Rihito Sajou

Rihito Sajou (佐条 利人) is a main character of the doukyuusei movie and manga. He is Married to Hikaru Kusakabe

## Appearance

Sajou has pale skin and straight, dark hair in a basic short haircut parted on the left side of his face and long bangs swept to the right. He is slender and a bit shorter than Kusakabe. He wears wire-rimmed eyeglasses all the time due to extreme near-sightedness. His blue eyes can be seen in official art, however they appear black in the movie. He wears conservative clothes consisting of his his high school uniform, two-piece suits or simple shirts and dress trousers. He wears a wristwatch and a stylish black turtleneck on special occasions.

## Personality

He is highly intelligent and a dedicated student who works hard to maintain top grades. He is a gloomy sort of person who doesn't recognize his good traits, evidencing low self-esteem on several ocasions. He is insecure about many aspects of himself, especially his sexuality. He tends to avoid close relationships and puts up a wall towards people who try to reach out to him. He follows the path his family has set, including attending the university both his father and grandfather attended and rarely stands up for himself.

As the story progresses, Sajou slowly opens up to others, especially Kusakabe, with whom he develops a friendship that becomes a romantic relationship. Through this transformation he gains confidence that allows him to make a few friends and to become a more independent person.

## Relationships

### Hikaru Kusakabe

His relationship with Kusakabe begins as a tutor-student sort of friendship when Kusakabe offers to practice a choral piece together for a summer festival. Kusakabe's interest in Sajou is evident from their initial contact and he slowly breaks through Sajou's reticence and shy demeanor to become a welcome friend and love interest. Their relationship grows throughout the series, enduring ups and downs as they navigate a romantic dynamic while developing as individuals with separate lives. Despite a brief separation in *blanc*, they eventially embrace their deepest feelings and reunite, seeing one another as their most important person and sealing their love with their wedding.

Note: While Kusakabe is the one to confess first and is more open about their relationship, willing to stand for Sajou and support him during his darkest moments, Sajou is able to stand for him, as well, and despite taking more time, he accepts and embraces his love for Kusakabe and fully gives himself to him. They are currently married and living together as a couple.

### Kumi Sajou

Sajou's relationship with his mother is complicated due to Sajou's distant personality. His mother loves him and cares for him deeply and despite not fully understanding him, she is accepting of her son. Kumi claims that Rihito used to be a sweet, loving child, but suddenly grew distant and cold, would avoid looking her in the eyes or talk to her. Sajou says that he feels guilt for having betrayed her kindness and warmth.

During the events of *Sotsogyuousei* and *blanc*, Sajou "comes out" to Kumi and tells her about his relationship with Kusakabe. She seems startled first, but accepts them as a couple. Is is only then when he can see her face without feeling guilty. Kumi confesses to Kusaakabe that she used to think that Sajou's relationship with a man was the result of not raising him correctly, but quickly understood that her son was happier with him, adding that ever since they becamde a couple, her son seems to smile more and is opening up to people. She says she is glad Sajou fell in love with him and fully supports their relationship.

### Manabu Hara

Sajou's relationship with his teacher is complex. Hara was the first person Sajou met at the school one year before meeting Kusakabe, they went on a bike ride, and Hara was highly captivated by him. Sajou states there used to be something else, but was no longer there; and he now seemed uncomfortable with him. Even so, he won't defy a teacher so when Hara-sen makes a move on him, he's about to allow it until Kusakabe enters the room and stops the molestation.

Hara's interest in Sajou persists for several years, with Hara trying to make moves on Sajou and interfeiring in his realationship with Kusakabe. In *blanc*, Hara is invited to Sajou and Kusakabe's wedding, for they feel they are indebted to him. He shows up and, despite still having some interest in Sajou, is enthusiastic about the wedding and gives a nice speech.

## Trivia

* His eyesight dropped when he was in kindergarden and he was wore glasses ever since, both his eyes are below 0.1
* His specialties are education and physics; he is bad at music.
* He doesn't like or hate any food in particular, but if he had to choose, he'd say he likes squid.
* His first love was during first grade of elementary school, the object of his affection being a sixth grader boy from his local youth organization.
* Took both penmanship and piano lessons, but hated piano so much he quit.
* As a child, he almost never got sick.
* At age 10, a girl in elementary school confesses to him, but he turns her down, resulting in the girls in the school ignoring him for a month. During that time, he felt like they could "see through him."
* During his first year of middle school, he fell off his bike while riding to school and broke his right hand, after which he refused to ride a bike, ever.
* He is unable to cook by himself.
* Since his father works overseas, he would stay in one place only 1-2 weeks at a time, but is still not very good at English and would spend his summers at home, alone.
* He is very anxious and goes into frequent panic attacks.
* Before meeting Kusakabe, he would become easily consumed by negative thoughts and had unhealthy coping mechanisms, like not eating properly, which caused him to lose weight.
* If he had the chance to live as Kusakabe for a day, he'd like to see how it is to perform on stage.

## Quotes

"As long as you're with me, that's enough for me." (To Kusakabe)

"Ive always been so happy... like I was on cloud nine this whole time. That's why I always thought that this happiness will have to end someday, too."

"It's fine if I'm alone. If something happens, it would be my own responsibility; but with him, it's different. I'm scared. If people look at him weird or if he ends up losing something or gets hurt... it would be my fault."

## Gallery

1. ↑ "blanc" chapter 8
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "blanc" chapter 9
3. ↑ Futari Gurashi
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "blanc" chapter 6
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 Rihito Sajou's Timeline
6. ↑ First Love Extra Story
7. ↑ "blanc" chapter 3
8. ↑ 10 Year Anniversary Q&A
9. ↑ Doukyuusei - the second summer
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "blanc" chapter 2