"Asobi Asobase" is an anime that began airing in July 2018, and is based on the original work by Suzukawa Rin. It is currently being serialized in Young Animal, published by Hakusensha, and is receiving rave reviews. On the surface, it is a yuri-esque slice-of-life story featuring cute girls, but once you open it up, it's full of surreal gags, dirty jokes, awful facial expressions, and dark humor, making it a very controversial work in a good way. In this article, we'll be introducing all the unique characters that appear in Asobi Asobase!
A brief introduction to the contents of Asobi Asobase
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
The story centers around the "Playboy Research Club," a group of three beautiful middle school girls, each with their own unique characteristics. Although they look like beautiful girls, they are all different kinds of "idiots" on the inside, and contrary to their cute appearances, they engage in hardcore gags, facial expressions, dirty jokes, and black humor. Since it is supposedly a club that studies games, a few games do appear in the story, but basically the story revolves around the three of them messing around with things that don't really make sense. Anyway, don't be fooled by the pictures, because the contents are a very high-level gag comedy (lol)
Playboy Research Club
Source: Asobi Asobase ©Rin Suzukawa, Hakusensha/Asobi Asobase Production Committee
A club formed by the three main characters of this work, commonly known as Asoken. All members are junior high school students who attend an all-girls junior high school. Originally, Kasumi formed the group to study English, but when Hanako joined, it changed into a group to study play while learning English. However, in reality, they don't really study either play or English that much.
Honda Hanako CV: Kino Hina
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
One of the main characters of this work, she looks cute, but her personality is very unfortunate. While she has a strong desire to become a real-life happy person, she also has a strong hatred for real-life happy people because she cannot get used to it herself. Surprisingly, she has good grades, her family is wealthy, and she's good at sports, but her image doesn't really stick. In the story, she's mainly in charge of making funny faces and going crazy, and the official account calls her a "scheming idiot."
Olivia CV: Nagae Rika
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha/Asobi Asobase Production Committee
One of the main characters in the story, a beautiful girl whose parents are both foreigners. Her parents are foreigners, but she was born and raised in Japan, so she can't speak English at all, and because of her appearance, people think she can speak English, which is always a hassle. Her grades are bad overall, and she only got 25 points in English. Although she looks like a beautiful girl, she has a spicy smell coming from her armpits. Officially, she's "just an idiot."
Kasumi Nomura, voiced by Yoshimi Kohara
Source: Asobi Asobase ©Rin Suzukawa, Hakusensha/Asobi Asobase Production Committee
One of the main characters of this work, she is a literary and pure-looking girl. She has large breasts that are unusual for a middle school student, but she says that there is nothing good about that. Although she looks serious, her English grades are disastrous, with single-digit scores being the norm, and her goal is to pass the Eiken Grade 5 exam. Although she doesn't like men, she is also a fujoshi who likes BL, and according to the official website, she is a "secret idiot."
Students other than Asoken
Aozora Tsugumi CV: Aoi Yuki
Source: Asobi Asobase ©Rin Suzukawa, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
A classmate of Hanako and her friends, Hanako says she is "the most beautiful girl in the grade." She certainly does look beautiful, but there are suspicions that she may actually be a boy, but the truth is still a mystery. Although there are depictions of her dating men, she also kisses Kasumi, so it seems that she has a wide sexual appetite, making her a mysterious woman whose true identity is unclear. By the way, her first-person pronoun is "boku".
Oka Ruu CV: Kanazawa Mai
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
A classmate of Hanako and friends, she is a member of the Paranormal Science Club, commonly known as Oka-ken. She's a mysterious girl who always dresses in mysterious clothes and does suspicious things, and occasionally appears and says or does occult-like things, confusing the Asoken, but deep down she's a normal, kind girl. She usually blindly engages in the occult, but when the time comes, she can be realistic.
Agri Matou (Agrippa) CV: Megumi Toda
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
He belongs to the same Oka Research Club as Oka, and is currently the only member aside from Oka. One day, he suddenly started skipping school, and according to Oka, he was transferred to Hades, the underworld, but in reality he was just absent for a hemorrhoid operation.
Student council president CV: Honoka Inoue
Source: Asobi Asobase ©Rin Suzukawa, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
As the name suggests, she is the student council president. Although she is generally a serious person, when she gets going, she can become overbearing or abnormally excited, making her a rather mysterious presence. She became student council president because she wanted to shine, but her work is surprisingly mundane, so she rarely shines and is bored.
Vice President CV: Kanazawa Mai
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
As her name suggests, she is the vice president, and those around her say she is a stunningly beautiful girl. She is a very successful girl, and is quite a capable person, having six girlfriends at the boys' school across the street, but she was originally a very plain type, and when she learned about colored contact lenses and makeup, she was awakened in many ways (sorry for not having a good image)
Shogi Club Captain CV: Maekawa Ryoko
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
As his name suggests, he is the captain of the shogi club, and he has challenged the Asoken to a fight for the club room. In reality, the club room would have belonged to the shogi club without a fight, but for some reason he challenged them to a fight to liven things up. He is good at making things exciting. As a result, he got serious about the Asoken and broke a compound bone, and now he is eager to get revenge once he recovers.
Fujiwara CV: Uchida Hide
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
A classmate of Hanako and friends who talks like "The thrill, shock, and suspense in this heart... I might open a new door...", she has a plain, Heian-looking face. However, inside she is the opposite of Olivia, someone who is not good at classical Japanese but is very good at English. When she finds out that Olivia cannot speak English and tries to ask Kasumi the truth, Kasumi pushes her against the wall, and a new door opens inside her.
Other teachers and family relationships
Higuchi Chisato CV: Maekawa Ryoko
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
"Sorry for being late, everyone" is the teacher's usual line. He is the assistant teacher for Hanako and her classmates. His subject is English. Having attended an all-girls school since kindergarten, this poor teacher has never had a boyfriend and is now older than her mother was when she was born. Thanks to Kasumi's schemes, she ended up becoming the advisor for the Aso-ken, but she seems to be enjoying it and shows up frequently.
Jinan CV: Masutani Yasunori
Source: Asobi Asobase ©Rin Suzukawa, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
Hanako's homeroom teacher and Japanese teacher. He's a pretty kind teacher, and he tries his best to put up with Hanako and her friends' pranks, but the result is often irreparable. He also has a slightly perverted side, and sometimes engages in strange behavior, such as licking the urine that Olivia had leaked and the water that she had been lied about.
Maeda CV: Okiayu Ryutaro
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
He is a butler employed at Hanako's house (Hanako doesn't think of him as a butler, but says he's something she hires), and he is overprotective of Hanako and rushes to her side when she's in trouble, whether she calls him or not. During his sixth year at university, a mysterious creature modified his buttocks, which now emit beams.
Honda Kentaro CV: Fudemura Eishin
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
Hanako's younger brother, an elementary school boy. Despite being an elementary school student, he is quite intelligent and is very serious compared to his sister, who is stupid in many ways. Even though he's just an elementary school student, he may be the most sensible person in the story.
Olivia's older brother CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
As his name suggests, he is Olivia's older brother, and looks like an old-fashioned otaku. His personality and way of speaking are typical of an otaku from a while back, which Hanako and the others find quite disgusting, but he seems to get along very well with Olivia. When he takes off his otaku glasses, the area around his eyes is quite handsome, and when you talk to him on the phone or in emails, he is a mysterious presence who is very sensible and gentlemanly. Perhaps because of this, Hanako was a little worried when they exchanged messages on LINE, but it seems she was woken up from her dream as soon as Olivia showed her a photo.
Grandpa CV: Shimada Kei
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
Hanako's grandfather, and the one who hired Maeda, whose buttocks had been modified. Despite his age, he talks a lot about dirty jokes, seems to have a very strong sex drive, and seems to have a large collection of Dutch wives.
Character introduction summary!
Source: Asobi Asobase © Suzukawa Rin, Hakusensha / "Asobi Asobase" Production Committee
I've introduced the main characters to some extent, but they're all really unique and very fun characters! Although there are many adults in the show, Asobi Asobase is a crazy series in which the most sensible characters are elementary school students. However, there are many more fun characters than those introduced here, and I'm sure you'll be hooked by their strong personalities once you've seen them. In any case, it's a very entertaining series, so be sure to check it out.
