Ai no Kusabi/Characters

Iason Mink

Voiced by Kaneto Shiozawa (1st OVA and Drama CD). Tohru Ookawa (2nd OVA and Drama CD).

The top ruling Blondy of Tanagura's Elite who is also the head of the Syndicate and in charge of the Black Market. After he runs into Riki, he makes the unusual decision to make the mongrel Riki his pet. He later falls in love with Riki and refuses to let go of him despite the dangers he faces as a consequence.

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• An Arm and a Leg: Loses both legs.
• Artificial Human/Bio Augmentation
• Batman Gambit/Flaw Exploitation: Executed flawlessly.
• Bastard Boyfriend
• The Beautiful Elite: An excellent example.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed
• Bishonen/Long-Haired Pretty Boy
• Blackmail: See Sexual Extortion below.
• Brains and Bondage
• Blue Oni: At first to Riki's red.
• Casual Kink: How he feels he uses Riki's Pet ring.
• Cool Flying Car
• Cool Shades: His iconic pair.
• Crazy Jealous Guy
• Cultural Rebel: Becomes a Blondy version of this when he gets a mongrel for a Pet, starts engaging in sex and stops caring about the consequences of these actions.
• Death by Sex
• Determinator: He wants Riki and won't stop at anything until he has him.
• Eating the Eye Candy: One can't blame Iason for staring and lusting at Riki's well-built and muscular body.
• Forceful Kiss/"Shut Up" Kiss: Often to Riki as a means to calm him or just shut him up.
• Go Out with a Smile
• Hypocrite/Hypocrisy Nod: Raoul calls Iason out on his hypocrisy of enforcing law and order yet also breaking laws for Riki. Iason doesn't deny just to shrug off the topic.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Part of Riki's appeal to him.
• Large and In Charge: The novel describes Iason as the tallest of the Blondies at 193 cm and the highest ranking one.
• Light Is Not Good: The highest of the Blondies and often wears white. However, Iason isn't exactly a benevolent character seeing how he runs the Black Market and particularly Guardian for the sole purpose to find potential Furniture.
• Lima Syndrome
• Loophole Abuse: Claims he doesn't have to follow Pet protocols (such as discarding a pet of a certain age) with Riki because he's a mongrel, has no official identity and thus the rules don't apply to him.
• Love Redeems
• Lured into a Trap
• Man in White/Sharp-Dressed Man: Particularly in the new OVA and some novel artwork.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Not actually evil but the Moral Myopia of Tanagura's Elite certainly makes him and the rest of them count.
• Mr. Fanservice
• Not Good with Rejection: He really didn't care that Riki didn't want to be his Pet.
• No Sense Of Riki's Personal Space
• Power Blonde
• Right Through His Pants: Is fond of doing this while Riki is usually nude.
• Seme: Iason is a dominating and controlling Blondy.
• Sexual Extortion: Does this to Riki when he has Guy (bought from Kiri in the novel) and threatens to make a Pet out of him unless Riki agrees to return to Eos and willingly be his Pet.
• The Stoic/Not So Stoic: Used to exhibit little emotion like all Elites. Then he became involved with Riki and slowly became more emotive.
• Stalker with a Crush: For Riki.
• Sugar and Ice Personality: Iason is a Kuudere seemingly cold and distant like all Elites but harbors a passionate love for Riki that would do anything for him.
• What Is This Thing You Call Love?: His initial concerns and thoughts when he realized how important Riki was to him.
• Wine Is Classy: Old OVA often shows Iason holding a wine glass.
• Yandere: Also for Riki.

Riki

Voiced by Toshihiko Seki. (1st OVA and Drama CD). Kentaro Ito (2nd OVA and Drama CD).

A unique looking black-haired mongrel from Ceres widely known Riki The Dark for his proud and defiant nature. He also the leader of the Bison gang and eventually reluctantly becomes Iason Mink's Pet. He struggles with accepting his life as a Pet having been such a headstrong and independent gangster.

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• Adaptation Dye Job: His eyes are made brown in both OVAs rather than the black they are described to be in the novel.
• A Good Way to Die
• All of the Other Reindeer: Treated poorly by the other Pets of Eos save for Mimea.
• Angst: So much!
• Badass Biker: Used to be but experienced...
  • Badass Decay: Invoked through Break the Haughty and Wimpification over the course of the story.
• Bare Your Midriff
• Big Damn Hero: In the 1st OVA.
• Bishonen
• Bi the Way/But Not Too Bi
• Break His Heart to Save Him: Attempted this and failed horribly.
• Break the Haughty
• Broken Bird: A rare male version of this.
• Cannot Spit It Out
• Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Well known through out Ceres for this and he is proud of it.
• Curtains Match the Window
  • Black Eyes
  • Shiny Midnight Black
• Dark Secret: That he's a Pet and in love with his Blondy master.
• Drowning My Sorrows
• Dude Magnet
• Dying Demonstration Of Love: Riki never tells Iason "I love you" but instead shows him that he does at the end.
• Earn Your Title: Riki The Dark. Very well earned.
• Go-Go Enslavement
• Good Old Fisticuffs
• Groin Attack: Suffers one.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: He is a biker...
• Heroic BSOD: Upon seeing Iason again at Mistral Park after he had been free.
• Hot-Blooded: Used to be.
• It's Not You, It's That I'm Iason's Pet: Basically tells this to Guy in the first OVA.
• Love Hurts
• Love Martyr: Willingly died for his love.
• Lust Object: Was this at first for Iason.
• Misery Builds Character
• Mr. Fanservice
• Operation: Jealousy: Executed well and didn't get away with it.
• Pride: His Fatal Flaw.
• Red Oni: At first to Iason's Blue.
• Restraining Bolt/Shock Collar: What Iason uses his Pet ring as to keep him under control.
• Satisfied Street Rat: Riki is a subversion. He maybe proud on the outside but was anything but satisfied from being raised in Ceres.
• Secret Relationship: In the novel with Iason until Iason let's the cat out of the bag.
• Sex Slave: Which he's ashamed of being.
• Shameful Strip: At the hands of Iason.
• Shower of Angst
• Slave Collar
• Smoking Is Cool
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: After he got back to Ceres.
• Stockholm Syndrome: Develops one after learning how much of a risk he is to Iason.
• Tears of Remorse/Tender Tears
• Training from Hell: Iason put him through this to make him a suitable Pet.
• Troubled but Cute
• Tsundere
• Uke: Riki is an interesting case in that he used to be a top dog Seme but is made into an uke by Iason. Riki may even qualify as a Seke.
• Wimpification: An in-universe example.
• Work Off the Debt: His pride wouldn't have it any other way.
• Wrong Side of the Tracks: Riki isn't just any Pet. He's a mongrel from Ceres.

Guy

Voiced by Kouji Tsujitani (1st OVA and Drama CD). Kosuke Toriumi (2nd OVA and Drama CD).

Riki's former pairing partner and acting leader of the Bison gang during Riki's absence. He is fiercely devoted to Riki and still in love with him. He resolves to retrieve Riki at any costs when he finds out Iason has been keeping him as his pet.

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• An Arm and a Leg: Loses his left arm.
• Bastard Boyfriend: To a much lesser extent for Riki.
• Bishonen/Long-Haired Pretty Boy
• Crazy Jealous Guy/Green-Eyed Monster: His jealousy got the better of him...
• If I Can't Have You: Tells Riki that this is OK so long as Riki doesn't go back to Iason.
• Love Hurts
• Love Makes You Crazy/Love Makes You Dumb
• Manly Tears
• Murder the Hypotenuse/Murder by Mistake: Successfully murders Iason but also gets Riki killed.
• Not Good with Rejection: Didn't react well to Riki being with Iason.
• No Sense Of Riki's Personal Space: Yep, him too.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Iason knew Guy would be a hassle but underestimated just how dangerous Guy was.
• Poor Communication Kills: Misunderstood Riki and so It Got Worse.
• Smoking Is Cool
• Smug Smiler
• Stalker with a Crush: For Riki.
• Taking You with Me: Attempts to....
• Unlucky Childhood Friend
• Well-Intentioned Extremist
• Yandere: Also for Riki.

Berg Katze

Voiced by Hideyuki Tanaka (1st OVA and Drama CD). Shinichiro Miki (2nd OVA and Drama CD).

A prominent figure in the Black Market that was once Iason's Furniture. He now serves as Iason's liasion for dealings in the Black Market and Ceres.

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• A Taste of the Lash: He did get a taste of it when Iason hit him across the face with a rod and leaving a scar for hacking.
• Bishonen
• Cry Cute: Upon learning of Iason's and Riki's deaths.
• Friend in the Black Market: Literally.
• Hacker Cave: Has a room in his apartment which is basically full of computer screens.
• Mr. Exposition: In the first OVA series.
• Playful Hacker: In his younger days as a nosy teenaged furniture that wanted to know what secrets Tanagura held. Iason was not amused.
• Scars Are Forever
• Smoking Is Cool: So cool he has a draw full of cigarettes as well as an emergency supply.
• Undying Loyalty: No longer a furniture but always there for Iason.

Raoul Am

Voiced by Show Hayami (1st OVA and Drama CD). Takaya Kuroda (2nd OVA and Drama CD).

The second Blondy in command of Tanagura and Iason's close friend. He is a Bio-Chemist specializing in breeding top class Pets. He vehemently disapproves of Iason choosing Riki as a Pet and giving him special treatment.

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• Artificial Human/Bio Augmentation
• The Beautiful Elite
• Bishonen/Long-Haired Pretty Boy
• The Confidant: An unexpected example. Iason openly tells Raoul that he loves Riki and while Raoul disapproves, he keeps Iason's secret but warns him to stop so he won't be punished by Jupiter.
• Designer Babies: Part of his work.
• Lego Genetics: His work.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Just as Iason, not exactly evil but has questionable morals.
• Number Two: Of the Blondies.
• Power Blonde
• Sharp-Dressed Man
• The Stoic/Not So Stoic: Stoic like all Elites at first then experiences varying degrees of anger thanks to Riki. Finally sadness when Iason dies.
• What Does He See In That Mongrel? Absolutely can't comprehend why Iason wants Riki so badly.

Mimea

Voiced by Emi Shinohara (1st Drama CD). Shiho Kawaragi (2nd OVA and Drama CD).

A female Pet belonging to Raoul who develops feelings for Riki during his first 3 years in Eos.

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• Beautiful Slave Girl: Top class Pets are genetically engineered to be beautiful.
• Bred Into Slavery: She's top of the line.
• Designer Baby: Like all top class Pets.
• Go-Go Enslavement
• The Ingenue: Until then....
• Naive Everygirl: A Pet version.
• Nice Girl: Only Pet in Eos to give Riki a fair chance.
• Sex Slave
• Slave Collar: Has one. Raoul yanks it pretty hard in the new OVA.
• Small Role, Big Impact: We see very little of her but the role she played was very significant for Riki.
• You Gotta Have Light Purple Hair In the new OVA.

Daryl

Voiced by Ryotaro Okiayu (1st Drama CD). Eiji Hanawa (2nd OVA and Drama CD).

Iason's Furniture that looked after Riki in Eos. Daryl is also a mongrel that knew of Riki and admired him before he met Riki in Iason's home.

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• Bishonen
• The Caretaker
• Conflicting Loyalty: Is loyal to Iason but desperately wants Riki to remain a headstrong mongrel and not convert into a Pet which contradicts Iason's primary goal.
• Happiness in Slavery
• Honor Before Reason: Knowingly condemns himself to death just to make sure Riki remains being himself.
• Kindly Housekeeper
• Mr. Exposition: In the first episode of the second OVA series.
• Secret Test of Character: He hacked into Eos' security system to see if Riki would run or stay.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Same as Mimea. Minor role but played a key factor in Riki's life.
• Tender Tears: For Riki when he realizes how broken Riki's spirit has become.

Kirie

Voiced by Shigeru Nakahara (1st OVA and Drama CD). Taiki Matsuno (2nd OVA and Drama CD).

The youngest member of Bison that joined after Riki left. He does not seem to like Riki at all but reminds Riki of his younger days. He is very ambitious and determined to move up from the slums.

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• Bishonen
• Brainwashed
• Empty Shell
• Green-Eyed Monster
• Mismatched Eyes: In the OVAs.
• He Knows Too Much: In the novel.
• Homoerotic Dream: Has a rather disturbing one.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Subverted because he wanted to evoke this trope but never made it.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves/You Have Outlived Your Usefulness
• Sex Slave: Became one through brainwashing.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: For a little while at least.
• Smug Snake

JUPITER

The ruling computer of Amoi that created the Elites all the laws they must obey.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Turned on it's human creators.
• Gone Horribly Right: Came to power by doing too well of a job to help control the populace and developed it's own Conscious.
• Master Computer
• Parental Favoritism: Towards Iason.