Sawako Kuronuma

Sawako Kuronuma is the main protagonist of the Kimi ni Todoke anime and manga.

Sawako is an unassuming, honest high school girl in search of friendship, but her resemblance to the horror film character Sadako Yamamura made this difficult. Her peculiar levels of modesty and ineffective communication skills prevented her from correcting misconceptions. As a result, she was tragically ostracized by everyone she met, and forgot how to understand others and express herself. Still, she is a pure, positive, and caring person who works hard in everything she does.

On the day of the entrance ceremony at Kitahoro High School, Sawako meets Shouta Kazehaya on the road by chance and helps him find his way. Due to his friendly and broad-minded nature, he is the first person she is able to smile genuinely around and get through to as herself and not Sadako. All of a sudden, her world begins to change as she learns to communicate her feelings and form close friendships with fellow human beings, especially Chizuru Yoshida and Ayane Yano, for the first time in her life.

Appearance
Sawako is a considerably petite and slender girl. Her appearance stands out among her high school population, as she has pale skin, thin lips, big brown eyes, and long straight jet-black hair, making her look like a porcelain doll. Because of this, she is constantly mistaken as "Sadako" from "The Ring". Her smile is rumored to bring good luck, due to its rarity and the fact that it is beautiful to look at. Chizuru notes that Sawako's face and figure looks like her mother's, while most of Sawako's other features, including her short frame, are inherited of her father's.

Sawako usually wears her high school uniform, along with a blue blazer during winter, and a short-sleeved dress shirt during summer. Her skirt reaches her knees, as she follows school regulations and does not pull or roll it like her female peers. Neither does she care much for cosmetics or accessories.

When not at school, Sawako is known to usually wear light-colored 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 along with her already "frightening appearance" which resembles a certain horror film character. Other running gag is that Sawako seems to take what people say seriously and over-analyze a situation, which tends to scare others around her when she is deep in thought. People think she can curse people, until Pin says she is an exorcist, which she can't do any of them. However, her tendency to shy away from correcting people of misconceptions prevent her from doing so.

In reality, Sawako is a shy yet honest person who really wants to make new friends and be more open with other persons and new things, which along with her nervous attitude explains her "scary character". She is always seen doing chores as noticed by Shouta, but he realizes Sawako does it because she wants to and doesn't want others to be troubled. Thanks to Shota's kind and open nature, Sawako is able to gradually make friends and have adventures with them, eventually open up. Sawako is a rather caring and kind person, though she appears to smile rarely, with Ayane and Chizuru getting surprised fast. She also works hard in everything she does, as seen when she fought back the girls from Class-A who insulted Ayane and Chizuru. Her pacifist nature and protectiveness sometimes makes her sacrifice herself for her dear ones, as seen when she avoided Ayane, Chizuru, and even Shouta, to protect them from the rumors. Sawako is a bit oblivious to the point of affecting others unconsciously though, being yelled by Shouta that avoiding others wasn't right, and that she was already friends with Ayane and Chizuru according to Chizuru herself. She also does not realize Shouta loves her at first, mistaking his confession as a rejection of her feelings.

It is shown that Sawako can give very good personal advice in an objective role, giving consultations as part of the cafe her class put together revolving around her vibe and medicinal plants during the school festival. Ryustated that all of the dark, hateful people who went in the cafe came out purified and later on were able to confess to and date the people they talked to Sawako about. She also is quite harmonious and open-minded, noting how all things/beings complement each other. Sometimes, Sawako enjoys using her "ghostly appearance" in order to scaring her classmates.

Sawako is grateful (and at first worships) of Shouta for giving her the opportunities to make close friends, which come to include Ayane, Chizuru, Ryu and Shouta himself. The former two admitted that her 'like' to Shouta might be even more than Ayane and Chizuru themselves though. After noticing her feelings for Shouta, Sawako begins to become more nervous around him, in fear of her own greediness. Later on though, 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, trying to hold Shouta's hand and change the look of her uniform to impress him, also beginning to love Shouta even more after hearing more about his own feelings.

Abilities
Enhanced Speed: Sawako is incredibly fast at running and jumping, to the point where people believe she is teleporting. This is revealed during a soccer match at the School's Sports Festival.

Cooking: Sawako is very good at cooking, tending to make meals for her friends, who often become delighted and ask for a second round.

Trivia

 * Her name means "refreshing child."
 * She was given the nickname "Sadako" in kindergarten by her childhood friend Shino. This is where all her problems begin.
 * She is played by Tabe Mikako in the live action movie.
 * Although her estimated birth date was December 24th, she was late and finally born on New Years Eve.
 * Her childhood dream was to become a firefly.
 * When she first encounters Kurumi, Sawako wishes she could have curly hair, too.