Characters / Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Main Trio

Midori Asakusa

Midori Asakusa

Voiced by: Sairi Ito (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

Portrayed by: Asuka Saitō

An aspiring artist and wannabe animator, being especially interested in setting and background design. Having first discovered her love of anime as a little kid, Asakusa dreams of making an anime based on her school, creating the Motion Picture Club with her friends Kanamori and Mizusaki to do so. She serves as director for the club's projects.

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• Accent Slip-Up: She typically speaks standard Japanese, but she can sometimes slip into a Shitamichi dialect when she's particularly worked up, most notably during her rant towards the student council when the Motion Picture Club is trying to get approved as a club (during that rant, she uses the Shitamichi phrases "teyandee" and "beraboome" quite a bit). In Crunchyroll's subtitles for the show, this is localized as the thick drawl commonly associated with the southern United States, a region similarly characterized as crass and unsophisticated.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Asakusa's live action actress lacks practically any trace of the froglike features that she's usually portrayed with. Even better, Saito is an idol singer and fashion model!
• Animal Motifs: A number of them seem to surround her, namely frogs, tanuki, and rabbits.
  • Her character design is visibly froglike, namely in her small, far-apart eyes, wide mouth, round head, and flat face, and a frog appears in the title card portion of the show's OP. Doumeki even calls her a Kappa when she startles Doumeki awake.
  • A tanuki appears as one of the animals that distracts Asakusa during pre-production for the Motion Picture Club's first project, Kanamori openly compares her to a tanuki during production for the Robot Club's promotional short (complete with a brief Cutaway Gag of Asakusa with a tanuki-esque domino mask and a magic leaf on her head◊) and jokingly refers to her as a tanuki after throwing a net over her in Episode 11, one piece of merchandise◊ for the show is a plushie of Asakusa in a tanuki kigurumi, and tanuki appear in direct connection to her in both the opening and ending sequences for the show. This motif is likely due to her overall appearance, since in Japan people with round faces and wide eyes are often described as having "tanuki faces," and is additionally compounded by Asakusa's wide-brimmed hat and genial smile, also traits common among depictions of tanuki in folklore. A degree of Author Appeal also seems to factor into it given that the manga's author frequently retweets clips of tanuki on his Twitter account.
  • She carries around a plush rabbit as a Security Blanket, a rabbit design is present on her shirt as a child and on a sticker she puts on a drill, and a rabbit can be seen in direct connection to her in the show's opening and ending sequences.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite her love of speculative fiction, she tends to be very concerned with realism, often to the point of derailing discussions by overthinking the mechanics and ergonomics of things like giant robots and ray guns.
• Attention Deficit Creator Disorder: In-Universe example. Episode 10 shows that Asakusa tends to struggle with this in-universe when at her most motivated, coming up with a bevy of different, scarcely-connected ideas for setting details within the span of a day without stopping to focus on their actual current project. It gets to the point Kanamori actually catches her in a giant butterfly net to force her to finish their project.
• Author Avatar: Appears to be a loose one for Sumito Owara, the manga's author; in an interview with Japanese media outlet Livedoor, Owara stated that he struggled in school due to his ADHD and used drawing as a means of coping with it, eventually joining his high school's motion picture club, all of which is similarly reflected in Asakusa's character arc throughout the story (though in Asakusa's case, whether or not she also has ADHD— or any developmental disorder, for that matter— isn't explicitly spelled out). Unlike most other examples of this trope, Asakusa isn't meant to be a direct representation of Owara himself, and is something closer to a gender-swapped fictionalization.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Asakusa's concepts often veer into this territory due to her colorful imagination, with strong focus on the presentation, even though it can cause complications, like going over budget, or the project demanding way more skill and/or time than the club actually has. Being the producer, Kanamori is usually ticked off whenever this happens.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Kanamori comments on how Asakusa typically moans and whines about the impossibility of things, but she's actually capable of accomplishing great feats when she's determined.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Is a background artist par excellence and more often than not demonstrates great and useful knowledge in the many fields and aspects of anime production. That doesn't change how utterly easy it is for Asakusa to get sidetracked and lost in her own imagination.
• Catchphrase: Tends to say "ba-ban!" (translated as "ta-da!") when introducing her ideas.
• Character Development: Her insecurities about the quality of her work persists, but after screening Shibahama UFO Wars!, it's made clear by her attitude the next morning that she's learned to be satisfied with the results and still accept that the product could have been better.
• Character Tics:
  • Has a habit of either clinging onto her stuffed rabbit or pulling her shirt over her head when anxious or overwhelmed.
  • She incorporates rocking, swinging, lurching, and other repetitive forms of motion into the way she moves around, much more than anyone else around her, to the point where she's hardly ever seen standing straight.
  • She tends to carry a cattail around with her when walking in public, waving it around in front of her face. When visiting a bedridden Kanamori she takes it there too and waves it around in Kanamori's face to tease her.
• Clothing Reflects Personality: She usually has some form of camo decor on her, whether it be her hat or her full fledged military outfit. This can be seen as a reflections of her more shy nature and her desires to fit into the background rather than be the center of attention.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Literally gets lost in her own little world more often than not, managing to even drag her two friends into her absurd fantasies!
• Cowardly Lion: Despite very visible nervousness and looking like she's ready to burst into tears any second, she manages to help deliver the final blow in order to allow the student council committee to let them show their anime.
• Crazy-Prepared: Her backpack is absolutely chock-full of survivalist equipment, from collapsible shovels, to head lights, up to three flashlights, a Swiss army knife, light-up shoes, and climbing ropes. She even has some WD-40-like lubricating oil with her, though her fear of darkness caused her to chicken out before she could use it, and Kanamori ended up kicking the door in question off its hinges anyway. Needless to say, she has a veritable stockpile of things that a normal high-schooler would obviously not be lugging around in their knapsacks.
• Foil: She connects with Mizusaki over their love of anime, but she excels in worldbuilding via backgrounds and concept art. She eventually overlays their drawings, realizing that together they actually have a chance at making an anime.
• Genki Girl: Played with; when she's with people she considers friends, she often exudes a lot of energy (especially when it comes to expressing her love and knowledge of anime), and she's overall a very dynamic person to a sometimes childish degree. However, she's far more nervous and subdued when dealing with people she doesn't know well, to the point where Kanamori has to constantly stay by her side for emotional support.
• Gratuitous English: Has an affinity for this, to the point of it being something of a Running Gag throughout the series.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Deconstructed; while Asakusa's criticisms of her work initially come off as reasonable critiques and sources of improvement, Episode 6 reveals that she actually suffers from impostor syndrome, constantly doubting the strength of her work and coming close to abandoning the Motion Picture Club's giant robot anime out of a fear that she's not capable enough as a director and concept artist to realize it in a way that'll please everyone, to the point of accusing Kanamori of naivety when she earnestly compliments her art; Kanamori does however manage to break Asakusa out of it and reignite her motivation for at least long enough to continue working on the project. Even then, once the project finishes, her sole focus is on things she wishes she could've done better with it, and appears visibly disappointed in her work. She appears to start coming to terms with herself in Episode 9 when she begins thinking of her work more as performances, and by the end of the series she's learned to feel good about the quality of her work while still acknowledging where and how she can improve further.
• Hidden Depths: Episode 5 sees the gang get stuck in a pile of decaying leaves while location scouting. During this, Asakusa demonstrates some up-to-this-point never seen survivalist skills, which impresses Mizusaki.
• High-Pressure Emotion: In an Imagine Spot during Episode 10, Asakusa gets so stressed out from Kanamori calling her out for her lack of direction regarding the Motion Picture Club's "alien invasion" film (which is a very real risk considering that Asakusa is the director of the project) that she ends up generating enough steam to melt a hole into the ground. This ends up acting to her advantage, as it gives her a secluded hiding spot during a bout of emotional overload.
• Kiddie Kid: Despite being in her first year of high school, Asakusa often displays shades of this trope when caught up in her various fantasies, typically getting so deep into them that she starts acting them out with various items and architectural elements in a given environment like a little kid. Among other such moments, she dons a rusted bucket and pretends it's a space helmet while repairing the Motion Picture Club's dilapidated building, which she visualizes as herself mending a broken spaceship. She even wears light-up sneakers (which Mizusaki lampshades as being more for kids), carries around a wooden sword when in the dark, and still keeps a stuffed rabbit to cling to when having to interact with others in public.
• Large Ham: While not normally an example of this trope, she enters its territory when she's at her most passionate and/or motivated. Special mention goes to Episode 9, in which she outright acts out how she envisions a Wave-Motion Gun operating with both heavy miming and loudly Saying Sound Effects Out Loud.
• Meaningful Name: Word of God states that Asakusa's name is intentionally derived from the kanji for "shallow grass" (浅草), playing into both her short stature and fertile imagination. Her first name, Midori, further compliments the latter, being the Japanese word for "green."
• Motor Mouth: Give her an opportunity to discuss something she likes and she'll prattle on about it indefinitely, to the point where Kanamori often has to tell her when she's going overboard.
• Ms. Imagination: Her love of adventure has given her a big imagination ever since she was a kid, and her drawings reflect that; she even has frequent imagine spots about the scenery and machines she draws, with these fantasies sometimes integrating themselves with more mundane actions and settings such as walking around town or eating at a restaurant.
• The Noseless: Played with. Asakusa's face becomes completely flat and vertical during comedic moments, but she does have a nose, albeit a reduced one, whenever she's drawn normally.
• Odd Friendship: She and Kanamori are very different people. Asakusa is excitable, having a thirst for adventure and being passionate about anime, while Kanamori is cynical, impatient, somewhat greedy and even ruthless, but they're still good friends regardless.
• Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: Breaks out into one when she meets up with the Art Club to go over their finished work and notices that they made a number of errors in their background paintings.
• Otaku: Played with. Asakusa has strong fixations on both animation and the military. However, unlike most examples, her obsessions are generally benign in nature, lacking the "loony" in Loony Fan that the term "otaku" usually denotes in Japan, and her social awkwardness is implied to exist outside of her devotion to her interests; she is even able to make friends in a realistic manner under the right circumstances, a far cry from typical portrayals of otaku. Overall, while she is obsessive about certain topics common among otaku subculture, she lacks most of the negative associations that the term usually carries in Japan.
• Primal Fear: Darkness, to the point where she carries multiple lights on her (including light-up sneakers) when having to navigate the school's unlit underground passageway. She's also afraid of ghosts, if her responses to Mizusaki's jest is any indication.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Tends to do this when describing the concepts she comes up with, in lieu of more orthodox descriptors. This also extends to her imagine spots, which typically substitute sound effects for Asakusa's vocalizations.
• Security Blanket: She has a small stuffed rabbit that she sometimes clings to when she's nervous, and Mizusaki characterizes this as Asakusa "sucking on" it. Her attachment to her rabbit is so great that she even keeps it fastened to her wrist and tucked up her shirt in Episode 11. Episode 10 shows her being wrapped up in an actual security blanket while clutching said stuffed rabbit.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Is very clearly the shortest member of the Motion Picture Club and is the most savvy and knowledgeable about the process of anime productions.
• Shrinking Violet: While she's a boisterous Genki Girl around her friends, she still struggles with talking to strangers or being alone in large crowds of people, which is why Kanamori is with her so often. She's also very self-conscious about her work, resisting the idea of showing off her concept art to anyone but her friends and briefly considering abandoning the Motion Picture Club's giant robot film after fearing that it'll be received badly by audiences.
• Signature Headgear: She's almost never seen without her distinct camouflage bucket hat. When she first meets Mizusaki, she's not very happy when Mizusaki takes it from her in an attempt to escape from her bodyguards.
• Situational Sociability: She's very outgoing and boisterous around people she's friends with, especially when expressing her passion for making anime, but she's not great at socializing otherwise and tends to be shy around strangers and bad with crowds, to the point where Kanamori has to constantly accompany her when in public. This is evident in multiple scenes:
  • The first time the two meet, Asakusa freezes up when Mizusaki introduces herself (not helped by Mizusaki literally getting up in her face and prattling her introduction off at cheetah-like speed), just barely managing to point out that she's invading her personal space; heck, Asakusa can barely manage to get inside the Anime Research Club's theater in the first place, initially hiding behind Kanamori (who expresses distaste at being used as a human shield). When Asakusa and Mizusaki next see each other again, Asakusa speaks and moves around in a very stiff, almost scripted manner (also not helped by her accidentally blowing her cover while trying to spy on Mizusaki and her handlers), and later resists the idea of sharing ideas with her out of unfamiliarity. Once the two get to know each other better, however, Asakusa speaks with and behaves around Mizusaki in a much looser manner better reminiscent of her conversations with Kanamori, with this becoming the standard from there on out.
  • During the Motion Picture Club's presentation at the Student Council's budget committee, Asakusa hardly speaks for most of it, and when she finally does she's so stressed out that she's practically at the point of crying. Of course, the environment of the committee wasn't exactly a spring meadow, but Asakusa's socialization issues are implied to have factored into her actions and emotions at the time.
  • During both the Motion Picture Club's dinner out and her meeting with the Art Club, Asakusa can be seen tightly clinging to a stuffed rabbit from her childhood for comfort, affects a rigid and closed-off posture, and in the latter event speaks very tersely and waveringly, apparently going off of a memorized script at first before being just barely able to back up her decisions in the face of the Art Club's members questioning the logic behind them (i.e. the choice to set the giant robot film early in the day to avoid having to draw crowds of people). When she meets up with the Art Club again to go over their finished work, she's downright sweating bullets when she realizes that not only did they make a number of mistakes that she didn't anticipate, but she also has to point them out to their faces. Her next meeting with them in Episode 9 seems to go over better as she's more familiar with them and their different lines of thought, overwhelming them instead with her downright doorstopper-sized concept art binders.
  • During a flashback to her first meeting with Kanamori in Episode 11, Asakusa's shown having difficulty in P.E. due to her inability to find someone she's comfortable enough around to pair up with, eventually working with Kanamori simply because she also didn't have a partner and the coach forced them together; later during the same flashback, Asakusa contemplates living the rest of her life as a hermit because she finds isolation easier to handle than socialization. However, she grows closer to Kanamori after the latter, sympathizing with her plight of loneliness, invites her to pick leaves to sell off to a local ramen restaurant, after which Asakusa begins seeing Kanamori as someone she can trust. After the flashback ends, Asakusa notes to Mizusaki that she considers Kanamori her "comrade," and indeed Asakusa seems to be most open when around her skyscraping friend.
• Slapstick: Faces the most slapstick out of the trio, particularly incurring Kanamori's wrath whenever her eccentric tendencies go beyond the tall girl's tolerance level.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Inverted; Asakusa tends to speak fairly casually in nearly all contexts, sometimes to the point of coming off as crass (she'll sometimes even slip into Shitamichi dialect, a dialect commonly associated with lower-class Tokyo neighborhoods), but tends to use the ultra-formal and scarcely-used-in-conversation honorific "-shi" when referring to her friends. Given that Kanamori herself uses the same honorific liberally and sarcastically, this could be a case of Asakusa picking up her comrade's habit but missing the intent behind it.
• Strong Family Resemblance: While Asakusa's family is only seen on a few brief occasions early in the series, from the shots that they do appear in, her family share her rounded eyes and eyebrow shape (though her father's eyes are more square-shaped compared to the rest of the household), her brother and mother have round ears and faces similar to Asakusa's, and her brother outright looks like a male, darker-skinned version of her.
• Tomboy: She's easily the most tomboyish of the three main girls, even in the anime where all three of them are animated with a "gender-neutral" feel in mind. She has the shortest hair of the three, has a love for adventurous stories and designing machinery, has a gravely Tomboyish Voice (compared to Kanamori's husky voice) and uses very boyish speech patterns (even referring to herself as "washi", an old-fashioned pronoun commonly used by men).
• Tomboyish Voice: She's the most tomboyish of the girls and speaks with a low, raspy voice that sounds more fitting of a male shonen protagonist like Luffy or Naruto than a girl.

Sayaka Kanamori

Sayaka Kanamori

Voiced by: Mutsumi Tamura (Japanese), Olivia Swasey (English)

Portrayed by: Minami Umezawa

Midori Asakusa's friend. While not being an anime fan, she helps the Motion Picture club on the grounds that she expects money and getting back her "investments" from Asakusa and Mizusaki. She serves as producer for the club's projects.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: In the live action film and television series, Kanamori's actress lacks her Tombstone Teeth and is in fact an idol singer and magazine model.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Even as a younger child, she displayed incredible business and money sense, something remarked upon by the couple who ran the convenience store she used to work for.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite her cold demeanor and greedy attitude, she has her moments of genuine connection with Asakusa, joking around with her, and doesn't seem to object to being called her friend. The fact that Asakusa trusts Kanamori enough to keep her around when in public (on account of Asakusa's inability to handle crowds or even strangers), and that Kanamori is perfectly willing to stay by her side, further indicates that the duo's dynamic is ultimately a positive one. Episode 6 further compounds this by revealing that Kanamori earnestly believes that Asakusa is a talented and capable artist.
• Batman Gambit: In Episode 10, the school faculty put a huge handicap on Eizouken's progress by forbidding them from receiving money and support while using the school's name. How does Kanamori get around this? She generates such incredible media coverage for Eizouken's ambitious UFO anime that everyone in Shibahama City is talking positively about them and the school itself. The faculty would be shooting themselves in the foot if they decided to shut down Eizouken's upcoming project with everyone watching, especially after hearing so many citizens eager to enroll their kids in the school as a result of its institutional ties to the anime.
• Beleaguered Boss: As much as a producer can be considered a "boss" anyway. As her role is to oversee the production of the studio's projects, Kanamori is constantly exasperated by her clubmates' tendency to goof around or bite off way more than they can chew. She's also frequently annoyed by Asakusa's tendency to prioritize style over substance, which typically results in either a lot of plot holes that will impact the narrative, or more work for everybody.
• Big Eater: Implied to be this; she typically orders thrice the amount of milk that most people do when at the cafeteria, and when served ramen at a restaurant, she basically inhales the entire bowl's content in less than ten seconds (and that's with her serving being significantly larger than her friends'). Possibly justified, as her abnormally large height equates in Real Life to needing a greater caloric intake to stay sufficiently energized on a daily basis (to say nothing of the significant boost in metabolism that typically results from puberty).
• Blackmail: If Kanamori can find dirt on someone whose assistance she needs, you can bet your money she will wield it against them to force them to do her bidding, as the Robot Club and Air Conditioning Club can attest to.
• Blunt "Yes": During the meeting with the school in Episode 10.
  Teacher: For all your talk about how this is some high-minded business exercise, aren't you just using the school's name to benefit yourself?
  Kanamori: Indeed I am. (Asakusa and Mizusaki are shocked) I'll use anything that helps. Call it a "means to survive."
• Brutal Honesty: She doesn't beat around the bush; she's upfront that she expects payment for the things she does and that she wants the profits from the Motion Picture Club should they make a film. Neither does she try to soften the fact that if they refuse to cut costs and save time for the sake of "artistic integrity", their anime will be more in line with a slide show than animation. They have deadlines to meet.
• Character Tics: When Kanamori is bored or up to something, she will typically crack the knuckles of her right hand.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Her usual expression is a bored grimace, but whenever she's plotting something she'll have a cheshire-cat-like smile.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: As producer, one of Kanamori's most important jobs is to make sure Asakusa and Mizusaki stay on track and don't completely lose themselves in their ideas, as they can't get any work finished or even done if Kanamori isn't there to make sure they stay grounded in reality. Even outside the context of work, Kanamori repeatedly has to accost Asakusa when she lets her fantasies and obsessions get the better of her.
• Deadpan Snarker: She typically speaks in a low, deadpan tone of voice and frequently snarks at her friends' expense to the point of it becoming mundane. Among other examples, she frequently and sarcastically refers to other people with the honorific "-shi," a more formal version of "-san" used in formal writing and speech to refer to someone whom the speaker or writer has never met but knows about through writing and hearsay (roughly equivalent in this context to sarcastically addressing someone as "master"/"mistress"/"madame" or "your majesty"). While Crunchyroll ignores the honorific in their subtitles of the anime adaptation, the manga's English translation goes with a Cultural Translation and has Kanamori sarcastically refer to people as if they were regency (e.g. the aforementioned "your majesty").
• Drink-Based Characterization: Has a fondness for milk, especially bottled milk from a particular bathhouse. For whatever reason, she drinks a lot of it, including ordering three bottles in the school cafeteria to go with her lunch. She even accepts it as payment, as shown when Asakusa and Mizusaki's tomfoolery results in Kanamori having to spend excess money out of her own pocket.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: Despite having always been an astute businesswoman, Episode 9 reveals that she struggled in math class as a child; her business expertise isn't really the result of being good at calculating profits and is more due to her knowing how to appeal to the needs of consumers under limited circumstances.
• Foil: Acts as one to Sowande, being similarly cutthroat and cunning but acting more out of interest in profit than for the school's interests.
• Freudian Excuse: While not outright traumatic, Episode 9 reveals that while Kanamori always had a considerable fixation on money, to the point where she only ever smiled when she was getting paid, the childhood shock of seeing the general store she used to help out at abruptly go bankrupt played a major role in galvanizing her obsession with profit and making it the biggest driving force in her life.
• Friendless Background: Implied to be the case before she and Asakusa met during PE class, as she was the only other student who nobody wanted to pair with, and her Face of a Thug doesn't help matters.
• Guile Hero: Bordering on Manipulative Bastard: she's quick to levy potential threats against the school in order to protect the club. She's also clever enough to know when the best thing to do for the production is to let Asakusa and Mizusaki have their way, to improve their enthusiasm for the work and be more willing to compromise in other areas.
• Huge Schoolgirl: Kanamori is noticeably lanky and stands taller than Asakusa and Mizusaki, claiming that she was able to grow so tall by sleeping a lot. Unlike most examples of this trope, though, Kanamori's height doesn't bother her and she's actually quite self-assured; the fact that her height plays into her assertive and imposing demeanor by letting her tower over others certainly doesn't hurt. Flashbacks showed that she wasn't always this gangly in her childhood, so Kanamori must have gotten one hell of a growth spurt somewhere down the line.
• In-Series Nickname: Gets called "Kanemori-chan" by Sowande (officially translated as "Kanamoney" by Crunchyroll), which Asakusa can't help but snicker at.
• Jerkass Has a Point: A major point of her character. She is a jerk, but she's also a genuinely good producer and is good at knowing the limits of what the film club is capable of. For example, she forces Asakusa and Mizusaki to compromise on their vision because the alternative would be working twenty-four hours a day.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Her personality for the most part is rather crass, with her most common state being an expression of disdain towards others, which is exacerbated by her near-constant frowning. However, while she may give off the aura of an uncaring person who only gets into things for the money, she's shown time and time again that she does care about Asakusa as a friend, even if she's never open about it, and is invested in making Asakusa and Mizusaki's dreams come true, not just because of the potential money (even if it's the biggest part of why she's doing so), but also because it will make them truly happy.
• Lean and Mean: Downplayed on the "mean" part. Kanamori is so thin she looks like she has zero percent body fat, but she makes up for this by being utterly ruthless and intimidating. She pulls no punches, and gets what she wants every time, usually via blackmail.
• Meaningful Name: Word of God states that Kanamori's last name is intentionally derived from the kanji for "gold forest" (金森), playing into both her immense height and her love of money.
• Money Fetish: Kanamori loves money. Pretty much everything she does has to have a monetary gain to it, otherwise she would consider it a waste of time, and she's not above nickel-and-diming her friends when they ask favors of her. At one point she even apparently went as far as trying to raise pigs just to sell the meat off of them. This is why it came off as a big surprise to Asakusa and Mizusaki when Kanamori treated them to some ramen, considering how she normally has them do the opposite for her instead.
  Asakusa: This is Kanamori we're talking about! Nothing's scarier than a free meal from the yakuza!
• Nerd Glasses: Has glasses of the "browline" variety, which she mostly wears on her forehead, implying that she's actually farsighted (which is much rarer, especially in the young, than the really common nearsightedness) and possibly symbolizing her grasp of a bigger picture, unlike her more excitable friends who oftentimes fail to see the forest for the trees. She's also not much of a nerd.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Kanamori is usually the one to snap her friends out of their daydreams, but sometimes she'll play along, too. Most notably, she ends up smashing through a rusty old wall when she tries to help her friends get off the roof of their clubhouse, having gone deep into the role of a space traveler rescuing her team. There was also the reason she had to smash through a wall in the first place: she inexplicably put together the animation desk in front of the clubhouse door.
  • The fact that she has possibly the most distinct and downright weird backpack◊ out of the characters is itself a mildly subtle visual indicator that she's not as serious and no-nonsense as she seems at first glance.
• Not So Stoic:
  • In a flashback to when she was a child, her deadpan composure visibly breaks when she hears that the store she used to help out at will be closing. She still remains fairly quiet, but instead seems more catatonic than stoic.
  • A more minor example happens when the student council discovers the website set up for Doumeki's sound effects library and the fact that the money from it is being used to pay her rent to the club. Despite Kanamori not lingering on it until Doumeki brings it up later, she also doesn't try to argue against the council like when they accused her and the club for their earlier activities when starting out and visibly looks worried when confronted by it.
  • She also looks visibly concerned— for herself— when the club's third film is being finalised and they realise they have one piece of music that doesn't match the action on screen at all. At the start of the next episode, her voice gradually and noticeably deflates as she realizes just how much this single mishap has derailed the club's plans for the movie, and when initially calling the DVD Burning Club to cancel the physical release of Shibahama UFO Wars, she sounds downright defeated.
• Odd Friendship: She and Asakusa are very different people, with Kanamori being very deadpan, having no interest in anime and usually only motivated by money, but they're still good friends regardless.
• Only in It for the Money: She isn't interested in anime like Asakusa and Mizusaki, but she does see the monetary potential in their shared dream and even admits that she's mainly involved because an anime made by a fashion model would rake in quite a bit of cash, and indeed she's proven right when the Motion Picture Club manages to sell out all the merchandise and DVDs they had available for the giant robot anime off of the basis of Mizusaki's involvement alone.
• Only Sane Man: Kanamori seems to be the only member of the trio to have a realistic grasp on their situation at times. She's there to keep the hyper-idealistic Asakusa and Mizusaki in check, so they don't goof off instead of doing work, and to prevent them from biting off more than they could chew with their ambition. She's not always happy about this fact, however.
• Perpetual Frowner: Her face is almost always fixed in a disinterested scowl; if Kanamori smiles, it's usually because she's just found something to blackmail people with or an opportunity to make money. This extends as far back as her childhood, where the only times she's actually seen smiling are when she's getting paid.
• Prim and Proper Bun: She restyles her hair into a bun during Episodes 6 and 9, when the trio is out for some ramen. Played with, as while it does help her look more mature, Kanamori is still not a proper lady and only does it for convenience when eating. Amusingly, she uses her glasses as the pin to hold the bun in place.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: She wears her glasses on her forehead and occasionally even uses them as a hair tie, but she's hardly ever seen actually using them for her vision; she wears them over her eyes more times in her model sheet than in the actual show. On one of the few occasions when she is seen wearing them on her face, she's fast asleep.
• Really Fond of Sleeping: She states that the reason she's tall is because she sleeps a lot.
• The Quiet One: When talking with someone other than her friends, she has a tendency to not say more than she feels is needed, to the point where it makes her come off as curt; this even extends to her parents/family in Episode 11, not saying much beyond "thanks."
• Rules Lawyer: Despite appearances, Kanamori is surprisingly knowledgeable of the school's rules, and actively weaponizes them against the Student Council or the faculty themselves as part of her blackmail shtick to arrange things in her and Eizouken's favor.
• The Scrooge:
  • Due to her Money Fetish, Kanamori typically tries to spend as little as possible. To this end, she never carries any more than a thousand yen with her at any given time. For those at home, a thousand yen converts to just shy of ten bucks using the current rate, and that's not even factoring in additional inflation between now and the anime's setting of 2051.
  • This explains her shrewdness in dealing with the student council and other clubs, as due to her stinginess she is an expert at abusing loopholes in order to get for free what would otherwise cost the Motion Picture Club hundreds of thousands of yen.
• Serious Business: Despite her cynicism, Kanamori will actually follow through with whatever she involves herself with, and she's determined to succeed no matter the cost, even plotting out extremely rigorous work plans for all three members in order to put out a presentable show reel to impress the Student Council with. Slacking off or going off-track on her watch is a good way to draw her ire, as her friends often find out several times per episode.
• Stronger Than They Look: She's thin and not particularly muscular-looking, but she manages to bust clean through a sheet metal wall on her way to help Asakusa and Mizusaki get off their club's roof. Granted, the walls were somewhat rusted from lack of maintenance, but it's still an impressive feat. Even rusted shut metal doors are no opponent to her, since she can just kick them off their hinges in a single blow. She also likes to stomp her foot as a way to get the crew to quiet down, which has a positively thunderous sound effect.
• Team Dad: Rare female example. Kanamori is strict, stern, and gruff, but actually cares a lot more about her friends than she lets on. Her efforts keep the crew together and focused on the big picture, even if she's frequently annoyed by Asakusa and Mizusaki goofing off.
• Tomboyish Voice: A given, considering who's voicing her, but apparently she's always had a deep, smoky voice, even as a child.
• Tombstone Teeth: Her most distinctive trait is her rows of brick-like teeth, which are always bared in either a bored grimace or a Cheshire Cat Grin. She didn't seem to naturally have this as a child, however, so her face presumably became like this because her frequent grinning whenever she made money became stuck somehow.
• The Un-Smile: The few occassions Kanamori does actually express some content or happiness are mercilessly killed by her only being able to put on a menacing grin.
• The Watson: Kanamori doesn't know much about anime production, so Asakusa and Mizusaki get to explain the basics to her and the audience.
• Yakuza: Not an actual member, but her cold demeanor and aggressive methods of getting her way lead to Asakusa openly comparing her to one; the staff behind the anime even describe her character as "an intellectual yakuza."
• Youthful Freckles: She has noticeable freckles over the bridge of her nose. She doesn't have the usual energetic personality associated with them though.

Tsubame Mizusaki

Tsubame Mizusaki

Voiced by: Misato Matsuoka (Japanese), Jessica Boone (English)

Portrayed by: Mizuki Yamashita

A teen fashion model and the daughter of wealthy actors. Initially denied from joining the anime club by her parents' order, she befriends Asakusa and Kanamori and joins the Motion Picture Club, eager to help with her skills at figure drawing and character design. She serves as the club's lead animator.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: While still decidedly angular and distinctive and still avoiding Generic Cuteness, Mizusaki's design in the anime makes her face stouter and more conventionally attractive, better tying in with her career as a teen model.
• Ace Pilot: Capable of knowing enough of the ins and outs of an Activation Sequence in order to upright a robot, at least.
• Beneath the Mask: Kanamori notes that Mizusaki acts differently around her fans, putting on a much more composed and mature facade compared to her more true-to-self Genki Girl attitude around Asakusa and Kanamori.
• Bifauxnen: Episode 10 features Mizusaki modeling an ensemble that could have her pass as a charming gentleman.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Despite being more conventionally attractive than Asakusa and Kanamori, her eyebrows are noticeably thicker than theirs; apparently it runs in the family.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Is an in and out prodigy when it comes to art design for characters and has an eye for detail in that regard few can match, but tends to get lost in her own little world and her wealthy background has made her a bit sheltered.
• Character Tics: Whenever she runs, Mizusaki kicks up her ankles side to side while punching the air in front of her.
• Closet Geek: Her attempts to come out of the closet are what trigger the events of the story. Her father initially doesn't approve of her dream to become an animator, to the extent where he even banned her from joining the anime club, but forming the Motion Picture Club with the other two girls lets her express her love for anime more easily.
• Driving Stick: Episode 5 shows that she knows how a clutch works during the Activation Sequence of the Film Club's concept robot.
• Foil: She's an anime enthusiast like Asakusa, but her talents are in character design and figure drawing. The two realizing that they can combine their talents to make an anime is what helps kickstart their friendship.
• Genki Girl: Played with; like Asakusa, Mizusaki tends to exude energy when around her friends and is typically the first and most enthusiastic to join Asakusa in her Imagine Spots, but when around fans she tends to put on a much more subdued and professional demeanor.
• Girlish Pigtails: Sports these during the flashbacks to her childhood.
• Girly Run: Subverted. Despite seemingly being very much the trope type, Mizusaki actually has a pretty distinctive running style; so distinctive in fact that her mother recognizes it right away in the Robot Club's anime in Episode 9.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Misato Matsuoka sure looks a lot like her character, Big Ol' Eyebrows and all, which makes for one hell of a coincidence considering that her design in the anime is mostly unchanged from the manga.
• Kiddie Kid: While not to the same extent as Asakusa, Mizusaki displays hints of this. Despite being a first-year high schooler, she tends to be the first to join in Asakusa's more childish exploits (e.g. her various imagine spots, attempts to play around with a stray butterfly and tanuki, and instigating a round of play-fighting in a public bathhouse) and by her account tries to perform a Hadouken every night before bed— something that most people her age would know isn't humanly possible.
• Meaningful Name: Word of God states that Mizusaki's name is intentionally derived from the kanji for "water cape" (水崎), tying into her seemingly elegant public image and higher social status compared to her peers.
• Motor Mouth: Mizusaki talks very fast during her first meeting with Asakusa; justified since she's currently also trying to avoid the notice of her handlers at that particular moment.
• Mundane Made Awesome: In-Universe; she's most attracted to animating more mundane actions such as sliding down a hill or rolling, emphasizing animation's tendency to embellish even the most minuscule aspects of real-world action. This is later revealed to be in part due to her love of detail in real-world motion, hoping to capture that tiny beauty in her own work.
• Ms. Fanservice: Invoked via her career as a fashion model, which prioritizes attractive and appealing looks first and foremost, and indeed her looks play heavily enough into her fame as a model for photographs of her to be used as selling points for the Motion Picture Club's works. Also played with and downplayed somewhat in that while she's the most conventionally attractive of the show's cast, her good looks aren't played for sex appeal and are mainly for the sake of looking pretty in a platonic sense, given that she's still a first-year student in high school (and due to sexually-driven fanservice being a non-priority for the series as a whole).
• Ojou: She's the daughter of two wealthy actors, and she's well known at school for both her wealth and as a prolific fashion model. However, aside from being a bit sheltered and lacking in common sense when it comes to how much things cost, she doesn't really have any of the typical personality traits. She also can't take advantage of her own wealth to help out the Eizouken's anime production since her parents wouldn't approve.
• Red Is Heroic: Has dark, red hair and is one of the three main characters that the story follows.
• Redheads Are Uncool: Inverted. She is a well-known model In-Universe and despite being a redhead, she's far more popular than Asakusa and Kanamori combined.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Though she's by no means an idiot, she's the least savvy of the trio due to her sheltered lifestyle. A running gag is that she tends to not know how much things are worth, such as thinking that ¥100,000 (about $910) is a normal New Years present for a teenage girl. It's also suggested she doesn't know how to use chopsticks.
• Spoiled Sweet: It has been often mentioned that Mizusaki's family is very wealthy and, save for her father's initial disapproval of her passion for animation, tend to treat her as such (as shown through her downright exorbitant allowances), which often causes her to misinterpret the value of average objects for more than they actually are. Nonetheless, Mizusaki remains the most openly friendly out of the trio compared to the Shrinking Violet Asakusa and the outwardly curt Kanamori.
• Stepford Smiler: Appears to be this when modeling, with a brief scene of her doing so in Episode 10 showing her making an attempt◊ at a "casual" smile that looks more pained than content.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She definitely takes more after her mother's side. Mizusaki basically looks like a de-aged version of her grandmother, complete with Big Ol' Eyebrows. She also has the same general face shape as her mother, who also sports a pair of prominent eyebrows, based on what we've seen of her so far.
• Token Rich Student: She's the only main character who's from a rich family, unlike the other two girls who are middle-class. It's unknown why her parents would let her attend a middle-class school in the first place.

Shibahama High

Mr. Fujimoto

Voiced by: Kazuhiko Inoue (Japanese), John Swasey (English)

A mellow and spaced out teacher who becomes Eizouken's supervisor.

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• Adults Are Useless: For the most part, Mr. Fujimoto has very little involvement with Eizouken's activities and is only the supervisor in name. Heck, he was playing video games when Eizouken ended up being chastised by the school faculty for receiving money under the school's name. He barely subverts this in Episode 11 by providing advice on how it's important to have fun and not to overwork yourself.
• Ambiguously Brown: He has fairly tan skin.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's technically Eizouken's supervisor, however he typically spends most of his days goofing off rather than actually keeping an eye on his charges. Still, he's enough of a responsible figure to advise and keep the trio out of trouble.
• Out of Focus: Despite being the club's supervisor, Mr. Fujimoto is barely involved in the events of the story, and completely disappears from the story a few episodes in, only reappearing via a cameo just two episodes before the end of the series and getting his first (and only) major appearance in ages the episode after. His tendency to goof off may justify this, though, and indeed he admits in Episode 11 that he'd rather play video games than work.

Sowande Sakaki

Sowande Sakaki

Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu (Japanese), Melanie Burke (English)

Portrayed by: Ema Grace

The student council’s secretary. She is better at seeing through the essence of things than the president Toru Dotonburi and is considered as the power broker of the council.

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• Ascended Extra: Has gained more prominence in the later manga chapters.
• Deadpan Snarker: When Kanamori states that only fools become teachers, Toru defensively retorts that teachers are important and deserve respect. Sowande's response?
  Sowande: You'd make a great teacher, president.
• Foil: Acts as one to Kanamori, being similarly cutthroat and cunning, but lacking Kanamori's obsession with profit, instead primarily acting in the school's interests.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite her tough exterior, she gives Eizouken a chance to showcase their skills to everyone and is impressed with their talents.
• The Lancer: She is calmer and more rational than the president and is as competent as her when it comes to leadership. Asakusa even mistakenly refers to her as the president.
• Race Lift: Somewhat averted in the live-action adaptation, in that her actress, like the character, is Afro-Japanese, albeit half-Ghanaian rather than half-Nigerian or half-Beninese (that said, significant Yoruba populations do exist in Ghana, which fits the fact that "Sowande" is a Yoruba name).
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She seems to be just as much of an Obstructive Bureaucrat as the president at first glance, but when Asakusa makes an impassioned speech, she gives the Eizouken a chance to show their short film and is just as impressed as everyone else. Though it doesn't stop her from confronting and questioning Kanamori about the Film Club's unofficial sound effects site and taking away its profits, or taking part in the arrest of the DVD Burning Club's leader.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the calm and collected Blue to Toru's aggressive and tenuous Red.
• The Rival: To Kanamori. Out of all the council members, Sowande is the main one who frequently engages with Kanamori and details the obstacles she and her comrades have to overcome.

The Student Council

Kyu Ashima, Sowande Sakaki, Toru Dotonbori and Toshiya Wang

Voiced by: Miyuki Kawashou (Dotonbori), Hiroko Iso (Ashima), Mikako Komatsu (Sakaki) (Japanese), Donna Bella Litton (Dotonbori) (English)

The elite four who manage the affairs of the student body and delegate the actions and status of every club that has been, or ever will be, created.

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• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: They organize every club in their school and have the final say on whether a given club has their requested support or is terminated without question. While this is more or less what real Japanese student councils do, this one also has a related Security Club whose sole purpose seems to be enforcing the student council's rules, basically serving as their own police force.
• All There in the Script: The student's council's names aren't stated in the series and are instead provided in other material. Additionally, it's only known from extra material that Kyu and Toshiya's roles in the council are incision captain and accountant respectively.
• The Antagonist: The closest thing this show has to antagonists as the council members provide multiple obstacles for Eizouken to overcome throughout their projects.
• Disproportionate Retribution: They have a tendency to sic the Security Club, which operates most closely to a SWAT Team, on students who break school rules, regardless of how severe the infraction actually is. Special note goes to them outright raiding and tazing the leader of the DVD Burning Club for misusing school funds.
• Eyes Always Shut: Toshiya is always shown with his eyes closed.
• Fiery Redhead: Toru has dark red hair and is quite hot tempered when interacting with the club presidents.
• Girlish Pigtails: Both Toru and Kyu have pigtails.
• Hero of Another Story: They're the ones responsible for guiding and overseeing all of the clubs at the school just like they do with the Motion Picture Club. Given how varied and bizarre these clubs can get with their ideas and ambitions (as shown in the budget decision committee meeting and the school festival), this involves a lot of work with a certain attention to detail the audience doesn't get to witness themselves.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • As cold and business-oriented as she is, Toru at least provides valid and constructive arguments towards the requests of the club presidents (though admittedly the wall crashing and pipe breaking could've been explained away as just an necessary fallout from what was perceived as an emergency since the ladder had fallen while they were patching the building, Kanamori was the one not really bothering to explain things on that front. And the rumor Toru brings up about the Eizouken keeping a wild tanuki as a pet is really just a rumor. The show disruption is a genuine one though and the art club "hassling" is vague, but considering Kanamori was the one asking them, likely valid).
  • In Episode 8, Kyu orders Mizusaki's arrest as her use of advertising involves model rockets which she argues could be dangerous to the open public. While the method of discipline used is more than extreme, Kyu is right to hold Mizusaki and her clubmates accountable for actions that could genuinely injure someone and cause unwanted commotion in a crowded environment. The Security Club ends up arresting Ono and several other people wearing the same cardboard costume Mizusaki uses to escape instead.
• Layman's Terms: When Asakusa pleads with the council to at least see the fruits of their labors. Toru is a little confused what she's trying to say (likely because Asakusa is speaking in a strong Shitamichi dialect by that point) until Sakaki has to point it out in a bit more straightforward manner to her.
  Asakusa: Aww cram it! You bunch thinking you can get high and mighty just cause you got use over a barrel! Well, we ain't exactly the kinda folks who're gonna bow to bums like you! We come up on this stage like clowns 'cause you decided to put on a show, and now you wanna rake us over the coals? Say what now? All kinda problems?! Blast it, all you've done is run your mouths about a buncha hokum, ya nimrods! You think we were running from those goons or wrecking ourselves in that crummy old club building for fun?! But we did it all, cus that's what it took to make anime! We took our lumps to get this anime made, ya ignoramuses! The proof's in the pudding! Don't run yer mouth until you've tasted it! Got it?!
  (Beat)
  Toru (To Sakaki): Say what now?
  Sakaki: "Don't complain about how it's done. Look at the finished product first."
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Kyu is shown with a prominent display of sharp teeth that are bared often.
• Multinational Team: Along with Sowande who's strongly implied to have West African ancestry, there's Kyu who is half Indian, Toshiya who is half Chinese, and Toru who is Japanese/Asian.
• Not So Above It All: Despite their hostilities towards Eizouken, Toru and Sowande are shown to have bought DVD copies of Shibahama UFO Wars to enjoy.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Council is notorious for always finding excuses to veto proposals from other clubs. Toru in particular is very much a stickler, and when the Eizouken try to get approved as a club she brings up a number of transgressions the girls have committed in order to prevent them from becoming official. She near suspends the group for some (admittedly minor) offenses before they even have a chance to make their case. The girls try to adhere to the school rules otherwise.
• The One Guy: The council is predominantly made of girls with the exception of Toshiya.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Toru is the fiery and belligerent Red to Sowande's cool and sensible Blue.
• The Voiceless: Toshiya is the only one without any spoken dialogue in the series.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Downplayed, but when they have the security go after the DVD Burning Club for misusing funds who at the time are taking to the girls, they do so that akin to a SWAT sting. Once all is said and done, Kanamori asks Sakaki who exactly is going pay for the damages to their building from their Dynamic Entry. Sakaki visibly grimaces at that cause, yeah, that was on them this time.

Parker Doumeki

Parker Doumeki

Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)

Portrayed by: Hiyori Sakurada

The president, and only member, of the Sound Effects Club, known for being a huge anorak about sound design. After some intense negotiations with Kanamori, she becomes Eizouken's official sound adviser.

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• Ambiguously Brown: Has a dark brown skin color. While it's implied that Japan has become more racially diverse in this setting, it's unknown what her exact ethnicity is. One possibility is that she's Melanesian, a group of people living in a patch of Oceania stretching from New Guinea to Fiji. Melanesians, especially Soloman Islanders, are one of the few nonwhite ethnic groups to have naturally-occurring blond hair. Of note is that in the live-action adaptation, she's portrayed by a Japanese actress; compare this to Sowande, who in the same adaptation is portrayed by a half Ghanaian, half Japanese actress. On top of this, the English dub has her voiced by a white actress whereas the more obviously black Sowande is voiced by a black actress.
• Awesome McCoolname: The kanji for her family name (百目鬼) can mean "hundred-eyed demon". Asakusa lampshades this, proclaiming that her name is cool.
• Club Stub: There's a number of clubs in the series that are smaller than they should be, but the Sound Effects Club has exactly one member and it's her.
• Collector of the Strange: She enjoys collecting sounds of all types. In her free time, she likes to travel around town collecting new sounds.
• Crazy-Prepared: She is shown to record any and all conversations to use as fodder against potential enemies.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: She wears a pair of headphones, which emphasizes both her love of audio and sound design as well as the fact that she's both the only member of the Sound Effects Club and fairly aloof even compared to Asakusa.
• In the Hood: Doumeki's go-to casual outfit is a lime green hoodie.
• Last-Name Basis: As with most other characters in the series (and keeping in line with Japanese conversational norms), she's only referred to by her family name, but unlike other characters this extents to the point where her given name isn't ever stated on-screen. According to Sumito Owara, the series' creator, her given name is Parker.
• Overworked Sleep: In Episode 10, Asakusa and Mizusaki find her fast asleep in the Motion Picture Club's sound room; her surprised reaction upon waking up implies she dozed off as a result of one or more all-nighters.
• Race Lift: Has a lighter complexion in certain colored manga artwork.◊ Along with having a hint of a tan line on her arms in certain later manga appearances.◊
• Serious Business: Sound design. It is such a serious business for her that listening to Eizouken's (admittedly basic, but not definitively terrible) attempt at DIY sound mixing caused her to violently retch in response.
• Sixth Ranger: Downplayed. Doumeki isn't an official member of Eizouken, but gets recruited to be directly involved in their anime projects as their sound adviser and has a considerably more peripheral role than the main trio. Despite being on good terms with them after their rocky initial meeting, she keeps her relationship to the other three strictly professional: as Kanamori puts it, Doumeki doesn't see the point of just hanging out for the sake of hanging out.
• Suckiness Is Painful: Doumeki ends up being involved with Eizouken's projects after hearing their amateurish attempts at creating sound effects. Since sound design is Serious Business to her, their basic and unprofessional sound effects make her vomit offscreen twice. Strangely though, a case of Soundtrack Dissonance doesn't seem to bother her anywhere near as much, with her addressing the unfittingly moody piano piece for the "UFO battle" film as one would a leaky faucet.

The Robot Club

Ono, Kobayashi, Goto and Seki

From left to right: Seki, Kobayashi, Ono, and Goto

Voiced by: Yuki Ono (Ono), Yūsuke Kobayashi (Kobayashi), Ryuunosuke Watanuki (Goto), Shiori Izawa (Seki) (Japanese), Labraska Washington (Ono), Nazeeh Tarsha (Kobayashi), Andrew Love (Goto), Alyssa Marek (Seki) (English)

Portrayed by: Mizuki Itagaki (Ono), Eiji Akaso (Kobayashi)

The members of the Robot Club, whose goal is to create a fully functional giant robot. They take pride in their club's long history. The main characters agree to create a short animated film starring their robot for the school's cultural festival.

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• Ambiguously Brown: Kobayashi is shown with tan skin.
• Berserk Button: Ono hates any implication that giant robots wouldn't be much good in combat— in particular, he seems to have a sensitivity to the words "frontal profile."
• Gonk: When he gets fired up, Ono has a habit of being drawn in undignified close-up, with much less stylized (and so much uglier) facial features; at one point he's even covered in his own snot.
• Hero of Another Story: Managing to last well into the current day and age that the setting takes place in— the year 2051— the club's history dates back all the way to the late 1800s, more than implying that the present day members and their predecessors have gotten up to their own adventures and hijinks. The fact that they have had their own Mini-Mecha since the club's inception is quite the fascinating tale with its own curious experiences and events in of itself.
• Heroic Sacrifice: A non-fatal example combined with Taking the Heat, when the club takes full responsibility for the outlandish promotional stunts for their anime film's screening away from Mizusaki and help her flee to the auditorium. Ono gets dragged away by the Security Club for his actions while the others are confronted by some of their fans after the screening wraps up.
• Hypocritical Humor: Ono is initially a hardline purist of the Real Robot Genre, to the point of getting really snippy about the idea of the film featuring frivolous or fantastical Super Robot elements. Later on, he starts demonstrating an affinity for those very elements, like the Theme Music Power-Up or wielding a mechanical driver as a weapon. It's implied, though, that this owes to him finally letting go of his pretentiousness.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Ono, the club president, is mainly motivated by the fact that he dreams of being a giant robot pilot, but he's also smart enough to recognize that giant robots are completely unrealistic and his dream will probably never come true. This strikes a chord with Asakusa and Mizusaki, who dream of being a space explorer or a superhuman, respectively.
• Large Ham: Ono only has one volume setting, and that setting is loud. This even extends to the point where he attempts to voice-act all the sound effects in the Motion Picture Club's giant robot anime, much to everyone else's consternation.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Ono's open declaration to obtain blackmail on Eizouken to keep them under the Robot Club's control is used against him as Kanamori just so happens to stop on by and record everything.
• Last-Name Basis: All of the members are only credited by their last names, with two of them being the same as their Japanese voice actors.
• Nerd Action Hero: During the school festival, Ono runs the equivalent of a marathon throughout Shibahama High as he evades the Security Club while promoting Eizouken's robot anime to the public and rushes back in time for the big screening without losing his breath.
• Nerd Glasses: Ono wears glasses with thick black frames that constantly obscure his eyes, emphasizing his nerdy obsession with giant robots.
• Serious Business: All four members consider robots to be this to varying degrees. Ono in particular considers them extremely serious business.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Parodied in Episode 8, when Ono leads the Security Club off on a chase so Mizusaki can make it to her anime screening. As he gets into the zone, he starts singing a cheesy song praising giant robots, prompting the other Robot Club members to comment that he's "powering up" and cheer him on. He ends up sprinting full-tilt across half the campus and up several flights of stairs, and since the cardboard robot costume he's wearing has loudspeakers in it, half the campus can hear him too.

The Arts Club

Okamoto, Nakamura and Kubo

From left to right:Okamoto, Nakamura, and Kubo

Voiced by: Reiko Takagi (Okamoto), Yusuke Tezuka (Nakamura), Michiyo Murase (Kubo) (Japanese), Shanae'a Moore (Okamoto), Scott Gibbs (Nakamura), Dominique Meyer (Kubo) (English)

An oddball club that specializes in painting. While Eizouken hires them to create backgrounds for their upcoming anime, some of the club members give the girls a hard time because of their artistic differences.

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• Gonk: Nakamura's design isn't the most flattering.
• Innocently Insensitive: Okamoto is always friendly, but seems to have a natural talent for saying things that set off Asakusa's social anxiety.
• Last-Name Basis: Much like the Robot Club, they are only ever refered to by their last names.
• Nice Girl: While Nakamura often comes across as slightly snobbish and pretentious, Kubo is meek and more friendly to the main trio, and will typically offer to edit their artwork to suit their production, unlike her partner who usually insists on keeping them as is no matter what.

Outside of Shibahama High

Mr. and Mrs. Mizusaki

Voiced by: Satoshi Mikami (Dad), Noriko Hidaka (Mom) (Japanese), Brandon Hearnsberger (Dad), Elizabeth Bunch (Mom) (English)

Tsubame Mizusaki's mom and dad. A pair of influential actors who have had a huge hand in directing their daughter's modeling career.

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• Establishing Character Moment: Their first scene features the both of them acting relatively unfazed by the fact that their director attempted to murder a coworker before calmly admitting that they haven't been supporting their daughter as well as they would've wanted and making plans to attend Shibahama's culture festival, establishing that they're not the cartoonishly strict parents Mizusaki's accounts and experiences seemed to make them out to be and setting up their acceptance of her dream of becoming an animator throughout the rest of the episode.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: The father doesn't approve at first of Mizusaki's dream to become an animator and wants her to go into acting instead, and her bodyguards have even been instructed to prevent her from joining the anime club. The mother, by comparison, is much more lenient. Mizusaki later speculates that her father's insistence on her becoming an actress is due to him being Vicariously Ambitious, wanting her to fulfill the dream he always had in mind for her mother. Regardless, this trope results in Mizusaki having to do all her work in secrecy, to the point where she outright admits to Asakusa and Kanamori that a lot of her at-home animation material is done while pretending to be asleep.
• Innocently Insensitive: Her father notes that much of his earlier strictness was because her mother was the one who wanted her to become an actress, and he simply went overboard in trying to push her in that direction.
• Like Parent, Like Child: Mizusaki's parents become more accepting of her dream after seeing her work on the Robot Club's promotional anime, accepting the idea that animation is itself a form of acting and noting that she still has the same eye for detail and performance as before, just in a different medium.
• Parental Neglect: Unintentional but this trope still applies to them.
• Rich People: Their success as professional actors have made them one of the richest families on the show, enough to afford a fairly sizeable and extravagant manor compared to Asakusa's middle-class apartment.
• So Proud of You: They both express some pride in their daughter's talent and show their approval of her and everyone else's collective effort in creating the animated short film.
• Unfazed Everyman: Both parents are always shown in a calm and approachable mood. Their debut scene involved them not being fazed with how the director they were working with attempted murder on a coworker. And they avert the expected reactions of the Fantasy-Forbidding Father when they discover Mizusaki's true passion by calmly analyzing her work and their own actions.

Kashima

Voiced by: Kazuya Yazaki (Japnese), James Marler (English)

A friendly young man who works at a fruit-ramen shop and is a huge fan of Eizouken's anime projects.

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• Ambiguously Brown: He has distinctly dark skin but no clues as to what his ethnicity his.
• Big Beautiful Man: He's heavyset and quite handsome.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Kashima makes a brief appearance before his episode debut at the Culture Festival.
• Fan Boy: A huge fan of both mecha anime and Eizouken.
• Hidden Depths: He's the Vice President of a local revitalization project, and is an effective enough support leader to convince the Shibahama City Council to fund the Eizouken Club's next anime.
• I Just Want to Be Special: When he meets Eizouken, he eagerly promotes a new idea about a humble ramen shop worker who works for the government as an ally of justice and has ramen themed attacks.

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