Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) is on the horizon and if it’s anything like its big brother Genshin, fans are looking forward to meeting its strange and seductive cast characters, starting with the first faction players have been introduced to, Gentle House aka The Cunning Hares.

The first trailer for ZZZ ‘Welcome to New Eridu’ gave us our first look at the titular metropolis and the different factions battling their way through the elusive hollows and the monster within them. The cunning hares are but one of these factions.

Gentle House or The Cunning Hares is a “small-scale human resource dispatch agency” that specializes in commissions related to dealing with hollows. They’re also referred to as an “odd-job” anything-goes agency. I suppose they mostly focus on cleaning up the monsters of the city but you could probably hire them to clean up your toilets as well. The trailer shows four members of the group but so far however only three have actually been named and given voice actors.

Anby Demara

The white-haired combatant of Gentle House who is currently heading up the Zenless Zone Zero profile pictures on Twitter and Youtube. That way you know she’s going to be important.

“A young girl whose age and past are a mystery. Accidentally taken in by Nicole and joined the Cunning Hares, she gradually became a strong, and most trusted companion.”

Anby is a calm and collected girl whose rule for survival is 100 percent concentration while in a hollow. Not a bad idea if you’re fighting for your life in a pocket dimension. She’s also noted to be incredibly competent in battle as if she’s had years of training but is lacking in common sense.

Chances are more of her mysterious backstory will be revealed in one of the earlier arcs of the game. I’m not gonna lie she does seem like a pretty stock Kuudere Rei Ayanami-type character but we haven’t actually met her yet since the game hasn’t come out. There may be far more to Anby than we initially see.

• Japanese: Atsumi Tanezaki
• Chinese: Yan Ning

Nicole Demara

“Nicole is the founder of the New Eridu Odd-Job Agency the Cunning Hares. Nicole’s crafty behavior has earned her a reputation among her peers as “Even more cunning than a hare”.”

Nicole is the founder and leader of the Cunning Hares. A name that sums her up very well. She’s noted as being incredibly street smart, knowing New Eridu like the back of her head.

Unfortunately, she also has a love of money but has trouble keeping it in her pockets and the hares are on the constant verge of bankruptcy as a result. This is likely why their advertising emphasizes they’ll do any job, but for the right fee. It doesn’t help that she’s apparently been backlisted from many clientele due to her gung-ho “all or nothing approach” to missions.

From the trailer, Nicole’s primary weapon seems to be a briefcase that launches rockets which looks fun as hell and does a good job of conveying her as both a businesswoman and also rather unhinged in her methods.

• Japanese: Serizawa Yu
• Chinese: Chen Tingting

Billy Kid

“The Starlight Knights never lose!”. He may look unreliable, but once he gets serious, Billy can take on any challenge…”

Billy Kid is a cyborg with a carefree attitude. He’s reliable in battle although he always takes the time to strike a daring pose. He also refers to his custom revolvers as “The Girls”.

A lot of this comes from the fact that he’s a huge fan of a show called “Starlight Knights”. He even refers to himself as one and repeats many of their classic lines.

Billy’s obviously modeled after popular tokusatsu shows like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai so it’s pretty cool that he’s a fan of them. Overall he seems like a fun Dante-esque gunslinger that doesn’t take himself too seriously, I can get behind that.

• Japanese: Hayashi Yū
• Chinese: Chen Runqiu

The Cat Girl

The fourth member of The Cunning Hairs is a cat girl with feline ears and two tails like a Japanese nekomata yokai.

Since she hasn’t been formally introduced we know little about her beyond what is shown of her in the initial trailer. She is shown to be fighting with a blade resembling a ninjato implying she’ll be a rouge or assassin-style character. She also says nya a lot, because cat.

Gentle House – The Cunning Hares

We still don’t know a lot about Zenless Zone Zero but The Cunning Hares of Gentle House give us some ideas of what to expect. Different factions of supernatural individuals are hired to solve the anomaly of The Hollows.

With the huge following that Genshin Impact has amassed with its lovable cast of characters, it’s clear ZZZ aims to do the same just replacing the fantasy aesthetic with or more urban sci-fi get-up. But hey, if that means a game where everyone looks like they stepped straight out of The World Ends With You, I’m ok with that.

Let’s see just how cunning these mad march hares will be when ZZZ fully launches.

Source: Zenless Zone Zero Official Website, Images from the Zenless Zone Zero Twitter Account.