AI No Kusabi - Characters

Characters

• Riki (リキ): Riki, or "Riki the Dark" has been called the "charisma" of the slums. In the OVA, he has black hair and brown eyes with tanned skin. Riki wears a black sando with a black and maroon jacket on top and a pair of black pants. He was the leader of Bison, a gang in Ceres, and eventually became Iason Mink's pet, which had a crushing effect to his human pride. During his stint as Iason's pet, he is given a pet ring (which has a tracer and allows him to access certain areas like the Saloon) around his manhood which did not follow the usual design (such as necklaces, rings or earrings). Iason explained to Raoul that after registering Riki as a pet, an ID-less citizen, the laws cease to apply to him. Riki was registered as Z107M. In the CD Drama, he formed a sort of friendship with Daryl, Iason's furniture. Daryl helped him escape, at the risk of his own position, because he did not want Riki to change his personality and attitude as a gang leader, and explains to Iason that making him into a pet might be too much, thus, his assistance without Riki's knowledge. Riki was once Guy's lover, the second in command of his gang. Riki is proud, rebellious, fierce and defiant, but his experiences change him. He becomes mature and quiet. Some men living in the slums feel he has lost his spark. He is torn between his pride and the feelings he has for Iason that he is unwilling to acknowledge. In the novel, it was mentioned that Riki first met Iason when he was 16 years old, then he was taken to become Iason's pet when he was 17 years old and returned to the slums when he was 20 years old. It was mentioned in the novel that the reason why Riki did not want to return to Iason, aside from losing his freedom, was that he felt that he would not be able to resist him if Iason thought of doing something to him. In the audio book, two OVAs, and the first drama CD, he is played by Seki Toshihiko. In the later drama CDs, he is played by Itou Kentarou.

• Iason Mink: Iason is not just any Blondie – he is the most superior and powerful of all of them, the one who talks directly to Jupiter and carries out Jupiter's commands. He is the head of the Syndicate, Tanagura's black market for pet trade. Blondies were artificially designed and sterile, possessing an IQ of more than 300. He is blonde and taller than Riki. In the OVA, it appears that a metallic shoulder pad is common as their everyday clothing. He is in love with his pet Riki, a mongrel from the slums, which casts a dark shadow over his seeming perfection. Iason is interested at first in what it would be like to have a gang leader from the slums as a pet instead of those non-thinking one bred from the Academy. He also shows signs of an obsession which can be devastating. There were some instances where he showed jealousy, like when Riki masturbates in front of a hologram of a woman (mentioned in the CD drama), the incident where he had forbidden intercourse with Mimea (shown in OVA and mentioned in the CD drama) and when Riki called out Guys's name while sleeping after drinking too much sake (in the CD drama). He finally falls in love with Riki but when asked about it, he gives a sad smile. He has an elegant and calm manner that hides a passionate, ruthless and unforgiving nature. For Riki, Iason is willing to flaunt and break all taboos, like having a mongrel as a pet and keeping said pet for 3 years. In the novel, it was mentioned that as part of Riki's training as a proper pet, he made the mongrel go naked for one month, for Riki to get used to being naked in front of him. Then for the next 2 months, he made Riki masturbate in front of Iason and show his intimate parts. After 6 months, Iason took the unusual step of having sexual intercourse with Riki. It was unusual because elites and blondies, are just to enjoy looking at their pet, not touching them. In the audio book, two OVAs, and first drama CD, he is played by Shiozawa Kaneto. In the later drama CDs, he is played by Tooru Ookawa.

• Guy (ガイ) : A former pairing partner of Riki's. He, too, is overly obsessed with Riki. When Riki was the leader of the Bison gang, Guy was his second-in-command, and he assumes the leadership when Riki vanishes for 3 years. In the novel, it was mentioned that Guy was offered to become Iason's pet with Kirie as the middleman, but this was a plot of Iason to make Riki come back to him. At first he refused but after some thinking, he relented and went to Eos. There, he was kept by Iason and waited for Riki to show up, either to demand Guy back or return to him as his pet once again. Nothing happened and so Iason himself went to see Riki. He got an assuring answer from the mongrel and so he released Guy. In the OVA, after he was released from prison (the incident with Katze plotting an ambush where the Bison gang members were arrested for sneaking in during an android shipment), he went to see Riki and asked if they can get back together, like they used to in the past but Riki refused him, confessing that he is now Iason's pet and cannot escape it. Furious, Guy punched Riki in the face. Later on, he devised a plan to help get Riki out of his predicament (because he thinks the reason why Riki became Iason's pet was for the Bison gang to be released from prison) and get back at Iason for taking Riki away from him. In the end, he survived but had his arm taken off as a result of Iason's fury for him having removed the pet ring from Riki (mentioned in the novel and shown in the OVA). In the audio book, he is played by Kozima Takayuki (小島貴幸). In the two OVA, he is played by Tsujitani Koji. In the later drama CDs, he is played by Toriumi Kosuke.

• Katze (カッツェ): A former furniture of Iason, he gets involved in the black market and becomes a man of great power and influence there. Something of a computer genius, he once almost uncovered what he calls the "Secret of Tanagura", but got caught in the act by Iason. This earned him a scar on his left cheek which he usually covers with his hair (in the OVA, he has reddish brown colored hair). He returns Riki to Iason by manipulating Kirie. In the OVA, Katze plotted an ambush for the Bison using Kirie by telling the gang that an adroid shipment will be held and it is a great opportunity to earn some cash. The gang took the bait but security was already in place and stopped the gang from going any further while Kirie took Riki to an elevator-like platform. At the top, Katze was waiting, and Riki is beyond furious. In the novel, he was very concerned with Iason and Riki to the point that he tries to help them as much as he can (in this case, when Iason asked him to give Riki a job because the latter is getting depressed when he is just cooped up in the apartment, and then when Guy kidnapped Riki and asks Iason if he can do something) and he cried when they perished together. In the audio book, he is played by Hōchū Ōtsuka. In the OVA, he is played by Hideyuki Tanaka. In the later drama CDs, he is played by Miki Shinichiro.

• Daryl (ダリル): Daryl is Iason's furniture who serves as Riki's caretaker and is responsible for the household chores. He calls Riki "Sir Riki" and loves him because of his pride and his will not to bow down. Daryl is executed in the novel because he lets Riki escape. It is unknown what happens to him in the CD drama; it was only mentioned that Iason will punish him for hacking the terminal (used only by the furniture) and letting Riki go and that Daryl accepts his punishment (it was not mentioned what that punishment was). Like Katze, Daryl is intelligent for hacking the system. In the 1993 drama CD, he is played by Ryōtarō Okiayu. In the later drama CDs, he is played by Eiji Hanawa.

• Jupiter: Jupiter is the Artificial Intelligence which rules Amoï. It placed it's android-like Blondie "children" at the pinnacle of society. In the CD drama, the only ones who can talk to it are the Blondies, and in the OVA, it was shown that it was Iason. In the OVA, it looks like a silver colored statue in hologram form.

• Raoul Am: A Blondie and the second in command of Tanagura, he is also Iason Mink's friend. He serves as the voice of reason, concern and societal pressure as Iason's infatuation with Riki becomes more obvious. His pet is one he bred by himself, named Mimea. In the CD drama, it appears that Raoul can tamper with minds, which he does not want to use on Iason in case his relationship with Riki worsens. In the audio book, he is played by Ikeda Hidekazu. In the two OVAs and first drama CD, he is played by Hayami Sho. In the later drama CDs, he is played by Takaya Kuroda.

• Mimea (ミメア): Mimea is Raoul Am's female Pet of the highest breeding. She develops a liking for Riki's unusual ways, falls in love with him and has a forbidden intercourse with him. To Riki, she seems little more than a way to test Iason's feelings, make him jealous and ruin his public image. In the CD drama, when Iason punished Riki for this event, he made what he called a "date by screen" with Mimea on the other monitor. Mimea insisted that it was made just to push her and Riki apart and that they love each other. She also tells Riki that she will be paired to another pet by the name of Jana, whom she described as a sex freak with nothing but his looks, and that thinking of carrying his child pains her. Riki was silent as his pet ring was fully activated at that time and he had a hard time speaking and breathing, leading Mimea to think that he had abandoned her, and she called him coward. She was played by Emi Shinohara in the first drama CD and by Kawaragi Shiho in the later drama CDs.

• Kirie (キリエ): (or Killie) The youngest member of Bison at 17 years old. Kirie is lured into lucrative deals by Katze as part of Iason's scheme to bring Riki back after his year of freedom. In the OVA, his eyes had odd colors; the right eye is colored gold to sandy brown and the left eye is colored blue. Kirie is eventually made to betray his former comrades. In the CD drama, the reason for Riki's dislike of this boy is that he reminds Riki of his former self – proud, rebellious and defiant, traits that he possessed before meeting Iason. Also, it was revealed that Kirie likes Riki. In the end, he becomes a pet, learning the "ways of Tanagura," as Iason says. As for the CD drama ending, his mind was tampered and he no longer knows what is happening around him. It is unknown what happened to him after that. In the audiobook, he is played by Taiki Matsuno. In the two OVAs, he was played by Shigeru Nakahara.

• Enif (エニフ): A former high-class Pet owned by Sir Kyle, who had a fight with Riki during the Free Party that the latter attended. He is now discarded and used as cheap labor, in stark contrast to the freedom and kind treatment Riki still enjoys with Iason. In the CD drama, it was mentioned that he was the one who revealed Riki and Mimea's forbidden act. According to Mimea and the other pets, if you tattle someone, you get lynched.

• Jana: A pet who was paired to Mimea after the incident between her and Riki. According to Mimea, he is a sex freak who has nothing but his looks.

• Lusa: In the CD drama, Mimea mentioned this name to Riki, telling him that Lusa and Stee see Riki as their enemy, because he was a mongrel taken from the slums.

• Stee: A 17-year-old pet bred from the Shiruru Family whose former owner is Sir Aisha. Mimea also mentioned this name to Riki along with Lusa, saying that he shares the same feelings against Riki. Unlike Lusa, he was sold off to a male brothel in Midas, which Riki thinks might be hard on the other pet because he never did it with a man, only with women.

• Rasshi: Mentioned in the CD drama as working for Iason.