This is a character sub-page for Somali and the Forest Spirit. Tropes belonging to specific characters should go below.
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Somali
Voiced by: Inori Minase (Japanese), Corina Boettger (English)
The titular main character, a young human girl who was found one day by a golem. Following that encounter, she is adopted by him and the two start on a journey to find more humans.- Cheerful Child: Somali's cheerfulness is only matched by her boundless curiosity.
- Constantly Curious: As mentioned above, Somali's incredibly curious towards everything, which considering her penchant for getting lost, is often a problem for the golem.
- Genki Girl: Whenever Somali does something, she does it full of energy and excitement, never slowing down when it comes to satisfying her interests, with only the words and actions of her "Dad" being able to keep her in check.
- Go Through Me: Does this to save aunt Rosa after Golem's defense systems are activated.
- In the Hood: Somali specifically wears a hooded cloak around other monsters to hide not her identity but her species. The false horns allow her to pass as a minotaur child.
- It's All My Fault: Whenever something bad happens to Golem, the first one she tends to blame is herself.
- Locked Out of the Loop: The golem is purposefully keeping her from finding out that he only has a few years left in his lifespan, as he doesn't want to trouble her emotional state with the fact he will have to leave her whether she wants it or not.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Probably the only reason that her disguise works is the fact that she is always with Golem and humans are so rare that her being one isn't even a possibility people consider.
- Spell My Name With An S: The English release of the manga deliberately romanizes Somali's name as Somari instead, possibly to avoid connections with the country Somalia and avoid referencing Somali pirates.
- Super Drowning Skills: Somali does not know how to swim and nearly drowns, but is luckily rescued.
- Token Human: She's the sole human we know of for most of the story, with finding more humans being the main plot.
- Eventually revealed not to be the case in the manga where we are introduced to an old man named Zaza, early on. He is the only survivor of the massacre of his village and lives in a small hut in a forest, far away from the monsters and like Somali, uses disguise to hide his identity. Later on, we are also introduced to another human, a young woman named Sakura. She is actually the descendant of Miya, the human girl who befriended the witch Feodora and currently in possession of the Chronicle of Haraiso, the book that Isolde wrote. Despite being a human, she is the leader of a gang of monster-thieves. She is also seemingly connected to Somali, as she is shown humming a song that Somali also seems to know. It is hinted she and Somali might came from the same village.
The Golem / "Dad"
Voiced by: Daisuke Ono (Japanese), Kyle Hebert (English)
Somali's adoptive father, a golem who during a routine patrol of his forest stumbled upon the young girl. He is searching for humans in order to give Somali a permanent home, as he does not have much time left in this world.- An Arm and a Leg: Lost his left arm in a failed attempt to use his powers to save Somali from a group of human poachers.
- Anger Born of Worry: The rare moments in which he loses his cool are usually when Somali disobeys his orders, potentially putting herself at risk. A notable example is when she decided to go looking for a flower that grants a wish and returned later than promised.
- Cyclops: While he normally has an Eyeless Face, when serious, the golem opens the center of his face to show a single eye, which has numerous potential uses, from analyzing the structural makeup of anything to firing a deadly Eye Beam that can vaporise almost everything in its path.
- Exact Time to Failure: Golems live exactly a thousand years, and he used to know how much time he had left down to the seconds, but he lost track of it after sustaining major injuries and losing a considerable amount of time.
- Face of a Thug: He's quite intimidating at first glance, being almost 7 feet tall with a face like a skull and exposed musculature. But he's quite genial when people get to know him.
- Feel No Pain: After breaking a piece of himself off to give to Shizuno in exchange for learning how to make medicine, Somali expresses concern about the golem's well-being, to which he explains that golems have no sense of pain. Which means that no matter how much he breaks apart, he will never feel it.
- Gentle Giant: He, as all other golems, easily towers over almost all of the cast. He also claims to have no emotions, but it's clear that it's not the case and that he cares deeply for his friends, and in special for Somali.
- Hulking Out: This happened after his first failed attempt to rescue Somali from the poachers, which resulted in the loss of his left arm.
- Major Injury Underreaction: He doesn't feel any pain and doesn't mind losing chunks of his exoskeleton, taking this as a natural sign of getting close to his end. A major example is when he fought human poachers and was terribly injured, even losing his right arm.
- The Needless: Golems need nothing but water and sunlight to function, though he started being "unoperational" during night time since after sustaining major injuries in battle.
- Papa Wolf: Almost from the moment they met, the golem has felt a strong sense of protectiveness towards Somali. Even in spite of his claims to have no emotions, whenever there's any potential for danger towards Somali, he expresses worry and concern, and when there actually IS something that could threaten Somali present, he's fully open to killing people if it means she'll be safe.
- Parental Substitute: Ever since the golem stumbled upon Somali, he's effectively taken on the role of her father. They may not fully understand what it's like to be each other's race, and Somali's childish enthusiasm can frustrate the golem at times, but both of them genuinely love and care about each other, even if the golem doesn't fully comprehend how much he cares about Somali.
- Protectorate: He will protect Somali until his last second.
- Race-Name Basis: Likely as a result of him being a creature that doesn't interact with other races often, the golem doesn't have a name, with most other characters simply referring to him as "golem" or "Mr. Golem". The closest thing he has to a name is Somali referring to him as "Dad".
- Really 700 Years Old: Really 998 years and 253 days old when he first reveals his age.
- Secretly Dying: Is keeping from Somali that he has little time left to live, even promising to her that he will be with her forever, knowing that it's a promise he won't be able to keep.
- Skull for a Head: The Golem's head has a pattern that vaguely makes it look like a skull.
- The Stoic: The golem's normal state is very calm and composed, almost never reacting emotionally to the things around him. In some situations, such as when Somali is potentially in danger, however, he shows that at the very least he's fully capable of experiencing fury and/or worry.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: As a being of the forest, the golem is capable of understanding and communicating with animals.
- Tin Man: The golem says he has no emotions, and indeed he does normally operate solely on logic and efficiency. But when it comes to Somali, he's often shown to be just as capable of experiencing emotions as anybody else, he simply isn't able to process why he does so.
- Unstoppable Rage: After watching the human poachers holding Somali and discussing how to split her parts between them while she cries and calls for him, he hulks out and goes into a rampage of killing even the poachers that were running away. It took Somali's intervention to make him come back to himself.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: The Golem repeatedly states that golems have no emotions, but he cannot understand why he cares for Somali, or why he wants to see her smile.
- Your Days Are Numbered: He doesn't have long left in the world, with him only have a little more than 2 years left by the time we learn of his limited lifespan. It's why he's so desperate to find more humans for Somali to be with while he still has time to spare.
Haitora
Voiced by: Yuki Ono (Japanese), Doug Erholtz (English)
One of the few remaining humans. Raised a harpy girl since she was little, following her mother's death.- The Atoner: Decided to raise Uzoi out of guilt for having killed her mother and having his own family eat her flesh, causing their death too. He deeply loves and cares for Uzoi, and the feelings are reciprocated, but he feels unworthy of being her family and full of guilt every time she expresses her affection because of this morbid secret.
- Convenient Terminal Illness: This and his guilt over Uzoi's mother death drove him into trying a Heroic Sacrifice to save Uzoi and Somali from a monster, but Uzoi saved him.
- Dark Secret: Doesn't have the heart to tell Uzoi what really happened to her mother.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Can shot a monster amidst a terrible sandstorm.
- Incurable Cough of Death: The main symptom of having his blood corrupted for ingesting a harpy's flesh.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Had to witness his wife and daughter suffer a Cruel and Unusual Death caused by the harpy flesh he convinced them to eat, and, as the cherry on top, found said harpy's young daughter looking for her mother.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: His disguise probably works only for the same reason as Somali's, that humans are so rare that it simply isn't something people think that it's possible for him to be one.
- Parental Substitute: Has been one for Uzoi ever since he made her an orphan.
- Your Days Are Numbered: He and Uzoi are travelling to find a cure to his disease. She believes that the main issue is that there are no treatments specifically for humans, thus making finding a cure difficult, but it's actually caused by having his blood corrupted by having eaten a harpy's flesh.
Uzoi
Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese), Cristina Vee (English)
An orphan harpy that was raised by Haitora and travels with him in search for a cure for his disease.- Absurdly Sharp Claws: Has those and uses them to fight a monster.
- Action Girl: Grew up traveling with Haitora and is used to harsh situations and defending herself.
- Disappeared Dad: All harpies are usually raised only by their mothers.
- Super-Hearing: Harpies have heightened senses in general, but especially in hearing. She has trouble sleeping because of that.
- Little Bit Beastly: She has feathers in some parts of her body, wings and tridactyl feet, but looks mostly human.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Does this towards Haitora, not because of finding out about his real past, but because he tried to get himself eaten/killed while trying to save her and Somali.
- Winged Humanoid: She has a small pair of wings on her back that can be extended and used to glide.
- Would Hurt a Child: She invited Somali and Golem to cross the desert with her and Haitora, intending to kill Somali in hopes that her blood would cure Haitora's disease. But...
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Simply can't bring herself to harm Somali.
