Yuzuru Nishimiya

Yuzuru Nishimiya (西宮 結弦, Nishimiya Yuzuru) is a character introduced in Koe no Katachi. She is the younger sister of Nishimiya Shouko. She is a third year middle school student (9th grade) but rarely attends.

Yuzuru helps Shouko in dealing with the bullies at school as well as their mother's forceful decisions regarding the protection of Shouko. She doesn't have a good relationship with her mother but bonds with her grandmother. Her hobby is taking pictures of dead animals, with the intent of showing her sister how horrible death is. The purse is to discourage her sister to from killing herself.

Appearance
At first glance, Yuzuru is sometimes mistaken as boy as she sports a boyish appearance. She has short black hair and blue eyes. She usually wears a hoodie and shorts, and always has her camera with her.

Story and Analysis
Yuzuru is first introduced when Ishida looks to get in touch with Nishimiya Shouko years after the elementary school bullying incident. Yuzuru claims to be Shouko's boyfriend to discourage Ishida from approaching her.

In the manga, Yuzuru cuts her own hair short with scissors when her mother was about to cut her sister's hair even though Shouko didn't want her hair short. Yuzuru attempts to redirect her mother's forceful ways of what she sees as protecting Shouko. Their mother's forceful ways of protecting Shouko by doing what she sees as best for Shouko juxtaposes with Yuzuru's way of protect her sister by respecting Shouko desicions. It is worthy to note that their mother ultimately did end up cutting Shouko's hair short even when Shouko was not supportive of the idea initially. In a similar sense, when Shouko attempts to suicide, it was Ishida who stops her, which again disrespects her wishes but in the process saves her. Yuzuru's way of protecting her sister by respecting her wishes fails in that ultimately it didn't not stop Shouko's attempt at suicide. In contrast, what stops Shouko is their mother and Ishida through them forcefully disrespecting her decisions by doing what they feel as right. By disregarding Shouko's decisions, it ultimately benefits Shouko since through her attempt of suicide, it gives her the will to live. But at the same time, from Shouko's perspective, it was her decision to suicide and not cut her hair, so by stopping her and disrespected her wishes, it could not be what was best because it is not what she had wanted. In this way, even though Yuzuru represents the act of respecting one's wishes, Yuzuru ultimately fails at what she initially set out to do, which is to protect Shouko. Whereas their mother and Ishida, which represents the idea of interfering with one's decisions in a way to do what they feel is the best for him/her succeeds in that it helps one realize the error in their initial decision by forcefully granting them a second chance.

Nishimiya Shouko
Yuzuru and Shouko have a sisterly relationship. Yuzuru is always looking out for Shouko and continuously tries to convince her not to commit suicide. Despite their fights Yuzuru loves Shouko to the point of cutting her own hair instead of letting Shouko cut hers. Yuzuru also (in the movie) tells Shouko to take her camera with her into the ferris wheel so she could spy on Ueno, later taking the footage to Ishida Shouya to show him what had really happened. Yuzuru is shown having a nightmare about Shouko committing suicide and wakes up. Another night she is reading Shouko's notebook when her Grandmother tells her not to read in the dark, taking her into dinning room where her Grandma (or Granny) tells her that she is worried about Yuzuru, saying that Yuzuru worries about Shouko so much that she doesn't care about herself. Yuzuru answers saying that her Grandmother is doing the same thing. Her Grandmother then tells her that it's different because she's doing it for herself.

Ishida Shouya
At first, Yuzuru disliked Ishida, thinking that he was only trying to visit Shouko to amuse himself because she was deaf. Yuzuru lies to Ishida, telling him that she is Shouko's "boyfriend". Yuzuru even posts a picture of him jumping into the river online, causing him to get suspended for a week. Later on when Ishida is picking up his niece he finds Yuzuru unconscious in the park, appearing homeless, so Ishida takes "him" home to his house for the night. At midnight Yuzuru had a flashback of her and Shouko fighting. Yuzuru leaves in the middle of the night. As she's walking home Ishida catches up and walks her home. Yuzuru then tells Ishida that she is in fact Shouko's little 'sister'. Yuzuru then is constantly hanging out with Ishida, (especially in his room) and is involved in most of the drama with his friends. Ishida also helps Yuzuru with her schoolwork and walks her home on her Grandmothers funeral. He also claims that he worries about her when he sees her crying, and Yuzuru tells him that she is scared to go to the funeral before stepping away through the gate. Yuzuru also invites Ishida to the fireworks festival with their family.