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Main Character
Fumiya Tomozaki
Voiced by: Gen Satō (Japanese), Adam Gibbs (English)
- Berserk Button: Belittling Atafami and by extension, one's dedication to it is a sure-fire way to set him off. Beyond the game, the actual root cause is that he hates people who mock those that put in hard work to improve themselves for whatever reason.
- Brutal Honesty: Hinami identifies his greatest asset as his ability to simply speak his thoughts out loud directly to people without overthinking their reactions or feelings.
- Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: His inner monologue toward Kikuchi is completely devoid of any of the usual observations he makes towards the other girls. He never dwells on her physical looks or attributes, but is rather entranced by the feelings of warmth, acceptance, and peace she exudes towards him. In Volume 9, he has a LINE video call with Kikuchi and is immediately aroused by her voice and how she looks in her pajamas showing off a bit more skin than usual. He is actually a bit relieved that he finds his girlfriend sexually appealing.
- Character Development: The story follows his growth as a person who refuses to interact with anyone on his journey to become a "normie." By Volume 3 he's already made serious progress, to the point that he dares to openly challenge Hinami in an argument about her methods and mindset of approaching life. By Volume 5 he starts coaching Tama-chan on addressing her own lack of sociability and introducing her to his friends so she can expand her social circle.
- Gag Penis: He's packing something big down there which the other boys notice in the public baths at the BBQ campsite.
- Geek Physiques: Definitely fits the thin and scrawny description.
- Male Gaze: He constantly comments on the girls he interacts with in his inner monologue in the light novels, often paying attention to how form fitting their clothes are and their breast sizes. Played for Drama in Volume 9 when Rena-chan makes a serious effort to seduce him during the offline Atafami meetup and he has to resist with all his effort. Later that evening after he has a video call with Kikuchi, he is also entranced with how she looks in her bedtime wear.
- No Social Skills: At the start of the story, he has absolutely no ability to interact with anyone in any kind of meaningful manner. While he gets a lot better as time goes by, he still hasn't completely overcome this problem, which becomes a major issue for him after he starts dating Kikuchi. His newfound popularity and increasingly challenging assignments from Hinami lead to him prioritizing his relationships with his other friends and his Atafami career over her, and she is clearly suffering in silence feeling neglected. Unfortunately, he's nowhere near skilled enough to pick up on the finer nuances of a maiden's heart, and even worse, his attempts to ask Hinami for advice are useless since she is rather dismissive of his relationship troubles and keeps telling him he's fine.
- Rage Breaking Point: In the climax of Volume 1, after Konno continues to mock Nakamura for his obsession with a "stupid game," Tomozaki finally snaps and thunders at her that Nakamura's dedication to Atafami is something worthy of respect.
- Rummage Sale Reject: His fashion sense at the start leaves a lot to be desired, as he puts no value on his physical appearance, and goes out in public with wrinkled shirts, pants that are fraying, and shoes that have been out of style for years. This goes away as the series goes on, with Hinami personally taking strides to improve his look as part of his training.
- Worthy Opponent: To NO NAME, aka Aoi Hinami. Part of the reason Hinami goes out of her way to improve Tomozaki's standing and behavior is because she couldn't believe she constantly lost to someone who basically gave up on life.
Hinami Clique
Aoi Hinami
Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese), Faye Mata (English)
- The Ace: Unbelievably good at everything she does.
- Character Catchphrase: "Onitada," which is shorthand for "Oni no gotoku, tadashi!" and means roughly "exactly like an oni." It's a catchphrase taken from an obscure video game, "Go Forth! Endless Fists Buin!" which was what got her interested in gaming. The English translation changes it to "Hexactly."
- Consummate Liar: She is incredibly good at acting and putting on fake personas, to the point that in Volume 3, Tomozaki realizes she even has a second layered fake persona under a fake persona when she brushes off Mizusawa's confession to her and acts apologetic about it. He would have never noticed this if he had not spent enough time with her social coaching.
- Cool Big Sis: She is later revealed to be an older sibling, and she is reportedly very close to her younger sister. This surprises Tomozaki, as Hinami has not mentioned anything about siblings in the past. Even more questions arise when another student from her old middle school specifically recalls her having more than one younger sister...
- Didn't See That Coming:
- A minor example, but in Volume 1, when she has Tomozaki take her out to lunch while she's helping him shop for clothes, she chooses a restaurant that students from their school frequent. She was ready to manage the situation if a fellow student saw them, but what she did not expect was that the one student who would run into them together would be their waitress, not a customer. This is one of the few instances where she did not have full control of the situation as she wasn't able to hide her surprise.
- A much bigger example occurs in Volume 9 when Tomozaki reveals at the Atafami online meetup that he is changing his main from Found to Jack. This comes as a total shock to her and even leaves her in a brief Heroic BSoD as this now means she will never be able to legitimately best Tomozaki at being the no. 1 ranked Japanese player since he's lost the ranking and she also does not have the time to learn an entire new character, which leaves one of her major goals unattainable.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted. This was Tomozaki's initial impression of her, in that she was just born with incredible charm and wit, but she promptly corrects this image, and says she had to work hard to get to where she is now and controls every aspect of herself.
- Hyper-Awareness: Always very aware of her surroundings and picks up on subtle cues almost everyone else would miss. One early example is when she and Tomozaki eat at a restaurant and run into Kikuchi, who is a waitress there, she notices right off the bat that Kikuchi says Tomozaki's name rather than hers. This is the one clue that confirms her suspicion that Kikuchi likes him, which is something that Tomozaki completely missed. In that same scene, she's also aware the restaurant is popular with other students at their school, and she is carefully making sure their words aren't overheard by any fellow students.
- Indifferent Beauty: She's fully aware she's attractive but doesn't dwell on it. As far as she's concerned, her beauty is just another means of maintaining her reputation.
- Lack of Empathy: Oddly for a social butterfly, Hinami is very quick to associate making friends and starting a relationship as something akin to goals and objectives in a video game. This initially seems like using gamer lingo to help Tomozaki, but the closer he gets to her, the more he realizes just how little Hinami actually acknowledges other people as people in her plans. This leads the two of them to butt heads on numerous occasions.
- Manipulative Bitch: Everything about her personality and actions is built on a foundation of manipulating opinion and mood, and while for the most part, she isn't a mean-spirited person, she could easily become this if she was so inclined. For one positive example of her using her abilities as such in Volume 5, she utterly destroys Konno in front of the whole class with just a few well-timed words after weeks of coaxing Akiyama to rebel against her, then she manages to manipulate Konno into thinking that Nakamura and Izumi have also turned on her of their own accord. In actuality, Hinami gave both of them a non-verbal cue to speak up by shifting in her seat and glancing at them, but Konno didn't see this since her back was turned while arguing with Akiyama. Every aspect of this scenario was carefully orchestrated on Hinami's part.
- The Mentor: Serves as Tomozaki's when teaching him how to play the game called "life", regularly giving him directives and advice on how to better himself as a person.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Volumes 4 & 5, she has an unexpectedly emotional reaction to Konno's bullying of Tama-chan when she insists that the situation has to be resolved without Tama-chan changing her personality. Tomozaki is quite surprised to hear her say such a thing since prior to this, she has always been focused on taking the most "rational" action that will achieve her goals in the fastest time possible, which is not the case now. Her unusual behavior in this situation is eventually revealed to be because her own youngest sister was a victim of bullying at school and this may have played in her eventual death being hit by a car while crossing the street.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: She annihilates Konno emotionally and socially in Volume 5 by turning the entire class against her, to the point that some of the angry students end up kicking her desk harder than she ever kicked Hirabayashi's or Tama-chan's desks. Hinami would have gone even further in tearing down Konno if not for Tama-chan's own intervention snapping at everyone to stop.
- Second Place Is for Losers: An incident in her middle school years when her basketball team only won second place at a national tournament clearly stuck with her and left a lasting impression on her psyche. In the present day, the fact that she as NO NAME is second to nanashi in the Atafami rankings is an unending source of irritation for her.
- The Social Expert: By far. She can effortlessly read the mood of a group and subtly steer it in whatever direction she desires without anyone even realizing what she's done.
- Sore Loser: A sure-fire way to get Hinami in a bad mood is to beat her in a competition. As Tomozaki is nanashi, the player she always loses to in Atafami, he gets to see this side of her a lot.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Cheese, as is well-known by the entire class, and she is often teased for it whenever she orders cheesy foods for lunch. Volume 5 suggests this is yet another one of the social manipulation techniques she has cultivated by intentionally creating a public "weakness" to make herself more relatable by having something people can laugh at her about.
- Tranquil Fury: Once she's had enough of Konno's bullying of Tama-chan, she makes the other girl pay a steep social price while hardly raising her voice and barely even acknowledging her in the process.
Minami Nanami (Mimimi)
Voiced by: Ikumi Hasegawa (Japanese), Christina Kelly (English)
- A Day in the Limelight: Much of Volume 2 focuses on her as she runs for student council president against Hinami and Tomozaki becomes her campaign manager.
- Always Someone Better: One of the biggest inner conflicts she hides from her friends is that she always keeps coming up second-best to Hinami in everything. This reaches its breaking point during the school election arc, where she decides to quit the track team because she can't take constantly losing to her. Tomozaki and Tama manage to talk to her and persuade her to change her mind.
- Breakout Character: The most well-received of the series heroines, leading to her getting her own spinoff manga, Minami Nanami Wants to Shine.
- Genki Girl: She's just bursting with good cheer and livens up everyone's day with her antics.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Despite making it clear that she loves Tomozaki, she actively encourages him to go to Kikuchi and be there for her in her time of need, knowing that doing so would most likely remove all her chances of being with him.
- Large Ham: Makes her presence known with her endless energy and dramatic gestures.
- The Nicknamer: She's the one who likes to give nicknames to people, most notably "Tama-chan" for Hanabi, "Nakamu" for Nakamura, and "Brain" for Tomozaki.
- Repetitive Name: Her first and last names are almost identical, which leads to her nickname of "Mimimi."
- Signature Laugh: She's very easily amused and frequently breaks out laughing an unmistakable "Ah-ha-ha-ha!" at the smallest things.
- Skinship Grope: She loves to get touchy-feely with her female friends, most frequently Tama-chan, hugging her tight and stroking her skin. She's no stranger to doing this with Hinami, too.
- Stepford Smiler: Mimimi is the energetic mood-maker of the class, but beneath her smile lies a plethora of insecurities, and because she doesn't want to ruin the mood, she frequently keeps her true feelings hidden.
Hanabi Natsubayashi (Tama-chan)
Voiced by: Ryoko Maekawa (Japanese), Amber Connor (English)
- A Day in the Limelight: She's mostly a side character in the story until the end of Volume 4, when she becomes the target of Konno's wrath. Volume 5 focuses on her as Tomozaki tries to teach her the social skills needed to make friends and salvage her public standing among the classroom so that people will sympathize with her situation instead of ignoring or victim-blaming her.
- Break the Badass: She was able to endure weeks of Konno's bullying and harassment without lashing out, until her fabric haniwa charm
that was a one-of-a-kind gift from Mimimi is vandalized and torn apart. This leaves her a shaking, broken shell when she discovers it, and also what spurs Hinami into action to destroy Konno's reputation. - Brutal Honesty: One of the first things people notice about her is that she always speaks what's on her mind without any hesitation. Mizusawa comments that she's even blunter than Tomozaki is.
- Limited Social Circle: She's friends with the two most popular girls in school, Hinami and Mimimi... and that's it. This becomes a serious liability for her in Volume 4 when Konno starts bullying her because she has no support in the larger classroom. Tomozaki takes it upon himself to help her avert this trope and start coaching her on making friends and introducing her to his own circle, starting with Mizusawa and Kikuchi.
- No Social Skills: She's nowhere near as bad as Tomozaki was, but the reason why she lacks friends is because her tone of voice and body language make her come across as much more aloof than she intends to. Tomozaki also identifies that the most important factor for her social isolation is because she has absolutely no interest in other people's thoughts and feelings, which further extends the unwelcoming aura she unconsciously emits. She's friends with Hinami, Mimimi, and later Tomozaki solely by dint of the fact that they make efforts to reach out to her, difficult as it is.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Not in terms of physical ability, but she has immense mental fortitude that belies her small size. She refuses to ever back down when she knows she's in the right and will fire back at anyone who insults her.
- Punny Name: Her nickname, "Tama-chan," comes from the fact that her actual first name "Hanabi" means "fireworks," and a common cheer among Japanese people at fireworks festivals is to say tamaya.
Nakamura Clique
Shuuji Nakamura
Voiced by: Nobuhiko Okamoto (Japanese), Chris Hackney (English)
- Cannot Spit It Out: Took a while for him to finally be honest with Izumi and ask her out, partly out of a combination of his own pride and waiting for the perfect opportunity. If not for his and Hinami's friends setting them up, he might never have been able to spit it out.
- Never My Fault: He blames his losses in Atafami to Tomozaki on his controller, not his own lack of skill.
- Official Couple: He confesses his love for Izumi in the aftermath of the Sports Festival.
- Teeny Weenie: Tomozaki roasts him for this during the camping trip while they're in the public baths. Later that night, he manages to get back at Tomozaki by retorting that at least he's had a chance to use it with a girl.
Takahiro Mizusawa
Voiced by: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Japanese), Stephen Fu (English)
- Chick Magnet: Quite a few girls have expressed interest in him, including girls from other schools. However, he's not interested in starting anything serious since he's crushing on Hinami. When he and Tomozaki go to Tokusei High's school festival, he effortlessly gets the phone numbers of 10 girls. Tomozaki is pretty sure he could have done even better if he had been alone since he was also looking out for him too.
- The Dandy: The most fashion-minded guy in the class, and has the looks and appearance to back it up.
- Everything but the Girl: He has everything a teenage boy could possibly want - killer looks, good grades, and no shortage of female attention - but the one thing he can't have is Hinami's affections after she unflinchingly shoots him down when he asks her out on the camping trip.
- First-Name Basis: He's the sole person in the entire cast who consistently refers to Tomozaki by his given name "Fumiya." This is even lampshaded in Tomozaki's first-person narration in Volume 8.5 when he notes that his parents and Mizusawa are the only people who ever call him by his first name.
- Pretty Boy: He's very good-looking, which makes Tomozaki self-conscious of his own ragged appearance on more than one occasion when he compares himself to him.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He pays close attention to male fashion and hairstyles, and gives Tomozaki some tips on improving his appearance. His career goal is to become a beautician and open his own barbershop/salon.
Takei
Voiced by: Shuntarou Mizuno (Japanese), Matt Shipman (English)
- Big Fun: He's not that overweight, but he is noticeably bigger than the rest of the male cast and everyone around him finds him a fun guy to hang out with. The light novel character page refers to him as "built" in his description.
- The Ditz: A male version. It's constantly pointed out he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but there is a refreshing honesty and sincerity in everything he does that makes him popular and fun to be around.
- Locked Out of the Loop: During the BBQ camping trip, he was the one person in the group who was not told that the real purpose of the trip was to get Nakamura and Izumi to hook up, since Hinami and Mizusawa were sure he would end up spoiling the plan one way or another if he knew.
- Only One Name: Of all the characters, he's the only one whose given name has never been mentioned.
Konno Clique
Erika Konno
Voiced by: Sayaka Kaneko (Japanese), Amanda Lee (English)
- Alpha Bitch: She already makes a bad impression in the first volume when she mocks Nakamura for his devotion to playing Atafami against Tomozaki despite (or perhaps because of) secretly crushing on him. She gets far worse in Volume 4, when she shoves the responsibility of being the sports team captain onto Hirabayashi, a job she clearly cannot handle, but even this pales in comparison when she sinks even lower when Nakamura and Izumi become a couple, and Konno takes out her frustrated jealousy by bullying Hirabayashi and then Tama-chan.
- Berserk Button: Mocking her physical appearance, in particular her fashion choices and makeup style. Hinami weaponizes this to full extent to break her classroom reputation.
- Break the Haughty: After she and her clique destroy Tama-chan's most precious charm, Hinami has enough of her bullshit and manipulates Akiyama into rebelling against her. Once this crack in Konno's reputation is established, Hinami then proceeds to make a series of polite, simple statements asking her to apologize that end up painting her as a petty coward and leaving her as a crying wreck in front of the whole classroom, utterly destroying her "queen bee" status.
- Evil Is Petty: She starts bullying Hirabayashi and then Tama-chan solely because Nakamura asks Izumi to become his girlfriend instead of her. Since she can't take out her frustrations on her 2nd-in-command without damaging the status of her clique, she attacks innocent people completely unrelated instead.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She does not take Nakamura starting a relationship with Izumi well at all.
- Slut-Shaming: In Volume 5 word gets back to her that Tama-chan was seen at a café hanging out with Tomozaki, Mizusawa, and Takei, and she and her clique start gossiping about Tama being a slut who sucks up to guys for protection.
Yuuzu Izumi
Voiced by: Nene Hieda (Japanese), Kate Bristol (English)
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Noticeably the bustiest of the entire female cast and known for being a breathtaking beauty.
- Extreme Doormat: Unfortunately her aversion to conflict means she does nothing to stop Konno's bullying in Volumes 4 and 5.
- Nice Girl: Her most defining trait is her willingness to help people. This gets deconstructed in Volume 5 since her best friend, Erika, is bullying Tama-chan, and she can't really do anything to help either of them because her sole existence is the source of the problem since Erika is jealous of Izumi for dating Nakamura.
- Official Couple: She starts dating Shuuji Nakamura after the Sports Festival in Volume 4.
Mika Akiyama
Voiced by: Natsumi Hioka (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (English)
- Demoted to Extra: In the anime, much of her role in the Konno arc is transferred over to anime original character Mao Kamimae, another member of the clique who presumably existed in the light novels (Konno's clique has other members in the novels but none are named). As a result, Akiyama does very little in the anime other than to say some throwaway lines.
- The Dog Bites Back: She starts the rebellion against Konno when she finally speaks up and mocks her for having a terrible looking messenger bag that looks like a middle-schooler's style, and also for being terrible at putting on her eyelashes and makeup. In the anime, all of this is done by another girl named Mao Kamimae.
Others
Fuuka Kikuchi
Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese), Natalie Hoover (English)
- Cute Bookworm: Spends most of her afterschool time in the library reading. While most of the class doesn't really interact with her that much, Hinami does note to Tomozaki that she's cute when she gives him his assignment to take her out on a date, and once Tomozaki introduces her to Mizusawa and Tama-chan, the former pulls Tomozaki aside and tells him that Kikuchi is "supercute." Gumi-chan also loses her mind when Tomozaki shows her a picture of Kikuchi, and immediately gushes about how cute she is.
- Genre Savvy: Being someone who has spent a lot of her time reading books, Kikuchi frequently draws parallels between real-life situations and stories that she has read in the past. This lets her pick up on people's Hidden Depths and identify what their motivations are. When she interviews Hinami on her motivations and goals during the school festival, Kikuchi is able to immediately tell that Hinami is dodging her questions and isn't being entirely honest. Considering all the hoops Tomozaki had to jump through to figure out Hinami's character, the fact that Kikuchi was able to get a glimpse of that from just one conversation is surprising to say the least.
- Hidden Buxom: While not outwardly apparent, it's later revealed that Kikuchi is just as busty as Izumi.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Her major goal is to write her own novel.
- Mystical White Hair: Subverted. She doesn't actually have silver hair; that's just how Tomozaki perceives her in his mind. Her real hair color is the usual black.
- Official Couple: Tomozaki and Kikuchi start dating at the end of Volume 7.
- Shipper on Deck: Kikuchi finds that Tomozaki and Hinami have good compatibility as a couple due to them always hanging out together and possessing similar views towards life. Kikuchi notably continues to hold this viewpoint even after she began dating Tomozaki.
- Shrinking Violet: Very soft-spoken, and she often hides behind her books when encountering new people. In Volume 5, when Tomozaki introduces her to Mizusawa and Tama-chan, she hides behind him at first until they get over their surprise and become more welcoming to her.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Because she's not associated with any of the classroom's cliquish rankings, she's able to provide an unbiased look at the students in the class and what motivates them. Notably, in Volume 5 she's the only person able to somewhat sympathize with Konno's feelings of having lost the boy she likes while at the same time acknowledging her bullying actions are horrible.
- Token Wholesome: Of the main female cast, she is the most frequently seen wearing long sleeved shirts and coats. According to her, it's because her skin burns easily.
Tomozaki's little sister
Voiced by: Rina Hidaka (Japanese), Brittany Lauda (English)
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To Tomozaki, naturally.
- Little Miss Snarker: Never misses a chance to roast her older brother over his non-existent social life.
- No Name Given: Has never been named in the whole story. The closest thing she has to a name is "Zakki-chan" which is what Izumi calls her, based off her surname.
Tsugumi Narita (Gumi-chan)
Voiced by: Akane Fujita (Japanese), Sarah Wiedenheft (English)
- Hidden Depths: She proves to have surprising insight into Erika Konno's personality and motivations when Tomozaki asks her at work, despite what her slothful demeanor would suggest.
- Last Episode, New Character: She only appears in the anime in the tail end of Episode 12 after the camping trip. In the light novel, she was introduced a little earlier since Tomozaki interviewed for the job at the karaoke bar before he went on the BBQ overnight camping trip and met her at that time.
- Lazy Bum: She prides herself on how little work she does, even sleeping on the job. At the Tokusei High school festival, she's manning the reception table for the haunted house exhibit but barely doing anything and spending more time on her phone.
- A short story shows she's so lazy that she gets her mom to hand her the TV remote control when it's literally on the table in front of her as she's lounging on the couch at home.
- A short story shows she's so lazy that she gets her mom to hand her the TV remote control when it's literally on the table in front of her
- The Matchmaker: She encourages Mizusawa and Tomozaki to go check out the girls when they come to her school's festival, since Tokusei is an all girls' school and lots of her classmates are interested in getting boyfriends. Not her, though. She's too lazy for a relationship.
- Min-Maxing: Her basic philosophy in life is to put in the minimum effort that will give her the maximum reward.
