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Amaterasu
In General
Amaterasu is the titular organization. Headquartered within the Tokyo bar Ama-no-Iwato, its espers strive to change a world that knows nothing of magic or wonder. When not battling World Shadows, Amaterasu funds itself by assisting a metalworking company (Kaneyama Tech) and a turbine plant, carefully abiding by its fifth Precept: "Members must live both an extraordinary and ordinary life".
The organization itself is divided into two groups. One of these is the "set-up side", composed of various mentors and administrators who know that World Shadows are mere puppets and that Amaterasu's true purpose is recreational. These people see the organization as a way of vicariously living out dreams impossible in the real world, akin to a theatrical production or elaborate LARPing session. However, their superpowers are very real.
The second group (referred to as the "'dancing' side") consists of new recruits, most of them adolescent. These members believe in World Shadows and the threat posed by them. They see Amaterasu as the "higher calling" they have long fantasized about, a way of doing good and having adventures in an oft-stifling society. Some also cherish it as a source of friendships or familial bonds that they couldn't find in the outside world.
To both sides, Amaterasu is a dream made real.
The organization itself is divided into two groups. One of these is the "set-up side", composed of various mentors and administrators who know that World Shadows are mere puppets and that Amaterasu's true purpose is recreational. These people see the organization as a way of vicariously living out dreams impossible in the real world, akin to a theatrical production or elaborate LARPing session. However, their superpowers are very real.
The second group (referred to as the "'dancing' side") consists of new recruits, most of them adolescent. These members believe in World Shadows and the threat posed by them. They see Amaterasu as the "higher calling" they have long fantasized about, a way of doing good and having adventures in an oft-stifling society. Some also cherish it as a source of friendships or familial bonds that they couldn't find in the outside world.
To both sides, Amaterasu is a dream made real.
- Broken Masquerade: Amaterasu revealed the existence of espers not long after its founding, so as to inspire humanity. This worked a bit too well, as it got Japan and Ireland flooded with illegal immigrants desperate to find out more. Dealing with the resultant crime and poverty took months of effort from Amaterasu's leaders.
- Call to Adventure: Nobody has to join Amaterasu if they don't want to. But if they refuse, the awakening Seed of superpowers within them will be sent back to sleep, forever. note
- Dark Secret: The upper echelons of Amaterasu know that Earth is a world where magic is impossible, there is no inherent purpose for esper powers, and waiting for someone else to make your life interesting is a fruitless endeavour. But the dream of magic has given so many people hope that they feel it's worth encouraging anyway.“If I had more strength, perhaps things would have ended up differently.” “If I just had a superpower, I can make a comeback no matter how far I’ve fallen.” “Surely there sleeps a superpower even in such a piece of trash as myself.” Guys like this were definitely around, and I wanted to give them a chance at realizing their otherwise impossible dreams.
- Desperately Seeking A Purpose In Life: Everyone. It's a prerequisite for joining.
- Internal Reveal: At the end of volume 1, Amaterasu engaged the "Super Water Sphere" in a battle so big and showy that onlookers could not doubt superpowers existed. The ensuing firestorm of press flooded Japan with otaku, journalists and national spies... all of which is played for laughs, because readers obviously knew that fact already, and that even its reveal was Just as Planned.
- Secret Identity: A policy that's strictly enforced, because Amaterasu's founders don't want any of the embarrassment or vulnerability that comes with fame. Also, Sago believes that esper powers will become boring if they're no longer contrasted with a mundane life.Are you saying that you won’t mind it if one of your classmates shares an embarrassing story of you from elementary school for the entire country to hear on national TV? (…) The reason why actors and actresses and idols can be all shiny and happy on TV is because they have production companies backing them up and doing all the necessary groundwork. You try going out there all nonchalant-like, you’ll only be turned into everyone’s favorite toy.
- Sigil Spam: Amaterasu's crest- a stylized sun- is splashed across anything related to it. Masks, dog tags, commissioned weapons, and even the doors to its secret base.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Amaterasu enforces a moderate level of the trope. Its members are fully allowed to use their superpowers for convenient or fun purposes, and in fact the leaders indulge in those things more than anyone else. But if an esper becomes a bully/dangerously overconfident/fame-hungry, Sago comes down hard on them. It's implied that he wants to teach the kids responsibility by giving them power.[T]hey had experienced significant mental growth from the Super Water Sphere incident. I determined that I could trust them to discern between humanoid beings and actual humans. That was how resolute their hearts had become.
Kinemitsu Sago ('Invisible Titan')
Kinemitsu Sago ('Invisible Titan')
Sago is a self-described 'middle-class dude' whose bland appearance contrasts his deep, deep passion for all things extraordinary. When he spontaneously developed telekinesis in his youth, he thought his dreams of adventure had finally come to fruition. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way, so at the age of 24 he founded Amaterasu. He finds mentoring the young espers surprisingly fulfilling, and does his best to make the World Shadows (his telekinetically controlled puppets) satisfying opponents.
Within Amaterasu, he is "Master": a laconic, surly bartender who knows about superpowers but has none himself. The recruits are aware that Kaburagi reports to a mysterious "Boss", but not that these aliases belong to the same person.
- Berserk Button: He hates the world's "shitty reality" that seems bent on eliminating anything fun or magical. His disappointment in the latter once led him to crush a con artist's house.
- Big Good: Everyone's powers were originally transplanted from Sago's "telekimuscle", which symbolically reflects that he rekindled the hope in their hearts.
- Birds of a Feather: He and Kaburagi fall in love because they share similar interests and determination to reach their goals.
- The Chessmaster: Spends a lot of time manipulating events behind the scenes... for the sole purpose of making Amaterasu's daily lives as Troperiffic as possible ("The mysterious fire-wielding beauty who protected me from a monster yesterday is our new transfer student? What are the odds?"). Though sometimes his "players" go Off the Rails and Hilarity Ensues.
- Cool Mask: When he needs to conceal his identity in volume 3, he wears a Balinese lion mask he bought as a souvenir.
- Galactic Conqueror: His Evil Doppelgänger was a tyrant who thought nothing of killing people and desecrating Earth's solar system in his own image. Though technically he didn't conquer anything, his crimes terrified humanity into submission.
- Game Master: Functions as one for Amaterasu, down to providing them with monsters to fight and even telekinetically carving a "dungeon" out of bedrock for them to explore.
- Girls Like Musicians: He practices guitar, not so he can actually play music, but so in 50 years he can say coolly that he "played guitar in his youth".
- Mad Artist: After losing one of his arms, he ground the bone up (esper bones have supernatural qualities) and used it as construction material for a floating castle. Even before that, he took great pride in making terrifying monsters and deathtraps.
- Maou the Demon King: Jadesphere's cosmic search engine identifies Sago as a "demon lord", based on his godlike powers, strong subordinates, and predilection for attacking innocent people. Apparently the search engine didn't specify things like "attacks people with intent to cause permanent harm", "non-human", or "wants to conquer someplace".
- Obsessive-Compulsive Barkeeping: Invoked as part of his role. He's not good enough at acting that he can do anything else and still come off as a convincing bartender.
- Pastimes Prove Personality: He builds Amaterasu both figuratively and literally, with his home carpentry skills.
- Super-Empowering: Capable of granting esper powers to others by implanting them with pieces of his own "telekimuscle", though he doesn't reveal his part in the process.
- The Quiet One: Sago's chosen persona, "Master", rarely speaks, so as to maintain the organization's mystique and fulfil The Bartender stereotype. He realizes too late that this doesn't allow him to interact much with the kids.
- Was Too Hard on Him: He realizes this when the unwinnable battle that he intended only to scare Shouta fundamentally changes the kid's personality. (Even that battle was softer than what Sago had originally intended to do.)
- The Wonka: His decision-making is based not on logic or virtue or pride but what would make the best story. And his insistence on this has saved lives.
- World's Strongest Man: Far more powerful than the other espers, and his ability still has room to grow. A What If? story depicts him training his telekinesis to the point where he can construct habitable planets.
Shiori Kaburagi ('Time Lady')
Shiori Kaburagi ('Time Lady')
A regal woman whose eccentricity is matched only by her intelligence. She is a self-made millionaire whose aim is to buy an aristocratic title, a goal about which she is deadly serious. In her spare time, she writes notes preparing for every trope and fantastical possibility known to man, especially the mahou shoujo ones. For these reasons, Sago recruits her as his Number Two and Amaterasu's financial patron. The esper power she developed was chronoprohiberis, the ability to stop time for 44 seconds.
Within Amaterasu, she is the de facto leader of the group, responsible for mentoring young espers and giving them exposition on the World Shadows. She had no knowledge of superpowers before she developed one, and supposedly finds Amaterasu's future members by chance.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: She wasn't able to figure out the cause of Sago's superpowers, but she learned the scientific principles of them- most notably how they could be transferred to others.
- Beneath the Mask: The pain of having her stoprotein torn out of her makes her scream in her voice. Her true voice, not the melodic tone she cultivates to fit in.
- Beta Couple: She and Sago are mature and attentive to each other's needs, something which draws Touka's envy. In a later scene, they high-five each other when Shouta overcomes a hurdle in his relationship with the latter.
- Bright Castle: Volume 4 ends with Sago giving her one, sculpted by his telekinesis and suspended in the sky. She is overjoyed by the gift and uses it as a retreat in later volumes.
- Chessmaster Sidekick: While Sago is no slouch himself, Kaburagi has skills and connections that lend her to handling the more mundane side of putting plans into motion (such as discreetly gaining control over businesses). This is one of the reasons why Sago sought her out as a confidante in the first place.
- Disproportionate Retribution: She hangs an animal from a ceiling fan, by its tail, because it laughed at her.
- Gonk: She was exceedingly ugly as a child, and bullied accordingly. Determined to Never Be Hurt Again, she underwent severe (of the "makes you vomit blood" kind) dieting and plastic surgery, which turned out very well. Contrary to what you might expect, she's not ashamed to show people her past self- but if they disparage the results of her hard work, she gets very angry.Kaburagi: Though if you had called me ugly even after seeing my beauty, I would have torn you apart limb from limb.
Sago's narration: She said it nonchalantly with a smile on her face, but she was probably at least halfway serious about it. - Heroic BSoD: The shock of finding out that magic exists, but that Earth is entirely inimical to it leaves her bedridden for two weeks.
- Mundane Utility: She often uses her chronoprohiberis to have covert conversations with people.
- The Ojou: She goes to great lengths to project this image, complete with servants and full-dress kimono. Sago initially finds it hard to believe she's not a Fish out of Temporal Water.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: As Duchess of Marineland, she arranged for its princess to gain superpowers and orchestrated a very successful scheme to increase tourism. In Tokyo, she sells real estate to illegal immigrants, tutors high-schoolers, and studies superpowers.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She usually chooses to be a proud, composed businesswoman, so as to conceal her weaknesses. Inside Amaterasu, she is closer to her true self: an enthusiastic nerd who cares for her kohais.
Hasumi Touka ('Burning Girl')
Hasumi Touka ('Burning Girl')
A girl in middle-school who follows Buddhism to cope with the stress of her unreliable home situation and abusive peers. Surprisingly calm and mature for her age, she was a natural choice for recruitment. The superpower she developed was pyrokinesis, with which she can conjure flames of any temperature that she has personally felt.
Within Amaterasu, she is the first young recruit. She, like everyone else on the "'dancing' side", is blissfully unaware of the organisation's true nature.
- Determinator: You have to be tough to be as openly weird (read: religious) as she is. When first confronted with a World Shadow, she tries to exorcize it rather than run.
- Pastimes Prove Personality: An introspective spiritualist who carves Buddha statues.
Takahashi Shouta ('Freezing Knight')
Takahashi Shouta ('Freezing Knight')
A boy in middle-school who was distinct only for his utter lack of distinct personality traits. In sort, he was the archetypal anime protagonist. Sago recognized this and, seeking to jolt the boy out of his passivity, recruited him into Amaterasu. Unfortunately, Shouta became Drunk with Power after his power of cryokinesis manifested, and underwent drastic personality changes. Now, he is a determined and outspoken punk who follows the "Truth Of Fire", a quasi-spiritual doctrine of his own invention.
Within Amaterasu, he is the second young recruit, and usually takes the front line in battles. He, like everyone else on the "'dancing' side", is blissfully unaware of the organisation's true nature.
- Break the Haughty: Not long after getting his powers, he becomes an egoistical bully with no respect for anyone. However, Sago and Kaburagi trust that he will return to his kinder self if they invoke this trope, as indeed he does.
Igbadi Sognah Muguu ('Healer')
Igbadi Sognah Muguu ('Healer')
Ig is a pet marmoset who was born in Brazil. After her first owner passed away, she was inherited by a cruel person who treated her like a toy. At this point, Sago identified her as one of the few beings with potential healing powers and travelled to Brazil to rescue her. Now, she serves as Amaterasu's healer and team mascot.
- Berserk Button: She hates the smell of makeup, because many of her tormentors wore it or played with it. Even hair gel makes her upset. This is why she doesn't like Kaburagi.
Lonalia Linalia Baba-Nyan
Lonalia Linalia Baba-Nyan
Baba is an elf queen from the alien world of Jadesphere. After 700 years of a successful but painfully boring rule, she abdicated her throne and travelled to Earth, seeking adventure. When she stumbled across Shouta fighting a World Shadow, she thought her quest was at an end... and then Sago regretfully informed her that Amaterasu was a sham. Baba was infuriated by this disappointment, but the laws against interdimensional travel prevented her from leaving Earth. Eventually, she resigned herself to joining the "set-up side" of Amaterasu, where she arranges for recruits the dramatic experiences that she herself will never have.
Within Amaterasu, Baba's origin is not concealed from any of the members. In conjunction with Kaneyama Tech, she creates weaponry and gadgets for the team. She currently lives with Shouta's family, who believe her to be a lost human child.
- Affectionate Nickname: Humans, all of whom are much younger than Baba herself, are called "saplings".
- Entitled Bastard: A downplayed example. On Jadesphere, Baba would often whine that she wanted adventure, but she never tried to create it herself and just let life pass her by. She thought she had grown past this when she travelled to Earth, but eventually realized she hadn't. She was still passively expecting the world to give her what she wanted- and, when it didn't, she took out her anger on the innocent people who lived there.
- Genre Refugee: Subverted. Jadesphere seems like the arcadian fantasy setting typical of isekais, but magical stuff is normal and reliable there that it's lost all its wonder, much as electricity has for people in Real Life. Sago describes it as "a fantasy world devoid of the fantastical".
- In My Language, That Sounds Like...: By sheer coincidence, her name can be shorted to "Loli-Baba". When she first introduces herself to Sago and Kaburagi, this is the last straw that leads them to laugh off her story and assume they're being pranked.
- Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Every female elf weaves a tree branch into her hair; for some reason, going 'branchless' is akin to nudity. And only the elf monarch is allowed to wear a branch from the oldest tree in the world.
Sakyou Kumano
Sakyou Kumano
Kumano is a 50-year-old man, and most of those years have been devoted to being the most upstanding police officer possible. His noble (if slightly stoic) demeanour has won him the respect of his coworkers, as has his array of victories in martial-arts tournaments. However, Kumano's struggle with the bureaucratic, oft-impotent reality of police work still plagued him... until, through a combination of luck and guesswork, he figured out that Shouta was an esper. After the events of Volume 2, Kuma retired from his job and joined Amaterasu. He opted to not develop a superpower, and instead fights with a pair of PSI drive gauntlets.
Within Amaterasu, he has taken up Sago's mantle of bartender. Kumano, like everyone else on the "'dancing' side", is blissfully unaware of the organisation's true nature.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Kumano is not comfortable with the fact that one teenaged esper could have easily beaten him in a fight, despite his years of training and experience. Hence his choice to not develop esper powers of his own and just punch things.
- The Real Heroes: During his Heroic BSoD, he vents his frustration that policemen don't get half the credit or attention that Amaterasu does, when the latter group has only been seen once.
Hazama Sorashige
Hazama Sorashige
An elderly man who lies compulsively. Although obsessed with fame, he is a grandfatherly sort who befriends Mikyou during a hospital stay and genuinely tries to live up to his impossible boasts. Sago recruited him because he had the potential for the rare and useful power of spatial manipulation. Namely, he can teleport within a limited range and create hyperdimensional pockets.
Hinokage Mikyou
Hinokage Mikyou
A caustic young girl who's been hospitalized all her life. She is enthusiastic about the prospect of humankind's extinction, which makes Sago reluctant to empower her. However, an attempt she makes to save Sorashige's life impresses Sago sufficiently that he invites her to join Amaterasu, an offer she accepts. Her power is erebokinesis, the ability to control darkness and project semi-physical shadows.
Rin Kinemitsu ('Time Ruler')
Rin Kinemitsu ('Time Ruler')
A teenage girl who's the daughter of Sago and Shiori. Energetic, quick-thinking, and slightly self-absorbed, she gets involved in the events of Volume 6 despite not even being born yet. Her power is chronokinesis, the ability to slow down or accelerate time within a given area.
- Little Miss Badass: She can slice up enemies and knock someone out before they have time to react.
Tsukuyomi
In General
A group of espers who work for Tsukimori, a refugee camp. In contrast to Amaterasu, their members are people from the 'wrong side of the tracks'; ex-cultists, runaways, and illegal immigrants attracted by the supernatural occurrences in Tokyo. Despite their role as Amaterasu's "evil" rivals, they're mostly good people. Sago empowered them to give Amaterasu healthy competition, and also to protect Tsukimori from the yakuza preying on it.
- Player Party: In contrast to Amaterasu's classical heroics, Tsukiyomi act like players of a tabletop game; they regularly crack jokes during battle, are motivated by looting their enemies, and have little problem attacking humans.
- White-and-Grey Morality: The grey to Amaterasu's white. Everything they do is to get money for people who desperately need it, and most legal ways of earning money are impossible for them. That said, their methods include attacking teenagers who just saved their lives, selling mildly illegal drugs, and financial scams.
Tsukimori Tsuyoshi ('Tombstone Man')
Tsukimori Tsuyoshi ('Tombstone Man')
A charismatic philanthropist who opened his doors- literally- to the wave of refugees caused by the Super Water Sphere incident. He is an incredibly hardworking, altruistic man, partly because of a guilty conscience. In his youth, a temple he attended collapsed, trapping many people under rubble. Tsukimori left them to die, an act of cowardice he has never forgiven himself for. The members of Tsukimori (as in, the mutual aid society he founded) know his past, and love him still.
He was patrolling Tokyo one night when he rescued Sago, who was touched by Tsukimori's predicament and gave him superpowers. The power he developed enables him to temporarily strengthen his physical capabilities; strength, wound recovery, etc. Unfortunately, it's one of many attributes that make him look like a yakuza boss.
Christina Najin ('Ninja')
Christina Najin ('Ninja')
A gregarious teenager of American descent. Her deadbeat parents abandoned her (more than once) on the streets of Tokyo, where she developed extensive survival instincts, agility, and a deep admiration of ninjas. At the age of 16, she was taken in by Tsukimori, and was given superpowers not long after that. Her power is a sort of Psychometry with precognitive applications.
Miyama Kyousuke ('Guitar Fatty')
Miyama Kyousuke ('Guitar Fatty')
A laidback guitarist. His superpower enables him to emit a single sound of varying type, loudness, and location. As long as other espers hear this sound, they can use their powers indefinitely, which makes him a useful Support Party Member.
Everyone Else
Nicolas Stallone
Nicolas Stallone
Nanami Okishima
Nanami Okishima
Yasuo Yasui
Yasuo Yasui
Kaneo Kaneyama
Kaneo Kaneyama
A 25-year-old man who is the president of Kaneyama Tech. Highly wealthy, intelligent, and handsome, he has never experienced any significant failure or disappointment in his life... which is kind of the problem. He is also deeply infatuated with Kaburagi, and has been ever since they attended high school together. In Volume 2, this infatuation causes problems for her and Sago.
- Broken Ace: He knows that his jealousy is selfish and has made him do awful things to innocent people, but he refuses to let go of it because it's the most real emotion he has. note
- Evil Counterpart: He and Kaburagi are both well-heeled people who are drowning in ennui despite their talents, but Kaburagi doesn't want to fulfil her dream if it means people get hurt. Kaneo prioritizes his dream over everyone and everything, including honesty.
