List of Hatoful Boyfriend characters

This is a list of characters from the visual novel, web series, and webcomic Hatoful Boyfriend, and its sequel, Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star by PigeoNation Inc. The games take place in the year 2188, and the story follows the main protagonist, a girl who is the only human student at St. PigeoNation's Institute, a high school for gifted birds. There are eight love interests in the first game who along with the protagonist make up the main cast of the series: Ryouta Kawara, the protagonist's kindhearted childhood friend; Sakuya Le Bel Shirogane, a haughty exchange student and nobleman from France; Yuuya Sakazaki, a flirtatious but shifty upperclassman; Nageki Fujishiro, a quiet and mysterious freshman; San Oko, an athletic, pudding-obsessed jock; Anghel Higure, the school eccentric; Kazuaki Nanaki, the school's helpful but narcoleptic math professor; and Shuu Iwamine, the creepy, suspicious school doctor. The dating simulation portion of Hatoful Boyfriend focuses on the protagonist's interactions with each of the love interests and the relationships that result, while the darker Bad Boys Love route of the game instead follows Ryouta, attempting to figure out the identity of the protagonist's killer after she is murdered. Holiday Star takes place in an alternate timeline in which the events of Bad Boys Love do not occur, and removes the otome game aspects of the first game in favor of a more linear storyline split into four chapters—the first two chapters are largely comedic, while the latter two chapters take place on the oneiric Holiday Star.

Major supporting characters in the first game include Mister One, the school's unsociable janitor, and those introduced in the Torimi Café side storyline: Azami Koshiba, a no-nonsense takoyaki saleswoman; Rabu, a chauffeur and frequent customer of the café; and Kenzaburou Urushihara, the dapper owner of the café. The Bad Boys Love route also posthumously introduces Ryouta's deceased father Ryuuji. Holiday Star introduces Tohri Nishikikouji, the arrogant editor of an in-universe manga anthology; Miru and Kaku, an energetic pair of strange dove-like creatures; Albert Alain Alkan, Sakuya's stoic butler; and the King, an enigmatic being who rules the game's titular Holiday Star.

Character conception

As Hatoful Boyfriend was originally created to be a parody of otome game stereotypes,[1] the initial seven love interests (Anghel was first added as a love interest in the Plus version of the game) appear to follow character archetypes common for the genre: the "supportive childhood friend" (Ryouta), the "rich tsundere" (Sakuya), the "flirty senpai" (Yuuya), the "quiet, aloof one" (Nageki), the "energetic jock" (San), the "kind, desirable teacher" (Kazuaki), and the "dangerous bad boy" (Shuu). However, as the plot and backgrounds for the characters began to formulate, they were fleshed out to be "much more than what they seem to be at first glance".[1] Some of the characters' names are puns on the Japanese names of their respective species of bird: for example, Ryouta Kawara is a rock dove, or kawarabato (河原鳩) in Japanese; Shuu Iwamine is a chukar partridge, or iwashako (岩鷓鴣); and Kazuaki Nanaki is a button quail, or himeuzura (ヒメウズラ)—the character hime (姫) being present in his last name, Nanaki (七姫).

Although all characters other than the protagonist are birds and thus are represented in-game by pictures of birds, they also have designs for what they would look like as humans that resemble their bird forms; upon initial introduction of each of the main love interests in the first game,[2] these can be viewed by turning on the ICPSS (Intra-Cerebral Playback Synchro System), or NS3 (脳内再生シンクロシステム Nōnai Saisei Shinkuro Shisutemu) in Japan. Supporting characters also have human designs disclosed in the games' bonus features or supplementary materials. While Moa Hato illustrated and designed most of these forms, artist Damurushi also designed some characters' human forms.[3]

Unusually for an otome game, the protagonist of Hatoful Boyfriend is never seen; her lack of an official appearance being an intentional design choice—despite the protagonist being a character with dialogue and a specific personality rather than a blank slate for the player, when asked if the protagonist had a character design, Moa Hato replied that "[the player is] the heroine", and recommends that players "design her as [they] like".[4]

Main

Protagonist / Hiyoko Tosaka (十坂 ひよこ Tōsaka Hiyoko)
The player character and heroine of the game, her default name is Hiyoko Tosaka (十坂 ひよこ Tōsaka Hiyoko), but this can be changed by the player. She is a independent teenage girl who lives a self-sufficient, solitary hunter-gatherer lifestyle, complete with hunting her own food and living in a cave. Despite being human, she was invited to study at St. Pigeonation's Institute one year before the events of the first game and is preparing to start her second year at the school, joining class 2-3. Boisterous, impulsive, cheerful, occasionally tactless, and physically much stronger than her avian companions, she often is the more assertive one during romantic liaisons with her love interests and serves as a source of brawn rather than brains (the starting value of her Vitality stat is 800 compared to her Wisdom stat, which starts at 1) in most situations, though she can be surprisingly eloquent at times. She is murdered and subsequently dismembered at the beginning of Bad Boys Love, and Ryouta's attempt to figure out the identity of her killer is what sets off the events of the scenario. It is eventually revealed that she and Ryouta witnessed her parents, human crisis negotiators, being shot to death in a terrorist attack by human extremists on Hatoful House - an orphanage for birds whose parents were killed in the conflict between birds and the human minority.[5] As explained in supplementary materials, her primitive existence is due to the apartheid-like segregation of humans and birds; with all remaining humans being forced to live in the wilderness away from civilization.[5] In the web series, her parents are alive, with her father in particular now working as a professional wrestler.

Love interests

Ryouta Kawara (華原 涼太 Kawara Ryōta)

Species: Rock dove

Voiced by: Shintarō Asanuma (Drama CD)[6]
A rock dove and the loyal best friend and classmate of the protagonist, whom he has known since they were both children.[5] In his human form, he is depicted as a boy with dark blue hair and red eyes, distinguished by a gold wing tie pin and red sneakers.[7] He is described by the protagonist as being responsible, caring, and an excellent cook, though she also mentions that he has a bit of a mischievous streak. Despite being often ill himself with a stomach ailment and generally poor health that requires frequent infirmary visits during school hours, he works several part-time jobs after school in order to compensate for his ailing single mother's inability to work. A running gag in the series is that he often ends up dressed in women's clothing, usually for one of his many jobs but also in other circumstances; in fact, the protagonist can discover that he works part-time at a maid café using the alias Coolene (ポポリーヌ Poporīnu). By the end of his romantic route, it becomes clear that his mother's illness is terminal, and that Ryouta has been attempting to hide her hospitalization from the protagonist over the course of the game. He confesses his feelings to the protagonist after his mother eventually passes away, but expresses a reluctance to enter a relationship with her due to the difference between human and pigeon life spans—though he relents after some persuasion from the protagonist. Bad Boys Love (where he becomes the player character after the protagonist is killed) reveals that his chronic illness is not natural, but is instead the result of Shuu intentionally compromising his immune system in order to make him a suitable carrier for the deadly Charon virus and thus a living biological weapon of mass destruction; the events of the scenario occurring because of a wish he made after witnessing the Hatoful House incident with the protagonist eight years before the events of the game, something he unconsciously forced himself to forget due to the trauma.[5] In Holiday Star, it is revealed that he is in love with the protagonist regardless of whether or not she pursues him, but his storyline in the game also explores his fear of change and the existence of two facets of his personality: a "white" persona, which is the gentle, understanding one he presents normally, but also an unnervingly possessive "black" persona, which is much more vindictive and insecure regarding his relationship with the protagonist; the latter surfacing as a result of his jealousy over Nageki being her main companion during the game's third and fourth chapters.
Sakuya Le Bel Shirogane (銀＝ル・ベル＝朔夜 Shirogane Ru Beru Sakuya)
Voiced by: Akira Ishida (Drama CD)[6]

Species: Fantail pigeon

A new transfer student from France and a fantail pigeon, he is the protagonist's classmate in class 2-3 and the president of St. Pigeonation's Institute's student council. In his human form, he is depicted with silvery-blue hair and blue eyes, and wears a custom uniform featuring a tailcoat reminiscent of a fantail pigeon's feathers.[7] As a pure-bred member of the French aristocracy and heir to a noble title,[8] he is rather snobbish and disrespectful to those he views as inferior (including his older half-brother Yuuya, who he refers to as a mongrel due to him having a commoner father), though he does occasionally show a caring side, albeit begrudgingly. Despite looking down on "peasants" and "peasant activities", he is surprisingly good at domestic tasks like cleaning, and is a skilled piano player well-versed in musical history. He has a very warped outlook on Japan (with a particular fixation on samurai and ninja), and has many misconceptions about Japanese culture. In his romance route, the protagonist finds out that he has a deep love of music and secretly resents being named the next Le Bel family head, instead having much humbler goals: to become a musician, and perform for other people. However, he is still loyal to his nobleman father and refuses to consider following his dreams until the protagonist persuades him to tell his father about his aspirations, adding that she will be there for him if he doesn't accept them. In his extended ending, Sakuya runs away from home and lives with the protagonist after his father disowns him; while Sakuya prepares for his next concert, the protagonist reads a letter from Yuuya, who mentions that there is something he has been waiting his entire life to tell Sakuya. In Bad Boys Love, this is revealed to be the fact that Yuuya is actually his full-blooded brother,[8] and that the man he had believed to be his father his whole life ordered his egg to be destroyed—with him only escaping that fate due to Yuuya's fraternal love for him. His subsequent identity crisis and Yuuya's apparent death following this confession sends him into an almost catatonic state of despair; however with the help of San and Yuuya's final words to him, encouraging him to "be himself", he eventually emerges from his grief a better person. In Holiday Star, it is explained that although Sakuya is the heir to the Le Bel household, he is the actually the youngest of the family's five children - something that led to jealous family members ordering assassination attempts against him in his youth.
Yuuya Sakazaki (坂咲 優夜 Sakazaki Yūya)
Voiced by: Kōji Yusa (Drama CD)[6]

Species: Fantail pigeon

A very popular upperclassman of the protagonist in class 3-1, he is the head of the school's infirmary staff and another fantail pigeon. In his human form, he is depicted with silvery-blue hair and blue eyes, and is distinguished from Sakuya by his slightly darker hair, glasses and hair clips.[9] He is very protective of his half-brother Sakuya, despite Sakuya's poor treatment of him. Friendly, outgoing, and suave, the protagonist notes that he is a "trendsetter" and a "ladies man" as well as a flirt and a bit of a truant, though at times he shows a more secretive and coldly professional side. As he was born in France,[8] he often adds French words to his sentences, such as greeting the protagonist with salut and referring to her as mon amie. During his romantic route it is revealed that he is actually a covert operative for the Dove Party and expert in information retrieval sent to infiltrate the school and monitor Shuu, a Hawk Party researcher. Upon explaining this and other details about the setting and the true nature of the school—an experimental facility created by the Hawk Party—he then asks if the protagonist would like to join him, and they become partners if the player answers yes. Bad Boys Love reveals that Yuuya and Sakuya are actually full-blooded siblings: Sakuya's unhatched egg was ordered to be destroyed upon their mother's remarriage to the Le Bel patriarch, with Yuuya volunteering to do it after their mother found herself unable to kill her own child.[8] Instead of destroying Sakuya's egg however, he switched it with an egg laid between his mother and his stepfather and smashed the other egg, killing his actual half-brother—mostly to protect Sakuya but partly out of spite for his stepfather, who had his father assassinated in order to marry his mother. He appears to die shortly after confessing these secrets to Sakuya, but is revealed to have survived in the scenario's extended epilogue. In Holiday Star, it is implied that his outward personality is largely a cover for feelings of self-loathing regarding the nature of his employment and guilt over his half-brother's murder. He is the player character during several scenes in Holiday Star's fourth chapter, where his mental strength leads him to become a guidance figure for a number of characters. He has been the subject of several homages to James Bond: in addition to being a secret agent and skilled marksman like Bond, his ending card is titled "Yuuya Only Lives Twice" (in reference to the novel You Only Live Twice); he has also appeared in official artwork against a pastiche of the famous gun barrel sequence.[10]
Nageki Fujishiro (藤代 嘆 Fujishiro Nageki)
Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (Drama CD)[6]

Species: Mourning dove

A mourning dove and a very quiet, introverted, mysterious freshman. As a human, he is depicted with green hair, orange eyes, and a noticeably melancholy expression.[11] He is often seen cooped up inside the school library reading a book, and gets agitated if the protagonist suggests leaving the library or doing a different activity. Though he is rather knowledgeable and speaks matter-of-factly (and at times with a level of sarcasm), he appears to have no friends aside from the protagonist—in fact, his peers appear to actively ignore him, leading the protagonist to wonder if he is being bullied. In his romantic route, through his interactions with the protagonist Nageki slowly comes to realize that he is actually a ghost—having committed suicide at the school, his spirit is bound to the library (though archive documents and Holiday Star clarify that he can also move up and down on a vertical axis). He then fades away as he confesses to the protagonist, his love for her causing him to pass on peacefully to the afterlife. Bad Boys Love explores the full extent of the reasons behind his death: in life, he was a war orphan whose orphanage was attacked by human extremists in the Hatoful House incident, leaving him and his adoptive brother Hitori as the only survivors. He had a rare genetic immune disorder, an illness that allowed a deadly strain of H5N1—later dubbed the Charon virus—to colonize his body,[12] and began attending St. Pigeonation's five years before the events of the game believing that the researchers at the school's medical center would cure his immune disease. Instead, the researchers used him in experiments to kill humans with the Charon virus for Operation Hatoful; the emotional toll causing him to commit suicide by self-immolation in order to remove the virus from the world.[12] Unbeknownst to him, some of his remains survived the fire and were later used to induce the virus into Ryouta's body. In the webcomic and Holiday Star, which take place in a separate universe from the first game, Ryouta, Anghel, and San are also able to see and befriend him; he also independently comes to the conclusion that he is a ghost but cannot recall the circumstances of his death. He is the protagonist's main companion during the third and fourth chapters of Holiday Star (inadvertently spurring Ryouta's envy) which take place on the titular Holiday Star. In the web series and certain alternate universe side stories in Holiday Star, he is alive as a normal freshman in class 1-4, and is the head of the school's library committee.
San Oko (尾呼 散 Oko San)
Voiced by: Norio Wakamoto (Drama CD)[6]

Species: Fantail pigeon

Another one of the protagonist's classmates in class 2-3, San is an odd, hyperactive and short-tempered fantail pigeon and the captain of the school's track and field team. Humorously, his "human" form is depicted as being merely a turkey-sized pigeon in the St. Pigeonation's Institute school uniform.[11] He is obsessed with pudding, to the point of creating a pseudoreligion with a deity named Lord Pudi and dedicating his training to finding the "true pudding". He is incredibly athletic, and is noted to be a faster runner and swimmer than the human protagonist. Unlike the other characters who speak normally, he appears to communicate solely in translated "coo"s—as San is a comparatively older breed, he is behaviorally similar to non-sapient pigeons. In his romantic route, the protagonist struggles to get closer to him and comprehend his understanding of the concept of pudding, which appears to be completely separate from normal reasoning. He eventually drops out from school to search for the "true pudding", and the protagonist can offer to join him. In his extended ending, he and the protagonist end up discovering the fabled ruins of pudding of his pseudoreligion, and upon opening a chest there he becomes Lord Pudi—who then reveals that San was merely his mortal incarnation before engulfing the world in pudding. In Bad Boys Love, it is implied that he was admitted to St. Pigeonation's due to his unusual physical tenacity,[5] with his enhanced speed and strength coming from Hawk Party experimentation; the results of these experiments are later used to pass these traits onto a brainwashed Ryouta in order to make him a more effective bioweapon. Alongside the protagonist and Yuuya, he serves as the cast's main source of physical strength during the climax of Holiday Star. A running gag throughout the series is his penchant for using attacking moves from the Pokémon series of games, such as Wing Attack and Body Slam. He is based on Moa Hato's real life pet bird, Okosan.[13]
Anghel Higure (緋紅 アンヘル Higure Anheru)
Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Drama CD)[6]

Species: Luzon bleeding-heart

A delusional, eccentric Luzon bleeding-heart from class 2-2, the homeroom class next door to the protagonist's, and a member of the school's manga club. As a human, he is depicted with long, dark teal hair and teal eyes, with his left eye and chest covered with bandages and wearing a heavily customized school uniform.[14] He refers to himself as the "Crimson Fallen Angel of Judecca" and a former servant of God, and recognizes the protagonist as a figure from his "previous" life named Edel Blau. As such, he seems to perceive the world as something similar to a fantasy role-playing game and speaks almost entirely in difficult to understand purple prose, though some of his ramblings turn out to be strangely prophetic. He has the peculiar ability to draw people into his fantasies with him—when this ability affects the player character, it is manifested in-game as the game's normal visual novel-type interface changing to that of a 90's-era turn-based role-playing game. In his romantic route, the protagonist discovers that his real name is Yoshio Akagi (赤木 良夫 Akagi Yoshio), but he resents being called by this name, preferring "Anghel". His route chronicles the protagonist trying to understand and assist in his struggles against Shuu, who he refers to as the Dark Sorcerer Wallenstein, culminating in a RPG-style boss fight against a being named Himnesia. A running gag in the series involves Anghel breaking windows and other glass objects when entering a scene, accompanied by a distinctive sound effect; this gag becomes significant in Bad Boys Love, in which he breaks open a passage to the medical center basement in the same manner by crashing through a mirror. Shuu's romantic route and Bad Boys Love reveal that he was invited to the school as another test subject for Operation Hatoful,[8] and thus is one of the few characters aware of the true nature of St. Pigeonation's—as hinted by his directly antagonistic attitude towards Shuu, and some of his initially nonsensical dialogue. His ability to affect other people with his delusions is due to his body releasing hallucinogenic pheromones when excited, which Hawk Party researchers were attempting to weaponize—though he is also affected by the pheromones himself, causing his strange behavior.[8] He is the focal character of Holiday Star's comedic second chapter, which begins with him attempting to sell dōjinshi at Comiket; however he is absent from the third and fourth chapters due to their events occurring past his usual bedtime.
Kazuaki Nanaki (七姫 一明 Nanaki Kazuaki) / Hitori Uzune (埋音 陽鳥 Uzune Hitori)
Voiced by: Hirofumi Nojima (Drama CD)[6]

Species: King quail

A kind, patient, and slightly ditzy button quail, and class 2-3's homeroom teacher and mathematics professor. As a human, he is depicted as a curly-haired blond with droopy brown eyes.[14] He has a habit of falling asleep at random, almost improbable times, up to and including during lectures, but despite this and his apparent airheadedness (once mistaking the protagonist's recorder for her homework), he is a renowned mathematician and an excellent lecturer. In his romantic route, after the protagonist confesses, he informs her that he thought that he was unable to love again after losing someone very important to him, but implies that he reciprocates her feelings by adding that he would be waiting for her if she still feels the same way after growing up. The identity of that "someone very important" is clarified in Bad Boys Love, where it is revealed that he faked his death and assumed a new name before joining the faculty—his real name being Hitori Uzune (埋音 陽鳥 Uzune Hitori), he and his adoptive brother Nageki being the only survivors of the Hatoful House incident.[15] He then took care of Nageki alone for three years until entrusting him to the staff at St. Pigeonation's medical center after receiving a letter informing them that they could cure his disease, not knowing of their true intentions. Witnessing Nageki's subsequent suicide in the medical center basement drove him insane, his guilt over sending Nageki to St. Pigeonation's manifesting as a dark version of Nageki asking him to "bring him back" (leading him to nearly vivisect Ryouta to retrieve Nageki's remains from inside his body) and "avenge him" by killing Souma Isa, the person in charge of the experiments. He begins to let go after Nageki's spirit reminds him of his real requests and the last words he spoke to him: "live, and be happy". In Holiday Star, the circumstances behind his pseudocide and identity switch are elaborated on: influenced by his insanity and as part of his plan for revenge, Hitori stole his current appearance and identity from another button quail, a clinically depressed college student named Kazuaki Nanaki.[15] He befriended and then murdered the original Kazuaki by tricking him into making a false suicide pact, passing off the other quail's remains as his own after abandoning him to die. In the web series and certain alternate universe side stories in Holiday Star, he lives with Nageki—as Hitori, having not been driven to madness—and is class 3-1's homeroom teacher and a mathematics professor at St. Pigeonation's.
Shuu Iwamine (岩峰 舟 Iwamine Shū)
Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Drama CD)[6]

Species: Chukar partridge

A chukar partridge who serves as the antisocial, highly suspicious school doctor. In his human form, he is depicted with long brown hair tied back with a ribbon and violet eyes framed by red glasses, reminiscent of a chukar partridge's markings.[9] Cold, calculating, and always speaking in a flat monotone, he has a very poor reputation among the student body due to his perceived creepiness. He often unsubtly threatens those who disturb him, and there are many rumors that he experiments on students rather than helping them—with new quill pens being sold in the school store and poultry being served in the school cafeteria shortly afterwards. Despite these rumors, he is apparently a respected doctor and a worldwide authority on pathology, with medicine he developed assisting much of birdkind—including Sakuya's father, leading Shuu to be the only person in St. Pigeonation's Sakuya treats with respect. In his romantic route, however, he readily admits that the rumors are true, having even fed the protagonist a murdered Yuuya disguised as a Christmas turkey; he then kills the protagonist as well, keeping her head preserved in a jar out of fondness. In his extended ending, he in turn is killed by Hawk Party snipers after attempting to escape the school with the protagonist's head, now considered a precious research specimen. In Yuuya's romantic route and Bad Boys Love, it is revealed that he is a Hawk Party researcher working under the alias Souma Isa (伊佐 湊真 Isa Sōma) and was the head of Operation Hatoful,[15] developing biological weapons for use against humans. He is the main antagonist of Bad Boys Love and by extension the first game, orchestrating its events as a result of his implied feelings for Ryouta's father, Ryuuji—whose death drove him to his current state of apathetic sociopathy—and a warped sense of duty to fulfill Ryuuji's dying request to him. He takes on a much less antagonistic role in Holiday Star, grudgingly becoming the guardian of Miru and Kaku and even saving the main cast at pivotal moments (though in all instances, he is influenced in some way by Ryuuji's memory). It is implied in Holiday Star and confirmed in supplemental materials that his true identity is that of a scion of the powerful Ichijou family, Utsuro Ichijou (壱条 虚 Ichijō Utsuro), and as a child he was rendered almost completely color blind (the only color he can still perceive being red) in a human terrorist incident that also crippled his right side and claimed the lives of his parents.[15]

Supporting

Introduced in Hatoful Boyfriend

Azami Koshiba (小柴 アザミ Koshiba Azami)

Species: Java sparrow

A Java sparrow and the owner of a takoyaki cart that the protagonist meets during summer vacation, she is a cool and level-headed woman skilled in martial arts but is very cautious when it comes to driving. Her catchphrase is "Carve it into your soul!"
Rabu (ラブさん Rabu-san)

Species: budgerigar

A budgerigar with a Kansai accent. He is a regular customer at the Torimi Café, where the protagonist can choose to work part-time during summer vacation. He works as a chauffeur, and is said to be a very careful and reliable driver.
Kenzaburou Urushihara (漆原 健三郎 Urushihara Kenzaburō)

Species: budgerigar

The gentlemanly parakeet owner of the Torimi Café.
Mister One (緒根さん One-san) / Leone J.B. (レオネJ.B. Reone J.B.)

Species: cockatiel

A taciturn cockatiel, and the janitor at St. Pigeonation's Institute. His true identity is Leone J.B. (レオネJ.B. Reone J.B.), an agent and member of the Dove Party organization's elite Soaring Wings unit, and Yuuya's handler.
Ryuuji Kawara (華原 隆司 Kawara Ryūji)

Species: Rock dove

Ryouta's deceased father and a former Hawk Party colleague of Shuu's in the St. Pigeonation's facility's biological department. Although he is depicted as being jovial, friendly, and happy-go-lucky, he was a gifted researcher and was the only person Shuu ever respected. He died of a disease caught during a research trip, but before dying he asks Shuu to "do something" in his stead for his son Ryouta, whom he was distant to due to constant work obligations, inadvertently setting the events of Bad Boys Love into motion. In Holiday Star, he appears on the Holiday Star as the Migrant, who often appears to give the cast advice during the third and fourth chapters of the game.

Introduced in Holiday Star

Tohri Nishikikouji (錦小路 斗織 Nishikikōji Toori)
Voiced by: Shin-ichiro Miki (Drama CD)[6]

Species: Golden pheasant

A narcissistic and vain golden pheasant who is the editor-in-chief of the in-universe manga anthology Golden Weekly. He is fixated on the concept of "artistry" and all things artistic, but has a slightly skewed perception of what this entails. He was a Hawk Party researcher alongside Shuu and Ryuuji, and specialized in optical weapons development. He still holds a grudge against Shuu from their researcher days due to the latter constantly outdoing him, and he often attempts to one-up or commit revenge against Shuu in outlandish ways; one of these attempts forms the plot of the second chapter of Holiday Star, where he is the antagonist.
Miru and Kaku (ミル・カク Miru Kaku)

Species: unknown

Strange, rambunctious, dove-like twin children with mammal-like arms and legs. They are never seen apart from each other, and are obsessed with Christmas. They were created in a Hawk Party experiment during the holiday season, and were slated to be destroyed until Ryuuji intervened and began to care for them. They later reside in the St. Pigeonation's infirmary after Shuu offers to become their caretaker at the conclusion of Holiday Star's first chapter.
Albert Alain Alkan (アルベール A.A. Arubēru Aran Arukan)

Species: Crow

A crow, and Sakuya's apparently emotionless but obedient and efficient butler. A side story reveals that he is actually a notorious assassin who was originally hired to target Sakuya by a jealous family member; however after the contract was breached, Sakuya hires him using himself as the intended target—as per their contract, Sakuya cannot be assassinated until he himself gives the signal to do so, and Sakuya cannot be assassinated if he is already dead, thus ensuring his protection.
The King (王さま Ō-sama) / Kazuaki Nanaki (七姫 一明 Nanaki Kazuaki)

Species: unknown

A timid birdlike being who is the ruler of the second game's eponymous Holiday Star. Despite being royalty, he appears to be somewhat fragile and tends to cry easily. He welcomes the protagonist and Nageki after they arrive on the Holiday Star in Holiday Star's third chapter and asks several favors of them, but occasionally shows signs of a more monstrous nature when upset. In the fourth chapter, it is revealed that the citizens of the Holiday Star are all extensions of him, and that the original King is actually the corrupted soul of the original Kazuaki Nanaki (七姫 一明 Nanaki Kazuaki), a suicidal, clinically depressed button quail who was left to die alone of a prescription drug overdose in a false suicide pact by his only friend Hitori Uzune, who then copied his appearance and stole his identity;[8] his spirit creating the Holiday Star and absorbing and assimilating anyone who arrives there out of a desire for friendship without similar betrayal. His true form is that of a Lovecraftian, hydra-like being with many heads sprouting from the bloody corpse of a dead quail, which the main cast battles at the climax of the game. He is alive as Kazuaki in the web series, Kazuaki-kun's Book and certain alternate universe side stories in Holiday Star, where he regains his will to live and becomes class 2-3's homeroom teacher (taking over the role from Hitori-as-Kazuaki in the games' canon timelines) and a Japanese and classic literature professor at St. Pigeonation's; however, he still retains his emotionally delicate personality.

Reception

The characters of Hatoful Boyfriend have generally been well received by critics, with several citing the cast's diversity and depth of characterization as one of the main strengths of the series. In an analysis of the first game, Dora from Jay Is Games describes the cast as being "enormously varied, [and] mostly very likable in a variety of ways", noting their surprising complexity by adding that "pursuing any of them will result in some very elaborate storylines that aren't just all about romance".[16] Carly Smith for The Escapist also praised the cast, stating that they have "a lot of personality for the short amount of time many of the routes take to complete".[17]

References

  1. 1 2 Morita, Ryō (November 18, 2011). なぜ作ったし――鳩にキュンとする恋愛ゲーム. ASCII.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  2. ↑ Balistrieri, Emily (August 7, 2011). "Human x Pigeon Love Blossoms in "Hatoful Boyfriend"". Crunchyroll. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  3. ↑ Hato, Moa (August 20, 2011). 岩峰先生についてはデザイン提供元のダムるし氏本人が全身イラストを描いているので、こちらを参照してください。 (in Japanese). Twitter. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  4. ↑ Hato, Moa (February 29, 2012). "Does the heroine for the game have a character design?". Tumblr. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Pigeonation Inc., ed. (2011), p. 20
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "『はーとふる彼氏』ドラマCD&コミックスコラボレーション決定!!". Animate TV (Frontier Works) (in Japanese). August 8, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Hato, Moa (August 31, 2011). 擬人化デザイン：華原涼太、銀朔夜 (in Japanese). Hatoful.wordpress.com. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Pigeonation Inc., ed. (2011), p. 23
  9. 1 2 Hato, Moa (January 26, 2012). 擬人化デザイン：岩峰舟、坂咲優夜 (in Japanese). Hatoful.wordpress.com. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  10. ↑ Hato, Moa (April 25, 2014). "Happy birthday Yuuya! -you only live twice-". Tumblr. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  11. 1 2 Hato, Moa (November 22, 2011). 擬人化デザイン：藤代嘆、尾呼散 (in Japanese). Hatoful.wordpress.com. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  12. 1 2 Pigeonation Inc., ed. (2011), p. 21
  13. ↑ Hato, Moa (December 14, 2011). "Okosan is here!". Tumblr. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  14. 1 2 Hato, Moa (September 4, 2011). 擬人化デザイン：七姫一明、緋紅アンヘル (in Japanese). Hatoful.wordpress.com. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Pigeonation Inc., ed. (2011), p. 22
  16. ↑ Dora (February 26, 2012). "Hatoful Boyfriend - Walkthrough, Guide, Review". Jay Is Games. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  17. ↑ Smith, Carly (June 11, 2014). "Hatoful Boyfriend Hands On - Flap Your Wings for Dove". The Escapist. Retrieved August 18, 2014.

Notes

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