Raku-chan



Raku-chan is the deuretagonist of Nyan~ Neko Sugar Girls; she's an outgoing catgirl who loves to spend time with her friends Koneko-chan and Hitoshi-san, She often uses Japanese phrases such as “kawaii”, “sugoi”, “nya” and “desu” every time she speaks.

Appearance
Raku Chan is a short fair-skinned catgirl with neck-length short hair that has an olive-green-like color along with violet eyes.

She normally wears a plain light teal shirt with short sleeves, a short pink pleated skirt, and a pair of brown shoes that Japanese high school students normally wear.

Since she's a catgirl, she has a pair of cat ears on top of her head and a tail attached under her skirt, all of which are gray colored. In her cat form, her fur still retains the same gray color she had in her human form, with a small pair of angel wings that protrude on her back.

Personality
Raku-chan can only be described as childish, easygoing, innocent, and a bit of a ditz. She is constantly whiny, but her intentions seem to be good until she decides to take advantage of the attention she gets when Hitoshi and Koneko try to calm her from her rabies in Episode 4. She is most likely the youngest out of the trio which can explain her behavior.

Name Etymology
The name ”Raku”, or “楽” is translated to “easy”, most likely meaning easygoing as a referral to Raku-Chan’s personality.

Background
Raku made her first appearance while she's eating at Mochi Central with Koneko-Chan; both of them soon finished their meal, and left the place. While the duo were walking back home, they were greeted by Hitoshi-san. Raku couldn't help but fall in love as soon as she first saw him, she got embarrassed and got a nosebleed. Koneko and Hitoshi just laughed it off and Raku greeted Hitoshi. The trio got along and became friends. The same night, Raku couldn't stop thinking about Hitoshi.

The next day, Koneko and her were shopping at Kawaii underwear chan store. As they were leaving the place after finishing shopping they heard Hitoshi's scream for help, which was coming from a blue van. The duo chased the van and soon after they arrived at the kidnapper's secret lair. They both broke his window open to save Hitoshi. Raku-chan unties him while Koneko ties the Kidnapper, Hitoshi thanked for saving him and went home by himself.

Next morning, Raku-chan woke up and went outside. She saw a squirrel on the grass and decides to take a closer look as she seems interested in it. Raku carried the squirrel till it seemingly was starting to suffocate between her chest. As a result, the squirrel decides to bite her arm, which leaves Raku bleeding very badly and made her scream because of the pain for 1 minute. Hitoshi checked on Raku and decided to put her in bed, hoping that she'll recover. To make her feel better, Hitoshi and Koneko brought dancing sushi for her; she was quite happy to receive such a lovely gift from her friends.

Another day passes, Raku woke up to her phone ringing and picks it up. It turned out Koneko was the one calling. She told Raku her plan about bringing Raku to the vet to treat her illness. As they arrived at the vet, they are met by Vet-sama. Vet-sama decides to run a couple of tests on her to see what caused Raku to be sick. Moments later it's revealed that she has Rabies. Raku is saddened to hear the news, so Hitoshi and Koneko try cheering her up. Raku felt better from the support she got from her friends.

Despite that, Raku didn't seem to get better and soon passed out and was found by Koneko unconscious as she was trying to give a present to her.

She is later woken up to Hitoshi-san and Koneko-chan, Koneko tells her she's going to give her green tea, after she finishes making her green tea, she noticed that Raku is missing and dropped her cup out of shock. Desperate to find her, she called Hitoshi and informed him about the situation and the two go on the search to find Raku. Raku ran away from home and got lost outside so she started crying. Suddenly, Raku saw a light in front of her and followed it. The light is seemingly a God and he tells her to release her inner beast. Raku does so and she turned into a gray cat.

Meanwhile, Koneko and Hitoshi are still searching for Raku-chan. They both noticed a cat being attacked by a group of dogs and drove the dogs away. To their astonishment, the cat that was being attacked by the group of dogs was actually Raku. Hitoshi-san picks her up and they take her back to his home.

The duo tried to think of ways to try to spend as much time with Raku as possible, and Koneko suggested going to the Amusement park. Hence, they packed up and went to the amusement park. The first ride they went on was the roller coaster, in which Raku-chan suddenly turned back into a human during the ride. After the ride, they decided to go for more rides which made Hitoshi nauseous so he suggested going to the miniature beach instead. They all agreed to do so and had fun on the beach. Later on, they went back home.

The next day, Koneko-chan wakes up and finds out Raku turned back into a cat again, so she decides to go to the vet alongside with Hitoshi-san. When they arrive at the Vet, Vet-sama seems to know what Raku chan is currently dealing with and took a closer look at her. She decided to do a full checkup which takes about ten minutes in total. After she's finished, she told Koneko and Hitoshi that she's officially diagnosed with a Bakeneko inside of her. However, Vet-sama was able to help; she reveals that she is also a Shrine Maiden and not just an ordinary vet. Vet-sama was able to heal her through the process of a sacred ritual accompanied with her beautiful singing.

After some rest, Raku-chan turns back into her normal human self but as she sleeps she gets nightmares of all the events that previously happened which caused her to wake up. She felt thirsty and decided to get some water but passed out instead. Koneko-chan heard the thud and decided to check to whether the Bakeneko is still inside her. Koneko tried to get the vet in the middle of the night but Hitoshi requested to help by kicking down the clinic door and successfully does so. To Koneko's disappointment, the clinic is empty and Raku-chan fell asleep on Hitoshi's shoulder. Later on, she wakes up to see Vet-sama in the clinic.

Hitoshi apologizes for kicking her door but Vet-sama shrugs it off and tells him it's fine. Koneko told Vet-sama about Raku's situation once again and Vet-sama said she could help so she turned into a shrine maiden and temporarily healed her. Vet-sama suggested to Koneko to let Raku have the best day of her life before the effects are gone.

The trio did so by going out shopping and attending special events to let Raku have the best day of her life as Vet-sama suggested. As it started to get late, they all parted their ways and went home. Someone knocked on Raku's door and it turned out to be a few of her college friends. They all heard about what happened to her and wished for her to get well soon. They had a little chat in Raku's house before going home. As soon as they all leave, Koneko serves some food to Raku and she thanks her for it; she soon becomes tired and decides to sleep early.

As they wake up, Koneko is a bit worried for Raku-chan since she slept for over 24 hours but she is at least currently doing fine. Raku thought about telling her feelings to her crush Hitoshi san, and Koneko thought that Raku-chan should go for it. With Koneko's support, they both go out to meet Hitoshi. Raku was very happy to meet him and asks Koneko to leave them alone for a bit and she did so.

Raku finally tells Hitoshi how she really felt and hugs him very tightly. Hitoshi is surprised, but all of a sudden Bokutachi-san interrupted the conversation. She realized the two are dating and she started to cry her and heart started breaking, Koneko and Hitoshi-san approached her before her very last moment and she soon dies of a broken heart which was confirmed by Vet-sama.

Koneko-chan
Raku and Koneko are best friends and they are usually hanging out together.

Koneko-chan is mostly portrayed as a mother figure to Raku and probably knows a lot about her. Whenever Raku falls ill, she nurses her by making her some green tea and tries her best to make Raku feel better by taking her to some places she enjoys.

They seem to have a good friendship as they try to help each other out as much as they can.

Hitoshi-san
Hitoshi San is Raku's love interest ever since the start.

Raku first met him after finishing her lunch at Mochi Central; he passes by and greets the two catgirls, and that's the moment when Raku fell in love with him. The two got to know each other and soon become very good friends, they are both seen hanging out together along with Koneko-chan.

Raku couldn't stop thinking about him ever since their first interaction and she shows some obvious signs of her having a crush on him. However, Hitoshi seems oblivious to it and most likely sees her as only a friend since he started falling in love with his kidnapper, making it a one-sided love on Raku-chan's part.

At the end of the series, she finally gets the courage to confess to him, but Hitoshi doesn't feel the same way as he started dating Bokutachi-san. She starts crying since he doesn't love her back, and her heart starts breaking and she soon dies as she simply just couldn't move on.

Vet-sama
Raku-chan is a catgirl, hence she has to visit a vet instead of an actual doctor. They don't really interact except if Raku has to go to the vet.

Trivia

 * Raku-chan's birthday is officially on April 1st
 * In one of the episodes, Raku-chan’s mother was revealed to be a human, and her father a cat.
 * It has been heavily speculated that she was voiced by SoapOpera46 themselves, although this was never confirmed due to the reclusiveness of the show’s cast.
 * She appears to be the shortest character in the show.
 * Raku-Chan was hinted to have been rather popular back at college during her get-well party, with a plentiful number of close friends such as Betty-Sempai and Nya-Sempai.
 * She was a perfect, and by far the best example of the anime archetype “Kawaiiko”, or “Deredere”.


 * SoapOpera46 lists her as her favorite cartoon character.