Follow TV Tropes

Following

Characters / Akuma no Riddle

Go To

A list of characters for Akuma no Riddle. Class Black is listed according to their attendance numbers, except for Haru.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!


    open/close all folders 

Class Black

    General tropes for the whole class 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/akuma_no_riddle_grupa_assasins_mega_kakoiiii_killers_hd_render.png

Myojo Academy's secret Deadly Game disguised as a high school class of thirteen girls. In reality, this is an assassination game where twelve assassins compete to be the first to kill the target within the class. In a twist, one of them decides to protect the target and despite this, the game is on.

The true nature of Class Black is revealed to Tokaku and Haru (who already knows) by the Myojo Academy chairwoman Meichi Yuri. It is a trial to test Haru and her "Queen Bee" ability and see if she can survive from other assassins targeting her. If Haru succeeds, she will be the new "Primer" for her and Meichi's clan.


  • Ambiguously Gay: All of the girls with possible exception to Suzu, who is more Ambiguously Bi. In the anime, none of the pairings go beyond subtext, and some are even left out; the manga, however, is more forward and includes more pairings between the girls.
  • Action Girl: Even Haru gets her moments.
  • Beta Couple: Roommate assassins are essentially this. Except Nio, who doesn't have a roommate. Confirmed in the manga.
  • The Bus Came Back:
    • Sort of in Episode 10, all of the expelled assassins return for Sumireko's tea party... as robots. However, this is played straight for Otoya, who is the only one to return as herself in the tea party.
    • Everyone reappears in episode 12 for the epilogue.
  • Dark Action Girl: All of the assassins to varying degrees. They're all rather morally ambiguous and the best of them can still be considered anti-heroic.
  • Dark and Troubled Past:
    • Tokaku's aunt Mako and mother Sorami were killed by her grandmother for opposing the Azuma's way of life. In the case of her aunt, Tokaku was there to witness it.
    • Haru has been an assassination target for her entire life. Several members of her family have sacrificed themselves to save her, and being hospitalized after the attacks meant she was never really able to go to school like a regular person.
    • Isuke's biological parents nearly let her die while raising her, and later were killed by her current father Eisuke, who trained her to be an assassin since childhood so that she could succeed him.
    • Kouko was known as an incompetent assassin for most of her life and was responsible for the death of her mentor.
    • As a child, Mahiru was imprisoned and forced to be photographed continuously, and is heavily implied to have been sexually abused as well. It put her under so much stress that she developed the split personality Shinya and killed her captor. Her backstory is slightly different in the manga: she was still imprisoned and photographed and implied to be sexually abused, but by her uncle instead of some unknown person/people. Mahiru was also starved by him, and it's implied he was grooming her as well, before she snapped and killed him. All of this has made her notably unstable, as both Sumireko and Shinya comment on.
    • Sumireko was targeted by assassins for most her her life, similar to Haru. The difference is that while Haru gained several scars from the attacks, Sumireko lost all of her limbs, which she had replaced so that she could fight against her attackers herself, and had to relearn how to do things like walk.
    • In the manga, Shiena was constantly bullied and joined an assassination group in order to get revenge on those who bullied her.
  • Deadly Game: Class Black is an assassination competition. Several hired killers compete with one another to see who can kill the target first while following specific rules:
    • Assassination must be announced first via special notice, and then carried out within forty-eight hours. Failure means expulsion.
    • No one outside the class can be involved in these attempts, including their homeroom teacher Mizorogi. Breaking this rule also means expulsion.
    • The victor gets whatever they want as a prize.
    • In Episode 7, Suzu sets up one of her own with Riddle Me This as her plan to take down Haru. The other assassins (except Isuke) even see this as a nice change of pace.
  • Disney Death: All of the deaths by the ending. Explanation is only given for one of them: Haru's, who only survived because her ribs were replaced with ones made of titanium.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue shows that several of the assassins are doing better now, but special mention goes to Kouko who is last seen forcibly quitting her organization.
  • Everybody Lives: Though only Haru is given an explanation on how she survived. Haru is shown being taken away in an ambulance, so it can be assumed everyone was given quick and highly professional medical attention. Which is confirmed in the manga.
  • Flower Motifs: Every expelled assassin gets a flower on their desk once they leave. The flowers have meanings in Hanakotoba that are relevant to the assassin in some way.
  • Foreshadowing: Some of the later assassins give out many hints about them before their episodes.
    • Before her episode, Suzu gave hints regarding her age, like how she got a stiff shoulder during one of the tests in Episode 4.
    • Notice that Nio doesn't bathe with other girls, is always fully-clothed, and has no roommate? That's because she has tattoos signifying she's from the Kuzunoha clan all over her body.
    • In episode 3, Otoya, who is later revealed to be an Ax-Crazy serial killer, tells Mahiru that they have more things in common during the day. Sure enough, it turns out that it's Mahiru, not Shinya, who actually wants to kill people.
    • When the class is taking pictures in episode 6, Mahiru hides from the camera, and during episode 8, Shinya is noticeably bothered by the brightness of the lamp behind Sumireko, and makes it a point to adjust the shade. It turns out later that exposure to bright lights can reduce her to a sobbing wreck because her past involved imprisonment and a lot of unwilling flash photography.
    • Sumireko herself is riddled with this. First, she claims to have a frail health and is only comfortable on her own furniture that she brought to school. And then in the school's pool facility, she wears a small dress instead of a swimsuit. Lastly, Shinya tells Tokaku and Haru that she (and Nio) doesn't like bathing with the others. What do they all lead to? Sumireko reveals herself to be a cyborg in her episode.
  • Friendly Enemy: Class Black is a competition and nearly everyone participating is an experienced killer, but this doesn't stop them from chatting about mundane topics like food and even taking baths together.
    • Further proven in the final episode, when despite having spent the majority of the series fighting for their lives against the deadly attacks from the others, Haru and Tokaku plan on visiting everyone to give them their graduation diplomas.
  • Furo Scene
  • Gender-Blender Name:
    • Quite a few of the assassins have names typically used for males, most notably Isuke and Shinya.
    • In-universe, when Haru first reads the class list before meeting her classmates, she uses the -kun honorific on the names of Tokaku, Isuke, Hitsugi, Haruki, Otoya, and Nio.
  • Iconic Item: Most notably Tokaku's cellphone and Haru's cellphone straps.
  • Image Song: Each of the assassins has one of these, except for Shiena and with Hitsugi and Chitaru sharing one, which are used for their episode's credits.
  • Living with the Villain: The two protagonists, Tokaku and Haru, live in the same dormitory as the assassins.
  • Male Gaze: Which is not surprising.
  • Masquerade: Class Black is a rumor to most of the student body and a regular class to their teacher.
  • Monster of the Week: From Episode 3 onwards, one or more assassins give their notice to Haru and try to kill her.
  • Ms. Fanservice: A lot of them but Isuke is clearly the most prominent.
  • Murder, Inc.: Myojo Academy might fine with "employing" assassins, but it isn't exactly this. The ones listed below fit this trope much better:
    • According to the manga, Angel's Trumpet works for and is the ace of the Datura organization, which specializes in the use of the poison of its namesake.
    • Kouko is from an organization called Clover Home, which is an international assassin training facility disguised as a orphanage.
    • Shiena works for Collective Dismissal, which is composed of bullying victims and operates by having them exact revenge on someone in exchange for avenging someone else.
  • New Transfer Student: Everyone except Nio.
  • Numerological Motif: Some of the number assignments happen to be significant for their characters:
    • 7 is thrown around everywhere with Suzu, as can be seen in her section below.
    • While not as prominent, Haru's number also gets a trope for itself.
    • Otoya, no. 8, is associated with the spider.
    • Hitsugi and Chitaru's numbers, 4 and 9, both have unlucky connotations in Japan (Four Is Death happens to be more well-known than nine, which can be read as "suffering"). It's an early hint to what happens to them.
      • While possibly a coincidence, Shiena's number, 5, is the difference between Hitsugi's and Chitaru's, as in 9-4=5 or 4+5=9. In the manga, Hitsugi eliminates her because she didn't want Shiena to get between herself and Chitaru.
    • Out of all the number assignments in the class, Tokaku's and Haru's are the only ones that can't be rolled with a pair of dice. 1 cannot be rolled, and 12 is the maximum number, so 13 can't either.
  • Professional Killer: Most of the assassins. Some of them are born into the job, while others do it for the money, whether they want to or not. Otoya is the only one explicitly stated not to fall into this category.
  • Psychotic Smirk: The class sure loves this.
  • Ship Tease: In the anime there is a bit between roommates, but in the manga there's a lot more.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Practically all of the roomed assassins, to different degrees.
  • The Unfought: In the anime, Tokaku never fights Shiena (as she is poisoned by Hitsugi before she could send her notice), Hitsugi (because of the events of the school play), and Suzu (who traps Haru with a Explosive Leash seconds after the latter receives the former's notice).
  • Walking Spoiler: Expect to see a handful of assassins having this in this page.
  • Weapon Specialization: Except Haru and Shiena because she's The Unfought, all of the student/assassins in the Black Class have their own signature weapon:

    No. 1: Tokaku Azuma 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/94472754ff218d885faa8738c7aafb6e1392062965_full.png
Voiced by: Ayaka Suwa (Japanese), Morgan Berry (English)

An assassin from Academy 17 and the protagonist of the series. Right before Class Black is activated, she changes her role in the game from one of Haru's assassins to her protector. Apparently, she has some sort of reputation as an assassin, but Isuke quickly discovers that she has never killed anyone before. Tokaku attributes her inability to kill to a curse in her past.

Her reputation comes from being from a family of assassins.


  • Animal Motifs: It's seldom brought up, but Tokaku is associated with rabbits due to her name.
  • Assassin Outclassin': Routinely bests the other assassins of Class Black.
  • Arsenal Attire: Her boots have holsters for knives and tasers hidden in the heel.
  • Bifauxnen: With her boyish looks, she could easily pass off as an androgynous boy.
  • Blade Enthusiast: Her primary weapon.
  • Boyish Short Hair: Her short hair fits her tomboy personality.
  • Brutal Honesty: She can be rather blunt with her opinions, and she's not afraid to call out Haru for being foolish.
  • Cradling Your Kill: She holds Haru Pietà style after "fatally" stabbing her.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Both blue, which are shared traits in the Azuma family.
  • Deadpan Snarker: More so in the manga than the anime.
  • Declaration of Protection: She mentions her intention to switch to Haru's side twice: first to Haru, and then the rest of the assassins.
  • Dulcinea Effect: She's pretty quick to risk death and openly declare her intentions to a room full of killers for a girl she's only recently met. It appears justified when she is implied to be influenced by Haru's Queen Bee power, but the final chapters show that it wasn't the case and she did just fall in love with Haru.
  • Iconic Item: Her classic cellphone which is a flip cellphone with physical keypads. Interestingly, its OS appears to be as good as modern smartphones. Isuke destroys it in Episode 9; Tokaku appears to have bought the same phone the next episode.
  • Icy Blue Eyes: Tokaku's pretty cold to everyone but Haru.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: With her knives. Best exhibited in episode 9, when she hits Isuke's wrist from a long way down a hallway, while running.
  • In Love with the Mark: One of the most important parts of the plot.
  • Made of Iron: She could still stand up after having a chandelier thrown at her.
  • Manly Tears: In the final episode of the anime after she thinks she killed Haru.
  • Meaningful Name: "Azuma" means "east" (which makes "Azuma of the East" seem redundant). The way Tokaku's name is written makes it mean "rabbit horn", which is used to refer to impossible or imaginary things. Her grandmother meant for it to make her intimidating.
  • The Nose Knows: She has a very sharp sense of smell, which she shares with some of the other assassins.
  • Official Couple: With Haru, in the manga, once class black has ended.
  • Punch Catch: Against Haruki, who had the upper hand until that point in the fight, when Tokaku completely turns it around.
  • Rei Ayanami Expy: A distant and cold girl with short blue hair, Icy Blue Eyes and pale skin.
  • Reverse Grip: She tends to hold her knives like this.
  • The Stoic: Very cold, reserved, and distant.
    • Not So Stoic: By episode 7 of the anime, Tokaku becomes so worried that she can't save Haru that she yells at Isuke after she wastes one of the tries to deactivate the bomb. In the final episode, she's even in tears after she thinks she killed Haru.
      • In the manga's Chapter 46, after shooting Haru in the chest in the same attempt as in the anime to prove her free will, Tokaku contemplates on committing suicide when she decides that she doesn't want to live in "a future without Haru". When a mortally-wounded Haru attempts to persuade Tokaku to live on, Tokaku bursts into tears with an Anguished Declaration of Love.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: A carbon copy of her mother and aunt.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: While stoic most of the time she is shown to genuinely care about Haru, and even to a certain extent some of the other assassins.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: Enforced on her by her aunt to honor the wishes of Tokaku's mother. Later, becomes averted after Tokaku's mother "gives her daughter permission". Still kinda played straight since even after gaining the ability to kill, she only strangles Isuke unconscious and the two people she stabbed lived.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Haru's girly-girl.
  • Tomboyish Ponytail: In the manga's epilogue she grew out her hair and keeps it a ponytail, giving her a stronger resemblance to her aunt. Even with the longer hair, she still has a Bifauxnen appearance.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Curry.
  • Tyke-Bomb: Raised to be an assassin from birth.

    No. 13: Haru Ichinose 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ichinoseharufull1687350.jpg
Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese), Alexis Tipton (English)

Class Black's target. She comes from a very large family, who also seems to be out for her blood for reasons unexplained. Despite being a mark for assassins her entire life, Haru remains cheerful and, alongside Tokaku, tries to graduate from Class Black alive.


  • 13 Is Unlucky: Class Black's target and the thirteenth student on the roll.
  • Acquired Poison Immunity: All the surgeries Haru has been through has made her somewhat resistant to sleep-inducing drugs.
  • Action Survivor: Not much of a fighter, but she's good at taking advantage of her surroundings.
  • All-Loving Hero: She has something of a Thou Shalt Not Kill mentality and would rather become everyone's friend than enemy.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: Admits to loving Tokaku in Episode 12. It's via internal monologue rather than out loud, seeing as how they're attempting to stab each other.
  • Assassin Outclassin': She lives this trope, though many others have died in her place.
  • Badass Adorable: She is very sweet and lovable, but underestimating her ability to live will bite you in the ass.
  • Bewarethe Nice Ones: Haru will give anyone the benefit of the doubt, even people who are literally being paid to kill her, but the moment they betray that good faith, she shows them just why there were twelve of them against one of her. As Otoya and Sumireko found out the hard way.Don't underestimate Haru
  • Bound and Gagged: In episode 3, by Otoya.
  • Charm Person: It's revealed that she was born with a "Queen Bee" ability that gives off a constant aura of making those she spends long enough around feel compelled to love and protect her. This is entirely against her own will, and she is willing to let Tokaku attempt to kill her just to prove her love for her is real rather than a side-effect of her ability.
  • Covered with Scars: From a lifetime's worth of assassination attempts.
  • Designated Victim: She's the class's target, so it's justified. This doesn't mean that she can't defend herself, of course.
  • Determinator: After getting fatally shot by Tokaku in the manga's Chapter 46 (in the same attempt as in the anime to prove Tokaku's free will), she somehow still manages to gather enough presence of mind and strength to try preventing a heart-broken Tokaku from committing suicide.
  • Deuteragonist: She and Tokaku have roughly the same amount of focus in the story and she puts just as much effort into surviving as Tokaku puts into keeping her alive.
  • Disney Death: In the anime, Tokaku fatally stabs Haru to prove she is not under Haru's "Queen Bee" powers; Haru survives only because she has metal ribs that deflected the blade.
    • In the manga, Tokaku shoots Haru in Chapter 46 to the same end.
  • The Door Slams You: Gets on the receiving end of this by Haruki in the first episode. She gives one to Shinya in Episode 9.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: She graduates from Class Black just as she wanted.
  • Flower Motifs: White roses, which mean innocence and new beginnings.
  • Girlish Pigtails: To go with her peppy attitude.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Her reward for going through the twelve assassins. She wants to leave her clan and live a normal life.
    • It seems readily-apparent that she would much rather just forget about ever having the "Queen Bee" ability. Until after Tokaku mortally wounds her in the manga Chapter 46, and even then it is because she wants to at least ensure that Tokaku can be saved even if herself might not.
  • In-Series Nickname: "Harucchi", by Otoya. Doubles as Terms of Endangerment.
  • Meaningful Name: The kanji for her given name means sunny or clear weather.
  • Never Got to Say Goodbye: To her mother, though she's gotten over it.
  • Official Couple: With Tokaku in the manga's final chapter.
  • The Pollyanna: She remains optimistic and even tries to befriend the students of Class Black, though there are signs that she isn't really this, but a Stepford Smiler.
  • Protectorate: To Tokaku and formerly several of her family members.
  • Rose-Haired Sweetie: She even believes that she can befriend the people who are trying to kill her.
  • Stepford Smiler: Haru is determined to smile despite pretty much everyone being out to kill her.
  • Technicolor Eyes: Pink in the anime, purple in the manga.
  • Third-Person Person: She uses her given name in place of pronouns.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly-girl to Tokaku's tomboy.

    No. 2: Isuke Inukai 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4fb6b4e94268c3373d7dcb2acd4681c6f3399519_hq.jpg
Voiced by: Azumi Asakura (Japanese), Jamie Marchi (English)

One of Class Black's more pragmatic assassins. Isuke is blunt and confident enough to attempt to kill Haru before Class Black is activated. Through this, she learns that Tokaku has never killed a person, but decides to keep it a secret.


  • Alliterative Name: Isuke Inukai.
  • Alpha Bitch: Has the haughty attitude of an alpha bitch, even if she lacks the Girl Posse.
  • Apathetic Student: She doesn't care about school work and is the least studious out of all the girls in Class Black.
  • Asleep in Class: To the point where she'll even sleep through her midterms.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: She's very observant and analytical, being able to pinpoint weaknesses and vulnerabilities in people just by watching them, such as her deducing that Tokaku was a virgin assassin or noticing Banba has a weakness to light.
  • Book Dumb: She's not dumb, but gets zeroes on tests, though this is probably because she's an Apathetic Student who just sleeps through them all.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: Has a well-endowed chest which is prominently displayed by her cleavage. Haruki refers to it as Isuke's "adult charm". Her stats sheet also humorously describe her cup size as "Biggest".
  • Can't Hold Her Liquor: As seen in an omake chapter of the second official art book, it doesn't take a lot to get her drunk.
  • Chekhov's Gun: During the school play, she acted as the lighting technician and, in the manga, she witnesses Banba freaking out from the bright lights. She would later use the knowledge she gained to neutralize Shinya during her assassination attempt.
  • Combat Stilettos: She fights in heeled boots.
  • Commonality Connection: She and Haruki and quite different people, but they first bond over their familial love and the idea they do anything for their family.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Her biological parents were neglectful and nearly let her die. Seems almost fair that her adoptive parents killed them and took her in. On the other hand, turning one's adoptive daughter into an assassin isn't good parenting either, but Isuke still loves him.
  • Dual Wielding: Isuke usually uses two knuckle knives.
  • Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: She's not a good person, but genuinely loves her parents. Probably her sole redeeming quality, that is, if she wasn't perfectly willing to kill people just to buy a private beach for her parents.
  • Femme Fatale: She makes use of her sex appeal to get an edge in her assassin work.
  • Flower Motifs: Red carnations, which mean "believe in love". Unlike the others, her flowers were depicted as buds.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Her name is rather masculine, since she was named for her father Eisuke, though she thinks it sounds cool.
  • Has a Type: She has a thing for hardworking, blue-collar types. Fittingly, she ends up dating Haruki in the manga, who is now working as a construction worker.
  • Impaled Palm: Or below the wrist, anyway. Tokaku gives her one just before she is about to kill Haru.
  • It Amused Me: Isuke tries to avoid boredom as much as possible. Her efforts to do so range from mild teasing to putting people in mortal danger.
  • Likes Older Men: Isuke only likes guys over forty, and she'll kill you for calling them old.
  • Loophole Abuse: She sends Tokaku and Haru her notice with Banba's name on it, luring them that Banba is after Haru. The rules never mentioned anything about putting someone else's name on their notice. It also turns out that Banba is also after Haru.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Easily the character who shows off the most skin. She and Haruki also get the most risque official art out of all the pairings, usually with her on the receiving end.
  • Official Couple: With Haruki in the manga. Isuke outright says that she loves Haruki during the final chapter. The two even seem to be wearing engagement rings.
  • Ojou: She has the demeanor, the appearance, and the wealth of one.
  • Ojou Ringlets: As befitting of a rich young lady, she has two sidelocks that curl into ringlets.
  • Opposites Attract: An evil, selfish, rich bitch, who actually enjoys her job shows attraction to the good, selfless, poor handworker, who hates her job.
  • Panty Shot: She has a Freeze-Frame Bonus one in Episode 2 in which she wear pink panties. During her rematch with Tokaku in Episode 9, she has a few ones, this time wearing black panties.
  • Pet the Dog: Despite her Alpha Bitch tendencies, she does develop a genuine friendship with Haruki, in addition to the fact that she truly loves her adopted family. In the manga, she even ends up agreeing with Haruki's Armor-Piercing Response for Isuke's question on "What could be possible more important than money?", Haruki's response was "family".
  • Power Fist: Knuckle knives are her main weapon.
  • Psycho Lesbian: Isuke apparently gets turned on by a drugged Haru, after seeing that she's covered in scars.
  • Rags to Riches: As a result of being adopted into the Inukai family.
  • Rich Bitch: Comes from a rich family and participates in Class Black in order to get more money.
  • The Rival: She is easily Azuma's most personal adversary out of all the assassins.
  • Say It with Hearts: Very often in the manga. Even her character song has it.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: Has a smaller one that acts more like a choker. She uses this against Tokaku in their pre-Deadly Game fight.
  • Ship Tease: With Haruki. She is shown to actually be upset when Haruki is eliminated and states in the manga that her ideal type is the blue-collar hardworking type, so Haruki is shown in the finale to be a construction worker. They're confirmed to end up together in the manga. If one looks closely at their right hands in the final chapter, both Isuke and Haruki appear to be wearing engagement rings.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Or woman. She has a thing for the hardworking type and she has the largest amount of Ship Tease with Haruki, a generally Nice Girl who is only an assassin to support her family. In the manga, Isuke does end up in a relationship with Haruki in the epilogue.
  • Third-Person Person: Refers to herself in the third person when she's being playful.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly-girl to Haruki's Tomboy with a Girly Streak.
  • Tsundere: Toward Haruki. Even though Isuke genuinely cares for Haruki, that doesn't mean that Haruki is spared from her verbal abuse and death threats. In many of the omake chapters featured in the official art books, Isuke acts more like a stereotypical tsundere. In the manga's epilogue, even after the two started dating, Isuke still casually threatens Haruki if she didn't do what Isuke wanted.
  • Tyke-Bomb: Trained by her father to assassinate since childhood.
  • Undying Loyalty: She's extremely loyal to her assassin adoptive parents, as they saved her from her abusive biological parents.
  • Uptown Girl: She's a lazy, rich and talented assassin that ends up falling for the diligent, poor, hard-working Haruki.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After she got stabbed right below the wrist by Tokaku's throwing knife.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: She is the first opponent Tokaku battles with and takes the latter down when she realizes her problems with killing.

    No. 3: Kouko Kaminaga 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaminagakoukofull1687354.jpg
Voiced by: Haruka Yoshimura (Japanese), Clarine Harp (English)

Class Black's representative until she leaves.


  • Alliterative Name: Kouko Kaminaga.
  • Badass Bookworm: A bomb expert who can always be found reading, further proven in the final, when she guns down to assassins from her organization when they object to her resignation.
  • Bespectacled Cutie: A cute and smart girl with glasses, and she's even a little clumsy too.
  • Boobs-and-Butt Pose: Demonstrates some variation of this on one of the volume covers.
  • Demolitions Expert: She specializes in explosives.
  • Flower Motifs: Red spider lilies. In the manga, Suzu says they mean "I'm looking forward to meeting you again," though other sources say they mean "abandonment" or "lost memories."
  • Girlish Pigtails: She sports a cute pair.
  • Godiva Hair: During and after her shower.
  • Meaningful Name: Her surname is spelt with the kanji for god and leader.
  • My Greatest Failure: She accidentally caused the death of her mentor after she set up a bomb incorrectly. Afterwards, she became a lot more driven.
  • Proper Tights With Skirt: She wears dark gray stockings, which she trades from black when she escapes from the Clover Home in the finale.
  • Smart People Wear Glasses: The best in her class academically. But the same can't be said of her assassination skills.
  • Stoic Spectacles: Wears glasses and is almost as stoic as Tokaku.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to Suzu's Tomboy.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In the end she decided to fight for her own freedom in honour of her mentor, and the finale shows her gunning down two agents of her former employer.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Her mentor's crucifix necklace. Unfortunately, it gets destroyed in her fight against Tokaku, but it is repaired in the finale.
  • Tragic Villain: She killed her mentor by accident and wants to leave her organization, but death is the only resignation they accept.
  • Tyke-Bomb: Her skill with explosives comes from a lifetime's worth of practice.
  • The Unfavorite: Seems to have been this to the rest of her organization.

    No. 4: Hitsugi Kirigaya 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_421.jpg
Voiced by: Mami Uchida (Japanese), Natalie Hoover (English)

An assassin who looks like an elementary school student. She met Chitaru Namatame while trying to find her way to Myojo Academy, and the two seemed to become friends afterwards.


  • Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike her manga counterpart, Hitsugi isn't a yandere in the anime.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: When Chitaru hesitates to kill her for the sake of her mentor, she stabs herself to save her the trouble while hugging her. Immediately afterwards, it's revealed that she was planning to quit Class Black and leave with Chitaru.
  • Disney Death: Despite being stabbed in the heart, the ending of the anime shows that she is actually in better health then Chitaru.
  • Easily Forgiven: Subverted. Despite she and Chitaru surviving, the latter has not fully forgiven her for killing her mentor's daughter. Though it's somewhat played with as its still implied Chitaru still wants to be with Hitsugi.
  • The Fake Cutie: She only acts sweet and polite in front of Chitaru.
  • Flower Motifs: White roses.
  • Four Is Death: She's No. 4 in her class, the fourth to attempt to kill Haru note and the first character to (seemingly) die.
  • Girlish Pigtails: She sports some of her hair in a cute pair of pigtails, which makes her look even more like a child.
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door: She doesn't seem to feel much remorse for her actions as an assassin, but she cares deeply about Chitaru and wants to give up her life as an assassin to be with her.
  • Hidden Depths: Hitsugi is actually "Angel's Trumpet", a ruthless assassin who killed the daughter of Chitaru's teacher. When Chitaru told Hitsugi of her goal to kill Angel's Trumpet, Hitsugi promises to help anyway she can, even if it means helping Chitaru plunge the knife into her own heart.
  • Maybe Ever After: With Chitaru in both the anime and manga.
  • Meaningful Name: Her given name is spelt with the character for coffin.
  • Nice Girl: Generally very sweet and polite. Later on subverted when it's discovered that she's the ace of a notorious assassin organization, kills for her own amusement and only acts sweet in front of Chitaru. Possibly Zigzagged given how Hitsugi willingly allowed herself to be killed by Chitaru, so that the latter could fullfill her goal to kill Angel Trumpet.
  • No Sense of Direction: She befriended Chitaru after the latter helped her find the academy. Later, they're shown holding hands often so Hitsugi doesn't get lost.
  • Not Quite Dead: The final episode reveals that both she and Chitaru survived.
  • Older Than She Looks: Hitsugi is a high school student despite looking young enough to pass for elementary school.
  • Poisoned Weapons: Her weapon is the deadly Angel's Trumpet poison from which she got her nickname. She sometimes coats them on objects, or simply shoots her targets with poisoned needles.
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Chitaru in the OVA. They spend the entire episode cuddling, sharing food, and generally acting like a lovey-dovey couple.
  • Tender Tears: In the last episode she is trying to talk to Chitaru who is steadily ignoring her. When she finally gives up, Chitaru clasps her hands and implies that she has forgiven Hitsugi, which causes her to break into tears.
  • Token Mini-Moe: She's the youngest-looking of all the cast, even being mistaken for an elementary school student.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly-girl to Chitaru's tomboy.
  • Yandere: Only in the manga. She's enraged that Shiena fell in love with Chitaru and this becomes her reason for poisoning the girl.

    No. 5: Shiena Kenmochi 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/11498_909727623.png
Voiced by: Yuki Yamada (Japanese), Anastasia Muñoz (English)

A slightly scatterbrained member of Class Black. The manga shows that she's highly against bullying, calling it unforgivable.


  • Adaptation Distillation: Is practically a non-entity in the anime, with her backstory and hatred of bullying being completely left out.
  • Ambiguously Gay: In the manga, she blushes at Chitaru during the school play rehearsal. It earns her the ire of Hitsugi.
  • Bespectacled Cutie: Another cute and brainy girl with glasses.
  • Brainy Brunette: Word of God says that she's more skilled at analysis than assassination. It's evident during her time as director; she's able to discern things like Hitsugi's and Chitaru's weapon types through subtle hints that she gets from watching them.
  • Bully Hunter: Some of her lines concerning Otoya suggest this. In fact, she's later revealed to have joined an assassin organization specifically to get back at the people who bullied her in the past.
  • Butt-Monkey: Out of all the assassins, she tends to have the most bad luck out of all them. Her roommate love to endlessly troll her. There is the implication that said roommate also has feeling for her, which isn't a good thing considering that Otaya is a serial killer that can only feel sexual pleasure when she is cutting into someones flesh. And to top it off, she was poisoned just before Haru receives her assassination notice, which ending being bad timing for Shiena.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Has several spare glasses ready for when she breaks her current pair.
  • Cute Bookworm: Often depicted with a book and seems to have an interest in drama and theater.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: The manga covers her backstory about being bullied.
  • Flower Motifs: Thistles, which are symbolic of revenge.
  • Foil: The manga seems to be putting some emphasis on the motivational differences between her and Chitaru.
  • Friendless Background: Her best friend is someone she's only ever met online, and that same person is the one responsible for her becoming an assassin.
  • The Generic Girl: Because of her Adaptation Distillation, she is this in the anime.
  • Girlish Pigtails: She keeps her hair in two braided pigtails.
  • I Coulda Been a Contender!: If Hitsugi hadn't taken her out, anyway.
  • Messy Hair: More prominent in the manga. Her hair has a lot of uneven strands sticking out, and her bedhead is even worse.
  • Playful Hacker: The finale shows her hacking into Myojo Academy's network in an effort to expose their secrets. The nature of her job suggests this overlaps with The Cracker.
  • Rapid-Fire Typing: During her hacking scene in the finale.
  • Revenge: She and her entire organization apparently operates with this in mind.
  • Slasher Smile: Has one in chapter 22 of the manga, directed at Nio.
  • Smart People Wear Glasses: She's an analysis specialist.
  • Twinkle in the Eye: Combined with Snap to the Side, Audible Gleam, and Speed Stripes before she calmly asks Mizorogi to shut up while she's directing the play.

    No. 6: Haruki Sagae 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/795166809307707205.jpg
Voiced by: Fumiko Uchimura (Japanese), Carli Mosier (English)

One of the friendlier assassins. She is noted by Tokaku to be very physically strong. Gets along with Isuke well, despite the latter's attitude.


  • Affectionate Nickname: In the manga, some of her younger siblings call her "Ha-chan".
  • Ambiguously Absent Parent: Her father isn't part of her family. Whether he died or abandoned them isn't specified.
  • Asleep in Class: Episode 2 features her and Isuke sleeping through an audio lecture. She does it again in the manga after Otoya's expulsion.
  • Big Sister Instinct: She doesn't take it well when Nio mentions her large family.
  • Character Catchphrase: She says "Sorry, sorry" thrice in the first episode she appears in.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Haruki can shatter bottles of nail polish with her bare hands by accident and easily carry around several wooden posts at once.
  • Commonality Connection: She and Isuke and quite different people, but they first bond over their familial love and the idea they do anything for their family.
  • Cool Big Sis: She tries to be a mature, responsible older figure to her younger siblings.
  • Covert Pervert: This trait is only really shown in an omake chapter of the second official art book. When Isuke revealed that she just turned 20, Haruki is left surprised after finding out that Isuke is older than her. Comedically, Haruki goes on to comment on Isuke's "adult charm" while staring at Isuke's breasts, resulting in a My Eyes Are Up Here reaction from Isuke.
  • The Door Slams You: Haruki reports in for roll call by slamming the door into Haru's face.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Possibly, as Tokaku notes that she carries herself as someone "used to being the object of others' desire". In manga's epilogue, she does end up being Isuke's girlfriend. The final official art book also reveals Haruki's own younger sister, Fuyuka, wants her.
  • Flower Motifs: Verbena flowers, which symbolize familial love.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: Since she can't afford formal assassin training, Haruki makes do with a rough hand-to-hand combat style and some help from a lot of garrote wire.
  • Graceful Loser: She takes the failure of her attack and Tokaku's subsequent survival by telling Tokaku that she needs to do her best while she's alive, and that she herself needs to do the same.
  • Healthcare Motivation: On top of her many siblings, she needs to provide for her sick mother.
  • I Just Want to Be Free: Part of her motivation is that she wants to get rid of the burden of having to kill to sustain her family. While she considers dying a viable method of escape from it, she isn't so selfish she'd leave her family to starve afterwards. In the finale she is shown still trying to sustain her family, but at least she doesn´t work as an assassin anymore. Her image song even includes the lyrics "Set me free" repeated throughout.
  • Irony: She, Tokaku and Haru are spared from her Suicide Attack by the set that she made for the play.
  • Massive Numbered Siblings: About six in the manga, and ten in the anime (including herself).
  • Nice Girl: Is rather friendly and easy-going most of the time.
  • The Nose Knows: In the manga, she's especially distrustful of Nio because of her scent.
  • Official Couple: With Isuke by the time of the manga's final chapter.
  • Only in It for the Money: She doesn't like working as an assassin, doing it purely because she needs the money to support her family.
  • Opposites Attract: She's a good, selfless, poor handworker, who hates her job and her Love Interest ends up being a mean, selfish, rich bitch, who loves working as an assassin.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: She's only being an assassin so she can provide for her large family. Besides that, she really is a nice, good girl.
  • Suicide Attack: She tries this while knowing that her family will get the reward whether she lives or not. It fails to kill anyone.
  • Super-Strength: Strong enough to shatter a nail polish bottle with her bare hands.
  • Sweet Tooth: Haruki is almost never without candy or Rocky sticks.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Isuke's girly-girl.
  • Tomboy with a Girly Streak: The first conversation she and Isuke have is about nail polish, but she acts and dresses like a tomboy would.
  • Uptown Girl: She's diligent, poor and hark-working and ends up in a romance with a lazy, rich and talented assassin.
  • Wacky Marriage Proposal: Implied in the final official art book. It's revealed that the matching ring Haruki and Isuke are wearing in the manga's final chapter are actually cheap 180 yen rings that Haruki bought at a 100 yen store. Haruki does promise Isuke that she will one day buy her a better one, hinting that she tends to propose to Isuke once she saved up enough money to buy a proper engagement ring.

    No. 7: Suzu Shuto 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2cedfbf30f9ffc56e7941c089ad6aecf.jpg
Voiced by: Chika Anzai (Japanese), Michelle Rojas (English)

A calm, pleasant member of Class Black who happens to know about topics that the others may not know about.


  • The Ageless: As a result of her Highlander Syndrome, her body doesn't visibly age.
  • Alliterative Name: Suzu Shuto.
  • Ambiguously Bi: She had a boyfriend in the past, but in the present, she has plenty of Les Yay with Kouko.
  • Antiquated Linguistics: For some reason, she has a speaking pattern that's used mostly by the elderly. It makes sense because she's actually from the Meiji Restoration Era.
  • Birthday Episode: Her episode, which is also her turn to kill Haru.
  • Deadly Game: She sets up one of her own as her strategy to assassinate Haru.
  • Dogged Nice Girl: Towards Kouko.
  • Explosive Leash: She straps Haru in the neck with a breather variant that can only be diffused by a four-number password.
  • Flower Motifs: Red tulips, which symbolize declarations of love.
  • Friendly Enemy: In the Manga, after strapping Haru with a bomb she apologizes. While Haru and Tokaku look for clues to her game, Suzu actually cheers them on.
  • Graceful Loser: Despite having another day to kill Haru, she willingly surrenders.
  • Granola Girl: She refers to herself as a health nut and is shown exercising often. This is to keep her body in good condition even with its age, which explains why she couldn't physically take down Haru.
  • Her Heart Will Go On: She still misses her boyfriend and in the finale she is shown visiting his grave, but she is starting to get over it.
  • Immortality Bisexuality: The immortality is there, and the bisexuality is heavily implied.
  • Mayfly–December Romance:
    • Is often Ship Tease with Kouko, even though she is The Ageless and old enough to be Kouko's grandmother, maybe even great-grandmother.
    • The reason she doesn't want to be immortal is because she fell in love with someone who aged without her, left her for someone who did age and eventually died.
  • Meaningful Name: Her surname contains the kanji for neck and wisteria. Suzu plants a bomb on Haru's neck. A wisteria is a type of flower; Suzu explains the meanings of the other students' flowers.
  • Mystical White Hair: Her hair is whitish, and she seems to be immortal.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: A small one after she explains the bomb a bit.
  • Older Than She Looks: Word of God says she came from the Meiji Restoration Era, which means she's easily over 100, but not by much.
  • Riddle Me This: She gives Tokaku and Haru four riddles that lead to the locations of the password's each number, all of which are presented by playing cards.
  • Rule of Seven: She is Student No. 7, her birthday is 7/14, she is the featured assassin in Episode 7, and the seventh student to be expelled.
  • Shipper on Deck: In the manga, she finds Tokaku and Haru cute together. She also indirectly acknowledges the closeness of their relationship in her final riddle, where the "something valuable" they needed to give up for the last card was Tokaku's life.
  • Smart People Play Chess: Shogi is one of her hobbies, and she's knowledgeable in a variety of topics. Both are results of her past. Shogi was her past boyfriend's favorite game when they were together, and being around for over a century is bound to teach you a few things.
  • The Stoic: She's very quiet and calm.
  • Supernatural Gold Eyes: Gold or yellowish eyes seem to be pretty normal in this series, but Suzu's hints at her being The Ageless, so this trope is played straight in her case.
  • Time Bomb: The Explosive Leash was set to explode at midnight. Removing it by force or entering three wrong passwords would make it explode as well.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Tomboy to Kouko's Girly Girl.
  • The Trickster: To an extent. Her methods of assassination alone are already unorthodox, and in the Drama CD, she tricks Kouko into joining her for a bath just so she can get away with turning the bathhouse into a hot spring with 30 packets of salts.
  • The Unfought: Because of her extreme age, she can't kill Haru or fight Tokaku through physical means.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Her wish is to be able to age and die like a normal person (by being cured of her Highlander Syndrome). In the end, though, she comes to terms with it and decides to live her long life to the fullest.

    No. 8: Otoya Takechi 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/otoya.jpg
Voiced by: Manami Numakura (Japanese), Colleen Clinkenbeard (English)

Class Black's most energetic student.


  • Airplane Arms: In the manga, this is how she runs while chasing Haru in the botanical garden.
  • Animal Motifs: Spiders. Specifically, she kills like a spider would — little by little. Even the start of her freaking ending song has a guitar part that reminds one of a spider crawling up someone's leg.
  • Ascended Extra: A rather unusual example due to a case of Overtook the Manga. In the anime, Otaya makes a return during Sumireko's attempt on Haru's life, however in manga this was taken out and Sumireko's assassination attempt continue without her interruption.
  • Ax-Crazy: She likes killing and the only reason she joined class black was so that she could keep killing without having to worry about the law.
  • Big Damn Villain: She battles Sumireko with a kukri and even manages to disable one of her cybernetic arms. Sumireko easily knocks her down, though.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: If she had just killed Haru when she had the chance, she would have won, but being the Sadist she is, she decides to draw out her suffering, which ultimately leads to her downfall.
  • Bound and Gagged: In episode 10, Sumireko restrains her and puts her in a straitjacket so she won't cause trouble at the tea party.
  • The Bully: She really enjoys messing with her classmates, especially Mahiru and Shiena.
  • The Bus Came Back: In episode 10. She escapes from her prison to kill Haru, only to be captured by Sumireko for her tea party. This is however subverted in the manga adaption.
  • Cute and Psycho: She's chipper, energetic and not that bad to be around until you learn she's a serial killer.
  • Dual Wielding: Otoya's good enough with scissors to use two at once. She also uses a pair of saw-like blades (Word of God says they're actually giant scissors) after Tokaku interferes with her attempt at killing Haru.
  • Finger-Tenting: In the manga, as she sees Haru receive her anonymous assassination notice.
  • Flower Motifs: Mountain lilies. Suzu explains that they symbolize the joy of life.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: It's almost definitely just an artistic touch, but Otoya's eyes take on a bit of a glow when she starts getting really violent.
  • Hoist by Her Own Petard: Haru incapacitates her using the same toxic flower she used to capture her.
  • I Lied: About a speech to Haru saying how she's been protecting her from Shiena, and while she puts her to sleep with Gelsemium flowers.
  • Irony: In Episode 3, she strips Haru down to her underwear and puts her in a Bound and Gagged position. In Episode 10, Sumireko puts her into one, though with clothes on and with a straitjacket. Interesting enough, they escape from that position in almost the same manner, by cutting the rope holding their hands behind them with a sharp object.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: A Foreshadowing one. In one lunch break, Otoya tells Mahiru how they are alike during the day, which prompts a reaction from the latter. Several episodes later, Mahiru does have some Ax-Crazy attitude, which Otoya was referring to.
  • Kukris Are Kool: Out of all the weapons available in the room to use against Sumireko (which include heavy firearms), Otoya chooses to use a kukri. It turns out to be a good choice, as the first thing to cause any real damage to Sumireko's body.
  • Leitmotif: "concentration", her ending song. It starts with a creepy guitar part that reminds one of a spider crawling around, it suddenly turns into a roaring powerhouse of a rock track with lyrics explaining that, if everything ages and dies eventually, she might as well give you her attention while you are still young and fresh.
  • Licking the Blade: Otoya does this with her scissors before she starts cutting Haru.
  • Loophole Abuse: In the anime, she doesn't include her name in her assassination notice when she sends it to Haru, since the rules don't state anything against it. She uses this to pin the notice on Shiena to lower Haru's guard.
  • Loving Bully: It's implied that Otoya loves to bully Mahiru and Shiena because she actually attracted to them, and bullying them is (in a twisted way) her attempt to be friends with them. Although considering she is a psychotic serial killer that takes sexual pleasure in killing people, it's likely that in her wrapped mind, she believes that bullying someone is the same as flirting with them.
  • Meaningful Name: Her given name contains the kanji for strange and "how?"/"what?"/question mark. Her surname contains the kanji for warrior and knowledge.
  • Monster Misogyny: She mainly targets women, and she's killed enough times to warrant a nickname.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: She finds something about slow, painful deaths to be really hot.
  • Proper Tights with a Skirt: Black stockings under her skirt.
  • Psycho Lesbian: Ax-Crazy serial-killer who kills for pleasure.
  • Psychopathic Womanchild: She's very immature and tends to throw temper tantrums when things don't go her way.
  • Purple Is the New Black: Her hair.
  • Sadist: She murders out of sheer pleasure.
  • Serial Killer: She's actually a notorious serial killer dubbed the 21st Century's Jack the Ripper, known for killing her victims brutally for pleasure.
  • Shear Menace: Otoya just really likes cutting things...
  • Slasher Smile: Sports one while positioning the end of a saw blade at Tokaku's eye.
  • Slipknot Ponytail: Tokaku shoots her hair tie off just before Otoya beings charging at her.
  • The Sociopath: She's a sadistic serial killer who joined class black for no other reason than to kill people without worrying about the law. She gets upset when she doesn't get her way and makes impulsive decisions that lead to her getting screwed over simply based on how much sadistic pleasure she can get from it.
  • Token Evil Teammate: While all the girls are assassins (save for Haru) Otoya is the only one who is a Serial Killer.
  • Villain Decay: In episode 3, she was a dangerous and cunning opponent who came very close to killing both Haru and Tokaku. Come episode 10, she's easily defeated by Sumireko and scared away by Nio (the former is justified however as Sumireko is a cyborg). Decays even further in episode 13 where literally the worst thing she does is shred Mahiru's swimsuit and she gets disqualified in a most embarrassing manner when she ends up caught in a trap and left hanging upside down from a tree. (Though given how lighthearted the 13th episode is and the fact that the girls are using non-lethal toy weapons, this was most likely intentional.)
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She develops a fear of Nio, after she witnessed the markings on her chest, to the point where she'd rather go back to prison then keep trying to kill Haru.

    No. 9: Chitaru Namatame 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/764204561869538226.jpg
Voiced by: Sachika Misawa (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

An assassin with a princely demeanor, who became friends with Hitsugi after helping her find the academy. Though she's a participant of Class Black, her real target isn't Haru, but an assassin called Angel's Trumpet.


  • Adaptational Villainy : A minor example. As opposed to the manga where Chitaru always knew that Haru wasn't the assassin, Angel's Trumpet, and acted entirely as Tokaku's ally, Chitaru in anime believed that Haru was Angel's Trumpet and tried to kill her during the play, before she realized the truth.
  • Bifauxnen: Isuke describes her as the princely type.
  • Big Sister Instinct: Chitaru seems rather protective of Hitsugi and is almost never away from her side. Subverted since Chitaru grows romantic feelings for Hitsugi later on.
  • Curtains Match the Windows: Her hair and eyes are both red.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Chitaru wears mostly black clothing and while she is an assassin, she doesn't do any jobs that go against her sense of morality and is the Token Good Teammate of the class.
  • Disney Death: She survives her suicide attempt.
  • Driven to Suicide: After Hitsugi's death and learning that her wish was to leave campus with her. Thankfully, it didn't work. In the manga she doesn't learn what Hitsugi's wish is, but still tries to kill herself, this time with a knife.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Thanks to her Bifauxnen appearance. She even had fangirls in-series during the "Romeo and Juliet" play.
  • Fiery Redhead: Inverted. She's the only one of the Black Class with red hair, but is one of the most level-headed.
  • Flower Motif: Red roses, which generally symbolize romance.
  • Foil: In the manga, she seems to be one for Shiena.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: She believes Hitsugi to be a helpless little girl. Until she reveals that she is the ruthless assassin Angel's Trumpet.
  • In Love with the Mark: Chitaru falls in love with Hitsugi aka "Angel Trumpet", the assassin she wanted to murder in revenge for the murder of her master's daughter.
  • Maybe Ever After: With Hitsugi in both the anime and the manga.
  • Morality Pet: Hitsugi is the only person in Class Black that she cares about. Heck, Hitsugi is in love with her.
  • Nice Girl: And perhaps one of the most genuine of the bunch.
  • Not Quite Dead: The final episode reveals that both she and Hitsugi survived. However she is bedridden and hasn't fully forgiven Hitsugi for killing her mentor's daughter.
  • Not So Stoic: In the anime. During the school play practice, she is embarrassed of performing the role of Romeo.
  • Sadistic Choice: Kill your new best friend, or let your mentor's daughter's murderer go free. The manga takes it further when Hitsugi gives Chitaru two knives after she learns that Hitsugi is Angel's Trumpet; one is fake and has "Love" written on it, the other is real and has "Justice" written on it. Hitsugi tells her to choose one during the play and use it on her.
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Hitsugi in the OVA. They spend the entire episode cuddling, sharing food, and generally acting like a lovey-dovey couple.
  • The Stoic: In the manga.
  • Tears of Remorse: In the manga, she is crying a waterfall when she chooses justice over love.
  • Token Good Teammate: Makes it clear that she wants no part in assassinating Haru, and Word of God has it that she wouldn't accept jobs that violates her sense of justice. In manga, she was the only assassin to be an ally with Tokaku.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Hitsugi's girly-girl.
  • Younger than She Looks: According to the wiki she's 15. Compared to Isuke and Haruki, who are 19 and 18, she looks older.

    No. 10: Nio Hashiri 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/akuma_no_riddle_anime_character_key_visuals_seventhstyle_003_614x599.png
Voiced by: Yoshino Nanjo (Japanese), Lauren Landa (English)

Class Black's arbitrator and a student affiliated with Myojo Academy. She's upbeat and playful, but treats the rules of Class Black very seriously. She also claims that Haru directly killed her family members, instead of them sacrificing themselves for her.


  • Animal Motifs: See Meaningful Name.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Just ask Otoya.
  • Blood from the Mouth: After Tokaku stabs her.
  • Cheshire Cat Grin: Very fond of this.
  • Cute Little Fangs: They go well with her cat smile.
  • Disney Death: When Meichi brings this up, she laughs it off saying she's not that easy to kill. It's speculated she used to illusionary powers to fake her death to an extent.
  • Evil Smells Bad: Tokaku thought that she had a "putrid ocean stench" in the first episode.
  • The Dragon: For Meichi, and she relays all information about Class Black to her.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Tokaku, as they're both devoted to women with a "queen bee" ability.
  • Final Boss: The last assassin to take on Tokaku.
  • Final-Exam Boss: Almost literally as she just wants to test Haru's Queen Bee abilities.
  • Friendless Background: Implied to be the case in her backstory.
  • The Gadfly: Seems to love talking to the members of Class Black, but is treated by the others with suspicion at best and complete disdain at worst, mostly due to the fact that she loves to drop casual hints about their personal lives.
  • Go Out with a Smile: She survives though.
  • Likes Older Women: Implied. Due to her Ship Tease in the manga with the chairwoman, Meichi Yuri. Nio is clearly enamored with her, and adopted the surname "Hashiri" (fast, in a hurry) due to all the running around she was willing to do for Meichi.
  • Idiot Hair: A very prominent one. It's even waterproof.
  • Lethal Joke Character: She is just as skilled and dangerous as the other assassins, if not more.
  • Informed Deformity: The lyrics of her ending-credits song describe her as "ugly" or "unsightly." Aside from her sharp teeth, Nio doesn't look any different from the other girls.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Of the Secret Test of Character type. She seems to like seeing what kinds of personal information gets the strongest reaction from her opponents, and will casually drop reference to their family members and personal lives as something of a veiled threat.
  • Manipulative Bitch: It's actually her power. see below.
  • Marked Change: When she tries to hypnotise and intimidate Otoya, her tattoos begin glowing.
  • Master of Illusion: As a member of the Kuzunoha clan, a line of shamanists, this is her power.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • "Nio" is an old name for the grebes that lived in Lake Biwa. In the manga, Mizorogi guesses that Nio comes from Shiga based on this fact, which Nio never confirms. Her full-body markings have wing patterns on the torso, likely evoking grebe imagery.
  • Miss Exposition: Because she is a Myojo Academy student from the start, she knows a lot about the school, such as how it was constructed and its seven wonders. As the arbitrator, she sometimes explains things related to the game, such as what an assassin wished for. In the first episode, she mentions Tokaku about how the school was constructed over an underground graveyard. In Episode 11, said graveyard was renovated into one for Haru's clan, where the people who died for the clan members have their names engraved in stone.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Her surname quite literally means run.
  • New Transfer Student: Averted. She's the only one in Class Black who already is a student of Myojo Academy, and since uniforms aren't part of the Class Black package, she's the only one we ever see in a Myojo uniform (except on splash pages).
  • The Nose Knows: Agreed with Tokaku that Haru was the target because she smelled different.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: She constantly acts as if she's not a very big threat, though there are many hints suggesting she's one of the most dangerous students.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: When she arrives to Myoujo and meets Meichi for the first time, the only name she'd been given by the Kuzunoha clan was "Chibi," meaning short.
  • Out of Focus: She spends so much time being the arbitrator that she has to remind Meichi that she is a part of the game too. Even Tokaku and Haru seem to forget this fact, and instead believe that Nio has found a way around the rules when she comes to kill Haru.
  • Perpetual Smiler: There isn't a point she isn't smiling, even when dying of a knife to the heart, though she doesn't actually die.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She is the second shortest in the class behind Hitsugi and while she doesn't have much strength as Sumireko, she's not the kind of little girl to mess with.
  • Playful Cat Smile: She gets a cat smile on her face whenever she's being mischievous.
  • Proper Tights with a Skirt: She wears black stockings to hide her body markings.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: In the Manga, during the flashback to her childhood. Due to her undisciplined upbringing, she uses vulgar language when addressing Meichi, which earns her a thrashing with a stick.
  • Shapeshifter: For all intents and purposes, despite lacking the ability to physically transfigure herself into someone else, Nio can hypnotize people into perceiving her as a virtually identical copy of another person.
  • Sweet Tooth: Nio is hinted to have a fondness for melon buns, the school's specialty.
  • Tattooed Crook: Of the student variant. She has a full-body tattoo, which is the reason why she is always fully-clothed.
  • The Trickster: She enjoys pressing everyone's buttons and patronizing them.
  • Two First Names: Inverted; both Nio and Hashiri are last names.
  • Verbal Tic: Ends a lot of her sentences with "suu".
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: She attempts to kill Haru in order to test her Queen Bee abilities.

    No. 11: Sumireko Hanabusa 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0.png
Voiced by: Miho Arakawa (Japanese), Bryn Apprill (English)

The daughter of a conglomerate CEO, and the last student to transfer into Class Black. She's rich enough to bring her own furniture to the class, but she doesn't mean to cause anyone inconvenience.


  • Adaptational Villainy: She is noticeably a lot more antagonizing in the anime than her manga counterpart. Her anime counterpart shows a Lack of Empathy towards most of the other students, including Banba, and is shown to be a lot more prideful, as opposed to the manga where is a Nice Girl.
  • Affably Evil: She's polite and always smiling, but she is also very, very dangerous.
  • Applied Phlebotinum: Her strings in her limbs control her strength.
  • Arm Cannon: Being a cyborg means she can swap the attachments of her arms. One of them is a machine gun with needle-like claws on the end.
  • Artificial Limbs: Her arms and legs are all mechanical.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Her cyborg form has this, though it's possible they're just coverings.
  • Bully Hunter: Only in the manga.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Thank to being a cyborg.
  • Cool Big Sis: In the manga, she acts like this towards Banba.
  • Cyborg: As one, she has many abilities which include:
  • Disney Villain Death: Or so it initially seemed. She survived. Of all the deaths survived, hers is the most easily handwaved.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Haru. They've both lived their lives under constant attack.
  • Flower Motifs: Iceland poppies, which symbolize comfort.
  • A Glass in the Hand: She breaks Otoya's scissors and Tokaku's handgun with her mechanical hand.
  • Icy Blue Eyes: Notably, she has the same eyes as Tokaku. She's considerably warmer to people than Tokaku is, but she's hinted to be one of the more dangerous members of Class Black.
  • Implacable Woman: Easily survives from a falling chandelier and a bundle of grenades.
  • I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Does this literally with Banba after the latter fails her assassination attempt. Keep in mind Banba was unconscious when she made the decision... In the epilogue, she did follow through on her intentions as Banba is now seen living with her as a maid.
  • In Love with Your Carnage: In the manga, when asked by Shinya on what she love most about Mahiru, Sumireko response was Mahiru's "Madness". Although Sumireko does go on to admitting she loves everything else also about Banba, she just finds Mahiru's madness her most "beautiful" trait.
  • Lack of Empathy: She is considerably colder in the anime than in the manga, especially when she gives Banba's unconscious body her Flower Motif as a sign of her expulsion and leaves.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: Word of God confirms that she does have a genuine crush on Banba. It really shows in the manga.
  • Male Gaze: The anime has an obsession with zooming in on her assets after she strips to her combat gear and then even more so when she strips to her cyborg form.
  • Maybe Ever After: In the manga, with Banba. Even though the two are now living together, it's not outright confirmed if they are Official Couple, like Isuke and Haruki, or Ichinose and Tokaku.
  • Meaningful Name: Her surname (which is spelled with the kanji for England) is read as "Hanabusa", which means the calyx of a flower. Her given name means "pure love child/child of pure love", but the "Sumire" part can also be read with the kanji for violets, a type of flower.
  • Nice Girl: In manga, she is shown to be a much more genuinely kinder person. She is usually polite towards the other students and act as a Cool Big Sis for Banba. For example, while she does gives Banba's unconscious body her Flower Motif as a sign of her expulsion (like in anime) but instead of leaving, Hanabusa actually stays with the unconscious Banba and asks Nio if it would be alright if she took Banba back home so she can take care of her.
  • The Ojou: More so than Isuke. Her speech and mannerisms are much more formal.
  • Perpetual Smiler: Smiles in nearly all of her appearances, and sometimes it's a little sinister.
  • Punched Across the Room: Punches Otoya, kicks Tokaku, and sends them both flying to the walls that happen to be behind them.
  • Retired Badass: Her epilogue implies that she has quit being an assassin for cooking. Averted in the manga continuation where the 6th art book reveals that Sumireko plan to make another attempt on Haru's life in the future after she completes her new Training from Hell.
  • Riddle Me This: She introduces her knowledge of Haru's ability with a riddle: "How is a rabbit like a worker bee?"note 
  • Robotic Reveal: Cyborg version.
  • Ship Tease: A lot between her and Banba in the Manga, with Sumireko helping Banba deal with her PTSD.
  • Stripperific: Her cyborg form.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: In Episode 13, she walks back to shore after Class Black's cruise ship sinks. Unfortunately the wires that move her limbs aren't rust-proof.
  • Wall Crawl: The retractable claws in her fingers allow her to do this.
  • Wicked Cultured: An ojou and an assassin with a penchant for firearms and cybernetics.
  • World's Strongest Woman: Clearly the strongest person in the series.
  • Yandere: The official art books reveal that Sumireko is this to Banba, and vice versa. The 6th art book expands on their "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue where its revealed that Sumireko took the cellphone strap that Haru gave to Mahiru, the one Banda want to turn into a "relic", to ensure that Banba will not leave her side. Shinya would regularly attack Sumireko to try to get it back but would always fail. It is explained that Sumireko has been using Shinya's attacks for her Training from Hell regimen and will only return the strap once it is a proper "relic" via killing Haru.
    • Played for Laughs in the last omake of the final art book where it is revealed that if Sumireko and Banda were to ever get married, Banba will try to kill Sumireko to make their wedding dress into the "ultimate relic". Sumireko actually seems pretty happy with the idea having to spend the rest of her life defending herself against Banba. She just casually mention that she will just have to keep herself armed whenever Shinya tries to kill her.

    No. 12: Mahiru/Shinya Banba 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/banbamahirufull1687355.jpg
Click here to see her as Shinya
Voiced by: Yuka Ootsubo (Japanese), Mikaela Krantz (English)

During the day, Banba is Mahiru, an extremely shy and mild-mannered girl. Once the sun is down, she turns into Shinya (pronounced as Shin'ya), who is much more aggressive and direct. Mahiru seems to enjoy collecting objects from people she expects she will kill in the future.


  • Axe Before Entering: How Shinya sent her notice to Haru. With a gigantic sledgehammer, of course.
  • Ax-Crazy: Shinya. Or so it would seem. In actuality, Shinya merely carries out the wishes of Mahiru. They started having this after killing their rapist. As shown in the finale, they got better.
  • Broken Bird: As the result of her backstory.
  • Character Tic: Shinya sometimes holds her hand up like she's pretending to smoke.
  • Creepy Souvenir: Likes to collect her victim's "relics". Like Haru's strap.
  • Cute and Psycho: Cute while Mahiru and straight-up psycho when Shinya. Or so it seems at first.
  • Does Not Like Men: In her backstory, she was severely abused by a man who confined her and constantly photographed her distress.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: Banba wears a black stocking on one leg and a white sock on the other.
  • Flipping the Bird: Shinya pulls a big one right in the face of poor Mizorogi, claiming that All Men Are Perverts. She has a Freudian Excuse for it, though.
  • Flower Motifs: Moonflowers and Japanese bindweeds, which mean "bewitching" and "ties", respectively. More relevant are their Japanese names: "Yorugao" and "Hirugao", which literally mean "night face" and "day face".
  • Maybe Ever After: In the manga, with Sumireko in the epilogue.
  • Meaningful Name: Mahiru means "midday" and Shinya means "midnight".
  • Nervous Wreck: Mahiru gets so nervous talking to anyone that she has a speech impediment.
  • Ninja Maid: In epilogue, she went from being an assassin to being Sumireko's maid.
  • Psychopathic Womanchild: Shinya is really dangerous with a hammer, but she is so incredibly dumb (or maybe just unstable) that Haru manages to escape from her twice.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: What Shinya actually is. Her crimes are only done to make Mahiru happy.
  • Scars Are Forever: Has a permanent stitched scar on the side of her face.
  • School Swimsuit: According to Shinya, Mahiru's always wanted to swim in one. Amusingly, the one she wears is equipped with a "Shinya" nametag under a "Mahiru" nametag for when they switch control.
    • The manga reveals Mahiru wanted to wear a school uniform because Sumireko said she would look cute wearing one.
  • Ship Tease: With Sumireko, Banba is often helped by Sumireko when she panics due to her PTSD.
  • Shrinking Violet: Mahiru, who keeps her head down at all times, hardly ever initiates conversation and never raises her voice.
  • Split Personality: By day a Shrinking Violet, by night an aggressive psycho. They seem to take turns controlling the body, and they're also aware of the other's thoughts even when the other has taken over. This was caused by their traumatic childhood past and Mahiru depends on Shinya to murder people. As shown in the finale, Mahiru is not so dependent on Shinya anymore and can go outside without problems.
  • Super-Strength: Word of God explains that Shinya has a "berserker" state that lets her use that sledgehammer she has. She can't stay it continuously, though, and needs to rest from time to time if she has to use it a lot.
  • Weakened by the Light: Banba's weakness as a result of her Dark and Troubled Past. Isuke uses this against her with a light projector as she is about to kill Haru. As shown at the finale, she has gotten over it.
  • White Hair, Black Heart: Shinya is the rowdier of the two, but it's Mahiru who wants people killed.
  • Yandere: The official art books reveal that Banba is this to Sumireko, and vice versa. The 6th art book expands on their "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue where its revealed that Sumireko took the cellphone strap that Haru gave to Mahiru, the one Banda want to turn into a "relic", to ensure that Banba will not leave her side. Shinya would regularly attack Sumireko to try to get it back but would always fail. It is explained that Sumireko has been using Shinya's attacks for her Training from Hell regimen, something Shinya is aware of and just warns Sumireko finish up her training as quickly as she can before Mahiru starts resenting Sumireko for "bullying her".
    • Played for Laughs in the last omake of the final art book where it is revealed that if Sumireko and Banda were to ever get married, Banba will try to kill Sumireko to make their wedding dress into the "ultimate relic", not that Sumireko is worried.

Others

    Kaiba 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaiba_5.jpg
Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese), Robert McCollum (English)

An instructor from Private Academy 17 who is responsible for Tokaku's participation in Class Black. He regularly sends Tokaku riddles through her phone.


  • Cool Shades: Wears them even during his lectures.
  • Iconic Item: Never seen without his black and white dice.
  • iPhony: His laptop and smartphone.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the end Kaiba's objective was to make Tokaku develop herself as both an assassin and a person. In the finale, after Tokaku answers his final riddle, he seems to be genuinely happy about her answer.
  • Perpetual Smiler: Loves his sinister grin very much.
  • Riddle Me This: Regularly sends Tokaku riddles through her phone. He seems to use them to gather some kind of information about Tokaku's development, and claims that Tokaku might be punished if she doesn't answer them. Turns out all of them have no "right" answers. He wants Tokaku to stop relying on others and find her own answers.
  • Troll: His methods of teaching Tokaku come off as this, even after the reasons why are stated.

    Ataru Mizorogi 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/242713.jpg
Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Ricco Fajardo (English)

A biology teacher in charge of Class Black. He's very energetic, and has no idea about the class's Deadly Game.


  • Big "NO!": A comical one after seeing the entire set for the class play destroyed. It's even in Engrish.
  • Butt-Monkey: None of the students of Class Black really take him seriously, and quite a few of them spend class time blatantly ignoring him. Fortunately, he's too enthusiastic about his job to notice.
  • Determinator: Despite genuinely feeling grief over losing almost all of his students and still unaware about the assassination game, he is willing to finish his job until the end. In the finale, he succeeds and he is back to his good ol' self.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: The finale shows him personally giving Haru her diploma and playing the piano as she sings the school's anthem. This is enough to make him happy again.
  • Good Is Dumb: Even after losing half of his homeroom class, he is still in high spirits. He doesn't seem to care about the flowers that are placed on the expelled students' desks, how he loses three of his students within two days, or how his expelled students are still in for graduation. This is the very reason why Meichi chose him to be the homeroom teacher for Class Black.
  • Idiot Hair: A smaller, less obvious one.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: The students are absolutely not allowed to involve him in their assassination attempts or let him in on the purpose of their class. In the end, he remains clueless about the class' secret game.
  • Nice Guy: Only wants the best for his class and doesn't seem to take very badly the way they treat him.
  • The Piano Player: Plays a normal piano during Haru's graduation.
  • Skyward Scream: His Big "NO!".
  • Small Role, Big Impact: After accidentally-winning a game where the winner is granted one wish of any kind in the OVA , he reveals his wish to be for all of Class Black's students to be able to graduate. It apparently doesn't go unnoticed.
  • Stepford Smiler: It's implied that he keeps himself happy and energized as his students are expelled one by one. When Sumireko is expelled, it's his last straw and shows real grief in front of his three remaining students (Tokaku, Haru, and Nio).
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome

    Meichi Yuri 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/249869.jpg
Voiced by: Yoshiko Sakakibara (Japanese), Rachel Robinson (English)

The unknown chairwoman of Myojo Private School and responsible for the creation of Class Black. She monitors both the deadly game and the entire academy. Nio served as her mouthpiece during the assassins' meeting.


  • Affably Evil: Her emotions never go beyond mild interest.
  • Big Bad: Or so it seems.
  • Cool Chair: Always seen on her comfy chair.
  • The Faceless: Downplayed. Her face is somewhat obscured in the opening, and other scenes only show her mouth or back. She is finally fully seen in episode 10.
  • Foreshadowing: Has one of her own. She is always seen in her surveillance room lit with many lights. It is hard to tell what hair and eye colors she has. When she personally comes to the underground graveyard in the finale, she is revealed to have the same hair and eye colors (red and pink respectively) as Haru.
  • Hellish Pupils: In the opening, as seen in her picture above.
  • Interface Spoiler: The credits for episodes where she appears spoil her name before it is actually revealed.
  • Meaningful Name: Her first name contains the kanji for eye; she's the overseeing chairman of the school who constantly surveillance Class Black. "Ichi" is also part of Haru's surname, which implies that they are relations. Her surname is spelt with the kanji for lily; it can also refer to the Japanese girls' love genre.
  • Mrs. Robinson: Implied. Her exact age is never state, although she is likely somewhere between her mid-to-late twenties to early thirties. Despite this, she has a fair amount of Ship Tease with the teenaged Nio.
  • My Name Is Not Shazam: A variant: her surname, Yuri, is often confused as her given name, since Yuri is much more commonly a given name and rarely used as a surname, though it is a valid surname. Another reason for this may be because her given name contains "ichi" in it, which is also part of Haru's surname, and they are related, thus leading to the mix-up.
  • Mysterious Employer: She formed Class Black without ever saying why, and only directs the class through Nio, who doesn't seem to know much more than the rest of the students.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Her name is never mentioned for the majority of both anime and manga, only referred as the "chairwoman". In episode 11, Nio introduces Tokaku and Haru to her and gives them out her full name.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • She took care of Nio ever since she was young. The manga implies that she also took care of Haru in the hospital.
    • The Everybody Lives ending can probably be attributed her, as the only way anyone would have survived is with quick and highly professional medical attention. She would have been the only one capable of providing it, as well as being the one to arrange Otoya heading toward prison after expulsion.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Being the academy's chairwoman and all, she can do pretty much what she wants. She can even make all of the expelled assassins graduates.
  • Sharp Dressed Woman: Always seen in a nice suit.
  • Ship Tease: In the manga and promotional posters, she and Nio have a lot more subtext than in the anime.
  • Sinister Surveillance: She (and sometimes Nio, through a tablet-like device) watches the entire academy through several hidden cameras.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: She has pink hair and eyes like Haru as they are from the same clan.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: The very purpose of Class Black is for her to test Haru's abilities as a "primer" to be the new heir of her clan.

Alternative Title(s): Riddle Story Of Devil

Top