Nana to Kaoru/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Sugimura Kaoru

A sullen, unattractive slacker who's a childhood friend, next-door neighbour and former rival of Nana, Kaoru has been nursing a crush on her for an unspecified time before the start of the story. He used to be on par with her without trying until middle school, when her hard work and dedication to a goal began to pay off, leaving him struggling to catch up. As a result, he stopped trying and resigned himself to watching and urging Nana on from afar. He discovered BDSM around the same time.

Most of the time, he can be found hanging with his buddies in 2-F. Usually discussing porn. Nicknamed "Creepy-mura" by the rest of the class.


  • Adorkable
  • Beady-Eyed Loser
  • Brilliant but Lazy: He has the ability, but little motivation after his rival left him so thoroughly behind. In addition, if you get him onto a subject he is interested in (BDSM), he's downright erudite about it.
  • Character Development
  • Chivalrous Pervert: He'll push Nana to the edges of her boundaries... but no further.
  • The Eeyore: Committed to the belief that he's unworthy of Nana, and resigned to his fate as an underachieving loser that'll be left behind once Nana graduates.
  • Fan Boy
  • Gonk
  • Grumpy Bear: He's not happy about being a romantic lead.
  • Insecure Love Interest: Because of a lot of tropes here, especially the two below... this applies to him. But not in Black Label.
  • I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: He is absolutely, soul-crushingly terrified of losing Nana, to the point that he completely misses out the increasingly obvious fact that Nana's in love with him.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
  • Jerkass: Unpleasant towards everyone, particularly towards his mother...
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: ...but he does have a huge soft spot for Nana.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper
  • Mr. Exposition: Particularly in matters of BDSM.
  • Not So Harmless: He appears as a beady eyed gonk loser... but everyone forgets that up until his massive self esteem failure, he was Nana's scholarly rival. Nana, who is the top of her class and aiming for Toudai.
    • The Student council president's sister has to pull the pres. aside and point out just what Nana's coded messages meant -- he's not just a loser who is bothering Nana, he's Nana's boyfriend, although neither of them realize it.
  • Oblivious to Love: Has no clue about Nana's feelings. To be fair, neither does she - his or her own.
  • The Slacker
  • Took a Level in Badass: By the midpoint of the series, his daily jogging has put him in very good shape -- he is able to run several miles around town searching for Nana without breaking a sweat, while the all-round perfect Bishonen student council president is left out of breath and near collapse.
  • Tsundere - Type A (tsuntsun): Kaoru doesn't really associate with anyone else outside of his personal friends in class 2-F, Nana, Tachi and his mentors in Tachibana and Sarashina (eventually, the last four come over the course of the stroies), isolates himself to some degree and is rather hostile for most of the day (even to his own mother). That said, Nana is the only subject/person that can pierce his apathy. He cares about her deeply, to the point that he is less and less of a Type A with each passing arc of the story.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Roped in to play the part of a short, ugly girl in the school play.
    • I see what you did there.

Chigusa Nana

Gorgeous, top student, athlete, hardworking vice-president of the student council - Nana is near the top of the heap in school. She drifted apart from her childhood friend Kaoru once she dedicated herself to becoming a lawyer (ironically, his encouragement provided the impetus). She doesn't have much of a life outside of school and studying, though, which is why she finds it difficult to relax and take a break.

Her headstrong and imperious personality meant that Kaoru was likely her only friend until high school (and being assigned to the student council), as she tended to scare people off.

  • Anime Fan Speak: Kaoru calls her a Bishojo in the first episode of the anime.
  • The Ace: She would be an ace, were it not for the fact that she excels in school only. Her studying doesn't leave much time for anything else. Later we see that she's closer to a Broken Ace, due to the pressure she feels from her mother and classmates.
    • It could be argued that BDSM helps her stay sane by stepping out of all her expected roles.
  • Attractiveness Isolation: She has a form of it, more or less due to be being something of an Iron Lady and having Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training (details below)
  • The "B" Grade
  • Brains and Bondage
  • Break the Haughty: Many of the things Kaoru says during "breathers" seem to go in this direction, especially the spanking session which she agrees to for causing Kaoru to have make up classes during winter break.
  • Covert Pervert
  • Dog Girl: In chapter 70.
  • Hair Decorations: A white ribbon tied in a big bow.
  • Foot Focus
  • Generation Xerox: Virtually identical to her mother.
  • Hollywood Pudgy/Big Beautiful Woman - She is very curvy, yet very attractive to the point of being a....
  • Hello, Nurse!: Subverted. All the boys want her, but don't dare to approach because she's an...
  • Iron Lady
  • Lethal Chef
  • Meganekko
  • Ms. Fanservice
  • Oblivious to Love: Oh, so much. You can't stop thinking about him, you say? He's always been there for you? And you mentioned spacing out at the thought of your next session? *Beat* You don't read much fiction, do you? Look below, she doesn't.
  • Parental Abandonment: Her father is divorced and never mentioned and her mother's almost never home, leading to one or two...
  • Parental Issues
  • Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training - What starts the plot, in a way, is this trope at play. She studies to such a degree that she doesn't really know how to relax, unwind, and not be in a position to study. The cause of this is her aspirations in becoming a lawyer.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
  • The Tease
  • Tsundere - Type B (deredere): At the start of the manga, this is Nana. A compassionate, devoted individual to almost everyone around her. Save for Kaoru, whose initial hostile manner seem to toss her for a loop and bucks against her own headstrong personality (causing a Type A streak as a reaction). This changes over the course of the mangas - the more that Kaoru opens up to her through the "breathers", the more she (unknowingly, at first) gushes about him to others and grows concerned about his well being.

Kaoru's Mother

A nurse at a local hospital. While she disapproves of her son's interests and wants him to stop wasting money on porn and sex toys, she still cooks and takes care of him.

  • Gonk: Kaoru takes after his mother, although this was toned down as the manga progressed.
  • Parental Abandonment: Isn't nearly as bad as Nana's mother, but has to leave him alone a fair bit.

Hiroshi

The student council president and rival for Nana's affections.

Yagami

Sister of the student council president; she's quite perceptive and can tell almost instantly that Nana and Kaoru share a bond. She isn't above telling her brother what she knows either.

  • The Matchmaker
  • Sempai-Kohai
  • Smug Snake: She's not as bad as her brother, but she still tries to help him win Nana over, despite recognizing almost instantly there's something going on between them.

Mitsuko Tachibana

Lustful and energetic owner of a porn shop. Acts as a mentor and introduction into the deeper world of BDSM for Nana and Kaoru. She's also the personal slave of Kaoru's favourite BDSM author, Sarashina-sensei.

Ryoku Tachi

A student athlete at a nearby girl's school, she first met Nana at a track meet; Nana beat her and she swore to defeat her next time. Through a series of coincidences, she discovered their breathers and demanded to be included in their next BDSM session, to determine whether it was as "healthy" as Nana claimed.

  • Ambiguously Brown
  • Bifauxnen: At least 2 people are convinced she's male when she's first introduced, one of them being Kaoru who she's been running with several times before The Reveal.
  • Bokukko
  • Comically Missing the Point: When Kaoru ties her up the second time instead of acting shy/embarrassed and submissive she complains that Kaoru's not tied the ropes as tight as he could have. (Although Bondage (her preferred kink) and Dominance / Submission (Nana and Kaoru's) are both equally valid kinks in the broad BDSM umbrella.)
  • Dog Girl: She's enthusiastic at playing one in chapter 70.
  • Genki Girl: Very impulsive and full of energy.
  • Peek-a-Bangs: Sometimes.
  • Pettanko
  • The Rival
    • Unknown Rival: When she first talks about their rivalry, Nana is a bit lost about it. After a few "breathers" and some one-on-one time with Kaoru while he is doing maintenance, Tachi seems to be vying for Kaoru's affections a bit... and knows that Nana doesn't have a clue about Kaoru's affections for her. Nor about Tachi's own for him.
    • Notably, while she is Nana's athletic rival, she acknowledges that Kaoru's planet-sized feelings for Nana mean he won't even consider her as an option. She's thus stepping aside and even facilitating Nana's feelings towards Kaoru, in exactly the same way as Ami from Toradora!.
  • She Ties Up Nicely
  • She's Got Legs: Seeing as Nana has both the breasts and the backside, the focus is instead on her legs.
  • Secret Keeper: For Kaoru; she is the one person that seems to truly understand how devoted he is to Nana. For both, she is also one of the few that knows that they care for each other and are oblivious to it, and well as keeping the "breathers" hidden.

Nana's Mother

A police chief, her job means that she is almost never home. Despite that, she played (and still plays) a large part in shaping Nana's life and psyche.

Nana to Kaoru: Black label Characters

Shuutarou Sarashina

Kaoru's favourite S&M author takes centre stage in the Black Label spin-off. It's his invitation to his summer home that kickstarts the story.

  • Adorkable
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Possibly on chapter 27 page 4, when Nana's freaking out before Kaoru spanks her the image on the left looks very similar to him.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: He looks like Oniroku Dan, a Japanese SM writer.
  • Not So Different: Sarashina and Karou seem to be cut from the same cloth. They share many of the same insecurities with there partners, the same worries and have the same considerations. Sarashina is more intense than Karou, which can be summed up to his long relationship with Tachibana but out side of that both are Insecure Love Interests for much of the same reasons. Tachibana refers to them as "Father and Son"...
  • Old Master
  • Write Who You Know: More or less. The plots and characters to his books are based in part on role-plays between himself and Tachibana. The session that Nana and Karou are taking part in is part of a scene to a new book of his.
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