One of the top pianists in middle school—rivaling Takeshi in skill—Emi plays with her heart on her sleeve. Her emotions drive her performance, which is both her strength and her weakness; even minor discomfort can throw her completely off.
Before the main story, Emi and Takeshi sat together griping about losing to Kousei Arima, the supposedly "emotionless" prodigy. Everyone acknowledged that these two were head and shoulders above the rest of the competition, which made Kousei's victory even more remarkable. But where Takeshi saw Kousei as a rival pushing him to improve, Emi had something else going on. She'd been genuinely inspired by Kousei's passion and raw innocence the first time she heard him play. That inspired her to pursue piano seriously under Yuriko Ochiai, specifically to develop her own expressive voice. Throughout the story, she's driven by a need to challenge what she sees as Kousei's current "boring" style—hoping to somehow bring back the genuine, passionate player who first moved her.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
