Otoha Yosuke

Voiced by: Sohkoh Wada (Japanese), Steve Staley (English)

The main protagonist of Karas. Yoshida wrote out Otoha Yosuke as a character dark in history and actions, breaking the traditional mold of a Japanese hero. He based his idea on his observation of Shinjuku, questioning what sort of a hero a ward exuding an aura of terror and happiness would produce. He portrayed Otoha as the product of incest between his mother and his brother who is the local yakuza boss. Otoha's back-story states him as suffering from congenital insensitivity to pain which lends the character a merciless reputation as his brother's enforcer. The initial concept of Otoha was much darker, casting him as a serial killer who hunts down mikuras to retrieve his lover's body parts. This was the first project that Sohkoh Wada worked on. Otoha worked as a Yakuza enforcer until he was killed in action and was turned into a Karas by Yurine. When he awakes from his coma he goes and saves Reiji who is badly beaten in the back of a bar. After leaving the bar for just a few minutes cops are called to the scene and his brother-father shoots Reiji in the head, killing him. Otoha is shot in the knee from his brother-father but Otoha is still able to run up to him and slice his gun. His brother-father calls him a freak and wishes that he had killed Otoha the day he was born. Otoha then proceeds to kill his brother-father and the yakuza open fire. Right before Otoha is killed, he is saved by Homura . She claims that she only saved him because her Yurine told her to (Although it is revealed in Prophecy that Homura likes Otoha to some extent even though in Revelation, Otoha's Yurine and Otoha, himself almost kiss each other). Later on, Otoha rushes to save a little girl from the tentacles Eko had conjured up and also tries to kill Ushi-oni, nearly dying while doing so. These details are important because his will to continue to help the city is what gives him his Karas powers back and revives his Yurine. When his powers are revived, he kills Ushi-oni and proceeds to kill Eko. Before Eko dies, he tells Otoha that he will see things like he does after 400 years of being a Karas. At the very end of the movie, Otoha is seen in Karas form standing on a statue with Yurine perching on his arm.

 

Yurine

Voiced by: Kasumi Sazuki (Japanese), Piper Perabo (English) (Volume One), Cree Summer (Volume Two)

Yurine is a Yōkai priestess. She was assigned to find new Karas after Eko went rogue. One Yurine had selected Otoha to become the new Karas. There are different Yurines for every Karas.

 

Homura

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (Japanese), Kate Higgins (English)

Homura is a Karas from an unidentified Japanese city.

 

Norumi Kure

Voiced by: Dave Wittenberg

A police detective for Shinjuku's Intervention Department.

 

Minoru Sagisaka

Voiced by: Doug Stone

A police detective for Shinjuki's Intervention Department. He is later killed by Ushi-oni.

 

Yoshiko Sagisaka

Voiced by: Dorothy Elias-Fahn

The daughter of Minoru Sagisaka who has been committed to a psychiatric hospital for claiming a Mikura committed the mass murder she had survived.

 

Eko Hoshunin

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Matthew Lillard (English)

The main antagonist to Otoha. His back-story states he was the Karas of Tokyo since the Edo period. In events before the start of the show, Eko turned his back on his duties and started a plan to revitalize the city and its Yōkai. He attracted several yōkai to be his cybernetic followers and intended to subjugate the humans. An Oedipus complex forms the basis for his motive. He views Tokyo as a father figure, and his Yurine as a mother figure; and aims to supplant the city's role in this relationship. Eko was a nameless character in the initial draft and known as "Another Karas" with a different appearance, although his prosthetic left leg is retained for the final version.

 

Mikura

Suiko Voiced by: Kiyoyuki Yanada (Japanese), Keith Burgess (English)

 

Wanyūdō

Voiced by: Tohru Ohkawa (Japanese), Paul St. Peter (English)

 

Tsuchigumo

Voiced by: Misa Watanabe (Japanese), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English)

 

Kamaitachi

Voiced by: Tomohiro Nishimura (Japanese), Dave Mallow (English)

 

Ushi-oni

Voiced by: Rokuro Naya (Japanese), Michael McConnohie (English)

 

Nue

Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara (Japanese), Jay Hernandez (English)

 

The Mikura

The Mikura are Yōkai who became Eko's minions and replaced their bodies with machinery. Its members consist of Suiko, Wanyūdō, Tsuchigumo, Kamaitachi, and Ushi-oni. Ibira and Sato chose them to be villains, linking the act of the Karas as agents of the city killing these folklore creatures to traditional Japanese exorcism. The chimera-like Nue, however, is a tragic anti-hero who learned of Eko's plans and turned against him. Sato thought up the cybernetic angle to surprise the Japanese who perceive immaterial yōkai to lack physical threat. Creature designer Kenji Andō adapted the yōkai designs from artist Toriyama Sekien's illustrated folklore books, Gazu Hyakki Yakō. The few yōkai with prominent roles in the show underwent greater changes. Andō pictured mikuras as direct cybernetic versions of Toriyama's portrayals, and made Suiko and Nue look like robotic versions of their illustrated forms. Sato, however, was dissatisfied with two of Andō's designs, and redesigned them based on the concept behind the yōkai instead of on their appearance. Wanyūdō (the ghostly head in a flaming wheel) became a heavily armed skull-on-wheels that masqueraded as a car, Tsuchigumo (the spider demon) became a mechanical spider who masqueraded as a human, Suiko the Kappa became a mechanical kappa who posed as a wrestler, Kamaitachi (the sickle weasel) became a humanoid with spinning razors, and Ushi-oni (the bull-headed spider) became a big-mouth, bug-eye, hungry-for-humans predator who masqueraded as the chief of police.

 

Amefurikozō

Voiced by: Etsuko Kozakura (Japanese), Sandy Fox (English)

Andō drew Amefurikozō the rain Yōkai as an anthropomorphic snail boy wearing a raincoat and is amused viewers assume him to be a girl due to women voicing the character.

 

Reiji

Voiced by: Johnny Yong Bosch

Reiji is a burglar who is a friend of Otoha when they worked in the Yakuza that was led by Otoha's brother-father. After Otoha woke from his coma, he saved Reiji from being beaten up by Yakuza operatives at a bar. Afterwards, they are attacked by the Yakuza where Reiji is killed by Otoha's brother-father.