(Voted 15th-most-popular-character on the jpn server in a combination of seven different character-ranking surveys held throughout 2021)
Rook refers to himself as "le Chasseur d'amour" (the hunter of love). He enjoys both archery and bow hunting (he has multiple bows and arrows on display in his dorm room) and makes a comment to Ruggie about using his tail as a scarf. He has said he often “chased” animals in his home country of Sunset Savannah, occasionally refers to other students as “prey” and explains to Malleus that “hunting is what I do best”, so it seems he is very much a literal hunter.
In his Beansfest vignette, Rook assures Trey that, “A true enemy will never loom over you, a menacing glower in his eye. It is he who hovers in your periphery with a smile that you must be wary of.”
Rook assigns nicknames to his fellow students, always referring to house wardens as “king”. Floyd’s name for Rook is “seagull”, while he is often referred to as “weird” by others, and even members of staff have been seen looking uncomfortable around him. Rook acknowledges his own talkative nature and will praise and discuss others for long conversations, but only very rarely shares information about himself. According to Epel, “the more you know about him the more mysterious he becomes”.
Rook spends the entirety of his labwear vignette audibly longing to hunt Leona, saying, “If those sharp fangs of his pierced my windpipe, I’d be done for in an instant. The very notion makes my heart quiver. I could watch Leona all day and never tire of it. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get my hunter’s blood boiling every time I look at him. I so ache to corner that calm, collected quarry just enough to make him bare his fangs. Oh, to find myself in the position to make him squirm!”
In his PE vignette he asks a few students to play a game of tag—with himself as the chaser—and all refuse.
Rook will occasionally excuse himself to perform “fieldwork”, which Vil refers to as “meddling in the affairs of people from other dorms”.
In the game guide we learn that "He is secretly very well-muscled. He almost never takes off his gloves for everyday tasks (in order to not leave any fingerprints behind). His neck and arms are thicker than Vil’s. When weighing himself it was discovered that he is actually heavier than Trey, and he feigned surprise."
While we do not know whether the gallery of pictures partially hidden by the wallpaper in his dorm room are photos of Neige, the blanket over his bed has most certainly been inspired by the Snow White (and thus, Neige) motif.
Ortho has evaluated Rook’s heart rate, pulse and other vital signs more than once in order to gauge Rook’s level of surprise or honesty, but results always return normal, no matter the situation.
Rook has extraordinarily good eyesight—to the point that he says he has no use for binoculars—and he comments that Vil has “put on weight in the past three days” after noticing imperceivable changes to Vil’s jawline (Vil comments that “Rook reads me more accurately than any scale. Possibly even more accurately than a mirror”).
He is also capable of reading the title of a book held by Epel as he walks through the courtyard, while Rook himself watched from inside the school.
His eyesight is aided by the hat he wears “out of respect for the hunter who served the beautiful queen”, which also cuts down on glare from the sun. He is also adept at tracking the passage of time, able to guess the current time of day within ten minutes.
A very private person, at Rook’s birthday party he is asked the usual question of “is there a memory from any of your past birthdays back home that you would like to share?”, and outright refuses to answer, explaining that “secrets are sweetest when left secret”. When asked about his love for bows, he launches into a poem about their beauty.
Despite how little is known about him by absolutely anyone, he was still selected to represent his dorm at the Spelldrive tournament and as Vice Housewarden.
He follows up with Epel kindly when Epel struggles with Vil’s expectations and rules, but can be similarly strict.
Despite being a member of the Science Club, he takes over for Vil as head of the Film Studies Club when Vil is unavailable. This may be why Lilia tends to refer to him as “Chief of Staff”. We learn in a vignette that he only joined the science club to begin with in order to learn how to make smokes and dyes to support Vil’s filmography projects. For Vil’s birthday, Rook wrote him 100 poems.
According to Trey, “Rook tends to blurt out everything that crosses his mind, positive or negative”.
During an event, Rook tells a story to Trey about surviving on his own for over a month in a jungle at the age of six, where he crafted a knife out of a rock, a shield out of a piece of tree and rope out of grass. He disguised his scent with mud, dug a hole to hide in and camouflaged himself with leaves.
He became trapped in a bottomless swamp for three days, only managing to escape by grabbing onto a warthog that dragged him to safety. Bitten by a poisonous insect, feverish and close to losing consciousness, he trailed after a ghost that led him to the edge of a river where he was found by a search-and-rescue team and reunited with his mother. When Trey asks if he is lying, Rook asks if Trey has a problem with his “nerves of steel” and Trey backs down.
“Beauté, 100 points!”, the phrase that Rook used to compliment every single participant in the VDC auditions, became very popular with twst fans and it can now be found in use by “positive affirmation” Twitter bots, in pixiv tags, the official Twisted Wonderland LINE stamp set and more.
Some great artists for Rook fan-art and more (SFW, no story spoilers)
Rook the archer
Voice
Rook is voiced by Itokawa Youjirou (糸川 耀士郎) . Rook is his first voice acting role. He is a musical theater performer, and his recent appearances include Yotsusuji Kannabi in Hypnosis Mic Division Rap Battle, Suwa in rock musical MARS RED, Kanbe Daisuke in The Millionaire Detective Balance:UNLIMITED The STAGE, Sawamura Eijun in Daiya no A the Musical, Yoshizawa Akira in Escape, Don't Escape and Amami Annojou in Amaku wa Naize!3
Rook’s seiyuu was a guest on episodes 5 and 6 of “Good Boy!”, the Twisted Wonderland-based show hosted on the Disney Games official YouTube Channel.
The 6th episode is particularly entertaining, where he tries to guess the English translation of the nicknames of other characters on ENG-server. The full episode can be viewed below.
More seiyu information available here.
Aiba Hiroki (相葉 裕樹) Birthday: October 1st, 1987
Vil's voice actor Aiba was a part of a street-dance unit from 2003 to 2004, a daytime soap o
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