Plot
Sawako Kuronuma, called Sadako by her classmates for her resemblance to the character from The Ring, has always been feared and misunderstood because of her appearance. There are rumors that Sawako can see ghosts and curse people. However, despite her appearances, she is a sweet and timid girl who longs to be able to make friends with everyone and be liked by everyone else. When her idol, popular boy Kazehaya, begins talking with her, everything changes. She finds herself in a new world, trying to make friends and talking to different people and she can't thank Kazehaya enough for giving her these opportunities. Slowly, but surely, a sweet love blossoms between the two as they overcome circumstances and obstacles that stand in their way.
Characters
Sawako "Sadako" Kuronuma- Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (anime), Mikako Tabe (live-action)
- Sawako is a shy yet honest girl who is in search of friendship, but her resemblance to horror film character Sadako makes this difficult. Sawako's modesty prevents her from correcting people's misconceptions, to the point that most of the school believes her name is, in fact, "Sadako." Thanks to Kazehaya's kind and open nature, she is able to gradually open up to her classmates, and talk to different people. Her modesty towards friends is so strong that Yoshida has to tell her point-blank, that "Did you know? Without realizing it ... we were already friends!" With help from Kazehaya, Yano and Yoshida she gradually begins to make friends. She is grateful to (and at first, idolizes) Kazehaya for giving her the opportunities to make close friends, which come to include Yano, Yoshida, Kazehaya and Ryu. Yano and Yoshida admit that Sawako's 'like' to Kazehaya might be even more than Yano and Yoshida themselves. She is rather short, in part because her father is short as well (he is only 160 cm tall), but she is surprisingly fast (to the point some 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. When Kazehaya practically confessed right in front of her that he likes her, she believes it was a misunderstanding and that he was just saying he simply likes her as a friend. However, after having everything cleared up, they officially start dating, though this only brings up rumors that she somehow used black magic to get him.
Shota Kazehaya- Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa (anime), Haruma Miura (live-action)
- Kazehaya is Sawako's outgoing and friendly classmate, and is Sawako's idol. He is so popular that during middle school, so many girls liked him that they formed a "Kazehaya is Everyone's" alliance in order to maintain some level of peace among his admirers and more than half of these girls now attend the same high school. Kazehaya fell in love with Sawako shortly after meeting her and admits (though not to Sawako) that he likes her, unaware that she feels the same for him. During their second year of high school, he begins to wonder if she actually does like him after she does not give him chocolates on Valentine's Day, not knowing that she had been too nervous to give him any. After the ordeal, he seemingly becomes calmer and shows a depressed and expressionless face more often. However, after being confronted by Ryu (influenced by Chizuru) and Pin, Kazehaya goes to Sawako as his friends jokingly remark that he likes Sawako; however, Kazehaya takes the remark seriously and agrees, subsequently confessing directly to Sawako. However, after Sawako's misunderstanding of his confession, he believes she rejected him. However, in chapter 40, he was finally able to confess his feelings to her, and they are officially dating. Kazehaya is prone to become easily jealous over and protective of Sawako, and deeply treasures her.
Ayane Yano- Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (anime), Natsuna Watanabe (live-action)
- Ayane is a close friend of Sawako. She is the arguably the most mature of the group and she has a boyfriend in college as well as having her ears pierced multiple times. Initially the manga artist conceived of Yano and Yoshida as a pair, and in the first two chapters the two are difficult to tell apart. She then redrafted the characters, combing Yano's hair and styling it in a fashion that looks like a pony-tail. In Kurumi's fake rumors, it is said that Ayane has played with more than 100 guys in middle school.vol. 2 In their current high school, it is said that Yano and Yoshida pretty much have authority in the year group. Perceptive and intelligent, a trait of Ayane's personality is that she takes just enough information to leave others wondering, thus forcing them to move forward, this as well as being able to figure out that it was Ume who spread the rumors and discovering that Sawako, "liked" Kazehaya. 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. She's also fairly intimidating when angry, being called scary by Chizuru a number of times. As of Chapter 20 she broke up with her boyfriend, who had begun to become too possessive of her: calling her all times of the day, wondering what she has been up to, and the fact if she was with any guys. After she suggested they break up, he slapped her across the face. When he tried to apologize and ask her back, she realized that the man she liked was not her boyfriend but rather, who he was when they started dating.ch. 20 As of recent chapters (Chapter 45), it appears she might be attracted to Pin. In Chapter 54, she is confessed to by a boy named Mogi. She immediately agrees to date him, which shocks everybody. However, it appears that she is not in love with him, and her feelings towards Pin seem to increase. However, starting from chapter 59, it has been strongly hinted that Kento has feelings for Ayane.
Chizuru Yoshida- Voiced by: Yuko Sanpei (anime), Misako Renbutsu (live-action)
- Yoshida is another close friend of Sawako. She is the tomboy of the group, and she even admits this when Ryu calls them brothers, where she argues about who is the older rather than that she is not a 'brother'. She can be very emotional at times, usually seen humorously crying after a touching moment between her friends. She has a soft spot for innocent mannered people, so she takes a near instant liking to Sawako. In Kurumi's fake rumors it was passed around that she was a former Yankee, though Chizuru just takes the rumor as a means of scaring people off or as a joke for her friends. One of the rumors states that Chizuru holds a record of ninety nine straight wins on being able to beat a guy on a one on one fight (Chizuru took credit of this rumor, she herself stated that her streak was broken when she lost to her hundredth opponent, Ryu Sanada). Chizuru is mostly on the slower side of things; she did not realize that Sawako liked Kazehaya until after the Kurumi confrontation and that Kazehaya liked Sawako (even though she and Ayane planned many events for them) until late in the series, after they started their second year of high school. She is a close childhood friend with Ryu Sanada, her neighbor, and she went to the same middle school as Kazehaya and Ryu. Because of this, Ryu's family regards Chizuru and her family as their own and vice-versa. She has a crush on Ryu's brother, Toru, since she was very young knowing the age gap between them. When Toru visits with his fiancée, she realizes that he will only see their relationship as just siblings. She is very dense to the fact that Ryu loves her, even interpreting him saying "I love you" as an expression of their friendship. When he confesses to her again, this time making it clear, it shocks her to the point where it becomes difficult to talk to him normally as she never thought about him like that and believes that they can't go back to how they were before ever again.
Ryu Sanada- Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura (anime), Haru Aoyama (live-action)
- Ryu is also member of Sawako's group of friends. He is the son of the ramen shop owner of Chizuru Yoshida's favourite ramen shop. He is quiet most of the time and rarely talks, but still can communicate well with Sawako, as they both don't talk much anyways. Ryu and Kazehaya became friends when they were on the baseball team during middle school. He is also close childhood friends with Chizuru and does not deny having feelings for her, such as simply smiling when Sawako asks if he and Chizuru are dating. He later confirms his love when he confesses that he likes Chizuru to Sawako. While his love is one-sided, he is very patient with Chizuru realizing that Chizuru probably won't like him in a romantic sense, at least not right away. He's more than willing to comfort Chizuru if she's depressed, though he would rather have her mad at him as he knows Chizuru can vent out her emotions better. Ryu also seems to like animals a lot; when Shota was going to walk "Maru", his adopted puppy, home with Sawako, Chizuru pulled Ryu away telling him he's going to walk with Ayane and her instead. While being pulled away from Shota's puppy, he cried out for it. A running gag in the series is that he has a very hard time remembering a person's name (with the exception of Kazehaya and Chizuru as he's known them for a long time, and after some time later Sawako and Ayane). In chapter 43, he casually tells Chizuru that he loves her and she reacts by saying "Don't say that so suddenly!". However, in chapter 59, he truly confesses his love for her, but she replies saying, "I have never looked at you in that way". In response, he smiles and says, "I know."
Kazuichi "Pin" Arai- Voiced by: Yūki Ono (anime), Arata (live-action)
- Arai is the temporary homeroom teacher for Sawako's class, taking over when the previous homeroom teacher became sick during the summer holidays while Sawako was helping him. Sawako, being formal, always refers to him as "Arai-sensei," while almost everyone else refers to him by his nickname, "Pin." Pin is a great fan of baseball as well as the school baseball team's coach. He used to be part of Kazehaya's father's league team, so he has known Shota since when he was young. A loud and eccentric man prone to believing the silliest things, Pin apparently enjoys interrupting people. He nicknames the puppy that Sawako and Kazehaya find by the river "Pedro Martinez" after the legendary baseball pitcher, which Sawako suggests be shortened to "Maru". A running gag through the series, despite being a teacher he is prone to actions that are more suited to a teenager, such as eagerly running to the bathroom when he heard about a fight yet became depressed when Sawako and her friends were making up rather than fighting. He and Ayane tend to run into each other a lot, often bickering loudly as they walk away, though on rare occasions he will give her advice (though comically ends in him ruining the moment to praise himself). He also has a false impression that Sawako is an exorcist.
Ume "Kurumi" Kurumizawa- Voiced by: Aya Hirano (anime), Mirei Kiritani (live-action)
- A girl who appears friendly and sweet to everyone around her, she has had a huge crush on Kazehaya since their first year of middle school; as a result, she understands his personality well, despite the fact they were never close friends. She dislikes her given name, Ume, because it sounds old-fashioned and prefers to be called her nickname, "Kurumi." Kurumi is extremely jealous of Sawako, which led her to spread fake rumors of Sawako's only friends at the time, Yoshida and Yano, using Sawako's name. Kurumi does not attend the same class as Sawako or Kazehaya. She eventually confesses her love to Kazehaya, but receives an expected rejection. Because she is always surprised with Sawako's naiveté, Kurumi is able to be her true self in front of Sawako and regards her as a rival for Kazehaya's affection. Following Kazehaya's rejection, she becomes colder to her classmates, but is able to finally express her feelings and personality. When Sawako hesitates on expressing her feelings, Kurumi tells Sawako that Sawako is not worthy of being a rival, but changes her mind after hearing that Sawako and Shota have become a couple. She even defends Sawako against some other jealous girls, and got angry at Miura Kento for saying unnecessary things to Sawako that had caused a rift between Sawako and Shota. Despite Kurumi's harsh personality, she is deep down, a stubborn, clear minded young woman who had stooped to unfair tricks to win a person's heart but has since learned better.
Kento Miura- Voiced by: Mamoru Miyano (anime)
- A student who sits next to Sawako at the beginning of their second year. Miura considers himself fairly popular among the girls, but he immediately expresses an interest in Sawako that Kazehaya becomes a little jealous. Miura assumes Kazehaya likes Sawako because he feels sorry for her, and tries to persuade Kazehaya to not be as involved in Sawako's life. His interference with Sawako and Kazehaya's developing relationship irritates Ayane. He expresses gratitude over the fact that the two began dating before he fell in love with her, although he appears to having some lingering attachment to Sawako (shown in Chapter 51 during a conversation with Ayane). In recent chapters, however, it hints that Kento may be developing a sort of attraction for Ayane and has helped her through some difficult times.
Tomoko "Tomo" Endo- Voiced by: Mayuki Makiguchi (Eriko Hirano), Voiced by: Miho Miyagawa (Tomoko Endou)
- Endou and Hirano are classmates of Sawako, and also members of her study group. After Sawako begins to open up, Endou and Hirano become some of her first friends and try to find ways to encourage her to be less formal around them. They both become close friends of Sawako, who shows her appreciation of their friendship by making them Christmas gifts in addition to those she makes for her parents, Ayane, Chizuru, and Kazehaya.
Soichi "Joe" Jonouchi- Voiced by: Masahiro Yamanaka
- One of Sawako's classmates, easily swayed by other people. He generally appears in the background. Jounouchi is very attached to Kazehaya, which usually results in him unwittingly interrupting conversations between Sawako and Kazehaya. At one point, he is rejected after confessing to a girl he liked and is comforted by Kazehaya. After hearing about how Yano broke up with her boyfriend, he sets his attention on her though she is not interested in him. It appears Joe is a character used for comedic value, often blundering with simple tasks or interrupting serious moments. He does not seem to take hints nor does he often realize his mistakes when they are pointed out.
Toru Sanada- Voiced by: Wataru Hatano
- Tōru is Ryu's older brother by eight years and Chizuru's crush since she was young. Although he is Ryu's brother and they resemble one another, their personalities are nearly opposite. Tōru resembles Kazehaya personality-wise and looks extremely refreshing, except much more mature. He lives three hours away from his parents' house but much to Chizuru's surprise, on his visit with the family he introduced his fiancee. He cares about Ryu and Chizuru a lot, and eventually tells Chizuru he loves her like a little sister. He calls Chizuru by the nickname "Chii" because a person has to smile when saying it, and he wanted to cheer her up.
Shino- Voiced by: Kanae Oki
- The only link to Sawako's past, Shino was her elementary school classmate and the only person who Sawako talks to as the series begins. During elementary school, by mistake, Shino called Sawako "Sadako." When they attended the same middle school, the boys in their class, afraid by Sawako's appearance, heard rumors that she was known as "Sadako," and since then it became her nickname. It is because of this, that Shino feels guilty about the rumors circulating over Sawako that started from her calling her "Sadako." Thus she cares about Sawako and whether she is fitting into high school. Shino is in a different class and regrets that she doesn't get to see Sawako very much. She is a cipher, appearing only occasionally as a catalyst for Sawako's interactions with other people. Perhaps for story reasons, Sawako is too modest to consider her as a friend. According to Shiina, Shino was an unnamed character in the manga, but was named by the staff for the anime. Shinna also wrote that "Shino-chan in the anime is really cute."
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