Characters / Katawa Shoujo

From left to right: Lilly, Hanako, Rin, Shizune, and Emi.

These are the main and secondary characters who appear in the Katawa Shoujo Visual Novel, as described at the novel's website.

Beware of SPOILERS.

NOTE: Please only list tropes that are canon or at least backed by Word of God. And, no, art by the official artists which is not in the game does not automatically count as canon, unless it's explicitly confirmed to be such; neither do side stories written by the devs. The developers' official stance is that only what's actually in the game is canon.

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Main Characters

Hisao Nakai

Hisao Nakai

"At least I still have something; even if it's a 'special school,' it's something. It's a fresh start, and my life isn't over. It would be a mistake to just resign myself to thinking that."

Hisao Nakai is an Ordinary High-School Student... or at least he thought he was before he suddenly had a heart attack while his crush was confessing to him, completely derailing his life and leaving him hospital-bound for four months. After being thrown into a new beginning, the chaotic circumstances have forced Hisao to rethink his apathetic disposition, especially regarding things like life, friendship and future.

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• Above the Influence:
  • In Hanako's route, he refuses to take advantage of her after a night of drinking, even though she was openly making advances while drunk. Hisao even comments to himself how wrong it feels to be in such a situation.
  • Hisao also doesn't take advantage of Rin after she's kissed him while high on codeine, even though she's only wearing panties and an unbuttoned shirt with no bra.
    • Later in Rin's route, he averts this. During her first H-scene, she is masturbating, seemingly not out of sexual pleasure, but merely as another way to literally "destroy" her current self. She asks him to finish the job for her, and even though she's clearly not thinking straight, he complies.
  • In Shizune's route, after she and Hisao have been a couple for a while, an emotionally-broken Misha tries to seduce Hisao, who is obviously attracted to her. In this case, whether or not he gives in to the influence is up to the player.
• Am I Just a Toy to You?: Briefly has these doubts in Emi's Route after she confesses that she does not want to let him close to her emotionally, even though they have already slept together multiple times. Hisao comes around when he finally realizes it's a way for her to cope with a past traumatic event, and helping Emi is worth all the heartache.
  • A similar thing happenes in Rin's route, when Hisao yells at Rin in his "I am not your muse" speech.
• An Adventurer Is You: Replace "adventurer" with "therapist", and you basically sum up Hisao's role in the game.
• Angst: A bit at first, at the idea of going to a school for disabled people, and at times when he's reminded of the life he was forced to leave behind.
• Anguished Declaration of Love:
  • In Hanako's Good Ending, as they both collapse in tears.
  • Also near the end of Emi's Good Ending. Though not quite as anguished as the above example, it's still a declaration of love towards a girl who is very much not in the most stable state, and it takes quite a bit of insistence to make it work.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In Rin's route, asking her what would come next if she found someone who wouldn't have to ask her questions is key to getting the good ending.
• Asleep in Class: At the start of one scene in Rin's route.
• Bookworm: Picked up the habit of reading during his long hospitalization. During the game, he comments he feels kind of empty whenever he has nothing to read.
• Brainy Brunette: Played with; while other characters note how he's good in science, he himself states that he has problems in other subjects such as English.
• Break the Haughty: In Hanako's bad ending. While by no means bad-intentioned, his neediness leads him to believe that Hanako is far more fragile than she truly is, and it blows up badly for him as a result.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl:
  • Him and Lilly, to a degree. He broods because he has just found out that he has a severe heart condition and has just arrived to a totally different world, she's gentle for being the local Onee-sama despite her blindness.
  • Possibly with Hanako too, replacing "gentle" with "shy and traumatised".
• The Champion: You can play him as this towards whoever's route you're on. It never ends well.
• Character Development: He comes into Yamaku depressed, apathetic and uncomfortable at the idea of being at a school for the disabled. By the end of the good endings, he has a girlfriend, at least a few other friends, (often) a goal to work toward, and has come to terms with his condition; the lessons he's learned depending on the route. Obviously, this doesn't happen if you get to a bad ending in Act 1. He just becomes a very flat character.
• Chick Magnet: Downplayed. Hisao's not shown to be particularly popular as a romantic prospect for the female student body, despite other characters stating he's an easily likeable guy in general. While any of the girls he pursues in their respective story paths always end up reciprocating his feelings, very few of the other girls show such interest in Hisao in story paths that are not their own. Well, Misha appears to in Shizune's route, but it's not genuine, especially because she isn't even attracted to boys. In Lilly's route, it's implied that Hanako still has some romantic feelings for Hisao, but she doesn't want to get in the way of him and Lilly and gets over it. Emi also takes jabs at Hisao in almost every route that is not her own, but at that time he is already in a relationship.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: For Rin. Though it may be a Deconstructed Trope, because he has huge difficulties with that later.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: He can have a hard time picking up on what the girls are trying to tell him. Even when the player can figure it out pretty easily. The fandom has sarcastically nicknamed him "The Master of Romance" as a result.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: In Hanako's route, he is the only one who objects to people not trying to keep Hanako in class, as well as seemingly not caring if she leaves. This is double-subverted; while he initially seems to present himself as being right, in the Good Ending path, he ultimately decides to give Hanako space when she isolates herself in her room.
• Condescending Compassion: Guilty of this, minus the attempting-to-curry-favor part, in Hanako's path, and overdoing it can lead to her bad ending. Luckily, he sees the error of his ways by the conclusion of her good ending.
  • Also in Emi's route, with somewhat different results. Overdoing it also leads to the bad ending here, but in the good ending, she comes to realize that it's OK to let him get close to her. He even describes it in terms of "knights that help one another."
  • Averted in Rin's path; choosing one of the dialogue options in which he expresses a desire to support her has him saying he doesn't want to be a white knight, and unlocks a dialogue option that enables you to continue without getting the bad ending
• Conveniently Seated: Hisao has the seat second from the back next to the window, which (rather conveniently) was the only available seat.
• Cool Teacher: What he aspires to be in routes where he thinks about his future.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: In the early parts of Emi's route, when he suspects that she's getting close to the track team captain. It turns out they're Platonic Life-Partners instead, as the captain is gay and Emi has a good laugh at his expense.
• Deadpan Snarker: Very prone to snark within his narration.
  Hisao: I have never heard somebody talk so heatedly and defensively about absolutely nothing before.
• Depending on the Artist: He never quite looks the same in any two CGs. The most distinctly inconsistent details include the colour of his eyes (usually brown, sometimes hazel or grey) and, in the images where his bare chest can be seen, how noticeable his surgery scar is.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Some aspects of his character vary based on each route, such as his perspective on his condition, his goals for the future, and how he views certain people, all of which may be tied to different events. For example, in Hanako's route, he holds Mutou in a much lower regard than the other routes, thinking he's mishandling Hanako's situation.
  • He also picks up some of the personality traits of whichever girl he ends up with, e.g. becoming more playful and active in Emi's route and more confrontational and mischievous in Shizune's. It's uncertain whether this is intentional or due to the author of each route writing him and his girlfriend in a similar manner.
  • In Lilly's route, he describes himself as a morning person; in Rin's route, the exact opposite is true.
• Determinator: During Lilly's Good Ending, he refuses to accept that she's just gonna leave for Scotland forever, runs half a mile to get a taxi to get to the Hakamichi residence and find out where Lilly is, runs for a good half a mile more (despite the fact that he once collapsed from a half-kilometer walk), desperately fighting down his coming heart attack and nearly catching up to Lilly before collapsing from the pain as he watches her walk away from him for the last time. The whole ordeal is heartwrenching to watch.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Variation - Hisao forgets that Misha signs everything everyone says to Shizune, leading to an awkward moment.
• Disabled Snarker: It's unclear whether he was snarky before his heart attack, or he cultivated it because of his bitterness. It's implied, however, his attitude began to change over the course of his four-month hospital stay.
  Hisao: I became cynical and embittered. Distant and subdued. In my defense, no person could avoid that after such a thing happening to them, but nonetheless I left the hospital as a definitely changed person.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Hisao himself in Lilly's route. Lilly calls him out on it in the Good End.
  "I don't want you all to shoulder my burdens".
• Embarrassing Nickname: Sort of. When Misha first calls him Hicchan, Hisao's narration reveals he's never liked that nickname, but he makes no effort to get her to stop.
• Face Palm:
  • Towards the end of Lilly's Act 1 route, when Lilly teases him that "Akira's taken".
  • He actually does this many times throughout the game.
• Fee Fi Faux Pas:
  • Using expressions such as "I see" around the blind Lilly, as well as talking as though she can see. She laughs it off, though, and seems to find it endearing.
  • Painfully done in Emi's bad ending. Unlike Lilly, Emi doesn't take it well.
• First-Person Smartass: Especially around Kenji, but virtually everyone has received critical or sarcastic remarks in his internal narration that he would never say to their faces.
• Fish out of Water: Hisao's biggest conflict when he first arrives at Yamaku. He feels out of place and thrown into a new world. Thankfully, if you make the right choices Hisao eventually changes his attitude and accepts Yamaku as his new home, along with his new friends.
• Flat "What":
  • In the Act 1 scene "Don't Panic" if you take Lilly's or Hanako's route. He also does this in Lilly's route when Kenji claims that he's confirmed that Lilly is in the mafia.
  Kenji: As expected of blind people.
  Hisao: What.
  • Also when Hanako tells him "...Go away." in Lilly's route.
• Friendless Background: Has lost all his friends from his old school during his hospital stay.
• Get Out!:
  • Can force Shizune and Misha out of his room over their asking about his pills, but doing so gets him the bad ending.
  • Also, with Rin, after a fight in his room, she tells him to go away. He notes that it's his room, thus reversing it on her.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Hisao went through surgery after his heart attack, so he has a scar on his chest. He tries to use it to bond with Hanako in her route. He also is grateful that Lily isn't able to see it in their first sex scene.
• Grew a Spine: In Shizune's route, he reflects that he was once apathetic, but became more argumentative as a result of speaking with them after an (unsuccessful) attempt to stand up to Jigoro. In Lilly's route, he realizes that he has depended on her for everything and then goes to confront her before she can leave for Scotland in the Good Ending.
• Idiot Hair: He's a bit sensitive about it.
• Inconsistent Coloring: His eye colour keeps on changing depending on the CG.
• Informed Loner: Lampshaded on Lilly's route.
  Hisao: To tell the truth, though, I do prefer solitude to being surrounded by others. I don't think I could maintain a social circle like you do.
  Lilly: I don't think that's true either. I've seen how gentle and caring you are around Hanako, and you get along marvelously well with others, even those whom you hardly know. I think you're quite adept at social situations.
• Innocently Insensitive: Played for Drama in Hanako's route. Can also happen in Emi's route twice, once played for laughs and once played for VERY deep drama.
• Invisible Parents: His father appears in one scene, and doesn't get a sprite. Once he moves to Yamaku they are barely mentioned.
• Jerkass Ball: While he's generally a kind-hearted individual, he can grab this in some of the bad or neutral paths, especially in Rin's bad and neutral paths.
• The Kirk: In Shizune's route, completing the trio with Shizune and Misha.
• Lead You Can Relate To: Aside from his arrhythmia and the limitations it creates, Hisao is essentially an ordinary high school student. Contrast that to his love interests — missing limbs, third-degree burn scars, deafness, blindness, etc.
• Leitmotif: Not as immediately evident because he's the protagonist and therefore present in every scene, but given what his disability is and the fact that it only plays at especially tense scenes, it's likely that "Caged Heart" is this.
• Meaningful Name: Hisao is written as "long time [of absence]" (久) + "man/husband" (夫).
• Men Don't Cry: Averted near the end of Hanako and Lilly's routes, as well as one scene in which he cries for the first and last time over his disability.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He realizes the gravity of what he said when he, in a fit of anger, yells at Emi that she can take whatever she's hiding and don't want to talk about "to the grave". Ouch. Hisao also tends to do this a lot at the climax point of nearly all routes.
• Never My Fault: In some of the bad endings, he will deny making a mistake even when it's obvious to the player that he has. He also seems to blame his friends and Iwanako from distancing themselves from him, but in Shizune's path, accepts that he pushed them away.
• Nice Guy: Snarkiness aside, Hisao is easily a textbook example of this, even if he has some rough edges.
• Non-Action Guy: He is, by a fair margin, the least physically fit member of the entire cast, although he gets somewhat more physically fit in Emi’s route. And with VERY good reasons, as overexerting himself can be life-threatening.
• Non-Action Snarker: By virtue of being possibly the least physically fit of the main cast members.
• No Sense of Direction: A mild case but one that crops up periodically and which he comments on in the narration. At one point in Shizune's route it takes him more than an hour to get back to the school from a teahouse that's close enough to visit during lunch break.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: In the Act 1 Bad Ending, Hisao drunkenly falls to his death after backing away from Kenji.
• Old-School Chivalry: Hisao is a subtle example - when he and Lilly first tell Akira that they're going out, he bows to her and tells her that he will take care of her sister. Akira comments on this, mentioning that she always expected Lilly would get together with an old-fashioned sort of guy.
• Ordinary High-School Student: With the exception of his heart condition.
• Out with a Bang: Comes close to this in Lilly's third H-scene. The physical exhaustion of the act causes his heart to play up until he falls unconscious on the floor.
• Pair the Smart Ones:
  • Lilly's path. Hisao doesn't mention it much, but he gets good grades without studying hard, and enjoys the sciences enough to consider a career as a science teacher.
  • Or Hanako's path. Hanako seems able to keep up with the class despite her bad attendance record, although Mutou suggests she isn't a "star student," and she and Hisao find a shared interest in their mutual love of reading.
  • Shizune's path as well, considering that one of the criteria for being named a Class Representative in a Japanese High School is to have the highest test scores from the year before, and the fact that she and Misha are usually the first people in 3-3 to finish Mutou's assignments (and how much Misha contributes is debatable).
• Patrick Stewart Speech: Late in Shizune's route, he shows Misha around the campus, showing her places that were important in his time with her and Shizune and what he thought back then, concluding by saying that he doesn't want Misha to push Shizune away like he did with his old friends
• Parental Abandonment: Not exactly straight, but Hisao's parents drop him off at the school, unpack his things, leave without bothering to say goodbye in person, and show little sign of returning throughout all paths (although, in a couple of them, Hisao says they asked him if he wants to return home during summer break, and in Shizune's, admits to himself that he hasn't tried to contact them). He also reveals that his parents both worked for long hours and were rarely home. The fact that this degree of independence was stripped away from him is one of the reasons for his initial resentment of his condition.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • "GODDAMMIT! Don't do it, you idiot!", when Kenji harshly bumps into him during Lilly's path. It may be small compared to Emi, but still.
  • He also once thinks of himself and Emi as "friends who happen to fuck".
  • When at the peak of his frustration with Rin, he says "Bullshit" before angrily denouncing the way she's been treating him lately.
• Pretty Boy: Even Lilly admits it, and she's blind!
• Protectorate: Deconstructed in Hanako's route. While Hanako is a fragile soul, his attempts to protect Hanako end up doing the opposite effect on her. It makes her feel more like a helpless child, and continuing to do so will cause her resentment to boil up until she hits her breaking point in the bad ending.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: He hasn't even had hobbies (besides halfhearted football playing or reading because he hadn't anything else to do in the hospital). As a result, his identity is, to an extent, shaped by the girl he's with.
• Second Love:
  • Most importantly to Emi, or better said, the third, if he pursues her. She used to have a crush on the track team captain; he turned her down due to being gay, but they remained good friends. She also had a boyfriend a while after coming to Yamaku, but since he couldn't cope with Emi's emotional damage and she kept him at arm's reach, they broke up.
  • Also for Lilly, who had an unconfessed and most likely unrequited crush on her tutor before coming to Yamaku.
  • The girls are this for him, as he indicates that he also had feelings for Iwanako, and would have accepted her Love Confession.
• Shaped Like Itself: An alcohol-induced example.
  Hisao: That situation seems unlikely to me, like it wouldn't happen, like… like it's not very likely to happen.
• The Stoic: He starts out this way after his sejourn in the hospital. At the beginning of her route, Rin remarks that, two weeks after his arrival at Yamaku, she never saw him smile. He does eventually get more open.
• Tactful Translation: Does this a couple times in Shizune's route. Lilly is not fooled when she encounters Shizune and Hisao working on a stall, but is fooled on the fishing trip.
• Tempting Fate:
  • In the bad ending for Act 1 he suggests there's no way the day could get worse, just before it does.
  • In Lilly's route, he thinks to himself "We have plenty of time to be together... Neither of us is going anywhere soon, after all." Guess what happens later.
• Too Dumb to Live: Almost literally on a couple routes. He pushes himself in a race with Emi, triggering a major heart event. He forgets to take his meds one morning on Lilly's route, triggering a major heart event.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: He starts out the story quite cynical and bitter because of the overwhelming changes to his life. Provided that you, the player, choose a route for him other than the Bad Ending, he becomes much more positive as he accepts the realities he can't change and focuses on the things he can make better.
• The Unsmile: Early in Rin's route, Hisao looks into a mirror and smiles. He finds it looks very fake.
• What, Exactly, Is His Job?: In Shizune's route, has no official position on the student council, and does whatever needs to be done.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Both of his parents.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Said Heart Trauma means that Hisao's special condition is the only one of the main cast's that is outright stated to be a mortal concern, and he says at various points that he expects to die young. Again, this is one of the major issues he has (though he does get medicine and advice which will hopefully help stave off said mortality) During the opening hospital scene, the doctor tries to assure him that people with his condition can live fairly long lives, but Hisao seems to ignore this and it's never brought up again.

Emi Ibarazaki

Emi Ibarazaki

Can you stand up for yourself?

"I don't have to worry about anything while I'm running. I just concentrate on breathing, on the rhythm of things. It's easier that way. Life's easier that way. Just keep moving forwards, you know? Nothing else matters, just getting around the next curve."

Despite being left with legs amputated below the knee after a car accident, Emi is perhaps one of the most cheery, happy-go-lucky girls on the entire globe, let alone the school. Not one to be left in despair even after the accident that claimed her legs, Emi views her disability more as a blessing, her prosthetic legs having brought her to the heights of her ability on the track team rather than becoming a permanent obstacle.

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• Animal Motifs: Puppies, due to her little gimmick. Hisao lampshades it in his inner monologues, and also remarks on how she looks as menacing as a terrier when she growls at him after his trolling moment with her on Lilly's route.
• Art Evolution: Her sprite was upgraded◊ between the demo and the full game to look slightly more mature and to be more in line with the other girls. Given how the full game revealed her to be one year older than Hisao and the other girls, this change makes even more sense.
• Artificial Limbs: She uses prosthetic running legs for general movement and track, but also has regular prosthesis for other occasions.
• Beneath the Mask: Near the end of her good ending, she remarks on how little her schoolmates truly know about her. Rather than being friendly and outgoing, she keeps people at a distance, and her favorite color is blue, not pink.
• Berserk Button: In Act 4, when visiting Emi's house, should the player choose to follow Emi instead of talking to Meiko, Emi and Hisao have an argument over Emi keeping Hisao at an arm's length and being stubborn about letting other people get close to her, in his anger, Hisao says that Emi can take whatever she's keeping from him about her traumas and her father with her "until the grave". Given what happened to Emi's father, Emi flips and kicks Hisao out of her house afterwards, despite Hisao regretting saying that.
• Big Eater: The initial rooftop luncheon has Emi eating a lunch that's twice the size of the ones she made for Rin and Hisao, and on multiple other occasions she steals Hisao's food after finishing her own.
• Book Dumb: Implied to be this. At the very least, in Lilly's route, it is shown that she got an awful grade in an English test. It could also be partially related to the fact that she had to take a year off due to her accident.
• Blank White Eyes: One of her sprites.
• Blush Sticker: Not always, but often.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Near the end of her route, while listing the things people don't know about her, she starts off by saying that she likes blue instead of pink, that she can't sing, that she had a boyfriend before Hisao and broke up with him due to keeping him at a distance, and that her father died at the same time she lost her legs.
• Crash-Into Hello: Which actually puts Hisao seriously at risk due to his heart condition.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: For Rin.
• Daddy's Girl: Losing her legs in a car accident? A minor setback, even though she's a runner and her legs are her life. Losing her father, the one who got her into running, whether in that same accident or almost immediately afterwards? Causes her to have horrible nightmares and be afraid of letting anyone else get close enough to her for her to feel such a sense of loss ever again (which, unfortunately, extends to her mother to a large extent). She even says that she "had everything torn away from her once before."
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She is not an ice queen by any definition of the word, but the scenes in her route where she makes up with Hisao after she kicks him out of her house, causing her to drop the walls she was putting between her and Hisao completely and let him into her heart count.
• Disappeared Dad: Emi doesn't take well to mentions of her dad, especially when she makes them accidentally. When Hisao asks her mother about this, she just says that he's not around any more. What she means is that Emi's father died on the way to the hospital after the two were rescued from the crash that left Emi without legs. One of the poignant scenes in Emi's route occurs in front of Mr. Ibarazaki's gravestone.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: As her route goes on, she becomes opposed to any attempt at white-knighting Hisao may or may not try to pull.^note Although her route addresses these issues, it doesn't focus on them like, say, Hanako's
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: An outwardly upbeat Sanguine.
• Genki Girl: Subverted. While Emi indeed is a cheery girl, it turns out she's not as drama (or trauma)-free as she initially seems. The loss of her legs was traumatic, but she learned to cope with that well. The loss of her father, she did not cope with at all. Part of getting her Good Ending is to help her deal with her loss.
• Get Out!: Happens at the end of her house visit. How it goes varies slightly depending on whether you choose to talk to Emi directly or talk to her mother. In the latter case, which won´t land you in the Bad Ending, she instantly regrets it and apologizes, but Hisao leaves anyway to give her some space.
• Girlish Pigtails: Referred to as "Twintails Girl" before her name is revealed.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She had a most impressive menagerie in her room.
• Grin of Audacity: She wears it while racing. Hisao is mesmerized by this change.
• Incompatible Orientation: She had a crush on her track team captain, but he turned out to be gay. They're still good friends.
• Jizzed in My Pants: Her and Hisao's first time consists of them stripping almost naked (Emi, down to her panties; Hisao, only to his pants) and then dry-humping each other to orgasm.
• Lady Swears-a-Lot: For a game that is largely devoid of foul language, she provides the majority of the "ass", "damn", and "hell"s spoken throughout the story. The writer of her path, Hivemind, has come out and said this is due to him being similarly foul-mouthed in real life. Hivemind has even said that Emi cursed like a sailor in some of the early path drafts.
• Leitmotif: "Standing Tall", a track that's both fitting (due to her upbeat attitude) and ironic (due to her short height and artificial limbs).
• Letting Her Hair Down: The one time she's seen without her hair done up in twintails is during her good ending.
• Like Mother, Like Daughter: Hisao is quick to note that Meiko is basically an older Emi with a bigger chest.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: In the H-scenes, she comes off as the most straightforward and kinky girl in the cast. She's also the girl who has the most sex with Hisao - three sex scenes that are shown, and at least three more that are implied. Makes sense, as Hisao exercises regularly and is in the best shape in Emi's route.
• Manipulative Bitch: Although her personal brand of manipulation seems to be "Do what I ask, or I'll make sad Puppy-Dog Eyes at you". Still works though.
  Emi: All part of my master plan, Hisao.
  • In her defense, Emi usually uses this to further Hisao's interests, such as getting him to eat healthy or exercise.
  • And then later, she uses sex (or when that's not an option due to being in public, make-outs) any time Hisao tries to bring up her own personal problems.
• Meaningful Name: Emi means "smiling beauty" (笑美)Her surname uses the kanji for thorn, representing how abrasive her stubborn tendencies can be for the ones who care for her.
• Meet Cute: "Meet Cute" is even the name of her first scene if Hisao has lunch with Lilly and Hanako (a different version happens in Shizune's route called "Short Sharp Shock").
• Nice Girl: Emi is a kind-hearted and friendly young lady who possesses a very infectiously cheerful and upbeat personality.
• Older Than She Looks: She's actually a year older than Hisao, as she took a year off to relearn how to walk, a fact that she only reveals to Hisao once she finally opens up to him fully. However, because of her short stature and youthful appearance, she looks younger than the other girls.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Despite not having her flesh and blood legs anymore, she's still a very active member of the school's track and field team. Running in the mornings is her primary way of warding off nightmares, so when she gets confined to the wheelchair, it isn't very good for her emotional state.
• Plucky Girl: She relearned how to run a mere year after losing her legs. It's actually deconstructed. She knows that loss of a relationship is normal, and it is best to be strong and move on. However, at the same time, the same stubbornness that enables her to deal with her issues prevents Emi from growing close to anyone because she is afraid that the pain of loss will prevent her from moving onto the future. This prevents anyone from helping her when she actually needs it, and Hisao has to struggle hard to reach for her.
• Precision F-Strike: Swears quite a bit, but "Aw shit..." nicely sums up her reaction when she remembers that as she's stuck in a wheelchair for a few weeks, she can't run and can't force her nightmares from her mind.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: See Manipulative Bitch.
• Right Behind Me: She overhears a significant portion of what Hisao and her mom Meiko are discussing.
• School Sport Uniform: Other than her normal school uniform she almost always wears this. Makes sense, since she is constantly doing sports (usually long distance running/sprint).
• Shout-Out: Some aspects of her route were inspired by Nurse-kun's tale such as her close relationship with the Nurse and losing her legs and her dad because of a car crash.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: A verbal version at the end of Act 2 of her route, when she and Hisao are alone on the roof.
  Emi: "If you're going to kiss me, you should do it soon. I think the lunch bell is about to ring."
• Stepford Smiler: Outwardly, she's a cheerful, spirited Genki Girl. As you progress through her route, it's gradually shown she's a mess of Survivor Guilt and near-complete inability to to deal with grief healthily.
• Tareme Eyes: Fits the cutesy traits.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Her reaction when she realizes that she is unable to run and has lost her outlet for dealing with her nightmares.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Often exchanges teasing with Hisao in her and Rin's route. In the latter, she complains that he's "too nice" when he convinces her not to "find Rin and kick her ass" after she runs away from the exhibit, and he remarks that he's only "not nice" to her. She also has this dynamic with the school nurse.
• Was Just Leaving: Does this to Hisao in her house, if he talks to her mother. If he doesn't, she angrily tells him to get out and give her mom an excuse as to why he had to leave.

Hanako Ikezawa

Hanako Ikezawa

Can you face your fears?

"I believed it didn't matter if nobody else acknowledged me. All my existence did was make people troubled, after all. It was... easier... if I just didn't exist."

When she was just 8, Hanako had a traumatic experience that left her life in shambles. Her parents died when their home burned down in an accident, which also left Hanako with half of her body permanently disfigured. She is reclusive to the extreme, shunning from all other people to the point of actually panicking from any social contact. Her only trusted friend is Lilly (a blind girl who cannot see Hanako's scars), who has taken Hanako under her wing ever since the two were introduced to each other.

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• Am I Just a Toy to You?: Inverted. She thinks that Hisao and Lilly feel that she's like a child that needs protecting, and allows Hisao to have sex with her in an attempt to change his perception of her.
  • In fact, in Lilly's route, Hisao's less-smothering, more-ordinary friendship helps her to branch out, making new friends in the Newspaper Club (And she's even planning to go to Kyoto with the club girls during vacation!). At the end of the route, Lilly even tells her that she was genuinely happy to be her friend, and was NOT acting out of pity or contempt for her, something which resonates all the more if one has played Hanako's own route.
• Angst Coma: A somewhat more mild form of this is applied in Act 3. During a group-based exercise, Hanako is shaken by Shizune and Misha inadvertently forcing Hisao to reveal that he and Lilly had been buying her birthday presents, and ends up only half-finishing the assignment. All of this causes her to have a panic attack in the middle of the classroom, slipping briefly into a state of catatonia.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Having to deal with this on a constant basis after the fire is a major reason behind her shyness and withdrawn nature.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In Lilly's route she unknowingly delivers one to the Satou sisters by simply asking them if they enjoyed their stay in Scotland; this causes Lilly to have a brief moment of stunned silence before quickly rebounding, all while her older sister Akira suspiciously observing Lilly's reaction. A sign that things may not be as they seem.
• Artsy Beret: Downplayed. She wears a beret as part of her casual outfit, both to show her shyness and to complement her interest in literature.
• Babies Ever After: Originally planned to be explicitly shown in the Good Ending; still present in the final version, implied by a Literal Metaphor, the final shot showing them looking into a bakery where there are actual buns in the oven.
• Beware the Nice Ones: In her Bad Ending, she snaps at Hisao for only wanting to protect her and not actually viewing her as an equal. This scene is not only heartbreaking, but also terrifying, and a massive Player Punch.
• Birthday Hater: It's implied that the fire that burned her house down and her birthday are connected. They're not, but it's actually even more of a Tear Jerker than that.
  Hanako: Every birthday was the same. Everyone doing their best to pretend that I mattered. Everyone pretending everything was alright… for one day of the year. I didn't want to exist, but they wouldn't let me.
• Blemished Beauty: She has severe burn scars over the right-hand side of her body, from her head to her legs. However, she is still drawn as a typically cute girl and the main character Hisao finds her very beautiful.
• Blind and the Beast: Hisao notes that since Lilly can't see Hanako's scars, she can't be repulsed by them or act awkwardly around them, making it easier for them to become friends.
• Break the Cutie: Her backstory and her bad ending.
• Broken Bird: All the girls have shades of this, but she and Rin are the biggest examples.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: And Intoxication Ensues after 2 glasses of wine; Lilly and Hisao handle the same amount a lot better.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Hanako develops a crush on Hisao, but her social anxiety and shyness make it impossible for her to confess to him. Hisao at some point even describes Hanako as "always on the verge of saying something, but never quite doing it".
• Character Tic: One of her sprites has her hide the right half of her face behind her arm and hand, likely as a subconscious attempt on Hanako's part to get other people to focus on the unscarred half of her face and draw attention away from her scars.
• Chess Motifs: Chess happens to be one of Hanako's hobbies, as well as a pivotal connection between her and Hisao, and her first and third Acts are in fact named after particular moves in the game. Particularly interesting is that Act 3 is called "Castling", a move in chess that basically places the Rook and King pieces next to each other. Considering that the King is a "weak" piece that is required to be defended, and that the Rook is a "stronger" piece, this could be almost directly applied to how their relationship develops within that Act.
  • Your success with her depends on how much, or how little, you act like a white knight.
  • A scene of Act 1 that leads to her route is titled "Nc5xb3", which makes no sense unless you are familiar with chess notation, and still cannot be fully understood until you play the route. It means "Knight at c5 captures the piece at b3". Yes, knight again.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Far too sweet and shy to fit the trope completely, but Hanako is shown to become anxious whenever Hisao looks at or spends time with other girls or women; she unfavorably compares her appearance to Lilly's, and notes that Hisao has spent a significant amount of time with Yuuko (who doesn't even have a route). Her anxiety is partially justified because despite his feelings for her and them growing close, Hisao doesn't actually show any signs of attraction towards Hanako until the very end out of fear of scaring her off. Her anxiety over losing Hisao to someone else like Lilly or even Yuuko (who, let's remember, has no route of her own and is more of an older sister to him) ultimately causes her to initiate sex with him despite neither of them being emotionally ready for it yet.
• Clothing-Concealed Injury: While she can't cover her scars completely, her preference towards long sleeves and dark pantyhose is a means of hiding them as much as possible.
• Covered with Scars: Her burn scars cover a large portion of her face and body, though the actual extent of this isn't obvious at first.
• Cute Bookworm: An inclination towards reading is one of her defining traits.
• Dark Reprise: Hanako's theme, Painful History is one to Raindrops and Puddles, being a melancholy yet triumphant theme that represents Hanako's will to keep living in spite of her personal tragedies.
• Declaration of Protection: How Hisao feels about her. Initially, at least. She is NOT happy about this, and keeping up this attitude for too long leads to her Downer Ending.
• Depending on the Artist: Hanako's scars look different depending on the art in question. On her sprite, her scars are a light purplish red and are somewhat veiny, while in her Act 1 animation they are a deep red and much more swollen and veined-looking. When she strips herself down to show Hisao the extent of her scarring, they have the color of dried blood and look much less veiny and more like burned abrasions.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Although she's too shy to actually come out and say it. Until you hit the Downer Ending.
• Don't Look At Me: Not really directly used, but played with in a number of ways. Apart from the obvious self-consciousness regarding her scars, Hanako would literally rather go unnoticed, particularly on her birthday, than anyone attempt to feign that they care about her. This stems from her time in middle-school, where she was bullied constantly.
  • She then inverts it near the end of her "good" path in an attempt to change Hisao's perception of her; she strips completely naked, letting him see the full extent of her scarring, and allows him to have sex with her. It works, but only after she has to explain it.
• Establishing Character Moment: Getting nervous and fleeing from her first meeting with Hisao in the library.
• Eyes Are Unbreakable: Word of God says her right eye still works, and it is clearly shown in several of the CG images in her route.
  • It's actually possible to receive extensive burns and save the eyes; at least on that point, the burns weren't too deep (also thanks to her mother partially shielding her, probably). Problems may rather arise from the damage on the eyelid, but she may have undergone minor surgery to restore its functionality.
  • Might be a moot point since one CG image in her Bad End brushes back her hair, revealing that her burn scars curl up her cheek, but never actually reach her eye.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Sort of. Hisao says that her cooking is good, but Lilly says that Hanako likes to experiment and her tone suggests that some of said experiments haven't gone so well in the past.
• First Girl Wins: If you pick her path, and depending on how you define "First Girl". While Shizune is the first one Hisao talks to (albeit through Misha thanks to her disability), Hanako is the first one to get his attention.
• Floral Theme Naming: Hanako.
• Foil: To Misha. Hanako is withdrawn, timid and sensitive to social cues, while Misha is outgoing, energetic and blind to subtle cues. She can be considered a foil to Emi in that both girls have a tragic past involving the death of parental figures but deal with their trauma differently, and both of their routes give you their bad endings if you try to white knight them (though Hanako tends to explode with rage whereas Emi engages in Tranquil Fury), and yet their respective appearances heavily contrast each other (Emi has blond hair, green eyes and wears green clothes wheras with Hanako's has black hair, purple eyes and bluish-purple clothing).
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: A socially anxious Melancholic.
• Friendless Background: Before coming to Yamaku.
• Get Out!: She angrily demands that Hisao leave her room in her Bad Ending.
• The Grotesque: She's suffered heavily because of her disfigurements.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: She says this to Shizune and Misha when they speculate about her and Hisao in her route.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: With her overwhelming social anxiety and burn scars, she often derides herself as useless and unnecessary.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Lilly. Hisao notices that they are closer than most of the people he's known, and Shizune once indicates that she would like to check on Hanako more, but cannot because Hanako is always around Lilly, who does not get along with Shizune.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Her bangs are styled to mostly cover the right side of her face, both to hide her Two-Faced scarring and to represent her shy nature.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: "Ivegottagodosomething!"
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Lilly's route, she might have had feelings for Hisao, but if she has, she puts them aside because she wants her friends to be happy.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Says this about Hisao late in Lilly's route regarding her loose evening gown. Hisao assumes it's an Innocent Innuendo, but Akira is momentarily PISSED.
• Intoxication Ensues: She gets drunk at her own birthday party in her own route (in Lilly's, she passes out without displaying any such behavior), after she fails to moderate herself properly with Akira's gift. When intoxicated, she's quite a bit more cheery and upbeat, and a bit silly. She's also confident enough in this state to hit on Hisao.
• Leitmotif: "Painful History", a track that lets you know you're in for a major tearjerker. Unlike the other characters' themes, it typically only plays in particularly emotional moments with Hanako, instead of when she shows up ("Everyday Fantasy" plays when she first appears).
  • Upon listening to Painful History, it's possible to notice that it borrows several motifs from Raindrops and Puddles, also making it a Dark Reprise.
• Lonely Doll Girl: In Hanako's route, Lilly once said she bought her a doll so she could have someone to talk to.
• Meaningful Name: Hanako (華子) means "flower child" or "blooming child".
• Nervous Wreck: When you first meet her in the library, just sitting down opposite her is enough to startle her, and making eye contact (or asking if she comes there often, depending on what you say after startling her) is enough to make her run out of the library in a blind panic.
• Nice Girl: Once you get past her shyness, she's just an absolute sweetheart. Her account of her time at the orphanage reveals that she was very helpful and nurturing to the younger children.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In her Bad Ending, she snaps at Hisao for pitying her and not trusting her to be strong, and even yells that she hates both him and Lilly.
  • In a similar scene in Lilly's route, she bluntly tells Hisao "... Go away." when he threatens to bring the nurse if she won't let him check on her.
• Orphanage of Love: Where she lived until coming to Yamaku, as she tells to Hisao during their pool game. Downplayed, as while the staff treated Hanako kindly and she was kind of a Parental Substitute for the youngest children in her last days there, she still couldn't make friends.
• Parental Abandonment: Hanako's parents died in the same fire that scarred her. Her Mama Bear actually pulled a Heroic Sacrifice, covering little Hanako with her body and dying for her.
• Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: The house fire that left her disfigured also took her parents' lives.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: Again, most likely to cover her scars.
• Questionable Consent: Subverted. Hisao worries this might be the case, since Hanako never explicitly consented to sex, but she later confirms that it was, in fact, consensual.
• Scars Are Ugly: Considering the circumstances in which she received her scars, and the bullying she received for them in middle school, Hanako is deeply ashamed of her scars and goes to great lengths to cover them. In her route, thanks partly to Hisao showing her his own (less extensive) scarring, she gets over it enough to strip almost completely naked in order to show Hisao the full extent of her scars.
• Sex as Rite-of-Passage: Has sex with Hisao to prove that she's no longer someone who needs to be protected.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Subverted. Hanako only has one H-scene, but it is the most explicit in the game.
• Shipper on Deck: Lilly's route, obviously. After the Love Confession and Their First Time, she actually tells Lilly and Hisao that she had thought of them getting together:
  "At first I didn't really know what to think about it… but I… I decided that in the end, if my friends are happy… then I'm happy. I was really glad to have another friend when we met Hisao, so you finding love through him is even better... right?"
• Shout-Out: At one point, Rin refers to Hanako as "the mysterious toilet girl". This may be a reference to a Japanese Urban Legend about a ghost named Hanako-san who haunts a toilet.
• Shrinking Violet: Very shy, very anxious and easily startled by the prospect of someone socializing with her.
• Sleep Cute: During Lilly's route, she falls asleep on Lilly's shoulder on the train ride back from Hokkaido.
• Survivor's Guilt: She only survived the fire because her mother shielded her with her own body, and of course she's VERY traumatised.
• Tareme Eyes: In keeping with her timid personality.
• Terrible Artist: Her drawing of her house fire in crayon is as simple as it gets.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. Hanako sees a therapist on a regular basis in order to try and deal with her emotional baggage. However, since she mentioned her life was "on hold" during elementary and middle school, it may be that she only started seeing one once she came to Yamaku.
• Two-Faced: The fire that killed her parents ended up leaving most of the right half of her body covered in burn scars. At first glance it only looks like her face and shoulder got the brunt of it, but that's later revealed to be because of her uniform hiding most of it, as revealed when you get to her sex scene, showing just how extensive the burns truly are.
• Unmoving Plaid: It's subtle, but the texture on her denim jacket is this.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: In her own arc, this describes her relationship with Hisao until the very last scene. It's hinted she developed a crush on him fairly soon after meeting him and Hisao becomes attracted to her as well. There are plenty of moments where they seem to connect, yet nothing comes out of it afterwards. This is sometimes because Hanako's own emotional baggage starts acting up, but more often because Hisao keeps things platonic because he believes Hanako is too fragile to handle an actual relationship. It turns out Hanako is aware that this is preventing them from becoming involved and eventually takes drastic steps to try and change it, though it almost backfires on her.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • Considering the other sorts of disabilities the school caters to, Hanako's scars tend to be treated like this. However, her complex over them makes it an issue of its own.
  • Her route is actually a major subversion of this. Even in a school specifically catered towards the disabled, Hanako still sticks out quite a bit, and Lilly actually lampshades how naive the idea is that just because the students of Yamaku are all disabled in some fashion, they would suddenly stop forming cliques and excluding people for superficial reasons.
• What the Hell, Player?: Hanako's Downer Ending can come across as Hanako not yelling at Hisao and Lilly so much as she's yelling at you.
• When She Smiles:
  Hisao: Smiling for other people might be a completely normal, everyday thing. For Hanako though… she smiles so rarely and so sincerely that each and every time she does it, I feel a sense of relief and happiness.''
• The Woobie: invokedAnd then Deconstructed. On her route, this is initially the reason why Hisao wants to get closer to her. However, she's aware that he sees her like this, and secretly resents it. Even Lilly realizes that being doted on is not what Hanako wants or needs.

Lilly Satou

Lilly Satou

Can you see what I see?

"It was nice... back then. You and I, celebrating with Hanako. Simply sharing presents, talking, having fun together. It was almost as if we were a family. One small, misshapen family."

Blind since birth, Lilly is caring, responsible and friendly - the perfect foil to Hanako, her best friend, whom she shares an almost mother-daughter relationship with, in addition to her free time often being spent drinking tea alongside her companion. In class she is a diligent student, with her sense of confidence serving her well in her role as class representative of class 3-2.

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• Amazonian Beauty: She's tall and well-built, and in Hanako's route, Miki (Hisao's classmate with brown skin and purple hair) defines her as a "blonde amazon".
• Ambiguously Christian: While it's never been confirmed, she's heavily implied to be Catholic. Though she never openly identifies herself as one or talks about her religious beliefs, she wears a cross on her neck, and her parents sent her to a Catholic high school (which, unlike her sister, she didn't mind). It's somewhat more understandable than fully-Japanese cases, as the religion might have come from the Scottish side. Still puzzling though, as very few Scots are Catholic. They're mostly Presbyterian, or at least Protestant.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: To Hisao, after his heart murmur in Act 3.
• Big Little Sister: While she's the younger of the Satou sisters, it's indicated she's also the taller one, considering Akira's complaints about her getting the height genes.
• "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Receives one from her sister when trying to order champagne at the jazz club.
• Blind and the Beast: Hisao notes that since Lilly can't see Hanako's scars, she won't be repulsed by them or act awkwardly around them, making it easier for them to become friends.
• Bookworm: Of Braille novels. Looks like her favorite author is Agatha Christie.
• But Not Too Foreign: Half Japanese, half Scottish no less. She also partly subverts the expected stereotype, as while her family is rich and lives abroad in a Big Fancy House, the money comes from her Japanese businessman father. (Her mother is a journalist.)
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She has the bustiest figure in the game, something the narration points out. Her flat-chested sister is envious of her because of it, complaining Lilly "stole" all the buxom genes in the family.
• The Bus Came Back: She leaves about halfway through the course of the story to visit her family in Scotland when her aunt is hospitalised after falling into a stable condition. This affects Hanako's route and her own. Hanako's route ends before she returns, but in her own route, she returns midway through Act 3.
• Catchphrase: "Ara ara", even though it appears in English as "My, my".
  • Also◊ "Eh bien, eh bien", "O cielo", and "Ma ma".
  • Also "Shall we be off, then?" or some other variant, when leaving somewhere.
• Class Representative: She is caring, but does not butt her nose into people's business.
• Cool Teacher: She wants to be an English teacher once she grows up partly because she had a crush on her old English tutor.
• Covert Pervert: Hisao decides she is this after she admits that she knew that there was the possibility that they'd end up having sex in the bath. Lilly insists that she merely has "a healthy adolescent sex drive" with a smile on her face.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: A mild case, but she states this is how she feels about her blindness. She also seems to realize to some extent that pity is not what Hanako wants or needs.
  Lilly: If you'd pitied us, I would have been quite offended.
• The Dutiful Son: Daughter, but this is the reason she's willing to go back to Scotland when her parents ask, even though it makes her personally unhappy.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Lilly admits to receiving a number of love confessions in the past on her route. At Yamaku AND her previous (Catholic, all girls) school.
  "Adolescence is a funny time…"
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: She says math and science are her worst subjects, although considering that we never see her scores and she's Class Representative, it's unclear how much difficulty she has with them.
• Eyes Always Shut: Her eyes aren't always shut, but she does close them very often.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Akira notes that Lilly used to cook for her.
• Floral Theme Naming: The lily. Also, her surname uses the kanji for wisteria.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: A proper and coolheaded Phlegmatic.
• The Gadfly: She can be quite gently teasing, most noticeably in her route. At one point she has Hisao blindfold himself and wander around the room; he assumes it's to make a point about her blindness, when it turns out she was just teasing him.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: After Hisao has a heart flutter during their trip to Hokkaido, Lily admits how worried she really is for him, especially since she had no idea what was going on due to her blindness. In the wake of it, as well as her and Hisao's mutual Love Confession, their first H-scene takes place.
• Golden Ending: Word of God stated that there is no True End, however, Lilly's Good Ending is the longest, hardest to get, and the only one with an epilogue. Not to mention that unintentionally getting into her route is extremely rare (just like Hanako's). Lilly's route is the only story path which gives tons of development to other main characters, like Hanako, Shizune and Kenji; and has Hisao at his happiest.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has blonde hair and is as compassionate as can be.
• Has a Type: "Just because I'm blind, doesn't mean I don't have preferences."
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Hanako. She's fairly popular in the school, but Hanako is her only close friend apart from Hisao (depending on the route).
• Hot for Teacher: Fell in unrequited love with her tutor before coming to Yamaku, though Lilly admits to Hisao that she always knew her crush was hopeless. She also wishes to be a teacher so chances are she'll get this trope from both sides.
• Huge Schoolgirl: At 171cm tall, she's not only over the prerequisite 170cm, she's also roughly as tall as Hisao (if not even a little taller, as he notes himself).
• Informed Attribute: She's said to be quite popular, and Hisao suspects she has more cell phone contacts than his nine and Hanako's three combined, but Hisao and Hanako are the only ones seen socializing with her. Then again, Hisao notes that she lets few get close to her.
• Insistent Terminology: Says her Big Fancy House in Scotland is not a "mansion", and when it turns out she's a Covert Pervert, she defends her nature as having a "healthy adolescent sex drive"
• Leitmotif: "Concord", a calm, elegant piece of music.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Light to Shizune's Dark.
• Mafia Princess: Played for Laughs. Kenji thinks she's this when she sees her get into a car with her pin-stripe-suited sister Akira.
• The McCoy: To Shizune's Spock on the Student Council before she left; their falling-out and current feud is more or less what happens when a Spock and a McCoy just have Misha instead of a Kirk to mediate between them.
• Meaningful Name: Lilly's name apparently comes from the lily (百合)^note The Japanese version of the site renders her first name in katakana rather than kanji, or yuri. Her last name "Satou" is pronounced the same as the Japanese word for "sugar".
• Must Have Caffeine: Lilly casually mentions she's addicted to caffeine on account of all the tea she drinks. She's also Not a Morning Person.
• My Beloved Smother: Comes unintentionally close to this in her relationship with Hanako and also Hisao in her own route. Hanako herself points it out during her Bad Ending. She seems to be aware of this problem, and thus advises Hisao against being overprotective.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She has this reaction during the time period that Hisao is hospitalised after he nearly dies of a heart attack chasing her down through the airport in her Good Ending. This inspires her to stay with him in Japan.
• Nice Girl: To the core.
• Not a Morning Person: See Must Have Caffeine above. Probably justified, since no matter how many shades you open or how sunny it is outside, the light isn't going to bother her, due to her blindness.
• Ojou: Of the Proper Lady variety, complete with rich family and Big Fancy House.
• Onee-sama: The shy and meek Hanako seems to think of Lilly as this, and the protagonist begins to as well.
• Only Friend: To Hanako, at first.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the Precision F-Strike incident, Hisao notices that she's angry in a way she has never been before, not even around Shizune.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Gets into this with Shizune when they clash over Student Council work. While not always obvious, their fights can get fairly ugly, even with occasional shots at each other's disabilities (in Shizune's route, she tells Lilly to turn and face her while she's talking, and Lilly tells Shizune, "In case you did not hear...").
• Parental Abandonment: Both of her parents live in Scotland. Akira feels that their parents have basically abandoned them and is very bitter about it.
• Phenotype Stereotype: A tall, curvy, blonde, blue-eyed half-Westerner.
• Precision F-Strike: She drops one later in her route. The actual word she uses ("dammit") is a relatively mild swear, but considering her general poise and demeanor, it very effectively conveys that things are not as they may seem on the surface. This is also the only time an angry face is used for her sprite.
• Pride: Hisao notes that she has this at times, especially in her efforts to keep composure. She's willing to accept assistance for practical matters related to her blindness, but when it comes to personal matters she keeps it all cooped up and tries to handle it herself to maintain appearances. This is partially why Poor Communication Kills with her, since people think that since she's mature enough to ask for help with her blindness, she'll ask for help with anything else, and when she doesn't assume she doesn't need it even though she secretly does.
• Race for Your Love: In Lilly's good ending, Hisao tries to catch up with Lilly before she boards a plane for Scotland, never to return. His efforts earn him another heart attack and another trip to the hospital, but it pays off.
• Reflectionless Useless Eyes: Her eyes are slightly clouded.
• Shipper on Deck: For Hisao and Hanako; she sets up a date to go into town to get them closer together, and during their phone conversations, seems on the verge of mentioning that Hanako is in love with Hisao.
  • She also ships Hisao/Emi on Emi's route.
    Lilly: Ah, so it's just friends is it? How disappointing.
• Shoo the Dog: To Hisao, when she's about to leave for Scotland. It doesn't work in the Good Ending.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Can be seen as this. In the past, she received many love confessions, but rejected them all to save herself for her tutor. She never confessed, but despite that, she still continued to reject confessions until meeting Hisao.
• Statuesque Stunner: Noted by the main character, after he "horribly loses" the risk game and goes to the library to meet her for the first time.
• Stepford Smiler: In Lilly's route, Hisao spends enough time with Lilly to figure out that her usually cheerful expression can sometimes merely be a facade to hide deeper issues. Deconstructed in that her mask is so perfect, no one can figure out when she's genuinely unhappy and she thus never gets help.
• The Stoic: She has shades of this, as Hisao notes she often hides her emotions. This is also her Fatal Flaw, as she's reluctant when it comes to expressing what she truly want. There are a few cases where she's Not So Stoic, such as Hisao's heart murmur, her Precision F-Strike and Hisao being hospitalized for another heart attack.
• Super-Senses: It's frequently demonstrated that she has insanely good senses of hearing and touch.
• Tea Is Classy: She's often seen having tea with Hanako. This, and her love for wine, demonstrates her wealthy background.
• Theme Song Reveal: Your first indication that you've gotten the Good Ending is hearing Lilly's music box.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the girly girl to her older sister Akira's tomboy; while Akira dresses and acts rather masculinely, Lilly is a Yamato Nadeshiko.
• Tsurime Eyes
• Two Girls and a Guy: With Hisao and Hanako. In act 3 of her route, Lilly remarks that the three of them together feel like a family. A small, misshapen family.
• Verbal Tic: She often starts sentences with "my, my".
• We Used to Be Friends: In her route, Shizune reveals that the two of them used to be very close; she actually joined the Student Council when the orginal members started leaving to help her cousin, and even encouraged others to do so. However, being forced to work together in close proximity caused the natural tension between their personalities to come to a head. The result was their falling out and current feud.
• Wine Is Classy: She drinks wine whenever she can, often to Hisao's dismay.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: A polite, tea-sipping, nurturing, graceful girl. What more could a man ask for in a wife? In a stroke of possibly intentional irony, she is the least Japanese-looking member of the entire cast, as she's actually half Scottish. This is Deconstructed in her route, as her being this is why Hisao often has a difficult time reading her emotions. Furthermore, she annoys him with her pity. She represses her emotions to the point where Hisao has to get a severe heart murmur before she can confess to him. Near the end of Act IV, she can't reject her parents' wishes for her to return permanently to Scotland despite how unhappy it will make her. In the Good Ending, Hisao has to give himself a heart attack chasing her before Lilly can follow her heart and choose to stay with Hisao.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Inverted. The Good Ending plays out exactly like the Bad Ending, except the former has a few extra scenes. Of course, said scenes completely change the context and course of the whole path.

Rin Tezuka

Rin Tezuka

Can you seize the day?

"I don't really like talking about art. It is already a way to talk without talking, so why bother talking about it?"

Since Rin's arms are tiny stumps due to a severe birth defect and subsequent surgery, she uses her feet and occasionally her mouth to do everything, which includes painting. Because of her disability, using skirts is tough, so Rin is wearing a boy's uniform at school. Her creativity is matched by her philosophical streak: Rin is fond of occasionally getting lost in thought and giving voice to abstract ideas about man, the universe, and other things that thoroughly confuse those around her.

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• Armor-Piercing Response: Her answer to Hisao's question about why she thinks he looks grim and gloomy makes him realize that she's never seen him smile since he arrived at Yamaku.
• Broken Bird: All the girls have shades of this, but she and Hanako are the biggest examples.
• Buffy Speak: Rin's preferred method of conveying ideas that she can't quite put into words.
  Rin: A lot of things. And some not-things. Unthings. I don't think that's a word.
• But Now I Must Go: In her Neutral Ending, where she tells Hisao that Sae and Nomiya got her a scholarship in Tokyo, and she plans to go there during vacation.
  Rin: "I will learn to hug people in my own way. I'm sure I can become a real artist. But if I do, I might not be able to be me anymore (...) That's why... please forget about me, and I'll forget about you!"
• Captain Obvious
  Rin: I got trouble with shirts.
• Cloudcuckoolander: The ending scene for her Act 1 route is even titled "Clouds In My Head".
  Rin: …so that's why I'm trying to figure out if there is something I need to figure out and then figure that out before it's too late and all hope is lost.
  • The trope itself is deconstructed in her route. Later scenes show that her eccentricity isn't always funny or cute, and Rin herself proves to be frustrated and discouraged with how people can't understand her thoughts, whether through words or through her art. Hisao finds himself struggling to keep up with her train of thought, and sometimes gets angry with her because of it.
• Cuckoosnarker: Is both a Cloudcuckoolander and a Disabled Snarker. She even has an entire subsection of her in-game sprites labelled as "rin_basic_deadpan".
  Hisao: What are you doing? ^note It's obvious that she's lying on her back on the rooftop, but what isn't obvious is why
  Rin: I thought you had a heart problem, not an eye problem.
• Driven to Suicide: Implied to happen eventually in one of her Bad Endings.
• Eccentric Artist: She's a painter and she's really weird. Deconstructed in that her eccentricities sometimes cause significant aggravation when other people can't understand the way she thinks.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: An asocial yet exuberantly aberrant Eclectic.
• Friendless Background: At one point she rather offhandedly mentions that she didn't really have friends when she was younger, preferring to spend her time painting.
• Get Out!: Does this to Hisao in one of her bad endings. In another scene, she tries this on him in an argument, but he tells her she's in his room, and she leaves instead.
• Handy Feet: Of the Skilled Feet sort; due to having no arms or hands, she's adapted to use her legs and feet for fine manipulation.
• I Am What I Am: In her Good Ending.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: To a degree. Though in a subversion, when Hisao gets to see her only in panties and a shirt, she's actually high on cough syrup.
  "It's rather evident that she's not a body conscious person."
• Ironically Disabled Artist: She has no arms, yet she's able to paint using her feet and mouth. During her route, she tells Hisao about a boy at the art club who paints despite being blind.
• Kissing Under the Influence: Rin, high on codeine due to some really strong cold meds, wearing only an unbuttoned shirt and panties, lets Hisao into her room and eventually kisses him. Then she falls asleep and forgets about it the next morning.
• Last Girl Wins: If you take her route.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: In Emi's route, if Hisao talks to her mother, she will step out of their meeting on the rooftop, enabling them to resolve their argument.
• Leitmotif: "Parity".
• Lonely Together: Hisao wonders if this is his and Rin's case at the beginning of her route, especially since they spend most of the festival with only each other at her mural.
  "I am, by nature, somewhat introverted like her, so we fit together well."
• Loners Are Freaks: In addition to her eccentricity, she's arguably more of a loner than even Hanako (who opens up on her and Lilly's routes), as it's pointed out at one point that she isn't all that close to even her best friend Emi.
• Mad Artist: In her route, she goes from an Eccentric Artist to this, although her self-destructive behavior isn't really dangerous to anyone other than her.
• Meaningful Name: Her family name Tezuka is [手塚] (hand + mound). It also doubles as a Shout-Out to the famous Osamu Tezuka.
• Muse Abuse:
  • During preparation for the exhibit, she refuses to reply to Hisao's confession, tells him not to visit, and shuts him out entirely. One of the biggest conflicts between them is Hisao's struggle with Rin's incomprehensibility, and Rin's difficulties with expressing her feelings.
  • She even extends this to herself, by not eating, not sleeping, smoking and so on, in the hope that it will give her some inspiration.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: Since Rin uses her feet for day-to-day things, she wears a boys' uniform to avoid the obvious problem with a skirt. Kenji, due to a combination of this, being legally blind, and Hisao only using her last name to introduce her, mistakes her for a boy.
• No Periods, Period: Strikingly averted when, in one of her more coherent moments, she tells Hisao that she needs to be alone with Emi to clean up her menstrual blood.
• No Title: Rin doesn't create titles for any of her paintings to avoid influencing how other people see them.
• Oh, Crap!: Has one in Act 1 in her usual manner when she realizes that the deadline for her mural is closer than she thought or would like.
  (said completely deadpan) "The end of the world as we know it. Like weekends usually are, but more dire."
• Parental Abandonment: All the other heroines have at least one parent who appears in their respective routes (Shizune's father, Emi's mother) or have a good reason for not appearing (Hanako's dead parents, Emi's Disappeared Dad, Lilly's estranged parents). Rin's parents, however, don't appear at all even though the game confirms that they are alive.
• Redhead In Green: Downplayed, as it's only the pants of her school uniform that are green.
• Rule of Symbolism: There's a lot of symbolism in Rin's route. In her Act 2 Cinematic alone there's Rin's incomprehensible inner thoughts, dandelions, and the visible gap between Rin and Hisao. Her inner thoughts in particular are so alien and possibly unsettling that even Rin looks a little jarred when she wakes up, indicating that she definitely isn't as carefree as she appears.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Though she can be sarcastic herself, she doesn't seem to be very good at detecting sarcasm from other people.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Her only non-uniform outfit is wearing a pair of overalls over the uniform shirt. She even wears the uniform at the exhibition of her work.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: It is generally not a good idea to use figurative language around Rin.
  Hisao: Why'd you be outside? It's raining buckets out there, if you haven't noticed.
  Rin: I haven't. It's raining pretty hard though. I was out on a walk.
• The Slacker: Sometimes cultivates this reputation, as Nomiya says he once thought she was "lazy" for doing her own art in the club instead of the assignments, and outright accuses her of being too lazy to be a successful artist after she runs from the exhibit. She also comes dangerously close to the deadline for the mural for the festival. Then again, given her personality, it's hard to tell.
• Sleep Cute: In her Act 1 ending and again during her own route.
• Terse Talker: "Will think more seriously."
• That Came Out Wrong: While talking about painting.
  Rin: Yeah, I like doing it in a horizontal position more, if you know what I'm talking about.
  • Also later when she and Hisao are painting each other in art club, she says this when asking how she should hold the brush: "Do you want me to do it with my foot or my mouth?" She doesn't seem to notice the Double Entendre, even when Hisao basically says "Wait, what?" out loud.
  • Further on, a scantily clad Rin (on codeine) offers to Hisao the chance to see everything he cares to see in her room.
    Rin: Would you like me to show you the places?
    She looks down at her half-open shirt quizzically, making me inadvertently follow her gaze to her chest.
    Rin: Oh... I guess I already did.
• Tomboy: Rin has the appearance of a tomboy with her short hair and pants, but this is more due to her physical limitations than personal preference. She would have obvious problems with a skirt, so she's allowed to wear the boy's uniform for convenience's sake. Plus, long hair is difficult to maintain, and she'd have trouble brushing it aside if it reached her eyes.
• True Art Is Incomprehensible: Even Rin seems to have little idea of exactly what she's painting at times. Part of the problem in her route is that she wants other people to understand her through her art, but no one can do that satisfactorily.
  Hisao: Yeah. I guess that art is meant to be interpreted, not understood. That's how I'd put it.
• Wall of Text: Her rambling provides the one true example in the game of this. On two occasions, her dialogue is in a box that fills the entire screen, otherwise reserved for Hisao's internal monologues.
• Wild Hair: A minor case, but its noticeably frizzy especially when you put her next to Shizune who also has short hair but hers is more sleek and straight.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: When Hisao first sees her, he says she isn't particularly pretty except for her muddy green eyes, and goes on to consider them her best feature.
• You Remind Me of X: It's implied that Sae believes she's similar to her dead husband in some ways.

Shizune Hakamichi

Shizune Hakamichi

Can you tell me what you think?

[Sometimes I treat everything like a competition between myself and everyone else. Even when it doesn't make any sense to.]

Strong willed and forceful, Shizune is definitely the leader type. She's been the class rep, despite being deaf and mute, for as long as her class has had one, and generally takes charge in just about any situation she's placed in. Shizune is known around the school as a fearsome taskmaster, and skilled manipulator, but also as a fair and just leader.

---

• Batman Gambit: More or less what her interactions with Hisao early in Act 1 boil down to. Seeing that he is depressed, Shizune decides that he needs cheering up. Her way of doing this is by goading him into joining the Student Council and spending time with her and Misha so that he would have something to do or think about other than feeling sorry for himself. The thing is, even if you don't choose her route, the plan still works because she is still the one that forces Hisao out of his complacency and forces him to make choices.
• Brains and Bondage: She's quite clever, and quite kinky too, judging by her first sex scene with Hisao and other details.
  • Her hair also forms subtle cat ears.
• Character Tic: Adjusting her glasses and loudly snapping her fingers.
• The Chessmaster: Subverted, at least in the literal sense. While she is good enough at chess to beat Hanako in a close game in her own route and then mop the floor with her in a rematch using speed rules, she does not really care for it that much, considering it to be too formulaic to be truly considered a game.
• Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: Shizune is in the habit of "tenting" her hands, though she doesn't actually have that much to show as for the implications of the trope, short of mastery of Risk.
• Class Representative: With a rather forceful and hands-on approach.
• Club Stub: She and Misha are the student council. The entire student council. It's offhandedly mentioned that the old council was quite a bit larger than the new one, but most of the old council people left when Shizune took leadership. The last to leave was presumably Lilly.
• Cold Ham: Whenever she gets worked up, she makes sweeping, almost theatrical gestures that gives Misha a hard time deciphering them, but she doesn't say a single word for obvious reasons.
• Curtains Match the Window
• Cute Mute: Averted. She's both cute and mute, but lacks the requisite naivete. Instead, she's clever and stubborn.
• Deep-Fried Whatever: A philosophy to which she firmly ascribes.
  Shizune: [Fried things are always delicious. There is always an exception for them.]
• Disabled Snarker: Hisao wonders if her deafness and inability to hear tone made it difficult to learn sarcasm.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Her best friend and boyfriend betray her in her bad ending (Misha for attempting to screw Hisao while in a Heroic BSoD over not having her love for Shizune requited, Hisao for actually going through with it). Shizune never finds out, though, and it's not the direct cause of her Bad Ending: she actually believes that she has pushed them away.
• Extracurricular Enthusiast: Constantly attempts to recruit Hisao into the Student Council at the beginning, and succeeds in her route.
• First Girl Wins: If you pick her path. While Hanako is the first girl Hisao sees, Shizune is the first one that actually interacts with him.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: A driven and forceful Choleric.
• For Happiness: A big motivation for her is to make the people around her happier.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She really seems to appreciate the stuffed cat that Hisao wins for her in her Act 1 Ending, to the point where it is hanging out of her school bag in the closing CG of her Bad Ending.
• The Glasses Come Off: In one screen, late in her route, you can see a sprite of her without her glasses.
  • A CG later in her route shows her without glasses as well (you also get to see Misha pre-drill hair).
• Go-Getter Girl: To the point where her ambitions sometimes end up driving people away from her.
• I Do Not Speak Non Verbal: A major point of frustration for her and one of the reasons why she can be so blunt at times.
  • Also, she's quite stubborn in that she treats pen-and-paper communication as a last resort, and pretty much communicates with sign language exclusively.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Late in her path, this is revealed to be a major motivation for her behavior. Shortly after she came to Yamaku, she became frustrated with the obvious communication problems that her deafness caused her in this regard, so she turned her efforts towards doing things to make other people happy, the main reason why she joined the Student Council. Sadly, she eventually lost sight of her original goal and came to take her only friend, Misha, for granted. How this turns out is up to the player.
• Innocently Insensitive: She can be very blunt when dealing with other people and can be extremely socially awkward. Though this can be justified by the fact that it is extremely difficult for her to communicate with anyone directly, as well as being unable to perceive vocal cues of emotion and intent in other people.
• Insistent Terminology: Objects to her Big Fancy House being called a mansion.
• Jerkass Realization: Goes through one throughout Act 4, and concludes that she has pushed away those closest to her.
  Shizune: (regarding Lilly) [That was the worst to me, that she could be so nice and still take so many people for granted. Why even join the Student Council, then? It seemed so shortsighted and selfish, don't you think? But it's actually me who's this way].
• Leitmotif: "The Student Council".
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Dark to Lilly's Light.
• Like an Old Married Couple: She and Hisao are compared to one by Misha in her route.
• Lonely at the Top: The reason why she has so few friends: she takes her duties as Student Council President and Class Representative very seriously and wants to actually do something meaningful in her time at Yamaku. This, combined with the natural communication problems her deafness causes results in her coming across as bossy and agressive, which pushes many people, like everyone else in the council (except Misha), including her cousin Lilly with whom she used to be very close, away. This is very ironic when you consider why she joined the council in the first place.
• Lonely Rich Kid
• Manipulative Bitch: In her defense, Hisao is probably giving her too much credit and most of her plans succeed completely by chance. Although he does point out there is something suspicious about someone whose favorite game is Risk. Misha says that while Shizune can be manipulative, she often does so without realizing it.
• Meaningful Name: Shizune is [静音] (quiet + sound).
  • Her original development name was "Rosa", partially from the Japanese word for "deaf" (rousha).
• Milking the Giant Cow: As she can't really be a Large Ham she instead makes very grandiose and energetic signing whenever she is in a more spirited mood.
• Missing Mom
• Motor Mouth: While she is normally understandable enough, whenever she gets agitated she tends to have a habit of signing really fast and furiously and go on long, rapid-fire tangents that gives Misha a hard time keeping up.
• Non-Idle Rich: During her Good Ending, she decides to become a philanthropist after she leaves school, using her family's wealth to help make others happy.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Lilly's route, after finding out that Hisao and Lilly are a couple, she merely tells him that who he dates is his own business, then signs something to Misha, but tells her not to translate it. Hisao notices that it's unusual that she would pull punches in such a way, and it may be related to her and Lilly's later reconciliation.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In Hanako's route, when Hanako begins suffering a nervous breakdown, Shizune doesn't hesitate to help bringing her to the Nurse's office. It's also indicated that she worries about Hanako, but can't get close to her because she's always with Lilly.
  • Also, at the end of Lilly's route, the two seem to genuinely set aside their differences when Lilly assists her with student council work, and Shizune seems she really will miss her once she's gone.
  • A retroactive one in her Good Ending when she talks to Hisao and admits that her actions were all designed to make Hisao happy, since she couldn't stand his dejection and total lack of motivation when he first came to class.
  • A few scenes in Act IV indicate that she worries about Hisao's heart condition more than she openly "says", especially when Hisao reflects on her reaction to Emi running into him.
• Pillars of Moral Character: Her devotion to the Student Council (and her frustration towards everyone else's seeming lack of interest in it), can be said to be rooted in a very highly developed sense of Giri towards her school and its students. Her main grievance with Lilly (who she says put off her duties and missed deadlines to help friends) can also been seen as a perceived lack of it from her towards the same and towards Shizune personally, since she is part of what little family Lilly still has in Japan. She also insists on honoring her bet with Hisao in her own route and carrying Kenji's box on her own, which can be said to be very much an example of On.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "That's. No. Fun."
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: With Misha. Shizune is the blue oni.
• Shipper on Deck: Supports Misha's shipping of Hisao and Hanako during the latter's route because she really does care for her but due to her rivalry with Lilly and her Student Council duties, she can't help her as much as she would like to do so.
  • She and Misha support Hisao more unambiguously on Emi's route.
• Sibling Rivalry: Has one of sorts with Hideaki, and one of the only times they speak, they get into an argument. Hisao, however, infers that this means they can communicate and have a healthy sibling relationship.
• Silent Snarker: Is shown to have a very lively and cutting wit. Despite only beng able to express it in sign language.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: She doesn't possess genius-level intellect, but her drive to excel at everything she does also extends to her studies.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: She is assertive to a point that borders on abrasiveness. And also extremely lonely and frustrated over her inability to keep friends.
• The Speechless: All of her dialog is rendered as "…" or "…!", or with notes, unless you pursue her route. Then Hisao manages to pick up enough sign language skills to converse with Shizune by himself. Signed 'speech' by Shizune, Misha, and Hisao are rendered in […] brackets to represent this.
• Spirited Competitor: Shizune's strictness and harsh initial personality seems to stem from this, oddly enough. To her, everything is a competition, from Risk, to mental duels to snare a new council member, to work in general. In their final H scene Hisao considers that she's even competitive regarding sex, specifically when she pushes him onto a table so she can be on top. Not that he seems to mind much.
  • Deconstructed in her route. Her competitiveness drove the other members of the student council away. In her Bad Ending, she believes that her being this is the reason Hisao and Misha are avoiding her, so she breaks up with Hisao; in her Good Ending, she reveals that she knows that it's jeopardizing her friendships, but she doesn't know any other approach, and she thanks Hisao for talking to Misha for her.
• The Spock: To Lilly's McCoy on the Student Council before she left; their falling-out and current feud is more or less what happens when a Spock and a McCoy just have Misha instead of a Kirk to mediate between them.
• The Tease: In her final H scene she gets on top of Hisao then says "[I should just stop now, and leave you stewing in your lust]" with a cheeky smirk on her face.
• Those Two Guys: What she and Misha become in every route except her own.
• Tragic Hero: Despite her well-intentioned goals for Yamaku, and her desire to make friends, her deafness and competitive personality resulted in her driving people away, including her own cousin Lilly, and she ends up largely disliked except for Misha (who stays around out of unrequited love), and Hisao(who not only can be her boyfriend, but also calls her his friend in Lilly's route- while talking to Lilly, no less).
• Tsurime Eyes: Befitting her forceful and competitive personality.
• Visible Silence: Typically used to represent when she "says" something, followed by Misha's translation of it, but also used for pauses or for things Hisao can't understand ("if a ...^note armadillo bit you")
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Though not stated, it is implied that her competitive workaholic streak rises in part from a desire to earn her father's approval. Unfortunately, the Student Council is one of many things he holds in contempt, in particular because of how it can operate with only three people (Hisao included).
• We Used to Be Friends: In Lilly's route, Shizune reveals that she and Lilly used to be very close to one another. In her own route, it is also revealed that Lilly actually joined the council to help her out when members of the original council started leaving. However, being forced to work together brought the natural clash between their two personalities to head, resulting in their falling out and current enmity.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: "Deep and alluring" blue eyes.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: A major problem for her. It's extremely hard for her to deal with anything without trying to turn it into a contest or a game. She even uses this approach when it is clear that it's probably not a very good way of dealing with a situation, like Misha pulling away from her, because she literally knows no other way.
• When She Smiles: Hisao comments on it in her Act 1 ending.
• You Must Be Cold: After challenging Hisao over who has to carry Kenji's box and her subsequent loss, Shizune shivers badly due to not having a jacket on. Hisao then takes off his own jacket and covers her with it.

Shiina "Misha" Mikado

Shiina "Misha" Mikado

"WAHAHA~!"

Misha interprets for Shizune and is a fellow member of the student council. Cheery, playful, and never one to pull a punch, she happily joins in Shizune's attempts to get Hisao onto the student council. Despite being one of the main characters, she doesn't have a route of her own, though she does get more focus in Shizune's route.

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• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Misha's simultaneous communication in spoken and sign languages is very unrealistic, but Shizune's scenes would be a bit tedious if they tried to portray sign language realistically.
• Ambiguously Bi: In her case, it's the possibility of her being attracted to men that's unclear. While she does ask Hisao to "comfort" her, accepting leads to an H-scene that neither of them (not to mention the viewer) actually enjoys. Hisao's discomfort is due to guilt and shame at cheating on his girlfriend, but whether Misha dislikes it solely for the same reasons (since she's sleeping with her best friend's boyfriend) or if there's also a case of Incompatible Orientation involved is uncertain.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Meta-example for some of the fanbase. Turns out, you can get an H-scene with Misha! Too bad that acting on it means you've cheated on Shizune and directly causes Shizune's Bad End, leading to one of the most heartbreaking moments in the game, you monster. And on top of that, said H-scene is very uncomfortable; it's evident neither her nor Hisao find the sex enjoyable, and the entire scene is just plain awkward.
• Beneath the Mask: As revealed in Shizune's route, she is plagued by uncertainty of purpose in life, and the pain of rejected love for her best friend in the world, Shizune.
• Big Beautiful Woman: At least in comparison to the other girls, she's got a bit more meat on her bones. Her sex scene shows that she's got pretty big breasts and a little pudge on her belly and legs, specially her hips and thighs.
• Book Dumb: Possibly; she's not entirely stupid, but seems to have the most trouble with academics.
• Broken Bird: Beneath that jolly exterior is a mess of Gayngst, jealousy and self-confidence issues.
• Buffy Speak: She calls Jigoro "Mr. Shizune's-dad".
• Club Stub: The only other member of the Student Council aside from Shizune.
• Completely Unnecessary Translator: Early in Shizune's route, Hisao knows sign language, and Misha knows that Hisao knows sign language, but he still has her translate for him because he doesn't want Shizune to know that he knows sign language until he becomes proficient in it. Unbeknownst to him, Misha has told Shizune about his efforts.
• Cool Teacher: She hopes to become one, coming to Yamaku to become a sign language teacher and getting a reduction on her tuition fees as part of a related program.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: She occasionally says things she's not supposed to while translating, sometimes with a lampshade, sometimes not. Sometimes deliberate, sometimes by accident. Maybe, it's hard to tell, as she's smarter than she appears. Hisao wonders at one point if she does this so that people who can hear but not understand sign language are not excluded.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Loses her Ojou Ringlets in the later part of Shizune's route, replacing it with a shorter, tomboyish haircut and a heart-shaped hair clip.
• Foil: To Hanako. Hanako is withdrawn, timid and sensitive to social cues, while Misha is outgoing, energetic and blind to subtle cues.
• Gayngst: Her love for Shizune is unrequited, and she may have suffered other repercussions for being a lesbian, or at the very least bisexual.
• Genki Girl: It's partly a pretense to hide the emotional trauma of Shizune rejecting her love confession, as well as being a coping mechanism for said trauma.
• Gratuitous English: She sports a hilariously out-of-place "BUSH CHENEY 2004" shirt in Shizune's route, during the trip to Shizune's family house over summer break.
  Hisao: Well, at least Misha's clothes reflect her inner self on the outside.
• Important Haircut: Implied that she cut and dyed her hair pink in response to being rejected by Shizune, and cut her hair again when she felt threatened by Hisao's affection towards Shizune.
• Incoming Ham: Many times, when she's about to come into the picture, the whole screen shivers. Hisao also comments on Hearing her distinctive laugh before he sees her.
• Incompatible Orientation: She's into girls too, and Shizune is not (Or at least is not into Misha, if she ever liked girls.).
• Innocently Insensitive: She seems to be rather oblivious to social cues which is hardly an ideal trait in an interpreter and results in more that a few "blind leading the blind" situation like the panic attack incident in Hanako's route.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The reason why she helps Hisao and Shizune get closer in Acts One and Two of Shizune route. Though later on, her jealousy starts getting the better of her.
• Large Ham: WAHAHAHAHAHA!
• Lipstick Lesbian: She's girly and has a thing for Shizune.
• Love Hurts: After having her affections rebuffed by Shizune, she accepted her offer of friendship just so she could be close to her. She later expresses regret for this decision, the proximity making the Just Friends relationship even more painful.
• Matchmaker Crush: She helps Hisao and Shizune to get together... because she loves Shizune and wants her to be happy. It doesn't work that way.
• The McCoy
• The Nicknamer
• No Indoor Voice: Misha is known to have slight volume control issues.
  WAHAHAHAHAHA~
• No Sense of Personal Space: As exemplified by this wallpaper◊.
• Ojou Ringlets: Her hair is styled into ringlets that look like drills.
• Only Friend: To Shizune, due to Shizune being an Alice Type 2; she's not a bad person, but her deafness and resulting communication problems make it hard to get along with others. However, in Lilly's route, Hisao says Shizune is his friend, and Shizune starts to reconcile with Lilly.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Virtually everyone calls her "Misha". Only Mutou seems to call her "Mikado".
• Prelude to Suicide: The normally energetic Misha becomes increasingly quiet and more somber as Shizune's arc progresses. Though she never attempts, it is implied that she's suicidal when she reveals her feelings about Shizune to Hisao. In the original script, she was scripted to always commit suicide in the Shizune route.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: With Shizune. Misha is the pink, drill-haired oni.
• Riddle for the Ages: What is her disability? Does she even have one?
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: The cheerful, optimistic type. Except later we find out that Misha actually invokes this; she dyes her (naturally brown) hair and acts cheerful and optimistic to cope with Shizune turning down her love confession.
• Sarcasm-Blind: She doesn't seem to pick up on when Shizune's being sarcastic even when it's obvious from the words alone even with Misha's cheerful delivery.
• Sex for Solace: One of the many motives behind her attempt to seduce Hisao. It quite obviously doesn't work, as accepting leads to a painfully hollow and loveless act that just reminds both why this was a terrible idea.
• Shipper on Deck: Is this in several routes:
  • In Hanako's route, she seems to be rather curious and excited about her and Hisao's developing relationship. And because she and Shizune do worry for Hanako's sake, but due to the rivalry with Lilly and the Council work, they aren't always able to keep an eye on her. (Though this doesn't work as planned at some point).
  Misha: [when Hanako and Hisao come to class together and a little late]: Aaaaaah, the lovers have returned! WAHAHAHAHAHA~
  • In Shizune's route, she encourages Hisao in his efforts to learn Sign Language and allowing the two of them time alone together. She wants Shizune to be happy after all. Though late in her route, her personal pain boils up and causes problems.
  • In Emi's route, she shows up after Emi and Hisao have a fight at Emi's home and pushes Hisao to talk to her and mend their almost-broken relationship. Whether you get the Bad or Good Ending depends on what's your reaction to her.
    • Earlier in the route, she also comments on how cute they are together, and after scolding Hisao on their PDA for Shizune, adds "subtle" hint that she approves, but they should make sure Shizune doesn't catch them.
  • She also grins widely in response to hearing that Hisao and Lilly are a couple, in contrast to Shizune's more enigmatic response.
• Signature Laugh: "Wahaha~", although she also uses "Hahaha" and the occasional "Ahaha".
• Stepford Smiler: It's revealed late in Shizune's route that her cheerful nature is a façade to cover Gayngst and unrequited love. Shizune lampshades this when she says she doesn't associate cheerful behavior with Misha the same way Hisao does
  Shizune: The Misha you know is different from the one I think of, when I think of the time we first met. Even though I think she looks better cheerful and smiling, that isn't how she typically is.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  Misha: Of course we're not trying to get you to join just because we would obviously benefit from you joining the student council and therefore have an incentive to try and get you to…
• Tactful Translation: Oh so subverted. Much to Shizune's dismay.
• Tareme Eyes: Contrasting with Shizune's Tsurime Eyes.
• Third-Person Person: Often sounds like this while acting as Shizune's hyperactive Translator Buddy (Hisao has trouble figuring out who's speaking at times).
  Misha: Misha, stop doing that! Wait... I'm Misha...
• Those Two Guys: What she and Shizune become in every other route.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Parfaits.
• Translation: "Yes": In routes besides Shizune's, Hisao often notices Misha and Shizune having signing exchanges too long for what Misha actually says, such as when Shizune goes out to get some food in one scene in Hanako's route, leaving Misha and Hisao to talk about Hanako.
• Translator Buddy: For Shizune, translating her sign language into speech and other people's speech into sign language.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: During Hanako's route, she teasingly questions Hisao and Hanako about their relationship, which causes him to spill the beans about the birthday party he and Lilly were planning for Hanako, resulting in her panic attack. To Misha's credit, though, she genuinely has no idea that Hanako's birthday is a subject that is not to be talked about in front of her, and once she finds out she apologizes to Hanako immediately.
• Verbal Tic: "Right?" Appears almost as often as her distinctive laugh.
• Voice for the Voiceless: In the most literal sense possible.
• What, Exactly, Is Her Job?: In the student council, she has no official position. She is sometimes assumed to be a vice president, but basically does whatever needs to be done, and interprets for Shizune.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: In the four routes besides Shizune's, she tries to get Hisao to do work for the Council. When he accepts near the end of Lilly's route, she initially starts to respond as though he's refused again, then is shocked to realize he said yes.
  Hisao: I think I broke Misha.

Yamaku Students

Kenji Setou

Kenji Setou

Borderline Hikikomori, Kenji likes to spend a lot of time in his room, planning for whatever the radical feminist movement's next move may be. He is leery of the instant attraction that Hisao seems to have brought upon himself, but nonetheless very pleased to finally have a hallmate. Over the course of the various routes, several hints are dropped regarding him, including an implication that he used to date Yuuko.

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• Blind Without 'Em: Kenji is legally blind. The glasses help… but not much.
• Bromantic Foil: A subversion, as he is a misogynist rather than a Chivalrous Pervert. Possibly double-subverted when it turns out he had a girlfriend in the past, and is considerably less misogynistic when talking about her. He may have even become a feminist-hater because of their breakup.
  • He does display some more traits of this in Lilly's route. When Hisao is depressed because she's leaving Yamaku to go to Scotland, Kenji is surprisingly understanding of his situation.
• Catchphrase: "The time has come!" It's even lampshaded.
• Character Filibuster: Many of his rants push their way into this territory, for Overly Long Gag purposes. One of them even gives you the option to "ignore his insane ramblings."
• Cloudcuckoolander: Even when he isn't indulging in conspiracy theories, he comes off as pretty detached from reality. He even fails to notice that Shizune is deaf and is apparently unaware of sign language entirely. When Hisao says "It's me" to Kenji, making him panic because he doesn't know anyone named "me." He soon deduces that "me" must be a psychic spy.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Believes that radical feminists are building an army to destroy "man"kind and that Yamaku with its admittedly highly suspicious 60/40 female/male ratio will be one of the first battlegrounds.
• Dissimile: When Kenji is ranting about the second most shocking moment in his life in "Soap".
  Kenji: It was like in the openings to some kind of anime show, you know how there is always a part where the main dude is fighting his rival, and they fly at each other and clash swords and there's like, big dramatic colored auras and zoom? It was like that, but with poo.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: When he removes his glasses in Shizune's route.
• Everyone Has Standards: Men who like futanari porn are not welcome in Kenji's army.
• Gay Option: He was going to be one, but it was scrapped due to time constraints. Hisao's retrieval of Kenji's "package" in Shizune's route may be a reference to this.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: When he briefly removes them, he looks as though he hasn't slept in years and has a completely calm expression on his face. However, given that this is Kenji, he still rants about the same things.
• He-Man Woman Hater: MANLY PICNIC!
• Hero of Another Story: In a lot of the routes, he seems to be up to be up to something, but we never actually see what it is, though it definitely seems to be something completely different in each route, like stealing books from the library in Emi's route or trying to get ahold of a very important package in Shizune's.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Though most of his scenes are played for straight humor, after Kenji reads Iwanako's letter to Hisao, he talks fondly of how he misses his old girlfriend (strongly hinted to be Yuuko), and even tries to encourage Hisao to write Iwanako back. Hisao tries to call him on this, to which Kenji replies that he doesn't hate all women, just feminists.
  • In Lilly's arc, he shows that he does have a caring side when he's legitimately understanding about Hisao being upset over Lilly leaving. He even offers to listen to Hisao's problems.
• Informed Ability: During Act 1 and later in Hanako's route, he mentions that he is an avid bowler. He also points out in Shizune's route that he and his old girlfriend used to bowl in the hallway. Neither route has a scene where Hisao and Kenji go bowling.
• Insane Troll Logic: "Correlation equals causation, you know."
• Jerkass Has a Point: Kenji claims that Emi is a menace who is trying to put students in the hospital with her charging through the hallways. Considering she would have given Hisao two heart scares at that point (one by crashing into him while running in the halls), Kenji has a valid point.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even though he can be weird, annoying, offensive, and abrasive at times, Kenji is genuinely a nice person at heart. Later interactions show that he does listen to Hisao, and that he's sometimes actually concerned about his wellbeing. This kindness is not exclusively reserved for Hisao, though: when he accidentally bumps into Lilly and knocks her over, he even makes an attempt to help her up. Later in the same route, when Hisao is clearly bummed out about finding out that she is going to leave for Scotland, he runs into Kenji who asks him what's wrong, and says that if he ever needs to talk, to come talk to him, because that's what friends are for. He also shows quite the insight after finding out about Iwanako's letter... and talks fondly about his old girlfriend.
• Large Ham: Can be pretty… exaggerated when in the middle of his rants. Hisao thinks he does everything very dramatically.
• Last-Name Basis: Typically refers to the girls by their last names, when he refers to them by name at all.
• Leitmotif: "Out of the Loop", a wacky sounding track, fitting since he's the comic relief.
• Loners Are Freaks: The thought of all the people socializing at the school festival disturbs him.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: In the Bad Ending of Act 1, Hisao falls to his death backing away from him. This may seem unintentional, but in an earlier scene Kenji mentions that if he was to kill Hisao, the way he would do it would be to push him off the roof of a building and make it look like an accident. Many fans have taken this to be more than a bit suspicious.
• Mind Screwdriver: The bad ending path finally clears up why Kenji keeps spouting unsubstantiated hypothesis about feminist domination: he didn't realize that sex is exhausting, and he thought his old girlfriend had intentionally stolen his life force from him when he got tired after they made love.
• Noodle Incident: Unless you get the bad ending, the reason why Kenji subscribes to crazy conspiracy theories about feminists is not made clear. You only get an explanation for why he hates feminists with such passion in the bad ending, as only on that path does Kenji drunkenly explain to Hisao that he and his old girlfriend had sex, but Kenji apparently didn't realize beforehand that sex can exhaust people...so when he became tired and sleepy after having sex, he thought his old girlfriend had deliberately sapped his life force from him. This misunderstanding caused him to dump his old girlfriend, and he subscribed to crazy theories about feminists seeking to dominate him ever since.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Frequently gets inches from Hisao's face. Justified because he has really poor eyesight, but he doesn't seem aware of how uncomfortable he's making Hisao.
• Only Sane Man: Kenji is convinced he is this. We can only hope he's wrong.
  Hisao: Just thinking about what it's like to be the last sane man in an insane world.
  Kenji: You mean that's you? That can't be, because I'm the last sane man in an insane world. That is my dream, you can't just steal a man's dream.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Late in Lilly's route, he noticed that Hisao is depressed over Lilly's impending departure for Scotland and offers support if Hisao needs it.
• Opaque Nerd Glasses: His huge, opaque glasses are certainly a reminder that he is reclusive and difficult to interact with.
• Pet the Dog: A few times towards the end of Lilly's route.
• Running Gag: In Shizune's route, despite numerous interactions with her, he never figures out that she is deaf.
• Scary Shiny Glasses:
  Hisao: It's Kenji. He seems to be in a friendly mood, although the light glinting off his glasses in the dark gives him a sinister look.
• The Schizophrenia Conspiracy: Kenji is in the school because of his poor eyesight, but certainly he's not completely right with his mind; it's implied he's schizophrenic as well.
• Shadow Archetype: Kenji is who Hisao could be if he chooses to stay angry and bitter about his life instead of trying to reach out and make friends. Much like Hisao, he can also come off as insensitive and pushy, traits that Hisao demonstrates depending on your decisions in each girl's route.
  • To a lesser degree he can be considered one for Shizune. Both of them are eccentric people who gravitate towards Hisao and intend to get him to come around to their way of thinking. While Shizune tries to get Hisao to become a better person who takes responsibility for his actions, Kenji drags Hisao down into a hole of bitterness and blaming feminism for everything, which leads to Hisao's death.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Kenji becomes very noticeable in his absence after about midway through Act 2 of Emi and Rin's routes. His last appearance in Lilly's route, while fairly late, is on an uncharacteristically serious note. (See O.O.C. Is Serious Business). In Shizune and Hanako's routes, he disappears when the route takes a turn for the dramatic, then reappears after the player has resolved the ending-deciding issues, but appears shortly before the last scene of Shizune's bad ending.
• Shout-Out:
  • To Dr. Strangelove when Kenji complains that sex sapped his life force. Which is the reason for all his crazy conspiracy-theorizing about feminists.
  • During the Act 1 bad ending, Kenji often makes mentions of him being in despair!
  • His remark in regard to the Only Sane Man.
    Kenji: There can only be one, like in that foreign movie where there could only be one, and in the end there is only one dude left, because that was the point.
  • In Shizune's route: "She's like the Picard to my Kirk, or even the Janeway!" He also mentions a desire for Dragon Ball Legos.
  • He also references Braveheart a couple of times.
    Kenji: Like that movie about the life of William Wallace, where they took his stuff but not his freedom, and then they killed him.
    • Even more hilarious considering that we have Lilly, a half-Scottish character.
  • Also in Shizune's route:
    Kenji: But then the sunlight reflected off my glasses and blinded her, saving my life. It was like, behold, optic blast.
    Kenji: Maybe I overwhelmed her with my logic, so badly that she just retreated into denial. Maybe she is just an asshole. Either way, she didn't reply, and the future refused to change.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: What profanity Emi doesn't get, most of the rest of it spills forth from Kenji's mouth. And what he may lack in frequency in some routes, he makes up for in intensity, being rather content to casually throw various forms of "fuck" around.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Subverted. He looks the part, but as soon as he opens his mount he is very evidently a self-absorbed madman.
• Subpar Supremacist: He talks a lot about manliness and is indicated to have some issues with the female gender, but with his scrawny build and lack of exercise, he's about as far from manly norms as possible.
• Testosterone Poisoning: His idolising of masculinity is meant to come off as ridiculous.
  Hisao: It's not a secret club being a guy.
  Kenji: It should be. With rings. Rings with big-assed emblems. And gold!
• The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: Kenji warns Hisao during the Act 1 Bad Ending that leaning against the fence on the school roof is unsafe. Unfortunately for him, his warning goes unheeded and Hisao dies by falling off the roof.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza! And before that, it was ice cream.

Miki Miura

Miki Miura

Miki is a tall, dark-skinned girl with purple hair. She apparently lost her left hand in a shop class accident in the somewhat recent past.

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• Alliterative Name: Miki Miura.
• Ambiguously Brown: She might be multi-race or she could merely be tan from being outside a lot.
• Ascended Extra: Previously only seen in background shots, she gets actual lines past act 2 in Hanako's route.
• Everybody Hates Math:
  Hisao: I'm guessing you're not too interested in [maths?]
  Miki: Screw math. It's boring as hell.
• The Lad-ette: Her tomboyish, athletic personality, lack of interest in studying, and semi-teasing attitude to Hisao over Hanako hint at her being this.
• One of the Boys: Hisao thinks it feels more like talking to a boy than a girl with her.
• Passionate Sports Girl: She may lack a hand, but she's also a runner like Emi.
• Shipper on Deck: In Hanako's route, if Hisao admits to Miki that he might like her, she'll support his interest in her. (Conversely, if he denies such an interest, she'll look rather unhappy and lament that she was seeing too much into it.)
  Miki: To be honest, I think it's kinda cute. If you want to go for it, don't let me stop you!.

Other students

Classmates of the main cast. Full names and disabilities here, along with the cameo characters. None of them play a major role in the plot, though a few get brief mentions.

Molly Kapur

Molly is an Indian girl with prosthetic legs.

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• Artificial Limbs: Molly's legs are prosthetics.
• Canon Immigrant: Sort of. She is a character from Measuring Shadows, an abandoned project for a visual novel some of the devs of Katawa Shoujo were previously working on. Her appearance in the classroom CG was intended as a mere cameo, but she gets a further appearance in the closing CG of Hanako's path.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Black hair and black eyes.
• Foreign Exchange Student: The fact that the yearbook notes that she's Indian gives this impression, as does her Indian name, and the fact that she's a Canon Immigrant also supports this.
• Ship Tease: Often paired with Takashi in both official and fan art.
• Shipper on Deck: In the final image of Hanako's good ending as she leans in to kiss Hisao, Molly can be seen in the background with a rather happy expression on her face (as seen in her picture here) as she appears to gossip with the boy next to her, as if she's saying "See, I told you those two would end up together! They're inseparable!"

Takashi Maeda

An art student wearing a beret. Has Tinnitus, and wears a bandage over his right ear as a result. Hisao implies that they don't get along.

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• Artsy Beret: The always classic beret, often associated with artists.
• Ship Tease: He's often paired with Molly in both official and fan art.

Taro Arai

An obese student with monoplegia.

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• Asleep in Class: The one thing we see him do.
• Fat Idiot: Gives off this impression, considering that the only time we see him is sleeping in class, drooling over his face and presumably snoring. Considering he's got monoplegia it could be his face is just stuck like that.

Suzu Suzuki

A girl with light blue hair who has narcolepsy.

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• Alliterative Name: Suzu Suzuki.
• Hikikomori: The little that exists about Suzu portrays her as such. It may be not far from reality because while narcolepsy is often portrayed as cute or funny in media, it's not: the embarrassment and danger associated with it often drive the affected into social isolation.
• Repetitive Name: A Classic Classical example, as it is Suzu Suzuki, rather than Suzu Suzu.
• Sleepyhead: Justified, considering she has narcolepsy. She looks ready to nod off in the classroom CG.

Natsume Ooe

A brown haired girl with glasses, who suffers from low vision in her right eye, as well as rheumatoid arthritis.

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• Author Avatar: A "moefied" version of Aura, who actually uses her as his avatar in the Katawa Shoujo forums. Confirmed by the developers.
• The Cameo: Briefly mentioned in Rin's route.
• School Newspaper Newshound: Is a member of the newspaper club, and manages to rope Hanako into it in Lilly's route.

Naomi Inoue

A dark blonde haired girl with epilepsy.

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• Author Avatar: Is one to Delta.
• The Cameo: Briefly featured with Natsume in Rin's route; it's mentioned in passing that she had a epileptic seizure a while ago.
• Genki Girl: Implied to be one, as Hanako notes that "she's a bit loud sometimes, and a bit tiring", but she considers her a nice person.
• School Newspaper Newshound: Presumably works with Natsume in roping Hanako into the club.
• Stepford Smiler: When Hisao notices that she’s smiling in spite of recently having had an epileptic seizure, he wonders about how Yamaku students live with their conditions.

Rika Katayama

"So... we are the same... is that what you're saying?"

A girl with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition not completely unlike Hisao's. Unlike him, however, she was diagnosed early in her life, so she has been in and out of treatments and operations that left her very delicate. She made her appearance on the blog as an April Fool's prank, as an additional girl Hisao can pursue.

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• Rei Ayanami Expy: Besides the hair and eye color, she has characteristic traits like life-long isolation from society and strange behaviors.
• Shrinking Violet: Often mistaken for this because she's often lost in thought, even in crowds.

Saki Enomoto

"That's kind of a cute thing of you to say, but being too cute has its drawbacks too."

A girl who suffers with spinocerebellar ataxia, a degenerative disease that makes her lose muscle control and will eventually kill her. Appears as an April Fool's prank on the KS blog, as an additional girl Hisao can pursue. In the actual game, a girl who looks like her appears in one of the art club CGs but is not named.

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• Curtains Match the Window: Has light brown hair and brown eyes.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Clumsy because of her condition (she must use a cane to walk), and indeed cute. Takes her clumsiness in stride.
• Disabled Means Helpless: Defies it more than anyone else. She may have to live with a horrifying degenerative disease, but she tries her hardest to be outgoing and fashionable. She even challenges herself by engaging in activities such as art that require fine motor control.
• Perpetual Smiler: Said to always be smiling, regardless of her mood.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Her disability severely cuts down on her life expectancy. While some varieties of SCA allow for a normal lifespan (albeit with mobility assistance), the devs implied in the April Fools Announcement that her disease was one of the more severe forms of Spinocerebellar Ataxia.

Aoi and Keiko

Two girls who take over the Student Council from Shizune and Misha at the end of Shizune's route.

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• Walking Spoiler: Their existence is only revealed at the end of one of the heroines' routes, one that goes on much longer than the other four.

Yamaku Staff

Nurse

Nurse

The chief of the nurse staff of Yamaku, and a surprisingly young person for someone in his position. He is a funny and jovial guy, always good for a laugh and well liked by the students. Nonetheless, he has a heart of pure gold and he is very passionate and serious about his job.

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• Big Brother Mentor: Sort of, especially to Hisao and Emi.
• Big "WHAT?!": Upon finding out that the race against Emi was Hisao's idea.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": What's even worse is that Hisao even mentions in his thoughts of reading Nurse's name on the door, and then doesn't bother to think about his name. Not even 4Leaf Studios has given him a name.
• Eyes Always Shut: He sometimes opens his left eye when emphasizing a point.
• The Gadfly: Loves teasing Emi by pretending he's seducing Hisao during Hisao's daily heart checkup.
• Hospital Hottie: A male example.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: He likes to remind Hisao that he knows what medications he's on.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Closer to Emi than the other girls, to the point where he calls her by her first name.
• Leitmotif: "Ah Eh I Oh You", a soft jazzy track, surprisingly fitting of the nice guy mentor persona.
• Loose Lips: He has a bad habit of slipping out confidential patient information to third parties, e.g. talking to Hisao about his medication within earshot of Rin and mentioning Emi's car crash to Hisao.
• Nice Guy: He can get a bit angry if you don't watch your health, but at the end of the day he's a friendly, loveably guy who just so happens to be a bit of a gadfly.
• No Name Given: It is mentioned that his nameplate can be seen on his office door, but the name is never mentioned.
• School Nurse: Head of the school's nurse staff, which is more emphasized here due to Yamaku's focus on medical services for its students.
• Shipper on Deck: In regards to Hisao and Emi, in her route. "(Because) You're good for her. She trusts you, even if you don't think she does."
• Shout-Out: The character is based off a real life nurse who posted a series of threads on 4chan about his experiences taking care of a multiamputee car crash victim ^note In truth, there is no definitive proof of both the nurse and the little girl not being fictional. Doesn't prevent the story from being heartwarming, inspiring the relationship between the Nurse and Emi. A collection of them can be found here.
  • Excluding the edgy and uncomfortable 4chan-brand rape jokes.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Calls Hisao and Emi out when Hisao's heart almost gives out due to trying to pick a race with Emi without taking precautions.
  The nurse stares at the ceiling, mutters a prayer for patience to some god or another, and looks back down at the both of us.
  Nurse: So you're both stupid. That's a comfort, I guess.

Akio Mutou

Akio Mutou

Both homeroom and science teacher of 3-3, and just as much out of touch with his class as he is out of touch with reality. Probably born to be a teacher, no matter how much his students disagree. His greatest skill is the ability to ignore irrelevant things completely, no matter how much anyone who wishes he'd remember their names disagrees.

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• Apathetic Teacher: He can give off this impression, with his frequent lateness and uninspired lectures, but he's enthusiastic about his subject and concerned about his students. He just tends to be too awkward to express it very well. In Hanako's route, Hisao disapproves of his allowing Hanako to leave class so often, thinking that he doesn't care, but later on in the route it becomes clear that he lets her leave class to give her the space she needs.
• Cool Teacher: Despite how absentminded he can be sometimes, he often tries to be understanding of his students. When Mr. Nomiya interrupts the exam to have a word with Hisao, he manages to stay professional despite Nomiya overstepping his bounds and even tries to give Hisao an excuse to avoid Nomiya by asking him if he wants to check his exam answers again.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: He prefers the sciences instead.
• Foil: He serves as one for Shinichi Nomiya. Both of them are teachers whose classes Hisao takes and are eccentric to a certain degree. Motou will give advice to Hisao throughout the various routes and suggests he take science classes once he goes to university, but at the end of the day, expects Hisao to draw his own conclusions and make his own decisions. In contrast. Nomiya guides Rin down a path he sees for her and does everything in his power to railroad her against her wishes, with the story gradually revealing that Nomiya is Secretly Selfish and cares more about using Rin to achieve his own failed dreams.
• Hidden Depths: At first glance, Motou seems mild-mannered if a little out of touch with his students. Throughout the various routes, he gives advice to Hisao that often helps and it's clear that he really does want his students to be able to function in society; not simply get good grades under his care, but develop life skills that will serve them well later.
• Looks Like Cesare: Is very tall and pale, has dark hair and bags under his eyes.
• Psychologist Teacher: He has his moments.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Mutou doesn't give his students a terribly hard time in his class if they have certain conditions, and will often give Hisao useful advice and help him out of tough spots. He also knows exactly how to handle the situation with a minimum of complications when Hanako has a severe panic attack in the middle of class during her route.
• Science Hero: Of a sort. He's the science teacher, and he actually, through a lecture on science, helps Hisao realize how to handle things with Emi after the final exams. Relationship advice... THROUGH SCIENCE!
• The Stoic: Calm most of the time, and his sprites' facial expressions don't change much.
• Tranquil Fury: He's not very pleased by Mr. Nomiya's walking into his class, looking for Hisao in the middle of an exam, even if he doesn't show it.
• The Unsmile: He gets this trope early in Rin's route as Hisao describes an instance of him giving "a genial smile that would scare little children senseless."
• What the Hell, Hero?: Also gives Hisao a stern lecture about how selfish it is to disregard the faculty's advice if he overworks himself on the track.

Yuuko Shirakawa

Yuuko Shirakawa

Yuuko has serious problems with managing her life, which makes her the perfect person to ask for help to manage one's own. She funds her university studies by working part time at a popular cafe. The lengths she goes to avoid being fired for her natural clumsiness bewilder other people, along with her neurotic attention to detail and frequent streaks of depression.

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• Apologizes a Lot: Tends to apologize profusely for any mistakes she has or thinks she might have made, possibly out of a fear of getting fired, since she struggles to afford college.
• Art Evolution: Like Emi, her sprites have been redesigned since the original release of Act 1.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: Trying to hold back when she knows she shouldn't say something seems to almost cause her physical pain. She usually ends up blurting it out anyway.
• Cool Big Sis: Tries to be this, and it works surprisingly well considering her shyness.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: The very first time the protagonist meets her, she hits her head on a desk she's under before greeting him.
• Fanservice with a Smile
• Fiery Redhead: Inverted, she's very shy instead.
• Hidden Depths: Is actually rather perceptive, and good at both reading people's reactions/feelings and giving sound advice to Hisao when he asks for it.
• Honor Before Reason: A mild case. In order to make sure she's doing her jobs correctly, she'll do things like thank regular customers for coming to the cafe, even after they've said she doesn't need to.
• Hot Librarian: Yuuko works as an assistant librarian at Yamaku whenever she isn't working at the cafe.
• Nervous Wreck: She gets nervous very often and for the smaller of the slightest mistakes, usually relaying on Hisao to tell her that it's nothing to be concerned about in order to calm down.
• Ocular Gushers: Has this at times.
• Shrinking Violet
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  Yuuko: I wasn't asleep and welcome to the Shanghai!
• Youthful Freckles

Shinichi Nomiya

Shinichi Nomiya

Nomiya is the school art teacher, and the overseer of the art club, obviously.

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• All for Nothing: Nomiya's rant during "Measuring Shadows" has him come to this conclusion, asking Rin why he even bothered helping her:
  Nomiya:(to Rin) "You are not a resolved person... Then tell me, why... why... WHY DID WE GO THROUGH ALL THIS TROUBLE IF IT AMOUNTS TO A MOSQUITO'S SHIT?"
  Nomiya: "What worth is there in doing so much work if the outcome is... nothing?"
• Always Camp: He does act and dress fairly flamboyantly.
• Armor-Piercing Question: During Act 4 He asks Hisao if he has any passions comparable to Rin's passion for art. Hisao is forced to concede that he does not.
• Berserk Button: Rin running away from the exhibit makes him furious, in contrast to his outwardly jovial personality.
• Big Bad Friend: Katawa Shoujo tends to operate via No Antagonist in terms of character writing, with Kenji and Jigoro being unpleasant but not antagonistic enough to be considered full-on antagonists for Hisao to deal with. Nomiya is the closest thing Rin's route has to a main antagonist due to him being someone who at first supports Rin a bit too much, then gradually reveals his less-than-noble motives for wanting her to succeed.
• Broken Pedestal: Becomes one for Rin by the end of her route. ("I thought he was my friend...")
• Cool Shades: Wears a tiny pair of pince-nez glasses over his nose, with pink tinted lenses.
• Dirty Coward: During Act 3, he'll mention Sae's dead husband and how the man put his creativity above all else to the point of eventually ending his own life. Despite this, Nomiya subtly guides Rin down a similar path while he chose to become an art teacher because he couldn't hack it as an artist like Sae's deceased husband. His rant in Act 4 implies that he may've tried to become an artist to pay his rent but due to his own inability to come up with anything, he never got anywhere and eventually gave up.
• Fat Bastard: At first, Nomiya seems to have good intentions for Rin but overtime, it becomes increasingly clear that Nomiya is Secretly Selfish and is merely using Rin as a means to gather status and money for himself by controlling her as his protégé.
• Foil: To Mutou. Both exemplify the cliché of goofy-looking lecturers guilty of some favoritism, but Mutou is reserved while Nomiya is exuberant. Most crucially, Mutou shows numerous human and professional qualities that Nomiya distinctly lacks. Even discounting their art/science rivalry, it comes to no one's surprise that the two men dislike each other, even coming to a brief clash during Act 4 of Rin's route.
• Foreshadowing: There are several hints that Nomiya is Secretly Selfish and that his railroading of Rin isn't in her best interests:
  • The earliest hint is his rose-tinted fixation on Rin's art, even going as far as to make special arrangements to have Rin skip all her classes so she can produce more art, cutting into her education and free time.
  • Despite mentioning that Sae's husband killed himself due to his obsessive drive to create art, he has no problem with putting Rin down a similar path even though it's shown that for Rin, this is only doing more harm than good.
  • One of the Act 3 cutscenes "Rose-Tinted Glasses" has the narration give subtle hints that Hisao knows that something is off with Nomiya's behavior and in that scene, it's clear that Nomiya cares more about Rin getting a famous career in art than he does about her actual well-being.
  • During the exhibit, Rin ends up overwhelmed due to everyone's questions causing her to develop sensory overload and shut down. Rather than try to help Rin or even call off the art exhibit for a recess until Rin feels better, Nomiya does nothing. Hisao ends up being the one to escort Rin out of the art gallery so she can catch her bearings.
  • After the exhibit, one of the Act 4 cutscenes is called "Desperate Glory" and there are several things Nomiya says that imply that he doesn't understand Rin or really care for her happiness, only her ability to create art and how one of her pieces has made a good amount of money.
• Jerkass: While his intentions are good, and he only wants to help Rin be successful, he completely disregards her feelings and health. When she runs away from the art show during the path to her good ending, Nomiya completely blows up at her, feeling that all his work nurturing her talents has gone to waste, asking what was the point of all that effort if it just amounted to "MOSQUITO SHIT".
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • In "Rose-Tinted Glasses", in response to Hisao asking if putting emphasis on Rin using her feet to paint would be exploitive, Nomiya points out the unfortunate reality that disability is stigmatized in society and that it would be considered exploitive if Rin's disability is promoted and discriminatory if Rin's disability is hidden away.
  • During "Desperate Glory", when Hisao asks if painting can really make Rin happy, Nomiya points out that in artistry, sacrifices have to be made and painting is a form of work like any other and Rin works hard on her art. He continues with how despite how hard things are, it's no excuse not to try, before asking Hisao if he has anything like Rin's drive for art. Hisao is forced to concede that he doesn't.
• Large Ham: Dude has NO indoor voice, and once launches in quite a long rant about art in itself.
• Psychological Projection: During his rant in "Measuring Shadows" when Rin goes to apologize, there is a part of his rant which is... very specific and could be referring to his own personal life.:
  Nomiya: When you lie on the floor of your minuscule room, your rent three weeks late, your mind blank for the fourth week straight, then you will wish that you had listened to old Nomiya a bit more. When you keep measuring how the shadow of your chair becomes longer over the spring because that's all your lethargy allows, maybe that's when you will start caring about your career!"
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: His response to Rin's apology basically devolves into one, accusing her of throwing away a vital opportunity and ends by saying that he doesn't consider her an artist.
• Stage Dad: He's not Rin's father, but he only wants to help Rin be successful disregard of her feelings. He even remarks at one point that he's not as good as Rin or Sae's dead husband, and having realized the limits of his ability, chose to become a teacher instead.
• Stealth Pun: One of the earliest hints to Nomiya's character is that he literally wears rose-tinted glasses, befitting of his view on Rin's art.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Him, Sae, and Sae's dead husband.
• Vicariously Ambitious: His entire role in Rin's route involves him trying to get Rin to become a successful artist. By piecing together some of the things he mentions in the story, it can be inferred that he was a failed artist who simply didn't have what it took to survive in the art world and hoped that he could make up for that through Rin.

Relatives

Akira Satou

Akira Satou

A beautiful lawyer and Lilly's older sister. She lives some distance from Yamaku High School. While they were still living together, Lilly did the cooking for both of them.

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• A-Cup Angst: A minor example: she complains that Lilly got all the height and bust genes in the family. Understandable, since she's flat as a cutting board and Lilly measures 89-61-89.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Parodied at one point when Kenji assumes Akira is a Yakuza assassin (and a man) because of her suit.
• Bifauxnen: She's flat-chested and headstrong, giving her a distinctly masculine look and feel. That suit sure does look snappy, but it thoroughly confuses the protagonist for a good few seconds. Hisao actually stops himself from making any guesses in Shizune's path, as he just ran into Hideaki a few moments ago. The usual personality that goes with this trope is averted, though - "refined" is not an adjective that describes her.
• Bilingual Bonus: Akira is a legitimate female name in Scottish, just as it is in Japanese.
• Broken Bird: Not halfways as other girls, but she can show a very cynical and sad side to her, as she has not forgiven her parents for leaving them behind, but feels as though she has no choice but to move to Scotland, even if she has to leave her boyfriend behind.
  • In Lilly's Good Ending, she is inspired by Hisao's antics to stay for a while to get the boyfriend a passport to join her in Scotland, while noting that the parents are "baying for her blood by now".
• But Not Too Foreign: Half-Japanese, Half-Scottish, same as Lilly.
• But Now I Must Go: In Lilly's path, she ends up leaving for Scotland with her boyfriend.
• Cool Big Sis: Ignoring the fact that she smuggled wine to Hanako's birthday party, she's a kindhearted, caring sister who frequently uses her free time with Lilly despite being busy. She's just a bit jealous of Lilly in some areas, though.
• Damned by Faint Praise: She says the thing she liked most about going to see her parents was their house being next to the beach.
• Drives Like Crazy: In Hanako's route when she and Lilly take Hanako and Hisao to a Jazz Club, she drives them into town and apparently scares Hanako in the process.
• Gender-Blender Name: While "Akira" is a unisex name in Japan, it's still more commonly used for men, which is fitting for Akira's own masculine appearance.
• Height Angst: It's implied she wishes she was taller, since she has dialogue indicating she envies Lilly for getting the height genes.
• Hidden Depths: Despite seeming laid-back and carefree, late in Lilly's route, she reveals a more angsty, bitter and cynical side of herself when talking about her and Lilly's past, including Lilly's impending departure for Scotland.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: After mentioning that she had to break up with her boyfriend because of her taking a job in Scotland, tells Hisao that life is not a fairy tale and "sometimes stuff happens that you have to roll with, even if it means hurting yourself and others".
• The Lad-ette
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: A non-romantic example with Hideaki, whom she sometimes babysits.
• Parental Abandonment: Her parents left her and Lilly behind to go to Scotland when Akira was nineteen. She blames their unwillingness to deal with Lilly's blindness.
• Promotion to Parent: For Lilly, after their parents left. She's not too happy with her parents for abandoning them, and confesses to Hisao that she feels she didn't do everything she could to raise Lilly well.
• Shipper on Deck: Obviously, if you choose Lilly's route.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: She's unrefined, a bad cook, and a Bifauxnen, while her sister is classy, a good cook and looks very feminine.
• Slasher Smile: Has one on a few occasions in Lilly's route, such as when Hideaki alludes to her putting the tickets in the washing machine.
• Smoking Is Cool: She thinks so, but laments that she doesn't smoke.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: As the Tomboy to Lilly's Girly Girl.

Hideaki Hakamichi

Hideaki Hakamichi

Shizune's younger brother. Appears in Lilly's and Shizune's routes. Is smart and very analytical, but lacks any real tact.

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• Abusive Parents: It's Jigoro, after all. He may not have it as hard as Shizune, since he has no disabilities and is the youngest of the two, but still. His feminine way of clothing could also be a reaction to his father, a figure so overbearing it has lead to a symbolical "emasculation" of his son.
• Alliterative Name: Hideaki Hakamichi.
• Brutal Honesty: Often does this, since he seems to have no verbal filter.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Mostly because he wears extremely feminine clothing, and doesn't realize it until people start mistaking him for a girl.
• Hair Antennae: He has two long strands sticking out of the top of his hair.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: His appearance and mannerisms make a pretty big contrast when you meet him in Lilly's route, accompanied by his Bifauxnen cousin Akira.
• Not So Stoic: Near the end of Lilly's route, when Hisao is going after Lilly before she can leave for Scotland, his facial expression alone reveals that she has already left, and he seems somewhat concerned for Hisao.
• Sibling Rivalry: Has this with Shizune. Hisao, however, infers that rivalry implies communication, and they do get along.
• Spock Speak: Hisao notes that his speech is rather robotic.
• The Stoic: Tries his hardest to create a front of an unemotional figure, similar to his sister.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Doesn't realize it until Hisao points it out to him.
  Hisao: What's with the stockings?
  Hideaki: They are cool.

Jigoro Hakamichi

Jigoro Hakamichi

"Back in my day, children were seen and not heard, and to be an adult meant having experienced many hardships. With even a glance, you could judge a man’s character. Childhood existed only to temper you for adulthood. When you look at me, can you not see the catalogue of my experiences, even at a glance?"

Shizune and Hideaki's father. He is an arrogant manly-man who can't go one minute without insulting his daughter, insulting her friends, insulting the youth of today, or plugging his business or autobiography.

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• Abusive Dad: He constantly insults and belittles both Shizune and her brother Hideaki. He could not be bothered to learn how to communicate with his own deaf/mute daughter. It goes to twelve thousand when he offhandedly mentions he has indeed hired tutors - trying to get Shizune to speak. He seems to imply he just thinks Shizune is being stubborn about this whole speaking thing.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Asking Hisao when the last time he contacted his parents is, forcing Hisao to reflect on how little he has kept in touch with them.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Concludes his list of Hisao's shortcomings with a statement that he has no fashion sense.
• Bullying the Disabled: He doesn't see Shizune as a worthy heir due to her deafness. Jigoro never even bothered to learn sign language and mentions he has in the past that he hired tutors to try to force Shizune to speak.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Threatens to beat Hisao with his autobiography, and to punch Hisao in the face with brass knuckles that have a condensed version of his autobiography on them, so that it will be imprinted in his face.
• Evil Counterpart: Jigoro's character can easily be summed as an older, somewhat saner Kenji minus the misogynistic conspiracy theories. It's implied that Hisao must've been thinking of Kenji when he tells Jigoro that he knows someone he might get along with.
• Hey, You!: Refers to Hisao as "boy" and Misha as "you" or "the pink-haired girl."
• Hidden Depths: He travels all the way to Yamaku, commits the humiliating act of asking his daughter to let him back into her life, and, after he's rebuffed, offers the equally submissive gesture that he's there for her if she needs him.
  • As Hisao himself notes, Jigoro has an analytical stare even while he's acting a complete Jerkass. Jigoro is likely neither a hypocrite nor jerk, but concerned father, a devious schemer, clearly not a nice guy, but determined to hold his family together.
  • This was even more obvious before the full release. Here are the kinds of things◊ Jigoro says◊ in the pre-release (in regards to Misha). This is another example from the pre-release◊. It is also explained in the pre-release that he won't give her the family business because she is disabled and by default inferior to Hideaki. In the pre-release he was still a giant jackass, but he was also actually right on things... mostly regarding Misha.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: It's there, you just need to be EXTREMELY attentive during Shizune's route.
• Hypocrite: Numerous examples, such as suggesting that Hisao huffs glue, then telling him not to make assumptions.
• Hypocritical Humor: Yelling extremely loudly while telling Misha not to do so.
• Insane Troll Logic: Numerous examples. When talking about Misha's new haircut:
  Jigoro: "What is that haircut? You look like an intern. Your old haircut merely made you look like you were wearing a pink judge wig. Judge to intern is a huge demotion."
• It's All About Me
• It Runs in the Family: Competitiveness, stubbornness, a tendency to cause people not to like you? The Hakamichi family clearly has this going on.
• Jerkass: Though this might just be Hisao's viewpoint making him seem worse than he is. At least both Shizune and Hisao give the guy some credit, both believing he cares about her more than he lets on. That said, it's still obvious Hisao wants to give him a big smacking and Shizune strongly disapproves of the way he treats her friends, and they can't be blamed.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When he asks Hisao when he last called his parents, Hisao is forced to admit that he hasn't done a good job of keeping in contact with them, although it doesn't change how much Hisao despises Jigoro.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk:
  Hisao: "It can't be sustainable for him to be so casually insulting to everyone."
• Katanas Are Just Better: Is always seen carrying a katana. Always. Even on school grounds.
• Large Ham: It's quite evident that the writers had a lot of fun with his character.
• My Card: When he first meets Hisao, he gives him one. Hisao is astounded at how prepared he is.
• No Indoor Voice: Especially evident when he yells at Misha for talking too loudly.
• Pet the Dog: Hisao interprets his going down to ask Shizune in person (he refuses to use e-mail for an unspecified reason) whether she would like to come on a trip with him and Hideaki as one such moment, theorizing that he may have done it in part to see her.
  Hisao: [I think your dad might care about you more than he lets on]
  Shizune: [I know]
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Frequently gives these to Hisao.
  Jigoro: Look at yourself. An amoral, directionless glue-huffer, with a complete lack of etiquette and absolutely no fashion sense. You are tomorrow's Japan. Disgraceful. Is this the future of this once-great country?
  Jigoro: You are very persistent. If only it was about something that mattered. I can't see what you may have learned from my daughter aside from that and how to backtalk people. Is that it?"
• Secret Test of Character: There's a good chance his Jerkass tendencies might have been part of his testing to see if Hisao was really determined to communicate, and be, with Shizune.
• Shared Family Quirks: Well, it's definitely clear exactly where Shizune and Hideaki picked up their stubbornness and competitiveness from.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: He deflects Hisao's arguments against him with a series of these, particularly when he tells Hisao that he "could never understand" his life.
• Testosterone Poisoning: Muscular man with a full beard, long hair, a Hawaiian shirt, carrying a katana AT ALL TIMES. He even insults Hisao for wearing something not up to his manly standards: a sweater vest.
  "Your sweater is terrible and I want you to feel bad about it."
  • Interestingly enough, Hisao expected him to be more feminine-looking, like Hideaki is.
• Throw the Book at Them: Threatens to give Hisao a beating with his autobiography.
• Tranquil Fury: Hisao notices that he seems calmer when he's angry.
• When I Was Your Age...: He frequently says that Hisao's generation has a much easier time than he did, and are spoiled as a result of it. Hisao even mentally complains about him acting as though he had to walk 15 miles in the snow, ride a coal train while shoveling coal into it and climb a mountain to get to school.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Poor, poor Shizune. Mr. Hakamichi does not know sign language nor does he care to learn, despite having a deaf and mute daughter; he might even consider her disability to be self-imposed, and mentions having spent twelve years trying to make her 'normal'.

Meiko Ibarazaki

Meiko Ibarazaki

Emi's mother, who makes some appearances in Emi's route and a single one in Rin's route. A kind and caring lady.

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• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Meiko looks only slightly older, taller, and more developed than Emi.
• Good Parents: One of the more loving and supportive living parents.
• Motherly Side Plait: Wears her hair in a braid over her left shoulder, which fits with her motherly and loving nature.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: When Meiko jokingly calls herself an "old woman", Hisao privately notes that she doesn't look that old and Emi probably got her own youthful features from her.

Others

Sae Saionji

Sae Saionji

"Still, just look at this. I just can’t take my eyes off it. Like a little kitten playing around. That's what your art makes me feel like, young lady."

Sae is the curator at the 22nd Corner, a local art gallery/studio, and a good friend of Nomiya. She wants to help Rin to become a successful artist.

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• Alliterative Name: Sae Saionji.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Sae isn't antagonistic, and she smokes, but her smoking is what leads Rin to try it in order to get inspiration.
• Ma'am Shock: Doesn't like being called "Mrs. Saionji," despite her age and formerly being married. She prefers First-Name Basis.
• The Nicknamer: Gives Rin a nickname of "kitten", reflecting her belief that she is still developing as an artist.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike Nomiya, does not take it personally when Rin flees the exhibition
• Repetitive Name
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Her "ice" side is milder than most, but Nomiya points out that she’s nicer than she lets on.

Iwanako

Iwanako

"I wonder if we will ever meet again. Perhaps it’s for the best if we don’t?"

Hisao's initial love interest at the beginning of the story. She causes his first heart attack when she reveals that she reciprocates his feelings.

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• Break the Cutie: Often glossed over due her single scene and Hisao's bitterness towards her, but her letter reveals she was deeply hurt by the (obviously quite difficult) situation she found herself in, and blamed herself for letting him drift so far from the person he used to be. She may have stopped visiting after "only" six weeks, but she kept visiting him in the hospital after a heart attack she probably thought she herself caused, and after which the boy she liked never replied to her confession or said much of anything other than meaningless small talk, and she had no idea what to say to convey her feelings across the wide gulf that had suddenly opened between them. That she even bothered to send a letter at all, as insulting as Hisao finds it in some routes, shows that she's still grieving and is trying to find some closure for herself. Hisao, in Shizune's route, admits to himself that he, in a sense, pushed her away with his negative demeanor.
• "Dear John" Letter: At a certain point midway through each route, Hisao gets one from her, in which she says they may never see each other again and "Maybe it's for the best that we don't", with a different reaction in each.
• The Faceless: We never see her from the front. Her two big distinguishing traits are her long black hair with a cowlick and her thigh high stockings.
• First-Name Basis: Her surname is never stated.
• For Want Of A Nail: How Hisao responds to her "Dear John" Letter depends on the route.
  • Emi: He throws it away midway through reading it, having moved on. If he talks to Emi's mother, however, he fishes it out and reads the last part before resolving to face Emi again.
  • Hanako: He realizes that their relationship is over, but is saddened by being reminded of it. He eventually tries to write a letter back in response, but finds it too difficult.
  • Lilly: He concludes that the letter is an "abdication of responsibility", throws it away and is in a bad mood the next day.
  • Rin: He is somewhat saddened by the reminder of everything he has lost, but not bitter toward Iwanako. He sends her a letter in response and receives no reply.
  • Shizune: He believes Iwanako had slowly been distancing herself from him in the hospital, but eventually realizes that he pushed his friends away. He decides not to write back, concluding that the letter is her way of saying goodbye.
• Meaningful Name: Her name includes the Kanji for "fish" (the one that got away.) Kenji once refers to her as a "rock-fish-kid chick".
• Pink Means Feminine: The letter she writes to Hisao is in pink, and Hisao notes that she often wrote in pink, and that she was very girly like that.
• Shrinking Violet: Certainly not to the extent of Hanako, but the beginning of the game gives this impression.
  • Hisao also states at one point that she was very fragile and feminine.
• Small Role, Big Impact: After the prologue, she is only mentioned when she sends a letter to Hisao. Her impact on the story and Hisao's personality varies, but she typically gets at least a few mentions and Hisao is often forced to reconsider how he views her.

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