Iori Kitahara

* Manga
* Anime
* Live-Action

**Iori Kitahara** (北原(きたはら) 伊(い)織(おり), *Kitahara Iori*? ) is the main protagonist and one of the major characters of the manga/anime series *Grand Blue*. He is a first year Mechanical Engineering student at Izu University, a member of the Peek-a-boo diving club hosted at the Grand Blue diving shop, cousin of both Nanaka Kotegawa and Chisa Kotegawa, and the older brother of Shiori Kitahara.

## Appearance

Iori is a young man with a fairly muscular medium build and straight hair that goes down to his neck. His young youthful face sometimes receives remarks about being cute. In the manga his hair is shown to be a dark blue color, however in the anime Iori's hair color can range from pure black to light blue. He has grey colored eyes in colored illustrations from the manga, while in the anime adaptation his eyes are violet colored. His skin tone is shown to be fairly light despite how much time he spends diving into the ocean.

Normally, his attire consists of a hoodie or jacket over a T-shirt. Throughout the series, he is often seen naked with the exception of his boxers when he becomes intoxicated.

In the live action adaptation of Grand Blue, Iori is portrayed by japanese actor Ryo Ryusei.

## Personality

Iori was first depicted as a relatively normal boy just entering university who wants to lead a normal and peaceful school life. However, after joining the Peek-a-Boo diving club, Iori spent most of his days intoxicated, naked, and partying with the club members until the end of the anime and onward into the manga. He had become rather unorthodox as well, being generally loud and boisterous throughout the whole of the anime and manga series, while still displaying a kind and caring side. An example of such being when he stood up for Aina Yoshiwara when she was being picked on by the Tinkerbell tennis club, and how he defends Kouhei Imamura when he is insulted for being an otaku by Sakurako Busujima. While outwardly Iori appears to be selfish and driven by lecherous desires, it appears that inwardly he cares deeply for those close to him. Never hesitating to show concern for when one of his friends is in danger, and not being afraid to stand up for someone he feels has been wronged. Despite no initial interest and even an aversion due to not knowing how to swim, Iori quickly comes to love diving, describing the activity like a whole different world. Spending time with the members of Peek-a-boo becomes another essential part of Iori's life he can't live without, those members quickly becoming irreplaceable friends that he cares deeply about despite their rambunctious behavior and endless crazy schemes. Over the course of the series, Iori seems to have gained a sort of pride in his ability to hold his liquor down. Shown when he felt insulted as two foreign otaku's challenged both Kouhei and him to a drinking match. Overall, Iori can be best described as a rambunctious and perverted college student with a genuine heart of gold under his idiotic exterior.

## Relationships

### Family:

* **Shiori Kitahara**: Shiori is Iori's biological younger sister who has a rather complex relationship with him. Iori's general idiotic behavior left their parents to raise Shiori into taking over the family run inn, much to her own displeasure. Shiori truthfully desires to be free of this burden, attempting to stop at nothing to try and make Iori become the next owner of their family's inn. Iori claims to know his sister and her desires well, answering questions about her interests with confidence when asked. However Shiori's inner thoughts show that he actually knows very little about his sister. Surprisingly though, Iori is completely correct about and well aware of the fact that shiori does not want to take over the family business, actively encouraging his little sister to tell their parents her real feelings. Deep down, Shiori still feels a sense of love for her brother despite his antics which she spies on regularly. Iori seemingly feeling the same for her, never hesitating to defend Shiori from anyone and everyone that tries to get with her and exploit her for their own perverted desires. Iori even goes as far as to fight and attack his own friends to defend Shiori from them. Shiori no doubt fully understands how much her brother truly cares about her after witnessing these events play out. Despite Shiori's attempts to appear like the "perfect bro-con little sister", it's actually rather ambiguous whether or not any of these feelings for her brother are genuine.

* **Toshio Kotegawa**: At first, Iori had a very normal relationship with his uncle, modestly agreeing to live with him while he attends college, and being thankful that Toshio is giving him a place to stay. However this swiftly changes as Iori realizes what kind've people regularly populate the Grand Blue Diving Shop. Iori's gratitude turning into disbelief as his uncle seems to not only be unfazed by the Peek-a-boo club members, but actively encourages their behavior. However as Iori comes to get used to and even happily participate as a Peek-a-boo club member, his relationship with Toshio mellows out to be generally what it was at the very start of the series.

* **Nanaka Kotegawa**: Due to Iori's father being originally adopted, she and Iori are not related by blood. Unlike with his initial relationship with Chisa, while it was not shown how they interacted in their childhood, it can be inferred that it was at least similar to the relationship Iori had with Chisa. Currently, they have a fairly happy and pleasant relationship. Nanaka looking after Iori like a little sibling and caring about his wellbeing. While Iori cares about her in a very similar manner, despite admitting he finds Nanaka very attractive. Despite Nanaka's fanatical love for Chisa, over the course of the series, she comes to view Iori as an acceptable boyfriend for her little sister. This, however, does lead Nanaka to become incredibly protective and watchful over Iori's love life. Refusing to let him stray away from her beloved sister, and wanting to make sure Iori protects Chisa from flirty people as much as possible.

* **Chisa Kotegawa**: The same as her elder sister, she and Iori are cousins unrelated by blood and were childhood friends a decade before the start of the series. Not much is known about her childhood with Iori, however, it can be inferred that they were fairly close with one another from the shot of the two running with each other along the beach shoreline that we are shown.
 That being said, their reunion as college students was anything but smooth. Their very first "meeting" was Iori getting a passing by glance at Chisa while she changed out of her diving suit after getting out of the water. Leading to the two have an awkward staredown before Chisa gave Iori a puzzled look and Iori simply continued to walk off on his way.
 Afterward, their first "official" reunion didn't go any better, in fact, it went far, far worse. Chisa walked into the Grandblue shop eager to meet her cousin again after over a decade apart, only to find him stripped down to his boxers and dominating his fellow Peek-a-Boo members in a drinking match. This led Chisa to gain an immediate disgust in what her cousin had seemingly become in their adulthood. She writes the young man off as an idiot, going as far as to say "I never imagined you'd grow up to be so stupid." Presumably wanting nothing to do with him anymore, as Iori attempted to greet Chisa by placing a hand on her shoulder, she smacked away his hand , took off the jacket she was wearing and urged her sister to burn it before slamming the door behind her as she went to her room, much to Iori's bewilderment and sorrow at this misunderstanding.
 That was far from the end of their interactions. While living in the Kotegawa household, Iori began to slowly, but surely mend the rift he inadvertently created. Getting caught up in each other's (mostly Iori's) initially comedic antics, Chisa still wanting to show her cousin the wonders of the ocean she loves so much, Iori getting fully invested in said world, the two becoming "Pretend boyfriend and girlfriend", and many more experiences lead the two to somehow form a strong and caring relationship. The time spent living together leading the pair to almost become in sync with one another when performing tasks like cooking, and very much having the interactions of siblings or an old married couple, much to Chisa's declarations that Iori was stupid. This relationship created an almost unspoken mutual trust between the pair. Iori coming to Chisa for help with his diving practice, Chisa never hesitating to lean on her "Boyfriend" whenever someone tries to flirt with her.
 It could be said that Iori and Chisa have come to care about each other's wellbeings quite a bit. Iori not hesitating to put his life into danger when he thought that Chisa had fallen down a cliff in a drunken stupor, Chisa always making sure Iori is enjoying himself and being involved when they go out diving(which is sadly not very often.), and seemed genuinely concerned for her cousin's emotional state when he was left out of diving for not properly obtaining his license, and Iori even going as far as to miss his flight back home to stay behind and figure out the mysterious case of Chisa's mother's hearing. (Although this could be argued to not be his original intention, as Iori himself stated he simply stayed behind to get back the pornographic magazine he forgot.) This led Chisa to give Iori a genuinely heartfelt and tearful thank you after Iori came to her in the middle of the night to clear up the misunderstanding involving Chisa's mother (which had previously been tearing Chisa up on the inside). Leading the young woman to tell her cousin "I'm so glad you're here!", the warm gratitude on Chisa's face leading Iori to blush as he was caught off guard.
 Whether or not Chisa and Iori's relationship could ever be romantic is hinted at and visited multiple times throughout the series, despite the two dismissing the idea seemingly whenever it's brought up, such as Iori saying Chisa's like a sister to him, Chisa however reaches a point where she herself doesn't understand her own feelings. She reasons with herself that she could never see any sort of relationship with Iori, sexual or romantic, and yet the idea of Iori ever being with another woman bothers her, to the point that she's willing to continue being Iori's "girlfriend" if it means keeping him away from girls like Busujima. Chisa appears to genuinely have developed some sort of romantic interest in Iori, and is in serious turmoil over said feelings, whether or not she truly comes to terms with how she feels has yet to be revealed.

**Peek-a-Boo Club Members:**

* **Kouhei Imamura**: Iori's fellow classmate and club member. Their relationship begins with a rough start as Kouhei was swindled by Iori into joining Peek-a-Boo against his will. Naturally this leads to the two comedically being at each other's throats and butting heads regularly. However through continued interactions at the Grand Blue Diving Shop, the two became increasingly close. Eventually both Iori and Kouhei become fully fledged best friends. Iori being willing to ruin his own chances of getting with a girl to stand up for Kouhei and defend his interests, and being able to tell the difference between Kouhei and a body double who looks identical to him. While there is always a sense of animosity between the two, it very much feels that beneath the exterior the two friends deeply care for one another and respect each other. Over the course of the the series, Iori and Kouhei gain a bit of a comedic duo relationship through the many antics they both participate in.
* **Ryūjirō Kotobuki**:(to be added)

* **Shinji Tokita**: Iori has a strong bond with his senpai, Kotobuki and Tokita. They often joke around and both sides are interested in learning more about each other. First meeting each other when Iori stumbles onto their naked rock, paper, scissors games twice. Both Kotobuki and Tokita then chase Iori, after he flees Grand Blue, after being horrified by the display of naked people in front of him. Their friendship blossoms into Iori joining in on the naked fun.

* **Azusa Hamaoka**: Iori's relationship with Azusa is a quite the complex one. Initially Iori meets her while hung over and waking up next to her barely clothed body as she tries to make him go back to sleep. Azusa appears to like Iori and enjoy his company quite a bit, finding his antics as a Peek-a-boo member to be hilarious. While Iori is amazed at how shamless and blatant her personailty is combined with her own physical attractiveness. Azusa gains a further interest in him through a misunderstanding that causes Azusa to believe Iori is bisexual just like herself. Azusa appears to take a great interest in Iori's love life, wishing to have someone she can actually spend time with talking about their romantic interests similar to her own, inquiring about what type of guy's Iori is into. And even trying to make a deal to have Iori continue to be Chisa's pretend boyfriend until Chisa herself no longer wishes for their relationship to be make believe. Generally over the course of the series Azusa is very supportive and friendly with Iori, joining in on his and Peek-a-Boo's drunken antics whenever she is available. Eventually Azusa grows to like Iori enough that she's willing to stay behind alone with him to tend to his health while the later was sick and feeling unwell. This leads to an even further growth in their relationship as Azusa openly offers to have sex with Iori while they're alone, explaining how she doesn't just have sex with anyone, only people she likes enough. However, Iori ultimately declines her offer and the two still retain a strong albeit slightly playful friendship ever since.
* **Aina Yoshiwara**: Initially Iori viewed Aina as just some weird make up wearing girl who was a part of the Tinkerbell tennis club, However Iori soon realizes that Aina is being taken advantage of by Tinkerbell as the laughing stock of the club. Iori comes to understand that all Aina wants is a group to be accepted by. Iori then goes out of his way to stage an event in which tinkerbell's club captain and main bully who pushes Aina around, Kudou is humiliated in public. And even going as far as to offer Aina a place to have friendly drinks with after she was left alone by Tinkerbell. Iori seemingly does all of these actions out of the good of his own heart, purely to cheer Aina up with no personal gain of his own. This leads Aina to gain very strong romantic feelings for Iori that last throughout the entire series. Immediately joining Peek-a-boo as their final first year member. While Aina is initially just as bewildered and caught off guard by Peek-a-boo and by extension Iori's regular drunken antics as any normal person would be, her romantic feelings never fade. Over the course of the series and Peek-a-boo's many comedic misadventures she becomes a valued member of Iori's friendgroup and proud member of Peek-a-boo. Multiple times Aina tries to deepen her relationship with Iori, none of which leading to any substantial changes in their relationship status, instead leading to Aina reaffirming her own love for Iori. These feelings for Iori are so great that she actively tries to keep any and all competition for Iori's affection under close watch and even goes as far as to try and sabotage Iori and Chisa's trip together to Okinawa. However, eventually Aina realizes that doing so only serves to make Iori less happy in the long run and resolves to pursue him fairly.

### Co-Workers

* **Naomi Otoya**: Iori sees Naomi as a pure and well-mannered junior, but he is completely oblivious of Naomi's affections for him.

* **Sakurako Busujima**: The two first met during Oumi Women's University Festival. At first, Iori did not have a good impression of Sakurako. As she openly ridiculed Kouhei's hobbies, Iori dumped beer on her head. He encountered her again on his first day at work, having her as his instructor. Then the two start a series of mutual bullying, where Iori is often on the receiving end. Their relationship at work is like that of master and slave.

 Iori cheered Sakurako up after she got rejected by Naomi. Since that day, Sakurako has developed romantic feelings for Iori, while he is not aware of that yet.
Sakurako kissed Iori during his second trip to Okinawa Island.

### Classmates:

* **Hajime Nojima**:

* **Shin'ichirō Yamamoto**:

* **Yū Mitarai**:

* **Kenta Fujiwara**:

## Etymology

* The name **Iori** means "that one" (伊) (**i**) and "weave, weaving" (織) (**ori**).
* Iori's surname **Kitahara**means "north" (北) (**kita**) and "field, plain" (原) (**hara**).

## Trivia

* Yuma Uchida (Iori's voice actor) is the younger brother of Maaya Uchida, who voices Nanaka Kotegawa.
* Iori learned to play tennis after finishing his third year high school exam. \*Iori loves chestnut rice.
* Iori used to write songs during his middle school days. Shiori made CD copies from it.

## References

1. ↑ Volume 16 Chapter 65
2. ↑ *Grand Blue* Volume 3 Chapter 12, Page 48
3. ↑ *Grand Blue* Volume 15 Chapter 60, Page 4
4. ↑  *Volume 7 Chapter 27, Page 21*