Shun Kazama

Shun Kazama (風間俊; Kazama Shun) is the deuteragonist in the 2011 animated film, . He is the love interest of the Umi Matsuzaki, the best friend of Shiro Mizunuma and the editor of The Latin Quarter Newspaper.
In Japanese he was voiced by (岡田 准一) who voiced Arren in Tales From Earthsea, another Goro Miyazaki flim. In the English dub, he was voiced by the late who also played Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek reboot film series, Kyle Reese in Terminator: Salvation, Charlie Bartlett in the film of the same name and voiced Jim Lake Jr. in Trollhunters parts 1, 2, and some of part 3 and the Clumsy Smurf in the 2011 Smurfs film, its sequel, The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol and The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow.
==Biography==
===Early life===
He was born to sailor Hiroshi Tachibana and a mother who died giving birth to him. After his father was killed at sea and his other relatives were killed in an Atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Yūichirō Sawamura signed him up as his child. But he and his wife, Ryoko Matsuzaki, had no time to raise him due to being pregnant with Umi Matsuzaki and doing college work. So they gave Shun to the Kazama couple, hence his surname. He learned to ride a bike during this time.
As a teen, he would enroll at Konan Academy High School, becoming the editor of The Latin Quarter newspaper and Shiro Mizunuma's best friend. He would also notice Umi Matsuzaki's flags every time he went to school on his adoptive father's tug and would raise his flags so that she might see.
===Meeting Umi Matsuzaki===
In 1963, when Shun was 17 years old, the Latin Quarter is announced for demolition to make way for a new building for the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, Shun and Shiro Mizunuma host an anti-demolition campaign to protect the clubhouse. One day, he writes a poem about Umi Matsuzaki's flags which he puts in his newspaper. He is first seen in the opening on his father's tug, later he is seen reaching the harbor, getting his bicycle from his dad, then passing him the rope that anchors his tug.
To advertise for the anti-demolition campaign Mizunuma has anti-demolition papers hung from windows. While Shun jumps into a body of water. He is caught on photo by many picture takers. Umi Matsuzaki, shocked to see Shun jump into the pool. Rushes to give him a hand. After she does she is taken by surprise as many photographers take pictures with her holding Shun's hand. Feeling embarrassed Umi let's go and let's Shun fall back into the water. This event causes the Matsuzaki family to have a conversation about him. As well as this, some girls start a fan club. A short time later he bandages his hand, in the Japanese version, a cat scratches it, while in the English version, he cut in during shaving.
===The beginning of his relationship with Umi===
When Sora Matsuzaki asks Umi to come with her to The Latin Quarter to sign a picture she bought for 30 yen. Umi reluctantly agrees and comes with Sora to meet Shun and Mizunuma in the newspaper room. In the editing room he signs Sora's photograph of him. And asks Umi to help him write the newspaper, which she does. 
When Umi needs pork from the butcher lower on the hill. She goes out to find Shun and she rides with him to the market place. There, Shun gets some fried food while Umi gets pork from the butcher. He tells her that he needs the energy from the snack to get home due to it being far away. He rides back home that night. The next day, in a loud debate, it's revealed 80 percent of the community believe the Latin Quarter should be demolished. Shun rises up and gives a whole speech about why the Latin Quarter should stay.
Umi later invites Shun Kazama to Dr. Hokuto's farewell party. Where he is impressed by the state of the house, as it has been around for decades. He later sees a picture of Yūichirō Sawamura who he believes to be his real father. Since Sawamura gave Shun to Akio. Shun, inspired by the manor, convinces Shiro to renovate the Latin Quarter. Shiro and Shun work with the numerous Latin Quarter Members to fix up their clubhouse, contacting the female members to bring equipment for the cleanup. Shun and Umi help the Latin Quarter Members fix up the hotel with Shun burning what they didn't need among other things. During this time, he also publishes newspapers on the status of the renovation.
Coming back from renovation one day, Shun finds the picture Umi has with her father is the same as one he has. Shun asks Akio Kazama on his boat the next day about the picture and whether Yūichirō Sawamura was his real father. Akio states that Sawamura brought him to them and that Sawamura was a good sailor. Akio nonetheless states to Shun that he'll always be his father. Shun in return thanks Akio. As a result of this revolution, Shun believes that Umi and himself are siblings, be it half siblings or full siblings, leading to Shun avoiding her, much to her confusion. Shun eventually reveals why he avoided a relationship with her, relaying the information Akio said to him. Shun and Umi as a result decide to just be friends and avoid seeing each other.
===Meeting the chairman of the board===
Shun and Shiro make deals with construction workers for supplies and the Latin Quarter is fixed. With Shiro even stating how Umi was their "goddess of good luck". After The Latin Quarter is fixed up, the anti-demolition campaign is brought into motion. With the fact that the Latin Quarter's touch-ups that the students made would be wasted Shun convinces Shiro to directly appeal to Chairman Tokumaru with Shiro telling Umi to go to the school board chairman the next day with them to convince Tokumaru that the clubhouse should stay.
The next day he meets Mizunuma and Umi at a train station. And the three go to Tokyo. They went to the lobby and made an appointment to appeal directly to the chairman. After waiting for awhile outside his office, he invited them in. The chairman agreed to go and visit the clubhouse the next day. During the night, Mizunuma leaves the two to visit his uncle, leaving Umi and Shun by themselves. Umi and Shun take a train back to Yokohama and have a pleasant conversation about what they will do after they graduate, Shun states that he'll have to enroll to a national university due to not being able to afford much tuition. And that he'll have to find someone else to run the Latin Quarter newspaper. Umi states that she's unsure but would like to be a doctor. Umi asks Shun if he is the one who wrote the poem about her flags in the school paper and that she can't see Shun's flags from the garden. When a bus comes, Umi states that even if they're related, she'll not stop loving him, to which he replies he feels the same way about her.
The next day the chairman came and inspected The Latin Quarter. After he declared it would stay, Shun gets a call from Akio Kazama that the third man in the photo (Yoshio Onodera) was at the harbor and about to set sail. To learn more about his parents he and Umi rush to the harbor and get on his Akio Kazama's tug and race to the Yoshio Onodera's ship. Yoshio states that he was good friends with Hiroshi Tachibana (Shun's father), and Yūichirō Sawamura (Umi's father). And reveals to Umi and Shun that they aren't related by blood. In Japanese, Yoshio states that seeing Umi and Shun makes him more happy than he's ever been as he feels like being with his old friends while in English, he states that he is proud that Umi and Shun are the legacy of his friends. Umi and Shun go back to shore and possibly continue their relationship off screen.
==Etymology==
*Shun means "talented" or "handsome" (俊).
*Kazama has two kanji characters, (風) and (間), the first means "wind" or "breeze" most of the time while the second can mean "leisure" and some other things.
*His father's surname, Tachibana, has two kanji characters, (立) and (花) which mean "standing" and "flower" respectively.
==Trivia==
*Yūichirō Sawamura bears a striking resemblance to Shun Kazama, particularly his facial features. The clothing he wears in Umi's dream is very similar to what Shun wears when he edits his newspapers with the plain white buttoned shirt and brown pants. The Japanese version also has him voiced by Shun's voice actor himself. These elements of his character were likely done to trick the audience into believing that Shun is Sawamura's son. Of course, the ending reveals this not to be the case.
==External links==
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