open/close all folders
Meicho Shimbum
Jake Adelstein
- Intrepid Reporter: Jake tries to be one, but the inflexible rules of the conservative newspaper he works for seriously restricts independent action.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Jake's favorite trick to get Japanese people to let their guard down is to exploit their racism and act like a clueless gaijin. He exaggerates his American accent when speaking basic Japanese greetings to make it seem like he doesn't speak the language and pretends to not understand basic Japanese etiquette.
Emi Maruyama
- But Not Too Foreign: Emi's of Zainichi Korean origin. She has to hide her origin from the rest of the public due to being discriminated even though Japanese laws do not allow this.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Emi tries her best to accomodate Jake's work as best as she can without compromising the newspaper's name/reputation or his safety in Japan after he decides to do articles based on crime.
Jun "Trendy" Shinohara
Makoto "Tintin" Kurihira
Baku
- Da Editor: Baku's is a scorchingly racist misanthrope who calls him a gaijin to his face while yelling at and humiliating him. The problem is that his editor is usually right about what he's angry about.
Tokyo Metropolitan Police
Hiroto Katagiri
- Cowboy Cop: Known to not tow the line with the rest of the TMPD in dealing with the yakuza.
Jin Miyamoto
- Dirty Cop: In Season 1, he's under the take of the Tozawa-gumi.
Chihara-kai
Hitoshi Ishida
- Even Evil Has Standards: Refuses to let anyone in the group make their clients kill themselves in shakedowns.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Ishida sticks to the "old ways" of the yakuza, which he feels are more honorable, unlike the "virus" that is Tozawa. However, self-interest is also at play. Staying within certain moral boundaries means he can maintain an unwritten truce with the police. He even leverages this stance explicitly when requesting help from Katagiri against Tozawa.
Akira Sato
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Ishida gives Sato a test of commitment by telling him to execute Sato's mentor, who betrayed the clan, putting Sato's loyalty in question.
- Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: Sato is the most humanized and good-natured Yakuza in the show. While he's willing to engage in violence and blackmail, it's almost exclusively against Asshole Victims or in self-defence. His clan, the Ishida-gumi is likewise portrayed as more honorable than their rivals, the Tozawa-gumi.
- You Are in Command Now: Leads the Chihara-kai at the end of Season 2.
Naoki Hayama
- Asshole Victim: Even the rank and file in the Chihara-kai don't mourn his death after most of them in the bathhouse shove his face in the water.
Tozawa-gumi
Shinzo Tozawa
- Secretly Dying: Tozawa is suffering from an apparently fatal and degenerative disease, but hiding it from his clan to maintain his grip on power. As of season two, he's no longer dying courtesy of an illegal organ transplant in the US.
Noboru Nakahara
Masamune Yabuki
Club Polina
Samantha Porter
Family
Adelsteins:
Eddie Adelstein
Willa Adelstein
Jessica Adelstein
Satos
Kaito Sato
Rie Sato
