Shouko Komi (古こ見み 硝しょう子こ, Komi Shōko?) is the titular character of Komi Can't Communicate. She has a communication disorder and is bad at communicating with people. ADVERTISEMENT Appearance Shouko is described by her admirers as a girl with glossy dark purple/black hair that flows to her lower back, a slender body, and an incredibly beautiful face. She is usually seen wearing her school uniform with full length tights, her jacket fully buttoned up, and her skirt above her knees. Shouko is considered to be the most beautiful person at Itan, which constantly attracts attention from other students, and even strangers. ADVERTISEMENT Personality Outwardly, Shouko is a calm and composed individual, who excels in both academics and physical activities. In reality, she is a girl with extreme social anxiety. Whenever she tries to speak, she always stutters or freezes up in the process. She frequently overthinks her actions, worrying that her presence is a burden to those around her. To make things worse, others generally misinterpret her intentions as aloof or intimidating due to her intense visual presence and constant silence. She can be quite gullible as well, often taking things people say literally due to her lack of social experience. While her sharp gaze can make her appear intense, she is deeply perceptive of other people's feelings and tries her best to support them, even when she struggles to express it out loud. She also develops a strong romantic affection for Tadano as the series progresses, though her intense shyness causes her to get flustered and freeze up whenever her feelings for him resurface. Furthermore, her reluctance to speak extends to telephone calls and messaging, where the lack of face-to-face feedback initially amplifies her overthinking, though she eventually learns to express her genuine humor and warmth more freely through text. She begins taking small steps to speak out loud, slowly overcoming her fear of opening up to her growing group of friends. She also values every single friendship she forms deeply, taking her goal of making 100 friends very seriously and keeping careful track of everyone who accepts her. She also exhibits a surprisingly childish or playful side when relaxed, showing a strong fondness for cute animals—especially cats—and often becoming captivated by simple pleasures like arcade games, sweet foods, or seasonal festivals. Additionally, despite her shyness, she shows a surprisingly competitive side during school events like sports days and field trips, always striving to do her best for her class. ADVERTISEMENT History Though Shouko is regarded as the Madonna of her school, she is incapable of socializing with others to such a level that it can be called a communication disorder. She is unable to utter a word or sound in her daily life due to her crippling anxiety and fear of rejection by her peers. However, she dreams of overcoming this adversity and desires to build friendly relationships with others and make 100 friends. The first person in her school to realize she had an inability to communicate well was her fellow classmate Tadano Hitohito. Tadano decided to help her overcome her anxiety and make her dream of 100 friends a reality. He became her first friend and with his help, Shouko now attempts to socialize with and befriend the other students of her class. Shouko hardly talks with people. If she is forced to speak, she trembles like a vibrating phone. She usually carries a notebook and writing utensils to communicate with her friends. However, when she forgets them, she freezes up. ADVERTISEMENT Trivia Shouko placed 1st in the first popularity poll. Shouko adores cats, especially black cats.[12] In the one-shot, Shouko was able to speak more, but spoke in tons of words that Hitohito could not keep up with. According to Yamai, Shouko's legs are 84 cm in length, while her walking stride is 50 cm and the length of the nail of her index finger is the golden ratio, and she wears 80 denier tights. In Physical examination, Komi's vision is 1.5, her sitting height is 85, grip strength is 24 kg, body flexibility is 52 cm, side-stepping is 48x, sit-ups is 22x, shotput with handball is 26 m, 50 m sprint is 6.89s According to Ohai Shuki, Shouko’s estimated bust size is D-cup. Her name is a pun based on the phrase "Komi-shō" (コミュ症), which translates to "communication disorder" or extreme social anxiety. She is remarkably skilled at playing cho-han (a traditional Japanese dice game) and dice rolling, easily out-rolling Najimi during their trip. Despite her high physical agility, she is terrible at bowling, consistently dropping or rolling the ball extremely slowly due to overthinking her form. When visiting a ramen shop, she demonstrates a surprisingly detailed knowledge of traditional ramen counter etiquette and ordering rules, which impresses the shop owners. Shouko's plushie of choice is a giant stuffed cat named Noir, which she keeps in her room and holds when feeling lonely or anxious. On her very first attempt at taking a selfie using a smartphone, her hand shook so violently from nervousness that the entire photo ended up completely blurred. Hitohito Tadano (只ただ野の 仁ひと人ひと, Tadano Hitohito?) is the main character in Komi Can't Communicate. While appearing to be nothing but an ordinary teenage boy, he possesses exceptional observational skills which allow him to understand other people's feelings. He decided to help his classmate, Shouko Komi, who suffers from an extreme social anxiety, to achieve a goal of getting a hundred friends by the end of their high school years. Appearance Hitohito is often described as an ordinary student with normal looks and average height and weight. His style of clothing is also considered to be relatively typical. His only stand-out feature is the grey flower-shaped cowlick in his black hair which is styled in a way the most generic shoujo protagonist ever does his hair. He's got wide eyes with small black pupils. However, when he was forced to cross-dress during the Cultural Festival, Hitohito was admired implicitly by the boys and even Shouko. His cross-dressing incorporates a long-skirted maid dress with a light red wig styled in pigtails As a junior that was going through a chuunibyou phase (especially during his second-year), Hitohito wore slicked back hair, popped-up shirt collars, and t-shirts with Sanskrit characters written on them. Personality Hitohito is an exceptionally kind, observant, and empathetic individual. Following a painful rejection during his middle school chuunibyou phase, he made a conscious choice to blend into the background, aiming to be entirely average and avoid standing out. His defining trait is his uncanny ability to "read the room" and accurately interpret the feelings and non-verbal cues of those around him. This high emotional intelligence allows him to understand Shouko's thoughts and intentions despite her extreme social anxiety, making him the first person to truly recognize her communication disorder and offer his support. Despite his grounded nature, Hitohito often underestimates his own worth and remains modest to a fault. He is remarkably patient and selfless, frequently putting the needs and comfort of his classmates above his own. He also displays a remarkable lack of pride, willingly taking on thankless roles or embarrassing positions during class events—such as cross-dressing for the festival maid café—without holding a grudge, as long as it helps the class succeed. Additionally, his perceptive nature makes him surprisingly good at buying thoughtful gifts, as he pays close attention to small details about what people like. When pushed into the spotlight, he tends to get anxious and overthink his actions, desperately trying not to revert to his embarrassing chuunibyou habits. However, whenever someone else is distressed or outcast, his desire to help instantly overrides his self-consciousness, proving that his genuine empathy far outweighs his desire to just stay average. He acts as the "straight man" (tsukkomi) to the wildly bizarre personalities in his class, often reacting with internal commentary or bewildered expressions when things get out of hand. Despite being called "average" in almost every metric, his emotional intelligence (eq) is exceptionally high, allowing him to judge situations and defuse tensions before conflicts escalate. Furthermore, he harbors a subtle, dry sense of humor that mostly manifests in his internal monologues, showing he is far more observant and sharp-witted than he lets on to others. He also possesses an extraordinary amount of patience and tolerance, rarely ever losing his temper regardless of how absurd, pushy, or chaotic his classmates get. Even when treated unfairly or dragged into bizarre schemes by Najimi, he rolls with it without holding grudges. Additionally, his strong sense of modesty makes him uncomfortable with praise; whenever people acknowledge his exceptional emotional perceptiveness or kindness, he immediately downplays it, insisting he is just doing what anyone else would do. History Hitohito suffered from a chuunibyou phase in his second year of middle school. After confessing to a girl who rejected him, he became self-conscious of his identity and drastically altered his style and outlook on life, making himself less noticeable to others. Almost everything about him, from his height, weight, and appearance to his academic achievements, athletic abilities, and ice-skating skills are perfectly average. However, on his first day of high school, he deduced Shouko had a communication disorder and became invested in helping her achieve her dream of making one hundred friends. Despite his apparent lack of outstanding talents, Hitohito has been shown to be good at buying gifts. His special skill is reading the atmosphere; a talent he uses to keep himself out of trouble. This, in turn, allowed him to understand what Shouko would think or feel, even when she has trouble expressing herself. His ability is so precise that Nakanaka has accused him of being a mind-reader. Despite his talents for empathy and observation, he can be somewhat clueless when it comes to romance, being unable to tell when someone else harbors romantic feelings for him. Due to Hitohito’s seat originally being next to Shouko’s, many of his classmates initially held resentment and jealousy towards him. His friends and teachers are aware of his disposition, and often take advantage of him.