THE SPECIAL A (S.A.)
Kei Takishima
Ranked first in school, Kei is the son of the CEO of Takishima Corporation. As Hikari's undefeated rival, he likes to refer to her as "Number Two", which never fails to provoke her. He has a
photographic memory and the ability to do anything right on his first try. He usually prefers to do things on his own until Hikari shows him how much fun it can be to work together with others. Kei loves Hikari, a fact that he does not deny, and has loved her since they were children. However, he has not confessed his love to her because he knows that Hikari does not understand those feelings and would think that he is referring to a love between friends. Although he is stoic most of the time and always maintains a calm facade, things involving Hikari can bring intense anxiety out of him. It always bothers him whenever Hikari pushes herself too hard or causes trouble, but her strong will and determination are the reasons why he admires and respects her. He makes several attempts to express his feelings to Hikari, though is usually thwarted by some sort of misunderstanding on Hikari's part. Kei eventually confesses to her openly in chapter 52 and Hikari reveals that she reciprocates his feelings; the two start dating and become a couple in the following chapter.
Hikari Hanazono
Hikari is the protagonist of the story. She holds the 2nd position in school for having the best grades. Self-proclaimed as Kei Takishima's greatest competitor, she is determined to beat him in any kind of competition. Stubborn, proud and hot-headed, Hikari never backs down from a challenge, especially one from Kei, because she is constantly looking for an opportunity to surpass him, though has never done so. She is good at sports and academics, but she is very bad at teaching and cooking. Although she can handle her own in a fight (often against boys), Kei, nonetheless, gets irritated whenever she puts herself in danger. A kindhearted girl who always worries about others, Hikari sometimes lacks
common sense and tends to be unaware towards how people regard her. Her optimistic personality, straightforwardness, and tendency to always see the good in people sometimes prevents her from realizing the more subtle aspects of relationships. Although Hikari is rather sensitive to others, she is quite dense when it comes to love. She is oblivious to the romantic feelings Kei has for her, though everyone else knows that Kei is in love with her. In volume four, Hikari begins to fall in love with Kei, though she does not realize it until volume six. They eventually admit their feelings for one another and become a couple in chapter 53.
Jun Yamamoto
Jun is ranked 3rd in school and is Megumi's younger twin brother. The son of a music producer and a talented singer, Jun loves music more than anything else, but ironically has little talent for music. Usually quiet and kindhearted, Jun has a
split personality which he has concealed from everyone except Megumi and Ryuu. Triggered whenever he is kissed by a girl or receives a lot of affection, he becomes irresistible to nearly all women and is able to charm them effortlessly. His split personality resulted from an hypnotism program that Jun watched as a child and first emerged when he was still in grade six. During a date with a girl, he changed and all the other girls around him became mesmerized by him; this led the girl Jun was dating to hate him and call him disgusting. After he begins dating Sakura, Jun's alternate personality emerges whenever he sees her; however, because Sakura accepts him regardless of his personalities, Jun is able to reciprocate her feelings for him. The only thing that can bring Jun back to his original self is by losing consciousness.
Megumi Yamamoto
Megumi is ranked 4th in school and is Jun's older twin sister. She is the daughter of a famous vocalist and music producer and shares her brother's love of music. A cute and nice girl who rarely joins in disputes, Megumi is always quiet and refuses to speak because she wants to save her voice for singing. She usually writes on a sketchpad to communicate with others, but will speak when deeply upset (usually in the form of a shout), which can generally have devastating after-effects. She rarely speaks to people normally on a consistent basis with the exception of Yahiro, who encourages her to sing. Although her singing usually has disastrous effects, Yahiro theorizes that she probably sings very well, but that it needs to be in an open area and at a great distance - eventually demonstrating that she has an amazingly beautiful voice. While he had initially ordered her to during a "game" in which she was trying to make him happy, she eventually begins to do so under her own volition and gradually develops feelings for him. Like Jun, she is very close to Ryuu; she can be fiercely protective of them both, and thinks of Ryuu as much of her family as her brother. Megumi also happens to be bad at sports and dislikes them.
Tadashi Karino
Innocent and carefree, Tadashi is ranked 5th in school. His mother, a fierce and intimidating woman, is the director of the school and the primary reason why he is in the SA; she told him he would be allowed to do whatever he wanted if he became a member of the SA. He suffers from
wanderlust and frequently likes to vanish on some journey and return later for special school events. Tadashi is smarter than he looks and acts, though is usually the character who is most often comically attacked (frequently by Akira and Kei) because of his careless comments or reckless behavior. He loves Akira, but often makes rude, weird, stupid or inappropriate comments that provoke her to beat him up. Tadashi also seems to enjoy playing with puppets, is fond of Akira's cooking, and appears to like provoking her.
Akira Toudou
Akira holds the 6th position in school and is the daughter of the owner of an airline company. She is very fond of Hikari and cute girls, but does not get along with Kei in particular. Akira is very enthusiastic about her afternoon tea, and has even constructed her own kitchen on campus. Akira apparently loves Tadashi, but never seems to hold back when hitting him for teasing her. In chapter 37 she finally confesses to him; though Tadashi does not explicitly reveal to her his own feelings, he indicates he does reciprocate.
Because of Akira's parents, she often played with Kei and Yahiro during her childhood days. She was surrounded by the most powerful people in kindergarten, so nobody dared to approach her, since the two are very protective. She used to envy all the other girls who were able to play freely. She was good friends with Yahiro as a child, but due to a misunderstanding resulting from Yahiro's protective and somewhat selfish behavior, she avoids him whenever possible. Her dislike of him stems from Yahiro causing her childhood friend Sayo to despise her when her family had to move away; since Yahiro never told her, that he had discovered Sayo had only befriended Akira because she was rich, in order to protect her, Akira continues to blame Yahiro for the loss of Sayo. She eventually accepts him as one of her friends again, though does not reciprocate Yahiro's feelings for her.
Ryuu Tsuji
Ryuu holds the 7th position in school, although his test scores are a poor reflection of his intellectual prowess. He is in 7th place mainly because of the twins - Megumi tends to fall asleep and Jun becomes bored during the test, which results in Ryuu focusing the part of his attention on them instead of his own exam. He has been close to Megumi and Jun since they were very young; it is evident that he cares for the twins very much and that the three of them see each other as family. An even-tempered and kindhearted person, Ryuu loves animals and is good with children. He is also the first amongst the S.A to discover, by accident, Finn's true gender. After spending some time with her, it becomes evident that he is falling in love with Finn. He is the son of the CEO of a sports company and one of his family's clients is Yahiro's family.
Yahiro Saiga
A carefree young man with a sinister side, Yahiro has known both Kei and Akira since they were children. He holds the distinction of having beaten Kei once during their childhood in a game of tag which Kei lost because Yahiro had locked the door to the roof to prevent Kei from winning. Yahiro attends Kokusen Academy, another high school, and is the heir to the Saiga Financial Group, a group that is even higher in status than the Takishima group. When he was young, Yahiro had no friends, for the most part because his attitude prevented him from making anyone smile or laugh and made them cry instead. He chose not to become friends with anyone until he met Sakura; at first, he had rejected her offer to become friends with her, but complied after they went through a lot of trouble to save the rabbit they were trying to bring back to its home in the mountains.
Yahiro has harboured a crush on Akira since childhood and is very protective of her, willing to use whatever means necessary to protect her, even if she hates him for it. It is this protective nature that made him drive away Akira's only friend, Sayo, after he overheard her saying how she never liked Akira and was only her friend because Akira was rich and she enjoyed all the privileges and status that came with the friendship. Akira had believed that Yahiro had been jealous of her relationship with the "poor" kid she was playing with and never forgave Yahiro for ending her friendship with Sayo. He never told Akira the truth and has no intention of telling her. His hatred of "poor" people comes largely from this incident, which made him believe the poor exploit the rich. He eventually gives up his feelings for Akira, telling Tadashi that if he ever makes Akira cry, he will never forgive him. Because he still cares for Akira, Yahiro is initially unable to reciprocate Megumi's feelings for him, but comes to see her as an important person to him and encourages her to sing.
Sakura Ushikubo
Sakura is the daughter of the head of Ushikubo Medical Manufacturing Group and is Kei's first marriage meeting (or
omiai) partner to appear in the series. While she does not consider Kei her type, describing him as a "dark lord" rather than a "prince", she considers him a possible marriage partner because his abilities would be advantageous to her family's business. Sakura hates dishonest people with a passion, and her family's motto is centered around honesty and punishing/loathing dishonest people. Hikari's straightforward and honest nature allows the girls to become friends. She attends the same school Yahiro does and sometimes plans stuff out with him (whether the plans be good or evil). Sakura falls in love with Jun at first sight, as he fit her ideal of someone who was a "prince", and accepts his split personality. She begins to date Jun soon after; however, because of her forceful personality, she is uncertain if Jun reciprocates her feelings until he admits to her that he does. Sakura first appears in volume 4.
OTHER CHARACTERS..
Takishima Sui -Sui is Kei's younger brother and resembles a younger version of Kei. Initially, he dislikes Kei because he finds living with him disgusting and thinks of him as a robot wearing human skin. Because Sui feels very inferior to his brother, who is good at everything, he believes that he cannot reach Kei's level and he refuses to take his studies seriously. However, when he sees that even his "perfect" brother can become desperate and caring, Sui develops a huge brother complex. Sui likes to call Hikari "Stupid Girl", but approaches her frequently when he thinks that Kei needs help. He is in grade 6, class B at Hakusen Academy elementary school division
Takishima Satoru-Kei and Sui's dad, age 36, who always looks young and baby-faced. He is very energetic and outgoing. Though he is the CEO of the Takishima company, he likes to escape from work and lets Kei handle his job, usually because people at business meetings tend not to take him seriously as a result of his young appearance. To Kei's chagrin, his father also frequently tends to drag his son off to meetings, occasionally in foreign places. Satoru also possesses superb fighting skills and trained in his youth to be as strong as a pro-wrestler; he particularly enjoys Hikari's company because it means they can fight, which Kei usually prevents from happening. He is a good friend of Hikari's father, whom he met through their mutual love of pro-wrestling. Before marrying Midori and into the Takishima family, his surname was
Utagawa.
Ogata Aoi-Aoi Ogata is a junior secretary of President Takishima, Kei's grandfather, and often serves as the President's emissary. He is nineteen years old. Aoi has a cold and calm character, and has always been expressionless, not smiling even once, but is actually kindhearted and socially awkward in some respects. Like Kei, he has the ability to see something only once and memorize it, though his ability made him a victim of teasing as a child. He first met Kei when he was eight and Kei was five, and came to admire and deeply respect Kei, coming to see him as an almost kindred spirit. Aoi initially appears when he is sent to Japan from
London, on orders to convince Kei to transfer to London, which had been planned by Kei's grandfather. When Aoi discovers what is causing Kei to hesitate, Aoi tries to eliminate the problem: Hikari. He tries to threaten her, and Kei tries to beat Aoi up for threatening Hikari, but fails; even though he knows he is not going to convince Kei. Aoi then tries to bribe her but ends up having a cheque ripped to pieces by Hikari. At sometime, Hikari confronts Aoi and they both make up the "After School Takishima Fan Club," in which Aoi is the president and Hikari gets pictures of and writes up reports about Kei and sends them to Aoi. Afterwards, he realizes that he should not pressure Kei into the situation that he is not ready for and also realizes that he is most at peace when he sees Hikari and Kei smiling.
Hanazono Jiro-Hikari's father is a carpenter and lives in the old shopping district of Tokyo. As a fan of pro-wrestling, he taught Hikari how to fight when she was a child. Through his interest in pro-wrestling, Jiro met Kei's father and they introduced their children to one another when Hikari and Kei were six years old. After Hikari was defeated by Kei, she begged her father to allow her to enroll in the same schools as Kei in order to obtain the opportunity to defeat him. Headstrong and hot-headed like his daughter, Jiro agreed and has since supported her endeavours to defeat her rival. He and Kei's father are friends.
Hanazono Atsushi-Atsushi is Hikari's older brother, a calm individual who does not fail to give Hikari his honest opinion. He is currently a junior in high school and attends a normal high school. Unlike Hikari, he dislikes fighting and has refrained from any physical fights and yelling since he was little. This is because when they were very young, Hikari saw Atsushi beating up a boy who hit her and his facial expression was so scary to her that she fainted. However, when he feels his sister is in danger he breaks away from his peaceful nature and will not hesitate to beat someone up. Even now, Hikari still becomes terrified whenever he becomes truly angry
The episodes of the Japanese anime television series Full Metal Panic! are directed by Koichi Chigira and animated by Gonzo. They are based on the light novel series of the same name, written by Shoji Gatoh and illustrated by Shiki Douji, using material from the first three novels (Fighting Boy Meets Girl, Running One Night Stand, and Into the Blue) of the series over 24 episodes. The series focuses on Sousuke Sagara, a Sergeant from the mercenary group Mithril who is assigned to protect Kaname Chidori, student from a Japanese high school. The first season began in Japan, on January 8, 2002, and ended on June 18, 2002. 
Shinji Kazama 
