Nodoka Haramura is a first-year student at Kiyosumi High School in Nagano Prefecture and one of the main characters in Saki. She also appears as a supporting character in the spin-off Saki: Achiga-hen - Episode of Side-A.
She's been playing online mahjong since childhood and developed a real passion for it, though her attorney father wasn't exactly thrilled about the hobby—he just didn't forbid it outright. Because of her mom's job, Nodoka's family relocated every couple of years, eventually landing in Nara Prefecture before her final year of elementary school. She attended Achiga Girls' Academy for middle school and befriended Shizuno Takakamo there, briefly joining the mahjong club.
After just one year, the family moved again, this time to Nagano. At Takatoobara Middle School, she met Yuuki Kataoka and they both joined the mahjong club alongside younger players Hiroko Murohashi and Maho Yumeno. While the team didn't make nationals, Nodoka crushed the individual tournament and won the national championship—which basically turned her into a media sensation. The press ran with the "mahjong genius" narrative, probably exaggerating things more than a little.
When middle school ended, her family was set to move again, but Nodoka pushed back. She wanted to stay in Nagano and go to Kiyosumi High with Yuuki. Her father eventually agreed, on the condition (more or less) that she'd win the national high school championship too.
Then she met Saki Miyanaga at Kiyosumi. Saki was a first-year like her, and the encounter was rough—Nodoka was initially shaken and even hostile when she realized Saki's mahjong ability was on another level entirely. But that tension faded. The two eventually grew close, and along with Yuuki and their upperclassmen, they set their sights on winning the national team tournament together.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
