Maehara, Shinobu
Summary
Shinobu Maehara is an extremely shy young girl who gradually develops more confidence as the story progresses. She has short black hair with one strand subtly sticking out. At the start of the narrative, she is twelve years old, though she ages to thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and eventually nineteen by Chapter 123. Her birthday falls on November 15th, making her a Scorpio with blood type O, and she stands 152 cm tall. In the anime, Shinobu first appears in episode 1 and is introduced in episode 2, where it is revealed that her parents are divorcing and she is expected to leave town with one of them. However, she prefers to become a resident of the Hinata apartments. In the manga, she is already living there when Keitaro arrives. She is in seventh grade but, due to her shyness, does not know her classmates well initially. Even on the eve of her intended departure, she had not told them she was leaving, although she later gains more friends from her class. Shinobu possesses incredible culinary skills, which may have been learned from her mother, who ran a restaurant, or she may simply be naturally adept. She consistently downplays her abilities but is pleased when her cooking is praised by the Hinata residents, particularly when Keitaro remarks that his life would be nicer if he could look forward to eating great food like this every day. She has a tendency to sometimes put clothes in the cooking pot and food ingredients in the washing machine, a mistake referred to as "wash curry," though this is only shown occurring twice. She develops a crush on Keitaro after he helps her with her studies but feels betrayed when she learns he misled her about being a Tokyo University student. Amends are made when Keitaro discovers her upcoming birthday, and the residents hold a surprise party for her. Shinobu was apparently designed not to be cute, but this failed, as her incredible non-cuteness instead made her cute in her own way. Additionally, she handles alcohol very poorly, once accidentally drinking Keitaro's white wine and getting instantly drunk from merely half a glass.
