Chizuru Hishiro

**Chizuru Hishiro** is the main female protagonist from the *ReLife* anime and manga.

A third-year student at Aoba Academy, Chizuru is the epitome of a socially isolated book worm. She gets top marks in her studies, but she struggles with basic social interactions. She is a friendless loner, blunt to the point of bludgeoning situations that require tact and a soft touch, and so disinterested in people that she can't remember their names.

Dissatisfied with her situation, Hishiro resolves to learn to better interact with people. Kaizaki is one of the first to reach out to her, and she responds in kind. For all her directness, Hishiro is a cool, determined, earnest, and unwaveringly loyal. She may not intuitively grasp how to interact with the people around her, but the last thing she wants is to upset them or push them away. Her curiosity is insatiable, especially when she begins to develop strong feelings for someone—feelings she isn't equipped to understand.

In later chapters, Hishiro's backstory is explored, revealing the reason for her friendless background and that she, like Kaizaki, is a subject in the ReLife experiment.

In the AWA fics, Chizuru is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

Hishiro is a slender girl with an average build and height. She has straight, mid-length black hair, her bangs ending just above her eyes. She has light green eyes. She has a beauty spot on the right side on her neck. She keeps her hair in pigtails; one behind her shoulder and the other one laid on her shoulder which are tied with green bands. This was later changed to gray X-shaped pins that she got a gift from Kariu and Honoka. She wears the 3rd year uniform with a red lapel that all third years wear and added a silver lapel pin after becoming the student representative of her class.

When visiting Arata Kaizaki's place the first time, she worn her hair in a ponytail. She wore a red floral pattern yukata at the Fireworks Festival, tying her hair in a bun and keeping her new hairpins as wristbands. For her Chrismas date, per coordination by Rena Kariu and Honoka Tamarai, she wore her hair straight.

Hishiro's Pre-ReLIFE appearance looks very similar to how she looks as a third-year student during ReLIFE, the main difference being that she has longer hair tied in a ponytail with locks reaching her chin, and sharper eyes that are partially hidden by her locks. She is also shorter than her Pre-ReLIFE self and is seen wearing lipstick and a formal business suit when introduced as an adult.

Hishiro's hairstyle as a second-year high school student during Re-LIFE was the same as Pre-ReLIFE for much of the time. Towards the end of the school year, when her experiment was declared a failure and Ryō Yoake asked if she wants to try ReLIFE a second time, she cut her bangs and wore her hair into pigtails to start looking more like a high school girl as a sign of her resolve.

In Hishiro's Post-ReLIFE appearance, she leaves her hair out with two short strands of hair framing her face, and two longer strands of her laid on her shoulders. Her bangs remain covering her forehead, the only difference is that they are not cut evenly and straight like before, and she wears her hair in left side-bangs rather than straight bangs. She has a piece of her hair tied in a small ponytail at the back with the gray X-shaped pins that she received from Kariu and Honoka. She wears a formal black business suit, similar to that she wore in her Pre-ReLIFE appearance, which consists of a black jacket, with a collared and buttoned white shirt underneath, and a knee-length black skirt and a pair of black heeled shoes. She is also seen having a black bag with her and wearing pink lipstick quite regularly. When she works at the ReLIFE institute, she wears the same outfit, but discards the black jacket and wears a white lab-coat over instead.

## **Personality**

Hishiro is noted to have a clever, smart atmosphere to her. She is highly intelligent, always seen getting the first place in any exam, but she never brags about it. Despite her intelligence, she is highly oblivious to her surroundings and people's feelings, openly voicing out insults, such as when she first talked to Kaizaki. She is oblivious and uninterested to surroundings to the point of calling Kaizaki "The Cigarette Guy" and Kariu "The Red Haired Girl who did 7.38 seconds" when she first talks to them. Due to her childhood experiences, her social skills are almost non-existent, so she prefers doing things at her own pace and by herself. She is also quiet and keeps to herself, as she is almost always seen being alone prior to meeting Kaizaki. She is socially awkward and doesn't know how to handle matters with a lot of people in it, and she is also fairly ignorant with regards to anything not directly related to school matters, particularly social and emotional ones. When she first messages Kaizaki on Lime, she sent a message that was similar to a business contact. Later she has begun to use emojis mostly involving cat symbols in her texts.

Despite her personality, Hishiro wants to change, but she doesn't know where to start, which explains her awkward personality. She also does not know how to smile properly, often giving a forced smile that often makes people around her take it in a not-so-friendly way. She tells Kaizaki that she wants to understand people more and make friends as she has reached the final year of school (later shown she wanted to do so because of her ReLife Experiment). Hishiro also is shown to search the internet when she does not understand certain events and/or what she is feeling, for example; love. She had a hard time realizing "love" and what she was feeling towards Kaizaki, and then had a hard time accepting that fact since she was a test subject and thought that Kaizaki was much younger than her. After realizing their love is mutual, it is seen that Hishiro is very blunt and straightforward with him, as she can ask Kaizaki to kiss her out of nowhere. Despite this she really loves him and it thanks to him that she changed in the first place, which Hishiro is deeply grateful for.

As time goes on, Hishiro slowly starts to change thanks to Kaizaki's influence, who became her first friend in ages. He teaches her the importance of having friends, finding an amazing love and living a great high school, which is something he hopes her to find. She becomes best friends with Karui and Honoka, as well as friends with Onoya, Nobu, Yoake, and Aki. She treasures Kariu and Honoka deeply, and whenever they feel down, Hishiro tries to help in her own way by searching on the internet. She also discards her previous ideology that she could do anything by herself and didn't need anyone else's help, and starts to realize it's better if she would work with others. She began to treasure all the bonds she formed through high school and confessed how important her friends were to her when she "graduated" high school, and how thankful she was to have met them. Thanks to Kaizaki and forming unforgettable bonds, Hishiro develops as a person and realizes that life isn't as dull as she thought, and she regains her self-confidence after the ReLIFE project.

After the ReLIFE project, it is seen that Hishiro seems much happier. She is also seen to have no problems socializing, as she built up a conversation with a fellow co-worker with no problem, though her habit of not knowing how to smile properly and being straightforward, insensitive and very serious remains.

## **Trivia**

* During lunch she is most often seen eating ramen. Either it is her favorite item, or she simply orders whatever people recommends to her
	+ Yoake recommended ramen to her on her first day of school
	+ Tamarai once suggested her to give omelet rice a try, and she ordered omelet rice the day right after.
	+ During the cultural festival, when Kaizaki suggests getting something to eat, her first response was ramen (to which Kaizaki responded "that has nothing to do with the cultural festival!)"
* She doesn't have a TV at home, opting to watch things on the internet instead.
* She uses a black smartphone.
* Prior to her ReLIFE experience, the last time she had been to an amusement park was at least 20 years ago (when she was 9 or younger).
* In the movie adaptation, she became a teacher at Aoba High School instead of an employee at the ReLIFE research Institute.
* She is the oldest main character being a year older than Arata and Ryō as well as being three years older than An.
* Hishiro's surename is an homage to the Hishiro Station in Ōita, Japan.