Characters / Marginal #4

Characters appearing in the Marginal #4 franchise.

Pythagoras Productions Talent

Marginal #4

Tropes applying to whole group:

• Age-Gap Romance: With Yue in all media except the anime. They are teens not yet out of high school, she is an adult in her twenties.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Atom is red, Rui is blue, R is yellow, L is green.
• Curtains Match the Window: Atom, Rui, and L play this straight, with only R averting it.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: L is Sanguine, Atom is Choleric, Rui is Melancholic, and R is Phlegmatic.
• One-Letter Name: L and R, which also falls under Theme Naming.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: At the start. Atom was dead set on becoming a soloist but had no care for teamwork, Rui plain didn't want to be with them, and L and R mostly stuck by each other. They were a disaster in the making, but they somehow worked it out and became one of Pythagoras Production's headliners.
• Spell My Name With An S: The Nomura twins' first names are either one letter each, or spelled out from their romaji as Eru and Aru. The official character profiles usually point to the former, but they'll still use the latter sometimes.

Individual members:

Atom Kirihara

Voiced by: Toshiki Masuda
Played by: Shun Nishime

The energetic, eccentric center of the quartet.

• Book Dumb: Atom suffers from this a lot. In his switch unit WONDER CORONA's short story, he's struggling hard with basic English when he gets time to study with Tsubasa.
• Character Development: By Big Bang Fes, he's matured quite a bit, being a good sempai to Tsubasa and mellowing out a little.
• The Face: Of all of the boys, Atom's usually the most upfront and social about the group's activities, considering he's constantly on Skitter. In addition, whether intentionally or not, he ends up trying to make his group known and advertising for Pythagoras. The anime adaptation handles a situation like that.
• Image Song: "Tamashi no Nonstop Lava" (anime) and "I".
• Trademark Favorite Food: Atom has Korean barbecue. He also has Juju Juice (called "Sun Juice") to a lesser extent, which strangely tastes like grilled meat.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Rui often butt heads whenever they had to face a serious situation. In the first short story arc, he had this dynamic with L instead.

Rui Aiba

Voiced by: Naozumi Takahashi
Played by: SHIN

A reserved boy who broke off from another idol group before being put into Marginal #4.

• Berserk Button: Don't mention Rui leaving his former unit.
• Big Brother Worship: More on the "Big Sister" side, but Rui deeply admires his older sister. It gets to the point where he keeps a stuffed toy with a recording of her in his room.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Before being pushed into the Marginal #4 project, he used to be in a unit with two other people. Jealousy led to the group breaking up, a lot of the fallout was blamed on Rui. His distant attitude in the beginning was a result of him resolving to Never Be Hurt Again.
• Defrosting Ice King: Initially aloof and reserved towards his new groupmates, he slowly starts coming around to them the more they interact.
• Image Song: "Mr. Starry Sky" (anime) and "Ptarmigan".
• The Smart Guy: Of all the boys, he's perfectly content studying and learning about harder subjects, and knows a lot about astronomy.
• The Spock: Not just of Magi4, but of Pythagoras in general. He looks towards the most sensible solutions and is very rarely emotional compared to his peers.

L Nomura

Voiced by: KENN
Played by: Youta Ohmi

The social butterfly of the Nomura twins. Flashy, forward, and loves his brother tremendously.

• Beneath the Mask: While his playful side is on full display, he's actually insecure about his feelings for the Manager and is very emotionally vulnerable.
• Iconic Item: Marimo.
• Image Song: "Ko•Ko•Ro•Hi•To•Tsu" (anime) and "P.S."
• Otaku: L is a very large fan of marimo, and knows many tidbits about them as well as keep one on hand all the time. He's sometimes nicknamed the "Marimo Prince" because of this obsession.
• Sibling Team: With R before being put into Magi4, and still hangs out with him outside of idol work.
• The Tease: Of the four, he's the one that flirts with Yue the most, and likes to get a rise out of her. In the anime, we also see he faux-flirts with R on occasion.
• Tsurime Eyes: His eyes are sharper than his brother's and the other boys, which also emphasizes his more flirty personality.
• Twincest: He makes some playful and suggestive comments about R sometimes.

R Nomura

Voiced by: Yūto Suzuki
Played by: Ryuu Kiyama

The shyer of the Nomura twins, and the unlikely leader of Magi4.

• Character Tics: R tends to refer to things in MMO terms, as he's a game junkie.
• Cute Little Fangs: Most art tends to draw him with a snaggletooth when his mouth is open.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: By far the sweetest of the quartet, and wears his emotions on his sleeve.
• The Heart: It's R's good will that helped Rui, L, and Atom stay on track for UniverseFES, which led to the Director and them accepting him as Marginal #4's group leader.
• Image Song: "Colorful" (anime) and "SECRET LUV".
• Otaku: Mostly of video games. Online gaming is his main hobby, but he does play plenty of other videogames in the meantime. Even his dog, Mayuge, doesn't escape his habits.
• Sibling Team: With R before being put into Magi4, and still hangs out with him outside of idol work.
• Shrinking Violet: He's not good in social situations, sometimes not finding the right words or getting flustered. He's only a little better out of the public eye.
• Supporting Leader: He's painfully shy and sometimes can't communicate his emotions well, but he's considered the emotional rock of the team and keeps them all together.
• Tareme Eyes: Fits with his overall gentle nature, and helps to contrast with his brother.

Lagrange Point

Tropes applying to the duo:

• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: ... not so conveniently. Looking at them, would you guess that their colors aren't purple and blue, but silver and gold?

Individual members:

Shy Makishima

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Toyonaga
Played by: YUKI

• Image Song: "Portrait".
• Princely Young Man: His whole motif is this. He's a downright gentleman whether it be with fans or his colleagues, and he intentionally plays up the fairy tale version of the trope when with his lover.

Kira Himuro

Voiced by: Genki Okawa
Played by: Yuki Sasaki

• Book Dumb: When he and Atom are called on to help Tsubasa with his homework, neither of them know the answers to the basic questions.
• Hidden Depths: You won't tell it by looking at him, but he has a huge interest in cooking. When shown in his quarters, he has books of recipes on his counter and insists on making meals himself.
• Image Song: "Afraid No.7".
• Raised by Grandparents: His parents died when he was young, and then he was sent to live with his grandfather.

Unicorn Jr.

Tropes applying to whole group:

• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: ... not so conveniently. Tsubasa's color is black, Alto's is grey, and Teruma's is pink. As awkward as this can be in print, when the series had their first real-life big concert in March 2018, the official character twitters took trouble to remind fans that for sign lights, Shy's silver should be white, Kira's gold should be bright yellow, R's yellow-orange should be darker orange, Tsubasa's black should be purple, and Alto's grey should be teal blue.
• Freudian Trio: Tsubasa is the Id, Teruma is Ego, and Alto is the Superego.

Individual members:

Tsubasa Shindou

Voiced by: Shouta Aoi
Played by: Neo Nishikawa

• Friendly Rivalry: Eventually falls into this with Atom.
• Image Song: "ange dêchu".

Alto Takimaru

Voiced by: Chiharu Sawashiro
Played by: Naoki Tanaka

• Image Song: "Pa!! PARADISO".

Teruma Nakama

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Someya
Played by: Tesshin Genma

• Dude Looks Like a Lady: To the point where the press easily mistook him for a woman with his back to them. Slipped into Mistaken for Romance with Atom, as tabloids presented him as a possible "girlfriend" Atom was secretly dating.
• Image Song: "Mr.MERMAID".

Golden Record

Daiki Tachikawa

Voiced by: Shogo Yano

Played by: Tatsuki Yuki

Ritsu Kazeno

Voiced by: Kakuto Kajiwara

Played by: You Yousuke

Nanase Asanami

Voiced by: Yuuya Hirose

Played by: Hikari Inayoshi

Pythagoras Staff

Yue Kataoka

Marginal #4's manager, and the viewpoint character of the entire franchise. She is also the player character of the visual novels.

• Age-Gap Romance: If she couples with any of the Magi4 boys, she will be in one, given that they're all teenagers in high school while she's in her twenties.
• Demoted to Extra: In KISS Kara Tsukuru Big Bang, where she only makes occasional appearances and otherwise communicates with the boys over phone.
• Dude Magnet: In all media besides the anime, she's at the center of romances between all of the Pythagoras Productions boys, including the idols under her wing. Even when love isn't the focus of the story, the boys are explicitly shown to crush on her.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Don't expect the cast to call her anything other than "Manager".
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: For IDOL OF SUPERNOVA and its sequel, Yue's name could be changed since she was the player character.
• Sixth Ranger: Treated as such by Magi4.
• Supporting Protagonist: Most of the plot is told from Yue's perspective, but it's Pythagoras' story that we're telling, not hers.
• Supreme Chef: Whenever she gets the chance to flex her cooking skills, all of the boys will gush about how good she is.
• Stock Shoujo Heroine: Older than the norm, but still apllies. Insecure, plain hair colors but still pretty, but her true strength lay in her earnest attitude, her ability to support her boys and her charismatic and sweet personality. She's also at least one head shorter than all of her potential love interests.

Chang

A manager in Pythagoras. Manages Lagrange Point.

• Foreshadowing: There's quite a bit for the reveal that he was a Starmate member:
  • In the visual novels, he mentions that he thinks Marginal will be able to show him a stage showing with stars again; Starmate was known for performances capped off with star showers.

Director