Characters / The Case Files of Jeweler Richard

Main Characters

Seigi Nakata

Voiced by: Yūma Uchida

He truly is an ally of justice.

The protagonist of the series, despite the title. Seigi is a university student who happens to save a beautiful foreigner from a bunch of drunks one night, and thus meets Richard, his future boss and friend.

Representative jewel: pink sapphire.

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• Abusive Parents: His biological father, unfortunately. It's something of a family trait, given that both his biological grandfathers were as well.
• Animal Lover: Seigi does not have pets in the anime because his apartment does not allow them, but he loves them a lot and adopts a dog at the nearly the soonest opportunity once he lives in a house in Sri Lanka.
• Ambiguously Bi:
  • Seigi has a crush on Shouko Tanimoto, a fellow university schoolmate. At the same time, Seigi also finds Richard extremely beautiful, spends a lot of time in the novels waxing lyrical about Richard's beauty, dreams of Richard almost kissing him in the novels, and declares on multiple occasions that he likes Richard.
  • In volume 9, Seigi has probably upgraded to unambiguously bi when he outright asks Richard to date him.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: Seigi sings multiple times in volume 11, to wide-spread appreciation and compliments from others, and is even requested to sub in for a professional at a work event.
• Beleaguered Childhood Friend: A variant of this with Hase-senpai from Seigi's past, when he appears in Opal to try to sell a fire opal to Richard, only for Seigi to discover it doesn't exactly belong to him.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Seigi has a black belt in karate and quite the temper. Do not piss him off.
• Birds of a Feather: Richard refers to Seigi as a "mirror" to his soul. Sinhalite’s first part is intentionally written to mislead readers on the identity of the mystery man by having Seigi speak perfect English just like Richard, expecting readers to guess incorrectly whether the man is Seigi or Richard. While they seem very different at times, the series makes a point to show us that they are very similar people at their core.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Both Richard and Seigi call their mothers by their first name. And both stop toward the end of volume eight.
• The Champion: Seigi grows into this one with Richard as the person he champions. By the time he declares "his job is Richard" and wants to spend his life ensuring Richard lives in luxury and that if he had any other job than Richard's secretary, he would quit in a second to help Richard, he has turned well into this trope.
• Character Narrator: The novels are mostly told from Seigi's perspective, with a few extra chapters and prologues from other characters' points of view. This also means that the narration often derails to describe Richard's beauty.
• Chevalier vs. Rogue: Him and Vincent, with Seigi as the Chevalier, an upstanding ally of justice as always. Extra points, since Richard's mother calls him "mon chevalier" at one point.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Seigi is teased about his name meaning "justice" because he is entirely committed to the cause.
• Completely Unnecessary Translator:
  • Seigi pretends to be one of these for Richard in Turquoise when they go undercover.
  • He was also pretending to be this in Diamond.
• Crush Filter: Seigi sees Tanimoto as an angel. In episode 8, Seigi finds her at the museum, and the light shining through the window behind her made her look even more ethereal.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Seigi spends most of the series so far doing this! He seems have finally settled on his purpose in life being to take care of Richard however possible by the end of volume ten.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Seigi quietly holds himself available for Tanimoto, despite her stated lack of interest, for nine books. She does seem to finally cure him of this in volume nine.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Seigi waxes poetic over Richard's beauty a lot with Richard, both in the anime and even more in the novels. He can't shut up about how beautiful Richard is, both in his thoughts and out loud (sometimes even accidentally).
  Seigi: "I had never laid my eyes on such a beautiful person in my life. High cheekbones, a straight nose, golden hair that had a habit of being loose, smooth white skin. There were shades in those blue eyes, and it felt like I could stare at them forever. A creature who seemed to have gathered all of their parts from the world’s most beautiful people, and they harmonized together with a miraculous balance. Even time, air, and dust particles flowed around this person in a different rhythm."
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Seigi tends to be bad at expressing his feelings because he's not quite sure what they are, but in volume nine, it takes him more than one try to ask Richard out.
• Famed In-Story: Turns out, Seigi's first adventure in London got around the British nobility gossip circles.
• First-Name Basis:
  • Richard and Seigi, to each other. To be fair, Richard is a foreigner who doesn't come from a culture of addressing people using last names, and Seigi was the one who first referred to Richard as "Richard-san". (And "Ranasinghe de Vulpian-san" is too long and difficult to use.) But Richard said he wasn't used to being referred to with honorifics, so that was dropped as well.
  • Most if not all of Seigi’s college friends refer to him by his first name, though Seigi calls most of them by their last names instead.
• Following in Their Rescuer's Footsteps: Inverted. Seigi saves Richard, and then follows his footsteps into a career. Of course, Richard does his fair share of the saving later on.
• Girl Friday: Gender-Inverted Trope, since Seigi is a man working as Richard's assistant.
• Goal in Life: Seigi finally decides in volume ten "his job is Richard." He spends a lot of Act Two saying that he wants to be Richard's support and backbone.
• Good Is Not Soft: Whether or not Seigi tries to mend fences with someone is a good indication of whether or not they'll be redeemed in the series. Notable characters he has no sympathy for whatsoever and who activate Beware the Nice Ones include:
  • In volume six, his biological father.
  • In volume seven, the man who sexually harasses Richard.
• Has a Type: All of the characters Seigi is even sort of attracted to over the course of the series seem to have something in common with Richard. He likes older, wealthy, well-dressed geology geeks who buy him dinner. At one point, he mentions possibly falling in love with "a rich woman of peerless beauty."
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Seigi does repeatedly reasserts his interest in women, especially in volume 4 where he keeps wondering if his feelings for Richard are romantic and also keeps telling himself that the person he likes is Tanimoto. It's unclear if he's simply trying to convince himself.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Seigi is a great fan of all animals but the pet he ends up taking in when he has the opportunity is a puppy.
• Heroic BSoD: Seigi has a breakdown post volume-six and Tanzanite. Very little of this is covered on the page, but he has to attend therapy and we still see the effects years later.
• Heroism Equals Job Qualification: Played with a bit—one of the major reasons Seigi is hired by Richard at all is because he rescued Richard when they first met. However, he does still need a jeweler's license to be promoted.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: By the time volume 9 rolls around, Seigi wants to at least be this with Richard, if not romantic partners. Though it can certainly be argued that the two of them have probably already reached this point earlier. Also, the hetero part is debatable.
• Hopeless with Tech: Seigi avoids social media, doesn't really know how to use it, and specifically requests to be kept off of other's social media feeds to avoid his stalker biological father. He also doesn't understand wiping his browser history on a library computer. Hopeless with video games. But he does know how to use his cell phone, and later even starts a blog, though he doesn't seem very savvy with it.
• Innocent Bigot: Seigi in the early parts of the story unintentionally offends a lot of people with Open Mouth, Insert Foot syndrome, mostly as microaggressions. Richard repeatedly calls him out until he gets better about it.
• Innocently Insensitive: He doesn't do it on purpose, but sometimes he's not aware of how his words can hurt others. While he is a kind person and usually bears no ill will towards others, he has the tendency to speak without taking into consideration how his speech might affect the other person, making him come off as rather pushy at times. Richard even calls him out for this.
• Internalized Categorism: Richard calls Seigi out for being biased against survivors of child abuse, because Seigi believes his abusive father means he himself will become abusive.
• Interclass Friendship: Richard, the son of a noble family, and Seigi, the son of a working-class mom.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • In episode 8, Seigi was all right with Tanimoto marrying Homura, never telling Tanimoto about his feelings, if it meant that she would be happier. Richard calls him an idiot and tells him to do something before he regrets it in the future.
  • Revisited again in volume 9, this time with Seigi believing Richard wants to rekindle his relationship with his ex. He isn’t able to go through with it and starts crying at the thought.
• Just Friends: Claims this whenever he and Richard are mistaken to be in a relationship. Sometimes he even says he loves Richard like a brother.
• Last-Name Basis: Despite Seigi himself preferring to go by his first name, he has difficulty referring to others in the same way, leading to characters like (Shouko) Tanimoto and (Haruyoshi) Shimomura being known almost exclusively by their last names.
  • Shimomura consistently reminds Seigi of his first name after volume 5, but Seigi always goes to call him by his last name before catching himself and still only refers to him by last name in narration.
  • Enforced by Seigi to Jeffrey, after their rough first meeting. They’re on better terms now, but Seigi is still "Nakata-kun".
  • Enforced by Richard in relation to Seigi. He tells Saul in volume 4 not to call Seigi by his first name because Seigi will get attached; this discussion comes up again in volume 10, when Seigi professes he’ll never get this attached to anyone but Richard.
• Like an Old Married Couple: With Richard. At least one client even tells them this to their faces.
• Like a God to Me: Seigi refers to Richard and Tanimoto both as angels, and when discussing religion, Richard pops into his head as an object of worship.
• Love at First Sight: Seigi is instantly enamored with Richard the first time they meet. In the novels, he even says that if it was a woman, he would have believed that it was a fated meeting. Later in volume 4, he claims this to Jeffrey, though how truthful Seigi's words were is debatable considering he was lying to Richard's family that they were in a relationship for the sake of the inheritance.
• Lover and Beloved: With Richard, his mentor in all things and definitely in queerness.
• Martyr Without a Cause: Seigi tends to think the world would be better without him in it.
• Meaningful Name: His name, Seigi Nakata, sounds similar to "seigi no mikata", or "ally of justice". He was frequently teased for it when he was younger, and initially disliked his name, but due to his grandmother's encouragement, Seigi lives up to his name, helping others and fighting injustice.
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: PTSD due to being stalked by his abusive biological father. He moves to Sri Lanka to recover and eventually becomes able to return to live in Japan.
• Mirror Character:
  • Seigi and Richard are extremely similar, gentle people who see the beauty in everything, want to help people, and have difficulty gauging the level of their care and enthusiasm to other people's emotional frequency. Invoked when Richard even calls Seigi a "mirror to his soul."
  • Vincent, Richard's former employee. Both are young East-Asian men who worked under Richard in his jewelry shop and have many of the same skills. Both deeply want to help people, but Vincent was unable to overcome his jealousy and insecurity next to Richard while Seigi happily took everything he could from Richard's mentorship. Thanks to Seigi, however, Vincent has started a course to match him more closely and work under Richard once more.
• Mistaken for Servant: In volume 8, some of Catherine's neighbors in France assume he is their servant and ask him to come help them around their house and paint. Richard discovers them and chews them out.
• Mistaken for Thief: In volume seven, Seigi being mistaken for a thief is a major conflict of the book and forces Richard to spend time with his Creepy Uncle to help prove Seigi innocent.
• Nice Guy: Helpful to others, kind to his loved ones, and genuinely wants to help the customers who visit Étranger. Richard tells him not to be too trusting of people.
• Oblivious to Love: Played with. Not only is he oblivious to some of Richard’s more obvious expressions of affection, but he tends to be completely unaware of his own feelings as well. He’s called out by Saul in volume 4 after Richard disappears, and later events indicate his obliviousness may be related to trauma.
• Omniglot: As of volume 9, Seigi can speak Japanese, English, Sinhala, French, and Spanish to various degrees. If the volume 6 epilogue, which takes place furthest in canon, is to be believed, he also eventually picks up Chinese.
• Only in It for the Money: Subverted. Despite being Richard's unusually well-paid employee, he routinely chooses his moral code over money.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Seigi has a chronic case of this and says things he really shouldn't. Most easily noticed in Garnet, when he repeatedly calls Richard beautiful in front of someone insecure of her looks.
• Property of Love: Shades of this begin appearing in Act 2, but it really hits hard in volume 10. Seigi is moved to tears at being told he is a part of Richard, later declares to Richard he wants to belong at his side, and then two years later decides to become Richard’s personal secretary because all he really wants is to whole-heartedly devote himself to supporting Richard.
• Quitting to Get Married: Played with. Seigi's proposal to be Richard's secretary seems an awful lot like a marriage proposal and his job intentions sound more like a particularly clingy, presumably celibate, marriage than it does a secretary's job description.
• Real Men Cook: Seigi is shown to love cooking and experimenting with new recipes, and he is excellent at it.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to Richard's blue.
• Right-Hand Hottie: Since Seigi narrates most of the series, he doesn't usually dwell on this, but he does get asked out by women more than once in the series, with one finding him even more personally attractive than Richard.
• Sexy Secretary: Once Seigi becomes Richard's private secretary (or "partner", if you're Richard), people assume even more often than usual that they must be a couple and that "secretary" is a code for "lover."
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Seigi refuses to take an implied bribe to abandon Richard to his family. This is played with a bit when Seigi agrees to marry Richard to complete the inheritance clauses and split the cash with Richard's family, but he was never intending to go through with it.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Seigi finds himself feeling out of place when he returns to Japan in volume nine after months away apprenticing under Richard in Sri Lanka. His travels over the last few years and exposure to the wider world has left him feeling like he can't quite fit into his home country anymore, and this is emphasized when he meets up with some of his old classmates and can't talk about almost anything with them.
• Subordinate Excuse: Seigi chooses to become Richard’s personal secretary at the end of Act 2 because not working under him means he’d have to prioritize someone or something else.
• Sweet Baker: Seigi makes desserts for Richard once in a while. In later volumes of the novels, he sometimes cooks for Richard as well.
• Through His Stomach: Not intentionally (at first, at least), but Richard does like his desserts a lot. Seigi notes that after he started making pudding for Richard, the latter takes him out on 3000+ yen dinners weekly after work. Later, when Richard is upset, he makes pudding to cheer him up too. Richard is also very possessive over the pudding Seigi makes for him, and rarely allows other people to eat it. Seigi thinks one of the reasons Richard likes him is because of his pudding.
• Thicker Than Water: Subverted. His biological father claims Seigi owes him loyalty, but Seigi, with Richard and his stepfather's help, manages to cut his biological father out of his life once more with no forgiveness.
• Trauma Button: Though the case with his biological father, Hisashi Shimeno, ends fairly cleanly in the anime, it’s less so in the novels. Seigi is forced to hide away in a hotel room, purchased by Jeffrey, for months to ensure Hisashi can’t find him. Seigi not only goes into a depressive state as a result, but also gets borderline panic attacks if he’s in unfamiliar crowded places. When he meets Richard’s mother and she starts opening up about her past, his anxiety gets the better of him and he starts to wonder if she’s doing it because she knows something she shouldn’t. Part of his decision to go to Sri Lanka after graduation was just so he could get out of Japan.
• Ultimate Job Security: Seigi runs out of the job to meddle with customer's lives frequently, annoys Richard and their customers with his intrusiveness and insensitivity, and has very little idea what being a jeweler actually requires. Nonetheless, Richard has no interest in firing him, and in fact argues against a customer who suggests it.
• Unknowingly in Love: After Saul's Armor-Piercing Question asking him if he knows he's romantically in love with Richard, he spends days questioning his own feelings, having never considered them love at all. In the end, he comes to terms with the fact that he does love Richard (even if he's still not sure it's romantic).
• Upbringing Makes the Hero: Seigi was raised by a hardworking mother with a stepfather who is frequently out of the country. As a result, he spent lots of time with his grandmother, who firmly impressed on him to help people at every opportunity, which he carries with him throughout the series.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Poor Seigi has no self-esteem at all, due to his childhood abuse.

Richard Ranasinghe de Vulpian

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai

A mysterious jeweler whose beauty is that of a living gemstone (According to Seigi, that is.)

The deuteragonist of the series. Richard is a beautiful part-British, part-French, part-Sri Lankan jeweler who is saved by Seigi one night while being accosted by drunks. Subsequently, he hires Seigi to be a part-timer at his shop.

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• Abusive Parents: Of the Parental Abandonment variety: Richard was raised by his aunt and uncle despite both of his parents being alive. Slightly less so in his mother's case, as at least he spent his summers with her, but when he last saw or spoke to his father is a mystery, as the man has seemingly disappeared into the Amazon.
• Adaptation Personality Change: One of the most frustrating aspects of the anime for fans is Richard's personality shift from an awkward, anxious, snarky, childish tsundere mess, into a quiet, unflappable man who never makes a mistake.
• Ancestral Name: Richard shares his first name with his paternal grandfather.
• Ambiguously Bi: Richard had an ex-fiancee. In episode 8, Richard tells Seigi that he also really likes Seigi, although the 'like' here is once again debatable. In volume 4, when Seigi asks him about the gender of his past lover, Richard almost says he's not gay, but corrects himself to say that he's never been in a same-sex relationship before. Clearly, he's not opposed to it.
• Amicable Exes: Richard and his ex-fiancee are still very good friends after their breakup.
• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: How much money does Richard actually have? He's got a lot of it.
• Badass Bookworm: Richard's educated and cultured, and knows boxing.
• The Beautiful Elite: Richard's beautiful and comes from a rich and noble family.
• Beautiful Sexual Assault Victim: Early on, Richard's appearance is implied to have caused him a lot of issues with sexual harassment, and he is always the victim of unwanted drooling and inappropriate stares. And indeed, in volume 7, a distant relative of his is introduced who has never been able to keep his hands off the beautiful Richard and seems to have no interest in trying, seeing Richard only as another beautiful object for him to own.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While Richard Minored In Ass Kicking, the actual terror Richard can instill in a person comes with his money and connections. He can be fairly ruthless when someone is threatening Seigi, or even to the con artists making a mockery of his work and insulting the beauty of true gemstones.
• Big Brother Mentor: Richard is a near-constant pillar of support and advice for Seigi, and does not hesitate to get sharp if necessary. Seigi even refers to him as a big brother, although he does get questioned whether or not he has siblings after he says this.
• Birds of a Feather: Richard refers to Seigi as a "mirror" to his soul. Sinhalite’s first part is intentionally written to mislead readers on the identity of the mystery man by having Seigi speak perfect English just like Richard, expecting readers to guess incorrectly whether the man is Seigi or Richard. While they seem very different at times, the series makes a point to show us that they are very similar people at their core.
• Blue Blood: He is from the rich and noble Claremont family.
• British Stuffiness: Downplayed. He is always unfailingly polite and stoic and can be quite snobbish when it comes to tea and cakes, but he is all in all an open-minded and empathetic man.
• Broken Ace: Richard is very good-looking, multilingual, polite and well brought up, empathetic towards others and doesn't judge, is well-educated (in episode 8, he was shown to have been a student at Cambridge University), knows boxing, and comes from a rich family. But it's precisely because of his looks and his family's wealth that led to him falling out with his family, be betrayed by a friend and his fiancée to leave him, causing him great emotional distress that still scars him today.
• But Not Too Foreign: Richard is a quarter Sri Lankan, one quarter English, and half French. Surprise, surprise, he considers himself undeniably English and English alone (to be fair, he was raised there).
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Both Richard and Seigi do this to their mothers. And both stop toward the end of volume eight.
• Catchphrase: "Good for you" said in English, is catchy as heck, especially since most of the series is in Japanese and it stands out. Since he uses it much more sincerely than most native English speakers, that sticks out, too.
• Closet Key: Debatable, but Richard is possibly this for Seigi. Of course, the realization takes place not just because of Richard's attractiveness, but by introducing Seigi to people who are not straight and cis and discussing these topics with him.
• Character Filibuster: Sometimes, it feels like Richard talks entirely in well-educated lectures.
• Comfort Food: Richard always has an extreme sweet tooth, but he would consume just about his entire body weight in sweets when he's upset if Seigi let him, pudding especially.
• Curly Hair Is Ugly: Averted. Richard is beautiful, and also has curls (or at least waves; how curly his hair exactly is seems to change depending on the adaptation.)
• Cute Bookworm: "Cute" isn't the most common adjective used to describe Richard, but it certainly applies.
• Dark and Troubled Past: In the past, Richard had a falling-out with his family, got betrayed by a friend and lost his ex-fiancee, due to a feud over family inheritance. The events deeply affected him.
  • Also, the period where he became a conman. Later, he displays such an intense dislike for scammers that it hints that this was a dark past for him too.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Richard pretends not be this early on in the series, but his true colors start showing once more of his backstory is shown and he opens up to Seigi.
• Disguised in Drag: Richard dresses as a woman when he goes to rescue Seigi from Jeff in London.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Richard refuses to respond to the last name on his legal paperwork. In volume ten, another character reinforces that he isn't Richard Claremont anymore.
• Elite School Means Elite Brain: Omniglot Richard, who speaks over 17 languages fluently, seems to know something about everything, and values learning and education above almost all else, got his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Cambridge.
• Encyclopaedic Knowledge: Richard seems to know a little something about everything and a lot of something about most things, and he uses this to explain random factoids to his clients in need of help,and even offers many of them to Seigi.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Richard is so good-looking, even other men compliment him about it. The most frequent being, of course, Seigi.
• Every Man Has His Price: Mostly played for laughs. Seigi repeatedly bribes Richard with sweets and candy to do things Richard does not want to do.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: At least they do if that blond is Richard with his shiny golden curls.
• First-Name Basis: Richard and Seigi, to each other. To be fair, Richard is a foreigner who doesn't come from a culture of addressing people using last names, and Seigi was the one who first referred to Richard as "Richard-san". (And "Ranasinghe de Vulpian-san" is too long and difficult to use.) But Richard said he wasn't used to being referred to with honorifics, so that was dropped as well.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: Richard's Japanese with customers is extremely formal and polite to match his behavior and upperclass background, along with his ever-present suits, although the formality drops off some when he speaks to characters like Seigi more casually and even swears in English at his own cousins.
• Friendless Background: Richard grew up having no real friends and ones that tended to leave quickly, most notably a friend group he invited to meet his mother, who got distracted by Richard's Hot Mom and sort of forgot about him entirely. He seems to still be largely a loner, although the people who matter to him matter greatly.
• Friendly Shopkeeper: He owns Jewelry Étranger, his "castle" where he helps his customers find a place without bigotry where they can appreciate the beauty of gemstones after giving up his jewelry scamming ways. He will never sell something to someone who seems uncertain about their purchase or goes into it for the wrong reasons.
• Genius Sweet Tooth: Richard's master degree in Japanese, his ability to pull a Sherlock Scan, and his Omniglot status are all drowned out by his complete addiction to sugar.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: For all that Richard is shy and somewhat awkward around others, he makes a lot of effort to be kind and caring to nearly everyone he meets and people quite like to be around him despite his intimidating intelligence.
• Gentleman Snarker:Richard is typically very polite, but when it comes to people he's close with, he's prone to snark.
  Richard: Have you mistaken me for a search engine?
• Gorgeous Gaijin: Richard is blond, blue-eyed, British, and so, so, so gorgeous.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He's a beautiful blonde man and an ethical jeweler who only sells jewels if the customer truly wants it, lends out large sums of money to acquaintances, and has no tolerance for scammers. Despite his formal manners he's actually very kind to his clients.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Richard attracts attention wherever he goes because he's that beautiful, to his chagrin.
• Hero Harasses Helpers: Richard eventually gets over this to some extent later in the novels, but he is very much this early on. He doesn't want help from anyone.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Richard is a huge dog lover, dating back to when he was a child. According to Jeffrey, he cried his eyes out when his childhood dog died and he immediately takes to Seigi's adopted dog, saying he loves dogs very much and wants to cuddle him, which the dog is less than fond of. He also quickly sets to training it and agrees to adopt another dog with Seigi. Perhaps this is why he likes Seigi's puppylike nature so much?
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: By the time volume 9 rolls around, Seigi wants to at least be this with Richard, if not romantic partners. Though it can certainly be argued that the two of them have probably already reached this point earlier. Also, the hetero part is debatable.
• I Hate Past Me: Implied in episode 6 where Richard displays a great distaste for scammers, and then it's revealed he used to be one.
• I Have Many Names: He's known variously throughout his life as: Richard Ranasinghe de Vulpian (the name he uses in the series), Richard Claremont (the name on his passport), Edward Baxter (an alias), Edward Ya'aburnee (a different alias).
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Richard has not been well-loved in the past and has some abandonment issues.
• Indifferent Beauty: Richard is well aware he's gorgeous (how can he not be when Seigi comments on it every ten minutes?), but would mostly rather people stop talking about it entirely.
• Informed Attractiveness: Yes, Seigi, it's obvious you think Richard is gorgeous. Thank you for sharing that information for the fifth time this page.
• In-Series Nickname: His cousins call him "Ricky." So did his ex.
• Interclass Friendship: Richard is from a wealthy noble family. Seigi was raised by a working single mom who herself was raised by a single mother who was so poor she resorted to pickpocketing.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In episode 8, Richard recounts how he broke up with his ex-girlfriend because she was afraid she would choose money over him. It's hinted that that might have been an excuse as well. However, he didn't stop her, believing that she would be happier this way, even though he still loved her.
• Lethal Chef: In the novels, it's mentioned that Richard can't cook at all, and attempts to do so end up damaging the surroundings instead.
• Like an Old Married Couple: With Seigi. At least one client tells them this to their faces.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Formerly, as Richard is an adult, but Richard's lack of friends and isolation from his family is brought up repeatedly whenever his childhood or adolescence is mentioned.
• Lover and Beloved: With Seigi.
• Meaningful Name: While Richard is certainly his real first name, "Ranasinghe de Vulpian" is not. Richard borrows his mentor's last name, Ranasinghe, and "de Vulpian" is his mother's maiden name, which he uses because he's looking for somebody.
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: In the novels, Richard spends all of Zircon recovering from depression and trauma. He appears to be recovered by the main timeline of the series.
• Mirror Character: Seigi and Richard are extremely similar, gentle people who see the beauty in everything, want to help people, and have difficulty gauging the level of their care and enthusiasm to other people's emotional frequency. Invoked when Richard even calls Seigi a "mirror to his soul."
• Mysterious Past: Much of Richard's past is shrouded in mystery, though there are several details about him that are eventually revealed. Namely that he's from a very rich family and that despite running a legitimate business now, he was a con man for a period of time. He is very reticent about answering questions about his past until Saul sends Seigi to London after him and the entire drama with Richard's family comes out anyway.
• Nephewism: Richard was raised almost entirely by his aunt and uncle because his parents are divorced; his father is often absent on entomology research, and his mother ultimately decided it was better Richard not live with her side of the family.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Richard is meant to be the most attractive human being Seigi has ever seen, but he reads grammar books for fun and went to Cambridge.
• Never Gets Fat: Lampshaded. Richard insists he keeps in shape by boxing and his blood sugar isn't a concern. Seigi doesn't seem fully convinced.
• Nice Guy: Richard is a good listener and never judges people by things that are out of their control. He doesn't make customers buy jewels that they are not 100% sure they want, and loans money to an acquaintance who needs it to buy back an important item. In the novels, Seigi even says that Richard is a kinder person than he is.
• Not a Morning Person: The first time Seigi shares a room with him in volume 8, he wakes up to find Richard completely hidden in a blanket burrito.
• Not Good with Rejection: Being dumped sends Richard on a mental health spiral pre-series.
• Not So Stoic: Richard's a bit less stoic in the novels and manga, and there are times when he loses his cool as well, usually at Seigi because he puts himself in danger, mostly in order to protect Richard.
• Occidental Otaku: Richard majored in Japanese in college and displays a knowledge of Japanese literature and folklore far beyond Seigi's own. He mentions having dreamed for years of teaching English to Japanese students. He also gave his childhood dog a Japanese name and mentions preferring them as a child. Possibly caused by his attachment to his beloved Japanese tutor as a child. In volume ten, he also chooses to solve the Japanese literature riddles instead of the ones about gemstones, leaving the gemstone riddles to Seigi. Curiously enough, however, though he respects manga as literature, the only Japanese animation he ever mentions is Doraemon.
• Old Money: Richard's family has been wealthy for generations and Saul mentions that they make a point to increase their wealth whenever possible. Richard was raised with private tutors in a wealthy estate and Swiss boarding schools.
• Omniglot: He can speak languages numbering well into the double-digits, including (but not limited to) English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Sinhala, Tamil, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, and Arabic.
• Parental Abandonment: The cause of his Nephewism; both his parents are alive and well, but neither were interested in raising him after their divorce. At least he still has a relationship with his mother.
• Pretty Boy: Richard is androgynously gorgeous. Like. So gorgeous he turns heads and gets stared at just sitting down. So pretty it's basically everyone's first reaction on seeing him. And so gorgeous even Seigi, who knows him very well, thinks a photo of Richard's mother is a photo of Richard himself in drag.

• Renaissance Man: The only thing Richard for sure sucks at is cooking. Meanwhile, he's an expert in gemology, is some kind of linguistic freak even in a series populated almost exclusively by polyglots, has multiple teaching certifications, was a graduate student at Cambridge in Japanese studies, plays violin, and seems to be able to spontaneously lecture on any subject imaginable.
• Rescue Introduction: Richard meets Seigi after being attacked by drunks and Seigi swooping in to his rescue.
• Second Love: Seigi. Whether romantic or not, Richard does say he proposed to his fiancee because she was his first friend and he wanted to keep her, and refers to Seigi as his second "friend."
• Sexy Mentor: Richard's older, gorgeous, and loves teaching Seigi.
• Shared Family Quirks:
  • Seigi mentions that Richard and his cousins are like cookies made out of the same dough cut into different shapes.
  • Richard and his mother have very similar personalities and neither can cook. Seigi realizes they don't get along well because they're too similar.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Richard is almost never seen out of a three-piece suit, and when he is, he still seems to favor collared shirts and slacks.
• Situational Sociability: Richard is always polished and talkative with his customers and at work, and even with people he's close to, but he doesn't actually like talking to people and he's very shy and introverted.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Richard dislikes his appearance a lot, because he feels that people don't look beyond his face and see him for himself. In the novels, it's mentioned that he has a fear of mirrors, possibly due to this trope. Richard had also considered scarring himself before. In volume 7, Amen, a distant relative, touches Richard inappropriately because he likes pretty things. It's even worse when Richard says Amen's had his eye on him since Richard was young.
• Spell My Name With An S: There have been multiple spellings of his last two names, official or otherwise. The official English site for the anime points to “Ranasinghe” and “De Vulpian.”
• The Stoic: Is this most of the time, but he does show expressions when he's pleased (like with Seigi's pudding) or when he's angry.
• Strong Family Resemblance: His mother, Catherine. In the novels, Seigi mistakes a picture of her for Richard in drag, and when meeting her, she intentionally dresses in a suit and puts her hair up and he thinks she's Richard.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Richard is generally quiet, stoic, and professionally polite and distant to everyone he meets, but he is also very shy and socially anxious, and is a very tender, caring, and excessively affectionate person when he feels safe enough to be.
• Sweet Tooth: Extremely. Richard loves royal milk tea and sweets, and often sends Seigi to buy them. Later, he also really loves Seigi's pudding. The anime always shows Richard eating desserts while Seigi eats normal meals. It's joked among fans that Richard doesn't eat normal food at all and only eats sweet things. In the official fanbook, Seigi expresses concern for Richard's health with the amount of sweets he consumes.
• Tarnishing Their Own Beauty: Discussed, but ultimately averted. Richard finds his beauty unbearable enough that he considers scarring his own face. He also mentions looking forward to getting old so he will be seen as less attractive.
• Thicker Than Water: Richard is estranged from his family in the early part of the series, but reconciles with them and even agrees to make nice with someone who has been sexually harassing him on his family's behalf.
• Too Much Alike: Him and his mother, Catherine. Seigi even comments on this.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pudding/flan/purin. A Japanese egg custard pudding. Richard picked up a taste for it as a child from his Japanese tutor and surrogate mother figure and takes to Seigi's immediately and Seigi continues to make it for him regularly.
• Tsundere: While Richard seems to grow out of this after enough time, when we first meet him, he likes Seigi quite a lot, but treats him to a number of Berate and Switch lectures and refuses to actually admit he likes him.
• Working Out Their Emotions: Richard takes to beating up couch cushions on occasion when he's particularly flustered. Most notably in volume seven, when he goes back to Seigi's room on the cruise ship, which contains boxing equipment and he beats it up after the very stressful events of the book are mostly resolved.

Other Characters

Shouko Tanimoto

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa

A girl who loves minerals.

Seigi's college friend and crush, who he happened to meet one day when he saved her from a creepy old man. Tanimoto has a deep interest in minerals.

Representative jewel: aquamarine.

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• Brainless Beauty: Inverted. Tanimoto is beautiful enough to have had several people ask her out, and Seigi also has a crush on her, and she also has a deep knowledge on minerals.
• Childhood Friends: Tanimoto and Homura have known each other since they were children, much to Seigi's surprise.
• Confirmed Bachelor: Tanimoto expresses on multiple occasions that she never wants to date or get married, and is sticking to that commitment quite happily.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: To Seigi. She has to do this twice, actually, once in volume 6 and again in volume 9. Volume nine is the final Ship Sinking moment and Seigi moves on completely.
• Incompatible Orientation: Tanimoto is aromantic and is not interested in a relationship with anyone, making her a failed love interest for Seigi.
• Love Interest: Seigi is very interested in dating her. Too bad for him, she is Asexual and aromantic.
• Meaningful Name: Her first name, Shouko (晶子), means 'crystallite'. And she's passionate about minerals.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Not as extreme as in Richard's case, but her beauty has led to people asking her out when she's not interested in love, and has damaged at least one friendship. Tanimoto is pretty tired of this by episode 8.

Haruyoshi Shimomura

Voiced by: Yūichi Iguchi

A good friend indeed.

Another of Seigi's friends in college.

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• Best Friend: Aside from Richard and Tanimoto, Seigi appears to be closest to Shimomura. Also, in volume 4, when Seigi had to miss classes, he had asked Shimomura to help him take notes.
• Composite Character: He stands in for a number of Seigi’s other college friends in the anime, making comments about or doing actions that Shimomura himself never did in the novels, to the point that he has a completely different design in the manga adaptation.
• Duet Bonding: Plays flamenco guitar and bonds with Henry, even going so far as to make a CD together.
• Odd Friendship: With Henry. Counts as both an Interclass Friendship and an Intergenerational Friendship.

Hiromi Nakata

Seigi's mother.

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• Calling Parents by Their Name: Seigi does this to his mother, Hiromi.
• Good Parents: Despite how terse she can be when Seigi’s grandmother is brought up, Hiromi is still this to Seigi.
• Remarrying for Your Kids: One of the reasons Hiromi marries Nakata-san is for Seigi, hoping she could give him a good father. She chose extremely well.

Takashi Homura

Ex-fiancé of Mami Sasu and Tanimoto's omiai partner.

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• Childhood Friends: Tanimoto and Homura have known each other since they were children, much to Seigi's surprise.
• Happily Married: Having his potential marriages foiled twice by Seigi, Third Time's The Charm for Homura, thankfully. He even lampshades this to Seigi.
• Incompatible Orientation: Homura is first engaged to Mami, a lesbian, and then picks Tanimoto as a wife, who is asexual, aromantic, and equally disinterested in marriage to him. Poor Homura, thou of the "absolutely no gaydar."
• Last Het Romance: A variant with Mami, as she was already in a long-term lesbian relationship before him, but she tried one last time to settle with a man. Unfortunately, he couldn't do it for her.

Saul Ranasinghe

Richard's mentor and boss. Also functions as Seigi's boss and mentor from time to time.

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• Back-Alley Doctor: Subverted. Saul actually has a medical license, as he was a doctor before he became a jeweler. He has medical facilities in his home in Sri Lanka that he uses to care for Richard during Zircon. Seems like he's never heard of a sharps container, though...
• Cynical Mentor: Saul tends to think of Richard as hopeless and calls him an idiot repeatedly.
• Fair-Weather Mentor: At least, one of the other characters seems to think so. Debatable whether or not he actually is one.
• Mentor in Sour Armor: For Richard. Saul repeatedly calls him his "idiot apprentice" and yet goes out of his way on multiple occasions to help Richard and Seigi, on Richard's behalf. Of course, Saul will insist it's for his own self-interest, but he did rescue his friend's daughter from an abusive forced marriage to no benefit of his own, so he's clearly not as selfish as he claims.
• Mr. Exposition: Richard asks Saul to take the complicated task of explaining Richard's conman days and the story of how he became a jeweler to Seigi and conveniently makes himself absent while the story is told.
• Shipper on Deck: Saul is the first person to directly ask Seigi if he "knows" he's in love with Richard, and the first one to make Seigi question it. He also calls them out for what he sees as flirting in front of him, and when Seigi calls Richard his older brother, Saul asks him if he has any siblings, and is not surprised to find out Seigi is an only child.
• Team Dad: Saul will never likely admit to it vocally, but he seems to think of Richard as his son and lets Richard use his last name to boot.

Jeffrey Claremont

Richard's older cousin.

Representative jewel: Alexandrite

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• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Richard nicknames him a "talking credit card" among other things. And he could somehow pay for a very fancy hotel for Seigi to live in for a minimum of several months.
• The Beautiful Elite: Aside from the beautiful Richard, his cousin Jeffrey isn't too shabby in the looks department either. And they're both part of the noble and wealthy Claremont family.
• Blue Blood: A son of the Earl Claremont.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Richard and Henry, although if those two had anything to say about it, they wouldn't be in conflict.
• Disappointing Older Sibling: Richard admired him immensely as children but Jeff betrayed that trust, leading to a Broken Pedestal. In some ways, this is also a Bodyguard Betrayal, as the novels show him promising to help Richard find other ways to resolve the issue.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: After Seigi intervenes with his relationship with Richard, anyway. Jeffrey prefers it this way.
• Former Teen Rebel: Jeffrey mentions having had a punk phase as a teenager with all the clothing style that could be assumed of one. His father didn't like it much.
• Friendly Address Privileges: Subverted. He tells Seigi that his friends call him "Jeff" and Seigi makes a point to call him "Jeffrey" instead and refuses to allow Jeffrey to call him "Seigi" despite actually preferring his given name. They are still on "formal" terms of address years later even after their relationship improves.
• Healthcare Motivation: Henry fell ill and Jeffrey was pressured into ruining Richard's former relationship to keep the rest of their family from cutting Henry off.
• In-Series Nickname: Richard and Henry both call him "Jeff."
• Old Money: The Claremont family has been wealthy and noble for generations. Jeffrey was brought up with Richard and Henry in a wealthy estate and private tutors.
• Regretful Traitor: Jeffrey is shown not to forgive himself for breaking up Richard and his fiancee far longer than Richard himself blames Jeffrey for it.
• Tanuki/Kitsune Contrast: Played with. Seigi compares Jeffrey and his partner, Joachim, to a tanuki and kitsune dating.
• Workaholic: Jeffrey has a tendency to work himself sick and his family worries over this frequently

Henry Claremont

Richard's older cousin and Jeffrey's older brother. And the heir to the Earl Claremont title.

Representative jewel: Bloodstone

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• Always Second Best: Henry is not this in reality, but spends his childhood jealous of Richard regardless. Even Jeffrey tries to protect Henry from failing despite Henry not being likely to fail.
• Atrocious Alias: He uses Enrique Wabisabi to hide his identity to Shimomura. For whatever reason, Shimomura goes with it.
• Blue Blood: The heir to the Earl Claremont title, which he receives in volume ten.
• Duet Bonding: Henry plays the piano and bonds with Shimomura and make a CD of their music together.
• Foreign-Language Tirade: Inverted! Henry primarily speaks English, but after beginning Japanese lessons, he later curses someone out fluently in Japanese.
• In-Series Nickname: Richard and Jeffrey call him "Harry."
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: Henry's mental health spiraled because of family pressures and slowly seems to recover once things are resolved.
• Old Money: The Claremont family has been wealthy and noble for generations.

Catherine de Vulpian

Richard's mother

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• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Lampshaded, at least. It's never specified how old Catherine actually is, but Seigi has a minute with internal math trying to figure out how she could possibly look so young while having a son in his thirties.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Catherine herself caused this, as she felt insecure when Richard would call her "Maman." They resolve this issue in volume eight.
• The Ditz: Catherine is just...sort of clueless. She's a nice enough woman, but she does not think anything through before she does it. And she once called Richard for his birthday in September...when he was born on December 24th, and one would think the person who gave birth to him might remember that.
• Everyone Looks Sexier if French: Catherine is gorgeous and very French.
• Stacy's Mom: Richard once invited friends to come with him to France and stay with her one summer and they all were enamored with her appearance. Richard no longer invites anyone he knows to meet his mother, not even his ex.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Her son Richard looks exactly like her, to the point of them being able to be mistaken for each other.
• Too Much Alike: Seigi comments on the fact that Richard and his mother are so much alike they cannot get along.

Novel Only Characters

Deborah Shahin

Richard's ex fiancee.

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• Amicable Exes: With Richard. They remain dear friends even after their breakup.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: Sort of. Deborah breaks up with Richard because she doesn't want to be using him for his money, both because she doesn't want to do that, but also because she doesn't want to be that kind of person. It also allows him to find someone to marry for the will purposes.
• Gold Digger: Not quite averted. She breaks up with Richard specifically because she doesn't know if she's dating him for his money, and cares enough about him not to want to do that.
• In-Series Nickname: Richard mentions that he used to call her "Debby" but he doesn't appear to still do so.

Vincent Leung

Richard's former shop assistant in Hong Kong

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• Billy Needs an Organ: Vincent donated his kidney to his wife.
• Chevalier vs. Rogue: Seigi is well known as an "ally of justice" and has strong, bright morals, while his foil Vincent has long since given up on such optimism.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Vincent works for Octavia carrying out whatever her plans are for her regarding Richard and Seigi, but has some of his own priorities alongside his work for her. And in volume ten, it becomes very clear he disagrees with her ultimate goal of suicide.
• False Friend: This to Richard. Slightly averted in that Richard knew about it ahead of time.
• Foil: Foil to Seigi, in the Mirror Character way that he's very similar to Seigi, but simply could not accept Richard openly as a friend the way Seigi did.
• Formerly Fat: Vincent has lost a significant amount of weight since he used to work with Richard in Hong Kong.
• Healthcare Motivation: Vincent needs money for college, of course, but a lot has also gone to keeping his wife happy and in good health after her kidney transplant (and it was enough for him to even marry her to avoid suspicion of organ trafficking).
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Vincent spends his time away from his wife and only sends more money every time she contacts him. Of course, what would make her happiest is if he spent time with her.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Vincent was very excited to work for Richard once upon a time, but discovered he feels useless and unworthy of being near Richard, and that maybe he doesn't quite deserve it anyway.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Vincent says a couple times that he wishes he were more like Seigi and capable of being a hero of justice and helping people, but he doesn't feel properly equipped to it. Nonetheless, he does his best with Octavia.
• Marriage of Convenience: Or so he claims, anyway. Vincent and his wife sort out their miscommunication and feelings sometime in the Time Skip in volume ten.
• Mirror Character: Seigi is also a young East-Asian man who worked under Richard in his jewelry shop and has many of the same skills. Both deeply want to help people, but Vincent was unable to overcome his jealousy and insecurity next to Richard while Seigi happily took everything he could from Richard's mentorship. Thanks to Seigi, however, Vincent has started a course to match him more closely and work under Richard once more.
• Only in It for the Money: Played straight with Richard, averted with Octavia as he turns out to care about them both.
• Otaku: Vince loves anime and gaming. One of the first things he asks Seigi is if he likes anime, and is quite disappointed to hear that Seigi's not interested.
• The Snark Knight: Vincent tries to talk Seigi out of his idealism many times, always fails, and seems exhausted at the thought of it.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Vincent engages with this constantly with Seigi, which is especially amusing as he seems to be the only one who brings this side of Seigi out. Seigi is only rarely snarky with anyone else.
• Spell My Name With An S: Vincent's last name in the Japanese novels is always spelled in Kanji, as he's from Hong Kong. But because of the language there and hsi family history, it's unclear whether the name is meant to be in Mandarin or Cantonese, so it could be either spelled "Liang" or "Leung" depending on the intention.
• The Unapologetic: Vincent regrets some of the things he's done, but doesn't really apologize on screen for any of it and says he'd do it again if he was given a do over. Safe to say he mostly regrets the consequences and blames life for them, not himself.
• Walking Spoiler: Since Vince doesn't show up until volume seven, which is after the anime covered, just about anything he does in the books can be considered a spoiler for anime-only fans.

Octavia Manorland

Richard and Deborah's former student.

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• Creepy Child: Octavia acts extremely "off" due to trauma.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Octavia probably has the most functional set of biological parents in the series, and certainly the best biological father. But they died to protect her.
• Gamer Chick: Octavia is a huge gamer girl.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: Her amber necklace was given to her by her parents.
• Parental Abandonment: Octavia's parents died to protect her and left her very traumatized.
• Parental Substitute: Octavia latched onto Richard and Deborah as parental figures when they appeared in her life after the death of her parents and was very hurt by their breakup.
• Troubled Child: A deeply traumatized kid? Considering her parents died in an avalanche their family was caught in trying to keep her warm and froze themselves, it's hard to actually blame her for it.
• Walking Spoiler: Much like Vincent, she doesn't show up until after the point the anime aired, and as the main "antagonist" of sorts in Act Two of the series, she tends to cause a lot of problems that can't even be explained until someone is caught up with the first part.

Joachim Bergman

Jeffrey's boyfriend.

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• Camp Gay: Joachim is a male stripper, has long hair and a female stage name, and has a vested interested in makeup and fashion. Seigi even comments when they meet that he is fascinated by Joachim's flouting of gender norms.
• Drag Queen: Joachim is dressed as a woman as a dancer when he meets Jeffrey.
• The Fashionista: A rare male version, Joachim is very invested in fashion and takes over picking outfits for Jeffrey.
• Guyliner: Joachim wears a lot of makeup.
• Insanely International Ancestry: Joachim is an American, one of the major homes of people with ancestry from many cultures. Joachim specifically mentions being primarily African-American and Nordic, but also Indian and Southern Europe.
• In-Series Nickname: "Chim," pronounced roughly like "Kim."
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Joachim usually wears his hair in a ponytail, but when he lets it down, Jeffrey is stunned and distracted.
• Tanuki/Kitsune Contrast: Played with. Seigi compares Jeffrey and Joachim to a tanuki and kitsune dating.
• Walking Spoiler: There is no way to describe Joachim without spoiling The Reveal in volume ten that Jeffrey is actually gay—something he lied about and hid very well—because he is only in the story because he's Jeffrey's partner. That's how he's introduced.

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