卒業Ｍ
(Sotsugyou M)

[Overview] [Music] [OVA] [Characters] [Drama CDs] [Manga] [Other]

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E.M.U

[Overview] [Images] [Media] [Song Lyrics] [Sotsugyou M]
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Performing Seiyuu:

[Midorikawa Hikaru] [Hayashi Nobutoshi] [Okiayu Ryoutarou] [Ishikawa Hideo] [Sakaguchi Daisuke]

Sotsugyou M - Characters
(Brief caveat - for some random reason I've taken to referring to some of the characters by their last names and some by their first names. I think it's possibly the influence of the anime and manga on me, but hopefully it won't be too confusing to read :S Equally the Manga profiles I've translated from the Kanji. If there are any errors, sumimasen :) I've tried to phrase them in equivalent English without losing the original sense! Anything in brackets/italics is my addition to the text. I added the names because in Japanese they don't tend to use them, but in English we do...so :)

The five principle characters (voiced each by one of the Seiyuu in E.M.U) are as follows:

Arai Tougo (Midorikawa Hikaru)
The manga profile (from vol 2):
Name: 新井透吾 (Arai Tougo)
Born: 27th November
Starsign: Sagittarius ("Iteza" in Japanese)
Blood Type: AB
Summary: Commuting to school on a prohibited bike, (Arai is) a problem student for whom arriving late and leaving early is an everyday occurance. However he is popular in school on account of his street smart personality and showy spirit.
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Arai Tougo is the "bad boy" of the Seiryuu Academy, and he doesn't care how many rules he breaks so long as he has a good time. He speaks back to the teachers, answers his mobile phone in class and is often back after curfew, causing him to climb in through the window (or more usually Takagi's window) to get back into the building.

Arai has a reputation as a flirt and as someone popular with the women, but his social life is not as clear cut as all that. He also has an on-off involvement with a former senpai Kawazoe Haruka who was head of the Photography Club when Arai was a first year. (In the PLUS manga, it's indicated that Kawazoe was the first person to best Arai in a clash of strength, and their mutual respect for one another grew up from that.). He is also the subject of Mikimaro's affections - although unwillingly!

Arai and Yuusuke are close friends, and Yuusuke looks up to Arai's experience and skill with the girls (although sometimes he thinks its competition and gets hot under the collar about it). Arai and Nakamoto also have a developing bond of friendship which becomes quite strong over the course of the manga - especially the PLUS manga. Although diametrically opposite in character, after having been roommates for a year, they have come to understand one another. Despite his swaggering and attitude, Arai has a good heart at the bottom of it and a strong sense of justice and injustice, even resorting to violence on occasion when someone he cares about is in trouble.

Arai is fond of Mikimaro, though not in the way Mikimaro would like him to be. Although he can be mean and teasing towards his classmate - though Mikimaro is older by a month, Arai often calls him a kid on account of his small stature - he can also be very understanding and it's Arai who Mikimaro has confided most of his family doubts to over the course of their acquaintance. Arai and Takagi have an ongoing rivalry which occasionally comes to blows as each of them tries to outpace the other, but at the root of it is a respect for one another and they can, on odd occasions, even team up towards the same important end. Takagi's cool sarcasm often sparks Arai's irritable temper, but on the whole the two of them knock along fine.

Arai is failing his classes (at the end of the PLUS manga it's revealed he has to repeat the final year, which comes as no surprise to him!) but he is not stupid. Rather, he is 'street smart' and 'people smart', generally able to read people's concealed motives and emotions and utilise this information to both his and their benefit. He is popular among his classmates and holds a fair amount of influence which, had he wanted to exploit it, could have probably landed him on the school council. However, he prefers not to do anything which involves work and would rather spend his time drinking in clubs in the Roppongi district of Tokyo.

Arai has a motorbike (which is forbidden on school premises, but it doesn't stop him from using it) and a driver's licence, since he sometimes drives his father's car. Arai and his father have an odd relationship which can probably be summed up as "ships in the night." Arai Yoshiki is a famous fashion designer and very successful, so Arai's background is wealthy and priveleged. However, Yoshiki has a lot of ideas which his son isn't at all interested in following. Arai's entrance to the Seiryuu Academy was at Yoshiki's behest, and in rebellion, Arai refused to wear the school uniform, skipping out of the house on the day they were meant to go get it. His mother appears to be a fairly ineffectual woman who has no control over either her son or her husband, although she loves both dearly and despairs of their being so divided.

Although Arai doesn't get on with his father, he doesn't hate him either - it's just a case that they have nothing in common and that Yoshiki was always away when he was a kid, which separation led the young Tougo to believe he wasn't important in his father's life. He is not involved in Yoshiki's fashion empire, but is acquainted with and friendly with several of the people who work for him, often running errands to help them out.

Nakamoto Shou (Hayashi/Kanna Nobutoshi)
The Manga Profile (from volume 2)
Name:中本翔 (Nakamoto Shou)
Born: 9th July
Starsign: Cancer ("Kaniza" in Japanese)
Blood Type: B
Summary: Because of his exceptionally outstanding school record, (Nakamoto) became known as a genius from the time he started school. His strict medical family upbringing is reflected in his too-serious personality. He likes cats.

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Nakamoto likes cats! (ahem. Sorry. Everything I've heard involving Nakamoto involves odd cat-miaow sounds in the background.) Yes, Nakamoto likes cats. Even the manga synopsis says he likes cats! (Anyone who's a fan of Kanna Nobutoshi will understand the cat reference...lol)

Nakamoto Shou is my favourite of the M characters and I think part of the reason for that is because he is so intense and complex. In all of the background/flashback material, we see him as a very rigid, inflexible, unsmiling boy who works and does nothing else. He's also referred to as a "genius" who often gets full marks in everything he does. This is also probably how he first comes across in the early sections of the original manga, too. Certainly he does study an awful lot - at least once into a fever - and this is mostly because his father has high expectations of him to follow in the family profession and be involved in a high capacity in the hospital like he is himself. For this reason, Nakamoto's father has a lot of sway over the way Nakamoto lives his life - even at one point in the PLUS manga wanting to arrange a marriage to a suitable girl for his son.

It would be easy to say that this is all there is to Nakamoto - a typical "megane" character who studies and has all the right answers, who comes top of the class and not much else. But of all the characters it is probably Nakamoto who develops the most over the course of the manga, drama CDs and other paraphernalia. To begin with, the only creatures he lets his guard down to are the school cats, with whom he has a close bond. However, as time goes on, this changes - particularly with Arai. At one point in the original manga, he and Mikimaro and Arai are in a club in Roppongi, and Nakamoto asks Arai in all seriousness why he finds this kind of thing fun, because he's trying to understand how his roommate thinks.

Nakamoto's family situation - his father aside - is also complicated. He has a very young stepmother, who was once acquainted in some dubious manner with Takagi. In the two series of manga Nakamoto Kyouko is depicted somewhat differently - darkhaired in the first, blond in the second - and her personality seems stronger in the first than in the second. It's also only hinted that Nakamoto likes her in the original manga, whereas it's blatantly obvious he has a crush on her in the PLUS manga and the drama CDs. In the original manga, he doesn't want to go back home until he can 'see her as his stepmother and nothing else'. He also tells her that in the past, when he's got involved in things, he or other people have got hurt and he's caused trouble by doing so. So that's why he's learnt to keep out of things - that's why he stands back and lets them go on without questioning or arguing about them.  In the PLUS manga, it is Kyouko's encouragement (and, er, kiss...?!) that allows him to stop his father from planning the arranged match.

Nakamoto's most progressive character developments come in the PLUS manga, however, where he begins to stand up for himself with his father and take his life into his own hands. On Arai's coercion, he takes a part time job playing piano in a local bar, which he enjoys, and is surprisingly keen to become involved in Takagi's band project "M" (It must be noted that in the manga Nakamoto always plays piano/keys, whereas in the drama CD it is guitar, and Kanna Nobutoshi, of course, plays electric guitar). He and his father have at least one violent argument over his grades dropping, when Nakamoto actually tells him straight out that if it's anyone's fault, it's his father's for putting so much pressure on him and not understanding . By the end of the PLUS manga, Nakamoto's "top of the class" position has eroded to the point that he, like Arai, is forced to become "ryuunen" (repeat-year students). Ironically, despite his intelligence, Nakamoto doesn't graduate first time around, and he and Arai are left to look out for one another in the year to come ^_^.

Nakamoto has a fairly level friendship with Mikimaro and Yuusuke - he and Yuusuke find common ground when discussing the ideas their fathers have for them - and Mikimaro often drags Nakamoto along in the beginning when he is uncertain about joining in their activities. Yet it is with Takagi and Arai that Nakamoto has his strongest bonds.

A brief note. There are various ways to romanise Nakamoto's first name. On my MVP disc it's written as "Sho". On the minidisc  it's written "Syo". But I'm romanising it as "Shou", because technically that is what it is. When writing to English, the Japanese often don't bother with the lengthened vowel, or they romanise too literally - because in hiragana his name would be written "しょう" (literally Shi + yo + u). There are some forms of romanisation which write し as 'si'.  Technically there is no "si" sound in Japanese. This business of romanisation is a complex one *lol* but for reasons of consistency, my method of romanisation is "what you see is what you write"...ie, if the furigana says shi + o + u, you get "Shou" ;) Syo and Sho are not, however, incorrect :) Noone except his stepmother ever seems to call him Shou, anyway...he's almost always Nakamoto!

Katou Yuusuke (Ishikawa Hideo)
The Manga Profile (from volume 2)
Name:加藤勇祐 (Katou Yuusuke)
Born: 1st August
Starsign: Leo ("Shishiza" in Japanese)
Blood Type: O
Summary: Into all sports, (Yuusuke is) a boy with senses that rival an animal's. Currently he's a member of the basketball team. He's frankly honest, even though he's also unreasonably thick-headed. (Yuusuke is) the son of a large Kanazawa hotel owner.

***Geek Note!***
Kanazawa (金沢) is a Japanese city. What's geekish about that? Kanazawa is situated in Ishikawa-ken (石川県 - Ishikawa Prefecture). Remember who voices Yuusuke? That's right. Ishikawa Hideo. 石川英郎. Yep. Tell me that wasn't deliberate!
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Yuusuke is my least favourite of the M characters, simply because I think he's a dolt (lol). That wasn't a very good start, was it? Gomen. I don't mean it quite so harshly. But having a crush on your teacher is a bit sad...especially when it comes to taking her flowers and stuff and...yeah. You get the picture. Even the manga bio says he's thickheaded. So I guess I can be forgiven for thinking so too - right? He's really not perceptive - he takes things at face value and often doesn't see the deeper meanings at all. He also doesn't understand the meaning of tact. He's very well-meaning and straight down the line - things are black or white for Yuusuke and that's that. But he is unwaveringly loyal and, really, his thick-headedness means that he's good-natured and quick to forgive slights against him, no matter how grave the insult.

Aside from that doltishness, Yuusuke is a fairly active, impulsive and, most of all, sporty kind of guy. He's extremely enthusiastic and into everything with gusto and vim. He loves all kinds of sports, is involved in training some of the younger members of the Seiryuu Academy and there are few who can compete with him. In the OVA he's shown playing basketball and besting one of his comrades quite easily. In the manga, he and Arai seem to be pretty close friends (which makes me more and more sure that Tsuitenai is a Yuusuke and Arai song) although they do have occasional misunderstandings. Yuusuke certainly seems able to get Arai to do things - even unwillingly and hungover - that maybe others wouldn't be able to do. Arai is quite a bit smarter than Yuusuke, however, and can also manipulate his friend equally well. Whether they're a good influence on each other is another matter entirely...;)

Not everything about Yuusuke is a joke, however. His people run a hotel in Kanazawa, and he loves his hometown a lot - preferring it to Tokyo. However it was his choice to come to Tokyo to study because he doesn't want to be forced into following his father's footsteps and taking over as head chef at the hotel. Yuusuke is the only son of three children (he has an older sister, Masumi, and a younger one, Ai). His father only agreed to let him go to the Seiryuu Academy on the understanding that when he graduated he'd come back and take up his proper position, but Yuusuke is always trying to avoid it, much to his family's dismay. His true talent is sports, and at the end of the PLUS manga it's revealed that his basketball playing has attracted NBA attention. Ironically, despite the fact he is the most silly of the group of five, Yuusuke somehow manages to graduate where Nakamoto and Arai do not!!

Yuusuke also has something of a fixation with food. I guess it's all the calories he burns on the sports court...or the fact his father is a pro in the subject...but he seems to eat enough for the whole team. :) He also likes girls, but is pretty hopeless at getting or keeping them. At one point he even saves a girl from drowning, but when it comes to social interaction he is awkward and clumsy, meaning that he often scares them off (much to his dismay!)

Brief note: Yuusuke is another one whose name is written in several ways. Often it's written as "Yusuke" but the first character of his name is 勇 which means courage. This is pronounced "yuu" with a long vowel, and so his name is most probably meant to be Yuusuke :) His surname "Katou" is also often romanised "Kato" or "Katoh" in both English and Japanese sources. Neither of those are incorrect. I just prefer to romanise the characters that are there - i.e in this case "Ka+to+u".

Takagi Shimon (Okiayu Ryoutarou)
The Manga Profile (from volume 2)
Name:高城紫門 (Takagi Shimon)
Born: 5th February
Starsign: Aquarius ("Mizugameza" in Japanese)
Blood Type: A
Summary: Mixed race - half Japanese and half English. (Takagi is) a cool and ambitious person. Somehow or other he is popular. He himself seems to have gained an interest in music and his image from a woman. (Editor's note: Possibly from his mother, although the text only says 'josei yori'.
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The first time we see Takagi in the manga is when he drives up in a Rolls Royce, the boy star surveying his new territory. Takagi Shimon is an enigmatic character - he's described by Mikimaro as mixed race　(He's half English! That's where the Rolls came in! Squee! British fangirl amusement!), which explains his fair hair and blue eyes to some degree. (N.B on the manga covers his hair is generally light brown, in the animated OVA he is blond).He's very elegant, very into fine clothing, and expensive scent - but he's also very keen on books and specifically music...as Arai discovers when he finds Takagi's guitar in his room. Takagi is not the only musical member of the posse, obviously...but he is the one whose musical ability gets the most airplay in the manga (and he plays his guitar quite proudly - see the scan to the left). He was a member of a band called "Cassandra" (in the Drama CD, "Cassandra Next") for which he wrote music and played guitar - although he fell out with them and left. (In the manga, he does repair his bonds with his former bandmates somewhat, although he decides against rejoining the music scene). He also is the driving force behind the "M" unit that emerges towards the end of the PLUS manga.

Takagi is smart - he's only one mark off Nakamoto who's generally accepted as class genius - and although he can act somewhat egocentric and arrogant, he's also quite kind beneath it. He's also a lateral thinker, and the most independant and mature minded of the group in many ways. He and Arai clash from the start, but he'll still help Arai out if need be. Although they do exchange some pretty heavy insults and even come to blows on occasion...;) Arai is usually the one doing the most insulting...bet you didn't see that coming, huh :P Takagi also has his own room at the Seiryuu Academy dorm - which seems to fit with his solitary, enigmatic self somewhat (it is made clear though that it is a room for two - he only has it to himself because he's a late comer and has transferred in).

Takagi doesn't seem to need friends, equally he doesn't mind having them - it takes him some time to realise his school acquaintances have become more important to him than just people in his social vicinity. In a sense, though, his distancing might also be connected to his family life. His father's identity is unknown to him and his mother died a year earlier. He's under the vague guidance of a 'family friend', Mitsuse Junichirou - however he doesn't know that Mitsuse is actually his blood father (this fact is only revealed in the PLUS manga, but not to Takagi himself). Takagi therefore is *not* his real name, and where it comes from is a mystery ^_^, since his mother was English. (Because of this, we also discover he is bilingual - he is fluent in English and Japanese.) He also seems to know a lot of people - like Nakamoto Kyouko - who by rights he shouldn't logically know. In the past he worked in some capacity as a "business trip host" - I think the nuances are lost on me, but apparently this is a bad thing ^_^. I think there's as much unknown about Takagi as there is known by the time the story's done!

Although he is a successful model, his love is still music and after graduation he goes to Los Angeles to pursue music there.
 
Takagi is far more egocentric in the OVA than he is in the manga - his character seems to have been somewhat tweaked for the animated form. (Maybe it's going blond...)

Takagi is very conscious of his appearance. In the OVA, Tougo makes the comment that it's unusual "to see the anorexic eating breakfast" so unlike Yuusuke I guess he's careful about what he eats. Actually, he doesn't seem to eat...so maybe Tougo has a point. (Tea with lemon for breakfast...heh). He does seem rather revolted by the amount of food Yuusuke is able to eat...

Shimura Mikimaro (Sakaguchi Daisuke)
The Manga Profile (from volume 2)
Name:志村未希魔 (Shimura Mikimaro)
Born: 12th October
Starsign: Libra ("Tenbinza" in Japanese)
Blood Type: O
Summary: (Mikimaro has) a boy's school mascot (!?) like existence. Gathering intelligence on computer games and gambling is his speciality. (He) has a famous actress for a mother. His good-for-nothing father's name is unknown. (Editor's note: the !? is actually in the original Japanese text ;))

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Mikimaro is either incredibly irritating or incredibly cute. It depends on your take on it *lol* He's definitely the sweetest natured of the group, and he's always trying to make peace or bring people together. He goes out of his way to try and involve Nakamoto in things when Nakamoto is determined to be withdrawn and/or secretive with his behaviour, and he's always concerned for the well-being of his companions. He's also perceptive - he knows when people have fought even without being told, and he hates it when the people around him are fighting. (Hrm, and he doesn't seem to have a father either - awwie...).

He is Yuusuke's room-mate, and the two of them get on well, with Yuusuke sometimes asking Mikimaro for advice.  In the manga he has more of a protective, friendish kind of relationship which he has over all of his comrades (see the image to the right - text reads "For what reason would Takagi-kun be with Arai-kun's father!?").

That being said, he is very fond of Arai (yes, to the point of love, which he admits in the fourth volume of the manga). He does get jealous when other people secure Arai's attention (girls or guys, generally referring to Arai as "my Arai-kun!, much to Arai's irritation. (Yes, there is a shounen-ai theme running through this - but it doesn't really hit till later on. Still, if you've seen the OVA, there's a hint of it). Mikimaro is cute and innocent, so his interest in Arai is fairly harmless - but yes. It's a crush *lol*. In the original manga, he wants Arai to kiss him in order to keep the Kawazoe situation a secret. In the PLUS manga, he tells Arai he wouldn't let his "cousin" kiss him because he wants Arai to be his first kiss.

Arai can be quite mean to him, (calling him a kid, even though Mikimaro is older than he is) but I think truthfully he's quite fond of him too. Sometimes he can act like a kid, but that's just part of his bubbly nature. Mikimaro is also propositioned by a teacher on account of his "nice" demeanour in both the original manga and the novels. Poor boy...

Mikimaro has a sunny temperament and a penchant for video games. He plays the Sotsugyou M game in the OVA, which is quite cute :) He also has an insatiable appetite in the OVA too. He seems to like to trust in people's natures - not always to his benefit. Mikimaro's family situation is semi-complicated. He is adopted - as he says in the PLUS manga and in the Drama CDs, his parents aren't his real parents - and his real mother is a famous actress who gave him up to prevent a scandal. His father's identity is unknown only Mikimaro, his family, and his group of friends know his mother's real identity (unless you count Yuusuke blurting it out to his sisters...)

In some ways, he reminds me of Omi from Weiss. It's not just the appearance, or even the habit of calling everyone '~kun' which Omi has the monopoly on in WK. It's the general teenage innocence he tries to keep no matter what's going on around him. (Admittedly Omi has a lot more dark stuff to deal with...but even so, I still see a connection. Or maybe it's just me...)