Naoko Sasaki

A straight-laced, easily agitated comedienne who's determined to perfect her craft; no matter how much diligent practice it may require.

Appearance
She has brown eyes and medium dark skin, with straight brownish-black hair that she wears in short pigtails with a pair of purple hairbands. She wears a small tie clip adorned with an exclamation point in her hair.

Her typical outfit consists of a lavender dress shirt with pale mauve stripes, which she wears with a dark purple blazer, dress pants and dress shoes.

Stats
Naoko typically writes comedic routines in the Manzai(boke/tsukkomi duo) style, although she has practiced various other styles, including improv, short skits and rakugo(storytelling). She also has a reasonable knowledge of cooking, but rarely attempts to make anything particularly outstanding unless cooking for someone else.

Personality
Naoko often takes things incredibly seriously, and is prone to getting annoyed or frustrated with others easily when receiving snark or witnessing actions that she considers incompetent. She tends to avoid most social interaction, isolating herself from others for excessive amounts of time under the guise of improving her work; while she typically does utilize the majority of her free time to improve herself, it can often serve as an excuse to recharge, struggling to socialize with others due to engaging in antisocial behaviors for several years. Despite her tendencies, she attempts to remain polite with the majority of people when interacting with them, unless she is provoked.

Background
She was born the youngest of three siblings and raised in Yokohama. Being raised by overworking, conservative parents who were often out of the house led her to become independent, yet emotionally reserved from an early age. She tended to do well in school, but never strained herself to do better than what she was capable of during elementary and early middle school.

She often served as a mediator between her twin siblings' constant arguments, but typically sided with her brother, Youta, as opposed to her sister, Yui. Yui teased and mocked various aspects of Naoko's appearance and personality as they grew up, which strained their relationship and led to Naoko developing extreme body issues. Inversely, Youta was incredibly supportive and empowering to Naoko, but his constant success only made her feel inferior to him, serving as motivation for her devotion to improving her craft, which eventually spiraled into her involvement with the rest of her class at Bright Future.

Story
She tended to isolate herself from others during the game until her death, where she was lured out and poisoned in the 5th chapter of DRN1.

The following are events that have occurred in after-game and are non-canon events.: During the aftergame, she is initially skeptical towards the nature of her resurrection, and is only convinced after witnessing a recording of the events leading towards her death. She tends to behave similarly as she did during her game, developing a grudge against Kyou after Moji insults her and angrily reprimanding Tamago, Mi Na, and any other residents that anger her. Following an increased amount of time shared by the two, Naoko inadvertently revealed her growing feelings Hotaru, and the two started a relationship following confirmation of the feelings being mutual.

Midori and Juurou Sasaki
Naoko developed several habits and behaviors from her parents, including her tendency to overexert herself and her addiction to coffee. She shares the majority of her traits with her mother, while having a similar appearance to her father.

Yui Sasaki
Yui and Naoko often clashed as they grew up, due to their incredibly contrasting personalities. Her sister lacked motivation and drive, gaining a simple office job instead of going into business for herself as she initially intended. Yui often took each and every opportunity she could to tease Naoko, if only to make herself feel better.

Youta Sasaki
Naoko respects Youta, idolizing him since childhood due to their similar personalities and viewpoints on life. Her brother was incredibly driven, graduating from school two years early before attending university and starting a global communications internship. His constant success tended to make her feel inferior, which only motivated her into developing even more destructive, unhealthy habits and behaviors.

Mi Na
Mi Na and Naoko were once close during the pre-game, as she often served as emotional support for her and Kameyo as they planned their game. During their game, Naoko found herself easily frustrated with Mi Na's teasing and snark during the game, but eventually developed a small crush on her, although she refused to admit the mere possibility of that to herself.

Tamago
Tamago served as the other half of a comedic due with Naoko during pre-game planning, as they were both members of the entertainment team. They rarely interacted with one another during the game, but tended to be involved in the back-and-forth that one would anticipate from the two whenever they did.

Hotaru
Despite often disagreeing with her methods, Naoko respected Hotaru's attempts to maintain morale during the worst periods of the game. She eventually became Naoko's girlfriend during the aftergame.

Trivia

 * Naoko's current color palette is monochromatic, consisting mainly of warm purple shades, while her original palette had both purples and pinks. This is a characteristic shared by the rest of the characters created by Pastel(Tit), although it was an unintentional decision during the inception of Naoko's design.
 * Naoko was originally more social than her current iteration.
 * The DIPS system currently utilized by DRN was not established until the second game, so the stats for the DRN1 students were made in post.