This is a list of characters who appear in the anime/manga series Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa. This needs a lot of work.
Yukari 'Caroline' Hayasaka
The main protagonist of the story, Yukari Hayasaka is an Ordinary High-School Student trying to get into the best college to impress her mother. She's always studying hard and is crushing on her classmate, Hiroyuki Tokumori. All of a sudden, she gets rope into the world of fashion...
- Beautiful All Along: Yukari was always a natural beauty but was always too busy hitting the books to be noticed.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: A nice girl, but it should be noted that she's still a young woman that doesn't quite grasp all her noble features, and let's be honest, the ParaKiss troupé are wacky fellows.
- Even the Girls Want Her: She's indeed beautiful to work as a model. But it should be noted it takes time for her to get used to realize how gorgeous she is.
- Important Haircut: At first a decision she regretted, over time shows how much it benefitted on the long run, and is symbolic for her to go from average girl to gorgeous supermodel.
- Senior Year Struggles: Yukari is a senior who is focusing solely on her studies and getting into a good university. This monotony changes when she falls in with a group of design students who introduce her to the world of fashion, and she begins to consider it as a serious career path after high school instead of her original plan
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Played straight with Hiro, subverted when George enters her life, but played straight again when she chooses Hiro in the end.
Jōji "George" Koizumi
An arrogant, handsome, VERY talented student in an art college. He starts dating Yukari few after she starts frequenting his college.
- Chivalrous Pervert: He can be seen as a deconstruction of this trope.
- Embarrassing First Name: George hates being called by his first name.
- Expy: He is based on Brian Slade, which is alluded to in the series as Brian is George's idol.
- Heroic Bastard: His mother was a famous top model who gave up her career to raise him after being knocked up by a rich man. This really, really poisons her and George's relationship when he grows up.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable: He dresses up Yukari in the clothes he's designed (and has done the same for Isabella, a beloved platonic friend).
Miwako Sakurada
Another art student and George's friend and co-worker. Very cute and cheerful, she soon becomes Yukari's best friend.
- Nice Girl: So nice that she even lets the fact that her boyfriend once raped her slide and has a happy relationship with him. Arashi doesn't take this well at all.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She is an almost exact copy of her sister Mikako.
Arashi Nagase
Miwako's Hot-Blooded, blunt boyfriend. He's both a student of George and Miwako's art school and the vocalist of a punk rock band.
- Only Sane Man: Contrary to his choice of wardrobe, he's actually the most normal of the Paradise Kiss group other than Yukari.
- Rape as Drama: Out of insecurity over their relationship, Arashi bullied Miwako to lose her virginity to him. Later, he realizes how fucked up this is, and in the manga he becomes The Atoner.
Isabella Yamamoto
The eldest of the gang, Isabella is a young transgender woman who acts as the mentor of the group.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: She is a feminine transgender woman who loves making apple bunnies.
- The Quiet One: Isabella is far from chatty, but her standard reaction to mostly everything (a warm, unruffled smile) makes her come across as mature and dignified instead of cold or aloof.
- Team Mom: Often gives sound advice or just tries to cheer up the rest of the gang, particularly the girls. At one point, during an argument between George and Arashi, her thought panels reveals she's worried about Arashi's lack of calcium, and wonders if she ought to feed him dried fish. Her status is actually lampshaded by George, who calls her the group's mother figure.
Hiroyuki Tokumori
Yukari's crush, as well as an old friend to both Miwako and Arashi.
- Only Sane Man: He's usually the one giving Yukari the soundest advice and has a mature perspective of life that resides outside her stubbornness and the main group's eccentricity. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he eventually starts studying to be a psychologist.
- Romantic Runner-Up: He may be seen as this in the beginning, but since the series is partly about desconstructing romance tropes to hell and back, it gets beautifully subverted in the end. He still gets the shaft in fanworks, though.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: One of the few male characters with dark hair, in fact, and noted to be handsome.
Kaori Asō
A former Yazagaku student who is now studying abroad on a scholarship received as the previous winner of the junior Grand Prize.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Sorta, to George. She loves him, yeah, but she also knows he won't make her happy.
Seiji Kisaragi
Mikako's mother's assistant. His dream was to study abroad as a hair stylist.
- Bishie Sparkle: He is pretty and sparkles. It earns him the nickname "Sparkling Alien".
Suguru Hayasaka
Yukari's brother.
- Child Prodigy: An excellent student, unlike his sister.
