Sawako Kuronuma

Template:Infobox character Sawako Kuronuma (黒沼 爽子 Kuronuma Sawako) is the main protagonist of the series Kimi ni Todoke. Sawako is a shy yet honest girl who is in search of friendship, but her resemblance to a certain horror film character (that led to her being nicknamed as Sadako) and Sawako's tendency to shy away from correcting people of misconceptions prevent her from doing so. Thanks to Shota's kind and open nature, she is able to gradually make friends, open up to her classmates, and talk to different people. She is grateful (and at first, worships) Shota for giving her the opportunities to make close friends, which come to include Ayane, Chizuru, Shota and Ryu. Ayane and Chizuru admit that Sawako's 'like' to Shota might be even more than Ayane and Chizuru themselves. Sawako is incredibly fast (to the point where people believe she is teleporting) which is revealed during a soccer match at the school's sports festival. A running gag is that she seems to take what people say seriously as well as over-analyze a situation, which tends to scare the people around her when she is deep in thought.

She is played by Tabe Mikako in the live action version.

Appearance

• Sawako as she appears in the anime
• Sawako wearing a variation of her summer uniform
• Sawako summer.jpg
  Sawako in her summer uniform
• Sawako after her makeover during New Year's Eve
• Sawako in her school uniform in the anime
• Sawako at part two of the culture festival

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Sawako is constantly mistaken as "Sadako" from "The Ring" due to her long, straight jet-black hair and pale skin, which makes her look like a person that can sense spirits from above (aka ghosts). Her hair has been straight and cut since she was a child. It is also noted that when she first encounters Kurumizawa, she wishes to have curly hair. She is quite small, due to her father being very short. During Ayane and Chizuru's first visit to Sawako's house, Yoshida notes that Sawako's lips and figure looks like her mother's, and most of Sawako's other features are inherited of her father's. Her smile is rumored to bring good luck, due to its rarity and the fact that it is beautiful to look at. Sawako usually wears her high school uniform with a blue jacket during fall and winter, and during summer, she just wears a short-sleeved dress shirt. Her skirt is longer compared to other girls, since she does not pull up or cut the skirt like most of the high school girls do. During their second summer vacation, however, Ayane helps Sawako with wearing her uniform a bit differently, moving the skirt up a little more, and wearing the bowtie loosely instead. When not at school, Sawako is known to usually wear dresses instead, but wears a t-shirt and a pair of pants during the school trip to be more at ease when walking.

Personality

Sawako is known to get nervous easily, giving her a creepy look due to nervousness. In reality, she is a shy person who really wants to make new friends and be more open with her class. She is always seen doing chores, as noticed by Shota, but he realizes Sawako does it because she wants to, and doesn't want others to be troubled. Sawako is a caring girl, as seen when she avoided Ayane, Chizuru, and even Shota, to protect them from the rumors. She is a bit oblivious however, as she was yelled by Shota that avoiding others wasn't right, and that she was already friends with Ayane and Chizuru after Chizuru told her herself. She also does not realize Shota loves her at first, mistaking his confession as a rejection of her feelings. Sawako works hard in everything she does, as seen when she fought back the girls from Class-A who insulted Ayane and Chizuru.

After noticing her feelings for Shota, she begins to become more nervous around him, in fear of her own greediness. However, later on, she works hard on trying to confess her feelings to him, which leads to them getting together. After they start going out, Sawako tries to become a bit more bold, as when she tries to hold Shota's hand, and when she tried to change the look of her uniform to impress Shota, and also begins to love Shota even more, after hearing more about his own feelings.

People say she is scary, but she really isn't. In reality, Sawako is a rather caring and kind person. One episode, close to the beginning, she smiles like any normal human would. Ayane and Chizuru get surprised fast. People think she can curse people, until Pin says she is an exorcist, which really, she can't do any of them.

Relationships

Shota Kazehaya

Shota is Sawako's outgoing and friendly classmate, and is Sawako's idol. Sawako has always admired Shota since they first met on the first day of school. After getting to talk to him more before summer break, she begins to be with Shota more, as well as find new oppurtunities and make new friends. Shota is someone who has influenced Sawako's life greatly, because if it was not him, she wouldn't have been able to make friends (like Ayane and Chizuru) or rivals (Kurumi). Sawako has admitted that she could never hate Shota to him during the rumors about her, Chizuru, and Ayane, and was troubled greatly when she had to avoid Shota so he wouldn't get hurt, showing how much she cares about him. He also cheered her on when she tried to be friends with Chizuru and Ayane, and thinks how she could always hear Shota's voice inside her head.

Later on, Sawako begins to realize how she has become greedy when it is involved with Shota, wanting to spend more time with him alone, after the time they spent together during New Year. She becomes troubled, and is too nervous to even talk to Shota, to the point of not being able to give chocolates to him on Valentine's Day. She begins to be unable to speak to Shota due to nervousness and of her feelings coming out, and misunderstands Shota's confession as a rejection. After being scolded by not only Kurumi but Chizuru as well, and a bit of support from Ayane, Kento, and Ryu, Sawako truly realizes what her true feelings are. She thinks to herself how at first, he was almost 'god like' to her, but figures out the one she fell for was just an ordinary guy. She goes after Shota, and confesses her true feelings, but is interrupted before she can hear Shota's true response (although he had hugged her). The next day, Sawako confesses she wants to try to have a new relationship with him, since she felt there was a wall between them, and Shota confesses to her right after in front of everyone.

Sawako is shown to be more nervous around Shota, but also smiles more with him. Her meeting with him was something very special to her. At this point, they have finally held hands, and admitted when they first started to like one another, with Sawako noticing it was when he first said her full name. They have also tried calling one another by first names, but quickly go back to the usual last names. They have tried to kiss before in the manga during the field trip, but are interrupted, and have begun to become awkward around one another.

After the field trip, Shota is more self-conscious of himself and becomes a bit more distant to Sawako because he wants to treasure her. However, during their second Christmas, Sawako feels lonely because Shota is so busy managing the party that he does not spend any time with her. In fact, she wonders whether he still likes her. After the Christmas party in chapter 71, Sawako confronts him on their relationship. She then tells asks him if he still likes her and questions their relationship. She then closes her eyes for 5 seconds, hoping the awkwardness between them would be resolved.(chapter  Shota later then asks her, "W-what's wrong... Kuronuma?", while blushing after she opens her eyes, and Sawako breaks out in tears and calls him a liar. He then kisses her 4 times.

Ayane Yano

Ayane is a close friend of Sawako. Although she is usually calm and collected, she is easily infuriated if someone hurts Sawako and does not hesitate to attack the one she believes is responsible (frequently Kazehaya) with kicks and sharp words. Ayane is different compared to Chizuru when trying to help Sawako, as she instead finds the truth, and is more calculating, which Ayane notes herself. She was the one who discovered Kurumi made those fake rumors, and had proved it to Sawako herself. She is someone who greatly watches over Sawako's relationships, and seems to enjoy watching it. Sawako's affection for Shota also makes her to start questioning her own relationships. Sawako cares about Ayane a lot, as seen when she avoided her and the others to protect them from the rumors. Ayane is one of the first few people who noticed Sawako was being avoided, as seen in Chapter 1.She helps Sawako with makeovers, although usually uses light make up on her, and is seen to be wearing makeup herself, unlike Sawako and Chizuru.

Chizuru Yoshida

Yoshida is another close friend of Sawako and Ayane. She tends to cry a lot when Sawako says something sweet or does something for her. She is very defensive about Sawako as well. Yoshida tends to look like a tomboy. She is unaware of her classmate Ryu's feelings for her and thinks that they are like brothers. She and Ayane try to help Sawako gain more friends and they also try to set up Kazehaya and Sawako. Sawako has always felt Chizuru and Ryu would make a good match, although Chiru loves Ryu's brother, Toru, instead. When Chizuru began to feel rejected by Toru, Sawako began to worry about the fact she couldn't do anything, but gets advice from Shota to just be by her side. After Sawako cries for Chizuru, she is able to make Chizuru cry and say what she really feels. Chizuru is someone who will fight back head on for Sawako, and cares for her greatly. Chizuru at one point even scolds Sawako for not believing in herself, leading Sawako to think more about her actions, although Chizuru also regrets yelling at Sawako right after. They make up right after, leading Chizuru to be really happy.

Ume 'Kurumi' Kurumizawa

Sawako's relationship with Kurumi has changed throughout the series. Sawako had met Kurumi a few times, before finally formally getting to know one another. Sawako had thought of Kurumi as her role model, since she was always so nice, and Sawako even wanted to become pretty since she saw Kurumi. However, when Kurumi asks Sawako for her help in getting together with Shota, Sawako said she couldn't help, leading Kurumi to start showing her true personality to Sawako. Despite this, Sawako didn't hate Kurumi, even after finding out that Kurumi started the rumors. Sawako admitted to herself that the Kurumi who is in love with Shota was the cutest, and they start to talk more about Shota's good points. Later on, Kurumi confessed, due to what Sawako had said to her before, and announced they were rivals the next day. When Sawako and Shota had accidentally rejected one another, Kurumi scolded Sawako stating she was not her rival, since Sawako had not tried hard in confessing unlike her, leading Sawako to think about what she did. In the end, after Sawako and Shota get together, Kurumi thanks Sawako for being a good rival, and says it was because of Sawako that she was able to confess to Shota. In the end, Kurumi and Sawako affect one another greatly in their feelings and actions related to Shota, as Kurumi helped Sawako realize she is in love with Shota, while Sawako's words made Kurumi confess to Shota about her feelings for him.

Ryu Sanada

Ryu is Kazehaya's best friend and a good friend to Sawako. Because of him Kazehaya even ran away with Sawako because of a big misunderstanding caused by Kurumi. He was honest enough to tell her that he loves Chizuru (although told her to keep it a secret). In the second season, when Sawako was looking for Kazehaya during the school festival, Ryu helped her out by yelling "He's in the classroom!" to her.