Kuu

"*When you are miserable, you need something that is even more miserable than you to feel good about yourself.*"
—Kuu

**Kuu** is one of the main protagonists of the anime and web manga series. Kuu was sent to Nanba Prison for the murders of several hundred people.

## Appearance

Kuu has a soft, feminine appearance, and often is mistaken as a female. Hajime sometimes "forgets" that Kuu is a boy. He has a small, lithe stature and doll-like appearance with long, black hair, and large, sparkling green eyes.

He has a pale complexion, with a noticeable scar on the bridge of his nose along with one on the lower bottoms of this left cheek and on the back of his neck as well. There are bandages around his arms and one around his neck.

He also has bandages covering his legs and thighs. His usual outfit is a plain white inmates' jumpsuit with black stripes.

When seen not wearing his uniform, such as in flash backs and at the beach, he seems to have a taste for more eccentric clothing that females would wear.

## Personality

Kuu is an individual who is difficult to understand. Since others discriminated against him, Kuu is quiet, withdrawn, and guards his emotions carefully in response to the bullying from his classmates, neglect from the child welfare workers in charge of him, and the absence of his parents. Kuu is very calm and he once mentioned that he has never screamed. He can be stern and bluntly honest, even at times forgetting to take other people's feelings into consideration.

He has a number of unusual habits, such as dozing off while playing games and taking long pauses during his conversations to think about everything he wants to say. He sometimes even sleeps while standing and forgets to breathe when he's playing games. He also quite often uses gaming terms and references.

Though he understood the other miserable children in the orphanage were using him to forget their misery, he is shown wondering why they have to treat him in such a way just because he looks like a girl. The bullying left its mark on his interactions with others by leaving him puzzled about how to return the kindness. As shown with both Jyugo and later Hajime Sugoroku, he didn't know how to react to people being kind to him other than being embarrassed. He even let his emotions slip around them and became quickly thrown off when his only four friends praised him or caught him acting in any way other than calm, cool, and collected.

Unfortunately, Kuu also has a deep-rooted complex over being looked down on by others as being "weak". This happened as a result of memories and experiences from his childhood where he was frequently bullied and told to act tougher due to him being rather frail for a boy. To make the bullying stop, he started disguising himself as a girl to avoid the pressure of having to become stronger. However, this only made his insecurities even worse. Though he tries to hide it, he gets uncomfortable when others treat him as a girl, and he would rather spend time with other boys instead of girls. He greatly admires men who are physically strong and he wishes he could be like them.

However, he has no problem harming or killing others. He is hateful of humans after witnessing the murder of his dog at the hands of bullies at the orphanage. He makes it obvious he hates humans and doesn't see them as people.

Kuu usually ends his sentences with a negative note even though he actually means to compliment someone or cheering someone, such as "...I think", or "Maybe...". Hajime once said that sometimes he wishes that Kuu would end his positive sentence on a positive note. However, he truly does care about and wants to protect everyone. This is a sign that, deep down, he truly wants to attempt to reform himself.

When he first escaped a prison, he didn't make any sign to look for and free any other prisoners, though to be fair, he might not have known they were there. The second time, though, he willingly let them die when he sank the island. His feelings toward his family were also conflicted. He hated both his parents for a long time because they abandoned him, but during his last meeting with Chief Kakuzawa, he wanted to meet his mother or at least learn of her fate after being told the woman had wanted to find him all along and that it was his father who threw him away. After learning of his mother's death, he killed his brother and Kakuzawa both but didn't grieve long for his mother due to his wish to leave the prison to return home. Killing his younger brother, like the killing of the other Humans, might have been to prevent him living a miserable life like his own, as evident from his remorse over killing him in his innocence.

Close to the end of the manga, Kuu revealed he'd always wanted to be part of human society and take part in their lives. In spite of this desire, he viewed his impulse to kill humans, spurred by The Voice, as natural and had difficulty fighting it. While he desperately wanted to be part of humanity, he gradually came to never expect them to accept him, leading him to do little more than try and create a niche for himself.

## History

### **Birth**

The series reveals nothing about the background of Kuu's parents. Throughout his life, Kuu believed that both parents had abandoned him, leaving him naked in a field to die of exposure as an infant. Towards the end of the series, Kuu learned that only his father had shunned and tried to dispose of him. His mother, realizing what he had done, spent the rest of her life searching for him, a quest that finally caught the attention of the wrong person.

Kuu was rescued and raised in an orphanage (possibly after being kept in an infant care facility), where he grew up believing his parents wanted him dead.

Captured by Chief Kakuzawa, Kuu's mother was held, studied and forced to bear a son by him, committing suicide sometime after this occasion. Meanwhile, Kuu knew nothing of this and instead continued to believe both parents had abandoned him, a belief that leads him to harbor a deep resentment, and even murderous urges, towards them. It remains unclear if Chief Kakuzawa knew of Kuu's existence before his son did, so the time frame of the conception and birth of Kuu's half-brother is also uncertain.

### **Early Life**

When Kuu was a child, he became the subject of harassment and bullying. He was always told to "be a man" and that he was "so weak despite being a boy", and because of that, Kuu slowly but surely began to develop a "weakness complex". In order to escape the bullying, Kuu began to dress as a girl so that people wouldn't bully him as a weak boy. This only served to worsen his complex, as it wasn't addressing the root of his problems, and he would get bullied even more if the truth was found out.

### **Orphanage Life**

At the orphanage, Kuu was avoided and neglected by the staff and referred to as an "Ox" (due to his horns), and told by the other kids that he should live outside. In an odd way, he understood this as the other kids using him as a way to distract themselves from their misery of being forgotten and abandoned. Kuu did little to prevent the abuse other than to refuse to react, presumably in the hopes they would tire of bullying him if they couldn't get any reaction from him. It remains unclear how or when Kuu and the other children learned of the story of his abandonment, but it seemed common knowledge at the site. Over time, him ignoring the bullying backfired twice over; it marked him off as emotionless and therefore more of a 'freak' and egged tormentors on, hoping to get a reaction from him.

As she matured, Kuu's vectors began to develop, though he had little understanding of what this meant at the time. Kuu eventually discovered a stray dog in the woods around the orphanage, whom he thought of as his first friend. Feeding the puppy on breadcrumbs left him still hungry, so he felt forced to give most of his dinner to it. During this time young Kuu, while holding his pup, sometimes heard and listened in on the singing of young Nozomi, who fled to those same mountains to hide her singing from her family, but the two never truly met during these times. When a boy named Tomoo threw milk all over his bag, a young girl saw and shouted for a teacher. Thinking of her as a new friend, Kuu, needing more food for the dog, told the girl about the puppy. However, although promising to keep it a secret, the girl soon told the boys about the puppy and its significance, and the bullies took it from the woods. After confronting Kuu in the classroom, the bullies brought in the puppy and began violently bludgeoning it to death (with a rock in the manga and a vase in the anime). The girl came in to intervene, admitting to telling them about the dog, as Tomoo casually revealed. Despite her apologies and protests that she hadn't known the puppy would be hurt, she was seen by Kuu smiling behind her supposedly covered eyes.

Feeling betrayed and enraged, Kuu unleashed his vectors for the first time, killing all of his tormentors in a swift, brutal manner. He then buried the dog, apologizing for not being able to protect it, and decided to go on the run. The orphanage regarded him as missing, perhaps taken away by whoever had murdered the other four children. He went in and out of jail multiple times, but he escaped each and every time.

### **Meeting Jyugo**

Kuu met Jyugo when he was captured for the 50th time. He noticed Kuu's bandages rapped around his arms, legs, neck and thighs. Thinking he would just harm or deceive him further, Kuu prepared to kill Jyugo. However, Jyugo, surprisingly, found Kuu's bandages to be 'cool' and immediately wanted to befriend him. Kuu thought Jyugo was attempting to deceive him and tried to turn away, but Jyugo persisted, promising that he would escape with Kuu from the prison.

## Abilities

### **Programming**

When Kuu was a child, he was too weak to play outside, causing him to begin playing on the computer to make the time pass. One day, Kuu found an incomplete information retrieval system on his computer that utilized voice input. This led to him creating his own modifications to it, and he soon realized that he could write programs by himself.

### **Gaming**

Kuu's a talented person that is very good at any game, and even plays the "crappy" ones. He always finds out how to enjoy any genre or game that he plays. He states that the sole goal of playing video games is to have fun, and not to just focus on winning or losing. However, Kuu does have one genre that he can’t play very well: Dating simulators. Also, Kuu tends to focus too much when playing video games, to the point that he sometimes forgets to sleep and even breathe.

## Relationships

### **Jyugo**

Kuu had intense feelings for Jyugo, and affectionately referred to him as "Jagi". Kuu was devoted to him since childhood. Kuu stated that talking to him made him feel better. Jyugo, in turn, told Kuu to become stronger and to feel better about himself. Though he does love him, he sometimes gets annoyed by his antics and is not above hurting him in any way.

His noted denseness, the romantic obliviousness of a young boy, and his lack of understanding of the depths of Kuu's solitude left him unaware of just how much he meant to him, and perhaps the opposite is also true.

### **Rock**

Kuu greatly admires Rock, thinking that he has a lot of strength. Kuu and Rock have a good relationship with each other. Rock defended Kuu from Hajime Sugoroku, showing his dislike for bullying weak people. Soon after, Rock showed another side of himself when he accidentally yelled at Kuu, causing him to cry. Rock immediately apologized and promised to never yell again, and swore by his honor as a man. Thanks to this, he was able to cheer Kuu up.

Just like all of his cell mates, he is often harsh on him and gets angry at him often.

### **Nico**

Kuu seems to get along well with Nico. They are both often seen together, sharing games and anime with one another. Kuu describes him as "the most normal" of the group compared to the rest. However, there are rare moments when he makes him angry. Despite this, Nico is very fond of him and has thoughts of cross-dressing Kuu and taking pictures of him.

### **Uno**

Unlike the rest of his cell mates, Kuu shares a slight dislike of Uno. Kuu does care about him, however, and is not above to protecting him in serious cases. Out of all of his cell mates, Uno makes him angry the most.

### **Hajime Sugoroku**

Kuu is very kind and caring towards Hajime, often picking up on his bad moods. Kuu tries to cheer Hajime up many times throughout the series. Kuu usually calls Hajime "Haji". Hajime sometimes responds in kind, even though it makes him uncomfortable, but Kuu enjoys it.

Hajime often has 'romantic thoughts' about Kuu, and quickly stops himself from 'falling for the Kuu route' after reminding himself that Kuu is a male. Kuu is one of the few people who truly wants to be closer friends with Hajime, despite Hajime's tendency to push others away. He admires Hajime for his true, kind personality.

In Episode 7 of season 2 and Volume 9, Kuu says that he thinks Hajime is a cool person, indicating that Kuu thinks highly of Hajime. In the light novel, it is also shown that he is able to tell when Hajime is depressed or restless in many cases.

### **Hitoshi Sugoroku**

Just like his brother, Hajime, he too mistakes Kuu to be a girl at first but was surprised to learn his real gender. He considers Kuu to be very cute. Hitoshi sometimes worries about his brother paying lots of attention to Kuu in a romantic way. They call each other by their first names.

## Quotes

* *"When you are miserable, you need something that is even more miserable than you to feel good about yourself."*
* *"Everyone in this place is unhappy. And since they're unhappy, they're probably looking for someone worse off than they are."*
* *"Aren't we all monsters inside?"*
* (To Jyugo) *"You suddenly appeared in front of me in this hell. The day that I would get to meet you...I always wanted to apologize to you... I only endured because of that! I kept on living."*
* *"If I get a chance, I'm gonna work super hard to chip in! When it comes to computers, you can count on me!"*
* *"If I don't do something, nothing's ever going to change."*
* *"I want to change, I know that. But I'm just so scared..."*
* *“An idiot that knows he's an idiot, is even harder to deal with then an idiot that thinks he isn't."*
* *“Chess is no different than tic-tac-toe.”*
* *"But... Being here with everyone, talking to you so much... I decided that I wanted to change. I didn't want to be weak anymore. I didn't want to lie to anyone. I wanted to become my true self, so that we could all become true friends!"*
* *"Thank you. You're always there to encourage me like this. Whenever I get scared and want to stop, you're right there behind me, pushing me forward. So... Until I'm strong enough to be my true self in front of everyone...I hope you'll be there to support me."*
* *"I'm better at games that use precise calculations, where success and failure is decided by numerical values. But... it's hard for me to play games where I have to manage relationships and guess what characters are feeling."*
* *"I can pretty much sleep anywhere, but it's a lot better if it's warm and soft."*
* *"It's perfect for taking naps... Falling asleep as you're reading... is so peaceful..."*
* *"More important, whoever thought eating food should restore your health was a genius. If only the real world was like that."*
* *"Hm, how should I put it? I like it, but gaming is my life. Or maybe life is just a game? It's not a game if you're not having fun. It doesn't mean anything if you just focus on winning or losing. There might be weird games here and there, but there are ways of enjoying those, too. That's why bizarre games are fun. You can beat them as long as you do your very best."*
* *"Hope is harmony. A just heart, moving toward the light. That is all. Despair is hope's polar opposite. It is messy and confusing. It swallows up love, hatred, and everything else. Because not knowing where you will end up is despair. Despair is even what you cannot predict. Only despair's unpredictability can save you from a boring future."*
* (Past, to Kuu's Puppy) *"Are you worried about me? I'm alright, I'm used to being alone..."*

## Trivia

* Picture is by @angela\_lee\_5 on tumblr.
* Kuu means "Nine".
* Due to the fact that he has worn a bikini before, it is possible that he was not born with male genitals. Either that, or he has rather small genitals.
	+ Instead of boxers, he wears female underwear, which could be another hint at his possible lack of male genitals.
	+ He could also be of intersex. He could have been born appearing to be female on the outside but having male anatomy, or he could have been born a boy with notably small genitals.
* Kuu enjoys collecting unusual ornate knives, implicitly used for self-harm.
* Kuu enjoys any kind of video game, even games falling under the "kusoge" genre (games intentionally designed to be unlikable), with the exception of dating sims, the only genre he is bad at.
* Kuu stated that he has no interest in women; however, this is only stated in a dream. There is neither proof nor confirmation of what his sexuality is.
* Kuu doesn't like the idea of swimming, because he fears he might fall asleep and drown.
* Neither anime nor manga ever makes clear the extent to which Kuu was naturally prone to killing Humans or how much of it came out of reciprocated hatred and self-defense.
* Kuu is possibly left-handed, although his left-handedness is assumed since he has only ever been seen using a weapon in his left hand. Left-handedness once had a historical association with evil or bad luck.
	+ Conveniently, his inmate number is also placed on his left hand.
* Kuu possessed a Nintendo Game Girl Advance, an obvious parody of Nintendo's *Gameboy Advance*.
* Kuu's skin is weak against the sun.
* Kuu enjoys scary stuff.
* Kuu's favorite candy is the well-known lollipop Chupa Chups.