Mai Minakami is a high school student recognized for her reserved nature and high intelligence, typically maintaining an expressionless face with rare emotional displays. Her background involves moving from Alaska to Japan due to her father's job, an experience fueling her fascination with Shinto shrines. As a transfer student in middle school, she struggled with social anxiety, privately practicing how to address her classmate Yuuko Aioi to avoid awkwardness. She possesses diverse skills, excelling in projectile handling, fishing, wood carving, arm wrestling, and modeling. Her wood carving hobby often involves crafting Maitreya Buddha statues, and her artistic talent is evident in detailed drawings, like a shark illustration that impressed Hakase. Despite her capabilities, her most defining trait is an eccentric sense of humor, marked by deadpan delivery and elaborate pranks. These range from wordplay to complex practical jokes, frequently targeting Yuuko—such as balancing Yuuko's glasses on a precarious card tower, feigning romantic interest to provoke a reaction, or orchestrating the "Stair Climbing Game" trap using an incorrect Dragon Quest incantation. Mai's pranks are unpredictable and sometimes intimidating, yet she maintains clear boundaries, deliberately avoiding pranks involving children like Hakase. This restraint suggests underlying compassion, further shown by her concern when her dogs cornered Hakase, leading her to visit and bond with the child through drawing. Her interactions reveal nuanced relationships: she antagonizes Yuuko yet considers her a close friend since middle school, even choosing Tokisadame High School over a more prestigious academy to attend with her. With Mio Naganohara, she shows mutual respect but occasionally provokes her, like during manga-drawing or "red light, green light." Her dynamic with Yoshino Naganohara involves reciprocal prank attempts, ending in a stalemate where Yoshino calls her "funny." Mai displays rare emotional vulnerability. She blushes and hides her face after practicing Yuuko's nickname aloud, and during a fever, hallucinates her friends as abstract, blob-like figures. She also shows genuine surprise or warmth in atypical moments, like smiling after Yuuko and Mio reconcile or hugging the snack mascot "Snaq" with Hakase. Her quiet nature coexists with perceptiveness; she deduces Nano Shinonome's robotic identity but keeps it secret, later returning one of Nano's screws to her home. A psychology book seen in her possession hints at an interest in human behavior, potentially informing her pranking skill. Later, she becomes a preschool teacher, indicating a continued connection with children. Her birthday was initially cited as February 17 but later established as October 24 in the manga. She understands multiple languages, responding to Yuuko's Indonesian/Malay greeting "selamat pagi" with "selamat malam." She owns two dogs, Pyon and Oguri, and a cat named Chitchi. Her appearance features long, straight ashy-black hair, glasses, and a fair complexion. She typically wears a light-yellow sailor uniform with a red plaid skirt.