Characters / Tamako Market

Main characters

Tamako Kitashirakawa

Tamako Kitashirakawa

Voiced by: Aya Suzaki (Japanese), Margaret McDonald (English)

The titular character and the main protagonist of the series.

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• Birthmark of Destiny: Tamako has a mole on her neck. To Choi, it's apparently another sign that she's meant to be the prince's bride.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The brunette with her friends Midori and Kanna.
• Chekhov's Gun: One of the first scenes of the anime has Tamako buying things from the market, and her points card being stamped. While this is a common Japanese practice that people overlooked, the points card became an important plot point in episode 11.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: She has blue eyes, fitting her naive but kindhearted personality.
• Nice Girl: A very sweet and kindhearted girl without a mean bone in her body.
• Super Drowning Skills: She has problems swimming.
• Tin-Can Telephone: Since their bedroom windows face each other, Mochizo and Tamako often talk via a "cup and string" system that he made when they were kids.

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Mochizō Ōji

Mochizō Ōji

Voiced by: Atsushi Tamaru (Japanese), Clint Bickham (English)

Mochizō is Tamako's childhood friend whose family also runs a mochi shop called Ōji-ya or in the new name Ricecake Oh!Zee.

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• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: This is Ricecake Oh! Zee (formerly Oojiya)'s theme. Even their item tags were all written in romaji.
• Ascended Extra: Mochizou in the film is promoted to Deuteragonist, as it focuses on his and Tamako's relationship. In the series proper, he was more of a light case of Advertised Extra, being one of the many supporting characters.
• Bishōnen: Mochizou fits, seeing how he is very cute and somewhat feminine looking.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Something Midori and Mochizou bond over is the fact that neither can work up the courage to confess their feelings towards Tamako. Mochizou finally does go through with it in the movie, something Midori laments when she finds out because she was never able to work up the nerves to do so.
• Childhood Friend: Not only is Mochizou a childhood friend of Tamako, he is also the son of the owner of Rice Cake Oh! Zee and thus works for the competition. Him being in love with her makes it even more tropalicious. The movie shows Mochizou really helped Tamako cope after her mother's death.
• Endearingly Dorky: He's a Nice Guy who is somewhat shy and awkward, and it adds just adorableness to him.
• Meaningful Name: His name comes from the fact that he was born on Mochi Day (October 10).
• Nice Guy: He's a kind and affable guy, although a little shy.
• Tin-Can Telephone: Since their bedroom windows face each other, Mochizo and Tamako often talk via a "cup and string" system that he made when they were kids.

Dera Mochimazzi

Dera Mochimazzi

Voiced by: Takumi Yamazaki (Japanese), Jay Hickman (English)

Dera is a bird that speaks Japanese, with a little bossy tone, that ends up staying at Tamako's house.

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• Accidental Proposal: Dera colliding with Tamako's face causes her to sneeze violently; and apparently Dera's culture interprets sneezing at someone as a declaration of courtship towards them. Dera assesses the situation accordingly.
  • Happens again in episode 2 when Kanna's allergy to birds makes her sneeze on Dera.
• Butt-Monkey: He gets the short end of the stick when it comes to humor, and none of the other characters take him seriously at all. Choi in particular has taken out her frustrations on him on multiple occasions.
• Camp Straight: Dera is a complete dandy but loves the women.
• Crash-Into Hello: Dera passes out in a field of flowers, gets bundled into a bouquet and shipped to the florist's, where the bouquet he's in is put on display. When he regains consciousness and finds Tamako in his face, he freaks out and flies right into her.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Dera/Dela.

Midori Tokiwa

Midori Tokiwa

Voiced by: Yūki Kaneko (Japanese), Juliet Simmons (English)

Midori is Tamako's classmate and childhood friend, as well as captain of her school's Baton Club.

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• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The blonde with her friends Tamako and Kanna.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Something Midori and Mochizou bond over is the fact that neither can work up the courage to confess their feelings towards Tamako. Mochizou finally does go through with it in the movie, something Midori laments when she finds out because she was never able to work up the nerves to do so.
• Childhood Friend: Midori is another childhood friend of Tamako, having been friends with her since fourth grade... And she also has a crush on Tamako.

Kanna Makino

Kanna Makino

Voiced by: Juri Nagatsuma (Japanese), Caitlynn French (English)

Kanna is a high school student in the same year as her friends.

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• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The redhead with her friends Tamako and Midori.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite coming off as very quiet and eccentric, she's shown to be quite skilled at carpentry. She demonstrates her proficiency with it by assisting in building a haunted house in the shopping district and being able to precisely measure anything just by looking at it.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She has a rather odd thought process, and she'll typically do and say strange things with a completely straight face.
• Punny Name: Kanna, who is skilled in carpentry, is named after a tool that is used to shape wood, in particular leveling it when it's warped.
• The Stoic: She hardly shows any emotion, and her voice never goes beyond a quiet monotone even when saying something peculiar.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes??: She is shown to have a fear of heights. In the movie though, she manages to overcome it and proves it by climbing up a tree with Midori's help.

Shiori Asagiri

Shiori Asagiri

Voiced by: Yurie Yamashita (Japanese), Krystal LaPorte (TV) & Francis Caorrots (movie) (English)

Shiori is one of Tamako's classmates and a member of the badminton club.

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• Meganekko: A cute girl with glasses.
• Nice Girl: She is very kind and sweet, as seen when she opens up to Tamako and her friends.
• Shrinking Violet: She was terribly shy and unable to communicate with anyone. While she remains still very soft-spoken and reserved, she overcomes this thanks to Tamako.
• The Stoic: Subverted. She appeared to be aloof and unemotional, yet this was all due to her inability to socialize.

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Kitashirakawa family

Anko Kitashirakawa

Anko Kitashirakawa

Voiced by: Rina Hidaka (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (English)

Anko is Tamako's younger sister, who is in fourth grade.

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• Do Not Call Me "Paul": She insists on being called "An" instead of her full name "Anko".
• Edible Theme Naming: She's named after red bean paste, which is often an ingredient in mochi.
• First-Name Basis: With Tamako, which is quite unusual for siblings in Japan; she simply calls Tamako "Tama-chan" instead of using any typical Japanese Sibling Terminology.

Mamedai Kitashirakawa

Mamedai Kitashirakawa

Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara (Japanese), David Wald (English)

Mamedai is Tamako's father, who runs the family's mochi shop.

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• Edible Theme Naming: Along with his father, his name is one half of "mame-daifuku", which is also the family mochi shop's speciality.

Fuku Kitashirakawa

Fuku Kitashirakawa

Voiced by: Tomomichi Nishimura (Japanese), Carl Masterson (English)

Fuku is Mamedai's father and Tamako's grandfather, who lives with her family and helps run the mochi shop.

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• Edible Theme Naming: Along with his son, his name is one half of "mame-daifuku", which is also the family mochi shop's speciality.

Hinako Kitashirakawa

Hinako Kitashirakawa

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa (Japanese), Nancy Novotny (TV) & Rozie Curtis (movie) (English)

Hinako was Mamedai's wife and Tamako and Anko's late mother.

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• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: When she was alive, she was actually tone deaf, and as a result, the song that Tamako keeps humming throughout the series is completely different from how it originally sounded.

• Posthumous Character: She passed away a few years before the series begins.

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Ōji family

Gohei Ōji

Gohei Ōji

Voiced by: Fumihiko Tachiki (Japanese), John Swasey (English)

Gohei is Mochizō's father, who runs the Ōji-ya shop.

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• Eyes Always Shut

Michiko Ōji

Michiko Ōji

Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (Japanese), Molly Searcy (English)

Michiko is Mochizō's mother, who helps run the Ōji-ya shop.

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Usagiyama shopkeepers

Kaoru Hanase

Kaoru Hanase

Voiced by: Daisuke Ono (Japanese), Leraldo Anzaldua (English)

Kaoru is a florist at a flower shop in the Usagiyama Shopping District.

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• Ambiguous Gender Identity: The florist Kaoru is voiced by Daisuke Ono but is referred to with female pronouns by others. Signs point towards her being a trans woman, though some material refers to her as male which makes things confusing (though, that might be misgendering due to Values Dissonance).
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold

Kunio Yaobi

Kunio Yaobi

Voiced by: Kouji Tsujitani (Japanese), David Matranga (English)

The owner of the record store in the Usagiyama Shopping District.

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Chōji Yumoto

Chōji Yumoto

Voiced by: Kyosei Tsukui (Japanese), Chris Ayres (English)

Chōji is Sayuri's father and the owner of the Usayu bathhouse in the Usagiyama Shopping District.

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Sayuri Yumoto

Sayuri Yumoto

Voiced by: Junko Iwao (Japanese), Kasi Hollowell (English)

Sayuri is the daughter of Chōji.

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• Meganekko

Tomio Shimizu

Tomio Shimizu

Voiced by: Yoshihisa Kawahara (Japanese), Greg Ayres (English)

Tomio is one of the market shop keepers in Usagiyama Shopping District, and runs the tofu shop there, Shimizuya.

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Nobuhiko Tokiwa

Nobuhiko Tokiwa

Voiced by: Hiroshi Yanaka (Japanese), John Kaiser (English)

Nobuhiko is Midori's grandfather and the owner of the toy shop Tokiwa-do in Usagiyama Shopping District.

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• Miniature Senior Citizens

Fumiko Mitsumura

Fumiko Mitsumura

Voiced by: Kumiko Watanabe (Japanese), Tiffany Grant (English)

Fumiko runs a croquette shop Just Meat at Usagiyama Shopping District.

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Tadanao Shiraki

Tadanao Shiraki

Voiced by: Naoya Nosaka (Japanese), Andrew Love (English)

Tadanao is the owner Miyako Udon, a ramen shop at Usagiyama Shopping District.

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Takashi Uotani

Takashi Uotani

Voiced by: Ken Narita (Japanese), Scott Fults (English)

Takashi is one of the shopkeepers at Usagiyama Shopping District.

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Mari Uotani

Mari Uotani

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa (Japanese), Carli Mosier (English)

Mari is one of the members of Usagiyama Shopping District

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Mochimazzi royal family

Choi Mochimazzi

Choi Mochimazzi

Voiced by: Yuri Yamaoka (Japanese), Allison Sumrall (English)

Choi is a Fortune Teller from the southern island that Dera comes from who is sent to check up on Dera and help him search for a bride for the Prince.

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• Ambiguously Brown: The people that Dela works for. They have dark tan skin, their names are Choi and Mecha Mochimazzi, they wear outfits whose colorful patterns are not especially emblematic of a particular culture, appear to live on a tropical island, and belong to a monarchy. "Choi" itself is a Chinese/Korean surname, and the food she prepares in episode nine looks Vietnamese. Given all this, "Southeast Asian" may be a good guess, but it's never made clear.
• Earthy Barefoot Character: Apparently Choi Does Not Like Shoes.

Mecha Mochimazzi

Mecha Mochimazzi

Voiced by: Hiro Shimono (Japanese), Greg Ayres (English)

Mecha is a prince from the southern island that Dera comes from.

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• Alliterative Name: Mecha Mochimazzi
• Ambiguously Brown: As noted in Choi's entry.