S.A CLASS CHARACTERS
Hikari Hanazono
Hikari is the protagonist of the story. She holds the 2nd position in
school for having the best grades. Self-proclaimed as Kei Takishima's
greatest rival, she is determined to beat him in any kind of
competition. Stubborn, proud, and hot-headed, Hikari never backs down
from a challenge, especially one from Kei, and cannot turn away from
someone who asks for her help. Though she has never beaten Kei at
anything, she constantly looks for opportunities to surpass him and is
generally unfazed when he defeats her. While she is good at sports and
academics, Hikari is notably very bad at teaching and cooking. Although
she can handle her own in a fight (often against boys), Kei,
nonetheless, gets irritated whenever she puts herself in danger.
A kindhearted girl who always worries about others, Hikari sometimes lacks common sense
and tends to be unaware towards how people regard her. Her optimistic
personality, straightforwardness, and tendency to always see the good in
people sometimes prevents her from realizing the more subtle aspects of
relationships. Although Hikari is rather sensitive to others, she is
quite dense when it comes to love. She is oblivious to the romantic
feelings Kei has for her, though everyone else knows that Kei is in love
with her. In volume four, Hikari begins to fall in love with Kei,
though she does not realize it until volume 6. Hikari felt that if she
conveyed her feelings she would lose against Kei, believing that it is
all a competition. They eventually admit their feelings for one another
and become a couple in chapter 53.
Kei Takishima
Ranked first in school, Kei is the son of the CEO of Takishima
Corporation. As Hikari's undefeated rival, he likes to refer to her as
"Miss Second Place", which never fails to provoke her. He has a photographic memory
and the ability to do anything right on his first try. He usually
prefers to do things on his own until Hikari shows him how much fun it
can be to work together with others. Kei loves Hikari, a fact that he
does not deny, and has loved her since they were children. However, he
has not confessed his love to her because he knows that Hikari does not
understand those feelings and would think that he is referring to a love
between friends. Although he is stoic most of the time and always
maintains a calm facade, things involving Hikari can bring intense
anxiety out of him. It always bothers him whenever Hikari pushes herself
too hard or causes trouble, but her strong will and determination are
the reasons why he admires and respects her. He is always calm in
solving problems, but when the problem is about Hikari, he gets really
agitated. He makes several attempts to express his feelings to Hikari,
though is usually thwarted by some sort of misunderstanding on Hikari's
part. Kei eventually confesses to her openly in chapter 32 but Hikari,
somewhat realizing she may actually be in love with him, mistakens it as
a competition. Later on in chapter 52 Hikari reveals that she
reciprocates his feelings; the two start dating and become a couple in
the following chapter.
Jun Yamamoto
Jun is ranked 3rd in school and is Megumi's younger twin brother. The
son of a music producer and a talented singer, Jun loves music more
than anything else, but ironically has little talent for music. Usually
quiet and kindhearted, Jun has a split personality
which he has concealed from everyone except Megumi and Ryuu. Triggered
whenever he is kissed by a girl or receives a lot of affection, he
becomes irresistible to nearly all women and is able to charm them
effortlessly. His split personality resulted from an hypnotism program
that Jun watched as a child and first emerged when he was still in grade
six. During a date with a girl, he changed and all the other girls
around him became mesmerized by him; this led the girl Jun was dating to
hate him and call him disgusting. After he begins dating Sakura, Jun's
alternate personality emerges whenever he sees her; however, because
Sakura accepts him regardless of his personalities, Jun is able to
reciprocate her feelings for him. The only thing that can bring Jun back
to his original self is by losing consciousness.
Megumi Yamamoto
Megumi is ranked 4th in school and is Jun's older twin sister. She is
the daughter of a famous vocalist and music producer and shares her
brother's love of music. She is a cute and nice girl with long curly
brown hair, who rarely joins in disputes. Megumi is always quiet and
refuses to speak because she wants to save her voice for singing. She
usually writes on a sketchpad to communicate with others, but will speak
when deeply upset (usually in the form of a shout), which generally
have devastating after-effects. She rarely speaks to people normally on a
consistent basis with the exception of Yahiro, who encourages her to
sing. Her singing usually causes all who listen to her to get knocked
out, however Yahiro theorizes that she probably sings very well, but
that it needs to be in an open area and at a great distance. She proves
this theory correct when on a involuntary date with him, she sings to
him from the top of the stairs. She initially asks Yahiro out because
she was trying to prevent him from sabotaging Tadashi and Akira's
relationship and sings to him partly out of pity and partly because of a
'game' they are playing. However, they soon begin to develop feelings
for each other, much to Jun and Ryuu's horror. Like Jun, she is very
close to Ryuu; she can be fiercely protective of them both, and thinks
of Ryuu as much of her family as her brother. Megumi also happens to be
bad at sports and dislikes athletic activities.
Tadashi Karino
Innocent and carefree, Tadashi is ranked 5th in school. His mother, a
fierce and intimidating woman, is the director of the school and the
primary reason why he is in the SA; she told him he would be allowed to
do whatever he wanted if he became a member of the SA. He suffers from wanderlust
and frequently likes to vanish on some journey and return later for
special school events. Often, when he is frustrated, sad, or angry, he
enjoys going to a lake he had discovered when he was a child, he has
only shown the lake to a few people, among them is Hikari. Tadashi is
smarter than he looks and acts, though is usually the character who is
most often comically attacked (frequently by Akira and Kei) because of
his careless comments or reckless behavior. He loves Akira, but often
makes rude, weird, stupid or inappropriate comments that provoke her to
beat him up. Tadashi also seems to enjoy playing with puppets, is fond
of Akira's cooking, and appears to like provoking her, it is revealed in
episode 19-after Akira confesses her feeling for Tadashi in episode 18
of the anime series-that they have started dating.
Akira Toudou
Akira holds the 6th position in school and is the daughter of the
owner of an airline company. She is very fond of Hikari and cute girls,
but does not get along with Kei in particular, often comparing him to a
wild beast. Akira is very enthusiastic about her afternoon tea,
and has even constructed her own kitchen on campus. Akira apparently
loves Tadashi, but never seems to hold back when hitting him for teasing
her. In chapter 37 she finally confesses to him; though Tadashi does
not explicitly reveal to her his own feelings, he indicates he does
reciprocate. But it is shown in episode 18 of the future release of the
anime series that Akira confesses her feelings to Tadashi, Tadashi
reciprocates by hugging her and a flashback is shown that he actually
confessed to Akira when they were still young, although the latter was
unable to hear it, in episode 19, it is revealed that they are dating.
Because of Akira's parents, she often played with Kei and Yahiro
during her childhood days. She was surrounded by the most powerful
people in kindergarten, so nobody dared to approach her, since the two
are very protective. She used to envy all the other girls who were able
to play freely. She was good friends with Yahiro as a child, but due to a
misunderstanding resulting from Yahiro's protective and somewhat
selfish behavior, she avoids him whenever possible. Her dislike of him
stems from Yahiro causing her childhood friend Sayo to despise her when
her family had to move away; since Yahiro never told her, that he had
discovered Sayo had only befriended Akira because she was rich, in order
to protect her, Akira continues to blame Yahiro for the loss of Sayo.
She eventually accepts him as one of her friends again, though does not
reciprocate Yahiro's feelings for her.
Ryuu Tsuji
Ryuu holds the 7th position in school, although his test scores are a
poor reflection of his intellectual prowess. He is in 7th place mainly
because of the twins - Megumi tends to fall asleep and Jun becomes bored
during the test, which results in Ryuu focusing the majority of his
attention on them instead of his own exam. As a result, it is suggested
that Ryuu could actually be on par with Hikari or Kei. He has been close
to Megumi and Jun since they were very young; it is evident that he
cares for the twins very much and that the three of them see each other
as family. An even-tempered and kindhearted person, Ryuu loves animals,
going as far as to construct an animal enclosure, which includes monkeys
and elephants, in his own apartment and is good with children. He is
also the first amongst the S.A to discover, by accident, Finn's true
gender. After spending some time with her, it becomes evident that he is
falling in love with Finn. He is the son of the CEO of a sports company
and one of his family's clients is Yahiro's family.
