Naoka Ueno

Naoka Ueno (植野 直花, Ueno Naoka) is a character in the Koe no Katachi series. She was Shōya Ishida's classmate back in elementary school, and sat next to him. She used to be the closest female with Ishida, until she denied any part in helping Ishida bully Shōko Nishimiya.

Personality
Ueno is a rather blunt and straightforward person, being rude and frank to people she dislikes, especially to Shōko Nishimiya. Ueno, being the "traditional tsundere", has been shown to be somewhat dull and insensitive to many of the characters, although she admits to this. She is also known to be somewhat rash with her decisions and will resort to violence rather quickly, as shown in chapter 44 when Ueno assaults Shōko after her attempted suicide, which resulted in Shōya Ishida being injured.

She often shows remorse after these violent outbursts, and even admits to her actions, but is hesitant to change. Despite this, Ueno has shown a soft and sweet side toward the end of the manga, and can also become flustered relatively easily. It is also hinted more than once that she has a crush on Ishida, the main character and a childhood friend who assisted in the bullying of Shōko.

Toward the end of the manga, Ueno displays progress of changing her ways, attitude, and mindset toward others, and releases most of her tunnel vision views towards her friends and others around her. She later shows remorse for her earlier actions and apologizes to those such as Ishida, and attempts to with Shōko.

Physical appearance
Ueno is a pale-skinned teenage girl with straight mid-back length black hair with long bangs and dark purple eyes. She is normally seen in her school uniform: a traditional white and red sailor fuku uniform, along with a dark skirt and a tan school sweater. Ueno is also shown in her part-time job uniform, in which she wears glasses and ties up her hair as well as her bangs, making her unrecognizable to those who search for her in her workplace.

Volume 01

 * Chapter 01 — "Shōya Ishida"
 * Chapter 02 — "Just One of Those Things"
 * Chapter 03 — "Hahahahaha"

Volume 03

 * Chapter 18 — "I Don't Care in the Least"
 * Chapter 19 — "How a Cat Feels"
 * Chapter 20 — "Reason"
 * Chapter 21 — "Pretend Friends"
 * Chapter 22 — "I Want to Know"

Volume 04

 * Chapter 24 — "Change"
 * Chapter 25 — "Just My Imagination"
 * Chapter 26 — "Birds of a Feather"
 * Chapter 27 — "Hate"
 * Chapter 28 — "Reply"

Volume 05

 * Chapter 33 — "Big Friend 'N'"
 * Chapter 36 — "What I Wanted"
 * Chapter 37 — "Now and Forever"
 * Chapter 38 — "Jumping at Shadows"
 * Chapter 39 — "Just Some Passerby"
 * Chapter 41 — "Everyone"

Volume 06

 * Chapter 44 — "Blight"
 * Chapter 45 — "It Was All for Nothing?"
 * Chapter 46 — "Tomohiro Nagatsuka"
 * Chapter 47 — "Miyoko Sahara"
 * Chapter 48 — "Miki Kawai"
 * Chapter 49 — "Satoshi Mashiba"
 * Chapter 50 — "Naoka Ueno"

Volume 07

 * Chapter 57 — "Reunion"
 * Chapter 58 — "Results"
 * Chapter 59 — "The Future"
 * Chapter 61 — "Graduation"
 * Chapter 62 — "A Silent Voice"

History
Please Note: This section has spoilers for the anime and manga.

Love Interests

 * Shōya Ishida: Ueno used to be one of Ishida's friends before she, along with the rest of the class, denied any part in Nishimiya's bullying. She seemingly has a crush on him as well, being reduced to tears after discovering that he and Nishimiya were friends and assuming they were going out together. After meeting him in the streets a few years after Ishida's isolation, she approached him wearing cat ears and tail and blandly offered him a coupon for the diner she worked at. They seem to be recreating their lost friendship slowly and steadily.

Friends

 * Shōko Nishimiya: At first, Ueno was helpful and tried to talk with Nishimiya, up to the point where she apparently began to realize that she was slowing down the whole class and that they might lose a singing competition, given that she cannot hear and, therefore, cannot tell if her voice is off (which, coincidentally, happened to be when Shōya started to bully her). She ended up developing a deep dislike towards Nishimiya and joined in as one of her main tormentors, although she denied it when asked about this.


 * Miyoko Sahara: Ueno and Miyoko became friends after Miyoko told off two girls for harshly criticizing her drawings, stating that she'd "always admired her work". Their relationship had started off badly after Ueno called her a "hypocrite" for wanting to learn sign language, at which Miyoko stopped coming to school. When she started coming back is unknown.


 * Tomohiro Nagatsuka: Ueno and Nagatsuka met by mistake when he discovered a cat pillow given to him at the cafe Ueno worked at, a note, possibly destined for Ishida, claiming that she'd "always liked him. Nagatsuka went to meet her, which ended disastrously (Ueno practically mugging him for Ishida's email), Nagatsuka falsely claimed that he was there to test if Ueno was a good match with Ishida, and stated that he wouldn't want to be with someone who judged people by their looks. Over time, their relationship seemed to have improved, even though Nagatsuka still feels some fear upon seeing her. However, they don't converse very often which leaves this in question.

Etymology

 * The name Naoka means "fix, frankness, honesty, repair, straightaway" (直) (nao) and "flower, blossom" (花) (ka).
 * Naoka's surname Ueno means "to plant" (植) (ue) and "field, wilderness" (野) (no).