Characters that appear in PPPPPP. Spoilers are marked.
open/close all folders
Main Character
Lucky Sonoda
Lucky Sonoda
Voiced by: Soma Saito (vomic)
The Mediocre Monster
The protagonist of the manga. He dubs himself a mediocre person, contrasting with his successful siblings, and blames himself for everything that happened to the family. Although he is initially reluctant in playing piano, he still loves doing it. He is currently trying his best so that he can grant his wish to play the piano with his siblings at the same stage.
- Anime Hair: Shaped like a big, yellow star. Sometimes drawn as such in the comical panel along with his head.
- Black Sheep: The only mediocre kid among the skilled, genius Otogami siblings.
- Blithe Spirit: His father imposes his standards of piano playing on the classical music world so rigidly that Lucky shakes things up just by being there. While he lacks the strict training his siblings have had and has yet to win any competitions, he's already changed numerous lives, and his unique style has been noted by several judges as intriguing.
- Character Development: Sorachika calls out the fact that his kindness can also be seen as a form of selfishness, as he has focused on helping those whose wishes he agreed with, putting him in conflict with Fanta, whose wish is to no longer see their mother. Lucky decides that he is willing to put others on the line to get his wish of joining his family together again, getting serious intention to face off against his brother and beat him on the piano, contrasting to how in Reijirou and Mimin's case, he really only was interested in them and lost the competition due to his focus not really being in winning.
- Character Signature Song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It is a song that he deems special, per his words, and the only song that he initially can conjure visual imagery of.
- Color Motif: Yellow, associated with his hair color and the color of stars.
- Determinator: He won't stop trying his best to be a pianist. He also doesn't and won't listen to the past verbal abuses his father gave him and wants to do his best until the very end, thanks to Chouchou and Dada's encouragement.
- Good Is Impotent: At least Lucky's brand of Good, anyway. Sorachika and Lucky's Genius self theorize that his desire to want to make everyone happy is stifling his ability to perform, making him an all around mediocre pianist.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: He's always the first to admit his own playing is "mediocre." His quiet, wish-granting style nonetheless helps the people he plays for, so he may be harder on himself than is necessarily warranted in some cases.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker: The last thing Lucky does in the series, and the first thing he does when Genius Lucky takes over his body, is give Gakuon an almighty punch upon their encounter in front of Chouchou's grave.
- It's All My Fault: Considers his mediocrity and lack of talent as the cause of the family divorce and separation from his siblings. In the final chapter, Lucky's supressed genius calls his current mediocre personality an anthropomorphization of the guilt he feels for his hand in his parents' divorce.
- Meaningful Name: His name in Japanese, Rakki, is an anagram from kirakira (sparkly), which comes from Kirakira Boshi (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in Japanese). Double as a bonus that he also has a star as his motif. The first syllable of his name also fits the solfège pattern in Japanese, but this is not apparent in English.
- Doubling as a Punny Name, his mother's surname "Sonoda" sounds very similar to the word 'sonata,' a type of musical composition.
- Nice Guy: He looks for other people, family or not, and genuinely wants to help them. He also thinks that it would be nice and make him happy if his piano playing were able to grant people's wishes.
- Riches to Rags: In a way. After his parents got divorced, he moved to his maternal aunt's house and was somehow treated as their domestic helper to do unreasonable chores every day. He even compared his situation with Cinderella.
- Secretly Selfish: Despite his defining trait being his kindness and willingness to open himself to others, that kindness is revealed to have a more self-centered motive in Fanta's arc. His insistence on bringing his family together to see their mother is also called out as a selfish move, especially since all of the siblings have different views on her walking out on them; as a result, Sorachika dislikes Lucky's kindness and Fanta especially rejects it, leaning more towards Furusu's appreciation of his music as a true kindness.
- Sibling Rivalry: Averted. He never shows any jealousy toward his successful siblings. He is also aware that his mother treasures them as he does.Lucky:I don't want to beat the Otogami [Sextuplets] like Furusu does. They are my dear siblings, after all.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: For all of his effort in conjuring visual imagery that people can experience viscerally, Lucky still has a long way to polish his piano skill due to the lack of training he got before enrolling in the musical school.
- In Reijiro arc, Lucky's playing gets noticed as something noteworthy by the judges, but Reijiro wins the audition as he captures and fulfills the requirement that the judges need.
- In the Mimin arc, Lucky managed to reveal himself as a part of the Otogami siblings. But, his lack of skill in imitating Reijiro's and Mimin's ability to make his point come through fell flat and anti-climactic. In the preliminary phase, he played The Joyful Island, yet it only made the audience depressed and "drowned" since he only played it for Mimin in mind, making him disqualified.
- The Unfavorite: Clearly Gakuon doesn't like him for being ordinary, so much that he verbally abused him every day up to the family separation. He currently disinherits him by billing the others as sextuplets, as well. In Gakuon's reminescing sequence, he very pointedly recalls a moment when he affectionately let a young, talented Lucky play piano with him, implying that this wasn't always the case.
The Otogami Children
In General
Tropes shared by the children as a whole
The Otogami Septuplets per initial introduction.
The fraternal septuplets, children of Gakuon Otogami and Chouchou Sonoda. All of them are piano prodigies with varying play styles and renowned as such by the musical world... except for one.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The lasting effects of Gakuon's abusive treatment of them and their mother leaving the family has left all of the Otogami kids with severe emotional hang-ups, Lucky included. Helping them get through these forms the central plot of the manga, more or less.
- Coordinated Accessories: Aside from Lucky, they wear similar hexagonal earrings and have matching six-string rings, usually drawn on their little finger. Reijiro notably removes his after reconciling with Lucky in Japan, hiding his ears with his headphones. Mimin also removes hers after running away from home and substitutes it with ribbon earrings.
- Child Prodigy: Known as such in the musical world. Having a father who is a genius himself also boosts their popularity.
- Musical Theme Naming: The first syllable of their names comes from musical notes based on the solfège naming convention.
- Don
- Reijiro
- Mimin
- Fanta
- Sorachika note
- Lucky explanation
- Sikato note
- Significant Birth Date: December 21. The birth flower of that day is Sycamore, which translates to genius in the language of flowers.
Don
Don Otogami
The first child of the Otogami Family. His style of playing is more leaning toward a faithful rendition of a piece, as shown in the first chapter.
- Anime Hair: His hair scalps somehow resemble a crown.
- I Just Want to Be You: Don's focus chapter explains that he tries to understand the music he's set to play by trying to become their composer. In particular, he briefly stresses about playing Beethoven pieces because he feels as if he's not Beethoven himself.
- Trademark Favorite Food: The bonus art inside the comic and the promotional material often point out that he likes osechi-ryouri* and fried shrimp.
- The Unfought: Because of the series' cancellation, Lucky never gets a chance to battle with Don.
Reijiro
Reijiro Otogami
The Sonic Roar
The second child of the Otogami Family. His playing style is conjuring loud, yet, beautiful sounds with a sunset and titanic people as the visual imagery.
- Big Brother Worship: Inverted as he is the older one than Lucky. He adores him to the moon and back in their childhood and is significantly affected by the separation they had after their parents' divorce.
- Character Signature Song: Dvorak's Goin' Home. It is the piece that is tied closely with visual imagery he can conjure. It is also the piece that he initially hated as it reminded him about his unfulfilled wish to go home together when sunset comes with his friend, Saiba.
- Color Motif: Orange, associated with his hair color, the sunset he conjures in his playing style, and the color of the road pavement that shows prominently in the visual imagery of Dvorak's Goin' Home and his cellphone case.
- Dark and Troubled Past: His friendship with Saiba, the sole close relationship he had after his parent's divorce, turned abusive after Reijiro purposely failed a competition in order to help Saiba's career. This culminated in Saiba locking him in a supply room so that he would fail, leading to Gakuon finding out and exiling Saiba from the piano world, leaving Reijiro isolated up until the start of the series.
- Foreshadowing: He once said he can make mistakes in playing the piano if he deliberately tries one. It was the very thing he did in a competition for making Saiba win. Unfortunately, his father was least pleased with the fact, and Saiba found that out, making their relationship go awry.
- The Insomniac: Complete with Exhausted Eyebags. Luckily, he gets better after reconciling with Lucky.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: His biggest desire is to get back home with friends after school like a normal kid and have friends properly.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Reijirou hates being lonely and feels that very easily. When a kid, he would follow Lucky around to have someone by his side. The divorce hit him hard as their father had already made schedules for the sextuplets, making him even lonelier.Reijiro: I didn't want to be in my own world. I wanted to be in the same world with others. [...] Everyone would say I was amazing, but... I never made friends.
- Nice Guy: Out of all the septuplets, he's definitely the most pleasant after Lucky, bearing no ill will toward anyone. Despite his harshness to Lucky when they first reunite, he notably feels bad about it almost immediately afterward.
- Meaningful Name: Seems to be an amalgamation of Re (the second musical note) and Ieji (the Japanese title for Dvorak's Goin' Home).
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Downplayed. He is on the shorter side of the septuplets, yet he manages to snap Lucky's chest merely by his fingers or yank and shake Sorachika, both are bigger and taller than him.
- Stepford Smiler: The empty variant in his initial introduction and later grows out of it into a genuine one.
- Trademark Favorite Drink: He seems fond of protein drinks, as noted on the bonus comic, the special new year illustration, and the details of his line messages to Lucky.
Mimin
Mimin Otogami
Voiced by: Yuuhi Kotoishi (vomic)
The Distorted Princess
The third child of the Otogami Family. She has a somewhat unique, out-of-the-box interpretation when playing piano as she wants. When she plays without thinking, however, she conjures vivid imagery of trees and piano key leaves.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Whether as a child or a teenager, Mimin is hard to keep down. She did the first thing on her mind no matter what, took a slap to the face from her father by biting his hand, and disobeys orders when it suits her.
- Color Motif: Green, associated with her hair color and her distorted forest and piano key leaves she conjures when playing the piano.
- Character Signature Song:
- Für Elise, a song which has a lot of Mis.
- My Fair Lady, a song that she plays happily about her childhood with the fairies she conjures.
- The Ditz: Mimin has an... interesting way of thinking. Case in point, her first reaction to reuniting with Lucky is to assume him as his own doppelganger.
- Foreshadowing: Mimin's fairies resemble Meloli a lot in their first appearance. They took her appearance after Meloli saved her from her dad, thus making her fairy savior in Mimin's eyes.
- Fairy Companion: A collective of fairy Imaginary Friends consisted of Mimin's most cherished entities. When summoned, they are born from the E or Mi key and create a silly little orchestra. Their appearances vary, but they start to resemble Meloli after Mimin felt like Meloli's playing "saved" her from hating piano. Later still, two of them now resemble Lucky and Furusu, in gratitude to both of them.
- Green Thumb: Her play style invokes a thick forest of trees with piano leaves. Sometimes, the tree branches also got distorted in the middle of her performance as a result of incorporating Meloli's ability into hers. The forest is not how she wants to play, though; they're the result of having to restrain herself and play how everyone expects a proper performer to.
- I Just Want to Be Free: Mimin dislikes being bound by rules, in ties with her longing for freedom. She often goes out of her way by playing piano with her own unique interpretation to spite people and do what she thinks is right. She also has no qualms in playing whatever musical sheet she wants, even if it means breaking the rule in the competition, just like what she did to upstage Furusu. Eventually, Lucky helps her realize how she wants to play, so she decides to quit the classical world and carve her own path, as long as it allows her to keep playing the way she likes.
- Meaningful Name: One way to write her name in Japanese is using kanji 美 (mi), which means beautiful, just like what she is described. Mi in Japanese is also awfully homophonous with me in English, a nod to her self-preserved personality. And there is the musical theme naming as said above.
- The Nicknamer: Mimin gets very casual with just about anyone she meets, and she gives nicknames accordingly. Furusu, for example, gets called "Boing-Boing" for her pigtails, and Meloli "My Fairy" because of how integral she is to Mimin's music philosophy.
- No Dress Code: She managed to defy the dress code, simply wear comfortable Shorttanks, when playing in piano concert.
- The Smurfette Principle: The only girl among her siblings.
- Statuesque Stunner: It's not drawn attention to, but Mimin is very tall for a girl her age, being about a head taller than Ako and Meloli, and even exceeding some of her brothers in height.
Fanta
Fanta Otogami
The Master of Fantasyland
The fourth child of the Otogami Family. His piano playing is conjuring adjustable fantasies his audience wants to see, with a lot of sparkling gems that are always present in every performance.
- A Lady on Each Arm: Fanta always appears in this kind of situation to emphasize his charms.
- Attention Whore: The source of his playing style is a need for his audience's positive reactions towards him. They'll praise him for whatever he does, while he gives back to them by immersing them in the amusement park experience of their dreams. This attitude extends past the piano.
- The Bad Guy Wins: He wins the competition and does not bother to visit his mother in her last moments. And his arc ends with Lucky failing to win him over, which is shown by the fact that there is no chapter titled "-3P", unlike the climactic chapters in Reijiro's and Mimin's arcs titled "-1P" and "-2P", respectively. That being said, he's clearly not happy about his win because nobody truly understood what he was going for with his music. Furusu honestly complimenting him was about the only comfort he got.
- The Big Guy: He is the tallest and most muscular of the septuplets.note He is in fact bigger than his own father despite being in his teens still.
- Break the Haughty: For most of his arc, he's all smiling or at least putting up a good impression. He starts to come off it when Sadame is able to accurately mimic Fanta's playing style, proving that his talent is easier to replicate than his other siblings and his underlying motives can be understood.
- The Casanova: Shown to be somewhat coquettish and sometimes appears with some girls in his presence. He is outright confirmed to have had sex with at least one of them.
- The Charmer: Both in personality and his piano playing, he can adapt to various kinds of piano playing styles and song choices in accordance with what his audience wants.
- Color Motif: Purple. It is the color that corresponds with royalty, luxury, and high-value items, just like how he wants to surround and associate himself with that stuff.
- Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: The most distinguishing feature in the fantasy he conjures upon playing the piano.
- Foreshadowing: The cover of chapter 34 gives us insight into how Fanta's fantasy would work by presenting colorful jewelry and semi-faded butterflies as the hint. While we are led to believe that his fantasy is a theme park adorned with jewelry, his actual fantasy manifests in the shape of butterfly notes. Those butterflies will take the form of anything he wants in order to adjust to the audience, be it a theme park, a night sky, or pieces of jewelry, among others. Interestingly, "butterfly" in Japanese is chouchou, something that extremely sounds close to his mother's name, Chouchou.
- Freudian Excuse: A lot, and we mean a lot of his behavior can be explained by his being sore about his mother separating from the rest of the family. He's become a flirt with many girls flocking to him, but one of his major dislikes is "women who leave him" and his solution for resolving Sorachika and Lucky's Internal Reveal (to pretend everything's fine and carry on so the media gets bored and lets the story go) sounds an awful lot like what happened to Lucky and his mom.Fanta: I'm sure you did love me. But you didn't choose me, so I won't choose you either.
- Meaningful Name: An amalgamation of the short, corrupted form of "fantasy" and the Engrish word fun.
- Momma's Boy: He was very attached to his mother as a child, and while he was able to accept that she probably did love him even if she left the family, her absence did sting him. Fanta later admits that he'd probably have a tearful reunion with her should he visit her, but he doesn't want to give her that satisfaction.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Downplayed. He is not always peppering his words with various colorful vocabulary, but compared to the rest of the cast, his mouth is rather potty.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Unlike Mimin and Reijirou, who were obviously unhappy with the life they were leading and so were comparatively easy to reconnect with on the basis that they wanted more distance from their father and to reconnect with their mother and Lucky, Fanta wants nothing to do with his mother, apparently still hurt over the fact that she left them to take care of Lucky exclusively, has a relationship with his father that includes very little conflict, and is happy with keep being on his dad's side and ignoring his mother. This makes him the first brother that Lucky actually has to face off against properly in order to get him to see their mother, not being given the opportunity of focusing on them instead of the competition they're facing.
Sorachika
Sorachika Otogami
The Enigmatic God
The fifth child of the Otogami Family. His piano playing is a pure, empty sound, which gradually becomes a sky where he can conjure everything the listener wants to believe, whatever that might be.
- The Ace: Even among his genius siblings, Sorachika seems to be one step above them. It's to the point that his father limits the amount of exposition Sorachika gets so as to not outshine his siblings. Fanta describes his playing as not being only beautiful and powerful, but something more, later adding that he is aware he can never beat Sorachika, while Sadame says he is like a god playing the piano.
- Compelling Voice: What his piano playing does to the listeners. It is also one of the reasons why he gets limited from entering many competitions since it has the ability to rig the judgment.
- Death Seeker: A rare example who outright admits to being this without actively seeking out danger. He has a pretty large fascination with death, and can't wait to pass on just to see what happens next. He callously dismisses his mother's worsening condition because he thinks her arriving at death sooner is a good thing. It also explains his constant sleeping, as many languages and idioms refer to sleep as one of life's "little deaths."
- Freudian Excuse: About his Death Seeker tendencies. He was an extremely curious child years ago, prone to trying to find information about everything he can. Coming to the realization that it is impossible for any single person to learn everything, he decides to simply focus on the greatest mystery, the mystery against which all others pale, death itself, growing curious to understand what and why is after that, believing that this compensates for the knowledge he wouldn't have otherwise.
- Hates My Secret Identity: Downplayed, familial variant. Sorachika likes Lucky enough, but he loves the "genius" Lucky that existed before he started wanting to make everyone happy and that still lurks within him. When he greets Lucky after years of not seeing him, his affectionate "it's been a while" is directed towards Genius Luckynote , not him.
- Heavenly Blue: He is associated with the color blue with his hair color and name. Out of the characters, he is by far the most ethereal among them and implied to be the best, with Sadame describing his playing as god-like. When he plays, he causes people to see everything disappear before seeing themselves enveloped by the sky.
- Meaningful Name: Sora means sky in Japanese, befitting his motif.
- Sleepyhead: Is shown to sleep a lot both as a child and as a teenager.
Lucky
The sixth child of the Otogami Family, see entry above.
Sikato
Sikato Otogami
The seventh child of the Otogami Family.
- Extremely Protective Child: He doesn't hesitate to threaten Mimin, his own sister, if she does anything harmful to their dad.
- Hair Color Dissonance: His hair color ranges from taupe to grayish silver in the official art.
- Spell My Name With An S: The original one uses Shikato for the spelling, but the English translation uses "Sikato" to fit the solfège pattern in English.
- The Unfought: Because of the series' cancellation, Lucky never gets a chance to battle with Sikato. Heck, we don't even see Sikato playing the piano ever.
Shibuya Music High School and Associates
Ako Furusu
Ako Furusu
Voiced by: Yuu Serizawa (vomic)
A girl in Lucky's year who also comes from the same middle school as him. She is talented at playing piano and has an ambition in defeating the Otogami for a personal reason.
- The Ace: She is a special student who has a perfect pitch and the position of head of the class.
- Disappeared Dad: Mentions in the passing that her family is only she and her mother.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Her pupils have stars in them.
- Meaningful Name : Also overlapped with Punny Name and in-tie with the musical theme. Ako Furusu is an anagram of furusukoa, which means full score.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: All she wants is to defeat the Otogami in piano so that she can have her mother proud of her and return to the state before Gakuon Otogami ruins her mother's name and career.
Hideo Dada
Hideo Dada
Voiced by: Noriaki Morita (vomic)
A faculty member of Shibuya Music School. He takes Lucky and Furusu under his wings as their practicum teacher.
- The Ace: The only pianist skilled enough to ever beat Gakuon Otogami.
- Cool Teacher: He does help his students in improving their piano playing, accompanies them to training, listens to them, and gives sound advice.
- Student–Master Team: With Lucky and Furusu, his mentees.
Rock Maki
Rock Maki
A boy in the same ear-training class with Lucky and sometimes becomes his deskmate. He actually repeats a year at school.
- Girlish Pigtails: Gender-inverted and braided variation.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: The thing that he only wants is a standing ovation for his piano playing. However, no matter how hard he practiced, he seemed unable to get one, to the point he gave up and became jaded. At least, until Lucky grants his wish.
Meloli Yamanaka
Meloli Yamanaka
Voiced by: Natsuki Kita (vomic)
The Girl Who Throw Away Her Genius
Lucky and Furusu's senior who currently studies under the school director. She is said to be the girl who threw away her genius.
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Meloli was white-haired in the one-shot, and she returns to the series with dark pink hair.
- Broken Pedestal: To Mimin. Mimin idolizes Meloli and aspires to play as free as she does. Meloli, while genuinely liking Mimin on their first encounter, starts to feel threatened as Mimin can imitate her distorted piano playing and evokes the fantasy much better than her. As such, Meloli becomes a mess, per her word, and starts planning for Mimin's downfall.
- Character Signature Song: Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess), by Maurice Ravel.
- Damsel in Distress: Subverted. Mimin assumes Meloli is being forced to play in some way she dislikes by the world's pressures and is set to save her. Meloli actually does it with the intention that, with Mimin trying to "save" her, Mimin will eventually come to hate playing the piano, stop doing it altogether, and no longer be a competition to her.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Overlapping with Continuity Cameo. Unlike Sadame, who appears in the middle of the Mimin arc, she has been appearing from the very start of the story, by being the model of the Shibuya Music High School pamphlet. She also appears in the article in the student bulletin in chapter 3.
- Face–Heel Turn: During the Fanta Arc, she joins Fanta's team against Lucky. That said, this seems to be more from a desire to face off against Mimin one final, proper time, rather than having any problem with Lucky or favor for Fanta.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Meloli's irises are left purely white, giving her a uniquely empty, dead-eyed look regardless of her actions.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Meloli gets her wish—Mimin does for a brief time hate piano and seriously consider quitting, but Lucky's intervention allows her to quit on her own terms and exit the scene satisfied and more eager than ever to save Meloli. The latter girl wins the competition they're both competing in with Mimin's disqualification, but there's absolutely no satisfaction to be gained there.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Meloli is fairly sweet and genial to people around, albeit having some shades of gadfly tendency. To Mimin, however, she throws an ungodly amount of ice.
Sadame Hino
Sadame Hino
The Learning Virtuoso
The returning one-shot protagonist, now becomes a supporting character. Along with Meloli, he is studying piano under the school director, although it is unclear whether he is regarded as a formal student in the academy or not.
- Ascended Fanboy: Greatly admires Sorachika Otagami's work, to the point he apparently agreed to tutor Lucky for the chance to meet him, according to the Director. Competing with him as part of Lucky's four-on-four with Fanta was not something he expected.
- Awesome by Analysis: Provides Lucky with a lot of information to help with musical interpretation.
- Childish Tooth Gap: In the one-shot, he loses a tooth when his father slaps him and kicks him out of the family's house.
- Continuity Cameo: He first appeared on Dadadadaan, a.k.a the prequel story, as its protagonist.
- Fiery Redhead: Subverted. Color illustrations show his hair as dark red, but he keeps a cool (if very enthusiastic) demeanor in most situations.
- Graceful Loser: Accepts defeat by Sorachika rather well in their competition. Admittedly, he himself anticipated the loss, so he's able to smile it off a little easier.
- Teen Genius: High-school-aged and musically talented enough for the school's Director to take him in personally. He often has clever suggestions when Lucky needs help with school assignments or competitions.
Director
Hanabirako Hanazono
The director of Shibuya Music Academy.
- Alliterative Name: Hanabirako Hanazono
- Continuity Cameo: She first appeared on Dadadadaan, a.k.a the prequel story.
- Gonk: She has the most unique design of all characters.
- Hat of Authority: She wears a wide-brimmed hat in her public appearances, and holds prestigious positions both as a director in a music school and one of a renowned pianist in Japan.
- Kimono Is Traditional: Always seen donning extravagant kimono with an elaborate pattern.
- Master-Apprentice Chain: She mentored Dada and Wao during their school days, and the former now mentors Lucky and Furusu. She is also currently mentoring Meloli and Sadame, who are both helping Lucky with the musical analysis.
Musical Industry
Gakuon Otogami
Gakuon Otogami
Voiced by: Takahiro Hikami (vomic)
The Patriach Pianist
The renowned pianist who holds achievements in many prestigious musical competitions. He is also infamous for his habit of banishing people he deems unfit from the industry.
- Abusive Dad: Favorite children or not, he has no problem beating his kids physically or throwing verbal remarks nonchalantly for not meeting his expectations.
- All Your Powers Combined: The first real glimpse of Gakuon's playing style shows him using all of his future children's visual markers. He has Fanta's crystals, Reijiro's hands, Mimi's notes, Sorachika's sky, Don's buildings, and a stone and a mysterious DNA helix representing Sikato and Lucky.
- Belated Love Epiphany: Mixed with what's implied to be a case of My God, What Have I Done?, following Chouchou's death. Chouchou herself has stated that he did love her, putting her second to music, but Gakuon didn't fully absorb the weight of his love for her until he started recalling the smaller moments of their relationship, ending in his memories of her flooding his brain. It's also telling that he spent a lot of his time with Sorachika at a church, despite not being present for her funeral.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist of the series and the source of discord in the Otogami family. He is also very influential in the music industry, crushing the dreams of many pianists he doesn't deem worthy of his very high standards.
- Exotic Eye Designs: He has piano-themed eyes.
- Family Theme Naming: Aside from the musical theme he gives to his children, his name is also related to music, reversed or not.
- Hate Sink: Gakuon's callous treatment of his children, treating them like tools for his larger goals and subjecting them to physical and emotional abuse when they act in a way not to his liking, as well as his arrogant and ruthless behavior to the rest of the piano world makes him a thoroughly nasty character.
- It's All About Me: Chouchou remarks that even in the early days of their relationship, Gakuon was always "the kind of person who would say he loves me... second to his own fantasy." His self-centered conceit only seems to have gotten worse since then.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Chouchou's focus chapter reveals that "Gakuon" was a stage name he chose to use in place of his real one, and he introduced himself to her this way.
- Papa Wolf: Subverted. Gakuon might do anything to protect his children to a great length, such as banishing his child's friend when he feels it necessary, but he does that out of his personal interest to keep his children intact as his personal "instruments" to change the musical world.
- Punny Name:
- Gakuon means a musical note in Japanese.
- Reverse the placement and Gakuon spells "Ongaku", the Japanese word for music.
- Take Over the World: A variation. As explained by Meloli, Gakuon's end goal is to use his children and the money he gets from his personal patron to buy out all piano competitions, allowing him to (by extension) establish complete control over the piano world, and exile everyone who fails to live up to insane personal standards of "genius."
- Tragic Keepsake: Gakuon has a locket from the early years of his relationship with Chouchou, and keeps it close to his hip. One chapter is focused on how much that locket meant to him even after the divorce some time after Chouchou dies. He ultimately gives it to Sorachika.
- The Unfought: Because of the series' cancellation, Lucky never gets a chance to battle with Gakuon. The closest thing to a confrontation is Brilliant Lucky punching Gakuon in the last chapter.
- Wingding Eyes: All of his children can change their eyes to piano keys, but Gakuon is the only one who has these eyes all the time.
- Would Hurt a Child: Oh, very much so. He didn't hesitate from slapping Lucky when he was only a child, and he even tries to do the same thing to Mimin in the present day.
Rindo Saiba
Rindo Saiba
A pianist Reijiro befriended during his time at the conservatory. Currently active as a popular internet pianist, following his banishment in the classical piano world, who never reveals his face in public as Rin.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Initially introduced as just a background figure in Reijiro's backstory, he returns as "Rin" as part of Fanta's team.
- Disproportionate Retribution: While he is understandably upset by how Reijiro deliberately underperformed so he could get second place, that does not excuse him from doing harm to Reijiro by sabotaging his performance or pushing him to the lake.
- Gakuon punishing Rin for this was also way overblown. The kid's whole life turned upside down, his family's music shop closed for good, and he has to perform as an anonymous pianist to get anywhere in life thanks to him.
- The Faceless: Invoked In-Universe. He has a reputation to uphold as a mysterious internet pianist, so he wears a mask whenever he needs to present himself in public.
- First Friend: to Reijiro, and overlapping as his Only Friend.
- I Let You Win: Interestingly, both the victim of this and the instigator. Rin was furious when Reijiro handicapped himself so the former could finally win in a competition for once, and in the present, this sentiment is paid in kind by going all out in his battle with Reijiro but with the intent of definitively losing to him.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Ultimately banished from the musical world by Gakuon after he bullied Reijiro.
- Saiba was happy with beating Reijiro in a competition for once, but he quickly turned bitter after knowing that Reijiro deliberately set himself up to lose.
- Interestingly, Rin never expected to win his match in the team battle and wanted to lose against Reijiro. Reijiro himself turned into a Sore Winner instead, since he's pissed about Rin's true motives.
- Swan Song: His appearance in the team battle was only so that Rin could face Reijiro as an equal and properly lose, with him quitting the music scene altogether afterward. Rin never thought he had a chance; he expected a Curb-Stomp Battle in Reijiro's favor, and craved it because he wanted to be punished for his actions as a child. Fittingly, he chooses "Pomp and Circumstance" for this final performance.
Wao Niiza
Wao Niiza
A movie composer and an acquaintance of Dada and Meloli.
- '80s Hair: She styles her hair in an afro like when it was popular back then.
- Old Friend: The second volume reveals that she was in the same school year with Dada, and they got mentored by the Director.
- Punny Name: Her name basically can be read as need the wow in Engrish, a nod to her eccentric personality in finding quirky talents that can interest and wow her.
Mr. Crescendo
Mr. Crescendo
The chairman of Golden Software Crescendo and an associate of Gakuon Otogami.
- Meaningful Name: Crescendo refers to a gradual increase in loudness.
Others
Chouchou Sonoda
Chouchou Sonoda
Voiced by: Yumika Yano (vomic)
Mother of the Otogami septuplets. She is currently in a hospital due to her terminal illness.
- Age-Gap Romance: One Q&A confirmed that she and Gakuon were in a relationship like this, with her being the older half. Her focus chapter also shows that she was a young adult when she met the middle school-aged Gakuon.
- All There in the Manual: Her name is actually revealed from the very start of the story, by being written on the patient's bed. Due to the obscurity of the panel, it gets clarified more in the Q&A section
by the official Twitter account. - A Death in the Limelight: Chapter 59 is devoted to her early days and part of her romance with Gakuon. It is also the same chapter where she's on her deathbed.
- Family Theme Naming: Her name is homonymous with 長調 (chouchou), which means major key in musical terms.
- It's All My Fault: Aside from feeling this to Lucky by being unable to birth him as a genius like the others, she accepts the fact that she practically has been abandoning her other children due to the divorce, albeit unwillingly.
- Like Mother, Like Daughter: Just as Mimin wants to play the way she likes and rebels against her family's traditional way of playing piano, Chouchou broke off from her opera-focused family in order to become a punk rocker.
- Missing Mom: To all of her other children sans Lucky. Some are willing enough to care about her and even pay her visit, while some want nothing to do with her anymore. She becomes this to all of them permanently when she dies.
- Your Days Are Numbered: She has a frail body from bearing septuplets and her health keeps getting worse, so much that she only has less than two years to live. She finally expires in Chapter 59.
Masashi and his mother
Masashi and his mother
Voiced by: Keisuke Natsume (Masashi, vomic), Rei Aoi (Masashi's mother, vomic)
Family from Lucky's maternal side. They don't take well the divorce the Otogami had.
- The Bully: Masashi will always try to find a way to make Lucky's life dreary. He also has no problem in sending people to lock Reijiro up, though he got his retribution by being captured by the police.
- Fat Bastard: The aunt is noticeably chubby.
- Jerkass: They always made Lucky do extra chores, even though they have money to call for services, simply just for make him miserable.
Hana Hanada
An actress in a film that soundtrack Wao composes.
- Alliterative Name: Hana Hanada
- Big Name Fan: In-Universe example. She is one to Reijiro.
- Flower Motifs: Her name means one with different kanjis for the name and surname. She also has a flower band as her Signature Headgear.
