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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/Ajin
Characters / Ajin
Kei Nagai
Voiced by: Mamoru Miyano (Japanese), Johnny Yong Bosch (English), Jose Antonio Toledano (Mexican Spanish)
Our cynical, loner protagonist who finds out he is a demi-human after an unfortunate accident.
The Ace: Before the whole Ajin mess he got himself into, he was a brilliant student with remarkable achievements and with a bright future in medicine ahead of him, not only acing, but getting a perfect score in a mock medical exam.
Adaptational Heroism: Downplayed and subverted: Kei both in the manga and the anime has his moments of doing genuinely badass, heroic things. But, there's usually a great, big "but" attached, for all the anime does round out both his heroism and his less heroic traits a little more... Though, his shining moments are usually only brought out when he's in a particular sticky situation and he needs help.
Anti-Hero: Though he starts out as a Paragon, doing his best to avoid killing and treat everyone gently — in his own words, "be a fine and upstanding person" — he eventually slides allll the way down to Nominal Hero and even Sociopathic Hero; as the series progresses, he becomes ever crueler, more ruthless, and more selfish, but still one of the more heroic characters. By the time the story hits its stride, the only thing keeping him from being a flatout Villain Protagonist is his strong grip on his Moral Sociopathy/ apathy. He even acknowledges that he tried to be a good person simply because that's what you are supposed to do to be accepted in society, not because he felt any moral desire to. After his life went to hell and he became a wanted man on the run with no chance of a normal life, his pretense of being a "good" and "moral" person went out the window.
Big Brother Instinct: Played with. He shows concern towards his sister, Eriko, when she's kidnapped by Satou early in the story, but Sato notes later that his inquiry about her to him during their first meeting seemed insincere. That saying, if the Imagine Spot he had prior to meeting Sato was anything, it might've been genuine, if not exactly an all-consuming worry.
Also, the reason he got into medicine in the first place was so that he could find a cure for his ailing sister's condition, though, like Eriko mentioned, it may just have been for self-serving reasons. What both he and Eriko struggle with is the concept that he can, perhaps, care to some degree and that it could motivate him in turn... but, it's not something he does in the usual ways or can feel to the same degree others do. But, it could well still be there, if outside factors and situations don't overwhelm his ability. On the plus side, even Eriko doesn't confuse his antisocial traits with being an Ajin: it's just the way her brother has always been.
Break the Cutie: He's fairly kind and decent when the story begins; he's well-known for helping his schoolmates with studying and tests, and seriously questions the common wisdom that Ajin aren't human and deserve to be tortured For Science!. Even after dying from getting run over by a truck, shot at by a cop, smacked in the head with an aluminum baseball bat and dying a second time due to the same guy who smacked him strangling him just to see if he'll come back, his first thought after Kai asks him to stun a pursuing motorcyclist with his Voice is that getting paralyzed while riding a motorcycle at speed will probably kill him — causing him to hesitate long enough for said cyclist to run them both off the road. When he begs the cyclist to call an ambulance for Kai, he's kicked in the ribs and told Kai's injuries are his fault for not surrendering. ...and thus begins his journey down the Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes.
Brilliant, but Lazy: An odd case. If he can see the point to something and it meets his general goals, he's likely to work his butt off doing it. The problem is that, if he doesn't see the point to something, he's very quick to blow it off as nothing to do with him, ergo, not important and, therefore, it's just not done or gets half-assed if he can't get out of it. However, his "half-assed" is usually more than enough.
Character Development: While he becomes more ruthless, he also gets a better grip on finding motivations beyond "just getting by via hard work and a mask of perfection". In short, getting to grips with being a persecuted Ajin helps him get to grips with being antisocial in a complex social environment on his own terms, rather than just using bogus templates to skirt around dealing with people only as things.
Characterization Marches On: No doubt a side effect of the story changing hands early on, but Kei at the start is a pretty different character than Kei later on. He starts out the story trying to be a moral person. Even though he cut his best friend out of his life at his mother's urging, he clearly felt bad about it and tries to do the right thing. That is completely clashing with his more sociopathic personality later in the story where he only cares about self preservation and is a cold jerk for the most part. The story does a decent job of explaining the change by saying that Kei was just putting up a front of being moral so he could succeed in society, but as his sister realized all along, it was just a front. And it was a front that he quickly drops when he realizes it won't help him anymore in the situation he's in.
Combat Pragmatist: Expect him to play dirty in a fight. There's also his tactical prowess and eerily logical and rational mindset to consider.
The Comically Serious: Has his moments, especially around Kou.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Deaths. First, when he was run over by a truck and his body was mutilated beyond recognition before being resurrected, which gives him (and all the accident's bystanders) the knowledge of being an Ajin. Next, he gets strangled to death by some random crook. And then, there was his torture at the hands of scientists, where he was made to experience numerous deaths with varying degrees of pain. Of course, being an Ajin, and therefore being unkillable by any means, they don't stick.
The Cynic: Becomes more cynical as the series progresses. One cannot blame him.
Determinator: Very, very begrudgingly so. But, Kei is made of immensely stubborn, impossible-to-keep-down, in-your-face, reoccuring middle-fingers when he wants to be. It's getting him to that point that's hard. Also... It's a very bad idea to do that.
Everybody Has Standards: Sincerely apologizes to his sister and Kai over what he put them through, and helps the old lady who fell off her bike even though it was of absolutely no benefit to him at the time. Which puts paid to anybody writing him off as merely a 2D personality disorder on legs.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Well not bad so much as relatively sociopathic, but when he was planning to flee the country and disappear, he felt compelled to call his mother one last time. Even though they spent most of it arguing, he hung up with a rare smile on his face.
Ineffectual Loner: Kei's not so taken with joining Tosaki or Kou at first.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Ultimately averted. For the first few episodes, he refuses to kill even while he's being vivisected and even though he quickly learns to accept the deaths of his armed enemies, he actually attacks Satou to keep him from killing the surgeons who did it because they're incapable of hurting them at that particular moment. As time goes on, however...
Jerkass: Let's face it, he's this without trying too hard and knows it. And, it's knowing this that lies behind why he does make an attempt to not be it to the max, though. There's a reason he and Tosaki get each other. His sister also calls him this. Turns out she was right about him.
Genius Bruiser: Apparent during his fight with Kou. Kei mentally describes his plans to knock Kou down (in order: poisoning, concussion, suffocation) with textbook accuracy, all while putting them in action. Justified in this case, since he was studying to be a doctor, after all.
The Golden Rule: He's happy to skate by while politely ignoring most issues and doing socially expected "chores" if he's pretty much left politely alone in return. However, treat him very well or do something really helpful and he will endeavour to return the favour to the best of his ability (even if not in exact Equivalent Exchange terms, since his ideas on value and interest may vary). Treat him very poorly... and you've just made a truly terrible tactical mistake. Actively be a dire threat to his existence, and he goes strategic on you.
How Do I Shot Web?: Well, it's not like you can find unclassified textbooks dealing with the care and training/ controlling of BMs that are (very loosely in his case) attached to you, so... Yup: brainstorming sessions, trial, error and frustrated growling ensue as he is forced to go all empirical methodology at it.
Lack of Empathy: When escaping from the government facility, Kei asks a sympathetic surgeon why he feels so much about the plight of others. Kei admits that he's only ever pretended to care for others, but never actually felt anything for them. It's somewhat hollow, though, as he does seem to manage connections to some small degree — even if he's not convinced he can or does. See dealing with both his family, Kai, Kou and even, to some degree, Tosaki.
It's All About Me: While he has occasionally shown that he cares for certain individuals, the person he would always prioritize would be first and foremost, himself. But, note that (small) ability to put others into the picture: he's more complicated than simply being selfish, even if he'll never manage truly selfless.
Manipulative Bastard: Particularly when he poisons Kou after faking a friendly conversation and meal and then confines him in an abandoned truck, because he can't afford anyone knowing where he's been hiding. He's also fast in exploiting Tosaki's main weakness, his ill wife, by threatening to have his IBM kill her if Tosaki doesn't listen to his proposal of alliance.
Moral Sociopathy: His baseline code is: "whatever will help be get by successfully with minimum hassle" which morphs into "do whatever will keep me not turning into a permanent lab rat... with minimum hassle" whenever that crops up. Help him to survive, and he'll return the compliment, and seemingly care enough not to be too much of a pain in return. Otherwise, he'll take or leave pretty much any social interaction on a face-value basis if it makes things run smoothly, and only digs deeper if his life is on the line. He'd much rather be left alone and even needs pushing to consider taking sides. He's no unraveling sociopath (even though he does get more ruthless, he still doesn't hit "outright, degenerative disorder"), but that doesn't mean he's able to do closeness properly even at his best: just ask his sister, mother, people from school... He even drops relationships quickly, if it would make his life easier to do so, with or without justifications (see Kai, his mother, how quickly he adapts to realizing his cram school buddies aren't places to seek help, and so on).
Nominal Hero: He eventually joins Kou and Tosaki in order to stop Sato, but mostly for his own good and safety. He's not interested in saving people and says he doesn't care whoever might die in the process. How much he's deluding himself on that point is up in the air: he might be able to care about a few people. Even if not for very long or all that deeply.
Not So Stoic: He begs and screams for Sato to stop when he has one of the few people who was genuinely kind to him in his clutches. Later on, he weeps over his failure to save the man.
Love Is a Weakness: "Let your heart guide you and your body will crumble". Kei seems to notice this within Tosaki, believing it to be his advantage and Tosaki's disadvantage.
Resurrective Immortality: The power he possesses as an Ajin.
Safety in Indifference: Kei makes a habit of not getting close to anyone and staying away from those he's close to.
Sociopathic Hero:
His safety is his first priority, and he's not averse to killing people he barely knows to protect himself (also when he thinks his IBM has killed Kou, his overall reaction is "This might be a problem..."). He always thinks rationally, and has admitted to only pretend caring about other people. Even when he saves one of the doctors who experimented on him, he later says it was because since the man was an Ajin sympathizer, he could be a valuable delegator to the government. Even his own sister doesn't think good of him, and implies that Kei's wish of being a doctor has little to do with Eriko and more to do with his self-value.
That said, he still decides to fight against Satou when the latter's plans threaten any chance he has of ever living normally. He also does ask Satou about his little sister's well-being, and though still putting himself above everyone else, he most definitely has a sense of gratitude: he is shocked and thankful to Kai for helping him escape, and goes out of his way to rescue the old woman who gave him shelter while he was on the run.
After a big attempt to stop Satou from assassinating an important person fails and the Ajin division gets shut down, Kei's first instinct is to cut his losses and flee the country. However, something inside him agreed with Kou that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he gave up after everything that had happened. So he decides to stay and finish the fight.
The Spock: A more sociopathic version as he tends to apply ruthless rationality to most situations.
Suicide Dare: To Kou.
Teach Him Anger: Satou purposefully abandons Kei to be captured after discovering he's too passive to protect himself, let alone fight in his revolution. It's implied that he did the same to Tanaka; only rescuing him from the government lab after he'd suffered enough to hate humans. It only half-works on Kei; though he becomes quite capable of killing government operatives, soldiers, and even cops, he never becomes the full-blown Ajin-supremacist Satou is.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Kou, which is not surprising since they are as different as night and day. Also with Tosaki, though amusingly enough, despite being on tense terms, both manage to interact quite civilly when working together.
Virtue Is Weakness: Yes-no: is quick to vocalise this opinion. However... for all he could quite happily poison, strangle, bash or burn Kou for being an idiot over his urge towards emotional Chronic Hero Syndrome... he doesn't always shut him down and even facilitates some of what Kou concocts. Mostly, however, he'd like to bomb Kou's unmodified ideas from orbit for being very, very dangerously stupid. Kei can compute that not having normal emotions of his own as a yardstick can prove tricky when dealing with other people. Having somebody like Kou to rein in helps him keep his own balance, too. Even though it's annoying as hell and he can't always grok the idiocy.
We Used to Be Friends: With Kaito after Kei stops seeing him after his mother learns of Kaito's father's criminal background. Kei's mother forbids Kei from ever seeing Kaito again. Even years later Kei actively avoids and shuns Kaito for the benefit of fitting in with his friends. Though he does feel regret for it later.
You Can't Go Home Again: Not that Kei really has any desire to, but his mother and younger sister basically disown him after they learn he's a demi-human.
Nagai's Black Ghost
Axe-Crazy: Bloodthirsty enough to attack and kill people on its own whims.
The Blank: It has no face, just an opening that shows of the hollowness inside.
Determinator: It's certainly attached to one. But, is also one itself. Many of its more independent actions can be summed up as "Surprise! I'm not dusted! Welcome to new and interesting pain!". Ghosts aren't supposed to be able to keep on ticking when an Ajin is either delirious or out for the count, but this one can. When it feels the burning need to, that is.
Improvised Weapon: When trying to reroute the Americans kidnapping Tosaki, it uses ripped up street signs as weapons.
Invisibility: Averted, unlike most black ghosts. It's strong and driven enough to be visible more often than not.
It Can Think: Its notably independent compared to normal black ghosts, capable of acting on its own initiative.
Jerkass: Manages to be abrasive and rude, despite only being able to parrot things Nagai previously said. Having said that, what it chooses to say back at which points give the strong impression of both deliberate taunting — and occasional finger-wagging of the "I told you so" variety.
Lean and Mean: Rather thin and quite aggressive.
Like Father, Like Son: Kei gets frustrated with it for a reason: it's as stubborn in its heel-dragging and as slow to volunteer its services as he is. It is also just as capable, just as hard to keep down and all too uncomfortably quick to pick up new tricks at the worst time for opponents... once finally convinced it should do so, that is. It's also rather quicker to lash out in anger when pushed, but it certainly gets that from somewhere, too. Kei puts up fronts; his "Ghost" doesn't really need to.
Made of Iron: Abnormally dense compared to normal black ghosts due to its age.
Reverse Psychology: It always disobeys Nagai, so he uses this to command it. After a brief period where it wises up to this and refuses to do anything he wants, Nagai manages to get over this and it obeys him normally.
Stubborn Mule: Good luck getting your ghost to take you seriously, Kei...
Unskilled, but Strong: It can stay out longer and be summoned many more times a day than normal black ghosts, but it lacks any actual skill in combat and relies on raw ferocity. As a result it tends to get demolished by other black ghosts in a fight, but gets summoned back almost immediately for round two.
Zerg Rush: A limited version as Nagai can only have one at a time, but Nagai makes up for their weaker quality by just spamming one after another. Ends up being played straighter in the season 2 finale where Nagai achieves a Flood.
Kou Nakano
Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama (Japanese), Griffin Burns (English)
An Ajin who's introduced during Satou's first Ajin meeting. He eventually meets Kei and joins him in a Teeth-Clenched Teamwork type of partnership.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: It's about the first thing you notice about his face. And, good luck not continuing to look.
Book Dumb: He sure has no patience for the long strategical or intellectual speeches Kei gives at times, much to the latter's exasperation. Given Kei is The Smart Guy and The Chessmaster, it makes for quite some amusing moments.
Kou: Hey, Nagai! You got my shirt dirty!
Kei: Aren't you used to that, blue-collar boy?
Kou: This is red!
Chronic Hero Syndrome: "Because it's the right thing to do!" may's well be his mantra. He needs Kei to work out how to do whatever he'd like to do without getting himself (and everybody around him) repeatedly killed.
Classical Anti-Hero: Of the idiotic, Jerkass with a Heart of Gold delinquent variety. Except, he's more impulsive than actually a total idiot (whatever Kei might argue).
The Face: Of his partnership with Kei, to a certain extent. He's quite the "people's person", managing to get both of them a car mostly by making friends with some strangers at a bar (granted, the fact that the strangers were drunk helped) and he actually befriends most of Tosaki's henchmen once they start working on the same side. While Kei's usually the one doing the negotiations, Kou is the guy people seem to trust more. More than that, when Kei needs to think or act normal, he's got Kou to bounce off.
Foil: To Kei. Whereas Kei is the man with a plan, lacks empathy and has a hard time interacting with people (he's good at pretending to be social, but isn't so good at getting people to like him), Kou is impulsive, cares about people around him (whether he knows them long or not) and trusts and becomes friends with others too easily. Kou may not be the man with the plan, but he is the guy with the emotionally driven, motivational cattle-prod the man with the plan sorely needs to get his arse in gear.
Hot-Blooded: Another thing that sets him apart from Kei.
Leeroy Jenkins: Kei complains that Kou is 100%, direct-to-target Leeroy, hold any sense of danger. However, it's a little bit more going on than that. Sure, Kou isn't one for convoluted plots, but he isn't totally heedless of the need for strategy, either. If he was, he wouldn't listen to Kei at all.
What the Hell, Hero?: Gives many of these to Kei whenever the latter voices that he'll worry about himself first and foremost and doesn't care who might die in the process.
Yu Tosaki
Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Todd Haberkorn (English), Jose Gilberto Vilchis (Mexican Spanish)
A high-ranking official in the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, head of the Ajin Management Committee. As the head of the Committee, he is responsible for capturing Kei and stopping Satou when the latter begins his attacks.
A Lighter Shade of Black: He is still an agent for the corrupt Japanese government and a cold-hearted man of pragmatism. But in comparison with Satou, the man he is supposed to stop, he is much less extreme in being evil and is even sympathetic in a few points.
Bait-and-Switch: When his motive is introduced, it seems that he's in it for the money. However, at the end of the episode, it turns out that he wants the money so he can pay for his bedridden fiancée's debts from her parents and healthcare.
Birds of a Feather: He and Kei. Highly driven for their own reasons, selectively caring, calculating, very intelligent... there are a number of reasons they actually work well together, despite not particularly liking each other.
Character Tics: He carries around a small container of mints and frequently dumps a handful in his mouth.
Death Flag: He is getting one after being stabbed by Sokabe.
Did Not Think This Through: Sort of. He thought kidnapping Ogura, who was visiting Japan at the time as part of a joint Ajin research program between the U.S. and Japan, during Satou's attack on the lab and faking his death would have gone uninvestigated. Not only does the U.S. send agents to conduct an investigation, the absence of Ogura's cigarettes among the evidence that was collected immediately clues them in on his survival.
Evil Laugh: To the man who sold out Nagai because of a rumor that the government would be offering money to anyone who found any wanted Ajin.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: His glasses are a sign of his calculating and pragmatic nature. He has no qualms about doing bad things if it means getting his job done.
Ill Girl: His fiancée.
In-Series Nickname: Ogura refers to him exclusively as Four Eyes.
Insistent Terminology: It's To-SA-ki, not To-ZA-ki.
Jerkass: He has absolutely no sympathy towards the Ajin, and is no stranger to kidnapping and subjecting a known scientist to Cold-Blooded Torture when he has information he needs. He's also a bit of a Bad Boss towards his subordinate Izumi, whom he uses occasionally for his own purposes. However close he skirts going towards Lack of Empathy levels with Ajin, however, he never quite manages it: it's caring about people that fundamentally drives his Jerkassery.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His Bad Boss tendencies aside, he treats Izumi FAR better than Douglas Almeida treats Carly Myers, and releases Izumi from her contract to him when he believes his injuries will only end up getting them both killed by Sato.
Meaningful Name: His name Yuu and his fiancee Ai. Their chapter's name is U & I, written in English.
Secret Keeper: He knows that Izumi is an Ajin, but is pulling strings to prevent her from being used for experiments. However, he's not doing this out of kindness, but is using her for his own purposes.
Secret Stab Wound: Gets stabbed by Sokabe in his side. Eventually dies from this.
The Stoic: He never breaks his composure, regardless of how bad the situation is.
Izumi Shimomura
Izumi Shimomura/Yoko Tainaka
Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu (Japanese), Cristina Valenzuela (English)
Tosaki's assistant and sort of bodyguard, who is an Ajin.
Action Girl: Not only is she adept at using her IBM, she fights Tanaka's bare-handed and forces it back despite grievous injuries.
Affectionate Nickname: She named her black ghost "Kuro-Chan."(Japanese for black).
Badass Adorable: She can be a total dork outside her serious demeanor and employer's shadow. Her interaction with Eriko is a crowning example of this. She also fights with her IBM for the first time against Tanaka's and wins. And that was after she had just respawned from being lifted up and Impaled with Extreme Prejudice.
Boobs of Steel: She has a notably large bust beneath her conservative clothing, plus she's an Ajin who fought off Tanaka and held her own against Kei making her one of the stronger characters in the series.
A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 27 expands on her backstory.
Dark and Troubled Past: Her life before becoming Tosaki's assistant was not easy. Her father died in an accident while she was in high school. She had a shaky relationship with her mother, due to the latter insisting on keeping a useless, money-sucking boyfriend around, and her own boyfriend was cheating on her with one of her friends. When Izumi's stepfather tries to sexually assault her, he accidentally kills her, finding out upon Izumi's resuscitation that she's an Ajin, and decides to use her to get money. Witnessing her mother's silence over this, Izumi runs away from home. Later she finds out that her mother killed her stepfather to stop him from outing her as an Ajin, but was also killed by him during their struggle. Living on the streets, she had to prostitute herself to survive, but eventually contracted an STD which was killing her slowly and painfully when Tosaki found her. He relieved her of the pain, then proceeded to blackmail her into working for him against her fellow ajin, and is still doing so.
Endearingly Dorky: She accidentally slips out information regarding Black Ghosts, something only Ajins should know, while she was questioning Eriko. When she realizes her blunder, she blushes. Eriko then internally notes that she's a weird person.
Hunter of His Own Kind: She's an Ajin, but works with Tosaki, allegedly so she can get to know her own kind better.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Tanaka's Black Ghost. She gets better.
Parental Abandonment: Both her parents are dead.
The Smurfette Principle: She was the only female Ajin in the series, until Carly Myers was introduced.
Starting a New Life: Her real name used to be Yoko Tainaka, but once she becomes Tosaki's assistant she takes on her father's last name and her mother's maiden name to do this.
Two First Names: Inverted, both her first and last names are family names. That's because its an alias taken from her mother's maiden name and her real father's last name.
Shimomura's black ghost.
Meaningful Name: Besides the implication of being the only black ghost whose ajin names it, "kuro" means "black".
Tiny-Headed Behemoth: Kuro is the most physically imposing black ghost seen so far, but its head is little more than a fin-like nub.
Ikuya Ogura
Voiced by: Hiroyuki Kinoshita (Japanese), Kyle McCarley (English)
An American biophysicist professor abducted to work for Tosaki.
Easily Forgiven: It takes all of a few hours to start getting chummy with the man who tortured him.
Feel No Pain: Played with. He certainly feels it, but he disregards it as only being physical pain.
Fingore: Tosaki chops down two of his fingers to get him to talk. It doesn't work.
It's All About Me: This man doesn't care about the conflict between Ajins and the Government. All he looks after is his own life, his work, and whether or not can he smoke his cigarettes.
Must Have Nicotine: He never ever stops smoking, and he completely ignores No Smoking signs. Even when he's captured, his bodyguard killed, and is being tortured and his fingers chopped, all wants is to get his pack of cigarettes back, and that's all it takes to get him to talk.
Hirasawa
Voiced by: Atsuyoshi Miyazaki (Japanese), Paul St. Peter (English)
One of Tosaki's agents responsible for Kei and Nakano after they joined his group.
Cold-Blooded Torture: He roughs up Ogura when trying to get information about Ajin out of him.
Easily Forgiven: Despite beating Ogura, the two are seen watching tv together scant days later.
Killed Offscreen: Beaten to death by Satou after being fatally shot. Fight was never shown.
Morality Pet: He is one of the few characters that Kei ever showed any empathy in.
Neck Snap How Sato kills him.
Secret Stab Wound: Fatally shot by Sato. He attempts to hide it but was eventually discovered by Kei.
Sokabe
Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (Japanese), Martin Billany (English)
High-ranked member of the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, assigned to supervise Tosaki and later to succeed him as the head of the Ajin Management Committee.
Jerkass: His job seems to be to constantly pester Tosaki regardless of what the situation is.
Psychotic Smirk: As if his character design is not indicative of his Jerkass personality enough, his smirk rarely leaves his face.
Kouma
Colonel Kouma
Voiced by: Itaru Yamamoto (Japanese), Jamieson Price (English)
A colonel of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and member of the Ajin Management Committee.
Yuuwa Tokui
Voiced by: Toru Ohkawa (Japanese), Dave Mallow (English)
Japanese Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare. Tosaki's superior.
No Name Given: His name is rarely seen, as most of the time he is simply referred to by his title.
Sleazy Politician: From his few actions that he made in the manga and the anime, he is most certainly not an honest and upstanding politician, engaging in dirty stuff with corporations and being obstructive with Tosaki's work.
Douglas Almeida
Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Kirk Thornton (English)
An anime-original character. An official from the United States Department of Defense sent to investigate into the disappearance of Ikuya Ogura in Japan.
Asshole Victim: He sure had it coming. Thanks to Izumi. She gave Carley the opportunity.
Bad Boss: Oh yes.
Bullying a Dragon: Abusing and torturing one. His Ajin assistant.
Canon Foreigner: He's a new character from the anime.
Cold-Blooded Torture: To get the information on the location of Dr. Ogura, he kidnaps Tosaki and tortures him with a stun gun and a muscle relaxant that makes him experience feelings of suffocation. He is also implied to have done the same multiple times to Myers to stop her from having any second thoughts. Worse, he clearly looks like he's enjoying it.
Eagleland: He represents the worst parts of a boorish US government. Intervening the affairs of another government for some tiny gain to the United States, usage of interrogation in getting people to talk, and general Jerkassery to everyone, including his assistant.
Hoist by His Own Petard: After enduring his constant abuse and tortuous behavior, Meyers shoots him the first chance she gets.
Carley Myers
Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese)
An anime-original character. Assistant to Douglas Almeida and also an Ajin.
Birds of a Feather: Non-romantic version with Izumi. As both are Ajins with similar jobs and similarly horrible experiences, the two manage to sympathize with each other and eventually dropped the conflicts they had.
Canon Foreigner: She's a new character from the anime.
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Kills her boss.
Myers's Black Ghost
Non-Human Head: Instead of a humanoid head, it has something resembling intersecting geometric shapes.
Ajin Resistance
Even Evil Has Standards: In the anime, when it's discovered that Satou doesn't actually care for the plight of their fellow Ajin, all but Tanaka abandon the Resistance. A few even decide to join Kei and Tosaki in their efforts to stop Satou.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: The group as a whole have no problem with aiding Satou in killing humans if it meant freeing other Ajin from persecution and the inhumane experiments they endured. Unfortunately for them, it's ultimately averted in Satou's case, and possibly Tanaka's.
Voiced by: Hochu Otsuka (Japanese), Pete Sepenuk (English), Pedro D'Aguillon Jr. (Mexican Spanish)
The leader of the Ajin resistance.
Ax-Crazy: Describing in detail how he's going to cut off Kei's head and make him watch his body grow another one should be hint. Then he outright admits it to a Surgeon begging him for mercy.
Sato: Sorry. That won't work. To tell you the truth, I rather enjoy killing.
Berserk Button: The one thing that can genuinely enrage him is breaking the rules of his "game".
Big Bad: Leader of the Ajin resistance and a brutal terrorist who commits crimes against civilians and tries to corrupt Kei to create conflict for his own amusement.
Blood Knight: It's heavily implied that he doesn't actually care that much about the Ajin cause; he just wants to cause a ruckus and make the whole world a battlefield for his own amusement.
But Not Too Foreign: American, with a British father and Chinese mother. He uses a Japanese name in Japan and speaks fluent Japanese, and the audience is unlikely to be aware that he's not actually Japanese at a glance.
Challenge Seeker: Doubles up with In-Universe Self-Imposed Challenge - if a task isn't hard, it's not fun for him.
Sato: Whenever I play videogames, I always make sure to play the hardest mode the game has to offer.
Tanaka: Oh? Where's this coming from?
Satou: I've learned one thing - if the game is really hard to play, then it's also a lot more fun.
Combat Pragmatist: Has no trouble in using others as human shields. Oh, and his declaration about attacking the Grant Pharmaceutical HQ? He meant he was going to crash a plane (a skyscraper in the anime) on it.
Satou: Brace for impact.
The Chessmaster: Sato is a notably cunning strategist, a necessary skill given his habit of making things harder for himself by telling his enemies his intended targets. Even when Nagai creates and executes a plan in the space of a few hours based on unforeseen circumstances, Sato already had a counterplan in place for it.
Crazy-Prepared: He seems to have a habit of having plans in place to counter very specific actions by his enemies, like booby trapping a specific section of tunnels to free himself if he's buried alive.
Death Is Cheap: Like all ajin, he resurrects after dying. Unlike them, he's very casual about this and will happily kill himself for the benefits of resetting.
He goes beyond even other Ajin in regards to this. He literally has no fear. Even pragmatic Ajin like Kei who have gotten used to dying and regenerating have certain concerns, such as being decapitated (the biggest part of an Ajin's dead body is what regenerates, when decapitated, the decapitated head dies while a new head reforms onto the body with all of the Ajin's memories.) This idea scares Kei who does everything he can to avoid it. Sato on the other hand has no such worries. He cut his own hand off to have it snuck into a secure airport before throwing himself into a meat grinder so that he would fully reform inside the airport. He then proceeded to perform the same trick repeatedly so that he could fly jets into various important government buildings before reforming back at the airport to do it again.
Dissonant Serenity: Always wears a calm smile, even when slaughtering his way through a government facility.
Eyes Always Shut: He only opens them twice in the entire first season of the anime.
Far East Asian Terrorists: Sato is no freedom fighter. He's a terrorist. He goes through with his threats to bomb the Grant Pharmaceutical Company headquarters. By hijacking a commercial airplane in the most brutal way possible and flying it into said building. In the anime, it was planting explosives in an unrelated building in order to topple it onto the pharmaceutical's building. He targets government and corporation personnel and kills them one by one. In the anime, he eventually uses captured VX gas missiles to threaten the government, and even launches one of them on the Prime Minster's Official Residence.
Faux Affably Evil: Sato is a soft-spoken, level-toned man and remains calm and cordial in any situation, even while happily telling people how much he looks forward to killing them.
Fun with Acronyms: "Sato" is an alias made up of parts of his real name, "Samuel T. Owen/O'Brian"note Owen in the manga, O'Brian in the anime.
I Gave My Word: Even when Sato goes out of his way to make everything as difficult as possible he still holds up the promise and mission he sets out to do. One retired veteran brings up that he still saved his captured brothers life despite intentionally messing up to make things as dangerous as possible.
In Harm's Way: His whole motivation. He doesn't feel satisfied if he's not playing his "games" so he seeks out and creates conflicts to fight in.
In-Series Nickname: During his time in the United States Marine Corps, he was nicknamed Pokerface.
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Many of his targets are not up to anything good either, oppressing and experimenting on Ajins and violating their rights. In spite of this, he is still the greater evil out of the two.
Latex Perfection: In the beginning of season 2, he uses a flawless mask to hide his identity and sneak onto a plane.
Manipulative Bastard: He allows Kei to be captured and experimented on so that Kei will develop a hatred towards humans. He also wants to put Kei in his debt when he and Tanaka break Kei out.
Nice Hat: Sports a newsboy cap. Other characters can readily identify him by it.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He allegedly fights for the freedom of the Ajins. In truth, he just wants War for Fun and Profit.
Off with His Head!: Promises to do this to Kei. Ends up on the receiving end of this from Kei. It only slows him down long enough for the American military to capture him though.
Old Soldier: Takes down entire buildings or enemy camps with minimal support at least three times in the manga, all of them ending up mostly in a successful note for him. At one point, Sato goes against the entire Metropolitan Police's Special Assault Team, an elite group trained specifically for anti-crime/terrorist operations, mostly on his own and calmly smiling all the way. That's after hijacking a plane and piloting straight to a building. And he livestreams it.
Otaku: He loves video games and pop culture in general and is often seen playing arcade games and game consoles, from the Game Boy in flashbacks to Xbox 360 in the present day. He didn't want to go back to Asia after being discharged from the military until he was informed that he was going to Japan, the birthplace of Pac-Man and many other games.
Psychotic Smirk: At the end of his broadcast declaring his upcoming attack on Grant Pharmaceuticals.
Self-Imposed Challenge: In-Universe. He's constantly arranging to make things harder on himself, as he considers things boring if it's too easy for him. Usually this takes the form of revealing his targets ahead of time, sometimes even mentioning the specific dates and times he plans to attack. The most extreme versions comes when he's threatening the combined military might of Japan and America while arranging for his own men to abandon him.
Semper Fi: He went to the Marine boot camp in San Diego during the Vietnam War but was discharged after basic training due to illness. In reality, he was recruited into a top-secret black ops unit.
The Sociopath:
In one chapter, we see a flashback of Sato's father punching him inside a barn. We at first think perhaps his current behavior is based on abuses from his childhood. However at the end of the chapter, we see his father was beating him to teach him a lesson about the value of life, as we see Sato bloody with multiple dead animals lying around him. And when his father hugs Sato and tells him he loves him, we see Sato is completely uncomprehending of what he is talking about.
When he witnesses his gangster uncle being gunned down by members of a rival gang, his only regret is that he "lost his meal ticket" (since his uncle had been employing him). Later on in his origin story, it is shown that he literally sees the world around him as a video game.
Sociopathic Soldier: Was discharged from the US military for insubordination because of his love of killing. In the manga, he was in Vietnam to rescue a prisoner, but he deliberately foiled the stealth rescue operation by attracting all the enemies with a gunshot so he could kill them. An anime OAD adapting the chapter updates the setting to Africa, but keeps the general structure the same.
Stealth Expert: He can get in and out of anywhere without firing a single round if he wants to. But he likes to make things more challenging.
Tranquil Fury: He was not happy about Kei shooting him. He noticeably stopped smiling at the end of his speech about how he was going to kill him for that. Later subverted. he was only pretending to be angry to test Kei. After all, he's suffered worse without breaking a sweat.
War for Fun and Profit: His true motivation is to entertain himself. A war against humanity is just what he needs to do that.
Sato's Black Ghost
Human Shield: When restrained and repeatedly killed, he manifests his ghost directly over him to intercept the bullets.
Off with His Head!: Its head ends at the chin as if it was sheared cleanly through.
Red Right Hand: Besides the typical menacing appearance of a black ghost, it has six fingers on its hands.
Remote Body: Sato's skilled enough with it to directly control its actions when he wants to.
Too Awesome to Use: Sato only uses it as a last resort, half because he can't summon it often and half because using it would rob him of the chance to do the killing himself.
Koji Tanaka
Kouji Tanaka
Voiced by: Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese), Keith Silverstein (English)
An Ajin that was captured by the Japanese government and experimented on. He was rescued by Satou, who teaches him about what he is and what he can do.
Adaptational Villainy: He loses most of his sympathetic traits in the anime. In particular, the subplot of him sparing one of Sato's assassination targets out of gratitude is cut out entirely.
Anti-Villain: Has shades of this here and there. Unlike Satou who's been suggested to be playing terrorist more for amusement than for a cause, Tanaka seems to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist in favor of Ajin, gets angry when one of his unwanted teammates kills someone out of Satou's hit-list, warns three human girls to stay away from the place where one of Satou's plans was going to take action and even hesitates when a woman who was in his killing list and who did nothing but stand by while he was being tortured tearfully apologizes to him.
This started as a result of another minor character (another Ajin) pointing out that Satou's ideology would just foster further resentment towards Ajin.
But if.. you start with this terrorism... things will get out of hand. The whole country will support... hunting down Ajins.
Ax-Crazy: Being repeatedly killed in incredibly gruesome ways didn't do his sanity any favors.
Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Or at least, extremely ruthless.
Character Tics: Pulling his lower lip down when thinking.
The Dragon: He acts as this to Satou as his closest and oldest ally.
Debt Detester: After being rescued by Izumi he agrees to help her as he doesn't want to indebted to her
Even Evil Has Standards: He has more morals than Satou since he does not have as great of a fondness for killing. Ultimatly this is fairly minor. When he learns Sato doesn't really care about Ajin rights and only wants the joy of conflict, Tanaka is clearly unhappy but stays with him anyways.
Heel–Face Turn: Joins Kei's side after being betrayed by Satou.
I Will Fight No More Forever: his attitude after being betrayed by Satou
Laughing Mad: He tends to go into hysterical laughter when things go poorly. Chronologically, the first time he did this was when Sato broke into his cell and freed him.
My God, What Have I Done?: Has an understated one in the anime when he watches an unrelated skyscraper be used as a weapon on the actual target.
Running Gag: His terrible aiming skills used to be this.
Slasher Smile: Fond of these, particularly when closing in for the kill.
Undying Loyalty: To Sato for freeing him from an endless cycle of torturous deaths at the hands of a weapons testing facility. Even when he learns Sato doesn't give a damn about Ajin rights, which was the while reason he joined up, he chooses to stick around.
Tanaka's Black Ghost
Remote Body: Tanaka can control it remotely, but has to cover his eyes and ears in order to use its senses.
Slasher Smile: Its only facial feature is a fang-filled gash of a mouth that stretches halfway around its head.
Wall Crawl: When hunting police snipers, it uses its claws to crawl straight up the side of a skyscraper.
Wolverine Claws: Has long, hooked claws it uses as weapons.
Masumi Okuyama
Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino (Japanese), Lucien Dodge (English)
The hacker and engineer of the Ajin resistance.
Even Evil Has Standards: He's willing to do a lot of nasty things in pursuit of Ajin rights, but when he finds out Sato was just using the promise of Ajin rights to cause conflicts he abandons the Resistance.
Evil Genius: He is responsible for all the high tech work in Satou's terrorist cell, being able to hack for information and construct complex destructive devices.
Evil Cripple: He is born with a crippled leg that did not heal even after reviving, necessitating him to use a crutch to walk.
Hazy Feel Turn: After finding out Sato's true motivations he turns traitor to work against Sato, but clearly still supports the idea of the Ajin Resistance.
Just Following Orders: Was never interested in the idea of Ajin resistance. Only agreed to work for Satou because he didn't want to fight him.
Lack of Empathy: Notably, despite doing lots of work with explosives and contributing significantly to the resistance's bodycount, he is completely apathetic to everything that happens on the field, with his voice never changing in tone.
Okuyama's Black Ghost
Non-Human Head: Its head is a thin tube that droops over.
Voiced by: Masashi Nogawa (Japanese), Michael Sorich (English)
A member of the Ajin resistance who supports Satou on the field.
Laughing Mad: He laughs maniacally when stressed, such as when the group is preparing their attack on the pharmaceutical company.
Those Two Guys: With Gen.
Voiced by: Daigo Fujimaki (Japanese)
Cold Sniper: Skilled enough to snipe handcuffs off of Sato from several blocks away and has no remorse about casually killing multiple police officers.
Scars Are Forever: He has a scar across the bridge of his nose. As an ajin this wouldn't be true, but he hasn't died since he got it.
Those Two Guys: With Takahashi.
Voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (Japanese), Bryce Papenbrook (English), Gerardo Mendoza (Mexican Spanish)
Kei's childhood friend that comes to his rescue after Kei learns he's a demi-human.
Affectionate Nickname: The Nagai siblings both just refer to him as Kai (though Eriko at least adds a -san suffix at the end with it).
Badass Biker: Kind of. It's not exactly a full-blooded Hog, put it that way. But, it's clear that in a few years, he'd invest in something a bit more substantial, given his druthers. For a high school kid, though, his rig is impressive.
Badass Normal: He's a human with some fancy high kicking moves.
The Bus Came Back: He finally reappears many chapters later in prison for helping Kei escape the authorities.
Clothing Reflects Personality: Kaito is seen wearing a smiley face earring in one ear as a kid and as a teen. His shirt displays the same logo as well.
Delinquent Hair: It's dyed blond as well. Deconstructed, a bit: his background means he wears it as a badge, because he's got little other choice. A criminal's son is expected to be a tearaway.
Expy: A blond, loyal childhood Muggle Best Friend who doesn't mind that their intellectual friend is not totally human and goes out of their way to help them? At the very least, Kai resembles Hide Nagachika more than Kei resembles Kaneki, that's for sure.
Honor Before Reason:
Kei's pretty much avoided Kaito for years and treated him like a jerk, yet at the first sign of trouble Kaito runs to Kei's aid without any hurt feelings. And after Kei abandons him one more time and he end ups jail for helping him, Kaito still states that if Kei's ever in trouble, he will help him again.
Also in jail, he repeatedly gets his ass kicked for helping a guy (an Ajin, at that, though he doesn't know it at the time) who's being bullied by other inmates. It had nothing to do with him personally, and he's even told by the guy he tried to help that he won't get anything from him for it, but it doesn't faze Kaito at all.
Loners Are Freaks: Due to his father's criminal history, people actively avoid Kaito. While walking to school, Kei and his friends spot Kaito outside of a convenient store eating. Kaito sees Kei, smiles and waves which prompts Kei's friends to ask if he knows him. In which Kei response with, "No way, that guy's a freak."
No Name Given: Kaito's last name is never given.
Put on a Bus: Basically disappeared from the story for a good while after Kei leaves him behind. Justified: Kei is decapitatable — Kai isn't.
Undying Loyalty: Towards Kei. Doesn't hesitate to run home and start packing things when a police officer asks him if he knows Kei after the incident.
Eriko Nagai
Voiced by: Aya Suzaki (Japanese), Marieve Herington (English)
Kei's younger sister.
Damsel in Distress: When Sato kidnaps her.
Ill Girl: She has a rare, incurable disease that forces her to live in the hospital. However, she's no wisp of insubstantial sweetness who is way too good for this sinful world. And, she defies that aspect of the trope. She's sick. She's a girl. And, any other ideas you have about this are your problem if you make them hers.
Grumpy Bear: With the possible exception of Kai, her interactions with nearly every character she's spoken to has her being a total angry and somewhat bittersweet grump in conversations. However, given that one of the people we most see her interacting with is Saitou (who has more than a passing emotional resemblance to her brother, and she zeros in on that at record speed)... She could be forgiven for giving him a tailored gloss on reality that which would allow her to survive, all in a manner he could compute. (She was well aware how much danger she was in, and was fighting to stay alive.)
Precocious Crush: Seems to have had this for Kai, if her Luminescent Blush when mentioning him is any clue.
That Thing Is Not My Child!: Well, brother, in this case. Subverted in that she doesn't reject Kei because he's an Ajin. She even says she feels pity of the Ajin in general; she just doesn't care for him as an individual too much, really. However, she might have been tailoring her answer to fit the audience: professing too much actual concern over one antisocial individual to another cut from the same cloth? Would come across as a lie to Sato's radar and get her either killed or taken to be further used as a tool. No thanks!
Though if her conversation with Sato, one moment of reminiscence, and her witnessing her brother one last time in the news is anything, she might still have some of the sisterly affection she used to have towards her brother in the past left for him.
Ritsu Nagai
Kei and Eriko's mother.
Adaptational Attractiveness: As a result of Adaptational Early Appearance, she's more pleasant to look at in the anime, though this could change by the time it adapts Chapter 44.
Adaptational Early Appearance: Early on in the manga, her face was hidden from view, but the anime makes no attempt to hide it.
Adaptational Nice Guy: It's not much, but in the anime, she & Kei still live together and she makes sure to ask him about his grades, while in the manga, it's implied she was absent for most of his life.
Defrosting Ice Queen: Her late husband was emotional, which is why she fell for him.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: "Evil" may be pushing it, but she does seem to love her children, despite how distant and harsh she may be.
Evil Old Folks: The manga depicts her as looking rather aged, and she sounds like a jerk, though not quite evil.
Ice Queen: Definitely. At one point, she talks about how you need to cut off connections if it's necessary to succeed. It certainly explains where Kei got his issues from, and Eriko doesn't like that both Kei and her mother are this.
Parental Neglect: She doesn't seem to visit Eriko often nor does she do anything about her son being an Ajin other than disown him. The latter is at least justified, since she can't defend him without getting in trouble. In the manga, it's suggested that she doesn't see Kei much either.
That Thing Is Not My Child!: Initially, she has no comment about the discovery that her son is an Ajin, but later, she and Eriko disown their connection to Kei after it turns out he's an Ajin, though after Kei calls her, she reveals that she still loves him, but she can't do anything to help him and instead urges him to disappear from society to save himself.
Takeshi Kotobuki
Voiced by: Soma Saito (Japanese)
Another Ajin whom Kaito befriends in jail.
Grumpy Bear: He's never shown cracking a smile and constantly derides others as idiots for standing up for people.
Kotobuki's Black Ghost
Non-Human Head: It has something that looks like an overly long neck without a head.
Winged Humanoid: It has wings rather than arms, the only black ghost in the series to display such a feature.
Hanae Yamanaka
Voiced by: Tamie Kubota (Japanese), Barbara Goodson (English)
An elderly woman who gives Kei shelter for a while.
Voiced by: Shoto Kashii (Japanese), Jamieson Price (English)
An old man living near Hanae.
Shinya Nakamura
Voiced by: Yūki Kaji (Japanese)
The central character of the Nakamura Shinya Incident. A college student who discovered that he was an Ajin after a motorcycle accident.
Unstoppable Rage: After Yusuke gets killed by government agents, he goes into a complete rage, creating multiple IBMs that slaughter through the agents.
Jun Suzuki
Dr. Ogura's assistant in the USA. The first ever known Ajin in Japan, whom the US Government coerced Japan to hand over as they did not have an Asian female Ajin specimen.
Genki Girl: She is arguably the most upbeat non-sociopath character in the manga.
Yuusuke
Shinya's best friend.
Taking the Bullet: He takes a bullet for Shinya when government agents corner the two. He seemed to have fully believed that Shinya is still a human and not an Ajin even until the last moment.
Senseless Sacrifice: Sadly, despite sacrificing himself for Shinya, the government agents still have Shinya cornered. However, his death did in fact trigger Shinya to go into an Unstoppable Rage.
Age of Steam
Administrivia/Needs Wiki Magic Love


I picked up a set as they were highly recommended and there were statements about them being a very close dupe to the famous Sigma brushes.
Now I do not own any Sigma brushes so I cannot compare the two for you guys as much as I would love to but I thought I would do a little review of them anyway for the people that have been looking at purchasing them.
I opted for the 8pce set in black & gold with 4 face brushes and 4 eye brushes. They took around 3 weeks to get to me here in Australia and they did smell very strongly of paint when they arrived, I gave them a bath and the smell disappeared.
From the first look at them they are pretty good quality for brushes that where so cheap! The handles are a great length, the brushes them self are dense, very soft and no bristle fall out. I have used a few of these brushes and the result has been perfect, I have nothing to fault them on I love the way they work they pick up product, apply and blend perfectly.
If you are in the market for some new brushes do check these out on ebay they are fantastic quality and the price is unbeatable.
I searched for Jessup Makeup Brushes on eBay and they range in price but mine cost me $15.00 including shipping from Hong Kong.
What are your thoughts on the Jessup brushes?


I recently bought some square pendants of the same style, and will be creating some more to list in my etsy shop! I love jewelry (what girl doesn't??), but I especially love jewelry that tells a story about who you are and what you like. They are fun and unique!


Dendrochilum orchids are mainly epiphytic and lithophtic, although some species are terrestrial. Dendrochilum Orchids are native to Borneo, The Philippines and surrounding countries.
The natural habitat is on trees where they attach themselves to the mossy surfaces. The moss retains good moisture, and as they grow in elevated forest areas they are also subject to moist air conditions for much of the time.
They are an orchid that requires good light and will take direct sun for part of the day. They also are naturally subjected to windy conditions, so good air flow is another important factor.
With an increasing number of species being cultivated this fascinating and attractive group of orchids is becoming more accessible to the home grower.
The over 300 Denrochilum orchid species include Dendrochilum cobbianum, Dendrochilum saccolabium (see picture top right) Dendrochilum wenzelii, Dendrochilum tenellum and others. Requiring humidity shade and moisture Dendrochilum species are fairly easy to grow with Dendrochilum wenzelii perhaps being the most forgiving.
Firstly determine if the particular species is one that is suited to growing in containers or is one that is fussy and really needs to be mounted. Then find out if you have one of the species that grows in direct sun or one that prefers filtered light.
Watering is the main issue with container grown species preferring to be watered from below, many growers submerse the whole pot in water for a few hours avoiding watering the foliage directly although they do mist it at the same time. Allow to dry out a fair bit between waterings.
A light feeding with a specialist orchid fertilizer at the beginning of the growing season is all that is required.


A new build multifunctional annexe adjoining an existing B listed church.
The site itself has been in continuous use for Christian gatherings since the 11th century, and this presented unusual challenges as the annexe could only be located over the existing graveyard.
This has meant that the building had to 'hover' over the site, only touching down within the tightly controlled (and irregularly distributed) areas identified by an archaeological survey.


On New Year's Day (our anniversary) the snow began to fall in rural northeastern Oklahoma, and it continued to fall until somewhere between 8" to 10" was on the ground. When the electricity went off, I had the opportunity to check our level of readiness. I found out that we were pretty well prepared to handle this level of minor emergency, but I also found a few holes in my plan things I hadn't yet done or considered.
In our home here in rural Oklahoma, we do have two wood stoves that came with the house. As a matter of fact, even though it is pretty standard to have either a stove or fireplace around these parts, it was an item we looked for in selecting our new residence. One of the stoves is readily easy to use and the other is backup for a serious cold spell. Fortunately, we had a good supply of firewood. The temperature during this time only dropped down to around 20 degrees (it has since gone down to 5 degrees). To my surprise the house was well insulated and even with the power off, the house retained the heat and we stayed warm. When I got the wood stove fired up, it was quite warm, even somewhat hot.
The maximum time the electricity was off was only eight hours, even though it had gone off for several other shorter times. We were amazed at our dependence on grid electricity. After the first power outage, I went up to my warehouse and loaded up on the items we needed that weren't already in the house. I brought back my Marathon lights, breaklights, candles, kerosene lanterns, a Powerizer, and some extra MRE food items. Fortunately my warehouse is only a little over 100 feet from the house, so this wasn't a big deal. It wasn't like getting in the car and going to a store to purchase all this.
One of the things I am going to do differently is to have an area (probably a closet) in the house to keep all my "home" emergency items. I already had flashlights in the house, but I hadn't brought down any breaklights since our move here last August.
When the power goes off, we lose our water. We have a deep well and the pump is driven by electricity. Now the plan is that I have a 4-Kw gasoline driven electrical generator. But this part of the plan wasn't completed in time for this emergency. It was on my "to do" list to install the generator and figure out where to connect it, so we could power the pump, but not cause other problems to our electrical system.
When I was developing our original emergency plan, that later was documented as part of my Survival Manual for the New Millennium, we went to a lot of garage sales. At one of these we found a couple of kerosene lamps and I had gotten a small supply of kerosene, as a part of my planning. These lamps became part of our lighting at night. We were amazed at how bored we were because we couldn't turn on the television at night. Annie did have a small battery reading lantern that allowed her to read a little. And I had one of the solar/dynamo AM/FM radios working. I cheated by installing two AA batteries to power it. But we wound up going to bed early that night, and both of us got a great night's sleep.
What did we do right and what did we do wrong? Prior to the storm coming in, I had put up some well water in 2-liter pop and other similar containers, so we had water to drink and cook with. What we didn't have was water to flush the toilets with after the first flush. Annie did fill up the bathtub with water, but it leaked, so that was useless. I later got one of my 5-gallon collapsible water containers out of stock, and when the electricity came back on, I filled it up. By-the-way, five gallons of water is heavy.
My first concern when the power went off was for heat. I had visions of us freezing. The first power failure occurred around midnight. Even though I had been sleeping, I awoke when the heater fan became silent and all the small appliances lights were out. I reached for my bedside flashlight and my robe and headed for the wood stove to build a fire. It turned out that the house is well insulated, so my fear of freezing wasn't justified. Even the stove fire may not have been necessary, but it sure felt good and gave me confidence. After this I simply went back to bed and fell asleep until morning.
Now with heat assured, my next concern was for lighting. At this time of year it gets dark early, at 5:30 PM. Our emergency lights consisted of a combination of flashlights, candles, breaklights, Marathon lights, the light built into the Powerizer, and the kerosene "hurricane" lamps all spread out over the house in appropriate spots.
The power came on and off as the day went on. At meal times, when the power was off, Annie used the top of the wood stove to cook. She found some shrimp that was in the freezer that she was concerned might go bad, if power wasn't restored in time so she boiled them in a pot on top of the stove. She warmed some MRE potatoes au gratin and we had a good meal. We were concerned that the items in the refrigerator and freezer might go bad if power stayed off, so when we opened the freezer to get something out, we didn't open it to put it back. Instead we took it out and put it in a box on our enclosed back porch, that served as a natural freezer. Of course, this wouldn't work if the power failed during the summer months, but it worked great for this event.
Just some comments. When I heard about the coming storm, I filled up my car with gas. Even though we didn't have to go anywhere, it would have provided emergency power, communications, and heat. About a month before the power had gone out, I discovered that my new business-type telephone system that we installed when we moved in went down when the power went off. So I installed an emergency two-line phone in both the house and my office to be able to answer the main phone lines when power was out and the phone lines still working. Then I went one step further and installed a UPS (uninterruptable power system) backup power system on my central phone equipment. During the 8-hour power failure the UPS kept the phones working for two hours.
We only lost power on-and-off for a few hours over a two-day period. I talked with a friend of ours in Arkansas she had lost power and run out of gas for three days. And I heard from another person how some people in California had recently lost power for five days due to strong winds. Our little storm made me think! Consider for yourself, what you would do if your power went off and it was freezing outside? What planning would you need to do to remain safe and comfortable? What things would you need to have on-hand? What items would you need to have purchased ahead of time? What items would you need to be able to find if it was dark or cold? Where are you vulnerable? These are just things to consider to help you benefit from our short, minor emergency.
On the bright side of this experience, the snow-covered country was beautiful here in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It looked like a real-life version of a picture postcard "Winter Wonderland."