Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life

The story focuses on the Koto club of the Tokise High School in Kanagawa Prefecture. Takezo Kurata, in his second year, is the only member left in the Koto club, after all the senior members have graduated. While he is trying his best to recruit more members into the club, Chika Kudo submits his application. But, since Kudo is known to be a delinquent, one who destroyed his own grandfather's koto shop, Takezo is apprehensive about him. Things change when he comes to know the truth. Also joining the club is the Koto prodigy, Satowa Hozuki, who has her own agenda. More members join the club in time, holding their own reasons for joining. However, in the end, they all have the same goal - to play at the Koto Nationals competition.

Chika Kudo (久遠 愛)

Voiced by: Yūki Ono[3] (vomic), Yuma Uchida[4] (anime) (Japanese); Daman Mills (English)[5] (anime)

Kudo, fondly called by his first name by most of his friends, has a very childish personality. He is straightforward with his words, but doesn't clearly know how to express himself or understand others, since he hasn't had many friends, spending most of his younger years being a delinquent. He changes his attitude because of his grandfather, and develops an interest towards the Koto because of him. He likes to help out his friends, but becomes shy when they thank him.

Although he starts with basically no knowledge about the Koto, he is able to learn playing pretty quickly. He even has the ability to learn to play right after seeing someone else (for example, Satowa) playing it a few times. After learning that Satowa is a genius of a very high caliber, he makes reaching her level (as a rival) his goal. He later develops a crush on her but does not understand his own feelings, leading to him wondering why he feels the urge to touch or embrace her. He has an earnest and diligent attitude when playing the Koto and it seems to flow into his music too.

Chika currently stays with his aunt, Isaki. The one who understands him the most is his friend, Takaoka.

Takezo Kurata (倉田 武蔵)

Voiced by: Ryota Osaka[3] (vomic), Junya Enoki[4] (anime) (Japanese); Alejandro Saab (English)[5] (anime)

The president of the Koto club; settling into the role since there are no other senior members left after all his seniors graduated. He is also relatively new to the Koto, and initially feels the pressure of being the president, but calms down once he knows that he has the help and support from all the other members of the club.

Initially, his personality was like that of a coward, and someone who lacked confidence, no matter what he did. This changes later, and he becomes quite the dependable senior and president. Mostly, he has a serious personality, and approaches everything he does earnestly.

He has a crush on Kurusu, who reciprocates the feeling, even though they have not confessed to each other, being completely unaware of the other's feelings.

Satowa Hozuki (鳳月 さとわ)

Voiced by: Atsumi Tanezaki[4] (Japanese); Amber Lee Connors (English)[5] (anime)

A prodigious Koto player. Initially, she shows off a stuck up attitude, but very easily settles down and becomes an integral part of the Koto club. Since the other members have practically no professional knowledge of the Koto, she becomes somewhat of a teacher to them. This role is subdued after Doujima starts teaching her.

As a professional player, Satowa can play almost any of the types of Koto easily. A hard worker by nature, she tries to understand the 'meaning' of the song to understand its nature, to play it better. Although she started teaching the other members of the club, she herself admits that teaching is not her thing. She sometimes becomes unable to teach/explain concepts because playing comes most naturally to her, and she finds explaining/correcting difficult.

When she started at Tokise, she was already estranged from her mother and the Hōzuki group. Estranged from her mother, who was losing herself under the stress of managing the Hōzuki group, Satowa tried to call out for her through her music. But this ended up in her excommunication from the group and abandonment by her mother. This breaks Satowa's heart. However, later, with everyone's support she is able to make amends with her mother after she watches her performance at the National Preliminaries. She is also officially reinstated as the heir of the Hōzuki group.

She later has a crush on Kudo, but tries hard not to show or acknowledge it.

Hiro Kurusu (来栖 妃呂)

Voiced by: Sara Matsumoto[6] (Japanese); Alexis Tipton (English)

Kurusu is in the same grade and class as Kurata who, along with the whole Tokise High School, watches the Koto Club's morning assembly performance. After the performance, Kurusu approaches Takezo Kurata who is in the same class as her, and expresses her intent to join their club, in which he accepts her application and introduces her to the club. She later becomes the vice-president of the Kono club after witnessing the burden that Kurata has to bear as president.

Tetsuki Takaoka (高岡 哲生)

Voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya[3][7] (Japanese); Robert McCollum (English)[5]

Kudo's friend from before the series started. He is good at studying, cooking and at fighting too. He is the one who understands Kudo the most. He also explained Kudo's situation to Takezo when he wanted to join the Koto club. Kudo hangs out at his place, even when he is feeling off, making him feed him. He also ends up being Kudo and his other friends' cram teacher when exams are due.

Mio Kanzaki (神崎 澪)

Voiced by: Shouta Aoi[7] (Japanese); Christopher Wehkamp (English)

Saneyasu Adachi (足立 実康)

Voiced by: Haruki Ishiya[6] (Japanese); Austin Tindle (English)[5]

A former delinquent.

Michitaka Sakai (堺 通孝)

Voiced by: Makoto Furukawa[6] (Japanese); Anthony Bowling (English)[5]

A former delinquent.

Kota Mizuhara (水原 光太)

Voiced by: Yūichi Iguchi[6] (Japanese); Josh Grelle (English)

A former delinquent.

Suzuka Takinami (滝浪 涼香)

Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa[6] (Japanese); Brandon Potter (English)

A math teacher at Tokise High and the Koto Club's advisor. Initially he feigned ignorance of his musical background, though it's later revealed that his parents are world renowned musicians. As a child, he had no interest in playing music whatsoever other than listening to it. When he was seven, his father discovered his talent for writing musical scores and quickly took upon him to brand his son as a child prodigy. Because of this, Suzuka began to disdain music but his interest is later revitalized after becoming the advisor for the Koto club. He often writes pieces for the club as well as gives practice advice, while leaving the actual koto teaching to Akira.

Gen Kudo (久遠源)

Voiced by: Tetsuo Kanao[8] (Japanese); Charlie Campbell (English)[5]

Takeru Kurata (倉田武流)

Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae[8] (Japanese); Ricco Fajardo (English)[5]

Mashiro (真白)

Voiced by: Ayaka Asai[8] (Japanese); Felecia Angelle (English)[5]

Isaki Kudo (久遠 衣咲)

Voiced by: Nana Mizuki[8] (Japanese); Lydia Mackay (English)

Shizune Nishina (仁科 静音, Nishina Shizune)

Voiced by: Masako Isobe (Japanese); Linda Leonard (English)[5]

Kazusa Ōtori (凰かずさ)

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura[9] (Japanese); Meg McClain (English)[10]

Fumi Hanamura (花村 史)

Voiced by: Chika Anzai (Japanese); Dani Chambers (English)

Ōsuke Kiryū (桐生桜介)

Voiced by: Junta Terashima[9] (Japanese); Matt Shipman (English)[11]

Sentarō Miya (宮 千太朗)

Voiced by: Sōichirō Hoshi[12] (Japanese); Howard Wang (English)

Haru Kasugai (春日井 晴)

Voiced by: Yoshitaka Yamaya[12] (Japanese); Stephen Fu (English)

Akira Dōjima (堂島 晶)

Voiced by: Nao Tōyama[13] (Japanese); Caitlin Glass (English)

The apparent heir to the Tsubaki School. She became the heir after the death of her parents, causing her older brother to drop out of college and attempt to find a job in order to support her and their grandmother. In her childhood, her brother was a renowned koto player and inspired Akira to pick it up. After her brother had also quit the koto, Akira was forced to become better at playing the koto and became the face of their group. For malicious reasons, she became Tokise High's koto instructor, but later officially took up the position after realizing the club's genuine intent to play the koto.

Uta Suzumori (鈴森 詩)

Asano Izumi (泉 朝乃)

• Official anime website (in Japanese)
• Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia