"The World God Only Knows" manga and anime series features an extensive cast of characters created by Tamiki Wakaki.
The main protagonist is Keima Katsuragi, a video game player who teams up with Elsie, a Spirit Hunter Demon, to capture spirits hiding in girls at his high school, Maijima High. Fourteen of the characters were named after stations in the Kintetsu train system. In September 2014, Kintetsu had a promotion where they issued special tickets bearing the characters' images.
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 Voiced by: Hiro Shimono (Japanese); Chris Patton (English)
Main characters.
Keima Katsuragi.
, a 17-year-old high school student at Maijima Academy, is known on the Internet and in gaming circles as because of his exceptional skills and experience in "capturing" (winning over) virtual girls in dating sims and However, in real life, he is called (a portmanteau of and ), where he immerses himself in the game world and declares that he is only attracted to the virtual games within it. Whenever he faces danger, he prioritizes saving his game.[ch. 1] At the start of the series, he accepts a request to help conquer girls, and inadvertently finds himself contractually bound to capture ,[ch. 1] which reside in the hearts of real girls, or he will be beheaded.[ch. 1] The bulk of the series follows his adventures in capturing such girls, where he tries different scenarios from his girl games. After Keima has captured over a dozen girls, he is asked by Diana to find her sisters among the girls, with the incentive that they can re-seal the Loose Souls and fulfill his otherwise impossible contract.[ch. 80,81] His search is accelerated when his classmate Kanon Nakagawa is injured by a Vintage assassin.[ch. 118,119] He eventually fall in love with Chihiro, although he coldly rejects her. He tearfully apologizes later about rejecting her though not to her face. In the last chapter, he finally reveals his true feelings to her.
Wakaki depicts Keima as good at all sorts of games, some of which is due to the fact that many of them are mini-game subsets of his girl games.[ch. 20,47,77,104]. Although he rarely pays attention in class, and has low physical endurance, he scores top marks, much to his teachers' frustrations.[ch. 11,12] Wakaki notes that Keima's name is derived from the term "gamer".
 Voiced by: Kanae Itō (Japanese); Luci Christian (English)
Elsie.
, known mainly as , is a Spirit Hunter demon assigned to Keima to capture loose souls.[ch. 1] In order to watch over him, she pretends to be Keima's illegitimate sister.[ch. 2,6] She wears a skull-shaped hair ornament that alerts her to the presence of loose souls.[ch. 1] She wears a , a multi-purpose shawl-like raiment that she can use to change her appearance,[ch. 1] turn herself and others invisible,[ch. 19] or reshape objects.[ch. 3,44] She travels with a broom, and prides herself on her cleaning abilities, which she learned prior to joining the squad.[ch. 2] Like Keima, she wears a collar and is also bound to Dokuro Skull's contract conditions.[ch. 1]
Despite being over 300 years old, she has a sweet, pure and innocent personality and often acts childishly. She is clumsy and easily distracted, especially by fire trucks, so Keima considers her unreliable.[ch. 1,23,24] However, her friendliness and cheerful nature allows her to make friends with the girls.[ch. 42,54] In the final story arc, she reveals that she is the "final boss", a powerful monster that was periodically awakened in the past to spread mayhem. New Hell's rebel faction wanted to use her to once again to wreak havoc on the Earth and Satyr desired to control her. However, Dokuro hid her from the enemy factions by giving her a human body and assigning her to Earth, where she grew to love the human world.[ch. 266] After Keima saves the world, he tells her to do as she wishes. Wanting to stay with Keima, she chooses her "true ending" and becomes his real sister.[ch. 267]
 Voiced by: Saori Hayami
Haqua.
[vol. 4:omake], a former classmate of Elsie's and the District Chief Spirit Hunter of Area 32 in Nagumo City.[ch. 22] She has a strong academic background,[ch. 22] but has found the professional world extremely difficult to dominate in the same way. She is introduced in a story where she is hunting down a Loose Soul that she was responsible for unleashing. She becomes frustrated in her efforts to capture it and the Loose Soul possesses her. Fortunately Elsie is able to free her, after some encouragement from Keima.[ch. 24-26] As a Spirit Hunter, she has a skull-shaped hair ornament and magical raiment like Elsie's, but instead of a broom, she wields a 'Scythe of Testament', an award for being valedictorian of her class.[ch. 25] Her human partner, much to her dismay when compared to Keima, is Yukie Marui, a 54-year-old saleswoman.[ch. 47,48]
Keima occasionally uses Haqua to get a better understanding of demons, their history, and his own plight[ch. 47,105] and occasionally entrusts her with confidential information that Elsie would not understand. Although she is annoyed by Keima's odd behavior and personality, Haqua seems to develop feelings for him. In a 2012 Biglobe poll of favorite "tsundere" characters, Haqua ranked 15. When she is embarrassed by Keima, she usually retaliates with physical harm.[ch. 25,26] One of the recurring gags with Haqua is that Keima has walked in on her while she is in the bathroom or vice versa,[ch. 48,73,121] which results in Keima being hurt.[ch. 73,121] While Elsie pretends to be Kanon Nakagawa during the search for the Jupiter Sisters, Haqua teams up with Keima and pretends to be Elsie at school.[ch. 118]
In a meeting of Spirit Hunter district chiefs, Haqua raises a question regarding the mandate to capture the Goddesses, and then asks Dokuro Skull for help.[ch. 150-151] She is then arrested by Vintage loyalists,[ch. 152] who interrogate her then detain her for treason.[ch. 156] She is removed from her position as district chief position which is given to Lune. Haqua is rescued by Dokuro, who smuggles her back to the human world to help Keima.[ch. 160,161] She saves Keima, Ayumi, and Chihiro from a Vintage attack[ch. 175,176] and then fights Lune to give Keima time to complete his conquest of Ayumi.[ch. 184-187] After the Jupiter Sisters are all revealed, and Apollo is revived, she is reinstated as a district chief.[ch. 191]
Wakaki originally planned for Haqua to be more overbearing, but changed it so she "encourages the low-ranking girl". Wakaki based her on his experiences as a high school upperclassman: the academic struggles and pressures faced by honor students of becoming number one, staying there, and facing other number ones.[vol. 3:extras] He named her after the "" period; he also considered Jura from the Jurassic period.
 Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka
Tenri Ayukawa.
[vol. 7:omake] is a shy 17-year-old girl who was a childhood best friend and neighbor of the Katsuragis ten years ago.[ch. 57] When she and her mother visit, Keima does not remember her.[ch. 57] In a confrontation with Keima, Tenri responds angrily as if she has another personality.[ch. 58,59] Both Elsie and Nora detect a Loose Spirit within her,[ch. 57,58] but it is actually a Goddess named Diana.[ch. 64] Ten years previously, during a school trip, Keima and Tenri were stranded on an island. In a cave passage that they discovered, they witnessed the Loose Spirits known as Weiss escape from Hell.[ch. 62,63] Tenri accepts Diana's spirit in order to save herself and Keima.[ch. 63] In order to save Diana from Nora's wrath, Tenri agrees to stage a fake capture by falling in love with Keima.[ch. 64] Soon after, she and her mother move next door to the Katsuragis.[ch. 64]
Tenri talks with Diana by using reflective surfaces.[ch. 59] On occasion, she lets Diana take over, which gives her the ability to leap from great heights and other superhuman powers,[ch. 58,61] However, she refuses to flirt with Keima, despite Diana's urgings.[ch. 65] She enjoys popping sheets of bubble wrap,[ch. 57] and performing magic tricks.[ch. 65]
Wakaki has mentioned that Tenri resembles Diana Barry, from the "Anne of Green Gables" anime. She is named after Tenri Station in Tenri, Nara.
Supporting characters.
Targets.
The human girls who house the spirits known as loose souls that Keima must capture range in demographics from juniors and schoolmates to university students and career women. Each girl has a personal problem that the spirit feeds on, and unconsciously taps into the spirit's energy to manifest supernatural powers that are reflective of their personalities.[ch. 8] If the loose soul is not removed by the time it reaches its full power, it will take over its host,[ch. 18] and eventually the spirit is reborn as the girl's child.[ch. 3] To expel the spirit, Keima must make the girl fall in love with him; this is signified by a kiss.[ch. 1] After the loose soul is free, the girl no longer remembers Keima as her memories are edited so that she remembers doing activities with someone else,[ch. 87,92,101] however, some of the girls continue to have feelings for Keima,[ch. 1,55] especially those who are involved with the Jupiter Sisters.
The human girls that Keima has helped are listed in order of first capture.
 Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu
Ayumi Takahara.
[vol. 1:extra] is Keima's classmate on the school's track team. Wakaki chose Ayumi for the first chapter because, when he was in school, he always had a crush on sports girls; his previous work also featured one.[vol. 1:extra] She is named after Takanohara Station in Nara, Nara.
In her storyline, Keima tries to cheer her on, but when she fakes an ankle injury to appease some jealous seniors, Keima encourages her to compete. She thus becomes Keima's first capture, although after the Loose Soul is freed, she has no memory of what happened.[ch. 1] She and Chihiro are friends, and they form a band called 2B Pencils, where she plays guitar.[ch. 54] In later chapters, she continues to greet Keima in a friendly, but sometimes violent manner.[ch. 80,90,119]
Ayumi appears in various storylines, but becomes a target again during Keima's hunt for the Jupiter Sisters, After seeing that Chihiro likes Keima, she offers her support,[ch. 153-157], but becomes furious when Keima rejects her.[ch. 167,172,173] When Keima tries to confess to Ayumi instead,[ch. 179-182] she questions his motives, having learned that Keima has been using pre-fabricated game lines to woo her.[ch. 181-182] She eventually relents and agrees to participate in a "wedding ending", which consists of saying vows and a kiss, the latter of which frees Mercury, the goddess that has been residing in her and who has been driving much of her conflicting feelings towards Keima.[ch. 183-187]
 Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (Japanese); Hilary Haag (English)
Mio Aoyama.
In Wakaki's preceding one-shot story [vol. 1:omake], Mio serves as the heroine: a wealthy daughter whose surname is Tsumagawa, whom Keima tries to woo by persistently showing up in front of her home. She is won over when he presents her with a toy ring that she had lost; the ring, although worth only 100 yen, had sentimental value.
In the series, [vol. 1:omake] is an elitist daughter of a company president. Keima considers her an easy capture because she displays 99% "tsundere" (hard exterior, sensitive interior) characteristics such as cat-like eyes, bright hair parted into twin tails, and a prominent forehead.[ch. 3] After Keima learns that she is no longer wealthy, he woos her by acting as her chauffeur after her butler Morita had quit. At a society party, Keima encourages her to let go of her past and move on as her father would wish. After being freed from the loose soul, she acts more humbly, but slightly friendlier towards him.[ch. 4] She later works at a bakery with her mother,[ch. 86] She is childhood friends with Yui Goido and Urara Shiratori.[ch. 216-217] Mio is named after Aoyamachō Station in Iga, Mie.
 Voiced by: Nao Tōyama (Japanese); Brittney Karbowski (English)
Kanon Nakagawa.
[vol. 2:omake] is a 16-year-old idol who wears glasses. Wakaki created her in response to a comeback trend on idols from "Morning Musume" and "The Idolmaster" game. He considers her storyline traditional and "a tribute to the old days when there was a professional idol".[vol. 2:extras], and describes her as a "yan-idol" (an idol with "yandere" tendencies) as she zaps Keima with a taser.[ch. 7][vol. 2:author's notes]
In her scenario, she makes it her goal to win Keima over, even forcing him to listen to her sing.[ch. 8] But when he ignores her advances, she becomes despondent and turns invisible, prompting Keima to support her. She then contacts him regularly, but on the day of her big concert, she is overwhelmed by fear and fades again.[ch. 9] Keima encourages her to believe in herself (which Wakaki notes is contrary to the typical idol nurturing game pattern[vol. 2:author's notes] ) and to not depend on others' affirmations, including his own.[ch. 10] In the anime, Kanon's worry is changed to