Rico Brzenska (Junior High Manga)

Rico Brzenska (リコ・ブレツェンスカ) is a second-year student at Attack Junior High School.

Appearance
Rico has short hair, large eyes, and wears glasses. She usually wears a gym uniform consisting of a jacket or a T-shirt with sweatpants.

Personality
Rico is a second-year student who is also the leader of the Wall Beautification Club. She takes great pride in her cleaning and is very strict with the students in the club.

Story
After becoming members of the Survey Club, Eren Yeager, Mikasa, and Armin are on their way to class. Suddenly, Sasha shows them a bulletin board with a sheet that has them assigned to the Wall Beautification Club. Everyone is shocked by this and wonders what the club is. When they arrive, Eren, Sasha, and Connie begin to complain. Rico tells Eren and his classmates to quiet down after hearing all of the commotions. When she asks everyone about actually wanting to join the Wall Beautification Club, Eren asks her if she is from the club and she says yes. Eren answers Rico's question by saying that he and his classmates were forced to join by their teacher and tells her that they have other things that need to be done and asks her to pretend that she never saw their applications. When Rico hears this, she refuses and says that even though they were forced to join, they should take pride in their cleaning and that beautifying is an art. She then has Eren, and his classmates wash all the windows in the human school.

After two hours of cleaning, Rico comes to check on Eren's group's cleaning and sees that the windows are spotless. Since everyone did well with cleaning, Rico decides to show them how to clean the walls using a vertical maneuvering gear. This a technique that is only shown to second-year students. When Rico asks Eren and his classmates if they can do the task, no one answers. Rico begins to think that Eren's group is too greenhorn when everyone is amazed by the vertical maneuvering gear that she uses. With a sigh of relief, Rico decides to train Eren's group the next day.

The next day, everyone begins training and does well except for Eren. Rico wonders why Eren is the only one who is unable to learn the vertical maneuvering gear. When Mikasa suggests that the equipment is broken, Rico gets upset and says that their club ancestors sacrificed their precious pocket money to build the gears. When it turns out that Eren's gear is indeed broken, Rico is dumbstruck. When Eren learns how to use the equipment the next day, Rico tells Eren's group that she thinks she can trust them cleaning the walls after seeing the windows. The next day, everyone cleans and uses their vertical maneuvering so well that it excites Rico about not having to hire janitors. After everyone hears this, they stop enjoying themselves, and Rico wonders why everyone is upset.

As the school year goes on, everyone reports to the Wall Beautification Club and does the club activities except for Jean. One day after school, Eren says that he brought Jean with him. When Rico sees Jean, she glares at him and asks him what he has been doing skipping so many days. Jean tries to come up with an excuse. When Rico mentions that Jean has been skipping right after he entered, a boy named Ian interrupts her and tells her when first-years miss club days not to criticize them too much because it is not fair. Ian also says to Rico to conserve her energy for the fair and folk dance ahead, as well as remind her that she is his partner for the dance. Rico agrees to let Jean off the hook after hearing Ian's words. After seeing Rico's interaction with Ian, Jean makes fun of her by saying that he did not know bony guys are her type and that he thought she had a one track mind, only thinking of the club. Upon hearing his comments, Rico gets embarrassed and makes Jean, and his classmates wash every window in the school.

The day of the Athletics fair arrives. During the Tama-ire Ball Toss, the first-year students are up against Rico's team of upperclassmen. Jean notices this and remembers Rico making a fool out of him in Wall Beautification Club. When Rico sees that she is facing her own younger club members, she gets upset and says that they cause her nothing but trouble. When Ian sees who his team is up against, he says the ring leaders have what they consider reasons for placing the two teams against each other. Upon hearing Ian's comments, Rico gets angry and says that she does not care what the reasons were. She also says that the first years are ruining the reputation of the club and that she does not want anybody to think that rookies control the upperclassmen.

The game begins with Rico swatting the balls away with her broom, not letting even one in the basket. Suddenly, she notices the first-years just standing there, and one of the students comments to look at the basket position for the first years. She sees that Jean is using a vertical maneuvering gear. Someone makes a comment asking what is wrong about the wall club and they are not raising their rookies right. Rico hears these comments and says that she can excuse an absence, but this is it for Jean and that he will not get away with this. Dodging flying balls, she throws a ball and hits Jean in the face. When Jean asks why she did it, Rico says that Jean brought shame upon the name of the Wall Beautification Club. Jean tells Rico that if she wants him to show up for club activities, she needs to stop lecturing the class and preaching. When Rico hears this, she throws her broom at the tree branch Jean is hanging from, and tells Jean that she hates him. Finally, the Athletics Fair ends with the first years losing to the upperclassmen allowing Rico to attend the dance with Ian.

During summer break, the principal makes changes to the rules that go into effect on the first day of the second semester, making them much stricter. After school, Rico tells everyone that members of the Wall Beautification Club are forbidden from using vertical maneuvering devices. Rico said that vertical maneuvering equipment was dangerous to the Titans and that was why the vertical maneuvering gears were banned. When Eren asks if there is a way to protest, Rico says that there was no choice and apologizes. Rico also states that the brushes are not allowed since the club cannot clean the walls anymore. Just then, a teacher by the name of Nile Dok and begins to investigate the area. He discovers that Rico has a forbidden brush behind her back and sentences the Wall Beautification Club to a one-month suspension. Unable to do anything and in tears, Rico tells everyone that she will see them in one month. Just then, the club adviser Mr. Hannes comes over to see what is going on and finds Rico in tears. When Mr. Hannes learns what happened with the Wall Beautification Club, he encourages Eren and his classmates to try and take down the new rules by taking action against them.

Relationships

 * Ian - Ian is Rico's partner in the school folk dance. Rico and Ian appear to have feelings for each other.
 * Jean - Whether it is not showing up for club activities, teasing Rico about Ian, or something else, Jean is always doing something to upset Rico. During the Athletics Fair's Tama-ire Ball Toss competition, Rico admits that she hates Jean.