Kō Sakuragi

* Anime
* Manga

**Kō Sakuragi** (桜城 光 *Sakuragi Kō*) is a socially anxious solo gamer from Naoya Nifuji's university with a habit of saying "I'm sorry". Kō reclusive nature initially reminds Naoya of his brother and thus decided to become Kō's gamer friend.

## Appearance

Kō is a young woman with short brown hair that has long bangs hanging over her face, dark green eyes, thick black eyebrows, full-framed glasses and a beauty mark under her left eye.

Her clothes is usually a cream-colored sweater with a light blue blouse underneath, and gray slacks with sneakers. She is frequently seen with white headphones around her neck.

Due to her clothing preferences and her height, she is often mistaken for a boy.

## Personality

Kō prefers being alone and she's always apologizing to people for no particular reason. She does not usually socialize, which is why she is often anxious when talking to other people, and cannot look directly into their eyes. Despite this, Kō still hopes to make friends.

She is not fond of talking, hence she does not have any friends or any form of social media. Later in the series, she meets Naoya Nifuji in the coffee shop he works for and becomes gaming friends with him, in which she helps him level up his character.

She is very fond of video games as shown both in the manga and in the anime. She also recognized the video game character Narumi Momose mentioned as she was going to meet up with Naoya. When Kō plays, she becomes oblivious to her surroundings and forgets how long she's playing as long as she is distracted by it.

Later in the manga, she is revealed to be an otaku who is into the shojō genre, similar to Tarō Kabakura.

## History

Kō often played video games with her father during her childhood, and her father supports her hobby to game.

## Relationships

### Naoya Nifuji

Their first interaction with each other was in a coffee shop where Naoya worked as a barista and she is very anxious when talking to him. But after becoming friends with him both in general and in-game, she looks forward to meeting him now and is willing to help him out in leveling up.

In the manga and second OVA, they spend time with each other at the movies and arcade, and at the end Kou tells Naoya that she likes him and wants to be his friend forever although Naoya seemingly believed it was a confession and is shown to be slightly disappointed when he finds out she meant friends only.

In the manga, she started catching feelings for Naoya. She enrolled in a part-time job, often using it as an excuse to not hang out with him because she felt immensely nervous around him. She started doubting her self worth after seeing Naoya being a social butterfly, often wondering why he would even like a gloomy girl like her.

One day, when she was crying, Naoya found her and consoled her. He gathered up the courage to ask her out, and she felt her self doubt wash away. She agreed to go out with him, and the two are currently a couple.

### Hirotaka Nifuji

Hirotaka and Kō are both gamer otakus, so they seem to get along well with their shared interests. Hirotaka often looks out for her, even thanking her for making Naoya Nifuji into the person he currently was, although Kō misunderstood what he meant. Kō's first impression of Hirotaka was that he was scary, but now she thinks he is a kind person.

### Narumi Momose

Kō thinks Narumi is such a bright person she could blind her eyes someday. Narumi likes hanging out with Kō, seldom (not often; rarely) teasing her about her getting along with Naoya Nifuji. Narumi is glad a person like Kō exists in Naoya's life.

### Hanako Koyanagi

Hanako thinks Kō has the ideal look for a cosplayer and gets Kō to try out different outfits during a mall trip. Kō is terrified of Hanako.

### Tarō Kabakura

In Chapter 74, when Kō was about to pick up the last volume of Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (a shojō manga) available, her hand clashes with Kabakura's. Kabakura thinks Kō is a boy, happy that another male otaku who likes shojō manga exists. He tries to give the volume to Kō, but she gets so scared of his intimidating look that she runs away. Kō is terrified of Kabakura's seemingly deadly stare, but Kabakura seems to take a liking to Kō purely because he thinks they're the same type of otaku.

## Etymology

* The name **Kō** means "light" (光).
* Kō's surname **Sakuragi** means "cherry blossom" (桜) (**sakura**) and "castle" (城) (**ki**/**gi**).

## Trivia

* Unbeknownst to Naoya Nifuji, Kō is actually a girl. He later finds out in the OVA.