Main Characters
Voiced by Masako Katsuki (TV Series), Megumi Ogata (OVA), Sanae Kobayashi (2005 Series)
Maya loves watching dramas on TV and finds herself enchanted by the acting, the stories and lives told by it. She was given a very minor role in a schoolplay, but put more emotion into the scene than the teacher had intended, leaving her to awe the audience with her ability. She discovered an intense passion for acting and ran away from home to study under Tsukikage at her school.
Over time, Maya begins to make a name for herself as an actress and comes under contract of Daito Entertainment, which she initially hated. When it seemed like things were going their best, she was emotionally manipulated into running away from the opening night of a new show, with the resulting scandal getting her blacklisted from the acting world.
But Maya isn't one for giving up and worked as an underdog in minor things, eventually removing the image of the scandal from her name and earned the Best Actress Award. She is one of the actresses Tsukikage has picked to have the potential to inherit the Crimson Goddess role.
- 10-Minute Retirement: Meant to retire from acting when she learned that Hayami kept her mother's location and treatment a secret from her, since she had lost her love for acting and became incapable of keeping her 'mask' on while on-stage. Then she played the role of a village girl in a pivotal scene of a play and rediscovered her passion.
- Action Girl
- Her role as Mio in White Jungle, who energetically swings around on vines and fights man-eating plants in hopes of finding the eponymous jungle her father's notes spoke about.
- Her role as Jane in Forgotten Wilderness also runs around a lot when still acting like a wolf.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Several scenes with Hayami. They bicker and butt heads, but keep ending up proving that they do care for each other.
- Beautiful All Along: Many people consider her to be beautiful, particularly when she's acting. For on-stage productions it's justified, as it involves makeup and a different attitude.
- Book Dumb: Her grades are average. She's not stupid, but lack of interest makes it difficult to study.
- Came Back Strong: Got blacklisted as an actress, but still wanted to return to the professional world of acting. She acquired skills in pantomime and rhythmic movements, and ended up wowing audiences.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Eventually realizes that she's in love with Hayami, but cannot get herself to tell him. One reason being that he's engaged to someone else. They confess their mutual attraction later on, trying to figure out how to manage their situations with this new perspective.
- Celebrity Is Overrated: Deconstructed, as she loves acting but ends up completely unprepared for the resulting fame. She's naturally shy off-stage, so she is partially protected by the fact that people don't think she looks or acts like she does in her roles.
- Clear My Name: Averted, since Maya isn't the one that ends up clearing her name. When Maya gets set up for a scandal by Norie Otobe, she simply presses forward and lets the scandal lie. It ends up being Ayumi that reveals the frame.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father is mentioned to have died when she was a child.
- Dramatic Wind: While performing as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, she faked this so well that audiences were fooled and thought she could control the wind.
- Enforced Method Acting: Her standard method to learn how to play a role is to become the character. This includes things such as heading off into the wild mountains and trying to live off of whatever she can scavenge to survive, to better learn how to act instinctual as the wolf-raised Jane.
- Forgot About His Powers: Learns how to knit and play the piano to play Beth from Little Women, but later on is stated to be horrible at home economics and incapable of playing an instrument.
- Genius Ditz: Manages to memorize every line from The Camellia Lady after seeing it once.
- Grass is Greener: Envies Ayumi for her loving parents and having had ample opportunity from a young age onward to expand and improve her acting skills.
- Heroic BSoD: Suffers a bad one when her mother is found dead. She stops acting, refuses to eat, and merely sits in a corner while holding her mother's urn.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Considers herself to be a good-for-nothing girl and that acting is the only thing she's capable of doing. But thinks Ayumi is better than her in that, too.
- Instant Expert: Averted, despite being considered a prodigy in acting. She can memorize lines very quickly and has great instinct on how to play a character, but everything beyond that needs to be properly taught. When she tries to imitate Ayumi's solo-performance of Juliet, she fails miserably because their skills are at different levels.
- In with the In Crowd: When Maya ends up under contract with Daito Enterainment, her new manager cuts off contact with her old friends and withholds letters, letting them think this is happening to Maya.
- Jumped at the Call: Ran away from home when Tsukikage told her that she could learn professional acting at her school as a scholarship student.
- Method Acting: Maya's M.O. for learning most roles. Play a blind-deaf girl? Live several days with bound eyes and plugged ears. Play a wolf? Drive your roommate insane by only walking on all fours and communicating with animal noises.
- Missing Mom: Her mother's whereabouts are unknown when Maya hears that she left her old home and job because of an illness. Eventually, her mother turns up dead.
- Nice Girl: To everyone, except for Masumi Hayami. And she improves her attitude towards him.
- Oblivious to Love: Cares for Sakurakouji, but doesn't even realize that she's actually fallen in love with Shigeru until someone else points it out to her. It takes her even longer to realize she loves Hayami.
- Perfect Health: Lampshaded when Maya is cast as Beth in Little Women, but has difficulty portraying the scene where Beth has fallen ill. Since Maya has never been sick before, she goes out of her way to purposefully get sick to know what it's like. Her timing is off and she ends up playing the role while having a temperature of 40°C.
- Playing a Tree: Tsukikage casts Maya as a doll to teach her to not steal the spotlight from other actors, something she inadvertendly does with her passionate acting. It also comes into play when needing to portray the Crimson Goddess, who is the spirit of a plum tree.
- Plucky Girl: When she decides to do something, she will do it.
- Raised by Wolves: Done by her character Jane in Forgotten Wilderness, who was raised by wolves after she and her sister were abandoned in the forest as babies. The play revolves around Jane learning how to be human.
- The Runaway: Ran away from home after her mother refused to let her study acting.
- Training from Hell: Repeatedly gets subjected to it. When she ends up working with Kuronuma, his harsh teaching methods don't bother her because they are similar to Tsukikage's ways.
- Unknown Rival: Learns that Ayumi sees her as a rival, much to her surprise.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Never learned any acting prior to enrolling in Tsukikage's school, but has an inate talent that ends up impressing people long before she becomes a professional.
Voiced by Minori Matsushima (TV series), Naoko Matsui (OVA), Akiko Yajima (2005)
Ayumi is a young actress and part of the Ondine Theater company. Her mother is an actress and her father a director, leading to people believing that her success in show business came from familial connections. However, Ayumi refuses to let those interfere with her career.
She became interested in Maya, seeing that she has quite some talent for acting that many of her fellow students tended to overlook. But Ayumi kept getting astounded by Maya's tenacious attitude and luck, eventually seeing Maya as not only a worthy rival in terms of acting, but also as having it better than she does.
Ayumi chose to expand her acting roles and took on anything she possibly could, determined to prove herself as a first-class actress that can play anything. Her skills and passion are what caused Tsukikage to focus on her, seeing her as the other candidate to inherit the role of the Crimson Goddess.
- The Ace: Has worked herself to the bone to become one. She has been studying like crazy to get good grades, spent hours practicing the piano, her acting skills, and anything else that she could do because she wanted to escape the preconceived idea of being nothing but the child of celebrities.
- Berserk Button: Calling her a prodigy. She spent hours working on improving herself in many ways, meaning everything was a result of hard work. This is also why she doesn't tolerate people that brush off their own misgivings because they lack the drive she had to really do something they could improve.
- Character Development: Started out as a slightly spoiled rival that had everything Maya could dream of, but Ayumi kept getting annoyed by her. Then Ayumi got older and focused on improving and expanding her acting career, mellowing out as a person and seeing Maya as a worthy rival, while also envying her for her different upbringing that Ayumi thinks makes Maya more free.
- Child Prodigy: Started out as one as a child, but she actually hates being called a prodigy. While she had her share of natural talent, all of her acting skills and accomplishments come from hard work.
- Class Trip: Inverted, with Ayumi commenting that she regrets missing out on it because of her career.
- Determinator: Performs magnificent things to improve her career. This included practicing pantomime for hours, to the point that she is drenched in sweat, and when she gets hit by a stage light and suffers from temporary blindness, learns to perform blindly on stage through mere feeling and touch.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Starved herself to look the part of the imprisoned, malnourished Princess Origeld.
- Foil: To Maya. Ayumi has a loving, stable family and seems to have never had to worry about anything. Her acting is also based on hard work and practice, learning how to perform a role, contrary to Maya using method acting of 'being' and 'living' the character, not just a role.
- Grass is Greener: Envies Maya for having real friends that love and support her, and believes that Maya entering the acting world late and with natural talent meant she was much more free than Ayumi ever considered herself, who keeps worrying about her family's reputations following her.
- Important Haircut: Was typecast as the princess character, but Ayumi got sick of it. When she plays the prince and the pauper in The Prince and the Pauper, she cuts her hair very short to play the role, and as a way to show her determination to prove herself worthy of playing the Crimson Goddess. It's noticable that she lets her hair grow longer again, but has lost the Ojou Ringlets in it, symbolizing her growing as a character.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Has a lot of peers that tell her how great she is, but has no true friends. She admits to being jealous of ordinary Maya, not only because of her natural talent at acting, but also that she has real friend by her side that encourage her.
- Nepotism: Detests the idea and part of her goal of becoming a first-class actress is to prove that nepotism was never a part of it. She even refuses to act in her father's plays and treats her mother as a regular, fellow actress when sharing the stage because of wanting to avoid this image.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Gives a bone-chilling laugh in her role as Princess Origeld.
- The Ojou: Became a deconstruction of this trope.
- Ojou Ringlets: Used to have them when she was younger, but after cutting her hair and letting it regrow, it became looser and more wavey. Also symbolized as part of her character development.
- The Rival: Sees herself as one to Maya.
- Temporary Blindness: Gets hit by a falling spotlight during a practice session, with her vision becoming blurry and threat of permanent blindness occuring. Ayumi keeps practicing, using her massacred vision to learn how to act blindly on stage.
- Training from Hell: Usually does this to herself, insisting on practicing for hours. She even chose to starve herself and live in a cold, underground basement to perpare herself for her role as the ostracized Princess Origeld.
- Unusual Eyebrows: Her eyesbrows are drawn thicker and with details.
- What You Are in the Dark: She saw Maya heading across a delapitated bridge and thought of not warning her, thinking that if Maya fell and got injured or even disappeared, she'd get the Crimson Goddess role by default. But when Maya almost falls and screams, Ayumi rushes to her help. Ayumi is horrified what she almost let happen, citing that she was just as bad as the type of actor she has always hated. However, it does give her a renewed fire to properly fight for the coveted role.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Her parents are often busy with their respective careers, leaving Ayumi alone a lot with a nanny as she grew up. But Ayumi doesn't resent them for it, knowing they all love each other and, being in show business herself, how important their careers are to them.
Voiced by Taeko Nakanishi (TV Series), Keiko Toda (OVA), Toshiko Fujita (2005 Series), Mami Koyama (2020 Pachinko Game)
Tsukikage was a well-known actress, with her most famous role being the mysterious Crimson Goddess that amazed the audience for years. Tsukikage left the stage when a spotlight fell and badly burnt her face, leaving her to focus on finding potential students and opening up her own acting school, though she did appear in the minor role of Queen Dowager Haldra in The Two Princesses.
She found Maya acting for some children in a park and became interested in her, only piqued when she realized that the girl knew the entire script and attitude for every character in The Camellia Lady, despite having seen it performed only once. Tsukikage offered her a place at her acting school as a scholarship student.
When the school ended up being taken away from her, she was thinking of giving up, but several of her students insisted on remaining by her side. Her plan is to find a student that had the potential to portray the Crimson Goddess role, someone that can inherit the rights to it and its performances. She sees this potential in Maya, and eventually Ayumi, too.
Tsukikage has a weak heart and other health issues, leading her to choose to move to the remote village where the character of the Crimson Goddess was initially born. She instructs Maya and Ayumi there on the Crimson Goddess and is testing them to see how each of them interprets her.
- Bowdlerise: The OVA altered the injury she sustained from the falling spotlight. Instead of her face being burned by the hot glass, it caused her a stab wound that is never actually shown.
- Career-Ending Injury: During a performance of the Crimson Goddess, a spotlight fell onto her face and burned it, leaving it heavily scarred. She left the stage as a performer, though still took on a minor role in The Two Princesses.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her childhood shows that she was a streetrat and took to thievery to survive, until Ichiren Ozaki found and took her in. She ended up catching the eye of Eisuke Hayami, who began to use his connections to keep her theater group from performing when she spurned his advances. She ended up separated from Ichiren and found him, only for him to commit suicide. When she kept performing the Crimson Goddess for his sake, the accident occured that ended her career.
- Downer Beginning: The OVA opens up with the accident that caused Tsukikage's career to end.
- Hiding the Handicap: Purposefully keeps her hair styled to hide the burnt side of her face.
- Hot for Teacher: Was in love with her acting teacher, and adoptive father, Ichiren Ozaki.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Since she was basically an adoptive daughter to Ichiren and he was happily married, she kept her romantic feelings for him in check. When his wife and child died during the second world war, Tsukikage eventually confessed to Ichiren.
- Interrupted Suicide: Wanted to kill herself after Ichiren died, but Genzo stopped her, reminding her that she was the inheritor of The Crimson Goddess playrights. Tsukikage stayed alive and played the goddess, intent on keeping Ichiren's will alive and the play out of Eisuke Hayami's hands.
- Last-Name Basis: Most people refer to her as Tsukikage, with her first name rarely ever mentioned.
- Meaningful Name: Her last name is written with the kanji for Moon and Shadow. Ichiren chose it, deriding it from her first, big role as the moon goddess Diana.
- Meaningful Rename: Her real name was Chizu, though when she started acting, Ichiren picked a stage name.
- Rags to Riches: Played with, as she's initially shown to have been a streetrat that got taken in by Ichiren. Through his care and mentoring, she became a well-known and well-off actress. Due to the war going on and other events, she seems to have lost her wealth, since she asked Aoyagi for funding to open her theater school.
- Sadist Teacher: Her teaching methods are brutal. She has slapped students with rolled-up scripts for not doing something right, and locked them into freezers to properly teach them just how cold the country in The Two Princesses is, so they can properly portray their characters. On the other hand, she subjects herself to brutal conditions as well while teaching them, like performing for hours during a winterstorm to figure out how to best portray a character.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Convinced that she's dying soon because of her weak heart. She hopes that whatever time she has left will at least allow her to name a successor for the Crimson Goddess.
Masumi Hayami
- Voiced by: Nachi Nozawa (original TV series, episodes 1-18), Katsuji Mori (original TV series, episodes 19-23), Jurota Kosugi (OAV's), Toshiyuki Morikawa (2005 series)
The current vice-president of Daito. He's a cold, level-headed businessman who will do whatever he can to get Daito the rights to the Crimson Goddess play. He eventually eases up on things and learns to appreciate and love Maya's acting, becoming a huge, secret fan of hers.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: With Maya. Granted he provokes many fights on purpose.
- Anonymous Benefactor: As "Purple Rose", the mysterious fan who showers Maya with purple roses and financial support. Later Maya herself found out.
- Arranged Marriage: His father pretty much forces Masumi to have an Omiai with Shiori.
- Bastard Understudy: How Masumi got his start.
- Baddie Flattery: Hayami to Maya and he usually means it, and she's usually surprised because she thinks he does, too.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Hayami, to Maya.
- Defiant Captive: Stabbed one of his kidnappers and and escaped when he was only 10.
- Determinator: Nothing will stop him from attending any of Maya’s performances. Heck, he’s even traveled through a freakin typhoon on foot, just so he can see her on stage!
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: He gives Maya medicine via mouth-to-mouth when she's asleep!
- Happily Adopted: Averted. It seems like this at first with him being the heir of his adoptive father's successful buisness and living in luxury. Once we learn more about his past it is revealed that his life since his adoption was not happy at all.
- Intimate Healing: Gives Maya some medicine via mouth-to-mouth and cuddled her, when she was wearing just his coat while drying her wet clothes.
- Married to the Job: States himself that he is this as one of the reasons why he isn't interested in marriage at first.
- Missing Mom: His mother died from injuries and weakness, after getting badly injured during a fire in the Hayami mansion.
- Momma's Boy: He absolutely loved his mother and was devoted to her.
- My Greatest Failure: He blames himself for Haru Kitajima's death, thinking his greed in prolonging their separation, and Haru's eventual departure from the hospital, was what led to her dying.
- Impossibly Cool Wealth: On a more realistic scale the most, but he DOES finance half of Maya's life and even renovates a theater for her without batting an eye.
- Revenge by Proxy: His adoptive-father Einosuke 'took' Masumi's mother away from him, when he told her to go inside the burning Hayami mansion and save the relics of the Crimson Goddess play, which caused her to get injured and eventually die. Masumi decides that he'll obtain the rights to the Crimson Goddess play... but only to keep it away from Einosuke and destroy it!
Supporting Characters
Haru Kitajima
- Voiced by: Haruko Kitahama (original TV series), Tomoko Munakata (2005 series)
Maya's mother. She works in a noodle restaurant, where her daughter helped out at times, too. Haru was against Maya learning to act and wanted to force her to come back home after she ran away, but eventually gave her okay to stay. Haru eventually falls ill with tuberculosis and ends up in a hospital, being taken care of, while being left in the dark of her daughter's success.
- Anger Born of Worry: She's harsh with her words, but overall means well. Her anger when she finds Maya at Tsukikage's theater stems from the fact that Maya ran away from home, in the middle of the night, with barely a note left behind.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Mother: Laughs at Maya being an actress and forbids her to attend acting classes. This leads to Maya becoming The Runaway.
- I Have No Daughter!: Disowns Maya when she refuses to return home.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Haru. It *is* actual tuberculosis, and she likely could have been healed if only she had the money to afford *real* treatment (instead of just being locked away in a country house by Hayami), and didn't go hitchhiking in the rain searching for Maya. Somewhat subverted, since in the end the main cause of death was being hit by a car. Also, played straight by Tsukikage.
- In the manga she was in an actual hospital, not locked away in a country house. Hayami just paid the doctors there to keep them from leaking information about Haru's whereabouts to the press or them saying anything about Maya to Haru. Whatever her sickness was, it can be assumed she did receive treatment for it in her time at the hospital, but it was likely too late to actually do lots.
- The Lost Lenore: Her death was a major hit to her daughter.
- Rasputinian Death: Spends hours walking in the rain and getting drenched, leading to hypothermia, which causes her tuberculosis to have a relapse, she gets a fever, gets hit by a car and eventually succumbs to an internal hemorrhage from the preceding car-accident.
Yuu Sakurakouji
Part of the Ondine theater, Sakurakouji is a nice guy who quickly becomes friends with Maya. He has feelings for her and wants to date her, but tries his best to not force her too much. He is a talented actor, who got recognition and is one of the candidates to play the sculptor in the Crimson Goddess play.
- Entitled to Have You: Gets some shades of this towards Maya, especially when Shigeru appears.
- He's All Grown Up: Hayami mentions this when he meets Sakurakouji after several years have gone by, with him growing into a young man from the boy he used to be.
- Instant Expert: Averted. Sakurakouji has no experience in sculpting and went on a trip to various temples to look at sculptures, eventually finding one and asking the creator to please take him in as a disciple, so he can convincingly act and perform the skill required.
- Love Hurts: His unrequited feelings for Maya hurt him a lot, to the point that he eventually breaks contact with her. When they meet later on, his love for her is obviously still there.
- Nice Guy: He's such a sweet, gentle and kind person.
The Tsukikage Group
- Rei is Voiced by: Keiko Toda (original TV series), Urara Takano (OAV's), Ayumi Kinoshita (2005 series)Sayaka is Voiced by: Mayumi Iizuka (OAV's), Fumiko Orikasa (2005 series)Mina is Voiced by: Yoko Honna (2005 series)
Four girls who have stuck with Tsukikage, after the theatre was closed down and wanted to remain with their teacher. Each have a few years worth of acting experience and begin to perform together with the Ikkakuju group a lot, starting with the A Stone's Smile play.
- Bifauxnen: Rei is usually mistaken to be a guy and often cast for male roles. She dislikes it, but seems to eventually accept it.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Rei got a lot of fangirls because she was mistaken as a boy. Even after they learn that Rei is a girl, the fans still love her.
- The Generic Guy: Taiko's a friendly character, but there's not a lot known about her.
- Girlish Pigtails: Sayaka usually keeps her hair in two low pigtails.
- The Runaway: Rei left her family, an apparently rich one, because they didn't want her to become an actress.
- Sadist Teacher: In-Training, thanks to Tsukikage's behavior. Rei is not above slapping Maya, if she drifts off during practice.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Sayaka originally was portrayed as being jealous of Maya getting attention and tried to take the role of Beth away from her in Little Women. Eventually recognized Maya's talent and became much kinder.
- What Does She See in Him?: Mina eventually falls in love with the leader of the Ikkakuju group. Everyone's surprised at the blossoming love, no idea why it's even starting.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Most of Rei's fans thought she was 'in drag' when playing a female character. Her male roles, though, play this straight.
The Ikkakuju Group
A group of actors and actresses that try their acting by using as little scenery as possible, having their group members act out as various inanimate objects to replace the scenery. They took second in best performance during the National Theater Performances. They help out and act alongside the Tsukikage theater off and on.
- Bifauxnen: Keiko is a handsome woman, but often mistaken as a guy, similar to Rei.
- Perpetual Poverty: They barely have any money, so they try to save by foregoing things like taking busses or buying much for their plays, preferring to build a bit of scenery on their own.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Hajime played the queen of Amazons when they performed A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Shiori Takamiya
- Voiced by: Maya Okamoto (2005 series)
Masumi's Omiai-partner and eventual fiancée. She's a refined lady and belongs to the important Takamiya company. Shiori eventually realizes that Masumi loves Maya.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Shows this, after learning that Masumi loves Maya. She's rude and mean to Maya, blames her for things that she had no real part in and plays up the drama.
- Disposable Fiancé: Averted. She clings very hard to Masumi and Hayami Senior is very intent on marrying the two.
- Fainting: Happens a few times, mostly the Anemic variety. Though, given her true colors, she might just be really good at acting this out at just the appropriate time.
- Obstructive Love Interest: Begins to play up her frail side and 'emotional uncertainty' about Masumi's feelings up a lot later on.
Saeko Mizuki
- Voiced by: Saeko Shimazu (OAV's), Rei Sakuma (2005 series)
Masumi's secretary and takes over as Maya's manager, when Maya becomes an actress under contract of Daito. She's a no-nonesense woman who tends to keep a level head, even at the worst of times.
- Cool Shades: She is generally drawn wearing large, drooping tinted glasses.
- The Stoic: She doesn't show emotions in her facial expressions a lot, and what emotion she does show is not done very intenely.
- Not So Stoic: Though when pushed or honestly horrified, she does show you exactly what she feels. She looks shocked when learning that Maya's missing mother has turned up dead and yells at Masumi for indirectly being responsible for her death.
Ichiren Oosaki
- Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (OAV's), Hiroki Tochi (2005 series)
The creator of the Crimson Goddess play. He was a well-known stage-director and took Chizu aka the future Tsukikage in, when she was caught stealing from him. As Daito prevented Ichiren from getting any more plays or work to be done, he fell into a horrible depression and ended up committing suicide, leaving Tsukikage the rights to the Crimson Goddess play.
- Driven to Suicide: Unable to perform any more plays, getting any work done and his dream of staging the Crimson Goddess ruined, Ichiren hangs himself.
- Happily Married: He was happily married to his wife, and was even a father, but apparently lost the two of them during the second World War.
- Living Emotional Crutch: He was this to Tsukikage from childhood onward, though she didn't admit it until years later.
- Sadist Teacher: Where do you think Tsukikage got it from? He's described as having been very strict with his actors, which made it all the more special when he did praise someone.
- Spell My Name With An S: His last name. Oozaki or Oosaki?
Eisuke Hayami
- Voiced by: Iemasa Kayumi (2005 series)
Masumi's adoptive father and the founder and current president of Daito Productions. He's been a fan of Tsukikage's for years and dreams of seeing her perform the Crimson Goddess again, intent on getting the playrights from her. Eisuke is stuck in a wheelchair most of the time, though he can be seen walking with a crutch and some other means of support. He begins to strike up an acquaintance with Maya, curious to see the Crimson Goddess candidate.
- Evil Is Sterile: The most 'evil' character of the cast, considering his behavior in the past. He was rendered sterile through illness decades ago.
- Jerkass: Ruined a lot of lives and drove at least one person to suicide. Even Masumi was treated horribly until he proved his usefulness.
- Retired Monster: Used a lot of "unorthodox methods", as he calls it, to become successful and while trying to gain the rights for The Crimson Goddess. He doesn't even show remorse upon causing a suicide.
- Secret Test of Character: When his siblings suggested he pick one of their children as his heir, he told them to get the pond cleaned of mud. They failed and he asked Masumi if he could do it, managing to get it clean by enlisting the help of the employees of the house.
- Stalker with a Crush: He's been one for Tsukikage for over twenty years. He sent her gifts, they were returned and he eventually made it difficult to get Oosaki to stage any plays anymore, all to get Tsukikage to sign an exclusive contract with his productions and 'having' her and the Crimson Goddess.
- You Can Keep Her!: Denies paying ransom and simply hangs up when Masumi is being kidnapped.
Hajime Onodera
A producer from the Ondine Theater and a friend of Masumi Hayami's. He uses deals and any other means possible, in order to strike out competition for his theater, and helps Masumi in getting the rights for the Crimson Goddess. He is one of the potential producers for the staging of the Crimson Goddess.
- Jerkass: He mocks people, insults them and the less we say about what he does to achieve his goals, the better.
- Karma Houdini: Despite being a huge jerk who doesn't mind ruining a whole troupe, he never gets any retribution for it. His plays are very popular and he is apparently skilled enough to be a candidate for directing The Crimson Goddess.
Ryuuzou Kuronuma
- Voiced by: Kiyoyuki Yanada (2005 series)
A producer whose hot head and intense ideas have often gotten him into trouble with production companies. He searches for an actress who can portray the complex emotions of a girl that turns from wolf-raised-savage to a girl integrated into human society again. Kuronuma is one of the potential producers chosen for the Crimson Goddess.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He can blow up and get into fights with people pretty fast, especially when it comes to his plays, which he's sensitive about.
- Henpecked Husband: His looks close to having a heart-attack when his wife calls the theater he's working at.
- Sadist Teacher: Kuronuma isn't above slapping his actors for doing things improperly. He also yells a lot, which has the unfortunate effect that a lot of actors can't work with him over a long period of time.
Emi Tabuchi
- Voiced by: Atsuko Enomoto (2005 series)
An idol-singer who starred in a movie where she plays a high school tennis player, who is told that she only has six months left to live.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Her acting is atrocious! Rei even comments that she thought this was the kind of acting one only ever reads about!
- Incurable Cough of Death: We're never told what illness her character is supposedly dying of.
Utako Himekawa
- Voiced by: Masako Katsuki (2005 series)
A famous actress and former pupil of Tsukikage, and Ayumi's mother. Utako is an amazing actress and has wished for years to be able to play the Crimson Goddess some time.
- Beauty Inversion: People say Utako was made very plain compared to her usual appearance for her role as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker.
- Happily Married: To her husband Mitsugu. When Ayumi brings her the message that her father loves her a lot, she knows that and wants to return the message.
- Informed Ability: Averted. She gets praised all the time but during the Miracle Worker arc we see it is completley justified.
Mitsugu Himekawa
- Voiced by: Ryūsei Nakao (2005 series)
Ayumi's father and a famous producer. He often stays in apartments he rents in various cities, so he can commute from there to work when needed. He is a perfectionist, when it comes to his work.
- Doting Parent: He's known as Spartan director, but he immediatly softens up when Ayumi is around. The first time he shows up in the manga Ayumi mentions he bought a new white piano for her.
- Happily Married: To his wife Utako. He asks Ayumi to bring her mother a message about how much he loves her.
- Workaholic: Often works through days and nights to get things right, preferring to stay near his work, so he can cut down on the time it takes to commute. Sometimes, he even forgets to eat.
Norie Otobe (aka Suzuko Tashirou)
- Voiced by: Shizuka Itō (2005 series)
A bubbly, easily-excited girl that is one of Maya's fans. She started helping Maya at times and watches her perfomances. Norie's real name is actually Suzuko and she's waiting for an opportunity to throw Maya off her pedestal and steal her roles from her. She succeeds when Maya's mother dies and Norie manages to take the leading role of Shangri-La away from her, including her role in The Glittering Sky and others. Eventually, she's revealed to be a sub-par actress when Ayumi plays alongside her and wipes the floor with her.
- Beautiful All Along: After moving her bangs and opening her braid, Norie is actually revealed to be a beauty.
- Fashion Dissonance: Her rolled-up socks, long skirt and unflattering long sweater are mentioned making her look like she came from the 1940s.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After Ayumi proves to Norie what a worthless actress she is compared to Maya, Norie has this reaction for what she did to Maya.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Plays up her energetic, bubbly self a lot, when she's actually a coniving little manipulator.
- The Runaway: She ran away from home and took on a different name, because her family was against her acting. All faked.
- Youthful Freckles: Sports a few on her cheeks and nose. They're painted on.
Shigeru Satomi
- Voiced by: Shin-ichiro Miki (2005 series)
A young actor, who played the villain role in The Glittering Sky. He is Maya's first love and the two end up dating for some time. They are forced to break up, though, when Maya's scandal threatens to soil Shigeru's image. He still regrest it, though.
- Big Bad: He plays the role of a man, who kidnaps Satoko (Maya's character) in The Glittering Sky, because her father is housing a foreign man that supposedly killed Shigeru's character's father.
- First Love: For Maya.
- Offscreen Breakup: He breaks up with Maya because his agency told him to, but we never see him do it.
- Nice Guy: Sweet, gentle, polite and teasing. Unless he's in-character.
