"All the world needs is me. I got my values; so you can keep yours, alright?" - Neku Sakuraba; Week 1, Day 1.
"I just met you. I don’t like you. And I don’t give a rat’s ass if you think I’m rude!" - Neku Sakuraba; Week 1, Day 2.
"I’m not opening up to anyone. Ever. Other people just hold me back. I can do things my own way." - Neku Sakuraba; Week 1, Day 2.
In the first part of the game, Neku Sakuraba might as well be synonymous for antisocial asshole.
He's blunt to the point of being downright rude, stalks around with a major chip on his shoulder, and seems to view everyone else as nothing but a bunch of useless sheeple who are good for nothing else but forcing their worldview on him and holding him back. The only person he honestly cares about is himself, and that's why the game takes away his memory as his entrance fee. If he doesn't like someone, he doesn't bother with them -- and he doesn't like anyone. In fact, the only reason he initially lets Shiki hang around is because he'd end up Erased without a partner, and he never passes up the chance to remind her that they're bound by necessity and not camaraderie. (A point that he drives home when he almost strangles her early on in their partnership just because a Reaper tricks him into thinking it'll help him win the Game.) When it comes to dealing with people, he's stubborn about keeping them at an arm's length and refusing to let himself open up to them, and Shiki only manages to start cracking his shell via sheer persistence. (aka: She bugs the hell out of him until he can't ignore her.) Slowly, they grow together as partners, and she becomes the first person that we really see him open up to and bond with.
However, the Game is far from done with Neku, even when he and Shiki successfully make it through their week. As it turns out, his new bond with Shiki comes back to bite him in a pretty cruel way – since his newfound bond with her has made him come to care about her more than he cares about himself, she’s seized as his new entry fee. So, second-week!Neku is pretty muddled up about relationships; he opened up to someone, and it ended up biting them both on the ass. A great incentive for growth, right? Despite everything, Neku is determined to play through another week of the game and win, ensuring that he and Shiki both get to be revived together. With that in mind, he ends up getting partnered up with a smart-ass kid who calls himself Joshua, and they’re off for another week of trying to survive. Now, unfortunately for Neku, Joshua is about as grating and obnoxious of a person as anyone will ever hope to meet, and Josh seems delighted to spend most of their week together getting under Neku’s skin. To top things off, the few times Neku has attempted to scan Josh have ended with him getting garbled flashbacks of his own murder, which make him suspicious of Joshua but unwilling to press him for details. After all, if they can’t make it as partners, they’re as good as Erased. However, despite all of Joshua’s teasing and Neku’s tsundere, the two end up forming a pretty strong bond of trust by the end of Neku’s week. After all, Neku’s got no one else to lean on – Shiki was taken as his entry fee, Rhyme was Erased during his first week, and Beat betrayed them all by turning into a Reaper in the hopes of saving Rhyme – so, he ends up coming to trust and depend on Joshua just like a good partner should. His second week during the game teaches him a lot about opening up to people as a whole -- he learns to care about more than just one person, and actually starts developing an interest for the welfare of the other people surrounding him in Shibuya. So, all’s well that ends well, right? … nope, not quite. During the fight against the Game Master of the second week, Joshua ends up sacrificing himself to save Neku’s life – shoving Neku backwards with a smile and reminding him that he’s got other things to fight for, then turning around with his arms outspread to absorb the blow.
… and, surprise! Neku wakes up back in Scramble Crossing for a third time, forced to play the game for a third time. The twist? Due to Neku’s continuously expanding outlook, his new entry fee is all of the other players, which leaves him with no one to form a partner-pact with and absolutely no way to fight off the enemy Noise. However, Beat defects from the Reapers and makes a pact with Neku to help him out, and the two wander through a Shibuya that’s populated by people all wearing red pins that are causing them to all think the same harmonious thoughts. After receiving no missions to guide them, Neku and Beat decide to go to the fabled throne of the Game’s Composer, with Beat declaring that he’ll defeat the Composer, take over the job, and bring everyone (including his little sister) back to life. Neku, worried about his friends and not willing to waste Joshua’s sacrifice, is determined to help Beat achieve this goal, and the two smash their way to the river.
However, once they arrive, the plot twists dramatically, and all of the loose ends begin to come together. A man named Megumi Kitanji introduces himself as the Game’s Conductor, and says that he dispersed the red pins throughout Shibuya in an effort to harmonize the people and thus repair the city’s dying Vibe. If he fails, he’ll lose the game he’s been playing with the Composer, and the Composer will Erase the city as punishment. After Neku and Beat defeat Kitanji, a familiar face appears -- Joshua, who introduces himself as the Composer and applauds Neku for a job well done. See, Neku’s antisocial attitude coupled with his massive amount of unrealized Potential made him the “worst Soul” in Shibuya, and Joshua determined that if a flawed Soul’s like Neku could make it through the Game, then the city was damaged beyond repair – it’d be far better to Erase it and start clean. Joshua returns Neku’s memories of his death in full (showing that Joshua was, in fact, his murderer), and then tosses Neku a gun to challenge him to one final game. If Neku can shoot Joshua before he counts down from three, then Neku will become the next Composer and can do whatever he wants to with the city – if not, Josh kills Neku, and Shibuya is erased. At the beginning of the three weeks, there’s no doubt that Neku would have simply pulled the trigger to save his own skin, Joshua be damned. However, he’s grown throughout his time in the Game, and he can’t simply bring himself to kill a person that he still regards as his Partner – his friend. Despite everything, he still has the strength of soul to trust Joshua, and he ends up being too conflicted to shoot. Finally, he lowers his gun, and Joshua shoots him to win the match.
-- But. The growth that Neku has demonstrated in this final duel seems to be enough for Joshua, who restores Neku and all his friends back to their lives, and leaves the city intact. Neku has proven that even the worst Soul in Shibuya can be changed for the better, and that’s enough to save the city and the lives of everyone within it.
Now that he’s made it through the Game in one piece, Neku’s personality has done plenty to turn around for the better. One of the most prominent changes in his attitude is the way he views people in general – he’s more willing to connect with people and make friends, and he no longer seems stifled by Shibuya and its people. No, he’ll never be a sparkling social butterfly, but he’s not nearly as mopey and hateful as he once was, and that’s already more than anyone probably ever thought was possible. At the end of the game, he’s seen meeting up with Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme – even hoping that Joshua will meet them there – implying that the lessons he learned over the course of the Game have stuck. These people are no longer just partners, annoying necessities that he has to keep around just to survive – they’ve become friends. However, Neku’s only just learning how to deal with people, and there’s no doubt that it’s a slow, painstaking process. He’s spent his whole life trying to shove people away from him, and so learning how to open up and let them get close to him isn’t exactly something that can be learned overnight.
When it comes to socializing, Neku’s still pretty awkward. He’s still pretty terse when it comes to expressing his thoughts, and probably won’t be the most empathetic person hanging around, but it’s out of inexperience and not bitchiness. Said inexperience also means that he’s probably not going to be the first to pick up on subtler signs of people’s moods like body language or tone. Not to say that he’s dumb by any means – Neku’s a sharp kid, and he’ll eventually get the hang of people. Also, he's still got some hang-ups about intimacy in general; he's not entirely comfortable being touched, and it's a lot harder for him to be vulnerable around people that he's not really close with. His three partners from the Game and Mr. H definitely have his trust, but it's going to take a little bit longer before he's ready to be completely open with anyone else. He's also pretty sarcastic and cynical, and he's definitely the voice in the group that's going to take a more realistic approach to things than an optimistic one. Overall, if people are friendly and polite to him, he’ll probably respond pretty positively, but he doesn’t have a lot of tolerance for people who get on his nerves and has little patience for being teased. Become his friend, and he’s loyal almost to a fault, but piss him off? He’ll probably just walk away and tune you out.
"... those few weeks were very hard for me. Learning to trust people; having that trust broken. Finding out the town I pegged as small, and stifling, and empty... wasn’t any of those things." - Neku Sakuraba; End Game.
"I’m glad I met you guys. You made me... pick up on things, I probably would’ve just gone on ignoring. Trust your partner... and I do." - Neku Sakuraba; End Game.
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Personality:
"All the world needs is me. I got my values; so you can keep yours, alright?"
- Neku Sakuraba; Week 1, Day 1.
"I just met you. I don’t like you. And I don’t give a rat’s ass if you think I’m rude!"
- Neku Sakuraba; Week 1, Day 2.
"I’m not opening up to anyone. Ever. Other people just hold me back. I can do things my own way."
- Neku Sakuraba; Week 1, Day 2.
He's blunt to the point of being downright rude, stalks around with a major chip on his shoulder, and seems to view everyone else as nothing but a bunch of useless sheeple who are good for nothing else but forcing their worldview on him and holding him back. The only person he honestly cares about is himself, and that's why the game takes away his memory as his entrance fee. If he doesn't like someone, he doesn't bother with them -- and he doesn't like anyone. In fact, the only reason he initially lets Shiki hang around is because he'd end up Erased without a partner, and he never passes up the chance to remind her that they're bound by necessity and not camaraderie. (A point that he drives home when he almost strangles her early on in their partnership just because a Reaper tricks him into thinking it'll help him win the Game.) When it comes to dealing with people, he's stubborn about keeping them at an arm's length and refusing to let himself open up to them, and Shiki only manages to start cracking his shell via sheer persistence. (aka: She bugs the hell out of him until he can't ignore her.) Slowly, they grow together as partners, and she becomes the first person that we really see him open up to and bond with.
However, the Game is far from done with Neku, even when he and Shiki successfully make it through their week. As it turns out, his new bond with Shiki comes back to bite him in a pretty cruel way – since his newfound bond with her has made him come to care about her more than he cares about himself, she’s seized as his new entry fee. So, second-week!Neku is pretty muddled up about relationships; he opened up to someone, and it ended up biting them both on the ass. A great incentive for growth, right? Despite everything, Neku is determined to play through another week of the game and win, ensuring that he and Shiki both get to be revived together. With that in mind, he ends up getting partnered up with a smart-ass kid who calls himself Joshua, and they’re off for another week of trying to survive. Now, unfortunately for Neku, Joshua is about as grating and obnoxious of a person as anyone will ever hope to meet, and Josh seems delighted to spend most of their week together getting under Neku’s skin. To top things off, the few times Neku has attempted to scan Josh have ended with him getting garbled flashbacks of his own murder, which make him suspicious of Joshua but unwilling to press him for details. After all, if they can’t make it as partners, they’re as good as Erased. However, despite all of Joshua’s teasing and Neku’s tsundere, the two end up forming a pretty strong bond of trust by the end of Neku’s week. After all, Neku’s got no one else to lean on – Shiki was taken as his entry fee, Rhyme was Erased during his first week, and Beat betrayed them all by turning into a Reaper in the hopes of saving Rhyme – so, he ends up coming to trust and depend on Joshua just like a good partner should. His second week during the game teaches him a lot about opening up to people as a whole -- he learns to care about more than just one person, and actually starts developing an interest for the welfare of the other people surrounding him in Shibuya. So, all’s well that ends well, right? … nope, not quite. During the fight against the Game Master of the second week, Joshua ends up sacrificing himself to save Neku’s life – shoving Neku backwards with a smile and reminding him that he’s got other things to fight for, then turning around with his arms outspread to absorb the blow.
… and, surprise! Neku wakes up back in Scramble Crossing for a third time, forced to play the game for a third time. The twist? Due to Neku’s continuously expanding outlook, his new entry fee is all of the other players, which leaves him with no one to form a partner-pact with and absolutely no way to fight off the enemy Noise. However, Beat defects from the Reapers and makes a pact with Neku to help him out, and the two wander through a Shibuya that’s populated by people all wearing red pins that are causing them to all think the same harmonious thoughts. After receiving no missions to guide them, Neku and Beat decide to go to the fabled throne of the Game’s Composer, with Beat declaring that he’ll defeat the Composer, take over the job, and bring everyone (including his little sister) back to life. Neku, worried about his friends and not willing to waste Joshua’s sacrifice, is determined to help Beat achieve this goal, and the two smash their way to the river.
However, once they arrive, the plot twists dramatically, and all of the loose ends begin to come together. A man named Megumi Kitanji introduces himself as the Game’s Conductor, and says that he dispersed the red pins throughout Shibuya in an effort to harmonize the people and thus repair the city’s dying Vibe. If he fails, he’ll lose the game he’s been playing with the Composer, and the Composer will Erase the city as punishment. After Neku and Beat defeat Kitanji, a familiar face appears -- Joshua, who introduces himself as the Composer and applauds Neku for a job well done. See, Neku’s antisocial attitude coupled with his massive amount of unrealized Potential made him the “worst Soul” in Shibuya, and Joshua determined that if a flawed Soul’s like Neku could make it through the Game, then the city was damaged beyond repair – it’d be far better to Erase it and start clean. Joshua returns Neku’s memories of his death in full (showing that Joshua was, in fact, his murderer), and then tosses Neku a gun to challenge him to one final game. If Neku can shoot Joshua before he counts down from three, then Neku will become the next Composer and can do whatever he wants to with the city – if not, Josh kills Neku, and Shibuya is erased. At the beginning of the three weeks, there’s no doubt that Neku would have simply pulled the trigger to save his own skin, Joshua be damned. However, he’s grown throughout his time in the Game, and he can’t simply bring himself to kill a person that he still regards as his Partner – his friend. Despite everything, he still has the strength of soul to trust Joshua, and he ends up being too conflicted to shoot. Finally, he lowers his gun, and Joshua shoots him to win the match.
-- But. The growth that Neku has demonstrated in this final duel seems to be enough for Joshua, who restores Neku and all his friends back to their lives, and leaves the city intact. Neku has proven that even the worst Soul in Shibuya can be changed for the better, and that’s enough to save the city and the lives of everyone within it.
Now that he’s made it through the Game in one piece, Neku’s personality has done plenty to turn around for the better. One of the most prominent changes in his attitude is the way he views people in general – he’s more willing to connect with people and make friends, and he no longer seems stifled by Shibuya and its people. No, he’ll never be a sparkling social butterfly, but he’s not nearly as mopey and hateful as he once was, and that’s already more than anyone probably ever thought was possible. At the end of the game, he’s seen meeting up with Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme – even hoping that Joshua will meet them there – implying that the lessons he learned over the course of the Game have stuck. These people are no longer just partners, annoying necessities that he has to keep around just to survive – they’ve become friends. However, Neku’s only just learning how to deal with people, and there’s no doubt that it’s a slow, painstaking process. He’s spent his whole life trying to shove people away from him, and so learning how to open up and let them get close to him isn’t exactly something that can be learned overnight.
When it comes to socializing, Neku’s still pretty awkward. He’s still pretty terse when it comes to expressing his thoughts, and probably won’t be the most empathetic person hanging around, but it’s out of inexperience and not bitchiness. Said inexperience also means that he’s probably not going to be the first to pick up on subtler signs of people’s moods like body language or tone. Not to say that he’s dumb by any means – Neku’s a sharp kid, and he’ll eventually get the hang of people. Also, he's still got some hang-ups about intimacy in general; he's not entirely comfortable being touched, and it's a lot harder for him to be vulnerable around people that he's not really close with. His three partners from the Game and Mr. H definitely have his trust, but it's going to take a little bit longer before he's ready to be completely open with anyone else. He's also pretty sarcastic and cynical, and he's definitely the voice in the group that's going to take a more realistic approach to things than an optimistic one. Overall, if people are friendly and polite to him, he’ll probably respond pretty positively, but he doesn’t have a lot of tolerance for people who get on his nerves and has little patience for being teased. Become his friend, and he’s loyal almost to a fault, but piss him off? He’ll probably just walk away and tune you out.
- Neku Sakuraba; End Game.
"I’m glad I met you guys. You made me... pick up on things, I probably would’ve just gone on ignoring. Trust your partner... and I do."
- Neku Sakuraba; End Game.