Here's the character sheet for the Slice of Life Schoolgirl Series Hidamari Sketch.
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Tenants of the Hidamari Apartments
Yuno
Voiced by: Kana Asumi
Yuno is a soft-spoken, friendly girl from Room 201 who tries to get along with anybody she meets. Initially painfully shy, she slowly breaks out of her shell thanks to Miyako, with whom she soon forms a deep friendship. She does not have much confidence in her skills as an artist, even though she manages to do very well at Yamabuki High (and she might be somewhat forgiven considering her friend's insane talent). She loves drawing and painting the most and considers those her main skills. She constantly worries about being considered an adult, which isn't helped by her comparatively short stature. Her trademark accessory is her X-shaped hair clip, which she rarely takes off.- A-Cup Angst: Albeit not as self-conscious about it as Sae, mainly because she's more concerned about her height.
- Bathing Beauty: At the end of every episode.
- Character Development: This being Yuno's Coming of Age Story, she has to show some of this. Compare the sketchbook incident where she had a garbage pile of woe and her response towards her abysmal results in the sketching competition, and one would notice in the latter that she has been able to stop thinking negatively because it's going circular.
- Cheerful Child: Although overage, she fits in this trope by all counts without going into The Pollyanna.
- Cuteness Overload: Yuno's love for cute things is already listed in the character sketches, but this girl certainly has some weird reactions towards cute things, such as petting paint brushes after thinking about the animals their bristles came from.
- Cuteness Proximity: "She likes cute things," comes right out of her bio at the start of each manga volume.
- The Ditherer: A common cause of plot.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: While Yuno is known to be hardworking, her skills will probably never be as good as those of her Genius Ditz neighbor Miyako.
- Height Angst: She has it, but fortunately it does not develop into The Napoleon.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Shows signs of this, except only for one song.
- Iconic Item: The hairclips.
- The Ingenue: Even with Character Development, she is still relatively childishly naive compared to others.
- Nice Girl: Sweet, considerate, and a good friend to the rest of her dormmates.
- Older Than They Look: She rises above the Puni Plush art in the magnitude of this trope. A fifteen-year-old at 144cm, she's not short by yonkoma standards, as she's still (slightly) taller than the Izumi-Kobayakawas and Nodamiki, but her proneness to really childish mood swings makes her look more like she's only seven. Part of the series' premise was on her trying to grow out of this.
- Shrinking Violet: Initially. The first episode of 365 shows her in-a-single-day Character Development in a highly symbolic manner.
- Signature Headgear: Her X-shaped hair clips are her defining physical characteristics, often serving to symbolize her in the anime. Miyako was surprised to find out that they aren't hereditary. One time, when they went to the pool, Yuno wore a bathing cap, but when Sae removed it, she went back to get her clips. And at the bathhouse, when she removed them to wash her hair, Miyako put them on and got Yuno to look at her newly-X'd hair.
- Sleepyhead: Of the hardworking subtype.
- Super Drowning Skills: She needs a swim ring to stay afloat or else she will drown.
- Token Mini-Moe: Of the current six tenants of Hidamari Apartments, even when her two underclassmen are taken into account.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: In later manga strips she has the tendency to think things in terms of Shoujo manga. In one incident she even tries to break an awkward silence with then-newcomer Nazuna by trying to hold her hands in true shoujo style, much to the latter's confusion. Or maybe it's how the way her arm stretches to close the gap that does it.
Miyako
Voiced by: Kaori Mizuhashi
Yuno's best friend and next-door neighbor from Room 202, Miyako is bubbly and cheerful to the point of ditziness. Nevertheless, she's also thoughtful and considerate, especially toward Yuno. She takes life's happenings in stride and likes to drag the other girls along for the ride. She is the most talented member of the main cast and can easily come up with interesting works (or interpretations thereof), but is often plagued by lack of cash, so she always tries to save money, falling just short of mooching off the other girls. Her symbol is a cat's paw, in line with her independent personality.- Allergic to Routine: In contrast to Yuno, a Creature of Habit.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Subverted — her flighty behavior doesn't seem to affect her functionality; she appears to be the most talented among the Four-Girl Ensemble, both artistically and academically. Yes, she has the attention deficit and hyperactivity, but not the dysfunction.
- Big Eater: If given the chance.
- Book Dumb: Subverted — she appears ditzy and easily-distracted, but her grades back in junior high were so exceptionally good she exempted the academic portion of Yamabuki's entrance exams. It's just that others believe her "I came in through the back door" joke. This subversion was lampshaded in character sketches:"Surprisingly, she does good in school!"
- Brilliant, but Lazy: She's not Book Dumb, but is prone to dozing off in class.
- Cleans Up Nicely: Not that she's ugly at the worst of times, but when her hair gets a rinse and a treatment she gains a Bishie Sparkle.
- Dumb Blonde: She is a tall, busty blonde who often comes off as ditzy, flighty, or just plain weird, and is prone to making extremely poor decisions. Artistically speaking, she is by far the most talented of the main characters (all of whom go to a prestigious art school, mind you), she is quite a fair bit more knowledgeable than all of them (when it comes to strange and extremely obscure trivia) and she's such an academic genius that it's heavily implied she got accepted to the school on a full scholarship (because she appears to be dirt poor) and was actually exempted from having to do the academic portion of the entry exams.
- Genius Ditz: Miyako may look like a Genki Girl with an attention span problem and is frequently subjected to Sae's snarks, but her artistic abilities are certainly levels above the rest of the Four-Girl Ensemble, and also does well in academic subjects.
- Genki Girl: While she's prone to sleeping in class and can sometimes sleep for twelve hours in one go, once she is awake, she's quite energetic. One episode shows her coming into Yuno's apartment, showing no signs of having awakened two minutes ago; another has Yuno pointing out that she's hyper even in the morning. "That was quick!" is a common reaction to her actions, whether she's eating or making (usually impromptu) art. But despite all her teasing, she's a likable person, a good friend... and surprisingly does well in school.
- Idiots Cannot Catch Colds: She may be a Genius Ditz, but she is still invoked this once to herself, when Yuno fell ill, and even when she was in the admission interview of Yamabuki.
- Lampshaded in the Fever Dream Episode (and the corresponding manga chapter), when all the eight classmates around Miyako were struck down with the flu.
- Innocently Insensitive: At least some of the time, particularly with regard to Hiro's weight and eating habits.
- The Nicknamer: Slightly. Mainly by way of using unusual or made-up honorifics and other suffixes; she almost invariably calls Yuno by "Yunocchi", and on at least one occasion used "Yuno-dono"; meanwhile, she settles on "Norippe" for Nori, except on the occasion that she uses "Norisuke".
- Noodle Incident:
- How she learned how to swim: There weren't enough lifeboats.
- After she manages to catch every bug in Hidamari Apartments's backyard, she asks, "Uh oh, did I destroy another ecosystem?"
- Perpetual Poverty: She's generally low on cash, such that in one strip, since she didn't even have 300 yen for lunch, she decided to drink water instead. Her apartment has the lowest rent because of damages, including a leaky roof.
- Rags to Riches: Mild example. Shortly after starting her senior year, her brother- a cabbage farmer- lands a contract with a major restaurant chain, thus significantly improving her ability to afford going to college.
- Sleeps in the Nude: Miyako sleeps in the buff, which distresses Nakayama when she wakes up Miyako by flinging off her blanket. Miyako just lazily sits up, showing no discomfort in front of the shocked Nakayama.
- Sleepyhead: Of the Cloudcuckoolander subtype
Hiro
Voiced by: Yūko Gotō
Hiro lives at Room 101 and is, together with Sae, Yuno and Miyako's senior at Yamabuki High. She is a gentle, warm girl and mother-figure to the other girls at Hidamari Apartments. She loves cooking and other girls often assemble at her room for some feast. Her extremely close relationship with Sae at times makes the other girls tease her for acting like Sae's "wife". She constantly worries about her weight and is often on a diet, even though that doesn't go well with her culinary hobby and love of sweets. Hiro's symbol is a silhouette of her fluffy hair.- Berserk Button: Miya making fun of her weight.
- But Now I Must Go: Finally graduates with Sae and Natsume at the end of the appropriately-titled Sae and Hiro's Graduation arc.
- Expressive Hair: Her hair is so animated as to be almost alive. Sometimes it happens when she gets excited or agitated, but sometimes it's just to add a little motion to an otherwise still shot.
- Gender-Blender Name
- Growing Up Sucks: She suffered from the worst BSOD in this series in Honeycomb's episode 6B; she was thrown into a bout of depression because she didn't want to leave Hidamari.
- Heroic BSoD: As mentioned above. This can be summed up with five words as she's crying in her apartment, "I don't want to graduate."
- Not a Morning Person: Particularly evident in the portrayals of the "morning exercise club" in Hoshimittsu; she's the last to join as she's still fast asleep when the others have woken up.
- Post-Stress Overeating: Often falls into this after arguments with Sae.
- Senior Year Struggles: Hiro, on the verge of graduation, falls into a bout of depression. Particularly, she found herself not wanting to graduate.
- Sweet Tooth: Like eating meal replacements with sweetened condensed milk.
- Team Chef: Among the cast she is the best at cooking, and when she lives in Hidamari she often cooks for the cast.
- Weight Woe: Excessively insecure over her weight and figure, but that's something not so visible, considering Ume Aoki's style.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She is utterly horrified by Ghosts.
Sae
Voiced by: Ryōko Shintani
Hiro's best friend and next-door neighbor from Room 102, as well as Yuno and Miyako's senior. She is a good writer and can often be found pulling all-nighters in an effort to meet yet another deadline. Luckily she can rely on Hiro to take care of her in such times of need. Since she's rather masculine, she often teasingly gets called Hiro's "husband", which embarrasses her highly. Sae's symbol is her pair of glasses, establishing her as the more intellectual of the girls.- A-Cup Angst: Most noticeable in her rant when she and her classmate baked cream puffs, as well as her response when Hiro and Yuno discuss her choice of '2D arts'.
- Berserk Button: Any doubts on her gender.
- Bifauxnen: Relatively mild, but enough to make Miyako make fun of it.
- Blind Without 'Em: Once mistook a soup ladle for a clam from a foot away without glasses.
- But Now I Must Go: Finally graduates with Hiro and Natsume at the end of the appropriately-titled Sae and Hiro's Graduation arc.
- Cannot Spit It Out: She has trouble telling her little sister Chika how much she really cares for her.
- Cool Big Sis: Subverted. Her inability to express her concern for Chika is mainly due to her desire to play Cool Big Sis even when she isn't cut out to be one. Lampshaded when she repeated the entire thing with Yuno and failed miserably.
- The Ditherer: At least regarding of what to major in college; studying art distracted her. On the other hand, she hides it.
- Grammar Nazi: Nori succeeded in ticking her off by writing horizontally.
- Half-Truth: She wasn't entirely lying about having experience riding doubles on a bike with someone close while in junior high.
- Informed Attractiveness: Every volume of the manga lists "beautiful" as one of Sae's attributes, even though she doesn't look any different from the other main characters in terms of design aside from her Tsurime Eyes.
- Instant Book Deal: She seemed a bit too successful as a writer for her age.
- Most Writers Are Writers: She is a professional writer.
- Tsundere: Her failure to mention her sisterly feelings feelings for Chika and (probably romantic) affection for Hiro also often make her fit this trope.
- Tsurime Eyes: however, the art style makes it less conspicuous.
- Urban Legend Love Life: As a writer of romance novels, her co-tenants naturally question her love life. She claimed to have had eight boyfriends in junior high, needing to switch everyday, if not having wait lists. While the rest of the characters realize that it is a bit too ridiculous to be true, they are nice enough not to call her out on it.
Nori
Voiced by: Hitomi Harada
Nori from Room 103 is one of the latest batch of newcomers at the Hidamari Apartments together with Nazuna, with whom she soon becames best friends. She is energetic and outgoing, but also has a somewhat sarcastic streak. Her reputation as a computer whiz quickly garners her the respect from the other girls. Although she usually speaks "normal" Japanese, she also masters the Kansai accent, which becomes evident when she converses with a friend from her hometown. Her symbol is a computer mouse, since she is the only girl who knows how to deal with computers.- Crazy-Prepared: She knows more about Sae and Hiro's new apartment complex than they do. She also has a manual ready for running Matsuri's welcome party.
- Flat "What": She's the only cast member who ever really makes this kind of face, and almost every time involves Nazuna in some way. The lone exception so far involved the Landlady.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: She almost has a freak out when creating some wordplay on "curtain" and realizing either no one would get it or it's not that good.
- Innocently Insensitive: Often ends up snarking too much for the comfort of others, though she tries (and often fails) to rectify any problem that would arise.
- Moment Killer: Though she doesn't have many quirks, she often tends to freely speak her mind on what she observes, sometimes unintentionally ruining the mood by saying one thing too many in conversations. Sometimes she catches herself after she does this and tries to rectify things, only to end up further killing the mood.
- Only Sane Man: She can be said to be devoid of any personality quirks, especially compared to other tenants.
Nazuna
Voiced by: Chiaki Omigawa
Together with Nori, Nazuna from Room 203 is among a new batch of tenants in the Hidamari Apartments. She's shy and withdrawn, to an even greater degree than Yuno, and often needs encouragement from other girls for daily activities. The fact that she was abandoned by her parents at the Apartments only makes things worse. She's very popular with the boys, but rarely seems to act upon it. She does not attend Yamabuki's art department, despite general interest in the other girls' activities. She has her hair bands as a symbol.- A-Cup Angst: Illustrated perfectly in the manga-only chapter where she's chosen as the female model for Yamabuki's school uniform and pads her top.
- Character Development: Her shyness downgraded from completely fragile, to Shrinking Violet as time goes on.
- Dude Magnet: Ever since kindergarten.
- The Eeyore: About half of the time — although she can be a sweet girl too.
- Shrinking Violet Very much so, though she's been slowly coming out of her shell at Hidamari.
- Parental Abandonment: Nazuna lives near Yamabuki, so why is she living in Hidamari now? Her father was transferred and her mother decided that her teenage daughter was better suited to living alone than her husband, a grown man. So she decided to go with him, and left Nazuna to fend for herself.
- Signature Hair Decs: Her jiggly hairbands. This and Dude Magnet combined into an In-Universe Memetic Mutation, where her headbands became the "popular hair".
- The Woobie: In-Universe; that's exactly the reason why she's a Dude Magnet.
Matsuri
The newest resident of Hidamari Apartments who moves in at the start of Yuno's senior year. She moves into room 101, Hiro's old room.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: But that's okay because she believes the entire art department is just as eccentric.
- Genki Girl: Yuno comments how friendly and outgoing she is.
- The Glomp: She likes to give these.
- Luminescent Blush: She isn't as easily flustered as Yuno and Nazuna but she can easily match them here.
- Meaningful Name: Matsuri means "Festival" and describes her personality very well. Miyako even nicknames her, "Festa-san." The kanji, however, means "Jasmine".
- Weight Woe: She diets often due to easily putting on weight. Yuno and Nazuna joke that it's the curse of Room 101.
Other characters
Yoshinoya
Voiced by: Miyu Matsuki
Miyako and Yuno's homeroom teacher, an exuberant young woman who often gets into high jinks which frequently provoke the Principal's scorn. She loves to dress up in self-made costumes and posing on holiday cards for her students, earning her a reputation for eccentricity. Still, she has her heart in the right place and is always very concerned about the well-being of her students. For instance, she has no qualms posing in front of her students to help them along with their assignments, even if that means getting undressed.- Art Imitates Art: She has made imitations of Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo by substituting herself as the model.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The reason she is still in Yamabuki, despite the Principal's disdain for her childish antics, was because the latter acknowledges her great teaching talents.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl: She uses her cosplay tendencies for everything from modeling for her art class to making personalized greeting cards. She is very offended, however, at the suggestion that this is cosplay.
- Ditzy Genius: She may be the most exaggerated airhead in the entire cast but she's a one-woman sweatshop.
- Fetish Retardant: In-Universe — her penchant for trying to invoke Ms. Fanservice, combined with her childishness, seems to make even her male students more uncomfortable and weirded out than excited, and also earn the Principal's ire.
- Sensei-chan: She's a young female teacher who's rather eccentric, immature, close to her students, and implied to be insecure about her age.
- Manchild: She lives with her parents, has a younger brother who's already a husband and father, has outright declared she's always seventeen, and is freaked out at the prospect that Yuno might mature earlier than her.
The Principal
Voiced by: Yuichi "Cho" Nagashima
As his name implies, the head of Yamabuki High School, who often appears to reprimand Yoshinoya on her antics.- Cool Old Guy: Despite having a noticeable case of the shakes, he is certainly agile in all kinds of physical activity. The girls once witness him walking across the school grounds with groceries and deduce that he lives in the school (they also inform poor Yoshinoya about this fact later), causing them to admire his dedication. At the same time, the audience is clearly shown that he exits the school via a staff gate that is just out of their sight.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Just called the principal.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While he's clearly disparaging of Yoshinoya's childish antics, he nevertheless tolerates out of respect for her passion with her job. He gives some pretty inspirational speeches as well, though the students (being students) never seem to catch on.
- Would Hit a Girl: Constantly bops Yoshinoya on the head.
The Landlady
Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro
Owner of the Hidamari Apartments.- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: She gets easily distracted by old memorabilia when searching for Yuno's spare room key.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Just called the landlady.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Invoked by her in the second SP special when she loses her own game of sushi roulette.
- Smoking Is Cool: Her chain-smoking is generally depicted as this, despite her efforts to quit.
Natsume
Voiced by: Misato Fukuen
A girl from the Arts B class that acts like a Unknown Rival for Sae. It turns out that it was only a facade to hide her romantic feelings.- Cannot Spit It Out: She is sending Sae mostly confusing messages, although it's admittedly quite hard to get through Sae's obliviousness.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: To a very mild degree, according to the Volume 4 special. Her jealousy of Sae's closeness with Hiro and the fact the two share the same class (and apartment building) manifests in her contrary reactions to Sae.
- Green-Eyed Monster: A reason of her Tsundere tendencies towards Sae.
- Hopeless Suitor: With regard to Sae.
- Luminescent Blush: She gets these around Sae. Episode 6 of Hoshimittsu takes this to ridiculous levels, when her blush is visible from the back of her head.
- Trying Not to Cry: Apparently that's why she became such a tsundere towards Sae, according to the Natsume special in Volume 4.
- Not So Stoic: ...But even she can't hold back her tears while bidding Sae farewell after their graduation, and even when she knows they'd attend nearby colleges anyways, she's practically inconsolable.
- The Woobie: Her constant futile attempts to get noticed by Sae made many fans feel sorry for her plight.
Chika
Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya
Sae's younger sister who is of the same age as Nori and Nazuna. Unlike Sae, she is energetic but is more into music and home economics.- Ascended Extra: She is only referred to in the manga, and isn't even named there.
- Upgraded to Canon Immigrant as of the June 2012 chapter.
Ume-sensei
Voiced by: Ume Aoki
A Metapod-lookalike that never interacts with the other characters or influences the story in any way, it's actually the manifestation of Ume Aoki, the series' mangaka.- As Herself, even when voice acting is concerned.
Arisawa
A girl who is two years Yuno's senior who she also befriends after recovering Yuno's lost cell phone.
- The Glomp: Gives one to Yuno when meeting her for the second time at school, from sitting atop a stepladder!
- Heroic BSoD: She as actually in the middle of one when she met Yuno, as she was feeling very burnt out and a little depressed over exams and applications. She snaps out of it with Yuno's help.
- Troll: She loves teasing Yuno.
Mami
One of Yuno's classmates and friends.
- Comically Missing the Point: Miyako sends her some sketches of her dog and she can only comment on how cute her dog looks vs. the quality of Miyako's art.
- A Day In The Lime Light: Somewhat, as one chapter involves the Hidamari tenants taking care of her dog, but she's never more prominent in any other chapter.
- Those Two Girls: Is almost always seen with Nakayama.
Nakayama
Another one of Yuno's classmates and friends who regularly appears. She's in the same elective classes as Yuno.