Kaori Miyazono

Template:Infobox characterTemplate:Quote5Template:Nihongo is the main female protagonist of *Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso*. She was the only daughter of Ryouko Miyazono and Yoshiyuki Miyazono who was a free-spirited, gifted violinist whose playing style reflected on her wonderful personality.

She attended Sumiya Junior High School as a third year-student where she was in the same class as Tsubaki Sawabe. She first met Kousei Arima when she asked Tsubaki to set her up with Ryota Watari. As their friendship grew, she eventually began helping Kousei return to the piano world after his mother's death.

## Appearance

Kaori Miyazono's height is average for a 14-year-old and has a slender figure. She has blonde wavy hair that reaches down her waist and beautiful pale indigo eyes. She is always seen to carry her violin whenever she went with her lovely pink suitcase.

As a little girl, she wore a pink dress, and her hair was at chin-length.

During her early years in Junior High School as a young teenage girl, she wore a pair of black glasses with thick rims and tied her hair in two low pigtails.

## Personality

Kaori is a free-spirited violinist whose playing style reflects on her personality. She is independent, unpredictable, and short-tempered. It is also touched upon that she is passive aggressive at times. Kaori likes to depend on herself and only herself but is very outgoing and can be seen as more of a support for others.

While considered a really sloppy violin player from a technical standpoint, such as not following music score sheets the way they are written, Kaori is an amazing violinist. Noted by one of the judges at Towa Hall during the first competition of the series, her pure abilities far exceed the others in the competition. She wields a free-spirited style of performance that emphasizes emotions and artistry over the pure mechanics of music, such playing to specific tempos and dynamics originally intended by the composer. Her style of music is what rekindles Kousei's passion for the piano and inspires him to redefine himself as a musician.

She loves sweets and toys, so much so that when she was temporarily set free from the hospital, her first thing to do was immediately drag Kousei with her to a store filled with sweets and toys.

Despite being very quick to anger, Kaori is a very kind and empathetic person, this is shown throughout her interactions with Kousei as she would often understand how he felt over his abusive mother and how he was afraid to play the piano, her words helped Kousei get through these dark times, her compassion helped him be free from his depression. Her kindness is also shown whenever she is with children, as seen when played hopscotch with them and before that she begs Kousei to play piano with other kids in order to make them happy and finally, when she was at the mall with Kousei, she saw a lost kid and held the child's hand until her mother came to find her and was happy to see them reunite. Overall, despite her anger and somewhat abusive behavior towards Kousei, she is a sweet-natured young girl who encourages Kousei which helped him get over his piano fear.

## Ability

Like Kousei, she is an extremely talented musician. However, unlike the majority of the musicians in the series, her style is different. She frequently changed the rhythm, tempo, and pitch of the song by free styling. As a result, the song itself becomes a different melody. Her free styling captivated the audience despite the disapproval of the judges. In her younger years she started playing the piano inspired by Kousei 's piano skills, but decided she wanted to play the violin so Kousei can accompany her. She still uses her piano skills by playing her melodica

## Biography

### Background

When Kaori was a young girl, her class went to see a music recital, where she first saw Kousei Arima. From the moment he touched the keys and started playing, she was immediately inspired by his music.

Kaori was physically weak and underwent many surgeries. Despite this, her hospitalizations became more frequent and prolonged, leading to her missing school and practice often. One night, possibly eavesdropping or simply walking by, she observed her mother crying in the hospital lobby. She then discovered she didn't have much time remaining to live, and shortly after she realized it herself through the recurrent hospitalizations and developing weakness.

When she realized that she would be attending the same junior high school as Kousei, she wanted to approach him. Because Tsubaki Sawabe was close friends with Kousei, she had trouble getting his attention. So, she built up her courage, replaced her glasses with contact lenses (which she was too scared to wear), and became her unique self, by doing everything the way she wished to. Knowing that Tsubaki was a close friend of Kousei’s, Kaori asked her to introduce her to Ryota Watari, another one of Kousei’s close friends. This way, she would be able to get closer to Kousei.

### Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

Kaori plays with three children, attempting to summon pigeons by playing her melodica while standing atop a dome in the park. She catches a boy taking a photo of her as a gust of wind blows her dress, and immediately lashes out at him with her melodica and pins him down with a recorder. Upon realizing that she had attacked the famed pianist **Kousei Arima**, Kaori apologizes for her violence and is introduced to Ryota Watari by Tsubaki Sawabe as she had requested. Kaori invites the three to watch her in the preliminary round of the violin competition. The three agree and set off to Towa Hall.

When it comes to Kaori’s turn, she changes up the set-piece (Beethoven’s "Kreutzer") and turns the whole thing into her very own original score. By the end of the performance, the audience applauded and cheered tumultuously for her (much to the anger of the judge, who was not happy with what she played). After the preliminary round ended, a young girl gifted her with a bouquet of flowers. Kaori was voted “audience choice”, bringing her to the next round of the competition.

Kaori hid her illness from everyone else. This was first shown when she collapsed after her first performance with Kousei. At the time, she claimed to be anemic. However, there were many suggestions for more severe health concerns. She was shown with medication during Kousei's competition and was unable to participate in her callback round with Kousei during her prolonged hospitalization. It is later revealed that she was unable to perform with Kousei after she fell and hit her head at home. When Kousei heard about Kaori's hospitalization from Tsubaki, he rushed to visit her.

It later became obvious that her health is deteriorating rapidly, and she could no longer hide her illness from her friends. Her illness began causing bouts of paralysis in her legs. Also, she suddenly fell to the ground while walking down the hallway in the hospital and she was unable to stand up again. During one of her hospital visitations, Kousei noticed that she had gotten paler and skinnier.

As Kaori's surgery date approached, she wrote a farewell letter to Kousei. On the day of Kousei's piano competition, Kaori underwent surgery. But despite the doctor's efforts, she passed away on the 18th of February at the age of fourteen. At her funeral, her letter was given to Kousei by Yoshiyuki Miyazono and Ryouko Miyazono (Kaori's parents).

## Relationships

### Kousei Arima

Although Kousei had never met Kaori before, Kaori and her parents had always admired him since they first saw him perform. Kaori took up playing the violin hoping to perform with Kousei one day. Throughout their time together, they had many instances in which Kousei slowly gained feelings for Kaori. Each encounter had Kousei realize the importance of himself as a musician, as well as learn more about Kaori and become closer to her, something which eventually flourished into romantic feelings. However, Kousei refused to confess as he was misled to believe that Kaori was in love with Watari.

When Kaori collapsed on the day of the Gala Performance due to the sudden paralysis of her legs and received a concussion, Kousei started to doubt himself, seeing his mother in Kaori, as both of them had made a huge impact on Kousei's life, and the both of them were the reason that he played the piano. Kousei started to give up on music once again as he felt that music was the one who took away everything that was precious to him. However, after talking to Kaori about not giving up hope at the hospital, Kousei was touched by her words and decided to persevere once more in his last piano competition while Kaori was undergoing surgery. Unfortunately, Kaori was unable to pull through the surgery which led to her death, with her presumably dying on the operating table. Kousei received a letter from Kaori's parents which was written by Kaori before she underwent surgery. In the letter, Kaori expressed her love and gratitude towards Kousei and thanked him for bringing joy and meaning to her life. At the end, Kaori wrote that she was in love with Kousei, not Watari.

### Ryota Watari

Watari is Kaori's supposed love interest throughout the series. Both of them are very close friends and tend to act *lovey-dovey* around each other. It is later revealed that she had a fake interest in Watari just to get close to Kousei. Watari was immediately infatuated with Kaori's appearance when he first met her, but still remained a *ladies' man*, chasing after other girls at school. Nonetheless, he is shown to care for her and visits her frequently when she is in hospital, bringing gifts and making her laugh. In Kaori's letter for Kousei, she claims that Watari was an amazing friend, but he will probably forget all about her; however, it is visually suggested that he really did like her.

### Tsubaki Sawabe

Tsubaki is a classmate of Kaori who asked her to introduce her to Watari. Thus, Tsubaki ultimately gave her the opportunity to meet Kousei. Kaori tried to meet Kousei in such a roundabout manner because she knew that Tsubaki would not respond well if directly asked to be introduced; in her letter to Kousei, she mentioned that she knew Tsubaki was in love with Kousei from the very beginning. Both Kaori and Tsubaki can be seen traveling home together throughout their time together, and they are shown to be good friends. Tsubaki liked Kaori as a friend but realized her own feelings for Kousei after she noticed Kaori and Kousei's relationship developing.

## Etymology

* The name Template:Nihongo means "fragrance, fragrant".
	+ It is spelled using the older form "かをり" as is seen on her bedroom door.
* Kaori's surname **Miyazono** means "temple, shrine, palace" (宮) (**miya**) and "garden, park, plantation" (園) (**sono**/**zono**).

## Trivia

* Aside from being a violinist, Kaori has the ability to play the melodica and she has had some experience playing the piano.
* Kaori had a rather sweet tooth as she loved sweet foods.
* In "*A single petal that drifted into my life*" (Kousei Arima's quote), the petal is a metaphor for Kaori, who appeared out of nowhere and disappeared due to how fragile she was.
* It is unknown what illness Kaori suffered from, but fans of the series have hypothesized that she suffered from Bone Marrow Failure, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Friedreich's Ataxia. Although, Friedreich's Ataxia is the most likely disease as the symptoms line up with symptoms that we see in the series.

## Gallery

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## References

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