List of Sonnawood characters

This article is a list of characters who appear in the 1992 anime Inner Creatures and its associated iterations.

Protagonists

 *  Itsuki/Forrester - One of the two main protagonists. Unlike his younger step-brother Benjiro, he is not too eager or satisfied with life in the magic forest; in fact, beginning in the second season, he begins to fear the loss of his humanity as a red fox the more he stays in Sonawood. He has a tendency to be sarcastic, brutally honest and a bit selfish, with his resistance to change and initial intolerance of different things combined with magic that could create trouble at times, but despite his personality, he still cares about his friends and family the remainder of the time (because he still acknowledges how nice they are to him) and is cautious whenever situations come to call; he even forgives his mother for leaving him after reuniting with her. Another facet of his personality is that, in specific circumstances, he can have fun and revel in his friends’ good humour, but the conditions of his life up to discovering the magic forest haven’t really allowed him to fully accept it.  As it turns out, he was a far more cheerful and energetic child until his mother vanished when her ex-husband began abusing her, leaving Itsuki in the care of his abusive father, and later, his even more abusive step-mother. As a result, Itsuki became very jaded and disillusioned with the world around him. Nearing the end of the final season, he began to accept his form and feel more happy and comfortable in the forest.
 *  Benjiro/Oliver - The other of the two main protagonists. For the most part, he is laid-back, kind, enthusiastic and curious but intelligent. That said, after numerous mishaps and when he falls in love with Ena, he takes it upon himself to try and become a very responsible ocelot, taking danger a lot more seriously and developing concern for his girlfriend and best friend’s safety. He enjoys life in the forest... going so far as to embrace living as an anthropomorphic ocelot to the point of occasionally impulsive and silly habits. Not to mention that he isn’t nearly as sensible as Itsuki and can be unintentionally insensitive (but well-meaning) to him at times.
 *  Nozomi/Wisteria  - The biological mother of Itsuki and ex-wife of Zenaku. Nozomi originally left Sonawood 4 years before meeting Zenaku to explore more of the human world, but returned 5 years after Itsuki's birth when Zenaku became abusive, leaving Itsuki a book she made of Sonawood, hoping that he would one day leave to find the woods. Given that one’s animal form is an extension of their personality, she is a gray wolf while her son is a fox. She is significant to the plot since it was her disappearance and the book and map she created as a gift to Itsuki that led to his and Benjiro’s discovery of the magic woodlands. Given her experience with the location, her appearances in the story place her into the role of a mentor of sorts, helping Itsuki and others understand the ins and outs of the mystical forest but, more importantly, also each other.  As such, she’s wise with a primarily kind and caring disposition and her mentoring approach employs encouragement rather than trying to push one right way of thinking onto others, opting to acknowledge individual needs, desires and behaviours instead.  Sometimes, though, she has to drop her nice side when it’s absolutely necessary, particularly fighting to protect Itsuki and Benjiro from her ex-husband and his wife. But as Itsuki discovers during a particularly embarrassing situation, she’s got an appreciation for fun and humour too.

Supporting characters

 *  Chiaki/Vivian  - Another red fox, the younger sister of Yuu and the girlfriend of Itsuki. She is very outgoing, sweet-natured and romantic, so much so that she seems to be the more affectionate one in her relationship. She starts off quite eager, naïve, childish, irresponsible and prone to dispute but learns from her mistakes and seeks not to repeat them. She even comes off as accidentally inconsiderate to Itsuki at times, particularly quite early on when he’s too scared to admit his feelings for her, but she still loves him and never wants anything bad to happen to him (and vice versa). While working as a seamstress for a living, she is eagerly fixated on getting good at brewing magical concoctions like her older brother and his wife. The fact that she’s a novice and things don’t always work out tends t o annoy her, though.
 *  Ena/Lucy  - A young lynx and novice botanist/performance artist. She is very reserved, polite, soft-spoken and hard-working to a fault since she takes her studies seriously above all else. Although she does return Benjiro’s feelings, she initially doesn’t care for his more laid-back and carefree nature, trying to encourage him to be a more responsible feline. But as Benjiro soon finds, she doesn’t totally hate anything fun. Just that she prefers not to waste an excess of time she feels should be spent studying. They later become an official couple at the end of the series when Benjiro shares a kiss with her.
 *  Noburu/Baldwin  - A bear cub who lives with his mother. He is somewhat brash, impulsive, confident in his strength/abilities, egotistical and self-conscious (regularly fearing that others will tease him for how much maternal love he gets) but still affable and fun-loving. Since he and his mother were poor until they entered the forest, he has considerable pride in his chubby figure since it’s a reminder of how well he and other woodland residents are fed. His bravado and occasional greed seem to also act as a “mask” of sorts to hide that he likes to receive maternal affection, not to mention his overconfidence shows that he thinks he should live up to the image of bears as “scary” and “powerful” creatures.
 *  Reiji/Waylen  - An arctic wolf who becomes one of Itsuki’s pals. Despite what his big and seemingly intimidating appearance may lead one to think, he is a kind-hearted fellow but not above doing whatever it takes to do what he feels is right. In contrast to his best friend Raiden, he acts as the no-nonsense voice of reason among Itsuki and the others and has a tendency to react with annoyance to others’ shenanigans or magical effects.  But the most important thing about him is that he has vowed to protect the woodlands, also partly because leaving the area for any reason proves to be physically destructive to him. He prefers not to return to living as a human anyway since he was badly mistreated.
 *  Raiden/Caleb  - A cougar who is Reiji's best friend. Whereas his pal tries to be reasonable and take things seriously, he prefers to just “go with the flow”. Not just that, but he also possesses a playful mean streak such that he isn’t above some rough-and-tumble with the others but finds it embarrassing when he is the butt of a joke. The rest of the time, especially after he’s had enough fun for one day, he’ll find a spot to take a nap or simply laze around in general. But beyond all that, he’s still a friendly guy all the same.
 *  Shun/Roddy  - A raccoon who is the forest's resident prankster. He is somewhat narcissistic and takes considerable delight in being a nuisance to Itsuki, Benjiro and the others, but ultimately not cruel or evil. In fact, he would never pull pranks that could seriously hurt or threaten one's life. Plus, it's shown that he doesn't deserve excessive punishment for his misdeeds for the reason given. It turns out he too was a loner and his tendency to pull pranks is mostly a desire for fun and a way to get attention without grasping that the other person should enjoy it as well.
 *  Kimmi/Olga  - A friendly, happy-go-lucky and energetic female otter who hates seeing others down and always tries to cheer things up. She can also be impatient towards anything “boring” at times because of this, though.
 *  Koge/Darby  - A doe whose less excitable disposition almost gives Ena a run for her money. Specifically, she is very shy and not fully comfortable in social situations but polite towards whoever she is speaking to and kind to anyone she cares about all the same. On a better note, one of her biggest pastimes and passions is creating art because she finds it to be a workable means of stress relief, even offering Itsuki plenty of tips.
 *  Yuu/Felix  - Vivian’s older brother who operates a potion shop with his wife Diana. He is very gentle, optimistic and laid-back most of the time with plenty of good humor and a joking streak, such that he is not above a good tease once in a while (especially to his possible future brother-in-law Itsuki). Yet between him and his equally clownish wife, he is easily the more knowledgeable and sensible of the two. He also tends to be very childlike as well as somewhat naïve and a bit too friendly for his own good (such as when he offers to let Zenaku and Kurohime to crash by his & Ryoko's place during the conflict with Nozomi) but it’s his willingness to live a happy and fun-filled life that he shares with others and overall adorably entertaining charm that makes up for it.
 *  Ryoko/Diana  - A dragoness who is the wife of Yuu and co-owner of the woodland’s potion shop. She is very affable and eccentric, not to mention clownish and very scatterbrained, topped off with a happy-go-lucky approach to things, a tendency to forget quite a bit and act on her impulses. But sometimes, there are occasions when she may seem foolish and confusing but may in fact know a perfect solution or means to contribute to resolving a crisis at hand, leaving her true nature open to speculation.
 *  Hana/Bibi  - A bear who is the single mother of Noburu and best friend of Nozomi, who helps her look after woodlanders’ children when the latter has the time. She is very kind and doting but can take her role as woodland mother figure a bit too seriously, often to the point where she’s deeply worried about where her son goes off to (unless it’s with Nozomi or Benjiro, since she trusts them both), insisting that she come with if need be. Her attitude can also be explained in that she and Noburu grew up poor and underfed before finding the woodlands. By a similar token, she too is quite happy with her zaftig ursine figure.  As for her relationship with Nozomi… while they both do clearly see each other as good pals, they have nothing whatsoever against some good teasing every now and then.

Antagonists

 *  Zenaku/Julian  - The biological father of Itsuki, step-father of Benjiro and ex-husband of Nozomi. Unlike his wise and kind-hearted ex-wife, his approach to fatherhood can be best described as apathetic and irresponsible. When Nozomi vanished during Itsuki’s early childhood years, Zenaku trusted in others to look after his son without a second thought, thus paying little attention to the effects of abuse Itsuki had received and instead chalking them up to “growing pains”, “moodiness” and so on without even trying to understand him.  He gets worse after he has married Kurohime, preferring to placate his second wife’s toxic attitude rather than stand up to her and nurture their children… and even becoming a lot more needlessly strict and verbally/emotionally aggressive when it comes to “discipline” (under her influence).  Upon discovering the magic forest with his wife near the climax, he turns into a jaguar, but is later banished from the community alongside Kurohime as punished for their actions.
 *  Kurohime/Sally  - The second wife of Zenaku, biological mother of Benjiro and step-mother of Itsuki. Kurohime being a clueless parent who allows himself to be badly influenced, she’s even worse than Zenaku. For one thing, she’s a self-centered and short-tempered perfectionist more concerned with order and cleanliness in her house above the needs of her offspring and especially her stepson Itsuki.  Ironically, she dreads actually doing housework, opting instead to make her kids do all the chores, especially as punishment for any perceived wrongdoings of theirs.  On top of that, she also isn’t above using her ill manners and manipulation to twist her son and stepson’s mentalities in order to guilt-trip them when things don’t go her way. When it seems that the house of cards inevitably falls later on, she practically goes into a mental breakdown because she doesn’t expect Wisteria to be unaffected by her psychological tactics.  When she finds the magic forest along with her husband, she turns into a copperhead snake.