Shinobu Maehara

Voiced by: Masayo Kurata (Japanese), Bridget Hoffman (English)
Shinobu Maehara (前原 しのぶ, Maehara Shinobu) is a 13-year old schoolgirl who, after a bad start in which Keitaro, develops a crush on him. (or Senpai – a Japanese term for senior – as she calls him). Shinobu is also a boarder at the Hinata Inn, in room 201.

In the anime, she is first introduced as a grieving girl who has run away from home due to domestic turmoil; however, in the manga, she is already at the Hinata Inn when Keitaro arrives and her parents are still together.

She is quite skilled in both cooking and household chores as she become the cook (Her family once owned a restaurant in town prior to their divorce). Quiet and shy, she is overly caring of other's feelings and this contributes to her own emotional frailty.

She is the first girl to fall for Keitaro. In both the anime and manga, she thinks highly of Keitaro and will often be at the verge of tears when she thinks that he is in trouble or likes someone else. Such kind of permanent struggle with herself makes Shinobu's role dramatically saturated, so much so that it can be considered more tragic than that of Mutsumi (and, probably, the most tragic one of all).

Shinobu's closest friend may be Su, although she is not above bashing Kaolla for her mean jokes at times. One possible reason Shinobu has a crush on Keitaro is they actually have somewhat similar personalities, particularly in the manga where she bears the brunt of much embarrassing humor.In the manga, she was rated the #2 most popular girl by the readers. Though since the end of the manga she has become the most popular. Her name means "Front Field to Remember", while her given name means "To Endure."

Source: Wikipedia