Characters / Back To The Basics

Character page for Back to the Basics

Humans

Lee Ji-Won

Lee Ji-Won

The protagonist of the series. Ji-Won is a popular and upstanding student, but inside he is more than a little twisted.

• The Bartender: The role Ji-Won takes as part of his deal with the demons. He listens to people’s stories and serves them food/drink in exchange.
• Broken Ace: Ji-Won is a popular kid in his school, frequently winning awards while being well liked by his friends and teachers. However, he has a dark and troubled past that makes him judgmental of others. This is exploited by the demons to make him do bad things to others.
• Bully Hunter: Bullies are one of the targets that Ji-Won gives the bad food/drink to.
• The Corruptible: Despite taking on the role of Teacher for the demons for morally good reasons, Ji-Won soon finds himself complicit in helping them punish the patrons of the bar for their bad deeds. Hearing people’s selfish and morally dubious stories causes him to become increasingly twisted.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Ji-won spent this childhood trying to cheer up and win the praise of his mother, despite the fact she neglected him. He was abused by her lovers, and ultimately by her. This fuels his current desire to enact revenge on people for their bad deeds.
• Hates Being Touched: He’s stated to dislike skinship. When he initiates a hug with Yeon-Hwa it is a sign of how much she means to him.
• I Hate Past Me: In the "(OC) Do Not Die!" video, Ji-Won ends up confronting an injured younger version of himself who is trying to prevent him from committing suicide. Despite initially being shocked, he pins this younger version down and kills it with scissors.
• Mask of Power: Ji-Won has a red gas mask gifted to him by Lucifer. When he wears it, his face becomes unmemorable to anyone that sees him, allowing him to act as a bartender without people recognizing him.
• Power Tattoo: Another gift given by Lucifer; Ji-Won can cause a magical tattoo to appear around his throat that disguises his voice. The tattoo has the appearance of a chain choker.
• Secret-Identity Identity: Ji-Won finds himself caught between being a good person in front of Yeon-Hwa and secretly assisting the demons. He agonizes over which one is the true him as well as which one he wants to be.

Ryu Yeon-Hwa

Ryu Yeon-Hwa

Ji-Won’s girlfriend and the light of his life.

• Living Emotional Crutch: She manages to bring him back from falling to the demon’s influence and cutting himself off from everyone around him.
• Love Interest: After persisting, Yeon-Hwa manages to get through to Ji-Won and start a relationship with him.
• Nice Guy: Yeon-Hwa is generally shown to be a kind girl who regularly tries to cheer Ji-Won up. She also scolds him when he bullies others and gets angry at Hwa-Yang when she kicks another student.
• Plucky Girl: She doesn’t give up on courting Ji-Won even when the other students start bullying her. Her perseverance is eventually rewarded when he starts dating her and from that point on her optimism and affection pull him back from the demon’s influence.

Ryu Hwa-Yang

Ryu Hwa-Yang

Yeon-Hwa’s older twin sister. The two of them are very close.

• Big Brother Instinct: Is protective of her younger twin sister. When she hears Yeon-Hwa in trouble she immediately runs to go help her. She is very suspicious of Ji-Won’s true intentions towards her sister and continues to remain critical of him after he tells her his secret.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Hwa-Yang is shown to have a short temper and she’s willing to get physically aggressive to back it up.
• Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Subverted. Hwa-Yang has naturally brown hair like her sister. She dyed her hair black so as not to stand out.
• Secret-Keeper: Ji-Won ends up revealing to Ryu-Yang that he is the bartender at the special bar and the circumstances of why he acts as a teacher to the Demons. Hwa-Yang agrees to keep his secret for Yeon-Hwa’s sake as long as Ji-Won stops going along with the sinister things the demons are doing.

Ji-Won's Mother (Unmarked Spoilers)

Ji-Won’s mother died when he was sixteen. She was a retired actress.

• Abusive Parents: After Ji-Won finally confronts his mother, she slaps the awards out of his hands and shoves him down against a table. It is implied her lover beat him up after that.
• Adults Are Useless: When Ji-won’s mother found out he was being abused, rather than comforting him or telling off the person who did it, she started abusing him too.
• Parental Neglect: Ji-won’s mother deliberately ignored the signs he was suffering such as empty sleeping pill bottles or him trying to drown himself in the bathtub.
• Posthumous Character: She is dead prior to the start of the story, having been killed by a robber. Despite that, how she treated Ji-Won has a huge effect on how he acts. Her abuse towards him is hinted at in various videos before eventually being confirmed in the "(OC) Yokusou to Neon Tetra" video.

Demons

In General

• Hades Shaded: In their true forms, the demons have grey skin.
• Horned Humanoid: All the demons appear to have horns in their true forms. Nike had a pair of horns before giving up her head and Leviathan has a pair of antlers that look like branches.
• Hellish Pupils: The demons have slitted pupils while in their true forms. Even when they are disguised as humans, the reflected light in their eyes retains this shape.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Both Lucifer and Nike have this color scheme. Ji-Won does as well when he’s in his bartender uniform with the Red Mask.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The demons have naturally red eyes.
• Super-Toughness: The demons can survive taking a lot of damage. Nike gives up both her arms and head and just ends up getting new ones.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill Muggles: Demons are not allowed to kill humans, but that rule doesn’t apply to killing and maiming other demons.

Lucifer

Lucifer

The demon who asks Ji-Won to be his teacher. He also goes by Luci.

• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Lucifer’s true form has reddish claws. He occasionally uses them to threaten people and in the "(OC) CHOP CHOP SLIDE meme" he uses them to attack a demon.
• Affably Evil: In their friendly interaction Lucifer acts affectionately towards Ji-Won, though he is also just as willing to threaten him. This cheerful behavior seems to extend to Hwa-Yang when they were introduced as well. That being said, he is extremely willing to turn any demon that offends him into a bloody mess, and he seems to enjoy when his influence corrupts Ji-Won into doing bad things.
• Psychotic Smirk: Lucifer sports a few of these when things go his way, usually at Ji-Won’s expense. An example is in the "(OC) Hate love meme" when Ji-Won is emotionally compromised and goes to seek comfort from Nike who reminds him a lot of his mother. Lucifer walks past Nike and takes her place, so Ji-Won will have to go to him instead. As he does this, it is revealed he is hiding a smirk behind his hand.
• The Corrupter: As the story continues, it is clear that Lucifer doesn’t just want to learn from Ji-Won, but to bring out the darker side of his personality.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Lucifer’s eyes turn their natural red color when he uses his powers or when threatening someone.
• Super-Strength: He snaps a phone in half effortlessly.
• Unusual Halo: Lucifer has a yellow halo floating around his neck. Its spiky appearance and location make it appear like a collar.

Nike

Nike

The demon Belphegor and a demon disciple of Lucifer’s. She entered an agreement with Lucifer in exchange for her arms and head and now serves him loyally.

• An Arm and a Leg: Gave up both her arms to become Lucifer’s disciple.
• The Corrupter: In the latter half of the story, Nike encourages Ji-Won to kill demons, to make himself feel less gloomy and more in control of his life.
• Floating Limbs: In her demonic form, Nike has a pair of floating hands with no arms.
• Identical Stranger: Nike looks a lot like Ji-Won’s mother. When she is hit on or harassed it reminds him of how his mother was treated and irritates him greatly.
• Losing Your Head: Gave up her head to become Lucifer’s disciple. Being a demon she can live without it.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Lucifer was the one that gave her the name Nike. She has since earned the name Belphegor, but still prefers to be called Nike.
• Scary Teeth: In the "(OC) DIE FOR ME Original meme", Nike returns to her demon form and reveals a mouthful of sharp teeth before attacking someone.

Leviathan

Leviathan

Another demon that appears in the series.

• An Arm and a Leg: Lucifer tears off both her arms after she gives him the red seed.
• Green Thumb: Leviathans powers appear to have a plant-based theme.