Kyotaro Ichikawa

About Kyotaro Ichikawa

Kyotaro Ichikawa is a shy middle school boy who reads encyclopedias of murder in the school library and imagines himself as the dark, dangerous lead of a thriller. In reality he is a kind, awkward kid at the bottom of the class ladder, and meeting Anna Yamada in that library changes everything he thought he wanted.

Appearance

Kyotaro is a small, slight boy with dark hair cut in a bowl shape that falls over one eye, which suits a kid who would rather not be looked at. He usually wears his school uniform neatly and carries the heavy, morbid books he loves reading. Next to the tall Anna Yamada he looks even smaller, and the height gap between them is one of the series' running visual jokes.

Personality

Kyotaro tells himself a lot of stories. In his head he is cold, twisted and dangerous, a boy who reads about murder because he is above ordinary feelings. Underneath that performance he is gentle, observant and painfully self conscious. He notices other people's small hurts because he knows his own so well, and once he cares about someone, he is quietly brave about it, even when his voice shakes.

Background & Story

Kyotaro started middle school isolated, spending his free time alone in the library with his anatomy books and murder encyclopedias. His dark daydreams about Yamada, the class idol, were really a way to think about a girl he liked without admitting he liked her. Then Yamada began visiting the library herself, for snacks and songs and reasons of her own, and the two of them started talking. Group outings, exchanged messages and one small kindness after another pulled Kyotaro out of his shell, until the feelings he had been hiding behind a villain act had a name, and eventually, a confession.

Powers & Abilities

• A reader's eye: Kyotaro has no powers, but his years of reading and people watching make him unusually observant. He picks up on Yamada's moods, her tells when she is hiding something, and the small changes in the people around him that everyone else misses.
• The imaginary friend in his head: Kyotaro argues with an imaginary, cooler version of himself who says the things he is too shy to say out loud. The joke is that the imaginary Kyotaro is not his dark side at all. He mostly pushes Kyotaro toward honesty, and toward Yamada.

Key Relationships

• Anna Yamada: The girl at the centre of his daydreams, and then of his real life. What begins as a library acquaintance becomes the closest relationship Kyotaro has, and the story follows the two of them from first conversations to a confession.
• Kana Ichikawa: His older sister. Kana teases Kyotaro relentlessly, reads his feelings faster than he can hide them, and quietly roots for him and Yamada the whole way.
• Moeko Sekine: Yamada's friend, who sees what is happening between Kyotaro and Yamada long before either of them admits it, and nudges things along in her own blunt way.

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