Characters of Kiniro Mosaic.
Main Characters
- Voiced by: Asuka Nishi
One of the main characters of the series, Shino is a girl enamored with foreign culture. When she was young she went to England, and befriends Alice Cartelet (as Shino was staying at her home). Shino had to eventually return to Japan, but come high school Alice returns the favor, and for the duration of the series stays at Shino's home.
While Shino herself is enthusiastic about foreign culture, she's sadly not actually good at the learning side of things. Despite this she still wants to become a foreign-language interpreter when she grows up.
- Animals Hate Him: Dogs always seem to bark at her despite her friendliness.
- Book Dumb: Impossibly so. Except for one time when she scored 100%; Karasuma-sensei cried.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: While not on the level that Alice is, she does get jealous when her sister Isami praises Alice, especially if accompanied by a hug.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl: She dresses up in all sorts of outstanding outfits, like a lolita or princess-style outfit just to go out and about, a lolita-style kimono instead of a yukata for festival, or a maid outfit while making some sweets.
- The Ditz: She is hardly bright. One of the earliest strips shown her scoring zero in math, and despite her European Foreign Culture Fetish, she doesn't know much English (and tried to read an English paper!) and may or may not even know that England and France are part of Europe at all!
- Flower Motifs: According to her character song, hers is the Poinsettia.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: Towards England and France. She doesn't actually know much about these cultures, however; the only English she can remember is "hello", and she doesn't even know they are both European countries!
- Has a Type: Blondes. She'd even want to be a blonde herself as well.
- Hopeless with Tech: Thinks she can catch a computer virus. She is also one of the rare teen characters in 2000s/2010s to not own a cell phone; this trope is presumably the reason.
- In-Series Nickname: Shino.
- Nice Girl: Extremely kind and friendly, probably the reason she got along so well with Alice despite the language barrier.
- Otaku: An England and France otaku. Even though the only English she can remember is "Hello."
- Punny Name: For ninja.
- Race Fetish: Her interest in blue-eyed blondes.
- Shipper on Deck: Seems to be this for Alice and Karen, if only so she can have both.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: At least this is how Alice sees her.
- Younger Than They Look: Due to her demeanour. This is one of her few Berserk Buttons as well.
- Voiced by: Manami Tanaka
The other main character of the series, Alice Cartelet is a blonde and very petite English girl that Shino befriends during her stay in England. At the start of the series, Alice enrolls into Shino's school as a transfer student, and at the same time also moves into Oomiya household.
Although she was initially wary of Shino when she was younger (not helped by the fact that Shino couldn't speak English really well), Alice as a teenager has grown to be, well, possessive of Shino. While the series treats it as a source of laughs, Alice often gets jealous (and depressed) whenever she thinks Shino doesn't pay as much attention to her as she should.
- A-Cup Angst: Alice is... undeveloped, for someone of her ethnicity and age.
- Anime Accent Absence: Played straight, as Alice talks like native Japanese speaker despite being from overseas.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: For Shino, especially when Karen, Karasuma-sensei, Honoka comes between them.
- The Cutie: Everything about her is adorable from her petite figure, shy but friendly personality, and endearing voice. Other characters even find her as such and she's even more precious when speaking English.
- Flower Motifs: According to her character song, Alice's is the Camellia japonica (Japanese Camellia), also known as Tsubaki.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: Towards Japan.
- Girlish Pigtails: Merited in Alice's case as well, since she actually LOOKS like a little girl.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Along with her feminine disposition, she also arm wrestles and plays baseball with her friends.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: An adorably sweet girl with blonde hair.
- Height Angst: Is rather sensitive about her small stature.
- Heroic BSoD: In episode 11, she temporarily "forgets" how to speak Japanese because she is afraid Shino no longer likes her due to becoming Japanized.
- Important Hair Accessory: Alice wears the hairsticks Shinobu gave her.
- The Ingenue: She looks like a child in any way possible, physically and mentally. A little point in Episode 8: she still needs Shinobu to take her to the bathroom at midnight!
- Nice Girl: Sweet, kind-hearted, caring, friendly, and compassionate. Heck, she even helps cheer Shino up when she found out that Shino didn't do that well in the math test.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: She wears a pink sweater over her uniform.
- Older Than They Look: Alice is roughly around the same age as Shinobu, yet her petite size makes her pass her as a middle school student or even an elementary school student. You're right, Alice, an English girl, is small by Japanese standards.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Blond and blue-eyed.
- Shrinking Violet: Alice was extremely so when Shinobu was living in her house; even now she's still very shy.
- Single-Target Sexuality: As the self-proclaimed president of the Shino-club, she's Shino-sexual.
- Spell My Name With An S: Is it Carteret or Carterlet? Sentai Filmworks (the company that licensed this show for American home video release) uses "Cartalet," Yen Press (the American publisher of the manga) uses "Cartelet."
- Token Mini-Moe: Alice is only 139 cm (about 4'7") tall, and has only grown 3 centimeters since elementary school.
- Voiced by: Risa Taneda
One of Shino's circle of friends, and often seen together with Youko, who was the first to befriend her after she transfered in during middle school. Because of this, she's become somewhat attached to Youko, though she'll vehemently deny it. Nope, she's not attracted to Youko at all, really!
Rather serious and studious, Aya prefers indoor activities.
- A-Cup Angst: Being paired with Youko, could you blame her though?
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Not that the other girls were rude to her, but she was an extreme Shrinking Violet when she was younger. Youko however, assertively shows her around the school and then spends a lot of time with her, which is partly why Aya has a crush on her.
- Big "OMG!": Just listen.
- Blue Oni: To Youko's red.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Has an absurdly bad case of this when it comes to Youko.
- Characterization Marches On: An early strip shows that Aya is absentminded. It's the only time that quirk is emphasized.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Forced to act this way in season 2, thanks to being in the same class as Shinobu and Karen.
- A Day in the Limelight: The Pretty Days OVA is primarily from her point of view, and is heavily focused on the formation and development of her friendship with Shino and Youko.
- Flower Motifs: According to her character song, Aya's is the Cosmos.
- Girlish Pigtails: For being Tsundere.
- Hypocrisy Nod: In episode 3 of season 2, after talking to Kouta and Mitsuki about being more honest with their older sister, she immediately responds to herself, aware of her own situation regarding Youko.
- In-Series Nickname: Karen imposed "Ayaya" on her.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: Her standard outfit, and she's one of the more upstanding members of the cast.
- Shrinking Violet: Was one when she was younger, and used excuses to not have anything to do with the other students, until Youko starts spending time with her.
- Supreme Chef: Not the best cook out there, as Alice and Karen immediately tell her that her food was bland. But she does get a lot better over time, and pretty much turns out to be the only one of them who can do any sort of cooking.
- Tsundere: Towards Youko.
- Weight Woe: Apparently she puts on weight easily, but this isn't noticeable due to the art style of the series.
- Voiced by: Yumi Uchiyama
One of Shino's childhood friends, and the one who's known her the longest (enough that she's on Isami's "little sister" list), Youko is cheerful, dependable, and somewhat boyish... Yet oddly enough she acts as the voice of reason for her circle of friends.
This knack for reading the atmosphere also fails her where Aya is concerned, and to date she is blissfully unaware that Aya want to be more than just friends.
- Big Eater: Youko, who's hungry enough to eat her lunch before school on top of breakfast.
- Cool Big Sis: She tries to be this for Kouta and Mitsuki but they don't make it easy for her.
- Cute Little Fangs
- Flower Motifs: According to her character song, Youko's is the Hydrangea.
- Genki Girl: Has some shades of this.
- Hidden Buxom: The other girls are quick to notice, fully surprised, that Youko is incredibly good looking in a swimsuit.
- Is It Something You Eat?: Some of Karen's mispronunciations can sometimes prompt Youko to ask if it's some sort of food.
- Nice Girl: Lampshaded in Karen's pie chart describing her as "50% comedic retorts, 50% kind-hearted."
- Oblivious to Love: She just does not realize how much Aya likes her. When the class is split up for the new school year, she had no idea why Aya would be upset. The anime even lampshades it, outright spelling out "DENSE" onscreen.
- Only Sane Woman: The most grounded of the cast.
- Pinocchio Nose: According to Alice, she shows her canines when she lies.
- Red Oni: To Aya's blue.
- Straight Man: Quite often the tsukkomi to someone's bokke.
- Team Mom: Karen and Shino see Youko this way.
- Voiced by: Nao Tōyama
Half-British and Half-Japanese, Karen is Alice's childhood friend. The daughter of a well-off family, she follows Alice to Japan when she learns about her friend being enrolled at a school there. She very quickly fits into Alice's new circle of friends, though it takes her a while before she could connect to her own classmates.
Karen herself is a hyperactive and irrepressible ball of energy, fond of peppering her Japanese with English phrases regardless of the context.
- Alliterative Name: Karen Kujou.
- Anime Accent Absence: Unlike Alice, Karen has a noticeable (an exaggerated) accent to her Japanese.
- Asleep in Class: She became a chronic class-sleeper in the second season.
- Big Eater: Karen also has some shades of this, in fact, it's even stated she can eat a lot of food without gaining weight.
- Big "NO!": Utters one when she fell down from an elevated surface after she did a missed step.
- But Not Too Foreign: Half-British from her mother's side, and half-Japanese from her father's side.
- Cuddle Bug: She's quite affectionate towards her friends.
- Daddy's Girl: Alice notes that Karen and her father are close, prompting to Youko to comment that she's this trope (specifically, she calls her a "Papako").
- Elective Broken Language: She speaks broken Japanese seemingly on purpose, since sometimes she is shown to be speaking fluently. It may be due to her eccentric personality.
- Flower Motifs: According to her character song, Karen's is the Anemone.
- Genki Girl: Karen often acts and speaks like she's on a permanent sugar-high.
- Green Rooming: She's seen very briefly talking to Alice when Shinobu first does a homestay in England. She doesn't join the main cast until episode three however.
- Neologizer: She frequently speaks in broken Japanese and custom words like "Ohayou goshaimashu" (Good Myowrning). Her class then copied it from her, thinking it was cute.
- Never Gets Fat: Never seems to gain weight despite her tremendous appetite.
- Nice Girl: She may be aggressive, but she usually has the best in mind for anyone she helps. It's the reason why many of her classmates were giving her snacks.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: She wears a Union Jack coat.
- Occidental Otaku: At least, learnt Japanese from reading manga.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Blonde from her English half, though unlike Alice she has violet eyes. The anime seems to have trouble deciding between purple and brown a lot though...
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: She says "Jii~" a lot, along with other miscellaneous sounds.
- Shipper on Deck: In regards to Youko and Aya's relationship. In fact, in episode 5, she even made an "Ayaya Pie Chart" that consisted of 10% intelligent, 10% shy, and 80% Youko. Aya's reaction was priceless.
- Shout-Out: Alice's Japanese father and English mother make her awfully similar to another Kujou... At one point, she even dons a similar outfit◊ to Jotaro.
- Tsurime Eyes: Karen specifically mentions that her eyes are slanted like that, in contrast with Shino's more gentle and approachable look.
- Verbal Tic: She ends nearly every sentence with "desu".
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Her Union Jack blazer.
- You No Take Candle: Yen Press localises her broken Japanese in the manga as this.
Supporting Cast
- Voiced by: Yukari Tamura
Shino's older sister, Isami works part-time as a model in teen fashion magazines. Unlike Shino, she's not only implied to be really intelligent, she's also very responsible, and stands in for her mother with regards to household chores if the latter is otherwise occupied.
During the first season Isami was in her last year of high school, but come Hello, she's a freshman in college.
- Big Sister Instinct: Isami has a serious case of it. Her animated cell phone background is all pictures of Shinobu, Youko, and their friends. In episode 5 of the second season, she was an a bit of slump just because she couldn't apply this on Shinobu for a while.
- Cool Big Sis: For Youko in particular, as Youko has no older siblings of her own to look up to.
- Fashion Magazine: Isami works for one as a model and is moderately famous.
- The Gadfly: She is more like this in Hello!!, apparently tricking the main cast just for laughs.
- Gender-Blender Name: Kanji-wise her name means "courage," which is hardly feminine. Any femininity comes from the slightly feminine-sounding Alternate Character Reading.
- Lethal Chef: She claimed herself being this, but it's hard to say whether she's speaking the truth.
- The Tease: Does this in a friendly manner towards Alice once in awhile, which causes Shino to get incredibly jealous.
- Voiced by: Satomi Sato
One of the teachers of the school, Karasuma teaches English class, and is the teacher that Shino and her friends interact with the most. She is known for her quirky personality, and for her trademark green jersey. She is an alumna of the school, and was part of the Theater Club when she was younger.
She is everyone's homeroom teacher for the first season, but come Hello she becomes the adviser for Alice and Youko's class instead.
- Big Eater: In the sixth episode of Hello!!, she finished a super-large sundae that Youko can only finish half of!
- Character Tic: Karasuma is very sensitive to any reference to her age.
- Cuteness Proximity: For Alice. She can't resist... putting bunny-ear headbands on her.
- Forgotten First Meeting: She's actually met Kuzehashi before, way back when they were both in high school, but it takes a picture of her when she was younger to finally make Kuzehashi make the connection.
- Sensei-chan: Lampshaded in Alice's "cast as a family" dream in Episode 11, where Karasuma was Shinobu's sister, while Aya is the mother and Youko is the grandfather.
- Tareme Eyes: In contrast to Kuzehashi's Tsurime.
- Voiced by: Saori Onishi
Another teacher at the school, she is first introduced in Hello. She teaches Home Economics, and becomes the homeroom adviser for Karen, Aya, and Shino's class. Much like Karasuma, Kuzehashi is an alumna of the school, and was even part of the track team when she was younger.
She has an imposing and downright intimidating demeanour, but this belies a gentle soul who just wants to be closer to her students. She needs work on her smiles though.
- Cuteness Proximity: Often finds the students' antics thoroughly adorable.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Feels like she's one. Her early attempts to correct the student's behavior at school, and her tendency to stare at some of them makes it seem to the students that she's mad at anything they're doing. Karen eventually helps to loosen her up, and eventually many of the students feel they can approach her.
- Early-Bird Cameo: During the final episode of Season 1, prior to her introduction in Hello!!, she can clearly be seen sitting next to Karasuma-sensei◊ during an assembly.
- Face of a Thug: Despite her demeanor, she genuinely wants to get closer to her students. Unfortunately early on her smiles appear to others as if she's got a very stern disapproving look on it.
- Forgotten First Meeting: She's totally forgotten that she's met Karasuma-sensei before. It takes a photo of a younger Karasuma for her to realize that the goofy sempai that helped her adjust to high school was the very same co-worker.
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: Episode 2 of Hello reveals that she keeps a pet cat at home.
- In-Series Nickname: Youko calls her "Kusshi-chan".
- Intergenerational Friendship: Though it took some work, Karen was able to become friends with Kuzehashi. It doesn't help her escape homework though.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: Worn by her to go with the rest of her attire, and stern appearance.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: As much as she wishes to be closer and friendlier with her students, she doesn't let that get in the way of her status as a teacher. This is most often seen with Karen, the student she has the best relationship with (as Karen helped to get her to open up), but also the one she is seen disciplining the most because of Karen's various antics.
- Right Behind Me: Kuzehashi-sensei has a startling propensity to show up behind Karen just as the latter is sharing her (incorrect) observations on the former.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Played with. Karen sees her at the mall wearing a skirt, and thinks she looks fabulous and very laid back compared to her usual suit and seemingly strict demeanor when she's at school.
- Stern Teacher: Everyone's impression of her. Her near-constant serious look does NOT help matters. Though compared to the laid-back Karasuma she is far more strict.
- Tsurime Eyes: Like Karen, she wonders it makes her look less friendly.
- The Unsmile: Whenever she tries to smile, she tends to unintentionally glare instead.
- When She Smiles: Her unconscious smiles are a sight to behold.
- Voiced by: Ayaka Suwa
One of Karen's classmates, in the first season she was the first in the class to reach out and befriend the former, who was feeling increasingly alienated as the semester passed. Predictably, she does this... through feeding Karen.
As of Hello, she is still in the same class as Karen. Her family runs a cafe in town that serves hand-made sweets, which explains why she always seems to have them on hand.
- Ascended Extra: People would remember her as the girl who first befriends Karen in the first season. She gets more appearances (and voiced lines!) in Hello.
- Has a Type: Blondes, just like Shinobu. They amusingly bond over this.
- Imagine Spot: Frequently imagines Karen and Alice as western princesses, and her self as a lowly servant admiring them.
- Satellite Character: Her characterization before episode 6 of Hello could be summed up as "wanting to be around Karen", and "wanting to feed Karen". Episode 6 expands this considerably.
- Serious Business: She has no problems giving Karen tiny gifts of snacks, but then assumes Karen will be unapproachable when she thinks about getting her phone number.
- Through Her Stomach: Gives Karen candy frequently.
- Voiced by: Megumi Han (Kouta), Rie Murakawa (Mitsuki)
Youko's younger, fraternal twin siblings. At the beginning of Hello!!, they are studying in the fourth grade. They're smarter for their age considering they noticed Aya love for Youko as easily as the rest of the cast.
- Ascended Extra: They make a brief appearance is Season 1 before reappearing in Hello!!
- Consummate Liar: Both of them. Youko says that they often tell lies that can be hard to distinguish from truth. Though it often flip-flops into Bad Liar territory.
- Deadpan Snarker: Both of them often speak in this manner, which only further serves to confuse Youko. However, when Aya first seems them claim they don't like Youko, she can immediately tell they weren't serious.
- Flat Joy: They express their enthusiasm at going to the pool in a synchronized deadpan.
- Single-Minded Twins: They're practically a single character.
- Speak in Unison: It's not noticably frequent, but when they do do it, their monotone comes off as being less creepy and more adorable.
- The One Guy: Kouta is pretty much the most prominent male character in the whole show, and whatever screentime or characterization he does get is shared with Mitsuki.
