open/close all folders
Kaoru Sugimura
Kaoru Sugimura
Voiced by: Junji Majima
A sullen, unattractive slacker who's a childhood friend, next-door neighbour and former rival of Nana, Kaoru has been nursing a crush on her for an unspecified time before the start of the story. He used to be on par with her without trying until middle school, when her hard work and dedication to a goal began to pay off, leaving him struggling to catch up. As a result, he stopped trying and resigned himself to watching and urging Nana on from afar. He discovered BDSM around the same time.
Most of the time, he can be found hanging with his buddies in 2-F. Usually discussing porn. Nicknamed "Creepy-mura" by the rest of the class.
- Ascended Fanboy: Kaoru in Black Label. At first he only pretended to be Sarashina's characters during his breathers with Nana. In this, he ends up one of the characters in Sarashina's books, role-playing alongside and learning directly from said author at that.
- Badass Boast: In chapter 96/74 (It Makes Sense in Context):Kaoru (to Hiroshi): They may have thrown out your porn, your pride, but I'll get it back for you.
- Beady-Eyed Loser: His irises are noticeably drawn smaller than the other characters, signifying his loser status.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He has the ability, but little motivation after his rival left him so thoroughly behind. In addition, if you get him onto a subject he is interested in (BDSM), he's downright erudite about it.
- Character Development: His grades begin improving, his health and stamina go through the roof and he shakily makes new friends and gains confidence throughout the course of the story.
- Chivalrous Pervert: He'll push Nana to the edges of her boundaries... but no further.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: At the beginning of the story, Kaoru is a poor student, unathletic, has no real hobbies or interests beyond bondage, and doesn't expect much out of life. He's slowly revealed to be an extraordinarily passionate, hard-working, and courageous young man who longs for love and intimacy, and who has simply been saddened and demotivated for much of his life by a world which he felt had little to offer him.
- Disappeared Dad: His dad died when he was very young and was raised by his mother.
- Gender-Blender Name: "Kaoru" is mostly reserved as a name for Japanese girls.
- Gonk: He's beady-eyed and has a wide mouth, making him look somewhat like a frog.
- I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: He is absolutely, soul-crushingly terrified of losing Nana, to the point that he completely misses out the increasingly obvious fact that Nana's in love with him.
- Insecure Love Interest: Committed to the belief that he's unworthy of Nana, and resigned to his fate as an underachieving loser that'll be left behind once Nana graduates. He very slowly begins to get better after risking his life to save Nana.
- Jaded Washout: How he begins the story, despite only being a 17-year-old junior in high school. As a young child Kaoru was bright and energetic, and he and Nana were close friends who played together as equals. As time passed, Kaoru began to struggle socially and academically, all while watching Nana's intelligence, beauty, and popularity blossom. By the time the story begins, the gap in status between the two has grown so wide that they hardly speak, despite still being next-door neighbors. It's only through a stroke of luck that Kaoru and Nana re-enter each other's lives and Kaoru's faith in himself begins to be restored.
- Jerkass: Unpleasant towards everyone, particularly towards his mother...
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: ...but he does have a huge soft spot for Nana.
- Mr. Exposition: Particularly in matters of BDSM.
- Not So Harmless: He appears as a beady eyed gonk loser... but everyone forgets that up until his massive self esteem failure, he was Nana's scholarly rival. Nana, who is the top of her class and aiming for Toudai.
- The Student council president's sister has to pull the pres. aside and point out just what Nana's coded messages meant — he's not just a loser who is bothering Nana, he's Nana's boyfriend, although neither of them realize it.
- Oblivious to Love: Has no clue about Nana's feelings (Something that he does get better at, with time). To be fair, neither does she - of his or her own.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Sort of has this dynamic with Ryoko.
- Smarter Than You Look: A lot of people are surprised by his seemingly random bouts of intellect and drive. As mentioned in Sunstone, bondage is a smart person's game.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Kaoru is constantly, agonizingly aware of how small and unattractive he is compared to Nana and sees himself as nothing but an embarrassment to her in public. In order to keep her at a distance and assuage his shame, Kaoru is distant, sullen, and occasionally even outright rude to Nana when the two are at school or in public. During breathers and especially during 'cooldowns' when Nana or Ryoko are experiencing a catharsis, he radiates affection, praise, and tenderness. Kaoru notably isn't proud of his unfriendliness and often immediately berates himself after saying something too callous.
- Supreme Chef: Quite adept at cooking, a talent he uses to pamper Nana whenever the opportunity arises.
- Took a Level in Badass: By the midpoint of the series, his daily jogging has put him in very good shape — he is able to run several miles around town searching for Nana without breaking a sweat, while the all-round perfect Bishōnen student council president is left out of breath and near collapse.
- Tsundere: Type A (tsuntsun). Kaoru doesn't really associate with anyone else outside of his personal friends in class 2-F, Nana, Ryoko, and his mentors in Tachibana and Sarashina (eventually; the last four come over the course of the stories), isolates himself to some degree and is rather hostile for most of the day (even to his own mother). That said, Nana is the only subject/person that can pierce his apathy. He cares about her deeply, to the point that he is less and less of a Type A with each passing arc of the story.
- He can even act tsundere towards studying.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Roped in to play the part of a short, ugly girl in the school play.
Nana Chigusa
Nana Chigusa
Voiced by: Kaoru Mizuhara
"You know Kaoru...you're being unfair. Why do you think you need to become worthy all by yourself?"
Gorgeous, top student, athlete, hardworking vice-president of the student council - Nana is near the top of the heap in school. She drifted apart from her childhood friend Kaoru once she dedicated herself to becoming a lawyer (ironically, his encouragement provided the impetus). She doesn't have much of a life outside of school and studying, though, which is why she finds it difficult to relax and take a break.
Her headstrong and imperious personality meant that Kaoru was likely her only friend until high school (and being assigned to the student council), as she tended to scare people off.
- Academic Athlete: A top-of-her-class-student who is athletic enough to match track star Ryoko in a race.
- The Ace: She would be an ace, were it not for the fact that she excels in school only. Her studying doesn't leave much time for anything else. Later we see that she's closer to a Broken Ace, due to the pressure she feels from her mother and classmates. It could be argued that BDSM helps her stay sane by stepping out of all her expected roles.
- Attractiveness Isolation: She has a form of it, more or less due to be being something of an iron lady and having Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training (details below)
- Beneath the Mask: She's the top student and an Iron Lady at school, but Kaoru's BDSM sessions gradually reveal a more broken and vulnerable side of her, weighed down by the expectations of the people around her and harbouring deep parental issues. Ironically, it takes Kaoru using a BDSM mask to remove her senses to coax her true feelings out of her.
- The B Grade: The catalyst for the "breathers". At the start of the manga, Nana is so stressed by all of her responsibilities as Student Council President and top member of the athletic team that she starts to fail short of scoring as high as she used to despite studying as much as she can. A teacher notices the problem and advices her to look for a method of relaxation to help her de-stress, but nothing seems to work for her. That is, until the night before a mock college entrance exam when a series of Contrived Coincidences lead her to basically pose as a sub in BDSM gear for Kaoru. Her reaction to the experience leaves her too spent to touch the books before the test, yet a few days later she discovers that she got the top score without issue. Nana puts two and two together and the rest is history.
- Book Smart: Earns the second highest grades in a class of 94 students, bested only by student council president Hiroshi Yagami.
- Brains and Bondage: While she's good at studying, the stress of being The Ace ends up weighing down on her, causing her grades to lower. Taking "breathers" with Kaoru removes some of her stress and allows her to keep performing well in school.
- Break the Haughty: Many of the things Kaoru says during "breathers" go in this direction, especially the spanking session which she agrees to for causing Kaoru to have make up classes during winter break.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: In chapter one of the first volume Kaoru notes that Nana has very large breasts and calls her "a total knockout"; her breast size is commented upon by Those Two Guys as well.
- Generation Xerox: Virtually identical to her mother, and she knows it - when we finally meet her father, it reminds her unpleasantly of all the apparent similarities between her parents, and the tense relationship she has with Kaoru.
- Go-Getter Girl: Which is why she needs her 'breathers' to relax.
- Green-Eyed Monster: If one notices, any time that she, Ryoko and Kaoru are together... she'll tend to get a little clingy to Kaoru. Since she's been having the "breathers" along with Ryoko, she will get progressively more jealous about the whole session on a sub-conscious level. It's partly because her feelings for Kaoru also make her selfishly protective of his attention and praise. Yeah, she is completely clueless about this.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Ryoko
- Head-Turning Beauty: Subverted. All the boys want her, but don't dare to approach because she's an Iron Lady.
- I Am Not My Mother: The fact that she has been turning out like her mother doesn't please Nana when she discovers it.
- Iron Lady: She's really book smart and is part of the student council, though she commands authority regardless.
- Lethal Chef: She tries, but has no experience in cooking... anything. It leads to 'experimental' concoctions like egg sake with ginger, garlic, tomato and vinegar:Kaoru: Why is it red?
- Oblivious to Love: While Nana is fully aware that Kaoru loves their breathers together, she lives with constant anxiety that he will eventually replace her with a more enthusiastic partner — anxiety that gradually worsens as Kaoru slowly gains experience and respect as a dom. Despite all of his affection, Nana doesn't realize that the primary reason Kaoru loves their breathers so much is because he's desperately in love with her.
- Parental Abandonment: Her father is divorced and never mentioned and her mother's almost never home, leading to one or two issues.
- Platonic Life-Partners: As of Black Label, she has this dynamic with Tachibana.
- Powerful People Are Subs: She's the VP of the student council at their school and aspires to law school, but you wouldn't know it when she and Kaoru are having one of their breathers.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: What starts the plot, in a way, is this trope at play. She studies to such a degree that she doesn't really know how to relax, unwind, and not be in a position to study. The cause of this is her aspirations in becoming a lawyer.
- Smoking Is Not Cool: Hates the smell of cigarettes because it reminds her of the time when her parents — both smokers — lived together, and the accompanying frustration and anxiety from their strained relationship. Nana empties the ashtray and opens the windows the moment her father leaves after a visit.
- Stepford Smiler: Type A - Nana has two very specific smiles, one for keeping up appearances and another that is genuine, which is rare. The reason for this is more complex than one would expect, but it boils down to stress from keeping up her masquerade for her classmates and from acting as go-between for her divorced parents as their relationship continues to fragment. The latter is what eventually guides the plot, and uncovers issues she has with her parents that she has kept to herself since the age of six.
- Tsundere: Type B (deredere). At the start of the manga, this is Nana. A compassionate, devoted individual to almost everyone around her. Save for Kaoru, whose initial hostile manner seem to toss her for a loop and bucks against her own headstrong personality (causing a Type A streak as a reaction). This changes over the course of the mangas - the more that Kaoru opens up to her through the "breathers", the more she (unknowingly, at first) gushes about him to others and grows concerned about his well being.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Flashbacks reveal part of the reason she wants to be a lawyer; she wanted to emulate her father. Who later asks her which parent she loves more. Yeesh.
Ryoko Tachi
Ryoko Tachi
"It's like...someone's expecting something from you, and you fulfill their expectations.You expect something of someone, and they fulfill their promise. It feels so good."
An energetic, adventurous and competitive student athlete who attends the nearby girls' school. Initially a friendly athletic rival to Nana, she becomes acquainted with Kaoru by chance when meeting him during their morning exercise. Shocked and slightly horrified by seeing Kaoru's bondage equipment and learning of Nana's participation in their breathers, Ryoko demands to participate in a breather to verify Nana is being treated safely. Upon experiencing catharsis in Kaoru's arms, she is overwhelmed with emotion and quickly becomes the duo's best friend and confidant in bondage.
Unlike Kaoru and Nana, who are mutually terrified of admitting to one another how important breathers are to them, Ryoko happily admits her love of bondage and is an eager and enthusiastic participant in any breather Kaoru suggests.
- A-Cup Angst: Implied, although she never admits it out loud. When Kaoru initially mistakes her for a boy, Ryoko angrily responds by pulling down her shirt to expose her cleavage, annoyed that her breasts aren't prominent enough to be noticeable. Her first time realizing she's sexy is seeing herself with her breasts heavily emphasized by a 'rope bra.'
- Ambiguously Brown: Justified: She has a deep tan.
- Boyish Short Hair: Ryoko's hair is short enough that Kaoru initially mistakes her for a boy, although this is mostly due to her heavy winter running clothing obscuring her body.
- Cute Little Fangs: During the "Dog Girl" bondage session, she puts some on among other things.
- Dog Girl: She's enthusiastic at playing one in chapter 70.
- First-Name Basis: With Nana.
- Genki Girl: Very impulsive and full of energy.
- Girliness Upgrade: Ryoko begins to wear more feminine clothing after Kaoru praises her beauty during their first breather together. When she visits Kaoru in a flowy dress to entice him into praising her further, Kaoru quietly notices that her panties are visible as she sits on his bed, indicating she's likely unaccustomed to wearing dresses.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Seems to be becoming this with Nana.
- Hidden Depths: At part of the reason why she insists on doing the breathers with Nana and Kaoru is because she wants friends, which she doesn't have many of at her school.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: More like I want my beloved friends to be happy. Notably, while she is Nana's athletic rival, she acknowledges that Kaoru's planet-sized feelings for Nana mean he won't even consider her as an option. If given the choice, she will step aside for Nana. She has also been actively encouraging Nana and Kaoru towards each other.
- Lonely at the Top: Ryoko was able to join the Athletic Team as a freshman due to her skill, but was resented by a whole lot of the club as a result. Since she can't make friends there and spends a lot of time there, she lacks friends.
- Matchmaker Crush: On Kaoru, but she tries her best to get them together and genuinely means it.
- Obliviously Beautiful: When Kaoru ties her in a rope dress that presses tightly against and emphasizes her breasts, Ryoko is nearly brought to tears when she looks at a photograph Kaoru took and sees herself.Ryoko: Kaoru, I...I'm s-se...I'm...sexy. I...I never knew.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Ryoko is a top track athlete who loves the feeling of pushing her body to its limit, the feeling of fighting to keep running against her exhaustion, and the feeling of finally being overwhelmed with relief, satisfaction, and pride as she crosses the finish line. She recognizes the same sensations in enduring the physical discomfort of being bound during a breather and basking in the cooldown that comes afterwards, except at the end of a breather she also receives praise and affection from Kaoru.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Kaoru.
- The Rival
- Unknown Rival: When she first talks about their rivalry, Nana is a bit lost about it. After a few "breathers" and some one-on-one time with Kaoru while he is doing maintenance, Ryoko seems to be vying for Kaoru's affections a bit... and knows that Nana doesn't have a clue about Kaoru's affections for her. Nor about Ryoko's own for him.
- She Ties Up Nicely
- Secret-Keeper: For Kaoru; she is the one person that seems to truly understand how devoted he is to Nana. For both, she is also one of the few that knows that they care for each other and are oblivious to it, and well as keeping the "breathers" hidden.
- Tan Lines: She has these as a result of being a track athlete, which are prominently shown when she takes part in "breathers".
- The Tease/The Gadfly Yes, she is both. This is because Ryoko is more of a gadfly but every so often she comes off as heavily suggestive when teasing. All non-sexual and usually at Kaoru's expense.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Ryoko is brash, athletic, lacks interest in feminine hobbies and keeps her hair fairly short, but also loves wearing dresses, being pampered with sweets, and most of all, being praised and commanded as a submissive.
Mitsuko Tachibana
Mitsuko Tachibana
"I'm sure you can understand it too, can't you Chigusa-sama? How in the middle of S&M, the pain and suffering bestowed upon you are more than just pain and suffering."
Lustful and energetic owner of an erotic shop. Acts as a mentor and introduction into the deeper world of BDSM for Nana and Kaoru. She's also the personal submissive to Kaoru's favourite BDSM author, Sarashina-sensei.
- Brains and Bondage: She's a Tokyo University graduate with a Masters degree in Liberal Arts who also happens to run a porn and fetish gear shop.
- Cannot Spit It Out : In Black label, the closer that we look at Tachibana and Sarashina relationship... the more you begin to notice that Tachibana is hesitant about her affections for Sarashina, as much as Sarashina is a Insecure Love Interest. This is due to the fine line that they have as Slave and Master. It takes the presence of Nana to slowly chip away at this and blur that divide, which is ironic, as Tachibana did the same for Nana and Kaoru months ago.
- A Day in the Limelight: Tachibana is a reliable source of advice, encouragement, enthusiasm, and heavily discounted or outright free bondage equipment throughout most of the story, but little is revealed of her own experiences with bondage, past, or personal life and struggles until Black Label, an arc that focuses on Kaoru and Nana's four day summer visit to Tachibana and her master Sarashina in the countryside.
- Ms. Exposition: If Kaoru is not giving a lecture on BDSM matters, he's likely getting one from her. Which is a Chekhov's Gunman that doesn't get solved until Black Label.
- Ms. Fanservice: In Black Label she seems to spend every other chapter at least topless.
- Platonic Life-Partners: As of Black Label, with Nana
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: A kind, encouraging, nurturing, and cheerful woman with long pink hair.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: Subverted: her assistant at the sex shop asks her to do some work for a change, but when Kaoru comes by to ask about rope she gets sidetracked, the assistant is seen thinking he doesn't mind because he has a crush on Mitsuko.
- Sexy Mentor: To Nana, of all people. She is also this to Kaoru.
- Where Does She Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: We quickly learn that she gets them from her shop. This often serves as the means by which Nana and Kaoru have access to toys and clothing that would normally be too expensive for them: it's explained as being on loan from Tachibana.
Shuutarou Sarashina
Shuutarou Sarashina
"S&M is something that allows someone as despicably distrusting as me the possibility of connecting with a stranger whom otherwise I never would be able to come to an understanding with."
Kaoru's favourite S&M author takes centre stage in the Black Label arc. It's his invitation to his summer home that kickstarts the story.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Or at least a pervert in his professional life. Sarashina is an accomplished erotic author and has participated as an actor in pornographic bondage films. In person he is kind, humble, a gracious host and mentor, and completely respectful of Nana.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Possibly on chapter 27 page 4, when Nana's freaking out before Kaoru spanks her the image on the left looks very similar to him.
- Important Hair Cut: Enters the story with very 'sensei-ish' long hair that gives him a professional and even slightly stern appearance. After spending a few days with Kaoru and Nana, he requests and receives a much shorter and more boyish haircut, signifying an embrace of his more open-hearted and unreserved self.
- Mirror Character: Sarashina and Kaoru seem to be cut from the same cloth. They share many of the same insecurities with their partners, the same worries and have the same considerations. Sarashina is more intense than Kaoru, which can be summed up to his long relationship with Tachibana but outside of that both are Insecure Love Interests for much of the same reasons. Tachibana refers to them as "Father and Son"...
- The Night Owl: An erotic author who prefers to begin writing immediately after bondage sessions in the late evening, working through the night and sleeping until early midday.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He looks like Oniroku Dan
, perhaps the most famous Japanese SM writer, well-known for his association with SM pink film star Naomi Tani. - Pursue the Dream Job: Worked as an author of 'normal' novels until he was about 40 and met Tachibana. Although it's never stated, it can be reasonably inferred that it was her encouragement which convinced him to make the leap to his passion of erotic literature.
- Second Love: Married and subsequently divorced another woman earlier in his life. Nothing is revealed about her except that she was unable to understand or appreciate bondage.
- Tears of Joy: Becomes teary-eyed during his first meeting with Kaoru, who adoringly and sincerely gushes over his books as having changed his life and giving him the purpose he was desperately seeking. Naturally, Sarashina good-naturedly brushes off rubbing his eyes as just being warm.
- Write Who You Know: In-Universe example. The plots and characters to his books are based in part on role-plays between himself and Tachibana. The session that Nana and Kaoru are taking part in is part of a scene to a new book of his.
Ai Uehara
Ai Uehara
A former pornographic actress from Okinawa who specialized in hardcore bondage films. When her partner in a public bondage performance is suddenly unavailable, Kaoru is asked to be an emergency replacement.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Enthusiastically and graciously accepts Kaoru as her dom, and does her best to reassure his anxiety at the prospect of preforming bondage on a beautiful pornstar in front of an audience.
- Love Makes You Stupid: Discussed by her. She fell in love with a man because of the incredibly intense, exciting sex they had and followed him to Tokyo, leaving all of her family, friends, and prospects in Okinawa behind. Their relationship fell apart in six months. When Kaoru asks if she regrets her decision, she admits it was foolish and not what she would have done if she had known the outcome, but also says that she doesn't regret taking a risk to follow her passion.
- Loveable Sex Maniac: A former porn actress who thoroughly enjoyed her career. Even after retiring, getting married, and having a baby, Ai still participates in non-nude bondage performances.
- Meaningful Name: Her first name means 'Love' in Japanese.
- Named After Someone Famous: She's named after real life AV star Ai Uehara. Of course, the possibility that she's a fictionalized version of said AV star also exists.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Ai is excited by extreme and demanding breathers that would almost certainly be too frightening for the other subs. Some of her exploits as a sub include being locked naked into a wheeled luggage case and transported around, wearing full horse bondage gear and being whipped while pulling a cart, and being helplessly strapped to sex machines.
- The Tease: Oozes sexuality whenever she encounters Kaoru or Sarashina. Ryoko and Tachibana are notably cool towards her.
Master Dan
Master Dan
"A single collar can cause such trouble, can't it?"
A master leather craftsman who supplies Tachibana's shop with high-end goods.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Shamelessly flirts with Tachibana and gropes her butt under the paper-thin pretense of measuring her, but completely refrains from making any such advances towards Nana or his young female apprentice. Since Tachibana is delighted by his teasing, it can be assumed that the two of them have an understanding.
- Friendly Shopkeeper: Gives Kaoru access to his shop's equipment and, with his apprentice's help, tutors him in creating a personalized collar for Nana from scratch, all free of charge.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He initially rebuffs Kaoru and Nana when they enter his shop, believing them to be two bored teenagers just looking for a toy. But once the two demonstrate they really do want a symbol of their love, he graciously helps Kaoru to create the highest quality collar possible.
- True Craftsman: A producer of top quality products who only sells his goods to customers who will treat them with respect and care.
- Secret Shop: Owns a shop in a residential neighborhood with no sign or name. Even with an address, Kaoru is only able to identify the correct building by the smell of hemp and by recognizing leather being hung to dry outdoors.
Waka Sugimura
Waka Sugimura (Kaoru's Mother)
Voiced by: Kimiko Saito
A nurse at a local hospital. While she disapproves of her son's interests and wants him to stop wasting money on porn and sex toys, she takes care of him like a mother would and pesters him to have better manners.
- Good Parents: A kind and hardworking woman who does her best to raise Kaoru as a single mother. She tolerates her son's poor academic performance while gently pushing him to do better.
- Gonk: Kaoru takes after his mother, although this was toned down as the manga progressed.
- Parental Abandonment: Isn't nearly as bad as Nana's mother, but has to leave him alone a fair bit.
- Parents as People: She doesn't get her son's interests at all but she does take care of him and she approves of his friendship with Nana.
- Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: Walks in after Kaoru vomits out a drink Nana had made for him and staining her dress. His mother assumes it's blood and proceeds to slap the hell out of him for forcing himself onto Nana until Nana explains "she's at fault", then she just muses at the prospect that they had sex.
- Unnamed Parent: Eventually averted. Kaoru naturally never calls his own mother by name, so it's quite some time before her first name is revealed to be "Waka" from conversations with Kaoru's extended family.
Hiroshi Yagami
Hiroshi Yagami
Voiced by: Ryuta Amazume
The student council president and rival for Nana's affections.
- The Ace: Tall, attractive, top student, popular, and student council president; Yagami is the boy everyone assumes is destined to be Nana's boyfriend.
- Book Smart: The number one student in his grade, an attribute he puts to very good use when he decides to become Kaoru's personal academic mentor.
- Break the Haughty: Happens to him after being top of his school in final exams, when his manipulative sister rats him out to his mother on a porn he was watching as a reward to himself, which ends up getting thrown away.
- Character Development: He realizes how much of an ass he was to Kaoru when Kaoru sympathizes with him on his fetishes.
- Hero Antagonist: A hardworking, generous, and honorable young man who treats Kaoru with suspicion and disdain. Since he's completely unaware of the tremendous care and love Kaoru gives to Nana, he's quite justified in suspecting Kaoru is nothing but a slimy pervert with unsavory intentions.
- Odd Friendship: The sequel manga reveals he became friends with not only Kaoru, but Doumoto and Hoshino as well, bonding with them over their shared love for porn.
- Smug Snake
- Student Council President: A mundane variant. Yagami's position isn't shown to be particularly glamorous or powerful.
- Unmanly Secret: Ashamed and humiliated by his long-held secret sexual fantasy, which he believes to be totally unfitting to someone of his status: Being roughly dominated by a woman with a penis. Kaoru and his friends are quick to scoff that this fetish is common and mundane enough to be an absolute staple of pornography. Yagami's admission - which he ironically was only willing to make to Kaoru out of a lack of concern of Kaoru's opinion of him - proves to be the start of genuine respect and friendship forming between the two.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Thinks Kaoru is a slacker fanboy who is just around Nana because he's her Childhood Friend. He is... but he's also a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and in the middle of a Childhood Friend Romance Upgrade with her.
Kikuko Yagami
Kikuko Yagami
Sister of the student council president; she's quite perceptive and can tell almost instantly that Nana and Kaoru share a bond. She isn't above telling her brother what she knows either.- Gold Digger: Of the familial variety; she uses her brother as a social climbing tool.
- The Man Behind the Man
- Manipulative Bitch / Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Pushed her brother to become the top of the class and go to Tokyo U. in her stead, simply to use his connections to make friends with the upper class. On top of it all, she dug out his favorite porn video and 'accidentally' watched it with their mother.
- Smug Snake: She's not as bad as her brother, but she still tries to help him win Nana over, despite recognizing almost instantly there's something going on between them.
Doumoto and Hoshino
Doumoto and Hoshino
Kaoru's friends in Class F - and fellow porn appreciators.- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Two clowns who are rarely seen doing much but obnoxiously discussing porn or making lewd comments about their female classmates. But when Yagami and Kaoru come to them for help in tracking down an obscure VHS porn video from the 90s with only a few clues from Yagami's memory, they're able to use their vast knowledge of the industry and expertise at searching for niche pornography to help out.
- Fat and Skinny: Hoshino and Doumoto, respectively.
- Nice Guys: They're undoubtedly a couple of porn-obsessed idiots, but when Yagami comes to them for help they happily welcome him in and help him out without a trace of resentment or bitterness despite Yagami's previous smugness.
Nana's Mother
Nana's Mother
A police chief, her job means that she is almost never home. Despite that, she played (and still plays) a large part in shaping Nana's life and psyche.- Calling the Old Man Out: It takes Kaoru screaming down the phone at her to finally get her to come home and visit her bedridden daughter.
- Fair Cop: A stunningly attractive police supervisor. As soon as she enters the story, it's immediately obvious where Nana's incredible beauty comes from.
- Married to the Job: Fully dedicated to her job as police chief to the point that Nana must fend for herself.
- Parental Abandonment: She very rarely comes to visit or take care of Nana on account of her job as police chief.
- She Who Must Not Be Seen: Only ever shown in silhouette in Nana's flashbacks. Until she finally came home.
- Stepford Smiler: She locked herself out emotionally to deal with the chaos of her marriage going up in flames. She wasn't good at it in front of her husband, whom she lashed out at regularly, but it was impressed upon Nana so strongly that she had picked it up as a way of coping with her stress before the "breathers" took over.
Nana's Father
Nana's Father
Divorced from Nana's mother when she was six.- NEET: Doesn't have a job, and doesn't seem able to keep a job.
Kiyohiko Yagami
Kiyohiko Yagami
A wealthy cousin of Hiroshi Yagami who Nana encounters while attending a group study party at Hiroshi's summer home.
- Bad Samaritan: Gives Nana his reference book and the notes he used to successfully study for the Todai entrance exam. In reality, it's just a ploy to gain her trust before slipping her a mickey.
- Foil: Nana & Kaoru is a story that goes to extraordinary lengths to demonstrate that bondage at its best is a profoundly uplifting experience that can bring incredible fulfillment and happiness to the submissives it is performed on. Kiyohiko is a grim acknowledgement of bondage at its worst: a repulsive rapist who only understands bondage as a means to sexually control and humiliate women who want nothing to do with him.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: His glasses distinguish him from Kaoru, and he turns out to be an absolutely depraved individual.
- Hate Sink: Kiyohiko has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, being a hateful, repulsive rapist who uses bondage to dominate and humiliate women, and doesn't care for his submissives at all.
- Identical Stranger: He looks exactly like Kaoru but with bleached hair and glasses, which was what initially led Nana to get close to him.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Nana first meets him when she awakens to him leering over her, having snuck into the girls' bedroom as she slept.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: As if to emphasise that this guy is bad news, he goes by the user name "Purgatory" on BDSM forums.
