Obaba

Obaba runs the neighborhood table tennis club where two boys, Peco and Smile, first pick up paddles as children. Gruff, watchful, and sparing with praise, she has clearly seen decades of hopefuls come through her doors and knows exactly what she's looking at in each of them, even when they don't.

She's a small, background presence who ends up holding the show's moral center — the one adult who sees talent and character clearly, without illusions or flattery. Masako Nozawa, best known for booming heroic voices, gives her a dry, weathered quiet that makes her rare words of judgment land like verdicts.