This is a character page for Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it. Tropes relating to specific characters should go below.
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Ikeda Lab
Shinya Yukimura
Voiced by: Yūma Uchida (Japanese), Yo Taichi (Japanese, child), Billy Kametz (English, season 1), Alejandro Saab (English, Season 2), Carlo Vázquez (Latin Spanish), Sandra Olarra (Latin Spanish, child)
- Height: 177 cm
Weight: 63 kg
Blood type: O
Hobbies: Research, writing academic texts
Favourite foods: Foods which allow efficient intake of balanced nutrition
Favourite phrase: "Decisive and resolute"
Idol: John von Neumann
Future goals: Nobel Prize
Research area: Polynomial-time reduction
The male main character, who is a first-year graduate school student trying to figure out whether he is in love with Himuro.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: He gets roped into crossdressing during the Ikeda Lab's cosplay event. Himuro finds him so cute that she doesn't mind if he was a girl. Kosuke gets so shocked by Yukimura's very pretty looks that he has to repeatedly smashes his head against a wall (to the point of bleeding) to remind himself that Yukimura's a man. Yukimura even ends up being the most popular cosplayer of the event.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: He explained this trope to Himuro when they were children via the Halo Effect. A gloomy and unkempt person studying bugs is considered creepy but a bright and groomed person studying bugs is considered intelligent. Thus, he is a sharply dressed individual.
- Be Yourself: Yukimura categorically refuses to hide anything about himself, or alter his behavior to anything he considers being untrue to himself.
- Big Damn Heroes: He arrives just in time to prevent Kanade from being sexually assaulted by Shikijou’s gang.
- Brandishment Bluff: Gets Shikijou and his would-be rapist accomplices to back off and run right into the police's hands by dousing them with what he claims are various kinds of powerful acids. They're all just water.
- Brutal Honesty: He does not hold back while criticizing others' flaws. Even a Nice Girl like Kanade, or a prominent professor, is not immune to this. His penchant for this unwittingly starts several conflicts across the series.
- Calling the Old Man Out: When his student Haru's father badmouths her as a worthless idiot, Yukimura immediately defends her and tells him explicitly that his constant harsh insults to his daughter are the cause for her academic indifference.
- Celibate Hero: He thinks sexual desire isn't rational/clouds the mind/etc. so he tries to suppress his attraction to Himuro as much as possible. This becomes increasingly untenable.
- The Charmer: He's quite the handsome guy himself and, despite his general emotionless demeanor, he is able to easily charm a random girl that bumped into him.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: He manages to capture the hearts of quite a number of women without any effort: his childhood friend/colleague Himuro, his student Haru, and even his kouhai Kanade. However, he is unaware of any woman's affection towards him unless it is said to him directly.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Downplayed but he's noticeably much more spartan with Kanade than Himuro is, such as in S1E10 when he was strict with her presentation practice. Kanade's presentation went well because of how prepared she was due to Yukimura's various criticisms. The contrast becomes more prominent in Kanade's character arc in Season 2, where Yukimura plays the strict father who pulls no punches in criticizing Kanade's desire to look "normal" at the cost of her own identity, while Himuro is the supportive mother who's more gentle in her approach and prefers not to touch on the subject if she feels Kanade's not ready.
- Defrosting Ice King: He cares, it's just that often he expresses that caring by being intimidating. He gets intense when emotional. Naturally, his colour motifs are grey and blue, and his surname means "Snow-Village."
- Insecure Love Interest: His general confidence and stoicism falter when it comes to his love for Himuro. He can't even bring himself to hold her hand when it is part of an experiment.
- Irony: He insulted himself without even knowing it when Ayame talked about her childhood.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Yukimura can be cold and insensitive but he's never intentionally rude. And even at his worst, he only asks Kanade for embarrassing information. He does care for the people around him such as reassuring Kosuke that there is nothing wrong with his hobbies and attempting to calm down a random high-school girl he bumped into.
- Kuudere: He is invoked type I as he explains to Himuro when they are children. One should approach all things in a dispassionate and intellectual manner. Only his latent love for Himuro can get emotional reactions out of him.
- Love Triangle: Ends up in one with Himuro and Kanade, as both of whom have feelings for him.
- No Social Skills: Yukimura has no sense of tact and will unknowingly embarrass others when trying to further his research.
- Private Tutor: Yukimura has a part-time job working as a tutor to one of his professors' daughters, who is a bit of a slacker and whose father doesn't believe in her academic abilities at all. Nonetheless, Yukimura is a fairly effective and supportive teacher, even if he's generally grumpy and frustrated.
- Proud to Be a Geek: He experienced the very same bullying as a kid that Himuro did but it was water off a duck's back to him because he was so secure in his interests. In his own words, it's not the pillbugs' fault that his classmates are immature, and the future of a scientist is bright.
- Silly Rabbit, Romance Is for Kids!: Yukimura admitted in the first chapter/episode that he thought love was only for "idiots who act on impulses and mindless urges" till he realized how love was actually an interesting research topic.
- The Spock: He speaks with an even tone consistently, only listens to others if they have authorized sources and doesn't care for social norms.
- The Teetotaler: Yukimura has no interest in drinking, stating that alcohol lowers brain function.
- Unstoppable Rage: When he saw Himuro being hounded by a pick-up artist, Yukimura was furious. But he truly exploded when the pick-up artist attempted to claim he fell in love with Himuro.
- What Is This Feeling?: Yukimura admits he's lived most of his life without girls and thus has never fallen in love. This added with his refusal to accept concepts if there isn't credible proof is the cause for Yukimura and Himuro's research.
Ayame Himuro
Voiced by: Sora Amamiya (Japanese), Avrielle Corti (English), Angélica Villa (Latin Spanish)
- Height: 170 cm
Weight: ?
Blood type: A
Hobbies: Research, reading academic texts, aromatherapy
Favourite foods: Strawberries, sweet foods in general
Favourite phrase: "Two become as one"
Idol: Émilie du Châtelet
Future goals: Fields Medal
Research area: Polynomial-time reduction
The female main character, who is a first-year graduate school student trying to figure out whether she is in love with Yukimura.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: As a child, she was gloomy and had messy hair which leads to other kids mocking her as "bug girl" because they often saw her staring at pillbugs. She tells Kanade that she started looking after her appearance after a proud geek boy explained this to her.
- Cannot Spit It Out: An amazing aversion with Himuro confessing to Yukimura at the start of the series.
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: Goes from sober to sloshed in just one minute.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Himuro never likes the idea of Yukimura being close to other women. She reaches a breaking point in S1E11 when she sees Yukimura hugging Kanade to calm Kanade down. To her credit, she never blames or acts mean to Kanade at all.
- Cool Big Sis: To Kanade. She has noticeably kinder interactions with Kanade compared to Yukimura's stricter approach. She even admits she sees Kanade as a little sister, who sees her as precisely this trope - an elegant and intelligent older girl role model.
- Crazy-Prepared: In the possibility she's approached by a pick-up artist, Himuro has prepared a presentation of why she refuses to listen to him.
- Cuddle Bug: When drunk, Himuro is very touchy-feely with the people she loves. As her love deepens, she experiences more frequent urges to cuddle even while sober.
- Dope Slap: She will hit Yukimura on the back of his head if he ignores too many social norms. This is always played for comedy with an "Impact = x" screen cutaway.
- Expressive Hair: Himuro's ponytail tends to twitch and wiggle when she's consumed with thoughts of Yukimura, sometimes wagging like a dog's tail. Unlike most examples where it is merely a visual gag, Yukimura actually acknowledges that her hair is moving and questions how it does that.
- Friendless Background: She was heavily bullied as a child and she admits she never had any female friends growing up, with Kanade being her first.
- Geeky Turn-On: Part of her initial evidence for why she is in love with Yukimura is being "captivated by the sight of him thinking".
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Himuro is actually very insecure about her relationship with Yukimura, at times even wondering if she's destined to be alone after spending most of her life as such.
- Insecure Love Interest: Due to her inexperience with romance, it's very easy to make Himuro second guess her feelings for Yukimura or her own looks.
- Kuudere: She's an invoked Type 1 example after meeting Yukimura in their childhood, trying to always be calm, beautiful and proud. But despite her best efforts some of her emotions will spill out.
- Opaque Nerd Glasses: Wore these when she was a child. In the present day, she uses either contacts or spectacles that accentuate her beauty.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: When she shows up in actual date clothes instead of a lab coat for the dating experiment, Yukimura becomes flustered and unable to speak dispassionately as usual. He enters several tabulations for "times feeling captivated". Also, during the Beach Episode, Yukimura admits that she is "2.5 to 3 times hotter than normal" when he saw her in a swimsuit.
- What Is This Feeling?: Downplayed compared to Yukimura. Himuro can at least guess her feelings for Yukimura are love but she's not completely sure thus her desire to prove that she's in love.
Kotonoha Kanade
Voiced by: Natsuko Hara (Japanese), Renee Dorian (English), Rebeca Gómez (Latin Spanish)
- Height: 162 cm
Weight: ?
Blood type: B
Hobbies: Making sweets, Shōjo manga
Favourite foods: Snacks, sweets
Favourite phrase: "Halcyon days"
Idol: Mr. Sayama, her middle school homeroom teacher
Future goals: Still thinking about it
Research area: Travelling salesman problem
An undergraduate senior girl working at Ikeda Lab for her final project, who also acts as the voice of reason for the cast.
- Badass Bookworm: Her career path is in science, but her family runs a martial arts dojo and she was taught self-defense from a young age. She put Yukimura into a wristlock once and has performed a shoulder throw on him twice, once while drunk, and reveals that she does so reflexively when someone approaches her from behind. It's hinted at early on that it caused her to do something in high school that haunts her to this day - which turned out to be throwing the teacher she had a crush on during their first date because he tripped while playfully chasing her. She slammed him onto the pavement, which knocked him unconscious and possibly broke a bone, requiring him to be hospitalized.
- Be Yourself: The point of her Character Development arc in Season 2, as she suffers from being an Extreme Doormat since childhood and is obsessed with being "normal", while the other members of Ikeda Lab have no problem showing their quirks to others.
- Extreme Doormat: As part of her drive to act "normal", she tries to act according to others' expectations of her, and is willing to sacrifice her own desires in the process.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Kanade hides it but she is jealous that Yukimura and Himuro have each other while she doesn't have a boyfriend.
- Guilt Complex: She constantly blames herself and her "abnormal" state for anything bad happening to herself and those around her. This becomes most apparent when Shikijou kidnaps her and tries to sexually assault her alongside his friends, as she keeps saying sorry to her would-be assailants and thinks of being raped as punishment for not being normal.
- Hot for Teacher: She used to have a crush on her math teacher in high school. It was initially treated as a throwaway joke, but got much more serious treatment later on as its unfortunate details and impact on Kanade's life are revealed.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Kanade desires to be normal and blend in as shown by her drunken rant in S1E07. This mentality of hers is Deconstructed in the second half of Season 2, when the circumstances behind such motivation and the associated trauma become a major focal point in the story: She reflexively shoulder threw the teacher she was in love with in high school on her first date with him. He ended up in a rather bad shape and had to be taken to the hospital. As a result, her "abnormality" (her martial arts background) not only caused her to hurt someone she cared for deeply (which she feels nothing but extreme guilt about), but also placed a thoroughly uncomfortable spotlight on them, both from onlookers at the scene and in the aftermath, with nasty rumors about her and her teacher spreading like wildfire throughout her school. Ever since then, she has done everything possible not to draw attention to herself, suppressing many of her genuine desires in the process, which puts her at odds with Yukimura's Proud to Be a Geek philosophy as he had never known, and does not bother to know, what "being normal" is.
- Never Be Hurt Again: The fallout from the incident with her high-school math teacher spurred her to try to be "normal" at all costs. Her parents keep telling her to stay "normal" to avoid bullying since childhood did not help either.
- Older Than They Look: Not to the same extent as Ibarada, but Kanade is 21 yet looks like she's in her mid-teens.
- Only Sane Man: Kanade serves this role in the cast, with her Establishing Character Moment being dumbfounded by Himuro and Yukimura's initial attempts to define "love" through equations. She tries to explain that love is not something easily proven with numbers and facts, but her attempt only prompts Yukimura to try looking for commonalities between her experiences and Himuro's. Kousuke and Ibarada would have played this role had Kousuke not been an otaku and Ibarada The Gadfly.
- Platonic Declaration of Love: The experiments into romantic love lead to her admitting to feeling sisterly love for Himuro, and admiring her as such.
- Rescue Romance: She ends up falling for Yukimura after he rescued her from Shikijou’s gang, and scientifically proved that being 'normal' is impossible and it is okay for her to not be 'normal' in the Ikeda lab, thus relieving her of extreme guilt and anxiety.
- Shipper on Deck: For Yukimura and Himuro.Kanade: Would you just get married already?!
- Straight Man: It is her job to react dryly or exasperated whenever Himuro and Yukimura approach love with statistics. As other couples are introduced and interact with the cast she continues to play this role to their antics.
- Sweet Tooth: She's frequently seen munching on sweet snacks.
- Trauma Button: Anything that reminds her of the incident where she reflexively slammed the teacher she had a crush on, hurting him rather badly - she can barely keep it together when she accidentally bumps into him again despite holding no animosity towards that person. This extends to anything that makes her feel "not normal".
- Walking Spoiler: Her childhood and the incident with her high-school math teacher put a new light on her character.
Ena Ibarada
Voiced by: Nichika Omori (Japanese), Erika Harlacher (English), Scarlet Miuller (Latin Spanish)
- Height: 142 cm
Weight: ?
Blood type: AB
Hobbies: Gaming, manga, novels, subcultures in general
Favourite foods: Japanese sweets
Favourite phrase: "Wearing black showcases a woman's beauty"
Idol: Daigo Umehara
Future goals: To live on an annuity
Research area: Chaos theory
A game-loving second-year grad student who loves messing around with the rest of the cast.
- Ambiguously Bi: There's no confirmation either way, but there are a few hints that Ibarada does have a thing for women as well as men:
- There's a shot of her hugging Himuro in the opening.
- In S1E05, Yukimura is proposing a controlled experiment where people's reactions to Sweetheart Sipping are tested via all 15 possible combinations of the 6 people in the room. Now, pay close attention to the combos featuring Ibarada, her expression is normal when paired with the boys, but when paired with the girls, she's lightly blushing.
- She finds kissing to not be a big deal, and proves as much by kissing Himuro. While everyone else is shocked, she's completely nonchalant about it.
- She was the one to introduce Kosuke to dating sims in the first place. The dating sims that predominantly feature women. Hmm...
- When a pick-up artist and his friends approached her in an attempt to score, it somehow turned into them playing Pakemon Do, with everyone present denying any ulterior motives when Kosuke gets the wrong idea.
- Most of her ship-tease moments with Kosuke appear one-sided for his part, with her finding his actions humorous, ridiculous, or sometimes kind-hearted. However the events regarding their wedding kiss in the festival arc have called into question whether she genuinely likes Kosuke back, with implications that she does feel the same to some extent.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Ibarada is the smartest student in the lab but spends more of her time sleeping and playing video games rather than researching. Her goal in life is to live off of annuity compared to Yukimura and Himuro's goals of winning prizes. This and being a gadfly annoy Yukimura immensely.
- Cute Little Fangs: Whenever they appear, they're often an indicator of her mischievous streak.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Ibarada usually wears frilly dresses and lacy collars in shades of purple. A flashback to her and Kosuke as kids shows she started to dress this way in middle school.
- The Gadfly: She likes messing with her lab fellows. Her response to the head petting experiment is to grab Yukimura's hand and nuzzle it while going "nyaa~" just to mess with him, her response to finding out his heart rate was about the same for all three girls is to start laughing, her definition of a date is simply an excuse to go into a long, overly thought-out story about the love between Yukimura and a male version of Himuro, and she demands Yukimura and Kosuke do the Wall Pin of Love experiment together, simply because she finds their discomfort hilarious.
- Gamer Chick: Ibarada's first scene in S1E02 features Kanade walking into the lab and seeing her playing with a handheld game, a game console, and a smartphone game all at once, and she's been doing so since waking up the previous night, which was the final scene of the previous episode. She continues to play the handheld while explaining to Himuro and Yukimura the need for control in their experiments.
- Male Gaze: S1E02 features a fairly gratuitous close-up of her thighs.
- Not a Morning Person: A self-admitted case, as she frequently dozes off in the morning due to spending entire nights gaming.
- Older Than They Look: Ibarada is nearly a head shorter than Kanade even while wearing heels and is rather small in other areas, but is actually Himuro and Yukimura's senpai, being 24. Interestingly, she was actually taller than Kosuke, the tallest of the students, when they were kids.
- Ship Tease: Her relationship with Kosuke gets secondary focus after the leads. Given her teasing nature, it can be tricky to distinguish when she's being sincere.
- Kosuke bridal carries her in both the opening and ending themes.
- She is the one who brings up his Childhood Marriage Promise and other events from their childhood and, in her own words, she can't forget them because she has so much emotion invested in them.
- She memorized the lines where Kosuke's dating sim "girlfriend" confesses her love to the player (i.e. him), and there is no indication that she memorized other scenes or the whole game.
- Her normal stoicism temporarily vanished when Kosuke came to her (unnecessary) rescue on the beach. While laughing about it later, she says that she will never forget what he did for her (he thinks this a "Never Live It Down" sort of thing).
- During the festival arc, while the duo cosplay and fake a wedding reception for a little girl, the two do share a kiss (caused by Arika) which leaves both of them flustered once they get away from one another for a moment.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: She's one for Yukimura due to her laziness and trolly nature.
- The Stoic: Unless she's being The Gadfly, her default expression and tone of voice is that of monotone disinterest.
- Yaoi Fangirl: When she, Kanade, and Kosuke are explaining what they view a date to be, hers starts out the same way Kosuke's ends, just with Kosuke and Aika replaced with Yukimura... and a male version of Himuro. When Kosuke and Yukimura call her out on this and ask who the guy is supposed to be, she launches into a massive backstory for "Himuro-kun" and his love for Yukimura. Downplayed in that part of the reason she came up with it was to mess with people.
Kōsuke Inukai
Voiced by: Jun Fukushima (Japanese), Natsumi Fujiwara (Japanese, child), Jeff Schine (English), Sebastián Cobos (Latin Spanish), Fernanda Gastélum (Latin Spanish, child)
- Height: 179 cm
Weight: 71 kg
Blood type: B
Hobbies: Dating sims, football
Favourite foods: Ramen, hamburg steak, curry
Favourite phrase: "Event horizon"
Idol: Shinya Yukimura, Cristiano Ronaldo
Future goals: Game developer, erect a bronze statue of Aika
Research area: Undecided; eventually chooses longest path problem
A game-loving college senior who often acts as the Audience Surrogate for showing how science works.
- Audience Surrogate: Even more than Kanade, he compares to the audience because he has Otaku interests and, despite being in a science-focused college, he asks even more basic science questions than Kanade. Proof 18 and the respective S1E08 has him outright annoyed by all the scientific terminology.
- Butt-Monkey: He is the one most likely to suffer comedic misfortune, such as being photographed kissing Ibarada's foot for losing a bet.
- Catchphrase: Kosuke tends to repeat the phrase, "I'm a man that lives for love", S1E09 reveals he even used the phrase even before he got into dating sims.
- Cute Little Fangs: He's sometimes shown with one, which may be a reference to the "Inu"note part of his name and his playful personality.
- Closet Geek: Kosuke attempts to hide his otaku interests but is incredibly bad at it. Admittedly he doesn't look like a stereotypical nerd and instead dresses and talks like a jock, he just never notices the people around him thus leading to him nerding out in front of others.
- Declaration of Protection: He promised to protect Ibarada when they were children and he saw her wearing numerous band-aids. He still takes that promise seriously in the present, as the pick-up artist found out the hard way.
- Has a Type: He and Ibarada use the Fermi Equation to find the probability of him meeting his ideal type: someone with long and fluffy hair, less than 150 cm tall, wears frilly clothing, and is tsundere. They crunch a lot of numbers before Kosuke realizes that Ibarada fits this perfectly, and he has something of a breakdown over his refusal to accept this and inability to deny it.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: All of his dating experience comes from dating sims, but it still makes him a useful frame of reference for the love experiments, and it is the closest anyone else has to dating experience.
- In-Universe Nickname: "Torasuke," arising from an Alternate Character Reading (and the more common reading) of the first kanji of his given name.
- Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: It is pointed out that his dating sim "girlfriend", Aika, is basically a digital version of Ibarada. Ibarada herself does not miss an opportunity to exploit this for teasing or trolling him.
- Large Ham: As most of his colleagues have various degrees of stoicism, his bombastic behavior and wild reactions make him stand out among the main cast and establish him as the series' Plucky Comic Relief.
- Lovable Jock: Kosuke used to be on the soccer team but is kind and respectful to others around him except Ibarada, who gets a Declaration of Protection instead.
- Otaku: Kosuke is a huge dating sim fan, admitting that he spent plenty of money on character goods. His research topic is even based on dating sims.
- Ship Tease: The romance teasing he gets with Ibarada is heaviest on his side, from Childhood Marriage Promise to Declaration of Protection, to his vital signs sparking more when she was reminiscing about their childhood together than when she was pretending to be Aika, who happens to be a digital duplicate of her.
- Tsundere: He has trouble accepting the signs of his growing affection for Ibarada and frequently dismisses her as a "pipsqueak."
- Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: Kosuke wears a Labcoat of Science and Medicine like the other characters but also wears a football jersey and shorts. This is meant to show his lack of interest in science compared to the other characters.
Professor Ikeda
Voiced by: Ryōtarō Okiayu (Japanese), Aaron LaPlante (English), Gustavo López (Latin Spanish)
- Height: 185 cm
Weight: 102 kg
Blood type: A
Hobbies: Triathlons, free climbing
Favourite foods: Protein, alcohol
Favourite phrase: "Accomplished in study and athletics"
Looks up to: Michiya Taniyama, Takaomi Kuze
Future goals: Own and operate a café
The incredibly buff professor of the group, who can often be found sleeping.
- Genius Bruiser: Professor Ikeda is a man of science and the leader of Ikeda Lab. He is also extremely fit, able to crush a pen with one hand and lift a whiteboard taller than an adult above his head with one hand and grip it hard enough to crack it.
- Hulking Out: When angered, Professor Ikeda goes from an average-looking man of average height to an extremely muscular giant with fists the size of a human head, towering over a standing Kosuke (the tallest of the students) while sitting down.
- The Mentor: It is his task to lead the students of his lab in their development as scientists. This most prominently takes the form of helping Kanade and Kosuke to choose subjects for their summer presentations.
- Sleepyhead: Professor Ikeda has a tendency of dozing off.
Other People from Saitama University
Suiu Fujiwara
Voiced by: Marina Yamada (Japanese), América Torres (Latin Spanish)
A researcher of the biology department, who likes to dress and talk in a seductive way.
- Ambiguously Bi: She's in a long-term relationship with Chris but it does not stop her from trying to seduce other women, including Himuro and Kanade.
- Beta Couple: Her established and unabashed romance with Chris serves to contrast Yukimura and Himuro's budding relationship.
- Establishing Character Moment: She is first introduced to the main cast roleplaying as a courtesan from the feudal age, complete with a kiseru pipe.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Her long hair covers her right eye, complementing her sultry appearance.
- Ms. Fanservice: Wears a very revealing dress which is only partially covered by her lab coat. Chris often expresses his disapproval of her showing too much skin.
- One Head Taller: She's one head taller than her boyfriend Chris due to the latter's rather short stature.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Chris. They have no qualms about public display of affection and the main cast instantly call them a "stupid couple."
Chris Floret
Voiced by: Yuki Kaji (Japanese), Chris Hackney (English), Jessie Garibay (Latin Spanish)
Suiu's research partner and boyfriend, who fancies himself as a gentlemanly knight.
- Beta Couple: His established and unabashed romance with Suiu serves to contrast Yukimura and Himuro's budding relationship.
- Character Tic: Makes a lot of comparisons involving Cornwall.
- Keet: In contrast to the overly stoic and rational Yukimura, Chris wears his heart on his sleeve and loves doing things in bombastic ways.
- Large Ham: Whenever he declares his chivalry and his love for Suiu.
- One Head Taller: Chris is rather short compared to his colleagues, making him one head shorter than Suiu.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Suiu. They have no qualms about public display of affection and the main cast instantly call them a "stupid couple."
Yoshitaka Taniguchi
Voiced by: Takashi Ookubo (Japanese), Emmanuel Bernal (Latin Spanish)
A well-mannered student from Saitama University's Education Department. Participated in the group date experiment with Kamiya.
- Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: He and Kamiya make up the bickering (at least on her end) Will They or Won't They? couple to contrast the other satellite couple of the series, Sickeningly Sweethearts Chris and Suiu.
- Nice Guy: Pleasant and genuine, his main goal in his few appearances has been to ensure that Kamiya has a good time.
- One Head Taller: Towers over the diminutive Kamiya.
- Those Two Guys: Has yet to interact with anyone other than Kamiya despite occasionally participating in plot-relevant events.
- Will They or Won't They?: He and Kamiya aren't dating and ostensibly only participate in the group date experiment for the money, but it quickly becomes clear that the two care for each other more than they let on.
Madoka Kamiya
Voiced by: Tomoyo Takayanagi (Japanese), Olinca Hidalgo (Latin Spanish)
A student from Saitama University's Education Department. Participated in the group date experiment with Taniguchi.
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Is disappointed when Taniguchi is totally unaffected by the rapidly advancing sexual tension while on an observation deck with the other couples.
- Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: Among the satellite couples, she and Taniguchi make up the bickering (at least on her end) Will They or Won't They? couple to contrast Sickeningly Sweethearts Chris and Suiu.
- Those Two Guys: Has yet to interact with anyone other than Taniguchi despite occasionally participating in plot-relevant events.
- Tsundere: Is very strict with Taniguchi and doesn't pull punches when he's being indecisive or unreliable. She's keenly aware of this, though, and mentally berates herself whenever she loses her temper with him, worrying that he won't want anything to do with her if she keeps it up.
- Will They or Won't They?: She and Taniguchi aren't dating and ostensibly only participate in the group date experiment for the money, but it quickly becomes clear that the two care for each other more than they let on.
Other characters
Rikekuma
Voiced by: Momo Asakura (Japanese), Tara Sands (English), Lucy Escandón (Latin Spanish)
A bear mascot who explains certain complicated science details for the audience.
- Fantastic Racism: Tends to pepper his explanations with disparaging remarks on human intelligence.
- Mr. Exposition: He usually pops up to explain certain complex science terms for the audience.
- Shout-Out: Appeared in an S1E05 skit dressed as Yoda from Attack of the Clones.
- Verbal Tic: Rikekuma the Science Bear says "kuma", Japanese for "bear", at the end of his sentences. The dub follows with him saying "bear" at the end of his lines.
Arika Yamamoto
Voiced by: Yui Ogura (Japanese), Cherami Leigh (English), Fernanda Gastélum (Latin Spanish)
An aspiring mangaka and former student of Professor Ikeda's, who starts writing a manga based on Yukimura and Himuro's romance.
- Artsy Beret: She's a manga artist who occasionally wears a purple beret.
- Author Avatar: The mangaka of the series is Alfred Yamamoto who also graduated from a science college and became a mangaka. The manga makes it even more obvious since Arika is shown with the avatar Alfred uses in the extras.
- Knight of Cerebus: Arika's arrival is the point where the series starts getting more serious, and she deliberately plays the part in S1E12, sabotaging Himuro's attempt to make up with Yukimura just for the sake of creating drama to use for her manga.
- Laser-Guided Karma: S1E12 reveals that Arika intentionally damaged Himuro's gift to Yukimura for the drama of it. As a result, Ibarada intentionally ordered extensive room service that Arika has to pay for as punishment.
- Melodrama: Arika justifies her actions by saying she only did what she did to make the story more interesting.
- Muse Abuse: Arika manipulates events according to Rule of Drama. For example, when Himuro is about to give Yukimura a present, Arika swaps it with a broken one so that it's more dramatic when she gives him the real gift and they make up.
- Spanner in the Works: She sabotages Himuro's attempt to apologize to Yukimura in order to prolong the tension between them and orchestrate a dramatic resolution. After Yukimura calls her out on it, she reveals she had no malicious intent, and simply swapped the spectacle case that was intended to be his gift for an identical damaged one that she purchased herself. She then nudges Yukimura in the right direction to help him settle things with Himuro.
- Write Who You Know: In-Universe — Arika uses Himuro and Yukimura as the basis for her next romance story, and is implied to draw inspiration from anyone else around her where needed.
Haru Kagurano
Voiced by: Rena Hasegawa (Japanese), Erin Yvette (English), Karen Alicia Vallejo (Latin Spanish)
A high-school girl whom Yukimura tutors. Despite being the daughter of a prominent professor, she shows no interest in studying and acts like a typical Gyaru Girl.
- Affectionate Nickname: "Yukipi-sensei" for Yukimura.
- Abusive Dad: Her father frequently berates her for not doing well in school, calling her an idiot. After bad-talking Haru to Yukimura's face, he receives a well-deserved tongue-lashing from the latter, who states that the constant verbal abuse is the main reason Haru has no desire to study in the first place.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Yukimura defending her against her father's harsh treatment is what solidifies her feelings for her tutor.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: As Yukimura finds out, she is actually capable of studying well once he frames his lessons in a way that's easy for her to understand. Once Haru is set on entering Saitama University (where Yukimura works), she is able to study on her own.
- Gyaru Girl: A textbook example, complete with dyed hair, numerous accessories, acting ditzy and using teen slangs.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Bubble tea. Yukimura decides to frame his first lesson around it to get her attention.
Naoya Shikijou (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Voiced by: Yoshitaka Yamaya (Japanese), Nicolas Roye (English), Geezuz González (Latin Spanish)
A student from the Tokyo University of Science and Technology that the group first encounter on the beach in Okinawa. Starts dating Kanade in season 2, but after she indicates that she doesn't want to continue their relationship, he snaps and shows his true colors.
- Attempted Rape: He and his friends are very close to raping Kanade until Yukimura’s timely intervention.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Demure on the outside, deranged on the inside.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Judges everything based on how "normal" it is, which wouldn't be catastrophic if his perception of normality wasn't completely bonkers. To him, "normal" is an entirely outwardly, skin-deep concept, where it only matters that you play along with what others expect of you. Everything else is irrelevant - so long as he acts like a pleasant young man and goes through the motions, he is "normal" and feels entitled to everything and justified doing anything, including repeatedly stabbing the prongs of an active stun gun into the face of one of his associates. Likewise, Kanade going "off-script" with his perfect dating life and rejecting him makes her "abnormal", and he therefore feels justified doing anything to her so long as it changes her mind, including kidnapping and Attempted Rape.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Is first seen on the beach hanging out with Yuuichi, the sleazy pickup artist that unsuccessfully hit on Himuro several episodes earlier. He later gives a presentation at the same conference as the other characters do, revealing that he is also a science student. Later, he bumps into Kanade and the two start dating.
- Entitled to Have You: During the kidnapping incident, he keeps rambling about how Kanade should have said yes to him as he went through all the “right” steps of dating, and by rejecting him, she’s not “normal” to him.
- Establishing Character Moment: His dismal failure at giving his presentation. As Yukimura points out in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech, the presentation seemed impeccable at first glance, styling itself as tackling complex topics that were way beyond the comprehension of his peers. However, it falls apart the moment someone experienced starts questioning any part of it, revealing the substance to be thoroughly rotten.
- Freudian Excuse: According to him, his father frequently, brutally beat him up while still looked like a mild-mannered model citizen to others. This apparently warped his view of "being normal" and led to him becoming a psychopath who can still act mild-mannered during his violent acts and believes that as long as he can maintain a "normal" image, everything else he does, no matter how violent or immoral, is justified.
- Foil: He is a mirror that shows Kanade the flaws in her cred of "being normal". Namely, how the concept of "normal" can be skewed between different people, and how dangerous it can be.
- Hypocrite: He accuses Kanade, a girl who has trouble controlling her reflexes stemming from her martial arts training, of not being normal despite himself being a violent psychopath, which is considered anything but normal.
- Knight of Cerebus: His actions and reactions after being turned down by Kanade takes the show to a much darker place than it had ever gotten even close to prior.
- Not Good with Rejection: The first hint of his true nature. At the School Festival, when Kanade blurts out "sorry" after he asks her out again, his pleasant demeanor vanishes as he asks her what he has done wrong with a deranged expression.
- Obvious Villain, Secret Villain: His first appearance shows him hanging out with the mildly unpleasant pickup artist Yuuichi, where he appeared to be a nice kid who’s not good at picking friends. Who could've guessed that his true nature makes Yuuichi look like a harmless puppy?
- Yandere: When he first appears, he acts like an awkward Nice Guy. The moment Kanade rejects him after he asks her out again, he kidnaps her and tries to “correct” her alongside his equally messed-up friends, while constantly saying that if Kanade was “normal”, she wouldn’t have rejected him. During that incident, he frequently switches back and forth between a warm smile and a deranged one.
- Walking Spoiler: His true nature as a VERY messed-up individual underpins the entire season 2 finale.
