Shiroi Nagisa

Shiroi Nagisa

Nagisa is a young boy who falls head-over-heels in love with Hanon, despite the fact that she regards him about the same way that she would regard a cockroach that she found crawling in the bathtub. Hanon often declares (to anyone who will listen) that she only has taste for older men, after all. Nagisa is utterly sincere in his attempts to win Hanon's love, although his "romantic" stunts usually backfire, and end up only infuriating Hanon. Still, you have to give the poor boy some credit. He's literally willing to do anything, if he thinks that it will make Hanon like him.

It is not until chapter 25 of the manga, however, when Nagisa literally puts his life on the line in order to protect Hanon, that Hanon finally admits to herself that Nagisa might be "kind of cool." Finally, Hanon begins to see Nagisa more and more as an adult. However, Nagisa panics when he discovers that Hanon was once in love with her teacher, Mitsuki-sensei, and that the teacher even wrote a song just for Hanon. Nagisa eventually discovers that Hanon has received a letter from Mistuki-sensei, her "beloved." Nagisa drags Hanon out to the beach and, as they crouch on the sand in front of the waves, confesses his love to her. Then he immediately looks away and says, "But because I love you, I understand your feelings. You still love that guy who wrote that melody for you, don't you? I don't have any talent like that. My love is just an bother to you, so if you want me to, I'll give up--" Seeing how grown-up Nagisa is, Hanon starts crying. "If you really love me, why don't you try to make me forget about Sensei?" she asks him. It turns out that in Mitsuki's letter, all that he really wrote was words of encouragement to help Hanon move on with her life. Haven't you found someone with eyes only for you yet? Mitsuki wrote in his letter. Hanon confesses all of this to Nagisa, and Nagisa then promises: "I may be just a kid, but Hanon, I swear, I'll become a man that you can be proud of!"

On Christmas Eve, Hanon gives Nagisa a pair of tickets to a concert by Mitsuki-sensei, to be held in Japan next year. She tells Nagisa, "I want to introduce you properly to Sensei, as my boyfriend... I mean, it's already been half a year, and Sensei has become so famous, it'll be embarrassing if I couldn't even manage to get myself a boyfriend in that time..." Nagisa seems embarrassed, but Hanon smiles at him and says, "Don't worry! 'Cause you're the one that I love, you know." Blushing, Nagisa gives her an aqua-colored barette for her hair. As he puts the barret in her hair, Hanon realizes that Nagisa has grown taller than her. Finally, she kisses him.

The final chapters of the manga show Nagisa and Hanon happily hanging out, as boyfriend and girlfriend. Hanon realizes that she will have to leave Nagisa someday and return to the ocean - but she seems to have made peace with this fact. Nagisa, however, does not seem to understand that someday Hanon will leave him. The manga leaves this issue completely unresolved.

Name Notes: "Nagisa" means "beach". "Shiroi" sounds like the Japanese word shiroi ("white"), but is actually written with the characters for "white" and "well" (as in, a drinking well).