List of Rosario + Vampire characters

The Japanese manga series Rosario + Vampire features an extensive cast of characters by Akihisa Ikeda. The main character of the series is Tsukune Aono, a teenage boy who, after not getting accepted to any local high schools, enrolls in Yokai Academy, a boarding school for monsters. He meets Moka Akashiya, a vampire who soon takes a liking to the sweet taste of his blood, and throughout the series, befriends and attracts a variety of monster girls including: Kurumu Kurono, a succubus; Yukari Sendo and Ruby Tojo, who are witches; and Mizore Shirayuki, a snow fairy. While protecting Tsukune's identity as a human, they join the school's Newspaper Club; they wind up fighting a variety of monster gangs as well as some teachers. In the second manga serialization, the Newspaper Club faces more monster characters and a larger organization known as Fairy Tale, whose members include Moka's own family.
In developing the characters for the series, Ikeda cited influences from Tim Burton's works, and research on various monsters from encyclopedias and the Internet. The characters have been commented on by reviewers, who had mixed feelings about Ikeda's artwork, but criticized the character development and its missed potential. The anime adaptation received negative criticism for its fanservice, and mixed reviews for other aspects such as voice acting. Characters have also featured in various merchandise, character songs and polls.
Ikeda drew inspirations from Kaibutsu-kun and has incorporated some references later into the first serialization of the Rosario + Vampire manga. In an interview at Lucca Comics 2012, Ikeda said he is a big fan of Tim Burton and was inspired by his works, including The Nightmare Before Christmas, and particularly Edward Scissorhands because the monster has a sensitive soul. He had also researched various monsters from encyclopedias and the Internet. He started with his passion for vampires, and the concept of a beautiful girl vampire with a crucifix around her neck and then created the school of monsters, Tsukune, and others afterwards. He credits the beautiful girls for the series' popularity and added the fighting elements.
Ikeda has mentioned that he has great respect for real-life teachers, so he designed the monster ones to contrast that and be more comical. He also introduced Fangfang Huang to increase the number of male characters and to attract more female readers. He created a male counterpart that looks feminine to increase the comic element. During the development of Season II, he also acknowledged that the series would have a finite ending. He introduced San Otonashi to reflect the feelings and struggles of young people as they ponder their futures and transitioning into the working world. In Season II, Volume 8, he noted that he had to postpone the publishing date because he took so much time in drawing it. In Season II, Volume 11, he mentions his favorite manga characters from other series are: Dio (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), Toguro (Yu Yu Hakusho), Hakumen (Ushio To Tora), and Master Kogan (Shigurui) - the villains who "have an inimitable style and play by their own rules. They're powerful and dark, but there's something melancholy about them too as well...and that's what draws me to them." He hopes his villains (Aqua, Gyokuro, Miyabi, Kiria, and others) would draw readers.
The main protagonists are club members of the school's newspaper, the Yokai Times (anime: Yokai Gazette). The club president is Ginei Morioka and the staff adviser is Shizuka Nekonome.
Tsukune Aono (青野 月音, Aono Tsukune) is an average teenager who, unable to get into the local high schools thanks to his poor grades, enrolls at Yokai Academy. He discovers it is a school for monsters, and must hide his human identity under punishment of death. However, because he befriends Moka Akashiya, an attractive vampire, he decides to stay. Over the course of the series, he makes new friends and protects them without a second thought. Most of his friends are girls who in turn compete for his affection. When infused with Moka's blood, he acquires extraordinary strength that allows him to defeat other monsters. The transfusions, however, take a toll on his human body and transform him into a ghoul, after which he is given a spirit lock to retain his humanity. In Season II, he trains and undergoes body alterations to become stronger and to control his vampiric power. He eventually is able to transform into a powerful vampire like Moka. In the original Japanese series and drama CD, Tsukune is voiced by Daisuke Kishio. In the English dub, he is voiced by Todd Haberkorn.
Moka Akashiya (赤夜 萌香, Akashiya Moka) is the vampiress title character. She is highly regarded by her schoolmates for her beauty and academic ability. She enjoys biting and drinking blood from Tsukune's neck. When her rosario is removed from her necklace, she undergoes a personality change (along with a physical transformation sequence in the anime) to a ruthless, arrogant and skilled martial artist who easily beats opponents with powerful kicks. Her catchphrase when exhibiting her inner personality is: "Know your place" (身の程を知れ, Minohodo o shire, also "Learn your place"). In the original Japanese series and drama CD, Moka is voiced by Nana Mizuki. In the English dub, Moka is voiced by two people: Alexis Tipton voices Moka's outer personality, while Colleen Clinkenbeard provides her inner one.
Kurumu Kurono (黒乃 胡夢, Kurono Kurumu) is a busty succubus student who originally plans to enslave all the boys at school with her kiss. Overshadowed by Moka's popularity, she targets Moka's object of affection, Tsukune, by using her charm ability but fails. After Moka defeats her, she falls in love with Tsukune because he shows her kindness, while stopping Moka from causing further harm. She then pursues him exclusively as her Mate of Fate (運命の人, Unmei no hito). Over the course of the series, she learns to value her friendship with Moka and the other girls when they help her out in situations. Because of this, she restrains herself from using her powers to her advantage on Tsukune, and tries to win him over fairly. In her succubus form, Kurumu has long fingernails that can cleanly slice through tree trunks, pointed ears and tail, and bat wings that enable her to fly and to carry people. She can cast high-level illusion spells, as well as enter people's dreams. Over the summer break, she and Mizore train in close-quarters combat, and develop joint attacks called Black and White Duets. In a later storyline, she reveals that succubi gain their power by loving others, and a succubus who cannot love will eventually die. In the Japanese anime series and drama CD, Kurumu is voiced by Misato Fukuen. In the English dub, she is voiced by Brina Palencia.
Yukari Sendou (仙童 紫, Sendō Yukari, Anime: Yukari Sendo) is introduced as an 11-year-old witch genius, complete with witch hat and heart-shaped magic wand, with a "little sister" personality. She scores at the top of her class, but is ridiculed by her classmates for being "borderline", that is, between monster and human. She idolizes Moka, and initially hates Tsukune for garnering Moka's attention. However, after both Tsukune and Moka save her, she falls for Tsukune and dreams of a three-way relationship with them. Although she clashes with Kurumu and the other girls, she teams up with them on various adventures. Yukari's abilities include manipulating flying tarot cards to slice through monster plants; and summoning a metal washtub to drop on a person's head or to clobber the person. In the second manga serialization, she develops magic items, summons creatures, and becomes close with Fangfang Huang. In the Japanese anime and drama CD, she is voiced by Kimiko Koyama. In the English dub, she is voiced by Monica Rial.
Mizore Shirayuki (白雪 みぞれ, Shirayuki Mizore) is a snow fairy who joins Tsukune's class in the second term. She is typically seen with a lollipop in her mouth, which is actually a special coolant. In her first school term, she confesses her love to gym teacher Okuto Kotsubo, but when he takes advantage of her, she freezes him and gets suspended for the term. She obsesses over Tsukune because of his news articles, and stalks him regularly, eventually joining the Newspaper Club in her second year. Besides freezing people outright, Mizore can shape claws of ice from her hands, throw ice kunai (Japanese knives), and make ice dolls (fragile mobile copies) of herself and of others. In the Japanese anime and drama CD, Mizore is voiced by Rie Kugimiya. In the English dub, she is voiced by Tia Ballard.
Ruby Tojo (橙条 瑠妃, Tōjō Rubi, Anime: Rubi Tojo) is a witch who serves as an antagonist in the Witch's Knoll storyline, under her guardian Lady Oyakata. Her deep hatred for humans stems from a car accident by a human drunk driver that killed her parents, but after she experiences Tsukune's kindness, she has a change of heart. She appears at Yokai Academy to aid the headmaster, Tenmei Mikogami, on a variety of roles. She later reveals masochistic tendencies when interacting with Tsukune. Ruby's magic theme typically involves ravens and flora, both as familiars and alternate forms for her to take.
In the anime series, her backstory is different: her parents are not mentioned; Oyakata is already dead, but lives in her mind as a delusion. She carries out Oyakata's actions from the manga against Tsukune and the girls. In the second season, her various jobs become a running gag where she has a "long story" as to how she got involved. In the Japanese anime and drama CD, she is voiced by Saeko Chiba. In the English dub, she is voiced by Leah Clark.
Koko Shuzen (朱染 心愛, Shuzen Koko, Anime: Kokoa Shuzen) is the second of the four Shuzen sisters; she becomes a student at Yokai Academy in the second manga serialization and anime season. She has a pet bat that can transform into a variety of weapons. As a child, Kokoa regularly fought Moka, but always lost. Upset that Moka sealed her powers, Kokoa enrolls in Yokai Academy to be with her, picking fights with her in order to draw out her inner personality. She also dislikes that her sister and the girls fawn over Tsukune, and refuses to be associated with the harem, although after they save her against the Karate Club, she joins the Newspaper Club (only in the manga). In the Season II epilogue bonus comics, she and Haiji Miyamoto officially go out, but their outings end up being non-romantic sparring sessions. In the original Japanese anime, she is voiced by Chiwa Saitō. In the English dub, she is voiced by Kira Vincent-Davis.
Ginei Morioka (森丘 銀影, Morioka Gin'ei), nicknamed "Gin" (銀), is the president of the Newspaper Club, and a year senior to Tsukune. He delegates most of the work to Tsukune and the gang. He is good-looking and a ladies' man, although he is heavily perverted, which causes the Newspaper Club girls to keep their distance from him, as well as warn others of his behavior. Prior to the manga series, "Mad Dog" Morioka enjoys fighting and getting into trouble until the Newspaper Club president San Otonashi defeats him. His monster form is a werewolf. In the Season II epilogue bonus comics, he gets a job at San's inn after graduation. In the Japanese anime and drama CD, Gin is voiced by Tomokazu Seki. He is voiced by Ian Sinclair in the English dub.
Fangfang Huang (黄 芳芳, Won Fanfan) is an effeminate-looking first-year student and the son of a Chinese mafia leader whose family controls many of the country's dangerous monsters. In an interview at Lucca Comics 2012, Ikeda said that he introduced Fangfang to increase the number of male characters and to attract a more female audience. He created a male counterpart that looks feminine to increase the comic element. As a yasha, Fangfang is adept at sorcery and can summon a monster, although what he summons is random, and often a harmless giant panda. After hearing that Tsukune single-handedly defeated a human yakuza group and Fairy Tale's 7th Branch Office (the latter was actually done by Gin and Haiji), he actively tries to recruit Tsukune to join his family. When he witnesses Moka's fighting ability, he assumes that she is Tsukune's number-one wife, and wishes to recruit her as well. He later realizes that his own talent is not in summoning, but in martial arts.
Yokai Academy (陽海学園, Yōkai Gakuen) is a private boarding school with the purpose of teaching monsters how to coexist with humans. Its ground rules state that all monster students must appear as humans, but that any real humans on the premises are to be put to death. Tsukune and his Newspaper Club friends thus face a variety of student antagonists and groups, as well as teachers.
The series follows a monster-of-the-week format in introducing the student antagonists. Other student characters are also introduced in the anime series.
In developing some of the teacher characters for the series, Ikeda said that he has great respect for real-life teachers, so he designed the monster ones to contrast that and be more comical. Several teachers serve as antagonists to Tsukune and the Newspaper Club girls.
The Protection Committee (公安委員会, Kōan'iinkai, Anime: Security Committee) enforces the school rules, but has grown corrupt. Their bullying has resulted in many clubs being shut down, including reducing the Newspaper Club members to Ginei Morioka. Notable members include:
Lady Oyakata (お館様, Oyakata-sama) is a century-old witch who lives in the human world. She serves as Ruby's guardian and the main antagonist in the story involving the Witch's Knoll. She bears a great contempt for humans because they expanded into her territory. When land developers announce plans to turn her field into a garbage dump, she raises monster plants to attack tourists and then sets her army of plants to destroy the city. Like Ruby, her magic revolves around ravens and flora, the latter of which she can extend vines from her fingers to use as a weapon. She can also permanently merge with living creatures and acquire their powers. She is defeated when her magic object spellbook is destroyed, and as she dies she experiences a delusion where she is forgiven and rejoined by Ruby; in the anime, she is already dead but causes Ruby to have a delusion where she is receiving orders from her. Oyakata is voiced by Toshiko Maeda in the Japanese anime.
The Anti-Schoolers (反学派, Han gakuha) serve as the primary antagonists in the second half of the first manga serialization. Some of its members are revealed to be "monstrels": half-breeds that take no definitive, physical form of anything classified as a supernatural creature (such as vampires and werewolves). They have an extreme hatred of pure-blooded yōkai, whom they claim look down on half-breeds and force them into subservience. Their abilities include transforming parts of their body into weapons. They take winning fights very seriously: any member who loses, especially to a purebred, is executed. They despise Yokai Academy's goal of having monsters get along with humans, and want instead for the monsters to return to their base predatory natures. In volume 7 of the first manga series, they make threats to ruin the School Festival and assign blame to the Newspaper Club. It is later revealed that Hokuto Kaneshiro, the president of the School Committee, is secretly the leader of the Anti-Schoolers. The group does not appear in the anime adaptation, as the anime focuses more on the romantic comedy aspect of the series, although individual monstrel characters have made appearances as antagonists.
Fairy Tale (御伽の国（フェアリー・テイル）, Fearī Teiru) is an organization dedicated to throwing harmony into chaos and ruling over the human world; the group appears in the second serialization of the manga series as the primary antagonists. Their base of operations is the Hanging Garden (空中庭園, Kūchū Teien), a large sky fortress above Japan which is hidden by a magical barrier similar to that of Yokai Academy. Members of Fairy Tale include former Anti-Schooler leaders Hokuto Kaneshiro and Kiriya Yoshi, as well as Protection Committee leader Kuyo.
When the Newspaper Club invades Fairy Tale's headquarters, they face a number of divisional leaders: Raika (雷禍), the leader of the 5th Branch, a thunder beast who uses lightning-based attacks, Ludie (露蝶, Rūtie), the deputy leader of the 4th Branch who is a sadistic girl in a polka-dot dress who carries a chainsaw, Xilong Miao (苗 西龍, Myao Shāron), the leader of the 4th Branch and also the leader of the Miao family; he and Fangfang were childhood friends until the Masked King murdered his father and forced Xilong and the Miao family to work for Fairy Tale.
Issa Shuzen (朱染 一茶, Shuzen Issa) is Moka's father and the patriarch of the Shuzen family, which is well-known and respected for its reputation of dealing with "problems" in the underworld. In the manga, he mainly appears in Moka's memories when he introduces his daughter Aqua. In later chapters, he appears as the 2nd Branch Leader of Fairy Tale, but it is actually a doppelganger who has assumed his likeness. In the epilogue chapter of Season II, it is revealed that he was imprisoned during the Fairy Tale and Alucard storylines and has been rebuilding his family. Originally hired through Fairy Tale to kill Tsukune, he reveals that he was actually hired by the Bus Driver to be Tsukune's trainer. In the anime, Issa assumes Akasha's roles of the being the third Dark Lord. He creates Moka's rosario and the one used for the school barrier, but acts as the final antagonist in the second season. In the Japanese anime, he is voiced by Katsuji Mori. In the English dub, he is voiced by J. Michael Tatum.
Alucard (アルカード, Arukādo) is introduced as one of the oldest and most powerful "First Ancestor" vampires who have attempted to wipe out humanity. He assumes the form of a giant creature with a bone-like exterior, having absorbed countless creatures into his body. Over 200 years ago, he is defeated by Akasha Bloodriver and the other Dark Lords. Akasha applies a blood seal that synchronizes his blood with her own, and he is placed in a room underneath the Shuzen manor. He is awakened momentarily when Moka activates her First Ancestor blood, and he tries to feed on Moka, but Akasha frees her from his grasp and fuses with him. His dormant body is then moved to Fairy Tale's main headquarters, where Gyokuro attempts to awaken him by capturing Moka and unsealing her rosario. In the final chapter, it is revealed that he is Dracula, the 15th century vampire king who tried to build a world where vampires and humans could coexist but was rejected by the humans, and so he reversed the letters of his name and left with a little girl (Akasha) to seek to rebuild his kingdom.
Over two centuries before the events in the series, the Three Dark Lords defeat and seal the vampire monster Alucard. In addition to Tenmei Mikogami, there are:
The characters of Rosario + Vampire have received criticism from publications dedicated to anime, manga, and other media. Theron Martin of Anime News Network describes Tsukune as a "cookie-cutter harem male lead, an unfailingly kind-hearted, indecisive wimp who primarily has a thing for Moka but still treasures the other girls as friends." Carlo Santos of Anime News Network, in reviewing the manga, noted Tsukune's character design as lazy: "shove in any other male protagonist from a harem series and nobody would notice too much". He found the girls "distinctive, if predictable (the beauty, the boobs, the jailbait)", but concluded in a later volume that "The story's never going to go anywhere, the characters are never going to go anywhere, and the artwork is always going to have that same polished-but-flawed look." Stig Høgset of THEM Anime Reviews found Moka to be ditzy and a "pink-haired dolt"; he criticized her lack of vampire weaknesses such as walking around in broad daylight at a beach, but found her alternate personality as "pretty damn badass", "a great addition to the show, if a severely underutilized one", and wished that her character was developed better. Deb Aoki of About.com called Moka a magical ditz who loves the doofus but also kicks butt. Neil Lumbard of DVD Talk noted that Kokoa is not another character that has a massive crush on the same guy; however, Høgset noted that her anime role was reduced to obnoxious comedy acts.
Carlo Santos, in reviewing the manga volumes, found the antagonist monster designs to interest him the most, and wished Ikeda would have focused the story on action-fantasy themed manga. He called antagonist Hokuto Kaneshiro a "dead ringer for Light Yagami from Death Note" and smarter than the usual monsters of the week, but the storyline he is placed in is predictable. Although he liked that Hokuto had a "shocking truth....that could have been a game-changer for the series", he was disappointed in Ikeda's resolution to the story: "Hokuto has an arbitrary, unconvincing change of heart, school life is reset to the way it was, and the villain walks off as if nothing happened." He found the canned phrases of the girls fighting in some of the comedy chapters to be entertaining, including Kyoko's gold mine of one-liners. Høgset found the bat to be really obnoxious with its spouting useless trivia, repeating what happens to Moka, and things that bring the story to a grinding halt or "make you want to bludgeon your brain out of your cranium with something made of metal." Serdar Yegulalp of About.com also agrees about the bat bringing the action to dead halt. He found the character introductions repetitive, and wished they would deviate from the harem formula and develop into lively, sympathetic ones like with Ouran High School Host Club.
The anime series, directed by Takayuki Inagaki who has worked on Desert Punk and Indian Summer, has an abundance of fanservice and panty shots that have been heavily criticized from reviewers in manga and anime, who have compared the show to panty-ridden series such as Najica Blitz Tactics and Agent Aika. Lumbard was disgusted by the fanservice of weird sexual imagery around Yukari, and lowered his overall opinion of the second anime series because of it. Høgset wrote that the series was like Shuffle! with more fanservice with "average 'all the girls dotes on the guy' stupidity". Deb Aoki found the fanservice in the manga to be a bit unwholesome and cheesy, but underneath were teen themes about friendship, loyalty, and courage. Reception on the characters' fanservice has been acknowledged by Ikeda. In the bonus comics at the end of Season II, Volume 6, Ikeda responds to a fan letter that criticizes that the Newspaper Club girls artwork in the manga is not as moe as in the anime by having them go over aspects of moe that has already incorporated such as cat ears, knee socks, large breasts, twin tails, long bangs, as well as what the girls would look like when drawn with large eyes, distinguishing accessories and speech inflections. When asked in an interview about the fewer panty shots compared to other shōnen manga; Ikeda replied that he favors showing less as it would be more erotic and intriguing.
Høgset compared Tsukune to the main male protagonist Riku Aoba from Tokimeki Memorial ~Only Love~, "right down to the nasally whiny voice". Martin noted the voice performances of the English dub to be very solid, with Alexis Tipton "exactly hitting the mark in the key role as the human-form Moka", Todd Haberkorn as "Funimation's go-to guy for wimpy male leads", Monica Rial as natural for Yukari, and Jerry Jewell as "great but nearly unrecognizable as the bat." He also liked the dubbing of the insert songs, "Other dubbing companies could learn something from them on this, as at least the actors used for the songs can actually sing".
In 2008, Moka was elected by UGO Networks as the fortieth "sexiest vampire" in their list of Top 50 Sexiest Vampires in entertainment history, with the staff commenting on her relation with Tsukune, and that she "turns into a fierce predator that kicks ass with abandon".
Rosario + Vampire characters have been made into figurines, key chains (including Moka's rosario), cellphone straps, and pin sets. One company has made playing cards of the characters. Funimation announced that it has licensed the merchandise rights for products in North America.
Character songs were developed to accompany the anime series and published by King Records in 2008. They include single albums by each of the Newspaper Club girls, and the girls combined, some of which have a lyrics credit to Yasushi Akimoto of AKB48 fame. Moka's first character single debuted at number 42 on the Oricon weekly chart, and remained for four weeks. Her character single for the second anime series reached number 40, and remained for three weeks. Drama CDs also accompany the series, and feature the voice actors from the anime series in additional stories.