Characters/Futaba Fukuyama
 | |
| Personal Information | |
|---|---|
| Surname Name | Fukuyama Futaba |
| Birthday (Age) | November 28th (n/a) |
| Type of Character | Main |
| Additional Information | |
| Hair Color | Dark Blue |
| Eye Color | Pink |
| Height | 5′ 7′′ (171cm) |
| Job(s) | Volunteer at Library |
| Hobby(s) |
|
| Like(s) |
|
| Dislike(s) |
|
| Family |
|
| Affiliation |
|
| First Appearance |
|
'Futaba is an extremely kindhearted girl, but greatly struggles with a variety of self-esteem issues and often elects to sit out of physical education as a result of them. She is a constant target for Yumi's bullying, but is otherwise loved by the rest of the class and is always willing to lend an ear to anyone in need. Futaba performs very well in Japanese Literature and spends most of her time reading, but she can get lost in daydreams at times and must be broken out of them. In order for her to succeed, she will need to learn to love herself. Thankfully, she takes well to positive reinforcement and is significantly stronger than she looks.'— Sensei's notes
Futaba Fukuyama is part of the Main Cast of in Lessons In Love. She is part of the original ten girls in Sensei's class. She lives in Room 4 with Rin Rokuhara.
Background
Futaba is the only daughter of two unnamed parents, both of whom are currently living outside Kumon-mi in America. Due to her father's work as an architect, the family moves around a lot and, wanting to give their daughter some sense of stability, allowed her to live alone for a good portion of her life. While her parent's are unable to visit, both due to their work and the border around town, they regularly check in with Futaba via video and phone call.
During elementary school, she met Rin Rokuhara and the two would develop a sisterly relationship with each other. Despite this supporting relationship, she's suffered life-long confidence and body-acceptance issues, to the point of developing bulimia as she struggled to accept herself. While able to recover, she continues to struggle with her self-image, allowing people like Yumi to effortlessly push her around.
Before transferring to Kumon-Mi High, she attended Kumon-Mi Academy, where she still has plenty of friends, most notably Nodoka. She's respected Sensei ever since transferring in, seeing him as a cool and composed model to idolize. This respect slowly evolved an infatuation so strong, she struggles speaking to him directly.
She's part of the manga club along with Rin, Ami Arakawa, Molly MacCormack, and Maya Makinami.
Characteristics
At the start, Futaba is a very shy and reserved girl, struggling to speak at length with Sensei. While a part of this anxiety and awkwardness stems from her idolization of him, a larger part stems from her own lack of confidence. She has a large amount of discomfort and hatred towards her figure, leaving her with little she feels she can be proud of. She often downplays her achievements, belittles her own issues, and feels unworthy of her friends' love.
While her shyness doesn't stop her from making friends, unlike Sana, it does make her an easy victim for people such as Yumi. She's reluctant to stand up for herself, choosing to endure her hardships rather than change them. This, combined with her already low self-esteem, has pushed her to turn to purging more than once.
Over the course of the game, she's able to begin overcoming these insecurities, shifting to working out, and shows signs of increasing confidence around both Sensei, and her friends.
Relationships
Sensei
Futaba idolizes Sensei, both for his writing ability and the composed aura he gives off. As a result, Futaba initially struggles to speak to Sensei, stumbling over her words and shying away from direct eye contact. Her deep-seated insecurities continue to surface as they get closer. Even after spending significant time together, she finds it hard to believe that he enjoys spending time with her and is even willing to put her own feelings for him aside and accept a 'casual' relationship. Once Sensei turns down this idea, she begins to work towards self-betterment so that, one day, she will be able to confess to him, fully confident in herself.
In the meantime, the two continue their noncommitment relationship, and while Futaba still dreams of someday being able to confess to him, Rin believes she'd be able to accept said dream never coming true.
Rin
Rin is Futaba's best friend and roommate. The two have known each other for so long that they consider each other sisters and are often seen together around school or Kumon-Mi. They care deeply about each other, able to pick-up on subtle cues or changes that most wouldn't notice. It's thanks to Rin's unconditional support and love that Futaba's able to put a stop to her more harmful habits and begin the process of betterment. Similarly, it's thanks to Futaba's support that Rin manages to overcome both her heartbreak over Chika, and her irregular cycles of depression.
Yumi
Yumi mercilessly bullies Futaba, often picking on her weight, meek personality or general appearance. While the exact reason this started, or even when it started, are not stated, it has been going on since before the beginning of the game, as seen in Sensei's notes. Due to the one-sidedness of these fights, they often end once another student, or on rare occasions, Sensei, breaks it up. Despite this, though, Futaba doesn't hold a grudge towards Yumi, admitting she probably should hate her more than she does.
As the game progresses, the two are consistently on bad terms, though the frequency of Yumi's bullying slows down until she officially apologizes for the months of harassment. Afterwards, while not friends, Futaba remains neutral on her feelings about Yumi, even after her fight with Nodoka.
Nodoka
Being both bookish girls, Futaba and Nodoka easily bonded and have been friends for a long time. Futaba considers Nodoka as one of the three most important people in her life, a sentiment Nodoka returns, with a bit of added passion. Futaba is aware of how Nodoka's eccentric personality may come off as scheming and manipulative, but believes that, rather than being malicious, she's extremely protective. She acknowledges, however, that there are plenty things about Nodoka she'll never fully understand, but feels that she doesn't need to know everything about her to consider her important.
Memorable Quotes
- "You'd...punch a cancer-patient in the face?"
- "There...really isn't any acceptable time to tell a sex joke while a teenage girl is on the phone with her mom."
- "You woke us up. From how boring life used to be...from how hopeless it all felt..."
Trivia
- Futaba has a deep infatuation with elves, and, in particular, fantasy romance novels. Sensei takes every opportunity he can to remind her of this.
- Futaba is one of the few cast members to have both their mother and father still around and/or alive.
