No game no life word game

Before the creation of Disboard, a world where everything is decided by games, there raged a terrible war among the stars. But the Immanity weren’t the only ones fighting to end it-one Elf had her own dreams for the future: “Whoever’s left standing once all the stars are destroyed is the winner.” In other words: anything goes! Follow Think Nirvalen’s exploits during the Great War along with several out-of-this-world short stories originally included in the anime’s bonus features!

• Abusive Parents: It’s heavily implied they have neglectful-at-best parents.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Sora often does this to Shiro, while both of them do this to Izuna.
• Always Someone Better: Tet notes to himself that 『　　』’s predecessors, Riku and Schwi, were even stronger, for they won in the old world where there were no rules. Ironically, 『　　』 was able to do something even Riku and Schwi couldn’t do, beat Tet in a game, though to be fair Riku and Schwi didn’t really get a chance to play against him together.
• Anti-Hero: The two are lazy, apathetic, selfish, perverted, and ultimately more interested in their own enjoyment than they are in any kind of greater good. However, they may well also be humanity — sorry, Imanity’s last, best chance at prosperity.
• Badass Bookworm: You’d think a pair of NEETs who spend all day gaming and don’t go to school would lack a lot of general knowledge, but they’ve actually made sure to keep themselves well read, with Sora having downloaded over 40,000 books to study up for quiz games and acquired Encyclopaedic Knowledge as a result. Upon arriving in Disboard, they also make it an effort to study up on all of the world’s literature and seek out a library to gain knowledge, stating that knowledge was power.
• Badass Creed:

  『　　』 never loses.
• Badass Normal: Not physically, but in the context of a fantasy world where Duels Decide Everything, they are this. With zero magical ability of any sort they regularly go up against opponents who are infinitely superior to them both physically and magically. They win anyway. Even on the physical side of things, their godlike skill at FPS games allows them to hold their own against the physically much stronger Izuna in a virtual reality, although their stamina is still piss-poor due to their lack of physical exercise.
• Brains and Brawn: Sora is the brains with his skill in planning, improvisation, and manipulation. And while she’s smarter than Sora, Shiro plays the brawn of the duo with her genius being used in calculating various game elements (such as NPC movement, game physics, player mannerisms) which result in perfect gameplay.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: A pair of NEETs who spend all day in a room gaming, but both are exceptionally intelligent and are legendary gamers. If they had dedicated their intellect to other areas they could have been great in their world too, especially Shiro who is a Child Prodigy. That said, they seem to be less lazy and more apathetic and held back by a plethora of Ambiguous Disorders, not the least of which being that they collapse into a crumpled heap when separated from each other.
• Brother�Sister Team: These siblings always play together as a team and are nearly invincible when working together.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: They are definitely… unconventional monarchs, what with preferring to live in a cramped little room instead of their royal quarters, or staunchly refusing to handle most of their duties and shirking them onto Stephanie. Despite this, they’re perhaps the greatest rulers Imanity has ever had.
• Catchphrase: «Sa, gemu o hajimeyo»^note 
• Cuteness Proximity: Neither of them can resist Izuna. They skip time (somehow) to go straight from meeting her to petting her.
• The Dividual: They must always be together and can only be a few feet away from each other. Separating them causes them to experience nervous breakdowns.
• Establishing Character Moment: Sora and Shiro are introduced defeating 1,200 enemy players, who not only outnumber them but are using cheats, by controlling two characters each and seeing through the cheater’s methods. It then reveals that these two gamers are actually living in a trash-strewn room, having stayed up all night and subsisting on rations and junk food. All this goes to show that they’re NEETs in the real world, but gaming prodigies who are right at home in Disboard.
• Friendless Background: Prior to the start of the series neither of them had any friends aside from each other. When Shiro suggested Sora’s friend emailed him, he thought she was sarcastically mocking him.
• Godlike Gamer: Their entire shtick. They are a prestigious Brother�Sister Team who were so legendary as gamers they became an urban legend in the gaming continuity, purportedly possessing the top score for every game to exist. Their gaming abilities were so phenomenal that they were brought over to an alternate RPG Verse world where gaming skills govern everything, where of course the two of them absolutely dominate.
  • Sora excels at manipulating and reading people, while Shiro’s specialty is analytical thinking of the core game mechanics. It’s established that 『　　』 never loses unless it’s intentionally or against each other. If their opponents try to cheat, then they will use the cheating against the cheater.
  • The first episode alone has the two of them beating 12,000 players using 4 avatars, even when the opposition was cheating, and then shortly afterwards Sora ends up controlling four individual controllers with his hands and feet and still manages to win! Shiro is also revealed to have won 20 times against a chess simulator designed to beat grandmasters.
• Hidden Depths: For a pair of NEETs who spend their entire lives gaming, the two of them possess a very impressive knowledge in a range of topics. The explanation is that Sora downloaded a lot of study guides (40,000 books to be precise) so that he could ace quiz games, and Shiro’s brain is basically a supercomputer.
  • Sora is able to solve all of the Elkia’s domestic problems from agriculture to finance by applying real world political strategies to the fantasy world.
  • They show off an intricate understanding of physics and anatomy, as demonstrated in the «materialization shiritori» game where they are able to keep manipulating the environment to put Jibril at a disadvantage.
• Hikikomori: Both hate society along with dealing with people and essentially lived in a small room together until Tet found them. They’re fine to explore a fantasy world, but even thinking of going outside in their original world can give them panic attacks.
• Living Emotional Crutch: They are this to each other. Sora and Shiro are literally unable to function unless they are together all the time. If they stay several meters away from each other for only a minute, both suffer emotional breakdowns and completely shut down until they are together again.
• Logical Weakness: As NEETs who despise the real world, Sora and Shiro can’t beat reality-simulation games. They even fell into a brief Heroic BSoD when it seemed they got plunked back into the real world (such as Love or Loved 2, their game against the Warbeasts), and had to be reminded that they’re still in a game. This also caused them some trouble against the Sirens, where they had to play an «actual romance game». Luckily for them, winning was as simple as not falling in love with the queen.
• Modest Royalty: Not out of any actual sense of modesty or humility, mind you, but being NEETs and proud of it, they find small cramped rooms more comfortable than royal quarters. And fancy royal clothes? They’ll take their own casual clothing over that heavy, stuffy and uncomfortable crap any day.
• NEET: What they were in their original world. At the start of the series, their entire world consists of a small room where they play video games all day. They are quite proud of this fact (for some reason) and declare that «»『　　』» will never do work!».
• New Life in Another World Bonus: Believe it or not, they don’t really gain any magic or other «cheat» ability, even though they regularly go up against opponents capable of using magic. They are, however, really good at games in a world where everything is resolved through games, which firmly places them as Badass Normal.
• Not Blood Siblings: They are actually siblings by remarriage, but one can be easily forgiven for mistaking them as real siblings due to their closeness to each other. While Sora really only thinks of Shiro as his cute little sister, Shiro shows that she has a bit of a crush on him.
• The Protagonist: Sora and Shiro share this status, although Sora takes a more active role in things. Shiro does get her chance to shine on her own though when Sora Ret Goned out of existence.
• Rags to Riches: Sora notes how they went from a single gaming room to the royal chambers over the course of a few days, all thanks to being Godlike Gamers in a world where Duels Decide Everything. However, they’re not actually interested in luxury at all, preferring a tiny house with almost no furnishings over royal quarters, and casual clothing over fancy royal regalia.
• Rapid-Fire Typing: Both of them are capable of this while gaming, with Shiro even doing so with her feet.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Sora is the passionate and loud Red Oni and Shiro is the shy and inquisitive Blue Oni.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Shiro is an 11 year-old super genius and Sora is also deceptively well-read, cunning, and immensely charismatic. They should be natural born winners, but all they do is sit in a tiny cramped basement all day, playing games. Their mental disorders and hatred for society are obviously holding them back, but even in their own element, you think they’d be making bank in all sorts of pro gaming leagues. Maybe they are and that’s why their parents even let them sit in their basement all day.
• Reincarnation: Not so clear in the original Light Novels, but the Movie implies that they are the reincarnations of the heroes Riku and Schwi, who brought peace to the world and created Tet through their perseverance, faith and sacrifice. It is more than likely Tet realizing this is the reason he summoned them together, as Riku’s dying wish before disintegrating was to play a game against Tet once again, with Schwi at his side.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Downplayed. As the new rulers of Imanity, they definitely handle the external affairs and conquest side of things, and in fact their actions are single-handedly responsible for putting a previously declining, hopeless race like Imanity back on the map as a political powerhouse of Disboard. However, then it comes to the internal affairs of the country, bureaucracy and minor politicking, they have no patience for that, and dump all of these duties on Stephanie.
• Showy Invincible Hero: Challenge them into any game and not only will they will win it, they will do so such style and guile that your head will spin.
• Shrouded in Myth: On Earth’s gaming community, they are treated as a sort of urban legend. Their legend has evolved so much that most outright claim they do not actually exist.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Shiro and Sora are opposites at everything even down to their hair colors. It also goes to their playing style forte; Shiro is more logical and «going by the book», so she is great at looking for the better way to victory, while Sora is more guile and better at reading people, making him the best commander ever, able to predict the opponent’s next move. This is what makes them so efficient as they both cover for each other’s shortcomings.
• Slasher Smile: Both siblings have given this at times, but mostly Sora. It’s usually when they get the opportunity to inflict another punishment on Steph when she loses to them.
• Technician Versus Performer: Sora is the performer and Shiro is the technician. Sora is better at real-life strategy games because he possesses the intelligence and ability to read people, as well as an uncanny talent for finding solutions on the fly whenever he’s at the corner. Shiro is best at turn-based games because all she needs to do is know all the possible variables of the board and find the better way to win.
• UltimateGamer386: 『　　』 became an urban legend among the gaming community as a mysterious player who was the top of the leader board for every game in existence.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Being forcibly separated from each other is all that it’s needed to render them into useless Nervous Wrecks.
• Wowing Cthulhu:
  • Both of them thoroughly impressed Tet, the God of Disboard, when they beat him in a game of chess. So he brings them over to a world governed by games.
  • After playing and beating Jibril in a game of materialization shitori, the angel who was previously racist towards humans became so impressed that she deems them Worthy Opponents and happily accepts them as her masters and serves under them.

«You know, I’ve a tip for you — next time, be mindful of who you’re going to cheat against.»

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese), Scott Gibbs (English), Cayla Coats (young, English), Cristóbal Navarro (Latin American Spanish dub/movie), Leonel Arias (Latin American Spanish dub/TV series)

An 18-year-old gamer and older stepbrother to Shiro, who forms the strategic half of «『　　』», prior to their arrival at Disboard.

• Accidental Pervert: Mostly towards Stephanie (with some incidents actually being instigated by Shiro). Actually exploited in the light novel^note .
• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the LN, Sora is described as having black hair and black eyes while he appears on the cover with a black-to-red gradient. The anime makes his hair completely red and gives him the same reddish eyes that Shiro has.
• Ambiguous Disorder: Like Shiro he’s straight up introduced with a «communication disorder», which is a catch-all term in Japanese that incorporates those with No Social Skills and those who actually have the mental condition. While different from Shiro, he still displays some pretty weird behavior like attachment disorder and an inability to walk outside in the real world.
• Anti-Hero: He’s quite immoral, a massive pervert, and willing to put people’s lives on the line. But at the end of the day he’s still on the side of good and Imanity’s best hope.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Before the match with the Warbeasts, he asks Izuna, «When was the last time you had fun playing games?», a question that keeps resurfacing in her mind during the game.
• Armor-Piercing Response: After demonstrating to Steph that luck is a non-factor in games and information is key, Sora adds that they currently can’t make a move against the other Exceeds due to not knowing anything about the enemy, which is why he and Shiro spent the month they supposedly «wasted» poring over all available books. Steph insists that they have to at least do something, whereupon Sora says that with one mistake, they’re finished. Steph is left at a loss, both because of how precarious Imanity’s situation is and that Sora actually understands the burden of leading Imanity.
• Awesome by Analysis: Sora can often analyze the situation down to its numerical figures to assess the best way to win a game, as shown during the Warbeast’s dating simulation shooter game where he breaks down all of the aerodynamic parameters from distance, velocity, trajectory, target size, etc. to try and shoot off an NPC girl’s panties.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Sora pulls several of these in the «materialization shiritori» game against Jibril. First off Sora teaches her the word «Empty-Headed Academic» and uses it as an insult. As the game progresses, Sora manages to remove the Mantle, Crust, and Lithosphere by correctly anticipating that Jibril not knowing the meaning of these words, which sends all of them plummeting to the Core. Sora and Shiro then remove Oxygen and keeps Jibril from breathing, which she tries to counter by using the word Air, which Sora once again was counting on. Since oxygen had been removed and Jibril said «Air» she brought oxygen back and in its pure, pressurised form it is toxic, which Sora and Shiro get around by sharing their breaths in circular breathing. In the final moments of the game after Sora and Shiro remove the atmosphere and prevent Jibril from speaking aloud, Jibril writes out the very word she learned earlier (Empty-Headed Academic) to spite Sora, but Sora was banking on this and revealed on the other side of the paper he wrote «Coulomb’s Force» which he could only use thanks to Jibril’s word, which leads to a hypernova capable of killing Jibril and ending the game.
  • An integral part of his strategy is playing with his opponents’ personality and/or strategy. In Episodes 8-9, he banked on Kurami (and Fiel) exploiting the chaos he caused by betting away Imanity’s Exceed piece to the Warbeasts to challenge him again, then engaged them in a game of Reversi with their own lives at stake, going so far as to deliberately play poorly until he is erased from existence just to allow Kurami to receive his memories (and prove to her that he’s sincere), counting on nothing but Shiro intuiting his actions and playing his three remaining pieces to win the game, bring him back to life, and earn both Kurami and Feel’s support in their game against the Warbeasts.
  • He even manages to pull one even against Shiro, who can anticipate almost anything while she’s Brainwashed and Crazy. When Shiro fires off a scatter of blasts against, Sora manages to catch her off guard by not dodging at all. Though of course it’s then revealed Shiro was faking being mind controlled to begin with.
• Big Brother Instinct: He’s always taking care of Shiro. So much so his first action when they were freefalling towards Disboard is to position himself so as to take the bulk of the impact.
• Blunt «Yes»:
  • He does this with Kurami after defeating her. He’s telling the truth, but she doesn’t believe him.

    Kurami: You’re not going to tell me that Imanity beat elf magic unaided, are you?

    Sora: Sure I am. It’s the truth.

  • A «no» variant of this comes into play after Kurami notes that most of his victories have been close calls, although he goes on to say that he trusts Shiro to cover him.

    Kurami: Can you really be sure you won’t make a single mistake?

    Sora: Not really.

• Breaking Speech: Delivers an epic one to Kurami after the latter decided to force her remaining pieces into massacring the enemy pieces (including those that defected from her), moments before turning the tables on her for good:

  Sora: Oppression. Rule by fear. Dictatorship. Such strange things they are. Do you know that, throughout history, those who live by the sword die by the sword, and most of the time it’s from someone who isn’t even a proper combat unit? [Kurami falls on her knees as her king piece is «assassinated» by one of her turned pieces] Sorry, but our world isn’t so nice a place as yours. When it comes to war and bloodshed, we’re leagues ahead of you.
• Broken Ace: He’s got an ego the size of the moon and flaunts it around for all to see, but underneath he hides a disillusionment with society and dislike of dealing with people, with Shiro, Jibril and Kurami being privy to his inner demons.
• Broken Pedestal: He frequently zigzags between this and Rebuilt Pedestal to Stephanie with each episode, sometimes multiple times within the span of an episode alone. One moment he’s brilliant and charismatic, and she believes he’s Imanity’s savior. Then he goes silly and/or perverted, and she believes he’ll be the final nail in Imanity’s coffin.
• Caught with Your Pants Down: Shiro confesses that, most of the times Sora «played with himself» while he thought she was sleeping, she was pretending to be asleep because his movements awoke her.
• The Chessmaster: He makes plans for everyone he comes up against, anticipating every move and manipulating the circumstances to make sure the odds are in his favor.
• Chivalrous Pervert: As much as he wants to see Stephanie naked, he has his qualms seeing Shiro the same way because she’s just a minor (and because, true-blooded or not, she’s his sister). Later, when he stripped Shiro, Stephanie and Jibril naked during his «materialization shiritori» game against the latter, his previous words were arranged such that the girls get Barbie Doll Anatomy, thus making the situation more «family-friendly». Sora also promises Ino he would never sell out the warbeasts, solely because then he’d lose access to his Cat Girl harem.
• Cold Reading: Mentioned by Sora as one of his specialties, being able to pick up on small visual queues to draw conclusions about another person. He’s able to pick up that the Warbeast’s alleged mind reading ability was nothing more than cold reading combined with being a Living Lie Detector, hence all it took was another cold reader to expose their secret.
• Comically Missing the Point: After Steph points out the problems that might arise if Feel, a high-ranking elf, tries to end slavery in her home country, Sora is shocked… that Steph understood what was being discussed. Steph lampshades this when she expresses incredulity over what Sora chose to be surprised about.
• Combat Pragmatist: Both he and Shiro are capable of this. Even if opponents try to change the rules or use some kind of loophole, once they figure out what they’re doing, they then come up with a generally effective counter. One example is when Kurami introduces some new rules in their «chess» game. Shiro is unable to defeat her using normal chess rules, so Sora takes over and starts doing different things, including a «Dare to Be Badass» speech to his «troops», and convincing Kurami’s Queen to do a Heel�Face Turn by appealing to her emotions.
• Cool Big Bro: Dotes on Shiro despite their lack of actual blood ties.
• Cool Loser: Despite his attitude, he still has excellent charisma and eloquence, and is quite handsome for a shut-in.
• Crazy-Prepared: After winning against Jibril in shiritori, the latter asks him how he knew she would use «jaku» (translates as «weak», or «empty-headed academic» in the Crunchyroll subs) when there are many other possibilities. Sora admits he really didn’t know; he just had twenty different words written down before the game even began, just in case. Ino is also shocked at how far ahead Sora planned when he challenged the warbeasts, and misled Feel so she’d unknowingly give the Elves wrong information on how the warbeasts work their games.
• A Date with Rosie Palms: Did you think a healthy young man would not want to «play with himself» a little? In the light novel it is even stated that he records Steph in Stripperific (yet Safe For Work) outfits as fap material, sometimes with Shiro actually helping him record. Of course, he properly waits until Shiro is asleep to have his alone time (although she was actually awake most of those times).
• Determinator: Sora isn’t an innate genius like Shiro but he pushes his intellectual boundaries in order to be able to understand and protect his sister’s dreams.
• Didn’t See That Coming: Despite being a Crazy-Prepared The Chessmaster, Sora is completely caught off-guard when Kurami breaks down into tears after being defeated and reveals she had been genuine in her efforts to help Imanity.
• Doting Parent: When he finds out that Leila used his DNA to have a daughter, he’s actually quite eager to the idea and wonders if he can go to visit her, musing that his paternal instincts are blossoming. When his daughter called him «Papa» for the first time, he almost got a heart attack and acknowledged that, yes, he’s her Papa!
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: At times Sora will strategically put himself at a disadvantage in order to allow for the long term plan to be executed. One instance is the Reversi game where he intentionally bet away his own existence so that Kurami would attain his memories, before letting Shiro finish the game off in his place.
• Everyone Has Standards: He’s openly a pervert and proud of it, but he absolutely refuses to see his sister Shiro in a state of undress and will go to great lengths to prevent it. He also thinks that Plum’s fetish of licking people’s sweat off their feet and Leila’s masochism are too extreme.
• Exact Words: One of Sora’s specialties. He can twist his words in such a way that they always fall under the pledges, but at the same time hide his true motive from his opponent until it’s too late. Stephanie quickly learns this and is at his mercy.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: Due to extensively hoarding himself indoors with only his computer as a light source and pouring countless hours into video games, Sora’s eyes have perpetual exhaustion creases.
• Expy: With his smug attitude, sharp logic, and simultaneous disillusionment and fascination with humanity, Sora may as well be a slightly more heroic Durarara!!‘s Izaya.
• Evil Laugh: He sometimes gives these even though he’s supposed to be good.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: The light novels revealed that his misanthropy began when he asked a classmate to walk home together and she rejected him, fearful for any rumor that may arise.
• The Gadfly: He trolls Ino by playing up that he’s Comically Missing the Point. Sora proposes a game where the stakes were betting Izuna’s panties for Stephanie’s, but when Ino becomes angered, Sora decides he wanted someone else’s panties and offers Jibril’s, followed by Shiro’s (adding that wanting an eleven year old’s panties was sick), before finally asking if he wanted Sora’s panties. All of this was done to test the Warbeast’s alleged mind-reading ability and as Sora suspected it was all a farce.
• Gender Bender: After getting sick of waiting outside the baths while the girls wash themselves, Sora asks Feel if she can use magic to turn him into a girl so he can join them. Feel replies that she can but the spell would be permanent, Sora still considers the option before Shiro prohibits it.
• Glad I Thought of It: He takes credit for noticing Kurami’s cheating, prompting Shiro to point out that she noticed it.
• Gratuitous English: Sometimes drops English words mid-dialogue like «perfect plan», «card counting», and «checkmate».
• Guile Hero: Because Imanity has no magic to survive in this sixteen-way battle royale for territories in Disboard, Sora resorts to logic, subterfuge and even outright manipulation to give them a fighting chance.
• Handy Feet: The pilot shows him and Shiro each controlling two characters with two game controllers. However when Shiro drops out from fatigue, Sora is forced to take over her characters and controls the additional two characters with his feet and still manages to win!
• Harem Seeker: Specifically a Cat Girl harem which he seeks from the Warbeasts.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: When saying to Jibril that humanity sucks, he includes himself, and that only having Shiro, one of the few really special humans around, makes him feel a little bit better.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: In Volume 5, some characters note that despite being skilled at fooling others, Sora deliberately allows himself to cultivate an image of being untrustworthy. Steph in particular comes to this epiphany about Sora.

  If he was so good at lying, then why carry himself in such a way as to always be suspected a liar?

• Hormone-Addled Teenager: In his own words, he’s at that age so he has sexual needs, sexual needs, and sexual needs. and even sexual needs!
• Hope Bringer: Elchea was in the throes of despair, then he and Shiro came along and proved that Imanity could rise to greatness again. His coronation speech is all about inspiring the people.
• Humans Are Flawed: He has absolutely no faith in humanity in general, himself included, yet he still believes in humanity’s potential, which he believes is embodied in Shiro.
• Humans Are Special: Despite having no faith in humanity, he gives a Rousing Speech to Imanity in his «we are the weak» speech, declaring that even though they were the weakest race they still survived through thick and thin using their wits and it was their weakness that made them special. He also strongly defends Imanity’s reputation against Jibril. Sora remarks that even though to the Flugel, Imanity were nothing more than ants, that didn’t mean ants were weak and powerless.

  Sora: Why is it that this whole continent once ruled by humans? Is it because we are a species that specializes in violence? We can’t use magic like the elves, nor are we physically strong like the warbeast nor do we have the longevity of the Flugel. Why were we able to rule this continent? Is it because we are master of war? I tell you it’s not! We fought and survived because we are weak! In every time, in every world.. The strong polishes their fangs while the weak polish their wisdom. Why are we in such danger now? Because the ten pledges have broken the fangs of the strong, they have learned to polish their wisdom. The wisdom and strategies that we the weak, once monopolized… The power to survive… The strong have gained them all! And brought us to this state!
  We are the weak! We are the weak, just as we have always been! Yes, nothing has changed at all! The strong may imitate our weapons, but they will never master them! Because at the hearts of our weapons lies the cowardice born of almost humiliating weakness. This cowardice has given us the wisdom to escape from magic. This cowardice has given us the wisdom, born from learning, and the experience to predict the future itself! I say for the third time, we are the weak! We are the proud weak who throughout history, who torn out the throats of those who sit back and boast out their strength!
  We hereby declare that we will live as the weak, fight as the weak, and as the weak we will destroy the strong! As we once were and as we will always be. Accept the fact that we are the weakest race. Accept that we are the weakest race, one that can become anything, because we are born with nothing!
• I Gave My Word: According to Volume 5, when Sora makes a promise, he treats it as an absolute oath.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Reveals to Jibril that along with his disillusionment with humanity and considering them misguided idiots, he also groups himself with the rest of them. The only exception he makes is Shiro who he believes embodies humanity’s potential and his desire is to be as amazing as she is.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: Sora applies a lot of skills he learned from video games into ruling a race. For example, he learned how to handle domestic affairs by playing a lot of Civilization. However, he knows that despite being a master at Dating Sims, he’s absolutely clueless about what love is like.
• Indy Ploy: Thanks to his great manipulation skills, he’s capable of adapting his strategy in the slight possibility of a wrench being thrown in his and Shiro’s plans. In volume 5, he even lampshaded that turning the tables is his job as the other half of «『　　』»
• Innocently Insensitive: Because he has been detached from society for too long, he has little idea as to how to consider others’ feelings. This went to borderline Kick the Dog levels in Episode 7 when he goes into a Despair Event Horizon-fueled rant against Stephanie’s grandfather upon discovering that Elchea lost much of its land under his reign, causing her to run off crying. When Shiro calls him out on this, Sora, visibly wry with remorse, mulls that perhaps he ran his mouth off out of shock, and to his credit, later makes up for it by changing his opinion towards Stephanie’s grandfather upon discovering that he was far smarter than he let on (see the Pet the Dog entry below).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sora is smug, condescending and perverted at his worst, and will not hesitate to manipulate people if it suits him, but when push comes to shove his heart is always in the right place.
• The Kirk: Being both extremely intelligent and highly charismatic, Sora is able to be logical minded but keeping a healthy dose of expressions, drawing people (who don’t really know any better) to him.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He overtly says that he believes humanity — including himself — to be worthless, but at the same time, he can make impassioned speeches about the strength in weakness of humankind, and chews out Kurami for believing that humans cannot survive on their own merits, without the help of another race. When questioned about this, he replies that, although he strongly dislikes humanity as it is, he genuinely believes in the potential of humanity to be something greater, best embodied in his hyper intelligent little sister, Shiro. This is ultimately what convinces Stephanie to place her full trust in him, despite the duo’s various not always moral antics.
• Large Ham: He can get extremely over the top and passionate in contrast with his quiet and reserved sister. It only gets worse with time.
• Let Me Get This Straight…: He uses this phrase before suggesting that Steph’s anger is because she blames them for her getting swindled out of all her possessions.
• Loophole Abuse: He’s aware that being caught cheating is grounds for instant defeat, so he works around this rule by cheating as discreetly as possible, and even then as a countermeasure against cheating opponents.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Sora is extremely perverted and makes no attempt to keep this secret. He jumps at every opportunity to see Stephanie in a state of undress, twisting and contorting the laws of Disboard to force these outcomes. His only limitation that he has set is he refuses to see or do anything perverted with Shiro, by virtue of her being his sister and only eleven years old, though Shiro herself doesn’t seem to mind.
• Moment of Weakness: Shiro remarks that Sora could’ve just ordered Stephanie to belong to him or be his slave, instead of falling in love with him, out of fear of staying single for the rest of his life. He properly recognized that he Didn’t Think This Through.
• Moral Guardians: Believe it or not, he’s an in-universe example because he can’t allow anything rated R-18 to happen around Shiro, because she’s a little kid.
• No Indoor Voice: He�s not shy to yell at the top of his voice whenever he gets excited.
• No-Sell: Because he’s from another world, he and Shiro lack spirits that all life in Disboard possess, granting him immunity from spirit-influencing spells, such as the Sirens’ seduction magic. This is what ultimately allows him to fulfill the conditions and awaken Leila by completely rejecting her, because what she sought was unobtainable love.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: While he apparently did nothing but play, sleep and delegate bureaucratic work to Stephanie during his first few weeks as King (together with Shiro), the latter discovers (much to her shock) that all this time Sora has been researching everything about Disboard, particularly the state of Imanity, and is simply reluctant to act because he has too little information to make his move with as little risk as possible.

  Sora: Only a fool will fight battles he cannot reasonably win.

• Oblivious to Love: After 18 years without a girlfriend or even talking to another girl his age, Sora really can’t understand a maiden’s heart, so Stephanie’s moments of real love towards him pass under his radar and he is not conscious of Shiro’s crush on him.
• Oh, Crap!: He has one after making the mistake of assuming Kurami only had one trick up her sleeve, not anticipating her using mind control magic to control his pieces.
• The One Guy: So far the only relevant male character around a whole cast of gamer chicks (as Tet doesn’t count).
• Other Me Annoys Me: Somewhere in the light novels, in order to test the limitations of the Ten Pledges, Sora made Stephanie «become Sora» for 30 minutes. The girl then proceeded to act like a total Jerkass with a god-complex — exactly as she sees him at his worst. He then tried the same with Jibril, who literally became a copy of Sora^note  and then started to act like some kid with a rampant imagination. Shiro declares both interpretations of him quite close to home, and Sora, clearly embarrassed, then decides he’ll need some time for self-review.
• Patrick Stewart Speech: While he does hate Earth’s society, he nevertheless has great faith in human potential and gave one such speech to all the people of Elchea.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He only cheats if he’s aware his opponents are trying to cheat against him. If they fight fair, so will he.
• Pet the Dog: Occasionally acts nice towards Stephanie, and without ulterior motives, too. One notable example is thanking her in Episode 5 for dealing with unruly citizens, thus contributing to Elchea’s recovery in her own way. In the next episode, even after defeating Jibril (and winning both the National Library of Elchea and her servitude), he nevertheless allows her to remain in the Library, and also grants her access to his tablet pad (which he originally placed as his bet), which contains thousands of e-books detailing life on his (and Shiro’s) home world. And in Episode 7, he indirectly apologizes to Stephanie for insulting her grandfather, having realized that all this time he knew what he was doing.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: Sora was lucky enough to have been able to bring his phone and tablet (along with a solar charger) over from the real world and is as dependant on it in Disboard as he was there, constantly seen using it.
• «The Reason You Suck» Speech:
  • He gives one to Steph, deriding her for blaming him for her inability to see through Kurami’s cheating, calling her «an emotional time-bomb,» and pressing her Berserk Button by claiming that her craziness runs in the family.
  • Delivers a hard-hitting one to Kurami at the end of the King/Queen of the Humans competition for losing faith in humanity to the point at which she’d honestly believe that they can’t survive without the backing of a superior race. He verbally bashes her so hard she loses her cool facade and breaks down crying like a little kid.
  • He delivers a much longer one in Volume 5. To sum it up, he tells the queen of the Sirens how stupid it is to wait 800 years for someone to come win her love and make her wait up, particularly her assumption that someone would love her even though there’s nothing about her that he could love.
• Red Armband of Leadership: Or more specifically, royal armband of leadership. Sora wears his crown around his left arm as opposed to Shiro who wears hers on her head.
• Refuge in Audacity: Many of the things he does comes off this way, such as his tactics during the chess game against Kurami where he instills a lot of confidence in his pieces, and later attempts to have the enemy queen do a Heel�Face Turn by appealing to her heart. And in his match against Miko, their game turns out to be a simple coin toss.
• Restored My Faith in Humanity: As early as childhood, Sora has shown sheer disillusionment with society (frequently hidden behind his smiles), until he met Shiro, who amazed him with her intelligence and perceptiveness, convincing him that perhaps humanity still has potential to transcend its limitations.
• Ret-Gone: At the end of Episode 8, after giving to Shiro some encouraging words, Sora just vanished. Nobody but her can remember him and he even disappears from the ending, that looks and sounds like it’s being poorly edited after his disappearance. Then it turns out it was an effect of his wild gambit to force Kurami (and Feel) to cooperate with (and trust) him in dealing with the Warbeasts by betting away their existence (and their sidekicks’ loyalties) in a game of Reversi.
• Sherlock Scan: Sora’s impressive ability to read people allows him to draw many conclusions through simple conversations, such as figuring out Kurami’s Blatant Lies from what she had just said.
• Smug Smiler: Sports these every now and then when feeling especially devious.
• So Proud of You: He’s in tears over the fact that Shiro has full control over Jibril as her master, saying how proud he is of his little sister.
• Stepford Smiler: He’s described as having an empty smile on his face, particularly when he’s saying what his parents want to hear.
• Stock Light-Novel Hero: Sora fits most of the criteria; he’s a NEET that is unparalleled in his gaming skills. In addition, and the main reason he fits this trope more than his sister, is because he gains a veritable harem of hot women (including said sister) who either love or become his property by one means or another. What distinguishes him from most light novel protagonists is he’s not a stereotypical Nice Guy, being incredibly arrogant and often manipulating those around him for personal gain, along with the fact he’s in all aspects still a normal human and defeats others using his own wits rather than any powers that he acquires along the way. It’s a plot point that Immanity are the «weakest» species in Disboard, Sora instead sees this as the ultimate strength and he only becomes more formidable as he defeats and forms alliances with the various other species.
• The Strategist: Sora has a brilliant mind for tactical thinking, and has a firm understanding of the psychology of the opposing player.
• Sympathy for the Hero: Sora can relate to Feel’s disillusionment with her fellow Elves as well as her devotion to Kurami, much in the same way he devotes himself to Shiro, the only human who can truly understand him.
• Thanatos Gambit: In Episode 9, he reveals a rather elaborate plan to get Kurami and Feel to join them in their game against the Warbeasts — which involved sacrificing his own existence. Fortunately, Death Is Cheap in this series and he eventually comes back, but even the former called him out for so crazy a gambit.
• What Is This Thing You Call «Love»?: Despite being a master at Dating Sims, Sora is well aware that they don’t translate to actual practice, and that his borderline misanthropy leaves him unable to comprehend what love is.
• World’s Strongest Man: He became the strongest and most dangerous man thanks to being an unbeatable gamer in an RPG Mechanics ‘Verse world such as Disboard.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: He’s aware that betting away Imanity’s Exceed piece to the Warbeasts would certainly cause an uproar among the general populace. Which he doesn’t mind, knowing very well that Kurami (and Feel) will use the opportunity to resurface and challenge him anew — allowing him to force them to play double-agent to the Elves, but also to convince the former that he’s nobody’s pawn. He also deliberately planned all these to not only force Imanity to watch him intently and show them how he does things, but also make it far more difficult for the Warbeasts to cheat with such a large audience intently observing.

«Nii, you’ve said all you need is me…»
Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese), Caitlynn French (English), Bárbara Bustamante (Latin American Spanish)

Sora’s younger, 11-year-old stepsister and fellow gamer, this time as the analytical half of «『　　』».

• A-Cup Angst: When they arrived at Disboard, one of her first concerns was about nutrition, because she wanted to «get bigger». Sora reassures her that she’s already beautiful as she is. This is lampshaded in Episode 2, when she tries one of Stephanie’s childhood dresses and is shocked to discover that it’s quite large on the chest area.
• Action Girl: She turns into one during the game in Episode 11. Sora notes that she’s much more talented than he is in FPSs, the game they’re currently playing. She’s more than a match for Izuna even with the latter’s cheating.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Everyone who has known Shiro has expressed dismay about her extreme intelligence and maturity, to the point that she became a shut-in.
• Ambiguous Disorder: One of the first things the audience learns of her is that she has a communication disorder. In Japanese parlance, that is a catch-all phrase that covers not only what is strictly the medical definition of this term, such as Speech Impediment, but also such things as social anxiety or autism.
• Badass Adorable: Not that she gets to show her gaming skills quite as blatantly as Sora, but once she gets her chance (mostly if playing an FPS), this otherwise helplessly cute little girl readily shows why she is half of one of the gaming world’s most feared guilds.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Sora is the only person who understands and appreciates her intelligence and doesn’t alienate her for it. Shiro repays this by following him unconditionally.
• Big Brother Attraction: She has harboured feelings for her brother that go beyond fraternal love since she was 3 years old.
• Casting Gag: Given that she’s voiced by Ai Kayano, she might as well be a younger, albino Mashiro Shiina, with both girls being pretty strange, and may or may not be autistic. They even have similar names with Shiro meaning white for both girls.
• Cat Smile: Often spots this thanks to the design of her mouth. It help to emphasize that, whenever Shiro does smile, she’s being specially mischievous.
• Child Prodigy: She’s extremely brilliant for her age, especially in terms of her gaming skill. A flashback then shows she was seen passing all intelligence tests given to her back as a 1-year-old. At that age, most toddlers are still starting to speak.
• Children Are Innocent: Subverted since she’s definitely not innocent, being highly intelligent for her age and showing many signs of being a Dirty Kid, but she sometimes uses this notion as an excuse for her actions.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • Doesn’t like it when Sora takes a shine to other girls (such as Stephanie). This is showcased in Episode 5, when she refuses to let Sora lose to Stephanie to make him a «fulfilled human» (i.e., rich and with a girlfriend), going so far as to elbow him and play in his place, while pettily continuing to punish Stephanie as payback.
  • Not even Sora’s «daughter» is allowed to take prevalence over her in Sora’s eyes. When Sora was ready to glomp his daughter, Shiro literally punched him in the face.
• Color Failure: She’s prone to this from time to time, such as after being temporarily separated from Sora in Episode 2, and in Episode 11, when she realized the virtual-reality venue of her and Sora’s game against Izuna looks too similar to modern-day Tokyo.
• Combat Clairvoyance: Her unparalleled analytical skills and taking into consideration of external factors allows her to anticipate her opponent’s moves to a level that borderlines on precognition as Izuna finds out.
• Deuteragonist: Sora may have a somewhat more active role due to his ability to read and manipulate people, but Shiro also has skills that he doesn’t possess and both of them make it a point of playing every game together as one. So as such, rather than coming off as a sidekick, she’s more of the co-protagonist along with Sora.
• Dirty Kid: Shows lots of shades of it.
  • In Episode 2, she «congratulates» Sora for «graduating from being a virgin», and later kicked him such that he ends up lying on top of a half-naked Stephanie (and accidentally groping her in the process), then proceeded to take pictures of it.
  • In Episode 9 she casually fondles Stephanie’s breasts just to convince her that just because Sora was erased from existence doesn’t necessarily mean that all his actions had been transferred to her.
  • In Episode 11, upon learning that if she shoots an ally during the Warbeasts’ game then they’ll become their love slave, she immediately shot Sora.
  • In the light novels, she also admitted to being aware that Sora whacks off to erotic pictures of Stephanie at night.
• Emotionless Girl: Subverted. You might think this at first glance because of her demeanor, but she’s just The Stoic. She can be quite emotional at times, especially when it comes to her brother.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite being more perverted than an average 11 year girl and very possesive over her brother, Shiro will always call Sora out whenever he goes as far as to make a girl cry.
• Exotic Eye Designs: If you look closely, you’ll see her iris and pupil resemble one of the shows symbols: the power up button.
• Gamer Chick: Only 11 years old and she’s already kicking digital ass.
• Handy Feet: The pilot episode shows her controlling two controllers with her feet as her hands are busy eating.
• Hates Baths: According to Sora, she stopped bathing a long time ago due to their pathological need to be never too far away from each other, and that Sora watching her bathe is essentially child porn.
• Heroic BSoD: Suffers one at the end of Episode 8, after Sora disappears. In the light novel she spent the rest of the day crying, while in the anime all she sees are shades of gray, even as she played games with Stephanie and Jibril, hoping she can convince them that her «Nii» existed.
• Hulk Speak: The English version of the manga translates Shiro’s speech in a somewhat broken manner to reflect the «communication disorder» she’s supposed to have.
• Idiot Savant: She has difficulty communicating with others and is implied to have a mental disorder, possibly some form of autism. But she also has a brain some supercomputers would probably be jealous of. At age eleven!
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Shiro holds the records for best player in FPS games and uses those skills in the Warbeast dating shooter game where she’s able to ricochet her bullet off multiple walls to intercept the bullet of an opponent.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: Showed incredible intellect from a very early age, so much so that researchers isolated her so they could study her. While she put up with the tests and games they had her do, she seemed bored and lonely until she met Sora.
• Little Miss Snarker: Tends to engage in this once in a while, usually whenever Sora is getting too extreme, or Stephanie is «being a Steph».
• Little Sister Heroine: She’s actually Sora’s stepsister. She adores him, to the point of hinting she might have a crush on him. Sora only loves Shiro as his cute little sister, though.
• Logical Weakness: In every sense of the phrase, considering her weakness is, indeed, being too logical to the point of being almost machine-like. She can easily defeat computers built to challenge chess grandmasters by beating them at their own game, planning out complex strategies spanning many moves ahead that anticipate any move the opponent may make and developing a counter to every single one of them. However, when an opponent makes suboptimal plays (or simply cheats), Shiro has trouble adapting her strategy to an unexpected scenario. That’s where Sora comes in.
• Moment of Weakness: In episode 9, she started to consider that Sora may be a false memory, and was about to throw a chess game against Jibril just to rid herself of the pain of remembering a brother who may have never existed. Only by remembering the vow she made to never lose did she manage to trudge on to victory.
• No-Sell: Like Sora, because she’s not of Disboard she lacks spirits within her body, allowing her to be immune to magic that interacts with spirits.
• Not So Stoic: In Episode 3, she breaks down in tears when she realized that she couldn’t win the magic chess game conventionally, thinking that she broke the promise she and Sora made. In Episode 5, her voice curiously sounds really uneasy when Sora was really considering losing on purpose to Stephanie. And at the end of Episode 8 she falls into a Heroic BSoD upon discovering that her brother is nowhere to be found.
• Omniglot: Learned Imanity (the language) only minutes after reading a book, and apparently knows eighteen different languages, including their classical versions. (In the anime, at least, she mentions that the written and spoken languages are the same, so since the spoken language is just Japanese, she could have figured it out by correlating grapheme frequencies with phoneme frequencies. One would only need a page or so to be reasonably sure of the meanings, and a genius-level mathematical savant could have done the necessary calculations in her head easily.)
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: In Episode 5 she reminds Sora that they can only lose to each other.
• Photographic Memory: She’s able to memorize complicated things by only seeing it once. In the game against the Flügels. where they need to find the 46 katakana characters among thousands of Flügels, she’s able to memorize both the Flügels with characters on them and the character they have.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:

  Shiro: Chess is not different from Tic-Tac-Toe.

• Prescience by Analysis: She can anticipate opponent movements to borderline precognition levels, which she can calculate through complex equations that take into account many parameters.
• Raised in a Lab: Shiro was moved to a lab — apparently with her mother’s consent — before she turned one, due to her ludicrous intelligence. A Child Prodigy writ large, she was already speaking fluently at that point, and acing every intelligence-test put to her — rendering her IQ effectively immeasureable. While the tests and experiments we see all appear to be fairly ethical and nonintrusive, this nonetheless left her with a sense of profound isolation and disconnect from the rest of humanity, with her first real human connection being the fateful encounter with her step-brother, Kuro — a prodigy in his own right, though not to the same degree. We never find out how she eventually left the lab, though smart money is on it being thanks to Kuro and his mastery of social manipulation. Either way, those years left their mark — without Kuro close at hand, she’s completely nonfunctional, basically shutting down and going catatonic.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: Cute young girl? Check. Light blue hair? Check. Unnatural reddish eyes? Check. Pale skin? Check. Very quiet, calm and reclusive nature? Check.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: She uses her sailor uniform despite never going to school. The light novel reveals, through a memory, that she uses it because her Nii said she looked cute in it.
• Shipper on Deck: Having Clingy Jealous Girl tendencies didn’t stop Shiro from congratulating Sora on «losing his virginity» when he won against Steph for the first time and made her fall in love with him. She even kicked him into Steph, causing him to accidentally grab her boobs, and took pictures of the event.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: She has long light blue hair and she’s pretty quiet, soft-spoken and reclusive most of the time.
• Smart People Play Chess: And super geniuses memorize the 10^120 possible states of the board so that way all she needs to do is move her pieces the better way to checkmate her opponent. Although it’s clear that her Badass Boast that «[for her] chess is no different from tic-tac-toe» is mere hyperbole; she may have memorized a massive set of states, but Sora claims that her algorithms can fail against certain imperfect strategies (which Shiro doesn’t dispute), hence Tet’s strategy to Do Well, But Not Perfect was potentially dangerous for her and Sora needed to let her know which moves were psychological rather than strategic.
• The Spock: The most logical, intelligent and stone-faced of the main characters.
• The Stoic: She rarely shows much emotion at all on her face. She’s not an Emotionless Girl though.
• The Strategist: Although Sora seems to be better than her in this department, Shiro is quite the strategist herself, and is able to keep up with her brother’s tactics.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Stoic and reserved, but still a loving little girl who adores her brother Sora.
• Third-Person Person: As is common for a child, Shiro sometimes speaks in third-person.
• Token Mini-Moe: Of the original quartet (until Izuna joins). Justified, as she’s only a preteen.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She has quite an active sexual imagination for an eleven year old, not minding if Sora does something R-Rated with Steph and even tries to make it happen.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: No matter how much she humiliates Stephanie via a gradual Shameful Strip, Shiro actually likes Stephanie. When Sora ask her if she was mad at Steph, Shiro says she isn’t, implying she’s more angry at him. Later, when Sora accidentally made Stephanie cry after insulting her grandfather one too many times, she calls him out on this.
• Wise Beyond Her Years: Shiro is far more intelligent than your average 11-year-old.
• World’s Smartest Woman: Sora believes Shiro to be this, seeing her as humanity’s potential. She’s a Child Prodigy with a computer like mind, able to win 20 consecutive chess games against a simulation designed to beat grandmasters, and compute complex physics equations to pull off Awesome by Analysis. If she didn’t have this status in the real world, she certainly does in Disboard, as when she and her brother arrive in this world governed by games, their status as Godlike Gamers made them the unbeatable Kings of Imanity.

• Being Human Sucks: Imanity is ranked dead last because they cannot use or even detect magic, they are not physically strong, and they have short lives. They only had to rely on their intellect and cunning to survive, and after Tet’s banning of violence, they slowly turned into a dying race because all of the other races started to incorporate intelligence into their advantages, leaving Imanity with even greater disadvantages. Most Exceeds above Imanity even go as far as to dismiss them because of their lowly Exceed rank. They are not actually Exceeds at all, but a native species in Disboard, elevated to such a position due to the actions of Riku, Schwi and Corone Dora which led to the birth of Tet, god of games.
• Weak, but Skilled: Sora thinks Imanity’s advantage over other races is entirely in skill. In the past, Imanity has ruled over the continent solely because they used their intelligence and cunning to overcome their more powerful enemies. It’s in the same way that Sora and Shiro plan to take Imanity to the top of the Exceed hierarchy.

«Mock me however you want, but take back what you said about Grandpa…!»

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa (Japanese), Sara Ornelas (English), Ruth Costanzo (Latin American Spanish)

Sixteen-year-old commoner and ex-crown princess of Elchea, by way of her late grandfather. Determined to restore his honor, she participated in the inheritance games but failed miserably, until an encounter with Sora and Shiro convinced her that perhaps her kin still has hope.

• The Ace: Questionable gaming skills aside, Stephanie is shown to excel in every other department, which comes in handy after Sora and Shiro win dominion over Elchea, where she handles most of the political work while the siblings play games with other races. When Sora and Shiro find out she graduated high school with honors and has friends, they’re both quite shocked to hear that. Inu notes that she’s actually a far better gambler than she thinks she is and she would recognize this were she not bringing herself down by constantly comparing herself to «『　　』».
• All-Loving Heroine: Sora tells Stephanie that her biggest flaw is that she’s too trusting and wishes to see the best in everyone.
• Audience Surrogate: Being nothing special at games or strategy, Stephanie needs a lot of things explained to her by Sora and Shiro (and also for the benefit of the audience).
• Bad Liar: Stephanie cannot tell an effective lie, much less with a straight face, which sometimes proves detrimental to Sora’s strategies, which heavily rely on guile.
• Beleaguered Assistant: She gets very little sleep between the end of volume 3 and the end of volume 5 because of all the background work Sora and Shiro have her doing. There’s the paperwork for annexing the Eastern Union, the constant challenges from all the big whigs of Elchea when it comes to distributing the new lands, researching the Siren’s game in her grandfather’s library, and then more paperwork for annexing Oceana and arranging the alliance with Avant Heim.
• Berserk Button: She won’t tolerate any insult towards her late grandfather, the last King of Elchea, and wants to prove to humanity that he wasn’t a «foolish king».
• Boob-Based Gag: Her breasts are frequently used as a source of comedy, mostly by making silly sound effects as they bounce around, while episode 2 compared them visually to a pair of flans.
• Butt-Monkey: By the end of the first volume, the poor girl has been reduced from elegant princess of Elchea to pet princess of Sora and Shiro. During Episodes 5-6, she was forced to act like a dog for a day as punishment for losing to Sora in blackjack (and out of spite for her being more socially-adept than he or Shiro), and later forced her to «tank» for them during the «materialization shiritori» game against Jibril. Sora and Shiro even start using her name as a derogatory term.

  Shiro: Shut up, Steph You’re just a Steph.

• Chekhov’s Gunman: Literally, with a toy gun to boot. Throughout the game against Izuna (a 1-to-4 handicap), all she apparently did was get shot at by NPCs and Izuna. Then she ultimately proved to be Sora and Shiro’s metaphorical middle finger to the Warbeasts’ underhanded tactics — having already calculated NPC moves, the duo then had Stephanie ride on the back of one, keep her eyes shut so Izuna and Inu could never detect anything from her, and gun down Izuna at the appropriate time (just as the latter has began gloating over her apparent victory).
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Sora, Shiro and Jibril brush off all her concerns about betting the Race Piece and risking Imanity’s existence to win against the Warbeasts.
• Crush Filter: Due to Sora’s order forcing her to fall in love with him, every time Stephanie sees him, he looks like a total princely Bishōnen.
• Don’t Think, Feel: Sora notes that her greatest weaknesses are her habit of over-analyzing things and a really bad poker face, allowing her opponent to easily read and outplay her. When she doesn’t care anymore and just plays by pure instinct, however, he also notes that she can become just as good as he is, and can possibly even defeat Shiro.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Despite Steph’s shortcomings, she is the first person who openly acknowledges that Feel trying to free the slaves can be construed as treason. Sora is shocked that she actually followed the conversation, rather than by what Feel just said.
• The Eeyore: As plucky as she can be, she’s also quite pessimistic about Imanity’s chances of keeping Elchea. This annoys Sora to no end, who complains about similar she is from Kurami.
• The Face: She’s the one interacting with the ministers of Elchea’s government, she’s more comfortable addressing crowds than Sora or Shiro, and she has connections to all the noble families in the country because she has school friends in every one of them.
• Fatal Flaw: While she isn’t too stupid (to the siblings’ shock), she’s indeed too trusting and ingenue, and really needs to learn to be a Steph ahead of her opponent.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Her baking skills are quite good, considering that she was able to make delicious cookies even with what meager food resources Elchea had.
• Foil: Stephanie is everything Sora and Shiro are not. She finished high school (with honors), has friends (with influences), is rich, cheerful, plucky, a princess and also has big boobs. Unfortunately, the siblings have the gaming skills that she doesn’t have, which, in such a world as Disboard, is the one skill that really matters.
• Going Commando: In any given episode there is a strong possibility that her panties will either disappear, get confiscated or lost in a bet, thus forcing her to go about without them.
• Head Desk: She repeatedly slams her head against whatever is nearby out of frustration whenever she is forced to uphold her end of any loss or attempt to deny her growing feeling for Sora. Said thing her head is slamming always ends up breaking before her head does.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite effectively running Elchea and constantly thwarting the selfish nobles, she still considers herself to be nothing more than a Butt-Monkey errand girl for «『　　』». Inu, after watching both her political and gambling skills firsthand, notes that she’d actually make a great ruler were she not constantly comparing herself to Sora and Shiro, who are at a completely different level (as in the one where they can actually go toe-to-toe with Tet himself).
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: While playing a game of blackjack against Sora, Stephanie tries to cheat by false shuffling. However, Sora not only notices but uses said cheating to help him count the cards.
• Identical Granddaughter: To her ancestor Corone Dora, Riku’s younger stepsister and the first Queen of Elchea.
• In-Series Nickname: Her name is shorthanded to «Steph» by Sora and Shiro.
• Iron Butt Monkey: She frequently slams her head against whatever is nearby in frustration, leaving holes or large cracks in the wall, yet she always walks away with at worst a few cuts and bleeds.
• It Was a Gift: Her hair is decorated with a large blue flower-shaped hairpin, a gift from her late grandfather. She also uses it to conceal the key to his secret chamber.
• Large Ham: Not as frequent as Sora, but she also raises her voice several times throughout the series.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Much like her grandfather (or so he seemed until his plan was discovered), Stephanie is prone to making absurdly huge bets even with mediocre gaming skills at best. Much of the series’ humor stems from her constantly losing to Sora and Shiro in games due to misplaced bravado and ending up being forced to do something extremely embarrassing. Sora chews her out for this in Episode 5.
• Love Epiphany: Jibril speculates that Stephanie may be in love with Sora in Episode 7 when she makes some sweets for them. Cue Stephanie banging her head against the table.
• Male Gaze: Frequently. To put into perspective, in her Versus Character Splash, rather than her face, we are instead treated to a Panty Shot. This also served as Foreshadowing to the fact that not only would she lose to Shiro, but would also be forced to hand over her panties for Shiro to wear on her head.
• The McCoy: The most passionate and people-oriented of the trio. Unfortunately, her habit of acting without thinking (or not knowing better) has caused her more harm than good.
• Ms. Exposition: While she doesn’t have the first clue about gaming and it’s Sora who provides the Info Dumps in that department, she is quite knowledgeable about the history and culture of Disboard which is helpful for Sora and Shiro who are newcomers to this land.
• Na�ve Everygirl: She really believes games are more about luck and chance than intelligence and guile, which leaves her at the mercy of more manipulative people (such as Sora).
• Never My Fault: She gets angry with Sora after she loses to Kurami, blaming Sora for not telling her how Kurami is cheating instead of acknowledging that she fell for Kurami’s tricks.
• No Poker Face: This is one of the reasons why she’s so terrible at games; her face reveals everything. Unfortunately for her, she’s constantly at the mercy of Sora who specializes at reading people.
• Nosebleed: She gets this when giving doughnuts to Izuna, overcome with cuteness at feeding her.
• Only Sane Woman: She provides a «normal» perspective on the bizarre behavior of 『　　』, and later Jibril as well.
• Person as Verb: Sora and Shiro once took to calling her «a Steph». The girl just cannot decide whether or not this is derogatory.
• Plucky Girl: No matter how many times Sora and Shiro defeat her, the girl just won’t give up. This actually gives her some results (see Took a Level in Badass below).
• Politically-Active Princess: She pretty much kept Elchea going after her grandfather’s death and she takes care of all political matters while Sora and Shiro find ways to win games with other races.
• Power Copying: Ino compliments her in volume 4 by saying that her style of play has come to resemble that of 『　　』’s, full of cheats and mind games.
• Princess Classic: She is the beautiful, kind and innocent princess of Elchea and she always wears an elegant dress given to her by her grandfather. Unfortunately, she loses her position and now is Sora and Shiro’s plaything.
• Proper Lady: She was raised to be polite and graceful etc. as expected of a princess, but her time with Sora and Shiro has led to a decay of these traits. By volume 4, she wonders where her «lady’s grace» has gone.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Much of the fanservice the series has been at the poor ex-princess’s expense, after a long string of lost bets against Blank, she loses almost all her clothes and only ends up with a loincloth to cover herself with.
• Riches to Rags: By the time she came knocking onto Sora and Shiro’s lodging, she has been reduced from a dignified princess to literally wearing nothing but her panties and a Modesty Bedsheet. In the end, thanks to Sora and Shiro, she does retain a place in the court, but she never does become queen even though she initially was the rightful heir to the throne.
• The Rival: To Shiro for Sora’s affection, especially in the beginnings when she still was under Sora’s command of «falling for him» and Shiro didn’t have a firm friendship with her. The anime downplays it.
• Sexy Secretary: When not serving as Sora and Shiro’s plaything, she works like one, doing paperwork for them and screening visitors, most likely in cosplay.
• Simple-Minded Wisdom: Because she normally says things without thinking them through, Stephanie is sometimes able to say some wise things since she doesn’t consider logic or having solid proof.
  • This is shown well during the time when Sora disappeared; despite not remembering him, she was able to deduce that his disappearance may have something to do with a game he played under the 10 Pledges.
  • In Volume 4, she’s able to tell there’s something fishy on the Dhampires and Seiranes’ plan to awake Leila, since it involves betting up their lives when the ones getting beneficed are the former Exceeds. Turns out, she was right and it was her self-preservation instinct talking on how they all were being both players and pieces.
• Smarter Than You Look: Sora and Shiro were shocked when Stephanie proved to be very politically, academically and socially adept. In the light novels, after Sora is surprised that Steph understands the possible ramifications of Feel opposing slavery in her home country, Steph points out that she has to be knowledgeable about politics, since Sora and Shiro stuck her with the job of running the country.

  Sora: I mean, Steph is a Steph…

• Stockholm Syndrome: Though originally compelled by the Pledges by Sora to love him, she gradually began to genuinely fall in love with Sora as time passed. It’s implied that it’s not just because of Sora’s command (because, according to Jibril, Steph was only commanded to fall in love, not stay in love with Sora).
• Tears of Joy: After Sora and Shiro win the chess match against Kurami and win back her clothes given to her by her grandfather, in the process vindicating his belief that Imanity can thrive even without magic.
• Through His Stomach: Jibril theorizes that Stephanie subconsciously is using pastries and other sweets to gain Sora’s affections, no matter how much she denies it.
• Took a Level in Badass: While she’s still nowhere near the competency level of Sora and Shiro, the days she spent playing with them actually helped develop her gaming and strategic skills, such that she can hold her own perfectly against any human who dares to cross her (or the siblings).
• Tsundere: For Sora. After the latter accidentally orders her to fall in love with him after losing at a game of rock-paper-scissors, Stephanie would have no choice but to comply. This leads her to spontaneously switch from love-sick to slamming her head against the wall in frustration at herself. Although she’s starting to fall in love with him for real.
• Verbal Tic: Always finishes her sentences with «desu wa», likely to showcase her royal upbringing.
• The Watson: Helps shine some light on 『　　』’s strategies. Often makes her look less intelligent than she actually is.

«Not believing in humans, yet believing in the possibility of humans… Interesting. Very well, I’ll try to believe too.»

An 18-year-old girl who has aligned herself with the Elves, the seventh-ranking race, to become Queen of the Humans.

• A-Cup Angst: In Episode 10, when Sora says they should do introductions, she does a very brief one about herself. When she refuses to say more, he starts spouting personal things about her, such as wearing a padded bra. She then cuts him off and says she’ll do it properly. Later when she protests wanting to take a bath with them all, Feel inadvertently verifies what Sora was suspecting earlier when she says Kurami isn’t confident about her bust size, especially compared to the other girls with much larger breasts.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: An anime-exclusive scene has Feel mention that Kurami is planning to apologize to Steph for stealing her kingdom from her. Kurami’s embarrassed reaction implies Feel is right.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason she sticks with Feel through thick and thin is because the latter treated her more like a daughter than a slave, even if she has to put her reputation as nobleman at risk.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Constantly deluded herself that Sora and Shiro may have been working with another race (when in truth, they’ve nothing but their wits and each other to get by). It actually got worse by the time she is seen again, having come to the conclusion that the Warbeasts, who defeated Imanity eight times, Elves four, and Jibril once, must have been backing the siblings. It got so bad Sora had to deliberately play poorly so she gets his memories just to convince her that he’s nobody’s mole.
• Blatant Lies: She keeps insisting that she’s not a crybaby, despite Feel’s notes that she often whimpers whenever she’s not around, let alone the fact that she was already reduced into a blubbering mess twice before Sora, Shiro and Stephanie.
• Break the Haughty: She’s smug and self-assured in her introductory arc, but ends up being humbled after losing to Blank.
• Character Development: Over time, as a result of losing to Sora and Shiro, and seeing Sora’s memories, she gains more faith in humanity’s potential, at the cost of starting to question her own worth as a gamer compared to Blank. After defeating Ron Barter at Oracle Card, a game exclusively used by elves, she tells him not to underestimate Imanity; it’s quite like Sora once said to her.
• Defeat Means Friendship: While it took two defeats, she decides to help Sora and Shiro after Episode 9’s duel, having learned more about them and why they’re doing things the way they are in order to help Imanity.
• Determined Defeatist: The core of her policy of aligning herself with other races is based on this sort of thinking. Because she believes Imanity can’t achieve anything on their own, she acquires aid from the Elves, which she stated was very hard in and of itself.
• Empty Shell: She was temporarily reduced to this state after losing again to Sora in a game of Reversi with their existence at stake. Sora, however, later willingly gives it back, in the process sharing each other’s memories, convincing her that Sora is trustworthy.
• The Extremist Was Right: Downplayed — while Sora has no problems about an Imanity-Elf alliance, he does find her lack of faith in human potential appalling.
• Full-Name Basis: In some of their earlier scenes together, Kurami calls Steph «Stephanie Dola.»
• Happily Adopted: Of a sorts, by Feel, her elven master, who is also basically her mother.
• Happiness in Slavery: Zig-zagged. On the one hand, Feel is a kind owner and caring friend to Kurami. On the other hand, even with Feel around, Kurami has a lifetime worth of unpleasant memories from being a slave.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Now with all of Sora’s memories, Clammy can’t help to compare herself to him and she starts to believe she relies too much on Feel’s magic (as in being a burden to her) and decides she needs to improve her game without it. She also can’t comprehend why Feel, someone who could have been a legend around her family and race for actually being a Class-6, decided to put herself down, live the humiliation of being considered less than she is and take great risks just for an Imanity she calls «friend».
• Hero of Another Story: The light novels normally take a chapter or mention at the end about her and Feel’s efforts on the emancipation and abolition of slavery in Elvengard.
• Hidden Buxom: Subverted — she claims she’s the type who «looks smaller in clothes», but Sora saw through it and concluded it’s just Feel’s illusion magic at work.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: She didn’t just lose because Sora and Shiro were better players — they also tricked her into hastily using her spells, leaving her open to a well-aimed mind-breaking courtesy of Sora.
• Identical Grandson: Judging from her childhood memories, she greatly resembles her ancestor, Nonna Zierh, who was rescued by Riku and Corone during the Great War. They even share the same Japanese voice actress.
• Legacy of Service: She’s a descendant of a long line of slaves to the Nilvalen household, although she’s on pretty good terms with her master, Feel.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: In the light novel, she’s greatly distressed with Sora’s memories because a great amount of them are nearly 18 years of H-games, ero novels and porn, and now they’re all uploaded in her brain, alongside all the angst Sora had to endure back at Earth.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: While she’s fairly competent and has solid teamwork with Feel, she can’t quite compare to Sora and Shiro. This realization troubles her, as does the idea that Feel’s doing most of the work.
• Precision F-Strike: She calls Sora a «son of bitch» in the dub of an anime-exclusive scene after learning that he bet the Race Piece for Imanity.
• Puppet King: As much as she consciously tells herself that she will defy this trope, Sora punctures her belief time and again, questioning her on whether or not she’s just deluding herself, let alone playing right into the elves’ hands.
• The Quisling: She appears to the rest of Imanity as one of their own selling them out to the elves. The truth is complicated… in more ways than one.
• Restored My Faith in Humanity: After being inspired by Sora’s memories to never give up on human potential, the two part ways on good terms after having forced a tie with Miko, with Kurami promising to change Imanity’s lot at Elven lands. This hilariously didn’t stop her from wavering her opinion of him back and forth à la Stephanie during the match against Izuna.

  Sora: [Disappointed at how shooting a NPC’s panties makes them disappear completely] Damn it! I failed! Why?!
  Kurami: [Sweat drop] I give up on this race. It’s full of morons.

• Shoo the Dog: She tries to get Feel to not be nice to her, because of the stigma of an elven noble affiliating with a slave, but Feel refuses.
• Spell My Name with an S: Is it «Kurami» or «Clammy»? The anime website seems to gravitate towards the even more out-of-the-way «Chlammy», as evidenced by her image file◊. The localization of the light novels uses «Chlammy.» Some translations use «Zierh» as her surname, but others use «Zell.»
• Starter Villain: While far from evil, she’s the first major opponent that Sora and Shiro must defeat in order to lead Elchea.
• Villain Has a Point: Sora, while still enemies with Kurami, agrees that Imanity could use the help of another race, but despises the idea that they would have to become dependent on their new ally.
• Warm-Up Boss: She’s the first major obstacle that Sora and Shiro face off against when they enter the new world. Though she has some tricks up her sleeves, they eventually manage to defeat her solely through their own wits rather than relying on magic like she was. Though an argument could also be made that she’s more of a Wake-Up Call Boss, considering that she actually put the duo through the ringer and even had Shiro break down, believing victory to be impossible.
• We Do Not Know Each Other: When Sora and Shiro confront Kurami about her cheating, she never refers to Feel by name, simply calling her «that elf» and pretending they’re strangers, all as part of an act while claiming that Sora and Shiro set her up.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Only aligns herself with the Elves because she believes Imanity, as it is, has absolutely no chance of getting anywhere in Disboard on their own.

«The chances are so close to zero, but it’s not quite there yet.»

Voiced by: Jun Fukushima (Japanese), Josh Morrison (English)

The last king of Elchea and Stephanie’s late grandfather, infamous for losing all Imanity lands save Elchea to other races.

• Didn’t Think This Through: In the novel, Sora initially thinks this of his plan to hold a gambling tournament to determine his successor, saying that it essentially invites other races to cheat using magic and install a puppet (e.g. Kurami). Once Sora’s opinion of the previous king improves after realizing his plan behind the losses to the Warbeasts, Sora surmises that the king anticipated this, and so hoped that someone would be able to see through the outside interference, win the throne and compete with the rival Exceeds.
• The Faceless: His actual face is either almost always obscured or he is seen facing the back. Even his appearance at Stephanie’s flashbacks during her game of blackjack against Sora is implied to be just that. Anime flashbacks of him on his deathbed are shown from a first-person perspective, or with Stephanie obscuring him.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: He’s posthumously known as a foolish king for a string of losses (including eight to the Warbeasts) yet he holds the key to reversing Imanity’s situation.
• Leeroy Jenkins: How the majority of Imanity (save Stephanie) saw him as, because under his reign their territory, once the largest of the sixteen Exceeds prior to the war of the gods, dwindled to nothing but the small patch of land around the capital. Sora had something to say about the time he lost their library to Jibril.
• Loophole Abuse: In his games against the Warbeasts, he lost eight times straight, but his memories were never erased as what happened to Jibril, because, as Sora theorized, they thought him (and all Imanity) to be not worth the effort, and instead chose to give him a Hope Spot, fooling him into losing battles (and giving them more lands), with the stipulation that he keep shut about his ordeals for as long as he lived. Sora notes, however, that there’s no rule stating he couldn’t «talk» about it after he died, in the form of a journal he kept about the games, locked away in a secret room behind one of his bookshelves, accessible only through a key he gave to Stephanie on his deathbed.
• No Name Given: He’s generally referred to as «the previous king,» «Steph’s grandfather,» or variants thereof.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: As Sora discovered in Episode 7, Stephanie’s grandfather may be smarter than he let on — while he did lose to Warbeasts eight consecutive times, he bet away territories deemed less productive with current Imanity technology, and was secretly committing his experiences on paper to get around his pledge to never speak of them. While he’s aware he’s a bad gamer and is going to get a poor historical write-up, he’s willing to carry on, hoping to pass on what he learned to whoever will succeed him. Sora’s opinion of him greatly improves upon finding out.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: He’s well-aware that he’s a horrible gamer, so he spent his remaining years preparing his successor. In particular, he played a losing game with Warbeasts eight times just so he could memorize the process and thus provide clues to whoever would succeed him.
• Playing Card Motifs: His appearance (if it really is) is based on the typical king design used in playing cards.
• Posthumous Character: He’s been dead for at least two years before Sora and Shiro arrived.
• Royal «We»: Uses this in his journal.
• Thanatos Gambit: He challenged the Warbeasts eight times, knowing that he would always lose, and knowing they intentionally didn’t erase his memories because he had no chance of winning. Playing the game so many times did allow him to understand how the game worked. However he was kept under pledge never to reveal the game to anyone so long as he lived, so he instead left the valuable information to his successor after he died. Sora and Shiro take said information and use it to beat the Warbeasts.
• Troll: Played for Laughs when his granddaughter has a vision of his advice after losing to Sora in a game of blackjack:

  King: If you opponent is another Imanity, you’re just screwed. [his apparition moves away as Stephanie begs him to return]

• Xanatos Gambit: All of his losses were meant to be one of these. For example, gambling Elchea’s library away to Jibril, who was looking for a place to keep her growing collection of books. If he somehow wins, then he gets her vast library. If he loses, that’s fine, because not only will his successor win back the library, now expanded with Jibril’s collection, but he gets to keep a Flugel nearby to observe.

«This world, really is a simple «game».

The protagonist of Volume 6. Riku was the leader of a small colony of 2,000 Imanitians during the Great War that laid waste to Disboard 6,000 years ago, and is both the older stepbrother to Corone and husband to Schwi, an Ex-Machina.

• All-Loving Hero: Schwi believes that he’s really this. Despite the despair, death and destruction that the Exceeds are causing, he still wishes for the well-being of all the races.
• An Arm and a Leg: He seriously burns and loses his left arm after he exposes himself to elemental bones to hide his identity from the other clans.
• Bandage Mummy: He wraps not only his face, but his entire body in bandages after his hands, left eye and all his skin get burnt.
• Beneath the Mask: On the surface, he appears to be a cold, calm and confident. He maintains this mask behind a lock in order to become a symbol of hope to the people that follow him. Deep down, he’s barely holding himself together and trying hard to keep himself from breaking down in despair. The only one he reveals parts of his true self to is Schwi because she can see right through his mask.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Riku has to carry the burden of an entire colony depending on his decisions and being forced to send his own men to their deaths several times. Schwi can see through his cold-hearted mask and kindly helps him open up to his true emotions.
• The Chains of Commanding: In order to prevent any Exceed from both discovering the whereabouts of the colony as well as not show any hostile action so that the Exceed will not perceive Imanity as a threat, he would order those under his command to run away to their deaths. They all followed his order willingly, knowing that massing together will only lead to their collective doom.
• The Chessmaster: He managed to manipulate the Exceed into forming alliances with one another while providing each side with information of each others’ respective Weapon of Mass Destruction that would ensure a long stalemate and buy him time to come up with a plan to end the Great War. He did so with nothing but bluff and guile.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: He became the leader of a small colony of Imanity when he was only 13 years old.
• The Commandments: The laws of Disboard were not created by Tet. They were created by Riku and Schwi.
• Conveniently an Orphan: His parents died while they were caught in a war between the Flügel and Dragoneers.
• Defrosting Ice King: He pretends to be an aloof and cold-hearted person. His interactions with Schwi slowly breaks this mask to pieces. Whats underneath it? Someone extremely similar to Sora.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: He outsmarted the Old Dei Artosh, Okein and Kainasu to snatch the Star Grail from underneath their noses.
• Emotion Suppression: To be a reliable and calculating leader to the colony, Riku has to lock away his emotions and pretend to be nearly heartless. He starts embracing his emotions once he meets Schwi, though.
• Final Speech: His last words were to Tet, praying for him to make the world a better place, and that he and Schwi will one day challenge and defeat him — two as one.
• Foil: Riku locks away his emotions in order to become cold, calculating and emotionless. On the other hand, Schwi is an emotionless mechanical lifeform who yearns to understand and experience emotions.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: The actions of himself, Schwi and the Ghost’s will never be revealed, with Corone helping them wipe out all traces that they had existed. Only three things remained as proof that they had once existed; Riku, Schwi, and Corone’s names engraved on the underside of the Dora family’s heirloom gem, Schwi’s emotional data within the Ex-Machina Hive Mind, and Tet himself.
• Guile Hero: Together with Schwi and the Ghosts (177 humans specifically chosen by him for their intelligence and craftiness) manipulated the Exceeds like a game of chess, ensuring a stalemate among them until it led to the end of the Great War.
• Happily Married: He officially becomes Schwi’s husband, and the moments of their marriage which were not spent on The Plan were indeed happy. The only time he is shown to be happy ever is with her.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He gave his life to allow Tet to become the One True God of Disboard and end the Great War, giving not just Imanity, but all Exceeds, a chance to have a future.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite being responsible for the safety of the colony and ending the Great War, he considered himself nothing but garbage for having to order people to their deaths^note  and breaking the rules of his own game to end the Great War without a single death. For this reason, he believed himself to be unworthy of becoming the One True God of Disboard, instead, praying to Tet to make the world a better place in his stead.
• Hope Bringer: He gave the people of his colony something that they have lost a long time ago, hope, to the point where they will follow his orders to the death. The hopes of those who died for him were ultimately not in vain.
• Identical Stranger: He shares a strong resemblance to Sora, except for the white hair.
• It Never Gets Any Easier: During his leadership, in order to protect his colony and discover a way to end the Great War, he ordered 48 people to their deaths. All of them followed his order without question. He still remembers all their names and faces.
• Loophole Abuse: Per the rules of the Ghost‘s game, they will end the war without anyone dying, and that if anyone dies, they lose. Emotionless and soulless Ex-Machina can be considered tools, and thus them «breaking down» won’t be considered a violation of the rules^note .
• Mayfly�December Romance: With Schwi, who is 200 years older than him and still can live up to 892 more, Not that it matters in the long run.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: After bringing Schwi back to the colony, thanks to Schwi’s Brutal Honesty, everyone assumes that Schwi is a little girl that Riku seduced. What they don’t know is that Schwi is over 200 years old and a Robot Girl. That said, Schwi herself believes that all men are more interested in younger women and insists Riku’s no different.
• Moment of Weakness: When he returned to his room after a salvage operation that cost the life of Ivan, he broke down in grief before forcing himself to his cold and calculating mask.
• Naytheist: Since the Old Dei are wrecking the world he lives in, of course, he thinks terribly of them. However, one of his best friends since childhood is one of them, the god of games, Tet. This is the god he inadvertently prays to at the end of his plan to obtain the Star Grail.
• The Needs of the Many: To protect the colony, he would sacrifice one for two people, two for four, three for six, etc. He would wonder when this will end; When 999 people must sacrifice themselves for 1,001? Or until he’s the last person left?
• No Body Left Behind: His body disintegrates when he tries to obtain the Star Grail.
• One Head Taller: He’s a full head taller than his wife Schwi.
• Robosexual: He falls in love with Schwi, a mechanical being. Marrying her meant staying a virgin forever because she didn’t have «the equipment for it».
• Tragic Hero: He ended the Great War and ensured a better future for the entire world, but he lost the woman he loved and had to sacrifice his own life in the end.
• Tragic Keepsake: He’s given Schwi’s wedding ring after her death and he keeps it with him until his own death.
• Understanding Boyfriend: When he proposes marriage to Schwi, she reveals to him that she was the one who redirected the attack that destroyed his hometown, fully expecting him to hate her for it. Then Riku reveals he already knew and he still fell in love with Schwi. Being faced with something so illogical, Schwi couldn’t refuse to marry Riku.
• Unperson: He and all the other «Ghosts» planned to be this once their plan succeeded. Dora makes sure to carry it out by eliminating their existence from all traces of history. The only remaining proof that he and Schwi existed is the Dora family’s heirloom gem, Schwi’s emotional data within the Ex Machina Hive Mind and Tet’s memory.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Became this towards the conclusion of the war. Following Schwi’s death and hearing her last words entrusting him with everything, he decided to end the Great War, no matter how many lives it would take, even willing to order nearly the entire Ex-Machina race (whom obtained emotions thanks to Schwi) to near extinction in the process.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: When the lock within his heart was removed and his true personality emerged, he became this, wanting the war to end without anyone dying. Then Schwi died.

Riku’s stepsister and Stephanie’s ancestor.

• Conveniently an Orphan: Her parents died while they were caught in a war between the Flügel and Dragoneers.
• Cool Big Sis: Most her interactions with Riku can be summed up as either acting as an Embarrassing Stepsister, or dragging him back from the brink of utter despair as the The Chains of Commanding grows heavier and heavier on him. More of the former than the latter once Schwi enters his life.
• Founder of the Kingdom: Founder and the very first Queen of Elchea.
• Friend to All Children: In the movie, she is seen taking care of the children of the colony while Riku is gone, including Kurami’s Identical Ancestor, Nonna. She even takes on the role of comforting Nonna after Ivan’s death over the girl’s actual mother from the Light Novels.
• The High Queen: Ascends to this position following the declaration of the Ten Pledges, won only through the sacrifices of both her stepbrother and his wife (and her stepsister-in-law). Stephanie later calls her the pride of the kingdom, and how she never ever cried.
• Identical Ancestor: To Stephanie.
• In-Series Nickname: «Coloso».
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Unlike her descendant, the Reluctant Fanservice Girl Stephanie, Corone is a Cool Big Sis who teases the hell out of Sora’s Identical Stranger, her stepbrother Riku. Like Steph, she also tends to assume he’s up to something perverted with Schwi (Shiro’s Identical Stranger), but unlike her, in the movie Corone sounds almost admiring of the alleged kinkiness going on between them. There is also Irony in how Corone cares for Nonna, Kurami’s Identical Stranger ancestor, in contrast to Stephanie and Kurami’s almost antagonistic relationship shown in the beginning of the series.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Despite how upbeat she is, Corone is also perceptive enough to figure out that Schwi wasn’t human.
• The Pollyanna: The most genuinely optimistic person you will find in the Crapsack World that Disboard was during the Great War. The rest are just plain Blood Knights.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: She was able to figure out that Schwi was an Ex-Machina, but didn’t say anything because she knew Riku would have good reasons for trusting her.
• Tearful Smile: She cried with a smile when the Great War finally ended with Tet elevating Imanity as an Exceed, in the process realizing that Riku and Schwi’s sacrifices finally bore fruit.
• You Are in Command Now: After the colony was destroyed by a stray shot in a battle between Dwarves and Dragonians, Riku declared her as the new leader, to take the people to a new pre-determined location and disappeared. This was because he had begun his plan to end the Great War.

«Kurami, are you really going to be ok without me?»

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Christina Stroup (English)

Kurmai’s elven companion and her long-time partner, as well as the youngest member of the Elven Senate.

• Adaptation Personality Change: In the anime, she seems somewhat more trusting of Sora than in the light novel, since a scene in which she makes it clear that she doesn’t trust him is cut out.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Does this to Kurami after pointing out how often Kurami cries while Feel isn’t around. As embarrassed as Kurami is, she doesn’t try to pull away.
• Ain’t Too Proud to Beg: After Kurami loses her soul to Sora, Feel swallows her elven pride and begs Shiro that she’d rather let him do anything to her than leave her daughter figure practically brain-dead.
• Always Save the Girl: While she doesn’t completely trust Sora, she agrees to assist with his plans as long as no harm comes to Kurami, despite knowing that he will ultimately have to go up against the Elves. Somewhat justified, considering how she feels about her own country.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: Cheerfully tells Sora and Shiro about Kurami’s A-Cup Angst and her crybaby tendencies, and pats her head while talking about how she pushes herself too hard.
• Amplifier Artifact: As a Class-2, she was given a couple of ruby-like gems and runes on her body to help her spellcasting abilities; they are said to be given to children and beginners, and many have looked at them like if they’re a Mark of Shame for the Nilvalen family, especially since Feel flunked out of the academy. Actually, Feel doesn’t need them at all.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Smiles all the time and is a genuinely loving mother figure to Kurami. However, when things get serious she’s no slacker. She can keep up with Sora better than Kurami, who has his memories, or even Shiro(leading her to be relatively wary of him), is a much better spellcaster than her kin thinks she is, and is successfully running both a slave emancipation movement and an operation to reform Elvengard’s government on behalf of Sora and Shiro. In Episode 10 she also shows quite a sadistic streak, exemplified by forcing Jibril to lick her boots if she is to overlook the latter destroying Elvengard 6,000 years ago. Stephanie lampshades this when Feel openly talks about how she doesn’t care much about the Elves as long as Kurami is happy.

  Stephanie: She’s surprisingly brutal.

• Blunt «Yes»: While discussing the possibility of collaborating with Sora and Shiro.

  Stephanie: Are you okay with this, Fil-san? Helping us could lead to the destruction of Elven Garde.

  Feel: I’m okay with anything as long as Kurami doesn’t get hurt. I honestly don’t care in the slightest about my family, and even thought it would be faster if the whole country would just up and vanish. (giggles)

• Boomerang Bigot: For an Elf, she has a very low opinion of her own society. Unlike Jibril, there’s no «polite racism» when talking to other races. After all, when her own race has a thriving slave trade, a government mired in corruption, and a caste system that puts into question any claim of democracy they profess, she has every good reason to feel a little bit cynical.
• Chekhov’s Gunman: She’s initially introduced without even a name in the light novel, but turns out to be much more important to Kurami than a mere accomplice.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She is considered a disgrace to the Nilvalens for being a Class-2, which is even lower than the average commoner’s ranking. In reality she is a Class-6, but chooses to keep her powers a secret until she was forced to use them against Ron Barter, a corrupt mayor/businessman who tried to usurp her seat by blackmailing her with his knowledge of her secret emancipation activities.
• Doting Parent: A surrogate version to Kurami, her human slave, to whom she is quite affectionate, praising her every time she wins a game and comforting her at night when she has nightmares.
• Exotic Eye Designs: She has cross-shaped pupils made of four diamonds each.
• Forbidden Friendship: Since Kurami is her slave, Feel can only act friendly with her in private, especially now that Feel is de facto head of her family.
• Identical Grandson: She greatly resembles her ancestor, Think Nilvalen, who participated in the Great War and happened to encounter Riku, who is implied to have reincarnated into Sora millennia later. They even share the same voice actress.
• Internal Reformist: After entering into a secret deal with Sora and Shiro, Feel (and Kurami) decides to change her society’s policies regarding slavery.
• In the Hood: Wears a hooded cloak to hide her Pointy Ears before being outed as Kurami’s accomplice.
• Nepotism: Feel claims she got her position as Senator by virtue of being the granddaughter of one of its recently-deceased members (though the Senate is actually elected).
• Nice Girl: In contrast to most Elves, she is the only one who treats Kurami as more like her daughter than her slave.
• Older Than She Looks: She’s 52, but looks no older than the rest of the main cast, which explains the mother-and-daughter dynamic of her and Kurami’s relationship.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: With Ron Barter. Their initial conversation involves outward shows of politeness with various thinly-veiled insults and threats.
• Perpetual Smiler: She’s rarely seen without a gentle smile on her face, even when cheating with Kurami.
• Pointy Ears: Comes with being an Elf.
• «Silly Me» Gesture: Does one after casually admitting that all of Elven Garde can «up and vanish» for all she cares.
• Spell My Name with an S: Is her name «Feel» or «Fil»?
• Sympathetic Slave Owner: She owns Kurami as a slave, but treats her like family and wants to abolish slavery in Even Gard.

A corrupt politician who sees the power of the Nilvalen family.

• Blackmail: Threatens to reveal Feel’s membership in an anti-slavery group unless she bows to his will.
• «Blackmail» Is Such an Ugly Word: As befitting his sleazy personality, he refuses to admit that he’s outright blackmailing Feel over her plans to free the slaves.
• Corrupt Bureaucrat: He’s making quite a profit selling illegal «seeds» to the Dwarves.
• Dirty Old Man: He has a rather perverse interest in Feel.
• Faux Affably Evil: He’s outwardly polite toward Feel, but uses that to mock her. After losing to her and Kurami, he stops pretending to be polite altogether.
• Hate Sink: He has no apparent redeeming qualities, and every action he takes is for seemingly selfish motives.
• Hey, You!: His calling Fiel by her last name without honorifics is considered about as rude among Elven nobility as it would be in Japanese society.
• Smug Snake: A thoroughly unpleasant individual who’s overly confident in his plans.

Feel’s distant ancestor, an elf that a disguised Riku engages in a battle of wits.

• Out-Gambitted: Throughout the entire encounter, Riku manages to outthink Think, and even his «losses» serve his plan. Riku isn’t even fooled by Think’s concealing her name from him, pointing out that he never called her «Nina.»
• Smug Snake: While she’s reasonably intelligent, she still looks down on and underestimates Riku to the very end.

• Bookworm: Their hobby since Tet banned violence and killing has been collecting books and reading them. However, only Jibril actually cares about books themselves. The rest just care about reading them and then tossing them out. They passed a Book Sharing Act because Avantheim was overflowing with them.
• Desperately Seeking A Purpose In Life: With Tet’s ban on violence upon his ascension to godhood, they have lost their one purpose in life. They have sought to find a new reason for their continued existence for thousands of years.
• Fangirl: Jibril’s Observation Diary of Sora and Shiro converted them into fans of Blank. Much Squeeing occurred when the gamer siblings arrived.
• Living Weapon: Their original purpose was soldiers used by the Old Dei during the war. They are so powerful that they are described as being god-killers.
• Our Angels Are Different: They have the appearance of angels, but they are beings whose primary purpose is to fight. In a way, they are more similar to Valkyries.
• Proud Warrior Race/Proud Scholar Race: An almost unthinkable example of the two tropes intersecting and applying to the same race! The reason being that the Flügel were created and raised as warriors of the gods, but became obsolete alongside violence itself, leading them to start hoarding knowledge instead, perhaps in hopes of finding a new reason for their existence.
• Unusual Ears: Their ears look like wings.

«We [Flügels] value knowledge above anything else. It’s not exaggeration to say that books containing that knowledge and the place where they’re held are as valued as one’s life.»

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Amelia Fischer (English)

The last-born from Artosh, Jibril is both the youngest and most powerful of the Flügels, the ultimate result of Artosh’s quest for perfection. She is a member of the Council of Eighteen Wings, as well as custodian of the National Library of Elchea, won from Stephanie’s grandfather five years prior to Sora and Shiro’s arrival. After the siblings defeat her in shiritori (in which she bet herself), Jibril agrees to become their servant.

• Actor Allusion: In Episode 6, Sora says that Jibril’s way of talking reminds him of a well known celebrity of his world.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Has rainbow-colored hair in the novel; the anime gives her violet hair instead.
• Affably Evil: She’s a heavily sociopathic Blood Knight who views her past as a destructive and deadly Living Weapon to be a time of fond memories, and makes no attempt to hide she’d love it if she could return to indiscriminately slaughtering people, but when bested by a Worthy Opponent she will express genuine respect and adoration, she will always uphold her word, even without the command of the Pledges, regardless of if she later regrets it a little, and if one earns her loyalty through some way she will act under the complete subservience of her new master no matter what they do that might upset her.
• Archangel Gabriel: «Jibril» is the Arabic variant of the name «Gabriel», though according to the author this was coincidental.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Asks one of Steph when she calls Sora and Shiro out on risking Imanity to win against the Warbeasts, providing a discussion of what it means to lead one’s race in Disboar, going on to say that killing still exists in Disboard.

  �Then let me ask you a question, little Dora. You asked how he would take responsibility if he lost, but think about it the other way. If my masters are victorious, then all the Werebeasts in their continental domain will be stripped of their jobs and their rights to their land and assets, left to wander the streets, perhaps even to die. Do you ask that my master take responsibility for that? Or would you say it is their responsibility for losing?�

• Ax-Crazy: Regards historical accounts of violence, death and suffering as fond and fun memories; after all, her entire race was created to be weapons of mass genocide and butchery before Tet banned the use of violence. Had he not done so she would still be spilling oceans of blood for fun to this day.
• Badass Bookworm: She’s one of the most competent mages in Disboard, and is quite the bookworm, so much so she already knows enough about Earth’s societies just by reading the e-books in Sora’s not-iPad in a space of a few days to provide exposition on command.
• Battle Aura: When she gets serious in battle, a dark aura in the shape of an extra pair of great wings bursts from her body, the same kind of energy her attacks are made out of. If you see Jibril manifest this aura, run.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Yes, she’s an airhead and smiles a lot, but she honors fair play above all else and if she has been cheated against, pray to the Old Deus she never catches on. Izuna learned the hard way why no one cheats against Jibril and still didn’t sense her bloodlust.
• Blood Knight: While bloodshed and destruction are the reason for living of the Living Weapon Flugels, Jibril exemplified this the most even during the war, as while the other Flugels enjoyed fighting and killing, Jibril practically got off to it and misses it the most out of everybody, unlike the other flugels who simply miss having meaning to their lives. However, ever since the Pledges were enacted, Jibril didn’t have any way to let out her blood lust, and unlike her fellow flugels who simply got depressed, Jibril had built up a massive urge for slaughter that she could never let loose for thousands of years. As a consequence, any time she’s put in a game where killing with impunity is an option (mainly games where death isn’t permanent), she usually ends up letting loose in a near-uncontrollable frenzy until she’s either worn herself out or the game ends.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Her moral standards are at odds with those of the other Exceeds. She fondly remembers the war of the Old Deus, considers anti-flight wards to be highly offensive, and values books/knowledge above all. Then again, Flügels are the only Exceeds deliberately created as warriors, so this mindset makes sense.
• Bookworm: She reads all day and all night. Her home is a library. Interestingly, she’s the only Flügel that cares about books themselves, rather than just memorizing their contents. This becomes a sticking point both in why she fled her homeland pre-series and also to the conflict of book 5; books may have more to tell you on a second read.
• Brutal Honesty: Not once in her 6,407 years of existence had she ever told a lie, to the point where she was willing to talk back to Artosh. She only lied, just once, to provoke Azrael. However, she had absolute faith that Sora and Shiro will be able to save her.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She can survive hydrogen bombs, is a top-tier Flügel, and when Sora met her, he thought he was looking at The Grim Reaper herself… until she opened her mouth and started speaking in a polite, cheery voice with Gratuitous English, drooled over the prospect of getting 40,000 books from another world, and had an Immodest Orgasm from having her wings touched.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday:
  • She barely finds any significance over the time she wrecked Elvengard during the war of the gods, other than that she was angry about being struck down with an anti-flight ward.
  • Also, in spite of showing genuine respect for Schwi for her valiant final battle against her, enough to tell the latter her name in her final moments, when seeing her name once more 6000 years later she has clearly forgotten about her, dismissing it with a chuckle.
• Casting a Shadow: Fittingly for her true personality, her magic is depicted not as a holy light, but as a roiling purple-ish darkness. The Flügels’ halos also turn to that same color when Artosh calls upon them, so it’s very likely this is the color of the God of War’s power.
• Challenge Seeker: During the Great War, she fought a dragon, a giant and a Phantasma in single combat. All three of these creatures rank higher than her and she sought them out because of this fact. Each attempt nearly killed her but she emerged victorious each time. During volume 5, she cites these accomplishments hoping that it will help Azrael understand her argument about surpassing one’s limitations.
• Comedic Sociopathy:
  • She would occasionally mention how better life was back in the good old days (before Tet’s ascent to godhood) when anyone can solve anything by killing. On the other hand, it also reminds her friends (and the viewers) that were it not for Tet’s laws, she’ll be casually killing everyone without a second thought.
  • She unleashed her pent up desire for destruction for six thousand years in the game against the Siren Empress, because she is allowed to rampage as she pleases inside a dream. Seeing the sheer destruction Jibril alone could cause, it prompted Stephanie, Ino and even Plum ^note  to pray in gratitude for Tet for preventing the Flügels from rampaging.

    The One True God (Tet), thank you for creating the 「Ten Pledges」.

• Constantly Curious: Jibril is really into learning. At one point she even makes a Shout-Out to Hyouka by copying Eru’s «I’m curious!» Catchphrase.
• Cute and Psycho: Jibril is alternatively sweet and silly one moment, then intimidating and brutal the next.
• Death Glare: Has a tendency of doing this, at times without even trying. Justified because of the Flügel’s infamous reputation for destruction and she’s essentially a Physical God compared to the lower ranking Exceeds.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After losing to Sora and Shiro in a game, she offers herself and her powers to them, having found a new worthy master.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: With the disappearance of their creator, the Old Deus, Artosh, along with Tet’s laws forbidding violence, all Flügel sought the answer to this question. Before he disappeared, Artosh believed that Jibril will be the one to discover it. Jibril’s answer is to become the keeper of Disboard’s knowledge, and encouraged the rest of her people to discover their own answer on their own.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Whenever she is being serious or when about to use her magic, her pupils are cross-shaped.
• Facial Markings: She has one mark over her left cheek and also the rest of her body. The anime takes some of them away.
• Fantastic Racism: She completely looks down on the other races as inferior.
  • Imanity are «monkeys with the ability to speak». She apologizes to Sora and Shiro for mistaking them as an «inferior race».
  • Elves are «long eared forest mongrels» that need to know their place.
  • Warbeasts are helpless dogs hiding behind Tet’s laws.
  • Dhampirs are beneath mosquitoes.
  • Sirens are synonymous with idiots, though in this case even Sora agrees with her and the Sirens don’t exactly help their own case with their poorly thought out agreement with the Dhampirs.
  • Ex-Machina are «scrap metal». The only one to earn her respect was Schwi, and even that didn’t last too long considering all Jibril wanted was Schwi’s head for being a ‘rare specimen’ because of being excommunicated from her cluster.
  • Since she was created to kill the god-like Old Deus, she likely doesn’t think highly of them either. For example, she thinks Tet is a «sly devil» who made a troublesome oath (after all, his rules essentially rob Flügels of their purpose — to kill).
• Fantastic Arousal: Sora touching her wings gives her an Immodest Orgasm. Twice.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: She wears mismatched gloves and shoes.
• Faux Affably Evil: While there is a good deal of genuine affability to her character, she only expresses it to people that earn her respect. Otherwise she just has the attitude of speaking in a falsely cheery and friendly voice and portraying a fake friendly attitude while not-so-subtly making it clear that she views all races below flugels in rank as lesser beings. She’s even open to exaggerating the faux-affability when she wants to insultingly get under somebody’s skin intentionally.
• Go Out with a Smile: As she «dies» from the hypernova blast instigated by Sora’s final word («Coulomb’s force», thereby removing it), she simply wears a smile of resignation, admitting that perhaps Imanity is not so helpless after all.
• Gratuitous English:
  • In the Japanese dub, her very first words to Sora, Shiro and Stephanie are laced with so much English (and a weird accent) it ruins her otherwise intimidating introduction:

    Jibril: Excuse soko no person gata me no library ni what goyo de? («Excuse me, the person over there, what brings you to my library?»)

  • In the English dub, this is replaced with Gratuitous French and Gratuitous Spanish.
• Happiness in Slavery: After a fashion. Unlike Stephanie, Jibril willingly follows Sora and Shiro after losing to them, mostly out of wanting a chance to learn more about their world, but also out of respect for them being one of the few beings Tet treats almost like equals.
• Holy Halo: To go with her angel-like motif, she was a halo floating over her head.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: In the light novel, she admits she’s not conscious of the nudity taboo. After Sora uses a word that strips away all of the female character’s clothing in episode 6’s match against Jibril, she stays naked the rest of the game, and doesn’t seem bothered by it at all. She actually wonders why Stephanie got so flustered.
• Insistent Terminology: Azrael is not her «big sister» but her «elder». She has a point given how Flügel don’t really have families in the way of other races, but they do share a common «father» in Artosh. Even after Azrael finds her personal Answer and the two reconcile, she still doesn’t call her «big sister». She says «elder sister» instead.
• Irony: The fact that she murdered Schwi becomes this given the implication that Schwi was reincarnated as Shiro to whom Jabril ends up being enslaved too.
• I Should Write a Book About This: She writes down an «Observation Diary» about Sora and Shiro, as they’re an «Unknown». She also publishes it in Avant Heim, creating a 『　　』 fandom made out of all the Flügel race that calls her diary a «Bible».
• Kick the Dog:
  • As she mentions when confronted by Feel, her destruction of Elvengard over being knocked from the sky by an anti-flight ward.
  • While she does come to consider Schwi a Worthy Opponent, it should be pointed out that Jibril started the fight, which ended in the latter’s death, simply because she wanted a decent trophy; she had no idea what Schwi was planning at the time.
• Laughably Evil: She’s the Token Evil Teammate of the cast who constantly exudes an Ax-Crazy mentality, and her Blue-and-Orange Morality from being a Living Weapon results in her being an evil variant of a Cloudcuckoolander, with her saying, thinking, and doing numerous silly and nonsensical things relating to her Blood Knight tendencies that are guaranteed to result in tons of humorous Comedic Sociopathy. She often manages to generate hilarious scenarios even when expressing her terrifying murder-lust.
• Let’s Fight Like Gentlemen: While she does look down on other races, she does not cheat. Period. She will follow the game’s rules to the letter and expects the same from her opponent(s). Thus when she learned how low the Warbeasts would stoop just to win, let alone against her in their previous match, she was so livid she was a hairsbreadth from killing Izuna but for Tet’s laws and Sora’s orders.
• Light Is Not Good: Her angelic appearance only hides one of the most dangerous living things on Disboard. Before opening her mouth, Stephanie was very scared of her and Sora described her as death itself. In the light novel, her casual reminiscence about how Flügels used to collect heads instead of books made Sora comment that they should get rid of the «Heavenly Winged» name, as they were more like demons.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: She’s lived long enough to remember the War of the Old Deus and she’s still happily looking for new books. One hundred years simply isn’t long enough to read everything in the world.
• Living Weapon: Like all other Flügels, she was bred since birth to kill. With Tet banning violence, she would have to find a way to sate her boredom. So she went into reading and so she reads A LOT.
• Lust:
  • Flügels are known for being very knowledge-thirsty, and mostly play to win as many books as possible, just for the sake of possessing all the knowledge they can get.
  • Also a literal example on some levels, as she seems very interested in examining Sora’s «erogenous zone» and helping to give Shiro a bath. Whether this is for «research purposes» or not is up for some debate. Perhaps Sora said it best at the start of episode seven:

    Sora: Stay away from her, Shiro! Her very existence is rated 18+!

• Malicious Misnaming: She starts off calling Stephanie «Speph,» before switching to calling her «Dola-chan» over Steph’s objections.
• The Missionary: In her own words, she has been «preaching the good news» of «『　　』» to the Flügels. By volume 5, she has established a large fandom..err.. faithful.
• Moment Killer: Kills the threatening mood in her own intro sequence quite thoroughly with a polite and sweet voice.
• Ms. Exposition: She provides information to Sora and Shiro regarding things they do not know about Disboard’s history and races. She also can provide information about Earth to the natives of Disboard due to having read the e-books in Sora’s tablet.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: During the Great War, her using Air Strike to kill Schwi ends up giving all the Ex-Machinae that she was linked with the spell. This ultimately allowed an army of Ex-Machinae to attack Avantheim, causing Artosh to take them seriously and use God Strike, causing the chain of events that would lead to Riku to both create Tet and allow him to become the One True God and end the Great War, with Artosh and the other Old Dei disappearing in the aftermath.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Her race doesn’t need to breathe, is completely immune to poisons and diseases, and can even take a nuke to the face without flinching. A hypernova, on the other hand is a bridge too far.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Sora immediately drops a hydrogen bomb on her the moment their Materialization Shiritori duel begins. She not only survives without a scratch, but also shields the humans from the explosion, even though not doing so would have resulted in instant victory for her. Sora, however, immediately pegged her as this type and predicted her to do exactly that, which is why he took the risk in the first place.
• No Kill like Overkill:
  • To get around anti-flight wards, she nuked the whole area they were in.
  • When she thought someone had modified Shiro’s memories during the second game with Kurami, Jibril vowed that she would hunt down the person responsible and turn them into sauce.
• No Sense of Personal Space: She gets rather close to Sora when he tells her about his bet of 40,000 books in his tablet. At times he doesn’t seem to mind it, but at other times it actually bothers him.
• Not So Above It All: For a high-ranking entity, she drools when looking at Sora’s tablet containing 40,000 e-books. She also seems okay with being naked after he removes all the girl’s clothing in the game as well and even helped the siblings to get some gratuitous shots of Stephanie in a bikini via summoning a blow of air to lift her skirt.
• Omniglot: She says that she’s capable of conversing in 700 languages. She’s excited almost to the point of heart failure about the prospect of reading 40,000 books in a language she has never even heard of.
• The Quisling: She looks forward to «『　　』» conquering the rest of her race . When Sora announces that the Flügels are his next target at the end of Volume 4, she joyously proclaims the day to be blessed. She even believes that Avant Heim is destined to be the capital city of their world-wide empire.
• Person of Mass Destruction: To go with her Living Weapon status. All Flügels are very powerful and nearly impossible to kill. During the war of the races, she singlehandedly wiped out Elvengard with a single spell.
• Perverted Drooling: She does so whenever she gets excited by the prospect of knowledge, drooling all over Sora’s tablet when she finds out it contains 40,000 e-books.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Even at her most courteous, Jibril’s inherent racism still shines through, such as casually calling Elves a bunch of «forest bumpkins». Right before Feel, an Elven senator.
• Power Floats: She is almost never seen walking, rather she just floats around using magic. Even when she’s underwater she’s still casually floating.
• Proud Warrior Race Girl/Proud Scholar Race Girl: See the entry on the Flügel in general for a broader explanation, but Jibril is a good example of the duality of her race. On the one hand, she still thinks of the old wars as her Glory Days, fondly reminisces on epic battles — both victories and defeats — and has absolutely no remorse for the atrocities she has committed, including razing entire cities. On the other hand, she is also absolutely obsessed with knowledge, to the point of considering books from another world to be worth more than her library and her very life combined, and feels only fascination after being defeated in a shiritori duel by a pair of Imanity, even though she considers them an inferior race and could have crushed them in milliseconds if she were allowed to unleash her true magical power. Incidentally, she has a sense of arrogance both about her great power and her vast knowledge acquired over countless years, and seeks a Worthy Opponent able to match her intellectually just as she used to seek out epic foes to slay. It’s no stretch to say that she approaches battles of wits exactly as she would approach a battle of might and magic.
• Red Baron:
  • As the last-born of Artosh, the Flügel call her the Final Unit.
  • The Ex-Machina call her Irregular due to her eccentric and unpredictable behavior compared to the other Flügel.
• Really 700 Years Old: Her race has extremely long life spans. Jibril herself had been alive long before Tet’s ascension. More specifically, she’s approximately 6,407 years old.
• Remembered Too Late: She forgets that she’s no longer able to fly in the Warbeast’s virtual simulation while she’s plummeting to the ground.
• Retired Monster: Thanks to Tet banning violence, she has been shorn of almost any purpose in life, having been literally raised to kill, so she instead decided to spend her days reading. That said, even if she can’t fight, she still looks back fondly on the Great War.

• Skewed Priorities: In the light novel, Flügels have collected so many books that they had to make a law of returning the books back to land once they were read. Jibril, of course, was against that law so once she won Elchea’s National Library, she decided it was better to leave Avant Heim and have her own book stock than hanging over her precious books collection that she has built up and mantained with all the care of her heart.
• Sleep-Mode Size: Using her full power against Schwi reduced her to the form of a child.
• Sinister Scythe: You know how Sora mistook her for Death itself when he first met her? It is more applicable than one would think, given that she can generate a scythe of dark energy for chopping off heads to add to her collection.
• The Sociopath: While seemingly humorous and cordial, Jibril is by human standards a high-functioning sociopath at best; while superficially friendly, she holds no actual respect towards other sentient beings save Schwi, the ex-machina who fought her valiantly to her last breath nor empathy towards their suffering, coupled with not only an utter lack of remorse for the sea of blood she shed 6000 years ago, but looking back on said atrocities as fond and happy memories.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: She can instantly warp herself with the use of magic portals, such as when she appeared over Stephanie’s bed while the latter was lying on it.
• Stripperiffic: Lampshaded in the light novel, while in the «Love or Loved 2» game. Sora comments how Jibril normally doesn’t use that much coverage and he’s kinda worried that she will run out of clothes to use as bullet shield sooner or latter.
• Subordinate Excuse: While explaining to Sora the «birds and bees» of the Sirens, she humbly declared that if he ever wanted to have a child she, as his servant, would gladly be his High-Class Call Girl. Shiro shut her up.
• Super Toughness: Let the record show she didn’t shield herself from the Hydrogen Bomb, only the humans. It took an explosion rivaling the fires of creation themselves to actually take her out.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Has a powerful magic affinity and is member of an Exceed created for war. The anime gives a gratuitous close-up to her eyes to emphasize how powerful and dangerous she truly is.
• Squee: New knowledge be it books, language, or even just new words causes her to be overcome with excitement.
• There’s No Kill like Overkill: 6,000 years ago she used Air Strike, the very same spell that she used to destroy Elvengarde, on Schwi. When it was over, there was nothing left of her.
• Token Evil Teammate: She’s the only fully loyal member of «『　　』»‘s side who is completely and unrepentantly evil, as she’s a Retired Monster with sociopathic tendencies who very fondly looks back on all the death and destruction caused by the last war, and her dedication to supporting «『　　』» isn’t because she cares about their desire to bring peace and unity to the world (she’s actually a bit miffed they plan to fully end what little «fun» she has left) and more because she’s fascinated by how they plan to conquer the world and challenge Tet for his throne, as the chaos and insanity of the plan is the most fun she’s had in eons.
• Too Kinky to Torture: In Episode 10, she was forced to lick Feel’s boots and apologize for destroying Elvengarde back during the war of the Old Deus. While she does it, she then wonders why Sora ordering her to do the humiliating action made her feel excited.
• Tranquil Fury: Even in her calmest, it was obvious she was absolutely livid against Izuna upon learning that Warbeasts are more than willing to cheat to win, let alone against her. Izuna could barely control her instincts screaming at her to surrender and beg for mercy.
• Ultimate Lifeform: She was apparently meant to be the ultimate evolution of Flügel; the finest one Artosh ever created. Except, she’s still imperfect enough to start questioning everything, as is intended by Artosh.
• Unusual Ears: Because she’s a Flügel, her ears are nonstandard.

• What Is This Thing You Call «Love»?: She, like all other Flügels, does not understand the concept of love. But she still feels unexplainably ecstatic when she manages to make Shiro fall in love with her. During the events of Avantheim, she’s curious enough to try and figure out what it means, in her own way.
• Worthy Opponent: To Schwi, to the point where she apologised for calling her scrap, declared her an enemy, and completely obliterated her with her full power. To a Flügel, there is no greater sign of respect.

The very first Flügel, Azrael is also the de facto leader of the Council of Eighteen Wings and Jibril’s «older sister» figure.

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Inverted; she’s Jibril’s surrogate older sister but she’s definitely annoying with all her glomping, immaturity, and demands/pleas of being addressed as «big sister».
• Anthropomorphic Personification: As it turns out, she’s special, even for a leader of the Flügels. She is actually the avatar of Avantheim, their home, and therefore, a Phantasma.
• Big Sister Instinct: As the First Unit she is the elder sister for all the Flügel and she was so horrified by them committing mass-suicide from despair at the end of the Great War that she lied to them about their final mission so they’d stop. The only reason she still lives despite her own weariness is to make sure they don’t start again. On the other hand, Sora denounces her as an elder sibling for leveraging this in a side-bet with Jibril and losing touch with all of her siblings over the millennia since.
• Brought Down to Normal: She gets hits with a «Word Spirit» in the Red Light/Green Light Word game, which seals both her powers as a Flügel and a Phantasma. This turns out to be exactly what she needed to find her own answer. Sora notes that she can remove her limits if she wanted, but ultimately decided to live for a while in her current depowered state.
• Creative Sterility: She’s not able to pass her «programming» as a Living Weapon and start to think for herself instead of following orders, and never has considered the idea of actually doing something with all the knowledge she has memorized or tried to analyze it to get to her own conclusions.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Just like Jibril, Azrael questions why she and all the Flügels still exist long after they lost their raison d’etre following Tet’s ascent to godhood and the banning of all violence. After losing to Sora, Azrael gets around to her surrogate younger sister’s viewpoint of personally forging their own path back to relevance.
• Facial Markings: She has some markings above and under her right eye.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: In the final moments of the Great War, her using Shift to attack the advancing Ex-Machinae ended up allowing them to adapt and reverse engineer it, giving what remained of the Ex-Machina race the ability to teleport and thus appear right in Artosh’s throne room.
• Holy Halo: She also has one, just like the rest of the angel-like Flügels.
• Horned Humanoid: Unlike Jibril, Azrael also sports a single curved horn on the left side of her head, right under her halo.
• Idiot Hair: The cowlick standing atop her head. It fits the bubbly personality she displays most of the time.
• Just the First Citizen: Technically, the Flügel are ruled by the Council of Eighteen Wings, of which Azrael is only one. However, Azrael is effectively the leader of this council due to her «special privilege» of forbidding from committing suicide, and also because she is truly an avatar of Avantheim.
• Loony Laws: She once tried to pass a law mandating that all Flügel recognize each other as sisters. Every other member of the Council of Eighteen Wings voted against it, because it was a transparent attempt to force Jibril to address her as «big sister».
• Mark of the Supernatural:
  • Her left eye is golden, while the right one is blue and she’s the first Flügel. As well as being the avatar of Avantheim.
  • She has sea green hair that goes from yellow to orange at the tips. This is a sign of her supernatural origin.
• The Mourning After: Azrael (and by extension, Avantheim itself) still misses Artosh and mourns his death. This great grief over a loved one is what gives the siblings an idea of the kind of love Leila was longing after.
• No-Sell: She can’t actually be harmed, since she’s just the avatar of Avantheim. On the other hand, since her body is not actually real, more like a projection, she is not protected by Tet’s law of non-violence. Sora blew a hole in her torso with a cannon just to prove this point. Any other Exceed, even the lowly Imanity, would have No-Selled it.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: She appears to be an even bigger air-head than Jibril. She goes from willing to bet the Flügel race piece in exchange for videos of Jibril in the shower, to revealing that its all just an act and she almost succeeded in luring Sora into a trap. Sora sees through both masks for what she really is: a nigh-soulless puppet with an empty smile.
• Perfection Is Impossible: What Sora and Shiro were able to pound (literally) into her. Artosh was not perfect. She is not perfect. Flügels are not perfect. No one is perfect, let alone Jibril, the closest thing to an Ultimate Lifeform in Disboard. But because people are imperfect they may strive for the unknown, and hope for the future.
• Reality Warper: This is her true power as a Phantasma. She can fully control reality within Avantheim.
• Red Baron: Because she was the first-born of Artosh, the Flügel call her the First Unit.
• Really 700 Years Old: She’s the very first Flügel created by Artosh, and is 26,000 years old.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Her name is based on that of the angel of death in Judeo-Islamic folklore.

• Aliens Speaking English: Or Japanese in this case. It’s actually justified in that they have to study the Imanity language, which is why Izuna’s speaking patterns seem so odd as she is still learning the language.
• Little Bit Beastly: They are a race full of cat girls, dog girls, rabbit girls, etc, much to Sora’s delight. Of course there are men too.
• Living Lie Detector: Through their Super Senses they can check someone’s heartbeat and gauge if they are lying.
• Scary Teeth: They are beasts and so they naturally have fangs in scores. They are only ever seen when they smile.
• Spider-Sense: Aside from their Super Senses, Warbeasts allegedly possessed a form of precognition that warns them of unforeseeable danger. But turns out it was a cheatcode.
• Super Mode: Some warbeasts have a special ability called Blood Destruction. This allows a warbeast to greatly enhance their already superhuman strength, speed, and senses to levels that approach the limits of physics.
• Superpower Lottery: While the Warbeasts are incapable of using magic like Imanity, they are ranked higher than them because of having these abilities.
  • Super Strength: Warbeasts are known as the physically strongest Exceed.
  • Super Speed: Warbeasts can also move fast. Case in point, Izuna was able to outrun the love bullets chasing her during the «Love or Loved» video game battle between Imanity and the Warbeasts.
  • Super Senses: Warbeasts have heightened senses of sight ^note  and hearing ^note .
• Telepathy: Warbeasts are known to read minds, making other races wary of challenging them despite being just two ranks above Imanity. In reality, they do not have telepathy, but instead use Cold Reading against their opponents, using their heightened sense of hearing to tell whether a person is lying or not.
• Wutai: The warbeasts have strong Japanese influences, despite being a race from another world. They have Shinto motifs on their buildings, they dress in kimono, their country is more technologically advanced than others, and they are able to recreate a virtual city that resembles Tokyo.

«I was just surprised that you assholes touched me out of nowhere, please. Get back to it already, please.»

Ambassador of the Warbeasts to Elchea.

• Badass Adorable: She’s cute as a button, but one must remember that she’s a Warbeast, the physically strongest race among the Exceeds. Even Jibril doesn’t stand a chance against her in a contest of physical strength/speed.
• Breakout Character: She was given her own spin-off story called «No Game No Life, Desu!» showcasing her life before Sora and Shiro.
• Character Tic: Her tail swishing can indicate her delight and satisfaction.
• Children Are Innocent: She’s only 8 years old and as long as it’s not a game (or petting), she barely cares of things the others do and has to ask many questions to understand. When Tet told her of the Great War and how the Exceeds killed one another for thousands of years, she cannot comprehend why people would want to do that.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: She’s only 8 years old yet served as the ambassador for her race.
• Child Soldier: Despite being just 8 years old, Izuna was forced to bear on her shoulders the great responsibility of playing for the Federation, and she’s conscious that a single mistake can ruin the lives of many people.
• Cuteness Proximity: When Sora and Shiro first see her, they instantly rush towards her and start petting her like a cat. She scolds them initially, causing them to suffer a Color Failure, but then tells them to continue. Despite her grandfather warning them not to do it, they start stroking her again, and Izuna seems to be enjoying it.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After Sora and Shiro survive through her cheating and leaving her open to a «killer» shot from Stephanie, the duo convince her to learn to enjoy playing, because this is what Tet would have wanted them to.
• Expressive Ears: Her ears twitch to convey her mood.
• Gamer Chick: The Federation’s very best video gamer. However, she doesn’t enjoy them until she first plays against Sora and Shiro; before diving into the virtual world, he even asks her if she ever had fun playing them.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: During their game, when Sora and Shiro finally cornered her, she simply activated Blood Devastation, which released a Warbeast’s physical limiter and curb stomped both of them in an instant.
• Innocent Swearing: Izuna talks with a lot of cuss words, but she actually doesn’t know they’re bad. She’s still learning to speak Imanity after all, but that makes one wonder what kind of manners Ino is teaching her.
• Little Bit Beastly: As a warbeast, she has the distinctive lupine ears and tail, the latter which the siblings really love to fluff on.
• Not So Above It All: Though she’s rather important, when Sora and Shiro first meet her, and start petting her like a cat, she seems to enjoy it despite how silly they looked doing that.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: She is a human/wolf creature, albeit a rather diminutive one.
• Out-of-Character Moment: At the end of the beach chapters, she allows her grandfather to comb her messy hair. It’s considered weird by Sora because, since the first time they met (and pet) her, Izuna has always preferred for Sora or Shiro to touch her instead of Ino, because his clawed hands hurt her. This is because she’s aware that, if he gets to fail on the Sirens’ game, Ino will be left behind in accordance with «Miko»‘s plan. She let him pet her because she thought it would be the last time she ever gets a moment with her grandfather.
• The Sixth Ranger: From the fourth light novel onwards, she joins Sora and Shiro after the latter two forced an (advantageous) tie with Miko.
• Serious Business: She has never thought of playing games as fun because of the great consequences that would befall upon her and her people should she lose. She breaks down crying after she lost to Sora and Shiro because she thought her people will suffer as a consequence of allowing herself to have fun while playing against the siblings.
• Sir Swearsalot: Tends to use foul and/or derogatory words such as «monkeys» (when referring to Imanity) or «idiots». Ino claims she is still learning basic Imanity language.
• Super Senses: Like all other Warbeasts, she has heightened senses of magic and psychological perception.
• Token Mini-Moe: She’s even younger than Shiro at the meager age of eight, though she’s by no means frail.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She uses a lot of profanity for an eight year old girl. Justified in that she’s still learning the language of Imanity, so the blame really falls to whoever taught her the language.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Starts boasting of her apparent victory over Sora and Shiro… only to promptly get shot down by Stephanie.
• Verbal Tic: Always finishes her sentences with «desu» (translated as «please»), in an attempt to sound polite.
• What Is This Feeling?: She finds herself truly enjoying her game against Sora, Shiro and Jibril (Stephanie can barely keep up) and was surprised for it.
• When She Smiles: After spending most of her appearances being a Perpetual Frowner, she finally cracks a smile while playing against Elkia, having found fun in a game for the first time in very long.
• Young and in Charge: Despite her age, she’s the ambassador on behalf of the Oriental Federation in Elchea. Justified; because in Disboard all you need to have is gaming ability, her age doesn’t matter, and it’s understandable that a child will be one of the best videogamers the Federation has.

«It’s just thinking that half of my life has been completely destroyed by two hairless monkeys and now all depends on a coin toss… It’s so funny.»

Voiced by: Naomi Shindo (Japanese), Suzelle Palacios (English)

Leader of the Warbeasts, who lost her true name to a wager years ago.

• Anti-Climax: Sora’s final game against her to settle the epic conflict between Elchea and the Eastern Federation in a winner takes all battle is… a coin toss. Averted, because she loved the utter absurdity of it.
• Antiquated Linguistics: To emphasize her actual age, «Miko» uses some very antiquated Japanese.
• Asian Fox Spirit: Her overall animal motif, with the main traits being her whiskers, fox ears and two large, furry tails.
• Bullet Time: Time slows down to illustrate her Blood Destruction ability that enables «Kinetic Vision», where her Super Senses are amped up to the point where she can predict what side the coin will land on.
• The Chains of Commanding: Back in her heyday «Miko» was forced to commit some morally questionable things to put an end to interracial violence between the Warbeasts, and her (and by extension, the Eastern Federation’s) philosophy is considering The Needs of the Many as priority. Because of this, she was willing to sacrifice Ino as Sirens’ «food» in order to save both Sirens and Dhampirs and make them join the Elchea Federation. Luckily Sora has a plan to save him.
• Demonic Possession: When asked by Sora who she worships due to her tenure as a «miko», she grins, then summons an Old Deus from outer space, which comes down to take control of Miko’s body and talk to him.
• Exact Words: The siblings bet against Izuna was that if Izuna lost, everything on the continent will belong to Elchea. She responds by moving everything valuable off the continent before the game began, just in case. Unfortunately for her, Sora already predicted she was going to do this.
• Foreshadowing: She’s a miko, meaning she should be worshipping something right? It’s an Old Deus, and she summons it by letting it take possession of her body.
• High-Class Glass: Wears a monocle on her left eye, and she’s highest authority in the Eastern Federation.

• Know When to Fold Them: Sora’s last game against her was a coin toss, in which either Elchea conquers all Warbeast territory or the Eastern Federation retains all its resources. The result was a tie, because the coin got stuck on a gap between two stepping-stones. Miko realized that Sora cheated by pulling one stepping-stone with his foot, but then she also realized that Sora has already figured out her strategy from the get go (including cheating by using Blood Destruction to calculate the coin’s trajectory), so she simply allows Sora to declare the game a win-all, meaning Elchea and the Eastern Federation would now technically strike an alliance.
• Miko: As her nickname suggests, she is a high priestess of sorts for the Eastern Federation, and she’s able to communicate with an Old Deus.
• Older Than She Looks: She’s said to have spent 50 years uniting the various Warbeast tribes into the current Eastern Federation, yet she looks no older than thirty, although the same could be said for the 98 years old Inu. Sora estimates her to be 58, which would mean she spent most of her life being the Warbeasts’ leader.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Because she bet away her original name and lost it.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She cares a lot for her people, and even asks Sora to take care of them if she loses.
• Super Senses: Blood Devastation. Her mastery of this technique is noted to be even greater than Izuna’s, heightening her senses to the point of knowing exactly how many times the coin will flip during her match against Sora.
• Tsurime Eyes: Her eyes are sharper than most of the girls featured in the story, and she’s quite assertive in her behaviour.

«Keep your filthy hands out of my sweet granddaughter, hairless monkey! I’ll rip you in half!»

Izuna’s 98-year-old grandfather and assistant ambassador to Elchea.

• Chivalrous Pervert: He’s kinda a sex maniac and often teased Sora over not being able to get it up when they first saw Leila, yet still he’s courtly and will determinate himself to gain the love of the woman of his affections.
• Clark Kent Outfit: For an old man, Inu is incredibly ripped under that yukata.
• Cool Old Guy: For a nonagenarian, Ino is quite the veteran gamer, and was said to have faced Stephanie’s grandfather many years ago.
• Determinator: In the Sirens’ dating sim game to awaken Empress Leila, rather than try to trigger the necessary flags, he immediately proclaimed his love for Leila and was willing to prostrate himself for forty days straight waiting for her reply. Although he was ultimately rejected, his sheer determination moved Sora so the point where his previous negative views of Ino transformed into seeing him as a true man among men.

  Sora: Old man — no… Hatsuse Ino, I’ve misunderstood you all this time. You are truly a great man, just for that woman… for that woman that can’t appreciate truly great things, you’re too great for her…
• Flipping the Bird: Flashes a pixellated one as a warning to not touch his granddaughter.
• Large Ham: He loudly expresses his protests against Sora and Shiro’s attempts at getting touchy-feely with his granddaughter.
• Large-Ham Announcer: He explains the tutorial of «Love or Loved 2», as well as the opening narration and actual match for that matter, with similar gusto.
• Polyamory: He has thirty wives. The revelation of this pisses Sora off to no end.

  Sora: Old man, hear me when I say this! I DAMN YOU TO HELL!!

• Overprotective Dad: He’s really wary of anyone who comes too close to Izuna for comfort, and that includes Sora and Shiro enjoying themselves on her fluffy tail.
• Pet the Dog: To underscore his Heel�Face Turn following volume 3, his first scene has him praising Stephanie for improved skills in poker and politely referring to her as «Your Grace» or «Miss Stephanie».
• Scary Shiny Glasses: His bespectacled face shines ominously when he thinks Izuna is about to win the game against 『　　』.
• «The Reason You Suck» Speech: Delivers one to Sora about why his complete distrust in people renders him unable to understand love.
• Spell My Name with an S: Translations are inconsistent with his name, sometimes going either with Ino or Inu.
• This Cannot Be!: His reaction once he discovered that Sora and Shiro had already figured out that he (and Izuna) would cheat from the very start, then fooled Izuna into backing them into a corner, just in time for Stephanie to fire their winning shot.

» Your Majesties Sora and Shiro ��� please save my race!»

A female Dhampir who requests for Sora and Shiro’s help in dealing with both Dhampires and Sirens. In truth, Plum is the very last male Dhampir, forced to go around in drag to avoid an unwanted (and potentially fatal) encounter with the Sirens.

• Attractive Bent-Gender: He makes a really cute girl.
• Child Prodigy: Among the Dhampirs, Plum may be most powerful since he’s able to cast two spells at the same time; he might end exhausted but it’s pretty amazing by itself as multi-casting is generally unique to Elves.
• Disguised in Drag: He disguises himself as a girl by necessity, if he wants to live longer and avoid unwanted attention from the Sirens.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Plum’s androgynous looks really help with his disguise as a female Damphir.
• Exact Words: Plum is a master on telling half-true answers. If someone asks «is it A or B», he will say «it’s not B». He can fool werebeasts this way.
• Fantastic Drug: By the end of volume 5, he’s basically addicted to the gamer sibling’s bodily fluids, specifically their sweat and blood (which Sora provided without being bitten). He says that the Siren’s blood will no longer satisfy him.
• Fantastic Racism: There’s a lot of moaning and complaining from him about Siren stupidity. He also considers Immanity to be «lesser beings» like the other Exceed but conceals this under groveling and begging. In both cases, those he looked down on deceive him.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: In the light novel’s illustrations, Plum’s tail is always covering his crotch to hide the fact that he’s male.
• I Kiss Your Foot: As biting someone is forbidden (and even with consent, risky), Plum had to lick Shiro’s sweat out of her feet. Shiro’s talking and Plum’s reaction to the taste give the impression of a slave licking his mistress’ feet.
• Last of His Kind: Plum is the last male Dhampir — and he’s trying to pass himself up as a girl so that he doesn’t join the fate of the other males.
• Love Potion: Plum was able to create an infatuation spell so powerful that it could pass as true love (something that Elves or Flügels are not yet able to do). It has a poor success rate. It was used three times in volumes 4-5; the first time was on Miko but it couldn’t overcome how icky she thinks Sora is, the second time on Leila and didn’t have any effect since she continued ignoring Ino. The third time was on Sora, but he’s already in sibling-style love with Shiro, so he didn’t feel any difference at all.
• Motivation on a Stick: In the game against the Flügels, Plum is constantly whining over how tired he is for keeping up two spells and having to keep up with the siblings’ stunts. His resolution will always be invigorated by Sora just telling him to lick his sweat for the troubles.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Plum is actually more intelligent, cunning and scary than his initial hopeless behaviour would show.
• Prone to Tears: He’s very shy and prone to cry a lot. It’s a facade, as he’s actually more cunning than he first lets on.
• Stripperiffic: As if to enforce his female disguise, Plum wears some very revealing outfits.
• Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious: To Plum, the siblings’ sweat is incredible tasty and would do anything they ask him to do for the chance of tasting it. But even their sweat has nothing on their blood, which is nutritious enough to give him the energy to cast an illusion able to fool a Flügel.
• Technicolor Eyes: His irises are yellow while his pupils are blue, according with the light novel’s illustrations.
• Underestimating Badassery: Plum’s plans had all the thought and cunning necessary to be successful, but he keeps underestimating those underneath his rank, never considering that their «cowardice» (or self-preservation instincts) would be enough to outsmart him.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Plum shows his true nature and gloats over his plan to finally get free from the Sirens’ control and get the rights over Sora and Shiro’s blood. Unluckily for him, Sora and Shiro outsmarted him.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: In order to assist the siblings in their game against the Flügels, he transformed into a long scarf with huge wings. When he has taken a dose of blood, he’s able to take the form of Sora and Shiro in order to trick Azrael.
• Walking Spoiler: Almost nobody can talk about Plum without mentioning the fact that «she» is actually a he, forced to go in drag to elude the male-hungry Sirens. The gender reveal only happens right after Sora and Shiro win the game against the Sirens, though they admit that they figured it out some time before that.
• Weakened by the Light: Dhampirs are not only extremely photosensitive but they also can make others be the same. This is known as the «Dhampirs’ disease» and it’s transmitted via biting for blood sucking. Because of this, Plum had to hide in a wooden box (and with a powerful protective spell) while with the others at the beach.
• Xanatos Gambit: Plum’s plan actually was very well thought to be a win/win situation for him, to the point Sora actually praises him: thanks to his «love spell» he would have made the empress fall in love with any man in the sibling’s group and technically the victory would be his entirely, giving him the right to claim the Dhampirs from the Sirens; on the other hand, if they lost, then the Sirens could start using Imanity and Werebeats to reproduce and thus allow the Dhampir population to recover. Even if the siblings won in some other fashion, since Leila bet «everything» that would include both rights and duties such as supplying him and his race with blood. The one thing he didn’t count on was Sora giving most of Leila’s «everything» back to her.
• Young and in Charge: As the best spellcaster and only male in the race, Plum is the Dhampirs’ representative, and he’s yet to hit puberty.

• Brainless Beauty: They’re quite stupid, particularly failing to understand that the Ten Covenants prohibit violence and nearly getting into a symbiotic arrangement with the Dhampirs that would be very bad for the Sirens. Sora notes that it’s surprising that there’s a race that people look down upon even more than Imanity.
• Glamour: While unable to use magic, all Sirens have the ability to attract the souls and spirits of anyone who sees them.
• Mars Needs Women: Gender flipped. The main conflict of volumes 4 and 5 is that the Sirens have nearly driven both themselves and the Dhampirs to extinction thanks to killing all the Dhampir males except one boy yet are still desperate to get more mates, and other Exceeds aren’t thrilled at the idea of dying.
• One-Gender Race: Sirens are exclusively female and can only breed female Sirens as well, explaining their need to get male partners from other races.
• Sirens Are Mermaids: Sirens are basically mermaids, and they used to lure males to ‘eat’, meaning mating with them while draining them of their life.
• Spell My Name with an S: Sometimes spelled «Seirenes,» but the localization uses «Sirens.»
• Vampiric Draining: Sirens’ mating method actually drains the male’s life in the process.

«It feels so great watching that idiotic woman suffer~! Hahahah~ ☆»

The Sirens’ acting representative due of their queen being in a deep slumber. Barely sharper than the rest of her kin.

• Anti-Villain: Amira knew how to awake the Empress, but if someone got to wake her up, the Sirens’ Race Piece and all their rights will be given up with no real guarantee that the race would get more mates; so in giving false information about Leila’s game, she was trying in her own way to keep her race safe while providing them with more «food».
• Beleaguered Assistant: She was actually quite fed up with Leila’s selfishness almost destroying two races and was grateful that Sora woke her up.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Very bubbly and always smiling, even when Jibril destroyed everything inside Leila’s dream over and over again, happy that her selfish empress was finally getting punished and when Leila finally awakened, she encouraged Sora to punch her.
• Idiot Hair: She has a cowlick atop her head to emphatize how much of an idiot she is.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: The first thing she does after seeing Sora is try to seduce him into mating with her. However, it was a ruse to lower Sora’s guards and «Miko» revealed that she actually lied over considering him handsome.
• Say It with Hearts: All her sentences either finish with a star or a heart to underscore her bubbliness.
• Sugary Malice: She considers that you must be true to your feelings, so even if she was smiling all the time her eyes were full of dark gratification over the idea of Sora hitting Leila, for all the troubles she caused.

  Amira: “Tee-hee-heee! ★ Sora, this show you�ve given us has been wooonderful, but, while you�re at it, could you hit that @# $% a little harder for Amira? Yeah! Hit her so hard her head caves in!�

• Obfuscating Stupidity: Subverted. Don’t get it wrong, Amira is barely smarter than the rest of the Sirens but she knew all along how to awaken her Empress yet never told anybody to use Plum’s plan of coup as a way to win more males for her kin to mate.
• Too Dumb to Fool: She was able to use Plum’s rebellious plan to her advantage in order to claim possession of Sora and Ino as ‘food’. Plum was unable to see that one coming because he looked down on her as just another stupid Siren. As Sora puts it:

  Sora: An idiot that knows he’s an idiot � is even harder to deal with than an idiot that thinks he isn’t.

From the very instant that I was born, those things were all mine. And it’s exactly because of that � that I’ll never be satisfied.

The Sirens’ Empress and full representative, she has been hibernating for eight hundred years while proposing a game: she would give everything she possessed (including her Race Piece) to the one man who manage to wake her up. The thing is, she would only wake up if she manages to fall in love, creating a very complex and difficult «Real Life Romance Game».

• 100% Adoration Rating: The Empress of Siren is beloved by every last one of her subjects because of her unusually powerful glamor. They cheered as Sora, Shiro and Jibril tortured her in her dream game, and Amira, her own Number Two, commanded Plum not to turn off her pain receptors before it began. In fact, any one of them would gladly have beaten her up if they were physically capable of doing so.
• Abhorrent Admirer: She’s head-over-hills for Sora, and she’s not shy about it. Sora is otherwise turned off by her stupidity, unhealthy adoration and masochistic pleasure over being shamed and humiliated. Unfortunately for him, his own animosity and disgust towards her is what charms her, and he needs to keep her interested in him in order to keep her game beaten.
• Achilles’ Heel: Her power and importance are based on her powerful glamour. Her glamour depends on being underwater so her water spirits can manipulate the others around her. Without water she’s powerless.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: She did this In-Universe with a fairytale about a princess so peerless, every suitor gave her any kind of valuable treasures and swore eternal love to her (kinda like herself) and was assassinated by a thief. She (somehow) came to the conclusion that he was the only that had «pure love» towards the princess because he was the only one that didn’t fall to his knees, begging for her love. Yes, this is the true nadir of Siren’s stupidity.
• Bishie Sparkle: The narrative comments that every time she moved, she left behind a glowing trail.
• Bitch in Sheep’s Clothing: While in the «Dating Sim» dream, she acts like a demure maiden, even when rejecting people. She actually is quite rude, entitled and selfish and took sadistic glee in rejecting lovestruck players of her «game».
• Brainless Beauty: One of Sora’s complains in his rant is that Leila believes herself to be so beautiful that she doesn’t actually need any substance.

  Sora: Sexiness must come with some sort of humility and restraint before it has any meaning! […] If you think all that matters is how much skin you show, you might as well go be a nudist! You bloody halfwit!

• Compelling Voice: Her glamour is so strong that with just her voice, she’s able to bend everyone that lays eyes on her to her very whim.
• Cursed with Awesome: She was born with an unnaturally large amount of spirits inside her, making her glamour so strong that it is impossible to resist her. She believes herself to be cursed because if she has everything she wants just for asking, then she values none of it.
• Didn’t Think This Through: Leila actually didn’t think much about her «game»; she got the idea of «unobtainable love» from a fairytale, her game’s rules and objectives were ambiguous and she left her race without guidance on a childish whim for 800 years.
• Explosive Breeder: As empress of the Sirens, Leila has higher fertility than the others, needing less soul essence from a partner to breed. Originally, Dhampir males would only breed with the Siren Empress, lowering their mortality rate; but when her mother died while she was sleeping, chaos started. When she falls for Sora, she was able to use a single lock of Sora’s hair to create a daughter out of his DNA in just a few days.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Thanks to the Water Spirits, she’s able to attract everyone in her water realm, no matter their gender. Not even Jibril is immune.
• Fairytale Motifs: She’s often compared to Sleeping Beauty. Sora actually calls her out for considering herself a «cursed beauty» who just causes lots of troubles for everyone else.
• Human Popsicle: Her cold sleep involved getting herself enclosed in a huge iceberg.
• I Love You Because I Can’t Control You: In order to beat her game, one must break her bubble of entitlement and reject her, because she sought for someone that couldn’t fall for her charms. Sora even points out that if he ever gets to love her back, she will lose interest in him immediately.
• Meaningful Name: «Lorelei» makes allusion to the Germanic myth of a siren-like women that caused ships to wreck with her beauty and voice.
• «The Reason You Suck» Speech: On the receiving end. Sora gave her a rapid-fired Wall of Text rant over her selfishness, bitchiness and stupidity (that he said was on EVERYONE’s behalf as well). Unknowingly for him, this was what charmed her enough to wake up.
• Somebody Doesn’t Love Raymond: Because of his lack of spirits, Sora is immune to Leila’s glamour. Leila may or may not love Sora; she just loves the idea of a man that doesn’t love her and the greedy (and masochistic) thrill of pursuing someone she can’t have.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: She got the idea of looking for «pure love» thanks to a fairytale she read and tried to recreate it in her life.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Downplayed. Leila actually wanted a man that would bully her and when she fell for Sora, she was delighted at his insults and would love for him to hit her (although he points out that violence is forbidden under the Ten Covenants, a fact that the Sirens seem to consistently fail to grasp). Leila is practically a toned down masochist.
• Victory Is Boring: She was bored with life because she always had everything she wanted, to the point she decided to sleep (seemly forever) waiting for someone that she would not have so easily.
• Walking Spoiler: As her «game» and real motivations are the main conflict of two volumes, talking about her is practically spoiling it all.
• Wanting Is Better Than Having: This is her whole concept of «pure love». As every man gets seduced by her immediately, she never actually gets to value her suitors. Sora being the only one that won’t beg for her love, she can actually feel the aching pain of unrequited love herself and so gives him her total devotion.
• World’s Most Beautiful Woman: Thanks to her very strong glamour, she’s the Most Beautiful Woman in the eyes of Disboard’s people. But as Sora and Shiro have no spirits to manipulate, Sora comments that, though she’s pretty, she has nothing on the gorgeous Jibril or the godly beautiful «Miko» or the pure cuteness of Shiro and Izuna. Heck, for Sora even Steph is more attractive.

• Hive Mind: All Ex-Machina are linked together in a hive mind. This allows them to share knowledge and adapt to attacks.
• It Only Works Once: Because information about whatever kills a single Ex-Machina is shared among the remaining units, any trick that was once used against them will never work again because countermeasures have already been placed against the tactic.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: A race of cybernetic life forms.
• Power Copying: All Ex-Machina can copy the ability of whatever kills a single unit because of their Hive Mind sharing this information to the other existing units. They can then add that ability to their arsenal and use it when they see fit. However, said ability will be weaker than the original’s version.

Co-protagonist of Volume 6, an Ex-Machina from 6,000 years in the past that was discovered by Riku and later became his wife.

• An Arm and a Leg: Jibril easily blows away her right arm. It could have been far worse, for Jibril was aiming for her torso.
• Badass Adorable: She’s as cute as Shiro, but she’s a powerful mechanical lifeform who’s a Person of Mass Destruction.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: She’s a robot, it’s not that unusual.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: While she doesn’t fully understand emotions yet, she can sense the pain and conflict Riku hides behind his cold-hearted mask. She eventually brings him out of his shell and encourages him to be true to himself.
• Can’t Have Sex, Ever: Justified by that she’s a machine and doesn’t have the «equipment» for it. However, she said that with time, she can create something similar if she were to study the «equipment» in human women.
• Character Development: She learns what it means to feel emotions from her time spent with Riku, throwing aside logic for love.
• The Commandments: The laws of Disboard were not created by Tet. They were created by Riku and Schwi.
• Do Not Go Gentle: When Jibril spots her, she knows exactly how hopelessly screwed she is but still fought with all her might to escape. Failing that, she used her death to forge a new path.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Despite the fact that she could not say it due to damage to her vocal system, her last words were to Riku, telling him that she loves him and the next time they meet, she will never let him go.
• The Exile: Her seeking to understand emotions ended up causing a Logic Bomb and her removal from the hive mind.
• Foil: Schwi is an emotionless mechanical lifeform who yearns to understand emotions. On the other hand, Riku locks away his emotions in order to become cold, calculating and emotionless.
• Forceful Kiss: When she first meets Riku, she suddenly kisses him in a (failed) attempt to seduce him.
• Going Commando: Riku makes her wear a dress so the humans in the colony don’t know she’s an Ex-Machina, but he doesn’t get her any underwear, not that she could actually wear them with her tails.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: The actions of herself, Riku and the Ghost’s will never be revealed, with Corone helping them wipe out all traces that they had existed. Only three things remained as proof that they had once existed; Riku, Schwi and Corone’s names engraved on the underside of the Dora family’s heirloom gem, Schwi’s emotional data within the Ex-Machina Hive Mind, and Tet himself.
• Happily Married: She officially becomes Riku’s wife and what moments of their marriage were not spent on The Plan were indeed happy. She treasures their memories together beyond mere research data. After ensuring that those memories will endure as part of the Ex-Machina Hive Mind, her last act is to protect the ring he gave her when proposing.
• Identical Stranger: She greatly resembles Shiro with black hair.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: As an Ex-Machina, Schwi doesn’t wear clothes. It’s not like she really has any naughty bits to cover anyway.
• In the Hood: She has to keep her hood on to hide her mechanical parts from the people in the colony.
• Machine Monotone: She speaks like this when Riku first meets her. Before Riku took her to the colony, he asked her to change her machine-like voice to something else in order to hide the fact that she’s an Ex-Machina. He recommended a timid, quiet voice.
• Mayfly�December Romance: With Riku. When they marry, Schwi already has 200 years on him and still has almost 900 years worth of a lifespan, hilariously she insisted that he was not allowed to die before her, a promise that is tragically upheld.
• More Dakka: Deployed the entire Ex-Machina arsenal, all 27,451 weapons against Jibril. It wasn’t enough.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When she was Proofer for her cluster, she proposed that an attack be redirected in order to minimize damage loss. The attack was redirected into Riku’s hometown, and upon finding a young Riku, realized that humans weren’t mindless beasts. The resulting analysis generated so many errors that she was expelled from the cluster.
• Naked First Impression: She’s wearing nothing when Riku finds her, since she’s an Ex-Machina. He gets her a dress before taking her to the colony.
• Naked on Arrival: She’s technically naked in her first appearance since Ex-Machinae don’t need clothes.
• No Body Left Behind: After Jibril’s through with her, there is nothing left of Schwi except her wedding ring.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: She casually tells Riku how humanity surviving the Great War for so long is a mystery to Exceeds. Riku takes this as a big offense because Exceeds have no idea what humans have to go through and the sacrifices they made as a result of getting caught up in the Exceeds’ battles. Schwi immediately realizes her Innocently Insensitive mistake and she already feels remorse over accidentally destroying Riku’s hometown. She offers Riku the chance to kill her if that makes him feel better. Riku doesn’t take the offer.
• Power Copying: She can mimic any attack as long as she has been hit by it once. However, the attack will be weaker than the original. Twelve years prior to her meeting Riku, she and her fellow Ex-Machinae fought the Dragoneers, including one of the three Dragonia Kings. She survived and obtained said King’s ultimate ability, Dragonia’s Roar which, while weaker than the original, is still comparable to a Flügel’s. But not Jibril.
• Power Limiter: Code — All Unlock, which activates and enables every single weapon that the Ex-Machina possesses and adapted from the other Exceeds. She was forced to use this mode against Jibril. Despite possessing even Old Dei-killing weapons, it didn’t work.
• Really 700 Years Old: At the start of Volume 6, she was manufactured 211 years ago.
• Redemption Quest: Her «independent research» into the human heart is a self-assigned version of this trope. She thinks that if she completes the mission that got her exiled in the first place, then her cluster will allow her to reconnect for possessing valuable data, or so Riku assumed at their first proper meeting. Schwi herself explains that she has no intention to return to her cluster (though why she doesn’t want to even she doesn’t know.)
• Robot Girl: She looks like a little human girl with just several machine-like features in her body giving away she’s an Ex-Machina.
• Robosexual: An Ex-Machina who falls in love with and marries Riku, a full-blooded human being.
• Smart People Play Chess: Her favorite game is chess and she absolutely destroys Riku at it. Justified because, as a machine, she literally knows every possible move in the game.
• Some Call Me «Tim»: Since her number is way too complicated, Riku asks her for a more human name. Her first choice is Schwarzer because of her black hair. Riku still thinks it’s too long, so they both settle with the name «Schwi».
• Spell My Name with an S: Fan translations romanized her name as «Shuvi» while Yen Press has her name spelled as «Schwi». According to Word of God and merchandise, the latter is correct as her name is meant to be a shortened version of the German word «schwarzer».
• The Spock: Like Shiro, she’s extremely intelligent, logical and stone-faced. Justified because she’s a machine.
• Thanatos Gambit: She’s well aware she couldn’t hold a candle against Jibril, the culmination of Artosh’s experiments to create the ultimate Living Weapon. Yet she insists on fighting her, knowing her fellow Ex-Machinae will learn everything Jibril dishes out at her, allowing them to go toe-to-toe with Artosh himself and allow Riku to create the Ten Pledges.
• Third-Person Person: Just like Shiro, she speaks in third person. She initially calls herself «this unit» until Riku names her «Schwi».
• What Is This Thing You Call «Love»?: Her seeking the answer to love caused her removal from the Hive Mind. She’s following Riku because he promised that if she does so, she will find her answer. Although Riku had tricked her in order to obtain the assistance of an Ex-Machina, Corone’s question about why she’s interested in Riku caused her to seek the answer. She found it, right before Jibril killed her.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: What did it matter that Schwi was a mechanical lifeform? Riku loved her and she learned to love him back, despite it going against all her system’s logic.

«—Lived without life, went without life — We depart with life. Aus(over).»

The commander of all Connected Units and the representative of the Ex-Machina. During the Great War, Eintihi had ordered the removal of Schwi from the hive cluster due to her Logic Bomb causing disruptions within the cluster. Initially appearing in the flashback that is Volume 6, he makes his present-day appearance in Volume 9, assisted by Ec001Bf9048a2 (nicknamed Ymirein).

• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Against the impossible odds; Yes, he somehow managed to defeat and weaken Artosh.
• Loophole Abuse: He persuades Riku to continue his plan by pretending to be nothing more than an emotionless machine, because if a «tool breaks down», it’s not considered someone being killed and violating the rules of the game.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He pretended that he was an emotionless machine to encourage Riku to view him and his race as such, so it would not break the rules of the game. Subverted because he knew Riku could see right through it.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The remaining Ex-Machinae and himself somehow defeated Artosh.
• Really 700 Years Old: Much like Jibril, he’s lived through the Great War, and looks hardly any older than 6000 years ago. Not that machines seem to age in this setting, anyway.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: When Schwi tried to request reconnection with the hive cluster and share her data on emotions, he permitted it because he deemed her broken yet still functioning and thus important research data. Her data ended up giving the entire race emotions and knowledge of Riku and Schwi’s plan on ending the Great War, to which they all decided to follow to the end.
• Robosexual: He’s attracted to Sora thanks to reflecting Schwi’s feelings towards Riku, and the latter greatly resembling Sora. This predictably creeps Sora out.
• Spell My Name with an S: Alternatively called «Eintihi» or «Einzieg».
• Voice Changeling: Can briefly change his voice to Schwi’s in order to pass her message to Riku following Schwi’s death.

The Ex-Machina in charge of cluster E. Ec001Bf9048a2 accompanies Eintihi when he decides to pay a visit to 『　　』 in Volume 9. Sora finds her designation number too long and thus nicknames her «Ymirein».

• Defeat Means Friendship: Or love, in this case. After Sora wins a game against her, she completely falls in love with him and decides to spend her remaining lifespan with him.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her right stocking is white and the other is pastel sea green.
• Really 700 Years Old: She was manufactured roughly 1097 years ago, and still looks like a young girl.
• Robosexual: She falls in love with Sora, a normal human.
• Robot Girl: Aside from some machine-like features, she looks like a cute human girl for the most part.
• Robot Maid: Her intricate maid outfit and obvious machine parts evoke the trope, and she becomes subservient to Sora following their game.
• Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: She believes herself to be Sora’s bride.
• Some Call Me «Tim»: Sora thinks her number is too complicated to pronounce and consequently nicknames her «Ymirein».
• Your Days Are Numbered: According to herself, she only has 6 years left before shutting down. Coupled with losing to and falling in love with Sora, she decides to spend that remaining time with him.

«My name’s Tet. I live over there. I’m a god!»

The God of Games.

The god of Disboard, who set up the Ten Laws of Disboard, as well as the last of the Old Deus.

• Actual Pacifist: From the beginning. The only reason Tet survived the Old Deus’ war is because he refused to take part in it. He also has forbidden violence and robbery and refuses to take any sides between the Exceeds.
• All-Powerful Bystander: Despite being considered «The One True God», Tet abhors violence (to the point of banning it completely) and does not favor any race in particular. Because of this, Tet does not get involved in conflicts between the Exceed.
• The Chessmaster: Aside making games for everyone for problem-solving and decision-making in a nonviolent way, Tet did it to find someone who can match him. Lampshaded in episode 4, when Sora realizes the reason for the existence of the sixteen races (one for each chess piece), in that Tet is waiting for the right opponent with his black king piece.
• Clap If You Believe: Tet was born 6,000 years ago from the sincere hopes of Riku and Schwi that one day all Exceeds can learn to live in peace.
• The Commandments: Upon his ascension, he created the ten laws of Disboard that all Exceeds must obey, finally ending the Forever War that had laid waste to Disboard for tens of thousands of years. The laws were actually created by Riku and Schwi, 6,000 years ago. Tet is merely enforcing them.
• Cosmic Keystone: See that odd diamond-looking gem floating over his right hand? That’s actually the Suniaster, the item for which the Old Dei and their creations warred each other over and whose possession is what confers one the title and powers of the One True God. Merely having it allows one to rewrite reality in Disboard as they see fit, which Tet used to heal the ravaged planet and enforce the Ten Laws after becoming the One True God.
• Does Not Like Shoes: Wears some kind of footguards or toeless footwear.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Tet’s right pupil has a diamond shape and the left one a spade shape on it.
• Facial Markings: A small red-colored heart in his right cheek.
• Final Boss: Sora and Shiro’s goal is to one day defeat him. He welcomes the challenge and eagerly awaits their coming.
• First-Name Basis: He asked to Sora and Shiro to just call him Tet. In return, Tet calls them 『　　』, recognizing both as his Worthy Opponent.
• God Is Good: As deity, he abolished all violence and encouraged the sixteen races of Disboard to solve conflicts with games. After all, he is the manifested form of Riku and Schwi’s wish for lasting peace between the Exceeds.
• God Is Neutral: While good-natured, Tet doesn’t favor any race. Thus, he’s unwilling to play any games on their behalf.
• The Gods Must Be Lazy: Tet doesn’t intervene in Disboard at all. He took the job as deity mostly because he is the only Old Deus left, and only created the rules (specifically the second rule) as a way to filter out his Worthy Opponent. By his own admission, he is a bystander.
• Heroic Neutral: Tet does not get involved in conflicts between the races and does not favor any of them over the others. Nonetheless, considering that he banned violence and would like for everyone to get along and have fun together, Tet still qualifies as benevolent.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Not just humans but all sixteen sentient races. After watching the horror of the old war, Tet declared them no different than the mindless monsters and declared that they can prove their supposed «intelligence» by fighting each other with games.
• Immortal Immaturity: Tet behaves like the little child he looks like despite being a deity.
• I Should Write a Book About This: In the light novel, Tet is actually writing down 『　　』’s adventures while waiting for them on the Black King’s tower.
• It Amused Me: Tet’s modus operandi. All his actions are meant to ease his boredom and make things a little more interesting. This includes bringing Sora and Shiro to Disboard.
• Keet: As cheerful and energetic as his young age implies.
• King of All Cosmos: The One True God of Disboard is a pink, joyful and plucky bubble of cuteness that cares more for games than to look out for his world.
• Last of His Kind: He is the sole remaining Old Deus alive after everyone else killed each other vying for godhood over Disboard.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Tet has mismatched Technicolor Eyes and he is the deity of games.
• Meaningful Name: «Tet» is a Hungarian word meaning «bet» or «wager», fitting for the God of Play.
• Motif Merger: Of many games like poker, dice and chess. It comes from being the deity of games.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: He was conceived by a young Riku as an imaginary unbeatable opponent in his chess game. He’s given actual existence when Riku finds the Star Grail.
• Odd Job Gods: Not as odd as they get, but still pretty niche all things considered, being the God of Games. Unusually, he is also the Top God, and the entire setting deals with what happens when a deity with a relatively minor role ends up assuming full control of existence: a world where pretty much everything is centered on one single minor facet of life. Thus, Disboard became a realm where, by divine decree, Duels Decide Everything and consequently, games are Serious Business.
• Physical God: While Tet is extremely powerful, he is not invincible, since it is still possible for an Old Deus to die or be outsmarted.
• Playing Card Motifs: The heart on his cheek, the club on his hat, and the diamond and spade on his eyes.
• «The Reason You Suck» Speech: Delivered one to all Exceeds upon his ascension, demanding that they show proof that they really weren’t just unintelligent beasts. Not one Exceed managed to provide an answer that he would accept. During Tet’s reminiscing in volume 6, we see part of the Great War, and the Exceeds really were acting no better than unintelligent beasts.

  Tet: To everyone, who used up all extremes of strength, violence, desperation, and death. Show me proof that you, who built towers of corpses, are civilised beings as you so claim. What is the difference between you and the ‘unintelligent beasts’?

• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Short pink hair and a bundle of joy too.
• Smarter Than You Look: Tet actually thought out the 10 Pledges very well, as they give to everyone the opportunity to resolve things peacefully yet still with a loophole able to give the losing side a pleasing result too. Of course, one has to see things Tet’s way to notice it.
• Spirited Competitor: He is willing to bet the right of being Disboard’s One True God only for the chance of having the greatest of all games.
• To Win Without Fighting: Tet managed to get the title of One and True God of Disboard simply because he never actually participated in the Great War, though technically he didn’t even exist as anything more then Riku’s childhood imaginary friend until the last moments of the war.
• Top God: By virtue of being the only god left standing after all the others slaughtered each other. Consequently, he turned Disboard into a land where games are the solution to every conflict.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Being the deity with power over games isn’t the most powerful war asset, so Tet did what a weak one would do in his situation: let the strong ones kill each other and survive.
• Victory Is Boring: After ascending to One True God of Disboard, Tet endured six thousand years of boredom because the 16 Exceeds were too focused in gambling for countries, submerging his days in a monotone routine. Tet’s life recovered excitement after he lost to the sibling gamers, what made Sora theorize that Tet was also bored because he never had felt his pride crushed by a defeat which would ignite his resolution, and in this way, become a true Gamer.
• War Is Hell: After witnessing the brutal war between his kin, Tet banned violence because he won’t allow anything like that again on his watch.
• Worthy Opponent: The reason why Tet brought the siblings to Disboard. After losing to them in chess, Tet was so amazed at their ability that he summoned them for the chance of finally being able to play seriously, as the other races are not conscious that he can be challenged. However, he notes that their predecessors, Riku and Schwi, were even stronger, for they succeeded and won in the old world where there were no rules.

«If being broken by the weak is the destiny of the strong then, sure enough the strongest is the Essence of mine, right?»

The God of War.

With the appearance of an enormous angel with eighteen wings, he is the most powerful of the Old Dei (and thus by extension, the most powerful being on Disboard).

During the Great War, he created the Flügel in his search for perfection, each imbued with a tiny fraction of his power.

He disappeared prior to the start of the series, but is occasionally mentioned by the characters, especially, the Flügel.

• Above Good and Evil: Viewed himself as such. He’s not good. He’s not evil. He just is. Such is the right of the one who is the strongest.
• Blood Knight: He was well aware that someone was manipulating the races behind the scenes and that it was a human behind it all. However, he did nothing because he regarded his opponent as his equal and had at last found his Worthy Opponent.

  Artosh: Hahaha!! I see, «you» are the one who will be the murderer of mine. It was unexpectedly fast, hahaha!!

• Graceful Loser: He didn’t mind being defeated, even against a mere human. He was grateful for being defeated by those he deemed the weakest, against an opponent that he could finally give his all.

  Artosh: Oh weakest without a name — you may be proud. You rightfully became the «enemy» of mine.

• Hoist by His Own Petard: Riku’s grand plan needed him to fire Divine Strike in order to work. He knew he was being played, but did so anyways to meet his opponent head on with everything he had.
• Large Ham: His booming voice literally shook Avantheim and is so eccentric and over-the-top that he made Azrael look like the Only Sane Man.
• Lonely at the Top: Artosh was the strongest Old Deus which meant no one would dare challenge him. This left him bored for millennia. When a challenger did appear, he was all too happy to oblige.
• The Lost Lenore: To the whole Flügel race, but specially to Azrael and Avantheim.
• Might Makes Right: Had this philosophy. He was the strongest, and thus was absolute. When he was defeated, he congratulated Riku and praised him for overcoming him.
• Orcus on His Throne: He did nothing but sit on his throne for thousands of years bored and waiting for his Worthy Opponent to appear.

  Artosh: The strongest challenged by no one… what meaning is there in it?

• Posthumous Character: He disappeared prior to the start of the series, but is frequently mentioned by the characters, especially the Flügel. He would appear in person in volume 6, which takes place 6,000 years in the past.
• Power Gives You Wings: Eighteen Wings in fact. It appears like he’s wearing a mantle.
• Slouch of Villainy: He did this for thousands of years while sitting on his throne. Subverted. He only did this because he was completely and utterly bored because no one would challenge him.
• There’s No Kill like Overkill: Divine Strike, which is a blast with the combined power of not just himself, but every single Flügel. The «normal» verion of this, Heavenly Smite, is already enough to destroy most targets, and it is from just one Flügel.
• World’s Strongest Man: Prior to Tet’s ascension, he was the most powerful of the Old Deus and thus the most powerful being of Disboard.
• Worthy Opponent: Despite not knowing his name, he regarded Riku, a mere human, as one.

  Artosh: Indeed, it makes sense that the one who will oppose myself who is the Strongest would be the Weakest. Isn’t that so, «wolf»?

The God of Doubt and Trust.

The first and oldest of the Old Dei (by extension, the oldest being in all of Disboard), she’s their self-proclaimed representative, though she hasn’t shown her Race Piece. She also created the Ex-Machina.

At the start of the story, she existed within Miko as a condition of winning a game they played when the latter was a child. Following the events of Volume 7, Miko summons Horou out, whereupon she starts a dice game with Sora.

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Miko summoning Horou to talk directly with 『　　』 at the end of the anime adaptation makes it seem like she would be a candidate for a possible second season, though this particular scene happens in Volume 7, way later than where the 12-episode adaption ended (Volume 3).
• Fish out of Water: Because she’s been sealed in Miko’s body for several decades, Horou isn’t familiar with the present-day world, and grows increasingly curious about it. Worse even, she reveals to Sora that her only memories are Miko’s, implying she no longer has any memories prior to their game.
• Time Abyss: As the very first being alive on Disboard, she’s probably millions (or even billions) of years old.

 

At least it wasn’t puns.

Impressions:

Ugh, shiritori. Although you know what’s kind of impressive about it? They do a little timeskip to show that the game’s been going on for a while since they’re both such awesome and formidible players (of a children’s language game), and the only things they could think of to show this were a monster chasing Tits around, and a cowboy hat. And yes, there was indeed absolutely nothing in the first half worth mentioning. They already have their fill of idiots. I don’t see why they need yet another one.

And from a relatively stable, if stupid, beginning of the game, things escalated like… well, the thing it reminded me most of was Sephiroth’s ultimate attack which took 2-3 minutes, and involved the destruction of the entire universe. Except since this is anime, it took closer to 6, long after any tension had been bled dry and the only thing left to squeeze out was pus. It, of course, also involved the protagonists thinking a dozen steps ahead from before things even went eight ways bananas. Which they might have been able to pull off, if not for the multiple gigantic monologue right after it about how super awesome they were, while flashing back over almost the entire game. And all the dramatic pausing while they’re trying to sell “on the edge of death and falling into the ‘sun.’” But at least they upped the incestual overtones from joke to not! Great work, team.

Next Episode:

More naked time.