Change 123/Characters

Teruharu "Hideo" Kousukegawa

 * Arranged Marriage: Played with when he gets introduced to his new fiancé. He goes to his parents' house in the country, fully intending to turn her down
 * Biggus Dickus: In the wake of his viper bite (see the Crowning Moment of Funny page), we learn that this is averted (and probably inverted, though he claims otherwise) by Kosukegawa, to his embarrassment, the yuks of his male classmates, and the gentle amusement of Motoko, Hino, and Tsukishima.
 * Cannot Spit It Out: Refreshingly subverted. The guy didn't have the courage to confess, even though it was painfully obvious to everyone. But when he was making a new year wish to have such courage, she overheard, and they started dating.
 * Covert Pervert: although at times it is not so covert.
 * Idiot Hair: Sometimes.
 * Ignore the Fanservice: In chapter 50, on account of having to wake up HiFuMi so many times for school. He even yells at Mikiri for whipping her top off in front of him, rather than getting excited.
 * My Name Is Not Kousukegaa: Seemingly doomed to have his name mispronounced by at least one newly-introduced foreign character per arc... and then it happens with a Japanese local from Hokkaidou!
 * My Name Is Not Hideo: Similarly, in chapter 45, both Hibiki and discover that they have misread his given name as "Hideo", which is actually a nickname (and probably a deliberate reference to a certain, well-known video game director) that is constantly used by his classmates in lieu of his first name, and which arose from his tendency for ultimately unsuccessful heroics ("Hideo" = "great man" --> "hero"); it's even referenced that The Other Wiki had him listed as Hideo. His first name's correct reading is "Teruharu" (same kanji, different pronunciations). "Hideo" is also a pun on "Hidoi yo!" ("This is wrong!"), one of his Catch Phrases in the original Japanese.
 * Non-Action Guy: Notwithstanding his courage. He just doesn't have the skills.
 * Otaku: Also a member of the sci-fi club, which constantly has problems finding a girl schoolmate to play in one of their movies.
 * Shipper On Deck: In an early chapter he helps the Beta Couple, ultimately managing to prevent Ozuma from giving up on his love for Osada when it seemed to interfere with his judo-instilled discipline.
 * Too Dumb to Live: At times.

Motoko Gettou
Tropes related to Motoko Gettou in general:
 * Attempted Rape: Twice, plus one attempted groping by a chikan; they never got far.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: You should beware shrinking violets like Motoko. Don't molest them, don't threaten them, ...and don't tickle them either. They may have hidden alternate Badass personalities inside.
 * Buxom Is Better: Her classmates are either jealous (females) or appreciative (males).
 * Big Breasts Big Deal: firmly Type I.
 * Boobs of Steel: The bustiest and the most capable fighter in the entire cast.
 * Gag Boobs: Do not make a drinking game of how many times does she get into situations where they get exposed.
 * Clothing Damage: Most of this trope's occurrences happen to the alternate personalities. When she switches back to Motoko, sometimes she has no immediate idea that clothing damage occurred, which can lead to an embarrassing situation like the one (Not Safe for Work!) when she wanted to try the "M" brooch Kosukegawa gave to her as a birthday gift.
 * Expository Hairstyle Change: Part and parcel of the switches between Motoko, the different HiFuMi. Hibiki and the others play upon this a few times.
 * Hadaka Apron: That's the way Kosukegawa occasionally imagines Motoko as his future wife. See an example here.
 * Has Three Daddies: Motoko and her three "fathers". Which leads to...
 * Who's Your Daddy?: One of the lingering questions throughout the series, but finally resolved in ch. 59:
 * Shipper On Deck: Early on, Motoko is interested in Kannami, but all of the HiFuMi want to ship her with Kosukegawa.
 * Split Personality: And each personality gets her own Character Development and hairstyle, to boot.
 * Split Personality Makeover
 * Vapor Wear: Motoko is the primary victim, since Mikiri keeps busting out of her bras every time she emerges. There is, however, one scene where Hibiki takes a precautionary measure by taking off the bra before switching to Mikiri. See also Fujiko's Bunny Ears Lawyer entry below.
 * Vapor Wear: Motoko is the primary victim, since Mikiri keeps busting out of her bras every time she emerges. There is, however, one scene where Hibiki takes a precautionary measure by taking off the bra before switching to Mikiri. See also Fujiko's Bunny Ears Lawyer entry below.
 * Vapor Wear: Motoko is the primary victim, since Mikiri keeps busting out of her bras every time she emerges. There is, however, one scene where Hibiki takes a precautionary measure by taking off the bra before switching to Mikiri. See also Fujiko's Bunny Ears Lawyer entry below.

The Multiple Personalities are as follows: "Fujiko: It's fine, no one can see my underwear, because I'm not wearing any.
 * Motoko -- the core personality. Hairstyle: short Girlish Pigtails (also experimented with a loose high ponytail for a while).
 * Cute Clumsy Girl / Dojikko: Always keep her away from stairs while she's in a panic or distracted.
 * : What makes this even more tragic is that  and that it could have been avoided, since
 * Meganekko
 * : Indirectly responsible for
 * My God, What Have I Done?: With the interesting twist that.
 * Shrinking Violet: With reason.
 * : in chapter 42,
 * Hibiki -- Always ready for a fight. Specializes in Karate. Hairstyle: loose and relatively messy.
 * Blood Knight: After dealing violently with a molester in the subway, she was so heated up that she intentionally provoked a fight just to blow off her steam.
 * Bokukko
 * Does Not Know Her Own Strength: She easily squashes a rubber ball to shreds (and considering Kousukegawa could barely even squeeze it), then when someone tries to trip her, said person ends up being thrown over as if by Megaton Punch by her mere running stride.
 * Also results in a The Door Slams You situation when, after being trapped in a sauna with Kousukegawa, she kicks the door open, which slams right into the perpetrator who locked the door, sending the latter flying into a jacuzzi.
 * Perhaps the most ridiculous instance of this is her First Kiss with Kousukegawa, which literally hurt.
 * Hot Blooded
 * Mighty Glacier: Though of average proportions, she has the greatest offensive power among HiFuMi, but lags behind Fujiko and Mikiri in speed and defense, respectively.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Appears more than Fujiko or Mikiri.
 * The Tease: Only to Kosukegawa, and almost always serious about her offers. There's also her promised gift for Kosukegawa's next birthday, which she asserts that it will be "better" than the kiss she gave him for the birthday she already missed. Evidently, she got Motoko's sex drive, but Motoko kept the inhibitions.
 * Fujiko -- Cool-headed (almost cold, at times) and calculating. Soldier/swordswoman. Hairstyle: tidy hair, asymmetrically swept to one side, bordering (but not actually reaching) Peek-a-Bangs style.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Fujiko seems to have weird ideas on how to solve the Panty Shot-proneness of thigh-slit dresses in Chapter 5:
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Fujiko seems to have weird ideas on how to solve the Panty Shot-proneness of thigh-slit dresses in Chapter 5:

Kosukegawa (thinking): It's a much bigger problem if people see what you cover with your panties!"


 * Going Commando: Above example. Also, while getting dressed afterwards, she gets her panties sliced off and later takes part in a highly exposing fight.
 * Fragile Speedster
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: She manages to fire a bullet into the chamber of a gun. From about ten feet away. In the split second the chamber was open, when the guy fired it.
 * Improbable Weapon User / Improvised Weapon: Even coin tokens are dangerous in her hands. And if you try to threaten her with a 40-member biker gang, she needs only.
 * Sugar and Ice Personality
 * Lady of War
 * Team Mom
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Chocolate mint ice cream.
 * Mikiri -- The most childlike of the alter-egos. A master at Jujitsu. Hairstyle: short topknot ponytail (something like an Idiot Hair surrogate).
 * Big Eater
 * Breast Expansion: Her boobs grow to indicate that she's 'come out', often snapping Motoko's bra. Explained as being because of a change in "muscle tension" - her pectoral muscles are more "tightened" than normal, thus pushing her breasts further out than usual.
 * Cheerful Child
 * Cute Bruiser
 * Goofy Print Underwear: When she first meets Kosukegawa she's wearing bunny panties (and nothing else).
 * Innocent Fanservice Girl: Practically zero nudity taboo.
 * Stone Wall: Any punch or kick you can throw, she can turn its force against you to either unbalance you or quickly put you in a submission hold.
 * : Later on,
 * : Later on,
 * : Later on,
 * : Later on,
 * : Later on,

Other tropes mainly related to the HiFuMi:
 * Berserk Button: They each have their own unique buttons, which have the side-effect of causing them to temporarily (for now, at least).
 * Fujiko's is the first to be revealed:
 * Next comes Mikiri's:
 * Last, but not least, Hibiki -- though with a surprising twist:
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: The HiFuMi have different color themes, depending on their position on the series' fighting-style color spectrum.
 * Confusion Fu: When they battle Tatsuya, they gain the upper hand by switching personalities on the fly, making them more unpredictable. It works for a while.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: This happens when one of the HiFuMi's Berserk Buttons is pushed, causing her to and lash out. Mikiri's was violent but semi-comical in its ending (though it did nearly result in a literal backbreaker move). Fujiko's was chilling in its cold, calculating near-lethality. Hibiki's was short-lived, but brutal...
 * Talking to Themself: Hibiki, Fujiko and Mikiri are aware of themselves all the time, can communicate between themselves, even if the Motoko personality is the active one (and they often comment on what Motoko is currently doing), and can freely switch between themselves. However, the Motoko personality can't do any of these things.
 * Theme Naming: The first syllables in Hibiki, Fujiko and Mikiri are extremely short abbreviations of hitotsu, futatsu and mittsu, the Japanese numerals for "1", "2" and "3", respectively. With that in mind...
 * In-Series Nickname: ...it is no wonder that they are collectively referred to as "HiFuMi".
 * Three Faces of Eve: Hibiki as the seductress, Fujiko as the mother, and Mikiri as the child.
 * Three Faces of Eve: Hibiki as the seductress, Fujiko as the mother, and Mikiri as the child.

Kannami

 * Bishonen
 * The Chessmaster: Look up the Xanatos Gambit entry in the main article at your own risk. Spoilers ahoy.
 * Insufferable Genius: Imagine Ishida crossed with Light Yagami and you're most of the way there. That being said, he has an aloof friendship with Kosukegawa that started when they were kids.
 * Obviously Evil: Subverted, although his schemes still make him a bit of a Magnificent Bastard.
 * Reed Richards Is Useless: Averted; he actually uses his intelligence and college training to help Motoko begin to fuse her alter-egos.
 * Teen Genius: He graduated from a university in the U.S. at age 15, with a degree in psychology (specifically "the psychology of mental psychoses" ).

Botan Tsukishima

 * All Amazons Want Hercules: For the sake of hypothetical offspring. The words she uses could also be interpreted as not wanting a weak father, period, implying that she doesn't think high of her own power. Which sort of makes sense in a world where petite, curvy waifs routinely beat her up.
 * Amazonian Beauty: If you're into that. If you're not...
 * Hollywood Homely: Tsukishima is far from a troll herself; her body is proportionate and symmetrical, as is her face. She's merely surrounded by girls more gorgeous than she could ever be.
 * Ambiguously Brown
 * Biker Babe
 * Butt Monkey: Not only does she suffer from the Huge Schoolgirl complex, gets put into various embarrassing situations, she also suffers from an inferiority complex, because There is even a scene where she lampshades this. Chapters 54 and 55 take it to a cringeworthy degree.
 * Can't Catch Up/Hard Work Hardly Works: A big complex of hers, too.
 * Huge Schoolgirl: 175+ cm. (5'9" for you Americans.) Moderately above average for Caucasian women, very tall for a Japanese woman.
 * Mighty Glacier: With shades of Stone Wall.
 * Ninja Maid: Wears a maid outfit at a school festival. In this case it's not a Fan Service, but done for comical (and Butt Monkey) effect.
 * Oh Crap: Has this expression quite a lot as a result of her Butt Monkey and/or Huge Schoolgirl situations. Most prominent example here, where she's completely horrified at the thought of being seen as an Otaku Surrogate (which is not even intentional on her part to begin with).

Ginga

 * Cute Bruiser: Lest we forget, she was introduced carrying her kill -- a full-sized leopard -- over her shoulders.
 * Innocent Fanservice Girl: She doesn't have a lot of modesty, although she didn't start wearing concealing clothes until she came to Japan... and sprouted.
 * : She is revealed to be
 * Samus Is a Girl: A topless "Samus", no less, as at her first appearance, she was still living on the island, not yet introduced to civilization and clothes.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Ginga and Hino spent many years of their childhoods together, and are close friends, but Ginga was, at first, furious with Hino for the latter's perceived betrayal of Ginga's people's customs (she left the island rather than remain to serve as the Gadam).

Izuru Hino

 * Barrier Warrior: Specializes in defense fighting techniques.
 * Clothing Damage: Hino (and her clothes) get cut up pretty badly when she accidentally leaps into a thornbush. Later, during a sports carnival contest she has her shirt and bra accidentally ripped off.
 * Innocent Fanservice Girl: See Clothing Damage, but really like Ginga she doesn't care that much about nudity or showing her body, although she doesn't go out of her way to do it.
 * Romantic False Lead: Started as potentially one early on to get Motoko jealous of how well she Kosukegawa fit together.
 * Ojou: Wealthy family, incredibly polite to everyone, School Idol and a very much the resident Yamato Nadeshiko.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: ...with Ginga (see above). Hino isn't angry with Ginga at all, but she doesn't hold back when defending herself from Ginga.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Because of this, and because she is a Kamen Raider fan like Kosukegawa, at first it seems that she is bound to become a Relationship Sue for him, which saddens Hibiki, but eventually it turns out that Kosukegawa's love for Motoko/HiFuMi is far too steady.
 * She's also an incredibly gifted Aikido prodigy. Her present fighting skill developed as a result of having to survive in the wilderness of a tropical island for much of her youth.

Other characters

 * Artificial Limbs:  (which also serves as a Shout Out to The Six Million Dollar Man)
 * Ax Crazy: Most of the one-off antagonists in the story.
 * Badass: Tatsuya. He is the only person to Just a reminder
 * Beta Couple: Ozuma and Osada. Aizawa and Ginga are on the way to become this as well, in their own somewhat Belligerent Sexual Tension way.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:.
 * Blood Knight: As well as Hibiki, Tatsuya, the karateka "father" who trained her, will fight anyone who looks strong for the fun of it. Even Ginga. Ch. 52 takes this Up to Eleven, when
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Starting with Hifumi, all fighters are revealed to be categorised into colour-coded combat styles, or a combination of two or more. Tsukishima especially seems to be obsessed with achieving her colour title, and is baffled when fights don't quite follow these rules.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Kousukegawa's mom.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Ginga, right down to using bites. Also, during the, one of the fighters (also a member of Ginga's tribe) . The Improbable Weapon User below.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * Kousukegawa, Motoko, and the latter's alter-egos:
 * The Hero: either Kousukegawa, Motoko, or both; as nominal leader(s), at least.
 * The Lancer / The Big Guy: Hibiki, who is a stark contrast to the shy and noncombatant Kousukegawa and Motoko.
 * The Smart Guy: Fujiko, being more strategy-oriented and technical than Hibiki and Mikiri.
 * The Chick / The Big Guy: Mikiri, the childish and naive Cute Bruiser.
 * Sixth Ranger / Token Evil Teammate:
 * Gory Discretion Shot: Normally averted. The one time it's used is.
 * Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: Motoko's grandmother.
 * Hello Nurse: Literally, in the case of the new school nurse.
 * Improbable Weapon User: One enemy uses his fingernails, a technique used by some Shaolin monks. Sora Uzuki, a member of what appears to be a ninja clan, uses a kusarigama-like weapon consisting of sharpened keys on a wire.
 * Long-Lost Relative: The leader of appears to be Motoko's, although this hasn't been revealed to the girl in question yet . Scratch that; she's been informed a month or two after.
 * Meaningful Theme Naming: Aside from HiFuMi, there is also evidence of other suspicious occurrences discovered by Kannami in chapter 49, but clues can be found earlier on, if the reader pays attention to the meanings of certain kanji characters.
 * National Stereotypes: Played straight with respect to United Statizens in the Okinawa arc.
 * Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters: Aizawa, who is younger than he looks, a former thug who got into high school around the same time as Ginga. While looking to establish his rep, he got tagged with the title of School Guardian by accident, and then finds out that not only do all the strongest fighters in their school outclass him, but they are also girls.
 * Parent With New Paramour: The young Russian woman Anna, besides being a talented disciple of Takezou (Motoko's jujitsu father, who "created" the Mikiri personality), is also apparently his girlfriend. When she jokingly tells Motoko about the possibility of becoming her stepmother, Motoko freaks out.
 * Punch Clock Villain