Hinata Kawamoto

Hinata Kawamoto (川本 ひなた, Kawamoto Hinata), often called Hina, is one of the main character of the March Comes in Like a Lion series. She is the middle child of the Kawamoto sisters and a middle school student whose positive attitude inspires Rei Kiriyama to try to overcome his depression.

Appearance
Hina's casual style of dress mainly consists of dresses she wears over her jeans. Similar to her older sister, Hinata is also considered a cute girl. Notably, Hayashida-sensei, Noguchi, Shimada 8-dan, her male classmates, and many of the senior shogi members acknowledge that Hinata and Akari are very charming. She also likes to change her hairstyle, but often keeps it in twin tails, even after her hair was cut shorter (bun, braids, etc.)

Personality
When Hina friend is being ruthlessly bullied in class, everyone else diverts their gaze to avoid suffering the same fate, but Hina remains steadfast by her side until the day she finally moves to escape the trauma. When she becomes the next victim, she remains steadfast and strong, refusing to give in to their constant harassment. At the very start of the arc in chapter 52, she sobbingly declares that she'll never regret her actions because she knows she wasn't wrong. Towards Yuusuke Takahashi, a boy she's known since elementary school, she can barely manage small talk with him, often unable to speak properly when he shows up. Whenever she's at one of his baseball games she acts a pure fangirl. She undoubtedly felt an immediate repulsion towards Kyouko Kouda after meeting her for the first time.

Background
Hina's mother and grandmother both passed away at an early age, leaving Akari Kawamoto (Hina's older sister) to take care of her and Momo Kawamoto (Hina's younger sister). Despite acting like she didn't feel the same way Akari did about her mother and grandmother's death, Hina seems to feel strongly about her mother's death, as she's seen to be calling out for her mom one night at a bridge after a festival. She grew up as a relatively normal girl until Rei Kiriyama came into her life during her middle school years.

Etymology

 * The name Hinata is written in hiragana (ひなた), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (日向, 陽向 or 向日葵), it could possibly mean:
 * 日向 - "sunny place".
 * 陽向 - "toward the sun".
 * 向日葵 - "sunflower".
 * Hinata's surname Kawamoto means "river, stream" (川) (kawa) and "base, root, origin, source" (本) (moto).

Nickname

 * The name Hina is written in katakana (ヒナ), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (陽菜 or 日菜), it could possibly mean :
 * 陽菜 - "light, sun, male" (陽) (hi) and "vegetables, greens" (菜) (na).
 * 日菜 - "sun, day" (日) (hi) and "vegetables, greens" (菜) (na).

Trivia

 * Hinata calls Rei Kiriyama "Rei-chan".
 * Hinata sleeps in late in the mornings till the very last minute and often makes bentos by herself.