Monday, January 24, 2011

Characters: Darker Than Black

Characters: Darker Than Black

Characters from the anime/manga series Darker Than Black. When reading these, bear in mind that pretty much all Contractor characters are also Stoic Tin Men and displayLack Of Empathy and Dolls are all True Neutral Emotionless Persons verging on Empty Shells.
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    The protagonists 
A special operations team employed by The Syndicate.

Hei


The Hero (well, for a given level of "hero"), a.k.a. Li Shengshun, a.k.a. Lee Hyeonsik, a.k.a. BK-201, a.k.a. The Black Reaper, a.k.a. Chinese Electric Batman. An agent of The Syndicate, doing their dirty work to retrieve items and information related to Hell's Gate. He works undercover as Nice Guy exchange student "Li Shengshun," taking menial jobs wherever the higher-ups need him, relying on his apparent naivety to avoid suspicion. He has the Contractor ability to manipulate electricity and the most awesome coat in the universe, and is a weapons-grade Chick Magnet to boot.

Has an incredibly Dark And Troubled Past featuring war, betrayal, and the disappearance of his younger sister, and bringing it up is generally a really bad idea and one of the few ways to get a reaction out of him.


Yin


A doll assigned to Hei's group. A clairvoyant Emotionless Girl with the ability to project surveillance specters through water, she acts as the group's recon unit.

In the second season, she develops a Superpowered Evil Side, Izanami, that causes Contractors to turn their powers on themselves and is apparently trying to cause The End Of The World As We Know It. She manages to suppress it, but winds up comatose— and when someone wakes her up, Izanami wakes up with her.

Huang


Hei's "handler," a Syndicate employee who relays his instructions and acts as backup when necessary.

Mao


A body-swapping contractor trapped in a cat's body who helps Hei's group.

Suō Pavlichenko


The second main protagonist, besides Hei, of Season 2, a half-Japanese half-Russian schoolgirl. Her father is a scientist studying ME and her brother is a Contractor; her mother is a photographer who moved to Japan eight years ago. She gets pulled into the plot because of attempts to capture her twin and winds up hanging around Hei. In the third episode, she develops the Contractor ability to summon an anti-tank rifle and wield it easily despite its size.

    The Japanese Police 

Misaki Kirihara


The head of the police task force dealing with contractor-related crimes; she takes a special interest in the cases related to BK-201 that starts to grow into an obsession with time.
  • Action Girl: On a good day.
  • Big Eater: Not as much as Hei, but she likes greasy food.
  • Blind Without Em: When she's not wearing her glasses, she squints all the time.
  • Christmas Cake
  • Code Name: Yayoi Ichinose.
  • Dating Catwoman: Her relationship with "Li"- given the morality of the series, it's hard to tell which of them is the "Catwoman."
  • Fair Cop
  • Fatal Attraction: She falls for Hei even though she connects him to BK-201 as early as episode 18It takes a couple suspicious coincidences, a partially-cracked mask, "Li" slipping into his Black Reaper voice, an accidental Meaningful Echo, and some surprising openness on his part before she figures it out/admits it to herself.
  • Go Go Enslavement: Alice insists on dressing her in a qipao as punishment for forgetting about her party.
  • Hero Antagonist
  • Hot Chick In A Badass Suit
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: She shot one of Hei's knives out of the air in the OVA.
  • Kuudere: Generally acts very cool and professional, but gets almost moe when she opens up a bit.
  • Lawful Good
  • Les Yay: Gets this a lot.
  • Ms Fanservice: A mild example.
  • Nana Mizuki
  • Nepotism: Her father is ranked above her on the police force. She doesn't appreciate his attempts to ensure the correct progression of her career. In the second season, she quits her job out of frustration and a wish to find Hei.
  • Stalker With A Crush: She's still trying to find Hei in the second season, even though she's no longer working for the police department. And by "trying to find" I mean "obsessively watching the star BK-201 through a telescope." Kanami informs her that she needs to get over him and find another guy.
  • The Stoic: And not a contractor!
  • Stoic Spectacles: Her attitude is probably closer to this than Meganekko.
  • You Need To Get Laid: Has been informed of this quite a few times in the second season because of her obsession with finding Hei.

Saito


Kirihara's second-in-command.

Kano


One of Kirihara's underlings.

Matsumoto


Another Division 4 employee.

Mayu


A member of the task force and closet Big Name Fan.

Horai

Also known as the Director. Kirihara's boss.

    Secret Intelligence Service 

November 11, AKA Jack Simon


MI6's top agent, assigned to Japan to investigate Gate-related activity. He has the power to freeze liquids and a rather James Bond-like attitude.

April


A contractor on November 11's team who can create storms at will.

July


The Doll assigned to November 11's team. In the second season, he joins Hei, Suou, and Mao.

August 7


A Contractor introduced in Season 2. He is part of the same team as April and July.
  • Achilles Heel: He can pretty much do anything as long as he is looking at you and you at him, but Hei throws his longcoat over August's head and electrocutes him while he is powerless.
  • Blessed With Suck: He's a former stage magician and received the power to do real magic, something which would make him the greatest magician ever. Unfortunately, his Remuneration is to give away how magic tricks work, something which hurts his pride as a former magician and takes away any professional benefit he could get from his powers.
  • Disney Death
  • Expy: He has often been compared to Cornelius Alba of Kara No Kyoukai.
  • Hollywood Tactics: If you're effectively immune to ranged attacks and you're up against a ninja known for ingenuity, it would seem like a good idea not to let him get close.
  • Magicians Are Wizards
  • Masaya Matsukaze
  • Nice Hat
  • Reality Warper
  • Stage Magician
  • Superpower Lottery: A real winner, since he pretty much has the power to do anything if someone is looking at him.
  • Suspiciously Similar SubstituteReferred to by some fans as the "New November 11". Actually an aversion though, as his openly psychotic personality is closer to that of Wei in the first series.
  • Too Cool To Live: Or so we thought.
  • White Haired Pretty Boy

    Evening Primrose 
The Contractor La Resistance with a distinctly Darwinist cast- think Magneto

Amber


The founder of Evening Primrose, who used to work for The Syndicate, the CIA, and MI6 and betrayed all of them. She was in South America during Heaven's War, and Hei considers her responsible for what happened at its end.

She can manipulate time, and her remuneration is getting younger.

Amigiri


Amber's second-in-command. He has the very straightforward power of shooting waves of force.

Maki


A contractor working for Amber. His power is to blow up anything he's touched, and he has an enormous crush on Amber.

Brita


A ridiculously sexy contractor working for Amber as a spy. She can teleport anyone she touches.

    PANDORA 

Eric Nishijima


A high-ranking PANDORA official, he is a Japanese citizen who was born overseas. He plays a background role throughout much of the first series.

Dr. Schroeder


A scientist working at PANDORA's lab at Hell's Gate.

Meena Khandar Swami


A scientist working at the laboratory in the Gate who got her position by making a deal with The Syndicate. Acts as Hei's contact when he infiltrates the place.

Nick Hillman


A cheerful scientist Hei meets while undercover at an observatory.

    Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 
A group of Japanese agents introduced in Season 2.

Genma Shizume


Part of the team dedicated to hunting down Hei and Suou, a contractor with the ability to turn solid objects into heavy armor. Has a habit of hitting on everyone he encounters.

Mina Hazuki


A contractor with the ability to turn objects into laser katanas. Part of the team hunting Hei and Suou.

Yōko Sawasaki


The group's token human, a scientist who worked under Dr. Schrader.

    Others 

Wei Zhijun


A contractor serving the Chen Long Tang crime family. His power is to blow holes in anything he gets blood on. Later joins Amber's group in order to fight Hei again.

Alice


The heir to the Chen Long Tang family. She was friends with Kirihara as a teenager, and did not react well to her friend's career choice.

Gai Kurosawa

Kurosawa and Kiko

A rather useless private investigator who accidentally stumbles across the edges of Hei's assignments a couple of times.

Kiko


Kurosawa's cheery, excitable secretary, who only works for him because she can watch yaoi at work. She has an over-the-top stalker-crush on "Li."

Havock AKA Carmine


Quite possibly the most dangerous contractor in existence, she killed hundreds or even thousands in South America- and then something happened that removed her powers and some of her memories but restored her emotions to normal. Now she's wracked with guilt over what she did, leaving her as probably the only case of a woobie who ate babies in history.

Bertha and Itzhak


Two Contractors working for FSB to capture Yin. Bertha's power allows her to force objects to resonate, usually breaking them, although it can also stop someone's heart; Itzhak can absorb observation ghosts and use them to manipulate and control the minds of dolls.

Harvest


The primary antagonist of the Interquel manga, Shikkoku no Hana. His power is to dissolve matter, and this ability to manipulate the connections between atoms allows him to give normal humans Contractor abilities.

Azusa Tsukimori


A young schoolgirl Hei encounters in Shikkoku no Hana. After being seduced and betrayed by her coach, Daisuke Mioka, she desires to become a Contractor in order to exact revenge. And then she meets Harvest...

After the death of her best friend, his power gives her supernatural leg strength, allowing her to kick people hard enough that they explode or jump twenty feet in the air. But the more she uses it, the larger the black flower attached to her back grows...

Daisuke Mioka


A young coach for a girls' volleyball team in Shikkoku no HanaLoves teh ladies but goes about it in the most dickish way possible.

Parcel


A contractor of one of PANDORA's many factions working to kill Harvest. Her power is teleportation through use of black portals. Her Doll is a modified cyborg named "Champ."

Shion Pavlichenko


Suo's brother, who was transformed into a Contractor. His power is to produce copies of things and people with one trait changed, and his remuneration paralyzes his legs, putting him in a wheelchair most of the time.
  • But Not Too Foreign
  • Creepy Child
  • Evil Redhead: Sort of.
  • Half Identical Twin: Or not.
  • Houko Kuwashima
  • Mac Guffin Girl: A male variant, since the reason everyone's chasing Suou is to catch him. However, it turned out he was a lot more active than we were giving him credit for.
  • Madwoman In The Attic: After he became a Contractor, his father imprisoned him in a metal room from which he couldn't leave. Or maybe not. Dad and son are in cahoots. It's... complicated.
  • Manipulative BastardHe enjoys messing with Suou's head a little too much.
  • Mind Control Eyes: Only one; see Mismatched Eyes.
  • Mismatched Eyes: He lost the use of an eye in the explosion which turned him into a Contractor, so while both of his eyes are green, the injured eye is much lighter andmissing a pupil.
  • Otaku: On account of being imprisoned and his Remuneration, which left him temporarily crippled.
  • Power Degeneration: His remuneration makes him very weak, although it seems he can recover with no ill effects given enough time.
  • (Pre-)Teen Genius
  • Twin Switch: Has Suo take his clothing in the first episode, so she can escape. However, given later events, it seems more likely to have been so he could escape...

Dr. Pavlichenko


Suo's father and the inventor of a device which can pull memories from people even after they are dead. Later revealed as an early member of The Syndicate.

Madame Oreille


A mysterious character with connections to the CIA who is revealed to have been Hei's employer.

Mr. Smith


A mysterious CIA agent seen interacting with Madame Oreille.

Tanya


Suou's best friend who becomes a Contractor at the start of the second season

Ilya Sokoloff


A Russian Contractor featuring in the second series

Claude


A Contractor who features as a major antagonist in the interquel OVAs.

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