Tomo-chan Is a Girl! is a brand-new romantic comedy debuting in the Winter 2023 anime season, and it features a stronger, more vivid cast of characters than its rom-com peers. Character-driven plots and drama are the heart of any romance, and Tomo-chan exceeded all expectations with its small but charming cast of characters.
In most other regards, Tomo-chan is a conventional rom-com anime with a typical high school setting, a snide best friend character, plenty of will-they/won't-they antics, with comedic misunderstandings and PG intimacy now and then as payoff. It's the lovely cast that helps make this anime -- and the characters' many quirks -- more than the sum of its parts.
Tomo Aizawa Is a Lovable & Relatable Tomboy Heroine
The titular Tomo Aizawa is the star of the show, a sympathetic and balanced character with distinct personal strengths and flaws alike. She is a classic tomboy, an energetic and tough-talking high school girl who identifies both with aggressive karate matches and a love of girly gossip, though for comedy's sake, her classmates rarely appreciate that balance. They only see Tomo's scary macho exterior -- most of all the girls. She's a lovestruck maiden who must win Junichiro's heart, but he only sees her as "one of the guys."
Tomo's relationships are a reflection of her dual nature. She dearly hopes her kuudere friend Misuzu will support her as a wise wingwoman, but Misuzu mildly disapproves of Tomo's tomboyish ways in favor of traditional femininity, causing minor friction between the friends. Tomo is more frustrated than ever that no one fully understands or appreciates her as a tough but ladylike girl with a dual nature, but she hopes her friends will come around in time.
Junichiro Kubota Is Tomo's Loyal But Dense Friend
Junichiro Kubota, usually going by Jun, is Tomo's childhood friend and a fellow karate enthusiast. He is, or at least seems to be, a typical ahodere, aka a character who's hopelessly clueless and dense about romance. Jun only sees Tomo as a guy friend of sorts, only recognizing her macho karate side and failing to see the lovestruck maiden underneath. Jun is also caught up in some wacky drama despite being a drama-averse person, such as how he used to date Tomo's friend Misuzu for three days -- which complicates his friendship with both girls.
Tomo-chan Is a Girl!'s primary male character is frustratingly dense as an apparent ahodere, but on the plus side he is protective of Tomo and, as Misuzu notes, he only smiles when he's around her. An example was when he leaped into action when a businessman made inappropriate advances on Tomo on a train. By contrast, Jun and Misuzu are tense and bitter around each other ever since their breakup.
Misuzu Gundo Both Helps & Teases Tomo Endlessly
Misuzu Gundo is caught in the middle between Tomo's and Jun's friendship and one-sided romance. On one hand, she's still bitter about Jun being an awkward boyfriend who dumped her, and she also disapproves somewhat of Tomo's tomboyish ways. Then again, Misuzu is Tomo's genuine friend and is grateful that Tomo befriended her when no one else would in her younger years.
As her darkly funny self, Misuzu both teases and supports Tomo as a weird frenemy of sorts. She might dryly poke fun at Tomo and make bitter remarks about Jun, but Misuzu would be truly happy if her two karate-loving friends fell in love for real.
Carol Olston Lives in Her Own Little World
The goofy Carol Olston sometimes acts vaguely like a bakadere, being a cheerful but bizarre student who often gets the wrong idea about things and comes up with zany, pointless schemes to deal with it. She even saw Tomo as a serious threat to her beloved Kosuke Misaki and recruited Jun's aid to take down her romantic "rival," only to botch her easy training and give up. Carol then learned to get along much better with Tomo, all jealousy forgotten, allowing her wacky bakadere ways to fully define her character.
The Rest: Kosuke Misaki, Tomo's Gal-Pals, & The Aizawas
A few other characters round out the cast of Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, and even if their roles are minor, they do a fine job bringing out the best in Tomo Aizawa and have strong on-screen chemistry with her. An example is the duo Naoko and Chiyomi, two friends who try to act tough around Tomo, only to realize the latter is the strongest girl by far, and the scariest. Both become Tomo's casual friends; she hopes to have real "girl talk" and fun gossip with them, but it's slow-going.
Kosuke Misaki is an attractive blond boy in Tomo's karate class, and he's also a childhood friend of Carol, with both of them being highly protective of one another. He's a total dandere who rarely stands up for himself, but he will take a stand for Carol's sake, and vice versa.
Finally, Tomo-chan's cast also includes Tomo's parents, the tough-guy karate expert Gorou Aizawa and Tomo's mother, the cheerful Akemi, whom Tomo strongly resembles. She inherited almost everything from Akemi, from her rough red hair to her fang-like teeth.