Weiss

Aya

Aya scowls. A lot. It's that Fujimiya Deathglare™ so loved by ficcers. He does have a lot to pout about true, but it's damn frightening to see him so smiley in Gluhen.

Name: Fujimiya Ran

Age: 20 in the first anime, 21 in the CDs, 23 in Gluhen

Birthday: July Fourth (three days before mine!)

Weapon of Choice: Katana

Gun: Baretta

Flower: Rose - red roses mean love/respect. Ran means orchid (love, rare beauty, refinement), so the boy's got a bit of a floral crises going on there.

Height: 178cm

Codename: Abyssinian

Past: I'll use the anime and CDs one here, since the original manga is no longer canon. Takatori (the evil one) decided that his illegal business with the bank the Fujimiya's worked for was getting a bit hot to handle, so he blew the place up and pinned the missing money of daddy Fujimiya. And if shaming the family wasn't enough, he went and ran over Aya as well, leaving her brother all alone in the world and very very pissed off. The less evil Takatori actually watched all this, but despite being the head of the police force he didn't do much to help. Except pick up Ran a bit later while he was on his revenge-fuelled vendetta and made him a member of Kritiker, first as a member of Crashers, then Weiss. In the manga, he takes his sister's name on joining Weiss, but in the manga he doesn't join Kritiker, so really I'm saying I've got no idea when he takes his sister's name.

He smiles in Gluhen. Scary. And he's still an assassin, despite the fact his sister's just fine and dandy.

Yohji

Yohji is sexy, smart, suave, sophisticated, and many other s-words. So I go and find a picture of him looking pretty dopey. But cute, you've gotta admit it's cute.

Name: Kudoh Yohji

Age: 22 in the first anime, 23 in the CDs, 25 in Gluhen

Birthday: March Third

Weapon of Choice: ~~dental floss~~ A wire. In a watch. Could be cheese wire, piano wire, special wire or simply dental floss.

Gun: Colt GM

Flower: Cattleya Orchid - Maturity and Charm. Another floral crisis, since one of the Kanji in his name means Wisteria.

Height: 182cm

Codename: Balinese

Past: Was a detective, madly in love with his partner, Asuka. Some debate as to whether that love was returned. While investigating___, a Takatori enterprise, Asuka gets shot and Yohji is forced to leave her to save his own life. More shots lead him to believe she's dead. And because of this Yohji joins Weiss... I'm thinking there are better reasons to become an assassin than that.

Yohji has a pretty tragic time of it. He's a really cheerful private detective. He's madly in love with his partner Asuka. When she dies, he blames himself. When he finds out she hasn't died, he's adorable. And then he kills her. And a lot of other women. But there is hope! He loses his memory and marries... Asuka. Ah.

A lot of people adore Yohji. He's 'the sexy one'. I like him for his cynicism, and for his unashamed ribbing of Omi. I like his sense of humour, but really, he looks anorexic.

Ken

Either Ken sponsored soft drinks during his soccer days, or he's mistaken it for a mobile phone. Any excuse for him in that kit though.

Name: Hidaka Ken

Age:19 in the first anime, 20 in the CDs, 22 in Gluhen

Birthday: December Twenty-Third

Weapon of Choice: Bugnuks (claws)

Gun: S&W (Smith and Wesson - the only one out of the lot that I'd actually heard of)

Flower: Gentian - means 'you are unfair', or if it's fringed 'I look to heaven'

Height: 172 cm

Codename: Siberian

Past: Was a goalkeeper in a J-league team, but his best friend Kase, who was working his way up the promotion ladder of a Takatori enterprise (see the pattern here?) drugged his half-time water and made it look like he threw the match. The same best friend stuck with him through the ensuing media storm, and told him he'd found the perpetrators, taking him to a barn with guys who tried to kill them, and left Ken to die in a fire. Kritiker rescued him, and the footballer turned assassin. Bit of a career change, that.

No wonder he goes mad. Ken has serious betrayal issues, and kills, well, everyone he's ever loved. Poor chap. There's a rather disturbing bit in the drama CDs when he comes to terms with his madness, because he sees how much further he could fall, and realises that when he does fall that far there'll be someone to kill him. Cheerful, Ken. And unlike Yohji, who has a similar character arc, he never escapes it.

Omi

Omi is the sweetest, cutest, friendliest little florist you'll ever meet. He's also one of the most professionally ruthless assassins of the lot. Methinks the boy might have split personality problems.

Name: Tsukiyono Omi (Takatori Mamoru appears elsewhere)

Age: 17 in the first anime, 18 in the CDs, 20 in Gluhen

Birthday: February Twenty Ninth

Weapon of Choice: darts / crossbow

Gun: Browning Baby

Flower: Freesia - Trust and Innocence. How very unexpected.

Height: 162 cm

Codename: Bombay

Past: Born Mamoru Takatori, he gets kidnapped at a young age and his 'father', Takatori Suiichi , refuses to pay the ransom. Eventually, he's rescued by his 'uncle', Takatori Reiji, given a new name and trained to become an assassin. So Mamoru loses his memory and grows up a frighteningly cheerful boy killer.

You have to wonder whether Reiji would have done it if he'd known it was his son, not his brother's, that he was training up. See, that's why no one paid the ransom: Mamoru was the son of Suiichi Takatori's wife and Suiichi Takatori's brother. It takes Omi a long time to learn this, though the audience learn it quite early. Omi does regain his memory and gets ever so slightly angsty, and later he then takes over kritiker and becomes his father. Well, uncle. Evil politician type man.

Omi kills his brothers (and various other people), but he still believes he can have a normal life for a long time. Unfortunately, taking over Kritiker kills that dream for him. Omi's character arc is probably the most tragic of them all, though Ken comes a close second.

Gluhen additions

Sena

He's an alright kid, I suppose. You can tell I'm not overly enamoured with him, can't you?

Name: Izumi Sena (real name: Kisaragi Kakeru)

Age: 16 in Gluhen

Birthday: August Fourth

Weapon of Choice: Chakram. A kind of edged boomerang.

Flower: Pansy ::snicker::

Height: 161 cm

Codename: LaPerm or LaParma (I'll have to go and check that one out)

Past: Think of Omi's. Change a few names and relations. Sena eventually discovers his long lost father is the principal of the school (who he kills) and his long lost mother is the head of Epitaph, who kills him.

As Someone wrote on an LJ icon: "I have an Omi complex". He's the Omi to replace Mamoru. Irritates me slightly. I really ought to summarise his life here, but I can't remember all hte names off of the top of my head. His mother is the woman in charge of Epitaph, who fails to recognise him because of brainwashing, or the computer hypnotised her, or something similar. I think I remember who his father was, but since I'm not 100% certain I'll rewatch Gluhen again.

Kyou

Now Kyou, Kyous I liked. Probably because I liked Todo. Anyway, he even appears in some of the Drama CDs, and he's got a very similar story to Aya.

Name: Aguri Kyou

Age:

Birthday:

Weapon of Choice: Tomahawk

Flower: Yamabuki (yellow rose)

Height:

Codename: Havana

Past: His younger brother killed himself as part of Epitaph's evil scheme. The hole this creates seems to make him want to fill it with both Sena and Todo. Apparently he's also a good hacker.

Not much to say about Kyou. Dies. First time a member of Weiss dies. I liked him more than Sena, maybe because he was around for a shorter time and was less of a rip off on the early characters (he has Aya traits, but isn't so broody and limelight-stealing). Mostly it's his death scene with Todo I love, because I love Todo for his death scene. Makes no sense? Well, Kyou really isn't around long. He's a likeable plot device. And if Sena is an Omi rip off Kyou is an Aya rip off.

And he's a picture of him mostly naked. Just... Because. If people want to donate caps of the other characters mostly naked we could have a little Full Monty gallery here, how's that sound?