View source for Neku Sakuraba

==Relationships==
===[[Neku's best friend]]===
In the ''Another Day'' universe, Neku's best friend was a male classmate who also apparently had an interest in CAt, and was the one who showed Neku CAT's mural in Udagawa. Neku felt this friend was his only one real friend and the only guy in his class he could talk to as an equal. After the day Neku asked his friend to meet at the mural, his friend died in an accident and Neku blamed himself for his death, almost feeling like his murderer, and the grief almost broke him.

===[[Shiki Misaki]]===
[[File:Pants scene.png|thumb|300px|Shiki demanding Neku remove his shorts so she can fix a button.]]
Shiki is Neku's first partner in the Reapers' Game. At first, Neku dislikes Shiki and becomes irritated by her behavior, an attempt in emulating Eri's bubbly personality, which he viewed as "obnoxious". Similarly, Shiki also misunderstands and mistreats Neku at first, reflecting his coldness. On Day 2, Shiki assumes poorly of Neku and criticizes him for unhelpfully ignoring her when he is actually thinking about how to get past a wall. Her fashion-conscious attitude makes her disregard Neku's own interests, such as when she tells him he must be trendy and can't wear what he wants. She also stubbornly removes his shorts to repair a loose button; Shiki believes she's looking out for Neku in a trend-obsessed Shibuya and Neku feels controlled and undermined by her. Near the end of Week 1, they begin to understand each other's mindsets more.

Due to Shiki's desire to be more like Eri, Shiki initially comes across as incredibly extroverted. This creates a contrast with Neku's quiet and introverted personality, and so he views her as an incessant chatterbox. For the first portion of the week, Shiki is incredibly motivated to win the Game. Neku initially lacks much motivation to play or get along with Shiki causing tension between the two at the start of the week.

[[File:NekuShutUp.png|thumb|300px|Neku after Shiki annoys him.]]
As a result of their interactions, Neku acts coldly towards her and tells her he only stays with her to survive the Reapers' Game. He nicknames her "Stalker" because she follows him around wherever he goes. In the Japanese version, Neku also feels Shiki is a hypocrite and points out the hypocrisy of Shiki calling wearing his headphones rude, while she plays with her phone during their conversations which he deems also rude. Even through Neku's rude behavior, Shiki continues to do her best to get him to open up to her.

Despite the incident where he almost killed her after being manipulated by Uzuki, Shiki continues to treat him the same and does her best to understand him. After being guided by Hanekoma and some time passes, Neku allows himself to open up and the two become closer and develop a friendship. When Neku and Shiki spot Eri, Shiki's best friend in the Realground who strangely looks exactly like her, Shiki starts to run from Neku, but he stops her and gets her to tell the truth about her past. Neku learns that she was not happy with who she was, and always felt jealous of Eri, so when she entered the Game her entry fee was her appearance, teaching her that she shouldn't be jealous. Through this experience, Shiki and Neku grow closer when he begins to sympathize with her. At the end of the week they learn that only Shiki will move on to the Realground and that Neku must play the Game again. Shiki states that she will wait in front of Hachiko everyday until Neku returns. However, Shiki is instead taken as Neku's new entry fee for his second week.

There is some amount of irony to Shiki being Neku's second entry fee. While this is a bluff on the part of the Conductor — because only the Composer can restore life to Players — Neku finds the entry fee credible enough to stake all of his efforts on Week 2 on getting Shiki back, which possibly strengthened his feelings for her. Shiki is highly embarrassed when she finds this out at the end of Week 3.

[[File:Neku_and_friends.png|thumb|right|300px|Everyone meeting up a week later.]]
In the ending, Shiki meets up with Neku, Beat and Rhyme in front of the Statue of Hachiko, as promised. In A New Day, Neku is the first person she calls when Mr. Mew's seam breaks and she asks him if they can go shopping together for materials to fix him.

In the Another Day universe, Neku and Shiki are both Tin Pin Slammers and it is implied they already know each other to some degree because Shiki can ask him when he got so good at Tin Pin. Shiki calls Neku "Black 'n' Blue" in this universe. Shiki is also interested in Neku's and Joshua's relationship and the possibility of them becoming a couple, willing to enter a dark sewer just to see if anything erupts between them.

===Beat ===
Neku first encounters Beat on Week 1, Day 2 where they get off to a rocky start. They meet again the next day, where Beat is reluctant to give them advice. However, at the end of Week 1 Day 3, Beat and Rhyme appear and save Neku and Shiki by completing the mission. Afterwards, they seem to be on good terms, and agree to work together for the rest of the week.

When Rhyme is erased the next day, Neku, Shiki and Hanekoma talk him out of fighting the shark Noise that attacked Rhyme. As he leaves with Hanekoma, Neku and Shiki agree to avenge Rhyme in Beat's place. He joins the Reapers at the end of Day 7, surprising both Neku and Shiki.

During Week 2, Beat is assigned by Megumi Kitaniji to defeat Neku and Joshua. He attacks and overpowers them a number of times, but never brings himself to erase them. Despite their misgivings, in one encounter Neku is compassionate enough to return Rhyme's pendant (which Beat had dropped the previous day) to him.

[[File:10-6.jpg|thumb|300px|Neku and Beat survivng the third week.]]
At the start of the third week, Beat chooses to leave the Reapers to become Neku's partner and save him from certain demise (being the only Player, Neku could not form a pact). As partners, the two become closer, and work together to survive the week, save Rhyme and attempt to dethrone the Composer. During their time together, Neku learns more about Beat's background and why he is in the Reapers' Game. In the final battle, Beat states that he no longer sees Neku as a partner but as a friend. Together, along with Shiki, they defeat Kitaniji in both his Noise forms.

In the ending, Beat and Rhyme both meet up with Neku and Shiki by Hachiko, and the friends are reunited. Beat then later partners with Neku again in A New Day. At the end, Beat is shown to be panicked at Neku's sudden death.

===Rhyme ===
Neku and Rhyme rarely interact and he almost never addresses her, but he does listen to her. Neku first encounters Rhyme on Week 1, Day 2 along with her partner Beat, where they get off to a rocky start due to Neku's anti-social attitude. They meet again the following day, where Shiki asks them about the mission. Beat finds the situation with Neku awkward and leaves after calling Neku a piece of dirt with Rhyme tagging along behind him. Later that day, Neku and Shiki fail to complete the mission, and just as all hope is lost and with seconds to spare, Beat and Rhyme complete the task.

On Week 1, Day 4, Rhyme jumps out and saves Beat from a Noise, the [[Swing Shark]], sacrificing herself. Neku acts coldly and begins to withdraw, telling Shiki getting hurt is why he doesn't rely on anybody or want to forge relationships. He also tells Shiki that Rhyme was not his friend.

[[File:Rhyme showing pendant.png|thumb|300px|Rhyme showing Neku her pendant in the ending.]]
Rhyme appears later in the form of a squirrel Noise as a Pin that Neku can use to fight the Noise. Neku also decides to return Rhyme's pendant to Beat. While talking to Konishi later, Neku considers her a friend when he says, "And she's not a Noise! She's our friend, Rhyme!" Despite the two not being shown together much, the two are shown interacting well in the game's final scene, with Rhyme showing Neku her pendant.

===[[Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu|Joshua]]===
Neku finds Joshua's snobby attitude irritating — especially near the start of the week. Joshua often teases him and makes an effort to get on Neku's nerves. Joshua likes to belittle Neku and make things like Shiki becoming his entry fee seem unimportant. Joshua also often manipulates Neku with smaller-scale events like tricking him into going to WildKat or larger-scale events like using Neku to decide the fate of Shibuya.

Neku, motivated by his desire to bring Shiki back to life, does everything he can to put up with him for the week. Despite their many disagreements, Neku finds that he can — in a number of ways — relate to Joshua. They have similar views of society and the world, which often come up in their conversations. This does gradually change however, as Neku's philosophy changes greatly over the course of their week together.

During the few days where no missions are issued, they make frequent visits to Hanekoma and his cafe WildKat, where it is revealed that Joshua and Hanekoma have a long history with each other. Joshua claims to be searching for a way into the Shibuya River so that he can take on the [[Composer]] and gain complete control over it.

Neku eventually becomes incredibly distressed when he scans Joshua and sees flashbacks of him dying in front of the mural in Udagawa, leading him to accuse Joshua of being his killer. Joshua neither confirms nor denies this throughout the week, and there is a great deal of tension between the two for the remainder of time they have together.

On the seventh day, when they battle the Game Master, [[Sho Minamimoto]], Neku sees another flashback which leads him to believe that it was actually Minamimoto who had murdered him. After defeating him, Minamimoto unleashes a level ''i'' flare, and Joshua pushes Neku out of harm's way and takes the brunt of the attack, seemingly erasing both Minamimoto and himself.

Neku deeply regrets that he never got to apologize to Joshua for accusing him of murdering him, and feels guilty for his death. Allowed to play the Game one more time, Neku vows not to waste this chance which Joshua had managed to give him.

[[File:You killed me.png|thumb|300px|Neku angered at Joshua's betrayal.]]
In the final day of the third week, Joshua returns after the fight with Megumi Kitaniji's Noise form, shocking Neku. Before they can talk to each other, Kitaniji absorbs Joshua and the final battle begins. Afterwards, Kitaniji is erased and Joshua reveals that he himself is the Composer and that everything that had transpired was part of a Game he had set up with Kitaniji - one that would ultimately decide the fate of Shibuya. Wanting to erase Shibuya, Joshua chose Neku as a proxy to play the Game for him - and he had won. He also returns what is missing of Neku's memories, revealing that Joshua had indeed murdered Neku, just to send him into the game.

Joshua has one final Game with Neku - a duel, in which the winner becomes Composer and gets to decide Shibuya's fate. They both receive guns and Joshua begins a countdown for them to fire. Tearfully, an enraged Neku aims his gun and prepares to shoot — however, in the end, he cannot bring himself to kill a friend, and lowers his gun. Joshua, however, smiles coldly and shoots Neku, supposedly erasing him.

Following the duel, Joshua has a change of heart and spares Shibuya, having observed the changes in Neku firsthand. Neku then wakes up at the Scramble again, only to realize that he is back in the Realground. In the ending, Neku wishes to see Joshua again, hoping he will show up at Hachiko with everyone else. He states that while he can't forgive him, he trusts him. Joshua does not arrive however, and watches the friends from atop 104 along with Hanekoma.

===Sanae Hanekoma===
[[File:Title drop.png|thumb|300px|Hanekoma telling Neku the world ends with him.]]
Hanekoma is aware from the start of Neku's role as the Composer's proxy. He tries to help him survive the Game. He helps Neku by giving him a harmonizer pin as well as various phone upgrades. Upon discovering that Hanekoma is CAT, Neku's admiration of Hanekoma deepens, but Neku becomes confused due to the evidence suggesting Hanekoma is the Composer of the Reapers' Game.

In ''Another Day'', Neku and Hanekoma are both good friends. As Neku says, "He's the only man that I respect". The main storyline Hanekoma knows Neku and "tests his abilities" by using Panthera Cantus. When Neku wins, Hanekoma tells him that the day Neku will help him will be sooner than they think. The Hanekoma from the Tin Pin world is a stranger to all, except for Neku. When found at WildKat, he tells Neku that if he finds any Secret Reports, to never read them. With Hanekoma trusting Neku with such a task, shows a great bond between the two.

===Megumi Kitaniji===
[[File:DoYouLikePeople.png|thumb|300px|Kitaniji asking Neku if he likes people.]]
Kitaniji is the Conductor of the Reapers' Game who enjoys music like Neku. Neku first met Kitaniji at the end of the first Reapers' Game. Kitaniji finds Neku fascinating and admires his intelligence and tenacity to survive and even wiping out Minamimoto, yet sees Neku as a nuisance in his struggle to prevent Shibuya from erasure. Kitaniji wishes for Neku to understand his side, even asking for him to support his mission with the O-Pins. Kitaniji does not harbor any major ill will towards Neku. In missable dialog, before his death, Kitaniji takes a moment to congratulate Neku for how far he's gotten and Kitaniji tells Neku that it's up to him now to save Shibuya.

===Sota Honjo and Nao===
[[File:Nao and Sota.png|thumb|300px|Neku listening to Sota and Nao.]]
During week two, Neku met the ganguro couple. Although initially apprehensive about them, Neku soon warmed up to them after realizing they were good-hearted and non-judgemental people, and they gave one of their pins to Neku. Sota and Nao helped Neku realize that he should not blame himself for Shiki being his entry fee. Sota and Nao would occasionally give Neku advice throughout the Reapers' Game. Neku and Joshua were unable to save them from Taboo Noise in time, distressing Neku who realized that he can't just shut out people as a whole anymore. In the ''Another Day'' universe, Sota is also Neku's barber.

===Coco Atarashi===
''to be written.''

===Rindo Kanade===
''to be written.''