This is a character sheet for the cast of Domestic Girlfriend.
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The Main Cast
Natsuo
Natsuo Fujii
Voiced by: Taku Yashiro (Japanese), Austin Tindle (English)
The protagonist. An high school boy who has a crush on his English teacher, Tachibana Hina. After it becomes clear that his feelings are unrequited, he goes on a mixer party, and ends up having sex with Rui, a girl whom he just met. Then his father, a single parent, announces his intention to remarry, he is shocked to see that his step siblings turn out to be Hina and Rui.
- Above the Influence: When Natsuo sees how lonely and vulnerable Momo is beneath her cheerful facade, he refuses to have sex with her, makes her dinner and consoles her instead.
- Has this multiple times with Hina after they get in compromising positions, especially when she's been drinking
- Berserk Button: He tends to get angry when he gets treated like a child, especially by Hina.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: One time he accidentally drinks Hina's whiskey on a camping trip and immediately passes out on the table. Another time he drinks some at a club and ends up in bed next to Juri. They didn't do anything, she just took him home to rest while he was passed out and decided to tease him a bit. Natsuo and alcohol do not mix.
- Dramatic Drop: When he sees Hina masturbating while muttering Shuu's name, he drops the English textbook he was carrying.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: The first time he sees Hina sleeping, he leans in for a kiss..
- Exact Eavesdropping: Happens both times he eavesdropped on Hina talking.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: When he could not sleep for several days when he finds out that Hina still has feelings for Shuu, he has these.
- Fatal Flaw: He can't say no to a woman in need of help. Most of the time this is a good thing, but he does this even when they are obviously bad news.
- After he nearly gets killed as a result of trying to help out drug runner Misaki, Hina moves in with him to keep an eye on him and prevent this.
- Male Frontal Nudity: In front of Rui. Several times.
- Missing Mom: His mother died when he was young.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Natsuo is an aspiring writer who takes inspiration from the people around him.
- Nice Guy: For an example, look at the Above the Influence entry above.
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: In-Universe— His publisher uses his near-death experience (albeit reluctantly) to boost awareness & sales of his first book. Natsuo is dismayed, to say the least.
- Not Blood Siblings: Both Rui and Hina end up in a relationship with him at various points in the story. He consumates his relationship with both as well, but he ends up marrying Hina while he has a daughter by Rui.
- Raging Stiffie: When Natsuo cannot take a bath by himself, Rui helps him after turning off the lights as he requests. Despite his willpower, Natsuo still understandably gets aroused when a naked girl is wiping his back with soap. Then Rui accidentally grabs his "little one" as she feels around for the soap bottle.
- Real Men Cook: While not a Supreme Chef like Rui, he's able to make simple delicious meals that his female companions enjoy.
- Selective Obliviousness: No matter what evidence he has to the contrary and who tells him otherwise, Natsuo refuses to believe that Hina never stopped loving him. This even includes Hina herself confessing the whole truth to him after some drinking. It takes until the very end when Hina sacrifices herself to save Rui and his unborn child and he sees their rings that Hina always kept on her that he finally understands it.
- Staircase Tumble: When he teases Miu, she accidentally knocks him down a staircase, resulting in some fractured bones.
- Teacher/Student Romance: With Hina. They have to keep it even more secret than usual because aside from this being frowned on in society, they're also step-siblings after his father married her mother.
- The First Cut Is the Deepest: After he and Hina break up, he undergoes a period of depression. He channels these feelings towards his first short story.
- The Make Over: According to him, he underwent one before entering high school. Chapter 121 shows what he looked like before in middle school, with messier hair and glasses that make him look a lot like his father.
- Write Who You Know: An In-Universe example. As he begins writing novels and short stories, several of his work features characters modeled after Hina and himself.
Hina
Hina Tachibana later Hina Fujii
Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa (Japanese), Patricia Duran (English)
Natsuo's English teacher. She is well aware of his feelings for her, but makes it clear that she does not return them. At the manga's beginning, she was dating Hagirawa Shuu, her former High school Chemistry teacher.
- Beautiful Dreamer: Natsuo watches as Hina sleeps on at least two separate occasions. He also thinks this of her when she's stuck in a coma.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Forced upon her after after the school catches a photo of them embracing in her hotel room at the field trip. In return for not bringing her romantic relationship with Natsuo to the public, she suddenly transfers to a new school, cuts all of her communication off with Natsuo after one final letter, while also limiting contact with her mother and Rui so as to minimize the likelihood Natsuo would find out where she was and go chasing after her again anyway.
- Covert Pervert: Checks out Natsuo while he's naked and has a wide variety of sexual fetishes.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: At the beginning of the series Hina is miserable and completely unsure of what she wants in life, but she knows her current situation isn't it. Much of her Character Development is finding something to live for. One of the main reasons she falls so hard for Natsuo is because she sees all the passion he has for writing, something she herself is lacking.Hina: I know I'm not where I wanted to be...but I can't do anything about it and it's making me miserable...and I just keep messing up over and over again... I still don't even really understand...who it is I want to be...
- Drowning My Sorrows: When she's not drinking for pleasure, she's often doing this. Usually while spilling her heart out to Marie.
- Establishing Character Moment: She's introduced playfully flirting with her male students.
- Fatal Flaw: Has two:
- Her tendency to keep things bottled up and be a martyr out of fear of inconveniencing her family and friends. This causes all sorts of problems up to and including nearly getting people killed and herself the target of a murder attempt.
- Her drinking problem, which puts her in various bad situations.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: She only becomes sure of her feelings for Natsuo after seeing him kissing her sister Rui.
- Happily Married: To Natsuo in the end.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Her favorite pastime. She tried cutting back for awhile, but it didn't stick.
- Hot Teacher: Many male students comment on how hot she is.
- Lethal Chef: Her food is barely edible.
- Master of the Mixed Message: As explained above in Fatal Flaw, Hina's tendencies to not be straight-forward with how she feeling leads to a lot of drama with Natsuo. Most notably when the first time Natsuo kisses Hina due to his feelings for her, she responds by slapping him and then pinning him on her bed and kissing him, only to then kick him out of her room.
- Ms. Fanservice: The manga never goes more than a few chapters without her getting a nude scene. Several chapters seem to exist largely as an excuse to get her naked.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Anything having to do with her taking responsibility for her tryst with Natsuo results in this:
- She ends up taking the rap for the relationship and requests that her affair not be publicly released, as she worries that it may hurt Natsuo's writing career. As a result, she is fired.
- She confronts the paparazzi about the hit piece they're about to release concerning the affair in an effort to get dirt on the now-famous Natsuo, and successfully sues them. The paparazzi then decides, in a drunken rage, to run over Hina the minute he sees her on the street, and she gets put into a coma for five years.
- Sensei-chan: Hina is only a year out of college and it shows as she basically acts like she's still a sorority girl: flirting with students, drinking and socializing constantly, etc. She eventually comes to the conclusion that she's not fit to be a teacher and quits.
- Sexy Mentor: Is a very beautiful woman, is a teacher at Natsu's school.
- Skinship Grope: She teasingly does this with Rui in a hot spring.
- Slippery Swimsuit: On a class trip to the beach, as she is swimming, her bikini top gets loose, then a large wave washes it away. Thankfully, Natsuo is close by.
- Stepford Smiler: Hina almost always comes off as cheery, but deep down, she hides her conflicted feelings. Such as her affair with a married man. Or her complicated feelings for Natsuo. And she secretly envies Rui, who is always free to do what she wants, unburdened by the "Adult" role.
- Teacher/Student Romance: She has an affair with Natsuo. Years later, she marries him.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Beer.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Comments by Sasuga in the series afterword explain that this was the reason why Hina married Natsuo in the end. Had Rui gotten married as she planned, Hina would be left with nothing, as she lost her true love, job, and a lot of motor functions over the course of the series. Allowing her to finally be with Natsuo, therefore, was the tradeoff, granting Hina happiness equal to Rui's satisfaction to her manga-wide romance.
- Trash of the Titans: Downplayed. But when she moves into Natsuo's apartment she has a habit of leaving her clothes and underwear around everywhere, to Natsuo's annoyance.
- Trauma Conga Line: Over the course of the manga she: finds out that her boyfriend of two years was lying about being married; falls in love with an underage student that she can't act on for legal and ethical reasons; ends up the step-sibling of said student out of nowhere; finally relents and starts dating him, only to be caught by a million-to-one fluke camera shot; is forced to move to a faraway island away from her entire family and cease all contact with them; eventually can't take it, quits, and moves back only to find out that he is now dating her sister; and finally starts dating someone else in an attempt to move on, only for him to be a psychotic stalker who tries to murder her. She proclaims her everlasting devotion to her student/step-brother, only to find out that he got her sister pregnant and they are getting married. And after all that she gets hit by a car and ends up in a coma for five years followed by three and a half years of painful rehab when she wakes up. Supplementary comments by Sasuga mention this also left her barren. Fortunately, after all of that she finally achieves true happiness.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: She reveals that on at least one occasion, she got drunk and kissed her girl friends.
- A frequent occurrence when she's been drinking. A couple of other examples include showing up unannounced to Natsuo's apartment and confessing her love for him and passing out naked in his bedroom while on vacation.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Defied. Tanabe tries to mould Hina into one, but it doesn't take as Hina has few of the traits and greatly dislikes playing the part of a proper Japanese lady. She'd much rather go hang out at a pub with her friends and have fun. Not wanting to live like this is one of the reasons she ends up dumping him.
Rui
Rui Tachibana
Voiced by: Maaya Uchida (Japanese), Natalie Rial (English)
Hina's little sister. She meets Natsuo at a mixer party. Realizing he's a virgin, she suggests that they have sex, just to see what it's like. Then she start having feelings for him when they live under the same roof.
- All for Nothing: All her attempts to make his relationship with Natsuo work turn out to be futile, when it turns out that he never loved her.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: After Natsuo almost drowns saving Miya, she confesses her love for him, not wanting to hold her feelings inside her heart.
- Apology Gift: When she gets angry with Natsuo, he cooks a dish of Yaki-udon as an apology.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Repeatedly, over anyone who gets close to Natsuo. She normally keeps it quiet, but it becomes more obvious after she and Natsuo start actually dating. Natsuo doesn't mind too much, and even calls it cute, but Rui still tries to keep it under control. She is very happy with herself when she realizes she heard about Natsuo doing something for Hina and didn't feel jealous.
- Eventually she realizes how toxic their relationship is becoming and the damage her possessiveness is doing after getting into a fight with Serizawa, and dumps Natsuo.
- Cry into Chest: When Natsuo comforts her after they see Hina and Shuu together.
- Daddy's Girl: Rui very much takes after and looks up to her father, which made it especially hard on her when he and her mother broke up and he moved out.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: She acts rather cold towards everyone at first. Natsuo gradually helps her to be more sociable after she transfers to his school, and she starts falling in love with him as a result.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Whenever she feels lonely or unhappy.
- Eating Lunch Alone: This seems to happen a lot in her past, considering how she dislike having small talks with her classmates.
- Everything but the Girl: According to Sasuga in the series afterword, balancing the scales of Rui and Hina's relationship with Natsuo was the key to their happy endings. However, since Hina was always intended to get with Natsuo, Rui would get everything else—a successful dream job, a good circle of friends, and a loving relationship, engagement, and child. She lampshades the trope in the final volume, but beyond the final breakup, she doesn't regret one bit of it.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Good at cooking at the beginning of the series. After she graduates high school, she studies to become a Supreme Chef under her father.
- Friendless Background: Because of her peculiar tastes (old songs, sophisticated books, etc.), she finds it hard to hold meaningful conversations with her classmates.
- Holding Hands: Chapter 20, Rui puts her hand on Natsuo's and asks for a kiss.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She is the one that decides to put her engagement on hold, as she couldn't stand the idea of basking in happiness while Hina was stuck in a coma. Eventually she decides to give Hina's rings back to Natsuo and encourage him to marry Hina instead.
- Longing Look: Before she realizes her feelings, she has this look on her face whenever she finds Natsuo talking or being friendly with another girl.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: When she asks him if they could secretly date, Natsuo couldn't say no when faced with her gaze.
- Rei Ayanami Expy: Her short blue hair, red eyes, No Social Skills, and relatively dull and emotionless demeanor draw many similarities to Rei. Part of her Character Development is starting to realize the nature of her emotions as well.
- Romantic False Lead: Doubly Subverted. Initially, it seemed like she was going to be Natsu's official partner, but despite being together for several years and having a child with him, she does not end up being Natsuo's true love.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: She has no problem being naked in front of Natsuo, because he's already seen her naked once.
- Shower of Angst: After finding out that Natsuo is dating her sister, she cries quietly in the bathtub.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: She knows that she feels something for Natsuo, and it takes a while before she realizes what it is.
- Why Can't I Hate You?: When it becomes clear that Natsuo doesn't return her feelings, she resolves to hate him instead. It doesn't last, because she still loves him.
Momo
Momo Kashiwabara
Voiced by: Haruka Yoshimura (Japanese), Hilary Haag (English)
She is in the same grade as Rui. Rumor has it that she is quite a serial dater and Really Gets Around. Then she has a crush on Natsuo.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: When she doesn't have a boyfriend, her grades are in the top 10. But when she does, she stops studying, and her grades drop.
- Creepy Doll: Has a collection of dolls that she made by herself and attached on her school bag. Several people find it creepy.
- Friends with Benefits: She wouldn't mind being this with Natsuo.
- Girlish Pigtails: Momo sports these, complimenting her child-like personality.
- Happily Married: Momo and Rikkun are absolutely crazy for each other, even after tying the knot.
- Hidden Depths: In her Day In The Lime Light chapters.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Part of her arsenal whenever she drops the "airheaded bimbo" act. For example, she has no qualms about using sex appeal (both her own and Miu's) when trying to "convince" Subaru to accept his club nickname in Chapter 77.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Lacking familiar love (Storge) and friendship (Philia), she tries to find a boyfriend to compensate.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Comes from a wealthy family but because her parents are always away, she's always alone.
- Minor Living Alone: Her parents are in an unhappy marriage and are absent most of the time.
- Nice Girl: Despite her personal issues, Momo is easily one of the sweetest characters in the entire series, always being caring and attentive towards others.
- The Nicknamer: Calls Rui "Rui-Rui", then starts giving nicknames to all Literature Club members.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Most people consider her an airheaded bimbo, and she rolls with that, maintaining a outwardly cheerful and carefree attitude. Despite that, she's an ace student and can easily outmaneuver people who fall for her ditzy façade.
- Self-Harm: She has several scars on her left wrists. She claims it was from a "Short phase", but Natsuo knows better.
- Sex for Solace: Momo offers this to Natsuo in chapter 15.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: She has no problem taking her clothes off in front of everyone and flirting in public.
- During the King's Game she gets chosen to take off one article of clothing, but is only wearing a one piece dress. Natsuo points out that she can just take off the cardigan she's wearing around her neck and it would count. Momo chooses to take off her dress anyways.
- Shutup Kiss: In chapter 15, when Natsuo is feeling depressed after he couldn't accept Hina's offer to date in secret.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: From chapter 20 onwards, she no longer wears a long-sleeved shirt and sweater, but changed to a short-sleeved shirt with a small band on her left wrist.
- Stepford Smiler: Beneath her cheery and promiscuous exterior is a lonely, depressed girl.
- Suggestive Collision: On a camping trip, she falls while net climbing and her butt lands on Natsuo's face.
- Tears of Joy: When Natsuo cooks dinner for her and comfort her.
Miyabi
Miyabi Serizawa
An actress belonging to Forester Drama Club. Has an enormous crush on Natsuo.
- Ascended Extra: Started out as a minor character to provide some conflict for Natsuo as he was starting as a script-writer before becoming a major love interest and probably the most important character in the manga after the three main step-siblings.
- Cannot Spit It Out: And when she does, she immediately backtracks and says she just got caught up in the moment.
- Important Haircut: After her unrequited Love Confession, she cuts her hair short as a sign of her moving on.
- Love Hurts: She finally does work up the courage to confess, but Natsuo turns her down. She breaks down crying but afterwards, takes it in stride.
- Master Actor: She's the star of the Drama Club and eventually becomes a successful TV actress.
- Nature Abhors a Virgin: She is one and it causes her a great deal of mental anguish. Trying to lose it is one of her primary motivators.
- Serious Business: Acting. She initially refused to work with Natsuo when she thought he wasn't taking their club seriously.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Is completely obsessed with Natsuo.
Supporting characters
The Master
"Master" Masaki Kobayashi/Mari Komori
Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda (Japanese), John Gremillion (English)
Owner of L'Amant, a cafe frequented by the main characters.
- All Gays are Promiscuous: Hits on other men, often asking if they're single.
- The Bartender: He cares for his clientele, often acting as The Confidant and mediator.
- Camp Gay: His work clothes consist of a fancy shirt, black tight shorts, fishnet tights and high heels. During the festival, he takes part in a crossdressing contest wearing a eye-wateringly campy Brazilian-carnival-style outfit.
- He used to work as a "hostess" and a drag queen before opening his cafe. He still likes to be called "Mari", which was his pseudonym in those days.
- When he ditches the campy clothes in the public bath scene, he suddenly becomes an epitome of Manly Gay, muscles, yakuza tattoos, and all.
- Closet Key: Jin Katsuragi, the rival family's waka-kashira in Master's backstory.
- The Confidant: He is one for Hina, Rui, and Natsuo. He jokes that he has a second job as a psychiatrist.
- Gay Best Friend: Plays this role for Hina.
- Gayngster: He was one in the past.
- One-Man Army: Takes out a gang of armed gangsters single-handedly (with a small assist from Hina) while completely unarmed.
- Yakuza: He used to be the waka-kashira (heir) of his Yakuza family, but left and cut all ties when his father didn't accept his coming out.
Fumiya
Fumiya Kurimoto
Voiced by: Takuya Eguchi (Japanese), Andrew Love (English)
Natsuo's best and oldest friend. A part-time barista at "L'Amant".
- The Confidant: The first person Natsuo goes to when he needs to get things off his chest.
- Strong Family Resemblance: He looks very similar to his mother and younger sister.
Miu
Miu Ashihara
Voiced by: Konomi Kohara (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)
The president of the literature club, and only member until Natsuo, Rui and Momo join.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Has feelings for Kiriya, her teacher and club supervisor. She tries to confess but backs out at the last minute.
- Curtains Match the Windows: Has green hair and green eyes.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She accidentally knocks Natsuo down a flight of stairs at school after she elbows him for his teasing and suggesting that she likes Kiriya-sensei. Natsuo doesn't hold it against her even though she apologizes profusely the next day.
- Shrinking Violet: She's rather shy and not good at speaking in public.
Kiriya
Reiji Kiriya
Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa (Japanese), David Wald (English)
A teacher at Natsuo's school who forces him to join the literature club to help Miu come out of her shell.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: When Natsuo says he's returning a book he borrowed, Kiriya accuses him of stealing since he's technically not a member of the literature club. However, he'd be willing to look the other way if Natsuo decided to join, which he eventually does after a little bit more pressure from Kiriya.
- Cool Teacher: Rather eccentric but a good teacher nonetheless.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Back in college he was an upperclassman of Shuu Hagiwara, the man Hina was having an affair with.
- Hot Teacher: Easy on the eyes and has several female students crushing on him, though he's shown no signs of reciprocating.
- Ship Tease: With Miyu. While they don't end up together, Miyu eventually becomes his editor, and many pictures Sasuga drew of them afterwards imply that they're headed towards a relationship anyway.
Alex / "Al"
Alex J. Matsukawa
Voiced by: Tasuku Hatanaka (Japanese), Blake Shepard (English)
A foreign exchange student who practically becomes Natsuo's new friend.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: He's prone to do stupid things while drunk, like kissing Natsuo and Kiriya or trying to force himself on Rui.
- Attempted Rape: Forced himself on Rui while drunk.
- Casanova Wannabe: He claims to be "very popular with girls," but cannot even work up the courage to confess to Rui. It is revealed that in his hometown, he became disliked due to him unknowingly getting himself drunk from chocolate and kissing a girl in front of everybody at the party.
- Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Eventually, Al gets back together with his American ex-girlfriend Lily, who had feelings for him the whole time. They get married and have a baby on the way by the epilogue.
- Eagleland: He's American to the bone; friendly as a puppy, boisterous, forward, and a little critical of Japanese Politeness when it gets in the way of resolving issues.
- Gratuitous English: Considering he was raised in America, is no surprise he adds it to his sentences.
