Naru Kotoishi

Naru is cheerful, adventurous and almost constantly in motion. She treats the island as a playground and approaches activities that make Handa nervous with little hesitation. Climbing walls, exploring outdoors and handling insects or other small creatures are ordinary parts of her life. Her curiosity extends to objects she finds around the island, and she enthusiastically collects things such as shells and bugs without necessarily considering whether anyone else wants them brought indoors.

She has a weak sense of conventional personal boundaries, particularly where Handa is concerned. She enters his home freely, interrupts his work and recruits him into whatever currently interests her. Her behavior can be exhausting, but it is generally driven by affection and curiosity rather than deliberate disrespect. When she realizes she has genuinely upset someone, she is capable of recognizing that she has gone too far and apologizing.

Naru also absorbs language and behavior from older people without always understanding what she is copying. Miwa Yamamura and Tamako Arai are among the older children whose words and habits influence her, sometimes leaving Handa to deal with expressions that Naru repeats without knowing their implications. Beneath the mischief, she is perceptive about other people's emotions and often responds to loneliness or disappointment with a directness adults around her lack.

Naru has no extraordinary powers; her strengths come from growing up active and independent in the rural environment of the Gotō Islands. She is agile, energetic and comfortable climbing and exploring places that Handa finds difficult or intimidating. Her familiarity with the island also gives her practical knowledge of its landscape, wildlife and everyday customs.

She is socially fearless compared with many of the people around her. Naru quickly approaches strangers, makes herself at home in other people's spaces and brings different age groups together through sheer persistence. This ability is especially important in her interactions with Handa, who arrives expecting to isolate himself but repeatedly finds that Naru has already connected him to another person or activity.

Naru also takes an interest in calligraphy through Handa. She lacks his formal technique, but her uninhibited approach to writing reflects the spontaneity that he struggles to recover in his own work. Her value to his development therefore does not come from being a conventional calligraphy student; she demonstrates the freedom to make something without obsessing over professional judgment.

Naru is the first island child to break through the isolation Handa attempts to establish after arriving on the Gotō Islands. When he discovers that local children have been using his new home as a hideout, Naru proves particularly difficult to remove. She keeps returning, calls him Sensei and gradually makes herself part of his daily routine.

Through Naru, Handa becomes involved with the wider village. Her friends and older companions—including Miwa, Tamako and Hina Kubota—move naturally through his house, while Naru repeatedly brings him outdoors and into community activities. Her influence is rarely delivered as deliberate advice. Instead, ordinary experiences with her give Handa opportunities to reconsider his habits, his reactions to failure and the rigid standards he applies to his art.

Naru has her own emotional life beyond her function in Handa's development. Her family circumstances, friendships and attachment to the people around her receive greater attention as the story continues. Later manga material expands her family background and her relationship with her father, Yūichirō Kotoishi, giving additional context to her upbringing and the family life that initially remains largely outside Handa's view.

Sei Handa is the adult Naru most persistently seeks out after his arrival. She calls him "Sensei," visits his house constantly and regards his attempts to send her away as temporary obstacles rather than permanent instructions. Their relationship develops beyond simple nuisance and reluctant host: Naru becomes deeply attached to him, while Handa increasingly looks after her, teaches her and accepts her as part of his life. Their bond is familial and mentor-like rather than romantic.

Kōsaku Kotoishi, Naru's grandfather, is the family member with whom she lives on the island. Her upbringing gives her considerable freedom to roam the village and spend time with friends, contributing to the independence that surprises Handa.

Hina Kubota is one of Naru's closest childhood friends. Hina is considerably more timid and prone to tears, while Naru's confidence frequently drives their activities, but the two spend much of their time together and share the everyday adventures of the island children.

Miwa Yamamura and Tamako Arai are older girls Naru regularly spends time around. Naru absorbs their language and behavior readily, including things she does not fully understand, making them both companions and sometimes questionable sources of instruction.

Hiroshi Kido is another older islander within Naru's familiar social circle. Along with the other village residents, he belongs to the broad community in which Naru moves easily between children, teenagers and adults.

[Yūichirō Kotoishi is Naru's father, whose circumstances and connection with her are explored beyond the material covered by the television anime. His appearance expands the family background that had previously centered on Naru's life with her grandfather.](#spoiler)