Kou Kitamura

Elementary

* 5-2

**Kou Kitamura** (樹多村 光) is the male protagonist of the *Cross Game* series. He is the only child of Kensaku and Kimie Kitamura who run Kitamura Sports, a sporting goods store. He is a gifted pitcher who previously shown no interest in the sport of baseball, saying it sucks. A member of the prefab team at the beginning of high school, Kou was the team's secret weapon. Originally, batting 5th, Kou is now 6th in the batting order.

## Physical Appearance

Kou has short black hair and grey eyes. His hair is always unruly due to his incurable case of bed hair. He has a medium thick eyebrows, a small nose and large ears. He is usually seen in either a the school uniform or his baseball uniform. When not at school, Kou is usually seen in casual T-shirts and pant/shorts. Sometimes he wears shirts that has the name of his family's store on them. He uses a blue baseball glove.

## Personality

Kou is very understanding and dependable. He's also very good at lying. He's able to be stay calm under pressure, He values his friends and is good at cooking. Kou is also good at hiding his true feelings, with the only two people who can tell how he's feeling is Wakaba and Aoba. Kou is capable of keeping secrets, as seen when Ichiyou trusted him enough to tell him that she likes Junpei, knowing he wouldn't tell anyone. Kou is humble and doesn't gloat or boast about his abilities, and as a result at first, he didn't seem to realize the potential he has. While Kou is a good sport now, when he was part of the Doors sandlot team, he wasn't shown to be a good sport and hated to lose. Kou also rarely gets angry, as one of the rare times he's shown to be angry, an example of his anger is shown in "Can I Borrow a Pot?", where his angry expression after Aoba makes an insensitive comment to her sister Momiji, shocks both Aoba and Momiji.

## Plot Summary

### *Part One: The Season of Wakaba*

#### Introduction

Kou is 10 years old (one day away from turning 11) and in 5th grade at Senkawa North Elementary School when the series starts. He is first seen in his family's store, Kitamura Sports, staring quizzically at at set of swim suits. His father, Kensaku, tells him he is too young to be looking at that kind of stuff. Kensaku then asks Kou to deliver some baseballs to the Tsukishima Batting Center, located nearby. Kou argues that young boys grow by imagination but then quickly rides his bike away as Kensaku throws a soccer ball at him. Kou arrives at the batting cages and sees Aoba, the third Tsukishima daughter, watering the plants but the nozzle on the hose she was using breaks off and hits Kou in his face. Aoba asks Kou if there are any spray nozzles at his store and Kou informs her that water spraying isn't a sport so they don't sell nozzles. After getting some free tokens by Seiji Tsukishima, the owner of the batting cages, Kou is practicing his batting in the batting center but is soon approached by Wakaba who asks him to take her to her swim school. After dropping Wakaba off, and getting kissed on the cheek, Kou starts heading home. But he runs into Osamu Akaishi, the toughest kid in 5th grade.

#### Doors vs Pons

To avoid a confrontation with Akaishi and his friends, Hayashi and Nawata, the 3rd and 5th toughest kids in 5th grade, respectively, Kou decides to join his little league baseball team, the Doors, in their game against the Pons. Soon after, however Akaishi, becomes the substitute pitcher for the Pons. After Hayashi asks Kou about his relationship with Wakaba, Kou says she's just a neighbor. Wakaba shows up at that moment to loudly declare that she kissed him so he was supposed to pick her up. Akaishi gets mad and throws a fastball well over 100kmph and Kou hits it out of the park. At school the next day, Kou is pitching sells for lacrosse equipment to kids who are not lacrosse players. Daiki Nakanishi interrupts him and tells him they are going to practice playing catch, since Kou isn't good at catching.

#### 11th Birthday and Doors vs Beavers

Wakaba and Kou head to the park and exchange gifts for their 11th birthday, Kou giving Wakaba a purse and Wakaba giving Kou another alarm clock. Kou talks to Wakaba about Aoba and Wakaba tells him that Aoba is the pitcher on an all boys team. As the two were walking home, they come across a bride and groom and Wakaba predicts they will be happy since they were married on her and Kou's birthday.

After, unwillingly, helping Akaishi and getting a drink of his own (after Wakaba offers to share hers) Kou goes home and gets a baseball glove from his father. The next day, Kou is playing for the Doors against Aoba's team, the Beavers. During the game, He keeps repeatedly getting hit in the back by Aoba. Wakaba is there watching the game between her sister and Kou and cheers for both of them, to their annoyance. Kou's team loses 0-1 and before they can make a comeback, the game is interrupted by rain. Frustrated that he lost, Kou starts lifting weights in his room, using the dumbbells that his family is supposed to be selling.

#### Wakaba's birthday list and the fireworks

Because Kou isn't good at giving present, Wakaba gives him a list of gifts she wants him to get her starting from next year until her 20th birthday. Kou lets her borrow a hat from him for swimming camp she is set to go to the next day. That night, Kou goes over to the Tsukishima's house to light the fireworks that Wakaba had bought. After being walked home by Wakaba, Kou gets another kiss on his cheek and promise to attend the festival with Wakaba when she comes back from camp. A few days later, Wakaba is due back from camp the evening. Kou is riding by the batting center and notices that it is closed, which is unusually since it's not a holiday. He tells his mom, Kimie, who also thought it was strange that the center was closed. Then she asks Kou when Wakaba is due back, to which Kou tells her in the evening.

#### Wakaba's death

The next morning, Kou turns the TV on and head to get some milk. The news broadcasts interrupts the baseball game that is on, reporting news about a young girl drowning at a camp. They reveal the deceased girl is Wakaba. Kou hears the broadcast, but just stares from the kitchen into the living room. His parents, Kensaku and Kimie, come into the living, where Kou is watching a baseball game, dressed in black and the three of them head over to the Tsukishima's house to pay their respects. Seiji returns the hat that Wakaba had borrowed.

The next day, Kou is feeling lost as to what he's supposed to do in a situation like this. He heads to the summer festival, keeping the promise he made to Wakaba, but ends up leaving shortly after arriving after wandering around aimlessly and bumping into people. Sitting outside the batting center, Kou, still lost, sees Akaishi standing in front of the center doors, praying with tears streaming down his face. Kou realizes that's what he needs to do is cry.

### *Part Two: The Season of Aoba*

#### Third year at Seishu Academy Middle School

    Kou is 15 years old and in at the end of his 3rd year of middle school at Seishu Academy Middle School when part two starts. After giving up playing baseball after Wakaba's death, Kou still watches the middle school team practice.

## Skills and Abilities

### Fielding

At the beginning of the series, Kou was not shown to be good at fielding, including his pitching skills. This was a result of him not being that interested in baseball at the beginning. In time, his ability to field greatly improves.

### Batting

Kou is an excellent batter, even from a young age, due to him using the batting cages since he was three years old. This skill gets carried onto his high school days as he was coined the 'secret weapon' of the prefab team for both his batting and fielding.

### Voice Impersonations

While not a baseball skill, Kou is shown to be very good at impersonating the voice of other people, resulting in some very amusing moments. In Sucker for a Pretty Face, Kou used this skill to impersonate his friend Keiichirou Senda to insult Risa Shidou, who at the time was insulting Aoba

## Quotes

* (to Aoba) "*I regret to inform you that water-spraying has yet to be recognized as a sport*."
* (to himself) "*It's simple. I just need to cry."*
* (to Daimon) "*You might want to be careful. With sunglasses as dark as yours, you might end up falling into the compost one day.*"

## Trivia

### Etymology

* **Kou**: "light; ray" (光 - **kō**)
* **Kitamura**: "timber trees; wood" (樹 -**ki**), "many; much" (多 - **ta**) and "village; town" (村 - **mura**)

### Other trivia

* When he was younger, It was revealed that Kou was not good at fielding, but he was excellent at batting
* Kou used to like trains, airplanes, and big fish and at one point he wanted to be the director of an aquarium, and before that, the director of a zoo.
* Kou originally didn't know about Wakaba's dream
* Kou is a power pitcher, meaning he focuses on the speed and velocity of his pitches, rather than their accuracy
* Kou likes mushrooms, particularly the ones grown from the Tsukishima's family out in the country
* Kou is 1 of 7 characters in the series to have his name in a chapter. In this case it's chapter 73

## References

1. ↑ *Cross Game* manga: Chapter 1 (Pg. 16)
2. ↑ *Cross Game* anime and manga: Episode 4 and Chapter 09 (pg. 6)
3. ↑ Cross Game manga: Chapter 68 (pg. 12-14)
4. ↑ *Cross Game* anime and manga: Episode 2 and Chapter 7 (pg. 15)
5. ↑ *Cross Game* manga: Chapter 1 (pg. 10)
6. ↑ *Cross Game* anime and manga: Episode 1 and Chapter 10 (pg. 16)
7. ↑ *Cross Game* anime Episode 7
8. ↑ *Cross Game* anime: Episode 1
9. ↑ *Cross Game* manga: Episode 1 and Chapter 8 (pg. 8)
10. ↑ *Cross Game* anime and manga: Chapter 09 (pg. 9)
11. ↑ *Cross Game* manga: Chapter 03 (pg. 2)