Here's a list of the characters that appear in Vividred Operation. Beware of unmarked spoilers!
Akane Isshiki / VividRed
Voiced by: Ayane Sakura
An energetic and cheerful fourteen-year old who lives with her grandfather Kenjirou and younger sister Momo, with a part-time job as a newspaper courier riding the world's only flying bicycle, created by Kenjirou. One day, however, her peaceful life is disrupted when an alien race called Alone emerges on Earth and wreaks havoc. In response, Kenjirou gives her a key to unlock the Vivid System, which grants her amazing abilities (along with a special costume called a Palette Suit) in order to save the world.
- All-Loving Heroine: She's very kind and shows love to everyone. Also, she did everything to save Rei even after knowing she was responsible for the Alone attacks.
- Ambiguously Lesbian: She is very affectionate with even recent acquaintances, addressing them with the affectionate suffix "-chan", eager to kiss Aoi, and shown to have some sort of crush on Rei.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Seagulls distract her... a lot.
- Badass Adorable
- Cool Big Sis: In spite of Momo being more level headed, responsible and more mature than she is, Akane is nevertheless a nurturing and kind maternal figure that Momo looks up to in their mother's absence.
- Curtains Match the Window: Red eyes and hair.
- The Ditz: No, Akane, you can't fix "Himawari-chan" with sticky white rice.
- Elemental Punch: VividRed's Vivid Punch attack uses the Power of Creation itself.
- Eleventh Hour Super Power: The VividRed Operation form.
- Expy:
- From both Queen's Blade's Airi (character design-wise, except younger) and Yoshika Miyafuji from Strike Witches (personality). Kazuhiro Takamura also designed Airi and he adapted Fumikane Shimada's designs for Strike Witches in addition to directing the show, so it makes sense.
- Also one to Is the Order a Rabbit?'s Cocoa Hoto due to having similar personalities and the same voice actress.
- Fiery Redhead: She's a passionate and outgoing red-head.
- Genki Girl: She's very active and outgoing. It's rare to see her show any other emotion besides being bright and cheery.
- Girlish Pigtails: Befitting her happy-go-lucky nature.
- Hair Antennae: She has two strands of hair that stick up from the top of her head.
- The Heart: She is the glue that holds the team together.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Aoi.
- Idiot Hero: Actions first, think second.
- Nice Girl: Akane is friendly and optimistic, being willing to provide help to anyone who requires it.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Tends to be rather physical when it comes to the other girls, especially with Rei in the bath tub in episode 10, where she shoves her ass in Rei's face to show her a birth mark with a prideful look on her face. Wow, Akane....
- Plucky Girl
- Power Gives You Wings: As VividRed.
- Precision-Guided Boomerang: Her weapon when transformed — Naked Rang.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Aoi's blue. She's cheery and full of life.
- Trademark Favorite Food: She's very fond of mayonnaise and often squeezes a large amount of it on rice and vegetables.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Starts the series with a chronic fear of heights, stemming from a factory explosion seven years ago that killed her father and severely injured her mother. She overcomes it at the end of Episode 1, which is fortunate, as almost all of the Alone battles are aerial sorties.
Aoi Futaba / VividBlue
Voiced by: Rie Murakawa
Akane's classmate and best friend, as well as the daughter of a wealthy family, who's currently in Oshima Island for medical treatment. With her parents too busy to pay her a visit, Akane becomes her source of strength, more so when the Alone began their rampage, as Aoi becomes the second Vivid System user.
- Curtains Match the Window: Blue eyes and hair.
- Does Not Like Spam: Aoi hates tomatoes. Since Akane gave her a tomato when they first met, Aoi felt she had to hide her dislike.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Akane.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Was this until she befriended Akane.
- Nervous Wreck: More often than not, especially when Akane is doing something dangerous.
- Nice Girl: She's usually polite and helpful.
- Ojou: She's from a wealthy family. It's shown in one episode that they own an entire shopping mall.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Akane's red. She's shy and much more composed compared to the latter.
- Rocket-Powered Weapon: Her weapon, Naked Impact, a giant rocket-powered hammer.
- Shrinking Violet: She's shy and demure.
- Shy Blue-Haired Girl
- Super-Strength: One of the first things she does when transformed is stop an airplane from crashing with her bare hands. It's also implied some of this may carry over when she's not transformed, as in Episode 6 she defeats a bear robot by dropping a heavy rock on it's head.
- Valkyries: VividBlue looks like a hi-tech version of one.
Wakaba Saegusa / VividGreen
- Voiced by: Yuka Ootsubo
Member of New Oshima Academy's kendo team and representative of the class to which Akane and Aoi were transferred. Competitive and at the same time a lover of cute things, as well as a bit dorky, she initially challenges Akane to a duel after being inspired by her father to discover her "true strength", and eventually becomes the third Vivid System user with a green color scheme.
- A-Cup Angst: When Wakaba lends Himawari her dress, this delightful little situation occurs, much to Wakaba's chagrin:Himawari: "Hey, this dress is a little tight around the chest!"
- And again in Episode 6, when talking about the swimsuits Wakaba and Himawari bought together:
Wakaba: "She said she had no swimsuit, so I thought I could lend her one, but..."Akane: *while looking at Wakaba's and Himawari's chests* Yeah, I don't think she could fit into your swimsuits...*cue annoyed expression and Wakaba's eye twitching* - Ambiguously Lesbian: Her relationship and interactions with Himawari can be very suspect.
- BFS: Her weapon when transformed. VividGreen wields an even bigger sword.
- Class Representative
- Cool Big Sis: She has a tendency to act older than the other girls, being the tallest and most skilled out of all of them.
- Cuteness Proximity: Wakaba is very open about this.
- Curtains Match the Window: Green eyes and hair.
- Heir to the Dojo
- Idiot Hair
- In the Name of the Moon: In the Name of Tengen Rishin-style!
- Kendo Team Captain
- Laser Blade: Her weapon of choice, Naked Blade.
- Master Swordsman: A requirement to succeed a tradition of Kenjutsu.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: Wears a version of the uniform with short sleeves when everyone else has long ones.
- Plucky Girl
- Tomboyish Ponytail
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She sports a Tomboyish Ponytail and enjoys masculine pursuits, but she also enjoys reading fashion magazines, likes cute things, and loves dressing Himawari up in flattering dresses.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Her behavior in Episode 9 was full of these moments as she had her day out with Himawari.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's scared of bugs.
Himawari Shinomiya / VividYellow
Voiced by: Aya Uchida
A hacker and classmate of Akane, Aoi and Wakaba. Following a traumatic incident, she has since shut herself into her room, attending school through a camera attached to her class seat. After Akane saves a power plant, she finds the courage to come back to school, in the process becoming the fourth Vivid System user with a yellow motif.
- Attack Drone: Her weapons of choice, Naked Collider. She can also turn them into a BFG as VividYellow.
- Barrier Warrior: Himawari uses her mechanical gauntlets to deflect and redirect enemy attacks.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Is an undeniably talented hacker and programmer, but also gets tired very easily and spends a lot of her screen time seemingly lazing around.
- Catchphrase: "Ma, ma... (Yeah, yeah...)"
- The Comically Serious
- Curtains Match the Window: Has yellow hair and golden eyes.
- Frilly Upgrade: Vivid Yellow's costume is a fancy dress with a lot of frills. Out of all the other Vivids, she's the one that appears to look closest to the traditional Magical Girl attire.
- Hidden Buxom: Is the most shapely and well-endowed of the four heroines, a fact well hidden by her baggy and loose choice of clothes.
- Hikikomori: She still technically attends class through her camera. It stemmed from an incident where a friend betrayed her trust. She eventually starts breaking out of her shell once Akane made a promise and kept that.
- Loners Are Freaks: Subverted by the end of Episode 4 but apparently played straight prior to that.
- Messy Hair: Before meeting Akane and co, her hair was unkempt and her bangs went into her eyes (probably to show how she doesn't care much about her appearance).
- Ms. Fanservice: The Beach Episode makes it clear that she has the curviest body (and largest rack) of the main heroines, and Episode 9 shows that she's so good-looking she can't take two steps without being asked out and getting scouted by photo magazines.
- No Social Skills
- Perpetual Frowner
- Playful Hacker: She does break into places where she shouldn't go, but solely out of curiosity/admiration for her target.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Even though she doesn't seem to care much about her personal appearance, a small amount of grooming from Wakaba makes her quite beautiful.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's very quiet and withdrawn, especially in her debut episode. A little time with the girls though proves that she's really nice and supportive behind the reserved exterior.
- Teen Genius: A skilled enough hacker to break through Kenjiro's security systems, and has even written her own commercially-available programs, all at the tender age of fourteen.
Rei Kuroki
Voiced by: Maaya Uchida
A quiet, reclusive girl who happens to be in the Vivid girls' class. In reality, she works for the Alone by firing arrows that transform them into more vicious forms, and even then she has no choice in the matter, being forced to work for an entity called "The Crow" if she wants to resurrect her parents.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She has long dark hair, pale skin, and has an aloof, standoffish personality.
- Apocalypse Maiden: She's a living beacon for the Alone, and killing her would destroy the world.
- Animal Motifs: Birds of all types. Gulls flock around her. Her only real friend seems to be a parakeet. She works for the Crow, albeit reluctantly.
- Badass Normal: Subverted. She can't transform and her only power seems to be to power up Alones. That doesn't stop her from assaulting a heavily guarded compound single-handedly with just the weapons she looted on the spot. Her heightened physical abilities are later explained as stemming from the fact that she's actually from a different universe. Kenjirou theorizes that slight differences in the laws of physics in her native universe translate to enhanced abilities in the current one.
- Broken Bird: Slightly ironic given her bird motif.
- But Now I Must Go: Her world is restored by the mysterious beings that sent the Alone after the Crow is destroyed by her and Akane in VividRed form.
- Curtains Match the Window: Dark purple/black.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her entire world was destroyed in an accident related to the Manifestation Engine, and was forced to take orders from the Crow if she really wants to see her parents or anyone in her world again.
- Dark Magical Girl: Fits the archetype, but her package doesn't seem to come with the powers.
- The Dragon: To the Crow, unwillingly.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
- Expy: An almost-blatant allusion to Homura Akemi in terms of appearance and personality, as well as Rue / Princess Kraehe thematically and Fate Testarossa motive-wise.
- Friend to All Living Things: She shown to be friendly towards animals, feeding seagulls and freeing a hermit crab from a glass bottle. And not limited to animals, actually. It's just that The Crow states that she had to refrain from making contacts with other humans.
- Human Alien
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite her cold and aloof nature, there are times were she becomes warmer towards the other girls.
- Loners Are Freaks: Not that it's going to stop Akane from trying to be friendly to her.
- Minor Living Alone: She lives alone with her pet parakeet in her apartment complex because her parents died in an accident.
- Power Tattoo: She bears a mark of feathers on her neck, which indicates how many arrows she has left to fire, and she will allegedly disappear when she uses her last arrow.
- The Quiet One
- Scarf of Asskicking: Almost always wears a scarf. Even in her bikini. Justified, in that it hides the mark of the crow. In the finale she gives it to Akane as a reminder of their friendship before she returns to her restored world.
- Swallowed Whole: She gets swallowed by the Crow. She got better, fortunately.
- Tragic Keepsake: Her key, which she uses as a necklace, is the only memory she has of her deceased parents.
- Unwitting Pawn: She's unknowingly being used by the Crow for its evil plans.
- When She Smiles
Kenjirou Isshiki
Voiced by: Masaki Terasoma
Akane and Momo's grandfather who is secretly a disgraced scientist and a developer of the Manifestation Engine. Following an accident following the completion of the Vivid System his consciousness is transferred to a stuffed otter named "Uso" while his body is stored in a refrigerator.
- Cassandra Truth: Tried to warn the world of the Alone. They didn't listen, and in a few years they did come.
- Cool Old Guy
- Dirty Old Man
- Ignored Expert: Nobody believed his prophecy of the Alone's arrival. He was declared a pariah from the scientific world, and he began working independent of government funding, which more often than not dries up his family's funds.
- Mad Scientist: As he proudly lampshades.
- Weasel Mascot: The result of an unfortunate bit of body-switching. He gets better.
Momo Isshiki
Voiced by: Asuka Oogame
Akane's fifth-grade younger sister who handles her family's expenses.
- Curtains Match the Window: Pink hair and peach eyes.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She is in fact more level headed, responsible and mature than her big sister.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Idiot Hair
- Nice Girl
- Only Sane Woman: Since Akane and grandpa always do things their way, she really shines in this role.
- Supreme Chef
- Token Mini-Moe
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Serves as de facto housekeeper for both her grandfather and older sister.
Mizuha Amagi
Voiced by: Haruka Yamazaki
An officer for the National Defense Forces (NDF) who also doubles as Akane, Aoi, Wakaba and Himawari's homeroom teacher at New Oshima Academy.
- Good-Looking Privates
- Hot Teacher
- The Team Benefactor: As far as Akane and friends care, she is the face of the government.
Yuuri Shijou
Voiced by: Mika Doi
Management bureau head of the Manifestation Engine and an old acquaintance of Kenjirou.
Mashiro Isshiki
Voiced by: Sakura Nakamura
Akane and Momo's mother who remained hospitalized several years after the accident that killed her husband and triggered Akane's acrophobia.
- Motherly Side Plait: Like most Anime/Manga mothers, she possesses one. She doesn't die from the accident but instead she survives from it.
- Older Than They Look: Looks more like Akane's older sister than her mother.
The Crow
Voiced by: Mie Sonozaki
A mysterious bird that seems to have Rei work for her to have the Alone destroy the Manifestation engine.
- Above Good and Evil: States that it's merely the Alone's messenger, though by Episode 11, it starts to show its true colors.
- Abusive Precursors
- A God Am I: After swallowing Rei and absorbing her remaining arrows, the Crow decides that it's the most powerful being not just in this universe, but in any universe. It stops just short of calling itself an actual god, but the feeling is there.
- Ambiguous Gender: Despite being voiced by a woman, the Crow is not stated to have any gender.
- Apocalypse How: Attempts a Universal Class 5, and nearly succeeds until VividRed stops it.
- Beam Spam: In One-Winged Angel form.
- Big Bad: The leader of the alien forces known as the Alone.
- Creepy Crows: Especially with its glowing red eyes.
- Devour the Dragon: Literally swallows Rei.
- Drunk on the Dark Side: After swallowing Rei and absorbing her remaining arrows.
- Eldritch Abomination: Especially after EATING Rei.
- Evil Is Hammy: After eating Rei whole, the Crow gets a bit too Drunk on the Dark Side.
- Evil Laugh: Goes completely insane with power after absorbing Rei's arrows.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Has a very dark and deep, yet still rather feminine voice actress.
- Expy: This creature is like an evil(er) version of Puella Magi Madoka Magica's Kyubey.
- Faceless Eye: In One-Winged Angel form.
- Fallen Angel: It serves as the emissary of the "supreme beings' to enact their tests, being akin to an angel. It ends up going rogue and trying to destroy Earth despite them passing the test and starts to go full A God Am I on it, making it this trope. Showcased by its One-Winged Angel form being a six winged Eldritch Abomination.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Its eyes glow whenever it tortures Rei.
- Jerkass: Outright malignant, manipulative and an unrepentant dog kicker.
- Karmic Death: Meets its end at the hands of the very girl it used as its instrument of destruction and the Earthling who gave back her humanity.
- Manipulative Bastard: It manipulates Rei into assisting the Alone in targeting the Manifestation Engine with the promises of restoring her destroyed world and reuniting her with her parents.
- Moving the Goalposts: Regarding the apparent Humanity on Trial.
- No Name Given
- Omnicidal Maniac
- One-Winged Angel: After Eating Rei, it turns into an Eldritch Abomination with six black wings.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Its eyeballs seem to be completely red. They also start glowing whenever it uses its power to torture Rei.
- Turned Against Their Masters
- Unreliable Expositor: It claims that there is no way to pass test administered by the "supreme beings" it serves, and states that they wanted the Earth destroyed regardless of what humanity does. It then proceeds to act on it by devouring Rei and becoming a One-Winged Angel. This is later proven false when the "supreme beings" leave Earth in peace and restore Rei's world, suggesting that it has gone renegade and decided to act on its own accord, independently from the directive of the "supreme beings". This may possibly mean that everything else it says, such as Rei having to refrain form contact with other people, and dying if she ever uses up all of her arrows, is false and designed to manipulate Rei and the other characters.
- Voice of the Legion: In One-Winged Angel form.
- Walking Spoiler: Episode 11 sends it into this trope in regards to the story.
