[GMT]

Favorite characters . . . eh, I'll just go right down the line:

Yui - Yui gets loads of development in Season Two. If Season One weren't such moe-bait, she'd have gotten loads of character development in Season One too. In S1, she's a clueless slacker who doesn't know what she wants to do. She gets by because her sister (apparently) got all the common sense, and she has +5 cramming skills. In the S1 OVA, we find she's also both fearless, and didn't make charisma her dump-stat. In S2, her idiot-savant personality shifts towards "brilliant, but lazy." She knows she's loafing and relying on her charisma, and careful expectation management through eccentricity, to get by. And yet, both Episode 20 songs were penned by her. She has a sense of showmanship unparalleled by anyone else in the band. She knows what she's doing around the house. She succeeds in getting into the sort of school Mugi and Mio can get into. Most of all, she's often the driving force behind HTT.

Ritsu - Ritsu gets character development in S2 as well. In spite of her genki personality, she's the one who is most aware of what HTT really is. She's the one wondering whether they'd ever be good enough to take the stage at a summer rock festival. She's the one who feels insecure about her image. She's the one who drags Mio everywhere (regardless of Mio's suitability for dealing with the situation at hand) because she doesn't want to go it alone. Ritsu just wants to have fun while she can, before the end of school and the start of "real life." Sure she dragged Mio into the music club, but the club presidency is just a title, a means to an end. And that end is "How much fun can Ritsu cram into her high school experience?" The paperwork is perpetually neglected because she'd rather be playing the drums, or having Mugi's tea and cake, or hanging out with Mio, or serving as Yui's straight-man and comic foil.

Mio - Mio gets virtually no character development whatsoever in S2. She's still a moe-blob who is terrified of her own shadow, has zero self-confidence, and is dragged into things against her will so often by her polar-opposite best friend, that she often feels the need to act out in violence. Why did she get no character development? Either because KyoAni decided to be conservative and not change anything that might offend her rabid otaku fanbase. Or they were fed up by the fact that Mio got a rabid otaku fanbase and Mio's complete stasis is a result of a "Take that!" against the rabid otaku fanbase. Which is a shame, because so much could've been done with Mio as a character.

Mugi - She goes from someone who sees the world in shades of yuri to someone who obsesses over what ordinary people do with their lives. Mugi is a tragic, tragic character dealing with what is clearly a crippling lack of emotional / social contact and development as a child. Her notion of how those on the other side of the rich/poor gap behave seems to be derived entirely from comic books and sitcoms. She feels envy at the modestly dysfunctional relationship Mio and Ritsu share. She never grew past the childhood teatime with Mister Bunny and Mister Bear . . . jumping at the chance of making it teatime with real people. In short, she's the one most likely to grow up to be an axe murderer. When you think about it, Mugi's kinda creepy. Don't think too much on it, just have some more tea and cake . . . it'll make it all better.

Azusa - She comes from a family of musicians. She has a Fender Mustang, but by the gods, she's earned it. Her One Sane Man role was played for laughs in S1. In S2, we find that her suave, ultra-mature facade is just that. At heart, she secretly loves the things her clubmates do. She's the one who begs her friends not to go, not to graduate. Yet, at the same time, she has her own friends and her own interests, and she ultimately parleys them into a continuation of the club. She also may, or may not, be a closet lesbian. The world will never know.

Ui - In S1, she was the tireless epitome of jealous siscon. In S2, she's Azusa's friend. Regarding her sister: On one hand, she seems to give Yui less credit than she deserves. On the other, she enables her sister's bad behavior. She's still the tireless epitome of siscon.

Jun - Nameless redshirt in S1. Named redshirt recurring minor character for S2, whose purpose is to be a foil for Azusa's character development and exclaim about how jealous she is of Azusa and the rest of Hokago Tea Time.

Offdensen Nodoka - In a universe where HTT actually continues after school, she's the one most likely to end up as their manager and mastermind their conquest of the world in an apocalypse of moe. She's the one who knows what Yui is capable of, and she's never one to pull punches when she talks to Yui and the other girls. She's the putative mastermind behind the HTT fan solidarity stunt in Episode 20.

Subway Molester Man Sawako - She constantly battled with her friend Norimi to see who was the best guitarist back in the day. Her incarnation of the LMC had them taking on Anglo names and shredding like Eddie Van Halen. She has a habit of taking things waaaay too far.

Other assorted redshirts - They have names? Oh yeah, they have names. And unique appearances and voice actresses.

So who am I voting for? Yui and Ritsu.