Tropes relating to the cast of Paranoia Agent.
Due to the surreal nature of the series, the amount of Hidden Depths and Plot Twists, and several cast members being Walking Spoilers, most characters have a lot of spoilers associated with them. In order to get the full experience, please watch the series first.
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Major Characters
Tsukiko Sagi
Tsukiko Sagi
Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Michelle Ruff (English)
Tsukiko Sagi
The main protagonist, Tsukiko is a cartoonist and the creator of Maromi. She's also Lil' Slugger's first victim.
- Born Unlucky: It says a lot that right before she becomes Lil' Slugger's first victim, she was already having a miserable day from being stressed out by her colleagues at work pressuring her to make a new mascot, being injured twice by stumbling and being scraped by a car. Basically, almost everything that can probably go wrong or stressful in her life, happens to her with gusto, and while some of it is klutziness, most other cases are completely out of her control or pure misfortune.
- Cloudcuckoolander: She talks to and interacts with Maromi as if it were a normal human being. This includes Maromi merchandise like the handkerchief she dropped.
- Corrupted Character Copy: Her design and personality are clearly ripped straight from Ayumu Kasuga but whereas Ayumu's cuckoolander attitude is played for humor, Tsukiko's is Played for Drama and even horror.
- Despair Event Horizon: Since she was Lil' Slugger's first victim: she felt too stressed due to the pressure from her work and workplace bullying. However, she had already crossed it long before the story started, when the original Maromi was hit by a car.
- Doom Magnet: Bad things seem to happen due to her presence or her creations. In fact, most of the issues happening in the show are because of her, and her lies nearly cause the destruction of Tokyo.
- Expy: Leaning into Take That! territory, she can be seen as what would happen if Ayumu Kasuga had to grow up and deal with the real world.
- First Period Panic: The onset of her first period was what distracted Tsukiko long enough for the original Maromi to be run over, starting the entire plot.
- Freudian Excuse: Though she herself is not evil, Tsukiko's destructive turmoil comes from her father being too strict, making her an introverted child, leading to the creation of Maromi and Lil' Slugger. This is Radar Man's interpretation, so he may be oversimplifying. Tsukiko has such a fragile mind, that the one relatively innocent lie she told as a child distorts into a psychosis that dominates her whole life because she doesn't even have the capacity to accept that it happened.
- Girlish Pigtails: She had these when she was a kid.
- The Ingenue: Tsukiko is a variation. She quite literally has the innocence of a child and doesn't understand why the people around her blame her for what's happening.
- It's All My Fault: She straddles the line between this and Never My Fault for most of the series. She's in constant denial about the things she has done wrong because she knows it's her fault. Still, she doesn't want to feel bad or be punished.
- Loser Protagonist: Despite being the successful creator of a popular mascot, her coworkers badmouth her behind her back and show her little respect, she doesn't seem to have many friends, and spends a lot of time at home with her imaginary friend Maromi. She also doesn't seem happy in general, and doesn't ever smile, not even after things return to normal.
- Mad Dreamer: The things she creates talk to her. Most of the time, she's off in her own private world. If her fantasies are threatened, expect her to turn into a Nervous Wreck.
- Meaningful Name: Sagi can mean "heron", referring to the Kagome Kagome children's game. It can also mean "fraud".
- The Mentally Disturbed: She's clearly unhinged. This is confirmed when it's revealed that she was the one who created Lil' Slugger in order to cope with her dog's death.
- Out of Focus: Despite being the series' protagonist, she only appears in a few episodes. The detectives actually have more screen time than her.
- Playing Sick: Early on, a number of characters think Tsukiko is doing this by claiming to have been attacked by someone who never existed. They are wrong—sort of. See, Tsukiko did make up Lil' Slugger to get out of taking responsibility for something. It's just that he's becomes real through the power of people's collective desire to avoid responsibility.
- Repressed Memories: She repressed her memories about the original Maromi's death and the origin of Lil' Slugger in order to avoid her guilt.
- Sanity Slippage: She start interacting with Maromi when things become too stressful for her.
- Shout-Out: She looks like a grown-up version of Osaka from Azumanga Daioh, though given the context it could be more of a Take That!.
- Shrinking Violet: She's quiet, keeps to herself, and can't defend herself when something bad is happening to her.
- The Stoic: She doesn't emote very strongly, and seems perpetually perplexed.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Something she shares with Maromi.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: While she's not completely the cause of all of the problems happening in the series, she's a big part of it. As a child, her refusing to take the blame for her dog getting hit by a car led to the creation of both Maromi, a cute dog mascot based on the deceased dog, and Lil' Slugger, the fictional assailant she blamed Maromi's death on. Fast forward to present day and Maromi's popularity as a mascot led to pressure about creating a new mascot to reach similar levels of popularity, and unable to take the pressure, Tsukiko once again sought a convenient excuse to escape from her problems in the form of Lil' Slugger, creating a lie that would snowball as everyone began using the same excuse to escape from their own daily problems, which in turn causes a steadily-rising death count before nearly wiping Tokyo off the map. All the while, people began ignoring all the concerning issues happening around them by pushing Maromi, the mascot Tsukiko created, to the public, only causing the situation to worsen.
- When She Smiles: Well, in the crazy opening. In the main story proper, she never smiles, not even after she comes to terms with her past actions.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She's just a scared woman under a lot of pressure due to her job and status, always afraid of punishment due to her stern father. She also ends up creating something that almost destroys Tokyo.
Lil' Slugger
Lil' Slugger
Voiced by: Daisuke Sakaguchi (Japanese), Sam Riegel (English)
"Hello again."
Lil' Slugger is said to be a boy in grade school, who travels on gold roller skates and wields a gold baseball bat that's bent like a dog's leg. Initially Tsukiko's assailant, he soon goes on to target the mentally unstable and emotionally cornered.
- Ambiguously Human: He looks like an ordinary boy, but his Super-Strength and his tendency to seemingly show up out of nowhere raise the question of just what he truly is.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Lil' Slugger is this for the desire of people to not face the hardships in their lives and find an easy way out.
- Ax-Crazy: He seems to enjoy mowing others down. This is subverted as he's more like a machine repeating an endless program.
- Batter Up!: He wields a golden, bent bat.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: He is quite literally the deliverer of this trope, as he is capable of providing people with a brief respite from their problems by violently whacking them upside the head with his metal bat and allowing them to victimize themselves to distract from their failings. Some of what he can do goes even beyond that, such as giving amnesia to a girl who wanted to forget everything and murdering people who wanted to escape their stressful situations.
- Big Bad: He's the shows main villain, although it's open to interpretation whether he's even sentient in the first place. In truth, the real villain is the characters' inability to take responsibility for their actions, and he leaves as soon as Tsukiko accepts responsibility for her own.
- Dub Name Change: In the original Japanese version, he's "Shonen Bat", which translates to "Bat Boy". Yes, just like the Weekly World News character, which is presumably the reason for the change.
- Face Death with Dignity: When Tsukiko sees her past and accepts Maromi's death was just an accident with no villain, Li'l Slugger puts down his bat and bids her farewell.
- Grey Goo: His final form can be seen as this.
- The Heartless: He started out as a personification of Tsukiko's refusal to accept responsibility for her dog's death. Due to the increasing decadence and sloth of society, he eventually becomes this to all humans.
- Hulking Out: Misae's constant false alarms and teasing for him to strike her slowly causes him to grow larger and muscular. In the end, he only manages to inflict a very small wound and flees when he can't take it anymore.
- MacGuffin: Lil' Slugger is much less important than how the cast reacts to him.
- Never My Fault: Lil' Slugger is the Anthropomorphic Personification of never my fault, or more specifically a being who allows others to use this thought process.
- Not So Above It All: Apparently, Lil' Slugger is afraid of ghosts.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He looks like a grade schooler and is capable of beating people to death.
- The Quiet One: He's perfectly capable of speaking, but he rarely does. Most of his dialogue comes from the made-up stories told by the Gossipy Hens in "Etc." When he does actually speak, it's only to Tsukiko, saying "Hello again" after she sees him hit Kawazu, and "Goodbye" after she accepts her responsibility for Maromi's death.
- Shadow Archetype: To everyone, Tsukiko in particular.
- Slasher Smile: It appears right before he's about to strike.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's less a full-fledged character than a presence that underlies the entire story. He's not as important as how the cast reacts to him.
- Tulpa: His true nature, a product of the delusion Tsukiko had that a random kid killed her dog rather than a tragic accident she was semi-responsible for, given power and physical form by others' belief in him.
- Villainous Breakdown: While Misae Ikari tells Lil’ Slugger her personal woes, he gradually becomes more impatient by the minute as she doesn’t succumb to despair, ultimately degrading into a screaming rage as she states her husband’s love and her pride as a loving wife gives her determination and hope for the future along how much of a fool he is to think he could deliver her an escape. But because she's not the one who can actually stop him, all it ultimately does is make him go One-Winged Angel.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Is Lil' Slugger a real person? Or just a lie blown out of proportion by rumors and mob mentality? Either way, he's coming for you.
Keiichi Ikari
Keiichi Ikari
Voiced by: Shōzō Iizuka (Japanese), Michael McConnohie (English)
"My place disappeared from this world a long time ago! The reality is that there is no place for me anymore—but that's the reality I have to face!"
Maniwa's partner, a detective in charge of cracking the Lil' Slugger case. Ikari is stern and old-fashioned, but a hard worker with strong morals.
- Agent Scully: The Agent Scully to Maniwa's Mulder.
- Friendly Enemies: After losing his job as a cop and working security, Ikari finds himself working with a man he once arrested for burglary. The ex-con holds no grudge against the ex-cop, and the two reminisce about the good old days.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: The bad to Maniwa's good.
- Grumpy Old Man: He's an older cop who doesn't have much patience for Maniwa's nonsense at the best of times.
- Happily Married: He married his wife, Misae, despite her illness, and vowed that they would face anything life threw at them together. Misae appearing in his 2D world and remembering his own encouraging words to her to not give up is what helps break him out of Manomi's illusion.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: He becomes increasingly willing to use this on suspects as the series continues.
- Living Relic: A comment he makes at the end of the series and how his 2D world looks implies that he either grew up during World War II or during the industrial upheaval Japan underwent.
- Old Cop, Young Cop: The old cop to Maniwa's young cop.
- Only Sane Man: Relatively. He's the only one questioning Kozuka's imaginative narrative, but he easily gets sucked into Maromi's Lotus-Eater Machine world. However, he eventually summons the courage to return to reality.
- Sanity Slippage: When he gets trapped in his 2D world. He gets better.
- Trapped in the Past: Literally, when in his 2D Lotus-Eater Machine world. It looks like a developing rural town. It makes sense, since that's likely a place he grew up in, and therefore it'd be familiar and comforting.
- Would Hurt a Child: His interrogation with the middle school aged Kozuka is less than gentle, slamming him across the room and roughly grabbing him by the hair when he isn’t giving any answers he wants.
Mitsuhiro Maniwa
Mitsuhiro Maniwa
Voiced by: Toshihiko Seki (Japanese), Liam O'Brien (English)
Mitsuhiro Maniwa
Ikari's partner, a detective in charge of cracking the Lil' Slugger case. Maniwa is gentler than Ikari, and more open-minded.
- Agent Mulder: The agent Mulder to Ikari's Scully.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He really gets into the spirit of Kozuka's fantasy narrative.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He does this in his confrontation with Lil' Slugger in "Radar Man".
- Goggles Do Something Unusual: As "Radar Man", his goggles are connected to the police database, amongst other things, but considering how bat-shit insane the guy in the costume is at that point, it's hard to tell.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: The good to Ikari's bad.
- Old Cop, Young Cop: The young cop to Ikari's old cop.
- Prematurely Grey-Haired: His hair has turned white by the epilogue, showing that he has gone mad just like the old man from the start.
- Sanity Slippage: The result of his search for the truth. However, this is necessary when it comes to fighting off Lil' Slugger.
- Seeker Archetype: Despite getting fired, Maniwa continues to look for the truth of what Lil' Slugger is and how to defeat him.
- Success Through Insanity: The only way to beat Lil' Slugger is to go entirely insane. Radar Man has been driven mad by the revelation, but his craziness also feeds him the information he needs to fight the menace to reality. Sort of.
- Superhero: In order to defeat Lil' Slugger, Maniwa has become Radar Man.
- Took a Level in Badass: Full stop, near the end. Although what's genuine badassery and what's genuine insanity isn't made very clear.
Maromi
Maromi
Voiced by: Haruko Momoi (Japanese), Carrie Savage (English)
Maromi
This pink-furred dog is a popular character created by Tsukiko.
- Ambiguously Evil: Like Lil' Slugger, Maromi was born from Tsukiko's refusal to accept reality and feeds on Japan's collective avoidance of reality. And also like Lil' Slugger, it's unclear whether Maromi was doing this intentionally, obliviously, or if it's even truly sentient.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Of Escapism, as opposed to Lil' Slugger's Never My Fault. This is not a good or healthy thing.
- Catchphrase: "Take a rest!" Later on it almost becomes a Madness Mantra.
- Dead Guy Junior: Maromi is named and modeled after Tsukiko's childhood pet, whose death she was accidentally responsible for.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: You'd be forgiven for thinking that Maromi is a girl, given his pink fur, long eyelashes and high-pitched voice.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Maromi tries to keep Tsukiko safe during the Slugger-induced destruction of Tokyo, to the point that he sacrifices himself to keep Lil' Slugger away from her, though it just fuses with him to become worse.
- Expy: Maromi's basically a parody of Sanrio characters, particularly Hello Kitty.
- Fusion Dance: An accidental one in the finale, where after sacrificing himself to try and keep Lil' Slugger away from Tsukiko, but instead just causes the two beings to become one. Lil' Slugger's black ooze from gaining the pink cloth of Maromi all around it. It makes sense when one realizes that they're both one and the same entity made by Tsukiko.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Downplayed on the "heroic" part, but when Lil' Slugger comes for Tsukiko and Ikari, he becomes giant to try and stop him, and when it fails and they fuse, he can be heard tell Tsukiko to run away.
- No Mouth: Maromi doesn't have one.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Sort of. It's ambiguous whether what Tsukiko perceives is real or a product of her mental and emotional state.
- Security Blanket: Maromi acts as one for Tsukiko, and to the rest of Japan once the fear of Lil' Slugger spreads. When Maromi disappears into Ikari's and Tsukiko Lotus-Eater Machine, it's the final nail in the coffin, and humanity ends up turning Lil' Slugger into a growing ooze monster.
- That Man Is Dead: Maromi completely vanishes from the public eye after the events surrounding Tokyo's near-destruction, with its citizens implied to have become aware of Maromi's association with Lil' Slugger.
- Two Aliases, One Character: Maromi and Lil' Slugger are essentially the same entity.
Supporting Characters
Akio Kawazu
Akio Kawazu
Voiced by: Kenji Utsumi (Japanese), Doug Stone (English)
Akio Kawazu
A sleazy journalist for Weekly Rumor Magazine who pursues Tsukiko in order to write about her encounter with Lil' Slugger.
- Corruption of a Minor: He does this when he downloads a pornographic image for the kids at the coffee shop.
- Gonk: His appearance is distinctly froglike. In fact, he's portrayed as a talking frog in Kozuka's fantasy world.
- It's All About Me: Most of Lil' Slugger's victims are marked by a certain type of selfishness, but he's particularly greedy and self-centered even among them.
- Jerkass: He's the one responsible for the old man being in the hospital, having hit him with his car. He views himself as the victim since he's the one who has to pay money for the old man's medical expenses.
- My Card: He hands his business card out a lot.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Subtly in the finale he seems a lot less stressed and fondly smiles at Tsukiko before going their separate ways.
- Voice Changeling: He's the one to tell Tsukiko that her coworkers badmouth her behind her back, and he does this through imitating their voices perfectly. All the coworkers he imitates are female, and each time he impersonates them, his face also imitates their makeup.
Yuichi Taira
Yuichi Taira
Voiced by: Mayumi Yamaguchi (Japanese), Johnny Yong Bosch (English)note
Yuichi Taira
A popular grade schooler who loses his status when his similar appearance to Lil' Slugger leads to him getting bullied at school.
- The Ace: Yuichi starts out as one. In the beginning of "The Golden Shoes", he brags about himself. Towards the end of the episode, he has Imagine Spots.
- Asshole Victim: He's absolutely innocent of being Lil' Slugger, but he's such an egotistical prick and an asshole to Ushiyama that it's hard to feel sympathetic.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Yuichi's hatred of Ushiyama became so great that he wished the latter would get attacked by Lil' Slugger, which ends up happening. However, it's later revealed that Ushiyama was attacked by an imposter. While Yuichi is initially elated, he soon realizes that since he was present when Ushiyama was attacked, this will only make him look even more guilty in the eyes of his bullies.
- Book Dumb: Subverted as he doesn't actually need a tutor, but he pretends that he does because he's enamored with Harumi.
- Break the Haughty: This leads to his Sanity Slippage.
- Green-Eyed Monster: It's heavily implied that the real reason Yuichi is convinced that Ushiyama is spreading the rumors about him is because he's jealous of Ushiyama's popularity.
- In-Series Nickname: "Ichi", because he's number one.
- The Scapegoat: Yuichi quickly comes to the conclusion that Ushiyama is the one telling everyone he's Little Slugger, because... well, he doesn't really have a good reason, he just doesn't like the guy and desperately wants to pin the blame on someone.
- Jerkass: Even when the person he threatened was defending him, he still had it out for him, blaming him for the rumors spreading around.
- Precocious Crush: Yuichi doesn't really need a tutor, as he's willing to admit to himself; in actuality, the reason he has Harumi as a tutor is because of this.
- Spoiled Brat: More due to circumstance than parents; life dealt the kid a winning hand and he wound up being vain and selfish as a result. When things start to go badly for him, he has no idea how to deal with it, and that's when his jerkass traits start to become apparent.
- Twinkle Smile: He starts out with one, along with Audible Gleam, in "The Golden Shoes". He even practices it in the mirror before he leaves for school. However, he quickly loses it as things start going wrong for him.
- Uncertain Doom: Is last seen in the finale being swallowed up by Lil' Slugger's Grey Goo form as it engulfs the city. It's not shown if he survived or not.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Despite Ushiyama trying to defend Yuichi from the clear photographic evidence of the latter bullying him, Yuichi still hates him.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: When Harumi visits him in the hospital, Yuichi tells her that being attacked by Lil' Slugger has "freed" him. As Harumi's problems with her Split Personality worsen, she remembers Yuichi's words and also begins to desire to be "free," resulting in her getting attacked.
Harumi Chono
Harumi Chono
Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi (Japanese), Erica Shaffer (English)
Harumi Chono
Yuichi's tutor and a researcher at a university.
- All for Nothing: She gets exposed as the prostitute Maria after being hospitalized by Lil' Slugger. Might have been good for her, however, since she didn't have to face her fears by telling her fiancé about her double life herself.
- Bespectacled Cutie: She wears glasses. She doesn't wear them when she's Maria.
- Dark Secret: The fact that she's a prostitute named Maria by night. Her therapist advises her to come clean about it, but she desperately tries to keep it hidden for the sake of her reputation as a teacher and her relationship with her fiancé, which only results in her mental health worsening to the point of a mental breakdown up until Lil' Slugger gives her a momentary reprieve from her problems by hospitalizing her.
- Harassing Phone Call: She receives several on her answering machine. It turns out that Maria is the one leaving them.
- Hope Spot: In the middle of the episode, it seemed like the therapist was right in that Maria would go away when Harumi accepted herself and got married… only for Maria to go back on her word and come back in full force in an attempt to replace Harumi as the dominant personality.
- Jekyll & Hyde: Tutor by day, prostitute by night.
- Meaningful Name: The "Cho" in Chono is one way of saying "butterfly" (chocho). The former is tied into the main plot; the latter refers to Harumi's multiple personalities.
- Naughty by Night: By day, she's mild-mannered, shy, and somewhat repressed. But at night, Maria the prostitute takes over.
- Pet the Dog: For what it's worth, she was genuinely concerned when Yuichi admitted to her that he was being bullied, and immediately offered to tell his mom or another adult. The only reason she didn't was because Yuichi told her not to.
- Private Tutor: She serves as this during the day for Yuichi.
- Sanity Slippage: As result of Maria becoming more and more aggressive as Harumi tries to get rid of her. She's only "saved" when Lil' Slugger makes her his next target after she remembers Yuichi's words about Lil' Slugger setting him free. Though it ends up only being a temporary reprieve, as during the finale, she is seen very poorly dressed as Maria in a back alley, as though the two personalities are still struggling moments before being swallowed by Lil' Slugger's goo form.
- Split Personality: She is a woman who suffers from this disorder, being herself during the day but a Genki Girl prostitute named Maria by night. Maria really wants to replace her original personality and becomes more aggressive the more Harumi tries to get rid of her, and toward the end of her focus episode, she runs out into the street and is assaulted by "Maria," but is shown to actually attacking herself because "Maria" isn't real. She's only "saved" when Lil' Slugger attacks her, resulting in her hospitalization and giving her a momentary escape from her problems.
- There Are No Therapists: Subverted. She does see a therapist for her multiple personalities, who even advises her to tell her fiancé about it. This is downplayed as someone with as severe mental health problems as Harumi would be institutionalized in real life.
- Uncertain Doom: Is last seen in the finale being swallowed up by Lil' Slugger's Grey Goo form as it engulfs the city. It's not shown if she survived or not.
Masami Hirukawa
Masami Hirukawa
Voiced by: Toshihiko Nakajima (Japanese), Deem Bristow (English)
Masami Hirukawa
A Tokyo police officer and father to Taeko Hirukawa.
- The Atoner: Played subtly. Hirukawa has a sick, disturbing fascination with his daughter, and young girls in general, and is also a Dirty Cop taking bribes from Yakuza, then committing petty robberies and break-ins when the yakuza demand some money back. Eventually growing disgusted with himself, after it's heavily implied that he raped a young girl, he accidentally catches what seems to be Lil' Slugger. After that makes him a hero, he seems to be trying to make a wholesome, honest connection with his daughter. However, with the revelation that his daughter doesn't remember anything after her run in with Lil' Slugger, much less him, he seems more broken than ever.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After his daughter learns of his transgressions, he just wants her to forgive him. She does but only because she loses her memory after suffering severe mental trauma.
- Blackmail: Mob boss Makabe threatens to expose his crimes. He becomes a burglar to get the money to pay Makabe off.
- Dirty Cop: He takes bribes from the local yakuza, robs people to pay off debts, and is one of Maria's regulars.
- Failed a Spot Check: He forgot to empty out his computer's recycle bin, inadvertently allowing his daughter to find out about his recordings of her undressing in her room.
- Hypocrite: He says that he's working hard to provide for his wife and daughter during a montage of him gambling, drinking, and hiring prostitutes.
- Karma Houdini: At first. His focus episode has him getting clobbered by Lil' Slugger's copycat Makoto Kozuka, so the easy way out doesn't stick to him. Hell, even when drunk and disoriented, he manages to apprehend Kozuka and gets hailed a hero who's never found out about all the crimes he committed. However...
- Laser-Guided Karma: His treatment of his daughter, taking bribes from the yakuza, and all around unsavory behavior comes back to bite him in the butt after he loses his house to a storm and Taeko forgets who he is following her encounter with Lil' Slugger.
- My God, What Have I Done?: To what little credit the guy has, he finally has a moment of clarity and wishes someone would stop him after it's implied that he raped the daughter of a family he robbed.
- Pædo Hunt: It is heavily implied that Hirukawa is a pedophile who fantasizes about his underage daughter, Taeko, even going so far as to install a camera in her bedroom to watch her undress. It is also insinuated that he raped a young girl during one of his burglaries. However, he's well aware of how sick his fantasies are, though it takes going off the edge for him to admit it to himself.
- Pervert Dad: He set up a camera in his daughter's room to watch her undress.
- Sanity Slippage: A mild example, compared to everyone else. However, he's completely gone after Taeko forgets who he is.
Taeko Hirukawa
Taeko Hirukawa
Voiced by: Nana Mizuki (Japanese), Kari Wahlgren (English)note
Taeko Hirukawa
Masami's 17-year-old daughter.
- Aesop Collateral Damage: She ends up calling Lil' Slugger down upon herself in her despair after learning that her father set up a hidden camera in her room to take naked pictures of her. The Trauma-Induced Amnesia from her attack causes her to forget what she learned about her father. Despite this, it is her father who suffers the most from the ordeal thanks to his actions.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: She winds up wishing that the house her father had built for his family would disappear, and that she could forget the terrible things that have happened to her. Both wishes come true, the first because of a devastating storm, the second thanks to Lil' Slugger.
- Blush Sticker: She had these when she was young.
- Boyish Short Hair: She has short hair.
- Break the Cutie: When she learns the truth about her father, she's really broken.
- Daddy's Girl: Is very much this until she discovers the pictures of her that her father took.
- Driven to Suicide: She threatens to drown herself in a raging river, but after an unpleasant Imagine Spot, she doesn't go through with it.
- Father, I Want to Marry My Brother: When she was young, she innocently told her father that she wanted to marry him. It may have started his perversion for his own daughter.
- Girlish Pigtails: She sported a pair of pigtails when she was young.
- Perpetual Smiler: After getting clobbered by Lil' Slugger. However, it's much more disturbing due to the fact she suffered from Trauma-Induced Amnesia that made her forget about her own father, just like she wished.
- Signature Headgear: Her floppy summer hat, which emphasizes her innocence.
- Stress Vomit: Understandably so after she discovers that her dad has been secretly taking pictures of her undressing.
- Trash the Set: One way she reacts to the revelation about her father.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: After her encounter with Lil' Slugger, she completely forgets who her dad is.
- Uncertain Doom: Is last seen in the finale being swallowed up by Lil' Slugger's Grey Goo form as it engulfs the city. It's not shown if she survived or not.
Makoto Kozuka
Makoto Kozuka
Voiced by: Daisuke Sakaguchi (Japanese), Sam Riegel (English)
Makoto Kozuka
A copycat who imitates Lil' Slugger, arrested after his attempt to knock out Masami.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He treats life like a Tabletop RPG, calling himself a holy warrior. He eventually gets Ikari and Maniwa sucked into his fantasy world narrative, with Maniwa going along with it and Ikari getting really annoyed.
- Driven to Suicide: His death is reported as a suicide, although Lil' Slugger was present with a blood-covered bat. He is later revealed to have been suicidal prior to going on his Holy Warrior rampage, intending to take revenge on the world before dying.
- Identical Stranger: He looks exactly like Lil' Slugger, although Kozuka is shown to have braces.
- Jack the Ripoff: He's not the real Lil' Slugger, just a kid copying him. His facade falls apart when his bat fails to knock out Masami, and instead results in Kozuka being on the receiving end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
Minor Characters
The Old Man
The Old Man
Voiced by: Ryuji Saikachi (Japanese), William Frederick Knight (English)
An old man in a hospital who Kawazu struck with his car.
- Mad Oracle: His chalk equations reveal numbers that are important to the plot. He's literally treated as one in Kozuka's fantasy.
- No Name Given: His name is never revealed.
- On the Next: He's in charge of narrating these, in Mind Screw metaphors.
- Passing the Torch: When Maniwa goes to visit him in the final episode, Maniwa refers to him as the Ancient Master. The old man gives him one final prophetic statement and succumbs to death. Maniwa is somehow able to comprehend the jibber-jabber and becomes the next oracle.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: He almost always has a blank expression on his face. The only time his expression changes is when he sees Tsukiko while she's on the bus.
The Old Woman
The Old Woman
Voiced by: Hisako Kyoda (Japanese), Melora Harte (English)
An old homeless woman who Tsukiko saw shortly before her encounter with Lil' Slugger.
- Chekhov's Gunman: At first, she seems to disappear immediately after Tsukiko sees her. It turns out she didn't leave, and she reveals that she saw Tsukiko hit herself with a pipe.
- Must Have Nicotine: She's relieved when the detectives offer her a cigarette.
- Red Herring: Much of "Fear of a Direct Hit" heavily implies that she's Taeko's grandmother. However, at the end of the episode, it's revealed that her granddaughter is actually a woman named Midori Shibazaki.
Shōgo Ushiyama
Shōgo Ushiyama
Voiced by: Makoto Tsumura (Japanese), Steven Bendik (English)
Yuichi's classmate.
- Blush Sticker: Ushiyama has these.
- Foil: Ushiyama is a poor boy from the country in contrast to Yuichi's privileged position. He tries to win an election in an attempt to better himself on his own merit, while Yuichi is stuck on his past popularity and blames Ushiyama for everything.
- Nice Guy: Even when Yuichi threatens him, he tries to defend Yuichi by claiming that someone's trying to ruin his reputation. Although Yuichi, being a paranoid Jerkass, isn't exactly grateful.
- Red Herring: Not only was he attacked by a Lil' Slugger impersonator, but he's the only character that isn't emotionally cornered.
- Riddle for the Ages: Ushiyama is, for some reason, carrying a small coconut tree when he walks along with Yuichi. Yuichi wonders about this, but never asks, and we never learn why.
Kamome, Fuyubachi and Zebra
Kamome, Fuyubachi and Zebra
Kamome's voiced by: Miina Tominaga (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)
Fuyubachi's voiced by: Kiyoshi Kawakubo (Japanese), Doug Stone (English)
Zebra's voiced by: Yasunori Matsumoto (Japanese), Patrick Seitz (English)
Left to right: Zebra, Kamome and Fuyubachi
A little girl, an old man, and a tall gay man who all met online and agreed to a suicide pact.
- Abusive Parents: It's implied that Kamome gets no love in her family, given she tearfully breaks down and begs Fuyubachi and Zebra to not leave her alone.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: They did die like they wanted, but are now ghosts trapped in a limbo world they can't ever escape leave since it's impossible for them to die again. Only Zebra and Fuyubachi are aware of this, however, and they will most likely attempt to make the best of a bad situation with the oblivious Kamome.
- Casts No Shadow: Their shadows disappear after the building collapses on them. This is how Fuyubachi realizes they've been dead this whole time.
- Dead All Along: Not at first. They were inside a condemned building as it was being knocked down, and that's what killed them. The rest of the episode has them attempting to kill themselves not knowing that they're already dead.
- Driven to Suicide: Although the group remains oddly chipper for being suicidal, especially Kamome.
- Gayngst: Zebra. It's never revealed what exactly brought it about, although his lover is later seen in bed with the yakuza that bribed Hirukawa.
- Horrifying the Horror: When Lil' Slugger shows up at a hotel they're staying at, they're outright excited at the prospect of being killed by him. When Lil' Slugger sees this, he doesn't know how to handle it, and runs away. That or he's afraid of ghosts.
- Red Herring: Unlike the rest of the Lil' Slugger victims, they're not related to the overarching Lil' Slugger narrative at all but are just fanatics believing that he can kill them.
- The Runt at the End: In the grand scheme of things, they're the only people whose lives weren't exactly involved in Lil' Slugger's accidents. He (or another fake double) only appears in the hot spring hotel and gets spooked when he sees them, since they're ghosts.
- Stepford Smiler: Kamome, who tries hard to appear as a cheerful child hiding her deep insecurities about her family not loving her.
- Straight Gay: Zebra doesn't exactly display any gay mannerisms. The only reason his sexuality is known is because he drops a love locket with his lover in it at one point.
- Suicide Pact: They met online and organized one.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Their despair naturally attracts Lil' Slugger, but he's scared off when he realizes that they're ghosts and presumably can't be killed again.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Fuyubachi and Zebra are taken aback when they discover that the third member of their suicide pact is a little girl. They both think she's far too young to want to kill herself, and since none of them want to die alone, they try to ditch her several times and kill themselves before she can join them.
The Mellow Maromi staff
The Mellow Maromi staff
The production staff for a new anime based on the hit character Maromi. Unfortunately, the stress of an animation career (not helped at all by one of the production managers, Naoyuki Saruta) puts them in the crosshairs of Lil' Slugger...- Animal Motifs: Saruta, in particular, resembles a monkey. Being compared to one is also his Berserk Button. This is part of the series' overarching theme of characters having names that reference an animal, as "Saru" means "monkey".
- Asshole Victim: After spending much of the episode as The Millstone, and refusing to take responsibility for it, it's rather cathartic to see Saruta reduced to screaming helplessly as Lil' Slugger catches up to him.
- Broken Tears: Takenori Kumakura sheds these after Saruta unwittingly ruins his hard work. He slumps to his knees and weeps like a child, barely even noticing as Nobunaga Oda chews Saruta out.
- Can't Take Criticism: Implied by Saruta's refusal to accept any responsibility for his actions.
- Dies Wide Open: Several of the characters who we see dead have their eyes open.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Oda, the other production manager, is prone to this. Saruta's screw-ups notwithstanding, lashing out at him physically was going a bit too far when he could (and should) have just fired him.
- Driven to Suicide: Implied with Kumakura. Shortly after Saruta's screw-up, we're shown a shot of his empty work station with a note from him saying, "Please don't look for me."
- Drives Like Crazy: Saruta, while rushing the first episode of Mellow Maromi to the TV studio. Admittedly, he's dangerously close to missing the deadline. And being chased by Lil' Slugger.
- Failed a Spot Check:
- When Saruta goes to the house of the animation director, Hitomi Kanie, to pick up the materials she was checking, he fails to notice that she's dead from blunt force trauma, complete with a pool of blood from her head:
Saruta: Oda, you scumbag. She looked like she was sleeping! I'm not so dumb that I can't tell a dead person from a living one!- Oda is too gleeful that the first episode's completed that he doesn't notice, or due to high levels of stress and insanity, more likely doesn’t care about, the dead employee nearby.
- Foreshadowing: After being chewed out by Oda for his latest screw-up, Saruta is seen in a supply closet venting his frustrations by hitting a bunch of empty crates with a broom, his expression getting increasingly crazed as he does so. Guess what he ends up doing later?
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Saruta is this to the rest of the production staff, being such a screw-up that no one can stand him.
- Laughing Mad: Saruta, when he thinks he's outrun Lil' Slugger. It doesn't last.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The production staff start getting hospitalized and killed off as the stresses of working on Mellow Maromi start piling up. But were they victims of Lil' Slugger, or Saruta after he went off the deep end? It's left ambiguous, save for Oda and Saruta's deaths.
- Miles Gloriosus: Saruta thinks he's integral to the release of Mellow Maromi, and that there's no way he could be a screw-up. He's the only one left to rush the first episode to the TV studio, but only because his bumbling either drove the others into being attacked by Lil' Slugger or committing suicide. And he killed at least one of them himself.
- The Millstone: Saruta. Not only does his clumsiness and absent-minded nature make him the cause of several delays, but he doesn't even acknowledge the idea that he's a chronic screw-up.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Nobunaga Oda shares his name with the Warring States-era shogun.
- Never My Fault: Saruta. He refuses to so much as apologize for his screw-ups, either saying that it's the offended party's fault, as seen when he complains that one staff member shouldn't have plugged in their computer cord in a public socket where he tripped over it, or stubbornly insisting that they need to get the work done even though he dropped it on them at the last second.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Saruta is a deconstruction of this. He's goofy and bumbling, but these traits cause a lot of stress to his co-workers.
- Sanity Slippage:
- Saruta, being one of the main focus characters, isn't immune. As shown under Foreshadowing, he was suppressing a lot of stress; but after Oda finally fires him, he snaps.
- As the deadline looms ever closer, and more and more setbacks pile up, the remaining production staff start to break down. It gets so bad that Oda, upon discovering that the first episode's been completed, is too relieved to notice the dead employee nearby. Or Saruta standing behind him, lifting the bat.
- Too Dumb to Live: Saruta's a borderline example. Case in point, after the art director, Kumakura, explicitly tells him to be careful with the background cel he finished, what does Saruta do? He crumples the fragile picture in the process of folding it up.
Misae Ikari
Misae Ikari
Voiced by: Kazue Komiya (Japanese), Melodee Spevack (English)
The wife of Keiichi, who suffers from depression and a serious illness.
- Astral Projection: She somehow comes into Maromi's constructed world to say goodbye to her husband when she dies on the operating table, freeing him from the illusion in the process.
- Break Them by Talking: She absolutely demolishes Lil' Slugger using only verbal judo, and he's forced to retreat from her when he can neither take it anymore nor touch her. It's far from perfect, though - because she's not the one who has to deal with him permanently, this discussion causes him to turn into his final form and rampage through Tokyo.
- Contemplate Our Navels: Her discussion with Lil' Slugger looks like this initially, but it eventually turns into her calmly musing about all the major aspects about her life and marriage and how she accepts them all, wants to keep living, and is going to undergo the surgery she was afraid of.
- Handicapped Badass: She's suffering from an unspecified, terminal health condition and is physically frail, but she's the one character who causes Lil' Slugger some serious pain, physically and mentally, just by talking. Her talking him down is considered one of the highlights of the series, and is the first clue that Lil' Slugger does actually have vulnerabilities.
- Happily Married: Despite their marriage having some strains (namely, Misae's illness and Keiichi constantly working), Keiichi is nothing but supportive to Misae and always encourages her to not give up. Misae, in turn, trusts her husband and does everything in her power to make him comfortable when he is home.
- Only Sane Woman: Out of everyone in the series, she is the only sane character who doesn’t shift the blame of her flaws, problems, or demons onto others nor does she seek death or an escape from them and instead realizes she has to come to terms with them and stand on her own two feet. As a result, she is the only person to harm Lil’ Slugger.
- Power of Love: Despite being on her deathbed she goes to the 2D world her husband is in and tells him no matter how their lives turned out, she was happy with him and everything he gave her. It snaps him out of his denial and has him shatter the 2D world.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She utterly destroys Lil' Slugger when he tries to come for her. She's not hiding from anything, and she admits the faults others would rather pass the blame on, leaving him unable to do anything to her. Unfortunately, it's not enough to kill him - Tsukiko is the only one who can do that, because he was born from her guilt.
- Red Herring: Of all the people Lil' Slugger comes for, she is the only one to escape with only a small scratch. This is because unlike every other victim, she's not seeking the easy way out and has come to terms with her life as it is, even the hardships like her husband working late hours and her own depression.
- Silk Hiding Steel: She is very calm and composed, yet very able to tell an increasingly pissed off Lil' Slugger where to shove the bat meant for her, all while sipping her tea.
- Talking the Monster to Death: She comes very close; her "The Reason You Suck" Speech clearly causes Lil' Slugger real, physical pain.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: The one person capable of standing up to Lil' Slugger dies on the operating table while trying to fix a long-term medical condition that was a problem long before the boy with the bat ever came along.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: She admits that her marriage consists of her being this for her husband: she's kind, gentle, and a devoted housewife, and her last act is to say goodbye to him as she dies, having found peace.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She recounts how much her illness has affected her marriage to Keiichi (having a miscarriage, him constantly working to afford her medical bills, etc.), and that she's often felt that she's a burden to him. However, Keiichi would never let her succumb to her depression, telling her that whatever reality chose to throw at them, they would face it together. This mindset ends up being key in defeating Lil' Slugger.
