The Matsuno household one day had the pleasure of welcoming not one, not two, but six children into their home. The group consists of the vain Osomatsu, macho Karamatsu, the voice of reason Choromatsu, cynic Ichimatsu, extroverted Jyushimatsu, and the lovable Todomatsu. Despite being over 20 years old, all of them are unemployed and lazy; and are enjoying the life of a NEET. On the odd occasion that they do land job interviews, their eccentricities do them no favours and bring them swift rejection. The brothers’ daily lives are filled with crazy adventures and with six identical but vastly different characters, there is no such thing as an uneventful day in the Matsuno household.

Our favourite Matsuno for today is none other than the energetic and extroverted Jyushimatsu, the 5th born of the Matsuno family. He’s almost always seen with his mouth wide open and a trademark smile with his tongue showing. Jyushimatsu is the loudest of the sextuplets as a child and as an adult, he is happy and hyperactive – pretty much all the time. Jyushimatsu is a friendly, straightforward and a bit of a crybaby. Despite being taken advantage of due to his childlike personality, Jyushimatsu is possibly the kindest of the sextuplets.

20-year-old Tada Banri is a college student enjoying his new life in Tokyo; “new” because he has no memories of who he was prior to his college days due to an accident he suffered on the day after his high school graduation party. With his new best friend Yanagisawa Mitsuo, Banri adjusts to college life, at least until the beautiful Kaga Kouko makes her debut in his life, sparking the beginning of an eventful year for Tada Banri and perhaps, springtime too...

Kaga Kouko is an obsessive, energetic and somewhat ditzy young woman who is in love with her childhood friend, Yanagisawa Mitsuo and is also a freshman law student at the University of Tokyo. Kouko’s high energy drives most of her less-redeeming features; she devotes herself wholly to locating Mitsuo and has a one-track mind in that regard, letting her feelings be known regardless of the presence of other people. She is at first, loud and overbearing and for most people, Kouko seems quite intimidating.

Yukihira Souma has helped out as a sous-chef in his father’s diner ever since he was a child, and now at 15-years-old, Souma dreams of one day being the owner of the restaurant as head chef. His dream is put on hold as his father decides to close the restaurant and go on a pilgrimage to test his cooking abilities, and sends Souma to the highly-prestigious Tootsuki Culinary Academy, a cooking school where less than ten percent of the students graduate. Famous for its “Shokugeki” or “Food Wars”, intense cooking battles that happen between students, Tootsuki Academy brings an environment that puts Souma’s cooking background to the test. Can Souma climb to the top and become one of the best?

Yukihira Souma; a highly self-reliant, self-confident and self-assured character who backs his own abilities to no end. While it may seem that he is out of his depth at Tootsuki, having accumulated his cooking experience at a “lowly” diner, Souma very quickly makes friends (and enemies) at his new school. Souma is incredibly friendly and quirky, often brushing off the negative comments he receives from classmates. His outgoing personality allows him to make friends out of enemies, as he has done with Mito Ikumi and Nakiri Erina (although she may not want to admit it). Souma expertly manages to dazzle people with both his cooking and his energy.

In the scientific and educational hub known as Academy City, the ESPers are a well-known and accepted scientific phenomenon. One day, Kamijou Touma finds a young girl dressed like a nun hung out on his balcony to dry. She introduces herself as Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a walking library containing over 103 000 forbidden magical texts. Being from Academy City, Touma doesn’t believe the young girl he now calls Index; however, when a magician from the Church of England attacks and fatally wounds Index outside Touma’s apartment, Touma is forced to at the very least entertain the idea that magic may not just be an aspect of folklore.

Index is an adorable white-haired girl who spends most of her time freeloading in Touma’s room and eating his food. She is incredibly energetic and excitable, leading to highly eventful days for Touma. Index has a knack for self-sacrifice and this has earned her many valuable friends in the past. Index’s gentle and friendly personality allow her to make friends fairly quickly, often offering to allow people she had just met to accompany her and Touma, evident in the way her relationships with Kazakiri Hyouka and Meigo Arisa began.

Human beings live their lives mindful of the ever-present threat of the Ghouls; creatures that feed on human flesh but are capable of seamless integration into human society. 18-year-old Kaneki Ken’s life is turned upside down when his date with a young woman turns out to be a date with a notorious Ghoul. When all seems lost, a somewhat fortunate accident leaves his assailant dead and Kaneki in the hospital. Only later does Kaneki realise that the incident leaves him half-Ghoul, part of a dark and violent world.

Nagachika Hideyoshi, affectionately known as Hide, is Kaneki’s best friend and has been so ever since they were just nine years old. Hide is fairly energetic and is seldom seen without a smile on his face. Hide is a fan of cute girls and evidently has no qualms about approaching them, like when he and Kaneki were having coffee at Anteiku and in addition to his coffee, Hide wanted to know the waitress’s name and whether or not she was dating anyone. His outgoing nature is made apparent when he first met Kaneki, approaching him out of the blue because he saw Kaneki all alone and since he was new to the school, thought it would benefit them both if they became friends.

After watching Karasuno High School’s ace dubbed “The Little Giant” in action, Hinata Shouyo was inspired and sought to revive his middle school’s volleyball club. After suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of Kageyama Tobio, the so-called “King of the Court”, Hinata vows to surpass Kageyama and subsequently enrols at Karasuno High and joins their volleyball team, only to come to the realisation that Kageyama has also come to attend the same school.

Karasuno’s last line of defense on the court is none other than the very capable Libero, Nishinoya Yuu, often called “Noya-san” by his teammates. Noya is extremely excitable and is incredibly impatient, being described by Tanaka Ryu as someone who “gets too fired up”, but on the court, Noya is capable of assuming a more serious demeanour to support his team, a fact for which he is greatly respected. Surprisingly, Noya-san is shy when it comes to speaking to girls; however, that is as far as it goes, he is otherwise a character who is incredibly temperamental, spontaneous and is generally energetic and often attracts attention through his crazy antics, especially when those antics involve the team’s manager, the beautiful Shimizu Kiyoko.

Arima Kousei was a promising young pianist from a very young age, but after the death of his mother, he loses the ability to hear his own piano playing and avoids the piano as much as he can. Two years later, his colourless life is given a new hue when he meets the beautiful violinist, Miyazono Kaori, who is hellbent on putting him back onto a musical path. Now Kousei must embark on a personal journey that will force him to face his fears and the past that plagues him.

Miyazono Kaori is an energetic, eccentric free-spirit who is also an incredibly capable musician. She believes in letting her personality shine through the score as she plays it, choosing to emphasize emotion and artistry over trying to replicate the musical scores she plays. Her friendly, happy-go-lucky personality and her passion for music often inspires people around her, evident with the fact that her free-spirited approach (in addition to intense motivation from Kaori herself) inspired Kousei to play the piano again.

Handa Seishuu is a promising young and handsome calligrapher who in a fit of rage, because he labelled his work as “unoriginal”, punched a veteran calligrapher in the face. As a result of the misdemeanour, Handa’s parents saw it fit to exile him to the Goto Islands, a rural area which boasts a completely different life to the comfort he enjoyed in Tokyo. Now in a new environment, Handa must come to terms with what it means to produce work that he can truly call unique, all while trying to find the inspiration that will help him do so. But with wacky neighbours and a noisy, nosy seven-year-old frequenting the new space he calls home, Handa’s experience as part of the community becomes one that teaches him more than he could ever have hoped to learn.

At seven-years-old, Kotoishi Naru is the embodiment of curiosity and the words “noisy neighbour” incarnate. She is an energetic and cheerful, as a child should be, and enjoys nothing more than playing around. As testament to her playful and rambunctious personality, Naru has many friends and often gets into trouble for her various escapades, many of which involve Handa. Naru also sports an adventurous side and enjoys collecting odd things such as bugs and seashells with creatures still living within. She spends so much time at Handa’s home because it used to be her “base” before Handa moved in, a situation which has Handa babysitting in addition to finding a new way to exhibit his craft.

Kyon is a typical high school student who doesn’t particularly believe in the supernatural, but upon meeting the eccentric Suzumiya Haruhi, who wholly believes in all things supernatural like aliens and ESPers, Kyon’s fairly boring high school life changes. After inspiring her to make her own school club, Kyon is forced to join the club known as the SOS Brigade, which specialises in all things supernatural. Recruited alongside the quiet Nagato Yuki, timid Asahina Mikuru and the ever-smiling Koizumi Itsuki, Kyon goes on crazy adventures due to their eccentric leader and is forced to suffer a high school life that is anything but boring.

Haruhi is a bright and highly energetic high school student who is also headstrong, impulsive and somewhat egotistical. She has an incredible talent in making people do what she wants despite her eccentricities, which explains at first how she manages to create her own club and somehow also manage to persuade four individuals to join that club. Haruhi’s intense personality can be described as overpowering and the members of the SOS Brigade have their hands full with their unpredictable and often unreasonable live-wire of a leader.

Ichinose Hajime’s ordinary life changes forever when she receives a NOTE, a small book which enables her to transform into one of the legendary Gatchaman, the protectors of Tachikawa City. The Gatchaman are warriors who exist to protect humanity from the MESS, extra-terrestrial beings which bring ruin to everything they touch. Now that she knows their purpose, can Hajime help her new team prevent chaos from befalling the world?

Hajime’s carefree eccentricity causes her teammates to believe that she is incompetent but her friendly nature, coupled together with her incredible insight, allows her to completely change the purpose of the Gatchaman by coming to understand the MESS better. In their initial missions, Hajime displayed a desire to get to know the MESS, giving them the “-chan” honorific as a sign of affection. Her curiosity and friendly nature are what also allows Hajime to even try her hand at coming to understand the evil Berg Katze, showing that Hajime’s friendliness, honesty and outgoing nature allow her to even befriend aliens.