Main Characters | Forest of the Greats
Members of the Japan team
An organization of righteous Returners who drive out their evil counterparts for the world peace. The Forest of Greats was not created because it brought together those who returned with great abilities, but because its members have accomplished great things in their past life.
It has members all over the world.
After the Sinners Arc, there’re more members of the Forest of Greats revealed. Due to spoiler reason, they’re put in the Neo Forest of Greats section.
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Japan Team
John von Neumann
John von Neumann
”Entrust your life to me for a little while. Just with that, we can gain time. I, John von Neumann, will let you have a taste of a little bit of talent.”
- Incarnation: John von Neumann
The leader of the Forest of the Greats, a Returner organization that seeks to eliminate Sinner-type Returners and further global peace. She's one of the five founding members of the group and became its leader after the death of their first leader, Seiya Senji.
She is the reincarnation of John von Neumann, the famous Hungarian-American mathematician considered the father of the modern computer.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Her talent, which is based on superhuman mental and calculation abilities that border on predicting the future, allows her to give accurate instructions to others during a fight about the next movements of an enemy and how to move to dodge them with enough information.
- Big Good: As she leads the Forest where our protagonists belongs to, she’s this in the story.
- Broken Tears: She is shown crying when she tells Newton about the Forest’s new ideal because she is partially aware and trying to resist Nightingale's control.
- Damsel in Distress: She’s left defenseless in rare times she regains her consciousness under Nightingale’s brainwashing.
- Exotic Eye Designs
- Genius Cripple: Despite being bound to the wheelchair, she has undisputed intelligence and unparalleled hacking ability, which can turn the table of a battle in mere seconds.
- Hackette: Neumann is an adorable girl, and her hacking ability is broken. She is able to crack the security of multiple agencies worldwide, partially replacing all satellite footage with fake footage without anyone being able to pinpoint the source of the hacking, not even secret military agencies. She later easily broke through their firewalls and other security as she hacked screens all over the world to project her message to all mankind, addressing all countries in multiple languages in real time.
- Horned Humanoid: Has one horn on the right side of her head.
- The Leader: Of Forest of the Greats due to her supernatural intelligence and strategic mind.
- Prescience by Analysis: Neumann's talent is essentially the calculation abilities to easily convert all the variables of an action into numbers/data. As such, she can use calculations to predict the most likely "futures" and their probabilities.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Those red eyes show that she is not someone to be joked with.
- The Stoic: Usually emotionless and calculative on her actions and words. She is also blunt on her tone to others and is using predictability scoring when guiding the other Returners.
- The Strategist: With such undeniable analytical prediction capacity, she uses it to guide the other members of the Great, collects information of the enemies and gives them reliable strategies.
- Tomato in the Mirror: She is the one who ignited the war between the Greats and Sinners, not the Sinners themselves. Though to be fair, she doesn’t mean to do it at all; Nightingale is to be blamed.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Completely unexpected for a strategist, but Neumann is totally bad at understanding symbols. Einstein makes use of this trait to get away from a brainwashed Neumann's eyes while seeking for help.
Nightingale (Spoiler unmarked)
Nightingale
- Incarnation: Florence NightingaleTalent: Angel of Comfort; Crimea's Red Shadow
Neumann’s assistant and The Medic of Forest of the Greats. She’s actually the mastermind behind the Great’s antagonization towards the Sinners, and reveals her true intention after Kou is killed - conquering the world.
She is the reincarnation of Florence Nightingale, an English social reformer, statistician, and the founder of modern nursing.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first, she seems like the typical Innocent Fanservice Medic sidekick of Neumann, and has no prominent role at all. Latter it’s revealed that she brainwashed Neumann and members of Great for her own sake, and started conquering the world using them.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Prior to Newton‘s defiance, she still makes herself look like Neumann’s assistant instead of the actual mastermind that brainwashed her. She throws the act away after that.
- Evil All Along
- Eyes Out of Sight: Her bangs always covers her eyes. It just adds more to her mysterious motif as a greater-scope villain.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The actual Nightingale in history is truly an angel. Her reincarnation here is that of a demon.
- Hospital Hottie: Dresses as a nurse, with the tight dress emphasize her big busts.
- Manipulative Bitch: Nightingale uses her talents to control the Forest of the Greats' members who are above her influence to go against Kouu and his team in order to eliminate the threat, which results in many of the Returner’s deaths. She also stood behind the fight between Da Vinci and Kouu - in a word, she is the cause of Vinci's death, Kouu's grave injury and the foundation of Sinners.
- The Medic: Serves as one for the Great, as her Angel of Comfort talent allows her to heal every wound and even recover the patient both mentally and physically.
- Mind Manipulation: Her Crimea's Red Shadow talent allows her to control the mind and action of those she has healed. Since it doesn’t affect their nature or personality, no one can realize the change.
- The Quiet One: She rarely talks, and mostly uses Neumann as her voice. But when she does talk more, things take a turn for worse.
- Walking Spoiler: Solely talking about her will reveal the latter half of the manga and the core of many problems in the past.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
- Incarnation: Albert EinsteinTalent: Space Transfer
One of the five founding members of the group, a strict and very suspicion person who has almost no trust to new member like Touya.
She is the reincarnation of Albert Einstein, a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics).
- A-Cup Angst: When Yagyū tells her she has nothing but talent and big mouth, she also adds a comment about her extremely flat chess. Einstein goes into a tranquil murderous rage.
- An Arm and a Leg: During her encounter with brainwashed Newton, she has her right leg crushed and is forced to cut it in order to escape.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite beating Newton up all the time, Newton is very precious to her. When he tries to sacrifice himself so that Einstein can run away when they encounter Pol Pot and Hitler, Einstein decides to stay back and protect him instead.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: The dynamic between Einstein and Newton revolves around punching, beating, and protecting each other in dangerous situations with their life.
- Teleportation: By sticking out her tongue, Einstein can transfer herself from one point in space to the other by switching the two spaces in less than a second; to anywhere on the planet. If needed, she can carry several people with her as long as they're close enough to her when she uses her ability. She can use this offensively by only transferring a portion of the enemy's body. However, she can only teleport to a place she has been to and has had its spatial information "cataloged" by her personally. If this space is destroyed or sufficiently damaged, Einstein will stop being able to transfer there.
- Tsundere: Newton assumes that she is one - he‘s not wrong. She is rude but kind, and always release her anger about something by beating up her companion Newton.
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
- Incarnation: Isaac NewtonTalent: Fruit of Gravity
One of the main members of the Japan team. Despite being friendly, he's a bit of an oddball and usually gets on his partner Einstein's nerves.
He is the reincarnation of Isaac Newton, who is considered one of the most important scientists in history. During his lifetime Newton developed the theory of gravity, the laws of motion (which became the basis for physics), a new type of mathematics called calculus, and made breakthroughs in the area of optics such as the reflecting telescope.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: The dynamic between Einstein and Newton revolves around punching, beating, and protecting each other in dangerous situations with their life.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Succumbed under Nightingale’s hidden talent, he was manipulated into trying to kill Einstein with his gravity field. He somehow regained his consciousness in it but only for a while. After that, the silhouette of Einstein help him resist Nightingale for enough time to give out a Defiant to the End quote.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While he seems like a comic relief, he is pretty strong physically (enough to send Pol Pot skidding a few feet away with a kick), even when not using his talent. When he does use it? Watch out for holes on the ground, collapsing buildings and your bones, friend.
- Defiant to the End: Before getting curbstomped and fully brainwashed again, Newton tries to attack Nightingale and says that by her immoral actions, she has made herself the enemy of the world.
- Genki Guy: Talkative, easygoing and very childish compared to other members of the Great.
- Gravity Master: By activating his talent, Newton can create any number of apples and then use these to manipulate gravity up to four meters around the active apple. This is used to force people to their knees or to crush things. If pushed into a corner, Newton can use his gravitational fields to twist space around himself as a defense, though it's an imperfect technique that only stops attacks partially.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Tried multiple times but somehow is stopped in time or survives all, shown best in Battle of the Sinners arc:
- In order to protect Einstein when they encounter two dangerous Sinners, Newton makes himself a decoy so Einstein can run away, but fail because of Hitler's ability Mastermind - which can see almost everything around him.
- After getting tricked by Hitler's plan and defeated, he tries to sacrifice himself and let Einstein run away (again), but Einstein decides to defend him, which promptly angers Newton.
- I Will Wait for You: During his confrontation with Einstein while being brainwashed, he temporarily regains his consciousness and lets her escape. When she tells him she will return to save him, he says this trope word by word, with a “but...”.
- Non-Human Head: Has an apple as his head.
What fell into Newton’s head when he discovered gravity, anyway?
Hiroshi Funasaka
Hiroshi Funasaka
- Incarnation: Hiroshi FunasakaTalent: Immortal Soldier
As a Perfect Returner, Hiroshi has lost all his memories prior to becoming a Returner. While initially happy that he could use his talent for the greater good, Hiroshi eventually grew jaded and bored by conflict.
The second person to know about Senji Touya's talent.
- Hammerspace: His talent also enables him to make any of the weapons an infantry soldier like him would use, such as rifles, submachine guns or grenades; appear out of thin air.
- Healing Factor: Hiroshi is an immortal soldier thanks to his self-regeneration. He can heal from fatal injuries such as lost limbs, his head being burned until the skull is left or large holes in his body in seconds. However, since this power depends on his stamina, he will be unable to regenerate if he's too exhausted.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: As long as he is capable of regenerating, there’s nothing that can stop him.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran
Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Click here to see her full face
- Incarnation: Pablo PicassoTalent: Time
One of the founding members of Forest of the Greats. She is always seen wearing a mask but in the flashback of Kouu, she is shown to be a little girl.
She is the reincarnation of Pablo Picasso, the most famous, influential and important painter of the 20th century.
- Cheerful Child: She’s generally pretty innocent and cheerful.
- The Faceless: In the current time, Picasso is never shown without her weird mask and her face is only revealed through flashbacks.
- Waif Prophet: She is a little girl with the ability to predict future (possibility 83%) and tell them through very weird artworks.
Hans Driesch
Hans Driesch
- Incarnation: Hans Adolf Eduard DrieschTalent: Replicator
He is the reincarnation of Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch, a German biologist and philosopher from Bad Kreuznach. He is credited with performing the first animal 'cloning' in the 1880s.
- The Blank: In his Returner form, he has no prominent facial features. That said, he still has eyes.
- Eyes Always Shut: His status as The Blank may make you think he doesn’t have eyes; He actually does. It’s just that he closes them all the time, and only opens them in some panels.
- Me's a Crowd: Though individually weak, Driesch carries with him several test tubes on his shoulder. By breaking these tubes Driesch can instantly produce clones of himself, and each clone comes with more test tubes. Driesch uses his countless amount of clones as cannon fodder to overwhelm an enemy through numbers or as human shields to protect his allies.
Da Vinci (Spoiler Warnings)
Da Vinci - Senji Seiya
”This is why I collect talents. What I want to become isn't a "Great". I want to become a big brother that won't bring shame to my own younger brother.”
Universal Genius
- Incarnation: Leonardo da VinciTalent: Universal Vessel
The former leader and founder of Forest of the Greats, who was killed by Kouu years ago. Unbeknownst to Touya, his younger brother, Da Vinci was a Perfect Returner who gained his talent using a Branch of Reincarnation.
He is the reincarnation of Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian polymath who embodied the ideal of the "Renaissance Man" with his boundless curiosity and talent.
- The Ace: Basically, he can do anything you throw in his face, and with his Talent he can copy almost every other Talents there is - even the most story-breaker one - making him one of the strongest Returners ever exist.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: After Touya had been attacked by evil Returners, Da Vinci, whose mind was being controlled by Nightingale at the time, commanded his members to kill all of them and created a internal turmoil.
- Cool Big Bro: Used to be one for Touya, until he unintentionally hurt his younger brother.
- Dying as Yourself: As Kouu impaled him, he snapped back from the brainwashing and talked to Kouu one last time before succumbing to his injury.
- Expy: Of Romani Archaman from Fate/Grand Order. They both are Renaissance Man loved by everyone, have light-colored hair tied into a ponytail, and what Da Vinci wears looks awfully similar to Romani’s Chaldea uniform. Coincidentally, he is the reincarnation of Leonardo da Vinci, whose Servant version is Romani’s closest acquaintance.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Despite being able to copy all Talents, he needs to train and develop the talents he learns or else this will happen.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Kouu killed him by stabbing his hand through his stomach.
- Last-Name Basis: Usually referred to as Da Vinci instead of Leonardo, even though it just means "from Vinci" and not a name.
- Martial Arts Staff: Wields one as his weapon when friendly sparing with Kouu.
- Master of Illusion: He learned The Talent of Deceit from the modern magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, which he used to hide his and his friends' Returner petals from regular humans.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: One will know something is wrong for a person like him to order his own members to kill all villain Returners just because his younger brother was attacked by an evil one of them. Turns out he was under Nightingale's manipulation at the time.
- Power Copying: “Copying” is not much of a right word, more like “Studying”. Universal Vessel is the ability allows Da Vinci to learn and use all talents effectively, which makes him the student of multiple Returners, including all other founders of the Forest of the Greats. Of course, he still needs to train and develop the talents he learns.
- Posthumous Character: He is dead for a long time under Kouu’s hand, and only appears through flashbacks.
- Walking Spoiler: His very existence spoils out a big portion of the plot, and that our protagonist used to have such a badass big bro.
Members outside Japan
The expedition team that normally work outside Japan, but was called to Japan for the confrontation with Kouu and his Sinner army.
Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi
Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi
”Hmph. Don’t you think it really sets you back if you keep messing around with men like that? Musashi.”
- Incarnation: Yagyū Jūbei MitsuyoshiTalent: The Extremes of an Inch
- Blood from the Mouth: Cough up in the fight with Berserk Haito due to her old wounds.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Her talent basically enhances her vision, making her able to see the world in slowmotion. Additionally, she can precisely perceive the range of space and distance her opponent can reach, and dodge it as fast as possible.
- Dark and Troubled Past: We only see a glimpse of it, where a little Yagyū was crying, holding her bloody eye, swearing revenge at someone in a devastating dojo, with two people who looked like her brother and father beaten up.
- Deadpan Snarker: She insults Einstein with a completely indifferent face.
- Does Not Like Men
- Eyepatch of Power: Wears the signature eyepatch. When she takes it off, her talent is activated.
- Fiery Redhead: In colored pages, her hair is painted red.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She is not the nicest people around, but at least she actually cares for Haito.
- Master Swordswoman: Being Haito’s rival, her talent must be above average. She proves it fully by going hand-by-hand with a berserk Haito.
Erwin Schrodinger
Erwin Schrodinger
”Fade away now, Sinner. For I am going to negate all possible chances of your survival.”
- Incarnation: Erwin SchrodingerTalent: Selector/The Cat Chooser
A Returner transmigrated from an unknown human/cat-person. He was a member of Big Three of Physics (Schrödinger, Maxwell, Laplace) before joining the Forest of the Greats.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Dresses in a suit with two cat patterns on the chest pockets.
- Cat Folk: Has a humanoid body and a cat head. He dresses up in a nice suit and wears gloves all the time, so it’s unknown if beneath all the cloths, he is human or furry.
- Cool Cat: Nothing cooler than a cat who wears suit, wields gun and manipulates probability.
- One-Hit Kill: Due to his talent, he can choose a future where the fight ends quickly - and he did that.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The only way to kill him is to reduce his chance of surviving to the absolute 0%, which is a near impossible deed. Somehow, Pol Pot managed.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: By looking at all the possible outcomes of an event through parallel worlds, Schrödinger has the freedom to choose the desired result to benefit himself. With that said, as long as there is a single possibility of victory, Schrödinger can select that outcome and win. Thus he can only be defeated if he has a 0% chance of winning.
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin
”In order to evolve myself I have gained my talent, "Theory of Evolution". Be eliminated by history once more!! You bunch of inferior subspecies!”
- Incarnation: Charles DarwinTalent: Theory of Evolution
A Returner transmigrated to an unknown old man.
He is the reincarnation of Charles Robert Darwin, the English naturalist and biologist famous for his contributions to human understanding of evolution.
- Cool Old Guy: An old man who can transform his body into any creature exists? 'Cool' sure is an understatement.
- Logical Weakness: Darwin's talent allows him to adapt to the fight by changing his body to manifest the characteristics of any creature that exists in the living world. So when he's facing an ability that not a single natural creature could survive against, there isn't much he's able to do.
- Shapeshifting: Darwin's talent allows him to transform any part of his body to adopt the traits of any existing creature. This goes from the strength and claws of large carnivores to the wings and compound eyes of insects. The image above only portrays one of the super-hybrid form he can take.
Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
”I don't want to listen to any commands as well. Because I am the strongest strategist myself.”
- Incarnation: Bobby Fischer
He is the reincarnation of the American chess grandmaster and world chess champion Robert James Fischer, also known as Bobby Fischer.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: His talent allows Bobby to think of every tactic there is and let him play the entire battlefield as if it were a chessboard. Additionally, the chess pieces he summons react to Bobby's thoughts instantaneously and share their field of vision with him, concluded into very accurate strategies.
- Chess Motifs: As foreseen for a chess player, his appearance and talent shouts only one thing: chess! When he uses his talent, he takes the place of the King piece to show that he rules the chessboard.
- Cool Crown: Wears a small one on his head, ‘cause he’s the King.
- Duality Motif: His hair, clothes and the marks on his face are in black and white color.
- Facial Markings: The weird rectangle marks under his eyes.
- Fatal Flaw: Overconfidence. He takes great pride in his strategic ability and it’s not all talk, but his dismissal of Neumann's plan against Kouu's army leads to one unfortunate ending for him.
- Oh, Crap!: When Pol Pot rips his "Queen" into pieces, the look on his face
only spells "Shit!". - Sharp-Dressed Man: A three-piece suit with tailcoat, and dual color to boost.
- Summon Magic: The talent also allows Bobby to summon mighty chess pieces as warriors and use them to their full potential. He has access to the entire white side of a chess match, with himself acting as the King. However, the number and movement of his regular pieces are programmed from the start and he cannot resummon them in a fight once they are lost.
- Besides regular pieces, he can summon irregular one that do not follow the ordinary rules of chess as well. These pieces include the Nightrider, the Grasshopper, the Buffalo and the Cardinal. While they are his strongest pieces, he can only summon them after the regular pieces have been destroyed.
Simo Häyhä
Simo Häyhä
Click here to see her full face
- Incarnation: Simo HäyhäTalent: White Death
She is the reincarnation of Simo Häyhä. To put it simply, he’s a Finnish man titled the deadliest individual rifleman in military history, who racked up at least 500 kills-estimate.
- BFG: The sniffle she carries is as tall as herself.
- Cold Sniper: One of the most preternaturally skilled marksmen in the series and has a calm, quiet personality. Her Pocket Dimension takes this literally with perpetual snowfall.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Inside her left eye is what looks like a snipe mark.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Simo possesses excellent eyesight and incredible marksmanship, being able to notice the flash of Whitman's gun hundreds of meters away, calculate the trajectory of his bullet and consistently fire her own bullet to shoot it down before it reaches her teammates.
- Pocket Dimension: Simo is able to drag her target to her own one by catching their image on her scope. Her pocket dimension is a seemingly endless white plain that is perpetually snowing, which makes it harder to see and muffle sounds. Time flows faster in the dimension than in the outside, allowing Simo and her opponent to have a one-on-one duel without outside interference.
- Samus Is a Girl: Many people thought Simo was a man at first, because she covers her whole body all the time with a big ass coat and rarely ever talks.
Jean-Henri Fabre
Jean-Henri Fabre
- Incarnation: Jean-Henri Casimir FabreTalent: Observer
- Invisibility: Observer is an absolute stealth talent based on Fabre's ability to observe insects and wildlife without disturbing them, it completely hides Fabre's looks, smell, sounds, and presence, rendering him practically undetectable. This talent is always active, even when he died.
- Visible Invisibility: The readers can only see him thanks to the black, smoky outlines.
- Master Poisoner: Fabre takes advantage of his invisibility in a fight to stab his enemies in the back with a needle injector filled with insecticidal preservatives, which will kill any living thing in an instant.
The Wright Sisters
The Wright Sisters
- Incarnation: The Wright BrothersTalent: Human Flight
- Always Identical Twins: Downplayed, as they are not fully identical.
- Boom, Headshot!: How they died. With one-shot for both sisters.
- Dark and Troubled Past: In this extra page◊, while sitting on top of a tower to observe the sunset, the older sister suddenly recalls that she was in a "dark and scary place" long ago, and that she gets scared thinking about how night is falling. But then she stands up and at the bottom page◊, it said "We will escape from that past".
- Flight: Their talent, Human Flight, allows them to fly using their arms turning one side into bird-like wings and the other side arms touching each other.
