Daphne in the Brilliant Blue/Characters

Here be the Nereids of Daphne in the Brilliant Blue

Maia Mizuki

"A tree planted near water bears fruit, but only when its time is right. Its leaves won't ever wither, and brings prosperity to all."

Our heroine. The show begins with her acing the Ocean Agency's Entrance Exam, but is rejected. and everything goes downhill from there. Since she's no longer a student she can't live in her dead grandfather's house. She can't afford a place to live in uptown so she goes downtown to look for a job and is rejected at every one of them. She's pickpocketed. She's held hostage by a running criminal and then shot by the person chasing him. Then that person offers her a job. And all of that is in the first story arc.

Tropes exhibited by Maia include:

Anti-Hero: Type 1. She's too wimpy to truly be a hero at the start (but grows into one as the series progresses).
Break the Cutie: First episode. By the time she breaks down at her grandfather's grave you wanna cry with her.
Butt Monkey: Either hit with something, being kidnapped, or having her pay check reduced.
The Chick: The moral center for the group, even if they don't listen to her. She's significantly more feminine than the rest of them.
Damsel in Distress: Taken hostage in the first episode, and many times after that. With her experience at Nereids she evolves into a Badass Damsel.
- Bound and Gagged: Every other episode; seriously it becomes a Running Gag.
Easy Amnesia: Averted. Maia has no memory of her parents or most of her childhood, and it took her approximately two years simply to become functional again.
Girlish Pigtails: Girlish and very cute.
Last of Her Kind: The last survivor of Elpida; this single fact ties together the entire series.
Parental Abandonment: Died pre-series.
Suddenly Always Knew That: Maia has an uncommon hovercraft operator's license right when it's needed because it was required for the job examination she took in the first episode.
Survival Mantra: Her page quote.
Tareme Eyes: Fitting for her sweet and huggable personality. It even transfers after a Freaky Friday Flip.
Token Good Teammate: Maia never joins in the extreme tactics of her co-workers.
Took a Level in Badass: Compare her in the second episode, fumbling with her gun and being easily subdued and crying, to her in the 19th episode, where she takes her enemy by surprise and is confident in handling a gun. She still gets captured but she had the sense to set an alarm to go off if she didn't return in a set time period that would alert her teammates.
Woobie: Maia all the way. She's a sweet and positive girl who has one bad thing happen to her after another. To illustrate, Gloria, in a joking manner, said that as soon as Maia got off the airplane she'd have her bags stolen by a gypsy cab; it happened immediately as she said it.
- Iron Woobie: Despite all the bad things that happen to her, Maia never whines or breaks down. She just says her Survival Mantra and moves on.

Rena Honjo

The de facto leader of Nereids, Rena runs the branch through the force of her personality. She's the one who gave Maia her job and assigns her missions. She's also the one who got her kidnapped in the first place by using her as bait.

Tropes exhibited by Rena include:

Anti-Hero: Type III. She cares about her subordinates and tries to keep damage to a minimum, but she's rude to almost everyone and manipulates the rest.
Cool Big Sis: Becomes one to Maia eventually. Even refering to her as 'my girl'.
Chessmaster: Prefers this role to the front line fighting. Notably, she orchestrated the actions of the other team members into a Crowning moment of Big Damn Heroes She says Just As Planned when it's over.
Fiery Redhead: Although she's the most level-headed of the group, even more so than Yu, her temper is feared by all. She's still the most sexual though. In fact, it's her forte.
The Hero: She's the team leader and she wears red. As for fighting, she leaves that to Yu and Gloria but when she does she normally wins.
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Her manipulation can be pretty funny, especially when seducing the detective.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is rude and mean to almost everyone, yet Yu is loyal to her because of her hidden kindness, and she never hesitates to bail Maia out of trouble.
Law of Chromatic Superiority: She wears red and is thus the leader.
Manipulative Bitch: How she gets things done. Either by tricking enemies or seducing the detective or stringing along her suitor.
Ms. Vice Girl
Tsurime Eyes: It takes a strong will to practically neuter your superior.

Shizuka Hayama

"I'm gonna taste everything Siberia City has to offer!"

The mech expert for Nereids. She assisted Rena in the mission that got Maia involved with their company. More compassionate to the younger girl's plight, she takes the girl under her wing.

Tropes exhibited by Shizuka include:

Big Eater: She wins contests.
Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Can't hit anything with her gun.
Meganekko
The Smart Guy: The one with the tech know how
The Face: and the one with the connections to find info. She knows everybody in the slums and they're all more than happy to help Nereids if she's the one asking.
Token Good Teammate: She was this before Maia joined.
Wrench Wench:The only one who knows how to work their submarine and is the one to fix their gear when it breaks.

Gloria

The apparent weapons expert of Nereids. Pre-series she was separated from the group during a raid on a criminal hideout because the bag of gold she was carrying ripped. She blames Rena for abandoning her and returned to Nereids solely for her paycheck from that mission. Due to all the damage she caused, she ends up owing Rena instead.

Tropes exhibited by Gloria include:

Anti-Hero: Type III at best. She doesn't care about anyone but her nephew, regularly harasses Maia, and feels no concern at all for the damage she causes.
Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny!: Easily distracted by money, and generally can't focus on anything that doesn't involve money or shooting things.
Big Freaking Gun: her favorite gun is a rocket launcher taller than she is.
The Big Guy: The most aggressive member and potentially the most dangerous with her guns. She would be Dumb Muscle if she had any muscle.
Blood Knight: Loves shooting and is the only one to enjoy the fighting her job entails.
Boisterous Bruiser: Loud and aggressive and Trigger Happy.
Cold Sniper: More Hot-Blooded than others but she's still a great sniper that morally neutral at best and prefers to work alone. Yu says this is her only value to the team. Gloria doesn't deny it.
Cool Big Sis: She may actually believe that she's trying to be this for Maia; in practice, she's a Big Sister Bully at best.
Darkskinned Blonde: Fits the physical description and while she is somewhat Ditzy she's more Hot-Blooded.
Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Her obsession with guns wouldn't be so funny if she were a villain or if she killed people.
Hot-Blooded: So energetic and over-eager that Yu has to kick her quiet or she'll ruin their mission.
I Just Want to Be Loved: When she thought she was dying, the one thing she wanted to do was find true love.
- Yandere: No matter what.
Jerkass: Mean to everyone, except her nephew.
More Dakka: Her answer to everything.
No Social Skills: Gloria can't seem to understand that civilized people do not carry guns all the time and do not wave them in people's faces with little or no provocation.
Parental Abandonment: Subverted. She made it all up to get Yu to babysit her sister's kid.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Yu's blue.

Yu Park

"Dogs are grateful. They never forget kindness shown them."

Yu is the close range specialist of Nereids. She's also more of a Destructive Savior than Gloria, having been imprisoned pre-series for excessive property damage in pursuit of two petty thievies. As soon as she gets out, she goes back to Nereids.

Tropes exhibited by Yu include:

Anti-Hero: Type 2. She's a nice person, she just works for Rena.
Bare-Fisted Monk: There's plenty of technique in her fighting style. One more thing to distinguish her from Gloria.
Charles Atlas Superpower: More dangerous with her fists than Gloria with her guns. She once punched a tree in half out of annoyance, and bent a metal coin with two fingers to intimidate a Muggle.
Detect Gloria: Yu can sense Gloria's presence during a Freaky Friday Flip because of her 'evil' presence.
Gentle Giant (Yu, in a Cute Bruiser and Stoic kind of way.)
Pet the Dog: She appears a lot more approachable once she picks up her pet dog and is nicer to Maia right off the bat than Rena or Gloria, arguably, even Shizuka.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Gloria's red.
Subordinate Excuse: The only reason she works at Nereids is because of Rena.
The Lancer: She's the most loyal to Rena and the one most likely to be in charge after her. Also, she tends to work alone when not forced to work with Gloria.
The Stoic: Rarely talks or shows emotion

Tsutomu Hanaoka

The nominal head of the branch office, he's pushed around by everyone except Maia. He never goes on missions. Instead, he does the paperwork.

Tropes exhibited by Hanaoka include:

Broken Pedestal: On the receiving end -- his beloved daughter never respects him again after the fiasco of his Day in The Limelight episode.
Butt Monkey
Da Chief: A wimpy subversion. He has the desk job, but no authority despite being the branch manager. Yet he still gets headaches from the tactics of his subordinates.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "Branch Manager"
Fake Ultimate Hero: He tells his daughter he's a Badass Action Hero with incompetent subordinates, when they're the ones doing all the work. He desperately tries to bribe everyone to play along when his daughter visits the office.
The One Guy: He's the only male member, and the only one who's married.
Papa Wolf: He will do anything to protect his daughter. He's still a wimp but jumping onto a speeding boat with his hands tied so he can beg the guy to take him as a hostage instead of his daughter has to count for something.
Salaryman: And mocked for it by Rena.

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