Characters appearing in Release the Spyce
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Tsukikage
Momo Minamoto
Voiced by: Yukari Anzai (Japanese), Juliet Simmons (English)
A cheerful and energetic second-year student at Sorasaki High School. She always looked up to her father, who was a policeman, and when he was killed in the line of duty she inherited his desire to protect their city. She has the strange ability to gauge anyone's physical or emotional condition by licking them. In Tsukikage, she is Yuki's apprentice and her codename is Momochi.
- Alliterative Name: Momo Minamoto.
- Ambiguously Lesbian: The anime never states that Momo's feelings towards Yuki are romantic in nature, but it does a good job making it look like they are. At the start of the series she acted like a stereotypical "smitten teenage girl" when talking about her, after joining Tsukikage she is always thinking that she wants to make her proud, and she blushed when they had their Indirect Kiss in episode 5.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Tsukikage had to go on a mission on her birthday. Her friends throw a party for her as soon as the mission is over.
- Determinator: Deconstructed because her determination to help Tsukikage as much as possible causes her to make impulsive decisions that put their missions in risk, as well as strain her body by training too much. Reconstructed when she learns to work as team and listen to the instructions of her mentor, which helps her control her emotions and be more efficient as a spy.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father was a policeman who died in service. Tendou implies in the last episode that Moryo was involved in his death, but Momo wasn't interested in listening to her mind games, so whether or not that was true isn't revealed.
- The Sixth Ranger: As the newest member of Tsukikage, she's technically this. By the finale, she's promoted to The Hero with Yuki's retirement.
- Super-Senses: Many characters remark on how talented Momo's nose and tongue are, but that's a big Understatement. She can identify health problems the other girls are having by licking them.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She ends up worrying Yuki several times due to forgetting her orders, such as leaving her post before the mission was finished, or neglecting them, such as when she fought against a drug lord instead of trying to avoid fighting at all costs as ordered to.
Yuki Hanzomon
Voiced by: Manami Numakura (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)
A serious and levelheaded third-year student at Sorasaki High School. She is the current leader of Tsukikage, and she is Momo's senpai not only in Tsukikage but also at school. Although she can stern with Momo, she also cares about her apprentice and wants her to realize her potential. She appears to be missing an eye. Her codename is Hanzo.
- Anger Born of Worry: She slaps Momo in Episode 8 after Momo fights the Nirai Kanai leader, worried that she had gone off on her own and had almost gotten herself killed despite the fact that Momo emerged victorious. In Episode 9 she reveals to Momo that she watched her own mentor die in a similar situation which has left her traumatized.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Her training regime on Momo is rather strict, as seen in episode 2. However, all of this was so that Momo would have the skills needed to perform her duties for Tsukikage.
- Feeling Their Age: In Episode 8 she realizes that her Spyce is beginning to wear off sooner, meaning she's starting to age out of Tsukikage.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a prominent scar on her face. She got it in a fight with Tendou, in the same mission where Nagaho was killed.
- Handicapped Badass: Losing an eye doesn't seem to slow her down at all. Subverted when it's revealed her eye is fine, in spite of her almost never opening it.
- The Leader: Of the mastermind type. She plans most of Tsukikage's missions.
- Not So Stoic: Even she can't keep calm when her friends are in danger. When she sees Momo being attacked by an enemy, her old personality resurfaces.
- Retired Badass: At the end, due to the fact that Spyce is becoming less effective for her, she decides it's time for her to retire. However, unlike Katrina, she instead chooses to have her memory of Tsukikage wiped so that she can live a normal life and so that Momo can step out of her shadow. However, the post-credit scene strongly implies that Yuki has retained her memories somehow.
- Rugged Scar: Her right eye has a scar from a battle with Sparrow Woman a few years back. It's mostly kept closed, but later it appears the eye was fine despite the cut she received.
- The Stoic: She is very hard to read because she rarely changes her facial expressions. She wasn't always like that, but the death of her mentor affected her very deeply.
Mei Yachiyo
Voiced by: Aya Suzaki (Japanese), Cat Thomas (English)
A cheerful and carefree second-year at Sorasaki High School. In battle, she and her apprentice Fu utilize speed and thrown weapons to fight. In her spare time she plays the guitar on street corners, not only for money but also to gather information. Her codename is Chiyome.
- Ambiguously Lesbian: Episode 4 is dedicated to show how close Mei and Fu are without ever flat-out stating they are a lesbian couple. The dreamy montages, as well as their fight and the recovery of their relationship during the episode, have all the narrative beats of a love story.
- Bomb Throwing Anarchist: While acting as a Fake Defector she pretends to have this mentality, claiming she joined Tsukikage and then Moryo because of a love for chaos instead of any desire to protect anyone or anything. That being said, it's clear that she was enjoying her role.
- Fake Defector: She pretends to be The Mole, but is actually this. She pretended to betray Tsukikage in a plan to gather all of Moryou's members and supporters together, so that they could be taken out all at once. It was Katrina's idea, and she was the only one besides Mei herself who was in on it.
- The Lancer: Her cheery and carefree attitude contrasts strongly with Yuki.
- Like an Old Married Couple: She is living together with Fu. The way Fu welcomes her when she arrives and criticizes her for her self-inflicted Perpetual Poverty really feel like a married couple routine, which doesn't go unnoticed by the other members of Tsukikage.
- Perpetual Poverty: She's usually broke since she spends all of her money on snacks.
- Psycho Lesbian: After her reveal as a spy she sees Fu as war plunder instead of a person and her comments at the end of Episode 10 suggest some very disturbing things. Subverted in that the "psycho" part was all an act.
- Super-Speed: Her claim to fame in Tsukikage. The test for Momo to be admitted into Tsukikage was to catch Mei in a game of tag.
Fu Sagami
Voiced by: Akane Fujita (Japanese), Christina Kelly (English)
A proud and boisterous first-year at Sorasaki High School. She is Mei's apprentice, and is prone to jealousy whenever other people act close with her senpai. She works at a maid cafe in order to support her family. Her codename is Fuma.
- Ambiguously Lesbian: Her undisguised jealous towards Momo getting close to Mei was already making her look like a possessive girlfriend before the anime showed how she and Mei were Like an Old Married Couple. Episode 4 certainly feels like an attempt to see how far one can go with the "it's like they are married" act without the characters explicitly becoming a couple.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Her reaction when Mei reveals herself to be The Mole.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She doesn't like that Momo got Mei's attention so fast and doesn't hide it.
- Like an Old Married Couple: With Mei. The two of them even live together. They split the domestic chores, Fu is frequently nagging Mei for spending too much of their money with small things, and they somehow manage to take discussions about their jobs as spies to a personal (and domestic) side. This is commented on by several characters.
- Master of Disguise: Can easily disguise herself as someone else and even change her voice. She can even easily tell if someone else is wearing a disguise, as shown in Episode 7.
- Perpetual Poverty: She comes from a poor family, which was one of her motivations for joining Tsukikage. Her mentor being a wastrel who spends all of their money on snacks doesn't do anything to improve their situation.
- Tsundere: She frequently mocks Momo in a passive-aggressive way, but Goe ensures that is just her way of providing advice.
Hatsume Aoba
Voiced by: Aya Uchida (Japanese), Skyler Sinclair (English)
A kind and maternal member of Tsukikage. She and her apprentice Goe play a support role in Tsukikage, and Hatsume is responsible for creating many of the gadgets they use. She believes that she can reach out and see eye-to-eye with anyone, and is childhood friends with Yuki. Her codename is Tsubone.
- All-Loving Hero: Her dream is to be friends with everyone as if they are family.
- Always Someone Better: To Moryo's development team. Their Explosive Leash gelatin is likely the result of years of research and millions spent. Yet Hatsume removes the explosives like if it was unlocking a door. As well as to Theresia before her Heel–Face Turn as once Hatsume gets serious it is clear that Theresia never stood a chance and was at Hatsume's mercy all along.
- Gadgeteer Genius: She created all of Tsukikage's fancy gadgets.
- Good Is Not Soft: She's the kindest member of Tsukikage, but she has no qualms with sticking Theresia with a hidden needle containing neurotoxin and using a key to the antidote as a bargaining chip. The needle wasn't actually poisoned but it doesn't detract from how well she outmaneuvers her former friend. She's also no slouch in a direct fight, defeating Theresia in a duel in Episode 8.
- Nice Girl: The nicest girl in the cast. She treats everyone on the team with motherly warmth, and is willing to extend a friendly hand even to her enemies.
- Oblivious to Love: She doesn't notice Goe's feelings for her. Chapter 3 of the Secret Mission manga closes with Goe subtly complaining about this, and Hatsume also fails to understand it.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: She sports these after seemingly poisoning Theresia in Episode 7.
- The Smart Girl: While she is a great fighter, she contributes far more with her brain than with her muscles. Not only she is the Gadgeteer Genius of the team, but she is also behind many of their plans.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Theresia. After their kidnapping Theresia was convinced that Hatsume had abandoned her, and grew to be an extremely bitter person.
Goe Ishikawa
Voiced by: Yuri Noguchi (Japanese), Avery Smithhart (English)
A shy and soft-spoken member of Tsukikage. Her role is long-range support using a sniper rifle as her weapon. She has a love of cute things, but this and her reserved nature hide a surprising ferocity in battle. Her codename is Goemon.
- Afraid of Their Own Strength: Her physical strength is a source of major insecurity for her. In Episode 8, she's hesitant to use Spyce to fight Ouka upon remembering her brutality in the previous episode.
- The Big Girl: The tallest and strongest member of Tsukikage.
- Mook Horror Show: In episode 7, a Yakuza building comes under attack. Their boss thinks it's a rival gang, but then it's revealed to be Goe under the effects of brainwashing. She singlehandedly takes them all down, and manages to dodge or counter any attacks they throw at her, including negating a bazooka attack.
- Named After Someone Famous: With her Codename, you get Goemon Ishikawa, the swordsman from Lupin III, who is in turn named after a famous Japanese thief from the 1500s.
- One-Woman Army: Despite normally choosing to act as ranged support she's actually the most physically powerful member of Tsukikage, capable of easily defeating Momo and Yuki 1v2. Hatsume describes her as Tsukikage's "secret weapon."
- Wolverine Claws: The opening and promotional images show that her gauntlet is equipped with this. However, she's never seen using it in the actual story.
Katrina Toby
Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu (Japanese), Olivia Swasey (English)
A former member of Tsukikage who owns a curry shop, which she uses as a front for Tsukikage to conduct their operations. She was Hatsume's mentor during her days in active service.
- Badass Normal: Despite no longer being able to use Spyce, she proves herself to still be plenty capable of putting up a fight when she and Byakko show up to support everyone in the final battle.
- Big Damn Heroes: After being left for dead when the curry shop was bombed, she and Byakko show up out of nowhere to give Fu some much-needed backup when she finds herself overwhelmed by an army of Mini-Mecha.
- Guns Akimbo: Wields two revolvers in combat.
- Retired Badass: She was once an active member of Tsukikage herself, who eventually became too old to use Spyce and decided to stay on as a support agent.
Nagaho Fujibayashi
A member of Tsukikage in the past. She served as Yuki's mentor and, like her, used a katana. She has a carefree and lax, almost lazy personality and enjoys teasing her more serious apprentice, but she's cool and confident in carrying out missions. She was killed in action during an attack on Moryo's base two years before the anime began.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Chooses to blow herself up and possibly take Sparrow Woman with her rather than allow Sparrow Woman to torture her for information before finishing her off.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She spends most school days sleeping on the school roof and at one point forgot to take a fake duck disguse off of her head during a mission. Regardless, she was one of Tsukikage's top operatives prior to her death.
- Face Death with Dignity: Nagaho's last act before blowing herself up was to smile at her apprentice.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Pushes Yuki out of the way when some explosions go off. Then after being mortally wounded by Sparrow Woman, she then sets off a bomb in the hopes of taking them both out, and at least avoiding capture and torture by Moryo.
Moryo
Sparrow Woman / Kurara Tendō
Voiced by: Shizuka Itō (Japanese), Joanne Bonasso (English)
A high-ranking member of Moryo. She plans to use the organization to lead humanity to a new order, using a mole in Tsukikage to further her plans.
- Bad Boss: It doesn't matter how competent or trustworthy you are, she will kill you as soon as you screw up and become a liability. Byakko only escaped this fate because she didn't want to sour the relationship between Moryo and Togen, but she had no trouble making Theresia, her closest ally, drink gelatin that could make her explode.
- Beauty Is Bad: Don't let her pretty face fool you-she's extremely cold and sadistic.
- Big Bad: She's in charge of Moryo's operations in the Far East and while she's not the highest in the organization's pecking order, she's still the most direct antagonist due to operating in the same city as Tsukikage. The leaders she answers to via screens have less of a direct role.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Her civilian persona is Fumiko Torimaru, SEO of Kyuten Science.
- Disney Villain Death: After being dealt a critical blow by Momo and her plan is completely stopped, she slips over the edge of the platform they were fighting on, seemingly falling to her death.
- Expy: She has a very Ernst Stavro Blofeld vibe going on, complete with being the leader of a Nebulous Evil Organisation, The Faceless, The Stoic, punishes her subordinates when they fail their mission, and a pet animal (in this case, a bird) she’s shown constantly stroking.
- The Faceless: Her face is always covered in shadows. However, her face is finally revealed in The Stinger for Episode 6, at which point this trope is dropped.
- Faux Affably Evil: She tries to come off as a relaxed, friendly boss towards her subordinates despite being willing to cut them loose at the drop of a hat, as shown when she sweet-talks them into consuming dangerous gelatin.Sparrow Woman: "Kyuten Gelatin is packed full of love you know?"
- Genre Savvy: Aside from being a fairly competent fighter, she also takes precautions to make sure any loose ends aren't left around, such as making Byakko drink a potion that causes her to lose her recent memory in the event she suffers from shock due to torture. She also makes sure that any leads that Tsukikage could use to trace back to her isn't readily available, such as hiding her face from city cameras, and often sending them on wild goose chases. Finally, she releases the Gekako drug on a small group of random citizens to test its effectiveness before using it on the entire city in the final episode.
- Hero Killer: Two years ago, she dealt a fatal slash to Nagaho.
- Master Swordswoman: During her swordfight with Nagaho and Yuki, she defeated both despite using a Super Serum that's weaker than Spyce. In episode 12, Yuki warns Momo that she can't beat Kurara in a direct fight, leading to Momo using tricks such as making her sword invisible, using animal companions, and attacking Kurara's old wound.
- Stranger Behind the Mask: Her being The Faceless for half the series ultimately has no impact in the plot, as she is a person neither the audience nor the cast knows (and the one who knows her, knows her only as a member of Moryo). Similarly, her real name, Kurara Tendou, isn't mentioned for most of the anime in spite of not having any meaning.
- This Cannot Be!: Is understandably shocked when she is defeated in single combat by Momo.
- Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: In their final battle, she taunts Momo about her father's death.
Byakko
Voiced by: Aina Suzuki (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (English)
A warrior from the mercenary nation-state Togen, she's strong enough to claim the rank of a Celestial Beast despite being a young child. After being defeated and captured by Tsukikage, her memories of Moryo are wiped and she begins living at the Tsukikage headquarters.
- Big Damn Heroes: After being left for dead when the curry shop was bombed, she and Katrina show up out of nowhere to give Fu some much-needed backup when she finds herself overwhelmed by an army of Mini-Mecha.
- Little Miss Badass: She beats the members of Tsukikage in this regard. She looks like she is half their age, yet it takes the combined efforts of Momo, Fu and Goe to take her down.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Episode 6 reveals that her real name is Fan Yuenyuen. Everyone keeps addressing her as Byakko anyway.
- Token Mini-Moe: She is a pint-sized martial artist working for Moryo temporarily.
- You Have Failed Me: By episode 6 she is essentially cut loose from Togen in an attempt to save face. As Yuki explains, Togen is known to have a perfect record because those who fail aren't associated with them anymore. Byakko does not take it well.
Dolte
Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese), Patricia Duran (English)
A vain and incredibly muscular woman who works as a Moryo agent.
- Brawn Hilda: She is a huge, muscular and ugly woman that works as enforcer for Moryo.
- Dumb Muscle: After becoming a guinea pig for Moryo's latest drug, she is transformed into a huge mass of muscles with absurd strength and toughness, but her mind deteriorates to the point where she can't be asked to do anything besides hunting enemies and taking them down.
- Heel–Face Turn: Is shown at the very end having turned over a new leaf, washing dishes in Katrina's rebuilt shop.
- Implacable Man: Despite losing Momo, Dolte manages to find her as she was leaving the curry shop, and attacks her the moment Momo exits.
- Super-Senses: Her sense of smell was enhanced along with her strength by Moryo's drugs. After smelling her target only once, she becomes able to follow it anywhere with just her nose.
Theresia Ray
Voiced by: Risa Taneda (Japanese), Shanae'a Moore (English)
A silver-haired girl who was kidnapped as a child and eventually sold to Moryo. She acts as the main assistant of Sparrow Woman.
- Ambiguously Brown: She has darker skin than the other girls. However, Hatsume's flashbacks don't tell in which country they met, so her nationality is unknown.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: She wields a katar.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She is revealed to share one with Hatsume in Episode 6. Right after becoming friends, they were kidnapped. Hatsume was sold off first, leaving Theresia behind to be beaten up by her kidnappers until they could sell her too. When the time finally came, Theresia was told that Hatsume was actually ransomed by her parents and had abandoned her to her fate. In reality Hatsume's parents were unable to contact the kidnappers a second time, but the damage to Theresia’s mind was already done.
- The Dragon: The most prominent member to be shown alongside Sparrow Woman.
- Heel–Face Turn: Joins Tsukikage at the end of the series, becoming Goe's apprentice.
- We Used to Be Friends: She is a childhood friend of Hatsume's who was kidnapped alongside her and eventually sold to Moryo. Theresia was made to believe that Hatsume had abandoned her, and thus grew bitter and resentful toward her former friend.
- Why Am I Ticking?: Unlike the green gelatin that Byakko drank, Theresia drank a red gelatin that would make her explode upon being interrogated. Fortunately, Hatsume removes the drug from her system.
- You Have Failed Me: After being defeated by Goemon, Tendou slits her wrists and leaves her for dead. Thankfully, she survives in the end.
Other
Ouka Miyaume
Voiced by: Luci Christian (English)
A helmetted girl who was once an operative of the Okinawan intelligence agency, The Shishaa, but is forced to work for a criminal organization known as Nirai Kanai due to them holding her grandfather as a hostage. She believes that she is a descendant of the Vikings, and while she's normally aloof and distant she's eager to talk about Vikings.- Ambiguously Brown: It isn't explained whether her dark skin is a tan (she lives in a subtropical island after all) or if it comes from her mixed heritage.
- Cool Boat: She patrols the waters around Okinawa in a viking longship.
