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First-Years

    Kisaragi Yamaguchi 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kisaragi_tvtropes.png
Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu

The main viewpoint character, a girl who loves painting and pastels. She is very gentle and sometimes a bit of an airhead, and while she's good with paints she tends to sketch too lightly and has trouble with design, especially fashion. Her friends call her "Kisaragi," Buchi calls her "Kisa-chan", and Aa-san calls her "February."language note  Early in the series, she becomes enamored with Tomokane's misreading "sketching" (素描) as "plain cat" (素猫) and starts doodling brown kittens by the dozens. Kisaragi turns out to be very good at thrifty spending.


  • Apologizes a Lot: She often breaks and/or spill stuffs, and otherwise creates a mess due to her clumsiness. As a result, she has to frequently apologize for her mistakes.
  • Athletically Challenged: She is clumsy and slow and is always Picked Last when the girls play team sports. When the group are practicing for a sports festival, she's always shown to be lagging behind the others. This is mostly due to her glasses hindering her movements though, and she's a relatively decent swimmer.
  • Bespectacled Cutie: Wears a pair of large, round glasses, which perfectly captures her adorably sweet and clumsy nature.
  • Blind Without 'Em: She can't even run in a straight line without her glasses. We get a chapter where she's without her glasses at school, and her point of view is terrifyingly abstract.
  • Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Almost always the boke. Lampshaded by the character sketches as she is referred to be tennen, short for tennen (born) boke.
  • Character Development: Becomes more confident as the series goes on.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She's slow, clumsy, and can throw sharpened pencils with deadly accuracy.
  • Cute Clumsy Girl: Frequently breaks cutleries due to her clumsiness.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Gets giddy with joy whenever she sees cute cats.
  • Dream Within a Dream: In the chapter aptly called Surrealism.
  • Drunk on Milk: Can even get drunk on grape soda if she hasn't had sugar in a while.
  • Dumber Than They Look: When Noda met her for the first time, she assumed that Kisaragi was smart because of her glasses. However, Kisaragi is not that intelligent, and she is probably the most underperforming student in her group, after Tomokane.
  • Good Old Ways: Her interests lie in the traditionally Japanese. She's very interested in kimono fashion, is somewhat familiar with the structure for tea ceremonies, and is rather old fashioned for her age.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation
  • Image Song: Her version of the closing theme is a relaxed piece featuring accordions about improvising materials and painting her imagination.
  • Kindhearted Cat Lover: She's a big softie who gets Cuteness Overload whenever she sees cats, or even pictures/models of cats. Strangely enough, she doesn't have any cats; instead she keeps two dogs as pets, and both of them were strays she picked up as an elementary and middle schooler.
  • Lethal Chef: She mentioned her cooking was "cubist." Ironically, she actually liked to play pretend cooking as a child.
  • Ms. Imagination: Not in the common "chuunibyou" sense but more in the childish sense. Exaggerated in the anime.
  • Nerd Glasses: Wears a pair of glasses that's more than half the size of her face, which causes Noda to assume that she's a smart bookworm when they first met. Subverted as she's one of the underachievers of the group
  • Picked Last: She's terrible at sports, which was why she was picked last during the badminton chapter.
  • Power Limiter: She discovers, a little to her dismay, that her works done without her glasses are considered better than what she usually produces, leading her classmates to think of her glasses as a limiter of sorts.
  • Sleepyhead: Tends to nod off in class after lunch and PE.

    Miki "Nodamiki" Noda 
'Voiced by: Ai Tokunaga

An energetic and fickle young girl who especially loves design and fashion, called "Noda" or "Princess" by her friends. She has employed a number of different hairstyles in the manga, usually involving odango hair, Girlish Pigtails, and various hair ornaments. While very talented, she gets bored easily and tends to start fooling around in the middle of lessons. The usual culprit behind any shenanigans, and good friends with Tomokane. Has a memetically pretty older sister whose face we still haven't seen, a younger brother who hasn't yet appeared, and a cat named Marshmallow.


  • A-Cup Angst: Implied in the anime. She enjoys making fun of Namiko's boobs a little too much.
  • Blank White Eyes: Prone to these when goofing off. Exaggerated in the anime, where she has this kind of eyes by default.
  • Custom Uniform: Usually wears her gym jacket instead of her blazer.
  • The Fashionista: She has a very good fashion sense (due to her love for fashion magazines), and does exceptionally well in the fashion design course.
  • Genki Girl: Cheerful and energetic, and always ready to prank her friends (especially Namiko) despite being well aware of the consequences.
  • Girlish Pigtails: She normally does her hair in twin buns, which fits her bubbly personality very well.
  • Height Angst: While she rarely shows it, she does have some insecurities about her lacking height. She mentions in a late chapter of the manga that she's lied about her height, and during a cooking project, she insists on making carbonara because she mistakenly believes the heavy cream it contains has a lot of calcium like ordinary milk.
  • Identical Twin Mistake: Noda often gets mistaken for her more popular sister, a fact that's make more confusing by the fact that they attend the same school. Homura, at one point, was one of these people mistook.
  • Image Song: Noda's version of the closing theme is an attention-grabbing pop song with a brass section about colour and how art flows naturally.
  • Older Than They Look: She's 141cm (4'7.5") in height, which is very short even by yonkoma standards.
  • The Prankster: To the point where Kisaragi, Namiko, and Tomokane don't notice that a trickster kitsune spirit has taken her place at the summer festival until the kitsune starts doing magic.
  • Signature Hair Decs: Nodamiki is very self-conscious of her appearance, and constantly changes her hairstyle and wears cute hairclips to enhance her appeal.
  • Uncatty Resemblance: Marshmallow the cat is a diva just like her owner.

    Miyabi "Professor" Oomichi 
Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka

A quiet and very talented girl who really, really loves the color black. Namiko calls her "Masa"; the other girls call her "Professor". While definitely somewhat strange, Masa is very kind, and always takes care of her friends and the chickens kept on the school grounds. Her family is very traditional, and her parents have arranged her marriage to an older boy she hasn't been able to meet yet. She's almost always expressionless and has a relatively low normal body temperature.


  • The Ace: She's definitely one of the most talented students in her year, and whenever her friends come across a particularly good display, they'd assume that it's her work. And this has been going on ever since she was 6!
  • Alternate Character Reading: Where the nickname "Masa" comes from; it's another way to read her given namelanguage note .
  • Ambiguously Human: Her emotionless nature, high intelligence, incredible hand coordination, Selective Magnetism, ability to communicate with birds, ability to breathe underwater, odd behaviour during thunderstorms, and stiff joints during humid weather are traits that wouldn't be out of place in a Robot Girl.
  • Arranged Marriage: She has a fiancé whom she's never even met. The only thing we know about him is that he's the son of the owners of a shrine.
  • Custom Uniform: Her summer uniform's vest is purple instead of yellow.
  • Emotionless Girl: She has but one expression, which never seem to change even when she's sad, scared or even frustrated, which is why her peers consider her as a strange Ambiguously Human.
  • Hammerspace: Can keep an unlimited amount of useful things in her uniform.
  • Image Song: Her version of the closing theme is smooth piano jazz about inclusion and helping.
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: Averted and defied! Not only she does not appear isolated—in one arc, despite possessing enough skill to pass the 3-kyu or 2-kyu typography tests, she decides to take the 4-kyu instead due to not wanting to stand out.
  • Kimono Is Traditional: In volume 3 of the manga, Kisaragi found Professor walking on the streets in a kimono. It turns out that her entire family wears kimonos at home.
  • Mr. Exposition: Is usually the one to explain the various art terms to her peers, and, by extension, the audience.
  • Not So Above It All: Despite being much calmer and more knowledgeable than the rest of her group, she frequently takes part in their weirder antics (such as agreeing to Noda's suggestion to have yami-nabe when the group visited Namiko's place).
  • Running Gag: The other girls are well-aware that Masa's a bit off, and like to theorize why this might be.
  • The Scrounger: Forgot your supplies? Suddenly need something that you can't get your hands on easily? Chicken trouble? Masa can help you with that.
  • Selective Magnetism: She can use her hair pin as a magnet to pick up some spilled scraps of metal. When the others tried to use that same hair pin to do the same, it failed.
  • Speaks Fluent Animal: Can talk to birds.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Afraid of the dark. Her desire to understand her irrational fear is what initially got her into the color black.

    Tomokane 
Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro

An aggressive, brash, and cheerful girl who uses physical strength to solve everything. She aspires to work in 3D rendering, and likes to use very hard lines in her art. Because of her appearance and behavior, she says that she's often been mistaken for a boy when not wearing a skirt; it turns out that she's so hyperactive and violent at school because of frustration at her older brother, who is too frail for her to fight physically. Five books into the manga, we still don't know her first name.


  • Hot-Blooded: The most fiery and hyperactive of the group. She tends to talk very loudly and uses brute force to overcome her challenges.
  • Image Song: Her version of the closing theme is a high energy rock song about (naturally) blasting full speed into a project.
  • Lady Looks Like a Dude: Has a very boyish appearance, and would easily be mistaken as a guy if not for her skirt.
  • Malaproper: She seems to have some trouble reading kanji, getting her to get the meaning of words wrong.
  • No Full Name Given: Despite being a main character, her given name is completely unknown, and even her friends call her by her last name.
  • Running Gag: All through the first manga volume, she never seems to be able to bring in the right supplies; she also has an unfortunate tendency to accidentally wreck art projects (both her own and other people's).
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: She's a loud and hyperactive Dumb Muscle. Her older brother is a quiet and demure Manipulative Bastard.
  • Spider-Sense: Having been around her brother for so long, Tomokane has developed a superhuman ability to pick up on when he's in trouble, often compared to radio waves.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Looks very much like her older brother, that she once disguises herself as him in a sports festival, and nobody notices. One time she's described as "[Tomokane], but burnt".
  • Tomboy: Looks and acts like a boy, and has yet to show any feminine qualities.

    Namiko Nozaki 
Voiced by: Yui Horie

The oldest and most mature member of the group, and thus the one who usually winds up playing the Straight Man role. Her friends call her "Namiko-san", and she is on the receiving end of countless height jokes, breast jokes, weight jokes, and age jokes from Noda. Because her friends are so childish, she tends to get treated as the big sister or mom of the group, and is on good terms with Masa, who is the only other calm one in their circle.


  • Always Second Best: Her sister Fujiko is good at everything, making Namiko feel inadequate with her own skills.
  • Boob-Based Gag: While it's not too visible due to the art style, she's the most well-endowed girl, and her bust size is one of Noda's favorite subject to tease her on. Her sister has also made fun of her chest, at one point comparing her "humps" to a camel's.
  • Butt-Monkey: She almost always receive the brunt of Noda's and Tomokane's pranks.
  • Custom Uniform: Doesn't wear her blazer and instead wears a belt over her skirt. Noda thinks it's out of insecurity.
  • Image Song: Namiko's version of the closing theme is about how hard it is to find peace and quiet, sung to fast-paced dance music.
  • Lethal Chef: She calls her cooking "surrealist."
  • Numerical Theme Naming: The "mi" in her name means "three," vis-a-vis her sister Fujiko's two ("ji").
  • Only Sane Man: The only one of the group who can be said to be somewhat grounded in reality. Constantly lampshaded.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Namiko is straight-laced, clumsy with her hands, and is often aggravated by her friends' mischief; her sister Fujiko is flighty, a natural genius, and loves to make trouble.
  • Straight Man: She's the long-suffering "normal girl" who has to deal with her friends' (particularly Tomokane and Nodamiki's) mischief. Her reactions to their antics is one of the series' source of comedy.
  • Team Mom: She's the most down-to-earth in her group, and tries to keep the others from going too crazy with their hijinks. The girls look up to her, and during her Sick Episode, they tell her how much they respect her maturity.

Art Club

    Chikako Awara 
Voiced by: Akemi Kanda
President of the fine arts club, and the usual perspective character for their misadventures. She's very loud and energetic, and has a Chubu (Nagoya region) dialect, which is often mistaken for a Kansai dialect, much to her chagrin. She's good friends with Mizubuchi, who calls her "Aa-san". She is in her third year, and is a GA student. Much more talented than she appears, and even has tetrachromacy, which allows her to perceive ultraviolet light.


  • Club President: Of the Fine arts club.
  • Genius Ditz: Despite having immense talent in arts, even possessing tetrachromacy, she often messes up her assignments (including colour mixing) since she does everything by instinct rather than following conventional methods.
  • Hidden Depths: She can make a mean homemade soba. This ability was born from Sasamoto giving her pottery to teach her patience.
  • One-Note Cook: Downplayed. If she doesn't pay enough attention to the recipes, she ends up making them Japanese-styled.
  • The Idiot from Osaka: Resembles the stereotype despite not actually being from Osaka.
  • In-Series Nickname: Mizubuchi calls her "Aa-san", while everyone else in the club simply calls her "Pres"
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Gender-Inverted. When the previous club president drops by to visit, she asks Arawa how she's progressing with Uozumi. Arakawa is quick to deny that their relationship is like that.

    Mizubuchi 
Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu

Kisaragi's childhood friend, who helped inspire her to come to Ayanoi in the first place. She's close friends with Aa-san, and is the Art Club's general holder of the Sanity Ball; she joins the Fine Arts Club when Tono merges it with the Student Life Activities Club, which she was the only member of. Called "Buchi-san" by Aa-san and "Micchan" by Kisaragi; a third-year GA student.


  • Cloud Cuckoo Landers Minder: She makes sure that Aa-san don't get too carried away in her weird ideas, and reprimands the Prez whenever she starts to slack off .
  • Early-Bird Cameo: First shows up in volume 1 during Kisaragi's flashback.
  • No Full Name Given: It's not clear if Mizubuchi is her first or last name, but that's what everyone calls her.
  • Team Mom: Even before she officially joined the Fine Arts Club, she often hangs out with the others to be a moral support (as well as to look after Aa-san).

    Uozumi 
Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi

The vice-president of the Fine Arts Club. Unlike most of the other members, he's not a GA student and is actually a third-year on the college prep track. Originally wanted to be an art student, but because he is red-green colorblind he decided to take the practical road. Has very little patience for his leader's antics. Gets called "Zumin" by Homura.


  • Foil: He's the serious Vice President of the club, whose personality is a stark contrast to the President's. His down-to-earth personality makes Aa-san's craziness even more apparent.
  • No Full Name Given: His given name is completely unknown.
  • Only Sane Man: The most normal of the students, who often gets bewildered and/or exasperated by the art students' quirkiness.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Defying this trope is presumably the reason why Uozumi is not in G.A. He's noted to be quite a good artist, but his color-blindness means that he has a severe handicap compared to other, budding artists.
  • Stoic Spectacles: He's more reserved than all of his club mates combined, and his spectacles enhances that persona.

    Homura 
Voiced by: Ryo Naitou
A second-year auto student and member of the Fine Arts Club. Like Uozumi, Buchi-san, and the Tomokanes, we still don't know his given name. A bit dim but brash, he's also an extreme believer in Love at First Sight.


  • The Big Guy: He's the guy to rely on when the club needs excess physical labour, which normally means that he's the gopher for both Aa-san and Uozumi, and the guy who carries the dirty work for the older Tomokane's schemes.
  • Hot-Blooded: He's very excitable, especially when he gets the opportunity to prank others or impress his crush.
  • No Full Name Given: Like Uozumi, only his last name is known.
  • Serial Romeo: Falls in love very easily, and gets over rejection/heart-break just as quickly. First towards Same-chan-sensei, then toward Noda's sister and then Mitsui (one of Awara's classmates).
  • Spear Counterpart: In terms of role and personality, he's essentially more of a male Tomokane than her actual brother.

    Tomokane (Elder) 
Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro
A second-year GA student, and that other Tomokane's older brother. Like his sister, we don't know his given name. He's prone to illnesses and tends to miss a lot of school, so his first appearance is in volume 3, whereupon he joins the Art Club. He has been described as a pastel, softer-looking version of his little sister with wavier hair. Tomokane enjoys playing pranks and mind games, knowing that because of his weak constitution he need not fear retribution; otherwise he's a nice guy.


  • Beware the Nice Ones: He's mostly gentle and good-natured, but has a mischievous/manipulative streak that can be outright devious when executed.
  • Big Brother Bully: His picking on his sister has made her who she is today.
  • Delicate and Sickly: Tomokane has been sick ever since his childhood, often having fainting spells when exerted too hard or missing even one meal. Because of this, he's significantly weaker than most of the cast and was the subject of protection from the main cast's Tomokane for a long time. His weak constitution also contributes to his feminine characterization.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Lampshaded; in the columns for "masculine" and "feminine" designs in the manga, he's stuck under the "feminine" side while his sister is under "masculine".
  • Karma Houdini: No one's going to physically attack a frail little thing like him. He knows this, and exploits it.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Despite his timid appearance, he's very fond of practical jokes and other mischief. He uses his weak constitution as an excuse to not actually enact his devious plans by himself though, and uses others (like Homura) to do the dirty work for him.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: He visited the Fine Arts club while they were putting up their haunted house display and quickly went on board with it. It appears to be one of the main reasons why he signed up as a club member.
  • No Full Name Given: Like his sister, only his last name is ever revealed.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: He's a quiet but intelligent boy, while his sister is a loud and hyperactive, but rather dumb.
  • Uncanny Family Resemblance: He and his sister look almost exactly alike.

    Fujiko Nozaki 
Namiko's older sister and the Art Club's former president. Currently in college. An infamous artistic genius with unparallelled charisma, and an outrageous personality to match. First appears towards the end of volume five, and thus never got an appearance in the anime. She has apparently left Namiko some tall boots to fill.
  • Big Eater: Her first appearance at home has her eating the entire contents of the fridge, including Namiko's intended lunch ingredients. School cafeteria workers noted when she was in school, they used one extra sack of rice a day...
  • Ditzy Genius: She's a very talented artist, but the school staff seem to remember her more for her big appetite and weird antics.
  • Numerical Theme Naming: Fujiko (two), compared to Namiko's three.
  • The Prankster: She's quite infamous for her wild antics. Tales of her mischief include: forging the graduation stamp out of an eraser, sneaking into the Art Club room through the gutter, pulling a "ninja move" on Sotoma to say hello, etc.
  • Shipper on Deck: Downplayed. She seems to support Awara and Uozumi getting together, but doesn't really do anything to push the relationship aside from asking about their "progress" and smiling suggestively when she spots the two of them together.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Adventurous and mischievous, compared to the straight-laced and long-suffering Namiko.
  • Teen Genius: "Twice Masa's brain power"... sure she is.

Teachers

    Takuma Sotoma 
Voiced by: Kyousei Tsukui.

The first-year GA class's homeroom teacher, and also in charge of design classes. Although he takes a Straight Man role in his interactions with his students (especially Noda and Tomokane), he's very popular. According to Kiyuduki, he's the kind of person who doesn't lose his dignity as a teacher even when fooling around with his class.


  • Must Have Caffeine: Drinks at least four cups of coffee a day, which Tono (of all people) criticizes him about.
  • Not So Above It All: At the end of Sasamoto's Croquis drawing class (in which the students are asked to quickly draw each other in wacky costumes), Sotoma is seen among the peanut gallery, commenting that [that] year's costumes are just so-so".
  • Oblivious to Love: Usami has a big crush on him, and he doesn't notice at all.
  • Only Sane Man: He's pretty much the only teacher who takes his job seriously.
  • Stern Teacher: He's quite strict with his students, criticizes quite openly, and doesn't take any excuses for poor submissions. He even tells off Usami because she's not behaving like a proper teacher.
  • Straight Man: Most of his role in the manga consists of him angrily reacting or getting frustrated to the GA students' (especially Noda's) weird hijinks.

    Mayumi Usami 
Voiced by: Omi Minami.
Sotoma-sensei's assistant who also teaches painting. When she first introduced herself, she was so nervous that she accidentally mispronounced her own family name, so she's gained the nickname "Same-chan-sensei". She is also a graduate of Ayanoi, and tends to act much younger than her coworkers. She is anemic.


  • Odd Friendship: She's good friends with Tono and often go to her for support, despite the fact that they have opposite personalities.
  • One of the Kids: For starters, she fears blood donation more than her students...
  • Sensei-chan: Very timid and childish, that most of her students treat her as a fellow friend rather than a respectable teacher.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's one of the victims of the art club's haunted house.

    Sasamoto 
Voiced by: Minami Takayama.
The third-year GA class's teacher, adviser of the the Fine Arts Club, and teaches sketching. Called "Tono-sensei" by her students, and is an infamous hardass who is well-loved despite acting like a grump most of the time. She's a chain smoker of legendary proportions, to the point where she was once asked "Which is more important to you, me or tobacco?" by a former boyfriend. Has previously made Aa-san a cardboard dog house and actually stuck her in it.

  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The art club members call her "Tono-sensei", and doesn't appear to know what her actual name is. When they want the first years to find her, they try to describe her appearance and personality instead.
  • The Glasses Gotta Go: Invoked. She offhandedly jokes that she could pass for a world beauty if she took off her glasses.
  • Hypocritical Humour: At one point criticizes Sotoma's coffee addiction, in spite of her even worse smoking habits.
  • Memetic Badass: In-Universe. Many of the G.A. students revere her and bow down to her authority, hence her nickname "Tono" (which literally means "lord"). In reality, she's just a grumpy chain smoker who can barely do any physical work without injuring herself.
  • Must Have Nicotine: She can get pretty scary when she hasn't had enough cigarettes lately.
  • No Full Name Given: Her first name is completely unknown.
  • Odd Friendship: She's good friends with Same-chan-sensei, despite having completely opposite temperaments.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: Usami dolls her up for the third years' graduation, and Homura, in a typical fashion, gets a crush on her.

    Yoshino Koshino 
Voiced by: Chinami Nishimura.
The fashion design teacher, a tiny and terrifying old lady who's a legendary hard grader. Most students who aren't Noda are terrified of her. Initially did not appear in the anime, but was featured in the OVA instead. Volume 6 of the manga shows she joined the staff shortly before the Geijutsuka C: Fashion Design class was dissolved and merged with Geijutsuka A.
  • Harsh Word Impact: She's very brutal in criticizing her students' work. Kisaragi is deathly afraid of her as a result.
  • Miniature Senior Citizens: She's possibly the oldest GA character, and the shortest among everyone.
  • The Napoleon: She forces students to sit on a very short stool so that she can look down on them.
  • Never Mess with Granny: Not even the laidback Tomokane dares to fool around in her class.
  • Pet the Dog: The short stool mentioned above also lets her dispense head-pats to those that have earned them.
  • Rhyming Names: Koshino Yoshino, who is one of the most feared teachers in school despite being featured less than them.
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