What is the work?[]
Talentless Nana is a science fiction psychological manga series that was adapted into a 13-episode anime series back in 2020. Set in the post-apocalyptic future, there are a group of people known as the Talented who are equipped with superhuman abilities. They are sent to an island to learn how to better protect people against the "Enemies of Humanity," but while they are on the island, there are a series of murders going on under their noses.
Who is he?[]
Tsuruoka, a high-ranking member of the government, and Nana's superior and, to an extent, parental figure. While on the outside he makes it seem he's fighting a worthy goal, he is actually a genocidal man and a manipulative bastard.
What has he done?[]
When the Council learned of the opposing organization that Mishima Koharu's parents had formed which threatened to expose their secrets, Tsuruoka arranges for the deaths of Nana's parents, deciding to make it especially spiteful by cutting her father's head off. When a young Nana finds her parents the next day, she becomes traumatized. Pitching the blame on imaginary Talented burglars, Tsuruoka then takes the child under his wing and places her in a child soldiers program that he himself established. After sending the Talented to the isolated island to be slaughtered, Tsuruoka humors the idea of having an assassin disguise themselves as a student and then sit back to watch them turn on their classmates and kill them. It is because of Tsuruoka's manipulations that Nana grew to despise the Talented as a result of his indoctrination.
He appears in the story proper when, during a meeting with his boss about integrating the Talented into the mainland of the city not caring that this could cause an insurrection between the Talented students and the civilians. When he learns about Michiru, a girl who is able to heal injuries at the cost of drawing it off her lifespan, he tells Nana that her body temperature was still stable inferring that she was internally healing herself. He promises her that her friend would get treated as long as it meant Nana was loyal to their cause, but once she left, he shoots the body bag containing Michiru's body twice in the head.
After taking down Mishima Koharu, Nana is forced to kill her in order to extract information from Tsuruoka. He reveals his involvement in the deaths of her parents and is uncaring if Nana tried to kill herself out of remorse. He later discovers the unconscious body of Nanao drifting in the sea and sees potential in him as a pawn. He reintroduces his father to Nanao which led to Nanao accidentally deactivating his father's vital signs as a cost of his Talent.
From there, he brainwashes Nanao into believing himself to be an "Enemy of Humanity," and takes the "grandmother" of Moe Makabe hostage and starts to train Moe to become an assassin. By the time that Moe returned home, she saw that her grandmother was dead after Tsuruoka says that she'd likely not make it in time to see her.
Mitigating factors/Freudian Excuse[]
He doesn't have any redeeming traits so far: he makes it seem like he cares for Nana, but it's apparent that he views her as a pawn to use for his other purposes and is willing to kill her without a second thought of her uses ran out, or if she betrayed him. With the "grandmother" he had employed to raise Moe, he does briefly mention knowing her back when he was younger, and says that he'd rather her die still thinking he was the same as he always was. However, the problem is that he obviously holds her as a hostage and uses her as a bargaining chip to have Moe continually do what he ordered.
He is also a hypocrite: he states that the Talented are Enemies of Humanity, but he was looking to employ Jin Tachibana into his ranks, and later uses Nanao as a brainwashed pawn.
Heinous standard[]
It's a dark manga: at most, Nana kills six of her classmates, plus a few attempted murders. Yuuka set a movie theater on fire so she could kill Shinji and bring him back as a zombie. The government stages the subtle genocide of Talented individuals. With Tsurouka, he created a government program where he indoctrinates children into becoming killing machines with little shame; with Nana, for instance, he wasn't even thinking she'd get that further in her plan before she got exposed and killed. He is also completely willing to compromise the lives of innocent civilians if it meant electing his superior to the position of prime minister.