Tsukata Kanda

Tsukata Kanda (神田・束太?, Kanda Tsukata) is one of the main characters in FLCL Alternative and its sequel, FLCL: Shoegaze. He serves as the immigration bureau chief (管理局長, kanri kyokuchou) at the Bureau of Interstellar Immigration.
==Profile==
He often eats at the noodle shop operated by Dennis Yoga, where Kana Koumoto worked as a server and usually orders tsukumi-soba (lit. "Moon-viewing soba", consisting of hot buckwheat noodles in broth topped with a raw egg). In "Full Flat", he tried to switch his order up and have cold soba instead, leaving an emotional distraught Kana confused and hoping that he would just stick to his regular order.
Prior to joining the Bureau, he was a high school athlete and was on the school's baseball team. Though he also noted that he never got to play or even serve as a benchwarmer when the team made it to the national championship tournament known as Kōshien. After the last summer that he was on the team, he took up smoking cigarettes at the age of 17. He is shown to still be a big fan of baseball, as he texted Masaki Aofuji pictures of himself with his catcher's mitt and even demonstrated his pitching skills to Kana during a break from experiments.
==Personality==
He appears to be somewhat bitter and worn out, as he is the only person working at the bureau and has to constantly deal with Prime Minster Kitaki as well as Haruko. 
==Appearance==
He is typically shown looking disheveled, despite being a government official. He has black hair and stubble around his face. He wear semi-rimless eyeglasses and is typically dressed in a grey business suit, with a white dress shirt and sloppily tied blue necktie. He later fixes his tie in "Shake It Off" after he leads a group of tanks to fight the terminal core. In "Full Flat", he loosens his tie again after the prime minster scolded him, but fixes it again after talking to Haruko at the noodle shop.
In "Pit-a-Pat", during a flashback scene, a younger, well-dressed version of Kanda is shown. He had a fuller head of hair that was slightly messy and light brown in color, along with a full chinstrap beard and purple square framed glasses with tinted lenses. He wore a black suit and pants along with a purple dress shirt with the collar open.
In Shoegaze, he looks noticeably older, as his face is thinner, his hair is shorter and greying and he now sports a thick circle beard. He also wears black square frame glasses, but still wear the same suit and poorly fashioned necktie. During the flashback scenes that showed Kana between the ages of 20 and 24, he retained his original look from Alternative.
==Relationships==
===Haruko Haruhara===
As revealed in "Pit-a-Pat", Kanda has known Haruko prior to the start of the Alternative storyline. In a flashback scene, a much younger and well dressed Kanda went to check on her as she was being treated for an injury in some sort of medical bathtub at the bureau. As they started flirting with each other, he took off his clothes and tried to join her. Immediately, she took advantage of the opening and threw him into the tub. As he struggled in the water, she placed a shower cap on him and used his N.O. channel, pulling out a small toy space gun with a shark design. She then mocked him by calling him a boring guy and threw his toy gun back into the tub as he sank down in shame.
In the main storyline, he seems to be somewhat bitter after finding out that she has returned to Earth. In the first episode, he is caught off guard as she takes a seat at a nearby table while he was eating at the soba noodle shop and later, caught her spying on Kana and her friends. In the final episode, he eventually puts his issues with Haruko aside as they work together to stop the Medical Mechanica irons and fight off the enemy robots.
In the final episode of Shoegaze, Kana implied that Kanda still has some feelings for Haruko and that the main reason that he had the Tsuganei Tower built in the first place was to bring back her after she was transported to Mars in "Full Flat".
===Kana Koumoto===
In Alternative his relationship with her was somewhat minimal, since he was a regular customer at the soba shop she worked at during high school. She would usually take pity on him as the jar of shichimi would suddenly open and spill a large amount into his bowl of tsukumi-soba. He helps her out in the final episode by fighting off the enemy robots alongside Haruko as Kana unleashes her N.O. power. 
In Shoegaze, it is implied that he is now her boss and that she is working for the bureau. Following the events of "Full Flat", Kana revealed that Kanda had ordered a security detail to follow her around and have continued to do so for over a decade, much to her annoyance. After she chose not to attend the "Coming of Age" ceremony due to her friends no longer living the same area, he recruited her at the age of 20 for his top secret project. He even went so far as to turn down a nursing job offer she had interviewed for in order to keep her focused on the project. 
After the project is shut down due to Kana's N.O. power no longer being active at the age of 24, Kanda seems to take pity on her and plays a game of catch outside. He tells her the story of how he was on the baseball team in high school, but when they made it to the national championship known as Kōshien, he did not get to play or even serve as a benchwarmer. He then uses it as an analogy to show her that despite the failure of the project, she essentially got to be the player who stood on the field at Koshien instead of just someone watching from the stadium seats and that she should be proud of what they had accomplished up to that point.
==Gallery==
Kanda/Gallery
==Trivia==
*For some unknown reason, in FLCL: Shoegaze, his first name is written out as "Tabata" instead of "Tsukata" in the ending credits, despite him being the same character and having the same voice actors from FLCL Alterative.
**Notably, the first kanji in his first name can be read as either "taba" or "tsuka"
*The etymology for his last name can be translated as "God, Deity" (神, kan) and "Rice Field" (藤, da)
**His first name can be translated as "Bundle, Bind, Manage" (束, tsuka / taba) and "Plump, Fat, Thick" (太, ta)
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:Alternative
Category:Shoegaze