The character sheet for Dear Brother.
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The Misonoo family
Nanako Misonoo
Voiced by: Hiroko Kasahara (original series), Yuko Mizutani (pilot episode)
The Protagonist of this story. She is a 16 year old young girl from a middle class background who manages to be accepted in Seiran High, a very prestigious all-girls school, and then is a candidate to come into the high-class group named the Sorority.
- A-Cup Angst: Insecure about her small breasts. Though it only really comes up when she compares herself with the quite curvier Mariko.
- All of the Other Reindeer: She's bullied a LOT by the girls who are envious of her entrance in the Sorority.
- Apologises a Lot
- Anguished Declaration of Love: To Rei.
- Brainy Brunette: While her grades aren't often focused on, the fact that Nanako was able to get into the prestigous Seiran Academy is a good indication that she's a very good student. Her risky association with Rei eats into her study time: she misses cram sessions with the Sorority elders, daydreams in class, and loses her flash cards on the eve of revision. Much is made of the price of her grades slipping, and the likelihood seems high, but she passes anyway.
- Break the Cutie: "Brother... there's no end to my tears!"
- Brooding Girl, Gentle Other Girl: Plays the gentle part for Mariko and Rei's brooding. The second one is a specially tragic case.
- Childhood Friends: She and Tomoko are best friends since they were little kids.
- Cute Bookworm: An adorable-looking young girl who is also very booksmart, and got into Seiran via acing the very hard admission exams.
- Daddy's Girl: Lampshaded humorously by Tomoko. Even if he's not her bio dad.
- The Four Loves and I Just Want to Have Friends: All she ever wanted is to have friends and to be loved.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The light to Mariko's dark.
- Love Martyr: Considering all that Rei puts her through, she's very much this.
- Naïve Everygirl: She's a ordinary, naive girl who finds herself embroiled in the politics of a prestigious all-girls school.
- Penny Among Diamonds: She has a middle class background and attends a prestigious school where most of her peers are wealthy.
- Say My Name: "Saint-Juste-sama... Saint-Juste-sama... SAINT-JUSTE-SAMAAAAAAAAA!"
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: More than once, Nanako disobeys others to do what she thinks it's the best.
- Shrinking Violet: Softspoken and painfully shy.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Basically, she's a Yamato Nadeshiko in training. While she doesn't have the traditional looks or style of dress of a yamato nadeshiko, she's a softspoken, kind-hearted girl who still has more willpower than it seems and will show a touch of steel if she's pushed enough.
- Stock Shoujo Heroine: One of the earliest examples, as the manga was first published in 1974. She's a Naïve Everygirl who's usually softspoken and sensitive, and while she finds herself in over her head at the prestigious Seiran Academy with cruel bullying and the Sorority's cutthroat politics, she still soldiers through it all and has more willpower than many would assume. She also has a love interest in the troubled Bifauxnen Rei Asaka, who's significantly taller than her.
- Supreme Chef: Cooking is one of her hobbies, and she and Tomoko are excellent at it. (Contrasting with Kaoru.) Once she learns that Rei lives alone and doesn't feed herself properly, Nanako decides to cook for her too.)
- Team Mom: Once in a while comes as this, specially when Kaoru has a fit of pain and Nanako first gets her medicines, then takes care of her. (And slapping Rei for not really helping her at first, too.)
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Tomoko's tomboy.
- Tragic Keepsake: Two, and both are from the dead Rei: One of her cigarettes (which Nanako smokes when alone in her room), and Rei's favorite doll which is given to her either by Fukiko (anime) or Rei herself before dying (manga).
Nanako's parents
Voiced by: Hiroko Suzuki (Mrs. Misonoo), Kinryū Arimoto (Professor Misonoo)
- Drowning My Sorrows: Prof. Misonoo, in the past.
- Good Parents: It's clear that they love Nanako and try to raise her as lovingly as they can.
- Parent with New Paramour: Nanako's mom married Professor Misonoo when Nanako was five.
- Parents as People: Both of them hide Takehiko's existence to Nanako, and later Mrs. Misonoo asks Takehiko to not reveal their true bond to her either. (In their defense, though, they didn't fully abandon Takehiko after his mother's death, with both of them gathering and then sending him the money he needed until he could fend off by himself, in addition to sustaining themselves and little!Nanako).
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Nanako's mom, who's even always seen in a kimono.
Nanako's close friends
Takehiko Henmi (alias Takehiko Misonoo)
Voiced by: Tesshō Genda
Nanako's former tutor, who helped her to get into Seiran. Nanako writes letter to him to tell her how her highschool life is, and refers to him as "Oniisama" ("Older brother").
- Big Brother Mentor: To Nanako
- Chick Magnet: Fukiko and Kaoru are both deeply in love with him. Nanako is very attached to him in a platonic way.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Takashi Ichinomiya.
- Hot Teacher: Was Nanako's Cram School teacher. (And Tomoko's as well, in the anime)
- Irony: Nanako calls him "Oniisama" ("dear brother") in her letters. It turns out he's actually her stepbrother, aka the son from Professor Misonoo's first marriage, and he can't tell her.)
- Nice Guy
- Noble Male, Roguish Male: The noble to Takashi's roguish.
- Oblivious to Love: He has no idea that Fukiko has been in love with him for six years, although in all fairness, it's implied that he barely sees her. Fukiko's own brother did not realize that she was in love with Takehiko, either.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He is a very good looking young man, enough to swipe several girls off their feet.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had he attended Fukiko's birthday party 6 years ago, Fukiko would've not gone as crazy as she did...
Tomoko Arikura
Voiced by: Waka Kanda
Nanako's cheerful and tomboyish best friend, who got into Seiran with her. She is the main anchor between Nanako and Real Life, alongside Takehiko and her parents.
- Ascended Extra: Gets FAR more spotlight in the anime than the manga, since in the first she rekindles her friendship to Nanako much faster than the latter.
- Big Damn Heroes: In the anime, the renewal of her and Nanako's friendship is marked by her rescuing Nanako from bullies.
- Childhood Friends: She and Nanako have been best friends since they were little kids.
- Genki Girl: She's more cheerful and outspoken compared to Nanako, who tends to be more reserved.
- Naïve Everygirl: She's not quite as naive as Nanako, but like her she still hasn't quite figured out the pitfalls of adolescence.
- Plucky Girl
- Precision F-Strike: Drops a "you bitches"! when Aya's Girl Posse step in on episode 29, followed by a Cat Fight since they insulted Mariko and called her "prospect murderer" for her Girl with Psycho Weapon stint.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She wears her hair in a mix of Hime Cut and Tomboyish Ponytail, wears pants more often than Nanako does, and is far more straightforward and outspoken than her best friend. However, her first choice for clubs was the cooking club, much like Nanako before she was inducted into the Sorority.
- Youthful Freckles
Mariko Shinobu
Voiced by: Sakiko Tamagawa
The first friend that Nanako makes in Seiran, and a fellow Sorority candidate. She is straightforward, passionate, and quite clingy to those she cares for.
- Animal Motifs: In the manga, Nanako compares her to a butterfly at least once.
- Bathing Beauty: She tells Nanako in their Bath Tub Bonding scene that she adores bathing and can stay up to an hour in the hot tub.
- Berserk Button: Three: abusing Nanako, abandoning her, and/or mocking her terrible family life. She'll explode on anyone who pushes any of them.
- Blatant Lies: After starving herself into hospital over Nanako's abandonment of their friendship — the only one she's ever really had — she pathetically insists that she has plenty of friends.
- Break the Cutie: The next-to-last part of the series totally punches the poor girl in the face. And this is after she had been somewhat more stable!
- Broken Bird: She actually came pre-broken.
- Brooding Girl, Gentle Other Girl: The brooding one for Nanako.
- Calling the Old Man Out: To both of her parents, in episode 28.
- Character Tics: Biting her lips constantly so they'll be ruby red. According to her, it's deliberate: the Oneesamas like girls with red lips.
- Also, once in a while she might be seen biting on her thumbnail when nervous or angry.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Towards Nanako; eventually to extreme degrees.
- Cry into Chest: After her parents' divorce and learning about her father's affair, she comes to Nanako's room and cries on her chest.
- Daddy's Girl: A deconstruction. The trauma of her father's philandering manifests in Mariko as a general hatred of men, and she blames her passive mother for not fighting for the marriage rather than the man himself, whom she still treats with respect and hopeful affection. Only after her father initiates a divorce does she realign her wrath at its source, sparing some for herself, and it's ultimately left ambiguous as to whether she's willing to reconcile with him.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her father not only writes porn novels, but later he leaves Mariko and her mom for the actress he was dating on the side. Needless to say, it has an horrible effect on poor Mariko.
- Does Not Like Men: Due to the terrible deals with her Disappeared Dad, Mariko loathes men and believes that they're out to get her and other women. Until she starts interacting more with Takeshi (and maybe dating him), though to be fair he is pretty patient with her and didn't take advantage of Mariko when at her most vulnerable. And she doesn't make things easier to him either.
- Fangirl: Of Kaoru.
- Fallen Princess: So cramped is the flat she and her now-divorced mother end up moving into, they have to share a bedroom. Unusually for the trope, she has the lion's share of her Character Development beforehand and takes the downgrade in stride.
- Girl with Psycho Weapon: In her case, a boxcutter. She can be said to be the Trope Codifier in anime.
- Hot-Blooded: Has some moments, specially if you push her buttons.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Many of her more extreme actions are driven by how she's very lonely; she clings to Nanako since no one else at school wants to be friends with her due to her father's reputation as an erotic novelist.
- I'm Not Hungry: Refuses to eat after the incident with Nanako. Kaoru and later Nanako calls her out on it.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The dark to Nanako's light.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Sneered at by her peers for her absent father's profession, and admittedly not the easiest person to get along with, Mariko spent her birthdays alone with her mother in a lavish hotel suite until befriending Nanako.
- Loners Are Freaks: A manic, possessive Mood-Swinger given to both haughtiness and self-loathing.
- Ms. Exposition: In the anime, she's frequently seen explaining Seiran-related stuff to Nanako and Tomoko. She's kinda fond of creepy stories, too.
- Murder-Suicide: She attempts to do this when Nanako tries to leave her home late at night. Fortunately, Hisako intervenes by grabbing her and Nanako manages to escape and goes home.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Expect Mariko to be very up-on-your-face if she likes you.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Poor girl has serious, serious issues with any kind of abandonment.
- Precision F-Strike: When Aya harrasses her and Nanako in public, Mariko lets out a rather epic "bitches like you don't know when to quit!" Also, when explaining who Aya is to Nanako a little earlier, Mariko openly refers to her as "that bitch".
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin
- Shower of Angst: A hot bath of angst, after the incident with Nanako.
- Tsundere: A Type B to Nanako (post-Yandere phase), Kaoru, and later Takeshi.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gets one from Kaoru, and later another from Nanako
- Yandere: Very, very possessive of Nanako, to the point of trying to destroy her friendship with Tomoko, then threatening to kill Nanako. Unlike other Yanderes, when she does realise that this is not the way to get Nanako's affections, Mariko tones this side down and mostly evolves into a Tsundere, until she totally cracks when her parents definitely split up.
- Younger than She Looks: With her ruby-red lips and Raven Hair, Ivory Skin features, 16-year-old Mariko looks at least 18. Lampshaded twice: when she and Nanako take a bath together and Nanako notices that Mariko is very curvaceous compared to her; and when, in the fair episode, Takashi directly asks Mariko "what, are you really sixteen?!"
Seiran first year students
Aya Misaki
Voiced by: Masako Katsuki
The daughter of a former Seiran student who also was in the Sorority and of a famous lawyer, Aya is another Sorority candidate and Mariko's rival since junior high. Once she doesn't get chosen to join such an elite group, she starts attacking Nanako and Mariko mercilessly...
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: A minor one. The anime gave Misato a devoted Girl Posse with whom she's in near-constant company, undermining Mariko's claim that Aya, once like herself, is "utterly alone and desperately lonely."
- Alpha Bitch: For Nanako's class, at least. She's hopelessly out-alpha bitched by Fukiko, who casually terminates her bullying of Nanako.
- Ascended Extra: She is much more prominent and developed in the anime than in the manga.
- Break the Haughty: Especially pecially in the anime.
- Cry for the Devil: Used in-universe in the anime, when Mariko realizes that she and Aya are not so different, she ends up bawling for both of them and has a huge Heroic BSoD.
- Daddy's Girl: Hinted in her conversation with Miki and Megumi in the first anime episode.
- Heel–Face Turn. In the anime rendition of the Sorority Disolution arc, she's made somewhat more sympathetic, and it culminates in this. It also happens in the manga, but off-screen.
- Hidden Depths: Again in the anime, the aforementioned Dissolution arc shows us what truely lays behind her psyche. It's... not pretty.
- Interrupted Suicide: In the TV series, after karma catches with her, Aya is left so devistated that she almost drowns herself in the sea, but is stopped by Nanako and Tomoko. Mariko arrives later and gives her a You Are Not Alone speech, starting to mend their broken friendship.
- Pet the Dog: In the anime she shows genuine kindness to her Big Friendly Dog, Halloween. That, and she does care for her Girl Posse.
- The Rival: More to Mariko than to Nanako. It's explained in the anime: Mariko tells Tomoko and Nanako that they were relatively close in middle school, but Aya threw her under the bus in a sports competition and things never were the same from then on.
- Taking the Heat: In the anime, when Miyuki and Megumi steal and try to burn the signatures for the Sorority dissolution (under the orders of Ogiwara and Komabayashi), Aya willingly takes the blame.
- Too Dumb to Live: Aya's supreme arrogance and belief that she can pull a Karma Houdini on everything due to her social status get her physically (by either Mariko or Kaoru) or verbally (in the anime, by Tomoko and once by Fukiko) bitchslapped more than once. Specially when she taunts her rival Mariko due to her horrible home life - after pressing the already unstable Mariko's biggest Berserk Button to the freaking bottom, she gets slashed by her boxcutter in public.
Junko Nakaya
Voiced by: Mayumi Setou
A junior Sorority member, who came in alongside Nanako and Mariko. Episode 15 of the anime focuses on her and her issues.
- A Day in the Limelight: Episode 15, which is dedicated to put her through the wringer.
- The Bus Came Back: Isn't seen a lot after her episode, but reappears in the anime rendition of the "Sorority disolution" arc.
- Chekhov's Gunman: In the anime she's first seen in episode 11, where she and one of her friends wonder to themselves if it's true that Fukiko singlehandedly decided to get Nanako in the Sorority in front of a peeved Mariko. Cue episode 15...
- Delicate and Sickly: The reason why her grades took enough of a nosedive to get her out of the Sorority was a high fever.
- Green-Eyed Monster: To Nanako, which she admits. Nowhere as bad as Aya, obviously.
- Nice Girl: She's actually quite sweet, making her Break the Cutie episode even more painful.
Megumi Furuta and Miyuki Sonobe
Voiced by: Miki Itō (Megumi), Yumi Takada (Miyuki)
Aya Misaki's Girl Posse, and apparently the only friends she has in school. Megumi has short hair and a somewhat deeper voice than other girls, while Miyuki has pigtails and acts a little more childish. They only appear in the anime.
- A Day in the Limelight: They share episode 30 with Aya.
- Canon Foreigner: Aya acted on her own in the manga, so her Girl Posse is anime-exclusive.
- Girlish Pigtails: Miyuki wears her hair like this, tied with red baubles.
- Girl Posse: They're few more than Aya's only friends and companions.
- Satellite Character: Their whole schtick is reduced to hanging around Aya and helping her bully other girls. Tomoko and Kaoru don't approve. Except for episode 30, where they show some Character Depth.
- Undying Loyalty: Megumi and Miyuki's affection and care for Aya turns out to be surprisingly genuine... but the eldest Sorority girls take advantage of it in episode 30, via promising to make Aya a Sorority member if they sabotage the signature process that seeks to dissolve the group. When they're caught and Aya protects them via blaming herself, the girls have a change of heart and explain what truly happened in tears.
- Vocal Dissonance: Megumi is a highschool student, but her voice makes her sound almost like an adult woman.
The Three Magnificent Ones
Fukiko Ichinomiya aka "Miya-sama"
Voiced by: Mami Koyama
The leader of the very exclusive Sorority and daughter to the very rich and noble Ichinomiya family, as well as one of the "Magnificent Three" of Seiran alongside Rei and Kaoru. Very composed and calm and a born leaderess, but with a far more complicated mind.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Downplayed; while her personality is mostly unchanged in the anime, she tends to be more calm and composed, while in the manga she lets her emotions slip more often.
- Aloof Big Sister: To her half-sister Rei.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: She gives one to Nanako, but it turns out to be fake.
- Bungled Suicide: She tries to drown herself after she realizes that Takehiko broke their promise and did not attend her birthday party. Some time afterwards, she enters a suicide pact with a young Rei, but gets too frightened when faced with the reality of it and does not slash her wrists. Later, she tries jumping off a building but is stopped by Rei.
- Berserk Button: People should neither make any allusions (even if accidental) towards her onesided love for Takehiko, nor speak openly against anything related to the Sorority. Those who do shall expect some huge retribution.
- Break the Haughty: The last parts of the series, and especially the anime, is dedicated to take this proud young woman and smash her pride to pieces.
- Domestic Abuse: The way she treats her half-sister Rei is horrible.
- Elegant Classical Musician: Gifted pianist and violinist.
- Emotionally Tongue-Tied: The normally eloquent and poised Fukiko is unusually quiet and subdued around Takehiko.
- Flower Motifs: Roses, specially red ones. She sometimes wears a long black skirt with a red rose pattern, often walks through a garden full of roses, and people who want to win her favor try to give her rose bouquets ( In episode 15, Junko does it and fails when Fukiko gets her expelled from the Sorority, and Mariko tells Nanako to bring her some when Fukiko gets angry over Nanako defending Junko.)
- Formal Characters Use Keigo: Fukiko is an extremely polite speaker and tends to use Keigo, alongside the very formal watakushi as her personal pronoun. She almost never drops this, save from the time Rei pressed her Berserk Button in her birthday party.
- Green-Eyed Monster: With bonus points for Fukiko actually having green eyes. In spite of her confident and serene appearance, Fukiko tends to become furiously jealous whenever she sees Nanako close to Takehiko and Rei.
- Heroic BSoD: When a dying Mrs. Ichinomiya tells her that she's actually the daughter of a maid who used to work in the house and that Rei is her full sister, Fukiko has a massive meltdown, as her whole identity suddenly crumbles.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Probably why Fukiko, of all people, decided to talk to Kaoru about her unwillingness to go to Germany with Henmi (and, even more surprisingly, she turned out to be the only person able to change Kaoru's mind about the matter).
- Love Makes You Evil: Her obsessive infatuation with Henmi has led Fukiko to put innocent Nanako through a great deal of trauma, and made her lash out (very publicly) at Rei as well, who was equally innocent.
- Loving a Shadow: In spite of being in love with Takehiko for six years, she doesn't really know him. Oddly enough, she doesn't seem to make any effort to talk to him, probably because his very presence has a powerful effect on her.
- Manipulative Bitch: Especially to poor Rei, and later to Nanako.
- Missing Mom: Happens twice to Fukiko. Mrs. Ichinomiya died years before the start of the series, and Mrs. Asaka, her real mother, dies as well.
- The Mourning After: Fukiko decides to never fall in love again after Rei dies, Takehiko returns to Kaoru's side, and she goes through quite the Break the Haughty.
- Ojou Ringlets: Signifying her high society standing.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Subverted. While she is an excellent horse rider and a pretty good swimmer, this is used more as a way to empathize her Ojou background than to show her as a sportswoman.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: In the anime, even at when she's at her angriest, Fukiko almost never openly berates her target directly and more often than not she speaks in a soft and gentle voice, but her venomous words can pretty much pierce the victim's psyche to the bottom. This isn't so much the case in the original manga, where she tends to let her anger show more often.
- Pet the Dog: Gives Aya a cold warning to discontinue her bullying of Nanako. She's also kind to Mariko after her hospitalization.
- Precision F-Strike: A magnificent, overblown, and very hammy "You shameless BITCH!" , towards Rei, during her BSOD in the birthday party. Made even more notorious by how Fukiko speaks very formally most of the time.
- Room Full of Crazy: One in her Big Fancy House, full of Creepy Dolls and memorabilia of her time spent with her crush Takehiko — to the point of forbidding anybody save for a single cleaning maid to enter said room, where she has obsessively arranged the items and left them unchanged for six years.
- School Idol: One of three school idols known as "the Magnificent Ones". She is idolized by the student body for her wealth, beauty, femininity, academic prowess and personality. If Seiran had an official queen, it would undoubtedly have been Fukiko.
- Stalker with a Crush: Towards Henmi Takehiko. She doesn't physically follow him around but she keeps an eye on his life and tries numerous times to interfere and keep him away from Nanako and Kaoru. She's also not above listening in on his conversations when he visits her brother.
- Student Council President: A position she acquired through a combination of her own efforts and her father's enormous wealth.
- Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: This is what Fukiko believes in regards to herself. She has kept her painful infatuation with Henmi for six years, and even when he gets married, she doesn't believe she will ever love someone else. The ending leaves an open possibility that she might eventually get over Henmi, but it's ambiguous.
- Yandere: She may not be a Psycho Lesbian for her sister Rei or for Nanako, but she still counts as one...for Takehiko. And probably to Rei, too.
- Upper-Class Equestrian: As well as being the head of the Sorority, she's also part of the equestrian club, highlighting her wealthy background as well as how Seiran Academy itself is a very prestigious school.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Alas, The First Cut Is the Deepest.Fukiko: I was only twelve. But my heart died on that summer's day.
- Wicked Cultured: She is obsessive, emotionally unstable, sadistic and cruel but she hides this behind her numerous academic achievements and skills. She has perfect manners, an elegant fashion sense, is eloquent and poised, can speak multiple languages, quote poetry, is an excellent horsewoman, a master ikebana student and has a great talent for organisation.
Kaoru Orihara aka "Kaoru no Kimi"
Voiced by: Keiko Toda
The second of the "Magnificent Three", Kaoru is also the most tomboyish and levelheaded. She and Rei have been friends since middle school times, and loathes Fukiko for her treatment of her. She takes a Cool Big Sis role for Nanako, Mariko and Tomoko, as she is the Class Representative to Nanako and Mariko's class (due to some undefined health problems she had to be Held Back in School for a year, thus she's a junior despite being older than the rest).
- Berserk Button: She has two. First, don't bully someone in front of her. Second, please don't neglect your own health.
- Bifauxnen: She's very androgynous and quite the tomboy, though she's still admired by other students.
- Bifauxnen and Lad-ette: The Lad-ette to Rei's Bifauxnen, being more tomboyish and athletic and looking more masculine in appearance.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Because Kaoru loved Takehiko and didn't want him to suffer for her illness, she broke up with him after showing him her mastectomy scars.
- Bully Hunter: Very, very protective of Rei and Nanako. The fourth episode has her physically mauling Aya and her Girl Posse when they start bullying Nanako in class, and she also stands up to Fukiko several times for the sake of Rei.
- Broken Bird: Less than others, but still. She not only worries a lot for Nanako and Rei, often to her own detriment, but she angsts a LOT over her horrible health.
- Cool Big Sis: To Nanako and Mariko, and to Tomoko too in the anime.
- Class Representative: Subverted, as she's pretty decent at her job but doesn't exactly have the archetypical traits.
- Delicate and Sickly: Downplayed; she was held back a year due to health problems, though it's not known what she has. While she's still very athletic and Hot-Blooded and her health problems usually don't bother her, it's still serious enough to make her collapse in intense physical pain once in a while, often in VERY crucial moments. It's only explained at the end that Kaoru has breast cancer, and in fact, she had to go through a mastectomy at age 15.
- Hates Wearing Dresses: With the exception of a yukata and her wedding dress, she is never shown wearing dresses. This makes her stand out among the rest of the Seiran students, who almost always wear dresses or skirts.
- Hot-Blooded: Kaoru is impulsive, emotional and driven by her strong feelings.
- Held Back in School: She's in Nanako's class despite being a year older than Nanako and their other classmates, since she had to take time off from school due to health problems.
- Lethal Chef: She can't even crack an egg properly.
- Meaningful Name: The "Kaoru no Kimi" title comes from Kaoru Genji, the lead character of The Tale of Genji.
- Only Sane Woman: The most down to Earth among the main characters, and she's easily the most well-adjusted of the Three Magnificent Ones, the other two of which are gradually revealed to be rather unstable in their own ways.
- Passionate Sports Girl: A member of the school's basketball team and a very talented athlete. And when she suffers an injury to her chest in the middle of a basketball game and is unable to play fully due to her illness, Rei takes Kaoru's place.
- School Idol: One of three school idols known as "the Magnificent Ones". She's greatly admired for her athletic skills and is the star of the school's basketball team.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The epilogue to the manga states that she died sometime after marrying Takehiko, but she's alive in the anime; a photograph shows her, Takehiko and their newborn child.
- Tomboy: She's a Bifauxnen who has Boyish Short Hair, typically wears pants and is very talented at basketball, generally being more athletic than Fukiko or Rei.
- Volleying Insults: When her and Rei's friendship is more or less stable, they engage in a lot of verbal banter.
Rei Asaka aka "Hana no Saint Juste"
Voiced by: Sumi Shimamoto
The third member of the "Magnificent Three", a beautiful artist/musician/actress and former basketball player. After she helps Nanako in her first day at school, Nanako attempts to help and befriend her but it'll be very complicated. Especially due to her drug addiction...
- Adaptational Personality Change: In the manga, when she's with Nanako she shows a far more playful side and overall has a more debonair attitude around the girls who fawn over her. In the anime she's far more brooding and dramatic, with some of the levity in her interactions with Nanako removed.
- Bifauxnen: Like Kaoru, she looks very androgynous, but in a more feminine way.
- Bifauxnen and Lad-ette: The Bifauxnen to Kaoru's Lad-ette, being an Elegant Classical Musician with more refined and urbane tastes and not looking quite as masculine.
- Broken Bird: Due to a massive Break the Cutie-like past.
- Big Brother Attraction: More exactly, she has a big sister attraction towards her older half-sister Fukiko.
- Butch Lesbian: It's more obvious in her relationship with Nanako (who would be the femme in this case).
- Brooding Girl, Gentle Other Girl: The brooding girl to Nanako's gentle other girl. it ends...horribly, as mentioned below.
- Driven to Suicide: In the manga. The anime bowdlerizes it into an accident. Then again, Bury Your Gays...
- It's not even the first time she's attempted it. At some point Kaoru takes her bracelet by force and this reveals a scar on Rei's wrist, coming from her slitting it open in the past.
- In episode 12, she reveals that she and Fukiko made a Suicide Pact of sorts (and that's where the scar comes from), and under the influence of a fever and drugs she tries to fulfill it... with Nanako. She barely stops once she realizes that she was about to Kick The Wrong Dog, and collapses in tears.
- Also, in the anime there's a subversion. Rei's death is a genuine accident (she fell in the path of a train while in her way to a meeting/date with Nanako), but almost everyone except for Kaoru believes that Rei killed herself; the police later dispell this, when a boy who witnessed the accident tells them what truly went on.
- Elegant Classical Musician: Accomplished piano, violin and guitar player.
- Heroic Bastard: Daughter of the Ichinomiya patriarch and one of the maids in the main house. Rei herself didn't find out until she was in her early teens, before Mrs. Asaka commited suicide.
- Get Out!: Throws Nanako out of her apartment in episode 14, when she attempts to throw her drugs away. She apologizes for it later, though.
- Lonely Doll Girl: We don't see her carrying dolls around, but the only "company" of sorts that she has in her apartment is her porcelain doll "Poupee-chan". Which doubles as a Tragic Keepsake as it's a gift from her abusive half-sister Fukiko, whom she's obsessively in love with.
- Love Martyr: To her older sister Fukiko.
- Meaningful Name: Her nickname comes from Louis Antoine de Saint Just
, a political leader from The French Revolution. A supposedly beautiful man who went through quite the heartbreak, he threw himself in politics like Rei embraced sports, music and drugs, and also met a tragic end. (Though he was guillotined instead of killing himself/dying in an accident.) - Murder-Suicide: She tries to do this (while being sick and drugged) on Nanako, whom she mistakes for Fukiko. It takes her target's desperate words to stop this, and she collapses in tears.
- The Ophelia: She is beautiful, refined, cultured, and tragically unhinged.
- Passionate Sports Girl: In the past, she was in the school's basketball team, but she has stopped playing. The reasons vary in each continuity: in the anime Fukiko forbids her from playing basketball again, but in the manga she quits playing of her own accord. At some point she takes Kaoru's place when Kaoru suffers an injury to her chest during an important basketball game, and we see that her playing skills have not decayed at all.
- Room Full of Crazy: Two. One is her "secret spot" at the school tower, the other is her whole apartment.
- School Idol: One of three school idols known as "the Magnificent Ones". She's admired for her beautiful, androgynous looks and many artistic talents.
- Shower of Angst: More than one.
- Tragic Keepsake: A Creepy Doll and a beautiful golden bracelet, both given to her by the abusive Fukiko.
- Vocal Dissonance: In the narration, Nanako describes her as having a deep, husky voice. In the manga, you can take her word for this, but it comes across as odd in the anime where Rei has a rather high-pitched voice courtesy of Sumi Shimamoto that could be described as boyish at most.
- White Shirt of Death: When she died in the anime, she was wearing a white suit.
Top Sorority members
"Lady Borgia" Ogiwara
Voiced by: Emi Shinohara
A high-ranked lady from the Sorority, and a close friend of "Lady Mona Lisa" Komabayashi.
- Ascended Extra: Had a minor role in the manga, then the anime gave her quite the spotlight in the Sorority dissolution arc.
- Berserk Button: No one should either refuse to answer her questions, nor talk back to her.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: Tells Nanako that she never approved of her admittance into the Sorority, but put a dignified face on it and treated her with all due compassion.
- Meaningful Name: Come on, would anyone blindly trust a person who nicknames herself Borgia of all people?
- My God, What Have I Done?: When she accidentally endangers Nanako's life and Komabayashi's breakdown makes her come back to her senses.
- Prim and Proper Bun: Subverted: she looks prim and proper, but reveals herself as a massive Smug Snake.
- The Rival: To Fukiko.
- Smug Snake: Not nearly as clever or as capable as Fukiko..
- The Starscream: Entertains this notion during the Sorority Dissolution arc. In one telling scene, Fukiko catches her sitting in its leader's chair.
"Lady Mona Lisa" Komabayashi
Voiced by: Shinobu Adachi
Another high-ranked Sorority girl, called Mona Lisa due to having a mysterious smile and dark black hair like the famous painting. "Lady Borgia" Ogiwara is her closest friend. She actually confronts Nanako about her and Fukiko's deals first. Later she and Ogiwara team up...
- Number Two: Said to be this to Fukiko in the manga.
- The Quiet One: She has a soft, gentle voice and tends to speak relatively little.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: A beautiful and regal young woman, whose pale skin and black hair are a huge part of her lovely looks.
- Not So Stoic: In the anime. When Ogiwara corners Nanako and almost tosses her off a balcony and into the river (unintentionally, as she only wanted to know more about her and Fukiko but didn't plan to harm Nanako seriously), Komabayashi has a huge breakdown. She saves Nanako and then collapses in tears, begging Ogiwara to stop and hugging her.
"Lady Medusa" Katsuragi
Voiced by: Kumiko Takizawa
Another high-ranked Sorority girl, and the one that Fukiko is in best terms with.
- Messy Hair: Which is the cause of her "Medusa" nickname.
- Number Two: Apparently, to Fukiko. Komabayashi is mentioned to be this, but Katsuragi seems to be personally closer to her.
- Only Friend: She seems to be the only genuine friend Fukiko has in the sorority. They are sometimes seen sitting together and chatting pleasantly, and Medusa refuses to leave Fukiko's side when the sorority members begin to turn against her.
"Lady Cattleya" Yamamoto
Voiced by: Satoko Yasunaga
Another high-ranked Sorority girl, she seems to get along well with the younger members. She and "Vampanella" Hoshino also seem to be close friends.
- Designated Victim: During the Sorority dissolution arc, Yamamoto gets struck in the face almost once per episode.
- Flower Motifs: Cattleya is a certain kind of orchid.
- Nice Girl: Seems to be the most down-to-Earth among the eldest Sorority girls, as she's snobbish but mostly polite unless she's very seriously upset.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: Is accused of being this to Fukiko, by Ogiwara. Bonus for her trying to smack-talk Ogiwara and getting slapped for her trouble.
"Lady Vampanella" Hoshino
Voiced by: Miyuki Matsuoka
The last of the higher-ranked Sorority girls, and a good friend of "Lady Cattleya" Yamamoto.
- Smoking Is Cool: Only when off-school, though.
Others
Takashi Ichinomiya
Voiced by: Kenyū Horiuchi
Fukiko's older brother, as well as Takehiko and Rei's close friend.
- Big Brother Mentor: Not as strongly as Takehiko, but still tries to be one to Rei and sometimes to Nanako.
- The Casanova: Is quite flirty towards Mariko, who is tsundere to him.
- Cool Car: Loves to drive around in an expensive, flashy car.
- Deadpan Snarker: He possessed quite the dry wit.
- Invisible Parents: His father is always away on business trips. Not that Takashi minds, as they don't have a particularly close relationship.
- The Hedonist: Though still nicer than the standard hedonist. Most likely due to having to deal with his two very... complex younger sisters, Fukiko and Rei. I.e., in the anime he's seen visiting Rei in her apartment and trying to get her to quit smoking, since he's very worried about her health. In the manga, also, he's cockier than in the anime: i.e, when Mariko shows her utter contempt of males in front of him and Takehiko, once she's gone and done he decides to "bag" her anyway, which doesn't happen in the anime (he's rather surprised about her behavior, and at some point he engages in verbal banter with her and falls off his chair in the end).
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Him and Takehiko.
- Noble Male, Roguish Male: The roguish to Takehiko's noble.
- Princely Young Man: A Prince Charming, with some shades of the Gentleman type.
- Smoking Is Cool
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky
- Uncle Pennybags: Doesn't mind giving Takehiko rides in his Cool Car, spends a good part of his wealth on treating his friends, and ultimately pays for everything in Kaoru and Takehiko's wedding so they will be happy.
Hikawa and Hisako Shinobu
Voiced by: Tomomichi Nishimura (Hikawa), Rihoko Yoshida (Hisako)
Mariko's parents. Hikawa works as a famous novelist, Hisako is a House Wife, and they don't exactly have the best relationship.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In the manga Hisako is cute, but still
Hollywood Homely (which is lampshaded by Mariko). In the anime, she's a downright hot mom. - Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: One of the few cases when this trope is NOT Played for Laughs. Hikawa is not just any kind of writer, but a writer of erotic novels: while he donates quite the money to the Seiran campus, Mariko is looked down on by other students for being "the daughter of a pornographer". According to Aya everyone knew but just chose not to say anything, and she openly uses it to bash Mariko as a person.
- Ascended Extra: In the manga Hisako was seen in two scenes, and Hikawa only was alluded to. They gain some more spotlight in the anime, and specially in episode 29.
- Cooldown Hug: Hisako gives one to Mariko, when in episode 29 she tries to throw herself off her balcony in her Heroic BSoD state.
- Parents as People: They're not bad persons, but they have issues. Extremely severe issues. Hikawa is very distant due to his work and his affairs, Hisako is very kind but veers dangerously into Stepford Smiler.
- Rags to Riches: According to Mariko, Hikawa and Hisako were very poor when they got married, and then got progressively richer as Hikawa's novelist career flourished. (Though at the cost of them growing apart, as well as Hikawa resorting to write his succesful erotica rather than the more meaningful literature he was fond of.)
- Stepford Smiler: Hisako constantly hides the terrible pain coming from her and Hikawa's decaying relationship. In the anime, Mariko calls her out on it. 'Mom! you... you're crying again!'.
- Tragic Dream: Almost at the end of the series, Mariko tells Nanako that she learned about her parents's past. She says that Hikawa wanted to become a great novelist and had genuine talent, but now writes erotica because that's what sells. Back then he actually wrote a really good and beautiful novel, but it was a fluke; Mariko finds a copy of it and says it's technically great.
- You Are Not Alone: In the anime, Hikawa attempts to calm down a very shaken Mariko via telling her this. When it fails, he goes for a Get A Hold Of Yourself Man
Minako
Voiced by: Hiroko Emori
One of the maids in the Ichinomiya summer house. She makes a single appearance in the anime, which turns out to be very important in regards to Fukiko...
- Canon Foreigner: Appears only in the anime version.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Who knew that cleaning Fukiko's room would be so important in-story?
- Gossipy Hens: Describes herself as such after she's fired for having mentioned The Room to Nanako.
- Meido: A maid in the Ichinomiya summer house until she was fired.
- Nice Girl: Shown to be very nice to Nanako during her visit to the summer home.
- Secret-Keeper: She's the only maid who's ever allowed to get into Fukiko's Room Full of Crazy to clean it up.
