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[[caption-width-right:350:The main cast.[[note]]Left to right: [[SenseiChan Yukari]], [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Minamo]], [[StraightMan Yomi]], [[ShrinkingViolet Sakaki]], [[GenkiGirl Tomo]] (at the top), [[ChildProdigy Chiyo]] (riding [[BigFriendlyDog Tadakichi-san]]), [[SingleTargetSexuality Kaorin]], [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Osaka]], [[PassionateSportsGirl Kagura]]. (Not pictured: [[DirtyOldMan Kimura]], [[MegaNeko Chiyo-chichi]], [[CatsAreMean Kamineko]] and [[CuteKitten Mayaa]].)[[/note]]]]

A character sheet for the comedic slice-of-life anime and manga series, ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh''.

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[[foldercontrol]]

!!The Girls

[[folder:Chiyo Mihama]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/AyakaSaitou (JP web short), Creator/TomokoKaneda (JP series), Creator/JessicaBoone (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chiyo_b.png]]
The youngest and cutest of the girls, Chiyo is a ChildProdigy whose intelligence allowed her to transfer into high school at ten years old. While [[BookSmart she excels in her studies and consistently scores high grades]], she fares poorly at sports, and a lot of teenage issues fly right over her head. To her friends' amazement, she comes from a wealthy family, yet isn't spoiled because of it. Her classmates think she turned out to be a perfect child due to her kindness and maturity for her age, but she's insecure about being coddled because of it.
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* AdorablyPrecociousChild: Her classmates are often surprised by her maturity, despite her young age, and have even made her their class representative. This intelligence and level-headedness is brought up early in the series as a contributing factor to people's perception of her as cute.
* AthleticallyChallenged: While implied to be partly due to her age and small size, she isn't the best athlete. She comes dead last in footraces, and she can only swim ten meters on her own. The only person who does worse than her is Osaka.
* AuntiePennybags: Her family is rich enough to own a BigFancyHouse and a summer home. Yet, Chiyo never brags about it and only uses her resources to have a good time with her friends.
* BigFancyHouse: She lives in one. It's SimpleYetOpulent, but still big enough that she has two rooms to herself (a study and a bedroom). When the girls first come over to visit, they're immediately caught off-guard by the size of the front yard alone, with Tomo wondering if they should've brought a melon[[note]]the Japanese equivalent of gifting someone a wine bottle[[/note]]. The Extra Lessons reveal that Chiyo even has a private home theater.
* BookSmart: She gets top scores on almost all of her tests, much to the envy of her classmates.
* BrokenAce: She's initially set up as pretty much perfect: she has the highest grades in her class, she's adorably precocious, Yomi explicitly notes she's "good at everything", and she comes from a wealthy family to boot. As time goes on, it becomes clear that she has her own insecurities, like how [[JustAKid her young age and short height make few people take her seriously]] despite all her talents. The anime in particular elaborates on this; one Chiyo-centric episode has her linger on a conversation with her grade school friends, implying that she longs for a "normal" childhood.
* ButtMonkey: Chiyo may have a lot of things going for her, like her high intelligence and wealthy background, but that doesn't save her from being the butt of jokes. She frequently gets picked on by Tomo and Yukari, struggles to keep up with her peers in sports, and repeatedly gets into various comedic mishaps as a result of her young age and small size.
* CheerfulChild: A more three-dimensional example. She's the youngest member of the cast, at just ten at the start of the series, and is frequently the most optimistic and upbeat member as well. She isn't universally cheerful, having frequent moments of doubt, fear, or introspection, but her surprisingly mature sense of optimism is one of her defining traits through the entire series.
* ChildProdigy: She did well enough academically that she skipped straight to the first year of high school at only 10 years old, and consistently scores the highest grades at the school. She even tutors some of her classmates, like Chihiro. Guess who ends up being valedictorian?
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Plays this role for Osaka from time to time, usually in small, subtle ways (e.g. holding Osaka's shirt for fear that she may actually try to fly off of a roof).
* TheCutie:
** Chiyo's character [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1m2_3bCUCk in a nutshell.]] In the very first episode, and for much of the series, everyone fawns over her and gushes about how cute and adorable she is. This is especially the case for Sakaki, who often suffers from CutenessOverload any time she's near her.
** She demonstrated her difficulty in performing [[TongueTwister tongue twisters]], but according to Yomi, it only adds to her cuteness.
** Her teachers can't resist her either. One of them has all his students who failed to turn in their homework line up at the front of the class to give each of them a whack with his teacher's manual. When he gets to Chiyo, she was so [[TokenMiniMoe vulnerably adorable]] that he hesitates before finally giving her a soft tap on the head.
** Add a Penguin Suit, and the adorable factor flies off the scale: during their annual Culture Fest, it caused students from all over the school to swamp their Kitty Café with customers!
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference:
** In the manga, her pigtails start off looking like realistic hair but gradually become more like solid almond shapes through ArtEvolution. Her anime design uses her later hairstyle in the manga from the beginning. Interestingly, the tenth-anniversary redraws maintain Chiyo's original pigtail design in most of the early chapters of the manga, implying that she simply changed her hairstyle down the road.
** More subtly, Chiyo was originally depicted in full-color illustrations with blue eyes (translated to light gray screentoning during close-ups in the black-and-white comic), with this being changed to a more typical brown color around midway through the comic's run. Like her pigtails, the anime uses the later brown coloration throughout its entire run; ''un''like her pigtails, this design difference is ''not'' retained in the redraws, which keep her eyes brown.
* EveryonesBabySister: Because of her young age and relative immaturity compared to her classmates, everyone is protective of Chiyo, especially the main cast. Sakaki in particular has a BigSisterInstinct and will immediately put herself in between anything that threatens Chiyo, and even [[TheGadfly Tomo]] knows when to back off around her.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: A very subtle one. In the third year, Chiyo starts wearing her pigtails lower, indicating ever-so-slightly how she's matured over the years.
* ExpressiveHair: Her pigtails occasionally flap up and down when she gets emotional, such as when a thunderclap scares the living daylights out of her, when she tries to reassure Osaka that everyone will still be classmates in their next year of school, or when Yukari gets offended by her claim that Osaka would make a great teacher. Osaka's first New Year's dream takes this trope literally, depicting Chiyo's pigtails as sentient.
* FearOfThunder: She's scared of lightning.
* {{Foil}}: To Sakaki. Both are among the more intelligent and mature members of the cast, but they're defined more by their differences than their similarities. Chiyo is short, level-headed and approachable; Sakaki is tall, spacey and intimidating. While Chiyo wants to be taller so people will take her more seriously, Sakaki wants to be shorter so people will be less afraid of her.
* FormalCharactersUseKeigo: Her speech patterns in Japanese are generally much more polite than the other characters'. This highlights both her [[{{Ojou}} wealthy upbringing]] and her [[AdorablyPrecociousChild precocious nature]].
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The Eclectic. While cheerful and outgoing, she's also very studious and hard-working, and yet she remains the most emotionally fragile in her group, being JustAKid after all.
* GirlishPigtails: She wears her hair this way, signifying how she's the youngest and most innocent of the cast despite her high intelligence. However, they look more like two footballs attached to her head than anything else (in the manga, her pigtails start out looking like actual hair before they [[ArtEvolution gradually become]] more like solid shapes). Osaka sometimes wonders if they're detachable, or even alive...
* GoodWithNumbers: In the 2009 print, the interviewer for her summer job at Magnetron Burger asks her the price of a complicated order to test her high school education. To the shock of the interviewer, Chiyo gets the correct price right off the bat, and even suggests modifying the order to save more money. She's hired on the spot.
* GoofySuit: Chiyo's asked to wear a penguin mascot costume for the second year's cultural festival, to match the theme of their exhibit (a stuffed animal café). The suit severely limits her mobility, but she's happy to wear it, and everyone around her finds it a major source of CutenessProximity.
* GradeSkipper: Despite being only 10 years old, she was smart enough to skip several grades and go straight to high school. The series ends up [[DeconstructiveParody comedically deconstructing]] this, showing how poorly suited a ten-year-old would be for a high school environment even if they do have prodigious intelligence; Chiyo gets excellent grades and graduates with her classmates as the valedictorian of her year, but she struggles to keep up with everyone else during gym class and the sports festival due to being younger and smaller, and anything to do with romance or sex [[InnocentProdigy flies right over her head]].
* HeightAngst: She doesn't like being small because no one at her high school can take her seriously that way. According to her, she was ''already'' small for her age, which can be clearly seen when she's around her similarly-aged friends Miru and Yuka. The 2009 print of the manga even redesigns Chiyo to look more like the title character of Kiyohiko Azuma's later series ''Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'', a preschooler who's ''half'' Chiyo's age.
* HeroicBSOD: PlayedForLaughs; she has one whenever she gets reminded of the time she rode in the car with Yukari driving.
* ImageSong: "Sekai wa Neohappy (The World is Neohappy)" and "Sarabai! Happy Hen (Goodbye! Happy Hen)" are her solo songs. Chiyo's also the main focus of "Let's Make It!", which features Tomo, Yomi, and Osaka as well. She's also featured on Osaka's "Fall in Confetti" and Sakaki's "Mahou Neko ni Aeru Hi wa (The Day I Meet the Magic Cat").
* ImplausibleHairColor: She is a red-haired Japanese girl in a series where every other Japanese character has black or brown hair. It is entirely possible for a Japanese person to have natural red hair, but it's very uncommon, and no attention is drawn to it in-universe (at least, no more than her ImprobableAge).
* ImprobableAge: She [[GradeSkipper skips to her first year of high school]] at only 10 years old, and graduates from high school when she's 13.
* InnocentProdigy: She might be very intelligent academically, but she's still prepubescent, so she's very inexperienced with teenage issues like romance and sexuality -- when Nyamo drunkenly tells the girls everything she knows about sex, every single word goes over Chiyo's head, to the point where she asks Nyamo to clarify it the next morning (much to the shock of the latter, who blacked out that night).
* JustAKid: Chiyo hates the fact that no one takes her seriously because of her young age, something Tomo occasionally teases her about. Additionally, at the start of her second year, she immediately gets irritated when a freshman offhandedly asks why someone as young as her is allowed on-campus, accosting him and insisting that he refer to her as "Mihama-senpai."
* {{Kawaiiko}}: She is the epitome of cuteness in this entire franchise. Any moment with her on screen is bound to lead into something adorable.
* KidAppealCharacter: Chiyo has some aspects of "weak but lovable" mixed with being a "preteen genius". She's a source of much of the series' cuteness and humor.
* LadyAndAScholar: Bright for a young age, and a polite young girl to boot.
* MistakenForDestitute: When she applies for a job at Magnetron Burger, the manager assumes she's so desperate for money that she forged a high school ID so she could get work. In reality, she comes from a rich family.
* MrExposition: She'll usually explain things to the viewer via monologue or being a CharacterNarrator.
* MutualEnvy: Chiyo wishes she was older and taller like Sakaki, so people would take her more seriously; Sakaki wishes she was cuter and smaller like Chiyo, so people would take her ''less'' seriously.
* NiceGirl: She's polite and very helpful in class, such as tutoring classmates who need it, and organizing events for their school's annual Culture Fest. Chiyo even invites her friends to her family's summer home twice, during summer break.
* OhCrap: Examples include that time Yukari said the class trip was cancelled, and when Chiyo found out Iriomote cats can eat animals as large as her dog.
* {{Ojou}}: Chiyo lives in a large estate and her family is wealthy enough to afford a summer home on beachfront property--a fact which stuns Tomo and Yomi when she first tells them about it. Aside from her wealth and polite speech patterns, however, she doesn't meet most of the trope's stereotypes.
* {{Pride}}: Not often presented, but Chiyo's biggest flaw is that she expects to be on top and treated as such; dismissing her as JustAKid is a particularly easy way to draw her ire, something Tomo occasionally exploits for her amusement. Her pride is most obviously shown when Tomo deliberately studies extra hard to outscore Chiyo on a written test. It didn't matter that it was in physical education, or that Chiyo was just barely behind Tomo; Chiyo is visibly angry that Tomo bested her. And when the two later get a different test back with the [[ChildProdigy expected result]], Chiyo glares at Tomo as if to gloat. She even gets competitive when she learns how karaoke is scored.
* RenaissanceMan: As long as it doesn't involve athletics, she's very quick to adapt to new situations and master new skills. This is best seen in the manga, where she goes from not knowing how to use a computer to being able to touch-type in the span of a month. Yomi points this out, openly wondering if there's anything Chiyo isn't good at. When she's asked about her future career plans, Chiyo is undecided because there are too ''many'' options for her.
* SecretlyWealthy:
** More of an open secret, but all of her friends are shocked to discover that her family is wealthy, owning an opulent mansion and a vacation home by the water. She isn't spoiled in the slightest, either. As Tomo puts it, she's "already won the game of life".
** When she works a part-time job in the summer, the employer even assumes she must be poor and desperate enough to forge a high school ID, which couldn't be further from the truth.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: A gag in the 2009 print of the manga contrasts Osaka's informal application to her summer job with Chiyo introducing herself in incredibly complicated language more fitting for a formal interview.
* SickeninglySweet: Some characters think Chiyo is too cute for her own good. It's first pointed out by Yomi, who sees Chiyo fumbling a tongue twister and replies with a flabbergasted "You're ''still'' cute!" Later on, Chiyo's overbearingly cute penguin costume causes Yukari to instinctively [[KickTheDog push her over]], and nearly breaks Tomo's mind.
* SignatureLaugh: She has a distinctly childish giggle: "Ehehe!"
* SupremeChef: Even cooks her own lunches before school. They're all very complex and [[FoodPorn very tasty looking]].
* TaremeEyes: She's drawn with big, soft, round eyes that help to highlight her [[{{Kawaiiko}} innocent cuteness]].
* TokenMiniMoe: She's a ten-year-old in a cast full of high school students and adults. She's the trope image here as well.
* TokenRichStudent: She's from a wealthy family who owns a BigFancyHouse as well as a vacation home, but she still goes to a middle-class high school and is perfectly happy to hang out with her middle-class friends. Unlike most examples of the trope, she's comfortable with a middle-class lifestyle and also incredibly polite and humble, preferring to use her wealth to let her friends have a good time rather than flaunt it to them.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: After riding with [[DrivesLikeCrazy Yukari]] during her first summer trip, it left her traumatized and afraid of cars. For the next year after that, she freezes up at the mere thought of being in a car. Even when she gets over her fear, she takes extra measures to ensure that she never again has to sit in a car with Yukari as the driver: for the second summer trip, she rents a van to fit everyone and forces Yukari to let Nyamo drive, while for the third summer trip, she instantly rushes into Nyamo's car when she learns that they have to take two again.
* WiseBeyondHerYears: Not just in the sense of having the highest grades at the school, but some of her narration is pretty insightful for someone her age.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sakaki]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/YuuAsakawa (JP), Creator/ChristineAuten (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sakaki_02.png]]
Sakaki is the tall, quiet girl who sits in the back of the class. Most students are intimidated by her height (174cm [[note]]5' 8.5"[[/note]] and still growing) and her appearance, but she's actually kind, yet exceptionally shy. The other students interpret this as her being [[AloofDarkHairedGirl aloof and disaffected]]. She's [[CutenessProximity easily distracted by cute things]], like [[KindheartedCatLover kittens]], or Chiyo. Sadly, her mother is allergic to cats, and [[AnimalsHateHer cats are allergic to her]]. She has a innate talent for both schoolwork and athletics, which naturally seems unfair [[UnknownRival to Kagura.]]
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* AcademicAthlete: Sakaki is acknowledged as the best athlete at the school by her fellow students and the faculty. She excels in track and field events, such as the 100M dash and relay races. But she also does well in her studies, usually finishing just below Chiyo and Yomi.
* AllLovingHero: Despite her shyness that makes her come across as aloof, and her intimidating appearance, she [[AnimalLover particularly loves animals, especially cats]], and is actually a [[NiceGirl very kind, loving, welcoming person]] who likes to befriend and help others.
* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Subverted. She's tall, dark-haired and imposing, but her apparent aloofness is really because she's a ShrinkingViolet, in spite of her physical appearance.
* AnimalLover: A huge one, to the point where much of her character arc revolves around her attempts at befriending a cat. In fact, her {{establishing character moment}} sees Chiyo collecting her career interest form and finding "veterinarian" listed as her highest priority.
* AnimalMotifs: Cats. Her goal throughout the series is to have a cat that loves her instead of biting or scratching her, she displays a huge fondness for cats in many of her activities, and she ultimately adopts a baby Iriomote cat.
* AnimalsHateHer: Sakaki is an AnimalLover at heart, but cats in particular hate her, likely due to her [[FaceOfAThug intimidating appearance]]. Other animals like [[BigFriendlyDog Mr. Tadakichi]] don't have any problem with her, and [[PetBabyWildAnimal Mayaa]] likes her too.
* AttractivenessIsolation: Other students are scared to talk to her either because they think she's too awesome or because she's intimidating. She winds up often wishing she'd get invited into club activities, since she's too timid to reach out for them herself.
* BeautifulSingingVoice: She surprises Yomi and the others when a karaoke session reveals she can sing. Each of the girls remark on her singing voice, causing Sakaki to [[ShrinkingViolet smile shyly and blush]].
* BerserkButton: Sakaki is very protective of Chiyo, and doesn't take kindly to others mocking her. During one sports festival, she responds to some of the students mocking Chiyo's lack of athletic skills by putting all her effort into besting them during a race purely to spite them.
* BeyondTheImpossible: Until Mayaa, whenever Sakaki tries to pet a cat, the best result possible is for the cat to run away (as opposed to biting her). Then she tries to touch a robotic cat toy. It fizzles and stops working, smoke coming out of it, before she can reach it.
* BigSisterInstinct: Be it from snowballs, or kids who make fun of her during sporting events, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUJJEtdRKvc or a mob of angry cats]] -- Sakaki will always be there for Chiyo.
* BoobBasedGag: To her dismay, Sakaki is often subject to jokes about having the largest chest of all the main girls, with Tomo being the usual instigator -- an early EstablishingCharacterMoment for Tomo is challenging Sakaki to a race, then asking for an 8 cm head start to even out the boob size difference.
* BookSmart: She's ranked third at academic performance in the class, right below Chiyo and Yomi.
* BlueWithShock: She gets this either when she is thinking of something that's impossibly cute, or when any of her friends' actions horrify her. Like the time Osaka said [[PetBabyWildAnimal Mayaa]] would be nice 'n boney, one day. Or when Yomi heard she liked bears and presented her with [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a can of bear stew]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yefMRQFjbU as a souvenir!]]
* BrokenAce: She's intelligent, attractive, and a skilled athlete who draws constant attention from her classmates, who all assume she's aloof and rebellious. This leaves her insecure and lonely, and she would much prefer to be outwardly cute and approachable -- the reason why she's so fond of Chiyo. She also feels the need to conform to her public image by suppressing her love for animals and cute things.
* ButtMonkey: Life seems to love denying her the things she wants, whilst dangling them in front of her. Like how Chiyo gets to be cute and adorable, and can openly enjoy things like stickers and plushies, while Sakaki can't because everybody expects her to be cool and grown up [[HugeSchoolgirl because of]] [[AloofDarkhairedGirl her appearance.]]
* BuxomBeautyStandard: She has a buxom figure, apparently caused by a recent growth spurt. Some of the girls are jealous of her because of it and often talk about it (Even Osaka is shocked and calls her an "[[UnusualEuphemism American]]" because of them) but Sakaki herself [[DCupDistress finds the attention embarrassing]].
* CharacterDevelopment: Sakaki goes through this the most compared to the rest of the cast, slowly opening up more and more to her friends as the series progresses, mostly to Chiyo and Kagura.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Not on an Osaka level, but between her shyness and her strange daydreams, when Sakaki does say things they can be rather... odd. Chiyo's "father"? She's the one who sees him most often, and she seems to be thoroughly convinced that Chiyo's dad really is a giant, floating cat.
* TheComicallySerious: She'll say some of the most bizarre things with a perfectly straight face and monotone voice... [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} and mean it.]]
* CoolBigSis: Chiyo starts to look up to her as one, once they become friends.
* CovertPervert: When Tomo puts Yukari and Minamo on the spot about their love lives, Sakaki quickly re-enters the room and can be seen peeking from behind Yomi and Tomo, while trying to listen in. Then she inches forward to make sure she doesn't miss anything. It gets hilariously subverted the following year (two scenes later in the anime), as she ends up hearing [[TooMuchInformation more than she would have liked]] and couldn't look Minamo in the eye the following morning. Though Yomi and the others were ''very'' appreciative.
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Black hair and dark eyes.
* CutenessOverload: Very, ''very'' prone to this, usually around cats and whenever she misinterprets something Chiyo says, which causes her [[ImagineSpot to imagine]] Chiyo doing incredibly cute things.
* DaydreamBeliever: Really believes that Chiyo's father is a yellow cat because of her dreams.
* DCupDistress: Sakaki dislikes the amount of attention that's drawn to her breast size. Life's tough when your less endowed friends always talk about 'em.
* DeathGlare:
** This is more-or-less her default look, much to the fright of Chiyo and the others. [[SubvertedTrope She means no harm though.]]
** Sakaki's intimidating appearance is clearer in the manga (both the 1999 original and the 2009 reprint), where a couple strips show her accidentally intimidating both Chiyo and Kaorin by glancing at them thanks to how stern her face looks. The anime depicts her with a softer expression in those moments, which takes away the point of the gag.
** She actually gives a deliberate, and far more intimidating, Death Glare during the final Sports Festival, after a student from a rival class starts mocking Chiyo.
* {{Deuteragonist}}: Has the second most spotlight episodes, undergoes the most development, and many characters are defined by their interactions with her.
* DitzyGenius: Sakaki is a top student, ranked 3rd, and certainly is one of the smartest girls in the cast, but she definitely has a very outlandish and naive side, such as believing that the yellow cat is Chiyo's dad because of her dreams, and her persistent willingness to pet the biting cat even after he continually injures her.
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: ...and not just Kaorin. In the 4th episode, one of Kaorin's friends says Sakaki is better than any of the boys at their school. A later episode shows her being followed by a group of girls, who gush about how cool and awesome she is, with little hearts over their heads. Then finally {{squee}} and have to hug themselves. Yeah.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Her very first appearance in the series consists of Chiyo approaching her to collect her career option form. While Sakaki's stern expression initially scares Chiyo, the latter sees that her listed career options are "veterinarian," "florist," and "plushie saleswoman," readily establishing Sakaki as someone whose tough exterior belies her actual gentle and sensitive nature.
* FaceOfAThug: Sakaki looks like an intimidating AloofDarkHairedGirl, so everyone assumes she's a juvenile delinquent. In reality, she's a ShrinkingViolet who loves everything cute and cuddly.
* FearOfThunder: Like Chiyo, Sakaki is scared of lightning. This is to show that despite Sakaki looking like an AloofDarkHairedGirl on the outside, she's a shy and sensitive girl on the inside.
* FlashStep: Goes hand in hand with her propensity for cute animals. When told that Chiyo is going to go visit Mr. Tadakichi, and asked if she would like to come along, Sakaki is waiting downstairs, outside, before the question is finished.
* {{Foil}}:
** To Chiyo. Both are among the more intelligent and mature members of the cast, but they're defined more by their differences than their similarities. Chiyo is short, level-headed and approachable; Sakaki is tall, spacey and intimidating. While Chiyo wants to be taller so people will take her more seriously, Sakaki wants to be shorter so people will be less afraid of her.
** She's also this to her UnknownRival in sports, Kagura. Sakaki is quiet and withdrawn; Kagura is loud and outgoing. Sakaki is academically successful but has her head in the clouds; Kagura is BookDumb but grounded. Sakaki is very feminine; Kagura is the most tomboyish of the main six girls. Sakaki isn't particularly interested in sports despite being good at them; Kagura's love of athletics is one of her defining characteristics.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Phlegmatic. A shy, meek GentleGiant NiceGirl, who is a FriendToAllLivingThings and TheQuietOne.
* FragileSpeedster: She's unmatched at pure speed, consistently dusting the competition during their school's annual Sports Fest, and also has fast enough reflexes to CatchAndReturn a thrown snowball. Her greatest weakness (as she tells Chiyo when she places 6th in a 5k run) is endurance, and she also doubles over in pain after a headbutt from the biting cat.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Heartbreakingly subverted, as while she is a friend to living things by nature, [[AnimalsHateHim most of them would rather have her for a snack]] than be her friend.
* GentleGiant: Enough that you'll want to give her a hug. Looks intimidating and is an angel at heart.
* GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals: Her love of animals extends to stuffed animals as well. The few times we see her room, she's shown to have stuffed animals on her bed, her couch, and her bookshelf. She's also the one who suggests that the class holds a stuffed animal exhibition during the cultural festival (though it's through an anonymous submission), and even makes a few of her own.
* GirlyBruiser: Despite assumptions characters make based on her height, Sakaki is very feminine, but she's even ''stronger'' than her size alone would suggest.
* GoofyPrintUnderwear: The strip right after her EstablishingCharacterMoment shows that she wears panties with a cartoon cat printed on the rear, jarring with how her classmates perceive her as a "cool" and "tough" girl.
* HeightAngst: She's self-conscious about how tall she is, especially because it can make her look intimidating to others.
* HellishPupils: The new art in the manga's 2009 print gives Sakaki distinct cat-slit eyes whenever she's surprised or experiencing intense emotion, to illustrate that it comes off as a DeathGlare to others.
* HopelessWithTech: Sakaki is completely unfamiliar with computers or similar technology. She mistakes a VirtualPet for an actual animal in an early gag, then is [[MundaneObjectAmazement blown away]] when looking up cats on Google for the first time.
* HugeSchoolgirl: 174cm[[note]]5 feet, 8 inches[[/note]] tall and still growing. The punchline of one strip where the main characters go to a crowded shrine for New Year's is that if anybody gets lost, they should meet next to Sakaki, because she's so huge she'll be easy to spot anyway. Sakaki is self-conscious about her height, and would much rather be small and cute like Chiyo.
* IAmNotPretty: Sakaki hates her tall stature and imposing appearance, regardless of how cool her peers think she looks; instead, she voices her wish to be as small and cute as Chiyo.
* ImageSong: "The Heart is a Girl's Parachute" and "Mahou Neko ni aeru Hi wa (The Day I Meet the Magic Cat)". The second one features Chiyo.
* IntrovertedCatPerson: She doesn't talk much but she loves cats. Unfortunately, they hate her. The only cat that wasn't afraid of her turned out to be a wild Iriomote cub.
* JapaneseDelinquents: Her [[AloofDarkHairedGirl natural appearance]] and [[ShrinkingViolet reticence]] leads the other girls to mistake her for one. She often comes to school with numerous cuts and scratches, which most people assume she got from a fight. Actually, they're from her attempts to pet stray cats. Later, it's deliberately invoked during the second annual Sports Fest, when Yukari gives her a gakuran[[note]]a uniform typically worn by male students, which is often used to invoke the look of a delinquent, or "tough guy" type[[/note]] to wear, causing Kaorin to fangasm.
* KindheartedCatLover: Insanely kindhearted. Loves cats with a fierce passion. Even if they don't love her back.
* KindlyVet: She lists "veterinarian" as her top priority on her career survey, lining up with her nature as a KindheartedCatLover.
* LetsGetDangerous: In a way, everyone knows she's good at sports. Tease Chiyo because she can't run? She takes that personally and will proceed to demolish the competition in response. Also acts as a bodyguard for Chiyo during a snowball fight and when the biting cat gangs all the neighborhood cats up on the pair.
* LuminescentBlush: Quite often, mostly in response to seeing kitty cats, or while imagining cute things.
* MartialArtsHeadband: Subverted in the last sports festival episode. She starts off wearing it as normal around her head then, after hearing a boy from another class make fun of Chiyo's running, [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange she takes it off and uses it to tie her hair in a ponytail]].
* MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold: Because of her [[AloofDarkHairedGirl looks]], people tend to avoid her when Sakaki is actually a kind-hearted ShrinkingViolet, who loves cute things and would like to have more friends.
* MutualEnvy: Chiyo wishes she was older and taller like Sakaki, so people would take her more seriously; Sakaki wishes she was cuter and smaller like Chiyo, so people would take her ''less'' seriously.
* NiceGirl: Despite her intimidating stature, she [[IncorruptiblePurePureness doesn't have a mean bone in her body]]. She's polite and never nasty, always treats her friends well (especially the younger Chiyo-chan), loves animals (especially [[KindheartedCatLover cats]]), and is always well intentioned. She's a total sweetheart, albeit [[ShrinkingViolet very shy]], and she, Osaka and Chiyo are maybe the nicest main characters overall.
* NoFullNameGiven: Everyone only ever calls her "Sakaki". It's unknown whether it's her given name or her family name.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Due to being TheComicallySerious, the parts where she engages in her friends' antics stick out. For example, unlike Chiyo, she fully buys Tomo's excuse for going to Magical Land when Yomi is sick (likely because she isn't particularly close friends with Yomi).
* ObliviousToLove: She seems to notice Kaorin's strange behavior around her, but she never questions the reason behind it.
* OddCouple:
** With Kagura: Sakaki's quiet and feminine outside PE, while Kagura's a brash and tomboyish LovableJock.
** In the manga, she'll also often form one with Osaka: the two are {{cloudcuckoolander}}s, but Osaka focuses more on idiosyncratic and openly-delivered non-sequiturs compared to Sakaki's private worldbuilding.
* TheQuietOne: She usually doesn't talk much due to her shyness. The other students mistake this for her being an AloofDarkHairedGirl.
* ReiAyanamiExpy: Played with. She's directly based on Rei -- more specifically, Rei as she was depicted in Creator/KiyohikoAzuma's ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' {{doujinshi}}, which were much DenserAndWackier. One of these comics has her [[https://koholint.tumblr.com/post/176236432053/part-of-ayanamis-fans-by-kiyohiko-azuma-from winning an award]] from her adoring fanbase, to which she responds with confusion and disinterest. While Sakaki doesn't have much of a physical resemblance to Rei (other than her TsurimeEyes), she does have the "stoic and monotone" aspect down to a T, and she's constantly bandaged up in [[AnimalsHateHim her pursuit of cats]]. Sakaki also gradually diverges from Rei over time as it's revealed she's simply a ShrinkingViolet rather than emotionless or inhuman, and later volumes show her as both TheComicallySerious and a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} when she opens up to her friends.
* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: In case it wasn't clear, she let out the shriek that notified the whole class of the cockroach that was scuttling around the room in episode 2.
* ShooTheDog: Sakaki must do this to Mayaa before leaving Okinawa. He comes back to drive off the biting cat from the streets.
* ShrinkingViolet: Sakaki is painfully shy and withdrawn for much of the series, but gradually opens up thanks to Chiyo and Kagura.
* {{Squee}}: Whenever cats or anything cute are involved. Especially when it comes to Mayaa.
* StatuesqueStunner: A rare case of also being a HugeSchoolgirl. She's very tall and with an intimidating appearance, yet Kaorin has a huge crush on her in spite of it.
* StealthHiBye: She tends to wander in and out of conversations, perking up when cute things are mentioned and leaving when the topic changes. In one instance, the girls mention meeting up at Chiyo's house, and she's outside ''[[FlashStep in a single panel]]''.
* TheStoic: Not by choice. Sakaki certainly has plenty of ''emotion'', but she is not very ''emotive'', having difficulty communicating her feelings to other people. As a result others tend to jump to inaccurate conclusions about what she is thinking or feeling, assuming her aloofness is by choice when she would rather open up.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: Subverted as she absolutely has no intention to come across as cold or aloof. She's so, so very compassionate and cute on the inside, but outside, she looks like a cold, tough HugeSchoolgirl. Unlike most examples, her coldness isn't a façade she's putting up to fool everyone, but something she does ''completely by accident''.
* TallIsIntimidating: She's the tallest main character, and many of the other students find her intimidating.
* TerribleArtist: She's explicitly pointed out as having "no artistic talent" when she attempts to draw, and every stuffed animal she attempts to make comes out as an unrecognizable lump.
* ThrowTheDogABone:
** Tadakichi-san is the first animal she was able to successfully pet. [[OverlyLongGag For several hours]].
** Near the end of the series, Sakaki finds Mayaa, the first cat to ever let her pet him. After his mother dies, he later travels from Okinawa all the way to Sakaki's Japanese suburb to find her.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: She's the girly one, to Kagura's {{tomboy}}.
* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: The audience knows Sakaki is a GirlyGirl who happens to be athletic and doesn't have any conscious interest in sports, but other characters tend to see things the other way around. She's believed to be a delinquent, due to frequently showing up with her hands or face bandaged, creating the impression she often gets into fights. Plus, she's the best athlete at the school. So Chiyo and Kagura are surprised when they eventually learn that Sakaki is actually shy and quite feminine, prefers cute things over being cool, and only gets bandaged up due to [[AnimalsHateHer her bad luck with cats]].
* TranquilFury: Of a fairly pacifistic kind, but it does manifest when a boy mocks Chiyo during a relay race. The glare she gives the boy, subdued though it may be, could melt metal and she would likely wipe the floor with him in a fight. Instead, she chooses to have the competition, the boy included, eat dust, for Chiyo's sake, after giving Chiyo the single most heartwarming smile in anime history and telling her, in no uncertain terms, that it was all right.
* TsurimeEyes: Her eyes have a serious and menacing look, which can scare people off. Her personality is actually the exact opposite, which is why she dislikes her physical appearance.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: She's afraid of earthquakes, [[FearOfThunder thunder]], horseflies, and mechanical guards at construction sites.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tomo Takino]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/TomoeHanba (JP web short), Creator/ChiekoHiguchi (JP), Mandy Clark (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tomo.png]]
A self-proclaimed "wildcat" and the most energetic member of Yukari's class, Tomo likes to make everything into a competition. Failing that, her default behavior is to annoy others, or cause a commotion, in the name of fun. Problem is, her idea of "fun" isn't always the same as everyone else's. She's best friends with Yomi, though it's a wonder to their other friends [[OddFriendship how it ever happened]].
----
* ACupAngst: While she doesn't obsess over it, she gets visibly excited when she has her yearly measurements taken and learns that her boobs have grown. She also makes perverted jokes about the other girls' chests, particularly Sakaki and Kagura, which suggests that she may be envious. At one point, she explains that her chest size is the one thing holding her back from being like her idol, [[Franchise/LupinIII Fujiko Mine]].
* AlliterativeName: '''T'''omo '''T'''akino.
* AndCallHimGeorge: Tomo gets too rough while playing with Mayaa and ends up with a large gash in her hand as a result.
* AmbiguouslyBi: She never outright displays any real affection for anyone, but her New Years dream shows both the boys ''and'' [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer girls]] of her school fawning over her ''Lupin''-esque heroics. Then again, that same dream has her repeatedly striking Yomi in the head for mistaking her for her mom, so [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} who really knows what's going on in that head of hers]]. There's also her strange fixation on the breast sizes of her fellow classmates, but that could just be standard jealousy fueled by her ACupAngst. This gets turned on its head in Creator/UmeAoki's contribution to the 2009 guest comic anthology ''Osaka Expo'', which features Tomo actually coming out as bi, if only for the sake of a pun.
* BerserkerTears: When Yomi manages to eat curry noodles without splattering it all over herself, Tomo is pushed over the top and goes [[UnstoppableRage on a rampage in the lunchroom]] with tears in her eyes until she accidentally hits Yukari. Yukari's [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown subsequent reaction]] [[HilarityEnsues must be seen to be believed]].
* BookDumb: ...and proud of it! She only puts in the work when doing so will annoy someone: she aced the entrance exam to her prestigious high school solely to spite Yomi, and she studied for a P.E. test simply to outscore Chiyo and pester her about it.
* BoyishShortHair: She wears her hair short in her first year and (after growing it out in her second) cuts it even shorter in her third, tying in with her tomboyish personality.
* BreakTheHaughty: After Tomo plays too rough with Mayaa, he scratches her and leaves her bleeding painfully and profusely. Combined with Yomi and Kagura saying [[LaserGuidedKarma she deserved it]], the whole experience seems to leave Tomo with a deflated ego.
* BrilliantButLazy: Normally low-scoring and rarely saying anything intelligent, when she applies herself she can pass exams -- and even maxed out her mark in a health exam when she specifically studied for it. She seems to pick and choose what she studies for. It's also pointed out that she managed to get into a high school with pretty competitive entrance exams... she just gave up on studying after that, since she only wanted to get into the school specifically because Yomi doubted her ability to do so. Tomo seems to ''play'' dumb about as often as she actually ''is'' dumb.
* ChaoticStupid: She's definitely chaotic. The stupid part is questionable, since she isn't dumb when she actually applies herself to her studies. She will, however, do stupid things just to see what would happen.
* ClingySleepers: Tomo tends to cling to things in her sleep. When the girls get the photos back from their first summer vacation together, Kaorin, who was unable to attend, is '''''horrified''''' to find a picture of Tomo sleeping in the same futon as, and clinging tightly to, a sleeping Sakaki.
* CompetitionFreak: Over any and '''''EVERY-'''thing''. From breast sizes, comparing failing test scores with Kagura and Osaka, or making bread runs during lunch. She even showed up late for class, just so she could stand in the hall to try to set a record for holding out the longest!
* {{Cosplay}}: As a giraffe during the Extra Lessons strips, much to the annoyance of Yomi, Yukari, and Minamo, the latter of whom gets fed up enough to scold her out of the act.
* ADogNamedDog: One strip reveals that Tomo has a pet hamster named Ham-chan; next to the dog named "Black" (after its fur color) and the girl from Osaka nicknamed "Osaka," it demonstrates how uncreative Tomo is. The ADV translation changes the pets and their names to ones that fall outside of this trope (specifically a dog named Spot and a cat named Whiskers).
* DreamSue: Tomo's New Year's dream has her smarter than Chiyo, faster than Sakaki, and finally getting one up on Yomi. It goes even further in the anime, where she dreams that she's a hometown hero who's fawned over by both boys and girls. She brushes it all off with "oh, it's nothing".
* EskimosArentReal: Tomo believed reindeer were fictional until Chiyo and Sakaki explained they were real.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: A good way of indicating which year the chapter is in. She has medium-length hair in the first year, grows it out long in the second, and cuts it short in the third.
* {{Fangirl}}: Of Fujiko Mine from ''Franchise/LupinIII'', to the extent where she grows her hair out to imitate her look. She eventually drops the idea and cuts her hair short at the start of their senior year.
* FanDisservice: Tomo's attempt at mimicking [[Franchise/LupinIII Fujiko Mine's "Lu-piiiiiin!"]] in the anime. She tries to sound seductive, but ends up horrifying her classmates. The manga has a similar gag, but she instead just confuses Kagura.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Sanguine. Tomo is the group's loud, ''very'' [[TheGadfly mischievous]] GenkiGirl and, though not stupid, she comes across as a scatterbrain due to her hyperactiveness and annyoing attitude.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Tomo is a colossal pain in the ass. Enough that Kagura and the others [[WhatDoesSheSeeInHim wonder why Yomi ever wound up being best friends with her.]]
* FriendshipFavoritism: Oddly enough, Tomo seems to be on better terms with Sakaki than with her other friends. She doesn't make fun of her as much as the other girls, and generally indulges in her daydreams without issue (best seen when they play with dolls together during the second cultural festival). She still expresses a desire to beat Sakaki in sporting events, but this seems to stem from a sense of envy rather than antagonism.
* TheGadfly: Tomo constantly enjoys teasing and otherwise messing with her friends, mostly for her own amusement. Kagura even asks at one point, [[LampshadeHanging "Why do you put so much energy into pissing people off?"]]
* GenkiGirl: ''The current page image.'' Not without reason, either: she constantly exudes a sense of manic energy to the point where she almost constantly acts solely for the sake of short-term amusement, with little-to-no regard for long-term or even ''immediate'' consequences. She treats everything in life like it's a competition, and constantly attempts to weasel her way out of basic obligations if she sees an opportunity to goof off and have fun instead.
* GiverOfLameNames: She dubbed Ayumu "Osaka" because [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin she came from Osaka]]. In the manga, it is revealed that she gives pets equally generic names, with a dog named Black (after its fur color) and [[ADogNamedDog a hamster named Ham-chan]]. In the ADV translation, she has a dog named Spot and a cat named Whiskers.
* GratuitousEnglish: Like Yukari, [[InconsistentDub inconsistently dubbed]] into GratuitousSpanish.
* HaveIMentionedIAmGay: In Creator/UmeAoki's contribution to the official guest comic anthology ''Osaka Expo'', released for the manga's tenth anniversary in 2009, Tomo comes out as bisexual solely so she can make a pun about being a "bi king" following Osaka's pun about hiking (itself playing off of a smorgasbord, which in Japanese is homophonic with "Viking"). Since the anthology was published seven years after the manga and anime ended, this never comes up anywhere else.
* ImageSong: "Sora wa Tobikiri Paradaisu (The Sky is an Extraordinary Paradise)" and "Poi Poi Peace" (which, unusually, [[UntranslatedTitle keeps its Japanese name in the English release instead of translating it]], e.g. as "Throw-Away Peace"). She also shares "Oishii Kimi-tachi (Delicious with Everybody)" with Yomi, and features on "Lazy Crazy Bonkuras (Lazy Crazy Knuckleheads)" with Kagura and Osaka.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: It's repeatedly implied throughout the series that Tomo's constant teasing and egotistical behavior is a projection of her own insecurities. She has her own concerns about her weight, appearance, and intelligence, yet repeatedly teases her peers for their own faults in these areas and plays herself up as above them all.
* InsultBackfire: When Yukari smirks and points out Tomo won't get very far from copying Chiyo's homework all the time, Tomo calmly answers that she copies Yomi's too.
* InterpolSpecialAgent: Tomo's stated goal after graduating is to become an Interpol agent. Invoking this trope, she seems to think Interpol is just an "upgraded" version of the police, to the point where she doesn't even know the entry process.
* ItAmusedMe: This is her primary motivation, from studying for a test long enough to get into their school just to spite Yomi, to repeatedly tormenting [[DesignatedVictim Chiyo]], to causing a ruckus and [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident "unintentionally"]] smacking her classmates while trying to kill a cockroach. She does it all [[{{Troll}} for shits 'n giggles.]] At least one translation even titles the strip just after she throws Chiyo's house key into the woods "LOL".
* JerkassHasAPoint:
-->'''Chiyo:''' Osaka means that if you eat chocolate while chewing gum, the gum will melt.\\
'''Tomo:''' You don't eat chocolate while you're chewing gum.\\
'''Chiyo and Osaka:''' (StunnedSilence)\\
'''Tomo:''' You pick one and you stick with it!
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: She's loud, rude and purposefully annoying, but she really does care about her friends deep down and doesn't irritate them out of malice, she just thinks it's funny.
* JuniorCounterpart: She's a teenage Yukari down to her outrageous tendencies and lack of any skills. Notably, Tomo's the only character who ''enjoys'' riding in Yukari's car, joining her in teasing Minamo for driving normally.
* KewpieDollSurprise: Tomo frequently flaps her arms up and down whenever she's excited, distressed, or otherwise emotional, tying in with her nature as a self-described "[[GenkiGirl crazy-go-nuts high schooler with energy and spunk]], if nothing else."
* LaserGuidedKarma: When she plays too roughly with Mayaa, he scratches her and makes her bleed and Yomi even tells Tomo she really should have listened when they told her to stop doing that. There's also the part where she tried to hit Yomi with a food tray and ended up getting repeatedly assaulted by a DualWielding Yukari-sensei after accidentally hitting her instead.
* LikeParentLikeChild: According to Yomi, Tomo's dad acts exactly like his daughter, and even has the same haircut.
* MsViceGirl: Not only is she willing to cheat on tests, or eat lunch during class, she'll try to entice her friends and classmates to get in on it too (with varying degrees of success). And during their senior year of school, she tricked Chiyo into inviting them back to her summer home under the pretense of wanting it to be [[BlatantLies a study trip.]]
-->'''Chiyo:''' [[WasItAllALie But... didn't you say this was supposed to be a study trip?]]\\
'''Tomo:''' ''[shamelessly]'' [[ILied I lied.]]\\
'''Chiyo:''' ''[in shock]'' Wha...?? '''SO BLUNTLY?!'''
* NeverMyFault: Tomo rarely, if ever, acknowledges the fact that she's the sole reason for her constant state of chaos, always considering herself to be in the right and allowing said state of chaos to perpetuate itself throughout the series with rarely any breaks.
* NightmareFetishist: She's the only member of the cast who actually ''[[OnlyOneFindsItFun enjoys]]'' Yukari's reckless driving.
* OddFriendship: With Yomi. Despite their squabbles with each other, and [[RedOniBlueOni contrasting personalities]] (the GenkiGirl to Yomi's StraightMan), they're longtime best friends.
* OhCrapSmile: After accidentally hitting Yukari in the face with a cafeteria tray, she gives an obviously worried smile because she ''knows'' she's in deep trouble.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Apparently, she still gets mistaken for a middle school student. This annoys her, as indicated by her complaining about how Yomi gets mistaken for a secretary instead.
* PetTheDog: She might tease and annoy her friends constantly, but if she sees she's genuinely hurt their feelings, Tomo will try to make amends.
** When Tomo and Chiyo get into a debate over whether the Chunichi Dragons or the Yomiuri Giants are the better baseball team, Chiyo starts holding back tears, and Tomo nervously concedes that both teams are good. Later, when she pretends to throw Chiyo's prized Giants autograph out the window, Chiyo ''openly sobs'', and Tomo panics, clearly not expecting it.
** After she and Kagura start roughhousing and accidentally knock over a tent the others were setting up, Tomo mocks Kagura, who unexpectedly begins to cry and reflect on her behavior. Tomo outright says that she didn't want Kagura to cry because she was expecting "it's all Tomo's fault". After Kagura makes amends, Tomo does something stupid to get her back to her usual lighthearted mood.
** She leads the entire school assembly in a standing ovation for Chiyo in their final year when Chiyo is named valedictorian. This coming from Tomo, who always teases Chiyo, it's especially heartwarming.
* PowerCopying: An ImagineSpot shows the viewers what might happen if Tomo copied Sakaki's athleticism, Chiyo's book smarts, and Osaka's forgetfulness. The result? She arrives to class, loudly apologizes for being late, corkscrew-leaps into her seat, correctly answers Yukari's question for the class before it's even asked, and apologizes again for forgetting her textbook. After the ImagineSpot ends, Tomo chides Osaka for throwing the whole thing off by adding her forgetfulness.
* ThePrankster:
** As seen in [[TheFriendNobodyLikes]] and ItAmusedMe examples, Tomo gets a kick out of screwing with her friends, just to get a rise out of them; especially Chiyo and Yomi.
** One of her cruelest, is when she volunteers to see if Yomi had passed her college entrance exam by looking for her name on the results board. Despite looking ''right at it'', she tells Yomi it wasn't there, causing her to panic and start to cry, until Osaka checks and tells Yomi her name is there. Tomo then [[TemptingFate had the gall to congratulate her]], along with the others. [[{{Shoryuken}} Yomi was not amused]].
* TheRival: She tries to antagonize and compete with everyone, just for the hell of it. Chiyo, Sakaki, and Kagura are her usual rivals. She was also Osaka's UnknownRival on Osaka's first day.
* TheShameless: No matter what insults are thrown her way about her laziness, poor grades, or {{Jerkass}} behavior, Tomo is blissfully oblivious. One example is when, during a BeachEpisode, Tomo, hearing Chiyo say that they'd all be in trouble if they lost the keys to the summer house, seizes the keys from her and tosses them into a field. While everyone is hunting for the keys, knowing how she has already inconvenienced everyone, says that it'd be funny if she found the keys and tossed them again.
* SmallNameBigEgo: She doesn't excel at anything, because she never really applies herself to anything, but still likes to compete with her classmates, and seems to think she's [[TheAce pretty hot stuff]]. [[UnwantedAssistance She isn't.]] The first New Year's Dream series of strips implies that she's actually somewhat insecure about the "small name" part deep down and that the big ego is a means of covering that up, considering how her own dream revolves around her one-upping her peers to cartoonishly unrealistic heights.
* StandingInTheHall: Self-inflicted, since she's [[IAlwaysWantedToSayThat always wanted to try it]].
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: She gets along surprisingly well with Osaka because of this. For example, both of them think that Bruce Lee's real name is "Blue Three".
* TaremeEyes: Her eyes are similarly drawn as big, round, and innocent as her smaller, younger friends', such as Osaka and Chiyo. For her case, however, it's more due to her [[GenkiGirl genkiness]] [[{{Jerkass}} rather than actual instances of innocence]].
* TemptingFate: Any time she chooses to hammer either of Yomi's {{berserk button}}s (see the related entry in Yomi's section), she's pretty much [[{{Shoryuken}} asking for it.]]
* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: She's tomboyish for the most part, with her fondness of pranks and competition, her generally sporty fashion sense, and the vulgar remarks/jokes she occasionally makes, but she's also fairly concerned with her physical appearance, and she idolizes the very feminine [[Manga/LupinIII Fujiko Mine]]. She mostly drops the girliness by the third year, which coincides with her cutting her hair -- though by her own admission, that's due to her shifting focus to idolizing [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryoko_Hirosue Ryoko Hirosue]] (Music/AyumiHamasaki in the anime).
* TheTroublemaker: Tomo makes a lot of trouble for everyone, accidentally and on purpose. This includes challenging them to various, often pointless, contests like trying to race Sakaki, or telling her classmates that the illness Yomi suffered that kept her from coming on an outing was because she slept naked (she didn't, but Tomo was happy to spread the story, anyway). The best (worst) example is when the group takes a trip to Chiyo's summer home. Chiyo comments how it would be terrible if she lost the house's only key. Cue Tomo grabbing the key and tossing it into the forest, just for a laugh.
--> '''Tomo''': I did it!
--> '''Koyomi''': BUT WHAT THE HELL FOR??!!
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: She tends to be the comic relief of the series at the expense of her friends' dignity.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Yomi. In spite of how often the two snipe at each other, they've been close companions since grade school.
* VulgarHumor: She's fond of cracking lowbrow jokes every now and then. Among other things, she repeatedly jabs at Sakaki and Kagura's bust sizes, sarcastically asks Yukari if she brought porn magazines to class, tries to goad Yukari and Nyamo into telling skeevy stories during their summer trips, and riffs on Okinawan foods whose names sound like the Japanese equivalents of "dicks" and "shit."
* WeightWoe: Although she constantly teases Yomi about her figure, Tomo at least once lamented her own, claiming that while calories go to [[StatuesqueStunner Sakaki's]] height and chest, hers go straight to her stomach.
* WithFriendsLikeThese: She's not really malicious, though, she just annoys people because it's funny.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/SatsukiYukino (JP web short), Creator/RieTanaka (JP series), Creator/NancyNovotny (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yomi_9.png]]
The most normal member of the main group, and also the most level-headed, Yomi is an intelligent girl with glasses to match. She has a [[OddFriendship begrudging friendship]] with Tomo and an amazingly high tolerance for her shenanigans (at least, until her tolerance [[RageBreakingPoint reaches its limit]]). In most cases, she plays the StraightMan, though she can be just as juvenile as her friends, [[NotSoAboveItAll depending on the circumstances.]] She loves food, but she's health-conscious and [[WeightWoe always trying to diet]].
----
* AcademicAthlete: She's an honors student, and she usually does well during the school's annual sports fest.
* AscendedExtra: Originally she was just a minor character on the same level as Kaorin or Chihiro, but as her dynamic with Tomo developed, she gradually became more prominent until officially becoming part of the main cast by the first summer trip.
* BadassBookworm: Tomo can attest to this better than anybody, given the number of times she's been [[CallingYourAttacks "double chopped"]] and [[{{Shoryuken}} Shoryuken'd]] by her.
* BerserkButton: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBifoE7rmnM Don't call her stupid]], and never, ever, call her [[WeightWoe fat]].
* BigEater: Despite constantly being on a diet, she loves to eat, and will very frequently take sudden cheat days just to treat herself to any food she comes across that she knows she'll like. And when she eats, she eats a ''lot''. It's implied that her insecurity towards this trait is the main reason behind her dieting.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Has her moments of this. She's the OnlySaneMan most of the time, but she does have a pretty mean sense of humour, like feeding Osaka (who's sensitive to spices) a super-spicy croquette and giving AnimalLover Sakaki a can of ''bear stew''. She can also be pretty mean to Tomo, even when the latter has not provoked her.
* BlankWhiteEyes: Uses her glasses to create this effect as one of her more common expressions, including showing her anger or indifference to a given situation.
* BookSmart: She's a very good student, and in the main characters' class her grades are second only to [[ChildProdigy Chiyo's]]. Ironically, she's the last of the main characters to get accepted to college; the BookDumb Kagura, Tomo and Osaka all get in before she does, while she fails two entrance exams before finally passing one.
* BrainyBrunette: Her hair is a nice shade of brown, and she'd likely be the smartest student at the school were it not for Chiyo.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In an early strip in the manga, Yomi reacts impassively when Tomo talks about going on a diet. Later strips establish Yomi as having [[WeightWoe major insecurities about her weight]], making this look a bit out of place. The 2009 print changes this so it clearly sets her off, giving a DeathGlare to Tomo.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Tomo may not be the extreme {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that Osaka is, but she's enough of one that she still occasionally needs Yomi to fill this role for her. Though Yomi's just as likely to sit back and let karma run its course as she is to intervene.
* TheComicallySerious: Tends to keep her chill and focus even among her sillier and more eccentric classmates, such as [[GenkiGirl Tomo]] and [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Osaka]], respectively, though she does have her moments when [[NotSoAboveItAll she behaves a bit more like them.]]
* CrossPoppingVeins: Quite often, due to Tomo's antics.
* DeadpanSnarker: She may put up with Tomo's antics, but she won't hesitate to take digs at her. Yomi occasionally snarks on Osaka as well.
* DeathGlare: In the 2009 print of the manga, she gives one to Tomo when the latter complains about her own weight; the accompanying sound effect is even transcribed in the English scanlation as "DEATH GLARE".
* DreadfulMusician: Her attempt at karaoke isn't one you can call good. Considering her voice actress's musical skills, this is very ironic by itself.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Melancholic. She's hard-working and studious, the most down-to-earth and rational among the girls, and is very [[TheSpock rules and logic-oriented]].
* GirlishPigtails: In the third chapter of the Extra Lessons, she wears her hair in a long pair of braids. This is mostly to facilitate the joke of Tomo putting a cicada on her back, though she keeps her hair tied up through the rest of the chapter.
* HollywoodToneDeaf: Depicted as such throughout the series, with Tomo comparing her singing to [[Manga/{{Doraemon}} Takeshi "Gian" Goda]] ([[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] in the Yen Press translation) and needing to plug her ears when Yomi sings along to the graduation hymn.
* ImageSong: "Everyone's One Way" and "Oishii Kimi-Tachi (Delicious with Everybody)", which she shares with Tomo.
* JackOfAllTrades: Yomi's character is built on being good at most things, but not the best at any one thing in particular, in contrast with her more varied classmates. Tomo mocks her for this in the "Let's Make It!" image song.
** She's athletic, but not to the same extent as either Sakaki or Kagura. She's undeniably strong, but Kagura has her beat in that department. And, though she's an honors student, Chiyo consistently scores the highest marks at the school.
** While she does have her moments of being NotSoAboveItAll, she's usually to be the StraightMan to the shenanigans her friends get up to, ''especially'' Tomo, and Osaka on occasion.
** When comparing their breast sizes in the anime, Osaka calls her "[[UnusualEuphemism Hawai'ian]]" instead of "[[BuxomBeautyStandard American]]" like Sakaki and "[[ACupAngst Japanese]]" like Tomo, as UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}} lies in the approximate middle between mainland North America and Japan.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: She does care about her friends despite her mean sense of humor.
* JuniorCounterpart: To Minamo, fulfilling a similar "straight woman" role to Tomo as Minamo does to Yukari, while simultaneously having her own share of vices and immature shades on occasion. Granted, she never does anything quite as leftfield as Minamo's drunken sex rant (largely because Yomi, being in high school, is still a minor), but moments like tricking the spice-sensitive Osaka into eating a spicy croquet just for her own amusement shows that, like Minamo, she has her own chaotic side underneath her stoic exterior.
* MeaningfulName: Her name is a pun on "to read between the lines" (行間を読みます, ''gyoukan o '''yomi'''masu''). This fits well with her personality, being the most grounded and emotionally intelligent of the group, but also references how she was the last character to be properly named -- as in, her name was left "between the lines".
* NoJustNoReaction: Her usual reaction to Tomo's antics is to stare either blankly, or incredulously, for a moment, then simply get up and walk away [[OnlySaneMan for the sake of her own sanity.]]
* NoNameGiven: In the manga, her name wasn't mentioned until nearly 200 pages in, by which point an entire strip was dedicated to other characters calling her by name in response to fans asking Azuma what her name was. In the series' first popularity poll, she was simply referred to as "{{Meganekko}}". The anime averts this by giving each character name cards in the first episode.
* NotSoAboveItAll:
** Yomi can be just as bad as the others, depending on the circumstances, and is shown to have a very mischievous side to her. Like when she trolled Osaka by getting her to try one of her croquettes, after Osaka said she couldn't eat anything spicy. And [[CovertPervert she was just as engrossed]] in [[TheTalk Minamo's "talk"]] as Tomo and the others were.
** There was also the time she said getting excited about a trip to the Magical Land amusement park was childish, yet bought the brochure the moment they were gone and spent all evening planning which rides she wanted to go on. She wound up missing the trip because she'd caught a cold from staying out so late, with the chill in the air.
** She once anonymously admitted on a radio talkshow that she tried to go on a diet for one day, then got so hungry that she not only ate a huge dinner at home but asked for seconds! To add insult to injury, Tomo, who was at Yomi's room at the time, instantly worked out it was her and laughed her ass off about it.
* OddFriendship: With Tomo. [[RedOniBlueOni While Yomi is mature and focused, Tomo is wild and abrasive]]. Despite this ([[WithFriendsLikeThese or maybe because of this]]), they're longtime best friends.
* OnlySaneWoman: A role she shares with Chiyo, and Minamo whenever she's around.
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: She's the most normal one of the bunch, which is why she's usually TheStraightMan.
* ScaryShinyGlasses: Usually played straight, but also double as her equivalent of BlankWhiteEyes.
* {{Shoryuken}}: A couple times in the manga, Yomi gets so fed up with Tomo's antics that she uppercuts her hard enough to knock her on her back.
* SickEpisode: She misses out on the girls' trip to Magical Land because of a fever. She gets another one after playing in the snow by the end of the same episode. Poor thing.
* SleepsInTheNude: She actually doesn't, but when she catches a cold from staying up too late, Tomo claims she does. Chiyo innocently repeats it to her and she indignantly denies it.
* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: One of the smartest students among the main cast (but second only to [[ChildProdigy Chiyo]]), and has the specs to match.
* TheSocialExpert: Inverted. She just tolerates her classmates.
* StraightMan: She almost has to be, since hardly anyone takes [[ButtMonkey Chiyo]] seriously, Sakaki's [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} usually daydreaming]] half the time, and they damn sure can't depend on [[WomanChild Yukari]]! This also comfortably fits in with her aforementioned JackOfAllTrades status.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Spicy foods, particularly curry.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Tomo. The two constantly argue and make petty jabs at one another, but have stayed close friends since grade school.
* WeightWoe: Though fans will wonder why, since there's nothing wrong with her figure. Yet, she's always trying some sort of diet. At the end of the second athletics festival, she's seen standing in distress at the weight scale; even [[FlungClothing taking off all her clothing]] doesn't help. The translation notes on the English DVD set state that it's meant to make her more relatable, suggesting that she's just overly self-conscious.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: In the Extra Lessons, she goes on an angry rant about killing all cicadas after she sees Osaka and Tomo catching them. As it turns out, this is to mask the fact that she's terrified of them, freezing up when Tomo sticks one on her back.
* YoungerThanSheLooks: She looks like she's in her early 20s, but is really just a high school student, which would put her around the 15-18 age range. Lampshaded by Tomo in the manga, who rants about being mistaken for a middle schooler and says that she wishes she could be mistaken for a college student or a secretary like Yomi.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/AyakoKawasumi (JP web short), Creator/YukiMatsuoka (JP series), Creator/KiraVincentDavis (EN), Creator/JenniferWeiss (DE)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/osaka.png]]
By far the most unusual of Yukari's students. She was given the nickname "Osaka" by Tomo since she's a transfer student from Osaka, though she only lived there for a year. Much to her chagrin, everyone else starts to call her by the nickname; even the school uses it over her actual name. She's a soft-spoken girl who's known for spouting non-sequiturs, falling asleep in class, and having strange daydreams. Osaka isn't the brightest crayon in the box and is so hapless that even [[TheLoad Chiyo]] can beat her at sports. However, she has a knack for puns and riddles and [[GeniusDitz can occasionally pick up on things the others miss.]]
----
* AccentAdaptation:
** In the English dub of the anime and most English translations of the manga, Osaka is given a Southern US accent in place of her Kansai dialect in the original Japanese.
** The first run of the translated manga has Osaka speak with a Brooklyn accent, another typical localization of the Kansai dialect.
* ACupAngst: When [[DeadpanSnarker Yomi quips]] that Chiyo was only flat because of her age, and might become as well-endowed as Sakaki when she's older, Osaka and Tomo both call Chiyo a traitor. Later, she becomes convinced that Sakaki stole her chest size and asks her to give it back. Mr. Kimura completely ignores Osaka because of this, which is ironic given she seems to be the only student who isn't freaked out by him.
* AirplaneArms: Subverted; Osaka tries this during a relay race since she thinks it can keep other runners from passing her, but it only slows her down. Then again, Osaka isn't a very good runner to start with; she even loses to Chiyo.
* AthleticallyChallenged: Of all the girls in the main cast, she is the worst when it comes to sports. Among other things, she can't pass a volleyball and spikes it sideways when attempting to serve, she claims to struggle with floating in water, and she consistently loses every foot race she partakes in, even when competing against Chiyo, a ten-year-old. Much of this is rooted in her [[TheKlutz overall poor motor control]] and lack of flexibility.
* AnxietyDreams: A good number of her dreams revolve around her accidentally injuring or even killing Chiyo, someone she displays a [[BigBrotherInstinct very familial protective attitude]] towards, much to her constant discontent.
* AsleepInClass: She is constantly falling asleep in class, to the point that she is the trope picture.
* {{Awwchoo}}: Her sneezes are so understated that she sounds like she's actually ''saying'' "ehhh-cho" and evoke great amusement from Kagura and Tomo.
* BeetleManiac: She appears to have interests in entomology and malacology as a hobby, given her non-sequiturs about sea slugs and insects. She apparently has a "bug collection" and asks Yomi if a snail would fit into it.
* BigSisterInstinct: While not as obvious as it is with Sakaki, she sometimes shows a protective streak towards Chiyo. Sometimes the threat she's coming to the rescue over isn't actually real, and if it is, she'll be ineffective at actually helping.
* BookDumb: Largely due to her inattentiveness and her habit of falling asleep during class.
* ButtMonkey: Not that it bothers her. At least, not most of the time since [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} she keeps her head in the clouds.]]
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Osaka is introduced in the manga as a shy ShrinkingViolet similar to Sakaki, and she's depicted as a fairly average student who happens to be [[TheKlutz clumsy and forgetful]]. Besides that, she has a level head and lacks the {{cloudcuckoolander}} tendencies of her later self. In a few cases, she even plays the straight man to Tomo and Yukari (like when she complains to Tomo that "Osaka" is an uncreative and inaccurate name, or when she suggests that Yukari play the boke in their {{manzai}} routine). After a while, her idiosyncratic nature is properly introduced, and she becomes the more familiar version of herself. The anime naturally has her acting like she usually does from the get-go.
* CharacterTics: Whenever she has to turn around, she does so in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzIXJ1ODESM a distinctly slow and stiff manner,]] as if she's a living Lazy Susan, tying in with her laid-back disposition.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: The TropeCodifier ''and'' trope picture for the Cloudcuckoolander/AnimeAndManga section. ''For good reason.'' She'll say and do the strangest things without provocation, whether that be musing on the nature of hemorrhoids, bursting out laughing at Okinawan words, or tossing sea slugs at her friends. In Episode 13 of the anime, a bird, possibly a cuckoo, actually ''lands'' on her head! Her ImageSong, "Time Pavement", starts with the sound of a cuckoo clock going off, which continues for the rest of the song.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Despite typically being the most zoned-out of the bunch, she's the only one who ever visibly catches on to Kaorin's crush on Sakaki.
* {{Cuckoosnarker}}: She sometimes manages to make snarky comments in spite of her usual spaciness. When she complains about how uncreative her nickname is, she asks what Tomo names her pets, and mutters "shoulda known" to herself after hearing how generic they are, to Tomo's irritation. At one point, she makes a wry joke pointing out that none of them have boyfriends, and at another point, she makes a comment at the expense of her ACupAngst:
-->'''Sakaki:''' It's just that my body is bigger all around.\\
'''Osaka:''' Oh, you mean that if I was your height, our boobs would be the same size?\\
'''Sakaki:''' Uh-huh.\\
''[{{beat}}]''\\
'''Osaka:''' ''[with DullEyesOfUnhappiness]'' Yeah, right...
* DoesNotLikeSpam: She doesn't like spicy foods. In "Osaka's Half-Day", Yomi exploits this for a prank by tricking her into eating an outrageously spicy croquette, which kicks off the main plot of the chapter when it results in Osaka developing a persistent bout of hiccups. Later in the chapter, she mentions that she also dislikes carbonated drinks, claiming that they hurt her throat.
* DreadfulMusician: She's apparently poor at handling the recorder, though this can be attributed to how she had {{hiccup|Hijinks}}s at the time. Inversely, when the girls go out for karaoke in the ChristmasEpisode, they find her singing voice to be surprisingly pleasant.
* DreamsOfFlying: Osaka has a recurring dream motif where Chiyo can fly but also detatch her pigtails. This is featured in the opening and ending themes.
* EveryoneHasStandards: For all her odd behavior, Osaka isn't incapable of being weirded out herself. Some instances include Kaorin's insistence she wouldn't mind if Sakaki was a guy, Sakaki's barely restrained giggling at imagining Chiyo's dad as Santa Claus, Kimura's lecherous behavior and Tomo and Yukari at their absolute craziest.
* TheFool: She's the TropeCodifier of {{Cloudcuckoolander}} for a reason, as she tends to say and do the most bizarre and offbeat things that stuns and bewilders people, such as telling a ''[[SarcasmMode really scary]]'' story about... [[ToiletHumor the time she smelled a fart during bedtime that wasn't her own]].
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Eclectic, as she is not overly reserved neither too extroverted and cheerful. She lives in the moment, depending on who influences her the most, and is primarily driven by curiosity.
* GeniusDitz: At first, one might think Osaka is stupid, or simply slow to grasp things. But while the latter may be closer to the truth, she's surprisingly sharp [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXb0hNMI_B0 when it comes to riddles]] and other forms of wordplay. She also notices things her classmates miss: for example, she's the only one to note that none of her friends have boyfriends to go out with on Christmas Eve (which is [[UsefulNotes/ChristmasInJapan considered a more romantic holiday in Japan]]), and is also the only one who notices Kaorin's crush on Sakaki and thinks to ask if she's gay.
* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: As opposed to Tomo, Osaka dresses in elegant outfits and generally has a "{{southern belle}}" air to her, which contrasts humorously with her non sequiturs about hemorrhoids and sea slugs.
* GiverOfLameNames: Osaka decides to call her group "Team Sea Slug" during a game of volleyball, to the visible discontent of both Chiyo and Kaorin. Ultimately they go with it, albeit reluctantly, because they genuinely can't think of anything better than "Team Sea Slug."
* GretzkyHasTheBall: At one point, Osaka cheers for her team in a softball game to "score a homer", then stops to ask how many points a "homer" is.
* HappyRain: Contrasting her classmates, who view bad weather with apathy at best, Osaka loves rainstorms, listening to thunderclaps to get an adrenaline rush and gleefully playing around in a typhoon.
* HiddenDepths:
** Displays a surprisingly deep understanding of wordplay and social structure despite her airheadedness. She also displays an understanding of sexuality (both orientation and activity), as showcased by her being the only person to explicitly catch onto Kaorin's crush on Sakaki as well as her rapt attention during Minamo's [[TheTalk drunken "talk."]]
** Is to some degree self aware of her spaciness and clumsiness and is [[SadClown deeply insecure]] about it.
* HollywoodNewEngland: The ADV translation of the manga gives Osaka an exaggerated New Englander accent in her first few strips before dropping it in favor of the anime's Texan dialect.
* TheIdiotFromOsaka: Subverted; one ''would'' consider her an idiot at face value, but her tranquil airheadedness is the polar opposite of the loud brashness that comes with this trope (which forms the overarching joke of her character). Tomo -- who ''actually'' resembles the trope despite not being from the Kansai region -- expects Osaka to be a potential rival to her because of her belief in this stereotype, and is consequently disappointed when she turns out ''not'' to fit it. To top it off, she's not even a native Osakan despite being from the Kansai region; she was born in Wakayama and only lived in Osaka for a year.
* ImageSong: "Get it Together! Try La Lai" and "Time Pavement" are her solo songs. She shares "Fall in Confetti" with Chiyo and "Lazy Crazy Bonkuras (Lazy Crazy Knuckleheads)" with Kagura and Tomo.
* {{Karakasa}}: When Osaka gets the idea of doing an obakeyashiki kisaten ("haunted cafe") for the SchoolFestival, she imagines herself in a ''karakasa'' costume, struggling to serve tea while hopping on one leg.
* KindheartedSimpleton: She isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but she nevertheless means well and is rather easygoing.
* TheKlutz: Her motor control is noticeably dull compared to her peers, which tends to result in a lot of slip-ups during athletic activities. This seem to come less from her own ineptitude and more from extraordinarily poor flexibility; she claims to sink in water regardless of circumstance, and she's completely unable to bend her torso when exercising.
* LastNameBasis: Prior to being nicknamed Osaka, everyone refers to her as Kasuga rather than Ayumu.
* MeaningfulName: Her real name is "Ayumu", which loosely translates to "walking dreamer". Quite fitting for someone as [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} spacey]] as her.
* NamedByDemocracy: Tomo gives her the name "Osaka" and the other girls outvote her before she can protest.
* NarratorAllAlong: Osaka's story about the girls being murdered on summer break ends with the reveal that she's the killer.
* NiceGirl: Despite her spaciness, she's one of the kindest and gentlest members of the cast. The closest she ever gets to acting mean is her failed attempt at scaring Chiyo with a tiny and ''very'' mild firecracker, and even then it only happens in the anime.
* NightmareFetishist: She's scared of thunderstorms, but seems to enjoy being scared by them. Later on, she excitedly runs to school in the middle of a typhoon, cheering and shouting "ain't it tough!"
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: While generally benign, her eccentricity sometimes ends up creeping other folks out. For instance, her suggestion of a haunted stuffed animal café for the school's culture festival unnerves the other girls once she reveals that its main schtick revolves around the place being full of ''dead'' animals. There's also the time she wanted to wake Yukari up by BangingPotsAndPans, but somehow grabbed a knife instead without noticing.
* NonIndicativeName: When Tomo coins her nickname, Ayumu protests by explaining how she'd moved through several different cities and only lived in Osaka briefly. A native of Japan would recognize those locales as cities in the Kansai region. But all it does is confuse Tomo, so "Osaka" sticks anyway; it's the only one she could remember.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Her name is Ayumu Kasuga, but Tomo convinces everyone to call her "Osaka" a few pages later. In the anime, she gets labeled as Osaka by the end of her ''first'' day. Unfortunately, it sticks, as even the ''school'' addresses her by that name: one moment in particular shows her looking at the class lists to see whose homeroom she was going to be in, by looking for "Ayumu Kasuga". She didn't see it, because her nickname had been posted instead.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: PlayedForLaughs. Osaka is normally incredibly easygoing and forgiving, but the one time she gets truly angry is when Tomo [[FelonyMisdemeanor breaks her chopsticks improperly]], since Osaka believes broken chopsticks have a direct effect on one's luck.
* PetitePride: Weakly claimed that "being [[UnusualEuphemism Japanese]] is fine." [[SubvertedTrope Ten seconds later]], she's yelling at Chiyo, because she might actually get boobs.
* PungeonMaster: She can figure out wordplay-based riddles instantaneously, and can even think up her own wordplay-centric jokes if she so desires.
* SeriousBusiness: If she tells you to break your chopsticks correctly, you ''better'' break them correctly. Lampooned in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEdnDF2lgaA this]] vid.
* SlasherSmile: One of the few hilarious examples of the trope, done while she's wielding a butcher knife![[note]]Osaka was only half awake at the time and had planned to wake up Yukari by banging on a frying pan. She didn't realize she had picked up a knife instead.[[/note]]
* {{Sleepyhead}}: She tends to doze off a lot of the time, be it in class, at a friend's house, or anywhere else that seems comfortable enough.
* TaremeEyes: Her eyes are drawn big, round, and innocent, befitting her gentle and hypnagogic personality.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Kagura]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/MitsukiSaiga (JP web short), Creator/HoukoKuwashima (JP series), Creator/AllisonSumrall (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kagura_7.png]]
A tanned girl who joins the main cast in the second year, Kagura gets transferred from Minamo's homeroom on Yukari's insistence to win the sports festival. She's very athletically inclined and the star member of the swim team, which makes Minamo her coach. She becomes close friends with Sakaki out of a desire to compete with her, and soon finds out [[ShrinkingViolet what she's really like]]. Though she puts fiery passion into anything she does, her hot-blooded exterior hides a tender heart.
----
* AdaptedOut: When "Osaka's Half Day" (the hiccups chapter) was adapted to the anime, it was placed much earlier in the series, before Kagura joined the main cast; consequently, Tomo ends up filling her role.
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Though Kagura's swarthy complexion in the summer is explicitly the result of tanning from outdoor sports, the anime still depicts her with slightly (but noticeably) darker skin than her peers in autumn and winter as well. This isn't the case in the manga's color illustrations or in ''Azumanga Web Daioh'', but it ''is'' carried over to the illustrations Azuma made for the series' tenth anniversary; either way it's never explained if this is due to her finding other ways to be active in the sun outside of summer or if her skin's just naturally like that.
* BigEater: Kagura can really put the food away, thanks to the energy burned by her non-stop athletic activities. But she doesn't gain weight, to [[WeightWoe Yomi]]'s annoyance.
* BoisterousBruiser: She's as loud and rowdy as Tomo but, unlike the latter, Kagura has a lot more steam to work with. Which she usually burns off with swim practice and jogging, after school.
* BoobBasedGag: Though less often than Sakaki, there are often jokes made about Kagura's boobs as well, one example being when Tomo suggests that Kagura can scare Osaka just by revealing her cup size. Unlike Sakaki, who's more distressed by the attention, Kagura tends to just get pissed off.
* BookDumb: A fact which bothers her to no end. She wants to do well in her studies, but she can't seem to grasp the material... even when she has help from [[ChildProdigy Chiyo]] and [[AcademicAthlete Sakaki]].
* BoyishShortHair: Her hair is cut above her shoulders, and suits her athletic nature and tomboyish looks along with her HotbloodedSideburns.
* BruiserWithASoftCenter: She's hot-blooded and loud, but also a total sweetheart and a reliable friend.
* CatchphraseInsult: She's fond of calling Tomo a moron.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: She's a quieter character in her first few appearances before her HotBlooded personality is fully established.
* ChekhovsGunman: She made several background appearances before becoming a main character.
* CompetitionFreak: She makes a big deal out of getting into competitions with Sakaki, likely in an effort to break through her UnknownRival status.
* DCupDistress: She frequently gets annoyed when Tomo makes jokes about her large chest, to the point where it becomes one of the most frequent things that the two argue about.
* DeclarationOfProtection: In one of her crowning moments, Kagura tells Sakaki she'll keep cats in the area from biting her and shoos them away when they come after her. While Sakaki appreciated the thought, she tells Kagura [[ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself she shouldn't run away from her problems.]]
* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: On occasion, she'll end up hurting someone when she means to help them out. When Osaka gets hiccups, Kagura thinks the best solution is to smack them out, and hits her hard enough that she doubles over.
* DumbJock: Not the sharpest tool in the shed (but not to the extent of [[{{CloudCuckoolander}} Osaka]]), unless sports are involved, that is. Unlike many examples, she is aware that she isn't academically gifted, and not at all content with it.
* EarlyBirdCameo:
** She first appears in the manga as a bit character, unnamed until the first sports festival (where Yukari learns she's Minamo's equivalent to Sakaki); she doesn't join the cast proper until volume 2.
** In the anime, Kagura first appears as a cameo in episode 4, but she makes her actual debut in episode 6.
* {{Foil}}: She almost comes off as a photo negative of Sakaki, with their athletic abilities and [[NoFullNameGiven single-name]] statuses being practically the only things they have in common. Sakaki is quiet and withdrawn; Kagura is loud and outgoing. Sakaki is academically successful but has her head in the clouds; Kagura is BookDumb but grounded. Sakaki is very feminine; Kagura is the most tomboyish of the main six girls. Sakaki isn't particularly interested in sports despite being good at them; Kagura's love of athletics is one of her defining characteristics.
* GratuitousEnglish: Invoked when she runs into a foreigner at an airport and tries to help him with his luggage. But since she does poorly in English class, HilarityEnsues.
* HeelFaceTurn: As close as it gets for the series. She is first properly introduced as a student in Nyamo's class, and set up as a rival for Sakaki in the Sports Festival. The next year, Yukari gets Kagura transferred to ''her'' class, and she soon slides into the group.
* HotbloodedSideburns: Kagura sports a pair of distinctively bushy sideburns that frame her cheeks. They fit her athletic skills and tomboyish attitude.
* ImageSong: "I Won't Be Defeated Tomorrow. Go! Friend!" where she sings about Sakaki, and "Lazy Crazy Bonkuras (Lazy Crazy Knuckleheads)", where she leads Tomo and Osaka.
* IndifferentBeauty: She feels this way in regard to her breasts. To her, they're just there. Which is why it annoys her whenever Tomo draws attention to her chest.
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: A downplayed example, since she only does it twice. When Osaka asks about her tan, Kagura pulls her shirt down, allowing Osaka to see how far her TanLines go (though we can't see what she's seeing since Kagura's back is to the camera). Osaka is ''very'' appreciative.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Despite appearances, she's actually a very kind person by nature, but her straightforward and fun-loving personality often ends up getting her into trouble. For example, during the third sports festival, she gets into lighthearted roughhousing with Tomo and ends up knocking down a tent Yomi and Chiyo were setting up. When this happens, she actually starts crying over ruining everyone's hard work, and she helps them set the tent back up.
* LovableJock: She's more aggressive compared to the rest of her classmates due to her sporty nature, but offsets this with a strong sense of empathy; the juxtaposition is occasionally used for gags where her attempts at helping people end up hurting them instead, like decking Osaka in the gut to treat her hiccups and knocking Tomo to the floor while trying to cheer her up.
* MagicSkirt: Subverted, since Kagura uses her hands to keep her skirt from flipping up during the intro.
* MistakenForSubculture: Osaka mentions that Kagura's summer tan makes her look like a [[ReallyGetsAround "player"]], suggesting that she might be mistaken for a GyaruGirl. Kagura's reply indicates that she worries about coming off like that.
* NeverGetsFat: Her athletic activities mean she eats quite a lot of food, but never puts on weight. Yomi, who's [[WeightWoe always watching her weight]], naturally gets incredibly pissed off upon learning this.
* NiceGirl: Despite her loud and boastful nature, Kagura is fundamentally a very kind, empathetic and good-natured girl at heart.
* NoFullNameGiven: Much like Sakaki, it's unknown if "Kagura" is her actual name, or her family name. Either way, everyone only calls her by that single name.
* OddCouple: With Sakaki. Both are great athletes, but Kagura is a brash LovableJock, while Sakaki is withdrawn and doesn't care much about sports.
* OnlySaneMan: After Yomi, she's probably the most normal and well-adjusted of the girls.
* PassionateSportsGirl: She's a strong all-around athlete, second only to Sakaki in talent. In one of the later episodes, Chiyo and the others see her practicing out on the track, after school. Kagura also mentions wanting to try out for the All Japan Women's swim team.
* SixthRanger: Although she is the one of the six main students of the series, she joins the group in their second year, roughly a third of the way in.
* TanLines: Kagura gets a deep tan in the summer due to the amount of time she spends outdoors between swimming and jogging, so she gains tanlines in the shape of her school swimsuit.
* TenderTears: Happens three times. The first was due to losing to Sakaki in the track race of the first Sports Fest, the second during the incident at the third Sports Fest (see the InnocentlyInsensitive entry), and the last one happens once they've graduated and are about to leave school, because she'd miss her friends and her teachers.
* {{Tomboy}}: A pretty straightforward example, from her [[BoyishShortHair appearance]], [[TheLadette attitude]], and [[LovableJock mannerisms]].
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: She's the tomboy to Sakaki's girly-girl, being an athletic sports-lover compared to Sakaki's focus on cute things.
* TsurimeEyes: She's drawn with smaller, but sharper-looking eyes similarly to Sakaki, though her aforementioned TomboyAndGirlyGirl dynamic with Sakaki shows how different the two are in personalities despite having this trope in common.
* UnknownRival: Initially to Sakaki. Immediately becomes a regular [[TheRival rival]] to Tomo, due to constant arguing and the fact that they're both addicted to competition.
[[/folder]]

!!The Teachers

[[folder:Yukari Tanizaki]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/AkikoHiramatsu (JP), Creator/LuciChristian (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yukari_5.png]]
The girls' homeroom and English teacher, but, unfortunately, not the most responsible sort. Yukari is often late for work for various reasons, like [[NotAMorningPerson oversleeping]], and has been known to cancel class to have P.E. instead. She's also fiercely competitive with her long-time friend, Minamo Kurosawa, due to the latter's popularity with her students. Basically, she's like the crazy aunt -- [[DrivesLikeCrazy she even drives like it]] while in her [[TheAllegedCar banged-up car]]. Even so, she takes her profession [[BunnyEarsLawyer very seriously]], and is quick to correct those who underestimate her.
----
* AlwaysLate: Despite being a teacher who despises laziness from her students, she is [[SenseiChan so lazy and immature herself]] that she frequently shows up late to her own class. Usually it's because of her poor sleep schedule, preferring to doze off rather than get up on time, while other times it might be due to things like showing up to the wrong class or getting stuck in line for the newest Platform/PlayStation game. Eventually, her friend and coworker Nyamo starts driving her to school, allowing her to start showing up on time more often.
* ApatheticTeacher: She gets bored with her job easily. The show's opening even shows her sleeping at her desk. You know she's that apathetic when she comes back from summer vacation and ''one of her own students'' has to convince her to get motivated. [[HypocriticalHumor On the other hand,]] she's quick to smack students for sleeping in class themselves.
* {{Beergasm}}: She ''loves'' her beer, but can't hold it at all.
* BerserkButton: While [[HairTriggerTemper it's generally not hard to get her angry]], some things are guaranteed to get her to throw a childish fit:
** Any time Minamo is treated nicely by her students will [[GreenEyedMonster make her very jealous]], especially when Minamo gets birthday presents from the students while she doesn't (though it's pointed out that Yukari's birthday is during the summer break, so it's hard for her students to give her anything).
** Anyone who's [[ConspicuousConsumption eaten expensive foods]] or gone on vacation somewhere that she hasn't will always be on the receiving end of her wrath.
** Calling her dumb is a big one. When Chiyo suggested that [[BookDumb Osaka]] could become a teacher, Yukari immediately got on Chiyo's case about it and took it as an insult to her intelligence. Considering she's a BunnyEarsLawyer, she's justified in taking offense.
* BlahBlahBlah: Yukari tries speaking to a foreigner in English, which the viewer isn't supposed to understand anyway. In the English dub, this turns into French.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: She's lazy, immature and frequently shows up late to her own classes, but her English comprehension is spotless. When Chiyo gets a look at her friends' college entrance exams, she finds them rather dull, saying Yukari's tests are much more interesting and creative. Despite her lackadaisical attitude towards her job, she does seem to take it seriously to ''some'' degree; when Chiyo suggests that Osaka could become a teacher, she gets pissed off at the implication that teaching is something "stupid" people can do.
* ButNowIMustGo: She invokes this near the end of the final episode/chapter, after a few parting words with her students.
* CantHoldHerLiquor: To the point that Minamo takes measures to prevent her from getting drunk.
* ChuckingChalk: Once manages a double shot upside Osaka and Kagura's heads.
* ConspicuousConsumption: She gets ''very'' envious of anyone who's indulged in this, especially eating expensive foods like Matsusaka beef or snow crab, to the point where she'll aggressively ''attack'' anyone fortunate enough to have experienced anything of interest before her.
* DecoyProtagonist: A downplayed example. Yukari is the very first character the audience is introduced to, and the early strips of the manga focus heavily on her. While she's still a main character to the end, it gradually becomes clear that her students are the actual focus of the series.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Yukari is, hands down, the queen of crazy driving. The "[[TheAllegedCar Yukarimobile]]" is a force to be reckoned with, and far more beat up than any less-than-seven-years-old car has the right to be. In fact, she was the page image for a long time. On the plus side, riders of the Yukarimobile report no longer being scared of roller coasters (probably because at least roller coasters, though designed to thrill and frighten, are also designed to be ''safe'').
* DualWielding: With a pair of lunch trays, when she beat the hell out of Tomo [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6jswbyEi54 for making the mistake of hitting her.]]
* FirstNameBasis: The only teacher addressed by the students as such. [[note]]Yukari-sensei or Miss Yukari, depending on the dub.[[/note]] Tomo goes the extra mile and calls her [[SenseiChan Yukari-chan]].
* GamerChick:
** In the first volume, she once arrives late to class because she got stuck waiting in line for a new Platform/PlayStation game (the special edition of a game for an unspecified platform in the anime). When Chiyo expresses surprise that she's a gamer, Yukari replies that she loves how games let her forget about the real world... plus, she can always hit the reset button when she screws up. She's seen wearing a "Level 99" FunTShirt in later bumper art.
** In the second volume, Nyamo decides to play a game on Yukari's [=PlayStation=] after unsuccessfully trying to wake her up for a trip to a local ramen place, only for the console's startup sound to instantly get Yukari out of bed, asking Nyamo if she can join in.
* GeniusDitz: Regardless of how childish she can be, she's still an English teacher, and thus she's very proficient in the subject, and language in general. This is particularly lampshaded when Yukari recites a lengthy speech in English, to the girls' amazement, while Nyamo protests that it's not that impressive because it's her ''job''.
* GratuitousEnglish: [[InconsistentDub Inconsistently dubbed]] into GratuitousSpanish. Justified given that she is an English teacher, and lampshaded early in the anime, where Yukari spouting off "Oh, good! Fine! Fantastic!" is immediately followed by a caption reading "apparently, an English teacher".
* GreenEyedMonster: Quite a few of her {{Berserk Button}}s relate to someone having or experiencing something she hasn't, such as Minamo getting birthday presents from her students, [[OldMaid one of her friends getting married]], or finding out that someone has eaten [[ConspicuousConsumption expensive foods]].
* HairTriggerTemper: It doesn't take much to make her angry. She spends about half her screentime being pissed off about something or other.
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: As noted above, Yukari tends to drink a ''lot'' and loves partaking in wild activities, much to the rest of the school faculty's concern.
* HatesRichPeople: Yukari is overall a very envious figure, but she gets particularly irate whenever she sees someone displaying a higher level of affluence than her. Among other incidents: when Nyamo gets a memory foam pillow, Yukari hits her and calls her "damn bourgeois"; she outright calls Nyamo ''evil'' for receiving a handbag from her class; and when Chiyo gleefully states that she's had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsusaka_beef matsusaka beef]] (which is both highly-prized and highly-priced) before, Yukari smacks her in the face.
* HeroStoleMyBike: In one strip, the chain on Yukari's bike falls off while she's running late for work. When a student pulls over to fix it, she steals his bike and speeds off. In the first episode of the anime, this is her EstablishingCharacterMoment.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Nyamo. Both of them are unmarried women who are seemingly inseparable despite their differences.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: Seen when she tries to cheer up Osaka, by letting her know she'd still be in her homeroom class for her senior year. And in the finale, where she shares a few parting words to Kagura and her class.
* HotTeacher: In-universe, she attempts to invoke the image of a sexy teacher to stroke her own ego. Her EstablishingCharacterMoment in the manga is teasing a male student about her measurements, and when she wears a bikini to the school pool, she asks Nyamo if her figure is "too stimulating for these innocent young minds" while smugly smiling. It doesn't work, because her personality is so unruly and childish that none of the students are interested in her. Tomo lampshades it later on, saying "you look better when you're not talking".
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** She frequently mocks Nyamo's OldMaid status, despite being one herself and showing obvious jealousy when a friend of hers gets married.
** She's quick to call Osaka out for falling AsleepInClass, but she tends to be a {{Sleepyhead}} herself and can be [[ApatheticTeacher rather apathetic towards her own classes]]. The anime's opening even shows her falling asleep at her desk.
* ImageSong: "I Shall Take a Break From Being an Adult, and Go Out" and "Tenshoku Equal Kaikan no Housoku (My Career is the Law of Fun)", both of which are shared with Nyamo, with the latter also featuring [[DirtyOldMan Kimura]].
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Picture Tomo as an adult. While she's immature, temperamental, and prone to taking out her frustrations on her own students (and she's not above picking on Chiyo just for the fun of it), she's not incapable of being a good person. This is best shown at the end of the series, where she comforts her students as they come to terms with graduating, and they thank her for everything in return.
* KarmaHoudini: Always gets away with [[SadistTeacher abusing her students]] (especially Chiyo, [[WouldHurtAChild a 10-to 13-year old girl]]). And nothing is ever said as to whether she got in trouble for hitting Tomo with cafeteria plates. To be fair, though, Tomo hit Yukari first while aiming for Yomi, but teachers are never supposed to retaliate.
* KeepItForeign: In the anime dub, Yukari changes from being an English teacher to a foreign language and grammar teacher. It's similar for the ADV run of the manga, which flips back and forth between her teaching English or foreign languages, but the Yen Press run is consistent with her teaching English.
* LateForSchool: Since she's a heavy sleeper and she takes her bike to school, she often ends up being late. Minamo eventually takes pity on her and starts driving her to school, which at least helps her get there on time.
* MsViceGirl: Hoo boy, let's see here...
** When she found out Minamo had a star athlete on her track team, she decided to nose around and find out who it was. Then she tried to slip her a sweet bun (possibly laced with... ''something''). Though we'll never know, since Minamo caught her in the act.
** The following year, Yukari pulled strings to get Kagura in her class, effectively stealing Minamo's star athlete to stack the odds in her favor for the next Sports Fest, since she now had Kagura ''and'' Sakaki on her team.
** On one, of several, occasions she decided to teach PE, she split her class into teams and sided with Tomo and Yomi, vs Osaka, Kaorin, and Chiyo, two of whom she knew sucked at sports and had no chance against a teacher. Until Minamo evened the odds, by switching in for Chiyo.
** And she frequently makes bets with Minamo, and makes promises to her students -- like saying she'd buy them juice if they won the next Sports Fest -- but finds ways to renege each time it's time for her to pay up. [[SoLongSuckers Even if it means hightailing it!]]
* NoodleIncident: She's managed to [[ShameIfSomethingHappened buy Minamo's silence about her high school days]] with a mere mention of a love letter she once wrote.
* NotAMorningPerson: Between drinking and laziness, in general. It's one of the main reasons she's usually late for work.
* OddFriendship: With Minamo, being a raucous and childish figure compared to Minamo's relative maturity (most of the time).
* OldMaid: Despite being at least in her mid-20s, Yukari implies during the first summer trip that she's never been in any romantic or sexual relationships. While the fact that she's still single at her age isn't as pronounced with her as it is with Nyamo, she's still clearly bothered by it. She once gives her class a pop quiz just because one of her friends got married. The next day, however, she seems smug that her friend had apparently "rushed into things". This is in sharp contrast to Nyamo, who reveals (while drunk) a year later that she has a ''very'' storied past in this regard.
* OneOfTheKids: She graduated high school, but never left. As the series goes on, she spends more and more time with the main cast, and she's not much more mature than they are.
* ObliviouslyEvil: Apparently? Abusing her students [[WouldHurtAChild (including Chiyo)]] [[DisproportionateRetribution for doing such things]], being a overall GreenEyedMonster (especially when Minamo gets birthday presents from the students), [[UnsportsmanlikeGloating even mocking and taunting the opposing team]]. That's how you know how a JerkAss Yukari is.
* PetTheDog: Episode 10 gives her two surprisingly nice moments in contrast to her [[{{jerkass}} normal personality]], when she reassures Chiyo and Osaka that they'll still be in her class with all of their friends, and when she tries to help Kaorin with her flower picking that'll "decide" if she'll be in the same class as Sakaki.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Tomo tries to smack Yomi in the face with a dinner tray, complete with a [[MundaneMadeAwesome slow-motion jumping attack]], but misses, and whacks [[OhCrap Yukari in the face]]. Cue scary music and a slow-motion reveal of Yukari's glowing red eyes, then cutting to her whapping the ''living hell'' out of Tomo with ''two'' trays.
* SadistTeacher: She frequently abuses her students for such things as going on vacation to Hokkaido or eating expensive foods, and isn't above teasing or even hitting Chiyo just because she's the youngest and smallest student in her class.
* SenseiChan: The TropeCodifier. Despite being a teacher, she's a temperamental {{Womanchild}} who's OneOfTheKids (to the point that she's the only teacher in the series who's on FirstNameBasis with her students) and is shown to [[OldMaid be jealous when her friends get married]].
* {{Sleepyhead}}: She often falls asleep in class ''while'' she's teaching, and even on her off days, she tends to sleep in until well into the afternoon. Apparently, she finds it very difficult to wake up with an alarm clock, so she has to get her mother or Minamo to wake her up.
* TheShameless: Yukari Tanizaki makes Tomo look like an amateur. She DrivesLikeCrazy, makes unreasonable demands of her childhood friend Nyamo, is not quite TheAlcoholic, but near enough that Nyamo worries about her drinking around her students on vacation, and makes bets with other teachers about her student's performances during the Sports Fest (though she at least bets in favor of her own class). She even gives a speech in {{Engrish}} about how she is not afflicted with shame, and is merely fascinated by the Japanese view of the subject.
* TaremeEyes: She has wide eyes that fit with her eccentric personality.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: She and Nyamo are the adult versions of this trope. Which one's which gets played with quite a bit: Yukari tends to be more energetic and typically partakes in more traditionally masculine activities like drinking and sports, but her occupation as an English teacher is much more traditionally feminine than Nyamo's job as a gym teacher. Additionally, Yukari implies during the first summer trip that her private life's completely chaste, contrasting Nyamo's more promiscuous history.
* VagueAge: It's implied she's at least in her mid-20s, but her exact age is never clarified. It's more notable in that the ages of the main girls are all concretely accounted for.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Nyamo. The two are constantly at their throats, but have remained close friends since high school and are perfectly content with staying friends.
* WackyHomeroom: Yukari isn't above engaging in her students' hijinks, at one point calling off class so they can go to the gym instead.
* WomanChild: Despite being an adult, she can be rather immature, which is often {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by her students and her fellow teacher, Minamo. She tends to throw temper tantrums or sulk like a little kid when things don't go her way, and even goes so far as to ditch her own class on a whim to go swimming, or goof off playing sports, depending on her mood. On one occasion, she's late for work because she'd been stuck in line to buy a Platform/PlayStation game. On top of all that, she's unmarried and still living with her parents.
* WouldHurtAChild: She isn't above smacking around poor Chiyo, just because she's the youngest student in her class and thus the easiest to pick on.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Minamo "Nyamo" Kurosawa]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/AkikoHiramatsu (JP web short), Creator/AyaHisakawa (JP series), Creator/MonicaRial (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nyamo.png]]
The school's gym teacher and swim team coach. Minamo is a very diligent and caring teacher, especially in contrast to Yukari, and many students look up to her. She's been friends with Yukari, who refers to her as "Nyamo," since at least high school. Given Yukari's personality, [[OddFriendship one wonders how they stayed friends so long]]. She usually acts as the voice of reason to Yukari, but the two often end up getting into fights over trivial matters.
----
* AmbiguouslyBi: While she apparently has a ''lot'' of experience with men, Yukari implies that she sent somebody a love letter while they were in school together; considering they went to ''an all-girls' school'', it's likely she sent said letter to another girl.
* BerserkButton: Don't mock her about being single and unmarried, and don't bring up [[DumbJock the stereotype of gym teachers being stupid]], either.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: As cute and kind as she is, she can get scary when she's pissed off. This is especially apparent in the manga.
* BookDumb: Though not quite as bad as Tomo, Osaka or Kagura, she still has trouble helping her students out with their homework when asked. She claims that she was good at it back when she was a student, so she likely just doesn't remember the answers anymore.
* BoyishShortHair: Most of her hair is rather short aside from her longer locks of hair in the front, which is fitting with her athletic skills and her job as a gym teacher.
* CornerOfWoe: During the third beach episode, she is unable to help the students with their studying and even gets shown up by Yukari, resulting in her huddling in the corner.
* DumbJock: Played with; she's a gym teacher who's very down-to-earth and emotionally intelligent, and [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure many students look to her for social advice]], but she struggles with academic subjects like English. This puts her in direct contrast with Yukari, who is [[BunnyEarsLawyer academically gifted, but socially hopeless]]. The "dumb jock" stereotype is a major source of insecurity for Nyamo, something Yukari frequently exploits (in one instance leaving Nyamo alone with an English-speaking tourist just to watch her suffer).
* EarlyBirdCameo: Appears in the second episode of the anime, unnamed, before being formally introduced in the next episode.
* GoodBadGirl: Nyamo is the most down-to-earth member of the series' cast, as well as one of the most good-hearted, to the point where her reputation among the school is nothing but stellar. During the girls' second summer trip, she drinks all the alcohol Yukari bought to keep her from engaging in any drunken shenanigans, only to get drunk herself and prattle on about her sex life at Tomo's provocation. As it turns out, Nyamo is ''very'' storied in this regard, with the girls still awestruck when they greet her the next day.
* HeroicBSOD: Nyamo has a massive one the morning after she got totally drunk and gave some... ''extracurricular education''... to the girls, and again when Yukari one-ups her with her mad GratuitousEnglish skills.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Yukari. Both of them are unmarried women who are seemingly inseparable despite their differences.
* ImageSong: "I Shall Take a Break From Being an Adult, and Go Out" and "Tenshoku Equal Kaikan no Housoku (My Career is the Law of Fun)", both of which are shared with Yukari, with the latter also featuring Kimura.
* InVinoVeritas: During the second beach episode, she drinks all the alcohol to avoid the disaster if Yukari gets drunk instead. She winds up giving the girls TheTalk and then some.
* NaughtyByNight: While normally the most grounded and down-to-earth member of the cast, her drunken rant during the second summer trip and the girls' reactions to it imply that her sex life is ''very'' storied.
* NiceGirl: She cares a great deal about her students and doesn't talk down to them, resulting in her being much more popular among them compared to Yukari.
* NoodleIncident:
** Yukari's managed to buy Nyamo's silence on their high school years just by mentioning an incident with a "love letter".
** During the second summer trip, she has too much to drink and gathers the girls to impart some "serious-business" wisdom. [[RelaxOVision Music drowns out anything she says, but the epic imagery, soundtrack]], and the girls' rapt attention (plus her being drunk) [[TakeOurWordForIt suggests to the viewer]] she is telling them something inappropriate but awesome.
* NotSoAboveItAll: The incident where she gets drunk and rants about her sex life to the girls implies that, behind her maturity and status as Yukari's anchor on the realities of adulthood, she's actually far wilder in private than Yukari.
* OddFriendship: With Yukari, being a relatively calm and collected individual compared to Yukari's energetic childishness.
* OldMaid: Despite being in her mid-20s and despite having had a very active past with other partners, she's still single by the start of the series, much to her dismay. An entire episode original to the anime has her set up on a potential arranged marriage by her parents, which causes her much grief.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Though her students properly refer to her as "Kurosawa-sensei" or "Miss Kurosawa", Yukari exclusively refers to her as "Nyamo" rather than her real name, which means she's very rarely referred to as "Minamo".
* OnlySaneWoman: She's the only adult in the series who is even remotely professional or competent and therefore frequently serves this role, especially in scenes with Yukari.
* OnlyFriend: It's glaringly obvious that she's Yukari's only friend, presumably because [[{{Jerkass}} she's the only person willing to tolerate her]].
* PassionateSportsGirl: The adult version of this trope; she especially takes the sports festival ''very'' seriously.
* ReallyGetsAround: Yukari implies that Nyamo's had many, ''many'' dates over the years, which is indirectly confirmed when the latter gets drunk and starts ranting about sex. She's still single, though.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The only one the show has, which is likely why she chaperones the kids during their summer trips.
* SenseiChan: A TropeCodifier along with Yukari, though she's more of a downplayed case; while she's more mature and responsible compared to Yukari, she's still an attractive young female teacher who's close to her students and self-conscious about the fact that she's unmarried.
* StraightMan: She acts as Yukari's foil most of the time, though she's not above engaging with her antics.
* TaremeEyes: Slightly softer than Yukari's to reflect her gentle nature.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: She and Yukari are the adult versions of this trope. Which one is which tends to get played with quite a bit: Nyamo's more collected than the energetic Yukari and takes a more maternal role to her students, but she works as a gym teacher (a more typically masculine job position compared to Yukari's classroom teacher occupation) and reveals while drunk that she has a much wilder sex life.
* VagueAge: Like Yukari, it's implied she's at least in her mid-20s (and presumably near the same age as Yukari, as they were high school classmates), but never specifically clarified.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Yukari. The two scarcely seem to get along and are very frequently at each other's throats, but have remained close friends since high school and wouldn't trade that for the world.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Kimura]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/KoujiIshii (JP), Creator/AndyMcAvin (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/worst_character_in_the_show.png]]
The series' [[TheOneGuy lone male teacher]] -- indeed, the ''only'' male character in the main cast, if [[CartoonCreature Chiyo's dad]] isn't counted. Kimura is known for his perpetual open-mouthed stare and his [[{{Ephebophile}} fixation with high school girls]]. ''Especially'' Kaorin, to her despair. As such, he's the most bizarre of the girls' instructors. Despite this, he's HappilyMarried to a beautiful, loving [[GratuitousEnglish waifu]], with whom he has a daughter.
----
* AbhorrentAdmirer: To Kaorin, pulling strings to get her in his homeroom class during her senior year, giving her special treatment above the other students, and openly referring to her by her nickname, all to her displeasure.
* AllMenArePerverts: The male students are "deeply moved" by his open acknowledgement of his motivation for becoming a teacher.
* AudienceSurrogate: A case could be made for him being this. As a teacher who only got the job because he "likes high school girls", he represents the adult demographic who read the series solely for the {{Fanservice}} rather than the plot. Given how [[HatedByAll everyone reacts to his antics]] and how the series doesn't actually have much fanservice in the first place, it borders on ThisLoserIsYou.
* CasanovaWannabe: Despite being married, he occasionally makes passes at Yukari and Minamo, though the two of them are clearly not interested.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: He's the only major character absent from the "Extra Lessons" chapters written for the 10th anniversary.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: From designing cosplay costumes, to unintentionally scaring the crap outta the girls with his sudden appearances and oddball behavior, Kimura is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8goZv7c6ork just. Plain. Weird.]]
* DemotedToExtra: When the series reaches the third year, he starts appearing far less often due to the main girls no longer being in his class, and he only shows up a handful of times for the rest of the manga. The anime slightly changes this by giving him some extra appearances, including a scene during the final episode where he harasses Kaorin one last time, whereas he doesn't appear at all in the manga's final chapter.
* DirtyOldMan: Kimura became a teacher [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0DA7AYtlf4 because he likes high school girls]] but, unlike most examples, he seems content with staring at them. Or, he'll make lewd, albeit odd, requests. Such as complaining about the swim team not tending their noodle stall in their swimsuits, or asking for a glass of water from the pool where the girls swim.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Makes a brief voiceless appearance in the anime's first episode, a good 3 episodes before he's properly introduced later on.
* {{Ephebophile}}: When Tomo asks why he became a teacher, he blatantly admits that this is the reason. Kimura will take opportunities to stare where he can get them, going so far as to ditch his own class (much like Yukari) to sit in on Minamo's swim class. A few strips imply that he simply has an intense uniform fetish that ignores age restrictions (including making a pass at Yukari and Minamo when they wear their old SailorFuku for the costume race), but that doesn't stop his creeping on teenagers from being the main focus of his character.
* EvilLaugh: Done while dancing with Kaorin at the conclusion of the first sports festival (the second, in the anime).
* {{Fetish}}: For [[SailorFuku high school uniforms]], apparently, judging by his reaction when Yukari and Minamo wore them for the sports festival's costume race.
* {{Gonk}}: His perpetually slack-jawed expression, blocky face, and lanky body make for a visually comedic presentation in addition to his bizarre nature. The anime even amplifies this by giving him a number of distinctly inhuman motions for visual comedy (his owl-like head turns during the opening being a standout example).
* HatedByAll: ''Nobody'' in the main cast enjoys being around Kimura, only begrudgingly tolerating his presence at best. The male student body seems to admire his honesty, but even they're rendered uncomfortable by his [[{{gonk}} odd behavior]]. The only person who seems to truly like him is [[HappilyMarried his waifu]].
* HappilyMarried: His wife loves him unconditionally and finds him quite handsome. [[WhatDoesSheSeeInHim She seems to have a hard time explaining why when pressed.]]
* HotForStudent: Just about any one of the girls will do, but he's especially taken with Kaorin. Osaka is shown to be the only one he has no interest in, and he also doesn't appear to be interested in Chiyo other than a passing comment that "high school is high school".
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: It's shown that he donates to charity, picks up litter, wishes for world peace and has a wife who loves him. But right when anyone witnessing these things thinks better of him, he immediately launches into disgusting comments and making passes. All of Kimura's seemingly redeeming qualities mean nothing when the man himself is such a boorish pervert, and they certainly don't excuse his behavior. Yukari thinks it just makes him ''worse.''
--> '''Yukari''': When a scumbag like that does something good, it makes him even more of a scumbag! How can ''he'' be an altruist?!
* NoFullNameGiven: Kimura's first name is never given.
* TheOneGuy: Technically, there are two or three other male characters who are seen more than once, but [[NominalImportance they don't have names]]. He's also the only male character who appears in the opening, besides Chiyo's dad.
* OpaqueLenses: All the time. Not once do you see his eyes, or what he looks like without his glasses.
* PetTheDog: He picks up litter and donates large sums to charity while wishing for world peace. However, he ruins almost every single of these moments with a disgusting line.
-->'''Mr. Kimura''': Well, now that I donated $100 to the orphanage, let's go for some peeping!
* SanitySlippage: A comedic example. Kimura seems to be a fairly normal teacher at first; it isn't until Tomo asks him why he became a teacher that he seems to ''crack'', gaining his signature slacked jaw while openly admitting his fetishes. Tomo and Yomi are both greatly confused by this turn of events.
* ScaryShinyGlasses: A number of shots in the anime feature a bright glare coming off of Kimura's glasses, which, combined with his strange movements, emphasizes his creepy nature. This even extends to his split-second cameo in the intro of ''Azumanga Web Daioh''.
* TheShameless: Mr. Kimura has absolutely no qualms about telling his students that he became a teacher because he "likes high school girls". He's married and has a daughter, but he openly shows a great deal of interest in Kaorin, despite her constant efforts to rebuff him.
* StealthHiBye: He has a habit of making sudden appearances, which usually startles the girls. Then he just sort of wanders off.
* UglyGuyHotWife: And an [[TheUglyGuysHotDaughter adorable daughter]]. It's notable that he actually looks much more normal when his perpetually-slackjawed expression isn't present.
* UnexpectedKindness: Occasionally, he does something decent despite his usual DirtyOldMan personality (i.e. donating to charity and picking up litter), which surprises the girls. They think he must have some good in him, and then it's immediately subverted when [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk he says something perverted, proving them all wrong.]]
[[/folder]]

!! Other Characters

[[folder:Kaori "Kaorin"]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/SakuraNogawa (JP), Creator/TiffanyGrant (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaorin.png]]
Kaori, or Kaorin as she's more commonly called, is an easily-flustered girl who occasionally hangs out with the main group. Initially a prominent member of the cast, she's gradually demoted to a supporting character, alongside her friend Chihiro. She ''[[SingleTargetSexuality really]]'' admires Sakaki.
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* BigNo: Invoked when she sees a picture of Tomo sleeping in the same bed as Sakaki. Since Tomo tosses and turns in her sleep, the picture makes it seem as if she's cuddling with her.
* CanNotSpitItOut: Kaorin has a major girl-crush on Sakaki, but never manages to tell her up front.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: A very early strip in the manga has Kaorin very flippantly brushing off Sakaki after asking her to join the astronomy club. While it's likely due to being intimidated by her DeathGlare, it still comes across as mean-spirited and out-of-character compared to Kaorin's later behavior. The 2009 reprint changes this so that it's clearer she's flustered by Sakaki's response and having second thoughts as a result.
* ClosetGay: The one time anyone ever bothers to ask if she's gay, she vehemently denies it. [[TransparentCloset Despite openly fawning over Sakaki every chance she gets]].
* DemotedToExtra: Despite numerous attempts to avoid it. In the early chapters of the manga she has roughly the same prominence as Sakaki or Yomi, but from around the time Osaka is introduced Kaorin starts to fade into the background. The demotion is solidified by the time of the first summer trip, which she doesn't join. In the anime she isn't demoted as quickly (or as far), but she's also more obviously a supporting character from the start. The Extra Lessons attempt to offset this by giving her a bigger role in the gang's third year.
* DiggingYourselfDeeper: After Osaka asks if she's gay, she first corrects Osaka by saying that the proper term is "lesbian," denies being a lesbian, claims that her feelings for Sakaki are just "a teenage thing," then wraps up by saying she'd feel the same way if Sakaki was a guy. All this does is greatly confuse Osaka.
* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: On the first day of her third year in high school, as soon as she learns that she's in ''Mr. Kimura's'' homeroom class.
* {{Fangirl}}: She's a huge Sakaki fangirl, constantly fawning over her and gushing about how cool she thinks she is.
* FlashStep: When Tomo tries to photobomb her while she's taking pictures of Sakaki, she responds by flash-stepping away to get Sakaki at a different angle. Even Tomo is surprised.
* FriendlyAddressPrivileges:
** She pointedly asks Kimura not to call her by her nickname. Kimura tries to even it out by letting her call him "Kimurin", but that just makes things worse.
** Inversely, during her New Year's dream, she imagines herself bonding more closely with Sakaki by telling her to drop the nickname and just call her Kaori.
* GayRomanticPhase: Invoked. She very unconvincingly claims that her crush on Sakaki is just "a teenage thing" when asked about it by Osaka.
* HeroicBSOD: She has a minor one when she finds out she wouldn't be in Yukari's class for her senior year. She gets stuck being in ''Kimura's''.
* HurricaneOfExcuses: When Osaka asks if she's gay, she says that the correct term is "lesbian", [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial denies being a lesbian]], insists her feelings for Sakaki are just "[[GayRomanticPhase a teenage thing]]", claims that she was merely platonically admiring her coolness, and just to prove she's ''not'' a lesbian, says [[SingleTargetSexuality she wouldn't mind if Sakaki was a guy]].
* ImageSong: Two of them, surprisingly. "Wind of Mon-Ami" and "[=TeaRose=] de Nemurimashou (Let's Sleep with the Tea Rose)".
* ImmediateSelfContradiction:
** In the first year, Kaorin apologizes for not going to Chiyo's summer house, explaining that her club's trip was on the same day. Then Tomo shows her pictures with Sakaki in them, and her response is to ask Tomo why she didn't go.
** When Kaorin comes along for the third summer trip to Chiyo's summer house, she explains that she gets carsick and would prefer not to ride with [[DrivesLikeCrazy Yukari]]. After Sakaki volunteers to ride with Yukari in her place, Kaorin immediately insists on riding with her, ''even if it kills her!''
** The correct terminology for a gay woman is "lesbian", not that she ''is'' a lesbian, her feelings for Sakaki are just a "teenage thing", and she was just platonically gushing over Sakaki's coolness anyway, and just to prove she's not a lesbian, she wouldn't mind if Sakaki was a guy... Osaka became confused by that explanation.
* LovingAShadow: While she never confesses her feelings, Kaorin's crush on Sakaki is based entirely on Sakaki's superficial qualities, admiring her coolness as an AloofDarkHairedGirl and AcademicAthlete. What Kaorin doesn't realize is that Sakaki is actually a ShrinkingViolet and a KindheartedCatLover, and her image as cool and rugged comes entirely from people misinterpreting her intimidating looks and lack of social skills.
* NoFullNameGiven: Kaori is only ever referred to by either her first name or her nickname.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Everyone calls Kaorin by her nickname -- even Kimura, to her dismay. Her mother is the only one who consistently calls her Kaori.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Kaorin has eyes for no one but Sakaki. She even claims that she "wouldn't mind if Sakaki was a guy".
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Except for the differences in age and height, she looks exactly like her mother.
* StraightMan: Due to her fairly levelheaded personality, this is the role she tends to play around the others... when Sakaki isn't involved, at least. It's likely why she gradually faded into the background (as Yomi ends up making a better comedic foil), but she still gets in the occasional wry comment.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: After correcting Osaka on the proper terminology, she tries to amend it by saying she isn't a lesbian.
* ThrowTheDogABone: A couple times during the Sports Fest, she manages to get close to Sakaki on mutually friendly terms: the first year, she becomes Sakaki's partner during the folk dance (though Kimura immediately yanks this away by being her next partner). The second year, Sakaki fills in for Chihiro during the three-legged race, to Kaorin's blissful content.
* TransparentCloset: It's pretty obvious that Kaorin has the hots for Sakaki, although she tries to play it off. It gets a massive LampshadeHanging from Osaka in the Extra Lessons.
* WonderTwinPowers: She and Chihiro invoke this when they reveal that they were the ones who made Chiyo's penguin costume for the cultural festival.
-->'''Yomi:''' "Penguin costume..?"\\
'''Kaorin: (slides onscreen, pointing at herself)''' "Yes. For I, Kaorin--"\\
'''Chihiro: (slides next to her, pointing to herself)''' "...and I, Chihiro--"\\
'''Kaorin and Chihiro: (in unison, doing high-five)''' "...combined our abilities and [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment specially made this special costume!"]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Chihiro]]
!!!Voiced by: Akane Omae (JP), Creator/HilaryHaag (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chihiro_5.png]]
Chihiro's another girl who sits in the background most of the time. Little is known about her other than the fact that she's Kaorin's best friend, who's sometimes seen with her and Yomi early on in the manga.
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* BoyishShortHair: As seen in the picture. It gets to the point that she can easily be mistaken for a crossdressing boy.
* DemotedToExtra: She starts out as a recurring character who is friends with Yomi and Kaorin, even serving as a third party to the former's interactions with Tomo early in the manga, but as the series goes on she appears less often and by the third year she becomes a non-speaking background character, not even getting a single line of dialogue in the final episode. In the manga she straight up vanishes in the third year and is never seen again, save for a cameo during the third Sports Festival chapter where she's dressed as... [[Anime/SpiritedAway Chihiro!]]
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: She's forced briefly drop out during the second Sports Fest, due to spraining her ankle. But the nurse checks it out and says it's okay, in time for her to take part in the three-legged race. Problem was, Yukari had already replaced her with Sakaki. So when Chihiro tries to give Kaorin the good news, Kaorin ''hisses'' at her. Chihiro takes the hint and slides outta frame, wishing her luck.
* NoFullNameGiven: She's only ever referred to as Chihiro throughout the series.
* SatelliteCharacter: To Yomi and Kaorin, and mildly to Yukari.
* ShoutOut: She dresses up like Chihiro from ''Anime/SpiritedAway'' during the sport festival's costume race in the third year. Complimenting this, her partner during the event is wearing a No Face costume.
* ThoseTwoGirls: Sometimes fills this role together with Kaorin, especially later on.
* WonderTwinPowers: Covered in Kaorin's section.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Chiyo's Dad (Chiyo-chichi)]]
!!!Voiced by: Creator/NorioWakamoto (JP), Creator/JasonDouglas (EN)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chiyo_dad.png]]

A giant floating orange-yellow cat... [[CartoonCreature thing]] that sometimes pops up in Sakaki's and Osaka's dreams. He generally speaks with [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness flowery language]] in a [[LargeHam booming voice]] and says [[SurrealHumor strange things]]. An enigmatic being whose true nature is never explained, he claims that he's Chiyo's father, but it's hard to understand why he's never at the house.
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* AmbiguouslyRelated: Whether or not he's ''actually'' Chiyo's dad as he claims is never made clear, as the two are never seen together outside of {{Dream Sequence}}s and {{Imagine Spot}}s. In the rare moments that Sakaki mentions his abilities and traits to Chiyo, she seems genuinely confused, muddling the issue even further.
* BerserkButton:
** Suggesting that he's not a real cat and comparing him to disliked politicians quickly infuriates him.
** Don't show anything red around him. Don't tell him you have a "cat's tongue" either, or he'll rip it out.
** Don't call him unique. He ''hates'' uniqueness.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: His morals are very strange and incomprehensible at times. For example, he hates tomatoes solely because they are red (since he seems to find the color red deeply discomforting for some reason), and doesn't understand why Chiyo enjoys eating them. He also threatens to rip Osaka's tongue out when she says she has a cat's tongue (meaning she dislikes spicy foods).
* DotingParent: [[ZigZaggingTrope Sometimes.]] Sakaki's daydreams tend to have him doting on Chiyo by giving her gifts and protecting her, but Sakaki's New Year's dream also has him ordering Chiyo to eat tomatoes, something which he despises (though she doesn't). Osaka's dream, if you read into it, could be Chiyo's father expressing sadness that his daughter is traveling overseas, and wishing that he could fly like a bird to visit her.
* DreamWalker: It's suggested that Chiyo's dad isn't just a figment of Sakaki's imagination, but an actual living being that inhabits dreams: Sakaki and Osaka have both seen him independently, and he's shown to be explicitly summoned on two separate occasions (Osaka sleeping on a pillow shaped like him, Sakaki placing a picture of a cat underneath her pillow).
* GratuitousEnglish: His appearance in one of Osaka's dreams starts with him shouting ''"HELLO, EVERY-NYAN! HOW ARE YOU? FINE, THANK YOU!"'', then responding to Osaka's BigOMG with ''"AH, I WISH I WERE A BIRD!"'' Given that Osaka was in the middle of studying for her entrance exams when she dozed off, it's implied that these elements are simply her English lessons bleeding into the dream (accentuated by the fact that "I wish I were a bird" references a well-known ad for the ESL school chain Nova).
* ImmuneToBullets: After Osaka brings up the possibility that Chiyo could get kidnapped, Sakaki imagines her father rushing in as an ImplacableMan to rescue her. Even when Osaka posits that Chiyo's dad could get shot, Sakaki counters that he can ''deflect bullets'', leaving Osaka and Chiyo in shock.
* InconsistentColoring: In merchandise and color art for the manga, he's depicted as pure orange; in the anime, the color is softer and skews closer to yellow.
* LargeHam: True to someone voiced by Creator/NorioWakamoto, he constantly speaks in a booming, reverberating shout and ostentatious tone of voice.
* LiteralMetaphor: His advice to Sakaki when she doesn't know where to go in life? "Keep moving forward... then make a left at the second corner."
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The exact nature of Chiyo's dad is left ambiguous throughout the series, which shares its continuity with the explicitly supernatural ''Wallaby''. While he mostly appears only in Sakaki's dreams, Osaka also met him independent of her description. The anime sometimes has him fly around in establishing shots, plush toys of him exist in-universe, Sakaki's smaller one once glowed when she wasn't looking, and one Extra Lessons strip outright shows him hovering up to her bedside in the real world.
* MegaNeko: He's around the same size as Chiyo.
* NoIndoorVoice: Every line of dialogue he gets is spoken in a loud, godlike blast regardless of where he is or what he's doing.
* NoNameGiven: He's only ever referred to as Chiyo's father, even by himself, with no actual name attached to him (not even something like "Mr. Mihama," if he even shares Chiyo's last name).
* OrWasItADream: Sakaki seems to earnestly believe that he is Chiyo's ''actual'' father, and there isn't any proof to the contrary either.
* PerpetualSmiler: The smile (?) on his face never changes, even when he's angry.
* PlayfulCatSmile: The only expression he ever wears is a wide open-mouthed cat smile, fitting his bizarre behavior.
* ShoutOut: In his encounter with Osaka, he says "wagahai wa neko de aru", which is the title of [[Literature/IAmACat a well-known book]] by Soseki Natsume.
* TranquilFury: When he's angered, his body shimmers and changes color, but he never loses that odd smile.
* YourSizeMayVary: His size tends to differ across various appearances. During Sakaki's first New Year's dream and during Sakaki's dream in the Extra Lessons chapters (incidentally his respective first and last appearances in the series), he goes up to her waist at most, while in other appearances he can be as tall as a standard human or even tower over Osaka. His MaybeMagicMaybeMundane nature at least partly explains these discrepancies.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Biting Cat (Kamineko)]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kamineko.png]]
A gray stray cat that Sakaki often tries to pet, only for him to run away or, more often, catch her hand in his bear trap teeth. Eventually, he goes out of his way to make Sakaki's life a living hell.
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* AchillesHeel: Mayaa is the one other cat that manages to scare him off. He was even about to bite Tomo's hand, but as she had just been scratched by Mayaa, he smells it, and runs off.
* ArcVillain: Of Sakaki's character arc and the closest thing the series has to an antagonist, tormenting her wherever she goes.
* BaitTheDog: During the last episode, Sakaki walks up and apologizes to him for trying to pet him when he didn't want her to. She walks off and he follows her. She notices him following her, and it looks like he'll finally let her pet him. CHOMP!
* BoisterousWeakling: He works entirely on intimidation. If you manage to scare him (like Mayaa does), or even just hit him on the head (like Kagura does), he'll run off.
* CatsAreMean: Seems to enjoy personally spiting Sakaki, biting her constantly and ultimately ganging all the neighborhood cats up on her.
* CheshireCatGrin: His default expression is a large, toothy grin that reveals his jagged teeth, only rarely changing it.
* DragonAscendant: He was apparently the second-in-command of the neighborhood cats, behind a large cat named Maru-chan. When the family who owned Maru-chan moved out, he became the leader, and subsequently ganged the neighborhood cats up on Sakaki.
* DirtyCoward: As much as he loves to torment Sakaki, he flees the second an actual threat shows up.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: His real name is unknown, and he may not have one due to being a stray. "Kamineko" or "biting cat" is merely a descriptor, but one that's widely used in place of an official name nonetheless.
* FragileSpeedster: He shows how fast he is when Sakaki just tries to take a photo of him. He literally bounces off of the walls in an alley in order to ruin her photography attempts. He can't take a hit to the head before being scared off, though.
* GangUpOnTheHuman: The biting cat's biggest jerkass moment is when he assembles a gang of all the other neighborhood cats to attack Sakaki, and possibly Chiyo by association. Luckily, Mayaa was able to put a stop to it.
* JerkassToOne: He only targets Sakaki specifically, which Chiyo theorizes is because she kept trying to pet him against his will. However, he does ''attempt'' to target others (he had no qualms about attacking Chiyo when she was with Sakaki, and he attempted to bite Tomo in the anime). His focus on Sakaki seems to be mostly the result of her being too kind to defend herself; everyone else can easily scare him off.
* MeaningfulName: Kamineko (かみねこ) is written in hiragana; depending on the reading, it can mean both "biting cat" (噛み猫) and "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast god cat]]" (神猫).
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: He practically becomes a bear trap when he bites Sakaki.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: When he's sleeping or when he just has a normal cat smile.
* SlasherSmile: Especially when he's approaching Sakaki and Chiyo with his newly formed gang.
* UseYourHead: He once headbutted Sakaki straight in the gut, stunning her, before latching onto her hand.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tadakichi-san]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tadakichi.png]]
The Mihama family pet dog. Tadakichi-san is a well-behaved [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyrenees Great Pyrenees]] with a gentle and easygoing temperament. Sakaki particularly adores him, since he's one of the few animals who doesn't bite her.
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* BigFriendlyDog: Chiyo describes him as a "man of character". True to his breed, he's also big enough that Chiyo can actually ride him. He's usually less prone to excessive displays of affection than most examples, though (emphasis on ''usually'').
* DogsAreDumb: Subverted: Sakaki worries at first that Tadakichi-san might bite her, but Chiyo insists that he's a smart and well-behaved dog. This turns out to be true, with the closest he gets to misbehavior being an attempt to sneak a bite of Chiyo's cake. That said, he ''does'' get overexcited and try to imitate Mayaa jumping into Sakaki's chest with Chiyo, knocking her into the distance as a result of their massive weight difference.
* FormallyNamedPet: "-san" is a suffix meaning "Mister/Miss". He's called "Mr. Tadakichi" in the dub.
* HarmfulToPetsReminder: When Chiyo serves everyone cake, Tadakichi tries to beg for some, only for her to gently push him away and say "No, none for you." After Sakaki asks about it, Chiyo replies that they don't feed Tadakichi "people" food. Sakaki then starts sweating as Tadakichi immediately tries begging ''her'' instead.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mayaa]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maya_4294.png]]
A young male [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iriomote_cat Iriomote cat]] (a small, highly endangered sub-species of leopard cat) whom Sakaki encounters during her class trip to Okinawa in the last third of the series. Unlike other cats, he takes a liking to Sakaki, and the two soon become inseparable.
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* AndroclesLion: Sakaki's kindness towards him on Okinawa motivates him to seek her out when his mom gets fatally run over; when the two finally reunite, he uses his natural ferocity as a wildcat to save her and Chiyo from the biting cat's gang.
* BadassAdorable: He's a cute little mountain cat, who leaves Iriomote Island to find Sakaki all by himself and scares the biting cat's gang away.
* BigDamnHeroes: Saves Sakaki and Chiyo from an attack by a gang of cats led by the biting cat.
* CuteKitten: Though still a wild animal at heart, Mayaa is typically presented as an adorable little kitten, which leads to Sakaki instantly taking a liking to him.
* DeathGlare: Gives the biting cat's entire gang a truly epic one when confronting them, which manages to be powerful enough to drive them all away in a heartbeat.
* TheDreaded: Mayaa scares the biting cat to the point that his mere scent is enough to make the biting cat run away.
* InterspeciesAdoption: Chiyo points out that his bond with Sakaki is similar to one between a son and his mother. Occurs as a result of his mother dying after meeting the girls.
* KillerRabbit: Despite being a PetBabyWildAnimal, Mayaa manages to scratch Tomo so badly that she has to go to the hospital, showing that no matter how cute he is and how well Sakaki can tame him, he's still a wild, carnivorous, bad-tempered animal. That said, this doesn't appear to affect Sakaki and Chiyo's ability to tend for him.
* ALizardNamedLiz: Mayaa's name is derived from the Okinawan name for his species ("yamamayaa").
* PetBabyWildAnimal: Sakaki briefly bonds with Mayaa during the time she spends at Okinawa. She later learns that his mother died from being hit by a car, and then when Sakaki is cornered by a gang of cats led by the biting cat, Mayaa swoops in to rescue her, having followed her scent back home. Because this leaves him orphaned, Sakaki decides to take Mayaa in as her pet.
* PostVictoryCollapse: Happens to Mayaa after he drives away a gang of hostile cats that were about to maul Chiyo and Sakaki, resulting in the two having to take him to the vet.
* WalkingSpoiler: Mayaa is the payoff to Sakaki's entire character arc, bringing closure to her inability to pet a cat without it biting her or running away, her cryptic dreams about Chiyo's dad, and her conflict with the biting cat.
[[/folder]]

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