Characters / Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied?

A list of characters appearing in Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied?.

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The Main Characters

Yuuichi Aizawa

You turned out like this because I'm broken... And you are what broke me.

The protagonist of the series. A middle-school science teacher with an agenda of his own.

Having been the target of a particularly vicious Gang of Bullies led by Suzuki Shinji, Yuuichi Aizawa, or "Aizawa-sensei" as he is affectionately known to his students, hasn't had the easiest lot in life. He was heavily traumatized by what Shinji and the rest of the bullies did to him and he currently lives alone in a run-down apartment wearing cheap clothes, completely devoid of any semblance of a social life.

When he meets Shinji again during his middle-school reunion he only seeks an apology or at least some sort of semblance of remorse, so that he can finally find it in himself to move on. Shinji, however, is as remorseless as ever, chooses to mock him instead. According to Shinji, "There's a reason why some people get bullied". This angers Aizawa more than anything else.

Unbeknownst to his former bully, Aizawa is currently the homeroom teacher of Shiori Suzuki, Shinji's daughter, and about the only person he truly cares about. As he quietly watches another Gang of Bullies escalate their abuse towards his bully's daughter he wonders...

...Will Shinji still blame the victim if the victim is someone he genuinely loves?

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• All of the Other Reindeer: He is not shown having any friends in middle school and everyone in his middle school reunion is not happy to see him, being uncomfortable just being near him.
• Ambiguously Evil: It's not clear for a big part of the story if he is really on Shiori's side, or just blindly allows the Gang of Bullies to abuse her in order to get back at his former bully. Chapter 15 reveals that he is fully on Shiori's side and was just gathering evidence to help her get back at her bullies.
• Break the Cutie: He went through this during his middle school years. The scars of what Shinji did to him are still with him, both physically and mentally.
• Bully Hunter: It turns out he is this throughout the story, helping bully victims not only stop their abuse but also get back at the people who bully them. The final chapter shows he is now helping adult bully victims.
• Bullied into Depression: He is shown going into a depressive state after being bullied. He gets over it by becoming a dedicated Bully Hunter.
• Byronic Hero: He is a highly messed-up individual, to say the least. It turns out he is on the side of Justice ( or at least Shiori's side), but the means he uses to achieve his goals^note  (Setting up spy cams all over the school, including the inside of the principal's office and installing hidden surveillance software inside his own students' phones) are still illegal and morally reprehensible. Also, by his own admission he let Shiori's abuse go on longer than he should have because he saw part of her father in her.
• The Chessmaster: He is the one in control of the narrative up until the end, manipulating situations and people in order to publicly expose the school bullying problem and completely destroy his former bully's life.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even though he lets Shiori's bullying continue for longer than it should have because she was his former bully's daughter, Aizawa admits to being ashamed of himself and sincerely apologizes to Shiori for it. He then warns her that he intends to go fully on the warpath against her father while implying she can ask him to stop and he'll respect it. She assures him it's okay.
• Invisible Parents: His parents are never shown within the context of the story and we are never shown how they reacted to Aizawa's bullying or even if they were even there in his life.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He is a big believer in not only giving bullies A Taste of Their Own Medicine, but also messing up their lives well and properly. That being said, he always offers them a chance at redemption.
• Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: He is scarred both in mind and body. He showcases some of the scars to Shiori in the second chapter but it's not until he strips on public television that we see the full extent of it.
• Revenge by Proxy: He openly admits to Shiori that he let her bullying go on longer than he should have because he saw parts of his former bully on her and part of him was happy she was suffering. He eventually saw that Shiori didn't deserve this and decided to properly help her.
• Rightly Self-Righteous: He firmly believes the current school methods and approaches for dealing with the bullying problem are inadequate at best, and exacerbate bullying at worst. And the story proves him right!
• Self-Harm: We get a disturbing moment in Chapter 24 where his memories of being bullied overwhelm him, and he starts punching himself. Shinji, ironically, is disturbed when he sees this.
• Stepford Smiler: When he is in pain or hiding something he always puts up a fake smile. Shiori sees right through it.
  Shiori: Sensei, you always smile when you lie, don't you?

Shinji Suzuki

There's a reason why some people get bullied.

The main antagonist of the series. A cruel bully who made Aizawa's life a living hell. He used to be the president of the student council and used that position to cause both physical and mental pain to his unfortunate victim, along with his Gang of Bullies.

At present time he is the envy of his coworkers and his classmates. A highly successful banker who is on a fast track to a big promotion and the most likely candidate to become the bank's CEO in the next few years. He earns top money and wears expensive clothes that showcase how much better he is than everyone else.

He is also a cruel manipulative Smug Snake with a mile-long sadistic streak that views people as his toys and a Casanova Wannabe that regularly cheats on his wife while pretending to be the model husband and father.

Even though he remembers the broad strokes of what he did to Aizawa, he doesn't really care about the pain he caused him all those years back. All those mental and physical scars that messed up Aizawa's life? Why should he care? Aizawa is a nobody.

The only thing he truly loves, protects, and cares about (possibly even more than himself) is his daughter Shiori...

...Who is about to find out what bullying is first hand.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He doesn't hesitate to beg for his life when his attempt to kill Aizawa goes wrong and his former victim holds his life in his hands.
• All of the Other Reindeer: He gets a small taste of the social isolation he inflicted upon Aizawa when he is outed as an uncaring adulterer at his place of work and doxxed as the bully who gave Aizawa both of his physical and mental scars, which leads to his managers chewing him out, missing his long-awaited promotion and his coworkers losing every respect they ever had for him. He goes from prospective CEO to mocked errand boy, in the course of a single chapter, with everyone around him treating him like a leper. This does not have a good effect on him.
• A Taste Of His Own Medicine: Subverted. Shinji used to strip Aizawa, paint a target, and throw balls at him, along with his Gang of Bullies. He engraved scars on him that will never heal. He turned Aizawa into a social pariah. While Aizawa can't exactly do all of those things back to Shinji he manages to come as close to the experience as humanly possible.
  Aizawa: Suzuki-kun, how are you feeling right now? What's it like playing the target as the whole world tries to shoot you down? Your name and everything you've done will be engraved on the internet for all time. How do you feel? You're just like who I was back then... All alone.
• Awful Wedded Life: His relationship with his wife is NOT pleasant. He resents her for baby trapping him when their relationship was going south, and it spills out into every aspect of their domestic life.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: A non-criminal example with Shinji Suzuki. He’s a successful banker because he is sent to handle clients that appeal to the banker's conscience, where he ruthlessly rejects feeling sympathy for them. It’s implied that his boss uses him for that kind of work, and his coworkers greatly admire him for his ruthlessness, even if some are uncomfortable with it, with one of them viewing him as an elite person.
  • Deconstructed by the final chapters of the story. Shinji's mistress and former victim revealed him to be a cheater and a bully to his boss and coworkers. His boss was disgusted and denied him the promotion and later demoted him to make copies of documents all day. His coworkers wanted nothing to do with him, ignored him, and refused to be threatened by him or even talk to him. They were willing to tolerate and even admire Shinji's ruthless methods when it was good for business, but they draw the line when they see what a monster he really is and cut ties with him.
    • Eventually, one of the people Shinji abused and bullied when he was a banker killed him just as he was planning to put his life back together, showing that there are even consequences when legally doing dirty work because your cruelty will catch up to you when one of your victims sick of your abuse.
• Beyond Redemption:
  • Shinji Suzuki was a Barbaric Bully as a child and wasn't much better as an adult. His one redeeming quality is that he genuinely loves his daughter, Shiori. When Shinji learns that Shiori is being bullied, his daughter blames him for his advice that it’s the victim's fault for being bullied, and she moves in with her maternal grandparents. Shinji realizes how badly he messed up and goes to school to thank the teacher who protected his daughter. But then he learns that the teacher who protected his daughter was his former victim, Aizawa. Even after Aizawa offers Shinji one last chance to think about what he did, Shinji chooses to brag about being a bully and remains unrepentant.
    • This makes Aizawa declare war on him and proceed with revenge plans. Shiori even gives Aizawa her blessing to get revenge on Shinji after Shinji tries turning her against Aizawa.
• Blaming the Victim: According to him, it's Aizawa's gloomy nature that invites cruel bullying upon him. Later in the story, he even outright tells his daughter, Shiori, that "sometimes it's the victim's fault that they get bullied".
• Broken Pedestal: Shinji Suzuki is viewed as a self-made man, the perfect husband and father by his coworkers, his wife, and his daughter. Once they see the monster he truly is and how selfish and cruel he really is, they all become disgusted with him and cut ties with him.
  • Shinji's boss and coworkers greatly admired him for his ruthless personality and for dealing with clients in his bank. Shinji worked on cases where a normal banker would sympathize with the clients and cruelly reject helping them. His boss uses him for that kind of work to make money for the bank, and while one of his coworkers is reserved for his ruthlessness, most of them admire Shinji, with one of his coworkers defending his actions, saying that he's an elite person. But by the end of the story, when Shinji's former mistress and victim revealed him to be a cheater and a bully, they all became disgusted with him and cut ties with him.
    • His boss angrily called him out on his actions and how he hurt the company before denying him his promotion and demoting him to just making copies of papers. His coworkers were disgusted with him and refused to talk to him and be threatened by him, with it being implied by some of their words that they always resented him on some level and learned what a monster he was. They let their resentment out, which turned into hatred.
  • Shinji Suzuki's wife, Shiho Suzuki, worships the ground he walked on at the start of the series; it was revealed that they were dating in their late teens and that she got pregnant, which led to their marriage. Shinji greatly resents his wife for, in his opinion, baby-trapping him when their relationship was deteriorating, and while he genuinely loves their daughter, he would often abuse his wife, hitting her and apologizing. Eventually, Shinji's wife tried to commit suicide when she learned from his mistress that he was cheating on her, and while he did save her life, he did not visit her in the hospital. That and the fact that their daughter was being bullied destroyed her worship of her husband.
    • Shiho decided to divorce her husband mainly because he did not care for her and he failed as a father to his daughter. She decided to focus on raising her daughter. She also decided to cut ties with her husband, get custody of their daughter, and cut him out of their daughter's life because of how bad of a father he is. Shiho admitted that she wanted her daughter to be the perfect daughter for Shinji so that he would love her, but now she is focused on her daughter's well-being.
  • Shinji Suzuki's daughter Shiori deeply loves her father and starts the story worshiping the ground he walks on. Shinji, despite being a remorseless and Barbaric Bully, generally loved his daughter and was a good parent to her, always loving and supporting her, and Shiori's main motive in life became making her father proud and happy. As the story progresses, Shiori slowly finds out about her father's transgressions that led to her being bullied and her mother attempting to end her life; she starts to lose all respect for him.
    • First, when Shiori was being bullied by her classmates, and she came to her father for advice, Shinji, not knowing that her daughter was being bullied, tells her that it is the bully victim's fault for being bullied, to her shock and heartbreak. That kept her from telling her father she was being bullied, and even when she outright told him that she was being isolated in her class, he apparently did not notice. Later, when the situation was solved without his help, and Shiori had learned that the reason she was bullied was that her father was having an affair with the coach, Shiori blamed her father for being bullied and moved in with her maternal grandparents when her father tried talking to her she angrily reminds him of his advice of the bullies victims fault for being bullied and refused to speak to him further.
    • Later, when Shiori learned that her father was an unrepentant bully who destroyed the life of Aizawa, the teacher who saved her and even learning that Aizawa saving her was not enough to get Shinji to apologize and change his ways, he had the nerve to try to turn her against Aizawa's, Shiori tearfully gave Aizawa's permission to have revenge on Shinji Suzuki stating that she does not have a father.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Even though he remembers the broad-strokes version of the abuse he inflicted on Aizawa, he doesn't remember the reason why he started bullying him in the first place. It was just a fun game for him.
• Casanova Wannabe: He is shown shamelessly looking for other women to bed (apart from Yazaki, he also tried bedding Shoji Ryoko), not caring that he is married.
• Convicted by Public Opinion: During the final chapters he gets doxxed as Aizawa's bully. This leads to him losing the respect of his coworkers.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The reason Shinji violently bullied Aizawa all those years ago? In chapter 25, it's revealed that Shinji's father had promised him that if he got the highest scores on a physics tests, he'd get him a video game, but when Aizawa outscored him, his father didn't get it for him, so in retaliation, he decided to use Aizawa as his personal entertainment for revenge.
• Domestic Abuse: He constantly physically and verbally abuses his wife, Shiho. When she suspects he’s cheating on her, he throws a drink in her face and goes on a vicious verbal tirade against her. Once he’s done, he apologizes to Shiho and claims he never had an affair since she’s the only one for him. Except he’s lying through his teeth as we’ve seen in previous chapters of his affair with Yazaki.
• Doting Parent:
  • Deconstructed. The fact that he views his daughter as perfect and not being able to do wrong is what prevents him from realizing that something is seriously wrong with her school life, even when she outright tells him she is completely isolated in class. It's the also the main reason she doesn't open up to him about her bullying.
  • But deep down he loves Shiori, and she’s the only thing he gave a damn in the whole story. He loathed that his wife baby-trapped him to get him to marry her before it was too late to get an abortion, but admits he genuinely came to love Shiori. Even when Shiori disowns him, he refuses to back down and tries to regain custody of her, and even purposely crashing his car instead of outright killing Aizawa since he didn’t want to put Shiori in another situation that gets her bullied due to his behavior.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He may have only used Yazaki to fulfill his sexual needs, yet he becomes disturbed when she stalks him and Shiori when they have a night out. He’s even more disgusted when she admits that she taunted his wife over their affair since this led to her attempted suicide and Shiori walking into the scene. Even when he admits this, Yazaki sees nothing wrong with her past actions and implores him that they “explain” their relationship to Shiori in order to help her understand and accept their relationship. This became the straw that broke the camel’s back for him and dumped Yazaki on the spot.
  • He’s the one to patch up his wife’s slit wrist, even though he loathes her and abuses his wife at any given opportunity, but even though having her die before his eyes is horrible even for him. Once he notices Shiori approaching, he tries in vain to prevent her from seeing her mother on the brink of death and plays dumb with what may have caused her to try to take her own life as a means to not traumatize Shiori any further. He eventually calls an ambulance for his wife.
• Evil Feels Good: As a Sadist, he gets genuinely pleasure (complete with Slasher Smile), whenever he inflicts physical and emotional pain on people.
• Evil Is Petty: The reason Aizawa was targeted for abuse by him? Aizawa got better marks on him on a test, which led to him missing buying a game that he wanted. So he made a game of torturing Aizawa instead.
• Hate Sink: Where to start? He bullied Aizawa when they were children physically and mentally scarring him. He grew up to become a Smug Snake banker who gets a kick out of seeing people who come to his bank for financial aid beg and cry as their lives are destroyed before his eyes. He resents his wife, cheats on her, and lies to his affair partner that he loves her. About the only positive thing someone can say about him is that he genuinely loves his daughter, but even when he is being a Doting Parent he manages to draw ire from the audience because he actively makes his daughter's situation worse. By the time the final chapters come, you hate this guy so much that you really want to see him go down in the most painful and humiliating way possible, which is exactly what happens.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His downfall and eventual death comes as a natural result of his own Smug Snake behavior.
  • He doesn't apologize and acts like a smug asshole during his penultimate confrontation with Aizawa, after Aizawa reveals to him that his daughter was bullied, not knowing that Shiori is in the very next room and listening in on their conversation. This is what finally drives her to cut all ties with him.
  • His attempt to bribe and manipulate Yazaki into mending his relationship with his daughter is what drives her to cause a scene at his place of work, causing him to lose the promotion he was waiting for.
  • His Lack of Empathy and not visiting his wife in the hospital ends up making his wife realize that she needs to get away from him and serve him divorce papers.
  • Him losing whatever standards he has during his Villainous Breakdown and attempting to organize a hit on Aizawa, is what ultimately costs him his job.
  • Him being a Smug Snake and acting all self-important is what makes Takano and Satake, the former members of his Gang of Bullies, throw him under the bus and cooperate with Aizawa to stage a Frameup in order to make him lose his job.
  • Him being a Sadist towards Nomura-san, a father asking for loan help at his bank and telling his daughter that her father is a thief during his Villainous Breakdown is what drives him to end his life taking Shinji with him.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Once he loses his job he attempts to approach Shiori again but stops when he catches a glimpse of himself on a road mirror. He looks like a homeless bum, while he was a Proud Peacock just a few chapters ago. He decides to go away and not let Shiori see him like this.
• Humiliation Conga: He suffers a really long and satisfying one during the final chapters of the series.
  • First, his daughter calls him out on his Blaming the Victim mentality. Then his attempt to bribe and manipulate Yazaki into mending his relationship with Shiori horribly backfires and Yazaki shows up at his workplace in full Psycho Ex-Girlfriend mode causing a scene. Then Aizawa hijacks the printers and exposes him as an adulterer which leads him to lose the promotion he was looking forward to.
  • Then he gets publicly doxxed as the bully that gave Aizawa his horrendous scars and his boss chews him out, which causes him to lose all respect from his coworkers and become a pariah at work as he watches the promotion go to someone else.
  • Then he returns home to find his wife who calls him out on his Domestic Abuse and Lack of Empathy before serving him divorce papers.
  • Then he tries to arrange a hit on Aizawa which ends up being a Frameup that costs him his job.
  • Then he tries to kill Aizawa himself but can't bring himself to do it (because he is afraid Shiori will get bullied worse if he becomes a murderer) which ends up crashing his car and injuring his spine. Aizawa then approaches the injured Shinji and lights up a cigarette, fully intent on blowing both of them up. Shinji then pathetically begs Aizawa not to kill him while tearfully apologizing to him for ruining his life.
• Hypocrite: He made Aizawa's life a living hell because he firmly believed it's fun to be a bully, but goes into full Papa Wolf mode when he finds out his own daughter is being bullied. Shiori calls him out on his Blaming the Victim philosophy that he previously told her before he found out the truth, but he decides to twist it around and tell her the blame is entirely on the bullies. Aizawa also tells him off for his hypocrisy, pointing out that the way his daughter’s bullies treated her was no different than how he treated his favorite punching bag.
• Ignored Epiphany: It does cross his mind at some point that what happened to his daughter was his fault, but refuses to accept it and it doesn't take him long to go back to his Smug Snake ways.
• Imagine Spot: When he is transferred to the main branch, he sees an older image of himself being the bank's president.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • When his wife is hospitalized, he doesn't even attempt to visit her.
  • This also extends to his daughter. As much as he loves her, he fails to see something is seriously wrong with her school life, even when she makes it clear to him that she is completely miserable there. By the time he figures out Shiori is being bullied, Shiori had already dealt with the problem on her own with Aizawa's help.
• Papa Wolf: Sure it took him a while, but as soon as he connects the dots and realizes Shiori has been bullied, he outright declares he’ll kill her Gang of Bullies and the incompetent teachers for failing his daughter. He was extremely close on outright murdering Aizawa for ruining his life, then his love towards his daughter overpowered his murderous hatred towards Aizawa and turned his car around and crashed since Aizawa warned him moments ago that his affair with Yazaki resulted in the bullies targeting Shiori. So if he becomes a killer, more bullies will target Shiori again once she becomes “the daughter of a killer”.
• Pride Before a Fall: He is an incredibly smug and arrogant man who in his own words "has never tasted defeat in his life". Aizawa, during their penultimate confrontation, after he reveals how his daughter got bullied, gives him one final chance to humble himself and apologize for his past misdeeds. Shinji instead chooses to twist everything, show no remorse, and proudly boast about everything that he did to Aizawa. Unbeknownst to him his daughter was in the next room and listening in to their conversation, which makes her decide to cut all ties with him. Cue Humiliation Conga in the final five chapters.
• Proud Peacock: He is not above flaunting his wealth and achievements to appear better than everybody else.
• Redemption Rejection: After Shiori's bullying becomes exposed on national television, Aizawa offers him one last chance to think about his actions and change his ways. He rejects it, acting like a Smug Snake instead. Considering what happens to him after that, maybe he should have jumped at the chance instead.
• Sadist: He genuinely gets pleasure out of hurting people, whether it's Aizawa or Nomura-san, a poor unfortunate client at his bank who tries to get some financial help for his factory by invoking the bank's mercy. Interestingly, this works in his favor in his banking job, since he is the one who routinely handles clients who attempt to "appeal to conscience".
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Back in middle school, he made Aizawa’s life a living hell For the Evulz. And he hasn’t changed one bit when they reunite by chance at their class reunion.
• Slasher Smile: Whenever he causes pain to people when he is not a Smug Smiler.
• Smug Snake: He is an arrogant manipulative bully who genuinely thinks he's better than everybody else, too blinded by his own self-importance to notice that his daughter is falling apart. In reality, he is not nearly as smart as he thinks he is.
• The Sociopath: He lies and uses people all the time to get what he wants, putting on a facade of confidence to hide his sadistic nature and achieve what he wants no matter the cost.
• The Unapologetic: He has plenty of chances throughout the story to simply apologize and get Aizawa off his back. He chooses to mock him instead.
• Undignified Death: His final fate. After his rehab session at the hospital and plotting his comeback, one of his former victims, who has crossed the Despair Event Horizon thanks to Shinji ruining his life, picks him up and pushes his wheelchair in front of an oncoming train. Realizing that he's about to die for real, Shinji pathetically begs for life, only to be ignored, and they're both hit by the train. Of course, Shinji had it coming.
• Villainous Breakdown: He has a pretty major one during the final five chapters of the story when his life quickly begins to unravel and all of his past misdeeds catch up to him.
• Villain with Good Publicity: During his younger years he used to be the president of the student council. At present, he is adored by the president of his bank, he is a shoo-in for the next promotion and all of his fellow bankers look up to him.

Shiori Suzuki

I have no idea what made them hate me, but after going this far, the reason doesn't matter anymore.

Shinji Suzuki's daughter, and the Deuteragonist of the series.

Shiori is the light of Shinji's life. A sweet and kind girl who worships the ground her father walks on.

She still remembers the time when her father taught her how to ride a bike. When he stood by her side and kept pushing her to keep trying until she got it right. After a while, she stopped trying for herself and started trying to get to see her father's smile. This was a pattern that would go on to repeat itself in other aspects of her life.

She has no idea that her current teacher, Aizawa, also made her father smile in his youth... For other reasons.

She is currently in her final year of middle school and is preparing for the high school exams. With her best friend Yumi Yoneda by her side, she is looking forward to spending this year smiling, laughing, and having fun with her classmates...

...And then she finds that someone trashed her books and wrote insults on them.

Is she being bullied?

If yes, by whom?

And is it possibly her fault for being bullied?

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• All-Loving Hero: She is kind and understanding to a fault, even able to forgive Yumi for her betrayal after the latter sincerely apologizes and tries to make things right. That being said, she is not so forgiving towards those who refuse to apologize and mend their ways such as her father.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Once the bullying she receives escalates, everyone apart from Manaka treats her with indifference at best and outright disgust at worst.
• Blunt "Yes": In Chapter 16, she tells Yumi she uploaded the video of their bullying antics and knows how much her former best friend enjoyed her part in it. As Shiori begins to walk away, a crying Yumi asks her if she wants to punish her. She doesn't even turn around:
  Shiori: Yeah. I think I did.
• Break the Cutie: She starts the story by being a cheerful and optimistic girl. By the halfway point of the story, she is a completely broken Stepford Smiler seriously considering throwing herself on the railroad tracks to end it all. She does get better once she gets revenge on her bullies and cuts her father out of her life.
• Broken Tears:
  • She gets them once gets ahold of Aizawa's evidence against the bullies and finds out the full extent of Yumi's betrayal in the chat logs
  • She also gets them when she finds out Shinji was the bully who destroyed Aizawa's life, deciding then and there she has no father anymore.
• Calling the Old Man Out: She doesn't hold any punches when confronting her father about the actions that led to her being bullied, calling him out on his Blaming the Victim mentality that prevented her from opening up to him.
• The Dog Bites Back: After dealing with her Gang of Bullies torments for too long, she gives her main tormentor Nagumo Ai a Bitch Slap and uploads videos of their attacks on her, which gets them into deep waters in their school’s press conference. By the last chapter, all of her bullies' lives are effectively ruined.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Her eyes are repeatedly drawn blank as the bullying continues, even after she uploads the video of her bullies' actions. Thankfully, they regain life again as she recovers by the end of the series.
• Humble Hero: Despite her apparent good skills at basketball (in particular as point guard), she’s pretty humble, as she thought Nagumo was the better player. She even believed Nagumo would be able to carry the team once she left basketball club. Too bad Nagumo was vengeful.
• Interrupted Suicide: The excessive bullying drives her to the point where she walks to a set of train tracks with broken eyes, waiting for the next train. Aizawa stops her from stepping onto the tracks.
• It's All My Fault: At some point early in the story she attempts to apologize to Nagumo and her Gang of Bullies for whatever "selfish behaviour" might have caused a rift between them. The Gang of Bullies seemingly accept her apology... and then continue to escalate their bullying.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: She’s a sweet kindhearted girl, while Shinji is a brutal sadistic bully. Aizawa eventually recognizes that.
  Aizawa: (To Shinji) You've raised a very kind girl... one who understands the pain of others. You should be very proud, since she is nothing like you!
• Morality Pet: She is the only person Shinji truly cares about.
• Shaming the Mob: She does this twice to her classmates.
  • Once her Gang of Bullies act “concerned” over her wellbeing, they taunt her with a drawing of herself witnessing her mother’s attempted suicide. Shiori gives Nagumo the Bitch Slap and shames her for, well, being what she is. Nagumo is furious at this and attacks Shiori, while the rest of the gang makes it look like they’re only trying to apologize while hiding the drawing. They try to force Shiori into apologizing while chanting, and the rest of the class follows suit. Shiori cuts them off and shames them all for being bullies and the rest of the class for doing nothing.
  • The class is quick to turn on the bullies after they are doxxed and Convicted by Public Opinion. They attempt to justify being an Accomplice by Inaction to Shiori by claiming they didn't notice she was being bullied. Shiori rightfully calls everyone out on their Selective Obliviousness.
• Signature Headgear: Shirori wears two red hair clips. Noticeable as the other female students don't wear those particular clips.
• Spoiled Sweet: She was like this at the start of the school year. It was bullied out of her.
• Stepford Smiler: Much like Aizawa, she makes a habit of putting on a fake smile to hide her pain.
• You Are Not My Father: When she finds out Shinji was the bully that physically and mentally scarred Aizawa. thereby destroying his life, she decides to cut all ties with him for good.
  • Even before the above event, Shirori stops referring to Shinji as father after she discovers his affair, most notably during their final conversation

Shiori's bullies

General

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• Convicted by Public Opinion: It happens to all of them, once their bullying is exposed. Each of them deals with it in a different way.
• Japanese Delinquents: They put up a front that they’re really sweet girls, but underneath the surface are no different than street thugs. Himekawa takes this up a notch because her own parents were this trope in the past.
• Kick the Dog: All of them live up to this trope. Himekawa even literally kicks Shiori at some point.
• It Amused Me: Each and every one of them cruelly torments Shiori with half-assed excuses over petty jealousy, but in reality, they just torment her for the heck of it.
• Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: They act like energetic besties towards each other and Shiori, but behind closed doors, they torment their punching bag and accuse one another of betrayal.
• Teens Are Monsters: They’re all junior high students and find utter joy in being bullies.

Ai Nagumo

It's all your fault, yet you understand nothing!

The leader of the Gang of Bullies that abuses Shiori at school.

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• Always Late: Yazaki berates Nagumo for being constantly late to basketball practice.
• Alpha Bitch: She is the leader of her pack and the cruelest of them all.
• Bait the Dog: A seemingly innocuous event in chapter 4 turns out to be this. The day after Shiori received the sleeping Shameful Strip strip video by an anonymous sender, she overhears Himekawa and Nagumo talking about a video they received on social media, further commenting "How do you not wake up with someone doing this to you?". This causes Shiori to scream and knock the phone out of Nagumo's hand. It turns out it was just a sleeping prank video. Seems innocent enough except it was Nagumo herself who recorded and anonymously sent the Shameful Strip video to Shiori, meaning she was deliberately having this conversation with Himekawa within earshot in order to trigger a reaction out of her.
• Break the Haughty: She goes through this once her bullying gets exposed on social media and later public television.
• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 17 is dedicated to her and her Start of Darkness.
• Didn't Think This Through: All of her actions catch up to her, but she joyfully thinks she can easily study abroad once she asks her parents. But her parents reveal that because of the vicious backlash against them due to her bullying, they can’t hold onto their jobs. Money is now tight around their household and they question why she’d bullied Shiori.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Ai Nagumo reveals herself as this issue to why she’s a bully. She’s pissed that her basketball coach forced her to sit out essential games while Shiori got the lead in the team. Then Nagumo finds out their coach favors Shiori only because she’s having an affair with her father. Nagumo considered exposing the affair, but then she hears Shiori talking with her friend, revealing that she had planned to quit the basketball club because her grades have been dropping and that she considers Nagumo a better player than her, and was happy to leave the team to her. Instead of being happy and grateful towards Shiori, she was angry that Shiori was so happy and decided that exposing the affair would not be enough, so she decides to ruin Shiori's life.
    • This gets deconstruction by the end of the story because Nagumo's pettiness destroyed her, her friends, and her parents' lives following the full extent of her bullying being made public. Unrepentant, she smugly reveals to Shiori that her father was having an affair with the coach, which is why she wanted to destroy her life and left for home, confident that she can escape consequences by studying abroad, only to be confronted by her parents who revealed that her actions had destroyed their reputation. It finally hits her with the reality that her and her parents' lives have been destroyed and they are going to be living as outcasts, all because she wanted to hurt someone who didn't do anything wrong to her.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She always resented Shiori for her father's status and Spoiled Sweet personality. And it gets worse once Shiori takes her place on the basketball team while she’s forced to the benches for a majority of the game because of Yazaki’s favoritism towards Shiori due to her affair with Shinji.
• Hate Sink: She’s just as bad as Shinji, if not worse. She vandalizes Shiori's books and desk, places trash in her bag, organizes a Gang of Bullies to overtly and covertly abuse her, socially isolates her and takes a Shameful Strip video, fully intent on posting it on social media and ruining her life. Her tendency to never accept responsibility for her actions certainly doesn't help matters. Even when you find out the reason why she decided to start bullying Shiori in the first place, you can't bring yourself to sympathize with her, because it was all a case of Misplaced Retribution. But it doesn’t excuse her behavior once she reaches new levels of depravity once she wishes to arrange a gang-rape on Shiori, just because she gave her a Bitch Slap in retaliation of taunting her with a doodle of Shiori walking in on her mother’s attempted suicide. Much like Shinji, you are rooting for that girl to get her just desserts.
• Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: She took a Shameful Strip video of Shiori fully intent on spreading it around on Social Media and destroying Shiori's life to the point she commits suicide. Unfortunately for her, Shiori hacked her phone with Aizawa's help, deleted the video, and posted videos of her and the other bullies abusing her instead.
• Karma Houdini: Averted. After the disastrous television interview, she thinks she can escape the consequences of her actions simply by studying abroad. It turns out she can't as her antics have effectively destroyed the professional lives of both of her parents, who can no longer afford to keep their home, let alone send her abroad. Nagumo throws a fit like the Spoiled Brat she is, but there's nothing her parents can do.
• Misplaced Retribution: She is angry at her coach, Yazaki, for placing Shiori on the main team to score brownie points with her lover, Shinji. She chooses to take it out on Shinji's daughter Shiori.
• Never My Fault: Even in the face of tremendous video evidence and chat logs that openly talk about destroying Shiori's life and driving her to suicide, she refuses to accept any sort of responsibility for her actions, instead blaming it all on Aizawa's manipulations.
• Oh, Crap!: Her face when she realizes she won't be able to escape her predicament by going to study abroad, because her antics have destroyed her parents' professional lives and they can't afford it. It later forms into a This Is Gonna Suck face as she realizes she is stuck in Japan, forced to live the rest of her life with the consequences of her actions.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: She loves filming the abuse she inflicts upon Shiori on her phone, even filming a Shameful Strip video, fully intent on ruining Shiori's life.
• Poison Is Evil: One of the bullying videos that gets leaked showcases her putting rotten garbage inside Shiori's packed lunch and then gleefully watching her as she throws up in front of the class.
• Pose of Supplication: She does this after she finds out her parents can't afford to send her to study abroad (because both of their professional lives are now ruined) and will have to live with the consequences of her actions in Japan.
• Psychotic Smirk: She sports this most of the time, especially when she is planning to do something really heinous like spreading Shiori's Shameful Strip video all over social media. Aizawa even lampshades her smile when she is trying to scapegoat him.
• Riches to Rags: While her parents weren't as well-off as Shiori's, she was nevertheless financially comfortable enough to become a Spoiled Brat and hope her parents can send her abroad to escape her tarnished reputation in Japan after she gets exposed and Convicted by Public Opinion. By the end of the story, her parents' professional lives are ruined and she now has to live frugally as her parents are on the run, desperately searching for a place where they are not recognized to start their lives anew.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Averted. She thinks she can escape the consequences of her monstrous actions simply by studying abroad. She doesn't count on her parents not being able to afford it because her antics have destroyed both of their professional lives.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Inverted. Her actions end up tarnishing her parents' reputation and destroying their lives.
• Spoiled Brat: Her interactions with her parents indicate that she is in fact this. Her parents acknowledge this and apologize for raising her this way.
• Start of Darkness: Her discovering Yazaki's affair with Shiori's father is what causes her to start bullying Shiori.
• Stealth Insult: When they first met at the basketball club, Nagumo subtly insults Shiori by calling her a bench warmer and putting herself above her. Only Yumi noticed this.
• Stupid Evil: She blindly trusts Aizawa, merely because he doesn't stop her bullying and accepts the bugged phone that he gives her, not suspecting that he might have an agenda.
• Teens Are Monsters: She’s the ringleader to Shiori’s Gang of Bullies. She torments poor Shiori with vicious beat downs, verbal abuse, embarrassing videos of her groping Shiori while she sleeps, and taunts her with a drawing of Shiori witnessing her mother’s attempted suicide while under the guise she cared about her as she whispers her taunts. This resulted in a Bitch Slap from Shiori and pissing her into fighting back. She later demands her followers to find a way to get Shiori gang raped.
• This Is Gonna Suck: It's painted all over her face during her final appearance, as it dawns on her that her antics not only destroyed her own life but her parents' as well, and will be forced to live her life with the consequences of her actions.
• Villain Has a Point: While her behavior towards Shiori is inexcusable, her hatred towards her teacher Yazaki is justified since she was her basketball coach who abused her authority due to her affair with Shiori’s father. Even she is disturbed by Yazaki’s Mad Love towards Shinji. In their last encounter, she rightly calls out this behavior disgusting and calls her a stalker. Once Yazaki tries to attack her, a random teacher pulls her back; she then taunts Yazaki over her older age and that she should really act like it.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Once pushed into a corner when the videos of her attacks on Shiori are uploaded, she tries to make it look like they’re besties and blames Aizawa for “forcing” her to torment Shiori. Her mother falls for it until Yumi exposes her lies in front of the entire school.

Yumi Yoneda

You realize you're actually pretty selfish, right?

Shiori's best friend. At least until she joins the Gang of Bullies and relishes in her former friend’s suffering.

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• All for Nothing: After her bullying is exposed on social media, she returns home to find out her mother took a second job and saved up in order to afford putting Yumi in a cram school so she could be at a good public high school. This signifies to Yumi that she betrayed Shiori's trust for nothing.
• All Take and No Give: She initially believes her friendship with Shiori is this. It's the reason for joining the Gang of Bullies and fuels her hatred towards Shiori.
• The Atoner: She becomes this by the time the story ends.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She turns against her friend, Shiori, and acts like they're still friends in front of teachers and their mothers.
• Childhood Friends: Yumi and Shiori were friends at elementary school.
• Disappeared Dad: Her biological father is completely absent from her life, as apparently he left right after getting her mother pregnant. As the daughter of a Struggling Single Mother, she is actively jealous of Shiori for having a caring and supporting father, and it's part of the reason she eventually starts bullying her.
• Evil Feels Good: During the public interview she admits to the entire press that at some point she eventually began enjoying the abuse she was inflicting upon Shiori.
• Evil Former Friend: She ends up joining the bullies in abusing Shiori. When the school has a parent-teacher meeting, she acts like she’s still best friends with Shiori in front of their mothers, but Shiori coldly walks past her without saying a word as she shoots a Death Glare.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: When she carefully watches the leaked videos of her bullying Shiori, she notices how despicable her facial expressions are.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: She genuinely apologizes to Shiori and tries to atone for her actions. Her earnest effort to make things right allows Shiori to forgive her, but Shiori also makes it clear that she irrevocably broke her trust and the two of them can never truly be friends again. Nevertheless, the two part in good terms during the final chapter.
• Green-Eyed Monster: The reason she started resenting Shiori is that her father earns enough to send her to a posh private high-school. She, on the other hand, is living in a single-mother low-income household and will be forced to go in a simple public high-school despite having better grades and routinely helping Shiori with her homework.
• Heel Realization: After her All for Nothing moment, she begins to realize the full extent of the pain and betrayal she inflicted upon Shiori.
• Moral Myopia: Once Shiori reveals that she’s the one who uploaded the videos revealing the bullying with Yumi herself included, she has the audacity to tell Shiori "That's way over the line and you know it!" Shiori immediately calls her out for not considering over her own cruel actions. Yumi states she was only "forced" to go along with the bullying, but Shiori doesn’t buy it.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After she becomes exposed, she confronts Shiori and gets called out for helping Nagumo recover the Shameful Strip video that Shiori went to great lengths to delete. When Shiori shows the chat logs where she talks about how excited she was to completely destroy Shiori's life, it finally hits home how low she has really fallen.
• Poor Communication Kills: She never tells her mother how she's so frustrated with how she's not getting into a private school. If she did, she might've learned ahead of time how her mother was working another job and avoid the fallout of her actions.
• The Smart One Turns Traitor: She has very good grades and is the most technologically savvy of the girls. She ends up betraying Shiori not only by being excessively cruel to her but also by helping Nagumo recover the Shameful Strip video Shiori went to great lengths to delete.
• When She Smiles: During her final appearance in the story she shows her only genuine warm smile as Shiori wishes her the best and the two part on good terms.

Reina Himekawa

Nagumo's right hand.

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• The Big Guy: She is the one who actually gets physical with her abuse, while the rest of the bullies rely more on cruel pranks and social isolation.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Has the hots for Manaka, and once he befriends Shiori, it inspires her to join the Gang of Bullies against her. Beside Nagumo, she’s only the second most brutal member of the group.
• Evil Is Petty: She joins the Gang of Bullies because she assumed Shiori is dating her crush, Manaka.
• Hypocrite: Once the videos of her taking part in bullying Shiori are posted online, her classmates turn on her. She’s shocked over this and even more enraged when they insult her parents over their delinquent background and making her turn out the way she is due to their blood relation. She also fails to realize she went along with the bullying because Nagumo hated Shiori for her father’s affair with their basketball coach and found it funny to taunt her over witnessing her mother’s attempted suicide. Aizawa pulls no punches when calling her out on her hypocrisy.
  Aizawa: You got angry hearing someone else talk badmouth you mother? You? You had a lot of fun back when you were bullying her(Shiori), didn’t you? Stoking her feelings of inferiority and insecurity, all while you stood over her, basking in your superiority. You created this whole situation just for that smug sense of superiority. You probably never expected this to happen, right? At least, you never thought it could happen to you.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She is on the receiving end by her crush, Manaka, who calls her out on her bullying and makes it painfully clear to her that he wants nothing to do with her.
• Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: She’s extremely clingy to her crush, Manaka, and tries to justify her usual treatment of Shiori by explaining that she’s in the way of their “relationship”, even though they’ve never dated and only talked to each other a few times. Manaka tells her where to stick it and leaves with Shiori.
• Streetwalker: The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue heavily implies she became one after the events of the story.
• Villain Has a Point: Reina is a bitch of a bully, and is aware of it, but will not let it slide if another bully denies their own wrongdoing. Case in point, she reprimands Riho for denying any fault while blaming her and the rest of the bullies over their attacks on Shiori going public. Reina rightfully points out Riho wasn’t forced to join in like she claimed and shouldn’t have joined their gang if she didn’t care.
• Villainous Lineage: She's a vicious bully, and several of her classmates suggest this was because of her blood relation to her parents since they were once delinquents.

Riho Takahashi

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• Bit Character: She doesn't have an overwhelming presence in the story and is usually seen hovering around the Gang of Bullies, but she does enjoy picking on Shiori.
• Broken Smile: During her Sanity Slippage.
• For the Evulz: Unlike the rest of the gang, she has no reason to hate Shiori and torments her for the heck of it.
• Hikikomori: Her eventual fate after the bullying is exposed.
• Madness Mantra: "This isn't my fault! This isn't my fault" after her bullying is exposed and her mind begins to break.
• Never My Fault:
  • She firmly believes she's done nothing wrong once the bullying is exposed. This coming from the same bitch who willingly joined with a Gang of Bullies, who all had reason to hate Shiori, but Riho had nothing against her, she tormented Shiori just cause she can.
  • She chastises her friends for her predicament because they “forced” her to go along with the bullying due to their hatred to Shiori while she didn’t care for her at all. Reina calls her out on this, rightfully pointing out that she didn’t have to join in if she truly didn’t care, but Riho dodges her responsibility by explaining that they “made it seem like” she had to join their gang.
• Sanity Slippage: Once videos of her taking part in bullying Shiori are exposed, she starts to go crazy. She refuses to leave her room in fear of who may harm her and thinks there are hidden cameras everywhere, even in her home.
• Yes-Man: Her role to Nagumo's gang.

School Staff

Eri Yazaki

Shiori's basketball coach. She’s been having an affair with Shinji and dotes on his daughter as a means to earn brownie points once she gets hopeful with a potential divorce.

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• Good Stepmother: Deconstructed, but boy, where do we begin...
  • She inspires to be this trope with Shiori but in a very messed up way; she literally declares she wants to be her "new mother" without regarding Shiori's true feelings and fails to notice her lover, Shinji, isn't even worth it. To that end, she picks her from her basketball team to the highest ranks, worries over her wellbeing due to her bullying, then she goes off the deep end and reveals her affair with Shinji to Shiori's birth mother and taunts her over their relationship.
  • Even after Shinji reveals his wife nearly killed herself because she taunted her with their relationship, she doesn't see anything wrong with what she did and has the gall to automatically assume Shiori will accept her after she's witnessed her mother's attempted suicide. Because they just need to explain how much they're in love in order for Shiori to "understand" and move on. And she's utterly shocked that Shinji immediately dumps her.
• Innocently Insensitive: She admits to Aizawa of her Mad Love towards Shinji. Once she connects the dots of Shiori’s bullying, Yazaki decides right then and there to become Shiori's new mother. Aizawa laughs this off and points out she's not considerate of Shiori's feelings, while also questioning if Shinji's actually in love with her. She eventually admits her wish to be Shiori's new mother towards Shinji after he reveals Shiho’s attempted suicide and Shiori’s traumatically watching it due to her taunts of their affair. But she firmly believes if they explain themselves towards Shiori, it could help her understand their "love". Shinji finds this utterly disturbing and dumps her on the spot.
• Mad Love: She’s in love with Shinji, who's a highly manipulative and abusive asshole. But it’s only one sided since he only sees her as a repeatable one night stand.
• Once More, with Clarity: Aizawa's You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech helps her gain a clearer picture of her relationship with Shinji and see clearly how it has changed her for the worse. This eventually helps her snap out of her Mad Love funk, break things off for good with Shinji and move on somewhere else with her life but not before going all Psycho Ex-Girlfriend at his workplace and costing him his promotion.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: After Shinji attempts to bribe and manipulate her into lying to his daughter in order to fix their broken relationship, she realizes that Shinji never really loved her and she becomes this. She shows up at his work the next day, makes a scene telling everyone that he told her to abort their baby, throws the bribe at his face and leaves. She then cries out how they were together at a love hotel while his wife was hospitalized from her attempted suicide. This and Aizawa hijacking the bank's printers to print pics of Shinji and Yazaki walking inside a love hotel, causes Shinji to lose his promotion and become a pariah at work.
  Yazaki: This is my reply.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In chapter 29, Aizawa reveals that after she stormed in Shinji's workplace, she went out of town and moved back with her parents to start over. He also reveals that she was never pregnant.
• Stalker with a Crush: Shinji is shocked to find her following him with his daughter and quickly goes off to a secluded area to tell her off. She only claims her wishes to become a family together, much to Shinji’s disgust. She follows him again when he leaves his job to go home, and she calls her mother with her plans to quit her job and get married.
• Stalker without a Crush: She usually follows around Shiori and dotes on her because of her relationship with Shinji. She’ll often proclaim her wish to become her "new mother" and marry Shinji if she’s nice to his daughter. It should be no coincidence she’s show up at a parent-teacher conference to affectionately greet Shiori in front of Shiho. Once Shinji breaks up with her, she follows around Shiori in the hopes of getting back a picture of her together with Shinji, but Aizawa puts a stop to it.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It's her tryst with Shinji that drives Nagumo to target Shiori in the first place since she favors her lover's daughter while pushing Nagumo to the sidelines.
• Woman Scorned: She becomes this when Shinji cuts things of with her and erases all evidence of their relationship from her phone. She evolves into a Psycho Ex-Girlfriend, once Shinji tries to manipulate her and bribe her.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She is on the receiving end by Aizawa after the television interview. Aizawa tells her that he actually looked up to her, because she was the only teacher who noticed that Shiori was being bullied and was on her way to do something about it before Aizawa stopped her, by using her relationship her Shinji as deterrent. This helps Yazaki see her relationship with Shinji Once More, with Clarity and eventually break out of her Mad Love funk.

The Principal

Please think about the school

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• Accomplice by Inaction: Due to his strong desire to hide from confronting any bullying going on, it's his inaction and apathy that allows Shiori's bullying problem to get worse. And when confronted with the problem of bullying, his response is to scapegoat Aizawa and cover things up, rather than actively do something to solve the problem.
• Adults Are Useless: He’d rather turn a blind eye to addressing bullying than protecting his students.
• It's All About Me: He doesn’t give a damn for his students well-being; at the end of the day he only cares about the school’s reputation since it will affect his job.
• Convicted by Public Opinion: He breaks down in front of the reporters shouting that "he hasn't slept in days" instead of addressing the issues they raise, which causes public opinion of him to tank.
• Didn't Think This Through: He stages an Engineered Public Confession to scapegoat Aizawa, severely underestimating his Rightly Self-Righteous attitude and not suspecting that Aizawa might also have dirt on him.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": We never find out his name. We only know him as the school's principal.
• Hypocrite: He prides himself as the principal of a well-to-do junior high and preaches that nothing is wrong underneath the surface. Except he’s in denial of the bullying and won’t hesitate to stoop so low as to cover up his tracks while scapegoating Aizawa.
• Never My Fault: He tries to frame Aizawa for starting the bullying, but Aizawa points out his hands are not as clean since he instructed Aizawa himself to turn a blind eye or cover up for him if any bullying is found out.
• Oh, Crap!: His face when Aizawa publicly plays a recording of him giving orders to cover up bullying instead of fighting it.
• Resigned in Disgrace: After getting absolutely destroyed by Aizawa on public television he goes on an "indefinite hiatus".

Other Parents

Shiho Suzuki

Shinji’s wife and Shiori’s mother.

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• Awful Wedded Life: Her marriage with his Shinji is just plain miserable. Shinji constantly abuses her, whether it be verbal or physical, but he then apologizes and claims he still loves her. While Shinji did help her when she attempted to end her life, he never bothered to visit her in the hospital. Not to mention the failed suicide attempt was because Yazaki revealed her affair with Shinji and taunted her. This was the final staw and serves Shinji with divorce papers after a pep talk by Aizawa.
• Bungled Suicide: This happens to her once Yazaki taunts her with Shinji’s affair with her. Fortunately Shinji comes home just in time to call an ambulance and patch up her wounds.
• Education Mama: She’s really strict towards her daughter’s schoolwork and harshly berates Shiori whenever her grades fall too low. Winning over Shinji’s approval largely motivated her to be this trope. Once she discovers Shiori has been targeted by a Gang of Bullies, she regrets being this trope, as she felt disgusted over not noticing her daughter’s pain while she mostly focused on pleasing her husband.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Her true name reveal in chapter 27 is this. If you look very close at the divorce papers she presents to Shinji, her name is revealed to be Shiho.
• Grew a Spine: She is a complacent Love Martyr for most of the story, but she eventually has enough of Shinji's crap and files for divorce during the final chapter, calling him out on his cheating and Domestic Abuse and being unwavering even when Shinji tries to choke her.
• Lady in a Power Suit: Invoked. When she meets with Shinji to ask for a divorce, she wears a suit. This seems to show both her taking control of her own life and to show she no longer is under Shinji's thumb.
• Love Cannot Overcome: She is a Love Martyr for most of the story but she eventually realizes that living with someone who actively resents her and doesn't really care for her is not healthy for her or her daughter. She eventually decides to leave Shinji for good and files for a divorce.
• Love Martyr: She genuinely loves Shinji and tries her best to be the best mother and wife she can be, even on the face of Shinji's Domestic Abuse. A pep talk with Aizawa while she is bedridden in the hospital makes her realize a few things.
• Mama Bear: When she finally realizes Shinji failed as a husband and father, she files for divorce. Shinji apologizes for his past behavior, but she refuses to fall for it since it wasn’t this wasn’t his first time apologizing after he had beaten her up. She brings up how ashamed she felt with winning over Shinji’s approval and felt guilty for not noticing Shiori’s bullying. She once more pleads for the divorce, but this enrages Shinji and declares Shiori will stay with him and orders her to leave. She refuses, even after he puts her in a choke hold. Shinji coldly tells her they’ll stay together with Shiori and asks her if her mother put her up to the divorce. Except it was actually Aizawa who gave her a pep talk and inspired her to leave and raise Shiori. Shinji furiously tells her to Get Out!, but she keeps her cool and leaves the divorce papers.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Her reaction to finding out how horribly the bullies have put Shiori through while she was only concerned over her low grades and winning Shinji’s approval. She breaks down crying towards Shinji because of this. She does get to apologize to Shiori. Unlike with how she treated her bullies, Shiori forgives her.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: She had Shiori when she was 19 years old, and hasn’t aged since.

Kyoko Nagumo

I absolutely abhor bullying.

Nagumo's mother. She is an outspoken education-critic and currently a University Lecturer who has authored several books on the subject. As an educator she believed that bullying should be considered a crime and culprits should receive more severe punishment. Little does she know, her “darling” daughter just so happens to be no different from the bullies she regularly condemns, but she falls for her daughter’s Crocodile Tears and readily accepts her claims that the fault lies on Aizawa while refusing to so much as view all of the evidence proving otherwise. But hey, Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal is her only viewpoint on life.

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• Convicted by Public Opinion: Her reputation as an education-critic and anti-bullying advocate gets completely destroyed after Aizawa's Engineered Public Confession, where he exposes her on raising a sadistic abusive monster of a daughter, who thinks it's alright to bully people without consequences.
• Cop/Criminal Family: While she is not exactly a cop, she is an outspoken education-critic who made a name for herself fighting bullying and advocating for it to become a crime. When she finds out her own daughter is a bully, her immediate reaction is about what you'd expect.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • She hurriedly stages a public interview with the School's principal to make Aizawa confess his crimes and absolve her daughter of any wrongdoing. While Aizawa does confess his crimes on public television he does it in a way that completely destroys their reputation.
  • Shiori and Aizawa also point out the overwhelming evidence that showed her daughter enjoyed being a bully, while she acted in denial and believed said daughter’s words over the evidence. It takes Yumi’s confession of their wrongdoings and witnessing her daughter’s Villainous Breakdown to accept the truth.
• Disappointed in You: When it finally hits home how big of a bully her daughter is, she expresses her disappointment in the way she turned out to be. To her credit, she does admit it's all her fault for raising Nagumo as a Spoiled Brat.
• Doesn't Know Their Own Child: She has absolutely no idea the extent of depravity that her daughter is capable of. Even worse she refuses to acknowledge it.
• Doting Parent: Deconstructed. Her outright refusal to see Nagumo as anything other than a sweet innocent little child, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, is what lead to Nagumo being a bully for so long. Aizawa publicly calls her out on this.
• Hypocrite:
  • From a person who claims she’d never forgive bullying, she’s unaware and in denial that her daughter is a vicious Alpha Bitch who makes it look like she’s besties with Shiori while framing Aizawa, even when there are videos posted of her daughter gleefully taking part in the bullying.
  • She goes as low as to tell Shiori she must “open her eyes to the truth” and expose Aizawa for manipulating her daughter to force her to torment her, but Shiori outright asks her if she’s even seen any of the video evidence that say otherwise, which she just so happens to refuse to view since her daughter’s testimony is the only proof she needs. Shiori tells her the only one who should be opening their eyes to the truth is her.
  • She laments that Shiori has been brainwashed by the "lies" told to her, while not realizing that she's being manipulated by her daughter's lies.
• It's All My Fault: To her credit, she does eventually take responsibility for raising Nagumo as a Spoiled Brat, which allowed her to become the monster she eventually became.
• Mama Bear: Deconstructed. It's implied that her tendency to jump in to protect Nagumo from the consequences of her actions plays a huge part in Nagumo becoming the monster that she is. It's also what eventually destroys her professional life.
• Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal:
  • She proclaims she'd never forgive bullying and firmly believes her daughter is an innocent and kind girl, completely missing her Psychotic Smirk (something that Aizawa lampshades) and failing to realize there’s videos of her daughter gleefully bullying Shiori.
  • She’s convinced Aizawa is the one that forced the bullying and tries to convince Shiori that her daughter is not the one to hate and should open her eyes to the truth. She goes as low as to ask Shiori to attend the press conference to convince everyone that her daughter is a “victim” like her. Shiori calls her out on this and asks her point blank if she saw any of the videos, stating that it’s her that should be opening her eyes to the truth.
  • At the press conference, Aizawa reveals that Nagumo is the one who took the video of stripping Shiori, and calls out her mother for not accepting the glaring facts that she enjoyed being a bully; Yumi makes it perfectly clear with admitting their joy in the bullying. After witnessing her daughter’s Villainous Breakdown, her mother pleads to a journalist to not publish the story just to save face but he refuses.
• Oh, Crap!: The expression on her face when she fails to convince the reporters to not report the disastrous interview, as it dawns on her that her career as an education-critic is essentially over.
• Riches to Rags: She is a famous education-critic and author who makes a substantial living by giving university lectures on dealing with the bullying problem. After her own daughter gets publicly outed as a monstrous bully, no university wants to invite her anymore.

Yumi's Mother

A Struggling Single Mother doing her best to raise her daughter under not so optimal conditions.

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• Disappointed in You: She is extremely disappointed in Yumi when she finds out how she gleefuly bullied Shiori and calls her out on her cruel actions.
• Good Parents: She makes it clear to Yumi that no matter what sort of mistakes she makes in life, she will always be her mother and will always stay by her side. She then accepts responsibility for her faults as a parent and tells her that they will lift the heavy burden they were given together.
• Foil: Between her and Nagumo’s mother. The latter wholeheartedly believes her daughter’s claims that she was “forced” to bully Shiori while in denial of the overwhelming evidence that she enjoyed being a bully, while Yumi’s mother sees right through her daughter’s lies and calls her out on her bullying of Shiori.
• Hands-Off Parenting: Given that she is a Struggling Single Mother, she gives a lot of leeway to her daughter, believing she has the necessary tools to carry herself effectively in life. While Yumi is definitely an intelligent individual, her mother's frugal upbringing seriously messed up with her daughter's innate moral compass.
• No Name Given: We know her as Yumi's mother, nothing else.
• Parents as People: She deeply cares for her daughter and works herself to the bone to provide the best life she can for her, giving her unconditional care, love and attention whenever she can. Her Struggling Single Mother style of parenting, however, also leads Yumi to develop a major Inferiority Superiority Complex towards Shiori, which eventually leads to her betraying her friend and joining the Gang of Bullies in abusing her.
• So Proud of You: As disappointed as she is for her daughter's bullying, she is also extremely proud that her daughter publicly owned up to her actions and actively tried to set things right.
• Struggling Single Mother: Deconstructed She is overworking herself to provide the best life she can for her daughter. This however limits the time she spends with her and prevents her from seeing that her daughter is becoming a bully.

Other Characters

Manaka

A boy from Shiori’s school. He’s one of her few friends, and while he doesn’t always come off on the right foot, he means well. He gets protective towards Shiori once he finds out about the bullying and feels suspicious towards her homeroom teacher, Aizawa.

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• Bully Hunter: He allies with Shiori against the bullies for this reason.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Downplayed. When talking with Shiori after her attempted suicide, he notes that he had a relationship that went wrong due to differing personalities.
• A Friend in Need: He is the only one who still stands by Shiori's side and talks to her when even her so called "best friend" Yumi Yoneda turns on her.
• Innocently Insensitive: Once Shiori admits that she’s the one who uploaded the videos of her bullies’ torments, he admits what the bullies did was wrong but thinks what she did was too far. Shiori calls him out in this. He comes to regrets this and stays by her side against the bullies.
• Platonic Life-Partners: This is his true relationship towards Shiori. Himekawa sees this in a different light.
• Ship Tease: Has his moments with Shiori. Himekawa thinks they’re a couple and bullies Shiori over their friendship, and he’s quick to call her out over this. He gets extremely protective from this point on and never abandons her while Shiori’s bestie, Yumi, turns on her. They’re also both happy to attend the same high school in the near future.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: After he shames Himekawa for doing her usual thing to Shiori, she quickly proclaims she isn’t doing any bullying and tells him she’s in the way of their “relationship”. Naturally, this disgust him, tells Himekawa she honestly pisses him off, and leaves with Shiori. Himekawa is left stunned and horrified by his words.
• Villainous Crush: He’s the object of Himekawa’s affection.

Satake Yuji & Takano R

The former members of Shinji's Gang of Bullies.

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• Alpha Bitch: Takano. She wasn't the leader of Shinji's Gang of Bullies, but she looked down with disgust on Aizawa and actively participated in degrading him.
• Crocodile Tears: When Shinji reported them to their homeroom teacher, they tearfully pretended to be sorry and got out of it with a warning, continuing to abuse Aizawa after that. They try to do this again to Aizawa years later, but he knows better by now and proceeds to send a video of them having sex together to their respective spouses.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: They are only referred to with their last names for most of the story but chapter 28 reveals that Satake's name is Yuji, while Takano's name is obstructed by Aizawa's thumb and starts with "R".
• Friends with Benefits: Chapter 28 reveals they are this to each other and they are cheating on their respective spouses. Unlucky for them, Aizawa films them and send their signigicant others their videos.
• Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: The Bad Variety. They cheat on their respective spouses with each other and they are both pretty horrible people. It gets exposed by Aizawa.
• Green-Eyed Monster: The main reason they helped Aizawa take down Shinji was because they were sick of Shinji's success and Smug Snake attitude, not because they were genuinely sorry.
• It Only Works Once: When Aizawa reported them to their homeroom teacher they cried Crocodile Tears and offered a fake apology to get a slap on the wrist and continue to abuse Aizawa. They try it on Aizawa later, but unfortunately for them he knows better than to trust them.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: They seem to be reformed and genuinely sorry for what they did to Aizawa, offering up apologies and even helping Aizawa stage a Frameup that gets Shinji fired. Nope, they are not really sorry, they only helped Aizawa because they were jealous of Shinji's success and their apologies were all lies and Crocodile Tears to get Aizawa off their backs.
• Last-Name Basis: They are mostly referred to with their last names. A Freeze-Frame Bonus in chapter 28 reveals that Satake's name is Yuji, while Takano's name is obstructed by Aizawa's thumb and starts with "R".
• Pimp Duds: Averted. Satake is responsible for a building in the local Red Light District but dresses pretty normally.
• Reformed Bully: They appear to be this. Takano even offers a tearfull apology in the first chapter. Ultimately Averted, they were never sorry and cried Crocodile Tears to get Aizawa off their backs. Unfortunately for them they pulled that crap before in front of Aizawa.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: They were big jerks to Aizawa when they were young, and they haven't changed at all grown up.
• Sycophantic Servant: Satake used to be this to Yuji, following his every whim and being the Dumb Muscle of the group, while Takano was the Alpha Bitch
• With Friends Like These...: They don't hesitate to throw Shinji under the bus once Aizawa gets on their case. Shinji's Smug Snake attitude certainly didn't help matters.

Negishi

A student in Aizawa's former school. He was involved in a bullying scandal.

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• Broken Smile: He sports this when he admits to Shiori he is happy his bullies are suffering because of what happened.
• Broken Tears: When he admits what he did on a television interview and tell the reporters that getting revenge on his bullies was what gave him back the will to live.
• Bullied into Depression: Even though Aizawa prevented him from ending his life by giving him the means to destroy his bullies' lives he is shown to not be in a good condition, barely hanging on.
• The Dog Bites Back: It wasn't Aizawa who doxxed the bullies and destroyed their lives, it was him. Aizawa just gave him the means to do so.
• Driven to Suicide: The bullying he received was so bad that he nearly ended his life.
• Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: He took revenge on his bullies by posting videos of them bullying him on social media and then doxxing them.
• I Owe You My Life: The reason he appeared on an interview on Public Television was because he wanted to repay Aizawa for saving his life and helping him get back at his bullies.