Character page for the Osu! Karate Club manga. Currently a work in progress.

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Students and Staff of Kangokou High

Yoshiyuki Takagi

The outrageously macho, tough, wisecracking captain of Kangokou High's Karate Club. He holds the title of Third Soul of Osaka, meaning that all the student gangs and hooligans in Osaka are under his direct control. A honourable delinquent, he loves freedom and will never fight women.

Animal-Themed Fighting Style: Mastering the Rising Dragon technique involves switching between multiple animal-like fighting styles on top of understanding the signature abilities of the Ko brothers, which results in a giant energy blast.
Back from the Dead: Takagi is killed by Gen-Gen but revives after mastering the Rising Dragon in the afterlife and absorbing the souls of both Jinrai and Tian-sheng.
Berserk Button:
- Merely hearing the reputation of either the Karate Club or Kangokou High being challenged causes Takagi to recklessly take on challenges he would otherwise prefer to avoid. And people whom he's sworn to protect being threatened naturally nets a much more violent response from him.
- Once he sets his mind to it, Takagi will never back out of a fight no matter how injured he is and he gets real annoyed when his allies discourage him from doing so.
  (Marimo has been impaled by Boku to save Takagi, and he promises to finish the fight for her)
  Otake: Takagi!! Don't push yourself! We'll take all the responsibility from here!
  Takagi: *pulling Otake by his scarf* I thought I told you to get back!
  Otake: ......
Big Ol' Eyebrows: He sports an impressive pair of eyebrows. They're especially noticable in flashbacks to when he was just a little kid, as they make up over half of his face.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Starts making meta jokes after putting up a "Go!! Karate Club" signboard on his new Karate Club at Tokyo, though even before that one volume cover had him asking the viewer to purchase it.
Breakout Character: Takagi started out as the tritagonist after Matsushita and Saitou, but the series became more and more centered on him as his popularity grew until he became the protagonist and his underclassmen were outright Demoted to Extra.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: His thick brows curve around his eyes.
But Now I Must Go: The first part of the series ends with Takagi faking his death to start anew on Tokyo. The Distant Finale reveals that after he was last seen being arrested to parts unknown, he was released and hired to fight criminal groups in African conflict zones.
Catchphrase: He often orders himself, people or even objects to show him their GUTS whenever he's in trouble.
Character Development: Takagi starts out as a Book Dumb delinquent who is kind of an asshole to his disciples and isn't above killing to avenge something like friends being raped and murdered. Throughout the series, he evolves into something of a Genius Bruiser who is merciful and forgiving to Messianic Archetype levels despite beating the tar out of his enemies all the same.
Characterization Marches On: Takagi is much more of a jerkass early on with his bullying of the Karate Club's underclassmen, which doesn't add up to how he's later established to have been The Paragon of Osaka since Morigami recruited him. He actually lampshades this after defeating Jinrai, pointing out how much things have changed and asking if he can go back to torturing Matsushita and Saitou again.
Cowardly Lion: He doesn't reaaaally enjoy violence and obviously doesn't like getting hurt, so he'll try to pick his fights and attempt peaceful solutions whenever possible before inevitably being forced to lay the smackdown anyway.
Cuteness Proximity: Subverted; at one point he purchases a few chicks and protects them from a blow at his own detriment but this is just to cook them later. Afterwards, a chick standing over his head or shoulder in various scenes becomes a Running Gag. This is never commented on by him or anyone else, even as the chick does play a role in helping Takagi during the Tokyo Saga.
The Dreaded: He's known as the biggest badass in Osaka, but this turns badly once he saves both it and Kobe from Jinrai just to end up expelled from school as well as impersonated and hunted even more by thugs who are out for fame.
Dumb Muscle: It's an occasional gag that he starts nosebleeding if he reads for too long or for him to get history facts and vocabulary wrong, but he did score As in Home Economics, Science and can speak English well. During the Saga of Good and Evil, a Running Gag is Takagi beating on his own head to get ideas.
"Think, think, think, (...) think! Nervous system! Dopamine and seratonin and acetylcholine and adrenaline and glutamic acid and amino acids and aspartic acid and everythin' else, FULL POWER! THINK, THINK, THINK, (...) THINK!! Geheheheh... Damn, nothin' came to me."
(Takagi gets whacked on the head)
"Hehehehe... Hah hah hah hah... I SUDDENLY GOT IT!!!"
Faking the Dead:
- After a thug Takagi was trying to help spitefully stabs him, he decides to fake his own death and start a new life on Tokyo... not that he ever gets a break from fighting or changes his name or anything.
- Takagi plays possum at one point to deceive his enemies and calls it an "Academy Award for Best Actor".
Fighting Clown: The string of moves needed to perform the legendary Rising Dragon requires the fighter to first act like a bird, and Takagi does this by comically hopping around like a chicken. And even Takagi is in disbelief when he needs to move like a frog in order to enhance the Rising Dragon further.
Gratuitous English: Likes making engrish puns that only he finds hilarious.
Heartbroken Badass: His first girlfriend Yuuko was raped and then accidentally killed by being dropped on the middle of the road while in shock, just for knowing him. Asuka initially couldn't confront Takagi over Yuuko's murder when she saw such a hardened delinquent like him driven to Broken Tears. Her sister Megumi then also gets killed in the exact same circunstances for trying to help Takagi after he was starting to warm up to her, leading to him beating the one responsible half-dead and not daring to defend himself when Asuka later does take a misplaced revenge on him for their deaths.
Heroic BSoD: Takagi loses all confidence when he learns his mentor and brother figure Jinrai has turned evil and leaves with Momochiyo to take a break on Kobe, where the Pillars of Kobe start beating him up. They see Takagi hasn't turned so depressed that he'll let them harm Momochiyo as well, so they apologize and take him to Liu-yun, who trains him to face Jinrai on equal grounds.
Heroic Bastard: In the final saga, Takagi is said to be the son of Prime Minister Gonosuke, who kidnapped and raped Yukiko, the wife of Jindo Tenba, until she was driven to madness. The last few chapters reveal Jindo lied about the rape part to get Takagi to hate his father, and that Gonosuke and Yukiko loved each other but both them and Jindo ended up as broken people thanks to their tragic circumstances.
Hidden Depths:
- Despite him being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold Comedic Relief, even as the series becomes more action oriented, he has a lot of emotional trauma and grief over his lonely upbringing.
- In a more comedic example, he is revealed to be surprisingly good at speaking English, to the point where it shocks his classmates.
Hope Bringer: The student gangs in Osaka all look up to the Third Soul of Osaka and more often than not even enemies beaten by him are inspired to turn over a new leaf and help him in times of need.
I Just Want to Be Free: Takagi was taught by Jinrai all about granting freedom to the helpless, and losing his own after becoming "The Hero of Osaka" is why he fakes his death to start over on Tokyo. Ironically, he just gets dragged into more and more conflicts until he ends up as a mercenary in Africa with only Momochiyo for company.
The Idiot from Osaka: He's a fun-loving walking Osakan stereotype that obliviously gets a ton of cold stares from the Tokyo citizens. Every time he ruins the mood of a scene with a random gag, either he or the narrator reminds readers that he's from Osaka.
How to use a wet towel, Kansai style — Step 1: make noise with the packet; Step 2: wipe your face; Step 3: wipe your armpit; Step 4: wipe your shoes. This was a gag people on Tokyo can't get...
Important Haircut: He gave up his punch perm for Morigami's star-shaped shave after losing a duel to him and befriending him. This hairsyle marks him as a Soul of Osaka like Morigami and Jinrai.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He puts the underclassmen in the Karate Club through hellish training and even mistreats them from time to time for their own sake, but it's well established that one of his Berserk Buttons is harming his underclassmen.
Ki Attacks:
- The Fa jin, a Tai Chi technique which empowers his punches with a deadly blast radius. The Super Famicom fighting game even portrays it as a Hadouken.
- The 100-step God Fist, a parrying aura meant to counter the Fa jin.
- The Divine Punch of Universal Light, which is portrayed as multiple dragons coming out of Takagi's punch or a giant Pillar of Light blasting into the sky.
- The Rising Dragon, which requires mastery over all three branches of Tai Chi and five kinds of animal stances.
Last-Name Basis: People only ever call him by his family name.
Made of Iron: Takagi takes a truly absurd amount of damage throughout the series, sometimes on purpose to intimidate foes or avoid escalating conflicts, but he always recovers to save the day. When he does get incapacitated for a certain amount of time, it typically is out of The Worf Effect so the supporting cast can have some spotlight holding the line for him.
Manly Tears: He cries Berserker Tears when he learns Megumi was raped and killed and later on, once Asuka is introduced, he also sheds Tender Tears for how she's lashing at him out of grief for her sister's death.
Megaton Punch: His punches don't quite blast people into orbit like he brags, but still send them quite a distance into the air.
Not Quite Dead: When Takagi is temporarily killed by Gen-Gen, his soul clings on because Momochiyo is crying at him to wake up. Later, Takagi is cursed to die in seven days and asks Masataka to put him in suspended animation so he and Tian-sheng can work on a solution in the spirit world.
One-Man Army: The early chapters have Takagi claiming he picks his fights to avoid getting overwhelmed, but he's well powerful enough to take on multiple opponents by himself. This escalates until he's performing feats like knocking out fifty men in a row while enduring harsh injuries including a broken arm.
The Power of Friendship: Whenever Takagi is badly knocked down or even defeated and hospitalized, it is the support and cheering of his allies that get him back on his feet.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs:
- Learns to instantly punch five times in a row after enduring Sagawa's four-hit combo technique.
- The OVA cuts Sagawa out and has Takagi defeat Ootsuka with a more standard "Cannonball" barrage, but afterwards the Five-Hit Thrust is used in later scenes as in the manga.
Red Baron: Is known as Takagi the Villain, the Third Soul of Osaka and the First Soul of Tokyo.
Signature Move: The Five-hit Thrust he steals from Sagawa, as well as his version of the Fa jin.
Stay in the Kitchen: He views women as fragile beings who must be protected by men and tries to prevent them from getting involved in the delinquent gang culture. The two girls he was in love with being killed because of that doesn't help matters. Even so, Momochiyo is the first person who we see him actually teaching self-defense to in the story.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: He mostly refuses to kill anyone and is discouraged by Liu-yun from using his advanced Fa jin on people, but if he's on his way to avenge a murder then he simply tosses his code of honor outta the window. As he states when he avenges Megumi and later when he nearly kills Sayuri:
"Bitch, if saying "sorry" could resolve a murder... THEN WE WOULDN'T NEED THE POLICE!!"
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Takagi once was a very shy boy with a bowl cut hairstyle.
The Worf Barrage:
- Takagi grazes and misses several Fa jin shots out of fear of killing anyone. This can come off as a rather unnecessary conflict because when he does land a blast head-on it still doesn't kill because it's not like he can't control its power output.
- The Explosive Fa jin also gets thwarted by David Furuya and his Jericho 941 gun, averting the Guns Are Worthless trope. One villain also reflects it right back at Takagi by using the 100-step God Fist, a technique that had just been introduced by Takagi from out of nowhere.
- The Universal Light and Rising Dragon techniques are also effortlessly neutralized by new villains despite all the effort Takagi went through in learning them to even stand a chance against previous villains.
Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Refuses to harm women even if they're out to kill him and if he invokes Exact Words on saying his fists aren't meant for that, he still does nothing but scare them off. He does slam Sayuri on a wall and nearly crushes her head as revenge for her hiring Boku to assassinate Retsu, but once she offers to donate her blood to save Retsu and his sister, Takagi relents and admits he treated her too harshly.

Tadashi Matsushita and Takaaki Saitou

Matsushita and Saitou are ordinary students of Kangokou High who after being harassed and bullied by their classmates decide to join the Karate Club but end up bullied even worse by their crazy upperclassmen.

Badass on Paper: They're able to intimidate the KFTH students who used to bully them just by being members of the infamous Karate Club, when in truth they aren't very strong.
Butt-Monkey: Both of them frequently get their asses kicked by enemies and upperclassmen alike, even when they're trying their best to be heroic. Still, their big hearts and determination endear them to Takagi, who eventually makes them the vice captains of the Karate Club.
Demoted to Extra: Matsushita starts as the protagonist before being hijacked by Takagi and during the Tokyo Saga he goes out of focus with the rest of the cast.
The Narrator: Matsushita is this for the first few arcs.
Put on a Bus: When Takagi moves to Tokyo, the entire supporting cast including them is replaced. The two reappear after Takagi defeats the Great Tokyo Alliance captains, alongside Momochiyo, but remain minor characters.
Those Two Guys: Rarely seen apart, provide minor help and commentary for fights and are increasingly sidelined as the story gets serious.
Took a Level in Badass: Matsushita and Saitou do get a bit tougher as the story goes on and they always put up a resistance even against impossible odds to Hold the Line for Takagi. Matsushita in particular eventually becomes a tough-looking physical education teacher.

Momochiyo Honda

A gentle girl who enters the Karate Club as their manager to be close to her crush Takagi.

A Day in the Limelight: She gets her own mini-arc centering around a conflict between her and a group of female delinquents.
Action Girl: Downplayed; she has a little arc early on about Takagi encouraging her to beat up her delinquent classmates but afterwards she sits out of conflict except for cheering Takagi on and helping him train.
Adaptational Badass: In the Super Famicom fighting game she is the final boss of arcade mode and a secret playable character who can beat up anyone in the cast from Takagi to Jinrai.
Battle Couple: In the ending, she travels to some region in Africa with Takagi once he's hired to battle criminal groups and is shown to always be by his side.
Big Damn Heroes:
- When Keiji is about to kill a Takagi who's paralyzed by two arms stuck to his back, nobody notices harmless little civilian Momo taking the things off and running away.
- When Gen-Gen is about to break Takagi's arm, Momochiyo runs in and kicks the villain's face in before running off again.
Cute Bruiser: She's actually quite strong on her own right, far more so than the male newcomers at the Karate Club.
Damsel out of Distress: Subverted when she fights off Ootsuka and his goons just to suffer from a Staircase Tumble while fleeing. Luckily she survives and Takagi arrives right afterwards to bring her to a hospital.
First-Name Basis: People usually call her by given name.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: She's very short compared to Takagi, who straight up looks like a giant in the last time the two are seen together.
Make Me Wanna Shout: Her crying can damage ears and shatter windows. Only ever Played for Laughs in the series proper, but it is her super move in the fighting game.
Put on a Bus: Despite becoming Takagi's girlfriend, even Momochiyo goes Out of Focus once the Tokyo Arc starts. She reunites with Takagi after he becomes the Soul of Tokyo, keeps cheering for in on fights from then on and eventually marries him.
Shoo Out the Clowns: She's oddly absent from the story when Kobe invades Osaka, though she does appear in the OVA adaptation looking after Takagi while he is recovering in secret — the belt Takagi uses in the end of the fight against Rick is her gift in that version. After she returns to being a recurring character, the trope is averted by her often being present to root for Takagi and even contributing in a silly way to serious fights.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Momo makes Takagi promise to not fight until a party on Christmas Eve, which he tries to uphold even as he's hunted by Suenaga of the Three Pillars of Kobe. This leaves him in a very bad shape to try to prevent the invasion of Osaka that comes afterwards.

Inasaku Kabata

The vice-captain of the Kangokou Karate Club. He is mean and sadistic, but also very weak and overweight.

Berserk Button: He finally grows the courage to lead his underclassmen against an enemy gang when they were about to set the jacket he was gifted by Morigami on fire.
The Bully: Typically vents his stress on the Club underclassmen when Takagi isn't around.
Hero-Worshipper: Kabata became friends with Morigami after being saved by him from bullies and for that he wouldn't bring dare shame to him or the Club despite his flaws.
Sketchy Successor: He's this to former vice captain Takagi. Morigami knew Kabata wasn't very strong and that he didn't have people and leadership skills but nevertheless appreciated his perfect attendance record and loyalty to the Karate Club. After Takagi moves to Tokyo, he promotes Kabata as the new captain.

Shingo Morigami

The previous Karate Club captain before Takagi, as well as the Second Soul of Osaka. Unlike his underclassman, Morigami is a calm and level-headed fighter.

Beware the Nice Ones: He's an overall Nice Guy, but if pushed and hurt enough to the point of being barely conscious he goes into a berserk mode that unlike Takagi's isn't Played for Laughs at all. In this state Morigami starts seriously trying to murder his opponents while punching aside any allies who get in the way.
Demoted to Extra: The OVA introduces Morigami via Kabada's backstory, omitting his shared past with both Takagi and Jinrai. Furthermore, his first fight against the Twin Grim Reapers of Kobe is offscreened and the rematch is abridged.
Disney Death: He's horribly injured by Jinrai and appears to flatline during surgery, appearing as a spirit before Takagi to ask him to save Jinrai from the path of evil. Matsushita tells Takagi that... he forgot to ask if Morigami made it, and then Takagi is told that Morigami survived after all.
Eye Scream: Both of his eyes are damaged during his battles against Jinrai.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a slash scar over the right side of his face, compared to Jinrai's acidic burn one over his left.
Hero-Worshipper: No matter how ruthless Jinrai became and despite his despicable rape of Itsuki, Morigami could never truly hate him. Even on the brink of death his spirit begs Takagi to somehow redeem his Brother of Soul.
Important Haircut: He styled his buzz cut after Jinrai's and made it a thing by requesting Takagi to use it as well.
Signature Move: Thrusting both of his open palms into the opponent's chest.
Stout Strength: He has a rounder face as well as a more stocky build compared to other characters, and is a strong fighter.

Gantetsu

The Adviser of the Karate Club as well as the man in charge of the Club Consultation Office. He's a strange man who dresses something like a monk and has an obsession with youthfulness to the point where he shaved his hair into the Kanji for the word.

Catchphrase: The word "Youth" itself is this for him as he mentions it in nearly every sentence he speaks.
Cloud Cuckoolander: From the way he dresses to his obsession over youth, he is an incredibly eccentric man.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Parodied. Him merely attacking Takagi caused the latter to be sent into a berserker state, which caused him to easily beat up Gantetsu.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's something of a Sadist Teacher, but he's actually horrified and concerned for his students when the Grand Master visits, due to him being violent and even more sadistic than Gantetsu is. He also brings Takagi and Ota to the hospital after they both pass out after their fight.
Took a Level in Kindness: He mellows out in his later appearances starting after Takagi's fight with his old friend Ota Yuji, as he actually carries their unconscious selves to a hospital, and his tendency to put the Karate Club members through Training from Hell is no longer mentioned.
Sadist Teacher: He made Matsuhita and Saitou do stretches over a bunch of thumb tacks just because they though the Karate Club's training was too hard.

Other Karate Club Members

The miscellaneous members of the Karate Club who don't have that much of a major role in the story aside from Fukuma, who gets his own mini-arc dedicated to him. They also serve as the heroic army whenever there's a gang war.

Anime Hair: Many of them, such as Manji, who has a perm cut in the shape of a... well, manji, on his hair, or Furuta who has a bizarre bumblebee like hairstyle that consists of multiple stripes of hair and his bald head.
Babies Ever After: Fukuma and Mitsuyo are revealed to have finally started a family in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, and their son is already taller than the both of them.
Camp Gay: Mizuguchi, the member with a mohawk and a star tattoo eye. He speaks in a campy, teen girl-like fashion and overall is rather effeminate and he's introduced comically chasing after an underclassman, completely naked and demanding his ass.
Chivalrous Pervert: Fukuma. He's a bit of a horndog but he's easily one of the nicest and most earnest members of the Karate Club.
The Ditz: Tomita. He constantly has a dopey expression on his face 24/7 and tends to just go "uhhh..." and "ahhh..." instead of speaking. He's surprisingly violent in spite of this, as his solution to Kabada requesting that he "convince" a delinquent from Momodani East Sixth to call his leaders is to maul said delinquent with a plank with nails embedded in it.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A lot of them are rather.... eccentric in a rowdy teenage delinquent way, but they're all infallibly loyal to Takagi and have a tight bond. Bonus points for being actal misfits in the form of delinquents.
Red Shirt Army: Downplayed. They're Takagi's loyal followers and are often seen participating in gang wars but they're tough and competent enough for them to not drop like flies.

Makoto Ando

The captain of the Boxing Club. He initially appears as an antagonist to Takagi, defeating him in their first fight, allowing his club to take over the school's social hierarchy, but winds up getting defeated. After this, he continues to appear, either as an enemy or an ally.

Ascended Extra: He gets to be one of the playable characters in the SNES fighting game.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: His eyebrows are even more impressive than Takagi's and that's saying something, because the latter's already got quite the impressive pair of eyebrows himself!
Boxing Battler: Duh.
Delinquent Hair: One of his most notable features is his Punch Perm haircut.
Extremity Extremist: He only uses his fists to fight, although this is justified due to him being a boxer and all.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: His relationship with Takagi tends to switch from friendly to antagonistic a whole lot.
Lightning Bruiser: He is a very fast fighter due to using boxing as his fighting style of choice.

Bunta Yamaguchi

A.K.A. Yamaguchi the Manslayer. He is a former alumnus of KFTH's Karate Club whose quite familiar with Takagi. He's completely crazy and obsessed with the Yakuza after being released from Juvenile Hall, but aside from that, he's relatively decent as long as you don't provoke him, although he has a problem where he gets really bad whenever he drinks alcohol.

Affably Evil: Downplayed. He beats up a student for bumping into him and in general is easily provoked into violence, but is actually somewhat reasonable and polite as long as he's not drunk.
Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Alcohol causes him to go even crazier and makes him start wandering around aimlessly while searching for more, attacking anything or anyone that upsets him.
Cloud Cuckoolander: He's obsessed with the Yakuza and thinks he's one, which results in him acting like an overly stereotypical one.
Psycho Knife Nut: Played for Laughs. He's under the delusion that he's a Yakuza and carries around a long dagger.
Yakuza: Subverted. He's not actually a Yakuza, but instead is merely convinced that he's one.

The Female Delinquents

A group of female delinquents who harass and bully Momochiyo in her own mini-arc. Their leader is a large girl who wields a chain.

Chain Pain: The weapon of choice of their leader, used like a flail.
Defeat Equals Friendship/Defeat Means Respect: Their opinion of Momochiyo turns a 180 after she defeats their leader, and they're seen begging for her to lead them.
Kevlard: Downplayed, the leader of the group is visibly winded by Momochiyo punching her, but recovers quickly to continue attacking her.
Large and in Charge: Their apparent leader is taller than the rest of them and also has a Stout Strength build, making her look even bigger in comparison.
No Name Given: None of them are given names aside from Zenko, the girl with long dark hair that wears a face mask.
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Their leader may be resistant to bodyblows thanks to her fat, but her face is just as vulnerable as it would be for anybody else.
  - Despite her body fat protecting her from bodyblows, she isn't completely immune to them, as a punch from Momochiyo causes her to be briefly winded before she swiftly recovers.

Ueda Hiroshi

The captain of KFTH's Rugby Club, and a friend of Takagi. He recruits Takagi, Matsuhita, and Saitou to help his club defeat JNU's own Rugby Club in the National High School Rugby Osaka Regional Tournament.

Nice Guy: He's a very friendly, respectful person who tries to get along with just about everybody.

Other Students, Delinquents & Characters

Tofukuji

A transfer student at KFTH who tried to take over the position as head of the school. He's a user of Jing-lin Temple Kung Fu, a form of Kung Fu that centers around defensive fighting and counter attacks. He makes an enemy out of Takagi quickly and actually manages to beat him the first time, but later loses to him when Takagi tricks him into thinking he'll use Jing-lin Temple Kung-fu as well in their rematch before defeating in one hit with a headbutt.

Anime Hair: He has a buzzcut with multiple circular bald spots that invoke the incense dots of a monk.
Counter-Attack: His specialty.
Glass Cannon: His Jing-lin Temple Kung-fu is very powerful, as it's throws can dislocate the limbs of his opponents very easily, but he goes down in just three good hits from Takagi.
Spectacular Spinning: His counter-attack throws involve a lot of spinning motions.

The Grand Master

The successor of the Hago Shinmei branch of Karate and the master of Gantetsu. He's a cruel and violent old man who makes Gantetsu look reasonable in comparison. In fact, that's exactly what he does, as his idea of training and his violent nature cause Gantetsu to actually be scared and concerned for his students wellbeing.

Adaptational Karma: He manages to get away with his mistreament of the students of KFTH in the OVA.
Ax-Crazy: He threatens to kill a student just because he wanted to stop training because his hands were bleeding from practicing straight thrusts so much, and is upset when he misses Saitou's vitals when sparring with him, strongly implying he was trying to killl Saitou.
Berserk Button: He's practically a berserk keyboard, as many things will set him off, such as calling him old, making complaints about his grueling training sessions, and not living up to his very high standards.
The Cameo: He appears next to Gantetsu during the Rugby arc.
Country Matters: The scar on his head resembles a diagram of the vagina.
Evil Counterpart: To Takagi and Gantetsu. While all three of them like to put their underlings through hellish training, the Grand Master doesn't have the compassion or sense of mercy that both Takagi and Gantetsu have, as he legitimately tries to kill Matsuhita and Saitou on multiple occassions, and even tried to kill the later without any provocation when they were sparring.
Evil Old Folks: He's around 86 years and 4 months old and quite the nasty individual. Don't let him hear the "old" part.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a scar in the shape of a diagram of the vagina on the top of his head.
Hate Sink: There's nothing likeable about this guy, from his mistreatment of the Karate Club members, to trying to kill the students of KFTH for realistically complaining about the hellish training or for reminding him of his age.
Laser-Guided Karma: He winds up getting the shit beating out of him by Takagi and never reappears except for a cameo in the Rugby arc, and another one near the end of the story.
Old Master: A particularly nasty version of this trope.
Sadist Teacher: He actually tries to kill the students of KFTH in sparring sessions.
Super-Strength: He can dent a car with his punches and even flip it over.
Weaksauce Weakness: Singing Gondola no Uta causes him to become sleepy and calm down. Subverted near the end of his mini-arc, where it fails to work due to how furious he is.
Would Hurt a Child: Or teenagers. He puts the students of KFTH through a hellish training and regularly tries to beat the crap out of them.
Visual Pun: Of a sort. He has a scar on his head that resembles a diagram of the vagina, making him a cunthead.

Ota Yuji

A former friend of Takagi who goes back from when he was in middle school. He was a member of Negawa Eight Middle School's Shogi Club, and was called by Takagi for assistance when a group of delinquents from Second Middle attacked on the day of his Shogi promotion exam. When trying to rescue Takagi from one of the delinquents, he desperately resorted to shoving Shogi pieces into his mouth and then punching him, which caused the delinquent to accidentally bite his own tounge off, which killed him, resutling in him spending 2 years in Juvenile Hall and making him resentful towards Takagi, causing him to seek vengeance by attacking his underclassmen in the Karate Club to psychologically hurt him, and he and Takagi later fought at the graveyard where the delinquent Ota killed is buried after he attacked Matsuhita.

Combat Pragmatist: He'll shove Shogi pieces into the mouth of his opponents to make his punches deal a lot more damage, and he also throws dirt in Takagi's eyes. This is actually Deconstructed as the first time he did it to a delinquent caused the latter to bite his tounge off, killing him and ruining Ota's life.
Defeat Means Friendship: Ota and Takagi reconcile after Gantetsu takes them to a hospital. This scene is oddly removed from the OVA adaptation.
Never My Fault: While the Shogi incident was the only way he could've realistically beaten the rival delinquent given that he was armed with a nail bat, he has no real reason to blame Takagi, given that it was his decision to shove the Shogi pieces into the mouth of the rival delinquent and punched him, as he had no idea it would end up killing him. He later manages to forgive Takagi.
Revenge by Proxy: To take revenge on Takagi, he starts ambushing and beating up members of the Karate Club. Takagi does feel guilt over what happened to Ota, but beats him senseless to make him stop.
Signature Move: He stuffs Shogi pieces into his enemies' mouth and then delivers a mighty punch to them, breaking all of their teeth.

Kitamura Takeshi

The captain of Shinobugaoka Academy's Sumo Club, and an enemy of Kansai Fifth Technical High as a whole. He once kidnapped Matsuhita and Saitou to get Takagi to fight him so that he and Shinobugaoka Academy could get authority of KFTH, but was defeated by Takagi even though the latter was weakened by having the Mumps. He later reappeared as one of the candidates for the Fourth Soul of Osaka, and even managed to make it to the tournament, but was trounced yet again by Takagi.

All for Nothing: He trained valiantly in the time between his first appearance and his reappearance in the tournament to decide the Fourth Soul of Osaka, yet he winds up getting defeated by Takagi without any difficulty whatsoever, while the last time they faced, Takagi struggled due to having the Mumps but was able to beat him anyways.
Butt-Monkey: He has never won a fight on-screen.
Fat Bastard: Played With. He is an asshole and a villain, but the fat part merely comes from him being a Sumo Wrestler, and having the Stout Strength build one would expect from it.
Foe-Tossing Charge: His favorite move is to try and charge into his enemies.
Stout Strength: He's a strong, hefty fella, although his strength doesn't do him any good as he frequently finds himself being defeated all the time.

Sagawa Akio

A member of JNU High's Karate Club, and a rival of Takagi. His specialty is the Four-Hit Strike, a series of four punches deliver at incredible speeds. He's initially introduced as the antagonist of a mini-arc but later returns in the Battle For Osaka Arc as an ally of Takagi.

Ascended Extra: He appears as an antagonist of the week before becoming an ally of Takagi in the Battle For Osaka.
Hoist by His Own Petard: He gets defeated by Takagi in their rematch by Takagi using an improved copy of his own Four-Hit Strike on him that has an additional fifth hit.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: His Four-Hit Strike.
The Rival: To Takagi.

Narabayashi

Also known as Narabayashi the Snare. He's an upperclassman and good friend of Fukuma who appears in the latter's mini-arc. He turns out to be a scammer who pretends to set up men with women that are secretly in cahoots with them, by tricking the men into thinking the girls under his command are pregnant and making them work themselves to death just to make money off of them.

Beauty Is Bad: He turns out to be an absolute bastard in spite of his beauty who will even take advantage of his old friends if he thinks it'll make him money.
Hate Sink: He turns out to be a very scummy individual, taking advantage of Fukuma even though he's his old friend, scamming him by tricking him into thinking he got Mitsuyo, pregnant and making him work himself to the bone to make money off of him.
Paper Tiger: He initially beats the crap out of Matsuhita, but goes down in one hit when the latter smashes him in the face with a rock, despite Takagi stating that Narabayashi's got a reputation as a badass.
Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's a good-looking man who is a very tall fellow, being at least 2 meters tall according to Matsuhita.

Takeda Mitsuyo

A girl that Narabayshi manages to set up Fukuma with who later becomes his girlfriend following a very succesful one night stand. She turns out to have been impregnated with Fukuma after their one night stand. This turns out to have been a lie that Narabayshi told her to tell to Fukuma so that he'd take various jobs to make money for Narabayshi to take just to support a hypothetical baby that doesn't even exist. However, she genuinely fell for him because of him being genuinely excited when he heard this lie, as well as his complete and utter sincerity and earnesty.

Babies Ever After: It's revealed in the epilogue that she and Fukuma went on to have a family, and have a son, who is taller than both of them.
Becoming the Mask: Narabayashi forces her to help him scam Fukuma, but she genuinely fell in love with him because of how much he sincerely loved her back.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man:Fukuma's earnesty and sincerity, plus the fact that he was genuinely overjoyed when she lied and told him that she was pregnant because of him actually wanting to have a family with her caused her to fall in love with him because of his good-natured personality.

Andre Oda

The captain of JNU's Rugby Club. He's a massive young man who has a resemblance to Frankenstein's Monster, minus the bolts, as well as the rival of Ueda Hiroshi.

Jerkass: Andre Oda is a mean man! He spends most of his time taunting Ueda Hiroshi and calling him and his Rugby Club weak.
Smug Super: He's huge and strong, and has a big ego and a nasty attitude because of this.
Super-Strength: He's strong enough to send Takagi flying by smacking him in the face.
Younger Than They Look: He can pass for an adult, but he's a teenager in high school.

The Three Pillars of Kobe

General

Heel–Face Turn: The three of them help Takagi in his fight against Jinrai, and it is noted they hold no grudge towards Takagi for defeating them.
Quirky Miniboss Squad: They are the first team of major antagonists faced by Takagi and come with oddball skills.
The Worf Effect: All of them are beaten by Jinrai like they're nothing.

Zen Suenaga

The brutal Icy Wind Of Rokkou Mountain who challenged Takagi for supremacy over the Kansai area. His weapon of choice is a collar of praying beads made out of incredibly hard stones that he uses as a cross between a whip and a flail, as well as a defensive tool.

Bald Head of Toughness: He doesn't have a single hair on his head and is one of the top three leaders of the delinquents of Kobe.
Beard of Evil: He also has a bushy looking beard.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: He sports an impressive pair of them.
Epic Flail: He uses his rosary of prayer beads like a combination between a whip and a flail.
Improbable Weapon User: Fights with a collar of praying beads.
Knight of Cerebus: Takagi's encounter with Suenaga leads to Kobe's invasion of Osaka and the manga going on a darker direction with Takagi as the definite protagonist.
Sinister Minister: Sort of. He dresses up as a monk and wields a collar of prayer beads as a weapon, but it isn't know if he's actually a monk and not just dressing up as one to go with his collar of praying beards, it doesn't help that he doesn't display any signs of religion aside from said outfit and prayer beads.

Ryuuryuu and Koryuu

The Twin Reapers of Kobe. They are practitioners of Tai Chi Chuan.

An Arm and a Leg: When a badly injured Ryuuryuu greets Takagi in the hospital after being rescued from Goki's henchmen, he seems completely oblivious to having lost his right leg and even tells the hero he looks foward to fighting alongside him again.
Chekhov's Gunmen: They return in the Battle for Osaka arc to introduce Takagi to their master Liu-yun, who teaches Takagi various Tai Chi Chuan techniques, as well as the Fa jin.
Combination Attack: Their Four Hands of Death Tiger Strike, which is them simultaneously striking with both fists.
Demoted to Extra: They do appear in the OVA but both of their fights against Morigami are heavily rushed, in contrast to the other two Pillars getting fully adapted in that version.
The Dividual: One always stands behind the other, fighting in such a way that if one is evaded or hit the other will quickly react with a counter attack.
Ki Attacks: They introduce Tai Chi Chuan to the story and are able to add a blast radius of Ki to their attacks, though they cannot use the complete Fa jin.
Simple, yet Awesome: The aformentioned Four Hands of Death Tiger Strike. It's literally just them punching their opponents with both hands simultaneously, but it has a lot of power.

Rick Powered

The Black Devil of Kobe who faces Takagi at the climax of the Hanshin war. The least gimmicky of the Three Pillars of Kobe, with his sole gimmick being he uses his incredible muscular control to flex and concentrate his muscles to defend himself against the attacks of his opponents.

Boring, but Practical: He doesn't have any gimmicks aside from his aformentioned defense by flexing on impact but he gives Takagi the most difficulty out of all the Three Pillars of Kobe.
Final Boss: He's the last opponent Takagi faces in the Hanshin war, and his defeat marks the victory of Osaka's delinquents over Kobe.
Muscles Are Meaningful: His muscles give him great strength and are also the source of his apparent invincibility
No-Sell: He can ignore most attacks by concentrating and flexing his muscles.
Not So Invincible After All: Takagi gets both of them hanging by the side of a cliff, making Rick too scared to use his defense technique.
Scary Black Man: He's portrayed as a very muscular and intimidating foreign black man.
Strong and Skilled: Downplayed. He looks like a guy who relies exclusively on his great strength, but his gimmick is that he flexes his muscles the moment an attack hits, reducing the damage it could've done to nothing. This is an actual technique used in various martial arts, but aside from that, he's mostly a brawler.
Twofer Token Minority: He's the only black member of the Three Pillars of Kobe as well as the only one who isn't from Japan.

The Battle For Osaka

Isao Jinrai

The First Soul of Osaka who was friends with Morigami and mentored both Takagi and Kira before falling to evil.

Fallen Hero: He was the original Soul of Osaka who held the respect of all the gangs in Osaka, until people turned on him for what he did to Itsuki and Morigami.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Itsuki splashed the left side of his face with sulphuric acid to prevent his assault on her, but he didn't stop.
Heel–Face Turn: He reappears later in the story to save Takagi from certain death.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: Morigami's modesty and admiration for Jinrai, to the point of yielding everything including Itsuki to him just for being sworn brothers, wounded his pride so much that it drove him mad.
Ki Attacks: He's a practitioner of Tai Chi Chuan and can perform the Fa jin, though he didn't actually master the technique and only emulated it through his abnormal innate strength.
Love Makes You Crazy: After Itsuki told Jinrai she liked powerful men, he became obssessed with viciously claiming territories to earn her approval no matter how much she said that wasn't what she meant.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Takagi is horrified to learn his master and brother figure is the masked gangster who's out to take over Osaka.
Parental Substitute: He's essentially one to Takagi, given that he took care of him when Takagi was just a child, as well as looking out for him and emotionally supporting him.
Made of Iron: He suffers massive internal damage from Takagi's Fa jin and yet he survives, as Takagi puts it, "thanks to the strong body he was born with".
Mentor Occupational Hazard: Jinrai, the protagonist's first mentor figure, is assassinated by regular thugs while researching the Rising Dragon scrolls.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Jinrai overhears Itsuki confessing to Morigami but getting rejected because he wanted him to have her, so Jinrai ends up raping her out of frustration and spite despite getting splashed with acid. He's even amused to later see her declaring her hatred for him despite conceiving a Child by Rape and acting like she wanted him to redeem himself.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: His punches are so fast and powerful they are depicted as lightning and compared to drills.
Spirit Advisor: When Takagi is killed by Gen-Gen, Jinrai's spirit convinces Tian-sheng to teach the hero about the Rising Dragon. After a duel between Takagi and Tian-sheng, both mentors sacrifice their souls to let Takagi return to life.
Two-Faced: The acid burn he has on the side of his face gives him this look.
The Worf Effect: He nearly gets beaten by Katsunari and Taro, and forces Takagi to defeat him again to prove he can take on the Great Tokyo Alliance gangs alone.
Younger Than They Look: He's sent to juvy after being defeated by Takagi... but Takagi is 17 and flashbacks show Jinrai was already an young adult when Takagi was a little kid, so how does this make any sense?

Four Devils of the Shikoku Alliance

The four strongest combatants in the Shikoku Alliance aside from Isao Jinrai himself. They are Takanuki Katsumi of the Tokushima Prefecture, who wields a strange combination beteween a flail, a staff, and a chain (which he upgrades to a three-sectioned staff version of it), Nakai Toru of the Kagawa Prefecture, who wields a claw (he later upgrades it by equipping another claw), Tanaka Hiroyuki of the Ehime Prefecture, who wields a large wooden mallet (later upgrading to a mace), and Asakura Atsushi of the Kochi Prefecture, who wields a dagger (which he upgrades into a dual-bladed version of it (think Darth Maul's double-bladed lightsaber) with longer blades.)

Berserk Button: Don't call Tanaka Hiroyuki a pig if you don't want him to beat you up.
Elite Four: They're the four strongest combatants in the Shikoku Alliance.
Fat Bastard: Takanuki and Tanaka, but don't let the latter hear that.
Super Mode: They do a more mundane version of this trope by releasing their true power which Jinrai somehow suppressed, as well as equipping more deadly versions of their signature weapons, Takagi even notes that they're a lot faster in this state, and they actually manage to collectively give him a hard time, at least until he whips out the Fa-jin.
Wolfpack Boss: They all end up fighting Takagi at the same time before he's able to fight Jinrai.

Zaoh Rikizan

The captain of the Mino Kumayama High School Judo Club, also known as the Bear of Mino. His fighting style is Judo, obviously, and he is blessed with having an absolutely titanic body, although he is a gentle and kind person.

The Big Guy: Joins Takagi's side in The Battle For Osaka.
Character Tics: He tends to raise an eyebrow, that, combined with his smile, makes him look like he's making the DreamWorks Face before it was even a thing.
Gentle Giant: He's EXTREMELY tall, yet also a friendly and altruistic man who's introduced as helping Takagi save a little girl from a fire.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: He was initially known as the Devil Bear of Mino due to his violent and cruel nature, but repented after Jinrai saved him from getting beaten to death by the many people he terrorized, and then he faces off Takagi because of loyalty to Jinrai, and winds up rejoining Takagi's side alongside the rest of the candidates for the Fourth Soul of Osaka to fight against the forces of Jinrai.
Judo: His fighting style, although he's more than willing to use his massive strength to hit and crush his opponents.

Sakuma Jujiro

The Tenth-Rank Brawler of Thirteenth Northwest Highschool. He fights using an absolutely unpredictable form of brawling that involves the use of acrobatics, constant movement, and rapid dodging, as well as being able to do everything it takes to win a fight. Like Zaoh Rikizan, he's one of the few osakian delinquents to be on Takagi's side during The Battle for Osaka arc.

Combat Parkour: His brawling fighting style incorporates flips and jumps, giving him a superior degree of mobility to other fighters.
Confusion Fu: His fighting style's even described as being something that nobody can predict.
Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: One of the most notable things about him is that he's usually seen smoking a Kiseru.
Good Old Fisticuffs: He doesn't practice any martial art, and instead just uses his natural strength, agility, and experience in fighting to win.
Nonconformist Dyed Hair: The lower parts of his hair are dyed yellow.

Sotogawa Tetsuya

The Captain of Imamiya University Affilated High's Amateur Wrestling Club, and a candidate for the Fourth Soul of Osaka. He fights using Pro Wrestling moves and holds, such as dropkicks, suplexes, and armbars.

Badass in a Nice Suit: He stands out among the other Candidates for the Fourth Soul of Osaka in that his school uniform's a suit, rather than the Gakuran that every other candidate's wear.
David vs. Goliath: A rare inversion. The much smaller Sotogawa Tetsuya has a severe advantage over the giant Zaoh Rikizan due to multiple factors, such as the wide variety of techniques his wrestling style provides him and the lack of a shirt for Zaoh to throw Tetsuya around with. Zaoh eventually manages to overcome him by countering Tetsuya's attempt at an armbar by slamming him into the wall, then preforming his own armbar on Tetsuya.
Hidden Eyes: His eyes are portrayed as two shadowy lines, giving him a very sinister appearance.
Irony: Attempts to invoke this trope by defeating Zaoh with an Armbar, a move that originated from Judo. This amusingly ends up turning on him when Zaoh lifts him up, slams him against the wall while he's still in armbar position, and proceeds to instantly break Tetsuya's arm with his own armbar.
Pintsized Powerhouse: He's very short, but also has an incredibly muscular body and can lift and throw around people many times his size. He even winds up facing the gigantic Zaoh Rikizan in the battle to decide the Fourth Soul of Osaka and winds up smacking him around for a while.
Suplex Finisher: His fighting prowess is displayed by him instantly defeating a Giant Mook with a German Suplex.

Shinozuki Katsuo

The Captain of the Yao Higashimachi Technical High School's Cheering Squad. He's notable for his aviator shades and light-colored hair, presumably dyed blond.

Bad Guys Play Pool: He's a sinister individual who's okay with using a sword on an unarmed opponent and at one point, he is shown playing pool.
Combat Pragmatist: He wields a Katana against the unarmed Sakuma Jujiro.
Disproportionate Retribution: He brutally beats up a guy for bumping into him while playing pool.
Sunglasses at Night: He's never seen without his trademark pair of sunglasses and wears them at all times.

Imura Toru

The Muay Thai Warrior of Benten-cho Nakadai Academy. As his title indicates, he is a practitioner of Muay Thai. He fights Asao Sagawa in the tournament to declare the Fourth Soul of Osaka,

Artistic License – Martial Arts: Muay Thai does use the arms in a fight, for punches and elbow strikes, and he also doesn't use it's famed clinch either.
Badass Boast: He claims that his kicks travel at the speed of light and have the force of steel, and that there's no way to guard against them.
Bald Head of Toughness: He doesn't have a single hair on his head aside from his eyebrows and gives Sagawa a hell of a time.
Extremity Extremist: He fights using only kicks and knee strikes.

Oki Naoji

The Caltrop Devil of Kishiwada South Agricultural High School. His gimmick is that the fingerless gloves he wears have very hard studs on them, which he refers to as caltrops. These severely enhance the strength of his punches to the point where he can crack concrete with them. Unlike the other candidates for the Fourth Soul of Osaka, he winds up being defeated by Takagi before the battle can even be started.

Curbstomp Battle: Downplayed. He manages to get at least one hit on Takagi, but get's defeated in just three hit's by Takagi.
Delinquent Hair: He styles his hair into a rooster-like crest of a Mohawk.
Very Punchable Man: This guy is obnoxiously violent and egocentrical to the point where it just makes him completely hateable, and it doesn't help that he's depicted as beating up the already injured Jujiro and Rikizan after he defeated them.
Villainous Breakdown: He winds up freaking out when Takagi tanks his punches.

Takashi Kira

The leader of Kansai Third Technical High School's Karate Club, and an old friend of Takagi who trained under Jinrai with him. He fights Takagi at the end of the tournament to decide the Fourth Soul of Osaka during the Battle for Osaka arc, and eventually becomes the Fourth Soul of Osaka afterwards. His specialty is the "Wind Punch" a punch delivered so quickly that it's practically invisible.

Back for the Dead: Kira returns early in the Rising Dragon saga just to lose badly to Keiji Gaoh and then gets assassinated by him while drunk from hanging out with Takagi and unable to defend himself.
Climax Boss: He isn't the final opponent of the Battle for Osaka arc, or even the penultimate one, but his battle has a lot of build-up and there's also a lot of tension between him and Takagi due to their shared backstory.
Green-Eyed Monster: He is envious towards Takagi due to him being able to draw people to him a lot better than he is, and genuinely doesn't understand why people preferred him because of this in spite of Takashi being much stronger than Takagi.
Hot Blooded Sideburns: He has an impressive pair of sideburns and is quite the emotional person.

Liu-yun Huang

The master of Ryuuryuu and Koryuu. Aside from teaching Tai Chi Chuan to those two, he also taught it to Isao Jinrai and later Takagi, and winds up bestowing the secret of the Fa jin upon Takagi.

Ascended Extra: He's a playable character in the SNES fighting game, despite having a relatively minor role in the Battle For Osaka arc.
Bald Head of Toughness: He doesn't have a single hair on his head and is shown to be a righteous and wise old man who not only teaches Takagi the Fa-jin, but gives him a verbal push that gives him the motivation to defeat Isao. A flashback showing the backstory of him and his brothers shows that he was bald even as a young adult.
Cool Old Guy: He's a humble and nice man who admits he's grateful towards Takagi for returning his students to the path of righteousness, and even encourages him to do the right thing and defeat Jinrai for not only the sake of Osaka, but for the sake of Jinrai himself.
Eyes Always Shut: He pretty much opens his eyes only once.
Mentor Occupational Hazard: He's mortally wounded by Gen-Gen while Takagi is attempting to learn the Wicked Fist and the Rising Dragon... but the Distant Finale reveals he survived somehow.
Perpetual Smiler: Like how his eyes rarely open, he also doesn't frown that much, and his standard expression is a smile.
Put on a Bus: He disappears from the story after Takagi leaves to Tokyo, and doesn't appear outside of flashbacks.
- The Bus Came Back: He and his brother Chen-Chen Huang are the focus of the Rising Dragon arc, due to the antagonist being their younger brother, An-hai Huang who is out for their blood for defeating him in the past.
Old Master: He's a Tai Chi Chuan master.
Spell My Name With An S: His family name can be spelled as either "Ko" or "Huang".

West Shinjuku High

Mikumo Marimo

A junior at West Shinjukuku High and one of the first people Takagi meets in his exodus to Tokyo. She's quick to befriend Takagi and winds up introducing him to Tokyo.

Faux Action Girl: She's introduced as being just as good as Karate as Takagi, but quickly finds herself being outclassed, although it's arguably justified given that the delinquents in Tokyo are shown as being a LOT stronger than the ones in Osaka.
Lame Pun Reaction: She beat up Takagi when he joked that she's from Akan, a lake in Hokkaido that's famous for it's marimo (moss balls).

Hanamori Shizuka

The principal of West Shinjuku High. She treasures delinquent students like Takagi, so she and him are quick to befriend eachother.

Cool Old Lady: She's immediately supportive of Takagi the instant they meet in person and makes it known to him, downright asking him to do his thing of liberating everybody. Also, when the Shibuya Corps invade West Shinjuku High, she has the students gather all the fighters within the school and tells them that for every member of the Shibuya Corps they defeat, she'll add a point to their grades to encourage them.

Hayashi Yukihara

The Vice Captain of the West Shinjuku High Cheering Squad. His fighting style is referred to as the Cheering Squad Style Brawling, and it consists of taking his enemies blows head on to demoralize them, then preforming huge attacks on them to take them down.

Combat Pragmatist: He isn't above hitting his enemies in the groin and headbutting them.
The Dragon: He's Tatsuya Sakamoto's right hand man.
Heel–Face Turn: He ends up joining Takagi's side alongside Tatsuya Sakamoto.
Good Old Fisticuffs: Subverted. Despite being called a brawler, his moves are actually quite refined, as he attacks Takagi by kneeing him in the groin, then follows it up by sending him flying with a kick to the face.
Use Your Head: One of his most recurring attacks is to headbutt his enemies.

Shimotori Tatsuaki

Another junior at West Shinjuku High. His most distinctive trait among the allies that Takagi meets are his glasses.

Combat Pragmatist: He defeats Hayashi by giving him a taste of his own medicine by stabbing him in the eyes with his fingers.
The Dog Bites Back: He manages to get back after being bullied and humiliated so many times by the West Shinjuku High Cheering Squad when he defeats Hayashi.

Tatsuya Sakamoto

The captain of the West Shinjuku High Cheering Squad. He's a gigantic teenager who rules over West Shinjuku High and treats everybody who isn't part of the Cheering Squad like slaves, and even then, he'll even punish his own men for failing.

The Big Guy: He becomes this when he joins Takagi's side.
British Teeth: Downplayed. His teeth aren't rotten, but he's missing some of them. He later ends up getting a full set of teeth though.
Evil Is Bigger: He's one of the tallest characters in the series, with the only one bigger than him being Katsunari of the Great Tokyo Alliance.
Face of a Thug: Discussed and Played for Laughs. After he makes his Heel–Face Turn, Retsu argues with him over his thuggish looks scaring away customers from his Ice Cream Shop.
Heel–Face Turn: He joins Takagi's side after being defeated.
Hot Blooded Sideburns: He has a pair of these.
Gonk: He has a huge forehead, multiple missing teeth, beady, constantly glaring eyes, and a crooked nose. Subverted when he makes a Heel–Face Turn, as he looks more normal, although still somewhat intimidating.
In-Series Nickname: He claims people call him "Pretty Boy Sakamoto", in spite of him looking rather thuggish when Retsu argues with him over said looks scaring away customers from his Ice Cream Parlor. Ironically this is after he goes from "menacingly hideous" to just "mildly thuggish looking" after his Heel–Face Turn.
Progressively Prettier: He winds up becoming more normal looking as the series goes on, as he goes from looking ugly and fearesome to looking relatively normal, although somewhat tough and intimidating looking.
Real Men Wear Pink: Played for Laughs. He's introduced as a hulking barbarian of a teenager and continues to be one of the manlier members of Takagi's friend group, but he's also shown enjoying ice cream while making goofy faces just because of how good it tastes at Retsu's Ice Cream Parlor.
Signature Move: He has two.
- His first is his "Hell Dropper" an attack that makes full use of his height and strength, where he grabs somebody by their face, covering their nose and mouth with a hand and suffocating them as he holds them in the air.
- His other, and much more powerful, is his "Six Hit Thrust" which is just him hitting his enemy six times in rapid succession. It's extremely effective even if he wasn't such a huge, strong, guy, as it's a high-level technique in Karate that requires a lot of stamina and training.
Strong and Skilled: He's revealed to be a Karateka on Takagi's level during their climatic battle.
Younger Than They Look: He's just a teenager but can pass for a full grown adult.

West Shinjuku High Club Captains

Three students at West Shinjuku High who come to help Takagi fight against Tatsuya Sakamoto and his Cheering Squad. They are Yamamoto Koji, captain of the Kendo Club, Kobori Kazuya, captain of the Soccer Club, and Ishioka Takushi, captain of the Judo Club.

Anime Hair: Kobori's has an unusual hairstyle that consists of a "disc" of hair that grows on the very top of his head.
Big Ol' Unibrow: Kobori stands out for having one.
Eyes Always Shut: Yamamoto's eyes are never open.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: Yamamoto has a very effeminate face, as well as long dark hair, although he does have a notably muscular body.
Non-Standard Character Design: Yamamoto stands out among the characters due to resembling a Noh Theater mask, due to his constantly shut eyes and eyebrow shape.
Out of Focus: They don't get that much focus after Tatsuya Sakamoto and the Cheering Squad are defeated, and become even less relevant after the Great Tokyo Alliance joins Takagi's side.
Shout-Out: Yamamoto Koji channels Rikiishi Toru of Tomorrow's Joe and defeats Kuto Takeshi with his Razor Uppercut counter-attack.

Otake Jin

The captain of the West Shinjuku High Cheering Squad's shock troops. He's introduced as a mysterious character who's alignment is unknown, but eventually joins Takagi's side after a scuffle between the two where it's revealed that he's on the same side as Takagi all along. His fighting style is Okinawan Karate, which is portrayed as him preforming various acrobatic kicks in a fashion similar to some of the moves of Kyokushin Karate, such as it's famous Wheel Kick.

Extremity Extremist: He pretty much only attacks using kicks.
Mid-Season Upgrade: He learns Muay Thai during the Kanto Slaughter Union arc.
Scarf of Asskicking: He's most recognizable for his scarf.
Shown Their Work: Although his fighting style is stated to be Okinawan Karate, it more closely resembles Kyokushin Karate, and he even preforms it's signature wheel kick.

Shinjuku Corps

The Creeping Shadows

A trinity of individuals who dress in frightening monkey masks. They are known as Seen-by-none, Heard-by-none, and Spoken-by-none. Their fighting style revolves around their extreme agility and claws, as well as attacking collectively at the same time. It's revealed during their battle with Takagi that they are actually women.

Badass Adorable: Underneath their masks, they are actually petite girls with pretty faces.
Combat Pragmatist: They have no issue with attacking their opponents from behind, in fact, this trope is arguably the basis of their fighting style given that they all attack as a trio in a way that's borderline impossible to handle for one fighter.
Faux Action Girl: The three assassins are a legitimately fearsome threat when they're first introduced, but as soon as Takagi realizes they're women he can't take them seriously anymore. He just scares them off while saying they should leave the life of violence to men, and when they try to help him against Katsunari they end up outnumbered and in need of saving from the villain and his henchmen. Then in the Distant Finale, they're said to have settled down as ordinary housewives.
Samus Is a Girl: All three of them turn out to be female underneath their masks.
She-Fu: They rely on their speed and agility in a fight, not to mention acrobatic hit-and-run attacks that are enhanced by their claws.
The Sneaky Gals: They help out Takagi by spying on Tanabe during the Great Tokyo Alliance arc.
Sweet Polly Oliver: They all wear male school uniforms as part of their disguises, which also has them wear masks and hoods as well.
Wolfpack Boss: Their entire fighting style revolves around fighting as a team.
Wolverine Claws: Their weapons of choice.
You Have Failed Me: They mutilate Tatsuya Sakamoto for losing to Takagi.

Sato Shouji

The leader of the Shinjuku Corps as well as the leader of the Shadowy Five. He is a master of all kinds of martial arts, and can even swap out one of his hands for a "Bear Claw", which is a prosthetic with clawed fingers.

Ax-Crazy: He's quite unhinged as a villain, constantly smiling with a crazed look in his eyes. It becomes subverted after his Heel–Face Turn as he calms down and acts more normal.
Back for the Dead: Shows up at the very final battle with an army of delinquents, proud about getting to have a first and last big moment... and immediately gets shot down. Luckily, the Distant Finale shows he survived.
Bald of Evil: He doesn't have a single hair on his head and is introduced as an antagonist.
Characterization Marches On: In his first appearance, it's shown that he's obsessively convinced that his pimpled, veiny face is beautiful, and is sent into a frenzy by Otake hitting it as well as seeming quite mentally unstable in general. This trait doesn't come up ever again after he's defeated and he loses all signs of mental instability.
Handicapped Badass: He's missing a hand, but still just as strong as any other fighter.
Heel–Face Turn: He joins Takagi's side after his defeat, like many a enemy.
Malevolent Masked Man: He's introduced as wearing a Hannya mask, but abandons it after it's destroyed by Otake Jin.
Progressively Prettier: His first appearance gives more emphasis to the boils on his head and even has bulging veins on it, and he also has a constant crazed look in his eyes with a Slasher Smile on his face, but after getting defeated, his face is drawn with less grotesque detail and he also loses the crazed look on his face, making a wide range of expressions like everyone else.
Wolverine Claws: His Bear Claw.

Tokyo Young Bloods Group

Takeuchi Retsu

The president of the Tokyo Young Bloods Group, a biker gang in Shibuya and the older brother of Takeuchi Chako. His special fighting style is brawling, and his arch enemy is Ogawa Sayuri of the Shibuya Corps. After the Shibuya Corps arc is over, he opens up an Ice Cream Shop with his little sister.

Badass Biker: He rides a motorcycle and manages to overwhelm Takagi without even having any proper martial arts training with his fists and feet.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: The story makes it look like he's going to be the primary antagonist of the week before his little sister reveals that he's actually trying to take over Shibuya by himself, and is willing to crush Takagi if he gets in the way, with the reason for doing this being that the Shibuya Corps, lead by Ogawa Sayuri, decimated his gang and actually got them to betray him, leading him to behaving the way he is by the time of the Shibuya Corps arc. Soon enough, Ogawa Sayuri and her Shibuya Corps take the role of the primary antagonists.
Good Old Fisticuffs: He relies on brawling and is strong enough to give the Strong and Skilled Takagi a run for his money in their duel.
Living Emotional Crutch: He's this to Chako, due to her having nobody else in her life, as their parents are divorced and her boyfriend Koji is dead. Subverted once they start up their Ice Cream shop, and have a more stable life as a result.
Nonconformist Dyed Hair: One of the locks of his hair is a much lighter color than the rest of his dark hair, and it's shown in a colored drawing of him to be yellow.

Takeuchi Chako

Takeuchi Retsu's younger sister. She's introduced as being deeply distraught over the danger that her big bro is in, and begs Takagi to stop him for the sake of her and her older brother, given that the Shibuya Corps are incredibly strong.

Break the Cutie: You'd be as prone to tears and worry too if you went through the same things as her, given that her parents are divorced and neither of them are anywhere to be seen, with her lover being dead, and her brother being prone to reckless and self-destructive behavior that endangers her life.
Only Sane Woman: Played for Drama. She basically exists in a constant state of distress due to being completely aware at how self-destructive it is of her brother to try and go up against the Shibuya Corps, a massive army of delinquents, all by himself with only a small gang. Luckily, she ends up not having to worry anymore after she and her brother start up their ice cream shop.

Shibuya Corps

Kaneko the Comb-slasher and Mochida of the Sleeper Hold

Two members of the Shibuya Corps that operate in unison. As their nicknames indicate, Kaneko wields a comb like a dagger while Mochida specializes in the use of a Sleeper Hold.

Combat Pragmatist: Mochida has no issue with restraining Sato so that he can't dodge Kaneko's jumping kicks.
Dual Boss: The both of them gang up on Sato.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: A guy who wields a comb like a blade and a guy who's signature move is the Sleeper Hold.
Improbable Weapon User: Kaneko. His weapon of choice is a comb sharp enough to use as a dagger. It still doesn't prevent him from using it to comb his own hair though.
In-Series Nickname: Aside from being called the Comb-slasher and "Mochida of the Sleeper Hold", they are also known as the "Rook of Shibuya" and the "Bishop of Shibuya" respectively.
Mook Lieutenant: The both of them are competent enough to briefly give Sato Shouji some trouble, although he's able to quickly defeat them once he gets the upper hand.
Wrestler in All of Us: Mochida, natch. His signature move is the Sleeper Hold.

Igari Katsuhiro

The lieutenant of the Shibuya Corps and Ogawa Sayuri's right hand man. He's the single most powerful member of the Shibuya Corps and fights using brawling. His specialty is throwing punches so quickly that they're practically invisible.

The Dog Bites Back: He helps Sayuri because he has a crush on her, but gets fed up with her mistreatment and punches her on the face before declaring himself the new leader of Shibuya.
Dragon-in-Chief: He's the final foe fought at the end of the Shibuya Corps arc, and his defeat marks the defeat of Ogawa Sayuri and the rest of the Shibuya Corps as well.
Evil Counterpart: He's basically one to Retsu, given his brawling fighting style and colorful hair. Subverted when he forms a Heel–Face Turn.
Good Old Fisticuffs: Like Retsu, he's a brawler, although his fighting style is actually so refined that it's hard to refer to it as just brawling, given that he's developed various advanced techniques such as his iconic Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs.
Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Downplayed. Ogawa Sayuri's a lot more intelligent and crafty than he is, and her pragmatic attitude and planning abilities rightfully earn her the spot of being the leader, but he essentially serves as her muscle, given that she doesn't seem to be that much of a fighter.
Purple Is Powerful: He has two streaks of purple in his hair and is the most powerful fighter in the Shibuya Corps.
Nonconformist Dyed Hair: He's a delinquent who has two streaks of purple in his hair.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: His specialty. He can actually throw them so fast that it'd look like he isn't even doing anything at all.
The Worf Effect: Out of all the characters, he arguably gets hit with this the worst, due to getting pushed around like he's nothing by the rest of the Great Tokyo Alliance and then held hostage by them.

Ogawa Sayuri

The leader of the Shibuya Corps and the only female leader in the Great Tokyo Alliance. She's more of a leader and a planner than a fighter, but when she does fight, she prefers to throw razor blades with great speed and accuracy.

Even Evil Has Standards: She freaks out when she realizes that Boku Majima is actually trying to kill Retsu and Chako when she hired him to attack the two, and is filled with such regret that she breaks down crying and begging for forgiveness from Takagi, and immediately volunteers to donate blood to the two so that they can survive their injuries at the hands of Majima.
Improbable Weapon User/Improbable Use of a Weapon: She wields razor blades as a weapon, and uses them like throwing stars.
The Smurfette Principle: The only female leader in the Great Tokyo Alliance.
Took a Level in Kindness: She becomes a LOT less sadistic after joining Takagi's side.

Boku Majima

A hitman by the name of "Deathbone" (rendered as Dead Bone in the fan translation) who was born with a strange condition where his body has very little muscle mass, yet extremely hard and durable bones. He was hired by Ogawa Sayuri to attack Retsu, but nearly kills both him and his sister Chako.

Achilles' Heel: Despite having an incredibly tough skeleton, his limbs can be broken by bending them out of place with submission holds.
Born Winner: He was born with an unnamed condition that gave him very little muscle mass, yet extremely hard and thick bones, making his fingers and feet like deadly weapons.
Creepily Long Arms/Creepy Long Fingers: He has both of these at the same time. Same goes his legs and feet.
Disney Villain Death: Takagi nearly kills Majima without hesitation by dropping him off a high floor of the hospital they were fighting in, but the villain lands on a Car Cushion. Takagi then chuckles that Majima must have the Devil's luck to have survived like that.
Evil Is Bigger: He's an incredibly tall person who dwarfs Takagi.
Foreshadowing: The fact that he mysteriously disappeared after he miraculously survived Takagi dropping him out of the hospital hints at the Great Tokyo Alliance arc, given that it's later revealed that this would be one of the factors that ends up causing them to set their sights on Takagi, alongside territorial desputes.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His entire fighting style revolves around stabbing people with his hands and feet.
Lightning Bruiser: His limbs function like spears, allowing him to impale people just by jabbing them with his fingers or toes, and he's also shown to be incredibly fast in his fight with Takagi.
Noodle People: Subverted. It looks like he has a tall, gangly physique with his coat on and due to his large head and long limbs, but underneath his coat, he's revealed to be incredibly ripped.
Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: He's easily one of the creepiest villains in the series due to his creepily long arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, and toes, as well as his unhinged and violent behavior combined with his creepy grins. Played for Laughs in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, where he settles down for an honest civilian life like the rest of the cast and assists his big bro Sabu in running his disco, yet he's comedically portrayed as being every bit as creepy back as he was when he was a hitman.
Villains Want Mercy: He's a very cruel killer-for-hire but still ends up begging for his life while Takagi breaks his limbs and threatens to toss him off the hospital building.

Great Tokyo Alliance

General

The leaders of the gangs that rule other the other cities in Tokyo. Sato and Sayuri not included. They antagonize Takagi after he manages to take over Shinjuku and Shibuya, which disrupted the balance of their allyship, causing them to gang together to try and take over Shinjuku and Shibuya, and they actually manage to succeed when David guns down Takagi, although they are all defeated sequentially when Takagi makes a miraculous comeback.

Four Is Death: There's exactly four of them for Takagi to fight, although this is justified given that they are the only ones left to fight after Takagi defeated Sato and Sayuri, the other two captains of the six leaders.
Heel–Face Turn: After getting defeated by Takagi, they join his side like many an antagonist.
Quirky Miniboss Squad: Like many a group of anatagonists.

Raiden Taro

The captain of the Sumida Corps. He resembles an incredibly short version of Matsuhita and, as his name implies, makes use of electric weaponry in his fight, with his signature weapon being his pair of taser-gloves. Aside from leading the Sumida Corps, he runs a loan company.

Big Guy, Little Guy: He and Tanabe are shown to sometimes team up with eachother.
Dual Wielding: His other weapon of choice are his dual Beryllium whips.
Identical Stranger: He resembles Matsuhita greatly, to the point where Takagi mistakes Raiden being Matsuhita when they first meet, despite him being a whole lot shorter than the latter is and having a different hair texture (Matsuhita's hair is drawn as a solid black while Raiden's hair is drawn in a curly fashion). This ends up being relevant when Takagi starts hallucinating him as Matsuhita due to being high on morphine painkillers when recovering from being shot by Davida Furuya, causing him to hesitate due to him hearing Matsuhita begging him to stop hitting him.
Lightning Lash: How he uses his Beryllium whips.
Meaningful Name: Just like his name indicates, he uses electric weapons when he fights.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Downplayed. He DOES have a weak body, but manages to be quite the threat due to his electric gloves and his scientific knowledge on how electricity functions as well.
Required Secondary Powers: A more realistic version. He wields powerful electric gloves, but is also knowledgeable in how electricity and conductivity function.
Shock and Awe: His entire gimmick revolves around the use of his taser gloves to not only electrocute his enemies, but to do other things such as creating a small forcefield to repel attacks and also powering his Beryllium whips.

Katsunari Tanabe

The captain of the Ikeburo Corps. He's a giant of a teenager with incredible strength that wields a giant flail as a weapon. He's also revealed to be a praciticioner of Tai-chi Chuan, and can even use the Fa-jin.

Badass Biker: He's shown riding a motorcycle when raiding West Shinjuku High.
Big Guy, Little Guy: He teamed up with Raiden when announcing the takeover of Shinjuku, and he and Raiden raided the West Shinjuku High together.
The Brute: He's the biggest and the physically strongest of the Great Tokyo Alliance Corps and he's shown wielding a gigantic flail as his weapon of choice. Subverted when he finally fights Takagi one-on-one, where he reveals himself to be a practicioner of Tai-chi Chuan, and a user of the Fa-jin.
Elite Mooks: His henchmen are strong enough that they're capable of beating a black belt of Karate.
Epic Flail: He wields a gigantic flail with an iron ball that's practically half the size of his torso.
Impossibly Graceful Giant: He learns Drunken Boxing after the Great Tokyo Alliance arc.
Odd Friendship: He and Raiden Taro seem to be good friends, given that they raid West Shinjuku High together and also announce the takeover of Shinjuku and Shibuya together, even though they couldn't be more different, given that Raiden is incredibly short and is rather weak given his small frame, and relies on weapons in a fight, while Katsunari is absolutely gigantic and has the physical strength to match. Not to mention he is revealed to be good enough at Tai Chi Chuan to preform the Fa-jin, while Raiden relies on gadgetry and weapons.
Strong and Skilled: He's revealed to be a practicioner of Tai Chi Chuan in his fight with Takagi, and can even use the Fa-jin just like him.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Tatsuya Sakamoto, being a huge gigantic teenager who is incredibly strong. He is even revealed to be surprisingly skilled with martial arts as well, as he knows Tai Chi Chuan, and later, Drunken Boxing.
Wrestler in All of Us: He preforms an Elbow Drop on Takagi when they first meet.
Younger Than They Look: Even more than Sakamoto, as he's even taller than he is and overall looks completely like an adult.

David Furuya

The captain of the Ginza Corps. He's a bespectacled genius who carries a pistol on his person and also uses various traps and tricks in his fight.

Aristocrats Are Evil: Although all of the Great Tokyo Alliance leaders are rich, he's the only one who really flaunts his money, as he has a Christian Dior handkerchief, rides around in a Ferrari F-40, and even has a gun he bought with his own money.
Ambiguously Jewish: Aside from his first name and curly hair, he embodies other Jewish stereotypes by being absurdly smart, as well as carrying around an Israeli-made Jericho 941, which he is incredibly proud of.
But Not Too Foreign: He's half-American, or at least one of his parents came from the anglosphere, given that he has an English first name and a tendency to use English words whenever appropriate. Ironically, he looks more east asian than the almost entirely Japanese cast due to his almond-shaped eyes.
Combat Pragmatist: He guns down Takagi in their first encounter, then later uses a wide variety of tricks and traps during their fight.
Evil Genius: The smartest of the Great Tokyo Alliance leaders who relies on traps and unfair fighting. He later becomes The Smart Guy after joining Takagi's side.
"Get Back Here!" Boss: His second confrontation with Takagi has the latter chase after him while he sets up various traps to try and stop him.
Gratuitous English: He has a tendency to pepper his sentences with english words.
Heroic Sacrifice: He sacrifices himself by detonating a grenade on a squad of yakuza while his friends escape.
Improbably High I.Q.: He has an IQ of 300, according to Sato Shouji.
Nothing Up My Sleeve: He hides knives in his suit's sleeves.
Razor Wire: He carries aramid wire around on his person, and uses it in one of his traps to try and decapitate Takagi.
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: He manages to effortlessly defeat Takagi the first time they fight due to gunning him down with his pistol.
A Taste of Their Own Medicine: The very razor wire David uses to try and kill Takagi winds up saving the latter's life when he's sent flying out of the David Tower by a gas explosion set up by David, and Takagi in general plays the same pragmatic game as David does in their fight, wearing both a bulletproof vest and a knifeproof vest at the same time.
Weapon-Based Characterization: He wields a Jericho 941, reflecting his pragmatic views on fighting, as he'll gladly gun down an unnarmed enemy without a second thought.

Sabu Majima

The captain of the Roppongi Corps, and the main antagonist of the Great Tokyo Alliance arc. He's the older brother of Boku Majima, and also has the same "iron skeleton" condition that he has, however, unlike his brother, his true specialty lies in his swordsmanship, as he shows a high level of skill with a chinese broadsword during his final confrontation with Takagi in his Disco Club.

Animal-Themed Fighting Style: He incorporates the use of animal-like stances in his swordsmanship.
Bald of Evil: He has his hair in a buzzcut style and is initially introduced as a depraved and perverted villain.
Born Winner: He has the same condition that his brother Boku has, although he relies more on swordsmanship.
Combat Pragmatist: He fights Takagi while wielding a chinese broadsword, while the latter is unarmed, and even uses two of them, later on. He also has his younger brother Boku activate his club's stereo system to have it play music at harmful volumes, forcing Takagi to cover his ears, leaving him defensless.
Cool Sword: He wields a chinese broadsword as a weapon.
Creepily Long Arms: He has these like his brother Boku.
Depraved Homosexual: He flirts with Takagi and offers to let him live if he gives him oral sex, and he's also in an incestuous relationship with his brother Boku. In the Distant Finale, where everyone is talking about how they've become better people, what Sabu has to say is that he stopped doing that.
Dual Wielding: He has his brother Boku toss him another chinese broadsword during his battle with Takagi.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A particularly twisted variation. He's in a gay incestuous relationship with his younger brother, but also clearly cares about him, as he is PISSED that Takagi beat him up.
Graceful Loser: The moment Sabu loses to Takagi, he admits to having lost his morals over time and that he had been waiting for a righteous opponent like him. He then gifts Takagi his late leader's jacket as a sign of goodwill, remarking that Tokyo will be fine under his leadership.
It's Personal: He has a particular dislike of Takagi due to him beating up his little brother Boku.
Strong and Skilled: Unlike his brother Boku, who has a self-invented fighting style that boils down to simply stabbing his enemies with his limbs, Sabu is a highly skilled swordsman who practices a wushu-like fighting style involving the use of Chinese Broadswords.
A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Takagi beats him by replicating his style of imitating animals by using the signature techniques of his delinquent pals from Osaka.
Taking You with Me: He restrains Takagi and tries to get Boku to stab him, but Boku hesitates, enabling Takagi to escape.
Villainous Widow's Peak: He has a widow's peak that's shaped like the tail of an arrow.

Kanto Slaughter Union Saga

Mutsuo Urushibara

The captain of the Kanto Union. He is famed for his unprecedented strength, which allowed him to singlehandedly defeat all of the delinquents from all prefectures in the Kanto region, and bring peace to it, although he has fallen from his strength, but not in his spirit, due to getting cancer.

Big Good: He once united the Kanto region, but ends up killed to set the threat level of the Kanto Slaughter Group's captains. With a posthumous letter, he lets Takagi know of a secret technique that can be used against them.
Hero of Another Story: He is responsible for uniting the Kanto region, mainly by going on an epic adventure where he fought all of the delinquents from every prefecture, and put them all in their place, all by himself.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: He's stated to have legendary, god-like strength, enough for him to singlehandedly defeat all of the delinquents from all of the prefectures in the entire Kanto region, but his cancer has reduced him to a shadow of himself, at least in terms of strength and fighting ability.
Worf Had the Flu: Despite being a legendary fighter, he had cancer and a month left to live by the time Takagi met him. Due to this, the Kanto Slaughter Union captains are able to beat him to death.

Haruno Urushibara

The brother of Mutsuo Urushibara, and an ally of Takagi and his friends.

Eyes Always Shut: His eyes are almost always closed.

Koichi Kimura

The Prince of Kanagawa, as well as the leader of the Kanagawa Union.

Alliterative Name: Koichi Kimura.
Counter-Attack: His specialty is absorbing attacks to counter with a sphere of energy.

Chen-Chen Huang

A hermit that lives on on Mount Tanigawa, where Mutsuo Urushibara posthumously directed Takagi to go to in order to learn the Divine Fist.

Cool Old Guy: He's kind enough to accept Takagi literally resorting to rock paper scissors in order to defeat him and allows him to learn the Divine Fist.
Mentor Occupational Hazard: Right after Takagi takes over all of Kanto, Chen-Chen is confronted by his evil brother An-hai and Keiji gives him a mortal beatdown. In his deathbed, Chen-Chen explains his past to Takagi and begs him to reform An-hai like he did to all other villains in his journey.
Training from Hell, He puts Takagi through this in order to learn the Divine Fist. First he makes him run around on an incredibly uneven and bumpy flat of land, which he figures out by punching the ground to keep his momentum and prevent himself from falling over, and then, he makes him crack walnuts with one hand by punching a tree, and even then, once Takagi figures out how to break the walnuts, he has to knock over the tree itself, which he then figures out by crushing the walnuts the exact moment he hits the tree itself.
Unfortunate Names: His name sounds like Japanese for "dick" and Takagi calls him a prick.
Worf Had the Flu: Teaching Takagi about the Universal Light punch required a clash that left Chen-Chen with a broken arm, making him easy prey to Keiji.

Osamu Munemasa

The Wild Bull of Chiba. He's a gigantic man who uses his incredibly developed musculature to defend himself, much like Rick Powered of the Three Pillars of Kobe.

No-Sell: He's just so muscular that it somehow makes him immune to Raiden's electric attacks and Takagi's attacks.
Not So Invincible After All: Takagi eventually hits Osamu with a punch that even he can't endure, and he almost explodes from the injuries.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He's this to Rick Powered, due to both of their gimmicks being using muscular control to protect themselves from harm.
The Worf Effect: He's introduced by beating Raiden to a pulp with little effort. And then he easily defeats the series' hero by countering the Fa jin with a 100-step God Fist, just to show anyone worth their salt can learn those Tai Chi Chuan tricks at this point of the series.

Toshihiko Takei

The Praying Mantis of Saitama. Identifiable by his use of the Praying Mantis style, from which he derives his nickname from.

Animal-Themed Fighting Style: He uses Mantis-style slashing techniques.
Meaningful Name: Not only does his use of the Mantis-style fit up with his nickname, but it also reflects the gestures and noises he makes.
Pressure Point: His style involves wearing down even much larger opponents by hitting pressure points and stunning their bodies.

Tetsuo Iwamoto

The Wild Master of Toshigi. He's another giant of a man, like Osamu Munemasa before him, although he prefers to use a pair of clubs as his weapon of choice.

Butt-Monkey: He's the weakest of the Kanto Slaughter Union and completely averts The Worf Effect, losing multiple times to characters who would otherwise job to show off how powerful a certain character is.
Dual Wielding: He wields a pair of them.
Savage Spiked Weapons: He likes to use a pair of spiked clubs.
Younger Than They Look: He's quite literally, balding, and musclebound to hell and back, but he's a teenager.
The Worf Effect: Averted. He loses repeatedly to characters other than Takagi, such as Sabu Majima, while the rest of the Kanto Slaughter Union have an easy time crushing Takagi and his allies to demonstrate their superior strength.

Seiichi Teramoto

The Spring Gale of Ibaraki, and the strongest member of the Kanto Slaughter Union. He is a master of Kung-fu who can weaponize his own hair.

Gonk: He has a really weird bumblebee striped hair combined with a queue, and also has bizarrely small eyes that look like they came from another person entirely.
Ki Attacks: The idea behind his Shaolin Buddha Blast is that whatever he does with either his arms, legs or even his hair has the force of multiple Fa jins.
Kick Them While They're Down: He makes a hobby out of finishing foes by stomping their heads into the ground.
Nightmare Face: As he powers up, the blood vessels on his face all pop up and give him a burnt appearance that is compared to Freddy Krueger. His forehead then starts swelling and he gains Black Eyes of Evil.
Prehensile Hair: He can whip his heavy ponytail around to strike targets or choke them with Fa jin energy.
Villainous Breakdown: He finally crumbles into terror when Takagi unleashes the true form of the Universal Light punch, which is depicted as a Heaven-shattering Pillar of Light.
The Worf Effect: It takes an absurd amount of punishment from multiple fighters and Takagi to defeat this guy when he is the Arc Villain, but only a while later Ton-Ton and Gen-Gen make an absolute mockery of him as they take over his role.

Rising Dragon Saga

An-hai Huang

The youngest of the Huang brothers, and the only one of them to be evil, as well as the inventor of the Wicked Fist, a martial art he taught to Keiji Gaoh, Ton-Ton, and Gen-Gen.

Alas, Poor Villain: He might be an irredeemable monster, but he winds up being incredibly pitiful in his last moments, as he's crying and begging for Goki Akamatsu not to kill him and solemnly yelling that he doesn't want to die after gets his brains blown out by Goki.
Combat Pragmatist: He's more than willing to attack an enemy while they're distracted by his disciples, as well as doing surprise attacks in general, and a flashback shows him kicking his brother Liu-yung Huang in the groin before following it up with a non-stop assault of attacks and strangling Chen-Chen Huang while he's pinned underneath him.
Exit, Pursued by a Bear: After Gen-Gen's defeat, Shuzo escapes with An-hai but both of them are ambushed and executed in cold blood by Goki Akamatsu.
Evil Cripple: He's lacking his forearms entirely, and doesn't even have elbows.
Hate Sink: He's one real vile scumbag that really shouldn't have been spared by his brothers. In fact, while Chen-Chen dies hoping that Takagi can somehow redeem An-hai like he did to Jinrai and every other villain, the possibility never comes up and An-hai is ultimately pathetically killed in unrelated circumstances. And yet, when Takagi is meditating and being seduced by his inner evil, he sees all of his friends looking sadly at him and An-hai is with his brothers on the very edge of the page. This implies Takagi regretted never getting a chance to beat sense into him.
Kick the Dog: In An-hai's backstory, his forces plundered and pillaged villages, with scenes showing the aftermath of women and children being raped and killed. He had helpless and naked female slaves poisoned to death as collateral from his fight againt Liu-yun and Chinchin. In the present day, he and Kenji go out of their way to mutilate everyone tied to his brothers.
Literal Disarming: Liu-yun and Chen-Chen never had it in them to kill their younger brother, so they chopped his arms off and drove him away.
Rocket Punch: He keeps Takagi from finishing Keiji off by shooting both of his artificial arms into pressure points on the hero's back.

Keiji Gaoh

A disciple of An-hai Huang who followed him to Japan.

Heel–Face Turn: Takagi spares Keiji after defeating him, and in turn Keiji teaches Takagi the Wicked Fist when it is revealed to be required to master the Rising Dragon style.
Hero Killer: He assassinates a drunk Kira and then defeats Takagi, claiming for himself the title of Soul of Osaka.
Heroic Sacrifice: Willingly ends up killed in the struggle against Ton-Ton and Gen-Gen while teaching Takagi about the Wicked Fist. Subverted when it turns out that he survived, and became a monk to atone for his sins.
Glass Cannon: Keiji is very powerful and knows several seemingly supernatural techniques, but has little endurance in exchange for that. Upon figuring this out, Takagi manages to greatly weaken Keiji simply by recklessly hitting him in any way he can.
Razor-Sharp Hand: His bread and butter.
The Paralyzer: His attacks affect the opponent's spirit, which allows him to leave them stuck in place.

Ton-Ton

One half of the two disciples of An-hai Huang. He's a giant, fat man with a hideously bloated face who is much quicker and much more agile than you'd expect from his size.

Acrofatic: Like you wouldn't believe. People even comment on how absurdly fast he is.
Beware the Silly Ones: He and Gen-Gen have silly names, comically ugly appearances, and speak with stereotypically broken grammar, but easily defeat the three fighters who were protecting the Rising Dragon scrolls. They are portrayed as being so, so strong that the previous Arc Villain Seiichi means nothing to them. Takagi has to acquire the Rising Dragon technique to even dare to challenge the duo.
Gonk: His face literally looks as if it were inflated.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: Ton-Ton makes a point of always defeating his opponents in just three moves, counting each one as he fights.
No-Sell: Both he and Gen-Gen are able to fully negate energy attacks.
Rapid Aging: Attempting to perform a flawed version of the Rising Dragon twice in a row causes the right half of Ton-Ton's hair to fall off without him noticing.

Gen-Gen

The latter half of the two disciples brought to Japan by An-hai Huang. He's a small, lean man with a goblin-like face who wears a knit cap and carries around a pitchfork on a rope with him. He's the stronger of the two between him and Ton-Ton.

Ax-Crazy: Gen-Gen was a cruel introvert as a boy and was then trained by An-hai through torture and isolation. This caused him to develop an alternate personality without any sense of reason that'll kill everyone around himself.
Beware the Silly Ones: He and Ton-Ton have silly names, comically ugly appearances, and speak with stereotypically broken grammar, but easily defeat the three fighters who were protecting the Rising Dragon scrolls. They are portrayed as being so, so strong that the previous Arc Villain Seiichi means nothing to them. Takagi has to acquire the Rising Dragon technique to even dare to challenge the duo.
Expy: He looks like a human version of Frieza with the almond shape of his eyes and his black lips, and also having a similar personality, reserved and calm, yet haughty and incredibly cruel, but also possessing a violent, bloodthirsty, and psychotic side that emerges when he's pushed too much.
Gonk: Not as much as Ton-Ton, but he's still incredibly weird and unattractive looking, as he has a face that looks like a goblin or a sphynx cat.
Hero Killer: Gen-Gen manages to defeat and kill Takagi by stopping his heart.
No-Sell: Both he and Ton-Ton are able to fully negate energy attacks.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's much stronger than he looks, and is in fact the strongest disciple of An-Hai Huang.
Rapid Aging: Both Gen-Gen and Takagi are affected negatively by the Rising Dragon, with the villain going fully bald as a result.
Would Hit a Girl: After Takagi had refused to fight Maki, neither him or Ton-Ton hesitate to pummel the girl and leave her all bloody with her chest exposed.

Shuzo Kiriyama

The don of the Shuei group.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear: After Gen-Gen's defeat, Shuzo escapes with An-hai but both of them are ambushed and executed in cold blood by Goki Akamatsu.
Face Framed in Shadow: He appears with his face cast in shadow until his formal introduction.
Hate Sink: He's a cartoonishly evil drug dealer who has no qualms about using his heavily armed forces to murder any of the teenage delinquent cast or cause unrelated casualties. He's eventually killed in a gruesome way and Takagi is practically thankful for it.
Multiple Gunshot Death: Goki shoots Shuzo to the point of reducing him to a pile of gore over the road.

Kikumaru Nishijin

The 1st of the 3 disciples of Liu-yung Huang sent to fight Takagi to see if he's worthy of the Rising Dragon. He is from the Kyoto prefecture, and fights using a katana which he's able to transmit his own ki through.

Ki Attacks: His specialty.
Sword Beam: The way he uses his ki functions like this, enabling him to cut from a distance.

Hikosuke Endo

The 2nd of the 3 disciples of Liu-yung Huang holding the keys to the Rising Dragon. He is an incredibly strong fighter from the Nara prefecture, who uses a fictious martial art called the Heijo Style, which was invented to protect the Emperor, and thus, uses extremely lethal techniques meant to kill in a single hit.

The Big Guy: The physically largest of the three disciples who focuses on incredibly powerful techniques.
Strong and Skilled: He's strong enough to lift up a boulder and throw it at Takagi, but his fighting style, is quite advanced and technical, as it makes use of grappling techniques, counter attacks, as well as striking with just two fingers like a bullet.

Maki Tendo

The 3rd, final, and strongest of the trio of disciples of Liu-yung Huang sent to fight Takagi so that he can prove he's worthy of the Rising Dragon. She is from the Wakayama prefecture, and practices a martial art called the Chinese Imperial Style of the Flower Fist, which involves incredibly high and powerful jumps and equally strong kicks giving her superior mobility.

Kick Chick: Her Chinese Imperial Style of the Flower Fist revolves around incredibly powerful kicks.
In a Single Bound: She can jump so high that it looks as if she's floating through the air.

Tian-sheng Huang

The father of Liu-yung, Chen-chen, and An-hai Huang, as well as their master.

Heroic Sacrifice: Tian-sheng teaches the true nature of the Rising Dragon to Takagi in the afterlife and ultimately sacrifices his soul to him after a duel so that the hero may resurrect and put an end to An-hai.
Spirit Advisor: Tian-sheng isn't truly erased after being absorbed by Takagi and can communicate with him whenever he is in a near-death state.

Saga of Good and Evil

Goki Akamatsu

A sociopathic gang leader whose the son of Gonosuke Akamatsu, that wants to sink Japan into hell by all means necessary after obtaining the huge stash of drugs connected to the Rising Dragon scrolls.

The Ace: A rare villainous example. Not only is he as good of a martial artist as he is powerful, he's also dangerously intelligent and clever, too, and has plenty of connections thanks to being the son of Gonosuke Akamatsu, the Prime Minister of Japan in Osu! Karate Club's setting. That being said. It's subverted when it's revealed he's an utterly broken, sad, and lonely man who was essentially corrupted by multiple factors such as the broken home he was raised in, such as his neglectful father, crazed, heartless mother, his abusive tutor, and Jin Zhouyin, his martial arts teacher, teaching him to use The Power of Hate, and finding out that his father was more interested in Takagi, his half-brother, than he ever was in him, in spite of Goki Akamatsu trying incredibly hard and succeeding at many things just so that Gonosuke would pay attention to him out of pride.
The Atoner: In the Distant Finale, he calms down and goes back to Tibet to work on it becoming an independent nation from China.
Bald Head of Toughness/Bald Mystic:He's shaved his head bald as part of his training as a Tibetan monk, and has gained mystical powers and become even stronger than he already was.
Born Winner: Goki brags about having been born to a powerful family and was raised with all good things in life simply granted to him. He also despises anyone who is hard-working. However, the ending reveals him to be a Broken Ace who was never loved by his parents no matter what he achieved.
Cain and Abel: He sees his half-brother Takagi as his equal in fighting and hates him for having a better upbringing than himself.
Curb-Stomp Battle: A dozen notable characters from every previous arc are all tossed around by Goki's Aikido techniques when they fail to prevent him from obtaining a massive stash of drugs.
Final Boss: He's the very final enemy in the story.
Luke, I Am Your Father: After researching Takagi's background, Goki realizes they are half-brothers.
Hate Sink: He wants Japan corrupted to the core, drops napalm bombs on a island of prisoners that Takagi was trying to evacuate and attempts to cripple all of Takagi's old allies, inflicting some of them with drug addictions and permanent injuries. However, the story turns this around by the end, revealing him and his father to be utterly broken men whom Takagi should ultimately forgive.
Humiliation Conga: Even though Goki is able to beat Takagi to a pulp in the final battle, he ends up killing his own father by accident and then his body breaks down by itself due to being too used to the harsh cold and low oxygen he endured at Tibet. Morigami even points the irony of Goki's own hard work leading to his downfall. Takagi doesn't want to harm his half-brother at that point, but is forced to strike him with a painful string of the Fa Jin, Universal Light and Rising Dragon punches that leaves him buried under rubble.
Make Way for the New Villains: Minutes after Takagi beats Gen-Gen, this guy shows up from out of left field and turns both Shuzo and An-hai into paste before kicking Takagi into next tuesday and getting all the good guys arrested.
My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: The moment Koichi gets out of drug rehabilitation with neat God-like powers, it's just to job against this guy who claims to have had an worse experience training on the mountains.
No-Sell: He completely neutralizes the Fa jin, the Universal Light Punch and the True Rising Dragon techniques. So the last one became The Worf Barrage and So Last Season the moment after it was used for real!
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The story insinuates Gouki has raped Momochiyo for some time after drugging her, making him seem utterly unredeemable. However, this plot point is glossed over and Momochiyo later briefly states that Goki actually didn't have it in him to rape her and didn't care if she was faking being brainwashed by the drug injections she had.
Training from Hell: After being defeated by Takagi, Gouki travels to Tibet to train in the harsh and freezingly cold mountains. He returns as an incredibly powerful monk with supernatural powers.
Use Your Head: When Gouki's arms are disabled from blocking a maxed-out Rising Dragon, he can still instantly kill people by headbutting them like a maniac. Takagi overcomes this with Arithmetics: if the hero breaks his own goddamn arms to crack Goki's skull, then he's the one left with the ability to use headbutts in the end.
Villainous Breakdown: After accidentally killing his own father, Goki falls into despair and throws punches around wildly until Takagi throughly beats him to the ground.
Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Subverted with a delightful vengeance. After being being defeated by Takagi once, he leaves for Tibet to train himself, and returns stronger than ever before and with a bunch of new techniques and abilities.

Gonosuke Akamatsu

The corrupt Prime Minister of Japan who is Goki's father.

Big Bad: An evil Prime Minister and the final villain of the series.
Dark and Troubled Past: Upon being cornered by Takagi and Morigami, Gonosuke goes on a rant about the miserable life he's had to get to where he is. A disgusted Takagi just wonders out loud if raping his mother was hard work, though it is later revealed that the villain didn't stoop that low.
Heroic Sacrifice: He takes a mortal blow from Goki to keep his sons from fighting each other, earning Takagi's forgiveness due to this.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Takagi is his bastard son.
Non-Action Big Bad: He's no fighter. The final threat in the story is his son Goki.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Jindo claims that Gonosuke has a fetish for randomly kidnapping women and raping them after beating them into submission. However, this is revealed to be a lie to make Takagi believe he's a Child Of Rape and hate his father over it.
Tragic Villain: In the end, he was an unfortunate soldier who commited numerous sins as he clawed his way to the top but never achieved any happiness and ended up ruining the lives of both the woman he actually loved and his first-born son.
We Can Rule Together: States that he had known about Takagi all along and had hoped to make him his successor.

Yu Kagaya

Evil All Along: He's introduced as if he's a Friend on the Force for the good guys... but he isn't.
Evil Counterpart: To Momochiyo, as a cheerleader for the bad guys.
Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He looks like a cutesy man who dresses in clothes like a Fun T-Shirt with a smiley face on it, but is one of Goki's most cruel subordinates.
Faux Affably Evil: Even after Yu's true nature is revealed, he acts very polite and cheerful to his enemies.
Karma Houdini Warranty: Keeps taunting and threatening the heroes until he has nobody left to protect him. Then Takayuki and Masataka beat him silly.

Micky Bison

Also known as "of Black Wrestling". He's the first of the four bodyguards that Takagi fights in the Death Game, and is fought in the dried up swimming pool at KFTH.

Noodle Incident: He recognizes Takagi's extreme flexibility as originating from the Yin-Yang fist, invented by Jin Zhouyin, who he namedrops, indicating that he somehow knows of Jin personally.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Obviously based on Mike Tyson.
No-Sell: Is unfazed by being hit head-on by a Rising Dragon, so he's beaten by wrestling throws instead.
Pro Wrestling Is Real: Justified. The Black Wrestling matches he participates in have the best and strongest pro wrestlers in the United States fight to the death in underground wrestling matches.
Signature Move: Bear's Pillow, a modified and upside-down version of the Argentine Backbreaker where he slams his opponent into the ground with his entire weight behind them.

Namuken Oda

A Thai Jiujitsu master, and the 2nd of the four bodyguards fought by Takagi in the Death Game. He is battled at the top of an abandoned building called "Spiderweb Castle" where the only solid ground are a series of ropes above a 40-story drop.

Platform Battle: He challenges Takagi to a fight on a set of ropes suspended over a 40 stories building, knowing the hero suffers from acrophobia and can't even try. Takagi gets around this by blindfolding himself and imagining the arena after calculating its measurements.

Anglwal

The 3rd of the four bodyguards fought by Takagi in the Death Game. He is the only one to not do any fighting himself, as he has his pet Shiva, a gigantic Indian Python, do the fighting for him.

Alas, Poor Villain: He's rendered harmless once his snake is killed, and then Dark Takagi takes a sum of money from him in exchange for sparing his life. It's only after this exchange that Gonosuke orders Anglwal to be killed for his failure. The ending emphasizes the tragedy of his death by showing all the other bodyguards, including a somehow still living Shigeru, went on to become better people.
Face Framed in Shadow: He's completely cast in darkness when he does something that kills a huge bull.
Snake Charmer: The truth is that he's a completely normal guy who owns a snake. A giant snake that can easily strangle bulls.

Shigeru Kiryuin

The 4th, and last member of the four bodyguards fought by Takagi in the Death Game, known as the "King of Fists". He is an incredibly strong Mixed Martial-Artist who has the speed of a boxer, the destructive punches of a Karateka, the kicks of a Muay Thai fighter, and unrivaled grappling skills.

Cast From Life Force: He sacrifices 20 years of his life to hulk out and fight another round against Dark Takagi.
Dark and Troubled Past: His origin is that he wanted to be the strongest martial artist but got ostracized by all his friends who had "outgrown" such a dream.
Full-Frontal Assault: He fights Takagi in the nude as he threatens to rape Momochiyo.
Gag Penis: He possesses a huge and perpetually erect penis that can channel Ki, so when Masataka tries to get his bees to sting it, they just get burnt to a crisp.
Gaining the Will to Kill: His true nature is similar to Gen-Gen's. A drunk Shigeru once had a street fight with some guy who wouldn't stop coming for more no matter what. This man eventually managed to stab and nearly kill Shigeru, leading him to believe that it's either kill or be killed and that he must rid himself of any hesitation. This lets him obtain an "Evil Force" that matches Takagi's Testing Force.
No-Sell: He gets blown away by a Rising Dragon but suffers no damage, and boasts this is due to having trained his muscles to get a perfect balance of power and speed.
Not Quite Dead: He cuts his lifespan while fighting Takagi and is defeat is dramatically and clearly portrayed as him dying from the injuries. But then the Distant Finale reveals he survived somehow and went on to live a peaceful life.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: If it wasn't enough for Goki to be implied to have been drugging and raping Momochiyo, Shigeru has her brought before an injured Takagi and undresses before ripping her clothes off and threatening to rape her.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: His Kiryu Cannon barrage of punches is the strongest example seen in the series and it trumps the Rising Dragon.
Simple, yet Awesome: Unlike the previous bodyguards before him, Shigeru Kiryuin has no true gimmicks. He's just a very strong and highly skilled man who has the best attributes of a masters of multiple martial arts. He gives Takagi a hell of a fight and is the penultimate opponent in the manga.
This Cannot Be!: Although Shigeru seems to smile at what appeared to be his mortal defeat, his dying words are of regret and disbelief that his lifetime of efforts couldn't defeat Takagi in the end. The hero ultimately expresses pity and gratefulness as he covers the (not quite) corpse with a blanket.
World's Best Warrior: As Gonosuke's final guardian, Shigeru is said to be a Master of All and to have killed 1200 martial artists around the world purely for sport.

Jindo Tenba Yoshitaka Takagi

A member of the Freedom Revolutionary Party, who has it out for Gonosuke Akamatsu, as well as a mysterious ally of Takagi and friends who seems to be more than meets the eye. In actuality, he is Yoshitaka Takagi, Takagi's true father, who is against Gonosuke Akamatsu out of a sense of relatively petty revenge, not caring that Yukiko genuinely loved Akamatsu and only became a shut-in to the point where she was instintutionalized out of shame and guilt from the affair they were having.

The Atoner: In the Distant Finale, Jindo reunites with Yukiko and opens an orphanage with her, to make up for abandoning Takagi and using him as a weapon of vengeance.
Evil All Along: The final veredict on Takagi's past is that Gonosuke did not rape Yukiko but later stalked her into insanity and this drove Jindo mad with vengeance. Jindo hated the infant Takagi, left him to an orphanage and apparently manipulated the events of the series specifically to pit father and son against each other.
Given Name Reveal: His true name is Yoshitaka Takagi.
Unreliable Narrator: Gonosuke never raped Yukiko like Jindo said he did, though she was still broken by stress from the nature of their affair.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Deconstructed. His motivation is genuinely sympathetic, as Gonosuke Akamatsu is by all means, an awful person, but it's then revealed that the suffering he went through arguably outweighs Yoshitaka's own, and all Gonosuke Akamatsu truly did to him was accidentally drive his wife, Yukiko, crazy due to the stress of the affair they were having with each other behind his back, and that Gonosuke and Yukiko genuinely had feelings for each other as their relationship was completely consensual, and he is called out on this in the narrative, yet is also forgiven by Takagi due to all the different people he met and discovering his purpose in life because he was abandoned and secretly groomed as a tool of vengeance against Gonosuke Akamatsu.

Shigeru Kobayashi

Takagi's sidekick at Wailing Demon Island.

Heroic Sacrifice: When Wailing Demon Island is set aflame by napalm bombs and the single escape ship cannot hold more than 50 people, Shigeru and 10 other men sacrifice their lives by staying behind.

Lupan Jin Zhouyin

A magician themed burglar who dresses up in clown make-up as well as a tuxedo and a top-hat that commands one of the three factions at Wailing Demon Island. In actuality, he's Jin Zhouyin, a rival of Tian-sheng Huang and fellow martial arts master, who also taught Gouki Akamatsu the Ying-Yang Fist.

Beware the Silly Ones: He's a clown with a set of deadly tricks,
Blood Knight: His true personality. He loves to fight, even in his advanced age, and one of his biggest regrets is not getting to have one last fight with Tian-sheng Huang, due to outliving him.
Contortionist: He uses flexibility in his attacks, and figures he can counter a technique meant to hold him in place by bending backwards at an extreme angle and whipping back into a deadly punch.
Death Dealer: He can toss barrages of sharp playing cards.
Evil Old Folks: Lupan is actually Jin Zhouyin, Tian-sheng Huang's long time rival. He appears as an emanciated and bald old man, but quickly buffs his muscles back up.
Faux Affably Evil: He's introduced as being the most cordial of the three criminal leaders at Wailing Demon Island and gets bothered by seeing Takayuki trying to execute Masataka. But he is still a cruel villain who turned Gouki, albeit accidentally to darkness.
Redemption Equals Death: Upon being defeated, Jin Zhouyin accepts Takagi as a Worthy Opponent, makes peace with Tian-sheng through that and removes the death curse he placed upon the hero. Then he begs Takagi to defeat Gouki and dies from his injuries.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse:Due to being a Miniature Senior Citizen. He also hands Takagi his ass and counters his strategies multiple times.
Practically Joker: He wears make-up, dresses up in a suit, although rather than using comedy-themed weaponry, he wields general magic themed weapons such as playing cards and plastic straws desigined to exsanguinate his enemies in the shape of small flowers.
Walking Spoiler: The fact that he's not who he claims to be and is actually associated with Tian-sheng Huang, as well as Gouki Akamatsu is incredibly important to the plot.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Him telling Gouki Akamatsu to rely on The Power of Hate caused him to turn out the way he is by the time of present. He wound up greatly regretting doing so and ran away to Wailing Demon Island.

Takayuki Tokutake

Known as the Craftsman. He was arrested for working with middle-eastern terrorists and later attempting to kill many politcians all at once with an explosive. He specializes in creating weaponry, usually guns, ranging from hand-held ones to giant cannons, as well as creating explosives. He commands one of the three factions at Wailing Demon Island.

Bald of Evil: He he has his head shaven down to a buzzcut, and was so bad that he got sent to Wailing Demon Island.
Guns Are Worthless: He means to avert this by threatening his rival factions at the isolated prison island with the development of firearms, catapults and cannons... but Takagi puts a stop to all that very easily.
Heroic Sacrifice: He tries to sacrifice himself to let the others escape the burning island when it turns out the remaining ship they built can't support them all, but is required to navigate the ship and perform maintance on it.
Sawed-Off Shotgun: He actually stands out between his gimmicky rivals by being a plain terrorist armed with this weapon.
The Smart Guy: After his Heel–Face Turn, he helps out Takagi with his invention skills.
Would Hurt a Child: Beats Masataka to a pulp and tries to execute him by shooting a shotgun in his mouth.

Masataka Kato

Also known as Bug Boy. A master of insects who commands one of the three factions at Wailing Demon Island. He was sent there for causing a plague in Hiroshima after being bullied using the bugs he raises.

Affably Evil: Portrayed as a Benevolent Boss who cares about his underlings and insects, so Takagi rolls to his aid when he's being tortured to death by Lupan and Takayuki.
Creepy Child: After being bullied, he caused some kind of plague in Hiroshima by using cockroaches.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: His backstory is remarkably similar to a school shooting, due him being repeatedly bullied until he snapped and went on a dangerous rampage against those who picked on him, except replace guns and bullets with bugs carrying disease.
Heroic Sacrifice: He tries to sacrifice himself to let the others escape the burning island when it turns out the remaining ship they built can't support them all, but when two available spots remain, he's knocked out and forced to board it.
Older Than They Look: He's 18 years old but he looks 8 due to his height and outfit.
Scary Stinging Swarm: He hits enemies with capsules of liquid that attracts swarms of bees onto them.

Dark Takagi

Takagi's inner darkness who possesses his body upon the activation of the Testing Force.

Amazing Technicolor Population: He's shown to be blue on the mangas covers.
Combat Pragmatist: He has no qualms about fighting dirty.
Even Evil Has Standards: Takagi is forced to use the Testing Force and summon his evil self to prevent Shigeru from raping Momochiyo. Dark Takagi remarks that he'll indeed never let harm come to her, no matter how much he changes.
In the Blood: He represents the vile bloodline of his father and half-brother, while the usual Yoshiyuki's good nature comes from his mother.
Superpowered Evil Side: Learning the Testing Force requires Takagi to overcome his dark desires, and yet what it actually does is awaken a 10 times more powerful, greedy and psychotic double personality similar to that of his evil father and half-brother. Takagi uncerimoniously gets rid of him at one point, and manages to trigger a "pure" Testing Force without such a thing happening again.

Characters / Osu! Karate Club

Students and Staff of Kangokou High

Other Students, Delinquents & Characters

The Three Pillars of Kobe

The Battle For Osaka

West Shinjuku High

Shinjuku Corps

Tokyo Young Bloods Group

Shibuya Corps

Great Tokyo Alliance

Kanto Slaughter Union Saga

Rising Dragon Saga

Saga of Good and Evil

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Index

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Characters / Osu! Karate Club

Edit Locked

Students and Staff of Kangokou High

Other Students, Delinquents & Characters

The Three Pillars of Kobe

The Battle For Osaka

West Shinjuku High

Shinjuku Corps

Tokyo Young Bloods Group

Shibuya Corps

Great Tokyo Alliance

Kanto Slaughter Union Saga

Rising Dragon Saga

Saga of Good and Evil

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Index

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