Characters appearing in the light novel and anime series Beatless.
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Protagonists
Arato Endo
Arato Endo
Voiced by: Takuto Yoshinaga
The male protagonist. Arato's life takes a turn for the unexpected when his life is endangered by hijacked electronics and gets suddenly saved by Lacia, whom he is forced to take ownership of.- Beware the Nice Ones: He's capable of beating the tar out of a kidnapper who took Lacia.
- The Everyman: Nothing outwardly remarkable about him.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: While Yuka would say otherwise, he's clearly more responsible than his younger sister.
- Love Confession: Gives one to Lacia to stop her from accepting Watarai as her new owner, while completely rejecting the argument that whatever feelings Lacia might incite on him are an illusion. It earns him her Undying Loyalty.
- Nice Guy: Abnormal amongst his peers for treating robots like actual people instead of tools.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: He's always willing to believe in the best of people and hIE's, even if he comes as naive or incredibly gullible.
Lacia
Lacia
Voiced by: Nao Tōyama
The female protagonist. Lacia is a human Integration Element (hIE), a special kind of robot designed to facilitate interactions between humans and other robots. By sheer happenstance, she meets Arato and becomes his servant.- Action Girl: Built for combat like other hIEs of her kind.
- BFG: Wields a cannon shaped like a coffin that's much bigger than she is.
- Combat Stilettos: Her standard outfit includes stilettos, which she uses in combat.
- Curtains Match the Windows: Lavender hair and eyes.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: The Red Boxes are fundamentally programmed to never do anything that could be harmful to themselves. After spending enough time with Arato and receiving his Love Confession, she not only does physical harm towards herself by her own volition by ripping out her contractor, but also remove any possibility for her to continue on without him as well. All without a ounce of regret.
- The Heroine: Arato might be the protagonist, but Lacia performs the standard heroic actions of protecting her owner and fighting the bad guys who endanger him.
- Jailbait Wait: A variation. Regarding her relationship with Arato, she has stated that some of her functions aren't available to children under 18. When Yuka asks if that means she'll do those things with Arato when he turns 18, Lacia responds with a Blunt "Yes".
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Her Black Monolith doubles as a cannon and shield.
- Playful Hacker: Her hacking skills are less destructive than Snowdrop's and she specializes in turning herself and others invisible.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the blue to Kouka's red.
- Token Good Teammate: Of the five hIEs, she's the only one who's motives aren't ambiguous or destructive. Even when it's revealed she has the potential to destroy humanity, she chooses to follow Arato's directive of creating a kinder world.
- Undying Loyalty: After Arato's Love Confession to her, she destroys her device that allows her to register new owners, forever binding her to Arato even if he dies.
Humans
Yuka Endo
Yuka Endo
Voiced by: Saki Ono
Arato's younger sister, who takes an instant liking to Lacia.- Big Eater: The girl always seems to have room for more food.
- Cheerful Child: Always cheerful and optimistic, in contrast to her more instrospective brother, who admits to envying her positive attitude.
- Idiot Hair: Which fittingly represents her simple-minded way of thinking.
- Spoiled Brat: Arato reprimands himself for allowing her to become self-centered.
- Took a Level in Kindness: After being rescued, Yuka decides to cut her brother some slack and realizes that Arato did his best in the most dangerous situations including to protect her.
Kengo Suguri
Kengo Suguri
Voiced by: Daiki Yamashita
Arato's friend, who hides a dislike for hIE's.- Can't Catch Up: Not in terms of abilities, but he feels Ryo and Arato are leaving him behind along with society.
- Fantastic Racism: Hates robots for becoming more and more involved in human society, leading him to join an extremist group.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Kouka, whom he hates with a passion.
Ryo Kaidai
Ryo Kaidai
Voiced by: Kaito Ishikawa
Arato and Kengo's friend. He's also the son of an important researcher at Memeframe Corporation.- Broken Ace: Admired by his sister for his talents, until an incident in his childhood caused him to lose all enthusiasm in life.
- Deal with the Devil: He sees becoming Methode's new owner as this, since she has the right to cut ties with him while he has to take responsibility for her actions.
- Just a Machine: He's firmly on the side of only seeing hIEs as machines who merely imitate human behavior, and he believes Arato is naive for treating them as if they're truly alive.
- My Greatest Failure: His was abandoning Arato when they were young, almost killing him.
- Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: He may be all for humanity but he won't save those who he thinks deserve to die.
- Skewed Priorities: Becomes obsessed with destroying Lacia at any cost even when Snowdrop's threat is happening right in front of him.
Shiori Kaidai
Shiori Kaidai
Voiced by: Uki Satake
Ryo's younger sister and friend of Yuka and Olga.- Childhood Friends: With Arato. She keeps a photo of them drinking tea together and it's implied she has feelings for him.
- Hime Cut: Which fits her position as a member of an important family.
- I Have No Son!: Shiori despises her brother for neglecting her and basically bringing Arato into their argument.
- Trophy Wife: As the daughter of an important researcher, Shiori has many suitors wanting to marry her in order to gain a position of power at Memeframe. Uncomfortable with this, Shiori says she feels like a tool, just like the hIEs.
- Unwitting Pawn: Methode manipulates her into being her owner so she can get rid of her and use her last order to have a way to resist Watarai's orders.
Olga Suguri
Olga Suguri
Voiced by: Yuki Wakai
Kengo's younger sister and friend of Yuka and Shiori.- Locked Out of the Loop: She worries about her brother's activities, but chooses to remain unaware.
Erika Burroughs
Erika Burroughs
Voiced by: Emiri Suyama
The young head of the company for whom Lacia models. She was held in suspended animation during the 20th century and awoke as the last member of her family. She has a slight obsession with beauty and cute things.- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Dresses this way all the time.
- Human Popsicle and Rip Van Winkle: She is still alive now because of being put into suspended animation.
- Improbable Age: She's a high school student and head of a company because of all her fortune.
- Inconsistent Spelling: The official Japanese site calls her "Erika Burroughs", and the official novel translation also uses this name based on its source. However, the official anime release's subtitles call her "Erika Burrows". And sometimes her first name is seen spelled "Erica".
- It Amused Me: She wants to witness the change of the world out of mostly boredom and entertainment.
- Meaningful Name: Not sure if this was intentional, but the surname spelling "Burrows" seems to relate somewhat to her being "buried" or "hibernated" (so to speak) for many years only to re-emerge much later.
- New Transfer Student: She transfers to Arato's class in episode 8.
- Product Placement: She seems curiously fond of Hello Kitty merchandise.
Ginga Watarai
Ginga Watarai
Voiced by: Hiroshi Kamiya
The head of Memeframe Corporation's research planning, who has a strong interest in the Lacia Class hIEs.- Admiring the Abomination: He's marveled at Snowdrop communicating with the Higgins computer.
- Ambiguously Evil: His appearance is certainly suspicious, but besides his support for the influence of robots, he hasn't done anything villainous yet.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He's utterly baffled when Lacia destroys her device that allows her to register new owners out of loyalty for Arato.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Ryo convinces Methode that once he has control over Lacia, he's going to throw her away. So Methode and Ryo get rid of him before he has the chance.
- Younger Than They Look: His voice indicates he's probably younger than he looks.
Mika Tsutsumi
Mika Tsutsumi
Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa
The mobilization management program planning division's head at Memeframe Corporation.- Cool Big Sis: She's the only person at Memeframe that really treats Shiori as an actual person.
hIEs
- Color Motifs: All five Red Box hIEs are associated with different colors. Lacia is blue, Kouka is red, Snowdrop is green, Saturnus is Yellow and Methode is orange.
- Genius Bruiser: With the exception of Snowdrop, the hIEs are not only heavy hitters, they have an incredibly advanced Artificial Intelligence, allowing them to act on their own in ways that regular hIEs cannot.
Kouka
Kouka
Voiced by: Misako Tomioka
Type 01 of the Lacia series, known as the "Crimson Fog".- Dark Action Girl: Violent, smug and always eager for a fight.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: She actually doesn't have a defined purpose besides aiding humanity in defeating their opposition, so she finds her lack of goal frustrating.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Decides to make her death as flashy and meaningful as possible, fighting an army of drones after she had shown herself to the world. All to ensure she remains in society's collective consciousness and motivates a change.
- Dynamic Entry: Announces her presence by saving Arato from some guards at the airport, kicking several of them.
- Enemy Mine: At Kengo's request, she actually goes and helps Lacia against Methode.
- Fiery Redhead: Has red hair and is the most eager to fight of the five hIE's.
- Inspirational Martyr: Prefers to let herself be destroyed on a live broadcast so people can question the automation of society.
- Kick the Dog: Kills Mikoto, who was injured and didn't pose a threat to her.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's obviously the red to Lacia's blue.
- Sacrificial Lion: The first of the Lacia-class to be destroyed.
Snowdrop
Snowdrop
Voiced by: Hiromi Igarashi
Type 02 of the Lacia series, who specializes in creating mini-drones that hack other technologies.- The Assimilator: Can consume other robots through her dress!
- Curtains Match the Windows: Green hair and eyes.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Of the five hIEs, she has the least human personality and motivations, besides looking for information and connections.
- The Cracker: She can generate rains of petals that let her control other robots and machines.
- Green Thumb: A very unusual variant, since the plants and petals she creates are artificial but act as if they were real, with blooming flowers and growing vines.
- Unusual Eyebrows: Has four that are shaped like petals.
- Weak, but Skilled: She's the least combat capable of the Lacia class, but compensates with a hacking ability that's only matched by Lacia.
Saturnus
Saturnus, a.k.a. Mariage
Voiced by: Shino Shimoji
Type 03 of the Lacia series.- Advertised Extra: She gets the least screen time of the five Red Box hIEs. She spends a lot of her time as Erika's maid, and is never really seen in combat in the anime, though she's implied to be quite powerful and dangerous as an opponent. Curiously, she seems to harbor some desire to involve herself in the fight between her sisters, but she defers to Erika's directive to stay out of it.
- Demolitions Expert: Lacia confirms she can create undetectable explosives as well.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Her second name seems to be officially "Mariage" but is sometimes seen spelled "Marriage".
- Robot Maid: She even receives a personalized uniform from Erika.
- Shock and Awe: Can generate electricity, which she uses to enhance her speed or shortcircuit electronics.
Methode
Methode
Voiced by: Sora Amamiya
Type 04 of the Lacia series and the only truly completed model of her series.- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Manipulative and ruthless, of the five Red Box hIEs she's the only one who clearly sees herself as superior to humans.
- Conflicting Loyalties: Methode actually wants to invoke this by offering Shiori to become her second owner after Watarai. In case Watarai gives an order she doesn't like, she can make Shiori give another order to avoid having to answer to him.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Thanks to a self-interest Loophole Abuse, she tends to ditch her many owners like candy once they've outlived their usefulness.
- Dark Action Girl: She the most antagonistic and powerful of the five hIEs.
- Lightning Bruiser: She hits hard and is faster than Lacia and Kouka. The fact that she doesn't need a weapon gives her an edge in speed.
- Wave-Motion Gun: She can shoot one from her hands, and only uses it when there are no human targets.
