Characters / Lycoris Recoil: Main Characters

Lycoris Recoil | Character Index (Main Characters)

The main characters of Lycoris Recoil.

Beware of spoilers!

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Protagonists

Both

• Action Girl: Both of them are two of the strongest Lycoris around, being highly trained combatants and spies. Chisato in particular is capable of mowing down people even with rubber bullets.
• Cowboy Cop:
  • Takina is the sort to take her own initiative in handling a situation, which is what got her transferred out of DA headquarters to begin with: despite being told to wait amid a hostage situation, as the arms dealers were wanted alive for questioning, and Chisato was about to ambush them, Takina opted to just kill them all, confident that she'd avoid killing the hostage in the crossfire.
  • Even moreso than Takina, Chisato largely does not take orders from DA and will circumvent their directives to avoid taking lives. She'll even openly argue with Kusunoki directly to her face. It's implied this is the reason why she's been assigned to LycoReco, as her natural skills are still too valuable for DA to completely cut ties with her.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: Chisato is the idealistic pacifist who tries to save even her enemies and Takina is the cynical pragmatic who has no qualms in killing, or even using her own escort as a hostage to gain information. Although it lessens due to Takina becoming much nicer and a better person, it's still safe to say that Chisato is an Ideal Hero while Takina is more of a Pragmatic Hero.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Chisato is an excitable Genki Girl partnered with the more soft-spoken and reserved Takina.
• Foil: Chisato and Takina are pretty much everything the other isn't. Takina is professional and duty-bound, Chisato is free-wheeling and plays loose with the mission objectives. Takina is calm and rational, Chisato is energetic and frankly, as far as Takina is concerned, nonsensical. Takina is ruthless and violent, Chisato is peaceful and diplomatic. This is even reflected in how they fight: Chisato uses rubber bullets, Takina uses actual bullets. Chisato willingly performs first aid on her enemies, Takina just wants to kill them. Thanks to Chisato's influence, Takina changes in regards to the latter.
• The Gunslinger:
  • Chisato uniquely carries a Detonics CombatMaster fitted with a distinctive strike face/compensator combo, emphasizing her maverick nature and close quarters prowess.
  • Takina uses a Smith & Wesson M&P9 that notably has a silver-colored slide, often with a suppressor, not only contrasting Chisato's own high-speed combat style but also the darker-colored pistols used by the rest of DA's Lycoris, indicating Takina isn't afraid to bend the rules if it gets in the way of efficiency.
• Hair-Contrast Duo: Blonde Chisato is the optimistic and idealistic Genki Girl and black-haired Takina is the serious and ruthless Defrosting Ice Queen.
• Mirror Character: Chisato and Takina are just as extreme in their approaches to being a Lycoris agent, just on the opposite sides.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: As the show's dedicated Ho Yay page can attest, they become incredibly close to each other after their friendship develops to the extent that they both come close to forgoing the pacifist approach entirely when the other is threatened.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Chisato is the red to Takina's blue. Takina is far more reserved, logical, and professional than the carefree, cheerful and idealistic Chisato. This is even a plot point - the only person who could not only tolerate but temper Takina's extremism is someone who is just as extreme but on the complete opposite side. They're both so different that those differences actually complement each other, rather than hinder one another.
• Technician Versus Performer: Chisato is the Performer to Takina's Technician. Chisato literally dodges bullets with style while going in for close-range takedowns. In her case, it's actually a Justified Trope because Chisato uses non-lethal ammo with terrible accuracy, so she abuses her ability to read the enemy and avoid all their attacks to close in and put them down non-lethally. Meanwhile, Takina prefers precision aiming and efficient takedown tactics. As a result, she prefers live ammo because it is far more accurate than Chisato's non-lethal one, although she's a good enough marksman that she can shoot someone without killing them.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Despite what their hairstyles and demeanors might imply (with Chisato being a Genki Girl with a short bob cut and Takina being an Aloof Dark-Haired Girl with much longer hair), Takina is very much the tomboy to Chisato's girly girl. Takina values efficiency and practicality, is logical, job-oriented and individualistic, while Chisato is far more playful, emotional, people-oriented and occasionally nonsensical. This includes favoring rations while on the job, preferring to wear men's boxers instead of panties due to their practicality and (attempting) to keep a professional distance. It's telling that when they have to disguise themselves to infiltrate a members-only bar, Takina opts for a sharp men's tuxedo and tie while Chisato dresses to the nines with a fancy back-baring dress and hairdo.

Chisato Nishikigi

Voiced by: Chika Anzai (Japanese), Lizzie Freeman (English)

Portrayed by: Misato Kawauchi

"Our job here is to help people in trouble!"

The titular Lycoris alongside Takina. A happy-go-lucky pseudo-pacifist who prefers to help people, refuses to kill anyone, and runs an establishment which helps the poor and downtrodden in society. She is the only one who can help teach Takina, her partner, to be a better person outside and inside their job as government-sponsored counter-terrorism agents.

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• The Ace: She's the strongest Lycoris of all time in DA due to her genius level ability to dodge bullets by analyzing the trajectory in the middle of a fight. She gets to demonstrate her skills during the mock battle where she effortlessly takes on Fuki and Sakura two to one for the majority of it. In the event of a state of emergency, she's Radiata's ultimate weapon.
• Achilles' Heel: Chisato relies on her impressive sight for every combat encounter which is how she can calculate things like bullet trajectory. So if someone were to blind her, she'd lose her greatest asset, though she asserts that compromised eyesight is a completely natural weakness. Majima takes advantage of this by spitting blood in her eyes. Later on in Episode 11, he gets the upper hand by forcing her to fight him in a darkened room.
• Afraid of Needles: Chisato claims in Episode 8 that she hates going to her physicals because of needles.
• All-Loving Heroine: What makes her such an abnormal Lycoris, who are all lethal assassins. Chisato's motto is to make everyone happier, even those who have done her wrong. In episode 2, she goes out her way to treat the wounds of the mercenaries that were just trying to shoot her dead, reasoning that as hired guns, they weren't truly her enemies.
• Awesome by Analysis: Chisato is able to predict her enemies by watching the movement of their clothes and muscles, as explained in Episode 6.
• Badass Adorable: Chisato is kind, sweet and peppy, always on the go, and a top-tier Lycoris, able to take down four grown men by herself in seconds.
• Badass in Distress: Episode 8 ends with Himegama drugging Chisato so she can tamper with her artificial heart.
• Badass Pacifist: She manages to be a One-Woman Army all without ever taking a life; her gun is usually loaded with rubber rounds.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: In her training scene, she wears belly-exposing athletic wear, emphasizing her feminine yet athletic and well-built physique. And again, there's her scene with Hawaiian clothes where she has her stomach exposed again.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: In Episode 12, Chisato and Takina end up under attack while Takina hangs from a precarious ledge and Chisato only has a gun with live rounds to defend them with. Left with no other option, she relents and fires the gun, but still makes sure to avoid hitting any vital spot.
• Bayonet Ya: Downplayed, her pistol has a custom "sharktooth" breaching slide with small spikes around the edge of the muzzle.
• Big Damn Heroes: Chisato saves Takina's life in Episode 5 when Silent Jin is about to kill her. Takina returns the favor in Episode 6.
• Bubbly Waitress: Besides being a DA agent, her primary job is being a waitress at LycoReco where her friendliness and optimism make her well-loved by the customers.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Chisato has a fairly whimsical and eccentric personality at times, including fixating on a supercar during a mission, and randomly hugging Takina at one point. Moreover she rarely if ever follows her superiors orders, mostly because her job is supposed to be assassination and shes a pacifist who would rather spend her time performing various good deeds. Despite that, she is without question the strongest Lycoris so DA still keeps her around, even though they can barely get her to do what they want.
• The Cape: While Chisato doesn't wear a cape, she ticks off practically all the boxes. An experienced protagonist who respects the sanctity of life so much she only uses non-lethal ammo and methods? Check. Able to inspire change and goodness not only in her allies, but even in her enemies? Check. Doing good for the community around her and being beloved as a result? Check. Being strong enough that not even DA can really disregard her entirely despite her antics? Check. Being inspired to be a 'savior' after her heart surgery means this may even be an invoked goal of hers.
• Close-Call Haircut: Chisato will occasionally lose a few strands of hair from dodging bullets aimed at her face.
• Close-Range Combatant: Despite her primary weapon being a gun, Chisato is a skilled hand-to-hand fighter in her own right, frequently employing outright Gun Kata to close the distance with an enemy and take them out with throws, grapples, and knee strikes, but she mostly gets in striking distance of her foes because the accuracy and bullet drop for her specialized rubber bullets is atrocious. Despite being a fine markswoman and having used the same gun and style of bullet for years, she has no success shooting a stationary target beyond glancing blows at a distance because of how her rubber bullets are designed. This is justified as a result of her near-supernatural ability to effortlessly avoid bullets allowing her to get away with running towards her foes in a gunfight, and as Takina notes in Episode 3, there's really no threat of her close-range antics incurring friendly fire because she can dodge bullets coming from behind, too. This contrasts with Takina, who, outside of her specialized bola gun, keeps to a distance when fighting.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Downplayed. At times, she's kinda eccentric and distractible, and comes across as a bit of an airhead, but she's actually very capable and levelheaded when the situation calls for it. Really, most of all it's actually that she's rather lighthearted and very much of a lateral thinker, instead of being pragmatic and by the book.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Downplayed, but given her carefree attitude she can come across as an airhead to more composed and serious characters - indeed, Takina at first glance is not exactly comfortable being partnered with her, for example. Then, she reveals how intelligent, competent and talented she is at her job, as well as turning out to be very professional and serious when needed.
• Deadpan Snarker: While she's a very kind individual, she's not above making sarcastic comments when people get on her nerves.
• The Defroster: Chisato's friendship is what brings the aloof Takina out of her shell and causes her to start showing more empathy for others.
• Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: Takina starts out acting only as a thoughtless killing machine for DA, but steadily is influenced by Chisato to grow and think more for herself.
• Destructive Saviour: Chisato has a bad habit of causing collateral damage during her jobs and often has to call a cleanup crew. Episode 8 sees Takina attempt to rectify in light of LycoReco's profits going into the red.
• Dismotivation: Chisato already starts fully developed (though that's not to say the story doesn't force her to adapt or change at all) and more or less keeps her spunky personality from start to finish; in fact, staying that way is her personal goal as a branch agent for DA since changing her ways would risk breaking her moral code.
• Ditzy Genius: Not even that ditzy, though; she can be a bit outlandish and nonsensical at times, but otherwise she's very competent and intelligent, a capable fighter and lateral thinker with keen intuition, professional and levelheaded when needed, and also shows she has a good knowledge of foreign languages.
• Dodge the Bullet: Seemingly an instinctive talent of hers. Even Takina and, later on, Kusunoki's assistant are flabbergasted at it. As Kusunoki puts it, it's Chisato's defining skill, as otherwise she's just a cheeky, lazy brat.
• Emotionless Girl: Flashbacks to the tower incident show that she was eerily unemotive as a kid compared to her present self, almost as if she's a completely different girl.
• Experienced Protagonist: Like most Lycoris, she was trained from a young age.
• Famed In-Story: She's famous across Japan for singlehandedly thwarting the terrorist attack at Tokyo Tower 10 years ago, making her a living symbol of Japan's current Crapsaccharine World. This has also earned her the ire of Fuki, who is unamused by this feat and the two have become rivals since then.
• Fan Disservice: Episode 8 ends with a shot of Chisato lying down with her shirt open to expose her chest, but she also happens to be unconscious after getting drugged and Himegawa is clearly trying to do something to her mechanical heart, making it more a cause for concern.
• Friend to All Children: Implied by the children she and Takina visit at a preschool who affectionately call her "big sis".
• Genius Bruiser: She's very much a badass who's also intelligent, skilled and competent.
• Genki Girl: Chisato is very excitable and upbeat compared to the rest of the cast, and it shows. She's constantly talking in almost every scene she's in, and even her former boss, Kusunoki, refers to her as a "cheeky little brat" for her energetic demeanor.
• Genre Refugee: The world of Lycoris Recoil is a raw Spy Fiction setting in which people are routinely killed in secret for threatening the peace, so Lycoris agents are surrounded by death. Chisato, on the other hand, is basically a Slice of Life heroine; she's a constant ray of sunshine in what should be a dreary world and all her means of stopping terrorists are non-lethal, and the only reason DA hasn't kicked her out of Lycoris is because she's just that good. She also has several elements of a Magical Girl protagonist, namely her kindhearted demeanor and willingness to spare her enemies and even reach out to them if possible. Almost every character in the story, friend or foe, really wishes she'd get with the program. Ironically, the sole exception to this is Majima, who sympathizes with her even as he tries to kill her.
• Good Is Not Dumb: She's kind and somewhat of a cloudcuckoolander, yet this doesn't mean she's dumb by any stretch. Chisato is indeed intelligent and competent at her job, it's just that she has a bright and optimistic outlook on life and that she does things in her own way and at her own pace.
• Good Is Not Soft: Just because she refuses to kill her enemies doesn't mean she's averse to hurting them if it means neutralizing them quickly. She'll casually mag-dump terrorists or just beat them down with martial arts, and by her own admission her non-lethal rounds still hurt so much that the enemy might just wish they were dead instead.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has light, pale-blonde hair and is an Ideal Hero, always willing to help those around her and prefers to simply injure or incapacitate her enemies rather than killing them.
• Handicapped Badass: Even with a congenital heart disease, she's more than capable of being a badass on the field. However, this is only after her transplant, as a flashback showed how her heart failing as a child left her unconscious after a training routine.
• Hidden Depths: Despite seemingly being a bit of an airhead, Chisato is quickly able to deduce the reason for why Takina was kicked out of DA during her talk with Kusunoki and Fuki. She's also able to talk Takina out of her subsequent despair over the whole incident. She's also, as Kusunoki describes her, a genius at recognizing the trajectory and shot timing of enemy firearms.
  • Episode 4 further reveals that Chisato is an Alan Institute beneficiary, so she is considered a genius by their standards. Yoshimatsu, the one who sponsored her, claims she is a genius at killing people.
• Ideal Hero: She always jumps at the chance to help anyone with anything and uses only non-lethal weaponry.
• Irony: For someone who is adamantly against taking lives, she seems to be oblivious to the fact that she's such an idealistic Nice Girl that her loved ones are outright driven to kill to save her because they can't bear her leaving their lives. Takina tries to murder Shinji when she finds out that he's implanted a life-saving artificial heart into himself, and Mika later actually kills him for it.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Chisato constantly remains selfless, kind, honest, idealistic and without malice, and strives to do the right thing no matter what.
• Just Toying with Them: In her 2v1 mock battle against Fuki and Sakura, it's clear that she could easily handle the match alone, restraining and pointing her gun at Sakura twice while only pretending to shoot her, but she stalls it out to give Takina time to join in.
• Lady in Red: In Episode 7, Chisato puts on a sexy red mini dress when infiltrating a high-class bar.
• Literal Change of Heart: Episode 5 reveals that Chisato has an artificial heart courtesy of the Alan Institute. Come Episode 9 and it's revealed that Chisato was born with a congenital heart disease, necessitating the artificial heart transplant for her to survive, but in the process Shinji instilled Chisato with her Thou Shalt Not Kill attitude.
• Little Miss Badass: A flashback in Episode 8 showed her mowing down terrorists during the Tokyo Skytree incident at age 7.
• Living on Borrowed Time: After Himegama overloaded her artificial heart in Episode 9, Chisato only has two months to live. She remarks that she didn't have long either way, as her artificial heart wasn't expected to last much longer once she reached 18 years old.
• Logical Weakness: Chisato relies on watching her opponent's clothing and muscles to predict their moves. That does her no good if her vision is impaired or she can't see her target. Majima exploits when he spits his blood into her eyes in Episode 6, and again in Episode 11 by turning out the lights in the Skytree. Chisato, for her part, complains that a person's eyes would be anybody's weakpoint.
• Made of Iron: In Episode 6 she gets run over by Majima in a speeding car, but aside from some minor injury to her arm was fine to run and shoot despite the same method having instantly killed or heavily wounded other Lycoris agents. A flashback shows that during the Tokyo Tower incident, she survived being in the explosion that nearly destroyed it.
• Magic Skirt: Despite all moving and flipping around she does when she fights, she manages to avoid exposing anything. Noticeably Averted in Episode 8, where Takina forces her to do a handstand during a language class and Chisato has to do it one-handed while holding her skirt up lest she expose anything.
• Martyr Without a Cause: She's willing to give all of herself to make others happy, but she can't accept others' concern for her, either. In Episode 10, she sees Kurumi and Mizuki researching her artifical heart in an attempt to fix it. Her response is to just close down the café, apparently believing they should just live their own lives rather than waste their time on a futile endeavor.
• Morality Chain: To Takina. Because of Chisato insisting they should help people and spare their enemies, Takina adopts Chisato's non-lethal combat style and becomes a more heroic person. Takina only (sort of) reverts to her ruthless Anti-Hero ways when Chisato is in mortal danger, such as trying to kill Shinji to get the heart that will extend Chisato's lifespan and only gives up on it because Chisato begs her to not kill someone for her sake.
• Motor Mouth: Chisato loves to talk, a sharp and immediate contrast with her quieter partner and kouhai. She'll talk especially fast whenever she gets excited.
• Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed. Compared to Takina, Chisato tends to get more moments of exposure and ends up in some Fanservicey outfits. This includes Episode 2 starting with her waking in her underwear after a night binging movies, wearing a skimpy gym outfit in Episode 3 when doing physical exams, being forced to show Takina her underwear when taking her clothes shopping in Episode 4, wearing a Sexy Backless Outfit in Episode 7 when infiltrating Club Forbidden, and being forced by Takina to do a handstand in Episode 8, with the camera panning over her legs and thighs as she tries to prevent a Panty Shot. The Stinger of Episode 13 caps this off with her wearing a hula dancer outfit when greeting a Hawaiian client.
• Mundane Utility: As Takina learns firsthand (and is later clarified by Mizuki), Chisato's ability to read an opponent's body movements not only allows her to predict the trajectory of bullets, but also cheat at Rock–Paper–Scissors.^note By looking at the finger movements of an opponent's closed fist, she can see if it'll stay closed as a "Rock", prompting her to play "Paper"; if it opens, she'll then play "Scissors", which will either draw against another Scissors or defeat "Paper".
• My God, What Have I Done?: Chisato lets out an absolutely anguished scream when she is forced to shoot Shinji with a live round to stop him from killing Takina.
• Nice Girl: Chisato is a kind, honest and selfless girl who tries to see the best in people and always helps them when needed, even applying first aid to her enemies if they got injured by Takina. This is very unusual for a Lycoris, and Takina all but states she thinks Chisato is either naive or downright insane for being so compassionate to people.
• No Range Like Point-Blank Range: Chisato knows her rubber bullets are terribly inaccurate, so she tends to overcome this by using her dodging skills to get right up next to her targets, eliminating the issue. When she needs precision, she tends to let Takina take the shot instead, such as with taking out Walnut and Robota's drones, since Takina uses standard ammunition (which is much more accurate).
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Chisato's artificial heart is a highly advanced, one-of-a-kind prototype developed by the Alan Institute, which medical technology otherwise has no equivalent for. This becomes a serious problem when Yoshimatsu decides to sabotage it, cutting Chisato's life to a mere two months. Subverted in Episode 11 when Kurumi learns that Shinji picked up a newer model from the first one's creator.
• Not So Above It All: After spending much of Episode 4 criticizing Takina for wearing boxers under her skirt, she tries a pair on and finds they're comfy. Cue Mizuki barging in on her at exactly that moment and humiliating her in front of LycoReco's patrons.
• Oh, Crap!: Says this rapidly when a terrorist aims a Panzerfaust-3 at her and the others in Mizuki's car, with Takina out of ammo and Chisato much too far away to hit him with her rubber bullets.
• Positive Friend Influence: Chisato's upbeat and optimistic attitude causes Takina to gradually let go of her obsession with going back to the DA and start enjoying Chisato's free and samaritan lifestyle. Takina even changes her fighting style to non-lethal techniques to please Chisato. In Episode 13, it all pays off when Takina is able to save Chisato from falling to her death by using the non-lethal wire-gun she got into the habit of carrying around thanks to Chisato's influence.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Practically the central conflict of Chisato's character, a driving force in the narrative as the primary cornerstone of multiple characters' motivations involving her, and a major aspect of Chisato both Shinji and Majima try to manipulate to their own preferences. Chisato holds herself to a moral code and, following her 'transformation' after getting her artifical heart, believes in sparing anyone she comes across by acting as a 'savior,' even when the 'lawful' option in many of the situations she ends up in would be to take the law into her own hands as a member of DA and ice any threats to Japan. She'll knock out opponents and rush in so their bodies don't fall onto anything sharp; she'll use specialized bullets that kill her accuracy but ensure her opponents don't die; she'll defy orders to spare her opponents, and so on. On Shinji's end, he wants to invoke this trope and force her to finally pick law, while Majima wants Chisato to break it entirely and go simply for a chaotic life where she lives according to her whims, like he does; these motivations, along with her history with Shinji, make Shinji and Majima very personal opponents for Chisato.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Zig-zagged. She has striking red eyes and is one of the strongest combatants in the setting, and to her enemies may as well be a monster with a virtually supernatural aptitude for combat. On the other hand, she's eternally cheerful and friendly to anyone that doesn't threaten her or the things she cares about (sometimes, even them too), and although she'll swiftly beat the tar out of anyone that picks a fight with her, her pacifist nature makes it so that she'll never actually kill them, and in fact will prioritize keeping them alive, no matter the circumstances or their crimes. This is played straighter in the flashbacks with her younger self, who moreso fit the bill of an emotionless killing machine, and in Majima's flashback to the Tokyo Tower incident.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Of course, she's the upbeat, optimistic Genki Girl red oni to Takina's calmer, pragmatic Defrosting Ice Queen blue oni. This is even reflected in their outfits, with Chisato wearing red dress in contrast to Takina's blue dress.
• The Rival: To Fuki, who is not impressed at all with her, and thinks her success in the Skytree incident was an accident while also criticizing her taking away Mika to work at the Café.
• The Scream: Chisato lets out a heartbreaking one in Episode 12 when she's forced to shoot Shinji with a live round to save Takina's life. Shinji doesn't die from it.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Chisato wears a backless red dress in Episode 7 when going to the Bar Forbidden.
• Small Steps Hero: What she's chosen to become over a regular Lycoris. She'd rather help with smaller things like giving a tour of the city to an elderly man or helping at a language class over executing terrorists. When the needs come she will defeat terrorists and criminals and protect the city and the innocents who live there, but she's happier doing the small things to make the world a better place.
• Sore Loser: She doesn't take losing in a VR game in Episode 4 very well, especially to someone with Fuki's name as a username (and unbeknownst to her is Fuki herself)
• Signature Move: A subtle one, but Chisato uses a tucked-in stance when shooting targets at close range while everyone else extends their arms out regardless of how close the target is. Chisato demonstrates why extending one's arms out at close range is a bad idea in Episode 3.
• Smarter Than You Look: She really has genius-level intellect and is a highly skilled fighter, despite coming across as a bit of an airhead.
• Stepford Smiler: Learning in Episode 9 that she only has two months to live, Chisato continues to act as though nothing is wrong, and doesn't show any worry about her impending death to her peers. Then, in Episode 10, despite reeling from Mika telling her of Shinji's intent to make her a killing machine and his own hand in it, she still keeps on smiling and acting like everything's okay. It's unclear whether or not Chisato is just acting or if she's genuinely broken inside.
• Stock Shoujo Heroine: Even though Lycoris Recoil definitely isn't a Shōjo anime, Chisato, in typical All-Loving Heroine fashion, fits the shoujo protagonist bill very well. She's a friendly, kind and idealistic - as well as somewhat outlandish - Genki Girl with a blonde bob cut. She only wants to help people, friend or foe, and refuses to kill even if it comes at the expense of her own safety.
• Super-Reflexes: This girl can perfectly and fluidly dodge an assault rifle fired at her from a few feet away. Takina even tries testing this at the end of the same episode by firing a rubber band at Chisato, only for the latter to shift out of the way in time.
• Supporting Protagonist: A case could easily be made that the story focuses on Takina's growth as a person with Chisato simply as the viewpoint character. Tellingly, Chisato is more or less passive in her duties as an agent of the DA and mostly reacts to situations around her, willing to take jobs and let events play out around her. Takina starts out that way too, but grows to be active as a character, spending the last chunk of the show working towards the singular goal of giving Chisato a full, fulfilling life.
• Technical Pacifist: Though she doesn't believe in killing, that doesn't stop Chisato magdumping an entire magazine of rubber bullets into an enemy at point blank range, or brutally beating them down with her martial arts. She's also not afraid to let them die if she has to, as her threat to the hitmen hired to kill Walnut in Episode 2 makes clear. Majima even calls her out on using rubber bullets instead of regular ones in Episode 6 just as he's about to kill her.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: It's evident through her desire to solve issues without having to resort to lethal force that her philosophy is completely antithetical to DA's, and she doesn't hold much respect for the organization as a whole (and vice-versa). However, she still remains a nominal Lycoris since the privileges and legal protections granted to her help her carry out her desire to assist regular people DA would otherwise ignore, while DA begrudgingly keeps her around because she's just too good of a fighter to let go of.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Chisato follows this fervently, going as far as patching up wounded terrorists that Takina wounds in the first two episodes. She does threaten to let one of them die in Episode 2, though. Episode 9 reveals she got this mindset due to Shinji calling himself a "savior" when he gave her an artificial heart.
• Ultimate Job Security: Despite nominally being a part of DA, Chisato is openly contemptuous of her organization and how it operates. Even when they stuff her in an out of the way café, it's an idyllic Unishment for her since it lets her pursue the jobs she wants while still having DA's support. Yet despite being such a maverick and pacifist, DA has never considered dumping her, simply because they can't afford to have such a combat savant not working for them.
• Unishment: Despite no longer being stationed at DA, Chisato actually prefers being at LycoReco because it allows her to help people on her own terms.
• Why Can't I Hate You?: Despite that she tells Shinji that she hates him for trying to make her kill, Chisato's tone shows she still cares for him.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Himegama's tampering with her artificial heart means she only has a short time left to live before the device fails. When it was first created, however, Yoshimatsu claimed it wouldn't let her live past 18. However, in Episode 13, she's given a new artificial heart that grants her an unspecified but implied to be significant boost to her lifespan.
• You Will Be Spared: Chisato does this with all the terrorists and gunmen she subdues, using rubber bullets and non-lethal attacks so no one has to die. Takina often objects to this since she thinks letting them live could let them commit more crimes.

Takina Inoue

Voiced by: Shion Wakayama (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English)

Portrayed by: Sakiho Motonishi

"We Lycoris are authorized to use deadly force if necessary."

The first Lycoris identified in the series, she is transferred from her department after botching a mission by disobeying orders. She is partnered with Chisato who is meant to train her not to be so cold, violent, and murderous. She does not like the arrangement but does so for the sake of her career as a Lycoris.

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• All for Nothing: Takina's efforts to get back into DA were fruitless from the start, as Kusunoki never actually gave her any conditions by which she could return since she was meant to be a scapegoat. Chisato thankfully gets her out of her despair afterward by giving her a new home at LycoReco.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She's a black-haired, distant and serious girl until she starts to defrost thanks to Chisato.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Takina saves Chisato's life in Episode 6 when Makina is about to execute her by shooting his gun out of his hand.
  • Episode 8's Cliffhanger ending sets up another one as Takina rushes to Chisato's aid.
  • Takina then does it again in Episode 11 when she blasts her way into the Skytree to save Chisato from Majima. Unfortunately, he still gets the upper hand on them, though the following episode quickly has her become the deciding factor in the fight against Majima with her restraint gun.
  • In the finale, while she doesn't get to participate in Chisato's rematch with Majima, she does get there in time to save Chisato's life after the fight is taken to the glass underside of the radio tower. Chisato pacifying Majima causes the glass to shatter, and Takina just manages to tie Chisato up and catch Chisato with her restraint gun as the latter begins to fall, saving her life.
• Casting Gag: Xanthe previously worked in a café in order to hide her activities as an assassin.
• Combat Pragmatist: Takina is a lot more logical and professional in her approach to dealing with terrorists and criminals than Chisato. She does lapse on this occasionally, though, such as during the mock battle with Fuki.
• Dark Action Girl: Deconstructed and later subverted. She's infamously violent and cold-blooded, always shooting to kill and maim her enemies as much as possible so they can never be a threat or nuisance ever again. She's even willing to endanger a hostage just to slaughter a bunch of arms-dealers, and her response to her colleagues pointing that out is essentially a cold and tone-deaf "And I didn't kill the hostage after all." This actually hurts her standing with her co-workers, forces her superiors to transfer her to another department, and this runs afoul of everything her partner Chisato stands for. It's thanks to the latter that Takina subverts her coldness and ruthlessness.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Takina begins the story only interested in Lycoris work that will get her back in DA's good graces. Over time, though, she learns to have a life outside of DA's approval, and subsequently eases up on her efficient, mission-minded lifestyle.
• Deuteragonist: She shares the role of main character with Chisato. A good chunk of the series is just focusing on them bantering and showcasing their complicated relationship through how different they both are and how they have to reconcile their very different methods and ideologies as they do their jobs.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Takina is a particularly sheltered Lycoris, in regards to being a girl. This ends up vexing the staff of LycoReco (especially Chisato) multiple times, such as Takina believing men's boxers were standard issue underwear for Lycoris due to their practicality for combat or seeing no problem with touching Chisato's chest in public to check for her heartbeat.
• Establishing Character Moment: You learn the essential elements of Takina's character in her first appearance; while her team is all in a difficult situation thanks to their teammate being compromised, Takina proceeds to coldly and calmly mow down the whole room with a machine gun, endangering that teammate's life in the process. You see from this that Takina is skilled as a killer and agent, and doesn't concern herself with the lives and feelings of others in pursuit of results, all traits that get challenged the more she interacts with Chisato.
• Fish out of Water: She's a cold and professional assassin forced to relocate in the LycoReco cafe where the jobs are mostly about community service, something that requires a lot more empathy than she's trained to feel.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: Her speech patterns in Japanese are always very formal, reflecting how she's a cold, no-nonsense assassin. It also puts her in contrast with Chisato, who can speak formally when the situation requires it but is generally more casual and upbeat.
• Girlish Pigtails: She ties her hair into low pigtails when working at Café LycoReco, probably to make herself more approachable to the customers.
• Happy Dance: Does this at the end of Episode 6 when she finally beats Chisato at rock-paper-scissors, complete with a joyful squee.
• Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: Takina takes on this mindset in Episode 8 when she learns they are losing money. This extends to forcing Chisato to conserve ammo and minimize collateral damage during missions.
• Hidden Depths: As it turns out, Takina has a talent for finances. Episode 8 sees Takina taking over the finances of LycoReco after deducing they're actually in the red, and single-handedly manages to overturn their financial crisis to the point the LycoReco staff can afford to splurge on some luxury items. She even takes up investing into the stock market with Kurumi's help.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: In contrast to Chisato, who compensates the terrible accuracy of her non-lethal bullets by dodging fire to go into melee range, Takina is a crackshot with the efficiency of a machine. She can wield a heavy machinegun and fire from the hip to kill everyone but the hostage in a hostage situation, or even shoot a small flying drone while leaning out of a speeding car in midair. Her accuracy is so good Chisato straight up tells her she can just incapacitate hostiles by avoiding their vitals instead of trying to make Chisato's ammo work for her. She does so, and can even go as far as to literally shoot a gun out of someone's hands.
• I'll Kill You!: Threatens to rip the artificial heart out of Shinji's chest in Episode 12. Chisato stops her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At first, though it's not even that she's so much of a jerk as she is instead aloof and distant, which can make her come across as somewhat rude. She also used to be ruthless about getting the job done. However, she softens and also becomes a better person thanks to Chisato, and Character Development establishes her as a Nice Girl.
• Kick Chick: When attacking Majima up close in Episode 11, she lands three kicks to his head. It doesn't stop him.
• Lack of Empathy: Takina initially has this due to her training and indoctrination as a Lycoris agent, with her being seemingly unconcerned for both Erika's and Saori's safety in Episode 1. However, thanks to her Character Development, she grows out of this mindset, making this a Subverted Trope in the end.
• Modesty Shorts: Takina wears boxers under her skirt. Chisato hilariously takes issue with this since they're men's underwear. In an unusual twist of the trope, Takina wears them because she thinks they are standard-issue underwear for Lycoris, based on her interpretation of something Mika said; this makes perfect sense to Takina because the boxers are practical. Chisato actually has to explain panties to Takina and take her underwear shopping before Takina starts wearing proper panties.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Takina is shown to default to this in most situations, taking issue with Chisato's more merciful methods. It also arguably contributed to her transfer despite DA actively encouraging this philosophy, as she was quick to kill a bunch of arms dealers and potentially a fellow Lycoris despite the fact that they needed the dealers alive to question them, which was a step too far even for them. Subverted once Character Development hits Takina, as she takes up Chisato's policy of not killing out of respect for her partner. She initially tries to work with Chisato's rubber bullets but they are too inaccurate for her (Chisato makes them work by rushing into extreme range with her bullet dodging skills), so she opts for exploiting her ridiculously precise marksmanship to go for non-lethal takedowns instead. However, Takina is still willing to go for the kill if the situation is deemed warranted, such as when she has a sudden encounter with the murderer and terrorist Majima in a situation where she can suspect her partner is in danger. She doesn't even hesitate to try to kill him then. She also does not hesitate to try and kill Shinji and Himegama in order to get the new artificial heart from him, though Chisato prevents her from doing so.
• Nice Girl: Once she starts to change and grows out of her cold and ruthless mindset, Takina turns out to be a reasonably nice individual. She's undoubtedly a caring and loyal friend, and thanks to Chisato she becomes more cheerful and friendly, also showing a playful streak around her.
• No Social Skills: Takina appears to have focused on assassination at the expense of ordinary interaction. This is particularly apparent in Episode 4; she wears men's boxers because she took Mika's preference at face value, doesn't bat an eye when Chisato flips up her skirt (though she does turn red at the end of the episode when Mizuki checks her newly bought panties), and couldn't grasp Chisato's implications that she would want to be wearing appropriate lingerie "when the time comes" (i.e. sex).
• Not So Above It All: Spending time with Chisato slowly brings out Takina's own quirks. In Episode 4, Takina is at first unamused by Chisato acting like an eel at an aquarium. After a heart-to-heart talk with her, though, Takina ends up posing like a fish. She's also shown an occasional streak of mischief, such as when she tries to hit Chisato with a rubber band from behind, or when she makes Chisato do a handstand (while wearing a skirt!) so she can try to teach a Japanese Language class without Chisato's tomfoolery.
• Not So Stoic: Takina shows surprise, intrigue, admiration, and even outright shock a couple times in the first two episodes, all involving Chisato's antics. As the series goes on, she gets less and less stoic thanks to Chisato influencing her life.
• Oh, Crap!: Takina makes this face at least twice. The first time was when she lost multiple rounds of Rock–Paper–Scissors to Chisato and got saddled with all the household chores. The second is in Episode 8 when she sees Kurumi's viral post that her parfait looks like poop.
• Only Sane Woman: Compared to the extremely eccentric staff of LycoReco, consisting of a slightly airheaded Genki Girl, an adolescent computer whiz and a woman literally only there to get laid (as she puts it), Takina seems like the most in tune with the series' dark spy fiction setting, taking the job with the seriousness you'd expect for it.
• Pragmatic Hero: Make no mistake, especially thanks to Chisato's big role in her Character Development, Takina has evolved into a genuinely heroic, loyal and selfless character. But it must be noticed she still does have a more pragmatic and less idealistic outlook than Chisato, and has minor moments of lethality unlike her best friend.
• Psycho Sidekick: Downplayed as she's not psychotic, just quite ruthless at first, and Chisato has to teach Takina that they don't have to kill people and endanger innocent lives for their job if they can avoid it. Ironically, while she became a much nicer and more empathetic person thanks to Chisato's influence, finding out about Chisato's limited lifespan that was made shorter thanks to Shinji has caused Takina to become progressively desperate to preserve her partner's life at the cost of her own newly-formed morals.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The (formerly) cold and calm blue to Chisato's upbeat and optimistic red. This is even reflected in their outfits, with Takina wearing blue dress in contrast to Chisato's red dress.
• Revenge Before Reason: During the mock battle in Episode 3, Takina punches Fuki in the face when she could've just shot her from behind. Fuki calls her out on this after the battle, with Takina explaining that she wanted to make things even between them.
• The Rival: To Fuki post-demotion, Fuki is not exactly pleased when she returns to DA's headquarters and belittles both her and Chisato on the regular to the point of hostility.
• The Scapegoat: It's revealed that Takina's transfer wasn't because of disobeying orders, but because Kusunoki used her as a scapegoat to lay the blame of the mission's failure on her rather than admit that DA was fed false information and that their systems were hacked when Fuki was requesting orders from them. She finds this out when she returns to the HQ with Chisato that she is unwelcome and is forced to remain at the Café permanently. Takina first thinks to confront Kusunoki about it, but Chisato talks her out of it, pointing out that Kusunoki would just feign ignorance, as had happened when Chisato confronted her about it.
• The Scream: Takina lets out an absolutely bloodcurdling one when she tries to shoot Shinji and Himegama to get the artificial heart from the former, only for Chisato to stop her.
• Shoot the Hostage Taker: Takina does this twice in Episode 1. She first mows down the arms dealers who took Erika hostage, which gets her kicked out of DA (though later it's revealed that this was only one factor in her dismissal). The second time, she lets Saori be captured by her stalkers so she can eliminate them, wounding one in the process. Chisato stops Takina in the second instance, allowing the elder Lycoris to subdue the kidnappers without any loss of life.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: At first she's rather apathetic, businesslike and no-nonsense because she was raised as a coldhearted Child Soldier. Bonding with the people of Café LycoReco, mainly Chisato, causes Takina to become able to loosen up and grow to care about her friends.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: She (barely) disguises herself as a man when she infiltrates a bar with Chisato in Episode 7.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: This is predictably what her partnership with Chisato starts out as, with the "teeth-clenched" part being entirely on her end. Takina initially dislikes Chisato on a personal level, as Chisato represents everything Takina opposes, and Takina's coldly logical personality means she finds Chisato irritating even outside work. Chisato treated her like a friend regardless while Takina wanted to keep their relationship strictly professional and refused small talk often. Takina's Character Development sees them completely move past this into actual friendship and a proper partnership.
• Took a Level in Idealism: While her core personality as an even-tempered and rational introvert is maintained, Chisato's influence causes Takina to relax her entire approach to her life. She finds things and goals to value in life besides pleasing her superiors, develops actual friendships and begins to enjoy the life of a normal girl with Chisato when they're not on-duty. The early Takina who would willingly endanger an innocent in order to more easily kill hostiles and who prefers to eat processed rations for efficiency is very different from the later one that goes for non-lethal takedowns and allows Chisato to take her out to sweet shops or clothes shopping.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Takina starts out very goal-oriented, cynical, rather aggressive and emotionally distant from everyone, but slowly comes to consider the feelings of others around her thanks to Chisato teaching her how to feel compassion. By the second half of the series, she cares enough about her friends at LycoReco that she goes out of her way to make it succeed in ways it never did before she showed up, is screaming out in anguish for Chisato whenever the other is in danger, and ultimately decides to leave the DA out of faith and fondness for Chisato.
• Unscrupulous Hero: Before she changes her mindset, very much unlike Chisato, she tends to favor more ruthless tactics, such as gunning down enemies with a PKM machinegun seemingly without regard for their hostage's safety and later using the person she's been tasked with bodyguarding as bait. She gets partnered with Chisato in hopes of helping her grow out of this, and Chisato's influence progressively causes Takina to relax her approach to both her life and work. It gets to the point Takina becomes willing to go for non-lethal takedowns against armed hostiles in respect to Chisato's Thou Shall Not Kill policy. She becomes a Pragmatic Hero thanks to Character Development.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Takina finds out the hard way from Kusunoki in Episode 3 that she is barred from returning to the main DA building again when Sakura reveals herself as Takina's replacement and Kusunoki directly tells her that she never gave any conditions by which Takina could come back. In Episode 9, however, Chisato more-or-less blackmails Kusunoki into letting Takina back into DA. By this time, Takina only sees it as a means to an end so she can try and locate Shinji and save Chisato's life. In Episode 11, though, she goes AWOL during a Lycoris op, which completely torpedoes her chances of getting back into DA. By this point, though, she doesn't care; Chisato means more to her than DA. By Episode 12, she outright tells Chisato that she quit DA.

Café LycoReco

In General

A local café in Tokyo that acts as one of DA's front operations. It is where Chisato is stationed at and where Takina is transferred to.

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• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Chisato is the Optimist (cheerful, kind and idealistic), Takina is the Cynic (at least at first, being rather aloof and very pragmatic and goal-oriented; later, she becomes a Realist), Mizuki is the Apathetic (often thinks about topics which have nothing to do with the job, especially attractive young men), Kurumi is the Realist (Playful Hacker who, despite her mischievous and seemingly apathetic attitude, very much applies her competence to get the job done), and Mika is the Conflicted (a gentle caretaker who is often conflicted about what to do and ends up Cynical with his last, drastic choice).
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Chisato is Sanguine (cheerful, optimistic, benevolent and kind Genki Girl), Takina is Melancholic (rather cynical, aloof, efficient and very job-oriented), Mika is Phlegmatic (quiet, peaceful caretaker), Mizuki is Choleric (somewhat short-tempered and kind of a complainer), and Kurumi is Eclectic (Phlegmatic Type 2 as she's quiet but playful and very skilled and versatile). Later on, though, Takina and Mika invert their temperaments, with the former becoming a more mellow, gentle and playful Phlegmatic, and the latter becoming more Melancholic, conflicted inside, living with regret and ending up with a cynical, dramatic choice.
• Home Base: Chisato, Takina, and Kurumi all use it as their base of operations.
• Local Hangout: Serves as the gathering place for many of the local residents Chisato has befriended.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Mizuki and Kurumi have a very beligerent dynamic between them, Mizuki being constantly annoyed by Kurumi's laziness and always being ready to counter her snark, and Kurumi loving to troll and annoy Mizuki when she gets the chance. Despite that, the two are able to function well together as teammates and look out for the other's safetey, especially in the season finale where they team up to help Takina and Chisato to track down Majima.
• We Help the Helpless: The jobs the Lycoris assigned here receive tend to focus more on helping people rather than eliminating threats. Especially thanks to Chisato's moral values which very much work as a positive influence.

Mizuki Nakahara

Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (Japanese), Jennifer Losi (English)

Portrayed by: Mikako Ishii

"Find me a good man this instant!"

A semi-former member of DA who works out of the café. Using it as an excuse to find someone to marry.

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• The Alcoholic: Downplayed, but Mizuki can occasionally be seen drowning her sorrows in booze.
• Berserk Button: Never insult the capabilities of the DA. Kurumi finds this out in Episode 3 when she posts an even higher resolution of the same picture Mizuki gives her. With Mizuki storming out of the café in fury.
• Butt-Monkey: Mizuki is often on the receiving end of Mika and Kurumi's snark, such as Kurumi being nonchalant about Mizuki surviving her encounter with Silent Jin. However, she's just as quick to make others into one, such as catching Chisato wearing boxer briefs and deciding to expose them to everyone else in Episode 4. Kurumi frequently trolls her and screws her over at various points in the show.
• Christmas Cake: The source of hilarity that defines her is her constant ventures to find herself a man.
• Damsel in Distress: She's briefly put into this position when Silent Jin catches her in Episode 5. Luckily, Jin doesn't harm her, and instead ties her up and stuffs her into a box to get her out of his way.
• The Driver: Serves as this on the odd occasion whenever she's not drowning her sorrows in magazines and alcohol. As shown in Episode 6 when escaping Majima and his cronies, she's very good at it.
• Everyone Has Standards: Her reasoning for moving over to café to begin with was that she disliked the treatment DA gave to its agents. The exact details of which go unexplained, as does her original position at the organization.
• Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: She definitely thinks this, as she's often concerned with the monetary reward for their missions and dislikes it whenever Chisato (or Mika) calls in a "cleaner" to deal with the criminals she subdues.
• Lady Swears-a-Lot: Only in the English dub; Mizuki uses a lot more profanity than in the Japanese dub.
• Language Fluency Denial: In Episode 13, when someone is asking for Chisato while they're in Hawaii, Mizuki says in English "I don't speak English." Thrice.
• Mission Control: It's her job to assign missions to Chisato and Takina.
• Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed most of the time, but Mizuki wears a low-cut black dress at the end of Episode 7 that shows she is very buxom. Her glasses also add to her appeal.
• Oh, Crap!: Has a few moments of this, such as Mika calling cleaners after a mission in Episode 1, Kurumi canceling her ID for the Forbidden Bar in Episode 7, and Takina's money-saving antics starting to affect her in Episode 8. Ironically, she's the only one not to react like this when Majima's men fire at the group with a rocket launcher.
• Old Maid: She's 27 and is still single, worried for her Christmas Cake status, and very much in hope that she'll find a man.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: She hardly has a good relationship with Kurumi due to how she never works and out of envy of her info gathering skills, often getting on her case while Kurumi responds by repeatedly Trolling her.

Mika

Voiced by: Kosuke Sakaki (Japanese), Bob Carter (English)

Portrayed by: Keigo Kitamura

The supervisor at LycoReco, as well as the barista.

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• Becoming the Mask: He eventually took the role of "Chisato's father" too far. He was supposed to be mostly a handler to her and push her to go through with using her assassination talent, but he grew to genuinely have paternal feelings for her, ending up opposing Yoshimatsu in the process.
• Clark Kent Outfit: He has a very muscular build that isn't immediately apparent with his LycoReco uniform.
• Hidden Depths: Mika's complex history with Yoshimatsu is explained in Episode 9. Mika and Yoshimatsu, who were lovers at the time, both observed Chisato when she was a child and showed a masterful proficiency in combat. However, Chisato had a congenital heart disease, meaning she would die at a very young age. Yoshimatsu offered to give Chisato an artificial heart with the intention of allowing Chisato's killing prowess to flourish. Mika, being Chisato's handler, was supposed to act as a surrogate father to her. However, due to Yoshimatsu telling Chisato he was a "savior", Chisato took up a non-lethal mantra. Mika, despite having been an item with Yoshimatsu, chose to encourage Chisato's new mantra rather than train her to be a murderer.
• Irony: In Episode 7, Mizuki and Chisato think he went to the Forbidden Bar to talk business with Kusunoki, while Kurumi and Takina think Mika could be out on a date with Kusunoki instead. It's revealed he's speaking to Yoshimatsu, a regular at LycoReco. Chisato and Mizuki immediately assume he actually is on a date, but it turns out he really is there to talk business after all. To add further irony, he and Shinji really used to be lovers.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Mika murders Shinji in Episode 13 to get the artificial heart for Chisato.
• Lying to Protect Your Feelings: In Episode 13, he hides the fact that he killed Yoshimatsu to obtain the new artificial heart to save Chisato. As a result, Chisato merely assumes Yoshimatsu lied about implanting the heart into himself.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Even he can't help but be shocked by the near miss of the Panzerfaust-3 rocket launcher aimed right at them in Episode 6.
  • He breaks down crying when he admits he participated, with Shinji, on the start of the plan to get Chisato to become a killer in Episode 10, though Chisato forgives him immediatelly.
  • Finally, he's crying all the while when he murders Shinji.
• Obfuscating Disability: Episode 13 reveals that he had been faking his injured leg the entire time, a fact he has kept secret from everybody, including LycoReco and Yoshimatsu. Kurumi finds this out, but keeps it a secret at Mika's request.
• The One Guy: He's the lone male member of LycoReco.
• Papa Wolf: He's extremely protective of Chisato, who he thinks of as his own daughter. He subjects Himegawa to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown as revenge for her almost killing Chisato by tampering with her artificial heart. He even goes as far as to kill his lover Yoshimatsu and take the new artificial heart from his body in order to ensure Chisato survives.
• Parental Substitute: He's a father figure to Chisato, being her handler and caretaker.
• Queer Establishing Moment: Mika is fully revealed as gay in episode 7 during his get-together with Shinji at a swanky bar, indicating a chemistry between the two.
• Retired Badass: Once an assassin himself, an injury to his left leg ended his career, although he occasionally helps as a sniper. Though he's actually faking the injury.
• Secret-Keeper: He's clearly keeping something hidden revolving around Chisato and Yoshimatsu. The details of it are revealed in Episode 9.
• Shoot the Dog: He kills Shinji in the end in order to obtain his artificial heart and save Chisato. The tears he sheds as he holds a gun up to his former lover shows that he wishes he didn't have to go through with it.
• Sparing Them the Dirty Work: Shinji sent his secretary to damage Chisato's artificial heart and implanted the only existing replacement into himself to leave Chisato no choice but to kill him if she wants to live. Since Chisato can't bring herself to kill anyone, Mika takes it upon himself to shoot Shinji and take the heart from his body in order to let Chisato live longer.
• Straight Gay: Heavily implied to be gay in Episode 7. When Mika goes to a private high-end bar without telling anyone, LycoReco all assume he's there to talk business with Kusunoki. When Takina and Kurumi suggest Mika could just be out on a date with Kusunoki, Chisato and Mizuki instantly deny the idea of him dating a woman. He's really there to discuss Chisato's Thou Shalt Not Kill policy with Shinji, but flashbacks and dialogue reveal he actually does have strong feelings for Shinji, suggesting they could have been an item in the past. Episode 9 confirms his homosexuality and that he was indeed in a relationship with Shinji.
• Team Dad: He serves as the supervisor and a fatherly figure to the Lycoris agents of LycoReco, especially Chisato whom he personally raised from childhood.
• Twofer Token Minority: Threefer. He's a black man, who requires a crutch to walk, and is later revealed to be homosexual. Subverted on the disability representation front as he was actually faking it the entire time.

Kurumi

Voiced by: Misaki Kuno (Japanese), Lisa Reimold (English)

Portrayed by: Nonoka Obushi

"Those that believe only in data become dumber and dumber!"

A young girl formerly known as Walnut, the best hacker in Japan. After getting in the crosshairs of her last employers for asking too many questions, she goes into hiding at LycoReco, in exchange for helping Chisato and Takina with their work.

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• Age Insecurity: When asked how old she is, given that she is at the moment working in the café while clearly underage, Kurumi gets upset and answers "It's a secret."
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: Despite Kurumi looking like a child, there's absolutely no mention of what the status of her parents are.
• Animal Motifs: As Walnut, she's represented by a squirrel. She even wears the squirrel icon in her hoodie.
• Badass Bookworm: It's easy to overlook because she isn't a fighter, but Kurumi has surprising Le Parkour abilities for someone who works with the brain, at one point casually sliding down the railing of an airport's mechanical stairs on top of her suitcase with all ease.
• Barefoot Loon: While she isn't completely alien to social norms, she spends most of her time in the Lycoris doing whatever pleases her (to the uptight Mizuki's chagrin), and is always barefoot, even in zones of the café requiring footwear and in cars, only donning strappy sandals when stepping on the street.
• Big Damn Heroes: In Episode 6, she saves the other LycoReco team members when a terrorist aims a Panzerfaust-3 at Mizuki's car by flying her drone into the man, knocking off his aim and causing the rocket to explode right next to Majima. She pulls this off once more in Episode 12, managing to both get Robota arrested, and the shoot-to-kill order on the Lycoris agents at Enkuboku called off at the same time.
• Crazy-Prepared: She was wary enough to vacate her usual condo when she questioned Yoshimatsu at the end of Episode 1, suspecting he would try to kill her for being too nosy. She was right.
• Cute Oversized Sleeves: She's the resident Playful Hacker Token Mini-Moe and her usual outfit is an oversized white and yellow hoodie with long sleeves that cover up her hands.
• Easily Forgiven: When Kurumi reveals her hand in hacking DA, which resulted in Takina getting fired and in Majima's men getting away with thousands of illegal arms, Takina forgives her for her role in the debacle.
• Emotionless Girl: Likely to seem more professional, she initially tries to invoke this, but as she is far from unflappable, it doesn't stick. She still reverts to a bored default expression from time to time, though.
• Faking the Dead: In order to protect her from the Alan Institute after she they turned on her, Kurumi had Mizuki impersonate Walnut in order to fake the hacker's death. This allowed Kurumi to throw Robota off her trail and then join the LycoReco staff.
• Hackette: Because of the voice modulator she uses and the long career of the Walnut identity, everyone assumes Walnut is a man, or as she puts it, "a malicious, thin, four-eyed boy" envisioned by people who watch too many movies. Throughout the series, Kurumi shows herself to be able to hack advanced systems almost as easily as breathing.
• He Knows Too Much: Rather than keep quiet and accept her pay, she dared to ask why the Alan Institute is arms dealing, to which they responded by bombing her home, forcing her to go into hiding.
• It's All My Fault: Kurumi admits this when she confesses to being the one who hacked DA during the arms deal raid, and that Takina's dismissal and the disappearance of all the smuggled weapons is because of her actions. Luckily, Takina forgives her, claiming her dismissal was more her own fault than it was Kurumi's.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Zigzagged. Kurumi (as Walnut) told Shinji that she hates being ignorant, but she keeps a lot of her own secrets from the others (such as being the one who hacked Radiata).
• Kid Detective: Kurumi does a lot of digging around in DA's files and the Alan Institute's dealings, despite the danger it could put her in. She's also able to make the connection between Mika, Shinji and Chisato in Episode 9, realizing that Shinji was the one who contracted her to hack DA. Then, in Episode 11, using just her headset she learns that Shinji had obtained a new artificial heart and that he was planning to give it Chisato with it. Finally, she tracks down Chisato in Episode 13 thanks to a photo from Saori, and also reveals that she knew Mika was faking his limp.
• Legacy Character: Given her young age compared to the 30-year activity of Walnut, plus the fact Walnut has supposedly been killed several times, it's likely that Kurumi is just the latest to assume the identity of Japan's best hacker.
• Mysterious Past: It's never made clear where she learned her hacking skills or how she assumed the title of Walnut.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: She's only known as "Kurumi" because she refuses to give her real name.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Kurumi's snark often leads her to saying things she really shouldn't, resulting in Amusing Injuries (i.e. Mizuki delivering her a Judo Chop to the neck after Kurumi asks about Mika's "lover").
• Playful Hacker: She has fun with her hacking, like when she gives Takina a goofy-sounding alias and laughs at the information she made up not being questioned.
• Pretender Diss: When Kurumi fries Robota's setup in Episode 12, she tells him it's a century too early for him to call himself the greatest hacker in the world.
• Pretty Freeloader: Unless she has actual technical work she can accomplish, Kurumi spends most of her time just lounging around LycoReco and doing minimal work to run the place, something that annoys Mizuki.
• Properly Paranoid: Kurumi suspected that Yoshimatsu might try to kill her when she questioned him about his role in the illegal arms deal, so she vacated her usual apartment before speaking to him. She was right to be wary, as Yoshimatsu has the condo room blown up. This also extends to the Walnut squirrel outfit she used to wear and her use of a voice modulator, letting her hide her identity whenever she had to speak to someone online. According to her, it's a common practice among hackers to help maintain anonymity.
• Put on a Bus: In Episode 10, Chisato catches Kurumi doing research on her artificial heart. Feeling that Kurumi is wasting her time in a seemingly hopeless attempt to save her, Chisato tells her that she's closing down the café, forcing Kurumi to make plans to leave the country since she's still wanted by DA. This culminates in Mizuki driving Kurumi to the airport. Averted when Kurumi cancels the flight after discovering that Shinji obtained a new artificial heart for Chisato.
• The Scream: Lets out a particularly long one in Episode 6 before she shows the others how Majima was able to learn the identities of the four Lycoris agents he murdered.
• Secret-Keeper: She's the only other person aware of Mika not actually being crippled, as well as the fact that he killed Yoshimatsu.
• Signature Headgear: She wears a signature black hair ribbon that looks like rabbit ears.
• Sweet Tooth: Kurumi enjoys sugary and/or sweet foods, including watermelon, cookies, and berries with ice cream.
• Teen Genius: She's somewhere in her early teenage years and yet is smart enough to hack a highly advanced government AI. She's also smart enough to figure out the conspiracy that Shinji is weaving after hearing Mika's story in Episode 9. Episode 12 has her fry Robota's setup, pinpoint his location for the police to arrest him, reboot Radiata, and then use a broadcast to quell the chaos in Tokyo by making the day's horror look like a publicity stunt.
• This Is My Name on Foreign: "Kurumi" is just the Japanese translation of "walnut" she came up with in response to Chisato's complaints that her old identity belongs to a "dead man".
• Token Mini-Moe: She's a young girl (or at least looks like one) while everyone else at LycoReco is either a teenager or an adult.
• Troll: Kurumi enjoys being snarky to the others, especially to Mizuki. One big moment of her trolling the latter is at the end of Episode 7 when she deletes the fake ID Mizuki was planning to use to go to the Bar Forbidden, claiming she did it because Mizuki is a cheapskate.
• Vague Age: Although she's surely not as old as the identity of Walnut as a whole, her exact age is a mystery since she refuses to reveal it when asked. Physically wise, she seems to be somewhere between 10 and 14.
• Wise Beyond Her Years: For how young she looks compared to the rest of the café staff, Kurumi is notably witty and intelligent at a level on par with the grown ups around her, and is able to stay way ahead of her enemies thanks to her ability to gather and control intel.

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