RIKA SASAKI

One of Sakura's closest classmates, Rika is mature, soft-spoken and especially skilled at cooking and crafts. She often acts as a calming presence among Sakura, Chiharu and Naoko, though the original anime also preserves her unusually serious affection for their teacher Yoshiyuki Terada. The television adaptation tones that relationship down compared with the manga, but it never removes it entirely, making it one of the series' more uncomfortable elements for modern viewers. Outside that subplot, Rika is consistently kind and trusted by Sakura.