Nano Shinonome

Nano Shinonome is an android created by Professor Shinonome (or simply Hakase), living with Hakase and managing the household. She is constantly being upgraded by Hakase without prior knowledge or approval. This leads to strange situations that Nano worries might reveal her android identity to others.

Appearance
Although she is only 2 years-old, Nano has the build and height of an average teenage girl. Her hair and eyes are black, her haircut being a bob cut which reaches the end of her neck, with a fringe. Nano sports a key in her back at the insistence of Hakase.

Nano Outfits

 * See: Nano's Image Gallery

She is usually seen in a bright red pullover with blue trousers when going casual, or a lavender T-shirt, a light blue dress and wooden sandals when doing household chores. When attending school, she wears the standard school uniform, though her particular uniform is tailor-made so as to allow her to put it on without removing the key on her back.

Background
Nano is a robot created by Hakase, an 8-year-old professor. She is 1 year old in the start of Nichijou, but has the appearance and intellegence of an average teenager. Nano lives with Hakase and Sakamoto at the Shinonome Lab. Being Hakase's primary caretaker, she is usually doing household chores like cleaning, laundry, and cooking.

Nano's key is mostly useless and spins randomly or when she is embarrassed or elated. When the key is turned manually, it launches her big toe into the air. Nano's key can be physically removed by anybody except Nano herself.

In the 2nd half of season, Nano starts to attend Tokisadame Highschool with the rest of the Nichijou cast (In the manga, she attends the school since the first chapters, with a flashback chapter about starting to go to school happening later). While technically never born, her 'birthday' is March 7th.

Personality
Nano is a reserved, shy, teenager with insecurities about being a robot around others. Nano acts like a parent to Hakase and Sakamoto, so her personality around them is very maternal around the Shinonome Lab. Nano acts kindly and properly to others in general, but her insecurities about being a robot usually has her fibbing about herself. She initially disliked the key in her back not only because it was inconvenient, but also because it is a dead giveaway to the fact that she is a robot. However, in the final episode, when Hakase offers to remove her key, she realizes that her key is part of what makes her who she is, so she decides to keep it.

Despite being a robot, Nano acts completely oblivious to her built-in capabilities, and will frequently approach things as a normal girl would, either out of ignorance of her construction or her desire to be viewed as a human.

Abilities
Warning:  The following Section contains spoilers . Hakase gave Nano many hidden abilities, but Nano herself is typically unaware of them. Her limbs can also come off at random, to her great surprise every single time that she comes apart. Nano is usually unappreciative and embarrassed by her mostly useless gifts. Here is a list of the functions that were seen so far:
 * A massive explosion if she got tripped as depicted on the first episode of the anime. Causing Nano and other individual to be flown beyond where the explosion happened and it will cause damage to some infrastructure. Fortunately, a normal individual and Nano will survive the explosion, but some of Nano's parts and things with her will be missing at some point — I.E.: her arm, her other slipper, and her chopsticks.

Outside of these, Nano possesses the intelligence and capabilities of a normal highschooler.
 * A rollcake dispenser in her left arm. This was later modified into a fish cake dispenser.
 * A sweet bun dispenser in her forehead.
 * Removable toes. Her toes come off easily, and she has a USB flash drive concealed inside (its storage is 1GB). Her big toe, in particular, can be launched like a rocket when the key on her back is turned manually (This is actually the key's only purpose).
 * A digital watch built into her right arm; unlike her other functions, which are only activated by the Professor or by accident, Nano actually uses her (literal) wristwatch somewhat regularly.
 * A built-in cuckoo clock. When the clock rings, the cuckoo springs out of her forehead.
 * A toaster(with bread) on her head
 * A machine gun installed in her hand, which fires soybeans instead of bullets.
 * A rocket-propelled right hand. It usually flies off at random. It can fly for a very long time, and can travel very long distances: this was best shown when the fist was accidentally launched and flew around the town for a rather long time, only stopping after it hit Misato Tachibana on the head.
 * Super-strength and reflexes. This was shown in Episode 7 when she threw the ball at an outstanding speed.
 * Flight via rockets built into her feet. This was shown in Episode 15 when Hakase installs some "reaction function", and later she can controlled it by herself in Volume 10 chapter 178.

Hakase
Although Nano is Hakase's creation and only 1 year old, Nano and Hakase have a mother/caretaker relationship. Hakase's usual child-like behavior has Nano acting like a mother to her and scolds her for it. Nano is also easily frequently irritated by Hakase's never-fulfilled promise of removing the key from Nano's back. For example, Hakase will promise to remove the key for an exchange of snacks, but Hakase usually finds a way out of her promise.

Sakamoto
Nano usually treats Sakamoto as an elder, but she sometimes treats him as an ordinary housecat, to his annoyance.

Yuuko Aioi
Yuuko's curiosity about Nano being a robot is intimidating for her at first, but when Yuuko tells her that "Nano is Nano" (implying that she likes her as an individual regardless of her artificial nature), Nano is relieved and positively surprised. At that point, Nano invites Yuuko to visit the Shinonome Laboratory along with her friends whenever they want to. Thereafter, even when confronted with clear evidence that Nano is a robot, Yuuko is indifferent to it and simply wants to include her. This is eventually instrumental in Nano coming to terms with herself.

Mio Naganohara
Despite her suspicions towards Nano being a robot, Mio treats Nano like a normal person. At one point, Nano tried to help Mio's work, only for her to overheat after seeing the manga Mio had drawn.

Mai Minakami
Mai knows Nano is a robot, but she doesn't tell anyone to keep her secret safe. At one point, she delivered one of Nano's screws to her house.

Trivia

 * In the manga, Nano attended school from the beginning of the series as opposed to the anime where she enrolls halfway into the series.
 * Despite being an android, Nano has a bellybutton.
 * Aside from her fears of it exposing her identity as a robot, Nano's key causes frequent physical trouble for her as well. She has gone on record mentioning it causes issues with her wearing certain clothes, as well as inhibiting her ability to move or lay on her back.

Character songs

 * "Nano no Neji Mawashi Rhapsody"
 * "Nano no Ohirune Osentaku"
 * "Shinonome Kenkyuusho no, Kyou mo Heiwa Desu"
 * "Kikyuu ni Notte Dokomade mo"
 * "Tabidachi no Hi ni"

Image Gallery

 * See: Nano's Image Gallery