Hidamari Sketch/Characters

Here's the character sheet for the Slice of Life Schoolgirl Series Hidamari Sketch.

Yuno
"Voiced by: Kana Asumi"

Yuno is a soft-spoken, friendly girl from Room 201 who tries to get along with anybody she meets. Initially painfully shy, she slowly breaks out of her shell thanks to Miyako, with whom she soon forms a deep friendship. She does not have much confidence in her skills as an artist, even though she manages to do very well at Yamabuki High (and she might be somewhat forgiven considering her friend's intellect). She loves drawing and painting the most and considers those her main skills. She constantly worries about being considered an adult, which isn't helped by her comparatively short stature. Her trademark accessory is her X-shaped hair clip, which she rarely takes off.


 * A-Cup Angst: Albeit not as self-conscious about it as Sae, mainly because she's more concerned about her height.
 * Bathing Beauty: At the end of every episode.
 * Character Development: This being Yuno's Coming of Age Story, she has to show some of this. Compare the sketchbook incident where she had a garbage pile of woe and her response towards her abysmal results in the sketching competition, and one would notice in the latter that she has been able to stop thinking negatively because it's going circular.
 * Cheerful Child: Although overage, she fits in this trope by all counts without going into The Pollyanna.
 * Cuteness Overload: Yuno's love for cute things is already listed in the character sketches, but this girl certainly has some weird reactions towards cute things, such as petting paint brushes after thinking about the animals their bristles came from.
 * The Ditherer: A common cause of plot.
 * Hair Decorations
 * Hard Work Hardly Works: While Yuno is known to be hardworking, her skills will probably never be as good as those of her Genius Ditz neighbor Miyako.
 * Hollywood Tone Deaf: Shows signs of this, except only for one song.
 * Iconic Item: The hairclips.
 * The Ingenue: Even with Character Development, she is still relatively childishly naive compared to others.
 * Older Than They Look: She rises above the Puni Plush art in the magnitude of this trope. A fifteen-year-old at 144cm, she's not short by Yonkoma standards, as she's still (slightly) taller than the Izumi-Kobayakawas and Nodamiki, but her proneness to really childish mood swings makes her look more like she's only seven. Part of the series' premise was on her trying to grow out of this.
 * Second Year Protagonist: In Hoshimittsu
 * Sleepyhead: Of the hardworking subtype.
 * Shrinking Violet: Initially. The first episode of 365 shows her in-a-single-day Character Development in a highly symbolic manner.
 * Super Drowning Skills
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: In later manga strips she has the tendency to think things in terms of Shoujo manga. In one incident she even tries to break an awkward silence with then-newcomer Nazuna by trying to hold her hands in true shoujo style, much to the latter's confusion. Or maybe it's how the way her arm stretches to close the gap that does it.

Miyako
"Voiced by: Kaori Mizuhashi"

Yuno's best friend and next-door neighbor from Room 202, Miyako is bubbly and cheerful to the point of ditziness. Nevertheless, she's also thoughtful and considerate, especially toward Yuno. She takes life's happenings in stride and likes to drag the other girls along for the ride. She is the most talented member of the main cast and can easily come up with interesting works (or interpretations thereof), but is often plagued by lack of cash, so she always tries to save money, falling just short of mooching off the other girls. Her symbol is a cat's paw, in line with her independent personality.

""Surprisingly, she does good in school!""
 * Allergic to Routine: In contrast to Yuno, a Creature of Habit.
 * Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Subverted: her ADHD-esque behavior doesn't seem to affect her functionality; she appears to be the most talented among the Four-Girl Ensemble, both artistically and academically. Yes, she has the attention deficit and hyperactivity, but not the dysfunction.
 * Big Eater: If given the chance.
 * Brilliant but Lazy: She's not Book Dumb, but is prone to dozing off in class.
 * Book Dumb: Subverted -- she may seem to be ADHD-afflicted, but her grades back in junior high were so exceptionally good she exempted the academic portion of Yamabuki's entrance exams. It's just that others believe her "I came in through the back door" joke. This subversion was lampshaded in character sketches:


 * Genius Ditz: Miyako may look like a Genki Girl with an attention span problem and is frequently subjected to Sae's snarks, but her artistic abilities are certainly levels above the rest of the Four-Girl Ensemble, and also does well in academic subjects.
 * Genki Girl: While she's prone to sleeping in class and can sometimes sleep for twelve hours in one go, once she is awake, she's quite energetic. One episode shows her coming into Yuno's apartment, showing no signs of having awakened two minutes ago; another has Yuno pointing out that she's hyper even in the morning. "That was quick!" is a common reaction to her actions, whether she's eating or making (usually impromptu) art. But despite all her teasing, she's a likable person, a good friend... and surprisingly does well in school.
 * Idiots Cannot Catch Colds: She may be a Genius Ditz, but she is still invoked this once to herself, when Yuno fell ill, and even when she was in the admission interview of Yamabuki.
 * Lampshaded in the Fever Dream Episode (and the corresponding manga chapter), when all the eight classmates around Miyako were struck down with the flu.
 * Innocently Insensitive: At least some of the time, particularly with regard to Hiro's weight and eating habits.
 * Power Blonde
 * Perpetual Poverty: She's generally low on cash, such that in one strip, since she didn't even have 300 yen for lunch, she decided to drink water instead. Her apartment has the lowest rent because of damages, including a leaky roof.
 * Second Year Protagonist: In Hoshimittsu
 * Sleepyhead: Of the Cloudcuckoolander subtype

Hiro
"Voiced by: Yūko Gotō"

Hiro lives at Room 101 and is, together with Sae, Yuno and Miyako's senior at Yamabuki High. She is a gentle, warm girl and mother-figure to the other girls at Hidamari Apartments. She loves cooking and other girls often assemble at her room for some feast. Her extremely close relationship with Sae at times makes the other girls tease her for acting like Sae's "wife". She constantly worries about her weight and is often on a diet, even though that doesn't go well with her culinary hobby and love of sweets. Hiro's symbol is a silhouette of her fluffy hair.


 * Expressive Hair: Her hair is so animated as to be almost alive. Sometimes it happens when she gets excited or agitated, but sometimes it's just to add a little motion to an otherwise still shot.
 * Gender Blender Name
 * Not a Morning Person: Particularly evident in the portrayals of the "morning exercise club" in Hoshimittsu; she's the last to join as she's still fast asleep when the others have woken up.
 * Odango Hair
 * Post-Stress Overeating: Often falls into this after arguments with Sae.
 * Redheaded Hero
 * Second Year Protagonist: Before Hoshimitsu
 * Sweet Tooth: Like eating meal replacements with sweetened condensed milk.
 * Team Chef
 * Weight Woe: Excessively insecure over her weight and figure, but that's something not so visible, considering Ume Aoki's style.
 * Why Did It Have to be Ghosts?

Sae
"Voiced by: Ryoko Shintani"

Hiro's best friend and next-door neighbor from Room 102, as well as Yuno and Miyako's senior. She is a good writer and can often be found pulling all-nighters in an effort to meet yet another deadline. Luckily she can rely on Hiro to take care of her in such times of need. Since she's rather masculine, she often teasingly gets called Hiro's "husband", which embarrasses her highly. Sae's symbol is her pair of glasses, establishing her as the more intellectual of the girls.


 * A-Cup Angst: Most noticeable in her rant when she and her classmate baked cream puffs, as well as her response when Hiro and Yuno discuss her choice of '2D arts'.
 * Berserk Button: Any doubts on her gender.
 * Bifauxnen: Relatively mild, but enough to make Miyako make fun of it.
 * Blind Without'Em: Once mistook a soup ladle for a clam from a foot away without glasses.
 * Cannot Spit It Out: She has trouble telling her little sister Chika how much she really cares for her.
 * Cool Big Sis: Subverted. Her inability to express her concern for Chika is mainly due to her dsire to play the Cool Big Sis front even though she isn't. Lampshaded when she repeated the entire thing with Yuno, and failed miserably.
 * The Ditherer: At least regarding of what to major in college; studying art distracted her. On the other hand, she hides it.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Half Truth: She wasn't entirely lying about having experience riding doubles on a bike with someone close while in junior high.
 * Instant Book Deal: She seemed a bit too successful as a writer for her age.
 * Most Writers Are Writers
 * Second Year Protagonist: Before Hoshimittsu
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
 * Tsundere: Her failure to mention her sisterly feelings feelings for Chika and (probably romantic) affection for Hiro also often make her fit this trope.
 * Tsunshun: Towards Chika.
 * Tsurime Eyes: however, the art style makes it less conspicuous.
 * Urban Legend Love Life: As a writer of romance novels, her co-tenants naturally question her love life. She claimed to have had eight boyfriends in junior high, needing to switch everyday, if not having wait lists. While the rest of the characters realize that it is a bit too ridiculous to be true, they are nice enough not to call her out on it.

Nori
"Voiced by: Hitomi Harada"

Nori from Room 203 is one of the latest batch of newcomers at the Hidamari Apartments together with Nazuna, with whom she soon became best friends. She is energetic and outgoing, but also has a somewhat sarcastic streak. Her reputation as a computer whiz quickly garners her the respect from the other girls. Although she usually speaks "normal" Japanese, she also masters the Kansai Regional Accent, which becomes evident when she converses with a friend from her home town. Her symbol is a computer mouse, since she is the only girl who knows how to deal with computers.


 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Flat What: She's the only cast member who ever really makes this kind of face, and almost every time involves Nazuna in some way.
 * The lone exception so far involved the landlady.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: She almost has a freak out when creating some wordplay on "curtain" and realizing no one would get it/it's not that good.
 * Kansai Regional Accent: Exposes this when talking with a friend over her computer. This also shows up on her daily speech once a while, but otherwise she usually hides it pretty well.
 * Moment Killer: Though she doesn't have many quirks, she often tends to freely speak her mind on what she observes, sometimes unintentionally ruining the mood by saying one thing too many in conversations. Sometimes she catches herself after she does this and tries to rectify things, only to end up further killing the mood.
 * Only Sane Man: She can be said to be devoid of any personality quirks, especially compared to other tenants.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Nazuna
"Voiced by: Chiaki Omigawa"

Together with Nori, Nazuna from Room 103 is among a new batch of tenants in the Hidamari Apartments. She's shy and withdrawn, to an even greater degree than Yuno, and often needs encouragement from other girls for daily activities. The fact that she was abandoned by her parents at the Apartments only makes things worse. She's very popular with the boys, but rarely seems to act upon it. She does not attend Yamabuki's art department, despite general interest in the other girls' activities. She has her hair bands as a symbol.


 * Character Development: Her shyness downgraded from Fragile Flower to Shrinking Violet as time goes on.
 * Dude Magnet: Ever since kindergarten.
 * The Eeyore: About half of the time -- although she can be a sweet girl too.
 * Hair Decorations: Her jiggly hairbands.
 * This and Dude Magnet combined into an In-Universe Memetic Mutation, where her headbands became the "popular hair".
 * Fragile Flower > Shrinking Violet
 * Parental Abandonment: Nazuna lives near Yamabuki, so why is she living in Hidamari now?
 * Parents as People
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl
 * The Woobie: In-Universe; that's exactly the reason why she's a Dude Magnet.

Yoshinoya
"Voiced by: Miyu Matsuki"

Miyako and Yuno's homeroom teacher. An exuberant young woman who often gets into hijinks which frequently provoke the Principal's scorn. She loves to dress up in self-made costumes and posing on holiday cards for her students, earning her a reputation for eccentricity. Still, she has her heart in the right place and is always very concerned about the wellbeing of her students. For instance, she has no qualms posing in front of her students to help them along with an assignment -- naked, if needed.


 * Adult Child: She lives with her parents, has outright declared she's always seventeen, and is freaked out at the prospect that Yuno might mature earlier than her.
 * Art Imitates Art: She has made imitations of Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo by substituting herself as the model.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: The reason she is still in Yamabuki, despite the Principal's disdain for her childish antics, was because the latter acknowledges her great teaching talents.
 * Cosplay Otaku Girl: She uses her Cosplay tendencies for everything from modeling for her art class to making personalized greeting cards. She is very offended, however, at the suggestion that this is cosplay.
 * Ditzy Genius: She may be the most exaggerated airhead in the entire cast but she's a one-woman sweatshop.
 * Hime Cut
 * Hot Teacher
 * Lovable Sex Maniac
 * Sensei-chan
 * Shameless Fanservice Girl

The Principal
"Voiced by: Yuuichi "Cho" Nagashima"


 * Bad Ass Old Guy: Despite having a noticeable case of the shakes, he is certainly agile in all kinds of physical activity.
 * The girls witness him walking across the school grounds with groceries and deduce that he lives in the school (they also inform poor Yoshinoya about this fact later), causing them to admire his dedication. At the same time, the audience is clearly shown that he exits the school via a staff gate that is just out of their sight.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: While he's clearly disparaging of Yoshinoya's childish antics, he nevertheless allows her to remain in school out of recognition for her great teaching talents. He gives some pretty inspirational speeches as well, though the students (being students) never seem to catch on.
 * Would Hit a Girl: Constantly bops Yoshinoya on the head.

The Landlady
"Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro"

Owner of the Hidamari Apartments.


 * Bifauxnen
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"
 * Hoist By Her Own Petard: Invoked by her in the second SP special when she.
 * Smoking Is Cool: Her chain smoking is generally depicted as this, despite her efforts to quit.

Natsume
"Voiced by: Misato Fukuen"

A girl from the Arts B class that acts like a Schoolgirl Rival for Sae. It turns out that it was only a facade to hide her romantic feelings.


 * Cannot Spit It Out: She is sending Sae mostly confusing messages, although it's admittedly quite hard to get through Sae's obliviousness.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: To a very mild degree, according to the Volume 4 special. Her jealousy of Sae's closeness with Hiro and the fact the two share the same class (and apartment building) manifests in her contrary reactions to Sae.
 * Green-Eyed Monster: A reason of her Tsundere tendencies towards Sae.
 * Hopeless Suitor: With regard to Sae.
 * Luminescent Blush: She gets these around Sae. Episode 6 of Hoshimittsu takes this to ridiculous levels, when her blush is visible from the back of her head.
 * Trying Not to Cry: Apparently that's why she became such a Tsundere towards Sae, according to the Natsume special in Volume 4.
 * Tsundere
 * Tsunshun: Towards Sae.
 * You Gotta Have Green Hair

Chika
"Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya"

Sae's younger sister who is of the same age as Nori and Nazuna. Unlike Sae, she is energetic but is more into music and home economics.


 * Ascended Extra: She is only referred to in the manga, and isn't even named there.
 * Upgraded to Canon Immigrant as of the June 2012 chapter.
 * Genki Girl
 * You Gotta Have Lilac Hair

Ume-sensei
"Voiced by: Ume Aoki"

A Metapod-lookalike that never interacts with the other characters or influences the story in any way, it's actually the manifestation of Ume Aoki, the series' Mangaka.


 * As Herself, even when voice acting is concerned.
 * Author Avatar