Satoru Fujinuma

Satoru Fujinuma is a 29 year old (in 2006) manga artist who also works part-time as a deliveryman at Oasi Pizza and the main protagonist of the series. He possesses an ability called "Revival", which would bring him back to a time before a life-threatening incident has happened and allow him to prevent it. When he was framed for his mother's murder, he was brought back to 18 years ago when he was 11 years old (1988) where the same kidnapper has killed two young girls and a young boy in his hometown.

Appearance
Satoru is a young man with messy black hair and dark blue eyes. He is also fair skinned with a skinny build. Since he was a kid, Satoru wore glasses due to his eyesight.

Personality
Satoru is not very good at conversing with others and prefers to keep to himself. He pretends to wear a mask in order to get along with others and agrees with Hinazuka's comments that he is a fake. He admits when he was younger that he had a harder time understanding emotions (once remarking he smiled to make friends not the other way around) and that while he did grow to understand it took him so long to be self aware of himself that he didn't pay attention to others. As an introverted person, he tends to keep most of his thoughts to himself and talks to himself quite often. However, he also has a bad tendency to say things he thinks out loud something he frequently notices but has yet to correct. After the serial kidnappings, he did his best to forget about the incidents to the point he blocked his memories. This also caused him to be afraid of self reflecting on himself and thinking of his past. This seems to stem from the guilt of not saving his classmates Kayo and Hiromi when he had the chance and not being able to defend his friend Jun from the charges of the serial kidnappings. He also developed a hard time believing in someone or something as a result, becoming a disillusioned adult as he grew older. However, when his mother is murdered and he ends up returning to the past, he becomes determined to make a difference. He finds talking to people annoying and can be irritated easily by people's words and behaviors (such as a publisher's rejection and explanation of his manga along with a store clerk dusting while he was reading a newspaper and hating cops and the way they talked to him both in the past with regard to Jun's arrest and when he goes to save a child). Despite this, when a rerun occurs his nosiness gets the better of him and he always goes to help the person in need, showing he is truly and deeply compassionate. He is caring towards his friends and slowly opens up to and trusts them (having had an initial dislike and disbelief in the idea of believing in something). He is caring and can be quite bold and determined when it comes to protecting his friends and family. He can be easily embarrassed and annoyed but is truly kind at heart. His mother states he tends to live by grabbing the bull by the horns. He is mildly perverted, evidenced when he becomes nervous when holding Hinazuka's hand and when he hears his mother and Hinazuka bathing, he gulps for a bit before snapping himself to reality. After the revival, he becomes more lively and outgoing.

Childhood
As a child, Satoru is an ordinary child who spent his life hanging out with his friends casually. He was frequently seen with an adult nicknamed Yuuki whom he looked up to as an exemplar. He didn't involve himself with Kayo and the other 2 victims' cases as he had no knowledge about the murderer which eventually lead to their planned demise. In the criminal case, he desperately tried to convince his mother to protect Yuuki who was being suspected as the murderer but failed. As an adult, he was a struggling mangaka and worked part-time as a fast-food delivery boy.

First Leap Arc
Satoru Fujinuma's work is rejected by his editor who said his manga isn't good enough as it didn't convey his feelings to the readers. As he leaves, he tears up his manga before letting the papers fly off. He goes back to his apartment while thinking about his life. It is revealed that he works as a delivery man at Oasi Pizza.

During one of his deliveries, he experiences Revival, sending him back a few seconds into the past. He looks around trying to identify the situation, a truck heading straight towards a child on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, the driver had died of a heart attack while driving. He manages to somehow turn the steering wheel of the truck, before it hits the boy. He collides into another car, sending himself to the hospital. During his sleep, he sees a flashback to the time he was a child, and sees a girl, dressed in a red coat, standing alone in the park.

When he wakes up, he finds his co-worker, Airi Katagiri, by his side, who tells him he's been out for two days, but praises him for saving the child. When he is released from the hospital, he arrives home to find his mother, Sachiko Fujinuma. She reminds him of the incident that had occurred 18 years ago, when Jun Shiratori, otherwise known as Yuuki was arrested and charged for kidnapping and killing two of his classmates.

The following day, after going grocery shopping with Sachiko, Satoru experiences another revival, while in the parking lot. This time, he is unable to detect the situation and asks his mother to look around as well. She spots a suspicious man with a little girl, who seems to be attempting to kidnap her, but upon realizing that he was being watched, gets into his car by himself and drives off. Later, they run into Katagiri, whom Sachiko invites to dinner.

Looking into it, Sachiko concludes that the man she saw might have been the real killer. She calls an old friend of her's and informs him of the situation but before she could tell Satoru, she is stabbed in the stomach by a knife from the serial killer that had entered into their home. In her final moments, she whispers her apologies for not believing Satoru when he denied the possibility of Shiratori being the killer. She tries to reach for her phone but it is taken by the killer. Satoru, unaware of his mother's passing, comes home. On the stairs, he passes a man who covers his face, staring at him with sinister red eyes, before disappearing. Satoru finds the door to his apartment open, walks in to find Sachiko lying on the floor. Worried, he prods her, turning her over to find the knife in her, his hand stained in fresh blood. He backs out of the room, just as one of his neighbors come by, offering some homemade food. She sees the blood on his hands and screams. The police come and frame Satoru for murdering his mother, although he didn't. He flees and experiences a Revival, this time, sending him back 18 years to the time he was still in elementary school.

Second Leap Arc
At 7 p.m. on March 14, 1988, Satoru was transported to a hospital in the city. He spent a month there in an intensive care unit on a respirator, and was later moved to a general ward after becoming stabilized. Though the hospital recommended that he be taken off life support, his mother firmly rejected it and kept him on it. In July of 1989, he was transported to a hospital in Chiba. His mother moved to an apartment and began home care. Nine years passed and his condition showed no change but in 2001 he suddenly started breathing on his own and his brain recovered up to a sleep state, though he didn't wake up. After waking up, he has no memory of what had happened to him or the events leading up to his coma.

After he recovered his memories, he and Kenya found Yashiro attempting to kidnap another child. This time, they led him into a trap by changing the location he sent on her phone. After Yashiro was arrested, Satoru once again pursues his dream of becoming a manga artist and this time succeeds with great results. He is later seen with Kenya on a roof discussing Yashiro's case. Later, he meets Airi in their former meeting place while taking shelter from the snow.

Satoru also mentions not experiencing any more Revivals after that.

Quotes
"My fate is my own. There's no need for you to feel responsible. I'm sure that what's become of me was a result of something I wanted."

- Satoru to Kayo

""Believing in someone." That's a weird phrase, isn't it? After all, if you truly believe in a person, you wouldn't need to say, "I believe in you." It's like saying, "I believe in air.""

- Satoru to Hiromi and Kenya

Trivia

 * Both voice actors of this character are their first debut in seiyu industry.