Main ; : :Yui is the lead guitarist and split vocalist of the Light Music Club who plays a Heritage Cherry Sunburst
Gibson Les Paul Standard
electric guitar that she nicknames . Before she learned how to play the electric guitar, the only instrument she knew how to play was the
castanets. and Sawako). She has a younger sister named Ui, who is very mature and acts as the "older sister" of Yui, taking care of her while their parents are away on business trips. She has a very easy-going nature, but has incredible focus and retention when she has a clear goal in sight; unfortunately, this is limited to only one subject at a time, and her other skills deteriorate quickly (for example, Yui is at one point pressed to make up failing test scores, and she quickly brings her math skills up to par at the expense of her guitar knowledge). Despite all of this, Yui is still devoted to her band and will always practice hard enough for the club. At school, she has become quite admired for her great voice. However, she is known to forget her lyrics mid-performance as well as overdoing things, making her unable to perform sometimes. Mio was the lead vocalist at first, since Yui could not play the guitar and sing at the same time. ; : :Mio is the bassist, songwriter, and split vocalist for the light music club. She is a shy girl who is in the light music club. She plays a left-handed, 3-Color Sunburst
Fender Jazz Bass with a
tortoiseshell pickguard, Her bass is given the name later in the anime. While she originally intended to join the literature club, she was forced into the light music club by her childhood friend and the club's president/drummer, Ritsu. and Sawako, their club adviser and eventual third-year homeroom teacher. Mio has long, straight black hair and gray eyes (that are angled slightly more than the other characters). She cites that she chose bass since it is not the center of attention in the band, unlike the guitarist. She writes most of the songs, although they usually have overly girlish lyrics like "Light and Fluffy Time". After their first live performance, the attractive Mio gained a huge fan following (in no small part due to an unfortunate accident that occurred at the end of the show where she accidentally flashed her underwear, after tripping on her bass cable), led by an infatuated former
student council president. She is also able to overcome some of her shyness and make new friends such as Sachi and Ayame. ; : :Ritsu (or , as nicknamed by Yui) is the self-proclaimed president of the light music club and the leader of Hokago Tea Time who plays a yellow
Rick Marotta Signature
Yamaha Hipgig drum kit (with an add-on floor tom in the opening credits only) combined with a
cymbal set from
Avedis Zildjian, though is shown playing a white Yamaha Absolute Series drumkit in the anime's
closing credits. Ritsu is cheerful, often likes making jokes and is sarcastic most of the time, but still shares the good heart of the other members. She is skilled at brainstorming ideas that earn money for the club. Ritsu has shoulder-length, brown hair, with her bangs pulled back with a yellow hairband, and gold-colored eyes. She wears her school jacket open. She says she chose to play the drums because they are "cool", but later admits that she has trouble playing instruments which involve intricate finger movements. :She is Mio's childhood friend and will often take the opportunity to tease her whenever Mio is cowering from something. In the anime, she states her favorite drummer is
Keith Moon of
The Who. (and even one in
Finland). Since her father also owns a
maid café, and haggling over prices. ; : :Azusa is a student in the same year and class as Yui's sister Ui, who joins the light music club and becomes the rhythm guitarist, playing a
Fender Mustang electric guitar. She eventually names her guitar Muttan, as it is a Mustang. She is a self-proclaimed "novice" guitarist who has been playing the guitar since she was in the fourth grade, and her parents are working in a jazz band. She is more serious than the other girls, and is kind of a
tsundere as she often does not like to admit her true feelings. She often finds herself bewildered by the tea parties and cosplaying aspects of the club, when she would rather just practice, and is curious about how the club is able to play so well despite their problems and lack of practice; still, she's ultimately as kind as the other girls. However, she has a certain weakness for cakes and can be calmed down rather easily, sometimes by just being petted. However, she sometimes unintentionally makes remarks concerning Mio's weaknesses, such as her weight. She also finds Mugi very beautiful, and envies her hair and large eyes, and later starts teaching her how to play guitar when the two are alone in the club room. as well as maintenance. She gets a tan extremely easily, once during their time at the beach As a result, she frequently gets sunburned as well. She gets lonely very easily, and often worries that everyone in the club will leave her, as they are one year older and will eventually graduate. Due to this, the rest of the girls buy her a turtle to look after, naming it Ton. :Outside of the band, she often hangs out with Ui and Jun whenever the other girls are busy.
Supporting ; : :Sawako is a
music teacher who is the adviser for the
wind instrument club at the girls' school. An
alumna of the school and a member of the light music club in her student days, she does not want people to find out that she was formerly a member of a
heavy metal band called Death Devil (of which she was both lead guitar and vocalist and went by the stage name of ), thus she covers up by being mild and gentle to her coworkers and especially to students. She is forced to be the adviser of the light music club, as Ritsu blackmails her after the girls learn of her past. She gets a thrill out of the rare moments where she is praised for her work. :She names the club band "Ho-kago Tea Time" after the members take too long deciding on a name themselves. She becomes the girls' homeroom teacher in their third year, and puts Nodoka and all the band members (except Azusa, since she is a grade lower) in the same class, so she does not have to remember as many names. An episode in the second anime season reveals that she owned one of the first
Gibson SG models (from around 1960 with a custom
stoptail bridge) which is later sold. In spite of her laziness, she still proves herself to be an able mentor, as shown by her willingness to coach Yui as the lead singer ; : :Ui is Yui's younger sister, who begins the story as a third-year junior high school student, but later enters Yui's high school the following year in the same class as Azusa. She takes particularly good care of Yui and strives to look after her even at risk to her own health. However, Sawako Yamanaka can tell Yui and Ui apart easily, saying 'their bust sizes are completely different'. Ui is a fast learner, able to learn how to play the guitar after only a few days' practice. She is also able to play the organ if needed. She eventually joins the light music club along with Jun at the end of the series, becoming a guitarist like her sister, playing a Surf Green
Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. Ui becomes fascinated with Sumire's sister-like relationship with Tsumugi upon learning of it, as Ui sees it as very similar to her feelings toward Yui. In her third year, she replaces Megumi Sokabe as the
student council president and the Mio fan club president as well (after a while), the latter at Megumi's request. In her third year, she shares a class with the rest of Hokago Tea Time. Nodoka chooses to go to a national university as opposed to the same college as Yui and the others. Nodoka is named after guitarist
Yoshiaki Manabe from the Japanese rock band
The Pillows. Jun begins to regret not joining the light music club when she hears about all the activities they do and eventually joins the light music club at the end of the series. She has an older brother named Atsushi who also plays bass and regularly gives Jun lessons. Jun was embarrassed when the light music club found out that she was receiving these lessons because she felt it damaged her image as a person who could learn an instrument on their own. Jun owns a pet cat in the anime series. As her family, who came from Austria (Australia in the manga), were taken in by the Kotobuki household before she was born, Sumire grew up as Tsumugi's playmate, often regarding her as her older sister and inadvertently sparking Tsumugi's interest in
yuri by introducing her to manga of that genre. As she grew up and learned the truth about the relation between the two families, Sumire felt she needed to regard Tsumugi with more respect while in public. Sawako reveals that Tsumugi asked that the tea sets be left in the club room. However, before the beginning of the new term Tsumugi had asked Sumire to remove the tea sets thereby ensuring that Sumire would encounter the other members of the light music club and would be invited to join. Sumire's situation is revealed to the surprise of the other members of the club by Sawako. When on her first training camp with the Wakaba Girls, Nao writes the lyrics for the band's first song, titled "Answer". She wrote the song to reflect Azusa's misgivings about her role as president of the light music club. Okuda remarks that she keeps track of all her band mate's conversations and behaviors by entering her observations into her computer, therefore she was able to describe Azusa's exact feelings in her lyrics. She plays an ebony Gibson Les Paul Custom electric guitar which she nicknames "Rosalie". ; :One of Akira's friends, who has long hair. She is OnNaGumi's bassist and is in the same department as Mio. ; :An upperclassman in the light music club who was once in a band with Kana. Megumi becomes a good friend of Ritsu through unspecified circumstances much to Mio’s surprise. She also helps Ritsu and Yui with the university entrance exams by giving them her old exam workbooks. She goes to the same woman's university in which Yui and her friends later enroll and lives in the same dorm as them. ; : :Satoshi is Ritsu's younger brother. He seems to be a bit more mature his sister, usually saying things like "Geez, be more careful next time" when he has to take care of the problems she caused. Satoshi knows Mio Akiyama because she and Ritsu have been friends for so long, but becomes shy when Ritsu brings the rest of the Light Music Club home without telling him (Ritsu supposed it as a "rebellious phase"). He is also curious about his sister's doing and eavesdrops sometimes at her door (for example, when Mio and Ritsu were practicing for their class play, Ritsu finds out that Satoshi is laughing outside her room as she practices her dialogue). He also dislikes cold weather. Although he sometimes laughs about his sister or tells her to be quiet when she practices in her room, he still respects her and asks her for permission to hang out with his friends. == Production ==