Ah My Buddha - Characters

Characters

Ikkou Satonaka (里中逸剛, Satonaka Ikkō?)

• Voiced by: Chihiro Suzuki (Japanese), Bryce Papenbrook (English)

The main character of the series, Ikkou is able to release a powerful but uncontrollable power when confronted with intense lust. He is 16 years old. Each time, in the aftermath of his "awakening," he will bear a face of lust, and will "attack" Chitose or the other nuns, who respond by running from him and attacking him. In some episodes he is struck by the other characters more than a half dozen times before the midway point of an episode (for instance, in episode one he was hit 21 times in the first five minutes.) Sometimes he brings it on himself, and sometimes he's the victim of misunderstanding. His character is, essentially, the center of slapstick. Ikkou seems not to enjoy his life at the temple (at least at the beginning of the series) and often complains that he is missing out on his youth. He seems not to have chosen the monastic life and resents the work given to him. He is also the least educated on Buddhist doctrine of all the characters in the show, excluding (possibly) those who are part of the laity. Indeed, he does not seem to have good grades in school nor does he seem to participate in any particular club at school, claiming that his duties at the temple prevent him from having enough time. However, while his fellow novices also have chores, they do not seem prevented from taking on school and hobbies. The head nun of Saienji (Jotoku) believes this is because he is lazy. In his defense, he does seem to be hired out for more temple errands than the other nuns, possibly because he is male and therefore stereotypically better suited to manual labor.

Chitose Nanbu (Red Hair) (南部千歳, Nanbu Chitose?)

• Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (Japanese), Cindy Robinson (English)

Represents the Human Realm, although she has a crush on Ikkou, she constantly denies it. She is 15 years old. Even though she acts nice much of the time, she fails to admit her crush to herself or Ikkou, often harming him when others flirt with him, overall a stereotypical tsundere. She is usually the first to put Ikkou down as low as possible at times as well as beat him with little provocation. She claims to have no hobbies initially, although she enjoys horror films. She is one of the characters in the series that is harassed by Yuuko for her large cup size, perhaps more frequently than the others. In early episodes there is a running gag to the question of where she used to live, one of the clues being that the entire towns businesses (post office, movie rental, clothing store, etc) is located in one small two story building.

Yuuko Atoda (Blue Hair) (阿刀田結子, Atōda Yūko?)

• Voiced by: Chieko Higuchi (Japanese), Tara Platt (English)

Represents the Asura Realm, she is a tomboy and does not hesitate to join fights in her High School, she is the sole enemy of a High School Gang that has used Ikkou as a hostage. She is 15 years old. She tends to be jealous of girls that have big breasts compared to her own and angry with guys that prefer such girls, for example, when an underwear thief chose to steal underwear of only C-Cup and above, when she obviously is not a person with a C-Cup. She has no romantic attachments, and seems to think that she would need to change her personality to something more "girly" in order to have a successful romantic relationship with a male. Like most of the others she likes to physically hurt Ikkou on a daily basis but unlike the others her relationship with him is brotherly-sisterly and she does not really appear to have a crush on him.

Haruka Amanogawa (Blond Hair) (天川春佳, Amanogawa Haruka?)

• Voiced by: Akeno Watanabe (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)

Represents the Devas Realm (Heaven Realm) is the most powerful exorcist of the group. (Excluding times when Ikkou awakened.) She is 17 years old. She flirts with Ikkou on more than one occasion to get a response only to sit back and watch when he gets beaten by the other girls. She has the biggest cup size of all the novice nuns. She seems to take most everything in good humor, and might even come off as a ditz. However, she might be more intelligent than she looks.

Sumi Ikuina (Brown Hair) (生稲雛美, Ikuina Sumi?)

• Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (Japanese), Karen Strassman (English)

Represents the Animal Realm. She is a kind girl who does not mind Ikkou and some times tries to defend him verbally only to fail and let him get beaten up. She is 16 years old. Her kindness extends even to animals, and this seems to be where her spiritual talents lie. In one second season episode, she is chased by dogs and treated by them with excessive affection, apparently a side effect resulting from her lack of training. She is also sometimes harassed by Yuuko due to her breast size. Also due to her being of the Animal Realm, during a certain time each year she releases a pheromone that draws countless animals to her, though is later able to control this.

Hinata Sugai (Long Purple Hair) (為我井陽, Sugai Hinata?)

• Voiced by: Ryoko Shintani (Japanese), Sandra Edwards (English)

Represents the Naraka Realm (Hell Realm), has a little fire-spitting-demon pet by her side at all times that converts to a full sized demon when Hinata cannot suppress her Naraka bosatsu. She is 14 years old. Later in the series, when Ikkou is on the verge of awakening she often commands her demon to burn him, often successfully preventing him from awakening while others times it seems for the hell of it. She is Sakura's younger adopted sister. She appears very calm and rarely speaks. Her hobby is collecting and studying haniwa, and there is an episode in the second season devoted to the Haniwa Research Club which she joins - the school's smallest club. It is also hinted she has feelings for Ikkou, though unknown if it is like a brother or something more.

Sakura Sugai (Short Purple Hair) (為我井さくら, Sugai Sakura?)

• Voiced by: Haruhi Terada (Japanese), Mona Marshall (English)

Represents the Hungry Ghosts Realm, is the sister of Hinata, and has the incredible ability to eat anything without ever feeling satisfied and without changing her appearance. She is 16 years old. Also has some political skills, as she is the president of the student council of the High School the group attends. Her love of politics seems based in a joy of enforcing the rules. She also has her own internet site, "Dr. Sakura," where she berates she calls "hopeless" in what some might consider an attempt to help them - though she obviously gets a good deal of sadistic enjoyment out of ridiculing their complaints. (The anime suggests that she herself might qualify as a "hopeless" person). She seems to pull Ikkou into doing extra work for her own (or her sister's) convenience, or for the temple. All in all, she is a sadistic character, but she is not without concern for other people, and is especially attached to her younger sister, Hinata.

Jotoku Kawahara (河原浄徳, Kawahara Jōtoku?)

• Voiced by: Kazuko Sugiyama (Japanese), Mari Devon (English)

Head Monk of the Temple that the group resides in, grandmother to Ikkou, and Assistant Principal to the High School that the group attends. She is extremely strict to Ikkou more than anyone, though this is primarily because she believes him to be spoiled and lazy and does not train hard enough to keep himself from awakening. There have been occasions in the early part of the series where she has let an awakening or another infringement of temple policy go by unpunished, but by the end of the second season she seems to think she might have been too lax with him. She is generally firm with the nuns as well as Ikkou, though Ikkou seems to be the one most frequently in a position to be punished. She, like the other characters, strikes Ikkou repeatedly without remorse but she uses her staff. There seems to be some indication that in her youth Jotoku was a beauty (not only she claims this, but all the older monks around her still seem to think of her as attractive). In the brief points where she is portrayed young, we do not see her face, but she has long hair and even seems to be taller (Humans do actually shrink as they get older, the main cause of this is Osteoporosis. Animators often use this to the extreme for comical effect, making characters appear almost Chibi (term) in appearance. It's not unusual to see older characters in flash backs appearing much taller).

Kazuki Kazusano (上野一希, Kazusano Kazuki?)

• Voiced by: Asami Sanada (Japanese), Dorothy Elias-Fahn (English)

The main antagonist of the second season, her purpose is to awaken Ikkou so that she can release her innate and uncontrollable spiritual powers. Even though she has an antagonistic role in the series, in another sense she seems to be on Ikkou's side - that is, she seems to want to enjoy her youth as much as Ikkou does, and in much the same way - with a member of the opposite sex, and is also considered in a love triangle like situation with Ikkou and Chitose's relationship even though her feelings are known while Chitose hides them from even herself. She states that she wants to help him in developing his spiritual powers since they are both 14, although what she seems to consider "helping" is different from what the protagonists would consider helping. Since Ikkou's powers are dangerous, the nuns of Saienji hope for Ikkou to restrain himself from using his power too much, while Kazuki seems to believe that the very nature of his powers are essentially good and therefore incapable of doing harm. (The last episode of the series confirms that a strong, uncontrolled awakening can be warped into a force for evil, causing riots and the like.) Nonetheless, she does not seem to want to hurt Ikkou, and while her infatuation with him makes her forceful and competitive (even to the point of violence against Chitose), she is very determined and puts in strong effort to realize a goal that ought to be easier than it apparently is which is to be happy with Ikkou. Her catchphrase in Japanese is "mata joudo" (またじょうど?).

Miyako Amanogawa (天川京, Amanogawa Miyako?)

• Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)

The chief priestess of Saichouji and older sister to Haruka. She has long black hair and is very beautiful and busty. She seems very understanding of Ikko; her main role in the series is to help train Hinata and, perhaps, help Ikkou to train his spiritual powers. One might also say she uses him to help Hinata, though it does not seem to be without some benefit (or at least not detrimental) to his own spiritual journey. At one point she even indicated that she would not mind if Ikkou left his present temple to work at hers. Like her younger sister she is flirtatious and does not mind if Ikkou thinks anything perverted about her. She is shown in only a few episodes and is a relatively minor character.