Warning!! Due to the nature of this series, there will be a lot of death tropes. Beware of unmarked spoilers and possible detailed gruesome notes found within this page. Also, the manga only exists in English as a fan translation and some names are romanized differently at times. The names picked here are the ones used most, the ones explicitly corrected (Chloe vs. Kuroe), or the ones that seem to be more likely what the author was going for (Tituba vs. Chitsuba).
As a whole
- Dark and Troubled Past: They're all orphans. Some of them lived on the streets for a while before coming to Jiaiin Girls Dormitory.
- Human Resources
- Karmic Death: What the staff of Jiaiin Girls Dormitory likes to pretend is the case for them.
- Kid Hero: The leaving age of the orphanage is 16, but the cast is 14 or younger.
- Power Trio: Students are usually assigned rooms in units of three and they are supposed to work together. More often, they end up two-and-one-ing.
- Trauma Conga Line: Between fighting for own survival, watching friends and peers die, watching friends and peers kill each other, discovering the corpses or badly injured bodies of friends and peers, being raped, knowing friends and peers are raped, playing along in a farce of an idyllic life at the orphanage, and knowing the contract signed with blood keeps you trapped for three years is something that's going to leave scars.
Meiri Chibana
At 13 years of age, Meiri lives in Room 207 and after its window's destruction in 206. Her family died in a fire, making it very ironic her Possessed is generating and controlling fire. She is introduced in Chapter 1.
- Cool Big Sis: To her little brother. After his death, she became this to Mana Makino.
- The Hero
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: This makes her a person of interest to Headmistress Chloe.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Seeing Mana in danger after just having to go through another trauma round of remembering her little brother and how he died among flames. Her superpower turns out to be fire.
Louise Warifu
Louise lives in Room 207 and after its window's destruction in 206. She likes to pretend to be a magical girl and carry a cat plushie with her, but her Possessed has yet to reveal itself (it is implied to be the ability to read messages in cracks and other forms of damage). She is introduced in Chapter 1.
- Magical Girl: Louise considers herself one and acts and dresses the part.
- Security Blanket: Julianus the 12th, Guardian of Moon Slavery. He's Louise's cat plushie.
- Verbal Tic: Louise ends all her sentences with "kyuru".
Mimi Hinawa
Mimi lives in Room 207. She's from an abusive home and spent a long time on the streets before coming to Jiaiin Girls Dormitory. She is introduced in Chapter 1.
- Bound and Gagged: Part of a major case of Bloody Horror. After her Eye Scream and The Tooth Hurts mutilation followed by being flung out of the window in Chapter 1, you'd think that's the last to be seen of Mimi. Then Meiri investigates Headmistress Chloe's office in Chapter 5 and through a hole in the floor sees Mimi's body dangling upside down above a tub in the basement. There's a piece of cloth in her disfigured mouth and as Headmistress Chloe herself cuts the girl open, a muffled scream escapes Mimi, indicating that she'd been alive all this time.
- Fiery Redhead: According to the colored version of Volume 4's second cover.
- Rejected Apology: She was about to apologize for her outburst to Headmistress Chloe when the staff mutilated her to be killed.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Guess who's the very first character to die?
Maaya Miyano
Maaya lives in Room 207 and after its window's destruction in 206. She's a quiet girl who carries around a large suitcase filled with drawing materials and her art. Her Possessed is the ability to read memories and thoughts from others by tasting their bodily fluids. She is introduced in Chapter 1.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Thanks to Louise's and Meiri's efforts.
- Disease Bleach: It could be her natural hair color, but it plays into her overall vibe of a weakened girl.
- Dismissing a Compliment: Maaya mostly doesn't believe that she's a good artist, no matter what she's told by whom.
- Friendless Background: Maaya avoids making friends, setting up very clear interaction borders. This doesn't mean she doesn't want any, but she's cynical about making meaningful connections. Being a target for bullying because of her loner status doesn't help. Neither does being Chloe's daughter.
- The Stoic: Until Meiri and Louise draw out her emotional side.
Tomiko Matsushima
At 13 years of age, Tomiko lives in Room 205. Like her roommates, she's a bully. She only has feelings of loyalty to Komori, with whom she was alone before Makoto and Miiko arrived at the orphanage. She is introduced in Chapter 2.
- Asshole Victim
- Freak Out: After thinking they killed Makoto after promising they'd kill her while they only meant to torture and scare her a bit.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Her friendship with Komori, who's as bad as she is, is the only redeeming trait she seems to have.
Komori Orito
At 13 years of age, Komori lives in Room 205. Like her roommates, she's a bully. She only has feelings of loyalty to Tomiko, with whom she was alone before Makoto and Miiko arrived at the orphanage. She is introduced in Chapter 2.
- Asshole Victim
- Freak Out: After thinking they killed Makoto after promising they'd kill her while they only meant to torture and scare her a bit.
- Big Eater: It gets her and Tomiko in very deep trouble.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Her friendship with Tomiko, who's as bad as she is, is the only redeeming trait she seems to have.
Makoto Kaiya
At 13 years of age, Makoto lives in Room 205. Like her roommates, she's a bully. She's close with Miiko, with whom she lived on the streets for a while after her mother's death. She is introduced in Chapter 2.
- Berserk Button: "Piss Girl".
- Bound and Gagged: When Tomiko and Komori capture her. Redone by Rina.
Miiko Kayano
Miiko lives in Makina's old room, but whether that is 206 or another is unclear. She's close with Makoto, with whom she lived on the streets for a while. She is introduced in Chapter 3.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To Maaya.
- In-Series Nickname: Miiko calls herself Mii. Everyone else follows suit.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: To Makoto, whom she saved from child prostitution when they still lived on the streets.
- Third-Person Person
Rina Makino
At 14 years of age, Rina lives in Room 301. She has a younger sister named Mana and will do anything to protect her. Her Possessed is generating and controlling plant matter, which is given the name Blind Woods. She is introduced in Chapter 4.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She looks like such a protective older sister, doesn't she? Well, she is. There's nothing she won't do to save Mana from harm, including prematurely mercy-killing her herself.
- Cool Big Sis: To Mana. Rina hid the organ stone for a while and may have even been the one to have stolen it in the first place, ensuring a delay in Headmistress Chloe's plans. She also tried to kill Mana solely to protect her from rape and a more painful death. Upon seeing that Mana could have another protector in Meiri, she accepted her own death by the rules of Dolls Fall.
- Coordinated Clothes: Well, hair decs. Rina and Mana have the same two ribbons in their hair.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Tried this with Mana to protect her from rape and a more painful death.
- Last Words: I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin combo'ed with Take Care of the Kids.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Her influence on the story notwithstanding, very little is said about her before her demise.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: In trying to keep Mana from being harmed.
Mana Makino
At 10 years of age, Mana lived in Room 301 before transferring to Room 207 after the death of her older sister Rina. Her Possessed is the ability to summon a large humanoid wolf to aid her. She is introduced in Chapter 4.
- Child Prodigy: The reason Mana was allowed into Jiaiin Girls Dormitory at only age 10.
- Coordinated Clothes: Well, hair decs. Mana and Rina have the same two ribbons in their hair.
Makina Kandori
Makina lived in Room 206 (whether this is her original room or not is unclear) before transferring to Room 301. She's trying to protect as many of the other students as is practical, for which she makes liberally use of her Possessed: heightened combat skills that make weapons, like her katana, feel like extensions of her own body. She is introduced in Chapter 7.
- Action Girl
- Break the Haughty: For most of her presence, Makina acts in control and forceful in her belief that cooperating with the system will make the least amount of victims. Then she is confronted with the sexual abuse she's undergone by cooperating with the system and slowly she starts breaking down...
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: She's last seen when Takeshige appears to try to save her from being raped, only for the crazed townspeople to show up with meat cleavers. Takeshige managed to escape for a short period, but the readers never see what happened to Makina. Persummably, since she was bound to a pillory, she most likely was offed by them while stuck.
Aika Kadowaki
Aika lives in Room 302 and is close friends with her neighbor Rina. She carries around a rope with a dreamcatcher on the end that seems to be related to her Possessed. She is introduced in Chapter 11.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She's a friend of Rina and leads the hunt on Komori. The story pays zero attention to her as a character.
Imawa
Imawa lives in Room 204 and is in a relationship with Chikako. Her Possessed is the ability to summon a gun as she pleases. She is introduced in Chapter 4.
Chikako
Chikako lives in Room 204 and is in a relationship with Imawa and later Louise. She is introduced in Chapter 4.
As a whole
- Maid Corps: Not remarkable in numbers, but other then usual maid tasks, they also provide classes, act as nurses, tend the garden, hold armed patrols, torture intruders, murder naughty students, clean up the evidence, etc.
- Meaningful Name: Only five of the nine maids are named, but all who are are (possibly) named after women involved in the Salem Witch Trials.
- Would Hurt a Child: They've got shotguns. Taking a bullet might be preferable to what else they have access to and are willing to use.
Chloe Zola
The headmistress of Jiaiin Girls Dormitory; an all-around amazing and kind woman until the charade is dropped and the child-murdering witch inspired by Lizzie Borden underneath reveals herself. She is introduced in Chapter 1.
- Big Bad: It is Chloe who uses her orphanage in a bid to resurrect the witch she worships and leads her followers to sacrifice the innocent girls to do so.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Chapter 4 reveals she isn't nearly as nice as she seemed.
- Blood Bath: Takes these to stay young.
- Child Eater: As an extra to the bathing thing.
- Dirty Coward: Having children suffer and die in unimaginably cruel ways, actively participating in their torture and demise, getting off on the carnage and bathing in their remains - Chloe does it all. But when faced with the chance she'll be killed, regardless even of how, she panics.
- Evil Matriarch: Refers to the other teachers and herself as the students' "mothers". She is actually Maaya's biological mother.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Her decoration preferences include occult paraphernalia, corpses, and parts of corpses.
- Older Than They Look: Chloe was a child in 1912, making her more than 100 in 2013. Her appearance is that of a woman in her 30s.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Everyone else wears uniforms, but Headmistress Chloe never once shows up in the same outfit twice. Give or take her birthday suit. That one she wears several times.
Tituba
Headmistress Chloe's right-hand woman. Arguably more dangerous because she doesn't make room for exceptions. She is introduced in Chapter 1.
- Eyes Always Shut: They open only twice, and only 1/3th or so. Once when she's annoyed and once when she's in pain.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Meaningful Name: Tituba is named after the first person accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. Tituba also was the first to confess, but among all the others somehow avoided being executed.
- Red Herring: The first three chapters try to make her look like the Big Bad at Jiaiin Girls Dormitory.
Mercy
One of the maids, somewhere second to Tituba in creep factor. She is introduced in Chapter 5.
- Meaningful Name: If the other maids are any indication, Mercy is named after a woman involved in the Salem Witch Trials. Likely candidates would be accused Mercy Wardwell or Mercy Good, but there's Mercys aplenty in other roles too.
- Youthful Freckles: She's the only character with freckles.
Mary Walcott
One of the maids. She appears to have some connection to the priest. She is introduced in Chapter 9.
- Meaningful Name: Mary Walcott is named after one of the "afflicted" girls that acted as witnesses during the Salem Witch Trials.
Elizabeth Parris
One of the maids. She's new and doesn't seem to know of or approve of the murdering of the students. She is introduced in Chapter 1.
- Meaningful Name: Elizabeth Parris is named after one of the "afflicted" girls that acted as witnesses during the Salem Witch Trials.
Betty
One of the maids. She is introduced in Chapter 1.
- Meaningful Name: If the other maids are any indication, Betty is named after a woman involved in the Salem Witch Trials. Likely candidates would be accused Elizabeth Proctor or Elizabeth Howe, but there's Elizabeths aplenty in other roles too.
Lizzie Borden
Following her trial in 1893 for killing her parents with an axe, Lizzie took up the name Paula and became the founder of the Mother of Garden orphanage in 1912.
- Ax-Crazy: Axes are her favorite murder tool.
- Childhood Friends: With Carrie.
- Would Hurt a Child: And brutally at that.
Carrie
Carrie is a childhood friend of Lizzie and the co-founder of the Mother of Garden orphanage.
- Childhood Friends: With Lizzie Borden.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She exists, disagrees with Lizzie killing a child, unmasks the mystery man, then is killed by Lizzie.
Nahato
Father Nahato, more often called "the priest", is the only one in Kanekubi Town who is not in league with Jiaiin Girls Dormitory, although he presents himself differently. Possibly, he's okay sacrificing a few of the girls if it means holding the element of surprise in stopping Headmistress Chloe's plans. He is introduced in Chapter 2.
- Pretty Boy: As commented on by Louise.
- Turbulent Priest
Takeshige
A journalist who, along with Yamamoto, comes to investigate Jiaiin Girls Dormitory and Kanekubi Town.
- Anti-Hero: There's always an undercurrent that he does what he does because it's the right thing, but the reasons he voices are solely about benefitting himself or getting to people that annoy him.
- Big Damn Heroes: Takeshige tries to save Makina from rape by putting her behemoth of an assailant on fire and chasing the other two (admittedly elderly) away. He's subsequently attacked by a mob of deformed creeps with meat cleavers and the like in a very small room... and he actually manages to escape and lose them long enough to warn and instruct Yamamoto.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Takeshige and Yamamoto give their lives to report on the treatment of the girls at the hands of Jiaiin Girls Dormitory and Kanekubi Town and thereby save them. All it does is provoke Headmistress Chloe in ordering a massacre to erase the evidence.
Yamamoto
A journalist who, along with Takeshige, comes to investigate Jiaiin Girls Dormitory and Kanekubi Town.
- Defiant to the End: "Serves you right."
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Yamamoto and Takeshige give their lives to report on the treatment of the girls at the hands of Jiaiin Girls Dormitory and Kanekubi Town and thereby save them. All it does is provoke Headmistress Chloe in ordering a massacre to erase the evidence.
