Yukari Sakuragi

"Don't ever mention that name in Class 3 again!"

- Yukari yells at Kouichi for breaking one of class 3-3's rules.

Yukari Sakuragi was one of the class officers, the other being Kazami, of Yomiyama North Middle School's 9th Grade Class 3 in 1998.

Personality
Sakuragi is shown to have a shy and warm personality. She is also quiet and kind. When Kouichi first asks her about Mei, she momentarily becomes horrified before claiming not to know anything about her and not even knowing who she is, and warning Kouichi to never mention Mei's name. She is best friends with Izumi Akazawa, although it is shown more in the manga.



Appearance
Her appearance between the manga and anime is markedly different.

In the anime, she has short, curly brown hair partially tied back with a small ribbon, and her eyes are brown.

In the manga, she has straight black hair and black eyes. Her glasses are also different: while they have round lenses in the anime, in the manga they are elliptical. In both versions she wears the typical female school uniform.

Story
In "Rough Sketch", she went to visit Kouichi when he was sick in the hospital, alongside Izumi Akazawa and Tomohiko Kazami, as part of her duties as female class representative. At some point she injured her leg, which forced her to sit out PE with Kouichi. She explained certain aspects of the class to him, but reacted fearfully when Kouichi mentioned Mei's name, shouting at him in anger. However, she was often friendly (bordering on flirtatious) toward him, and the two walk home together in the rain at one point at the end of "Bone Work" and share a bonding moment.



Unfortunately, tragedy struck soon thereafter. One of her male relatives arrived at school to inform Yukari her mother had been killed in a car accident, taking her out of class so she could pay her respects. A distraught Yukari fled, only to see Mei and Kouichi standing near the stairwell and talking. Realizing her mother had been killed as a result of the curse and fearing being close to Mei would cause her to follow suit, Yukari panicked and fled in the opposite direction, a confused and concerned Kouichi in tow. Yukari rushed down the stairs, but tripped and dropped her umbrella, impaling herself on its tip. Kouichi watched in horror as her body twitched for a few seconds before dying.

One week later, a memento of flowers was left at the place where she fell.



Later, in "Body Paint", Yukari appeared in Kouichi's guilt driven dream, standing with her freshly bloodstained umbrella at the place where she died, her face covered in blood, while blaming Kouichi for her death, suggesting Kouichi blamed himself. Later on, Tomohiko Kazami said much the same thing, blaming Kouichi and nearly killing Kouichi in fury. Izumi arrived and killed Tomohiko instead, coldly telling him he could keep Yukari company.

Quotes

 * "It's your fault."-Kouichi's nightmare version of Yukari blames him for her death.

Overall
A memorial bouquet was left at the spot Yukari died by her classmates, suggesting she was well loved by her peers, and deeply missed. She also had close ties to many of her classmates, including:



Izumi Akazawa
Yukari and Izumi were shown to be good friends, and in the manga a picture of the two of them is shown on Izumi's desk. In a later chapter, Izumi was seen in her room, crying for Yukari to save her as she does not want to die.

Tomohiko Kazami
It is hinted in Episode 12 that Kazami may have had feelings for Yukari - while Kazami pursues Kouichi, trying to kill him, he yells that it was his fault Yukari was killed. However, this is all that's hinted about it, since nothing other than a relationship between classmates was shown between the two of them while Yukari was still alive.

Kouichi Sakakibara
She seemed fond of Kouichi, flirting with him at one point when both were sitting out PE, asking him what sorts of girls he was interested in. Yukari offered to walk home with him in the rain since she has an umbrella and they share a bonding moment. The only time she ever raised her voice in anger was when she scolded Kouichi for mentioning Mei's name. This was one of the first clues to Kouichi that Class 3 was not as it seemed. Kouichi was troubled by her death, wondering if she'd still be alive if she'd taken the stairwell nearest him. Kouichi blamed himself for her death, as evidenced by her presence in his nightmare, where the Ghost Yukari accused him of killing her. The real Yukari wouldn't have done so.

Mei Misaki
She doesn't seem to mention any like or dislike for her. However she does her best to play along with the other students, pretending she didn't exist. However it shows that the pressure was getting to her as she freaks out on Kouichi for mentioning Misaki's name. It wasn't until prior to her death, that Yukari had a reaction to Misaki. Upon finding out her mother died, Yukari was rushing to the nearest staircase. When she seen Kouichi with Mei, she reacted in sheer terror and ran for the staircase that was further away from them. This in turn caused her horrible death.

Galley
Main article: Yukari Sakuragi/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * She is ranked A+ in Another character ranking.
 * Her home address is 6-20 Tobiicho Yomiyama City.
 * Her first name, Yukari, means "affinity" while her last name, Sakuragi, means "cherry tree."
 * Because she died in Episode 3, she didn't appear in the opening of Episode 4. Despite this, she still appears in the ending of every episode, as do other deceased characters.
 * In the novel, her death is one of the most detailed.
 * Yukari died on May 26th.