Iori Hashima

Iori Hashima is the older brother of Izumi and Tomoya Aki's former best friend. He is a third-year student in class 2 at Sakuraryou High School. His hobbies include anime, light novels, comics, games—though only the bestsellers—as well as doujin activities, but only those that are profitable. Despite having a slightly higher pitch voice than usual for a man, he is a handsome guy with a clear voice. He joined "blessing software" from their second work, taking on the roles of both producer and director. At the same time, he also became the producer for "icy tail."

Tomoya is the same age as Iori, and they met in spring during their first year of middle school at Shimamura Middle School. Iori is even more of an otaku than Tomoya, with a large network of contacts among major doujin creators, famous commercial manga artists, animators, and directors. He aspires to dominate the doujin world. Initially, Tomoya was inclined to befriend Iori in middle school since he was the first otaku companion with significant connections in both the doujin and commercial spheres. However, he later realized Iori's true nature—someone who discriminates between people who are useful to him and those who are not, and readily uses his works for making money and gathering people to add luster to his own reputation—and eventually they had a falling out. The truth about Iori and the separation was concealed from Izumi.

Eriri Sawamura, whose pen name is Eri Kashibami, is known to Iori, who has praised her for being so accomplished at a young age. Around the time "blessing software" was started, Iori attempted to poach Eriri for "rouge en rouge," but was refused.

As mentioned, Iori and Tomoya have conflicting values, but even Tomoya recognizes that Iori's ability to spot potential hits is much better than his own.