Chotto Matte! (Guzu Guzu) Character Sheets Pt. 1 - Main Female Cast!
- Spazzatic Studio
- Mar 8
- 8 min read
Hello hello!!
Welcome to our first official unveiling of the finalized character sheets for Chotto Matte! This is our most recurring female cast. ( ˘▽˘)っ♨
As mentioned previously, I knew I wanted to create characters of varying body types. For the female cast I wanted specifically to include: a rectangle shape, an apple shape, an hourglass shape, and an upside down triangle. I'm still trying to integrate the pear shape proper, but I think Umeko ended up looking like more of a rectangle/pear. There's still more side characters to come, so I'm excited to start integrating more body types!
To get the proportions more or less realistic, I went back through photos of myself at different stages of my life. Because I was an early blossom-er in the chest department, I took photos of myself when I was around 14-16 for Sachiko. Then when I was at 200 pounds during cancer treatment for Keina, and then me in my early 20s for Ryoko! I also looked at old magazines of Japanese uniforms for teenagers to get a feel for popular hair styles and uniform types to match the vibe of a mid Y2K cast.
I'm unsure what point in time the manga is taking place (lol). I think it's somewhere in the early to mid 2010s, but definitely before the time that social media took over our lives. ┐ ( -“-) ┌
So without further ado- let's check out my reference sheets! Please note that these are just for me to reference so I can understand the anatomy of each character and so they're pretty crude (not colored in, doesn't include every conceivable outfit etc).
If you see a character simply names "mom" or "dad" it's because they won't appear. But if you're looking for hints as to the main male cast- pay attention to who is mentioned ~by name~ !

Our main character!!! UMEKO ANDO!
Umeko's basic bio data:
4"11 120 lbs
17 years old
Born Oct 25th (Scorpio!)
Family: Orochi Ando (older brother), Mr Ando (father), Kishi Ando (mother - deceased)
Likes: sweet and salty food, online gaming, starchy food, going to school, collecting cute key chains, vibrant and crowded places (festivals, gaming events, the arcade), watching the cherry blossoms, secretly loves dressing in dainty and girly clothes but she'll never say it out loud, Orochi...sometimes, and her visiting her mom's shrine
Dislikes: eating in noisy places, homemade bento (konbini snacks are always superior), loud and obnoxious people, her father, the fact her mother is no longer with her, the concept of marriage, the beach, studying English, homework, deep fried breads, spicy food, the occult (she's a huge chicken), watching afternoon TV (too many game shows), DDR, exercising
Bio: Umeko is no push over! She’s tough, fiery, and seems sometimes to make others' lives difficult simply for her own amusement. She’s very short much like her fuse, preferring to spend her time playing handheld games instead of socializing. She frequents arcades for pachinko and the claw machine, and sucks at DDR.
Umeko subsists on a diet of convenience store food, and is very gifted in school- often tutoring others in exchange for them dancing on her whims. She's a little rough around the edges, and not particularly great at making friends, but Umeko is simply misunderstood and not malicious.
Her brother Orochi makes her blood boil with his hot-headed antics, but ultimately is always looking out for her. Umeko doesn’t get along with her seldom seen father, the boys at school, or her new fiancee-to-be. She seems well-liked among the girls at the academy though, who feel secure in her presence as she never antagonizes them.
Umeko is also incredibly superstitious and often lands in hot water due to her tendency to catastrophize things. Don't be fooled by her stony exterior, she's a big softie on the inside.
NOTES: While making Umeko and her fiancee counterpart Iwao, I wanted them to be strikingly similar in appearance, while showing them as strikingly different from those around them. This helps to push the idea that they don't belong and are on the fringes. As they make friends and integrate into the group they become less robotic and more human, and start to gain traits from those around them.
The idea of an albino Japanese girl is a bit funny, because in manga form it gives Umeko a very "main character syndrome" vibe. She's got the crazy hair to show she's certainly the focus of our story, but in Iwao's case he's not! The story shows her rejecting her proposal in order to be with Takayuki- but the question remains as to whether it'll happen or not. And so, she's pretty striking looking to show she's special.
The whole idea for this manga came from Umeko. I wanted to write a story about this striking looking girl with long white hair that she often wore in a ponytail. I had this mental image of a short, aloof-looking, haughty character with beautiful pale skin, eyes, and of course- hair! Without the idea of Umeko, there would be no manga.

Secondary MAIN CHARACTER!! RYOKO SUGAWARA!
Ryoko's basic bio data:
5"2 160 lbs
17 years old
Born Sept 1st (Virgo!)
Family: Sadao Sugawara (father), "Granny" Sugawara (paternal grandma), Seiji Sugawara (paternal uncle), Suzue Sugawara (mother - deceased)
Likes: foods with mild flavors, Hokkaido milk tea and ice cream, cleaning the shrine, enjoying nature, running track, swimming, soap operas and romance movies, shoujo ai manga, making new friends, scrap booking, otome games (she plays them in secret), reading magazines, playing with Granny's make up (she used to play with her mom's make up before she passed), companies with cute mascots
Dislikes: loud environments if she's there alone, scary movies, boys with haughty attitudes, when it rains too much for too long and everything is humid and wet, children running around the shrine and knocking things over, disrespectful people, losing things, franchises with ugly or obscene mascots
Bio: Ryoko is the apple of her father’s eye and does her best everyday to make him and Granny proud of her. The local shrine is owned by her family, and she is its devout shrine maiden. She dedicates her efforts to her town, which she reversed with adoration and respect.
Ryoko was raised by her paternal grandmother after her mother died in childbirth, and lives with her grandmother ("Granny" Sugawara) and father. Ryoko has a passion for PC games and handheld games, and is popular around town for her mannered, soft-spoken demeanour and astounding beauty. There isn't a boy far and wide who isn't entranced by her.
Ryoko believes in doing the best by her friends and family. She is quiet, reserved and prefers to have alone time in school or out walking the mountains behind the shrine. She's a real sucker for romance, but is holding out hope that Mr Right will come along soon.
NOTES: I wanted Ryoko to be the kind of girl that the whole town is in love with. A soft, charming, conventionally attractive sweetheart. When the emphasis became to have varied body parts in the manga, I wanted to make Ryoko chubby on purpose. To show that that sort of body is main character material.
I'm so excited for folks to get to know her. She's a bit of a play on the fated "rejected secondary love interest" with that hair cut. A lot of Chotto Matte's cast is a tongue in cheek criticism of conventional manga tropes, with a positive spin.

Secondary Character: Class President Sachiko Moto!!
Sachiko's basic bio date:
5"6 148 lbs
17 years old
Born Sept 22nd (Virgo!)
Family: Mom, Dad, Little Brother, Dango the cat
Likes: order, tidy people, paper work, successfully run school festivals, books, journalling and learning new things, her cat Dango, overly sweet foods (has a weakness for strawberry short cake!), cozey gaming (she doesn't show this side of her in public), the color green, helping the elderly, when her baby brother smiles at her while they're playing
Dislikes: loud and noisy places with a lot of chaos (Sachiko despises the town market and only shops at incorporated grocery stores), rock music or similarly "hard" musical styles, overly chatty people who only want to talk about mundane topics, boys who don't do their homework (you're not winning any points with her!), when her brother touches her things with his jammy fingers!!
Bio: Sachiko is the class president for Umeko and Takayuki’s grade. She’s eternally flustered, incredibly endowed, and anally on-time for everything.
There’s nothing Sachiko likes more than a fresh pressed school uniform, an organized planner, and the sweet predictability of law and order. She's glad to tag along with her newfound friends (after prying Keina off Umeko) on all their adventures, which she strictly monitors to rule out funny business.
The orderly Sachiko is a bit of a strange girl, who can appear scatterbrained herself at times, but she has a big heart.
NOTES: Sachiko is the character that gets dunked on the most. The first idea for her was to have a comedy relief character who is so obsessed with rules that she passes out from excitement every time a new regulation is revealed or said rules get followed.
As Chotto Matte evolved, it became more of a realistic look into my own experiences as a teen, and this outright comedy relief was scrapped.
People take a lot of offence to Sachiko's body type, but I wanted to include the upside down triangle shape because that's what I had for the longest time. I had DDs at 11 years old and it was hell. I got bullied all the time. So I wanted to present a regular teen girl, who has the same body type as I did, but who isn't being sexualized by the author just because of how she looks.

Secondary Character: Gaming Rival Keina Hokiri!!
Keina's basic bio date:
5"1 192 lbs
17 years old
Born Aug 12th (Lio!)
Family: Mom, Dad, Nanny, Sora “Motor” Hokiri (brother)
Likes: Umeko (she'll never admit it), chocolate flavored anything!, being able to shop till she drops (her family's well off), watching TV with her grandma, cats or any kind of cute animals with a lot of fluff!
Dislikes: when her brother is out doing his motorcycle shenanigans and making himself look dumb, losing games, working out, how strict her nanny is with her, when her computer makes that weird "wrrrr"-ing noise
Bio: Keina frequents gaming spots and events. She’s competitive, brash, loud and can’t take criticism or a loss.
Keina met Umeko at a gaming event, and after losing to her has become obsessed with duking it out at every opportunity! Now that Keina is in Umeko’s class, there’s truly no end to the lengths Keina will go to avenge herself.
Although she seems frequently foiled by Umeko, it's worth noting that her supposed hatred for the girl has become something of an admiration obsession. After all, Keina seems to be dressing more and more like her supposed rival, and loves following her around and joining in on the gang's misadventures.
NOTES: Keina started out as a super skinny girl, then pear-shaped body type, and then I realized I didn't have any fat characters! I wanted to include the apple shape body in my cast, so I decided our feisty little himedere Keina would be it!
Keina's hilarious to me. I originally wrote her into the manga and was annoyed at this extra character I would have to think up new scenarios for. But now I've really come around on her and she's one of my favorite side characters. I love the idea of a girl who's obsessed with her rival to the point she's emulating her- it's such a teenaged girl thing to do right?
So there we have it! These are my finalized designs so far. I still have a whole host of secondary characters to go, including the main male cast and some more side characters. For characters who appear once or twice, I may just draw them in directly and not agonize too much over their appearance. I don't think it makes the biggest difference for somebody who appears for like a page and a half, right?
RIGHT?? 乁(ಥ ͜ʖಥ)ㄏ
Let me know who your favorite character is and if any of them speak to you!!
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