Haruki Bandō

**Haruki Bandō** (Japanese 坂東晴希 *Bandō Haruki*) is one of the main protagonist of *Cheer Boys!!*. He is a first-year sociology student in Meishiin University and a member of the male cheerleading club, Breakers.

## Appearance

Haruki is a young man with brown hair, hazel eyes and his stature is one suited for the position of a flyer.

In his character profile, he is seen wearing a pale yellow shirt with black designs, an orange cardigan, grey trousers and white slip-on shoes with red details. However, he also wears a different number of outfits as well when attending his classes or is around the university campus.

## Personality

Haruki has a gentle and shy personality. However, he isn't afraid to stand up for his friends, even if it means he has to go out of his comfort zone in order to support them.

## Background

Haruki is the youngest son out of the Bandō family with his older sister being Haruko Bandō. As a child he used to take part in judo, which ran throughout the whole family, his sister would take part with him and so did his childhood friend, Kazuma Hashimoto.

However as time went on, Haruki broke his shoulder and he was hiding something else as well. While he was out of Judo (because of his injury) Haruki would cheer his older sister during her competition and be accompanied by Kazuma. One day, Kazuma took Haruki to show him cheerleading and told him that his cheer had strong power to it; from then on Kazuma began to bring him more and more into cheerleading and Haruki was actually interested. They started an all men's cheerleading team and gradually the membership increased.

Although his older sister didn't approve and began to shut him out, she began to fail her competitions and grew more and more upset over Haruki quitting judo for cheerleading. Eventually, he decided to speak to her and he then went as far as going back to her competition to cheer her on once again. After that, they managed to rebuild their bond and he gained full support from his sister once again.

## Plot

Haru is a young boy who has to carry the weight of his family traditions those his eyes look up to something else, something that his heart and mind has a passion for - Cheer leading. Throughout the series he has to carry the worry of what his sister thinks, then going on to avoiding her and almost completely cutting ties with her for a while.

He has the support of his friend, Kazuma Hashimoto, someone who's been with him since day 1. The two go through the struggle to find new members, who were quite a handful. He shows determination and works hard to overcome a few obstacles like being scared to smile and shout while eyes are looking directly at him, his fear of heights which he kept quiet for a while.

He's come so far from all of that and has traveled with his team to the nationals, they all see him as the "mother hen" of the group since he's the one who normally goes round during practice making sure everyone is safe.

## Interactions

### Kazuma Hashimoto

Kazuma is Haruki's childhood friend. Haruki befriended Kazuma when the latter transferred to his school when they were young. Haruki asked Kazuma to do judo with him when they were growing up and they had done things together ever since.

### Haruko Bandō

Haruko is Haruki's older sister whom he had always looked up to when they did judo and is extremely proud of how cool she is. However, they do not share the same passion for judo, and their relationship became a bit strained when he persisted to help Kazuma Hashimoto with forming the all-male cheerleading club.

## Etymology

* The name **Haruki** means "clear weather" (晴) (**haru**) and "hope" (希) (**ki**).
* Haruki's surname **Bandō** means "slope, hill" (坂) (**ban**) and "east" (東) (**dō**).

## Trivia

* Other notable characters Yūki Yonai (Haruki's seiyū) has voiced include:
	+ Nazuna Nito from *Ensemble Stars!*
	+ Tarō Nekota from *Kyōkai No Rinne*