Tanaka (Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge)

Tanaka is the titular main protagonist from the Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge anime and manga.

Tanaka is a boy who falls asleep easily and could probably try a little harder, but he's so well-known for his laziness he even has admirers for it.

Appearance
Tanaka has a slim physique with short, fluffy, dark-brown hair in the manga. His hair is black in the animation of the series. The left and right side of his bangs are swept toward his ears, though the middle is left to reach down between his eyes. His black-colored eyes most often appear to be sullen and/or dull. He is most often seen with an apathetic expression. He is described to be handsome and like a prince by Oota's younger sister, so it can be thought that Tanaka is more good-looking than one might come to expect of his character.

When not wearing his school uniform, Tanaka's casual wear is a simple t-shirts and jeans. It's hard to imagine that he cares about fashion, so it's likely that his choices in clothing are arbitrary at best and lazily thrown together otherwise.

Personality
Tanaka is a listless student who is always dozing off and acting exhausted when awake. He is constantly sighing and refrains from any tiring work, all while being accompanied by his friend, Oota. Due to his disdain towards hard-work, he often relies on his family and friends (namely Oota, but this is not limited only to Oota) to assist him with activities. Tanaka is apathetic, and hardly ever outwardly expresses how he feels. When he does, it's normally done in an impassive-seeming manner as well and thus makes it seem like he's mature at best and emotionless and uncaring at worst. He rarely does anything where he exerts more energy than required; however, he shows a surprising dedication to maintaining his lifestyle and daily routine, even going out of his way sometimes to maintain it even at the cost of expending energy he'd rather not use. Tanaka is the type of person that only exerts effort only in things that he is either interested in or believes concerns him a great deal.

He is somewhat scatterbrained or clueless at times, coming up with eccentric-at-best ideas that hold some form of merit or have some argument behind them but end up resulting in something stupid or bizarre. Examples include the ONA specials (Tanaka-kun wa Kyou mo Kedaruge) where he lays out various ideas centered on how to buy food from the cafeteria lady. This, in turn, conflicts with the times where he shows genuine wisdom or insight into certain topics such as the conflict between Echizen and Miyanoand his conversation with Shiraishi. His reasoning and point of view on their issues are birthed from his general demeanor and lifestyle, which actually brings with it a certain wisdom that work well for the people he interacts with. He once intended to get a lower score on a test just because that was his target, and he lost in an Othello match against Echizen but not before he managed to turn all of his remaining pieces into the Japanese character for the color white. This indicates that Tanaka is actually very smart and capable but only chooses to use his head for things he wants to use it for.

Sometimes, Tanaka's demeanor and personality may come across as self-centered or overly demanding. He sometimes acts like a child, and other times like an incapable person. But he doesn't mean anything he does badly or harmfully. He just genuinely desires an uneventful, peaceful life.

Trivia

 * Tanaka is a Japanese word meaning "dweller in a rice paddy" or "one who resides in the rice paddy.
 * This is a reference to Oota, whose name means "big rice paddy" and how he relies on Oota as well as Oota having to carry him around.
 * He knows how to play the piano and Othello; a game.
 * He is allergic to cats.
 * He sometimes gets sad on unable to be a good brother to Rino.
 * His texts are occasionally incomprehensible due to him using the speech-to-text function.
 * He is obviously kind when he wishes to be. Lying about Shiraishi‘s secret for her or buying Oota an ice cream.
 * He hates going to the dentist.
 * His ideal type would be Ohta.