Koharu Minami

Koharu Minami
Information
Title	Student
Nickname	"Little-Fanged Bitch" [Kibako・キバコ] (Tomoko)
Gender	Female
Hair	Dyed Honey Blond
Eyes	Grey

Koharu Minami (南小陽, Minami Koharu^?) is Tomoko's second year then third year classmate in high school.

Overview

Minami is a classmate of Tomoko who initially appears popular. She first comes to attention when Mako Tanaka decides to join her group for the field trip rather than join with Yuri Tamura. Despite appearing popular, she acts very cruel to others. She openly laughs at Tomoko when she trips on the stairs, eliciting from Tomoko the insult "Little-Fanged Bitch!" It becomes clear she denigrates seemingly weaker and unpopular classmates to appear popular and "cool." This backfires when she tries the tactic around Asuka Katō, who refuses to take her bait, and Akane Okada, who calls her out on her tactic. After this, Koharu finds it hard to hang with anyone but Mako; however, Mako, reconciled with Yuri, now hangs with Tomoko and her odd band of friends.

Largely alone, Koharu has her own arc of chapters from her perspective where she tries to reconcile her feelings with her reality. In this period she marvels that the "loner" and "loser" Tomoko appears to have friends. Seeking someone to have lunch with so she will not appear to be a "loner" and "loser," she sits with Shiki Futaki with curious results. This provokes the anger of her usual trio of Maki, Nori, and Sachi which is subsequently destroyed by Sachi when Koharu accidentally lets slip a derogatory term they use for Maki's boyfriend behind her back.

Partly due to her odd relationship with Shiki, Koharu softens her behavior a bit towards others. She even seeks out Sachi to have a sort of reconciliation. While others are surprised by her modest change, such as her willingness to help out filming a video for the Cultural Festival, Koharu still enjoys bad mouthing others.

Personality

From what little the readers had seen of Minami prior to the trip to the amusement park, she appears to be very popular, sociable, but rather intentionally rude. She has no qualms against openly laughing at and mocking other students in order to appear cool in comparison. She knows why she does this as she inwardly admits in Chapter 128 when she tries to badmouth Tomoko to Katō and Okada and they ignore it. She inwardly panics, noting that the two are not "taking the bait," and she then tries to gain favor with Okada by then attacking Hina Nemoto. Okada frankly exposes this tactic then wonders why Minami is even with them since she was not invited. While Minami storms off denouncing the two, she is soon after seen by Mako walking away crying. Rather than confront her fault, Minami storms off and then rebuffs offers to join another group since she feels the group pities her for being alone. She ignores messages from Katō trying to smooth things. With Mako, rather than alter her behavior, she starts denigrating Hatsushiba to Mako and expresses surprise when Mako defends him.

Minami's behavior appears a defense mechanism, and for her to return to Katō would require her to accept Okada's criticism which she cannot do at this stage. This serves in more recent chapters to isolate Minami. In Chapter 132 she feels she cannot approach a group of Hina, Okada, and Katō. There is a bit of irony in that Katō previously tried to bring Minami back to her and Okada after Minami stormed off in the face of Okada's accurate criticism of her. Katō probably would have invited Minami to join without her further "losing face." Minami really does not understand others beyond her superficial stereotypes of them. She then sees Mako with Yuri and Tomoko, but fears she will not be accepted. As she stares at them, she fears she will have to become friends with "losers." Currently then, Minami cannot learn from Okada's criticisms, nor does she wonder why the "loner" and "weirdo" Tomoko actually has a few friends.

Unlike other characters, until recent chapters from her perspective, Minami has shown no evidence of character growth. In Chapter 134 she gleefully watches Kotomi confront Yoshida. She inwardly admits that she neither knows the reason for their conflict, nor cares to, she simply enjoys watching others fight and hopes they will fight "forever." In Chapter 156 she overhears Emiri Uchi describe Tomoko with her signature phrase キモい (disgusting/gross) seizes the opportunity to join in denigrating Tomoko. After she shares a picture she saved on her phone of Tomoko in the make-up Katō applied with Uchi, Uchi curtly tells her to never bring her "filthy face" in to her classroom again.

Her separation from her trio of friends due to class assignment in her third year leaves Minami frequently alone during lunch. Desperate to avoid being seen as a "loner," Minami tries to eat lunch wth her friends in their class to their ridicule of her behind her back. in the first of chapters from her perspective, she tries to have lunch with Mike and her patient boyfriend to her severe gastric distress. She tries to do the same with Shiki Futaki but finds her behavior odd. Nevertheless, she is curious, particularly when she sees that Shiki has a group of boys who play arcade games with her. She recognizes the boys as "otaku" that she has denigrated in the past. Unfazed by this, Shiki tells her that gamers are use to insulting one another. Her trio of friends who planned to film her desperately looking for them in their classroom search for her when she does not show. They happen to see her with Shiki and the boys. The normally faceless Sachi stares at Minami and icily informs her that she does not mind if she stays with "those creeps."

Minami rejoins them, but during their meeting at a coffee shop she inwardly finds some of their denigration of Fūka Sasaki, who sits at another table, trite. She, herself, cannot find anything bad to say about her, and she inwardly admits she is not in the mood to bad mouth anyone. Sachi prods her by suggesting that Shiki has her own "harem" that Minami intruded into. Minami accidentally asks Maki about her boyfriend using the derogatory nickname the rest have for him. Maki becomes upset, Nori attacks Minami, but Sachi reminds Nori that she was the one who used the nickname. Maki leaves them telling them to never speak to her again. Nori also leaves, but she informs Minami that she is correct if she suspects that Sachi bad mouths her behind her back. Sachi then reveals to Minami that she hates Maki, hates Nori slightly less, and planned to dump all of them once the school festival is over. However, she figures she can now use the time to prepare for her exams.

Minami sits alone, until Yū approaches her, having witnessed the conflict, and asks if she is okay. Minami inwardly marvels that a girl, who does not know her, who is not from her school, would come to see if she is all right. She suspects that she is really just a "good girl," "unlike me." Thus far, their interaction, and any future relationship, remains unrevealed; however, Koharu will subsequently appear a bit more open to others.

Chapter 210 reveals her innocence. Roped into helping Shiki film Akane's video for the Cultural Festival, Sachi jokes that Shiki's Otaku Posse™ will シコる (shikoru) to the video they have taken of girls. When thanked by Akane, Koharu asks what シコる means to the laughter of Reina and even Shiki.

Appearance

Minami has shoulder-length hair that curls at the ends. The cover for Volume 20 depicts her hair as dyed honey blond similar to Yū's. She wears two triangular hair clips on either side of her head, though she sometimes includes other ornaments. Her eyes are angled like Yoshida's but Minami's irides are larger, giving her a softer and friendlier appearance. Volume 20's cover suggests that they are grey. In contrast to her softer appearance, she is drawn with a fang. In the manga she sometimes stands at the same height as Mako and Yuri which would make her slightly taller than Tomoko, but most of the time she is shown to be much shorter than them and being around Tomoko's height. WataMote generally eschews depicting the WataGirls in the stereotypical manga female fashion with hips and breasts that violate international conventions; however, despite the variety most of them tend to "run thin." Koharu appears normal, and WataMote Wiki "wouldn't go so far as to call the sister 'fat,'" yet the adjective "cherubic," but not "rubenesque," appears to apply. Nevertheless, Sachi will claim she is fat, needs to diet, et cetera when she wants to insult her.

Anime

• None

Manga: WataMote

• Volume 8: Chapter 69
• Volume 11: Chapters 99, 106, 107
• Volume 12: Chapters 112, 117, 119, 120, 122, Omake
• Volume 13: Chapters 124, 125, 128, 129, 130, 130.5, 131, 132
• Volume 14: Chapters 134, 135, 136, 137
• Volume 15: Chapters 144, 150, Omake
• Volume 16: Chapters 154, 156, 157, 159
• Volume 17: Chapters 162, 163
• Volume 18: Chapters 169.5, 172, Special Edition
• Volume 19: Chapters 184-1, 184-2
• Volume 20: Chapters 185, 186-2, 187, 188, 188.5, 189, 190, 191, 192-2, Omake, Special Edition
• Volume 21: Chapters: 194, 195, 199, 199-2
• Volume 22: Chapters 200-1, 200-2, 203, 205
• Volume 23: Chapters 210-1, 210-2, 210-3, 213-1, WataMote Special Chapter, Omake
• Volume 24: Chapters , 213-2, 213-3 214-1, 214-2, 214-3, 216.5
• Volume 25 Chapters 217-2, 217-3, 220-1, 220-2, 220-3, 222-1

Manga: TomoMote

• 10th Anniversary

(Strikethrough episodes or chapters indicate the character was mentioned but did not make a physical appearance)

Relationships

Tomoko Kuroki

The two girls do not interact much, if ever. Nonetheless, Minami seems to have heard of Tomoko's reputation as an awkward deviant and laughs at her. Tomoko responds in kind with her own hostility. In Chapter 128, Minami openly ridicules Tomoko to Akane and Asuka. For her part, Tomoko refers to Minami as "Kibako" (キバコ) from kiba ( 牙 - きば "fang") and ko (子 - こ "child") or "a little girl has a fang" or "little-fanged bitch." Tomoko says this in Chapter 117 out loud provoking Yuri's laughter. After she "loses face" during the trip to the amusement park, Minami fears in Chapter 132 that she may have to start hanging out with Tomoko since Mako is Yuri and Tomoko's friend. In her own arc, she is both intrigued and appalled that Tomoko now has friends and even leads a project for the Cultural Festival. As of this edit, they still do not have much direct interaction.

Mako Tanaka

Mako and Minami are friends for reasons unexplained. Mako is well aware of Minami's behavior to the point she inwardly complains about it. She accepted Minami's offer to join her group which sparked a conflict between her and her friend Yuri. Between the two, Minami seems to be the one taking a more active role in the friendship as she is the one who asked Mako to be part of her group. She also takes notice of Yuri's absence and invites Mako to lunch in Chapter 99. Minami chides Mako for being friends with Tomoko, the "resident weirdo." Mako notices Minami walking away crying in Chapter 128 during their field trip to an amusement park. While she tries to comfort Minami, she also notices that Minami refuses to accept any responsibility for her behavior and naturally launches into insults towards another student. In Chapter 132, Minami fears interacting with Mako, who is in a group with Tomoko and Yuri, since she fears she will be seen as superfluous and does not wish to be with "losers." For her part, Mako tries to moderate Koharu's behavior with minimal, if any, results. She is impressed when Koharu is actually helpful when she volunteers information she normally would not be bothered to do.

Yuri Tamura

Yuri and Minami have not been shown interacting as of Chapter 99, but there are hints of them not being friends. In Chapter 69, Minami invited Mako into her group for the school trip but did not invite Yuri. In turn, Yuri tells Mako to leave Minami's group without hesitation. In 117, she laughs when Tomoko falls, causing Tomoko to mock her teeth, and Yuri snickers at this. In Chapter 124, Mako compares Yuri to Minami, which causes Yuri to punch Mako in the shoulder, suggesting that she does not like Minami very much and is aware of Minami's tactics. This suggestion is confirmed in Chapter 156 when she initially feels good in a morning when she thinks Minami is not showing up to class. In Chapter 186-2 it was confirmed that Yuri was in the same first-year class as Minami.

Asuka Katō

Minami and Katō seem to be on good terms; however, Katō appears on good terms with everyone. In Chapter 128, after Akane Okada exposes her, Katō suggests that perhaps Okada was too harsh. She then tries to message Minami to return and smooth out the conflict. In Chapter 132, Minami avoids Katō because she is in a group with Hina and Okada. However, when she passes Tomoko in her make-up, she immediately runs to Mako to gleefully insult how ugly she looks in her make-up without realizing Katō was the one who applied it. Katō quietly listens.

Akane Okada

Sitting with Okada and Katō at an outdoor cafe in Chapter 128, Minami tries to get the two to join her in badmouthing Tomoko and Hina Nemoto. Okada, who is a friend with Hina but at the time both were upset with one another, reacts by denouncing her attempt to badmouth others. Minami storms away and ignores later messages from Katō trying to invite her back. She later avoids joining a conversation with Katō because Katō is talking to Okada and Hina. For her part, Akane deems her "as annoying as ever." A little over fifty chapters later, Akane sincerely thanks her for helping Shiki film her video for the Cultural Festival.

Emiri Uchi

The two have little noticeable interaction until Minami overhears Uchi describing how "disgusting" is an inseparable part of Tomoko. She eagerly joins in ridiculing Tomoko and shows Uchi a picture she took when she had her make-up done by Katō. Clearly smitten by the picture, Uchi asks if she will send it to her phone. Minami does this and thinks that while Uchi is only a "B Ranked" person, she is now a friend; however, Uchi curtly orders her to, "Never come to this class with that filthy face again." Minami will complain about this to Mako in the next chapter.

She encounters Emiri in Chapter 191 when Emiri notices her looking for Sachi in her classroom. Emiri does explain to her that Sachi has left the classroom, and when Minami reminds her of her insult, Emiri does not remember it. She explains to Minami that Tomoko makes her act weirdly. When she assures Minami that she really does not care about her, Minami states that her insult "saved" her. Emiri considers this, accepts it, then wishes Koharu will be able to reconcile with Sachi.

Sachi, Nori, Maki

Three anonymously drawn friends of Minami were classmates in their second year. Exactly who is whom is not known until Chapter 156 by process of elimination. When the abandoned Minami approaches them in the amusement park absolutely not based on Disney World for trademark and copyright purposes, they notice she is alone, and when they invite her to join them, Koharu acts offended at the thought they think she had no one to be with. Their actual names were unknown since Minami and they use various nicknames such as "Sachi" or "Sacchi" and "Nori" or "Norii." This changes when Sachi's full name is revealed; as of this edit, the full names of Nori and Maki are unknown. Chapter 156 reveals that amongst themselves Sachi and Nori privately ridicule her for constantly coming to their classroom. In Chapter 163, Sachi inwardly ridicules Minami on how her behavior has isolated her. She describes her as having a "terrible personality." All three initially appeared to serve as "friends" Minami thought she had who do not value her much as she does not value others. Maki does have a boyfriend, whom the rest ridicule and demean behind her back. Otherwise, currently nothing further is known of them other than Sachi who takes a more prominent role, as well as a face.

Things change during Chapters 187 to 189. The three denigrate her behind her back for trying to come to their class to have lunch with them. Sachi and Nori decide to go off on their own, and they make Maki record Minami coming to class only to find them not there. However, Minami does not come since she is with Shiki. They eventually see her with Shiki and her otaku "posse" at the arcade. Sachi acquires a face when she sees Koharu and acidly tells her that she does not mind if she wishes to be with "creeps." Koharu leaves with them when it is clear that they are looking down on her. At the coffee shop, Sachi has and does not have a face as she taunts Minami for abandoning them. Maki notices the group of Fūka Sasaki, Miho Narita, and Yū Naruse and repeats rumors that Fūka is a "total slut." Sachi suggests the same about Shiki with her "harem" of otaku as she prods Minami for butting into said "harem." Koharu denies that this is the case with Shiki, then asks Maki about her boyfriend by accidentally using the derogatory nickname she, Nori, and Sachi have for him. Sachi, having and not having a face, reminds Nori that she used the nickname first. Maki leaves them telling them to never talk to her again. Nori follows, telling Minami that she is correct if she suspects that Sachi bad mouths her behind her back. For her part, Sachi thanks Minami since she planned to dump all of them after the school festival, but now she will have more time to study for her exams!

Minami learns that Sachi spends lunch alone. She encounters Maki, but Maki ignores her. She confronts Sachi, and the two exchange insults. Sachi finally agrees to have lunch with her, but demands that Koharu not bring Shiki or her group of otaku with her. She will still imply that Koharu is overweight, while Koharu will retort that Sachi is overly skinny and has a face like a "Japanese doll." Nevertheless, as of this edit during the Cultural Festival Arc, they continue to hang out together.

Shiki Futaki

Minami first really encounters Shiki in Chapter 187, when she notices her skill at gym. She decides to try to have lunch with her to lessen the need to suffer lunches with Mike. She finds her behavior weird: Shiki suddenly gets up and leaves, Minami follows her to an exercise area where Shiki bench presses. Nevertheless, Koharu finds her curious and watches her at an arcade. She eventually joins her and is surprised that Shiki is joined by male otaku whom she has looked down upon and denigrated in the past. Shiki tells her not to worry since gamers are use to insults. Minami does insult the otaku, particularly when she notices how they crowd behind Shiki when she does the dancing game in the obvious hope to catch a glimpse of her panties. Minami is interrupted by the appearance of Sachi, Nori, and Maki. She leaves with them but, later, wonders what Shiki is doing.

She feels embarrassed by her behavior towards Shiki's "posse" of male otaku and Sachi's denigration of all of them as "creeps" to their faces. She first tries to avoid being seen by Shiki, which she quickly realizes is pointless given that she sits directly in front of her. When Shiki asks her if she is okay with what happened, she does not mean Minami's behavior or that of Sachi; she means the apparent conflict Minami is having with her trio. This, along with Shiki's utter lack of emotion and response to the insults, upsets Minami, and she snaps at her. Shiki will later notice the absence of Minami during their lunch-time workout. Later on the bus ride home, Minami apologizes to Shiki for snapping at her. Shiki apologizes for assuming too much about her and her friends. She then confesses that she felt strange working out without Minami, and while it does not matter if she is there or not, Shiki prefers that she is.

Interestingly, when she makes the mistake of calling out to Shiki when she and Sachi are playing with Sachi's class' ride for the festival with the eventual result that the ride is completely damaged, she seems to enjoy helping Shiki fix it.

Memorable Quotes

• "No way! They're all a bunch of loner losers!"
• "Did you see what Kuroki looks like? And that make-up! Oh god! HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!"
• "I don't know what's going on but keep it up! You morons should all just fight with each other forever!"
• "That dumb glasses girl made me pitch and then she told me a bunch of stuff that made no sense!"
• "I'm trying to back you up there! Geez, you really don't match up with others, do you?" – to Shiki Futaki

Trivia

• Koharu (小陽) which combines the kanji for "little" and "sunshine." and Minami (南) means "south."
• She shares her last name with Chiba Lotte Marines pitcher Masaki Minami.

Gallery

Shown: Little Fanged Bitch Kibako in . . . Color!

Minami realizes she failed.

Minami appears to be crying after Okada's rebuke.

Hatsushiba takes revenge against Minami's insults by depicting her as Mako's "dog."

"The horror! The horror!"

Minami Koharu: Nobel Peace Prize Nominee

When Minami ridicules Tomoko's make-up . . .

. . . she does not realize that Katō applied it.

Maki, Sachi, Norii

Don't Mess with the Uchi!
Uchi responds to Minami's denigration of Tomoko.

Middle School Minami

With a Face, Sachi Stares at Minami

Minami admires Shiki's pants . . . er . . . passion. Passion.

Questions! Koharu has Them!

Official Merchandize from Watamote Fair in Volks.