Characters / Paradox Live BAE

Paradox Live Main Character Index
BAE | The Cat's Whiskers | cozmez | Akanyatsura
BURAIKAN | VISTY | AMPRULE | 1Nm8 | Gokuluck

A new-generation, charismatic 3-member unit with diverse individuality

Character page for the members of the rap group BAE from Paradox Live. Beware of possible unmarked spoilers.

Formed in a international private university, BAE is a diverse trio that lives for freedom and honesty. Their strong image is emphasized by their trendy hip-hop songs, experimenting with many genres to create a wholly unique sound.

Character Designer: Aki Akane

Image Color: Bright Red (main), Ceramic White (sub)

Lyricist: MICRO

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Tropes that apply to the group

• Abusive Parents / Parental Abandonment: Implied to be the case for all of them and the basis for their trauma.
• The Fashionista: Given as they are a group of modern college students and keep up with recent trends. Iori considers BAE to be the most fashionable hip-hop group.
• First-Name Basis: The three of them call each other by first names.
• Foreign Exchange Student: Hajun and Anne were foreign students who moved to Japan for high school.
• Fun with Acronyms: BAE stands for "Before Anyone Else", which is from their first song as a trio.
  • Their first three songs also form the BAE acronym: "BaNG!!!", "AmBitious!!!", and "EmBlem!!!". According to the lyricist, this was intentional.
• Image Song:
  • From the Opening Shows:
    • "BaNG!!!" for Opening Show
    • "W△vin' FL△g for Opening Show-Road to Legend-
  • From the Stage Battle matches:
    • "AmBitious!!!" for DESIRE
    • "EmBlem!!!" for PRIDE
    • "F△Bulous" for VIBES
    • "BErmud△ Tri△nglE" for TRAP
  • From the Exhibition Shows:
    • FRE△KOUT
    • P△R△DISE (feat. ISSA)
  • From the Road to Legend matches:
    • "We △re The Future for FATE
    • "G△L△XY∞" for WILL
    • "Ch△mp1on" for REVOLUTION
  • "FLY HIGH" for the 2023 anime adaptation
• Japanese Honorifics: Fitting for a group of international students, they don't use formal language when referring to each other, despite Allen and Hajun being Anne's upperclassmen.
• Lucky Charms Title: As seen in the above list, their song titles tend to have some form of capitalization and include exclamation points and the triangle symbol (△).
  • According to the lyricist, the first three songs with three exclamation points were meant to form the BAE acronym. The completion of the song triad was symbolized by a triangle (△), and this is why the triangle consistently shows up in later song titles.
• Power Trio: They're a group of three international college students that come together to form a powerful rap trio.
• Red Is Heroic: They are the main group in the franchise and are represented with the colour red.
• Ruder and Cruder: In comparison to the other groups of the franchise, they're the most likely to drop a Precision F-Strike within their songs.
• Those Two Guys: Allen and Hajun used to be in a amateur rap duo called "FURTHERMORE".
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Their goal for winning Paradox Live is to gain approval from their parents and show them that they can achieve their dreams despite falling out with them.

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Allen Sugasano (MC Name: SUZAKU)

Voiced by: Gakuto Kajiwara
Portrayed by: Hiroki Sana (2021-present)

I’ll prove myself through my music.

Click ^here  to see him in the stage play

A quarter-Russian and three-quarters Japanese. Allen is an unfriendly and hard-to-approach guy, but he's actually just an awkward hip-hop Otaku. Although he comes from a well-known musical family, he left home due to his parents’ disapproval for hip-hop.

His character hashtags are #Talks about hip-hop at every opportunity, #Perpetually rebellious, and #Earnest by nature. His trauma is described in the official website: his parents torched what was precious to him, completely disregarding what he wanted. His trauma hashtags are #A broken record, #You are wrong, and #The day his parents burned what was precious to him.

Birthday: October 1

Age: 21

Image Color: Crimson Red

Profession: International private university student, track maker

Hobby: Songwriting

Weakness: Unsophisticated tastes, people showing him kindness

Special Skill: Playing musical instruments, such as violin and piano

Twitter: @irepmyself

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• Animal Motifs: Refers to himself as a phoenix, which fits his passionate personality. It's also symbolism for how he rises from the flames after his parents burned his music collection and tried to do the same with his passion for hiphop.
• Berserk Button: Insult hip-hop and rap to his face and he'll get pissed. And Lord help you if you bring up burning his music collection, because that's his trigger for his trap reaction.
• Book Dumb: Certain tweets reveal that he has difficulties in class.
• But Not Too Foreign: Is quarter-Russian.
• Butt-Monkey: The go-to guy for BAE-related humour, especially when his teammates tease him.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: He got really wasted on champagne during the BAE Christmas party according to Anne on twitter. His drunken state during the cozmez celebratory party also kickstarted the plot of the Shuffle Unit CDs.
• Elegant Classical Musician: His family are these; his mother is an opera singer while his father is a pianist. He was raised to be a classical musician and competed in violin competitions in his younger years. However, he doesn't want to follow in his family's footsteps and after falling out with them when they disapprove of his music tastes, he runs away from home.
• Meaningful Name: SUZAKU refers to the Vermilion Bird, a red bird that resembles a pheasant with a five-colored plumage and is perpetually covered in flames.
• Odd Friendship: As much as Kanata refuses to admit it, he and Allen get along very well whenever hip-hop is concerned.
• Older Is Better: Hajun (and Anne, to a lesser extent) makes fun of him for choosing to print out his homework and turning it in physically instead of sending it to Saimon through email. This later comes into play when the system Hajun uses to send locations to Yohei and Saimon suddenly breaks down; Allen was able to print copies of the map.
• Otaku: For hip-hop and rap. Talk to him about hip-hop and rap music and he can go on for hours. Unfortunately, his parents doesn't approve of it which leads to a massive rift between him and his family, cumulating in him running away from home after his parents burned his music collection.
• Tsundere: Is described as such.
• World of Symbolism: Describes his trap reaction as a place where there is a demon king trying to burn him with the flames of hell.

Yeon Hajun (MC Name: 48)

Voiced by: Ayumu Murase
Portrayed by: Koji Kominami (2021-present)

No matter how hard they try, ordinary people stay ordinary.

Click ^here  to see him in the stage play

The oldest son of the most prominent conglomerate family in South Korea. Popular as an ever-smiling Prince Charming, in reality, he's a sadistic and cunning young man. He has lived a spectacular life amid a complex family environment of competing interests and agendas, and he has vowed to take revenge on his parents.

His character hashtags are #Handsome Hallyu-wave Young Master, #Skilled at getting by in the world, and #Poisonous angelic smile. His trauma is described in the official website: being abandoned as “unwanted” by his parents. His trauma hashtags are #Stigma of an "Unwanted child", #False love of parents, and #A smiling mask hides deep injury.

Birthday: April 8

Age: 21

Image Color: Cyan

Profession: International private university student, model

Hobby: Learning unknown aspects of Japanese culture

Weakness: People who tease him, bugs

Special Skill: Cooking

Twitter: @smileywangja

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• Aloof Big Brother: Towards Dongha, to whom he felt resentment with when Dongha was born and Hajun was disowned and sent to Japan. They were raised apart, so he doesn't really feel like they're brothers, to the point that Dongha didn't even know Hajun's face until he was seven years old.
• Big Brother Instinct: Despite his rough relationship with Dongha and his complicated feelings towards him, in the past he approached a crying Dongha and consoled him after a scolding from their father. Dongha didn't know it was Hajun as they were raised separately, and Hajun introduced himself as a distant relative who's going to be there just for the day.
  • After an invitation from Chungsung, he comforts Dongha in his own way after AMPRULE's loss in SHOWDOWN.
• Berserk Button: If you want to live another day, don't call him an 'unneeded child'. It's what his parents told him when they sent him to live in Japan and forms the basis of his trap reaction.
• A Day in the Limelight: The VIBES Drama focuses on him and his trauma.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: Son of a conglomerate and the school prince. He talks to everyone in keigo, even those who know his true nature.
• Fiction 500: Despite being discarded by the Yeon family, Hajun has more than enough money as he thinks 300 million is mere pocket change. Despite being disowned, his parents provide him with all the necessary living expenses, and he has his own personal funds.
• The Gadfly: Especially loves to tease Allen.
  • During the 2nd Shuffle Unit Drama, Hajun had a bit too much fun trolling cozmez when he took them out to an expensive restaurant.
• Happily Adopted: He was adopted by a loving couple who seek to groom him to eventually inherit the Yeon conglomerate... until his adopted mother gave birth to a baby boy, who's eventually revealed to be Dongha from AMPRULE, who would eventually inherit the conglomerate naturally and he got disowned as a result.
• I Have No Son!: He was disowned by the Yeon conglomerate, so he's seeking to topple them in turn.
• Japanese Sibling Terminology: He refers to Dongha as his younger half-brother (Japanese:腹違いの弟), despite Hajun being adopted and not sharing any blood relation to Dongha or their parents. Dongha also refers to him as his older half-brother (Japanese: 腹違いの兄). ^note Despite the characters' native language being Korean, the drama CDs depict flashbacks in Japanese.
• Locked into Strangeness: His hair is bleached as a side effect of recovering from going too deep into his trap reaction and getting rescued by Allen and Anne. This carries on in his future artworks.
• Meaningful Name: The pronunciation and characters for 48 can be associated with Yeon(4) Ha(8)jun.
• Precision F-Strike: Drops an F-bomb in his solo verse in AmBitious!!!, BAE's song used in the match against cozmez.
• Sadist: His character hashtags and profile reveals that his true personality is this.
• Secret-Keeper: Along with Iori, Zen, Kanata, and the real Nayuta, Hajun is one of the members from the original main cast who knows about the side effects of the Phantometals besides the trap reactions. Hajun hides this from Allen and Anne in fear that they will discard him after finding out that he's succumbing to the Phantometal.
• Shared Family Quirks: Both Hajun and Dongha have sadistic tendencies, which was instilled to them by the masochistic Chungsung.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With his younger brother Dongha. This is despite them not being blood-related.
• Supreme Chef: He's the one who cooks for BAE since Anne's a Lethal Chef and Allen's too obsessed with his music to cook. And it's really good too according to them.

Anne Faulkner (MC Name: anZ)

Voiced by: 96neko
Portrayed by: Riona Tatemichi (2021-present)

Man or woman, who cares?

Click ^here  to see them in the stage play

Half-British and half-Japanese, Anne looks like a fashionable woman who uses their looks to their advantage, but is the manliest member of BAE. As a child, they were oppressed by their strict, old-fashioned mother. At the moment, Anne is determined to be honest about their own sensitivity.

Their character hashtags are #Otokonoko (Non-binary) Cabaret Club Hostess, #Mental clarity, straightforward manner, # Half British-Japanese. Their trauma is described in the official website: their mother forced me to be a "perfect prince," denying what they needed to be. Their trauma hashtags are #The sound of scissors, #A prince with obligations, and #The curse of toxic parents.

Birthday: June 12

Age: 20

Image Color: Dark Pink

Profession: International private university student, Cabaret club hostess at CLUB CANDY

Hobby: Shopping

Weakness: Fatally bad at cooking

Special Skill: Makeup

Twitter: @fxxxdaborder

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• Abusive Parents: Anne, who liked fashion and found his identity at an early age, was forcibly oppressed by their strict mother and made to fit her ideals of a perfect prince. While Anne acknowledges how their mother's attitude is toxic and left home once they started university, they admit that until now, there is a part of them which wants to fulfill her ideals, but finds it more important to be true to themself.
• Ambiguous Gender: Doesn't refer to themselves as either male or female. As they put it in BaNG!!: "Fuck the border line".
• Ascended Fanboy: Gendered term aside, Anne used to just watch Allen and Hajun rapping at school. They eventually aimed to become FURTHERMORE's stylist, but after the duo's stage mishap, Anne stood with them on stage as a member of the newly-formed BAE.
• But Not Too Foreign: Is part-British.
• Cross-Cast Role: Their stage actor, Riona Tatemichi, is female, while Anne is biologically male. However, Riona is well-known for her male and androgynous roles such as Tuxedo Mask, James Bond, and Hange Zoë.
• Crossdressing Voices: Their voice actor, 96neko, is female, while Anne is biologically male. However, 96neko is an Utaite known for being a ryouseirui (androgynous singer).
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: They have a feminine sense of style and attitude, but they don't define themselves in a set gender.
• The Fashionista: Fashion is one of their passions and is considered to be one of the best-dressed in the group.
• Gender-Blender Name: Anne is normally a name used for girls.
• Given Name Reveal: Their real name is revealed in PRIDE, Anjin.
• Lethal Chef: According to their profile. Hajun calls their cooking a dark thing, while Allen calls it a form of hip hop and eats it anyways.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: MEMORY reveals that they wear hair extensions. They used to remove the extensions upon returning home to their mother. In their major fallout which led to Anne living with BAE, Anne wore their wig in front of their mother, determined to be true to themself.
• Precision F-Strike: Tends to drop the F-bomb in certain songs, unless Hajun already said it.
  • Notably, in the stage adaptations, Anne is the only one who raises the middle finger for their verses, even though the others also have pretty explicit lyrics.
• Princely Young Man: What their mother wants them to become.
• Smoking Is Cool: Featured in their character art. Notable for being the only smoker in BAE.
• The Tease: Towards Satsuki, who has a crush on them.
• World of Symbolism: Describes their trap reaction as a place where there is a witch trying to turn her into a doll.