
- Villain Respect: Admits that part of the reason he's helping Mikiko may be due to the sort of fire and passion she has.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It was not mentioned what became of him and Senda after they decide to hold off the members of Crimson Lotus for Kaito to go on ahead to save Mikiko in the last chapter.
Shiro Senda
Voiced by: Toru Nara (Japanese), Dave B. Mitchell (English)
- Clueless Detective: He proves to be not only shady but also fairly incompetent, with Kaito regularly getting the better of him.
- The Dragon: It's implied though not firmly established that he's this to Igarashi, as he's the only named investigator who directly communicates with him.
- Dual Boss: He and Igarashi are fought together in a boss fight.
- Flunky Boss: He's accompanied by other Bato investigators during his first two boss fights.
- Moveset Clone: Uses Daigo Dojima's moveset from 4 onwards in his boss fights.
- Paper Tiger: The guy talks a big game but he quickly panics when things turn against him. He also regularly has other people around as backup. Though he is actually pretty scrappy in a straight fight, he's nothing Kaito can't handle.
- Recurring Boss: Is fought no less than three times throughout the DLC campaign.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It was not mentioned what became of him and Igarashi after they decide to hold off the members of Crimson Lotus for Kaito to go on ahead to save Mikiko in the last chapter.
Civillians
Yasutaka Shirakaba (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Voiced by: Kenta Sasa (Japanese), Yong Yea (English)
Owner of the Shirakaba Clinic in Chiba.
- Badass Bookworm: He certainly fits the trope as he's a doctor and is considered to be just a frail yet genius one at that, but he's revealed to be built like a brick shithouse.
- Betty and Veronica: The gender-inverted Betty to Kaito's Veronica.
- Big Fancy House: He lives in a very nice suburban home out in Chiba. Justified, since he's a doctor and the place also serves as his clinic.
- Breaking Old Trends: He's the first Yakuza series Final Boss to be fought under completely friendly circumstances. There are no lives at stake, no underlying conspiracy, no broken friendships or tragedies; it's just two good guys having a friendly match for a woman's heart in a nice sunny day in rural Japan while said woman and her son are calmly watching from the sidelines, and the battle music is hopeful and optimistic to match.
- Clark Kent Outfit: Underneath his clothes he's packed enough to shock Kaito, which he credits to an intense two-year training regiment.
- Final Boss: In a shocking twist, he's the last opponent fought in the DLC's story, challenging Kaito in order for Kaito to prove that he's strong enough to protect Mikiko. Narratively, he's the Post-Final Boss as he lacks any stakes in the overarching story, but in gameplay, he's way, WAY tougher than Kaito had anticipated.
- Foreshadowing: In Chapter 2, Kaito can find some weights lying around his living room and Shirakaba manages to save him at the last second from being taken by surprise, making it all the more meaningful when it comes to facing him at the end of the DLC.
- Graceful Loser: He quietly sits by and lets Kaito rekindle his romance with Mikiko after being beaten.
- I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He's in love with Mikiko, but gracefully steps aside after Kaito proves that he still holds the torch for her.
- Light Is Good: Has a white battle aura and is far and away the nicest and most sincere Final Boss fought in the series.
- Love at First Sight: Says this was the case for him when he first saw Mikiko.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Downplayed given that he proves himself to be an extremely helpful ally to Kaito once they meet, but he did cover up Mikiko's survival out of Love at First Sight, which Kaito rips into him for hiding her from her son.
- Marathon Boss: Starts out with five health bars, but once they're drained, he regenerates them all back, giving him a total of 10 health bars to go through; as much as Kuroiwa in the first game.
- Meaningful Name: "Shirakaba" (白樺) means "white birch". In Japanese culture, the color white is a sacred color usually associated with gods and is a symbol of spiritual and physical purity. Additionally, birch trees symbolize renewal and purification, which fits with Shirakaba's career as a doctor in addition to his Heat Aura being a pure white when he's faced at the end of the DLC.
- Megaton Punch: Has a particularly nasty one that, if it hits, severely hampers Kaito's movement by inflicting fear. Fortunately, it's also fairly telegraphed by its windup and is easy to anticipate.
- Moveset Clone: Most of his attacks are borrowed from the first phase Rush-style moveset of Keiji Shibusawa in 0. That said, his fighting stance is different being closer to karate and all of his unique attacks follow suit like his charged "Oi Zuki" punch or his high front kick into axe-kick.
- Nice Guy: Aside from not contacting Mikiko's family after her recovery (which turned out to be for a very good reason in the end), he's a genuinely kind and helpful guy that even cooperates with Kaito in the case and is just as determined to find Mikiko as Kaito is.
- The Power of Love: He accredits his physical transformation to his love for Mikiko and his desire to protect her.
- Spanner in the Works: Had it not been for him finding Mikiko and helping her fake her death, it's very likely Sadamoto would've taken different measures in cutting his ties to Crimson Lotus, especially since Mikiko would've gotten to the Rhizome founders first before he did.
- Stronger Than They Look: Looks and acts like a meek doctor, but not only is he skilled in martial arts, but he's utterly jacked underneath his shirt. Kaito, Mikiko, and Jun are all shocked when he reveals how muscular he is.
- Walking Spoiler: It's pretty hard to hide the fact that he had a pretty big hand in making sure Mikiko actually survived and was able to fake her death to remain incognito on top of him being the final boss of the DLC.
- What the Hell, Hero?: On the receiving end of this from Kaito and Jun when he reveals that he faked Mikiko's death. Kaito points out that he caused Mikiko's family a lot of anguish, Jun in particular.
Spoiler Characters
Warning: All spoilers for the following characters are unmarked. Read at your own risk. The Mastermind
Jin Kuwana/Yu Kitakata
Voiced by: Koji Yamamoto (Japanese), Todd Haberkorn (English)
- Adults Are Useless: He believed that school bullying was harmless and as a result didn't intervene when Mitsuru was being tormented, only for Mitsuru to end up committing suicide because of it. He's now seriously overcompensating to make up for this lapse in judgment.
- Affably Evil: He's polite and honorable with Yagami, only getting rude when the two of them are arguing over his cynical philosophy - he is also a fanatically dedicated Well-Intentioned Extremist Serial Killer.
- Anti-Villain: Compared to Kuroiwa, Kuwana isn't a sociopathic killer and is truly driven by a noble goal, but his willingness to needlessly and unnecessarily murder and blackmail undermines it. He even helps out the Yagami Detective Agency deal with their mutual enemy, the RK, despite the former invading on his turf, and is more than willing to lend a hand with Yagami's investigation.
- Apathetic Teacher: Back when he was a teacher, when he first heard of Mitsuru's bullying he brushed it off as harmless and told his students to not take it too far. By the time he decided to actually look into what they were doing it was already too late.
- The Atoner: Everything he does is his way of atoning for the attempted suicide of a student whose pleas for help he ignored until it was too late.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: He and Yagami get into this multiple times, most notably when Kuwana's ship gets raided by RK. Subverted at one point when fighting RK at Sawa's apartment where he runs away and leaves Yagami to fend for himself.
- Bad Boss: Justified. His minions are the very same people whose cruelty led to his Start of Darkness, so he doesn't bother hiding his utter contempt for them.
- Berserk Button: Sawa's death makes bringing her up a sore subject for him, as well as the mere idea that the Kusumotos would have to be torn apart. Literately, the few times Yagami makes him really angry is when he rants about how he caused Sawa's death and that Reiko should turn herself in.
- Best Served Cold: After he got evidence of the incident that led to Mitsuru Kusumoto's suicide, rather than coming forth he sat on the evidence until the people in it were all adults with something to lose before using it to blackmail them into his bidding.
- Big Bad Ensemble: He is the ultimate mastermind behind Mikoshiba's death and several more. However, Soma, who directly opposes Kuwana, was the one responsible for Sawa's death, making him the other major culprit in the story to take down.
- Boots of Toughness: While they presumably help his kicks hit harder, you'd think they'd be impractical for the acrobatic feats he performs in combat.
- Bully Hunter: Taken to its logical conclusion. He intends to kill every bully who has ever driven someone to commit suicide until the law changes to protect those who are tormented.
- Bright Is Not Good: His battle aura is purely white with a purple tinge to it, which is apt since he believes himself to be enacting justice to all of the bullies that have gotten away with their crimes.
- Call-Back: A couple to Kuroiwa during his final boss fight, in spite of his design as a Contrasting Sequel Antagonist.
- Both furiously throw an armament in Yagami's general direction right before starting the fight, Kuroiwa throwing his gun away (because it's empty) and Kuwana throwing the phone he's using as a bomb trigger, because he can't bring himself to use it.
- The Dynamic Intro for this fight (the only one for Kuwana's three fights) has him exactly symmetrical to Yagami, just like Kuroiwa's two dynamic intros.
- Generally speaking, both final bosses are able to imitate Yagami's fighting style, most notably with Kuroiwa's wall jumping and Kuwana's Crane style jumping technique.
- The Chessmaster: He was able to orchestrate a seemingly airtight alibi for murder through careful planning and the use of blackmail.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Kuroiwa from the first game.
- While Kuroiwa was a Dirty Cop who only used the guise of good intentions as an excuse to satiate his sadism, Kuwana is a handyman who works outside the law and genuinely believes he is carrying out justice by murdering bullies.
- Unlike Kuroiwa, who worked alongside a conspiracy of influential but much less combat-capable men as an assassin, Kuwana is the head of his conspiracy, using blackmail to get others to do some of the dirty work for him.
- Whereas Kuroiwa worked alongside a Tojo family for much of the game, RK, which is headed by a former Tojo clan member, straight-up wants Kuwana dead.
- While Kuroiwa's role as the Mole was a twist intended to open the final act of the story, Kuwana's role as the mastermind behind Mikoshiba's death is revealed around halfway through.
- Kuroiwa is also a Hate Sink character who is consistently unpleasant to Yagami pre and post-reveal, earning Yagami's unquestionable hatred. On the other hand, Kuwana is relatively more civil towards Yagami despite their physical conflicts over their respective ideals. He even lends help to Yagami regularly even after the latter learns he's an unabashed Vigilante Man. It is probably helped by the fact that, unlike Kuroiwa, Kuwana hasn't lashed out at Yagami in a manner that would make it personal to him.
- As a side-note, Kuroiwa's first name is Mitsuru, while Kuwana's backstory revolves around Mitsuru Kusumoto's attempted suicide.
- He is also one to Yoji Shono, the other Big Bad of the first game. Like Shono, Kuwana was driven by a past tragedy to do what he saw as the greater good, even if it meant resorting to murder. But unlike Shono who showed no regret for the mass collateral caused by his actions (the murder of Emi Terasawa, the framing of Shinpei Okubo, the deaths caused by his failed experiments) and paid the price for it with his life, the death of Yoko Sawa continues to haunt Kuwana and would play a crucial role in his decision to abandon his crusade, while escaping justice in the process. While Shono is a Non-Action Big Bad who leaves the heavy lifting to others, Kuwana isn't afraid to get his hands dirty even though he has his former students at his beck and call.
- Lastly, when compared to Final Bosses from the Like a Dragon franchise as a whole, Kuwana leans very heavily into Anti-Villain territory; previous antagonists would generally be at worst pure evil and at best sympathetic Tragic Villains who only became villainous due to enduring harsh circumstances but have nevertheless went on to commit indefensibly amoral acts. Kuwana stands out in that he does not see himself as evil at all and in fact considers himself morally superior to the protagonist, who in turn can empathize with Kuwana's motives to an extent and would much rather have him peacefully admit his wrongdoings and turn himself in rather than beat him up and throw him in a cell like he does with other antagonists.
- The Corrupter: Regardless of his intentions, he ended up being this for Ehara, Kusumoto, and all of his former students who had bullied Mitsuru such as Mamiya and Akaike. None of them would be accomplices to his homicidal Bully Hunter agenda if he hadn't gotten them involved. With regards to Ehara and Kusumoto in particular, he arranged for them to personally murder with their own hands those former students who had pushed their children to commit suicide. Ehara also implies that he made the same offer to other parents who had lost their children to bullying-related suicide. As for his former students, it's Played With. He's technically blackmailing them to aid and abet his crimes specifically under the belief that it will "help them atone", and they seem to have already been pretty nasty people in the first place. It should be noted that, unlike other examples of this trope, he legitimately believes he's vindicating the former and delivering karmic justice to the latter, not realizing the actual damage he's causing through his actions.
- Counter-Attack: Able to parry attacks whenever he enters a certain stance. He can also perform a variation of Yagami's "Sky Dancer" to avoid attacks and land a kick from above.
- Crazy-Prepared: Aside from being able to mastermind a near-perfect alibi for a murder, he was so good at covering his tracks that there is a complete lack of hard evidence to tie him to the murders meaning that Yagami cannot legally do anything to him.
- Cruel Mercy: Rather than simply murdering his former students he instead blackmails them into becoming his minions and forcing them to commit acts ranging from kidnapping to torture as punishment for pushing a kid to suicide, all the while compiling evidence of their actions as further blackmail material to entrap them.
- The Cynic: His murders are driven by his lack of faith in the traditional legal system and belief that bullies will always get away with their crimes unless he intervenes.
- Dark Reprise: "Dig in Your Heels" is already a pretty intense electronic battle theme but the Final Boss version, "Unwavering Belief", is especially especially dramatic, starting off slower and having more emphasis on the One-Woman Wail before picking up pace during the second phase which adds some Ominous Latin Chanting.
- Enemy Mine: He and Yagami work together multiple times against RK despite their staunch disagreements.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely cared for Sawa, as she was the only one of his former students who was a nice kid and grew up regretting her inaction and trying her best to be better as a teacher, which he clearly admired and respected her for. He could never bring himself to harm her even as she suspected and tried to bring him to justice, and tried his best to leave her out of it. Her death is the only collateral damage Kuwana truly lamented, so much so that it was this that lead to him trying to make a truce with Yagami as he too cared deeply for her. Yagami mentioning her is one of the few times he actually gets emotional and he freely admits his shame and regret will haunt him even in death. In the end, his grief and care for her ultimately lets him relent and let Yagami get justice for her death.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While he still holds his unwilling conspirators in contempt for their bullying ways, when he sees Soma sneaking behind Akaike and about to slit his throat, Kuwana tries to warn his former student.
- Evil Costume Switch: Downplayed but after his past crimes as a murderous Bully Hunter are made apparent and his character is treated far more seriously, he switches from his bright orange jacket to a darker, more muted green-ish jacket. Fittingly enough, it's when he dons his new look does his boss theme change from the generic boss battle theme to his Leitmotif seen below.
- Evil Genius: He plans his crimes out very well.
- Evil Versus Evil: Quickly develops a mutual hatred of Soma and the RK after they're introduced, especially after they murder Sawa.
- Final Boss: Of Lost Judgment. He's the very last foe that Yagami faces in the game.
- Foil: Serves as one to Yagami. Both are trying to receive justice outside the flawed legal system, but while Yagami still has faith in it and pushes for reforms, Kuwana lost all faith in it and constantly mocks it. Also, Kuwana smokes an electronic cigarette unlike Yagami who smokes a regular old cigarette.
- Freudian Excuse: One of his own students committing suicide after being bullied, the realization that he had turned a blind eye to said bullying, and the fact that the bullies got away scot-free by throwing one of their own under the bus, drove him to hunt down and murder bullies all over the country to ensure that no student would ever be driven to suicide from bullying ever again.
- Friendly Enemy: Downplayed. Kuwana and Yagami have no reservations about laying into each other brutally over their opposing views about justice, but their Enemy Mine against the RK and the Public Security Bureau also allows them to calmly discuss their own paths of obtaining justice denied by the system, and they regularly look out for each other's interests. Near the end of the game, Kuwana makes it clear he doesn't really want to have to kill Yagami and part of Yagami's motivation for clashing with Kuwana's ideals is hoping that he can save Kuwana from his self-destructive path. Yagami's last words to him before he disappears again were to try and convince him that the law, though flawed can be improved and declaring that he would continue to champion for those wronged by the law without resorting to Kuwana's tactics.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: He was formerly a schoolteacher who ended up becoming a martial arts master and head of a vigilante conspiracy as part of a personal crusade against school bullying.
- Genius Bruiser: A brilliant criminal and excellent combatant.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Often found puffing on an electronic cigarette.
- Goroawase Number: His alias of "Kuwana" stands for 917; AKA September 17th, the day Mitsuru attempted suicide.
- Handy Man: His official job is "Handyman", and while he does do repair jobs for locals, his actual job seems to be doing various shady odd jobs for the underworld.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Whether he's working with or against Yagami can change with the snap of a finger. Higashi lampshades this in the finale when he reveals he has a bomb on Kawai's corpse.
- Hidden Depths: Judging from the magazines and manga scattered around his shack, he's probably on the same boat as Tsukumo when it comes to being nerdy.
- I Control My Minions Through...: Coercion. Through the use of the footage of them driving Mitsuru to suicide, he's able to wrangle his former students into being his lackeys. He also records the footage of the deeds they've done in his name as further blackmail material. The one reprieve he gives them is an unspoken agreement that they don't handle the actual murder.
- Inexplicably Awesome: In a similar vein to Shun Akiyama from the main Yakuza series games, one must wonder how a seemingly mundane former teacher acquired the strength and agility of a world-class martial artist. His skills as a criminal are justified as having a former Yakuza as a relative, though it's not clear if said relative also turned him into a martial arts master.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after his Japanese voice actor, Koji Yamamoto.
- Karma Houdini: At the end of the game, due to a complete lack of hard evidence to properly convict him of his actual murders and knowing that he would be scapegoated for Soma and his superiors' crimes if he was arrested then and there, Yagami is forced to simply let Kuwana go into hiding. However, Kuwana does reveal the location of the many bodies he left behind on his crusade.
- Knight Templar: He sees killing those who've driven others to commit suicide or forcing them into becoming accessories to murder as justice. It doesn't matter what means he employs in order to do it.
- Leitmotif: He uses the main story battle theme "Vorephillia" for his first encounter. Following his Evil Costume Switch, he has "Dig In Your Heels" and its later Final Boss variant "Unwavering Belief". An intense yet somber electronic battle theme punctuated with a One-Woman Wail. The latter song is especially dramatic, incorporating some Ominous Latin Chanting.
- Lightning Bruiser: Fights very similarly to Yagami and takes a considerable effort to beat down.
- Marathon Boss: His final boss battle has him with six health bars in total, surpassing the likes of Shibusawa or Nishikiyama.
- Mugging the Monster: While Kuwana's anti-bullying crusade does not directly target Public Security, he ends up attracting their attention when it turns out that one of his conspirators happens to be the new Minister of Health controlling an extremely large pension fund, one that Public Security hoped to acquire for their own ends.
- My Greatest Failure: He didn't take Mitsuru's bullying seriously until it was too late. The weight of what he had allowed to happen is what drives his extreme actions.
- Mirror Boss: Rivals Kuroiwa from the previous game in this regard if not surpassing him. Kuwana has his own versions of Yagami's different styles, complete with the colored Battle Aura associated with them. He has a blue, kick-based style, a red, rapid striking-based style, and a green, counter-based style. He's also the only enemy that can perform the "Sky Dancer" just like Yagami.
- Never My Fault: Invoked. He can't accept that a lot of misfortunes that befell those that he cares about, chief among them being Sawa-sensei's death, are due to his vengeful murders. Only at the end of the game when he's beaten does he finally break down in tears as he comes to accept that, yes, his vigilante crusade against bullying caused his innocent former student's death.
- "Not So Different" Remark: He remarks that he and Yagami are not that different, both seeking to do good within a flawed justice system. An innocent woman also died in both their cases as an indirect result of their actions, Emi for Yagami and Sawa for Kuwana. Yagami actually agrees with the comparison, but still opposes Kuwana over his methods.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Crops into his battle theme during the last phase of the Final Boss fight against him.
- One-Woman Wail: A decent portion of his battle theme incorporates this.
- Recurring Boss: He's fought three times in the game.
- Refuge in Audacity: According to Ehara, Kuwana offered his services to him in this fashion; he approached Ehara while he was in full uniform, offered his services, and proceeded to confess to the previous times he's murdered bullies.
- The Rival: Initially set up as one for Yagami as his "Ijincho equivalent", being a local wise-cracking vigilante who helps out strangers with flashy Kung-fu, which almost immediately puts Yagami in a competitive mood. As the game progresses and Kuwana's true nature is revealed their dynamic becomes a more typical "protagonist vs antagonist" fare, though they still occasionally devolve into having childish arguments about which of them is stronger.
- Sad Battle Music: The most melancholy of the battle themes in Lost Judgment to go with his tragedy-driven good intentions and his inner conflict over the consequences of the extreme measures he's taken to atone for past mistakes that haunt him to this day.
- Sequential Boss: In the conclusion of Lost Judgment, he's fought right after Soma's finally been defeated and detained.
- Serial Killer: He's gotten away with planning and murdering at least seven people over the course of 13 years, specializing in those who had once bullied their fellow classmates to the point where they committed suicide.
- Smoking Is Cool: Technically, it's an electronic cigarette but it gets a similar message across. This actually helps out Yagami later on when he remembers that since Kuwana vapes, things such as an ashtray and a cigarette pack are out of place in his home.
- Tragic Villain: He doesn't take any joy in what he does but feels that it's the only way for him to atone for his failure to prevent his former student Mitsuru's suicide attempt from bullying. Thus, he hunts down former bullies who had similarly driven their victims to suicide to dispense justice in a legal system unable to do so in his eyes. He's also doing everything he can to support and protect Mitsuru's mother, Kusumoto for similar reasons.
- Trash of the Titans: His shack and main place of business is so messy that Yagami would rather find what he and Kaito need and leave as soon as possible than to spend another minute in there. While this is partly due to it being ransacked by RK, the massive pile of unwashed dishes in his sink leads to them concluding that Kuwana really is just that much of a slob in private.
- Underestimating Badassery: Kuwana repeatedly underestimated Yagami and he pays for it quite dearly: both times he tried to beat Yagami with numbers, Yagami effortlessly defeats his guys. And then he believes that he will be able to easily beat Yagami due to Yagami being injured. He ends up receiving a Curb Stomp Cushion as he finally realizes Yagami is much stronger than he initially showed himself to be and that he was holding back all the time.
- Undying Loyalty: To Reiko Kusumoto, due to his guilt over his role in her son's suicide attempt. He helped her avenge Mitsuru and a large part of his rivalry with Yagami is his determination to ensure she does not receive punishment for what he believes is her earning justice denied to her. Even when she sells him out, he forgives her because he realized it was to protect Mitsuru; he at first seems to be retaliating against her by threatening to reveal Kawai's corpse but it is revealed to be a ruse to draw Soma out and help Yagami capture him and break the PSB's hold over her. He also intended to destroy Kawai's corpse once he and Yagami had taken down Soma to ensure Reiko's protection.
- Vigilante Man: He acts as Judge, Jury, and Executioner to those who slip their way through the flawed legal system, specifically bullies who've driven their victims to suicide and grants the victims' families a chance at revenge.
- Villainous BSoD: Suffers this when Yagami refuses to back down against him at the end of the game, causing him to become a Screaming Warrior during their final fight. He breaks down in tears after said battle when the weight of his sins finally catch up to him.Kuwana: No… I didn't want this.
- Villain Has a Point: As extreme as his methods are, he does make a very solid point that most schools make a show of a student committing suicide, but don't really change afterwards. Even more insultingly, the bullies would also say, "I didn't know they'd do it", every time, which goes to show that they truly don't have an idea of just how much their cruelty affects the people around them. Even Yagami can't help but understand how Kuwana feels in this instance.
- Villainous Valor: He's more than willing to challenge Yagami and his friends to destroy Kawai's body despite the fact they completely outnumber him four-to-one and how he had never been able to defeat Yagami, only stalemate him, while only being concerned and somewhat reluctant to kill them as he did genuinely like Yagami. He also grants Yagami the fair fight he wished for when Yagami reminds him that killing him by exploding the bomb would mean going against his morals and while he loses, he puts up more of a fight than Soma did and even briefly corners Yagami.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: His first boss fight acts as the first real skill-check for the player, as he possesses quite a few moves that punish sloppy play.
- Walking Spoiler: Let's just say there's something more to him than just a simple handyman.
- Wall Jump: Much like Kuroiwa, he's the only other character that will use this against Yagami in any of his fights when given the chance.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Mitsuru's suicide attempt caused him to lose faith in the justice system, so now he plots to make a mockery of it to force it to change and ensure that no bully would ever again get away with driving someone to suicide.
The Conspirators
Yui Mamiya
Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Gwendoline Yeo (English)
- Actually Pretty Funny: While by no means a willing accomplice of Kuwana, she does admit that a part of her got a laugh at the idea of pulling one over the justice system in creating a perfect murder alibi.
- Asshole Victim: While her current situation as Kuwana's accomplice is pretty terrible, her lack of remorse for her past actions earn her Yagami and his allies' complete and utter disgust.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Big time. Once Yagami shows the video evidence of Kusumoto being bullied to her, she completely drops the innocent act, and reveals her true façade of a selfish and deceptive woman who only thinks about herself. She even tried to bludgeon Yagami from behind with a bat after that!
- Blaming the Victim: When talking about Mitsuru, she tries to brush it off as just kids being kids and blames him for not being able to deal with it. Needless to say, Yagami and Sugiura are not amused.
- Despair Event Horizon: You can pinpoint the exact moment in Yagami's second visit to her where she realizes just how irrevocably screwed she is.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While her Motive Rant largely has her talk about the bullying footage will affect herself, she does briefly mention how her son will likely grow up suffering the stigma of being raised by a bully should the footage get out. This suggests that despite her unrepentant attitude and callousness, she is concerned about how the footage getting leaked will affect her family's social standing.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: She looks kind of cute on the surface, but her true nature is anything but cute.
- Hate Sink: Is an incredibly selfish and manipulative woman who not only served as an accomplice to multiple cases of murder, has helped to fake a case of sexual harassment, which is an extremely sensitive topic, but also bullied Mitsuru way back when without remorse, and it shows that she's barely changed since those days.
- It's All About Me: Her only motive for participating in Kitakata's conspiracy is because of everything she has to lose. She's more shaken about Kawai's death and being an accomplice to murder than causing Kusumoto's near death thirteen years prior.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Yagami has absolutely no sympathy for her after the reveal, he does agree with the fact that her family (who have nothing to do with her past) being potential collateral damage in Kuwana's machinations is definitely a bad thing.
- Laser-Guided Karma: As extreme as Kuwana's actions are, he couldn't have done it to a more terrible person, child or no.
- Never My Fault: Mamiya is unrepentant of her bullying in high school, and blames Kuwana for forcing her into his scheme for his apparent sick amusement. Yagami is not sympathetic and says she's getting what she deserves.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When Yagami reveals that he knows about her involvement in the incident that led to Mitsuru attempting suicide, she's barely able to keep it together before desperately trying to grab at his phone.
- After Yagami beats the shit out of her masked classmates, Yui prepares to bludgeon him from behind. Unfortunately for her, Yagami never let his guard down and quickly caught the bat in his hand before it could hit him.
- Peer-Pressured Bully: She claims that she only participated in the bullying of Mitsuru due to peer pressure. The fact that she doesn't actually care that Mitsuru tried to kill himself makes this justification deeply flimsy as far as the heroes are concerned.
- Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: In present time, she's a 31-year-old woman who is married and has a child. And is also forced to repent for her mistake by being an unwilling accomplice of Kitakata's crusade against any bullies that were left unpunished by the system.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Has this when Yagami confronts her with video footage of her and her classmates bullying Mitsuru.
- Trapped in Villainy: She and all the other bullies are trapped into doing Kuwana's dirty work by not only footage of them bullying Kusumoto but also evidence that Kuwana captured of them kidnapping Kawai that would expose them as accessories to murder.
- Villainous Breakdown: When confronted by Yagami with the footage of her and her classmates tormenting Mitsuru, she almost immediately freaks out and lunges for his phone before pathetically pleading for him to delete the footage.Yui Mamiya: Please… Please delete it!
- Walking Spoiler: Turns out there's more to the woman that Ehara groped than meets the eye.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She disappears after being interrogated and never shows up again. Whether she and the other bullies will be arrested in addition to Reiko Kusumoto is never brought up, though chances are good given that their fingerprints are also on Kawai's corpse.
Yasushi Akaike
Voiced by: Fumitake Ishiguro (Japanese), Dave B. Mitchell (English)
- Asshole Victim: Downplayed. Of the three named bullies he is the one that got the worst of it but he doesn't show any remorse about Mitsuru in the game, only fear of what he is forced to do.
- Chekhov's Gunman: If you thought he was just "checking out" the scene of the crime where Mikoshiba was killed, well… it turns out he was there under Kuwana's orders.
- Combat Pragmatist: Catches Sugiura and Tsukumo by surprise while Yagami and Kaito are away dealing with the Liumang, which were also hired by Kuwana.
- The Dragon: Possibly; By lieu of being the most featured of Kuwana's minions and the one seen doing most of the leg work it's implied he's probably the closest thing to his chief minion.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Former bully and forced accomplice to Kuwana, he draws the line at murder. After Kuwana asks them to take care of Yagami he begs Kuwana to promise he'll give the finishing blow.
- Interface Spoiler: Players who have the English dub toggled on will quickly realize that he's more than a mere crime scene rubbernecker by virtue of averting Non-Dubbed Grunts during his chase sequence.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Whenever he and his classmates are fought, they don rubber monster masks.
- Out of Focus: Compared to his former conspirator, Mamiya, he doesn't get a lot of screentime or focus.
- Seen It All: Doesn't matter if Yagami is dressed like a hobo or a vampire, all that he can say in response to his disguise is "nice outfit".
- Slashed Throat: How he dies, courtesy of Soma.
- Trapped in Villainy: For his actions in pushing Mitsuru to suicide, Kuwana has made him alongside other former students into his personal goon squad via life-ruining blackmail.
- Younger Than He Looks: He looks like he's pushing middle age (or at least the same age as Yagami), but he's in fact eight years Yagami's junior.
The Puppetmaster
Hidemi Bando
Voiced by: Yutaka Aoyama (Japanese), Andrew Kishino (English)
A Public Security Division Chief of the National Police Agency and a self-described "Coordinator", he is Soma's superior in law enforcement and a bureaucrat scheming to get access to the national pension fund for his own purposes.
- Blackmail: His plan is to find Kawai's body and blackmail Kusumoto so he could get the Ministry of Health's pension fund.
- I Did What I Had to Do: When Mafuyu and Takano confront him at the end to legally bring him to justice, after being unable to convince them otherwise he accepts his fate and half-heartedly states that everything he did was for the good of the nation.
- Dirty Cop: He's a higher up in the police department who's the real power behind the RK gang and whose ultimate goal is to gain access to the pension fund regardless of how many innocent people have to die.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He's effectively the "legitimate" power behind Soma and by extension the RK.
- Hate Sink: Most of his screen-time is spent being as smug and abusive of his power as humanly possible, especially since he's the one who's holding RK's leash and the one who wants Kuwana dead for trying to make a mockery out of the legal system.
- Insistent Terminology: Keeps insisting that he's a coordinator in the NPA, even though most characters are already suspicious of his actual career with the Public Security Division.
- Necessarily Evil: Soma has essentially been parroting Bando's claims the entire time. He's willing to let the RK get away with its horrific crimes as long as it means having a source of intel into the criminal underworld. Like with Soma, everyone else just considers it lip-service, especially considering how willing Bando is to abuse his power purely for self-interest.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Despite his claims of maintaining order, the RK exists only to ensure that he can control the criminal underworld however he pleases and give him a glorified group of attack dogs to get rid of whatever inconveniences him. That and his ultimate goal is to get his hands on a massive lump of government funds for him to use.
- Opportunistic Bastard: He's quick to use Mitsuru waking up from his coma to try and browbeat his mother into cooperation.
- Suppressed Rage: When confronted with the fact that he will be facing inescapable legal consequences, Bando responds with barely-contained seething rage that he'll be seeing Takano and Mafuyu in court.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To both Kaoru Ichinose and Seishiro Munakata from the first game, and from Yakuza 4, respectively. Like Ichinose, he's the true Greater-Scope Villain of the game and the one who's commanding Soma (and by extension RK) from the Shadows, and like Munakata, he's a corrupt law enforcement official leading his own conspiracy.
- Villainous Breakdown: Played with in that while he keeps his composure he's still clearly furious at the idea that he'll be put on trial for his actions.
- Walking Spoiler: Comes with the expense of being Soma's boss, and the one who has RK do his bidding from the shadows.
The Missing Link
Reiko Kusumoto
Voiced by: Marika Hayashi (Japanese), Sumalee Montano (English)
- Barrier Maiden: In a way. She's the only thing that's stopping Bando from playing with the 160 trillion yen pension of the Ministry of Health, which could have disastrous consequences for everyone involved if it goes horribly wrong.
- Chekhov's Gunman: She's mentioned early on in the story, but doesn't become a major player in the plot until the last third of the game.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Ichinose from the first game, being his direct successor in the Ministry of Health. Whereas Ichinose was a smug, sleazy, Corrupt Politician whose conspiracy was willing to claim innocent lives in the form of Okubo and Terasawa, Kusumoto is instead part of a conspiracy that seeks to punish those that the system couldn't such as Shinya Kawai and all of the other bullies involved in Mitsuru's suicide attempt and is otherwise an honest politician. She's also much more sympathetic than Ichinose, seeing as her only son had attempted to commit suicide, only to be put in a coma for 13 years. Tellingly, whereas Ichinose had zero remorse for his actions and went down screaming, Kusumoto peacefully turns herself in when her son wakes up from his coma upon realizing just how far she had gone with her actions. The rest of Ichinose's role and traits ultimately went to Bando instead.
- Freudian Excuse: Watching her son in a coma due to a suicide attempt and seeing the bullies who drove them into that got off scot-free and learning that they had absolutely no remorse for their actions led to her killing Kawai.
- Graceful Loser: She's fully accepting of her fate when she turns herself in to the police for Kawai's murder, with Mitsuru even promising to support her in her time of need after he regains the ability to walk.
- Mama Bear: She killed Kawai because of the part he played in her son's suicide attempt. She states that had he shown some level of remorse she might have reconsidered, but him not even bothering to remember who she was sealed the deal in her mind.
- Morton's Fork: Her fate revolves around one - either she turns herself in and Soma gets arrested, Bando's plans are foiled and he faces retribution from Takano and Mafuyu, but Mitsuru - on top of having his mother taken away from him just after he woke up for the first time in thirteen years - will also be branded as the son of a murderer, or she doesn't, and on top of her secret being kept safe, Public Security are free to do as they please with an unhinged sociopath like Soma running RK and Sawa's death, which Soma was directly responsible for, goes in vain.
- Ms. Exposition: Basically gives Yagami the rundown of the Health Ministry's situation after Ichinose's arrest in the first game.
- Silver Vixen: She looks quite good for her age, as Kawai noticed before she killed him.
- Sympathetic Murderer: She's a grieving mother who was given the chance to enact vengeance on the person who tormented his son into attempting suicide.
- Walking Spoiler: Reiko is basically Kuwana's end goal and the main motivation for much of his actions throughout the game. Or at least doing right by her after the events that led to Mitsuru's attempted suicide in 2008.
- The Unapologetic: She makes it clear to Yagami that she has no regrets about killing Kawai after he proved himself to be unrepentant and that the other students should consider themselves lucky that she let them live.
The Origin
Mitsuru Kusumoto
Voiced by: Seiji Maeda (Japanese), Phillip Reich (English)
- Bring My Brown Pants: He was beaten so bad that he soiled himself, making it all the more humiliating.
- Bully Magnet: Seemingly everyone in his homeroom class save for Yoko Sawa was tormenting him simply for being small and weak.
- Bungled Suicide: He attempted to kill himself, only to end up in a coma instead.
- Convenient Coma: It's a Contrived Coincidence that he only awakens from his coma now, after 13 years, just in time for the climax of the game. It's not hard to see coming; after all, from a writing perspective, why would he survive and be comatose if he didn't need to dramatically wake up in time for the game's events?
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Justified, since he's been comatose for 13 years.
- Older Than He Looks: Being in a coma more or less kept him from looking like his age, since he still looks like he's in high school despite being 30 years old.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. He's not the first character in the series to be named Mitsuru, as a major character in the first game was Mitsuru Kuroiwa. Any confusion is mostly alleviated by how names are said in Japanese; normally, people are addressed by their last name, hence why Kuroiwa is only referred to as such. Meanwhile, this Mitsuru is referred to by his first name, partly because of the need to distinguish him from his more well-known mother, and partly because it is often Reiko who is talking to or about him.
- Sins of Our Fathers: The reason Reiko Kusumoto doesn't want to confess after he wakes up is because he'll be forced to bear the societal burden of being the son of a murderer on top of having 13 years missing from his life. Nonetheless he calls her up in the end to promise that he'll stand by her no matter what.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He doesn't appear much in game, but his suicide attempt is what lead Kuwana down his path. His waking up also results in his mother betraying Kuwana to protect him.
- Spanner in the Works: His awakening ends up causing a lot of issues inadvertently, such as causing his mother to betray Kuwana now that she has someone to protect.
- Undying Loyalty: At the end of the game he calls up his mother as she's being arrested to tell her that he will support her no matter what happens, including the fact that this will turn him into a pariah.
The Bully
Shinya Kawai
Voiced by: Yu Miyazaki (Japanese), Aleks Le (English)
- Asshole Victim: Given that he showed no remorse for what he did to Mitsuru, he had his death coming. Deconstructed in that while he absolutely should've been punished for what he had done, his murder ended up having major negative consequences for everyone involved.
- Barbaric Bully: As a student, he was a brute who beat Kusumoto black and blue, including having people hold him down while he dropkicked him. When Kusumoto dared to even remotely object, he declared it worthy of "punishment" and is implied to have given him a public Shameful Strip in retaliation.
- Body Horror: While not as bad as Hiro Mikoshiba's corpse, his body does not look any good especially after being left inside of a refrigeration unit for a very long time.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: According to Reiko Kusumoto, while he seemingly mourned Mitsuru to her face in the past, when she met him years later, he did not recognize her and simply thought she was a random cougar wanting his attention. This sealed his fate in her eyes and removed any doubts in her mind about killing him.
- Crocodile Tears: His mourning over Mitsuru's condition was a load of bull to make himself look repentant and get Reiko off his case. She gave him the benefit of a doubt, until she saw him as a shady bar owner years later, convincing her that he was an unrepentant piece of shit. According to Saori, as an adult he was even known to have bragged about it to get some laughs out of the locals of Kamurocho.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He's brutally murdered by Reiko Kusumoto by having a knife slowly driven into his chest while he's restrained and unable to resist. Reiko herself mentions she made sure he suffered as long as possible before finally dying. While not that unusual, it's a horrible way to go nonetheless.
- Et Tu, Brute?: From Kuwana's flashbacks, he has this reaction when the rest of his gang threw him under the bus for Mitsuru's attempted suicide.
- Fall Guy: While he was the leader of the bullies, his accomplices tossed all the blame towards him so that he and the teacher ended up taking all the heat in the public for Kusumoto's suicide.
- Hate Sink: He's a total scumbag who tortured a kid into committing suicide and years later not only resurfaced as a sleazy bar owner but shows absolutely no regret for his crimes.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: While he was forced to change schools after taking most of the heat for the incident, as an adult he managed to become a successful owner of a bar who's stated to be Yakuza in all but name. Then he's kidnapped by his former posse under his former teacher's orders and murdered by Mitsuru's mother as revenge.
- Posthumous Character: Turns out Kusumoto killed him years before the game begins, but his death ends up spurring a lot of the present-day events.
- The Scapegoat: The other bullies blamed everything about Mitsuru's suicide attempt on him, despite also being part of the bullying campaign, making him the only one who received social consequences of any kind 13 years ago aside from his Apathetic Teacher.
- Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Being a cruel and brutish bully as a teen meant that as an adult he fit right into Kamurocho.
- Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead: At first, he's a missing person, and since he's said to have worked a shady job you might think he disappeared (it's even said that Kamurocho is not a place that it's unusual to disappear from). But no, he was dead all along.
'The Professor'
Kotoko Itokura
Voiced by: Megumi Han (Japanese), Cassandra Lee Morris (English)
- Always Someone Better: While trying to crack the Neo Keihin Gang's laptop, Tsukumo states that not even he is able to crack the Professor's programming.
- Arch-Enemy: For Amasawa, as The Professor. Even before Yagami came along, Amasawa had been trying for some time to uncover the Professor's criminal web and corrupting influence, treating it as her personal white whale. Ironically, by the time Amasawa actually gets around to unmasking her, Itokura has arguably become more victim than villain, as control of the criminal web fell under Koga's control.
- Arc Villain: Of the School Stories arc.
- Big Bad Friend: Downplayed. Itokura had already been The Professor for some time before she and Amasawa became friends, and they only became friends because Amasawa was investigating her, but this friendship was genuine. Itokura never even makes an attempt to sabotage Amasawa's investigation from the inside despite able opportunity to. When it becomes clear Itokura is The Professor, Amasawa is unable to believe it because she had come to care about the other girl so much - something Itokura mocks her for, as it's a sentimentality none of the detectives they both love would fall victim to.
- The Cracker: Extremely talented in programming and hacking, well beyond what her years would suggest, which both the Neo Keihin Gang and the Robotics Club see as a tremendous asset, but to different ends.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father, who taught her everything she knows as a programmer, is long dead by the events of the game.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Sure, the other committee members abandoned her when she needed them most, but forcing them to commit crimes and get expelled is excessive revenge. In her defense, the Neo-Keihin gang was pushing her to most of those extremes.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite her actions no one really holds a grudge against her, which the students justify as being because most of her schemes ultimately ended with them in better places than they began - and when she tries to argue that that wasn't her intention they find they don't particularly care, causing her to be moved by their kindness.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Refused to accept a request to have Norizuki, a high school dancer, assaulted despite being offered a million yen for it.
- She is also disgusted by Okitegawa's treatment of his fellow club members and quits on the spot. Part of it is because Okitegawa reminds her of herself.
- She makes it clear that while most of the Delinquent schemes were her ideas, the scheme involving Kurumazaki was entirely Koga and the Keihin's going off script for their own profit. This tracks: while most of the cases involved the Professor goading or indulging the students into making bad decisions themselves, Kurumazaki was led in under false pretenses and then forced to build robots for them against his will, which wouldn't fit her plan to turn the students themselves into Delinquents.
- Evil Costume Switch: A subtle example, but soon after she's confronted about being the Professor and reveals her connection to the Neo Keihin Gang, one of the gang members notices her shivering and gives her his black coat, which sits very long and ominous on her shoulders as she callously rebuffs the MRC's efforts to talk her out of her life of crime.
- Evil Is Petty: Her motivation was initially to pay back the classmates who committed the horrible crime of refusing to work with her during the planning of a cultural festival, resulting in the festival being a catastrophic failure that was largely blamed on her. Her response is to try to get them all arrested and/or ruin their lives. Amasawa contextualizes this by noting the festival debacle was likely the largest blow to her ego she had ever experienced, but even Itokura herself admits post-Heel–Face Turn that her attempted revenge was far, far worse than anything they had done to her.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Got the Neo Keihin Gang involved in her schemes, but then they forced her to join them to keep her mother alive.
- Forced into Evil: She is invoking this, as she is trying to get her former festival committee members to turn to crime and get expelled. She later gets on the receiving end when the Neo Keihin Gang forces her to work for them or her mother dies.
- Greater-Scope Villain: All School Stories have something that ties to her.
- Hackette: She doesn't look like a typical one until her Evil Costume Switch gives her a disheveled and ominous profile, but as it turns out she possesses enough skill in coding to steal photo data from a professionally protected website and create a dark net server that is nearly impossible to crack for unauthorized users. True to the trope, the idea that the Professor is a woman doesn't cross the minds of the MRC or Yagami, until they realize she's the only reasonable suspect.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Despite wanting to corrupt the 8 other members of the Cultural Festival committee, her targeting of them indirectly leads to Yagami and Amasawa not only succeeding in stopping her plans, but also leads to them helping her targets by dealing with their own personal demons.
- Hidden Depths: Several times throughout the School Stories.
- As mentioned above, she's a very gifted programmer and hacker, courtesy of her father.
- She also very much shares the same enthusiasm for mystery novels as Amasawa, being the only other member of the MRC besides Kento and Yagami to even bother to show up to the meetings at all.
- If her interactions with Toribe are any indicator, she's quite camera-shy.
- It's worth pointing out that these all serve as subtle Foreshadowing for her true identity as the Professor. Her Hackette background coincides with the Professor's web site only being available on the dark web and having top notch security. Being a member of the MRC gives Itokura more access to the students she's deliberately targeting, and being camera-shy could compromise her identity given that the Professor has never been recorded to be shown in public.
- I Hate Past Me: In the Robotics Club storyline, she explains that her disdain for Okitegawa and his Control Freak tendencies is because he reminds her of what she was like back when she was head of the culture festival committee.
- It's All About Me: Dips into this when angry or upset, which Yagami pegs as a wall she put up to avoid getting hurt again. The Professor scheme came about because she spent months this way left to her own devices until her newfound friendships and Yagami's guidance inspired her to rethink her life - but before that point her selfishness could get nasty: possibly best exemplified when Amasawa and Yagami ask her if she targetted her old classmates for revenge, and she answers that it was less revenge so much that she wanted to come back to school but didn't want to interact with people she hated, so she decided to try to ruin their lives instead of having to see them around.
- Karma Houdini: She doesn't face any consequences for her cybercrimes (though most of them were done under coercion). She does consider dropping out of school as a way to make amends, but the festival committee members convince her to stay.
- The Man Behind the Curtain: The mysterious crime lord of the high school turns out to be a gifted student who was lashing out at classmates she felt betrayed her, and the method she chose ended up leading her into being blackmailed into the hacker of a street gang.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She shows quite a degree of guilt for much of her actions, since she only ever wanted to get back at the festival committee for throwing her under the bus by getting them expelled - she never counted on Koga to get her to do his dirty work. By the end, she's so wracked with guilt at her own actions as The Professor, that she plans on permanently dropping out of Seiryo High to make amends, only for the festival committee to convince her otherwise by also owning up to their own mistakes as well.
- Never My Fault: During her Motive Rant, she contextualizes the failed cultural festival she tried to lead - only for all her committe members to abandon her - as being because she happened to offend a popular clique, who then chose to ostrasize her. However, by all other accounts while the committee members regret handling it the way they did, they left because she was running them like a tyrant so much they couldn't bear it any more. That said, earlier in the story during the Robotics Club situation - which is almost entirely identical situation but with her leaving an egotistical leader behind instead - she admits it reminded her of her own former shortcomings, indicating that during her Motive Rant she may have been only attempting to deflect because she was angry at the time.
- Pet the Dog: Very apparent in the Robotics Club story where she's quite encouraging towards Sakura, The Baby of the Bunch in the club.
- Samus Is a Girl: As the true identity of the Professor.
- Shout-Out: Her moniker of "the Professor" is a homage to Sherlock Holmes' famous Arch-Enemy, Professor Moriarty. She signs off one of her messages as "Prof. M" and at one point tells Amasawa that she identifies more with the villains of detective novels rather than the protagonists. The Ijincho Hounds also made this connection; they chose to depict Moriarty as their grafitti mascot since that's who they associated the term "Professor" with.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Her anger at the school festival committee as well as her stubbornness in helping the Keihin Gang also hides the fact that she's a very lonely person who's spent the better part of her high school career without her father and with a sickly mother. Thankfully, she comes around when the committee apologizes for their own actions the year prior and accepts her as a friend. She was also quite happy with being in the Robotics Club and is quite moved by Okitegawa's Tears of Joy, too.
- Tears of Fear: While she tries to hide it through a mask of independence and her own stubbornness, she is absolutely terrified of the Neo Keihin Gang, since she cries to Yagami when he's convinced that she's made up her mind on helping the Keihin Gang further.
- Teen Genius: She pulled off everything she did as the Professor despite being a meager 16 years old.
- Tsundere: Type 1. She's shown to have a harsh and stubborn exterior, but she's actually quite nice once she lightens up. Especially apparent during her interactions with the Robotics Club.
- Walking Spoiler: She plays a bigger role in the School Stories sub-story than you think.
