Characters / Full Moon

Humans

Mitsuki Koyama

Voiced by: myco

The protagonist is a 12-year-old girl who dreams of becoming a pop singer. She has a tumor in her throat which not only restricts her ability to sing, but will end her life in one year. With the help of Takuto, the shinigami assigned to collect her soul, she is able to transform into the pop singer, Full Moon, to fulfill her dream with her remaining time.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Inverted. In the anime, Mitsuki was mostly cheerful and didn't have a lot of angst surrounding her. It's when the news of Eichi's death that she goes through a severe Break the Cutie that she was mostly unresponsive around people. The manga version, she was already broken and blames herself for getting the people she loves getting hurt.
• Accidental Kiss: Implied with Takuto in Episode 15.
• Be Yourself: What Mitsuki/Full Moon learns in episode 5.
• Break the Cutie: She was already broken before the manga started and hid this well.
• Cheerful Child: And then subverted; she's shown to be a major Stepford Smiler and nowhere near as happy as she acts. Volume 5 puts her back her cheerful self after everyone resolved their differences.
• Childhood Friend: With Eichi when they met at an orphanage.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Eichi. Eichi's death cuts it tragically short.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: When she founds out that Hikari is Takuto ex's girlfriend, she gets jealous.
• Cosmic Motifs: The moon. Her name even means "full moon".
• Curtains Match the Windows: In some art and the anime, both her hair and eyes are brown.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Oh boy. When she was in her first orphanage, her teacher told her it was her fault Aoi died. When she met Eichi, they were nearly inseparable. However he declared his Anguished Declaration of Love and gave her a Forceful Kiss. After avoiding him before he leaves, he asked her to forget him. His last words to her were "If you can't forget me, then answer me". As she waits for him to land, she found out his plane exploded mid-flight. And you know why she's a Death Seeker.
• Death Seeker: She's not actively trying to kill herself, but she wouldn't mind dying since she knows she'll be reunited with Eichi then. Subverted as the story proceeds and she decides that, since there are people who love her, she'll try to endure heartbreak and illness, because she wants to be there for the people who love her.
• Determinator: She doesn't let anything stop her from following her dreams of becoming a singer.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: While going through a (comical) emotional episode and confronting Meroko, she slaps her.
  Meroko's side comment: What the hell was that!?
• Disappeared Dad: Her father Aoi is deceased.
• Dream-Crushing Handicap: Mitsuki wants to become an Idol Singer, but can't because she has throat cancer and to live she'll have to have her larynx removed... she puts this off so she can still sing, but it means she'll die before she's really going to be old enough to achieve her dream. But then she gets to do it via magic.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Whenever she is reminded that Eichi died, she becomes depressed for most of the manga and anime.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Thanks to Eichi, she's able to live longer than her intended death, have her throat tumor removed, and get together with Takuto.
• Friendly Rivalry: Mitsuki tries to do this with Madoka.
• Generation Xerox: She looks a lot like her mother, Hazuki.
• Green-Eyed Epiphany: When she founds out Hikari is Takuto's ex girlfriend and sees the two kissing, she gets jealous.
• The Heart: To the Shinigamiiz and her studio staff. Including The Boss and Mystere.
• Heroic BSoD: Mitsuki goes through a brief one in the manga after the Shinigami find out that Eichi has been dead for two years. Then she outright explodes during it. Arina Tanemura lampshaded this on the chapter's commentary.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Mitsuki offers her soul to Izumi to save Takuto (though he doesn't take it).
• Idol Singer: Mitsuki aka Full Moon.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Due to not having friends for a long time, she considers Madoka and Gutchan, the adults (including Fuzuki and Tanaka) to be her "Friends of the Forest".
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Oshige believes her to be this, leading Oshige to sleep with the boss to allow her to remain pure (not wearing revealing outfits, and being allowed to write her own songs). This had ended quite ugly for Oshige if she hadn't been saved by Wakaouji.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Wakaouji.
• It's All My Fault: She thinks the death of her parents are her fault. Eichi's death as well.
• Kaleidoscope Eyes: Arina Tanemura seems to like switching her eye color to brown, yellow, pink, red and blue.
• Littlest Cancer Patient: She's diagnosed with throat cancer, which makes it difficult to sing as she likes and leaves her with only a year left to live.
• Magic Idol Singer: She's a young girl who's granted the power to turn into an older version of herself to fulfill her dream of becoming an idol singer. Unlike most examples, she doesn't use any kind of magic for her performances.
• Meaningful Name: Mitsuki's name translates to "Full Moon," which is what she picks for her stage name. Also, the moon has a lot of significance for both Mitsuki and Eichi, particularly in regards to their friendship.
• Missing Mom: Her mother Hazuki died giving birth to her.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: In the anime, where she uses several of her father's songs. In the manga however does she write most of her songs herself.
• Nice Girl: She's a sweetheart to everyone she meets. Even the cruelest Shinigami are drawn to her, including the Death Master and Sheldon.
• Oblivious to Love: Mitsuki doesn't realize Takuto loves her. She was pretty much the same with Eichi; when he confessed to her, she was completely stunned that he would think of her that way.
• Official Couple: With Takuto.
• Older Alter Ego: Mitsuki herself is only twelve years old, but turning into Full Moon ages her up to sixteen.
• Parental Abandonment: Both her parents died before the beginning of the story.
• Parental Substitute: Izumi outright calls her his mother figure in one chapter. Justified as he died when he was younger than her.
• Protectorate: To Takuto.
• Recurring Element: Her songs revolve around her unrequited love for Eichi and how she wants to see him again. Her takes a different approach in volume 4 when she sings an original song that vents her frustrations.
• The Rival: Madoka. Meroko sees her like this in the beginning too.
• Selective Obliviousness: She refuses to accept Eichi's death, pretending she doesn't know.
• Second Love: Mitsuki's first love was Eichi. She ends up with Takuto.
• Shrinking Violet: In the manga, she wasn't able to go to school due to her illness, and thus isn't used to people; the only person she seems to open up to as a child is Eichi. She grows out of this after the Time Skip.
• Singing Voice Dissonance: In the anime, her voice actress myco gives her a high-pitched voice. When she sings, myco uses her naturally deep voice.
• Stepford Smiler: Big time. You can't really blame her due to the deaths of three people who were involved with her.
• Tragic Keepsake: Mitsuki keeps a copy of the newspaper article about the plane crash that killed Eichi, and once you find out that Eichi is dead, her picture of him counts as this too.
• Transformation Sequence: Anime only. Mitsuki is given one when she turns into Full Moon. A rather simplistic sequence is used for the first half of the series, but a more elaborate looking, Magical Girl-type one was used in the second half. Meroko also gets a short sequence when she shapeshifts.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Mitsuki looks so much like Hazuki, her late mother, that it's painful for her grandmother to even look at her. When Mitsuki sees a picture of her mother as a child, even she mistakes it for herself at first.
• You Remind Me Of Him: Mitsuki says Wakaouji looks like Eichi.
• Your Days Are Numbered: She has one year to live before her throat cancer kills her. Wakaouji suggested she have surgery to have her vocal cords removed, but she refused because she loved to sing. The Shinigamiiz even went out of their way to remove her name on the death list, and due to a third party preventing her death before they came, she managed to live longer to be 16 in the manga.

Eichi Sakurai

Voiced by: Ryōhei Kimura

Mitsuki's love. His parents and grandfather died when he was very young, so he had to live in an orphanage where he later became the best friend of Mitsuki. Before Mitsuki could confess her real feelings to him, he had to move to America where his new parents live. To find him again, Mitsuki wants to become a singer, so that Eichi could hear her no matter how far away from each other they are. But he dies when his flight to America crashes; (in the manga), Eichi dies in a car accident a few months after moving (in anime)

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• Anguished Declaration of Love: He knew he was being adopted. He ends up giving her a Forceful Kiss.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Mitsuki, and tries to instigate this.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His parents died in an accident and his grandfather died later.
• Dead All Along: In the manga, he dies on the plane taking him to America; in the anime, he dies in a car accident after having lived there a little while.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Plane explosion in the manga, car accident in the anime. This also applies to his adopted parents.
• First Love: For Mitsuki.
• Forceful Kiss: Played straight in the manga when teenaged Eichi does this to a ten-year-old Mitsuki who hadn't even hit puberty yet. Cue the Squick!
• He's All Grown Up: In the epilogue doujinshi where he's a Phantom Thief Jeanne style angel.
• It Was with You All Along: Mitsuki's wish is to be with Eichi again, to the point where around the middle of the manga she resolves to commit suicide until Takuto and Meroko snap her out of it. Near the end of the manga, the question is raised that since Takuto and Meroko have changed Mitsuki's fate, how come she can still see shinigami if she's not about to die? The answer: It is possible to see shinigami if a spirit acts as a "filter" to see them through - that is, Eichi's spirit has been with Mitsuki all along, refusing to leave her. This was in fact foreshadowed in an earlier chapter, when Takuto notes that the dying Eichi refused to surrender his soul to Takuto, implying that it went somewhere else, thus "robbing" Takuto of his soul until Eichi accepts Mitsuki's happiness at the epilogue of the manga and finally ascends to heaven.
• Identical Stranger: He looks like a younger version of Wakaouji. Mitsuki lampshades it.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the manga this trope applies to Eichi, who is forced to see Mitsuki and Takuto hook up but eventually accepts it in the matter of two pages.
• Nice Guy
• Parental Abandonment: Eichi lost his parents in a car accident and subsequently lost his grandfather as well.
• Posthumous Character: He was this all along. In the anime, Mitsuki doesn't find out until she goes to America herself; in the manga, she knew the entire time but didn't tell anyone.

Fuzuki Kouyama

Voiced By: Kazuko Sugiyama

Fuzuki is Mitsuki's grandmother. She initially hates music because she believes that music stole away everyone she loved. She is strongly against any music, and becomes angry when Mitsuki sings in her house.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: From blonde to brown.
• Arranged Marriage: As a teenager, Fuzuki was betrothed to a man named Kimiharu. When the boy that both she and Moe (the human Meroko) liked expressed an interest in marrying her, Kimiharu was passed off to Moe. It turned out to be a terrible idea in the end.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She loved her best friend Moe (AKA the future Meroko), but also loved Seijyuro. Seijyuro however chose her over Moe and, after being utterly broken, Moe committed suicide. Her daughter Hazuki was pregnant with the child of a guy named Aoi, who was Seijyuro's son, and they died together. The bitter loss of her best friend and daughter took a toll on her and her view on music.
• December–December Romance: At the end of chapter 19, Seijuro comes to see Fuzuki. The next time we see the two together is at Mitsuki's concert in the final chapter, holding hands.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: In the anime, though it has a set back when Mitsuki tells her to let her chose who to trust her life with she eventually learns to love music again though it was only through dealing with Mitsuki's Heroic BSoD after discovering that Eichi was Dead All Along that allowed her to realize just how important Mitsuki found music and singing aka they were her life. Going along with this, the way her face is designed is also softened. By the end, she truly looks like a kindly grandmother.
  • In the manga as well, she comes to accept Mitsuki's choice of being a singer and lets her decide her fate.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: A grandparental version. In the beginning, as she disapproves of Mitsuki's fondness for music and dreams of becoming a singer, but is no longer forbidding by the story's end.
• Freudian Excuse: Fuzuki's backstory explains why she hates music: Moe, Meroko when she was human, fell in love with the violinist Seijyuro Koga. Unfortunately for Moe, he was in love with Fuzuki instead. When Seijurou kisses Fuzuki, Moe catches them in the act and was devastated, and after being almost raped by a guy named Kimiharu (who was Fuzuki's ex-boyfriend), she completely splintered and committed suicide later on. This caused Fuzuki to cancel her arranged marriage to Seijyuro. When her daughter Hazuki was seeing Seijyuro's son, Aoi, Fuzuki found out about her pregnancy, and Hazuki runs away from home, only to die in an accident with Aoi. The loss of her best friend and her only daughter took a bitter toll on her and her view on music. She got better after Meroko disguising as her human self resolved the conflict that plagued her.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the beginning she is cold and controlling to Mitsuki, forbidding her to sing or follow her dreams of being a singer since her Dark and Troubled Past made her hate everything related to music. Later she accepts Mitsuki's choices and lets her decides her fate, being much more caring and gentle.
• Hidden Depths: The loss of her daughter combined with the loss of her best friend, both of them unfortunately involving musicians, has led to her associating music with nothing but grief and pain.
• Littlest Cancer Patient: Fuzuki was one in her youth, and she was so ill that she couldn't go to school. She had only one friend, a girl named Moe who commited suicide and ultimately became Meroko.
• My Greatest Failure: Fuzuki's treatment towards her future son-in-law, Aoi: she refused to bless her daughter Hazuki's engagement to him, on account of her disdain of music. Her behavior led to Hazuki running away to elope with her fiancé and never being able to see her again. Fuzuki since then has regretted that and wishes that she could have made up with her Hazuki.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Hazuki died of childbirth.
• Parting-Words Regret: With Hazuki and as a teenager, with Moe; in both cases, they fought the last time they saw each other and then the other party died before Fuzuki could make amends.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Was this in her early years up until her adulthood.
• You Remind Me Of Her: She mistakes Full Moon, Mitsuki's Older Alter Ego, for Hazuki, her daughter. It's also implied that part of the reason her and Mitsuki's relationship is so difficult is that Mitsuki herself greatly resembles Hazuki.

Keiichi Wakaouji

Voiced by: Teruaki Ogawa

Mitsuki's doctor. He played keyboard in the band ROUTE:L along with Mitsuki's father, Aoi Koga, and Takuto Kira, but he quit after Aoi's death. Fans called him the "Prince of ROUTE:L" because wakaouji means "young prince" in Japanese. In the manga, Wakaouji performed the surgery on Takuto to remove the tumor in his vocal cords and witnessed Takuto's suicide.

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• All Love Is Unrequited: He loved Hazuki, but never to tell her because she was married to his friend Aoi. It's subverted in the manga, because the reason he fell in love with Hazuki was because he was touched by a message she'd written to inspire him about his career, but it turns out Hazuki wasn't the one who wrote the message; it was Oshige, who is definitely in love with him.
• Boy Band: He was part of Route L with Aoi and Takuto
• Curtains Match the Window
• Dark and Troubled Past: His best friend died in a car accident with his girlfriend, whom he fell in love with. He then witnessed Takuto commit suicide after performing surgery on him; Takuto would rather lose his life than his voice.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After a series of deaths involving his friends, he finally comes to terms with Takuto, who wasn't dead at all, but was in a coma.
• Hidden Depths: He used to be in the music business prior to being a doctor.
• Hospital Hottie
• Identical Stranger: He looks like a older version of Eichi. Mitsuki lampshades it.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Mitsuki.
• Kissing Under the Influence: Share a drunken kiss with Oshige one night after a night at a bar.
• My Greatest Failure: He views taking away Takuto's voice as this, since while he was successful in removing the tumor in his throat that was affecting his vocal cords, Takuto was not happy despite telling him he didn't want his voice removed. This is the main reason why when he sees Mitsuki (as Full Moon), he wants her to make her own choice rather than remove her tumor without her consent.
• Second Love: Oshige. His First Love is Hazuki.
• The Medic: His chosen profession after he ended his idol career. However he occassionally becomes Mitsuki's producer because of his music experience.
• Nice Guy: Partly the reason Oshige is in love with him. He also tried to save Takuto's life by removing his throat cancer, but committed suicide because he didn't honor his request to not to. He decides that Mitsuki should choose whether or not she wants to by her own admission.
• Only Sane Man: The only Route.L member who didn't goof around.
• Official Couple: In the manga with Oshige.
• You Remind Me Of Her: He says Full Moon/Mitsuki resembles her mother.

Madoka Wakamatsu (real name Chisato Kurebayashi)]]

Voiced by: Emi "Kana" Ota

Madoka is a competitive Idol Singer, and the main rival to Mitsuki/Full Moon in the singing industry.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Her hair's purple in the manga, but it's dark red in the anime.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the manga, Madoka was cold but honor-bound, and she never resorted to cheating to win the upper hand; it's seen especially after the commercial contest, when Madoka resigns upon learning that the lyrics she used to win were written by Mitsuki. Her rivalry with Mitsuki was also a Friendly Rivalry from the beginning, and as much as she didn't like losing to her, she also cared about and respected her in a Tsundere sort of way. In the anime, she starts off with no qualms about spending the entire first half of the series using increasingly underhanded tactics to try and one-up Full Moon, including making up rumors about Full Moon and Dr. Wakaouji, which due to the idol culture, could've ruined Full Moon's whole career. Luckily, her friendship with Mitsuki gradually allows her to subvert this.
• Alpha Bitch: Competent and beloved as a singer, but rather stuck-up as a person. She gets better with time.
• Arranged Marriage: As Chisato, she was in one of these with son of a rich family, whom she was at least acquainted enough to be kind to as a kid, but found too unattractive for her tastes. She'd turned down the marriage and run off on everyone because she'd wanted to be a singer instead, but when she starts suspecting he holds a grudge against her for insulting him, she decides to at least own up to it and apologize to his family even if she still doesn't want to go forward with the engagement. Until it turns out her current boyfriend Nachi is the engagement partner in question, who'd genuinely been in love with her from the start and decided to make himself into the kind of man she wanted, so they decide to go forward with the engagement anyway.
• Character Development: More so in the anime, due to her Adaptational Villainy starting her off as a much less sympathetic character at first.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Nachi, although she doesn't learn this until later.
• Hidden Depths: In the manga, she has a complex over the fact she'd gotten her current looks via plastic surgery and was disowned by her family as a result, so she's desperate to do well in the entertainment industry because she'd thrown away her entire life for it. In the anime, it's explained that Madoka was broken by the entertainment industry when she was a child, resulting in her bitter, cynical attitude.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: She tries to provoke Full Moon for only being pretty based on her looks, but it's because she has her own complex about her looks being gained via plastic surgery.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Kick the Dog: In the anime, whenever she looks like she might be too nice, she's shown being mean to her pet pig (the manga is more of a flip-flop between this and Pet the Dog depending on context).
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Madoka asks Full Moon "why are you running away from me?" when she announces her retirement.
• The Rival: The singer who poses a challenge to Mitsuki/Full Moon.
• Technician Versus Performer: Madoka is the Technician, as a more experienced Idol Singer with skills that don't come from other sources, while Mitsuki is the Performer, as a prospect singer who has magical help and sings with her heart. It becomes quite important later since Madoka is told that her songs are good but have no soul, causing her to almost quit music altogether.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Became less and less arrogant and more willing to show kindness and respect to Full Moon, to the point of Friendly Rivalry. The anime even has her befriend Mitsuki, who helps pull her out of her funk (see above), allowing her to evolve into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold with respect for Full Moon.
• Tsundere: A tight Type A, post-Character Development. As far as Mitsuki and Nachi are concerned, she's type A to the both of them. She eventually grows into a B towards them in the late chapters in the manga.

Masami Oshige

Voiced by: Tomomi Seo

Full Moon/Mitsuki's manager.

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• The Alcoholic: She can knock back quite a few once she gets going.
• Broken Bird: She's a failed idol, and she's the affair partner of the company president to help Mitsuki, and because she's lonely. On top of that, although she gets to work with her celebrity crush, he's been pining after another woman because he mistakenly attributed to Hazuki something that she had actually done, and she can't communicate her feelings about it clearly other than wistfully hoping he'll notice on his own. Part of the reason she supports Mitsuki so much is that she admires Mitsuki for being able to do everything she couldn't, and she's afraid of Mitsuki finding out how "tarnished" she is in comparison.
• Cool Big Sis: For Mitsuki, since she's her manager and the one who shows her the ropes of the idol career.
• Femininity Failure: Apparently, she can't keep house at all.
• Idol Singer: Used to be one, but she wasn't very successful. She did get a boost with her collaboration with Route.L.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Deep down, she really wants to find true love somewhere.
• Kissing Under the Influence: Oshige and Wakaoji share a drunken kiss one night after a night at a bar.
• Official Couple: With Dr. Wakaoji
• Selective Obliviousness: Probably, since she can't recognize Takuto-in-human-form as the lead singer of Route:L even when she recognizes Wakaouji, who also was a member of said band.
  • Justfied; as far as she knew, Takuto was in a coma and thus it was physically impossible for him to be there with her. There is one moment in Chapter 8 when she sees Takuto in human form while she's drunk and greets him like an old friend, implying that she recognized him but didn't really connect the dots because she was intoxicated at the time.
• Ship Tease: With Wakaouji, and they end up together in the manga.
• Sleeping with the Boss: In the manga to let Full Moon be free to sing her own songs and wear clothes she likes instead of making her Hotter and Sexier. She also admits to Madoka's manager that part of the reason why she doesn't leave him is because she's lonely.
• Two Halves Make a Plot: The pen cap she keeps on her bus pass case is the cap for the pen she'd used to write an important message for Wakaoji in the past. Oshige knows Wakaoji has the pen and that he has feelings for whoever wrote the message, so she'd threaded the cap on her case in the vague hope he might figure it out. He does, at a time he'd needed something to confirm what exactly her feelings were towards him.

Nachi (real name Soichiro Shido)

A fellow idol singer who is friendly to everyone he meets. Appears in the later half of the series as a friend of Mitsuki's.

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• Adapted Out: He did not appear in the anime, mainly due to having been introduced in the manga after the anime had already finished its run.
• Arranged Marriage: A side story reveals that he's the guy who was supposed to marry Madoka in a marriage that their families arranged. When she rejected him and ran away, he ended up following her into the idol business and getting plastic surgery to be closer to her, and once everything is cleared up, they decide to proceed with the engagement.
• Beautiful All Along: Appearance-wise, he still needed the plastic surgery to be attractive enough for Madoka, but the main reason she'd initially assumed Nachi was Soichiro's accomplice instead of the man himself was that she'd taken Soichiro to be an unsophisticated loser who'd try to get revenge on her for insulting his pride, rather than someone who was so in love with her he'd go as far as changing his entire looks and personality if that was what she wanted.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Non-romantic example with Mitsuki. He values their friendship so much because she was the first person in the entertainment industry to speak to him with a genuine smile.
  • On the other hand, it's very much a romantic example with Madoka/Chisato, whom he bonds with after she comes to his apartment to help tend to his wounds, and it later turns out he'd fallen in love with her as a child ever since she'd tended to his wounds and cheered him up.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Madoka. At the time, she hadn't given him much of a second thought because she considered him to be too unattractive, but she still treated him kindly enough for him to fall in love with her.
• Foil: With his own Love Interest, Madoka. They came from wealthy families, had unremarkable appearances, and had plastic surgery to start their idol careers. However, Madoka was disowned by her parents for doing so while it's implied that Nachi's parents had allowed him to do so, since he seems to still be in good terms with them, and his mother is more accepting of Madoka than even her own parents are.
• Gonk: He used to look like an ugly kid when he first met Madoka, and she didn't want anything to do with him because of this.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: During his introduction, he claims to sense someone in the room and gives a rather unnervingly accurate description of Takuto, whom he shouldn't be able to see. He chalks it up to "inspiration", and it's unclear whether it just happens to be a really uncanny coincidence or if he did actually have some kind of sensitivity to him somehow.
• Nice Guy: He befriended Mitsuki at her audition, and he later helps her out by tracking down the bomber responsible for targeting Mitsuki despite having been injured by the bomber himself. Later, he and Madoka help stall Full Moon's final concert while Mitsuki's trapped in the shinigami realm.
• Remember the New Guy?: He first appears in volume 5 in the manga, but according to Mitsuki, she'd met him when she was starting her audition.
• Single-Target Sexuality: He seems to constantly have hordes of girls following him around, but Madoka is the only person he ever expresses interest in. She was the whole reason behind his becoming an idol in the first place, and he'd been in love with her since they were children.
• Something Only They Would Say: It's implied he realized Madoka's identity as Chisato because she'd referred to bandages as "plaster-aids", which happened to be one of Chisato's habits. Before then, he'd mostly been somewhat cold towards her, but he suddenly starts treating her affectionately to the point it flags her suspicion.
• Strangled by the Red String: Invoked in-universe: Madoka finds it suspicious that Nachi's behavior towards her suddenly went from cold to kind out of nowhere, and that he'd asked her out despite having only known her for a very short time, but he dodges the question and passes it off as something that happens in the entertainment industry. It's only later she finds out that he's known her, and been in love with her, for a lot longer than she'd thought.
• Walking Spoiler: He's a character who suddenly appears well into the second half of the manga's story and would normally not have anything notable about him besides being a helpful friend to Mitsuki and abruptly becoming Madoka's Love Interest, if not for the key detail that he's actually Madoka/Chisato's original Arranged Marriage partner who's been pining for her since they were kids.

Hikari

A young designer. She dated Takuto while he was alive.

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• Adapted Out: Does not appear in the anime.
• Hidden Depths: She feels guilty about having fought with Takuto right before his suicide attempt; it's a major factor in why she struggles to let go of him.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Downplayed. She isn't exactly crazy, but she has an obsession with Takuto that she has yet to let go of.

Shinigami

Takuto Kira

Voiced By: Yasuo Saitou (under his alias Yakkun Sakurazuka)

Takuto is a shinigami, partnered with another shinigami named Meroko as the duo Negi Ramen. They are assigned to take Mitsuki's soul. His shinigami costume is a cat outfit with a backpack with wings, without which he would not enjoy the power of flight because he is not yet a full shinigami and hence has not sprouted wings of his own. He is capable of transforming into an anthropomorphic cat plushie. Takuto transforms Mitsuki into a 16-year-old to help her participate in a singing audition.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Takuto's hair from black to gray.
• Accidental Kiss: Implied with Mitsuki in Episode 16.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Loves Mitsuki, who loves Eichi. They do end up getting together, though.
• Always Save the Girl: Whenever Mitsuki puts herself in harm's way, he always saves her life from potential dangers.
• Animal Motif: Cats.
• Berserk Button: Do not let Takuto catch you messing with, flirting with and/or hugging Mitsuki.
• Boy Band: Used to be the lead singer of ROUTE:L in his human life.
• Break the Cutie: Holy hell, he's had it rough in his early life and his Shinigami years.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: For Mitsuki whenever she's talking about Eichi or if another guy flirts with her.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He once was a Boy Band member with Wakaouji and Mitsuki's future dad Aoi, but he had a tumor in his throat. When it was removed by his friend-turned-doctor, Wakaouji, he lost his voice. Then he fell into despair and committed suicide.
• Declaration of Protection: Takuto's sworn vow to Mitsuki from episode 11 all the way to the bitter end. Against impossible odds, he keeps his word.
• Driven to Suicide: Since this is THE way to become a Shinigami, he went through it by either throwing himself off a building (manga) or crashing his motorbike (anime), after completely losing his voice.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After a series of deaths involving his friends, a throat tumor and removal of his vocal cords, and going out of his way to save the girl he loves, he's able to return to the world as a living person and spend his life with Mitsuki.
• Eating Optional: He doesn't have to eat, but states he likes good food.
• Face Palm: Takuto has some truly epic ones in the anime, on account of being the most logical and intelligent of the trio.
• Forceful Kiss: Subverted in the manga when Takuto is struggling to control his emotions around Mitsuki's Stepford Smile and tries to kiss her out of grief but his heart is not in it and she is able to push him away in time.
• Ghost Amnesia: Like all Shinigami, he has forgotten most of his life as a human. Unlike other Shinigami, remembering his past is dangerous for him and could turn him into a ghost. Nonetheless, he does slowly begin to recover his human memories over the course of the manga.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He can never keep calm. In chapter
• Heroic Sacrifice: Takuto dies not just in body but also in spirit to save Mitsuki.
• Hot-Blooded: He's easily hot-tempered even when he sees a guy flirt with Mitsuki.
• Invisible to Normals: As a Shinigami, he is invisible to normal people unless he lets them seehim, or if someone is surrounded by a ghost that lets them see him and his partners.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He considers the option. [[soiler:Until he saw Eichi's picture when he realizes he was already dead]].
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Laser-Guided Amnesia
• Likes Older Women: Hilariously averted when Meroko thinks Takuto likes Fuzuki, who is Mitsuki's grandmother. He doesn't. The subtitle when Meroko panics says "She's a fool".
• Luminescent Blush: Takuto does this constantly around Mitsuki.
• Mentor Mascot: He can turn into a cat plushie
• Oblivious to Love: Subverted. He knows Meroko loves Izumi and tries to get a raise out of him by declaring her love for him. He rolls with it because he wasn't taking her seriously.
• Official Couple: With Mitsuki.
• Parental Abandonment: Word of God informs us that Takuto's mother died from a long-term illness when he was nine, and his father isn't mentioned.
• Rescued from the Underworld: The final volumes of the manga have Takuto and Meroko rescuing Mitsuki's soul from the Death Master.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!
• Second Love: For Mitsuki. She is this for him as well, as his first love it's Hikari.
• Signature Headgear: He's often seen wearing a hat with cat ears, due to still being a shinigami-in-training.
• Shinigami
• The Power of Love: One of the most emotional examples shown in anime: Takuto loses all of his memories, yet when the time comes for Mitsuki to die, he protests, saying he can still feel her in his heart.
• Tsundere: Type A
• Unusual Ears: Takuto's ears and tail are revealed to be fake however.

Meroko Yui aka Moe Rikyou

Voiced by: Chieko Honda

Meroko is a rabbit shinigami with long ears, and she is capable of transforming into an anthropomorphic bunny stuffed toy. Together with her partner and love interest, Takuto Kira, Meroko Yui is a part of the shinigami team Negi Ramen, sent to collect the soul of 12-year-old Mitsuki Kouyama. She has a hot temper and is sometimes very moody especially when it comes to her relationship with Takuto (despite her constant attempts to impress him, he doesn't seem to notice her or have the same feelings). Though she tries to help Mitsuki with her singing career, her ideas often get the girl into trouble.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Meroko's outfit is black in the manga but is changed to red in the anime with the consent of Tanemura herself; she designed all the clothes for the anime!
• All Love Is Unrequited: Towards Takuto. In the past she was this for Izumi, who does end up returning her feelings.
• Animal Motif: Rabbits.
• Arranged Marriage: As a teenager, Fuzuki was betrothed to a man named Kimiharu. When the boy that both she and Moe (the human Meroko) liked expressed an interest in marrying her, Kimiharu was passed off to Moe by Fuzuki and Moe's families. It did NOT work out, to say it kindly.
• Attempted Rape: When she was a human; her fiance Kimiharu's assault of her is what pushed her over the edge into committing suicide.
• Break the Cutie: Her human life was harsh, and being a shinigami hasn't been much easier.
• Childhood Friends: With Fuzuki.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: For Takuto. After getting with Izumi in the end of the manga, she becomes this for him instead.

• Dark and Troubled Past: The love triangle between herself, Fuzuki and Seijuurou ended badly.
• Did They or Didn't They?: There's a scene in the manga where an emotionally distressed Meroko rushes home after discovering her past and attacking Mitsuki. She lets Izumi "comfort" her with a kiss. What follows that is really a mystery.
• Driven to Suicide: Since this is THE way to become a Shinigami, she went through it. As Moe, she slit her wrists after mistakenly believing that Fuzuki and Seijuurou had deserted her and being almost raped.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness
• Earn Your Happy Ending: She gets rewarded differently in the manga and anime. In the anime, she gets a promotion and becomes a full-fledged angel. In the manga, she and Izumi are still Shinigami, but she's also made peace with her human life and is in a relationship with Izumi.
• Exact Eavesdropping: In Chapter 24, Meroko, who has been out, comes back at the exact moment that Takuto says that she's only declaring her love for him to get Izumi's attention. She promptly leaves.
• Ghost Amnesia: Like all Shinigami. Her memories coming back to her prompts one of the later storylines.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the anime, Meroko sacrifices herself to save Takuto.
• Important Haircut: In the anime, Meroko shears her hair in order to transfer her powers to the weakening Takuto, letting him transform Mitsuki for her last performance.
• Invisible to Normals: Like all Shinigami, she can only be seen by most humans if she chooses to let them see her or if she's in her animal form.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Unlike in the manga, anime!Meroko truly does love Takuto. But, after playing the Clingy Jealous Girl for so long, she eventually decides to support him and Mitsuki's relationship. She even helps Mitsuki figure out that she does love Takuto and that it's okay.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Like all Shinigami. Shortly after meeting Fuzuki, she remembers that they were best friends when she was alive, and then the rest comes back to her...
• Little Bit Beastly: She has actual rabbit ears and a tail due to becoming a full-fledged Shinigami.
• Love Hurts: Meroko is very unlucky in this department. Especially to her first crush where he kisses her best friend Fuzuki

• Official Couple: With Izumi.
• Older Than They Look: She looks sixteen, but has been a Shinigami a lot longer than Takuto or Izumi.
• Sailor Fuku: She's seen wearing one as her past life, Moe. Justified since Moe and Fuzuki were friends during the Showa era, when fukus were en vogue.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Like Takuto, she eventually decides that Mitsuki is worth fighting fate for.
• Second Love: Subverted with Meroko. Her love for Takuto was more out of gratefulness that he understood her feelings, and she ends up with her first love, Izumi.

• Significant Anagram: "Meroko Yui" is "Moe Rikyou", her human name, scrambled.

• The Rival: Mitsuki, for the love of Takuto, at least in the beginning.
• Tsundere: Type A towards Izumi and B to Takuto (in both the anime and manga). In the manga, this is subverted when Takuto says to Mitsuki that Meroko tells him she loves him to get Izumi's attention. Eventually, Meroko becomes Type B towards Izumi in the final chapter and they become an Official Couple.
• Weapon Specialization: Meroko carries a whip to hunt souls.

Izumi Lio

Voiced By: Megumi Ogata

Izumi is a cold and distant shinigami assigned to the Pediatrics Ward. He can transform into an anthropomorphic dog plushie, but rarely does so because it takes a lot of energy and he says it is embarrassing. He likes to call other characters by nicknames.

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• Adaptational Villainy: In the manga, Izumi was mostly a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but in the anime, he's the main antagonist.
• Abusive Parents: His mother became abusive after his father died, and he ended up committing suicide at the age of six to put her out of her pain.
• Affectionate Nickname: Izumi calls Mitsuki "Mi-ki", Takuto "Ta-kun", and Meroko "Me-chan." Takuto calls Izumi "Zumi-yan."
• All Love Is Unrequited: Izumi loves Meroko, who loves Takuto. Meroko in fact loves Izumi back, but he rejected her out of fear back when they were partners. By the manga's final chapter, they've managed to work it out.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Izumi to Meroko in Chapter 17.
• Animal Motif: Both dogs and cats. Seems he has dog as a motif to contrast Takuto's cat. But he fits better to the Cats Are Mean personality. A chapter in the manga drives it home by him and Mitsuki find a lost kitten whom he quickly identifies with.
• Body Horror: In the manga, Jonathan ensnares and strangles Izumi by stretching his body.
• Break the Cutie: His backstory.
• Child by Rape: Heavily implied.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: For Meroko.
• Curtains Match the Window
• Dark and Troubled Past: His father died when he was very young and his mother subsequently became abusive. At age six, he killed himself by running in front of a train as a result.
• Did They or Didn't They?: There's a scene in the manga where an emotionally distressed Meroko rushes home after discovering her past and attacking Mitsuki. She lets Izumi "comfort" her with a kiss. What follows that is really a mystery.
• Driven to Suicide: Since this is THE way to become a Shinigami, he went through it. He stood in the way of a train to escape his mother's abuse and to ensure that she no longer has to deal with him. When he was six years old.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Due to his Adaptational Villainy in the anime, he has a happier ending in the manga. He's still a Shinigami, but he and Meroko are able to enter a relationship with healthier mindsets.
• Forceful Kiss: Subverted in the anime AND manga when Izumi tries to take Mitsuki's soul through a Kiss of Death, Takuto grabs him with the words: "Get your hands OFF her."
• Ghost Amnesia: For some reason, Izumi retained almost all of his human memories, which is established to be extremely unusual for a Shinigami. It's never explained.
• Hidden Depths: Izumi counts in the anime as a few lines he says in episode 46 and later in episode 51 suggests he's given up on being anything but a Shinigami and thus has resigned himself to his fate.
• Invisible to Normals
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: Whenever he transforms into a puppy. He rarely turns into a puppy because he has a hard time transforming back, can't speak, and can't use any of his abilities. When he does transform back, he uses a lot of energy to do so.
• I Shall Taunt You: Izumi with both Meroko and Takuto. Even more with Takuto because he snaps so easily which Izumi gets pure enjoyment out of.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the manga. However...
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: In the anime, he's just a jerk.
• Kiss of Death: How Izumi prefers obtaining souls of dying young girls, because it's "more pleasant" than a scythe.
• Little Bit Beastly: Due to being a full-fledged Shinigami, he actually has dog ears and a tail.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Subverted. He had all of his memories intact, unlike the other Shinigami.
• Love Redeems: A platonic version with Mitsuki.
  • Also on the more traditional level: Meroko's love for Izumi does eventually draw out his softer side.
• Mind Rape: In the manga, after Jonathan is revealed to be Sheldan, he does this to Izumi by torturing him with memories of his mother assaulting him.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In the anime, Izumi reveals that he was the one responsible for Negi Ramen getting Mitsuki assigned to them, because he knew that Takuto's past was related to Mitsuki, and thought that Takuto being in contact with Mitsuki would restore his memories of his human life and cause him to disappear. If they hadn't been assigned, then Mitsuki would have been looked over by a Shinigami pair that had no connection whatsoever to her. This means that a) she wouldn't have gotten to live her dream as Full Moon and b) she would have died as scheduled.
• Official Couple: With Meroko.
• Pet the Dog: His last scene in the anime. When Takuto disappears and Mitsuki's transformation starts failing, Izumi uses his illusion magic to make her appear as Full Moon until the concert ends.
• Self-Made Orphan: Granted, he was already dead, but he ends up being the one to reap his mother's soul once her time comes.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!
• Shinigami
• "Shut Up" Kiss: In the manga, Izumi pulls this on Takuto because he's annoyed at Takuto talking too much. Takuto just makes even more noise in response.
• Stoic
• Terms of Endangerment: Anime only.
• Younger Than They Look: He was only six years old when he killed himself.

Jonathan ( Sheldan)

Voiced by: Norihisa Mori

Izumi's partner who takes a form of a ghost. Jonathan is an unusual Shinigami in that he takes a form of a ghost wearing a top hat and speaks English. In the anime, he's Demoted to Extra. In the manga however, he's the boss, Sheldan, the Head of the Pediatrics Ward.

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• Beleaguered Boss: Subverted. He is actually Sheldon, the boss of the Shinigami in the underworld, but no one, not even Izumi, realizes this. It makes his Butt-Monkey status even more amusing.
• Big Bad: Subverted. He's not villainous at all. While he is stern, in his heart, he's Jonathan.
• Body Horror: In the manga, he stretches out his body to capture Izumi.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a silly Shinigami who wears a tophat, but he does capture souls. With the reveal that he's Sheldan, he's the one who names Shinigami pairs, including Negi Ramen.
• Butt-Monkey: Whenever he's at the receiving end of a physical abuse. Even funnier when you find out he's the Boss.
• Dark and Troubled Past: It is unknown how he had his own Despair Event Horizon, but he has committed suicide himself.
• Easily Forgiven: He is responsible for Mitsuki's Heroic BSoD in volume 4, where he reveals that everyone knew Eichi was dead, but didn't want to press her for it. While the others beat him up for it, Mitsuki acts as if she doesn't bother to be angry at him, and he wears the shirt she bought for him for her birthday.
• Mind Rape: What he subjects Izumi to.
• Official Couple: With Mystere, the Death Master.
• Sinister Scythe: He wields a large scythe to capture souls. Subverted in that he's not evil.
• The Stoic: According to Meroko, he's calm, cool, and rarely changes his expression. Mitsuki mistakenly thinks he's hard to deal with.
  • Not So Stoic: In the final volume.
• Walking Spoiler: See all those spoiler tags?

Mystere

The first human soul in the underworld. Mystere is the Death Master and the ruler of the Underworld.

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• Adapted Out: She does not appear in the anime.
• Official Couple: With Sheldan.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She allows Meroko to release Takuto from his prison after revealing Sheldan's plan.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She uses the Scythe of Fate on Mitsuki and restore Takuto in the world of the living.
• Spock Speak: She enjoys speaking in metaphors. However, if she gets too cryptic for anyone to pick up on, she drops it and speaks normally.

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