Kaoru Hanabishi
Japanese VA : Soichiro Hoshi
English VA : Dave Wittenberg

Character Description
The primary male protagonist of the series. He’s a fairly average person and he doesn’t fit the mold of the stereotypical male hero in most harem anime series. For the most part, he’s shown to be a fairly good student, and isn’t prone to emotional outbursts unlike other leading males in harem anime. He’s generally well liked and is a member of the photography club at Meiritsu University. He harbors a deep dislike for the Hanabishi clan due to their inhumane treatment of himself and his mother, which was due in turn to that clan’s disapproval of his parents’ relationship and resulted in Kaoru leaving the clan. Kaoru’s mother and father never married, and he was an illegitimate child. His back is scarred from when he was tortured with a bamboo cane for trying to prevent his grandfather from burning mementos of his dead mother.

Aoi Sakuraba
Japanese VA : Ayako Kawasumi
English VA : Michelle Ruff

Character Description
The primary female protagonist of the series. She’s generally very shy and demure. Also, she’s usually portrayed wearing a kimono; specifically, an indigo one. Because she’s a very good cook and keeps her house in a very clean state, she’s seen as a Yamato Nadeshiko (traditional Japanese beauty). Unlike other female leads in harem anime, she works to control her jealousy and is generally successful. She’s very devoted to Kaoru-sama, however, and will do all in her power to prevent being separated from him. When Aoi, Kaoru-sama, and Miyabi moved to the Sakuraba’s summer estate the public appearance Miyabi wanted was that Aoi would be the landlady, herself the manager, and Kaoru-sama a tenant. When Tina Foster moved in, Aoi and Miyabi became a real landlord and manager. Aoi has a quiet but strong willfulness. Many viewers have mistaken this for weakness or subservience due to her mild temperament.

Tina Foster
Japanese VA : Satsuki Yukino
English VA : Wendee Lee

Character Description
Tina was born in the United States, possibly Los Angeles, California, but spent the majority of her life in Hakata, a ward in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. She attends Meiritsu University with Kaoru, and was the one who convinced him to join the photography club, of which she’s also a member. She moves into the servant house that Kaoru is staying in because she had no place to stay after returning to Japan from a year-long trip around the world. She has a habit of greeting females by groping and fondling their breasts from behind, which most people find very uncouth (and frustrates Kaoru to no end). She’s loud and outspoken and very protective of Kaoru when it comes to Mayu. She’s also very fond of drinking and has an enormous capacity for alcohol…but still pays the inevitable price in hangovers. She has a white pet ferret, named Uzume, which most of the cast finds very cute, except, initially, for Miyabi.

Tina is also an experienced swimmer, and coaches Chika’s swim team for a time during the second series.

In many respects, Tina is one of the more deeply developed — and somewhat tragic — characters of the show, despite her ditzy behavior. Being an American, and yet having been raised in Japan, she’s constantly haunted by the fact that she can never truly fit in either country. When she left Japan to attend high school in America, she explained that she was unable to fit in there because she was culturally Japanese. But she also realizes that she can never truly fit in Japan either, because of her appearance. Tina wishes that she’d been born Japanese, so that perhaps she’d have a better chance at winning Kaoru’s heart.

Tina is very deeply in love with Kaoru, but pains her heart with efforts to hide her feelings, because she thinks that he could never feel the same way about her. Towards the end of Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi she realizes that Kaoru loves Aoi, and that her own opportunity to win his heart has passed.

Her ditzy character and drinking habit could be a nod to Love Hina’s Mutsumi Otohime, who Satsuki Yukino also voices. Mutsumi’s other traits (large bust and being clumsy) were given to Taeko.

Miyabi Kagurazaki
Japanese VA : Akiko Hiramatsu
English VA : Lia Sargent

Character Description
Aoi’s appointed guardian and caretaker, she spent most of her life looking after Aoi and helping in her upbringing. She’s also very active in the running of the Sakuraba Department Store. She’s generally very strict and enforces the rules of the Sakuraba summer house as the manager. Although she initially disliked Kaoru (and all of his friends), she learns to accept him because of the feelings that Aoi and Kaoru have for each other. She is somewhat humbled in the episode where Tina is introduced courtesy of losing in a drinking game with her. She’s also very fond of breaking watermelons in the summer.

Although the impression is given that she is a tough-as-nails workaholic, she shows various signs of being a very deeply compassionate person. When the pet ferret was in danger of dying from being crushed by a gigantic heirloom pendulum clock, for all her initial dislike of the animal she raced to find a crowbar which she then used to free the ferret, which later became more attached to her than to Tina. Aoi later explains that the ferret could sense the kind-heartedness within Miyabi-san’s samurai-like demeanor.

Taeko Minazuki
Japanese VA : Kaori Mizuhashi
English VA : Philece Sampler

Character Description
Taeko is a new member of the Meiritsu University photography club and eventually moves into the Sakuraba summer house as the housekeeper after being fired from her previous housekeeping job. Her most prominent features are her very large breasts and her clumsiness. She was so clumsy that Aoi had to convince Miyabi to hire her, as she had a tendency to break a lot of valuable objects, but she tries to do her best. Taeko explains that the reason she wants to be a housekeeper so badly is because when she was very young, her father died and her mother had to raise her as a single parent. Taeko’s mother was very proficient at keeping house, and Taeko wishes to achieve the same proficiency that her mother had. She also develops feelings for Kaoru as the series progresses. She likes to put chocolate in all the food she makes, even in fish. In an episode of Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi it is indicated that Taeko has an interest in the supernatural as well as training as a miko.

Mayu Miyuki
Japanese VA : Sayaka Narita
English VA : Karen Strassman

Character Description
Something of a prodigy, Mayu attends the same college as “Hanabishi-sama” purely by accident. Meiritsu University was chosen for her by her father and she initially thought poorly of it. She is in love with Kaoru because he cheered her up at a party when she was 12 years old. At that time, Mayu’s parents informed her that they would be missing her 12th birthday because of business overseas. They gave her a stuffed rabbit that she had been asking for as a gift to make up for it. Mayu’s parents had been holding a party for their business partners, and no matter what Mayu said or did, her parents simply did not have the time for her. Dismayed, Mayu ran off into the woods, bumping into Kaoru and dropping her rabbit as she fled. Kaoru followed her and tried to cheer her up, but she exclaimed that her parents did not take care of her at all, and that they also did not love her. Kaoru then uses the rabbit (which he named “Ussaa”, a contraction of usagi, the Japanese word for “rabbit”) as a puppet to cheer up Mayu, telling her that her parents do love her very much, and that even if they do not pay as much attention to her as they should, it’s better than having no parents at all, like himself. This left a significant impact on Mayu, and she kept and cherished Ussaa to the current day. Mayu is still very lonely, because her parents are always busy working. She tries as hard as she can to do things that would make Kaoru happy, such as learning how to cook from Aoi so she could make lunch for him.

Mayu shares a rivalry with Tina, whom she considers uncouth, and whose presence she cannot stand. The two characters are opposites in many ways. Where Mayu is serious, Tina is playful. Where Mayu is uncharacteristically open in her unrealistic desire for Kaoru, Tina is uncharacteristically shy in her (almost) reciprocated love of Kaoru. Where Tina is an American who embraces Japanese culture, Mayu is Japanese and embraces Western culture. When Tina accidentally bumped into her during their first meeting, Mayu reprimanded her in English, while the out-of-practice Tina struggled to recall an appropriate retort in her native language. Even their introductions to Kaoru are mirrors of one another. Kaoru did much to lift Mayu out of her loneliness, while Tina lifted Kaoru out of his own loneliness and apathy following his defection from the Hanabishi clan.

Mayu has the habit of referring to herself in the third person when speaking. Mayu is a gifted pianist, though this is never mentioned until the Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi series.

Chika Minazuki
Japanese VA : Haruko Momoi
English VA : Kari Wahlgren

Character Description
Taeko’s younger cousin. During the summer she spends most of her time working in a cafe down by the beach. Because of this, she’s very tanned. She notices that Taeko has a crush on Kaoru and spends a lot of time trying to fix the two of them up. She’s generally upbeat and energetic, and due to her appearance was frequently compared to Kaolla Su from Love Hina. She occasionally has mild feelings for Kaoru as the series progresses, but for the most part, looks up to him as an older brother. On another note she’s been seen naked several times during the seasons by Kaoru Hanabishi.

Uzume
Japanese VA : Yuka Inokuchi
English VA : N/A

Character Description
The pet ferret purchased by Tina but eventually becomes attached to the one person who initially rejected having anything to do with it, Miyabi. Its’ arrival at the ‘boarding house’ was predictably chaotic, with its’ accidentally destructive behavior causing Miyabi to develop an intense dislike for it, partly because in the episode it is learned that the tough-as-nails Miyabi is secretly afraid of insects, and Uzume has a tendency to present them, cat-like, as presents to her. Her anger at this discovery of her secret vulnerability being made by the other residents is short-circuited by being the only one who can save the animal’s life when it becomes trapped and is in danger of dying.

In later episodes, it is seen that the ferret has been accepted by Miyabi as being, for all intents and purposes, her pet. It is often seen in close proximity to her, laying or sleeping on a pillow in Miyabi’s office.

Note : The Character guide was cited from Wikipedia.