History VisualNovel / AProfile

* {{Transsexual}}: [[spoiler:Kaine is biologically female, but never felt like one. Eventually, she started going to school in male clothing and taking male hormones. Contrary to [[{{bifauxnen}} similar plotlines in other stories]], however, Kaine continues to be treated as male after this. He gets more female attention than Masayuki despite being pretty open about it.]]

* ShoutOut: Kaine forces Rizu to memorize every character in ''LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' and later Masayuki thinks he's dreaming and begins to act like [[StarWars Darth Vader]].

Hayama Masayuki is a strange student. Every day, he studies. While those around him goof off or turn to petty crime, he remains an honest and forward looking young male. So, how is he particularly strange? Because he lives in a horrible town, goes to a horrible school and is one of less than half a dozen students in his school who entertain any notion at all of making something more of themselves by going to college. However, you wouldn't know it to look at him because Masayuki pointedly ignores the failings of his hometown and the flaws in his classmates and friends. As the lone nice guy, all his friends eventually left until he had only two companions left.

* ObliviousMockery: In Miku's route Mayasuki is given a love letter left in his locker. Naturally Miou, Rizu, and Kaine begin mocking him viciously believing it is a prank, not knowing the person who wrote it is close by. In fact, it was [[spoiler:Miku who wrote it, or rather, her "alternate personality" Karen who was literally right next to everyone as it was going on.]] She subtlety reminds Kaine about this event later on in the route much to his embarrassment.

ObliviousMockery: In Miku's route Mayasuki is given a love letter left in his locker. Naturally Miou, Rizu, and Kaine begin mocking him viciously believing it is a prank, not knowing the person who wrote it is close by. In fact, it was [[spoiler:Miku who wrote it, or rather, her "alternate personality" Karen who was literally right next to everyone as it was going on.]] She subtlety reminds Kaine about this event later on in the route much to his embarrassment.

ObliviousMockery: In Miku's route Mayasuki is given a love letter left in his locker. Naturally Miou, Rizu, and Kaine begin mocking him viciously believing it is a prank, not knowing the person who wrote it is close by. In fact, it was [[Spoiler:Miku who wrote it, or rather, her "alternate personality" Karen who was literally right next to everyone as it was going on.]] She subtlety reminds Kaine about this event later on in the route much to his embarrassment.

* HotMom: Riko is rather young and attractive for a woman with a daughter in high school.

* StrangeGirl: Miku is rather distant and aloof from everyone. Her tastes and actions are quite incomprehensible at first glance, though once you know how to read her behavior everything makes sense.

* TheMessiah: Masayuki always does his best to see the best parts of everyone, though this is not presented as necessarily a good thing.

* MultipleEndings: There are three different girls and, not counting bad endings, five endings. Rizu's endings determine [[spoiler:the nature of her relationship with Masayuki]], Miku's has to do with [[spoiler:her health]] and Miou just gets a good ending since her route is littered with ways to hit a bad end.

* BerserkButton: Everyone carefully avoids mentioning [[spoiler:Kaine's sex]] because they know he won't react well, giving some overlap with ElephantInTheLivingRoom. There are points where he overreacts to minor things that only have a tangential relation, though.

* ShrinkingViolet: Karen is too shy to speak in front of Masayuki. [[spoiler:Which is Miku's real personality... Mostly.]]

* SplitPersonality: [[spoiler:Miku claims to have a split personality named Karen. Or rather, her wording actually indicates that she views both Miku and Karen as personas that she uses to express different parts of herself. She lets Masayuki come to the more outlandish conclusion though.]]

* HookedUpAfterwards: [[spoiler:Kaine and Miou.]] This is [[MaybeEverAfter implied]] in one of Rizu's endings, and [[PairTheSpares actually confirmed]] to Masayuki by Rizu in her other ending.
* HotMom: Riko and Michiko.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Miou

* LethalChef: Riko
* LittleSisterHeroine: Lampshaded.

* TheMessiah: Masayuki.

* MultipleEndings
* NiceGuy: Masayuki is an unnervingly nice guy.
* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Two of the routes deal with an example before the story. [[spoiler:After Rizu stabs him, Masayuki devotes his time and effort to making her smile again, neglecting Miou in the process. This leads to their break-up, Miou's hatred of Rizu, and her self-destructive behavior.]]
* NotSoWeak: Do not make the mistake of thinking Masayuki is a coward. Just because he's not making a big deal of you harassing him doesn't mean he's a pushover.

* {{Otaku}}: Kaine

* PairTheSpares: [[spoiler:Kaine and Miou]], as Rizu informs Masayuki of in one her endings. It's also [[MaybeEverAfter implied]] in Rizu's other ending.

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:Despite Masayuki's passionate pleas to Miou's father[[hottip:*:which does impress him, at least]], Miou's parents still split up.]]

* ShipperOnDeck: Riko is not exactly subtle.
* ShoutOut: To ''LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' and ''StarWars.''
* ShrinkingViolet: Karen. [[spoiler:Which is Miku's real personality... Mostly.]]
* SplitPersonality: [[spoiler:Miku. Or does she?]]

* StrangeGirl: Miku
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: Both Rizu and Riko respond to Masayuki's declaration that he won't marry Rizu with the same nonsense words.
** Those words probably are ShoutOut to the Moogles of the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' franchise.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: Miku. [[spoiler:A complicated case.]]
* ThirdPersonPerson: Rizu

* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:Miou, though much more on the pitiful side of the spectrum than the crazy side. See also ZeroApprovalGambit.]]
** [[spoiler:Rizu when she was younger. Like Miou, she was also on the pitiful side on the spectrum, but acted very drastically[[hottip:*:Her possessiveness of Masayuki forced Miou to break up with him.]]. By the time the game starts, she grows out of it.]]

* AnAesop: [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop Your friends may lie to you no matter how much trust you have in them]] but you should believe in them all the same.

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Attempting to hold a conversation with Riko tends to end up with these sorts of derails.

* {{Buttmonkey}}: Miou
* CatchPhrase: Dunno!
* CerebusRetcon: [[spoiler:Masayuki is so unathletic due to illness.]]

* ClingyJealousGirl: Rizu really used to be one during an unstable period during her life.
* CloudCuckoolander: Riko

* TheComicallySerious: Miku.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Kaine appears to have made Rizu memorize the names of every single character that appears in ''LegendOfGalacticHeroes''. For those unaware of the series, that's hundreds of characters over about a hundred episodes.

* DysfunctionJunction: A norm for [=Akabei Soft2=]'s works.
* ElephantInTheLivingRoom: People tend to skate around how Masayuki has changed because they know he does not want to talk about his old life. This applies to various things that are obvious to everyone around him, such as his relationship with track.
** [[spoiler:Everyone goes out of their way to avoid discussing Kaine being transgender as well.]]

* TheGhost: Kako, Miku's younger twin sister.

* TallDarkAndBishoujo: Miku

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: [[spoiler:The speech from Miku starting with “Why did you decide never to run again?”]]
* BerserkButton: Everyone carefully avoids mentioning [[spoiler:Kaine’s sex]] because they know he won’t react well, giving some overlap with ElephantInTheLivingRoom. There are points where he overreacts to minor things that only have a tangential relation, though.

* BromanticFoil: Kaine. However, he’s actually more popular than Masayuki despite being a blatant otaku.

* ChickMagnet: Kaine is apparently quite popular. [[spoiler:And Masayuki would be even more popular if he didn’t always stay with Miou, who is rumored to be a prostitute.]]

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: “[[spoiler:Miku has a split personality?]] Awesome, that means I can have a threesome this summer!”

* FantasticallyIndifferent: [[spoiler:”Ah, so you have a split personality that’s in love with me Miku? How interesting. Can I meet her?” Completely serious.]]
* FridgeLogic: InUniverse, it suddenly occurs to Masayuki that there’s no reason he couldn’t have started dating Miou again after [[spoiler:Rizu made them break up.]]
* TheGhost: Kako, Miku’s younger twin sister.
* GreenEyedMonster: [[spoiler:Miou is extremely jealous of Rizu in Rizu’s route.]]

* IllGirl: [[spoiler:Miku isn’t supposed to run anymore due to illness. She’s gradually getting weaker and is due to be hospitalized soon. The reason for her illness is that she donated a part of her liver to her little sister, but due to a botched surgery she started to get sick.]]
* INeverSaidItWasPoison: [[spoiler:Kaine fails to cover up for Miou because Miou left a hair pin on the roof and Miou says she wasn’t on the roof when Masayuki finds it.]]

--> Hayama: I’m not marrying you. Want to make sure you don’t fall for me or anything. We’re only stepsiblings, so I thought I should make that clear.
* LoveLetterLunacy: In Miku’s route, Masayuki converses for a while with a girl called Karen through letters left in his shoe locker. The setup is so cliché that Kaine and Miou don’t take it seriously, especially since Karen forgot to add her name to the first letter.
* LoveTriangle: Miou and Rizu both love Masayuki. Masayuki used to date Miou. Things… didn’t work out. Miou is involved in another triangle where she’s obviously still in love with Masayuki and Kaine loves her as well.
* MaybeEverAfter: [[spoiler:If you don’t choose to sleep with Rizu, there is an ending that confirms they she and Masayuki do love each other, but Rizu is moving out to grow up a little and stop just being his little sister. A similar hint is given for Kaine/Miou.]]

* MoodWhiplash: On occasion. An early example is a cheerful ‘going home together scene’ with Rizu, Miou and Masayuki that is interrupted by Rizu asking Miou if she loves Masayuki. Everyone there knows the answer is ‘yes’ because they were dating at one point.

* NotSoWeak: Do not make the mistake of thinking Masayuki is a coward. Just because he’s not making a big deal of you harassing him doesn’t mean he’s a pushover.
* ObliviousToLove: Masayuki looks this way during early parts of Miku’s route, though to be fair she gives out some pretty strange signals.

* PaintingTheMedium: “Why the tilde?”

* PurpleIsTheNewBlack: Miku’s hair is called black, but it’s clearly purple.
* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:Despite Masayuki’s passionate pleas to Miou’s father[[hottip:*:which does impress him, at least]], Miou’s parents still split up.]]

* ShrinkingViolet: Karen. [[spoiler:Which is Miku’s real personality… Mostly.]]

* StepfordSmiler: [[spoiler:Subverted: At first it is implied that Masayuki is faking a ‘nice big brother’ personality to make Rizu happy, but in truth it’s just that he became sick of his father and then had a long time in the hospital to sit and reevaluate his life and his relationships. He simply decided he didn’t want to be that way anymore.]]

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: Both Rizu and Riko respond to Masayuki’s declaration that he won’t marry Rizu with the same nonsense words.

* TheUnreveal: The underwear that Rizu accidentally put on when running late for school. We know it wasn’t a thong, but it’s implied to be pretty racy stuff.
* WouldHitAGirl: [[spoiler:Kaine thinks Masayuki never fought him because biologically he’s female. But it turns out Masayuki is fine with hitting girls, proved roughly five seconds later.]]

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Miou and Miku have blue and purple hair respectively, though it’s implied to actually be black early on.

** Those words probably are ShoutOut to the Moogles of the ''FinalFantasy'' franchise.

* PaintingTheFourthWall: “Why the tilde?”

A Profile is a visual novel released by [=Akabei Soft=] (now known as [=Akabei Soft2=]) in 2005 and the third to be translated into English, following ''SharinNoKuni'' and later ''VisualNovel/GSenjouNoMaou.'' Unlike those two, which were released at a later date, A Profile has a more standard route progression system as it appears the writers had not yet picked up the style of a linear storyline that splits only later in the story.

* SplitPersonality: [[spoiler:Miku]]

* SplitPersonality: [[spoiler:Miku. OrIsIt?]]

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: Both Rizu and Miko respond to Masayuki’s declaration that he won’t marry Rizu with the same nonsense words.