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The Protagonist
- Voiced by: Shintarō Asanuma
- Above the Influence: Hanuki had been hitting it off with the protagonist for a good while in the Honwaka timeline, and when she makes moves on him when they go to her place, he has a golden opportunity to have sex. However, she is a) completely drunk, and b) expecting to meet up with someone else. He has to internally calm down his Johnny in order to restrain himself from taking advantage of her, especially when he realizes that she's the only real chance he has and he shouldn't rush it just to shed his virginity.
- Classical Antihero: He will do the right thing given the opportunity, but he's very much a troubled young man. He can give up rather easily, is stubborn, and can be a right jackass sometimes. In the anime, he also has trouble arguing against his hormones.
- Beard of Sorrow: Develops a scraggly beard while he's stuck in his tatami maze since he has no access to the bathroom or his shaving equipment.
- Character Development: The whole series is dedicated to giving him some important life lessons for internalizing after a very long chain of events.
- Grass is Greener: A major character flaw is his belief that life could always be better than what he has at the moment if he got to choose a different club at his university. The titular Tatami Galaxy rams it into him that there never was a better rose-colored campus life awaiting him because he's simply going to make the same kinds of friends and choices over and over again. His life cannot just be boiled down into a simplistic dichotomy of being bad and good.
- Has a Type: As he likes to remind the audience, his type of girls is always "raven-haired maidens". Akashi hits his preference considerably.
- Motor Mouth: He seems to speak at a reasonable pace in the novels and anime, but his inner thoughts race like crazy in the latter. It would be better to count the moments he slows down on one hand.
- No Name Given: He's never given a name, with his personal pronoun of "Watashi" being the closest he has to an identifier.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He enjoys Neko Ramen, but due to his college budget he's often seen eating fish burgers throughout the book.
- Unreliable Narrator: Everything is seen through him, with the animation helping to emphasize that he's seeing Through the Eyes of Madness (well really, it's mostly narcissism) at times. It's revealed at the end this applies to Ozu as he's actually much more normal than how the protagonist perceives him to be for 90% of the series.
- What You Are in the Dark: While he does help Ozu infiltrate Jogasaki's house in order to steal Kaori, realizing the care Jogasaki put into the sex doll makes him do a double take and convince Ozu to leave it alone.
Ozu
- Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino
- Big Bad Friend: The source of all of the narrator's problems and failures, at least according to him. He still hangs out with Ozu anyway.
- Creepy Crossdresser: The first episode and last have him crossdress in a very shoddy disguise. It's revealed that it was a last-ditch effort in order to sneak to safety, but it actually drew more attention to him than if he had just not bothered.
- Does Not Like Spam: He has a very pointed dislike of anything considered a vegetable, but he really hates mushrooms. The narrator exploits this when they have a hotpot at Higuchi's place, bringing nothing but mushrooms for Ozu to balk at.
- Double Agent: He is Jogasaki's chosen successor for the next Proxy War. His loyalty is with Higuchi for the most part, but in order to gain Jogasaki's trust he began buttering him up shortly after he got kicked out of film club in the second timeline. Higuchi is well aware of Ozu's plans, but not that he was pretty much behind everything.
- Foil: Ozu is crafty, able to pull off outrageous stunts, honest to a fault, and does whatever he feels like doing without a second thought to spare. In other words, he's everything the narrator isn't, especially when it comes down to what they expect out of their college lives.
- G.I.R.L.: In the Honwaka timeline, Ozu takes advantage of the narrator's loneliness and becomes Pen Pals with him under the feminine identity "Keiko Higuchi". The ruse lasts for at least half a year before the narrator decides to visit "Keiko" in person.
- Hidden Depths: Ozu may be a silly little punk, but he's light-years ahead of a lot of the cast when it comes down to planning and getting ahead in life:
- Several timelines show that he's a crackpot at handling information, and is able to get a sickeningly realistic picture of anyone he chooses provided he has the time to do research.
- The Lucky Cat timeline proves that he can climb the social ladder pretty thoroughly, gaining enough clout to become the leader of two major organizations notorious for their power in college and gaining enough trust for other clubs to put their faith in him.
- Dating the elusive Kohinata (a girl the narrator spent a timeline in aimless pursuit of and was dumped by her in another timeline). All of his schemes are part of his plan to have a perfect date with her.
- The Not-Love Interest: Akashi may be the narrator's crush, but Ozu pretty much becomes the most important person in the narrator's life. He's supportive and encouraging of the narrator, is always looking out for him even in a joking way, and the climax of the story is the narrator realizing how much Ozu means to him despite dismissing him as just a crafty lout. Furthermore, instead of being attached to a Red String of Fate, Ozu happily proclaims that theirs is black.
- Only Friend: As much as he doesn't want to admit it until the finale, the narrator has Ozu as his only and most consistent friend in all timelines.
- Perpetual Smiler: The most significant time he's not smiling is when the protagonist needles him about Kohinata in the finale, finally indicating the protagonist has the upper hand over her.
- Secret Relationship: The whole story, he's been dating a girl named Kohinata. He doesn't want anybody to know about her and never talks about his personal life with people, but eventually some people found out about her anyway. He is apparently on his best behavior with her.
- The Trickster: The protagonist resents him for his constant schemes and pranks, despite aiding Ozu in a few of them. In the finale, it's shown that even though it got him into hot water at the very end, at least he was living.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Teasing him about his relationship with Kohinata. It's enough for the protagonist to finally turn the tables on him.
- With Friends Like These...: Yes, the protagonist may find him incredibly dreadful and obnoxious for everything he pulls, but he's still hanging out with him. He realizes at the finale that Ozu was one of the few characters who actually gave a damn about him and resolves to put actual effort into their friendship. However because of Ozu's first impression in the final timeline, he's very weirded out by this guy showing up out of nowhere, indicating Ozu is now the one who finds the protagonist annoying.
Akashi
- Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto
- Actually Pretty Funny: Outside of Ozu and the Narrator, Akashi is the only person who found the former two's student films in the Misogi timeline entertaining.
- Closer to Earth: Surprisingly, not exactly female-exclusive. She's the person with the straightest head on her shoulders throughout the story in comparison to her fellow college mates.
- Eye Beams: Akashi can also (figuratively) fire these.
- First Girl Wins: Narratively and chronologically, as she is the first girl with a name and appearance who shows up in the story to be mooted as a potential love interest, and it's later revealed that Akashi and the protagonist had a mutual attraction to each other long before the latter met any other girl at the used book fair, which is preserved even in the final loop where the protagonist never really left his room.
- The Reliable One: Rest assured, she can always be counted on in a pinch. She comes through with buying the hairbrush in the Proxy War timeline, and usually keeps people in line when they're about to do or say something extremely stupid/disagreeable. It's pointed out in the novel that she manages to calmly call an ambulance for Ozu while internally freaking out at the mass swarm of moths every time it happens.
- The Stoic: Akashi with almost everyone. The only exception seen on screen is the protagonist. See Sugar-and-Ice Personality below.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Akashi. She is very reserved, quiet, and can be a bit standoffish, but is a genuinely sweet and kind person at her core - it's just that the "sugar" aspect is seen solely by the protagonist. It's this exact trait of hers that makes the protagonist fall in love with her, which he reveals toward the end of the series:Narrator: At that point her expression, which was like some European fortress city, relaxed into a smile, and that smile made an impression that has never left my mind.
- True Blue Femininity: Never seen without her blue dress, or some other blue accessory.
- Why Did It Have To Be Moths?: Normally unflappable with almost everything, even sexual harassment and shoplifting, she absolutely freaks out at the sight of moths.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Constantly calls out the protagonist for his less savory plans and ideas. She also calls out Higuchi for trying to steal Kaori in the Proxy-Proxy War, scolding him the entire night in every timeline they decide to go with that plan; and Jogasaki for trying to throttle the narrator when he had nothing to do with the Proxy War (in the Honwaka timeline).
- When She Smiles: Akashi sincerely smiling to him for the first time happens in every timeline, which the narrator realizes is the key moment of attraction.
Seitaro Higuchi
- Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara, Kazuya Nakai (Time Machine Blues)
- Extremely Overdue Library Book: He's been on the run from the Library Police for a long time for an overdue book. He has no intentions of finding it, nor of returning it.
- Kimono Is Traditional: Played with. He's the only recurring character that ever consistently wears a kimono in-story, and when he passes himself off as a god, this tidbit makes him seem like someone ancient. However, the kimono itself is likely to highlight Higuchi's eccentricities narratively.
- Overly Long Name: When Higuchi first meets the protagonist in the Misogi Film Circle timeline, he introduces himself as "Kamotaketsunuminokami". It's so long he even flubs up on it himself.
- Smoking Is Cool: Never seen without his trusty pipe, he constantly smokes around the main characters. It's supposed to give him an air of maturity and mysteriousness.
- Walking the Earth: Decides that he's going to travel around the world once he graduates, and is set to do so at least in the final timeline.
- Vague Age: The novels describe him as someone who looks to be in his mid thirties, with the personality of a young college student and the atmosphere of an ancient god. Whatever age he truly is, the Protagonist is never sure.
Masaki Jogasaki
- Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe
- Berserk Button: Don't touch Kaori-san, for the love of god. Stealing her from his house is a surefire way to get him to pummel you, as the narrator unfortunately found out. The narrator even muses that it'd probably be worse if he actully used Kaori-san like he was contemplating.
- Companion Cube: His sex doll, Kaori-san, is his most treasured possession. He carefully maintains her so that she looks pristine and life-like, and stealing her is a surefire way to incur Jogasaki's wrath. His affection for the doll is so much that even other people (with a moral conscience anyway) begin to find uncouth behavior towards Kaori-san as crossing the line.
- Hunk: Described as a handsome muscular guy in the novel. His anime design is no slouch either.
Ryoko Hanuki
- Voiced by: Yuko Kaida
- Ambiguous Situation: She hangs around Higuchi often enough for people to question her status with him. They all know she's not his wife, but nobody's really sure if she's just a close friend to him or his girlfriend.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: If she's at a party, there will be booze in her hands or she'll die trying. The protagonist was able to tell that she brought alcohol as an ingredient for their mystery hotpot simply because that's the kind of woman she is. There's a reason she only will drink with people who are close to her.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Castella. Also Beer, if she can help it.
Aijima
The vice president of the Misogi Film Circle. In an eternal rivalry with Jogasaki.
- Demoted to Extra: He's not vice president of the film club in the anime, reducing his relevance overall.
