Kouichi Sakakibara

Kouichi Sakakibara is one of the main protagonists of Another. He is the new transfer student to Yomiyama North Middle School's 9th Grade Class 3(in May, 1998). He is 15 years old and the only son in the Sakakibara family. His mother supposedly passed away 15 years ago after giving birth to him.

Personality
He has a very curious personality and is determined to find out what happened 26 years before the main storyline. He and Mei became friends in later episodes, after the class decided to treat Kouichi as if he doesn't exist as well. He used to love running,the thing he had to forget after he got Pneumothorax.

Appearance
In the anime,he is a young boy with short brown hair and brown eyes while in the manga he has black hair and black eyes. He wears Yomiyama Middle's school uniform most of the time.

Plot
Kouchi is first seen in the hospital when his lungs collapsed. He is visited by Yukari, Izumi and Kazami, who begin to ask him strange questions, like if he ever lived in Yomiyama, something he says he hasn't done. At the hospital, he also meets Mei in the hospital's elevator and she tells him that her poor 'other self' is waiting for her in the morgue. When he is discharged, he finally gets to go to school and meets the rest of the class. Later at P.E, Kouichi first meets Takabayashi who he tells to stay strong and to not let his heart conditions hold him back and that he'll be able to run again. After he asks Yukari where Misaki was, and she acts as if she doesn't know what he's talking about but he sees her untop of the roof and runs up to meet her. He asks her some questions, but she rejects them saying that she hated being questioned. She turns around and tells him good-bye. In later episodes, Kouichi asks around the class for info in the class' curse but no one was willing to tell him. He witnesses the death of Yukari while he heard the elevator crash through his cell phone, resulting in Sanae's death and Takabayashi having a heart attack. He receives no answer until Yuuya tells him to let Mei explain everything. So he goes to Studio M (her house) and she explains why they were being ignored by the rest of the class. They're relationship develops after that, even leading Kouichi to fantasize about dancing in front of the class with Mei. Later on, they go to the library to look at the class year book, when they encounter Chibiki, who tells them more on the class' curse. At home, Kouichi tries to ask his family for info on the curse, but ends up empty handed. The next day, their homeroom teacher ends up coming to school with a knife.

Mei Misaki
He feels very strange about her. He felt strange because of the class treating her as she "doesn't exist". He met her at the hospital during his last day at hospital. When he finally enters school, he saw Mei sitting alone with no one to talk with and her desk are old than the others. Everytime he sees her, he will go to her place and ask questions. Even though Mei and his other classmates warned him not to get near Mei Misaki, he still hesitates and went to see her everytime he sees Mei. He also seems to be very concern about her. At chapter 10, he slightly blushed when he saw Mei which confuses her.

Trivia

 * In the manga, when Reiko ask him about the club he is joining in his previous school, he replied by saying 'Cooking Club'. It is because of his father who can't cook, he has to cook for his family.