Chitose Oribe

**Chitose Oribe** (織部 千登勢, *Oribe Chitose*) is an inhabitant of Manoyama and the owner of a confectionery store in the town who also leads the Manoyama Board of Merchants where she is known mainly for her constant clashes with Ushimatsu Kadota over many things, including their opinions on handling town affairs.

## Appearance

Chitose has neck-length faded dark-purple hair that is swept to the left side and dark-colored eyes.

Befitting her traditional sweets business, she is usually dressed in a maroon kimono.

## Personality

Chitose is often depicted as an aloof elderly lady who rarely trusts anyone, even to the point that the friendly Shiori Shinomiya sometimes hesitates in meeting her directly. She also tends to treat outsiders rudely, especially if they are associated with Ushimatsu in any way. Somehow, her grudge against Ushimatsu goes to such a point where she would devise ways to humiliate him.

## Background

Born and raised in Manoyama, Chitose grew up as a girl who preferred making music over inheriting her family's confectionery business as the only child of the Oribe family. During the 1960s, Chitose formed The Garage Band, a three-man high school band, with Ushimatsu Kadota and Dokushima, where she took up the nickname "Olive" (a play on her surname) and acted as both bassist and songwriter.

Although the band was invited in events within town, Chitose felt that the band would not become successful if they stayed in Manoyama. Thus, Chitose planned to escape with her band from Manoyama at the night of the Mizuchi Festival and travel to Tokyo to pursue their dream of being musicians. Ushimatsu, however, ruined this plan when he made a ruckus at the festival, and this incident triggered not only the cancellation of the festival, but also the start of the rift between Ushimatsu and Chitose.

Eventually, the Oribe Confectionery Shop was passed down to Chitose, and she later became the leader of the Board of Merchants in Manoyama.

## Chronology

### The Queen and Her Ministers

Chitose was one of the first people who saw Yoshino Koharu after being chosen as the next monarch of the Chupakabura Kingdom. However, their first formal meeting was when Yoshino was interviewing the townsfolk about Manoyama. Here, she snubbed the reigning queen and telling her to "come back yesterday". Yoshino would later discover Chitose's conflict with Ushimatsu, albeit indirectly, after learning about the history of Manoyama. During the Regional Mascot Contest, Chitose caught wind of Ushimatsu's logistics problem and decided to humiliate him by suggesting the Kabura Kid costume to be worn as a replacement to the Chupakabura costume whose head went missing during the contest. Ushimatsu was forced to wear the Kabura Kid head over the Chupakabura costume due to the mixup, but Yoshino Koharu managed to turn the situation around through her speech.

## Etymology

* The name **Chitose** means "thousand" (千) (**chi**), "rise, ascend" (登) (**to**) and "force, momentum, energy, impetus" (勢) (**se**).
* Chitose's surname **Oribe** means "weave, weaving" (織) (**ori**) and "part, department, category" (部) (**be**).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Episode 03: "The Cry of the Mandrake"
2. ↑ Episode 01: "Off to Magical Manoyama"