Main characters
Tamako Kitashirakawa (北白川 たまこ, Kitashirakawa Tamako)
Voiced by: Aya Suzaki (Japanese); Margaret McDonald (English)
The title character and the main protagonist of the series, Tamako is a kind, cheerful and somewhat clumsy first-year in high school whose family runs a mochi shop in their town's shopping district called Tama-ya. She enjoys her high school life and the baton club with her friends Kanna and Midori. She helps her family run the shop and invent new kinds of mochi. Her birthday is on New Year's Eve and is often forgotten due to the busy schedule, but Tamako devotes herself to helping in the shop. Tamako is nervous about public speaking and has problems swimming in addition to being somehow clumsy. Tamako is shown to be rather slow in catching up with some things, particularly regarding people's feelings about love. She is one of the few characters that does not know Mochizō has a crush on her, and she fails to pick up on her sister's crush. Tamako feeds Dera mochi on a regular basis, and she feeds him too much for his size, making him bloated and unable to fly properly.
Mochizō Ōji (大路 もち蔵, Ōji Mochizō)
Voiced by: Atsushi Tamaru (Japanese); Clint Bickham (English)
Mochizō is Tamako's childhood friend whose family also runs a mochi shop called Ōji-ya or in the new name Ricecake Oh!Zee, a mochi shop located across from Tama-ya. Though their fathers are not on good terms due to business competition, he and Tamako are good friends. He is in love with Tamako, and has been in love with her for a few years. Since their bedroom windows face each other, Mochizo and Tamako often talk via a "cup and string" system that he made when they were kids. He is shown to be nervous with public speaking, despite telling Tamako to let him take over speaking in the shopping district meeting. His name comes from the fact that he was born on Mochi Day (October 10).
Dera Mochimazzi (デラ・モチマッヅィ)
Voiced by: Takumi Yamazaki (Japanese); Jay Hickman (English)
Dera is a bird that speaks Japanese, with a little bossy tone, that ends up staying at Tamako's house. He is a noble attendant for a royal court from a tropical island and was on journey to find a bride for its prince. However, after gaining an affinity for mochi, he has put on a lot of weight and thus cannot fly properly anymore, only being able to manage short distances before he runs out of breath. He is often just referred to as "Bird" (鳥, Tori) by Tamako's family, or simply "Dera-chan" (デラちゃん) by Tamako, as his surname sounds very similar to mochi mazui (もちまずい, lit. "bad tasting mochi"). Dera maintains that he is rather versed in the ways of love, sometimes giving Mochizō and Midori love advice on their respective crushes on Tamako. Dera is rather full of himself as well, which usually stems from a series of misunderstandings. He believes anyone that sneezes in his direction is in love with him, he himself having a crush on Shiori. His body contains a communication system used by the prince to communicate with him, although it only works when Dera is unconscious, thus he has no memories of any time the prince attempts to contact him. In his unconscious state, he can also be hooked up to video devices and used like a projector.
Dera makes a cameo appearance inside a claw crane in the 2018 film Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Take on Me, set in the same universe as the anime series.
Midori Tokiwa (常盤 みどり, Tokiwa Midori)
Voiced by: Yūki Kaneko (Japanese); Juliet Simmons (English)
Midori is Tamako's classmate and childhood friend, as well as captain of her school's Baton Club, which Tamako and Kanna are also members of. Her grandparents own and run a toy shop in the town's shopping district called Tokiwa-do. Midori loves and cares about Tamako so much that she gradually begins to think more and more about the nature of her feelings as romantic love. This ambiguity only intensifies towards the end of the series, when the plot begins to imply her equality to Mochizo in terms of attachment to Tamako.
Kanna Makino (牧野 かんな, Makino Kanna)
Voiced by: Juri Nagatsuma (Japanese); Caitlynn French (English)
Kanna is a high school student in the same year as her friends, Tamako and Midori, and is a member of the baton club. She is the daughter of a carpenter who works in the same shopping district as Tamako and her family. A relaxed and laid back girl, Kanna does not care what anyone else thinks and is not easily swayed, however she does have a fear of heights and appears to have an allergy of birds. Kanna is often portrayed as rather eccentric, and usually wears a straight and expressionless face despite being fun and a good friend. Kanna is the only character who knows about Midori’s potential feelings for Tamako, which she comments on with the words “everyone can love who they wants”.
Shiori Asagiri (朝霧 史織, Asagiri Shiori)
Voiced by: Yurie Yamashita (Japanese); Krystal LaPorte (TV); Kira Vincent-Davis (movie) (English)
Shiori is one of Tamako's classmates and a member of the badminton club. She is a knowledgeable and resourceful girl, with a serious, cool personality. However, it is shown that while she is quiet and often mistaken as distant, she is actually extremely shy and later becomes good friends with Tamako. Dera has fallen for her, though she does not reciprocate his feelings.
