Mikako Kouda

Mikako Kouda (幸田実果子 Kōda Mikako) is a student at Yazawa School for the Arts.

According to the timeline of the manga chapters, Mikako started as a 16 years old in Chapter 1 "The Yamaguchi Family's Tsutomu-kun" of Volume 1, turning 17 years old in Chapter 13 "The Same Birthday" of Volume 3, 13-15 years old in flashback special chapter "Colorful", 18 old in Chapter 32 "Tale from a Distance" of Volume 7, already 27 years old in 33 "Extra chapter" of Volume 7.

Early life
Mikako was born to Ruriko Kouda, and Hirohiko Sakurada. She grew up with Tsutomu Yamaguchi in the same apartment building. They stayed friends throughout elementary and middle school. Mikako was born on June 20th and Tsutomu was born on the June 22th, so they always had a joint birthday party on the June 21st, the day between their actual birth dates.

Once when Tsutomu went to stay the summer in Nagano, her mother teased her that he was never coming back. To cheer up, Mikako pierced her own ears and had to go to the hospital.

Her parents divorced when, she was six-years-old, which was greatly upsetting to Mikako. She ran away in a attempt to get away from her problems, Tsutomu was the only one, who could talk her into coming back. Mikako received her third piercing shortly after.

Junior high school
Mikako liked to dress up flashy and pretty ever since she was little. She often got bullied by classmates or scolded by teachers for this. Her teacher even suggested her mother enroll Mikako into a private school where rules were laxer. Mikako refused to go to any school or after-class activities if Tsutomu Yamaguchi would not be going there. Tsutomu's parents didn't have money for a private school, so Mikako ended up skipping many classes. She attended only as many as she needed to be able to graduate.

High school
Tsutomu Yamaguchi and Mikako enrolled in the same high school, Yazawa School for the Arts. Their friendship became strained as they started to head in different paths. Mikako befriended two girls from her class, Risa Kanzaki, and P-chan.

London
On the third year of high school Mikako won the competition and went to study fashion design in London. Seiji Kisaragi went to study hairstyling in London as well, so he kept her a company.

Physical appearances
Mikako is short and skinny. She wears a lot of her own handmade, cute and colourful clothes. Her natural hair is brown and she has brown eyes. She dyes her hair blonde at 16, to cheer herself up when Tsutomu Yamaguchi temporary leaves town to get his driver. At 17, when she struggles between desires to stay with Tsutomu and to go studying abroad, she dyes hair pink and gets short haircut.

Personality and traits
Mikako is strong willed and stubborn, never says "sorry", but also kind and very faithful.

Anime portrayal
Mikako Kouda is voiced by Rumi Shishido in the anime.

Behind the scenes

 * Mikako made her debut in the first chapter as the heroine of the manga series, Gokinjo Monogatari.
 * Mikako is a minor character in Gokinjo's sequel, Paradise Kiss. She was first mentioned in chapter 2, and finally reappears in chapter 13.

Appearances

 * Gokinjo Monogatari
 * Manga
 * The Yamaguchi Family's Tsutomu-kun
 * Childhood Friends
 * Men
 * The Blonde Effect
 * Anime

Etymology

 * The name Mikako means "fruit, good result, truth" (実) (mi), "fruit" (果) (ka) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Mikako's surname Kouda means "happiness, good luck" (幸) (kou) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta/da).