Characters / The Rebirth of Buddha

Main Characters

Sayako Amanokawa

Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu

• Age-Gap Romance: She entered a relationship with a college student named Yuuki after her friends pressured her, but she broke up with him because of his secretiveness. By the end of the movie, they're back together and she's moving in with him.
• I See Dead People: She gains this ability after Tokuzo Kanemoto, a friend of her family's, took his own life by jumping into the way of an oncoming train.
• Mystical Lotus: In her date with Yuuki at a summer festival, she wears a lotus-patterned kimono. When a fleet of UFOs sent by Tousaku Arai invade the city, she fends them off with the help of Taiyou Sorano by using lotus-themed powers. In Buddhism and by extension, Happy Science doctrines, lotus flowers are associated with purity and faithfulness, which symbolizes her mission to expose Tousaku Arai's falsehoods.

Yuuki Unabara

Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino

• Age-Gap Romance: A college student, he entered a relationship with Sayako, a high schooler. They briefly broke up due to him being secretive about being part of TSI, but after she joins as well, they get back together.
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Even while dating Sayako, he tried to keep his connections to TSI hidden from her. However, after revealing them in the meeting with Mari Kimura he set up for Sayako, she later joins TSI.

Sayako's Relatives and Friends

Shunta Amanokawa

Voiced by: Ryōko Shiraishi

Sayako's kid brother.

• Annoying Younger Sibling: When Sayako gets ready to head for the Sounen Group building for a report on Tousaku Arai, he teases her about where she's going and follows her around, sneaking all the way to the lecture room.
• Going for the Big Scoop: Downplayed as he's a little kid with a camera, but he shows signs of this when he follows Sayako to the Sounen Group's headquarters to catch a scoop, only for Yuuki to come along and collect both siblings out of there.
• Tagalong Kid: He always tags along with Sayako and Yuuki whenever he can, be it by trying to catch a big scoop, or helping her expose Arai.

Tokuzo Kanemoto

• Dragged Off to Hell: In his spirit trial, Kanemoto's ghost is sucked into a portal to Hell after the judges sentence him for refusing to repent from taking his own life and writing accusatory, derisive articles against religion and God. However, being a suicidal soul, it's implied he's going back to Earth until the time he's supposed to have lived through is up.
• Driven to Suicide: He jumps into an oncoming train to take his own life after his latest report has been proven false and ruined his reputation. When Sayako witnesses his spirit's trial, the three judges lambast him for doing that and lament his denial of the Spirit World and God throughout his entire life before sending him to Hell.
• Hollywood Atheist: In his spirit trial, he vehemently denies the existence of God, deriding it as a tool to trick weak people. The judges in charge of his case lament his denial and reveal he wrote equally derisive articles on God and religion.
• Posthumous Character: He died of suicide minutes into the first act of the movie. His death causes Sayako to see spirits of the dark and kickstart the main plot.

TSI

In General

• Benevolent Conspiracy: TSI is a secret organization comprised of people seeking to spread Buddha's teachings.
• Fictional Counterpart: The organization is a stand-in for the real-life Happy Science.
• The Soulsaver: They all seek to save souls by spreading Buddha's "teachings of the mind" to the world, no matter if demons try to get in the way to prevent it.

Taiyou Sorano

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu

• Author Avatar: He is basically Ryuho Okawa as an anime character, only that he's a supporting character whose role is to give lectures to unbelievers and help Sayako in her role of exposing Tousaku Arai as the false Buddha.
• Foil: To Tousaku Arai. Both men are religious leaders who claim to be the reincarnation of the Buddha, which becomes a source of their rivalry. However, Sorano is the real reincarnation of Buddha and sets out to spread his teachings to save people from the clutches of hell. Arai, on the other hand, is a fraudster whose teachings have more to do with Social Darwinism than actual Buddhism, and his famed psychic powers are bestowed on him by demons.
• Good Shepherd: As the leader of TSI and the true reincarnation of the Shakyamuni Buddha, he is depicted as a compassionate master, more than willing to save people from the clutches of Hell.
• Light Is Good: His white suit and shining aura are a symbol that he's the true Buddha reborn.
• Punny Name: In the Japanese naming order, his full name means "Sun of the Sky," which is a reference to Ryuho Okawa's earlier book The Laws of the Sun.

Mari Kimura

Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi

• Defector from Decadence: When Mari Kimura meets Sayako for the first time at the hospital, the former reveals that she used to be a member of the Sounen Group. She followed Mr. Arai's teachings of bringing others down to elevate herself and become famous. However, Kimura knew something was wrong but she couldn't quit the group for fear of going to Hell until she met Taiyou Sorano, who gave her something to believe in and the courage to leave the Sounen Group and join the TSI.
• I Just Want to Be Special: She wanted to be famous and started a theater company, but they could barely make ends meet until she racked up a huge debt. This led her to meet Tousaku Arai, who taught her to bring others down to elevate herself in the entertainment industry after she joined the Sounen Group. However, this eventually became her undoing as her fans and even her theater company abandoned her, but Arai threatened her with damnation in Hell to keep her from leaving. From there, her life kept spiraling down until she met Taiyou Sorano and his "teachings of the mind", which drove her to change her ways and join TSI.

Harry Budson

• Demonic Possession: He willingly undergoes this to imprison and channel the demon causing Shunta's illness after Master Sorano drives it out. When the demon starts acting up and warping his body, Master Sorano uses his powers to banish it back to Hell.
• Funny Foreigner: An Australian young man with an eccentric attitude, he mainly serves as comic relief.
• Phenotype Stereotype: As a white Australian, he is depicted as a tall blond guy with blue eyes with an eccentric attitude.
• Willing Channeler: He serves as one for the demon causing Shunta's illness as Master Sorano exorcizes it from the kid's body.

Other Allies

The Old Shaman

• The Cameo: She debuted in the fourth film as a channeler for Edison to send Ryuta and his gang a message. In this film, she is seen debating the Sounen Group's leaders to no avail and even helping Sayako and Shunta fulfill the former's mission to expose Tousaku Arai's fraud on national TV.
• Never Mess with Granny: She dispatches the Sounen Group goons chasing Sayako and Shunta with strong psychic powers before escorting the siblings into the set.

Sounen Group

Tousaku Arai

• Dark Messiah: When Sayako attended one of his lectures, he preached the importance of thinking of oneself and that it's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and therefore, he's the only one who can save them as the reincarnation of Buddha.
• Easily Forgiven: After Taiyou Sorano defeats the demon that has possessed him and sends it back to Hell, Arai begs Sorano not to kill him, but the latter instead lectures him on how he should fix his path. When Arai clarifies he tried to kill him, Sorano still reassures the former that he's a child of Buddha, leaving him in tears at this revelation.
• Evil Laugh: He indulges in one after finishing his group's secret board meeting, before deploying UFOs to destroy a city.
• Foil: To Taiyou Sorano. Both men are religious leaders who claim to be the reincarnation of the Buddha, which becomes a source of their rivalry. However, Arai is a fraudster whose teachings have more to do with Social Darwinism than actual Buddhism, willing to destroy all those who threaten his hold and his famed psychic powers being demonic in nature. Sorano, on the other hand, is the actual reincarnation of Buddha destined to save people from the clutches of Hell, even going as far as forgiving Arai for trying to destroy him while gently admonishing him on how he should change his ways.
• Heel–Face Turn: After being forgiven by Master Sorano for trying to kill him, he changes his ways while in prison and becomes a TSI member, thus disbanding the Sounen Group for good.
• Humiliation Conga: Sayako showed up on the set of Yamato TV on Mari Kimura's advice and exposed him as a fraud with the help of Master Sorano. As a result, Mr. Arai's attempt to use NBK to hijack all TV stations in Japan is exposed to the public, and the police are raiding Sounen Group's headquarters. Moreover, everyone in his inner circle abandons him to avoid investigation, and eventually, the demon he made a contract with possesses him before carrying over a last plan to get back at Sayako.
• Master of Illusion: He's revealed to be this as he's capable of creating illusions that can seem real, with a helping of hypnosis to make people think it's real. However, it doesn't explain how the UFOs he summoned destroyed a Japanese city in the middle of a summer festival.
• Mind over Matter: He shows off this kind of psychic powers in Mari Kimura's show by stopping a falling reflector in midair right when about to hit a crew member.
• Put on a Prison Bus: After Master Sorano defeats him and the demon in control of his body, he's last seen in the epilogue praying inside a jail cell, having changed his ways to become a member of TSI.
• The Social Darwinist: He preaches that the strong shall devour the weak in his lectures and that to thrive, they shall obey him.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Sayako declares that Taiyou Sorano is the real Buddha and not him, Arai steals her soul and demands everyone hail him as the real Buddha anyway. However, he starts losing it when Sorano shows up, deflecting every single one of his demonic attacks before destroying the floating platform he stood on, causing him to fall unconscious. This is when the demon possessing him takes over as the film's antagonist.

Mr. Komayama

• Dirty Coward: After Sayako exposed Arai's fraud in nationwide TV with Mr. Sorano's help, he instantly bailed on Mr. Arai to avoid being investigated.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears glasses and is as malevolent as his boss. Moreover, he was also willing to bail on Mr. Arai like his other henchmen when the police raided the Sounen Group's headquarters.
• Number Two: He is Tousaku Arai's right-hand man and the Sounen Group's spokesman.

SPOILER CHARACTER

A powerful demon who manipulated Tousaku Arai into an arrangement in exchange for power, seeking to drive away people from the teachings of the real reincarnation of Buddha, Taiyou Sorano.

• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: It assumes the form of an androgynous, rotund young man with long black hair and pale skin upon leaving Mr. Arai's body. Moreover, it also wears black-and-purple Buddhist monk robes to evoke a demonic, blasphemous mockery of the Buddha.
• Fat Bastard: Its human form is of a rotund young man and is a malevolent demon who seeks to drive away people from the real Buddha's teachings.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He is the real mastermind behind the Sounen Group's schemes, using Tousaku Arai as a pawn to drive people astray from the teachings of Buddha.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: When the demon reveals itself, it looks like a rotund man with long black hair, wearing black and purple pseudo-Buddhist robes as a demonic mockery of Buddha, which in turn is an allusion to Devadatta, a rebel monk. This design is meant to be a jab at Shoko Asahara, leader of Aum Shinrikyo, who in real life had a personal beef with Ryuho Okawa.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: This demon has red eyes in its "fake Buddha" form, serving to indicate its malevolent intentions.
• Satanic Archetype: Apart from drawing a parallel with Satan as the one who tries to lead humankind astray from God and religion like its kin, this demon's hatred towards Taiyou Sorano is also a parallel to Devadatta, a rebel monk who sought to kill the Buddha out of envy so that he could take over as the major religious figure.