Characters / Non Non Biyori

Asahigaoka Branch School Students

Hotaru Ichijo

Voiced by: Rie Murakawa

A 10-11 years-old fifth grader who transferred to Asahigaoka from Tokyo due to her dad's work. Tall and developed for her age, she has a crush on short-for-her-age Komari, making multiple plushies in her likeness.

---

• Adaptational Attractiveness: By design, Hotaru has a more wholesome face and a more cheerful expression in the anime than she does in the manga, making her girlier.
• Best Friend: Although she is close to all of the girls, she is particularly close to Komari, whom she loves. In turn, Komari enjoys her company the most out of the girls.
• Blatant Lies: In the first season finale, she has to lie her ass off while eating Komari's bento during their picnic as to not insult her disastrous, but earnest efforts. It's so obvious that she's having a bad time that Komari tells her repeatedly not to force herself.
• City Mouse: She comes from Tokyo, and isn't quite used to the idyllic lifestyle in Asahigaoka.
• Closet Geek: She is a big fan of mahou-shoujo anime. Especially the series called «Twinkle Sisters».
• The Cutie: A sweet girl who doesn't have a mean bone in her body.
• Cuteness Proximity: She finds Komari very cute and gets ecstatic at the chance of petting her head.
• Hidden Buxom: Her chest has developed at the same rate as the rest of her body, and she tends to wear loose-fitting shirts.
• Hidden Depths: See Closet Geek and Not So Above It All. Hotaru also doesn't seem to be bothered by things that would send "girly" girls like Komari running in panic, like lizards or cockroaches.
• Huge Schoolgirl: Hotaru is 161cm tall. The average adult Japanese woman is between 149 and 158cm. And she's only 10-11 years old. She's got several years of growing left to do.
• Magnetic Hero: She makes very quick friends of her three girl classmates, as she has various things in common with them. She likes the outdoors and to find little critters like Natsumi, her girly side appeals to Komari (it helps that Hotaru is very fond of her), while she's the closest in age with Renge.
• Nice Girl: She's kind, polite and considerate of others.
• Not So Above It All: She acts mature around the other girls, but is more childish when she's just with her parents. No one believes her when she says that, though.
• Not So Stoic: Even with her maturity, her friends do know that Hotaru can be excessively enthusiastic when she wants to do something.
• Oh, Crap!: A couple of times:
  • When the girls first visit her house and she tries to hide her collection of handmade plushies of Komari;
  • When Komari disappears during the beach episode, she proverbially cries rivers;
  • When she's walking her dog Pechi around and they get lost;
  • When she and Komari are hiking at night and their flashlight runs out of batteries.
• Only Sane Man: Invoked and played with. She is the least eccentric of the four girls, but she has hints of an obsessive streak.
• Precocious Crush: She's 10-11 years old and has a crush on the 14-year-old Komari (not that Komari looks her age).
• Shrinking Violet: Though she's not withdrawn, it's shown that she despairs rather easily when put on the spot. She's certainly more shy than Komari, Natsumi and Renge.
• Stronger Than They Look: She's surprisingly strong, as she can arm-wrest Natsumi to submission with very little effort, and can easily carry Komari under her arm while running. She happens to be at a physiological age where she cannot accurately measure her own strength, which was further exacerbated by her meteoric growth spurt.
• Younger than She Looks: Hotaru is only around 10-11 but can pass as a college student, or even an adult.
• What You Are in the Dark: While being lauded for her maturity, Hotaru is considerably more childish, capricious and girly when she's alone or with her parents. Albeit the other girls see little hints of this, Konomi witnesses it from Hotaru firsthand, as Hotaru is at the time unaware that Konomi is present. Of course, this delights Konomi to no end.

Renge Miyauchi

Voiced by: Kotori Koiwai

Renge, a 6-7 year-old first grader, is the youngest of the cast. She is adorably eccentric, can play the recorder and is talented at drawing.

---

• Bratty Half-Pint: Not anymore, but as a baby, she was a complete hell-raiser. She managed to be sassy and standoffish even when she wasn't able to pronounce words.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Kooky 1st grader...and amazingly talented for her age sketch artist.
• Character Catchphrase: "Meowning!" (''Nyanpasu!" in Japanese), a made-up word which she frequently says as a greeting.
• Cheerful Child: Despite having a single facial expression, Renge is a very cheerful child who constantly makes up her own songs, gets up to the usual childish mischief, friendly and very approachable, always curious and always ready to play.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Her interests are quite different from the other girls. Hotaru, Komari and Natsumi thinks it's hard to communicate with her.
• Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: While she can be quite the oddball herself, even she gets fed up by her older sister Kazuho's laziness and it's shown that she'll ask for help to scold Kazuho, or she does it herself if all else fails. When Nee-nee gets on her nerves one too many times, Renge resorts to exacting punishment on her by making her laziness work against her.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Though it's subtly exposed, Renge styles her characteristic hair with two pigtails because of Kaede, who began styling Renge's hair in such fashion when she used to babysit the girl. As such, they're a small part of her attachment to Kaede.
• Girlish Pigtails: Fitting for the youngest member of the cast.
• Good with Numbers: Yes, she is, much to Konomi's surprise. Renge is capable of answering multiplication-related questions instantly, despite not even knowing what the multiplication table is yet. She tells Konomi that she does this by adding things really really quickly. In her head.
• Hair Antennae: She has two strands of hair that stick up from the top of her head and she's quite the Cloud Cuckoolander.
• Intergenerational Friendship: She's close friends with Kaede, who is 13+ years her senior, and with Konomi who is older by 11 years.
• Irony: For a girl her age, Renge has a more ingrained sense of responsibility than her sisters Hikage (age 16) and Kazuho (age 23+). It's shown that she's not particularly proud of them in this respect, but she mentions in the manga that she'd like to be a teacher when she's older, but not like Nee-nee.
• Meaningful Name: Renge is named after the pink edible lotus that grows in the hills surrounding the village, although she didn't know it herself.
• Perpetual Frowner: She has never been shown smiling yet, but beneath the single face expression runs deep emotions typical to a young child, which she shows through her actions.
• Plucky Girl: Renge almost never gives up when she's focused on something, like her walking up a hill in the dark pre-dawn for over an hour to watch the first sunrise of the year or her determination to ride the bicycle without training wheels despite falling off and scraping her knees constantly.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Her collarbone assault would make Kenshiro, Jonathan, and Jotaro bow in respect.
• Troll: When Kazuho tried to get her to lead her to bed because she was too lazy to take off the eyemask to see, Renge instead tricked her into wandering around outside and made her look like an idiot in front of her students who had just arrived at their house.
• Third-Person Person: Subverted. Contrary to other anime characters her age, Renge doesn't usually refer to herself by her first name and uses appropriate pronouns. It's implied that this might have to do with the fact that she doesn't interact with children her age, but older children by proxy who could have gone past this particular Verbal Tic themselves quite a while ago (assuming they had it in the first place).
• Verbal Tic: She adds a superfluous "-non" at the end of sentences.
• When She Smiles: But it's only in a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: She's more responsible than her older sister and teacher, Kazuho.

Komari Koshigaya

Voiced by: Kana Asumi

A second-year middle schooler, Komari (or Koma-chan to her friends) is only around 130cm (4'3'') tall at 14 years-old and is often mistaken for a child. She is easily frightened by scary things. She is the second oldest Koshigaya sibling.

---

• A-Cup Angst: Very envious of the well-endowed Hotaru. The fact that Hotaru is around four years younger than her does not help.
• Alliterative Name: Komari Koshigaya.
• Berserk Button: Any time her height and/or lack of maturity is mentioned.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She is very nice, and seems to be a somewhat collected person, but she has a surprisingly short fuse.
• Best Friend: Komari is Hotaru's favorite person in the world; likewise, Komari enjoys spending time with Hotaru the most out of the group of girls.
• Butt-Monkey: The biggest in the series. Nothing in the series ever goes the way that she wants it to go if she makes the attempt. The quandary lies in the fact that Komari is too damn cute for the bad stuff that happens to her, making it somewhat difficult to laugh at her misfortune without wanting to give her a Cooldown Hug.
• Character Development: In Non Non Biyori Nonstop She learns that it is not necessary to do everything by herself to be an "adult", since she learns that it is okay to ask for help, plus she improves in the kitchen.
• Contrived Coincidence: It's rather unfortunate that her name has the root term for "tiny", making her name a sort of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Despite being the oldest girl in school and trying to act accordingly, she is prone to stumbling around and being a klutz when doing a chore.
• Cute Little Fangs: She has one, which adds to her adorableness.
• The Cutie: Her defining feature and the reason Hotaru finds her so endearing.
• The Drag-Along: She is often dragged around by Natsumi. Also, when Natsumi is being grilled by their mother, Komari inevitably becomes part of the admonishment too.
• Embarrassing Nickname: 'Koma-chan' which is derived from Komai (tiny).
• Expressive Hair: Her hair sprout usually bounces when she's really interested or surprised.
• Flanderization: Her cooking skills become increasingly worse as time goes by, as she gets too excited experimenting.
• Girlish Pigtails: Often wears her hair this way, complementing her childlike appearance.
• Height Angst: She doesn't like it when people mention her short height, as it's a frequent reminder of how she looks much younger than she really is.
• In-Series Nickname: "Koma-chan"; she's called that, not because of her name, but rather because komai means "tiny". Of course, she's not fond of being called that. A minor Running Gag involves the fact that she somehow seems to have forgotten that it's supposed to make her mad, making it her nickname in spite of all her initial fuss.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All:
  • She pretends to be knowledgeable about current trends, but others usually see through her quickly. A good example is when she, Hotaru, and Konomi were talking about music, fashion and love, and she was clueless about all those topics.
  • As shown in Chapter 76, it's not that Komari is utterly lost at the kitchen, but rather, that she's too proud to ask for help and too dependant on self-reliance. Her cooking is bad because she just doesn't know what she's doing and tries to improvise under pressure. Upon witnessing her sincere efforts, her mom chooses to guide her into making a decent meal for the very first time.
• Lethal Chef: Averted in the beginning, but her cooking gets progressively worse as the series continue. First she made onigiri normally. Then she forgot to put water in the rice to cook it. Then she tried to make a bento and burnt everything. Hotaru ate it anyway.
• Lovable Coward: The most easily scared out of all the main character, which actually adds to her moe charm.
• The Muse: Invoked and played for laughs. She is one for Hotaru, who makes every possible variation of plushie in Komari's image. Girl's in love indeed.
• The Napoleon: Komari does not like it when people mistakes her as a child for her short height and has got a temper to go with her height as well.
• Naïve Everygirl: Komari is nice to a fault and will fall for Natsumi's taunting and pranks with very little persuasion. Natsumi even states that Komari would easily leave with a stranger if she was offered candy. To put things into perspective, even Renge is capable of manipulating her.
• Nice Girl: Though she is a little cranky, Komari is nothing short of polite and kind to everyone, provided they don't push her buttons. Her sweetness and girliness are what attracts Hotaru to her. She also completely lacks malice, which is why her friends find it so easy to make fun of her.
• Oblivious to Love: although she is Kotaru's closest friend from the entire main cast, Komari is still completely unaware of her best friend's crush on her.
• Older Than They Look: Komari may be a 14-year-old in her second year of middle school, but she looks much younger due to her short height and youthful looks. Despite how much she hates being treated like a child, it doesn't help that she's also very emotionally immature, as the only people close to her age at school are her brother and sister, who don't quite fit the bill in that respect.
• Prone to Tears: It doesn't take much to make her cry, adding to her immaturity.
• Security Blanket: Her teddy bear Soikichi, which she has had since she was a baby and which she repairs with Hotaru's help.
• Super Drowning Skills: While she has no problems swimming in the creeks at home, during the Vacation movie, it's implied that she's scared of the ocean, and Hotaru has to help her swim with the help of a floatie. This adds to the reasons why she didn't enter the water during the Beach Episode in the main series, apart from her kiddy swimsuit and A-Cup Angst.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She is the girly girl to Natsumi's tomboy. If anything, Komari is childishly girly, pink overalls and all.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She gets scared very easily, and is particularly afraid of ghosts.

Natsumi Koshigaya

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura

A first-year middle schooler, Natsumi is rather relaxed and negligent of school work. Natsumi is the youngest Koshigaya sibling.

---

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Natsumi would go out of her way to annoy her older siblings, particularly Komari, whom she frequently makes fun of because of her height and childish personality.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Natsumi is very prone to get easily bored and distracted, making the fact that she has to study on her own at school a bad idea. This, added to her sleepy teacher only makes everything go wrong for her altogether.
• Big Little Brother: Was already peeking past Komari's height in second grade. In present time, she's a full head taller than her older sibling.
• Book Dumb: Does very poorly in her studies, and had received her mother's wrath numerous times because of it. While this is mostly her fault, she shares the blame with Kazuho, whose actual job as Natsumi's teacher is to keep her in line with her studies.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Was very prone to troublemaking even as a child. As her mother puts it:
  "You were the world's biggest brat back then!!!"
• Cool Big Sis: When it comes to playing, Renge looks for no one other than Natsumi, as she's very keen in feeding Renge's adventurous side and sense of wonder.
• Father, I Want to Marry My Brother: Said she wants to marry Suguru in a home video when she was much younger. Obviously, she doesn't have this attitude anymore and she was mortified when she and her friends saw said video.
• Hidden Depths:
  • It turns out she's pretty savvy when it comes to nature, and knows a lot of ways to catch bugs as well as what weeds can be eaten.
  • In spite of her bratty attitude, Natsumi is a very fun girl and a remarkably doting person to her friends and her sister.
• Innocently Insensitive: Natsumi rarely measures the consequences of her actions, but she is not malicious per se. She once subjects herself to the very thing she used to make fun of Komari (over-peppered her ramen soup) because she realized she was being watched by Renge... though she later realizes that Renge wasn't even paying attention in the first place.
• Insistent Terminology: A subtle example. She calls Komari "Koma-chan" and "Nee-chan" occassionally because, while those may denote affection from her, they signal the fact that Natsumi doesn't follow the proper reverence or honorifics she should give towards her older sibling (by the lack of "-san" at the very least).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Natsumi is troublemaker who frequently plays cruel pranks on her siblings, defies her mother, and refuses to take responsibility for her mischief. However, despite being rather selfish and very mischievous, she means well and is ultimately just a fun-loving young girl, and doting to her friends.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Natsumi always teased Kaede for her affection for Renge now Natsumi is Kasumi's babysitter
• Never My Fault: Natsumi never sees herself to blame for whatever trouble she caused. She tore the paper screen at home? It's the door's fault for ripping so easily. She pulled off a roof tile? It's the tile's fault for coming off so easily. She got bad grades for her classes? It's the exams' fault for being so difficult. She overslept? Her sister's fault for not waking her up...
• The Nicknamer: She's the very reason everyone younger than Konomi calls Kaede "Candy Store". Considering how much it stuck, Natsumi does fit the trope.
• Outdoorsy Gal: She wants to do nothing more than play outside, and she often shows others the wonders of the country.
• Prone to Tears: Invoked. According to Konomi, even when Natsumi was a tomboy from the beginning, it didn't take much to make her cry when she was younger.
• The Protagonist: Natsumi is the protagonist of Non Non Biyori Movie: Vacation, as the story is told from her perspective. This differs from the Okinawa arc in the manga—which the movie is based on—where there's no particular focal character.
• Refuge in Audacity: Subverted. Natsumi rarely gets away with her mischief, and more often than not, it comes back to bite her in the rear-end. Natsumi is one of the most unreliable people in the story, but her friends still seek her company because she's an incredibly fun person to be with.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Though she is by no means unattractive, when Konomi more or less forces her to dress up in a more feminine manner, she actually turns out to be incredibly cute. It's to the point where Komari actually gets a little jealous and Renge doesn't even recognize her upon seeing her. At first, she enjoys the attention and praise for how cute she is, but it becomes a bit too embarrassing for her and she promptly changes back to her usual tomboyish style.
• The Prankster: Frequently plays pranks on her siblings, such as wearing a creepy clown mask in the dark to scare Komari, or turning Suguru into a scarecrow while trying to avoid working in the fields.
• Tender Tears: She cries on the day of their trip home from Okinawa because she doesn't want to go home; in the movie, she silently cries on the car to the airport at Okinawa after saying her goodbyes to Aoi.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Komari's girly girl. Natsumi is very outdoorsy, dislikes girly clothes and talks like a boy.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: She usually wears part of her hair up high in a ponytail, and she's the more tomboyish and active of the two Koshigaya sisters.

Suguru Koshigaya

A third-year middle schooler and Komari and Natsumi's older brother, Suguru is the only named male character. He rarely if ever speaks, but is responsible, crafty and reliable.

---

• The Ace: He's pretty unassuming and rarely does much, but once he gets involved in action, he would excel at it.
• The Comically Serious: He shows almost no reaction to some of the things Natsumi puts him through. Then there's his high speed getaway in episode 6.
• Extreme Doormat: He willingly goes along with whatever antics Natsumi has in mind, such as turning him into a scarecrow during the "class field trip", or burying his head in the sand and forgetting about him in the Beach Episode.
• Hidden Depths: Suguru never speaks, and his primary role in the series is to be the token guy who stands around while the other girls get to interact. However, he is actually a reliable guy who can make quality clay anime figurines, play the guitar and the piano, play the ruler game in Repeat...he's basically good at everything.
• Innocent Innuendo: When picking herbs at the mountainside, Renge states that mugwort is a "slutty" plant for its multiple uses; cue Suguru eating three herbs at the same time, so Renge is taken aback for the implication.
• Mundane Made Awesome: During the ruler game, the girls are happily showing Hotaru how to play; cue Suguru, and the game gets freakin' tense, with special moves, camera pans and action shots. He takes it to that level and he doesn't even utter a word.
• Nice Guy: What other way is there to describe a guy who wins a free trip and instantly gives it to his sister?
• Not So Above It All: In spite of his stoic demeanor, he'll join in the mischief if he's invited. When the girls are teaching Hotaru the ruler game, he joins in and it's shown that he's so good at it that the four girls have to join forces to bring him down. This is, all while Kazuho tells them that their break ended ages ago.
• The One Guy: He's the only male character introduced so far.
• Running Gag: Suguru silently arriving earlier than any of the girls to wherever they go. In the first season OVA, he even gets to the convenience store by bike earlier than Kazuho and the girls, who get there by car. It's even shown that he only commutes sporadically to school at the same time as his sisters, so it's kind of a mystery how he gets back and forth from school considering that the public bus at Asahigaoka takes like two hours to arrive. He might be an avid cyclist, for the looks of it.
• The Voiceless: He can speak, but he's completely silent in all of his appearances and isn't even voiced in the anime. He's shown speaking once in episode 8, but his voice is completely drowned out since he's playing the guitar at the same time.
• The Reliable One: He quietly retrieved his sisters when they 'ran away', and helped Hotaru when she got lost while walking her dog.

Adults

Kazuho Miyauchi

Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka

The only teacher at Asahigaoka Branch School, and Renge and Hikage's older sister. Kazuho can fall asleep anywhere and at any time. She often sleeps in and arrives late to school for this reason. Her family owns a rice field and she is Renge's main caretaker.

---

• Apathetic Teacher: Downplayed. While she's markedly uninvolved, unenthusiastic and employs an extremely laissez-faire approach to teaching, she does not proceed out of malice or resentment like the typical example of the trope. She's just frequently tired due to her other job of managing her family's rice field.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: During the trip to Okinawa, the praises she gets from her students go to her head, overexerting herself to show off, and as a result, almost getting a heat stroke.
• Blatant Lies: When she tells her students that their school outing is an "educational" endeavor, and not a shameless ploy to exploit her students to help her in her parents' fields.
• Everyone Went to School Together: As Kaede calls her senpai, it's implied that she too attended Asahigaoka Branch School as a student when Kaede was little, and attending either high school or college when Kaede was a senior at middle school, making her 3 to 7 years older than Kaede. This is justified, since the series takes place in a small rural community where everyone already knows each other.
• Eyes Always Shut: Her eyes are always closed, which fits with her laid-back and sleepy demeanor.
• If You Thought That Was Bad...: In the manga it's revealed that after the night of the winter storm where the girls put her in a sleeping bag upside down, she slept for about 25 hours, waking up five times inside the darkness of the sleeping bag, and thus thinking that it was still nighttime and falling asleep again.
• In-Series Nickname: She is sometimes referred to as "Nee-nee" by Renge and the girls at school. Komari and Natsumi's mom calls her "Kazu-chan", implying that they've known each other since Kazuho was a kid.
• Refuge in Audacity: Invoked and subverted. In parents' day, Natsumi laments that her mom is gonna chew her out alive and Kazuho tells her to reap what she sew. It's not until Kazuho realizes that Natsumi's lag is her own fault that they begin colluding together to fool Natsumi's mom. They try... and they fail spectacularly.
• Running Gag:
  • Kazuho frequently sleeps in class and it takes remarkably little for her to fall asleep.
  • Kazuho is in awful physical condition as a result of her somnolence; as such, there are a couple of times where she becomes absolutely pooped with less than half a day of activity, like on the New Year's climb and on the Okinawa trip.
• Sensei-chan: She's the lone teacher of the main characters' one-room countryside school, and she's also the elder sister of Renge, who is the youngest student in school. While she's fairly young and attractive, she's also not very mature and prone to sleeping on the job (though since she also manages her family rice farm, it's implied that she's just tired out from working both jobs). However, the only person who calls her "Kazu-chan" is the Hoshigaya siblings' mom.
• Schoolmarm: Being the only teacher at a rural school with a class of only five students at different grade levels, she's essentially this.
• Sleepyhead: Kazuho frequently oversleeps and spends most of her time in class sleeping (since classes are mostly self-study due to the students all having different study material). It's implied that this is because she's often tired from her other job of managing her family's rice fields.
• So Proud of You: Under the influence of alcohol, she tearfully states that she's relieved that Kaede cares so much about the girls, considering that Kaede was a very runty and antisocial girl when she was young.
• Through Her Stomach: The first thing that she thinks when Renge tells her that they're fishing at the lake is that she wants sushi; in the same episode, Renge mentions that she likes to chew on scented erasers.
• Triple Shifter: Never really enforced, but she does manage her family's rice farm in addition to being a teacher. May explain why she's so tired all the time.

Kaede "Candy Store" Kagayama

Voiced by: Rina Sato

Kaede runs the local candy store. Due to the shortage of children in town, she is perpetually short on cash and for this reason also rents skis, futons, etc. Kaede acts cool and calm, but is very kind and gets along great with Renge, whom she began babysitting when she was in middle-school. She's about 20-21 years old.

---

• Alliterative Name: Kaede Kagayama, though almost no one calls her by her name in the first place.
• Bad Liar: She's awful at coming up with excuses to visit Renge. It's pointed out repeatedly, and by multiple people at that, that she doesn't have to lie, because it's nothing to be ashamed of.
• Big Brother Instinct: Rare female example towards Renge. She falls naturally into caring for baby Renge even though she said she was terrible with babies. She instinctively acts whenever she feels Renge needs her, whether it's reaching for a candy placed high on a shelf or when Renge is down with fever.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: As shown in Chapter 98, she's pretty bad with alcohol; however, she scampers up to behave when Renge shows up, only to collapse when she leaves. It's also shown that she becomes very sentimental when she's drunk.
• Cool Big Sis: She acts as this with almost all the girls, but is more pronounced with Renge. Renge admires her very much and Kaede, in turn, takes good care of her.
• Cuteness Overload: Invoked. Kaede states in the manga that one of her fondest moments is when Renge called her by her name for the first time, though she laments that Natsumi made "Candy Store" the default name to refer to her.
• Cuteness Proximity: The whole town knows she bends to Renge's cuteness without much resistance. Renge's effect over her almost nears Cuteness Overload, but her natural stoicism keeps her reactions fairly in check.
• The Dreaded: Played for laughs. Natsumi, Komari and Hikage consider her more intimidating that she actually is. If anything, she is one of the nicest people around.
• Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep": She runs a candy store and everyone calls her Candy Store (Dagashi-ya), even in the flashbacks before she inherited it. This, she argues, was Natsumi's fault.
• Family of Choice: A mild example. She effectively fulfills the role of "older sister" to Renge due to Hikage's absence. Kaede is two hairs short from being the Cool Big Sis to Renge that Hikage wants to be.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: She shows herself as blunt and disinterested, but she's girlier and nicer than she appears.
• Irony: For all her hard-nosed behavior and moaning about her job, Kaede is just as sweet as a Candy Store lady should be. She's a swell girl, whether she likes it or not.
• Japanese Delinquents: As mild an example as it can get. Hardly anything ever happens in Asahigaoka warranting to be a "delinquent".
• Nice Girl: She's a sweetheart, regardless of the image she wants to convey.
• Oh, Crap!: When she hears that Renge has a cold, she holds up for about seven seconds... and then bolts out of her store to check on Renge. She gets there so fast that she even forgets the excuse she had in order to visit the girl.
• Promoted to Parent: Played with. On Parents' Day, Renge states that she wants to bring Kaede, because she doesn't feel it would be special to have Nee-nee, as she's at school with her all the time.
• The Reliable One: The only named adult that the girls know that is neither sleepy nor berates them. She always has her doors open for them. She is also markedly protective and doting towards Renge.
• Sentimental Drunk: She becomes very weepy and tearful when she's had some alcohol.
• Siblings Wanted: Kaede is more sisterly and doting towards Renge than either Hikage or Kazuho. Likewise, Renge is more clingy towards her than to her own sisters.
• So Proud of You: In Chapter 98, under the influence of alcohol, she tearfully states that she cherishes every single one of the girls including Natsumi.
• Tomboy: She certainly was one when she was younger, though she has shown to like things that are considered to be, "girly," stuff as well.
• Tsundere: She loves Renge with all her heart... Just expect her to stumble upon her own excuses to not admit it when you bring it up.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: She and Natsumi do not always see eye to eye, and they tend to hold grudges towards one another (especially in the manga); in spite of this, Natsumi is always welcome at her store and at home.
• You Keep Telling Yourself That: She tends to deny her kinder side and her unbending dedication towards Renge.

Yukiko Koshigaya

Voiced by: Akiko Hiramatsu

The mother of Suguru, Komari, and Natsumi. She's usually strict.

---

• The Dreaded: Nattsun, Koma-chan and Suguru are terrified of her tantrums. It's fair to mention that the kids do get on her nerves (especially Natsumi), yet she's nothing if not a loving, dedicated mother. It's also shown that even Kazuho is afraid of her ire.
• Education Mama: She monitors her children's grades very closely, and if they're not up to par she'll let them know. Natsumi is especially aware of this. Out of necessity and kindness, though, she'll fill up on Kazuho's duties on morning calisthenics during summer so that Kazuho can get some sleep.
• Good Parents: She absolutely loves her daughters and son, even when they have a special knack for trying her patience.
• Improbable Weapon: She angrily hits Natsumi with a futon beater so hard that it gets stuck to the girl's scalp; it's not nearly as violent as it sound, as it's given a Slapstick treatment.
• Pet the Dog: She treats Natsumi and Komari with watermelon-flavored sweetfish when they returned home fully expecting to be punished after they ran away. This showed that she was more concerned than angry about their absence.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She and her daughters and son have the same hair patterns, though this is especially pronounced in the manga; in the anime, Suguru inherited her stark black hair (whereas her hair is lighter in the manga).

Other

Hikage Miyauchi

Voiced by: Misato Fukuen

Often referred to as "Hika-nee", Higake is Renge and Kazuho's middle sister who is a first-year high school student in Tokyo, six hours away by bullet train. Give or take, she's about 2 years older than Komari and 9-10 years older than Renge.

---

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Invoked and played with. She has no problem with groveling and dropping down to her knees to beg, but not in front of Renge.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: In spite of the fact that Hikage gets in significant amounts of trouble at her expense, she denies Natsumi nothing, and spends most of her off-school time with her.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: She spends her New Year's tagging alongside Renge, shamelessly asking for New Year's money from all the adults at Asahigaoka. When she tries to do it to her senpai Konomi, though, the latter shames her into giving the cumulative money away to her juniors, as she's too old to be pulling that crap anyway. Konomi accomplishes this so deftly that Renge congratulates Konomi on the genius of it all.
• Born Unlucky: Hikage a tremendously unlucky person to an even worse degree than Komari. Komari at least has some things going for her, while it's like the universe is conspiring against Hikage due to her tendency to brag without merits, being a prompt subject of Laser-Guided Karma.
• Butt-Monkey: She's usually the butt of jokes when on-screen, most of the other characters don't treat her well, and she often finds herself in bad situations.
• Childhood Friend:
  • She's one to Konomi and Kaede, who attended the branch school as middle-school students with her when she was finishing elementary school.
  • She's also particularly close friends with Natsumi.
• Cool Big Sis: She wants to be this for her younger sister Renge. Unfortunately, she often tries too hard to be cool, which results in Renge having less respect for her.
• Country Mouse: Attends a high school in Tokyo and in constantly in awe of the city.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: This is the redeeming aspect of Hikage that makes up for her smugness. It's not to the extent of Komari's clumsiness (or cuteness, for that matter), but Hikage has two left feet too, and it's always fun to see her stumble.
• The Drag-Along: She's very prone to be led by the nose by Natsumi, and whenever they're together they run into trouble and inevitably get caught.
• Foil:
  • To Hotaru. Hikage has just moved to Tokyo and thinks herself a "city girl", but that lasts about five minutes until Hotaru reveals that she's from Tokyo.
  • To Kaede. Hikage strives to gain Renge's admiration and sense of wonder, which is something that Kaede gained with very little effort. As a matter of fact, Renge is closer to Kaede than she is to either Hikage or Kazuho. However, it's shown that Hikage likes Renge's relationship with Kaede, so her efforts to gain Renge's attention are not fueled by envy.
• Her Own Worst Enemy: The more she tries to show off, the more the universe conspires to deny her satisfaction. She's Can't Get Away with Nuthin' personified.
• Hero of Another Story: She's one of the main characters in Koakuma Meringue, one of Atto's other works. She also leaves for Tokyo around the same time Hotaru arrives in Asahigaoka and presumably has to go through similar situations with adjusting to her new environment.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Deep down, most of her stuffy behavior at Asahigaoka comes from her drive to be a Cool Big Sis to Renge, as she doesn't want to lose her little sister's admiration. The problem is due the fact that she is at a complete loss as to how to accomplish this. She does know that she has to appeal to Renge's sense of wonder, but every time that she tries, she's unavoidably upstaged.
  • Even with her penchant for showing off, Hikage is shown to be a fun person and a great friend to spend time with.
• Hypocritical Humor: Most of her attitude towards Renge amounts to this, as she tries to show off in front of her young sister, but she drops to her knees as soon as Renge leaves the room.
• In-Series Nickname: She is sometimes referred to as "Hika-nee" by Renge and the girls at school.
• Irony: Renge would be more fond of Hikage if she weren't trying so hard to appear cool in front of her. As such, the more she tries, the less Renge respects her.
• Middle Child Syndrome: Played for laughs. Even though her parents are rarely present, her sisters receive considerably more attention from their friends. She's a middle child to the very core, even to people that are not related to her. This is played for laughs in the movie, where she's in the middle of the children and the adults mutually sneaking Ramen cups to eat after hours; she protests in both occasions, but partakes in the bounties regardless. As such, she's right between the child characters and the adults.
• Not So Above It All: She tries to act she's above the antics of others, but given some time she reverts to her old country ways. Also, much like Natsumi, she'll resort to covering up her mistakes instead of admitting culpability if she does something wrong.
• Super Gullible: Played with. She's smarter than Natsumi, but her own enthusiasm gets the better of her, so much that Natsumi's ideas seem like good ones when she hears them, only to realize her mistake at the very worst moment.
• Shameless Self-Promoter: A very mild example, as the first thing she does upon coming home is to brag about studying in Tokyo and riding the bullet train. Before Hotaru reveals that not only did she grow up in Tokyo, but she took a plane to get to Asahigaoka.
• Sixth Ranger: Albeit not the "sixth" girl per-se, but the fifth, Hikage will go with the girls to play and fits pretty seamlessly with them in spite of not interacting with them at school. This is notable, as she was shown to be a closer friend to Kaede and Konomi when they attended school together.
• Outdoorsy Gal: Savvy about nature and the outdoors as much as, if not more than Natsumi. She might brag about being a city girl now that she attends school in Tokyo, but very quickly reverts back to type once she joins the other girls to play.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She is literally the middle ground between Renge and Kazuho. She has Renge's morose expression and Kazuho's hair color; her tone of voice is also very reminiscent of Kazuho's, but markedly less "lazy".
• Through Her Stomach: At one time, she came to school and brought baby Renge with her just because there was going to be curry for lunch... that is, until Renge spilled it on the floor.
• You Keep Telling Yourself That:
  • She desperately wants to consider herself a city girl through and through, but she's still a country hick deep inside.
  • She's more fond of Renge than she lets on, as she spends a great deal of effort trying to earn her respect. As such, she tries to act mature in front of her little sister, but she usually fails miserably.

Konomi Fujimiya

Voiced by: Ryōko Shintani

Natsumi and Komari's 18 year-old friend who lives next door and attends the "local" high school as a third year student. She's a former student of the Asahigaoka Branch School, 2 years Kaede's junior.

---

• Beware the Nice Ones: If Hikage is any indication, Konomi is not someone to make mad.
• Cool Big Sis: Komari and Hotaru consider her one.
• Cuteness Overload: She's the only character who knows how enthusiastically girly Hotaru is in private, so she starts trying to treat her like the Elementary School child that she is. Thing is, there's only so much Hotaru can take.
• The Dreaded: It's shown that Hikage is somewhat afraid of her, and would warn her friends about her.
• Everyone Went to School Together: She was a school classmate of both Hikage and Kaede when they attended the Asahigaoka Branch School, who at the time had Komari, Natsumi and Suguru in elementary school.
• The Gadfly: She likes to say and do things to tease others, like making Renge believe she's a monster, or going on about instruments with Komari, when she knows Komari is actually interested in her cell phone.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: Initially shown to indicate both her femininity and maturity, Konomi gets a haircut later in the manga.
• Siblings Wanted: Combined with Childhood Friend. She's Komari and Natsumi's next-door neighbor, so they basically grew up together, as she tends to spend a great deal of time in their home. She's their big sister in all but name.
• Silver Tongue: She can get her friends, even the stubborn ones like Hikage and Kaede, to do her bidding with a simple turn of a phrase. To put matters in perspective, she was able to make Hikage board a train from Tokyo in order to attend the saddest school festival Natsumi could muster.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She is the girly girl to Kaede's and Hikage's tomboy, though the two girls are not as tomboyish as, for instance, Natsumi.

Aoi Niizato

Voiced by: Shino Shimoji

Aoi Niizato is a character exclusive to Non Non Biyori Movie: Vacation. An Okinawan middle-schooler who's the same age as Natsumi, she works during the summer at her parents' inn, where she personally attends the girls' party during their vacation on the island and becomes quick friends with Natsumi.

---

• Always Someone Better:
  • Natsumi is better at badminton than her friends, but not better than Aoi, who is a badminton club regular at her school.
  • She's basically what Natsumi would be if she put her act together.
• Canon Foreigner: She doesn't appear in the manga, having been created for the movie.
• Country Mouse: Of a different variety. She's basically the Okinawan Natsumi.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Albeit their vacation was awesome to begin with, Aoi gives them a proverbial royal flush towards the end of their vacation. It's so poignant that Renge stops lamenting the fact that she didn't get to see dolphins because they got to meet Aoi.
• Nice Girl: The girls immediately take a liking to her due to her sunny disposition and dutifulness.
• Native Guide: She guides the four main girls on their last day at Okinawa. She alone turns their trip from awesome to epic.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: She wipes the floor with Natsumi in badminton.
• Not So Stoic: Albeit she's dutiful while working at the inn, she periodically sneaks out at night to practice badminton against her mom's wishes.
• Passionate Sports Girl: She's at the badminton club at her school, where she's a regular.
• Plot Tailored to the Party: In the manga, Natsumi cries at the end of their vacation because she doesn't want to go back to her responsibilities. However, in the movie, she doesn't want to leave partly due to that, but mainly because she doesn't want to leave Aoi after finding in her a friend so close to her own heart.
• Spirited Competitor: Natsumi asks her not to hold down for her in badminton to show off, so she complies and renders Natsumi submissive with competition-level badminton.
• The Rival: To Natsumi, as the cast frequently draws comparisons between her and Aoi (especially Komari). In the end, Natsumi makes a promise to become better at badminton so that she can measure up to Aoi.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's very girly while being active and sporty.

---