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Subaru Miyamoto
The titular protagonist. Subaru began to dance as a way to describe things and words to her twin-brother, who is stuck in a hospital due to a brain tumor. After Mana invites her to a ballet practice, she realizes her passion and love for dancing and wishes to take up ballet.
Subaru has an inherent talent for dancing and rhythm and she's known to ditch school off and on, just because the desire to dance had struck her. During the Prix de Lausanne contest, she wowed the audience and was voted the audience favorite and obtained the Prix d'Excellence. She was also offered an extended contract with a famous ballet school, but denied said contract and left for America, to dance with the Sisterol troupe.
In America, she became famous for her initial performance of Don Quixote and well-known, thanks to her rivalry with Priscilla Roberts, when both of them performed the Bolero.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: She shuts off her feelings, but Kazuma's death still haunts her almost a decade later. After she arrives in America, she states that she has left 'everything behind', including a shot of Kazuma's face.
- Consummate Professional: Her first practice with Sisterol shows Subaru's impatience with other dancers. She expects a professional dancer to be able to perfect a dance routine within a day of creating it.
- Cool Bike: She obtains one as a gift, but only rides it for short distances in America, because she has no license.
- The Determinator: Subaru is determined to perform at the Prix de Lausanne, even with a 40°C fever!
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Subaru is seen smoking in America, but only does it during emotional duress.
- Heroic BSoD: Two, over the course of the story. The first at Kazuma's funeral, when she learns that his last words were 'I'm sorry, Subaru'. The second comes halfway through the story, when Subaru learns that Isuzu died.
- It's All My Fault: She thinks Kazuma's condition worsened after she wished he wasn't there anymore, blaming herself. She also blames herself for being busy dancing ballet while Kazuma was dying, incapable of saying sorry in time.
- I Wished You Were Dead: In the heat of the moment, she yelled 'I wished [Kazuma] wasn't here anymore'.
- My Greatest Failure: She considers the fact that she couldn't express her feelings of regret to Kazuma in time, before he died, to be her worst failure.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: By the time she arrived, Kazuma had already died.
- Parental Neglect: Her relationship with her parents has suffered and grown distant and cold after Kazuma died.
Kazuma Miyamoto
Subaru's twin-brother. He got sick and was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 5 and has been in the hospital ever since. Kazuma's tumor has an effect on his memory, meaning that he'll slowly lose all his memories and even the ability to speak. Subaru visiting his room and dancing for him was a highlight for him, since it allowed him to understand things without words.
Kazuma promised Subaru that, when they are both grown up, they'll live in a house and will then be able to buy a black cat and keep it as a pet. Unfortunately, Kazuma doesn't survive and seems to have realized this, as his last words are of apology to Subaru, realizing he's incapable of keeping said promise.
- Death of a Child: Kazuma dies at the age of seven.
- Identical Stranger: Kyohei, a minor character who appears a few times, is stated to look exactly how Kazuma would, if he had grown up.
- Last Words: His final words, according to his parents, were 'I'm sorry, Subaru'.
- Littlest Cancer Patient: A brain tumor affecting his memory. He doesn't survive.
- The Lost Lenore: His death is what sparked Subaru's first breakdown and her dancing for him is what ultimately gave her the basis for her later dancing career.
Mana Kureha
A classmate of Subaru's. She's the daughter of the owner of a ballet school and has been learning it since she was a small child. As it is, she's very proficient in ballet, but starts to feel inferior when she sees Subaru's inherent dancing skill. Mana is very honest with her words, which can often come across as mean.
Mana feels inferior to Subaru, angry that her own hard work is easily overshadowed by Subaru's natural talent. She eventually learns of Subaru's fame in America and heads over there, intent on seeing how she's doing. She helps a lot when it comes to selling tickets for Subaru's Bolero performance.
- It's All My Fault: Upon overhearing Subaru's father talking about how Kazuma woke up and spoke before dying, Mana realizes that her telling Subaru to dance the part of Albrecht one last time might have been the reason why Subaru was late in arriving to see Kazuma.
- Parental Neglect: Mana feels neglected by her mother, whose long hours of working and taking care of students has left Mana alone a lot when she was a child. She seems to have patched up with her over the years, though.
- The Rival: She sees herself as Subaru's only real rival, since she says that '[she] alone knows [Subaru's] real skill'.
- Well Done, Daughter Girl: She wants her mother to acknowledge her earnest and hard work in learning ballet.
Takako Sunohara
A known ballerina. Takako noticed Subaru, when she was part of the corps de ballet in Swan Lake and has since wished to perform on the same stage as her. She sees herself as a rival of Subaru's. Takako danced in America for some years, before returning to Japan. She eventually returns to America.
- Culture Clash: She's Japanese, but says that 'Western dancers are sexy, because they enjoy live'. This might be due to her having spent her earlier teenager years in America.
Priscilla Roberts
The star ballerina of the New York ballet. After reading an article about Sisterol's ballet performance in a prison, she becomes curious about them and follows them on their tour, intent on seeing the same effect Subaru's first perfomance had on another round of prison inmates.
- If Jesus, Then Aliens: Her religious faith isn't mention, but Priscilla absolutely believes that aliens exist and wondering when they'll finally arrive.
- The Prima Donna: She's not a horrible person to her co-dancers, but does portray more and more shades of this, as she comes to think of Subaru as a potential rival, who will usurp her position as the star ballerina in New York.
- Relatively Flimsy Excuse: Subaru pretends that Priscilla is her aunt at first, to allow her to watch Sisterol's performance. Nobody believes her, as everyone knows who Priscilla is.
Alexander Sing
An FBI-Agent, who is sent to validate Subaru and check up on her, after she became a huge hit in New York by dancing the Bolero. Alexander is a clumsy clod and rather introverted person. His biggest wish is to become a field-agent in the FBI, but has yet to manage to impress his supervisors enough to be promoted.
- Good with Numbers: Alexander is a genius when it comes to math. He was originally hired by the FBI as a mathematician and says that, as long as he has some information on a person, he use that information to calculate things about them.
Isuzu Hibino
The owner of the Palais Garnier. She used to be a rather well-known ballerina in her youth, even envisioning herself to dance at the Paris Opéra. Despite it being known as an impossibility for a Japanese to dance there, she was allowed to partake in the entrance exam. She ultimately failed, due to her genetics saying she would become fat by the time she hit 30, and opened up a cabaret.
- Incurable Cough of Death: She ends up in the hospital for some 'illness of the internal organs', though nothing specific is ever revealed. While she is eventually released, Isuzu ends up losing a lot of weight drastically and dies.
- Like A Daughter To Me: Isuzu thinks of Subaru as 'her daughter' when Subaru leaves for Prix de Lausanne.
- Parental Substitute: With the amount of time that Subaru spends at the Palais Garnier and the influential role Isuzu has had on her, it's easy to think of Isuzu as this for her.
- Sadist Teacher: She's a super-strict teacher and is called a 'monster' by acquaintances of hers, who remember her. It's not uncommon for Isuzu to make Subaru practice a specific dance until the latter is covered in sweat and exhausted.
Ivan Gorikii (Wanja)
A male ballerina, who eventually takes over Subaru's training for Prix de Lausanne. He's a well-known dancer, who used to be the star of the Bolshoi Ballet. He made a deal with Isuzu to train Subaru for Prix de Lausanne, even if it's so tough that it might ruin her.
- 10-Minute Retirement: He originally stepped down as a dancer, but upon teaching Katja, he wanted to return to the stage for the sake of one performance alongside a great partner. After Subaru has outdone Katja in his eyes, he wanted to dance with her, but ultimately couldn't. Wanja is mentioned to have returned to the stage, playing Romeo in a ballet performance of Romeo & Juliet.
- The Cameo: He disappears after the Prix de Lausanne arc, but makes a cameo late in the story, to explain the phenomenon that Subaru is currently performing in America while dancing the Bolero.
- Only Known By His Nickname: People still know him by his actual name of Ivan Gorikii, but majority of people call him Wanja.
- Using You All Along: Wanja is using Subaru to motivate his actual student Katja. Since Katja is a spoiled girl who prefers to party instead of dance, despite having the talent for ballet, Wanja wants to have her see Subaru and get her to properly practice her dancing again. Upon realizing that Wanja is simply using her, Subaru doesn't change a thing, merely prepared to use him to win Prix de Lausanne.
Subaru's Parents
Subaru's and Kazuma's parents.
- Education Mama: Mrs Miyamoto isn't entirely focused on education alone, but she does want Subaru to go to high school and live a normal life - for Kazuma's sake.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Justified, their son just died.
- Parental Neglect: Their son's premature death has had a horrible impact on the entire family, resulting in both parents focusing more on Kazuma while he was in the hospital and still barely paying attention to their daughter later on. They know, but don't care, that their daughter has spent years dancing in a cabaret.
The Sisterol Ballet
A ballet group that Subaru joins in America. They don't get any money from the government and haven't been performing for three years. But Zack brought Subaru in, knowing that she could be the star to liven up Sisterol again. Sisterol eventually performs Don Quixote in a prison, which brings their business back.
- Percussive Pickpocket: Robby whomps into Subaru on the street and tries to steal her bag. He's surprised at Subaru's intense desire to not lose her bag, but threatening her with his gun and shooting it into the air made her let go. Since they're part of the same group, he returns the bag and contents to her.
- Precision F-Strike: Late in the story, Wendy tells Subaru 'Fuck you!!' after the latter left during the practice of the Bolero, but came back after she cooled her head.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The group overall, they're dancers who enjoy it, but ultimately didn't get into 'better' groups. With white and black dancers, with the latter having it extra difficult in getting bigger parts in plays. Subaru even lampshades that their group contains a petty thief.
