Sweet Blue Flowers

Plot

Characters

Main characters

Fujigaya students

Matsuoka students

Other characters

• Shinobu Okudaira: Akira's older brother, who attends college. He is constantly worried about his sister, and often takes her places in his car, though Akira often gets very annoyed at how protective her brother is towards her. When she was younger, he would sneak into her futon at night; now he tries to follow her around when he thinks she might be meeting with guys. He suspects Kō of being interested in Akira. Later, Shinobu starts dating Mogii and relaxes a little about Akira.
• Sakiko Okudaira: Akira and Shinobu's mother, who tends to get easily excited. She often yells at Shinobu for his inappropriate behavior regarding Akira, but she also worries about Akira, just like Shinobu does. Her sister describes Sakiko as the black sheep of the family. Sakiko was friends with Yoshie years ago, and regularly visits with her now that Fumi's family has moved back.
• Yoshimichi Okudaira: Akira and Shinobu's father. He doesn't appear much, but he seems to have a personality similar to Shinobu's. He's a salaryman working for an IT company.
• Keiko: Keiko is Akira and Shinobu's aunt, as well as Sakiko's sister. She currently lives in the outskirts of Yokohama, but she graduated from Fujigaya. Keiko and Sakiko don't always get along because of snobbish comments Keiko makes, while Akira is afraid of Keiko's forceful personality. When Shinobu introduces Mogii to her, Keiko overwhelms Mogii so much that she basically hides behind Shinobu.

• Yoshie Manjōme: Fumi's mother. She is good friends with Sakiko Okudaira.
• Akio Manjōme: Fumi's father. He works at a bank. His job transfers him back to Kamakura, which brings Fumi and Akira back together.
• Chizu Hanashiro: Fumi's cousin who lived near Fumi's family while she was going to college. She and Fumi were very close as children and developed a more physically intimate relationship once they were older. Fumi is in love with Chizu, but Chizu chooses to marry instead, breaking Fumi's heart. Chizu's first child looks a lot like Fumi did as a baby.
• Fumi's grandmother: Fumi's strict grandmother, who used to treat Akira like her own granddaughter. She died two years before Fumi's family moved back to Kamakura. When Fumi is feeling bad about herself, she sometimes hears her own negative thoughts as if her grandmother were saying them.

• Chie Sugimoto: Yasuko's mother. She often pretends to be scandalized by her daughters' antics, but then says the most scandalous things herself. Despite this, she shows a caring side to Fumi when she visits.
• Shinako Sugimoto: The oldest Sugimoto sister, who likes to joke and tease Yasuko. She attended Fujigaya at the same time as Hinako; Orie had a crush on Shinako in school before Hinako confessed. Shinako was quite popular in school and often had younger students admiring her and wanting to date her. She dated a female student named Kaoruko, who broke up with her, but it seems they got back together several times. Shinako regularly had many girlfriends and says she loved all of them.
• Kazusa Sugimoto: Kazusa is an artist. She has a kind personality and appears very feminine, except when she paints. For a short time, she worked as an art teacher at Fujigaya after graduating from there. While teaching, she met her future husband Masanori Kagami, also a teacher. She knows two of her sisters loved her husband when they were younger, but this doesn't appear to bother her. She also teaches Kyōko private art lessons and suspects Kyōko's feelings for Yasuko.
• Kuri Sugimoto: Kuri is similar to Yasuko in that she was very popular when attending Fujigaya. Also like Yasuko, she too fell in love with Masanori Kagami, but she never told him her feelings. She wields a blunt personality and smokes. While at Fujigaya, her best friend Komako had a crush on her, though Kuri may not know this.
• Masanori Kagami: Kazusa's husband, he teaches at Fujigaya, where they met. He nominally advises the Drama Club, but he almost never shows up, which the club members, especially Kaori, remark on often. He was the one who named Yasuko "Mistress of the Library"; Yasuko left Fujigaya after confessing her feelings to him and being turned down. He withheld this information from Kyōko when she asked if he knew why Yasuko had left. After his marriage to Kazusa, both Kuri and Yasuko seem to accept that he is beyond their reach.
• Fumi: Sugimoto family cook and helper. She is soft-hearted and allows the younger Fumi to take tea to Yasuko after the sisters fight with each other.
• Ogino: Sugimoto family driver. He insists on driving Yasuko around when he can.

• Kayoko Ikumi: Kyōko's mother. Kyōko hated her for a long time because of Kayoko's illness and how other people treated their family as a result. However, as Kyōko grew up, she came to realize that this wasn't her mother's problem. Kayoko is still disliked by many members of the Sawanoi family and is gossiped about by them, as Akira discovered by accident.
• Kō Sawanoi: Kyōko's fiancé, in name only. He is a college student from a wealthy family. They have known each other since childhood and Kō has a great concern for Kyōko, but he knows that she is in love with someone else.
• Hanae: Kō's aunt, who welcomes Kyōko's friends to their family vacation home. She is kind to Fumi and Akira when they get sick, and she tries to stand up for Kyōko when other family members complain about her mother.

• Orie Ōno: Haruka's older sister. Orie also attended Fujigaya, where she fell in love with her best friend Hinako. Haruka finds a love letter in Orie's room and realizes that Orie is probably a lesbian. This worries her at first, but Haruka has always been close to Hinako as well, so she accepts the relationship.
• Hinako Yamashina: A science teacher at Fujigaya, and the homeroom teacher of Akira's second year class. She also attended Fujigaya, where she and Orie fell in love. Hinako often finds herself giving students advice; for example, Fumi comes to her when she's worried about her relationship with Akira. She also rescues the drama club when Haruka leaves several of the costumes at home right before the festival. Since Orie and Hinako have known each other since high school, Haruka refers to her as Hina.
• Haruka's mother: Haruka and Orie's mother is invested in her children's lives, but she also knows when to let go. She has given up on Orie getting married. Haruka seems to have inherited some of her mother's personality, including her loud and friendly nature. However, her mother is more respectful of other people's privacy than Haruka tends to be.