Minato Narumiya

* LN
* Anime
* Full Body

**Minato Narumiya** (鳴宮 湊, *Narumiya Minato*?) is the protagonist of the Tsurune series. He is a second-year at Kazemai High School, where he is a member of the kyudo club.

## Appearance

Minato is a teenage boy of medium height and average build with short, spiky black hair and a large clear green eyes. He has a large forehead. He usually wears the gakuran uniform of Kazemai High School. For kyudo, he wears a white hakama.

## Personality

Minato is a reserved and withdrawn person, resulting from his sixth-grade accident and his target panic incident at his last middle school tournament. He is serious and responsible, always doing his chores and cleaning the school kyudojo proactively. His seriousness often causes him to get flustered by more cheerful individuals like Nanao Kisaragi and Ryouhei Yamanouchi.

Despite seeming calm and indifferent, Minato has a deep passion for kyudo and is extremely loyal to his friends. He is earnest about what he wants to do, such as improving at kyudo. Ryouhei has noted that he seemed like a "wild child" as he doesn't mind running on snow-covered roads or catching a cold when he was wading through a cold river. He has a sarcastic side to him when it comes to dealing with more eccentric people, such as Masaki Takigawa. He is also prone to having an overactive imagination and believing scary stories.

Minato has a love for fluffy animals, especially Kuma (Seiya Takehaya's dog) and Fuu (Masaki's owl).

## History

When Minato was around five years old, his mother took him to a shrine, which also had a *kyudojo*, for a short visit. It was there that he first saw a kyudo competition (in which Akihiro Yasaka was participating) and became enamored with kyudo. It was also there where he first learned the term *tsurune* from his mother.

During kindergarten and elementary school, he was good friends with Seiya Takehaya and Ryouhei Yamanouchi. In fifth grade, he became a pupil of kyudo master Kazuyoshi Saionji, who was already the teacher of Shuu Fujiwara. The two practiced kyudo together for a year until the accident in sixth grade, where Minato and his mother were going shopping until a speeding car rode onto the sidewalk, crashing into them. Minato's mother was killed and he was injured, left with a scar on his left side. After this accident, Minato stopped going to his kyudo lessons. Minato does house chores as he has been in charge of most of it since his mother passed away.

Minato enrolled in the private school Kirisaki Middle School along with Seiya, and that was where he met Shu again. The three joined the kyudo club and rose through the ranks, and then they were chosen to compete in the boys' team competition in the Prefectural Tournament in their third year. However, in the finals, Minato suddenly got target panic and cost his team the competition. After the tournament, Minato could not get rid of his target panic no matter how much he tried, and he ended up quitting the club.

After he graduated from middle school, Minato opted not to advance to Kirisaki High School, which was integrated with Kirisaki Middle School, instead going to the public school Kazemai High School, which was closer to his house, more affordable and had a nearly-dead kyudo club.

## Shooting Technique and Ability

Minato is a growing talent in Kyudo. He was taught by Saionji-sensei as a child, but his fascination for Kyudo, particularly other people's style of shooting, leads him into an ever evolving style so he can be an even better anchor for his team.

Minato came down with target panic at the end of Junior High, likely as a result of his mother's death. During this period, he was unable to hit a single shot. Fortunately, he was able to overcome his target panic with the help of Masaki-san, Seiya and rest of his team. He now shoots normally again.

## Relationships

### Seiya Takehaya

Seiya and Minato are childhood friends and were pretty close until the moment when Minato started having target panic. This makes Seiya very protective of his friend because he considers himself guilty of the death of Minato's mother and his subsequent problems. In particular, he constantly tries to cross with him and even secretly goes to that high school as Minato, which is why Ryohei jokingly calls him a stalker. Shu even suggests that Seiya is generally engaged in archery just to be close to him.

### Shuu Fujiwara

Shuu and Minato have been rivals since childhood. They met when Minato abruptly dropped in on one of Saionji-sensei's tutoring session and forcing his way into the program. Due to Shuu's strict upbringing, this also made Minato his first friend. Shuu wants Minato to keep shooting to push himself to new heights.

### Masaki Takigawa

Minato admires Masa very much and their student-teacher relationship has a fruitful influence on Minato, allowing him to gradually heal from his target panic and again find enough inspiration to go back to archery again. Masa's grandfather was the one who inspired Minato to practice kyuudo in his childhood, which was the event that Masa attended as well.

### Kaito Onogi

Kaito is not the most pleasant person in communication, so it is not surprising that these two have problems in communication. This becomes important after he learns about the acquaintance of Minato and Masa, as Kaito regards Minato as a dangerous opponent in the “struggle” for the status of Masa's best and most important pupil.

## Trivia

* The name **Minato** means "harbor" (湊).
* Minato's surname **Narumiya** means "sound" (鳴) (**naru**) and "temple, shrine, palace" (宮) (**miya**).
* Minato's favorite food is Tamagoyaki and his least favorite is Myoga.
* Minato's hobby is riding around on his bicycle.
	+ In the summer, he goes to play in the river with Seiya and Bear.
* Minato is a dog person.
* Minato prefers mountains over the sea.
	+ In his childhood, he used to hunt bugs and climb trees.
* If Minato had the chance to time travel, he would choose to go to the future.
	+ Rather than brooding over the past, he prefers to move forward.

## References

1. ↑ Tsurune Volume 1, Chapter 5
2. ↑ Tsurune Volume 1, Prologue
3. ↑ Tsurune Volume 1, Chapter 3
4. ↑ Tsurune, Episode 2.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Kyudo Boys Questionnaire