Kenji Katagiri

"I still wanna be friends and continue this academic rivalry and friendly competition, though, if... you're willing to give it another shot?" - Léa to **Kenji** in Beyond Worlds: Azul

## Biographical Information

### Home

Nagoya, Japan (formerly), Pasadena, California

## Relationships

### Family

Kunio Katagiri (father), unnamed mother (mentioned), Shinjiro Katagiri (older brother)

### Friends

Léa Navarro, Cameron Mendes, Red Ordonia, Hiro Hamada (frenemy)

### Enemies

Léa Navarro (formerly), Hiro Hamada (frenemy)

## Production Information

### Actor

Michael Williams

**Kenjiro Katagiri**, commonly known as either **Kenji** or **Ken**, is one of the supporting characters of Beyond Worlds and Beyond Worlds: Azul. It's unknown if he will make an appearance in Amarillo. Kenji is the son of a successful doctor, **Dr. Kunio Katagiri**, and is the younger brother of **Shinjiro**, who's a college graduate. He is a student in Caltech, being classmates with Léa Navarro, Cameron Mendes, and Red Ordonia. He's an aspiring doctor like most of his family members, and Hiro Hamada is his romantic rival for Léa's affections, although both of them are now labeled as frenemies.

He was based and on **Michael Williams**, one of the series' writers, and Williams will be the one to provide voice lines for Kenji.

## **EARLY LIFE**

#### **Original**

Kenji was born on November 22 to **Kunio Katagiri** and his unnamed wife, being born years later after his older brother, **Shinjiro**. His parents' marriage began falling apart and eventually his mother divorces his father. Both Kenji and Shinjiro are juggled between their parents' homes every week.

#### **Reboot**

According to Léa, Kenji was raised to be arrogant and a perfectionist because the Katagiri family made a name for themselves as doctors in Nagoya. The adults tend to pressure the children- like Kenji and his older brother- to be the best students in their classes, and that's how Kenji's parents dislike Léa for rivaling Kenji's intelligence. Léa was supposed to be the class valedictorian for the previous school year, but Kenji let his parents bribe the school with money so Kenji would be the valedictorian instead.

## **PERSONALITY**

Described by many to be very intelligent, Kenji always strives for the first rank in everything, being an overachiever and causing competitions between him and Léa especially on academics. Despite his competitiveness, Kenji doesn't consider Léa as an enemy, he sees her as a friendly competition who happens to qualify his standards. He doesn't talk much, but he made his intentions clear with Léa, much to Hiro's displeasure. He's shown to also be arrogant at times and he has a tendency to look down on other people, like Cameron, Red, and especially Hiro.

Kenji's father's upbringing cost him his equally distant nature; although Kenji is more than willing to treat any woman better than his father treats them, and wouldn't want to be like him when he grows up.

## **PHYSICAL APPEARANCE**

Kenji's black hair is short, and he has somewhat blue-green eyes under his thin and black-rimmed glasses. He's also a tall character in the series, standing at 5 feet and 8 inches. He is described to always be well-dressed in semi-formal attires, wearing a dress shirt and slacks with leather shoes.

## **TRIVIAS**

* Kenji means "intelligent second son" in Japanese, and it was mentioned in the reboot that **Shinjiro**, his older brother, graduated with a summa cum laude, making Kenji a literal second son of the family who's intelligent, which the meaning of his name implies.
	+ Kenji is around four or five years younger than Shinjiro.
* He shares the same nickname as **Kenzo Grey** from **Libitina: Unmasked**, who also happens to be **Michael Williams**' character.
* In Beyond Worlds, Léa mentions to Hiro that she isn't Kenji's type; at least not to her knowledge. This is slightly true since Kenji is shown to be flirting with Léa, albeit subtly, but he never explicitly show that he does like her.
* In the original, it's hinted that he might be asexual, like **Xander Ainsley** from **After Solstice**.
* If Michael Williams' characters were to be ranked by their intelligence level, Kenzo Grey would be in the last place, second place would be Kenji Katagiri, and **Rei Sotaro** (**TWICE Songfix Series**) holds the first. Although every one of his characters suggest that they've been a consistent valedictorian in all their classes, Rei Sotaro is by far the smartest.
	+ Also, Kenji might be Michael's only character to be shown flirting towards another character, not including Kenzo who's already in a relationship with **Yuna Zhou**. Rei doesn't also count, since he didn't flirt around **Ingrid Yuikawa**, even though it's clear Rei likes her in **YES or YES**.
* He probably doesn't like the fact that his name and Hiro's are close to each other, both ending with "-iro".