Raidō

**Shōta Raidō** (来堂 章太, *Raidō Shōta*), commonly referred to by his surname Raidō (ライドウ), is a high school student and the male protagonist of the manga Aharen-san wa Hakarenai and consequently it's anime adaptation.

## Description

> ごく普通？の男子高校生。彼の高校での目標は「友だち100人」つくること。しかし、入学してから隣の席に座っている阿波連さんとの距離を感じている。
> Translation: A very ordinary (?) high school boy. His aim is to have 100 friends in the high school. After entering the school, however, he feels a distance between him and Aharen, who is in the next seat to him.
>
> TV Anime "Aharen-san wa Hakarenai" Japanese Official Site

## Appearance

Raidō is a tall boy with a stoic face. He has short black hair and brown eyes. He is most often seen wearing his school uniform consisting of a white shirt, black pants, black belt, and white sneakers. He mostly has the same facial expressions even when internally feeling a lot of emotions such as happiness, sadness, shock, determination, etc.

## Personality

Raidō is an outwardly calm and generally stoic teenager who looks after Reina. He is rather stiff when it comes to facial expressions which has led to him being distant from others in the past. This led to him having a motivation to have a fulfilling high school life with a goal to make 100 friends. Although outwardly stiff, Raidō is quite friendly with others especially after getting to know them. This is most apparent with his interactions with Reina. Whereas their interactions were initially filled with awkwardness and confusion, as their relationship progresses he begins to do more activities with Reina including but not limited to playing several sports together, studying, dancing, playing board games, etc. His friendliness would also help dissipate the initial tension with Mitsuki, Reina's childhood friend, who thought him as a scary person tricking Reina. Afterwards, he would also eventually earn other friends such as Ishikawa, Hanako, and Riku.

Despite his outward appearance, Raidō is internally both expressive and imaginative. This is most often seen when confronted with something he doesn't understand, such as Reina behaving weirdly. In these instances, Raidō's imagination runs wild and he begins to think up unlikely explanations for whatever he's facing. These delusions can range from somewhat unbelievable to utterly illogical. In some cases, he often adds to his delusion until his explanation of becomes more and more absurd. He also often acts based upon these delusions and it isn't until the real explanation is revealed that Raidō becomes aware and immediately dismisses his ridiculous theories. Raidō has expressed that he is aware of his tendencies to jump to unlikely conclusions and sees it as a problem, but has reasoned that he does so to be prepared for anything.

Raidō is also quite frank when it comes to expressing his emotions and is generally not afraid to do something when it feels like something he should do. For example, when Reina kept her distance from him after her being close to him for a full day during their first interaction, he made the first move instead and pushed his table to hers, an act which would be the start of their friendship. He is vocally bold when declaring that he has set his mind on something, although he is just as quick to let it go when his actions turn out to be based on his false delusions. Raidō is not shy when expressing his emotions and not afraid to stand by them, even for something as delicate as romance. When Mitsuki, under the assumption that he was leading Reina on, challenged him to a game of reversi, he was initially afraid until Mitsuki expressed her condition that he cut off contact with Reina should he lose. This gave him a boost of determination which prompted him to defeat Mitsuki from his losing position. After officially becoming Reina's boyfriend, he does not hesitate to compliment her appearance or express his affection towards her in general. He states them casually as a matter of fact, often to the embarassment of Reina.

## Relationship

### Reina Aharen

Raidō first encountered Reina when they were both children playing in a sandbox. He mistook her for a boy named Rei due to her appearance and small voice when saying her name respectively, and was blown away by her skills at building sand structures and promised to play with her again the next day, but unbeknownst to him, Reina was moving away that day so he couldn't see her again. However, Raidō does not remember this encounter in it's entirity.

Raidō would encounter Reina again as his seatmate in high school. He initially tried to start conversations with her, but her replies were too small for him to hear. This led him to believe she didn't want to talk to him and left him disheartened on his first day at school. It wasn't until Reina approached him and asked him to share his textbook with her that he realized that her voice was unbelievably small. He would later spend a whole day with her being suddenly too close to him as they ate lunch together, went to the arcade, and finally sang at the karaoke together. The next day, he was taken aback when Reina started acting distant to him again. Although at first resigning her actions to a whim, Raidō decided to take the first appraoch and moved his desk to hers. Reina then revealed that she had been ostracized in the past for suddenly acting too familiar with people and was afraid that was the case with him. Raidō replied that he didn't mind, which would be the start of their friendship and made her the first friend he made in high school.

After this, Raidō would often spend his time with Reina in and outside of school. The pair often did activities together ranging in normality from studying or playing board games together to less common hijinks such as speaking exclusively in rap. He would also try to find ways to better communicate with her. Gradually, Raidō would become used to her strange behaviors, which he often explained with equally strange conclusions, and become more versed in communicating with Reina. His friendship with her would also be the catalyst for befriending his other classmates, namely Mitsuki, Ishikawa, Hanako, and Riku.

Raidō and Reina's relationship would start to change after a camping trip with their friends. During the night when everyone was asleep, Raidō would converse with Reina and eventually confess that he liked her. This prompted Reina to suddenly kiss him out of excitement, but she immediately withdrew afterwards, afraid that she had once again misjudged their interpersonal distance. Although surprised by her actions, Raidō would continue to act around Reina as he normally would after the trip, though both would act a little different than before to each other, something that some of the people around them would comment on. It wasn't until Mitsuki, who confronted him under the mistaken assumption that he was leading Reina on, asked him to no longer talk to Reina that he would boldly declare his feelings a second time. Reina would overhear this declaration and after clearing up their misunderstandings, reply she felt the same way, confirming their feelings to each other and evolving their relationship to boyfriend and girlfriend.

As a couple, Raidō and Reina's interactions don't vary much from before, often being filled with ridiculous hijinks on both their parts. However, they would on occasion show their affection towards each other, showing the change in their dynamic from before when they were friends. Most importantly, both Raidō and Reina would become more open towards each other about their doubts and insecurities, such as when Raidō was confused about his future plans, or when Reina was unsure about her participating in a class relay marathon competition.

### Mitsuki Ōshiro

Raidō had a rocky start with Mitsuki initially with the latter being convinced that he was a bad guy who was trying to trick Reina. After spying on him for days, Raidō would eventually encounter Mitsuki face-to-face and be introduced to her by Reina. Even after Reina reprimanding her for calling Raidō a bad guy, she still maintained her apprehension for him and would often follow them from a distance. Eventually, she would warm up to Raidō as she sees how Reina is happy when she was with him and decrease her distance with both him and Reina and join their friend group alongside Ishikawa and Hanako. Their relationship would once again be tested when Mitsuki mistakenly believed that Raidō was leading Reina along due to her misunderstanding of what had happened during their camping trip. She challenged Raidō to a game of reversi. However, Raidō surprised her by defeating her and declaring his love for Reina. After clearing up the misunderstanding, she apologized and joined her fellow friends in congratulating in the new couple. After this event, Raidō and Mitsuki's relationship improved greatly and both of them became good friends.

## Trivia

* He has a habit of saying "じゃね？" (ja ne?, "innit?", a slang word among young people). This phrase is used in all episode titles for the anime (e.g. "近すぎ**じゃね？** (Chika Sugi **ja ne?**)").
* He is able to change his facial expressions, as briefly shown in Chapter 98.
* Raidō has a collection of bedside items courtesy of Reina. These include 5 Shirorin and 5 Yankeesaurus figures from their fictional in-world franchise Hokemon (parody of Pokemon) and a life-size model of Reina which she made herself.
	+ Reina has also given him a life-size model of himself, although it hasn't been seen with him since she gifted it.
* Raidō has been shown to have a competitive streak. This is mostly shown with Reina where he often tries (and fails) to beat her in various games and sports.
* He shares the same birthday as Reina Aharen.
* Raidō possesses a seemingly endless knowledge of information from various subjects such as economics, science, law , history, sports, etc. This, when combined with his active imagination, leads him to very convoluted explanations for seemingly simple occurences.
	+ In a rare occasion where his wide scope of knowledge proved useful to a situation, Raidō is shown to have knowledge on discerning edible plants and mushrooms in the forest (as shown in Episode 10).
* His given name had not been revealed until the release of the last volume of the manga (volume 17, published in August 4, 2023), in the bonus chapter of which Reina calls him "Shōta-kun" (章太くん).

## Etymology

* The surname Raidō consists of two kanji: "来" and "堂". "来" (rai) means "come" and "堂" (do) means "hall" or "temple".
* The given name Shōta means "章" (chapter, section, badge, seal) and "太" (big, fat, great).

## References

1. ↑ Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Romantic Comedy Manga Gets TV Anime Next April - Anime News Network
2. ↑ Crunchyroll Streams Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Romantic Comedy Anime's English Dub on April 15 - Anime News Network
3. ↑ Character - TV Anime "Aharen-san wa Hakarenai" Japanese Official Site