Neku Sakuraba

**Neku Sakuraba** (桜庭 音操, *Sakuraba Neku*) is the main protagonist and playable character of *The World Ends with You*.

In *The World Ends with You*, though born and raised in Shibuya, Japan, Neku wakes up one day unable to remember anything about himself except his name. He soon finds that he has been thrust into a contest known as the Reapers' Game where he must cooperate with another player named Shiki Misaki in order to survive its seven days. In overcoming the challenges he is presented with, Neku discovers a new world.

## Appearance

Neku is a short and slender teenager with spiky orange hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.

In *The World Ends with You*, Neku wears a sleeveless black shirt with a funnel-like collar and an indigo stripe outlined with gold going down the middle, a yellow sweatband on his left wrist, and white shorts held up by a loose-fitting belt. His shoes are black with an indigo stripe outlined in gold, similar to the style of his shirt. Neku is always seen wearing his signature indigo wireless headphones on his head and his white MP3 player around his neck. It is noticeable that his shirt is a Dharma, his shorts are an Inazuma, and his headphones are the "My Phones" threads. He seems fond of the Jupiter of the Monkey brand as it tends to give him stat bonuses and abilities.

## Personality

At first, Neku is introverted and unsociable with a dislike of humanity to the point where he is arguably a misanthrope. Neku also often makes a lot of rude sarcastic snarky comments, although he has some decency not to verbalize all of his thoughts out loud. Neku dislikes Shibuya, viewing it as an overpopulated noisy place, wondering why a town needs so many people in it. He has a hatred for loud and noisy people especially; he wears headphones to block the sounds of noisy people out and also presumably so other people will approach him less.

Mentioning that he "doesn't get people," Neku usually dislikes interacting with others, feeling that people and friends only drag him down. Neku sees society and dealing with people as an annoyance that often tries to force its values on him, pesters him, and expects him to do things he does not want to do. and his ideal world is one where he is left alone. Apart from the Reapers' Game, Neku enjoys the idea of the Underground, being thankful he is in a place where no one sees him, bothers hm, or expects anything from him. In *The Animation*, after winning the game, Neku mentions that he is not really sure if he wants to come back to life.

Neku views friends as unnecessary burdens and has no friends in the beginning of the game, viewing friendship as self-interested people putting on facades and pretending to agree with each other, eventually resulting in one or both parties getting hurt sooner or later. It is implied that his personality is the result of being traumatized by losing his only friend before their death, possibly with some betrayal.

Neku admires the designer CAT for their motto expressing the self-freedom of, "do what you want, how you want, when you want." Neku likes it because it encourages him to have control over his life instead of following society's expectations for him. Neku enjoys CAT's artistic graffiti and his favorite spot in Shibuya is a CAT mural in Udagawa. Although Neku does not have a lot of known hobbies, it is suggested he also likes music. His tastes in food implies he prefers more traditional Japanese food like ramen and rice balls, and curiously, rare mushrooms. He apparently despises muffins.

Despite his negativity, Neku is a clever, imaginative and insightful individual. His quick thinking and flexibility aid him tremendously in adapting to the numerous and uncanny challenges presented by the Reapers' Game and his imagination awards him a frightening aptitude for psychs. Additionally, his insights allow him to encourage his partners to be at their best on multiple occasions (albeit using fairly rough vocabulary). Neku either has an extraordinary memory or is very intelligent, as on Day Two of Week Two he was able to give Joshua the square root of 3 up to the 7th decimal point. He also knew the periodic symbol for gold.

Though he initially alienates his later-to-be friends, Neku slowly softens and loses his abrasive personality as the Reapers' Game forces him to listen to everybody around him. He becomes more open and trusting as he gets to know Shiki Misaki, Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu, Daisukenojo "Beat" Bito, Raimu "Rhyme" Bito, and Sanae Hanekoma, among others. By the end of his time in the Underground, Neku begins to develop compassion for and the ability to empathize with others better.

In the end, he has shown to have grown from being a selfish, unthoughtful loner into a compassionate, selfless and caring young man. However, this does not necessarily mean Neku likes humanity in general because the player is asked by Megumi Kitaniji if he does, and the player is free to answer either way, resulting in ambiguity in Neku's characterization. Regardless, Neku sees the value in listening to people and not shutting everyone else out. Additionally, Neku has shown to be quite merciful, as he was able to remain friends Joshua and become friends with Coco when their actions, although well-intentioned, resulted in three years of his life being trapped in the void remains of Shinjuku.

In *Another Day*, Neku is much more optimistic compared to his "main" counterpart, stating his love for Shibuya and praying to the Lord for a great day. He still has what he calls "emo urges" however. This causes him to be slightly distant from others but still enjoy the company to an extent. Neku is show to still be very fond of Mr. Hanekoma and desires to help him out in his shop. He is also huge fan and skillful player of Tin Pin, capable of defeating its creators.