Akira Asai

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This page contains information that the anime adaptation hasn't covered yet. Read at your own risk.

Akira Asai
Profile
English	Akira Asai
Japanese	朝井アキラ
Rōmaji	Asai Akira
Characteristics
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Age	14 (Until chapter 198) 15 (Chapter 199) 17 (By Chapter 200)
Birthday	March 28 or May 3, 2002
Height	160 cm (5' 3")
Hair Color	Dark Brown
Eye Color	Amber
Status
Status	Active
Appearances
Manga Debut	Chapter 5 (Cameo) Chapter 6
Anime Debut	Episode 2
Portrayal
Japanese VA	Yumiri Hanamori
English VA	Jade Kelly Juilet Simmons (Young)

"He's like a little brother... He was always a loner who strayed away from everyone else during trips... That's why I figured... I had to watch him..."

―Akira Asai to Kyouko Mejiro^[src]

Akira Asai (朝 (アサ) 井 (イ) アキラ, Asai Akira^?) is a middle school student and a childhood friend of Kou Yamori and Mahiru Seki. A dedicated follower of authority, Akira does everything expected from a good student despite her utter lack of enthusiasm. Recently, Akira started to develop insomnia due to her life feeling unsatisfying because of her lack of human connection, both at school and at home, and started waking up at 4 AM and going to school early. After her friend was rejected when she confessed to Kou as per Akira's suggestion, Kou began skipping school to roam around at night. Not long after the first time, Akira came across him and met Nazuna Nanakusa, a vampire.

Appearance

Akira is a teenage girl with a voluptuous build. She has short hair whose coloration varies between black and dark brown. Her eyes have tiny pupils and no visible iris. While her eyes are usually colored black, they are also depicted as amber-colored. Akira has a noticeable upper bust, a feature acknowledged by several characters, and an angular face.

Outside, she usually wears a school uniform consisting of a long-sleeved white shirt, a striped tie, brown loafers, and a grey skirt. In addition, her uniform also features a grey blazer during the colder months. In PE class, Akira wears the school-issued dark-colored track jacket with sleeves that are white on the upper half, and black shorts. She also ties her hair in a ponytail during PE. At home, she is always shown wearing a sleeveless shirt and pajama shorts.

At one point she was put in a maid outfit, much to her embarrassment.

Gallery

Akira as a child.

Akira in a Maid outfit.

The cooler maid outfit on the cover of chapter 106.

Akira in PE class.

Akira in winter clothes.

Miscellaneous

Illustration of Akira by Haruka Sagawa.

Colored illustration by Kotoyama.

Kotoyama really likes to put his characters into maid outfits.

Personality

Akira is bored in school and feels estranged from her female peers.

Akira, despite not having fun at school, is a mature and disciplined student who obediently follows her school duties and takes her education serious. She is approachable and perceptive, and maintains a close relationship with her friends Kou Yamori and Mahiru Seki. As a little girl, she was lively and talkative but later became gloomy, blunt, and snarky. Reasons for that are her boring time at school, where she puts on an honor student facade and feels alienated from the girls as she used to spend her time with boys.

Akira spends most her time doing the same monotonous routine.

Another factor is her situation at home. She doesn't seem to have a good relationship with her family and does nothing but repeat the same daily routine. At one point, she "wasn't able to bring herself out anymore" and seems to suffer from depression. She gets grossed out when someone says something too positive, like Kou praising Mahiru or the latter talking about "liking someone." Recently, her lively side has resurfaced to some extent.

For the most part, Akira is a "by-the-book" person who rigorously follows school protocol and has a strict sleeping schedule that involves going to sleep at 8 PM and waking up as early as 4 AM so she can take a walk before going to school. Even if others perceive that as weird, Akira sees it as entirely normal. She also frequently encourages her friends to get sleep and focus on their education. When her friends are involved, however, Akira supports their lifestyles, even if they go against the norms of society, and is willing to get into trouble, particularly when their well-being is in danger. When around her peers, particularly Kou, Akira acts like a guardian figure, causing Michiko to give her nicknames like "Miss Guardian" and "Mom." Her friends often seek advice from her on how to handle their problems, making Akira a sort of counselor for them.

Akira is prone to embarrassment.

Akira has a relatively carefree attitude, quickly accepting the existence of vampires. While she's usually very cool-headed, she can also quickly feel overwhelmed by a situation and lose her cool, particularly if she feels scared or embarrassed. She has a strong suspicion of vampires and mostly wants to stay away from them, getting embarrassed, weirded out, and disgusted by their antics.

Akira moments after hitting Mahiru for embarassing her.

She can be hot-tempered and has no qualms about using physical violence against people close to her when irritated, like when she hits Mahiru for requesting her to summon Hanako-san and then hits him again for scaring her by imitating the ghost's voice, or when she wrestles Kou and Mahiru to the ground due to being frustrated by their lack of communication skills.

Even though Akira had no problem socializing, it quickly got boring for her until she met the two boys with whom she shared several traits, like her views on things, her inability to relate to other people, and, later on, her lack of happiness.

Relationships

Allies Kou Yamori - Classmate, Friend and Savior Mahiru Seki † - Former Classmate and Friend Sakura Asakura Nazuna Nanakusa - Savior Kyouko Mejiro Midori Kohakobe Azami - Former Kidnapper Susuki - Temporary Enemy

Enemies Michihisa Kanou † - Attempted Killer

Notable Relationships

Kou Yamori

Akira and Kou have been friends since they were children. She would frequently talk to him and try to have a conversation, with limited success because of Kou's limited social skills. Akira wondered whether Kou saw her as an actual friend since he had acted indifferent toward her in the past and was happy when he placed a walkie-talkie on her postbox, thinking that Kou tried to express his feelings this way, although Kou did it accidentally. Akira treasured that walkie-talkie and hoped for a call from Kou, though it never came. She has kept it with her for years after.

"EHHHH!! Why two?! You're really gonna get a bunch of stuff right at the beginning of the trip?!"

Because of their similarities, she feels connected with him and sees Kou as a little brother. She used to watch over him to ensure he didn't stray away from everyone else when they were little, and that hasn't changed much over time. Akira often acts like his older sister or guardian, who is very protective of Kou.

After entering 6th grade, they stopped seeing each other. After Kou left school, she was worried and wanted to call him to see how he was doing but never got to do it. When they met again, Akira felt relieved when she learned he was doing well and later asked Kou to return to school since it would be more fun with him around. She talks to him casually, including addressing him without honorific suffixes. At first, she called him "Yamori" but soon started to address him with "Kou." Akira is not afraid to call him out on his behavior, repeatedly questioning his intelligence.

Akira encourages Kou to follow his dream.

Despite often recommending and suggesting Kou to return to school, Akira doesn't mind the life Kou is living and wants to see him happy, being relieved to see that he has found meaning in his life after so long. She actively supports him on his journey to becoming a vampire despite not feeling comfortable around them and later almost getting killed by one. Akira wants to let Kou suck her blood once he becomes a vampire so he doesn't have to suffer and lose his mind through starvation.

After Kou becomes a half-vampire, Akira becomes somewhat scared of him because of his personality change. But despite that fact, the two are still close and care for each other a great deal. For example, while they are discussing matters regarding Mahiru's departure, Akira apologizes to Kou for unintentionally causing him to get harassed by Michiko and Saki.

Akira teases Kou in front of Michiko, Sakura, and Saki.

On the train ride to Hokkaido, Akira noticed vampire bitemarks on Kou's neck and decided to tease him in front of their travel group by implying that he did something lewd.

Mahiru Seki

She had known Mahiru since early childhood and could see that Mahiru's smile and cheerful attitude were fake, witnessing him being genuine for the first time when talking with Kou. Mahiru was the first of the two to have a proper conversation with Kou, which caused Akira to feel jealous of him. They would later become good friends because of their shared traits. Akira thought of Mahiru as intelligent and hung out with him frequently at school. She wanted him and Kou to make up after their fight, stating that they were unlikely to find friends like each other anytime soon. Despite all that happened, she was able to carry on a conversation with Mahiru but quickly became angry at him for asking her to deliver his farewell message to Kou, yelling at him to do it himself. She was fired up and determined to find Mahiru in Hokkaido.

Upon meeting Mahiru again, Akira was frustrated by the awkward nature of the friends' conversation and wrestled them both to the ground, yelling that they should be honest for once. After a while, Akira started to cry and said that she wanted the three of them to hang out together and drink alcohol as adults. She proposed to Mahiru that they spend the remaining time on the school trip with each other and watched him walk away with Kiku as he was about to become a vampire. She decided to stay and wait until he came back, breaking down in tears when Kou confirmed that Mahiru was dead.

Nazuna Nanakusa

Akira's first introduction to Nazuna was Nazuna spying on her and Kou as they met in a park, where she barged in and didn't hesitate to reveal sensitive information to Akira, like "only being interested in Kou's body", even insisting on it. Akira didn't mind Nazuna at first but quickly (and unintentionally) embarrassed her by mentioning Kou liking Nazuna romantically and was shocked when she sucked Kou's blood in front of her. Because of that and Nazuna's personality, Akira looked down on her and didn't try to hide it, calling her names to her face or within her earshot.

Despite being uncomfortable around her and having a hard time supporting it, Akira ended up approving of Kou's relationship with Nazuna as it turned out to be surprisingly wholesome.

Sakura Asakura

Akira and Sakura were not very close but talked to each other occasionally, with Akira being fond of her exceptionally kind personality and thinking of Sakura as cute-looking. She encouraged Sakura to ask Kou out, believing that Sakura would easily get a "yes." After Sakura got rejected and Kou harassed by other girls; as a result, Akira felt guilty, believing she hurt both of them. She wanted to apologize but thought an apology would only bother them more, and she could not move. After that, Akira found it difficult to talk to her, even if Sakura harbored no ill will. After Sakura asked her to be in the same school-trip group as her and Kou, Akira was baffled by how friendly Sakura was, commenting that she wants to go out with her.

Abilities

As a normal human, Akira doesn't possess any kind of supernatural ability.

Trivia

• Akira's room number is 503
• Despite normally being drawn with black eyes, Akira and Kou also got depicted with amber eyes by Kotoyama. In Akira's case, it was on the cover of chapter 131 and Volume 14.
• Akira's canonical hair color isn't fully established as her hair switches between brown and black in official material.
• Akira mentioned that, before sleeping with Kou and Nazuna in chapter 11/episode 4, she hadn't said "good night" to anyone in a while.
• Akira unwittingly set the whole plot in motion by advising Sakura to ask Kou out.
• So far, there have been four characters who commented on Akira's chest: Nazuna Nanakusa, Anko Uguisu, Midori Kohakobe, and Azami.

Quotes

• (To Nazuna) "Please shut up, monster."
• (To Kou) "Look, I don't care about who you fall in love with and who you go out with. I'll support you anyways. But man, if you go for this slutty monster, you're making this hard for me..."