Tooru Kouno

"You're the weird one, looking so happy in this strange get-up."

- Tooru Kouno.

Tooru Kouno (河野 亨 Kōno Tōru) is the main protagonist of Princess Princess. He was one of the three Princesses in Fujimori Academy during his first year, alongside Yuujiro Shihodani and Mikoto Yutaka.

Appearance
Tooru has pale and short blue hair, while his eyes are purple colored with flecks of blue and thick lashes. His clothes usually consist of a black school uniform. In the manga, his hair appears to be pale green instead of blue. When in his Princess attire, his hair reaches his waist and wears a black headpiece with white frills on the hem and two black ribbons on the side. He also wears a white long sleeved bodice with puffy sleeves with a high white collar, the hem of the shirt is lined with frills, he also wears a black knee high skirt with white lace lined above the frilly hem and a pair of black boots with two black ribbons and heels on them.

Background
Prior the storyline of the series, his parents died in an unspecified accident and was adopted by his paternal uncle and aunt. Tooru grew up with his younger cousin/stepsister Sayaka, who became romantically obsessed with him to the point of psychosis. Sayaka wants to marry Tooru one day and is very adamant about this, going against the wishes of Tooru himself (as his feelings for her never evolved beyond that for a sister) and her parents. She is overly obsessive with him and has even hurt one of Tooru's previous girlfriend by shoving her down a set of steps out of jealousy.

Plot
Tooru was transfered to the all-male school Fujimori Academy. Upon starting at the school, he is asked to become a Princess. He seems enthusiastic about it since all the Princesses get a lot of free stuff and added luxuries. His parents died in an accident, which is when his uncle and aunt adopted him. He seems to be very reluctant about spending time with his family, which mainly has to do with his younger stepsister Sayaka, who has an unhealthy obsession with him. He mainly uses his job as a Princess as a distraction from the problems he has with his family and in effect usually gets very into acting like a Princess, much like Yuujirou.

Tooru often teams up with Yuujirou to tease Mikoto, much to the last's chagrin. Yuujirou often jokingly says he and Toru are lovers—in fact, when Sayaka comes looking for Toru, Yuujirou kisses him to scare her away; Toru was not amused by this. He reveals to Yuujirou on a day off of school that his ideal girl is the comforting type, which leads to the latter comically asking if Akira fit that type. When Toru answers yes, he seems get flustered when he realizes the actual question.

Yuujiro Shihodani
Tooru and Yuujiro are very close, as seen as they call each other by their first names and even shared each others past. Tooru often teams up with Yuujirou to tease Mikoto, and it also seems that they have a romantic attraction for each other. It was seen when Yuujiro didn't hesitate to kiss Tooru and when Tooru asked what Yuujiro thought about his transfer (that had been cancelled due to Tooru wanting to stay in the school), Yuujiro had blushed.

Mikoto Yutaka
Alongside Yuujirou, Tooru enjoys teasing Mikoto. Still, both of them are Princesses and good friends. Yuujiro and Tooru still tease Mikoto during their second year for not being as professional as their kouhais. Mikoto was also occasionally scolded for not realizing obvious stuff like when he didn't realize that Tomoe was mad at Kiriya.