List of characters in We Never Learn.

open/close all folders

Main Characters

Nariyuki Yuiga

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yuiga.jpg

The protagonist of the series. A third-year high school student from an impoverished family, in order to receive a special scholarship that will cover his college tuition, he is tasked with tutoring three prodigy girls and help them get into their college of choice against their own academic strengths and weaknesses.

Accidental Pervert: He has found himself in a few compromising positions with the girls through no fault of his own. It even gets him into trouble when one incident comes to Kirisu's attention and so she calls him up to prove it would remain appropriate for him to remain the girls' tutor. In spite of the girls all individually coming over to explain and vouch for him while referring to different situations entirely and only making him seem worse when summed up, she is convinced of his earnestness as a tutor.
Big Brother Instinct: He's a loving and protective older brother. The entire plot was kickstarted by him needing the VIP nomination to support his family better and ease the economic burden of a large family.
Butt-Monkey: He often finds himself into all kinds of trouble such as getting beaten up by the girls after accidentally seeing them naked or getting drag along for an errand.
Cannot Spit It Out: There is a few hints through the series that Nariyuki has more-than-platonic feelings for Uruka at the start of the manga. Whenever challenged on the idea, he had a habit of handwaving these feelings as him just misunderstanding the situation. In Ending 1/5, this all culminates where after Uruka gives him a Love Confession, he has a vision of his late-father urging him to be honest about his feelings and realizes that he's carried a torch for Uruka since they were in Middle School.
Celibate Hero: When questioned about Asumi about whether he's interested in any of the girls he tutors, Nariyuki states that he's avoiding any dating until they all pass their entrance exams and he receives his VIP Recommendation Letter. But when she asks him which one he'd be interested in dating afterwards he changes the subject. One chapter has someone question about his type of woman which further implies the topic is completely out of consideration to him if only due to financial reasons.
Character Development: He mellows out across the series thanks to his interactions with the girls and the various antics he’s often thrusted upon.
Chick Magnet: Virtually every girl in the series is either heavily shipped with him or actively in love with him, and he is jokingly called a player by Asumi.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: One that he doesn't even realize, as beyond getting a good job to support his family he hadn't considered what he wanted to do. He decides he wants to become a teacher like his dad.
Determinator: Flashbacks to Nariyuki’s childhood reveals that he used to be a horrible student, but it was his father’s motivation that pushed him into becoming better. At the start of the story, he's not only one of the better students at his school, but he also balances that with being the caretaker at his household and helping Uruka and another one of his classmates with their notes. And then he gets assigned to tutoring Rizu, Fumino, and Uruka on top of that.
The Dutiful Son: Nariyuki’s drive to obtain the VIP Recommendation is in order to get into a good college tuition-free and get a job in order to support his family. His family, in turn, is considerably proud of him, but his mom expresses worries about the burden he's willingly putting on top of his shoulders by doing so. This is Played for Drama latter on as he considers giving up the VIP Recommendation to further help his family.
Diving Save: He pulls one of these in Chapter 67 to push Fumino out of the way of a falling backdrop after her class' Sleeping Beauty play goes awry.
Early-Installment Weirdness: The very first chapter portrays Nariyuki as something of a wannabe Insufferable Genius, hoping to flex his intelligence on his classmates and teachers only to get unwittingly knocked down a peg by Fumino and Rizu. His arrogance regarding his intelligence and jealousy towards to the two get phased out after the first chapter, though his initial jealousy is easily explained by those two's efficacy at their best subjects being able to provide significant competition to the VIP Recommendation he's after - and as he is tutoring them to get it after the first chapter, any fears he had of that are no longer relevant.
Expressive Mask: Whenever he is dressed in an animal mascot costume, the mask will change its expression to match what he is feeling at the time. This is likely for the convenience of the readers, as said mask otherwise completely conceals his head.
Genius Sweet Tooth: Chapter 137 reveals that he has a taste for chocolate and even states that it helps to stimulate his brain.
Green-Eyed Monster: Downplayed since he hasn’t expressed too much interest, but when Uruka vaguely tells him that there’s a guy she wants to confess to, Nariyuki, oblivious to the fact that she's referring to him, starts to feel jealous.
Hopeless with Tech: When he first gets a smart phone, he is pretty clueless on how to use it, and makes several hilarious mistakes such as accidentally sending Fumino a text message instead of searching for an app. Justified however, because his family is pretty poor, so a smart phone would've been a luxury they likely couldn't afford had his mom not of won it in a contest.
Horrible Housing: Downplayed - Nariyuki's family's house is entirely livable for them by all accounts, but his home's appearances are always easily noted by the large cracks and disheveled outside appearance.
Innocently Insensitive: In the opening chapter, Nariyuki questions Rizu and Fumino on why they don’t just give up and go the path and least resistance and go to a college that focuses on their respective strengths. It was upon remembering what his father taught him when he was young that he apologized for trying to convince them to give up.
In Touch with His Feminine Side: He's proficient in sewing, a task traditionally seen as feminine. Some of the girls even commented that he'd make a good wife if he was born a girl instead.
Jack of All Stats: Nariyuki is a pretty decent student, scoring above 80 percent in all of his subjects. However, he is far outshined by Ogata and Furuhashi when it comes to their respective specialties.
Lethal Chef: Nariyuki once cooked a birthday meal for Mizuki, and despite Mizuki saying it was delicious, her face told a different story.
Love Epiphany: Nariyuki has one regarding his feelings for Uruka after she gives him a Love Confession.
More Hypnotizable Than He Thinks: He was at first dismissive of hypnotism until he was successfully tranced by Rizu.
Mundane Luxury: Eating sushi is considered a luxury for Nariyuki due to his family’s financial situation. Being treated to free meals is also met with uproarious gratitude.
Neat Freak: Downplayed, but this is pretty much the reason he cleans Kirisu’s apartment so often, as it annoys him to see it so messy.
Nice Guy: One of the sweetest, selfless, and most caring people most of the cast have ever met. Needless to say, the reason most of the girls are in some way or form attracted to him rests on this aspect of him first and foremost. He’s just a great dude.
Oblivious to Love: Completely oblivious to Rizu and Uruka's crushes on him. He does guess (and overhear) that Uruka’s crush is him, but she denies it and it’s quickly swept under the rug. Inverted when Rizu had a makeover before she went over to him for a study session, causing him to not recognize her and somewhat understandably believe he's being hit on.
- It’s played with in regards to Sekijou. In one of their first interactions, she intentionally flirted with him to see if Rizu was really in love with him as she suspected, and he actually did recognize her actions as flirting even though she didn’t really have feelings for him. Later on, he’s very aware of how much Sekijou loves Rizu, and will try to push them closer together.
The Paragon: His earnest nature and belief that honest effort will always be rewarded encourages and gives validation to his friends, some of which are older peers, to never give up on their own aspirations.
Peer as Teacher: In order to get a scholarship to support his family, Nariyuki Yuiga has to become a Private Tutor to two of his peers in subjects that they are not only bad at, but want to have future careers in.
Poverty Food: Due his family struggling financially, Nariyuki is well known to eat only bread crusts for lunch. Chapter 137 reveals that his favorite kind of chocolate only costs 20 yen, ostensibly because he cannot afford anything more expensive.
Private Tutor: To the girls, but he generally helps anyone that asks as a Cool Teacher in training.
Progressively Prettier: In later chapters, his eyes are rounder, his face is less angular, and he stopped frowning for his "at rest" facial expression. Overall it makes him look more youthful than his initial look.
Promotion to Parent: He helps to take care of his younger siblings because of his father’s death.
Rage Breaking Point: After tolerating Kirusu’s sloppiness for so long, he finally lashes out at her for not having a recipe for her hamburger, pointing out that it is just the same as taking an exam without reading the textbook.
Red Baron: In the cram school, he is the “Shadow Emperor” due to being the tutor of the geniuses Rizu and Fumino.
The Reliable One: All the girls that meet him come to see him as an extremely dedicated and doting person who will always put their happiness well above his.
The Resenter: Initially towards Rizu and Fumino because they are naturally talented and get the top grades in Sciences and Liberal Arts respectively with minimal effort. He gets over this when he later learns about their struggles and their actual motivations for applying to college majors which have subjects that they are terrible at.
Screams Like a Little Girl: The onomatopoeia for his screams are "kyaa,” which are high pitch yells typically uttered by female characters in manga. Delivered to hilarious perfection by Ryōta Ōsaka in the anime.
Secret-Keeper: He is the only person who knows Kirisu’s perfect appearance is a fabrication, a truth even Kirisu’s own sister isn’t fully aware of.
Shipper on Deck: He knows about Sekijou’s love for Rizu and so tries to help Sekijou get closer to her, usually by trying to leave when he’s at risk of being the Third Wheel to them. Unfortunately, Sekijou herself has a similar train of thought and tries to do the same, leading to them butting heads over who’s the third wheel.
Super Drowning Skills: He is unable to swim, as evidenced when chasing Uruka around the pool and then falling in, requiring her to rescue him.
Working-Class Hero: Nariyuki is pretty much a younger version of this. While he's still always been in school and is of the age to still be in school rather than truly working a job, his patience and persistence - making him an excellent tutor, and frankly just an excellent person in general - is very clearly attributed to the advice of his decreased father and his dutifulness to helping care for his family's constant poor financial situation.

Fumino Furuhashi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fumino.jpg

Voiced by: Haruka Shiraishi

A third-year girl who is a genius in literature and the arts, but panics over the slightest math questions. The only daughter of college math professors, Fumino seeks to emulate her late mother, whom she lost ten years prior to the story, and dreams of becoming an astronomer.

A-Cup Angst: Exaggerated. She often gets depressed if anyone mentions/thinks about her bust size. Funnily enough, no one else particularly cares about that, and are quick to point out her great beauty, making this part of her Heroic Self-Deprecation.
Alliterative Name: Fumino Furuhashi
Beware the Nice Ones: She might be one of the sweetest characters in the series, but that doesn't mean she can't intimidate people while keeping a smile on her face.
Brutal Honesty: She has a habit of blurting out her thoughts, regardless of how embarrassing or scathing her observations are.
Character Development: She became more assertive as time went by, thanks in part to having to deal with the group's romance troubles. While initially bubbly and frank in her comments, she also grows more thoughtful and tends to internalize her observations more, especially when around the subject of Rizu and Uruka's crushes on Nariyuki.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Fumino would show shades of this throughout the series; getting jealous when Nariyuki paid compliments to Uruka's appearance, getting violently jealous when she mistakenly believes Nariyuki has been in a secret relationship with Asumi, and even third wheeling on his fake date with Miharu after Miharu lies about being in a relationship with him.
Comical Nap Drool: Whether she sleeps during class or on a bed, she will always have a drool as she sleeps.
The Confidant: Nariyuki and Uruka both confide in Fumino when they need advice on understanding how the other feels, unbeknownst to each other. For Nariyuki, their relationship sometimes paints him as a student, with Fumino advising him on how to deal with girls.
Death Glare: While she’s usually sweet and pleasant, she’s known to give off a frightening glare when sufficiently irritated.
Expy: Design-wise, she's a cross between Kosaki Onodera and Yui Kanakura, both from Nisekoi (especially the former). It helps that We Never Learn's mangaka also did the Magical Patissiere Kosaki-chan spin-off.
Fake Boobs: To offset her modest bust size, Fumino pads her bra, and even uses multiple sets as disguises.
Green-Eyed Monster: Played for laughs when she purposefully scares Rizu out of jealousy while the girls are all changing and admiring Rizu's chest.
Heavy Sleeper: Often seen sleeping in class, and would easily fall asleep when attempting to solve math.
Heroic Self-Deprecation:
- She belittles herself harshly when she fails, though it usually only tends to show up in comedic moments more. Then it's revealed that the source of her low self-esteem is her neglecting father, from whom she craves approval and love.
- As mentioned before, she tends to think about her boobs (or lack thereof) way more than anyone else cares, to the point that she has issues with her body image.
Innocently Insensitive: Fumino tends to say things that she intends to be comforting or kind, but instead come across as harsh, with Nariyuki being aware she is this and tries not to take offense, even if it hurts.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Whenever the notion of her having feelings for Nariyuki crosses her mind, she is quick to shoot it down by reminding herself that Rizu and Uruka love him and she wants to support their feelings. This sentiment is eventually repaid in kind during Fumino’s route, when the two of them individually admit to themselves that they always knew deep down that Fumino had the closest bond to Nariyuki.
The Kirk: Between the logical Rizu and emotional Uruka, Fumino strikes a balance between two, allowing her to have the most objective viewpoint and clearest understanding of the relationships amongst the group.
Lethal Chef: Can cook properly if she has proper instructions, otherwise she may be the most hopeless cook among the main cast. Humorously, she's unwilling to say how hopeless she is at cooking to Nariyuki after they met at a grocery store and has had to work to Maintain the Lie to him.
Love Epiphany: Despite all the Ship Tease she had with Nariyuki, she refuses to believe that she is in love with him in favor for Ogata and Uruka. There are several moments where the possibility is brought to her attention, but it’s not until Chapter 136 that she is forced to admit to herself that she is indeed in love with him.
Love Hurts: Fumino suffers a lot in her romance route as she has conflicting feelings regarding her friends and her own love for Nariyuki. With so many secrets to keep, Fumino is torn on whose happiness is more important as while she feels happy if she can spend time with him but doing so she feels as if she is betraying Rizu and Uruka.
Matchmaker Crush: It quickly becomes apparent that, despite Fumino’s efforts to support Rizu and Uruka’s respective crushes on Nariyuki, she is also starting to develop feelings for him. She herself is the one who has gotten closest to him, though this has happened due to circumstantial instances and not due to any conscious effort from her to pursue him, as she is the one who is trying the least.
Nice Girl: Fumino is the sweetest of the girls and tends to see beauty and poetry in everyday life and in her goals.
Obsessed with Food: While not the Big Eater Uruka is, Fumino loves to snack on food of all kinds and can get extremely excited at the prospect of eating, especially if it’s sweets.
Once per Episode:
- Fumino changes her hairstyle in almost every chapter.
- She also tends to drink stomach medicine whenever she gets angry.
Only Sane Woman: Out of the three main girls, Fumino is the most down to earth when compared to Rizu's lack of common sense and poor social skills and Uruka's airheadedness. She easily converse with her peers and savvy enough to know anything that is in trend, especially regarding social life. What's more, she is the only one who is well aware of Rizu and Uruka's feelings for Nariyuki while the other two do not even know that they are love rivals.
Paper-Thin Disguise: She spies on a date between Nariyuki and Uruka, with her disguise simply being glasses, a hat, brushing her bangs down and padding her bra with six pads. When noticed, the two fail to identify Fumino due to her padded bra.
Platonic Declaration of Love: She gives one to Rizu after she told her and Nariyuki that she hated herself. Fumino in turn tells Rizu that beyond her self-hate, she’ll always love Rizu for steering her in her chosen path when she was doubting herself the most years back.
Playing Cyrano: To both Nariyuki and Uruka with each other, though the awkwardness they were trying to smooth over doesn’t resolve until she accidentally sends the wrong message to Nariyuki.
Poor Communication Kills: Turns out, her mother never solved the Millennium Problems, and was just as bad with math as her daughter at her age, but she progressed enough henceforth to be called a genius mathematician, thus invalidating her husband’s denial of the girl’s goals as unrealistic and a waste of time.
Prone to Tears: In part due to her self-esteem problems, she’s the most sensitive member of her friends. She generally comes across as unassuming and can get down on herself if she fails.
Red Baron: Known as the “Sleeping Beauty of the Literary Forest” by others.
The Runaway: In chapter 85, she declares to her father that she is running away from home. During her running away she stayed at Nariyuki’s home. She eventually returned home after reconciling with her father.
Running Gag:
- Fumino tends to get indigestion aches whenever she is stressed out, which happens a lot when fretting over her friends and their awkward relationships.
- Most of her outings with Uruka and Rizu draw comparisons with them due to her A-Cup Angst and their voluptuousness.
Sacred First Kiss: In Chapters 67 and 68, in order to go along with the Sleeping Beauty play, she gives her First Kiss to Nariyuki in a mascot costume, all the whilst thinking it was Asumi in said costume. Once Asumi revealed that it wasn't her in the costume, the resulting question of who Fumino actually kissed causes her no end of angst.
Secret Secret-Keeper: Fumino has the best understanding of the interrelationships between Nariyuki, Rizu, and Uruka, and can deduce their feelings without even being told by them, but binds herself to never reveal each party’s feelings. That said, she is also willing to cheer on and subtly influence the progression of their relationships without ever fully revealing her secret knowledge. She loses some of this as of Chapter 144, once Uruka and Rizu learn that Fumino was aware of their feelings and loves Nariyuki herself.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: She sometimes uses overtly verbose language when she’s nervous.
Shameful Shrinking: Does this while apologizing profusely when one of her weaknesses is laid bare for Nariyuki to see, such as her incompetence in maths or cooking.
Shipper on Deck: Coming to the conclusion that Rizu and Uruka are in love with Nariyuki, she struggles with trying to cheer both of them on, and attempts to get him to notice and consider their feelings, with mixed results. This naturally becomes a bit harder when her own feelings for him start to grow.
Sleepy Head: Fumino constantly dozes off, and it is even referenced in her Red Baron title. Her drowsiness is particularly bad when looking at equations and can immediately knock her out.
So Proud of You:
- She is so touched by Nariyuki’s efforts and personal investment into encouraging her to mend her relationship with her dad that she falls in love with him.
- When Uruka and Rizu walk in on Fumino about to kiss a sleeping Nariyuki, she is initially mortified, but is soon relieved to see that they have grown emotionally enough to take their own feelings for him in stride and not hold any grudge against her for her Matchmaker Crush and being a Secret Secret-Keeper.
Talking in Your Sleep: Fumino manages to recite the story Rashōmon word for word while sleeping, scaring Sawako in the process.
Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Fumino has a very romantic and poetic way to view her everyday life, though she’s more enlightened and profound than other teenage girls.
Unmanly Secret: Gender-Inverted, where she is extremely embarrassed by her Lethal Chef failures and goes to extreme lengths to hide it from Nariyuki.
Weight Woe: Unlike Rizu (whose weight goes to her breasts) and Uruka (who is an active athlete) she has to watch her weight, particularly in an early chapter where she crash diets after gaining weight, which as it turns out was because she ate a ton of snacks during late night study sessions because she believed that it would balance out because her brain needed the sugar, and didn’t factor it into her diet. Learning this marks one of the few times that Nariyuki gets legitimately mad at her.
"Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: Her endeavor to excel in mathematics so she would succeed in qualifying for the astronomy course isn’t just primarily motivated by the mere interest in the subject. It’s a way for her to finally get her father’s attention after ten years of neglect on his end due to Fumino not being a math genius like either of her parents were. Eventually, it’s revealed that her mother approved of whatever path her daughter chose for herself and that she was not a math genius.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Discussed with Nariyuki that Fumino’s general looks and temperament fit the ideal, demure Japanese woman mold. Unfortunately, the comparison is also zigzagged in that Fumino can be extremely rude without ever trying, and is a Lethal Chef. She also gets flustered much more easily than most straight examples of this trope.

Rizu Ogata

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rizu.jpg

Voiced by: Miyu Tomita

Another third-year who is a prodigy in mathematics and science, but near-completely hopeless in literature and the arts, which are the fields she prefers. The daughter of an udon restauranteur, Rizu seeks to pursue a degree in psychology to better understand people and herself, far from the methodical nature of the STEM fields.

Academic Alpha Bitch: Downplayed, Rizu initially acts rather prideful about needing to be tutored and is dismissive at both Nariyuki and Sawako's declaring themselves as her rival. Despite that, she doesn't actually lord her grades above anyone else or acts maliciously.
Angry Cheek Puff: It's a Character Tic of Rizu to inflate her cheeks when she gets irritated, often accompanied by Blank White Eyes.
Blind Without 'Em: When she sees Fumino alone with Nariyuki, she seems to squint in disgust at them. However, it turned out to be a misunderstanding when she reveals she really was squinting to see them, and was angry at her father for accidentally sitting on her glasses and breaking them. She was able to see just fine though after switching to contacts the time she got a makeover.
Buxom Beauty Standard: She has the largest breasts of the main girls, which are further emphasized by her tiny stature. They often cause A-Cup Angst on Fumino and are the source of multiple Boob-Based Gag.
Can't Hold Her Liquor: During a visit to a university, Rizu managed to get drunk just by being near a BBQ where people are drinking.
Character Development: Becomes much more emotional and expressive thanks to her interactions with the rest of the group.
- At the beginning, she is hopeless with literature and understanding artistic meaning, and struggles with things like subtext. By Chapter 124, she’s intentionally and expertly crafting innuendo-laced wordplay to flirt with Nariyuki. She’s also more emotionally aware of her feelings for him, to the point of becoming the one with the least insecurity about loving Nariyuki among the three girls.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Starts to show signs of this after Sawako tests her by asking Nariyuki romance questions. She appears to be unfazed by it, but he later sees she was just repeating a bunch of lines.
- Subverted in Chapter 20. Fumino stumbles into Nariyuki and is held by him in a way that looks like a romantic hug right in front of Rizu, and Rizu squinting at this while clinging onto his arm is thought to be a display of possessiveness. In actuality, her usual glasses broke and she was using a weaker pair, hence the need to squint and hold onto something. She didn’t even see the hug happen, and wasn’t mad until Fumino’s attempt to make up for it led to pushing Nariyuki into Marshmallow Hell.
- In Chapter 103, Rizu admits to herself that holding Nariyuki’s hand when slept over at her house (due to him and Sawako being in a Chained Heat situation) was motivated by jealousy.
Comically Missing the Point: After she and Nariyuki are punished for going outside during the school trip to the mountains, they are made to clean up the hot spring as punishment… and after Nariyuki gives her the 'Cleaning In Progress' sign to hang up, she does so around her neck… which narrowly gets Nariyuki branded a pervert when she panics and isn’t able to explain to the girls they were cleaning. Fortunately for Nariyuki, Sekijou figures out what is up and gets him out of there without too much incident.
Daddy's Girl: She's her dad's pride and joy, though he can get so overbearing that Rizu has to regularly enforce distance that he has to keep from her, which is a Running Gag in the story.
Family Business: Her father runs a noodle house, so she waits there from time to time.
Food as Bribe: Given that her family owns an udon restaurant, and that Nariyuki is poor, she is not above leveraging this trope towards him when she needs a favor from him.
Height Angst: Rizu is only 143 cm (4'8") tall, and is not happy about it. A height chart of the Jump characters showed that she's shorter than a 12-year-old girl.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Rizu reveals to Nariyuki and Fumino that she hates herself, but later Fumino tells her that regardless of how she sees herself, she has loved Rizu from they moment they met, and will always love her for steering her into the right path.
Nice Girl: She’s the most innocent girl of the study group, and she is also completely selfless, if somewhat stubborn. The instances where she appears rude are due to ignorance and her asocial behavior, rather than from malice.
No Social Skills: Ogata doesn’t speak much to others since childhood and thus doesn’t understand what others are feelings sometimes. Most of her misunderstandings with Nariyuki are a result of her failure to communicate properly, such as when she received a makeover, she doesn't realize that Nariyuki doesn't recognize her at all as she never told him about it.
Oblivious to Love: Regardless whether Sawako sees her in platonic or romantic way, Rizu is completely oblivious that Sawako is obsessed with her, not even realizing that a trip with her to buy a pencil case was built up like a date.
One Head Shorter: Compared to the other female protagonists, and emphasized in numerous compositions where the other two are framed from the shoulders up but only the top of Ogata’s head is visible.
One-Note Cook: Chapter 137 reveals that she only knows how to cook udon and predictably, fails at cooking other dishes when she tries to apply the method to cook udon to them.
Perpetual Expression: Almost always eyes wide open without a smile, as if she was constantly curious and analyzing things. She does get more expressive as the story goes on, though.
Platonic Kissing: Invoked and played with. She’s taken a knack for suggesting to Nariyuki to kiss her for practice, though she’s very methodical when asking, which she always does surreptitiously. She makes it seem unemotional because she doesn't realize that she likes it.
Primal Fear: Fear of darkness and height to name a few.
Red Baron: Known as the “Thumbelina Supercomputer” by others.
Running Gag: Ogata giving people or eating udon, common sense be damned. Chapter 106 sees her giving it to Fumino while the girls are standing outside his living room, listening in on him talking to his mother and Mayufu while believing he's being lectured on having an illicit sexual relationship that might get him expelled...and each one of them is worried this might be their own fault!
She Cleans Up Nicely: Though she's already very attractive to begin with, after receiving a makeover from an overenthusiastic hairstylist, Nariyuki is taken aback by her drop-dead gorgeous looks (even though he doesn’t recognize that it’s Rizu he’s speaking to).
The Spock: Rizu’s the type of person to think things out clinically, and doesn’t understand more liberal modes of thought because there’s no exact answers to them. Her way of thinking isolated her peers from her growing up.
Super Drowning Skills: Shown to be a very poor swimmer after being provoked.
Unstoppable Mailman: She has so much dedication and selflessness towards her duties that she once made food deliveries during a typhoon.
What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Even as her attraction to Nariyuki becomes apparent, due to her logical nature, Rizu has no understanding of the concept of love and has great difficulty expressing her feelings. She grows past this as the story goes on.
Why Are You Not My Son?: Fumino’s math professor of a father seems to prefer Rizu over his only daughter as Rizu is a genius in mathematics while Fumino is not.

Uruka Takemoto

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/uruka.jpg

Voiced by: Sayumi Suzushiro

Nariyuki’s middle-school friend and one of Ichinose Academy’s top athletes, Uruka is also one of its best swimmers, but is academically mediocre. Despite this, she strives to earn a sports scholarship for college.

Because You Were Nice to Me: She loves Nariyuki because he denies her nothing in spite of her obnoxious requests, and because he manifested to her that her dedication to her sport is one of the reasons he was inspired to strive to be a better student.
Big Eater: Able to eat 3 different donburi in one sitting. In fact, on one occasion, Uruka doesn’t finish her food, prompting Fumino to deduce that something was wrong with her. It's implied that Uruka has to pack on calories because she's a competitive-level athlete.
Book Dumb: Of the three female protagonists, she has the most academic difficulties due to her greater focus on sports.
Buffy Speak: One of the reason Uruka is horrible at teaching anything to anyone is because she instructs the person she is teaching to follow her while making sound effects.
Buxom Beauty Standard: Her large breasts often cause A-Cup Angst on Fumino, to the point Fumino can't even stand the idea of buying underwear alongside her.
Cannot Spit It Out: Uruka has had feelings for Nariyuki since middle school, but she’s backed out of every opportunity to confess to him. At one point he asked her if he was the guy she liked, but she laughs and brushes it off. Partly because it caught her off guard, but also because she’s terrified that he might reject her and their friendship would end, so would rather just keep her feelings bottled up.
Career Versus Man: Uruka’s two passions in life are swimming and Nariyuki, and they sometimes come into conflict. She chooses swimming, deciding not to confess to Nariyuki so that she can freely go to Australia to train. However after a while she starts having second thoughts and although she still wants to study abroad, she doesn’t want to go without him.
Childhood Friend Romance: Uruka has known Nariyuki since middle school. He’s been helping her with class notes even prior to tutoring her. She’s also shown to have a crush on him from rather early on. Backstory downplays this; while she did know Nariyuki in middle school, they only hung out a few times during Nariyuki's mourning period and didn't reconnect until later.
Characterization Marches On: In her early appearances, Uruka had a Downplayed case of Clingy Jealous Girl, looking to ditch tutoring sessions when she could but changing her tune the second it seemed like either Fumino or Rizu would get alone time Nariyuki. As she grew closer with the other girls and became more dedicated to her own academics, this aspect of her character vanished.
Don't Think, Feel: Because of her lack of intelligence when compared to the other two girls, Uruka sucks at teaching people. Her instructions are simply boil down to "Step 1: boom and Step 2: vroom". She never actually bothered with the basics and simply tells others to watch how she does it at top speed since these skills are natural to her.
Dumb Jock: Her athletic skills are exemplary, but the same cannot be said for her skills in academia. However, it's not that she's not intelligent, but she has trouble learning through conventional methods.
Engrish: The subject of English is repeatedly a sore spot for her so naturally, when she's shown actually trying to speak it, she says it like this.
Exact Eavesdropping: While in middle school, when going to return Nariyuki's notebook, she overhears a classmate teasing him about lending her his notebook because he likes her. Nariyuki instead replies that he lets her copy his homework because he knows she sacrifices a lot for swimming, including studying and having fun. This is an early catalyst for her developing feelings for him.
First Girl Wins: Chronologically, she's the first girl in the harem Nariyuki interacts with. While the Anime Adaptation has an open ending, it hints that Nariyuki ultimately ends up developing feelings for Uruka. The manga is a more complex example as there are five endings, with Uruka qualifying in the first potential outcome.
First-Name Basis: She tried her best to call Nariyuki by his first name after developing a crush on him, to create a more intimate mood with him. Alas, she never really got further than that since she's too scared of confessing.
Genki Girl: Easily the most hyperactive girl in the series.
Going Commando: Accidentally forgets to wear a bra during sports day, which of course ends up with her crashing into Nariyuki with his face pressed against her boobs. She hopes that his denseness would work in her favor for once and he wouldn't notice, but alas he did.
Handy Feet: She is skilled with her feet that she can do pressure points with them.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: She doesn't think of herself as attractive or girly enough to pursue Nariyuki, and is always full of doubts whenever her clubmates prompt her to actually use her attributes to approach him.
Hope Bringer: It's revealed in a flashback that Uruka was the one who helped snap both Nariyuki and Mizuki out of their depression of their dad's death. She ended up inspiring both to get better at their academics and take up an interest in swimming respectively.
Imagine Spot: Often has one whenever she was praised by Nariyuki.
In Spite of a Nail: Whether she and Nariyuki get together or not, it seems that in every timeline she continues to pursue swimming and makes a successful debut as an athlete.
Leg Focus: Her long legs are accentuated by not wearing socks with her shoes.
Master of the Mixed Message: Of all the girls around Nariyuki, it’s Uruka the one who mostly avoids the topic of a prospective relationship with him. This is so prevalent that she eventually starts romantically lagging behind the other girls.
The McCoy: Her desires, actions and struggles are all largely based around her personal feelings. She has great difficulty expressing her love for Nariyuki due to her many conflicting emotions of enjoying their current relationship, considering what's best for Nariyuki, and her own fear of being rejected.
Ms. Fanservice: Uruka tends to be the subject of the most Male Gaze out of the lead female trio, thanks to her daily swimming giving her a very fine figure.
The Nicknamer: She calls everyone by a nickname, stranger or not, usually by adding "-chi" to all or part of their name. The only exception is Nariyuki.
Obliviously Beautiful: Uruka is largely unaware of how pretty and attractive she actually is, as her unbending focus on swimming leaves little else in her everyday life to look elsewhere.
Passionate Sports Girl: Talented in many sports, especially swimming.
Poirot Speak: Uruka is legitimately not very good at English so one chapter that has her demonstrating her ability with it unsurprisingly has her forget some of the correct English words for her sentence and instead says Japanese.
Red Baron: Known as the “Shimmering Ebony Mermaid Princess” by others, due to her tanned skin and white swimsuit.
Second Episode Introduction: While she makes a cameo appearance at the end of the anime’s first episode, she is formally introduced in the second episode.
Single-Target Sexuality: In spite of being one of the school's idols, Uruka has eyes for Nariyuki alone...mostly, as mentioned below.
Stupid Sexy Flanders: She mentions, on several occasions that Fumino would be her ideal girlfriend if she was actually interested in girls. She also finds Kirisu-sensei attractive after seeing her in the shower.
Supreme Chef: Much to Nariyuki’s surprise, Uruka is also a talented cook.
Tan Lines: Has a visible swimsuit tan line and her Red Baron title even mentions it.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Athletic, short-haired and very outgoing, Uruka used to wish to be a princess until she gave up wearing and doing “girlie” things because she was told it “doesn’t suit” her. She actually doesn’t mind stereotypical “housewife” activities like cooking and cleaning, and when it comes to love, she is just as shy as most other girls towards her love interest (Nariyuki).
Unknown Rival: Aside her and Ogata not knowing that they are love rivals to each other, Uruka also didn't know that Mizuki didn't like her when they first met.
Yaoi Fan Girl: In chapter 72, when Nariyuki shows up to school with what looks like hickies on his neck, Uruka desperately tries to track down which girl could potentially be the culprit. Near the end of the chapter she comes to the conclusion that it might have been his best friend, Kobayashi, and she is perfectly okay with that result.

Mafuyu Kirisu

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mafuyu.jpg

Voiced by: Lynn

A teacher at Ichinose and unsuccessful former tutor to Rizu and Fumino. Stone-faced and implacable, Kirisu distrusts the girls’ capabilities to pursue their subjects of choice, that is, until she and Nariyuki get to know each other better, even as the latter discovers a sorrowful heart beneath her icy demeanor.

Adaptational Early Appearance: Appears in The Teaser of the anime's first episode which takes several months before the chapters it was adapting not to mention her debut chapter.
Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Subverted. Though they are very susceptible to end up in rather saucy situations, Mafuyu always makes sure to tell Nariyuki that he should not read too much into the situation and not to get too overconfident with her because she’s his senior and his teacher. Still, she’s later shown to be flattered at the very possibility because she’s never had interactions like theirs with other men, and she knows Nariyuki to be a true gentleman who would never do such things intentionally.
Broken Bird: A talented figure skater when she was young and despite her success at the sport, she felt unfulfilled due to the constant stress her parents put on her and her lack of a life outside of figure skating. She decided to become a teacher that fulfilled her students’ dreams, hoping to start anew but that also destroyed her relationship with her parents. Her attempt to motivate a student as an assistant teacher went horribly wrong completely demoralizing the student which also made her feel like a failure as well as feeling like she can never return to figure skating.
Buxom Beauty Standard: She has a buxom figure, and is a Running Gag and part of her Reluctant Fanservice Girl that she often ends up accidentally giving Nariyuki Marshmallow Hell or exposing her breasts to him, usually leaving him Distracted by the Sexy.
Can't Hold Her Liquor: Gets drunk off of a single sip of alcohol.
Characterization Marches On: Early chapters had Mafuyu serving as the closest thing to an actual antagonist in the series, being the one to want to end Nariyuki's tutelage of Fumino and Ogata. As she Took a Level in Kindness, she became just as quirky as everyone else in the series with a lot of her sternness now being Played for Laughs.
The Confidant: Reluctantly, Nariyuki is one for her. The boy’s basically her Best Friend and he is privvy to her most personal secrets. Her friendship with Nariyuki is even closer than her relationship with her own sister, even when both her and Nariyuki make a conscious effort to keep a teacher-student relationship and maintain their distance. It's also implied that if it weren't for Nariyuki's influence and admonishments, her own lazybones attitude at home may have had began to seep into her professional life.
Cruel to Be Kind: Chapter 101 explains her actions towards Rizu and Fumino as this. As an assistant teacher, she encouraged a student to apply for music academy but she was totally outclassed and miserable for even trying. As a result, her strict attitude towards Rizu and Fumino is to not repeat this mistake.
Cute Clumsy Girl: Contrast to her cold exterior, she's incredibly careless and clumsy half the time. It gets to the point where she can't use a can opener without someone helping her. When she worked as a maid for a day in Asumi's maid café, she was just as clumsy but attracted the notice of the customers because being clumsy is cute in its own way.
Death Glare: Always gives one when Nariyuki makes any sort of suggestion that they might be perceived as lovers in the various situations they find themselves in.
Defrosting Ice Queen: While she starts out as cold and somewhat hostile towards Nariyuki, she starts to warm up a little after personally interacting with him.
Drives Like Crazy: After taking a short ride with her at the wheel, Nariyuki decided that once was enough. In the Anime, he's unfortunate enough to get two more rides with her, each one just as insane as the first.
Dude Magnet: Chapter 34 shows that the other male faculty members find her attractive. Nariyuki also reacts rather strongly when he sees her wearing the Maid Café uniform.
Dysfunctional Family: Invoked. It's implied that Kirisu has been estranged from her parents for most of her adult life, as she abandoned her athletic prospects in order to pursue a career in education against her family's wishes. This is confirmed by 100-104
First Girl After All: Though they didn't remember it, a flashback reveals that Mafuyu and Nariyuki first met when the latter was only 11 years old.
Genius Slob: In contrast with her professional appearance when at school, Kirisu's apartment is in complete disarray. She also has a habit of dressing like a slob when she's off the clock. This actually hints at her depression, feeling she can't be a teacher that fulfills student's dreams as she wanted but unable to return to figure skating either.
Heroic BSoD: Happens twice in her life. The first time was when she failed Hino-san (a student who wanted to apply for a music academy and eventually found out that she was completely outclassed). The second time was when she got a chance to go back to figure skating while she was still a teacher.
Hidden Depths: Kirisu is considerably girlier and more immature than what both her outward appearance and demeanor suggest.
Hidden Heart of Gold: Kirisu gets several instances where beneath her stern exterior, she actually cares about her students.
- Despite being critical of Rizu and Fumino's career path, she deeply cares about their well-being.
- When Rizu went missing during the school trip, Kirisu spent the entire night search for her in the wilderness.
- She had a freak out when she thought Nariyuki was being lured into a Maid Café.
Hot Teacher: Kirisu has a nice and curvy figure, being an item for her fellow faculty members. She's also wearing a suit with a tight skirt.
I Just Want to Be Free: Due to her figure skating career, Mafuyu never got to live the life of a normal high school girl. She came to admire a teacher of hers, who was always there for his students, which inspired her to give up on her sports career (against the wishes of her family) and start anew as a teacher. The teacher was implied and later confirmed to be Nariyuki's late father.
Jailbait Wait: Invoked. In Chapter 111, when a frightened Nariyuki suddenly embraces her, she tells him that he should wait at least to have graduated to do that sort of thing, and later, when she imagines herself in a tub where two people fit, she imagines herself sharing the tub with Nariyuki.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Acts aloof towards her students, but deeply cares for every single one of them.
Legacy Character: She became a teacher due to the influence of Nariyuki's dad, and Nariyuki himself may become a teacher in the future due to her influence.
Mentor Archetype: In spite of her messy private life, Nariyuki considers her nothing short of excellent as a teacher, and finds studying under her tutelage to be his ideal educational environment.
Mistaken for Romance: Her younger sister Miharu mistakenly believes that Kirisu and Nariyuki must have an illicit relationship due to the familiar way the two of them act around one another in her apartment.
Ms. Fanservice: Even more so than Uruka. She gets a lot of shower scenes and ends up in plenty of situations that put her in different sexy outfits.
My Greatest Failure: The reason why she acted like an Ice Queen at the beginning of the manga, and only pushed for a student's talents is because during her time as an assistant teacher, she encouraged a student who wanted to apply for a music academy and eventually found out that she was completely outclassed. Said student became depressed and Mafuyu's attempts to cheer her up only made her angry and more miserable.
Nice Girl: While intimidating and misunderstood, Mafuyu is a tremendously sweet person.
No Social Skills: Her extreme pride prevents her from partaking in the most basic social interactions. She is incapable of praising or showing affection towards others even if she cares for them, and actively avoids social settings whenever possible. She's also clumsy and a slob at home, and tries to stop her baby cousin from crying by asking the same questions she asked her students.
Not So Above It All:
- Aside from the entries listed under Not So Stoic, when Nariyuki tells her that "he can't hold it in any longer," she's taken aback and calls him "filthy"... only to realize he was asking to help clean her very messy house.
- In regards to her Ship Tease with Nariyuki, Kirisu initially shot down the possibility of even humoring the idea, but after the miscommunication with his mom which led to her actually being supportive of the idea as long as they wait until after he graduates, she's been a lot more vulnerable to the possibility.
Not So Stoic:
- She tells Nariyuki quite coldly that it's ten Years Too Early for him to be saying things like whether it was okay for her to let a guy into her house like she did...only for her to drop out of sight the moment he's gone and think about how nervous she was about letting a guy into her house for the first time.
- Earlier on in the same chapter, she had a noticeable Luminescent Blush when he accidentally grabbed her bra that was laying on the floor.
- It's shown that even though she makes sure to clear up any misunderstandings between herself and Nariyuki concerning the embarrassing situations they go through together, that doesn't mean that she's not flattered at the possibility or not susceptible to his kindness. She's certainly not made of stone.
Odd Friendship: Downplayed, but the interactions she has with Uruka, while fewer, are noticeably warmer and less tense than the intimidation that seeps into her earlier conversations with Fumino, Rizu, and Nariyuki. This makes a fair bit of sense since Uruka is basically a more-fulfilled version of what Kirisu encourages and how she was when she was younger (practicing a sport she's talented at, but happily and with plenty of friends).
Old Maid: Played with. She's at the very least 5+ years older than the main cast, meaning that she’s in her mid-20s. In spite of being an object of desire for her colleagues at school, Mafuyu pays little to no attention to them, nor she is in a necessity to get married or have male companionship… just as long as Nariyuki doesn’t come into the fold.
One Degree of Separation: Nariyuki's father was her teacher in high school and even gave her advice about becoming a teacher herself.
Perpetual Frowner: Kirisu almost always has a scowl on her face, even when scared, which gives her a Comically Serious vibe at times.
Sensei-chan: As a Stern Teacher, she averts this normally despite her age (mid-late 20s), but when she first became a teacher, she tried to be this and a Cool Teacher which led to her breakdown for harming a student's future.
Sentimental Drunk: She not only compliments Nariyuki and other people on their achievements while drunk, she also congratulates them for simple things like standing and breathing.
Shipping Torpedo: Mafuyu is staunchly against Nariyuki engaging in an intimate relationship with either Fumino, Rizu, or Uruka, not because of personal reasons or being against it, but because Nariyuki is tasked with being their tutor and has responsibility over them and their educational future. As such, she puts herself to the task of holding him to the standards he imposed himself by accepting the tutoring, both for his sake and for the girls under his wing.
Skewed Priorities: Downplayed. Although dissuading observers from thinking that her accidentally salacious incidents with Nariyuki are a Teacher/Student Romance is a legitimate concern, she sometimes focuses on clearing that part up over a more important detail, like when her baby cousin starts calling them Mama and Papa and she neglects to keep her towel on while yelling that they’re just teacher and student.
Slave to PR: As Nariyuki sees a lot, Mafuyu is concerned with maintaining her front as a stern, capable, stoic and mature woman. Downplayed considering she's not really willing change herself to help befit her image, remaining a really giant mess in her personal life that Nariyuki has to help keep her facade going whenever it inevitably gets threatened.
So Proud of You: While intoxicated, Kirisu admits that she’s actually proud of all of Nariyuki’s efforts to teach the main trio.
Stern Teacher: Asumi notes that Kirisu has always been the type of teacher to never give out praise. Funnily enough, whenever she gets drunk, she becomes oddly over-generous with praise (such as earnestly praising you for remembering to breath).
Teacher/Student Romance: Played with. She gets plenty of Ship Tease with Nariyuki, but makes it clear that she will never look at him romantically while he's still her student. She is very fond of him, though, and would not be short in showering him with praises if she weren't reserved in the first place. At one point, she confiscates a student's romance manga which turns out to have this theme. When Nariyuki comes over to clean up and study, she gets a bit flustered whenever events start to mirror those in the manga, but they quickly veer away more innocent territory. As the story goes on, her guards towards him gradually begin falling, and she ends up being one of the girls to get an ending with Nariyuki, albeit after waiting until he's grown up and gotten established in his career.
Verbal Tic: Her stern, no-nonsense character is expressed by her often introducing her lines with a single, lapidary word.
Villainy-Free Villain: Mafuyu started off as an antagonist in the series, seeing Nariyuki's tutelage of Fumino and Ogata to be a waste of time. She was critical to the point of wanting to bring it to an end. Despite this she never interfered or sabotaged their efforts and was shown to have a Hidden Heart of Gold and thus over time came to support him.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She is so terrified of cockroaches that the mere sight of them leaves her leaping in fear.
You Keep Telling Yourself That: In spite of what she cares to admit, the prospect of a romantic relationship with Nariyuki is not that remote in her mind, and later chapters imply that she's biding her time.

Asumi Kominami

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/asumi_7.jpg

Voiced by: Madoka Asahina

An alumna of Ichinose, two years older than Nariyuki and his charges, Asumi is trying to get into to a national medical school program to be able to help at her father's clinic despite her lackluster grades in science. A ronin student—that is, a high-school graduate who wasn't able to get into their college of choice, skipping a year—she and Nariyuki attend the same cram school and are also co-workers at a maid café. Coy, beautiful and diminutive, Kominami is known for her playful behavior towards most of the people she interacts with, especially Nariyuki.

The Ace: Partially subverted. Even though Asumi is an overall excellent and dutiful student, that doesn’t mean that she’d ace every subject she comes across. This happens to be the reason why she became a Rōnin, due to the fact that her science grades weren't enough to get into med school.
Always Someone Better: In spite of her Rōnin status and deficient science grades, she's a consistently better student than Rizu, Fumino, and Uruka, being more than capable of giving them tips, and earning their admiration as a result.
Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Most of her interactions with Nariyuki consist of her invoking this and then laughing when he stumbles to respond.
Boyfriend Bluff: When her father (a doctor) found her wearing a maid costume, she then pretends to be Nariyuki's girlfriend, so that she could make the excuse that he has a fetish for maid costumes, as her father may not approve of her place of work. Further down the line, they have to keep pretending because her father takes a liking to Nariyuki and is a Shipper on Deck for them. In her route ending, this leads to a Romantic Fake–Real Turn.
Cool Big Sis: Acts like this to Nariyuki (when she’s not flirting with him to tease him), and later to the main female trio.
Curtains Match the Windows: Uniquely among the main cast, her hair and eyes are the same shade of purple.
Didn't Think This Through: There are multiple times when her teasing of Nariyuki either backfires or gets out of her hands, so as much as she enjoys seeing him embarrassed, he has seen her reddened as a cherry himself.
Embarrassing Nickname: Her name at work is “Ashumi”. Outside of work, she really doesn’t want to be called that, especially by Nariyuki.
The Gadfly: Likes to tease Nariyuki, particularly since she can sense the awkwardness between him and the girls.
Girlish Pigtails: The main reason she’s confused to be younger than she is, apart from her diminutive size.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Treating her like a child easily ticks her off.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Asumi has absolutely no romantic experience in spite of her coyness towards Nariyuki.
Legacy Character: She intends to be a physician like her parents, and wants to carry on her father’s family practice.
Meido: She works part-time as the maid "Ashumi" in a café, and Nariyuki coincidentally stumbles upon her.
The Napoleon: Asumi is a small young lady with a temper to bore holes in concrete. The others assume she was a middle schooler when they first see her.
Obliviously Beautiful: In Nariyuki’s case, he considers her, hands down, one of the most beautiful girls he’s ever known, which is notable in a manga whose cast is filled to the brim with pretty girls. We get to see her charm in full force during her ending arc.
Older Than She Looks: According to Nariyuki, she has the appearance of a middle schooler, but she's 19 and already graduated from Ichinose.
Romantic Fake–Real Turn: In her route ending, she and Nariyuki continue the Boyfriend Bluff after reuniting until their relationship becomes real.
Rōnin: She’s been attending cram school for this reason. She doesn’t like other people calling her a ronin however.
The Tease: She likes to ruffle Nariyuki’s feathers as much as she can.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Afraid of rodents such as mice.

Other Characters

Ichinose Academy

The high school that the protagonists attend, and a school that offers the most outstanding student the "Special VIP Nomination" that covers all of their college tuition.

Haruma Kobayashi and Kanade Ōmori

Voiced by: Kengo Kawanishi (Haruma), Yasuaki Takumi (Kanade)

Nariyuki's friends, whom he occasionally helps out with academics so they don't fail.

All Men Are Perverts: Ōmori can't stop talking about girls in every scene he appears in.
Childhood Friends: Nariyuki and Haruma have known each other since elementary school.
Eyes Always Shut: Ōmori's eyes are.
Green-Eyed Monster: Played for laughs. Ōmori is always jealous that Nariyuki is in the presence of many beautiful girls and is even more enraged that Haruma has a girlfriend.
Hidden Depths: Ōmori surprisingly is a fan of cakes and has pictures of several types in his social media page.
Real Men Wear Pink: One chapter has Nariyuki and Fumino search for the owner of an Instagram account that posts pictures of cats, the sky, and sweets. From that and a picture's caption, they immediately assume the owner to be a girl and are surprised to find by the end of the chapter that the account belongs to Ōmori (which he's embarrassed after knowing they've realized this), despite of how he's highly heterosexual and the largest out of his friend's trio.
Shipper on Deck: Haruma supports Uruka's feelings for Nariyuki, as the three of them and Chinami were all close friends in middle school. However, he cares most for Nariyuki's happiness and therefore is supportive of him and Fumino as well. Kanade assumes that Nariyuki and Fumino have something going on instead.
Sweet Tooth: Kanade has an Instagram account dedicated to desserts.
Those Two Guys: In typical harem tradition, they serve as Nariyuki's friends who presents an "outsider's commentary" on the growing harem antics.

Chinami Umihara and Ayako Kawase

Voiced by: Kana Asumi (Chinami), Yo Taichi (Ayako)

Members of the swimming club, and friends with Uruka since middle school.

Beta Couple: Chinami, with Haruma.
Passionate Sports Girl: Although neither of them has Uruka's talent, they both love swimming just as much and are just as heartbroken when their team is disqualified.
Shipper on Deck: Both of them offer strong support to help Uruka catch Nariyuki's heart, though their methods leave her embarrassed more often than not.
Those Two Guys: In typical harem tradition, they serve as Uruka's friends who provide an "outsider's commentary" on the growing harem antics.

Sawako Sekijou

Voiced by: Saori Onishi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sawako.jpg

The president of the chemistry club, and the self-proclaimed rival/best friend of Rizu.

All the Other Reindeer: She wasn't popular in middle school for driving up the class average, earning her the ire of the other students. It wasn't until she met Rizu that she was inspired.
Always Second Best: To Rizu, whom she has never beaten in mathematics or science.
Ambiguously Gay: While the romantic aspect is rather subdued (at first), she's so obsessed with Rizu that Nariyuki ends up half-jokingly asking if she's in love with her during the mountain trip arc. She does show some physical attraction to her on occasions, notably during the "pajama party." Then there's chapter 62 where her shopping with Rizu to buy her a new pencil-case is prepared every bit like a romantic date and she spends two full pages gushing about how Rizu is her "savior".
Cannot Spit It Out: A lot of Sawako’s posturing and wanting to be Rizu’s rival is her roundabout away of trying to become her friend. She was too shy to approach Rizu for the first two years of high school. After being acknowledged as a friend, she continues to be unable to spit out her more romantic feelings for Rizu.
Full-Name Basis: Unusually, she addresses other characters and refers to them in conversation by their full names.
Hellish Pupils: She has slanted pupils for some reason, which gives her both a slightly malicious look and creates a contrast with her actual caring nature.
Hidden Depths: She’s a profoundly sweet and selfless person in spite of her introduction stating otherwise.
I Just Want to Have Friends: In spite of her denial about it, she’s dying to become Rizu’s friend and to be special to her.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When she realizes Rizu’s growing feelings for Nariyuki, she decides to support their relationship, as much as it pains her.
Labcoat of Science: Being in the chemistry club, she's almost always shown wearing it to show her scientific inclination.
Matchmaker Crush: She’s a relatively more self-aware one than Fumino. More than once Sekijou has tossed aside her carefully planned outing with Rizu so that Rizu and Nariyuki can have alone time together, telling herself I Want My Beloved to Be Happy. Ironically, Nariyuki himself is fully cognizant of Sekijou’s feelings and tries to do the same so she and Rizu can grow closer, putting them at odds with each other.
Shameless Fanservice Girl: Downplayed, she walks around in the bath without a towel at first, only to go for the Modesty Towel when she realizes that she needs to bail out Nariyuki when Rizu caused him to get trapped in the sauna when she forgot to put the “Cleaning” sign up after they were cleaning up the hot spring, only telling him not to stare. Later she has no problem calling him over to the pajama study session despite her pajamas being a bit racy, and points out they are in pajamas, not naked, when the other girls protest, and later strips naked to take a shower despite her hand being glued to Nariyuki at the time.
Shipper on Deck: She’s one for Nariyuki and Rizu, aiming to get them together as often as she can, and just as often, to her own detriment, while Nariyuki is trying to help her being better friends with Rizu leads to some Threesome Subtext.
The Sixth Ranger: To Uruka, Fumino, Rizu, Mafuyu, and Asumi, albeit she herself expresses little to no interest in Nariyuki (in spite of having quite a lot in common with him).
Stalker with a Crush: She spent two years taking pictures of Rizu from afar due to being too shy to approach her, and has a Stalker Shrine in her bedroom. Which requires Nariyuki and her to spend 30 minutes hiding it all when Rizu and him come to her house.
Undying Loyalty: She’d take a bullet for Rizu, no questions asked.
Unknown Rival: Declares herself Rizu’s rival upon introduction. Rizu doesn’t remember her name, which is justified as she was too shy to approach her for the first two years of high school.

Yamaoka

A third-year football ace.

Adapted Out: His chapter is not animated.

Kashima, Inomori, and Chono (and the rest of the Thorn Society)

Fumino's friends who try to protect her from unsavory guys.

Amazon Brigade: Kashima is part of the Shorinji Kenpo club; Inomori is part of the Aikido club; Chono is part of the Karate club. They can kick butt even if outnumbered.
The Leader: Kashima acts as the leader of the Thorns Society and the one who concocts various schemes to ship Fumino with Nariyuki.
Shipper on Deck: They approve Nariyuki to be with Fumino.

Yuiga Family

In General

Nariyuki's family, consisting of his mother, his middle school-aged sister Mizuki, and the little twins Hazuki and Kazuki. They are in a poor financial situation due to the death of their father.

Alliterative Family: The children all have names than end in -ki.
Big Brother Worship: All of Nariyuki's younger siblings display this towards him due to his being the designated family caretaker due to their father's demise and their mother working long shifts to support them. The twins accuse Mizuki of crossing into the Bro-con threshold.
Disappeared Dad: The father passed away before the start of the story.
Perpetual Poverty: Due to being in a single parent household, the Yuiga family have continual money issues.

Hanae Yuiga

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi

The matriarch of the Yuiga family, a widow and a mother of four.

Affectionate Nickname: On the giving end. She has cutesy pet names for all of her son's tutored girls.
Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: She is known to embarrass Nariyuki due to her Love Freak behavior and constantly pestering him about hooking up with one of his love interests.
Love Freak: She falls into this category, constantly fawning over couples in love that wind up in her line of sight.
Open-Minded Parent:
- Parodied when it comes to Nariyuki's love life. Her Shipper on Deck antics can go to absurd lengths, right down to her even thinking that Mafuyu is a good match for her son, though she understandably has some reservations there.
- On a more serious note, she is supportive of Nariyuki's pursuit of college education even in the face of their financial hardship.
Shipper on Deck: Initially for Fumino as she was the first of the girls she actually met, but once she encounters the entire harem she makes it known that she's open to any of them ending up with him.

Mizuki Yuiga

Voiced by: Marika Kouno

The eldest daughter of the Yuiga family, Mizuki is a middle-schooler who greatly covets her brother.

Big Brother Attraction: Mizuki’s obvious bro-con crush on Nariyuki and her failed attempts to get him to reciprocate are the subject of plenty of jokes in the volume extras.
Clingy Jealous Girl: The twins say that Mizuki has a brother complex, and while she denies this claim, her clear disapproval of Rizu and Fumino’s association with Nariyuki do nothing but back it up.
Day in the Limelight: Chapter 125 is hers.
Father, I Want to Marry My Brother: A subverted example. Mizuki genuinely has incestuous romantic feelings for Nariyuki, but he tends to dismiss all of her advances due to her immaturity.
Hopeless Suitor: Mizuki seems to consider herself a forerunner for becoming Nariyuki’s romantic partner. He's so naturally uninterested in such a relationship with his sister that he fails to even notice her over-the-top attempts at seduction. She's the only girl who has feelings for Nariyuki that cannot possibly get together with him in any ending.
Little Sister Heroine: Both parodied and defied; Mizuki makes several passes at her brother, which he is completely oblivious to. In fact, it's more of a Running Gag meant to show how Out of Focus she is. This also denied any opportunity for her to get spotlight chapters with him.
Shared Family Quirks: Mizuki’s despair at learning how ridiculously talented Rizu and Fumino are mirrors Nariyuki’s from the first chapter. He even sympathizes with her over it.
Supreme Chef: Mizuki is the main cook of the family, and those who have tasted her cooking always left positive feedback.

Hazuki and Kazuki Yuiga

Voiced by: Mayu Mineda (Hazuki), Natsumi Fujiwara (Kazuki)

The youngest children, two elementary school twins.

The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest children of the family.
Cheerful Child: Deadpan Snarker tendencies towards Mizuki’s brocon habits aside, both are very cheerful and excitable elementary school students.
Dirty Kid: When they go to the Public Bathhouse, they steal a fancy bra and pair of panties, which turn out to be Kirisu’s. And even before they are well aware of Mizuki being a brocon.
Shipper on Deck: For any of the girls and Nariyuki.
Trickster Twins: Downplayed, they are normally well-behaved, but engage in mischievous behavior like biting Nariyuki on the neck and stealing underwear at the Public Bathhouse.

Ogata Udon

The udon restaurant ran by Rizu's family.

Rizu's Dad

Voiced by: Shōto Kashii

The proprietor of Ogata Udon, he is intimidatingly protective of Rizu.

Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: He often threatens, if not outright fights, Nariyuki whenever he catches him getting close with Rizu. Subverted in Ogata's ending, in which he surprisingly accepts Rizu's relationship with Nariyuki and even admits he'd always known her daughter liked him, but still warns him about breaking her heart.
Bumbling Dad: A silly, overly doting father who is not good with numbers.
Doting Parent: He absolutely adores Rizu, though she often bans him from coming near her when he over does it.
Good with Numbers: Averted despite his daughter's talent. He is completely unable to calculate tabs. During the School Festival, he accidentally makes a thousand bowls of udon instead of a hundred, because one of Rizu's classmates put a period^note behind the last zero.
Supreme Chef: Naturally, as the head chef, while his daughter Rizu covers deliveries. Anyone who eats his udon says its great.
Wacky Parent, Serious Child: The Bumbling Dad to Rizu's stoic and serious behavior.

Kirisu Family

Mafuyu's family.

Miharu Kirisu

Mafuyu's younger sister, an amateur figure skater, and a student at Tokei Girl's University.

Aborted Arc: In Mafuyu's route, Miharu's animosity towards Nariyuki and her suspicion that both him and her sister are in a forbidden relationship when Nariyuki is still in high school have been removed, as Nariyuki is no longer a high school student and is now Mafuyu’s coworker. Instead, she becomes much nicer towards him and even helps him on how to win Mafuyu's affection.
Adapted Out: She is completely absent from the anime adaptation.
Big Brother Worship: She worships the ground that Mafuyu walks on, and gets furious when Nariyuki claims he that was there helping Mafuyu clean up her apartment, proclaiming how her older sister is "perfect in every way." This attitude is strong enough that assuming Fumino is Nariyuki's big sister is enough to get Miharu to worship her too.
Boyfriend Bluff: Played with. She tries to do this with Nariyuki when Fumino is grilling him on who he kissed (not knowing it was herself) and Miharu stepped in claiming to be the culprit. She did this because she mistakenly thought Fumino is his overprotective big sister, and wanted to cover up what she believed was his Teacher/Student Romance with Mafuyu.
Does Not Like Men: Having attended an all-girls school, Miharu is unused to talking or being, within close proximity to boys, such so that she initially sits meters away from Nariyuki when attempting to tutor him, before quickly correcting herself.
Entertainingly Wrong:
- Mistakes her big sister, Mafuyu, and Nariyuki's closeness - with him staying over at her apartment (having just helped her clean it up), them constantly whispering to one another (talking about Miharu and herself), and Mafuyu then personally singing his praises (she was accidentally drunk by that point) - as evidence of them being in a Teacher/Student Romance together.
- Becomes a running trend with her in her second appearance, when she assumes that Fumino is Nariyuki's overprotective older sister.
Imaginary Love Triangle: Miharu convinces herself that she is caught up in one with Nariyuki and Mafuyu. She at least wants it to be one so that if she steals away Nariyuki, Mafuyu might consider returning to figure skating.
No Social Skills: Much like her older sister, Miharu is absolutely terrible at picking up on social cues. In Miharu's case, she makes a lot of hilariously awkward attempts to try and seduce Nariyuki and mistakes Mafuyu as being extremely territorial.
Stern Teacher: To “distract” him from her sister Mafuyu, Miharu states that she will personally tutor him for the next 24 hours, and does so from dawn to dusk. Exaggerated when Mafuyu tells of how Miharu had trained their old pet dog, Perro, which included it having to physically catch birds from the air for food, and constantly challenging it intellectually to games. Needless to say, Perro soon ran away for good from Miharu’s intensive training regime (which in the original Japanese is referred to by Mafuyu as “Spartan”).

Natsumi Kirisu

Mafuyu's and Miharu's baby cousin.

Secret Secret-Keeper: In Mafuyu’s route, Natsumi pretty easily sees through Mafuyu’s Boyfriend Bluff, but decides not to spill the beans on it anyway. Not that her mother was fooled in the first place.

Furuhashi Family

Fumino's family.

Reiji Furuhashi

Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa

Fumino's father, a mathematics professor at Yuzuruha University.

Abusive Parents: Ten years ago, he once smacked Fumino after she unsuccessfully tried to comfort him by showing him her (bad) math homework and saying she is just like her mom. This incident has made it awkward for him to interact with her, and he has been grossly negligent of her ever since. The only way Fumino can think to communicate with him is leaving notes on the table and hoping he finds them, and Nariyuki calls him out on the fact that he cares more about his math program than helping his daughter. Reiji also belittles her by saying she has no hope of succeeding in a scientific field because she's too emotional, and in the incident that destroyed their relationship, he slapped her in the face for comparing herself to her math genius mother.
Beard of Sorrow: Implied since he has Perma-Stubble that he shaved after him and Fumino reconcile, though it reappears for later appearances.
The Comically Serious: After his issues with Fumino is over, he still keeps the same serious expression while dealing with his daughter's relationship with Nariyuki and taking care of a cat that he denied he is allergic to.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Has them, probably ever since his wife died.
My God, What Have I Done?:
- Reiji eventually confesses to Nariyuki’s mother that he has always been deeply ashamed of having hit Fumino in his grief, as well as his inability to mend his relationship with her for over ten years, to the point that he considers himself unworthy of asking about her wellbeing.
- He has another when he sees the Video Will of his wife and learns that, much like his daughter, she had terrible grades at math in spite of it being her predilect career, with her eventually encouraging Fumino to follow her career of choice no matter the difficulties ahead. He finally breaks down when he hears that Fumino wanted to name the star she and her mother found after him because they both loved him.
Parents as People: Reiji is certainly an Abusive Parent, but it's something he entirely knows is completely wrong, yet can't help to make up for due to being deeply ashamed of himself and feeling undeserving of connecting with his daughter (which ironically is making him emotionally neglectful). Even after they mend their relationship, he remains awkward and plagued by self-doubt in his interactions with Fumino despite clearly caring for her while being humorously stony-faced. He also clearly loved his wife very dearly and held her mathematical ability above himself.
Perma-Stubble: Has this. He finally shaves after reconciling with Fumino, though it grows back again for his later appearances.
Plot Allergy: In chapter 121, it is revealed that he is allergic to cats but denies it. It is mostly used in that chapter to make him leave the house and go to work and have his daughter Fumino and Nariyuki to take care of his colleague's cat Fumi that he was taking care of.
Powerful and Helpless: Turns out that, for all of his talent at math, he was unable to properly face his daughter for years after hitting her in his grief.

Shizuru Furuhashi

Voiced by: Yui Horie

Fumino's deceased mother who was a math professor.

Like Mother, Like Daughter: Like her daughter, she was bad at math in high school. She rose to be called a “genius” through sheer perseverance. Her personality is also a carbon copy of her daughter's.
The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The password to her laptop to access her Video Will is her husband's name, “Reiji”, chosen because as a child, Fumino expressed a wish to name a newly discovered star after him.
Posthumous Character: Died about a decade before the start of the story.
Video Will: Made one for both her husband and daughter.

High Stage

Asumi's place of work which is a maid café.

Machiko

A maid working at the store.

Meido: She works as one.

Himura

A maid working at the store.

Kominami Clinic

Asumi’s home which is a doctor’s clinic.

Dr. Soujiro Kominami

Asumi’s father

Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Having fallen for Asumi’s Boyfriend Bluff that she is dating Nariyuki, he insists on seeing photos of them acting in a romantic fashion, to which they are forced to comply to keep up the facade. When he is with his ex-wife while Nariyuki and Asumi are at his clinic, both of them don't hesitate to bring out Asumi's childhood photo albums to show Nariyuki, much to Asumi's chagrin.
Amicable Exes: Despite having separated from Asumi's mother, they are still on friendly terms, and communicate via video chat every day.
Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Subverted. He looks like he might be this when Asumi lies about Nariyuki being her boyfriend, but he’s quick to order Nariyuki to call him “father”, and is a Shipper on Deck for them.
Distaff Counterpart: Essentially the male counterpart to Nariyuki's mom, Hanae. They are both Amazingly Embarrassing Parents being overly enthusiastic at the idea of their kids finding a significant other.
Dressed to Heal: Often wears a Labcoat of Science and Medicine.
I Want Grandkids: Part of why he wants Nariyuki and Asumi to be together.
My Greatest Failure: Asumi mentions that he has one patient that he's always regretted not being able to save. It was Nariyuki's father. He asked his regular doctor and old friend Soujiro to help treat his illness, but Soujiro didn't have the confidence and sent him to another hospital, where he died.
Open-Minded Parent: To an absurd degree, when Asumi lies to him regarding why she owns a Meido uniform ^note and tells him it's because Nariyuki has a kink for it, he's enthusiastically supportive of the idea.
Shipper on Deck: Likes to have Nariyuki marry his daughter, in complete opposite of Rizu's father, despite being led to believe that she dresses like a Meido for him. They have to supply him with decoy pictures of a relationship as he was sharp enough to figure out that they didn't have any pictures of them dating.
- It turns out that he knew about the ruse for quite some time already, as revealed in Asumi's arc, but he genuinely wanted the two to get together so he played along.
Unwanted Assistance: His attempts to play Shipper on Deck for Nariyuki and Asumi tends to only exasperate the latter and cause them to have to work to continue pretending that they're happily dating.

Kasumi Kominami

Asumi’s mother, a surgeon who works overseas.

Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Like her ex-husband, she swoons at the thought of her daughter hooking up with Nariyuki and isn't above making flirtatious overtures towards the boy. When Nariyuki and Asumi are at her ex-husband's clinic, both parents don't hesitate to bring out Asumi's childhood photo albums to show Nariyuki, much to Asumi's chagrin.
Amicable Exes: Despite having separated from Asumi’s father, they are still on friendly terms, and communicate via video chat every day.
Mum Looks Like a Sister: She is such an Absurdly Youthful Mother that she can pass off as Asumi's little sister.
Secret-Keeper: She easily sees through Nariyuki and Asumi's act, but tells them she'll keep it a secret from her ex-husband. Not that she needed to tell him, as it turns out.
Shipper on Deck: She's not as excessive about it as her husband, but she clearly wishes Nariyuki and Asumi were a couple.

Characters / We Never Learn

Main Characters

Other Characters

Haruma Kobayashi and Kanade Ōmori

Chinami Umihara and Ayako Kawase

Sawako Sekijou

Voiced by: Saori Onishi

Yamaoka

Kashima, Inomori, and Chono (and the rest of the Thorn Society)

In General

Hanae Yuiga

Mizuki Yuiga

Hazuki and Kazuki Yuiga

Rizu's Dad

Miharu Kirisu

Natsumi Kirisu

Reiji Furuhashi

Shizuru Furuhashi

Machiko

Himura

Dr. Soujiro Kominami

Kasumi Kominami

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / We Never Learn

Edit Locked

Main Characters

Other Characters

Haruma Kobayashi and Kanade Ōmori

Chinami Umihara and Ayako Kawase

Sawako Sekijou

Voiced by: Saori Onishi

Yamaoka

Kashima, Inomori, and Chono (and the rest of the Thorn Society)

In General

Hanae Yuiga

Mizuki Yuiga

Hazuki and Kazuki Yuiga

Rizu's Dad

Miharu Kirisu

Natsumi Kirisu

Reiji Furuhashi

Shizuru Furuhashi

Machiko

Himura

Dr. Soujiro Kominami

Kasumi Kominami

Previous

Index

Next