Haruka Sakura

Appearance

Sakura is a teenager of average height and weight. His hair is naturally split in color - half black, half white - and he has heterochromia, with his right eye color blue and his left color yellow. He is commonly seen wearing the standard Furin High uniform consisting of a plain white t-shirt underneath his gakuran jacket, dark green pants, and a pair of black sneakers.

Personality

Sakura is reactive, determined, and perceptive. As a result of his unusual appearance, he is used to being judged and ostracized by others, which contributed to his aloof demeanor and delinquent persona. Sakura's standoffish behavior is shown to be a defense mechanism that he adopted in response to the discrimination he continuously faced in childhood due to his "unusual" appearance. He also shows to have strong and clear morals on who and why he fights. He has an aggressive manner of speaking, but when not brawling, he keeps to himself. He is much more comfortable fighting his way out of situations, as any other kind of positive interaction leaves him flustered. He is depicted as a "tsundere" throughout the series who has a hard time accepting any sort of affection. Sakura becomes uncomfortable and flustered when people show him kindness or acceptance, and despite his tendency to get involved in affairs that result in helping others, he is not good at dealing with gratitude. Even with his social ineptitude, Sakura is extremely sensitive to romance when it involves those around him and often gets extremley embarassed or flustered when he senses any form of romantic interaction or interprets something to be romantic. He is also terrified of forming bonds, and he lacks confidence in anything besides his fighting abilities as he thinks that his entire worth lays on them. After learning that Bofurin uses its strength to protect the town and that delinquents are an important part of Makochi's community, Sakura starts to warm up to this idea and later finds himself viewing his fellow students as comrades rather than adversaries. He turns BRIGHT RED whenever he senses anything REMOTELY romantic happening around him.

Relationships

Hajime Umemiya: Sakura initially views Umemiya as the ultimate opponent he must defeat in order to become Furin High School's strongest fighter and secure his position at the top.[5] When Sakura comes to meet Umemiya face-to-face for the first time, he is shocked at Umemiya's carefree attitude and is at first puzzled as he wonders how someone so childish can manage to command such respect and lead a team like Bofurin.[6] Sakura soon finds that Umemiya's presence is such that he can't help but feel safe even to the point of his body physically relaxing when he is around Umemiya.[6] With this realization, he begins to understand why people are drawn to Umemiya as a leader.[6] Sakura comes to respect Umemiya as someone who is both powerful[6]and insightful, with Sakura even beginning to taking Umemiya's encouragement and mentorship to heart after their fight with Shishitoren.

Relationships

Kotoha Tachibana: Kotoha was the first person that Sakura met and talked to in-depth after his arrival to the town of Makochi. Sakura is initially very off-put by her kind, friendly way of interacting with him because of his previous experiences of being socially ostracized.[5] She understands and speaks honestly to Sakura about his emotional isolation, and encourages him allow himself to try connecting and forging friendships with the members of Bofurin and the people of Makochi.[5]Sakura becomes a regular at the cafe Kotoha works at, having breakfast there frequently enough that the other first-years even tease him about it.[8] As Sakura steps into his new role as the first-years' Grade Captain and faces difficult battles and obstacles, Kotoha continues to encourage Sakura to trust and rely on others, as well as to take care of himself.[9] Although Kotoha often teases Sakura about his self-reliant attitude and his tendency to get easily overwhelmed by positive emotional interactions,[5] she does show genuine care and concern for him even to the point of bringing him home-made food when he gets sick.[9] Sakura typically gets visibly emotionally flustered and confused at her friendship and seems very reluctant to accept her help, but he nonetheless does take her advice seriously and makes conscious effort to develop himself emotionally to become both a better leader and friend. Toma Hiragi: Toma is a more responsible third year and Umemiya’s right hand man, he gets stress related chronic stomach aches and tends to have ti babysit the first years, especially Sakura’s group. he is the leader of Bofurin's Vaisravana Unit, which Sakura is a part of, and one of the heavenly kings of Bofurin.

Relationships

Akihiko Nirei: Sakura's first impression of Nirei is that he is someone who is flashy with his looks, but not actually strong physically or otherwise.[11] Sakura soon realizes that he may have misjudged Nirei after seeing him stand up to a group of men harassing a woman despite lacking fighting skills and getting beat up in the process.[11]Sakura saves Nirei and the woman Nirei was trying to protect, and afterwards reluctantly encourages Nirei, admitting to him that he doesn't believe that Nirei is as pathetic as he feels after being unable to fight the group of men off on his own.[11] With this affirmation from Sakura, Nirei then offers his knowledge of the people in Bofurin and the town of Makochi as a way of helping Sakura achieve his goal of getting to the top of Bofurin.[11] Despite their difference in personalities the two get along very well, and when Sakura is chosen as the First-Year Grade Captain, Nirei becomes one of his two Vice-Captains alongside Suo. Kyotaro Sugishita: Him and Sakura fight a lot, they are practically rivals but have each other back when it counts. He tends to throw things (like desks and chairs) at Sakura when he pissed him off. He’s often quiet, hardly ever speaks, but practically worships Umemiya the way he looks up to him. Jo Togame: Sakura and Togame disliked each other immediately after meeting when Sakura criticized how Togame treated his team members. After fighting, Togame changed his views and the two show no animosity toward the other, with Sakura even going out of his way to ask Togame for help and Togame agreeing without any apparent hesitation. Taiga Tsugeura: an idiotic muscle head who’s loud and has an obsession with fitness and people’s “virtues”. He is basically a big ass toddler/puppy like man.

Relationships

Hayato Suo: Suo was the first Furin student (outside of Nire) to greet Sakura, seeming interested in his reasoning for coming to Furin.  Although finding him foolish for boldly claiming he was going to take over the school, he was kind enough to warn him about Sugishita and even reacted with an excited expression when Sakura landed a hit on him. During the Shishitoren Arc, he admits his feelings to Sakura about how had originally thought poorly of him, but admits he’s “pretty cool” and has a solid core in both words and actions. Sakura is originally hesitant when Umemiya calls Suo a “kind kid”, finding his expression unbefitting, even going as far as to say he has a “rotten, garbage personality”, and being able to sense he isn’t taking the fight against Minoru seriously- wondering what it would take for him to fight for real. They seem to inspire a lot of feelings, both positive and negative, in eachother- such as Suo’s “emotional” side coming out in response to Sakura. As captain and vice-captain, Suo trusts Sakura, and Sakura wants to and actively tries to place the same trust in Suo, being one of the first people Sakura ever called by name. They fight well as a team, with Suo staying on the defensive side while Sakura goes on the offensive, but if they are both on the offensive neither are too concerned with protecting the other, acknowledging each other's strength and ability to handle themselves. Sakura is Suo’s biggest target for teasing, as he is incredibly gullible and will fall for mostly everything he says. Despite this, Sakura believes he’s a great person, and is visibly distressed when Suo approaches him after he ‘failed’. He doesn’t want Suo to suffer, and is someone he cherishes and doesn’t want to leave behind. Suo is someone Sakura cares about deeply, mentioning him by name when worrying if admitting his weaknesses would drive everyone away.

Relationships

Mitsuki Kiryu: Kiryu is a very calm and gentle young man, always displaying a slight smile. He, seemingly, never gets angry. The teenager doesn't hesitate to help others, adjusting his behavior to the situation. Kiryu can't stand those that underestimate and mistreat girls, and finds traditional gender roles antiquated. He's pretty close to his phone, and is a pretty assertive person. Above all, he hates outdated ways of thinking. He tends to pick on and poke fun at Sakura, enjoying his friend’s irritation or embarrassment. Ren Kaji: Sakura initially has a negative impression of Kaji after he yelled at Sakura for taking a long time to accept his position of grade captain, even deciding for Sakura. Later, Kaji reveals struggled with the same fears and difficulties as Sakura when starting as grade captain, eventually advising Sakura to accept help from the others and to stop acting alone because he fears rejection. Tasuku Tsubakino: Sakura respects Tsubakino as one of Bofurin's heavenly kings and does not judge them. Tsubakino in turn is kind to Sakura and considers Sakura a reliable underclassman. Yamato Endo: Endo intially gains interest in Sakura at the end of the Roppo-Ichiza Arc. When they fight in the Noroshi War Arc, Endo develops even more liking to Sakura, eventually deciding on taking him, promising to leave the town alone and retreat if Sakura followed him. However, in the last few seconds of their fight, he realised there was no way he would be able to beat Sakura and admitted defeat, still obsessing over him.

Trivia

Stuffs change straight into his pockets. He hates hats and sunglasses. He insists that he doesn’t really have a preference, but when asked, he says he likes sporty styles. He can tell the different tastes in water(?). Doesn’t use a cover for his phone. Apparently… He only knows how to put this one outfit together. (A white shirt, a pair of slim-fit pants, and a mountain jacket as outerwear.) Apparently likes “high-tech sneakers” and slim-fit pants. Plain shirts, white shirts… Apparently has the same 5 shirts. (Likes it simple!)