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Introduced in PaRappa the Rapper
PaRappa
- Voiced by: Dred Foxx (games), Miyu Irino (anime), Yūto Suzuki (PJ Berri no Mogomogu Munyamunya)
- Ambiguously Bi: He's romantically interested in Sunny Funny, but Stage 2 of PaRappa 2 has him practicing "romantic karate" on PJ. This includes kissing him.
- Birthday Episode: The tenth episode of PJ Berri Mogu Mogu Munya Munya has him discover that his friends have arranged a surprise party for his birthday.
- Character Catchphrase: "I gotta believe!", which he says whenever he needs to overcome an obstacle.
- Determinator: As you can tell from his catchphrase, it's difficult for him to be deterred from his goals.
- Does Not Like Spam: Thanks to being given a lifetime's supply of noodles before the events of PaRappa 2, he quickly grows sick of them, to the point of having nightmares about them. It's a major reason why he's against Colonel Noodle (who happens to love the stuff to the point of trying to turn every food into it). He gets over it at the end, only to gain a distaste for cheese due to winning yet another lifetime's supply of them.
- Expressive Accessory: Messing up in Um Jammer Lammy's second-to-last stage results in PaRappa getting electrocuted. The frog on his beanie reacts to getting electrocuted too.
- Funny Animal: He's a dog wearing a beanie who raps.
- Furry Reminder: Losing a versus level in Um Jammer Lammy has him whimper like a puppy.
- Heroic Dog: He's the main hero of both games, and a dog.
- Interspecies Romance: He's a dog and his love interest Sunny Funny is a flower.
- Keet: Rather enthusiastic when he's busting rhymes.
- Never Bareheaded: He's never seen without his signature beanie. It's even lampshaded when you get a game over on stage 5 of the second game:Hairdresser Octopus: Hey! Take that stupid hat off! What does it look like in there?
PaRappa: Uh...I'm not sure myself. - Official Couple: With Sunny.
- Potty Emergency:
- Stage 5 in the first game has him needing to defecate and having to rap his way through the four previous levels' instructors to make it to the toilet.
- In the 15th episode of the 2001 anime, he has the dilemma of needing to pee and his sister Pinto being too busy using a photo booth with her friends to keep watch over Boxy Boy, leaving PaRappa no option but to leave Boxy Boy where he can be stolen by Gaster and Groober as he rushes to the nearest restroom.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: He's a cute little dog who can win even the hardest of hearts with his rap skills.
- Scenery Censor: In a non-nudity example, when the final episode of the 2001 anime has him losing his hat because of the baby birds he hatched flying away with it, the top of his head (when it isn't simply out of frame) is obscured by PJ's hand and a tree branch before he eventually gets his hat back.
- Secret Character: In Um Jammer Lammy, where he has rap-based takes on Lammy's songs.
- Signature Headgear: His beanie, of course!
- Survival Mantra: Once again, "I gotta believe!", which he uses to give himself the confidence to achieve his goals.
- Took a Level in Badass: For most of the first game, Parappa's rapping is primarily based on copying his teachers with little variation. However, he eventually gets skilled enough to take all of them out in a single rap battle and during the final song of the game starts freestyling by himself.
- Vague Age: While Parappa is presumably a teenager or young adult based on certain events in the series(he does earn his driver's license in the first game, implying he's at least 16 in the US version), the teachers often treat him like he's much younger than that, and his puppy-ish appearance makes it difficult to ascertain either way how old he is.
Boxy Boy
- Voiced by: Freedom Brenmer (PaRappa 2), Masashi Ebara (anime)
- Animate Inanimate Object: A talking boombox.
- Ascended Extra: Went from just being a background character to an important gameplay role in the sequel.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: For whatever reason, he reuses Hairdresser Octopus' "Okay, baby, let's go, we gon do it like this" line before the beginning of each Versus battle.
- The Cameo: Appears in the background in a few of the original game's cutscenes.
- Character Catchphrase: Says "C'mon PaRappa, relax!" each time he introduces a tutorial.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The only character in the series to not be a Paper Person, instead being three-dimensional.
PJ Berri
- Voiced by: Armstead Christian (games), Masami Kikuchi (anime)
- Acid Reflux Nightmare: His story in RodneyFun Comic Collection has him suffer a nightmare after eating Sunny Funny's vegetarian stew.
- Beary Funny: He acts as a bit of a straightman to everything going on around him, but is still an eccentric and goofy bear who likes to randomly snack on things at any time.
- Big Damn Heroes: In Stage 7 of PaRappa 2, he bursts through the wall with his DJ set a ways into the song, ready to support PaRappa in the rap battle with Colonel Noodle.
- Big Eater: Seriously, he thinks about food a lot.
- Brutal Honesty: In the sequel, he gives a rather blunt answer to PaRappa who is feeling down about rejecting Sunny's noodle cooking due to him having nothing but noodles for days prior.PaRappa: Man, I bet Sunny hates me now.PJ: Of course she does. You didn't like her cooking.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He might be a lazy Big Eater, but he's a very good DJ.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: For being such a lazy, food-obsessed bear, he's a pretty good DJ.
- Comically Missing the Point: Apparently, he thinks guiros sound like "rock n' roll".PaRappa: Wait, wait, wait, that doesn't sound like Rock'n Roll!
PJ: Cuz you played it funny. Now it's my turn. - Sexier Alter Ego: In the fourth episode of the 2001 anime, while he normally is somewhat insensitive and a dullard, when on the job he's downright suave.
- Sleepyhead: He's entirely capable of falling asleep at any moment, since his job requires to stay up all night frequently.
Katy Kat
- Voiced by: Michele Burks (PaRappa 1 and Um Jammer Lammy), Shannon White (PaRappa 2), Rina Nakayama (anime)
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: A blue cat with yellow hair.
- Dance Party Ending: At the end of Um Jammer Lammy, she organizes the big concert for Milkcan to perform in, which conveniently serves as a grand celebration of Lammy finally developing some confidence. She’s also a damn good singer to close Lammy's story off just right.
- Final Boss: She assumes the mentor role in the final song of Um Jammer Lammy.
- Foil: Her upbeat attitude is contrasted by Lammy's depressed nature.
- He Knows About Timed Hits: She is the tutorial guide in the first game.
- The Leader: Of MilkCan, despite being the bassist, she is also the vocalist. Indeed, she's the only one who seems actually enthusiastic about performing.
- Nice Girl: She may be a bit vain, but is always there for her friends.
- Shipper on Deck: For Parappa and Sunny Funny.
- Shorttank: A partly girly and partly tomboyish girl who wears a tank top, though rather than the usual short shorts she wears big striped pants.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Of course, she's a tomboy to Sunny's girly girl.
Sunny Funny
- Voiced by: Kenya Hathaway (PaRappa 1 and Um Jammer Lammy), Lea-Lorien (PaRappa 2), Mika Kanai (anime)
- The General's Daughter: Her father is General Potter.
- Friend to All Living Things: In the RodneyFun comics, fish, flowers and plants alike all love her.
- Interspecies Romance: She's a flower who is a love interest to the dog PaRappa.
- Lethal Chef: In the comics, she substitutes vinegar for sweet cream in a cake recipe and bakes muffins that inevitably end up both too burnt to eat and about twice her size. She also apparently has a tendency towards making bizarre meals such as "banana soup" and strawberry-onion cake with a lit stick of dynamite in it.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: In the comics, she manages to carry a box full of baking supplies stacked on top of two large bags of rice. She thinks it doesn't weigh that much.
- My God, What Have I Done?: At the end of PaRappa 2, we discover she quickly regretted snapping at PaRappa in the intro and tried to run over and apologize to him before turning back in guilty shame.
- Nice Girl: Likely the kindest and gentlest character in the whole series.
- Official Couple: With PaRappa.
- Plant Person: She's a walking, talking flower.
- Satellite Love Interest: In the first game, until PaRappa wins her over in the final number. She is given more personality in the following games, comics, and anime.
- Sunny Sunflower Disposition: She's a sweet flower girl.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Of course, she's a girly girl to Katy's tomboy.
Joe Chin
- Voiced by: Ryu Watabe
A stuck-up dog, and PaRappa's rival for Sunny's affections.
- The Ace: A much more skilled dog than PaRappa. For perspective, in Um Jammer Lammy, it's revealed through a cutscene that he owns a casino and later on, according to Paul Chuck, he also owns a business that sells chainsaw chains.
- Adapted Out: He does not appear in the 2001 anime.
- Always Someone Better: Is this towards PaRappa. Pretty much everything he does, PaRappa feels like he has to try and one-up to impress Sunny.
- A Day in the Limelight: He's the emcee of Um Jammer Lammy NOW!, so he features a much more prominent role than he had in the PlayStation version, or even in the first PaRappa game.
- Demoted to Extra: In everything after the first game, his presence is significantly reduced. While the 2016 anime features him, the most he makes is background appearances.
- Funny Background Event: When Colonel Noodle is at a picnic with PaRappa, you can spot Joe Chin and one of Master Onion's students carrying a comically gigantic burger, but Joe struggles to carry the thing and is squashed while the student's trying to help.
- In Um Jammer Lammy, getting cool mode in Fire Fire! will reveal he’s lazily asleep in a hot tub - on the roof of a building about to be engulfed in flames. Three guesses to figure what’s going to happen to him if you fail the stage.
- Honest John's Dealership: According to Paul Chuck you should never use his chains for your chainsaw, and all of his products seem pretty terrible. For example, his thief-proof laptop really is thief-proof - because it's so big and heavy the owner can barely use it in the first place.
- It's All About Me: Trademark for him, of course. If you listen closely to the crowd cheering at the end of the last stage of the first game, you can hear him expressing his gratitude at the party that they're throwing "just for him".
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: He's pretty aptly named.
- Large Ham: Very boisterous and full of energy.
- MegaCorp: We know that at the very least his business interests include computers, a casino, and chains.
- Motor Mouth: Once he starts making one of his speeches, he really doesn't know when to quit. To help exaggerate the point even further, halfway through a couple of his speeches, we fast-forward through the nonsensical bits to the important parts.
- Narcissist: Oh boy, yes. His reputation has gone to his head, hasn't it?
- Nice Guy: Downplayed because he's narcissistic and his presence tends to wreck PaRappa's confidence, but still applies besides that since he doesn't seem to have a single mean bone in his body. It’s telling that he’s trying to be a good vigilante and a good business man with pure intentions, with the meanest thing he’s done was (probably) accidentally shove PaRappa while he was walking and ruined his cake.
- Put on a Bus: After the first game, he's been relegated to only small cameos.
- Rich Bitch: Owns many businesses and, while not necessarily mean, he leaves PaRappa feeling down when trying to impress Sunny.
- Top-Heavy Guy: He’s barrel-chested and pretty tall when put beside other characters.
- Vague Age: On one hand, he’s old or skilled enough to own (or inherited) a couple of businesses and his large size would at least make him a young man (dog), on the other hand he’s apparently well acquainted with the neighborhood teenagers and is trying to earn Sunny Funny's affection, knocking him down to at least his teenage years.
Papa PaRappa
- Voiced by: Armstead Christian (games), Kunihiko Yasui (anime)
- Ascended Extra: He was only important in the third stage of the first game. He becomes a major help in the sequel with his development of the De-Noodlizer.
- Gadgeteer Genius: In the sequel, he's revealed to have invented many gadgets.
- Good Parents: A responsible and fairly wise father, though does have some noticeable eccentricities.
- So Proud of You: If you finish stage 6 of PaRappa 2 in cool mode, he starts shedding tears of joy after seeing how much his son has grown.
General Potter
- Voiced by: John James
- Adapted Out: He does not appear in the 2001 anime.
- Ascended Extra: He gets no lines in the first game, pretty much being there to intimidate PaRappa for a few seconds. He's much more important in the second game.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Subverted. He initially intimidates Parappa, but by the second game he respects Parappa and trusts him with his daughter.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Not that nasty, but is still really stern when he's commanding his troops.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In his first, non-speaking appearance, he's got a different uniform on and his flower pot is brown. In the sequel, he's got a blue uniform on and a pink flowerpot instead.
- Funny Background Event: Throughout Guru Ant's stage, you can see him giving Papa PaRappa an absolute earful of a rant while the old dog is trying to calm him down, no doubt for shrinking everyone to the size of ants.
- Plant Person: In this case, he has a plant pot for a head.
- Sweet Tooth: To the point that, when destroying the Noodle Tanks in 2, he claims that sweets are the most superior kind of food, mirroring the exact kind of obsession with noodles and burgers that started the plot of 2 in the first place.
Chop Chop Master Onion
- Voiced by: Ryu Watabe
"Kick, punch, it's all in the mind..."
A karate master with an onion as a head. He teaches PaRappa his skills in the first stage of the game. He returns in the later games as well; as a singer (in a dream) and sort-of mental adviser to Lammy in Um Jammer Lammy, and as a TV show host in 2.- Adaptational Late Appearance: He is the first stage's mentor in the original game, but in the 2001 anime doesn't show up until the 13th episode.
- Ambiguously Evil: In Playstation All Stars Battle Royale, Parappa says he doesn't think Chop Chop Master Onion is trying to take over the world....yet.
- Anthropomorphic Food: Downplayed, since only his head is an onion.
- Asian Speekee Engrish: Chop Chop Master Onion talks like this even in rap sequences. Justified in that his voice actor, Ryu Watabe, is Asian (though the other characters voiced by him have a less exaggerated accent).
- Breakout Character: He has been in every single PaRappa game due to how iconic his level in the first game was, to the point where the franchise is synonymous with his rap.
- Calling Your Attacks: His method of rap. Kick! Punch! Chop! Block!
- Old Master: One of the oldest characters in the game and the most skilled martial artist.
- Once an Episode: He gets a song in every game, and each one repeats his classic Kick! Punch! lines.
- Potty Emergency: He and the other instructors from the first four stages appear in front of PaRappa in the line to the restroom in Stage 5. He doesn't make it.
- Plant Person: He has an onion for a head.
- Rags to Riches: In the second PaRappa game, he apparently recovers from being homeless and broke and gets his own TV show.
- Riches to Rags: In Um Jammer Lammy, he apparently lost his dojo some time after the first game. His karate uniform is tattered and filled with patches.
- So Proud of You: When you do really well he makes his approval known quite clearly.
- Warm-Up Boss: In every game, he's an early opponent, having easy patterns to his raps and his hardest lines being nothing in complexity to later teachers. Even in the second game where he's been promoted to level 2 instead of level 1, it's not all that hard to get by.
Instructor Mooselini
"When I say boom boom boom, you say bam bam bam, no pause in-between, c'mon, let's jam!"
- Voiced by: Saundra Williams
- Absent-Minded Professor: Downplayed. While not a scientist like most examples, she fits the spirit of the trope as a teacher. She's quite an effective driving instructor, but still manages to forget to shut the car door after her and takes at least half the song to realize it.
- Adapted Out: She does not appear in the 2001 anime.
- Animal Gender-Bender: She has antlers, unlike a real-world female moose.
- Demoted to Extra: Her only acknowledgement in the sequel is an indirect mention from her sister Moosesha.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Looks the part, but is relatively nice for someone who came from a family of them. At least, if you're doing well.
- Named After Somebody Famous: For some reason, her name is a moose-themed pun on Benito Mussolini, an Italian fascist dictator.
- Perpetual Frowner: Doesn't smile a whole lot, though she's impressed if PaRappa raps well enough.
- Potty Emergency: She and the other instructors from the first four stages appear in front of PaRappa in the line to the restroom in Stage 5. She doesn't make it.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: To go with her no-nonsense demeanor.
Prince Fleaswallow
"I'm workin' in the flea market so early, I've been workin' here since my mama was a baby..."
- Voiced by: Lenky Don (games), Yoshito Yasuhara (anime)
- Adaptational Late Appearance: He serves as the mentor for the original game's third stage, but in the 2001 anime doesn't appear until the 23rd of 30 episodes.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's clearly more malicious than he lets on, albeit not to PaRappa.
- Con Man: His methods don't seem very trustworthy ("This skunk over here will bring you luck"), but they're apparently effective enough for PaRappa to pay off his dad's old car that he crashed and get a new, even fancier one.
- Early-Bird Cameo: He can sometimes be seen in the background of Stage 2 just walking down the street.
- Didn't Think This Through: If you take his lyrics in the bathroom rap to heart, he sold his only toilet for money without thinking ahead for when he might need to use it.
- A God Am I: Played for laughs later in his song. When business appears to be going extremely well for him at the flea market, the success goes to his head enough for him to proclaim himself "the number one ruler of the seven seas" out of nowhere.
- Hypocrite: In his introduction cutscene and the first half of his song, he claims that the most important thing while selling goods at his flea market is love, not money. Cue him later during Lesson 4 saying that all you need is money.
- Just Got Out of Jail: He states that he's on the run at one point in his song.
- Potty Emergency: He and the other instructors from the first four stages appear in front of PaRappa in the line to the restroom in Stage 5. He doesn't make it.
- Smoking Is Cool: He's shown to be a smoker in one of the Rodney Greenblat comics. He's also a frog man with a Jamaican accent and despite his rather shady past, he gladly helps out PaRappa with his ordeal.
- Snake Oil Salesman: Sells junk at a high profit by hyping it up—claiming at a stuffed skunk is a lucky charm, for example.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Compare his song to previous teachers, and they're trounced in terms of length and button inputs, though they're offset by consisting of only one or two buttons for all their length.
- Weird Beard: He has a green fringe on his chin that resembles a beard.
- You Owe Me: Implied in both the normal ending and the cool mode ending where PaRappa makes enough money to buy a new car.Your papa's gonna be very proud of you! Let me know if you have another flea market, I will help you... and you will help me. (Chuckles)Yeah man yeah man! Now you can get a better car than Joe Chin! (Slyly) Can I beg ya a ride? (Chuckles)
Cheap Cheap the Cooking Chicken
"The other day I was called a little turkey. But I'm a chicken. Got it, you beef jerky?"
- Voiced by: Michele Burks
- Adapted Out: She does not appear in the 2001 anime.
- Carnivore Confusion:
- One main ingredient in her seafood cake is chicken eggs. Probably unfertilized, but the implications are still there.
- Her kitchen counter has a fried chicken pattern on the front of the table.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Uses some rather questionable ingredients in her cake recipe, but the end result is enjoyed by all.
- Feather Fingers: She doesn't have any trouble holding things with her wings.
- No Fourth Wall: In her own show, the film set's blatantly a few feet away from where PaRappa actually is, and if PaRappa is doing poorly she'll angrily leave her own television to personally start teaching over his shoulder. If PaRappa hits cool mode, she just stops the show and turns the TV off to let him do his own thing.
- Potty Emergency: She and the other instructors from the first four stages appear in front of PaRappa in the line to the restroom in Stage 5. She doesn't make it.
- Rage Breaking Point: She'll get furious if PaRappa makes her leave her own show judging from her regularly looking back to the set after stomping over to him, and she turns red, fuming and hopping mad if he hits awful mode. Outright failing the stage gets her so pissed she lays an egg on the spot, whose chick hatches and tells PaRappa to restart the level.
- The Television Talks Back: Somehow, she can tell how well PaRappa's rapping through the television. It's because she's actually only a few feet away from him.
MC King Kong Mushi
"Everybody, I'm wondering how you're feeling out there, you feelin' good?"
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: We're not too sure what he is exactly other than it being a fair assumption of him being a bug, with the best bets being either a giant spider or a giant flea.
- Cigar Chomper: The 2001 anime depicts him with a cigar in his mouth.
- Deadpan Snarker: If you lose your Cool on his level in 2, he has this to say, in his usual enthusiastic voice:"Oh, huh, my bad! You haven't changed at all!"
- Dance Party Ending: The host of two of them in the games he appears in, not being as challenging as previous levels, serving more as the celebration for PaRappa's success.
- Demoted to Extra: In spite of his significant role as the final stage's mentor in both games, he only appears in the penultimate episode of the 2001 anime in a less significant role and is reduced to cameos in the 2016 anime.
- Final Boss: As mentioned above, he assumes the mentor role in both games' final levels.
- Stepford Smiler: Even when he's disappointed in PaRappa for not performing up to standards and losing his Cool mode, he's still got that goofy smile even if his voice isn't all that pleased. Taken to its extreme in the second game, where failing the stage has him watch all the partygoers ditch the concert from PaRappa's absolutely terrible singing and all he can do is awkwardly laugh and barely keep his smile up. Similarly, he makes the same, withering smile if he badly loses in the game's battle mode.
- Sunglasses at Night: He's always seen with his bright yellow shades in both games.
Introduced in Um Jammer Lammy
Lammy
- Voiced by: Sara Ramirez
- A Twinkle in the Sky: Happens to her in the US version of Stage 6, after getting her guitar strap caught on a doorknob.
- Adapted Out: She is absent in the 2001 anime, barring a possible cameo in the ninth episode.
- Balloon Belly: Briefly happens to her when she eats a lot of pizza after Stage 2 in her game. Unfortunately, "briefly" is enough time for her to be mistaken for being pregnant and get dragged into the mall by Cathy Piller.
- Bowdlerize: In the American localisation. Instead of slipping on PJ's banana peel and hitting her head, she ends up getting catapulted back in time to an island.
- Butt-Monkey: In her game, she oversleeps on the day of a major concert, has to put out a fire on a building, gets puked on by a caterpillar, is forced to put babies to sleep by said caterpillar, has to pilot a broken plane thanks to a confused pilot, leaves her guitar on the plane and has to help a woodsman make a new one, and dies/gets catapulted and ends up in Hell/an island and has to perform there to get to her own concert. This is all in the span of fifteen minutes.
- Cartoon Creature: Can you honestly say she looks anything like a lamb?
- Character Catchphrase : Says "Leave it to... Lammy!" whenever she's about to perform or imagine herself doing so.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Without her guitar: a shy, constantly panicking Butt-Monkey. With her guitar (or anything that she can substitute for it): a confident musician and skilled at whatever task she has to perform.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: It's safe to say people find her cute, but throughout her story in UJL, she goes through quite a lot, mostly on account of accidentally ending up in situations that are not a part of her band's schedule and are in fact a part of Chop Chop Master Onion's dream prophecy.
- Darker and Edgier: Her songs are noticeably more intense than PaRappa's, and her game deals with darker concepts such as death.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Her dream in the first level of her game basically roadmaps the rest of the plot according to what Chop Chop Master Onion is singing.
- Made of Iron: In the American localization she survives getting catapulted into the upper atmosphere, hitting an airliner, being thrown back in time to a tropical island, and making a Lammy-shaped hole in the ground. In sharp contrast to the original Japanese version and EU localization, where she dies after slipping on a banana peel.
- Mistaken for Pregnant: After stocking up on too much pizza from Chief Puddle, Cathy Piller mistakes Lammy's bloated belly as an indication that she's pregnant and drags her with the scores of pregnant bunny women to her daycare.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: According to
Rodney Greenblat, she was modeled after Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia. - Shrinking Violet: She is very shy, and blushes a lot. However, if she has her guitar...
- Socially Awkward Heroine: She's either a nervous wreck who is unable to speak up for herself or gets depressed that she's not confident enough. These traits go away temporarily when she wields her guitar (something that Katy points out) and she seems to grow more confident naturally by the end of her game.
- Sweet Sheep: While she started out extremely shy (based on a sheep's timid and meek nature), a nervous wreck, and isn't confident without her guitar. She gained more confidence by the end of her game debut and is a great friend with Katy and Parappa.
- Tareme Eyes: Her eyes droop at the corners.
- Tomboy: Oftentimes.
Ma-san
- "Voiced" by: Ryu Watabe
- Adapted Out: She does not appear in the 2001 anime, aside from a possible cameo in the 29th episode.
- All Drummers Are Animals: Literally - she's a mouse.
- Brutal Honesty: Completely agrees with Lammy when she laments her lack of strength.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: She uses quite a bit of force on a bug for just buzzing near her.
- The Unintelligible: Doesn't speak in anything more than noises.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: Other characters hear her just fine, and anything that needs to be heard is translated in subtitles (provided the player has them on while playing).
Chief Puddle
"If you don't think you're the one, fireman's daily work can't be done!"
- Voiced by: Richard Bush (games), Toshiyuki Hiyase (anime)
- Big Eater: He makes it obvious that the pizza restaurant smells absolutely delicious despite it being engulfed in flames, and once the fire is put out he takes advantage of all the pizza inside being seared to perfection to reward all the firemen, civilians and mostly himself with free pizza.
- Big Ol' Unibrow: He has a large unibrow.
- Blatant Lies: The ending lyrics to both of his songs, "Where's the fire? It's out now!" and "Fire's out, I'm not a liar!" are fitting if you're close to winning the stage - but are blatantly wrong when the building is swallowed with hellfire from the player doing so badly.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: In the 2001 anime, he develops a crush on a girl named Anne whose father hates firefighters because the sight of them causes him to wet himself. The two are married by the end of the episode, after the father puts his daughters feelings above his own, and is cured of his pants-wetting.
- Dog Stereotype: He's a dalmatian and a fireman.
- Firehouse Dalmatian: He's a firefighting dalmatian.
Cathy Piller
"Now put these kids to sleep, will ya?"
- Voiced by: Louise-Marie MennierBaby voiced by: Kemba Francis
- Adapted Out: She does not appear in either anime.
- Character Catchphrase: "Now put these kids to sleep, will ya?". It's (thankfully) her only line in the song and is repeated many times.
- Larynx Dissonance: She has a very deep, distorted voice. At least we don't have to hear her sing in it.
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: She has cleavage despite being a caterpillar.
- Punny Name: Cathy Piller = Caterpillar
- The Unfought: Despite being the instructor for stage 3, she doesn't do any singing (or much instructing, beyond saying "Now put these kids to sleep, will ya?" between verses). Instead, all the singing is done by the unnamed baby she's holding.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: We get to see that pink, oozing puke she spits in all its glory. Poor, poor Lammy.
- Womb Level: Her stage is an...odd variation of this. The level doesn't take place inside her, but the background is made up entirely of her body segments.
Captain Fussenpepper
"I'm still wondering when we get to rest, I'm hungry, I'm sleepy, don't wanna die!"
- Voiced by: Ryu Watabe
- Adapted Out: He is not in either anime.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: His friendlier personality isn't all there. Two lines during his level consist of asking if he ate his drink and stating that he thought milk was pink.
- Cranial Eruption: In cutscenes, he gets a bump on his head whenever the loose circuit board hits his head.
- Demoted to Extra: In PaRappa 2 he appears but only as the voice of the save/options menus.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: One of his personalities acts like a hot-tempered military instructor.
- False Teeth Tomfoolery: He has a pair of false teeth, which he gives to Lammy after his stage is over.
- Split Personality: He switches personalities whenever he gets hit on the head, either being an fierce angry commander or a well-meaning bumbling old man. This happens during his song as well, and the music's speed changes to reflect it.
Paul Chuck
"Chop all of them down, every single one down, then we're gonna make a good guitar with all the timber around!"
- Voiced by: Everette Bradley
- Adapted Out: He doesn't appear in the 2001 anime.
- Brick Joke: In Lammy's story, his lines about Joe Chin's chains seems random and out of place consider Joe Chin barely exists in the game, background appearances aside. Then you get to PaRappa's stage and finally get to see the terrible commercial Joe Chin made advertising his bike chains repurposed as chainsaw chains.
- Chainsaw Good: He wields a chainsaw to cut down trees.
- Exact Words: Lammy wanted a nice guitar for cheap, and having to pitch in with the labor certainly helps with that.
- Face of a Thug: For all of his huge size and absolutely serious face (his default expression is an annoyed frown that's rarely happy), he's a jolly fellow willing to help Lammy get a new guitar dirt cheap, provided she works for it.
- Mighty Lumberjack: He's tough and he cuts down trees.
- Odd Friendship: Seems to get along just fine with the questionably-sapient, shaved, sumo-wrestling bear living in the forest behind his store.
- Serious Business: He takes his woodworking very seriously, and doesn't care for indecisive customers or jokers.
- Simpleton Voice: He isn't dim-witted, but still has a voice that sounds like one typically used for stupid characters.
- Take That!: He's incorporated an in-universe potshot against Joe Chin's chains in his song about cutting down trees.NEVER USE JOE CHIN'S CHAINS FOR THEEEM!
- True Craftsman: As mentioned, he's a serious woodworker and won't Lammy pass until she makes a guitar which satisfies him. And is he good? Well, he makes high-quality guitars with nothing but a chainsaw and a standing tree.
Sweety Bancha
- Voiced by: Yuko Mizutani
- Ascended Extra: She went from a nameless background character appearing briefly in the cutscene before the final stage in Um Jammer Lammy to being fleshed out more in the ninth episode of the 2001 anime and appearing regularly in the 2016 anime.
- Official Couple: After her debut, she is this with PJ.
- Operation: Jealousy: Her sole appearance in the 2001 anime has her try to pull this off with PaRappa (who is unaware of the plot) to make PJ like her, but she is so kind natured it wasn't long before she broke into tears and apologized profusely.
Teriyaki Yoko
"Somebody come and rescue me before an angel comes to take me 'round and 'round!"
- Voiced by: Carla Cook
- Adapted Out: She does not appear in the 2001 anime.
- Escaped from Hell: She has a device which lets people do this and brings them Back from the Dead, which raises questions about why she's still down there. Maybe she doesn't want to lose her following?
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: She comes pretty much out of nowhere, sticks out even in a game as weird as this, and despite being the singer of the penultimate level, doesn't really have much importance to the story beyond being the last and most intimidating obstacle between Lammy and her goal.
- Idol Singer: A tall intimidating one.
- Instrument of Murder: She threatens to kill Lammy with her own guitar in the European/Japanese versions. Lammy points out how empty of a threat it is, since she's already dead.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A domineering and vain woman who won't accept failure, but she recognizes talent when she sees it, and if you impress her, she'll happily reward you.
- Sizeshifter: Can apparently grow huge if she wants to.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Play badly enough and she'll grow huge and tell the player they should be banned from every game.
Rammy
- Voiced by: Keva Hargrove
- Adapted Out: She does not appear in either anime.
- Dub Name Change: Her name in Japanese is Urammy, which is a Punny Name on ura Lammy ("alternate Lammy").
- Evil Counterpart: She's not "evil", exactly, but she was clearly designed as a less friendly version of Lammy.
- Graceful Loser: Though she's a Sore Loser for most of the game, she'll finally relent after losing to Lammy on the final stage:Rammy: Ok, you win. I'll go back to Hell/I guess I'll just go home now.
- Hero of Another Story: According to her she experienced several misfortunes which ended up making her late to the show.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's not the friendliest girl out there, but she does compliment Lammy when they beat whichever stage they're on, and also wishes sweet dreams to the babies at the hospital upon completing Cathy Pillar's stage.
- Mirror Self: Implied. Lammy had strokes of strange but good luck in the fifteen minutes before the show which ultimately helped her arrive on time, more ready than ever to play. Rammy had strokes of relatively mundane bad luck culminating in being late for her show and in no condition to be on stage even if she had been on time. Lammy even leaves Hell/the island when she arrives. Maybe she's right to blame her counterpart for her bad luck.
- Never My Fault: In some stages in co-op mode, she'll blame Lammy for them failing. She blames various extenuating circumstances for most of her lose quotes in VS mode, too.
- Palette Swap: She's essential a monochrome Lammy.
- Perky Goth: While she initially comes across as grumpy and confrontational in her first appearance in the story mode, she's actually quite cheerful when playing through the songs in multiplayer, clearly enjoying herself. Justifiable; as a guitarist, she's doing her favorite thing.
- Sore Loser: If she loses in VS mode, she'll often have an excuse or complaint ready.
- The Unfought: She challenges Lammy to a guitar contest, but Lammy's in a hurry to get back to her show and faxes herself back to Earth. Vs mode is the only part of the game where it's possible to challenge her.
Introduced in PaRappa The Rapper 2
Beard Burger Master
"Extra! Extra! Read all about it! The best burgers in town from all around!"
- Voiced by: Ethan Eubanks
- Adapted Out: He doesn't appear in either anime.
- Abusive Parents: Downplayed. It's plain to see that he doesn't care much for his son, considering he comes back from the dead to point out aloud and in public what a terrible job he's doing right in front of him. This becomes more apparent when Colonel Noodle's childhood is revealed. Thankfully he has a Heel Realization in the end and reconnects with his son.
- Follow in My Footsteps: He wants his son to manage the business after he dies, but that didn't go so well. Mainly because he effectively ruined his son's life with burgers.
- Old Master: Like Master Onion, he's a master on the grill.
- Spirit Advisor: He returns to his restaurant so that he can help PaRappa make his burgers.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His attempts to introduce his own passion into his son's life went far out of control, ostracizing him from others and making him outright hate burgers.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Seems to swim in and out of a stereotypically German or Eastern European accent at parts of his song, particularly on his "th" sounds.
Guru Ant
"Revolutions all the time, people changing the world with crime..."
- Voiced by: Dean Bowman
- A God Am I: One of his lines in his rap is literally "I am the Lord." This was changed to "the man" in the American localization, however.
- Adapted Out: He doesn't appear in either anime.
- Bad Liar: He's always calm. Even when he's many thousands of times his normal size. Nope, you didn't see him freak out, you must have been imagining it.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Initially the one character in the series to avert this, actually being the size of an ant when he first appears, only to end up human-sized at the end of his level thanks to various mishaps with a size-changing ray. He's distressed about it at first, but seems to have gotten over it by the final level.
- Cold Ham: Despite his evident freak-out for much of his level, he seldom raises his voice and in fact never loses his cool tone entirely; instead, his quivering delivery, face and gestures do most of the heavy lifting.
- Happy Dance: If he wins a round in the battle mode, he's got a proud and spin-happy dance to show for it.
- Nerves of Steel: He's extremely calm, probably the calmest character in the entire series. Well, at least at his normal size...
- Nervous Wreck: When he's not in his standard environment, such as being many times larger than normal, he becomes this. For reference, every lyric of his when the duo is stuck in space taller than the planet has him panicking and pleading to return back to normal. Downplayed in his fourth verse, though, when he sounds much calmer and is able to reason with Parappa somewhat.
- Not So Stoic: As noted above in the tropes above, his chill demeanor does seem to be genuine... but he can't help but react strongly in times of actual peril, evidently to his own embarrassment.
- Old Master: He's a calm old ant who knows instant growth techniques.
- Soul Brotha: Played with. While not literally a Black man (being, you know, an ant), Guru Ant still certainly speaks to the spirit of this trope, what with his generally cool demeanor, greater use of slang than most of the other instructors, and a song and instrumental that wouldn't sound entirely out of place somewhere in SnoopDogg's discography.
- Strong Ants: Is seen holding a coin that's roughly as large as him.
Instructor Moosesha
"Remember, never go down without a fight!"
- Voiced by: Kimberly Queen, Aaminah Hassell
- Action Girl: While never seen in direct combat, a female boot camp instructor is this by default.
- Adapted Out: She doesn't appear in the 2001 anime.
- Animal Gender-Bender: Like her sister, she also has antlers.
- Badass Bandolier: Wears two across her chest.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Her song starts off with her being pretty tough and bossy on PaRappa, guiding him along the intense training routine. Near the end of the stage when she's established she's impressed with his performance, she drops most of her bossiness to ask for a break, complain about her age and workout routine and just outrights cuts the training short when she feels like they did a good enough job that day.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: She's one, and she comes from a family of them. She does have a softer side, though.
- Legacy Character: She's the replacement for the absent Instructor Mooselini. She even indirectly states they're sisters by quoting her "boom boom boom" line,
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: A tough-as-nails drill sergeant who wears a pink tutu over her uniform.
- Training Montage: She puts PaRappa through this, in rap form.
Hairdresser Octopus
"Cutting hair can be fabulous!"
- Voiced by: Freedom Brenmer (PaRappa 2), Yūji Mitsuya (anime)
- Affably Evil: Other than his obsession with afros, he's pretty nice while under mind control, and is even willing to undo the haircuts if PaRappa does well, which he does do in the end.
- Always Camp: His occupation as a hairdresser emphasizes his camp-iness. Even when he isn't brainwashed into a flailing and fun-loving maniac with shears, he's still about as effeminate.
- Berserk Button: Downplayed, but he clearly hates having piles of hair on the floor in his salon. He will actually briefly stop the rap to clean it up whenever that happens.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: That obsession with afros came from Colonel Noodle's speaker device, likely because he has an afro himself.
- Camp Gay: He's pretty effeminate and flamboyant, is a hairdresser, and he's been
confirmed as gay by Greenblat. - Chatty Hairdresser: He talks a lot while treating his customers.
- Chewing the Scenery: If he loses a round badly in the battle mode, he's got a really overdramatic and pained expression as he reels his whole body back in shame.
- Chick Magnet: The 2001 anime makes him an absolute hit with the ladies in town.
- Evil Is Hammy: Interestingly enough, when he is brainwashed he is flamboyant and loud. When Colonel Noodle's device is broken, his voice becomes quieter.
- Evil Makeover: As noted under Tentacle Hair below, being brainwashed changes his looks almost entirely. His whole body turns colors, he becomes larger, his teeth become visible, his eyes get wider and his pupils seem to shrink.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His name is just his occupation and his species.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: Shown in the 2001 anime, he really wanted to be a pro-wrestler before becoming a hairdresser, and shows off how serious he was by giving PaRappa a good thrashing. How legit this was in up in air, considering it was a Dream Sequence PaRappa had after being thrashed by the angry octopus earlier.
- Runs with Scissors: He's not too careful with those giant shears he's holding in both hands. Then again, he's under mind control, so safety is probably not his primary concern.
- Tentacled Terror: When brainwashed, he's an evil octopus. Interestingly, his tentacles are his hair.
- Tentacle Hair: He has all eight tentacles as his hair. When in his "normal" blue form, they're low and wavy and look more like normal hair, but in his "crazy" red form, they're upright and disconnected from each other.
Food Court
"Watch out for those flying noodles, 'cause if you don't do well here, all you get to eat are noodles."
A haunted game powering Colonel Noodle's noodlizing machines, it was pulled off store shelves for its tendency to curse anyone who loses to it into eating nothing but noodles for the rest of their lives. PaRappa steps up as the one to enter the game and try to beat it to discover the Noodle Syndicate's weakness.- Boss Rush: Just like the first game, PaRappa has to out-rap all his previous teachers in a single song, this time being a haunted video game that somehow recreated them all to do battle with.
- Composite Character: The actual game only has a whopping three lines done in an in-universe Leaning on the Fourth Wall style, with pixelized versions of the previous teachers taking its place as the actual singers of the stage and are its stand-in if the level is selected for the battle mode.
- Flat Character: The game might be haunted, but it barely speaks more than it has to, instead opting to apparently pull and recreate Parappa's previous opponents to stand for it instead.
- The Most Dangerous Video Game: Played for laughs. Lose, and you can never eat anything but noodles ever again!Papa PaRappa: Well, there was a strange rumor going on that everyone who couldn't clear this game... could only... eat noodles... In other words... their bodies accepted nothing but noodles.
- Poke the Poodle: Sure, only being able to eat noodles is a horrible punishment for failure, but there's nothing stopping you from just playing the game again to try and undo the curse. Remember, the curse only applies if you don't beat the game.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Has been used as a power source for Colonel Noodle's noodlizing machines before it was discovered in the intro for Level 6. Nevertheless, after that level's completion, the heroes discover they can use sweets to confront noodles as well as reverse-engineer the game to use in the De-Noodlizer
- Stylistic Suck: Being an old game, it starts with N64 styled pixel graphics but gradually gets worse with its pixel art and soundtrack the worse the player does, going backwards in technological progress until the player outright loses.
Colonel Noodle
"I represent for noodles, baby!"
- Voiced by: Andrew Alonzo
- Adapted Out: He doesn't appear in either anime.
- Badass Longcoat: As goofy a villain he is, he's got good taste in longcoats.
- Battle Rapping: His stage is the closest the series gets to it, as rather than simply repeating Noodles' lines, Parappa offers rebuttals to them.
- Big Bad: He's the central antagonist of PaRappa 2, as the conflict is driven by his efforts to turn everything into noodles because of his belief that it is the superior food.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: He steals PaRappa's "I gotta believe!" in the cutscene before his stage begins.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Oh, that minor son of the Beard Burger Master won't be important at all...
- Cool Shades: He wears them. They fall off as he starts to realize how much of a jerk he's been.
- Does Not Like Spam: Has a hatred for burgers thanks to his dad making him eat them his entire life.
- Evil Counterpart: To PaRappa, possibly. Both are about the same size, hate a certain type of food thanks to overexposure, have fathers involved in science to a degree, have Missing Moms in some way, and are skilled at rapping. He even uses PaRappa's catchphrase! But while PaRappa is a cheerful, charismatic kid who is loved and supported by all his friends and family and is always trying to mature and improve himself, Colonel Noodle is a grumpy nerd whose "followers" are mostly robot dummies, was hated by all his friends, never moved on from his terrible childhood, and now wants to impose it on everyone else.
- Fat Bastard: Not really evil, per se, but a lifetime of eating only burgers and noodles has not done wonders for his weight or personality.
- Freudian Excuse: His father, the Beard Burger Master, unintentionally ruined his son's life by feeding him burgers for his entire life and causing his mother to turn into one.
- Funny Afro: Pretty much makes it clear that he's the Beard Burger Master's son.
- Good Costume Switch: Just as he realizes his mistakes, water falls on him, knocking his glasses off. When he's seen again after his stage, he's ditched his black coat for his restaurant overalls instead.
- Heel Realization: Happens right near the end of his stage, he finally realizes how utterly extreme and bonkers he has been acting. Visually represented by a bunch of water falling on him and knocking his intimidating glasses off."Then why do I love noodles so dearly? It makes no sense, I must've sounded really eerie!"
- Jive Turkey: Some of his lyrics almost push him into Pretty Fly for a White Guy territory.
- Knight Templar: He truly believes that noodles are superior to all other foods, to the point that they're the only things worth eating.
- Like Father, Like Son: Like his father, he's forcing people to indulge in his preferred food, only in his instance, it's noodles as opposed to burgers. However, Beard Burger only did this to Colonel Noodle, while the latter did this to everybody out of revenge. Also, his mother turned into a burger from eating so many, while Colonel Noodle's plan is to turn all food into noodles. His situation with burgers in his flashback even mirrors Parappa's sitation with noodles!
- Trademark Favorite Food: Obviously, he really likes noodles, so much so that he wants to replace every other food with them.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: A very silly example. He only became a villain in the first place because his father forced him to only consume burgers, and his mother turned into a burger as a result, causing him to lash out by forcing everyone else to eat noodles.
Introduced in the Anime
Matt Major
- Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura
- The Ace: Remarkably competent at a variety of sports and tasks.
- Birthday Episode: The 20th episode of the 2001 anime revolves around his birthday.
- Demoted to Extra: He only has a major appearance in one episode of the second anime PJ Berri no Mogu Mogu Munya Munya.
- Lovable Jock: His Establishing Character Moment is him playing basketball then politely introducing himself to PaRappa.
- Nice Guy: A very friendly dude who gets along with just about anyone.
- Only Sane Man: The most level headed and reasonable character in the cast, though even he has his moments of stress and madness.
- Straight Gay: It is mentioned on Matt’s character bio that he “isn’t interested in girls”.
Paula Fox
- Voiced by: Akiko Kobayashi
- Demoted to Extra: The second anime PJ Berri no Mogu Mogu Munya Munya only gives her one episode in a prominent role.
- Friendly Rivalry: With Katy, though Depending on the Writer it can be either more heated than that or outright nonexistent.
- Hidden Buxom: Most of Paula's outfits make her look fairly flat, but a bunny suit in an Imagine Spot and her low-cut dress in the Christmas special reveal that Paula is actually very well-endowed.
- Informed Species: Other than her ears, there is nothing really fox-like about Paula.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Abrasive and arrogant, but she truly does care for her friends.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Is very athletic and gains an interest in karate, yet loves fashion almost as much as Katy.
Pinto Rappa
- Voiced by: "Mikko"
- Adorably Precocious Child: Quite mature and well-behaved for her age.
- Demoted to Extra: Goes from a regular character in the 2001 anime to a minor background character in the 2016 anime.
Gaster
- Voiced by: Ryo Naitou
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He's nowhere to be seen in the second anime PJ Berri no Mogu Mogu Munya Munya.
- Fat and Skinny: The skinny guy to Groober's fat guy.
- Harmless Villain: Even when he is being actually competent, Gaster is usually little more than a nuisance.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He really isn't anywhere near as evil as he thinks he is.
- Karmic Butt-Monkey: You can guarantee something hilariously bad will happen to Gaster in every episode he appears in. Most of the time he deserves it.
- Rascally Rabbit: A thief who likes to stir up trouble for the heck of it.
- Those Two Guys: With Groober.
- Verbal Tic: He frequently ends his sentences with his own name.
Groober
- Voiced by: Akio Suyama
- Big Eater: Could give PJ a run for his money.
- Cats Are Mean: He TRIES to be this, but usually fails.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He doesn't return for the 2016 anime.
- Fat and Skinny: The fat guy to Gaster's skinny guy.
- Minion with an F in Evil: He is even less sinister than Gaster and when he isn't trying to be a thug he is actually really nice to be around.
- Those Two Guys: With Gaster.
