Naoko Tanba

Naoko Tanba (丹羽 菜緒子 Tanba Naoko) is the winner of the Nagoya elementary tournament, located in the Aichi prefecture during her 6th year at Shumoku Elementary School.

Appearance
Naoko has medium length black hair and dark eyes.

Personality
In her first appearance, Naoko comes off as a quite arrogant girl who orders her opponents to kneel down in front of her. It is later revealed that this was her opponents' idea, and that she simply expected them to honor their promise. It seems that Naoko has a very low tolerance for people who do not take things seriously, but otherwise she remains calm and reasonably polite.

She has continued to be friends with Shino Shiratsuki through middle school, telling Shino that her team made it to the Middle School national tournament and she hopes to see Shino there as well.

Naoko likes sweets.

Girls of Yumachi
After winning her region, she asks the competitors to kneel down before her like they said they would. When they do not, she says they take pride in being worthless and should take this competition more seriously.

Children's National Tournament Arc
In the third round of the tournament she plays against Shino Shiratsuki, Kokoro Oroku, and Chiyoko Takahashi. Before the match Kokoro insults Chiyoko and proposes that the losers have to perform dogeza. Kokoro then says that was the wager in Naoko's prefectural match. She tells Kokoro that it was proposed by someone else but she doesn't mind because losing would be more vexing. Shino then tells her that she cannot go all out if she has to worry about that so they decide that the losers have to buy the winners juice. At the beginning of the match, Shino wins with a riichi tsumo, but when she tries it once more Naoko manages to ron her. Naoko wins again off of Chiyoko but Shino overtakes her with another tsumo. Later Kokoro ends the match by busting Chiyoko. Shino and Kokoro advance to the next round.

When the match is over, she is seen with Chiyoko and is surprised that Shino bought them a drink. She asks Shino if it's out of pity but when she replies it's out of gratitude for playing with her, Naoko and Chiyoko accept it. However neither liked the taste of Durian and says that dogeza would've been easier. Later while watching the fourth round with Naoko, Chiyoko wonders if Shino and Kokoro will win the tournament. Naoko then tells her that only one can win and asks why Chiyoko played the 6-man which led to their defeat. She tries to get Naoko to change the subject by saying they should just drink their latte but to no avail. She then tells Naoko that she is sorry that her choice got her involved. Naoko then tells her that she doesn't really mind.

Shimane Tournament Arc
Naoko texts Shino Shiratsuki to do her best and to meet her in Tokyo.

2nd Children's National Tournament Arc
She arrives with Chiyoko to Tokyo on a train. Naoko texts Shino to tell her that they've arrived and Chiyoko texts Kokoro. That night, she has dinner with Chiyoko and starts walking back when a group of young boys start to tease Chiyoko. Naoko says she understands and likes to tease her as well. Chiyoko asks if she is ugly like the boys say but Naoko says it is very much the opposite. The next day they gather with Kokoro and Shino. They go to Chiyoko's place to play mahjong and she ends up winning. She mentions having a meeting to go to around 5.

During the semifinals, she watches Chiyoko suffer a effortless defeat at the hands of Chihiro Mukunoki. She meets Chiyoko in the hallway but could not cheer her up. Thinking on how much Chiyoko means to her, she focuses on her match and does really well. Chiyoko then meets Naoko in the halls and hugs her saying that her victory helped a lot.

Playing style/Abilities
Naoko is very observant, spotting both of Kokoro Oroku's attempts at winning via traps. While attacking, she very aggressively goes for medium-sized open hands, even against opposing Riichi declarations.

Etymology

 * The name Naoko means "vegetables, greens" (菜) (na), "thread" (緒) (o) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Naoko's surname Tanba means "rust-colored, red, red lead, pills" (丹) (tan) and "feather" (羽) (ha/ba).
 * Friends and classmates call Naoko Niwa-chan (ni-wa is an alternate reading for the kanji in her surname).