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Looking through the Wikipedia article of Koufuku Graffiti, I noticed that Shiina's and Tsuyuko's last names are missing. It is also missing on the corresponding Japanese Wikipedia article. Since Japanese Wikipedia is usually very detailed about terminology and character names, the last name being missing suggest that it is not yet revealed at the moment.

What are Shiina's and Tsuyuko's last names? Has it been revealed in the manga? Is there any official reason why their last names are kept secret?

nhahtdh
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1 Answers1

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Some characters in anime are not ever given surnames by the production company. This is the case for Shiina and Tsuyuko, according to Staff and Cast page of the official website:

キャスト

  • 町子リョウ:佐藤利奈
  • 森野きりん:大亀あすか
  • 椎名 [Shiina]:小松未可子
  • 内木ユキ:井口裕香
  • 露子 [Tsuyuko]:小林ゆう
  • 町子明:野中 藍

You can see in this list how these two names do not have surnames, whereas the rest of the characters' names in the list do.

It is not standard or commonplace in anime to start a character without a surname in the cast list and add a surname for the character at a later point. As such, we can have no reasonable expectation of this happening for these characters, and thus, it is not the case that the surname is simply "not yet revealed." In other words, the surnames are not "missing" or "kept secret." They simply do not exist.

The only chance of the characters receiving a surname is if the mangaka adds mention of one into a currently-running manga: for example, by creating a character profile printed in the tankoubon (graphic novel volume release) or printed in a special feature page in the manga magazine it runs in, or if it comes up incidentally within the manga itself, such as meeting/greeting a character's parents, or showing the character's name on their shoe locker at school (even if this happened, it would not retroactively give a surname to the anime version of the characters). However, Koufuku Graffiti is a yonkoma (four-panel comic strip type of manga), in which it is commonplace for supporting (and even some protagonist) characters not to have any surnames. Here are some examples of such: Animal Youkocho's protagonist has a surname but none of the other characters do; Kiko-chan Smile's protagonist and her family share a surname, but other characters bear either a given name (i.e. first name) or a surname but not both; Sazae-san has three main families who have surnames but supporting characters are a mix of 1) those who have only given names, 2) those who have only surnames, and 3) those who lucked out with both.

seijitsu
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    I should have clarify my question. Japanese Wikipedia should at least confirm that their last names are not revealed at the moment. I don't need another confirmation that their last names are not available. I want to know if their last names are revealed in the manga or not - and if it is currently not, the question doesn't have to be answered now. – nhahtdh May 02 '15 at 14:38
  • Feel free to keep your answer, since this is more or less what we have now, though I will keep my downvote. – nhahtdh May 02 '15 at 14:44
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    Claiming "it does not exist" is stronger than "not yet revealed". It is a baseless claim as far as I can see. – nhahtdh May 03 '15 at 13:21