The characters of Suicide Island and associated tropes.
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Characters on the island:
The characters as a whole
- Bungled Suicide: All characters have survived suicide attempts and are now trapped on the island.
- Despair Event Horizon: Almost all characters have crossed it at some time, although some of them regain trust.
- Fate Worse than Death: Many characters think this way about the island. Most characters who commit suicide after arriving do so on the first night because of this trope. Sei is one of the few who finds a new outlook and purpose.
- Fish out of Water: They all arrive the island completely unaware of where they are. Only a sign by the government informs them about their whereabouts.
- Legally Dead: All of them are officially dead and abandoned by the government.
- Red Pill, Blue Pill: The darkest possible version of this trope and inverted: Suicide attempters are asked if they want to live - if they say yes they'll return to their former life, if they say no they are brought to suicide island.
- Unperson: As far as the government is concerned, everyone who ends up on that island does not exist anymore.
- You Can't Go Home Again: What's basically posted by the Japanese Government at the docks for newcomers to read.
Sei
Sei is a nineteen-year-old boy and the main protagonist of the story.
At the age of 19, he cuts his left wrist and takes an overdose of medicinal drugs. He barely survives his suicide attempt and gets introduced into the "suicidal recidivist" list of the government, where he signs a document upon his expected death in the hospital. But instead of dying he gets abandoned on suicide island, where he starts a new life.After spending some time on the island, he crafts a bow and arrows to hunt deer, befriends a girl named Maria (renamed as "Liv") and adopts a dog puppy named "Ikiru" which becomes his hunting dog.
- The Atoner: When he finds a new grasp on his life, he spends the rest of the story trying to make for hin misdeeds in the past.
- Attempted Rape: On the first night Sei is too afraid to speak up during an attempted gang-rape of a fellow islander until it is stopped by Ryou. This later drives him to save Liv from a similar fate.
- Driven to Suicide: This seems to be a Deconstructed Trope with Sei. He tried to kill himself several times but finds a new outlook on life, and thinks that just living itself and being one with the nature is good enough for him.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: He has the dullest eyes in the entire cast.
- Emo Teen: He has traits of this: he has the typical haircut and is quite angsty, self-doubting and introverted. He's in his late teens though (19).
- Entitled to Have You: Sei feels this way about Liv after rescuing her from her would be rapists. He quickly snaps out of it though.Sei: I'm the one who protected her. This woman is mine.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Sei is really afraid to become like Sawada and Kai after pondering over his resolve to bring back Tomo from Sawada's camp.
- Hikikomori: Sei was one, locking himself in his room and barely even talking to his parents.
- Hunter Trapper: Sei's new life. He crafts a bow and goes hunting for deer to feed himself and the group. Ikiru is his always helping dog.
- Inner Monologue: He has many inner monologues, especially in the beginning, where he speaks to himself almost constantly.
- Life/Death Juxtaposition: Very much in his characterization. When he goes hunting for deer, he sees his own (attempted) death as in contrast with the strong animals he hunts. Some appearing skulls reinforce this.
- The Marvelous Deer: How he sees the deer he hunts. Initially at least.
- Meaningful Name: "Sei" means life, "Ikiru" (= his dog) means to live and Liv is self-explanatory. They all form a team by the second half of the story and are the characters who most embody life.
- Nature Hero: Sei, eventually. He begins to love the forest and moves all across the island.
- Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: Especially in the beginning, Sei almost constantly visibly sweats.
- Self-Harm: He sometimes uses a knife to cut himself.
- These Hands Have Killed: Sei when he thinks he accidentally caused someone to fall, didn't help him and ended up dying. Happens again when Sei simply injures someone with an arrow, albeit the type of injury being practicaly a death sentence on the island.
- Took a Level in Idealism: Sei tried to kill himself several times but on the island he finds a new outlook on life as hunter of deer and does not want to die anymore.
- We Used to Be Friends: Kai and Sei were friends, until Kai started to drive others to suicide and betray the village
Maria ("Liv")
After the death of her family she moved in with her uncle who sexually abused her until she finished school and moved out. She became heavily traumatized and chose death, only to fail and end up on this island. After she is renamed by Sei as "Liv" she becomes Sei's friend and love interest in the story.
- Barefoot Suicide: The first time we see her, she attempts to jump off a height barefoot.
- Broken Bird: Her background has broken her into what she sees herself: a "doll" that has no meaning in life and sees no reason to continue living.
- Hope Is Scary: Liv. She wants to continue with her life but is very psychologically unstable and has a lot of fear.
- Insecure Love Interest: She's Sei's Love Interest but feels unworthy of anything, and especially of being loved.
- Interrupted Suicide: Sei interrupts her when he first meets her. She wants to jump to her death.
- Meaningful Rename: There's a girl whose name hadn't been revealed for some time. When she eventually admits her past to him, revealing her name to be Maria and how she hates the name, Sei gives her the name Liv.
- Rape as Backstory: Her uncle after her family had died.
- Spell My Name With An S: Liv or Lif?
- Suicide Pact: She invokes this when Sei first meets her. She asks him if he wants to jump with her but he declines.
- That Woman Is Dead: She tries to fully dissociate from her past, to the extent that she refuses to be named. Sei later helps her to a Meaningful Rename and she decides to live anew.
Kai
Kai is an acquaintance of Sei. A year older than him, they met during therapy sessions. He's very cynical and serves as the antagonist.
- Break Them by Talking: This is Kai's favorite method of getting people killed: Approaching them when they're at their most fragile and talking them into suicide.
- The Cynic: Kai is extremely cynical. He believes that Humans Are Bastards and that the world would be much better off without them. This results in him conflicting with Sei often.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: While his evilness is disputable, Kai, having induced people to commit suicide all along and even murdered someone, doesn't understand why the rest of the main cast want to live so badly. He eventually snaps and tries to kill them all.
- Foil: Kai to Sei, especially after The Reveal that Kai killed one survivor. Both ponder that Humans Are Bastards, but while Kai tries to solve the problem by killing, thus removing humans, Sei actively tries to search what roles can the survivor take in nature. His answer is to be the top of the food chain to balance the ecosystem.
- Manipulative Bastard: Kai tries to convince everybody to be The Cynic and a Straw Nihilist. He's an adept of Break Them by Talking and quite a good one at that.
- Straw Nihilist: Kai. He believes firmly that humans have no place in the world, saying that since the world is so beautiful, why is mankind even on Earth to begin with? He doesn't think that mankind has anything to contribute to the world. He even tries to kill the entire group just because he felt like it.
- Suicide Dare: Kai does this with multiple characters. When he fails he wants to kill them all.
- Suicide Is Painless: Kai believes this firmly and is not shy to tell other people. He seems to be longing for death a lot.
Ryou
A character acting like the leader of the main group. He's unusually positive for a suicidal person.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: He always wears one and is the most courageous character in the cast.
- Broken Ace: Ryou's natural strength and charisma help the other survivors cling to life, and when threats arise, his presence is usually enough to scare them off. Everyone thinks Ryou so unshakable that they sometimes forget: there's only one way anyone gets to Suicide Island.
- Heroic BSoD: Ryou, after trying to strike out on a raft and discovering that the government will not permit escape.
- The Leader: In Sei's commune, Ryou is the chief of the village. When he got cold feet because of Sawada, some schmuck try to replace him and leads an attack to Sawada's camp, but it fails. Sei can also be seen like this, as he's one of few people the commune listens to.
Tomo
A person who lived in Okinawa before. Seemingly had gender identity issues.
- Defiled Forever: Implied as the reason why Tomo doesn't want to go back even after being rescued by Sei and co.Tomo: "And I've seen salvation... only in death."
- Trans Tribulations: Tomo's deepest secret, and reason for being on the island.
Other Characters:
Eiko
Aoyama Eiko is a girl from Sei's high school and member of the kyudo (archery) club. She wants Sei to join the club but he hesitates. He still befriends her and listens to her stories on the school's roof. She only appears in Sei's flashbacks and dies by her own hands long before Sei arrives on the island.
- Driven to Suicide: She loves the archery club very much, and one reason is to escape her problems. When she faces them, she decides to commit suicide. As she's rather upbeat this comes as a huge surprise for Sei.
- Extracurricular Enthusiast: He heart burns for the archery club and not for very much else.
- Goodbye, Cruel World!: She leaves a suicide note in a book for Sei to find, which thanks him for listening and is also a further elaboration on what she told him on the roof: After telling him that the show (= life) must go on because you never become fully content she finally has found something to make her fully content, so the show must end.
- "On the rooftop, the autumn breeze has begun to blow..." (Sei's inner monologue)
- Small Role, Big Impact: Although she only appears in one chapter (chapter 11), she has a huge impact on Sei's life as the incident puts sadness and despair on his radar.
- Teen Pregnancy: Sei heard rumors that her suicide has to do with her being pregnant, but nobody knows if this is true.
- Tragic One-Shot Character: She only appears in Sei's flashback and nowhere else.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: Sei's tragic backstory manifests here.
