Paradise Kiss/Characters
This is a list of characters who appear in the anime/manga series Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa. This needs a lot of work.
main characters:
Yukari 'Caroline' Hayasaka
The main protagonist of the story, Yukari Hayasaka is an Ordinary High School Student trying to get into the best college to impress her mother. She's always studying hard and is crushing on her classmate, Hiroyuki Tokumori. All of a sudden, she gets rope into the world of fashion...
- Beautiful All Along: Subverted, Yukari was always a natural beauty but was always too busy hitting the books to notice.
- Brown Eyes
- Defrosting Ice Queen
- Even the Girls Want Her: She's just that beautiful.
- Hime Cut: Everybody seems to notice her after she cuts her hair.
- Important Haircut
- Love Martyr: Though it's mainly out of severe inexperience with love itself. She gets over it.
- Ms. Fanservice: George of all people even lampshades it.
- Nosebleed: Suffers from this when she introduced to the hairstylist Seiji.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Played straight with Hiro, subverted when George enters her life, but played straight again when she chooses Hiro in the end.
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
- The Masochism Tango: Her relationship with George.
- When She Smiles: She's introduced with a scowl and a bad temperament. Skip about three or four volumes and be struck with awe at the difference.
Jōji "George" Koizumi
An arrogant, handsome, VERY talented student in an art college. He starts dating Yukari few after she starts frequenting his college.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys
- Alternate Character Reading: It's George, not Jōji, thank you very much.
- Berserk Button: Call him by his birth name. Better yet, call Isabella by her birth name.
- Bishonen
- Bi the Way: Even though George is in a relationship with Yukari, he and Seiji seem to have chemistry. Kaori seems to hint this when she talks George saying " You have a girlfriend... and a boyfriend too. "
- Blue Eyes
- Curtains Match the Window
- Embarrassing First Name: George hates being called by his first name.
- Even the Guys Want Him
- Heroic Bastard: His mother was a famous top model who gave up her career to raise him after being knocked up by a rich man. This really, really poisons her and George's relationship when he grows up.
- Insufferable Genius
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Kenji Hamada
- Something About a Rose
- Tall, Dark and Snarky
- The Dandy
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Miwako Sakurada
Another art student and George's friend and co-worker. Very cute and cheerful, she soon becomes Yukari's best friend.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Had the choice between punk kid Arashi and clean-cut Hiro. Guess who she picked.
- Cool Bike
- Even the Girls Want Her: So cute and huggable to both genders.
- Expy: Of her older sister, who was first in Gokinjo Monogatari.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Hey, It's That Voice!: It's Rikku!
- Nice Girl: So nice that she even lets the fact that her boyfriend once raped her slide and has a happy relationship with him. Arashi doesn't take this well at all.
- The Nicknamer: Starts calling Yukari "Caroline" totally out of the blue. It sticks, actually.
- Kawaiiko
- Odango
- Rose-Haired Girl
- The Cutie
Arashi Nagase
Miwako's Hot-Blooded, blunt boyfriend. He's both a student of George and Miwako's art school and the vocalist of a punk rock band.
- Jerkass <- -> Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Only Sane Man: Contrary to his choice of wardrobe, he's actually the most normal of the Paradise Kiss group other than Yukari.
- Rape Is Love: Deconstructed. Out of insecurity over their relationship, Arashi pretty much bullied Miwako to lose her virginity to him. Later, he realizes how fucked up this is, and in the manga he becomes The Atoner.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Daisuke "Isabella" Yamamoto
The eldest of the gang, Isabella is a transgender young woman who acts as the mentor of the group.
supporting characters:
Hiroyuki Tokumori
Yukari's crush, as well as an old friend to both Miwako and Arashi.
- Only Sane Man
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man (in the manga, Yukari chooses him after she and George break up of common accord.)
- Tall, Dark and Handsome
- Unlucky Childhood Friend (to Miwako)
- What the Hell, Hero? (to Arashi
Kaori Asō
- Unlucky Childhood Friend (sorta, to George. She loves him, yeah, but she also knows he won't make her happy)
Seiji Kisaragi