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Main Characters
Mishiro Usui
- Amnesiac Hero: Mishiro cannot remember exactly why she killed herself, or many of the details of her life. She must recover them by finding and breaking the mirrors.
- Ax-Crazy: She can become this if she stays too long in the memory of her attacking the bullies, chasing after them with a knife and killing them.
- Cessation of Existence: Her dying wish, and her goal in breaking the mirrors, is to erase herself from existence. She succeeds in ending 4, but turns back in the others.
- Cosmic Retcon: The driving force behind the game is her dying wish that she'd never existed, and in one ending, she can get her wish.
- Deadpan Snarker: To some degree. Some of her dialogue choices give you the option to be a verbal Jerkass to the people she interacts with.
- Death by Materialism: Can suffer this if she picks up either of the gold ingots in two puzzles. The first time, the combined weight causes the small bridge she is walking on to break, while the second time, stepping off the platform to get the ingot will cause spikes to rise and trap her, forcing her to die on the spikes.
- Despair Event Horizon: Mishiro crossed it before the game begins, and eventually remembers why: her only friend died saving her from a car accident. Notably, while normally the only way for Mishiro to destroy a mirror is to kill herself in it, this particular memory causes the mirror to break by itself. The narration describes it as "Mishiro Usui's heart dying in that instant..."
- The Dog Bites Back: Mishiro, who was being bullied by some girls in her school, draws a knife on one and leaves a cut on the ringleader's arm.
- Driven to Madness: If she stays in the memory of the bullies and gets ending 5, she kills them and goes mad.
- Driven to Suicide: She, in the backstory, threw herself into the Mirror Lake to escape her abusive mom. However, it turns out she survived.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: It turns out that she has a taste for this, with dressing up being one of her only sources of stress relief.
- Empty Eyes: Mishiro's eyes lack any reflective spots.
- Extreme Doormat: One mirror reveals that she silently endured being bullied by acting this way because she knew her parents were busy with other problems. But this only worked for so long.
- Follow in My Footsteps: She becomes a painter, just like Ayato, Utsuro, and Rinzou.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She has a teddy bear in her room, and can find them scattered around the various Realms. If she examines them, she always remarks on their cuteness. Finding one is a clue that you're near an objective you need to complete to get the True Ending.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Part of her backstory, and implied to be part of the reason why her bullies singled her out — particularly since they want her to pay them for any mistakes she made while filling out their homework.
- The Many Deaths of You: The main portion of gameplay — she must find many different, often gruesome ways of killing herself in order to shatter the mirrors, and there are a number of instant death traps.
- Player Character: She is the one you control and use to explore the Mirror World.
- Protagonist Title: Her name makes up one half of the kanji to the Japanese title.
- Rage Breaking Point: She doesn't deal well with her bullies discovering and mocking her love of gothic lolita fashion, tainting the one source of stress relief she has left.
- The Stoic: Mishiro very rarely changes her tired-eyed, dreary expression.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: If she kills the bullies in her memory, it leads to the "Mistakes Repeated" ending, wherein she goes insane.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Julia Maria, the living painting, is horrified upon realizing Mishiro slashed her open simply to get red paint.
- When She Smiles: Mishiro seeing Ayato's painting of her and Utsuro in the end is the only time we see her smile in the entire game.
Yuzu Hanasaki
- Bury Your Gays: She is the only explicitly gay character in the game and committed suicide to be with Utsuro, the girl she was in love with.
- Driven to Suicide: How she died; she threw herself into the Mirror Lake to reunite with Utsuro.
- Loving a Shadow: The only reason why she seems to have a crush on Utsuro is because she's pretty and stoic, often ignoring her less desirable traits. However after she finds out that she's a Child by Rape, Yuzu decides she still loves her anyway.
- Together in Death: She specifically killed herself to reunite with Utsuro, and ultimately succeeds.
Ryotaro Sengoku
- Cool Uncle: Mishiro seems to like him, given how kind, polite, and protective he is. She certainly finds him a better caretaker than her own mother.
- Friend to All Children: He loves kids and finds them beautiful, hence why he takes such a liking to Mishiro and Yuzu. This has resulted in him being Mistaken for Pedophile more than once.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: Ryotaro was accused of being a pedo in life for his love of children, and even comes across pretty suspiciously with his talk of "seeing their natural beauty," but it's ultimately not true. He simply loves children in the manner of a caretaker.
Utsuro Hinohara (spoilers)
Click here to see her as a ghost
The previous ruler of the Mirror World and the primary antagonist of the game. In life, she was Yuzu's friend and crush. She is the daughter of Rinzou and Tamaki, shaped by their abuse into a wicked spirit that wants to kill Mishiro and take back her world.
- Antagonist Title: Her name makes up one half of the kanji of the Japanese name.
- Big Bad: She is the creator of the Mirror World and the boss of the spirits who rallies them to kill Mishiro and regain control of her world.
- Cessation of Existence: Her dying wish was to disappear, as she felt that she did not deserve to exist as a Child by Rape between a parent and child.
- Chekhov's Gunman: As Utsuro, she seems to be a flashback character in Yuzu's memories, and as the shadow, just another enemy.
- Child by Rape: Mixed with Parental Incest- she was the child of her mother and father/grandfather. And she's horribly aware of this.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Initially she appears as a minor flashback character, and as a Recurring Boss, with little indication that she will be the Big Bad of the whole game. It is entirely possible to get three of the endings without ever knowing Utsuro exists.
- Driven by Envy: She is furious at Mishiro for usurping her, and seeks to kill her to get her throne back.
- Driven to Madness: After being abused her whole life and killed by her mother, she went insane and became a vengeful sprit.
- Heel–Face Turn: In the True End, she regrets what she has done and is ready to move on to the afterlife with Yuzu.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Averted while she's alive - the only person she has any desire to hurt is herself. Played straight with her shadowy spirit in the Mirror World, and especially in regard to Mishiro, whom she goes after with a knife.
- The Resenter: Towards her mother for abusing her and towards Rinzou for indirectly being the cause of her troubles.
- The Stoic: In the flashbacks, she never shows much emotion or changes her face from her default stoic expression. As a spirit she is somewhat more expressive, but after being returned to normal, she returns to said blank face. Likely due to her abuse and complex about the circumstances of her birth, she never learned how to show her emotions properly.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: She is the stoic, pessimistic, and unloved girl to her cheerful, ever-optimistic, and beloved brother Ayato.
- Together in Death: After becoming herself again, she goes to the afterlife with Yuzu.
- The Unfavorite: To Tamaki, who hated her for being a product of her rape by her father Rinzou. Tamaki much preferred Ayato.
- Tragic Villain: It's suggested that she had lost some of her memory and wasn't entirely in control of her actions.
- Two Aliases, One Character: Initially, Utsuro and the shadow appear to be two separate characters, but are in fact the same person.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Played With. She has white hair and is the Big Bad, but she is also a Tragic Villain.
- Walking Spoiler: It is impossible to discuss her without revealing that she is the Big Bad, and that she is related to Mishiro and Ryotaro. Her backstory also spoils the reality of the Big, Screwed-Up Family.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She was a Child by Rape and Parental Incest, and was abused by her mother for being a reminder of the rape, with her brother Ayato receiving all the love. She grew up believing that she shouldn't exist, and made only one friend in life (Yuzu). Eventually, she was murdered by her mother. As a spirit, she created a world where she would imprison the souls of her parents and torment them for eternity, only to lose control of her world when Mishiro accidentally usurps her. Furious, she became Driven by Envy to kill Mishiro and gain back control of her world.
Ayato Hinohara
- Heroic Sacrifice: Pushes Mishiro out of the way of a car barreling down the road, only to get hit himself. Sad enough on its own, but what makes it worse is that the driver was Ayato's mother, who deliberately tried to kill Mishiro and ended up hitting her own son instead.
- Nice Guy: Very selfless and helpful, to the point he protected Mishiro at the cost of his life.
- Only Friend: Was this to Mishiro.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: He is the cheerful, ever-optimistic, and beloved boy to his stoic, pessimistic, and unloved sister Utsuro.
Spoiler Character
The Mirror World
The Mirror World itself is alive, and serves as a guide to Mishiro.- Genius Loci: The Mirror World speaks to Mishiro and guides her throughout her journey.
- Hitodama Light: The Mirror World appears to Mishiro as a floating blue flame.
- Memory-Wiping Crew: The mirrors serve as this, storing the memories of the souls inside.
- Walking Spoiler: The reflection of Mishiro being the Mirror World itself, which is alive, is not revealed until the end.
Other Characters (Spoiler Warning)
Rinzou Usui
- The Atoner: When he died he gave all his inheritance to Tamaki, hoping to make up for what she did to her. Not only Tamaki rejects the money, she refuses to give it to Shinji out of spite.
- Greater-Scope Villain: His rape of Tamaki was what birthed Utsuro and broke Tamaki into abusing her, which would eventually turn her into the Big Bad.
- Heel–Face Turn: By the time Mishiro finds him, he regrets his rape of Tamaki and is ready to move on from the pain he caused.
- Mad Artist: He was a beloved painter, and loved his illegitimate daughter Tamaki so much that he impregnated her. He is also implied to be the artist spirit blocking the way in the Realm of Beauty, demanding paint for passage.
- Parental Incest: Impregnated his daughter, Tamaki, out of a twisted love for her.
- Walking Spoiler: Him being the Greater-Scope Villain who raped and impregnated his daughter is not revealed unless Mishiro finds his cell near the end of the game.
Tamaki
- Does Not Like Spam: She absolutely hates art. When she was young she used to love it and even bonded with Rinzou because of it, but after he raped her, she holds nothing but contempt for it. She also disapproves of Utsuro and Ayato's interest in art.
- Driven to Suicide: Some of the endings reveal she commited suicide after accidentally killing Ayato.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Her abuse and murder of Utsuro is what turned her into the Big Bad.
- Happily Married: To her new husband, Seiichi.
- Heel–Face Turn: By the time Mishiro finds her, she regrets her abuse and murder of Utsuro and Ayato, and is ready to move on from the pain she caused.
- Murder by Mistake: She attempted to hit Mishiro with her car, but crashed into Ayato when he pushed Mishiro out of the way.
- Murder-Suicide: She attempts this with Mishiro, aiming to crash her car into her and kill them both, but hits Ayato instead when he sacrificed himself to save Mishiro.
- Offing the Offspring: Killed Utsuro, her own daughter.
- Parental Incest: She was impregnated by her father, Rinzou.
- Rape as Backstory: She was raped and impregnated by her father, who was also Mishiro's grandfather.
- Rape and Revenge: Tamaki attempts to take revenge, but not against her father. She kills the child she had with her father, and tries to kill Mishiro, but ends up killing her son Ayato instead.
- The Resenter: Towards Rinzou and all the Usui family by extension. When Rinzou gives her the inheritance in order to atone for what he did to her, she rejects it, yet she refuses to give Shinji the money out of spite. She also tries to kill Mishiro for being related to Rinzou.
- Troubled Abuser: Implied. Utsuro's dialogue in Yuzu's memories makes it clear that Tamaki told her how she was conceived. Utsuro states that she "isn't supposed to exist," and implies suicidal desires, so it's clear that even before her death, Tamaki was not particularly kind to her — about her birth or anything else.
- Walking Spoiler: Her existence and role as the Greater-Scope Villain who abused and murdered her daughter is not revealed unless Mishiro finds her cell near the end of the game.
Shinji and Chika Usui
The parents of Mishiro.
- Abusive Parents: According to Mishiro, Chika became this after Mishiro lashes out at a bully in school with a knife, punishing her for the slightest of infractions and making her obedient.
- The Unfavorite: Shinji was this for Rinzou, neglected in favor of his illegitimate daughter Tamaki, who even received the inheritance instead of him.
