| 1 | [[WMG:[[center: ''VisualNovel/SlowDamage'' [[Characters/SlowDamage Character Index]]\ |
| 2 | [- [[Characters/SlowDamageMainCharacters Main Characters]] | '''Supporting Characters''' ([[Characters/SlowDamageTheTakasatoGumi The Takasato-gumi]])]]-]]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | This page is for tropes related to the supporting characters of ''VisualNovel/SlowDamage''. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | '''Note''': If the name of the character's voice actor is enclosed in quotation marks (e.g. "Name of voice actor"), it means that the name is only a pseudonym, and the voice actor's true identity remains undisclosed. If the voice actor of a character is listed as "???", it means that the character is voiced in the visual novel, but their voice actor was never specifically credited with the role of said character. |
| 7 | ---- |
| 8 | |
| 9 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 10 | |
| 11 | !! The Takasato-gumi |
| 12 | |
| 13 | For more information about the organization and its members, refer to [[Characters/SlowDamageTheTakasatoGumi this page]]. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | !! ''euphoria'''s Models |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[folder:The "Vampire"]] |
| 18 | !!!'''Voiced by''': ??? |
| 19 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_vampire.png]] |
| 20 | \ |
| 21 | |
| 22 | A mysterious man who prowls the streets at night in search of prey to drain their blood of, with his victims getting a puncture wound on their neck afterwards. Because of his modus operandi, he's dubbed a "vampire" by both the media and the local community. |
| 23 | ---- |
| 24 | * ChekhovsGunman: He appears in the tutorial at the beginning of the game, though the player needs to complete Taku, Rei and Madarame's routes before they can see him again in the game proper. |
| 25 | * DiseaseByAnyOtherName: His obsession with drinking blood hints that he may be suffering from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_(disorder) pica]], something the narration even points out, but it is never confirmed in-universe. |
| 26 | * DrivenToSuicide: In Fujieda's route, [[spoiler:he kills himself some time after drinking Towa's blood]]. |
| 27 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: If the player has Towa [[spoiler:let the vampire suck his blood as much as he likes]], the "vampire" is both overjoyed that he finally got what he wanted yet is also horrified and ashamed at what he had done [[spoiler:to the point that he takes his own life]]. However, if Towa doesn't [[spoiler:let the man go overboard, the vampire still feels fulfilled but isn't left torn by the experience]]. |
| 28 | * MysteriousPast: Unlike the other three models, who both Towa and the player get to know, the vampire's own history is never revealed. All that's know about him is that he has a literal thirst for blood that he's unable to suppress or get rid of. |
| 29 | * NiceToTheWaiter: He goes mostly after sex workers, but he never really tries to kill any of them, and he always pays for their services in full whether or not he manages to drink their blood. |
| 30 | * NoNameGiven: His identity and name are never revealed, not even in the codex, the artbook or the liner notes. |
| 31 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: Whether he [[spoiler:goes all the way with drinking Towa's blood or not]] is absolutely vital in determining how the overall plot will move forward. If he does the former, the story will [[spoiler:automatically lock onto Fujieda's route]]. If not, [[spoiler:the events of the common route will play out instead]], with the player's choices from then on deciding whether [[spoiler:Taku, Rei or Madarame's story]] will happen. |
| 32 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: His fate is left unknown in the common route, [[spoiler: although it's highly likely that he didn't end up killing himself like he did in Fujieda's route]]. What further supports this possibility is that [[spoiler: whether Sakaki puts Maya's plans into motion or not depends entirely on whether the vampire will commit suicide after his run-in with Towa]], to which it doesn't in the common route. |
| 33 | [[/folder]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Takashi Ikuina]] |
| 36 | !!!'''Voiced by''': "Bunka Aguri" |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[quoteright:185:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_ikuina_6.png]] |
| 39 | \ |
| 40 | |
| 41 | ->'''Age''': 23\ |
| 42 | '''Height''': 173 cm\ |
| 43 | '''Blood Type''': A |
| 44 | \ |
| 45 | |
| 46 | ->''"When I first laid eyes on your work, I was struck to my core... It was love at first sight. That's how impactful it was to me. I don't know if I can even describe it in words... It pierced right through my heart."''\ |
| 47 | \ |
| 48 | |
| 49 | A university student working part-time at the flower shop Rosé. |
| 50 | ---- |
| 51 | * CorruptTheCutie: The traumatic experience that Ikuina mentioned had him [[spoiler: learning of his father's obsession with dissecting living beings and being taken to Euphoria to enact his father's desire on a younger Towa]]. This is what caused Ikuina to [[spoiler: inherit that same grotesque passion for lacerations and seeing what lies beneath human flesh]]. |
| 52 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Although Ikuina doesn't give any further details, he mentions a traumatic incident in his childhood which involved him [[spoiler: cutting someone with a knife multiple times. The amount of blood that he saw gush from the wounds he inflicted]] helped give way to his obsession with [[spoiler: cutting up people]]. It's also ironic that [[spoiler: the person he cut was actually Towa himself, who he would encounter years later as an adult], even though he never [[spoiler: recognizes Towa as the child that he was compelled into cutting open]]. |
| 53 | * DrivenToSuicide: Ikuina [[spoiler: hangs himself]] in both Madarame and Fujieda's routes, although [[spoiler: the circumstances behind his suicide]] differ between both instances. |
| 54 | ** In Madarame's route, [[spoiler: his "euphoric session" with Towa goes a bit differently]]. After they're done [[spoiler: cutting each other up]], Ikuina feels that [[spoiler: with his wish granted, he can already die happy; thus he commits suicide shortly after being hospitalized]]. |
| 55 | ** In Fujieda's route, he disappears some time after [[spoiler: his "euphoric session" with Towa, only to be reported dead by suicide days later, with his body found in his apartment]]. However, it's implied that he [[spoiler: was actually murdered by Sakaki, with his murder simply [[NeverSuicide staged as a suicide]]]]. |
| 56 | * ExhaustedEyebags: His eyes become more sunken by the latter half of the common route, as his anxiety has started to reach a breaking point [[spoiler: when his desire to cut up someone became harder to control]]. |
| 57 | * FlowerMotif: As discussed in-game, every batch of flowers that was sent to the clinic has their own unique meaning. With each new delivery, the meaning of the flower seems to connect to the meaning of the last flowers that were delivered, and it soon becomes obvious that whoever is sending the flowers is conveying a message to its intended recipient. For details, the first set of flowers delivered is pink gerberas, which symbolize "sublime beauty". The second is red geraniums, which carry the meaning of "I'm happy you're here." The third is purple pansies, which stand for "You're all I can think about." This, combined with the blue rose that Ikuina gave to Towa to express his sentiments of having his "dream come true", lets Towa realize that Ikuina is the anonymous sender of all those flowers. |
| 58 | * HemoErotic: The sight of wounds and scars gets his rapt attention, [[spoiler: and watching those same cuts ooze blood gets him outright ''excited'']]. Though he's mainly interested in [[spoiler:cutting others more than cutting himself]], he nonetheless gets turned on when [[spoiler:Towa leaves a few cuts on him during their "euphoric session"]]. |
| 59 | * LikeFatherLikeSon: He shares his father's [[spoiler: macabre interest in cutting up people to see their insides]]. |
| 60 | * MeaningfulName: His artist name, ''Fraise'', is French for "strawberry". The final portrait he submits in Roost's blog is a picture of a strawberry with a small cut on its skin, [[spoiler: which gives Towa the final clue to what Ikuina's innermost desire is]]. |
| 61 | * NiceGuy: Played with. Ikuina is gentle and polite, but the only thing that keeps him from properly applying for the trope is [[spoiler:his traumatophilia]]. |
| 62 | * NightmareFetishist: Towa figures out that Ikuina's [[spoiler:greatest desire is to cut someone open and see what lies inside]] simply because he thinks it to be a beautiful sight. |
| 63 | * OhCrap: Ikuina becomes alarmed when Towa insinuates that he knows [[spoiler: he's the culprit behind the sudden cases where people who pass out find themselves with a deep cut the next day]]. |
| 64 | * PsychoKnifeNut: While he's presented as the polite and shy type, Ikuina is also secretly mentally unstable [[spoiler: due to a disturbing urge that he has difficulty suppressing. He also keeps a curved knife in hand whenever he roams the streets in search for some unlucky soul to wound]]. |
| 65 | * PutOnABus: In both Taku and Rei's routes, Ikuina is only mentioned a few times, and he only reaches out to Towa once via email to express both his thanks and regrets before informing that he'll be looking for other like-minded partners somewhere else. |
| 66 | * SerialKiller: Downplayed, since Ikuina [[spoiler: doesn't actually kill his victims]]. His M.O. has him [[spoiler: go after anyone who would fall unconscious, to which he would cut them to sate his obsession with slicing human flesh, but he then patches up their wounds afterwards]]. However, the liner notes reveal that were it not for [[spoiler: his encounter with Towa, Ikuina would have eventually snapped and killed someone, which would them make him a straight-up example of the trope]]. |
| 67 | * SignatureScent: Towa notices that all the plants Ikuina sells, his apartment, and even his own person would always have the lingering smell of wormwood. Ikuina admits to having a liking for the herb, as shown by his fondness for drinking absinthe, an alcohol made from wormwood. |
| 68 | * SoftSpokenSadist: Ikuina always speaks in a gentle voice even in his more emotional moments; although he's not really a sadist as much as he is a NightmareFetishist. |
| 69 | * ThrowTheDogABone: Ikuina manages to get his deepest wish granted in Taku and Rei's routes and still live to tell the tale. |
| 70 | [[/folder]] |
| 71 | |
| 72 | [[folder:Kazuki Asakura]] |
| 73 | !!!'''Voiced by''': "Hasu Kira" |
| 74 | |
| 75 | [[quoteright:185:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_asakura_4.png]] |
| 76 | \ |
| 77 | |
| 78 | ->'''Age''': 40\ |
| 79 | '''Height''': 174 cm\ |
| 80 | '''Blood Type''': A |
| 81 | \ |
| 82 | |
| 83 | ->''"As much as I want to take action, I... I just can't seem to find a solution."''\ |
| 84 | \ |
| 85 | |
| 86 | A doctor who works part-time at the Takanokuchi Medical Office. He originally worked at the mainland, but he moved to Shinkoumi for reasons he's highly reluctant to divulge. |
| 87 | ---- |
| 88 | * BadLiar: Towa lampshades that Asakura is not the best at keeping a secret or playing it cool when he gets caught red-handed. |
| 89 | * BrokenPedestal: Taku admits to Towa that he could not view Asakura the same way he once did after [[spoiler:hearing the rumors about him being a pedophile]]. |
| 90 | * ConvenientComa: Asakura ends up in a coma [[spoiler: as a result of a drug overdose in Fujieda's route]]. What Towa finds suspicious is that this happened shortly after Asakura [[spoiler: told him about how he had cut a young boy's (namely Towa's) back years ago]]. In the climax, it's confirmed that Asakura [[spoiler: eventually died, and it was Sakaki who murdered him as part of his EvilPlan]]. |
| 91 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: When Asakura was still in medical school, he accompanied a professor for a drink in an attempt to make connections. He ended up [[spoiler: being led to Euphoria, where he was given a scalpel by the professor and was told to cut a young and blindfolded boy]]. Being in a drunken haze at the time, Asakura complied, and could recall the memory of [[spoiler: blood pouring out from the boy's back, which he felt to have resembled wings]]. The resulting shock and guilt from the experience explains his strange behavior [[spoiler: whenever children and angels are concerned]]. |
| 92 | * DrivenToMadness: After Asakura [[spoiler: confesses to Towa about his obsession with finding an angel who could give him "salvation" and subsequently fulfills his desire through the younger man]], he is deemed mentally unstable and [[spoiler: is committed to a mental hospital; although he is discharged later on]]. |
| 93 | * DrJerk: Zigzagged. While on duty, he doesn't act unpleasant towards his staff and patients alike, although he acts cold and harsh particularly towards Towa, and also shows disdain for Taku. |
| 94 | * FriendToAllChildren: Asakura is normally in a serious and stiff mood, but his exterior greatly softens in the presence of children. [[spoiler: Some even begin to suspect that he may like children ''too much'', and the suspicions]] reach the extent that even Asakura himself is unsure whether [[spoiler: he's fond of children in a normal way or in a much more unhealthy way]]. |
| 95 | * HatesBeingTouched: He gets flustered and jumpy when Towa invades his personal space in their first meeting. |
| 96 | * {{Hypocrite}}: The way Asakura derides Taku for [[spoiler: how the latter acted out in medical school]] can ring extremely hollow given Asakura's own problems with [[spoiler: the rumors being a pedophile]], which is tied to a DarkSecret regarding [[spoiler: a terrible incident involving something he did when he was still in medical school]]. |
| 97 | * MirrorCharacter: Taku indirectly admits to Towa that he sees himself in Asakura, since they're both facing internal struggles from [[spoiler:getting too attached to their charges despite the fact that as doctors, they still should maintain some distance]]. The difference is that [[spoiler: in spite of Asakura's fears about being a pedophile like many suspect him to be, his attachment to Hayato is ultimately platonic and he realizes that he ''isn't'' attracted to children after all]]; whereas Taku [[spoiler: treated Towa almost like he was his own for the years, but his feelings started to turn into something more as of late after nearly losing Towa yet again]]. |
| 98 | * MistakenForPedophile: Asakura [[spoiler:transferred to Shinkoumi because he was accused of being a pedophile at the hospital he previously worked at]], and he's making sure to avoid being faced with the same allegations again. But [[spoiler:even moving to another city does nothing to quell his fears about whether he really is interested in children or not]]. He's aware enough to admit that [[spoiler:he has a desire that is related to children, but he's unsure of the exact nature of said desire]], and the possibility that [[spoiler:it could actually be the amorous or sexual kind]] disturbs him greatly. |
| 99 | --> '''Asakura''': Am I really [[spoiler: attracted to children]]? Or am I [[spoiler: just paranoid because other people ''think'' I am]]? |
| 100 | * OlderThanTheyLook: While one can tell from a glance that he's already a full-grown adult, it's still easier to tell that he's in his more mature years through his severe-sounding voice rather than his face. |
| 101 | * ThrowTheDogABone: After [[spoiler: Towa fulfills Asakura's desire]] in Taku's route, things seem bleak at first for the other man as he [[spoiler: gets sent to a mental hospital]]. However, he soon [[spoiler: sends an email to Towa to both thank him and express his certainty that he definitely is not a pedophile]] and that he's mentally in a better place compared to before. Later on, [[spoiler: Eiji confirms that Asakura was soon released, to which he plans to move back to the mainland and resume his normal life]]. |
| 102 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It's unknown what happens to Asakura in Rei and Madarame's routes since he's still struggling with [[spoiler: the rumors of him being a pedophile and his desire for salvation from an "angel"]], neither of which gets resolved in the routes where he and Towa never cross paths. |
| 103 | [[/folder]] |
| 104 | |
| 105 | [[folder:Mizuno]] |
| 106 | !!!'''Voiced by''': "Renya Koitsuda" |
| 107 | |
| 108 | [[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_mizuno_8.png]] |
| 109 | \ |
| 110 | |
| 111 | ->'''Age''': 21\ |
| 112 | '''Height''': 168 cm\ |
| 113 | '''Blood Type''': B |
| 114 | \ |
| 115 | |
| 116 | A timid youth who went to Shinkoumi in search of his brother. He works as a waiter in the restaurant Krishna. |
| 117 | ---- |
| 118 | * BadBoss: He's not above [[spoiler: pummeling his own subordinates as a means of getting to talk to Towa alone]]. Granted, he did ask them to stop beforehand but they were [[spoiler: too focused on their beating]] to listen, causing him to resort to [[spoiler: using his fists]]. |
| 119 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: He looks like a meek and timid guy who could barely hurt a fly even if he wished, but deep down, [[spoiler: he's ''insanely'' volatile and violent with an unhealthy love for pain]]. |
| 120 | * CombatSadomasochist: [[spoiler: In his "euphoric session" with Towa, Mizuno reveals his deep-seated desire for pain]], both that of others and ''especially'' of his own. As such, he regularly [[spoiler: beats up other people ''and'' seeks other people to give him the same brutal beating]]. |
| 121 | * DorkInASweater: He wears a beige sweater, which emphasizes his harmless and meek image. [[spoiler: The sweater comes off after he reveals his true colors to Towa.]] |
| 122 | * ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Mizuno's hair becomes a bit wilder and unkempt when [[spoiler: he reveals his true identity as Nozomu Kirihara]]. |
| 123 | * {{Foil}}: Towa lampshades that the difference between him and Mizuno is that while Towa [[spoiler:takes pleasure from pain purely for the sake of it]], Mizuno's [[spoiler:sadomasochistic tendencies are no more than a psychological projection of his longing for his missing brother]]. Later on, however, [[spoiler: Towa's masochism is also revealed to stem from psychological issues brought about by his mother's treatment of him, and his love for pain is a means of both self-castigation and regaining some form of autonomy]]. |
| 124 | * GivenNameReveal: [[spoiler: Mizuno is only an alias, and his true identity is Nozomu Kirihara.]] |
| 125 | * KilledOffscreen: In Fujieda's route, Eiji informs Towa that [[spoiler: Kirihara got run over, leaving Towa with one less lead in his investigation of his forgotten childhood]]. It's soon revealed in the climax that [[spoiler: he was actually murdered as part of Sakaki's plan to keep Towa curious about his past]]. |
| 126 | * LoveMartyr: The familial kind. In spite of his brother [[spoiler: mercilessly beating the shit out of him day in and out, Kirihara]] felt that it was his brother's way of showing his love for him since he looked so blissful whenever [[spoiler: he would hurt him]]. Soon enough, he began to crave for [[spoiler: that same physical pain]] even long after his brother disappeared. |
| 127 | * OlderThanHeLooks: Mizuno is already an adult, being 21 years old, but one would be forgiven for thinking that he's a few years younger. |
| 128 | * OutOfFocus: He doesn't appear, nor is he even directly or indirectly mentioned, in Taku and Madarame's routes. And unlike Asakura, he doesn't show up in Fujieda's route either; at most, he's only mentioned when [[spoiler: Towa seeks his whereabouts through Eiji... only to be informed that the younger man died in a vehicular accident]]. |
| 129 | * PsychicBlockDefense: Mizuno is the only other character aside from Fujieda who [[spoiler: is able to disguise his aura from how he puts on a guise of personality whenever he interacts with others]]. When Towa first encounters Mizuno, he observes that [[spoiler: the color of the other's Smoke is forest green]], but after the cat is out of the bag about [[spoiler: Mizuno's real identity, his Smoke becomes a bright orange instead]]. Up until then, even when [[spoiler: he's secretly plotting something, Mizuno's aura always stayed green in color]]. |
| 130 | * PubescentBraces: Played with. Mizuno is already a full-grown adult and wears braces... [[spoiler: the latter of which the player only gets to see when Mizuno, after showing his true personality, starts to grin and laugh in an unhinged manner]]. |
| 131 | * SerialKiller: Downplayed. Although [[spoiler: he's never seen killing someone on-screen, he's still the mastermind behind all the incidents where people suddenly get ambushed and assaulted, with many being left half-dead]]. |
| 132 | * SlasherSmile: He sports a terrifying grin when [[spoiler: he shows his more violent side to Towa]]. It leaves enough of an impression on Towa to [[spoiler: greatly influence his painting of the former, which involves rows of teeth that are either roaring or smiling]]. |
| 133 | * TooKinkyToTorture: [[spoiler: The pain of violence, especially when it's inflicted on him, greatly turns him on]]. When he and Towa [[spoiler: proceed to beat each other bloody, the experience sexually arouses them both]]. |
| 134 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After Mizuno's [[spoiler: fistfight with Towa]] in Rei's route, the narration states that [[spoiler: he got sent to the hospital]] some time later, but there's no hint of what happens to him afterwards. The most likely outcome is that he's [[spoiler: either arrested or executed]]. In both Taku and Madarame's routes, either Eiji or Inada confirm that [[spoiler: the group committing the Assault Parties was dealt with offscreen]]; although what happens to Mizuno specifically is still left ambiguous. It's only in Fujieda's route that his fate is revealed when Eiji tells Towa that [[spoiler: Mizuno died in a hit-and-run accident, which turns out to have been staged by Sakaki]]. That being said, if the player looks through the liner notes, they'll learn that no matter what, [[spoiler: the younger man will always end up dead at either the Takasato-gumi or at Madarame's hands]]. |
| 135 | * WoundedGazelleGambit: Mizuno is able to [[spoiler: get close to Rei and Towa without them suspecting who he really is by appearing battered and beaten to an inch of his life]]. |
| 136 | [[/folder]] |
| 137 | |
| 138 | !! Rei's Deathmatch Allies |
| 139 | |
| 140 | [[folder:Junko]] |
| 141 | !!!'''Voiced by''': "Hirohira Kujirai" |
| 142 | |
| 143 | [[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_junko_6.png]] |
| 144 | ---- |
| 145 | * AgentPeacock: Junko is the most fashion-savvy of the group, [[AllThereInTheManual having previously worked in the makeup industry]]. It makes it easy to forget that they're a regular participant in Deathmatches. |
| 146 | * AmbiguousGenderIdentity: The liner notes mention their ''legal'' name, and Junko addresses themselves with the pronoun "''atashi''". But whilst the English localization uses "they/them" pronouns for Junko, the original translation of the narration doesn't use gendered pronouns, which leaves Junko's actual gender identity unconfirmed. |
| 147 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Junko is lively and cares greatly for their friends. However, they have nothing but rage towards [[spoiler: Rei's father]] and comes very close to giving the bastard a brutal beating had Taku not stopped them. |
| 148 | * GivenNameReveal: While they're only addressed as Junko in the game, but [[AllThereInTheManual the liner notes reveal that their legal name is Tsuyoshi Moriya]]. |
| 149 | * OutOfFocus: While they are an important supporting character in Rei's route, they're mostly relegated to the background in the other routes. |
| 150 | [[/folder]] |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:Honami]] |
| 153 | !!!'''Voiced by''': "Munaitateppan Meat" |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[quoteright:190:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_honami_4.png]] |
| 156 | ---- |
| 157 | * AgentPeacock: They're very campy, but they are nevertheless a very formidable Deathmatch fighter and is considered to be among the best. |
| 158 | * AmbiguousGenderIdentity: The liner notes mention their ''legal'' name, and Honami addresses themselves with the pronoun "''atashi''". But whilst the English localization uses "they/them" pronouns for Honami, the original translation of the narration doesn't use gendered pronouns when referring to Honami, which leaves Honami's actual gender identity unconfirmed. |
| 159 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Honami is a friendly person who also takes the initiative to show concern for Towa and Taku. That being said, while they have a better control on their temper than Junko, Honami is still visibly infuriated when they see for themselves [[spoiler: how much of a scumbag Rei's father is]]. |
| 160 | * GivenNameReveal: They're only referred to as Honami in the game, but [[AllThereInTheManual the liner notes reveal that their legal name is Kouji Ayano]]. |
| 161 | * OutOfFocus: While they are an important supporting character in Rei's route, they're mostly relegated to the background in the other routes. |
| 162 | [[/folder]] |
| 163 | |
| 164 | [[folder:Arata Fuse]] |
| 165 | !!!'''Voiced by''': "Nayuta Narumi" |
| 166 | |
| 167 | [[quoteright:165:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_arata_1.png]] |
| 168 | \ |
| 169 | |
| 170 | ->''"Every now and then, I find myself wondering if I should move away. But when I'm with Rei and Junko and Honami, I have so much fun... I don't think I can bear to leave."''\ |
| 171 | \ |
| 172 | |
| 173 | ---- |
| 174 | * AgentPeacock: Arata's androgynous looks and slender physique belie the fact that they're one of the more capable Deathmatch fighters. |
| 175 | * AmbiguousGenderIdentity: Arata has an androgynous face and uses gender-neutral pronouns whenever referring to themselves, and the English localization uses the similarly gender-neutral pronouns "they/them" for Arata as well. Unlike with Honami and Junko, however, Arata is their actual name, so the player is left to guess whether Arata identifies as a man or as non-binary. |
| 176 | * DudeLooksLikeALady: AmbiguousGenderIdentity aside, Arata is the most androgynous-looking out of Rei's group (besides Rei himself). |
| 177 | * HiddenDepths: According to the liner notes, Arata majored in music and is skilled in the piano. |
| 178 | * OutOfFocus: While they are an important supporting character in Rei's route, Arata doesn't have as much screentime as Honami and Junko, and they're mostly relegated to the background in the other routes. |
| 179 | * OnlyOneName: The game's codex only introduces them as Arata, though their full name is revealed in the liner notes. |
| 180 | * TheStoic: Downplayed. Arata shows emotion from time to time, but they're generally the most level-headed member of Rei's team. |
| 181 | [[/folder]] |
| 182 | |
| 183 | !! Establishment Owners |
| 184 | |
| 185 | [[folder:Manager of Roost]] |
| 186 | !!!'''Voiced by''': "Hajime Yaso" |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[quoteright:190:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_manager_8.png]] |
| 189 | \ |
| 190 | |
| 191 | ->''"Life's more fun with a little mystery, don't you think? It stimulates the imagination."''\ |
| 192 | \ |
| 193 | |
| 194 | The owner and manager of the bar Roost, the bar that Towa frequents and where Rei works besides the clinic. |
| 195 | ---- |
| 196 | * TheAntiNihilist: In an Exploration, he can remark on how he believes that life has no meaning, but even then, he still wishes to enjoy life to the fullest. |
| 197 | * AnArmAndALeg: As seen in his full-body sprite, his right foot is replaced with a peg leg. The reason behind this is never explained, and even the notes in the artbook don't reveal any hints. |
| 198 | * BenevolentBoss: He's level-headed and warm in his interactions with Rei. In Rei's route, when he gets too injured to work, the manager simply remarks that he should rest as long as needed, and expresses worry for Rei's condition. |
| 199 | * EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: His name is never revealed, with everyone simply referring to him as "Manager". |
| 200 | * MysteriousPast: What is certain that he has been in Shinkoumi for quite some time, though nothing much else is revealed about him. According to the liner notes, there are rumors that he may have worked as an assassin for Interpol, but this is ultimately unconfirmed. When Towa asks him point-blank what he used to do before working at Roost, the manager playfully dodges the question by saying that it's a secret. |
| 201 | * NightmareFetishist: The bar he runs is known for featuring all things niche and macabre, and he even collects artworks featuring images that aren't easy to stomach by just anyone. |
| 202 | * TheStoic: His expression doesn't change much, and Towa also notes that the older man's aura never shifts. |
| 203 | * VagueAge: He's described as a man who seems to be at least in his 40s, but his exact age is never revealed. He also opts not to answer when he's directly asked about it in the ''After Story'' drama CD. |
| 204 | [[/folder]] |
| 205 | |
| 206 | [[folder:Owner of Tajima's]] |
| 207 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Fuzuki Kun [[note]] Credited as Kumi Nishino [[/note]] |
| 208 | |
| 209 | [[quoteright:155:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_tajima.png]] |
| 210 | \ |
| 211 | |
| 212 | ->''"Good grief... With every passing day, this city keeps changing. I'm terrified that one day it'll all go down the drain."''\ |
| 213 | \ |
| 214 | |
| 215 | The elderly owner of the candy shop Tajima's, which is popular for selling all kinds of sweets and snacks, both modern and traditional. |
| 216 | ---- |
| 217 | * CoolOldLady: She's the only shop owner who managed to prevent them from evicting her from her home. |
| 218 | * IWasQuiteALooker: Hinted at; the liner notes state that she used to work as a nightclub hostess. |
| 219 | * MiniatureSeniorCitizens: She's already at least past her [=70s=] and is practically around half the height of the main characters. |
| 220 | * MoralityPet: She is the only one who [[spoiler: personally knew Maya but was spared from the woman's cruelty and deception]]. This is because [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe she would always look after the latter in her younger years every time she visited the shop]]. |
| 221 | * NeverMessWithGranny: She had lived in Shinkoumi even years before the Takasato-gumi took control of the city, and she's the only one who has managed to keep her shop from being shut down by the organization. |
| 222 | * NoNameGiven: She's never addressed by her name. |
| 223 | * PerpetualFrowner: She has a resting face that makes her look cross almost all the time, and she is often in a serious mood, although she's not necessarily temperamental. |
| 224 | * RamblingOldManMonologue: A non-senile example of the trope. Every now and then, she would talk about what it was like back then and how much the city has changed over the years, whether people were willing to listen or not. Though the narration also noted that there are some who find her stories to be interesting, Towa included. |
| 225 | [[/folder]] |
| 226 | |
| 227 | [[folder:Manager of Yanagawa Café]] |
| 228 | !!!'''Voiced by''': ??? |
| 229 | [[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_cafe_manager.png]] |
| 230 | \ |
| 231 | |
| 232 | The elderly owner and manager of Yanagawa Café, a long-running establishment which Towa, Taku and Rei often visit. |
| 233 | ---- |
| 234 | * BitCharacter: Although he's one of the characters featured in the codex, he's not given much in the way of characterization. |
| 235 | * TheStoic: He carries himself in a composed and professional manner, and in the one time Towa is able to directly interact with him during an Exploration, he doesn't speak more than necessary. |
| 236 | * SupremeChef: He helps prepare the coffee and the food served in the café, both of which are popular with its customers, which make him qualify for the trope. |
| 237 | [[/folder]] |
| 238 | |
| 239 | [[folder:Maya -- '''Warning: Walking Spoiler''']] |
| 240 | !! Maya |
| 241 | !!!'''Voiced by''': "Mika Amasaki" |
| 242 | |
| 243 | [[quoteright:215:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_maya_1_2.png]] |
| 244 | \ |
| 245 | |
| 246 | ->''[[evil:"Grant their wishes and their hearts will flow to you... like an hourglass."]]''\ |
| 247 | \ |
| 248 | |
| 249 | Towa's biological mother, and one of Ryuujirou Takasato's mistresses, as well as his favorite one. She died some years ago when Towa was still in middle school. Despite being the one who raised him, Towa barely remembers anything about her, let alone her face or her name.\ |
| 250 | \ |
| 251 | |
| 252 | '''Warning: Whilst mentioned in passing in the first three routes, her role becomes far more essential to the plot in the final route and everything about her is linked to the mystery of Towa's past. As such, be warned before reading further that all spoilers in her folder are unmarked.''' |
| 253 | ---- |
| 254 | * AbusiveParents: Maya would often have her son serve her customers, all of whom would brutally hurt or [[RapeAsBackstory rape]] Towa. All the while, Maya would attempt to comfort Towa by saying "It's okay", with the words becoming a TraumaButton for him. In the GoldenEnding, Towa reads his mother's diary and finds out that she genuinely loved Towa, albeit in a very twisted way. |
| 255 | * AlasPoorVillain: Played with. Towa is overcome with emotion after reading his mother's diary and realizing that while she did love him (or at least she believed she did), she still felt helpless against the darkness inside her. That being said, he nevertheless lives on with the resolve that he is not nor will ever be a copy of his mother, and all her atrocities are still not forgotten or even close to forgiven. |
| 256 | * AloofDarkHairedGirl: One of Maya's striking features is, like her son, having RavenHairIvorySkin. She's also a Machiavellian psychopath who -- by her own admission -- was incapable of feeling genuine affection. |
| 257 | * AmbitionIsEvil: According to Sakaki, Maya was highly ambitious, and was relentless and merciless alike when it came to achieving her goals. All the crimes Maya had directly or indirectly committed showed how far she was willing to go to attain power and influence from within the Takasato-gumi to turn Shinkoumi into her playground. |
| 258 | * AssholeVictim: Downplayed. Sakaki is the only one who mourns Maya's death, and the only reason her death greatly affected the rest of the Takasato-gumi was because of both the amount of authority she had over them and the profits she raked in for them using her business. Putting that aside, there's no one else who feels sorrow for her demise. While Towa is initially horrified when he remembers that he's directly responsible for her death, the memory doesn't haunt him in the long run, and he doesn't necessarily regret the fact that Maya is dead and gone, given everything that she had done to him. |
| 259 | * AxCrazy: No sane person would have done anything that Maya did with a clear and unbothered conscience. However, it's hinted that she was mentally ill, as the last entry in her diary had her ruefully admitting that there's a dark side lurking inside of her that she couldn't get rid of, suggesting that she may have suffered from an extreme form of psychosis. |
| 260 | * TheBadGuyWins: Zigzagged. Even in death, Maya gets exactly what she wanted in Fujieda's Madness ending, where Towa's mind breaks and her influence takes over, causing him to become another version of her. What the player is certain of is that Towa now has Fujieda under his thrall, but what his presence spells for Shinkoumi is left ambiguous. It's also worth pointing out that after he becomes insane, besides pushing Sakaki to his death, all he did before Fujieda finds him again was loiter in his mother's mansion, with no indications of him having any interest in ruling over Shinkoumi like Maya did. |
| 261 | * TheBaroness: In terms of looks and her ability to charm and beguile the people around her, Maya very much fits the Sextop archetype. The Rosa Klebb archetype kicks in when it comes to the influence and authority she wielded over Shinkoumi. |
| 262 | * BeautyIsBad: Many characters in-universe have commented on how breathtakingly beautiful Maya was. However, beneath her enchanting looks was one wicked woman with more blood on her hands than every other character in the story combined. |
| 263 | * BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: The epilogue in the GoldenEnding reveals that Maya used to work at a nightclub even at a young age, which strongly suggests that she grew up in a difficult environment where she and other people as destitute as her had to sell their bodies in order to survive. Once she grew into an adult and was able to charm her way in a position of power, she decided to create that very same environment where children are forced into a similar situation, and worse, against their will. |
| 264 | * BeneathTheMask: Maya never expressed any remorse for all the evil she had wrought even in her dying moments. Even then, the final entry in her diary had her lamenting that in the end, [[LonelyAtTheTop even with everyone's lives in the palm of her hands, she was never able to forge a genuine connection with anyone, not even her own son]], especially since she believed herself to be incapable of expressing love in a healthy and normal way. |
| 265 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: In public, she was described by many to be a quiet woman. In truth, however, she was a top-grade schemer who would callously ruin and take lives in her quest for power. |
| 266 | * CardCarryingVillain: Played with. She undoubtedly reveled in the fact that she could easily manipulate everyone and showed no remorse for any of her heinous actions, even in her final moments. However, her last confession in her diary implied that she felt dissatisfaction in the fact that even though her wicked wiles allowed her to get everything she asked for, there was nothing or no one that could sate her loneliness. |
| 267 | * TheChessmaster: Ryuujirou may have been the leader of the Takasato-gumi, but it was because of Maya's machinations that the organization was able to keep a vice grip on Shinkoumi for so long. It was also ''her'' death that led to the internal conflict within the Takasato-gumi. |
| 268 | * ControlFreak: Whether Maya truly loved Towa or not, Towa states that Maya treated him like he was her property, a canvas for her to paint and mold however she liked. The moment Towa started to defy her, Maya reacted ''extremely'' poorly. Maya is also described as someone who wouldn't be satisfied until she got her way. If something didn't conform to her standards, she would immediately have that something, or someone, disposed of. Her last recording even had her speak disdainfully of Towa and Mei's attempt to flee. |
| 269 | --> '''Maya''': [[evil:After she corrupted your soul, you turned against me. [...] That girl made you think you could ever be free of ''me''. What a pitiful child...]] |
| 270 | * TheCorrupter: |
| 271 | ** Her business allowed her clients to fulfill their basest and most corrupt desires. However, even outsiders got dragged into her clients' affairs, and they in turn ended up developing their own twisted urges, with Ikuina and Asakura being such examples of this. |
| 272 | ** It's also all but explicitly stated that she's the main influence behind the Takasato-gumi's more immoral and ruthless ways, since in an Exploration in Madarame's route, the candy shop owner mentions that Ryuujirou -- and the Takasato-gumi, by extension -- suddenly ended up going off the rails at some point. And it isn't until ''after'' her ascent to power that many people suddenly started disappearing, with each one involving some sort of dispute with the organization. |
| 273 | * DisownedParent: Although Towa lost all his memories of Maya after accidentally pushing her down to her death, he nevertheless decides to (albeit subconsciously) cut all ties with her. Even though he got his current name from a phrase that's meant to deride his promiscuity, he still highly prefers it over his legal name, where even the mere mention of it is enough to make him suffer a FreakOut. After he remembers everything about Maya, he reluctantly has to acknowledge that they're related by blood, but he still refuses to regard her as his ''mother''. In Fujieda's drama CD, he expresses that he isn't all too keen on the idea of taking on even his legal surname, showing that he still prefers to distance himself from any hint of a connection to her. |
| 274 | * DissonantSerenity: Towa remembers Maya allowing her own son to be tortured and violated and not being disturbed by it whatsoever. And the sound of her voice when she talked about how Mei deserved to die for "leading her son astray" is eerily calm yet palpably barbed with baleful loathing. |
| 275 | * TheDreaded: Given that she's the very source of all the trauma that Towa underwent, the very memory of her or even just a ''hint'' of a memory is the only thing that can make Towa completely lose his cool and be overwhelmed with unbridled panic and anger, even long after she had already died. |
| 276 | * DrearyHalfLiddedEyes: Her eyes are always half closed, giving her a seductive look and to emphasize her as a remorseless schemer. |
| 277 | * EvilCannotComprehendGood: In Maya's eyes, everything she did was normal and right. She even thought that ''Mei'' was a demon because the younger girl was kind to Towa and motivated him to escape his hellish life in Euphoria, with Maya commenting on how Towa had fallen victim to Mei's "toxic influence". Though in her diary, she wistfully admitted that a life of immorality and deceit was the only life she ever knew, and she was unable to comprehend the connection between how she treated her son and why she failed to form a loving bond with him. |
| 278 | * EvilIsPetty: Besides all the murders she had committed directly or otherwise to fuel her ambitions, Maya was also quick to resort to the same method the moment anyone personally slighted or defied her. She had Mei killed simply because Mei tried to help Towa escape, and Towa became next on Maya's hit-list the very instant he finally confronted her. |
| 279 | * EvilMatriarch: She was the last thing from a warm and loving mother to Towa, as she abused him and made him serve as a SexSlave-- which is nothing that any child should experience while growing up. Everything she did to her son made him the flawed and broken man he is at present, and she also intended him to replace her once she died. She also manipulated the Takasato-gumi into doing her bidding, resulting in many unsolved crimes and deaths in Shinkoumi. |
| 280 | * EvilParentsWantGoodKids: Cruelly subverted. Once Towa's backstory is revealed in full, it becomes crystal clear to the player that every horrible thing that happened to Towa was something that his mother ''consciously and gleefully allowed to happen''. Maya's final message also has her voicing her wish not to have her son carve his own path, but to follow completely in her footsteps, with the abuse he suffered being partly a means to set him down on the road of moral corruption the same way she did. |
| 281 | * FantasyForbiddingMother: It's hinted that she didn't want to give Towa too much freedom by letting him indulge in a hobby that he personally liked, or in other words, something that had nothing to do with what Maya herself wanted for Towa. During a trip to an art exhibition, Towa was interested in a certain painting that Maya expressed her dislike for, but promised to buy for him nevertheless. But after purchasing the painting, she decided to give it to someone else instead at the last moment. |
| 282 | * FauxAffablyEvil: Anyone who was ever tempted by her, or at the very least just blindsided by whatever façade she would put up, might end up being on her hit-list if they're met with the misfortune of being in her way. But even when she was tricking someone with''out'' planning to kill them afterwards, her intentions always remained sinister, with no single exception. |
| 283 | * FemmeFatale: Maya was attractive and charismatic as much as she was deadly and cunning. She's the sole female villain of ''Slow Damage'', and her strongest weapon was her ability to read and manipulate people, no matter who they were. This, combined with her extremely fair appearance, was more than enough for her to hold a great deal of authority within a ''yakuza syndicate'' that rules over a WretchedHive. |
| 284 | * FisherQueen: Zigzagged. Maya's business ventures were undoubtedly vile to the core, but they were also what made Shinkoumi thrive financially for years, as the city's splendor gradually fell into decline after her death. Even then, it's also partly because of her that Shinkoumi was anything but safe to live in, as anyone who was unlucky enough to either be deemed a valuable "product" for her business, cross the Takasato-gumi in some way, or decide to get a bit too curious about the mysterious crimes going on in the city was already as good as dead. |
| 285 | * FlowerMotifs: Red roses, which are also said in the artbook to be her favorite flower. Her red-and-black kimono is embroidered with rose patterns, and her ''red'' pocket watch is engraved with the symbol of a rose on it surrounded by a wreath of thorns. Red roses are known for their beauty, but they are also known for having thorns on their stems, which makes the flower befitting of Maya's very nature: a face of delicate beauty concealing a manipulative and deadly charm. |
| 286 | * FourIsDeath: In the complete version of the Croquis (which can be found in the main menu), Maya is the only character in the fourth page. The number 4 is recognized as an unlucky number in Japan because it has the same pronunciation as the word used for "death", hence the numbered placement of her info in the codex represents not only the fact that she's already deceased but also her very presence served as a great source of misfortune not only to Towa but to many of the other characters. |
| 287 | * FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Her exact motives behind her actions are never revealed, though TheStinger hints that her childhood was anything but a stellar one, and her last entry in her diary hints that deep down, she felt that she was TrappedInVillainy as she was incapable of feeling or expressing genuine love. Not that any of it did anything to absolve her in her son's eyes, however, since her final confession doesn't come even close to making up for the many times she had brought harm to Towa. Fujieda's ''After Story'' drama CD even has Towa remark that he no longer likes the color red as it reminds him too much of the past, cementing that even though he has finally found closure with his past and has resolved his trauma, it doesn't necessarily mean that he has forgiven Maya, and the narrative itself never once portrays him in a negative light for choosing to resent her. |
| 288 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: Maya went from an impoverished nightclub worker to TheBaroness of Shinkoumi who owned a business empire that involved children being captured and sold into sexual slavery. |
| 289 | * GivenNameReveal: Her real name is Yuma Sakuragi. |
| 290 | * AGodAmI: Maya was strongly hinted to be a narcissist with an extremely warped sense of megalomania, what with her desire to control Shinkoumi and everyone in it, her penchant for control and manipulation, and the way her business could be likened to a cult. The lyrics for the opening theme even hint at the trope, with the very final line being: "''I want Satan in purgatory to envy me.''" What's interesting about the line is that Satan is supposed to rule over Hell, implying that Maya saw herself as someone more divine than the actual rulers of Heaven and Hell themselves. Even one of the background tracks named "Resolve", which plays during the climax where both Towa and Fujieda are confronted by Sakaki, is accompanied by an OminousPipeOrgan, giving off the impression that the three are having a clash inside Maya's mansion, or rather, her "church". |
| 291 | * GoOutWithASmile: When Towa remembers the moment he pushed Maya down the stairs, one of the images that plays most often in his mind is the smile that Maya wore on her face as she fell down. Although it's ambiguous whether she was really smiling, or Towa's trauma was just messing with his memories of how the event really played out. |
| 292 | * GreaterScopeVillain: Her long list of crimes have left quite the impact in Shinkoumi and greatly affected the lives of half the cast in one way or another, whether or not they were aware of it. |
| 293 | * HatedByAll: She is the most hated character in the game where no one besides her minions have anything nice to say about her. |
| 294 | * TheHeavy: To put simply, almost the entirety of the plot would never have happened if it were not for Maya. |
| 295 | * TheHedonist: It's unclear if she herself behaved this way, but her business undoubtedly operated on this trope, allowing anyone to finally make their most perverse and deviant fantasies come to life. It's even why the name of her mansion is "Euphoria", as the word refers to the most extreme form of joy. |
| 296 | * HerOwnWorstEnemy: The GrandFinale showed that Maya was aware that there was something wrong with her, as she couldn't feel love and found herself more inclined to doing evil. It's never confirmed how much of her evil is something she was innately born with (nature) or a result of the harsh environment she grew up in (nurture). Either way, feeling that a life of evil is the only life she could ever hope to know, she didn't seek a solution to her problem and doubled down on her sinister urges, committing one wrongdoing after another. But in the end, even though she never regretted anything that she had done, it's hinted she wasn't completely satisfied with her life either, as her last entry in her diary had her reflect on how she's still broken and alone to the bitter end. |
| 297 | * IndirectSerialKiller: Several of the mysterious and unsolved deaths that occurred in Shinkoumi had something to do with her. Even if she didn't kill those people herself, the fact that she ordered for their deaths nonetheless made her just as responsible. And though it's only hinted at, the little detail about her diary recording every crime she had ever done suggests that she had personally gotten her hands dirty in the past, which would then make her zigzag between being this trope and a direct SerialKiller. |
| 298 | * ItsAllAboutMe: Maya strongly hinted that she possessed a delusional sense of grandeur. She wouldn't hesitate to take lives and treat other people like tools to further her own agenda, she saw Towa as less of her son with his own agency and more of an extension of her that she opted to "mold" so that Towa would follow her ways to the letter, which would allow her legacy to continue. Since she had no sense of compassion, she never stopped to think for a second how she was doing more harm than good to her son, let alone how she could be doing any wrong. Even when she thought that she did all that she could for him, in the end, it was more about her than it was him. At most, she had a morsel of self-awareness to admit right before she died (even if only to herself) that her selfishness and immorality kept her isolated from everyone else. |
| 299 | * KarmaHoudini: Zigzagged; Due to the Takasato-gumi keeping all of her crimes under wraps, none of said crimes will ever be known to the public let alone be recorded in history and in the GoldenEnding, her mansion ends up getting destroyed by a sinkhole, ensuring that there's no remaining evidence of what she had done. Though the fact that no one but a select few even know of her means that it's only a matter of time until there's no one left to remember her, nor would there be anything left of her for anyone else to do so, which would be the ultimate insult to a narcissist like Maya. |
| 300 | * KarmicDeath: While matricide is generally seen as a terrible crime, Maya was a mother no child should ever have, and every single physical and mental scar that Towa carries can be traced back to her abuse, no matter the kind of abuse she inflicted on him. Therefore, Towa is nothing but in the right when he pushed his mother down the stairs. Even though it was accidental and done in self-defense, she nevertheless died at the hands of her son, who she had greatly and horribly abused. |
| 301 | * KimonoIsTraditional: Every time Maya shows up in Towa's memories, she was always in her signature red-and-black kimono, which enhanced her outward image as a YamatoNadeshiko. |
| 302 | * LackOfEmpathy: Aside from being ruthless enough to manipulate and kill anyone to fuel her own ambition, Maya felt no compassion and is mostly focused on herself. As confirmed in the last words she wrote in her diary, she believed that she cannot feel love for anyone, and was not even sure if she truly loved her son despite believing she did the best she could. |
| 303 | * LadyMacbeth: One of the extra segments showed that in time, the Takasato-gumi became more ruthless than it already was, with several deaths suddenly occuring in the city, with each victim having some kind of conflict with the Takasato-gumi. The investigator who attempted to look further into the matter (before they were eventually caught and killed) noticed how the murder spree started happening ''after'' Maya entered the picture. |
| 304 | * LonelyAtTheTop: Thanks to her manipulative tendencies and her callous psychopathy, Maya had everyone in Shinkoumi wrapped around her finger, and she was able to get anything she wanted by emulating the right words and actions. Deep down, however, some part of her was aware that this also caused her to feel isolated from everyone around her in a way that while she was liked by everyone, she was never ''loved'' by anyone-- which she felt an emotion akin to mourning for. |
| 305 | * LongHairIsFeminine: Towa's memories of her always featured her with her hair tied up, but a picture of her shows that when let loose, her hair extended all the way down to her chest. |
| 306 | * LovingAShadow: Even with her admission that she can't feel love, she believed that she did care for her son. However, Towa said that she treated him more like a doll for her to mold and toy with and less like a son to nurture and cherish, ultimately loving him more as a property than as family. His analogy isn't without reason, as she desired for her son to grow up that he would just be like her and even raised him in an environment that deprived him of any agency or a sense of safety. And she wouldn't have that any other way-- to the point that she quickly tried to kill him as soon as he started defying her, or in other words, demonstrated a free will that didn't follow her way of life. |
| 307 | * TheManBehindTheMan: Plenty of the unsolved murders in Shinkoumi, all of which involved people who either defied the Takasato-gumi or tried to investigate those same murders have something to do with her. Given that she was Ryuujirou's mistress, she wielded a great deal of authority in the Takasato-gumi to the extent that the organization began to splinter after her death. |
| 308 | * ManipulativeBitch: Towa's ability to persuade the people around him was thanks to his mother's teachings. Sakaki also described Maya as someone who knew how to play everyone like a fiddle with every move she would make and every word she would say. |
| 309 | * MaternallyChallenged: Maya was anything but an ideal mother. Her psychopathic and sadistic nature caused her to raise Towa in a hellish and torturous environment, yet as far as she knew, she was doing what she thought was best for Towa. Even in the last days of her life, as she reflected upon everything, she still couldn't realize what she did wrong with the way she took care of Towa. |
| 310 | * TheMistress: She was one to the leader of the Takasato-gumi, and was also his favorite. |
| 311 | * MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: With only her cunning, her ability to persuade, and her ruthlessness as her weapons, she had managed to accumulate a far higher body count than any of the other characters in ''Slow Damage''. |
| 312 | * MurderIsTheBestSolution: What Maya cannot subjugate, she will immediately seek to eliminate. More often than not, Maya dealt with anyone who was as an obstacle to her plans or even was just plainly a nuisance by having them offed, no matter who they may be. |
| 313 | * MyBelovedSmother: When Maya was still breathing, Towa's life was completely in the palm of her hands. If Towa disobeyed Maya, he was subjected to terrible pain and torture. If he obeyed her, he would still be subjected to terrible pain and torture. He had no sense of true freedom, and Maya was quick to squash any of Towa's chances to be independent of her. |
| 314 | * MysteriousBacker: Part of the reason why Shinkoumi flourished for the longest time was the wealth that Maya amassed from her business, since most of Euphoria's clients included people who were either rich or of a high status (or both). Hasegawa also mentioned that the clients who got to partake in Euphoria's "special services" tended to the extremely wealthy and influential dignitaries, such as politicians, celebrities, foreigners and the like. When she died, so did Euphoria as a business, which slowly but gradually resulted in Shinkoumi's decline as a luxurious metropolis. |
| 315 | * MysteriousPast: Not much is known about Maya's past, but it's revealed in the epilogue that she used to work at a nightclub in her younger years. The candy shop owner also mentions that Maya looked half-starved at the time, which hints at the possible reason for Maya [[RagsToRiches becoming ruthlessly ambitious as she grew into an adult]]. Besides that, however, neither the player nor Towa knows anything else about her history. |
| 316 | * NeverMyFault: While it's never specified when exactly she said the quote below, what ''is'' clear is that she held both Towa and Mei at fault for her demise. Towa for pushing her down the stairs even though it was only done in self-defense since ''she'' was trying to murder him. And Mei for, in Maya's belief, turning Towa against her, since he finally stood up to Maya after he learned that she had Mei killed. In short, Maya's death can be traced to ''her'' own actions, but she decided to shift the blame to the people who were wronged by said actions. |
| 317 | --> ''[[evil:It's not scary. It's not scary at all. But it's your fault. It's your fault that I died.]]'' |
| 318 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: Maya ended up sealing her own fate both when she assigned Mei as Towa's playmate and when she ordered for Mei's death later on. Once Towa found out about the latter and consequently rebelled against his mother, it led to the fight that ended in her death via a StaircaseTumble. |
| 319 | * NightmareFetishist: She recorded every crime she had committed in her diary the same way anyone would commemorate their greatest achievements in writing, and the parts that described what she allowed some of her clients to do to Towa are phrased in a tone that's both curious and clinical. |
| 320 | * NonActionBigBad: She was more of a schemer than anything else, and thus would have others do the dirty work for her. The one time she engaged in a physical confrontation, it ended in a fatal StaircaseTumble. |
| 321 | * OffingTheOffspring: Attempted, although it backfired on her big-time. On top of the fact that [[AbusiveParents Maya allowed her son]] to be subjected to [[WouldHurtAChild all kinds of torture]], the instant Towa finally summoned the will to tell Maya that he's done following her orders, she reacted by grabbing a knife and chasing him with every intention of slashing and stabbing at her own son until he was dead. |
| 322 | * OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Maya is only her stage name, but everyone calls her by that alias, even by those who know of her real name. |
| 323 | * OpportunisticBitch: The death and suffering of countless civilians and innocent children matter not to her as long as it ensures her a life of luxury and a position at the top of the pecking order in a corrupt city. |
| 324 | * OrcusOnHisThrone: Especially after she won the favor and affection of the Takasato-gumi's leader, it's all but implied that ''she's'' the one who gave orders and plans for the others to follow. |
| 325 | * OutOfFocus: She is barely mentioned, if at all, in Rei and Madarame's routes. While she is brought up a bit more often in Taku's route, it's only in Fujieda's route that her (posthumous) presence plays a significant role. |
| 326 | * PetTheDog: If there was one person who Maya has notably never harmed, let alone inconvenienced, it was the elderly candy shop owner, since many years ago, she would always help take care of Maya whenever the latter paid a visit to the store. |
| 327 | * PosthumousCharacter: She had passed away some time prior to the start of the game. |
| 328 | * PredecessorVillain: The narrative establishes early on that Towa, who ticks some of the marks for a ByronicHero, is far from a stable individual. While the visual novel does drop hints throughout the story that Maya is the reason that Towa is both scarred on the inside and the outside, it isn't until the very last route that this is confirmed to the player, with all the gory details of the what, how and why shown. |
| 329 | * PsychopathicWomanchild: For all her capability in manipulating any kind of person she comes across, her complete inability to realize what she had done wrong or that her treatment of her son is also why she can never form a bond with him proves that she carried the mental capacity of a child. This is also exemplified in how she told her son about how toying with people is a fun game that she wants to teach her son how to play, and her ControlFreak tendencies as well as the way she would react to anything that wasn't to her liking can be compared to the behavior of a wicked and SpoiledBrat. |
| 330 | * RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: While she personally never molested her son with her own hands, letting countless others do so to him make her as equally guilty as them. In fact, her business essentially operated on this trope, as everyone who was held captive in Euphoria had no choice but to serve as {{Sex Slave}}s to her clients, all of whom have sadistic urges and/or disturbing and obscene fetishes. |
| 331 | * RavenHairIvorySkin: Her character design featured her with black hair and light apricot skin. |
| 332 | * RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Most of her outfits consists of red and black colors, and she is by far the most despicable villain in ''Slow Damage''. |
| 333 | * RedEyesTakeWarning: Her eye color is a bright crimson, which reflected her bewitching yet devilish nature. |
| 334 | * SatanicArchetype: She has red as her ColorMotif, believed herself to be a god (or close to one) to the point that she condemned anyone who opposed her as a ''demon'', and frequently corrupts her patrons by letting them perform disgusting actions on innocent people without so much as a shred of remorse. |
| 335 | * SleepingTheirWayToTheTop: Maya gained plenty of influence over the Takasato-gumi, and by extension, over Shinkoumi, after attracting the attention of the organization's leader and becoming his mistress. |
| 336 | * SocialClimber: The only thing that's certain about Maya's relationship with the Takasato-gumi's founder was that she was his favorite mistress. However, that alone was enough for her to earn a life where she had both lavish comfort and a level of high authority over the organization and, by extension, over the city of Shinkoumi itself-- with the latter being an opportunity that she dared not squander to pursue her goals. |
| 337 | * TheSociopath: She is outright called one by the narration. Maya was cruel to the core, utterly manipulative, extremely cold-blooded and cunning, and willing to use everyone and employ anything to achieve her ends. But her capability of committing all kinds of cruel and evil deeds while acting under the façade of a quiet, gentle and soft-spoken lady would make her qualify more as a psychopath than a sociopath. |
| 338 | * SoftSpokenSadist: Maya would speak at a slow and gentle pace, but her words were almost always layered with poison. It was completely her idea to run a club where people who possess the worst kind of depravities can finally get to fulfill their perverted desires on innocent and unfortunate victims. Worse yet, Maya even allowed for her own son to serve her clientele, who would then molest and mutilate him however they pleased. All the while, she encouraged her son to participate using the same assuring tone a mother would use for her child when they get to take part in an exciting event for the very first time. |
| 339 | * TroubledAbuser: Maya's diary revealed that she did love Towa, albeit she believed that the way she treated him was the only way she could express her love as a mother. But even then, Maya still forced her son into a life of physical torture, emotional and mental abuse and sexual slavery. This fact has ''no one'' denying that what she did to Towa was nothing short of appalling and monstrous, and is also why Towa -- even after gaining a better understanding of his mother -- won't be forgiving her any time soon. |
| 340 | * TheUnfettered: Whatever other crimes she recorded in her diary is never expounded on, but what remains clear in what's shown and told to the player is that she stopped at nothing to get what she wanted. If many had to die to benefit her goals, then so be it. |
| 341 | * TheVamp: Played with. Putting aside the fact that she was the mistress of the Takasato-gumi's leader, Sakaki denies that Maya was the type of person who would just sleep with anybody to get what she wanted. That being said, she still made good use of her looks and her charm to control the Takasato-gumi from the shadows and deceive the people around her. A throwaway line from Toono in Taku's route also hints that Maya ''knew'' her way around seducing men and placing them under her spell, which would eventually be confirmed by the way Towa behaves in Fujieda's Madness ending. |
| 342 | * VanityIsFeminine: She carried herself in a perfectly feminine manner, from her looks to her speech mannerism. While the player is left to guess if she liked to admire her appearance in a mirror, she was undeniably vain in the sense that she was both ambitious and self-centered, completely lacking in the ability to feel compassion or love for anyone else. |
| 343 | * VillainHasAPoint: Deconstructed. As diabolical as she was, everything she had taught her son about persuasion and negotiation does end up coming in handy for Towa plenty of times throughout the visual novel, especially in the decisive moments when he has to help his love interest confront their inner demons once and for all. That being said, Towa laments that this was all Maya had taught him while he was growing up, and she never gave him anything that would let him have a semblance of an innocent childhood. |
| 344 | --> '''Towa''': She only ever taught me how to manipulate people. While other moms read picture books, she read me psychology books. |
| 345 | * VillainousBreakdown: When her son defied her orders for the first time, her immediate response was to fly in a rage and attack him with a knife. |
| 346 | * VirtueIsWeakness: Tying in perfectly with her sociopathy, Maya didn't see the point in showing altruistic kindness or consideration towards others, as demonstrated in the words she shared with Sasaki. |
| 347 | --> '''Sakaki''': ''[quoting Maya]'' Hesitation is arrogance. You can never truly know how another person feels. You're not them. Even if you're family, you can never fully understand them. So trying to show compassion is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy. No point wondering about something you can never know. |
| 348 | * VoiceOfTheLegion: Invoked when Sakaki plays recordings of her through a loudspeaker, causing her voice to reverberate across the room when Towa is forced to listen to clips of both his time with her and her final message to him. It helps enhance how Maya's presence is felt throughout the entire route even though she never physically shows up even in a single flashback, and the echoic effect also gives off the illusion of Maya being less of a human and more of a demon that continues to haunt Towa even after she's long dead. |
| 349 | * WouldHurtAChild: Her business took place in a mansion named Euphoria, which looked like a standard high-class club at first glance, but was actually a seedy establishment where her most privileged clients can enact their deepest and darkest desires on her captives. Many of said captives were children, with one of them being her son. She also had no qualms about having a child killed if she felt that it benefited her, and she even attempted to murder her own flesh and blood when he stood up to her for the first time. |
| 350 | * YamatoNadeshiko: Her kimono, the way she ties up her hair and her soft voice all help make her look like the perfect image of the trope. In reality, however, she is anything ''but'' one, as it's no more than a disguise at best to fool others and have them lower their guard around her. |
| 351 | [[/folder]] |
| 352 | |
| 353 | !! Other Residents of Shinkoumi |
| 354 | |
| 355 | [[folder:Tsukasa Arimura]] |
| 356 | !!!'''Voiced by''': "Ii Fumiyama" |
| 357 | |
| 358 | [[quoteright:190:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_arimura_6.png]] |
| 359 | \ |
| 360 | |
| 361 | ->''"Unlike'' you, ''I've actually got my life together, thanks."''\ |
| 362 | \ |
| 363 | |
| 364 | A nurse working at Murase Clinic, and is the one who often covers Towa's shift whenever the man is late for work... which just so happens to be a common occurrence. |
| 365 | ---- |
| 366 | * BrutalHonesty: In the GoldenEnding, [[CaptainObvious Arimura tells Towa straight to his face that he dislikes him]]-- a fact that everyone knows since day one; though he does soften the blow by adding that he doesn't ''hate'' Towa either. |
| 367 | * HopelessSuitor: The liner notes confirm that Arimura's crush on Rei is ultimately bound to go nowhere. |
| 368 | * JerkassToOne: Played with, since he doesn't really do anything to give Towa a hard time, but his annoyance at the latter's tardiness and blasé attitude towards his job is rather palpable. Even when they cross paths outside work, Arimura still acts frosty towards the other man. Since Arimura is the earnest and hardworking type, someone of Towa's character would naturally annoy him. |
| 369 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Downplayed, since Towa is the only person who Arimura shows animosity towards. Though putting that aside, Arimura is a genuinely NiceGuy who is loyal to his job as a nurse. The liner notes even describe him as a GoodSamaritan, and he's also mentioned to do volunteer work on his free time. |
| 370 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: He's the only member of the clinic staff who never gets involved with either Taku or Rei's ordeals in their respective routes. |
| 371 | * NotSoAboveItAll: Arimura may be earnest about his job as a nurse, but even he can't help but show curiosity towards his boss' love life, as shown in Taku's ''After Story'' drama CD. |
| 372 | * OnlySaneEmployee: He's normal and relatively stable compared to the other employees of Murase Clinic, having no eccentricities or checkered pasts to speak of. |
| 373 | * PassiveAggressiveKombat: Arimura talks in a formal manner. But whenever he has to speak to Towa, more often than not he talks in a tone that clearly comes across as backhanded with a measure of restrained annoyance. Towa isn't blind nor deaf to it, but he simply brushes the hostility aside. |
| 374 | * PetTheDog: |
| 375 | ** Though he's not that fond of Towa, even he can't help but feel concern for the other man when Towa starts acting awfully out of sorts in Madarame's route. Similarly, in Fujieda's route, he recommends that Towa rests through his shift when he sees that Towa is feeling nauseous and dizzy. |
| 376 | ** In Fujieda's route, Arimura takes the initiative to inform Towa of [[spoiler: Taku's unusual behavior when he intercepted a second delivery addressed to Towa]]. |
| 377 | * TheReliableOne: Arimura is the most efficient employee in Murase Clinic, and he is dedicated enough to his job that he even frequents other medical sites to see if he can find anything that would help improve the workflow in the clinic. |
| 378 | * StraightGay: Arimura is already established to be gay early on, but he doesn't display any of the stereotypical traits associated with the sexuality. At most, he's mentioned to frequent a gay bar after his shift ends and there's a scene where he blushes at the idea of handing over a bouquet to Rei due to his crush on the other man, but that's about it. |
| 379 | * UndyingLoyalty: In the aftermath of Taku's Euphoria ending, [[spoiler: the man returns to Shinkoumi after a year of imprisonment. Even in the year that passed]], despite having more than enough time and opportunity to look for work elsewhere, Arimura still willingly rejoins the clinic staff and offers to help however he can. |
| 380 | * UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Arimura meant well with his actions, but he inadvertently causes a rift between Towa and Taku when he [[spoiler:tells the former that Taku took a package that was meant for Towa]], causing the latter to find out that Taku [[spoiler:knows a lot more about his past than he lets on but will resort to questionable means to keep what he knows a secret]]. The upside that is both men eventually sort things out in the end. |
| 381 | * YoureNotMyType: Although Arimura is explicitly stated to be gay, he has no interest in Towa whatsoever. |
| 382 | [[/folder]] |
| 383 | |
| 384 | [[folder:Hiroo Inada]] |
| 385 | !!!'''Voiced by''': ??? |
| 386 | |
| 387 | [[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_inada.png]] |
| 388 | \ |
| 389 | |
| 390 | ->''"...Did you know?"''\ |
| 391 | \ |
| 392 | |
| 393 | A strange young man who wanders around Shinkoumi and encounters Towa on occasion. |
| 394 | ---- |
| 395 | * BitCharacter: Besides telling Towa of the various goings-on in Shinkoumi, Inada doesn't really do anything that impacts the plot of any route. |
| 396 | * CharacterCatchphrase: Whenever he shares information with Towa, a lot of his sentences start with, "Did you know?" |
| 397 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: He's not outright loony, but his demeanor makes him come across as rather odd. And anyone who will suddenly tell all kinds of news about the city to someone who they will bump into every now and then doesn't count as normal behavior, either. |
| 398 | * TheFaceless: Downplayed. His baggy clothes and high-collared jacket make it so that the player will never see the lower half of his face. |
| 399 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: He knows a lot of the goings-on in Shinkoumi, but isn't involved in any of them. |
| 400 | * MrExposition: Every now and then, he'll pop up during the Exploration sections, where he will bump into Towa and tell him (and by extension, the player) about the things occurring in Shinkoumi that they may or may not already know. |
| 401 | * MysteriousPast: It's never revealed how exactly Inada [[spoiler: got to know about Eiji and why he wanted to become a better informant than the latter]]. The only other significant reveal about him is that [[spoiler:he's the grandson of the candy shop owner]]. |
| 402 | * PhraseCatcher: Every time they bump into each other, Towa will ''always'' sigh, "You again?" |
| 403 | * UnknownRival: The one Inada aspires to surpass is none other than [[spoiler: Eiji]]. While the latter is aware of Inada's presence and that he's been following his activity, [[spoiler: he doesn't exhibit any awareness of Inada's intention to beat him in information-gathering]]. |
| 404 | * TheVoiceless: Downplayed. Inada is never given a single fully-voiced line, and the most the player hears from him are either groans, sighs, or incoherent mumbling. |
| 405 | [[/folder]] |
| 406 | |
| 407 | [[folder:Taeko Hasegawa]] |
| 408 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/HyoSei [[note]] Credited as Elena Kaibara [[/note]] |
| 409 | |
| 410 | [[quoteright:160:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_hasegawa.png]] |
| 411 | \ |
| 412 | |
| 413 | ->''"The things I saw there... I truly can't begin to explain... It was just so much..."''\ |
| 414 | \ |
| 415 | |
| 416 | A quiet woman working as a waitress in Yanagawa Café. |
| 417 | ---- |
| 418 | * BeingWatched: [[spoiler:Because Hasegawa worked at Euphoria and knows what really went on in there, she's under constant surveillance by the Takasato-gumi even years after Maya's death and Euphoria's subsequent closure]]. |
| 419 | * BystanderSyndrome: She express regret about her time [[spoiler:as a gofer in Euphoria]], where all she could do was stand and watch as [[spoiler:the victims held captive there were tortured in all kinds of ways]]. |
| 420 | * ChekhovsGunman: The NPC that is simply introduced as the "soft-spoken waitress" in the common route turns out to [[spoiler:know vital information about Maya, whose history is kept a secret in Shinkoumi]]. |
| 421 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler:The Takasato-gumi attacks her because Fujieda approached her to ask what she knows about what really went on in Euphoria. While she survives the hit, she still passes away some time later]]. |
| 422 | * MysteriousPast: It's revealed in Fujieda's route that Hasegawa [[spoiler:used to be a debtor]], though the reason behind her [[spoiler:having accrued a massive debt]] is never explained or even hinted at. |
| 423 | * OhCrap: She becomes alarmed and frightened when [[spoiler:Fujieda questions her about Maya]]. |
| 424 | * SecretKeeper: She knows damning information about [[spoiler:Maya and what Euphoria really is]], but she was [[spoiler:blackmailed by the Takasato-gumi]] into staying quiet in exchange for [[spoiler: the cancellation of her debt]]. |
| 425 | * ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Although she survives the attack from the Takasato-gumi, she eventually dies of a heart attack some time after getting shipped off to a hospital in the mainland]]. |
| 426 | * ShrinkingViolet: Both the way she speaks and the default expression on her face make her mousy disposition all too clear. [[spoiler:This is eventually explained to be [[NervousWreck her being under fear and tension every day]] from always being watched by the Takasato-gumi in case her lips get a little too loose about anything related to Maya]]. |
| 427 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: Her time in Fujieda's route is brief, but it's thanks to her that both Towa and Fujieda are able to get another key piece of information they need to [[spoiler:figure out the rest of the mystery surrounding Towa's past]]. |
| 428 | [[/folder]] |
| 429 | |
| 430 | [[folder:Hayato]] |
| 431 | !!!'''Voiced by''': ??? |
| 432 | |
| 433 | [[quoteright:140:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_hayato.png]] |
| 434 | \ |
| 435 | |
| 436 | A young boy who is accompanied often by Asakura because of his mother's absence in his life. He appears only in Taku's route. |
| 437 | ---- |
| 438 | * ChildrenAreInnocent: The poor child is too young to properly realize how difficult his life is, either due to his mother or [[spoiler:the DarkSecret that his (unofficial) caretaker harbors]]. |
| 439 | * MoralityPet: The harsher sides of Asakura's personality fade away whenever he interacts with Hayato. |
| 440 | * NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: When Hayato takes a closer look at Towa's facial scars, he gets ''really'' close to the other man, causing Towa to suspect that [[spoiler:the rumors about Asakura being a pedophile may actually be true]]. However, once it's confirmed that this isn't actually the case, Hayato's actions turn out to be nothing more than that of a child innocently seeking affection from an adult figure due to being deprived of love and attention from his actual parents. |
| 441 | * OnlyOneName: His family name is never revealed. |
| 442 | * ParentalAbandonment: There's no mention whatsoever of his father, which suggests that Hayato's mother is the only parent that's present (albeit barely) in his life. |
| 443 | * ParentalNeglect: Hayato's mother, while not a debtor, is still in a lot of trouble with the Takasato-gumi and thus would spend most of her time trying to flee from their men, leaving Hayato alone at home. It's bad enough that Asakura takes him into his care. |
| 444 | * PutOnABus: After Asakura's story ends, [[spoiler: Hayato is taken into child protection services in the mainland]] and is never seen again. He's still mentioned a few times, but the player is left to guess [[spoiler: if the young boy ever gets to find a better life with a new family]]. |
| 445 | * ShrinkingViolet: Given the kind of life he has at home, it's no surprise that he tends to shy away from most people and isn't one to talk too much, though there's the rare occasion where he can act cheerful and excited like any other kid would be. |
| 446 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In Taku's route, [[spoiler: Asakura came close to performing what would have been a near-fatal surgery on Hayato]] had Towa not arrived at the last moment. Therefore, the player is left wondering whether Hayato still manages to escape that fate in the other routes where Towa doesn't encounter Asakura. |
| 447 | [[/folder]] |
| 448 | |
| 449 | [[folder:Nakamura]] |
| 450 | !!!'''Voiced by''': ??? |
| 451 | |
| 452 | [[quoteright:145:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_nakamura.png]] |
| 453 | \ |
| 454 | |
| 455 | An employee at the restaurant Krishna, and someone who has been giving Mizuno a hard time at work. He appears only in Rei's route. |
| 456 | ---- |
| 457 | * AssholeVictim: Downplayed. Nakamura is undoubtedly a bully and there's nothing nice to say about him, although [[spoiler:getting beaten black and blue by the Assault Party]] may be considered a bit too much even for him. |
| 458 | * TheBully: He's the one who's been giving Mizuno a hard time at work and would verbally demean him whenever he could. |
| 459 | * DirtyCoward: He only accosts those who he feels won't fight back against him, but he'll immediately make himself small towards those who aren't afraid of getting aggressive with him. |
| 460 | * {{Jerkass}}: Nakamura is not a pleasant person, to say the least, and he picks on those who he feels are more feeble than him just because he can. |
| 461 | * OnlyOneName: He's only introduced by his family name; his first name is never revealed. |
| 462 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After the events of "Chapter 2: Brother", [[spoiler: Nakamura was sent to the Takanokuchi Medical Office]]. He's never mentioned after that, so whether [[spoiler:he manages to recover or not]] is left unconfirmed. |
| 463 | [[/folder]] |
| 464 | |
| 465 | [[folder:Mr. Izumi]] |
| 466 | !!!'''Voiced by''': ??? |
| 467 | |
| 468 | [[quoteright:190:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_izumi.png]] |
| 469 | \ |
| 470 | |
| 471 | Rei's biological father, though he and Rei haven't talked to each other in years due to severe personal disagreements. |
| 472 | ---- |
| 473 | * AbusiveParents: He [[spoiler:disowned Rei because he disapproved of his son's homosexuality]]. Thanks to this, Rei grew up with issues about [[spoiler:his gender identity. After spending his more mature years without his father, the man immediately comes back... only to use his son to pay off his massive debt]]. |
| 474 | * EntitledBastard: He feels that it's in his right to [[spoiler:make his son pay off his debt for him simply because they're related]], even though he had [[spoiler:disowned Rei in all but name a long time ago]]. |
| 475 | * FantasyForbiddingFather: He didn't approve of Rei [[spoiler:being gay and abused his son both physically and emotionally as a result]]. |
| 476 | * HateSink: The man is completely unpleasant from head to toe. Rei himself is enraged enough by his own father [[spoiler:to wish the man dead]], anyone else who ends up talking to him immediately picks up on how much of an asshole he is, and not even Sakaki has anything good to say about him. Even the normally apathetic Towa finds him grating enough to [[spoiler:voluntarily punch him in the face]]. |
| 477 | * KarmaHoudini: Although he does have an epiphany on [[spoiler:how horrible he had been to Rei in the latter's route]], the man still gets off very lightly in the end. This is especially considering not just how much of a horrible father he was to Rei, but also the fact that [[spoiler: he forced his son to pay a debt he himself owed the Takasato-gumi and was happily complicit in trafficking children who would be used as {{Sex Slave}}s]]. |
| 478 | * LeanAndMean: He has a pale and gaunt appearance, making him look somewhat malnourished. Even though he tries to act polite, no one is fooled by how opportunistic and shamelessly self-serving he is. |
| 479 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He finally realizes just how much he screwed up when he [[spoiler: sees Rei close to death's door at a Moneymatch, which Rei only participated in to help clear his father's debt]]. |
| 480 | * NeverMyFault: Even though he's aware that [[spoiler:it's his gambling addiction that cost him his marriage ''and'' left him with a massive debt]], he never takes care to do anything about it and doesn't feel any remorse for his actions and doesn't care when others get dragged into his mess. |
| 481 | * NoFullNameGiven: His first name is never revealed to the audience. |
| 482 | * ProfessionalButtKisser: Towa observes that the man is the type to always to ingratiate himself to the people he wishes to gain favor with, and he indeed does so to odious degrees. |
| 483 | * TrappedByGamblingDebts: His addiction had caused him to incur a debt of [[spoiler:no less than ''300 million yen'', which his son ends up being burdened with]]. |
| 484 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It's never known what becomes of Rei's father in Taku and Madarame's routes [[spoiler: since he still is saddled with a huge debt]], yet there's no hint in either route of Rei [[spoiler: being troubled by anything involving his father or the Takasato-gumi]]. |
| 485 | * WouldHurtAChild: Not directly, mind, but the fact that [[spoiler:he was eager to work his old job of trafficking human children]] makes it obvious that he had no reservations about [[spoiler:sending innocent children to a life of hardship and slavery, or worse]]. Not to mention, he [[spoiler:beat up Rei because he didn't want a "sissy" as his son]]. |
| 486 | [[/folder]] |
| 487 | |
| 488 | !! Other Residents of Mainland Japan |
| 489 | |
| 490 | [[folder:Taku's Mother]] |
| 491 | [[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1_715.png]] |
| 492 | ---- |
| 493 | * DelicateAndSickly: Taku tells Towa that his mother always had a weak heart. |
| 494 | * TheFaceless: She's only ever shown as a sketch, with her face obscured by her hair. |
| 495 | * JunkieParent: She [[spoiler: turned to drugs as a means to cope with both her poor health and her dismal financial situation]], and it got bad enough for her to be hospitalized. |
| 496 | * MissingMom: She died when [[spoiler: Taku was still in university, right as he was about to start medical school]]. |
| 497 | * ParentsAsPeople: At the very least, Taku dearly loved his mother and greatly mourns her death, [[spoiler: regretting not being able to do more for her]]. But considering [[spoiler: her history of drug abuse and his admission that he may have also used his studies as a means of not having to focus on her all the time]], it's strongly implied that [[spoiler: taking care of her]] was painfully difficult, and it's left to the player to guess just what kind of mother she was to Taku even without taking [[spoiler: her drug addiction]] into consideration. |
| 498 | * PosthumousCharacter: She died around two decades before the events of the main story. |
| 499 | * UnnamedParent: Zigzagged. Besides her first name never being revealed, the player is left to guess if Murase [[spoiler:is her maiden name or her husband's surname]]. Given that she [[spoiler: and her husband divorced with her son staying with her]], it is possible that Taku [[spoiler: took up his mother's maiden name after said divorce]], but nothing is confirmed. |
| 500 | [[/folder]] |
| 501 | |
| 502 | [[folder:Lisa Inoue]] |
| 503 | !!!'''Voiced by''': "Ai Amekawa" |
| 504 | |
| 505 | [[quoteright:165:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_lisa.png]] |
| 506 | \ |
| 507 | |
| 508 | ->''"I can't talk about it here. But I promise you, we're definitely not trying to trick you."''\ |
| 509 | \ |
| 510 | |
| 511 | A woman who works as one of the hostesses in the Grand Palace Hotel. |
| 512 | ---- |
| 513 | * ActionGirl: As [[spoiler:a special agent]], Lisa knows a thing or two about self-defense. |
| 514 | * ChekhovsGunman: She first appears in Taku's route and proves herself to be a useful ally to the protagonists. [[spoiler: She shows up again in Fujieda's route, revealing herself to be working for the mainland police.]] |
| 515 | * DemotedToExtra: Compared to her role in Taku's route, [[spoiler: her appearance in Fujieda's route is relatively brief, if only to reveal who exactly she's working for]]. Likewise, she doesn't appear for that long in the fourth ''After Story'' drama CD. |
| 516 | * FairCop: She's attractive enough to be one of Toono's main hostesses in the Grand Palace Hotel [[spoiler: whilst undercover]]. |
| 517 | * LadyInAPowerSuit: Lisa is [[spoiler:an agent working for the mainland police, and in Fujieda's route]], she shows up wearing a black blazer and pants. |
| 518 | * OnlySaneEmployee: Gender-inverted. Among the hostesses that Toono keeps around in his hotel, Towa notices that Lisa is the only one who is sound of mind, since the rest of the women are high on drugs. |
| 519 | * RavenHairIvorySkin: She has black hair and nearly snow-white skin, allowing her to qualify for the trope. |
| 520 | * SexySlitDress: Her sprite when she's in her hostess get-up makes it apparent that she wears one such dress, with the slit extending to her upper thigh. |
| 521 | * SilkHidingSteel: She's a hostess, and is also [[spoiler:an undercover agent who can hold herself in a fight]]. |
| 522 | * TheStoic: Downplayed. She shows some emotion, but she generally keeps calm and has an overall cool demeanor. |
| 523 | [[/folder]] |
| 524 | |
| 525 | [[folder:Megumu Kirihara]] |
| 526 | [[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_kirihara.png]] |
| 527 | |
| 528 | A youth who had disappeared a few years before the start of the main story. |
| 529 | ---- |
| 530 | * BigBrotherBully: He would always beat up his younger brother to the point that [[spoiler:Nozomu believed it was Megumu's way of showing his love]]. Whether or not this is actually the case is left unclear. |
| 531 | * DrivenToSuicide: Megumu [[spoiler:committed suicide years prior to the start of the story]] for reasons unknown. |
| 532 | * EvilRedhead: His photo featured him with dark red hair, and he was a violent youth who liked to inflict harm on others by either punching them or cutting them up. He even recorded himself doing the deed and kept the videos in his computer as a "collection" of sorts. |
| 533 | * GenderBlenderName: Downplayed; while Megumu is a name more commonly used for boys in Japan, it's sometimes used as a girl's name as well. |
| 534 | * OutOfFocus: He's one of the three main clients who [[spoiler:left a memorable scar on Towa's body]]. However, he's the only one who doesn't actually show up, since [[spoiler:he had already been dead for some time]]. Instead, it's [[spoiler:his younger brother who (potentially) gets to interact with Towa]]. |
| 535 | * {{Sadist}}: His younger brother mentioned that every time he would beat up someone, he would always have an ecstatic look on his face. |
| 536 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: Take a closer look at his picture, and one can see how his younger brother shares some of his facial features, with the only striking difference being their hair color. |
| 537 | * WouldHurtAChild: He physically [[spoiler: abused his brother]] on a near-daily basis, and is also responsible [[spoiler: for the scars on Towa's collarbone, and was all too glad to slash at the younger Towa over and over during his visit to Euphoria]]. |
| 538 | [[/folder]] |
| 539 | |
| 540 | [[folder:Mei -- '''Warning: Walking Spoiler''']] |
| 541 | !!!'''Voiced by''': ??? |
| 542 | [[quoteright:185:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sd_mei_9.png]] |
| 543 | \ |
| 544 | |
| 545 | ->''"Onii-chan..."''\ |
| 546 | \ |
| 547 | |
| 548 | A girl who went missing years ago. She is someone whose whereabouts Fujieda is investigating for reasons unknown. There are hints that Mei also has a connection to Towa... a connection that he doesn't remember, however.\ |
| 549 | \ |
| 550 | |
| 551 | '''Warning: Everything about Mei is connected to both Towa and Fujieda, the latter of whom is also a WalkingSpoiler in his own right; thus be warned before reading further that all spoilers in her folder are unmarked.''' |
| 552 | ---- |
| 553 | * BigBrotherWorship: Her brother cared for her and did everything he could to shield her from their mother's abuse. In turn, Mei highly looked up to him and never lost hope that Fujieda would come rescue her. |
| 554 | * ChekhovsGunman: She's only mentioned in passing a few times, and it's not until the final route that she becomes important to the plot as she's one of the central figures of Towa's past. |
| 555 | * ColorMotif: Before and after Towa remembers his childhood, his memories of Mei are always accompanied by the color white due to the dress that he remembered her wearing. White is commonly associated with purity and innocence, both of which she carried with her until the very end in spite of the warped hell she was thrown into. White also symbolizes hope and clarity, which illustrates the role she played in the plot: she inspired Towa that he can be free of his mother and live a better life, and upon coming to terms with what happened to her, both Towa and Fujieda are eventually able to find closure with their pasts before resolving to cherish the present and look forward to the future. |
| 556 | * TheCorrupter: Mei was anything ''but'' one, but Maya and Sakaki's twisted morals had them ''believing'' that Mei was a toxic influence on Towa since she helped him realize that he shouldn't continue tolerating his mother's abuse. Both of them even go so far as to call Mei a "demonic/evil being" more than once. |
| 557 | * DeathOfAChild: Mei's death is proof of both how vicious Maya was and how no one is safe in the lawless city of Shinkoumi. |
| 558 | * {{Demonization}}: Mei tried to help Towa escape the hell that was his mother's mansion. And for that, both Maya and Sakaki despise Mei and see her as a demon who attempted to corrupt Towa and lead him astray, which only shows how malevolently insane the two are. One can even make a drinking game of all the times both say either ''aku'' (悪) or ''akuma'' (悪魔) when they're talking about Mei in the ''very'' few scenes where that happens. |
| 559 | * {{Determinator}}: Aside from never letting any of her experiences in Euphoria break her, she's also the only one who had summoned both the courage and the will to run away from the place. While it may have ended in failure, the fact that she even tried (as well as attempted to help someone else escape while she's at it) still says a lot about her perseverance. |
| 560 | * EtherealWhiteDress: Towa's flashbacks of Mei featured her wearing a frilly white dress. While this also symbolizes her innocence, it mainly represents how she's no longer of this world. |
| 561 | * {{Foil}}: Mei is the only other important female figure in Towa's life besides Maya, and the two serve as each other's opposites in a way that Mei is the light while Maya is the darkness to Towa. Where Maya subjected Towa to abuse and left him with many physical and mental scars, Mei was a comforting presence to Towa and helped him feel less alone. Maya put her son through hell while believing that it was for his own good, but Mei inspired Towa with the hope that he can be free and helped him realize that he deserved better than the mistreatment he was receiving from his mother. Even their appearances and attires contrast-- Mei wore white clothes, had blackish-blue eyes, and had straight hair; whereas Maya wore red clothes with undertones of black, had crimson eyes, and her hair was naturally wavy. |
| 562 | * ForgottenFallenFriend: Even though Mei played an important role in Towa's past, he remembers almost nothing about her at present, though this is justified by his amnesia. After he remembers her in the true route, this trope becomes subverted in full as she is never regarded as a mere afterthought from then on. |
| 563 | * GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals: Her most prized possession was her bunny doll, which she always carried with her until her last moments. In Fujieda's route, her doll finds its way back to both him and Towa, [[TragicKeepsake and it becomes the only thing of her that they have left]]. |
| 564 | * GivenNameReveal: Her full name is Mei Yuzuki. This confirms that she is ''Fujieda's'' sister, not Towa's, as Fujieda's real name is Minato Yuzuki. |
| 565 | * GoodWearsWhite: Both in the photo Fujieda has of her and in Towa's memories of her, Mei is wearing a white dress, which paints a clearer image of her as a sweet and innocent girl who sadly got taken away too soon. This also emphasizes how she acted as a foil to Maya, who was [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllover predominantly dressed in red and black]]. |
| 566 | * HeroicResolve: While all the other children trapped in Euphoria eventually lost the will to resist or even live, Mei was the only exception as she didn't allow her experience in the brothel to break her spirit, and she never stopped believing that her brother would come for her. |
| 567 | * HopeBringer: Mei was described to be Towa's ray of light when he was still in Euphoria, since she was the only one who treated him with kindness and told him to never give up no matter what. She also helped Towa realize that what Maya was doing to him was wrong and that he needed to break free of his mother's control. |
| 568 | * IncorruptiblePurePureness: Mei was every bit as sweet and innocent as both Towa and Fujieda remember her to be. Even after everything she went through with her parents and the people at "Euphoria", she never gave in to despair. She carried a kind heart that never wavered, as shown when she befriended Towa and tried to lift his spirits. |
| 569 | * KilledOffscreen: While the player sees (through Towa's eyes) Mei being dragged away to be killed, they are spared the details on how she was done away with. |
| 570 | * LivingEmotionalCrutch: Played with, since she's already dead. Even then, it's the drive to find her that kept Fujieda going for many years, and when he later realizes that his efforts are ultimately futile, he feels lost and devoid of the will to live for a while. |
| 571 | * MistakenForRelated: Towa vaguely recalls having a little sister, and believes that Mei is said little sister. Except that Towa's trauma caused him to remember things wrong: he never had a sister, and Mei is related to Fujieda, not Towa. |
| 572 | * NiceGirl: Mei was a gentle and noble soul who gave Towa the friendship and affection that he was tragically deprived of. The fact that Mei tried to help Towa escape showed that she never held Towa's blood relation to Maya (their captor and tormentor) against him. |
| 573 | * NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Mei was killed because she tried to help Towa escape from his mother. |
| 574 | * OnlyFriend: Mei was the only person who showed Towa any genuine kindness in Euphoria when everyone else there (including his mother) treated him as if he was no more than a plaything or worse. |
| 575 | * PosthumousCharacter: She had been dead for years, although her death isn't confirmed to either Towa or Fujieda until much, much later. |
| 576 | * RavenHairIvorySkin: Like her brother, Mei has raven black hair and fair skin. |
| 577 | * SpannerInTheWorks: Maya assigned Mei as Towa's playmate, and also as a possible "partner" of sorts in case any of Maya's customers wanted a "package deal" since Mei and Towa were described to look cute as a pair. Mei's very own presence would eventually throw a colossal wrench in Maya's plans for Towa in both the short and the long run. Both Maya and Sakaki are all too aware of this fact, and it's also why they resent her. |
| 578 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: One can easily confirm that she's really Fujieda's sister based on looks alone, as she's looks like a younger and gender-flipped version of her brother, albeit with softer features. |
| 579 | * TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Even in the hell she was trapped in, she always hoped that her brother would find her, and she encouraged Towa to escape from his mother... only to lose her life for it. |
| 580 | [[/folder]] |
| 581 | |
| 582 | [[folder:Mr. and Mrs. Yuzuki]] |
| 583 | ->''"I despise them. They're the ones who gave me my scars. Every day, they shouted at us. Told us how they wished we'd never been born—how their lives would have been so much easier without us."'' |
| 584 | --> -- '''Minato Yuzuki [[spoiler: (a.k.a. Ryou Fujieda)]]''' |
| 585 | ---- |
| 586 | * AbusiveParents: Both of them abused [[spoiler: Fujieda and Mei]] on a daily basis, shouting at their children and cursing about how they were nothing but a burden. They soon divorced when the father hooked up with another woman, to which afterwards the mother's already horrible treatment of her children became even worse. It soon capped off with her [[spoiler: selling Mei in exchange for money, which was the final straw for Fujieda and caused him to run away from home]]. |
| 587 | * EvilMatriarch: Neither the father nor the mother was kind or nurturing in any way, but [[spoiler: Fujieda speaks of his mother's abuse more often, since it's from her beatings that Fujieda's body is as horribly scarred as it is]]. She also had no remorse about [[spoiler: giving up Mei for "adoption" and even immediately spent the payment she got on expensive dresses and makeup to celebrate her newfound wealth]]. |
| 588 | * TheGhost: [[spoiler:Fujieda and Mei's parents]] are only brought up a few times, but they do not show up in the visual novel, nor do they appear in any flashbacks. |
| 589 | * HateSink: They're the kind of parents ''no'' child should ever have under any circumstances. |
| 590 | * KarmaHoudini: Neither of them was likely to have ever faced any punishment for [[spoiler: all the times they abused their children]]. This is especially the case for [[spoiler: the mother, who was none the worse for wear after she sold off her daughter]]. |
| 591 | * WouldHurtAChild: The mother would beat her children almost everyday. [[spoiler:The scars on Fujieda's body]] are proof of just how brutal she was. |
| 592 | [[/folder]] |
| 593 | |
| 594 | !! Characters that Appear Only in the ''After Story'' Drama [=CDs=] |
| 595 | |
| 596 | !!! '''Volume 2 - ''Rei After Story''''' |
| 597 | [[folder:Kouki]] |
| 598 | |
| 599 | A young boy who fled his home in the mainland, eventually finding himself in the streets of Shinkoumi. Rei soon finds him, and seeing that the younger man has no one else to turn to, he takes Kouki under his care and offers him a job at Roost. |
| 600 | ---- |
| 601 | * AmbiguousGenderIdentity: He tells Rei that [[spoiler:he's always preferred dressing up as a woman]] and was never comfortable with [[spoiler:looking like a boy. Additionally, he likes cute things]] and also thinks that he may be attracted to the same sex. But when Rei asks if those interests mean that [[spoiler:he really wants to ''become'' a girl]], Kouki is uncertain and falls silent in response. |
| 602 | * AnimalMotifs: Birds. Whenever Kouki shows his artistic skills, his drawings always feature a bird. One of his graffiti art even shows the image of a birdcage, which symbolizes his belief that [[spoiler: he's trapped in the wrong body and the oppression he feels from both his friends and his family mocking him for being too feminine]], and his desire to be free of both those problems. Fittingly enough, when he decides to go back home after a heart-to-heart with Rei, he gets a tattoo of a bird flapping its wings on his ankle. This represents how while [[spoiler:he's still not entirely sure of which gender to identify with, he has at least embraced his interests]], which he ''is'' sure about. |
| 603 | * CopeByCreating: Kouki remarks that he's at his freest whenever he does graffiti art, as in those moments, he doesn't have to think of anything else, including [[spoiler: his conflicts with his gender identity]]. Kouki also doesn't deny it when Rei surmises that he uses his graffiti arc as a means to express the feelings he otherwise keeps suppressed. |
| 604 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: When Kouki [[spoiler: told his friends about how his true interests, he soon got shunned and bullied]], which soon led into a fight. When he told his parents about what happened, they [[spoiler: reprimanded him for "acting strange" and told him to act more like a man]], which then caused him to run away. |
| 605 | * DudeLooksLikeALady: When Kouki [[spoiler: vandalizes the street walls with graffiti art]] while dressed in a wig and a dress [[spoiler: that he stole from Arata]], some men of the Takasato-gumi looking for him assume that he's a woman. |
| 606 | * TheFakeCutie: Considering what happened with the last youth that Rei helped out, Towa suspects Kouki to be a WolfInSheepsClothing when Rei first picks him up from the streets. While Kouki is harboring some secrets, he doesn't have any hidden sinister intentions, thereby subverting this trope. |
| 607 | * MirrorCharacter: It's soon revealed that Kouki is similar to Rei in a lot of ways, from [[spoiler: his preference to dressing up as a girl]], to being [[spoiler: immensely bullied for his interests after he revealed them to his friends]], to his parents [[spoiler: refusing to accept him for the things he likes]], all the way to [[spoiler: the desire of having his body changed to suit his feminine hobbies more]]. |
| 608 | * OnlyOneName: He's only introduced by his first name, and his family name isn't mentioned once. |
| 609 | * TheQuietOne: From the way he talks, it's obvious that he's rather kept. |
| 610 | [[/folder]] |
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