Makoto Koharu

* Pre-timeskip
* Post-timeskip

## Image gallery

**Makoto Koharu** (Japanese: 心春誠,, *Koharu Makoto*) is a first-year student at Karasuno High for majority of the series, and will be a main character in an upcoming fanfiction. Her position in volleyball was formerly a manager-turned-middle-blocker, but after she joined the Karasuno High volleyball club, her position changed into a wing spiker. In her second-year, Makoto joined the Karasuno High Girl's Volleyball club. Her jersey number is 4.

In 2018, Makoto graduated from Karasuno High and had traveled overseas to France in order to study culinary arts, before graduating from college and flying to Italy to finish her education. She came back to Japan to take over her family restaurant, *Kokoro Family Restaurant*, and became it's head chef and earned it a Michelin Star.

## Appearance

Makoto has dark blue hair that is cut shoulder-length with a messily cut fringe, and is always seen let down, even during matches. She has pale blue eyes complimenting her hair color, and is noted to be very beautiful by many in her class. She has a dimple on both of her cheeks, a trait she shares with her family. Makoto is shown to be quite tall, being 170 cm (5'7"), the second tallest in her group.

During school hours, she wears the standard Karasuno High girl's uniform, which consists of a white blouse, red ribbon, cream sweater, black blazer, and a grey skirt. When helping out the male's Volleyball Club, she is most commonly seen to wear the Karasuno's volleyball club uniform.

In the final arc, Makoto lets her hair grow to mid-length with curls and ties it in a low ponytail. She also allows her sideburns and fringe to grow longer, neatly parting the fringe aside.

## Personality

Her friends and her classmates have described Makoto as "the most laid back girl" among everyone, being very bubbly and kind of an airhead at times. She is often incredibly blunt and straightforward without being aware of it (but sometimes she is), offending people by accident most of the time. Makoto is a very warm, lively individual who thinks about everything positively, though she is objective enough to see flaws and virtues. She is empathetic in general, friendly to those she meets, and will try to help or defend anyone who is kind to her or who needs assistance. Her empathy and kindness are also seen in how well she gets along with everyone. She is on good terms with them and is particularly close friends with Haruka, Shineko, Tomoe, Reina, and so on.

Even though she is seen exhibiting a blunt and laid-back attitude most of the time, Makoto can be feisty and easily angry when it comes to certain food-related topics such as onions or any kind of food not being cut properly, people not cooking food the way it should in order to bring out it's flavors, using the wrong ingredients, etc. This side of her is also shown when she needs to boost other people's moral, partly seen during the training camp the volleyball team had in Chapter 25, Volume 3 (or Episode 11, Season 1) when Makoto harshly scolds Reina for cutting the onions in an uneven manner and Hinata Shoyo when he forgot to stir the curry. However, this attitude was first fully seen in Chapter 69, Volume 8 (or Episode 24, Season 2), when she scolds the Karasuno Volleyball team loudly in her family restaurant for being so down during dinner.

## Background

Makoto was raised with her life revolving around cooking and food, mainly because she grew up in her family restaurant, *Kokoro*. Her family was quite big, having two of her grandparents, her parents, and two younger brothers living in the same roof, all working in the restaurant together. Makoto grew up with a vast knowledge of cooking and ingredients, she decided at a young age to take over her family restaurant when she is older and make it world-famous.

Soon, she enrolled into Kitagawa Daichi Middle School, and wanted to join the cooking club, but it closed down due to the lack of members. Upset, Makoto was club-less for her first days of school until she decided to join the basketball club because there was no other option. In her second year of middle school, she immediately dropped basketball because it was boring, but was approached by the volleyball club captain the next day when she was looking for a new club to join, asking to be the club's manager. Makoto accepts and is pulled into the volleyball club.

Like she expected, being a manager was boring. She couldn't find the fun to be in the club. While she was watching the club members train, a stray ball flew towards Makoto, shocking her, but she managed to raise her hand and block the ball, surprising the rest of the volleyball club. Haruka Hayase approached Makoto and apologized for accidentally hitting the ball towards her, but she shook her head and forgave Haruka. The coach then promoted Makoto from being a manager to a player, giving her the position of a middle blocker. However, due to her inexperience, Makoto was never switched out on-court because she lacked the reflexes and the jump to block the ball in time.

When they graduated from Kitagawa Daiichi, all of them were upset they didn't make it to the regular team, so Shineko recommended going to Karasuno High since their volleyball teams are known to be strong, so Makoto accepts her offer and enrolls into Karasuno.

## Plot

### Karasuno High Team Formation Arc

Makoto is first seen along with her friends during the episode and chapter "Five Odd Ones Out", where they appear on the doorstep of the male's volleyball club in Karasuno High asking to join.

### Interhigh Arc

#### Loss and Decisions

Karasuno soon leaves the gym and to Makoto's family restaurant, *Kokoro*, as a surprise, Makoto notes that the entire team is feeling gloomy and disappointed. She immediately goes to the kitchen and helps her mother and brothers cook a whole set of dishes for the Karasuno Volleyball Team. As she serves the last dish, Makoto becomes angry at how the volleyball team continued to sulk. She starts to talk about Aoba Johsai and their win in today's game, holding a soup spoon and slapping the table with it to gain attention from the team. When she mentioned the loss, Coach Ukai, Takeda, and Shineko tried to stop her from bringing the team's spirits down even more. She ignores this and continues, saying it wasn't the end of the world, getting a flashback that she couldn't cook medium-boiled eggs. Makoto then tells the team to eat before she huffs and goes back to the kitchen, disposing the spoon. When she comes back, Makoto becomes happy that Coach Ukai tells them to eat and regain strength, smiling as the team is overcome with emotion as they did.

The next day in school, Makoto is seen going to the gym with Haruka despite there not being any practice and waits for the third years to come. Tomoe and Reina told them about the third years that might be leaving, which greatly disappoints Makoto as she references what she said yesterday when she said they still had Spring High. Just as they are all about to give up hope, the third years arrive and announce, to everyone’s happiness, that they are going to the Spring High.

Ukai soon arrives in the gym as well and holds a meeting. He tells Karasuno that they lost in a match of strength to Aoba Johsai but Shiratorizawa is the overall winner. Daichi announces that Karasuno has only gone to Nationals once, so he intends to get the team back on that court. Makoto thinks back to what she had said yesterday as well, smiling when Daichi announces Spring High will be the third year's last match. However, she acknowledges that the team won’t be able to win in its current state.

Suddenly, Takeda bursts in and immediately announce that they're going to Tokyo, shocking everyone.

## Statistics

 Stamina
 Game Sense
 Technique
 Speed

### Skills

 Setting
 Spike
 Technique
 Block

## Quotes

* *"Quit staring at your food like that like it's going to sprout legs run away like how Aoba Johsai ran away with the win in the game today! You may have lost this time, but that doesn't mean it's the end of the world! You still have Spring High, right?! So you have a second chance! Instead of moping your butts like you are going to die, think about how you can win against Aoba Johsai in the future!"* Makoto, to the Karasuno Volleyball Club in Chapter 69, Volume 8 / Episode 24, Season 2.

## Trivia

* Pre-timeskip concern: She can't cook eggs benedict properly.
* Post-timeskip concern: She still can't cook eggs benedict properly.
* Favorite food: Pork cutlet sandwich.
* Makoto used to mess up at making medium-boiled eggs until she was the age of 14.
* Her star sign is Gemini.
* The one-word description for her character arc is "Assist".
* During their second year, Makoto and Haruka's jersey numbers match because 4 is a multiple of 2.
* She watches *My Hero Academia* and *Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma* during her free time, and is her favorite anime.
	+ Her favorite character from *My Hero Academia* is Katsuki Bakugou because he reminds her of Haruka.
	+ Her favorite character from *Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma* is Megumi Tadokoro because of her hair color as it is similar to Makoto's.
* Nomenclature:
	+ Makoto (誠) - *Sincerity.*
	+ Koharu (心春) - *Heart Spring.*