List of Pita-Ten characters
A list of characters from the manga and anime Pita-Ten.
Kotaro Higuchi
Kotarou Higuchi (樋口湖太郎, Higuchi Kotarō?) is the main character of Pita-Ten. He generally looks after himself, and lives alone with his dad. His mother died while saving him from being run over by a truck. In both anime and manga, Kotarou learns new skills and becomes much happier as Misha lives with him, and he finally gets into the school of his choice with his friends. Kotaro's seiyū is Miyuki Sawashiro.
- Manga — In the Manga, Kotaro starts as a reasonably intelligent child who is a little depressed. His emotional status is chiefly due to the aftereffects of his mother's death in a traumatizing road accident during his childhood. He loses self-esteem and faith in his abilities; closing his heart out to others and growing angry and pessimistic frequently. He likes to think that he's mature and responsible, but in reality he is rather recessive and has a lot of growing up to do. He falls in love with Misha, but eventually has to give up on her in the end. He has 1/8 of demon blood (his mother was 1/4 demon, not his father) and as such he is more than capable of seeing angels, demons and anything supernatural- although he ironically loathes this ability. His final wish from Misha is to not have this ability any more, and as such he can finally live in the real world. From all of Misha's care, devotion and love he finally learns to be truly happy, and learn to go through problems head-on, instead of hiding or growing frustrated. He is also the reincarnation of Misha's beloved 'Kotaroh', her main reason for giving him all her attention and concern. His best friends are Koboshi Uematsu and Takashi Ayanokoji (better known as Ten-chan).
- Anime — In the Anime, Kotaro starts out less successfully in school, and is still rather depressed. He is very mature and responsible despite his young age,and always keeps his feelings locked away as best he can. By the end of the series, Kotaro can see angels and demons, but it is not explained why (one can only presume he is only 1/16 of a demon here, although it isn't explicitly stated). By the conclusion, he has become much happier than before and as a result he copes much better at school.
Misha
Misha is an apprentice angel, and has been for some time now. She speaks like a small child, ending almost all of her sentences with "su", a shortened form of "desu", and tries her very best to make everybody around her happy; consequentially making matters much worse. She moved in next door to Kotarou and has always been very hyper and outgoing around him. She is happy and optimistic, and has always managed to keep a smile on her face despite feeling unhappy. Misha's seiyū is Yukari Tamura.
- Manga — In the manga interpretation, Misha was alive long ago, as angels age at a different rate than humans. Misha holds a tragic past as well. Misha originally knew Kotaro's great uncle, Kotaro. When she was an angel-in-training, she used to habitually visit him every night, speaking to Kotaro very formally — something that irritated him to no end. Eventually, he asked Misha if she would relax a little and lose some of the formality, though Misha took his suggestion way too overboard and ended up speaking like a small child to the day she met Kotaro in the present. At her older sister Sasha's demand, Misha was forced to agree to stop her nightly visits with Kotaro. Kotaro overheard this and, deciding that he couldn't live without Misha, he then committed suicide by jumping off the cliff and landing in the lake. When Misha discovered his body floating in the water, she panicked and tried to save him, but couldn't, as her body was transparent and would have passed through him. Kotaro died. Upon her return to Heaven, Misha was blamed for Kotaro's death, and was imprisoned in a jail of thorns and forced to wear only black garments for many years to come, with nothing but feelings of guilt and sadness. In this state she fell from grace to the point where mortals could see and interact with her. Eventually, however, Kotaro reincarnated into the present Kotaro, and Misha was granted one final pass at trying to help make his life better for him. She set up lodgings next door to him and immediately searched Kotarou out and sincerely tried to make him happy (even though Kotaro had no recollection of ever being Kotaro, and thus did not recognize Misha). Misha's final test on her angelic license exam was to make Kotaro happy; which she finally achieved in the eighth and final volume of Pita-Ten (it is also implied that she was accepted as an angel and finally allowed to wear white). Kotarou's last request was that she use her powers to make it so he could no longer see angels and demons. In the manga, nobody actually realized she was an angel except for Kotaro, Shia, and Nya. The rest just assumed Misha's weird actions were part of her oddities. Misha is generally innocent, very benevolent and forgiving. She most likely knew of Shia's true identity as a demon but simply didn't mind (along with the knowledge that Shia nearly killed Kotaro on more than one occasion, but she still allowed Shia to live with her). She was also determined to become Kotaro's replacement mother upon realization that he had none.
- Anime — In the anime, Misha is an overtly-happy girl whose only mission in life is to spread joy and happiness. She isn't very good and makes a lot of mistakes, but she always manages to make something good out of a bad situation. It doesn't take long for Kotaro, Koboshi, and Ten-chan realize that she's an angel, and they try their best to help her (an interesting difference in the anime and manga versions, because in the manga Kotaro never believed she was an angel until she showed him her wings, and Koboshi and Ten-chan never found out at all). Ultimately, Misha tries to make Shia happy (by resurrecting her) and gets deleted from the universe — until the other angels realize that there is nothing really wrong with helping a demon, and she's resurrected. At the end of the series, Misha is still an angel apprentice.
Shia
Shia is a demon (manga) or a demon apprentice (anime). She is gentle, kind-hearted and isn't very good at being malicious or killing humans. She's generally weak all around, even more so when her staff becomes broken under Misha's influence. Shia's seiyū is Yukana Nogami.
- Manga — In the manga, Shia is older than Misha. She was friends - and eventually lovers - with Taro Higuchi, Kotarou's great-grandfather at age six (physically). Shia was adopted by a family as a very small child when she was abandoned, and named Shima after she cried that out every night in her sleep (she was actually crying out her real name, Shia, although Taro and her adopted family still referred to her as Shima). As a child, she caused bad luck everywhere - and it took Taro some time to teach her that she wasn't a demon and a jinx (although, in actuality, she was). Her home was then burned down by local rebels (her adopted parents where westerners), she along with her family disappeared, much to Taro's sorrow. Later, Shia and Taro meet again, Taro was now a young adult while Shia still looked like a child. Shia and Taro got back together and eventually fell in love, producing two offspring, Kotaroh (uncle of Kotarou) and Shino (Kotarou's grandmother) - which makes Shia Kotarou's great-grandmother. As Shia refused to drain humans, she became steadily weaker until she almost attacked her child Kotaroh, so she went back to Nya and left Taro. In the present day, Shia has returned to the human world to find "something she's missing". Nya now accompanies her as a black cat. Upon encountering Kotarou she feels drawn toward him. She later drains him, but restores his lifeforce after an intervention by Misha, who offers some of her own limitless lifeforce in trade. She found herself living with Misha as she had nowhere else to go, and became distracted from her goal while looking after Kotarou. Eventually she found herself a part-time job and almost settled down until Nya and a picture of Kotarou's late mother (who bore a strong resemblance to Shia's old family) reminded her of her mission and she left without warning. Kotarou and Misha managed to seek her down at Kotarou's great-grandfather's house. While there, Taro (Kotarou's great-grandfather) died in his sleep. Shino and Kotaroh, the younger Kotarou's grandparents on his mother's side, had already died, and he stayed with his aunt. Kotarou's aunt also reveals that he's the only living male member of his mother's bloodline, which hints at an infirmity in the males passed down the bloodline, possibly related to the capacity for supernatural sight Shia bestowed on some of her descendants. Kotarou and Misha found Shia and told her of Taro's death, and Shia realised too late what she was searching for. She then understood that she had a family with Kotarou, Misha and all her new friends and decided to stay in the human world after saying goodbye to Taro. Nya warned her of the consequences of leaving, but Shia refused and stayed anyway. However, Shia was very weak and died before they could even get home. Nya took away her body, saying that she was truly an amazing demon, hurting many in their most vulnerable area, including his own. Kotarou only learned she was a demon after she had left for Taro's house, when Sasha informed him. Misha already knew but just didn't care. Shia is very gentle, loving and has a motherly disposition; she was the one who calmed down and helped Takashi, cared for Kotarou as his own mother did and although she died, she holds a place in the hearts she helped.
- Anime — In the anime, Shia had a considerably less complicated past. She came to Earth as a demon apprentice and Nya played the part of her mentor. Shia got a part-time job in a restaurant and cared for the children like a mother, eventually taking the place of Kotarō's mother. After helping children in a local hospital, Shia and Nya both realised that she could never be evil, so Shia was erased from the universe by the other demons. All but Misha and Nya forgot about her (as Misha is an angel) and eventually Misha resurrected her (which caused Misha to be deleted from the universe for doing so). By the end of the series, Shia was a human and continued to happily work her part-time job. Uematsu, Ten-chan, Misha and Kotarou learned that Shia was an apprentice demon early in the series, when she absent-mindedly told them after they spotted her using her powers - Sasha found out when she first laid eyes on Shia.
Takashi Ayanokoji
Takashi Ayanokoji (綾小路 天, Ayanokōji Takashi?) is an extremely intelligent, sporty and attractive 'ladies man' who is the best friend of both Kotarou and Koboshi since they were six. He is affectionately called Ten-chan. He also has a mole somewhere near his chin. Despite his perfect grades and popularity, he has a troubled homelife. His father is bedridden in hospital, and his mother spends a lot of time taking care of the two of them and paying for the hospital fees- as such, Takashi's family doesn't have much money, consequently leading to Takashi being unable to take the Exams to go into Joudai Academy (where Kotarou and Koboshi plan to go). Both he and Uematsu both take part in fun little tasks and every-day things in the anime and manga, so although they have large parts there is little about them that can be written. Takashi's seiyū is Mitsuki Saiga.
- Manga — In the Manga, Takashi starts his life seemingly happy and laid-back. He's constantly at the top of the class and never goes to cram school - but despite this, he secretly has to strive very hard to keep himself at the top. He gets love letters from many girls, since he is very popular-even if he rejects everyone of them. One of Takashi's many problems is that although he has the grades to go to a fantastic school in the following year; he just doesn't have enough money to pay for it because his father is in the hospital, and due to the bills, his parents cannot afford the related costs of a private school. It is not made very clear why his father is in the hospital, only that he is very ill, and Takashi often goes to visit (much of Takashi's family life is seen in the hospital room). Even though his mother works hard in her job, and he gets a part-time job alongside Shia and eventually raises just about enough, the school rejects him outright. His second crisis is that he loves Shia. He is the last to see Shia before she finally leaves, although devastated he confessed his love to her there, pleading her to stay although she declined and left him there in the rain. After that, he never sees her again -as she passes away before they can meet again. A slight problem along the road had been that Kotarou had a crush on Shia too. Ultimately, Takashi has to cope with his misery and he gets into his second choice school. In the manga, Takashi was in love with Koboshi but he gave up her because she was in love with Kotarou, but in the end of the manga he still loves her.
- Anime — In the Anime, Takashi plays more as a background character. He's happy, and still in love with Shia, although he doesn't confess to her. To help his mother, he takes up a part-time job alongside Shia, and has to work harder than any of the other children. Apparently he has no bad home life in the anime.
Koboshi Uematsu
Koboshi Uematsu, the fierce, petite blond-haired female childhood friend of both Takashi and Kotarou, is depicted as a very assertive character. She loves Kotarou very much but is too embarrassed to confess her feelings to him. She enjoys having a normal, routinely basis of her everyday life from meeting Kotarou in the morning to talking to him during the day, until Misha showed up. She wears unique cat-shaped ears everyday on her hair (but they are not real or actually attached to her head). She is liable to anger, and very overprotective, causing her to be constantly irritated by Misha's childish antics and attachment to her 'Kotarou-chan'. Koboshi and Takashi both take part in fun little tasks and everyday things in both the anime and manga, so although they may have large parts, there is little about them that can be written. Koboshi's seiyū is Rie Kugimiya.
- Manga — In the Manga, Koboshi clearly loves Kotarou a lot. She tries her very best to impress him and be close to him; from learning to cook apple pies, only to have the pie to fall on his head, and confessing her affections. She's cheerful and extroverted, but eventually learns that she has a lot of growing up to do. By the end of the manga, she is still a cheerful person, but has abandoned her childish cat ears and is beginning to mature into a young woman.
- Anime — In the Anime, Uematsu plays more of a comic relief part, from repeatedly shouting at Misha loudly to consistently punching Hiroshi in a comical sense. She works hard against Misha (whom she sees as a rival) to be the object of Kotarou's affection, and she has the advantage of being his childhood friend, and the girl he talks the most to. As a child, Koboshi defended Kotarou and protected him from those who bullied him because of his loss of having a mother. She clings to a memory of Kotarou consoling her after falling off a slide when they were younger, but it turns out to have been a fever dream brought about by a flu.
Hiroshi Mitarai
In the manga, Hiroshi Mitarai is nicknamed Dai-chan or 'Poops' (his last name can be translated as 'bathroom' in Japanese), but other than that he is one of the few characters who is almost always consistent storyline-wise in both the anime and the manga. Hiroshi doesn't know that Shia is a demon and Misha is an angel; but he attempts to exorcise Shia and clings to Misha. Despite this, he works hard to stand up to his family name, but always falls behind Ten-chan on tests. He misses his first choice for education because of exam grades, and consequently ends up at his Elementary's middle school, Misaki Middle. Hiroshi's seiyū is Motoko Kumai.
In both Anime and Manga, Mitarai has an eagle called Jimmi, who he can call with a whistle.
Shino
Shino is the name of Kotarou's cousin. She is a small child with a free spirit, but when she gets upset she gets upset very quickly and easily, plus she hates being left alone. She, like Kotarou, can see angels, demons and ghosts. She is different from Shino, her grandmother in the manga. Shino's seiyū is Taeko Kawata.
- Manga — In the Manga, Shino plays a reasonably large part. When she first appears, she is lost in an amusement park and Shia and Misha find her- she takes an immediate liking to Misha. However, Shino doesn't like Shia as she gets headaches around her (Kotarou too used to get headaches around Shia, reacting to her being a demon). In the Manga, Shino is 1/8 demon like Kotarou (following down the same like, Shia is also Shino's great-grandmother). It is of note that Shino and Kotarou's grandmother was also called Shino- she is seen when Kotarou goes to visit his great-grandfather's house and is also in the scenes set in the past- past Shino is portrayed as strong willed, rather like Uematsu in the present. After present Shino's father is hospitalised (her mother is dead, like Kotarou's), Shino moves to live in with Kotarou. She makes fewer and fewer appearances as the series moves on and the action moves out of Kotarou's house, but she is never ditched from the cast page and appears in the last chapter.
- Anime — In the Anime, Shino hardly appears (not having a part on the introduction). She has only one episode to herself where she is a reasonably main character; she goes to the theme park and runs away after hearing her father is in hospital. Misha and Kotarou eventually finds her and Misha takes her to her father.
Nya
Nyaa (or Nya) is the name of the little black cat that is always with Shia. In both the anime and the manga he is named Nyaa by Misha (since the sound a cat makes, "Nyo" or "Nya" in Japanese) and although he insists that it isn't his real name, he never reveals his real name, so he has become known simply as "Nyaa". In both the Manga and the Anime, Nyaa despises Sasha (the feeling is mutual), and in both versions he is a full demon. His real name is Klaus (also revealed in the Pita-Ten novel series). Nya's seiyū is Yumi Touma.
- Manga — In the Manga, Nya is a demon who is in love with Shia, proven by his words when he took her body away for the last time. He often aids her from near-death situations, and tries to teach her how she can be a proper demon. Yet he gets easily frustrated by her incompetence and reluctance to kill humans. He's always depicted as an antagonist, with a long cloak and a sinister look in his eyes, but all he really ever does is protect Shia. It saddens him in the end that she would rather stay in the human world and not leave with him, which results in her death. Nyaa's human form has dirty chin-length blonde hair and cold blue eyes. He appears to have some German history, but his past is completely unknown other than the deep, unreasonable hatred he holds for mortals and his closeness to Shia. He is fairly tall and always dressed in a long black cloak -he wears a little bell where it would be around his neck as a cat- and he is clearly a very powerful and clever demon. Near the very end, he appears one last time to collect Shia's body and then disappears for good.
- Anime — In the Anime, Nyaa is only Shia's mentor. He tries to do the best for her, and although he tries to teach her how to be evil, she just can't (she's too kind and benevolent), which makes him very frustrated and annoyed. Near the end it is revealed being evil was ultimately for her own good or else being wiped from existence and from the memories of those who knew her. After Shia is erased, it is clear that he loves her, and he works day and night in a fruitless attempt to have her resurrected (albeit Misha gets her resurrected in the end and Nyaa's potions just go to waste).
Nya's human form bares striking similar features to Kazune Kujyou from Kamichama Karin, another manga from Koge Donbo, and even more of a resemblance to a character from another of her works, Yoki Koto Kiku, which also involves a character closely resembling Shia and a cat addressed as Nya.
Kaoru Mitarai
The younger sister of Hiroshi Mitarai, Kaoru Mitarai is the culinary sibling with a serious infatuation over Takashi, who she loves a great deal- she often cooks for him or else plans weddings and marriage for him. She reacts violently to anybody who would dare to be mean to Takashi or Hiroshi- although she does value Takashi more than Hiroshi. She wears what appears to be a tape measure, tied into a bow, in her hair. Kaoru appears reasonably regularly in the anime; but extremely rarely in the manga (she is ditched from the cast page eventually, and is one of the only characters who is). Her surname, like her brother's, can be translated to mean bathroom, and her first name means fragrant. In that interpretation, her full name means "fragrant bathroom." Takashi thought naming her that is like child-abuse. She often finishes her sentences with "desu wa" in the anime. Kaoru's seiyū is Sakura Nogawa.
Taro Higuchi
Taro Higuchi is the name of Kotarou's great-grandfather. He is a stubborn man and very down-to-earth, determined and bold from child to elder. As a kid, he met a young girl called Shima (a demon accidentally transported into the human world as a baby) who he tried to convince that she was not unlucky or different, and eventually succeeded in making her happy and becoming her friend. One day, Shima disappeared, and Taro was very upset. Several years later, Taro, now a young adult, meets Shima again in Tokyo, where he was working and engaged to a rich woman named Akane. Because demons physically age at a different rate than humans Shima looks seven or eight years old here, although she was mentally an adult; he married her and they had two children, Kotaroh and Shino. Even if they had unhappy moments and sad times, both of them tried to live together peacefully. In the end, Shima — incapable of controlling her demonic instincts — nearly killed her son. Devoid of energy, she left with Nya, and he never saw her again. But he still waited for her to return all of his life. He dies later in the manga before Shia can remember him.
Kotaroh
-Manga only Character- Kotaroh Higuchi was Misha's friend when she was a little girl, and also Taro and Shima(Shia)'s son. He was a half-demon, capable of seeing angels, demons, and spirits, as well as having visions of peoples' approaching deaths, yet when he tried to inform the villagers of his visions, they believed he was the one causing the people to die, and labeled him a freak. Kotaroh was bullied along with his sister Shino at times, finding himself shunned as an outcast. In spite of this treatment, Kotaroh still made a friend, who happened to be the angel-trainee named Misha, whom he met seemingly by chance. She spoke to him in formal Japanese, which annoyed him no end, so eventually she started to talk to him in a childish manner (which made him laugh, so she continued to do so). Kotaroh loved Misha dearly, and asked her to go out with him. However, Misha (being an angel and did not know what that meant) did not understand, so Kotaroh explained that he wanted to be with her forever (this is why Misha asked Kotarou to go out with her in the present time on their first meeting). But what Misha was doing by visiting Kotaroh was against the rules in Heaven, and she was scolded and ordered to be sent back to Heaven by Sasha. After he overheard this, Kotaroh decided he would go to Heaven with Misha, thinking that he would never be happy without her, and committed suicide by jumping off a cliff to his death. Unfortunately, this caused Misha to be imprisoned in a tangle of thorns for many years in repentance, for being with him and for driving him to kill himself for her. Misha lived many years in the prison with feelings of grief and sadness, upon hearing of Kotaroh's reincarnation, was sent down to finally make him happy.
Shino (The first)
-Manga only Character- Shino is Kotaroh's little sister, Shino, is also half demon like her brother, but she does not seem to have inherited such strong powers as her brother. She is a lively girl, who is very protective of her brother. She often gets into fights when protecting him. Shino doesn't care that she gets troubled because of her brother. She only wants him to be safe and happy, and always stands up for him. By calculations, she should be Kotarou and Shino(present day Kotarou's little cousin)'s grandmother.