Characters / Puyo Puyo 7

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This page contains a list of Puyo Puyo characters that were created by SEGA and made their debut in Puyo Puyo 7. The aforementioned game kicks off what can be considered the second Soft Reboot for the Puyo Puyo series (following the first Soft Reboot heralded by Puyo Puyo Fever and Puyo Puyo Fever 2), primarily taking place in a completely new setting called Suzuran City and centering around the city's junior high school in particular.

The following characters hail from a world separate from Arle and Amitie. In stark contrast to both of the former characters' worlds, the world in which Suzuran is situated is a completely mundane reality with no magic to speak of. Beginning with the events of their debut game however, space-time shenanigans usually pull them into various conflicts surrounding the Puyos, giving Suzuran something of an Urban Fantasy vibe.

Ringo Ando

Ringo Ando

Character Color: Red

Voice Actor: Asami Imai (Japanese), Cassandra Lee Morris (English)

Stage Actor: Yui Kawamura

Somebody, make it stop! I just want to have a normal, everyday conversation for once!

A resident of Suzuran, Ringo is a teenage girl who attends Suzuran Junior High School and works part-time at her family-owned grocery store in the Suzuran Shopping District with her parents. She lived her life as your typical teenage girl... until the events of Puyo Puyo 7 forced her to learn how to play Puyo and save the world from impending doom. Ever since those fateful events, she's experienced the weirdness of the franchise on an almost daily basis. She is a generally intelligent girl who is always curious about solving mysteries, but this also results in her being the only person that remotely questions the insanity around her.

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• Accidental Misnaming: We don't get to see a lot of it, but in Puyo 7, she admits that she is prone to this in her head (and even slips up and calls Amitie "Ami-Tey" at one point), so she has developed a habit of circumventing it by using Buffy Speak whenever she is unsure. Puzzle Pop even lists "remembering people's names" as one of her least favorite things, further reinforcing how terrible she is with names. This has led to her giving people amusing monikers, such as the following:
  The super-duper, hairy-scary, evil-weevil, weirdy-wacky, gothy girl. (Feli)
  The turquoise boy who doesn't say a whole lot. (Sig)
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Ringo^note Japanese for "Apple" is the daughter of grocers, carries an apple around and her head looks like an apple itself. Her primary colors, red and yellow, are the same as in the peel and core of an apple, and her eye color, green, matches that of another possible apple peel.
• Art Shift: Notable for being one of the two characters with an expression that has a rougher outline than normal — this being her Oh, Crap! reaction.
• Audience Surrogate: Mostly in 7, given her role as a normal girl that comes across all the weirdness of the Puyo universe. Much less so in later games, as she's had time to get used to all the weirdness, and even shows off some of her own quirks.
• Badass Bookworm: She's very intelligent, and can kick ass all the same in Puyo Puyo.
• Badass Normal: To an extent. While she can use magic just like the majority of the cast, it can be implied that she's nowhere near the level of expertise or power that most of them hold.
• Badass Unintentional: If it hadn't been for Arle teaching her how to play, then suddenly being kidnapped and possessed, then Ringo would've never gone out on a limb and became good at the game.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Partakes in some with Maguro in chapter 6 of Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, in order to evoke the rivalry that was needed to reawaken Marle's memories.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The redhead of the "A" Trio.
• Borrowed Catch Phrase: Her alternate voice set in Tetris 2 involves her using phrases and spells from Maguro, Risukuma, and Ecolo.
• Buffy Speak: Ringo's not too good with remembering names, so she uses this a lot to avoid mispronouncing them entirely. To name some examples, she calls Feli "The super-duper, hairy-scary, evil-weevil, weirdy-wacky, gothy girl" and "Little Miss Spookyface" in Puyo Puyo Tetris, and calls Ex "the confusing outfit guy" and "Mr. Fancy Suspenders" in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In chapter 5 of Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, when Ecolo is trying to force a smile out of her. He ends up getting too touchy-feely and it brings the two off-screen, eliciting the following reaction from her.
  "ECOLOOOO! Why do you gotta do things we can’t even show to the audience!?"
• But Thou Must!: Even if she doesn't want to play Puyo, she's forced to.
• Childhood Friends: With Maguro.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: While Word of God states that she can technically cook very well thanks to growing up in a shopping district and thus always having ingredients readily available, her desire to experiment and make food "healthier" often gets the better of her and results in her creating such awful concoctions as "Protein laced Ganache", "Tuna-eyeball-apple-pie" and "Mulukhiyah Cake Frosting". Maguro, Arle and Carbuncle still seem to genuinely enjoy her cooking, though.
• Deadpan Snarker: Very much so, considering the wackiness of the rest of the cast...
• Deuteragonist: Puyo Puyo Tetris quite blatantly gives her this role next to Tee. By the end of the story, she's the one who faces off against the final boss...who ends up being Tee, swapping her role with his at the last moment.
• Divergent Character Evolution: She uses Yu and Rei's dropset and stats in 7, but receives her own dropset in 20th.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Asami Imai sings the vocal version of 7's main theme song.
• Dub Name Change: Downplayed, but while she says her full name in the Japanese versions of the games she appears in, in the English dub, she only introduces herself as simply Ringo, which isn't very proper by Japanese standards. The same can also be said for Maguro.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In her debut, she wore a school blazer and calf-high socks, and her apple was a solid red. Aside from the "Ringo Ando" alt. in Puyo Quest, she's dropped the blazer in favor of the yellow sweater vest in 20th, giving her a dominantly red-yellow palette and her apple is two-tone to match. She also had black dots for pupils that were never seen again due to the Art Evolution that happens in 20th.
  • Less subtly, she wore her hair differently in her debut, exposing a lot more of her forehead. In all subsequent appearances, she covered most of her forehead with hair that was tucked behind her ears in 7.
• Empowered Badass Normal: As Arle explains to Ringo in 7, the light that shined upon her when the Puyo rained from the sky granted her the power to pop them. Before the incident, she was basically an ordinary school girl.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Ringo has one in Poison Ringo from Quest, who poisons people, then make them pay her to undo it...with more poison. The description makes note that Poison Ringo's existence is an enigma.
• Evil Laugh: Her alternate Japanese voice in Puyo Puyo Tetris has her say her quotes in an ominous way, with her repeating spell outright being an evil laugh.
• Expressive Accessory: The Puyo on her hair clip changes expression in relation to her own.
• Expressive Hair: It freaks out when she does.
• Family Business: Andou Groceries, the store her parents own.
• Fiery Redhead: She can get rather passionate when the moment calls for it, be it for a Puyo battle (after her stint as a Reluctant Hero in Puyo 7) or solving a mystery.
• Freak Out: She's the only one in the cast to have an over-the-top freak out frame in her debut and beyond, unique in having outlines with a more sketch-like style.
• Gender-Blender Name: A female name in Japanese, but male in English.
• Gratuitous Princess: The aptly named Princess Ringo in Puyo Quest, taking on a Snow White inspiration with her design. Being a Puyo Fest character, she packs a punch when teamed up with red cards.
• Horrifying the Horror: In Sig's Secret she, Arle and Amitie need to pass three trials to reach the final hall of the Alca ruins. The second trial involves solving Puyo puzzles given by an animated statue of a Nuisance Puyo. Ringo eagerly takes on the task, but gets so excited the Nuisance Puyo ends up begging her to stop asking for more tests.
• How Unscientific!: Said nearly verbatim in 20th's story mode, especially when it comes to ghosts.
• The Hyena: Her Chronicle alt. voice has her in a constant giggling fit.
• "I Am" Song: Occasionally sings about herself.
• Iconic Item: Rarely seen without her grandma's apple. Less prominently, there's also her green Puyo hairclip.
• Idiot Hair: She's far from being an idiot though. It's mostly there to visually represent the stem of an apple.
• Inconsistent Spelling: One that is not immediately obvious. Her surname has always been Romanized as "Andou", but the English-version of the "Ringo's Home" (the grocery storefront) background in Puyo Puyo Tetris Romanizes it as "Ando".
• Instant Expert: She gets to playing (and winning!) Puyo within seconds of learning it in 7.
• Leitmotif: "The Puyo Puyo Song," bootstrapped from 7's main theme tune.
• Magical Gesture: She uses the Fleming's left/right-hand-rule in her spells.
• Meta Guy: She is the one most likely to question Puyo Puyo's recurring tropes.
• Modesty Shorts: While not visible at all in art, she does sport a pair on a figurine.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Good job telling Ecolo to make people happy with Puyo when he has amnesia! Surely nothing could go wrong when you have the power to flood the universe in Puyo!
• Nice Mean And In Between: She could be considered the In-Between to Amitie's Nice and Arle's Mean, but the dynamic is downplayed. Ringo is well-meaning and more grounded, but she's not above questioning the craziness of everything happening around her.
• No Last Name Given: Downplayed, but in the English dub of the Puyo Puyo Tetris games and Puyo Puyo Champions, Ringo introduces herself by only her first name, rather than her full name like she does in the Japanese versions.
• The Not-Love Interest: Ringo and Maguro have a close, supportive relationship that stems from childhood, yet neither character has shown any sort of romantic inclination to the other, vague Ship Tease moments aside.
• Oh, Crap!: Her surprised face is a particularly spectacular one across her appearances, often Played for Laughs. When it's not, though, it happens when...
  • 7: Ecolo plans to cause a universal puyo-pocalypse.
  • 20th: Ecolo possesses Dark Prince, causing space-time to go out of control.
  • Puyo Tetris: The Spaceship Tetra has completely lost control, inevitably causing a crash landing towards her school.
  • Puyo Tetris 2: Squares was about to literally explode.
• Only Sane by Comparison: While Ringo is more rational than Arle, that doesn't mean she's devoid of quirkiness. Ringo gets passionate at times (to potentially terrifying degrees), often breaks out into song, and is deathly afraid of ghosts. She just keeps them in check when the situation calls for it, compared to Arle who's more willing to take silliness in stride.
• Only Sane Man: When you question the very nature of the game itself, she's even above Arle for sanity.
• Performance Anxiety: Chapter 8 of Puyo Puyo Tetris implies that she may have stage fright.
  Arle: Ringo...Time for YOU to perform!
  Ringo: NO! I'M ALLERGIC TO PERFORMING!
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Despite being a member of the school Physics Club, it's, according to the manual, more of an "Anything Club". No one in the club does any real physics-related activities, especially when the Puyo enter Ringo's life.
• Psychotic Smirk: In Quest as Poison Ringo.
• Pungeon Master: In Chronicle, Ringo can hardly go a single line without a math pun, and in some rare cases, an electricity pun (in reference to her magic).
• Punny Name: Ringo ^note again, Japanese for "Apple" always carries an apple with her, and also wears her hair in ringlets, which resemble an unbroken apple peel.
• Red Is Heroic: To compliment Arle's heroic blues, Ringo's got plenty of red on her, and is one of the main protagonists.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: A non-time-travel variant. Her immense intellectual honesty and desire to gather and maintain information that she can't even comprehend allows her to keep all of her memories of Ecolo after he jumps dimensions, while other mortals would instantly forget about him. This also appears to extend to other forms of amnesia caused by violations of the spacetime continuum; while Maguro and Risukuma have displayed trouble trying to properly remember the residents of Primp Town before, Ringo, at the very most, forgets the names of people she isn't particularly close to, and is also the first to realize (in 2 seconds flat) that the S.S. Tetra's crew seems familiar upon meeting Tee again in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (though in this specific case, she doesn't regain her memories of Puyo Puyo Tetris beyond vaguely recalling that Tee exists.)
• Science Hero: With a focus on mathematics and endless curiosity. Inventions and gadgets, however, are more Risukuma's thing.
• Serious Business: Ringo doesn't understand how Puyo Puyo became this in 7, to the point of a Running Gag.
• Ship Tease: Ringo gets this with both Maguro and Tee, on different occasions.
  • 20th: In Maguro's story, she is asked by Risukuma and Amitie just why she isn't affected by Maguro's supposedly handsome face, to which she simply replies that she's already seen it enough times that it doesn't affect her anymore. Risukuma believes that after knowing each other for so long, there may just be ANOTHER reason as to why it doesn't affect her...
  • Puyo Puyo Tetris: As mentioned below, it's safe to assume that Ringo grows more and more fond of Tee throughout the game's story. See Unresolved Sexual Tension below for more on the subject.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: She has red hair and green eyes, and is one of the series' three main protagonists.
• Suddenly Fluent in Gibberish: Subverted in two instances. Ringo tries to communicate with Carbuncle by saying variants of "guu" in 7 and 20th, but still doesn't understand him. Then later Ringo tries to interpret Onion Pixie's onion speech, but her "translations" are nowhere near close to what Onion Pixie actually said.
• Shock and Awe: Only uses lightning spells, subverting the Fire, Ice, Lightning theme found on the series' other heroines.
• The Smart Guy: Takes up this role when hanging out with Arle and Amitie. Among her friends from Suzuran though, she prefers to delegate this role to Risukuma.
• Spelling Song: Frequently! When she's excited for something, she breaks out into song and spells out whatever caught her fancy.
  (In Puyo Puyo Tetris 2) "I'M ON A STARSHIP~! ♪ S-T-A-R-SHIP! I'M ON A STAAARSHIIIP!"
• Super-Senses: She says she can sight the Andromeda Galaxy in the daytime. That means she has 20/4 vision.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: In Tetris, when she asks Ess if she knows that Zed ^noteEss' papa is a robot, but when Ess asks her if she has a problem with "Papa", she then says that it's completely biologically routine, and rolls with it.
• Theme Naming: With her spells. Sine, Cosine, Tangent, Integral, and Permutation are all mathematical concepts. Even the renames for the latter two in the English dub of Tetris, Algorithm and Calculus, follow this theme.
• Throw the Book at Them: Her penultimate attack, Integral (Algorithm in the English dub), makes her slam a book down.
• Tragic Keepsake: According to Ringo, the apple she's seen carrying around originally belonged to her grandmother, and from the way she words things, you'd think her grandmother is no longer among the living... until Ringo herself immediately clarifies that she's still alive.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Tee. She's the most affected when she realizes they have to part ways once the conflict is over, but she resolves herself by saying they will eventually meet again, as Puyo matches have the side effect of random world hopping.
• Unusual Euphemism: Fan translations tend to give her euphemisms altered with math terminology. She changes "are you out of your mind" to "are you out of your vector", for instance.
• Unwanted Assistance: Receives some from Amitie during a Puyo battle against Schezo in Puyo Puyo on Stage, which eventually prompts Ringo to (politely) ask her friend to shut up.
• Unwitting Pawn: Thanks to her following the hidden agenda Ecolo had, she almost doomed the world.
• Visual Pun: She's always carrying an apple. Ringo means "apple" in Japanese. Her hair is also bound into ringlets.
• Vocal Evolution: Her voice in the story mode of the Wii Version of Puyo 7 is much calmer and lower-pitched than it is during battle or in later installments.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: As Rulue mentions, she sure has good eyes.
• Wicked Witch: As Poison Ringo, who carries a basket of poison apples. Though, in Puyo Quest, she is described to be someone with "Ringo's spitting image".
• Wild Take: What her Oh, Crap! face basically is, especially if ghosts are involved.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: As revealed in 20th, she's terrified of ghosts. Ringo confesses that she got her fear from her grandma's ghost stories scaring her when she was little. Funnily and ironically enough, she's into the paranormal.

Maguro Sasaki

Maguro Sasaki

Character Color: Blue

Voice Actor: Yuuki Ishikari (Japanese), Spike Spencer (English)

Well, the truth is... something's controlling me! I'm so ashamed~. How am I supposed to whisk Takoyaki batter if my body would rather do something else? ★

Another resident of Suzuran, Maguro is the "fashionable" eldest teenage son of Suzuran's local fishmongers. He's a bit of a Deadpan Snarker, and is sometimes even considered to be a bit of an oddball. He attends Suzuran Junior High alongside his friends Ringo and Risukuma. In fact, he's been best friends with Ringo since they were little.

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• The Ace: The Audio Adaptation pretty much describes him as being blessed with good looks, a charming personality, and being beloved by all who know him.
• Art Shift: Like Ringo, his Oh, Crap! sprite features him with rougher outlines.
• Badass Normal:
  • Notable for being one of the few characters who don't explicitly use magic in battle, yet can hold his own against the rest of the cast just fine. In his case, he simply defends himself with his kendama. When one takes his weapon into account, he’s a rather extreme example of this. At least, by the standards of this series.
  • As revealed via the Audio Adaptation, he is quite adept in martial arts as well.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: As an adult.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Partakes in some with Ringo in chapter 6 of Puyo Puyo Tetris 2.
• Big Man on Campus: According to the Audio Adaptation, he’s easily the most popular student at Suzuran Junior High.
• Brown Note: His intense beauty in Chronicle makes people blackout.
• Chick Magnet: It's strongly implied that many a female student at Suzuran Junior High are crushing on him quite hard. In addition, he's one of the few people that Ess tends to be somewhat less aggressive towards.
• Childhood Friends: With Ringo.
• Divergent Character Evolution: He uses Donguri Gaeru's dropset and stats in 7, but receives his own dropset in 20.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Oddly, he had sharp teeth in 7. Those were dropped in subsequent games.
• Even the Guys Want Him: In addition to females, he's implied to have a couple of male admirers here and there as well.
• Eyes Out of Sight: Those bangs of his are always going to conceal his eyes, so we'll never know what Ringo's talking about when she mentioned his handsomeness. It's enforced to the point his Chronicle and Puzzle Pop models don't even have any eyes.
• Family Business: He's the oldest son of Suzuran City's local fishmongers.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: His Adult form's clothing is half gray, half black, split right down the middle. Certain accents on the outfit even reverse the two colors.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: With an actual tuna (though not the kind he takes his name from, as he himself helpfully points out) in Quest's main story mode, after he gets caught up in Zero's experiments with the Mind Swap Light.
• Genre Savvy: Thanks to all the games he plays, he was able to quickly figure out the "progression mechanic" in Chronicle
• Iconic Item: His kendama, with a red Puyo attached to a string.
• Idiot Hair: As a child.
• Improbable Weapon User: Similar to characters like Risukuma and Rulue, Maguro doesn't necessarily use magic to battle. Instead, he uses a puyo-themed kendama rather than magic, science or martial arts.
• Leitmotif: "Charming Gaze".
• Lovable Jock: With how much he excels in sports, he could qualify for this trope.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Within his family, he's the oldest of 5 kids.
• Mellow Fellow: Nowhere near the extent of someone like Sig (who near-exemplifies this trope for rather... 'unique' reasons), but Maguro (compared to Ringo and Risukuma, at least) certainly seems unusually laid-back most of the time for someone who witnesses the odd going-ons of the Puyo universe on a semi-daily basis.
• The Not-Love Interest: Maguro and Ringo have a close, supportive relationship that stems from childhood, yet neither character has shown any sort of romantic inclination to the other, vague Ship Tease moments aside.
• Perpetual Smiler: Save for the few instances where he gets surprised or shocked.
• Punny Name: Maguro ^note Japanese for "Tuna" gets slapped with tuna in his damage animation.
• Purple Is the New Black: His hair color.
• Renaissance Man: Downplayed. He has a lot of hobbies, leading to him having decent knowledge about several areas. His dream in Everyone's dreams coming true!? zig-zags the trope — every time Maguro thinks of a hobby, another Maguro, who is The Ace in said hobby, shows up. This means Maguro dreams of being a more straight example of the trope.
  • The Audio Adaptation makes him into a straighter example of this trope. He’s an expert at martial arts, a Supreme Chef, good with instruments (band drums are said to be a specialty of his), is extremely knowledgeable about games (digital and analog alike) and can even host Japanese tea ceremonies.
  • Drama CD #3 reveals that this was the result of a younger Ringo giving him the idea to fend off his childhood bullies by simply becoming better than them at everything. Following her advice indirectly led to Maguro discovering his passion for acquiring new skills, and, thus, his ridiculous amount of hobbies.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: Maguro stands out among the rest of the cast by being the most "normal" of all characters. Even his spells — kendama techniques — are mundane in comparison (compared to the likes of someone like Risukuma, who at least uses explosive chemicals, or Rulue and Raffina, both of whom use martial arts), but they stand out precisely because of how mundane they are.
• Say It with Hearts: Stars, rather. ★ It makes him sound flamboyant instead of cute.
• Ship Tease: Maguro gets this with both Ringo and Ess.
  • In 20th, Ringo is asked by Risukuma and Amitie just why she isn't affected by Maguro's supposed handsome face, to which she simply replies that she's already seen it enough times that it doesn't affect her anymore. Risukuma believes that after knowing each other for so long, there may just be ANOTHER reason as to why it doesn't affect her...
  • In Tetris, he befriends Ess and is very happy to hear she will miss him when she leaves aboard the Starship Tetra. Jay and Elle tease Ess about liking Maguro and vice versa. It should be noted that he doesn't make any attempt to deny their teasing.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse:
  • According to Ringo, he can make anyone fall in love with him with a single glance. Even boys. (100% Klug-tested.) EVEN FISH. (120% Suketoudara-tested.) Obviously, Maguro feels pretty uncomfortable about this, and it's not helped by Ringo insisting to test this trait of his.
  • Also, a Drama CD track has Ringo reveal that at one point she believed Maguro to be descended from a clan of gorgeous demons. Cue Incubus speculating that he and Succubus are long-lost relatives of Maguro, much to Succubus' annoyance.
  • Another Drama CD track reveals that he was teased as a child because he “looked like a girl” (though it’s heavily implied that the other boys were just jealous of his good looks). It’s another reason why he values Ringo and Risukuma’s friendship so much: it’s because they actually care about him as a person.
  • In Chronicle, the beauty of his face can apparently even render others unconscious, as seen when Ally turns him around to face her and the rest of Arle's party. Once they all get a good look at his face, they all slowly blackout one by one.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Apparently he can understand frogs, since he was able to translate Donguri Gaeru's speech in 20th.
• Supreme Chef: Is noted to be an excellent cook, due to all the cooking he does for his younger siblings.
• Theme Naming: All of his "spells" are names of real-life Kendama tricks. Among his repertoire, he knows the Swing-In, Lightning Drop, (Repeat) Moon Circle, Earth Turn, and Backhand Slip Grip (Special), and counters with the Back Cross Space Walk. He eventually picks up Sidewinder in Tetris.
• The Unreveal: His allegedly very handsome face is never shown. Every time he shows it to another character, he leaves the screen.
• True Companions: Ringo and Risukuma are this to him, even if one ignores all the Ship Tease with him and the former.
• Victory Is Boring: In a manner of speaking. As revealed via the Audio Adaptation, Maguro truly appreciates his talents and all of the good in his life, but he also enjoys the trips he gets to take to Primp, as he doesn't have to feel burdened by his popularity among those who can do what he does, but better.
• Writer on Board: Him going on a long, unprompted rant in 20th, about how he feels that Tabletop RPG Sourcebook scalpers are robbing him of his chance to pass his childhood hobby on to younger children makes a lot more sense once you read tweets of the game's scenario writer stating that she is a passionate Dungeons & Dragons player. Crosses over into Self-Deprecation, since Risukuma, who the rant is directed at, is absolutely terrified by how serious his underclassman is taking the issue and wishes out loud to never relive the experience once Maguro is out of earshot.

Risukuma

Risukuma

Character Color: Yellow

Voice Actor: Kenichi Ono (Japanese), Kyle Hebert (English)

I can see love... love beyond the explosion.

Yet another resident of Suzuran, he is Ringo and Maguro's senior who attends Suzuran Junior High and runs the Suzuran Junior High science club. After an accident in the school's science lab, he apparently became a human-sized squirrel-bear hybrid wearing lab clothes and is now obsessed with love. ...And no, this isn't the weirdest thing about him.

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• Absent-Minded Professor: Just a student, but he's had enough failed inventions and experiments to serve as a Deus ex Machina very frequently.
• Ambiguously Human: His squirrel-bear appearance is apparently a costume, but only Risukuma and Ally (prior to her Laser-Guided Amnesia) know what's under his mascot head. One of the 20th Anniversary Web Manzai had him and Ringo build a Paranormality Detector... and it constantly goes off when Risukuma is around it, with the Manzai ending with Ris destroying the thing by "accident".
• Badass Bookworm: He's one of the most intelligent characters in the series, and can contend with the more powerful individuals in Puyo Puyo.
• Badass Normal: Notable for being one of the few characters who don't explicitly use magic in battle, yet can hold his own against the rest of the cast just fine. In his case, he simply utilizes explosive chemicals rather than magic.
• Battle Butler: As an adult.
• Breaking Old Trends: Up until his debut in 7, the "R" character in the previous two ARS trios were female (Rulue and Raffina).
• Butt-Monkey: In Tetris, several characters try to dissect Risukuma to know what he really is. He narrowly avoids those attempts.
• Crazy-Prepared: Has quite a number of convenient devices within his person, including, for example, contact lens that can cancel the effects of Maguro's tremendous beauty. All of that can only be explained through this trope.
• Creepy Good: His Love Freak attitude scares a lot of the characters he comes across, but he's otherwise a smart scientist who tries to help whenever he can.
• Divergent Character Evolution: He uses Onion Pixie's dropset and stats in 7, but receives his own dropset in 20th.
• Education Through Pyrotechnics: Almost all of his spell animations utilize explosive beakers, indicating that this happens a lot.
• For Science!: Perhaps. It's difficult to tell when his main scientific pursuit (love) is unscientific by default.
• Freak Lab Accident: The science experiment gone wrong before 7 turned him into what he looks like now, though Puyo Tetris debates whether his appearance is actually just a costume. Quest confirms it's a costume (his head goes flying), but doesn't mention what's under the head except that it's "shocking", in Ally's words.
• Good Is Not Nice: He genuinely likes counseling people, but also definitely thinks little of clients with stupid concerns (including even his fellow Suzuran friend Maguro). In 20th, he is not afraid of laying some Brutal Honesty towards Lidelle and her crippling personality when it makes communication between them almost impossible. He even scares her off so that she stops holding the line and wasting his time.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: English, Korean, French, and Italian initially, then adds in Chinese and the Hawaiian expression of "I love you." in Puyo Tetris. Yes, he says "I love you." in all of those languages. This does not carry over to English, where he uses synonyms for love instead.
• Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks: He's pretty much never seen without at least one flask or test tube on his person, though considering how quickly he burns through them (either from using them in battle or them just backfiring on him), it makes sense that he'd carry so many.
• Improbable Weapon User: Uses explosive beakers in battle, unlike the majority of the cast who utilize magic.
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Wears one of these.
• Leitmotif: "Life is an Experiment".
• Love Freak: It's stated that, pre-7's story, a love potion he was working on exploded and made him obsessed with love as a result.
• Machine Monotone: His alternate voice in 20th.
• Mad Scientist: While not evil by any means, he doesn't see a problem with performing potentially dangerous experiments while Ringo and Maguro are around.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His exploding potions are how everyone in 7, including Ecolo, ended up in Amitie's world.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: We don't his know his real name, or even how he truly looks like for that matter. While under the effects of the Spacetime Blender in Quest, he claims his full name is "Purin Ryuuzaki", though that might only be true for whatever alternate dimension or timeline he was being affected by.
• Shipper on Deck: Possibly. Risukuma can apparently sense a mutual attraction between Ringo and Maguro, which makes him happy, but it's unknown if this is because he actually likes the pairing or just him being his usual Love Freak nut.
• The Smart Guy: When together with Ringo and Maguro, he takes up this role.
• Technicolor Science: He's often seen in artwork and attack animations holding flasks of brightly-colored liquids.
• Theme Naming: All his attacks have a love theme to them. His Japanese spells uses different languages for the phrase, "I love you," and his English spells use various synonyms for love, such as Devotion.
• The Unintelligible: Whenever he gets especially riled up (and not necessarily into Angrish), his speech degenerates into absolute nonsense.
• Unstoppable Rage:
  • He's seen rampaging in 7 often and on some occasions in 20th. In 7, it might be due to Ecolo trying to control him.
  • The official website for 20th Anniversary reveals that an invention of his, the "Paranormality Detector", beeped at him. His response was to throw an explosive flask and trash the machine, and have the audacity to pass it off as an accident.
  • This is also embodied in his alternate voice in Puyo Tetris (both languages, no less), to the point where in the English version, his last spell, "Devotion", is nothing more than an angry snarl.
• Younger Than They Look: You'd think he's a teacher at Suzuran Junior High given his outfit and deep voice, but he's actually only a year above Ringo and Maguro (putting him at around 16-17 at the absolute oldest).

Dark Arle

Dark Arle

Character Color: Purple

Voice Actor: Mie Sonozaki

Heheheheh.

The main antagonist of Puyo Puyo 7. While little is known about her, she has Arle's spitting image and orchestrated the flood of Puyo upon Suzuran.

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• Breaking Old Trends: Since the introduction of Dropsets and Chaining Power in Fever, Dark Arle is the first character to have the same Dropset and Chaining Power as another character that is playable in the same game (Arle, mostly because they're technically the same person, except one of them's been possessed), whereas characters with these shared characteristics tend to not be playable at the same time. 20th would follow suit with alternate costume characters, and Champions and Tetris 2 would feature otherwise unrelated characters with the same Dropset.
• The Chessmaster: Relaying it through Klug, she led Ringo along a quest around the world to expand a dimensional rift, with the pretense that it will give the Primp residents means to go home. And she's right; it does lead to Primp. What she didn't reveal is that it also caused a massive flood of Puyo upon her world, and dragged everyone into the rift and trapping nearly everyone between dimensions for good measure.
• Climax Boss: The last battle with her is the last fight in 7 before Ecolo's two fights.
• Demonic Possession: She's under Ecolo's control for most of the story. After ending up in Primp, Arle temporarily breaks free of Ecolo's possession over her and begs Ringo to beat him out of her before she does any more damage.
• Empathy Pet: Parodied; Carbuncle was just enjoying acting dark with her.
• Expy: A clear homage of Doppelganger Arle, to the point that their Leitmotifs are similar.
• Fighting from the Inside: She temporarily breaks free of the possession and begs Ringo to stop her.
• Ghost Memory: She knows how to get her closest friends to do what she asks, and even calls Carbuncle "Kaa-kun" when she's really Ecolo in Arle's body.
• Giggling Villain: What little emotion she shows is mostly comprised of eerie giggling.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: At 6*, she has malicious-looking eye gleams.
• Gotta Get Your Head Together: Before turning into Dark Arle.
• Leitmotif: "Dark Arle's Insanity", which has pieces that resemble Doppelganger Arle's battle theme.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Discussed by Dark Prince in 7.
  "Was that all you used Arle for? Or was there... something else?"
• Mind-Control Eyes: Of the Reflectionless Useless Eyes variety. Though due to the Art Evolution from 7 to 20th, the eyes don't reflect that.
• Obviously Evil: To the point where 7's story mode does not even try to hide the fact she's evil, given her Mind-Control Eyes, her robes, her lower voice pitch, and her personality.
• Paint It Black: Goes with a dark blue color scheme to contrast her normal self.
• Palette Swap:
  • She not only looks identical in all but clothes, but she has the same AI, Chaining Power and Dropset as Arle in 7. Considering it is Arle under Demonic Possession, it is fitting.
  • The robes switch between green (Chibi) and red (Deka) in Daihenshin, with dark blue being her default color. She changes voice tones upon transforming, however.
• Spoiled by the Manual: What happened to Arle? Well, it's stated outright in the manual.
• The Stoic: Not nearly as emotive as Arle (or, for that matter, Ecolo) usually is.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Considering 7 came off the heels of 15th, she goes from protagonist to antagonist.
• Voices Are Mental: As she drops the act in 7. This is averted in Puyo Quest, where she really sounds like Ecolo speaking with her voice.

Ecolo

Ecolo

Character Color: Yellow

Voice Actor: Akira Ishida (Japanese), Spike Spencer (English)

^{Click here to see Alter Ecolo.}

I'm gonna bury all worlds! All universes! And everybody in them! You're all gonna drown in Puyo!! This is gonna be so fun!

A blob-like space-time traveler with an extremely playful disposition. Though powerful, he does things where his whims take him with no real sense of human morals, which more often than not leads to dire consequences. In 20th, he gains an alternate humanoid version named "Alter Ecolo".

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• Aesop Collateral Damage: Playing tricks isn't good, but playing matches is! Then you possess Dark Prince to make your point...
• Affably Evil: Despite his various attempts to tear apart the fabric of the spacetime continuum, he's very goofy and playful at heart, and just wanted to play along with Ringo due to her Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory allowing her to remember him.
• Apocalypse How: Attempts a Universal in 7.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: Both themes in 7.
  • Leitmotif: "Dimensional Flight" is his battle theme in 20th.
• Bad Liar: Ironically, given his spell theme. He's good at withholding information, but when he outright lies, he tends to give himself away with a conspicious giggling fit. (Example: The entire Dark Arle incident).
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Due to the setting's rules on spacetime travel, Ecolo was never able to forge a genuine connection with anyone before the events of Puyo Puyo 7, as everyone he met would immediately forget about him at his next dimension jump. Because of this, Ringo's Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory and her surprisingly jovial treatment of him have caused him to develop a downright unhealthy, but genuinely affectionate attachment to her.
• Beware the Silly Ones: For an Eldritch Abomination, he sure is very playful. But don't forget the fact he's capable of blowing the world up with Puyo.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: He's bereft of normal morality and simply wishes to have fun, but his idea of fun is highly destructive. In 20th he attempts to learn morality after being struck with Easy Amnesia and comes to the conclusion he should possess Dark Prince in order to get everyone to play Puyo, nearly causing a tear in space-time due to the merging of their powers. In Chronicle and Tetris he mostly just wants Ringo's attention.
• Big Bad: In 7 and the final story mode in 20th.
• Big Damn Heroes: At the end of Puyo Tetris with Dark Prince, to Ex.
• Bittersweet Ending: At the end of 20th Anniversary, Ecolo remembers everything; that he's a spacetime traveler with no time or place to call home. He decides to go travelling again, saying that he had fun and that they'll see each other again, although they probably won't remember him.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: According to Eight in Quest, Ecolo's core contains a rare substance called Ecolonium.
• Brown Note: Whenever Ecolo jumps worlds, everyone in the last world he was in (except Ringo and the Dark Prince) instantly forgets he exists (though, it is implied that one can be reminded of Ecolo's existence by re-encountering him or being told he exists). It is stated in Drama CD #3 that this is because Ecolo is a spacetime anomaly that mortal minds cannot comprehend well enough to commit to long-term memory. Ringo's immense intellectual honesty apparently allows her to circumvent this issue and Dark Prince is... the Dark Prince.
• The Chessmaster: Especially when you take into account that he tricked Ringo into practically dooming the world by getting her to play seven Puyo matches that would open a rift in space-time.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: First rule of trying to talk to Ecolo? Don't get close to Ringo when he's nearby.
  • He's antagonistic towards Maguro when he saw him having very close bonding time with Ringo. He even goes as far as calling Maguro a "third wheel pretty boy."
  • Comes up again in Puyo Tetris when Ringo and Tee interrogate him. He completely ignores Tee's questions and only answers Ringo, and even mockingly echoes Tee when he can't take a hint. In Chapter 10, he shows up in Ex's (actually Tee's) dream only because Ringo was there.
• Curtains Match the Window: As Alter Ecolo, if you subtract the pink pupils.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Although he may be a dark creature, he's not really that evil. He's just really playful and wanted to have fun with Ringo.
• Demonic Possession: He's possessed both Arle and Dark Prince on separate occasions and wanted to do the same to Ringo.
• Dissonant Serenity: Always smiling, always playful.
• Divergent Character Evolution: In 7, Ecolo is a clone of Accord in terms of AI, dropset and chaining power, and literally clones other characters (Ringo, Feli and Klug) for animations. Starting with 20th, his dropset and power are unique from Accord and his animations, while still ripped off from other characters (in particular, Ringo, Arle and Amitie), keep Ecolo as himself.
• Dual Boss: With Dark Prince at the end of the last story in 20th.
• Dub Name Change: Unusual Ecolo became Alter Ecolo in Champions.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In 7, Ecolo was slimmer and his blue body was of a darker tone, nearly bordering on black. He also seemed a bit taller as well. His design since then went with the pudgier, blue-colored body.
• Easy Amnesia: Ecolo, due to how dimensional travel works in the franchise, sometimes has trouble remembering past events. For example, he doesn't remember the events of 7 at all in 20th. He nearly forgets his own identity at that!
• Eldritch Abomination: Some kind of sentient space creature that can possess almost anyone effortlessly, can control people at a distance, cannot be remembered by humans for very long, and can rifle through people's memories without a care in the world.
  • Humanoid Abomination: As Alter Ecolo, he takes on a more humanoid form, but has an Off-Model character design and very strange mannerisms.
• The End of the World as We Know It: THREE TIMES! Once in 7 with a Puyo flood that could span across Ringo's reality, again in 20th by tearing apart the fabric of dimensions, and yet again in Chronicle with a pendant that spawned someone else who would've caused the apocalypse instead!
• Exotic Eye Designs: As Alter Ecolo, the pink in his eyes change shape to hearts or stars!
• Final Boss: Of Puyo Puyo 7.
• For the Evulz: Hoo boy, does this guy have one heck of a track record. He's nearly caused an apocalypse in almost every game he's been in!
• The Gadfly: In the English version of Puyo Puyo Tetris, his spells consist of him mocking his opponent ("You cheater!", "You liar!", "What a fraud!", "You trickster!" and "Just an imitation!".)
• Giggling Villain: Comes naturally when you've got a Japanese voice like Ishida.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He's the one who gave Ally the pendant that spawned Rafisol in Chronicle.
• Humanity Ensues: As Alter Ecolo. The Audio Adaptation implies that it is his attempt to solve his Interspecies Romance with Ringo.
• Inconsistent Spelling: A particularly egregious example. There's been much dispute whether it's "Ekoro" (a straight romanization), "Ecolo" (from the fan translations), or "Ecoro" (on official merchandise). The official English localization of Puyo Puyo Tetris puts it to rest using the Ecolo spelling.
• It Amused Me: His justification for his actions in 7 and Chronicle. Due to his Blue-and-Orange Morality, he genuinely does not seem to grasp why world-ending consequences should deter him from doing whatever he feels like doing.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: About 75% of everything he does. Not that he ever regrets the unintended consequences of his half-baked ideas. Special mention to his his role in Puyo Puyo Chronicle: He legit had no idea what exactly the Pendant of Loowa would do when he gave it to Ally. He just wanted to see Ringo's reaction to the inevitable chaos (and is very satisfied with what he gets.)
• Knight of Cerebus:
  • Not counting Madou Monogatari or spin-offs, Ecolo, while admittedly not without goofy moments, greatly contrasts earlier Final Bosses in the series such as Dark Prince (who is Obliviously Evil) or Possessed Klug (who is not taken seriously) by being a recurring, very dangerous antagonist, with the world often being at stake due to his actions.
  • In 7, he tried to bury Ringo's reality in Puyos. He seems to have mellowed out somewhat in future installments, though he still has a rather omnicidal streak, being the catalyst to three near-apocalypses.
• Large Ham: As Alter Ecolo.
• Living MacGuffin: In 20th, initially set up as a harmless being until he collaborates with the Dark Prince.
• Living Shadow: Character dialogue often has him called a "jetblack shadow", and Amitie's narration in The Girl of Love describes him as looking like a mass of shadows floating mid-air.
• Man Behind the Man: Behind Dark Arle, as the one taking control of Arle from the beginning of 7.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Well, he doesn't really destroy anything big, but he threatened to do that in 7, and caused a rift in space when he possessed Dark Prince in 20th. The latter case was because his definition of fun doesn't draw the line between "harmless" and "apocalyptic".
• Mind Screw: Along with stealing animations from Ringo, Feli, and Klug, (plus Arle and Amitie's in 20th Anniversary), Alter Ecolo is full of this. For instance, one of Alter Ecolo's animations has him blasting into the sky like a rocket.
• Motor Mouth: His English Alt. Voice in Puyo Tetris makes him sound like he jumped straight out of the Speed Racer dub.
• Mr. Exposition: In Tetris, he tells Ringo the means to reach the Keeper of Dimensions, and also gives Ex an explanation about the dream world.
• The Nicknamer: Justified in that he knows no one's names except for Ringo's. Some examples include "Ms. Slappy Tail" (Draco), "Miss Hime Cut" (Feli), and "Ms. Hatty Pointington" (Witch). In Puyo Tetris 2, he gives the nickname "Stairs" to Squares in Chapter EX.
• No Biological Sex: Puyo Quest does not register Ecolo to neither Girls or Boys combination sets, implying this trope is in effect. While he uses the first-person-pronoun "boku", the use of this word has been common among middle-school girls in Japan since the late 90s and is thus not to be understood as gender-indicative, especially for a play-minded character like Ecolo. That said, Ringo generally seems to read Ecolo as a "boy", making chocolate for him as well as Maguro and Risukuma on Valentine's day (which is something Japanese girls generally only do for boys. The English official translation refers to him with male pronouns. Overlaps with Non-Human Non-Binary since he is a humanoid shadowy-blob monster.
• Not Me This Time: Like with Dark Prince, he's not the cause of the Puyo and Tetris worlds clashing. The fact that he "runs away" as soon as he's spotted by Ringo doesn't help matters, but in the end, he ends up passing it off as hide-and-seek anyway. Once he's finally caught and defeated, however, he finally reveals the true culprit to be someone with similar powers to his: the Keeper of Dimensions, and gives a hint that Ringo and co. need the power of Puyo and Tetris and need to be much stronger to warp to the edge of space-time and meet him.
• Obviously Evil: Dub-only, but Ecolo seems to have this opinion of himself. When Ex completely trusts his explanation of the dream world, Ecolo wonders if Ex knows he's not exactly trustworthy. (In Japanese, Ecolo instead argues to himself that he didn't technically lie, just failed to give all details.)
• Odd Friendship: Ecolo treats Ex way better than everyone else sans Ringo. Furthermore, in the Tetris games, where Ex is involved, Ecolo is much more nice than in his other appearances, and never does anything villainous. The fact both Ecolo and Ex are loners in space-time might make this friendship less odd.
• "Oh, Crap!" Smile: In 20th when he realizes he has no way of controlling the Dark Prince's power and that the demon lord is going to explode due to Ecolo's possession attempt.
• Omnicidal Maniac: In 7. Not so much in 20th, where he's more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Only Friend: Ringo is one for him.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Ecolo is an extraterrestrial space-time being that doesn't have any defined sexual characteristics. Even with having Alter Ecolo as a humanoid form, that form is quite androgynous.
• Outside-Genre Foe: More so in 7, as compared to the likes of Dark Prince, Doppelganger Arle, Evil Popoi and Possessed Klug before him, Ecolo doesn't fit the mold of "Fantasy villains" as his powers and appearance singlehandedly turns his debut game's climax into a Cosmic Horror Reveal.
• Perpetual Smiler: And is always drooling, too.
• Sad Clown: Has shades of this. He claims to be completely comfortable with his lot in life as an incomprehensible spacetime abomination, but his interactions with characters he relates to in one way or another, such as Ringo, Ex or Squares, imply that a lot of his usual childish demeanor and tendency to cause chaos is just his way of coping with his inability to be truly understood by others or form lasting relationships.
• Sdrawkcab Speech: His alternate voice in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 reverses his voice clips.
• Shapeshifting: In 7, he takes on Ringo's form in his regular chain animations. He also has a unique Transformation animation where black particles come together and morph into another character depending on the mode he's going into, as opposed to being shrouded in light.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: He has this dynamic with Seo in Quest, mostly because she very much wants him dead, and he finds her to be an infuriatingly annoying buzzkill who loves to sabotage his fun.
• Stalker with a Crush: Goes places just to get a chance to play with Ringo, including invading dreams.
• Surprise Party: Throws a rather elaborate "birthday party" for Ringo together with Maguro, Risukuma and Arle in Quest's 7th anniversary event, despite everyone in the party (sans Arle) knowing that it's not actually Ringo's birthday.
• Technicolor Eyes: Alter Ecolo's eyes are sky blue with pink bubbles for pupils. The pupils aren't even static either.
• Terms of Endangerment: In Japanese, he adds "-chan" to Arle and Ringo's names (though he drops it for Arle after 7) and generally calls the Dark Prince "Ojii-san", just to tease him. In the first fantranslation he uses "Arley" and "Ringie" for his targets, and "Pops" for Dark Prince, while the official localization drops all of this and newer fantranslations drop the use of "-chan".
• Theme Naming: With his spells. "Liar!", "Swindle!", "Fake Speech!", "Lovely Trick!", and "Imitation!" are centered around deceit and lies. The English localization translates these as him name-calling his opponent with declarations: "You cheater!", "You liar!", "What a fraud!", "You trickster!", and "Just an imitation!"
• Took a Level in Kindness: By a given level of kindness, anyhow. He's certainly less keen on destroying the world at the drop of a Puyo, at least.
  • The Easy Amnesia he got in 20th turned Ecolo from someone who outright wanted to bury Ringo's reality with Puyos just because, into someone who has a very warped idea of having fun.
  • He is noticeably nicer in Puyo Puyo Tetris and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 to Ex. May be justified given both are in similar positions: loners in space-time.
• Trying Not to Cry: His voice cracks at the end of 20th Anniversary as he says his goodbyes.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He just wants to have fun, but his way of achieving that gets pretty destructive... Such as in 20th Anniversary, where he possesses Dark Prince to harness his power, causing a rip in dimensions.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: He does not believe in "Love" as a concept separate from other kinds of attachment and thinks humanity just came up with the words to make themselves feel better about selfish attractions. That said, he still has high respect for the tenacity of a Love Freak such as Ally.
• Willfully Weak: In Tetris 2, he deliberately gets himself corrupted by Marle so that Ringo would get concerned and decide to save him. It works... until she realizes he's only been playing along.
• The Worf Effect: Not even he was immune to Marle's corruptive influence in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2. However, this is subverted in that, as mentioned above, he deliberately allowed himself to get corrupted just so he could get Ringo to save him. Ringo was... not pleased, to say the least.