Satoru Fujinuma

Satoru Fujinuma (藤沼悟 Fujinuma Satoru) is the main protagonist of the series. He is a 29 year old (in 2006) manga artist who also works part-time as a deliveryman at Oasi Pizza who possesses an ability which he calls "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 fair-skinned man in his late 20s with messy navy blue hair and eyes, a slim figure, and a tall stance. He often bears a blank expression and rarely smiles. He is most often seen wearing a white polo shirt, black pants, and a pair of loafers in the same color in addition to his maroon-colored prescribed glasses due to his eyesight loss as his age progressed.

When he was younger, Satoru had better eyesight and habitually smiled more often. He was of average height for children his age and wore a two-toned brown windbreaker above a light blue tee, dark pants, and navy blue rubber shoes.

Personality
Satoru is an introvert and shy person who sees it as a lack of communication skills on his part, often pretending to get along with people in order to maintain healthy relationships since his youth, as he had trouble understanding someone's emotions. While eventually overcoming this dilemma, he was unwilling to accept his own flaws, such as being irritated by people's behaviors, having a bad tendency to think out loud and casually point at someone's mistakes. After the serial kidnappings, Satoru tried forgetting about the incidents to the point he blocked it from his memory. This also caused him to be afraid of self reflecting on himself and recalling his past, which stemmed from the guilt of not saving his friends and classmates when the chance presented itself, ultimately leading him to become a disillusioned adult. Following Sachiko Fujinuma's (Satoru's mother) murder, Satoru is sent to the past with determination to fix his mistakes, which forced him into uncomfortable situations. Despite this, when a rerun occurs Satoru nosiness gets the better of him and he always goes to help the person in need, showing he is truly and deeply compassionate. Satoru is caring towards his friends and slowly opens up to and trusts them. He can be easily embarrassed and annoyed, but he is truly kind at heart and Sachiko described his way of living as "grabbing the bull by the horns". After managing to change the past, Satoru becomes more lively and outgoing.

History
Satoru was 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'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 Airi Katagiri (Satoru's co-worker) 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 Sachiko Fujinuma (Satoru's mother). 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, finding 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. 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 spends a month there in the 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 Kobayashi find Gaku Yashiro attempting to kidnap another child. This time, they lead him into a trap by changing the location he sent on her phone. After Yashiro is 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 Katagiri in their former meeting place while taking shelter from the snow.

Satoru also mentions not experiencing any more Revivals, feeling that this means he's now in the true timeline.

Quotes
"I'm scared of digging down deep into my mind"

- Fujinuma Satoru "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 Hinazuki

""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 Sugita and Kenya Kobayashi

"I don't have the courage to dig deep and take the first step. That's why I don't have any allies. I do have friends to have fun with, but I think "friends and "allies" are different. Yesterday, I watched the final episode of my favourite show, "Fight, Wonder Guy!". At the start of the show, Wonder Guy fought alone. He got knocked down again and again, but he never gave up, and he mustered up the courage to keep on fighting. "You can't open a path without digging deep and taking the extra step," he said, and kept fighting. And then, the people he moved with his courage became his allies one by one. That's why, even when it looked like he was going to lose to the bad guy in the end, he never stopped believing that his allies would come to his aid. But unlike Wonder Guy, I don't have courage or allies. So I felt extremely envious of him. It made me want to grow up to have true allies, with whom I'd share a bond of trust."

- "My Hero" - Fujinuma Satoru

Trivia

 * The name Satoru means "enlightenment" (悟).
 * Satoru's surname Fujinuma means "wisteria" (藤) (fuji) and "swamp" (沼) (numa).
 * Both voice actors of this character are their first debut in seiyu industry.