Wakaba Shinohara was called an "onion head" when she was little. Her mother told her that she was the princess of the Onion Kingdom. This bit of information tells a lot about Wakaba's personality. She is possibly the most normal character in the series, even though she can be pretty weird at times. She has been Utena's friend ever since they were little (so I hear) and she often jokingly refers to herself as Utena's girlfriend. Wakaba's claim to fame is her strange habit of attacking Utena near open windows. Whether to show her affection or to "pay Utena back" for something she did, Wakaba is constantly jumping onto her friend's back and almost causing her to fall out of windows. Utena also carries Wakaba around on her back a lot. At the beginning, Wakaba has a quite obvious crush on Saionji, and a letter she wrote to him that he tacked up on the wall prompted Utena's first duel. Wakaba is very well-versed in who's who at Ohtori Academy, and she serves to help the audience become familiar with the characters. She brings Utena back to her senses after Touga destroys her confidence, and she pretty much tries to protect her friend against anyone trying to hurt her. Later in the Black Rose Saga, Wakaba sneaks the expelled Saionji into her dorm, where he is actually very nice to her (!) He even carves her a leaf hair clip, but when she sees it in Anthy's hair she gets very mad. She goes to see Mikage at Nemuro Memorial Hall to get help. There, she becomes a Black Rose Duelist, and returns to her room to draw Saionji's sword from his chest so she can duel Utena and kill Anthy, the girl who "stole Saionji-san's heart." Utena is very not happy with the situation and manages to cut the rose from Wakaba's chest without having to really fight her. The next day, Wakaba is back to normal. Wakaba is always around after that, helping Utena move into Akio's tower (mostly to ogle Akio) and doing homework with her. She has no clue about the duels or what happened when she was a duelist, but that's probably for the better.