Nishida, Yuusei

A first-year at Mizusawa High, Nishida Yuusei is one of the handful of students Chihaya recruits to rebuild the school's karuta club. Soft-spoken and a little awkward, he doesn't come in as a natural competitor — he's curious about the game and willing to show up, which turns out to be enough to start.

Nishida works because he's the entry point for viewers who don't know karuta either: his slow, earnest climb up the learning curve makes the game's intricacies legible without a lecture. Tooru Nara plays him unshowy and sincere, so his small victories land with real warmth rather than triumph-music inevitability.