Kou Mabuchi

Kou Mabuchi is the main male protagonist from the Ao Haru Ride anime and manga.

Kou is a 2nd year High School student whose first love is Futaba Yoshioka.

During his time in middle school with Futaba, Kou was rather small and gentle. He became very fond of her throughout their experiences together but seemingly disappeared during a summer break. Making an appearance in Futaba's High School, it is revealed that he was unable to attend the summer festival because of familial issues. No longer "Tanaka Kou", he is now referred to as "Mabuchi Kou".

Appearance
Kou is a handsome young man with fluffy black hair and fairly sharp brown eyes. In middle school, he looked more innocent, but as the years past he changed into looking more mature and serious. He tends to keep more of a straight face and his expressions make it hard for people to read what he's thinking, especially Futaba. Kou doesn't laugh a lot, but when he does, it's very lively and welcoming. It is made aware that he is slowly losing weight and becoming anemic.

Personality
When Kou was younger he was very outgoing and kind, which made Futaba fall in love with him. After his mother's death and other issues he ran into, Kou changed, which was hard for Futaba to accept (it even took her a little while to call him by his new last name Mabuchi, because he wasn't Tanaka anymore). He is now more masculine, sarcastic, and rude. He can come off very harsh, even when he doesn't mean to, which sort of makes him hard to talk to (Aya sometimes helps Kou with clearing up quick misunderstandings of Kou personality with his own very happy and bubbly atmosphere). In addition, he has extremely pessimistic views about himself and about his brother. Despite these changes, it is evident that Kou is still an overall kind person.

At first, Futaba didn't like Kou's new personality, she found him very harsh and hard to understand but later falls in love with not "Tanaka Kou", but "Mabuchi Kou". Kou lightens up more around his new found friends such as Futaba, Aya, Yuri, and Shuko.

It is shown that after coming to terms with his true feelings for Yoshioka, he becomes a more happier, open person and starts to resemble his old self in middle shcool.

Trivia

 * According to Ao Haru Ride Character's File, Kou:
 * is good at Social Studies, but bad at Classic Literature.
 * likes eating Chicken Nanban and Potato chips (his usual snack), but dislikes celery.
 * likes drinking coffee.
 * likes listening to Dave Matthews band.
 * likes the blue and black color.
 * his hair is actually, naturally messy, part perm
 * Kou's class is 2-2.