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Seiichirou Kitano
The main character. A kindhearted boy who was born with a scary face.
- Accidental Hero: Although Kitano is genuinely heroic, his rumored fighting prowess comes from this. For example, he is considered to have cleaned out the delinquents in the park near his school, when really they accidentally knocked themselves out, fleeing from him in a blind panic.
- Achievements in Ignorance: Almost all of Kitano's legendary feats—such as defeating the infamously invincible banchou of a rival school in an epic all-out brawl with only four lackeys to their dozens, single-handedly defeating and chasing out a majority of the delinquents infesting a local park, and his defeating and subsequently recruiting many of the most dangerous delinquents in the area—were all done while he was trying to do something else entirely, unaware of the violence and the reality of the situation, and not even intending to fight back most of the time. This is especially egregious as said battle with a rival school was kicked off from his trying to return a wallet.
- Action Survivor: A rather mild-mannered student, he frequently gets into delinquent clashes and comes out on top of these situations without even lifting a finger, thanks to his intimidating looks and unintentionally threatening communication.
- Actual Pacifist: Kitano believes that all violence is bad and only resorts to force in order to stop other people from fighting, which makes all the rumors about him having killed people all the more ironic. The same is true of his father, who as a high school student preferred to let someone beat the crap out of him with brass knuckles rather than do anything to defend himself.
- Airplane Arms: Kitano's favored method of running is with both hands outstretched in the air, normally with a massive Slasher Smile while screaming "KIEEEE!"
- All-Loving Hero: Kitano wants nothing but peace on earth and good will to all. Seriously, there aren't many manga characters out there that are quite as pure-hearted or kind as him. To elaborate, he apologized to Ikuno after she had beat the stuffing out of him the day before because he would not go down which, as Leo pointed out, hurt her emotionally because she did not want to attack him. He was crying as he apologized to her.
- Asleep in Class: In one chapter, he comes to school exhausted and sleepy, and his strange efforts to stay awake only make him seem scarier to his classmates.
- Badass on Paper: He really did defeat all the people he’s been said to defeat, just not in the way people think.
- Biblical Motifs: He is often drawn with the wings of an angel on covers to illustrate how kind and gentle he is.
- Brown Note: He can make a loud screeching noise, usually when he wants to get someone's attention or when he's in an excited state. Its sound is enough to demoralize the toughest gangs around.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Kitano has seemingly superhuman abilities as a result of some kind of natural gift for efficient movement. He can take a lot more abuse than just about anyone else in the series, and the few times he pushes people, they fly away. Even in the first chapter, we see Kitano lifting a fallen tree on the school grounds without any more difficulty than he was earlier picking up empty cans and discarded wrappers. This also leads to his first Accidental Hero moment when his strength later gives out over the possibility of getting in a fight.
- Chick Magnet: Despite looking like a heroin addict that comes out of a Horror manga, Kitano does awfully well with the ladies. He has four girls who fall for him.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He seems to be completely incapable of processing the very concept of ill-intent and jumps to some truly baffling conclusions as to why people might have it out for him. It's one half of what fuels the comedic misunderstandings he gets into.
- Coincidental Dodge: Kitano does this all the time, whether by finding a coin just before someone tries to sneak attack him or swaying on his feet because he has a cold and evading dozens of kicks from a skilled martial artist.
- Creepy Good: Kitano is a pure hero but accidentally creeps everyone out because of his appearance and behavior.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Doubly twisted with Kitano. He seems badass at first glance; when you know him you find out he's a gentle, caring person, and Actual Pacifist; then when someone is in danger he 1-hit KO's all the baddies around.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Aside from the creepy face and dark school uniform, Kitano is a nice guy and the same can be said of his parents being creepy on the outside but nice on the inside.
- Death Glare: Kitano inadvertently gives these whenever he is concentrating on something or someone.
- Delinquent Hair: His hair is naturally spiky, so he gels it to avoid being seen as this. A quick gander at some of the other tropes on this page can tell you how well that works.
- Determinator: Not only does Kitano have to put up with being beaten up on a regular basis, he's actually developing rapid reflexes from being hit so often. And this is only for him to be able to Turn the Other Cheek. To put this into perspective, a kid thinks Kitano is a demon (as usual), and asks his Action Girl friend Ikuno to beat him up. Kitano doesn't know why Ikuno's beating him, but he specifically tells that unless I know why I'm getting beaten up, I will always rise again.note
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: He doesn't seem very aware of his Charles Atlas Superpower most of the time, unintentionally sending people flying with shoves and not knowing how dangerous his unintentional combat skills are.
- Dogged Nice Guy: He just won't stop being nice and helpful to everyone he meets, even when their first reaction to him is to scream, faint, or run away in terror.
- The Dreaded: Subverted hilariously. Most of the insanely nightmarish drawings of Kitano would normally scare the shit out of readers if they were present in a Horror manga - but his kindly thoughts, good nature, and honest intentions are shown clearly to the reader, making it funny instead. Of course, that doesn't prevent him from being The Dreaded to the other characters In-Universe.
- Entendre Failure: Kitano always speaks extremely literally and without deceit, and assumes that everyone else around him does as well. Thus, he often ends up misinterpreting what other people are saying to him, and people usually end up interpreting his entirely innocent comments in the most evil and threatening way possible.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Eventually earns the admiration of his male peers. Also overlaps with Chick Magnet.
- Exact Words: When his gang talks about going to the park to remove the trash (a rival gang), Kitano (of course) thinks they're all very civic-minded young men, and suggest getting brooms, saying "If you clean up trash... you use brooms, isn't that right?". Of course, they go for the metaphorical meaning...
- Face of a Thug: Kitano!
◊ Deconstructed. The whole plot is driven and catapulted by how he looks like a horrible thug that does drugs and kills people with impunity, which causes everyone to fear and respect him. Of course, all of that is false, and he's the nicest person on earth.- Lampshaded by Hishida Haruka, who tries to make him less scary. She succeeds... for several panels (Kitano does look like a normal person with his hair down). What she doesn't know is that his hair, when not secured with his hair gel, tends to go up, and this makes him scarier. See the Looks Like Cesare entry below.
- Fang Thpeak: Heard speaking with a lisp in the OVA, possibly from the sharp teeth he has.
- Flanderization: In the beginning, Kitano was aware his appearance scares people, but later episodes depict him as being virtually oblivious to the fact.
Is he that dumb or is he in a state of serious denial?- A bit of this, a bit of that, probably. He seems to be aware to an extent of his aspect (keep in mind that he tries to keep his hair flat to minimize it) but seems to be completely unaware of the full aura of creepiness he involuntarily radiates. The few times he has been directly confronted with the fact, it borders on Tear Jerker status (it hurts him), and he tends to misattribute any related reaction to a misunderstanding and/or a fault from his side.
- A certain degree of Fridge Logic might apply. In flashbacks, we see that the staff and students of his previous school really liked Kitano. He's expecting the same to happen in Seikaku - that people might be put off by his appearance at first, but will eventually tumble to how much of a nice guy Kitano is.
- Friendless Background: Inverted. Kitano had many friends in his old school.
- Generation Xerox: His father, who shares his looks, had the same experiences in high school that Kitano faces, and he also gets attacked from being mistaken for a Yakuza gangster. Kitano's mother also shares the trait of scaring others with her natural looks, though it's because of unnatural beauty rather than intimidation.
- Gentle Giant: Kitano's tall and thin, and his dad's built like a brick house. Neither would intentionally hurt a fly.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Kitano cannot follow the conversation of the people around him about 80% of the time because they are talking about doing bad things, or fighting. He just cannot understand that anyone would ever want to do either of those things. He believes people attack him because he did something bad to them that made them angry, and that's why he lets them attack him. Or he mistakes their aggressive actions as games.
- Hypocritical Humor: He describes Kuroda as looking "scary, but really nice" after the latter becomes loyal to him after Kitano accidentally gives him the scare of a lifetime when Kuroda offers to carry his bags out of fear, even though Kitano has the face of a demon yet the heart of an angel.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Kitano is by far the scariest character to be incorruptibly pure.
- Insane Troll Logic: Frequently comes up with implausible explanations for what's happening instead of coming to the obvious or sensible conclusions, such as getting the wrong reasons for why delinquents want to pick a fight with him. Usually, his logic wraps around him thinking he's deservingly getting comeuppance for insults or slights he thinks he accidentally did.
- Interrupted Suicide: He believes that this is the case with Takehisa early on, even thinking that his cuts and bruises were self-inflicted from a Bungled Suicide.
- It Runs in the Family: Apparently Kitano's incredibly scary looks were inherited from his father (who looks like a Yakuza) and his mother (who is so abnormally beautiful that it scares people).
- Kubrick Stare: Basically Kitano's default expression.
- Literal-Minded: He speaks rather plainly, which is then interpreted by others to be some sort of threat. Likewise Played Straight, as he believes that others also speak with literal meaning and tries to respond in kind.
- Loners Are Freaks:
- Earns this reputation, due to his appearance and the rumors. However, he gets better.
- Inverted, as a side story chapter reveals that Kitano was very popular among the students and teachers from his old school and he had many friends there. They all know his face is scary, but also he's a nice person.
- Loners Will Stay Alone: Kitano-kun starts off like this because of his fearsome appearance, until someone found out his true nature, and things sort of snowball from there.
- Looks Like Cesare: Kitano is unnaturally pale; when his hair stands up, he "looks like Ryuk".
- Mistaken for Badass: Makes the whole series. Thanks to poor communication, a few lucky dodges, and people basing their entire judgement on his looks alone, Kitano earns a reputation as one of the toughest delinquents when all he wanted to do was make friends and go to school.
- Nice Guy: To a ridiculous degree. He has no bad bone in his body and only wants others to be happy.
- Noble Demon: After a while, many students believe that Kitano is this, since he never skips classes, gets good grades, never does anything wrong at school or doesn't harm any ordinary student. In reality, he's no demon, just noble.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Most of people believe Seiichirou is a psychopathic serial killer because he looks like a psychopathic serial killer, but those who actually talk to him find out that Seiichirou is a naive, kind-hearted person.
- No Social Skills: Much of the series is driven by his misunderstanding of basically everything. His inability to communicate very well with other often leads them to assume terrible things about him and run away. Likewise, Kitano seems only vaguely aware of his own frightfulness.
- For more specific examples of his behavior, he can't read body language or tones and thus doesn't know he's being threatened or challenged, and he interprets conversations from both ends as using literal meanings to their words.
- One Head Taller: Kitano is one head taller than his Love Interest Ryoko.
- Perpetual Expression: Kitano's Death Glare and Slasher Smile rarely ever come off his face, despite how blithe his disposition his. Needless to say, it's problematic.
- Poor Communication Kills: So many misunderstandings would be avoided if people around Kitano paid closer attention to what he says and does. Or if Kitano would understand what they really say and do. Or, heaven forbid, he just stopped saying vague things that are open to gross misinterpretation. Of course, that would end the story very quickly.
- Positive Friend Influence: When his peers actually sit down and spend time getting to know him, his cheery demeanor rubs off on them.
- Punched Across the Room: More like Pushed rather than Punched, but still. This is his main "attack", sending Kojima flying across the park and Counselor Irie through the window, thanks to his strength.
- Red Baron: His reputation earns him the spot of Hekikuu's Guardian or banchou leader. Others can recognize him as the one who defeated Kojima.
- Scars Are Forever: Kitano has one on his face after Takehisa slashed him. It only appears when he's agitated.
- Seemingly Profound Fool:
- Whenever he's quiet and thinking to himself, people already scared of his appearance become further intimidated, thinking he's staring them down. When he's actually talking, it's always literal, but everyone's preconceived idea that he's a delinquent causes them to interpret his innocent comments as threats. Unfortunately, Kitano also thinks other people are being literal in their speech, which then influences the next non-threat he'll follow up with.
- Voicing his intentions to do the right thing translate to Kuroda and his gang as acting as Hekikuu's guardian, and all that entails being a delinquent warrior. Also applies when he recruits the likes of Takehisa and Ryoko after unknowingly besting them in fights and, in their eyes, showing his strength and heart.
- Shame If Something Happened: Subverted, of course. Kitano truly worries about the wellbeing of others; it's just that other people conflate his supposed image of a hardened thug with his literal wording, prompting them to believe he speaks like this.
- Shrouded in Myth: All sorts of outrageous tall tales about Kitano circulate through the school because of his accidental notoriety. Since almost no one is brave or open minded enough to actually get to know him, and there is no source of information about him except for rumors about his deeds and people who think they know the real him but actually don't, his reputation gets completely out of control.
- Signature Move: His two most renowned "moves" are a "Double Palm Strike" and his "Martial Arts Kick", which are just him shoving his opponent out of the way and falling on his back in a way that makes him look like he's kicking upwards.
- Slasher Smile: His genuine smiles all end up looking terrifying.
- Sneeze of Doom: Kitano's sneezes sound like screeches of death that cause lesser men to run in fear.
- Softspoken Sadist: Parodied. Everyone thinks Kitano is this, as he's rather calm and quiet when he speaks but is genuine in his comments of concern and worry.
- Speech Impediment: In the OVA, Kitano has a very noticeable lisp. It plays a part in scaring people.
- Stab the Scorpion: Kitano does this with a bee once. He doesn't kill the bee, but he catches and later releases it in a way that looked like he was about to punch his opponent. And then he, of course, says...Kitano: That was close... A little further, and you would've been hurt.
- Took a Level in Badass: Kitano starts out as a Determinator who's really, really good at taking punches, but by the end of the story he becomes so good at dodging that he's nearly at Flash Step levels.
- Toxic Friend Influence: You'd think that spending a lot of time around so many delinquents would turn him into a real one. Nope! In fact, it's inverted with Kitano. All of his friends were at one point obsessed with fighting, but after spending time with him, they mellow out.
- Turn the Other Cheek: When Ikuno beats Kitano because of a promise she made to a boy, he kept rising until the boy told her to stop out of grief. Upon being told by Ikuno that "It's All My Fault" that she beats him, he promptly collapses. Why? Because he thought he made her so angry that he deserved every punch and kick Ikuno threw at him. He collapses in relief because that meant their friendship would now not be in trouble as he didn't do anything wrong.
- Unexplained Recovery:
- Parodied. Kitano was thought to have died fighting a Yakuza (his father) earlier. His classmates were absolutely terrified when he came to school later that day.
- Happens again when Ryoko gets the bright idea to fake Kitano losing a fight and being beaten badly, in order to end his reputation for violence and stop thugs wanting to face him. Naturally, only a few minutes after she's covered him in bandages and told the whole school he was beaten to within an inch of his life, the bandages slip off revealing that he's not even bruised. The school promptly decides he has a Healing Factor, doubtless from making a Deal with the Devil.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Kitano doesn't know how to fight, but years of getting beat up have helped him hone an ability to take punches like a champ. In fact, most of his fights are won by him just letting his opponent tire themselves out. His double palm strike is also just a really strong shove, nothing special.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His minor actions that are backed with his rather scary face, the circulating rumors, and his unintentional defeating of a couple real delinquents cause situations to often spiral out of control.
Seikichi Kuroda
A local dumb bully who is also a coward. He is always followed by two lackeys.
- Boisterous Weakling: Kuroda is a shining example of people who only pick on people weaker than them. Irony bites because he is big, strong, and tough, but is too stupid and cowardly to capitalize on his advantages. When he gets knocked out on his feet, the punch he throws at his opponent, unhindered by his usual cowardice, is devastating.
- Book Dumb: Had to take make up tests.
- Buffy Speak: Kuroda's thoughts lapse into this when he is confronted by Kitano's Kubrick Stare in Chapter 19.Kuroda: It's like he's poking a sword into my mouth and poking that hangy thing in the back of my throat with the tip!
- Conspiracy Theorist: Kuroda turns into one after getting hit by a rock. Apparently the Soviets and the KGB are out to get him, despite Kitano telling him those groups no longer exist.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Kuroda gets a humorous moment of this too: he hits his head, forgets for a moment how much of a coward he is, and is able to stand his ground against Ogisu.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: He really doesn't know when to stop talking, and often makes things worse for himself than they already are.Kuroda: N... No, it wasn't Kitano-san who did this to me ... and it wasn't from some unfamiliar girl kicking me, it just started flowing as I stood here, thinking of you ... Ah ... no, no they weren't like ... those kind of thoughts ... I just, um, really want to eat chocolate when I think about you ... B ... But wait, that doesn't mean I really want to eat you! I just ...
Kuroda's Lackeys: [internally] What the hell is he saying? - Dirty Coward: He talks a big game but runs from fights he can't win, relies on ambushing and overwhelming his opponent's with numbers, and often pushes forward his lackeys to sacrifice themselves in his place against powerful enemies.
- Gold Fish Poop Gang: He and his friends want to be taken seriously as the banchou of Hekikuu, but they almost never win their fights. At least until Kitano comes along.
- Insane Troll Logic: Kuroda takes the cake trying to explain why old Russian spies posing as teenagers are throwing stones at him (It still makes NO sense whatsoever, even in context). He also joined the teachers and authority figures in frequently coming up with irrational explanations for why Kitano is bad to the bone, even though they have no proof of his wrongdoing.
- Large Ham: Kuroda. He usually addresses Ryoko by screaming her full name, gives a passionate monologue about the personal sacrifices that Soviet spies have to make after he saw a girl he didn't recognize, and is prone to maximum volume declarations of his plans to elope with Ryoko.
- The Masochism Tango: Kuroda thinks that Ryoko hits him because she likes him. Of course, she actually likes Kitano, the guy that she treats nicely and doesn't hit.
- Miles Gloriosus: He likes to talk like he's a tough guy, and to be fair he is legitimately physically strong and rather big for his age. It's just that he's also a coward at heart and more often than not gets beat up.
- Paper Tiger: His large build and stereotypical delinquent appearance make him look intimidating, but he's nonetheless a coward who tries his hardest to avoid getting into fights.
- The Power of Love: Invoked and Subverted oh so much during the time when the local Schemer convinces Kuroda that he must save Ryoko from Kitano using The Power of Love. Too bad for him that she doesn't want to be rescued.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Not so much on the "bye" part, but Kuroda has the amazing ability to suddenly appear in front of people, screaming their name at full volume.
- Too Dumb to Live: Kuroda is so foolish that he repeatedly causes himself to be beat up and humiliated; his Idiot Ball is so big it powers a good third of the story. (We even have
Word of God he has that specific role.) - Unwanted Rescue: Kuroda's idea of "rescuing" Ryoko from Kitano with his Power of Love. Of course, not only is Kitano a kind-hearted and wonderful person who would never do anything bad to her (or anyone), Ryoko doesn't want to be rescued, because she likes Kitano.
Tokiyama Gorou and Ooshita Jirou
A pair of near-identical third year delinquents who serve as Kuroda's lackeys.
- Boisterous Weakling: Similar to their boss, Kuroda, they can talk a good game but can't really back it up, having to rely on overwhelming their enemies with superior numbers to stand a chance of winning most fights.
- Gold Fish Poop Gang: They join their leader Kuroda in his antics, and they can't get too far in actually winning their fights.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Very downplayed. They're even wimpier fighters than Kuroda but they're far more intelligent than he is, trying in vain to convince him not to trust Suda.
- Those Two Guys: Are always seen together and are nearly indistinguishable from each other.
- Trapped in Villainy: On account of being Kuroda's friends they often find themselves on the wrong side or being painted as the villains even when they have good intentions. As the story goes on they come to lament the fact that they always seem to be the bad guy.
Yuji Takehisa
A delinquent who becomes Kitano's subordinate.
- Blood Knight: At the start, he is usually willing to start fights to the point that he's suspended a week before meeting with Kitano. Meeting with Kitano cooled him down.
- Character Development: He started out as a violent troublemaker who is looking for any excuse for a fight. Interacting with Kitano and his other friends ends up softening him up, to the point where he mostly fights for self-defense, with the occasional beating up of morons for Rule of Funny.
- Deadpan Snarker: He usually has something insulting to say to people he thinks are morons.
- Delinquent Hair: Takehisa's spiked blond hair and complete lack of eyebrows.
- Driven to Suicide: A running gag in the first few chapters is that Kitano thinks Takehisa is suicidally depressed and assumes that whatever threatening actions he's making or injuries he's sustained are the result of his attempts to hurt himself.
- True Companions: His subtle Character Development eventually makes him one; by the time he discovers the truth about Kitano, he is this.
Ryoko Koiso
A pretty girl who trains in martial arts. She is one of the first people in school to look past Kitano's looks.
- Action Girl: Trained in Koiso-style Kobudo by her father, and therefore can kick the ass of almost any male delinquent.
- All Amazons Want Hercules: It's not that Ryoko doesn't like men, it's just that she can't fall in love with anyone weaker than she is, in body or in spirit. Kitano turns out to meet her criteria in both areas, albeit not in the manner she was expecting.
- Badass in Distress: Ryoko has gotten into fights she couldn't handle on her own exactly twice: once when Katayama took her down with a cheap shot, and once when she twisted her ankle while dispensing her third consecutive beatdown to a group of obnoxiously persistent thugs. Both times, Kitano was there to bail her out.
- Book Dumb: Admitted her grades wasn't the best in her class
- Braids of Action: Ryoko wears her hair in two braids, and as an expert martial artist is one of the most active characters in the manga. It turns out she actually wears them because they remind her of her late mother.
- Combat Pragmatist: When her father challenges her to a serious fight she can't win, she gets help from local thugs by claiming he's a stalker, runs away and hides, and waits for him to get weaker from skipping breakfast.
- Dark Mistress: After befriending Kitano, Ryoko tends to be treated like a "gangster's moll," much to her embarrassment.
- Distinction Without a Difference: Ryuko denies that Kitano is her boyfriend, and then totally undermines herself by admitting that he confessed to her and she likes him too.
- First Girl Wins: Ryuko is the first girl to fall in love with Kitano, and while she has rivals such as Ikuno, she prevails in the end after a lot of Will They or Won't They?.
- First Kiss: In the last chapter, Ryoko finally kisses Kitano on the mouth, sealing the first kiss for both of them.
- Hypocritical Humor: Delivered a beatdown to a trained Ogisu while saying her family kobudo is not used for fighting.
- The Lad-ette: She is a martial artist, her preferred movie genre is action and usually take on the male role during a situation with Kitano. This is discussed when she's frustrated with herself after her date with Kitano being partially ruined.
- Look Behind You: In the last chapter, Ryoko momentarily distracts her friends by telling them there's still an unsubdued enemy behind them, which she uses to kiss Kitano while they aren't looking. Of course, they immediately realize what she pulled on them when they turn back around.
- Motor Mouth: When she's annoyed, she has the tendency to not shut up and annoying everybody, her own father included.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: She won't hesitate to beat up anyone who attacks Kitano.
- Waif-Fu: Partially justified because she's a martial artist and everything, but she's 1.67 meters tall and weighs 49 kilos (just a bit under 5'6" and a bit over 100 pounds, for the metrically challenged).
Ikuko Hirayama
Ryoko's best friend and the only normal person in the group.
- The Team Normal: Downplayed. No one in the series has powers, but she is this by virtue of being the only non-combatant.
Suda
President of the Hekikuu High School Student Body. Super-elite and attractive, he commands tremendous respect from the other students and plots to take down Kitano to raise his status and reputation even further.
- Bad Boss: Mistreats his vice-president, Koide, by forcing him into dangerous situations to test his theories and making him dig up the dirt on other students so his own hands remain clean. He also lies to him about starting his crusade against Kitano to protect Koide to ensure his loyalty.
- Big Man on Campus: His popularity among the student body is supremely high.
- Divide and Conquer: He starts his crusade against Kitano by targeting those closest to him and trying to get them to turn on each other and abandon Kitano.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: No matter what Kitano does, Suda can't get it through his skull that Kitano isn't just another petty thug Suda can use to make himself look better. It's what allows Kitano to constantly unravel his plans by complete accident, as Suda always assumes the worst of him when going about his manipulations.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: In contrast to Kitano, Suda has a handsome face and a very devious personality.
- Foil: To Kitano. Kitano is a scary-looking student who in reality is a complete sweetheart who just wants to do right by everyone. Suda is a handsome student who is a devious Glory Hound underneath, willing to toss anyone under the bus just to preserve his reputation.
- Glory Hound: Despite already being the most respected student on campus, he craves to raise his reputation even higher and has no qualms about how he gets it.
- Manipulative Bastard: Zig-Zagged. Suda is a cunning and manipulative individual who plays all of Kitano's friends against each other in his attempts to bring down the new school guardian. However, Kitano himself usually winds up being a Spanner in the Works since Suda has a fundamental misunderstanding of Kitano's true nature and writes him off as another delinquent.
- Stealing the Credit: Lies about clearing the delinquents out of the park (something Kitano did on accident) so the student body will treat him with awe.
- Student Council President: His position within the school.
- Universally Beloved Leader: He is universally adored by the student body. Even Kitano - who doesn't realise that Suda is stealing the credit for his achievements and actively trying to ruin his life - respects him and thinks he's a great guy. Pretty much only Ryoko is suspicious of him. As Suda's crusade against Kitano, persists, however, his reputation steadily takes more and more hits, as Kitano unintentionally exposes Suda's unsavory side.
- Unknown Rival: He soon nurses a grudge against Kitano after the latter's unintentional actions led to his reputation to go down the drain, but Kitano being Kitano remains oblivious.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Whilst he may command the love and respect of the student body, in reality he is a ruthless Glory Hound, willing to tell any lie and throw whoever he needs to under the bus to further his reputation. Thanks to Kitano's unintentional actions, this reputation ends up going down the drain.
Ikuno Shirataki
The daughter of the new guidance counselor.
- Action Girl: Ikuno starts out as a Dark Action Girl, going so far as to punch out and KO twenty male students who casually replied that they were good at fighting after she asked them so, just to try and get over her fear of Kitano. She gets nicer though.
- Ax-Crazy: Only in the beginning. When she first loses to Kitano, she goes on a rampage to try to regain her self-confidence.
- Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: At one point late in the series, Ryoko gets Ikuno to admit that she loves Kitano, much to Ryoko's surprise.. only for Ikuno to continue on to say that she also loves Ryoko, and Ryoko's friend #A, and Takehisa, and Kuroda, and Ogisu, since they've become her friends, something she lacked before she transferred to their school.
- Blatant Lies: Played With in the Halford arc, where Ikuno walks up and backhands a thug into the ground, then tells him it was an accident and her hand slipped. Reader and thug alike take it for an obvious lie until we get a look at Ikuno's Thought Bubble, where she's wondering at how odd it is that she accidentally walked up and backhanded somebody into the ground. She eventually decides it's simply proof she's a nice person.
- Brutal Honesty: When Ryoko gets suspicious that everybody is showing up at once in the last chapter, Ikuno's response is to explain that they were all spying on her.
- Deadpan Snarker: She almost always has a scathing remark to say.
- Emotionless Girl: While Ikuno does have emotions, she appears to be completely unaware of them and is quite surprised when she finds herself acting on them.
- Face Realization: Hilariously occurs in chapter 71, where Ikuno realizes that rather than 'accidentally' beating up thugs, she is to her surprise, "a lot nicer of a person than I thought."
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: While Ikuno is interested in Kitano, she'd prefer that he and Ryoko to get together... so she can become Kitano's mistress and they'd all be together.Ikuno: So when they get married, I can be his lover, and things will stay the same. That'd be best.
- Marry Them All: Proposed by Ikuno, that if Kitano and Ryoko get married in the future, she will become his lover to maintain the status quo.
- Transfer Student Uniforms: Ikuno stands out for wearing one of her old school's uniforms. Because of transferring to so many schools for her father's job as a guidance counselor, Ikuno decided at some point that she wouldn't bother changing uniforms anymore.
Takashi Ogisu
A transfer who student who transfers near the end of the story.
- Badass Decay: In-Universe example: Ogisu thinks he's suffering from it. He was the strongest guy in his former school; the first day he transfers he picks fights with five random people: Kojima, Kuroda (sorta), Yuji, Ryoko, and Kitano. After a few days, he takes on Ikuno. Being slapped around by everyone (including two girls) weighs him down pretty hard. During the last battle, however, he realizes that realistically, he's just a badass in a pool of comparatively uber-strong people. He settles for being "Hekikuu's #8" in the imaginary pecking order in his mind and then proceeds to kick ass.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Ogisu seems to be here just to be beaten up by everyone, every time. Kuroda at least contributes a lot to the story.
- Delinquent Hair: A bright red pompadour that Kitano initially thought it was blood bleeding from his head.
- Last Episode, New Character: He is added within the last few chapters of the manga and seems to have been added just to have a more traditional fighting manga story character just to make him suffer for being Wrong Genre Savvy.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Inverted. He was the strongest fighter in his old school; now he’s in one with absurdly powerful people.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Ogisu used to be undefeated in fights until he came to Heikiku. Then he got crushed by four people in quick succession including two girls. He comes to terms with this in the finale when he realizes he's not weak but rather is surrounded by people who are crazily strong.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Ogisu, who acts like he is the main character in a fighting manga when he first appears. Needless to say, he is not. Takehisa, upon being confronted by Ogisu says this:
