open/close all folders
Pets:
Fukumaru
The titular cat adopted by Kanda. He’s a 1-year-old Exotic Shorthair.
- Gonk: He goes un-adopted for so long because he's seen as fat and ugly. One visitor even calls him "snotface". Kanda on the other hand believes Fukumaru is adorable.
- Green-Eyed Monster: He hates the piano. He thinks that it takes "Daddy's" attention from him. Sitting on top of it gives him power and vindication. He also gets rather jealous when five kittens join the household for an extended period of time until they're old enough to be transferred abroad because they also end up taking Kanda's attention away from him.
- Strong Family Resemblance: He bears a striking resemblance to his mother and sister despite the difference in fur colors and patterns. Kanda immediately notices the resemblance when meeting Marin for the first time to correctly guess she's Fukumaru's sister.
Marin
Fukumaru's older sister, also a 1-year old Exotic Shorthair. She was first purchased by Hibino's mother until she was forced onto him when said mother moved to an apartment that didn't allow pets.
- Cuddle Bug: She quickly becomes attached to Hibino after he takes her in, even coming to him when called by name.
- Desperately Craves Affection: After being neglected and than essentially dumped by Hibino's mother, she's become very cuddly toward Hibino who happily gives her the attention.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She's a spitting image of Fukumaru save for having gray fur. It's how Kanda is able to correctly guess she's actually Fukumaru's sister despite not having her pedigree papers to confirm it.
The Kittens
Top: Tsuyomaru and Morin Middle: Mayuyu Bottom: Hacchi and Yanyan
An abandoned litter of five kittens that were taken in by Geoffrey.
- The Baby of the Bunch: They're the resident kittens of the Kanda household.
- In-Series Nickname: Fukumaru refers to them as the "Scrubbies".
Humans:
Fuyuki Kanda
Fukumaru’s owner, who took him in to fulfill a wish from his late wife. He's a retired famous pianist now teaching at a children’s music school.
- Always Someone Better: He's this toward Hibino in terms of popularity and piano abilities.
- Childhood Friends: He and Koyabashi have known each other since grade school and still are close friends well into middle-age.
- Childhood Friend Romance: He met his wife when they were both children.
- Cool Old Guy: He’s a kind-hearted, caring, and talented pianist and music teacher with an adorable cat. More than one character remarks on how handsome he is, too.
- Friendless Background: His mother would admonish him to not hang around rowdy children (i.e. most children). Because of this, he was a loner who was bullied by his classmates and didn't have any friends until Kobayashi and Suzune came along.
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: While he admitted to never paying cats much mind as an adult while Suzune was alive, adopting Fukumaru has definitely turned him into one.
- Living Legend: Is regarded as one of the top four globally renowned pianists even after retiring.
- Ring on a Necklace: His wife insisted that he wear his ring on a necklace due to working with his hands as a pianist. After her passing, he wears both rings on the necklace.
- Silver Fox: He’s a pretty good looking guy and his younger female colleagues fawn over him, despite his age. When dressed up in a fashionable suit, he even draws male admirers. He even comments to Moriyama on the fact a lot of people listened to him play because of his looks.
- Single-Target Sexuality: To Moriyama’s shock, the only person Kanda dated was his wife. He has no interest in finding another partner.
- Shrinking Violet: Due to his mother's strict and neurotic parenting, he was extremely introverted as a child and his classmates made fun of him for it. It is implied that Kobayashi and Suzune were the only friends he had. His depression after Suzune's death brought this back to the surface a bit.
- The Mourning After: He had a lovely wife, but after her death and the kids moving out he's become depressed and lonely, unable to perform concerts due to associating concert halls with her passing. Fukumaru coming into his life changed that; now while he doesn't think to move on with another woman, he has a fulfilled love in taking care of the big cat.
- Trauma Button: Concert halls, especially those with pianos, became this to Kanda to where he was unable to continue as a concert pianist. This happened because he was given the call that his beloved wife had died when he was about to give an encore and he began to associate them with her passing. Even just attending a piano concert sent him into a full-blown panic attack.
Suzune Kanda
Fuyuki Kanda’s deceased wife.
- Childhood Friend Romance: She met her husband when they were both children. She even recalled the first time he performed for her during their childhood.
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: She adored cats and her desire to get a cat after their children left home inspired Fuyuki's decision to adopt Fukumaru.
- Motherly Side Plait: Every flashback featuring her has her with this hair style.
- No Full Name Given: Her first name wasn't revealed until chapter 74.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Her death is both the reason Kanda took in Fukumaru and also the source of Kanda's trauma with piano concerts and anything associated with them.
- Posthumous Character: She has been dead for a while, but it was her suggestion that lead to Kanda adopting Fukumaru, and her words and her husband's memories of her stay with him throughout the story.
- Present Absence: While she's been gone for a long while, her death was the case for Kanda's abrupt retirement from being a concert pianist and it was also her wish that lead to Kanda taking in Fukumaru, who helps Kanda slowly begin to recover from the grief her death left him with.
- The Lost Lenore: Her death left Fuyuki lonely and depressed, as well as severe anxiety regarding concert halls since he had received the news during a performance.
Natsuhito Kobayashi
Kanda’s best friend. A dog person who dotes on his Shiba Inu, Chako.
- Animals Hate Him: Cats, particularly Fukumaru and Marin, are not fond of him. Fukumaru's thoughts reveal a big part of this is due to how loud and excitable he is. At least his dog Chako doesn’t mind him.
- Childhood Friend: He befriended Kanda supposedly in grade school. Their friendship has lasted for more than forty years.
- Defrosting Ice King: He’s introduced as an arrogant dog lover, resenting cats and immediately calling Fukumaru ugly when Kanda sends him a photo. By his second appearance, he realises how insensitive he was and apologizes to Kanda with cat food. After that, he does make an effort to bond with Fukumaru despite the latter’s annoyance at him (although he still tolerates him for Kanda's sake).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He may be pushy and insensitive, but he does genuinely care about his best friend’s wellbeing and makes an effort to bond with Fukumaru.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Happened before the story's events. He claims that his wife got the wrong idea, but Kanda doesn’t fully believe him. Whatever happened between him and his wife was resolved through talking and meeting halfway.
- Took the Wife's Name: He had taken his wife’s family name, so his legal name is Natsuhito Takamido. However, that doesn’t stop Kanda from referring to him as Kobayashi.
Yoshiharu Moriyama
Kanda’s colleague at the music school. He teaches guitar lessons and dreams of becoming a famous guitarist.
- Always Someone Better: He was a victim of this to his younger brother in terms of piano ability, although he recognizes looking back this was unwarranted since said brother still admired him.
- Dramatic Irony: He believes he only got the producer offer at all because of the trending online video of him performing with Kanda rather than his own abilities. However, Kanda's later phone conversation with said producer (the one who posted the video) reveal he was already eying Moriyama as a potential talent even before the concert.
- Green-Eyed Monster: He became one toward his younger brother when he realized said brother was far better at piano compared to him to where he gave it up entirely, which soured their relationship well into adulthood. He became regretful of not being able to be more supportive after hearing Kanda play for the first play, and with Kanda's influence is able to reconcile with his brother.
- Locked Out of the Loop: In part due to cutting himself off from piano, he was the only one at the music school completely unaware of how famous Kanda was until he finds out about the latter's trauma in concert halls. Ironically, because Moriyama didn't know this, this ended up allowing for Kanda to open up to him since he knew him as himself before his reputation as Fuyuki Kanda the pianist.
Momiji Sato
A clerk at the pet shop Fukumaru lived in.
Kanade Hibino
A rival pianist who dislikes Kanda for being more popular and skilled than him. Due to his fickle and flighty mother, he ends up in the ownership of Marin.
- Attention Whore: Downplayed. Hibino enjoys the spotlight to where it's a reason why he doesn't like Kanda. However, after becoming Marin's new owner, he seems to somewhat calm down on this due to Marin giving him unconditional love, implying some of it comes from growing up with a rather fickle and flighty mother.
- Crush Blush: Sports this around Sato.
- Disappeared Dad: He does not know who his father is.
- Everyone Has Standards: While he didn't set out to have a cat, when his mother dumps her unwanted cat onto him when she moves to a new apartment, he's quick to tell her off to never care for another living being again if she's not going to commit to caring for them.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Is deeply jealous of Kanda even after the latter retired from being a concert pianist due to his skill and popularity that remained. This does not stop him from ending up interacting with Kanda more often when he ends up becoming Marin's owner.
- Hidden Depths: When his mother forces her cat onto him, it's notable Hibino is actually less upset about being forced to take on said cat and more angry because of his mother's disregard for said cat's autonomy as a living being with feelings. As both Kanda and Sato comment when they learn about the circumstances from his visit to the pet store for supplies, he's actually quite a nice person.
- Sue Donym: His guitar-playing alias is “Hibinon.”
- Younger Than They Look: While he seems around Kanda's age in present day, flashbacks show he was around middle-school aged at most by the time Kanda was an adult, meaning he's actually much younger than Kanda.
Geoffrey Lambert
The son of Gustave Lambert, one of the four most famous pianists in the world. Because of said father's admiration toward Kanda, he became resentful of the man to the point where he decides to copy him in an attempt to get his father's recognition. However, his visit to Japan while trying to accomplish this leads to him ending up with five very young kittens, leading to him becoming Kanda's extended houseguest.
- Closet Geek: His bio reveals his hobby is watching anime. The fact Geoffrey can speak fluent Japanese and gives most of his kittens Japanese names may be telling of this as well.
- Parental Neglect: After his mother died when he was a child, he ended up being emotionally neglected by his father becoming more focused on the piano over him, which was said father's way of trying to deal with the grief. Consequently, because both father and son are reserved people, they ended up becoming distant to the point Gustave doesn't know how to open up to his own son and regrets allowing that to happen. It's heavily implied Gustave's talking about Kanda is actually because it's the only thing he can think of to talk about with his son.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Due to never getting his father's recognition, Geoffrey became more determined to copy Kanda's style in hopes of getting that recognition and validation from his father. Hibino even describes him as a daddy's boy. However, it turns out quite a bit of this is actually because of Gustave being unsure of how to approach his son as his bio reveals he likes to brag about said son to his close associates.
Sorako Kanda
Kanda's eccentric daughter.
- Establishing Character Moment: First introduced peeking into the house before getting distracted by a butterfly, then later camped outside in a sleeping bag. It establishes she's rather odd.
- Family Eye Resemblance: Sorako has similar eyes to her father, which is what gets Hibino and Geoffrey to finally believe she's actually Kanda's daughter since she otherwise looks and acts nothing like him.
- Friend to Bugs: She loves insects and hopes to one day discover many new species.
- Like Parent, Unlike Child: Kanda is a fairly reserved and elegant man. Sorako meanwhile is incredibly eccentric and energetic. Both Hibino and Geoffrey are initially doubting her actually being related to Kanda until her glasses come off.
- Meaningful Name: She was named Sorako because her mother wanted her to be free and have infinite possibilities in life, like the sky.
- My Greatest Failure: She was the one who informed her father of her mother's passing at his last concert, and thinks he might still be performing if she had told him it later.
Hoshinari Kanda
Kanda's son and Sorako's little brother. He's currently a composer under the pseudonym "Kira" working with Sakuma.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Hoshinari heavily resembles Kanda. Sakuma laments that Hoshinari hates showing his face despite being as good-looking as his father.
-
Stuck in Their Shadow: Kanda being a Living Legend in piano gave Hoshinari a lot of insecurities about piano as he lacked the same talent as his father to where he decided to focus on composing instead.
