""Don't ever speak that name in Class 3 again!""

- Yukari yells at Kōichi for breaking one of Class 3-3's rules.

Yukari Sakuragi (桜木 ゆかり, Sakuragi Yukari) was a student in the 9th Grade Class 3 in 1998, and the female class officer, being succeeded later by Izumi Akazawa.

Yukari's appearance between the manga and anime is quite different.

In the anime, Yukari is a light-skinned, slightly plump girl of slightly short stature. She has short curly brown hair, collected in a half-up and half-down hairstyle, tied back with a small bun, and her eyes are brown, accompanied by circular lenses with light green frames. She wears the typical female school uniform and is also shown in a long pink dress with a yellow shirt underneath.

In the manga, she has straight black hair and black eyes. Her glasses are also different: while they have round lenses in the anime, in the manga, they are elliptical.

In the film, her appearance is the same as in the manga, but she doesn't wear glasses.

In "Rough Sketch", Yukari went to visit Kōichi Sakakibara when he was in the hospital, alongside Izumi Akazawa and Tomohiko Kazami, as part of her duties as female class representative. She was part of the small group of students who directly welcomed Kōichi to Class 3-3. At some point, she injured her leg, which forced her to sit out PE with Kōichi. She explained certain aspects of the class to him and even talked about certain people to let Kōichi know them better, like her explaining Yūya Mochizuki's Art talent, but reacted fearfully when Kōichi mentions Mei Misaki's name, shouting at him in anger. However, she was often friendly (bordering on flirtatious) toward him, and the two walk home together in the rain at one point at the end of "Bone Work" and share a bonding moment.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck soon thereafter. One of her male relatives arrived at school to inform Yukari that her mother had been killed in a car accident, taking her out of class so she could pay her respects. A distraught Yukari fled, only to see Mei and Kōichi standing near the stairwell and talking. Realizing her mother had been killed as a result of the curse and fearing being close to Mei would cause her to follow suit, Yukari panicked and fled in the opposite direction, a confused and concerned Kōichi in tow. Yukari rushed down the stairs, but tripped and dropped her umbrella. She fell down the stairs, landing face-first on the umbrella, impaling her jugular on the tip. Kōichi watched in horror as his friend drowned in her own bodily fluids, her blood pooling around her body.

The class was visibly shaken by Yukari's passing. Takako Sugiura witnessed her death and found it extremely troubling, mentioning it to Aya Ayano. As head of Countermeasures, Izumi felt personally responsible for Yukari's demise and blamed herself.

One week later, a memento of flowers was left at the place where she fell.

Later, in "Body Paint", Yukari appeared in Kōichi's guilt-driven dream, standing with her freshly bloodstained umbrella at the place where she died, her face covered in blood, while blaming him for her death, suggesting Kōichi felt guilty for his friend's demise and blamed himself. Later on, Tomohiko said much the same thing, blaming Kōichi and nearly killing him in fury, as he felt Yukari wouldn't have died had Kōichi not joined the class. Izumi arrived and fatally injured Tomohiko instead, coldly telling him he could keep Yukari company.

Yukari was a kind and friendly girl who got along well with her classmates. But she really wanted to play along with Izumi and the whole class, so she followed them by ignoring Mei, too. She seems to have a bit of an anger problem, as she shouted at Kōichi when she got irritated by his probing. She even seems to be clumsy, because she fell and sprained her ankle, which later prevented her from participating in P.E. class, and slipped on the stairs, which caused her death.

A memorial bouquet was left at the spot where Yukari died by her classmates, suggesting she was well-loved by her peers and deeply missed. She also had close ties to many of her classmates, including:

In the anime, Yukari seems to be afraid of Izumi, who often berates her for not explaining things to Kōichi while she was absent. However, Izumi blamed herself for Yukari's death, feeling she'd let her classmate down.

In the manga, the two appear to be old friends, and Izumi keeps a picture of the two together on her desk at home. Yukari's death isolated Izumi, who no longer had anyone to share the burden of her troubles with, and caused her to lash out at Kōichi, and later Mei and Naoya Teshigawara. After an especially rough night, an emotionally disturbed Izumi begged Yukari to protect her from the curse, and later on, she muttered Yukari's name (alongside her brother's) as Mr. Chibiki carried her out of the burning inn.

In "Rough Sketch," when Ikuo walks to the nursery to rest, Yukari walks to Kōichi and asks him where Ikuo went. She seemed to smirk a little bit when she said his name, which can reveal that they had a good relationship.

Yukari is shown in the anime to be fond of Kōichi more than in the manga, and it's hinted that she had feelings for him, but doesn't fully express them. She was seen flirting with him at one point when both were sitting out PE, asking him what sort of girl he was interested in. She can also be seen trying to keep the peace when Izumi started asking Kōichi questions about his time in Yomiyama, and she got irritated, showing a sense of protecting Kōichi since he didn't know too much about the current situation. Yukari also offered to walk home with him in the rain since she has an umbrella, and they share a bonding moment, which was used as an opportunity by her to get closer to him. She can also be seen as the first of Kōichi's multiple crushes to try to build off their relationship and not stand off to the sidelines like the others did, and was seen as the most open to him early in the series in trying to make him comfortable in the cursed class. It is eventually revealed that she loves Tokyo and wishes she could go to school there, but can't afford it, although it can be assumed she was also saddened, mostly since she wouldn't be able to be in the same school or place as Kōichi, who said he'd be going there at the start of high school. The only time she ever raised her voice in anger was when she scolded Kōichi for mentioning Mei's name. This was one of the first clues to Kōichi that Class 3-3 was not as it seemed. Kōichi was troubled by her death, wondering if she'd still be alive if she'd taken the stairwell nearest him. He blamed himself for her death, as evidenced by her presence in his nightmare, where she accused him of killing her. The real Yukari wouldn't have done so, as she would have probably understood Kōichi was just in an unfortunate situation.

In the film, Yukari shares her desk with Kōichi. Though they presumably interacted offscreen, the two weren't especially close. When Kōichi finished a test early and left the class, Yukari followed him, imploring him to stop speaking to Mei, lest someone die. Kōichi rashly ignored her, running downstairs, as he'd just seen Mei heading for the locker room. Yukari confronted him a second time, angrily declaring that she'd had enough. When Kōichi tried to ask her what was happening, Yukari backed away, afraid of being near Mei. Suddenly, a can of paint, which the groundskeeper had accidentally put in the burn barrel, exploded, shattering the window behind Yukari. Startled and scared by the glass shards sailing toward her, Yukari backpedaled, only to slip in a puddle of water and fall back onto an umbrella, impaling her throat. Kōichi and Mei rushed to help her, but their classmate was mortally wounded. Her last words were to Kōichi, telling him she held him responsible for her death. Turning to look at Mei, Kōichi saw Death radiating off Yukari's body reflected in Mei's glass eye, much to his horror.

Yukari doesn't seem to mention any specific like or dislike for Mei. However, she does her best to play along with the other students, pretending she didn't exist. However, it shows that the pressure was getting to her as she freaks out at Kōichi for mentioning Mei's name. It wasn't until prior to her death that Yukari reacted to Mei. Upon finding out her mother had died, Yukari rushed to the nearest staircase. When she saw Kōichi with Mei, she reacted in sheer terror and ran for the staircase that was further away from them. This, in turn, caused her horrible death.