Characters / Change 123

Teruharu "Hideo" Kousukegawa

The male protagonist. An Otaku who's an ardent fanboy for Kamen Raider (an obvious knock-off of Kamen Rider). He has little to no talent for combat, but isn't quite a coward.

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• Accidental Misnaming: Seemingly doomed to have his name mispronounced by at least one newly-introduced foreign character per arc... and then it happens with a Japanese local from Hokkaidou! Similarly, in chapter 45, both Hibiki and Sora discover that they have misread his given name as "Hideo", which is actually a nickname (and probably a deliberate reference to a certain, well-known video game director) that is constantly used by his classmates in lieu of his first name, and which arose from his tendency for ultimately unsuccessful heroics ("Hideo" = "great man" —> "hero"); it's even referenced that The Other Wiki had him listed as Hideo. His first name's correct reading is "Teruharu" (same kanji, different pronunciations). "Hideo" is also a pun on "Hidoi yo!" ("This is wrong!"), one of his Catch Phrases in the original Japanese.
• Actual Pacifist: Through the whole series, he only raised his fists in a fight once and that was the result of Zero going out of control and him being the only one left standing. Even then, it wasn't fighting that saved the day...
• Arranged Marriage: Played with when he gets introduced to his new fiancé. He goes to his parents' house in the country, fully intending to turn her down and it turns out to be Motoko.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Refreshingly subverted. The guy didn't have the courage to confess, even though it was painfully obvious to everyone. But when he was making a new year wish to have such courage, she overheard, and they started dating.
• Hidden Depths: If he ever wanted to be a martial artist, he'd be scary. He has, on numerous occasions, shown observation skills far superior to actual martial artists, shown considerable talent visualizing his moves and attacks before launching them, and has a keen mind for strategy, as it was his plan that led to the very successful infiltration of the American military base and discovering the location of the ninja "hidden village." He even withstood an attack from a stun-baton and remained mostly conscious while his far tougher friends and relatives were one-hit-ko'd.

• Ignore the Fanservice: In chapter 50, on account of having to wake up HiFuMi so many times for school. He even yells at Mikiri for whipping her top off in front of him, rather than getting excited.
• Nice Guy: To a fault.
• Non-Action Guy: Notwithstanding his courage. He just doesn't have the skills.
• Otaku: Also a member of the sci-fi club, which constantly has problems finding a girl schoolmate to play in one of their movies.
• Shipper on Deck: In an early chapter he helps the Beta Couple, ultimately managing to prevent Ozuma from giving up on his love for Osada when it seemed to interfere with his judo-instilled discipline.
• Teeny Weenie: When he's seemingly bitten in the crotch by viper, he faints and Tsukishima removes his pants to check on the wound, but finds the viper missed and only bit his pants... largely because he's not packing much, to his embarrassment, especially when he wakes up to find the girls staring at it with Hino commenting on how "cute" it looks. He later has to endure the yuks of his male classmates over this, to the gentle amusement of Motoko, Hino, and Tsukishima while he desperately claims otherwise and says it was just cold. (In fairness, he was stuck out in the rain at the time.)
• Too Dumb to Live: At times. Particularly for counting your entire savings next to a stranger on a bus and leaving the bag you put it in unattended.
• Unluckily Lucky: From the first chapter, the sheer chaos that is his life all stems from his ridiculous luck. For starters, he stumbles upon Matoko getting sexually harassed, panics and runs, but then plucks up his courage, returns in time to see HiFuMi beating the crap out of the whole gang that was assaulting Matoko, and it just gets weirder from there.

Motoko Gettou

The female protagonist. She suffers from "Dissociative Identity Disorder", giving her three split personalities alongside her core one. The following tropes apply to Motoko Gettou in general, regardless of which personality is in control:

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• Attempted Rape: Twice, plus one attempted groping by a chikan; they never got far.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Many times, people doing things they really shouldn't to Motoko ends up with an ass-kicking being dealt by the HiFuMi or worse Zero.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She has a fairly large bust. Her classmates are either jealous (females) or appreciative (males).
• Clothing Damage: Most of this trope's occurrences happen to the alternate personalities. When she switches back to Motoko, sometimes she has no immediate idea that clothing damage occurred, which can lead to an embarrassing situation, like the one in ch. 26 when she wanted to try the "M" brooch Kosukegawa gave to her as a birthday gift.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Part and parcel of the switches between Motoko, the different HiFuMi, and Zero. Hibiki and the others play upon this a few times.
• Hadaka Apron: That's the way Kosukegawa occasionally imagines Motoko as his future wife (ch. 3, for example).
• Ms. Fanservice: She's the series' most notable example of Vapor Wear and she's the bustiest character in the entire cast.
• Shipper on Deck: Early on, Motoko is interested in Kannami, but all of the HiFuMi want to ship her with Kosukegawa. HiFuMi, and consequently Kosukegawa, eventually win out.
• Split Personality: She has a grand total of four alternate personalities, and each personality gets her own Character Development and hairstyle, to boot. Later on, a fifth one is (re)discovered.
• Split-Personality Makeover: Each of the HiFuMi has a very different look, both in the clothes they like to wear and their hair.
• Split-Personality Merge: What happens in the end.
• Split-Personality Takeover: After recovering her memories of her mother's death, Motoko disappears, leaving only HiFuMi. The rest of the series is devoted to bringing her back.
• Vapor Wear: Motoko is the primary victim, since Mikiri keeps busting out of her bras every time she emerges. There is, however, one scene where Hibiki takes a precautionary measure by taking off the bra before switching to Mikiri. See also Fujiko's Bunny-Ears Lawyer entry below.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Do not make a drinking game of how many times she get into situations where her breasts accidentally get exposed.
• Who's Your Daddy?: One of the lingering questions throughout the series, but finally resolved in ch. 59: it's Tatsuya, but the ancestors of Motoko's other "fathers" had mixed into her family tree, so she ended up with bits of their genes in her.

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The core personality, simply identified as Motoko, is painfuly shy, timid, and practically hopeless in combat. Hairstyle: short Girlish Pigtails (also experimented with a loose high ponytail for a while). The following tropes apply to her specifically:

• Back for the Finale: After the Split-Personality Merge.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Always keep her away from stairs while she's in a panic or distracted.
• Death by Despair: Motoko finally unlocks the memory of her mother's death, and it and its circumstances are so horrific, her personality just... vanishes. What makes this even more tragic is that the reveal is what she's been working toward for several chapters worth of story, and that it could have been avoided, since Kannami warned Motoko about the dangers of such a traumatic experience and told her that she should collect as many happy memories as possible to counterbalance. However, she 1) hadn't had enough time to collect that many happy memories and 2) when Motoko finally remembers what happened that fatal morning, she concludes that she doesn't deserve to be happy, so she practically withdraws into an Angst Coma.
• I Wished You Were Dead: Poor Motoko. It wasn't even delayed. Her mother died instantly after she wished it, by means of a random accident.
• It's All My Fault: This is Motoko's reaction to regaining the memories of her mother's death and it drives her into catatonia. Even worse we see in flashbacks that her mother had quick wits and excellent reflexes, the accident might not have claimed her mother's life if not for the hurtful words spoken by the young Motoko.
• Mommy Didn't Show: Indirectly responsible for Motoko's mother's death and her split personalities.
• My God, What Have I Done?: With the interesting twist that she didn't do it — it was purely magical thinking, but she was too young to realize it, and that part of her never got a chance to realize it.
• Shrinking Violet: With good reason. She is incapable of feeling anger.
• Tomato in the Mirror: In chapter 42, Kannami theorizes that "Motoko" may actually be just another "alternate" of the real Motoko — Zero.

The HiFuMi

"HiFuMi" is the collective moniker of Motoko's three Split Personalities that were "born" as a way to cope with the respective Training from Hell martial-arts regimens of her three fathers. Each specializes in a particular approach to combat, which means each one has her own strengths and weaknesses. The name "HiFuMi" is derived from the initials of the personalities' names: Hibiki, Fujiko, and Mikiri.

Tropes common to the HiFuMi

• Berserk Button: They each have their own unique buttons, which have the side-effect of causing them to temporarily (for now, at least) merge with Zero.
  • Fujiko's is the first to be revealed: Killing Kousukegawa in cold blood. He was only knocked out, though; it's the red-colored juice that spilled from his pocket that made it look like he was bleeding to death. Fujiko was understandably mortified at her overreaction.
  • Next comes Mikiri's: Ruining a recently-deceased old woman's odango, when said woman was very kindly and generous towards her.
  • Last, but not least, Hibiki — though with a surprising twist: Sora Uzuki's attempt in chs. 46 and 47 to frame Kousukegawa for cheating on Motoko would have sent Hibiki over the edge, were it not for her trust in his fidelity and honor; however, Sora throwing away old Kamen Raider videos that Kousukegawa gave to her in a friendly gesture, and which carry dear memories and great sentimental value to him, is unforgivable in Hibiki's eyes, though this still only puts her a step away from the actual breaking point. Following that by mocking Kousukegawa's idealistic belief in justice, love, etc. deliberately in front of her? Hello, Zero. Goodbye, Sora.
• Color-Coded Characters: The HiFuMi and Zero have different color themes, depending on their position on the series' fighting-style color spectrum.
• Confusion Fu: When they battle Tatsuya, they gain the upper hand by switching personalities on the fly, making them more unpredictable. It works for a while.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: This happens when one of the HiFuMi's Berserk Buttons is pushed, causing her to merge with Zero and lash out. Mikiri's was violent but semi-comical in its ending (though it did nearly result in a literal backbreaker move). Fujiko's was chilling in its cold, calculating near-lethality. Hibiki's was short-lived, but brutal... and ended up being the most traumatic, since it triggered the remembrance of Motoko's mother's death, causing Motoko to essentially vanish, leaving only the HiFuMi and possibly Zero behind.
• Split-Personality Team: They can switch out when Motoko can't handle a situation and when another personality can handle a situation better than the current one.
• Talking to Themself: Hibiki, Fujiko and Mikiri are aware of themselves all the time, can communicate between themselves, even if the Motoko personality is the active one (and they often comment on what Motoko is currently doing), and can freely switch between themselves. However, the Motoko personality can't do any of these things.
• Theme Naming: The first syllables in Hibiki, Fujiko and Mikiri are extremely short abbreviations of hitotsu, futatsu and mittsu, the Japanese numerals for "1", "2" and "3", respectively. With that in mind...
  • In-Series Nickname: ...it is no wonder that they are collectively referred to as "HiFuMi".
  • And then of course comes the fifth alter "Zero", who is not only the HiFuMi's predecessor (she was formed due to Motoko's traumatic experience of witnessing her mother's death), but is heavily implied to be the original, true Motoko Gettou.
• Two-Person Love Triangle: There are small implications that Hibiki and Fujiko are jealous of Motoko for being the one to interact with Kosukegawa the most.

Hibiki

The hot-head of the trio. Always ready for a fight. Specializes in Karate. Represented by the color Red. Hairstyle: loose and relatively messy.

• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Her fighting style is pretty much nothing but relentless, overwhelming offense. Even her defense is to either punch away an enemy's own attacks or power through those attacks and counterattack in turn.
• Blood Knight: After dealing violently with a molester in the subway, she was so heated up that she intentionally provoked a fight just to blow off her steam.
• Does Not Know Her Own Strength: She easily squashes a rubber ball to shreds (and considering Kousukegawa could barely even squeeze it), then when someone tries to trip her, said person ends up being thrown over as if by Megaton Punch by her mere running stride.
  • Also results in a The Door Slams You situation when, after being trapped in a sauna with Kousukegawa, she kicks the door open, which slams right into the perpetrator who locked the door, sending the latter flying into a jacuzzi.
  • Perhaps the most ridiculous instance of this is her First Kiss with Kousukegawa in ch. 1, which literally hurt.
• Glass Cannon: She has the greatest offensive power among HiFuMi, but lags behind Fujiko and Mikiri in speed and defense, respectively. Mind you, she's not actually fragile or slow, being closer to a Jack of All Stats or even a Lightning Bruiser in those departments when compared to most of her opposition that aren't "Blue" or "Yellow" specialists; it's just that it looks that way when compared to Fujiko and Mikiri, not being able to dodge as well as the former or tank hits as well as the latter.
• Hot-Blooded: She's essentially passion incarnate, whether it's for battle or the carnal side of things.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Appears more than Fujiko or Mikiri.
• The Tease: Only to Kosukegawa, and almost always serious about her offers. There's also her promised gift for Kosukegawa's next birthday, which she asserts that it will be "better" than the kiss she gave him for the birthday she already missed. Evidently, she got Motoko's sex drive, but Motoko kept the inhibitions.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Tomboy to Mokoto's Girly Girl.

Fujiko

The rational one among Motoko's alter-egos. Cool-headed (almost cold, at times) and calculating. Soldier/swordswoman. Represented by the color Blue. Hairstyle: tidy hair, asymmetrically swept to one side

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Fujiko seems to have weird ideas on how to solve the Panty Shot-proneness of thigh-slit dresses in Chapter 5:

Fujiko: It's fine, no one can see my underwear, because I'm not wearing any.
Kosukegawa (thinking): It's a much bigger problem if people see what you cover with your panties!

• Combat Pragmatist: She's much more pragmatic in the way she fights than Hibiki and Mikiri, who are usually averse to seizing an opportunity to end a battle quickly because they want to enjoy it. If she can take out an opponent with a single hit at little to no risk to herself or someone she holds dear, you can bet she will do it.
• Going Commando: Above example. Also, while getting dressed afterwards, she gets her panties sliced off and later takes part in a highly exposing fight.
• Fragile Speedster: The fastest of the trio, excelling in fast combat, swordplay and ranged combat. However, as she lacks Hibiki's berserker-like endurance and Mikiri's proficiency at turning an opponent's attacks against them, her defense is almost completely reliant upon dodging enemies' attacks and parrying blows.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: In ch. 35, she manages to fire a bullet into the chamber of a gun. From about ten feet away. In the split second the chamber was open, when the guy fired it.
• Improbable Weapon User / Improvised Weapon: Even coin tokens are dangerous in her hands. And if you try to threaten her with a 40-member biker gang, she needs only two nails to set all their fuel tanks on fire - one to punch a hole in a fuel tank, and one to make a biker drop his cigarette.
• Lady of War: She's no less an Action Girl than Hibiki or Mikiri, but she's the most conventionally feminine among the three and her fighting style is as elegant as it is brutally efficient.
• The Stoic: She is cool-headed and calm in fights, to the point of pragmatism. And yet...
  • Not So Stoic: She is also the first to hit her breaking point and become Zero when she thought that Hideo was killed right in front of her.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Like we said, almost cold at times.
• Team Mom: She acts in a rather maternal manner towards the other personalities, and she's the only one among the HiFuMi who matches Motoko in domestic skills, such that when Motoko is effectively driven to an Angst Coma upon recovering her traumatic memories, it's Fujiko who takes on the burden of doing all the cooking, cleaning, clothes-washing, and even the studying and preparing the textbooks for each school day, because Hibiki and Mikiri are more or less hopeless at doing any of these things properly (partly because they're things they don't like doing at all).
• Trademark Favorite Food: Chocolate mint ice cream. When the personalities merge at the end, Motoko starts eating it too.

Mikiri

The most childlike of the alter-egos. A master at Jujitsu. Represented by the color Yellow. Hairstyle: short topknot ponytail (something like an Idiot Hair surrogate).

• Big Eater: Out of Motoko's personalities, she's the one with the largest appetite, and if she's out and is neither fighting nor stuffing her face, she's almost guaranteed to a Growling Gut punctuate her hunger.
• Blood Knight: Yes, really. It not be as obvious as with Hibiki, but she gets super-excited when Bigalow tells her that their fight has no rules whatsoever, and gleefully asks him if that means it's OK for her to do things like breaking bones, gouging eyes, kneecapping, or even sticking her fingers in his ears or nose.
• Breast Expansion: Her boobs grow to indicate that she's 'come out', often snapping Motoko's bra. Explained as being because of a change in "muscle tension" - her pectoral muscles are more "tightened" than normal, thus pushing her breasts further out than usual.
• Cheerful Child: "Joyful and childlike innocence" is her default mood, and it's really hard to break her out of it.
• Cute Bruiser: Few people would expect a huge-breasted cutie like Mikiri to pack enough muscle power to suffocate a grown man with a hug or suplex him with ease.
• Genius Ditz: She's goofy and airheaded most of the time, but she's still a master martial artist despite her age (both physical and mental), and occasionally she manages to come up with surprisingly good non-martial arts-related advice.
• Goofy Print Underwear: When she first meets Kosukegawa she's wearing bunny panties (and nothing else).
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Practically zero nudity taboo.
• Stone Wall: Any punch or kick you can throw, she can turn its force against you to either unbalance you or quickly put you in a submission hold. And if her "fat absorbs more damage than muscle" comment is to be taken at face value, she's a lot better at just tanking attacks period than Hibiki and Fujiko, making her a more conventional example of the trope.

*SPOILER CHARACTER*

Zero

Motoko's fifth Split Personality, and the embodiment of her rage. Her existence was discovered when two of Motoko's father's — Jin Hayase and Takezou Kuruma — deliberately knocked out all three of the HiFuMi to test a theory of theirs about Motoko's D.I.D, and nearly died in the process of subduing the newly discovered Zero; since then, it was kept a secret until Kannami — with the assistance of Jin Hayase as an advisor/information source and a group of mercenaries doing the field work — more or less replicated the circumstances of her discovery to confirm his own theories on Motoko's condition. Represented by the color Black. Hairstyle: loose, but not as wild as Hibiki's.

• All Your Powers Combined: She can use all of the skills of the other three alter egos.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: invoked Kannami himself, in one of the final chapters of Volume 9, reveals to Kousukegawa that "Motoko" may be nothing more than a host personality, constructed from scratch to believe herself as the original one in order to deal with the world that Zero - the real, original Motoko according to this scenario - had retreated from. The implications of this hypothesis being true are earth-shaking, to say the least.
• Ax-Crazy: She’s a very calm and calculating example, but when she emerges Zero will violently attack the object of her ire, or anyone in her line of sight, in a singleminded, murderous rage until she subsides again. Even family members and her Love Interest are no more safe from her wrath, and she’s come within a hair’s breadth of killing both of them on previous occasions.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The usual outcome to Zero's opponents whenever she enters a fight. Especially notable is Sora's first confrontation against "Zero" (as "Hibiki+Zero") at the end of Chapter 47. It takes less than five seconds for the latter to disarm the former and do a compound, complete and oblique fracture to the Jerkass Smug Snake's right arm in one blow.
• Deadly Upgrade: Her extreme lethality is a result of pushing past her physical limits; the fact that, at first, she only comes out when the other three personalities have been thoroughly beaten, usually meaning that their shared body is considerably damaged by that point, does not help. In her first in-story chronological appearance, back when she was still a child, she remained in control for only three minutes; the time limit has since increased considerably. Later on, Hino reveals to Ginga that Zero could push her body so far past its limits that severe muscle and joint damage, or even fatal heart stress, could occur.
• Emotionless Girl: Bears a lifeless expression and Dull Eyes of Unhappiness.
• Enfante Terrible: A flashback shows she was deadly even as a tiny child, forcing the two fathers to fight for their life when she came out.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Don't ever try to interfere when she wants to kill/destroy someone. You can end up seriously hurt, if not outright dead.
• Lightning Bruiser: A borderline Game-Breaker variant.
• Limp and Livid: Her default "idle" posture is eerily relaxed, yet it belies that indiscriminate rage and hate are the only emotions that occupy her mind.
• The Quiet One: borderline Voiceless; she only says one word in her first manga appearance before she starts ruthlessly beating the shit out of everyone in sight - her name.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Very, very willing to kill, and a much more well-rounded and lethal combatant than any of the HiFuMi.
• Tranquil Fury: She's quite calm for an "anger incarnate". Then again, cold, slow-burning fury is a lot more lasting, and thus theoretically worse, than short-lived explosions of fast-burning fiery rage.
• Walking Spoiler: The very existence of a fifth personality in Motoko's mind is by itself a serious game-changer. The fact that said personality is unadulterated rage personified with absolutely no inhibitions or capacity for anything other than anger, not even caring if Motoko's Love Interest will die by her hands? Yeah, she's a walking spoiler alright.

Other characters

Kannami

• The Chessmaster: Look up The Plan entry in the main article at your own risk. Spoilers ahoy.
• Insufferable Genius: Imagine Ishida crossed with Light Yagami and you're most of the way there. That being said, he has an aloof friendship with Kosukegawa that started when they were kids.
• Obviously Evil: Subverted, although his schemes still make him a bit of a Magnificent Bastard.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Averted; he actually uses his intelligence and college training to help Motoko begin to fuse her alter-egos.
• Teen Genius: He graduated from a university in the U.S. at age 15, with a degree in psychology (specifically "the psychology of mental psychoses".

Botan Tsukishima

• All Amazons Want Hercules: In ch. 29, for the sake of hypothetical offspring. The words she uses could also be interpreted as not wanting a weak father, period, implying that she doesn't think high of her own power, which sort of makes sense in a world where petite, curvy waifs routinely beat her up.
• Amazonian Beauty: She's very toned and ain't all that bad looking.

• Butt-Monkey: Not only does she suffer from the Huge Schoolgirl complex, she gets put into various embarrassing situations over several chapters. She also suffers from an inferiority complex, because her job description (she's a kunoichi) includes fighting abilities, but because of her lack of experience she gets beaten by Moeish Martial Pacifist Izuru in ch. 28, who is merely a talented amateur, or gets herself in ch. 46 into a situation where she must run away from fighting to avoid being discovered by the police. She even lampshades this in the latter instance. Chapters 54 and 55 take it to a cringeworthy degree.
• Can't Catch Up/Hard Work Hardly Works: A big complex of hers, too.
• Huge Schoolgirl: 175+ cm. (5'9" for you Americans.) Moderately above average for Caucasian women, very tall for a Japanese woman.
• Ninja Maid: Wears a maid outfit at a school festival. In this case it's not a Fanservice, but done for comical (and Butt-Monkey) effect. What makes it more interesting is the fact that she is actually a ninja (or kunoichi, if you prefer this term) on a covert assignment.
• Oh, Crap!: Has this expression quite a lot as a result of her Butt-Monkey and/or Huge School Girl situations. One prominent example is in ch. 19, where she's completely horrified at the thought of being seen as an Otaku Surrogate (which is not even intentional on her part to begin with).

Ginga

• Cute Bruiser: Lest we forget, she was introduced carrying her kill — a full-sized leopard — over her shoulders.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: She doesn't have a lot of modesty, although she didn't start wearing concealing clothes until she came to Japan... and sprouted.
• Long-Lost Relative: She is revealed to be a cousin of Kosukegawa through his great-grandfather.
• Samus Is a Girl: A topless "Samus", no less, as at her first appearance, she was still living on the island, not yet introduced to civilization and clothes.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Ginga and Hino spent many years of their childhoods together, and are close friends, but Ginga was, at first, furious with Hino for the latter's perceived betrayal of Ginga's people's customs (she left the island rather than remain to serve as the Gadam).

Izuru Hino

• Barrier Warrior: Specializes in defense fighting techniques.
• Clothing Damage: Hino (and her clothes) get cut up pretty badly in ch. 34 when she accidentally leaps into a thornbush. Later, during a sports carnival contest she has her shirt and bra accidentally ripped off.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: See Clothing Damage, but like Ginga, she doesn't care that much about nudity or showing her body, although she doesn't go out of her way to do it.
• Romantic False Lead: Started as potentially one early on to get Motoko jealous of how well she and Kosukegawa fit together.
• Ojou: Wealthy family, incredibly polite to everyone, School Idol and very much the resident Yamato Nadeshiko.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: ...with Ginga (see above). Hino isn't angry with Ginga at all, but she doesn't hold back when defending herself from Ginga.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Because of this, and because she is a Kamen Raider fan like Kosukegawa, at first it seems that she is bound to become a Relationship Sue for him, which saddens Hibiki (and later, Motoko), but eventually it turns out that Kosukegawa's love for Motoko/HiFuMi is far too steady.
  • She's also an incredibly gifted Aikido prodigy. Her present fighting skill developed as a result of having to survive in the wilderness of a tropical island for much of her youth.

Other characters

• Artificial Limbs: American Kamen Rider Raider Otaku Ralph Austin (which also serves as a Shout-Out to The Six Million Dollar Man)

• Beta Couple:
  • Ozuma and Osada.
  • Aizawa and Ginga are on the way to become this as well, in their own somewhat Belligerent Sexual Tension way.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sora Uzuki, all in the name of witnessing "Black".
• Blood Knight: As well as Hibiki, Tatsuya, the karateka "father" who trained her and Matoko's biological father, will fight anyone who looks strong for the fun of it. Even Ginga. Not to mention the fact that Motoko's other two fathers kept Zero secret from him so he wouldn't fight her to the death. In ch. 52, he helps a convicted psycho murderer break out of prison just so he can fight him to the death...which takes three minutes.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Starting with Hifumi, all fighters are revealed to be categorised into colour-coded combat styles, or a combination of two or more. Tsukishima especially seems to be obsessed with achieving her colour title, and is baffled when fights don't quite follow these rules.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Kousukegawa's mom.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Ginga, right down to using bites.
  • During the "bring out Zero" ploy", one of the fighters (also a member of Ginga's tribe) holds Mikiri's head underwater just long enough to knock her unconscious. The Improbable Weapon User below tries to take out Fujiko by bleeding her out through strategic cuts...and he nearly succeeds.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Normally averted. The one time it's used is when we finally see what happened to Motoko's mother.
• Hospital Hottie: Literally, in the case of the new school nurse.
• Improbable Weapon User:
  • One enemy uses his fingernails, a technique used by some Shaolin monks.
  • Sora Uzuki uses a kusarigama-like weapon consisting of sharpened keys on a wire.
• Long-Lost Relative: The leader of the apparent-ninja clan that includes Sora and Tsukishima is Motoko's grandmother.
• Meaningful Theme Naming: Aside from HiFuMi, there is also evidence of other suspicious occurrences discovered by Kannami in chapter 49, but clues can be found earlier on, if the reader pays attention to the meanings of certain kanji characters.
• National Stereotypes: Played straight with respect to United Statizens in the Okinawa arc.
• Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: Aizawa, who is younger than he looks, a former thug who got into high school around the same time as Ginga. While looking to establish his rep, he got tagged with the title of School Guardian by accident, and then finds out that not only do all the strongest fighters in their school outclass him, but they are also girls.
• Parent with New Paramour: The young Russian woman Anna, besides being a talented disciple of Takezou (Motoko's jujitsu father, who "created" the Mikiri personality), is also apparently his girlfriend. When she jokingly tells Motoko about the possibility of becoming her stepmother, Motoko freaks out.

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