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The Cage User
A private detective from the Far East who has built up a reputation for solving mysteries of a supernatural nature across Europe. In truth, "The Cage User" is actually the main trio, who have all come from Japan to Europe to track down a man with an "M" on his cane who has ruined their lives, and solving mysteries is a side-project to that goal. Aya Rindo
- Voiced by: Tomoyo Kurosawa
- Artistic License – Biology: Technically Aya shouldn't be able to speak or have a working brain with just a head detached from the rest of her body.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: While she works as a detective, Aya is still an immortal being who doesn't follow the moral code or law enforcement expected from her profession.
- Complete Immortality: Aya is a yokai who doesn't age and can't be killed through any normal means. She's still alive even after getting decapitated and reduced to just her head. She has already lived for around 1,000 years.
- Brains and Brawn: The Brains to Tsugaru's Brawn. Aya is literally just a head, so she can only use her brain in her current state. She uses her Sherlock Scan while leaving the fighting to Tsugaru.
- Deadpan Snarker: And she is always willing to make jokes at her own expense too.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She's an immortal woman reduced to only a head with long black hair and pale skin.
- Hime Cut: She has blunt bangs, cheek length sidelocks, and long straight hair, fitting her charm as a sophisticated Japanese woman.
- Intimate Healing: Aya's body fluids have healing properties and the easiest way to transmit them is by exchanging her saliva via a kiss.
- Last of Her Kind: The last of the Fushi by the time the story starts.
- Losing Your Head: She was reduced to a head after the rest of her body was stolen.
- Occult Detective: She's a Great Detective on Sherlock Holmes' level, with the only difference being that she specializes in cases involving supernatural beings like vampires and werewolves.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Tsugaru. She regularly has to kiss him to heal his injuries, but there's no romantic or sexual tension between them. Their relationship is that of partners on a mission.
- Really 700 Years Old: Her head appears roughly the same as she did back in the Heian era, roughly 1000 years before the start of the story.
- Sherlock Scan: Her deduction skills are so sharp that she even competes with the Trope Namer.
- The Smart Girl: Aya is the brains of the main trio, somewhat literally.
- Sympathy for the Devil: She willingly lets Nora escape, despite her having murdered innocent people for her own goals, because she sympathizes with her and the female werewolves she helped escape from Wolfinhöhle, as being a head in a cage lets her know how it feels to be trapped like a prisoner.
- Tsurime Eyes: Her eyes are sharp and focused like Aya herself is.
Tsugaru Shinuichi
- Voiced by: Taku Yashiro
- Adaptational Muscles: He's more muscular in the anime adaptation, which complements his close-range fighting style and Super-Strength.
- Alien Blood: His blood is blue as a result of getting injected with oni blood.
- Badass Longcoat: He's a super strong half-oni wearing a blue longcoat.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: His default fighting style, enhanced by his Super-Strength and Combat Pragmatist tendencies.
- Battle Strip: Downplayed. At times, Tsugaru will take off his coat and fight barefoot.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Tsugaru is usually The Gadfly and refrains from unnecessary violence. Once he engages in battle however, he is a scarily powerful combatant who can kill various monsters with little to no difficulty.
- Brains and Brawn: The Brawn to Aya's Brains. He handles the fighting while leaving the detective work to her.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He was Kidnapped for Experimentation by Moriarty and Jack, barely escaped only to become drafted into a monster-extermination squad, than ends up in a freak circus where he is forced to fight various monsters night after night waiting for his oni side to eventually fully take him over and kill him. Fortunately, he meets Aya and Shizuku which finally brightens up his life.
- Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: He has a half-lidded expression by default, showing how relaxed and chill he is.
- Half-Human Hybrid: He became part-oni as a result of Moriarty's experiments.
- The Igor: A surprisingly handsome and heroic example. It helps that he usually has a hunched posture, combined with his mannerisms that are very similar to the more common versions of The Igor.
- Locked into Strangeness: His hair turned blue after he got injected with oni blood and turned into a half-oni.
- The One Guy: He's the only man of the main trio.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Aya. They're always next to each other since Tsugaru needs to carry her cage and move her around. They get along well, but their relationship has not a single romantic hint in it.
- Playful Cat Smile: Gives off a cat smile whenever he is goofing around or trying to avoid scaring bystanders.
- Power Tattoo: The left side of his body is covered with tattoo lines that are direct result of his oni blood.
- Pungeon Master: He has a knack for lame puns.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The laid-back, heroic Blue Oni to Jack's vicious, villainous Red Oni. Even his hair and the lines of his body are bluish.
- Shirtless Scene: He's seen shirtless in the first episode.
- Superhuman Transfusion: He got injected with oni blood until he became a half-oni himself
- Super Prototype: Zig-Zagged. Tsugaru is the Sole Survivor of Moriarty's experiments, but is less stable and less overall powerful than Jack. However, Tsugaru is still able to outmaneuver Jack. Furthermore, Tsugaru's combat experience, Super-Strength, Super-Speed and Immortal Breaker powers as a part-oni make him a Hopeless Boss Fight for about 95% of his other opponents, especially non-humans.
Shizuku Hasei
- Voiced by: Makoto Koichi
- Ambiguously Gay: She's utterly devoted to Aya and a comment she makes to Carmilla implies that she has had a sexual relationship with Aya at some point.
- Badass Normal: Unlike Tsugaru, Shizuku is a normal human, but she's a fully trained fighter who can go toe to toe against a vampire.
- Bayonet Ya: Her Weapon Specialization is a bayonet that enables her to fight in long, mid and close range battles.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: She's usually quiet and no-nonsense, but anyone who insults or threatens her master Aya will invoke her wrath.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: She gets very dismayed whenever Aya kisses Tsugaru to heal his injuries, sometimes hitting him when he prolongs the "medical process".
- Formal Characters Use Keigo: As expected from a maid, Shizuku speaks in very formal Japanese at all times.
- Going Commando: In the Werewolf Village Arc, Tsugaru forgets the underwear when he brings a change of clothes for Shizuku. This leads to Shizuku accidentally flashing Carmilla during their fight.
- Hidden Depths: When Nora is found dead, Shizuku gathers clues on her murder suggesting that she was shot elsewhere and the gunshot that she and the villagers heard was a second gunshot though she's not skilled enough to draw a conclusion. When she reunites with her master, Shizuku gives her findings which Aya appreciates.
- Jerkass to One: She's very disdainful and harsh towards Tsugaru, whom she verbally and physically abuses on a regular basis.
- Legacy of Service: Her family has served Aya for generations since the Genna era.
- Naginatas Are Feminine: She uses her bayonet as an improvised naginata.
- Ninja Maid: Aside of regular daily attendant duties, Shizuku is Aya's secondary combatant.
- Satellite Character: She doesn't have much characterization beyond her loyalty to Aya and all that is known about her background is that she was raised to be Aya's maid from birth.
- Sole Survivor: She's the only one of Aya's retainers who wasn't killed during the incident where Aya's body was stolen.
- Subordinate Excuse: She loyally serves Aya as her personal maid and it's more than implied that Shizuku has feelings for Aya that go deeper than servitude.
- Token Human: She's the only full human of the main trio.
- Tsurime Eyes: Her sharp eyes match her serious and stern character.
- Undying Loyalty: She's fully dedicated to Aya no matter what happens, being willing to carry out any order Aya gives her.
Banquet
A band of supernatural criminals led by the legendary villain Professor James Moriarty himself. General Tropes
- Badass Crew: They have several terrifyingly powerful combatants and can curb-stomp even the Royce agents.
- Eviler than Thou: They usually end up eclipsing the Royce agents.
- Evil Versus Evil: With Royce. Due to their opposing goals, the two villainous factions often end up clashing.
Professor Moriarty
- Voiced by: Wataru Yokojima
- Adaptational Intelligence: Downplayed. He was already a reputed academic in the original novels and a capable criminal mastermind. This version just goes one step further and makes him a borderline Omnidisciplinary Scientist.
- Big Bad: Stole Aya's body reducing her to a head, kidnapped Tsugaru for experimentation and is currently leading a dangerous group whose goals could easily lead to horrific consequences for the whole world.
- Evil Genius: So much so that he is able to analyze supernatural phenomena in a scientific (but unethical) way and then utilize his findings to carry out terrifying, yet surprisingly successful experiments.
- Evil Old Folks: One of the oldest humans in the series and also one of the most malevolent among them.
- Hat of Authority: Wears a top hat and is the head of Banquet.
- Truer to the Text: Unlike most recent depictions, this incarnation of Moriarty is an old man, just like in the original novels.
Jack The Ripper
- Voiced by: Soma Saito
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Sharp-dressed and one of the most dangerous fighters in the story, with potential to become THE strongest one.
- Composite Character: Aside of being Jack the Ripper, he also fills in for Sebastian Moran as Moriarty's Dragon-in-Chief.
- Evil Counterpart: To Tsugaru. They're both the only successful test subjects in Moriarty's experiment to create an artificial half-oni, but Tsugaru works for the heroic genius detective Aya while Jack works for the evil genius professor Moriarty.
- Evil Redhead: He has red hair and is the strongest enforcer of the Big Bad.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: On top of him already being a Serial Killer, Moriarty turned him into a Half-Human Hybrid who yearns to become the Ultimate Lifeform, no matter how many people suffer in the process.
- Locked into Strangeness: Tsugaru mentions Jack's hair wasn't red before Moriarty turned him into a half-oni.
- Master of All: Thanks to Moriarty's science with Rindo's cells, Jack can assimilate the abilities and powers of any monster with none of the weaknesses. Stopping him before he grows too powerful becomes the main point of the series.
- Power Tattoo: The tattoo lines on the right side of his body are proof that he's a half-oni.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The vicious, villainous Red Oni to Tsugaru's laid-back, heroic Blue Oni. His hair and the lines across his body are red in further contrast to Tsugaru.
- Ultimate Lifeform: His end goal is to become this. His request to be experimented on is what got Moriarty interested in mixing humans with non-humans.
Aleister Crowley
- Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita
- Badass Fingersnap: When he snaps his fingers, he fires poisonous needles at bullet speed.
- Badass Longcoat: He wears a longcoat as he uses tiny needles, poisons, and other magic tricks to dispatch his enemies.
- Beard of Evil: He's a member of the criminal group Banquet and has a goatee.
- Classy Cravat: He wears a cravat that makes him look classy.
- Fake Wizardry: His magic is really just a cunning usage of highly combustive chemicals and his Super-Reflexes.
- Super-Reflexes: According to Sherlock, his thumbs are twice as fast as a normal human's.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Carmilla constantly diss each other, yet they're never actually threatening each other's lives and do not obstruct each other at work.
Carmilla
- Voiced by: Reina Kondo
- Designated Girl Fight: Whenever she runs into the main characters, she ends up fighting Shizuku.
- Evil Redhead: She's a villainous vampire with red hair.
- Femme Fatale: She's a very sexy vampire lady who is very deadly with a sword and loves to make women into her playthings very sucking their blood.
- Femme Fatalons: She's a murderous vampire with very long and sharp fingernails.
- Iaijutsu Practitioner: She can slice people into pieces as quickly as she draws her sword.
- Impossible Hourglass Figure: She has a very large bust and wide hips, with a thin waist in between.
- Impossibly-Low Neckline: Her low-cut dress reveals a fair amount of cleavage and just barely covers her shoulders.
- Lesbian Vampire: As it's typical for Carmilla, she's a vampire who preys on women and treats them as her playthings.
- Licking the Blade: During her first fight with Shizuku, Carmilla licks her blade to taste the blood of the people she just killed.
- Living Aphrodisiac: Her blood has the same effect as a powerful aphrodisiac for anyone that consumes it.
- Master Swordswoman: She displays incredible swordsmanship.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's a beautiful vampire woman with a voluptuous figure and a form-fitting dress that shows off her big bosom.
- Psycho Lesbian: She loves to murder nubile women after dousing them in aphrodisiacs.
- Really 700 Years Old: She looks like a young woman, but is over 330 years old.
- Sexy Slit Dress: She wears a long dress with a thigh-high slit that shows off her left leg.
- The Smurfette Principle: She's the only female member of Banquet.
- Sword Cane: She carries a parasol from which she can pull out a sword.
- Undeathly Pallor: Being a vampire, she has very pale skin.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: For all her banter with Aleister, the two are nonetheless effective at their work and do not make any effort to disrupt each other.
Victor
- Voiced by: Itaru Yamamoto
- Ascended Extra: Barely has any screen time in the Fogg Mansion Arc, but has a more prominent role later in the Werewolf Village Arc.
- The Brute: He's the muscle of Banquet.
- Exotic Eye Designs: His eyes have no sclerae, with the space surrounding his pupils being completely bright green.
- Frankenstein's Monster: He's an artificial human being created by piecing together corpses based on Dr. Frankenstein's memoirs.
- Noble Demon: Ironically, he is the least crazy member of the organization and is willing to keep his part of the bargain after asking for the Penultimate Night as an assurance and even returns it back after the other party did as agreed.
- Pointy Ears: His ears are pointy.
- Tombstone Teeth: He has an enormous mouth with block-shaped teeth.
Royce/Lloyd's of London
A famous London-based insurance agency with clients all across the globe. They maintain a small group of special security consultants who dress in all-white outfits and are more interested in exterminating monsters than protecting property. General Tropes
- Big Bad Wannabe: They're presented as the secondary antagonist force in the story, but Banquet repeatedly inflicts heavy casualties on them whenever the two groups clash.
- Creature-Hunter Organization: Their real occupation, but their front is a security agency.
- Fantastic Racism: Their whole motivation is their contempt for all non-human sentient life.
- The Worf Effect: Constantly end up being easily defeated by Banquet members.
Fatima Doubledarts
- Voiced by: Sara Matsumoto
- Beware the Quiet Ones: She appears meek and humble at first, but when forced to take action, is a crack shot with her customized hand-crossbows.
- Desecrating the Dead: After Jack slices her to ribbons, Tsugaru throws her heart like a ripe tomato at Jack.
- Girlish Pigtails: Her hair is tied into large, puffy pigtails that resemble dog ears.
- Long-Range Fighter: She fights with a pair of hand-crossbows, making her specialized in ranged combat.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Jack slays her during the arc we meet her in.
Reynold Stinghart
- Voiced by: Shinichirou Kamio
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Reynold wields a sabre that can cleave through solid stone pillars.
- Neat Freak: He despises getting himself dirty.
Alice Rapidshot
- Voiced by: Ayaka Asai
- Boyish Short Hair: She has a bob haircut and the dressing style of a cowboy.
- Guns Akimbo: She wields a pistol on each hand during battle.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Her partner Kyle is twice her size.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Masculine Girl to Kyle's Feminine Boy. Alice is a short-tempered and crude woman dressed as a cowboy, while Kyle is kind effeminate and wears makeup.
- The Napoleon: She's a tiny woman with a very nasty temper.
- Perpetual Frowner: She looks pissed all the time.
- Psychopathic Womanchild: She utterly embraces Black-and-White Insanity, all while justifying everything she does with Royce's Fantastic Racism creed.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: She's a gunslinger with Rapidshot for a surname.
- Tomboyish Voice: She has a very raspy voice to match her masculine vocabulary as an Ore Onna.
- Youthful Freckles: She's a short and hot-tempered woman with freckles across her nose.
Kyle Chaintail
- Voiced by: Soh Nozawa
- Agent Peacock: More fabulous than his colleagues, and is so far the only member of Royce to have held his own against a member of Banquet one-on-one and almost won, had Tsugaru not intervened at the last moment.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He comes across more mild-mannered than his colleagues. However, he is just as bloodthirsty when it comes to exterminating monsters with his heavy metal chains.
- Chain Pain: His fighting style revolves around using sturdy chains both to immobilize his opponents and to attack.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Alice barely reaches his waist when standing next to him.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Feminine Boy to Alice's Masculine Girl. Kyle has feminine speech patterns and wears makeup, in contrast to his cowboy-like Ore Onna of a partner.
Paris
Arsène Lupin
- Voiced by: Mamoru Miyano
A legendary gentleman thief from Paris and a master of disguise.
- Classy Cravat: He's a well-known gentleman thief wearing a cravat.
- Latex Perfection: Without a Sherlock Scan, Lupin's disguises are nigh-impossible to see through.
- Lovable Rogue: He likes to emphasize he's a gentleman thief, and a quite charming one at that.
- Master of Disguise: Disguises are one of his specialities as a thief.
- Mr. Fanservice: An eccentric, yet honorable Pretty Boy. He even gets a Shirtless Scene.
- Phantom Thief: He delights in sending a Calling Card to his targets shortly before he steals their possessions from them.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: With Jack's Dramatic Entry and brutal elimination of the Royce agents making it abundantly clear that he is bad news, Lupin immediately proceeds to flee, only menaging to keep the safe in the process.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: He never kills people during his thefts.
- Workout Fanservice: He is so dedicated to his gentleman thief career that he regularly works out to stay in shape for his heists, even after meals. Shirtless, of course.
Erik, The Phantom of the Opera
- Voiced by: Hiro Shimono
- Adaptational Attractiveness: He's based on the versions of the Phantom that are handsome with a sunburn-like deformity on one half of the face, as opposed to the original novel where Erik looked like a living skeleton.
- Albinos Are Freaks: He was persecuted for his naturally gray hair.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": He hates being called by his real name, Erik.
- Masking the Deformity: He wears a mask to hide the burn scar on his face.
- A Match Made in Stockholm: Lupin kidnaps Erik, calling him the most valuable treasure of the opera house. Since Lupin is the first person to see Erik as someone worthwhile, Erik agrees to become Lupin's partner in crime.
- Two-Faced: The right side of his face is scarred.
London
Sherlock Holmes
- Voiced by: Shin-ichiro Miki
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: People find him rather odd, but only Aya can compete with his skills as a detective.
- Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Like the classical Sherlock Holmes, he often carries a smoking pipe.
- Genius Bruiser: He's master of deductive reasoning who uses bartitsu for self-defense.
- Great Detective: He's the Sherlock Holmes, so it's to be expected he's a detective with deductive skills like no other.
- Sherlock Scan: Being the Trope Namer himself, his observation and deduction skills are top-notch.
Dr. John Watson
- Voiced by: Masaki Aizawa
- Satellite Character: His role is to be Sherlock's sidekick who supports him on his cases.
Mycroft Holmes
- Voiced by: Naoki Bando
- Satellite Family Member: All that's established about him is that he's Holmes' brother.
- Sherlock Scan: His deduction skills are as sharp as his brother's, being able to see through Lupin disguising himself as Holmes right away.
Wolfinhöhle
Nora (Unmarked Spoilers)
- Voiced by: Maaya Uchida
- Broken Bird: When she was a child, the real Louise exposed her as a werewolf and her mother was killed by humans. She then escaped to the village that chased out her mother, and the chief planned to turn her into a Breeding Slave and force her to give birth to the ultimate werewolf. She had to resort to murder to avoid this fate. It's easy to understand why she never smiles.
- Emotionless Girl: She never shows emotion, not even when her crimes get exposed.
- Faking the Dead: She killed the real Louise and used her corpse as a Body Double to fake her own death.
- Karma Houdini: While her motive was to save young female werewolves from being turned into Breeding Slaves, Nora killed innocent human girls as a cover for the werewolves she rescued, and then for herself when Aya was investigating the case. Despite this, Aya doesn't judge Nora's crimes and decides to let her escape Wolfinhöhle so she can finally enjoy her freedom.
- Living a Double Life: For a year and a half, Nora lived as Louise in the human village during daytime and went back to the werewolf village during nighttime.
- Magical Barefooter: Like other werewolves, she's barefoot because any footwear would get destroyed by her transformation.
- Obfuscating Disability: She impersonated the wheelchair-bound Louise for a year and a half.
- Revenge: Subverted. Aya deduced that Nora's goal for murdering girls from the human and werewolf villages was to take revenge for her mother's exile by the werewolves and murder by the humans. However, turns out Nora was allowing the female werewolves to escape the village and only killed the human girls to use their corpses as Body Doubles to trick the werewolves.
- Sympathetic Murderer: She killed young girls from the human village and used their bodies to fake the death of girls from the werewolf village because Nora wanted to save them from the fate of being turned into Breeding Slaves that would give birth to strong werewolves. Aya initially thought Nora's goal was revenge, but once she learns of her true motives, she sympathizes with Nora and lets her go free.
- Twin Switch: A year and a half ago, Nora kidnapped the real Louise and stole her identity. Since both girls looked identical to each other, no one noticed the switch, not even Louise's parents.
- Two Aliases, One Character: She's revealed to be Jutte, the young werewolf who was thought to have been killed by the human villagers along with her mother eight years ago, and the fake Louise who stole the identity of the real one a year and a half ago.
Others
Annie Kerber
- Voiced by: Sayumi Suzushiro
A young French reporter.
- Intrepid Reporter: She has been following The Cage User and their exploits across Europe.
