Shōko Nishimiya

Shōko Nishimiya is the female protagonist of the Koe no Katachi series. While Shōko may not be completely deaf (given the hearing aids she possesses in both ears), her hearing loss is drastic enough to the point that she can be considered clinically deaf. Despite this, it has been shown that though she cannot clearly understand individual words, she can hear various pitches of tones in the voices of other people. Also as stated in Chapter 21, Nishimiya is observed to only wear one hearing aid. This may be a repercussion of Ishida's act of pulling out her other hearing aid, and permanently damaging her ear in Chapter 03. As a child, Shōko kept her hair in a style somewhat reminiscent of a bob cut except her hair is straighter around the sides. She usually wears dresses when out of her school uniform. In her teens, she has grown into a fair young lady with a petite build. She is shown to have chest-length, dusty pinkish brown wavy hair that has bangs reaching the bridge of her nose and brown eyes. She is usually seen in only the school's uniform. Her school uniform is a navy blue blazer, a blue ribbon, a white blouse, a light brown sweater (vest), a pale blue skirt with light blue details, navy socks and brown shoes. Shōko is a very easy going person and is able to quickly forgive many, such as Shōya; her childhood bully. She is somewhat clueless and doesn't see herself as a special individual that needs to be pitied. Shōko is also hard to anger and slow to cry, as she has endured a long, painful life; with her mother aside leaving her grandmother to take care of the Nishimiya sisters. Shōko cares deeply for those around her and rather than blaming the world and people that have hurt her, she blames herself. It has been clearly stated that Shōko hates herself and fears that she is useless. She knows she has been such a burden to Naoka Ueno as classmates, and tries to reconnect her ties and help Naoka and all she has 'tainted'.