Characters / Kotoura-san

Haruka Kotoura

Haruka Kotoura

Voiced by Hisako Kanemoto (Anime), Mai Kadowaki (Drama CD)

The female protagonist and the anime's viewpoint character.

Small, cute and kindhearted, Haruka Kotoura could have lived an simple, uneventful life like the many anime heroines before her.

The catch is, she's born telepathic in an universe that muggles don't believe in psychics. To make it worse, she can't turn it off, nor can she distinguish between speech and thoughts well, in a country with a tradition of hiding one's mind by lying as socially appropriate.

Eventually her classmates ostracize her for blurting out their secrets innocently, even accusing her of being a compulsive liar. She causes her parents to divorce by blurting out they are cheating on each other. Her mother, who had been quite protective of her, decides that Haruka is ruining her life and disowns her. This is enough to put little Haruka past the Despair Event Horizon, as she doesn't even understand why people hate her. Later on, after she discovers she has been mind-reading all along, she becomes broken enough to decide she's actually a Doom Magnet that will bring despair to everything she's close to (having a cat taken to a shelter for euthanasia by an insensitive old lady doesn't help), and decides maintain a Hidden Heart of Gold-hiding facade so that she can be alone.

So she transfers to a new high school and ends up sitting next to Yoshihisa Manabe, a boy who hides nothing—perversion included. With him, she starts to have a more normal life (with romance on the side) while continuing to come to terms with her powers and her past.

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• A-Cup Angst: While her small breasts are alluded to in episode 4 during Yoshihisa and Zenzou's Ham-to-Ham Combat, this trope doesn't show up until episode 6's beach scene—and, especially, its ending.
  • The song of the ending credits of episode 6 is completely about this trope, or, at least, some annoyance on how Yoshihisa sees her breasts. Per trope description she did try to remedy this by wearing loose clothing and showing her thighs.
  • Even the mangaka plays with this by declaring a "boobie mousepad" of Haruka is just a cutout, meaning she doesn't have any.
• Adaptational Expansion: The Downer Beginning in the anime is wholly original.
• Adaptational Protagonist: Is the main sole focus of the story in the anime, unlike the manga where she serves a secondary role to Manabe's protagonist.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: She is a victim of this trope, and so it is played in different ways.
  • In the Downer Beginning she was socially shunned because of this trope— it didn't affect her sanity, but she was Innocently Insensitive enough to blurt out whatever she read. As a result she was treated as a freak or even a compulsive liar, and she caused her own Parental Abandonment because she blurted her parents were cheating towards each other, so she is very entitled to feel this way; however the people around her were dishonest about their own feelings, too narrow-minded, and/or too weak in character to understand someone as unique as Haruka.
  • After she had became a Broken Bird in her teens, she invokes this trope to drive people away, as she thought she's a Doom Magnet.
  • The Downer Beginning was ended by the subversion of this trope; as she saw Yoshihisa holds nothing of contempt about her, unlike everyone else. This subversion persists as Yoshihisa is so honest so the invocation above doesn't work at all.
  • Discussed later in episode 1, when Yoshihisa admired of her powers...
  Haruka: You idiot. There's nothing cool about it, you idiot... You don't know anything! You don't know how it feels to look into other people's minds!^note The last line is manga-only.
  • In episode 9, when Yuriko asked her to recall the vision that made her collapse in episode 8, she pulled out Dull Eyes of Unhappiness, the first time since the first episode. Later that episode, when talking with Yoshihisa, she said that was the most scary mind reading she ever had.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Generally people avoid her, and actually the first scene of the anime showed there's actually a radius around her that people didn't even want to enter lest their minds be read.
• Badass Pacifist: In episode 11, the criminal, Detective Tsukino's Enemy Within, had nearly killed Haruka if Yoshihisa didn't appear right then and there. Haruka "counterattacks" by giving a speech about how You Are Not Alone, all with a Tearful Smile on her face. It works!
• Bad Liar: This poor girl has a very difficult time hiding her Telepathy since speech and thought are essentially the same to her. On the other hand, as an Ingenue, the lies she made to maintain her jerkass facade is usually very blatant—she's not that kind of a person to begin with.
• Beam of Enlightenment: These will show up the moment her Telepathy catches onto something dramatic and/or serious.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: When Yuriko confesses to Haruka that she'd been using Haruka to further her own ends, albeit very poorly, Hakura confides her in that she knew all along. She was just happy to have some place where she belonged.
• Beware the Mind Reader: The telepathy she can't turn off caused her to innocently blurt out sensitive information, alienating her from others.
• Big Damn Heroes: In episode 1, she saves Yoshihisa and herself from being run over by a careless delievery van driver.
  • Gets one from Yoshihisa in Episode 11 when he blocks a blow that would have, at minimum, knocked her unconscious.
• Blessed with Suck: Notoriously played straight during the first half of the first episode. Haruka's telepathic powers left her friendless, socially stigmatized and severely traumatized.
• Brain Critical Mass: Averted; she's hardly a Teen Genius in any way despite her telepathy, especially when compared with Dai'chi.
• Break the Cutie: The first ten minutes and twelve seconds of the first episode does nothing but systematically destroy the titular heroine's life. After being born with a telepathy ability she can't control, Haruka inadvertently blurts out her friends' and family's personal thoughts and secrets; her schoolmates label her a freak and compulsive liar, her parents divorce; and her mother runs out on her, saying to her face that she wishes she had never been born. A lonely Haruka desperately latches onto a stray cat she finds in a park, caring for it because she can't hear its thoughts and believes it is her only friend, only for it to be taken to a shelter - effectively a death sentence in Japan - by an insensitive old woman. This final abandonment leaves Haruka a bitter, broken shell of her former self who uses her power to drive away others so she doesn't hurt them. Fortunately, after meeting Yoshihisa and other friends who accept her telepathy, she starts getting better.
  • She relapsed in episode 11, when she thought she should not exist.
• Broken Bird: She starts at the new school, she has become cynical enough to use her telepathic powers to drive others away so she wouldn't hurt others.
• Brought Down to Normal: This happens to her in episode 8.
• Brutal Honesty: Deconstructed when used with her Telepathy since her words made all the people around her seem like a compulsive liar.
• Butt-Dialing Mordor: At the end of episode 10, the ESP society sets out to find the criminal using Haruka's Telepathy. After she gets a very harsh Beam of Enlightenment, Haruka immediately keels over and nearly passes out again because she did not expect the criminal to have such a twisted, distorted, and unnaturally deep mental voice and that said criminal knows that the ESP Society has fallen for the Schmuck Bait. Thankfully, the criminal wasn't targeting Haruka during this incident. This doesn't last. In the next episode, the actual criminal (Detective Aki Tsukino's Enemy Within) deliberately targets Haruka not only because she has friends despite being a monster (Aki's main motive derived from jealousy), but also because of the afforementioned Telepathy which Haruka showed to both her and Detective Gantestsu Ishiyama earlier in episode 10.
• Butt-Monkey: A constant victim of trolling from her fellow club members as well as being incredibly clumsy. Done for Rule of Cute.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Calls out Kumiko on her treatment in Episode 12. After having enough of her insults. She even assaults her with a pillow.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Her inability to confess to Yoshihisa, however, does not affect their romance. She does confess at the end.
• The Cassandra: She is accused of being a compulsive liar with her mind reading abilities, particularly when she was younger. In the manga, her mother Kumiko still thinks she has delusional, in an psychiatric way.
• Character Development: The fact that she turns from a jerkass to someone closer to The Ingenue is telling.
• Cheated Angle: The curved cowlick on her head switches sides constantly and often multiple times in a single scene.
• Cheerful Child: Doubly subverted. She was one until people began to realize her ability and became a Broken Bird for ten years. She eventually develops back into this over the course of the story, thanks to Yoshihisa.
• Conveniently Coherent Thoughts: Intentionally averted! The show's Fridge Page explains why. She doesn't know this about herself until the Grand Finale, but it's quite the scene when she realizes it!
• Creepy Child: How other people labeled her after they figured out she's a telepath. She doesn't take this well and it burdens her greatly.
• Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: It was really crappy during the Downer Beginning. See Break the Cutie and Trauma Conga Line.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: The OP implied this (tripped over her feet twice), but she officially admitted that in episode 5, in which she trips over nothing at all at an important moment.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Became a social outcast without even knowing why and realized how dark this world is for the first 15 years of her life. 'Nuff said.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: She could have been a classic Moe protagonist and is one deep down. The problem is that her Telepathy cannot be turned off so she's unable to distinguish between speech and thought. In her backstory, she grew up in a society where Tatemae is a commonplace concept. Added to common moe traits of innocence and shyness, it did not end well for her at all. As a result, many of her major character tropes are either Deconstructed, Played for Drama, or they are simply cynical in nature.
• Despair Event Horizon: The stray cat incident (see Break the Cutie, above) is the most prominent example in the Downer Beginning, when she decided she is such a Doom Magnet monster that would bring doom to every living being that she cares about. From that point on she became a complete Broken Bird and hid a Hidden Heart of Gold so that nobody would care her and vice versa, until Yoshihisa broke her shell.
• Did You Think I Can't Feel?: She never says this, but it is clear that the other students are taking advantage of her Extreme Doormat tendencies just because they can and often can get away with it. Yoshihisa quickly realizes this and often gives her "a certain look" whenever she denies this, but he would never hesitate to speak in her defense.
  Yoshihisa: She kept it all bottled up inside her.
• Dirty Mind-Reading: This is actually the least of her problems, as out of the few people that are willing to stand by her, Yoshihisa and her grandfather Zenzan have sexual fantasies towards her. Provided everyone else she'd ever known was afraid of or hated her for her powers, she's willing to put up with it. This was once Exploited by Yoshihisa to check for Haruka's powers.
• Doom Magnet: How she sees herself at the worst of her broken-ness.
• The Drag-Along: She's a literal case since she's often Dragged by the Collar and thankfully always Played for Laughs. She's Justifiably apprehensive about proving that Psychic Powers exist because she knows that society is afraid of her inadvertent Telepathy, and she fears being even more of an outcast.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness:
  • She initially has these (of the 'no iris' variety) after far too many Freak Outs to count in her life, which thankfully doesn't last too long in-show. She still shows it when she recalls her past in the second half of episode 1, though.
  • She got that again in episode 11 when she was broken due to a heavy Guilt Complex.
• Eating Lunch Alone: How would this trope not be used when she has a serious case of All of the Other Reindeer? The situation actually reminds of the "Instant Death" Radius, below.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: She can't transmit her own thoughts to people. Until episode 11, that is, when she manages to telepathically call for Yoshihisa's help while the criminal who had been attacking high schoolers is trying to kill her.
• Expy:
  • Between the Telepathy, Power Incontinence, the fact she's rejected by her society and Isolating herself from others because A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read, she could be one with Touhou Project}'s Satori Komeiji. This point actually causes the frequent crossover between this work and Touhou among viewers, usually by replacing Haruka with Satori.
  • On the other hand: short, short-haired, childishly naive, clumsy, Hollywood Tone-Deaf and insecure... Enokids must have taken some hints from Hidamari Sketch's Yuno as well.
  • Considering their voice actress, similar shyness, and tendency for Tender Tears, several Pretty Cure fans may call Haruka a broken version of Yayoi Kise/Cure Peace.
• Extreme Doormat: Justified, Deconstructed, and Exploited. She doesn't speak up because she would likely and unintentionally reveal people's inner selves which often infuriates them even more and validates their Abomination Accusation Attack hence why she's the perfect victim from their perspective. Because of this, she doesn't even bother trying to be social which is affecting her mental health despite how much her Hidden Heart of Gold-hiding facade denies it. Much of the show is devoted to having her growing away from this.
• Fainting Seer: Suprisingly rare for a telepath, but she had it twice, in the stinger of episode 8 and at the end of episode 10, when saw a vision of what looks like a violent crime, got a Heroic BSoD, and faints.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Not on a Supreme Chef level, mind you; but it's certainly above average.
• Forgot About Her Powers: Subverted due to the aversion of Conveniently Coherent Thoughts above. For someone who can read minds, she can be surprisingly unaware of people's intentions at times even though her Telepathy is always on. This is because those intentions are actually a part of the person's Hidden Depths. Thus, Haruka would need to focus on said person to have a chance of seeing it. There are two noteworthy examples of this, both in the Grand Finale: Detective Tsukino's Split Personality and Kumiko's regret for invoking I Have No Son!.
• Fortune Teller: She becomes one during the later half of episode 2. It was Yuriko's first idea to prove Psychic Powers exist after recruiting Haruka; however, it backfires. Hiyori and her Girl Posse give her a vicious Poke in the Third Eye and continue to torment Haruka afterwards, leaving Yuriko to bear guilt for pressuring Haruka to do this for her.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Conflicted; She fits every part of the description almost too well.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic; she's highly insecure, timid to a fault, wants people to understand her and vice-versa, and is a complete sweetheart.
• Friendless Background:
  • The first half of the first episode at basically this as well. The first scene is like this.◊
  • Again in Episode 11, when she relapses.
• Guilt Complex: Because of her past, even now she still blames herself for everything bad that is related to her (even clearly it's not due to her). Yoshihisa calls her out for that in episode 10.
• Hates Being Alone: She's highly introverted, but even she admits this about herself towards Yoshihisa in Episode 1.
  Haruka: "There's nothing else I can do! I don't like being alone, either! I don't want to hurt people, or get hurt! But what I hate the most is... is when... the people I care about leave me!"
• Heal the Cutie: This trope essentially describes Haruka Kotoura's character arc: the show starts with all events lining up to Break the Cutie seemingly as much as possible, and the majority of the plotline is a depiction of her slow, steady return to being a Cheerful Child.
• The Hermit: Deconstructed. It's a part of her Hidden Heart of Gold-hiding facade and deliberately having nobody else in her life is taking its toll against her. She does live alone in the Present Day, but the difference between solitude and loneliness is made quite clear as the show goes on.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Deconstructed and Justified. She's hated for being an Innocently Insensitive Living Lie Detector in a Crapsaccharine World where Tatemae is the socially dominant belief for acceptance. Everybody assumes that she uses her Telepathy to spy on people's thoughts and feelings on purpose when it's really just Power Incontinence. This kicks off her Trauma Conga Line during the Downer Beginning, and this trope persists in the Present Day too.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: with Yuriko and, after episode 4, Hiyori.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: She cynically comes to the conclusion that she's a Doom Magnet, and the only way to avoid hurting people in the long run (and by extension, being hurt by abandonment from someone she cares about again) is this. Mind, people already assume she's a horrible person, she just decides to cultivate it so no one will get close to her again. Thankfully Yoshihisa breaks through before it becomes terminal.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: when singing the anime OP in episode 3 and the anime's main ED in episode 12. In the latter case, she sings so badly, that Yoshihisa is shown to age in face motion and Dai'chi's glasses break. Yuriko's smart and protects her ears with headphones.
• Hope Is Scary: A Central Theme of the story is Kotoura learning to move beyond this. It's particularly played up in the first few episodes. It comes to forefront when Yoshihisa broke her Hidden Heart of Gold-hiding facade in the last quarter of episode 1 and this trope also underlies why she vanished temporarily at the end of episode 3. Though it becomes less predominant as the tale progresses and she learns that her friends won't leave her, she's still shown to deal with this.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: You can't blame the girl after all the hell she's gone though because nobody understood her gift and how to cope with it.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: A "Need to Belong" type. This is how she really feels deep down paradoxically to Leave Me Alone! below. Deconstructed since she sees herself to be a Doom Magnet and has a major Guilt Complex about it. Ergo, she feels unworthy to have friends in the first place.
• Innocently Insensitive: The combination of this and telepathy is very, very traumatizing.
• Instant Mind Reading Radius: It's the first thing the viewer sees◊.
• Internalized Categorism: By high school age she is enough of a Broken Bird to believe she is actually a "creepy monster." She still seems to consider herself a monster even after she gets friends, but she is a happier person.
• It's All My Fault: Frequently invokes this during the series and learning to overcome this is a central plot point to the story. Given her backstory, its easy to understand why she feels this way, particularly when Yoshihiso winds up in the hospital after a battle with some mooks from Moritani's dojo.
• Jerkass: She was painted as the arch version of this by those around her. Eventually...
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: The stray cat incident aside, this trait is more pronounced in the manga.
• Leave Me Alone!: She requested this from Yoshihisa at the end of episode 1, as she thought his being close to her would eventually hurt him. Yoshihisa talked her out of it, at least to try to be friends with him. Haruka also provides the page quote.
• Living Lie Detector: Deconstructed and Justified. It's why she's a social outcast. Having Telepathy with a side order of Power Incontinence will do that.
• Location Theme Naming: According to Word of God her surname comes from Kotoura, Tottori.
• Look Both Ways: Averted in Episode 1. She was able to save both Yoshihisa's life and her own simply because her Telepathy allowed her to see an oncomming, careless delivery van driver that's running the red light at full speed.
• Loony Friends Improve Your Personality. A glorious Justification. If not for Manabe and the ESP club, she would have been a Broken Bird for who knows how much longer or worse as Detective Tsukino shows us in episodes 9 through 11 as a jealous, child-beating (or even raping and murdering) criminal.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Although in her case it's due to her mind-reading abilities.
• Loner-Turned-Friend
• Loners Are Freaks: Inverted; she's not seen as a freak since she's a loner, but the reverse: after she's broken, she gradually distances herself as much as possible from people. Fortunately, Yoshihisa and the ESP club help her out of this trope gradually.
• Lovable Coward: she is ridiculously timid, and can get scared by her closest friends merely acting tough for laughs. In less serious situations, she usually responds by crying and/or running away.
• Meaningful Name: Haruka means "distant" which can refer to her highly introverted nature. Kotoura can be seen as as combination of "kotoba" (word) and "ura" (back or hidden side). This combination makes a rather appropriate name for a mind reader, someone capable of seeing the hidden sides of people's words without having to be close to them (both physically and metaphorically). A slightly different explanation can be seen in the title of the opening theme Sonna koto Ura no Mata Urabanashi, desho? (This is the Secret of Secrets, right?, emphasis added.)
• Mind over Manners: She hasn't quite figured out yet that maybe she should be more discreet about talking about her powers. Of course, then there wouldn't be a plot. Later on, though, she invoked this to hide a Hidden Heart of Gold so that people doesn't come close to her. The problem is, it doesn't work for Yoshihisa—he doesn't have a secret he doesn't mind sharing, his perversion included.
• Minor Living Alone: Justified due to Parental Abandonment brought fourth by Kumiko's I Have No Daughter! and the general consensus that roommates would be bothered by her Telepathy, especially during her Leave Me Alone! phase. Zenzou, Haruka's unbelievably wealthy grandfather, pays for the apartment's rent.
• Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: On the surface she may look like rude, freaky jerkass who blurts out other people's secrets, but that's only a Hidden Heart of Gold-hiding facade she cultivated after passing the Despair Event Horizon far too many times and genuinely thought herself as a freak who would hurt anyone she cares about. Deep down she is more similar to a conventional moe heroine.

• New Transfer Student: Twice, to the same school. Once in the first episode, right at the end of the Downer Beginning, when she attempted to change the environment. In episode 3, she ran away after hearing that Yoshihisa was injured, declaring It's All My Fault and her world didn't change at all. In episode 4, she was thinking of where else to transfer when the ESP Club and Hiyori arrived and talked her out of it. She then was transferred back to the same class she has been attending!
• Obfuscating Stupidity: When Yuriko finally comes clean to her about having used and manipulated her, Haruka tells her that she knew about it. She just went along because she was also getting something out of it, namely a place where she could belong.
• Older Than They Look: Haruka herself is short among the girls, and her mother often teased her for looking child-like. Even more telling is after Haruka told Kumiko of her Dirty Mind-Reading of Kumiko's boyfriend Tsuyama, Kumiko accused Tsuyama for being a paedophile.
• Parental Abandonment: With a double whammy of I Have No Son!—due to her innocently called out the infidelities of her parents.
• Power Incontinence: She can't shut off her mind reading powers, nor can she differentiate between speech and thoughts. She has some limited control over focusing on individual minds to read in the all the noise, but if she can't see them she may end up reading any nearby mind. Although she has a few friends now, she's still socially shunned by most because of this.
  • Deconstructed during the Downer Beginning. Everybody else assumed that she was using her Telepathy on purpose to spy on their thoughts when the exact opposite was actually true. Of course, nobody cared to understand how wrong they actually were and they refused to listen to "a liar".
  • This trope was also Played for Laughs in the beginning of episode 6, when she was interrogated by Hiyori. She found herself unable to be sure that any answers she wrote in an exam—despite she thought to be done by herself—was not something she read from somebody else's minds. Yoshihisa stopped the interrogation before it went too far.
  • A scene in the second episode where Yuriko confirmed rumours about Haruka's telepathy exploited the "cannot differentiate between speech and thoughts" part of this trope:
  (Yuriko has been forcing Haruka to enter her club due to "rumours.")
  Haruka: Rumours?
  Yuriko: *You can read minds, right?*
  Haruka: Huh? Something like that is impossible...
  Yuriko: You're the real thing!
• Prone to Tears: She has no constitution for sudden pressure, and she caves like a house of cards when threatened. It's often played for laughs, at which point it's kind of cute. As the series goes on, she tries to address this and grow some backbone, but it seems a part of it will always be ingrained into her nature. See also Lovable Coward.
• Protectorate: She is this to the ESP club. It's a part of why the club exists. Eventually, Yuriko changed the club's mission to "play with espers," which pretty much lampshaded this.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: She gets an adorable set of these in episode 7 after Yuriko tells her to believe in Yoshihisa anyway (who's suspiciously avoiding her in this episode). Yuriko is speaking from experience since her thoughts were centered around her own Dark and Troubled Past, and Haruka saw it all hence the reaction.
• Quivering Eyes: They do this every time she is called and/or thought of as "a monster", which is her Trauma Button. The second episode even combines this with Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises, Dull Eyes of Unhappiness, Tears of Fear, and Stress Vomit for a truly horrifying effect.
• Rage Breaking Point: After having enough of her mother's negativity.
• Raised by Grandparents: After her parents left her, she was raised by Zenzou, her maternal grandfather.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Hiyori and Yoshihisa's Red, albiet the former's shade is darker.
• The Scapegoat: A perpetual one during the Downer Beginning; her classmates constantly lie about their own thoughts and feelings to be personally secure among others, so blaming the Honest Advisor who also happens to be a Living Lie Detector was especially cruel and selfish on the other children's part. The kicker is that this behavior is apparently OK with the adults as well! It's no wonder how the setting became a Crapsaccharine World.
• Sick Episode: In episode 8, she gets a fever and a cold, but that isn't the worst part: her Telepathy ceases to function during this time. She becomes healthy enough to walk during the second half, but she still isn't at 100% until The Stinger of said episode when she reads someone's murderous thoughts and collapses.
• Single Power Superheroine: She personally feels like a monster for most of the show, but Character Development spurs her into being one of these. She does so in episode 9 to track the criminal that's been beating, murdering, and/or raping high school students, and she continues being one when she confronts the actual criminal, Detective Tsukino's Enemy Within, via "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight in episode 11.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She loves Yoshihisa not only because he accepts her for who she is, but also he literally speaks his mind, regardless of his sexual fantasies.
• Skyward Scream: She does this during the Downer Beginning in the Gray Rain of Depression when the mean old lady sends the stray cat to an animal shelter (effectively a death sentence in Japan). Made even more poignant since the scene itself becomes silent as the Grief Song swells over.
• Sweet Tooth: This is the only thing she gave to the class when she introduced herself when she transferred in, and that was manga-only. In the anime this trait was only alluded to.
• Tearful Smile: She pulls this off amazingly well in episode 11 just before she opens her arms for the criminal, Detective Tsukino. See You Are Not Alone for context.
• Tears of Fear: In episode 2, she sheds these because Hiyori is exploiting her Telepathy as Haruka is telling Hiyori's fortune. It's quite the horrific scene too...
• Tears of Remorse: She's not actually guilty, but she often cries these anyway because she grew up being blamed for everyone's problems and it became a habit.
• Telepathy: A Deconstruction. This is Haruka's power, to her detriment.
• Tender Tears: Often combined with Ocular Gushers. Again, it's very difficult to blame her.
• Token Mini-Moe: Downplayed in the mini department. She is Two Heads Taller than Dai'chi Muroto, but she is still significantly short when compared to the other ESP Society members who have more realistic heights. However, Haruka is most definitely The Cutie of the group whereas Dai'chi has no Moe traits at all.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Over the course of the series, she goes from a Broken Bird to a more Cheerful Child.
• Trauma Button: Being called a "monster" causes her hard-earned sense of self-worth and happiness to crumble, reverting her to her pessimistic and broken persona.
• Trauma Conga Line: The start of the first episode is one big one especially for her: Her classmates ostracize her at school because she's different; her parents' unstable marriage is scuttled by her absentee, philandering father and lonely, desperate mother; her mother eventually abandons her, saying Haruka should never have been born to her face; a stray cat she was caring for - her last remaining friend - was taken to the pound by a cranky old woman (effectively a death sentence in Japan); and a broken, cynical Haruka ends up living alone, convinced it's better than being around other people.
• Troperiffic: Did you notice the scroll bar on the side become about three times longer than its original length just by opening this character profile alone? This is notable because it's rare for a character from a Romantic Comedy to achieve this, especially for a 12-Episode Anime. As of time of writing (10/9/2015), her profile's length consumes 50.4% of the entire page's source code.
• Tsundere: Very tsuntsun whenever Yoshihisa's being a pervert or an idiot, but defaults to deredere.
• Twisted-Knee Collapse: She does this immediately after the Skyward Scream above. Unusually for the trope, this was animated in profile.
• Used to Be More Social: She's definitely a sweetheart and easily likable. However, she became an outcast because people were afraid and offended of her inadvertent Telepathy, even though she never realized it until they lashed out at her for it. Deconstructed, since she wants to be more social, but she's afraid because she lives in a seemingly sweet yet corrupt society of lies that has No Sympathy for her.
• You Are Not Alone: She is on the receiving end of this for most of the show. However, she finally gets to be on the giving end in episode 11 which also invoked "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight for the reciever: Detective Tsukino, a not so different "criminal" who has a bad case of Enemy Within. The result was the Good side won and turned herself in only to be Easily Forgiven.
  Haruka: Maybe I am a monster, but I met people who reached out to me.
• You Monster!: Deconstructed. This is her Trauma Button, and it often cues either Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises and/or Dull Eyes of Unhappiness. She's normally a good person; however, her always-on Telepathy often makes her look like an Innocently Insensitive mental invader towards others, hence the accusation.

Yoshihisa Manabe

Yoshihisa Manabe

Manabe—when he's not having sexual fantasies, that is.

Voiced by Jun Fukushima

The main male protagonist, and the manga's viewpoint character. Yoshihisa Manabe (usually only in Last-Name Basis) is one air-headed pervert... except he is completely honest and has a heart of gold. He's the person who saw through Haruka's broken Hidden Heart of Gold-hiding facade and made her start smiling again, and quickly became her closest friend. As a true pervert, he enjoys having sexual fantasies of Haruka, just to make her fluster.

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• Above the Influence: Despite his blatant perversion, Yoshihisa can't take advantage of Haruka even when he has a decent opening. And this is with him quite literally trying to force himself to follow through on his intentions (with Haruka's grandfather's blessing no less); he can't bring himself to act anything less than honorably in Haruka's presence ("honorable" for a horny Yoshihisa, anyway).
• Adaptational Badass: In the manga, he beats up a bunch of cultists that hunted him for a perceived slight against Moritani. In the anime, those same cultists are changed to Black Belt-level Martial Artists.
• All Men Are Perverts: A Running Gag of this series is Yoshihisa's Imagine Spots about different ways to sexualize Haruka, and Haruka's Dirty Mind-Reading that immediately follows.
• Animal Motifs:
  • His perversion is usually emphasized by having him act like and occasionally turn into a Wolf.
  • For exactly the same trait Enokids drew him as a monkey in the pages after chapters.
• Battle Aura:
  • Early in the series, he gets a hilariously outrageous one when he starts thinking dirty thoughts to mess with Haruka.
  • One more time in episode 5 when Haruka said she'd rather hug Hiyori rather than him.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Underestimating him is a very terrible idea. See badass and Let's Get Dangerous!.
• Big Damn Heroes: Pulls this in Episode 11 when he saves Haruka from a blow from could have killed her from Detective Tsukino. On the receiving end as well in Episode 1 when Haruka saves him from truck driver that blew a red light.
• Big Secret: He has one during the second half of Episode 7. It's actually a Surprise Party for Haruka's birthday which is celebrated at the end of the episode. The fact that he managed to keep this away from Haruka that entire time was extremely badass on his part!
• Brutal Honesty: His version is Lighter and Softer than Haruka's because he plays it for both laughs and drama.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's kooky as all hell, but he constantly uses his zaniness as a calculated method of reassurance or encouragement for Haruka exactly when she needs it.
• Butt-Monkey: Not only does Hiyori apparently have carte blanche to beat on him for any or no reason with no retribution, but he is often forced to make amends (albeit these "punishments" tend to be things he enjoys, like spending time with Haruka).
• Chick Magnet: While his official Love Interest is Haruka, he also has the interest of Hiyori.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He repeatedly teases Haruka by fantasizing about her for the express purpose of winding her up, but as soon as he finds out Haruka's being bullied, he confronts the bully about it. It should also be noted that none of his (many) sexual fantasies involve him doing anything unseemly towards her.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He is pretty much an airhead with a heart of gold.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Yoshihisa is both very strong and an amazing fighter. These qualities come up very rarely and can be mistaken for instances of the Rule of Funny, but he has the occasional feats of strength to back it up.
• The Defroster: Manabe finds Kotoura after she'd already been broken. Cue one energetic and straightforward idiot to thaw her out and befriend her.
• Deuteragonist: as our heroine's Foil, Living Emotional Crutch, and Love Interest.
• Dirty Mind-Reading: Played for Laughs. He often Exploits Haruka's Telepathy with his perversion just because it's fun to embarass her.
• The Ditz: Sometimes, he's just oblivious in general. For example, in the anime, he doesn't even realize that he never said that he loves Haruka until she points it out in the last episode. He certainly thought it, and he was never shy about showing it, but he never vocalized it until Haruka complained (to his credit, though, he immediately rectified it).
• First Friend: To Kotoura. He's the first to see her a person rather than a monster to avoid, becoming the first person she can count on after she spend the rest of her early years as an outcast.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Optimist; cheerful guy with a passion to protect Haruka and sees many things in a very unusual, yet loving way.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine; a kooky clown with insatiable humor and energy and is a fun-lover with a love of life.
• Freaky Is Cool: He believes in that, which is basically why Hiyori and Haruka fell for him.
• Foil: To Haruka. Who better to accompany a mind reader than a guy who says exactly what he thinks?
• Foreshadowing: In the first episode, he claims Hiyori is only trying to get his attention because his fighting skills would really improve the Moritani dojo. A couple of episodes later, when he manages to seriously injure four members of the dojo that Hiyori sends after him, it's shown that he wasn't idly bragging. This does not work in the manga, though, as Hiyori is the daughter of cult leaders there. In the equivalent line in manga, Yoshihisa claimed Hiyori was only trying to convert him into that cult.
• Fun Personified: This is his default outlook and personality. He lives in the moment, enjoys himself, seeks to humor and/or fluster others. However, he definitely knows when to be serious.
• The Gadfly: See Lovable Sex Maniac and Chivalrous Pervert. A prime example is in episode 8 where he realises that Haruka can't read his mind due to her having a cold. He realizes he can fantasize all he likes, but it's not fun if she doesn't react. Otherwise, he does this a lot simply to tease Haruka and is typically nothing but honorable around her.
• Honest Advisor: This is the quality that Haruka appreciates the most about him besides being a Nice Guy.
• Idiot Hero: A rare one in a Romantic Comedy. This is lampshaded by his senpais in episode 7. Though he's at least smart enough to pass his classes, which can't be said for Hiyori.
• Last-Name Basis: It's the standard in this series, but he's particularly serious that his first name Yoshihisa is nearly unused.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: He looks and acts incompetent half the time, but he has scarily good social wits which come in handy very often. Not to mention, if he needs to fight, he is more than capable of defending himself.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: Haruka's grandfather is strikingly similar to him.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: He is a raging pervert, but he is mostly excused for his behavior because, in a hypothetical situation, if you put him in a room with, say, a beautiful supermodel and Haruka in it, he'd give the supermodel a token leer for a second or so, and then go on fantasizing about his girlfriend without hesitation, clearly smitten, which is heartwarming in a backhanded sort of way, even if he does tend to add on... upgrades to her figure. For that matter, he doesn't actually mind taking it slow with Haruka.
• Manic Pixie Dream Guy: To Haruka, bringing her out of her shell with his love of life, wacky antics, and copious amounts of perverted Imagine Spots.
• The McCoy
• My Girl Is a Slut: When Yoshihisa mistook Haruka and Hiyori's practicing a Love Confession (for Yoshihisa) as a one between the two girls... he still found that a turn-on, not only because Girl on Girl Is Hot, but also because of this trope.
• Nice Guy: Despite his perversion. Haruka and Hiyori can vouch for that. Hiyori's friends even discuss it in the second episode, noting that Manabe is friendly with everyone and treats them more or less the same.
• Oblivious to Love: Despite multiple hints that Hiyori's been attracted to him for years, Yoshihisa never seems to realize that she fell for him. He also doesn't realize that Haruka has fallen for him as well. This was lampshaded in the first chapter of manga, when Haruka, at the time still hiding a Hidden Heart of Gold and hence quite snarky, calls him a "flag crusher."
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: We don't actually see him beat the crap out of those Martial Artists. Just the preceding events and aftermath.
• One Head Taller: Than Haruka.
• Only Friend: Towards Haruka very briefly—the off-screen period between Chapter/Episode 1/2.
• Plucky Comic Relief: He's the first character to bring joy and fun to Haruka after her Downer Beginning. This aspect of him thankfully never changes and he knows when it's time to drop the act.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Haruka's Blue
• Satellite Love Interest: His entire personality is built around him being a Chivalrous Pervert Manic Pixie Dream Guy and protective Understanding Boyfriend to Haruka.
• Sprouting Ears: From Haruka's point of view, at least—Yoshihisa's entire head often goes into werewolf-mode when he's feeling lustful.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: With Zenzou. Their erotic fantasies are identical.
• Supporting Protagonist: Manga only. While the story is told from his perspective, the titular heroine's series-long healing and eventual recovery takes center stage.
• Tranquil Fury: He first used this against Hiyori in episode 2 when he confronted her about bullying Haruka during the latter's stint as a Fortune Teller. He also uses this as a shorthand to let Haruka know that he's not falling for her Blatant Lies.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Frankly, Haruka's downward spiral wouldn't be broken without his understanding and protection.
• What Does He See in Her?: In the beginning of episode 2, other girls in class are puzzled as to why Yoshihisa is in love with the "creepy" New Transfer Student Haruka. Bit of a subversion in that one of the girls points out to Hiyori that Manabe treats everyone like his friends.
  "Yeah, Moritani. Manabe treats everyone like that, anyway."
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Unlike his girlfriend who is a Bad Liar, he never crosses that line. Justified since she is a Telepath.
• Yuri Fan: Although he loves her and knows that Haruka is straight as a laser line, his thoughts tend to wander in that direction whenever Haruka and Hiyori seem to get affectionate at all.

Hiyori Moritani

Hiyori Moritani

Voiced by Yurika Kubo

Manabe's friend and classmate. As an heiress to a dojo in the anime, she's shown to be a skilled martial artist and a bad student. She has a crush on Manabe as she treats him like a friend, despite her odd living circumstances. She spends the first few episodes being intensely jealous of Manabe and Kotoura's growing relationship before understanding her actions had caused them both harm. She later joins the ESP Research Club and is slowly forgiven for her actions by most of the club.

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• Action Girl: Anime-only; this comes with being Heiress To The Dojo.
• Arc Villain: Early on, until her Heel–Face Turn.
• The Atoner: After Haruka forgives her, she becomes overly sensitive about upsetting Haruka. In Episode Five, she becomes comically saddened when she briefly thinks Haruka hates her.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: She's a Martial Arts master who's developed enough Charles Atlas Superpower from training to punch out a candle from across the room using just the wind.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She initially hates how Haruka seemed to swipe Yoshihisa from her, so she tries to alienate and bully her in episode 2. Once Yoshihisa realizes what's going on, he confronts her about it and calls her out on her bullying.
• Book Dumb: In episode 6, it has been revealed Hiyori's grades were very poor, despite looking more intelligent than Yoshihisa, resident airhead.
• The Bully: In the second episode — see Jerkass, below. She had a Heel–Face Turn, though.
• Butt-Monkey: After her Heel–Face Turn, she typically gets the short end of the stick out of any scenario, mostly Played for Laughs. Though given what happened when she finally confessed to Yoshihisa, only mostly.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She had a crush on Yoshihisa for a long time before the story starts, but she didn't confess until episode 11, long after Yoshihisa is already stable with Haruka.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: In the anime, she's a trained Martial Artist, and good enough that she can punch enough air to blow out a candle from across the room.
• The Chew Toy: In episodes 5 and 6.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Because Yoshihisa shows genuine interest in Haruka without the latter trying anything like she did to win his affections.
• Easily Forgiven: After all this time bullying her, Kotura doesn't show any resentment for her. Although to be fair, since she can read minds that Hiyori's genuinely remorseful. Downplayed with the others like Manabe who still holds resentment but forgives her for Kotoura's sake.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even Bullies Have Standards in this case. The proof that she's not completely irredeemable is when she that thought that Manabe getting sent to the hospital is going too far.
• Fiery Redhead: When she's in a bad mood, she'll let all that anger out on something.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: While Kotoura's forgiveness leads the others to also forgive Hiyori for what happened, it's made clear multiple times that the incidents prior to her Heel–Face Turn are not completely ignored - Manabe in particular shows multiple moments of distrust for several episodes, and Zenzou drops several hints that he knows (including about how Manabe got injured) and isn't going to tolerate any further incidents. The "Hiyori trapped in a burning cage" parade float was a particularly stark reminder that Zenzou has limits to his charity.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Cynic; very rough and antagonistic with huge vices for things and people that don't sit well with her, doesn't play by the rules, and is sometimes thuggish.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric; easy to anger and upset, often ignores others' feelings, and gets things done once her mind is set on it.
• Heel–Face Turn: She does one after episode 4, when she realized she caused a lot of trouble for Yoshihisa and didn't understand how much pain Haruka was trying to hold in.
• Heel Realization: She has one in the third episode - she's already wracked by guilt about Manabe's injuries, and she knows Kotoura's powers will let her discern what happened immediately. When Kotoura never says a word to the class about what happened and instead just uses her powers to figure out where Manabe is being treated, Hiyori realizes that Manabe was right about Kotoura all along in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech. This prompts the above Heel–Face Turn in the following episode.
• Heiress To The Dojo: Hiyori in the anime, but she dislikes being it. This is why she has a crush with Yoshihisa; he didn't care about her position, similar to how he see Haruka now.
• Hopeless Suitor: Towards Yoshihisa; he wasn't even interested in dating her at all, even before he fell for Haruka.
• Humanizing Tears: In episode 3, she does this after Kotoura forgave her. Justified as well, since Hiyori sincerly regrets that her scheming had gone too far.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • In Episode 4, She planned on bringing Haruka after seeing how unhappy Yoshihisa was.
  • Although she gives him a Love Confession in episode 11, she later tells him that she was pretty happy seeing him and Haruka together.
• Jerkass: at first. In the second episode, she requested a reading from Haruka and then psychically assaulted her with vile thoughts. Haruka, who has been recovering from a destroyed childhood related to her telepathy, fell into a Heroic BSoD and vomited. Hiyori and classmates then proceeded to bully Haruka for vomiting in school...
• Lethal Chef:
  • The contrast between her "cooking" with Haruka's (good but not yet Supreme Chef levels, as Dai'chi commented) in episode 5 is clear. Yoshihisa just calls the salisbury steak she cooked poison.
  • In episode 7, she made a meal so bad that it had not only infernally bad taste, but also altered their minds into self-unaware and unknowing Lovable Sex Maniacs: it made Hiyori want to get frisky with Yoshihisa, then with Haruka. He cuddled a vase, thinking it was Haruka.
• Love Makes You Evil: Her mental bullying towards Haruka in episode 2 and asking people to attack Yoshihisa in episode 3 was mainly driven by her realization that she had became the Hopeless Suitor for Yoshihisa.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She's horrified to learn that her pupils beat Manabe up so badly that he was hospitalized.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: A darker Red to Haruka's Blue. Bonus points for actually turning into an oni when she's very upset with Manabe.
• Romantic Runner-Up: She confessed to Yoshihisa in episode 11. He told her he loves Haruka.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After the events of Episodes Three and Four, Hiyori becomes much nicer to Haruka.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: She first has this after learning Manabe's condition in the hospital. This happens again when she discovers her friend's unconscious body/corpse.
• Yandere: She might have bordered on this when she had her pupils beat up Manabe. Thankfully, Love Redeems her.

Yuriko Mifune

Yuriko Mifune

Voiced by Kana Hanazawa

The President of the ESP Research Club and long time friend of Dai'chi Muroto. She's a driven individual with a burning passion for anything psychic or psychic related. Her primary goal is to prove her mother's powers to a skeptical world. She's unsuccessful... until she hears about a new transfer student named Kotoura.

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• Arbitrary Skepticism: She believes in psychics, but she dismisses ghosts as ridiculous delusions, and explains Haruka's ghost sightings in episode 6 as accidental telepathy (sort of like Doing In the Wizard with a different wizard). She's right, but Yoshihisa doesn't hesitate to lampshade how inconsistent this is.
• The Atoner: During Episode Two, when she finds out Haruka is getting bullied because of her actions, she regrets what she did and does her best to make it up to Haruka.
• Bad "Bad Acting": She tries to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, but Dai'chi points out plainly that she's just fooling herself in thinking she's that cold-hearted. While she does have a partially hidden agenda regarding Haruka (presumably to make Haruka well-known as a psychic in order to vindicate Yuriko's mother), she still seems to care about her greatly.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: In episode 7, Yuriko reveals part of her past to Haruka. Shortly after her mother committed suicide due to accusations of being a fraud, some kids mock and bully her. But then Dai'chi shows up, and tells her that he still believed her mother was a real psychic. She starts to cry after hearing it, and Haruka later turns on the waterworks as well.
• Berserk Button: Don't take the club activities lightly, or else she's gonna threaten to beat you up with a chair.
• Big-Breast Pride - Mainly demonstrated in the Beach Episode, in which her persistently bouncing her breasts completely fails to impress Dai'chi.
• Broken Bird: Her mother committed suicide due to people's allegations that she was a fraud and trickster who pretended to be clairvoyant. It weighs heavily on her, as Haruka finds out in episode 2.
• Cassandra Truth: Her mom isn't a fake. Only Dai'chi believes in this.
• Childhood Friend Romance: She clearly wants this with Dai'chi. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to realize it.
• Clear Their Name: This is her motivation, as her mother was Driven to Suicide after being falsely accused to be a fake—and even now the latter was still seen as one.
• Cool Big Sis: She is literally the first figure of motherly affection in Haruka's life after her own mother disowned her.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Her mother's death in infamy caused her lots of problems, to state it lightly.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Realist; grounded in facts and is unconventional in utilizing them, cares about her goal and eventually learns to care about the people around her, and open to possibilities.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric/Sanguine blend; highly excitable and takes charge of situations in a tactical manner, a people-person who enthusiasticly sets her sights on her goals but sometimes ignores the feelings of her teammates.
• Genki Girl: The ESP Society seems to run on her energy...
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Evolves into this; she claims near the end that she was only using Haruka to show that her mother wasn't a fake, and that psychic powers for real. Nobody buys it. Particularly in the last episode, when she confesses to Kotuora about supposedly using her, Kotoura lets her know she wasn't fooled for a moment. Kotuora was just happy to have a place where she belonged.
• Hot-Blooded: ...and her enthusiasm.
• Huge Girl, Tiny Guy: She's much taller than Daichi, who's abnormally short.
• The Kirk
• Large Ham: She can become very hammy when the issue on hand is ESP or on protecting Haruka.
• The Leader: The headstrong and charismatic type.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She has this reaction in Episode Two when she finds out Haruka is getting bullied after providing Fortune Telling.
• Orange/Blue Contrast: She always has a red-orange hairband to go along with her blue hair and Innocent Blue Eyes.
• Parental Abandonment: Her mother was Driven to Suicide.
• Plucky Girl: Nothing seems to stop this fiercely determined young woman in her quest to change society's views against Psychic Powers.
• Rebel Leader: Not to any person or group, but rather the Tatemae ideal which has encouraged society to ruin the lives of many actual espers and their close relatives.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Dai'chi's Blue.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: A young woman with her looks and temperament probably wouldn't have much trouble finding a date, but Yuriko relentlessly pursues the nebbish but intelligent and kind Dai'chi. His apparent refusal to acknowledge her charms, sexual or otherwise, merely spurs her attempts to make him notice her.
• Soapbox Sadie: She explains her life's purpose practically every time she and the club meet someone new.
• The Unfettered: She even admits this herself. She's the goal-devoted and unapprehensive type, and she's not subtle about it either.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Averted. She attempts to see herself as this early on in the anime. However, Dai'chi (and the rest of the members of the ESP Research Society later on) don't buy it for a minute. In episode 2, she even has a full blown meltdown when she realizes her actions lead to Kotoura being bullied and moves fast to right the situation.

Dai'chi Muroto

Dai'chi Muroto

Voiced by Hiro Shimono

The diminutive vice-president of the ESP Research Club, and Yuriko's Childhood Friend. He the voice of reason of the club and acts to counteract Yuriko's Hot Bloodedness, but can sometimes be quite cunning as well. He's the first in the grade and also likes to play video games.

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• Celibate Hero: He isn't a single bit interested in Yuriko's sexual teasing, and so she was actually jealous about Haruka having Yoshihisa.
  Yuriko: Manabe-kun has his issues, but being ignored really hurts a girl...
• First-Name Basis: Unusually for this series, he is this with Yuriko.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Apathetic; consistently neutral outlook, doesn't show biases, often aloof and on the sidelines, plays along but is more of an observer.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic; unfeeling but highly analytical of everything around him and speaks with precision that often "stings" people.
• Frozen Face: His weird fish-lips + shiny-glasses combo seems to be a sort of poker-face he guards himself with instinctively. As the series goes on, it becomes clear that he's just naturally reserved like that.
• The Gadfly: Mild case. He enjoys teasing Kotoura at various points in the series, just for kicks. However, it's not outright malicious. There's a few hints that he's also doing this to Yuriko (such as when she cooks).
• Gonk: His Non-Standard Character Design is taken so far that he doesn't even look like a passable human.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He shields Yuriko from Tsukino and ends up hospitalized.
• Ignore the Fanservice: He ignores Yuriko's bouncing her breasts in episode 6, to Yuriko's chagrin.
• Location Theme Naming: Word of God mentioned his name comes from Muroto, Kochi.
• Non-Standard Character Design: He is drawn markedly different from the rest of the cast, being shorter, rounded, and with minimal facial features save his lips, usually drawn in a fish-like pursing. When he speaks seriously with Yuriko, he is drawn much more seriously and normally, complete with visible eyes.
• Oblivious to Love: He either doesn’t realize Yuriko loves him, he's just messing with her, or he really does think of them as Just Friends or Like Brother and Sister.
• Older Than They Look: He is excessively short; when Haruka first saw him she thought he was a primary schooler. A flashback in the anime shows him way back in middle school. There is no visual difference; in fact, he looks more mature in the flashback because his nose and eyes are consistently visible.
• Only Friend: He was Yuriko’s only friend growing up. In the main series, Yuriko makes friends with Haruka, Hiyori, and Manabe.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Though Yuriko makes several moves on him throughout the series. They're close enough to be practically family, especially since Yuriko lost her mother.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Yuriko's Red. He’s stoic and deadpan while Yuriko is emotional and energetic.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Inverted and played with a little. His coke-bottle glasses are opaque, which, when combined with his height, give him a rather nebbish look. His eyes are only shown when he speaks seriously, specifically to Yuriko, complete with a marked change in demeanor.
• Shorter Means Smarter: The shortest one in the group and he also plays The Smart Guy.
• The Short Guy with Glasses: He is one. Per the trope he also acts as The Smart Guy to at least Yuriko, if not the massage wand as well.
• The Smart Guy: He's the most rational and cool-headed member of the club, and he always picks up on what everyone else misses.
• The Spock: He never gets emotional, although he makes it clear that he has them; he's just not expressive at all.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: With Yuriko. See her entry above.
• Tiny Schoolboy: Haruka is on the short side, and yet she's still somehow One Head Taller than he is. Yuriko is nearly twice his height. Based on the flashbacks, it appears he hasn't grown an inch since middle school.

Zenzou Kotoura

Zenzou Kotoura

Voiced by Tomomichi Nishimura

Haruka's maternal grandfather, who took the parent's role for Haruka's after her parents disowned her, and acts as her safe haven before there was Yoshihisa—but is as perverted as the latter. He is apparently extremely rich.

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• All Men Are Perverts: No less perverted than Yoshihisa.
• Big Good: Alongside the Head Priest, since both wish for Kotoura's friends to bring joy back to her life.
• Cool Old Guy: He is among some of the few people willing to stand by Haruka.
• Dirty Old Man: Played for laughs. Zenzou occasionally has dirty thoughts about Haruka, particularly focusing on her thighs and butt. And in Episode 7, he fantasizes seeing Haruka completely naked in a hot spring (which is comically the exact same fantasy that Yoshihisa had a few seconds earlier). Oh, and did we mention that he's her grandfather?
• Fiction 500: He's on it, if the events of episode 6 are any indication. To whit, the discovery of petroleum on his property only has a small effect on his financial portfolio.
• I Have No Daughter!: After his daughter abandoned Haruka and said that she never should have given birth to her, he may have opted the same attitude to her.
• Nice Guy: Regardless of him being a pervert, he is kind and attentive to Haruka, and is highly supportive of her romance to the point of coaching the boyfriend through it. He also treats her friends to a great vacation and is very friendly with them. Underlying this is his absolute outrage at his daughter's abusiveness, expressing complete intolerance for the casual prejudice most people have towards Haruka.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Not only as the only one who stands by Haruka. When he meets Hiyori, he implies quite clearly that he knows what she did to Haruka and that she isn't off the hook with him.
  • He was also so outraged at his actual daughter's treatment of his granddaughter that he disowned her outright. When he comes across her again, the first thing out of his mouth is a warning that he never wanted to see her again.
• Pervert Dad: Downplayed and played for laughs, since it's barely serious. He fantasizes about his granddaughter constantly. But between being a genuinely loving and doting grandfather and Haruka being a mind-reader, there doesn't seem to have ever been an actual problem with his behavior (and Haruka isn't shy about berating him about it).
• Shipper on Deck: He's all for Yoshihisa/Haruka and actually complained, in episode 6, that Yoshihisa didn't kiss Haruka for the entire episode.

Head Priest

Head Priest

Voiced by Yutaka Nakano

Though he's never mentioned by name in the anime, he runs a large shrine in Kotoura's home town. Aside from being a good friend of Zenzou, he tries to help Kotoura in just about any way possible. He even goes so far as to call Kumiko up so she can see how Kotoura has healed and changed her outlook on life.

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• Cool Old Guy: A very down to earth man. He takes in the ESP Research Society after they come looking for Kotoura in episode 4 and works to try and reunite Kotoura with her mother. He also consoles Kotoura after her mother leaves her with her Grandpa Zenzou.
• Good Shepherd: The epitome of this trope.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Zenzou. In the anime, he's shown sharing sake and hanging around with Zenzou.
• Hidden Depths: Develops a decade's long fascination with ESP and related phenomena so he can find a way to help Kotoura.
• Nice Guy
• Preacher Man

Kumiko Kotoura

Kumiko Kotoura

Voiced by Kikuko Inoue

Haruka's mother and Zenzou's daughter. She may be quite doting towards Haruka in the beginning, but disowned Haruka later on due to the burden of the latter's telepathy—and the fact that Haruka disclosed that she cheated.

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• Abusive Parents: Of the emotional kind. Not only does she disown Haruka, but verbally abuses her.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: The anime goes to greater lengths to show that she was a legitimately loving mother to Haruka in the past and that those feelings aren't completely gone in the present. It also nixes the scene where she tries to send Haruka to a psych ward.
• The Alcoholic: Started to drown her sorrows because of obvious reasons. When she came over to her daughter's place, she had her buy copious amount of alcohol and drank them.
• Alliterative Name: Kumiko Kotoura.
• Broken Bird: Broken from the frustrations over Haruka's powers.
• Despair Event Horizon: Crosses it when Haruka reveals her and her husband's affairs out loud.
• Entitled Bastard: Abandons her daughter and then goes to said daughter's apartment demanding food and booze.
• Final Boss: Naturally, the person most responsible for Haruka's initial emotional state would be the last person she needed to confront to fully heal.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: She has perpetually scowling Dull Eyes of Unhappiness for the entire season. But near the end of the final episode, when she reconciles with Haruka, her eyes change into normal ones.
• I Have No Daughter!: Disowned Haruka and sequentially disowned by Zenzou. She immediately regrets the decision but by then the damage was done.
• Jerkass: For most of the season.
  • She abandons Haruka because the latter revealed she (Kumiko) and her husband were cheating on each other.
  • Also, resenting Haruka for being happy, as well as having the audacity to insult Haruka in public after abandoning said daughter as a little girl.
  • She even considered sending Haruka to a mental ward.
• Knight of Cerebus: Particularly because she is Haruka's greatest failure.
• Lazy Bum: She makes Haruka pour a class of wine for either, even though she could easily do it herself.
• Medicate the Medium: Deconstructed in the Downer Beginning. Neither Kumiko nor her daughter Haruka are aware of the latter's inadvertent Telepathy, and the school told Kumiko that Haruka is being "a compulsive liar" even though she's really revealing everyone else's lies. After several hospital visits ^note  (In the manga, they were actually psych wards.), none of the doctors could find anything truly wrong with Haruka enough to take her in because Psychic Powers are not recognized by the setting's mainstream science and Haruka wasn't sick nor delusional in any sense. This failure drives Kumiko into alcoholism, and Kumiko eventually disowns Haruka altogether since Kumiko could not understand Haruka at all.
• Parents as People: She was a loving parent at first, but she unfortunately couldn't handle the frustrations that came with dealing with a power she couldn't understand. Haruka finally forcing her to come to terms with both her daughter's telepathy and her failings as a parent is what allows the two of them to reconcile.
• Perpetual Frowner: Look at her image and see how happy she looks.
• Pet the Dog: The anime spent great lengths to portray Haruka's mom Kumiko as better than how the viewers see her.
  • In episode 8 Haruka has a flashback on how her mother took cared of her when she was ill—before recognizing her telepathic abilities. That's a far cry from how the mother was later, which is easily summarized as being an Abusive Parent.
  • Haruka's mother is given another moment in episode 9 when Yoshihisa proudly declares that he would never abandon her no matter what happens. Although her mother says something along the lines of "do whatever you want", Yoshihisa immediately starts having perverted thoughts, provoking a brief Mama Bear moment in her to protect Haruka from his usual attempted advances. It was enough for Haruka to briefly feel her mother's feelings prior to her mental breakdown and abandonment.
  • And finally the last episode, when she comes to Haruka's apartment, has dinner with her, and after that they fight and reconcile. Haruka reads her mind when she falls asleep after that, and we see that after her "I should have never given birth to you!" line, she was actually crying.
• Slouch of Villainy: While not a villain, of course, she displays a rather prominent one while lying on Haruka's bed in Episode 12. That cold expression... (NOTE: Picture may be a bit small)
• Spoiled Brat: This is how Zenzou described her in the manga.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: She actually deeply regretted disowning Haruka in a fit of rage just moments afterwards but felt that the resulting damage was irreparable. This only caused her to become worse as she became consumed by her own perception of what an abusive monster she was.
• Troubled Abuser: Struggling to deal with Haruka's telepathy, which she could not comprehend or relate to due to Haruka's own lack of knowledge regarding her abilities, caused her to turn to alcohol. It didn't exactly help that her own husband didn't bother to take up much of the burden of raising Haruka, which would lead to the two of them eventually cheating on each other. By the point she disowns Haruka, she realizes just how far she's fallen as a parent but believes that she's incapable of being better, which only causes her to spiral into her worst self.
• Tsundere: Deconstructed. She's a Type A towards her daughter, and the reader who get to this far should know how that works to their mutual detriment...

Detective Tsukino

Detective Tsukino

A detective working with the Japanese police force. It turns out that she was the one committing the recent crimes.

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• Adaptation Deviation: In the manga though she still tries to kill Kotoura it turns out that she is not the one behind the assaults as she was in the anime. In the manga she is not the killer, but tries to kill Kotoura and blame it on the killer.
• Big Eater: When she's not working on the job, she likes eating large meals. Even when Yama agreed to keep talking to her and take her out once she finished her time in prison, she wanted an extra large meal.
• The Ditz: She's very air-headed and not that smart.
• Evil Counterpart: To Haruka. Both had unhappy, friendless pasts, but while Haruka eventually did find someone and manage to stop being so bitter, Aki had no one and eventually developed a dark alter-ego.
• Gentle Giant: She's tall and strong, but she's very nice and friendly. That is, when her Split Personality is inactive.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: When her Split Personality awakens, her eyes become sharper and lose their lights.
• Huge Schoolgirl: She was the tallest girl in her class. She was picked on because of this.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: In her high school days, she did all she could to make friends. However, due to her size and her strength, no one wanted to be near her.
• My God, What Have I Done?: A subtle example, but she feels enough guilt about what she's done to turn herself over willingly.
• Only Friend: It seems like Yama is the only person who’s friends with her.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Yama. It certainly helps to emphasize that he's married, too.
• Shadow Archetype: Aki is what Haruka would have most likely turned into had the latter never met Manabe.
• Split Personality: This is created due to Tsukino being rejected and bullied at school. This side of her was the source of all the attacks.
• Stepford Smiler: Type A. She wears a smile all the time and appears friendly, but she hides her sadness and loneliness.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Her superior Yama is much shorter than her.
• Walking Spoiler

Mr. Kotoura

Mr. Kotoura

Haruka's father, only seen in the backstory in Episode 1.

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• Greater-Scope Villain: The despair that caused Kumiko to disown Haruka is stemmed from him cheating on her, then eventually leaving her.
• Hate Sink: Considering how messed up both Haruka and Kumiko became because of his actions, it's pretty easy to hate him.
• Karma Houdini: As far as we know, he could still be with that woman he had an affair with.

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