The following is a list of characters from the Japanese manga series Kodomo no Jikan, written and illustrated by Kaworu Watashiya and published in Japan by Futabasha in the monthly seinen manga magazine Comic High!. As of January 2008, thirty-three chapters have been published since serialization began on May 22, 2005, of which twenty-eight have been collected in four bound volumes to date. At one point, an English language version of the manga was licensed for distribution in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment under the title Nymphet, but the Los Angeles–based company ultimately decided not to publish it due to controversies over its content. An anime adaptation of the series with twelve episodes aired on Japanese television between October 12, 2007 and December 28, 2007. Since the animated version only covers events from the first twenty chapters or so, is self-contained, and had an original ending, there exist significant differences in characterization between the manga and anime incarnations of the characters.

The main story revolves around newly graduated, twenty-three-year-old teacher Daisuke Aoki, who has just landed his first teaching job as an elementary school instructor at . He is placed in charge of class 3-1, where one of his students, a mischievously precocious eight-year-old girl named Rin Kokonoe, develops an intense crush on him. Though he does his best to discourage her efforts, she nevertheless continues with her aggressive campaign to win his affections in spite of the problems that ensue that are her attempt to get closer to him. The situation is further complicated not only by the often complex, intertwining relationships existing between them and their respective friends, families, and peers, but also by the everyday life lessons they all learn together, as well as from each other.

Major characters

Daisuke Aoki

The bespectacled, good-natured homeroom teacher of 4-1 (originally 3-1) at Futatsubashi Elementary School and protagonist of the series. By his own accounts the product of a normal, uneventful childhood, Daisuke Aoki was an above average student and athlete in his youth and served as a substitute for members of the track and field club in university. While there, he fell in love with an unnamed female peer of his, but she married one of her seniors before he got a chance to confess his feelings to her. Aoki never harbored any resentment or negative emotions over this development, however, and was glad that she had found happiness with someone he believed to be a better man than himself.

After landing a position as a mid-trimester replacement for class 3-1 at Futatsubashi Elementary School, the freshly graduated, twenty-three-year-old Aoki quickly found several of the preconceived, idealistic notions he held about being an elementary school instructor put to the test by his first teaching job, literally from day one: his complete lack of previous experience as an educator left him poorly prepared for controlling or maintaining the interest of a classroom filled with unruly, disobedient students, inheriting a legacy of mistrust from the former teacher, Nakamura. Most significantly, he has to deal with the shameless flirtations of an eight-year-old determined to win his affections. His enthusiasm, positive-thinking, hands-on attitude, and emotional attachment to his students have made it difficult for him to maintain professional objectivity on occasion, often resulting in his butting heads with strict fellow teacher, Sae Shirai, whose distant, traditional teaching style is the polar opposite of his own. In his struggle to come to terms with the demands of his job and become a better educator, he has found an ally in his attractive coworker and direct senior, Kyōko Hōin, who has been an endless source of practical advice, teaching suggestions, and moral support.

Daisuke's lack of life experience has been his biggest obstacle as a teacher. While this fact has never discouraged his desire to help his students, it nevertheless complicates his efforts to grasp the hardships faced by some of them. His lack of experience with women has also rendered him far more vulnerable to Rin Kokonoe's sexual innuendo and Kuro's barbed remarks about his virginity than he otherwise might have been. His tendency to overthink and overanalyze things, obliviousness to female romantic interest, and his inability to read a person's mood have not proven beneficial, either, as evidenced by his ongoing attempts to start conversations or engage in discussions with Shirai in spite of her dislike for him.

From the moment they first met, Aoki's relationship with Rin Kokonoe has been a complex one. Though initially troubled by her actions and unrestrained affection for him, his attitude softened after learning that she was an orphan, and he has done his best to understand the reasons behind her unusual and outrageous behavior. Though they had developed a kind of affectionate working relationship — with Rin subtly using her influence over the other students to help him maintain classroom discipline, among other things — in a dramatic confrontation with her towards the end of his first school year, he was forced to acknowledge the existence of a strong attraction to her. While the initially undefinable nature of these feelings troubled him greatly, even after his reunion with Rin several months later, a chance comment by Mimi Usa led him to realize that he had developed a father's love for the girl (although he tends to have doubts whether this is what he really feels about her). This realization has increased his protectiveness of Rin and led him to become increasingly suspicious of the motives of her legal guardian, Reiji Kokonoe. When Rin and Reiji start to fall out, he decides to move in with them to keep them in check. However, he later moves out on the request of Shirai who saw him leave the house one night. In the end, Aoki comes to terms with his feelings and admits to himself that he does indeed have a romantic attraction to Rin. Though he has come to this resolution, he chooses to stick to his principles and decides that it is for the best to not confess to her and is fine with maintaining Rin's happiness until she is able to grow up and follow her own path, though it may lead to her eventually forgetting or moving on from their relationship and finding someone else. However, once Rin turns 16, she reunites with him and they finally start dating.

Rin Kokonoe

A mischievously precocious young girl in class 4-1 (originally 3-1) at Futatsubashi Elementary School. Born and raised by her single mother, Aki Kokonoe, for the first five years of her life, Rin Kokonoe was an affectionate, happy child. Though normally shy around strangers, she immediately warmed up to her first cousin once removed, Reiji Kokonoe, when he moved in with them after being orphaned, and accepted the relationship that developed between her mother and him. Her joy at finally having a complete family to call her own, however, was short-lived: Aki was diagnosed with lung cancer, and, while she tried to stay alive long enough to see her daughter enter first grade, died several months later. Rin, who had been folding paper cranes incessantly in the hopes that Aki would recover if she made enough of them, was at her mother's side during her last moments. The event was so traumatic that Rin became a silent and emotionless girl.

Rin, still in her stuporic state, entered Futatsubashi Elementary School, where she was grouped together with the two other "class misfits", Kuro Kagami and Mimi Usa, during a physical education class, which marked the beginning of their association. Though initially treated as a living doll by Kuro, the latter's attempt to remove one of Aki's homemade dresses triggered a reaction in Rin for the first time. Over the next two years, Rin's personality and reputation experienced a dramatic shift: she went from being silent and emotionless to the rebellious, de facto leader of her class who would not hesitate to stand up to adults by using her intelligence and exploiting her status as an "innocent" minor to outsmart and outmaneuver them. The bond between the three girls grew so intimate over time, in fact, that each became willing to do anything to help, protect, or defend the other two without hesitation. Such was the case when the original teacher of class 3-1, Nakamura, bullied Mimi until she decided to stay home from school. Rin, in turn, harassed Nakamura until he had a nervous breakdown and resigned his post.

Rin developed a crush on Nakamura's successor, Daisuke Aoki, on the first day they met, even proclaiming herself his girlfriend almost immediately after discovering he was single. However, she remained mistrustful of him, as she had become with all adults, and did not hesitate to coerce him into keeping silent about her involvement in his predecessor's fate. When a series of unrelated events, such as Aoki's persuading Mimi to return to class and treating the stray cat Nyaa with kindness, began silently attesting to his kindness and sincerity, however, Rin's attitude towards him began to soften. And, as it became to her apparent over time that his feelings for and dedication to her were unshakable — unaffected by the dark side of her he had seen or her sometimes questionable treatment of him and not borne of pity or her resemblance to someone he once cared for — what had started out as a simple crush blossomed into genuine love. As might be expected of a child of her age, Rin displayed her affection for Aoki mostly through merciless teasing, though her flirtatious nature and vast carnal knowledge invariably resulted in her antics bordering on sexual harassment. Her subsequent discovery that Kyōko Hōin was attracted to him as well, however, slowly drove Rin to commit increasingly desperate acts, which, following a failed attempt to confess her feelings to him, culminated in an emotionally charged confrontation that left her frustrated and depressed, Aoki questioning the exact nature of his feelings for her, and the development of a rift between the two of them that would persist for months.

Taking her "love rival", Hōin's, advice on how to get someone to like her to heart, Rin decided to try and earn Aoki's love with kindness instead of trying to take it by force. This change in strategy was part of what motivated her to volunteer for the position of class representative at the beginning of the next school year, a position which would both allow her to use her influence over the other students to facilitate his job as a teacher and make sure her peers could make themselves heard. While her faith in and dedication to him are such that she has been willing to push herself beyond her limits, even to the potential detriment of her own health, it has been revealed that two other, more sinister elements have served as the driving forces behind her actions. The first is Rin's awareness of Reiji's increasingly unhealthy obsession with her, which has left her in the uncomfortable position of balancing her platonic love for him as a father figure, her romantic love for Aoki, and her desire to respect her mother's memory and relationship with Reiji. The second is Rin's fear of her own dark nature — the part of her that tormented Nakamura, twice led her to blackmail Aoki with false charges of sexual molestation, and came close to seriously injuring her rival for Aoki's affection, Hōin — and that she will be consumed by her inner demons, something which she has slowly started to open up to Aoki about following their reconciliation.

Kuro Kagami