Yosh!/Characters

The large and assorted cast of characters of the Yosh! webmanga.

Phillip "Phil" Brown
The comic's Main Character. Seemingly the only "normal" character of the cast, Phil soon finds himself the keystone of the battle to determine the world's fate...or something.

He and Kate started dating in 2007.


 * Author Avatar: or rather, Artist Avatar. Sage only draws the comic; he doesn't write the script.
 * Anti-Magic: His prime ability as the Null.
 * Ascended Fanboy: In a sense; he's depicted as having idolized anime and comic book heroes growing up, and the discoveries that he's magic-immune and that evil super-mages are trying to take over the world pretty much renders him the hero. However, Phil doesn't make that mental leap in-comic until fairly recently.
 * Awesomeness By Analysis: Proposes theories about magic artifacts and the like simply by analysis. Not the best example in-series, but not too bad.
 * Bishonen: Without glasses, much like Mousse. Causes quite a bit of trouble for him when it first becomes apparent at a convention.
 * Chaste Hero: Mistook Kate kissing him as an attempt by her to sexually assault him.
 * Inverted when.
 * Genre Savvy: Knows a lot about monsters because he's an otaku and a comic book fan.
 * Hidden Depths: Shows a surprising amount of maturity between his episodes of goofiness.
 * Idiot Hero: Considered to be one by many, and his actions back it up very nicely most times.
 * Nice Guy: Nice to everyone he meets, even when they expressly try to kill him (though that may just be the "idiot" talking).
 * Nigh Invulnerable:
 * Made of Iron: In the earlier days of the comic, before the plot came together. Phil gets hit by a 18-wheeler and suffers only a minor head injury and broken glasses, gets punched directly into his apartment from across town by Axel, is later knocked out of the same window by Kate (said apartment is several stories above the ground), and recovers from a kunai to the heart in less than a day (an identical injury left a paramedic in a coma). Then he stops bleeding...
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Lia at least believes that Phil uses it.
 * Otaku: Taken to ridiculous measures when he and Kate win an anime trivia challenge (and a trip to Japan) because the audience got annoyed that Phil answered every question correctly and explained them.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Doesn't seem to care either way, being surrounded by Mages, Chimeras, demons, and robot girls.

Kate Summers
A Type-A (Animalistic) Chimera and Phil's roommate. Was thrown out of her house when the Weirding happened, and was shuffled around between schools and foster homes until she finished high school. Working at anime conventions was the only job she felt secure with, and she soon meets and moves in with Phil. Following the events in Japan, she and Phil officially become a couple and, after moving to Shiden's apartment complex in Yorktown, VA, begins working at the Java Journal as a waitress. Frequently serves as the voice of reason in absence of Nami (and sometimes in the presence of Nami), and can be considered the other most "normal" person (Chimera-ism notwithstanding).

Despite her misgivings, she was able to patch things up with her father.

Tropes associated with Kate:
 * Catgirl: Duh.
 * Half-Human Hybrid: Also duh.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: What leads her to meet Josephus.
 * Official Couple: With Phil.
 * Only Sane Man: At times, though she has been shown to get pretty... loose in filler.
 * Parental Abandonment: The exact circumstances are learned later in the story:

Axel, a.k.a. "Darklord"
A longtime friend of Phil and Kate's, Axel possesses an impressive array of dark, demonic, and shadow-based magics, as well as that constant air of badass around him. While he looks human, he is actually an M-type (Magic) Chimera, which gave him access to dark powers as well as the ability to see and partially control demons. During the Weirding, his mind also became home to a Demon Lord, which the Demoness kept busy by trapping it in a maze. Later get his demon exorcised and full access to his powers, but doesn't take kindly to his friends fraternizing with the Magi.

Tropes associated with Axel:
 * Author Avatar: "Writer"-type.
 * Badass: And how!
 * Badass Longcoat
 * Cool Shades: Only ever seen once without them, though they don't always hide his eyes.
 * Allergic To Cute: Can be physically damaged by Azumanga Daioh, and Rieko once shuts down his demon form through Moe.
 * Red Eyes: While possessed by the demon. After it was exorcised, they became...
 * Blue Eyes: However, when he gets angry or uses his powers, we get...
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning
 * Demonic Possession: Inadvertently brought about by Josephus, who allowed the demon to take control.
 * Kid With the Remote Control: Due to being the "officially"-recognized master to the Demoness, Axel is the only one who can order her around.
 * Determinator: In his flashback, he's able to regain control of his mind while the demon is speaking the Demoness's true name--before she creates the maze to trap it. He also undergoes Training From Hell from a Demon Prince to learn how to effectively use his powers.
 * Limited Wardrobe: Only ever seems to own one coat: the badass one, only taking it off twice. Lampshaded when a recent page shows him owning multiple pairs of his trademark shades as well as a closet full of coats.
 * Dark Is Not Evil
 * It's Personal: Bears a personal grudge against Josephus for letting the Demon take over his body. He's killed Josephus once (as the demon)
 * The Lancer: Sort of fits this role, down to the personality type.

Penpen
A two-foot-tall, talking penguin with a Jello fetish that lives as Phil's "pet". Seems to have it out for Phil, attempting to kill him several times and having a scarily impressive knowledge of explosives and weapons.

Tropes associated with Penpen:
 * Badass
 * Combat Pragmatist: Will take all kinds of dirty or cheap shots with anything he's got on hand.
 * Dark Is Not Evil
 * Everything's Better with Penguins: Penguins that are demolitions experts, highly-trained in most forms of weaponry (including firearms, which leaves the question of how they can pull the trigger, engage in a gelatin fetish and have an appreciation of the fine arts.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Jello and its substitutes.
 * The Archer
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Jello and its substitutes.
 * The Archer

Tom
Another longtime friend of Phil's, Tom is American-born, but received formal ninja training in Japan, but was sent back after the Magi of Power attacked his team during a training mission. Forms a relationship with Robot Girl Miyo, and lives in Shiden's apartment complex in Yorktown.


 * Badass
 * Berserk Button/Big Brother Instinct: Miyo means a lot to him even before they begin to get really close. Putting her in danger is the quickest way to majorly piss him off.
 * McNinja
 * Team Chef: A very excellent chef and proud to admit it. None of the other characters seem surprised about it.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Shisou, prominent at first but later toned down a great deal.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Falls in the same place on this as Phil, but didn't want Miyo to know that she was a robot because of the emotional strain he believed it would put on her.

Shiden
A friendly enemy of Phil's, who builds Miyo, Toyoko, and Nami as part of an elaborate scheme to visit some sort of vengeance upon Phil early on in the comic. Character Development soon has him making lots and lots of money off of his inventions and focusing more on them rather than antagonizing Phil, enough so to build an entire compound where most of the main characters eventually take up residence.


 * Fan Boy: Of Chobits, which is why all of his robot girls have Persocom ears.
 * Mad Scientist
 * Magitek:
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Is pretty silly and eccentric, but knows his science. Very, very well.
 * Reed Richards Is Useless: Averted; his numerous inventions are the reason that he's become so filthy rich.
 * The Rival: Of sorts, to Phil, initially.
 * The Rival: Of sorts, to Phil, initially.

Shisou Kobayashi
A ninja rival and associate of Tom's. Believes that Tom attacked his clan and stole something that they were guarding, since Tom was the only non-Japanese ninja in the area, and the attacker was apparently not Japanese as well. He followed Tom back to the states and used Miyo as a tool to draw Tom out, but got laid out for his trouble once Miyo was safe. Became a friend of the group after learning the truth.


 * Badass
 * It's Personal: His (completely unfounded) grudge against Tom. It later turns out that the Magus of Power was responsible for the incident he blamed on Tom.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Plenty and often. Sometimes in Japanese.
 * Knife Nut: Always has one on him.
 * Ninja
 * Wolverine Claws: Of a sort; they're more like blades attached to his fingers.

Naoko Kobayashi
Shisou's fiancee (later wife) and a Shinto priestess. The level of her ability is so high that the Five refer to her as the "Saint" Magi.


 * Miko: As family tradition dictates.

Miyo
The first Robot Girl introduced in the comic, and the first to be built by Shiden. He built her to get rid of Phil due to the latter's interest in the Chobits anime (which Shiden felt Phil had no right to like or something), but seeing Tom causes her mind to overload and reboot, mentally turning her into a normal sixteen-year-old girl, and she falls in love with the ninja.

She and Tom aided in the construction of Shiden's complex, and moved in when it was finished.


 * Heel Face Turn: Of a sort, once she became attached to Tom.
 * Genki Girl: After her initial overload from Tom-exposure.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot
 * Robotic Reveal: In Japan, she finds out that she is a robot when she saves Tom from an attack. Discovering this caused her to have a tidy little freak-out. Afterwards, she worried that Tom would treat her differently because she was a robot, but those fears were quickly dispelled.
 * Unusual Ears

Nami
Another Shiden-built robot girl, with a dry and sarcastic personality. Introduced along with Toyoko shortly after Miyo befriended Tom.


 * American Accents: Mild Southern one, at least early on.
 * Cool Big Sis: To Rieko.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Particularly in regards to Shiden, who she tends to think of as a total buffoon.
 * Les Yay: With Blue. Lots of it.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot
 * Unusual Ears: Is the first to find out that they can be taken off to reveal normal ears, and does so happily.
 * You Gotta Have Green Hair

Toyoko
The third of the original robot girls. Unlike Nami, she has a deep, undying admiration for Shiden (which later becomes actual love) and is willing to ignore almost all of his silliness as a result.


 * Berserk Button: Threaten or hurt Miyo, in any way, shape or form, and she will take off her limiters to intervene. Awesomely.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: When Miyo had her Tokyo breakdown, Toyoko got pissed. Very, very pissed.
 * Cool Big Sis: To pretty much every robot girl, most of the time, since she's the most mature looking and acting.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot
 * Unusual Ears

Rieko
A shy, somewhat quiet robot girl.


 * Ridiculously Human Robot
 * Shrinking Violet: Averts Fiery Redhead quite nicely as a result.
 * Unusual Ears: They're fox-like.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot
 * Shrinking Violet: Averts Fiery Redhead quite nicely as a result.
 * Unusual Ears: They're fox-like.

Lien
Another one of Shiden's robot girls, built to serve primarily as his (and later, Phil and friends') bodyguard.


 * Action Girl
 * Badass
 * Blinding Bangs: Occasionally switches to Peek-a-Bangs later on in the story, though just barely.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: Admits (in her own subtle way) that she does enjoy swooping in to save people.
 * Emotionless Girl: Played with; she specializes in combat functions and is oftentimes very much The Stoic, but is more than capable of thinking and feeling like any of Shiden's robots. She just prefers to keep her emotions under wraps, and actually fears that if she doesn't fulfill her purpose, she'll lose the meaning to her life.
 * Gun Slinger: Knows her way around pistols and is an expert markswoman.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Moves very quickly AND hits like a tank.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot
 * Sugar and Ice Personality: Reveals her softer side at extremely rare intervals.
 * Unusual Ears

Jen, a.k.a. "Blue"
Another Type-A Chimera that Phil and Kate meet at a convention. She quickly makes fast friends with them, and later moves into Shiden's complex in the room next to theirs. She also works as the Java Journal's manager.


 * Catgirl
 * Les Yay: With Nami. A lot of it. And Kate, at times.
 * Bi the Way: Nearly gets it on with Phil during the Body Cross Chaos, though that may just be because Phil was, at the time, in her body (and she appears to lose interest when the effects of the swap wear off).
 * Lovable Sex Maniac: Is often trying to get some intimate time with Nami or Kate.
 * Punny Nickname: From the get-go it's pretty obvious that her nickname comes from her hair color.
 * The Tease: When it comes to Nami, and sometimes with Kate (though it's pretty friendly in regards to both of them, and even less serious in the latter case).
 * Unusual Ears
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Demoness
Axel's familiar, who met him on the night of the Weirding when he became a Chimera.


 * Distracted by the Sexy: Employs it liberally, as seen here.
 * Horny Devils: Often (playfully) invokes the stereotype, but hasn't done anything explicitly sexual despite any evidence to the contrary that her teases might imply.
 * The Tease: With everybody. Just barely edges out Blue for being the comic's best example of this.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifter

Josephus
The first Magus of Fire. Tries to recruit Kate into his group of Chimeras, but fails, and gets murdered by Axel's Demon for his trouble. The Twins bring him back to life shortly afterwards, though.


 * Affably Evil
 * Playing with Fire
 * Playing with Fire

"Power"
The unnamed Magus of Power. A Japanese woman. Killed by Shisou in Japan.
 * A God Am I: Became drunk with power when she unlocked her full spectrum of abilities again.
 * Back Stab: Is put on the receiving end of one by Shisou.
 * Badass Cape
 * Jerkass: Kills innocent people without a care in the world. Arrogant to a fault.
 * Ninja
 * Shock and Awe
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Purple.

Emi
The second Magus of Power. Succeeds the deceased first Magus of Power, her cousin. Also Japanese.


 * Badass Cape
 * Bratty Half-Pint: Though she's a bit older than the trope implies (14 or 15), she has been called a brat to her face at least once.
 * Brutal Honesty: Emi has a habit of speaking without really thinking about what she says.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Gets hit with a beach ball and teased a few times; powers up to fry everyone in range afterwards.
 * Heel Realization:  Afterwards, she begins to soften up a little bit.
 * Princess Curls: Huge ones in the front. A fancomic once likened them to drills.
 * Jerkass: Kind of one, with shades of a softer side. Most of it has to do with her upbringing, and part of it is her powers.
 * Ship Tease: With Hue.
 * Shock and Awe
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Purple, like her cousin's, but a sort of darker shade.

Messilia "Lia" Venelli
Magus of Water, and Hue's good friend. From Italy.


 * Awesomeness By Analysis: Is more than intelligent enough to pick up on details other people miss, and is in general very perceptive and difficult to surprise.
 * Cool Big Sis: To Hue.
 * Defector From Decadence: Disapproves of the way the Five is handling things, and decides to help out Phil and his pals.
 * Making a Splash
 * Master of Illusion
 * Ojou: Has shades of this in her personality; is generally calm, unflappable, and kind-hearted, as well as quite refined.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Prone to this early on, though it quickly fades into simple heightened formality.
 * The Smart Girl
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Hue
Lia's longtime friend, and Magus of Earth. American-born.


 * Badass Cape
 * Barrier Warrior: Of sorts. Prefers to use earth shields when he fights. Has saved Emi from getting killed at least once.
 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * Let's Get Dangerous: Though he's often shy and nervous, once shit hits the fan he can get serious in a heartbeat.
 * Ship Tease: With Emi.
 * Shrinking Violet: A rare male example.

Serena
Lives in South America.


 * Dark-Skinned Redhead
 * Parental Abandonment: Possibly. Her mother works in the city, while she looks after her grandfather in the jungle. What her father's doing is unknown.
 * Parental Abandonment: Possibly. Her mother works in the city, while she looks after her grandfather in the jungle. What her father's doing is unknown.

"Life" and "Death"
Also called "the Twins". They are the only ones of the Five that actively recall the memories of their predecessors, and are the currently only ones that are actually evil.


 * Creepy Twins

Cain
The resident mad scientist of the group.


 * Blondes Are Evil
 * Deadpan Snarker: When he's off his meds.
 * Mad Scientist: Unlike Shiden, he's not the affable kind, either.
 * The Insomniac: Type B, the obsessive. Apparently has medication for it, but refuses to take it, resulting in his disheveled and manic appearance.
 * The Insomniac: Type B, the obsessive. Apparently has medication for it, but refuses to take it, resulting in his disheveled and manic appearance.

Proxy
The butler.

Mr. Summers
Kate's father.


 * The Atoner: Wants to make up for what happened to Kate, in lieu of his wife.

Nikki Sohma
A news reporter on chimera issues.

Cortex
A government agent that severely distrusts all magi and wants to make sure that they're not a threat to regular humans by any means necessary.


 * Character Development: His interactions with Shiden and Lia have made him considerably less brutal and extreme in his methods and makes him second guess his assumption that Magi are automatically card carrying Evil Overlords. He's still fairly pragmatic though. (see Xanatos Gambit)
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist
 * Xanatos Gambit:

Cortex's Team
A group of hand picked people that work with Cortex.


 * The Smart Guy: Mayhew.

"That Demon-Prince Guy"
Axel's teacher in the demon arts.


 * Magic Knight
 * Sinister Scythe
 * Sink or Swim Mentor: A mild example; he taught Axel in a very hands-on sort of way.
 * The Rival: