Busou Renkin/Characters

A list of characters and character-related tropes from Busou Renkin!

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Kazuki Muto

Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama (JP), Steve Staley (EN)

The Hero of the story, a second year student from Ginsei Academy. Kazuki is a very well-meaning guy that enjoys helping people and does so by utilizing the gift of his Kakugane to create a Busou Renkin.

• All-Loving Hero: He's nice to everybody, he tries to save everybody, and even helps people who were killing him not five minutes before, even people who were killing him five minutes previously, then stop, then betray the truce, he'll still help them!
• Anime Hair: While not as bad as his namesake he's got some weird hair.
• Badass: Definitely.
  • Badass Normal: Before getting his powers, facing down a giant snake-like homunculus with nothing but a steel pipe! Guy's got some guts, even though getting them ripped out of him doesn't do him any good, he still manages to cope with it.
• Big Brother Instinct: Towards his actual sister Mahiro, who really needs it, Tokiko who really doesn't, (but it's still very cute) and the entire goddamn human race, which really, really needs it.
• BFL: His Busou Renkin, Sunlight Heart.
• Bishonen
• Boring Invincible Hero: Deconstructed with the First-Episode Resurrection and just avoided the Decoy Protagonist trope.
• Class Representative
• Can't Stay Normal: Had the chance to go back to his regular life after Tokiko resurrected him with the Kakugane. He didn't take the offer, apparently.
• Chivalrous Pervert: A mild example, he's a really nice guy and doesn't think that dirty, but he does have a Porn Stash.
• Clingy MacGuffin: Since he'll die without his Kakugane.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Because he doesn't have a heart, Kazuki will oftentimes take a normally lethal hit to the torso in order to deliver a blow of his own.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Got his foo' self killed trying to save a chick he didn't even know.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Papillon certainly does.
• First-Episode Resurrection and on Tokiko's whim.
• First Girl Wins: Do we need to spoiler that?
• Heroic Sacrifice: First episode, succeeds.
  • Actually turns out to be a Senseless Sacrifice, sense Tokiko wasn't actually in any danger and was just luring Homunculus Mita into a trap. But hey, at least it let him get his kakugane and Buso Renkin...
• Hypocrite
• I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Does this multiple times to Tokiko, one notable example was him hugging her protectively while giving his In the Name of the Moon speech, and he was shirtless cue Luminescent Blush. Also arguably when he touches her scar at the very end.
• Idiot Hero
• Lightning Bruiser: Especially his BURST THROUGH! MY BUSOU RENKIN! attack, which involves shooting forward super fast and super hard.
• Likes Older Women: To Tokiko's amusement.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: And skin
• Purple Eyes
• Red Oni
• Second Year Protagonist
• Shirtless Scene: Gets a couple, but prominently when he turned into a Victor which could count as Fan Disservice.
• Spear Beam: Sunlight Heart doubles as a Boom Stick.
• Walking Wasteland: His Kakugane is actually the third Black Kakugane, thus giving him the power to counter Victor, though almost at the cost of his life-drain aura becoming stronger and killing everybody else.

Tokiko Tsumura

Voiced by: Ryoka Yuzuki (JP), Tara Platt (EN)

Kazuki's savior and lancer, Tokiko introduces him into the world of alchemy and saves his life by giving Kazuki a Kakugane. Total Badass.

• Action Girl
• Anti-Hero: Around a three, she's willing to Shoot the Dog, but moves to a two as the series progresses.
• Badass: Even more than The Hero, which is saying something.
  • Badass Adorable: She DEFINITELY has her moments.
• Belated Backstory: Her origin is not revealed in the manga until the final issue, where it's revealed she's the only person in her school who survived a homunculus attack, and ended up killing the homunculus (who had posed as a fellow classmate) with the Valkyrie Skirt, using the Kakugane which was being used to heal her wounds. She gained both her scar and her hatred of homonuculi during the incident.
• Bokukko: While she uses the normally feminine watashi pronoun, the rest of her speech patterns are kinda boyish.
• Catch Phrase: Often yells something about her opponents' guts, such as her intentions to rip them out, splatter them etc; also "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase
• Combat Pragmatist: She doesn't really fight fair.
• Deadpan Snarker: Whenever she isn't fighting.
• Defrosting Ice Queen/Tsundere: She started out as somewhat cold to Kazuki, but starts growing both attached and angrier whenever he does something really stupid.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: Her Busou Renkin's sub-name is Death Scythe, she's pretty to boot.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Well Mahiro does anyway.
• Eyes of Gold
• Fantastic Racism: Really, really hates homunculi or anybody who would help them.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: She tells this to Shusui and Ouka after learning of their Dark and Troubled Past, since to her nothing excuses becoming homunculi and making others suffer.
• Four Is Death: Her Busou Renkin, "Busou Renkin of the Death Scythe: Valkyrie Skirt," has four blades.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: It's noticeable, representing her status as an Anti-Hero, but it's even, showing her inherently good nature.
• The Hunter: Was the Sole Survivor of a homunculi massacre, which explains her ruthless attitude toward them.
• Improbable Weapon User: Even more then Kazuki, it's four scythes on the end of robot arms attached at her thighs.
• Magic Skirt
• Ms. Fanservice: Her clothes are always getting ripped up and she reluctantly wore a bikini in one episode.
• Blue Oni: Though she gets quite excited during battle.
• Scars Are Forever: The scar across her nose that she got from a homunculus attack. Actually, it could have been healed, but she wanted to keep it.
• Sexy Mentor
• Sole Survivor: Of a homunculus attack on her school. She was rescued by Captain Bravo.
• Transfer Student Uniforms: Justified: her Renkin takes the form of scythes attached to her thighs and the fancy school uniform would be EASILY ripped. Therefore, fighting in her simple Sailor Fuku is much easier.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Has blanked out all of her life before being found by the Alchemic Army.
• Vapor Wear: She doesn't wear a bra, not like she needs one, but was it necessary to show her undress? (Yes, yes it was.)
• Weak but Skilled: Compared to Kazuki, her Busou Renkin specializes in precise and swift movement, as opposed to giant energy blasts.
• Weapon of Choice
  • Spider Limbs: Her Valkyrie Skirt.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Grade B-.

Papillon

Voiced by: Mitsuaki Madono (JP), Spike Spencer (EN)

Once known as Koushaku Chouno, a sickly loner despised by his family, he became a homunculus and a massive ham as well.

• Agent Peacock: So much, he provides the page picture!
• Ambiguously Gay: Beyond his manner of dress, his obsession with Kazuki is nuts
• Animal Motifs: Butterflies.
• Badass Bookworm
• Badass Normal->Badass Abnormal: In the second episode, he is riding around totally calmly on Washio's back, even when Washio is attacking and defending - from a few hundred feet up in the air. Including perfectly holding his balance during dives and blurringly-fast maneuvers. Not bad for a guy with an Incurable Cough of Death. Then he becomes a homunculus and gains his Busou Renkin...
• Barely-There Swimwear
• Card-Carrying Villain
• The Chessmaster
• Combat Sadomasochist: One of the saner examples of this (and more of a masochist than sadist), but he has shown what seems like arousal in reaction to injury, and on the sadist front, look at his commentary after eating his family.
• Do Not Call Me Paul: Ever since he became an homunculus, he no longer responds when called "Koushaku Chouno". He only makes an exception to his Worthy Opponent Kazuki though.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
• Evil Is Hammy
• Evil Tastes Good
• Faux Affably Evil
• Friendly Enemies: Toward Kazuki, with a massive amount of Foe Yay on his part
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Who knew the sickly wallflower Chouno Koushaku would become the shameless, flamboyant Papillon?
• Glass Cannon: Can blow people to smithereens with his Busou Renkin, Near-death Happiness, but suffers from a severe lack in stamina due to his disease.
• Good Costume Switch: His purple butterfly logo turned orange in the finale.
• Humans Are Bastards: 'Cause of a shitty childhood this is his personal philosophy.
• Ill Boy
• Incurable Cough of Death: Both before and after his transformation.
• Immortality Immorality: Hommunculi have to eat people, but he doesn't, its the desire of the homunculi to become human that drives them to consume human flesh, since he hated his human life, he doesn't have to eat them.
• It's All About Me: Subverted, he actually does nice things since they benefit himself as well, like helping Kazuki since only he can defeat him, well that's his excuse.
• Large Ham: PAPIIII...LLON!!!.
• Mad Bomber: His Busou Renkin allows him to create and control gunpowder, and he's rather crazy.
• Noble Demon: He CAN do good things once in a while!
• Offstage Villainy: Its indicated that in order to transform himself, people had to die, including children, although Chouno didn't kill them himself (his minions probably did), but after that, he doesn't really do anything evil (although he makes threats that sound like those of an Omnicidal Maniac).
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Takes it to the point where he's effectively one of Kazuki's most valuable allies. Not that either of them have actually noticed this little detail.
• Playing Against Type: Wait, what?
• Refuge in Audacity
• Self-Made Orphan: He ate his father, brother, and family bodyguards- doesn't come off as that bad though, since all were assholes
• The Starscream: Can't stand being second best.
• Stripperific: His costume is essentially just a jumpsuit and a mask.
• Teen Genius: He's just 18-19 years old.
• This Is My Name on Foreign: Chou means butterfly in Japanese (the full surname would translate to "butterfly field") and Papillon is the French word for butterfly.
• Trouser Space: He likes hiding things in his crotch... a little too much. To be fair, he doesn't really have pockets.

Captain Bravo

Voiced by: Masashi Ebara (JP), Patrick Seitz (EN)

A captain of the Alchemist Warriors that Kazuki and Tokiko work for, Captain Bravo (whose real name is Mamoru Sakimori) gives them advice and help on many occasions.

• Anti-Villain: Post-Face Heel Turn
• Badass: Goes without saying.
  • Badass Longcoat: It's one of his special powers.
• Blue Oni: Color coded and matched with Hiwatari.
• Calling Your Attacks: BRAVO!!! ______!!!
• Catch Phrase: It's all in his name.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: His Renkin, Silver Skin, only helps his defense, all his earth shattering punches and acrobatics come from hard work and dedication.
• The Charmer: Bravo Secret Art! Captain Bravo...Kiss!
• Collared by Fashion: When wearing his coat.
• Face Heel Turn: It doesn't last forever though.
• The Good Captain
• Good Old Fisticuffs: His Busou Renkin is armor, so he just kicks ass with his bare hands.
• Heroic Sacrifice: It may not have been needed to a Big Damn Heroes, but it was still very cute.
• Large Ham: Very, very hammy.
  • YES! I AM!
• Meaningful Name: His first name, Mamoru, means "protector".
• Mr. Fanservice: Ripped, handsome, kind, charming, energetic, badass and protective of children.
• My Greatest Failure: The attack on Tokiko's school, of which she was the Sole Survivor.
• Nigh Invulnerable: He has a regenerating invincible coat.
• Papa Wolf /Team Dad: He's pretty protective of his students, and for a time he even poses as the dorm manager of Ginsei Academy.
• Rule of Cool: His main creed. "Why? 'Cause it's cooler that way!"
• Stone Wall: He tries to compensate for having a purely defensive Busou Renkin with impressive barehanded-combat skills, but the fact remains that he's better at taking hits than dishing them out.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Considering that he specializes in unarmed close combat, it's not that surprising that he pulls off some wrestling moves, like an Octopus Stretch and an Argentinean Backbreaker.

Captain Hiwatari

Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (JP), Kyle Hebert (EN)

Another Alchemist Warrior, who's called in to deal with Victor and Kazuki's black Kakugane, total dick. Likes fire.

• Blood Knight: Loves burning people, doesn't matter who.
• Colonel Kilgore
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Loves calling his minions ladies.
• General Ripper
• Hot-Blooded
• Playing with Fire Nuke'Em: His Busou Renkin, Blaze of Glory, is a fucking napalm bomb.
• Superpower Lottery: Oh god yes. Flight, regeneration and fire control are vast understatements of his ability.
• Token Evil Teammate: Seems the worst out of all the Alchemist Warriors.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: With a Sarashi.

Gouta Nakamura

Voiced by: Shinji Kawada (JP), Liam O'Brien (EN)

A rookie Alchemist Warrior that was apprenticed by Tokiko. Loves her and dislikes Kazuki. Uses Gear Chakram.

• Fragile Speedster: Can use his Renkin, Motor Gear, as roller-skates for maximum speed.
• Guest Star Party Member
• Heel Face Turn: Decides to quit hunting down Kazuki for Tokiko's sake.
• Hot for Teacher: Tokiko was his mentor.
• Ignored Rival: Thinks he can take Tokiko away from Kazuki, Kazuki doesn't lift a finger to stop him, he doesn't have to.
• I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Eventually.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: I understand you think Kazuki's stupid, but do you need to be such a gigantic prick to him?
• Weak but Skilled: Takes down a lot of people with his relatively weak abilities using his brains and speed.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Thinks that he's the Romantic False Lead and Veronica between Kazuki and Tokiko, he really isn't, Tokiko treats him as a mild annoyance and is somewhat glad to see him again, Kazuki is completely oblivious to his aggression and talks about what great friends they are. Kind of veers into All Love Is Unrequited territory.

Victor Powered

Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (JP), Yuri Lowenthal (EN)

An ancient alchemist who was given a Black Kakugane in place of his heart in order for him to survive. This granted him amazing strength, durability, and the abilities of flight and regeneration, but also drove him mad. Uses an axe.

• An Axe to Grind
• Awesome McCoolname
• Badass Abnormal
• Big Bad
• Evil Counterpart: To Kazuki
• Gravity Master: The ability of his Busou Renkin, Fatal Attraction.
• Made of Iron: Took the attacks from missiles and five separate Busou Renkins powered by a giant robot without a scratch.
• Playing Against Type: Kid Hero Yuri Lowenthal plays the Big Bad.
• Victor Can Breathe In Space
• Walking Wasteland: It's like breathing to him; even if he wanted to stop it, he can't.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Wants to destroy all things related to alchemy because the Alchemist Army turned his daughter into a Homunculus and sent her out to kill him.

Moon Face

Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (JP), Christopher Corey Smith (EN)

Originally named Lunare Nikoleav, Moon Face is a homunculus with a moon-shaped head and a higher-up of LXE He is depicted as constantly cheerful, rarely seen without smiling, and he uses the catch phrase "Moon~" whenever possible. After LXE is defeated, Moon Face is put into custody by the Alchemy Warriors, and later sent to the Moon with Victor and the other homunculi. Moon Face joined the LXE a hundred years before the start of the series, when he came from Russia to Japan for reasons unknown.

• Doppelganger Attack: The ability of his Buso Renkin, Sattelite 30.
• Hero-Killer
• Meaningful Name: his head looks like a moon his name is also a play on "moon phase", which refers to his Buso Renkin's ability to create a duplicate representing every phase of the moon during a month.
  • His original name also counts, being similar to "lunar", meaning "of the moon".
• Shout-Out: Watsuki stated that he got the idea of Satellite 30 from the character Agent Smith from The Matrix Reloaded.

Dr. Butterfly

Voiced by: Katsumi Chou (JP) David Lodge (EN)

Around a century ago back when Bakushaku Chouno was a normal human, new sciences and technologies were flooding in from all over the world. One of them was alchemy which most people dismissed as charlatanry, however Bakushaku sensed there was more to it and so he began to delve into its mysteries. To his disappointment he found that there were limits to how far he could go on his own. His studies had consumed a fortune and years of his life went by until he discovered the homunculi and the Kakugane which led him to a dead end. However, not long after he met Victor Powered, a traitor of the alchemist warriors, the two then joined forces. Victor was severely injured so in exchange for his knowledge of alchemy, Bakushaku promised to heal him when he had finished his research.

At some point later Bakushaku became a humanoid homunculus and discarded his identity, now calling himself Dr. Butterfly. He then went on to found the L.X.E.

• Animal Motif: The Moth despite being called Dr. Butterfly
• Badass Grandpa
• Badass Moustache: Which is fake.
• The Dragon: To Victor
• Evil Old Folks
• Light Is Not Good

Mahiro Mutou

Voiced by: Aya Hirano (JP), Karen Strassman (EN)

Kazuki's cute, cheerful younger sister.

• Ambiguously Gay: Even when she approves of Tokiko and Kazuki's potential relationship, she seems to also be at least a bit into her. And maybe other girls as well, like Ouka.
• Big Brother Worship: She whole-heartily supports her "Oniichan" no matter what.
• Distressed Damsel: Since she's not an Alchemist. i.e., she and some of Kazuki's friends were Brainwashed and Crazy by Jinnai.
• Gender Flip: She's quite similar to her brother, and Tokiko herself says she's a female Kazuki.
• Genki Girl: Very cheery and optimistic.
• Go Through Me: She attempts this in the fight against Dr. Butterfly, to protect Saori and Chisato.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Especially to other girls.
• Shipper on Deck: She REALLY wants Tokiko to be her Cool Big Sis via officially getting together with Kazuki.
• What Could Have Been: Apparently, Watsuki wanted to make her an older classmate of Kazuki and "an heroine of normalcy" (contrasting the more "exotic" Tokiko), but wasn't too sure of how to make her fit in the plot. He finally settled on making her Kazuki's dear little sister.

Kazuki's friends

Voiced by: Yuuto Kazama (JP), Liam O'Brien (EN) [Okakura]; Yoshinori Sonobe (JP), Keith Silverstein (EN) [Daihama]; Takayuki Kondo (JP), Darrell Guilbeau (EN) [Rokumasu]

Kazuki Mutou's three Muggle Best Friends, who are second year students in Ginsei Academy like him. Hideyuki Okakura is the guy with the pompadour, Masashi Daihama is the Gentle Giant, and Kouji Rokumasu is the one with glasses.

• The Ace: Rokumasu is very, VERY good at many things: voice imitation, kendo (even if not at the level of Shusui), lip reading, etc.
• Anime Hair: Okakura, and how. He once even uses his pompadour to carry a bouquet of flowers.
• Apologizes a Lot: Daihama, even when he's brainwashed into attacking someone.
• Butt Monkey: Okakura is a prime candidate to get hit with hilarious misfortune.
• Distressed Dude: Since none of them are Alchemists, they're often stuck in trouble.
• Expy: The three are based on people that Watsuki met in an Anime Expo event.
• The Gadfly: Rokumasu likes teasing people, especially Okakura.
• Gentle Giant: Daihama is very large and very sweet.
• Hidden Depths: Daihama likes drawing.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Okakura, and Tokiko will never let him outlive that!
• Megane: Rokumasu
• Muggle Best Friend: Three of these!
• Those Three Guys

Mahiro's friends

Voiced by: Noriko Shitaya (JP), Gina Bowes (EN) [Saori]; Yuka Inokuchi (JP), Melora Harte (EN) [Chisato]

Mahiro Mutou's closest friends and fellow first year students. The pigtailed girl is Saori Kawai, while the Meganekko is Chisato Wakamiya.

• Affectionate Nickname: "Sa-chan!" "Chii-chin"
• Break the Cutie: Chisato was pretty traumatized when Jinnai directly attacked and tried to devour her, which she only survived thanks to Tokiko. That causes her to panic badly during Dr. Butterfly's attack on the school.
• Genki Girl: Saori
• The Quiet One: Chisato
• Those Two Girls

Ouka and Shusui Hayasaka

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (JP), Cindy Robinson (EN) [Ouka]; Kissho Taniyama (JP), Bryce Papenbrook (EN) [Shusui]

Twin siblings who are third year students in Ginsei Academy: Ouka is the Student Council President and Shusui is her vice-president, plus the Kendo Team Captain. The two are... well, quite close, plus they have an extremely disturbing and sad past that has left them deeply scarred.

• The Ace: Shusui competes in kendo on a national level, is extremely popular with the girls, is intelligent enogh to be the vice president of the student council (behind only Ouka) and is...*ahem*...'bigger' than Kazuki and his friends.
• Brother-Sister Incest: They are... CLOSE. As it turns out, there are very painful reasons behind it; and later in the series, they start opening up to other people and begin to relay less on each other.
• Brother-Sister Team: But of course.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Uhm. Oh, boy. They were raised by a lady named Mayumi Hayasaka; she kept them locked away in her home, and had them play "wedding games" among other things. When Mayumi passed away there, the twins (who were really young and sheltered, so they didn't really understand the concept of death) played with her corpse until it was rotten. Then they were found and rescued by others... and it turns out Mayumi was the lover of their dad and kidnapped them away from their parents. Who then rejected the kids, no longer considering them their children. They were Street Urchins until Shusui had an encounter with Dr. Butterfly and Moonface, and they were taken in by the L. X. E.
• Expy: Of Tomoe and Soujirou from Rurouni Kenshin
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Shusui's Busou Renkin (Samurai X) takes the form of a katana, whereas Ouka's (Angel Gozen) is a bow.
• Half-Identical Twins
• Lady of War: Ouka is a skilled archer, and her Busou Renkin gives her access to an alchemic bow and arrows.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: At first sight, Ouka is a perfect fit for the archetype. The truth is... much more complex.