Kazuya Kinoshita

* Manga
* Anime

**Kazuya Kinoshita** (木きノ下した 和かず也や, *Kinoshita Kazuya*?) is the main male protagonist of the Kanojo, Okarishimasu series. He is a college student at Nerima University who is majoring in Business Administration. He lives alone in an apartment situated in 203 Royal Hills Nerima.

## Appearance

Kazuya is a young man of average height whose appearance is rather dull, he lacks anything that makes one stand out, he has messy spiky light brown hair as well as lackluster brown eyes.

His apparel consists of an orange t-shirt with a black spiral in the center, that is over long-sleeved black shirt and striped pants or jeans.

## Personality

Kazuya is an indecisive man with a very low level of self-esteem. As a result, he end up compulsively lying to those around him without hesitation. His lies often get him into trouble, because he cannot muster the strength to tell the truth and he's very emotion-based, often acting irrationally and illogically which result unable stand up for himself and frequently jump to conclusion.

He generally makes the lies go on to avoid the problem of having to explain everything. An example of this is his fake relationship with Chizuru Ichinose kept up to cheer his grandmother up. On the other hand, he is aware he's getting himself into a lot of trouble in order to try to protect others' secrets and keep those close to him happy.

Despite his indecisiveness, cowardice and tendency to lie, Kazuya is ultimately a kind-hearted and selfless person who will go great lengths to help others. He has shown moments of courage in imminent danger, and has incredible restraint in moments of temptation. He is also very encouraging towards others.

Kazuya's greatest virtue is his boundless optimism. Though he is ironically pessimistic about himself given his low self-esteem, he puts great effort into whatever he sets his mind to. Kibe has told a story of Kazuya's optimism and how much he admires him for it.  Because of his immaturity, he is shown to be great with handling kids both his mother and Chizuru expressed fondness while watching him bond with the kids and easily taking care of them.

In Chapter 107, where Kazuya is preparing a Crowdfunding Campaign for Chizuru, he is shown to be very skilled in Business (as he studies Business Administration) and is able to use mathematics in order to calculate the prices of the entire equipment plus salaries for other staff and payment for a script. He also researches previous campaigns to see what they did right and wrong and what they did especially well, showing that Kazuya if given the incentive to do so, is a great businessman.

Kazuya is also shown to have a very fond liking and possess massive knowledge about marine animals and wildlife, as shown when he visits the Aquarium a lot and when he begins explaining random trivia of Manta Rays and Sawfish to Sumi during their trip to Aqua Park, Shinagawa, in Chapter 93.

## History

### The Fated Encounter

Kazuya Kinoshita initially had a great confidence with starting his college life, he had a 1 Million Yen allowance and a 1 Month old relationship, until his girlfriend, Mami Nanami, asked him to break up because she "met someone else". This broke Kazuya's heart deeply for 2 days, that's when, while surfing the internet, he finds an app called "Diamond", an app where you can rent girlfriends for a date. With the break up in mind, he immediately chose the most recommended one, Chizuru Mizuhara, to be his rental girlfriend for the next day. After Kazuya's first experience with her, he scrolled through her page comments and found out that she would do the same with other guys, so he decided to give her a 1 Star rating and rent her again to give her a piece of mind. This ended up in him complaining on how heartless Chizuru was for keeping up the act of a girlfriend to every man that rented her. This made Chizuru angry, as such, she scolded him on how foolish he was for not realizing what the Rental Girlfriend service was all about and told him not to screw with someone else's job. While she was letting him have it, he noted on how abrasive her real persona is. In the middle of their debating, Kazuya was called by his parents because his grandmother had passed out and was sent to the hospital.

Kazuya ran to the hospital to visit her, but finds out that his grandma, Nagomi Kinoshita, was still in her usual self. Chizuru followed him to the hospital, leading Kazuya's grandma and his parents to ask who was she, what was she doing there and, most importantly, who was she for him. In a desperate move because he was ashamed to tell them that he rented a girl online and hearing them talk down on him, Kazuya lied to them that she was his girlfriend. Chizuru reluctantly supported Kazuya's lie, shocking his parents and led Nagomi to be excited and emotional. After the commotion in the hospital finished, Kazuya and Chizuru made a deal to keep lying for the sake of his grandma, to "break up" slowly. Kazuya thanked Chizuru for helping him cover up and gave her a five star rating as his apology for all the trouble caused.

On the next morning, Kazuya alongside his friends, Kuribayashi and Kibe were walking and talking together to class. But Kazuya notices Chizuru in a plain and not so popular girl appearance by accident. This shocked Kazuya and Chizuru, later they met up to talk about keeping distance in the university and for him to hide her identity as a rental girlfriend in the campus. They would also find out that they lived in the same apartment building, being neighbors. On one of their routine visits to Kazuya's grandma, she went forward and called her hospital friends to meet the couple, that's when Chizuru remembers that her own grandma is in that hospital as well. Kazuya and Chizuru ran and hid in a hospital room, but got busted by Chizuru's grandma, Sayuri Ichinose, that befriended with Nagomi. Chizuru had no choice but lie to her grandma that Kazuya was her boyfriend, so she wouldn't find out that Chizuru was a rental girlfriend.

### Encounter the Ex, Once Again

On the day of visiting their grandmothers in the hospital, Kuri and Kibe met Kazuya by accident when Chizuru was with him on their way home. As Kazuya understood how close Kibe's relationship with Nagomi, he lied towards his friends that Chizuru was his girlfriend, Chizuru got mad but followed up with the lie. Kibe immediately taking both of them for a drink to congratulate Kazuya as they were about to go there because of their senior's invitation. Kazuya and Chizuru had no choice but following them and she warned Kazuya about the additional fee for what had happened. When they arrived on their seat, they unexpectedly encountered Mami.

Mami acted friendly towards Kazuya and Chizuru until she left the chair for a moment. In grudge, she typed in her tweet about her own plan to make Kazuya and Chizuru to break up, thinking that Kazuya and Chizuru's relationship was real. After returning, Mami talked about how bad Kazuya was in front of the others, but Chizuru couldn't stand on how Kazuya was treated. Unfortunately, Kazuya unable to talk back because what Mami said was the truth about him, leading Chizuru to run away from the party. At night, Kazuya was drunk but Mami had followed him, thinking about making him fell from her charm by asking him to follow her to her home, but Kazuya refused because he wanted to talk with Chizuru. Later, Kazuya and Chizuru talked about what had happened in the bar, Chizuru asked for forgiveness as she couldn't stand on what had happened and she knew that it was wrong. Chizuru also advised Kazuya to make amend with her ex as it might help him to get a real girlfriend and put a stop to their fake love relationship.

### Nagomi's Released and Beach of Decision

One day, Nagomi got released from the hospital and immediately telling Kazuya that she would pay a visit to him. Kazuya was in panic as she demanded to have Chizuru to be with him too. Despite noticing that it would be in vain, Kazuya begged for Chizuru to come to his room. In the evening, Nagomi came to his home and waited for Chizuru to come. But Chizuru didn't come and Nagomi slightly disappointed to Kazuya as she judged that Chizuru could be a fake girlfriend. However, Chizuru paid a visit in the last minute and offered her cook, changing Nagomi's opinion and asked her to cherish Kazuya before she left. After the problem with Nagomi, Kazuya thanked Chizuru and later got a line message for a trip on a beach. He was also told that Mami would be there.

Kazuya didn't invite Chizuru intentionally, but didn't expect to meet her in daily persona on the same beach as she was taken by her friends. They had a talk in a toilet, but Mami approached Kazuya for being too late as he was supposed to buy drinks at that time. Kazuya tried to make Mami stay away from Chizuru, but Chizuru decided to show up in her job persona. They had talked with his friends and Chizuru's friends, Kazuya also thought of it as a chance to declare his break up. But Kibe, unaware of the fact that Kazuya's relationship to be a fake and breaking up just for fun got angry towards him as he beat him up. Chizuru praised Kazuya and felt bad for his wounds as the price to declare their fake relationship had to be ended. During this moment, Chizuru unknowingly caught a fever but she acted like she wasn't ill.

In the evening, Chizuru asked Kazuya to have a crusader ride for relaxing. Chizuru got the ticket from Kibe for forgiveness to her and Kazuya for being rough. In the middle of the ride, Kazuya received a call from Mami to meet up with her in a pool. Kazuya thought and agreed to meet her, especially that he had been pulled by her 'kiss' string to think that Mami still had a feeling towards him. But just when he was about to finish the call, he heard a commotion about a girl was fallen from the ship. Noticing the description to refer as Chizuru, Kazuya ran and jumped to save her, dropping his phone and taken by Mami as a down shooter. Kazuya managed to save Chizuru from being drowned, but he overused his stamina and got fallen instead. Chizuru in desperation tried to wake him up, successfully. In the end of the trip, Kazuya and Chizuru got separated way to go home with Mami never wanted to talk with Kazuya. After arriving at his home, Kazuya was jerking off about having sex with Mami, but his grown feeling towards Chizuru got in his way as he finally stopped and surprised that he was now more focused towards Chizuru.

### Family Trip Trap

Kazuya was taken by Nagomi for a family trip alongside his parents so he called for Chizuru that he couldn't meet her to visit Sayuri together. Chizuru replied that her grandmother had been discharged and took her for a trip. Kazuya unexpectedly to find Sayuri to be in the same hotel as his family, meaning that Chizuru would be there. He was given a key to his room and unexpectedly to be put in the same room as her, making the timing to be worsened as he entered the room when Chizuru was drying up her body from the bath. Kazuya was told off by Chizuru that they were trapped and demanded to have a talk with their grandmothers, unfortunately the atmosphere held them up and they decided to be in the same room in the end.

## Etymology

* The name **Kazuya** means "harmony, peace" (和) (**kazu**) and "to be, also" (也) (**ya**).
* Kazuya's surname **Kinoshita** means "tree, wood" (木, *ki*?) and "under, below" (下, *shita*?), which may be a tongue-in-cheek reference to his masturbation habits.

## Trivia

* Kazuya is a big fan of marine biology and knows a lot about sea life. He owns an aquarium full of lungfish.

## References

1. ↑  Anime Season 1 Reference Book
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 2
3. ↑ Chapter 1
4. ↑ Chapter 3
5. ↑ Chapter 4
6. ↑ Episode 3
7. ↑ Chapter 13