Konomi Kasahara

Konomi Kasahara (笠原 好, Kasahara Konomi) is the main character of Hang On! Climbing Girls.

Appearance
Konomi is a young fair skinned girl of average height with shoulder length purple/violet hair that has lighter colored ends and equally purple eyes.

Personality
Konomi starts as a puzzle-loving yet conflicted person whose love for puzzle games effectively left her without any actual goals. As she discovers rock climbing she comes to find one activity that actually motivates her to try her best. As she comes across differing and growing obstacles, Konomi learns fear and difficulty, which ultimately mold her perseverance, growing confidence and a newfound love not only for rock climbing but also for herself as a person.

She views rock climbing similarly to puzzle games, performing mental gymnastics and enjoying not just the feeling of solving routes with her mind but also her body herself, and is able to break down the different schematics in a game-like fashion. When doing so she can enter a trance-like state purely out of the sheer excitement.

Konomi genuinely believes in her place in Hanamiya Girls as the Sports Climbing Club has allowed her to find new facets of herself and both literally and figuratively reach new heights.

Plot
On the first day of her new school, Konomi is recognized and challenged in a Tetris game, which she wins easily. Later Konomi comments that since she was focused too much on puzzle games, she almost failed to join the school she wanted and had given up on being a gamer and had focused on studies. She now wonders what club she should join, but as she walks around the school, she notices a climbing wall and gets interested in it. Jun Uehara from the Climbing Club appears and tells her that only club members are allowed to touch it, but as she realizes she is a new student, Jun decides to let her try climbing it.

Konomi changes into climbing clothes and equipment and attempts to climb the wall, but fails. She thinks she has a talent in this, but Jun suggests her to use a specific route, which Konomi finds to be much harder. Jun explains that the amateur route and she is not talented. Konomi is about to leave, but takes another look at the wall and this time she sees it as a puzzle game. She requests another take and this time she manages to reach quite high. As she attempts and lunge and fails, she realizes her mistake and wants to try one more time, but the club president Sayo Yotsuba tells her to take a break and welcomes her to the Climbing Club.

Abilities
Konomi has prodigious analytical skills, making her an excellent On-Sight climber as she is capable of deducing the proper manner to solve routes by seeing the problem before trying it. She owes her analytical skills due to her past as a major puzzle game fan and competitor, which in turn earns her the nickname "Murder's Observation".

Konomi's analytical ability allows her to discern routes, even multiple routes at once almost immediately upon setting her sight on the challenge, and is also able to determine which of those routes she is capable of clearing and how. Konomi also has the ability to mentally picture solutions to routes and even reimagine the problem she faces like a puzzle, allowing her to easy set for the correct path. When doing so, she can enter in an almost trance-like state. Over time, she even learned to analyze her opponents and their climbing styles.

Konomi does have a glaring weakness, however: Speed. Due to her first analyzing every possible scenario to find the optimal route, she tends to use up a lot of time. On top of this, Konomi herself is also a naturally slow climber, thus having difficulty on Speed Climbing. She also initially did not have good physique due to her being new to the sport. She has been able to work on both these weaknesses by improving her physique, and has improved on Speed Climbing through the use of rhythm, allowing her to maintain tempo.

Etymology

 * The name Konomi means "good, fond, pleasing, like something" (好).
 * Konomi's surname Kasahara means "shade, bamboo hat" (笠) (kasa) and "field, plain" (原) (hara).