Characterization tropes related to the major characters that show up in Hidoku Shinaide.
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Nemugasa Takahashi
A deutoragonist of the story, Nemugasa is a nerdy and studious student who is blackmailed into a sexual relationship with Maya after he is caught cheating on a test.
- Brutal Honesty: Nemugasa has a habit of plainly speaking his mind, regardless of the context. For example, when Maya asks Nemugasa if he'll keep choosing academics over him, Nemugasa hesitates only to say that he thinks grades are more important, but that doesn't mean he doesn't love Maya. This can also border on Innocently Insensitive, like in an omake when he wondered if Akira and Naoya were a couple. Instead of keeping that thought to himself and avoiding embarassing or outing Akira, he asks Akira immediately in public, which flusters Akira into a small panic.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: When Akira takes Nemugasa to a club he gets drunk off a single drink. In a side chapter, Nemugasa gets wasted to the point of not remembering what he did the next day off of a few liquor infused chocolates.
- Dork in a Sweater: Has a penchant for wearing cardigans and sweaters as any good Stereotypical Nerd should.
- Friendless Background: Nemugasa has no real friends before Maya turns his attention on him. In fact, the loneliness he feels after pushing Maya away is the thing that makes him realize he has genuine feelings for Maya, who made him feel less lonely.
- Geek Physique: Nemugasa has a noticeably scrawnier build than Maya, to the point that his ribcage is often drawn when his shirt is off. Given that he's a studious, non-athletic student, who wears Nerd Glasses and has few friends, it goes along with his entire nerd characterization.
- Insecure Love Interest: This becomes the main issue in his relationship with Maya once they enter college. Nemugasa struggles with feeling like he's cool/outgoing enough for the handsome and oft sought after Maya. It doesn't help that they both see each other less and less, with their part time jobs and club activities getting in the way, and Maya is too embarrassed to say "I love you" to Nemugasa, even when Nemugasa says it first. This causes Nemugasa to become increasingly anxious about whether or not Maya still likes him at all and eventually leads him to ask for a break because he can't handle the emotional stress.
- In-Series Nickname: Nemugasa is called "glasses boy" and "NemuNemu" by the popular kids that Maya hangs out with.
- Nerds Are Naïve: Nemugasa is a Stereotypical Nerd and Scholarship Student who likes to study and do well in school. Because of his focus on academics, he has zero experience with dating or sex before Maya forces himself on him and is almost comically Oblivious to Love.
- Nerd Glasses: He's a serious, study-oriented boy and he wears a pair of glasses at almost all times.
- Oblivious to Love:
- He cannot even fathom that the reason why Maya blackmailed him into sleeping with him and continues to pester him about spending time with him is because Maya is a Loving Bully who is Emotionally Tongue-Tied. Rather justified as raping someone is arguably the worst way to communicate your feelings for a person. Though it's clear to everyone else watching that Maya's intense focus on Nemugasa has some genuine romantic feelings to it.
- In later chapters, Nemugasa changes his hairstyle and is far more expressive because his relationship with Maya, which makes him appealing to women in ways he's never been before. But Okino assures a concerned Maya that Nemugasa never notices when he's being pretty blatantly hit on.
- After the incident with Ao overhearing Nemugasa and Maya going at it, Ao develops a fairly obvious crush on Nemugasa. Okino intuits it just from Nemugasa describing that Ao was really close to him and Maya clocks it just from watching Ao interact with Nemugasa from afar. Nemugasa on the other hand only thinks of Ao's increasing demands for his time and help as just Ao wanting to genuinely study and pass his college exams, having no clue about the teen's feelings.
- Scholarship Student: Nemugasa is at school on a scholarship, which is why he resorts to cheating when his grades begin to slip during his second year: if he loses his position at the top of the class he'll no longer be able to receive the scholarship.
- Stereotypical Nerd: Nemugasa is a scrawny, glasses-wearing, Scholarship Student who really enjoys school and getting good grades. He canonically has fairly bland fashion sense: he wears button-down shirts and sweaters primarily and his hair is in a perpetual bowlcut. While he isn't bullied by his peers (aside from Loving Bully Maya), he doesn't really have many friends inside or outside school and has a Brutal Honesty streak in him. From Maya's father's reaction, nerdy looking people seems to actually be Maya's type since he's apparently been going after girls who look this way since he was a child.
- Uke: His Stereotypical Nerd characterization makes him an interesting case as his lack of social skills and brutal honesty makes him atypical for many ukes. That said, his nerdy naivete and subsequent insecurity in his relationship with the more dominant Maya are classic traits of the uke.
- Uncool Undies: Nemugasa, like the Stereotypical Nerd he is, almost always wears the classic white briefs. The uncoolness of the tighty-whities is subverted however, because Maya, who Has a Type for nerdy looking people in general, develops a bit of a fetish for Nemugasa in tighty-whities later in their relationship, which gets explored in a side chapter.
Maya Hideyuki
The other lead of the story, Maya is a popular, delinquent-type at the same school Nemugasa goes to who blackmails him into sleeping with him for seemingly unknown reasons.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Maya gets irrationally suspicious when Nemugasa so much as hangs out with another guy, regardless of whether or not that guy is into guys. He doesn't even like Okino being affectionate with Nemugasa and is suspicious of him, despite him being very obviously not the kind of guy who would put the moves on anyone.
- Delinquents: Maya has dyed hair, piercings, skips school, and doesn't do his work so frequently that he's in trouble of being held back. He underage drinks, goes to nightclubs, and is implied to have experience sleeping around. That said, the only person he bullies is Nemugasa and that's more out of an inability to express himself than out of mean-spiritedness and he eventually cleans up his act so he can go to college with Nemugasa.
- Emotionally Tongue-Tied: A lot of Maya's frustrations with Nemugasa would've been avoided had he just told Nemugasa that he likes him. In fact, his Loving Bully ways is all just a manifestation of his inability to say how he feels. For example, Nemugasa can't understand Maya's concern over Juuta because Juuta only steals 1) people Maya loves and 2) Maya's toys. Nemugasa rules out reason 2 as he knows Maya sees him as more than just a toy and even considers Maya a friend, despite everything. But because Maya can't admit his feelings, Nemugasa also rules out reason 1 as he can't fathom Maya genuinely loving him. Ergo, the logical Nemugasa figures Juuta isn't much of an issue.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Maya dyes his hair back to black (as opposed to light blonde/grey) after Nemugasa yells at him for making him late for his mock exam and not understanding why it's important to him. This indicates Maya beginning to rethink his treatment of Nemugasa up until now and take his future more seriously, especially as it concerns his relationship with Nemugasa since Maya keeps being mistaken as The Bully or a Toxic Friend Influence on Nemugasa due to his badboy fashion and style.
- Fetishized Abuser:
- Nemugasa and Maya hook up after Maya rapes Nemugasa at school as blackmail for not telling the teachers he caught Nemugasa cheating on an exam. He then continues to blackmail Nemugasa into repeated abuse and sexual assault. All of this is made to titillate the reader as Maya is the story's main source of Fanservice. While Nemugasa is at first initially terrified and put off by it, he grows to like Maya as without him, Nemugasa doesn't really have many friends. Nemugasa eventually confesses his love for Maya in the third volume and the two officially begin dating.
- Unlike most versions of this trope, the non-consensual start to their relationship is brought up in a later chapter when Nemugasa's friend Okino is almost assaulted and he says that he is thankful his first time wasn't rape. Maya balks and is filled with such shame for what he did that he begins avoiding Nemugasa. However, this is resolved in the next chapter with Nemugasa handwaving it all away as being in the past.
- Has a Type: Maya has a thing for people who look like nerds, which is why he was interested in Nemugasa, who he's had little to no contact with seemingly out of nowhere. This is only made clear when in a later chapter his relatively absent father comes to visit and finds Maya and Nemugasa in bed together. He laments that Maya's tastes haven't changed since he was a kid.
- It's All About Me: Maya becomes frustrated when Nemugasa, a Scholarship Student who wants to go to college, picks studying for the national mock college entrance exam over being with him, the man blackmailing him into sex. This gets to the point that Maya intentionally sleeps with Nemugasa so much the day before his exam that Nemugasa oversleeps and misses it, causing Nemugasa to rightfully call Maya out for ruining his opportunity.
- I "Uh" You, Too: Despite being the one initially doing the chasing in this relationship, Maya cannot bring himself to tell Nemugasa that he loves him, often cutting himself off or kissing Nemugasa to avoid saying it at all. Nemugasa notices this but accepts that as just part of Maya, at least at first. This is later deconstructed as Maya's inability to tell Nemugasa he loves him causes Nemugasa to grow more and more insecure in their relationship, thinking that he is in deeper than Maya is. This causes the two to break up for some time, though they do end up reconciling. When they do get back together, the first thing Nemugasa asks and Maya does without hesitation is for Maya to just tell him once "I love you".
- Loving Bully: The story presents Maya's long-term rape and blackmail of Nemugasa as his very imperfect way of communicating his feelings of love for Nemugasa, with Maya often being frustrated and upset with Nemugasa that he doesn't see it as such.
- Mr. Fanservice: Maya, who is frequently shown on volume and chapter covers styled in various costumes and who is often given full body spreads in the story to show off his build.
- Seme: Checks off all of the usual boxes (he's taller than Nemugasa, pursues him, is a bad boy with a possessive streak) while combining aspects of the Fetishized Abuser because of his blackmailing Nemugasa into having sex with him.
Akira
Maya's cousin and personal tutor for both him and Nemugasa. He's later their senpai when they attend the university he goes to.
- Aloof Big Brother: Akira tries to affect this disposition towards Juuta, treating him with cool, polite indifference because Juuta has an unhealthy and suffocating obsession with him.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Akira is very kind and gentle to Nemugasa when they first meet and when he learns that Maya is forcing Nemugasa to sleep with him as blackmail, he is sympathetic. However, it's just a facade; he tells the school that Nemugasa was cheating and even gets Nemugasa drunk at a club to be sexually assaulted by a woman with the hopes of splitting Maya and Nemugasa up, as he's worried that being in a gay relationship will ruin Maya's future. This aspect of his personality however is later removed as he sees the positive influence Nemugasa has had on Maya.
- Characterization Marches On: Akira's Bitch in Sheep's Clothing personality towards Nemugasa is completely removed in later chapters. Recall that he's the one who rats on Nemugasa for cheating, takes him to a bar under false pretenses, gets him drunk, and almost allows him to be raped by a woman, all as a ploy to separate him and Maya. In later chapters, however, he is very fond of and gentle to Nemugasa, to the point that Crazy Jealous Guy Naoya intervenes.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Akira is shown to be polite, but somewhat cool and distant to everyone except for Maya and Nemugasa. This is especially the case towards Naoya at first, who Akira can't even manage to maintain his typical small gentle smile for. This is because Akira closed himself up emotionally both in reaction to being rejected by the teacher he had a crush on and to prevent his obsessive brother Juuta from catching on to Akira's feelings about others and deciding to steal them from him as he often does. Because Naoya helps Akira resolve his issues with his former teacher, Akira slowly starts to open his heart up to him, and eventually the two start dating seriously.
- Private Tutor: Akira is brought in as Maya's private tutor when Maya is on the brink of being held back. After Maya starts bringing the studious Nemugasa to his tutoring sessions to cheer him up after abusing him, Akira becomes Nemugasa's tutor as well until the two graduate.
- Uke: With his past romantic trauma turning him into an Ice Queen paired with his refined elegance, Akira combines the princely type with the brooding and angsty type of uke. Naoya spends the bulk of their early relationship flustering Akira with his straightforward pursuit and sexual prowess.
Naoya
A student in the medical program at the university Nemugasa and Maya go to. He's friends with Akira and has a contentious past with Maya, who warns Nemugasa to stay away from.
- Big Brother Mentor: As a young teen, Maya viewed Naoya as a brother-like figure. Unfortunately, Naoya wasn't the most positive influence and introduced Maya to delinquent behavior of underaged drinking and getting his ear pierced.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Naoya's jealousy is far less overtly crazy as it is deeply possessive. He gets jealous when Akira talks to any other man, including Nemugasa, who sees Akira as nothing more than a mentor, and Maya, who is Akira's cousin.
- The Dreaded: Maya balks when he hears that Nemugasa had a run-in with Naoya when they first get to university. He tells Nemugasa to stay away from him and to not join the club Naoya and Akira are both in.
- Lascivious Beauty Mark: Naoya, who has a beauty mark under his left eye, is the sexually experienced pursuer of the handsome and aloof Akira. Akira once sought out Naoya for Sex for Solace after having his seemingly unrequited love rejected and Naoya's been interested ever since, casually flirting with Akira whenever possible only to be coldly rebuffed. When Akira finally caves and they start hooking up more regularly, Naoya is portrayed as having a possessive and insatiable desire for the comparatively much less experienced Akira, who is often overwhelmed by it.
- Seme: In his relationship with Akira, he was the aggressor and the more experienced one. He's taller than Akira and notably broader as well. His bad boy behavior is mostly only alluded to as part of Naoya's past, i.e. the reason Akira approached him for sex was because Naoya was known for casually sleeping around.
Okino
A cute, cheery guy who is in class with Nemugasa and seeks to befriend him, much to Maya's annoyance.
- Damsel in Distress: While he's not a girl, Okino is heavily coded with feminine traits. Due to his own naivete and desire for a pure love, he ends up alone with a man who tries to sexually assault him. Luckily, Kutani shows up to save him just in time.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: The main reason why Okino approaches Nemugasa is because he can sense Nemugasa is gay and Okino, who is also gay, desperately wants to make friends with someone who he can share his troubles with and do the same in return.
- The Ingenue: Although he's male, Okino fits every aspect of the trope. He is upbeat and sociable, seeking Nemugasa out to be his friend. He's also recognized in-universe as being as beautiful and cute as a girl, even winning a crossdressing competition at school. His pure desire to have a boyfriend and be loved makes him a victim of a sleazy guy at the school festival who tries to force himself on him while he's crossdressing, making him a Damsel in Distress that needed to be saved. And he's so pure that he has never masturbated on his own prior to dating Kutani.
- In Love with Love: He longs to be in a loving, romantic relationship with a princely like person, so much so that he considers Nemugasa and Maya an ideal couple because its obvious just how much they care about each other, even if their relationship has suffered its fair share of issues.
- Uke: He combines aspects of the cheerful and energetic type with the sweet and innocent type. He is short, cute in a way that he can easily pass for a girl if he dresses up, and In Touch with His Feminine Side.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Okino is infatuated with the idea of finding a pure love with a guy who he can hold hands with and be loved by. This makes him both innocent to the ways of dating and sex and naive when it comes to trusting people, making him an easy target to being taken advantage of.
Ruka
A slightly older gentleman that meets Maya at the university and offers him a job helping him set up networking and social events.
- Delicate and Sickly: Ruka has a frail body due to an undisclosed illness that forces him to go to the hospital periodically and is a beautiful gentleman.
- Hopeless Suitor: He tells Nemugasa that he's interested in Maya, though it isn't clear whether this is genuine romantic interest. Maya has not expressed any interest in any person besides Nemugasa, male or female so the likelihood Ruka could even win Maya's romantic affection is slim to none. Later on, Ruka comments that he's attracted to Maya's ability to do everything he cannot because of his frail body.
- Mentor Archetype: Ruka takes Maya under his wing (almost unwillingly on the part of Maya) to teach him how to network, meet people, and explore potential career options, given that Maya came to college without much of any idea of what he wanted for himself career-wise.
- Pretty Boy: Ruka is described in universe as being an exceptionally attractive man in a refined, delicate way, though not one that crosses over into Dude Looks Like a Lady territory.
- Vicariously Ambitious: Ruka tells Nemugasa much later that his interest in Maya is not so much romantic as it is out of envy for his ability to make things happen, given that Ruka himself is limited by his Delicate and Sickly body. He wanted to be with him to live vicariously through him.
Kutani
A friend of Ruka's that shows interest in Okino, though Okino rejects him for not being his type.
- Beautiful All Along: All it takes is Kutani removing his glasses and revealing his face for him to go from being unremarkable to so handsome it leaves Okino speechless.
- Hopeless with Tech: He sends Okino simple emojis as replies because he finds texting on smartphones hard to do. When Okino suggests he just use flick typing, he doesn't even know what Okino is talking about.
- Knight in Shining Armor: He rescues the In Touch with His Feminine Side Okino from a sexual assault and is respectful of Okino's boundaries, being content just being friends with Okino after Okino rejects his proposal to date.
- Lascivious Beauty Mark: Kutani has a small beauty mark under his left eye and is stunningly gorgeous behind his large Opaque Nerd Glasses. This is a hint at Kutani's Covert Pervert tendencies. While he is a perfect gentleman to Okino, his conversations with Okino make it clear that he has quite a bit of sexual experience and that if they were alone in a room together, he's not sure he could keep himself from making a move on him. He even wryly tells Okino to let him know if he feels like switching positions since he's fine giving and receiving. Shocked, Okino can only think "This man is so sexy!"
- Opaque Nerd Glasses: While he's not really characterized as a nerd, it's clear that Kutani's large, square, and opaque glasses are supposed to make him look uncool and frumpy. They're the main reason why Okino rejects him as not being his type.
- Seme: On paper, because he's older and taller than Okino he fits the basics of being a seme. However, he subverts many of the other expectations. Okino pursues him once he realizes how handsome and kind Kutani is and he's neither a bad boy nor an ice king. Him not completely fulfilling the role is likely because, as he informs Okino, he doesn't mind receiving either.
Juuta
Maya's cousin and Akira's younger brother, who is in the year below Nemugasa and Maya in high school. He shows some interest in Nemugasa and tries to get close to him when he realizes something is going on between him and Maya.
- Big Brother Attraction: Juuta's unhealthy obsessive fixation on Akira bleeds into this. When Juuta finds out that Akira is sleeping with someone, he forces a kiss on Akira and tells Akira he should just accept him (as a romantic partner) already.
- Characterization Marches On: Juuta is first shown being unhealthily obsessed with Maya with a bad habit of wanting and stealing everything Maya has. Once Maya and Nemugasa resolve their issues, Juuta is revealed to be Akira's younger sibling and he's now unhealthily fixated on taking everything Akira loves and has.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Juuta has a tendency to want the things that the people he loves love in an attempt to get rid of perceived competition. When he was fixated on Maya, he'd always steal Maya's toys and go after the people Maya was interested in, like Nemugasa. It's later shown he has also been doing the same with his brother, and might have finally crossed a line by sleeping with Sanada, the teacher that Akira had an unrequited crush on as a student and still has some lingering feelings for.
- Hyper-Awareness: Juuta is able to pick up on the slightest details in the behaviors of those he's obsessing over. This is not portrayed as a good thing/is shown to be very creepy and a part of Juuta's obsessive nature.
- After Nemugasa bluntly tells Juuta to back off because Maya doesn't want them to talk, it takes only a second for Juuta to know it's because they're sleeping together.
- When Akira is at home, smiling to himself thinking about Naoya, Juuta is instantly able to surmise that Akira's happy because he's found a new lover.
- Incest-ant Admirer: Juuta's unhealthy and implied incestuous fixation on Akira is not reciprocated in the slightest. In fact, Akira bottles up his emotions whenever he's around Juuta to avoid Juuta trying to destroy or steal away from him what he loves. When Juuta implies that he might go after Naoya, Akira snaps and tells him he'll move out if he tries, which snaps Juuta out of his obsessive state for a moment.
- Perpetual Smiler: Juuta is almost always seen with a good-natured smile on his face. When the smile drops, that means he's dropping the fake pleasant act and is fully in his obsessive mode.
