Kritiker

Kritiker is a hard thing to describe. It tends to divide and reunite and slaughter itself. Different teams have different names for their bosses, and thanks to Shuichi we end up with at least three Kritiker's, if not more. Section mostly finished, but not quite.

Persia (aka King)

Throughout the entire canon time period we are introduced to at least five Persias (not always known under that name), three of whom are Takatoris. Bit of a family business.

Persia 1

Name: Takatori Saijoh

Significant achievements: founded Kritiker

Persia 2a

Name: Takatori Shuichi

Significant achievements: split Kritiker right down the middle with his obsession with his brother.

Persia 2b

Name: Kyousuke Nakatsugawa

Significant achievements: Took the second Weiss and started a second Kritiker. Had Manx and Birman Killed, and set up several more killing groups.

Persia 2c

Name:

Significant achievements: Started Kritiker in England. Created Weiss Side B, and had them working in a flower shop called, guess what, Kitten in the house.

Persia 3

Name: Yoshirou Karasuma

Significant achievements: Died. Cheated on his wife with Birman, who apparantly knew more about KKritiker than he did. Really a great guy to put in charge [/sarcasm]

Persia 4

Name: Takatori Mamoru

Significant achievements: Actually worked lower down in Kritiker, so he knew what it was like. Killed Persia 2b and possibly made contact with 2c.

Seconds in command

Manx

I have no memory of this outfit, but it's a cute hat. And doesn't Manx look irritated? The boys have obviously been naughty ^_^

Probably the best recognised contact. Well, with that hair you would be. I always wondered how she crinkled it like that. She's got to have some huge crimpers. Wears socks with sandals, for some utterly unknown reason, and isn't half bad in the field. Apparently she was recruited by Bishop. Dies thanks to Persia 2b.

Birman

All of these pictures come from the same source: Hope Forlorn. Wonderful people there, sending me everything I need on request! As you can tell, I don't have much to say about Birman. Looks a bit sad here.

In the manga, she's the one who introduces Ran to Weiss. She does rather less in the anime until Persia dies and Manx starts working more in the field. She has an affair with Persia 3, and she's a mistress of disguise (again, something we never see much of in the animes). She's also highly trusted, and trained to hold her tongue under almost any torture or threat. This talent gets her killed, again thanks to Persia 2b.

Queen

Woah, that's some cleavege. And she's even got space for a phone.

Queen is Crashers's contact with Persia (or King, as they know him). I know practically nothing about her, though we see her occasionally in Gluhen. She seems pretty cool, so it's a pity we don't see more of her. She's got to have been in Kritiker for a while.

Rex

I've got another screencap of Manx standing next to the same television. It's huge. Lucky Weiss

Rex is Persia 4's contact with Weiss. The character for her name is 'fuguu' which means misfortune, bad luck and/or obscurity. She's not bad with her gun, but she seems a bit of a weak replacement for Manx and Birman (both of whom die during the Drama CDs).

Other operatives

Botan

He's a sweetheart. Pity he dies, but I couldn't resist a shot of him complete with trademark paper aeroplane.

Botan makes paper aeroplanes and dies to convince Aya to rejoin Weiss. Fool. No, really, because he seemed like the most balance operative Kritiker has ever had. He doesn't seem to be part of any team, though the cat codename suggests he's Weiss orientated. He joined Kritiker because his wife and daughter died, and he wanted to keep other people from going through the same pain. Aww.

Crashers

Gluhen Crashers. They're the ones with the hang gliders at the end. Kritiker have a facility where they train hundreds of individuals for Crashers during the Dramatic precious CDs, and for some reason they pick three people from there to go and, well, die while fighting Persia 2b. I've ignored them, because they die pretty sharpish. Not entirely certain what this lot are doing while the others are dying though, as they're around before the anime and they return in Gluhen. Between the original anime and Gluhen 58 more Crashers are trained, but I think they're all slaughtered during the drama CDs. In fact, the original Crashers Ran joined might also have been killed (they were 'lost') but I don't know enough about them to say whether they are the same as in Gluhen or not.

Knight

Name: Yuushi Honjou
He's the son of a Japanese PoW and a British Nurse. it's interesting that with all the German names, there's also a lot of British influence in Weiss Kreuz. Being British, I love it. Anyway, his mother dies in a car crash and his father commits suicide. Apparently he's friendly and a natural leader, but can't stand incompetence in his superiors.

The thing under his name in the above picture says String of Silver in French. Eh?

Bishop
Name: Rei'ichi Shirasagi
He handles the technical aspects of the missions (the blowing stuff up), likes to read, and keeps the peace between the more volatile members of the team. He recruited Manx to Kritiker, so he's been about a while.

Blurb under his name reads Mission Planner. Hey, it makes sense!

Rook
Name: Masato Tanuma

He's the brute force in Crashers, lacking some of the espionage skills the others have picked up. Smokes like a chimney (there has to be one in every team, it seems).

I think the blurb under his name is meant to mean Motorcycle. Fair enough.

Pawn

Name: Naro Uhyon (or possibly Uhyou)

He's the kid. You know, like Omi, or Sena, or even Nagi. he's even another orphan of Kritiker, taken in to the Crashers Project and set up to do the technical and intelligence work.

Blurb under his name says bomb setter. Well, it's nice it makes sense, but isn't it kind of mean to make the youngest do the most dangerous job?

Second Weiss

These guys appear in the Dramatic Precious CDs. I don't know their codenames, but they're an interesting lot. First Weiss never get more than a mention, in a throwaway comment that they died. Second Weiss left with Persia 2b, who's name they know, and are the first to introduce Third Weiss to the idea that Kritiker has problems.

Shion

He trained Aya in the art of the katana. He also made it very that the sword was never to be used to kill. This gives Aya some serious (and prophetic) nightmares. So when Aya finds out that Shion leads Second Weiss, well, he's not too chuffed. The Dramatic Precious CDs end with a final battle between the two of them. Shion's definitely good: he managed to severely wound both Ken and Yohji while fighting Aya.

Weapon of Choice: Katana

Rindou

He's a reporter, or he gets away with claiming to be. Infiltrates Tsukiyono Castle and dies at Omi's hands, while investigating the freaky wax not-so-dolls. Weapon of choice: tarot cards.

Azami

He plays the violin, to the point where he could have been a professional, befriends Yohji, and happens to be bisexual. Go him, shout all the yaoi fan girls. Or not so much, because by the time we find this out he's revealed that he's only ever loved one women. Fair enough, except that one woman is now one of his male teammates, who he hides corpses for. Ah. And he enjoys cutting up the dead bodies, and threatens to rape Birman. Gets called Master a lot by Azami and Yohji.

Weapon of Choice: Bow

Ayame

He's a F-to-M Transsexual. It's all very progressive, except he hates women thanks to being born one. So he periodically cuts them to pieces, and drugs Yohji to encourage him to do the same. He doesn't love Azami, what with being a straight man (born in a woman's body), but he can't be with women (sexually, I assume). though he's happy to let his best friend destroy the evidence for him. He's so insane that he makes Ken feel good about himself, and DP Ken is in a pretty sorry state. See, he's pretty far gone, so Ken is comforted by the fact that he's got a long way yet to fall, and when he does, people like himself and Yohji, who are both on the way down, will be around to kill him. Cheerful, Ken.

Weapon of Choice: Boomerang (those the weapons for these last two might be the other way around

Weiss Side B

They live in England in a flower shop called Kitten in the House, which seems to have an alarmingly high number of Japanese customers. They wear masks, which do nothing to disguise their faces but look pretty anyway. I'm leaving out Aya and Ken here, because, well, if you don't know who they are by now why are you still here?

Yuki

Michel

Chloe

First thing that springs to mind? He has the same name as my sister. Okay, so Aya's got a girl's name as well, but this seems pretty random.

Free