Chinami Oka

Chinami Oka (岡 千波 Oka Chinami) is a female student at the university and a member of the Film Club. Her favorite hobby is to film everyone with her camera, which she calls the "Okamera".

Appearance
Chinami is a pale-skinned petite, skinny and short girl with waist-length or thigh-length salmon hair, large blue eyes and visible pretty red cheeks. In Episode 19, she chose to cut her hair short so that it could possibly to look more like Linda's hair. Chinami is seen wearing a long green shirt and big, blue, puffy pants with red to brown socks with brown shoes.

Personality
Chinami is a very kind-hearted, caring, friendly and smiley girl who also has a childish behavior for a college student (and she looks like one as well). She is always happy to get new friends and doesn't really get mad so easily. For example, when Kouko Kaga got mad at her because she was hanging out with Mitsuo Yanagisawa and said really mean things, instead of getting mad at her, Chinami started crying which shows how she doesn't get angry easily, and it also shows how sensitive she is. Chinami is very popular because she is sweet and open to people. Though, it is revealed that she likes to keep her personal feelings of love to herself.

However, after Chinami notices Mitsuo's feeling for Linda and cutting her hair in the process, she becomes selfish, rude and angry for the first time, scolding Banri for his friendship with Linda and blowing him off when he tries to explain the misunderstanding. Her selfishness continues when she confronts Linda about her relationship with Banri, but she gets scared when she sees Linda's neighbor, Nana. When Linda shows concern her instead of picking a fight with her, Chinami becomes shocked and she drops her selfish attitude completely, even showing complete remorse in her actions, as she acknowledges her own mistakes and tries to atone for it.

Due to their lack of interaction, Chinami never acknowledges her interest in Mitsuo.

Plot
Chinami is a freshman law student at Banri Tada's university. She shares the same required English class as Mitsuo Yanagisawa and she is also a member of the film club. She appears to 'collect' good-looking people, as she wants to become friends with them, because, as she tells Banri, "Looking at pretty people makes me happy!". Chinami is a very caring person, who is always looking out for other people, even if she doesn't know them. She makes her first appearance in Episode 1 of the anime series when Mitsuo takes off with Kouko Kaga in pursuit. In Mitsuo's efforts to run from Kouko, he scatters Banri's work notes across the floor. When Banri goes to gather them up from the floor, Chinami offers to help, instantly reflecting her kind heart.

Early on in the series, Kouko develops a strong dislike for Chinami after she is seen talking with Mitsuo (or 'cheating', as Kouko puts it). This dislike for Chinami is worsened when Mitsuo tells Kouko that they can never be together, and also when Mitsuo announces that he will confess to Chinami that he loves her. Despite all the verbal abuse Kouko fires at Chinami, she still remains smiley and friendly, still hopeful that she and Kouko can be friends. Later on, the relationship between Chinami and Kouko is patched up, and they gradually make their way to becoming best friends.

When Mitsuo confesses his love for Chinami in front of everyone to prove a point to Kouko, Chinami's reply is simply, ''"What? Don't be stupid". ''It's later explained that Chinami didn't understand Mitsuo's proper confession, especially as Mitsuo blurted it out in order prove a point to Kouko. Despite Mitsuo's efforts to avoid Chinami out of pure embarrassment and after feeling humiliated, she wants to be friends again and forget what happened. The group end up going to a theme park together, and there, the friendship between Chinami and Mitsuo is fixed. Chinami doesn't realize exactly how she feels about Mitsuo until she discovers that he is romantically interested in Linda. From that point on, Chinami begins to act differently and quite out-of-character, especially around Mitsuo. On their car journey to the beach, Chinami acts quite 'standoffish' (as Mitsuo puts it) towards Mitsuo when he asks about her troubles with moving to a new apartment. She plays it off as nothing big, acting like she doesn't know what he's talking about, and after Mitsuo confusedly continues to ask about it, Chinami's reply is, ''"Oh! I didn't think it was anything worth telling you". ''

In Episode 19, Chinami even has her hair cut short, possibly in an effort to be more like Linda, as Chinami does not want to lose Mitsuo to Linda. For the first time, we see an angry Chinami, when she stumbles upon Banri. To Banri's bewilderment, she waits then scolds him, acting completely out of character. When Banri says, "Don't you think you're acting a little weird? There's no reason for you to be so upset", which only makes Chinami angrier, hinting at her underlying feelings for Mitsuo. With fury in her eyes, Chinami stands up ready to walk off, her only words left for Banri being, ''"You're the worst!". ''

When Banri tries to invite Chinami as he plans to tell his friends about his background and other recent troubles, she continues to be rude to him, and completely brushes him off, but later she arrives at Banri's place unexpectedly with a normal attitude. She explains why she acted selfish around him, she confronted Linda earlier and threatens her to tell her about her relationship with Banri, but is stopped by Banri's neighbor, Nana, who warns her to stop. Instead of being angry about it, Linda then asks what's wrong with Chinami and she could tell her anything, which shocks her and she is left speechless of her words. Because of Linda being worried for her instead of picking a fight with her, even after threating her and jumping to conclusions, Chinami showed complete remorse in her actions, like cutting her hair, being rude to Banri and making a fool of herself, she drops her selfish attitude completely, realizing that Linda and Banri meant no harm.

After explaining her story, she tells Banri that when she saw him and Linda hanging out, she wasn't upset; she was thinking, Mitsuo won't love Linda anymore and he would focus on her. She tells Banri that she's been in love with Mitsuo ever since she saw Mitsuo hanging out with Linda, and she regretted her actions and realized that she doesn't want Mitsuo to with someone else, and tried to pretend she didn't care, but couldn't pretend anymore. Chinami tells Banri that she didn't understand why she was so foolish and hurtful, that she went and cut off her hair and regretted it after having it so long for her entire life ever since, and realizing her actions to make Mitsuo notice her failed. She explains that instead of blaming herself for her foolishness, she lashed out at him for no reason and she tearfully apologizes to Banri for her earlier rudeness and he forgives her. Following her outburst, Chinami asks Banri to film her in her dejected state, but as Banri intends to tell Chinami about his past with Linda, Banri is possessed by his former self and begins calling out for Linda. He storms out of his apartment, but not before telling Linda and the others to not tell Koko that his memories are returning, not realizing that Chinami's camera was still recording.

When meeting their friends, Koko nonchalantly declares that she and Banri are broken up, much to the shock and bewilderment of Banri and the others. Mitsuo tries to defend him saying she would never end it like that, but Koko shuts him up and walks away, cutting ties with everyone. Chinami, no longer hostile towards him, tells Banri that Koko may have seen the clip of Banri's anxiety attack, which is why she broke up with him, and tells him to go talk to her, but Banri refuses. Instead, they have a friendly chat about her future and what she's gonna do with her life.

During the final episode, Chinami later edited the recording Banri made of himself and burned it to a DVD, which she asked Koko to deliver to Banri. Since she never confesses her feelings to Mitsuo, it goes unrequited, and they only remain friends and is never brought up again, leaving the matter unresolved.

Quotes

 * "Looking at pretty people makes me happy!" - Chinami talking to Banri Tada about Mitsuo Yanagisawa and Kouko Kaga
 * "I guess she's a little unusual." - Banri's first thoughts when meeting Chinami
 * "Oh, don't call me 'Oka-san', that's what people call my mom." - Chinami to Banri on the Film Club's welcoming party
 * "Ah... youth." - Chinami on the shaky relationship between Mitsuo and Kouko


 * "Don't be stupid" - Chinami to Mitsuo after his confession at a party (In Episode 6)
 * "You're the worst!" - Chinami to Banri after defending Mitsuo when she gets the wrong idea upon stumbling across Linda and Banri talking alone (In Episode 19)
 * "But I pretended I was better than that, and didn't really care about such things. So I went and chopped up all my hair. - Chinami explaining why she cut her hair (In Episode 21)
 * "I didn't understand. I didn't know why I was so hurt that I would go and cut off the hair I've kept long for so many years. And I regretted it. All of it. - Chinami showing remorse for cutting her hair. (In Episode 21)
 * "I'm the one who's acting so awful, but instead of blaming myself for my foolishness, I lashed out at you. I'm really sorry, I know I made you feel bad." - Chinami apologizing to Banri after she scolded him because of her foolishness (In Episode 21)

Trivia

 * Her name Chinami means "thousand" (千) (chi) and "wave" (波) (nami).
 * Chinami's surname Oka means "ridge, hill" (岡).


 * Chinami has a hobby of filming and making videos using her own camera, due to the fact that she is one of the members at the film club, naming her own camera as "Okamera", a portmanteau name from both her own surname (Oka) and her camera (-mera).
 * Chinami is seemingly the only character that changes her hair on quite a regular basis. Her usual hairstyle is naturally long over her shoulders and back with her signature fringe and bangs. She has also had it up in a double bun (still with her fringe), and when the group go to the beach, she has it in loose twin ponytails forwards over her shoulders.
 * Despite Kouko Kaga's denial that she and Chinami are friends, it's suggested that they are in fact best friends after Kouko helps Chinami with moving, trying on swimsuits with her and stays overnight (like a sleepover).
 * In Episode 19, Chinami cuts her hair short, which could indicate that she tried to make her hair more like Linda's short hairstyle as this is what Chinami believes that Mitsuo Yanagisawa would like.
 * However, she later regrets the decision of cutting her hair, and never tells Mitsuo how she feels about him, leaving the matter between them unresolved, especially that Mitsuo still falls for Linda by the end of the series.