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The Survivors
In General
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Tianna is the blonde, Karan the redhead, Zem is the brunette and Nick is the dark brown.
- Boomerang Bigot: All of them believe humans to be inherently untrustworthy and selfish due to their experiences, despite the fact that three of the members are human.
- Commonality Connection: They bond and form their party when they meet at a bar and realize their common history of betrayal.
- Drowning Their Sorrows: They meet trying to get smashed to dull the pain of their respective betrayal backstories.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: Karan is the fighter, Tianna and Sem are mages, and Nick is the thief.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Two males, two females, and a sword in human form who technically doesn't have a gender.
- Humans Are Bastards: One opinion shared by all of them is that humans are untrustworthy and selfish creatures. Considering their experiences, it's not hard to see how they came to that conclusion. That being said, the non-human members of the party don't have any problems interacting with the human members, and they're more wary than hateful of human strangers unless they've done something to provoke them.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Each of the Survivors indulges in certain pleasures and do not judge each other for it.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits:
- Nick is a music idol-obsessed fanboy because one of them cheered him up with a free concert ticket when he was at his lowest.
- Karan is a gluttonous gourmet who struggles with basic math, thanks to being raised illiterate.
- Tianna is a gambling-addicted sorceress who was kicked out by her school and fiancé.
- Sem is a fallen priest who was arrested on a False Rape Accusation from an underage Stalker with a Crush who got tired of him saying "no," and spends his time and money in hostels.
- Bond is a bookworm that reads any book he can get his hands on, regardless of content, or lack thereof and is a very cheeky Energy Blade that can only use its true power with a Fusion Dance.
- They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: A variation as one of the team rules is that no member is to interfere or comment on the hobbies, really coping mechanisms, they have picked up from their respective betrayals.
- True Companions: The Survivors always have each other's backs. After all, who better to trust than someone who's already been betrayed before?
Nick
Voiced by: Yūsuke Kobayashi (Japanese), Kieran Flitton (English)
- Amicable Exes: Inverted. It's evident that after she dumped him and he realized the kind of person Claudine really is that he resents her as much as Arges, ruining her con attempts and never being without a snide comment aimed at her when they interact.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: He becomes a fan of idols because one of them gave him a ticket to her concert when he was at his lowest point.
- Covered in Scars: His torso is full of scars, as displayed when he takes off his shirt and tells his teammates his strengths and weaknesses.
- Everyone Has Standards: He might now see Claudine as the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing she is and has no problem ruining her attempted scams out of both goodwill and spite, but he's evidently disgusted by Leon offering to sell her to him to get rid of her on account on the amount of enemies she's made with her cons.
- Fanboy: Nick becomes a huge fan of Idol Singers, Agate especially, and looks forward to their shows.
- Frame-Up: When he catches on to one of his former party stealing from the party funds, the guilty party turns around the accusation, and his mentor Argus sides with that guy over him, expelling him from the party instead.
- Ironic Name: "Nick" is British slang for "steal" and he was kicked by his previous party for (being accused of) embezzling funds. And despite his adventuring role as the "thief", he doesn't do much thieving in general.
- The Leader: A mix of the pragmatic and charismatic types. He puts the party together with a solid plan to keep any one member from having control over the party funds, and the one ground rule that party members should not interfere or judge the business of the others outside of their adventuring duties.
- Must Make Amends: After accidentally breaking Karan's pendent, he's quick to try getting her a replacement and is confused as to why she isn't at all upset about it, not knowing it was a 'gift' from her former party member who backstabbed her.
- Ship Tease:
- He and Karan have very good chemistry, with her constantly blushing and being shy around him, while he tends to dote on her.
- He also gets some moments with Agate when they meet at a bench and confide in each other.
Karan Tsubaki
Voiced by: Sayaka Kikuchi (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (English)
- All Drummers Are Animals: The ending animation for the anime shows the heroes being the backup band for Agate. She is depicted as the drummer for the group.
- Beware the Nice Ones: In a group brought together by misanthropy, Karan is the most cheerful, friendly, and open to the idea of gaining trust for her new party, and she frequently gets into drinking parties with those outside of the group. However, she's also a member of the Draconic race who's stronger than your average adventurer, with a plethora of fire-based attacks to her name. Plus, she is still affected by her betrayal by her old party and doesn't respond kindly to potential backstabbing by her new one, even threatening to make a "mistake" that could get Tiana hurt after the latter almost hits her with an ice spell by accident and gives a rather stilted apology.
- BFS: She wields a sword that's almost as big as she is. It's also an Ancestral Weapon passed down through her family.
- Big Eater: Karan loves eating, puts a lot of her spending money on food, and fancies herself a gourmet.
- Book Dumb: Deconstructed. Since her race favors brute strength and scoffs at scholarly pursuits, she wasn't even taught basic math, so she got exploited by her first human friend. She bonds to Nick who teaches her how to read, write, and do math so that she can think for herself and Never Be Hurt Again.
- Casting Gag: This is not the first time Brittney Karbowski has voiced a dragon-themed character, those being Katsuragi, and Wendy Marvell respectively. Unlike them, Karan is a Draconic Humanoid who has the natural features and powers of a dragon, minus flight.
- Draconic Humanoid: Her kind is called the Draconic Race and she has claws and scales on her arms, a long tail, horns, pointy ears, and reptilian golden eyes. She can also breathe fire.
- Dumbass No More: Downplayed. Thanks to her studying for the Bare Knuckles Arithmetic, she goes from getting 80% or so of the questions wrong on the practice papers to maintaining high scores that means Nick ends up suffering less penalty hits than he expected, with her only scoring lower than Claudine because of pressure and Claudine getting the answers to the harder questions fed to her.
- Dumb Muscle: Invoked and deconstructed. Her previous party intentionally left her uneducated so she would be easier to exploit. They took advantage of her naivete and immense strength to do the heavy lifting for them in labyrinths while they pretended to be kind but were all too quick to leave her for dead the instant it became convenient. She bonds with Nick who helps her overcome it, even though he specifically tells her to "doubt" him.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: One of her horns is slightly longer than the other.
- Idiot Hair: She has a prominent and curly cowlick, which represents her less-than-intellectual background.
- Navel Outline: Her shirt is tight enough her navel can be noticed through the fabric.
- Prehensile Tail: She can use her tail to hold on to things with ease.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: Her outfit has an opening for her lower back.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's taller than Nick and about the same height as Zem and she's quite pretty.
- When She Smiles: The entire party finds her smile adorable, especially Nick, who dotes on her like crazy so he can see it.
- Womanchild: Karan has a child-like mentality, is Book Dumb, ditzy, and is easily influenced. This is probably because her race doesn't place much value on proper education.
Tianna
Voiced by: Sayumi Watanabe (Japanese), Christina Kelly (English)
- Disposable Fiancé: She's an Otome "villainess" post exile. Her fiance called off their engagement because he accused her of being arrogant and making him look bad due to her own accomplishments.
- Foil: To Donny, Agate's boyfriend: both have adopted gambling as a coping mechanism for their isssues, but where Tianna learns to pull back whenever she starts losing and avoided debt Donny instead became obsessed and Trapped by Gambling Debts that cost him his relationship with Agate. Tellingly, when they meet at a poker table Tianna quickly identifies him as an easy mark and joins forces with the dealer and the other player to fleece him and give a lesson to his benefactor (Agate, that for once was with him at the casino).
- The Gambling Addict: Her biggest problem is that she loves spending her money gambling on races and such, though she's responsible enough not to get Trapped by Gambling Debts.
- Glass Cannon: As expected from a mage, she packs a large amount of magical power but lacks resistance to physical attacks.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: She wears a pretty large hat accompanying her classical wizard robe.
- Tsurime Eyes: Her eyes are drawn in a sharp manner, which differentiates her general mood from the sweeter Karan.
- The Unapologetic: Downplayed. It's less that she refuses to apologize, but more that her noble background and status as The Ace of her old school has made it so she's never really had to. Her lack of skills in this department is shown when she nearly hits Karan by accident with an ice spell, with her apology coming out as very half-hearted and attempting to put some of the blame on Karan for not being careful, which only served to worsen matters between them until Nick manages to encourage everyone to reveal their strengths and weaknesses.
Zem
Voiced by: Shun'ichi Toki (Japanese), Landon McDonald (English)
- Child Hater: After being Mistaken for Pedophile and subsequently arrested for it, Zem is wary of children, especially little girls.
- Good Shepherd: He used to be this, and he's still a pretty nice guy, his tendency to spend most of his time at hostess clubs non-withstanding.
- Handsome Lech: He's a good-looking guy who gets a good deal of female attention, and he copes with his Dark and Troubled Past by sleeping around and visiting hostess bars.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: He was framed as a pedophile by a girl who had a crush on him and who after being gently rejected turned to hatred. This single accusation was enough for everyone in town to hate him after he was released.
Sword of Bonds
Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu
- Awesome, but Impractical: He's indeed a mighty blade, but to make the most of him, his wielder needs to Fusion Dance with a party member, and the two, or three, of them, have to be especially close with each other, which isn't easy, at all.
- Bookworm: Reads whatever he can get his hands on because "knowledge is power"
- Energy Blade: His base form has no blade unless a wielder feeds him magic to make one.
- Loophole Abuse: When he's picked up by the party, he leads them to a pile of "imperfect" Swords of Bond that they can sell to the adventurer's guilt, so he can stay with the party without the party breaking their contract to turn over "a sword of bond" that was found in the labyrinth they were exploring.
- Mystical White Hair: He has silver-white hair and a magical sword that can connect to others.
- No Biological Sex: Although he identifies as male, for simplicity, his human form has no gender.
- Sentient Weapon: He's a sentient sword.
- Sue Donym: The Sword of Bonds calls himself Bond.
- Sweet Tooth: What he loves in addition to books.
- Telepathy: One of his abilities is a shared telepathy that allows the rest of the party to communicate with each other while in his proximity.
Other Adventurers
Arges
Voiced by: Kenji Nomura (Japanese), Mike Smith (English)
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Deconstructed. He sides with a clearly bogus false theft accusation to expel Nick from his former party "because he's too good for it." This does nothing but drive Nick to despair when he's cut off by Claudine, and left with no prospects until he meets the rest of "Survivors" by chance in a bar. Nick rightly resents it.
- Mentor Archetype: He taught Nick many things, especially martial arts.
- Parental Substitute: When Nick's parents were killed by monsters, he adopted the boy and raised him.
Calios
Voiced by: Taito Ban
The Leader of Karan's former party, who betrayed and robbed her after using her as monster bait and leaving her for dead in a dungeon.
- Bright Is Not Good: He looks like the typical, noble knight who you could see as being The Hero in most other settings, which is exactly what Karan thought and prompted her to party with him since it was her race's duty to serve the hero. Unfortunately, he was actually a Con Artist who strung her along so he and his group can take out monsters they couldn't handle themselves, before leaving her for dead and robbing her.
- Bait the Dog: Every nice thing he did for Karan, including preventing her from getting conned and netting her a free pendant she liked out of it, was for the purpose of making her willing to trust him so he and his party can backstab her when it was most convenient.
- Punny Name: His name sounds a little like "callous", which as we soon learn is very appropriate.
Fifs
Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa
A solo adventurer that Karan grew to admire for his restaurant hopping, and is the reason she became a Big Eater.
- Big Eater: Known for being a gourmet who went from restaurant to restaurant, which got him the nickname "Solo Eater".
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a scar over his left eye but he's a nice guy.
- Katanas Are Just Better: He walks around with a katana in an ornate sheath with a matching grip.
- Nice Guy: While he never partied with her and the two only spoke directly once, he was otherwise one of the first nice people Karan met before the main group, which was especially convenient as it came off the heels of Calios' betrayal. He noticed her following him around and taking after his eating habits, but instead of getting mad actually encouraged her growing love of food by not-so-subtly recommending dishes for her to try whenever they ended up in the same restaurant. He even sincerely thanks her when she uses her tail to prevent his sword from getting knocked over by a drunk.
- Oral Fixation: He typically has a long black toothpick in his mouth, which he somehow never has to take out when he eats.
Steel Tiger Crew
General
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: While their actual party dynamic is up to debate, these are the roles they take in the Bare Knuckles Arithmetic. Leon is the Fighter who brawls with Nick, Claudine is the Thief who uses her own math ability and fed answers to ace the math tests to get Leon penalty hits, and Beg is the Mage who assists Claudine's cheating by hiding in another location and feeding her the answers.
- Evil Counterpart
- Claudine to Tianna. They were both cast out of their families through no fault of their own and left to their own devices with nothing, but while Tianna pulled herself together and became a decent adventurer, Claudine turned to fraud, theft, and scamming innocent men whose only "crime" was being sympathetic to her sob-stories and caring for her.
- Leon to Nick. He also had his party fall apart due to theft and getting stuck with the blame, but while Nick managed to bounce back and live honestly with his new party, Leon's new party is all about scamming others.
- He Who Fights Monsters: What differentiates them from the Survivors. While the Survivors still try to do good despite their terrible experiences and cynicism, the Steel Tiger Crew believe their traumatic pasts give them justification to spread further misery to others.
Claudine
Voiced by: Haruka Shiraishi (Japanese), Kristen McGuire (English)
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed. The anime seems to hint at Claudine having some minuscule good in her and she might be able to redeem herself if given the chance.
- Adaptational Sympathy: In the manga, she was thrown out by her father in a drunken rage and left on the streets with no choice but to steal in order to survive. In the anime, she was instead an embezzler who got caught and was about to be sold into indentured servitude/slavery to repay her debts but fled, changed her identity, and took to scamming men for money by choice. Then blames Nick, her victim, for all of that coming to an end.
- Beauty Is Bad: She has a pretty face and an attractive figure, but they're wasted due to her awful personality.
- Blaming the Victim: In the anime, she blames Nick, her long-time victim, for her cons unravelling, refusing to admit that word of her own actions got around and she was living on borrowed time.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: She is caught red-handed listening on a telepathic magic item to help her with the "arithmetic" part of the duel, causing her party's forfeit.
- Fatal Flaw: Greed and envy. She has milked so many people dry and with easily tracked goodies, that even Leon tried to sell her off, all because she was envious of what others had and never got enough.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: When she was a child, her father abused her, beat her, and then threw her out into the streets at night in a drunken rage. Rather than report the lout to the authorities, she decided to "fight back" by targeting innocents and being even more despicable.
- Gold Digger: She strings along wealthy men to fleece them for as much coin as she can and then dumps them.
- The Resenter: She hates adventurers as a whole, for having special talents and abilities, while she was thrown into the streets as a child, and left with nothing but the thread-bare clothes on her back. She conspires with Leon to go after Nick's new party "The Survivors" because they bounced back when she didn't.
Leon
Voiced by: Junichi Yanagita (Japanese), William Ofoegbu (English)
- Adaptational Wimp: In the manga, the Sword of Evolution slaps him with an Adaptive Ability that just keeps making him stronger and renders him immune to every magic attack he gets hit with after the first time. In the anime, the fusion of Nick and Tiana just keeps hitting him with ice magic over and over again, and the attacks all work, and in the end, he's taken down when the anti-magic paint on some playing cards is used to sever his connection with the evil sword.
- And I Must Scream: In the anime, he's conscious and well-aware of what he's doing, horrified, but his body isn't listening to him, rampaging out of control and attacking everything in sight.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He and his twin brother used to run the party of the same name, Silver Lion, but when they actually defeated an A-rank labyrinth and come out with three incredible artifacts, one of his party members betrayed the group by stealing and selling one of them, breaking the contract with the guild to turn in all three, and fled to parts unknown. The rest wound up fighting to the death over what remained, leaving him with nothing when the penalty came in atop all that.
- Interrogated for Nothing: According to his own flashback, the three artifacts his party brought back were lost when his party fell apart and fought among themselves, but his captors didn't believe him. He called on the Sword of Evolution and used its ability to escape, at the cost of his remaining sanity.
- Little Bit Beastly: He's a tiger person and stronger than the average human.
- Psychological Projection: In the anime, when he offers to sell Claudia to Nick, he makes it a point to accuse Nick of only stringing along and exploiting the rest of the party "The Survivors." He winds up eating a powerful upper-cut and being called "kitten" as a result.
- Revenge Myopia: He wants to murder Nick in revenge for smashing his sweet little con gig, but he's the one who demanded a Bare Knuckles Arithmetic duel with Nick first after Nick refused to buy Claudine from him, and he went out of his way to antagonize Nick first.
- Sore Loser: Even though he had Claudine cheat in the duel, Nick still beat him the moment he could fight fairly. His response is to hunt Nick down and try to murder him.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Back in his younger days with Silver Lion, he was a nice guy. After the betrayal and deaths of his party members, he eventually turned to evil.
Beg
- Cheaters Never Prosper: The guild catches him red-handed feeding Claudine answers during the Bare Knuckles Arithmetic duel, causing the party's forfeit, and Nick retaliating with enough "penalty" hits to KO Leon.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: A glasses wearing mage who's part of a group of Con Artists.
- Out of Focus: While Claudine and Leon serve as Evil Counterparts to the members of the Survivors in addition to having Freudian Excuses to explain how they ended up so rotten, Beg ends up as little more than a Plot Device to help the Steel Tigers cheat at Bare Knuckles Arithmetic.
- Straw Hypocrite: When Leon first targeted Nick, Beg attacked Nick from behind with magic and cries out "it's your fault for eating a sneak-attack." When Karan grabs him from behind in retaliation, he complains about being ambushed.
- Support Party Member: A given, since he appears to be the group's only mage, but he also had this role when the group was cheating at the Bare Knuckles Arithmetic, hiding out in another location and feeding the answers to the tougher questions to Claudine, ensuring she'd score higher than Karan and allow Leon to get some penalty hits in on Nick.
Other Characters
Agate
Voiced by: Kaori Ishihara (Japanese), Kelsey Maher (English)
- Ascended Fangirl: She used to sing at the tavern where her boyfriend worked. Eventually, she was scouted and became an Idol Singer like the ones she would watch and imitate.
- Clark Kenting: When out and about as Belle, she wears plainer clothes and a pair of huge glasses. Nick still recognizes her after getting a good look.
- Coy, Girlish Flirt Pose: Often greets Nick this way.
- Idol Singer: Her job in the city is to sing and dance to motivate the people.
- Left for Dead: When an Axe-Crazy Leon bursts into the gambling den and starts rampaging, her date Donny, who was there to gamble, shoved her into harm's way and fled. She was rescued by Nick and Tania, who then used the Sword of Bonds to fight with Leon.
- Love Martyr: Her boyfriend Donny fell on hard times and got himself Trapped by Gambling Debts (after being tricked by Leon), with her having to bail him out multiple times. Eventually, her agency orders him to permanently cut ties with her in return for handling his outstanding debts.
- Nice Girl: She's a pretty nice person, and she gave Nick a pamphlet about her upcoming concert because she noticed he looked dejected and could use something to raise his spirits.
- Stage Names: Agate's real name is Belle Huggins.
Donny
Belle's (former) boyfriend.
- Adaptation Deviation: In the anime, he and Belle reconcile after he saves her life from Leon. In the manga, Agate's idol agency buys up his debts and bans him from ever making contact with her again. When he tries to ask Belle to reconsider, she goes That Man Is Dead on him and cuts him out of her life, forever.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the anime, he comes back and rescues Belle after the fusion of Nick and Tania gives him an opening. In the manga, he flees the casino and never looks back.
- All Take and No Give: He takes all of Belle's affection and money and gives nothing back in return but angry shouts and abuse.
- Bastard Boyfriend: Not at first, but once Leon cons him into gambling debts, he spends all his income, and most of Belle's at the gambling den, trying over and over again for that "big score" that he's never going to get, and when Leon has used the Sword of Evolution and gone Axe-Crazy, shoves Belle into danger to try and save his own skin.
- The Gambling Addict: Thanks to Leon, he became addicted to gambling, but unlike Tiana, never knows when to stop.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: He never knows when to quit, so he winds up borrowing more money than he can pay back, and when Belle bails him out, just goes right back to gambling.
- Ungrateful Bastard: He never, ever thanks Belle for bailing him out. He just takes the money she gives him as if it's his birthright and goes right back into debt at the gambling den, and to top it off, throws Belle into danger to save himself when Leon raids the gambling den looking for Tiana and Nick.
