Mitsuo Kumatani

* Manga
* Anime

**Mitsuo Kumatani** (熊谷 みつ夫, *Kumatani Mitsuo*) stars as **Kumao**, a very reliable bear, who likes honey and wonderful children on the educational TV program *Together with Maman*.

## Appearance

Mitsuo is an adult with medium long black hair and black eyes.

## Personality

Mitsuo is very calm and kinda indifferent, but he usually goes along with Tobikichi Usahara, even though often reveals what Tobikichi says about Uramichi. Kumatani seems to lose his cool when he believes things go against his ideals or morals.

## Plot

Mitsuo plays Kumao, a bear on *Together with Maman*. Formally an archer in his university. His partner is Tobikichi Usahara, who plays Usao the rabbit. He likes his job, but Uramichi Omota his senpai often releases his stress on them. He often doesn't remove his mask so that he doesn't have to have eye contact with him. Mitsuo still goes to drink with Uramichi and Tobikichi sometimes. He ends up often revealing what Tobikichi thinks of Uramichi and that frustrates Tobikichi of how easily Mitsuo betrays him.

## History

Kumatani was on the fast track to a good position twice, and got fired both times due to punching an abusive boss. The anime displays one of these incidents in episode 10. Kumatani's boss, possibly drunk, kicks a box with a cat in it, while his coworkers laugh, with no other choice. Kumatani is silent for a while before he snaps and punches his boss.

From when he was young, his ideals were that “being lazy and deceptive made you human." His father got very strict with him so he grew up extremely rebellious. He was a delinquent and got into fights fairly often. At some point his brother recommended that he joined the Kyudo club. He believed that being tied down to a sport would help him understand his father's strict rules but it never changed and he always hated that way of thinking.

In college, he wanted give himself options so he attended classes and gave himself opportunities for his future. He went to a high school as a student teacher and he met Kikaku & Tosaku.

## Name Etymology

* The name Mitsuo could mean "honey" (みつ, *mitsu*) and "man" (夫, *o*).
* The surname Kumatani means "bear" (熊, *kuma*) and "valley" (谷, *tani*).
* When paired with his brother's, the hiragana on their names make the japanese word for Honey (蜂蜜, はちみつ, *hachimitsu*).
	+ The kanji in both their names also match, being man in Mitsuo's case and boy in Hachita's.

## Trivia

* Mitsuo's blood type is A.
* Mitsuo quits smoking and has a high tolerance for alcohol.
* Mitsuo's hobby is fishing, playing off his mascot character as a bear.
* Mitsuo was formerly a delinquent.
* Mitsuo seems to enjoy watching terribly-made films, such as the *Man-Eating Salmon* franchise.
* Mitsuo isn't close with his family except for his brother Hachita
* His grandfather was a fisherman
* Mitsuo often wears a shirt with salmon written on them or fish-related puns.
* Usually, Mitsuo avoids removing his mask as he doesn't want to meet Uramichi Omota's eyes since he scares him, but he doesn't really show it like Tobikichi Usahara.

## Relationships

### Hachita Kumatani

Hachita is Kumatani's beloved younger brother. Kumatani is shown to be very protective, caring and kind to his brother who he sees as an oasis in a way and makes sure Hachita stays safe and happy whenever he can.

### Tobikichi Usahara

Meeting back in college as peers and roommates, their friendship is mainly Kumatani picking on Usahara but still joining him time-to-time for drinks, group dates, etc. Their dynamic is very polar with them being opposites in nearly every aspect. Kumatani usually drops a negative comment about him time to time with Usahara sometimes pranking him or joking around. Overall, they may have one of the most normal friendships in the series.

### Omota Uramichi

They also met in college and were roommates -along with Usahara. Frankly, Kumatani wasn't and isn't a big fan of Uramichi and doesn't hide the fact he does hold disliking towards him which was shown a few times. Nevertheless, he holds some respect and admiration for the life lessons and advice Uramichi gives, having been shown to genuinely admire and respect the dedication Uramichi has shown to making the kids who enjoy his show happy. The two are a sort of friends but mainly acquaintances in respect to the distance they have. Kumatani may also just hang out with Uramichi because Uramichi pays for food and drinks for them.

### Tosaku Nusumi

Kumatani is shown to have a great distaste for Nusumi ever since Nusumi's appearance where he was caught for making rip offs of MHK merch. His disliking is also why he doesn't like how Hachita hangs out with Nusumi on occasions and his annoyance for how the things Nusumi taught Hachita was actually useful.

They had actually met way before when Nusumi was 18 years old in high school and Kumatani was a student-teacher in the same school and gym class. Kumatani had a weird impression of him because of his club involvement in comparison to his large stature which would be useful on a sports team. His impression on Nusumi wasn't very defined and was rather indifferent for the most part.