MILGRAM 1st anniversary illustration
The cast of characters that are featured in MILGRAM. Beware of unmarked spoilers!Remember that MILGRAM is a highly symbolic series. So some tropes may be based off popular theories, and should be taken with a grain of salt.
open/close all folders
Jailers
Es
Voiced by: Yurina Amami
Gender: Unknown
Age: 15
Height: 157 cm
Blood Type: Unknown
Birth Date: Unknown
The protagonist/representative of the audience, and prison guard of Milgram. They woke up in the facility unable to recall much of their memories except their name and job.Gender: Unknown
Age: 15
Height: 157 cm
Blood Type: Unknown
Birth Date: Unknown
- Affection-Hating Kid: They hate when Shidou pats their head so much that a few deep breaths isn't enough to calm down; they kick him in the shin too.
- Ambiguous Gender: Es' gender is redacted from their information and described as 'unknown'. They have a female voice actress, but an androgynous voice that sounds somewhat like a young boy's, and they have been called "Es-kun" by Shidou and "Suu-kun" by Mikoto (-kun is an honorific typically but not always used for boys). The manga adaptation has Es be female, they even feature longer hair.
- Audience Surrogate: In Es' place, the audience decides the fates of the prisoners via the voting system. Discussed in Mu's voice drama, when she comments on how Es talks about the judging process as though it's someone else's business.
- Badass Cape: Which they are fond of dramatically flipping every so often.
- Brutal Honesty: In the Second Trial voice dramas, Es doesn't mince words with the prisoners one bit, to the point of coming across like a Jerkass.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul":
- Es demands respect from the prisoners and feels patronized when Shidou calls them "Es-kun" instead of by their title of Warden/Prison Guard ("Kanshi-san"). Mahiru is similarly shut down when she asks if she can address them the same way.
- Mikoto's attempt to call them "Suu-kun" went nowhere very fast.
- Expository Pronoun: In the random voice lines from the MILGRAM x AVOIT bluetooth earphones collab one of their lines includes, in an unsure tone, using first their usual "boku" first person pronoun for themselves, then switching to "watashi", possibly an indicator to what they were using before their amnesia.Es: I (boku)... I (watashi)...
- Improbable Age: Es is, for some reason, a prison guard at 15. In fact, the only prisoner they aren't younger than is Amane.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The only things they remember are their name, their age, and their job as warden, but they don’t seem to mind that much.
- Little Girls Kick Shins: They kick Shidou in the shin after he pats them on the head, which highlights their childishness.
- Married to the Job: Completely dedicated to their duty to judge the prisoners.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: We know things are getting serious when Mu's questioning of why Es doesn't know what their own thoughts are concerning the prisoners causes them to have a breakdown, a stark contrast to their calm and focused personality up to that point.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Upon being told they can run Milgram however they want, Es chooses to allow the prisoners freedoms like being able to talk with other prisoners, to wander freely, and to request luxury items to an extent.
- Signing Off Catchphrase: At the end of every voice drama, they say, "Sou, omae no tsumi o utae." ("Come, sing your sins" or some variable translation.)
Jackalope
- A Dog Named "Dog": He is both Jackalope and a jackalope.
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: He wears a hat, a miniature cape, and some kind of bracelet on his right limb in the same style as Es' outfit.
- Ambiguous Gender: Played with. He has a male voice and refers to himself with the very masculine pronoun "ore", so he’s generally referred to as male, but his gender on the website is technically listed as "me."
- Berserk Button: Being reminded of his rabbit-ness or being called a rabbit. Even when he makes the comparison himself.
- Exposition Fairy: Is the one to explain how the basics of MILGRAM work to Es (and the audience) in the video This Is Milgram
. - Insistent Terminology: Does not take well to being called a rabbit. He is Jackalope, thank you very much.
- Invisible to Normals: Downplayed. While everyone can see him, only Es can hear him talking.
- Shaped Like Itself: How his gender is listed on the website.
- Talking Animal: Only Es can hear his voice, though.
- Vocal Dissonance: Jun Fukuyama gives the tiny, rabbit-like Jackalope a deep and suave voice.
Prisoners
In General
Tropes that apply to all or most of the prisoners.
- Affectionate Nickname: Mikoto has given quite a few of them nicknames.
- He calls Haruka "Haru-kun".
- Yuno is "Yun-chan".
- Mu is "Mucchan".
- Mahiru is "Mappi".
- Kazui is "Kazu-san".
- And finally, he calls Kotoko "Koto-chan".
- He had also attempted to assign Es the nickname of "Suu-kun", but was immediately shot down by them.
- Asshole Victim: Well, they are all murderers to different degrees, but they are also kidnapped shortly after commiting their crimes to Milgram and immediately got locked up (some might even argue that some of them has good reasons for killing people). Despite that, only 3 out of 10 outwardly express regrets over their actions.
- Color-Coded Characters
- Haruka: blue.
- Yuno: pink.
- Futa: red.
- Mu: yellow.
- Shidou: purple.
- Mahiru: orange.
- Kazui: light blue.
- Amane: dark green.
- Mikoto: gray blue.
- Kotoko: magenta.
- Dysfunction Junction: Everyone has their secrets, pasts, and vices, which should probably be expected given what they’re all in Milgram for.
- Foil: The prisoners are presented in male-female pairs that share common themes but show them very differently.
- Haruka and Yuno both want attention. Haruka is fine with any kind of interaction, while Yuno specifically hates people who interfere with her business for their own purposes. Additionally, Haruka is honest with this desire and openly emotional, while Yuno puts on a cheerful front. Haruka’s crime centered around his mother, while Yuno would have been a mother if she hadn’t committed hers. Their respective colour schemes also give them a Pink Girl, Blue Boy dynamic.
- Futa's and Mu's crimes center around bullying, being the bully and bullied respectively. Both deny wrongdoing, but whereas Futa denies a crime entirely, Mu admits to murder but claims she was in the right. By the time Season 2 rolls around, Futa has started to acknowledge his crime and heavily regrets what he did, while Mu blames her victim for driving her to murder, has no remorse for her crime, and believes she’s never at fault for anything she does.
- Shidou and Mahiru share love and martyrdom. Shidou sacrificed everything he had for a specific loved one, while Mahiru loves the concept of love itself and decided to literally "live for love".
- Kazui and Amane focus on age and sincerity. Kazui is the oldest of the prisoners and frequently quips about his age, while Amane is the youngest and hates being looked down upon because of it. Kazui felt conflicted in the events leading up to his murder and admits that he can't bring himself to be honest, while Amane firmly believes that she is right in everything she does.
- Mikoto and Kotoko explore righteousness and awareness. Both mention being "right" or morally correct in their songs, but while Mikoto staunchly believes in his innocence of crime altogether, Kotoko believes she was on the side of justice. Mikoto's murder was potentially committed by his alter (resulting in muddling Mikoto's responsibility for it), and he generally has no idea what's going on in Milgram, but Kotoko knows exactly what she was doing and is noted to be investigating Milgram perhaps even more closely than Es.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Five male prisoners, and five female prisoners.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Since MILGRAM relies heavily on Audience Participation, this is to be expected.
- In many of the characters voice dramas and song lyrics from the Second Trial, they would mention hearing "voices" and "opinions", most notably Yuno calling out everybody to "stop making up sob stories" or calling her "a poor innocent girl".
- Non-Uniform Uniform: Everyone wears a straitjacket, but the exact straps, buckles, style, and other details vary from prisoner to prisoner.
- Personality Blood Types: Their blood types are given in their profiles on the website.
- A: Mu, Shidou, Kazui, Kotoko.
- B: Futa, Mahiru.
- O: Yuno, Amane.
- AB: Haruka, Mikoto.
- Shows Damage: The prisoners deemed guilty in Season 1 show bandages, a gloomier appearance and other signs of damage in their Season 2 artwork.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Every prisoner has qualities that make them sympathetic or even likable, but it's up to you whether or not those qualities outweigh their sins.
- Unreliable Narrator: The songs explaining their murders are extracted from their memories, which means that the resulting videos are very distorted by their beliefs and perceptions. A sharp eye is essentially required to figure out what really happened.
Haruka Sakurai
Click here to see Haruka's season 2 appearance.
- "You shouldn't get involved with me. Bringing misfortune to others is the only thing I'm naturally good at."
Voiced by: Shun Horie
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Height: 174 cm
Blood Type: AB
Birth Date: June 22
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Guilty
Prisoner 001. Timid and obedient, Haruka feels shame for the crime he committed, and does not wish to be forgiven. His self-confidence is evidently low, as he tends to call himself an idiot, and claims to bring misfortune to those who get close to him. Haruka doesn't have many qualms about being a prisoner, as he's glad to see the prisoners pay attention to him and treat him well.Gender: Male
Age: 17
Height: 174 cm
Blood Type: AB
Birth Date: June 22
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Guilty
His First Trial song is "Weakness".
His Second Trial song is "All-Knowing And All-Agony".
- Abusive Parents: In his second song, it's heavily implied his mother was neglectful and verbally abusive towards him, calling him "hopeless" and refusing to even refer to him by name.
- Apologizes a Lot: Often apologizes for the most insignificant things.
- Ax-Crazy: He hides it well, but he is so starved for love that it drove him to murder.
- Bad People Abuse Animals:
- While the act is censored through glitchy scribbles, Haruka is shown bashing a dog's head in with a rock in "Weakness".
- "All-Knowing And All-Agony" shows a whole menagerie of taxidermized animals washed away in orange substance, implied to be various pets that he's killed over the years.
- Book Dumb: Played for Drama. His difficulty understanding more advanced vocabulary and his basic kanji usage (which only goes up to the ones taught in 6th grade) is heavily implied to be the result of extreme neglect. Case in point: he's 17 and he can barely write his own name correctly.
- Chronic Self-Deprecation: Mainly due to his abusive mother, Haruka views himself as worthless and constantly apologizes to anyone he talks to for no real reason.
- Chronic Pet Killer: Assuming all the animals shown in "All-Knowing And All-Agony" are his former pets. He's been killing animals ever since he was a little boy, including several fish, several insects, two dogs, and a cat.
- Curtains Match the Window: Blue for both, though interestingly, his eyes have noticeable green highlights.
- Desperately Craves Affection: As a child, he was so desperate to receive attention from his neglectful mother that he smashed his fish tank. "All-Knowing And All-Agony" is less a song and more a desperate plea to her not to leave him and to give him the love he needs, interspersed with the imagery of all the animals he's killed.
- Elemental Motifs: Haruka is oft-associated with water imagery. He appears to be drowning in "Weakness" and he breaks a fish tank in "All-Knowing And All-Agony".
- Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: He wears a necklace with a gemstone pendant. It seems to have some sort of sentimental value to him. "All-Knowing And All-Agony", along with his second interrogation, shows that it's his mother's necklace, and also the first thing he ever stole from her.
- Exhausted Eyebags: At the very end of "All-Knowing And All-Agony", he is shown with dark circles under his eyes. Understandably so, as the song is a desperate plea to his mother.
- Extreme Doormat: Noted to have a submissive, meek personality. In Season 2, this gets him into a dysfunctional relationship with Mu, who is said to be very controlling towards him.
- Eyes Always Averted: Is said to speak while looking towards the floor.
- Gender-Blender Name: Jackalope specifically points out that he's a guy in spite of the feminine name. This gave an early hint to his Parental Abandonment, and is proven in the Second Trial.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: His bangs covers his eyes, giving him a timid and vulnerable appearance. Even when he gains hairclips in Season 2, his left eye remains covered.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: More than anything, Haruka wants love and attention, even naming it as his greatest wish. This seems to have been his motive for his sin.
- Laughing Mad: Several times in "Weakness", which eventually turns into Cry Laughing.
- Madness Mantra: A few weeks before Mu's second trial voting concludes, Haruka begs Es to "Please forgive Mu-san" until his sentences run together.
- Meaningful Name: One possible reading of "Haruka" is "distant," which pretty much sums up how his abusive mother treats him.
- Mommy Issues: Haruka has major mommy issues. As a result of being neglected and abused by his mother, he is so desperate to be loved by anyone that he has gone crazy, and now even sees Mu (a girl a year younger than him) as his surrogate mother.
- Never Be Hurt Again: Implied. "Being betrayed by others" is what he says to be his greatest fear.
- Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: The music video for "Weakness" is filled with childish scribble-drawings.
- Parental Abandonment: While the exact details aren’t clear, the woman assumed to be his mother is seen fading away with her back to Haruka as he reaches out for her. A possible father isn't in the video at all.
- Personality Blood Types: Haruka has type AB, standing for his desire to socialize and his self-doubt.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: His younger self is shown wearing a blue shirt in "Weakness" holding hands with a girl in a pink dress, who is implied to be his victim.
- Psychopathic Manchild: In his second song, which reveals him to be a habitual animal killer, he repeatedly expresses a desire to be a "good boy". His tantrum in the Second Trial interrogation truly shows this.Haruka: (screaming, while banging on things) IT'S WEIRD! YOU SAID YOU FORGAVE ME, WARDEN-SAN! IT'S WEIRD FOR YOU TO TELL ME THAT I'M WRONG NOW! ARGH- IT'S WEIRD! IT'S WEIRD!
- And then there's the lyrics he sings as he stands over his first human murder, flickering between his teenage and child self over and over...
Haruka: Mommy, look / I've done great / "There, there, my good boy!" - Reluctant Psycho: Best shown in "All-Knowing And All-Agony", where one of the first lines out of his mouth is "Why was I born like this?"
- Shrinking Violet: Shy, doesn't like causing trouble, apologizes a lot, concerning lack of self-esteem...
- Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Male example. Has blue hair and is of the more timid prisoners.
- Sinister Suffocation: Seems to be how Haruka committed his murder. A freeze frame in "Undercover" shows him strangling his victim, he chokes his younger self in "Weakness", and the final shot of "All-Knowing And All-Agony" is of his hands around a girl's neck.
- Spoken Word in Music: At the end of "Weakness", you can hear him speaking the same lyrics at the same time as he sings them. It's much more prominent and outright Played for Horror at the end of "All-Knowing And All-Agony", where he stops singing to plead "hug me again as you once did" as he stands atop his victim's body.
- Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: After threatening to kill Es in order for them to judge Muu "Innocent" in the Second Trial to no avail (since prisoners cannot harm guards in any ways), he decided to pull this instead while Laughing Mad.
- Symbolic Blood: In "All-Knowing And All-Agony", he's shown submerged in an orange liquid presumably meant to represent the blood of his victim.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Haruka becomes noticeably more confident and upbeat in Season 2 as a result of his Innocent verdict as well as his newly formed relationship with Muu. Unfortunately, this also makes him believe he was not wrong to commit murder because Es declared him innocent in the first trial.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Cotton candy.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: If the young boy in "Weakness" is meant to be him as a child, Haruka seems to have been a cheerful, innocent little boy before he became a troubled, emotionally crippled young man and eventually a murderer.
- Wanted a Son Instead: Gender inverted. Haruka's mother wanted a daughter, so she gave him a feminine name and neglected him.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Obsessed with pleasing his neglectful mother, Haruka claims he "will keep on killing to be a good boy".
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He does not like young children or animals, as they bring up bad memories for him.
- Would Hurt a Child: It is implied that his murder is strangling a child to death. Made explicit in the Second Trial as the last frames of "All-Knowing And All-Agony" shows him strangling a young girl and in his audio drama he had a breakdown screaming:Haruka (toward Es): I-I CAN KILL ANYTHING THAT'S SMALLER THAN ME, YOU KNOW!
Yuno Kashiki
Click here to see Yuno's season 2 appearance.
- "Prison guard~ What’s with the serious look? I know! For 1000 yen, I'll let you use my lap as a pillow."
Voiced by: Yuuka Aisaka
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Height: 156 cm
Blood Type: O
Birth Date: September 2
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
Prisoner 002. Yuno is an easygoing young woman who can get along with people easily. She has a carefree outlook on life, choosing not to dwell over anything she may regret, and not seeming too serious about her sin or being in Milgram—even saying it's fun. Tends to jokingly ask people for cash, and likes spicy foods.Gender: Female
Age: 18
Height: 156 cm
Blood Type: O
Birth Date: September 2
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
Her First Trial song is "Umbilical".
Her Second Trial song is "Tear Drop".
- Abortion Fallout Drama: She's imprisoned for what's implied to be abortion and outright stated in the second trial. She's also implied to harbor regrets over it in a timeline conversation with Amane. In an interrogation question, she says she'd make sure it didn't have to happen if she could go back.
- Cat Girl: In "Tear Drop", her "true self" is shown with her hair done up to look like a pair of cat ears.
- Compensated Dating: All but explicitly stated to have engaged in this before being brought to Milgram, and in all likelihood it's how she got pregnant.
- The second MV "Tear Drop" made this very clear and the voice drama she explicitly stated that her crime is abortion.
- Cool Big Sis: Heavily implied to be one towards her younger brother, Yura, as she mentions that he gets very excited when she shows him her cat's cradle tricks.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: Her Second Trial song, "Tear Drop", explores her resentment towards being treated like an innocent little girl, and reveals that deep down she is actually very bitter about her circumstances.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father left the family when she was very young, so she lived with her mother, grandparents, and little brother.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: "Tear Drop" is at least partly her calling out the fanbase for voting 'innocent,' believing they only did so out of Condescending Compassion. She goes out of the way to illustrate that no, she wasn't naive, and hates being treated as such.
- Genki Girl: She's very upbeat and seems to consider Milgram a fun place to be in.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: In the midst of the abortion-related symbolism in "Umbilical", Yuno asks if she's a bad girl. She then rejects the notion of being an innocent, naive girl in "Tear Drop".
- Hard Work Fallacy: She is NOT a fan of seishinron, a mindset commonplace in Japan that believes that any obstacle can be overcome with sheer hard work and willpower.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: In "Tear Drop", she repeatedly denies her own innocence, and her Cat Girl-themed incarnation in the video shows open disdain for the school-uniform-wearing Yuno from "Umbilical".
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Her carefree attitude and lighthearted words conceal her razor-sharp wit and intelligence.
- Personality Blood Types: Yuno has type O for her self-confidence and pleasant disposition, as well has her cold and apathetic attitude towards life.
- Pink Is Erotic: Her Color Motif is pink, and she's heavily implied to have gotten pregnant as a result of Compensated Dating. "Tear Drop" ups this by giving her a very revealing pink outfit in her Cat Girl-like "true self".
- Pink Means Feminine: Has a pink motif both as a prisoner and in her first music video, and is easily one of the more outwardly feminine of the girls (beaten only by Mahiru).
- Rule of Symbolism: The video for "Umbilical" contains a lot of pregnancy- and abortion-related symbolism, including Yuno holding various objects in front of her stomach, a pair of twisting staircases shaped like DNA double helixes which come together and then break apart, and balloons everywhere (the inflation of the balloon resembles a growing pregnancy, the string is an umbilical cord, and the balloon being popped represents...well, guess).
- Screw Yourself: In "Tear Drop", Yuno's Cat Girl-like "true self" is seen taking her school uniform-clad self from "Umbilical" as one of her clients, and they are then seen lying suggestively next to one another.
- Stepford Smiler: As Es points out, she acts ditzy and friendly to hide her crushing apathy towards life. She can't even be bothered to think about her murder.
- Stripperiffic: In "Tear Drop", she switches to a bright pink and very revealing outfit.
- Teen Pregnancy: She's only 18, but her First Trial music video heavily implies at some point she was impregnated, and later aborted the child for currently unknown reasons.
- Token Good Teammate: Despite having no qualms about being labeled as a murderer, the fandom generally sees her as being the most innocent out of the prisoners, believing that her murder (her aborting her child) wasn't even a murder to begin with. This can largely be chalked up to
Values Dissonance between the rather conservative Japan and more socially liberated Western countries, like the US.
Futa Kajiyama
Click here to see Futa's season 2 appearance.
- "Don't look down on me just because I'm a prisoner! I definitely won't overlook any of your misconduct, prison guard!"
Voiced by: Arthur Lounsbery
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Height: 165 cm
Blood Type: B
Birth Date: April 19
First Trial Judgement: Guilty
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
Prisoner 003. Futa's intense and aggressive demeanor is what makes him unique amongst the other prisoners. Contrary to his vulgar exterior, Futa isn't bad at heart—he harbors a strong sense of justice and won't hesitate to take a stand against what he believes is wrong. While most other prisoners agree that they indeed killed someone and aren't too distressed about staying in Milgram, Futa strongly opposes his situation and persists that he isn't a killer.Gender: Male
Age: 20
Height: 165 cm
Blood Type: B
Birth Date: April 19
First Trial Judgement: Guilty
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
His First Trial song is "Bring it On".
His Second Trial song is "Backdraft".
- Big Brother Instinct: When asked which prisoner he gets along the best with, he remarks that he takes care of Haruka because he's younger than him.
- Break the Haughty: In the first trial, he acts brash and denies his crime. Come the second trial, after being judged guilty and beaten up by Kotoko, he begs Es to forgive him, admits his wrongdoings in the written interrogation questions, and expresses gratefulness to Shidou and Kazui when he previously looked down on them.
- Burning with Anger: More like "burning with guilt", but in "Backdraft" he's shown burning alive after he relives a memory of his final victim.
- Butt-Monkey: He gets no respect from the get-go. Jackalope immediately declares hatred for him, Es teases him through his entire first voice drama, and even Amane, the youngest prisoner, looks down on him. Jackalope finds his suffering after the first trial amusing, and Muu cracks a joke about him getting hit on the head.
- Cool Mask: He sports a black face mask, seemingly just for the aesthetic.
- Does Not Like Spam: Hates all vegetables with a passion.
- Elemental Motifs: Is it any surprise that the internet flamer is associated with fire?
- Engineered Heroics: "Bring It On" indicates he has a history of targeting those online he thinks are bad people, but cares more about humiliating the bad guys and getting recognition than true justice.
- Evil Laugh: He does one at the beginning of Bring It On.
- Eyepatch After Time Skip: It's unclear just how much time passed between trial 1 and 2, but by the time we return, Futa sports an eyepatch over his now non-functional right eye, courtesy of Kotoko.
- Eye Scream: In the interim of trials 1 and 2, he loses function in his right eye after Kotoko stomps on his face.
- Fiery Redhead: The most outwardly aggressive of the cast, who also happens to have the reddest hair out of the cast. For bonus points, he has a prominent fire motif, making this somewhat literal.
- Flaming Sword: Wields flaming blades during the RPG sections of "Bring It On".
- He Who Fights Monsters: His First Trial music video seems to indicate he directed internet flaming campaigns towards those he considered "bad guys", basically becoming a cyberbully in the process. Unfortunately, it seems he only realized it when his final victim committed suicide.
- Hidden Depths: While his heavy internet usage and gaming habits are displayed front and center in his music video, he also plays soccer and follows league premiers.
- Humanizing Tears: His tough-guy facade crumbles for once when he breaks down into tears of guilt and agony while interrogated by Es in the second trial.
- Hypocrite:
- Says he hates 'shallow-minded idiots', yet starts internet flaming campaigns based on his own surface-level assumptions.
- He also condemns the other prisoners for resorting to violence, when, evidently, he's not much different from them at all as a prisoner in Milgram.
- Showed his online victims no mercy before he was sent to MILGRAM, yet freaks out at the thought that Es might level the same kind of punishment on him.
- I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: In the second voice drama, having suffered the consequences of a guilty verdict, he tells Es that he didn't think his target would die.
- Internet Jerk: Harassing those he considers 'bad people' on the net is Futa's somewhat questionable hobby, and he even titles himself a 'hero' because of it. That all goes out the window once things go out of proportion and he gets a taste of his own medicine.
- I Want My Mommy!: In one of his Trial 2 interrogation questions, he says he wants to see his Missing Mom, using the very attached term "kaa-chan" (母ちゃん).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Futa's extreme sense of justice is both his redeeming quality and Fatal Flaw.
- He also admits to feeling some responsibility to look out for Haruka since he's a younger prisoner.
- Missing Mom: His parents divorced when he was little and he grew up with his father and older sister.
- Murder by Suicide: His First Trial music video seems to imply he bullied his victim to the point where they took their own life, thus why he believes (or rather, wants to believe) he is not technically a murderer.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Though he seems to have been actively bullying people on social media, he was clearly horrified when he realized that his latest victim had killed herself. It's so bad that he's completely unable to accept being responsible for it. "Backdraft" heavily implies he saw the results firsthand, the memories of which start burning him alive from guilt.
- The Napoleon: He is the shortest of the male prisoners (even Haruka, who's three years younger than him, is nine centimeters taller) and very easily angered.
- The Paranoiac: What he appears to be deteriorating into as of "Backdraft", with lyrics like "this prison hosts ears and lethal eyes".
- Personality Blood Types: Futa has type B, which indicates both his intense, passionate character and his refusal to take responsibility for his murder.
- Phoneaholic Teenager: Well, he's 20, but as a university student who spends every other shot of his music video on his phone, he very much feels like one. Presently, he often complains about not having any phones or computers in Milgram to ease his boredom.
- Psychological Projection: The ending of "Backdraft" shows him imagining a huge, faceless Es about to douse him in spray paint, just like he did his previous victims. In essence, he's afraid he will be treated in the same ruthless, unforgiving way he once treated people back in his "hero" days.
- Rule of Symbolism: Futa's official art shows him making a thumbs-down hand gesture that looks like the dislike button on many social media platforms.
- Sanity Slippage: "Backdraft" shows his mental state after being voted GUILTY is... compromised. He's now far more paranoid, and in one shot, he briefly contemplates killing himself to "make your wish come true".
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: He is very vulgar and angry in his speech, especially compared to the rest of the prisoners.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Brash and standoffish as he is, Futa is not nearly as much of the relentless "undead hero" as he initially makes himself out to be. His official profile describes him as a timid person, and it is implied that he doesn't have many friends, and instead relies on the sense of superiority net-flaming gives him for a sense of validation/acceptance.
- Doubly more apparent once the second trial rolls around in Backdraft and Baptism of Fire.
- Stepford Smiler: "Backdraft" explains him to be this after the First Trial, forcing a confident facade to hide a guilt so fierce it's starting to drive him insane.
- These Hands Have Killed: After slaying the last enemy in "Bring It On", he looks down at his hand and is horrified to find blood on it.
- Troubled Fetal Position: He ends his first MV in this position under a blanket, with his phone still in his hand.
- Tsurime Eyes: Is officially described as having these, befitting of his headstrong personality.
- Would Hurt a Child: Well, "Would Hurt a Teenager", but close examination of the text messages in "Bring It On" show that his last victim, the girl he bullied into suicide, was only in middle school when he doxxed her. In "Backdraft" we see the victim in her school uniform as she burns to death, implying Fuuta saw the results of his crime firsthand.
Mu Kusunoki
Click here to see Mu's season 2 appearance.
- "Why do I have to be in this cage? You’re so cruel."
Voiced by: Arisa Kouri
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Height: 162 cm
Blood Type: A
Birth Date: July 5
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Guilty
Prisoner 004. Mu is a high school girl who often seems a bit melancholy. She claims to dislike anything that is painful, scary, or embarrassing, and gets emotional when she is met with anything of the sort. Mu dislikes being kept in the Milgram facility, and more than that dislikes the idea of being judged for her crime, insisting that she was pushed to the point where she had no choice. Contrary to her soft voice and timid demeanor, Mu is a bit spoiled and somewhat whiny.Gender: Female
Age: 16
Height: 162 cm
Blood Type: A
Birth Date: July 5
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Guilty
Her First Trial song is "After Pain".
Her Second Trial song is "It's Not My Fault".
- Alpha Bitch: "It's Not My Fault" reveals that she was her school's cruel queen bee until the tables turned on her, driving her to murder.
- Ambiguously Gay: It is hinted that she may have had romantic feelings for her victim. Not only did Mu sing that she loved her, but her pupil dilated upon seeing her. A popular theory is that this may be why she was getting bullied in the first place.
- Animal Motifs: The queen bee, shown prominently in her Second Trial song.
- Apologizes a Lot: In "After Pain," towards the girls who bully her.Why won’t you stop hurt-hurt-hurting me?
My heart is all dried up
My sorry spells must be wearing off
But I guess some of it is my fault
Maybe it’s ok as it is
I want to feel “alive”, is it ok if I breathe? - Asshole Victim: While shaken up right after commiting murder, being voted "innocent" on the First Trial has her fully believed that she's "always RIGHT" and the act of killing her classmate (who didn't even bully her in the first place but in some ways started it) as a completely justifiable act of revenge.
- It's revealed in the Season 2 MV that she very much enjoys bullying and manipulating other students, but unlike the bullying she received which is much more physical, she opts for social destruction. In the voice drama she claims that she didn't bully anyone as she has never dumped water on anybody's head herself—but this doesn't mean that her group of "friends" don't do that in her stead...
- Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Her second trial reveals that she was the school's Alpha Bitch before something happened that made her own Girl Posse turn against her, leading to the events of "After Pain."
- Bait the Dog: Her entitled side comes out in the Second Trial, with her confirming that she was an Alpha Bitch before her friends turned on her in "It's Not My Fault," with little apparent remorse. In fact, receiving an 'Innocent' verdict seems to have enabled her. It's a huge reason why she got the highest 'Guilty' verdict (74.46%) of both trials.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: After being forgiven in Season 1, she smugly reveals herself to be an unpleasant Alpha Bitch who refuses to accept blame for anything. In her voice drama, she even taunts Es with the prospect of Haruka killing himself if she is voted guilty.
- Brutal Honesty: Despite her wary demeanor and soft tone of voice, she is very blunt and not afraid to speak her mind.
- Bullied into Depression: Mu's fear of painful and scary things come from her being bullied by her classmates. It is even hinted that she planned to eventually take her own life.
- But Not Too Foreign: Half Japanese and half French, but was born and raised in Japan.
- Character Development: After being voted innocent in Season 1, she becomes much cockier and more self-confident, and even begins ordering Haruka around. Although, as her Second Trial song reveals, it's not so much this as it is dropping the facade.
- Control Freak: How she operates in "It's Not My Fault". Mess with the queen bee, and you get the stinger — it's part of why she views her relationship with Haruka as the ideal form of friendship, since he's so dependent and easy to control.
- Does Not Like Men: Downplayed. Aside from her father, she doesn't feel comfortable around adult men. As such, she attended an all-girls school.
- The Dog Bites Back: Subverted. You'd expect that her victim would've been one of the girls that were bullying her, but it actually was a girl who was letting it happen instead.
- Entitled Bitch: Her Second Trial paints her as the kind of person who believes her upbringing entitles her to everything her heart desires.Mu: I told you I'm queen, and it's always the same
God gave me everything, everything is as I wish
Don't you think it's wonderful
to control them with my gentle sting? - Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Mu may be a murderer and an Entitled Bitch, but she loves her mother and father to bits and affectionately calls them Mama and Papa. She mainly wants to leave Milgram to reunite with them.
- Fallen Princess: "It's Not My Fault" reveals that she used to be the most popular girl at her school and would bully other girls, before something caused her to lose her status and become an outcast.
- French Jerk: She's half French and was once a stuck-up Alpha Bitch.
- Hidden Depths: Apparently, she likes to take care of tropical fish as pets. Gets more sinister undertones once you notice that her victim's backpack in the MV shows the image of a fish...
- It's All About Me: Her real personality is selfish, spoiled, and controlling.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Mu comes from a wealthy family and gives off the air of a spoiled child, and yet she is a bullying victim. She used to be a gleefully cruel Alpha Bitch before she fell from her throne.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Her face after spontaneously murdering one of her classmates says it all.
- Never My Fault: She admits to murder, but firmly believes that her victim was at fault for driving her to such an extreme. Taken to the extreme in her second song, "It's Not My Fault", where she freely admits to having been a nasty Alpha Bitch and cannot understand why she could ever be in the same situation as her victim.
- Noodle Incident: "It's Not My Fault" reveals that she was once the queen bee at her school. What caused her to lose her status and everyone to turn on her is currently a mystery. The only possible hint is the chorus of "After Pain," where she sings, "'I’m sorry' won’t reach anyone (I hope it will someday)."
- Personality Blood Types: Mu has type A for her brutal honesty and cautious personality.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Half French, and has blonde hair and blue-green eyes.
- Prone to Tears: Even the thought of something being painful, scary, or embarrassing is enough to turn on the waterworks. She apparently cried for five minutes straight before Es could even try to begin to interrogate (read: talk with) her.
- Rich Bitch: Season 2 reveals she is as rich, spoiled, and controlling as they come.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Her second song reveals she used to be a cruel popular girl who ruled the roost before the tables turned, causing her to fall prey to the Girl Posse she used to order around like servants.
- Tempting Fate: In her second MV, she has a song called "It's Not My Fault" she's reveals in being voted innocent in the First Trial and thus refuses to take responsibility for her murder by blaming her victim, Rei instead among other things. 2 months later, she proceeds to get the highest (so far) guilty/unforgiven percentage of both trials, (74.46%) even beating Mikoto's on trial one (68.43%) by 6.03%.
- Tiny Tyrannical Girl: Season 2 shows her developing a much more controlling personality, and she enters a rather dysfunctional friendship with Haruka. In her voice drama, she tells Es that such a controlling relationship is her ideal. "It's Not My Fault" doubles down on this by revealing she used to be her school's Alpha Bitch, not hesitating to deal with anyone who spoke out against her.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Mille crepe, essentially a cake made of stacked crepe layers. Pretty fitting for a rich girl.
Shidou Kirisaki
Click here to see Shidou's season 2 appearance.
- "You decide how the prisoners will be dealt with, right? The death penalty is what I hoping for. Thank you in advance."
Voiced by: Shugo Nakamura
Gender: Male
Age: 29
Height: 180 cm
Blood Type: A
Birth Date: October 24
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
Prisoner 005. Shidou is a calm and composed man who believes he can never be forgiven for his crimes. The second oldest prisoner, Shidou treats anyone younger than him as a child to try to comfort them. He is complacent with being kept in Milgram and has asked for the death penalty on multiple occasions.Gender: Male
Age: 29
Height: 180 cm
Blood Type: A
Birth Date: October 24
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
His First Trial song is "Throw Down".
His Second Trial song is "Triage".
- The Atoner: While he once believed his murders were for a good cause, he has since become utterly filled with guilt for what he's done, to the point where he actively wants to be punished. In his second voice drama, he even says, "I need to atone for my sins."
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Pulls this on himself as of "Triage". Although he still wants to be punished for his crimes, he has found a reason to live within MILGRAM — namely, protecting the other prisoners from harm.
- Conspicuous Gloves: The only prisoner to wear gloves. He says that without them, his fingers feel like they're being "sharpened," which may point to something like carpal tunnel or nerve compression syndrome. The only time he's seen without them is in Throw Down when we see his job as a doctor in a hospital.
- Death Seeker: Shidou stands out from the other prisoners as he requests the death penalty upon introduction.
- Apparently his reason for smoking despite being a doctor is that he knows it would be bad for his health.
- Subverted after the First Trial: After saving Mahiru's life and tending Futa's wounds courtesy of Kotoko, he's having second thoughts knowing that if he weren't alive then they, along with other prisoners, may not be saved from future injuries. By his Second Trial, he's come around to the opposite conclusion — that he must live on for the other prisoners' sake, and that he is "indispensable".
- Doctor's Disgraceful Demotion: He's in MILGRAM because he took organs from brain-dead patients and transplanted them into patients who needed them and had more chance of recovery.
- Does Not Like Spam: It's revealed in a conversation with Futa that he doesn't like nattou (Japanese fermented soybeans) that much. He trades them for Futa's spinach.
- Friend to All Children: Shown multiple of times to be concerned with Es' and Amane's well-being living in prison, and in "Triage" MV he had a happy family with two kids.
- Happily Married: "Triage" shows that he was in a happy marriage, with two adorable children, before he was sent to MILGRAM.
- Hospital Hottie: He was a doctor before MILGRAM, and he's quite handsome to boot.
- Manipulative Bastard: Before coming to MILGRAM, Shidou used to encourage the relatives of brain-dead patients to sacrifice their loved ones' organs to save others' lives.
- Meaningful Name: His last name also belongs to Kirisaki Jack, the Japanese name of the famous serial killer Jack the Ripper. So far, Shidou is the only prisoner explicitly confirmed to have killed multiple people, and he certainly has medical knowledge.
- Miles to Go Before I Sleep: In "Triage", he expresses disdain for his innocent verdict ("The vote that negates the option of death") but acknowledges that there are lives that he needs to protect.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: A doctor claiming 'ethics are a delusion' is a bit questionable, to say the least.
- "Not So Different" Remark: In his second voice drama, he says that Es is as much a prisoner of MILGRAM as the 10 inmates are.Es: Milgram won’t end just because I want it to. That’s all I know. It won’t end until your judgment is complete. That’s the core of it.Shidou: You’re... the same as us, aren’t you? You just got caught up in a bigger picture.
- Organ Theft: The most common interpretation of his crime — as derived from his First Trial music video — is that he was killing and harvesting organs from patients in the hopes of saving his loved one. His second voice drama elaborates that he transplanted organs from brain-dead patients, which he would then use to save people with a better prognosis.
- Personality Blood Types: Shidou has type A for being The Stoic.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: His First Trial music video seems to imply that he continued to kill patients and take their organs with the hope that it would be enough to allow his loved one to live; however, in the end they perished as well, meaning all those deaths and all his work were for nothing.
- The Stoic: His facial expressions rarely change. He says that though he's rather shaken up on the inside, being composed and rational is just his personality.
- Terrible Artist: His attempt at a self-portrait when asked to draw one during his second trial interrogation questions left a lot to be desired. Several of the 4koma Minigrams also imply he’s this, such as his Halloween decorations looking crude compared to Mikoto’s, and Es finding his “cute mascot” drawing of Jackalope ominous.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His organ thefts were initially done to save patients who have "the chance to live on", transplanted from individuals who were only technically alive. Post-Heel Realization, he now understands exactly how terrible this is.
Mahiru Shiina
Click here to see Mahiru's season 2 appearance.
- "Hmm~ Be careful, okay? If you're that determined, I might end up falling for you."
Voiced by: Miho Okasaki
Gender: Female
Age: 22
Height: 154 cm
Blood Type: B
Birth Date: January 17
First Trial Judgement: Guilty
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
Prisoner 006. Mahiru is a cheerful woman who believes love can solve anything. Sweet-natured and always seeing life through rose-tinted glasses, she seems genuinely unable to grasp her murder.Gender: Female
Age: 22
Height: 154 cm
Blood Type: B
Birth Date: January 17
First Trial Judgement: Guilty
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
Her First Trial song is "This is How to Be in Love With You".
Her Second Trial song is "I Love You".
- All-Loving Hero: Fittingly enough for such a Love Freak, she has boundless compassion for everybody involved in Milgram, to the point where she forgives Kotoko even after being beaten senseless by her. She's so loving, in fact, that it causes Es to cry in her second voice drama.
- Animal Motifs: Mahiru has a bird theme.
- In her First Trial video, her partner and their relationship is represented by bird imagery: she is often shown sitting in a birdcage, and while her partner is never actually shown, blue feathers are often seen scattering about the cage. It's possible this is indicative of her partner's decline in happiness leading up to their death, as birds shed their feathers when they are under high stress.
- When asked what animal she would represent herself as, she picked penguins, as they mate for life and raise chicks together.
- Break the Cutie: She's introduced as a lovable girl who thinks about nothing but "love". After receiving the verdict of "unforgivable" in Season 1 and getting nigh-fatally injured by Kotoko, she's now depressed, covered in bandages and can't walk around without a wheelchair.Mahiru (in the Second Trial voice trailer): Doesn't mean anything...
- Clothing Damage: As Mahiru's lovestruck imaginings flicker between on and off, her clothes become visibly tattered, along with her boyfriend's.
- Cool Big Sis: She told everyone to call her "big sis" (as she is the oldest girl in the group) and is very feminine, knows how to cook, hairstyling, dress up and more.
- Daydream Surprise: In "I Love You", Mahiru has an idealized romance fantasy with her boyfriend that turns out to be an elaborate fantasy. The two of them are actually in a much more dire situation, where they're either literally eating rats or being mutually terrible partners to each other, possibly both.
- Destructive Romance: The most common interpretation of her crime— as derived from her First Trial music video— is that the song is all about how she sees love as sharing in each other's pain, relishing in how she and her partner's relationship struggles, and how she pushes her partner around with guilt-tripping and repeated breakups. This overwhelmed her boyfriend so much that he killed himself, much to her shock and horror. Her Second Trial song makes this more explicit, showing her boyfriend's suicide by hanging and (possibly symbolically, possibly literally) depicting her earnest expressions of love as feeding him rats she sees as slices of strawberry cake.
- The Ditz: She doesn’t really care for anything but love and conversation. This is best shown during her interrogation, where she says she'll share things about herself if Es does the same. At first, they're impressed that she knew of "self-disclosure reciprocity," but they're then baffled to learn that she read it as dating advice in a magazine rather than as a psychological technique in a textbook.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Gains these in her Season 2 look, as a result of almost dying from Kotoko's attack and her optimistic outlook breaking down after her Guilty verdict.
- Dumb Blonde: Her hair is more of a light brown, but some of the art makes her look like one. Either way, the only thing that’s ever on her mind is love.
- The Fashionista: The events in her MV are framed like a magazine promotion for clothing, so we get to see her wear a lot of cute outfits.
- Whenever her indvidual pieces of outfit appears in the MV, a small line of text pops up next to it saying "These (clothes) are the model/photographed's personal belongings"
- Gratuitous English: Her song "This is How to Be in Love With You" has several English words in the lyrics, most prominently "overheat".
- And in the second MV: "DIE"
- I Ate WHAT?!: In "I Love You", Mahiru and her boyfriend enjoy slices of strawberry cake... but with Mahiru's rose-colored glasses off, they're actually feeding each other dead rats.
- In Love with Love: A defining character trait of hers. Additionally, the most popular interpretation of her First Trial music video would indicate that despite her relationship repeatedly getting unhealthier and unhealthier, Mahiru insisted on prolonging it as much as possible because of her infatuation with the idea of experiencing a fateful everlasting romance.
- Love Freak: Mahiru seems to be obsessed with the idea of being in love and experiencing love, as displayed by her love for romance novels and the lyrics of her First Trial song "This Is How To Be In Love With You". Not to mention the amount of times she brings it up. Her second voice drama reveals that she considers love a necessity to survive, on par with food and water.Mahiru: The moment you love someone, you realize the beauty of the world as it changes. To not forgive me means to take the act of loving away from me. That’s the same as not being alive. It’s the same as not being able to drink water or breathe.
- Lyrical Dissonance: The instrumental for her "Parasite" cover (which is about an one-sided over-dependant love) makes you feel like you are on a seaside vacation while the lyrics is anything but.
- Madness Mantra: "Dai-dai-dai-dai-dai-die", appropriately enough taking place in "Daisuki"/"I Love You".
- Mood Whiplash: The second MV got this in spades.
- Obliviously Evil: Mahiru's perception of her relationship is so warped that she seems completely unable to realize she's participating in (and contributing to) a Destructive Romance with her boyfriend. "I Love You" frames it as an elaborate fantasy where she seems completely unable to see that she's feeding him a rat, instead imagining it as a slice of decadent strawberry cake.
- Old Maid: Being 22 and always fantasizes of love, she is terrified of being this. Learning that Amane's mother was 25 when she had her, Mahiru is instantly sent into a state of shock.
- Perpetual Poverty: Possibly. "I Love You" alludes to her being in poverty, with the tagline of the song being "Clothes Food Shelter + Love and Miss you" and the music video showing her and her boyfriend in tattered clothes, with Mahiru attempting to feed him a dead rat that she views through her personal reality as a slice of cake.
- Personality Blood Types: Mahiru has type B, having a cheerful personality but being (in her own words) "incompetent".
- Recurring Dreams: She confesses to Kazui that she's been having dreams of "lots of people denying [her] actions" as well how she thinks. Might have something to do with her 55.4% Guilty voting result.
- Reduced to Ratburgers: In "I Love You", Mahiru feeds her boyfriend a rat, which she views through her eyes as a slice of strawberry cake. It's unclear whether this is a metaphor for her being unaware of how abusive she is or whether it's a depressingly literal indicator of them struggling to survive.
- Stealth Pun: Mahiru is obsessed with love, and her deteriorating relationship is represented by bird motifs in her First Trial video. Guess they weren't such lovebirds after all.
- Stepford Smiler: Made much more explicit in the second season. It is implied that Mahiru may have depression and turns to her idealistic view of love as a way to cope with that. Of course, this coping mechanism only goes so far, as she falls apart once she is chastised by others and begins to realize the error of her ways.Mahiru (in Ai Nandesu Yo): We fought sometimes, I was happy to get hurt / Let's have matching pain, this sickness is pretty bad
- Through the Eyes of Madness: In "I Love You", Mahiru's loving relationship with her boyfriend turns out to be partially in her head — by the end, she's feeding him a rat while still convinced in her imagination that it's a slice of cake. Whether this is meant to show that she's unaware of how toxic she is or whether it represents delusional optimism in the face of adversity is unknown.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Even after Kotoko gives Mahiru a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, she outright forgives her in her second voice drama.Mahiru: Um, so...! I’m not holding a grudge towards Kotoko-chan either. I’m sure she just thought it couldn’t be helped...
- Womanchild: Although Mahiru is 22, she's so obsessed with being in love that it's easy to mistake her for a Smitten Teenage Girl. "I Love You" uses the extended metaphor of a carousel, a fairground ride often associated with childhood, to depict her whirlwind romance with her boyfriend.
Kazui Mukuhara
Click here to see Kazui's season 2 appearance.
- "Even if us adults always hide our true colours, we have to keep on smiling. All so that we don't let you, youngsters, down."
Voiced by: Ryota Takeuchi
Gender: Male
Age: 39
Height: 186 cm
Blood Type: A
Birth Date: August 5
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
Prisoner 007. Kazui is a closed-off, gentle man who tries to lighten the mood of the prison with jokes.Gender: Male
Age: 39
Height: 186 cm
Blood Type: A
Birth Date: August 5
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
His First Trial song is "half".
His Second Trial song is "Cat".
- Ambiguously Gay: A possible interpretation of him. While there were hints in his first trial, the second MV and drama seem to point to him possibly being a closeted gay man who married his wife in hopes of becoming "normal". The MV has him lament that he can't be "normal" while the drama shows him have a breakdown over having tried to live "the way he was born" and be himself but it not working out.
- Animal Motifs: His second trial song is literally called Cat. At the end of the MV he's shown with red cat's eyes, and even rips a bird apart with his teeth.
- Baritone of Strength: Courtesy of Ryouta Takeuchi. He has the lowest vocal range of the whole cast and is physically the strongest.
- The Big Guy: The tallest of all the prisoners and quite muscular as well. He also has experience in martial arts.
- Brutal Honesty: He even admits it's honesty that killed his victim, implied to be his wife. The revelation that he never had genuine feelings for her must have been a bitter pill to swallow.
- Butt-Monkey: He is constantly on the receiving end of various jokes in the 4koma Minigram. Most of the jokes involves him being impressed/scared of the younger generation.
- Consummate Liar: In "Cat", he is revealed to have been lying about actually loving his wife for the duration of their entire marriage.
- Cradling Your Kill: In Undercover, his silhouette is shown holding his victim's body while his mouth gapes open in a scream.
- Creepy Jazz Music: "Cat", his second song, is very jazz-heavy, and it coincides with the his attitude as a liar.
- Gentle Giant: He’s the tallest and likely strongest guy there, but he prefers to sit back, relax, and observe the situation rather than get physical.
- Taken up a notch in the second season when he steps in to protect the guilty prisoners from sustaining worse injuries from their assailant, Kotoko.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Seems to be loathing in self pity due to the death of his wife from his lies.
- Hidden Depths: He reveals in a conversation with Mikoto that he often went trawling with a friend as a hobby.
- Mistaken for Cheating: "half" gives off imagery that alludes to cheating (especially taking off his wedding ring), but when Es directly accuses Kazui of cheating, he says that it didn't go anywhere. According to him, he'd never once strayed from his wife, but his guilt comes from believing his finally coming clean about himself is what led to her death.
- Only Sane Man: Amidst an Eldritch Location of a prison filled with sociopaths at best and mentally unstable at worst, Kazui is always calm and rational with everybody.
- Personality Blood Types: Kazui has type A for his preference to analyze the situation above acting rashly as well as his pessimistic attitude concerning his age and life in general.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Played straight in his MV with the outfits he wears in the bar, at his home, and on-stage, but averted when he sits in the audience with a plain sweater jacket and jeans.
- Team Dad: The oldest of all the prisoners, he tends to whistle and tell jokes to make sure everyone gets along.
- Til Murder Do Us Part: He is implied to have killed his wife or drove her to killing herself.
Amane Momose
Click here to see Amane's season 2 appearance.
- "I'm not afraid. God is protecting me after all."
Voiced by: Minami Tanaka
Gender: Female
Age: 12
Height: 144 cm
Blood Type: O
Birth Date: June 27
First Trial Judgement: Guilty
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
Prisoner 008. She hates being looked down on because of her age and is completely devoted to being a "good girl".Gender: Female
Age: 12
Height: 144 cm
Blood Type: O
Birth Date: June 27
First Trial Judgement: Guilty
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
Her First Trial song is "Magic".
Her Second Trial song is "The Purge March".
- Abusive Parents: In The Purge March, it is revealed that she lived with someone, implied to be her mother, who was willing to attack her with a stun gun because she was caught tending to an injured cat. She is also shown drenched in water earlier in the song, heavily implied to be waterboarding.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Said to act mature for her age, and speaks surprisingly articulately as well.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Played for Drama - while the other prisoners are teenagers or adults, Amane is the youngest prisoner, at 12 years old. It only serves to drive home just how tragic her character is, and how horrible the circumstances that drove her to commit murder were.
- Break the Cutie: Her character songs portray her as a kind and sweet girl trying her best to abide by her religion's rules, but also cannot help but provide medical aid to an injured cat. After she gets severely punished for her efforts, she becomes completely converted to a devotee who willingly kills for the sake of her religion, including the very same person who enforced the rules on her in the first place.
- Children Forced to Kill: Discussed. While Shidou is very concerned and saddened about how a literal child ended up in Milgram, Amane argues that it was her choice, even if it was a poor one, and that she is responsible for it. Shidou still believes that no matter how smart she is, she’s still a child.
- Creepy Child: Slight shades of this trope were shown a little earlier on (with the whole being a 12-year-old cult member and murderer shebang), but was really laid on in the second season. Not only does Amane appear almost zombie-like in her new standing art, but she also talks in an eerily flat tone and repeatedly speaks of an unknown 'we', as if she's suddenly become a speaking vessel for her cult.Amane: If you don’t fix your way of thinking, we’ll never forgive you for all eternity.
- Cult: Heavily implied to be a part of one.
- Daddy's Girl: She thinks of her father as a good, honest, and hard-working man, and she has brought this up a couple times. He no longer lives with her and her mother, so whether he's involved with the abusive cult is in question.
- The Dog Bites Back: The nature of her crime, if The Purge March is any indication. After a family member (most likely her mother) chose to use a stun gun on her for saving a cat's life out of the goodness of her heart and she discovers that they killed said cat (in effect breaking their cult's rules as well), Amane beat them to death with her majorette staff.I don't need it anymore
If you're going to break your vow
Here and now
It's my turn to tear you apart
You're sorry? I don't care!
Please, go ahead and die already
Remember MY cries, MY repents, MY words of "I'm sorry"
That I said to you? - Doublethink: A result of her cult's teachings. Although Amane killed her abusive mother because she used Electric Torture on her as punishment for trying to save a cat, which is against the cult's rules, she still faithfully subscribes to the same ideology to the point of saying she will "deal with" Shidou for healing the injured prisoners, making her a rather tragic hypocrite.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Displayed in her second season appearance complete with messy hair and a crazy set of eyebags, showing just how much her guilty verdict is getting to her.
- Electric Torture: All but stated to have been attacked with a taser by her fundamentalist guardian, as revealed in her second song.
- Gold and White Are Divine: In The Purge March, she wears a white drum majorette outfit with gold highlights, which fits her role as the Token Religious Teammate. As she proceeds to mete out a punishment of her own on her abusive parent, she is shown wearing the same outfit in the real world, outside her Imagine Spot.
- Gone Horribly Right: The adults in the cult seem to have indoctrinated her through punishment for breaking the rules, but weren't counting on her punishing them too.
- Holy Pipe Organ: During "Magic", there is a noticeable pipe organ solo when she gets punished, which is very fitting as she's part of a cult. With what is revealed about the Electric Torture and Water Torture Amane suffered in "The Purge March", it retroactively becomes an Ominous Pipe Organ.
- Mind-Control Eyes: In her chibi form in "Magic", her green eyes acquire yellow rings after enduring much punishment at the hands of her "mentors", signifying her full conversion to the cult's ways. She sports similar eyes in "The Purge March" in her final marching band routine after she discovers that the cat that she tried to help has been killed, showing that it was her breaking point to kill.
- Motor Mouth: Throughout Es' interogation session in the First Trial voice drama, she has spoken non-stop about how she shouldn't be looked down on, how she has done nothing wrong (and various other existential questions). It got to the point that when the interogation ends, Es immediately ties her up.Es: (sighs) Regardless of whether you're a child or an adult... you are beyond annoying.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In both "Magic" and "The Purge March", she administers medical aid to an injured cat. When her mentor/mother finds out, she gets subjected to punishment. To add insult to injury, when she returns to check on the cat, she finds out it's been killed, presumably by the same guardian.
- Nothing Up My Sleeve: Implied. In her second voice drama, she attempts to attack Es with scissors, catching them off guard. It's possible that she hid the scissors in her oversized sleeves.
- Not So Above It All: She may act mature and smart most of the time, but she absolutely loves to pet Jackalope.
- Perpetual Smiler: According to her bio on the website, she's this. This drops once the second trial rolls around and she begins to get affected by her guilty judgement.
- Personality Blood Types: Amane has type O, which fits her drive to learn and her refusal to accept anything that does not align with her beliefs.
- Significant Name Shift: In the timeline conversations during the first trial, Amane refers to the other prisoners with the -san honorific. Come trial 2, she uses a Full-Name Basis on everyone except for Mahiru.
- Token Mini-Moe: The youngest prisoner, being only 12.
- Token Religious Teammate: While some other prisoners have expressed some belief in a god, no one appears as faithful as Amane. This could just be childish innocence, but it seems to be hinting towards cult involvement.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: In addition to having committed murder at the age of 12, she fully believes that said murder was her "duty" and that she undoubtedly deserves forgiveness. She dismisses the ideas of things as harmless as music on the basis that anything that's purely for fun is not worth doing. She was also apparently not allowed (not "unable to", not allowed) to go to amusement parks. In the second trial, she tries to harm Es with a pair of scissors, and outright states that she will "deal with Shidou" for healing the injured prisoners.
- "Uh-Oh" Eyes: Several, such as the Mind-Control Eyes in "Magic" and the Dull Eyes of Unhappiness in her Season 2 portrait. In The Purge March, she gets a bright yellow-white swirl in her eyes as she prepares to murder her abuser.
- Veganopia: She implies that the community she comes from has a vegan diet. Being a staunch believer, she also mentions in her answered questions that she doesn't eat meat.
- Water Torture: Apart from being tazed and physically beaten up, in "The Purge March", Amane's also seen soaking wet in her bathroom with an unseen figure standing over her and holding a showerhead, heavily implying she was waterboarded as punishment for breaking a rule.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: "Magic" is about her trying to earn the approval of her mentors and their forgiveness for breaking their rules.Dear wise one, is this OK?
Is it OK to be weak sometimes?
I promise! A good girl that keeps a promise is like, mwah!
I won’t say “I’ve had enough”
Will you laugh with me and forgive me?
I promise! I can only become a better girl!
Mikoto Kayano
Click here to see Mikoto's season 2 appearance.
- "Ahh, I really don't get it, you know. What kinda sin could I have committed?"
Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Height: 176 cm
Blood Type: AB
Birth Date: October 6
First Trial Judgement: Guilty
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
Prisoner 009. Being described as "completely average", he has genuinely no idea why he is in prison and does not remember murdering anyone.Gender: Male
Age: 23
Height: 176 cm
Blood Type: AB
Birth Date: October 6
First Trial Judgement: Guilty
Second Trial Judgement: Innocent
His First Trial song is "MeMe".
His Second Trial song is "Double".
- Alternate Identity Amnesia: Mikoto appears to be unable to remember a thing that occurs when his alter fronts, which may include the murder(s?) that got him into Milgram in the first place.
- Bad Boss: In "Double", Mikoto is sent several messages by his superior, pressuring him to work overtime. It's implied this is a continuous problem that has relation to Mikoto's murder.
- Batter Up!: His silhouette is depicted smacking his victim from behind with a baseball bat in Undercover, and the MeMe MV shows them trying to crawl away as he approaches them. "Double" shows it in as much gory detail as possible without getting the video age-restricted, with Mikoto's alter beating up a bunch of faceless mannequins with bright orange blood.
- Blood Bath: In his first MV, either him or his alter is shown shirtless while lying in a bathtub full of blood.
- Cool Big Bro: He claims that he has a good relationship with his younger sister and he wants to show her how hard he is working in his second interrogation's first question.Mikoto: Absolutely, I want to show her how her big bro is working hard in the big city.
- Definitely Just a Cold: Constantly affirms that him losing time is simply a case of bad memory, and being active and awake when he doesn't remember must be "sleepwalking".
- Duality Motif: Has several of them:
- His first two Trial songs are called "MeMe" and "Double".
- The bottom half of his hair is bleached and he wears mismatched earrings, Foreshadowing his Dissociative Identity Disorder.
- Reinforced by his songs, in which he switches between heavy, metal-esque verses and a light, airy chorus, as well as the Tarot Motifs in MeMe's MV - Tarot Cards hold opposite meanings, depending on whether they're upright or reversed.
- His birthday art features him sitting atop a cake that's chocolate on one side and vanilla on the other.
- He is the ninth prisoner. The number nine can also be seen as six when turned upside down.
- His blood type is AB.
- In "Double", light and dark windows on the train are used to symbolise the presence of Mikoto and his alter respectively, although not always consistently.
- Exhausted Eyebags: Shown with them as of the second season. Reasonably so, as he laments how tired he is in one of his new voice lines (and sounds the part, too).
- Expository Pronoun: Uses slightly formal pronoun 'boku', in comparison to which his alter uses the extremely casual pronoun 'ore' with an aura of heightened masculinity and even aggression. Is also referred to by his alter using 'boku' as a form of 'I/me' pronouns instead of 'he' and 'you' to put further distinction between the two of them.John: If it's for me (boku), I’ll (ore)... do anything.
- Faceless Masses: In "Double", there’s faceless art mannequins in the background, and Mikoto's alter even attacks some of them.
- Fell Asleep Crying: Implied. In “Neoplasm”, Mikoto's alter describes himself a person who doesn’t cry himself to sleep from stress when comparing himself to Mikoto, possibly implying that Mikoto does that.John: I might be the person he (boku) wishes he were. The person who stubbornly stands his ground, who doesn't cry himself to sleep from stress, who gives people their just desserts.
- Genre Savvy: He can't quite believe that the situation in Milgram is real, and so holds on to the hope that it's some kind of reality show, specifically guessing that it's an online program. Which is exactly what it is in real life.
- Hidden Depths: He's a graphic designer with an interest in fashion but claims to be not good at art.
- Idiot Hair: Has an ahoge at first, which disappears from the design in Trial 2 and the related music video.
- In-Universe Catharsis: According to the second Voice Drama, Mikoto's alter John had split in an outlet for his bottled-up stress.
- Mr. Fanservice: There are several bathing or showering scenes in his first MV, which has made the fanbase firmly associate him with fanservice, although some of the scenes are ambiguous on the identity of whoever is fronting, and most are heavily implied to feature his alter instead. The first Shirtless Scene in MeMe also gives the viewer a glimpse of both his back and his underwear. Some of it veers into Fan Disservice territory, though, as we see him or his alter washing off blood.
- Nice Guy: Among the male prisoners, he's the straightest example of this trope, consistently trying to make conversation with everyone and generally being friendly.
- Prematurely Grey-Haired: Shown in "Double" to have stray grey hairs at the age of 23 (or earlier) before his murder, caused by stress from overwork.
- Personality Blood Types: Mikoto has type AB for being naturally sociable and potentially as a reference to his Dissociative Identity Disorder.
- Shirtless Scene: There exist three in "MeMe", although it’s ambiguous whether it’s Mikoto or his alter presented in those scenes.
- The first one happens shortly after we first see footage of the murder. He takes off the t-shirt he was wearing since he got blood on it, with the camera showing us his whole backside.
- Then we have the Shower of Angst scene, described below.
- Finally, we get to see him sitting in a bathtub filled with blood right before the final chorus.
- Shower of Angst: Starts out eerie, with him taking a shower to wash off blood while nonchalantly brushing his teeth.
- Split Personality: Officially confirmed to have Dissociative Identity Disorder by Jackalope as of the start of the Second Trial. Notably, this lets his alter bypass most, if not all, of Milgram's security measures, as only the host is considered a prisoner.
- Stepford Smiler:
- Zigzagged at first. Yuno suspects him of being one, saying that he always looks like he's forcing himself to smile and get along with everyone. While he denies it, he acknowledges that there's some truth to her words as his job essentially requires that he be sociable.
- Tarot Motifs: All over the place in his first MV. In particular, Mikoto seems to have the Reversed Hanged Man on his shirt and Death is the final card shown in the video.
- Themed Tarot Deck: There is a custom deck used in MeMe, notably with the Wands suit being represented by baseball bats, the weapon of murder.
- The Everyman: At the beginning appears as the most ordinary out of all the prisoners, being a regular guy who graduated university and works as a company employee. Subverted as of his first MV, which reveals him to have been the cause of death of one or more people, as well as him having Dissociative Identity Disorder.
- The Generic Guy: Mikoto doesn't particularly stand out from the rest of the prisoners, and is even described as being normal and having a normal build. At least, until we start learning more about him...
- The Nicknamer: He tends to refer to fellow prisoners with shortened versions of their first names.
- Workaholic: Often overworked at his last job, shown fallen asleep at his PC in "Undercover" while working, it's later revealed in "Double" he was continuously being pushed by his superior and himself to work more. Views his job as something very important to him, that shows his value in society.Mikoto: I work at an advertising company that's at the top of the business world, you know? Just being able to get to that position is something to be proud of. I worked really hard to get hired there, too.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: While he gets some things right, most of Mikoto’s assumptions—like the “show” being a comedy, and the murders not being real—couldn’t be further from the truth.
Kotoko Yuzuriha
Click here to see Kotoko's season 2 appearance.
- "Won't you cooperate with me? …Our interests should be aligned."
Voiced by: Aimi
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Height: 171 cm
Blood Type: A
Birth Date: December 15
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Guilty
Prisoner 010. A quiet, calculating young vigilante who wants to defend the weak and persecute those who harm them.Gender: Female
Age: 20
Height: 171 cm
Blood Type: A
Birth Date: December 15
First Trial Judgement: Innocent
Second Trial Judgement: Guilty
Her First Trial song is "Harrow"
Her Second Trial song is "Deep Cover".
- Action Girl: Like Kazui, she has experience in martial arts, first notably displayed in the voice drama 'John Doe', where she is able to knock out a rogue Mikoto in one hit. She also regularly drinks protein shakes.
- It is revealed that she is the second strongest person in Milgram, only behind Kazui and on equal footings with Mikoto.
- Season 2 has her veer in the Dark Action Girl direction after becoming violent towards her fellow prisoners, this time hardly in the name of protecting others.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: In contrast to the more gentle female prisoners, Kotoko has a logical personality and seems cold, though she means no harm.
- Animal Motifs: Wolves in the MV for "Harrow", as she hunts after people who have done injustices. Also generally speaks often of becoming Es's "fangs" (and eventually takes it upon herself to do so anyway).
- She wears clothes of the (fictional) Jacques Roulet brand - Jacques Roulet was the name of a man convicted of lycanthropy and murder in France, 1598note .
- In the MILGRAM Project trailer, there are several Freeze-Frame Bonus of Mahiru, Futa, Yuno, Kazui, and Kotoko, each wearing a different type of masks and arms restricted which later revealed to be what happens to the prisoner once they're voted "guilty". Kotoko, in particular, has something akin to a dog muzzle.
- Her first song, "Harrow," sounds like the word "howl" in a Japanese accent. Most likely an intentional pun given DECO*27's involvement in the project.
- Her second song combines this with an urbanized Fairy Tale Motif. She wears a red hood in her city scenes, and over the course of the music video slowly morphs into a monsterous werewolf under a blood red moon.
- Boyish Short Hair: She wears her hair short, and has a rough, tomboyish personality.
- Copycat Mockery: To Es, in "Deep Cover". Kotoko's outfit in the music video is a huge visual callback to Es' uniform, and the way she sings about the prisoners brings to mind Es' own image song "Undercover". Symbolically, it represents her desire to act as the fangs of justice, but considering she also has no kind words to say about Es in any of the supplementary materials, it could easily read as her propping herself up as the true warden and giver of punishment.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: In "Deep Cover", her top is a trench coat on one side and cropped on the other, and her pants have a mesh cutout on the right leg.
- Kick Chick: In "Undercover", she kicks away the camera and her silhouette is depicted kicking her victim to death.
- Hates Everyone Equally: She doesn't like any of the prisoners. Her second song, "Deep Cover", reflects this by her mocking all of the prisoners in the first few verses and outright spewing vile at even the ones voted Forgiven in the first round.
- Lawman Baton: Wields one in her Season 2 design, signifying her role as Es' self-appointed deputy.
- Personality Blood Types: Kotoko has type A, fitting her reserved nature.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Red eyes in Milgram typically signify being "unforgivable" or "guilty," but she is the only prisoner to actually have red eyes. Jackalope warns Es to beware of her.
- As of season two, she takes it upon herself to become Es's "fangs". The guilty prisoners who ended up in bandages are that way thanks to Kotoko seeking them out and beating their asses.
- Sanity Slippage: Hinted. "Deep Cover" has her start giving into her bloodlust over her sense of justice, and from her crazed expression near the end of the video, she's well aware that it's messing her mind up.
- Second-Person Attack: She kicks towards the camera in "Undercover".
- Shadow Archetype: To Futa. They're both 20-year-olds obsessed with justice and exacting it to those who they think deserve it, but while Futa was genuinely horrified at his victim's death and was later shown to feel immense guilt over it, Kotoko sees herself as completely in the right and even seems to have relished in her murder afterwards. Futa even lampshades this in his 2nd Q&A portion, saying that he initially thought they were alike and flat-out declaring she's actually nuts.
- Slut-Shaming: Kotoko refers to Yuno as a "slut" in "Deep Cover", with this representing the trait she hates the most about her.
- Tomboy: Especially when compared to the other female prisoners. She has Boyish Short Hair and an aloof personality, her prison uniform consists of a hoodie and shorts (and later, a baseball cap and crop top), and she's the most action-oriented of the girls, having experience with martial arts and being a Vigilante Man before her imprisonment.
- Tomboyish Baseball Cap: Wears one in Season 2.
- Vigilante Man: Much like Fuuta, she has a strong, Knight Templar-like obsession with justice. In "Harrow" she is shown to search for criminals and beat the crap out of them.
- Would Hurt a Child: In the voice drama for the second trial apologizes to Es for not being able to harm Amane while attacking all of the Unforgiven prisoners.Kotoko: You thought I won't attack her because of the young age? Sorry for disappointing you. It's all because of my lack of strength.
Victims
Rei
- Ambiguous Situation: In "After Pain," Mu chases her down and tearfully confesses something unheard to her, but she doesn't react and turns to leave. What did Mu say? Did she beg Rei for sympathy, berate her for not helping, or was it a badly timed love confession, considering that the lyrics "I love YOU" are sung at the same time Mu is approaching her?
- Blood from the Mouth: She starts to bleed from the mouth as Mu kills her.
- Bystander Syndrome: After Mu falls from grace at her school, she is mercilessly bullied by two other girls. Some time after, Rei opens the janitor's closet and sees her lying on the floor, looking pitiful, but ignores her predicament and walks away.
- Dies Wide Open: The last shot of "After Pain" is her eye staring blankly into the camera before going dark.
- The Dog Bites Back: "It's Not My Fault" shows her drenched in water to imply she was a victim of bullying (possibly by Mu herself), and the video begins and ends with her flipping an hourglass over—the same one that Mu is trapped in during "After Pain." If those two things are connected, the turning of the hourglass may be meant to symbolize the changing of fortunes and imply that Rei initiated whatever turn of events caused Mu to lose her position as the school's Alpha Bitch and become an outcast.
- Given Name Reveal: She was not initially given a name after the release of the First Trial videos. However, during the Second Trial interrogation session, Mu revealed that her name is Rei.
- Meaningful Name: One possible meaning of "Rei" is "cold," which is how she behaves toward Mu in "After Pain," not bothering to help her when she is bullied (albeit with some possible justification if one believes that Mu bullied her previously).
- Noodle Incident: At the very end of "It's Not My Fault," she appears alone in the classroom, soaking wet and with several destroyed belongings (hers?) strewn on the floor, and the last shot of the video is her lying on the floor and grasping the leg of a chair with a pained expression. This has not been explained yet, although it suggests she was a victim of bullying—possibly even by Mu herself, who is shown to have been the queen bee of her school in the same video.
- No Sympathy: When Mu chases her down on the way home from school, begging for help or sympathy, Rei does not react and simply turns to leave. As a result of this, Mu snaps like a twig and kills her.
- Rule of Symbolism: The moment of her murder occurs during the end of the school day, as the sun is setting—in other words, as the day ends, so does her life.
- The Stoic: The only time she shows any emotion at all is at the moment of her death.
- Symbolically Broken Object: In "After Pain," her death is symbolized by the shattered hourglass that Mu was trapped in at the beginning of the video. After she refuses to help or show sympathy to Mu, the video cuts to Mu sitting in the smashed remains of the hourglass, clutching a box cutter and looking horrified with herself...
- Symbolic Blood: ...and with both of them covered in the neon green fluid that previously filled said hourglass.
- Token Human: A purely symbolic example. During the fantasy sequence in "It's Not My Fault," Mu is portrayed as a queen bee, while her Girl Posse are her attendants/worker bees and Rei is the only human. She has a disgusted look on her face when she sees Mu stepping on the shattered remains of another "worker bee" (implied to be a girl who Mu bullied).
Mahiru's Boyfriend
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Near the beginning of the video, he lovingly strokes Mahiru's head.
- Ambiguous Situation: Was his and Mahiru's relationship mutually terrible from both ends, or did the abuse come mostly or entirely from her?
- Barefoot Suicide: The "I Love You" video begins with a shot of his shoes on the ground and a pan upwards to his hanged corpse.
- Driven to Suicide: He ended up killing himself because Mahiru's emotional abuse got to be too much for him.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: He has those as a sign that his relationship with Mahiru is taking a severe toll on him.
- No Name Given: His name is currently unknown, and he is only known as Mahiru's boyfriend.
- Reduced to Ratburgers: In "I Love You", Mahiru feeds him a dead rat, which she views through her eyes as a slice of strawberry cake. It's unclear whether this is a metaphor for her being unaware of how abusive she is or whether it's a depressingly literal indicator of them struggling to survive.
- Symbolically Broken Object: His death is symbolized by a broken and shattered tea set. In Mahiru's fantasy, it is intact and clean.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: Through "I Love You," Mahiru keeps switching on and off between seeing him as happy, healthy and clean, and gaunt, depressed and dirty.
- Unseen No More: Mahiru's First Trial song, "This Is How To Be In Love With You," is about her tangled relationship, but her boyfriend doesn't actually appear in the flesh until "I Love You."
Hinako Mukuhara
Kazui's wife, who he was in a seemingly loving marriage with before she was killed by his "honesty." She appears in "Cat."
- The Beard: All but stated to have been an unwitting beard to Kazui until he revealed the truth to her. According to one interrogation question, Kazui married her for social credibility and the possibility of change.
- Break the Cutie: After being told by her husband that he didn't love her after years, possibly decades, of happy, stable marriage, her face just...drops.
- Driven to Suicide: Kazui admits it was "honesty" that killed his wife, implying she killed herself because she found out he didn't love her and was only pretending to.
- Flowers of Romance: During their courtship, Kazui presents her with a big bouquet of red roses.
- Happily Married: To Kazui for quite a while, at least on her end.
- Incompatible Orientation: There are some implications that Kazui's marriage to her did not work because he is gay and trying to cover it up.
- Luminescent Blush: Near the beginning of "Cat," she has one briefly while looking at Kazui in the car.
- Tears of Joy: She has tiny beads of happy tears in her eyes while getting engaged and married to Kazui. Too bad it doesn't last...
Others
Aa and Sayu
Left — Aa, right — Sayu.
Two girls who used to be friends with Mu, but for currently unknown reasons, they turned against her and started to bully her to the point of nearly driving her to suicide. They appear in "After Pain."- Alpha Bitch: "After Pain" shows them viciously bullying Mu and filming her humiliation on their cellphones. However it is not as clear-cut as it seems; "It's Not My Fault" reveals that Mu used to be the Alpha Bitch of their school, and they used to be her followers but turned on her for unknown reasons.
- Even Evil Has Standards: At the end of "After Pain," Aa is clearly horrified when she sees that Mu has stabbed Rei to death with a boxcutter.
- The Faceless: In "After Pain," their eyes are obscured for stylistic reasons, with only their mouths being shown.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Their names can be seen very briefly in a group text on Mu's phone screen.Unknown girl (implied to be Rei): Today was super fun❤️ Let’s go and drink tapioca again sometime🥺
Aa: The lipstick Mu gave me today is good ❤️ It’s the best❤️💄❤️
Sayu: Lend it to me tomorrow!
Mu: It was just an extra that I had, but it’s ok? - The Friends Who Never Hang: They were in the same friend group with Rei and Mu, but at no point are they shown interacting with Rei, save for the end of "After Pain" when Aa has a horrified expression at seeing her murdered body.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: After humiliating Mu and wrecking her belongings, they smile and laugh while taking photos of her with their phones.
- Noodle Incident: "It's Not My Fault" implies they were part of Mu's Girl Posse when she still ruled the school. It is not currently known what caused them to turn on her.
- Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics: They bully Mu in various ways like writing mean things about her on the chalkboard, placing a flower on her deskWhy is this bad?, pushing her down in the hallway and destroying her things.
- We Used to Be Friends: At one point in "After Pain," Mu looks at her shattered phone screen, which shows a photo of her, Rei, Aa, and Sayu smiling together.Writing on the chalkboard, implied to be from them: Thanks for all the fun times we’ve had! The flowers are a present for you!
Cult Mascots
Left to right — Gachata, Riyone (Amane in center), Gozake, Yuri.
’Tis ordained, thou shall follow thine destiny
’Tis ordained, thou shall discard vulgarity
’Tis ordained, thou shall deliver unto those thou believest in
’Tis ordained, thou shall stay thine course, then perish
’Tis ordained, thou shall discard vulgarity
’Tis ordained, thou shall deliver unto those thou believest in
’Tis ordained, thou shall stay thine course, then perish
The four leaders of the cult Amane belongs to. They appear in the video for "Magic."
In general
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Are they actually real people, or cartoony personifications of the cult's beliefs? In two videos so far, they have never been directly shown (unlike other pivotal, non-prisoner characters like Rei and Mahiru's boyfriend).
- Was one of them eventually Amane's murder victim, or was it someone else, like one of her parents?
- Bad People Abuse Animals: "The Purge March" heavily implies that they, or someone else in their cult, killed the cat that Amane was caring for.
- Chromatic Arrangement: Gachata is green, Yuri is yellow, Gozake is blue, and Riyone is pink.
- The Fatalist: The You Can't Fight Fate variation. Medicine is banned in their practice since they believe that the wellbeing of an individual is up to their god and fate. Thus, praying is acceptable since it's asking for god's favor and protection, but medicine is not because it's "actively" changing the individual's destined fate.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Downplayed—while they do appear in Amane's videos, they are represented by cartoon mascots instead of being shown in full, and it is currently unknown what they actually look like.
- Religion of Evil: While it is not exactly clear what they preach to their followers, they use child abuse as a tool to indoctrinate younger members of the cult.
- Subverted Kids' Show: Their appearance in "Magic" is surrounded by bright and colorful visuals that look like a children's entertainment program...but halfway through the video, we are treated to cartoony depictions of them torturing Amane in various ways for bandaging a cat's head.
- Would Hurt a Child: In "Magic," they abuse Amane for helping an injured cat, which they seem to view as some sort of violation of their teachings.
Gachata
A cult leader who teaches his devotees to live by a schedule and stay on task.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: His mascot form sports alarm clock bells on the top of his head. Fittingly, he teaches his devotees to live their lives by a schedule.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears red glasses and is the first cult leader seen abusing Amane.
- Green and Mean: His theme color is green, and he is one of the leaders of a cult that abuses children.
- Kick the Dog: In "Magic," when Amane gets a question wrong, Gachata finger-flicks her in the face hard enough to knock her to the floor and leave a bruise on her forehead. Even though the situation is presented comically with Amane having swirly eyes, it is implied he did something worse than that in reality, since all the videos are filtered Through the Eyes of Madness.
- Schedule Fanatic: In "Magic," his lesson to Amane seems to be about the importance of living by a rigid schedule. His creed in "The Purge March" is "Thou shall stay thine course, then perish."
Yuri
A cult leader who seems to be in charge of collecting money for the cult.
- Cool Big Bro: In "Magic," on-screen text describes Yuri as a considerate big brother. However, he still abuses Amane along with the rest of the cult leaders for breaking rules.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He is the only cult leader who looks sad about abusing Amane, even though he still does it.
- Pauper Patches: He has them on his poncho, and his role in the cult seems to be collecting monetary donations.
Gozake
A cult leader who is described as a monk and stresses the importance of living a pure lifestyle.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: He is a monk, and the round objects around his throat look like a necklace of prayer beads.
- Big Bad: While he doesn't appear to hold any more authority than the other cult leaders, "The Purge March" hints that he may be the one most responsible for Amane's misery. When she fumbles and drops a flag with his symbol on it, she is punished by being pushed into deep water and nearly drowning, even as she frantically reaches for his flag. A cut back to reality shows her drenched and standing in the shower, implying she was waterboarded as punishment for breaking one of his rules or doing something he did not like.
- Pure Is Not Good: In "The Purge March," Gozake's creed is "thou shall discard vulgarity," which seems to refer to living a pure, ascetic lifestyle and not doing anything that is not approved by the cult itself.
- Rule of Symbolism: His lesson to Amane in "Magic" involves teaching her how to sing, which could be interpreted as training her to repeat the cult's doctrines and mantras.
Riyone
A cult leader who appears to serve as a spiritual healer.
- Bunnies for Cuteness: Very much subverted. Her cutesy mascot form through Amane's eyes has floppy bunny ears shaped like band-aids, but her behavior is anything but cute.
- The Colored Cross: At one point in "Magic," the background behind her is decorated with pink and green-colored crosses.
- The Medic: Subverted. Her bandage-shaped bunny ears would lead one to believe that she is the cult's healer or doctor. But when a cat gets injured by a stage light falling on its head, Riyone's solution is to pray for it to be healed instead of actually doing anything to treat it. In fact, she punishes Amane for actually treating the cat's injury.
- Tomboy: On-screen text in "Magic" describes her as a "healthy tomboy."
Amane's Cat
- Ambiguous Gender: Its gender is never specified.
- Amusing Injuries: It getting hit on the head with a stage light in "Magic" is presented this way, complete with a poof of clouds and stars.
- Art Evolution: Due to the differing art styles in "Magic" and "The Purge March," the cat has two distinct designs. In the former video, it looks like a kitten and is drawn in a cartoony style. In the latter, it looks like an adult cat and is drawn in a more realistic style, which seems to be what it looked like in reality.
- Crying Critters: In "Magic," it starts to cry after getting hit on the head by the falling stage light, which make Amane feel bad for it and want to treat its injury.
- Cute Kitten: It's absolutely adorable, which makes it all the more sad—and scary—when it's implied to have been killed by a member of the cult.
- Small Role, Big Impact: It is implied that the cat was killed by someone in the cult, possibly Amane's mentor or guardian, and this drove her to murder them in revenge.
- Uncertain Doom: In "The Purge March," when Amane comes to check on it for the second time, she finds nothing but its collar snapped in two and the cloth she was using to bandage its leg.
John
- ”Yeah… if it’s for “me”, I’ll… do anything.”
Alter of prisoner 009, Mikoto Kayano. John has a strong desire to protect Mikoto at all costs, often fronting when Mikoto is put under heavy stress. He’s stoic and defensive, yet surprisingly a good conversationist and cooperative even if the validity of some of his statements is questionable. Sometimes acts violent and aggressive when first appearing, but tends to calm down when things don’t appear as threatening. He appears in "MeMe", "Double", and the corresponding voice dramas "John Doe" and "Neoplasm", as well as is implied to have appeared in several episodes of the MINIGRAM manga.
- Aerith and Bob: John is the name given to him by Es, derived from John Doe. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the prisoners who have mostly standard Japanese names and with John having an English name.
- Ambiguously Gay: In "MeMe" John said "snuggle together and say good night", a lyric likely talking about Mikoto. This along with how John deeply loves Mikoto could be interpreted as the love perhaps being romantic in a way.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: In Mikoto's second voice drama claims that he cannot remember the number of people he had killed, partially because things were "fuzzy" around the time he split.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Has a lot of these when he appears in "John Doe".
- Color Motifs: Often associated with red whenever he appears.
- In "MeMe" the normally blue mindscape occasionally switches to a deep red to indicate his presence.
- In "Double" in the scene where a distorted collage of Mikoto is standing in a crowd of mannequins, red is used to likely represent John’s "soul" and the blue, Mikoto’s "soul". John is also associated appearing with black windows in the train, and Mikoto with white windows.
- Declaration of Protection: Has sworn to protect Mikoto at all costs. Even implied to be pulling a Zero-approval gambit for him and potentially even killed someone to save him. Although it’s unclear whether it was Mikoto or John who had actually committed the murder(s?).
- Foreshadowing: John’s name is foreshadowed in the title of Mikoto’s first voice drama "John Doe". His name is officially given in "Neoplasm".
- Hell Is That Noise: As he often fronts at night, prisoner 009's cell in MILGRAM is noted to have many loud and unusual noises, which are assumed to be made by him out of stress.
- Played for Laughs in one of the 4koma strips MINIGRAM, in which one of the noises heard in the cell was:
John: Boing.
Es: (shocked) BOING? - Invented Individual: In "Neoplasm" John says he believes he came into existence to relieve the stress that Mikoto experiences, and that he is the person Mikoto wishes he could be.
- Jerkass: Zigzagged. Sometimes he can be a massive jerk, such as bullying Amane once in the timeline conversations. But at times he can also be rational and sociable.
- Meaningful Name: The name Es gave to him is John. Es says it came from John Doe, the term given to unidentified bodies. This makes sense, as in a way John can be considered somewhat as an unidentified body for being Mikoto’s alter, and lacking a stable identity and previously name.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Inflicts this upon Es in "John Doe" after they made Mikoto have a panic attack, which caused John to come out and beat up Es. Ended up being stopped by Kotoko, who came in to save Es and proceeded to pull another no-holds-barred beatdown on John.
- Obfuscating Insanity: In the voice dramas, every time John comes out he always resorts to saying mean things and threatening Es. Although in "Neoplasm", he calms down when Es is being nice to him, and we eventually learn that John is only being a monster to protect Mikoto and is actually kind at heart.
- Offing the Annoyance: In the second voice drama, John claims to have killed many people for being an annoyance to him. The truthfulness of this statement is put into question, as "MeMe" implies the murder to be premeditated.
- Oh, Crap!: In "Neoplasm", he asks Es what the outcome would be if Mikoto were to be tried in an ordinary court. Es tells him that even if Mikoto had a proper psychological examination, he'd still likely be found guilty, and depending on the number of victims, he might get the death penalty. John proceeds to freak out, saying that Mikoto shouldn't be punished for his crimes and practically begging Es to find him innocent.
- Outside-Context Problem: Since nobody at Milgram knew that Mikoto had Dissociative Identity Disorder at the time of being taken in, the rules of Milgram apply to him and not to John, who isn't considered a prisoner. As such, John can do things that prisoners can't, like attacking the guards. Jackalope even says at one point that there hadn't been a similar case before.
- Rotten Rock & Roll: Both "MeMe" and "Double" have some of the heaviest guitars of any MILGRAM song, emphasizing the image of a "monster" John is trying to create for Es and the audience.
- Second-Person Attack: Mikoto's first MV ends with John punching the camera, implying the viewer, or perhaps Mikoto, which could be symbolic of Mikoto having no memory of the crime.
- Silent Scapegoat: When questioned about the murder, John claims he was the one to do it. When Es gets skeptical about this, he immediately becomes super defensive, fighting to claim that Mikoto did nothing wrong and he was actually the true killer. This is theorised to be John taking the blame for Mikoto’s actions.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: He swears a lot in when he first appears in "John Doe" while beating up Es. Interestingly enough he doesn’t swear at all when he becomes more docile in “Neoplasm”.
- Split Personality: Officially confirmed to have Dissociative Identity Disorder by Jackalope as of the start of the Second Trial. Not being considered a prisoner, compared to Mikoto, this lets him bypass most of MILGRAM's limitations on prisoners.
- Split-Personality Takeover: Discussed. In "Neoplasm", John claims that Mikoto is trying to "disappear" and that a Guilty verdict will make Mikoto go dormant from stress, while an Innocent verdict will make John eventually "disappear" instead. This statement is questioned by the fandom as potentially John lying to try and sway an Innocent vote, thinking that Es wants him gone.
- Taking the Heat: Implied. A big theory in the fandom is that Mikoto was actually the person to commit the murder(s?), and John claiming to be the killer is a lie in order to protect Mikoto from the blame.
- Tarot Motifs: Often associated with The Fool card in "MeMe".
- The Stoic: Is almost always expressionless when he appears in "Double". His vocal tone is also much more flat than Mikoto’s.
- Zero-Approval Gambit: In "John Doe", the first thing he does while fronting is attacking Es. During the beatdown he says a lot of stuff to threaten Es and even asks if they’d prefer getting beaten more. Later in "Neoplasm" when John first appears, he instantly resorts to calling Es a brat and saying that they haven’t had a beating yet. When Es reacts calmly to the situation, John acts more composed and it’s eventually revealed he’s been acting as a monster in order to protect Mikoto by driving people away from him.John: "If I had stayed a monster... maybe that would've been better."
