Character

Naoka Ueno

植野直花

Naoka Ueno is a character in the Koe no Katachi series. She was Shouya Ishida's classmate back in elementary school, and sat next to him. She used to be the closest female with Ishida, until she denied any part in helping Ishida bully Shouko Nishimiya. Ueno is a pale-skinned teenage girl with straight mid-back length dark hair that has long fringes that reaches the bridges of her nose and black-purple eyes. She is normally seen in her school uniform: a traditional white and red sailor fuku uniform, along with a dark skirt and a tan school sweater. Ueno is also shown in her part-time job uniform, in which she wears glasses and ties up her hair as well as her bangs, making her unrecognizable to those who search for her in her workplace. Ueno is a rather blunt and straightforward person, being rude and frank to people she dislikes, especially to Shouko Nishimiya. Ueno, being the "traditional tsundere", has been shown to be somewhat dull and insensitive to many of the characters, although she admits to this. She is also known to be somewhat rash with her decisions and will resort to violence rather quickly, as shown in chapter 44 when Ueno assaults Shouko after her attempted suicide, which resulted in Shouya Ishida being injured. She often shows remorse after these violent outbursts, and even admits to her actions, but is hesitant to change. Despite this, Ueno has shown a soft and sweet side toward the end of the manga, and can also become flustered relatively easily. It is also hinted more than once that she has a crush on Ishida, the main character and a childhood friend who assisted in the bullying of Shouko. Toward the end of the manga, Ueno displays progress of changing her ways, attitude, and mindset toward others, and releases most of her tunnel vision views towards her friends and others around her. She later shows remorse for her earlier actions and apologizes to those such as Ishida, and attempts to with Shouko.