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Shouko Komi (古見 硝子, Komi Shōko) is the titular main protagonist of the 2016 romantic comedy manga series Komi Can't Communicate and its 2021 anime adaptation.
She is a student at Itan Private High School, known for her beauty and gifted intellect. While she appears to be aloof, she is actually heavily shy and timid, and as a result, doesn't tend to speak a lot. She is the best friend-turn-girlfriend of Hitohito Tadano.
She is voiced by Aoi Koga in Japanese and Amber Lee Connors in English.
Appearance[]
Shouko is regarded by her admirers as an attractive teenage girl with a tall and slim figure. She has silky, waist-length, dark purple hair that is right-parted and flows to her lower back, along with a pair of slanted eyes that are of the same color. She has a pale fair skin and a slender body with an incredibly beautiful face. While her eyes are usually like this, often giving her a calm and dignified expression, there are instances where they become much bigger and rounder (usually whenever she’s surprised or anxious) and her mouth often disappears during these instances.
At school, she is seen wearing Itan’s uniform for female students; a white dress shirt underneath a dark blue blazer, alongside a burgundy red and dark blue striped bow tie and skirt. She wears tights and brown school shoes.
In her casual attire, she usually wears an outfit that Tadano picked out for her: a white, one piece dress with short sleeves and sandals.
Personality[]
While she maintains a very beautiful and dignified image, causing her classmates, teachers and outsiders to endlessly admire her to the point of blind worship. In reality, Komi is a shy, introverted and extremely anxious person. Komi is shown to have extreme social anxiety and cannot talk to others, when she tries, her voice trembles and she cannot get her words out - she has been like this ever since she was little. Despite this, while Komi cannot speak and struggles to get her words out and across to people, she does strongly desire to make friends and form relationships. She became friends with Tadano after he realized that she was bad at communicating with others and later gained her desire to make 100 friends, having started with him.
Outside of her anxiety and desire to make friends, Komi does prove to be a kind and good-natured person, as seen when she smiled to make a baby stop crying. Komi also chose to ask for Najimi’s number herself, not wanting Tadano to ask on her behalf, saying that he does enough for her. She even stood up to Ren Yamai when the latter had kidnapped Tadano, telling her (through writing) that she would choose her friends herself, showing some semblance of bravery. Later, she apologized to Tadano and inquired if it was alright for them to still be friends, as she saw herself as the reason why he was kidnapped and felt guilty for it.
Komi appears rather oblivious towards her school’s admiration towards her. A running gag in the show is many people gathering around her and being stunned by her beauty, including men, women and children. In some instances, this causes Komi to worry if she has does something wrong. Furthermore, while her words can interpreted by those with keen senses, she can sometimes come off as domineering and even frightening, and some people misunderstand her because of this. In truth, Komi if ever means any harm towards anyone, quite often, she concerns herself with others and has a deep empathetic side despite her own struggles.
Komi enjoys having fun with others despite her reserved demeanor. She enjoyed going down a water slide at the beach park with Tadano and wanted to go again. She has also been seen playing in the park while expressing a child-like enjoyment, albeit still remaining silent.
Background[]
Admired and put on a pedestal by her classmates Shouko Komi comes across as a cool and level-headed student and excels both in academics and sports. However, inside Shouko has crippling social anxiety, doesn't feel close to any her classmates and wants to change this. Hitohito Tadano, the main male protagonist who claims to be a normal average student who has the power the "read the atmosphere" is the only one who has noticed Komi's anxiety and confronted her regarding this. Komi disclosed that she wanted to make 100 friends and overcome her anxiety and befriends Tadano.
Though not mute, her anxiety causes her voice to tremble, and usually prefers to communicate by writing on her notebook.
The manga series revolves around Komi's journey in befriending her classmates and later her relationship with Tadano.
Etymology[]
- The name Shouko means "glass, pane" (硝子).
- Shouko's surname Komi means "old, antiquity, ancient time, used, secondhand" (古) (ko) and "see, hopes, chances, idea, opinion, look at, visible" (見) (mi).
Trivia[]
- Komi is similar to Kokomi Teruhashi from The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.:
- Both are considered the "goddess" of their schools respectively.
- They have friends with stereotypes and pun names, including the chunnibyou (Nakanaka and Kaidou), the glutton (Agari and Mera), the hot-headed athlete (Netsuno and Hairo), etc.
- The surname "Komi" closely resembles Teruhashi's first name as "Kokomi".
- Komi was born on Christmas Day.
- While Komi struggles to speak face to face with others, she can talk a little on the phone.
- Komi has knowledge of following the rules of ramen shops.
- Komi loves cats, especially black cats.
- Funnily enough, Komi sometimes sprouts cat ears on her head as a comedic effect.
- She has the same name like Shouko Nishimiya from the movie "A Silent Voice".
- She has the same sign language like Shouko Nishimiya.
- In Physical examination, Komi's vision is 1.5, her height is 168 cm, her weight is 48 kg, her sitting height is 85, grip strength is 24 kg, body flexibility is 52 cm, side-stepping is 48x, sit-ups is 22x, shot put with the handball is 26 m, 50 meter sprint is 6.89 seconds.
External sources[]
Komi Shouko in Komi san wiki
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 Heroes
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Shouko Komi | Hitohito Tadano | Najimi Osana | Shuuko Komi | Shousuke Komi | Masayoshi Komi | Himiko Agari | Nakanaka Omoharu| Nene Onemine| Kaede Otori| Makoto Katai| Akira Komi| Rumiko Manbagi| Naruse Shisuto| Ase Shibuki | ||