Characters / No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! - Main Characters

No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! Main Character Index
Main Characters | Other Classmates | Tomoko's School

The main characters of the story.

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Tomoko

Tomoko Kuroki

Voiced by: Izumi Kitta (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

The main character of the series, who struggles with becoming "popular", making friends and coping with adolescence. Unfortunately, this is not helped by her social ineptitude and unpleasant personality.

Despite being incredibly anti-social, she craves the companionship and attention of others. She suffers from a raging superiority complex, vivid delusions of grandeur, intense self-loathing, and social anxiety so severe that she can barely get out a sentence when talking to someone she is not intimately acquainted with.

The dark circles under her eyes are genetic (and shared by her brother).

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• Accidental Hero: Tomoko manages to help some people now and then, but only by happenstance. She gives Shizuku some half-hearted advice on how to handle the entrance exams (with the intention of discouraging the girl from attending her school at all), only to end up encouraging her to pass and apply to the school in full. Tomoko also gets Hina and Akane to patch things up. How? By showing the latter a clip from an eroge game while explaining to her the likely reasons Hina was so secretive about her dream to become a voice actress, which horrifies Akane so much that she outright confronts Hina about it, allowing them to talk things out.
• Accidental Pervert: Only towards Yoshida, whom she always gropes by complete accident, which more often than not gets her smacked. Anyone else she pervs on is very intentional. For what it's worth though, Tomoko does like how the delinquent feels.
• A-Cup Angst: It's not as apparent as most examples of this trope, but it's there.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: She seems to be fond of bastard boyfriend characters, as evidenced by her enjoyment of a drama CD about Yandere boys. This seems purely limited to fiction though, and both of the girls Tomoko's attracted to couldn't be more the opposite.
• Ambiguously Bi: While her Perverse Sexual Lust for Otome Game characters and early fixation on getting a boyfriend make her attraction to men obvious, her constant sexual harassment of Yuu raises a few eyebrows. What keeps Tomoko's sexuality ambiguous is that it's made clear at multiple points that Tomoko's lack of social awareness and reliance on anime tropes to navigate real life situations cause her to assume that Les Yay in female friendships is not only common, but expected, leading her to enforce it. Even as she develops more real life relationships and her pervertedness dies down, however, being caught in several Not What It Looks Like moments have led to Ucchi becoming absolutely certain that Tomoko is not only a lesbian, but a sexual deviant who surrounds herself with a harem of girls at all times. As Tomoko matures and becomes explicitly more aware of the concept of homosexuality (she even correctly defines "LGBT" in class), she still can't help but fall for Yuu's or Asuka's charms. She's also shown blatant sexual attraction to Miho, one of Asuka's friends, and Shizuku, her own kohai. In the latter's case she's outright said that if she were a guy she'd want to NTR Shizuku's boyfriend.
• Author Avatar: To a certain extent, she seems to be based on the writer's own experiences during high school. As a result, she's written more like a teenage boy, being very interested in porn and masturbation, acting perverted towards some of her friends, thinking about how she would have a boner in certain situations if she were male, and having little interest in girly things.
• Beautiful All Along: It's been brought up that Tomoko actually has good looks, but the problem is that she doesn't try grooming and looking after herself that much. When she actually does, many of her friends do say how cute she is. This aspect can actually be seen in some of the later chapters where Tomoko decides to wear more flattering clothes and cleans herself more.
  • Her official profile shows that she has a Charisma score of five, the maximum possible score, shared only with super-model-esque Katou Asuka. This means that Tomoko always had the potential to be popular, if her crippling self-doubt hadn't dragged down her confidence.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: As time goes on and Tomoko finds herself on the receiving end of more Pet the Dog moments, she feels the need to repay the people who show her kindness even if she doesn't really know them.
  • She makes a batch of chocolates for everyone who gave her some for Valentine's Day, like Mako, Yuri, and Ucchi. She even gives some to Yoshida, despite their dysfunctional relationship.
  • Because Megumi came to her aid a few times in the past, Tomoko congratulates her for graduating high school and even asks the former Student Council President if there's anything she can do for her. She feels rather crushed when she realizes she won't be able to give anything back to Megumi.
• Berserk Button: When Yuu makes a joke about Kotomi marrying Tomoki this is one of the few times that we see Tomoko get legitimately angry at Yuu, making no attempts at hiding her anger at all.
• Betty and Veronica: Tomoko possibly serves as the Archie to Asuka's Betty and Ucchi's Veronica.
• Big Brother Bully: Tomoko tries to pass herself off as a Cool Big Sis to Tomoki, and was indeed like that at one point, but in actuality she's extremely negative and manipulative whenever she's around him. It's also implied that this is the reason why Tomoki stopped being friendly with her to begin with.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Oh yes. For the longest time, Tomoko was only ever interested in her popularity at school, all the while being loathe to do any work around the house, eager to annoy her brother, and quick to snap at her mother. This got her a good share of slaps from the latter, who was often irritated at how irresponsible Tomoko was despite being the older child.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: She has made a huge impact on Ucchi's life, to the point where the girl is utterly obsessed with her. However, Tomoko never intended to do such, their first real interaction was on the last night of their field trip, and Tomoko was just being her normal self. Later "interactions" were mostly Tomoko doing something else and it just so happened Ucchi was the target or a witness.
• Butt-Monkey: Any of her attempts to become popular always come out wrong for her.
• Cannot Talk to Men: Nothing frays Tomoko's nerves more than attractive boys. Even after her social skills improve enough that she can communicate with strangers without tripping over her words too much, she still turns into a nervous, stuttering puddle of goo in the presence of hot guys.
• Caught with Your Pants Down: Tomoko has been walked in on playing her Hentai games, multiple times.
• Character Development: Slowly but surely, Tomoko matures a good deal over the course of the manga, particularly in her second year. She dials back on her ill-thought schemes to become popular to the point where she eventually gives up on them entirely, doesn't stutter nearly as often as before, is more comfortable in public places like cafes, lets go of a lot of the resentment she felt towards her peers, shows occasional bouts of consideration for others, and is more studious and responsible in general. By the end of the year, she even manages to get herself a small circle of friends and acquaintances to regularly socialize with.
• Child Hater: Played with. In chapter 138 she admits that she hates middle schoolers, but she also mentions that she doesn't have strong feelings about grade schoolers, and in the past she used to play card games with kids in a candy store. In any case, she states that her dislike of kids is the reason why she would never want to be a teacher.
• Chronic Villainy: She's never managed to break her bad habit of doing Jerkass things.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Tomoko can care about people, she's shown to have an extremely active imagination with a creative streak to her, and she's extremely resilient in the pursuit of her goal. That being said, she's a liar, a pervert, very lazy, and tries to take the easy way out of anything she can. She even Lies to Children and calls any girls even slightly more popular than her "bitches" and "sluts". Tomoko gradually does undergo character development to get rid of the worst parts of these traits, but they never completely disappear.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: When it comes to Yuu or her brother, the latter of which she declared if he ever brought home a girl, she would take responsibility and kill her.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Somehow, against all logic or reason, she's managed to become this in her 3rd year. To wit, Yuri has grown quite attached to her and is prone to jealously whenever Tomoko gets close to someone else. Nemo is similarly quite attached to Tomoko, and while they're also vitriolic best buds, it's clear that Nemo values their "honest" friendship a great deal. Asuka is extremely fond of her, and her affectionate gestures border on outright flirting. Ucchi is outright infatuated by her, having become increasingly more obsessive about Tomoko over the course of the manga. Shizuku hero-worships her, looking at Tomoko as a kind and thoughtful sempai. While her friendships with some of the other girls aren't as pronounced, she's still amassed a huge following of female friends and acquaintances. It's ironic that the usually self-aware Tomoko often seems to be completely unaware of this.
• Consummate Liar: "How do I bullshit my way out of this?"
• Conveniently Seated: At first, she seats in the back row seat by the window. When the second semester starts and Tomoko loses her seat, she lampshades it by commenting about how lucky she was getting "the seat main characters always get in anime and light-novels" in the first semester, lamenting that she now has to dwell in an awkward spot, surrounded by people. Tomoko regains her original seating arrangement come her second year, and keeps it for her third year, now surrounded by people she's either friends or friendly with.
• Cosmic Plaything: She doesn't realize it, which might be a good thing as the truth might plunge her into the pit of despair or worse, but her attempts to make friends seem destined to be massive failures. The moment she gains some self-awareness of her faults and tries to not be so judgmental anymore, the universe seems to ease up on her ...and decides to spread the weirdness around to her new friends.
• Covert Pervert: Played with; since the viewers are always privy to her thoughts, it's easy for us to see that she's very perverted, but most other characters (aside from Tomoki) are unaware of how perverted she really is. This becomes subverted over time; though Tomoko tries to keep her lewd side under wraps, she either proves to be really bad at hiding her lecherous habits, or has a number of accidents that leave people with the impression that she's a massive pervert anyway. Before her third year is even halfway done, pretty much everyone familiar with Tomoko knows what a huge sex-obsessed perv she is.
• Creepy Loner Girl: Tomoko is an unattractive, friendless Otaku with absolutely No Social Skills who stays up all night playing dating sims to compensate for her nonexistent social and love life. She daydreams about becoming popular, but her social awkwardness ruins her attempts at it every time.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Seems to be a family trait; however, Tomoko's habit of staying up late at night probably doesn't help, as she notes before trying on glasses to hide them.
• Desperately Craves Affection: This is her single strongest desire for most of the series. It's likely why she's overly attached to her brother (much to his chagrin) and also part of why she's so attached to her only real friend, Yuu. This ends up becoming subverted a bit later on in the series, once Tomoko actually gets a circle of friends.
• Determinator: Despite the universe doing everything it can to make her give up, Tomoko never relents in her quest to become popular, make friends, or just improve herself in general. Whenever one scheme fails, she just gets up, dusts herself off, and moves on to the next plan.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: She has a bad habit of voicing her more lewd thoughts out loud. Initially this was only toward Yuu, but eventually spread to anyone Tomoko felt mildy attracted to, like Asuka.
  Tomoko: (Thinking) A cute girl, wearing such cute underwear and such a short skirt must flash a bit from time to time...just imagine, if I were her boyfriend...
  Tomoko: (Out loud) Bet those'd really give ya a stiffy.
  Yuu: MOKOCCHI!!?
• Disappointing Older Sibling: Despite being the older sibling, Tomoki thinks she's an annoying loser. According to the volume 5 omake, it was her obnoxiousness that caused their once-loving relationship to turn sour. On the other hand, one What If? omake shows that he would end up disliking her even if she were to remain kind to him.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: As shown in chapters 33 and 42, she doesn't like it when others take pity on her, as she feels patronized by this.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: In addition to being very large and roughly-sketched, her eyes lack a notable sheen that's present in most other characters, illustrating her perpetually dour mood.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The bags under her eyes only serve to further emphasize this aspect of hers.
• The Eeyore: She falls into bouts of self-loathing and has a lot of negative thoughts in social situations. Even when she acknowledges that her life got better than how it used to be, such as in chapter 115, she doesn't expect the good times to last.
• Expressive Hair: You can often tell how exasperated she is just by seeing how much her hair is flaring out.
• Failure Hero: In the early chapters she can't do anything right. Every time she has a goal, it's bound to fail or backfire horribly. The few Throw the Dog a Bone moments she gets are usually down to luck and the kindness of others, or when she's not actually trying so hard to become popular. This part of her characterization is largely dropped as the story progresses and Tomoko starts setting more realistic goals for her social life, which she eventually starts achieving.
• Female Misogynist: Her jealousy leads to a general resentment of other girls aside from Yuu, often viewing girls who are more socially adept than her as "bitches" or "sluts". This largely fades as she makes more female friends.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish to Tomoki's Responsible. She tends to laze around and do stupid things to improve her status while Tomoki focuses on his sports, studies, and his household chores. Tomoko being so irresponsible is a frequent source of stress for her mother.
• Gamer Chick: Effortlessly plays a Pop'N Music knockoff with only a blank stare on her face, not to mention her constant playing of otome games.
• Gonk: Often pulls ugly faces when emotional.
  • There's also the time where she tries to change her appearance, which works out well until she decides to mess with her face.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Bonus points for the Visual Pun. She enjoys the misfortune of others and frequently wishes for horrible things to happen to people that she perceives as having happy, carefree lives. Her internal monologues frequently call girls more socially successful than herself, including her best friend Yuu, "bitches", "sluts", etc.
  Tomoko: If you're not a worthless god, I'd like to see you try and make me happy... If you can't manage that, at least make everyone as unhappy as me. If you can't, it's fine I guess... But I'll despise you forever...
  • Also why she couldn't get along with Kotomi in middle school despite being much alike, as she wanted to keep Yuu to herself.
  • As of chapter 97 she seems to have realized that her former classmates who are more sociable than her don't act sociable to spite her, and she doesn't hate them for this anymore.
• Has a Type: An inversion, when she's finally able to hold a real conversation with a male classmate (Wada), she dismisses it as much of a step forward since she doesn't find him all that attractive, believing that "shota doesn't go with chibi".
• Hey, You!: In general, she is very bad at remembering names, or just doesn't care to learn them in the first place, leading her to often refer to the people around her by (often derisive) descriptors in her mind. In Chapter 124, Tomoko even notes that she's never once actually called Yuri by name, even though Yuri's ostensibly the best friend she has in her high school. This comes to a head in 126, when she tries to get Yuri's attention by just repeatedly calling out "Hey", resulting in a frustrated Yuri telling her that her name is not "Hey".
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: In the earlier chapters, one of her eyes will often be covered up by her hair. It serves as an artistic allusion to both her extreme shyness and unfashionable appearance. Later chapters mostly do away with this, partially out of Art Evolution but also to reflect Tomoko overcoming her anxiety, though every now and then, her fringe will still get in the way.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Tomoko implicitly Used to Be a Sweet Kid, but as she entered adolescence, she became a more self-centered Jerkass who only ever thought about sex.
• Hypocrite: She angrily denounces anyone more popular than her as shallow, vapid and selfish, and refers to any girls more sociable than her as "sluts". She's the real shallow and selfish one, who seeks popularity above all else, and proclaims: "Without doing anything, I can get into the pants of the boys for three years!" in the very first chapter. At the same time, she looks down on anyone as unpopular as she is as being losers, freaks and weirdos who are somehow beneath her despite them generally having the same interests that she does.
  • Hypocritical Humor: It's a Running Gag in this series.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: ...and get laid, apparently.
  • As the series progresses, there's a subtle development in that Tomoko's goal moves down from "getting popular" to just "making a friend", and at the very least "talking to people". These get fulfilled during the middle of her second year, as she became close to Yuri, Mako, and Masaki.
• Ineffectual Death Threat: Frequently wishes death and worse on her classmates for the smallest of offences, like someone apparently taking her umbrella.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: While she's rather self-centered and looks down on a lot of people for petty reasons, it's still clear that her self-esteem is actually very, very low.
• Inner Monologue: Keeps her thoughts to herself more often than actually speaking.
• Innocently Insensitive: Towards Yuri. Yuri is bothered by how aloof Tomoko seems to act towards her despite spending most of their time at school together, but Tomoko has no idea there's even a problem in the first place. She's also oblivious to the effect she's had on Ucchi, disturbing the girl with her mere presence at first, and going on to making her jealous at the drop of a hat.
• In-Series Nickname: "Mokocchi." Only Yuu gets to call her that, though. In chapter 126 Hina Nemoto comes up with another nickname for her, "Kuro".
• Irony: After spending her first year desperately trying to be popular with one Zany Scheme after another Tomoko eventually resigns herself to being a loner ...and then she actually ends up making an increasingly larger social circle of friends and acquaintances to hang out with.
• Ironic Name: Her given name roughly means "wise child". Considering how often she makes bad decisions, it's safe to say "wise" isn't a good way to describe her.
• It Amused Me: Some of her antics aren't done to improve her popularity, but just to stave off boredom or amuse herself, which can include things like trolling her brother or hanging wishes laced with dirty jokes up for Tanabata. She also decides to become Shizuku's sempai largely because she hopes the younger girl will give her some kinky stories, though to Tomoko's credit, she does build up some sympathy for her over time.
• It's All About Me: She's a very self-centered person who doesn't have any particular empathy for anyone around her. Thankfully, Tomoko's been growing out of it, acknowledging that even more social people have problems of their own, and is willing to show genuine consideration for others every now and then.
• Jerkass: Downplayed. In the main series, she can come off as a condescending jackass who can occasionally show humility and self-esteem, although she most often keeps her negativity to herself. However, Tomoki and Komiyama tend to see and feel the more unpleasant side of Tomoko.
• Jerkass Has a Point: As maladjusted, unpleasant, and warped as she is, Tomoko does raise valid points every now and then.
  • When Akari's friend, Sayaka, confronts her over the former's feelings for Tomoki and her eagerness to see his genitals, Tomoko is correct when she points out it's perverse and inappropriate to say such things in front of his older sister.
  • She accuses Akari and Kotomi of being perverts. While her poor treatment of them is usually uncalled for, she's not wrong, and the latter in particular takes her attraction towards Tomoki to very creepy levels.
  • Related to the above, by accusing Kotomi and Akari of only liking Tomoki for his dick, Tomoko implies that their feelings for him are shallow. Considering how taciturn Tomoki is, and how they have never held a real conversation with him, neither girl can claim to actually know him, meaning they really are only interested in him for his good looks.
  • While it devolves into a nonsensical rant about how all baseball players are smokers and delinquents, Tomoko is correct when she notes that the baseball club gets preferential treatment in how it forces the whole student body to come cheer for its games when other clubs work just as hard for less recognition.
  • In Universe. When Tomoko mocks Yoshida behind her back as the type to go way overboard during her coming of age debut, Yuri is about to admonish her only to realise she can indeed picture Yoshida that way too.
• Jerkass Realization: In Chapter 97, she admits that she was a horribly judgmental person in her first year of high school, and lets go of a lot of the resentment she feels toward her more social peers.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Thanks to character development, Tomoko grows from her warped and selfish nature, to a more thoughtful and pleasant individual. While she's still a pervert who sees the world through a cynical lens, she's willing to show consideration for both her friends and the occasional stranger.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: Her nasty attitude and unscrupulous methods to look cool always have a tendency to blow up in her face in a way that's well deserved. It's only largely when Tomoko stops being such a pill that things start looking up for her.
• Kick the Dog: Her treatment of her brother when he falls ill is pretty appalling. She tries to lower his temperature and pours hot porridge on his face out of spite, and otherwise annoys him at every opportunity. This goes on to bite Tomoko in the ass when she catches his disease at the beginning of a three-day weekend.
• Lazy Bum: When left to her own devices, Tomoko would rather just laze around her room, playing video games, watching anime, and surfing the web. When called out on her unwillingness to help around the house by her mother as opposed to her younger but more responsible brother, Tomoko's first instinct is to blame Tomoki for making her look bad.
• Little Big Sister: She's considerably shorter than her younger brother. Not very unusual given he's only a year younger, but it still highlights her immaturity.
• Lonely Doll Girl: On occasion, Tomoko will use her plushies to act out her fantasies of a better social life, from envisioning what her time in a school club could be like, to ...imagining how sex with Yuu would go.
• Loners Are Freaks: Her mindset, which she desperately wants to avoid.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: After the Kyoto field trip, her previously almost non-existent social circle slowly starts to expand.
• Loser Protagonist: Though, she tries hard to not be one. She eventually does edge away from this through Character Development, with all of her remaining quirks instead being mostly portrayed as a part of her unique identity that attracts others to her rather than a source of ostracization.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: While Tomoko never gets to have much in the way of sex, her mind is nevertheless always in the gutter, and she gets a lot of enjoyment out of sexually harassing her female friends.
  • As the series delves further, her friends sees her as this. They are all aware of her perverted side, but they make it clear they don't mind it and actually find it as a part of her charm.
• Magnetic Hero: As the series has continued, she has consistently shown to be able to attract the interest and attention of pretty much anyone who spends even a small amount of time with her. Even characters who initially display complete indifference to her become obsessed with learning more about her after witnessing her bizarre behavior firsthand.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: She acts as a downplayed version for Yuri. While their relationship is purely platonic, she tends to encourage Yuri to try things she wouldn't do otherwise, like make Valentine's Day chocolate for her friends. She's even caused the normally stoic girl to laugh, which Mako has noted she's never seen Yuri do before.
• Manipulative Bastard: She tries. Dear lord, she tries.
• Meaningful Name: "Kuroki" can literally mean "black mood". It sums up her character pretty well.
• Messy Hair: Her long hair is rarely combed.
• Mirror Character: For her brother, Tomoki, especially in later chapters. The initial assumptions both have after meeting the same person for the first time are often identical. Even more recently, Tomoko and Tomoki barely acknowledge that people have crushes on them, though Tomoko's case is more downplayed than her brother's: while two girls have admitted to Tomoki's face they want to see his dick, Ucchi has been less direct in her crush on Tomoko, simply trying to find some excuse to be near Tomoko during some activity while she herself is thinking more about the activity itself, or the strange behavior of the other girls she knows.
• Ms. Fanservice: As the manga goes on, Tomoko has gradually gotten increasing numbers of genuine fanservice involving her, including occasionally being shown completely nude. She even has a Shower Scene in Chapter 178.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Shares the surname of Tomohiro Kuroki.
• Nerds Are Pervs: Tomoko is a Creepy Loner Girl, Romance Game Otaku who decides she wants to become popular in her third year of high school. Problem is, she has No Social Skills and is both a self-centered Jerkass and a Covert Pervert from playing so many H-Games. Her reason for wanting to become popular? To lose her viriginity. She's also constantly groping her friend Yuu out of misplaced jealousy over her larger bust. When she finally does make friends, though, they tolerate her perviness and treat her as a Lovable Sex Maniac.
• Nerds Are Virgins: Several storylines are about super Otaku Tomoko's lack of experience and sexual frustration. Part of her initial motivation to be popular is so she can lose her virginity.
• Nervous Wreck: Not only does Tomoko suffer from diminished social skills, she is extremely anxious in any and every social situation with people she's unfamiliar with. She's unable to speak to her own classmates, struggles just to order a meal at a fast food restaurant, and in general overthinks every situation to the point of assuming the worst in everyone and everything, which makes her more nervous. Fortunately, Tomoko is able to overcome this with time and concerted effort and become somewhat functional, but she still doesn't trust her ability to interact with boys, and freezes up whenever she's called upon to do a public speech.
• Never My Fault: Zigzagged. She often derides herself and finds faults with her social skills and appearance, but never dwells on it and immediately finds something else to blame for her social failings.
• Nighttime Bathroom Phobia: In chapter 13, Tomoko reads too many spooky stories at night, so she bugs Tomoki into accompanying her to the bathroom when she's too nervous to walk there in the dark.
• No Bisexuals: Early chapters often focused on Tomoko's attraction to guys and desire for a boyfriend, with a lesser emphasis on her lusting after Yuu. Once the story shifts to being about Tomoko's circle of female friends, her sexual interest is almost entirely directed as Yuu and Asuka, never any guys (not even celebrities or fictional characters).
• No Social Skills: Pretty much the entire conflict of the plot is based around the fact that Tomoko's skills leave a lot to be desired. As she begins to socialize more, her complete lack of social awareness causes her to regularly put her foot in her mouth and unintentionally piss off others. Subverted over time, as she undergoes Character Development; Tomoko turns out to be actually pretty socially perceptive and adept when not overcome by social anxiety, trying to become popular or invoking anime tropes.
• Oblivious to Love: Tomoko is completely unaware of Ucchi's growing fixation with her and is confused whenever Ucchi does something nice for her. Unfortunately for Ucchi, Tomoko has few opportunities to directly notice Ucchi's advances. Also, despite her own obvious feelings towards Asuka, she doesn't cotton to Asuka's very forward attempts to convey that the latter feels the same way.
• Odd Friendship: Is more or less the facilitator of an entire group of odd friends by the time she becomes a third year. Shown most prominently at the end of the suspension arc where she goes to eat with the group that had been waiting for her to get out: an introverted loner (Yuri), an outgoing nice girl (Mako), popular girls of varying degrees of normalcy (Nemo, Asuka, Akane and Ucchi) and a group of delinquents (Yoshida, Anna and Reina).
• "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Pretty much every time Tomoko's latest plan blows up in her face and leaves her thoroughly humiliated in front of everyone, it's all but guaranteed this is the face she's going to put on. It's one of her most common expressions.
• Older Than They Look: She's 15 when the manga and anime begin, but she's so short, thin, and physically undeveloped that you'd be forgiven if you thought she was 10.
• Only Has Same-Sex Admirers: No guys have taken any interest in Tomoko, but eventually Asuka develops a mutual infatuation, Ucchi becomes her Stalker with a Crush, and a few other girls have gotten at least a platonic desire for her attention.
• Otaku: Of Otome games. So much that she attempts to socialize in real life with tactics from the games.
• Otaku Surrogate: Downplayed; while she does have interests in anime and video games that male otaku in real life would have, she's also into things that are aimed specifically at girls, such as otome games. Unfortunately, her interests in all the perverted media aimed at otaku only make her more unapproachable and unable to function in social situations.
• Person as Verb: In Chapter 39, she tries to stand out more in her class by performing a wacky introduction during the first day of second year. For her efforts, among her classmates, her name becomes a synonym for doing something exceptionally poorly. Fortunately, it seems to have gone out of fashion by Chapter 42.
• Pet the Dog: Originally Tomoko only agreed to start hanging out with Shizuku because she seemed like a slut who might have entertaining stories. Eventually however she decides to follow Imae's example and starts acting as more of a proper senpai despite getting no real benefit out of it.
• The Pig-Pen: Despite being a disheveled shut-in, Tomoko is shown regularly bathing herself and is confirmed to not smell. That said, some of her actions have caused her to unwittingly fall into prolonged periods of dirtiness.
  • In chapter 6, after she spends so much time playing a dating sim, out of a deluded belief that doing so will make her sexier, that she forgets to bathe for several days. She ends up looking so greasy that her brother likens her to a bird caught in an oil slick.
  • In chapter 11, she accidentally soaks herself in soda and attracts ants that spend the whole day crawling all over Tomoko without her knowing. Every person she runs into gets creeped out when they see the bugs on her.
  • In chapter 56, Tomoko worries she might smell bad and opts to combat it by drenching herself in perfume. This causes her to go from having no body odor to absolutely reeking.
• Playboy Bunny: Dresses as one in a fantasy sequence that's a Shout-Out to Haruhi Suzumiya. She somehow manages to make it look ugly and unappealing.
• Plot Allergy: Repeatedly shown suffering from severe hay fever during chapters set in spring.
• Pretty in Mink: Wears a faux mink stole during cold weather.
• Progressively Prettier: She begins taking care of her appearance more as she gains a circle of friends and even gets some fanservice-y shots later on.
• The Quiet One: She once went a month and a half without talking to anyone outside her family — her streak was broken when she managed to tell her teacher "goodbye". In contrast, she tends to be very chatty in her Inner Monologues.
• Sanity Ball: Tomoko gets to enjoy being the Only Sane Girl whenever she interacts with Akari. The girl's crush on Tomoki, her easily flustered demeanor, and her terrible habit of misreading the situation all combine to turn her into a sobbing, stammering mess. This goes double whenever Kotomi gets involved, whose infatuation for Tomoki leads her to commit all sorts of craziness as well that leaves her in the same position. Either way, Tomoko is left equally bemused and annoyed by their antics.
  • This extends to the fighting within Tomoki’s Unwanted Harem. Tomoko never gets herself directly involved in the situation at hand (other than indirectly causing Sachi much plight from not able to figure out her relationship with Tomoki), even performing a Facepalm upon 2-4’s class play making things worse.
• Self-Serving Memory: Whenever Tomoko tries to guilt Tomoki into hanging out with her, she frequently brings up how he used to look up to her when they were kids. She conveniently ignores the fact that the reason why Tomoki is currently so distant from her is because she started bullying him.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Zigzagged. Whenever Tomoko or someone else tried to fix her appearance by dressing her up nicely or putting makeup on her, she would always end up looking even worse than before. However, once she gains a circle of friends, Tomoko starts putting more effort into her appearance, and she can be genuinely cute when she puts in the time.
  • Played straight during her meet-up with Katou in Chapter 140; Tomoko's appearance was much nicer and more attractive than usual.
  • One of the Christmas chapters has a subversion. Tomoko manages to indeed improve her appearance greatly for the class Christmas party. But she's so shy and quiet that nobody notices.
  • As pointed out by Katou and Yuu, Tomoko can actually be very cute when she tries to groom herself more. When she dyes her hair silver, they point out how it looks good on her.
  • Thanks to her Character Development, this has become even more frequent with later chapters. Compared to her old outfits where she seemed to make a half-hearted attempt to groom herself, now Tomoko is actually putting effort into how she dresses, including fixing her hair, making sure her clothes match, and even wearing accessories and slight make-up.
  • The cover of Volume 18 teases what a stylish Tomoko could look like, and many readers agree that the silver-haired, cardigan-wearing Tomoko is very cute.
  • Some What If? omakes show Tomoko doing this in various ways, like styling herself as a delinquent, tidying herself up, and adopting a more fashionable stance. She looks attractive in all of them.
  • When visiting Yuu's school at Chapter 198, Tomoko ends up putting on the school uniform which looks great on her, especially when she decides to tie her hair into a ponytail.
  • Exemplified best of all when Asuka decides to give Tomoko a makeover for a "landmine" look and actually does a decent job of it this time. With her Messy Hair combed and her Exhausted Eye Bags hidden, everyone comments on how cute and innocent she looks.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: A platonic variant with Kotomi. When asked about her by characters other than Yuu, she denies that she's friends with Kotomi, and in chapter 112 even claims not to know her when asked by Yuri. In chapter 133 Tomoko and Kotomi simultaneously claim that they aren't friends, leaving their classmates unconvinced; even Tomoko herself realizes that she's acting like a stereotypical tsundere.
• She's All Grown Up: A page in the anthology reveals that she could grow up to be quite pretty.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: A weird case where it applies to the protagonist of the series but pretty much any time Sacchi appears (the closest thing the series has to a Knight of Cerebus), she's either Out of Focus or completely absent from that particular chapter.
• Shrinking Violet: Combined with No Social Skills, this is the reason she can barely put together a full sentence with anyone she doesn't know. She improves after getting a circle of friends she regularly socializes with, but she still is prone to stuttering.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With Tomoki.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Komiyama, whom Tomoko dislikes because she feels that she has to compete with her over Yuu's attention, as well as because Komiyama is romantically and sexually interested in Tomoki, causing Tomoko to be disgusted with her, and, as of chapter 47 of the main story, also because Komiyama admitted that she didn't like Tomoko back in middle school.
  • During the third year this fades away to an extent likely due both to Tomoko's ongoing development and because Tomoko gains a new nemesis in Fuuka.
• Strong Family Resemblance: As we see in Chapter 121, she gets her particular brand of Creepy Shadowed Undereyes from her father. Later on, a What If? chapter featuring Tomoko with short hair shows that she's a near dead-ringer for her mother.
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: Only by giving up her goal to become popular does Tomoko actually get better at socializing. By the end of her second year in particular, Tomoko has managed to get herself a small circle of friends, stutters over her words far less often, shows genuine consideration for other people's emotions, and helps people (like her kohai) for no tangible benefit to herself. A "What If?" story shows that she wouldn't have been happy had she become popular, anyway; in the story, when Tomoko becomes part of the popular group, she gets hit on constantly by boys, and is shown to hate it.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Overall Tomoko's second year in high school became a lot better and she was actually able to make sort of friends with people. Her third year became even better since now most of the friends she made in high school are all in her homeroom class and she has amassed quite a large social circle that she can hang out with.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Chapter 1: After 5 months trying to convince herself that she's popular, Tomoko literally sees herself at the mirror and admits the horrible truth:
  Now that I look in the mirror after a few years, I see that I turned into some creepy entity!
• Tomboyish Ponytail: She wore her hair in a ponytail during her middle school years, and that was when she was at her most tomboyish, being most interested in military subjects and dreaming of growing up to be either a mercenary or arms dealer.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She tends to prefer media that appeals more to boys, like shonen manga and anime, first-person shooters, and RPGs, while having more of a disinterest toward shojo manga. That said, she was introduced as having been interested in joseimuke media like otome dating sims and BL/ikemen drama CDs, and does have an interest in dressing nicely and wearing makeup, but lacks the knowledge and patience to ever stick with it for long.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Part of her character development. While she remains a cynical pervert, she's become a lot more pleasant and thoughtful.
• Transparent Closet: She's either unaware or in deep denial of her attraction to girls, but is very bad about hiding it, particularly when around Asuka. Yuri, Hina and Ucchi are well aware at how easily swayed Tomoko is toward her.
• Troll: She enjoys pranking, insulting, or otherwise getting under the skin of people she knows purely for lulz. Tomoki and Kotomi are her favorite targets.
• Twice Shy: Tomoko has a blatant infatuation with Asuka, but her self-esteem is too low for her to accept Asuka's increasingly obvious hints that she feels the same—up to groping Tomoko's breasts during a walk on the beach.
• Unkempt Beauty: She doesn't lose the Exhausted Eye Bags or Messy Hair, but that doesn't stop her from becoming Progressively Prettier later on thanks to her gaining softer facial expressions and more flattering outfits.
• The Unsmile: Pretty much every attempt she makes at smiling ends up coming off as looking more like a Slasher Smile. Combined with her Creepy Shadowed Undereyes, the effect is... rather unsettling.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Her portrayal switches between this, Cosmic Plaything and some combination of both depending on the chapter. She can be very pitiable, but at the same time rather self-centered, condescending (especially to her classmates, though this is restricted to her Inner Monologues and never expressed outwardly) and, in Chapter 33, is shown to be a devotee of schadenfreude. However, the more unsympathetic aspects do get downplayed or outright vanish later on thanks to Character Development. In the spinoff, she's portrayed much more unsympathetically than in the main story.
• Visual Pun: Her big green eyes.
• Weirdness Magnet: Tomoko seems to have developed a knack for attracting a lot of oddballs to her, or at least in making people develop their own idiosyncrasies. Yoshida is a short-tempered but oddly innocent teen who's often mistaken for a delinquent, Ucchi has grown progressively more obsessive over Tomoko to the point of stalking her, Kii-chan has gone from a normal girl to a borderline Creepy Child, and both Kotomi and Akari have become incredibly perverse (and unlucky) in pursuing their mutual crush on Tomoki. Lampshaded in Chapter 116, where Tomoki notes that all of his sister's friends appear to be a bunch of weirdos.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: She has this expression a lot.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: One of the major factors behind her inability to adapt to society is the fact that she tends to "learn" social skills through anime and video games, and mistakes many character interactions therein (including those that are, from an objective viewpoint, downright outlandish) for actual practice, and tries to emulate them in real life, which more often than not only serves to further humiliate her.
• You Are What You Hate: The reason she despises Kotomi. Both are antisocial and their Only Friend is Yuu. Each one of them believes the other is below her.

Tomoko's Family

Tomoki Kuroki

Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura (Japanese), David Matranga (English)

Tomoko's younger and more responsible brother. He is a fairly average and well-adjusted person for his age and treats his sister with the usual level of sibling-related intolerance. Despite this, he does care for his sister and tries to support her when she needs it.

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• Academic Athlete: He's a considerably more motivated student than his sister is and is skilled enough at soccer to have an active spot on his school's team in his freshman year, along with the respect of his upperclassman teammates.
• The Ace: In comparison to Tomoko, at least. He's mature, reliable, athletic, has a large social circle, and multiple girls that are interested in him. During the sports festival, it's revealed that even the attractive and popular third-year students on the soccer team respect Tomoki, despite him only being a first year.
• Accidental Pervert:
  • In chapter 134, when he tries to prevent Masaki from attacking Kotomi and ends up groping Masaki by accident, much to his own horror.
  • He follows it up in chapter 168 by accidentally walking in on her showering.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Played with. He does tend to get on Tomoko's nerves, though not so much due to obnoxiousness as due to the fact that he's guilty of such "crimes" as staying home sick while Tomoko has to go to school, having friends who care enough to visit him while he's sick, or cleaning his own room and making his lunch himself (much to their mother's praise - and unlike his sister, thus making her look bad in comparison). Also inverted, Tomoki definitely sees Tomoko as his annoying older sibling.
• Berserk Button: While he always braces himself whenever his sister approaches him, he gets particularly angry at her when she barges into his room unannounced, which she does frequently.
• Big Brother Instinct: Inverted and Downplayed. He's the younger brother and is most of the time definitely not this but in Chapter 116 he's briefly worried when he thinks Tomoko was getting bullied by Yoshida.
• Big Little Brother: He's considerably taller and older-looking than his older sister. While it's not particularly strange, as they're only one year apart and both teenagers, it emphasizes how down-to-earth and mature he is in comparison to her.
• Chaste Hero: While his sister is a raging pervert, Tomoki is completely unfazed by two girls telling him that they want to see his dick, to the point of failing to pick up that either is interested in him at all. Chapter 169 reveals that he owns no pornography whatsoever and that he reacts to accidentally walking in on a girl naked with annoyance rather than embarrassment or arousal. His chasteness is so notable that Akari's friend, Sayaka, suspects he may not be heterosexual at all, but soccersexual.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Both Kotomi and Akari pine for him, but he remains oblivious to their feelings even after they both blurt out in his presence that they would like to see his dick, and shows no interest in romance in general. In later chapters, he seems to catch on to Kotomi's crush on him (mostly as a result of Kotomi repeatedly embarrassing herself in his presence because of said crush), but at this point, he is too weirded out by her to reciprocate. Masaki gradually develops a crush on him and later, even Sachi of all people falls for him after a single conversation.
• Covert Pervert: Subverted. Tomoko constantly accuses him of being Caught With His Pants Down whenever she enters his room, but he's always shown to simply be listening to music, reading a book or sleeping. Likewise, whenever Tomoko accuses him of being attracted to her, he expresses disgust and confusion about why she would even suggest it. Later, when forced to sit down and have lunch with Kotomi and Akari by Tomoko, it's made pretty clear that he simply isn't interested in having a girlfriend.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Like both his parents and his sister, though his are much less pronounced.
• Deadpan Snarker: In response to Tomoko's antics.
• Extreme Doormat: Zigzagged. He will only put up with his sister's shit for so long and liberally employs physical force to shut her up, but he tends to let just about everyone else walk all over him. Tomoki hardly puts up any resistance to the unwanted attention he gets from all the assorted girls who take a shine to him, particularly Masaki who has No Sense of Personal Space, and can't even find it in himself to refuse hospitality when Sayaka pretty much invites herself and Akari into his room for a study session without waiting for his input.
• Facepalm of Doom: When ticked off, he simply grips his sister's head really hard.
• Father, I Want to Marry My Brother: In a home video their mom found in episode 7, he said like a little kid he wanted to marry Tomoko. He was notably disturbed when he saw this video (also because of how much more affectionate he was towards her).
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to Tomoko's Foolish. Despite being younger than her, Tomoki has a much better work ethic, helps around the house more willingly, and appears to get better grades than her while also playing soccer.
• Get Out!: Practically his Catchphrase, as he says it whenever his sister enters his room without permission.
• Hidden Depths: Generally comes off as a grouchy loner, though this is almost entirely because we nearly only ever get to see him when he's forced to put up with Tomoko's obnoxious antics. On the occasions where we get to see his life outside of his sister, he is shown to be a surprisingly popular guy with a large friend group, multiple female admirers and an active spot on his school's soccer team.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Nothing about the female form interests this guy. When he and the rest of the soccer team run by Tomoko and Asuka, the guys comment on how gorgeous they think Asuka is, while Tomoki can only grouse about seeing a shrimp (his sister). When Akari is stuck playing Twister all by herself in his room, he only looks on boredly and wanting nothing to do with the game. Then there are his numerous Accidental Pervert moments with Masaki, which he only ever reacts to with annoyance.
• I Have No Son!: Sibling variation. He exclusively refers to Tomoko as "that girl", even in his own thoughts. This is in stark contrast to when he was young, where he affectionately called her "nee-chan".
• Immune to Slapstick: Like his sister, he's prone to Accidental Pervert moments with Masaki. Unlike Tomoko, Tomoki never gets punched by her, often because something happens to redirect Masaki's rage towards another source.
• Jerkass to One: Tends to physically rein in his sister if needed. That said, deep down he is a generally good-natured guy who is shown to be perfectly nice and friendly when dealing with people who aren't Tomoko.
  • At least until Chapter 199 where Sayaka suggests in front of the whole class for Tomoki for him to be the lead of the play against his own wishes, from that point on he can barely hide how much he resents her. He uses the play's premier to unleash a lot of pent-up frustration on her by stomping her feet and kicking her shins while remaining in-character.
• Mature Younger Sibling: Tomoki takes school seriously and does chores, unlike his older sister Tomoko, the socially dead otaku who would rather just play video games all day. He's even taller than her to symbolize that he's the more mature one.
• The One Guy: Currently the only major male character. Justified due to Tomoko having problems working up the courage to talk to other girls, let alone guys. This is briefly lampshaded when, after realizing that she has begun interacting with other girls more frequently, Tomoko vows to try to talk to a guy, only to awkwardly barge into Tomoki's room, wave at him and then leave.
• Only Sane Man: The only major character who is able to completely shut down Tomoko's antics before they escalate even further. It helps that he's willing to get violent with her. He maintains this role even as the cast expands; responding to the increasingly bizarre antics of the people around his sister with the same exasperation he has when dealing with her.
• Ordinary High-School Student: All evidence points to him having a perfectly normal and fulfilling school life, in contrast to his sister.
• Out of Focus: As one of the few people Tomoko was comfortable talking to for the longest time, he used to be a very prominent character in the manga. Once Tomoko finally started forming some close bonds at school, Tomoki's appearances were reduced to the occasional day in the limelight chapter.
• Perpetual Frowner: He's always wearing a grumpy expression of some sort, at least when around his sister.
• Pet the Dog: Sometimes he takes pity on Tomoko. Notably, he expresses relief during her second-year graduation that she has managed to make some friends by the end of the year. Of course, he also makes a point of noting how all of her new friends seem to be a bunch of weirdos.
• The Power of Hate: Thinking about various occasions when Tomoko has pissed him off causes him to tap into an Unstoppable Rage that has allowed him to become the star player of his soccer team. In comparison, thinking about the few occasions when the two of them have actually gotten along causes him to be thrown off his game and miss scoring the winning goal.
• The Quiet One: Even when talking to people that he doesn't hate (as in, anyone other than Tomoko), he still rarely says more than a few words at a time.
• The Reliable One: Viewed as this by his parents. While Tomoko's laziness and rude personality results in her frequently screwing up, their parents can always count on Tomoki to meet, or even occasionally exceed their expectations.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: One of his most frequent responses to his sister's wacky antics is staring at her for a few moments and then promptly walking away without even so much as asking what she's doing. He's even started doing this in regards to the girls in his own class getting on his nerves, opting to eat lunch by himself in a narrow alleyway that Tomoko once showed him just so he doesn't have to hear them.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With Tomoko.
• The Stoic: His only emotion is seemingly a perpetually-annoyed calm. Even when he isn't particularly agitated, his expressions remain dour and his speech remains curt.
• Straight Man: Serves as this whenever he shares a scene with his sister.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Invoked in chapter 106. Ucchi claims that his eyes and mouth are very similar to Tomoko's, which is how she is instantly able to tell that the two are siblings. Hina also comments on their similarity in chapter 134.
• Tranquil Fury: While he's frequently pissed off at his sister, he only explodes at her when she's being particularly obnoxious. Otherwise, he remains fairly stoic when dealing with her.
• Unkempt Beauty: Despite sharing his sister's Creepy Shadowed Undereyes while also being a Perpetual Frowner, giving him a fairly disheveled and unfriendly appearance at all times, he is seen as attractive by girls. This may be because All Girls Want Bad Boys.
• The Unsmile: One of the very few times he ever smiles is to Akari's friend, Sayaka, once she encourages him to do his best after getting him stuck in the lead role of a play their class is putting on. It's obviously forced to a very painful degree, and Akari compares it to the way an animal would bare its teeth as an intimidation tactic.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: While he's suggested to be a decent guy when not around his sister at his present age, old home videos of him as a kid show that he used to be much more chipper.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: What few glimpses we catch of him with his friends imply this. While they're a lot more boisterous than he is, Tomoki's not above throwing the occasional good-natured insult at them.
• Vocal Dissonance: Matranga gives him a voice that's a lot deeper than what you would expect to hear from a 14-year-old boy.
• Would Hit a Girl: He's not above lashing out when Tomoko's getting on his nerves (giving her a kick, grabbing her face, etc.). He invoked the other trope one time Tomoko was annoying him. Then when her antics went too far, he had no choice but to strike her into calming down.

The Kuroki Parents

Mrs. Kuroki voiced by: Risa Hayamizu (Japanese), Shelley Calene-Black (English)

Mr. Kuroki voiced by: Ryō Iwasaki (Japanese), David Wald (English)

Tomoko's and Tomoki's parents.

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• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Like both of her children, Mrs. Kuroki sports a pair of these. Though unlike theirs, hers are substantially less visible. Also, judging from a bonus drawing by Nico Tanigawa, she got her eye bags at a later age than her kids did. Mr. Kuroki is also revealed to have these in the single panel where we get to see one of his eyes reflected in a rearview mirror.
• A Day in the Limelight: Well, "limelight" isn't exactly right, but the chapter "Because I'm Not Popular, I'll Spend Time With My Dad" marks the first time Mr. Kuroki has ever had a significant amount of screen time and focuses on Tomoko going on a fishing trip with him.
• The Faceless: During the few occasions where he actually appears, Mr. Kuroki's face is never completely shown. We've been shown, at various different points, his hair, mouth, and eyes, though, so we have a decent idea of what he looks like.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Mrs. Kuroki has no idea that Tomoko is a loner with no friends until chapter 90, when Ogino mentions this during their parent-teacher conference. In fact, Tomoko actively tried to hide this from her mother, e.g. by lying to her about having fun with her classmates in one of the Christmas specials. Mr. Kuroki has it even worse, getting almost all of his information about his children secondhand from his wife.
• Parental Favoritism: Played with. Mrs. Kuroki loves both Tomoko and Tomoki equally but is often exasperated at her daughter for being lazy and irresponsible. This causes Tomoko to become slightly resentful whenever her mom praises Tomoki for his maturity and self-reliance.
• Salaryman: Judging from his usual clothing of a suit and the fact that he's almost never around the house due to being too busy working, Mr. Kuroki is one of these.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Mrs. Kuroki was shown to resemble a tidier-looking Tomoko when she was younger, and, from what we've seen of his face, Mr. Kuroki resembles an older Tomoki.
• Unnamed Parents: The only reason we even know their last name is because we know their children's. They're exclusively called "mom" and "dad" in-universe.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • After Tomoko complains about having to help with housework, Mrs. Kuroki calls her out on the fact that Tomoki not only helps out without complaint, but he does so on top of also having Club Activities and studying for his High School Entrance Exam.
  • When Tomoko forgets to mail Tomoki's application to the entrance exams for a school in Saitama, the furious mother subjects her daughter to a very harsh lecture about how she ruined her brother's future.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Mr. Kuroki's appearances can be counted on one hand and are extremely brief. At all other times, it can be easy to forget that Tomoko even has a dad.

Kiko "Kii-chan" Satozaki

Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya (Japanese), Juliet Simmons (English)

Tomoko and Tomoki's thirteen-year-old cousin and a seventh-grade schoolgirl. Having been fed a steady stream of face-saving lies by Tomoko, she idolizes her older cousin.

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• Annoying Younger Sibling: Ever since she lost Kii's respect, Tomoko has come to see her cousin as this and always dreads their meetings.
• Audience Surrogate: Her reaction to Tomoko's card game.
• Broken Pedestal: How she sees Tomoko after all her attempts to look cool backfires spectacularly on her. Unlike other examples though, she takes the revelation well, and the next time they meet her admiration is replaced not with utter disdain, but with pity and appreciation that at least she tried her best.
• Condescending Compassion: Seems to have developed such tendencies, such as seeing Tomoko as a dog, after the Broken Pedestal incident. As of chapter 220, this extends to Sayaka.
• Creepy Child: When she gets in a bad mood, Kii becomes very...unsettling. It's bad enough that Tomoko regards her as The Dreaded and she's always painted in a sinister light in Tomoko's dreams. To say nothing of the nightmare she had where Kii-chan implicitly raped her with an eggplant. As Tomoko woke up from that nightmare it turned out that Kii was actually in her room, watching her sleep.
• Death Glare: Pulled one mixed with a Thousand-Yard Stare when she was angry with Tomoko, also...
  "No! Just take it."
  • This has become a regular expression for her when she is angry, with an added Stepford Smile.
• Incest Subtext: When asked about what kind of boy she likes, Kii-chan responds with "like Onee-chan!", specifying that as someone who makes her heart skip a beat, "like [Tomoko]". Tomoko is understandably unnerved by this.
• Innocently Insensitive: She means well when she tries to take care of Tomoko after finding out the truth about her, but so far her actions just drive it home to Tomoko how pathetic she has gotten.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Shares the surname of Tomoya Satozaki.
• Nice Girl: An unusual role for a Type-A Tsundere specialist like Rie Kugimiya. She's so nice she doesn't harbor any grudge against Tomoko for unwittingly breaking her good impression of her.
• Odd Friendship: With Ucchi. Both bond very quickly over their shared fixation with Tomoko.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Until chapter 60, where it's revealed that her given name is Kiko. Her full name is revealed in chapter 141.
• Perpetual Smiler: Is almost never seen without a smile, especially when around Tomoko.
• Petty Childhood Grudge: Calling it petty might be an overstatement, but Kii fixates on Tomoko being a Card Sharp and her Blatant Lies to impress her as her Start of Darkness, and are the only things she ever brings up regarding how she views Tomoko.
• Replacement Goldfish: In chapter 60 Tomoko speculates that Kii tries to take care of her because she treats her as a replacement for her deceased dog. At the end of that chapter Kii even gives Tomoko that dog's hairpin (the one she is always wearing).
• Slasher Smile: A lot of her smiles look decidedly empty and sinister, particularly when combined with Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Her response to a rather sad story Tomoko tells her is more verbal than actually emotional.
  Kii: [while smiling brightly] You're so kind, Onee-chan. I'm tearing up.
  Tomoko: [thinking] Like hell you are!
• Token Mini-Moe: She has a very cutesy design that stands out from the rest of the cast. It makes sense while she's 12 years old, but it becomes even more notable when she retains it even as she approaches her mid-teens.
• Unwanted Assistance: She wants to help Tomoko become a better person, but Tomoko, who knows she's driven by pity and finds Kii's efforts demeaning, wants nothing to do with it.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Whenever she gets unpleasantly surprised, aggravated, disapproving, or devious, her eyes take on this look, which never fails to unnerve Tomoko. This is practically her default look in Tomoko's mind since Kii always has these eyes whenever Tomoko thinks or dreams about her.

Tomoko's Middle School Friends

Yuu Naruse

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Emily Neves (English)

Tomoko's best friend from middle school, who managed the transition to adolescence far more gracefully than Tomoko. She was originally very quiet and nerdy; however, after moving to high school she dyed her hair, improved her fashion sense and personal appearance, became more outgoing and eventually got a steady boyfriend. Despite changing so much, she remains a kind friend to Tomoko, though she remains blissfully oblivious to how different their social lives are and is unaware of the more unpleasant aspects of Tomoko's personality.

She is the protagonist of the spin-off manga It's Your Fault My Friend's Not Popular, which details her middle school life with Tomoko from her perspective.

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• The Artifact: Early on in the series, Yuu serves as Tomoko's Only Friend and the one person Tomoko could talk to, giving Tomoko some welcome relief from her troubles in the middle of the brutal Kafka Comedy that was so prominent in the early parts of the story. But given that she goes to a different school and that Tomoko starts gaining an actual social circle after the Kyoto field trip arc, Yuu eventually loses her main purpose in the narrative and gradually becomes Out of Focus. She still appears every once in a while but much less frequently.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: In the final episode of the anime, she starts to chase after a distraught Tomoko out of concern for her but ends up being distracted by a cat.
• Beautiful All Along: An interesting case where she's introduced after having this already happen to her. Back in middle school she wore thick glasses and unflattering clothing but was still beautiful underneath them.
• Beware the Nice Ones: After embarrassingly winning a bet in the Christmas special of 2016, Yuu makes Tomoko and Komiyama sing Christmas carols together for an hour. She then makes use of Exact Words by saying they'll have to do the same thing next Christmas.
• Book Dumb: Yuu is very socially aware and has a knack for treating people how they want to be treated, but her grades aren't very good. Yuu even recognizes that Tomoko wanting to get into Aoyama University means that Yuu probably won't be able to follow her because of the disparity between their grades. Yuu comes to the conclusion that she should back off from Tomoko so that Tomoko has a better chance of getting into the university.
• Brainless Beauty: Despite her beauty and kindness, she's oblivious to Tomoko's unsavory nature and has below-average grades. In the second Christmas special Tomoko opines that even using Twitter or keeping a blog would be too complicated for Yuu to handle. She also remains oblivious to the animosity between Tomoko and Kotomi until chapter 54 of the main story. In chapter 124 she also does not pick up on Yuri's jealousy of her friendship with Tomoko, and is just happy that Tomoko's new friends like her so much.
• Character Development: Probably one of the rare occasions where Out of Focus actually helped. As the third year rolls on and she learns of Tomoko's desire to get into the more academically prestigious Aoyama University and Tomoko's now large group of friends, Yuu starts to show insecurity at the possibility of being left behind by Tomoko while not wanting her lack of intelligence to drag her friend down and stop her from achieving her dream.
• Closet Geek: She's currently this, due to her popularity having soared at her high school after she cleaned up her appearance. At one point she says that she's happy that she can still hang out with Tomoko since she doesn't have anyone else to talk to about anime-related things.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: She's completely unaware of the effect she had on Tomoko and Kotomi in middle school, and even in high school, she still hasn't caught on to Tomoko's blatantly obvious lust for her.
• Covert Pervert: One thing she isn't oblivious about is innuendo.
• Decoy Protagonist: In the spin-off, she is set up as the protagonist at first, but the narrative focus eventually moves from her to Tomoko and Komiyama, and the story is mostly about the two's "friendship."
• Dude Magnet: She draws guys to her without even trying, much to Tomoko's eternal chagrin.
• Dumb Blonde: Her hair is dyed, but otherwise applies.
• Dumb Is Good: She's the ditziest of the three middle school friends, but also by far the sweetest.
• Erotic Dream: Implied in chapter 7 of the spin-off. Tomoko and Kotomi are pretty delighted by it.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Tomoko and Kotomi both have pretty obvious crushes on her in middle school and separate high schools have done little to ebb their lust.
• Foil: To Tomoko, also to Kotomi. She had been, initially, shy like her two friends but was able to overcome it and build a social life, unlike Tomoko. In middle school, she already had a hidden natural beauty that drew attention. Most importantly, she has shown negative feelings towards other people the least, unlike her friends.
• Friend to Bugs: Played with. She doesn't particularly deal well with insects, but when she goes bug-catching with her friends, she insists on letting the critters go when Tomoko wanted to watch them eat each other. She also keeps a rhinoceros beetle she catches as a pet.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: After taking her glasses off, her popularity soared.
• Good Bad Girl: Mostly implied, but she's suggested to have attended Wild Teen Parties before and may have already lost her virginity, both things that the much sleazier Tomoko could only dream of doing.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Surprisingly, in chapter 57! She deals with it in a completely different way than Tomoko, though.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Everyone who sees her is astounded by her looks, she has no problem drawing attention from guys, and even girls like Tomoko and Kotomi express attraction to her.
• The Heart: She is pretty much the only reason Tomoko and Kotomi even talk to each other, and also the only reason they are willing to be civil when they do talk. In chapter 54 she takes an active role to the trope.
• Hidden Depths: It's implied that while she may not be as academically smart as the rest of the cast, she's much sharper than she lets on. Yuu's fully aware that her two best friends don't like each other but is able to get them to at least tolerate one another by steering them to an arcade, where they can hone their rivalry into playing fun games together. One Christmas special shows she does indeed have her own devilish side that can embarrass them For the Lulz.
• Important Haircut: In Chapter 100, Yuu cuts her hair to shoulder length, due in part to breaking up with her boyfriend.
• Informed Attractiveness: Everyone who sees Yuu always makes a note on how cute and attractive she is. While the manga has plenty of attractive and fashionable girls, she stands out as the only one who is consistently given this treatment.
• Innocently Insensitive: Her casual remarks indicating that she has a much more fulfilling social life than Tomoko can hope for, including having a boyfriend, cause Tomoko a lot of distress.
  • Komiyama was also hit with this, in chapter 6 of the spin-off.
  • During Tomoko's, Yuu's and Kotomi's Christmas party in the 2016 Christmas special Tomoko come up with the idea for the trio to buy one another funny gifts that would be completely useless to the recipient rather than ordinary Christmas gifts. In response, Yuu buys Tomoko a pack of condoms. Yuu claims to have thought about it simply as a funny gift, and is embarrassed when Tomoko points out what such a gift implies about what Yuu thinks of Tomoko.
  • In chapter 124 Yuu says that she would love to meet Kotomi's friends, and claims that they have to be kind if they are friends with her; Kotomi notes in her Inner Monologue that the way Yuu phrased that is a bit hurtful for her.
• Morality Pet: She was the only person for whom Tomoko displayed any kind of empathy for in the early parts of the manga.
• Ms. Fanservice: Or at least this is how Tomoko sees her. While her clothing is occasionally somewhat risque, she herself is quite modest and buttoned-down.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Shares the surname of Yoshihisa Naruse.
• Nice Girl: Overall, a pretty nice and sweet (if somewhat airheaded) person.
• Oblivious to Love: Doesn't notice Tomoko's crush on her.
• Only Friend: To Tomoko (who even admits this in one of her Inner Monologues in chapter 29) in the early chapters, and also to Kotomi in the prequel. Not so much in later chapters, as Tomoko makes a few more friends, while Kotomi befriends a girl named Itou and has a somewhat Odd Friendship with her romantic rival Akari. Even then, Yuu seems to remain the closest friend to Tomoko and Kotomi.
• Opaque Nerd Glasses: In anime flashbacks, though her eyes are visible in both manga.
• Otaku: She was this during middle school. Now that she's in high school and has a better social life, she's more of a Closet Otaku around everyone except Tomoko and Kotomi, whom she feels she can be more open about otaku-related things with.
• Out of Focus: Yuu has had fewer appearances in the story since Tomoko managed to get some semblance of social life at her school.
• Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: Used to clue the reader in to the frequent discomfort or awkwardness beneath her perpetual smile.
• She's All Grown Up: She was a mousy, nerdy and shy girl in middle school who became a trendy, beautiful and outgoing girl in high school.
• The Social Expert: She may be an academic dunce, but Yuu is very good at reading people and understanding why they act as they do without needing to hear them explain themselves. She functionally teaches Tomoko and Kotomi to tolerate each other better by steering them towards activities that would allow them to channel their rivalry in less hostile ways, and defuses tensions between Tomoko and Asuka that would otherwise have risen due to their Twice Shy relationship.
• Stepford Smiler: Has a tendency to put up a cheerful front, even when she's going through bouts of depression, often from the trouble she has with her boyfriend.
• Stupid Good: Her niceness can be very high when it comes to her friends. For example, when they were in the pool:
  Tomoko: "If I peed in here, would you pull away from me?"
  Yuu: "I wouldn't. Because we're friends."
• Thousand-Yard Stare: A minor running gag whenever she becomes overwhelmed by academia, displaying a vacant look on her face complete with an empty smile that displays no happiness whatsoever. Tomoko thinks she looks like a rape victim this way.
• Token Good Teammate: Tomoko and Kotomi are both rather self-absorbed and prone to seeking out flaws in people, while Yuu is sweet and rarely criticizes others.

Kotomi Komiyama

Voiced by: Kaori Mizuhashi

One of Yuu's old middle school friends. She immediately takes a dislike to Tomoko, who sees Kotomi as a rival for Yuu's attention. Unfortunately, Kotomi proves to be just as passive-aggressive and anti-social as Tomoko.

Kotomi is formally introduced in the spin-off manga It's Your Fault My Friend's Not Popular, and later on she is re-introduced in the main series. Kotomi does not appear in the anime as it only adapts stories from before her first appearance. However, she appears in a special OVA, bundled with the Japanese release of the main series's seventh volume.

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• A-Cup Angst: Just like Tomoko.
• Alliterative Name: Both her first and last name begin with "K".
• Ascended Extra: She first appeared in Tomoko's flashback to her middle school years in Chapter 30 of the main series as the third, unnamed girl running the marathon with Tomoko and Yuu; she's only seen in three frames and has no speaking lines. In the spin-off series, starting with Chapter 2, she is one of the main characters. She then makes her formal debut in the main manga in Chapter 46.
• Berserk Button:
  • Badmouthing her crush Tomoki, as Tomoko found out in chapter 54.
  • Any girl getting close to Tomoki is enough to invoke her hostility.
• Bookworm: Always shown reading a book during her job as the school librarian.
• Butt-Monkey: Not only is her crush on Tomoki unrequited, as he barely knows she even exists, but the plots revolving around said crush tend to end with her in some embarrassing situation or otherwise miserable.
• The Cameo: She makes a short appearance in the OVA that's about a minute long, which constitutes the only time she's ever been animated (and voiced).
• Covert Pervert: Revealed to be one in Chapter 7 of the spin-off, though she is in denial about it. Also, in chapter 91 of the main series she blurts out that she is interested in Tomoki's dick... in Tomoki's presence, no less. As of chapter 101, she seems to have accepted that this is a part of her personality.
• Cross-Popping Veins: When Tomoko pisses her off. Which is often.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: During periods of extensive relaxation, she has a habit of mumbling some of her inner thoughts out loud. Normally, this isn't a problem as it usually happens in private, but she also does it while studying with her friends over Skype, which leads to much awkwardness. Particularly when her inner thoughts are about Tomoki.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: If there's one thing Kotomi hates more than Tomoko being a Jerkass to her, it's the rare times when Tomoko actually expresses pity for her.
• Fatal Flaw: Her infatuation for Tomoki is a personal weakness in her character that always gets her into trouble. She loses all rational thought whenever he enters the picture and does any number of dumb things related to him, from lying about her identity and Tomoki's interests in an attempt to throw a rival off, to picking fights with any girl she merely suspects as having an interest in him. The end result is that she ends up making an ass of herself, fails to make any headway with Tomoki, and leaves everyone with the impression that she's a creepy person who spells trouble all around. She herself is aware of this flaw and frustrated by it, but her attempts to pull back and salvage every disaster she gets herself into inevitably fail.
• Flanderization: Kotomi in Tomomote and the first few chapters after her Watamote debut was a shy and awkward girl with an interest in baseball and the Chiba Lotte Marines and a crush on Tomoki. As Watamote progressed, however, Kotomi's interest in the Marines became an obsession, to the point where Ogino had to stop her introduction at the start of the third year because she wouldn't shut up about it, and she took charge of the softball team during the sports meet. Kotomi's crush on Tomoki, originally innocent, became more creepy and perverted over time, and eventually reached the point where she was open about wanting to see his dick, stalked him at sports events to take photos, and even blurted out that she wanted to lick his eye bags.
• Foil: To Tomoko. She's basically her but more proper looking and with more common sense.
• Forgettable Character: Tomoko completely forgot that she existed as soon as she graduated from middle school. To be fair to Kotomi, this may have more to do with Tomoko not liking her enough to bother remembering her than it does with her flat out being a forgettable person.
• Forgotten Friend, New Foe: A comedic example. She and Tomoko had a friendship that was tenuous at best in middle school and immediately split apart as soon as Yuu was taken out of the picture. By the time they reunite in high school, their relationship is entirely hostile and only becomes slightly more civil on the occasions where they both hang out with Yuu at the same time.
• Friendly Rivalry: With Akari. They both pine for Tomoki, and in an omake set after events of chapter 91 Akari even declares herself to be Kotomi's rival. However, so far there seems to be little animosity between the two, and Kotomi actually seems to care about Akari's well-being a bit. Kotomi encourages Akari to be honest about her feelings for Tomoki in chapter 101, and later, in chapter 108, she hesitates whether to tell Akari that Tomoki greeted her, because she didn't want to rub it in Akari's face. Akari, in turn, wanted to badmouth Kotomi when asked about her by Tomoki but backed off when she realized that Kotomi's feelings for Tomoki are the same as her own. In chapters 112 and 113 Akari is even shown helping Kotomi prepare the Valentine's Day chocolates for Tomoki and it turns out it was Akari who convinced Kotomi to give the Valentine's Day chocolates to Tomoki.
• Game of Nerds: She's a massive baseball enthusiast who follows the Chiba Lotte Marines with almost religious zeal. Of note is that she knows the make, model, and plate number of every player's car on the team. Chapter 117 reveals that she was once a member of the baseball cheer squad.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She does not take kindly to other girls showing romantic interest with Tomoki, or interacting with him in any way, or even talking about him. Even finding out about the existence of Kii in chapter 141 triggers her jealousy.
• I Am What I Am: While Tomoko's accusations on her fixation with Tomoki's genitals used to be a source of angst, Kotomi has made peace with that perverse side of her and freely admits that she would in fact love to see his dick. As of chapter 101, Tomoko's accusations no longer bother her.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: In a clothes store she hinted an interest in cosplaying. In chapter 79 she looks like the protagonist of a Final Fantasy game.
• In-Series Nickname: "Komi-something". Also: "Glasses". Both given by Tomoko.
  • Her friend, Itou, refers to her as "Koto."
• Kick the Dog: Calling Shizuku a pig to her face. In the past, if Kotomi wasn't able to bottle up her hostile feelings towards anyone she perceived as a rival for Tomoki's affections, then she was at least able to catch herself and make an effort to retain some civility, but this was the first time she was very open and unapologetic about it.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Tends to lose her common sense and act irrationally whenever the plot involves her crush Tomoki in some way.
• My Parents Are Dead: Has revealed that her father died from an illness when she was five. Yuu gets awkward, Tomoko... not much.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Fittingly, she shares the surname of Satoru Komiyama.
• Nerd Glasses: As a Bookworm she's among the more nerdy members of the cast, which she wears glasses to emphasize.
• Not Helping Your Case:
  • Like Tomoko, she insists that they are by absolutely no means friends. But when she gets into an angry confrontation with Masaki over the latter's apparent closeness to Tomoki, she tries to play it off as just Big Sister Instinct for her "best friend's" little brother, which only reinforces everyone's beliefs that they are friends.
  • Furthermore, the above incident happens while Kotomi is trying to apologize to Masaki for lashing out at her. She does this in the hope of not looking like a terrible person in front of Tomoki while also downplaying her jealousy...only to immediately lose her temper again once Masaki starts getting friendly with Tomoki once more.
• Only Sane Woman:
  • She tends to have more common sense than Tomoko and Yuu, at least in matters not related to her crush Tomoki or potential romantic rivals.
  • She plays this role in Tomoko's movie, "A Youth Like This," where she's the only character in it who notices how absurd the others all act and how the story makes no sense. It closely reflects the real Kotomi's ongoing reactions to the film's production.
• Opaque Nerd Glasses: Sometimes she is presented like this depending on the situation. Her glasses are a little variant of this trope because they are not so big.
• Otaku: She shares the same interests in anime that Tomoko does, but to nowhere near the same extent. It's the subject of baseball where her obsessions really skyrocket into otaku territory, especially when it comes to the Chiba Lotte Marines.
• Out of Focus: Not to the same extent as Yuu, but her screentime has been reduced considerably since the cast has grown in size.
• Right in Front of Me: In Chapter 2 of the spin-off she tried to break the ice with Tomoko by telling her a story about having a laugh in the previous year when she heard that some middle schooler was still riding a bike with training wheels. Guess who that middle schooler was?
• She Cleans Up Nicely: While she may seem plain and mousy at school, Kotomi is shown to have a keen fashion sense that gives her a more showy appearance. Most notably, she managed to turn a bathing suit that Tomoko suggested to her as a joke into something very stylish at the beach, and dialogue implies she even got some boys' attention with it.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Tomoko. She dislikes Tomoko because the latter tends to act like a Jerkass towards her for reasons she can't fathom, and only ever strikes back at her when provoked. This is eventually downplayed massively in third year as Tomoko doesn't have as much reason to be jealous of her with her own expanded friend group and the two are now able to much better tolerate each other as a result.
• Stalker with a Crush: Acts like this towards Tomoki in some chapters, though this is Played for Laughs. In chapter 88 she is shown taking photos of him during the athletics meet, getting turned on when he is made to wear baseball uniform and hoping he would be wearing the kind of uniform where the understocking is showing. In the very next chapter, when let into Tomoki's room by Tomoko, she considers looking through his drawers or his trash before deciding to lie in his bed instead.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Even though they mutually dislike one another, she and Tomoko are frequently on the same wavelength, coming to the same conclusions independently, and even acting as they can communicate without even speaking.
• The Strategist: Appoints herself as the strategist of her softball team during the sports tournament in her third year of high school. It seems not to be very successful, as Minami doesn't even understand her directions, and other girls are weirded out by her.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In spite of their mutual dislike, she and Tomoko are at least willing to cooperate to keep Yuu happy.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Kotomi started off as a generally civil person who was only ever a jerk toward Tomoko, who usually cast the first stone in every conflict that erupted between them. When she first met a rival for Tomoki's affections in Akari, she ended up forming a friendship with her based on their mutual crush. In third year, however, Kotomi became increasingly more hostile and prone to getting into fights with anyone who showed a similar interest in Tomoki (or even those she just thought were interested in him), making her come off as an even bigger Jerkass than Tomoko.
• Unknown Rival: When they reunite in Chapter 46 of the main story, Tomoko has forgotten about Kotomi. On the other hand, Kotomi bears a grudge against Tomoko. (The next chapter reveals that they didn't spend all of their middle school years in the same class.) Now both are aware of the other's dislike.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Tomoko on their best of days, particularly past Chapter 57. On their worst, it's a Sitcom Arch-Nemesis relationship. Even their classmates, Yuu and Kii seem to think they've got this kind of relationship going with how in-sync they act despite their affirmations to the contrary.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: When she is surprised and/or angry.
• With Friends Like These...: Yuu is the only link that makes her and Tomoko tolerate each other.
• You Are What You Hate: The reason she despises Tomoko. Both are antisocial and their Only Friend is Yuu. Each one of them believes the other is below her.

Tomoko's Current Friends

Hina Nemoto

Voiced by: Yūko Kurose (Japanese), Margaret McDonald (English)

Tomoko's classmate and the first person in Tomoko's class that Tomoko is able to talk to on a semi-regular basis.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Subverted. She seems to have light-colored hair in the manga, and the cover of volume 11 (published after the anime concluded) shows her with red or pink hair, while she has brown hair in the anime. However, in the manga, she dyes her hair, and the flashback in chapter 110 shows her natural hair color is indeed brown or black.
• A Day in the Limelight: Due to winning a poll, she got a special chapter devoted to her that went into detail in her middle school years, and explained why she became a Closet Geek in high school.
• Ambiguous Innocence: As Tomoko gets to know her better, it becomes increasingly harder to tell apart when she's genuinely trying to be nice to her from when she's passive-aggressively antagonizing her. That aside, chapter 139 makes it abundantly clear that she's more innocent than she thinks when it comes to sex, as she finds hardcore uncensored eroge very uncomfortable to watch.
• Ascended Extra: Appears as a background character as early as chapter 4 of the manga/the first episode of the anime. She becomes a recurring character starting with chapter 39. By the third year, she moves from recurring to part of the main cast as a member of Tomoko's group of friends.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While she typically acts cheerful and friendly, as Hina gets to know Tomoko more, she starts to display more of a blunt side that she previously didn't show anyone. It's downplayed though, in that Hina doesn't want to be mean, she just wants to be more honest, and she enjoys the pushback Tomoko gives her when her buttons get pressed.
• Brutal Honesty: When that topic comes up, she trashes the anime that Tomoko's watching, much to Tomoko's annoyance. In chapter 139 Hina also tells Tomoko that she doesn't think that Tomoko would be able to get a job regardless of what club she joins at the university.
• Characterization Marches On: More of a case where this largely applies to the way she was depicted in an adaptation. Hina was little more than a prop for the first few volumes of the manga, so the anime portrayed her as a pretty normal girl who was capable of frowning, looking serious, or scowling visibly if she got angry. As her character was expanded upon in later volumes of the manga, it became more firmly established that she almost never stops smiling no matter how aggravated she gets.
• Closet Geek: Likes Slice of Life anime and wishes to be a voice actress, which she hides from her friends. Tomoko accidentally discovers her secret in Chapter 97, and in Chapter 122 she finally comes out of the closet about it. A special chapter published in 2018 suggests that the reason why she stayed in the closet was the memory of the two otaku girls who were her friends in middle school, who were mocked by their classmates because of their interests. This eventually led to the end of their friendship with Hina, as they wrongly assumed that she mocked them just as the rest of their classmates did.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Her eyes darken considerably and lose their shine whenever she starts to feel aggravated. Since Hina never stops smiling, it's really the only way to gauge her mood.
• Everyone Has Standards: She's not above being blunt and teasing towards Tomoko, but an omake showed she doesn't approve of Minami's mean-spirited gossip.
• Foil: She is pretty much what Tomoko would be like if she had better social skills and cared about fitting in with the popular crowd — while privately keeping her geeky hobbies and abrasive attitude.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Chapter 110 reveals that she and Tomoko took their high school entrance exam together, and afterward even talked briefly and fist-bumped. However, Tomoko ignored Hina when she was trying to introduce herself. Zig-zagged, as Tomoko, remembers the meeting itself, but not that the girl she met was Hina. Even in chapter 117, after Hina made an impersonation of Tomoko that directly referenced the event, Tomoko still has trouble connecting the dots.
  • Seemingly because of this (and Tomoko still being unable to remember her), subsequent chapters have shown that even the mere mention of an entrance exam has become a sort of Berserk Button for Hina, as her passive-aggressiveness just ramps up as a result.
• The Gadfly: In later chapters, she seems to like to make Tomoko uncomfortable just for the fun of it. And in chapter 129 she decides that, if she ever has to dub a H-Game, she will tell Akane just to watch her reaction. In chapter 139 she actually starts a contest with Tomoko to see who can freak out Akane the most.
• I Am What I Am: Zigzagged in chapter 122. Tomoko boldly proclaiming that she is looking for a boyfriend during her introduction at the beginning of the third year of high school inspires Hina to stop being a Closet Geek and admit that she wants to be a voice actress in her own introduction. However, Tomoko notices that her hands are shaking afterward, and Hina asks Tomoko to teach her how to live as a loner if the worst comes to the worst, showing that Hina isn't sure that she did the right thing. Later chapters keep it ambiguous whether Hina made peace with this; in chapter 124 she goes so far as to skip out on hanging out with Okada to watch anime, but on the other hand, she gets angry in chapter 135 when Tomoko claims that she acts like an otaku and a chuuni.
• In-Series Nickname: Tomoko comes up with a nickname "Nemo" for Hina, but she only uses it in her inner monologues until chapter 126, when she says it out loud, and Hina demands her to use it when talking to her from now on.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While her prediction about Tomoko having a hard time finding a job due to her poor social skills is insulting, Nemo is right that a lot of the time employment comes down to who you know and not what you know.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In Chapter 139, she decides to freak out her friend, Akane, purely For the Lulz, only for Tomoko to freak her out in that same chapter, and again later in her own special chapter, without even trying.
• Living Prop: Started out like this. In the early chapters and in the anime she was simply yet another popular kid in the background, and she had even less presence than Okada and Kiyota. Hina's line in chapter 39, when she notes that her presence is usually forgotten, seems to refer to this more than to anything shown in the story itself. Her importance in the story gradually increases starting with that very chapter, where she and Tomoko talk for the first time.
• Longing for Fictionland: In a special chapter published in 2018 Hina mentions that she wants her life to be like a Slice of Life anime, with no conflicts and everyone getting along, and wants to invoke and experience anime cliches in her life. Downplayed, as the life she wishes for actually isn't much different from the life she's leading already, as noted by Tomoko.
• Mistaken for Gay: After Hina lends her some chapstick, Tomoko interprets it as an Indirect Kiss and starts to believe her classmate must be a lesbian who has a crush on her. Tomoko seems quite open to the idea of swinging the other way, despite her insistence that she is completely straight...until Hina shares her chapstick with another girl, leading Tomoko to assume she just got two-timed.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: For Yuri at least. One Imagine Spot in Chapter 200 has her imaginating all of her friends sharing the same house minus her. Worth mentioning she imagined living with Ucchi and Asuka with who she barely interacts over her.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Shares the surname of Shunichi Nemoto.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: During the Amateur Film-Making Plot, Hina continually pushes Tomoko into leading the presentations for the project, first when she pitches her idea to the class and again when they screen it for the culture festival. She means well and offers encouraging words when the latter's nervousness starts taking hold, but it never succeeds and if anything, does more harm than good. Despite all the strides Tomoko has made over the course of the manga, public speaking is still a step too far for her and she botches her every attempt at it, which subsequently leads to her confidence shattering.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Whenever her smile drops, her chipper demeanor disappears, and/or she actually gets angry, even slightly, it means a line has been crossed. Notable is how cold and serious Hina gets when Tomoko says Hina might need to sleep her way to the top if she wants to make it as a voice actor. Even Hina is shocked by her reaction, noting how in the past, she would let anything that annoyed her just roll off her back.
• Perpetual Smiler: Almost never seen without a smile on her face, even when she's acting abrasive and hostile towards someone. Tomoko finds it very unsettling. It takes Tomoko talking about how Hina's panties, pubic hair, and genitals looked for her to finally drop the smile and smack her in a state of mad panic.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: For Yuri. There's some tension between the two, with Yuri often getting jealous of the attention Hina garners from Tomoko. This manifests in Yuri going out of her way to passive-aggressively brag about her greater familiarity of Tomoko to Hina, often to the latter's confusion and annoyance. Eventually, Hina starts to enjoy the rivalry, if for no other reason than because it's like something out of a slice-of-life anime.
• Stepford Smiler: Hina almost never stops smiling. She keeps smiling even when she's angry or annoyed, and Tomoko finds those particular expressions of hers very unnerving.
• Unwanted Assistance: On two occasions her well-meaning attempts to reach out to Tomoko ended rather poorly for Tomoko:
  • In chapter 39, when the time comes for Tomoko to introduce herself at the first day of her second year, it turns out that Hina not only thought that Tomoko's introduction at the beginning of the first year was great, but also told everyone about it, and thus everyone in the class is looking forward to another great introduction. This causes Tomoko to panic and publicly embarrass herself.
  • In chapter 43, Hina gets curious about what Tomoko is searching the Internet for on her phone (during class) and asks Tomoko about this. This startles Tomoko so much that she drops her phone and it ends up in their teacher's hands with some NSFW images still onscreen.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Her relationship with Tomoko is this. The Comiket trip arc shows that despite their willingness to trade barbs and be competitive they do care about one another and Nemo is usually the first person to offer Tomoko support or encouragement when she needs it.

Masaki Yoshida

A girl with blonde hair and a bad temper that Tomoko has a habit of pissing off.

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• Asleep in Class: If she's attending class, chances are good she's sleeping at her desk.
• Berserk Button: When first introduced she has two: 1) perverted acts in general, especially being groped, and 2) being called a delinquent. Tomoko being Tomoko, she manages to repeatedly push both these buttons, and it seems she is becoming yet another Berserk Button for Yoshida. During the trip to Disneyland, it is also shown that she hates it when people criticize cute things that she likes which causes her to start a fight with one of her yankii friends.
• Characterization Marches On: Early chapters portrayed her as being an ordinary girl with a Face of a Thug who Tomoko was exceptionally good at pissing off. Later chapters show that she genuinely is a delinquent with a Hair-Trigger Temper, but also portray her as being a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold.
• Delinquent Hair: She's a bleached blonde.
• Face of a Thug: Certainly looks like a standard delinquent girl, but is heavily suggested to simply be an ordinary girl who is into punk fashion that Tomoko just assumes is a delinquent.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Turns out she and Tomoko (and Kotomi for that matter) actually first met while they were still middle school students. Tomoko tried to demonstrate to Yuu how to safely walk past a delinquent without incurring their wrath, only to accidentally kick Masaki's bottle of soda away and incur her wrath anyway. By all appearances, no one seems to recall the incident or who was involved.
• Gender-Blender Name: Unlike the names of the other girls, "Masaki" is a unisex name in Japan which fits for a tomboy like her.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She seems to have an affinity for cute things in general.
• Goofy Print Underwear: Tomoko mentions that she wears Hello Kitty-print panties. A later chapter suggests that all of her underwear features cute mascot characters on them, to the point where Tomoko claims that the fact that she wears them is an Open Secret.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She gets jealous when she notices Tomoki paying more attention to Sachi than he does to her.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She is always quick to threaten or even hit Tomoko, sometimes with little provocation. On the other hand, she doesn't act like this when interacting with other characters, so maybe it's just that Tomoko is really good at hitting her Berserk Buttons. Notably, in chapter 106 she does not lash out at Anna who called her a moron to her face. Later chapters, especially those covering the trip to Disneyland during her third year of high school, show that she can be quite friendly when in a good mood though these chapters also show that even her yankii friends aren't safe from her wrath.
• Hidden Depths: Despite what Tomoko thinks of her, she is shown to like cute things, couldn't recognize a love hotel when every other character could and apparently plans to celebrate her Coming of Age Day in Disneyland. She also notices that Hina and Akane have a falling out in chapter 129, and tries to bond with Akane over the problems they both have with their friends though she quickly changes her mind and attacks Akane when the latter pushes one of her Berserk Buttons.
  • There are enough hints that Masaki is actually much more well-off than her being a yankii implies. The brand of pudding she bought as a gift is somewhat pricy in the real world, she's shown to have both a scooter and managed to rent a van for her friends, but not even once mentions working part-time to fund them. Finally, when we're introduced to her mother, she doesn't look like a housewife at all (unlike Tomoko's mom), and instead looks like a longtime career woman.
• Hot-Blooded: The angry type. She also gets extremely fired up when she's excited about something, such as when talking about how cool Disneyland is.
• Huge School Girl: Standing at 165 cm, the only non-adult taller than her is Asuka. As such she's the tallest among Tomoko's original circle of acquaintances.
• Japanese Delinquents: Invoked in-universe, as several characters are convinced Yoshida is a delinquent, not helped by her bleached hair and volatile personality.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she's generally angry and annoyed, this is mostly because she is justifiably pissed off at Tomoko for saying or doing something insensitive to her. Otherwise, she is shown to be a relatively pleasant person who seems to actually like Tomoko to some degree.
• Last-Name Basis: Mostly because Tomoko hasn't bothered to learn her first name. It isn't until she introduces herself to her third-year class several chapters after her debut that we learn her full name.
• Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Her intimidating appearance and short temper cause others to overlook her softer side. In a sort of twist on this trope, Tomoko also completely overlooks her softer side when interacting with her, but interacts with her much more openly than others do, allowing Yuri (and the reader) to see that there's more to her than her tough looks.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Shares the surname of Yuta Yoshida.
• Never My Fault: She's completely unapologetic about her outbursts. If Masaki's violent anger causes any problems, it's the fault of whoever provoked her, not Masaki for losing her temper.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: She gives Tomoko a ride home on her friend's scooter for no reason other than to be a chum. Doing so gets them both suspended for a week.
• Not Helping Your Case: Beating up Tomoko for calling her a delinquent only further convinces Tomoko that Yoshida is a delinquent.
• Odd Friendship: She and Tomoko couldn't be any more different, and going off of most of their interactions, you'd think they'd hate each other's guts. As later chapters show, however, Yoshida has no problem letting Tomoko hang around with her, despite Tomoko pressing her buttons sometimes.
  • It's telling that that nowadays Tomoko simply can't imagine Yoshida not being around with her and Yuri. Ironically, Masaki seems to be the only person among her friends that she has absolutely no issue with introducing to the rest of her family.
  • Yoshida seems to have become good friends with Mako during the Disneyland field trip, to the point where Mako is helping her with her future career choices and texting her during Yoshida's suspension.
  • She takes a surprising shine to Tomoki as they continue bumping into each other, and responds to his Accidental Pervert moments much less violently than she does with Tomoko's.
    • This later even developes into a genuine crush on Tomoki.
• Perpetual Frowner: There's seldom a moment when she isn't scowling, which only fuels how intimidated Tomoko is by her.
• Pervert Revenge Mode: Her preferred response to Tomoko's antics.
• Pet the Dog: She does occasionally do nice things for Tomoko, like offer to share an umbrella as they walk home on a rainy day. It's just that Tomoko always runs her mouth off at the wrong time and gets punched in the face. In chapter 116 she actually drags Tomoko over to Megumi, who was graduating, so that Tomoko, who was too nervous to approach, could say good-bye.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: A tough-talking and thuggish girl who likes all things cute and is generally pretty naive and innocent.
• Tsundere: A platonic example. She's almost always (justifiably) pissed off at Tomoko but still seems to like and care about her. She displays a similar attitude toward Tomoki, being casual and friendly to him one moment before switching to angry when he has an Accidental Pervert moment.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The vast majority of her interactions with Tomoko consist of Tomoko saying or doing something insensitive or perverted to her and Yoshida responding with anger and violence. To onlookers, Yoshida appears to be bullying her. Gradually turns into grudging tolerance, especially after their trip to Disneyland, to the point that Masaki herself proactively invites Tomoko to hang out after school.

Yuri Tamura

A fairly stoic girl from Tomoko's class who ends up in her group for their class trip after a falling out with her friend.

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• Audience Surrogate: She's more or less taken up the role of the audience's representative within the story in recent chapters. She's a bit of a loner herself, but not nearly to the same degree as Tomoko, and while she is constantly bewildered by the other girl's behavior, she is also both amused enough by it to develop a fondness for her and empathetic enough to it to develop a sense of kinship with her.
• Berserk Button: While Yuri is not fond of Minami, to say the least, most of the time she is able to stay calm even in Minami's presence. However, in chapter 124 when Mako calls her out on barging into Tomoko's meeting with Yuu and points out that she is acting like Minami would, Yuri actually punches Mako's arm in anger.
• Big Eater: Yuri has a habit of eating large amounts of food during group meetings, perhaps as a way of avoiding conversation.
• Breakout Character: Introduced as the Only Sane Man of the Kyoto arc she quickly became one of the most popular if not the most popular character of the manga for serving as a very realistic depiction of a socially inept introvert enough for her to become the second most prominent character in the manga besides Tomoko during the 3rd year chapters. In the 10th anniversary of the series she actually got first place in the character polls.
• Brutal Honesty: When she does talk to people Yuri is incredibly blunt and straightforward.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: In the rare instances where she tries to, she always says so in the same blank way she always talks, and with poor timing, which means she never gets any laughs. Yuri's so bad at it that it can be hard to tell when she even is joking.
• Characterization Marches On: Yuri's personality takes a dramatic turn towards the end of the second year, to the point where she practically became a different character. Initially, Yuri had been the Only Sane Man of the Kyoto trio. She was socially adept enough to mediate conflicts in the group and see through Tomoko attempting reverse psychology while Yoshida fell for it. While she was reserved at times during the Kyoto field trip, she was generally expressive, smiling regularly, being shocked by Tomoko's antics and even being introduced screaming angrily at Mako. From Valentine's Day onward, she became extremely socially inept and unaware, and the end of year party showed her being even worse off socially than Tomoko.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: A platonic version. Yuri can be very clingy towards her close friends and doesn't like it when they're involved with others she isn't close to. This is seen in her fight with Mako over joining what was implied to be Minami's group for Kyoto and barging into Tomoko's meet-ups with Yuu and Nemo to engage in Passive-Aggressive Kombat.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: In chapter 106, she prevented Tomoko from saying something to Yoshida that would get her punched. Overall, she has a better grasp of what kind of person Tomoko is than the rest of the school. Yuri herself invokes this trope in an omake set during the events of chapter 119, telling Masaki that they should look after Tomoko during the class farewell party because she might do something weird otherwise.
• Covert Pervert: Invoked in chapter 145. Tomoko accuses Yuri of being this when she catches her reading an ecchi manga. Yuri on her part insists that she doesn't like this sort of manga and that she checked this particular one for a different reason. Her willingness to watch porn with Tomoko at an internet café in Chapter 151 kind of gives the game away, though...
• Defrosting Ice Queen: It's very slow but as third year goes along she starts to occasionally show more emotion. Most notably, laughing during a study trip to the beach with Tomoko, Nemo and Akane and smiling while talking to Miyazaki during the study camp.
• Flanderization: In a couple of ways:
  • When she was first introduced Yuri was occasionally reserved and stand-offish (which was largely because she was separated from Mako for the Kyoto trip) but was generally sociable and expressive, and after the Kyoto field trip she was even cheerful and friendly. Later chapters played up her reserved nature to the point where she was The Stoic, only barely displaying emotion in moments of genuine joy, shock or anger. Likewise, Yuri went from being somewhat stand-offish to either ignoring or passive-aggressively sniping at people she didn't care for.
  • The first time Yuri hit someone (Mako in chapter 124) was actually a Wham Shot moment, and she only did so out of brief but serious anger over Mako pressing her Berserk Button. Later chapters would have her hit people casually when mildly irritated.
• Foil: Like many of Tomoko's friends, she can be seen as one to her. Both are introverted, have poor self-esteem, and lack much of a social circle, but while Tomoko is profoundly weird and histrionic, Yuri is one of the most reserved characters. Also, while Tomoko is generally mean but shows increasing moments of kindness and empathy, Yuri is generally kind but has something of a dark side.
• Friendship Favoritism: While Mako is still her best friend, as the series progresses it becomes very clear she's starting to prefer her friendship with Tomoko mostly out of feeling they are more similar she suspect when they first met.
• Former Friend of Alpha Bitch: Minami's story arc shows that she used to be part of the same friend group as Minami and Sachi in first year but eventually fell out with them.
• The Heart: Since Tomoko, Mako, and Yoshida are more friends with her than they are with each other, Yuri is pretty much the glue that holds them together. Despite being an introvert, she convinces them to attend the class end-of-the-year party with her just so they can all have one last chance to hang together.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Yuri values the few friends she's managed to make, and as such is very attached to them. Seeing them interact in a familiar manner with other people outside her group of four (which includes Mako, Tomoko, and Masaki) causes intense feelings of jealousy to bubble up, as chapter 124 and 126 show.
• Hidden Depths: Initially introduced as a normal, if a somewhat reserved and stoic girl. Later chapters show that she's not that great at social interactions, and places a lot of value on the very few friendships she's managed to make. She also gets jealous if any of her friends seem to be getting closer to people outside the group than with her.
• Innocently Insensitive: Due to her lack of social awareness, Yuri tends to say or do things that annoy people around her and not pick up on their irritation. Lampshaded by Ucchi, who remarks it's the reason why Yuri has such a small social circle.
• In-Series Nickname: In Chapter 124, Tomoko considers calling her by a nickname after knowing her for so long, indicating that she conceivably might receive one of these in the near future. Chapter 126 shows that the fact that Tomoko did not come up with a nickname for her is a sore spot for Yuri.
• It's All About Me: Yuri can be selfish, and easily becomes a Green-Eyed Monster whenever Tomoko is with her other friends. Downplayed in that Yuri is more unaware than truly malicious, she'll back off when she realizes that she's being hurtful, and she can be empathetic and helpful outside of her jealous fits.
• Jerkass Has a Point: She retains some bitterness towards Mako for not grouping up with her during the Kyoto trip, which just seems petty. That being said, Mako has demonstrated she's not quite the Nice Girl she presents herself as, which might justify why Yuri doesn't fully trust her.
• Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Zig-zagged. Yuri's friendship with Tomoko and Yoshida seems to make Yuri more expressive and openly affectionate to her friends, but eventually, it also brought her issues with jealousy to light.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: A Running Gag with Yuri is that she packs a lot of strength in her hands and arms despite her slender build, which makes the punches and squeezes that she doles out whenever she gets annoyed really painful.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Shares the surname of Tatsuhiro Tamura.
• Never My Fault: Played for Laughs. Pretty much any time she screws up she will find a way to blame on Mako, Nemoto or Tomoko. One time she even blames her internal Mako rather that herself.
• Nice Character, Mean Actor: Her character in A Youth Like This is a extroverted All-Loving Hero that's always smiling and talks with pretty much everyone on her school, while Yuri is an very reserved and stoic introverted that rarely talks with anyone who isn't part of her close group and is a Perpetual Frowner.
• Nice Girl: Played with. While she thinks Tomoko is a bit of an idiot, she treats her with respect and kindness, invites her to eat lunch with her, and becomes the loner's first real friend in high school. However, Yuri has issues when it comes to "sharing" her friends, which makes her act standoffish, passive-aggressive, and prone to lashing out. She's even guiltily admitted that she doesn't think she's a nice person.
• Nightmare Fetishist: She seems to have a taste for the macabre. Tear-jerking, sentimental manga do nothing for her, but something more gory and horrific like Goth is more up her alley. Furthermore, while Yuri says she likes musicals, her favorite is the darkly depressing Dancer in the Dark.
• Noodle Incident: She spends most of the Class Trip thinking about how to make up with her friend Mako, but it's never said what caused the falling out, and they seem to have made up by the end. Later chapters heavily imply that it was because Mako accepted Minami's invite to join the latter's group for the class trip without considering Yuri's feelings about it.
• No Social Skills: She's very low key about it compared to Tomoko, but Yuri is still very awkward and inept socially. She consistently fails to notice social cues or engage in niceties (as seen in chapter 145 when she simply eats the lunch Mako made without thanking her). Yuri is also very blunt, tactless and even rude when not being reserved or uninterested. From the Disneyland field trip onwards, Yuri actually was shown to be even less socially capable than Tomoko.
• "Not So Different" Remark: She gets on the receiving end of this. When Yuri starts bad-talking Tomoko to Yuu, Mako tells her that she's acting an awful lot like Koharu. Yuri's violent reaction to that shows it's not a comparison she likes.
• Odd Friendship: Arguably her main group counts but she also winds up developing one with Ucchi's friends during the study camp after they invite her to hang out with them at a hot spring noting that they're surprisingly easy to talk to.
• Only Sane Woman: She notices how much of an idiot Tomoko is, but still makes an effort to befriend her. She does the same for Yoshida. She's by far the most normal of the three and usually takes it upon herself to try and keep them civil with each other.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Originally presented like this, but subverted over time as she became more and more of a Foil to Tomoko.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: In later chapters, whenever she gets jealous of other characters getting friendly with Tomoko, she either ostentatiously ignores them, or tries to one-up them by bringing up inside stories to prove that she's Tomoko's closest friend. Yuu was her first target in chapter 124, followed by Hina during and after the Disneyland trip, and Shizuku in chapter 132.
• Shipper with an Agenda: She likes the idea of Yoshida dating Tomoki, because that would mean she could hang out with Yoshida more frequently given the two could spend more time in the Kuroki's house.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Towards Hina. While Yuri initially tended to get jealous of anyone Tomoko associated with, including Yuu, Asuka, and Shizuku, she did learn to soften up around them and stop acting so snippy, and even got along well with Ucchi's gang. Despite that, she retains a cold attitude toward Hina and never misses an opportunity to throw a Stealth Insult or even a punch her way.
• Smug Smiler: Tends to break into smug grins whenever she has an upper hand towards Hina, such as Tomoko acknowledging her striking Hina in the back in Chapter 220.3.
• The Stoic: Downplayed. She's not emotionless, but she maintains a pretty firm poker face no matter what happens around her.
• Unfazed Everyman: Her reactions to her new kind-of-friends' behaviors are much more subdued than you'd expect.
• Unskilled, but Strong: She can pack a surprising amount of force in her arms, which she demonstrates whenever she performs a physical activity like hitting someone, throwing a dart, or swinging a bat, but she lacks proper technique and finesse. Tomoko describes Yuri as a "close-range power type with precision rank E."
• The Unsmile: While she's perfectly capable of smiling when she feels genuinely happy or amused, the smiles she puts on while acting definitely come across as off. While playing a normal, sociable, and nice character in Tomoko's movie, Yuri ends up looking more smug and self-superior than anything. She later on puts on a smile while some boys talk with her after the film's premier, but it does little to hide how annoyed she really is dealing with them.
• When She Smiles: She very rarely smiles, and when she does, she'll always be quick to hide it. She almost never laughs either, so when a biting remark from Tomoko gets a small chortle out of Yuri, Mako reacts with visible happiness that someone could actually make Yuri do that.
• Would Not Hit a Girl: Discussed. Yuri herself is a girl and she has no problems hitting Tomoko, who is also a girl albeit a very scruffy-looking one, whenever she says or does something stupid. However, when the latter gets a landmine makeover that makes her appear more feminine and beautiful, Yuri says she wouldn't be able to hit Tomoko while she looks like that because it would just look like abuse rather than discipline.

Emiri "Ucchi" Uchi

A popular girl from Tomoko's second year class who has strange eyes and similar hair to Yuu. After spending most of her time with her friends in a different group during the class trip, the short time she actually spends with Tomoko leaves a very huge impression on her.

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• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Bad girls in this case. In Ucchi's mind, Tomoko is a sexually promiscuous creeper who peeped on her in the shower, stole her panties, watched her while she slept, stalked her relentlessly, and makes a pass at just about every attractive girl she encounters. While it scared her at first, it also got Ucchi interested.
• Ambiguously Gay: She thinks Tomoko is stalking her to sexually harass her, maybe more, which of course frightens her, but when it looks like Tomoko isn't interested in her, Ucchi becomes noticeably miffed.
  • In later chapters it starts to look like she might actually have a crush on Tomoko, going by her reaction to Tomoko giving her a secret "Thank You" note or how she was able to instantly tell Tomoki was Tomoko's brother just by looking at his face.
  • Chapter 127 pretty much puts an end to any lingering ambiguity, as Ucchi admits that there's someone she likes. While she doesn't mention who that is, all the clues point in one direction.
  • Ambiguously Bi: She's open to the possibility of being attracted to Tomoki by suggestion of her friends before discard it for "not being gross enough" leading it into question whatever she could be attracted to guys or just has a Single-Target Sexuality.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Due to Tomoko's mannerisms, comments and actions when interacting with her, she's convinced Tomoko is stalking her and is obviously creeped out when Tomoko is trying to peek under her skirt. However, when she notes her also peeking under the skirts of other girls, her reaction shows this:
  "So long as you've got a girl to stare at, you don't care who it is?!"
  • She later has the same reaction again when she sees Tomoko going shopping with Yuu, who looks similar to herself. Ucchi is convinced that Tomoko is trying to replace her with Yuu.
• Ascended Extra: Made a brief appearance in chapter 59 (as the girl sitting next to Tomoko in a bus and ignoring her to chat with her friends instead) before becoming a recurring character. This appears to be the origin of her Nonstandard Character Design; her face is drawn only once in her first appearance and it seems to be simply an indication that she isn't important.
• Betty and Veronica: Tomoko possibly serves as the Archie to Asuka's Betty and Ucchi's Veronica.
• Butt-Monkey: After becoming Tomoko's Stalker with a Crush, every chapter featuring her is practically guaranteed to feature her getting humiliated in some way.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She'll do everything she can around Tomoko. Everything, that is, except outright says that she likes her.
• Catchphrase: キモイ (kimoi), which is usually translated as "disgusting".
• Characterization Marches On: In her first few appearances, Ucchi seemed to be something of a Stepford Smiler who would maintain a steady grin on her face even while feeling uncomfortable. Starting with chapter 80, she became more expressive in general, no longer does anything to maintain her cool, and very seldom ever smiles.
• Covert Pervert: As much as she'll outwardly voice her disgust for Tomoko, Ucchi frequently has dirty thoughts about her. She's subtly but deliberately tried to arrange for moments that Tomoko could perv on her, fantasized about drinking water she's bathed in, thought about filming Tomoko taking her clothes off, and even tried bringing her to a love hotel.
• Crush Blush: She does this more and more around Tomoko.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Her belief that Tomoko is lusting after her is borne out of a lot of situations where Tomoko did seem to be acting in a sexual manner. She just doesn't know Tomoko well enough to recognize that Tomoko didn't mean anything by it and was too nervous to try and clear anything up.
• Flanderization:
  • In the chapters that followed the second-year school trip she was at first portrayed as legitimately creeped out by Tomoko, but with hints that her interest in Tomoko might go beyond that. She gradually turns into a Smitten Teenage Girl who is completely obsessed with Tomoko, actively looks for opportunities to meet her and seems to be disgusted with Tomoko only when she thinks that Tomoko is flirting with other girls.
  • Played for Laughs in the Volume 18 Special Editon which is an Affectionate Parody to the Yonkoma genre, while everyone has their traits exagerated, Ucchi gets the worst of all of them by having her already simple design being drawn much simpler and only being able to say "Kuroki Gross" over and over again.
• Foil:
  • To Yuu. They both have active social lives, fairly similar appearances, and a connection of sorts to Tomoko. However, while Tomoko bears an obvious lust for Yuu, who knows absolutely nothing about it, Ucchi misinterprets everything Tomoko does as being in relation to a perverse lust towards her. That and Ucchi appears to be well on her way to developing a lust for Tomoko, who has no clue about it.
  • Ucchi can also be seen as an embodiment of Tomoko's early-days habit of making wildly imaginative and Entertainingly Wrong appraisals of the situation, her highly sexual mindset, and her weekly Zany Scheme for attention. The difference is that Tomoko wanted to be beloved by everyone and generally had little commitment, while Ucchi cares only about Tomoko and sticks to her guns.
• The Generic Girl: Implied by her official profile. To whit, Ucchi is the only member of the cast with all her stats listed as three.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Whenever Tomoko shows or receives attention from someone who isn't Ucchi, Ucchi always reacts with visible jealousy. In one of the panels in chapter 115, she can be seen in the background angrily clenching her teeth as she watches a graduating upperclassman patting Tomoko's head.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Her beliefs that Tomoko is a creepy stalker who's utterly obsessed with her are so strong that Ucchi has in turn taken to obsessing over Tomoko and stalking her.
• Hidden Depths: During her trip to Aoyama in chapter 140 she apparently wanted to check the university's school of business (until she noticed Tomoko and got sidetracked); Tomoko even wonders whether Ucchi is planning on opening up an Emoji Mart.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Even though Ucchi repeatedly tells her friends and acquaintances that Tomoko is a disgusting creep, she does not tolerate anyone else badmouthing Tomoko, as Minami found out in chapter 156.
• Hypocritical Humor: By all accounts, she's guilty of everything she accuses Tomoko of being. For instance, when Tomoko leaves some chocolates for Ucchi in her locker, Ucchi calls her a creep for not giving them to her in person, even though she did the exact same thing the day before.
• Identical Stranger: Somewhat resembles (a highly-simplified) Yuu. This actually gets lampshaded in one chapter, where, after seeing them together, Ucchi assumes Tomoko is using Yuu as a proxy for her.
• Informed Attractiveness: Ucchi is supposedly pretty, enough to be part of her second-year class' cheerleading team. You would never know this though due to how her face is normally drawn.
  • According to her official profile, Ucchi has the body of a fashion model. Though Tomoko acknowledges this in chapter 176, you'd be hard-pressed to notice this due to the way Ucchi is drawn.
• Insult of Endearment: Seems to be what "kimoi^note Usually translated as "gross," "creepy," or "disgusting"" has become, at least when it's applied to Tomoko. She's even outright said she uses it to simultaneously praise and insult her.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Ucchi's growing obsession with Tomoko has made her act increasingly more erratic. She stares at her intensely from a distance, actively stalks her, tries to contrive meetings and encounters with her through incredibly roundabout ways, and throws childish tantrums every time something gets between her and Tomoko. It ends up seriously straining Ucchi's relationship with her usual group of friends, though they cut her some slack when they notice why she's acting that way.
• Meaningful Background Event: She doesn't say or do anything every chapter, but she can often be seen in the background. Always watching Tomoko. Crosses over with Funny Background Event with some of the humorous expressions she makes, particularly whenever she starts angrily gritting her teeth every time Tomoko pays any sort of attention to someone else.
  • In chapter 132, there are several blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments where she can be seen peering at Tomoko from behind a tree.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: Ucchi has her flaws but is safe to say she wouldn't be a Serial Rapist towards Yoshida with the rest of the Student Council like her character in A Youth Like This is.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Shares the surname of Tatsuya Uchi.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Always has Black Bead Eyes. It's so unusual, that even in-universe, Tomoko compared her to an emoji. The outlines of her eyelids are drawn only in some of her emotional moments, most notably in chapters 80, 131, 152 and 156.
• Odd Friendship: She and Kii hit it off remarkably fast by trading gossip about Tomoko and her grossness.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Until chapter 114, where her surname (内, Uchi) can be seen on her locker when Tomoko is looking for her locker to leave the Valentine's Day chocolates there, and chapter 127, which reveals her given name. "Ucchi" is just what her friends call her. Tomoko doesn't even know her actual nickname due to how little time they actually spend directly interacting, and instead just calls her "emoji girl".
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: She's one of the few people who see Tomoko for the perverted creeper she is, but only because she comically misunderstands everything Tomoko does, no matter how innocuous, as having perverted intentions.
• Spell My Name With An S: The official English translation writes her given name "Emily". Foreign words/names are typically written in katakana, but her name is written in kanji, so it's more likely supposed to be romanized "Emiri".
• Stalker with a Crush: Thinks Tomoko is hers. In her paranoia, she has become Tomoko's.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Considering that Tomoko's creepiness is what Ucchi finds so fascinating and attractive about her, Ucchi's constant referring to her as creepy and gross is functionally how she expresses both her frustration and attraction to Tomoko.
• Supernatural Sensitivity: Her fixation on Tomoko and her family allows her to realise that Kii’s related to Tomoko the moment they meet just by her “blood”.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: As much as she loves to talk about how creepy and weird Tomoko is, she sure doesn't seem to mind her. Chapter 114 shows her to be somewhat pleased that Tomoko gave her chocolate for Valentine's Day, and as she's inwardly berating the fact that it looks like poop, she's still eating it.
• Through His Stomach: She's making a habit of trying to attract Tomoko's attention via food, first by making chocolates for her on Valentine's Day, and later by grilling and seasoning a strip of meat at a Korean BBQ restaurant - and then sneaking it onto Tomoko's plate.
• Transparent Closet: The only person who knows Ucchi and hasn't figured out that she has romantic feelings for Tomoko is... well, Ucchi. This creates some problems when her friends try to coax her into confession, only for Ucchi to then do her usual thing of calling Tomoko a disgusting creep.
• Tsundere: A quiet, long-distance variation. Whenever she thinks about Tomoko, her thoughts are always full of unmitigated disgust, but she frequently goes out of her way to do nice things for her (complete with extensive rationalization that it's not because she likes her or anything), and blushes whenever Tomoko returns the favor. It's gradually become a lot more direct as she's started to outright call Tomoko a disgusting creep right in front of her, claiming that it's meant to be both an insult and a compliment.

Asuka Katou

Tomoko's classmate with an interest in make-up. Implied to be very attractive in-universe.

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• Ambiguously Gay: Initially it seemed that she simply felt like doting on Tomoko due seeing her as a younger sister of sorts but as the series progresses and she continues to strengthen her friendship with Tomoko it becomes clear her interest in Tomoko goes deeper than that. To wit, she has become focused on her and Tomoko going to the same college together, she's continuously by Tomoko's side regardless of the circumstances, offers Tomoko the chance to grope her breasts and takes Tomoko's absence really hard after the latter was suspended a week by riding a scooter in school uniform.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Ever since Tomoko admitted to sexually harassing her friends, Asuka's interest in her has only grown, getting to the point where she even offers to let Tomoko grope her own breasts since that's what she expected Tomoko to do to her friends. When Tomoko turns her down, Asuka seems oddly melancholy about it.
• Ascended Extra: Made brief appearances in chapters 71 (sitting next to Tomoko on the train) and 90 before becoming a recurring character. Even earlier she was Tomoko's classmate who called her home in chapter 58 (as confirmed in chapter 164). Much like Akane, after the amusement park trip, she became part of Tomoko's group of friends and thus part of the main cast. Chapter 166 confirms she was the cheerleader Tomoko was ogling in chapter 87.
• Berserk Button: Fuuka's singing appears to be something of a sore point for her. It's not elaborated on why, but Asuka wears a notable look of irritation when the subject is brought up and immediately leaves the scene. It's implied to have been related to a past incident where Fuuka sang Asuka's favorite song to her on her birthday in a way that moved the latter to tears.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She manages to keep up her poise even while suffering a nosebleed. Averted after she vomits.
• Betty and Veronica: Tomoko possibly serves as the Archie to Asuka's Betty and Ucchi's Veronica.
• Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: Asuka is among the prettiest and most popular girls in school yet is genuinely interested in having an honest and open friendship with Tomoko, her complete opposite. Even Tomoko doesn't get it.
• Cosmetic Catastrophe: Asuka has attempted to give Tomoko a makeover several times. Both times involving makeup turn into a struggle for Hina to not laugh outright. It's unclear if it's because of Katou's incompetence as a beautician or from Tomoko getting a makeover in general. Dyeing Tomoko's hair silver works much better, though sadly her mother forces Tomoko to dye it back immediately afterward. Averted completely when she gives Tomoko a makeover in chapter 199.3 which turns out very well.
• Covert Pervert:
  • She shows shades of this the longer she interacts with Tomoko. It starts with her being unfazed by Tomoko's admission of her tendency to sexual harass her friends, to offering Tomoko the chance to grope her breasts to unwind and as of chapter 156, taking Tomoko's innocent suggestion of touching her hair as Tomoko wanting to touch her pubes, with her only reaction being getting flustered at the idea. Chapter 166 reveals she was perfectly aware of Tomoko ogling her during the second year's athletic meet, before they talked for the first time.
  • In chapter 157 she refuses to tell Fuuka what happened between her and Tomoko, arguing that isn't the kind of topic that can be talked in the open, proving she's perfectly aware of how unusual her actions are.
  • She's one of only four students in the school to get a perfect score on the health and phys ed exam (a test with mostly sex-related questions) along with Mako, Komiyama, and Hatsushiba.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Inadvertently does this to Tomoko without ever realizing there was an ice queen to defrost in the first place. Tomoko starts off leery towards Asuka, interpreting her (well-meaning) words in the worst way and finding her doting tendencies patronizing. One surprise churro in the mouth later, and Tomoko is instantly lovestruck by Asuka.
• Disappointed in You:
  • Downplayed concerning Tomoko. While she never expresses it openly, Asuka always reacts unhappily whenever she suspects that Tomoko isn't taking her studies seriously. Luckily, Tomoko usually proves her wrong in short order without ever realizing she disappointed her, which repairs Asuka's impression of her.
  • Played straight concerning Fuuka. Asuka initially finds the rumors of her being a slut to be cruel. Then when she finds out Fuuka wants those rumors about herself to be spread, Asuka implicitly shoots her a very intimidating Death Glare, and treats her much more disdainfully from that point on.
• Foil: To Ucchi. Both are among the more stereotypically popular and pretty crowd of girls at school and both share an odd fascination with Tomoko and a desire to get closer to her and know her better. But whereas Ucchi's attempts are much more comedic, frantic and roundabout, Asuka's are generally treated with more seriousness and sweetness, are much more laid back, and much more direct.
• Endearingly Dorky: When she realizes that Tomoko tends to be on edge around her because of how high up on the social ladder Asuka is compared to her, she tries to bridge the gap between them by cultivating this image, making corny jokes to look a lot less idyllic to the green-eyed girl. It only ends up confusing Tomoko.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It becomes very apparent that she wants to be the main, if not only, recipient of Tomoko's attention. Most notably when Tomoko was suspended she frets over only getting a simple response from her but is relieved when she finds out that Nemo and Yuri never got responses... then showed irritation when she hears Tomoko also talked to Yuu, leading to clear jealousy on her part in subsequent chapters. It is a bit more downplayed in that her jealousy is something she keeps mostly private and doesn't bleed over all that much into her interactions with the other girls. Notably, despite clearly being jealous of the attention Tomoko gives Yuu, she gets along with Yuu just fine when they meet in person
• Head-Turning Beauty: Asuka is very pretty, with even Tomoki's classmate commenting on how hot she is. Her official profile lists her Charisma as five (shared only with, ironicaly, Tomoko), the max possible score, while the same profile states that she has the figure of a fashion model (shared with Ucchi).
• The Heart: In chapter 128 she convinces Akane to try to make up with Hina.
• Hellish Pupils: Her pupils get very small and very thin when she's upset.
• Hidden Depths: There's a lot more to Asuka aside from being a pretty face.
  • While not outright stated, Asuka's apparently one of the most academically-capable girls of her class. Among the girls in the summer cram school, she's the only one to be part of Class A; for comparison Tomoko starts in Class C.
  • She also has a bit of a dreamy side to her as well — for example, the reason why she's applying for Aoyama? It's not because of its academics (that's just a bonus); instead it's because of the annual Christmas festivities.
  • As mentioned in previous entries, Asuka's been very possessive with regards to Tomoko's attention. This seems to come as a surprise even to herself.
• Huge Schoolgirl: At 167 cm, Asuka is easily the tallest of Tomoko's close acquaintances. This also makes her One Head Taller than Tomoko's petite 148 cm.
• Jerkass to One: Normally Asuka is nice to everyone except for Fuuka who she has no issue being dismissive to at least or straight up insulting to at worst. To be fair Fuuka is really stupid
• The "Mom" Voice: Kaho points out that Asuka tends to talk like this, and that they first became friends when Asuka spoke to her more casually without a mom-like feel to it. Kaho further explains to Asuka that she'd have an easier time making friends, particularly with Tomoko, if she learned to more regularly drop it.
• My Beloved Smother: Show shades of this after convincing Tomoko to take the exam for the same college as her. Since then she continuously pushes Tomoko to study together. In chapter 164 she even admits to Tomoko that she's worried that she's being too pushy with her.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Shares the surname of Shōhei Katō.
• Nice Girl: Shown to be kind and helpful to her classmates, even unpopular ones such as Tomoko or one of Kakinuma's nerdy friends in chapter 120. She remains kind and friendly to Tomoko even after the latter confesses to being a huge pervert in chapter 140.
• Not So Above It All: As her apparent crush on Tomoko grows, it's shown that she can be prone to jealousy and even possessiveness despite otherwise being a Nice Girl.
• One Degree of Separation: It turns out she and Yuu share a mutual friend named Sawa who goes to the same school as the latter.
• Out of Focus: While she's still around, she hasn't got any role of relevance nor any A Day in the Limelight chapters since the Summer Camp arc and even her relationship with Tomoko doesn't have as much focus as before. A bit ironic given in-universe she becomes the star of the movie Tomoko directs.
• Positive Friend Influence: In chapter 164 Tomoko outright acknowledges that without Asuka's friendship she would've not made an effort to pick a college or work at improving herself. Asuka, on the other hand, realizes that Tomoko is the kind of person that needs to be pushed to do something.
• Team Mom: Her eagerness to help out and accommodate her fellow students prompts Tomoko to wonder if Katou thinks of herself as the class mom. Tomoko initially finds her attempts to be nice patronizing, but comes to enjoy them.
• Troll: She's shown to intentionally be ambiguous while talking with Fuuka about her relationship with Tomoko for no other reason than getting a rise out of Fuuka's flustered reactions. As she tells Yuu, she also enjoys teasing Tomoko since she thinks Tomoko's cute.
• Twice Shy: For a while, she was of the opinion that Tomoko didn't really have any interest in her due to the latter appearing to be more comfortable around girls like Yuri, Hina and Ucchi. She hadn't quite realized at the time that the source of Tomoko's discomfort was her own crush on Asuka. In chapter 170, Yuu finally explains to her the reasons behind Tomoko's behavior and from that point on, Asuka starts acting astonishingly forward, though Tomoko still doesn't quite seem to get it.
• Unkempt Beauty: Usually not, but when Tomoko casts her to play a character in a movie project that's obviously based on herself, Asuka changes her appearance to look more like Tomoko's. She lengthens her skirt, messes up her hair, and gives herself an elongated cowlick. Asuka still looks gorgeous.

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