Kaneda

Kaneda could be considered the main character but then again you may consider Tetsuo the main character. Anyway, Kaneda is really cool. For a good portion of the movie he's just going through his come on lines to Kay. He seems to be a cool kind of guy. Also he makes a good leader for his gang.

Akira

Akira is the most powerful of all of the test subjects. After he blew up Tokyo, he was dismembered by the government. They ran every kind of crazy test on him that they could think of and then froze his remains at .0005 degrees kelvin.

Kei

Kay is another interesting character. Almost every time you see her she's doing some kind of terrorist act with Roy and all of their friends. You get the feeling that she begins to like Kaneda at the end of the movie

Tetsuo

Tetsuo is probably Kaneda's best friend. Kaneda just doesn't actually reallize how much he liked Tetsuo until the end of the movie when Tetsuo died. Tetsuo is such a great character. You can easily see him change throughout the movie. From gealous of Kaneda, to really really angry and insane, to sorry for what he did.

Takashi

Takashi is test subject number 26. He appears old and shriveled due to all of the drugs that the government gives him to suppress and control his powers.