Early 2000s anime characters (possibly from flash game)

So my old history teacher used to use these characters as mascots for his class to be hip with the kids, and I'm wondering where he got them from. They look pretty generic and they all have the same pose so I'm operating on the assumption that they're from a really old dollmaker or flash rpg. I can't run flash games and google image search isn't giving me anything, so I'm just hoping someone will recognize them or the art style.

These character portraits were used in slideshow-style videos accompanied by dialogue boxes

and they also all had names but I'm 99% sure those were added entirely by said teacher and are unrelated to the origins of the characters.

I'm also pretty sure that these characters are american-made and not from an actual anime (although they might be derivative of one, maybe the art is traced over?), as they're just too low quality and reminiscent of how to draw manga books.