Characters from the Read or Die anime/manga metaseries.
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Major Characters
Yomiko Readman
Voiced by: Rieko Miura (JP), Kimberly Yates (EN, OVA), Helena Taylor (EN, R.O.D the TV)
Appears in: all incarnationsnote
Tropes associated with Yomiko:
- Accent Adaptation: A rather strange variant in the dub. In the OVA, she speaks in a regular tone with no accent despite being British. In the TV series, this was rectified and she suddenly gains one. Can be rather jarring for anyone who watches both dubs back to back.
- All-Loving Heroine: Yomiko doesn't have a naturally malicious bone in her body, and would much rather get on with everybody.
- Badass Adorable: She's polite, sweet-natured, and frankly a little bit childish... she's also one of the most powerful Paper Masters in the world.
- Badass Bookworm: Her extraordinary power stems directly from her love of books.
- Badass Longcoat: She wears a large overcoat whose pockets are stuffed full of assorted reading materials. It looks harmless at first glance, until you remember that her abilities as a Paper Master make it the equivalent of Neo's trenchcoat full of guns.
- Berserk Button: Harming books in any kind of fashion. It's enough to actually wield her powers much more focused.
- Bespectacled Cutie: Her adorable Nice Girl personality and major Bookworm status is naturally highlighted for extra cuteness with Nerd Glasses.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Off work, a nice teacher with a love of books. On the job, one of the more deadly agents around. And God help you and all your kin should you manage to genuinely enrage her.
- Blessed with Suck: Yomiko's Paper Master abilities have a Personality Powers aspect to them, afflicting her with intense bibliophilia. So, she gains incredible paper-manipulating superpowers at the cost of being literally addicted to books. To a life threatening extreme. If there wasn't a special program specifically to recruit Paper Masters, Yomiko would have starved to death by now because of her bibliophilia: she's completely unemployable by any mundane organization because she tends to blow off work to read books or chase after new books for her collection, she blows through her finances at a ridiculous rate because she is constantly buying new books to try and sate her addiction, and without others to remind her to do so, she literally would starve herself to death because she'd be too busy reading to eat.
- Blush Sticker: Whenever she blushes, she does so in this style.
- Bookworm: The trope picture, even. If you haven't guessed she utterly loves books.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's extremely eccentric but her quirks are tolerated because of her undeniable talent.
- But Not Too Foreign: Half-Japanese and half-British.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: One the students on Yomiko's class noticed (manga). And Nenene, too (manga). Her measurements are 86-59-87 (34-23-34 in inches).
- Cute Bookworm: Her outright giddiness over books qualifies her, and she spends thousands per week on books.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Not as bad as Wendy though she can be distracted easily.
- Forgets to Eat: A side-effect of her extreme bibliophilia; unless reminded by others, she prioritizes reading over literally anything else, and that includes tending to her own bodily needs for food and liquid.
- Geeky Turn-On: She's a bibliophile, which means she gets sexually aroused by especially rare and valuable books (she reads, touches and even smells them to get a full experience).
- Hot Librarian: She's a professional librarian, but also extremely beautiful.
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: The reaction she usually provokes in fans of both sexes.
- Limited Wardrobe: More than any of the other characters. Apparently always wears the same blouse, vest, skirt, and baggy, pocket-lined trench coat, even to sleep.
- Nerd Glasses: Her big, near-square glasses really do well to highlight how she's a Badass Adorable Bookworm.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Yomiko is absolutely, 100%, a total nerd. This doesn't detract from her being absolutely gorgeous in the slightest.
- Nice Girl: Cheerful, friendly, polite, and always optimistic sums up Yomiko in a nutshell.
- Old Maid: She's 25 in the OVA, 30 by the time of R.O.D the TV, and still single. Downplayed in that she's not really interested too much in romance.
- Paper Master: The Trope Namer. She has the power to telekinetically control paper.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When she found out, that the British Library took away the baby of Nancy and made a modified clone-minion from of her dead lover, she torched the British Library, SHE, WHO LOVES BOOKS TO A SEXUAL DEGREE!! (OVA)
- Red Baron: Codename: The Paper, the nineteenth person to be assigned that code name by the British Library.
- Repetitive Name. Yomiko means "Reading Child" in Japanese, and "Readman" speaks for itself.
Nancy Makuhari
Voiced by: Michiko Neya (JP), Amanda Winn-Lee (EN, OVA), Carrie Savage (EN, TV series)
Appears in: OVA, TV series.
Tropes associated with Nancy:
- Action Mom: Mother to Junior in the TV series. However, the British Library took him away from her.
- Cultural Translation: In the original Japanese, she complains she doesn't like her codename because it isn't cute. In the dub, she complains she doesn't like her codename because it makes her sound like a porn star.
- Evil Twin: A rather odd example. See, we find out she's a clone of Mata Hari, a legendary spy sent to infiltrate the British Library. She grows reluctant to do her job however so Ikkyu, the big bad of the story, makes another one of her to replace her. Yes an evil clone... of a clone. Said evil clone ends up being Nancy's final opponent in the series and ends up knocked out in the final battle.
- Intangibility: She has a special ability to pass through objects.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The second clone of her develops this (via asphyxiation from near drowning, she was knocked out in a water logged area and last seen with half her head still in the water. So likely it was a while before she was found and resuscitated) and ironically forms an attachment to Yomiko just as the first did.
- Mirror Match: A literal example. The heroic Nancy fights the "evil" clone of her in the OVA.
- The Mole: In the OVA, it's revealed she was sent as a spy to the British Library so her group can get the parts needed for the doomsday weapon they plan on using.
- Red Baron: Codename: Miss Deep (which she doesn't care for as she feels it sounds like a Stripper's name).
- Redemption Equals Death: The first Nancy stays behind on the rocket with Ikkyu both as penance to her deception to Yomiko and to be with her lover (despite all the crap he did). The Nancy seen at the end of the OVA and TV Series is the second clone that tried to kill her.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Ikkyu clones another Nancy and tries to kill the original when he realizes she developed an attachment to Yomiko.
Drake Anderson
Voiced by: Masami Iwasaki (JP), Jason Lee (EN, OVA), Lee Everest (EN, TV)
Appears in: Manga, OVA, TV series
- Badass Normal: He's fought Paper Masters and lived to tell the tale.
- Combat Pragmatist: The guy doesn't skirt around in a fight. If he sees an opening, he'll take it and try to end the battle as soon as possible. Considering alot of his opponent are superhumans, it makes sense.
- Eagle Land: Flavour 1 - He's gruff and unapproachable, but he's loyal to a fault, and a thoroughly decent human being underneath it all.
- Good Is Not Nice: He's a very scary man if you don't know him. If you do you know he's really just a big grouchy teddy-bear.
- Papa Wolf: A family man, loves his daughter. She is his reason for helping Yomiko against Joker in the TV series.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Blonde, blue-eyed, built like a slab of pure muscle.
- Unfazed Everyman: The only operative who doesn't have any powers and bemoans the fact he has to work with and against those that do.
Joseph "Joker" Carpenter
Voiced by: Hozumi Goda (JP), JB Blanc (EN, TV), Crispin Freeman (EN, OVA)
Appears in: OVA, Read or Die manga, TV series
- Affably Evil: Despite his dark goals, he's an incredibly polite, charming and affable guy. Indeed, the OVA makes him so nice that he actually doesn't come off as a villain at all!
- Big Bad: Of the TV series and the manga
- Bling-Bling-BANG!: In episode 16 of the TV series, he pulls out a gold-plated handgun.
- Brits Love Tea: As a sign of his "Britishness", he's constantly either drinking tea or talking about drinking tea.
- Evil Brit: British and later shown to be very despicable.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: On the outset, especially when in command of an operation. But truthfully he's nothing but a megalomaniac.
- Smug Snake: The man just oozes smugness in every scene he's end.
- The Starscream: In the manga, he was always scheming to usurp the Gentleman's position.
- Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Between the OVA, where he's on the side of the good guys, and the TV series, the death of Gentleman shifts Joker into Well-Intentioned Extremist territory, working toward what he sees as Gentleman's dream by means ranging from ethically dubious to outright evil. Then again the manga pretty much showed he was flat out evil to begin with. So this may not have come as a surprise.
- Take Over the World: His ultimate goal in the TV Series is to have the British Library rule over the world. He claims this is the will of the Gentleman, but Junior last words to him indicate he was acting under his own devices.
Wendy Earhart
Voiced by: Mika Sakenobe (JP), Tricia Dickson (EN, OVA), Siobhan Flynn (EN, TV)
Appears in: OVA, Read or Die manga, TV series
- Cute Clumsy Girl: In spades in the OVA. She got rid of this persona though in the TV series.
- Dark Action Girl: Becomes a rather effective agent in the TV series and later shoots Yomiko in the arm.
- The Dragon: She later moves up to Joker's right-hand woman during the events of the TV series.
- Face–Heel Turn: Joins Joker's plan in the TV Series.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Anita, the one who she tried to break after she seemingly loses her sister, is the one who kicks her ass in the finale.
- Love Makes You Evil: Her actions are more out of love for the Joker than his beliefs.
- Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Much more jarring than Joker since you'd never suspect a sweet girl like her suddenly going over to the dark side.
- Took a Level in Badass: Lost her clumsy side and turned into a rather deadly agent in her own right. However...
- Took a Level in Jerkass: She loses any nice traits she had before hand and doesn't have a shred of empathy. Case in point: burning books in front of Yomiko before shooting her, mocking Anita when some of the Gentleman's power is used to mindwipe her school, and telling Junior she never cared for him as her trainer. Just yeesh.
The Paper Sisters
Appear in: Read or Dream manga, TV series
General tropes
- Badass Bookworm: Michelle and Maggie are powerful Paper Masters and they love books. Anita, on the other hand...
- Blessed with Suck: Michelle and Maggie suffer the typical extreme bibliophilia that seems to go hand in hand with being a Paper Master, which means that they are virtually unemployable, financially irresponsible and generally take appalling personal care of themselves because their priorities go "reading books > finding new books to read > literally everything else".
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Michelle is the blonde, Maggie is the brunette and Anita is the redhead.
- Dressed in Layers: More often than not, the clothes they wear are actually overlays made of paper. They do have skin tight body suits on under them. So they're not completely naked.
- Fight Off the Kryptonite: They use some giant sheets of paper to disrupt incapacitating sound waves, allowing them to snipe the guy controlling them.
- Marshmallow Hell:
- Anita was once introduced to a faceful of Michelle's rather big "marshmallows", after they heard a horror story about a vengeful spirit that drowned someone's third child.
- Maggie dived into Anita's currently non-existing "marshmallows" after hearing a horror story about a kid going missing in a print shop, dying there and coming back as a ghost a the comic book.
- Not Blood Related: Despite their title, they're not biological sisters. They just met each other at an abandoned church one Christmas and, having no where else to go and no where to turn to, decided to become a family together.
- Paper Master: It's in their title. All three are able to control paper, though are more specialized in their uses for them. (See Personality Powers).
- Perpetual Poverty: The three are always in the red as Michelle and Maggie tend to buy more books than provisions. Anita has to constantly rein them back so they won't be completely broke.
- Personality Powers: Despite all three sisters using paper, each uses a preferred combat for it. Anita mostly fashions her papers into handheld weapons for close range combat. Michelle is mostly a longer range fighter fashioning her papers into a bow and arrow. And Maggie turns her paper into animal familiars, a mixture of both long and short range combat.
- Anita is considered the Attacker, Maggie the Defender, and Michelle as the Support. Likewise, Anita is argumentative and attacks everyone, Maggie is withdrawn and defensive, and Michelle is nurturing and supportive.
- Pretty Freeloaders: Practically, and rather rudely, forced their way into living in Nenene's apartment despite being given a spare one by Lee during their stay in Tokyo. Unlike most examples, Nenene put her foot down and nearly threw them out after a failed attempt at bribing her into letting them stay. But when she saw they had replaced her TV they broke, she relented, with some rules of course. Helps that the girls do at least try to pay their way.
- Secret Project Refugee Family: In the TV series they're experimental by products part of Dokusensha to create their own paper masters.
- Shout-Out Theme Naming: Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh and Anita Mui starred in the Hong Kong action film Heroic Trio.
- Sibling Team: Despite not being blood related, they consider themselves as sisters.
- Town Girls: Michelle is the Femme, Maggie is the Neither and Anita is the Butch.
- True Companions: They aren't sisters by blood but they definitely love each other as such.
- Weaksauce Weakness: They can't control wet paper, so the bad guys often neutralize them with glorified squirt guns.
Michelle Cheung/Chan
Voiced by: Shoko Kikuchi (JP), Hunter Mackenzie Austin (EN)
The eldest sister. She is responsible for acquiring jobs for the detective agency, which include translation work, lost book and person finding, and bodyguard duty.
- Anime Chinese Girl: She wears a qipao on occasion, usually in an effort to impress others—which she pulls off rather well.
- Cuteness Proximity: Michelle is drawn to Anita's friends Hisami and Junior.
- The Ditz: Very focused combat wise, but in other aspect she's not exactly the brightest bulb.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Blonde-haired and generally the nicest of the three paper sisters.
- Lethal Chef: According to the other three sisters.
- Pretty in Mink: Michelle sometimes wears a fur-trimmed coat in winter.
- Self-Harm: A very harmless one: If Michelle makes a mistake, she gives herself a slight pinch in the cheek.
- Talking in Your Sleep: Michelle doesn't exactly talk in her sleep, but meows in her sleep (and makes some indeterminate babbling in the Japanese original).
Maggie Mui
Voiced by: Hiromi Hirata (JP), Sarah Lahti (EN)
The middle sister. She is the tallest of the three and is shown to love dark and confined spaces such as a small closet or even underneath a table.
- Bifauxnen: She looks like a pretty boy due to her height, short hair, tendency to wear masculine clothing and husky voice.
- Boyish Short Hair: Her short-cut hair is part of her overall bifauxnen look.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: About Michelle's "knockers" in a weird-ass magic book-induced fit of madness.
- The Quiet One: Maggie doesn't really talk a lot.
- Shrinking Violet: She's very shy and withdrawn, preferring to be in the background and letting her sisters take the lead.
Anita King
Voiced by: Chiwa Saitō (JP), Rachel Hirschfield (EN)
The youngest sister. She does not possess the same love of books that Michelle and Maggie do. In fact, she hates them.
- Artificial Human: Anita was created by the British Library as an experiment to see if a Paper Master who didn't love books could exist.
- Book Burning: Anita's first memory and childhood trauma seems to be in some way connected with book burning, creating unconsciously a dislike to books. It's reveled later that it's the British Library burning as she happened to be there when it happened which traumatized her. However it turns out Dokusensha messing with her DNA had more of a hand in her dislike of books, the book burning incident just happened to be a stroke of bad timing. By the end of the series, she eventually overcome this and became a bibliophile like her sisters.
- Boyish Short Hair: Like her sister Maggie, she wears her hair in a short and masculine cut, which in her case is to fit her overall tomboy characterization.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Despite trying to keep her sisters in line, she's still a kid and can dip into this from time to time. Needless say, Nenene and she don't get along at first.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: As she's the only Paper Sister who lacks the all-consuming bibliophilia that comes with being a Paper Master, it's up to her to bully her sisters into living a relatively normal life. She makes sure they focus on work over reading, makes sure they eat, bathe and use the toilet, and manages the money.
- Compulsory School Age
- Cute Bruiser: Unlike her sisters, she's not afraid to get in close to fight. In fact, of the Paper Masters, she's the only one that does prefer close combat.
- Flipping the Bird: Nenene told them all to be quiet and not disturb her work and hinted at the alternative with a Throat-Slitting Gesture. Anita told her to fuck herself with the middle finger, but was pinnned down by Michelle so that Anita wouldn't provoke Nenene any further.
- Handy Feet: She can use her feet to grasp things and manipulate paper.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She is bratty, brash and outspoken, but she really does care about those close to her.
- Misblamed: When the truth comes out about the Library incident, Anita blames Yomiko for her trauma. But as she learns more about her origins, she does come to realize that Dokusensha and the British Library is more at fault for her condition.
- Shorttank: She's not very sensitive about her height, but she does have a shorter fuse than Michelle and Maggie.
- Ninja: Not officially but she more or less qualifies, with her reflexes, stealth skill, hyper awareness, fighting style, and most of all her using paper like shuriken.
- Symbol Swearing: Anita does this when a visitor of her Lost Books Service opens a door against her face.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Yomiko once it's known that she was the cause of the British Libaray burning incident. However when their friends are kidnapped and Yomiko is the only one left, she begrudgingly decides to team with her.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Anita loves her milk (probably, cause she wants Michelle's bust size).
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Her paper powers never manifested until Yomiko's terrorist attack on the British Library.
- Waif-Fu: Anita is very strong, capable of stunning a "vampire" by throwing a book into his face and breaking his nose from 20 feet away without using her paper powers. She can knock out grown men three times her size; and her fighting style was developed by animators via "observing monkeys and the Chinese Royal Acrobats."
- Wise Beyond Her Years: Anita despite being the youngest is probably the most mature of the three. Having to keep the other two from blowing their budget on books.
Nenene Sumiregawa
Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (JP), Tricia Dickson (EN, TV)
Appears in: Read or Die manga, TV series
- Badass Normal: Her older version in the TV series is hardly afraid of anything and she won't let anyone talk down to her.
- Chekhov's Gun: Her novel which she has been writing through the series. Also counts as a "Shaggy Dog" Story as at the beginning she's been suffering writer's block but slowly managed to make the novel over time. Though the sacrifice is for the greater good and provides Yomiko and the Paper Sisters some much needed ammo in the final battle.
- Damsel in Distress: Kidnapped three times in the TV series (once at the beginning of the series by deranged fans, again by Dokushensha and again by British Library)
- The Ghost: Aside from a note left behind for Yomiko at the start of the first episode, she's completely absent from the OVA despite playing a major role in every other adaptation involving Yomiko.
- The Lad-ette: In the TV series, she's portrayed as behaving in an extremely masculine fashion.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Has taken up writing as a profession and has some trouble trying to write a follow her to her first novel.
- Nerd Glasses: She keeps and wears a pair of Yomiko's glasses as a memento, something that emphasizes her as a nerdy fan of Yomiko and capable book author.
- Older and Wiser: In the manga, she's a teenager and a big fan of Yomikos. In the TV series, she's in her early 20s and slightly more seasoned.
- Sacred First Kiss: Averted. In the manga she gives her first kiss (rather forcefully) to a surprised Yomiko (who she didn't even know at that point) because she needed some inspiration for a love scene she was writing. Compared to finishing the book, her first kiss wasn't that important to her.
- Teen Genius: Is considered as such in the manga.
Junior
Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (JP), Jessica D. Stone (EN)
Appears in: TV series
- Contagious Powers: His phasing powers were gained from his mother.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Michelle mistakes him to be a girl.
- Heel–Face Turn: After learning his past and being treated with kindness by Anita and Michelle, he turns against the British Library.
- Intangibility: He contains the same "phasing" abilities as his mother.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Very good looking, and wears his hair in a long, feminine style.
- Rei Ayanami Expy: Rather emotionless and reserved. It was intentional to make him more complacent for their plans.
- Tyke Bomb: Was taken from Nancy to be "experimented" on and groomed to be the new host of the Gentleman.
Supporting Cast
Lee Linho
Voiced by: Shin-ichiro Miki (JP), Patrick Seitz (EN)
Linho first appeared as Nenene's fan and public promoter. Though he didn't lie when he said he liked her work.Appears in: TV series
- Eyes Always Shut: Never opens his eyes through his appearances.
- Redemption Equals Death: He chose to distract the Dokushensha in their Collapsing Lair to let Nenene and others escape.
- The Mole: He turns out to be a Dokushensha agent who want to make use of Nenene's writings.
- One Last Smoke: After his true nature is reveal but he helps save Nenene and get mortally wounded. He spends his last moment smoking a cigerette.
- Oral Fixation: He's trying to quit smoking and is seen biting on a pen to cope.
John Woo
A pigeon that delivers the Paper Sisters their missions.
Appears in: TV series
- Instant Messenger Pigeon: Whenever Dokushensha has a mission for the sisters. They send John Woo to deliver the message.
- Insistent Terminology: It's John Woo-san (Or Sir in the dub). Anyone who doesn't address him as such, he gives a sharp peck to the noggin.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Obviously named after the famous Hong Kong action director.
- Team Pet: More or less. He's a pigeon who is the closest thing that the Paper Sisters have to a pet.
Hisami Hisaishi
Voiced by: Taeko Kawata (JP), Megan Harvey (EN)
Hisami is a soft-spoken elementary school student and book lover, and one of Anita's classmates and closest friends.Appears in: Read or Dream manga, TV series
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Forms this pairing with Anita; Hisami is a very classically feminine girl, whilst Anita is a brash and scrappy tomboy.
Natsume Nishizono
Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (JP), J-Ray Hochfield (EN)
Another of Anita's classmate. She has an elder sister, Haruhi who she likes to brags about and likes to offer her sister's books for free in her class.Appears in: TV series
- Large Ham: She really goes OTT when talking about her big sister's novels.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Sure sounds like an annoying class bully at first, but she just want to become friends with Anita, and she really didn't mind when Anita accidentally knocked her out over the head with a ball during a volleyball game.
Tohru Okahara
Voiced by: Reiko Takagi (JP), Steven Bendik (EN)
A boy from Anita's class, he often argues with her and appears to have some feelings for Hisami.
Appears in: Read or Dream manga, TV series
- She Is All Grown Up: Hisami said that she used to be taller than him
Mr. Kim
A Dokushensha agent who often seen followed by Sonny. He gives the Paper Sisters missions from the Dokushensha.
Appears in: TV series
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Starts off in Dokushensha. He is seen working with The British Library later.
Sonny Wong
A Dokushensha agent usually escorting Mr Kim and handing the payment to the paper sisters. Quoted to be the most powerful paper master seen by Nenene.
Appears in: TV series
- Artificial Human: Implied, given that Dokushensa were working to make their own Paper Masters...
- Giant Mook: A relatively low-tier servant of Dokushensha characterized by his considerable height.
- Kick the Dog: Kills Alice, a client of Drake's, after Drake surrenders and specifically asks him not to harm her for no other reason just because..
- Made of Iron: The man is quite tough. Even with all the sisters working together, they can't scratch him and he can counter all the paper powers they throw at him. He only dies due to unexpectedly getting caught up in an a flood of ink as Dokushensha is destroyed.
- Taking You with Me: Tries to do this to Maggie, but fails.
The Gentleman
Founder of the British Library, a Reality Warper of enormous power.
Voiced by: Bunmei Tobayama (JP), Douglas Rye (EN)
Appears in: All incarnations- Ambiguous Situation: Was he really behind the plans of the TV show in which he wanted to used Junior as his vessel and take over the world or was it Joker just claiming as such for his own ambitions? The series never really answers.
- Department of Redundancy Department: He's often referred to as "Mister Gentleman."
- Death Seeker: Possibly, considering Joker was using him as an excuse for his plans. When some of Junior's power is put in him, Junior tells Joker "[Gentleman] wants him to have something" and shocked him with some kind of power which left Joker catatonic for the reminder of the finale.
- The Man Behind the Man: The British Library claims that the Gentleman was responsible for controlling the world from behind the scenes throughout history.
- Pieces of God: His body was divided into 5 books.
- Reality Warper: For reasons that are never explained, the Gentleman has the power to literally reshape the world based on his thoughts. In the TV show, the plan is basically to bring back the Gentleman and use his power to rewrite history so that the British Empire never fell.
Donny Nakajima
Yomiko's lover and mentor, and previous holder of the codename "The Paper"
- Posthumous Character: Already dead by the start of all the adaptations, but is an important part of Yomiko's backstory in the novels and manga.
I-Jin
The villains of the OVA, a terrorist group composed of clones of famous historical figures that have gone rogue and are trying to destroy the world. The TV series surmises they were meant to be clone bodies for The Gentleman, but samples of them were stolen by rival faction Dokushensha, cloned and then slipped out of their control. Though this is never outright stated.
General
- Artificial Human: All of them having been bred in test tubes and likewise given powers to boot.
- Historical Domain Superperson: They are superpowered clones of historical figures.
Ikkyu
The leader of the group. A clone of the 15th century Buddhist monk and Zen practitioner. He's the one that sets in motion the plan to wipe out humanity with the Suicide Symphony to "purge them of their wasteful individuals".- Bad Boss: He initially made Nancy to spy on the British Library but figured (rather rightly) that she would develop conflicting loyalties during her mission. So he made another clone of her that was loyal to him and had planned to dispose of the original.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Turns out plotting to kill your lover with a clone of her wasn't the best move. Since said original not only beats her but ends up being the death of him because he can't tell the two apart either, allowing the real Nancy to get in close and easily kill him.
- Master of Illusion: He can make lifelike illusions from paintings with his staff.
Mata Hari
The clone of the famous Dutch spy, Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod aka Mata Hari, who serves as Ikkyu's assistant and lover. For more about her, see Nancy's entry.Jean-Henri Fabre
A clone of the famous French entomology researcher. Here he's a part bug man who "molts" every time he's killed. Starting out an old man, then morphing into a child and finally a teenager.- Attack Its Weak Point: He's practically immortal if his heart's intact. Drake finally kills him by exposing and destroying it via impalement before letting a bomb do the rest.
- Creepy Child: He's in a child body for the majority of the OVA and naturally is very un-child like.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Drake rips the pincer off the robot bug he's controlling and stabs him with it.
- Little Bit Beastly: He has antenna sticking out of the cap on his head.
- Pest Controller: Kinda, he can control regular bugs but the bigger ones are really robots.
- Resurrective Immortality: If he takes enough blunt force trauma, he'll molt from his previous body and into the next stage of his life cycle. He starts as an old man, then a child after his previous body is slammed into a billboard and into a teenager when Drake shoots his kid form. It's likely he could've molted again after being impaled, but the bomb Drake places vaporizes him before it can happen, killing him completely
- Starter Villain: The first of the I-Jin agents Yomiko faces.
Otto Lilienthal
The clone of the famous German aviator who helped pioneer the study of aviation. Here, he pilots a steam powered glider that near on par with a fighter jet.- Monochromatic Eyes: The clone here has blank white eyes for some reason.
- Oh, Crap!: When Yomiko manages to get on his glider, he tries to shoot her with his pistol. Only for her to stop his bullets with her paper much to his shock.
Genjo Sanzo
A clone of Hsuan-tsang, a Buddhist priest who set out on a journey to bring authentic scroll texts from India back to China which ,in turned, inspired the popular novel, Journey to the West. Here he resembles the monk from that story while likewise wielding the power of the Monkey King (The extending pole, breathing flames, riding on clouds, etc). By and large, one of the deadlier foes of the I-Jin.- Attack Its Weak Point; He has a heart shaped machine on his body. Yomiko manages to temporarily incapacitate him by aiming for it.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Despite Yomiko and Nancy defeating him, he still manages to capture the book the girls had acquired and handed it off for his fellow I-Jin to grab right before his death.
- Blood Knight: The man's a damn berserker and relentlessly attacks Yomiko on first contact, goading her to fight back.
- Playing with Fire: Not only can he breath out fire, but his staff can emit it as well.
- Power Nullifier: One end of his staff allows him to cancel out super powers. Nancy found this out the hard way when she managed to phase through his first swing but the second actually connects.
- Telescoping Staff: Like the Monkey King, he wields an expending pole for combat. Not only does it have devices at the end of the staff to nullify powers, it can also wield flames as well. Heck, the thing can extend into space to be able to swat down satellites.
Gennai Hiraga
A clone of the famous Edo period Japanese pharmacologist. He wields a elekiter that generates electricity and allow him to wield it.- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Never seen without a pipe in his mouth.
- Laser Blade: He's capable of wielding these and does so in his final battle with Yomiko.
- Literally Shattered Lives: Yomiko positions him under a pipe of liquid nitrogen and, after disabling his elekiter, flings a paper at the pipe. The liquid sprays over him and freezes him instantly, to which he shatters to pieces.
- Logical Weakness: His lighting is ineffective if he's in an area full of metal as metal conducts it. When he tries to attack Yomiko and Drake, the lighting veers off toward some metal structures, forcing him to use his laser blades.
- Shock and Awe: His elekiter can emit powerful streams of lighting, so much so he destroys the White House with it.
Stephen Wilcox
A clone of the famous American inventor who co-invented the boiler. He mans the machine for the I-Jin, being literally hooked into it.- The Unfought: He's not a combatant and just mans the train for the launching procedure for the missile. Jean is sent to protect him. But both end up blown up by the bomb Drake leaves in the room.
Ludwig van Beethoven
A clone of the famous German musician. He's mostly used as a tool to play Ikkyu's Suicide Symphony, hooked into the rocket to which he will preform the song at a certain altitude so the entire planet can hear it.- Face Framed in Shadow: We only see a silhouette of him and some bits of his features, never in full.
- No Ontological Inertia: His life force is tied to the piano string hooked up from his piano to the the missile. Once Yomiko severs them, he instantly dies.
