Characters / Shadows House

The people who frequent the titular Shadows House.

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Main Duo

Living Dolls start their life by cleaning their Shadow master's room. The introduction to Shadows House provides insight into the daily lives of Emilico and Kate, and their interactions with each other.

Both

• Amateur Sleuth: A big part of the plot is Emilico and Kate solving the mysteries of the Shadows House and the incidents happening there.
• Brains and Brawn: Kate is the smart and guileful Brains while Emilico is the Brawn who mainly relies on her physical strength and amazing acrobatic movements.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Emilico is loud and excitable, in contrast to Kate who is more reserved and talks quietly most of the time.
• Hair-Contrast Duo: The cheerful and optimistic Emilico has blonde hair and the cool and calm Kate has black hair since before her transformation into a Shadow.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Emilico plays the bubbly and energetic Light Feminine to Kate's elegant and mysterious Dark Feminine.
• Magnetic Hero: In quick succession Emilico and Kate befriend more and more of the Children's Building.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Emilico and Kate have a very intimate and affectionate friendship, to the point the second anime opening focuses a lot on them hugging and holding hands in a flower field.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Emilico is the energetic, peppy Red Oni while Kate is the cool, levelheaded Blue Oni.
• Significant Double Casting: Inverted. The fact that Emilico and Kate are the only Living Doll-Shadow duo that don't share the same voice actress is foreshadowing to the reveal that Kate didn't develop from a Morph that mimicked Emilico.

Emilico

Voiced by: Yū Sasahara (Japanese), Dani Chambers (English)

The primary viewpoint character and Kate's Living Doll.

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• Cheerful Child: Nothing can keep a smile off Emilico's face for long. This is one of the things that sets her apart from her master.
• Circus Brat: As it turns out, Emilico was never one of the Mirrorside children. Before entering the mansion, she was a child acrobat as part of a circus and snuck into the selection. This explains not only her notable strengths (her impressive reflexes and flexibility, her ability to juggle and perform Ventriloquism), but also her unique weaknesses when compared to the other Living Dolls (couldn't read or write, didn't know how to dance).
• Constantly Curious: Emilico shows great interest multiple times in learning how to read and observe the world around her. Shame that Living Dolls shouldn't think unnecessary thoughts.
• Cute Bruiser: Several Living Dolls and even (younger) Shadows admire her ability to fight Scorches and ghost disturbances.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Emilico has a habit of tripping over herself or dropping important items, but she takes it all in stride. However, her clumsiness also almost cost her and Kate passing the first part of the Debut.
• The Defroster: Kate starts off as very distant and distrusting towards everyone around her, including Emilico. Emilico's sweet, friendly, and innocent nature quickly breaks through Kate's ice. Emilico's influence is also what helps Kate try and socialize with others better since Emilico taught her how important it is to have allies in her quest to change the Shadows House.
• Doesn't Know Their Own Birthday: Because she's an orphan, she doesn't know when she was born and isn't even sure of how old she is.
• Endearingly Dorky: She's a bubbly, simple-minded and clumsy ray of sunshine. And her friends adore her for it.
• Faint in Shock: A variant. She gets stunned by everything she sees on her first excursion out of her and Kate's rooms to the great hall, causing her to fall on her back, open-eyed and conscious.
• Girlish Pigtails: Part of her hair is done up in two small pigtails adorned with big blue ribbons, which also makes her look more girlish compared to other Living Dolls and their Shadows. Shaun gave her that hairstyle because his little sister has pigtails too.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: By far the most openly kindhearted character in the series. Her empathy has earned her a good circle of friends, defrosted the aloof Kate, and has even made friends out of people who initially sneered at her.
• The Heart: She draws out the best qualities from other Living Dolls and keeps the team from falling apart.
• Heroic BSoD: During the Debut, other shadows comment on her failure to act as Kate's face. Emilico recovers with the help of Shaun and Rum.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Starts out feeling unworthy about serving as Kate's face.
• Hired Help as Family: Emilico is noted to have a very good relationship with her master Kate. Both treat each other as very close friends, almost like family.
• In-Series Nickname: Called "Flower Garden" ("Sunshine" in the anime subtitles) by the more competitive children and dolls for her blithe cheer. When she was in the circus, she was called "Tightrope" or "Odd Jobs" in lieu of a name.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Due to being a Living Doll, Emilico doesn't have much knowledge about anything other than cleaning or what Kate tells her, so she comes into the world with boundless enthusiasm and curiosity.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Kate. Ever since she infiltrated the Shadows House, Emilico has been Kate's emotional pillar and most trustworthy ally. Whenever Emilico isn't herself because of the effect of the soot coffee, Kate gets anxious and desperate to get Emilico back to normal as she needs Emilico's optimism to not get down.
• Never Given a Name: Not even "Kate" was her real name before entering the mansion. Back when she was still in the circus, she never had one to begin with. "Kate" was the only name she knew how to spell because it was written on the dress that Kate herself gave to Emilico.
• Never Learned to Read: Emilico is illiterate. As a result, she requires Kate to teach her how to read so that she can understand the instructions attached to the wall in her room. The fact that only Emilico has this issue while the other Living Dolls were able to read from day one is an early indicator that Emilico did not come from the same place as them. Whereas the other children were trained to become servants, Emilico grew up in a circus, where reading and writing were likely not deemed to be essential skills.
• Nice Girl: So nice, she even struggles to emote Kate's anger.
• Odd Name Out: Living Dolls are always named similarly to their Shadow, which makes Emilico's name stand out since hers doesn't match Kate's name at all. Her name is a combination of "Emily", a relatively European name, and the suffix "_ko" which is often used in Japanese girls' names, which wouldn't make much sense in real life. Emilico having a unique name emphasizes the Spanner in the Works nature of both herself and her master.
• The Pollyanna: Always finds something to be happy about, even in some of the worst situations.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Energetic Girl to Shaun's Savvy Guy. She's also Energetic Girl to Kate's Savvy Girl.
• Spell My Name With An S: The various scanlations give her name as Emilyko, while the official anime and manga translations give it as Emilico.
• Stock Shoujo Heroine: If Emilico wasn't in a seinen manga, she'd fit the bill perfectly. She has the youth, the positive influence, the Sweet Tooth and appetite, and the femininity expected of a typical shoujo heroine.
• Supporting Protagonist: The series is told mainly from Emilico's POV and her role as The Heart makes her positively influence everyone around her. However, the one driving the plot is Kate and Emilico's primary purpose is really helping Kate gather allies for her goal of reforming the Shadows House from within.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Repaired Kate's toy doll and sewed a doll for Mia.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Bread. She even names her plush bird doll after it. Why? Because Kate shared her bread with Emilico.
• Vague Age: She doesn't know how old she is; she guessed she was about 11 before entering Shadows House.
• Ventriloquism: Later on, she acquires the ability of ventriloquism so she can voice her opinion while still acting as Kate's face in public. This further reinforces her circus background.
• The Watson: As the newest Doll she's on the receiving end of all of the explanations about the House.
• Workplace-Acquired Abilities: What a majority of her unique traits as a Living Doll end up being. She is surprisingly athletic for someone of her size and gender, she has good endurance and reflexes, she was able to walk on a tightrope for a brief moment of time despite otherwise being clumsy, and she learns how to throw her voice like a ventriloquist. These are all important skills for a circus actress to have.

Kate

Voiced by: Akari Kitou (Japanese), Emi Lo (English)

Emilico's master. A thoughtful, mysterious girl who tries to learn more about the secrets of the Shadow House.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Unlike other Shadows, Kate didn't develop from a Morph but from the womb of a pregnant woman named Catherine who got fused with a Morph. Given that Shadows can take over the bodies of humans, this opens up the question of exactly "who" she is: Catherine's daughter, just with Shadow traits? The Morph that attacked Catherine, which then took over Catherine's baby's body? Some kind of offspring of that Morph that took over the baby's body? Some combination of the above? The fact that the Morph's fusion with Catherine didn't follow the rules of established Shadows House fusion (the Morph didn't mimic Catherine's form, it was only able to encase Catherine in a cocoon for a short time, etc.) only muddies the waters further.
• Ancestral Name: Kate was named by her nanny after her late mother Catherine whose pet name was Kate.
• Batman Gambit: She knew Susanna would read the letter she gave to John. That's why she made the real message only visible under soot.
• Benevolent Boss: Kate never acts like Emilico is below her despite the Shadows House's rules encouraging Shadows to treat Living Dolls as slaves.
• Berserk Button: She has a small stuffed doll that is so precious to her that the only time ever she gets really angry at Emilico is when the latter tries to throw it away. Turns out Emilico had forgotten said doll was her handmade gift for Kate because the soot coffee erased her memories from before she arrived at the Shadows House.
• Big Sister Instinct: Over time, Kate and Emilico become close enough that endangering Emilico - including Emilico putting herself in danger - is a good way to get Kate to blow her top.
• Cool Big Sis: Kate acts like a cool and loving big sister figure to Emilico rather than a master. Emilico also looks up to Kate like an adoring little sister would. It helps Kate is actually older than Emilico.
• Cursed with Awesome: Kate hates the soot that comes out of her body because it dirties everything she touches and her transformation into a Shadow made her lose her original face. Once she learns to control the soot, it becomes a very useful ability that saves her and Emilico several times.
• Dead Guy Junior: After her mother, Catherine, died in childbirth, her nanny took her under her wing and named her after Catherine's nickname, Kate.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: At the beginning, Kate used to view everyone as a potential enemy. She even had a hard time getting relaxed around Emilico because she knew Emilico was brainwashed and she wasn't sure if she could trust her Living Doll. Once Emilico proves Kate that she can be trusted, Kate starts laughing with her and Emilico becomes Kate's closest ally in her secret rebellion against the Shadows House.
• Don't Look At Me: A variant. She is oddly adverse to things that would expose her face, such as applying makeup to make her face whiter and wiping her face on a towel to show the outline of her face. This is justified, as doing that would risk people finding out that she and Emilico don't actually share the same face.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Her taste in fashion leans this way, with rose hair clips and dress with enough layers and frill that when she plays dress-up with Emilico she really looks the part of a "living doll".
• The Faceless: All the Shadows are The Blank, but in Kate's case, she did use to have a human face. However, flashbacks don't let us see what her face looked like before she become a Shadow.
• Generation Xerox: Similar to Kate with Emilico, Kate's mother Catherine had her own personal maid who was very devoted to her. In fact, Kate named Emilico after Catherine's maid, Emily, because Emilico reminded her so much of her.
• Giant Poofy Sleeves: She has big puffs on the shoulders of her dress.
• Guile Hero: Kate uses very cunning and underhanded tactics to defy the Shadows House without the higher-ups realizing she's leading a rebellion.
• Half-Human Hybrid: She's a unique Shadow-human hybrid because she was born from a human woman who was forcefully fused with a Morph while pregnant.
• Happily Adopted: She was raised by her mother's maid who took care of her mother's comatose body for fifty years until she gave birth to Kate.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: She's annoyed that almost everyone at the Children's Building already think she's engaged to John because he calls her his fiancée even though she blatantly refused his marriage proposal. Funny thing is, despite her soot erupting like a volcano whenever she's around John, he is undoubtedly the Shadow who Kate trusts the most.
• Hybrid All Along: Instead of a Shadow evolved from a Morph, Kate is a unique kind of half-human, half-Shadow hybrid, born from a pregnant woman who was taken over by a Morph.
• Hybrid Power: Kate is the first and only Shadow to be half-human. She also has a greater control of her soot power than other young Shadows, probably because she's been humanoid for much longer and because she's similar in nature to a unified adult Shadow.
• Immune to Mind Control: Kate is one of the very few Shadows who can't be influenced by her brainwashed human, not having developed from a Morph like the others.
• Internal Reformist: She doesn't like the hierarchy of the House and aims to change it. Furthermore, she is a member of the Mirrors House, the clan that came before the Shadows House began. She seeks to take everything back from them.
• It Was a Gift: Emilico gave Kate a doll based on the latter's appearance in their real first meeting. Kate brought the doll to the Shadows House with her, keeping it as a good luck charm.
• Jerkass Realization: Part of her Defrosting Ice Queen Character Development.
  • Kate was frustrated with how terribly Emilico played the role of Living Doll when Kate wanted her to do so in a life-or-death moment during the Debut. Then Kate remembered her preference for Emilico to be her own person, not a convenient Living Doll like the Shadows House demands.
  • When Louise points out that Kate dragged the Debutant Shadows to a midnight meeting just to force them to find a way to help Kate save herself, Kate realized that Emilico made friends because she approached others without an ulterior motive. Kate gives up on that plan and instead focuses on just bonding.
• King Incognito: Kate makes herself pass as a common Shadow, but her true identity is the rightful heiress of the mansion who has come to reclaim the Mirror family's home.
• Long-Range Fighter: Her soot powers can only create long-range attacks.
• Lying to Protect Your Feelings: When Barbara is at risk of dying from a massive soot release due to the despair caused by learning of Christopher's death, Kate has no choice but to ask Anthony's help and cover him in her soot to make Barbara think Christopher is still alive.
• Mundane Utility: After she learns to control her soot better, she uses it to help Emilico clean high places in her room.
• Mystical Pregnancy: Combined with Wonder Child. Kate, a half-human, half-Shadow child, was originally in her dying mother's womb for upwards of fifty years before she finally came out.
• Parental Substitute: Even though they're about the same age, Kate is the closest thing Emilico has to a mother figure because Emilico is an orphan. Besides giving Emilico a name that is her only name since she was unnamed before meeting Kate, Kate teaches her how to read and write as well as helping Emilico clean herself when she gets dirty.
• Power Gives You Wings: She can use her soot power to create large wings of soot on her back.
• Prehensile Hair: A later application of her soot powers sees her manipulating locks of her hair at will, usually to grab things or smack John's hands.
• Puberty Superpower: Although she spent her childhood as a normal girl, her Shadow half manifested when she turned 12 and made her develop her soot powers.
• Red Is Heroic: Red is her theme color and she always wears a red dress. Although she was quite an Ice Queen before getting defrosted by Emilico, Kate is amongst the most benevolent Shadows so far.
• Rightful King Returns: She reveals to Emilico that her full name is "Kate Mirror" and her human mother was part of the nobility who lived in what became the "Shadows House" when Great-Grandfather forcibly took over. As a hybrid her future options were limited when her mimic nature overtook her human appearance, so she returned to her roots and fully intends on taking the Mirrors House back from its usurpers who made her this way.
• The Runaway: When she turned thirteen, she left her home without telling her adoptive grandmother because she wanted to go to the Shadows House and find out why she had become a Shadow.
• Sand Blaster: Her soot ability allows her to manipulate the soot that comes out of her body as if it was sand. She uses it to move objects or shoot soot like a beam from her hands.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Her mission is to change the ways of the Shadows House and directly go against their rules that strip both the Shadows and Living Dolls of their individuality and free thinking, knowing the current system of the house is wrong.
• Slow Transformation: Her transformation into a Shadow started with her fingers turning black. In about a month, it expanded to her entire body until she couldn't even see her own face anymore.
• Squishy Wizard: Kate has very potent soot manipulation powers. However, she admits she's very physically weak as a result of spending an entire year locked inside her grandmother's house.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's composed, collected, and reserved. She's also a very caring and considerate master to Emilico who she treats as a precious friend.
• Superpower Lottery: Unlike the power of any other Shadow, Kate is able to apply several uses to her soot power. She can move objects from long distances, create a soot rope, manifest soot wings, etc. Olivier notes the level of adaptability of Kate's soot is abnormal and this likely has something to do with Kate's unique nature.
• Tea Is Classy: She's fond of drinking tea, as befits a sophisticated high-class lady.
• Tragic Keepsake: At the Debutant reunion, Kate makes a soot bow to remember Shirley. Fortunately, Shirley turns out to be alright, just back to Morph form, and Kate is able to give her the soot bow when they reunite.
• What Have I Become?: Kate was very distressed and anguished when her Shadow side took over. She felt she lost her humanity along with her face and couldn't live like a normal person at her village anymore, forcing her to stay hidden until she infiltrated the Shadows House.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Kate is not only very good at coming up with plans, she is also able to amend them on short notice if need be, such as her and John switching places with Emilico and Shaun when they are being chased by Maryrose and Rosemary and changing the location of the Debutant Reunion after realizing that Sarah and Mia were going to expose them.

The Children's Building

Living Dolls and their Shadow masters live their daily lives in this spacious three-story mansion. Living Dolls perform the cleaning and act as the Shadow's “face” by emoting their expressions when they go out to socialize, pursue hobbies, etc. Shadows who have not passed the Debut, a test to determine whether the Shadow and Living Doll are fit for Shadow society, are not allowed to leave their room. Inhabitants are also not allowed to leave the Children's Building grounds, except when summoned to the Great Grandfather's Building.

The Children's Building is administered by Star Bearers, who report to Edward.

Kate and Emiico's Debutant Group

The Shadows and Living Dolls who debuted with Kate and Emilico. The Living Dolls include Shaun and Rum, who Emilico befriended during the ghost disturbance patrol with Robe; Lou, who Emilico befriended from Rosemary's team; and Ricky, an unpleasant individual from the Great Cleaning. Unlike the Living Dolls, the Shadows have no prior interaction with each other, because the rules of the Shadows House forbid the Shadows from leaving their room until the Debut.

In General

• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Living Dolls: Emilico is Sanguine (cheerful, optimistic, and friendly), Shaun is Melancholic (analytical, organized, and mature), Ricky is Choleric (arrogant, assertive, and overconfident), Lou is Phlegmatic (unemotional, passive, and reserved), and Rum is Supine (shy, withdrawn, and insecure).
  • Shadows: Kate is Melancholic (composed, dignified, and analytical), John is Choleric (passionate, excitable, and stubborn), Patrick is Phlegmatic (gentle, empathetic, and sensitive), Louise is Sanguine (talkative, sociable, and easygoing), and Shirley is Eclectic (Blank Slate who grows a personality over time).
• True Companions: They all form close bonds of friendship as they overcome challenges together and decide to oppose the evil system of the Shadows House.

Shaun

Voiced by: Koudai Sakai (Japanese), Jordan Dash Cruz (English)

The Living Doll for John, one of the Debutant Shadows with Kate.

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• Badass Normal: He outlasted John in a fist fight despite not being a Shadow with soot powers.
• Blind Without 'Em: Shaun just uses glasses to get used to a place when he needs to clean. He keeps them off because John doesn't need glasses.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: In contrast to John's and Emilico's antics, Shaun is pretty down-to-earth.
• Hired Help as Family: John is inspired by Kate's good relationship with Emilico and decides to treat Shaun as his friend and equal, to hell with the Shadows House's rules about Living Dolls being tools. John in fact hates it when Shaun acts subservient to him as a result of the brainwashing.
• The Lancer: He's Emilico's closest ally among the Living Dolls and his down-to-earth personality contrasts her cheerfulness.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He feels terribly guilty when he hears John could have lost the use of his arm because Shaun pushed him into fighting Gilbert with a broken arm.
• The Nose Knows: Shaun realized the Robe was a Shadow because they wore perfume (only Shadows wear perfume).
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the levelheaded and sensible Blue Oni to John's Hot-Blooded, rash Red Oni.
• The Reliable One: Always paying due diligence to his duty as a Living Doll, sometimes to John's irritation.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Has this dynamic with Emilico; he's calm and levelheaded while she's constantly smiling and rarely stays still. He's also Savvy Guy to John's Energetic Guy.
• Super-Hearing: To compensate for his impaired vision, Shaun has very good hearing, as shown when he heard a subtle click that activated a trap.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With John. Shaun being a servant doesn't stop him from talking some sense into his idiotic master.

John

Voiced by: Koudai Sakai (Japanese), Jordan Dash Cruz (English)

Shaun's master. One of the Debutants with Kate and also one of her confidants...whether she likes it or not.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: Played for Laughs. John has a big crush on Kate who thinks he's just an idiot and is annoyed by him calling her his fiancée in front of others.
• The Big Guy: Out of Emilico/Kate's gang, John has the biggest personality, the largest soot production capacity and the most combat-oriented soot power.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Of the main child Shadows, he's certainly the most outspoken about his desires and very energetic. He manages to channel his Soot ability into his fists, giving him explosive control over his punches.
• Book Dumb: John just has to see words on a board to fall asleep, such as Suzanna's lesson about soot power, or Jeremiah and Jeremy's lesson about Scorches.
• Calling Your Attacks: He calls his soot-powered punch the John Punch.
• Close-Range Combatant: His soot-powered punches only work effectively at close range because the soot disperses when he punches from the distance.
• Determinator: When John set his mind on something, nothing can stop him. He manages to defeat Gilbert by punching him with a broken arm out of sheer determination to not lose in front of Kate.
• Die or Fly: John awakens his soot powers when he stands in front of a rolling boulder to save Ricky and his only options are destroying the boulder or getting crushed by it. He then uses his soot to smash the boulder with his fist.
• Dogged Nice Guy: He has a huge crush on Kate and isn't shy about it at all. Kate doesn't like him that way, but John isn't discouraged and keeps trying to win her affections.
• Dumb Is Good: While his affection for Kate often annoys and embarrasses her, she trusts him more than any other Shadow - among other reasons, she knows he's far too impulsive and simple-minded to have ulterior motives.
• Dumb Muscle: John isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he's the strongest fighter of the protagonists' allies.
• Elemental Armor: Downplayed. During his fight with Gilbert, he figures out how to create a shield by imitating the other Shadow's soot power - although as he almost immediately discovers, Gilbert is more than strong enough to break the shield.
• Enhanced Punch: His soot power enhances the power of his punches.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first time we see him he's chiding Shaun for working rather than catching up on his sleep and not wearing his glasses as they prepare to debut, while wearing a replica of them so he can explain that now the two can match while letting Shaun work unhindered by his impaired vision. Shaun points out how backward it is for a "master" to copy his "face", since John's vision is fine and they don't suit him, showing the unusual value John places on living dolls while also being not terribly bright and mildly showboat-y about how he goes about expressing his feelings for others.
• Hates Reading: He doesn't like reading. Just seeing too many letters causes him to fall asleep.
• Heroic Willpower: He's the only Shadow who has fought off the brainwashing influence of his human, all thanks to Kate motivating him.
• Hot-Blooded: John's heart is on his sleeve. Often, his speech bubbles and sound effect texts look ready to explode.
• Idiot Hero: In contrast to Shaun, John doesn't think far or think twice, often resulting in others doing all the thinking, but he's always eager to help. He rushes headfirst into danger before awakening his soot powers to save Ricky from a rolling boulder.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: John cures Shaun from soot brainwashing by punching him in the face until Shaun finds it in him to fight back, breaking the rules of the Shadows House with it.
• Love at First Sight: The instant John saw Kate and her attitude towards Emilico, he was intrigued and enamored.
• Personality Remnant: Even before he evolved from a Morph to a Shadow, John has always liked to play with sticks.
• Picky Eater: He doesn't like eating carrots.
• The Power of Love:
  • His love for Kate gives John the chance to break through the More than Mind Control brainwashing by the Great Grandfather and start siding with Kate.
  • Later on, the thought of Kate choosing someone else because John hadn't contributed anything gives him the strength and motivation to defeat Gilbert.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the Hot-Blooded and overly emotional Red Oni to the calmer and more serious Shaun and Kate.
• Rejection Affection: Kate rejects John whenever he asks her to be his fiancée, but he's determined to make her say yes someday.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Inverted with Kate; she's coolheaded and cautious while he's boisterous and impulsive. He's also the Energetic Guy to Shaun's Savvy Guy.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: John finds the Shadows House's rules to be annoying, and his crush Kate thinks those rules are dumb anyway. So, he has decided to treat Shaun like a person instead of a mere doll as the Shadows House demands.
• Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: He calls Kate his fiancée even though she never agreed to marry him. It makes Kate even more annoyed when rumours about her and John being engaged spread through the Shadows House.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man to Patrick's Sensitive Guy. John is brash, simple-minded, and solves most of his problems with punches, while Patrick is gentle, empathetic, and likes flowers.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Kate is the only girl he's attracted to.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Gender inverted. John has a crush on Kate not because of her looks alone, but because her kindness and good treatment of her Living Doll inspire him to try and be a better master to Shaun too.
• Smarter Than You Look: Many think John is an idiot because he's Hot-Blooded and simple-minded. However, he's capable of very perceptive and intuitive thinking.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: John's habit of starting to talk with Kate without anyone noticing he's nearby, and to her shock, has became a Running Gag.
• Stepford Snarker: While he is genuinely snarky and trollish, it gets worse when he tries to mask his nerves.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: If this story wanted to focus on action instead of intrigue, John would be the protagonist POV.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Shaun. Even though they're master and servant, Shaun isn't afraid to talk back to John and snark at him. And John likes it that way. When Shaun started to obey John without question, it confirmed to him Kate's warning that Shaun was brainwashed.

Ricky

Voiced by: Reiji Kawashima (Japanese), Adam McArthur (English)

The Living Doll of Patrick, one of the Debutant Shadows with Kate.

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• Amnesiac Lover: Given the fact that all the Debutant "Dolls" knew each other prior to entering the Shadows House, Ricky's attraction towards Lou is more deep-rooted than initially thought. Flashbacks show they already have a very close relationship and went on a date before being brainwashed.
• Fire-Forged Friends: He forms a strong bond with Lou after both overcome the challenges of the Debut together.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Patrick. They call each other their soulmate.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: He's closer to the type of "noble" Patrick wants to be than the Shadow himself is if unassisted, which gives him a fair amount of sway over his "master's" actions. Patrick didn't develop a soot power for quite some time, so Ricky's advice was invaluable to him staying afloat.
• Insufferable Genius: He's the most intelligent of the debutants and likes to gloat about it all the time. Even if he gets things wrong, which is quite often, he's quick to backpedal and still act like he knows everything.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He acts arrogant and snotty, but his heart is in the right place and cares deeply for those close to him, mainly Patrick and Lou.
• Properly Paranoid: He becomes more paranoid after the effects of the brainwashing coffee wear off on him, but calms down after deciding to trust Patrick.
• Puppy Love: He quickly develops a crush on Lou during the Debut and she likes him back. Considering the age limit for the Shadows House's selection, Ricky and Lou are both under thirteen.
• Slouch of Villainy: Ricky is everything Patrick wants to be, down to the witty remarks and gestures.
• What You Are in the Dark: He's seen considering pushing Lou and Louise into a trap to secure his victory. He doesn't do it because he knows that'll only disgrace Patrick, and he ends up joining the main heroes.
• Yes-Man: Flatters a Star Bearer (Barbie) and punches Shaun in the gut when he knocks her over.

Patrick

Voiced by: Reiji Kawashima (Japanese), Adam McArthur (English)

Ricky's master. One of the Debutants with Kate.

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• Anti-Magic: His soot power completely negates the soot powers of other Shadows and makes their soot dissipate into small hearts.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: After Emilico kindly offers him her help during the Debut, Patrick isn't one to leave debts unpaid, motivating him to politely ask Ricky to lend Lou's scissors to Emilico so she can save Kate.
• Caring Gardener: The daffodil Emilico gives Patrick during the debut inspires a fascination with flowers, which has him frequent the greenhouse.
• Die or Fly: His soot power first activates when he's trapped by Margaret's soot vines and he's nearly suffocated by them.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Ricky. They call each other their soulmate.
• Inconvenient Attraction: Once he recognizes he has a crush on a Living Doll rather than a "suitable" partner like Louise or Kate, and the oddest of the living dolls at that, he resolves to keep this information to himself rather than shame himself or consult Ricky.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: He doesn't have soot powers and he's an idiot compared to his Living Doll. In fact, he's prouder of his Living Doll than he is of himself.
• Interspecies Romance: He's a Shadow and has fallen in love with Emilico, a Living Doll aka human.
• Giant Poofy Sleeves: His costume has big, puffy sleeves.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Margaret. Being mistreated by the biggest jerks in the Children's Building left her depressed and borderline suicidal. Patrick's kindness is the only source of comfort she has. When she thinks Kate will take Patrick away from her, Margaret snaps.
• Nice Guy: Particularly thanks to Emilico's influence, Patrick is very caring and empathetic to both Shadows and Living Dolls.
• Number Two: After Kate finally becomes the new leading Star Bearer, she soon appoints Patrick as her second-in-command.
• Oblivious to Love: Due to his own crush on Emilico, Patrick fails to notice Margaret's romantic affections towards him until she goes on a jealous rampage because she thinks Patrick has chosen Kate over her.
• Only Friend: To Margaret. Patrick is the only Shadow she ever talks to because she believes he's the only true Nice Guy around and she's happy that he likes flowers as much as she does.
• The Only One I Trust: Ricky starts distrusting everyone around him after his true memories start to return. Still, Patrick showing concern for him gives him certainty that his master is trustworthy.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to John's Manly Man. Patrick is gentle, empathetic, and likes flowers, while John is brash, simple-minded, and solves most of his problems with punches.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Gender inverted. He develops a crush on Emilico due to her kindness during the Debut.
• Smug Snake: Patrick looks down on the other shadows and boasts how Ricky is obviously the best face among them, but when they're separated for the final part of the trial, he starts to panic and his thoughts reveal him to be fairly insecure.
• The Team Normal: He's the only one of the Debutant Shadows who hasn't acquired soot powers by the end of the Debut.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He starts out as a prideful and arrogant Shadow who only wants to brag about his his excellent Living Doll. Receiving Emilico's kindness causes him to start seeing Living Dolls as people instead of tools and he becomes much more empathetic in general, eventually being able to gain even Barbara's favor by helping her during one of her seizures.
• Tragic Keepsake: After Margaret's death, Patrick decides to conserve her flower bed in her memory.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Margaret gives Patrick evidence to prove Douglas is the culprit behind the hunt of the powerless. However, Patrick gives said evidence to Kate, letting her get all the credit so she has even more support when she becomes the new head Star Bearer. Unfortunately, Margaret's soot vine powers awaken once she's overcome by jealousy of Kate for having Patrick's favour, leading to a rampage that endangers all Shadow children.
• You Are in Command Now: Shortly after the children select Kate as the new Star Bearer, she gets called to the Adults' Building by Edward. Therefore, Kate asks Patrick to become the new second Star Bearer to look over the Children's Building in her absence.

Lou

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese), Marisa Duran (English)

The Living Doll for Louise, one of the Debutant Shadows with Kate. Part of Rosemary's cleaning squad.

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• The Ace: At least from Edward's viewpoint, she almost can't think for herself while also being very competent and loved by her Shadow.
• Amnesiac Lover: Lou and Ricky already had a Puppy Love relationship when they lived as Louise and Patrick in the village. Even though the brainwashing made them forget their previous lives, they quickly develop feelings for each other after meeting again without their memories at the debut.
• Bully Magnet: Flashbacks reveal she was bullied in the past by other kids of her village.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Her devotion to her master is completely single-minded and she's not interested in hearing about anything else, even explanations for puzzles that would help her find her master in the first place.
• Cutting the Knot: She picks giant scissors at the start of the Debut and tunnels all over the Hedge Maze at rapid speed.
• Damsel in Distress: Edward selects Louise and Lou for Unification, putting Lou in imminent danger and prompting Kate to try and rescue her.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She's introduced as the most aloof of the main Living Dolls, never speaking unless necessary and not showing emotions. After she finds Louise during the debut with Ricky's help, Lou thanks Ricky for helping her out and admits she had fun working with him, without Louise asking her to. Her next interactions with Ricky show that Lou has become more talkative and expressive around him, even explicitly saying that she's more willing to go against the rules if it's to interact with him.
• The Ditherer: Lou knows herself to be an indecisive person. She either lets others make the choices for her or picks something at random.
• Emotionless Girl: Lou acts like the perfect Living Doll: unemotive and never thinking for herself. It's later revealed this was the effect of Louise's soot mind controlling Lou. Lou's real personality is actually cheerful and assertive.
• Extreme Doormat: Edward considers Lou to be the best Living Doll of the debutants because she never thinks by herself and is totally submissive to her Shadow. The reason why Lou is so obedient is because Louise was using soot to mind control her without either of them realizing it.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Ricky. They help each other overcome the obstacles of the Debut, resulting in a strong bond forming between them.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After Lewis hypnotizes her to force Louise into starting the unification process, Lou manages to snap out of the mind control, but realizes Louise's body is going to decompose if they don't finish the unification. Not wanting Louise to die, Lou chooses to go through with the unification, with bad results.
• Hyper-Awareness: The first to figure out that the Shadows have different ways of giving off soot when they're feeling negative emotions.
• Puppy Love: With Ricky. The two children are very drawn towards each other from the moment they start interacting in the debut. Lou smiles often when she's with him and can be quite romantic such as asking him to give her flowers. This attraction is implied to be a carryover from before they underwent the brainwashing process. Back at the Mirrorside village, they were quite close with each other and she even took him out on a date at the circus to enjoy their last day at the village together.
• The Quiet One: She doesn't say much and lets Louise do all the talking.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: She's a "doll" with short pink hair and golden eyes, and is very subservient to her master. She starts off completely passive and emotionless only to discover her emotions and humanity thanks to falling in love.
• Rescue Romance: A flashback reveals she fell in love with Ricky after he stepped in to defend her from her bullies.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: A Double Subversion. She has rosy pink hair while being the most emotionally disconnected and passive of the main characters. Later, however, her interactions with Ricky reveal she can be sweet after opening up to someone. The flashbacks show that Lou/Louise's original personality is very playful, cheerful, and friendly. She only lost contact with her emotions after being brainwashed.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She acts apathetic and kind of cold towards herself and others. Her interactions with Ricky reveal her warmer side and make her realize that she can care about others.

Louise

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese), Marisa Duran (English)

Lou's master. One of the Debutants with Kate. Also one of Kate's friends.

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• Compelling Voice: Her Soot ability can make Lou do whatever Louise wants, such as changing expression on demand. The anime expands upon this by having it work on the various Faceless Dolls patrolling the halls of the Shadows House.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Insult her Living Doll's face, or imply that Louise isn't the best, and you get this.
• Fitness Nut: Due to Benjamin teaching her that physical exercise is important to maintain hers and Lou's beauty, Louise starts joining him in his workout routines at the gym on a daily basis.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Lewis forces her to start the unification process with Lou against her will. However, it fails because Louise knows Lou isn't a doll but a human with her own personality, meaning that she's just a monster trying to steal her body. As a result, Louise transforms into a monster instead of unifying.
• Hulking Out: Her failed unification with Lou causes her to turn into a giant and muscular Shadow monster.
• It Amused Me: Happy to go along with anything that might be fun. Hedonistic is an apt description.
• It's All About Me: It's probably how Louise gets along with Sara. Louise enjoys being on top, but socializing with other Shadow children might be changing her.
• Jerkass Realization: Even if she takes extra care of Lou's appearance, it's clear from the onset that she views her Living Doll as a tool that she can use to further her status. After briefly training with Benjamin, she realizes how hard she was overworking Lou and becomes more considerate of Lou's overall well being from that point on.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Louise is very vain, self-centered, and insensitive, but Kate considers her a valuable ally because she isn't malicious or two-faced. Eventually, Louise starts a friendship with Benjamin and begins to care for Lou as a person instead of a doll after understanding that Lou has feelings too.
• Narcissist: She's obsessed with her Face's beauty and wants everyone to praise her for it. She begins to grow out of it the more she buys into Kate's plan of rebellion.
• Odd Friendship: She unexpectedly bonds with Benjamin from the Star-Bearers. He teaches her the value of exercising with Lou to get stronger physically and mentally. Later on, Louise and Lou go to train with Benjamin and Ben every day and Louise enjoys spending time with him very much.
• Pride: Louise is obsessed with her Living Doll's face and being the Shadow everyone can look up to.

Rum

Voiced by: Shino Shimoji (Japanese), Risa Mei (English)

The Living Doll of Shirley, one of the Debutant Shadows with Kate.

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• Apologizes a Lot: She has a habit of apologizing for being supposedly weak and useless, mostly due to her inability to properly communicate with her Master.
• The Bus Came Back: After failing her Debut, she's taken away from the other children and made to be a Faceless Doll. We don't see anything of her until Chapter 95, when she is revealed to be the Faceless Doll that helped Emilico and Kate escape the Adults' Building.
• Butt-Monkey: She's blamed for anything by most other Living Dolls. Shirley doesn't seem to need her. And because of it, Rum's only friend at the start is her finger ribbon named "Rummy".
• Consulting Mister Puppet: She talks to her finger ribbon, "Rummy", whenever she needs encouragement or feels lonely. Edward rips it up after she fails the Audition, but Shirley becomes the new Rummy in its place. Literally.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Back at the Mirrorside village, Rum/Shirley had a small stuffed rabbit that was made by her mother and she considered it her closest friend since she was a baby. She was very sad about having to leave it behind when she moved to the Shadows House.
• Iconic Item: She has an iconic ribbon wrapped around her left index finger. After Edward destroys it, Shirley can take the form of a ribbon to replace the one Rum lost.
• Never Given a Name: She reveals Shirley never named her; "Rum" is the name she gave herself when talking to Rummy. She initially doesn't remember she has parents who gave her a real name; Shirley.
• Photographic Memory: She was able to memorize the map of the debut's test.
• Pretend to Be Brainwashed: Rum was going to be made to drink the soot coffee for 30 days to reset her memories and turn her into a mindless Faceless Doll. In reality, the morph Shirley hid inside her mouth to drink the coffee for Rum as it has no effect on Shadows. Rum still pretends the brainwashing worked to help her friends behind the scenes.
• Security Blanket: Whenever she's nervous or sad, she calms down by talking to her finger ribbon. It turns out the ribbon was originally part of a small stuffed rabbit she carried for luck. The ribbon was a subconscious holdover from Emilico encouraging her to take one of Rummy's bows as a luck charm, since she couldn't bring personal belongings with her.
• Shrinking Violet: She's cripplingly shy and dislikes speaking, even towards her master, though she is able to improve to a point where she can interact with both Shirley and Emilico normally. After she rejoins the main heroes, she is more likely to speak her mind, though she still sometimes defaults to having Emilico speak for her.
• Smarter Than You Look: Despite being a wallflower, Rum is surprisingly sharp. She has a good memory and can approximate the time in an hourglass from the volume of the sand and the distance they've walked from it. Her quick wits are also how she avoided losing her personhood after becoming a Faceless Doll.
• The Sneaky Guy: After being demoted to a Faceless Doll, Rum proves to be very good at stealth and espionage, largely helped by Shirley having the ability to transform and sneak into places with her small Morph size.
• Spell My Name With An S: The various scanlations give her name as Ram, while the official anime translation gives it as Rum. The official French translation calls her Lum.
• Tareme Eyes: Her eyes are noticeably droopy, highlighting her vulnerability and shy nature.
• The Un-Favourite: Implied. When Rum was trying to sleep, she mentions that she felt like an "unwanted child", implying that she may well have been one before she entered the Shadow House.
• Unperson: After failing the Selection, Rum is stripped of her Living Doll privileges and made to become a Faceless Doll in the children's mansion.

Shirley (Unmarked Spoilers)

Voiced by: Shino Shimoji (Japanese), Risa Mei (English)

Rum's master. One of the Debutants with Kate.

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• Blank Slate: Unlike other Shadows, she barely developed a personality due to having very little contact with Rum. Fortunately, she'd developed enough of one to survive her seeming demise after the Debut.
• Call My Name: She repeatedly says Rum's name when they are running to the finish line.
• Disney Death: At the end of the Debut, Shirley's body disintegrates in front of Rum. For a while, she's believed to have died due to lack of contact with her human. Fortunately, it turns out Shirley just returned to looking like a small Morph and stayed with Rum the whole time.
• Emotionless Girl: She never emotes and doesn't even speak, making the already shy Rum even more anxious as she doesn't understand how her Shadow feels. Her lack of emotions was a result of Rum not having contact with her prior to the Debut. After forming a connection with Rum, she does develop emotions of her own.
• Fun Size: After reverting to a Morph-like form, Shirley is so small that Rum can carry her on her hand. She's notably much smaller than actual Morphs.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her theme color is purple, and she's the quietest, most well-mannered Shadow.
• Morphic Resonance: Her Morph-like form retains the cowlick she had when she was Shirley. In the anime, this was changed to wearing her purple finger ribbon on her head, which is later included in the manga as well.
• Non-Human Sidekick: At the end of the Debut, Shirley shrinks to a form similar to a Morph (the unevolved form of Shadows prior to mimicking humans) and becomes a companion to Rum who was demoted to a Faceless Doll.
• Plucky Girl: Once she starts developing a personality, she becomes this. She's eager to help in physical activities despite her small stature at the time, and is much more energetic and supportive.
• The Quiet One: She never has a lot to say to anyone, in part due to her late-blooming personality.
• Reduced to Dust: Shirley apparently failed to develop a sense of self, so when the Debut ended, she dissipated into a cloud of soot. However, she didn't die; she just shrunk down to a Morph-like form.
• The Speechless: After shriking to a Morph form, she loses the ability to communicate verbally, taking finger ribbon form to telepathically converse with Rum.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Having started as an Emotionless Girl, she becomes a lot livelier after she turns back into a Morph, thanks to her connection to Rum causing her to develop a personality. Kate thinks Shirley takes after Rum's playful side.
• Touch Telepathy: Even though she can't speak as a Morph, Shirley can communicate telepathically with Rum by turning into the ribbon that Rum wears on her finger.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Shirley uses her Soot to transform into various shapes, including things like Scorches and inanimate objects like a finger ribbon. Technically, the fact that she can use this soot power means that she is still a Shadow and merely looks like a very tiny Morph.

Kate and Emilico's Associates

On occasion, Living Dolls are called upon to clean not just their masters' rooms, but the Children's Building as a whole for a Great Cleaning. Hence, the Star Bearers designate Living Dolls to a cleaning squad. Emilico makes her first friends when she is assigned to Rosemary's Cleaning Squad, which includes Mia, Lou, and Rosemary.

Shadows also tend to associate with their Living Doll's friends' masters. Ergo, Kate has a circle of “friends” (Sara, Maryrose, Louise) based on Rosemary's team, even if she doesn't necessarily trust them.

Mia

Voiced by: Saori Onishi (Japanese), Emily Fajardo (English)

Sarah's Living Doll. She's the first Living Doll and friend Emilico meets. Part of Rosemary's cleaning squad.

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• The Ace: Mia was always excellent from the start, which pleased Sarah. Later revealed to be a Broken Ace as the result of Sarah's perfectionist and abusive attitude towards her.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Mia seems like a nice and friendly girl, but as time goes on, she starts showing unpleasant and insensitive traits that give hints that Sarah's terrible personality might be a result of Mia's influence.
• Cool Big Sis: Her role in the cleaning squad is acting like a kind and playful older sister to Emilico especially.
• Covered with Scars: When she talks to Emilico about Sarah in the bathroom, the Wham Shot reveals her heavily bruised back.
• Lack of Empathy: She thinks of herself and all Living Dolls as mere tools for the Shadows House. After an entire team of Dolls are disposed of, Mia is completely nonchalant about it. Later, she casually tells Emilico to dispose of Belle because she's broken over her twin sister dying of malnutrition.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: She's normally very sweet, cheerful, and friendly to other Dolls like Emilico. Unfortunately, she serves as the face to Alpha Bitch Sarah. Although as it's later revealed that Shadows are created by having Morphs mimicking humans, it's possible that Sarah represents Mia's Secretly Selfish side.
• Meaningful Name: Mia means "mine" in Spanish and Italian, which makes sense considering her master's possessive nature.
• Odd Name Out: Interestingly, she's a third example of a Doll whose name doesn't rhyme with or derive from that of their Shadow, similar to Emilico and Rum. This might be due to Sarah's self-absorbed nature.
• The Resenter: After Rosemary escapes the Shadows House, Mia sees the chance to become team leader, but Emilico is chosen for the position instead. Mia is obviously bitter about it and grows resentful towards Emilico.
• Stepford Smiler: Mia acts like a wonderful sister figure to the other Living Dolls in her part of the mansion, but is viciously abused by her Shadow for failing to become a Star-bearer. It's shown that she wants it this way however, when Mia is the one pushing Sarah to punish her to enforce her image as a "proper" Shadow and Face pair long after the coffee started to wear off.

Sarah

Voiced by: Saori Onishi (Japanese), Emily Fajardo (English)

Mia's master. She aims to become one of the next Star Bearers. One of Kate's friends.

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• Break the Haughty: She starts out as an obnoxiously arrogant girl who thinks she's the best Shadow of the Children's Building. Things start falling apart for her when she learns following the Shadows' rules isn't all that's needed to become an adult. Eventually, Thomas exposes the existence of soot powers to the children and declares any Shadow who can't awaken their powers will be disposed of. Sarah then becomes deathly afraid she's going to be discarded like trash because of her lack of powers.
• Broken Tears: She breaks down crying after being scolded by Edward for being the worst member among Kate's team.
• Even Evil Has Standards: She's disgusted by Benjamin's bullying of another Shadow. Sarah at least wants to become a Star Bearer who others can respect.
• Gold Digger: Sarah cares about marriage as long as it's to someone of higher status. While she dislikes Douglas, she was fine with possible engagement because he had a higher evaluation than her at the time. When he's her status, she turns her attention to Edward instead.
• Hate Sink: Sarah is the embodiment of the worst behavior encouraged by the Shadows House. She's an utterly selfish Jerkass who lacks any feelings of empathy, abuses her Living Doll, and only thinks about how she can better her social position in the Shadows House.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Her shifting loyalties, misreadings of circumstances and Kate's kindness at one point lead her to the precipice of concluding that the Shadows House is wrong... but a brainwashed Mia influences her to crash right back to where she was, as is the intentional design of the House's system. She's an asshole and Lord Grandfather wants her to stay that way.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Repeatedly switches sides and spying on multiple factions along with her Living Doll to finding chances for climbing her status.
• How Do I Shot Web?: After soot powers are made public by Thomas, Sarah tries asking Kate to teach her how to control soot. However, no matter how hard she tries, Sarah can't awaken her soot powers.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Lampshaded by Gerald when he points out Sarah's "uselessly immense pride" comes from her sense of inferiority as someone who holds no power.
• It's All About Me: It's probably how Louise gets along with Sarah. After all, don't Living Dolls exist solely to make the Shadows shine?
• Jerkass: She's arrogant, condescending, and treats her Living Doll like crap.
• Mean Boss: She beats her Living Doll into obeying her, to the point Mia internalized the belief that it's a way for Sarah to 'better' her when she makes mistakes. It's later revealed that it's really Mia's influence what causes Sarah to beat her.
• Meaningful Name: Hers means "lady" or "princess", befitting of her entitled nature.
• The Mole: Edward enlists Sarah as his spy to monitor Kate and find evidence that exposes Kate as a rebel.
• Never My Fault: When she is told that she and Mia make up the worst members of Kate's team, Sarah flies into a rage, destroying her room and bemoaning her rating despite her high Soot production.
• Passed-Over Promotion: Sara's arrogant demeanor is partially why Barbara chose Kate as a team leader over her.
• Shower of Angst: After she has a breakdown over her fear of being disposed because of her lack of powers, Sarah takes a shower as she starts wondering if she made the wrong choice by siding with the adults instead of Kate.
• Social Climber: While she does to an extent care about the wellbeing of the Shadow House, she still wants to climb the social ladder and be an elite member. This even extends to marriage proposals; she will not accept any boy equal or lower in status than her, as Douglas learns the hard way.
• Spell My Name With An S: Sara in the scanlations, Sarah in the official anime translation.
• Sycophantic Servant: Edward eventually recruits her as a spy. Since Edward is the first adult who has ever given her any kind of attention, Sarah is eager to prove herself to Edward. Exposing a rebellion is secondary to her as all she wants is to impress Edward.
• The Team Normal: Sarah finds out every other Shadow in her group (Kate, Mirabelle and Isabelle) already have soot powers, but no matter how hard she tries, Sarah can't awaken a power of her own.

Rosemary

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (Japanese), Michelle Lee (English)

Maryrose's Living Doll. She leads the cleaning squad of Emilico, Mia, and Lou.

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• Motherly Side Plait: Fitting for a leader as concerned for the younger dolls under her wing.
• Pretend to Be Brainwashed: Maryrose undid Rosemary's brainwashing long ago, but the latter still plays along at the Party of Delight to not raise suspicions.
• Stepford Smiler: Her gentle smiles hide a lot of issues. She knows all about the Living Dolls being brainwashed humans and the unification, but can't do anything to help because it would get her and Maryrose disposed of. She admits she has become emotionally numb to watching other children being killed by the Shadows House.
• Team Mom: She strives to be a good role model to other living dolls, helped by her being one of the oldest dolls in the children's building.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to Maryrose's Tomboy. She's a demure Team Mom while Maryrose is a gallant Bifauxnen.
• Verbal Tic: The Yen Press translation has her draw out some of her vowels.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Rosemary was in on Maryrose's plan the whole time, and deliberately sought to get soot sickness in order to delay their admission into the Adults' Building.

Maryrose (Unmarked Spoilers)

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (Japanese), Michelle Lee (English)

Rosemary's master. One of Kate's friends.

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• Better to Die than Be Killed: She jumps out of the House with Rosemary in what looks to be a defiant last act.
• Bifauxnen: She wears a frilly shirt and breeches unlike the fancy dresses favored by the other female shadows, many of whom think she's cool.
• The Champion: She'll do whatever it takes to protect Rosemary. Her actions as Robe are entirely motivated by her desperation to save Rosemary from being forcibly unified with her.
• Cool Big Sis: In the past, she acted like a cool older sister figure to Barbara, encouraging the latter to have more confidence in herself.
• Don't Split Us Up: The true cause of her actions as the robed person. Maryrose and Rosemary know full well that they are to be forcefully combined when they are formally invited to the Adults' Building, and therefore begin to incite rebellion and induce Rosemary's Soot sickness in the hope that they'll be rejected.
• Fatal Flaw: Arrogance. Maryrose thought the fact she retained her Morph memories meant she was "unique". That uniqueness became an excuse to make decisions on behalf of her friends while not trusting anyone besides Rosemary in the plotting of their escape. This resulted in them being exposed by people who would have otherwise been willing to help them.
• Good Is Not Nice: While she is affable to most inhabitants of the Shadows House and won't show hostility to others unless they do to her, she is very much not above using people and getting them in harm's way in order to enact her plans to disrupt the House. Emilico and Shaun dealt with this directly, while the Belles suffered the consequences for Maryrose framing them.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: While Maryrose is plenty dashing, her poise and elegance are her defining traits along with her purple accented clothing.
• I Didn't Tell You Because You'd Be Unhappy: Maryrose kept Christopher's death a secret because she knew that learning about it would send Barbara past the Despair Event Horizon.
• It's All My Fault: She blames herself for Christopher's suicide because she undid the brainwashing of his Living Doll and shared with him the secret of Living Dolls being humans. She assumes her actions resulted in Christopher choosing death over taking over the body of a human.
• The Minion Master: Her Soot ability allows her to create and manipulate Scorches, as well as absorbing other Shadows' Soot to add to her own.
• Never Found the Body: Refusing to be merged with Rosemary, Maryrose jumps off the cliff surrounding the Shadows House with Rosemary in her arms. Anthony brings up possibilities of their survival, but their fate is left unknown.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Maryrose notes that she and Kate are both Faking Amnesia about their time as a Morph and are against the Adult Building. As much as Maryrose would love Kate to be at her side, the last incident resulted in many Dolls getting hurt and made Kate into The Scapegoat.
• Passing the Torch: Maryrose planned Kate to finish the revolution group she started against the Adult Building. Kate has already been doing that anyway, and while she doesn't agree with Maryrose's methods, she's motivated to continue for her sake.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: She figures out Kate is also a Shadow who is aware that Living Dolls are humans. However, Maryrose arrives to this conclusion assuming that Kate has memories from when she was a Morph, like her. She doesn't know Kate was never a Morph; she's a human child who became a Shadow due to her mother being unified with a Morph while pregnant.
• Something about a Rose: She's seen holding a white rose once, her shoes are decorated with purple roses and she wears a rose hair clip on her braid.
• Spanner in the Works: Despite her having memories from before she copied Rosemary her motivation for trying to break the Mind Control the Living Dolls were under was initially rather petty: She wanted to have others to talk to about what she saw going on and have more fun with Rosemary without her getting hung up on "minor" rules. This enabled Christopher and Anthony to react badly to the Awful Truth after previously taking strides to improve the Children's Building, further made things escalate when she and Rosemary were told what happens when they are "invited", isolated Barbara to dangerous results, and lead to an actual human rebellion being more plausible by spreading awareness about what "coffee" does and how to break its control.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Tomboy to Rosemary's Girly Girl. She's a gallant Bifauxnen while Rosemary is a demure Team Mom.
• Tomboyish Voice: Being a Bifauxnen, she has a deep and powerful voice, contrasting Rosemary's high-pitched and gentle voice.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: For the first fight between Shadows, Maryrose has mastered her ability, can absorb others' soot and is familiar with the Mansion's layout for potential traps. Kate and John can only run away as she taunts them for being inexperienced.
• Walking Spoiler: She's at the center of several important revelations related to Robe, Christopher and the Unification, making it hard to talk about her in detail without giving away spoilers.
• We Used to Be Friends: She was close friends with Barbara until they drifted apart soon after Christopher left the Children's Building. Turns out Maryrose shut herself out to protect Barbara from the truth about Christopher's demise.

Star Bearers

Four chosen pairs of Shadows/Living Dolls who administer the Children's Building. To become a Star Bearer, the candidate must be favored by the other Star Bearers when a vacancy is open; hence, they are targets of flattery. The Children's Building compares the current Star Bearers poorly to a prior Star Bearer, Christopher (but don't mention this to the current Star Bearers).

Barbara

Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya (Japanese), Elizabeth Maxwell (English)

Barbie's master.

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• Angst Nuke: She can release soot explosions when she's under a lot of stress.
• Blessed with Suck: Barbara is the Shadow with highest soot productivity in the entire Shadows House, so much so that she can't control the massive quantity of soot her body releases and her emotions going out of control can have potentially fatal results for herself and everyone around her.
• Chronic Self-Deprecation: Barbara sees herself as a pathetic, weak and incompetent Shadow who will never be a Star Bearer who can measure up to the impossible standard set up by the seemingly perfect Christopher.
• Fatal Flaw: Self-Loathing. The root of Barbara's despair is belief that she is the most pathetic Shadow and everyone secretly hates her for it. This makes her angry and distrustful of everyone, so she can't reach out for the reassurance she needs. Instead, she uses and abuses the children with Barbie in hopes of regaining her former source of validation: Christopher.
• Flower Motifs: Her hair is decorated with blue roses. In flower language, a blue rose symbolizes unattainableness, something which is destined to remain as a dream, and a never-to-be-fulfilled wish. This could be a symbol of how Barbara won't ever be reunited with Christopher because he has been dead for years without Barbara being informed about it.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Nice as she is, she does have a tendency to blow up when something inconveniences her. However, her most emotional outbursts are referred to as her having a "seizure".
• Insecure Love Interest: Barbara was hopelessly in love with Christopher, but she never had the courage to pursue him because she saw herself as a poor match for him, especially compared to a confident woman like Maryrose.
• Living Battery: She daily produces 60% of the soot that the Shadows House uses as fuel.
• Locked Out of the Loop: She and Barbie were deliberately kept from the truth surrounding Christopher's admission into the Adults' Building and Maryrose's retaliation against the Shadows House. Even now, she believes that one day she can be reunited with Christopher, unaware that the Shadow she looked up to is already dead.
• Loving a Shadow: Barbara puts Christopher on a pedestal and is kept in the dark about the secrets that he and Maryrose hid from her. Because of this, she isn't aware that Christopher really was very insecure and dependent on Anthony, who was the real reason behind Christopher's success as a Star Bearer. This gets worse after Kate uses her soot to disguise Anthony as Christopher to convince a desperate Barbara that her beloved idol is still alive, meaning Barbara is clinging on to a dead person now portrayed by someone else.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She was appalled when she, in her distress of having Christopher gone and Maryrose growing distant, accidentally caused a soot explosion that scarred Barbie's face.
• Never Be Hurt Again: Following what Barbara saw as Maryrose's betrayal, she became so afraid of relying on anyone else that she wasn't able to rely on anyone at all, leaving her isolated as leader of the Star Bearers and burdened with too much responsibility.
• Older Than She Looks: Despite her short stature, Barbara is actually one of the oldest Shadows in the Children's Building along with Maryrose and should have already been accepted into the Adults' Building if it wasn't for her extremely high soot capacity being essential for the Children's Building.
• Power Incontinence: Produces monstrous amounts of soot, yet she cannot control it.
• Psychological Projection: The main reason Barbara was never able to bond with anyone but Christopher is that she hates herself and finds it impossible to believe anyone can like her. She constantly interprets others' actions towards her as them pitying her or making fun of her.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In contrast to her Living Doll's authoritarian streak, Barbara can be reasoned with and even gives Kate a chance to prove herself useful. She also rightly calls Sarah out for her conceited behavior and acts with the intent of protecting the current group of Star Bearers in mind.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She loves and idolizes Christopher, seeing him as the perfect role model of a kind and beloved leader.
• True Blue Femininity: Wears a blue dress and hair flowers. Blue seems to be her theme color.
• Unstable Powered Woman: Due to her soot capacity being abnormally high, Barbara can't control the large amount of soot that her body releases every day and it frequently manifests as large soot explosions. Thomas exploits her by making sure Barbara doesn't get admitted into the Adults' Building in order to keep her as an invaluable power source for the Shadows House.
• Unwitting Pawn: Thomas made Barbara into the head Star Bearer only because he wants to keep her in the Children's Building as long as possible, since her massive soot production is an essential resource to the Shadows House. He even took advantage of Barbara accidentally scarring Barbie's face to have an excuse to not allow Barbara to join the Adults' Building indefinitely and even poisoned Barbie via a lotion under the pretense of giving her medicine for her face's wound, just to make sure her scar would never heal.
• What Would X Do?: Barbara looked up to Christopher very much and regularly questions if she is as good of a leader as he was.

Barbie

Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya (Japanese), Elizabeth Maxwell (English)

Barbara's Living Doll.

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• Broken Bird: In the past, she was a cheerful and energetic girl, but she changed soon after Barbara was heartbroken by losing her closest friends. Since a Star Bearer's Face can't afford to appear soft, Barbie became abrasive and antagonistic towards other Living Dolls. However, no matter what she does, she can't make Barbara smile and feels worthless for it.
• Broken Tears: Barbie sees Barbara smiling for the first time in possibly years, all thanks to the kindness of Patrick and Ricky. Afterwards, Barbie breaks down crying as she thinks she's garbage for not being able to bring back Barbara's smile by herself.
• Humanizing Tears: Barbie is very harsh and uses her authority to abuse other Living Dolls, but when the brainwashing effect of the coffee finally starts to wear off, Barbie's true emotions start to return and these cause her to agonize over how miserable Barbara's situation is. For the first time, Barbie sheds tears over not being able to help Barbara be happy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She treats other Living Dolls and even her master with the same sense of disdain. However, deep down she does care about Barbara. She's only been ordered to speak harshly to her to make her release more soot. In reality, Barbie only wishes Barbara could be freed from her duty as the Children's Building's main soot source so she can become happy by meeting Christopher again.
• Locked Out of the Loop: She and Barbara were deliberately kept from the truth surrounding Christopher's and Anthony's admission into the Adults' Building and Maryrose's retaliation against the Shadows House. It's the main reason for her drastic change in personality as explained below.
• Love Martyr: Barbara's emotional instability caused a soot explosion that almost killed Barbie by accident and left her face permanently scarred, but Barbie is utterly devoted to her master and sees her good qualities. Sadly, Barbara won't recognize or appreciate Barbie's devotion because she sees her as a "mere" Living Doll.
• The Napoleon: She's one of the shortest characters and possibly the one with the worst temper, often yelling and kicking people who get her annoyed.
• The Nicknamer: She gives insulting nicknames to the main characters; "Flower Garden" for Emilico, "Disgrace" for Shaun, "Incompetent" for Ram and "Presumptuous Twat" for Ricky.
• Non-Standard Character Design: While all the other Living Dolls are dainty and gentle-faced, her shaggy mane and shark-like teeth make her look positively feral.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Interesting in-universe case— Thomas told Barbara and Barbie that the explosion that ruined Barbie's teeth and gave her a forehead scar made her unfit to become a proper Face, so they couldn't move into the Adults' Building unless they fulfilled two conditions: keep the children in order, and heal Barbie for the sake of unification. The given reasons to other adults to keep Barbara as a Star Bearer were because she was a stable source of soot, and because of the risk of unification failure.
• Perpetual Frowner: She frequently looks grumpy and angry. She stopped smiling ever since things got harder for Barbara.
• Scars Are Forever: Because of an incident where she was too close to Barbara during one of the latter's emotional outbursts, she has a large scar on her face that she hides behind her bangs. It's later revealed that the real reason why her scar won't heal is due to Thomas giving her poison under the disguise of medicine.
• Scars Are Ugly: She wears her bangs over her face to hide the nasty-looking scar on her forehead. Said scar is the excuse Thomas has used to keep Barbara in the Children's Building and Barbie feels guilty about it.
• Scary Teeth: Unlike other Living Dolls, Barbie has sharp teeth that make her look more intimidating when she's angry.
• Shadow Archetype: Barbie's younger self was similar to Emilico, having the latter's energy and optimistic attitude. However, Barbie's Shadow master doesn't have Kate's self-confidence and won't open her heart to her Living Doll. The stress of feeling unhelpful to Barbara along with the pressure of being a stern Star Bearer caused Barbie to become grumpy and hostile.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: She used to be a friendly girl, but turned harsh and strict to fit the position of a Star Bearer's Face. Beneath that facade, Barbie blames herself for Barbara's unhappiness and believes herself to be trash.
• Stealth Pun: She's one of the Living Dolls. Her name is Barbie.
• Tiny Tyrannical Girl: Barbie is small, but as the head Star Bearer's Living Doll, she has the highest authority among Living Dolls. She abuses her position to boss everyone around and kicks anyone who defies her.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Before Barbara became a Star Bearer, Barbie was a gentle and friendly girl. Unfortunately, Barbie needed to be harsher to be suitable for a Star Bearer's Face, which resulted in her becoming a Tiny Tyrannical Girl who verbally and physically abuses other Living Dolls.
• You Remind Me of X: The reason for her Hate at First Sight for Emilico. The bubbly, energetic Living Doll reminds Barbie of how she used to be, someone she now can't stand.

Benjamin

Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (Japanese), Ben Balmaceda (English)

Ben's master.

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• Angry Collar Grab: Benjamin grabs the collar of whoever passes him off.
• Fitness Nut: During his spare time, Benjamin is always found working out at the gym of the Star Bearers' building.
• Gentle Giant: He's the tallest Shadow of the Star Bearers, and arguably one of the largest in the entire series. Despite being one of the Star Bearers, he displays a great deal of attention to the care of Living Dolls, routinely exercising with his own Doll and even calling Louise out for overworking Lou. In general, so long as you follow the rules of the Shadows House, Benjamin is surprisingly a decent guy.
• Hidden Depths: He (and presumably his doll as well) used to be very thin and unfit when Christopher was around. It is implied that Barbie was the one who got him interested in exercising, and that he continued with it so he could become someone who could protect her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He comes off as cold and easily irritable, but he isn't completely heartless. Namely, Benjamin is on good terms with both Barbara and Barbie, and he claims he wants to use his strength to protect the rest of the children.
• Lovable Jock: He spends his spare time training with Ben at his personal gym. Despite coming across as intimidating, Benjamin is a very nice and likable guy to those who get close to him. He convinces Louise and Lou to join him at training and Louise enjoys it so much that she goes to his gym every day afterwards.
• Odd Friendship: The tall, stoic Benjamin is the stalwart friend of the short, temperamental Barbara. He later develops a friendship with the eccentric Louise after the latter realizes the value in exercising and getting along with her Living Doll.
• Placebo Effect: Benjamin's soot power lets him invoke this, inspiring and improving the morale of Living Dolls during the Party of Delight to hide the fact that they were given regular coffee as opposed to the coffee infused with the Great Grandfather's soot. The effectiveness of this power is dependent on how loyal a Living Doll already is to the Shadows House, which means that Dolls like Emilico and Shaun who have been freed from their brainwashing will return to normal faster than most.
• Undying Loyalty: Towards Barbara. Benjamin outright calls himself her ally.

Ben

Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (Japanese), Ben Balmaceda (English)

Benjamin's Living Doll.

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• Badass Normal: When dealing with Scorches and other soot monsters, most Living Dolls usually resort to grabbing whatever tools they have on hand or use the latest technology from the Research Team. Ben simply uses his fists, and he's just as effective as the rest.
• Battle Butler: He's built for combat; Ben can clobber Scorches with his fist.
• Heroic Build: Thanks to his and Benjamin's exercise regimen, he has some very well-defined abs and muscles.
• Mr. Fanservice: He frequently takes off his shirt when he exercises, giving the ladies a good look at his toned upper body.
• Perpetual Frowner: He's mostly seen with a serious and stern expression.
• The Un-Smile: Louise tries using her soot power to change Ben's facial expression into a friendlier one. Except for Emilico, everyone is creeped out by Ben's unnatural smile.

Oliver

Voiced by: Jun'ya Enoki (Japanese), Kevin Thelwell (English)

Ollie's master and head of the Research Team.

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• Characterizing Sitting Pose: During the Star Bearers' meeting, Oliver stands out for sitting with both of his feet on the chair.
• Child Prodigy: Mentioned to have remodeled the soot removal room all by himself (as a small child, no less) in a flashback.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his introduction, the other Star Bearers need to pick him up at his bedroom where they find him sleeping on his desk. After waking him up, Oliver excitedly shows off his new invention. No better way to let the audience know Olivier is a dorky scientist.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He strives to find new technologies to make the cleaning of soot easier on the dolls and improving how collected soot can be applied.
• Mad Scientist: He's always had hints of this, but once the Childrens' Building residents have been weaned off the "Special Coffee", his true personality begins to shine. He's intelligent enough to know that something is very wrong with the House residents, but instead of joining Kate, he decides to test how everyone's been brainwashed and if he can somehow recondition himself (which involves, mind you, an attempt to hurt himself with a mallet under the assumption that it will make him lose his memories again).
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Oliver is the only Star Bearer who wears glasses and also happens to be the head of the Research Team.
• Token Good Teammate: He comes across as the nicest of the Star Bearers. He's also the first to officially join Kate's side.

Ollie

Voiced by: Jun'ya Enoki (Japanese), Kevin Thelwell (English)

Oliver's Living Doll.

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• For Science!: Like Oliver, his true personality is that of a boy dangerously interested in the mechanics of Living Dolls and Unification. He even states that he's totally willing to give his life just to see what would happen, even if Unification is a guaranteed Death of Personality for him.
• Friendless Background: After his brainwashing gets undone, Ollie admits he doesn't have good memories of living at the human village because he didn't have friends. He actually feels happier at the Shadows House because he can do research with Oliver.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: He says that his genius as an inventor caused other kids of his village to treat him like a weirdo.
• Irony: As a Living Doll, he's well aware he shouldn't be thinking about "unnecessary things". Despite this, he is responsible for providing his master with an intellectual peer to bounce ideas off of, so those "unnecessary things" end up doing a lot of good for the research team. It also allows the other members to pursue alternative projects.

Suzanna

Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Jad Saxton (English)

Suzy's master and head of the Relief Team.

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She acts friendly and nice in front of the Shadow rookies. In a tense situation, she's quick to anger and cast blame.
• Dressed to Heal: Rather than indulge in more noble attire she embodies her section's role.
• The Medic: Her team treats living dolls when they are ill and she shows young shadows how to better use their abilities after they bloom. This also leaves her in charge of Grandfather's "coffee", since it's a controlled substance.
• Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: She teaches soot powers to the Debutant Shadows. She also rubs them (to their annoyance) and addresses them with the -chan suffix (“chan” is a Japanese suffix for children). Make her angry though…
• Never My Fault: She blames Suzy for leaving the Belle twins to watch over the coffee bottles only for them to break them, but Barbara reminds Suzanna that it was her who started giving preferential treatment to the twins and her Living Doll just followed suit.
• Sensor Character: Her soot power is creating an invisible soot screen around people and places, allowing her to detect any movement that happens within it.

Suzy

Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Jad Saxton (English)

Suzanna's Living Doll.

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• I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: She's surprised when she starts crying because Shaun called her "big sister". Shaun suspects she has siblings at her village and is intentionally triggering her lost memories of them.
• The Medic: Much like her master, though it also provides a quirk where living dolls are concerned. Her brainwashing prioritizes this role over her master's orders if left unattended.

The Relief Team

The Relief Team, lead by the Star Bearer Susanna, is made up of Shadows and their Living Dolls who perform charity work by administering to the sick and injured. Their medical wing is called the Cleaning Room.

In General

• Dressed to Heal: They wear special uniforms to do their job as a medical team.
• Heal It with Water: They treat soot sickness, a state of mental disorientation caused by the intake of soot, with water-induced vomiting.
• The Medic: Their duty is to take care of the Living Dolls' health.

Evelyn and Eve

Evelyn (left) and Eve (right)

Voiced by: Yoshino Aoyama (Japanese), Monet Lerner (English)

Members of the Relief Team. They treat those afflicted with soot sickness and works as the head of the Cleaning Room, the Shadows House's medical wing.

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• Healing Hands: Her soot has healing properties that allow her to treat serious injuries in Shadows, like broken bones. It's noted that her power doesn't follow the standard "Physical or Mental" split most soot manipulation falls into by having elements of both. She extends the soot from her fingers to force it into the body and rearranges the pieces of broken bone as needed like a "physical" skill, but can then leave parts of her soot behind to ensure the fragments stay in place and reinforce the area like its been a "mental" command.
• Hospital Hottie: Evelyn is ranked at #1 on William and Henry's "most attractive female shadows" list.
• Master of Threads: Evelyn can create string-like extensions from her fingers which allows her to carry out surgeries on Shadows or immobilize them briefly.
• The Stoic: She rarely shows emotions and acts composed in general.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's highly stoic and businesslike, making her seem cold. However, she has a gentle side and cares a lot about her team.

Gilbert and Gil

Gilbert (left) and Gil (right)

Voiced by: Kentaro Kumagai (Japanese), Ethan Gallardo (English)

Members of the Relief Team. They treat those afflicted with soot sickness.

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• Combat Medic: Besides being a member of the Relief Team, Gilbert can break brick walls with his soot-powered punches.
• Dr. Jerk: Gilbert and Gil's main job is to treat the Living Dolls that have caught soot sickness during their punishment to clean the soot processing facility. Once they fix the dolls up, Gilbert and Gil throw them back in until they're left barely alive or even dead.
• Elemental Armor: Gilbert's soot power lets him make it into pieces of armor around himself, typically around his arms to improve his punching ability instead of just using it for defense. When used to completely cover himself, it looks like a spikey draconic monster with some conventional plate armor elements.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Kate doesn't approve of Gilbert's ruthless way of trying to remove the Star Bearers from power, but she has to agree that the Star Bearers aren't very good authority figures and have done cruel things to even innocent children just to protect themselves.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: As their hypnosis fades, they begin to feel guilt over their role as the Star Bearers' enforcer and their role in the death of one of the Belle twins. This leads them to conspire to overthrow the Star Bearers by throwing their effectiveness into question.
• Red Baron: As a major member of the Relief Team whose experience often leaves him involved in medical emergencies where the patient can't be saved, and not helped by his cold attitude towards his charges in general, Gilbert has been nicknamed the "Grim Reaper" by some of the other children. He's very offended by this as lives lost on his watch weigh on him terribly and he isn't above using those who've called him this as victims to make a point against the Star Bearers who put him into this situation by ordering the punishments that ultimately went too far.
• Spikes of Villainy: Not a villain, but Gilbert's soot armor is as prickly as he is. Even as an antagonist he's acting in an attempt to help others, and would much rather have Kate as his ally against the Star Bearers. His "helm" is more of a mass of horns with a gaping maw than anything humanoid.
• Unusual Eyebrows: Gil's eyebrows have "kinks" near the end.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gilbert helps Douglas' group organize the hunt on the powerless Shadows as part of a plan to have them replace the Star Bearers. While his methods are questionable at best, he really thinks the current Star Bearers are unfit for their position because he has seen firsthand how many Shadows and Living Dolls have been tortured and even killed because of their harsh punishments.

The Research Team

The Research Team, led by the Star Bearer Oliver, is made up of Shadows and their Living Dolls who pursue knowledge. They use this knowledge to improve the quality of life for the Shadows House through various inventions, such as technology to fight Scorches and ghost disturbances.

Nancy and Anna

Nancy.

Anna

Voiced by: Megumi Han (Japanese), Elizabeth Evans (English)

A pair that is part of the Research Team as Oliver's and Ollie's assistants.

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• Satellite Character: Their only known role is being Oliver's and Ollie's assistants. They don't really interact with anyone but those two.

Lydia and Lydie

Lydia

Lydie

Voiced by: Hitomi Ueda (Japanese), Marianne Bray (English)

Members of the Research Team.

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• Awesomeness by Analysis: Lydia's soot power is analyzing other Shadows' soot powers, but she needs to have direct contact with the Shadow for it to work.
• The Empath: Lydia can sense other Shadows' emotions by touching their soot.
• Jerkass: Lydia is noted to have quite the vicious tongue, and in flashback was shown even going after Edward when he was still in the Children's Building. Lydie is the same, thanks to them following the usual relationship between Shadow and Face.
• Perpetual Frowner: Lydie's expression seems locked in a scornful frown.

Jeremiah

Voiced by: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Japanese), Carter Gill (English)

Jeremy's master. He is part of the Research Team.

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• Gadgeteer Genius: He invented a soot machine powered by clingers so that the Children's Building won't have to rely completely on the children's soot to function.
• Heavy Sleeper: Thanks to his earplugs, nothing can wake him up no matter how noisy it gets. Even when part of the lab gets destroyed, he stays soundly asleep.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: His soot power is growing multiple arms.
• The Quiet One: He can speak perfectly well, but chooses to have Jeremy speak for him because he finds talking too tiring.
• Terse Talker: He never says more than one or two words when talking. Jeremy needs to explain what he meant.

Jeremy

Voiced by: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Japanese), Carter Gill (English)

Jeremiah's Living Doll. He is part of the Research Team.

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• Heavy Sleeper: Like Jeremiah, he stays soundly asleep even if the lab falls apart around him.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: His right eye is covered by his hair. Same as his master, Jeremy acts quite aloof and detached. He doesn't interact with anyone besides Jeremiah and only speaks to explain what Jeremiah's short phrases mean.
• Mr. Exposition: Since Jeremiah doesn't like to talk, explaining the fruits of their studies falls to Jeremy.
• Translator Buddy: He'll go into depth about anything his master wants to say based on even the smallest phrases.

The Disciplinary Team

Douglas and Doug

Voiced by: Atsushi Tamaru (Japanese), Jerry Jewell (English)

An arrogant Shadow who aims to become one of the next Star Bearers. His Living Doll, Doug, leads one of the Living Doll cleaning teams.

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• Attack Reflector: Douglas can create a floating ball of soot. When it is hit by a force, it immediately counters with a similar force.
• Brutal Honesty: He never minces his words, such as when he tells Evelyn that Gilbert didn't tell her anything about his resentment towards the Star Bearers because she's so uptight and obsessed with the rules. He does admit he went too far a bit later.
• Character Tic: Doug often combs his bowl-cut down even if Douglas doesn't make any similar gestures. Shadows that can manipulate living dolls can take advantage of this to make him mess up his own hair if he or his master act up too much.
• Cynicism Catalyst: After his first team leader got his admired senior Finn disposed on false charges, Douglas became bitter and jaded towards the system of the Shadows House and its leaders.
• Establishing Character Moment: Douglas just met Kate, but immediately starts mocking anything she does as a sign of incompetence as a Team Leader, and asks his Team to laugh at her, which they all do synchronically.
• Everyone Has Standards: They ultimately choose to side with Kate over Edward after realizing the latter isn't much different than King, being a Jerkass who uses the Great Grandfather as an excuse to abuse the children.
• His Quirk Lives On: Douglas styles Doug's haircut after the one of his senior Finn, who was unfairly disposed of after their team leader framed him.
• It's All About Me: He repeatedly reports minor issues with Kate to Barbara, hoping to gain favors from Star Bearers. When Barbara tells him off, he believes that Kate and Barbara must be secretly conspiring against him. When Edward recruits him and Sarah as spies on Kate, he quickly considers this a shortcut to the Adults' Building and looks for an evidence to bring Star Bearers down as well.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Douglas is a smug and self-satisfied kid, and he treats his cleaning team as if they were his hypemen. He's not that much nicer to the other Children, either. Later on, it's shown that Douglas does genuinely care about his team and isn't someone who approves of the adults abusing or disposing of the other children, leading him to truly join Kate's side.
• Nobody Touches the Hair: Douglas won't stand that Doug's hairstyle gets messed with. Turns out he's so defensive about it because he modeled Doug's hairstyle after his late idol Finn.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: Kate hates Douglas for being a Jerkass who works under Edward, but she admits she doesn't hate the way Douglas treasures his teammates and will never abandon any of them.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: He dismisses Kate's idealism as childish and foolish, since he thinks it's impossible to save everyone in the corrupted system of the Shadows House.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: His arrogant and obnoxious Jerkass behavior is a coping mechanism that he developed after his traumatic experiences where he and his teammates were abused by their team leader King, who was way worse than him and framed his admired senior Finn for a crime that got him disposed.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After he becomes a Star-Bearer, Douglas starts showing his better side once Kate convinces him that working with her is the best way to protect his friends from being disposed by Edward.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He was much nicer before his team leader framed and disposed of his senior Finn.

Peter

One of the Shadows from Douglas' team.

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• Flower Motifs: He has a tulip embroidery on his clothes.
• Tears of Remorse: After Margaret dies, Peter cries as he expresses regret over having ignored the depressed Margaret in favor of Douglas' group.
• Toxic Friend Influence: He used to be nicer before he started to hang out with Douglas and the latter's bad personality rubbed off on him.

Second Debutant Group

Stella

A Shadow who got saved by Patrick in certain incident. She later becomes one of the new debutants.

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• Beware the Silly Ones: She acts like a dim-witted klutz, but when she has to fight Kate in the Debut, Stella shows she's ready to fight to the death in order to survive.
• Big Eater: According to their parameters, Stella's only outstanding trait is that she eats a lot.
• Extreme Doormat: She passively follows Candy's orders and lets her make all the decisions even though she's supposed to be Candy's master.
• Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair in twin braids and is the most childish of her debutant group.
• Prehensile Hair: Her braids can turn into deadly weapons, taking the shape of grappling hooks.
• Rescue Introduction: She's introduced when Patrick saves her from the attack of Margaret's soot vines.
• Shrinking Violet: She's very timid and quiet, often shyly cowering in front of people.
• Toast of Tardiness: As Stella arrives late for the Debut, she runs with a bread bun in her mouth. When she crashes into Edward, the bread falls on Candy's mouth.

Candy (Unmarked Spoilers)

Stella's Living Doll. She's actually the original tightrope artist from Emilico's circus, but she ran away and got herself adopted by a couple at the island so she could participate in the Selection and get into the Shadows House.

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She seems shy and harmless like her master, but she's really manipulative, short-tempered, and arrogant.
• Circus Brat: Like Emilico, Candy came from a circus instead of being raised in one of the villages of the island.
• Cool Big Sis: To Emilico. Candy was Emilico's mentor at the circus and Candy's real age makes her much older than Emilico. Candy was also the only one in the circus who treated Emilico decently. Even now, Emilico looks up to Candy as a veteran and mentor.
• Does Not Like Spam: She hates coffee. This allowed her to avoid getting brainwashed and losing her memory since she always spat out the soot coffee.
• Early-Bird Cameo: She first appeared in chapter 46 when she gets selected to be sent to the Shadows House, only to be formally introduced as a debutant over 100 chapters later.
• Evil Counterpart: To Emilico. They both serve a newcomer Shadow wearing a red dress and pigtails. Both also came from the same circus. But whereas Emilico is a sweet and naive girl who truly wants to help everyone, Candy is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who makes her Shadow and the other debutants dependant on her for her own selfish goals.
• The Fake Cutie: She pretends to be an innocent and shy young girl, but her true identity is a jaded and temperamental adult woman.
• Girlish Pigtails: Like Stella, Candy wears her hair in twin braids, but she's more of a subversion because her true personality isn't childish at all.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: To Stella. Having her brainwashing undone from the start, Candy made Stella completely reliant on her. Candy even has to remind Stella to at least pretend to be the master.
• Ironic Name: She chose Candy as her name at the Shadows House, but her true personality is anything but sweet.
• Mentor Archetype: Emilico learned tightrope walking, and all the circus tricks she knows, from Candy.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: She plays dumb to evade suspicion since her brainwashing was undone from her first day as a Living Doll and she's planning to take control over the Shadows House.
• Odd Name Out: Similar to Emilico and Ram, Candy's name is very different from other Living Dolls in that it sounds nothing like her master's. Justified since Candy picked her name herself.
• Older Than She Looks: She's 30 years old, but looks like a child. Thanks to this, she fooled the villagers who adopted her and got selected to become a Living Doll, even though the age limit is 13.
• The Prima Donna: Candy was the star of Emilico's circus, but she saw the ringleader as incompetent and looked down on other novice circus members, only seeing some potential in Emilico, who was just an odd jobs girl at the time. She abandoned the circus to join the Shadows House because she aspired for a high-class life at a noble house.
• Psychological Projection: She distrusts Kate and misinterprets her (flawed) attempts at preparing the debutants as her bullying them and looking down on them. Besides Edward encouraging discord among the debutants, Candy is clearly projecting her own arrogance and manipulative nature onto Kate.
• Reading Lips: She's an expert at reading lips, even from a long distance. In fact, she figures out Emilico isn't brainwashed when Emilico calls her "Master" and Candy reads her lips.
• Token Adult: She's the only debutant Living Doll to be a legal adult.
• Ventriloquism: She knows ventriloquism and taught it to Emilico.
• Walking Spoiler: One can't talk much about Candy without mentioning she was never brainwashed and came from the same circus as Emilico.

Oscar and Oskar

A Shadow-Living Doll duo with excitable personalities.

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• Hot-Blooded: They're an overly enthusiastic and energetic pair.
• Post-Modern Magik: Oscar's soot can turn into earpieces that basically function as walkie talkies.
• Utility Party Member: He isn't particularly strong or smart, but his soot power is very useful for communication and espionage.

Laurel and Lulu

A silent Shadow and her overprotective Living Doll.

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• The Caretaker: Lulu takes care of all of Laurel's personal needs, such as feeding her and dressing her.
• Cross Attack: Laurel's soot power produces crosses that paralyze a Shadow's body parts upon contact.
• Emotional Powers: Laurel activates her soot power when she's under high stress.
• Kid with the Leash: Lulu has to be at Laurel's side to keep her stable. If they're separated for even a second, Laurel will release her soot power and cast a "curse" that paralyzes other Shadows' bodies.
• The Paralyzer: Laurel uses a soot power that directly affects a Shadow's body, causing instant paralysis.
• The Quiet One: Laurel is very quiet and lets Lulu do all the talking for her.
• Youthful Freckles: Lulu is a young girl with freckles under her eyes.

Danny and Dan

A Shadow-Living Doll duo with irritable attitude.

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• Heart Is an Awesome Power: He can cover a small object in soot and hit it with a soot stick like playing golf. It doesn't look too impressive at first, but the attack power is enough to destroy a brick wall.
• Perpetual Frowner: He's glaring the entire time when the Debut starts.

Matilda and Mattie

A girly and peppy Shadow-Living Doll duo. Matilda seems to have a crush on Oscar.

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• Marionette Master: She can create and control soot toy soldiers made out of her own soot.
• True Blue Femininity: Matilda is very feminine and wears a light blue dress with pink ribbons.

Other Noteworthy Individuals

Not part of other defined groups on this page in the Children's Building and thus placed here.

The Belle Twins

Voiced by: Rumi Ōkubo (Japanese), Alexis Tipton (English)

Mirabelle's and Isabelle's Living Dolls. They lead one of the Living Doll cleaning teams and aim to become the next Star Bearers.

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• Angsty Surviving Twin: One Belle dying makes the other Belle put off cleaning for weeks, having a knee jerk reaction to Soot and in general being sullen and untalkative. She stays holed up in her room for a long time when she doesn't have to be used as Isabelle or Mirabelle's shared Living Doll.
• Asshole Victim: Given their claims that someone else manipulated them to destroy the week's coffee supply (likely with soot).
• Break the Haughty: Whether the twins intended to or not, they destroyed the week's coffee supply. This earns them the punishment of cleaning the soot processing facility, where Living Dolls will easily and repeatedly catch soot sickness. They are visibly crying.
• The Bully: They bully their underlings do all the cleaning. They prefer to let Rum take the blame for anything that may affect their team's rating. But they flatter the Star Bearers, so they're viewed favorably by those who matter.
• Death of a Child: One of the Belles eventually dies as a result of not only the Soot sickness she experienced repeatedly in the Sootery Sendoff, but starving to death. She gave the other Belle her own food, thinking that either girl getting fed will make both girls full.
• It Was a Gift: One of the Belles gets a small toy of the other from Emilico, in an effort to comfort her after the other one's death.
• Significant Name Overlap: They're both named Belle because their masters don't even bother to distinguish them. It becomes relevant because one of the Belle twins dies, but neither Mirabelle or Isabelle are immediately disposed of because they never thought of their Living Dolls as different people and both are still mimicking Belle.
• Single-Minded Twins: Never seen without each other, and both simply get the name "Belle" so as to make them interchangeable. In fact, it turns into a plot point, as Isabelle and Mirabelle never put thought into the identities of either Belle, nor did they know which Belle died.

Mirabelle and Isabelle

Voiced by: Rumi Ōkubo (Japanese), Alexis Tipton (English)

The Belle twins' masters. They aim to become some of the next Star Bearers.

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• Break the Haughty: Whether their Living Dolls intended to or not, they destroyed the week's coffee supply. The Shadows have to join them in cleaning the soot processing facility (imagine a noble punished with janitorial work) and are forced to watch their Living Dolls catch soot sickness.
• Bully Turned Buddy: When they first meet Kate, they bully her and use their soot powers to humiliate Emilico. Eventually, Kate's acts of kindness win them over and they become good friends.
• Establishing Character Moment: Their introduction is to bully Kate in front of other Shadows by making Emilico bark like a dog.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Their hairstyles and clothes look identical. The only way to tell them apart is the place of the fabric roses on their clothes; Mirabelle has them on the right shoulder and Isabelle has them on the left shoulder.
• People Puppets: Their ability is to control Living Dolls.
• Single-Minded Twins: Like her Living Dolls, they're always seen together and have the same bitchy personality.
• Theme Twin Naming: Both of their names end in "belle".
• Took a Level in Kindness: Being assigned to Kate's Team made their attitude much better.

Margaret

Voiced by: Misaki Watada (Japanese), Francine Gonzalez (English)

A Shadow who befriends Patrick at the greenhouse.

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• Beware the Quiet Ones: She initially appears as a very meek and mild-mannered girl. However, her soot power is one of the most extensive and dangerous in the entire cast.
• Broken Bird: She was discarded by her former friend Peter and mistreated by Mirabelle and Isabelle. Afraid of being hurt again, she isolated herself and felt miserable all the time, only finding some comfort in growing plants with Patrick.
• Brutal Honesty: She bluntly tells Patrick that she wishes the Belle twins would just disappear because they're big jerks.
• Caring Gardener: She grows flowers in the greenhouse.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She hates everyone who could steal Patrick's attention away from her. In a massive outburst of jealousy over Patrick's apparent closeness to Kate, Margaret attacks all Shadow children to make sure Patrick will only look at her.
• Commonality Connection: She quickly bonds with Patrick over their shared interest in flowers.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Her former friend Peter stopped hanging out with her after he joined Douglas' team. After that, she avoided other Shadows because she believed everyone would abandon her like Peter did.
• A Death in the Limelight: She dies at the end of the arc that explores her thoughts and backstory.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: After Patrick stops her rampage, Margaret dies in his arms due to soot outage.
• The Dog Bites Back: She was victim of bullying from Mirabelle and Isabelle when they were in the same team. After Margaret's soot power awakens, she makes the twins into her very first targets once she decides to eliminate everyone who can be a bad influence to Patrick.
• Flower Motifs: Margaret is represented by the daisy flower, as she shares the flower's name in several foreign languages. It's also her favorite flower because it symbolizes love, happiness, beauty, purity, and hope.
• Friendless Background: Before she met Patrick, Margaret spent most of her time alone in the greenhouse and didn't like to socialize with other Shadows because she thought they were all jerks.
• Go Out with a Smile: Even though her body gives out from soot overuse, Margaret dies smiling because she feels the happiest she has ever been thanks to Patrick accepting her feelings before she met her end.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Margaret's jealousy over Kate becoming a Star Bearer and Patrick's respect for Kate causes her soot tentacles to manifest in a very violent way that endangers everyone in the Children's Building.
• Hopeless Suitor: To her misforture, Patrick is oblivious to her feelings and he is in love with Emilico anyway. After she goes into a Yandere rampage, Patrick does give her a marriage proposal to appease her... only for Margaret to die immediately after.
• Love at First Sight: She falls in love with Patrick in their first meeting because she believes his love for flowers is proof of a beautiful heart.
• Power Incontinence: Since her power has just awakened, she doesn't have control over her soot vines and quickly starts to self-destruct from soot overproduction. She even ends up accidentally attacking Patrick as he's trying to help her.
• Satellite Love Interest: She doesn't have any significant relationships outside of Patrick and her character revolves around her desperate wish to be loved by him.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She falls in love with Patrick because he treats her nicely, shares her hobby of gardening, and promises to protect her if others ever try to hurt her.
• Super-Power Meltdown: Maggie gives her a drug that gives her the boost needed for her soot powers to awaken. Combined with her desperate and depressed mental state, Margaret's soot vines quickly envelop the entire Children's Building and attack everyone within reach. As she loses control, her soot vines slowly eat away at her own body and as soon as Patrick manages to nullify her power, she dies from soot exhaustion.
• Unknown Rival: Unbeknownst to both Patrick and Kate, Margaret views Kate as a rival for Patrick's affection, as she doesn't know Patrick has a crush on Emilico instead of Kate.
• Unrequited Tragic Maiden: She has a big crush on Patrick, but slowly sinks into despair as he doesn't notice her feelings because of his own crush on Emilico. Because of a conspiracy from Anthony and Maggie, Margaret's soot power is awakened when she's in the worst mental state and she goes berserk, attacking everyone in the Children's Building. Finally realizing her feelings, Patrick awakens his own soot-nullifying power and gives Margaret a marriage proposal to put an end to her rampage. Sadly, it's too late because the soot outage causes Margaret to die, all while she spends her final moments thinking that she wished to achieve true love with Patrick.
• Vine Tentacles: Her soot power creates black vines that seem to grow endlessly and bind people.
• What You Are in the Dark: In the middle of her depression, she once tried to cut Maggie's face with a knife, believing that damaging her Living Doll would get her disposed and end her suffering. In the end, she couldn't bring herself to do it when she saw Maggie in pain. Unfortunately, the attempt alone was enough to convince Maggie that Margaret was a dangerous monster.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She has been completely emotionally broken because of a negative and friendless environment. After her soot power awakens in a moment of extreme emotional distress, she uses it to take out her pain and misery on everyone in the Children's Building.
• Yandere: Fearing that Kate will steal Patrick away from her, Margaret unleashes her soot vines all across the Children's Building to attack everyone who might "corrupt" Patrick, who she views as a pure and good prince.

Maggie (Unmarked Spoilers)

Voiced by: Misaki Watada (Japanese), Francine Gonzalez (English)

Margaret's Living Doll.

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• The Dog Bites Back: Margaret once came close to cutting her face in an indirect suicide attempt. After Maggie gets freed from the brainwashing, she comes to see Margaret as nothing but a monster that almost killed her and conspires with Anthony to get her killed.
• Evil All Along: It's revealed Maggie conspired with Anthony and gave Margaret drugs that made her lose control over her soot powers until she died from soot exhaustion.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: After Margaret dies, Maggie reveals she hated her Shadow master and saw her as a monster that stole her name. It's understandable because her brainwashing got undone after going without coffee for a while and without any context of her current situation, she ended seeing all Shadows as vile creatures that brainwashed and enslaved children.
• Hypocrite: When we finally get a peek into her head, we see that she dislikes Margaret's insistence on making Patrick her "prince". When we cut back into the present day, we see Maggie idolizes Anthony the exact same way.
• Psycho Supporter: Due to her brainwashing being undone and having no one to really trust in the Shadows House, Maggie become unhinged and easy to manipulate for Anthony, who she saw as a "prince" who would kill all the Shadows. Too bad for her that Anthony sees no use in pawns that are clearly unstable and hard to control, so he kills her.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: She betrays Margaret and under Anthony's instructions, gives her a drug that causes her to overuse her soot powers until she dies. After her job is finished, Anthony kills her because he had no further use of her.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She gets Margaret killed by giving her dangerous drugs that cause her soot powers to go amok, which was all Anthony's plan to test said drug as an effective weapon against the adult Shadows. Once she gets the job done, Anthony sees no use in her as a minion anymore and slices her throat.

The Great Grandfather's Building

The Great Grandfather resides in his own three-story building, separate from the children Shadows' building where Kate resides. On occasion, children Shadows may be given the honor of joining the Great Grandfather's building. The buildings are joined together by a hall that serves as a bridge over a chasm. The Great Grandfather resides on the highest Third Floor. Residents of higher floors receive more privileges. The resident Shadows also have merged with their Living Dolls.

Third Floor

The Third Floor oversees the entire Shadows House operation and conducts business with the outside world. Members include the Great Grandfather and his advisors.

The Great Grandfather

Voiced by: Takaya Hashi (Japanese), R. Bruce Elliott (English)

Leader of the Shadows House and creator of the Living Dolls. He is advised by the other Shadows of the Third Floor.

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• Affably Evil: The Grandfather occasionally praises his family for doing a good job, and his advisors of the Third Floor are the only ones who can give some criticism as to how the House works.
• Anti-Villain: He has developed a society where Shadows can safely grow up, relatively speaking, as any Shadow or Doll who doesn't meet his expectations are disposed of.
• Big Bad: The Patriarch of the House and is synonymous with the Individuality Is Illegal system Kate opposes. Furthermore he's revealed to be The Usurper of the Mirror House with Kate as the rightful heir.
• Cult of Personality: The Living Dolls have a daily routine of giving praise to him, and just saying you disagree with him, or having any other thoughts about him when not asked, can warrant punishment.
• The Faceless: Even more so than the other Shadows, as his High Collar of Doom covers his head completely.
• Humanoid Abomination: His heavy robes obscure his shape completely, including his head which is drowned inside his High Collar of Doom, leaving his true appearance a mystery. Given that he came up with the process of giving Shadows human-like forms, and likely didn't go through anything like that himself, it's not surprising there's something off about the way he looks, compared to other Shadows.
• I Control My Minions Through...: The Grandfather has a near-divine authority over all Shadows, and all residents of the House, including Dolls, will respect him at all times, willingly or forcibly. Except Third Floor Shadows, anyone who has their own ideas about the rules of the House are brutally punished.
• Monster Progenitor: He created the Shadows family by having the original soot creatures develop their shapes and personalities through mimicking their Living Dolls, who are mindwiped humans.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: His full title is "The Great Grandfather. The one who leads the Shadows House. The Shadows House's King. Birth Father of the Living Dolls. The Great Creator Master".
• Villain with Good Publicity: Strictly enforced with a cult of personality and paranoid management. Shadows that are Invited to become Adults realize they've been fed a completely false story, and the villagers of Mirrorside view Shadows as kind nobles.

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Sophie

Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori (Japanese), Alex Moore (English)

A Shadow of the Third Floor who advises the Great Grandfather.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: When John awakens his soot powers, she's licking the window with a long butterfly tongue and wondering aloud what his soot tastes like. This disturbs even the other Shadows nearby, who normally find her to be calm and collected.
• Animal Motifs: Her dress is decorated by large butterfly wings.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: When she sees that a Morph mimicked a mouse, she throws the rat against a wall and eats the rat Morph alive. This was what made Kate sure that the Shadows aren't her allies.
• Not So Stoic: Sophie is usually dignified and composed, unless it comes to soot. Her excitement can make her face pop out. Her fellow Shadows are creeped out by the abrupt change in her behavior.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Her tongue is black and very long, like that of a butterfly.

Ryan

Voiced by: Daisuke Kishio (Japanese), Jason Liebrecht (English)

A Shadow of the Third Floor who advises the Great Grandfather.

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• By the Hair: Does this to Edward while he admonishes him for only failing Shirley, an already-weak shadow.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: His chalk-white skin and cloud of black hair make him look like a Tim Burton character.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He's almost constantly complaining about something, like Edward's methods or others' attitude.
• Jerkass: He really doesn't hide that he prefers Shadows being forceful with their Dolls instead of bonding with them and hoped Kate, or at least somebody, died even before the Debut ended.
• Sadist: He takes pleasure out of watching Shadows and Living Dolls suffer.

Dorothy

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa (Japanese), Vanessa DeSilvio (English)

A Shadow of the Third Floor who advises the Great Grandfather.

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• Ambiguously Brown: Her face has a darker skin tone than other humans at the mansion.
• Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Notably the only woman in the House who wears visible makeup.
• It Amused Me: Edward's Debut is more of an entertaining show to her, and she doesn't care much about promoting new Shadows.

Joseph

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (Japanese), Brent Mukai (English)

A Shadow of the Third Floor who advises the Great Grandfather.

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• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He has been puffing from a cigar and is one of the main villains.
• High-Class Glass: He wears a monocle attached to a chain over his left eye.
• The Stoic: The least eccentric and most rational of his floormates.

Second Floor

Gerald and Eilene share a bond with Edward, since the trio were Debutants together. With Edward as the vanguard, they aim to join the Third Floor.

Edward

Voiced by: Wataru Hatano (Japanese), Christopher Corey Smith (English)

A "Special Living Doll" from the Second Floor who conducted Kate's Debut. He administers the Children's Building through the Star Bearers.

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• Ambition Is Evil: Intends to force some of the children to fail the Debut (and failure means disposal), so he can please the Third Floor and advance into their ranks. He was also more than willing to absorb his Living Doll Ed to get his full adult soot powers.
• Break Them by Talking: He reduces the prideful Sarah to tears by saying the words that he knows will upset her the most; calls her a disappointment and worst member of her team, rubs in her face that Kate managed to become team leader despite being the youngest of the team, and tells her she won't ever become an adult.
• Brown Note: He used his soot power over soundwaves to deafen and incapaciate Maryrose and Rosemary.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: While the rules of the Debut go along with House's values, how the contestants go up or down depend entirely on his mood. Ricky assumed he got punished for taking the lead during the dance, when it actually wasn't part of the exam and he only interfered with Edward's stress relief.
• Hanging Judge:
  • The Debut has no stated rules and Edward runs the first phase with no explanation. The Shadows only have a vague idea that treating Dolls as tools is encouraged and have to make guesses what they are even judged for.
  • He views the Debut as Great Grandfather testing him instead of the new Shadows. He believes one of the debutants need to fail and, once he decides on Kate, he uses any excuse to lower her ranking.
• The Heavy: Although Great Grandfather is the Big Bad who governs the Shadows House, Edward knows Kate is secretly planning a rebellion and is trying to find a chance to expose her or get rid of her.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: He made one small mistake during the Debut: He introduced himself as Edward, rather than a diminutive name like all Living Dolls get (such as his original name Ed).
• Implausible Hair Color: He or rather, his Living Doll Ed was grey-haired in his youth.
• Kick the Dog: Chapter 95 reveals that he personally approached Rum after the debut to mock her for her failure and thank her for providing an emotional end to the event. He also rips up Rummy and removes all of her ribbons to enunciate the point that Faceless Dolls shouldn't be individualized.
• Limited Wardrobe: He has a collection of identical coats.
• Make Some Noise: His Soot ability allows him to manipulate soundwaves around his or others' Soot.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He trapped Shadows during the debut and made the Dolls solve puzzles, in hopes that it would increase the affinity between them. Many puzzles are also designed in a way that backstabbing other Dolls will be the fastest solution. As Third Floor residents pointed out to him, not only did the Dolls, through The Power of Friendship, manage to solve the maze by sharing items and information, the ordeals made Shadows respect their Dolls for their own strengths, which makes the assimilation plot a lot harder.
• Oh, Crap!: Sweats hard when Emilico and Kate, the pair Edward wanted to fail, use the river stream and Kate's soot powers to reach the Debut finish line Just in Time.
• Properly Paranoid: He assumed Kate and Maryrose are plotting against Great Grandfather because Kate doesn't view Emilico as a tool and Rosemary got sick right after Maryrose got the Invitation to the Adults' Building, though mostly because they are being an inconvenience, so again and again he tries to find evidence of Kate's misbehavior. Turns out they both know more than they are supposed to and actually are planning a rebellion, though despite his suspicions they're working independently.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons:
  • During his inspection of the villages outside the mansion, Edward gathers information to prove that Emilico and Candy are intruders who made themselves pass off as children from the villages, when they're in reality circus performers. Edward then concludes that Emilico and Candy are influencing their Shadows, as well as the children of the Children's Building to start a rebellion against the Adult's Building. While he's right about Emilico being involved in a rebellion, the real mastermind is Kate, who isn't a normal Shadow but a unique Shadow-Human hybrid naturally born from a human merged with a Morph. Edward is still unaware of Kate's true nature and simply assumes she's a pawn to Emilico and Candy.
  • Related to the above is the question of if there's a rebellion at all. While he has hard evidence of Emilico having snuck into the selection and Candy actually being an adult, he has no evidence that either of them have any malicious intent towards the House. In order for that to be possible, then both of them would have had to have been freed from the brainwashing and regained their memories - which is true, but he hasn't even tried to justify this point beyond "they lied to get into the selection, therefore they are trying to overthrow the House". He really does just have it out for Kate and is making things up based on flimsy evidence to throw her under the bus - that he's largely right about her is almost entirely down to luck.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Wears a gold-and-black brocade tux and is plenty menacing.
• Signature Instrument: Piano. It's fitting for his Shadow's musical soot power.
• Starter Villain Stays: He's in charge of the Debut, but it's established that there are still greater threats above him. He stays a major villain for the rest of the series, constantly potting to take down Kate and Emilico.
• Unmoving Plaid: In the anime, the patterns on his coat will always look the same no matter how he's positioned.
• Voice Changeling: His Soot ability can also be used to manipulate his own voice, as he uses it to vocally appear as an older man to throw off suspicions about his being merged with his Shadow.
• White Hair, Black Heart: He has grayish white hair and openly antagonizes the protagonists because he wants to eliminate anyone who might oppose Great Grandfather.
• Younger Than They Look: The faces of his allies, Gerald and Eilene, don't look older than thirty. But they've been together since their beginning, so Edward shouldn't be as old as the gray hair and receding hairline might suggest. It turns out he was Christopher's peer, and ahead of Barbara and Maryrose. He looks noticeably older and taller than Rosemary after his fusion, despite looking closer in age beforehand.

Gerald

^{Click here to see his face}

Voiced by: Takeo Ōtsuka (Japanese), Cory Phillips (English)

A Shadow of the Second Floor who assists Edward.

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• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Has long hair and a very feminine "face."
• Innocently Insensitive: During the "obligation", he interpreted Eilene's comment about someone "stinking" literally and deduced that it must be Taylor. This prompts him to give Taylor a free sample of the perfume he invented when he was in the research team... right after Edward had just threatened Taylor with a demotion. This is a downplayed example, however, as Gerald still intended to tell Taylor he stank - just not to twist the blade.
• The Smart Guy: He founded the children's house research team during his time as a Star Bearer.

Eilene

^{Click here to see her face}

Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese), Anastasia Muñoz (English)

A Shadow of the Second Floor who assists Edward.

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• Animal Motifs: Birds. Her dress and cloak are feathered and wing-like respectively, her soot power manifests as ravens, and she is shown in one panel to keep several birdcages in her room.
• Brutal Honesty: As Sarah fails to expose Kate as the one organizing the rebellion at the Children's Building, Eilene calls Sara's reports garbage and remarks the girl is useless as a spy.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Some subs and even the wiki for the series alternatively spell her name as "Aileen".
• The Medic: She was the founder of the medic team during her time as a Star Bearer.
• Summon Magic: Her power lets her make a raven of soot to help her pass messages along.

Thomas

^{Click here to see his face}

Voiced by: Wataru Takagi (Japanese) Matthew David Rudd (English)

A Shadow of the Second Floor and previous manager of the Children's Building.

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• An Arm and a Leg: The Shadows of the Third Floor cut off Thomas' right arm to punish him for making the knowledge of soot powers public in the Children's Building without authorization.
• Motivational Lie: He keeps telling Barbara that she'll see Christopher again if she continues acting as the Shadows House's main soot source, motivating her to release massive amounts of soot daily. Sadly, Barbara has no idea that Christopher is already dead and Thomas is planning to use her as a Living Battery until she dies.
• Porn Stache: Has a mustache the likes of which could rival Frank Zappa.
• Smug Snake: He serves as one of the biggest thorns in Edward's side, mocking him for his desire to ascend to the Third Floor and his failures as the manager of the Children's Building.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He's usually seen carrying or eating grapes.

First Floor

Lewis (Unmarked Spoilers)

A newly arrived Shadow of the Adults' Building. He works as a subordinate to both Edward and Thomas, but he's secretly working for Anthony behind the scenes.

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• Affably Evil: He does evil things at Anthony's orders, but he's very friendly and polite to everyone.
• Anti-Villain: He's disgusted by the corruption of the Shadows House and believes Anthony will create a better place for everyone with Christopher's teachings, but he's willing to do anything to create more allies for Anthony, such as brainwashing Lou and attempting to force Louise to go through the unification process.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: He works for Edward and Thomas, who are in opposing factions, simultaneously. Behind the scenes, he's only truly loyal to Anthony.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He acts like a naive and gullible rookie in front of Edward and Thomas to let them think they have control over him, but he's actually playing them both as he's the most competent of Anthony's minions.
• Undying Loyalty: He worships Christopher and by extension, Anthony, to the point that it has overwritten his loyalty to the Great Grandfather.

King

The former team leader of Douglas' team.

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• The Bully: He bullied everyone in his team and framed them for his misdemeanor, causing some of them to be disposed.
• Jerkass: He's a nasty and vicious Shadow who abused his team and made them take the fall whenever he broke the rules.

Others

The Faceless Dolls

The common servants of the Shadows House.

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• Faceless Goons: Ironically, it is implied they are repurposed former Living Dolls of failed/deceased Shadows via soot brainwashing. That being said this isn't always the case, as some are simple soot constructs to bolster their numbers and still provide basic surveillance, and being covered up makes it hard to tell they aren't all the same.
• Meaningful Name: In an odd way, but it depends on which type of Faceless Doll is present. Living Dolls are only considered the "Faces" of their Shadows, so a former "Living Doll" without a Master to represent would also be "Faceless" on top of having their face hidden by mourning garb for the rest of their days, while the ones that are genuine dolls of soot don't have a face in any sense.
• The Speechless: They only exist to follow orders and do not interact with other inhabitants.

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The Robe

Emilico, Shaun, and Rum first meet this unknown Shadow during a late-night patrol in the mansion. Their appearance scares off Rum, so they search together to find her. After reuniting the Living Dolls, Robe vanishes, using the experience to prepare their next scheme.

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• Adaptational Late Appearance: The Robe appears shortly before the debut arc in the manga when Emilico, Shaun, and Rum are forced to look for the source of the recent clinger incident. The first season of the anime removes Robe's first appearance entirely and replaces them with a Faceless Doll. Robe's plot is then rearranged for them to be introduced in the second season.
• Arc Villain: The second Ghost attack resulted in a lot of damage and Star Bearers getting even more suspicious of Kate, so she had to become an Amateur Sleuth for quite a while to expose them. After their identity and motives got revealed, they refused to be taken in.
• Black Cloak: Their body is covered completely by a black robe.
• Gender-Concealing Voice: Robe speaks with a very low and distorted voice to hide her true identity as Maryrose. After the reveal, Maryrose spits out the Scorch she placed inside her mouth to change her voice pitch.
• He Knows Too Much: Their encounter with Emilico and Shaun starts out as this since the Robe does not want their own existence revealed. However, after observing Emilico's helpful demeanor, they instead just ask the Living Dolls to keep their existence a secret.
• Mysterious Backer: Helps Emilico and Shaun look for Rum. They find her in a secret room, the soot processing facility.
• The Reveal: The robe is two people—Maryrose, and the long-absent Anthony.
• Signature Scent: The Robe, similar to many of the Adults, had a particular smell that the protagonists initially thought was a perfume^note Only Adults could have perfume, and they were individualized. After realizing that the scent didn't match up with any of the Adults' perfumes, Kate realized that the scent was similar to flowers from the Children's Building. This hints at the fact that one of the Robe's true identities was a Child like them.
• Voice of the Legion: The anime gives Robe an echoing, distorted voice when talking to Emilico.

Christopher (Unmarked Spoilers)

Voiced by: Kensho Ono (Japanese), Dallas Reid (English)

A beloved, brotherly Shadow who left the Children's Building to become an adult. The truth is he committed suicide after learning the truth of the Unification process. No one is allowed to talk about him.

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• All-Loving Hero: Christopher was kind to all the Shadows in the Children's Building. It's deconstructed with the effect this had on the highly insecure Barbara, who can't believe anyone can genuinely like her and care about her, except for Christopher because he loved everyone. This resulted in Barbara becoming dependent on Christopher and feeling like she was a failure as a Star Bearer because she can't put others first like he did.
• Broken Ace: Flashbacks make it look like Christopher was the perfect Star Bearer; charismatic, kind and popular. However, he actually lacked a lot of self-confidence because he completely relied on Anthony's competence as a leader behind the scenes.
• Driven to Suicide: Upon learning the truth of how graduating into the Adults' Building works, Christopher apparently took his own life.
• Friend to All Children: He was very good with the younger Shadows who loved him like a big brother figure.
• I Didn't Tell You Because You'd Be Unhappy: Even though Maryrose wanted to tell Barbara the truth about the Living Dolls, Christopher insisted they shouldn't tell her because she likely wouldn't handle the revelation of the Shadows House brainwashing and enslaving children.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Barbara. After her fallout with Maryrose, she has only kept herself going because she believes Christopher is waiting for her at the Adults' Building. Hearing about his death causes her to release massive amounts of soot, which would have resulted in her own death if Anthony and Kate didn't trick her into thinking Christopher is still alive.
• The Lost Lenore: He was Barbara's idol and love interest. She's kept in the dark about his death, still holding on to the false hope that she can see him again after becoming an adult.
• Loved by All: The younger Shadow Children, and Barbara especially, adored Christopher.
• Nice Guy: He was a very kind and friendly Shadow, making him well-loved by his peers.
• Peerless Love Interest: To Barbara. She was hopelessly in love with Christopher, but his status as the head Star Bearer and the most well-liked Shadow of the Children's Building made her believe she would never be good enough for him and stopped herself from pursuing a romantic relationship with him. After succeeding Christopher as a Star Bearer, Barbara made it her goal to live up to Christopher's legacy so he would praise her when she became an adult, unaware of Christopher's death.
• Posthumous Character: Christopher's a major player in why the Children's Building is the way it is now, but it's only until much later that we figure out it's because he supposedly died.
• Secret-Keeper: He was the only Shadow with whom Maryrose shared the secret of the Living Dolls being brainwashed humans.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He's only seen in flashbacks, but his tragic end was key to Maryrose learning the truth about the Unification and the motivation of Barbara's actions is being a good replacement for Christopher.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: He was a beloved and kindhearted leader to the Shadow Children. Tragically, his kindness was what led him to kill himself to escape the fate of unifying with Anthony, which would have killed the latter.

Anthony (Unmarked Spoilers)

Voiced by: Kensho Ono (Japanese), Dallas Reid (English)

Christopher's Living Doll who went missing after Christopher's death.

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• Bad Boss: He doesn't hesitate to personally kill his minions as soon as he deems them useless to his plans.
• Broken Pedestal: To Maggie. She practically worshipped him as a prince who would rescue her and eradicate all the Shadow "monsters", only for Anthony to cut her throat once he deems her useless to him.
• Dead Person Impersonation: With Kate's help, Anthony pretends to be Christopher in front of Barbara, convincing her that Edward lied to her about Christopher being dead.
• Dissonant Serenity: He nonchalantly cuts Maggie's throat with a smile.
• Dramatic Unmask: He turns out to be the second Robe, revealing himself after Maryrose escaped the mansion.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He's dark-haired, pale-skinned, and one of the most sinister villains in the series.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He's a Pretty Boy with an angelic face, but the personality of a manipulative and cruel devil.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: His actions are shady and villainous, but his exact plans and goals are a mystery. It looks like he wants to gather "students" among the children and possibly usurp the Great Grandfather's position as the ruler of the Shadows House.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Christopher in his own right was a charismatic and sharp Shadow, but it's Anthony who came up with the intelligent decisions that led to the Golden Generation's prosperity.
• The Man Behind the Man: At the end of Margaret's arc, it's revealed Anthony was directly responsible of Margaret awakening her soot power and going berserk, as he ordered Maggie to give a mentally and emotionally unstable Margaret a drug that amplifies a Shadow's soot power.
• Suicide is Shameful: Discussed. While Anthony respects Maryrose and Rosemary's rebellious spirit, he finds their apparent attempt to kill themselves in protest of the House's practices distasteful. This also spells out some interesting things for his opinion of his own master's apparent suicide.
• Wild Card: He has willingly helped Kate save Barbara, but he has also supported Edward's and Thomas' factions through his Double Agent Lewis. It's implied he's playing a long game to get all the major players of the Shadows House under his thumb.
• Would Hurt a Child: He shows how ruthless he is when he slices Maggie's throat, becoming the first villain to directly kill a child in cold blood.

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