Characters / Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens

The character sheet for Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens.

Be warned that if you've only seen the anime and not read the light novel/manga, you'll see some spoilers that may exist beyond the first few episodes.

Protagonists

Zenji Banba

Voiced by: Daisuke Ono (Japanese), Josh Grelle (English)

A private detective who operates in the Greater Hakata Area, he takes cases from both civilians and from the Fukuoka Prefectural Police from time to time. He begins to work with Lin after he tells him that the order was given to get rid of him. He is also the man who is taking up the mantle of the Niwaka Samurai.

He's the Second Baseman in the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens team.

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Is overeager to join the festival celebration (especially the Hakata Gion Yamakasa), and has an obsession with baseball and spiced tuna, but is a fairly competent detective. To say nothing of his other job..., where he is even more competent and even more wacky.
• Cool Car: Drives a Mini Cooper to get around.
• Crime Fightingwith Cash: Is willing to pay Lin several million for information about his organisation.
• Defective Detective: Inverted: he's easily one of best-adjusted characters in the series, particularly compared to Lin.
• The Hero: The main character of the series. Most of the things that happen are based on cases he works on in the city.
• Private Detective: One of the many private detectives who operates in Hakata, working with either the police or with the underworld.
• Working with the Ex: On occasions, Banba works with Sayuri on a few cases.

Lin Xianming aka Maomei

Voiced by: Yuki Kaji (Japanese), Daman Mills (English)

A Chinese^note His "official" records say that he's from Taiwan national who likes in Hakata and operates as an assassin in the criminal underworld under the Kakyuu Group, a Triad gang that's based in the city.

He's the Shortstop in the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens team.

• Camp Straight: He outright says to Jose that he's not gay, and while he enjoys buying clothing and skincare products he never bothers to disguise his voice.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Forced to be separate from his sister in order to get out of poverty by working his ass off. Unfortunately, that led to his career choice as an assassin, and him having to kill his own partner.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Lin's physical features is sometimes used to resemble a female during sting ops.
• Omniglot: Known to be fluent in Chinese, Japanese and English.
• Only in It for the Money: Lin takes out his targets only to make money so that Qiaomei can have a better life. Though he later ditches this mostly, only working with Jiro for money when the man needs his help.
• Vocal Dissonance: Only bothers with a falsetto when disguised as part of a hit attempt.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Originally, he was forced to crossdress as a disguise due his feminine appearance. However, he still does so even though he no longer needs to.

Saito Kazuki

Voiced by: Yūsuke Kobayashi (Japanese), Stephen Fu (English)

A new recruit for Red Rum Incorporated^note Actually Murder Incorporated, he's dispatched from Tokyo to Fukuoka where he gets into trouble several times that he decides to live a civilian life instead of continuing to be an assassin.

He's the Pitcher in the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens team.

• Butt-Monkey: When he arrives at Fukuoka, he gets jumped on by Jiro and Misaki after being accused of being a target they're looking for. He later gets framed as a potential murder suspect and later is used by his friend as a decoy.
• Decoy Protagonist: Is introduced fairly early on, but fails to has much of an impact from about 4 episodes in. Saito doesn't show up a lot near the end of the series, only making some appearances.
• Chekhov's Gun: His baseball skills, which got him to the HTR team. He uses his throwing skills as a pitcher to take down Yuusuke with a baseball.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: After surviving being framed, Saito decides to become a store employee and live a normal life.
• New Meat: To the assassin business. It doesn't last long...

Bar Babylon

Jose Martinez

Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno (Japanese), Marcus D. Stimac (English)

A Hispanic man who lives in Hakata from the Dominican Republic. He's known in the underworld as a torture specialist.

He's the First Baseman in the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens team.

• Scary Black Man: Downplayed. He's a scary African-Hispanic man and he happens to be very good in beating the crap out of his victims. When not on the job, he's otherwise one of the friendliest members of the cast.
• Straight Gay: Right on the borderline: he's a stack of muscle but the only time he orientation is mentioned is when he's offering Lin some of the naughty sites he knows.
• Torture Technician: His job, to the point that he get sick of vigilante work with Jiro because he doesn't get enough torturing in.
• Vigilante Man: He work as an avenger with Jiro.

Jiro Tanaka

Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa (Japanese), Aaron Roberts (English)

In charge of Bar Babylon, he works with Misaki when given a mission. Used to be a professional hairdresser before moving to Hakata. In the Japanese version of the anime, Jiro speaks with an okama tone.

He's the Second Baseman in the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens team.

• Chekhov's Gun: His hairdressing skills. It helps his allies solve a few cases along the way such as Lin impersonating Enokida during his character arc.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Moved to Hakata to start over after his lover was murdered.
• Vigilante Man: A for-hire version: as one of the avengers, he accepts payment in return for dishing out vengeance to his targets.

Misaki Tanaka

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (Japanese), Amber Lee Connors (English)

A young girl who hangs with Jiro, she usually works with him when given a mission.

• Dark and Troubled Past: Her mom left her when she was young and abused by her stepfather. Jiro took her in after conducting a mission that involved him.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: She's forced to mature and grow up since she has Jiro to rely on as her parent figure.

Lady Darts and Bar

Shunsuke "Sarucchi" Saruwatari

Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura (Japanese), Chris Gardner (English)

An ex-Red Rum contractor who moved to Hakata to start on his own. He's known in the criminal underworld for using a submarine-style baseball toss to throw shurikens. His "real" job is being the pitcher of the Kokura Fried Udons baseball team.

• Alliterative Name: Shunsuke Saruwatari.
• Butt-Monkey: Humiliated almost as often as Saito Kazuki... and that says a lot.
• Blood Knight: His main joy in life is combat. Often complains to Nitta when he's forced to kill weaklings.
• Close-Range Combatant: He has terrible aim, but he's still lethal enough in close-combat to ouright beat Lin and match the Niwaka Samurai.
• Establishing Character Moment: Throws a knife to his target and gives them a shot at attacking him, before killing him effortlessly. The very next scene he's complaining he doesn't get anyone strong to fight.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Played for laughs and a rare non-mook example. Sarucchi's aim with his shuriken is ...less than stellar, and he's roundly mocked for it.
• I Know Madden Kombat: Deconstructed: His submarine pitch is less than accurate when applied to shurikens and he's far more skilled at melee range.
• Hot-Blooded: his emotions alternate between surly and loud, and he's every bit as unsubtle as a ninja shouldn't be.
• Ninja: Naoya's idea is to get Sarucchi to be a ninja-style assassin. Sure enough, the underworld began to recognize his skills.
• Red Baron: The underworld knows him as the "Submarine Ninja".
• The Rival: Develops this with Banba after he was initially contracted to hunt down the Niwaka Samurai.

Naoya Nitta

Voiced by: Masaya Matsukaze (Japanese), Shawn Gann (English)

A freelance consultant who helps out aspiring and veteran assassins alike. He knows Sarucchi back from their high school days. In his spare time, he's the catcher of the Kokura Fried Udons baseball team.

• Alliterative Name: Naoya Nitta.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Tends to betray Sarucchi and the client/s in some cases if it means completing their objectives. Sarucchi doesn't really appreciate it.
• The Handler: Naoya's responsible for giving Sarucchi his jobs.
• Villain with Good Publicity: He's known to be a job consultant for assassins.

Assassins

Munakata

Voiced by: Hiroki Tochi (Japanese), David Wald (English)

The leader of his assassin cell in Hakata.

• Captain Ersatz: With a dose of Expy for being similar to Big Boss in terms of the eyepatch and the brown trenchcoat with black gloves.

Reiko Asakura

Voiced by: Natsumi Fujiwara (Japanese), Anastasia Muñoz (English)

An ex-club hostess who joined Red Rum before she left and joined Munakata. Specializes in using poisons.

• Dark Action Girl: She's an assassin who uses poisons during her contracts.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Her full name and birthday are revealed in a bio data Enokida found online in "Play Ball".
• Only Sane Man: Or sane woman who doesn't like Yusuke using her group as errand boys since it means more work to conceal the murders of orphaned woman he kidnaps/buys from the streets.

Shinohara

Voiced by: Shinya Hamazoe (Japanese), Dallas Reid (English)

An assassin who wear glasses and specializes in using demolitions.

• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: A pretty nasty guy who doesn't mind killing his targets with bombs.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Has his own dynamite bundle batted back at him.

Ivanov Hisashi

Voiced by: Shota Yamamoto (Japanese), Jim Johnson (English)

A Japanese-Russian man. He serves as the group's muscle in a fight and know how to stage scenes to make it appear to be suicides. Has a scar on his face.

• But Not Too Foreign: A half-Japanese/Russian in a Japanese story.
• The Big Guy/The Heavy: Ivanov is around when shit's about to go down and a fight is about to start or they need him to lift heavy things.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: He doesn't get some cultural aspects of Japan at certain times, which suggests that he didn't live in Japan when he was very young.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Shot by Lin in the first demonstration of his Knife-Gun.

Nguyen

A Vietnamese assassin and member of Red Rum, he was tasked to hunt down Saito after he went AWOL.

• Just Following Orders: Nguyen mentions that he's following company policy to off Saito because of the risk of leaking RR secrets.
• Spell My Name With An S: Weirdly, his name in the non-Japanese subtitles place his name as Gwen^note The surname written in katakana is グエン, which even FUNIMATION has used in its official translation.

Feilang

Voiced by: Nobunaga Shimazaki (JP), Alejandro Saab (EN)

A Chinese assassin who trained with Lin way back when they were very young. He's based in the Greater Beijing Area.

• Bait the Dog: Twice. There's the time when he and Lin were boys, and he became his partner...only to admit he was preparing to kill him the whole time and had killed a boy earlier in an attempt to get out of training sooner. He's also willing to bury the hatchet and offer to retake Lin's offer to travel the world as a team, but as soon as the latter refuses he declares he's going to destroy the city and all his friends with a psychotic smile.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The Son of a Whore who went through the same Training from Hell that Lin did. After he was "killed," he was rescued by an old man who sold him to a sicko that enjoyed torturing kids.
• Due to the Dead: Loots the bodies of his kills.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a scar over his left eye...and scars some of his victims similarly. He got it from Lin
• Evil Redhead: Even by the low standard of a series full of hired killers, he's quite nasty.
• Psycho for Hire: Welp, at least he loves his job!
• We Can Rule Together: Tracked down Lin to offer a partnership in travelling the world, killing people. Lin refuses on the account of his friendships and his attachment to Hakata.
  • Does it again at the end of episode 12

Kakyu Association

Zhang

The Incense Master of the Hakata-based KA cell and employed Lin Xianming as his main assassin before his defection.

• Starter Villain: Alongside Yusuke Harada for Lin's initial character arc.

Wang Longfang

The Mountain Master of the Fukuoka KA cell.

Li Ruixi

The Deputy Mountain Master of the Fukuoka KA cell.

M Three (M3)

Chegaru

Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda (Japanese), Christopher Wehkamp (English)

M3's Hakata-based cell handler. He liaises with top M3 leaders.

Siva

Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae (Japanese), Justin Briner (English)

M3's Hakata-based hacker. Has a daytime job as a computer store employee.

Irasawa

Voiced by: Atsushi Imaruoka (Japanese), Ricco Fajardo (English)

M3's Hakata-based muscle. An ex-boxer who was recruited to serve as the cell's muscle and fighter.

Allies

Enokida aka Chihiro Matsuda

Voiced by: Kensho Ono (Japanese), Kyle Igneczi (English)

An informant who Banba goes to when he needs information. He uses to be responsible for hacking into the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's database.

He's the Center Fielder in the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens team.

• Hack the Traffic Lights: It's implied that he did this before.
  • For the Lulz: The reason why he did it.
• The Informant: In the underworld, but he usually works with Banba.

Shigematsu

Voiced by: Kenji Hamada (Japanese), Ben Phillips (English)

A detective assigned to the Hakata Police Station. He works with Banba when a case he handles goes to a dead end.

He's the Catcher in the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens team.

• Friend on the Force: For both Lin and Banba.
• Only Sane Man: Reminds Banba not to say anything that can easily get him arrested.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He only agrees to get Banba involved when a case he has go to a dead end due to a lack of evidence or when a coverup emerges.

Genzō Gōda

Voiced by: Kosei Hirota (Japanese), Ben Bryant (English)

A Hakata local who operate a ramen stand in the city's downtown area. He also happens to be the handler of the Niwaka Samurai aka Banba.

He's the Manager in the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens team.

• Nice Guy: Happens to be one to his customers and to the public. Just don't do anything stupid to get him pissed off.
• Retired Badass: Formerly a lethal hitman known as "Jiji" or GG in the light novel .
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Wore a suit, tie, fedora and trenchcoat when he was an assassin.
• Walking Spoiler: Basically he used to be GG and some of his backstory is tied in with some of the story arcs in the series.

Yamato

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese), Eric Vale (English)

A club host who works at Adam. He also serves as Banba's informant in the nightclub scene.

He's the Right Fielder in the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens team.

• The Informant: In the nightclub scene if a case Banba works on involves that aspect.

Saeki

Voiced by: Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese), Kent Williams (English)

A plastic surgeon who runs his own clinic. He also does work in the underworld by disposing of things (usually corpses) to avoid attention by the public and law enforcement.

He's the Third Baseman in the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens team.

Sayuri

Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese), Felecia Angelle (English)

Banba's ex from a few years before he met Lin. She works as an assassin and her first mission was to take Banba out.

• Femme Fatale: Was able to use her charms to get the drop on Chairman Wong.
• In Love with the Mark: Well, she did fail her mission to kill him in the first place.
• Poisoned Weapons: Sayuri had poison hidden underneath her fingernails to kill a target. Justified as she was thoroughly searched before making contact with her mark and needed something not so noticeable.
• Working with the Ex: On occasions, Sayuri works with Banba on a few cases.

Civilians

Shotarō Harada

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Ian Sinclair (English)

The current mayor of Hakata. He's suspected of having secret ties to several organized crime groups operating in the city.

• Karma Houdini: Averted. The confession used by Yusuke being broadcasted in Hakata allowed the Fukuoka Prefectural Police to make an arrest.
• No Party Given: No clues are given to which party he's aligned with.
• Starter Villain: For Banba's initial character arc when he was looking for information on corruption.
• Villain with Good Publicity: He's currently seeking an election to stay in his post as mayor.

Yusuke Harada

Voiced by: Ryōta Ōsaka (Japanese), Austin Tindle (English)

The only son of the mayor. Known to be a spoiled brat who doesn't have qualms in killing random women he picks up from the streets.

• Spoiled Brat: The only reason why he's not caught is because of his father, who really doesn't care, and the services Munakata renders to him to hide his criminal activities.
• Starter Villain: For Lin's initial character arc when he was looking for his sister, Qiaomei.
• The Sociopath: Has little to no care for the people he hurts or even his father's wellbeing. Interestingly he also has the low sense of consequences known to sociopaths: and has to be warned away from posting a video showing his crimes online.

Family

Lin Qiaomei

Lin Xianming's younger sister, separated when they were still children.

Kazuo Matsuda

The father of Chihiro and a politician serving in the House of Representatives.

Yagi

The Matsuda's family butler. He helped Enokida escape years before the series started.

Others

Niwaka Samurai

A mysterious assassin who operates in Hakata. He's greatly feared in the underworld due to his skills with a katana while he uses a Niwaka mask to conceal his face. Banba is the one who takes up the mantle currently.

• Domino Mask: His namesake, the Niwaka mask he wears.
• Hired to Hunt Yourself: Zhang hires the Niwaka Samurai to off Banba, unaware they are the same, and show off his body to Lin before killing the latter. Banba manages to fake the kill by using the head of a cadaver provided by Dr. Seaki with Jiro styling the head's hair to look like Banba's.
• The Dreaded: He's feared by other assassins because of his skills in taking down targets with his katana.
• I Know Madden Kombat: Has a second, blunt sword he uses to bat away projectiles like a baseball player, up to and including a bundle of dynamite. It's a hint to his true identity.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Natch. He cuts off limbs with contemptuous ease.
• Scope Snipe: Throws a Kunai one into Munakata's eye in a flashback.
• Walking Spoiler: Talking about it would risk spoiling the fact that Banba is the current NS.