Characters / Air Gear: The Sleeping Forest

Main | Kogarasumaru | The Sleeping Forest | Genesis | Other Characters

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The Sleeping Forest

A team of eight Gravity Children who stand at the top of the Trophaeum Tower. They protect the Sky Regalia and prevent anyone from using it, for their leader, Kilik, fears its power is too great for the world. The team's current incarnation's actually the second one, with Kilik being the only member who was on the first.

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In General

• Badass Crew: They took out the original Sleeping Forest.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Although it occurred around the middle of the series instead of at the end, they were built up to be the series' Big Bads, but almost immediately after Ikki comes face to face with the entire team, the real Big Bad is revealed.
• Good All Along: Their real purpose is to stop Sora from gaining Sky Regalia for himself.
• Red Herring: The first appearance of members besides the Noyamano sisters has them brutally attacking Storm Riders, as if to tell the audience "We're the bad guys." Then they take out Simca. Really, though, they're not so bad and their previous actions were an attempt to avert a war and keep non-combatants where they belong: on the sidelines.
• Shrouded in Myth: Very few people are sure that The Sleeping Forest actually exists, and nobody but Sora and Nike is sure why they exist.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Their motifs, that was chanted several times in the earlier chapters.
  "The trees entangle their arms and stretch upward into the sky."
  "The budding leaves devour the light, adding depth to the forest's darkness."
  "The hunter does not notice the glare nor the claws of the beast biding in the darkness."
  "Tonight is the night when the hunter will be hunted."
  "This is the Sleeping Forest."
• Threshold Guardians: They guard the Trophaeum Tower and anyone hoping to acquire the Sky Regalia needs to go through them.
• True Companions

Ringo Noyamano

Thorn Queen
Road: Thornier Road
Regalia: Thornier Subregalia: Thorn Reaper — Sonnet
R.E.A.D. Level: 320
Shadow: Crazy Apple◊

Voiced by: Mariya Ise (JP - Series), Haruka Tomatsu (JP - OVA), Luci Christian (EN)

Ringo is the deuteragonist of the series, Ikki's childhood friend, and a member of the Noyamano family that adopted Ikki into their household. However, behind her seemingly plain and unimpressive guise of a junior high school student, she is actually the successor and leader of the legendary Sleeping Forest. She is a Queen Class Rider and the current Thorn Queen of the Thornier Road. She helps Kogarasumaru in times of trouble under the "guise" of Croissant Mask.

She's in love with Ikki, a theme that has been used profusely for both dramatic and comedic effect throughout the series.

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• Action Girlfriend: Downplayed. Ikki was never a normal teenager, he was a delinquent with a Charles Atlas Superpower, and he was always interested in A-Ts but never thought he could actually use them. It was Ringo (in the manga, at least) who properly introduced him into the A-T world and got him started. While she still helped him out after that, he kinda took it from there on his own.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: A variant. She and Ikki are saying goodbye for what could very well be the last time, as she's about to head into battle with the Big Bad, and, realizing that she may never have another chance, she finally tells Ikki that she loves him.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: She's one of two people who utterly trash Ikki single-handedly, the other being Akira Udou, and she's the leader of The Sleeping Forest. In fact, the reason she's officially the leader of The Sleeping Forest despite Kilik being the shotcaller is because she's so good at kicking ass, especially in the zero-G of the Trophaeum Tower.
• Ax-Crazy: It comes out when she's angry. While she's nowhere near as bad as Nike, she goes past ruthless and heads right into sadistic territory.
• Badass Adorable: Her unrequited love for Ikki and emotional insecurity make her quite endearing, yet if anybody threatens her or her friends, they get utterly trashed.
• Badass Bookworm: She's got to be the smartest member of the main cast and she is quite studious.
• Battle Aura: When Agito was attacking Kogarasumaru, she couldn't fight him because she didn't have A-Ts and because if she did fight him, she would have revealed just how badass she was to Kogarasumaru, so instead, she projected such a powerful aura that he panics and starts looking around for the source.
• Battle Couple: With Ikki after he chooses her as his Link Turner.
• Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Simca's Veronica. Unlike Simca, she absolutely refuses to use Ikki for her own ends and always tries to support him.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's kind, not at all manipulative, and hates keeping secrets and hurting people. Piss her off, though, and she'll tear you apart.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Her buxom chest causes Mikan to be jealous of her.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Her feelings for Ikki. She finally manages it in Chapter 243.
• Caught the Heart on His Sleeve: When she confesses to Ikki, he's just starting to walk away. She stops him by softly grabbing the hem of his jacket. In keeping with her lack of confidence, she can't even bring herself to stop him and make him look her in the eyes.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Ikki. She's been friends with Ikki since they were children and has loved him for years. He eventually reciprocates.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She hates when another girl gets closer to Ikki and has a tendency to destroy what's next to her in a fit of rage.
• Combat Stilettos: Her later A-T models: her second pair of A-Ts used the ball-roller system, so they actually looked like a pair of normal high-heeled boots, and her third pair were high-heels with slightly smaller than average wheels at the front and slightly larger wheels than average at the back.
• Cover-Blowing Superpower: For the first part of the series, Ringo was established as a skilled rider and all of her friends were aware of this, but what they weren't aware of was that even then, before she took various levels in badass, she was one of the most badass riders in the series. Even as Croissant Mask, she couldn't fight to her true potential or use her Thornier Road for fear of revealing herself.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When she and Ikki fight, she utterly dominates him until she suffers her Heroic RRoD, and the battle only progressed that far because she allowed it to.
• Cute Bruiser: She looks like a cute, adorable high school girl. If you fuck with her, she'll annihilate both you and the building you're standing in.
• Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes.
• Death Glare: She gives a pretty good one to Agito when he was still an enemy. Coupled with her Battle Aura, it scared the shit out of him.
• Determinator: Just fighting is extremely painful for her, even if her opponent's attacks don't even come close to touching her, yet with one exception (her fight with Ikki, which she didn't really want to fight anyway) she refuses to give in. This is especially pronounced in the final battle, in which she fights for extended periods of time, even after she takes a vicious wound to the side of her face. And even jumps into space just to get the lead.
• Deuteragonist: After Ikki, the series places the most focus on Ringo as she monitors his development and nurtures his potential as the future Wind Keeper. This is even before her nature as a Gravity Child and user of the Storm Regalia is revealed, further emphasizing her relevance to the plot when the more science-fiction elements are introduced in the second half of the story.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Par for the course for a Gravity Child. She usually keeps them hidden.
• First Girl Wins: Is the first girl Ikki ever became close with, and they eventually get together as an Official Couple towards the end of the series.
• Fragile Speedster: She's noted several times to be ridiculously fast, and though Ikki beats her in all-out speed, she is far more nimble and next to impossible to touch in a fight. However, she isn't all that tough thanks to not being Made of Iron like several other characters as well as the damage the Thornier Road inflicts on her body.
• A Friend in Need: She often helped out Kogarasumaru in their early days, even though she would have been punished if she had been seen fighting for anybody besides The Sleeping Forest, because at the time Kogarasumaru was an extremely weak team that needed help.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: She's a second-generation Gravity Child.
• Girlish Pigtails: She almost always wears her hair like this.
• Glass Cannon: She isn't all that tough, but the Thornier Road allows her to fuck shit up on a grand scale
• The Glasses Come Off: She wears glasses most of the time, but she always takes them off when getting ready for asskicking.
• Heroic RRoD:
  • Thanks to the Thornier Road, she can't fight for extended periods of time without temporarily incapacitating herself afterwards and subjecting herself to unimaginable pain, both during her fight and for about a day afterward. Having perfectly tuned Thorn Regalia somewhat diminishes this. Somewhat.
  • Her technique involves inhaling in order to essentially turn her lungs under high-compression air cylinders so that she can deliberately inflict herself with the bends, creating pockets of nitrogen bubbles that collect between her joints, creating a sort of air cushion that grants her inhuman flexibility, but leaves her laid up with the aforementioned side-effects.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: She's got crappy self-esteem and has a tendency to beat herself up for any mistakes she makes. She is also utterly incapable of believing Ikki could actually love someone like her.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: She doesn't say it, but the disbelieving surprise she displays when Ikki picks her makes it plain as day that she was thinking it.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: The main reason why it takes her so long to tell Ikki she loves him is the fact that they're very close. All throughout the time when he was crushing on Simca or getting closer to Kururu, she suffered in silence because she knew that if she confessed to Ikki and he rejected her — which in her mind was a certainty — it would irreparably ruin their friendship.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She genuinely supports Kururu, whom she believes will be able to help Ikki the most and make him happy. However, both Kururu and Ikki see things differently.
• In the Name of the Moon: Croissant Mask introduces herself like this.
• Letting Her Hair Down: When she becomes Ikki's link tuner.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's an Action Girl with a Not-Very-Magic Skirt, so she gets quite a few panty shots. And then there's her Paper-Thin Disguise, Swimsuit Mask Croissant Mask. Finally, there's Croissant Mask's alternate appearance, when Simca stole her usual disguise.
• Nice Girl: She's very kind and always friendly, even to people who might be her enemies. Just don't make her angry.
• Not So Above It All: With the exception of her stint as Croissant Mask, which gave her eternal embarrassment, in earlier volumes, Ringo was always more levelheaded and normal than the entirety of Team Kogarasumaru put together and was typically divorced from their antics. However, in later volumes, she gives in and lets them sweep her up in their enthusiasm, showing herself to be just as weird as the rest of them and even getting involved in their team poses.
• Only Sane Woman: For much of the series when it comes to Kogarasumaru.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Croissant Mask. It's her in a school swimsuit wearing a cape, a massive hat, a wig, and glasses, all of which she pilfered from the drama club's storage room in a hurry.
• Patient Childhood Love Interest: To an almost painful degree with Ikki, as she just sits through his crushing on Simca and later his growing relationship with Kururu, never saying anything because she was sure he didn't feel the same way and didn't want to ruin their friendship. She finally confesses as they part ways for what could possibly be the last time before she heads off to war with the Big Bad. Long story short, he feels the same way.
• Precision F-Strike: When Simca tells Ringo that she wants to manipulate Ikki into achieving his full potential for her own gain, and tells Ringo not to get in the way, Ringo is enraged, slapping Simca and dropping one of her only uses of profanity in the series.
• Purple Is Powerful: She has purple eyes and she's also the leader of The Sleeping Forest and an epic badass.
• Relationship Upgrade: She has one with Ikki in Chapter 328. Finally.
• Reluctant Warrior: She really just wants to spend all day practicing harmless tricks to perfection, but she is forced into a war with the Takeuchi Brothers.
• Running Gag: Back when she would still appear as Croissant Mask frequently, she would always introduce herself as "Swimsuit Mask" before correcting herself.
• Sacred First Kiss: Not only was hers taken (by Kanon), but Ikki's was as well (by Akito). She was not happy about this:
  Ikki: "What the hell? What are you so pissed off about?"
  Ringo: (Internal Monologue) "Because! Your first kiss was with a boy! A boy cuter than me! I've been fantasizing about my first kiss with you and now my dreams have been shattered!"
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Just pray you never see them get like that.
• Shrinking Violet: In an understated case similar to Yayoi's, she acts normal but has almost zero self-confidence when she isn't acting Ax-Crazy. Hell, when she confessed to Ikki, she didn't have the confidence to do it herself, and felt the need to hide behind her Croissant Mask persona to get the words out.
• Single-Target Sexuality: For Ringo, there's never been anybody else except Ikki, which is why his crush on Simca hurts so much. Once Ikki finally has his Love Epiphany this thankfully stops, although Ringo still throws rather destructive fits of jealousy.
• Slasher Smile: She gets a few.
• Stepford Smiler: As much as she tries to act like nothing's wrong, she despises the fact that she must use A-Ts to fight and her constant inability to convey her feelings to Ikki really gets to her. Kilik once told her that she sounds like she is crying whenever she runs and that he thinks she should smile more often.
• Tsundere: Sweet type. She's normally kind, friendly and polite. Whenever she gets sufficiently pissed off or jealous, she becomes exceptionally brutal and violent.

Kilik *UNMARKED SPOILERS*

"Just you wait... you and that ambition of yours that stains the sky will one day be shattered and crushed by a crippling blow from the heavens... In the past, there have been two occasions when I held your life in my hands and spared it. There will not be a third."

Gem King
Road: Gaia Road
Regalia: Gem Subregalia
R.E.A.D. Level: Unknown, above 400
Shadow: Unknown◊

Voiced by: Kōki Miyata (JP - OVA)

The leader of the Sleeping Forest (both past and present), the Gem King of Gaia Road, a first-generation Gravity Child, and the one actually calling all the shots. Though he began as one of the series' main antagonists and was even built up to be the Big Bad, his role's become something closer to that of the Big Good as his motives and the truth about the Sleeping Forest is revealed. Though one of the most reserved and physically unassuming Storm Riders in the series, Kilik is intelligent, arrogant and extremely powerful. He viciously protects the Sky Regalia from the world, believing its power's too much for the world to handle, and would only lead to chaos and suffering.

He and Sora founded the Sleeping Forest, to protect the Sky Regalia and keep it from falling into anybody's hand. However, after growing disillusioned with the violence and suffering Storm Riders subjected each other to, and then discovering Sora was only using the Sleeping Forest to take the Sky Regalia for himself, he gathered several Gravity Children, led a coup against the Sleeping Forest and crippled Sora, personally. After that, he rebuilt the Sleeping Forest, to serve the purpose he originally intended for it: protecting the Sky Regalia from anyone who'd want to use it. In this pursuit, he is extremely ruthless, and there are very few lines he won't cross, if it means accomplishing his goal.

He's considered the most powerful of the original Eight Kings of the Sleeping Forest, and the most gifted among all the Gravity Children. His "Gaia Road" operates on the principles of piezoelectricity and is powerful enough to almost completely destroy a building.

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• 20% More Awesome: Is very fond of testing people using a one hundred point rating system.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: In battle, he's able to accurately analyze any situation and quickly come up with strategies to deal with them.
• Badass Bookworm: He's smart and gives off a nerdy vibe when he isn't busy terrifying people.
• Badass Longrobe: He wore one in the past, complete with crosses.
• Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: He originally comes across as a ruthless bastard who betrayed his friends to prevent worthless normal humans from ever reaching the sky. It turns out he's actually quite reasonable as long as you're not trying to take the Sky Regalia. If you are, though, expect him to send The Sleeping Forest after you.
• Big Good: As the true leader of The Sleeping Forest, he's Sora's opposite number and the one coordinating efforts to ensure the Sky Regalia is never set loose upon the world.
• Break the Cutie: In the past, he was a great guy to be around; idealistic, selfless, honest and forthright... then he was betrayed by his friends and he became the cynical Well-Intentioned Extremist he is in the series proper.
• Brutal Honesty: He's always completely honest, whether he's telling you that you did well or if he's telling you that you're a waste of space.
• The Chessmaster: He always has things carefully planned out.
• The Comically Serious: When interacting with Kogarasumaru, he does his best to keep up with their boundless energy and straight-up weirdness but doesn't quite pull it off.
• Cool Bike: He doesn't use it often, and we actually only see it once, but it's still totally awesome.
• Covert Pervert: Don't let Kilik's stoicism fool you; when Sora finds a naked copy of Rika, he's seen with a nosebleed.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Callously follows up on Sora's betrayl of Ikki by telling him to hit the road, and that being stripped of his future inheritance of Genesis made him an absolute nobody again. However, it's made obvious to the reader he's only saying it to spur Ikki on even further, given the realization he made seconds prior that Sora is actually scared of Ikki.
• Dishing Out Dirt: As the Gem King of the Gaia Road, this is his specialty.
• The Dreaded: As the mighty Gem King of the Gaia Road and the one who shattered the Sleeping Forest, Kilik's name is enough to terrify anybody who knows it.
• Dying Declaration of Hate: "Sora, I despise you."
• Et Tu, Brute?/This Is Unforgivable!: He and Sora founded The Sleeping Forest to keep the Sky Regalia hidden away from the world, and they gathered like-minded Gravity Children to help. However, when he discovered that all of the members actually agreed with Sora's opinion that the world would be better with the Sky Regalia's power, and even condoned the creation of new Gravity Children, he felt like each and every one of them had betrayed everything that he stood for. Though he was merciful enough to spare their lives, he never forgave any of them, and he didn't even seem terribly put out when one of them, who had eventually come over to his line of thinking, was murdered.
• Exotic Eye Designs: As a Gravity Child, he has cross shaped pupils, called "Twinkle Eyes". He's noteworthy in that he's the only one who never covers them. Even Nike and Sora keep them covered most of the time.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: He's a first generation Gravity Child, and strongly implied to be the best rider in the series next to Sora before retiring from combat.
• Genius Bruiser: He's powerful, tough, and extremely intelligent.
• Good Is Not Nice: He is most definitely one of the good guys, but that doesn't stop him from being a dick or exceptionally ruthless.
• Hero Antagonist: At least at first, before The Sleeping Forest and Kogarasumaru became official allies. Ikki even says at one point he considers him as much of an obstacle to reaching the top of the sky as Sora is, although it obviously doesn't stay that way.
• Half-Identical Twins: With Simca.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: His experiences have left him quite bitter.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He will not hesitate to tell you how pathetic and worthless you are if he thinks it's true. However, it's shown in later volumes that he cares for his teammates and his heart is in the right place.
• Killed Off for Real: And he doesn't even show up in Electric Brain Space either, unlike Spitfire.
• Made of Iron: He invokes this by exposing his body to insane amounts of pressure to make himself extremely tough so that he can endure the Big Bad's Wind Road.
• Mission Control: He temporarily becomes this to Kogarasumaru during their fight with Sleipnir. Though his ability to communicate with Kogarasumaru is cut off by the Big Bad, his short instructions at the beginning of the battle were indispensable.
• My Greatest Failure: He considers his choice to spare the Big Bad's life eight years ago to be this.
• Off with His Head!: Courtesy of Sora.
• Pet the Dog: Despite being rather unfriendly and possessing a brutal Shoot the Dog I Did What I Had to Do outlook, he has shown himself to be quite compassionate and he clearly cares about his teammates.
• Shadow Dictator: Even if he's an extremely powerful Rider, he's a brilliant strategist who prefers to take a back seat when it comes to fighting and pull the strings of events rather than putting himself in the spotlight.
• Super-Strength: He was considered the most powerful Gravity Child, and one of his basic techniques has the power to almost level a building.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: No, really. It was him who saved several other Gravity Children who were about to be scrapped; this group at the very least includes all of the other Gravity Children in the original Sleeping Forest as well as Nike.
• Walking Spoiler: Talking about Kilik in any extended capacity is revealing key details about the latter half of the plot, from the Gravity Children to the Sky Regalia, and most of all that Ikki's "big brother" Sora is actually hellbent on world domination. It's an admittedly rather large leap for what started as an (albeit somewhat more fantastical) sports series.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He believes that nobody should wield the power of the Sky Regalia and will not hesitate to brutally put down anybody who tries.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Subverted. While he's ruthless and brutal, he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who truly cares for his people.
• When He Smiles: He still smiles from time to time, and it's quite sweet coming from him.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: In the past. The world failing to meet his expectations broke this, however, providing him with Jade-Colored Glasses.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Given his personality, he probably would if he had to, but in the Inorganic Web match his method of keeping Adachi from the balloon seems to be scaring her away from it, even though eliminating her would effectively end the battle. He mentions that he is bad at attacking girls.
• You Have Failed Me: Subverted. Before we even see him outside of a flashback, both Gabishi and Om are terrified of returning to him having failed in their assigned tasks. Hell, Gabishi, who remained mostly stoic while he was being threatened with torture, was visibly scared of Kilik's wrath. However, as Kilik constantly wears a facade, if the two of them were actually punished, they were left none the worse for it.

Mikan Noyamano

Wind God
Road: Gale Road
Regalia: Wind Subregalia
R.E.A.D. Level: Unknown, likely above 300
Shadow: Unknown◊

Voiced by: Seiko Hosokawa (JP), Shelley Calene-Black (EN)

Mikan Noyamano is the second-eldest of the Noyamano sisters, and a member of The Sleeping Forest. She acts like an evil tomboyish girl with short messy pink hair, and is the disciplinarian of the family (Read: she pounds the shit out of Ikki whenever he acts up).

She is regarded as The Sleeping Forest's "Wind God," which implies she is a Queen-class Wind-type Rider, and she follows the Gale Road, a form of the Wind Road that emphasizes strength and aggression over speed. She is often called a "Female Gorilla" by the other characters thanks to her brute strength and violent tendencies. She was even strong enough to break out of Aeon Clock's "Time" technique using sheer force.

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• A-Cup Angst: Downplayed, but she still says she's jealous of Ringo's huge chest.
• The Big Girl: She's this to Sleeping Forest, being the physically strongest of them.
• Big Sister Bully: She and her daily beatings responsible for Ikki being Made of Iron.
• Big Sister Instinct: Inverted. She feels extremely protective of Rika, whom she just wants to give a normal life.
• Blood Knight: She actively looks forward to fighting.
• Blow You Away: She rides the Gale Road, an offshoot of the Wind Road.
• Dark Action Girl: While she isn't exactly evil, she is quite sadistic and brutal in combat.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Just like all Gravity Children. However, most of the time she keeps them hidden.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: She's a second-generation Gravity Child.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to make her angry, especially if Ikki is involved.
• Jerkass: She's more than a little cruel and abusive, mostly towards Ikki, but to other people as well.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Her A-T outfit is a jumpsuit that she always keeps zipped down to her navel.
• Pet the Dog: Her relationship with Rika, and to a lesser extent her other sisters.
• Super-Strength: She has monstrous physical strength.
• Trademark Favorite Food: She seems to really love Ramen.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Maybe. It's possible that she actually likes the idea of two bishonens in a relationship, but given her personality, it's likely that she's only enjoying it because it just lets her torment Ikki more.

Shiraume "Ume" Noyamano

Road: Unknown (Pledge Road or Derivative)
Regalia: Unknown
R.E.A.D. Level: Unknown
Shadow: None

Voiced by: Yukiko Hanioka (JP), Hilary Haag (EN)

Known as Ume to her family, she is the the youngest of the Noyamano family, and a member of The Sleeping Forest. Her hobby is the creation of puppets in the guise of gorgons, which creep out Ringo and Ikki to no end, and she's always seen carrying one with her.

Ume is a Queen-level Storm Rider, despite her age and diminutive appearance. Although her Road has not yet been revealed, she specializes in tuning and tinkering, making her a rider of either the Pledge Road or an equivalent.

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• BFG: The Grand Super Muon Ume-Chan Blaster. Unfortunately, she never actually uses it.
• Creepy Child: While she's mostly quite normal, the dolls she makes and the little song she sings while she's at it freak Ikki and Ringo out. Hilary Haag's performance in the dub can actually make the viewer feel a tad bit uneasy.
• Creepy Doll: She's actually made more than a hundred of them
• Exotic Eye Designs: As a Gravity Child, she has the same Twinkle Eyes as the rest of them, though hers are usually hidden.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: She's a second-generation Gravity Child.
• Hime Cut: She has the blunt bangs, waist-length sidelocks and ankle-length straight hair.
• In-Series Nickname: Her full name is Shiraume, but she's more often called "Ume" for short.
• Little Miss Badass: She's pretty badass for a small child.
• Odd Friendship: With Kururu. Despite having almost polar opposite personalities, they get along quite well and respect each others' abilities.
• Small Girl, Big Gun: Though she doesn't actually hold it. See BFG and Spider Tank
• Spider Tank: When invading Aeon Clock's research institution she rides a skull with A-T wheels and spider legs, and it loses the wheel pretty quickly. What keeps it from becoming a Mechanical Horse is the fact that the thing is packing a giant A-T cannon.
• There Was a Door: While she never actually got to pull it off, the first thing she thought of when faced with a door with powerful electronic protection was to pull out her BFG.
• Wrench Wench: Not as often as Kururu, but she displays the same insane affinity for technology.

Gabishi

Horn King
Road: Unknown (Bloody Road Derivative)
Regalia: Horn Subregalia — Hatch Venom
R.E.A.D. Level: Unknown, likely approx 200-250
Shadow: Faceless◊

Face Skinner Gabishi is one of the original Gravity Children and the Horn King of Sleeping Forest. He stood with Kilik years before the story began when he took down most of the rest of the original Sleeping Forest. His penchant for unnecessary brutality is almost as bad as Nike's.

His (unnamed) road is similar to Agito's Bloody Road in that it uses inertial energy to create blasts of force, but instead of having a "fang" like Agito, he creates a devastating blast.

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• Animal Motifs: He's a praying mantis.
• Ax-Crazy: It rivals Nike's. He doesn't consider it a job well done unless he's torn someone's face off. In fact, one of the first things he does in the story is nail the mask of a rider he defeated to a wall in Genesis territory. The fun part was that the skinned face was still attached.
• Barbarian Longhair: It goes down to his heels.
• Cool Mask: He wears a nifty skull mask.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Well, not completely evil. He wears black clothes and loves skulls, even wearing a mask shaped like one, but while he is more than a bit Ax-Crazy, he's still one of the good guys and he reserves his attentions for his enemies.
• Exotic Eye Designs: He has Twinkle Eyes, just like all the other Gravity Children.
• Flaying Alive: He does this with his A-Ts. However, he'll never do the entire body; he only wants to remove people's faces.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: He's a first-generation Gravity Child.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has an evil one across his nose.
• Goth: Though his personality is largely akin to that of a Shrinking Violet with outbursts of sadistic violence, his appearance invokes this trope.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He gets tortured by the very people who've had their faces removed by him.
• Lean and Mean: He's ridiculously slender, which also adds to his Mantis motif. He's also the most morally-ambiguous member of The Sleeping Forest.
• Meaningful Name: Gabishi is the name of a Chinese assassination weapon that resembles a large needle with a finger-ring.
• Nothing but Skulls: Boy, does Gabishi love them. He has one for a mask, and his A-Ts are covered in tiny skulls.
• Obviously Evil: He has long pale hair, a skull mask, and is covered in black clothes and skulls. Subverted when it turns out that he's not all that evil, just extremely brutal to those who make themselves his enemies.
• Oh, Crap!: He gets one when a recently tuned Nue comes back for a rematch so soon after his previous defeat, and then gets another, bigger one when, after he's been captured by Genesis, Yoshitsune shows him a number of very pissed off people who are missing their faces because of him. However, he recovers quickly. He gets a more real Oh, Crap! moment when Genesis lets him go because he figures now he'll have to face Kilik's wrath.
• Pet the Dog: If you aren't against Sleeping Forest he's quite civil, and he's even friendly to his teammates.
  • He also compliments Emily's ridiculous strength and her refusal to give in, and he even spares her when he had the chance to kill her.
• Red Baron: He's known as Face Skinner Gabishi thanks to his tendency to rip off the faces of his victims.
• Shrinking Violet: Outside of battle, he's rather timid when not dealing with his teammates.
• Wave-Motion Gun: His signature attack, Air Cannon, involves him kicking the same spot in the air with his A-Ts over and over again at extremely high speeds. The wheels accelerate at the beginning and brake at the end of each kick, creating a lot of heat and compressed air from the friction of the wheels and storing it in his A-Ts. Eventually, Gabishi releases all the pent-up power in a massive blast of superheated air, and the release of the heat energy creates light, making it look like a big laser-beam.
• The Worf Effect: His rampage did two things: it made team Sleeping Forest look powerful and aggressive and it showed us how badass Nue is.

Om

Water Queen
Road: Lather Road
Regalia: Lather Subregalia
R.E.A.D. Level: Unknown (likely somewhere around 200-250)
Shadow: La Molybdenstar◊

A first-generation Gravity Child and the Water Queen of Lather Road. She serves the current Sleeping Forest as their reconnaissance specialist.

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• Bubble Gun: Uses bubbles to attack.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Comes to an understanding with Benkei after getting bested by her.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Like her fellow Gravity Children, she's got "twinkle eyes".
• Fangs Are Evil: Has long, sharp canines, like a stereotypical vampire.
• Hartman Hips: Sports a rather impressive pair coupled with a lot of junk in the trunk.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Bubbles that explode with incredible force, utilizing the real-world concept of cavitation, which can seriously damage ship turbines.
• Kick the Dog: She kills Messerschmidt, Simca's pet swallow.
• Mundane Utility: She uses the Lather Road to communicate with people outside of combat.
• Ms. Fanservice: Has Hartman Hips, wears a skintight suit, spends most of her battle with Benkei bent over and flaunting her butt... Yeah, she definitely qualifies.
• Non-Standard Character Design: In the way of her Air Trecks, notably the wheels on them: there's three instead of two, with the one in the back being much larger than the two in front, and they resemble miniature off-road tires.
• Oral Fixation: She likes lollipops.
• Samus Is a Girl: She is originally first seen in a weird costume and everyone seems to be under the impression that she's a guy until she makes an appearance in person.
• Taking You with Me: After Genesis arrives at her battle with Benkei and Kogarasumaru, she tries to kill herself in a massive explosion, but is stopped by Kazu and then placed in solitary confinement at Big Bird.
• Villainous Breakdown: Attempts to commit suicide after Genesis arrives. Luckily, Kazu stops her.
• Water Is Womanly: The current Water Queen and a fanservice-y, curvaceous young woman.
• Unusual Eyebrows: They're close together and high on her forehead, and they look like teardrops.

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The Former Sleeping Forest

Characters belonging to the first incarnation of The Sleeping Forest.

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The original team of Kings, founded and led by Sora. It was disbanded when Kilik, along with Gabishi, Om, Nina, and Onibasu of the new Sleeping Forest, attacked the other members (sans Rika and Ine), crippling them and taking their titles as Kings. The team scattered: some retired, some became reclusive, others founded their own teams, and Dauntless seemed to have disappeared altogether.

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Note: Unless stated otherwise, all images on this page are images of how a character looked years before the start of the series.

Dauntless

Click ^here to see what he looks like without his hood.

Dauntless is the former Rumble King of the Over Road. He is one of the original Gravity Children. His Regalia were worn on his arms so that he could draw on his great upper-body strength. He was, at least when the first Sleeping Forest was active, a popular rapper. He sided against Kilik during the Kilik incident and lost his Regalia and presumably his ability to ride. After the battle, he later disappeared, although his death is never confirmed, or even implied.

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• Attention Whore: Possibly. Sora tells Rika that Dauntless likes being at the centre of attention, but because of his lack of screen time, it's hard to tell if this is true or not.
• Exotic Eye Designs: He has Twinkle Eyes.
• Fastball Special: He performs one with Kilik. It's enhanced by his Over Road.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: He's a first generation Gravity Child.
• Graceful Loser: While Dauntless didn't actually lose to Buccha, his regalia broke, ending his part in the battle, and he gracefully bowed out.
• In the Hood: He wears a giant hoodie.
• Made of Iron: He took powerful attacks from almost all of Kogarasumaru like it was nothing.
• Meaningful Name: It's pretty hard to scare him. Not even a giant and rather creepy monster phased him, even after it wounded him and broke one of his Regalia.
• Mighty Glacier: He's not all that fast compared to other riders, but he's absurdly tough. Furthermore, on top of his natural toughness, air-based attacks have little effect on him because his Over Road just throws them back.
• Nerves of Steel: He doesn't completely qualify for this as he isn't stoic, but his name is deserved: he really is dauntless.
• Only One Name
• Stone Wall: He borders on this sometimes. While he is perfectly capable of launching devastating attacks, one of his abilities is to use his Over Road to actually create an invisible wall of pressure. Although anybody getting hit by this ability when it's activated will feel like they've been hit by a freight train, after that, he cannot attack, or even move, really. However, the wall is solid enough for Buccha to ride on it.
• Stout Strength: Subverted. He initially looks like he's big the way Buccha is big thanks to his massive hoodie, but after that gets shredded, it becomes obvious that he has a Heroic Build to rival Nike's.
• Verbal Tic: He tends to end his sentences with "Gowa." According to the translation notes for the official translations, this is a tough, rather aggressive sound, so it's fitting.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He's the only member of the original Sleeping Forest whose fate is unknown. It seems he disappeared after the Kilik Incident. It's possible he decided to pursue his career as a rapper, but this is mere conjecture.

Falco

Click ^here to see what he looks like now.

Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto

Falco was the Fang King of the Bloody Road and one of the first generation Gravity Children. He sided with Sora and fought against Kilik along with the rest of The Sleeping Forest. In the fight that followed, he was badly injured and his Regalia were stolen. He became a recluse, living in an apartment and playing dating sims and hentai games all day.

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• Catchphrase: He says "all right" quite a bit.
• Exotic Eye Designs: He has Twinkle Eyes, just like all Gravity Children.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: He's a first generation Gravity Child.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: He answers Aeon Clock's summons and arrives on Genesis' aircraft carrier to help Ikki.
• Only One Name
• Otaku: He does nothing but stay in his apartment and play hentai visual novels.
• Threshold Guardian: Watches over one of the entrances to Electric Brain Space as well as Sleeping Forest's permanent seed, and Kogarasumaru must pass his test before they can take part in the Gram Scale Tournament.
• Trash of the Titans: While it's nowhere near as bad as Buccha's place, his apartment is still far from neat and tidy.

Black Burn

Click ^here to see what he looks like now.

Click ^here to see what he looks like as Hanged Man.

Black Burn was the Thunder King of the Rising Road and one of the original Gravity Children. He sided with Sora and the rest of his team against Kilik. In the resulting battle, he was badly injured and his Regalia were badly damaged. However, when Dr. Minami repaired it, he opted not to reclaim his place as Thunder King and instead passed it on to Nue, who is also his son. Despite passing on his title, he still involves himself in the A-T world as the masked Storm Rider known as Hanged Man.

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• The Alcoholic
• Alcoholic Parent: To Nue. However, it seems that he was never really abusive, just a big embarrassment to his more responsible son. At one point his son even wonders if he could sever their bond as father and son.
• Always Someone Better: To the current Thunder King, Nue. He easily overpowered him, and Ikki states that, unlike Dauntless, who was weaker than the current Rumble King, Black Burn is much, much stronger.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his first appearance as Hanged Man, he punched out Ikki without using any tricks, just brute force.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's a drunk who can barely walk straight half the time, but he's still a badass of the highest calibre.
• Exotic Eye Designs: He has Twinkle Eyes, being a Gravity Child and all.
• Eye Scream: He lost his right eye, likely in the battle with Kilik.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: He's a first generation Gravity Child.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: He answers Aeon Clock's summons and arrives on Genesis' aircraft carrier to help Ikki.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a vertical one down the right side of his face, over his eye, and a horizontal one that goes over his nose.
• In the Hood: He wore a hooded cape back in his Sleeping Forest days.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: It may just be the alcohol, but he doesn't have very many inhibitions when it comes to women.
• Master of Illusion: He is very good at this. Like his son, he does this by manipulating a person's brain wave to create hallucinations.
• NEET: In the finale, he proudly informs his son that he got his first job that day.
• Noodle People: He is incredibly slender for his height. This is especially pronounced during his first appearance as Hanged Man.
• Only One Name: Although it's technically two words.
• Parental Substitute: All of Nue's team are Gravity Children Black Burn took in as an alternative to sending them to Nike's Training from Hell, as none of them were likely to have made it.
• Power Perversion Potential: He uses static electricity to "tingle chicks' nipples from a distance." Rika was not amused.
• Retired Badass: While he still rides A-Ts, it seems like he's retired from the spotlight and no longer wishes to be Thunder King.
• Shock and Awe: Par for the course for the former Thunder King.
• The Smart Guy: Not to the extent of Kilik, but he was still the only member of The Sleeping Forest to realize on his own that Kogarasumaru may have pulled a fast one on them.
• So Proud of You: Though his son hates him and doesn't really appreciate the sentiment, Black Burn is still very proud of him and the responsibilities he has shouldered.
• Transvestite: Hanged Man wears what appears to be a sailor uniform with a customized jacket and tights.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Falco. The two fight, but they're good friends.
• Wisdom from the Gutter: Despite being a drunk, he's still quite capable of giving his son good advice.

Others

Sora Takeuchi

Wind King. See Genesis page for details.

Kilik

Gem King. Listed above.

Rika Noyamano

Thorn Queen. See Others page for details.

Spitfire

Flame King. See Genesis page for details.

Ine Makigami

Pledge Queen. See Tool Toul To in the Other Characters page for details.

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