Kei Kusanagi (草薙 桂 Kusanagi Kei?)
Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (Japanese), Dave Wittenberg (English)
Kei is an 18-year-old who retains a 15-year-old body after a three-year-long "standstill", which is a coma-like state that occurs during a time of extreme emotional distress. Standstills are derived from an unknown, possibly psychological, disease that Kei and his friend Ichigo Morino have. He tends to be a very frail, shy boy, not often wanting to assert himself when need be.
After observing the landing of a UFO while on the bank of the nearby lake and subsequently observing the alien on the lake shore, odd things begin happening to Kei in connection with this alien. The next day, Kei is surprised to find, like everyone else, that one of their teachers quit and a quick replacement was found which just happened to turn out to be the alien - Mizuho Kazami. After a few more encounters with each other, Kei is taken to her spaceship where the whole situation goes from bad to worse. Upon striking Marie, a tiny computer helper of Mizuho's, it effectively is unable to perform as well as it seemed to work, which often puts the characters in strange situations if they can't rely on the help of Marie.
Eventually, after Kei and Mizuho are found in a locked storage room by Kei's uncle and the principal of the school, his uncle impulsively tells the principal that Kei and Mizuho are married. Later, Kei and Mizuho do get married, though only the paperwork is done while there was no official ceremony. This whole situation is kept secret from Kei's friends as Ichigo Morino constantly tries to pair Kei up with a friend of hers, Koishi, and all the while Kei and Mizuho's relationship and attraction for each other only grows. Kei also appears occasionally in the sequel Please Twins!, but as cameos.
Mizuho Kazami (風見 みずほ Kazami Mizuho?)
Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (Japanese), Bridget Hoffman (English)
Mizuho is a 24 year old half-Earthling who is visualy indecernable from a regular human being. She is quite attractive which while garnering the attention of the various male characters in the show, does serve to protect her secret. She comes to Earth to monitor the planet, but inadvertently she was seen by Kei just as she was landing. This leads to a catostrophic set of events that while nearly killing them both leads to a bond materizing between Kei and Mizuho. Although she did not trust him at first, she started to become attracted to Kei and eventually falls in love with him after they shared secrets about their past with one another. In a conversation with Mizuho's younger sister Maho, Kei learns that she is the youngest member of the GF Observers ever to gain a license. She is stripped of her surveyor status in episode twelve after violating several key tenents of GF Law in order to save Kei. Also from Maho we learn that Mizuho apparently has never had a romantic relationship, which is verified when she admits as much to Kei.
One of the main conflicts in the story involves Mizuho and how she tends to have great jealousy and misjudgment. While she underwent training prior to her arrival of Japanese and Earth history and customs, she was ill prepared for dealing with the social interactions of adolecents. This trouble is further compounded by her almost childlike lack of understanding of romance initailly. She even went to such great lengths as to spy on Kei while he was hanging out with a friend from school, Koishi Herikawa, in a set-up date. She does eventually realize her feelings for Kei once they begin living together and at later points of the series shows restraint and maturity that she at other times lacks. Mizuho's character can almost be though of as two personalities. The first of a well manored school teacher who is soft spoken and kind. The other, seen mostly with Kei and the Edajima's is more outgoing, opinionated, and sometimes violent! This last point can be illustrated by the events of episode 13 where Mizuho's mother held Kei hostage in a hotel.
She loves to eat Pochy, a Japanese snack food that consists of a biscuit stick covered with chocolate. She eats Pochy because it reminds her of her dead father; an empty box of Pochy was all Mizuho has left of him. Her mother and sister are also seen eating it in several episodes. Pochy is a fictional version of an actual snack known as Pocky. Her catch phrase is "Saiyūsen jikō yo!" ("This is a priority one!"). She also appears as a regular character in the same school in the sequel series Please Twins!
Koishi Herikawa (縁川 小石 Herikawa Koishi?)
Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese), Michelle Ruff (English)
She is one of Kei's close friends who also pursues a romantic relationship with Kei. Her parents own a grocery store and she often has to go to deliver food that people ordered.
Koishi has a happy-disposition to her personality and is only ever seen crying when it comes to matters that involve Kei. Also briefly appears as a cameo in Please Twins!
Ichigo Morino (森野 苺 Morino Ichigo?)
Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Julie Anne Taylor (English)
An evidently shrewd young woman who is seemingly wise beyond her (apparent) years, and who associates with very few friends. Surprisingly, even though she resembles a diminutive 15-year-old or perhaps younger, her real age is 21; her physical development was stunted due to her "standstills", in the same way that they affect Kei. She had been in a "standstill" for 6 years. Ichigo's loss of time and her sense of life cruelly having passed her by due to the illness (she wistfully reveals to Kei that she has a younger sister who is now married and expecting a child) tends to cause her to have a much more cynical and serious demeanor than is normal for someone of her seeming age, which is sometimes commented upon by her (much younger) friends.
Her keen mind causes her to suspect the too-often 'coincidences' regarding their former teacher's departure, the new one's arrival and strange events in their neighborhood immediately after that to be connected, but her much younger and guile-less friends dismiss those connections. She also features in the sequel Please Twins! as a regular character, but with a much more mischievous behavior as class president and resembling a dictator.
Also one of Kei's friends, Kaede tends to be a rather shy girl most of the time. Her physical characteristics include that she is one quarter Irish, tall (for a Japanese) and with red hair and freckles. Despite her shyness, during an accidental visit to her hotel room by a sleep-deprived Hyosuke, in which he mistakenly climbed into her bed, she awoke from a lightly inebriated slumber and claimed that he had appeared to her in a dream which now seems to have come true. She then sweetly confesses her love for him and proceeds to seduce him. The two become inseparable and are seen together throughout the series, to the point of being seen exiting a love hotel together in the OVA. Kaede also features in Please Twins! briefly.
Hyosuke aspires to attend college at Tokyo University and become a professional statesman, much like his brother. Hyousuke's demeanor is initially that of a shallow attention-seeker, but after he becomes romantically involved with Kaede, a deeper and much more sensitive and reflective side is revealed. Kaede confirms to Ichigo and Koishi that the private Hyosuke is actually a very different person; of him, she says "He's a gentleman and he's sweet." Of Kei's group of friends, he tends to be the most hyperactive of them all and often does the strangest things too. Hyosuke also appears in Please Twins! briefly.
Matagu Shido (四道 跨 Shidō Matagu?)
Voiced by: Hiroaki Miura (Japanese), Tony Schnur (English)
A rather serious student who is also into astronomy, Matagu seems to be the most hopeless of the cast, a classic 'nerd', never even getting to the point of gaining a girlfriend by the end of the series. He is much less confident and self-assured than Hyosuke, or even Kei, leading one to conclude that he suffers from crippling shyness. His stated fondest dream is to meet with 'an alien creature from outer space', totally unaware of the fact that his teacher certainly qualifies as such, and that he has had several conversations with his life's dream in a very normal setting. He even considered to confess his love to her, but his shyness put a halt to his plans. Matagu appears as a common comic relief character in Please Twins! He is portrayed as a pervert when his sister is around, who only appears in Please Twins!.
Minoru Edajima (江田島 みのる Edajima Minoru?)
Voiced by: Naoya Uchida (Japanese), Michael McConnohie (English)
Kei's uncle and doctor of the local clinic. Minoru is something of a lecherous rogue, continually making wolfish comments regarding the attractiveness of passing women. He even does within earshot of his wife, who often retaliates with a measured degree of physical violence. He is openly jealous of Kei's relationship with Mizuho and is more than a little perverted (in the Japanese sense of the word). Despite this, he often covers for and helps Kei and Mizuho out, such as moving Kei's possessions into the married couple's new apartment, purchasing a proper wedding ring for their private ceremony, and paying for an expensive hotel in Okinawa for their honeymoon.
Konoha Edajima (江田島 このは Edajima Konoha?)
Voiced by: Rei Sakuma (Japanese), Karen Strassman (English)
Kei's aunt and nurse of the local clinic. A warm, kind-hearted and quite attractive woman who puts up with her husband's behavior only so much before she starts to get really angry at him. It is evident that she is the more mature member of their pair, and is quite able to curb Minoru's wayward eye and lecherous comments with a significant look or gesture. She is not above using a small degree of force to cause her husband to 'heel' if his behavior gets too outrageous. She seems very sexually amorous towards her husband and loves him deeply. She is very supportive of Kei and Mizuho's relationship, backing Minoru's initial lie to the Headmaster about the couple being married, and then providing a second-hand wedding dress for Mizuho to wear in a private ceremony with only her, Mizuho, Kei and Minoru present.
Marie (まりえ?)
Voiced by: Tomoko Kaneda (Japanese), Sandy Fox (English)
A quasi-organic master control program for Mizuho's ship. Totally self-repairing and maintenance free. Hovers around in an inner tube and on occasion plays a miniature guitar. Due to Kei fearfully striking 'him' during an initial escape attempt when Mizuho revealed her true identity, Marie's programming became scrambled, endangering both Kei and Mizuho. Communicating partly through indistinct sounds and through gestures, Marie is essentially a portable link to the ship's operating system.
But 'he' is also capable of emotion, as witnessed by the romantic relationship formed between 'himself' and Miruru and his sorrow at their parting. Additionally, in the OVA they are implied to have sex, and both of them become embarrassed when they see others display affection. The implication provided in the series 'extras' is that Marie and Miruru are but extensions of the ships themselves, and thus are the ships. Marie also appears in Please Twins!, often eating a different brand from Pochy, called "Prech".
Masaomi Yamada (山田 正臣 Yamada Masaomi?)
Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese), Tony Oliver (English)
A quiet and shaggy male teacher whose hobby is creating human-powered planes (one of which flies successfully in the final episode, earning him a trophy). At first he appears to be something of a physically developed nerd, obsessed with his hobby. Koishi delivers him meals from her parents' grocery store. Yamada appears occasionally in Please Twins!
Maho Kazami (風見 まほ Kazami Maho?)
Voiced by: Satomi Koorogi (Japanese), Sandy Fox (English)
Mizuho's little sister, who disapproves of Kei but eventually comes to accept him. Initially, she is incensed that a member of the powerful Galactic Federation's elite Observers (which it is revealed that Mizuho has the honor of being its youngest member) would stoop to marry such an evident primitive (conveniently overlooking the fact that she is ostensibly the product of just such a union, claiming that the only time that she had ever seen Mizuho cry was when their father died; the implication of wildly different growth rates between alien and human are suggested here, as Maho is much younger appearing than Mizuho and Mizuho had stated that she could barely recall her father's appearance). Maho even attempts to use Miruru to hurt Kei. During the process, she learns just how deeply Kei loves Mizuho and vice versa, and she relents, and later actually shows him a degree of affection with a stolen kiss, but she still possesses a playfully devious nature and is not above blackmailing Kei with videos of intercourse between him and Mizuho to get what she wants.
Hatsuho Kazami (風見 はつほ Kazami Hatsuho?)
Voiced by: Yumi Takada (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)
Mizuho's mother, who is very fond of Kei. She is a self-assured, bold but subtly assertive woman. She is not above playfully teasing her oldest daughter and son-in-law, demanding to know intimate details regarding their relationship. She greatly resembles Mizuho, with the exception of having purplish hair instead of magenta, green eyes and a small beauty mark on her chin.
Shiro
Shirou Kazami (風見 士郎 Kazami Shirō?)
Mizuho's father; No image of him has ever been seen in the series. The 2009 Mars expedition ship he was a crew member of was presumed lost in space. However, a GF vessel rescued the crew. The implication, never verified, was that he was not allowed to return to Earth. One of the crew of the GF spacecraft that rescued the Mars expedition was Hatsuho, which is how they came to meet and be married. Unable (or unwilling) to return to Earth (possibly due to the Federation's strict laws governing contact with non-incorporated races) he remained in Federation space and raised a family there. The assumption is that he had attained citizenship, either through marriage or through naturalization, and at that point may have been abjured from returning. Eventually, he went on to develop a planetary contact program for Earth for the Galactic Federation. He died when Mizuho was still a child. The only thing of Earth that he had left behind had been an empty box of Pochy, which Mizuho had treasured.
Miruru (みるる?)
Voiced by: Michelle Ruff
Another computer intelligence hologram, dressed in female-like clothing. The implication is that both Marie and Miruru are in fact commlinks for the ships, themselves. In other words, the ships house self-aware AIs capable of emotions, which are reflected in the actions of the two miniature beings. Seems also to be romantically involved with Marie.
Kozue Kusanagi (草薙 こずえ Kusanagi Kozue?)
Voiced by: Omi Minami (Japanese), Julie Anne Taylor (English)
Kei Kusanagi's elder sister. In a flashback which is shown during a critical 'standstill', it is revealed that Kozue was a very bright, though possibly mentally disturbed, girl who felt that human emotions were the cause of much suffering in the world, and sought to escape them by committing suicide, which Kei had the misfortune of witnessing. The trauma of having done so and the guilt that he had felt at being unable to prevent it led to his first 'standstill'.
Natchan
Voiced by: Chinami Nishimura (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)
Known as the little girl during the summer who finds a boy (Kei in this anime, Maiku in Please Twins!) who she quickly becomes attracted to. Soon after, she finds out the person she falls in love with already has a love interest. Her dog is then pulled on the neck by the leash when she staggers away broken-hearted. She also appears in Please Twins!
Maiku Kamishiro (神城 麻郁 Kamishiro Maiku?)
Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa (Japanese), Johnny Yong Bosch (English)
The main protagonist of the story, Maiku (pronounced 'Mike' in the English dub) tends to be very secretive and stoic. He treats the two potential relatives harshly frequently calling them idiots and bossing them around, however we find out later in the series he does this to avoid getting hurt by people he cares about. Later, he warms up to them a bit more but still maintains a tough exterior. He is a computer programmer and student in high school. At the beginning of the story, he is living alone but is soon joined by Miina Miyafuji and Karen Onodera after they each trace their copies of the photograph to the house.
Miina Miyafuji (宮藤 深衣奈 Miyafuji Miina?)
Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (Japanese), Kari Wahlgren (English)
Miina tends to have a hyperactive personality and is generally outgoing. Eventually, she develops feelings for Maiku but is afraid to act on them since she might in fact be his sister. She outwardly expresses herself as happy-go-lucky, although she is actually hiding things about her past. She is actually the girl in the photo with Maiku, although she is not his sister.
Karen Onodera (小野寺 樺恋 Onodera Karen?)
Voiced by: Ai Shimizu (Japanese), Lara Jill Miller (English)
Karen is usually a very shy and timid girl who is even prone to passing out (called "The 'nyu's," for the syllable she utters before eventually passing out) when a situation gets too intense for her to handle. She frequently calls people by a title, such as calling Maiku, "Mr. Maiku", or "Maiku-san" in the Japanese version. Like Miina, she also develops feelings for Maiku, though she doesn't act on them for the same reasons as Miina. Karen is Maiku's twin sister in the anime.
Haruko Shidō (四道 晴子 Shidō Haruko?)
Voiced by: Ryoko Shintani (Japanese), Therese Nguyen (English)
Haruko is Matagu's younger sister and is usually very bubbly and hyperactive. She has a very immature personality and while she acknowledges that her brother is a pervert, she seems completely oblivious to such mature matters. She attends class 1A. She, Akina Sagawa and Futaba Mashita greet Miina and Karen on their first day of school.
Kousei Shimazaki (島崎 康生 Shimazaki Kōsei?)
Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (Japanese), Crispin Freeman (English)
He sits next to Maiku in class and becomes a bit too friendly with Maiku. He is bisexual and can be seen trying to flirt with Maiku to an extent that when Maiku needs money, he actually tells Maiku that if he stayed with him for a night, he would give as much as Maiku wanted but instead Maiku punches him as the result of many of their conversations. Surprisingly, he harbors deep feelings for Tsubaki Oribe.
Tsubaki Oribe (織部 椿 Oribe Tsubaki?)
Voiced by: Michiko Neya (Japanese), Jessica Straus (English)
She is the vice president of the student council and usually has a very serious personality. Intelligent and outgoing, gifted with a busty figure and possessing a more mature personality than the 'twin' girls, she is a source of concern for Karen and Miina as being an obvious rival for Maiku's affections. Her attempts to interest Maiku in a relationship, however, are met with Maiku's tacit plea for just friendship. It is not until she confers with (the much older and wiser) Ichigo that she realizes that Maiku cannot engage in any casual romantic relationship due to both his obligations to his new-found 'family' and his own forcibly matured, responsible nature. This causes her to gain a higher degree of respect for Maiku, and to focus her attentions on the one person she once thought too forceful in expressing his affection for her, Kousei Shimazaki. In the anime she had objected to Kousei putting his hand on her breast when they kissed for the first time. In the light novel she had been psychologically traumatized when her brother died at a young age and she had been trying to fill a void, first with Kousei, then with Maiku.
Yuuka Yashiro (社 裕香 Yashiro Yūka?)
Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese), Julie Maddalena (English)
Miina's friend from Middle school. She appears at the end of episode 9, recognizing Miina and recalling the history that Miina has been trying to put behind her. Miina comes to terms with it in episode 10, and Yuuka is seen again at the beginning of episode 11. In the light novel this section of the Please Twins! story is entirely rewritten and Yuuka is omitted, replaced with Yukiko Kachofugetsuin, Karen's rival in playing the piano.
Teacher returns
Some of the Please Teacher! characters return in various supporting roles.
Ichigo
Ichigo Morino (森野 苺 Morino Ichigo?)
Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Julie Ann Taylor (English)
She has changed a lot since the events of Please Teacher!. She has become the president of the student council and somewhat perversely enjoys getting dirt on other students. Ichigo usually avoids male companionship though, in fact, she has normal desires in this regard. This is partly due to a unique disease where she was put into a "standstill", a form of metabolic stasis similar to a coma, for six years, which stopped her aging process. The disease can be triggered by psychological stress, hence her deadpan, phlegmatic personality is a counter to prevent its onset. In effect, she appears to be a grade schooler when in fact she is much older when the story begins. Most of the details of her life are revealed in Please Teacher! and are not mentioned in this story. In the Twins anime series, there were no mention of her standstills, while the light novels make only one vague passing allusion. In the novels Morino and Matagu Shido have a history, which Morino dislikes and guards against.
Matagu Shido (四道 跨 Shidō Matagu?)
Voiced by: Hiroaki Miura (Japanese), Tony Schnur (English)
Matagu is a senpai to the main characters and tends to come off as an incestuous pervert though is otherwise good natured. His appearances tend to be for comic relief. In Please Teacher!, he is known as a quiet and lonely guy who does not have a chance with women but he is much different in Please Twins!. At the end of this series he is in the hospital, no visitors.
Mizuho Kazami (風見 みずほ Kazami Mizuho?)
Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (Japanese), Bridget Hoffman (English)
She is employed as a teacher at the school where all the characters attend. She is homeroom teacher of Class 1B. Maiku and Shimazaki are in her class. She is in fact a half-human alien. That and her secret marriage to a student, Kei Kusanagi, are the subject of the Please Teacher! series. She can be somewhat ditzy, but also very open-hearted, compassionate and sociable. In a somewhat nostalgic replay of the situation that led to her and Kei being discovered by the former Headmaster, Miina and Karen are forced to hide in the very same sports equipment locker. Marie locates them and Mizuho transports herself to it covertly, and then proceeds to counsel the two girls on the true nature behind Maiku's seeming gruffness towards them, and that it screens genuine kindness and affection for them. Her half-alien nature is never mentioned in the Twins anime, and the scene described in the previous two sentences is the only allusion to it in the anime. From the first episode it seems that her marital relationship with Kei is an open secret at the school.
Mary
Marie (まりえ?)
Voiced by: Tomoko Kaneda (Japanese), Sandy Fox (English)
Mizuho's diminutive assistant and companion. A quasi-organic systems link to the operating system controlling Kazami's cloaked and submerged starship and its transporter functions, he has been nicknamed "Fushigi-chan" ("Little Wonder" in English) by Karen for his ability to materialize almost anywhere, often after being summoned without any seeming communications device employed. 'He' makes occasional appearances in the neighborhood, at school and the protagonist's shared residence. As 'his' master Kazami does with "Pochy", 'he' enjoys eating "Prech", a snack food based on the real-life snack Pretz, for which he has an insatiable appetite. The anime establishes that, Marie's existence is publicly known and accepted (despite 'his' other-worldly appearance and demonstrated abilities such as levitation) by several of the school's students as being a part of the local UFO folklore surrounding the area, thanks to the events of Please Teacher!. It is commented by Mizuho that Marie is a frequent visitor and overnight guest at the Kamishiro residence, and is seen 'sleeping' on the same futon with the 'twin' girls.
Hatsuho Kazami (風見 はつほ Kazami Hatsuho?)
Mizuho's mother. She is a very sensual, self-assured, bold but subtly assertive woman. She appears in one chapter of the light novels, hooking onto Maiku at a festival. She does not appear in the anime or the manga.
Teacher cameos
During the series, many of the Please Teacher! characters make cameo appearances.
Kei Kusanagi (草薙 桂 Kusanagi Kei?)
Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (Japanese), Dave Wittenberg (English)
A senpai (a term roughly equivalent to mentor or senior in school) to the main characters who does not speak in the first 12 episodes (except for when he sneezed in the first episode) of the Twins series, but only in the 13th episode. Kei has the same extraordinary disease as Ichigo which caused him to be in a "standstill" for three years, so when the story begins he appears to be 15 when he is actually 18. He was covertly married to Mizuho Kazami in the original series but their marriage appears to be common knowledge in this series.
Koishi Herikawa (縁川小石 Herikawa Koishi?)
Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese), Michelle Ruff (English)
Koishi is, at the time of this series, a high school student. She is slender, with short brown hair cut straight across in back. Her parents own Herikawa Groceries and she assists there. As such, she becomes Miina and Karen's manager after the two of them obtain part-time jobs at the store, thanks to Ichigo's machinations and her longtime friendship with Koishi. She was most of the time behind the counter, out of camera sight, and is reported to be studying for university entrance exams. She is seen with Miina in episode 11, and in one, brief, camera shot in the final episode, along with Kaede Misumi. In the OVA she has a conversation with Miina where she encourages Miina to pursue a romantic relationship with Maiku, then spends the rest of the episode with Ichigo.
Hyosuke Magumo (間雲 漂介 Magumo Hyōsuke?)
Voiced by: Mitsuo Iwata (Japanese), Kirk Thornton (English)
A brash student with dyed blonde hair, Hyosuke aspires to attend college at Tokyo University and become a professional statesman, much like his brother. Currently going out with Kaede. He only appears in episode 13.
Kaede Misumi (水澄 楓 Misumi Kaede?)
Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese), Rebecca Forstadt (English)
Kaede tends to be a rather shy girl most of the time. Her physical characteristics include that she is one quarter Irish, tall (for a Japanese) and with red hair and freckles. Currently going out with Hyosuke. She only appears in episode 13 and the end of episode 12 when she and Koishi have a look at the photos that Ichigo took.
Masami Yamada (山田 正臣 Yamada Masami?)
Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese), Tony Oliver (English)
A quiet male teacher whose hobby is creating human-powered planes. He is in a secret relationship with Koishi. He is homeroom teacher to Class 1A. Miina, Karen, Haruko, Akina Sagawa and Futaba Mashita are all in his class. In this series, he has shaved his beard as a continuation from the last episode of Please Teacher!.
Natchan
Voiced by: Chinami Nishimura (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)
Known as the little girl during the summer (both in this anime, and in Please Teacher!). In this series she is seated on a lifeguard's tower, her dog seated beside her, scanning with binoculars for a boy to fall in love with. She spots Maiku and falls for him. A moment later she sees Karen and Miina, which breaks her heart. She tumbles backward off the tower, dragging her dog by the leash after her.
