, a manga series written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Akira Akatsuki, follows the efforts of Student Council President Medaka Kurokami, a young woman with extraordinary capabilities, as she works to improve Hakoniwa Academy, along with her closest friend, Zenkichi Hitoyoshi. The Hokoniwa Academy population consists of several groups of students. The Specials are scholarship students whose abilities allow them to excel in a specific area. They include Student Council members Kouki Akune and Mogana Kikajima. The Abnormals are students who possess overwhelming capabilities such that they are dominated by that aspect; they are unable to relate to normal people, and typically have a superiority complex; Medaka herself is one of these. The antithesis to the Abnormals are Minuses; their abnormalities as destructive expressions of mental illnesses, chronic depression, being mentally shut off from the world, and possibly a complementary inferiority complex. The students who lack any special abilities are known as Normals.
Main characters
Medaka Kurokami
is the student body president of Hakoniwa Academy, having garnered 98% of the student vote in her first year. Beautiful, well-endowed, and having no reservations in showing off, she excels in academics, sports, and just about any activity she tries, with seemingly inhuman results. At the start of the story, she institutes a suggestion box for various tasks that the students feel would improve the academy. She originally plans that only she and her dear friend Zenkichi Hitoyoshi run the student council, but as the story progresses, she recruits more people to fill the council positions. She enjoys helping others and is determined to finish any task handed to her, rewarding herself with a pot of flowers, and hoping that one day she can look outside the council window to see the academy full of flowers.
Medaka grew up in a family of five: her father, her 'legal' mother, her older sister, her older brother, and herself. Her biological mother, the mistress of her father, died from a heart attack directly after childbirth and Medaka believed it was because her mother's sole purpose in life was to give birth to her. Because of her abnormal abilities, she quickly matured and was selected to be part of the Flask Project. However, she ran away after being confronted with the realization that life has no meaning. Shortly afterward, she met Zenkichi Hitoyoshi for the first time; when he showed genuine happiness and amazement for her remarkable abilities, he told her that her purpose in life was to make the people around her happy. Thus, Medaka was reborn and the unbreakable bond between Zenkichi and Medaka begun. She despises her older brother but at the same time holds some degree of begrudging respect for him. She looks up to her older sister and loves her deeply. However, she unwittingly feels lonely because of her incredible abilities and the company of others has actually allowed her to restrain the true extent of her power.
Medaka and Zenkichi have been friends since they were two years old. In middle school, Medaka had a classmate whom she tried to help but failed to do so. Her failure to do so ended in the death of another classmate, Ajimu, and Medaka was emotionally scarred. In hopes of protecting her, Zenkichi vowed to prevent anyone similar from getting close to her again, which Medaka is secretly grateful for. During Zenkichi's fight with Munakata, Medaka confesses her love for Zenkichi to the other Student Council members and breaks down in tears when Zenkichi falls to Munakata. After Medaka was brainwashed, the bond between Medaka and Zenkichi enables him to return her back from her old personality. In more recent events, Medaka has expressed an interest in Zenkichi since he challenged her to a duel (which she has been eagerly waiting). After the new student council election, Medaka confesses that she has fallen for him.
Medaka's abnormality, identified as by Naze, is her ability to copy and master other people's abnormalities. It is this ability that draws the interest of the Flask Plan, as she appears to be the one person who can achieve the ideal of the "Perfect Person". It has been commented, by herself no less, that only she can hold this ability, because she is a beast, and no human would be able to withstand it. When Oudo tried to steal her abnormality with his "Unreasonable Taxation" abnormality, he stated that it was, "Dark enough to black out the sun". He noticed that his arm appeared to have melted, however this was an illusion and most likely the results of him trying to take an ability too powerful for him to handle. However, her abnormality has proved to be a double-edged sword, as she is unable to stop herself from taking on and enhancing an ability when she experiences it. If she were to copy and perfect a Minus abnormality, it would not serve any positive purpose and would undoubtedly cause her harm.
In the Unknown Shiranui arc, after coming back to life, she is called to save the world. Apparently, Fukurou has created a style, Testament User, that activates after he dies. This style draws the moon to the earth. Medaka then left to destroy the moon.
According to Zenkichi: "That day, the moon disappeared from our sky. And Medaka-chan never returned.". However, Medaka reappeared during her class's graduation, having survived and gone on several fantastic adventures in space before returning. Medaka then decided to leave school to work for her family's Zaibatsu, but not before defeating the entire school to collect a farewell message.
In the final chapter, when the cast meets again in their high school reunion, Medaka, along with the other main characters, has lost all of her abilities with age, but gained the ability to be loved by animals, the only skill she lacked in her youth. Zenkichi challenges Medaka to a final duel. If he wins, she must marry him. Medaka counters this that if SHE wins, HE must marry her. Zenkichi proceeds to begin the fight.
Zenkichi Hitoyoshi
is the childhood friend of Medaka, and the Student Council General Affairs Manager.In the one-shot, Medaka assigns Zenkichi Hitoyoshi the position of Vice-President. He reluctantly joined for the sake of protecting Medaka. Zenkichi shows enthusiasm towards Medaka's cause for helping others, but he will punish anyone who opposes that cause. It is later revealed that he is the one who reformed Medaka into her current personality. He has feelings for her. Little is known about Zenkichi's past except that he has been with Medaka since they were two years old. The relationship between Shiranui and Zenkichi is frequently commented on by their classmates, often negatively, on how they interact with each other. Shiranui has commented that she is only friends with him when she is in the mood. Ironically, Shiranui's grandfather notes that Zenkichi is probably the only person who can get along with Shiranui. Zenkichi eventually reveals his feelings directly to Medaka before sacrificing himself to destroy Kumagawa.
Zenkichi is noted to be a "normal" individual, one with no special abilities. Medaka's brother, Maguro, takes special interest in him because no matter how much he is discouraged or fails, he stands back up. Zenkichi has vowed to protect Medaka ever since she was emotionally scarred after failing to help a classmate in middle school. In order to become stronger, he has undertaken Maguro's hellish training sessions along with Medaka. Zenkichi is revealed to be a master of Savate, having honed his skill to such an extent that he possesses an almost impenetrable defense. According to Zenkichi, he learned this style because he fears fighting and uses it to disarm opponents and take away their desire to fight. He also studied on how to disassemble guns, and rocket launchers, just in case something ever happened to Medaka. Thanks to this display of skill, the Flask Plan is very interested in him, believing him to have the potential to become an Abnormal. However, it has been repeatedly iterated that Zenkichi, despite his remarkable abilities, is still only "normal." If standard human limits are applied though, Zenkichi has long since passed the line of a "normal"; for instance, when he caused a small earthquake with his stomp. Even if it was biologically possible, a man of Zenkichi's weight and mass would find it impossible.
During the moments of unconsciousness after he sacrifices himself to defeat Kumagawa, Zenkichi meets Ajimu, who had been killed by Kumagawa and helps him recover his eyesight by granting him one of her own abilities – "Parasite Eyes", which allows Zenkichi to see another person's perspective of the world. However, Zenkichi dislikes his new ability and avoids using it unless necessary, often expressing distaste for how he is no longer normal. The ability is later modified into "Model Zenkichi" by Shiranui, which allows Zenkichi to see the limitations of his opponents instead.
Because of Zenkichi's otherwise normal nature, Ajimu exposes Medaka to the potential successors, who are also normal girls, destroying the appeal that Zenkichi's "normalness" has for her. Ajimu then mocks the broken boy, listing off some of the most famous protagonists in manga and pointing out how he has nothing in common with any of them. To remain by Medaka's side, Zenkichi accepts Ajimu's offer to become a main character by using the Flask Plan. In order to defeat Medaka by becoming the next Student Council President, Zenkichi is given a specially made ability created by Hanten Shiranui: "Devil Style", an Abnormal ability that nullifies any coincidence, allowing Zenkichi to enter any venture without luck or the whims of fate interfering with it, thus making any endeavor completely fair. This ability flies in the face of Ajimu's idea of a "main character" as most are known to be incredibly lucky. He is now one of the only characters, alongside Youka Naze, Misogi Kumagawa, Najimi Ajimu, and Kamome Tsurubami, to possess more than one abnormality or minus. At the end of the second semester, he defeats Medaka in an election and becomes the 100th Student Council President.
In the final chapter, when the cast meets again in their high school reunion, Zenkichi challenges Medaka to a final duel. If he wins, she must marry him. Medaka counters this that if SHE wins, HE must marry her. Zenkichi points out the conditions are basically the same but then proceeds to begin the fight.
Hakoniwa Academy Student council Medaka recruits the following student council members in addition to Zenkichi.
Misogi Kumagawa
, Minus Name: , is formally the Student Council President of his former middle school and an antagonist main and ending of Medaka Box, Kumagawa becomes the vice-president of the Student Council under Medaka. Medaka describes Kumagawa as a compulsive liar who places no meaning in trust or doubt, while Hitomi Hitoyoshi considers him developmentally retarded. Misogi Kumagawa describes Hitomi Hitoyoshi as his "first love", and apparently has a strange fetish for panties and adult women who look much younger than they are. Despite his intensely negative attitude, his intentions appear to be ultimately good – Kumagawa wants to create an equal world and fight for the oppressed, but has insane and idiotic anime-related ideas about how to go about it. He does not seem very interested in more ordinary people, as he described Zenkichi as a "boring guy". However, he views humans as humans, has a conscience, tends to randomly heal or help strangers as well, and experiences shock and pain when those who stood by his side, such as Emukae, are hurt. Despite the immensely negative personality that Kumagawa possesses, he is always seen smiling no matter how much trauma or horror that he is subjected to.