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The series follows Koko Hekmatyar, a young arms dealer who sells weapons under HCLI, an international shipping corporation that secretly deals in the arms trade. As one of the company's unofficial weapon dealers, she secretly sells weapons in many countries while avoiding the local authorities and law enforcement agencies as most of her work is actually illegal under international law. Traveling with her is her team of bodyguards who are mostly composed of ex-military veterans. Her latest addition to her crew is Jonah, a seemingly emotionless child soldier who is skilled in combat yet ironically hates arms dealers. What follows is Koko and her crew's escapades around the world.
An anime animated by White Fox and produced by Geneon was announced on the 10th volume of the manga. The anime began airing on April 10, 2012 on Tokyo MX, Television Kanagawa, TV Aichi and KBS and on later dates on Sun TV, BS11 and AT-X. The show will also be seen online in Showtime, NicoNico, Bandai Channel and GyaO. A second season of the series was also announced and is slated to be released in October 2012. Known as Jormungand: Perfect Order, it began broadcast on Japanese TV on October 9, 2012. The two seasons aired on Japanese TV at 12:30 AM.
The first release of Jormungand on DVD and Blu-ray was on June 27, 2012 with the first two episodes, "Gun Metal, Calico Road" and "Pulsar" included. Subsequent releases followed with two episodes each on both Blu-rays and DVDs on July 25, August 29 and September 26 of 2012. The Perfect Order DVD/Blu-Rays was first released in Japan on December 21, 2012.
Showgate handles licensing aspect of Jormungand outside Japan. A sneak preview of the anime was held on March 31 to April 1, 2012 at the Anime Contents Expo at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba
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The series follows Koko Hekmatyar, a young arms dealer who sells weapons under HCLI, an international shipping corporation that secretly deals in the arms trade. As one of the company's unofficial weapon dealers, she secretly sells weapons in many countries while avoiding the local authorities and law enforcement agencies as most of her work is actually illegal under international law. Traveling with her is her team of bodyguards who are mostly composed of ex-military veterans. Her latest addition to her crew is Jonah, a seemingly emotionless child soldier who is skilled in combat yet ironically hates arms dealers. What follows is Koko and her crew's escapades around the world.
An anime animated by White Fox and produced by Geneon was announced on the 10th volume of the manga. The anime began airing on April 10, 2012 on Tokyo MX, Television Kanagawa, TV Aichi and KBS and on later dates on Sun TV, BS11 and AT-X. The show will also be seen online in Showtime, NicoNico, Bandai Channel and GyaO. A second season of the series was also announced and is slated to be released in October 2012. Known as Jormungand: Perfect Order, it began broadcast on Japanese TV on October 9, 2012. The two seasons aired on Japanese TV at 12:30 AM.
The first release of Jormungand on DVD and Blu-ray was on June 27, 2012 with the first two episodes, "Gun Metal, Calico Road" and "Pulsar" included. Subsequent releases followed with two episodes each on both Blu-rays and DVDs on July 25, August 29 and September 26 of 2012. The Perfect Order DVD/Blu-Rays was first released in Japan on December 21, 2012.
Showgate handles licensing aspect of Jormungand outside Japan. A sneak preview of the anime was held on March 31 to April 1, 2012 at the Anime Contents Expo at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba
.
PLOT
Elfen Lied takes place in Kamakura, Japan, focusing on a new strain of the human race, Diclonius, similar to human beings with invisible arms called vectors but different at the genetic level and notable due to physical abnormalities, particularly a pair of short horn-like protrusions. One such Diclonius, Lucy, is the main character of the series: Initially held in a facility built for experimentation, located off the coast of Kamakura, she manages to escape and wreak havoc, but is injured in the process, an event which causes her to develop a secondary, childlike personality known as Nyu.
Lucy is found by two locals, Kohta, who studies at the local university, and his cousin Yuka. They take her in, and become involved with the numerous, often brutal, attempts to recapture her by a Special Assault Team and a number of other Diclonius, who shift frequently from oblivious to murderous.
Anime
When work began on adapting Elfen Lied into an anime series, director Mamoru Kanbe was recommended to work on the series by the series composer, Takao Yoshioka. Yoshioka believed that Kanbe's general moe drawing style and composition would be ideal to adapt the manga, still in publication at the time, into an anime series. Kanbe himself, originally reluctant about joining the production, gained interest in it upon reading the manga.Despite the manga having 107 chapters, Kanbe and the production team were forced to condense the plot of the series into thirteen episodes, even though they felt it was necessary to make more as several significant plot details in the manga which Kanbe felt he could have used to make the series more emotive were left out.
Kanbe originally thought that Elfen Lied "was a love story, and I could make it so that it would bring viewers to tears. Thus, he made attempts throughout the series to provide a contrast of emotions, commenting that he could make the violence exemplify this throughout the series. The production team were originally surprised by Okamoto's choice of Kamakura as a setting for the series; however, after several visits to the area, Kanbe commented that the setting in Kamakura was, according to the production team, ideal for the poignant and reflective drama in the series to unfold, as its general tranquility and geography made for a reflective and yet eerie, deep-meaning backdrop to the series. This can be seen in several examples, such as on top of a set of steps overlooking the coastline, where many of the interactions between characters take place. This is used as an important device in conveying the ideas of memory and emotional association, such as the contrast between Kohta and Lucy's conversation when they were ten years old in comparison with their conversation in the final episode.
ELFEN LIED SOUNDTRACK (LILIUM) BY KUMIKO NOMA
Blood-C is a 2011 anime/manga series and 2012 film produced in collaboration by Studio Production I.G and manga creators CLAMP. This is Production I.G's second anime series related to the Blood franchise, the first being Blood+, which aired in 2005–2006. An animated film, Blood-C: The Last Dark was released in Japanese theatres on June 2, 2012. The first part of the Blood series is Blood: The Last Vampire.
Saya Kisaragi is a seemingly-normal girl who is overly clumsy and kind. She lives with her father, the head of her hometown's shrine, and learns the "art of the sword" from him. When she is faced with various forms of "trials" that test her kindness, it brings misfortune for her being "overly-kind". Against misfortune and for the sake of her friends, she maintains her kind heart and becomes stronger. However, in her journey, how will she fare? Why is she being tested?
Saya Kisaragi In Innocent Mode
Saya Kisaragi In Fearfull Mode
Saya Kisaragi with (left to right) : Fumito Nanahara,Kanako Tsutsutori, Yūka Amino,Nono & Nene Motoe, Tadayoshi Kisaragi, Itsuki Tomofusa, and Shinichirō Tokizane
Anime
The anime was announced in the May 2011 issue of Shōnen Ace magazine where it would be revealed as a collaboration between Studio Production I.G and the manga creator group CLAMP. CLAMP was in charge of creating the story and original character designs while Production I.G handled the animation. The anime is published by Aniplex and directed by Tsutomu Mizushima with Junichi Fujisaku, who previously worked on Blood: The Last Vampire and Blood+, as creative supervisor. Nanase Ohkawa also supervises the scripts and co-writing them with Fujisaku while Kazuchika Kise is adapting CLAMP's character designs for animation and Naoki Sato is composing the music. The opening theme is "spiral" performed by Dustz,while the ending theme is "Junketsu Paradox" (純潔パラドックス Junketsu Paradokkusu) performed by Nana Mizuki. Aniplex, Dentsu, Dwango, Kadokawa Shoten and MBS were also involved in the production of the series. The anime aired between July 8, 2011 and September 30, 2011 on MBS and TBS and was also simulcast in North America and the United Kingdom on Nico Nico. At Anime Expo 2012, Funimation Entertainment announced that they have licensed the anime series and The Last Dark film.Madman Entertainment has licensed the anime series and the film in Australia
BEELZEBUB (Lets get rock, Beel Boy)
The story follows Tatsumi Oga, a first year student at a school for juvenile delinquents called Ishiyama High. The story starts with Oga telling his best friend, Takayuki Furuichi, the strange story of how he found a baby. One day while doing laundry by the river, Oga saw a man floating downstream. Oga pulled him to shore but the man split in half, revealing a baby boy inside. This baby turned out to be the son of the great demon king, and Oga has been chosen as the one to raise him, along with the baby's maid, Hilda. The manga follows Oga's life as he tries to raise the child while enrolled at Ishiyama High.
In the early chapters, he attempts to 'pass on' Beel to other students at Ishiyama, thinking that if he can find someone stronger and more evil than himself, the baby will attach himself to that person instead. He decides to try to pass the baby on to the Touhoushinki, Ishiyama High's strongest four students. Oga meets and fights Hajime Kanzaki, the first member of the Touhoushinki and the one who is closest to dominating the school; however, Oga defeats Kanzaki, which causes Beel to find him even more appealing.
Later, Oga discovers a peculiar symbol etched on the back of his right hand. Hilda explains that it is the fly king's seal, more commonly known as the Zebub spell, and serves as the family crest of the royal family. The appearance of the seal means that he has officially made a contract with Beel. She also explains that the more evil the bearer of the seal is, the more complex the design of the seal will become. Oga attempts to prevent the seal from growing by avoiding fights with other students, but gives up when Himekawa, the second member of the Touhoushinki, captures Hilda and Furuichi. Oga infiltrates Himekawa's base to rescue them and defeats him by using the Zebub blast for the first time. The consequences of using the seal's power cause the crest to stretch across his arm. Hilda comments after looking at the crest that the amount of energy it used would have driven a normal human mad.
While visiting the park, Oga meets a girl named Aoi and her brother, Kouta. Oga asks her immediately to go out with him, which causes a misunderstanding that stays within Aoi's heart. Oga tells Beel to fight Kouta, possibly as a joke, but Kouta accepts the challenge and easily pushes Beel off a bench. This event sparks a rivalry between the two babies. It is later revealed that Aoi, who was in disguise the whole time, is in fact Aoi Kunieda, the leader of the Red Tails and another member of the Touhoushinki.
Aoi, who was away from school during the earlier events of the manga, has returned to Ishiyama High to defeat Oga in order to prevent him from causing any more trouble within the school. When they encounter each other in battle, she realizes that she has already met Oga in the park, but he doesn't recognize her. After he dodges her attacks twice, he notices Beel's interest in Aoi and asks her to become Beel's mother. Although he means for her to replace him as a parent, his request causes another misunderstanding similar to the one in the park. The fight is postponed, and Hilda soon arrives to give Beel his milk. The MK5 make their debut in the story, only to be defeated in a five panel pattern which appears again later in the story. After the fight, Beel senses something which turns out to be the last of the Toushinki, Toujou. Oga, however, does not notice.
Aoi sees Oga and Hilda's fight with the MK5, and believes the rumors that they are husband and wife. She is challenged by Hilda to a fight so she can test her ability, but the fight ends quickly with Hilda deciding that Aoi isn't on the same level as Oga. At the same time, Oga is confronted by Chiaki and Nene. Two female students tell Aoi that Oga injured the two of them, which later turns out to be MK5.
Aoi fights Oga to avenge her two classmates, while Oga assumes that she wants to accept the role of becoming Beel's parent. At the same time, Nene wakes up in the infirmary and goes to warn Aoi of MK5's trap, which turns out to be Miwa's scheme. MK5, however, prevents anyone from interrupting Aoi and Oga's fight. Nene is about to get shot, but Natsume appears and fights with MK5 to allow Nene to tell Aoi. She was unfortunately too late, as Aoi seems to have defeated Oga, and she comes just in time for Miwa and Ikari to take over.
Oga suddenly gets back up and defeats Ikari and Miwa with ease. It is then shown that Furuichi and Hilda have been watching the whole time. Oga, Furuichi, Hilda and baby Beel go to the beach in search of Toujou to hand baby Beel over to him, not knowing that this is a plot set up by Kanzaki and Himekawa, who want Toujou and Oga to crush each other. Aoi goes to the beach as well to warn Oga of Toujou's strength. Oga and the gang have troubles searching for Toujou and are sent on a wild goose chase. Oga decides to write a letter of challenge to Toujou and have Aoi pass it to him. Aoi attempts to tear it up, but one of Toujou's henchmen finds it. They are supposed to meet between the two rocks at 5 PM. Oga is confronted by the MK5 once again, but quickly defeats them and arrives late. Toujou has left after crushing several motorcycle gangs, which inspires Oga to find Toujou. Later, baby Beel starts feeling sick and it appears that he's come down with a cold. However, Oga's tattoo mysteriously vanishes, and later that night Beel disappears. Hilda kicks Oga out of the house and leaves to find help in the demon world. Oga goes off to find Beel, but runs into Tojou, who, as it turns out, has Beel on his back. After a scuffle, Toujou comes out as the victor, and asks Oga to challenge him again sometime. Once Oga gets home, he is in a surprise to find Hilda there waiting for him, with a strange demon doctor known as Dr. Furucas, and his assistant, Lamia. Furucas reveals that the cold is actually Beel's way of coping with a rise of his power, by keeping the energy within himself, and that he cut off the link between him and Oga to protect him. Lamia then injects Oga with a drug that allows him to reestablish the connection with Beel. Oga then goes to confront Tojou with the aid of the three other Tohoshinki. Once he makes it to Toujou, Beel returns to normal and goes back to Oga. Toujou and Oga then have one final duel in which Oga is victorious, but baby Beel's influx of power causes him to destroy Ishiyama.
Due to their school being destroyed, the students of Ishiyama can only go to their sister school, Saint Ishiyama. Initially, they are constantly looked down on, but after a volleyball match against the Six Knights, the negative views towards them stop.
A new teacher soon arrives to replace the one teaching the Ishiyama group, knocking out both Oga and Toujou on the same day before carrying them to the classroom. The teacher, Zenjiro Saotome, later appears when Oga, Hilda and Aoi are attacked by Hecadoth, and puts up a fight against the demon. Later, Naga and Graphel, the other two demons who came to the world in search of Oga, appear before Saotome, but Saotome uses his Spellmaster spell to attack them. After realizing that he is a Spellmaster who is too powerful for them to win against, Naga uses a teleporting jewel to take the three demons back to Demon World.
Deadman Wonderland (デッドマンワンダーランド Deddoman Wandārando) is a manga series written by Jinsei Kataoka and illustrated by Kazuma Kondou, who also wrote and illustrated the Eureka Seven manga, and published in Shōnen Ace since 2007. Tokyopop acquired the licensing rights to distribute the manga in English and released the first volume on February 9, 2010.
An anime adaptation aired between April and July 2011, pulling content
from the first 21 chapters of the manga. The anime is licensed by Funimation Entertainment and aired on Adult Swim's newly revived Toonami block.
A massive earthquake ravaged Japan's mainland and destroyed most of
Tokyo, sinking three-quarters of the city into the ocean. Ten years
later, the story shifts to Ganta Igarashi, a seemingly ordinary student
attending Nagano Prefecture's middle school. As an escapee, a
survivor of the great earthquake, Ganta has no memories of the tragedy
and has lived a normal life. This all changes when a strange person
covered in blood and crimson armor floats through his classroom windows.
Grinning madly, the Red Man massacres Ganta's entire class but
instead of killing him, embeds a red crystal shard in Ganta's chest.
Within days of the massacre, Ganta is declared the sole suspect.
Following a quick unfair trial, Ganta is sentenced to death and is
incarcerated in Deadman Wonderland, a massive theme park-like prison.
Arriving at the prison, Ganta is fitted with a special collar which monitors his location and life signs. Due to the heinous nature of Ganta's "crime," he has to live out his imprisonment under Deadman Wonderland's 'Death Sentence'. A lethal poison is constantly injected into his bloodstream through the collar, but it can be neutralized by consuming a peculiar candy-like medicine every three days, which can be acquired through various activities in the prison, i.e. performing for audiences, working backstage, purchasing with cast points, etc. In order to gather Cast Points (the prison's currency), an inmate has to perform in the facility's lethal games and survive. Fortunately for Ganta, he is aided by a mysterious girl named Shiro, who apparently knows Ganta, and is known by other prisoners as well.
While trying to survive as an inmate on death row, Ganta becomes increasingly obsessed with the 'Red Man' and tries to find him so he could clear his name. In a bizarre twist, Ganta begins to develop the ability to manipulate his own blood, to the point of turning it into a weapon. Unbeknownst to him, Ganta has become one of the prison's "Deadmen," a segregated group of prisoners possessing the Branches of Sin which makes them capable of controlling their blood. After his ability is discovered, Ganta is forced to participate in brutal gladiatorial death matches known as Carnival Corpse, whose anonymous spectators pay large amounts of money to watch. In his struggle he manages to befriend some of those he fought off in the arena and with their help, Ganta continues his quest to uncover the identity of the Red Man, why he turned into a Deadman, and the dark secrets the prison authorities are hiding.
PLOT
Arriving at the prison, Ganta is fitted with a special collar which monitors his location and life signs. Due to the heinous nature of Ganta's "crime," he has to live out his imprisonment under Deadman Wonderland's 'Death Sentence'. A lethal poison is constantly injected into his bloodstream through the collar, but it can be neutralized by consuming a peculiar candy-like medicine every three days, which can be acquired through various activities in the prison, i.e. performing for audiences, working backstage, purchasing with cast points, etc. In order to gather Cast Points (the prison's currency), an inmate has to perform in the facility's lethal games and survive. Fortunately for Ganta, he is aided by a mysterious girl named Shiro, who apparently knows Ganta, and is known by other prisoners as well.
While trying to survive as an inmate on death row, Ganta becomes increasingly obsessed with the 'Red Man' and tries to find him so he could clear his name. In a bizarre twist, Ganta begins to develop the ability to manipulate his own blood, to the point of turning it into a weapon. Unbeknownst to him, Ganta has become one of the prison's "Deadmen," a segregated group of prisoners possessing the Branches of Sin which makes them capable of controlling their blood. After his ability is discovered, Ganta is forced to participate in brutal gladiatorial death matches known as Carnival Corpse, whose anonymous spectators pay large amounts of money to watch. In his struggle he manages to befriend some of those he fought off in the arena and with their help, Ganta continues his quest to uncover the identity of the Red Man, why he turned into a Deadman, and the dark secrets the prison authorities are hiding.
Main
- Ganta Igarashi (五十嵐 丸太 Igarashi Ganta) / Woodpecker
- Voiced by: Romi Park (Japanese), Greg Ayres (English)
- The main protagonist of the story is a seemingly harmless, ordinary middle school boy until the Wretched Egg slaughters his entire class, yet spares him and infuses him with a shard of red crystal. Tamaki, posing as Ganta's appointed lawyer, rigs evidence at his murder trial to make it look like he murdered his classmates on a whim. Ganta is thus given a death sentence to be served at Deadman Wonderland. Initially confused and frightened, Ganta resolves to endure the heinous prison so he can prove his innocence and avenge his friends by tracking down and confronting their murderer, the Wretched Egg, whom Ganta refers to as the "Red Man". During his stay, Ganta meets a mysterious girl named Shiro and is perplexed that she seems to know him, but eventually begins to remember her as a childhood friend. Ganta learns that the crystal implanted into his chest by the Wretched Egg has turned him into a "Deadman" empowered with a Branch of Sin, which is later christened the Ganta Gun by Senji. This Branch of Sin enables Ganta to gather variable quantities of his blood in the palm of his hand and shoot them like bullets. While advantageous as a long-range attack, due to Ganta's small size, this strategy puts him at risk of experiencing symptoms of excessive blood loss. Ganta later joins up with the Scar Chain and participates in their attempt to break out of Deadman Wonderland and expose the prison's illegal actions, but chooses to remain behind to settle his score with the Wretched Egg. Shortly after these events, learning that Shiro is the Wretched Egg, Ganta's power began to change, evident by a strange tattoo-like mark radiating out from the crystal in his chest. His Ganta Gun now emits a much more powerful blast than before, though it is much less controllable and causes him physical pain. Eventually, the truth about Deadman Wonderland is made public and Ganta is exonerated of the false charges put upon him. He then joins forces with the former prison's Chief Guard Makina, Senji, and several other Deadmen, and return to the prison to locate and stop Shiro (who has now been completely "consumed" by her Wretched Egg persona). By that time, Ganta learns that his mother Sorae Igarashi was the one who turned Shiro into the Wretched Egg for the Chief Director of Deadman Wonderland and that his Branch of Sin is "key" that can unlock the Mother Goose system so the Wretched Egg can utilize her full power and recreate the devastating earthquake she caused ten years earlier. But despite learning that she is the one who ruined his life, Ganta has strong feelings of love towards Shiro.
- Shiro (シロ) / Wretched Egg
- Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)
- A mysterious albino girl and Hagire Rinichirō's artificial daughter that Ganta encountered during his first days as an inmate; Ganta mistook her for his dead friend Mimi due to Shiro resembling her. Clothed only in a skin-tight bodysuit and large gloves (which help conceal her heavily scarred skin), Shiro stands out among the other prisoners due to her bizarre appearance and mannerisms. It is also apparent that she does not have a prison number, unlike the rest. To Ganta, Shiro's manner of speaking and behavior remind him of a small child, even though Shiro is just a year older than him. However, Shiro possesses inhuman physical abilities and has an intimate knowledge of the prison, having lived there most of her life. From the beginning of the story it is made clear that, as children, Shiro and Ganta were close friends with the latter having no memories of his childhood, which greatly saddens and annoys Shiro. Shiro was infected with a mysterious virus that gave her abilities which was being researched by Ganta's mother Sorae Igarashi. Over the next several years, Shiro was subjected to barbaric experiments, including being dismembered while awake, all in an effort to force her body and the virus inside it to "evolve" into the first Deadman. The trauma of this torturous treatment caused Shiro to develop a homicidal, maniacal split personality that is labeled as the Wretched Egg. Unaware of his target's true nature, Ganta knows her as the "Red Man" due to the heavy masculine full body clothing she wears that was inspired by the Aceman character she and Ganta watched and played with as children. As the Wretched Egg, Shiro's personality changes into a murderous, smirking maniac capable of massacring whole squads of armed men with little effort and causing the earthquake in Tokyo. Soon after, Shiro is placed within Deadman Wonderland in comfortable quarters due to being the "source" of the Branches of Sin. Thanks to the Mother Goose mainframe, Deadman Wonderland's supercomputer, a lullaby is played that is audible only to Shiro in order to repress the Wretched Egg and her murderous intents. Like Shiro, the Wretched Egg has feelings for Ganta, though hers border on lust; it was implied that she butchered Ganta's classmates so that he would be sent to Deadman Wonderland to be with her. Eventually, the Wretched Egg becomes the dominant persona with the Mother Goose system's lullaby no longer repressing her. However, she still has strong feelings for Ganta and Shiro's personality still remains intact.
Another
Another (アナザー Anazā) is a Japanese mystery horror novel by Yukito Ayatsuji, published on October 29, 2009 by Kadokawa Shoten. The story focuses on a boy named Kōichi Sakakibara who, upon transferring into Yomiyama Middle School and meeting the curious Mei Misaki, finds himself in a mystery revolving around students and people related to his class facing gruesome, senseless deaths. A manga adaptation by Hiro Kiyohara was serialized between the May 2010 and January 2012 in the issues of Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace. Both the novel and the manga have been licensed in North America by Yen Press. A 12-episode anime TV series produced by P.A. Works aired in Japan between January 10 and March 27, 2012, with an original video animation released on May 26, 2012, and a live-action film was released in Japanese theatres on August 4, 2012.
Another (アナザー Anazā) is a Japanese mystery horror novel by Yukito Ayatsuji, published on October 29, 2009 by Kadokawa Shoten. The story focuses on a boy named Kōichi Sakakibara who, upon transferring into Yomiyama Middle School and meeting the curious Mei Misaki, finds himself in a mystery revolving around students and people related to his class facing gruesome, senseless deaths. A manga adaptation by Hiro Kiyohara was serialized between the May 2010 and January 2012 in the issues of Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace. Both the novel and the manga have been licensed in North America by Yen Press. A 12-episode anime TV series produced by P.A. Works aired in Japan between January 10 and March 27, 2012, with an original video animation released on May 26, 2012, and a live-action film was released in Japanese theatres on August 4, 2012.
- Kōichi Sakakibara (榊原恒一 Sakakibara Kōichi)
- Voiced by: Atsushi Abe
- A 15-year-old boy who transferred to Yomiyama North Middle's class 3-3, but was hospitalized due of a pneumothorax right before the school year began. He stays with his grandparents and aunt Reiko, while his father conducts research in India. He befriends Mei Misaki despite warnings against doing so, and works with his classmates to uncover the truth behind the curse of class 3-3. He has doubts regarding his connection to the curse, going so far as to believe he may be the "dead one", though Mei lays his fears to rest.
- Mei Misaki (見崎鳴 Misaki Mei)
- Voiced by: Natsumi Takamori
- An unusual girl in Kōichi's class. She is recognizable due to the eyepatch that covers her left eye, a doll's eye crafted by her adoptive mother. She claims it allows her to see the "color of death". At first, she is completely ignored by her classmates and sits in an old, scratched desk at the back of the classroom. Kōichi first meets her on the elevator of Yūmigaoka Hospital, and they gradually become closer. He defends her numerous times, particularly when faced with their very hostile classmates, some of whom believe her to be the "dead one" behind their year's calamity. She appears rather "doll-like" on the surface, but still has human feelings. In the novel and manga, Mei's doll eye is blue; in the anime, it is green
Main Characters
- Tadakuni (タダクニ Tadakuni)
- Voiced by: Miyu Irino
- A student in Sanada North Boys High who acts as the straight man of the group. He is usually involved in Hidenori and Yoshitake's wild ideas despite his disapproval. He is good at telling "ghost" stories. He has a younger sister whom he hardly talks to and is stronger than him and his friends. He also works part-time at a pizza restaurant. Despite being introduced like a main protagonist, he gets the least roles in the trio.
- Hidenori Tabata (田畑 ヒデノリ Tabata Hidenori)
- Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita
- The glasses-wearing character of the main trio and also a student of Sanada North Boys High, he is the one that usually gets the group involved in his crazy schemes. He used to be bullied in the past until he was saved by Rubber Shooter. His older brother, Yūsuke used to be the ringleader of the group until he went off to college.
- Yoshitake Tanaka (田中 ヨシタケ Tanaka Yoshitake)
- Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura
- The dyed hair character of the main trio, he usually goes along with Hidenori's scheme much to Tadakuni's disapproval. He was Rubber Shooter in the past and had fought with Habara along with Yanagin and Karasawa in that identity. Back in elementary school, he had many embarrassing moments that his friends had mistaken to be for Mitsuo. He has a violent sister who is a year