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Shizuku Tsukishima
Voiced by: Yōko Honna (Japanese), Brittany Snow (English)
A Junior High School student, Shizuku is often found reading books, hanging out with her friends, or working on school projects (such as translating "Country Roads"). Her life changes when she meets Seiji Amasawa, however, and she challenges herself to write an entire book in two months.- Blush Sticker: Has them quite often throughout the story, especially when Seiji is around.
- Boyish Short Hair: A cute bowl cut with bangs.
- Childhood Friends: She and Sugimura have been friends since they were kids and she's very dismayed to learn he likes her romantically since she doesn't want anything ruining her friendship with Yuko.
- Cute Bookworm: And how! Shizuku's favorite thing to do is read and she's constantly running off to the library. Seiji even admits he started checking out library books because he figured it's the only way he could get Shizuku to notice him. It worked.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Is trying to find what her "dream" in life is; she decides that she will try to write a book to see if her dream is to be a writer.
- Determinator: Writes an entire first draft of a novel in two months, causing her grades to take a dive.
- Forgets to Eat: When she becomes obsessed with finishing her novel, she skips out on eating meals and just survives on snacks she stashes inside her desk. Her mother tells Shizuku when agreeing to let Shizuku continue her writing that she wants her to start eating with the family again.
- Limited Wardrobe: Downplayed. While's Shizuku's been seen in different outfits, the ones she's mostly seen wearing are her school uniform, a pink blouse and yellow skirt, and a white shirt and red shorts.
- Oblivious to Love: She didn't realize Seiji was teasing her because he had a crush on her until they got to properly talk and she had no idea that Sugimura had a crush on her until he outright told her - much to her dismay.
- Official Couple: With Seiji.
- Ordinary High-School Student: She is a typical Japanese junior high school student in the 1990s.
- Sailor Fuku: Her school uniform.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the tomboy to Yuko's girly girl, being more interested in books than boys and not caring much about her looks.
- Tsundere: Type B example; she's only one whenever Seiji's in the picture. Though, this gradually faded.
Seiji Amasawa
Voiced by: Issei Takahashi (Japanese), David Gallagher (English)
A Junior High School student (but in a different class than Shizuku), Seiji has dreams of becoming a luthier (a violin maker). He decides to travel to Cremona, Italy to work with his grandfather's friend.- Blush Sticker: Has them quite often throughout the story, especially when Shizuku is around.
- Determinator: Will do anything to become a luthier, even if it means going against his parents' wishes.
- Dogged Nice Guy: He noticed Shizuku a while before she noticed him, mentioning he even sat next to her in the library a couple of times and he started checking out books before she did in hopes that would make her notice him.
- The Glomp: In the final scene, he asks Shizuku if she might consider them getting married in the future. When she agrees, he hugs her ecstatically.
- Official Couple: With Shizuku.
- Ordinary High-School Student: He is a typical Japanese junior high school student in the 1990s.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: He's only in junior high but he's still quite tall for his age, being nearly as tall as some of his adult teachers.
- Tsundere: He initially teases Shizuku because he likes her, greatly annoying her. This fades once they get to know each other properly.
Shirō Nishi
Voiced by: Keiju Kobayashi (Japanese), Harold Gould (English)
Seiji's grandfather, who owns an antique shop. He often has his friends over for music sessions. He encourages Seiji's (and later Shizuku's) dreams.- Cool Old Guy: Kind, encouraging, and always ready with a bowl of udon noodles if someone is upset.
- The Lost Lenore: We don't know what exactly happened to Louise, but Mr. Nishi was never able to reunite with her after the war and he dreams about her frequently.
Yūko Harada
Voiced by: Maiko Kayama (Japanese), Ashley Tisdale (English)
Shizuku's best friend, a junior high school student who has a crush on an unknown boy and receives a love letter early on.- Inelegant Blubbering: When Sugimura tries to convince her to date his friend (who sent the love letter), Yuko yells at him and runs away in tears since she knows Sugimura won't want to date the girl his friend likes. She even skips school thanks to her face going all puffy.
- Irony: While Yuko is far more interested in boys than Shizuku, she ends the movie with her crush on Sugimura unresolved.
- Noodle Incident: When Shizuku visits Yuko to talk to her about Seiji, Yuko tells her she's having a fight with her father and isn't speaking to him. We never do learn why.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Shizuku's tomboy, being vainer than Shizuku, having a very feminine bedroom, and being far more concerned over matters of the heart.
- Youthful Freckles: She's not a fan of them, complaining to Shizuku that standing in the sun for fifteen minutes has given her even more.
Sugimura
Voiced by: Yoshimi Nakajima (Japanese), Martin Spanjers (English)
A childhood friend of Shizuku's.- Innocently Insensitive: When Yuko rejects his friend's love letter, he tries to convince her to give him a chance, unaware that Yuko is actually interested in him. He's bewildered when she runs away crying and Shizuku has to spell it out for him that she likes him.
- Oblivious to Love: He had no idea that Yuko liked him - because he was crushing on Shizuku the entire time.
Shiho Tsukishima
- Cool Big Sis: Zig-zagged. Shiho's okay, but she is a bit of a stick-in-the-mud where her little sister is concerned.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Clearly seems to think that she and Shizuku have this dynamic, with herself as the responsible one. She's not exactly wrong, but still.
- Long-Distance Relationship: Seems to be in one with the unknown recipient of her love letters.
- Put on a Bus: Moves out of her family’s apartment towards the end of the movie.
Muta/Moon
- Cats Are Mean: Stations himself atop a garden fence just to rile up the spaniel living there.
- I Have Many Names: Seiji implies he has quite a few different names, with Moon and Muta just being two of them.
- Small Role, Big Impact: While he's a minor character in the long run, he was the one that led Shizuku to the antique store and thus, causing her to meet Shiro Nishi and connect more with Seiji in the first place.
The Baron (Baron Humbert von Gikkingen)
See his character entry on The Cat Returns page for tropes pertaining to The Baron.
