Kaoru

**Kaoru**, known best with an honorific as **Kaoru-chan**, is a character appearing in The Genius Bakabon franchise along with being popularly associated with Gag Guerrilla and other titles as part of the Star System.

Although he was not technically the first character to employ LGBT or cross-dressing themes in Akatsuka works, he is notable for being the first widely-used one and particularly with the terminology used to refer to him by.

## Overview

Kaoru is a character marked by how masculine he is in appearance, but how effeminate he is in his personality and mannerisms when in his most popular setting of being a flamboyant gay man (with or without cross-dressing involved). His presence either leading others into situations where they'd become attracted to him, or him easily seducing others or trying to, is what drives the more adult-oriented gags around his character.

Even so, his usage may be flexible as any other Akatsuka star and it is common to see him in different sorts of professions or a range in how his sexuality and gags surrounding such are played off.

## Physical Appearance

Kaoru is a rather hairy man, displaying a notable beard, and tends to be portrayed with thick eyelashes and a set of buckteeth. He almost always wears his hair in a mohawk cut, but there are some mid-1980s instances in which he can be seen with a pompadour.

His general fashion may vary, depending on if he is a salaryman, police officer, criminal, or other sort of worker in his day-to-day job. However, with his flamboyant nature can often come crossdressing, whether he intends to wear such clothing or if in the case of one early story, he is made to crossdress by convenience.

In his earliest appearances in *The Genius Bakabon's Old Man*, Kaoru lacked his eyelashes and had a harsher impression to his face.

## Personality

Though Kaoru's looks are rugged, his best-known personality is that of a highly-effeminate sort with a sensitive side and love for the finer things. Because of this sort of nature, he can be weak against domineering women, but he can also show a more confident attitude; in one story, he becomes better at speaking and expressing himself after wearing womens' clothing, to the disgust of his wife. He can also be shown to be into humiliation and submission, wanting to be tied up as a cop.

Of course, some earlier instances of Kaoru can showcase a more aggressive sort of character, whether or not his sexuality is as emphasized. He is also shown this way in Let's La Gon when portrayed as the controlling boss of Gon's father.

Most notably with gags surrounding this character would be the fact that whether by him or another making the first advance, he is considered very successful at seduction of other men. Yet in some specific cases, men alone will not satisfy Kaoru and he can be depicted as having lust for a turtle like Bakame or most disconcerting, younger boys. Settings of Kaoru with a wife may be considered a case of him being closeted to be with her or a case of "situational sexuality" for gag.

## Relationships with Other Characters

### The Police Officer with the Connected Eyes

Kaoru's third appearance in The Genius Bakabon's Old Man has his sheer presence and attitude cause The Police Officer with the Connected Eyes to fall madly in love with him. Even though their relationship appears to be going strong though, Kaoru eventually ditches the officer to go off with an old woman.

In appearances in the main *Bakabon* series as well as Gag Guerrilla, these two can wind up in each others' paths of attraction, particularly in the "officer and criminal" setting. In one different sort of setting for *Bakabon*, the two share an emotional embrace when Kaoru is a ballet instructor but this is broken up by the arrival of Kaoru's aggressive, man-hating wife who kicks the officer in the crotch.

### Bakabon's Papa

Initially, Kaoru is shown to be a more aggressive underclassman of Papa, who has trouble finding a woman. He attempts to enter the womens' side of a bathhouse at one point, and grows desperate, even getting close to Papa during some interactions. Further appearances have him continue to rely on Papa or flirt with him, only for things to wind up in disaster or to stop involving Papa as the plot goes on.

In his better-known early role in the main Bakabon series, Papa helps a shy, speech-delayed Kaoru out with confidence issues (as well as bailing him out of wetting himself) with some of Mama's clothes to wear, giving him a love for feminine things. This results in Kaoru's wife in the story demanding he dress and act like a man, but such a change is not to be.

Another story has Kaoru try to make an advance on Papa, only to be kicked in the crotch. The same thing happens when the officer attempts to make a pass at Papa, leading to more dysfunction through the plot.

### Iyami

Kaoru is shown to be associated with Iyami a few times within the Shonen King run of Osomatsu-kun, be it as a lover or as an enemy.

In the first notable case, he is used as "Yamamoto-kun", a former bullying victim of Iyami from school who winds up uncomfortable with seeing his classmate until Iyami eats a fly to save the scared Yamamoto, causing the two to fall in love and wind up married. Another instance has him as a rival ballet dancer, with the story ending in marriage for them as well.

Other more adversarial roles include Kaoru as a rival boxer to Iyami, or as a man who punishes Iyami for his lechery on the beach.

### Choromatsu

As far as other connections of Kaoru's would go in manga, this specific sextuplet is an infamous case from a gag in The Collapse of the Sheeh! Religion, where this brother is one to wind up making out with Kaoru and quickly deeming him his boyfriend. He attempts to leave with the man, but is seen (intentionally or in error) with his brothers again shortly after.

### Dekoppachi

Kaoru is depicted as one of Dekoppachi's Yao-Batsu customers in *Nyarome's Fun Sexual Education Classroom*. When Dekoppachi has curiosity and opts to stop by Kaoru's home one day, he becomes disgusted to see that the man happens to love another man. This leads to a lecture by Nyarome on homosexuality and other aspects of humans in sexuality and gender expression that would be considered abnormal to society, but that are in fact valid variations.

## Appearances in Animation

Although he has never appeared under the Kaoru name in a series, he was utilized in the 1988 animated adaptation of Osomatsu-kun as the replacement character for The Police Officer with the Connected Eyes. His name was given as "Katsumi Yatsugashira" in episode 23, although some scripts still bore the "Kaoru" name to refer to him by.

A nameless cameo was adapted into an episode of Heisei Genius Bakabon as well, with him being a dancer. Another instance shows the Police Officer with the Connected Eyes reading a news article where the man's officer incarnation from the previous -kun anime is seen in a photo.

Other than these instances, the only time some kind of animated form of Kaoru can be seen would be in the pachinko game **CR Genius Bakabon: The 41 Year Old Spring**.

## Trivia

* A piece of artwork by Katta Yoshi depicting the more popular members of Akatsuka's Star System notably contains Kaoru making a flirtatious expression at one of the Matsuno sextuplets, who looks terrified by the advance. A later, alternative version of the image removes this depiction and has the two not engaged in any outright interaction; whether this was due to the unfortunate implications over the only outright gay character being depicted hitting on a young boy has never been outright said but could be inferred.
* Although Fujio Pro and other official resources to this day may still use a certain word as part of Kaoru's name/description, such a word is considered to be highly derogatory and akin to a slur if not used in a reclaimed sense by the LGBT people which it is used for (historically, effeminate gay men but has also come to be associated with male cross-dressers of any orientation as well as transgender women). There are other similar characters of this theme in other *Bakabon* chapters and other Fujio Pro works, to where it appeared an easy way to code a character as a flamboyant man like Kaoru would be to depict them with a face very much like his if not just outright re-use him. The brothers Gengoro and Chojuro can be seen to be notable "Kaoru lookalikes" in Bakabon itself, and the *Nyarome's Fun Biology Classroom* book depicts Todomatsu's interaction with a teenage Kaoru-esque character being what causes him to become something like Kaoru in his adulthood. Though the adult Todomatsu is not depicted as a manly, hairy caricature as the existing *ok\*ma* types, the controversial word is used and some may debate if the intent by Kunio Nagatani was merely to depict the sextuplet as a mere cross-dresser or be interpreted as a trans woman.