K-On!/Characters
Characters from K-On!
When in doubt, every character on this page possess the following tropes:
- Adorkable
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: The only ones who likely get any consistent practice are Mio, Mugi and Azusa, which is rarely together, so they tend to be uncoordinated, and much of the time they spend together is on tea and cake, and neither Azusa nor Mio are above it all. But despite these, they're actually really good when they perform.
- Chaste Teens: Aside from some mild teasing among each other, the girls don't seem to be that interested in romance.
- Averted with Akira.
- A Spot of Tea: The solution to all of life's problems... thanks Mugi-chan!!
- Sweet Tooth: The other solution to all of life's problems... except getting fat in the case of Mio and Mugi.
- True Companions
Band Members
Yui Hirasawa
Voiced by: Aki Toyosaki (Japanese) and Stephanie Sheh (English)
First character introduced and stays the primary viewpoint character throughout the series. She's the lead guitarist as well as the main vocalist.
- Awesomeness By Analysis: She is implied to have a mild form of this ability, picking up guitar and really any other instrument far faster than should be possible.
- Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: taken literally in Episode 8 when she proves immune to nerves after finding a 100 yen coin on the stage.
- Big Eater: And never gets fat for it, much to the anger and jealousy of Mio, Mugi, and Sawako. In the song Ichigo Parfait ga Tomaranai, she likens herself to a black hole when it comes to sweets.
- "Ui ... Icecream! Ice ... cream!!" (S1 08 15:07)
- Book Dumb: Yui focuses so much on learning how to play her new guitar that she ends up badly flunking her midterm. Later averted when she wises up, studies and passes with full marks. (Sadly, it seems that her brain can't handle multitasking, and she forgets how to play the guitar.)
- Brilliant but Lazy: Yui is an airhead most of the time, but she can learn things pretty quickly once she puts her mind to it. Even Asuza, who's trained for years, is amazed at how good she is with the guitar, such as being able to tune it without an auto-tuner.
- Cloudcuckoolander: She's very very easily distracted. Also, each time she focuses on something new, she can literally forget almost everything else: when she was forced to study for a makeup test she temporarily forgot how to play the guitar afterwards.
- Unexpectedly, she tends to be the one who thinks about practical matters: e.g., how much their training trip will cost (ep 4), or whether they're actually allowed to use the club room as they please (ep 5). She's also the first one to recognize Sawako (ep 5).
- Companion Cube: Her obsession with "Giita" gets almost creepy at times, if sometimes downright impractical: letting Giita wear clothes and be rolled around in bed at night is going to do a number on its strings' lifespan.
- It's even lampshaded in-series, with one side character noting that she treats it like a boyfriend.
- Covert Pervert: She fantasizes about getting slapped with a big wad of cash... but then again who wouldn't?
- Cuddle Bug: Generally towards Azusa, but also to everyone she's close to.
- In university, Yui has found her new victim: Akira.
- Dojikko: That's exactly the first opinion Ritsu gave to Yui.
- Hair Decorations: Becomes despondent in one episode because she wasn't wearing her hair clips.
- Genius Ditz: Azusa's years of experience with the guitar sets up Yui as this by contrast. For example, when Yui sees Azusa's electronic guitar tuner, the audience learns that Yui doesn't know what a tuner is, but she has perfect pitch, and can tune her guitar perfectly by ear. Of course, she has no idea what perfect pitch is.
- In her class, she may not do so well, but she can play a guitar just like she's ringing a bell... er, playing the castanets.
- And when she focuses in the task, she can get excellent grades.
- In her class, she may not do so well, but she can play a guitar just like she's ringing a bell... er, playing the castanets.
- Genki Girl
- Idiot Hero
- Nice Girl
- The Nicknamer: Her guitar becomes "Giita", Tsumugi becomes "Mugi-chan", Ritsu becomes "Ricchan", Azusa becomes "Azu-nyan", Sawako becomes "Sawa-chan-sensei", and Mio's bass becomes "Elizabeth". Also, in the "extra" episode of the first season, she calls her pair of gloves "Tebukuro-chan".
- Plucky Comic Relief: How her bandmates apparently see her. Based on the way the band introduces her in the last cultural festival concert, and what Azusa says in the manga while tearfully begging her seniors to not leave her, the quality about Yui they like best is her ability to boost their morale.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Azusa and Nodoka's blue.
- Sibling Yin-Yang
- Star-Making Role: Though Aki Toyosaki seems to have avoided the typecasting that typically comes with successful roles; presently she has a tendency of taking perverted and sultry seductresses who are nowhere as sweet and innocent as Yui is.
- Sweet Tooth: Which gets abused relentlessly to seduce her into joining the club. And even after that Mugi seems to be keeping a lot of sweets handy for whenever the band needs Yui to do something. (Mugi seems to believe that sweets are the solution to all problems.)
- The scary thing is, she's often right.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Sawako notes that it's no fun forcing Yui to wear a Sexy Santa Dress because "she has no sense of embarrassment."
Ritsu Tainaka
Voiced by: Satomi Sato (Japanese) and Cassandra Lee (English)
Club president and drummer who has has problems following her responsibilities.
- A-Cup Angst
- Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Although to a lesser extent than Yui.
- Blinding Bangs: On the rare occasions when she's not wearing her hairband. The first time she lets her hair down in the manga, Mio doesn't recognize her -- heck, she can be even indistinguishable from Yui.
- Many fans believe she looks better like this. The sheer amount of fanart (LINK NSFW) showing Ritsu's hair down is way out of proportion to the few seconds of screentime it gets.
- However, this was before the "No, Thank You" ending sequence, which allows us to see her with her hair down in all of the remaining episodes.
- There's a video dedicated to it.
- Camera Fiend: One Ura-On segment is devoted to this trait of hers.
- Catch Phrase: In the dub -- "What are you, a grade schooler?"
- Childhood Friends: With Mio.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: In the anime Ritsu starts showing this behavior toward Mio at one point (Episode 11).
- Club President: Subverted: while Ritsu simply joined the club to jump at the chance to become President without getting elected in the first place, her position rarely comes up again. Club decisions are mostly done in democratic fashion, as opposed to her telling the others what to do, and when it comes to doing the necessary paperwork and such, she more often than not forgets about it, much to Nodoka's annoyance.
- Dumb and Drummer: Slight subversion, as Ritsu isn't particularly stupid, just lazy and forgetful. Although the reason she plays the drums is because she thinks playing the guitar or keyboard is too complicated and would frustrate her.
- Hair Decorations: Wears her hairband pretty much constantly, even on the beach.
- Eyes of Gold
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Subverted: in spite of her tomboyish personality, she cooked a nice dinner for the whole band after they came to her house to help her with her sewing assignment for Home Ec.
- Through His Stomach: In one of her Image Songs she sings about cooking dinner for "the person I love".
- Forehead of Doom: Invoked.
- Gamer Chick
- Genki Girl: The drums just fit her.
- Jerkass/Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ritsu really enjoys abusing Mio's many phobias. She usually realizes when she goes too far, but when she doesn't, either she gets a Cranial Eruption or Mio crawls into her Corner of Woe. She's pretty much this anime's equivalent of Tomo.
- Large Ham: Prone to making dramatic pronouncements about trivial things.
- Incoming Ham: Which results in her being punched by Mio when she enters Azusa's classroom.
Mio: "Don't scare the freshmen!"
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Ritsu's entire relationship with Mio is based on her desire to help Mio emerge from her shell.
- Meaningful Name: Her name can be read as 'rhythm'. Rather appropriate for a drummer.
- Nonuniform Uniform: Ritsu always wears her school uniform differently from the rest of the club (during the colder months, her jacket is always unbuttoned and during the warmer months, she doesn't wear the yellow vest).
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Mio's blue.
- Tights Under Shorts: In the "No Thank You" Ending Theme sequence.
- Tomboy: With the exception of using the gender-neutral pronoun "watashi" to refer to herself, Ritsu utilizes quite masculine Japanese in her speech patterns (e.g., using the "yagaru" suffix when she's annoyed, ending sentences with the informal suffixes "-e", "-n" "-da" and "-daro"; and never using feminine suffixes such as "ne" and "wa").
- She also rarely wears skirts when not wearing the school uniform (but neither does Mio), refuses to tuck her shirt in unless explicitly told to do so, and has relatively bad manners compared to the other girls (for example, holding her chopsticks in her mouth).
- Berserk Button: Don't ever accuse her of being unfeminine to her face, though.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Of sorts with Mio.
Mio Akiyama
Voiced by: Youko Hikasa (Japanese) and Cristina Valenzuela (English)
The extremely shy bassist and backup vocalist whenever Yui can't sing.
- Character Tic: Before beginning a performance, she always holds her guitar pick in her mouth and flips her hair back over her shoulder.
- The Chew Toy: Her fears and anxieties get milked for all they're worth, especially by Ritsu and Sawako. Sometimes she could really use a hug.
- Childhood Friends: With Ritsu.
- Cry Cute: Tries so hard to be mature and serious... fails so adorably.
- Does Not Like Men: In the manga, she famously shouted "Men are animals!" when she thought Ritsu had a boyfriend.
- Even the Girls Want Her
- Face of the Band: Most triumphant in-universe example... much to her dismay.
- Fainting: With the subtypes Emotional (when she has anxiety attacks) and Monster (when she gets too scared).
- Girls Are Really Scared of Horror Movies: Freaks out when Ritsu just shows her the cover of a DVD.
- Going to See the Elephant: Mio is unexpectedly the most excited about going to Summer Fest out of all the members in the club.
- Gray Eyes
- Hime Cut
- Lead Bassist: Type A, B and C.
- Moe: In-universe: Yui and Ritsu think she's extremely cute when she wears a Meido outfit and when she cries.
Yui and Ritsu: "Moe Moe Kyun~!"
- Also, her lyrics are so sickeningly sweet Ritsu and Sawako can't handle it.
- Ms. Fanservice: To her horror, this is exploited mercilessly by Sawako (and to a lesser extent, Ritsu) for the sake of the band's publicity; what can she do when she is a beautiful, shy, classically Japanese looking girl with criminally sexy proportions and yet oh so painfully adorable whenever her attempts to try looking cool ends in tears?
- Not So Above It All: After having been all business while scolding Yui and Ritsu again and again on the Kyoto trip, she finally cracks when they get lost and run into Nodoka's group... and she starts laughing hysterically!
- This led to some speculation that this marks a turning point in her development, now that the band's voice of reason has been transferred to their adorable kohai Azusa.
- Only Sane Man: Before Azusa came and took over that role.
- Panty Shot: How she gained her Instant Fanclub... much to her horror.
- Rapunzel Hair: Oh yeah!
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Ritsu's red.
- Shrinking Violet: Approaching Fragile Flower levels. Shy around strangers and suffers crippling anxiety over performing in front of crowds. Decided to play bass so that she won't attract much attention, which backfires spectacularly when she becomes the Face of the Band.
- The Southpaw: Mio writes and plays bass with her left hand, and is keenly interested in other left-handed musicians and instruments.
- Author Avatar: To a degree. While not much is known about Kakifly, he did publish a photo of his instrument collection in the first manga volume, showing off several left-handed bass guitars.
- Star-Making Role: The creepiest part is the resulting roles seem to all have that hair.
- Sugar and Ice: She tries to be mature and above the childishness of her friends, with the emphasis on "try." But when she fails...
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Like Azumanga Daioh's Sakaki, she subverts the usual stereotype.
- Tsurime Eyes: The way her eyes are drawn in the manga makes her look very much like an Expy of Lucky Star's Kagami with her hair down. Her eyes in her anime character design are still tsurime, but different in style.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Of sorts with Ritsu.
- Weight Woe: Is very sensitive about her weight even though Ritsu implies it all goes to her breasts.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She has quite a lot of phobias, but is especially terrified of blood and blisters. Ritsu repeatedly teases her about this.
- The anime exaggerates on these, and then some more -- she also earned a fear of barnacles and even the mere thought of crayfish in the bathtub.
Tsumugi "Mugi" Kotobuki
Voiced by: Minako Kotobuki (Japanese) and Shelby Lindley (English)
The soft-spoken keyboardist who frequently provides tea and sweets in the middle of band practice.
- The Ace: Tends to be competent in most of the new things she tries, although this is usually treated as a background event. Case in point: the awesome sand castles she builds in S1's Beach Episode.
- Ambiguously Lesbian
- Beware the Nice Ones: Manga Mugi is this a little.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Not that they make her any less charming. They apparently run in her family, as a store attendant was able to tell who her father was just by looking at her eyebrows.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Her father having Big Ol' Eyebrows may be a reference to Mitsuru Umemura, president of Yamaha.
- Cloudcuckoolander: While not at Yui's level by far, she has her fair share of moments. As some girls can attest, spending time with her one-on-one can be quite a heady experience.
- Covert Pervert: Mugi is rather less innocent and sweet than she shows. Basically, if she's not lesbian herself, she sure does seem to enjoy the semi-naughty cosplay and picturing her friends in sparkly, blushy embraces a lot.
- Her longing for more skinship, resulting in requests for hugs and being hit over the head, also makes one wonder.
- The Danza: Her seiyuu is named Kotobuki, too, although her name is written with different kanji.
- Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: At least Mugi seems to think so.
- Hair of Gold
- Hit Me Dammit: Asks Ritsu to hit her.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Despite -- or possibly, because of -- being incredibly rich, she gets much enjoyment out of doing mundane things, such as eating fast food or having pillow fights.
- Informed Ability: When the girls discuss having to talk English abroad, she says that her conversational skills are good, but she doesn't show them. Considering how her Gratuitous English sounded, it might be a case of Minako Kotobuki not being as good at English as Mugi's supposed to be.
- In-Series Nickname: Yui gave her the nickname "Mugi" -- one that pretty much stuck amongst the Nakama.
- Nice Girl
- Ojou: Mugi's initially the only one with any decent musical talent, and her incredibly spacious beach house is mentioned to be her smallest one. Also, visitors to her family home need official appointments. Not too common even by anime standards.
- Punny Name: Possibly. Her nickname sounds a lot like "Moog."
- The Quiet One
- Shipper on Deck: Chapter 5 seems to suggest this.
- Signature Style: Her preference for using the Hammond organ voice on her keyboard (a specialty of the Korg Triton Extreme) is responsible for the retro-'60s sound on many of HTT's songs.
- Spoiled Sweet
- Star-Making Role: For Minako Kotobuki, who recently has become the go-to-girl for Ojou characters; though these characters tend to be more domineering, bitchy, and substantially less nice/innocent than Mugi.
- Super Strength/Does Not Know Her Own Strength: She is quite strong, as noted here.
- Tareme Eyes: Even more so than the rest of the cast.
- Team Mom: While every inch as zany as her fellow club-mates, her comparative emotional maturity (rivalling that of Sawa-chan sensei) allows her to don the mantle of the nurturing mother-figure in the ensemble.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: At least in the manga, Mugi tends to be uncannily perceptive about certain things.
- Yuri Fangirl: Mugi art shifts into seeing a little more between Yui and Mio than is probably there. This eventually extends to any close interaction (regardless of context) between any two girls.
- It is eventually revealed that she turned into this because, in an attempt to learn how "normal" girls interacted, she had Sumire sneak in manga for her. Said manga is heavily implied to be Yuri manga.
Azusa "Azu-nyan" Nakano
Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu (Japanese) and Christine Marie Cabanos (English)
The Light Music Club's newest member, who joins in her freshman year (with the rest in their second year). She's also the secondary guitarist.
- A-Cup Angst
- All Just a Dream/Daydream Surprise: All of them in episode 13.
- Blue Oni: To Yui's red.
- Breakout Character: She doesn't appear until midway through season one, but come season two, one could make a strong case that she's the primary viewpoint character, with many episodes told from her perspective, especially the story finale (Episode 24).
- Catgirl: Becomes a running reference when the rest of the club members first put some cat-ears on her (as shown in her image on this page). It's where she gets her adorable nickname "Azu-nyan" from.
- Child Prodigy: She comes from a musical family and played guitar at a young age. She completely floored the music club by demonstrating her professional-level skills. Yui probably wet herself.
- Unfortunately that doesn't include singing.
- Club President: For the new generation of the Light Music Club.
- Cry Cute: Season 2 Episode 24, full stop -- after spending the rest of Graduation Day holding back her feelings, Azusa finally breaks down crying in front of her senior bandmates, begging them to not graduate.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: She has a bad habit of speaking her thoughts without realizing. It's never anything offensive or serious though.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Attempts one upon hitting third-year... but this does not sit well with Ui and Jun.
- Expy: Azusa is a dead-ringer for Kooh from Pangya.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Hollywood Tone Deaf: In the 2011 restart, she discovers -- much to her despair -- that she's terrible at singing. However, she ends up getting roped into being Wakaba Girls' vocalist anyway, after Sawako offers to give her voice training. (We can only hope that it turns out better than what happened when Sawako tried training Yui's voice.)
- In-Series Nickname: Azu-nyan.
- Kid Sidekick: Initially she doesn't look too different from other characters, but she's a year behind the rest of the club, is shorter than even her peers Ui and Jun, and her cuteness is frequently mentioned.
- Nosebleed: Suffers one upon watching Mio's Panty Shot in a video of her seniors' first performance.
- Not So Above It All: In spite of her attempts to be the lone voice of maturity in the club, Azusa is still easily placated into joining the fun with the offering of sweets and the occasional Cooldown Hug, and has taken being called the ridiculously cute nickname "Azu-nyan" in stride.
- Only Sane Man: She feels this way when she sees what makes the light music club tick. It's especially apparent during the bus trip to Summer Fest.
- Come Season 2, poor Azusa knows her seniors need to use their time to practice for their final performance. And they keep getting distracted... all of them.
- Passing the Torch: Became the new Club President of the light music club.
- Sempai Kouhai: To the first generation.
- Sprouting Ears: Manga only.
- Star-Making Role: For both actresses!
- Tan Lines: Happen whenever she gets a bit of sun.
- Tsundere: In the manga. Much, much less of one in the anime.
- Verbal Tic: She says "desu" quite often, but doesn't put quite as much emphasis on it as Suiseiseki. She actually tends to use politer Japanese in general than the other girls.
- In the restarted manga, she begins speaking in a much more casual (less polite) manner than she did before.
Supporting Characters
Ui Hirasawa
Voiced by: Madoka Yonezawa (Japanese) and Xanthe Huynh (English)
Yui's more responsible younger sister. She joins Azusa and Jun in the Light Music Club after Mio, Yui, Mugi and Ritsu graduate.
- The Ace: Which causes Nao to search for her weak spot.
- Awesomeness By Analysis: Even more so than her sister. She learned guitar after only a few days of her sister letting her strum away while practicing at home and hit a home run at a batting center after overhearing some tips from a neighboring player.
- Big Little Sister
- The Caretaker: To Yui. It's mostly Played for Laughs, and the Kyoto field trip episodes show that Ui doesn't know what to do with herself when Yui isn't around to look after.
- Also during her own field trip she is shocked how the food is ready and she didn't do anything.
- Cuddle Bug: As Nodoka said, she and her sister love cuddling up to people.
- Ditzy Genius: Has her moments.
- Gamer Chick: She pwned Ritsu at least twice while the rest were helping Yui study during Season 1.
- Instant Expert: A minor case; it is revealed in season 1 episode 12 that she taught Yui how to read guitar sheets, which is also how she's able to play Gitah when posing as Yui. And again in season 2 episode 5, where she overhears some tips for hitting a baseball... and hits a home run immediately after. Lampshaded by Jun and Azusa.
- Meaningful Name: The Kanji/Chinese-character for Ui-chan's name literally (and rather appropriately, too) means "kind-hearted", "talented", "gentle" and/or "considerate."
- Nice Girl: The one thing she has in common with her big sister.
- Passing the Torch: She joins the Light Music Club in lieu of her graduating sister.
- Promotion to Parent: With their parents often away, this ends up falling to Ui... notwithstanding the fact that she is the younger sister.
- Serious Business: Getting up at seven is considering oversleeping.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Ui is mature, sensible, wakes up on time for school (and even has to wake up Yui); aside from also being a nice person, she is pretty much the complete opposite of airheaded Yui.
- Played with in season 1 episode 12 -- when Ui stood in for the sick Yui, the band couldn't see through the disguise. It was her slip of the tongue which first raises suspicions. Sawako saw through the disguise due to Ui having a larger bust-size than Yui.
- In the manga, they're first tipped off by the fact that she keeps timing better than her sister. The slips of the tongue are the clinchers.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Seen above.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: She's mature, responsible, does the household chores, and is deveoted to her family (specifically her big sister). And of course, there's tea.
Sawako Yamanaka
Voiced by: Asami Sanada (Japanese) and Karen Strassman (English)
The Wind Instruments Club advisor, who was eventually blackmailed by Ritsu into also becoming the Light Music Club teacher on threat of exposing her past as a death metal rocker in a previous incarnation of the club.
- Adult Child
- Berserk Button: NEVER EVER SAY THAT DEATH DEVIL IS CUTE!
- Christmas Cake: She was a member of a previous incarnation of the Light Music Club. In the Kyoto trip episode, she shows that she does desperately hope to get married, and suffers from keeping her professional side in control over her fun-loving side.
- Cool Teacher
- Cosplay Otaku Girl/Covert Pervert: She loves to dress up the girls of the light music club. Whether they want it or not. Apparently eight episodes of Sawako indulging her fetish even made Mio all too happy to join in.
- Hugely averted come second season. She did design the costumes for the Romeo and Juliet class play, but they were surprisingly tasteful.
- It's brought back in the first OVA, where her new costume for the girls gets her thrown out of the room and a Cranial Eruption.
- At Wakaba Girls' first summer training camp, she tries to get Nao to wear a Seashell Bra. Everybody ignores her.
- Cry Cute: And you know you have to break out the tissues when even tough ol' Sawa-chan-sensei is tearing up... especially episode 24 of the second season, upon seeing the class chalkboard full of thank-you messages from her students.
Sawako: I couldn't erase those...
- Fun Personified
- The Glasses Come Off: ...and she becomes a totally different person.
- Hot Teacher
- Nerds Are Sexy
- Meganekko
- My Eyes Are Up Here: She can identify two girls who look alike by their bust size... which is how she can differentiate Yui from Ui (note that Ui is larger than her elder sister).
- Justified in that she designed the club's costumes, and therefore would have had to have known her bust size; she would also, as a seamstress, most likely notice body proportions out of habit.
- Old Shame: In-universe: she is deeply ashamed of her own days in the Light Music Club when Heavy Metal was all the rage.
- Retired Badass: Come season 2 episode 10, when she finally gets back into action, she pretty much floored everyone! She also sets the bar up high for the Light Music Club.
- Scary Musician, Harmless Music: Inverted.
- Scary Shiny Glasses
- Sensei-chan
- Skinship Grope
- Stepford Smiler: A humorous example -- her sweet personality is a cover for her rocker past.
- But her sweet personality is actually her original personality. Yeah, she's a complicated gal.
- Essentially, she treats the club as a place where she can either veg out, dress up cute girls in ridiculous clothing, or eat cake.
- But her sweet personality is actually her original personality. Yeah, she's a complicated gal.
- Tareme Eyes: Her default look.
- Tsurime Eyes: When she goes into her "wild" personality.
- Why Did It Have To Be Ghosts?
Nodoka Manabe
Voiced by: Chika Fujitou (Japanese) and Laura Bailey (English)
Yui's friend and classmate before she joined the band.
- Meganekko
- Nerds Are Sexy
- Only Sane Man: The only member of the cast who is consistently level-headed and mature, and does not lose her temper like Azusa and Mio when trying to keep order.
- Power Hair: With her sexiness cranked all the way Up to Eleven and beyond when wearing a policewoman's hat in Season 1 Episode 6.
- Put on a Bus: She doesn't attend the same university as Yui. When the restarted manga began, she only appeared in a one-panel dream sequence.
- The Bus Came Back: She makes a brief return in volume 6 chapter 8 when Yui returns to her hometown for the summer break. However, she's considering going abroad to study, so she might be going on an even longer bus trip.
- Reasonable Authority Figure
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Yui's red.
- Student Council President
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: In a way. She was Yui's best friend since kindergarten, but by their last year in high school, Yui has become much closer to her bandmates than she'll ever be with Nodoka. Subverted in that she has since become a friend to the rest of the band, and Yui still remembers how important she is in her life enough to ask her to walk home together on their last day of school, knowing that by going to different universities, they probably won't be able to do so again.
Jun Suzuki
Voiced by: Yoriko Nagata (Japanese) and Michelle Ann Dunphy (English)
Azusa and Ui's friend and classmate, as well as a member of the Jazz Club. She joins Azusa and Ui in the Light Music Club after Mio, Yui, Mugi and Ritsu graduate.
- Ascended Extra: She was a satellite character in the first season, but come second season she's a part of Ui's Power Trio (together with Azusa) and even appeared in said season's opening. In the 2011 restart she becomes the third senior at the Light Music Club, along with Azusa and Ui.
- Girlish Pigtails: However, she's embarrassed to wear them around her family, so she lets her hair down at home.
- Grass Is Greener: Her envy at all the fun things the Light Music Club gets to do becomes a Running Gag.
- Hime Cut[context?][please verify]
- Imagine Spot: She does this a lot, mostly involving the four seniors of the Light Music Club.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Played for Laughs in season 2 episode 5. She buys a dozen donuts in assorted flavors, takes one bite out of each, rolls across the floor and unintentionally headbutts Azusa. She also refuses to join the Light Music Club, but seeing how much fun Azusa is having in the club made her regret her decision, and ultimately decides to join Azusa and Ui in the club in their third year.
- Even Heroes Have Heroes: She's a skilled bass player and popular in the jazz club. She is also a huge Mio fangirl.
- Messy Hair: Whenever she lets it down, especially on humid days. Bemoans this to Ui and Azusa during their sleepover.
- She even states that she can predict the weather depending on how messy it is.
- Purple Eyes
Megumi Sokabe
Voiced by: Asumi Kodama (Japanese) and Amanda C. Miller (English)
The former Student Council Class Representative during Yui, Ritsu, Mio and Mugi's second year and founder of the Mio Fan Club. She eventually becomes their dormmate come their college years.
- Contrived Coincidence: Through some whiff of coincidence, upon hitting college Yui, Ritsu, Mio and Mugi -- who made it their pledge to stay together -- end up sharing the same dorm as Megumi.
- Fan Girl: Of Mio. She was even the founder of the Mio Fan Club.
- Passing the Torch: She is succeeded by Nodoka, both in the Student Council and the Mio Fan Club.
- Sempai-Kohai: She's a year older than Yui, Ritsu, Mio and Mugi.
- Stalker with a Crush: How she acted towards Mio when they first met.
- Student Council President
Characters Introduced in the 2011 Restart
Sumire Saitou
A blonde freshman who eventually joins Azusa, Ui and Jun's reformed Light Music Club.
- Blinding Bangs
- Blue Eyes: Though of the Nice Girl kind.
- Hair of Gold: While strange at first given her incredibly generic Japanese name and surname, it is eventually revealed in chapter 3 of Volume 6 that Sumire's family actually came from Austria, before they were brought to Japan to serve the Kotobuki family.
- In-Series Nickname: Everybody's starting to call her "SuMIIre", as if her name was pronounced the way an English speaker would say it.
- Meido: She has worked as a maid for the Kotobuki household and tries to hide that by pretending to be a Dojikko instead.
- Nice Girl
- Ostentatious Secret: Sumire makes it very obvious that she doesn't want anybody at school to know she's Mugi's maid.
- Phenotype Stereotype: See the Hair of Gold entry.
- Shrinking Violet
- Something We Forgot: As a resident of the Kotobuki household, Sumire was asked by Mugi to retrieve her teasets she left behind upon graduation. Too bad Sawako caught her on her first try and jumped at the chance to try and recruit her and have her dressed up.
- Subverted, as it was all part of Mugi's plan to get Sumire to join the Light Music Club. Mugi really had no intention of taking back the tea set, until at least Sumire graduates.
- Spiritual Successor: To Mugi, including her tea-making skills, sans the Big Ol' Eyebrows.
Nao Okuda
Another freshman who becomes the fifth member of Azusa's new Light Music Club.
- Bob Haircut
- Dojikko
- Epic Fail: Her attempts at joining clubs.
- First-Name Basis: Strongly averted so far, as she's the only one who's not referred to by her given name.
- Giftedly Bad
- Hollywood Tone Deaf: The rest of the band lose all interest in hearing her sing after she mentions that her brothers don't want to take her to karaoke anymore.
- Meganekko
- Naive Newcomer
- No Name Given: Played for Laughs when the seniors realize they don't know her given name despite being in the club for a while now.
- The Not-Secret: Yes, everybody knows that you can't play a musical instrument.
- The Quiet One
- Stalker Without a Crush: She spent a chapter following Ui around (and being very conspicuous about it), and she's been quietly observing and taking notes about her bandmates so that she can write customized songs for them.
- TV Genius: Admits that the only thing she's good at is studying. This may be about to pay off as she takes on her new role as the band's producer.
Akira Wada
Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Mugi and Megumi's dorm-mate, leader of three-girl band "OnNaGumi" with fellow dorm-mates Sachi and Ayame during their High School days, and a new member of the university Light Music Club. Like Yui, she's majoring in education.
- All Love Is Unrequited: She joined her high school's Light Music Club because she had a crush on a boy named Maeda, who thinks her band only gets by on their looks. Implied to be averted.
- Death Glare
- Face of a Thug
- Gray Eyes
- Grumpy Bear
- Important Haircut: Her response to Maeda-sempai's opinion of her was to crop her hair short and promise to become a professional musician.
- Jerkass Facade: She tries to look as intimidating as possible... with less-than-optimal results in the face of four easygoing girls.
- Not So Different: When she partners up with Yui as a training exercise, she ends up slacking off just as much as Yui does.
- Only Sane Man: Effectively Mio and Azusa's successor in this department... and like them, she's not very effective in bringing some seriousness to her new dorm-mates.
- Pettanko
- Tall Dark and Bishojo
- Those Three Girls: With Sachi and Ayame, bandmates in the OnNaGumi.
- Tomboy
Sachi Hayashi
A member of the OnNaGumi with Akira and Ayame (and eventually of the university Light Music Club), as well as dorm-mate of Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Mugi and Megumi. She's in the same department as Mio.
- Hime Cut
- Huge Schoolgirl: Even taller than Mio and it bothers her.
- Values Dissonance: She's only about 169 cm (5' 6.5") tall. What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?
- Those Three Girls: With Akira and Ayame.
Ayame Yoshida
The third OnNaGumi member who, along with Akira and Sachi, joins the university Light Music Club. She's also dorm-mates with Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Mugi and Megumi. She's also in the same department as Ritsu.
- A-Cup Angst
- The Fashionista
- Genki Girl: The main reason she made fast friends with Ritsu.
- Birds of a Feather: Non-romantic example.
- Hair of Gold
- Skinship Grope
- Those Three Girls: With Akira and Sachi.
Kana Yoshii
The current club president of the University Light Music Club.
- Bob Haircut
- Christmas Cake: Not yet confirmed, but by the way she reminisces what the younger ladies can wear, she may as well be one.
- Club President: Although her concern for trying to get more funding for the club may lead us to believe that the Club lacks a treasurer.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Mentioned by name in the flyer the first chapter of Volume 5. Introduced in Chapter 3, but her role wasn't formally confirmed until Chapter 5, and her name until Volume 5, Chapter 11.
- Hime Cut
- Retired Badass: Although the band she formed with her partner Chiyo Hirose (pronunciation unconfirmed) was said to be pro-level, they've become too busy with academics to perform publicly, not to mention Chiyo feeling embarrassed about Kana's insistence on playing in their old school uniforms.