Characters / Kämpfer

Main Heroes/Heroines (Blue Kämpferinnen and others)

Natsuru Senou

^{Click here to see him in his Kämpfer form} 

Class: 2-4
Weapon Type: Zauber (Fire Magic)
Messenger:' Disemboweled Tiger
Voiced by: Marina Inoue (Natsuru, both genders), Michiko Nomura (Disemboweled Tiger) (Japanese), Howard Wang (male Natsuru), Sabrina Owen (female Natsuru), Margaret McDonald (Disembowled Tiger) (English)

Natsuru was an Ordinary High-School Student until the night he was chosen to be a Kämpfer and received the mysterious blue bracelet that can change him into his Kämpfer form. The blue bracelet means he's been chosen to be a blue side kämpfer by the Moderator.

The bracelet changes him into a striking high school girl (complete with gender appropriate school uniform) who fights with magic and mostly uses fire attacks.

Since his Kämpfer form is a pretty teenaged girl who's tall and has big breasts Natsuro attracts a great deal of mostly unwanted attention from both the male and the female students of his High School.

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• Accidental Pervert: Natsuru cops a feel while struggling to get Akane under control, does not get called out for it.
• Action Girl: Constantly zigzags between this trope and Faux Action Girl — depending on his/her mood, (s)he can either be efficient or impotent in battle — though in the anime (s)he leans more towards the latter trope.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: In the manga, his favorite way of showing affection to his Unwanted Harem is petting them on the head. Even Akane likes it, in either form.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Both forms are quite pretty, especially the female half, but most characters are only ever interested in Female Natsuru.
• Badass Adorable: Whenever Natsuru has the brains to fight, holy hell yes; that pretty teenager is a monster to fight.

• Brainless Beauty: A rare protagonist example. It gets more exaggerated with each adaptation; by the anime, you begin to wonder how Natsuru remembers to breathe.
• Chaste Hero: his obliviousness to the way the girls are throwing themselves at him (male and female side alike) and all. Then again, with Kaede practically controlling many aspects of his life...
• The Chew Toy: Not a lot of good ever happens to Natsuru, in either gender.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: The irony is that he attracts girls better as a girl. It's not all bad since some of the cast knows he's a guy despite all that Gender Bender.
• Crossdresser: Happens only once in the midst of all this genderbending, right when his identity is compromised in front of Mikoto near the end of episode 6. It also happens in the manga, but since he was wearing pants at the time there, it's a bit less obvious.
• Crossdressing Voice: Even when he gets married to his own self, has a kid all by his own self, and yet is still voiced by the same seiyuu.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Both the original novels and its adaptations agree that Natsuru is pretty wish-washy. But in the novels and manga, at least Natsuru can kick a lot of ass should (s)he get his/her act together.
• A Day In The Lime Light: His male form in Episode 8, the only one (so far) that features him as his original self instead of his Kämpfer self.
• Dogged Nice Guy: He's been in an one-sided love for Kaede since middle school.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Said quite unconvincingly after Sakura tells Female Natsuru how uninteresting his male self is to her.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Female Natsuru is so pleasant to the eyes, even girls can't help but try to jump on her. Not even tomboyish Akane can resist.

• Gender Vocabulary Slip: As a girl, Natsuru has to correct herself mid-sentence on several occasions, as she routinely forgets that girls are meant to use the gender-neutral/feminine pronoun ''watashi" when referring to themselves, not the masculine form "ore."
• How Do I Shot Web?: At first, Natsuru doesn't know how to control his zauber magic or transformations. Later in the light novels and manga, Natsuru does gain the ability to change at will. In fact, he learned to do that faster than Akane.
• Huge Schoolgirl: Despite changing into a girl, Natsuru keeps much of his/her original height.
• Just Friends: Considers most girls who attach themselves to him/her not named "Kaede" as this, particularly Akane and Shizuru.
• Kawaiiko: Chaste when it comes to love, so endearingly innocent she gets embarrassed looking at her own naked form in the shower, and that Squee of hers... absolutely adorable.
• Love Makes You Dumb: He decides to just try to talk it out with Kaede, only to end up getting Brainwashed and Crazy. To further clarify, he just regained the memories from when she tried to brainwash him and went there because he felt there was still some doubt about her intentions.
• Loves My Alter Ego: To the point that he's competing with his female form for Kaede's affections.

• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Averted — (s)he's so pure (s)he gets frightened to death with embarrassment just looking at his/her naked female self, much less try to find out what they feel like or even go to the restroom with them.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy/Tomboy and Girly Girl: If put side by side with Kämpfer Akane, Natsuru would be the feminine boy/girly girl to her masculine girl/tomboy.
• Meido: He served tea to Shizuku and Kaede in his Kämpfer form.
• Morality Chain: Imposes him/herself as this unto Kämpfer Akane, always mindful of keeping her trigger-happy impulses in check.
• Morton's Fork: After chapter 47, all three girls of his Unwanted Harem have made clear that they want him to pick one of them, and no matter which one he chooses, he's well aware that the other two can and will team up to make him regret it. What's worse, even though, in the manga, he's now fully aware that any and all attraction he has to Kaede is purely the result of her (or the moderator possessing her body) brainwashing him, Kaede is likely to make him and his chosen girl suffer too.

• Nervous Wreck: Female Natsuru is easily flustered, nervous, and apprehensive... and it makes her quite endearing.

• Nice Guy: If there's one thing commendable about Natsuru, in both forms, it's that he's generous, kind, and always tries to settle matters in a peaceful manner whenever possible.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: The manga puts this forward as the reason why he appears Oblivious to Love. In the 40+ chapters, he's shown being well aware of the girls' feelings, but pretending to be a complete idiot because he knows how jealous and violent they are. So rather than pick any of them and having the rest turn him into a Human Pincushion, he pretends to not understand.
• Oblivious to Love: Best exemplified in Episode 8, when he goes on a date with Shizuku. The entire time, he's convinced that it's actually a trap to lure the white Kampfer out. Even though Shizuku stated multiple times to his face that it was a real date. He still doesn't realize it until the very end, when she points out that not once did she ever imply that the date was a trap. To top it all off, he's confused as to why she would want to go on a date with him. The manga reveals, however, that this trait of his is nothing but a facade, at least while he's in his female form.
• Playing with Fire: Natsuru's Zauber ability lets him shoot fireballs.

• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Akane's red. The twist is that Natsuru has blue hair and uses fire magic.
• Sacred First Kiss: In the anime, his male form gets his first kiss from Shizuku.
• Satellite Love Interest: Natsuru has no motivation or goal of any sort beyond dating Kaede and he can't even explain why he likes the girl. Then again, recent developments could suggest that this behavior is a result of Kaede secretly influencing Natsuru.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Even as a girl, Natsuru's natural meekness still shines through.
• Single-Target Sexuality: The driving force behind his utter stupidity. Almost certainly justified by Kaede's mind control.

• Unwanted Harem: Let's see, one glasses girl with an Ax-Crazy alternate personality, one tease, one Genki Girl, and one Psycho Lesbian. Plus how many men and women out there that are too insignificant to mention. And still he insists that he's not popular with women...
  • To be fair, his female side is mind-blowingly popular with the ladies, whereas his male side only has one person that we know of attracted to it. Considering he doesn't like his female side much and would much rather be male 100% of the time, he's sort of justified when he says he's not popular with women.
• Would Hit a Girl: Kind of. His true gender is male so Natsuru, in his female form, burns the White Kämpferinnen at the same time, knocking them out in the first OVA.

Kaede Sakura

Gender: Female
Year: 2nd
Class: 1st
Voice Actor: Megumi Nakajima (Japanese), Avery Smithhart (English)

Shizuku's childhood friend and one of the Three Beauties of Seitetsu, she has many admirers, Natsuru being one of them. She loves the entrails animal series' Zumotsu Animal and has a large collection of stuffed Zumotsu Animal dolls and likes to present them to her friends; those who receive the dolls, however, tend to end up becoming Kämpferinnen. She began to develop a crush on Kämpfer Natsuru after being saved from Kämpfer Akane at the beginning of the series.

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• All Gays are Promiscuous: Sakura is a lesbian with a tremendous crush on the main character in his female form. Later, it turns out that she has a Split Personality which gets off on sexually brainwashing women, to the point that she has her own harem of slaves and is shown in bed (implied to be post-coitus) with them multiple times. Notably is that she is the only female character shown to be sexually-active at all, and that the other female leads all prefer Senou in his male form.
• Big Bad: Sakura is the most direct antagonist in the series, being the person who gave out the Entrails Animals to the Kampfer, the one who instigates the battles, and the one who controls the White Kampfer.
• Big Bad Friend: She is friends to both Natsuru and Shizuku, which makes it easier for her to manipulate the two of them.
• Brainwashing: Chapter 43 of the manga confirms that she's done this to Natsuru, and frequently. She tells him to do something, and he winds up doing it without being aware of it, and has little to no memory of the encounter afterwards.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: It turns out there's more to her than meets the eye.
• Cherry Blossom Girl: She's a love interest who fits the personality well. However, she is not a straight example for the protagonist, in either sense of the word- she is in fact a rare villainous example as the Big Bad.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • She is very adamant about gaining Female Natsuru's affection for herself, and dislikes "her" spending time with any other girls (or boys).
  • Her other persona wants to control Female Natsuru as a Sex Slave, but doesn't mind using the male side to seduce Shizuku.
• Damsel in Distress: Though not in overt physical danger, she is under the control of the Moderators to the point that her "normal" persona can be taken over.
• Does Not Like Men: She only has eyes for female Natsuru, and disllikes his male form.
• Honey Trap: She explicitly promises sexual favors to Natsuru in return for his "good work." For added horror points, she uses More than Mind Control to try and make male Natsuru have sex with her as an "advance" for him luring the others to her appartment on a specific day and time where she stated that she intends to kill them. She only fails because Akane shoots her, and that momentarily breaks her concentration.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Implied to be Subverted and that she knew what was going on all along.
• Manipulative Bitch: The anime pretty much stated outright that she was the one who orchestrated the whole Kämpfer business, may or may not have brainwashed Natsuru into falling for her, and is more than glad to turn Natsuru and his harem against each other so she can see them killing each other off.
• Muggles: Unlike Natsuru and Akane, she is not a Kämpfer. She is, however, a Moderator.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: In chapter 43 of the manga, she specifically tells Natsuru to murder Shizuku.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Entrails Animal fangirl. And in the haunted house, when she sees a mannequin hung with a rope on her neck, she says it's cute. This is likely foreshadowing her true unpleasant personality.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Like Natsuru. Except she is the strongest person in the game, and as episode 13 reveals, she may even be immortal.
• Rescue Romance: She begins falling for female Natsuru after she saves her from Akane.
• The Rival/Two-Person Love Triangle: Funnily enough, she views male Natsuru as her love rival for female Natsuru, not realizing that they are the same person.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: She's gay for Natsuru's Kämpfer form.
• Split-Personality Takeover: The evil Sakura is pretty much entirely in control, to the point that it's nearly impossible to tell what normal Sakura actually wants. If it weren't for the fact that normal Sakura doesn't know about or remember the actions of the other Sakura, she would almost seem entirely evil.
• Sword and Gun: She wields a katana in one hand and a modified Beretta 92G Elite II pistol in the other.

• The Vamp: Uses her body to control Natsuru and the White Kämpferinnen.
• Villainous Breakdown: Loses her composure when she realizes she almost made out with Natsuru after he transformed back into a boy at the very last second, prompting her and the White Kämpfer to fall back for the time being.

Akane Mishima

^{Click here to see her in her Kämpfer form} 

Class: 2-4
Weapon Type: Gewehr (Colt M1911)
Messenger: Disemboweled Black Rabbit
Voiced by: Yui Horie (Akane), Yukari Tamura (Disemboweled Black Rabbit) (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (Akane), Juliet Simmons (Disembowled Black Rabbit) (English)

Akane is a high school girl who goes to the same school as Natsuru. She is a member of the school library committee and is a shy girl who wears glasses and has trouble talking to boys. However, she has a nice figure and she acts very cute. She likes anime and books related to it.

She meets Natsuru when he was walking to school while threatening to shoot him. Since she is a blue type Kämpfer, she's Natsuru's ally. She's very anxious about Natsuru's love towards Kaede, but she's afraid of taking action.

When changing into her Kämpfer form she undergoes a personality change. Her Kämpfer personality is much more militant and prone to acts of violence. Akane's hair and her eyes take on a red color.

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• A-Team Firing: Akane shoots very often and hits very rarely.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Just about every time she realized that Natsuru wasn't about to do that kind of thing to her
• Ax-Crazy/Blood Knight: As a Kämpfer, the normally sweet Akane becomes her complete opposite personality-wise — borderline psychotic, foul-mouthed, and always itching for a good fight, even with fellow Blue Kämpfer Natsuru.
• Beware the Nice Ones: See that shy bespectacled girl from the library? She's also that nigh-psychotic gunslinger who gives no crap about collateral damage.
• Bottomless Magazines: Since it's a magic gun, Akane's M1911 never runs out of ammo.
• Cannot Spit It Out: And when her Kämpfer form decides to spit it out, a White Kämpfer interrupted her.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She hates it whenever Natsuru transforms into a girl, let alone having to contend with Kaede, with whom Natsuru is eternally smitten, and Shizuru, who's more straightforward than she ever will.
• Covert Pervert: She always tends to jump to surprisingly perverted conclusions at Natsuru's comments. This is especially obvious when the guy is just innocently inviting her to his house, and she keeps getting all worked up.

• Handguns: Kämpfer Akane's chosen weapon.

• Jekyll & Hyde: She's normally a shy, soft-spoken sweetie who hangs out in the school library; as a Kämpfer, however she becomes a mean, foul-mouthed, trigger-happy bitch with a pair of pistols.
• Jive Turkey: Kämpfer!Akane's dialogue. I mean, "'Sup bitches."?
  • This is actually only one way to render Kämpfer Akane's dialogue, which is hideously rude even for a male character, and certainly more so for a female one.

• More Dakka: Due to having unlimited ammo as mentioned above, she uses her handgun this way. Pity the accuracy...
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Her Kämpfer personality is willing to kill anyone.

• Precision F-Strike: In normal mode, from episode 11: "What are you doing? Damn you!", which seems mild compared to what her Kämpfer form spews out regularly, but still pretty significant.

• When She Smiles: In the manga, Natsuru notes that Kämpfer Akane's non-Psychotic Smirk is actually kinda cute.

Red Kämpferinnen

Shizuku Sangou

Gender: Female
Year: 3rd
Class: 4
Weapon Type: Schwert (chained daggers)
Messenger: Electrocuted Wildcat
Voice Actor: Kaori Nazuka (Shizuku), Nana Mizuki (Electrocuted Wildcat) (Japanese), Katelyn Barr (Shizuku), Kira Vincent-Davis (Electrocuted Wildcat) (English)

Shizuku is the student body chairman of the Seitetsu Academy. This entitles her to go to the boys' side of the school as she pleases. She is an honor roll student and enjoys the popular support of the students and the teachers. As one of "Seitetsu Academy's beauties", Shizuku charms the male students of school.

When she changes into her Kämpfer form, the inside of her hair normally black turns white. Her weapons are two daggers connected by a chain. Otherwise she doesn't change.

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• Anguished Declaration of Love: In chapter 47, she comes right out and confesses her love to Natruru, in almost the exact same manner that Mikoto did in chapter 45.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Or at least convinces her that Natsuru is too much fun to kill. It's reveled later in the novels that Natsuru reminds her of a friend she lost due to the Kämpfer Wars.
• Dual Wielding: Her main weapons are two knives connected together by chain.

• Friendly Enemy: Shizuku has more or less decided that Natsuru and Akane are more fun alive. Later it looks like Shizuku is truly in love with the (male) Natsuru.
• Hidden Depths: Has admitted that she likes making people laugh, and wanted to be a comedian as a child.
• Instant Fan Club: The "Mistress Shizuku, Please Violate Me" club is briefly mentioned but never shown.
• Pre-Climax Climax: She tries this in chapter 47 of the manga because she, Mikoto, Akane, and Natsuru are all headed to Kaede's house expecting the "final battle." Unfortunately for her, Natusuru is such a Chaste Hero that he has a Freak Out instead.
• Seeker Archetype: Shizuku. Only member of the cast trying to figure out who the moderators are and what their connection to Kaede is.
• Shout-Out: Her dressing up as Lelouch in his Zero costume. Add to the fact that Shizuku's seiyuu voiced Nunally and the rest of the anime community went whoa.
• Single-Target Sexuality: During her date with Male Natsuru:
  Shizuku: I'm sure my feelings for you will be the same even if you transform.
• The Smart Girl: Shizuku is the only character on the show who consistently thinks ahead.

• The Trickster: At least in the anime this actually works against her in her relationship with Natsuru. Natsuru being the Chaste Hero he is constantly interprets her attempts to get her/him to notice her into strategic planning be it against the White Kämpferinnen or just for the lulz after having been a victim of it for so long.

Mikoto Kondou

Gender: Female
Year: 1st
Class: 3
Weapon Type: Schwert (katana)
Messenger: Asphyxiated Stray Dog
Voice Actor: Kana Asumi (Mikoto), Mamiko Noto (Asphyxiated Stray Dog) (Japanese), Christina Kelly (Mikoto), Savanna Menzel (Asphyxiated Stray Dog) (English)

Natsuru's childhood friend, she's one year younger than him. Mikoto only recently reunited with him due to her father being an archaeologist who lives abroad. She's outgoing and innocent. She has the personality of an adventurer, always displaying physical abilities that no one can match. She doesn't have any problems with catching barehanded a snake or a spider, but, to see a man nude, is her biggest weakness and too hard for her to confront.

She appears to have feelings for Natsuru and is more than a bit bothered by the presence of a girl with the same name as his (who in reality is Natsuru in his Kämpfer form). When she was attending the Miss Seitetsu contest of the school festival, she caught a bouquet that Kaede tossed and a Messenger was hidden in it. Due to that, she became a Schwert-type Red Kämpfer armed with a Japanese sword. Since she's a red Kämpfer, Natsuru does his best to stay way from her to avoid revealing the fact that male Natsuru and Blue Kämpfer Natsuru are one and the same. The question is: How long can he keep up the charade? (In the anime, his identity is compromised right away.)

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• Anguished Declaration of Love: She comes right out and confesses her love to Natsuru at the end of chapter 45 in the manga, and keeps on confessing through much of chapter 46.
• Brainwashed / Brainwashed and Crazy: In the novels, Mikoto gets brainwashed by Kaede and attacks the purple betrayers (the red and blue Kämpferinnen that refuse to fight each other.). In the anime, Mikoto gets brainwashed to seduce male Natsuru and have sex with him, but she gets interrupted by Shizuku and Akane and attacks them afterwards.

• Clingy Jealous Girl: She beats up Natsuru in episode 8 because she finds out that he went on a date with Shizuku. Although he tries to deny it was a date, Shizuku plainly tells him that it was a date repeatedly, and only he believed it was a mission.

Midori Kuzuhara

A Gewehr-type Red Kämpfer. Midori is a part of the student council and Shizuku's partner. Midori doesn't like Natsuru for hogging all of Kaede's attention. She was ordered to watch over Shizuku, to keep her from finding out more about the moderators. Shizuku, in turn exploited Natsuru and Akane to have her sidelined because Kämpferinnen of the same color can't fight each other.

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• Demoted to Extra: The anime reduced her already small role into merely being mentioned by name during episode 3 and 4's next episode preview. In a fake narration.

White Kämpferinnen

Rika Ueda

Gender: Female
Year: 2nd
Class: 5
Weapon Type: Schwert (kusarigama)
Messenger: unknown
Voice Actor: Kana Ueda (Japanese), Natalie Rial (English)

A Schwert user. Her Schwert is a kusarigama.

A younger sister of Makie Ueda of the Seitetsu Gakuin Class 5 of the first grade. Therefore, Rika isn't a student of the Seitetsu academy. Rika got her Messenger animal doll from her older sister accidentally who in turn got the doll from "Evil" Kaede. Her weapon is a sickle and chain.

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• The Danza: Her seiyuu shares her surname with the character.

Other characters

Masumi Nishino

Gender: Female
Year: 1st
Class: 3
Voice Actor: Shiori Mikami (Japanese), Maggie Flecknoe (English)

Masumi is a year younger than Akane. She is also Akane's best friend. A member of the school's News Club, she is always after the scoops and has a habit of exaggerating her findings.

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• Gratuitous English: Masumi "ladys and Gentlemen" while MCing the contest.

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