GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class/Characters
First-Years
Yamaguchi Kisaragi
The main viewpoint character, a girl who loves painting and pastels. She is very gentle and sometimes a bit of an airhead, and while she's good with paints she tends to sketch too lightly and has trouble with design, especially fashion. Her friends call her "Kisaragi", and Buchi calls her "Kisa-chan". Early in the series, she becomes enamored with Tomokane's misreading "sketching" (素描) as "plain cat" (素猫) and starts doodling brown kittens by the dozens. Kisaragi turns out to be very good at thrifty spending.
Voiced by Haruka Tomatsu.
- Apologizes a Lot: Due to her Dojikko tendencies.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Almost always the boke. Lampshaded by the character sketches as she is referred to be tennen, short for tennen (born) boke.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Cuteness Proximity
- Drunk on Milk: Can even get drunk on grape soda if she hasn't had sugar in a while.
- The Ditz
- Dojikko
- Dream Within a Dream: In the chapter aptly called Surrealism.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation
- Imagine Spot
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: "Heartstring tugs ahead!"
- Lethal Chef: She mentioned her cooking was "cubist."
- Meganekko
- Nerd Glasses -- wears a pair of glasses that's more than half the size of her face. Subverted as she's not a nerd.
- Ms Imagination: Exaggerated in the anime.
- Shrinking Violet
- Sleepyhead: Tends to nod off in class after lunch and PE.
Noda Miki
An energetic and fickle young girl who especially loves design and fashion, called "Noda" or "Princess" by her friends. She has employed a number of different hairstyles in the manga, usually involving Odango Hair, Girlish Pigtails, and various hair ornaments. While very talented, she gets bored easily and tends to start fooling around in the middle of lessons. The usual culprit behind any shenanigans, and good friends with Tomokane.
Voiced by Ai Tokunaga.
- A-Cup Angst: May also be why she can't stop picking on Namiko to save her life.
- Blank White Eyes: Prone to these when goofing off. Exaggerated in the anime, where she has this kind of eyes by default.
- Cloudcuckoolander
- Custom Uniform: Usually wears her gym jacket instead of her blazer.
- Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs
- Expy: Nietzsche seems to be based on her. Lampshaded when Noda appears as a mermaid in Kisaragi's surrealist dream sequence.
- The Fashionista
- Genki Girl
- Girlish Pigtails
- Kewpie Doll Surprise
- Odango Hair: Her standard hairdo.
- Older Than They Look: She's 141cm (4'7.5") in height, which is very short even by Yonkoma standards.
- Slapstick Knows No Gender: Gets beat up by Namiko a lot.
- Zettai Ryouiki
Oomichi Miyabi
A quiet and very talented girl who really, really loves the color black. Namiko calls her "Masa"; the other girls call her "Professor". While definitely somewhat strange, Masa is very kind, and always takes care of her friends and the chickens kept on the school grounds. Her family is very traditional, and her parents have arranged her marriage to an older boy she hasn't been able to meet yet. She's almost always expressionless and has a relatively low normal body temperature.
Voiced by Kaori Nazuka.
- Alternate Character Reading: Where the nickname "Masa" comes from; it's another way to read her given name[1].
- Arranged Marriage
- Crazy Prepared: Forgot your supplies? Suddenly need something that you can't get your hands on easily? Chicken trouble? Masa can help you with that.
- Custom Uniform: Her summer uniform's vest is purple instead of yellow.
- Emotionless Girl
- Hammerspace: Can keep an unlimited amount of useful things in her uniform.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Averted and Defied! Not only she does not appear isolated--in one arc, despite possessing enough skill to pass the 3-kyu or 2-kyu typography tests, she decides to take the 4-kyu instead due to not wanting to stand out.
- Values Dissonance: More individualistic countries call this practice "dumbing yourself down". It's not recommended that you do this in real life.
- Kimono Is Traditional: In volume 3 of the manga, Kisaragi found Professor walking on the streets in a kimono. It turns out that her entire family wears kimonos at home.
- Ms Exposition
- Not So Above It All
- Running Gag: The other girls are well-aware that Masa's a bit off, and like to theorize why this might be.
- Selective Magnetism: Uses this to pick up some spilled scraps of metal.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Can talk to chickens.
- Strange Girl
- The Stoic
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
Tomokane
An aggressive, brash, and cheerful girl who uses physical strength to solve everything. She aspires to work in 3D rendering, and likes to use very hard lines in her art. Because of her appearance and behavior, she says that she's often been mistaken for a boy when not wearing a skirt; it turns out that she's so hyperactive and violent at school because of frustration at her older brother, who is too frail for her to fight physically. Three books into the manga, we still don't know her first name.
Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro.
- Bifauxnen
- Curtains Match the Window: And both her hair and eyes become stylized green on occasion.
- Custom Uniform: Doesn't wear the bolo tie.
- Dojikko
- Expy: Milanor appears to be based on her; the anime adaptation has even given her his voice actress.
- Gamer Chick
- Genki Girl
- Hot-Blooded
- Malaproper: Seems to have a difficulty in reading kanji.
- No Name Given
- Ore Onna
- Running Gag: All through the first manga volume, she never seems to be able to bring in the right supplies; she also has an unfortunate tendency to accidentally wreck art projects (both her own and other people's).
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Despite the Strong Family Resemblance.
- Team Dad
- Tomboy
Nozaki Namiko
The oldest and most mature member of the group, and thus the one who usually winds up playing the Straight Man role. Her friends call her "Namiko-san", and she is on the receiving end of countless height jokes, breast jokes, weight jokes, and age jokes from Noda. Because her friends are so childish, she tends to get treated as the big sister or mom of the group, and is on good terms with Masa, who is the only other calm one in their circle.
Voiced by Yui Horie.
- Butt Monkey
- Cool Big Sis
- Curtains Match the Window
- Custom Uniform: Doesn't wear her blazer and instead wears a belt over her skirt. Noda thinks it's out of insecurity.
- Huge Schoolgirl
- Lethal Chef: She calls her cooking "surrealist."
- Straight Man
- Team Mom: The only one of the group who can be said to be somewhat grounded in reality. Constantly lampshaded.
Art Club
Awara Chikako
President of the fine arts club, and the usual perspective character for their misadventures. She's very loud and energetic, and has a Chubu[2] dialect, which is often mistaken for a Kansai Regional Accent, much to her chagrin. She's good friends with Mizubuchi, who calls her "Aa-san". She is in her third year, and is a GA student. Much more talented than she appears, and even has tetrachromacy, which allows her to perceive ultraviolet light.
Voiced by Akemi Kanda.
- Cloudcuckoolander
- Club President
- Curtains Match the Window
- Genius Ditz
- The Idiot From Osaka: Resembles the stereotype despite not actually being from Osaka.
- Ship Tease: With Uozumi.
- Strange Girl
- Tomboy
Mizubuchi
Kisaragi's childhood friend, who helped inspire her to come to Ayanoi in the first place. She's close friends with Aa-san, and is the Art Club's general holder of the Sanity Ball; she joins the Fine Arts Club when Tono merges it with the Student Life Activities Club, which she was the only member of. Called "Buchi-san" by Aa-san and "Micchan" by Kisaragi; a third-year GA student.
Voiced by Ami Koshimizu.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Towards Aa-san.
- Early-Bird Cameo: First shows up in volume 1 during Kisaragi's flashback.
- No Name Given
- Team Mom: To the Art Club.
Uozumi
Despite being a member of the Fine Arts Club, he's actually a third-year on the college prep track. Originally wanted to be an art student, but because he is red-green colorblind he decided to take the practical road. Has very little patience for his leader's antics. Gets called "Zumin" by Homura.
Voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Foil: To Aa-san, and was deliberately designed that way according to Word of God.
- Megane
- No Name Given
- Only Sane Man: Out of all students so far.
- Ship Tease: With Aa-san.
- Those Two Guys: With Homura.
Homura
A second-year auto student and member of the Fine Arts Club. Like Uozumi, Buchi-san, and the Tomokanes, we still don't know his given name.
Voiced by Ryou Naitou.
- The Big Guy
- Hot-Blooded
- Love At First Sight: Towards Same-chan-sensei.
- Meet Cute: With Noda in book 4.
- No Name Given
- Those Two Guys: With Uozumi.
Tomokane
A second-year GA student, and that other Tomokane's older brother. Like his sister, we don't know his given name. He's weak to illnesses and tends to miss a lot of school, so his first appearance is in volume 3, whereupon he joins the Art Club. He has been described as a pastel, softer-looking version of his little sister with wavier hair. Tomokane enjoys playing pranks and mind games, knowing that because of his weak constitution he need not fear retribution; otherwise he's a nice guy.
Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro.
- Beware the Nice Ones
- Big Brother Bully: His picking on his sister has made her who she is today.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Lampshaded; in the columns for "masculine" and "feminine" designs in the manga, he's stuck under the "feminine" side while his sister is under "masculine".
- Expy: Julio is a brown-haired version of Tomokane with lightless eyes; both even have a Black Mode. He can also be described as having Nessiah's temperament.
- Green Eyes
- Ill Boy: Exploited. See Karma Houdini below.
- Karma Houdini: No one's going to physically attack a frail little thing like him. He knows this, and exploits it.
- Manipulative Bastard
- Nightmare Fetishist
- No Name Given
- Sibling Yin-Yang
- Uncanny Family Resemblance
Teachers
Sotoma Takuma
The first-year GA class's homeroom teacher, and also in charge of design classes. Although he takes a Straight Man role in his interactions with his students (especially Noda and Tomokane), he's very popular. According to Kiyuduki, he's the kind of person who doesn't lose his dignity as a teacher even when fooling around with his class.
Voiced by Kyousei Tsukui.
- Must Have Caffeine
- Only Sane Man: Among the teachers.
- Straight Man
Usami Mayumi
Sotoma-sensei's assistant who also teaches painting. When she first introduced herself, she was so nervous that she accidentally mispronounced her own family name, so she's gained the nickname "Same-chan-sensei". She is also a graduate of Ayanoi, and tends to act much younger than her coworkers. She is anemic.
Voiced by Omi Minami.
- Expy: Looks and acts a lot like Yggdra and has the same coloring as Flone.
- Fish Out of Water: Still have shades of this.
- Odd Friendship: With Tono.
- One of the Kids: For starters, she fears blood donation more than her students...
- Sensei-chan
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's one of the victims of the art club's haunted house.
Sasamoto
The third-year GA class's teacher, adviser of the the Fine Arts Club, and teaches sketching. Called "Tono-sensei" by her students, and is an infamous hardass who is well-loved despite acting like a Grumpy Bear most of the time. She's a chain smoker of legendary proportions, to the point where she was once asked "Which is more important to you, me or tobacco?" by a former boyfriend. Has previously made Aa-san a cardboard dog house and actually stuck her in it.
Voiced by Minami Takayama.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Expy: Of Gulcasa. The resemblance is especially strong when she gets irritated.
- Meganekko
- Memetic Badass: In-Universe; hence her nickname.
- Must Have Nicotine: She can get pretty scary when she hasn't had enough cigarettes lately.
- No Name Given
- Odd Friendship: With Same-chan.
- Smoking Is Cool
Koshino Yoshino
The fashion design teacher, a tiny and terrifying old lady who's a legendary hard grader. Most students who aren't Noda are petrified of her. Initially did not appear in the anime, but was featured in the OVA instead.
Voiced by Chinami Nishimura.
- Cool Old Lady
- Harsh Word Impact
- The Napoleon: She forces students to sit on a very short stool so that she can look down on them...
- Pet the Dog: ...and dispense headpats as necessary.
- Never Mess with Granny