Kiniro no Corda/Characters
The characters of Kiniro no Corda:
Kahoko Hino
A general education student who winds up in the concours, a prestigious music competition at her academy, thanks to a magical fairy named Lili, who granted her a magical violin. A sensible young girl, Hino is oblivious towards boys' affections for her. Hino's major goal in recent chapters is to be able to reach Tsukimori's potential in the violin.
- Adorkable
- Almost Kiss: With Hihara.
- Break the Cutie: Using magic in the competition eventually takes it toll on her. When Tsukimori gets his suspicions about her playing style, she starts to freak out and during the third performance, her violin strings snap and she can no longer play. In the anime, she runs off the stage in tears while in the manga, she keeps playing despite the fact that she was doing horribly.
- Celibate Heroine/Chaste Heroine: She has never considered or had any interest in romance, unfortunately for her Unwanted Harem. She ends up with Tsukimori in the manga.
- Closer to Earth
- Dude Magnet
- Eyes of Gold
- Fan Girl: Greatly admires Tsukimori for his violin skills, and even goes to him for violin lessons later into the manga. Hino claims to always have been chasing after Tsukimori ever since she first heard him play the Ave Maria on his violin, and that he is probably her reason for continuing to play the violin.
- Fiery Redhead: On ocassions.
- Fish Out of Water/Naive Newcomer: To the music world.
- Foe Yay: With Yunoki.
- Girlish Pigtails: Starts to use this hairstyle later on in the manga.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Somewhat jealous of Miyaji Fujijo, the girl that Tsukimori played a violin duet with during the training camp, for both her seeming "good relationship" with Tsukimori and her violin skills.
- The Heart
- Heroes Want Redheads
- Heroic BSOD: The result of her Break the Cutie phase.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Let's just say she's not so pleased when she finds out Tsukimori is leaving to study abroad the night before (and it's on the day of her competition that he promised to go to, no less).
- Oblivious to Love
- Official Couple: Tsukimori and Hino.
- Plucky Girl
- Redheaded Heroine
- Reiko Takagi
- Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Fuyuumi.
- Ship Tease: Pretty much ship teased with everyone, but recently, she's been getting a lot of screen time with Tsukimori in the manga.
- The Smurfette Principle: While she's not the only female competitor in the concours, Hino is the only girl with most—if not all—of the boys' affections.
- Those Two Girls: Her two best friends.
- Unwanted Harem
Lili
A magical fairy who blessed Seiso Academy, Lili grants Hino a magical violin and enters her into the concours.
Len Tsukimori
An aloof competitor in the concours, Tsukimori dislikes getting bothered with things that don't concern him. Through his friendship with Hino, Tsukimori truly learns how to appreciate his violin and music. Rivals with Tsuchira and has feelings for Hino. Tsukimori has chosen to study abroad. The last person he tells this to is Hino, who is conflicted by this but eventually accepts it. He is the third person to realize his feelings for Hino. In Chapter 70, Tsukimori leaves to study abroad in Vienna. He returns to Japan in Chapter 74.
- Blue Oni
- Cannot Spit It Out: His feelings for Hino, that he's studying abroad, and when he's leaving to study abroad. He eventually tells her about the last two in Chapters 57 and 67 respectively.
- Defrosting Ice King
- Eyes of Gold
- First Guy Wins: While the first guy Hino ever met is Tsuchira, Tsukimori is the first music ed student she bumped into and the first person who got her into loving music and playing the violin.
- Foe Yay: With Tsuchira. More evident in the manga than the anime.
- Jerkass/Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Zigzags between these tropes on a regular basis.
- Kissho Taniyama
- Kuudere
- Lonely Rich Kid
- Love Confession: In Chapter 75.
- Luminescent Blush: He gets this around Hino the most.
- The Mentor: Becomes one to Hino when he begins to tutor her in the violin in Chapter 54.
- Official Couple: Tsukimori and Hino.
- Put on a Bus: Tsukimori, as a result of his studying abroad in Vienna. He returns to Japan in Chapter 74.
- The Quiet One
- The Rival: Tsuchira.
- Somebody Else's Problem: How Tsukimori would deal with things prior to his Character Development.
- The Stoic: Prior to his Character Development, and sometimes even after.
- Troubled but Cute
- Veronica: The Veronica to Tsuchira's Betty.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Ryoutaro Tsuchira
A fellow general education student and a good friend of Hino's, Tsuchira plays the piano and gets pulled into the competition as well. Used to play soccer. Rivals with Tsukimori and has feelings for Hino. He is the second to realize his feelings for Hino, and confesses to Hino in Chapter 71.
- Anguished Declaration of Love
- Betty: The Betty to Tsukimori's and Kaji's Veronica.
- Cool Loser: Justified because he's not in the music school.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: To a mild and gender-flipped Clingy Jealous Girl degree.
- Dogged Nice Guy
- Eyes of Gold
- Foe Yay: With Tsukimori. More evident in the manga.
- Hot-Blooded
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
- Kentaro Ito
- Love Confession: In Chapter 71.
- Nice Guy
- Red Oni
- The Rival: Tsuchira has it rough—he has to deal with Tsukimori and Kaji. And occasionally, Hihara too.
- You Gotta Have Green Hair
Kazuki Hihara
A happy-go-lucky and friendly third year student, Hihara is another competitior and plays the trumpet. His best friend is Yunoki. He has a big crush on Hino and is the first to realize his feelings for her.
- The Ace: Kazuki seems to be good at everything.
- Adult Child
- Almost Kiss: With Hino.
- Bishounen
- Break the Cutie: Around the same time that Hino was going through the same thing, Hihara started to worry about her. It gets to the point where he messed up during the third performance. In the anime, he's rather broken after the performance but the minute he sees Hino lose it as well he soon subverts this trope. In the manga though, it takes him longer to get out of this phase because he was playing last instead of playing first like in the anime.
- The Danza: Not in terms of voice actor but of musician performing the character's pieces. The trumpeter playing for Kazuki Hihara is Kazuki Abe.
- Eyes of Gold
- First-Name Basis: Starts calling Hino, "Kaho-chan."
- Dogged Nice Guy
- Heterosexual Life Partners: With Yunoki.
- Ho Yay: With Yunoki.
- Indirect Kiss: Accidently drinks from Hino's bottled drink the day after he had an Almost Kiss with her, and naturally freaks out when he realizes this.
- Keet
- Masakazu Morita
- The Messiah: Think about it. He's probably the only person in the school that no one has anything bad to say about him (Yunoki doesn't count because he hides his true nature). He's always thinking about everyone around him despite his feelings for Kahoko and is always encouraging of others.
- Moe
- Nice Guy
- No Sense of Personal Space
- Plucky Comic Relief
- Precocious Crush: He had a crush on his sempai who he saw everyday playing the trumpet. It got to the point where he visited her on the roof everyday and eventually decided to quit the track team and play the trumpet. This didn't end well with his best friend, but they made up.
- You Gotta Have Green Hair
Azuma Yunoki
Hihara's best friend and a fellow competitor in the concours, Yunoki is a handsome third year student and a gentleman, popular and adored by the female student body. He plays the flute. But something seems a little cryptic about him...
- Beneath the Mask
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Yunoki secretly has a "dark side" behind his gentleman-like mask, shown when he tries to force Hino to quit the competition. After Hino decides to stay in the competition, Yunoki tortures her by only showing his "dark side" to poor Hino.
- The Chessmaster
- Crazy Jealous Guy:
- Shows mild signs of this early on when Hino is first getting close to Hihara; i.e., the minor chord and ominous background that occurs as he watches Hino and Hihara joke around. Fortunately, he shifts gears pretty quickly after he gets to know Hino better and Hihara displays genuine interest in her.
- He also shows subtle signs of this towards Hino, getting somewhat jealous when he heard she was hanging out with Tsukimori, Tsuchira, and Hihara in one chapter in the manga and later asking her privately if he can't have "fun" with her too.
- Daisuke Ono
- Deadpan Snarker
- Devil in Plain Sight
- Eyes of Gold
- First-Name Basis/Terms of Endangerment: When alone with Hino, Yunoki often flirts with her, and on an occasion has even used Hino's first name "Kahoko" to address her, implying intimacy.
- Foe Yay: With Hino.
- Freudian Excuse: His family background, in particular his grandmother's strict expectations of him.
- Guile Hero.
- Heterosexual Life Partners: With Hihara.
- Ho Yay: With Hihara. Most of the Ho Yay generated by those two comes from Yunoki; when Hino is upset about Tsukimori's upcoming departure, she asks Yunoki what he would do if Hihara left. Yunoki makes a brief attempt to bluff it off before acquiescing, "If the most important person to me were leaving..." Yunoki goes onto say that he would do his best to cheer "that person" on, in much the same way that he encouraged Hihara's pursuit of Hino once Hihara's feelings became obvious.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Towards Hino.
- Instant Fanclub: The Girl Posse who all adore Yunoki.
- Jerkass/Jerkass Facade: It's not noticeable at first, but after learning of the strict expectations of that Yunoki obediently follows for his grandmother in spite of his own wishes, Hino realizes that Yunoki uses his facade to hide the fact that he's given up on himself somewhere along the line.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy
- Manipulative Bastard
- Morality Pet: Hihara, his sister Miyabi, and somewhat Hino.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Only when he's around Hino and they're alone. He'll even flirt with her, but later say that he's "just joking" to justify it; Hino, on the other hand, will often get the impression that he's making fun of her.
- Pet the Dog: In spite of his sweet-and-sour treatment of Hino, he is perceptive towards her feelings and will cheer her up to a degree, especially when she was upset several times over Tsukimori studying abroad.
- Prince Charming
- School Idol
- Shipper on Deck: In spite of his own feelings for Hino, he's supportive of Hihara and is perceptive of the other boys' (particularily Tsukimori and Tsuchira) feelings for Hino.
- Stepford Smiler
- Tall, Dark and Handsome
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Often uses this against Hino.
- You Gotta Have Purple Hair
Kenichi Shimizu
A first year student and another competitor in the concours, Shimizu plays the cello. Often prone to sleeping.
- Adorkable: He's so quirky and awkward you really can't not love him.
- Bishonen: Even Hino Lampshades it when she stumbles upon Shimizu while he is sleeping.
- Blue Eyes
- Brilliant but Lazy: Subverted. He's a great musician who's almost always sleeping and often does things slowly, but this is because he does things at his own pace as opposed to him being lazy.
- Brutal Honesty: Which adds to his charm.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: He has his quirks, but he's great at playing the cello.
- Completely Missing the Point: Many things of what he says mainly deals with music, whether the topic is about music or not.
- The Cutie
- Cute Shotaro Boy: To most people.
- Hair of Gold
- Heavy Sleeper/Sleepyhead: He can fall asleep ANYWHERE!
- Jun Fukuyama
- Moe
- The Quiet One
Shoko Fuyuumi
The second female competitor in the concours, Fuyuumi plays the clarinet. She is extremely shy, but slowly but surely moves out of her shell thanks to her friendship with Hino.
- Akemi Satou
- Les Yay: With Kahoko. More evident in the manga.
- Moe
- The Quiet One
- Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Hino.
- Shrinking Violet
- Proper Lady: Development out of Shrinking Violet; less shy quiet and more polite quiet
- You Gotta Have Green Hair
Nami Amou
The academy's school newspaper journalist, who often finds her latest news at the music competition. Amou befriends Hino and Fuyuumi.
- Blue Eyes
- Cool Big Sis: Towards Hino, Fuyuumi, and at one point Tsuchira.
- Genki Girl
- Genre Savvy:
- She knows exactly what's going on with Hino and her Unwanted Harem. Of course, being a periodist helps...
- She even knows which guy Hino's probably in love with.
- Motor Mouth: At times.
- School Newspaper Newshound
- Yuki Masuda
Aoi Kaji
A transfer student who idolizes Hino enough to transfer to Seiso Academy to find her. Outgoing and friendly, Kaji once played the violin, but now he plays the viola.
- Ascended Fanboy: Going to the same school and in the same class as his idol and befriending her.
- Bishounen
- Blue Eyes
- Dogged Nice Guy
- Fan Boy: For Hino.
- Hair of Gold
- I Kiss Your Hand
- Keet: Not as energetic as Kazuki, but he has shades of this.
- Love At First Sight: According to Chapter 71.5.
- Mamoru Miyano
- Nice Guy
- New Transfer Student
- The Rival: A bit with Tsuchira.
- Sexy Man, Instant Harem
- Veronica: The Veronica to Tsuchira's Betty.
- The White Prince
Kariya Etou
A boy who overhears Hino playing and openly insults her on her violin skills. Hino and Etou keep bumping into each other so much that Hino tries to avoid him, but they end up stuck together when they find two children trying to find their mother. Etou's impression of Hino gradually changes, and he might have even developed a crush on her. Plays the violin.
- Bishounen
- Demoted to Extra: He's the only guy in Kahoko's harem that doesn't fall for her in the anime simply because the OVA was cut to two episodes without much character development on his side. At least he appears quite a few times in the manga, where he does show interest in her.
- Fiery Redhead
- Green-Eyed Monster: Somewhat jealous of Tsukimori when he noticed how fondly Hino mentioned Tsukimori and how great Tsukimori is at playing the violin, to the point where he flat-out asked Hino who was the better violinist (between Tsukimori and him).
- Redheaded Hero
- Satoshi Hino
- Shonen Hair
- Tsundere: Heavily focuses on the tsun-tsun, and that's the only side you see in the anime and—to a degree—the manga. In the games however, he starts going dere-dere for Kahoko eventually.
- Younger Than They Look: His age isn't specified, but Hino's surprised when she learns Etou is younger than her.