Characters that appear in Yumi and the Nightmare Painter.
For tropes about Hoid, see the main Cosmere character page. For tropes about Design, see the Stormlight Archive sub-page.
WARNING! All spoilers are unmarked!
open/close all folders
Painter
Nikaro
An isolated and rather Emo Teen who likes to pretend that he is some legendary hero rather than an exterminator who went to art school.
- Broken Pedestal: Like many other painters he idolized the Dreamwatch and dreamt of becoming part of their group. This image was shattered upon realizing that the group is actually comprised of people who got in through connections rather than any skill of their own.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Nikaro is outwardly rude, and often selfish, but deep down he does have the heart of the hero.
- My Greatest Failure: He applied for a position with the Dreamwatch, and was so certain he would be able to get in that he and his friends built their plans for the future around that assumption. Not only was he rejected, but he then refused to admit that to his friends and pretended for most of a year that he had been accepted.
- Too Upset to Create: a combination of being rejected by the Dreamwatch, falling out with his friends and facing the mundane reality of being a nightmare painter completely smothered what passion he used to feel for his craft. By the time the story starts, Painter has defaulted to just painting bamboo for the sheer practicality of it.
- What You Are in the Dark: When he first encountered the stable nightmare, he could have run away. In fact, that's what he was supposed to do: run away and alert the Dreamwatch. Instead, he challenged the nightmare and managed to rescue the boy it was threatening.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: As Hoid points out in his narration, the story of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter was clearly supposed to end on a tragic note, with Yumi sacrificing herself to destroy the Father Machine and save the world. Painter, however, refuses to acknowledge that and instead paints Yumi back to life.
Yumi
Yumi
One of the fourteen Yoki-hijo of Toriko, young women blessed with the power to call and bind spirits by stacking rocks.- Amnesia Loop: Is kept trapped in one by the father-machine for seventeen centuries, living out the same day again and again and having her memories erased each night.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Her rock-stacking skills do not spring from her Investiture, but from seventeen centuries of diligent practice.
- Physical God: According to Design's Investiture-scanner, she holds a tremendous amount of Investiture, more than even a Returned or an Elantrian. When she finally calls on her full power, she is able to reshape fragments of the shroud and dominate nightmares with nothing more than sheer force of will.
- "World's Best" Character: Thanks to seventeen centuries of practice, she is the single best rock-stacker ever to exist, and almost certainly the best one who ever will exist.
Akane
A nightmare painter who lives across from Nikaro who enjoys dressing fashionably. She is also leader of Painter's old friend group.
- The Fashionista: Her second most defining trait, after her kindness. She knows all the best stores in Kilahito and brings Yumi to one to help her pick out her own clothes. By the end of their shopping trip, Painter notices that she had managed to roundup three different store clerks and gather a good array of clothing for Yumi to try.
- Team Mom: Akane herself is a very caring figure who takes in "misfits" into her group of friends. She did so for Painter when they were still in school and she did so again for Yumi.
Tojin
One of Painter's friends and a nightmare painter himself. He is incredibly passionate about bodybuilding and his exercise regimens.
- Gentle Giant: A large man who takes pride in his body and size. Despite that, he is still very gentle and actually quite shy.
- Shirtless Scene: Takes off his shirt in the middle of a resturant (much to Yumi's shock) to show off the gains of his bodybuilding regimen to his exercise buddies.
Izzy
One of Painter's friends. An eccentric nightmare painter who makes it a hobby trying to predict people's futures based on dramas.
- Ambiguously Bi: Never confirmed, but she fantasizes about all the aliens on the nearby planet being hot and jokes about having "a handsome alien hunk and a curvy alien knockout" fighting over her.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Other then when Akane introduces her to Yumi, Izzy never goes by her full name.
Masaka
One of Painter’s friends, and a fellow nightmare painter. She’s secretly one of the Sleepless.
- Dimensional Traveler:
Word of God is that non-Rosharan Sleepless can’t imitate humans, implying that Masaka is originally from Roshar. - The Worm That Walks: As you’d expect from the Sleepless.
The Machine
A machine created by the scholars of Toriko to stack rocks, summon spirits, and capture them, ending the need for yoki-hijo. It didn't quite work out as planned.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The scholars programmed it to stack rocks, attract and imprison spirits, and then convert those spirits into power for itself and whatever else the scholars plugged into it. Thanks to a mistake in the programming, it saw the souls of the humans around it as viable power sources, and proceeded to rip out and consume those souls for an initial power boost. It went on to imprison every free spirit on the planet, trapped the fourteen yoki-hijo in an Amnesia Loop, and then went on stacking rocks for the next seventeen centuries.
- Non-Malicious Monster: As the scholars point out, it doesn't actually have any malicious feelings, or any feelings or desires of any sort. It simply does what it was programmed to do: stack stones, bind spirits, and use those spirits to power itself.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: It was built to imprison spirits and convert them into power for itself and whatever else the scholars plugged into it. What the scholars didn't realize was that the machine would see their own souls as viable power sources.
