This page lists the characters of the Visual Novel, The Devil on G-String, and the tropes associated with them. Major spoilers will be found ahead.
This character sheet uses Eastern naming convention (Surname first).
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Azai Kyousuke
Azai Kyousuke / Samejima Kyousuke
Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama
The foster son of Azai Gonzou and the protagonist of The Devil on G-String. He has a reputation in school for being a rich playboy, but in truth, he is sunk deep in debt under Azai Gonzou and is working to repay his family's debt.
- A God Am I: Played for laughs with his alternate identity as "God".
- Anti-Hero: Starts out as a Type IV, becomes a Type V in two bad endings. Graduates to Type IIB in most good endings as he starts showing a genuinely nice side to him.
- Aroused by Their Voice:
- Mizuha thinks that Kyousuke's voice is hot, especially when it deepens when using his other persona.
- He's voiced by Jun Fukuyama in the drama CDs just like Maou. Since you've probably read the visual novel if you're listening to the side material it makes sense in context.
- Berserk Button: Damage any of his CDs. Subverted later on: He admits that he's exaggerating and really just playing around.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: His attempts at humor are bad. Probably intentional to at least a degree since he seems to enjoy annoying Eiichi. But not entirely.
- The Casanova: He invokes this trope as part of his image.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: With Haru.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Kyousuke used to be really warm and affectionate as a kid and this can be seen in his school life, though he thinks of it as a mask or stress relief at best. His more calculating personality stems first from how his father was demonized for killing a man who blackmailed him and more importantly when Azai Gonzou adopted him and took over his debt, causing his money obsession.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Played for laughs. Kanon breaks his CD? An elaborate revenge plot involving an accomplice breaking into the faculty office by luring a teacher out with nonsense so that the accomplice can steal the keys to the sports shed and keep Kanon from being able to play in a tournament she was looking forward to. Mizuha does the same thing? Become her friend, seduce her, bring her to the altar and then abandon her there! This time he admits that he's going to quit as soon as he gets bored, however, which does indeed happen pretty quickly. Revenge is just an amusing game.
- Enemy Within: The criminal mastermind "Maou" is strongly implied to be this for him, to the point that he's flat-out accused of using Maou as an alias within the first few hours of the story. It's subverted in the main route; Maou is revealed to be his believed to be dead older brother.
- Freudian Excuse: Having come from a very poor family and heavily indebted, his attitude towards others is pretty much due to his childhood.
- Guile Hero: Even when it's revealed he isn't Maou, there are a number of routes where he uses his sharp wit to get out of a sticky situation.
- Hate at First Sight: Despite Usami obviously being the main heroine and having the whole VN built around her, Kyousuke actually hates her from essentially the moment they first speak: she keeps going on about justice, she has irritating habits, she's nosy and she has a last name he doesn't much care for. It takes a long time and a lot of pain on Usami's end before the relationship gets a real chance to develop.
- Hidden Eyes: Even after the reveal. Although it's eventually subverted.
- Informed Attribute: We're told how smart he is, but most of the clever deductions and plots come from Usami, Maou and Gonzou instead. Subverted in some of the side-routes and at the end of the main route, where he finally gets a chance to shine.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: No matter how dickish he can be or claims to be, it´s obvious to the people around him that he really can be nice when he tries to.
- Oblivious to Love: Averted with Tsubaki and mostly averted with Kanon, but he's apparently not good with picking up on tsunderes and tends to dismiss Usami.
- Only Sane Man: To an extent, though his elaborate petty revenge throws it into question. There's also a more serious application of the trope where he's the only one not obsessed with revenge among the peoplenote with grudges.
- Red Herring: He's not "Maou"; it's his brother, Samejima Kyouhei.
- Selective Obliviousness: He does his best to ignore Usami's rather obvious attraction. To be fair, she's kind of weird and thus her behavior is easier to dismiss. He's also trying really hard not to think about the fact that with her last name she's surely the daughter of the man that ruined his father.
- Serious Business: Classical music.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The main story line turns his years of working for Gonzou into this. His mother and Azai Gonzou both die, rendering his years of trying to repay his debt useless.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Confined to his inner monologues, so he can never be called on it at least.Kyousuke: If we keep the events of this awful night a secret, then even Tokita might have a future. ...Not that Tokita's future is of any importance to me. It'd just be a waste of an able mind.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: At his worst, he tries to destroy the innocence that Tsubaki still has, though in the good ending he realizes what he's doing and stops.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Mizuha's and Tsubaki's bad endings.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In all of the side-routes and the main route.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: Gonzou adopted him to pay off his father's yakuza loan.
- Tsundere: Towards everyone. But a lot of it is just his inner monologue since he pretends to be nice. The outward tsun behavior is mostly reserved for Usami, though. Interestingly, the other girls appear to pick up on this.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Which is why he was so easy to frame as "Maou".
- Yakuza: Subverted. He may be affiliated with them, but he's not officially a part of them.
Usami Haru
Voiced by: Kei Mizusawa
The main heroine of the story. She transfers into Kyousuke's school early on. Haru is a strange young girl intent on catching "Maou". Also friends with Tokita Yuki.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Kyousuke is absolutely repulsed whenever the possibility is mentioned that she might like him. This is because he knows who she isnote and while he's not going to try and get revenge on her, that doesn't mean he has to like her.
- Babies Ever After: At the very end of the game, Kyousuke reunites with Haru and her daughter, which is revealed to be his based on her age.
- Batman Gambit: She pulls several ones during the hostage situations.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Very much so. She's very eccentric, but she's a very capable thinker.
- The Chessmaster: She's capable of matching wits with "Maou".
- Childhood Marriage Promise: With Kyousuke.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: When she's not being utterly serious, but even then her weird personality slips through.
- Elegant Classical Musician: Mentions early on that she plays the violin, but her personality doesn't quite fit. Though when she actually plays she seems to gain a lot of dignity and looks more beautiful than she does normally. Unfortunately, she's too traumatized to play while Maou is alive.
- Hopeless Suitor: She manages to be a hopeless suitor and the main heroine at the same time. Namely, Kyousuke outright despises her for the first three fourths of the story and makes it pretty obvious that any hint that she likes him is disgusting. It takes some major upheavals to turn things around for her.
- Love Redeems: Subverted. She's very happy to hook up with Kyousuke, but in the end she's still desperate for revenge and can't play the violin otherwise.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: She doesn't quite hide her intelligence, but she pretends to be more easily flustered than she really is and may be playing up her strange attitude to some extent.
- Otaku: How she manages to be an otaku when she's dirt poor is anyone's guess.
- Parental Neglect: During the final arc of the story it's mentioned in a letter that her parents were rarely around to take care of her. The letter implies that this is largely responsible for how bad she is at socializing. When her father was murdered she was largely unconcerned since she rarely met him anyway and her only real friend was the killer.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: There is great emphasis on her eyes when she's being serious, and they also appear significantly brighter during those times.
- Revenge
- School Uniforms are the New Black: Invoked. Claims she just loves her school uniform. Truth is that she's largely too poor to afford any other clothing.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Repeatedly mistaken for one.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Somehow, she gets away with the following unchallenged.Eiichi: What about you, Usami-san? Is there someone that you love?
Usami: Me? Yes, there is.
[Beat]
Usami: Wait, what? Pssh, of course not. Definitely no. Well, you can be damn sure I'm not in love with Azai-san.
- You Killed My Father: She wants revenge for her mother's death.
Miwa Tsubaki
Voiced by: Chiro Kanzaki
The Class Representative of Kyousuke's class. She's the eldest of five children and hails from a rather poor family. She's known for her gentle and kind nature.
- Break the Cutie: It starts when Hiroaki is kidnapped.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Both Kyousuke and "Maou" attempt this on her. Kyousuke succeeds in the bad ending.
- Extreme Doormat: Her kind nature allows several people to take advantage of her. Also repeatedly Lampshaded by Kyousuke. Subverted as the game goes on, though.
- Foil: To Kyousuke. She serves as his most obvious antecedent — both of them grew up in poor families, but she led a contented, happy life while Kyousuke is continually seeking to pay back his family's debt, making him a very miserable person.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic.
- Happy Ending: Her good ending is the most unambiguously happy ending. Kyosuke gets an honest job, his foster father's respect, his mother comes to live with him and he has a happy family again, at the cost of a few teeth.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Subverted. She's easily corrupted as part of her Character Development.
- Even after coming to her senses she realizes she'll never be exactly as she used to be.
- In her bad ending, she's corrupted to an even greater degree. She starts smoking, drinking, doing drugs, and becomes a slave to Kyousuke. He even mentions introducing her to Gonzou and that he's taken a liking to her.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: In her bad ending, they do it in the park.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Though only one is actually of any importance.
- Nice Girl: Stated outright during the Mizuha chapter that this would be her greatest appeal to the emotionally damaged Kyousuke, though by that point she's already failed to win him.
- Stalker with a Crush: She's not, but something she says very early in the story causes Kyousuke to make a joke about it.Tsubaki: This is the first time I've heard you say this. I swear, because I write everything I know about you in this diary.
Kyousuke: Somehow that sounded a bit creepy. - Stepford Smiler: She doesn't realize it, but after her brother's kidnapping, she starts showing signs of this.
Azai Kanon
Voiced by: Satomi Koorogi
Kyousuke's step-sister and a popular figure skater in Japan. A talented and energetic young woman. Her mother also used to be a popular figure skater and used to be Kanon's coach.
Her route reveals that behind her popularity lies a very complicated relationship with her mother.
- Book Dumb: It's not that she's exactly stupid, as she's shown to be very perceptive of people, it's just that she doesn't care about anything not related to figure skating.
- The Ditz: We find out that she actually invokes this trope, as she thinks that the less things that bother her, the more focused she becomes.
- Flirty Stepsiblings: With Kyousuke.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine.
- Freudian Excuse: Ever since Kanon was a kid, her mother always doted on Kanon to continue her mother's dreams of figure skating, causing Kanon to grow up starved for affection.
- Genius Ditz: Although she acts like a goofy airhead most of the time, Kanon is an incredibly talented figure skater.
- It's All About Me: Given how much her mother spoils her, Kanon grows up to be very self-centered. She gets better.
- Little Sister Heroine: Largely avoids the general categories of the trope, instead loosely fitting under 'devoted' in that he appears to be the only person she actually trusts and relies on.
- Living Emotional Crutch: She is this to her mother.
- My Beloved Smother: Part of her Freudian Excuse.
- The Nicknamer: "Bakii" for Tsubaki and "Usamin" for Haru. And of course, "Non-chan" for herself.
- Not Blood Siblings: With Kyousuke. She knew it even as a child, but decided to ignore it.
- Stepford Smiler: Behind her cheerful attitude is a young woman starved for affection with complicated tensions with her mother.
- Third-Person Person: She refers to herself as "Non-chan" when in a good mood.
Shiratori Mizuha
Voiced by: Hyo-sei
A cold young woman who's the daughter of the man who funds the school. She's said to have a hatred for two-faced people.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Lampshaded. Yuki points out that of course a sheltered princess like Mizuha would be fascinated by someone dark and mysterious who ties her preconceptions into a complex knot, like Kyousuke.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: As her route progresses, naturally.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Well, girl. In her route, she basically annoys Kyousuke into entering a fake relationship.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Not that anything is made of it, but it's noted that she has no real friends and difficulty interacting with others.
- The Stoic: Does not show much emotion most of the time.
- Sweet Tooth: She likes making sweets for herself.
- Tsundere: Cold shoulder type mostly. She grows out of it by her epilogue.
Aizawa Eiichi
Voiced by: Yuuki Kajita
A young man who always acts cutesy and innocent, but in reality has a scheming and petty personality. He always hangs out with Kyousuke, and is known to be a skirt-chaser.
- Casanova Wannabe: The girls only see him as a cute pretty boy rather than someone to date.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He starts showing signs of this during the major events in the novel.
- Meaningful Name: His name sounds a bit like "Ecchi", or "pervert" in Japanese.
- Likes Older Women: Likes mature girls, which usually means the older ones though he has a soft spot for Tsubaki and blatant lust for Yuki. Still, he seems mostly fixated on Ms. Noriko.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Inverted. He's the only supporting character to show up during the city takeover. Kyousuke even complains about how out of place he is.
- Sweet Tooth: Apparently eats nothing but sweets.
"Maou"
Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama
The primary antagonist of The Devil on G-String. He orchestrates all of the events in the novel
- Best Served Cold: His revenge on everyone he felt had wronged him was at least eight years in the making.
- Big Bad: Of the overall plot, though he only escalates the situation to that point in the main route.
- Cain and Abel: Though not as much as you might expect from someone who has fallen as far as Maou. At the same time he sets up Kyousuke to take the blame for him, his love for Kyousuke remains perhaps his only redeeming quality.
- Chekhov's Gunman: You see Samejima Kyouhei in the first chapter in an old photo. Kyousuke took a picture of his mother and talks about her. So since his father isn't in the picture, who is the tall bishonen guy next to her?
- The Chessmaster: Very much so.
- Corrupt the Cutie: His modus operandi. He notes that it's easy to use children for criminal activities because they haven't learned that it's wrong yet.
- Cynicism Catalyst: He occasionally alludes to how he is bent on revenge against those who have wronged him for the incarceration of his father, the breakdown of his mother and his brother's 'betrayal.' Before this he was a largely normal person.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Part of his plan is to get revenge on the rest of his family for how badly they treated his and Kyousuke's mother after his father murdered Haru's father.
- Evil Counterpart: What he really is to Kyousuke, with the Red Herring being that the story initially points at him and Kyousuke being the same person. He is older, more clever and brutal than Kyousuke and works for a Private Military Contractor instead of bookkeeping for the Yakuza.
- Establishing Character Moment: While talking to Someya, his Mysterious Benefactor that he earns money for his illegal activities from as their corporate strategist, Someya tries to lay off "Maou", suggesting that he prove how sharp he really is or they'll have him replaced, and so Someya brings in Maou's replacement within the company. A young man named Kuwashima with a Master's graduate in Game Theory, and Maou suggests the two of them play a simple game as a sort of employment test for Kuwashima; a common children's game, that is, finger-bending, with a time limit. And Maou gives up the only advantage in the game; going first, even forgiving his opponent going over the agreed time limit with his Evil Gloating. Only, Maou believes in Take the Third Option, so he proceeds to horribly break Kuwashima's pinkie finger when he's about to lose, and since Kuwashima can't continue to play due to the shock, Maou wins by default. In a single scene, Maou has shown what he's all about; He enjoys using the Hope Spot, he is both ruthless and intelligent, and he has a childish streak that lets him think outside the box even in the face of overwhelming odds. Why did he suggest having a time limit of twenty seconds, instead of the ten proposed by Kuwashima? Because that's how long he figured he'd need to recover from the pain if Kuwashima had broken Maou's thumb on the first move, as breaking the thumb is far more painful than the little finger.Maou: "It's "bent" rather nicely, wouldn't you say? Once you've experienced it, you'll know that it doesn't really hurt that much when your break your little finger. Now, it's your turn. You said ten seconds was plenty, yes? What's wrong? As I've said before, you can't go over the time limit twice. Come on, my pinkie is the only finger left. All you have to do is bend it down and you win."
- Faking the Dead: Twice, in his backstory (surviving a terrorist attack in London and his ID being found in the wreckage by the police getting him declared legally dead), and once more in Haru's route.
- Freudian Excuse: The same as Kyousuke's, naturally.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: His day-job is being the consultant and corporate strategist for a corrupt arms industry company; They try to have him replaced when they want to rebrand themselves as a "clean" company to the public, but he convinces them that he's irreplacable; See Establishing Character Moment.
- Hypocrite: Spends his dying speech admonishing Kyosuke for abandoning their family and not caring for their plight, which feels slightly hollow considering he'd left them with the impression he was dead and spent the intervening years traipsing about with foreign mercenaries and planning a revenge plot while Kyosuke was actively trying to repay the family's debts.
- It Amused Me: "If someone were to ask me why I didn't kill her, I could only answer that it was because it would be more interesting that way."
- Leitmotif: "The Devil", a remix of Franz Schubert's "Der Erlkönig."
- Love Redeems: Averted. He maintains a soft spot for Kyousuke, but in the end he's too far gone. Amusingly enough, after you know about his true identity, you realize that it actually happened for real in the side heroines' routes when the game was still implying Kyousuke was Maou.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His nickname literally means "The Devil".
- Omniglot: As a highschool student, Maou was already fluent in six different languages: Japanese, English, German, French, Arabic and Spanish. He's presumably learned even more since having connections in North Korea of all places is part of his Xanatos Speed Chess plan to get his father out of prison and out of the country.
- Older Than They Look: He's in his late twenties or so, but looks about five to ten years younger.
- Private Military Contractor: He became a mercenary after being declared legally dead, and is shown to have a Multinational Team of such on his payroll. This was presumably how he got the job as a corporate strategist for the Sannou Group, an arms-dealing company.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: All the damages done to the city, all the innocent lives lost during the riot just to pressure the authorities to release his father from prison and allow Maou's goons to ferry him out of the country, only for his father to die in transit after a couple of hours from a heart attack due to all the stress.
- Teen Genius: Repeatedly called out as such, but his age is ambiguous. He's actually around thirty and simply looks younger, so he's more like a former Teen Genius, but you're led to believe that he's Kyousuke at first, making it a subversion.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: To Kyousuke.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Spared Usami when he killed her mother because he was not yet to the point where he could bring himself to murder a little girl, especially one who was basically blameless. In the current story it's made pretty clear that he's past that now.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: He likes to toy with Haru in his elaborate schemes. In his backstory, his instructor points out that he likes to do this to his victims as a mercenary.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: He might as well be a Grand Champion in it. He's got connections around the world in all kinds of criminals and mercenaries, thinks stupendously fast on his feet even new variables enter his equation, and frequently gets away scot-free from any direct implication on his person.
Azai Gonzou
Voiced by: Tetsu Inada
The boss of the Azai Group and head of a large Yakuza group in Japan. He is Kyousuke's foster father and Kanon's biological father.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear how he really feels about Kyousuke. Implications lean towards him genuinely caring about Kyousuke about as much as a man like him can... which isn't very much. Still, he took a bullet for him.
- Animal Motifs: Lion, the king of all beasts.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Mocks Maou as he dies.
- Fallen Hero: It's implied he used to be a policeman.
- Genius Bruiser: Behind his brutish appearance is a mind as sharp as a razor. He manages to foil Maou in chapter 2, and possibly could have again in the final chapter if Kyosuke hadn't shown up.
- Leitmotif: "Azai Gonzou", a remix of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Marche Slave".
- Pragmatic Villainy: He is unconcerned with "Yakuza honour" and acts purely on a drive for money and power. He nonetheless seems to appreciate strong convictions.
- Taking the Bullet: He leaps out of his car when he knows Maou is trying to snipe him because Kyousuke was about to move into the open like an idiot. Kyousuke isn't sure whether Gonzou meant to do that or not.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Sneers at Maou as he's bleeding to death and calls him a pussy afraid to get his hands dirty.
- Yakuza
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Shows far more regard to Kyosuke when Kyosuke stands up to him. He is downright amused when Kyosuke manages to one-up him in Tsubaki's route.
Tokita Yuki
Voiced by: Minami Hokuto
A friend of Haru, and known to be an incredibly talented investigator. She is the daughter of a renowned detective.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Yuki is perhaps excessively dignified and always calm, relaxed and on top of things. Beneath her level headed attitude, however, is a girl that has been manipulated into a precise but uncontrolled weapon by Maou, forcing Usami to confront her.
- Alternate Character Reading: Her name's written in katakana, but it can be written in kanji as "snow".
- Cain and Abel: Yuki is actually a villain, though she gets redeemed. She isn't quite sure how much she loves or resents Mizuha.
- Cool Big Sis: To Mizuha.
- Deal with the Devil: Even called as such in-story. We find out in Chapter 4 that she consorted with "Maou" two years before the start of the game and, metaphorically speaking, sold her soul to the devil in order to study the minds of the criminals indebted to him.
- The Dog Bites Back: In Mizuha's bad ending, she seduces Kyousuke and murders him as revenge for him raping her sister.
- The Gadfly: She really enjoys teasing certain people, especially Mizuha.
- Manipulative Bitch: She has been studying criminology and criminals ever since she was young, and is an expert in reading peoples' habits and deducing their attitudes. Naturally, this plays well into her secretly working for the big bad to deceive Haru.
- No Campaign for the Wicked: Shows pretty clear interest in Kyousuke but has no route. It is speculated that the reason Mizuha has one and she does not despite probably having a better story to tell is because Yuki, while not really a bad person, is in the villain camp.
- Revenge: Her motivation. Specifically, revenge against Mizuha's father.
- Skinship Grope: To Haru. Haru blames Yuki for her large "sweater puppies".
- Younger Than They Look: Younger than Haru, apparently.
