The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior

Plot

Thanks to his parents' job transfer, high school freshman Kazunari Usa finally gets to enjoy living on his own in the Kawai Complex, a boarding house that provides meals for its residents. Ritsu, the senpai he admires, also lives in Kawai Complex, as do a few other "unique" individuals: his masochistic roommate Shirosaki; beautiful, big-breasted Mayumi who has no luck in finding men; and sly, predatory college woman Sayaka. Surrounded by these people, Usa never finds his daily life boring.

Kawai Dormitory

Kazunari Usa (宇佐 和成, Usa Kazunari)

Voiced by: Yūichi Iguchi Usa Kazunari is a first year student in high school whose parents ended up working out of town. He agreed to them that he would stay anywhere, as long as he could live alone. So he decided to move in at the Kawai Dormitory where his parent's friend Sumiko is the manager. But to his dismay, he ends up rooming with a masochistic man named Shirosaki, who he caught peeking through a broken fence that surrounded a grade school. At first Usa dislikes living with the other residents of the complex, until while attempting to leave the complex, he runs into a girl name Ritsu Kawai at the front door, a second year student at his school that he admires and automatically convinced to stay at the complex. Usa then quickly adjusts to their abnormal lifestyle.

Ritsu Kawai (河合 律, Kawai Ritsu)

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa Ritsu is a quiet girl and a second year student at Usa's school. She loves reading books and is often expressionless, but is prone to outbursts of emotion when something amuses, moves or embarrasses her. Despite her cold attitude early on, she finds herself falling in love with Usa, even if she doesn't realize it yet. In the manga Ritsu is depicted with black hair while in the anime she has brown hair.

Sumiko (住子)

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi The manager of Kawai Dormitory and the sister of Ritsu's grandfather.

Shirosaki (城崎)

Voiced by: Go Shinomiya Usa's somewhat perverted roommate, known for being a masochist.

Mayumi Nishikino (錦野 麻弓, Nishikino Mayumi)

Voiced by: Rina Satō A working woman who has terrible luck with men and is always harsh to everyone. Especially those who found romance or about to find romance.

Sayaka Watanabe (渡辺 彩花, Watanabe Sayaka)

Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto A college student at Kawai Dormitory. Sweet on the outside but loves to cause trouble for others. Loves to fondle Mayumi, much to her dismay. It is revealed later in the series that Sayaka is into BL(Boy's Love) manga when Miharu visited the Kawai Complex and started saying embarrassing things about Sayaka when she was in high school, much to her dismay.

Others

Chinatsu (千夏)

Voiced by: Ai Shimizu An elementary school student who becomes attached to the Kawai Dormitory crew after Shirosaki found her wallet. Has a fondness for pudding and, in Shirosaki's point of view, has the makings of a sadist.

Tagami (田神)

Voiced by: Junsuke Sakai

Usa's friend at school. He has developed a crush on Mayumi after seeing her at Usa's workplace.

Yamamoto (山本) / Hōjō (北条)

Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa

One of the first employees Usa meets at his summer part time job and is a very strange character using lyrical and explanatory notations to emphasize his words. Yamamoto is his name at work and Hōjō is his real name.

Kurokawa (黒川) / Saionji (西園寺)

Voiced by: Takashi Kondō

One of the first employees Usa meets at his summer part time job.

Hayashi (林)

Voiced by: Manami Numakura

Usa's classmate back in middle school. She had an obsession to things occult and is also the source to Usa's weird nickname. After entering high school, she left the occult stuff behind her and changed her appearance to be more girly and stylish. When she met Usa again at his workplace, following a mixer with Tagami and several people, she tried to push her weird past on Usa and make it seem like he was the weird one. She has feelings for Usa.

Miharu Tsuneda (常田 美晴, Tsuneda Miharu)

Voiced by: Ayaka Suwa

Sayaka's classmate back in middle school. She knows something about Sayaka in middle school life.

Maemura (前村)

Norihiro Sakuma (佐久間 範弘, Sakuma Norihiro)

Manami (愛美)

Akira (アキラ)

Yōko Mabuchi (馬淵 陽子, Mabuchi Yōko)

A former resident of Kawai Dormitory who had Sayaka's room before her. Works in a design company in Tokyo. Prior to leaving the dorm she suffered bad luck with work related stuff, including once when Mayumi's boyfriend embezzled money from Mabuchi's coworker. She also had not made a good impression at her new job, which has left her depressed.

Manga

The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior started as a manga series, written and drawn by Ruri Miyahara and published by Shōnen Gahōsha in their Young King OURs seinen manga magazine. The manga is also published online in English by Crunchyroll. The first chapter appeared in the June 2010 issue, released on April 30, 2010. The series have also been compiled in seven tankōbon volumes, published between May 30, 2011, and September 30, 2015.

Anime

A 12-episode anime television series adaptation, directed by Shigeyuki Miya at studio Brain's Base aired on TBS from April 3 to June 19, 2014, and later on SUN, KBS, CBC, BS-TBS and Kids Station. The series was streamed with English subtitles by Crunchyroll. The anime has been licensed for digital and home video release by Sentai Filmworks. The opening theme is "Itsuka no, Iku Tsuka no Kimi to no Sekai" (Somewhen, Some Worlds With You) (いつかの、いくつかのきみとのせかい), sung by Fhána, and the ending theme is "My Sweet Shelter" by Kana Hanazawa, Rina Satō and Hisako Kanemoto. An unaired episode was released with the seventh part of the DVD and Blu-ray Disc release on December 26, 2014.