These are some of the characters from Wagnaria!! and tropes that are associated with them. Beware of potential spoilers.
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The Wagnaria Staff
Souta Takanashi
Souta Takanashi
Click here to see his crossdressed self "Kotori"
Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (Drama CD) and Jun Fukuyama (Anime)
The fourth (and only son) of the five Takanashi siblings, sixteen-year-old Souta never ever intended to work part-time, let alone in a family restaurant (his home life is busy enough). This all changed one winter day when he encountered a petite girl asking for part-timers on the street. Charmed into helping her out, Souta soon found himself in the middle of a workplace full of... colorful co-workers. Ironically, due to his own issues he fits right in.- Accidental Misnaming: Popura always calls him "Katanashi." At first he attempts to correct her, but it doesn't work. After that, he doesn't mind as long as it's Popura.
- The Ace: Souta is extremely proficient with housework, which allows him to become a highly proficient restaurant worker as well. He is also very studious, being able to help Inami with her studies despite the fact that she is a year older than him. Moreover, Souta is also fairly athletic, and is so proficient in martial arts that he can easily take down Kirio, who is the captain of a karate club.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Popura considers "Kotori" to be her ideal of feminine beauty. Several guys also hit on "her".
- Berserk Button: Do not insult small things.
- Big Brother Instinct: Despite his constant annoyance with Yamada's ineptitude, Souta still takes care of her without even thinking about it. He goes so far as to put up with Yamada staying at his own home when her real family catches up to her.
- Blind Without 'Em: After Yamada accidentally breaks his glasses in episode 2 of season 3, he attempts to finish his shift without them. But he can't even recognize who's more than an arm's length in front of him, such as not recognizing Inami when he walks up to her. Apparently, going without glasses also precludes him from recognizing people via their hair color until he's basically right up in their faces.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Revealed to have strength comparable to Kirio or even Inami. For example, Kirio easily blocked Inami's Megaton Punch, but almost got his shoulder dislocated by Souta. He also states that Inami cannot land a punch on him, but he Wouldn't Hit a Girl.
- Compliment Backfire: Often compares Popura to a bug. He considers this lavish praise, but everybody else finds it insulting.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Invoked whenever he suspects Inami is being friendly to another man. However, he typically misconstrues it as something else. For example, when he suspects that Inami's constant staring at Satou means she must like him, Satou tells Souma that the feelings he's having are like training a dog not to bite the owner, but the dog does it anyway then shows affection towards another person. Souma knows what's actually going on, but plays along anyway because he finds the misunderstanding funny.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Constantly gets hit by Inami at work. However, when Kirio attacks him during their first encounter, Souta manages to block every single one of his attacks. He later mentions that aside from Aoi, he Wouldn't Hit a Girl, lest his sister/trainer Kozue hears about it, and gives him hell to pay for it as a result.
- Cuteness Proximity: His defining character trait is his love of anything small, since he finds small things irresistibly cute. His reason for working at the restaurant to begin with was because Popura bumped into him and asked him if he wanted to work there. He simply found her cuteness and small size impossible to resist, despite the fact that he is younger than her.
- Distressed Dude: In Lord Of The Takanashi, he's kept prisoner by his mother and Inami must go and face his mother and sisters to save him.
- Dragged into Drag: He's forced to crossdress on multiple occasions thanks to Inami.
- Entertainingly Wrong: He gets livid at the fact that Inami can interact normally with Kirio, when he himself has had to suffer untold kinds of violence from her. However, it's not that Inami doesn't react violently to Kirio, but rather that Kirio is versed in martial arts enough to fend off her attacks with ease.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Kiriio ends up falling for the "fake Yamada", which is actually him dressed as a girl.
- The Everyman: Starts off as a seemingly normal high school teenager to highlight the weirdness of his coworkers, though this fades away as his unusual quirks come to light
- Everyone Can See It: It's apparent to anyone that Souta wouldn't have gone through such lengths with Inami if he didn't care deeply for her. It's so profound that everyone in the series is a Shipper on Deck for them.
- Fish out of Water: He is understandably confused at why his coworkers act the way they do on his very first shift, such as why Yachiyo carries a katana around, and what exactly Kyouko does as a manager. Their reactions to him is somewhat similar, however.
- Freudian Excuse: His sisters' personalities explain an awful lot of his quirks, from his love of small things to his supposed dislike of older women.
- Friend to Bugs: Souta loves everything small, including bugs. He compares the idea of squishing a bug to murdering Popura.
- Good Is Not Nice: He earnestly wants to help Inami, but he's not particularly subtle about it, and he can be downright rude towards her. He can also be insensitive towards Popura, unwittingly demeaning her by calling her "tiny" and "cute" in spite of her protests.
- Heroic BSoD:
- When he sees Inami interacting with Kirio normally, he loses it (although he seems to misunderstand why). Not even a pile of cute toys could break him out of it.
- Suffers yet another one once he realizes Nazuna is close to edging him out in terms of height.
- Innocently Insensitive: In episode 1 alone, he asks Kyouko her age, then quips she's an "old woman". She retaliates by having him work on all working days. In another instance, he unconsciously insults Inami, and the result is not pretty; he also tends to repeatedly compare her plight to training a dog.
- Insistent Terminology: He does not consider people older than 12 worth of his attention, arguing that he is partial toward small, cute things. Still, his insistence and knee-jerk attitude against older people make it seem at times like he's a pedophile.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While rude, when he says that Inami is only halfway competent as a waitress, he's right. She can't wait on around half of the customers of Wagnaria, causes property damage and is a threat to the restaurant staff. When he points out that she shouldn't go to a hot spring either, everyone calls him a jerk and ignores that she really is a danger to everyone. If he hadn't changed his mind about going, she would have punched a complete stranger almost as soon as she arrived.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- He looks really nice, but he's snappish, irritable and disrespectful, especially to Popura. However, he also willingly puts up with Inami, wants the best for her and even tells off her father for screwing up her life. After Inami has made him crossdress, something he finds incredibly humiliating.
- The fact that he even continues putting up with the entire staff and their shenanigans, when he could just as easily quit, is also saying something.
- He willingly lets Inami hit him because he can take it, and so that she doesn't hurt other people. It's also shown that he knows how to defend himself (as Kouze herself taught him), but the fact that he has four sisters has taught him that he must never, ever, lay a finger on a girl.
- Made of Iron: Willingly takes Inami's punishment (without lasting consequences) and even intercepts potential blows to others who might not sympathize with her fear of men.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: Many people assume he's a lolicon due his extreme love of small, cute things (Popura in particular). Even those who are close to him and thus know better still find his love of cute, small things uncomfortable. Even his sister Izumi is convinced that he's after an elementary student without realizing that Popura is both older than Souta and more developed than her height and face would indicate. Souta generally denies any impropriety by saying something that basically boils down to "Yeah, kids are cute, but so are kittens." Except Souta being Souta he would actually say water fleas instead of kittens, but it's the thought that counts, right?
- Not So Above It All: Despite assuming the role of the Only Sane Man, it is readily apparent that he has a similar, or even greater level of weirdness than the other employees.
- Oblivious to Love: Souta is unaware of Inami's crush on him despite the fact that every single person in his family and at his workplace knows about it. He's even oblivious to his own possible feelings in return, mistaking them for a form of masochism. His deep denial took a step further in Chapter 222, when he thinks that his crossdressing as Kotori was the trigger that caused Inami to act strangely with him, and decides to crossdress again to sort out her feelings!
- Odd Name Out: He's the only member of his family that does not have "zu" as the second character in their name.
- Official Couple: With Mahiru. He confesses his love at the end of the seires.
- Only Sane Employee: Souta believes he is the one normal employee in the restaurant and tends to react accordingly. After the first episode however, it's pretty clear that he is as weird as everyone else.
- Promotion to Parent: His father is dead and his mother is rarely at home, so Souta takes on the responsibility of looking after his Womanchildren older sisters Izumi and Kozue.
- Raised as the Opposite Gender: Souta frequently received his sisters' hand-me-downs as clothing and so spent much of his childhood dressed as a girl.
- Resentful Outnumbered Sibling: He's the only boy of the Takanashi siblings, and his older sisters didn't exactly treat him well while growing up (along with giving him their hand-me-down clothes so he'd have to dress as a girl). Quite a few of his quirks stem from this, such as his dislike of older women.
- Stoic Spectacles: Whenever Souta's patience gives out.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Souta looks a lot like his father, as seen in a Flash Back during episode 14 of season 3.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Claims to Kirio that normally Inami wouldn't be able to hit him, but he has to abide by this trope (including dodging or blocking her blows, apparently) not because of moral grounds but because of his upbringing. On the other hand, Aoi doesn't count, seeing that he has no problems (comically) hitting her.
Popura Taneshima
Popura Taneshima
Voiced by: Mai Kadowaki (Drama CD) and Kana Asumi (Anime)
Cute and extremely petite, seventeen-year-old Popura is Souta's sempai both at school and at work. Indeed, she's the main reason why he is even working at Wagnaria to begin with, having "recruited" him off the street one day. Earnest, kind to a fault and hardworking, Popura would like it better if some of her coworkers took her more seriously; unfortunately due to her cuteness and her diminutive height, this won't happen any time soon.- Berserk Button: Being called tiny. Nobody feels remotely threatened by it though.
- Bubbly Waitress: Popura is seventeen, bright and cheerful (when Satou isn't poking fun at her height or rearranging her hair). She's also very good with the customers. And when a couple of customers start to bully her and pull on her signature ponytail, the Manager, Kyouko, administers a reprimand to them via boot-to-the-head.
- Butt-Monkey: Whether it's Souma pranking her, Satou messing with her hair and teasing about her shortness, or Souta's comparing her to a bug, she just can't get a break.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Despite her height issues, she is notably well-endowed. Once during one of her Height Angst incidents, Inami even complimented her on her large chest to try to calm her, but it didn't work.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Popura is short, clumsy, but otherwise nice and well-meaning.
- Does Not Like Spam: Has an issue with green peppers, which obviously becomes a problem when Satou cooks fried rice with it.
- Everyone's Baby Sister: By virtue of her size and cuteness, she functions as a little sister for most of the cast.
- Genki Girl: Nothing gets Popura down for long, that's for sure.
- Height Angst: Is very sensitive about her height and tends to blow up.
- Idiot Hair: Her ponytail acts as this. She also has the characteristic single strand of hair sticking out upwards.
- Ironic Name: Her parents named her in hopes she'd be as tall as a Poplar Tree... it didn't work out.
- Kewpie Doll Surprise: Often does this when frustrated or surprised.
- The Napoleon: Downplayed; she has a complex about her short stature and bringing it up around her is guaranteed to set her off, but she's not constantly irritable about it and is instead a friendly, cheerful Genki Girl.
- Nice Girl: You won't easily find someone as cheerful and compassionate as Popura. Oftentimes, she actively works to keep the peace between her dysfunctional coworkers.
- The Not-Love Interest: She's genuinely fond of Souta, who adores her in return due to her small and cute appearance. Many characters have even assumed that they are something of an item, since they have the best work relationship out of anyone at Wagnaria, and Souta being "that" kind of character. However, Souta ultimately has feelings for Inami, while Popura is romantically indifferent, and has no intention of going out with a boy younger than herself.
- Older Than She Looks: She's actually 17. However, due to her short height, everyone assumes she's just a young kid.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In one occasion, Souta finds her pouting in the break room, refusing to speak to him. The whole staff stops their work and wonders just who made her that mad and how, until Kyouko pokes her on the cheek, sending her careening in pain from a buccal sore. She is then sent home with a fever.
- Passing the Torch: Popura is designated as the new chief waitress once Yachiyo leaves Wagnaria to work elsewhere.
- Spell My Name With An S: Poplar/Popura.
- Super Gullible: She believes anything people tell her, particularly if it involves increasing her height. At one point Souma says that eating dried lizards will help one grow taller because they contain a lot of minerals and Satou backs him up. She immediately resolves to eat them as much as possible. On the way out the door, Satou finally admits that it was all a lie.
- Token Mini-Moe: Certainly the shortest and youngest-looking among the Wagnaria workers, which is even funnier when Nazuna (an actual 12-year-old elementary student who towers over her) occasionally interns at the restaurant.
Mahiru Inami
Mahiru Inami
Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (Drama CD) and Saki Fujita (Anime)
At first glance, Inami looks like a shy seventeen-year-old who wouldn't hurt a soul. However, as Souta found out (the hard way), Inami has extreme androphobia, and her first impulse when faced with someone of the opposite gender is to send the poor sod flying with one of her punches. Hard. Inami herself isn't happy about this, and wishes that she could talk to guys normally.- A-Cup Angst: It certainly doesn't help that twelve-year-old Nazuna is better-endowed than her. She even gets frustrated at the fake breasts in Kotori's costume.
- Abusive Parents: Inami was mentally conditioned by her father to hate all men by making her watch violent films where men were villainous and abusive, by bombarding her with anti-men ideas, and by secretly training her physically to become preternaturally strong. He basically made sure that whenever she'd be in the presence of a man, she'd react as violently as possible. He forced this on her for a period of ten years until he separated from her mother some time before the beginning of the series.
- Apologetic Attacker: Inami's always sorry whenever she hits someone.
- Badass Adorable: Cute, demure, gentle, and perfectly capable of kicking any grown adult's ass or breaking down walls and street light posts with her strength alone.
- Bifauxnen: In Lord Of The Takanashi, she's made wear a waiter uniform when she goes to rescue Souta from his mother.
- Brick Joke: Souta constantly thinks of her as a dog and when Kozue gives them cosplay outfits, guess what she gets...
- Character Development: Relatively minor, given the series' genre, but compared to her first appearances Inami is a lot less violent come Season 2. She still punches Souta on reflex when surprised, but these are getting increasingly uncommon, to the point where almost a month passed since she last decked him. She's really putting a lot of effort into changing, and it's showing results, thanks in part to Souta himself. Come Season 3 she hasn't hit any man at all... until she meets Minegishi and her Father (again). But to be fair, they both deserved it.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: She can shatter concrete on touch, her punches crack plaster walls, and at one point she nearly broke an electric tower just by hugging it. It is revealed that her father had been secretly inserting iron weights into her belongings since she was a child, so as to subtly increase her strength without her knowing it.
- Deuteragonist: She's the female lead post-introduction, her Androphobia's one of the series's longest-lasting plot threads, she's essential in solving Takanashi's problems, and she's his eventual Love Interest.
- Does Not Like Men: Inami is afraid of men to the point that she violently attacks any men who come within a certain distance of her. This isn't because she doesn't "like" them, but because she is instinctively afraid of them. She isn't proud of it, either.
- Judging from Re:Order's second chapter, her androphobia is still there, even though she has stopped punching people over it.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Inami's called out a bit for hitting men, but otherwise little effort is made on stopping her or helping her get over that. Takanashi initially disliking her because of it is also portrayed as unfair.
- Fiery Redhead: Inverted; she's a redhead, but personality-wise she's more of a Shrinking Violet. Her only "fiery" trait is her habit of punching men who get too close to her, and that's mostly on instinct.
- Freudian Excuse: Her Super-Strength and androphobia are all her father's fault.
- Heroic BSoD: After Souta touches her head and she wakes up. She also suffers one after Souta's glasses break and he ends up getting very close to her in episode 2 of season 3. So much so that she faints while standing up.
- Hidden Depths: Inami is a kind and shy girl who, other than going by her violent outbursts, behaves like any other girl.
- High-Pressure Emotion: An occasional step up from her usual Luminescent Blush. She apparently becomes extremely exothermic in this state, as it becomes physically hot just being near her.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: She definitely doesn't want to keep on hurting men all of the time.
- Informed Attribute: Played with. Although it's said that she attacks all men that approach her, and even made a couple of attempts at strangers that were prevented by the crew, she is never shown attacking any clients or strangers outside the crew of Wagnaria or the named characters in the series. If anything, she's more given to actually shy away from conflict as much as she can.
- Luminescent Blush: Due to being a Shrinking Violet, she's blushing almost all the time.
- Megaton Punch: Is prone to giving these to guys who approach her too closely, usually Takanashi.
- Nice Girl: Despite her androphobia and knee-jerk violent reactions towards men, Inami is really as kind and sweet as one can get. It helps that her violent tendencies are mostly involuntary and something she desires to fix.
- Official Couple: With Souta. He confesses his love for her at the end of the series.
- Shrinking Violet: She gets extremely shy whenever there's a guy involved.
- Training from Hell: Secretly trained by her father (such as stashing away weights onto her bag) since childhood.
- Waif-Fu: Again, it bears repeating that Inami is, at first blush, a slight teenaged girl. She can still put the hurt into grown men (not that she wants to though).
Kyouko Shirafuji
Kyouko Shirafuji
Voiced by: Junko Minagawa (Drama CD) and Kumiko Watanabe (Anime)
Ostensibly the floor manager of Wagnaria, Kyouko doesn't seem to actually do much work. Indeed she is usually seen eating either her usual parfaits (care of Yachiyo) or whatever food is in reach, much to Satou's annoyance. A delinquent in her youth, Kyouko can still call on members of her old crew whenever the restaurant is in need of extra help.- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She is quite attractive, tall, dark-haired, and aloof.
- Batter Up!: Her weapon during her delinquent days is a nail bat. She still keeps it around.
- Berserk Button: Do not mention her age around her. Souta experienced first hand just how spiteful and petty she can be when pissed off. Also, never deny her her food, and if your name is Otoo, do not return to the restaurant without snacks.
- Big Eater: She probably eats up half of the restaurant's supply of sweets during any work shift, and her appetite increases tremendously when she's drunk. Everything she does, everywhere she goes, it has to have an edible motivation for it. Such is her appetite that it motivated her from sleeping lazily at home to drive all the way to a rural hot spring just to have some dumplings and noodle, the latter of which she seemed to have inhaled in vast quantities. In fact, all of the eyecatches for the hot spring episode involves her eating something. One must really wonder how she Never Gets Fat from all of this caloric intake.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Her sizable chest often gets Yachiyo distracted. She's aware of it too and once even subjected Yachiyo to Marshmallow Hell to calm her while she was panicking after meeting Otoo's wife.
- Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: Kyouko is always drawn with half-lidded eyes, showing her permanently bored and lazy attitude.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Yachiyo is madly in love with her.
- Everyone Has Standards: No matter how much of a gluttonous jerk she is, she's still not going to take a little kid's cake, even if offered.
- Food as Bribe: Her mood turns on a dime whenever someone gives her snacks to munch on. In fact, this is precisely how Otoo managed to get her to hire Yamada in the first place.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Averted. While Kyouko can still ask her ex-comrades for help, they're not particularly skilled.
- Innocently Insensitive: She doesn't seem to fully realize that there's anything wrong with her behavior. Sure, it irritates people, but it doesn't really seem to sink in that that's a bad thing. If there's something that would really obviously be wrong (like taking a little kid's cake) she acts like a decent person even if she's starving.
- Japanese Delinquents: Used to a delinquent when she was younger and still has a good relationship with her old gang members, who help her out when she calls on them.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Treats employees and customers alike very roughly, and typically only acts to serve her own selfish ends (usually involving food). However, she does care for Yachiyo, and ultimately looks out for her staff in the end (see Pet the Dog below).
- Jokers Love Junk Food: She's a lazy bum and former delinquent who ran a gang. Customer service isn't her forte, or any task one expects of a manager. When she isn't scarfing down parfaits made for her by Yachiyo, she's often seen leaning back against one of the counters munching on potato chips, usually leaving crumbs behind, to the consternation of Souta, who once had to be restrained to keep from going after her with a broom.
- Kick Chick: As seen in the opening animations and when she dealt with bullying customers.
- Lazy Bum: She can probably give Yamada a run for her money in this department.
- Not So Stoic: While she usually has the emotional capacity of a paper bag, Kyouko will show you her game face if you manage to hit one of her Berserk Buttons.
- Oblivious to Love: Doesn't know about Yachiyo's feelings for her. Apparently she just expects this kind of treatment.
- Old Maid: Played With. While she's in no rush to find a boyfriend, she is sensitive about her age (she's 28), and will punish anyone who brings it up. Including the customers.
- Perpetual Frowner: Her expression never seems to change from a perennial, unamused frown.
- Pet the Dog: There are times she appears to genuinely care about her co-workers.
- Case in point: A few customers are bullying Popura due to her child-like appearance. Kyouko proceeds to literally kick them out of the restaurant. She then has her henchmen mug them and steal their money as well.
- She also refuses to take food from a kid even when offered, despite being a glutton.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Despite being the restaurant's floor manager, she's hardly ever seen actually doing her job and spends most of her time eating.
- The Stoic: Kyouko's face seems to be locked permanently in "bored indifference". Revealed to be Not So Stoic after Souma told her a little lie in season 2 of the anime, though, leading to her being Blue with Shock for almost an entire episode. It's unclear, however, if she's bummed out due to the prospects of her being out of a job if Wagnaria closes, or because he basically told her she won't be having any food for snacks for the time being.
- Sweet Tooth: Seems to favor desserts over all other types of food.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Parfaits.
Yachiyo Todoroki
Yachiyo Todoroki
Voiced by: Shiho Kawaragi (Drama CD) and Eri Kitamura (Anime)
The daughter of a family of blacksmiths (explaining the katana she always carries around), twenty-year-old Yachiyo is the senior waitress of Wagnaria. Souta, Popura and Inami all work under her, while Yachiyo in turn reports directly to Kyouko. Responsible and hardworking, Yachiyo absolutely dotes on Kyouko ever since the latter saved her from bullies, and is always happy to prepare for her manager her favorite parfaits. Yachiyo's adoration of Kyouko annoys Satou to no end, partly because it eats through their supplies, and partly because of... other things.- Beware the Nice Ones: She's very willing to used that sword on her belt if Kyouko is involved.
- Bubbly Waitress: Yachiyo is competent, kind, and upbeat. She'd be more popular with the customers, but her penchant for carrying a katana (and attempting to use it on anyone who comes between her and her Kyoko) has them on edge when she's waiting on them.
- Bully Magnet: She was bullied as a child because she was seen as weird for carrying a katana around everywhere she goes.
- Clingy Jealous Girl:
- If she thinks you're interested in Kyouko, she'll come after you. Otoo knows this. Souma also got in a bit of trouble when he offered to tell Takanashi Kyouko's measurements. She practically teleported to him to hold her sword to his throat.
- She gets uncomfortable when Satou is getting along with other girls like Popura and Mitsuki, even though Yachiyo has yet to understand why.
- Cool Big Sis: Usually acts this way towards the girls working at the restaurant.
- The Ditz: Yachiyo is a competent worker, but outside of Wagnaria she's often out of her depth.
- Eyes Always Shut: Her eyes are always closed, but she displays none of the cunning traits usually associated with this. It's made pretty clear she can see.
- Girly Run: And with a point, as it helps her avoid jostling her sword.
- Heroic BSoD: She gets awfully confused after overhearing Satou mention to Mizuki that he's interested in someone.
- Hero-Worshipper: She worships Kyouko and wants to serve her forever. Judging by her confusing conflicting feelings towards Satou, she might be mistaking her feelings towards Kyouko for love.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: Originally assumes one between her, Kyouko, and Otoo. A short while later she replaces Otoo with Satou, but he also quickly shoots down any romantic feelings for their manager.
- Innocently Insensitive: She usually talks to Jun about Kyouko, not noticing how deeply she's hurting his feelings.
- Love Revelation Epiphany: It's not until Satou actually spells his feelings out to Yachiyo that she finally understands that he loves her and she loves him back.
- Oblivious to Love: Has no idea of Satou's feelings for her and is oblivious to the signs that she might be in love with him. When he finally confesses his feelings for her, she reciprocates.
- Official Couple: With Satou. They start dating after he finally confesses his feelings for her and they're married in the crossover with Servant × Service.
- Passing the Torch: She plans to leave Wagnaria soon to work elsewhere for more experience, and Popura is selected to replace her as senior waitress.
- Precocious Crush: She has been crushing on Kyouko since she was in elementary school.
- Psycho Lesbian: She has tried to kill Otoo when she thought he was trying to take Kyouko away from her. She also once threatened Souma when he offered to share Kyouko's measurements with Takanashi.
- Rescue Romance: She fell in love with Kyouko after she saved her from some bullies.
- Shrinking Violet: Outside the store and away from Kyouko she'll act like this.
- Subordinate Excuse: For Kyouko.
- Team Mom: Yamada even wants her to be her mother.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Her katana is this to her coworkers save Takanashi, who (along with customers) finds it interesting and unnerving.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: The author wanted to intentionally have Yachiyo be a perfect Japanese woman (note the katana) apart from a lesbian crush.
- Yandere: Woe to he who tries to take Kyouko away from Yachiyo...
Jun Satou
Jun Satou
Voiced by: Hirofumi Nojima (Drama CD) and Daisuke Ono (Anime)
One of the two cooks usually on duty, chain-smoking twenty-year-old Satou seems mostly unaffected by the eccentricities of his coworkers. With stress on "mostly". He and Yachiyo started working at Wagnaria at the same time, and as much as he hates to admit it, he's taken a shine to his katana-wielding peer. Unfortunately for him, she only has eyes for Kyouko, though if it's of any consolation Yachiyo does see him as a close confidant.- Aloof Big Brother: Acts as this among the restaurant staff.
- Berserk Button: Don't remind him about his unrequited love for Yachiyo.
- Cannot Spit It Out: His feelings for Yachiyo, that is. Souma gets rather irritated by this come season 3.
- The Comically Serious: He is unwaivingly deadpan, though he shows that he's upset whenever he begins making obvious mistakes on the kitchen, like stacking apples on top of Popura's head, cracking an egg and pouring it in the egg carton, and once he's even so upset that he makes a beautiful hairdo on Popura.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: He tends to change Popura's hairstyle, much to her dismay.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Towards Yachiyo whenever she's fawning over Kyouko. However, he takes it out on Popura instead.
- Expy: Resembles Sanji from One Piece.
- Face Palm: A common reaction from him to the zaniness of his coworkers.
- Frying Pan of Doom: His instrument of choice whenever his patience is at an end.
- The Gadfly: He enjoys playing pranks on Popura and messing with her head, which is noted in-story as just being his way of coping with the stress of dealing with Yachiyo. He can get fairly mean spirited about it sometimes, though.
- Hopeless Suitor: The woman he loves is obsessed with someone else. However, despite indications otherwise, she actually does care about him and not just as a friend, though she doesn't realize it herself and only shows signs of it when he's not around. She finally accepts Jun after the latter's love confession to her in Chapter 219.
- Last Lousy Point: He dislikes Kyouko with a passion, though he begrudgingly admits that Todoroki wouldn't be the person he loves if it weren't for Kyouko's presence. As such, he accepts that Kyouko will be part of his life too whether he likes it or not because it comes with loving Todoroki.
- Love Hurts: Hurts so much that it frequently triggers stomach pains.
- Loving Bully: He picks on Popura as a way to relieve stress because he knows that she is such a good person that she won't hold a grudge on him. Otherwise, the two of them are very good friends.
- Official Couple: With Yachiyo. They start dating after he finally confesses his feelings for her and they're married in the crossover with Servant × Service.
- Only Sane Employee: He almost never falls to misunderstanding, unlike the remainder of the cast. Indeed, his only noticeable personality quirks are his brooding demeanor and bad temper.
- Perpetual Frowner: His normally sour expression tends to make people think he's scary, but he's one of the more normal people in the staff and surprisingly nice, unless you're Popura.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When sufficiently annoyed, usually by Todoroki's insensitivity to his feelings, Satou will go home early.
- Second Love: In Chapter 219, Yachiyo finally gets over her long unrequited love for Kyouko and starts dating Jun.
- Smoking Is Cool: The only adult in the cast to do so too.
- The Stoic: He barely reacts to the antics of his coworkers, as long as it doesn't interfere with this work... However even his patience has its limits.
- Supreme Chef: Although he claims that he is simply following the manual, his cooking skill is highly regarded by the Wagnaria crew.
- Tsundere: Like you wouldn't believe! He's greatly infatuated with Todoroki, yet he's so stoic he can't find the courage to just spit it out, even when she's basically asking him to his face. Whenever he's jealous, usually of Kyouko, or Souma mentions something about Todoroki that makes him flustered, Satou will start hitting people or tease Popura, if he hadn't bailed early first.
- Would Hit a Girl: Teases Popura on a regular basis and is constantly taking out his frustrations on her.
Hiroomi Souma
Hiroomi Souma
Voiced by: Yoshinori Fujita (Drama CD) and Hiroshi Kamiya (Anime)
The other cook normally seen on duty, Souma's personal life is a mystery to his coworkers. Unfortunately, the opposite could not be said for him, who happens to be very well-versed in their backgrounds, which he often uses to his advantage. He enjoys watching the weirdness that goes on between the folk in Wagnaria, though that's not to say he doesn't mind helping to get things moving — so long as it suits him, of course.- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Is more than capable of selling his office-workers up a creek if he has something to gain from it.
- Blackmail: Has a remarkable amount of dirt on his co-workers. Just about the only people this doesn't work on are Inami (who can hurt him, bad) and Yamada (who's just too thick to care).
- His success with Satou is limited, as he can sometimes evoke a reaction that amuses him, but it's easy enough to push Satou too far, at which point, Souma has been kicked or assaulted with pans, ladles, or other kitchen utensils or appliances.
- It is implied that he got into college this way.
- In the crossover with Servant × Service, he also has info on the members of the Health and Welfare department.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: He doesn't outright admit to blackmailing people, though.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Most of the time.
- Expy: Seems like a nicer version of Izaya from Durarara!!. They even share the voice actor.
- Eyes Always Shut: Zigzagged. Souma's eyes are open as much as he keeps them shut, which makes sense, since he doesn't want to miss any of the craziness happening in the restaurant.
- Guile Hero: Not really a heroic example, but boy, does Souma abuse his smarts to get out of a lot of work.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: He accidentally does this to himself in episode 3 of season 3 when asked by Yachiyo for advice on what to do while going out drinking with friends. He doesn't want her to have any preconceived notions (by him at least), so he claims he doesn't know what to do because he doesn't have any friends. Yachiyo apologizes for asking him.
- Hidden Depths: According to Yamada, one of his good points is that he can instantly guess the number of quills a sea urchin has.
- It Amused Me: Almost everything he does is usually to humiliate the other characters.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's lazy and an open sadist who loves seeing people humiliated, but he really does care about his coworkers.
- Laser-Guided Karma: His evil blackmailing ways get punished rather quickly, often in the form of Satou making sure that karma strikes.
- The Nondescript: He was designed to look completely average rather than attractive, ugly or manipulative. That way, his true nature contrasts more with his image.
- Perpetual Smiler: Rarely seen without a smug smile on his mug.
- Pet the Dog: He seems rather tired of Yamada most of the time, but he goes out of his way to make sure she can continue working at Wagnaria by making sure that she and Kirio never meet.
- Shipper on Deck: He genuinely supports Satou and Yachiyo as well as Takanashi and Inami, though the fact that it's funny to push the two pairs together doesn't hurt at all.
- Softspoken Sadist: Let it not be said that Souma doesn't enjoy pushing his coworkers' buttons...
- Token Evil Teammate: While not openly disruptive, Souma takes abject glee in making the other Wagnaria employees uncomfortable.
Aoi "Yamada"
Aoi "Yamada"
Voiced by: Kana Ueda (Drama CD) and Ryō Hirohashi (Anime)
A girl of indeterminate age Otoo brought back with him one day, Aoi has been living in the restaurant's attic ever since. She works as a day "trainee", though her contribution to the actual workload is dubious at best. Her main goal at the moment is to get Otoo to formally adopt her, something he seems to be set on delaying for as long as humanly possible.- Attention Whore: Please spoil Yamada!
- Bad Liar: When Yamada first appears she glaringly forgets her own backstory and doesn't respond to her fabricated name. Unfortunately only Souta seems to be aware of this and attempts to call her out on it just fall flat with the other staff members, who can't see past her facade. Then in episode 6 of season 3, Kirio finally runs into her in the restaurant, and calls her by her name. Mahiru and Souta end up wondering if Aoi was simply lying about her name being a fake one.
- Butt-Monkey: Often the butt of jokes due to her clumsiness and general incompetence.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Even by the standards of the restaurant's staff, her behavior comes across as very strange. Amusingly, this trait of hers makes her probably the only person in the entire series capable of tracking down Otoo's long-lost wife Haruna.
- Comically Missing the Point: Stuff generally fly over Yamada's head at times.
- Contrived Coincidence: Aoi and her brother seem to operate in the same wavelength of self-awareness deficiency, so when they come up with fake names, they both refer to themselves as "Yamada". Had they not, the Wagnaria staff wouldn't have had such an easy task of linking them as brother and sister.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: She's broken many dishes and glasses in the restaurant.
- Everyone Has Standards: Refused to ask Popura to spoil her like she did everyone else due to her size.
- Formal Characters Use Keigo: Aoi speaks in a noticeably formal register, which is an obvious clue to her family being of the upper class.
- Giftedly Bad: It takes talent to be as bad at chores as Yamada is.
- Hime Cut: She has blunt bangs, collarbone-length sidelocks and bra strap length straight hair. This hairstyle underlines the suspicion that she may have come from a high-class background.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: She operates in her everyday life with the drive of garnering as much attention and affection as she can feasibly obtain.
- Implausible Deniability:"Yamada didn't do it."
- Innocently Insensitive: A lot of Yamada's jabs come out as genuinely hurtful, despite Yamada not actually meaning it to be so.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Often does things she finds amusing at the expense of others. Or, in the case of Souma being forced to buy clothes, because she'd rather have lots of cheap clothes rather than a small amount of expensive clothes. However, Yamada ultimately comes to greatly appreciate and regard the Wagnaria staff very closely, in particular Souma.
- The Klutz: It's kind of a wonder how she manages to walk five steps without tripping over herself.
- Like Brother and Sister: How she envisions her relationship with Souma, even more than her actual brother, Kirio.
- Master of Disguise: This is how Kirio describes her, and why he's insistent on checking everyone out to see if it's her in disguise or not. Indeed, she does seem to have an endless supply of outfits, wigs, and makeup with her at all times.
- The Millstone: She constantly breaks things, uses up the food supplies and slacks off constantly, making her actually detrimental to the work of the restaurant.
- Mysterious Past: The manga dances around directly answering anything remotely close to Yamada's past until, that is, her mom is finally introduced into the manga.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: She starts doing this to feign innocence starting from season 3. Or at least, she tries to.
- The Runaway: She claims to be an orphan who lost her family and house in a fire, but Takanashi can immediately figure out Yamada is actually a girl who ran away from her home. Her brother eventually shows up looking for her and from what he says, it's clear that Yamada left home because her mother is too busy with work to care for her.
- Secretly Wealthy: It's implied that she's from quite a wealthy family. Her appearance and speech patterns are quite high-class and she's completely unused to taking care of herself or anything like normal household activities.
- Shipper on Deck: Really wants the two potential couples at Wagnaria (Takanashi/Inami and Satou/Todoroki) to just seal the deal and get together.
- Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Yamada loafs around at Wagnaria all day and doesn't seem to go to school. That being said, and in the crossover drama CD with Servant × Service, she wears the same uniform as Touko Ichimiya, indicating that they attend the same school. Or attended, at least.
- The Slacker: Despite being an employee at the restaurant and even living there, she barely does any work. And most of the time she's breaking something.
- Spanner in the Works: For lack of a better explanation, Wagnaria functions in spite of her presence. She's so clumsy that she knows by heart the very position of the employee damage report sheet by virtue of having to use it all the time.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Wants to be this. Renaming the anime to "YAMAKING!!" is one of her goals.
- Third-Person Person: Several people insist on calling her "Yamada", which she initially doesn't respond to, so she trained herself to respond to it and ended up using it herself.
- Trademark Favorite Food: She absolutely loves Natto and apparently ran away because her brother ate it.
- Tsurime Eyes: Severely. To the point where her eyes look like they are the bottom halves of a larger pair of eyes.
- Vague Age: She claims to be about the same age as Souta, meaning 16. But then this is Yamada we're talking about. The manga and anime even put 16 in quotations.
Hyougo Otoo
Hyougo Otoo
Voiced by: Daiki Nakamura (Drama CD) and Joji Nakata (Anime)
Senior manager in charge of the Wagnaria branch everyone is working in, Otoo-san (as he is called by his employees) doesn't spend as much time at the restaurant as he should. This is because he spends his time looking for his wife, who wandered out of the house one day to buy milk and never returned. His search led him all over Japan, which means he always brings some treats whenever he does drop by the restaurant.- Bare-Handed Blade Block: Pulled off against Yachiyo.
- Butt-Monkey: Between looking for his lost wife, doing all of Kyouko's work for her and bringing her snacks, fending off Aoi's attempts to be adopted, and avoiding jealous murder at Yachiyo's hands, poor Otoo really cannot catch a break.
- Eyes Always Shut: Like Yachiyo, Otou displays none of the cunning usually associated with the trait however.
- Extreme Doormat: Poor guy is just too gentle and spineless to stand up for himself and act like a true manager.
- Happily Married: He's been searching for his wife ever since she went to the store a while back.
- Nice Guy: Otoo seems completely incapable of being anything but nice and soft-spoken. He doesn't get angry easily, even in the presence of Yamada, and whenever he is upset, the most he can muster is to slightly raise his voice a little bit.
- Out of Focus: Otoo has basically no screen presence. More accurately, he has so little "presence" about him that most of the time, his employees wouldn't even notice he was right there unless he told them he was. It was lampshaded as the reason why he and his wife kept missing each other, since she's Out of Focus as well.
- Punny Name: A result of everyone in the restaurant calling each other by their surnames. His sounds like "otou-san" ("Dad").
- Team Dad: Quite literally, whenever he's at the restaurant.
Maya Matsumoto
Maya Matsumoto
Voiced by: Akiko Kawase
Another waitress sharing screentime with the floor crew, eighteen-year-old Maya deliberately avoids taking part in the daily antics her coworkers keep getting involved in. A perfectly normal working girl in her mind, she wants to make sure it stays that way... which makes her come off as rather weird to the rest of the cast.- Alliterative Name: Maya Matsumoto.
- Heroic BSoD: Gets a brief one when, after hearing Souma say "normal", she starts hearing variations of it after every other word.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Ironically, it's what makes her unique among her coworkers.
- Living Prop: She is seen working throughout the show, but doesn't have much screen time until the last episode of both seasons, particularly the second one.
- This is invoked by her desire to be "normal" and stay distant from the weirdness of the rest of the staff.
- Loners Are Freaks: It says a lot when Popura and Souma says that she's strange.
- Not So Above It All: The last episode of Season 2 gives tantalizing hints that Maya isn't as normal as she thinks she is.
- Only Sane Employee: She thinks she is this.
- Out of Focus: She's in the credits from the very beginning and is often visible in the background serving customers, but anyone not paying close attention won't notice her until the last episode of both seasons, where she finally gets some dialogue.
- Single-Issue Psychology: As an omake reveals, Maya's hang-up about being normal stems from an incident in grade school where she got teased by her classmates for having an unusual bento during a school trip. Said bento happened to be made with kusaya
, a very pungent type of fermented fish. - Suddenly Voiced: Her only speaking roles come at the end of a season. In season 3 she has a minor speaking role in episode 3 when she tells Yachiyo to just "dress normally".
The Takanashi Family
Kazue Takanashi
Kazue Takanashi
Voiced by: Mabuki Andou (Drama CD) and Ryōko Shiraishi (Anime)
The eldest of the Takanashi siblings, 31-year-old Kazue is a recently-returned divorcee taking up law to supplement her income. Despite her stern demeanor, she often worries over her younger siblings, particularly her reclusive immediate younger sister Izumi.- Berserk Button:
- Any mention of her recent divorce. Izumi can't help but push it.
- And later on, any mention of her re-marriage to her ex-husband is enough to make her go Blue with Shock.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Not the most blatant example, but an actual lawyer who became one specifically so that she can throw huge law books at people.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: She has a well-endowed figure, which Popura admires.
- Cuteness Proximity: It runs in the family.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Nazuna notes at just how serious meeting with Minegishi must be, when Kazue is humble and willing to freely grant favors rather than meet with him. In no small part, this is because he's her ex-husband - see Berserk Button above.
- Only Sane Woman: The most reasonable and responsible of Souta's elder sisters.
- Politeness Judo: She and Inami engaged in a bout of this during her "boss battle". Kazue lost after a single round.
- Promotion to Parent: Since her father passed away and her mother is often absent, she often take upon herself to take care of her younger siblings.
- Relationship Revolving Door: Has a on-again-off-again relationship with her husband.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's noted to be both quite tall [5"9] and attractive
- Strong Family Resemblance: She looks like a female version of her younger brother Souta.
- Throw the Book at Them: Apparently she chose law specifically because it involves huge books — which she can throw at Souta. And her ex-husband as well.
Izumi Takanashi
Izumi Takanashi
Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (Drama CD) and Yōko Hikasa (Anime)
The second of the Takanashi siblings, 28-year-old Izumi is a romance novelist, though often struggling to meet her deadlines due to lack of inspiration. Gloomy and extremely frail, Izumi almost completely depends on Souta to even function at home. Except for one exception, her wardrobe seems to consist mostly of black gothic-style dresses.- Bookworm: Given that she's a novelist whose room is full of literature and that her mother refers to her as the most "knowledgeable" of the Takanashi siblings, this seems to be implied.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: She's afraid Souta will stop devoting his time to her after he's found a girlfriend.
- Creepy Loner Girl: She has long, disheveled dark hair, wears black gothic dresses, has an incredibly negative disposition, and spends most of her time locked inside her room struggling to overcome Writer's Block before meeting her deadlines.
- Cuteness Proximity: She shows the same reaction to Popura as her brother and older sisters do.
- Delicate and Sickly: She suffers from a combination of extreme anemia and lack of exercise, as she tires out within five minutes of walking outside, loses strength after carrying kittens for several seconds, and suffers from constant motion sickness. She's so weak, she gets muscle cramps after three days if she carries anything heavier than a pen, and she has to crawl around like a baby most of the time. Comparing her constitution to that of a sloth is being very generous.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She has long black hair and pale skin due to spending most of her time indoors. Suits her Goth fashion style.
- The Eeyore: Generally has a highly negative outlook on the world.
- Goth: She perfectly embodies the Gloomy Goth stereotype. Izumi is a Hikikomori struggling writer, her wardrobe seems to consist uniquely of black gothic-style dresses and her mood is perpetually sad and pessimistic. Even her own sister finds it depressing to be around her.
- Hidden Depths: She knows Souta better than the rest of their sisters and she knows by heart the kind of girl that he likes, to such degree that she tries to pair him up with Inami even before learning that they're already trying to do that themselves.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Her hair covers the left half of her face. Out of the Takanashi sisters, she's the most timid and reclusive, even locking herself in her room for days as she faces Writer's Block.
- Hikikomori: Rarely leaves the safety of her room, and relies on her little brother to even function day-to-day.
- Hopeless with Tech: Despite being a 28-year-old woman in modern-day Japan, she is so used to writing her novels with pen and paper that she states that she doesn't know how to use a computer at all.
- It's All About Me: Downplayed, but still present. She knows just how dependent she is on her siblings, Souta in particular, and she fears that he'll stop caring for her if Souta gets a girlfriend.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: The one time she goes out, she's shown to be quite friendly to cats.
- Long Hair Is Feminine: She's easily the most feminine of Souta's sisters and she has long and dark (albeit somewhat messy) hair.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Exhibits most of the common stereotypes of novelists, being prone to Writer's Block, lack of inspiration, or tight deadlines.
- Nice Girl: Despite her gloomy nature, she's a kind, sensitive person who's always nice to (albeit dependent on) Souta, unlike Kozue and Kazue. She shows concern for her other siblings on several occasions as well, but due to her feeble disposition she can't really act on those concerns.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After learning about his workplace relationship with Inami (while mistaking Popura for the target of his affection), she's so shocked that she left the house entirely, something Kazue found extremely strange and worrying. Fortunately, due to her weak constitution, she had to return almost immediately.
- Perpetual Frowner: Her default facial expression looks like she's always on the verge of crying.
- Prone to Tears: Because she's so gloomy and hypersensitive, she easily starts crying when Kazue points out her dysfunctions as a writer and a person.
- The Quiet One: She has several moments where she goes whole scenes without talking and only has inner monologues even when there are other characters on-screen with her.
- Reclusive Artist: In-Universe example. She's a Hikikomori attempting (and mostly failing) to make a living as a novelist.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: When Inami encounters her during the first time she dresses up and leaves the house, Izumi is described as very beautiful. And when she goes outside to go shopping with Nazuna, she again looks fairly nice.
- Shipper on Deck: She wants Inami to date Souta.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She greatly resembles the Takanashi siblings' mother much more than the other siblings. Right down to the long black hair. The only differences are that Shizuka obviously looks older and has curly hair whereas Izumi's hair is straight and messy.
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Considering she is a romance novelist herself, the very things that she tries to be proactive about involve Souta's love life; that is, if the fatigue doesn't get the better of her.
- Trash of the Titans: Her room is often filled with lots of crumpled up pieces of paper.
- Unkempt Beauty: She has disheveled hair, wears no makeup and is often covered in ink, but she still manages to look very nice.
- Womanchild: Despite being 28 years old, she can't take care of herself at all and relies on Souta to do everything for her, is implied to be pretty inexperienced about the outside world due to being a Hikikomori, and is constantly seen crawling around on the ground in a manner similar to a baby. Plus her gloomy/feeble nature is pretty childlike and adorable. Besides the "exuberance" aspect, she fits this trope quite well.
- Writer's Block: Even though she supposedly works as a writer, most of the time she's struggling to find inspiration and making mountains of paper out of her discarded ideas.
Kozue Takanashi
Kozue Takanashi
Voiced by: Akiko Kimura (Drama CD) and Shizuka Itō (Anime)
The middle child of the Takanashi siblings, 26-year-old Kozue is a women's self-defense instructor and a regular at Wagnaria... much to Souta's chagrin. Despite being very attractive, she seems to have awful luck at keeping boyfriends, which leads to her drowning her sorrows through copious amounts of alcohol.- Ambiguously Bi: She is equally clingy and kissy towards twins Youhei and Mizuki, but considering how much of a Hard-Drinking Party Girl she is, it's hard to say whether this is due to Alcohol-Induced Bisexuality or not.
- Comically Missing the Point: When she gets turned down by Youhei, she's thrilled because he didn't turn her down for the usual reasons her relationships end (namely, beating up her boyfriends), so she's convinced that he'll come around and settle down with her.
- Cuddle Bug: She has a penchant for hugging people.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Subverted in that her habit of beating up her boyfriends is cited as the reason she can't keep a relationship. Played straight in that nobody outside of Souta complains about her physical abuse of him (which is specifically said to increase when she's single).
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: As Kozue puts it herself, "I drink when I'm sad and I drink when I'm happy."
- Leg Focus: Due to often being scantily-clad and being a fit self-defense instructor, her long, strong legs are frequently on display in her appearances.
- Middle Child Syndrome: It turns out that this is a sore spot for her as their mother forgets her name in a flashback to outright ignoring her existence during her visit.
- Ms. Fanservice: The most physically fit of the Takanashi siblings who also often wears very revealing clothing, while drunk no less. Of course she tends to be this.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Whenever her mom is listing her offspring, she neglects to include Kouze in the names.
- Old Maid: She's still 26 but fears she'll never get married due to often scaring away her suitors and boyfriends. She ends up turning to alcohol and beating up Souta to relieve her frustrations.
- Pet the Dog: Kozue, unlike her older sisters, seems to realize at least some of the problems heaped on Souta by their family are pretty harsh. Consequently, she'll periodically show her more caring side towards Souta (she's the one who gives Souta the first toy that wasn't a hand-me-down from his sisters).
- Sensei for Scoundrels: A rare female example for Todoroki, when the latter is looking for advice on what to do when going drinking with Satou. Kozue's advice goes a bit over Todoroki's head, who never quite realizes that Kozue is giving advice on how to get laid when going on a date to a bar, but it does help Todoroki in a way.
- Shipper on Deck: For all the problems with her own love life, she likes the idea of Inami and her brother going out.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Focuses heavily on Youhei when she first meets him.
- Sleepyhead: If she's not drunk off her rocks, Kozue is often shown sleeping lazily whenever she appears on-screen. It's a rarity to see her showing up both sober and awake.
- Stalker with a Crush: A minor version, but boy does she latch on to poor Youhei and never let go.
- Wasted Beauty: A highly attractive woman who is constantly dumped by her boyfriends due to her violent behaviour.
- Womanchild: She's in her mid-twenties, but still acts like an irresponsible, carefree teenager and needs her little brother to look after her when she gets drunk or is crying over being dumped by her boyfriend again.
- Wrestler in All of Us: She already knows aikido and karate due to her job as a self-defense instructor, but given her drunken ramblings, she also knows some pro-wresting moves; her usual response to getting dumped is a German suplex.
Nazuna Takanashi
Nazuna Takanashi
Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya (Drama CD) and Momoko Saito (Anime)
The youngest of the Takanashi siblings, twelve-year-old Nazuna seems to be happiest helping out Souta, and would do anything, up to and including manipulating her older sisters, just to help ease the pressure from him. She helps out at Wagnaria sometimes under the excuse of doing a school "project".- Admiring the Abomination: Played for Laughs - Nazuna seems to be a bit more aware than she first lets on about just what her mother does to her elder siblings... and she wants to learn how to do it too. Souta is terrified at the prospect.
- Big Brother Worship: Unlike the rest of her sisters, Nazuna is quite open about looking up to her brother and thinking highly of him, to the point that nearly all of her Guile Heroine moments stem from wanting to make Souta's life easier.
- Big Little Sister: She's already tall for her age, come Season 2 she has caught up to her older brother Souta's height (171cm) and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Naturally, Souta does not take this development very well.
- Bubbly Waitress: Nazuna is bright and cheerful whenever she volunteers to fill in at Wagnaria.
- Foil: To Souma. Both are natural at bending other people to their will, Souma out of Blackmailing and Nazuna out of knowing just which buttons to push to win them over. Whereas Souma does so at his coworkers' expenses for the kicks, Nazuna is a genuine Nice Girl who just has her ways with people and cares a great deal about them.
- Guile Heroine: Nazuna has been shown to be increasingly adept at making other people do her bidding, especially if it helps Souta. The guy is naturally worried about this.
- Magnetic Hero: She can make anyone like her.
- Nice Girl: Compared to her elder sisters. she never hits Souta or treats him like a Butt-Monkey. In fact, she's very kind and polite to most everyone in general (though this may simply be part of her above tropes).
- Only Sane Woman: She is much more mature and normal than the rest of her older sisters (and much of the cast in general), and often ends up being the voice of reason for them.
- Wise Beyond Her Years: Quite possibly the most calm, mature, and level-headed member of the entire cast, despite being the youngest.
- Younger Than They Look: She's only twelve, but is about the same height as her teenage brother Souta, something he's not too fond of, as he fears she might one day grow up to be big and mean like his other sisters and leave him.
Shizuka Takanashi
Shizuka Takanashi
Voiced by: Ai Orikasa
The Takanashis' mother. She is often too busy working to spend much time at home, but shows up in season 3, much to their dread.- Cloudcuckoolander: As things turned out, she might very well be the one with the most screws loose in the Takanashi household. She seems to do things on a random whim, like forcing Izumi to dress and work as a maid, make Souta dress in drag all day for no other reason than she likes him that way, and her unusual treatment of Kozue. It is this unpredictability of hers that makes none of her children thrilled to have to put up with her, aside from Nazuna.
- Cuteness Proximity: We were led to believe this came from the Takanashi siblings' father. It turns out it came from both sides of the family.
- The Dreaded: Mostly Played for Laughs. None of the Takanashi siblings aside from Nazuna look forward to any of her visits. Nazuna even wonders why they're wearing black clothing as if attending a funeral, but Souta says he just gravitates towards this color whenever having to deal with their mother.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She has black hair and pale skin, contributing to her creepy looks and highlighting her antagonistic role.
- Evil Matriarch: Played for Laughs. That's how her children, aside from Nazuna, see her as.
- Final Boss: Serves as one for Inami in her attempt to "rescue" Souta.
- Freudian Excuse: She seems incredibly cruel to Souta in season 3, such as preventing him from going to work, and later even attempting to force him to quit. However, she says she's doing this because she hates liars, such as when she asked out her future husband, only to have him turn his gaze away and claim he didn't like short girls. She then references various points where Souta continually denied being in love with Inami, and says if he can't even be honest with his own feelings, she doesn't want him dating anyone.
- Heroic Willpower: She willed herself to grow tall to pursue her love interest at the time, Souta's father.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: When she was first pursuing her future husband she used to be even shorter than Popura! And her husband was about the same height as Satou at the time they first met. But eventually averted, as she used pure willpower to increase her height.
- Irony: Despite her treatment of Kozue, it's ironically apparent that their personalities are the most in tune with each other, especially when it comes to drinking copious amounts of beer, poking their noses into other people's romantic situations, and their physical treatment of their own partners.
- I Got Bigger: She was even shorter than Popura when she was younger, but she used pure willpower to grow taller.
- It Amused Me: She loves to tease her children, especially regarding love, such as Kazue's love/hate relationship with Minegishi, or overhearing that Souta was interested in a girl, and wanting to see the girl for herself to judge her. And then ignoring Kozue completely.
- My Beloved Smother: She is against Souta having any kind of relationship with Inami, but never seems to specify why. Episode 14 of season 3, Lord Of The Takanashi reveals that she doesn't like him not being honest with his feelings towards Inami, as his father was like that as well when she first asked him out. She feels that if he can't be honest with himself, he shouldn't be dating anyone, or working with them either.
- Shared Family Quirks: Most of her children's various quirks are revealed to come from her (with the exception of Izumi, who instead inherited her looks and nothing else). She has Kazue's hardworking personality, Kozue's playfulness, Nazuna's manipulative nature, and Souta's quick temper and obsession with all things small. She even tries to take Popura with her as she heads back to work after leaving in Lord Of The Takanashi.
- So Proud of You: When it is revealed Souta chose to fall for Inami over Popura, she could not help but feel joy over Souta's newfound maturity.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Her daughters look a lot like her. Especially Izumi.
- Supernatural Floating Hair: Played for laughs. While her hair constantly floats and ripples like that of a magical villain, it is more to the effects of Expressive Hair than anything.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: She actually used to be a cute harmless little girl when she was a child.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Due to her constantly working, she's rarely ever home. However, her children seem happier with this aside from Nazuna who's still young.
Others
Youhei Mashiba
Youhei Mashiba
Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura
One of Kyouko's old henchmen from her delinquent days who started following her ever since she beat him to a bloody pulp. These days Youhei is still ready and willing to rush to fulfill whatever request she might have. In fact the main reason he hasn't started looking for work of his own was so that he could be free whenever Kyouko needs him.- Dynamic Entry: His debut has him crashing through Wagnaria's backdoor.
- Embarrassing Old Photo: His sister carries one, but it's not as embarrassing as the one he carries of her.
- Half-Identical Twins: Kozue claims the siblings have the same aura, and often runs into Mizuki when seeking out Youhei. This is largely an Informed Attribute since they don't look that much alike, even having different hair colors.
- Henpecked Husband: He's not married, or even dating Kozue yet. But all signs point to this trope if they get married. Or "when", if you ask Kozue.
- Japanese Delinquents: Not anymore, but still exhibits some traits of this.
- The Load: He's always on the verge of complete failure when it comes to working at the restaurant, making him nearly useless. However, he's still better than Yamada, much to her horror.
- NEET: He's unemployed. In fact, his sister called him this verbatim to his face.
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Is largely put off by Kozue's rather aggressive moves on him.
Mizuki Mashiba
Mizuki Mashiba
Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu
Youhei's fraternal twin sister and Kyouko's other high-school henchman. Unlike Yohei, Mizuki became Kyouko's follower... because she just loved how Kyouko beat her brother to a bloody pulp. Nowadays she's a productive member of society, unlike her brother, and works as an insurance lady. This still doesn't stop her from running to Kyouko's side whenever the latter needs help.- Alliterative Name: Mizuki Mashiba.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Doesn't like Jun trying to start a relationship with Yachiyo at all. She often tries to subvert his efforts, though he's not scared of her at all.
- Delinquent Hair: While her hair is a natural brown, she used to dye it blonde in high school.
- Dynamic Entry: Seems to run in the family, since she also crashed right through the door Youhei destroyed.
- Embarrassing Old Photo: Her brother keeps one of her delinquent days, but what's even more surprising is that Souma, of all people, has a copy as well.
- Half-Identical Twins: Kozue claims the siblings have the same aura, and often runs into Mizuki when seeking out Youhei. This is largely an Informed Attribute since they don't look that much alike, even having different hair colors.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Averted. She isn't that good at kitchen work, and can be a bit of a klutz.
- Hypocritical Humor: Wants Yachiyo to stay away from Jun because she thinks he'll turn her into a delinquent.
- Japanese Delinquents: Used to be one.
- Loan Shark: Implied.
- Old Shame: In-Universe, she deeply regrets her days as a delinquent.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: Views Kozue as one after she starts hitting on Youhei rather aggressively. Unfortunately Kozue doesn't share that sentiment, and in fact tries to be a little too friendly with her, which only angers Mizuki more.
Haruna Otoo
Haruna Otoo
Voiced by: Junko Iwao
Otoo's long-lost wife, who he spends an inordinately large amount of time trying to find. Ironically she has been spotted recently close to the Wagnaria branch he works in.- Escape Artist: Souma, Souta, and Yachiyo all board up and block the exits and windows in the break room while she is sitting in there. When they later remove it a few moments later, she's nowhere to be seen despite no evidence of tampering with the seals and boards. And in episode 9 of season, she somehow manages to escape her chains after distracting Souta and Souma to look just off screen.
- Happily Married: To the point that Otoo continuously goes out looking for her.
- Living MacGuffin: For her husband.
- No Sense of Direction: She got lost trying to buy milk at the supermarket, somehow ending up in a manhole. She's been lost for years, apparently.
- Offscreen Teleportation: When she finally appeared in the series, she is still prone to disappearing without a trace. In one occasion she managed to leave a completely sealed room without anybody noticing it! Hilariously in episode 9 of season 3, she momentarily distracts Souma and Souta into looking at something off screen. The instant the camera and the two men return their gaze on Haruna, she's nowhere to be seen, having escaped her chains in that split second somehow. Aoi then somehow finds her right away shortly after going into another room.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: She manages to do this in front of Yachiyo and Kyouko, as well as the others in the restaurant during season 3.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: She actually keeps her carton of milk this way, tucked up all the way inside her sweater. Somehow this doesn't show up on her person.
Ritsuko Kitahara
Ritsuko Kitahara
Voiced by: Fumie Mizusawa
A friend and classmate of Mahiru, "Ricchan" worries about Mahiru's many personal issues. That said, she's not too bothered about putting Mahiru's androphobia to practical use.- In-Series Nickname: "Ricchan"
- Those Two Girls: With Momoka.
- With Friends Like These...: She and Momoka encourage Mahiru to walk through the area she normally takes to get to work after telling her a pervert is stalking the area, with the intention of Mahiru punching the guy out.
Momoka Suzutani
Momoka Suzutani
Voiced by: Sayuri Yahagi
Another of Mahiru's friends at school, Momoka also worries about her friend's problems. However unlike Ritsuko, Momoka is perfectly content to leave things as they are... since it's more fun that way.- Catchphrase: Of the Internal Monologue variety."I'm worried... but I won't tell her. Not because it's funny, but because I'm her friend."
- It Amused Me: Even more obvious in the Working!! Seishunhen manga.
- Those Two Girls: With Ritsuko.
- With Friends Like These...: Warns Mahiru about a pervert going around the route she normally takes to work, hoping she'd punch the guy out if she runs into him in the process.
Kirio "Yamada"
Kirio "Yamada"
Voiced by: Satoshi Hino
A young man looking for his sister (two guesses who), Kirio's initial methodology in looking for her made everyone think that he was a molester, though an encounter with Inami cleared up that misunderstanding. A member of his school's karate club, Kirio is one of the few males capable of stopping Inami's concrete-destroying punches.- Charles Atlas Superpower: Seems like a buffoon at times, but manages to stop Inami's punches.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Much like his sister, and he has a tendency to go off track in his thoughts every now and then.
- Comically Missing the Point: He is painfully unaware of how annoying he is, even when people tell him to his face.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Can be just as ditzy as Aoi, but as mentioned above he's able to stop Inami's punches.
- Establishing Character Moment: Is first introduced sneaking up behind Mahiru. And much to her shock, he manages to block her punch. Fortunately he didn't have any bad intentions.
- Forgotten First Meeting: He reveals he met Souta when they were children and Souta was crossdressing as a girl. He admits Souta was his first crush, to the latter's dismay.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Insists that Souta is his best friend, despite him hating Kirio's guts. Souma isn't too fond of him either, mostly due to attempting to forcefully bring Aoi home. But also being annoying.
- Honor Before Reason: Determined to defend Inami's honor from Souta's declaration of her violent behavior despite the fact that it's her whole schtick. To the surprise of everyone present, it doesn't go well for him.
- Love at First Punch: Fell in love with Inami at first punch.
- Love Before First Sight: Falls for "Yamada" (actually Souta crossdressing) when Souma hands him a picture of her. Souta doesn't take this too well.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Like his sister, he too pulls this to try and act innocent. Like her, he also fails to whistle properly.
- Punch Catch: He's the only one able to catch Inami's blows so far, due to his karate skills.
- Schmuck Bait: Is quite easily duped, such as failing to recognize Aoi in episode 6 of season 3 after she puts on the wig Souta wears as Kotori a moment after seeing her. He then wonders if Souma is his big brother too after Aoi makes that claim.
- Shared Family Quirks: Like Aoi, he doesn't respond when called by their "family name" Yamada.
- Shipper on Deck: Seems to encourage Souta and Mahiru. Though he often says it in a snarky manner which ends up irritating Souta to the point he doesn't believe him.
- Strong Family Resemblance: He looks a lot like a male version of Aoi.
- Translator Buddy: For his overthinking mother. Exaggerated to the point where he can understand a blank text message and properly decode it.
- Tsurime Eyes
Toru Minegishi
Toru Minegishi
Voiced by: Koji Yusa
The ex-husband of Kazue and assistant to the Takanashi siblings' mom. He's also shamelessly masochistic.- The Friend Nobody Likes: He is quite loathed by most of the Takanashi siblings.
- Romanticized Abuse: His relationship with Kazue is this and he thoroughly enjoys it, to the point that they got reengaged because he likes being abused by her the best.
- Too Kinky to Torture: He absolutely loves being yelled at and abused. He also quite shameless about it as well.
Kikuno "Yamada"
Kikuno "Yamada"
Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue
The mother of Aoi and Kirio and also the executive assistant to Shizuka Takanashi. She is almost always quiet, due to her constant overthinking.- Identity Impersonator: Shizuka has her on staff to impersonate her in televised debates (among other possible unsavory things) by putting a wig on her. It works because Kikuno is not particularly vocal and Shizuka -by reputation- doesn't approach the limelight that often herself.
- Nervous Wreck: Her thoughts are so jumbled that her late husband had left a manual to understand her.
- Parental Neglect: Kirio indicates that Kikuno is too busy working to actually care about Yamada much. He tries to put a positive spin on it, but all indicates she's not even looking for Yamada.
- Poor Communication Kills: Part of the reason Aoi ran away was because Kikuno is nearly impossible to communicate with.
- Professional Killer: Played with. Souta wonders how she's able to work at all, especially since her quietness would stifle her efforts, to which Minegishi offhandedly tells him that she engages in espionage and assassination. Whether Minegishi's serious is a matter of debate.
- The Quiet One: Tends to not talk because she thinks too hard.
