Akira Okudaira

Akira is optimistic and supportive, always comforting those who need her and searching for ways to solve other people’s problems, despite knowing that it would be best not to get involved. She is easily embarrassed but is not shy or reserved, often taking a more aggressive stance against situations. She dislikes seeing people hurt and in her own little ways, tries to avert and avoid potential distress for others.

She saves Fumi from a pervert on the train ride to school on their first day of high school. She walks a little way with the tall girl, and finds her to be elegant and gentle and wonders if she will ever see her again. She later expresses shock when it turns out that the girl she saved was none other than her childhood friend. Her mother and Fumi’s mother are good friends, and so their relationship is rekindled after Manjoume Yoshie visits Okudaira Shouko, bringing Fumi along with her.

Growing up, Akira used to be taller than Fumi thus played the role of her protector and saviour as children (however, as Ah-chan notes, Fumi has got taller but still needs someone to look after her). She is seen neglecting others and herself whenever Fumi needed her.

Akira attends Fujigaya Girls’ Academy, which is an elite elevator school (meaning that she had taken an entrance exam to be accepted to the high school). She finds herself, despite her upbeat and open personality, a little alienated amongst the long-time students who had also attended the Academy’s elementary and middle schools. This feeling soon dissipates when she meets Ikumi Kyouko who becomes her first friend at Fujigaya. Kyouko eventually becomes her closest friend at school.

Akira joins the prestigious and renowned Drama Club as a stagehand. In her second year of high school, she lands a role in the school’s production of The Deer Cry Pavillion.

Despite looking and acting childish, Akira has a deep understanding and acceptance of people. She is very astute to people’s feelings, figuring out things about them without being told directly. This is clearly illustrated when she realises that Kyouko may have romantic interests in other girls, and when Fumi comes out of the closet to her. She even goes so far as to reprimand Yasuko for hurting Fumi. She feels completely helpless and depressed when she realises that the bumps in Fumi’s love life are the things she can’t protect Fumi from.

She has an annoying, overprotective brother named Shinobu who tries to insert himself into all aspects of her social life, which includes dropping her to school on mornings and going with her to a mixer to keep boys away.

Despite catching the interests of Sawanoi Kou (Kyouko’s cousin) and being invited to group dates, Akira says that she is not entirely ready for dating and claims that she does not truly comprehend what romantic love is or what one is supposed to feel or do when it comes to relationships; she wonders if she is immature and needs to grow up, but her own love life seems largely unimportant to her. Most of her concerns seem to be about her friends and helping them when they need her.