Video Girl AI - Characters

Characters

• Ai Amano (天野あい, Amano Ai?) Beautiful, full of boundless energy. Hard to say what she is really like, versus what she was intended to be. Video girls are generally supposed to be comforting, nubile, excellent cooks and socially graceful, but the malfunction of Yota's VCR has made her tomboyish, at times rude, prone to violence, a terrible cook (actually, she learns to cook all by herself), but full of heart and able to feel human emotion. Her chest endowment has also shrunk considerably due to said VCR malfunction. Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (OAV), Minami Takayama (CD-drama), and by Maggie Blue O'Hara in the English dub.

• Yota "Dateless"* Moteuchi (弄内洋太, Moteuchi Yōta?) Yota is the stereotypical loser, unable to declare his feelings to his unrequited love, Moemi, socially awkward, with a tendency to get nervous and clumsy around women. Voiced by: Takeshi Kusao (OAV), Nozomu Sasaki (CD-drama), and Brad Swaile in the English dub.

• Moemi Hayakawa (早川もえみ, Hayakawa Moemi?) An attractive girl, though almost hopelessly moon-eyed over Takashi, who is too popular to really appreciate Moemi's affectations. Voiced by: Yuri Amano (OAV), Kotono Mitsuishi (CD-drama), and Jennifer Copping in the English dub.

• Takashi Niimai (新舞貴志, Niimai Takashi?) Your typical "tall, dark, and handsome" popular guy. He is one of Yota's best friends, and rejects Moemi's advances because he knows Yota's feelings for her. Voiced by: Koji Tsujitani (OAV), Kazuhiko Inoue (CD-drama), and Samuel Vincent in the English dub.

• Nobuko Nizaki (仁崎伸子, Nizaki Nobuko?) A girl, one year behind Yota, who developed a crush on him in art class two years earlier and now, with Moemi and Ai temporarily sidelined, can pursue romantic ties with Yota. She first appears midway through volume 3 and only appears in the manga.

• Natsumi Yamaguchi (山口夏美, Yamaguchi Natsumi?) A girl, an orphan and a runaway, who had played with Yota in kindergarten. Her family then moved away. Her theme is misfortune. Her attribute is a hand extended to help one up. She first appears in volume 6 and only appears in the manga. She seems to have a weak heart.Later on in the series she dies in the hospital, and becomes Ai's role model in love.

* This nickname is based on a pun with the Japanese verb 持てる (moteru), which means to be well liked or popular (or to have something). A second way to read Moteuchi would be "Motenai," which is the negative conjugation for moteru (in other words, to not have something). An attempt to get the joke across to English speaking audiences was made by Ai, who reads his name and declares, "Motenai?!? As in LOSER?" Yota corrects her, but the image has already been planted into the audience's mind.