Characters: Daily Lives Of High School Boys aka: Danshi Koukousei No Nichijou
While the anime reminded the viewers "you don't really need to remember the characters' names or anything," we tropers still have the obligation to describe the cast of the manga and anime series Daily Lives Of High School Boys.(Note: Unless otherwise stated, all boys in this series attend Sanada North Prefectural High School, an all-boys' school.)
"My name is Tadakuni. I live a normal life, attending a normal school, in a normal town."
A completely normal eleventh-grade schoolboy (so he describes himself) living a completely normal life in a completely ordinary town and studying in an all boys'High School.
Attractive Bent Gender: Looks surprisingly good in a skirt, a fact that many many artists at Pixiv seem to agree with. This was being lampshaded In-Universe; Yoshitake commented he has no signs of the male hormone when crossdressed.
Butt Monkey: Forced to play along with a love simulation, tricked into crossdressing, got punched out by the Literature Girl, went Out of Focus for several episodes, has yet to be given a surname... poor boy.
Only One Name: Unlike Hidenori and Yoshitake, he (and Mei) has yet to be given a surname.
Out of Focus: He slipped out from presence in the latter half of the anime—he had zero presence in episode 9, one scene when he choked on mochi in episode 10 (outside of his Chewing the Scenery), and one eyecatch in episode 11. Episode 10's intro suggested that was because he is a Ridiculously Average Guy, but can also be justified by his part-time job at the pizzeria.
Tadakuni's classmate who looks stoic and emotionless. Despite his calm, stoic appearance, he is actually a stubborn Large Ham with an odd sense of humor.
Chick Magnet: He's the only male character that females ever crush on, such as the Literature Girl and Emi.
Stoic Spectacles: Subverted as he just looks stoic. And he doesn't need them for vision purposes either.
Wrong Genre Savvy: At least once. In Episode 1's intro, he believed Square Enix and Sunrise's involvement in their show would suddenly infuse it with mecha and/or RPG elements. And in a way, he's right — in High School Boys and Indoor Adventure the trio took to roleplaying after playing Dragon Quest, and he is the most excited about it, impersonating various stock RPG characters.
Hair of Gold: Fits to a T in all senses of the trope.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Motoharu asked him a bunch of Internet neologisms in High School Boys and Lies, and he made up the answer for every one except MMORPG.
True Companions: Amongst the trio, he subscribes to this philosophy the most.
With Friends Like These: After a touching monologue about how he'll walk down the same path as his friends, even as panty thieves, he immediately gets sold out to Mei by Tadakuni and Hidenori, and rats them out in return.
Custom Uniform: Inverted, oddly enough: Karasawa is the only one of his peers who can be counted to be wearing his school uniform's necktie, even during the summer.
Scars Are Forever: Keeps an ugly scar on his forehead as a reminder of an injury inflicted to him by Habara back when she was the "Archdemon". Volume 5 of the manga reveals that this is not the only one he has — he has prominent ones on his chest, his arm, and a long one down his back.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He is Habara-phobic, ever since giving him a nasty wound that left an ugly scar on his forehead. Shown in extreme detail in High School Girls are Funky—Demon.
Zen Survivor: He came out the worst of it out of the Archdemon's victims, and he has the scar to prove it.
A classmate of the main characters. He's also the biggest loser in class.
Butt Monkey: The biggest of them all. Not even Tadakuni's "Out of Focus" syndrome can match up to all the crap that happens to him, as he even got all of Yoshitake's Butt Monkey-hood attributed to him!
Cosmic Plaything: Other boys spent whole chapters discussing his misfortunes — even misattributing others' mishap to him.
In High School Boys and Kick the Can, Hidenori, Yoshitake and Motoharu played a rather physical game of kick-the-can... with his Zaku Gunpla as the can. Turns out they bought him a new Gunpla for his birthday present, but decided to destroy the older one because they're identical. Of course, the replacement is actually a bootleg, and come the next Eye Catch Mitsuo drops it off a trash bin.
A girl from Sanada West High who lives next to Karasawa. Like her Distaff Counterpart Tadakuni, Yanagin and Ikushima frequently hangs out at her house. Eight years ago, however, she was the "Archdemon," the most dreaded kid in town. After a joint effort to "pacify" her by other kids, amongst which were Yanagin and "Rubber Shooter", she has completely changed for the good.
Combat Pragmatist: She has absolutely no understanding of the concept of fair play. She doesn't punch, she gouges. She was even ready to bash Yanagin and Ikushima's heads in with a large piece of rock when they prepared to fight each other. Cue an "Oh Crap" reaction from both girls.
Reformed, But Rejected: Everyone in town still remembers her as the "Archdemon" rather than the sweet, generic Girl Next Door she is now. Yes, she has kissed her romantic life and larger-scale friendships goodbye since third grade.
Takahiro:Perhaps it's better for her to leave this town.
In High School Girls are Funky — Superficially, she incidentally bursted a volleyball.
In High School Girls are Funky — Megaton Poke, Yanagin had Habara try out the"punch machine" in the arcade in which the former just broke the new record. While Habara didn't get as many points as Yanagin by far... close inspections revealed a hole on the punching pad after Habara played with it, and upon asking Habara said she didn't know she has to clench his fist in the first place...
Straight Man: towards the more oddball Yanagin and Ikushima.
Habara's oddball friend from Sanada Central High, who, like her Distaff Counterpart Hidenori, often has something to say (translate: scream) about high school boys.
Action Girl: Downplayed — she knows karate but has discontinued since middle school. This is still plot relevant as for this reason (among others) she was part of the team that barely "pacified" Habara in the past.
Celibate Hero: She hates the idea of dating in general, and has reacted violently at Ikushima when the latter wondered how can she get a boyfriend (punched her face in), or suggested that she wears glasses to look cute (threatened to rape her and eventually beat her up with a wrench).
Does Not Like Men: Played with — while she claims boys are pathetic puddles of mess, she can actually get along well with them, especially Karasawa and Takahiro, not to mention that she was one of the kids assembled to fight the "Archdemon" with intent to avenge Karasawa's terrible wound.
Huge Schoolgirl: Like "Action Girl," it was downplayed — while she's now no different from any other girls in this series, at the time she fought with the Archdemon, she was considered big.
Large Ham: Unlike Hidenori, she is very public about it.
Meganekko: She subverts the "sweet glasses girl" archetype usually associated with the trope by being a loud-mouthed hothead. When Ikushima asked about that, she claims she only wears them not so much as a cuteness factor than as a remedy for her poor eyesight — and threatened to rape her.
"I'm not wearing them to fit in character stereotypes! I wore them because my eyes are bad!"
Morality Pet: A self-imposed one for Habara, always keeping an eye on her in case she relapses back into being the "Archdemon".
Only Known By Her Nickname: Downplayed. Yanagin, the name her neighbours call her, is actually a diminutive of "Yanagi," a name her classmates in Central Perfectual would more likely use.
"She's probably hoping for an unrealistically romantic "Boy Meets Girl" encounter...! Can her mind shake off gravity or what? See, she's already got a distant look in her eyes. I can already tell that her romantic maiden gauge is reading full!"
(Hidenori's Internal Monologue, High School Boy and the Literature Girl 3)
Adorkable: Trying to reenact her own novel by sitting beside a boy (who happened to be Hidenori) on the Artificial Riverbank? Check.
All Love Is Unrequited: She crushes hard on Hidenori. Unfortunately, he's too weirded out by her to reciprocate.
Casting Gag: Tall, Dark and Bishoujo? Check. Sports a Hime Cut? Check. Has a taste for literary subjects? Check. Awkward in her interactions with Hidenori? Check. The casting department must have clearly thought of Mio Akiyama when they cast Youko Hikasa as the Literature Girl.
Chase Scene: Runs after Hidenori in Episode 10's High School Boys and Running after he left her a note (on the previous skit, High School Boys and Winter) asking her to return his overcoat he left on herway back in Episode 7... all because Hidenori saw her walking with her classmate Takahiro to school, then casually walked away — she wanted to make sure Hidenori didn't get the wrong idea.
Breaking down crying like a little child after a humiliating string of Epic Fails in High School Boys and The Way You Are.
At the end of High School Boys and Assertiveness, when Takahiro reminded her of how she chased Hidenori across town.
Informed Ability: Character sketches portray her as an otherwise sociable, popular girl in Sanada West High... when not sitting next to Hidenori.
Leitmotif: A lonely piano piece, which resonates well with her seemingly solitary nature, but is also non-indicative of the hilarity that ensues from her interactions with Hidenori. It was even used as the ED for the first episode.
Not What It Looks Like: Chased Hidenori in Episode 10 to clear up any misunderstanding caused by him seeing her walking with Takahiro.
Only Known by Their Nickname: "Literature Girl" is how the author and the viewers call her. In-Universe she's only known as "Yassan."
A strange note: Some Chinese Languagefansub groups would even translate "Yassan" into "Literature Girl."
The Quiet One: Only when she's with Hidenori; she just uttered 2 lines in the 5 skits involving Hidenori. She is more talkative with her classmates like Takahiro.
Thinks Like a Romance Novel: When she's around Hidenori on that riverbank, she goes full into this mode. Too bad she's also...
Wrong Genre Savvy: She doesn't seem to realize that she's in a comedy series, and thus all her attempts to invoke romantic love tropes end up backfiring and humiliating her, most of the time.
Custom Uniform: Anime only. The longer she hangs around the Sanada North High School student council, the more she gains their dress sense. It comes to the point where she's not even wearing her necktie, sweater vest, or even tucking in her uniform blouse into her skirt anymore.
The Ditz: She's not the brightest bulb in town. For example, on a visit to Sanada North High in High School Girls and Panties, it took her an hour to find out the reason for a lost internet connection: the cable was never plugged on. Then she unwittingly flaunts her panties to Motoharu, the President and the Vice-President; fortunately for her she doesn't get to see them in the act, much less their horrified reaction.
Dude Magnet: Gets hit on in short order by three different groups of guys, the last of whom was the Student Council President.
Genre Blind: During High School Boys and the Savior, she clearly couldn't read the mood, even though Motoharu, Karasawa and the Vice-President were trying to set up a Rescue Romance scenario for her.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: downplayed as she already has superiority undercurrents before her first visit to Sanada North, but was only fired up because she found Sanada North's Student Council a more well-managed institution than her school's.
Leitmotif: While not as noticeable as Literature Girl's, Ringo also has a goofy one, which can be heard during her visits to the Sanada North Student Council.
Tsundere: Type B — she actually gets along fine with other people, like the members of the Sanada North student council, but she reacts violently to the antics of their pretty-boy Student Council President.
"Shut up! If you don't die right now, I'll kill you! If you don't wanna get killed, then die!"
Tadakuni's younger sister and a freshman at Sanada Central High. Despite talking with Tadakuni only once a month, she often ends up getting involved in her brother and his friends' hijinks.
Super Strength: In High School Boys and Tower she can lift both Hidenori and Motoharu on her shoulders, and in High School Boys and UFO Catchers she can shake a UFO Catcher at the arcades which the main trio together couldn't even move.
Minor Insult Meltdown: She tries to kill the main trio after Hidenori points out to her (with no malicious intent) that she's always alone on Christmas.
Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Nago and NAGO (though their names are written differently in kanji — 奈古 versus 名護) go to the same school, and the latter looks exactly like her slim and cute reflection in a concave mirror.
Student Council President of Sanada Central High, who mentors Yanagin, Habara and Ikushima on how to be "better" high school girls. Apparently has a past with Karasawa as well.
The Ditz: Invoked — she's smart but she encourages girls to become this as some sort of girlish charm. It is for this reason that she is disparaging of Yanagin's street smarts.
A student at Sanada Central High who gets bothered by every little thing that happens around her.
Butt Monkey: Already got a taste of the Literature Girl's Yandere tendencies just because Hidenori accidentally sat next to her at their usual Artificial Riverbank. She's basically a female version of Mitsuo.
Inner Monologue: Justified given how self-conscious she is. In High School Boys and the Literary Girl 4, she has as much of inner monologue as Hidenori.
All Men Are Perverts: He's a pervert (stealing Mei's panties and bringing it around with him), and apparently so do all his friends and acquaintances, and that's not to mention his younger brother and his friends.
Not so Different: He's as perverted (see "All Men Are Perverts") and sees Yoshitake's older sister's Berserk Button with contempt as the main trio. It also helps that he used to be the ringleader of their group before he left for college.
A mysterious kid whose true identity remains unknown. He saved Hidenori from bullies when he was young—and continued to be Hidenori's role model. He was also part of the team that "pacified" Habara.
Fail O Sucky Name: Due to Separated by a Common Language, while "rubber" would only mean rubber bands in Japan, most other English speakers would be confused about what he shoots, especially the Americans.
Just Whistle: Defied — although he tells Hidenori to call him with the whistle when he needs help, later he tells him not to rely on the strong to always help him.
Can Not Spit It Out: Spent many days during summer break with Hidenori trying (to no avail) to confess to him.
Shaggy Dog Story: She finally finds the chance to confess her love to Hidenori on a festival, which coincides with his last day in town. But just when she thinks she finally found her chance (after several days without much success)...
Surprise Incest: ...Hidenori makes a most surprising revelation to her: they are cousins.
"And so, I ended my summer break without being able to do a thing."
