Kouichi Sakakibara

"Will you kill your own classmate?"

- Kouichi Sakakibara

Kouichi Sakakibara is one of the main protagonists of Another. He is a new transfer student to Yomiyama North Middle School's 9th Grade Class 3 (in May, 1998). He is 15 years old and is 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, something he was forced to give up after being diagnosed with 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. For his casual clothes, he always wears two layers of clothing, consisting of a shirt and t-shirt.

Plot
Kouichi 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, she acts as if she doesn't know what he's talking about, but he sees her on top 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 about the class' curse, but no one was willing to tell him. He witnesses the death of Yukari while he hears 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. This leads him to visit Studio M (Mei's house) and she explains why they were being ignored by the rest of the class. Their 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 about 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. He ends up stabbing himself in front of everyone, and Teshigawara tells the others to meet up at the resturant to discuss something. There, they meet Mochizuki's sister, who tells them that it had a man named Matsunaga, who stopped the calamity before, however he can't remember anything. Afterwards, Kouichi tells Mei about what they found out and Mei tells him that he shouldn't worry, because he isn't the one that is dead. They go to the beach to find Matsunaga, and decide to relax until he returns. He meets Mei and they talk about her family, and their hands touch. After, they go for different ingrediants to eat. Mei asks Kouichi about the different sea foods she picks up, most of which aren't edible. She then finds a squid, which latches onto her, and she tells Kouichi to take it off, afraid that it might eat her. After, they meet with Matsunaga, wo tells them that though he can't remember much, he thinks someone died on the mountain when they went to the shrine. Suddenly, a strong wind blew the ball they were playing volley ball with out into the ocean. Nakao says that he'll go and get it, but drowns. Kouichi and Matsunaga go to save him, but can't because a boat comes out from behind the mountain. Kouichi watches in uttter horror as the boat hits Nakao, cutting him up and sending him flying. Kouichi, still horrorfied, looks at Matsunaga, who remembers where he hid it, in the classroom.

Kouichi went in the class trip. He took Mei's side when Izumi blamed her for the deaths along with Tenshigawara and Mochizuki. Mei invites him in her room to show her the graduation photo of 1972, where appears Yomiyama Misaki. Kouichi said that he found that photo in a room Reiko usually used.

After Kouichi recognized the dead guy, Mei tells him about her cousin who is actually her twin sister, Misaki Fujioka, and all the story behind this and her puppet eye, that can see the color of the death in all the people, Kouichi asks Mei who's the dead person, and when Mei was about to say the name, suddenly Teshigawara opens the door with a terrified look, saying that he had done something terrible.

Mei Misaki
He feels very strange about her because of the class treating her as though she "doesn't exist". He met her the alley in the hospital during his last day hospitalised. When he finally enters school, he sees Mei sitting alone with no one to talk with, and her desk is far older than the others. Everytime he sees her, he goes to her place and asks questions. Even though Mei and his other classmates warned him to stay away from Mei Misaki, he still hesitates and decides to visit her everytime he sees her. He also seems to be very concerned about her. In chapter 10, he slightly blushed when he saw Mei, which confuses her.

In the anime, during episode 6, Kouichi daydreamed about dancing in the classroom with Mei, and seemed embarrased when he snapped out of the daydream, even telling himself that he had to stop doing that, perhaps indicating that he is slowly developing some kind of feelings for her. At the beach in episode 8, he is the first one to notice Mei is there, and he goes over her and helps her to re-build what seems to be a sand-castle. It is this scene which seems to show that they have a good friendship.

Trivia

 * In the manga, when Reiko asked him about the club he was joining in his previous school, he replied by saying 'Cooking Club'. Because of his father who can't cook, he has to cook for his family.
 * He is ranked A+ in Another character ranking.
 * His home address is 5-1 Furuikecho Yomiyama City.
 * In the original novel, Kouichi was a target of bullying at his previous school in Tokyo due to his last name "Sakakibara" being the same as a real life middle school murderer from Kobe. On the other hand, he shows a slight cruelness to Mochizuki.
 * In Chapter 16 (Anime Episode 10), it wasn't Daisuke who suddenly fell sick, but him. When Izumi was arguing with Mei, blaming him and Kouichi for all that had happened, Kouichi tried to protect Mei but he suddenly collapsed.