A list of characters of The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, most of which reside in the titular Sakura Hall, a wooden two-story house harboring some of the quirkiest students of Suimei University of the Arts High School ("Suiko" in local parlance). Some spoilers for the light novels are left unmarked, so read at your own risk.
open/close all folders
Sakura Hall
Sorata Kanda
Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese), Greg Ayres (English)
The protagonist, an insecure second-year high school boy who chose to move to Sakura Hall rather than throw away a stray cat he had found. In there, however, being surrounded by talented yet quirky peers has taken a toll on his ordinary life, more so when he meets Mashiro, who indirectly inspires him to carry on with his dream of developing video games. He lives in Room 101.- Accidental Pervert: He has had run-ins with Mizuki and Aoyama regarding this like when he wakes up in Episode 1 right into Misaki or walks into the laundry room while Aoyama is naked.
- Can't Catch Up: Towards Mashiro, who he feels is leagues above him in a lot of things. A pretty brutal example of this happens in episode 21, when his game pitch fails again, and then the game company that rejected his proposal sends Mashiro an offer to create characters for their games, without her even trying to do it.
- Chaste Hero: He's oblivious to romance and incredibly resistant to sexual antics. Until he realizes he loves Mashiro and they admit their love for each other.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: He's put in charge of "Mashiro Duty", i.e. taking care of all of Mashiro's everyday tasks that she can't do herself because of her social ineptitude and utter lack of common sense. That includes making sure Mashiro gets dressed in the morning and eats properly, doing her laundry, and going with her anywhere so she doesn't get lost.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: He wasn't happy when he thought that Mashiro and Jin were on a date during Episode 3.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Sorata is continuously awed by people who are sure of what they want. Through Mashiro, he eventually realizes what he wants to do (become a video game creator/designer) and sets off toward that goal.
- Determinator: Inverted and then Deconstructed. Early on he only thinks he is set and determined on a goal. In reality, he constantly quits before even trying despite his big words. And even after Character Development get's him to take things more seriously he still has to accept the fact that determination alone sometimes just isn't enough, especially in the face of Mashiro's talent.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Frequently in the introductory episodes, especially his "Boring" soliloquies. Briefly in episode 21 after hearing that his game didn't make it through the final review.
- Fatal Flaw:
- Insecurity. His self-esteem issues stem from living in an environment where its inhabitants are quirky, yet talented, and Sorata sees himself as the only person of the dormitory with no exceptional skillsets.
- Resentment. More often than not, Mashiro's talents as an artist are recognised over Sorata's hard work, to the point that it drives a wedge between the two any time he takes out his frustrations on her.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: He already has self-esteem issues, one which isn't helped by landing at a house filled with some of the brightest yet also quirkiest boys and girls in Suiko.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: He claims that he just wants to leave Sakurasou to have some normalcy in his life, but underneath it all, he is secretly wishing to be more special.
- I Just Want to Be Special: While he claims that he just wants to be normal, he has a strong desire to be special in some way. Early on this takes the form of him being Mashiro's caretaker, only for him to then realize that she is an incredibly talented painter. And just to rub it in, Jin makes clear that anyone could take care of her just as well as he does. Eventually however he does start to be more honest with himself.
- Innocent Innuendo: Mashiro's misconstrued Sexual Euphemism-ish phrases, especially around Nanami.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: He originally went to Sakura Hall due to his inability to give up Hikari, his first cat. He claims after that he just keeps finding cute kittens in cardboard boxes. The cats become family pets of Sakura Hall. Currently they have at least seven cats.
- Knight in Shining Armor: He's always there for anyone who needs him, especially Mashiro. See Nice Guy.
- Large Ham: Whenever necessary he can be yelling in a very hammy way.
- Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: He lives with a Hyperactive Child Prodigy Otaku Surrogate (Misaki), a Casanova with an inferiority complex (Jin), a Hikikomori Bishonen He-Man Woman Hater Techno Wizard (Ryuunosuke), a Workaholic (Aoyama), a Sensei-chan Hot Teacher Lazy Bum (Chihiro), and a Child Prodigy Emotionless Girl Idiot Savant (Mashiro) who he takes care of.
- Nice Guy: Despite being the role of the The Straight Man with Mashiro, Sorata is a kind-hearted and friendly guy at heart. This is quite evident when he refuses to turn away any abandoned cat despite dorm policies against them.
- Not What It Looks Like: Is frequently on the receiving end of this due to Mashiro's leaving ends of sentence out and causing confusion.
- When Mashiro she says Sorata is "the first boy [she's] been with", Aoyama immediately assumes she means they slept together. After Aoyama runs off Mashiro finishes the sentence by adding "the first boy I've been friends with."
- When Mashiro approaches holding her tummy and says "I'm expecting", Misaki assumes Sorata got Mashiro pregnant and tackles him. After both are on the ground Mashiro says "...dinner to be ready" as her tummy growls.
- Oblivious to Love: It takes him a great deal of effort to notice Mashiro's affections and never catches on to Nanami's.
- Only Sane Man: Poor guy has to deal with the crazies in his new dorm (including the landlady, no less). The only reason he's even in the Sakura Hall is because the regular dorms won't let him keep a cat. Then, as it turns out, he is also this to his own family. While he does have the traits of this trope, in Sakura Hall, he's not actually the only sane one as there is also Jin and Nanami.
- Ordinary High-School Student: He is a pretty average guy who was sent to a Quirky Household for keeping a cat, then had the responsibility of looking after an Idiot Savant dumped on him...
- Parental Abandonment: Subverted. He originally lived in the neighborhood with his family, but stays behind in a dorm after his father found a job in Fukuoka, then moved there with both his mother and his little sister Yuuko.
- Performance Anxiety: He tenses up a lot in Episode 8 during his presentation for his video game idea. Naturally, this doesn't go very well for him. He gets by fine when he presents a second time two episodes later, however.
- The Resenter: Occasionally becomes close to this in terms of resenting Mashiro for her talent while his hard work fails him. He ended up lashing out at her a few times, but he managed to prevent himself from becoming this and stayed close friends with her.
- Ridiculously Average Guy: Compares himself to his quirky, talented peers in that he fails to understand what's so special about himself.
- Sleep Deprivation: He suffers from this due to people constantly using his room, whether it's Mashiro, Misaki, his sister, Yuuko, Rina, or multiples at the same time.
- Stock Light-Novel Everyman: Sorata is a Ridiculously Average Guy who finds himself in a dormitory of talented peers and constantly feels Overshadowed by Awesome, especially towards the female lead, Mashiro Shiina who is ridiculously talented at everything. However he does find himself as The Heart of the group and the personal carer for Mashiro who despite her talents, lacks even the most fundamental common sense and ability to care for herself. While he is Oblivious to Love, the Unwanted Harem aspect is downplayed as aside from Mashiro, only one other girl has displayed interest in him.
- Straight Man: Pairs with his Only Sane Man to constantly setup jokes for Misaki, Mashiro, and others.
Mashiro Shiina
Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese), Caitlynn French (English)
The female protagonist, a gifted yet somewhat strange second-year transferee to Suiko after living for many years in England to learn how to draw manga. Early on, she exhibits a total lack of knowledge in any other skill than drawing, including basic hygiene and social skills. For this reason Sorata was assigned as her caretaker. She lives in Room 202.- Always Someone Better: Mashiro always excels everyone with her talents, to the point those around her tend to develop an inferiority complex because of her. Rita and many of her art classmates gave up art because they could never be as good as her and eventually Sorata also begins to feel overshadowed by Mashiro's talents.
- Animal Motifs: She's associated with cats, particularly a white cat (like Hikari).
- Animals Hate Her: While Mashiro seems to like cats, the feeling is not mutual. This does, however, improve as the series goes on.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Unless she's drawing manga, it's hard for her to keep her attention focused on anything she's doing for more than a few seconds.
- Betty and Veronica: Mashiro (Veronica) and Nanami (Betty) are the two girls who have feelings for Sorata. Mashiro is the blonde New Transfer Student from another country and Idiot Savant who is already a highly successful painter.
- Body Motifs: She isn't very skilled manually when it comes to everyday life, but exceptionally so regarding drawing and painting.
- Book Dumb: She gets very poor grades, but only because she's unable to pay attention in class. She can easily pass the make-up exams by remembering all of the answers.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: During the bath scene in Episode 7, one of Yuuko's many praises of Mashiro is her being surprisingly busty.
- Cherry Blossom Girl: A subtle version because she isn't named Sakura, but she's associated with cherry blossoms, the main love interest, introduced in spring, coming out of her shell.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Not in an aggresive way, but she doesn't like to see Sorata getting along with other girls such as Nanami, Rita and his sister.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Her train of thoughts and behaviour are very off, to say the least. Thus Chihiro-sensei assigns Sorata as her Cloudcuckoolander's Minder.
- Color Motif: White. Her given name means "pure white", she has a fairer skin than the rest of the cast, and it is pretty clear that Sorata even thought she is "pure to a fault".
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Sorata's influence makes her way more socially adept and helps her understand emotions more. However, when her editor talks to Sorata about Mashiro changing and starting to become more "normal", Sorata says he actually liked Mashiro better back when she was just an Idiot Savant who only thought about drawing her manga, since he sees her sudden interest in things like cooking as her "slacking off" (not realizing she's doing it for him).
- Deuteragonist: Sorata is the lead character, but a lot of what he does is take care of Mashiro. She gets the most focus after him.
- Emotionless Girl: She has a very flat affectation and doesn't understand the concept of emotions too well. She isn't entirely emotionless, rather expresses her emotions through actions and not words.
- First Love: Kanda combined with What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?
- First-Name Basis: She demands that her friends call her by her given name. Difficulty due to Japanese culture interferes with this.
- Forgets to Eat: If nobody reminds her to eat something, she won't since drawing manga is the only thing in her mind.
- Friendless Background: Her prodigous talent has driven friends and associates away from her, leaving her with little to no true friends at the beginning of the series. Not that she cares because doing art was always the only thing in her mind.
- Genius Ditz: As mentioned, horribly incompetent at almost everything, but she is a world-class painter and has won multiple awards for her art.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's a pure-hearted and innocent young girl with pale blonde hair.
- Hey, You!: Due to lack of social skills, she never uses Japanese Honorifics. Partially justifiable by spending most of her youth in Britain.
- Hidden Buxom: During Episode 7, Yuuko claims that she thought that Mashiro would be flat, only to be proven very wrong once the two were in the bath.
- Idiot Savant: She doesn't seem to know how to clothe herself decently on her own, nor does she have much common sense, such as when she opens a snack and eats it in the store before paying for it. However, she is an extremely talented artist and devotes heavily to that field of study.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: She needs to be told or given what to wear. Lack thereof can find her braless, pantiless, or completely nude.
- Innocent Innuendo: Very common as well, also due to her complete lack of social skills.
- Episode 2: Says Sorata is her "first", taken as sexual, but she meant first friend. Though it heavily implied in the latter novels he does become her first in this regard as well.
- Episode 5: She pretty much implied she has been having sex with Sorata all night in front of Nanami, while she referred to video games.
- Innocently Insensitive: She tends to speak embarrassing and/or insulting things to other characters in a matter-of-fact tone, without considering how would they feel. Sorata is currently helping her become more socially adept.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Sorata concludes Mashiro's unparalleled talent and lack of interest in anything but art are the reasons why she has no social life to speak of. There's also that nearly all the people who hang out with Mashiro for too long end up getting so jealous of her natural talent and success that they get away from her to protect their self-esteem, and this doesn't exclude Sorata.
- Literal-Minded: When asked what she was thinking, Mashiro answers instead with exactly what is she thinking at the moment (such as "Of the Earth").
- Meaningful Name: "Mashiro" means "pure white".
- Messy Hair: It's apparent through the show that Mashiro has never mastered the invention called a comb with her hair going a bit every which way, making it clear that she has little concern for her outward appearance.
- New Transfer Student: She transfers in from her school in England in the spring semester.
- No Sense of Direction: She needs someone to go with her whenever she travels outside the dorm because she'll get lost if she's left on her own.
- No Social Skills: She begins the series knowing nothing but drawing, develops some social skills along the way, but not enough to live on her own.
- Oblivious to Hatred: Mashiro hardly realizes how her talent brings her the envy and scorn from those around her. Rita reveals that Mashiro's talent was so far ahead of her peers that every one of them except Rita quit in shame. Rita also blames Mashiro for her grandfather telling her to quit art because she won't ever be as good as Mashiro. Rita even confesses she convinced Mashiro to become a mangaka because she wanted to see her fail at something. Mashiro, for her part, had no idea of how badly her fellow artists felt about her because she never focused on anything but her own art.
- Photographic Memory: She's awful in verbal memory, but she can remember practically anything if she sees visually "like a painting". For an extreme example, she completely flops all her tests, including English, much to Sorata's consternation, considering the fact that she spent most of her childhood in Britain. Later, she was given some study sheets, and instantly remembers all the information on it, which Sorata briefly tests her on. She later aces all her retests.
- The Quiet One: Mashiro expresses herself via expressions more than words. She's often quiet or completely silent. Which makes it all the more shocking when she shouts "THANK YOU!" during the Nyaboron launch.
- Rei Ayanami Expy: She is a strange girl with virtually No Social Skills, doesn't understand the concept of emotions and nudity too well and has light hair, fairer skin than the rest of the cast and reddish eyes.
- Sequential Artist: She traveled from England to Japan, leaving a very promising career as a painter behind, because she wants to become a professional mangaka. While Mashiro's manga art is impeccable, her storytelling is below par because of her No Social Skills. She overcomes this problem by drawing stories about her life in Sakura Hall.
- Sleep Deprivation: Because of her tendency to work heavily on her art into the night, she goes to bed very late and usually has to be woken up by her current caretaker, often Sorata.
- Sleeps in the Nude: If no one leaves her pajamas ready and tells her to put them on, she goes to sleep in her birthday suit. Sorata found out about this when he went to wake her up and found her naked.
- The Spock: A subdued example. Her train of thought is highly based on logic and shows much less emotion than everyone around her, however she still has plenty of emotions but she doesn't know how to properly express them and in some cases, don't even know what to do with them in the first place.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's a sweet and loving girl, just quite emotionally distant and odd. Over the series, her ice thaws a little, but mostly becomes transparent.
- There Are No Therapists: People may know she needs help, but nobody ever recommends professional help. Truth in Television as Japanese culture has a stigma against mental illness.
- Through His Stomach: She wants to learn to cook so she can give Sorata a boxed lunch, imitating Misaki giving one to Jin. Sorata fails to realize this and thinks she's just slacking off from her work as a mangaka.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Baumkuchen (German tree-ring cake, popular in Japan).
- Trash of the Titans: After just her first night at Sakura Hall, Sorata finds Mashiro's dorm room make a complete mess.
- Tsurime Eyes: Her eyes are slanted upwards, symbolizing her emotionally detached and spacey character.
- Two First Names: Her family name Shiina is commonly used as a Japanese feminine given name.
- Unknowingly in Love: During the Airplane of Love scene, she says "Is this... love?" when she feels new emotions for Sorata for the first time as a result of Sorata's desperate plea for her to stay at Sakura Hall. Her lack of emotional self-awareness is a result of her being an Emotionless Girl at the start of the anime.
- Write What You Know: In-Universe example. Her editor Ayano recommended her to do this, and her serialized manga Nanohana-sou is practically what happened in the Sakura Hall at the moment.
- Write Who You Know: In-Universe example. The characters in her serialized manga Nanohana-sou are based on everyone in Sakura Hall, but gender flipped.
Nanami Aoyama
Voiced by: Mariko Nakatsu (Japanese), Christina Kelly (English)
Sorata's classmate, who later transfers to Sakura Hall, another second-year high school girl, and an aspiring voice actress. Because her parents disapprove of her chosen career, she is disowned and runs away from home, forcing her to work in multiple part-time jobs to earn money so she could transfer to a voice acting school. She lives in Room 203.- Accent Adaptation: In the English dub, her occasional Kansai accent is changed to a Brooklyn accent.
- Accent Slip-Up: She slips into Kansai accent whenever she is angry or flustered.
- Alone Among the Couples: She becomes this way as Mashiro and Sorata grow closer, Misaki and Jin's relationship reveals, and Ryuunosuke and Rina have their relationship.
- Animal Motif: Tiger, demonstrated from her stuffed tiger Torajirou and tiger-striped panties. (Interestingly, in Mashiro's manga Nanohana-sou—a replica of what happens in the Sakura Hall—Mashiro's male stand-in is called Toratarou.)
- Betty and Veronica: Nanami (Betty) and Mashiro (Veronica) are the two girls who have feelings for Sorata. Nanami is Sorata's down-to-earth and super hard-working classmate and friend who is the much more "normal" option next to the Idiot Savant Mashiro.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: While the three were in the bath, Yuuko claims that she'll "have to be careful" once she finds out that Nanami's chest is even bigger than Mashiro's.
- Cannot Spit It Out: She simply can't bring herself to tell Sorata how she feels about him.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Nanami never likes it when she thinks Sorata is an intimate relationship with another girl, mainly Mashiro.
- Covert Pervert: She owns some rather fancy underwear, and her usual reaction whenever confronted by a strange situation is to assume the most perverted possibility.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Nanami has a stuffed tiger named Torajirou, and sometimes talks to it when she's stressed.
- Heroic BSoD: She gets a delayed one of these after finding out she failed her audition. At first, she seemed well-adjusted to the bad news. This was disproved in the next episode when she emotionally broke down in the middle of school.
- Heroic RRoD: Her Workaholic habits catch up with her in Episode 6, when she falls ill before her first audition.
- Hopeless Suitor: Towards Sorata. She may have had a chance before Mashiro came into the scene, but...
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Once she realizes that she doesn't have a chance with Sorata, she lets go of her feelings for him so he can be with Mashiro.
- The Idiot from Osaka: Inverted. The character from Osaka is the most sensible and responsible of the main cast.
- Minor Living Alone: Her parents object to her aspirations as a voice actress, and refused to help her pay her way through this. So, she ended up moving out. Currently, she's working various jobs to support herself while she attends normal high school and voice acting school at the same time.
- Only Sane Woman: She feels like she's the only real levelheaded one in Sakura Hall.
- Perpetual Poverty: Due to her self-exile from her family home, Nanami has to pay for all her own bills. By episode 5, she was pretty much in such a state.
- Put on a Bus: In the sixth volume of the light novels, Nanami goes back to Osaka after she fails the voice actor election for the second time. She doesn't return until the final year of high school after managing to convince her parents to let her continue her voice acting studies.
- Romantic Runner-Up: Due largely to her being unable to confess her feelings for Sorata sooner, she falls into this trope. In episode 22 she essentially gives him a speech that ends up "friend-zoning" herself towards him, but she likely did it because even if she did confess by that point, he'd reject it and would make their friendship awkward.
- Tender Tears: She silently breaks down at class when she fails her February audition, meaning that two years of effort amounted to bupkis, and goes into an Heroic BSoD until Sorata pulls her out of it, making her cry her lungs out.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: Her hair is almost always tied up into a ponytail. Instead of tomboyishness, it represents her serious and hard-working nature.
- Triple Shifter: She has little to no time to rest because she's overworking herself by studying and working several jobs.
- Tsundere: Sweet type. Nanami is nice and friendly to everyone except when Sorata does something that makes her angry like catching him with another girl.
- Workaholic: She tries to take up Sorata's "Mashiro Duty" despite all the voice acting training and all the jobs she has. When it becomes clear she can't juggle "Mashiro Duty" with her personal responsibilities, she decides to let Sorata handle it.
Jin Mitaka
Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Scott Gibbs (English)
A third-year student and Misaki's childhood friend. Despite his genuine feelings for Misaki, he feels she is too talented for someone like him, a struggling playwright, so he instead becomes a playboy. He lives in Room 103.- Best Her to Bed Her: He misguidedly subscribes to this trope as something he must do before he can be with Misaki.
- Beta Couple: His relationship with Misaki serves as a parallel for the one Sorata has with Mashiro. Like Sorata, Jin has feelings for an eccentric, but extremely talented girl with a far greater potential as an author than him, which puts a big hindrance in their romance because Jin doesn't want to feel inferior to Misaki. Jin mostly overcomes his insecurities after he's accepted into Osaka University of the Arts and agrees to sign the marriage registration with Misaki.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's an aspiring playwright who pretends to be a shameless playboy so he can distract himself from feeling inferior in talent to his childhood crush.
- Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: The main reason why he won't do anything sexual to Misaki.
- Can't Catch Up: Towards Misaki, who feels his scripts aren't on par with the level of talent Misaki shows in her creations. This is another reason why he constantly brushes off her advances, as he feels he's not good enough for her and would just weigh her down.
- The Casanova: He has dated several girls, including Misaki's older sister. He's proud of it too, being nicknamed The Flying Ace because of it.
- Childhood Friend Romance: He and Misaki are childhood friends. He realized his feelings way before she did, but won't start dating her until he's sure he's her creative equal. Before he leaves to Osaka University of the Arts, he gives Misaki a marriage registration form with his signature, intending to turn it in with her after he graduates. Misaki ends up turning it in after his departure on the same day, which makes them legally married.
- Chivalrous Pervert: In Episode 3, Sorata tells Jin to return to the dorm to comfort a heartbroken Misaki, who saw him and Mashiro in front of a Love Hotel. He declines, saying he'd be tempted to do perverted things to Misaki were he to see her like that, which he doesn't want.
- Commitment Issues: He has loved Misaki for a long time, but won't commit to her until he proves to himself that he can be her equal in the creative career sense. Instead, he plays The Casanova while ignoring Misaki's aggressive pursuit of him.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: He REALLY does not like the idea of Misaki being with another guy, even if it's just hypothetically suggested.
- Fatal Flaw: He's smart, mature, and cool. But is deeply afraid and insecure about a potential romance with Misaki, which causes quite a bit of pain for both of them (and their friends). He eventually overcomes this though.
- Head-Turning Beauty: He tends to turn ladies' heads everywhere he goes and regardless of who is accompanying him.
- Ignore the Fanservice: He blatantly ignores Misaki's advances.
- Insecure Love Interest: The reason he plays The Casanova. While he does have feelings for Misaki and remains loyal to her, he feels he's not good enough to be with her, due to her talents, such as in animation, and feels he would just weigh her down if he tried to have a serious relationship with her. This despite the obvious signs that Misaki really wants to be with him. He also feels that, at the emotional place that he is, he would not be able to treat her with the dignity that he wants to dispense towards her, as he's mostly driven by lust and he cares too much about her to subject her to a treatment that basic and superficial.
- Ladykiller in Love: He's a well-known playboy, but Misaki is the only woman he's seriously interested in. In a twist, his feelings for Misaki are the reason he's The Casanova in the first place, since it's his way to deal with his inferiority complex towards Misaki.
- Patient Childhood Love Interest: Something of a deconstruction. Jin has been pining after Misaki for years without her ever realizing it. However, even though Misaki clearly returns his feelings to the point of constantly throwing herself at him, Jin will put the moves on any girl but Misaki. This is caused by his misguided belief that he can't start a relationship with Misaki if her talent as an animator overshadows him, so he wants to become a successful playwright before he gives in to Misaki's advances.
- Put on a Bus: After graduating from high school, he moves to Osaka so he can go to his chosen university and improve as a playwright.
- Settle for Sibling: He dated Misaki's older sister Fuuka because he didn't consider himself good enough for Misaki. They broke up because Fuuka was tired of being Misaki's replacement.
- Shipper on Deck: He's constantly trying to encourage Nanami to confess her feelings to Sorata, even when it becomes obvious that the latter is interested in Mashiro.
- Single-Target Sexuality: He pretends to be The Casanova, but Misaki has been the only woman he has real feelings for ever since he can remember. In fact, he only dated Misaki's older sister and so many other girls to cope with not feeling good enough for Misaki.
- Stoic Spectacles: He sports a pair of those.
Misaki Kamiigusa
Voiced by: Natsumi Takamori (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)
A third-year student, Jin's childhood friend, and a hyperactive artist, whose obsession with anime and manga forced Suiko's higher-ups to send her over to Sakura Hall. She lives in Room 201.- The Ace: She is quite smart, and fairly good at everything she does, to the point that she even made a short anime single-handedly.
- Animal Motif: Bears; she seems to be a fan of a nameless bear mascot.
- Auntie Pennybags: She is implied to be independently wealthy, likely due to having multiple anime picked up by publishers. She frequently treats her dorm-mates to hotpot meals, gifts, and trips. She also owns a large variety of decorations, costumes, and gadgets she might share with others.
- Beta Couple: With Jin. They're the second Official Couple after Sorata and Mashiro and face somewhat similar problems due to Sorata and Jin feeling threatened by the artistic talents of Mashiro and Misaki. Jin and Misaki solve their relationship issues quite earlier and become a married couple after finishing high school.
- Blush Sticker: She sports these occasionally, and during the opening credits.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's an amazingly talented artist with a promising future as an animator. She's also a wacky and spontaneous Genki Girl Otaku and a huge exhibitionist.
- Childhood Friend Romance: She is openly in love with her childhood friend Jin, despite the latter's womanizing habits, and constantly tries to seduce him. Turns out Jin does reciprocate her feelings, but won't date her as long as he feels her artistic talent is far superior to his. After Jin leaves to Osaka University of the Arts, Misaki turns in the marriage registration he signed without his consent, so they're now legally married whether Jin likes it or not.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: When she sees Jin and Mashiro standing in front of a love hotel. She invokes this trope again in episode 9 when Jin openly hits on Rita, despite Rita turning him down.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Her otaku and Genki Girl tendencies make her one.
- Dogged Nice Girl: To Jin. She's been openly in love with him for years and his Casanova front clearly does not change her opinion of him a bit. Her advances can be overly aggressive sometimes, though.
- Drives Like Crazy: In Episode 7 she manages to send her driving instructor into a nervous wreck while trying to pass her Driving Test. Becomes a crucial skill in episode 12 when they attempt to make their way to the airport after hearing Mashiro is leaving.
- Fast-Roping: She installs a rope from her window, from which dangles a makeshift lift which she uses to drop into Sorata's room.
- Friend to All Children: She invited many kids to Sakura Hall's Tanabata event.
- Gamer Chick: She frequently goes to Sorata's room to play video games with him.
- Genki Girl: Her general attitude when not involving the subject of Jin in the topic.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: She apparently didn't realize she was in love with Jin until he began dating her sister.
- Hates Being Alone: During her graduation speech she reveals that she strived to make Sakura Hall a place where she would find true friends, preparing each room for a new arrival and making sure that everyone felt at home there because, at first, she was effectively discarded there and forced to be on her own with Chihiro at the very beginning.
- Idiot Hair: A single strand of hair stands atop her head, fitting her Cloudcuckoolander Genki Girl character.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Like Mashiro, it's not intelligence per se, but it operates the same way. Her incredible talent and Bunny-Ears Lawyer behaviour made it hard for her to find any friends when she was younger and complicated her relationship with Jin.
- I Will Wait for You: Subverted. Jin gave her a marriage certificate with his signature on it as a promise to come back to her so they could go to city hall together, but she doesn't hesitate to sign it and turn it into city hall shortly after he leaves for college, making them officially married.
- Large Ham: She tends to do this when she gets excited, such as when she was taking the driving test in episode 7, and constantly calls her instructor "Nancy".
- Love Hurts: Her love for Jin brings her much heartbreak, due to his womanizing ways and the fact that he always seems to brush off her advances.
- Motor Mouth: She tends to sound this way at times when she's excited.
- The Nicknamer: She tends to add a "-n" to the end of her female friends' names (Mashiron, Nanamin, Ritan) and calls Sorata Kouhai-kun ("Youngster" in the dub).
- Oblivious to Love: Jin has been in love with her almost their entire lives, but Misaki has never picked up on his feelings. Then again, him turning down Misaki's advances and playing The Casanova to cope with his inferiority complex towards Misaki doesn't exactly help Misaki understand his true feelings.
- One of the Kids: She's popular with the kids. Chihiro suspects that's because she's just like them mentally.
- Otaku Surrogate: She is famous for her incredible artistic talent, but is also notorious for her obsession with anime and manga, thus the reason she gets transferred into Sakura Hall.
- Perpetual Smiler: Her smile will only drop when her relationship with Jin is brought into question.
- Shipper on Deck: She supports RyuunosukexRita.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: She's not afraid to show herself off to Jin, despite his apparent lack of interest.
- The Tease: Unabashedly deliberately at times
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Her and her sister are practically identical despite being a few years apart. Her sister is slightly taller and is not a Genki Girl like her.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: During the graduation speech, she makes sure to mention that Sorata would not deny her anything in spite of her constantly barging into his room, and that he was always gracious and kind towards her, earning him a special place in her heart.
Ryuunosuke Akasaka
Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese), Blake Shepard (English)
An second-year boy (yes, that's a he) and an expert with computer programming. He rarely leaves his room at Sakura Hall, but eventually, he comes out and starts attending Suiko. He lives in Room 102.- Allergic to Love: Any advance Rita attempts on him results in him having panicked and disturbed reactions or running away from her.
- Apathetic Student: When he finally shows up in Suiko after five months as a Hikikomori, Ryuunosuke doesn't even bother listening to the teacher's lecture and makes clear he doesn't think there's anything valuable he can learn at high school; he only wants to obtain enough attendance points to go to college. He also eats tomatoes loudly in class, which the teacher finds irritating.
- At Least I Admit It: He has no delusions about his flaws or nature and is perfectly willing to admit them without a second thought. In fact, he is insulted by the fact that others would try to use those facts as insults when they are clearly the truth. He also seems to have a problem with people who can't do the same.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: He looks a bit too good when dressed like a maid.
- Brutal Honesty: He never tries to be tactful about his opinions, not giving a damn about how insulting or hurtful those opinions may be.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a talented computer programmer... who just happens to be a shut-in, communicating only with his dormmates through "Maid", an AI program he developed (and whose avatar Misaki created).
- Commander Contrarian: Tied with his Brutal Honesty traits, Ryuunosuke mostly serves to pop the balloons for everyone at the dorm to bring them back to reality.
- Dragged into Drag: He's once forced into a maid outfit.
- Effeminate Voice: As if the cute face and long hair weren't enough to make it easy to mistake him for a girl, Ryuunosuke has a feminine-sounding voice provided by Yui Horie. Subverted in the English dub of the anime, when he is appropriately voiced by Blake Shepard.
- Gadgeteer Genius: He develops most of Suiko's gadgets, including Maid-chan, a learning AI.
- Hates Being Touched: By women, that is. In fact, he doesn't even like being within close proximity of them.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Poor guy suffers from gynophobia. Which makes it all the more dire for him when Rita falls in love with him.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Until his formal introduction in Episode 9, his only interaction with his dormmates are through Maid-chan, his AI.
- Hikikomori: He almost never leaves his room because of his dislike of people. Although, he goes to school to have enough attendance to pass the year.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Despite his bad attitude, it's implied Ryuunosuke would like having some friends. However, he has sort of accepted that his rude personality will drive away any friends he could make. Realizing his dormmates at Sakura Hall have become his friends moves him so much that he breaks down crying.
- Insufferable Genius: He's so smart that everyone else seems like incompetent idiots to him. Instead of arrogant, he's irritable and prone to Brutal Honesty.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: He once had friends and was working on a game with them, but his Insufferable Genius tendencies and the fact he was more skilled than any of them could hope to be eventually caused them to gradually step away from him, until he was left alone.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gynophobic, Insufferable Genius, prone for Brutal Honesty, but he can be helpful towards his dormmates and Rita when he feels like it.
- Loner-Turned-Friend: Between the residents of Sakura Hall and Rita, they manage to penetrate his isolation shield and make themselves his truest friends.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He's an androgynous-looking boy with hair extending to his hips since he doesn't bother to cut it.
- Meaningful Name: "Ryu" means "dragon", his In-Series Nickname.
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased: He clearly doesn't appreciate Rita hitting on him. Though this is more because of his gynophobia; he is not interested in chasing girls either.
- Not So Stoic: When first introduced, he is completely deadpan and emotionless. Only when Rita starts showing interest in him does he display emotional reactions, though no positive ones.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: He passes out after Rita forces a kiss on him... TWICE.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In Episode 10, after Rita explains how she failed to meet expectations due to being overshadowed by Mashiro, Ryuunosuke calls her out on trying to appease others' expectations of her more than following her true desire. The speech leads to her respect and admiration, paving her love for him.
- The Spock: Similarly to Mashiro, he has a very logical train of thought. Unlike Mashiro, he is also highly analytical, picking apart everything around him with cold hard reasoning. This trait often causes friction with others, but at the same those around him has to admit that he is often right.
- Tender Tears: He weeps during Misaki's speech at the graduation ceremony while sitting right outside with Rita, hearing from Misaki that he finally found true friends that won't abandon him.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He doesn't seem to eat anything but tomatoes, calling them "superfood".
- Tsundere: He doesn't hate Rita as much as he claims, but he still can't stand having her near because of his gynophobia. Despite how bluntly he turns down her affections, he actually bothers to send Rita a card (though he states he did it only to be polite).
- Tsurime Eyes: His sharp eye shape goes well with his antisocial and rude character. He's also something of a Tsundere towards Rita.
- TV Genius: He's highly intelligent and analytical but comes off as extremely blunt and insensitive when talking to others.
Chihiro Sengoku
Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Olivia Swasey (English)
Mashiro's relative, overseer of Sakura Hall, and art teacher at Suimei High. Despite that, she's more interested in drinking and dating. She's also irresponsible taking care of Mashiro's condition, forcing Sorata to become her caretaker, and even then she'd give him improper, irrational advice.- Adaptation Dye-Job: Is clearly blonde in the light novels. She is strangely made red-haired in the anime, possibly to better contrast her from Mashiro.
- Drop-In Landlord: She's also teaching in the school where the tenants study, and known for being excessively lazy—the main plot starts with her dumping the responsibilities of caring her Idiot Savant cousin to one of her tenants, despite knowing the former was under special care before that.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: In episode 14, Koharu Shiroyama, the Sorata's, Ryuunosuke's and Nanami's homeroom teacher, is shown as her Christmas Eve drinking buddy.
- Hot Teacher: Even Jin can't resist feeling her up.
- Lazy Bum: Shoved the responsibility of taking care of Mashiro onto Sorata.
- Parental Neglect: As her relative, she should be the adult in charge of Mashiro during her stay in Japan. Instead, she just dumps Mashiro on Sorata even knowing she needs professional help 24/7.
- Sensei-chan: She's young, attractive, self-conscious about her lack of a romantic life, and is on a First-Name Basis with her tenants, with whom she often acts like One of the Kids.
Kanda Family
Yuuko Kanda
Voiced by: Yui Ogura (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (English)
Sorata's younger sister and a third-year junior high school girl who looks too young for her age. She enters Suiko and stays in the Sakura Hall in the seventh book of the novels.- A-Cup Angst: She goes through this while groping Mashiro and Nanami in Episode 7. Jin tries to cheer her up by yelling that she'll get bigger come high school.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Visited Sorata at a most inopportune time (just when he was waiting for the results of his video game thesis) to pester him with questions regarding school life after some out-of-context conversation with their mother over Sorata's relationship with Mashiro.
- Big Brother Attraction: Towards Sorata.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Almost instantly disliked Mashiro and Nanami for taking up most of her brother's time, though she eventually softens up to Mashiro after she comes to understand the latter's condition.
- The Ditz: She prepares a giant celebratory confetti popper that she spent three days building and intends to pop when she gets her admission approval. She gets a negative from Sorata and she pulls on the cord, making the popper fall on top of her head.
- Fangirl: Of Mashiro, after finding out that the blonde is the author of her favorite manga (Nanohana-sou).
- Older Than She Looks: She's a ninth grader—two years behind Sorata—meaning she's actually around 14-15 years old. She looks no older than a grade-school kid.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Was initially this to Mashiro, being very jealous of her being close to Sorata. While Mashiro constantly considered using Plan C on Yuuko.
- Token Mini-Moe: Stands out as the smallest character of the principal cast.
Akiko Kanda
Voiced by: Satomi Arai (Japanese), Nastasia Marquez (English)
Sorata and Yuuko's mother
- Good Parents: She's a nice and caring mother to her two children.
- Unreliable Expositor: She loves to exaggerate things on her explanations.
Other Characters
Rita Ainsworth
Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese), Skyler Sinclair (English)
Mashiro's former handler during her stay in England. She was also an aspiring artist, but, driven by envy over Mashiro's superior talent, Rita "encourages" her to transfer to Japan to draw manga. Soon she regrets her decision, so she travels to Japan to persuade Mashiro to return with her, all to no avail. She eventually returns home, but not before making a most curious acquaintance in the form of Ryuunosuke.- Abhorrent Admirer: She soon develops a crush on Ryuunosuke, but he would rather stay locked in the bathroom for hours than to see her when she comes to visit. Although the problems are Ryuunosuke's gynophobia and Rita being The Tease making him uncomfortable; it's very possible he would already like her back if it weren't for that.
- The Atoner: She comes to Japan to try to bring Mashiro back to England after regretting her decision to send her to Japan.
- Can't Catch Up: The reason she is envious of Mashiro, and actually warned Sorata of the same thing.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Since she was Mashiro's roommate, she was in charge of "Mashiro Duty" during the latter's time in England.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Failure to meet others' expectations, compounded by being constantly one-upped by Mashiro, forced her to stop painting. Ryuunosuke calls her out on it, noting how she failed to consider what she really wanted to do.
- Forceful Kiss: She delivers one to Ryuunosuke before leaving Japan.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: She finds herself strangely attracted to Ryuunosuke after the latter saw through her "fake smile" and then called her out on using Mashiro as an excuse for stopping her artistic career. Alas, Ryuunosuke is gynophobic.
- Phenotype Stereotype: As a girl from England, she has fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes.
- Rejection Affection: She falls for Ryuunosuke and travels back to Japan several times just to hit on him. The problem? Ryuunosuke is a gynophobic who tries his hardest to avoid Rita's advances every time. Yet, Rita fails to understand maybe she should give the guy some space and continues being too aggressive in her romantic pursuit.
- The Resenter: She used to paint, until constant overshadowing by Mashiro forced her to stop as her efforts never seemed to be enough. To this day, she admits she still feels some resentment towards Mashiro and her talents.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: She has absolutely no problem with showing off her body in front of Ryuunosuke, or sending him a suggestive picture of her by mail. Not that he enjoys it.
- Stepford Smiler: In her first appearance, her affable smile is hiding her bitterness and frustration at Mashiro's success as a painter and mangaka while she was told her efforts weren't worth anything if she couldn't beat Mashiro.
- The Tease: She likes to sexually provoke Sorata and Ryuunosuke (mostly the latter). She only manages to make Ryuunosuke freak out because of his gynophobia.
"Maid"
Voiced by: Yui Horie (Credited as "???"), Holly Segarra (English)
Ryuunosuke's AI program and automated mail filtering system, with an avatar created by Misaki. As time passed Ryuunosuke constantly upgrades her abilities, including giving her partial autonomy.- Artificial Intelligence: She's an AI program created by Ryuunosuke to be his personal servant.
- Become a Real Boy: Ryuunosuke's long-term goal for her is to turn her into a Ridiculously Human Robot.
- Blush Sticker: She has permanent blush marks on her cheeks for extra cuteness.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: When Rita started showing affection for her creator Ryuunosuke, the latter, ever the gynophobic, chooses to spare himself the inconvenience of having to directly communicate with Rita by having "Maid" filter all her messages and love letters... who proceeds to start an online Flame War with her.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: Thanks to Ryuunosuke's updates, her auto-filtering ability soon expanded into autonomous filtering, rapid word-learning, facial expression recognition, virus creation, and even hacking.
- Robot Maid: Her avatar, complete with a tail-like appendage ending with a USB plug.
- Shipper on Deck: She shows part of Ryuunosuke's past to Rita to help her understand him.
- Super-Deformed: She has a cute chibi character design.
Daichi Miyahara
Voiced by: Taishi Murata (Japanese), Adam Gibbs (English)
Sorata and Nanami's friend and classmate. He has a crush on Nanami.
- Hopeless Suitor: Not for being a bad guy by any means, but because he's Locked Out of the Loop by not residing in Sakura Hall.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Upon learning Nanami has feelings for Sorata, he completely surrenders.
- Mistaken for Gay: With Sorata in episode 9. All of the girls immediately assume
Ho Yay between them. - The Reliable One: He is the very first person who signs the petition to revoke the demolition of the Sakura Hall.
Souichirou Tatebayashi
Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (Japanese), Mike Haimoto (English)
The Student Council President of Suimei High. He has some history with Jin.
- Stoic Spectacles: He's a serious guy with glasses.
- Student Council President: Repeatedly brought up by Jin, usually to make fun of him.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: He has this type of relationship with Jin. Though most of the hostility comes from him, in which Jin blatantly ignores. He is one of Jin's best friends whether he approves or not. Jin is also not shy in praising both him and his girlfriend at every opportunity he has.
- Yes-Man: Towards Jin.
Fuuka Kamiigusa
Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)
Misaki's older sister and Jin's ex-girlfriend.
- Childhood Friend Romance: A failed one with Jin. Like Misaki, Fuuka is Jin's childhood friend. They dated for a while, but broke up when Fuuka figured out that to Jin, she was nothing but a stand-in for Misaki.
- Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: Jin used to date Fuuka because she is the closest thing to Misaki that is not actually Misaki, since his inferiority complex kept him from dating the real thing.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She looks just like a slightly older Misaki.
Kazuki Fujisawa
Voiced by: Shintarō Asanuma (Japanese), Heath Morrow (English)
A game designer and a former tenant of Sakurasou.
- Mentor Archetype: He becomes one towards Sorata for a brief time.
