Sorata Kanda

Sorata Kanda (神田 空太) is the male protagonist of the story. He is a second-year student of Suiko University of Arts, who lives in room 101 of the Sakurasou Dormitory. He was kicked out of the standard school dorm after he refused to abandon a white cat he picked up. As many of the Sakurasou Dormitory residents have outstanding grades and art skills, he often feels plain and normal among them. He is chosen by Chihiro to take care of Mashiro's daily life and although he initially resists, he eventually grows accustomed, even somewhat fond of the job.

Sorata is young man with average build and height. He has short, spiked light brown hair and eyes. He is usually seen wearing his school uniform. He has also been considered handsome by some people.

Personality
Sorata describes himself as someone who is completely normal and ordinary with nothing to write home about. At first, he felt pressured living in Sakurasou because it is a house full of geniuses. But after meeting Shiina, he is inspired to work hard and finally decided to be a game designer. Sorata can get hot-headed at Shiina sometimes, which causes him to discipline her quite a lot.

Sorata was initially an indecisive person, who is uncertain of his goals and wishes in life, up to the point that Jin and his father are tired of this flaw of his. However, as the story progresses, he learns more of his wishes and desires, and started being certain about his dreams.

Sorata has proven to be kind-hearted to a fault. He has a habit of not being able to turn away from abandoned cats and always ends up taking them home. So far, he has picked up 7 cats; namely Hikari, Nozomi, Kodama, Tsubasa, Komachi, Aoba, Asahi. This has resulted in Sorata being kicked out of the standard dorms, which do not tolerate pets.

Background
Sorata used to play soccer in elementary and junior high, but he quit because he lost his passion for it.

Shiina Mashiro
Sorata can be considered Mashiro's handler and he dedicates a generous portion of his time looking after her and helping her with anything she is otherwise too incompetent to do on her own. Sorata was initially a bit insecure with Mashiro, seeing her as yet another genius that Sorata finds himself pale in comparison to. However, this insecurity dissipates as the story progresses and Sorata learns from Mashiro what talent and passion are.

Sorata thinks that Mashiro is beautiful and pretty. However, he tends to be a bit overprotective of her, even getting mad at her for trying something else rather than stick to drawing manga, and hurting herself in the process. Such as when Mashiro wanted to learn to cook for Sorata to show her affections towards him, as Misaki did for Jin. Sorata thought it was a waste of time for her and that he wanted her to keep focusing on her manga drawing. Though Mashiro's social awkwardness and quirks often frustrated him, Sorata finds that they make her very endearing as well. Over the series, they have become closer and closer, with Sorata seeing her as a precious person to him. In the anime, it was also proven that he did develop feelings for Mashiro, as he told her he loved her as she was about leave on a train. He was also willing to kiss her in the last episode, but it became a kiss on the cheek instead.

In the third novel, Sorata realizes that he is in love with Mashiro and in the eighth novel, Sorata confesses to Mashiro. And then in the next novel, he and Mashiro officially become a couple. In the tenth novel, Sorata and Mashiro break up due to the fact that Mashiro wants Sorata to stop comparing himself to her and she feels that their relationship is only hurting them due to the fact that Sorata always compares himself to Mashiro and feels that he will never be on par with her which hurts himself, as well as hurting Mashiro since he lashes out his anger on her when he is frustrated of not being fortunate with her talents. After they breaking up, Sorata haven't meet Mashiro for 4 years, but the feeling of sorata to Mashiro is still the same and he still supports Mashiro's dream like following her manga story as well as Mashiro support Sorata's dream such as playing game designed by Sorata after she finished manga deadline.

By the tenth novel, the story fast forwards 4 years and a matured Sorata (whom becomes quite successful in game design) meets Mashiro (whom has also been quite successful in manga) once again where they are able to patch up the problems they had with their relationship and are able relight the feelings they had for each other.

In the end of novel vol 10.5, one year and nine month after they reconcile their relationship, Sorata often visits Mashiro's apartment to take care of her and even stays for a long time. One day Sorata wants to bring Mashiro to his hometown in Fukuoka to meet his parents. This made Mashiro happy and she also invited Sorata to meet her parents who came back to Japan from England. Its implied that they took a deeper step in their relationship.

Nanami Aoyama
Nanami is Sorata's best friend in the normal schools. They have also been in the same class ever since they were first years.

Nanami befriended Sorata after the latter picked up Hikari, and helped him find owners for the cats. Ever since that day, the both of them have been best friends.

Sorata admires Nanami for the fact that she works harder than everyone else, and is dependable. Furthermore, Sorata is concerned with her well-being, seeing how she tends to overwork herself at times. He wants to see Nanami achieve her dreams, because he has seen how much work she has exerted to becoming a seiyuu, and assures her when he can that she's working hard, and that she will achieve her goals. She has a crush on Sorata but she is too scared to ask him out.

After graduating from high school, Nanami dan Sorata studied in Suimei University, even though they are in the same university, they only meet for a moment like passing by on the road. Sorata and Nanami remained friends as usual where they met on campus and have a casual conversation.

Jin Mitaka
Sorata sees Jin as his close confidant at the dormitories, since he's the only guy he can talk to (with Ryuunosuke eschewing human interaction). Sorata and Jin are seen together at times talking about their ordeals and problems, and suggest solutions to each other when they know how. However, Sorata is no exception to Jin's first impressions. Sorata sees Jin as a playboy, but he lets him be.

Misaki Kamiigusa
Misaki was technically Sorata's first friend when he moved in at Sakurasou. Sorata is very tolerant with Misaki's energetic, crazy attitude, and plays games with her most of the time. Sorata also cares deeply for her, and was shown when he begged Jin to talk to Misaki at a time wherein the couple duo were ignoring each other. With her academic and artistic skills known to him, he holds deep respect for her, calling her "senpai". She nicknamed him Kouhai-kun though it took a while for it to be that nickname. Misaki made a important speech about him and other sakurasou people in the last chapters.

Akasaka Ryuunosuke
Both Sorata and Akasaka have nearly similar fields: Ryuunosuke is a programmer, while Sorata was a game designer learning programming language. The two occassionally talk, albeit via the Internet, and share similar interests. However, Sorata, at times, chides Ryuunosuke for his offensive frankness. Also, Sorata at times is shocked with Ryuunosuke's action, such as when Ryuunosuke installed a bug on Sorata's phone without his knowledge (the bug was able to backup the data of the residents, however).

After graduating from high school, Sorata lived with Ryuunosuke in a small house close to Sakurasou and in that place they set up a game studio where they together pursued a dream of creating their own game company.

Sengoku Chihiro
Not much can be inferred from their relationship. Sorata sees Chihiro-sensei as an irresponsible one, being uncouth and being extremely lax about her responsibilities as a teacher and towards Mashiro, who is her cousin. However, since he moved him, he has accustomed to her laxness, and does errands for her without complain. Sorata also snides her at times for her racy outfits every time she goes out and dates men.

Kanda Yuuko
Sorata's relationship with Yuuko is a bit one-sided. While his sister loves him, Sorata finds her annoying, even asking her to go home when Yuuko visited the dormitory. He even prayed at a shrine for the gods to cure her stupidity. However, Sorata deeply cares for his sister despite this fact, and still takes care of her. Evidence is when he looked for her and Mashiro when they got lost, and when he talked to his dad that he let her take the entrance exams at Suiko.

Rita Ainsworth
Before Sorata started taking care of Mashiro, Rita was Mashiro's handler, When Rita came to Japan, and after being shut out by Mashiro, it was Sorata who came to her rescue and let her stay in his room. When Rita left for England, she was given Sorata's email address. Even though the two aren't mutually close, Sorata considers her a special member of the dorm, since she contributed to Nyaboro.

Quotes

 * "If you really want it, the world can change colors in a flash."
 * "Oh youth, why art thou such a cruel mistress?"
 * "I realized... It wasn't that the days were boring. It was being just like everyone else." -to himself on his view of life
 * "This world is so unfair. A normal person doesn't stand a chance. You can play catch-up all your life but never even get close. We tear ourselves to shreds,but all that work's for nothing. Hard work doesn't pay off! For anything or everything. Even for Sakurasou! We did everything we could, but we couldn't do anything!"
 * -Sorata's reaction to the letter and indirectly to Mashiro 
 * " Opportunities wait for no one! If you let an opportunity slip through your fingers with an excuse like, “I wasn't prepared.” You’ll never get another opportunity like that again! But it is your life. Live it the way you want. "
 * " How on Earth can you get a zero in English when you lived in England? " -to Mashiro on her low grades
 * "A normal person looks away from what they don’t want to see. Even though they know there are things they can only acquire if they face the things they hate. "