Sasaki Shuumei

Sasaki Shuumei (佐々木 秀鳴, Sasaki Shūmei) is one of the two eponymous main characters of Sasaki and Miyano. While he has a reputation as a bad boy, he is very affectionate towards Miyano Yoshikazu and enjoys spending time with him.

Appearance
He is tall and of average build, with lightly bleached hair that Sasaki rarely changes back to its natural shade. He has a snaggletooth in the left side of his mouth which shows when he smiles widely. He also has a number of piercings: three helix piercings and one lobe piercing in the left ear and two lobe piercings in the right ear. Appearance-wise, he gives off the impression of a bad boy to other students.

Sasaki typically wears his uniform with a few of the buttons undone and a shirt inside. A cardigan or sweater is worn in the colder months.

Personality
Initially, Sasaki is introduced as a bright and cheerful, if overly eager, upperclassman; however, this is not necessarily the whole picture. He can be rash and impulsive, acting or speaking without thinking of the consequences or the people around him. Though he does have some friends, Sasaki is something of a loner. In flashbacks, with his family, or when he is alone he is usually shown to be gloomy and quiet, often repeating the phrase "it's annoying."

As such, his personality shifts quite dramatically depending on who he is with: with his friends and family he tends to be more blunt, while with Miyano he tries to be careful and softens his speech.

Story
Sasaki Shuumei places his hand on Miyano Yoshikazu's shoulder and states he is going to go and break up the fight taking place nearby. Three months later, Sasaki is happy to tell Miyano that he is looking at cute as ever. Reminded not to call him that, Sasaki responds Miyano is cute on the inside. Greeting him good morning by hugging him, Sasaki then later finds Miyano in class to ask him about the manga related terminology he has been using. Unsure of what the words 'seme', 'uke', and 'moe', Sasaki asks if Miyano has any manga suggestions. Mentioning how he liked this shoji manga that he borrowed from his sister, Sasaki is presented a book by Miyano to read.

Finding Miyano having read the book, Sasaki begins to discuss the two guys going to the love hotel at the end together. His mouth covered, Sasaki is taken by Miyano to a secluded location for them to speak about it privately. Having never read anything like that before, Sasaki states it was king of shocking, but was a good story.

Remembering how he read the book at home, Sasaki elaborates how in reading a story about two guys, seeing how the protagonist struggled with so much yet managed to deal with it is a calm cool manner, it really struck him. Listening as Miyano enthusiastically speaks of what he liked, Sasaki finds him really cute. Sasaki requests that Miyano loan him another book.

Miyano Yoshikazu
Not surprisingly, Sasaki's relationship with Miyano Yoshikazu is the crux of the series. Initially meeting when Sasaki stops Miyano from saving Kuresawa from getting beat up by stepping in himself, Sasaki is immediately drawn to Miyano, learning his class from Hirano and often stopping by. Their relationship truly begins when Sasaki asks Miyano to lend him a manga, and Miyano decides to lend him his BL manga. Sasaki shows real interest in the manga and the two begin to talk more often after that where he enjoys seeing Miyano's happiness while discussing what he likes.

Sasaki has clear interest in Miyano from the start, often thinking Miyano is cute and that he wants to touch him. However, as they become closer Sasaki finds much and more to like about Miyano, and his feelings grow as time goes on.

Hirano Taiga
One of Sasaki's classmates, he and Hirano Taiga are often seen together at school, though neither claim to be particularly close to the other and they do not usually hang out outside of school. Despite this odd distance, Hirano and Sasaki are rather close, Hirano letting Sasaki copy his notes and helping Sasaki with his studies before tests. Hirano is initially suspicious of Sasaki's intentions with Miyano, but loosens up when he sees the two of them become friends.

Ogasawara Jirou
One of Sasaki's friends and classmates. Ogasawara Jirou and Sasaki have known each other since before high school, and are good enough friends that Ogasawara visits Sasaki's house and receives hand-me-downs from Sasaki's sister's boyfriend on occasion. They share an interest in music and like similar bands, borrowing and returning CDs between themselves. Sasaki has also met Ogasawara's girlfriend.

Kuresawa Tasuku
One of Sasaki's juniors. Though the two of them are not close, Kuresawa Tasuku does look up to and respect Sasaki for helping him when he was getting beat up, and they maintain a friendly relationship as upper and lowerclassmen.

Kagiura Akira
Kagiura Akira is one of Sasaki's juniors. Sasaki knows that Kagiura is Hirano's roommate and he also notices that Kagiura is pretty fond of Hirano as he states it in chapter 3 of "Hirano to Kagiura". Kagiura is also aware that Sasaki is Hirano's classmate. Although it was never showed but they have probably met each other. It is unknown that if they get along or not but in a drama CD of "Sasaki to Miyano", in the amusement park episode, it is stated by Hirano that Kagiura doesn't really likes Sasaki.

Sasaki's Family
Sasaki is the only son of his four-person family. They own and run a bakery, where Sasaki often helps out.

Sasaki Satoko
Sasaki's older sister who helps with cooking while he sets the table. Personality-wise, loudmouthed and cheerful, Sasaki Satoko is almost the opposite of her brother at home. The siblings often bicker and butt heads, Satoko constantly telling her brother off and snitching on him to their mother. However, it is clear that both of them care for each other.

Sasaki and Boys Love
Sasaki is first introduced to the genre 'boys love' (BL) through Miyano, who was also already an avid fan. Despite having never read the genre before, he is open-minded and expresses a genuine interest in learning more about Miyano's hobbies. He confesses, after reading the first volume Miyano lends him, that the content shocked him a bit, as he did not expect the story to take that sort of turn, but that he wound up truly enjoying the characters' struggles and professes a desire for Miyano to continue loaning him BL manga.

While he does not seem quite as fanatic about the genre and initially largely read the books in an effort to learn more about Miyano, as Sasaki gets more immersed in the genre, he gains an independent interest in it and later buys BL manga and watches BL television series on his own, even inviting Miyano to attend BL exhibitions together. He is also quick to defend the genre to his own classmates, like Ogasawara, who derides it. He is fond of gag manga in particular.

Trivia

 * Sasaki is a dog person more than a cat person.
 * Sasaki loves to bake. He helps out at his family's bakery in the mornings - sometimes he goes back to bed afterwards, and winds up almost late for school.
 * Sasaki typically has bread for lunch, which he gets from his family's bakery every morning.
 * Sasaki loves sweets, but doesn't like spicy foods, carbonated drinks, or mint flavor. On every 22nd of the month he gets a shortcake.
 * Sasaki is bad with alcohol and claims his whole family is.
 * Sasaki has a sensitive tongue and can't handle hot drinks well.
 * Though Sasaki is not good at studying and rarely even takes his textbooks home, he is naturally good at math.
 * Sasaki's shoe size is 28 cm.
 * In his second year, Sasaki class did a haunted house at the school cultural festival where he played Hanako-san of the Toilet.
 * In his first year, Sasaki temporarily dyed his hair black. The color did not take well and many around him teased him, calling him a calico cat.
 * Sasaki likes watching TV.
 * Sasaki is ticklish; particularly, his ears are sensitive.
 * According to Miyano, Sasaki smells sweetly of bread.
 * Sasaki's power level is 52, though he tends not to use his strength.
 * Sasaki's image animal is the lion.