did the author base the characters on horoscopes?
The girls are named after and likely based on animals. Kuzuryu -> dragon, Takae -> eagle, Ushigome -> cow, Kodera -> tiger, Nekomiya -> cat, Itachi -> weasel, Shishidou -> lion, Kamogawa -> duck, Shiratori -> swan, Tsuruhashi -> crane, Kijitani -> pheasant, Inukai -> dog, Hibino -> baboon/monkey (which is why there was a momotaro reference a while ago), Usagi -> rabbit, Samejima -> shark, Hakubishi -> civet, Rakuda -> camel. So far the general pattern seems to be that the girls not interested in Saotome don't explicitly have their animal written out in their first names (e.g. nekomiya is spelled without the kanji for cat), though Shishidou and HIbino seem to be exceptions to this?
oh my god I just realized the bird girls are working together
And I think Saotome Hodaka roughly means... "young maiden (in the context of an agricultural ritual)" and "tall grain".
dude's dense because he's literally just a plant