The characters from Sharin no Kuni:
Kenichi Morita
Kenichi, the protagonist, is a teen genius coming into the town for his final exam to become a Special High Class Individual. He tends to make a lot of jokes and troll his friends, but on the other hand appears to be covering up some self loathing and depression.
- The Gadfly: Kenichi really enjoys teasing some of the girls he's watching over, especially Touka. He's too uncomfortable around Natsumi to do so, however.
- Informed Ability: He tells us about all sorts of things he can do such as cooking, but rarely displays these talents. In the fandisc, however, we see that he really can cook quite well.
- Insufferable Genius: When he wants to mess with people anyway. He tones it down when he needs to get along with people.
- Parental Abandonment: Implied to have been abandoned by his original parents (Miina and Masaomi) and is taken in as a baby by Saburou. Miina is sent to a concentration camp, Masaomi leaves him to become a Special High Class Individual. His father figure Saburou dies a few years later.
- Teen Genius: He is in the final stage of what basically amounts to Übermensch training despite being high school age (and, in fact, is the youngest person to ever be a Special High Class Individual), has a college level education, and a resume of accomplishments that'd be impressive for somebody of any age.
Natsumi Hinata
The first of Kenichi's childhood friends, she is shy and withdrawn and extremely bad at dealing with her classmates, especially men. She has the obligation of prohibition from falling in love, meaning she may not come in contact with any men nor display any seductive behaviors in front of them. Strange that a girl who hates to deal with men would have an obligation reserved for those judged to be emotionally and sexually manipulative...
In the past, she appeared to have a crush on Kenichi, which unfortunately failed to go anywhere due to the town going under siege due to a rebellion.
- Break the Cutie: The reader is told through flashbacks the events which caused her to become the reclusive girl she is in the present. After being taken into custody for allegations of sexual manipulation, she was tortured by the prison guards into "confessing" her crime. At the end of three months, she had become completely broken and mistrusting of people, which was not helped by sexual harassment by her landlord.
- Does Not Like Men: Even after taking her obligation into account, she still seems unusually afraid of contact.
Sachi Mitsuhiro
The second of Kenichi's childhood friends, she tends to be selfish, bossy and lazy. She's also highly energetic, extremely intelligent and a talented painter. She has the obligation of reduction of free time, an obligation reserved for those who made poor use of their time. It was saddled on her when she acquired a great deal of gambling debt and has grown more and more harsh with time. She started at twenty two hours a day, declining due to her stubbornness until in the present she is down to a mere twelve hours a day to sleep, go to school and take care of herself, never mind getting rid of her obligation by actually beginning to work.
- Determinator:
- Her arc shows just how determined she can be once she puts her mind into it. Unfortunately, it's not enough for her to finish her painting, and as a result, Mana is separated from her.
- More specifically, Kenichi is perfectly willing to call the painting finished and pay for it, but Mana refuses so Sachi can grow into an even better and more determined painter and person.
- Genki Girl: Has a very bright attitude usually, and Kenichi even refers to her frequently as the "energetic type." Somewhat of a subversion though as she spends much of her time sleeping or on the computer.
- Gold Digger: She admits she initially came on to Kenichi because he was good looking and looked rich, but she falls in love with him for real soon enough.
- Teen Genius: It is explicitly said that she has an IQ of 140 along with some other impressive talents, though nothing near Kenichi.
Touka Oone
The third and final girl whose obligation Kenichi is tasked with clearing, Touka is a pretty blatant tsundere, for which she takes a great deal of teasing. She is not particularly intelligent and has no obvious talents apart from cooking, something she has been forbidden from doing by her mother Kyouko after she was burned several years ago in the kitchen. Her obligation requires her to follow each and every order anyone recognized as her parent gives her and is occasionally referred to as the obligation to never grow up due to the lack of independence it tends to foster.
- Catchphrase: "I'll murder you!", as well as a weird joke involving glasses that she tells everyone. No one finds the joke funny. In a flashback, it's revealed that Ririko taught her these things.
Masaomi Houzuki
Kenichi's mentor, Houzuki is cold, manipulative and harsh. He is the proctor of the exam and does not tolerate failure. He is an extremely wealthy, talented and politically influential man.
- Crazy-Prepared: At the climax of the final arc, he foils Kenichi's plan to overthrow him by faking his limp for seven years.
- Pet the Dog: The best of which occur at the end. In which he hands the MacGuffin to the hero and his friends, out of respect and admiration for their heroic resolve, in spite of his best efforts to crush their will to oppose him. It doesn't stop once the credits have rolled; as the main character and his friends are all somehow exonerated from punishment by the government, and allowed to return home.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Surprisingly, after you read his backstory, covered in fandisk. He's essentially Ken/Kenichi, who gave up at some point
- Would Hit a Girl: A true Übermensch isn't bound by silly things like societally imposed Double Standards if it concerns Kenichi, after all.
Isono "Sepia" Izuki
The third and final of Kenichi's childhood friends, Isono is the only male. His behavior is extremely nonsensical and hard to understand, which puts Kenichi on guard. He is occasionally rather hostile to Kenichi, but normally the two get along quite well.
- Obfuscating Insanity: He pretends to be crazy, but there's more to him than he lets on. It's mentioned the reason he doesn't have an obligation is a psychological examination deemed him mentally ill. While he may be genuinely mentally ill, considering that he can be quite competent when needed, it's clear he does intentionally play up his craziness/stupidity. The bonus disk has a moment where the game is from his point of view, and he's shown to be completely sane. However, he does genuinely believe that faeries exist.
- Troll: While otherwise quite friendly with Kenichi, every now and then he'll say something quite barbed, intending full well for it to hurt Kenichi. They're friends, but he's oddly hostile to Kenichi at times.
Ririko Higuchi
Kenichi's non-blood-related older sister, Ririko is a rather bizarre individual who in the flashbacks was extremely keen on getting young Ken to shape up and be more manly. She bears the Maximum Penalty, the obligation of going unrecognized by society, meaning no one may acknowledge her existence in any way.
- Audience Surrogate: Most fourth wall breakage done by Kenichi was actually him talking to her.
- Brother–Sister Incest: In the backstory, she was rather... hands on in her approach to making Kenichi more manly.
- Right Under Their Noses: At the start of the final arc, it is revealed that Ririko took advantage of the fact that no one, save Hozuki, will ever pay attention to her and roams around freely. It's even acknowledged that this makes her the perfect spy.
- Unperson: Her obligation is to remain unrecognized by society for the rest of her life.
Mana
Mana is Sachi's adopted little sister and was taken in when Sachi was at a point of great frustration in her life. Before this, she was a homeless foreign girl. At approximately ten years old, she tends to do all of the housework in Sachi's home, works at the local supermarket and expresses a great desire to see Sachi paint.
- She Is All Grown Up: In the epilogue of Sachi's route. They don't recognize her at first.
- Shipper on Deck: She is not so subtle in her interest in seeing Kenichi hook up with Sachi.
Kyouko Oone
Touka's mother and the teacher of Kenichi's class, she is quite young and attractive. She has absolute authority over Touka's behavior.
- Ambiguous Situation: In the fandisc, it's not clear if her sex scene really happened or was just a dream. On the one hand, it fits into the narrative really well and on the other it doesn't really make much sense on her part. It probably really didn't happen, but unlike the blatantly false Mana/Sachi scene it is at least plausible.
- Freudian Excuse: She has lived through pretty much everything she forces on Touka. And she wasn't the one to put an obligation on her in the first place.
- I Am Not Your Father: Kyouko is Touka's aunt who had won custody of her.
Eri Nagumo
A cadet who arrived several minutes late to the exam and was shot to death by Houzuki for it. Apparently proving quite popular for someone who only appeared for apart thirty seconds in the entire story, she possess a sidestory in the fandisc that shows the last two days of her life and why she was late for the exam.
- The Unfought: Houzuki kills all four of Kenichi's competitors to minimize their threat.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She spoke two lines, Kenichi (and the player) thinks "Am I supposed to co-operate with her, or what?", BANG.
Fandisc characters
Houzuki's chapter in the fandisc has a cast largely separate from the Sharin no Kuni normal cast and Houzuki himself is almost completely different. As such, they have a unique section.
Masaomi Akutsu
- Foreshadowing: When reading the Sci Fi series about our world, he expresses distaste for the ending where the heroine dies but the hero starts a successful revolution because, if he was a true hero, he would have saved the woman he loves. When the same choice is before him at the end, he breaks down and picks to save the girl. Despite knowing that she would rather die than have him give up on his dreams.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Saburou points out that the love poem Miina wrote was addressed to his parents instead of him, he realizes he overreacted. He doesn't say the line, but he instantly goes to save Miina after that.
Miina Saika
Masaomi's love interest, she has been served with the obligation to have no privacy. Born to a wealthy shinto family, her mildly rebellious attitude caused her to be saddled with a nasty obligation that Masaomi is charged with clearing.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Because of the rap like poetry she wrote, she was placed under the obligation to forfeit all privacy, meaning she is not allowed to be displeasing to anyone at any point nor have any secrets. She cannot go to the bathroom or bathe without someone to watch her, have any hobbies or opinions and must act perfectly pleasant at all times. If someone becomes upset with her being so pleasant all the time, this is also her fault.
- Not So Weak: She can't deal with attacks directed at herself at all, but can become extremely angry when others are made to suffer in her place.
- Prone to Tears: When Masaomi starts to act cruel to her to test how well she can handle the scorn of society, she breaks almost instantly and he is unable to continue doing so.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: She was raised to be one and but her evil poetry is hardly traditional and she lacks the inner strength.
Saburou Higuchi
The only other candidate to make it to the exam and not be shot down, Saburou is pretty much the polar opposite of Masaomi. He is outgoing, friendly and surprisingly calculating. He also has a knack for cleverly figuring out loopholes in the rules to give himself an advantage.
- Hidden Depths: He's quite a bit more subtle than he appears and, in fact, realizes that they are of course going to be under surveillance and thus pretends to be a pawn of Ari.
Ari Ruruliant Houzuki
The proctor for the exam, Houzuki Ari shows us that in the main story, Houzuki Masaomi really was going easy on Kenichi. She is cruel, abuses her authority and is casually brutal.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She set up Mina and Masaomi like setting up a pulp romance novel with the highborn princess and the low, gritty commoner. However, she's unable to grasp that there's more to the relationship than this nor can she grasp the appeal of being an actual decent person, which wrecks her attempts to get Masaomi to join her. But in the end it doesn't matter. While she never gets his love or actual support, it's a Foregone Conclusion that Masaomi doesn't win here. Masaomi seems to assume it's because she's sterile.
- Generation Xerox: Masaomi ends up becoming just like her minus the evil. She pretty bluntly states that the same thing happened to her. The difference between her and Masaomi is that she doesn't really regret what she's become.
- Older Than They Look: She's short and thin and looks little older than the rest of the cast, but is almost surely around twenty years older.
- The Svengali: Unlike Houzuki who was really trying in his own way to get Kenichi to follow in his footsteps or perhaps rebel against him, Ari just wants another pawn under her control.
- Xanatos Gambit: Even when Masaomi manages to trick her with something she hadn't expected (disguising himself as a corpse) she had still accounted for the possibility of being taken captive and manages to win in the end.
