Kanako Mitsue

* School
* Casual
* Original

**Kanako Mitsue** is a student of Shijo Minami Middle School. She is Maki Katsuragi's neighbor and classmate.

## Appearance

Mitsue is short in stature with a pale complexion. She has a black, mop-like hairstyle and typically wears a frown.

## Personality

Mitsue is a rational and bold person. She often delivers her criticism to the Boys’ soft tennis club in a straight-forward manner, which was considered rude by some of its members.

Mitsue is quite observant. When she is interested in something, she enjoys observing it for a long time. One example is when Mitsue was interested in the Boys’ soft tennis club activities, she would attend the club practice session and watch them as they’re practicing.

Mitsue is an introverted person. She doesn’t enjoy making friends and prefers to spend her time alone, drawing and making sketches. This is why she is often ridiculed by her classmates and labeled as a weird otaku.

## Plot

### Childhood

Mitsue lived in room 701 in the same apartment as Maki. She comes from a poor family and was mostly raised by her mother during her childhood life. When Mitsue wanted to be a manga artist, her family, especially her mother, was against the idea. She explicitly told her not to draw because it was not something that respectable people do.

### Shijo Minami Middle School

Mitsue attends Shijo Minami Middle School and didn’t join any club activities. She often spends her time in the library and observes others doing their club activities from the window. One day, when walking in front of her apartment, she was surprised because Maki suddenly passed her without noticing her. Maki apologized to her and they both introduced themselves to each other, proceeding to walk together to the school.

During break time, a stray cat is running in the class and causing a ruckus. Mitsue seemed to enjoy it and held her phone to record it. As the cat jumps toward her, Maki manages to catch the cat with his quick reflex which fascinated the whole class.

When Maki finally joins the boys’ soft tennis club, Mitsue starts to take interest in observing the club. Alongside with Yuu as the manager, she carefully observes the club activity whilst also finding inspiration for her drawings. Over time, she becomes a part of the boys’ soft tennis club by accompanying Yuu in most of the practice session, attending practice matches, tournaments, and even during the barbeque party. She gives comments, mostly bold and straight-forward critiques, to improve the boys’ soft tennis team.

When the boys’ soft tennis club got suspended after complaints from Nao’s mother, Mitsue accompanies cross-dressed Maki and Yuu to sneak in and observe Hatanouka Middle School Boys’ Soft Tennis Club. She acts as a decoy to distract Joy’s hardcore admirers, giving space for Maki and Yuu to freely record and observe Joy’s playstyle. During that time, she was verbally and physically abused by Joy’s fans. Maki then tells Mitsue that their recording had been finished and tries to comfort her with the help from the rest of the team.

Days later, Mitsue meets up with Sakurai-sensei to discuss about her drawings. When Sakurai-sensei inspects them, he compliments Mitsue for drawing so well despite not taking any drawing courses. Mitsue then tells him about her internal conflict while working on her drawing in addition to the negative receptions she got from her family and social media. After discussing with Sakurai-sensei, Mitsue goes to Rokugo Watergate and contemplates about whether she should continue drawing or not. Moments later, Maki, Toma, and Yuu are passing at the Watergate and try to greet her. Feeling troubled, Maki runs toward Mitsue and persuades her to go home, have dinner together with Toma and Yuu, and not to think about her problem too much. Mitsue agreed to follow Maki’s advice and walk back home with the rest of them.

The night after the Summer Tournament Finals between the Maki – Toma pair against the Itsuse Brothers, Mitsue was seen coloring a sketch of Maki and Toma. Despite the flurry of negative comments she received, she simply ignored them and continued working on the sketch.

In the epilogue set 2 years later, Mitsue was seen accompanying Yuu and Arashi to meet Maki at Rokugo Watergate.

## Abilities

Despite never receiving any formal training on art, Mitsue excels in making sketches and illustrations. Her drawings usually revolve around dark and horror themes, but later shifts to realistic daily activities and soft tennis themes. She could be seen making sketches on paper during class and on her tablet while at home.

Mitsue is also infamous for her prayer to the teams. There was a time during club activity when she was teased by Yuu for not paying attention to other members but Maki. She gets annoyed and starts praying for Maki, only for him to trip off and fall right after. During tournament matches, Mitsue prays “Please, give them just one more point”. Not long after, the team manages to score a point, causing them to win that set.

## Relationships

### Maki Katsuragi

As Mitsue’s neighbor, Maki often walks together with Mitsue when going to school. He also frequently invites her for dinner in his apartment, alongside Yuu and Toma. At times when Mitsue is sad and worn out, Maki usually steps in and calms her down.

## Quotes

* Mitsue: What are you doing? Looking for the girl you like?
Maki: Go die – ***Episode 3***
* Mitsue: Praying isn't going to change anything.
Yuta: But you know how hard they've practiced. I'd feel so bad if they lost.
 Mitsue: In this world, those who work hard are rarely rewarded. – ***Episode 7***
* Say things like that and you'll lose all three (matches). – ***Episode 8***
* What is normal? What is respectable? The world is full of things that aren't normal. There's a lot in it that isn't respectable. And yet, wanting to draw... Is it that silly and stupid of a thought to have? Is it just because I'm stupid that I like drawing? But the thing is, I want to get even better at it. I wanna be able to draw the things in my head as I see them. That's why... I want to learn how to draw! – ***Episode 8***
* The boys... Even though soft tennis is totally useless, they push themselves so hard for it. I thought it's because they're stupid. But... But, I'm stupid, too. Because I like drawing. Is it all right to do what I want and have my own dream too? – ***Episode 8***

## Trivia

* Kanako lives in Room 701.
* In Episode 8, Itsuki Ameno refers to Kanako as "Kanacat". It is a play on her name as the last two syllables of her name sound like the Japanese word for cat, neko, hence "Kaneko".
* Mitsue blood type is AB
* Mitsue social media account is @natsuko

### **Etymology**

* The name **Kanako** means "summer" (夏) (**ka**), "south" (南) (**na**) and "child" (子) (**ko**).
* Kanako's surname **Mitsue** means "honorable" (御) (**mi**) and "staff, cane" (杖) (**tsue**).