| Kimihito Kurusu | ||
|---|---|---|
| Gallery | Quotes | Relationship | ||
| ||
| Kana | ||
| Romaji | Kurusu Kimihito | |
| Nickname |
| |
| Voiced by | Junji Majima (anime) Bryson Baugus (English Voice) | |
| Physical Appearance | ||
| Age | 18-25 | |
| Birthday | January 1st (Capricorn)[1] | |
| Gender |  Male
| |
| Hair | Black | |
| Eye | Brown | |
| Height | approx. 175cm | |
| Weight | ??? | |
| Personal Profile | ||
| Occupation | Unknown (prior to Ch. 56)
Farmhand (as of Ch. 56) | |
| Media Debut | ||
| Manga | Chapter 1 | |
| Anime | Episode 1 | |
Kimihito Kurusu (来留主 公人, Kurusu Kimihito) (a.k.a. Darling, Boss[note 1], Master, Milord, Beloved[note 2], Honey, Mr. Darling, Snookums, Loverboy, Buddy or Mr. Newhire) is a “volunteer” for the Cultural Exchange Between Species Bill. He is assigned as a host to a Lamia named Miia, whom he takes care of. After spending some time together, Miia eventually falls in love with him. He is later assigned a Harpy named Papi, and then gets chosen by a Centaur named Centorea, both of whom proclaim their love for him. Later on, he gains two more girls: a Slime whom Papi names Suu, and the Mermaid Meroune Lorelei. He later takes in an Arachne, Rachnera Arachnera, who also takes an interest in him. Later still, he gains the affections of a Dullahan named Lala, who also moves in. He is the main male protagonist of the series.
Appearance
Kimihito is a tall young man with messy black hair. His eyes are typically shown as empty white circles. When he’s serious, or when he is being particularly romantic, it is shown that he has brown irises. He has light skin, which is often covered in scrapes, bruises, or bandages from how often he is injured by his homestays’ advances, and typically wears graphic T-shirts.
Centorea’s mother summarizes Kimihito’s appearance as being “unremarkably average”.[2]
Personality
Kimihito is a gentle person who is incredibly selfless, often going out of his way to make others happy. For example, when Miia arrives at his house, he goes to great lengths to ensure she is comfortable, even going as far as to remodeling certain parts of his home to accommodate her large size. At one point, he stands in the way of Miia’s tail to defend a couple who were harassing her, so that she would not violate the laws against conflict between humans and extraspecies. Later on, he punches one of them for further harassment, getting himself into trouble rather than having Miia get deported. He also punches a fake director in the face so that the girls’ embarrassing moments do not get exposed, as well as protecting Papi’s egg. He also distracts the police so that Rachnera could escape when he thinks he is in trouble for punching the director, not knowing the police were actually there for Rachnera due to her tying up the director with her threads.
He puts his life on the line if the situation calls for it, such as when he takes an attack from a fake sword (which he believes to be real) meant for Centorea, or when he takes three tranquilizer darts to the back for Miia, Papi, and Cerea, thinking they were live ammunition.[3][4]
Due to all the crazy things happening around him because of his home stays, Kimihito eventually becomes completely unfazed by them. This is demonstrated when he nonchalantly catches Suu in a plastic bag when she jumps at Meroune, and comments to himself that he really is used to this, as well as when he takes his kidnapping by Rachnera in stride. [5][6]
He apparently has a dark side to his past. He was a victim to “chuunibyou” (eighth-grader syndrome), which is how he manages to figure out that Lala’s prophecy of his death is not real.
Skills and Traits
- Cooking: Kimihito is very good at cooking, to the point that his food causes Miia, Mero, and Cerea to gain weight from eating so much of it.[7] He knows a large number of recipes and can create many dishes from a limited number of ingredients. His cooking abilities are so advanced that they can impress professional chefs.[8][9]
- Indomitable Will: Because of his indecisiveness, it takes Kimihito a long time to make decisions on how to solve problems and how to come through on promises he has made. Because of his kindness, he will also not give up on something until it is done and he has met his obligations to others. These factors have caused him to be undeterred when faced with great obstacles, even allowing him to return from near-death situations; an ability which beings like Lala, who govern the boundaries of life and death, think is impossible.[10]
- Sewing: He can also sew quite well, since he frequently has to adjust the size of the clothes Miia buys online, and regularly makes repairs to Tionishia’s damaged outfits. He’s good enough that he can even sew Zombina’s body parts back on her, although this pushes the limit of his abilities, as Cici describes his stitching on Zombina as clumsy.[11][12]
- Snake Ecology: After Miia moves in with him, Smith prods Kimihito to start studying snake ecology, as she feels it would help him make Miia more comfortable in his home. This proves to be beneficial, as Kimihito learns so much that he suprises Miia when he reveals to her that he knows about her skin shedding, and is able to help her through the process with the only difficulties being the result of the embarrassing sexual connotations.[13]
- Strength and Durability: Though not invincible, he has nonetheless demonstrated a startling amount of endurance and vitality from the Monster Girls’ physical mishaps. Has a high tolerance to pain, and is resilient to large sums of tranquilizers. He can control his behaviors while processing methamphetamine-like mood- and behavior-altering narcotics in a short amount of time. One of the earlier examples is when Miia accidentally dislocates his shoulder by the end of Chapter 1. He is also shown to be highly adaptable to situations involving the girls. He is also quite strong, as he has shown on at least two occasions to be capable of knocking out the racist couple with a single punch.[14][15] He is able to move both Miia and her mother for an unknown distance to a hot bath, considering that even a normal snake of their size would weight about 200 kilograms/440 pounds (even dragging them shows remarkable strength). However, Kimihito admits that he is nowhere near physically or emotionally strong enough to survive a commited marital relationship with an extraspecies woman. He has recently started “training his body” to rectify this.[10]
Plot
Miia is presented to him as part of the Cultural Exchange Between Species Bill by Smith. While she stays at his home, he is very kind to her and puts a lot of effort into making sure she is happy, to the point of remodeling many parts of his home to accommodate her large size.
As time passes, Miia eventually falls in love with him, and although Kimihito feels the same way, there is a law in the exchange program that prohibits intimacy between humans and extraspecies. Violating this law could result in him being arrested and Miia being deported. However, this doesn’t stop Miia from making advances on him whenever she gets the chance.[16]
Later on, he is given Harpy named Papi, who had run away from Ms. Smith on their way over, but she kidnaps him and eventually falls for him as well.[17] After this, he ran into Centorea and helps her catch a thief, protecting her from a strike he believed would be lethal, resulting in her proclaiming her love for him.[3]
Kimihito becomes the guinea pig of a new amendment to the exchange program, which allows inter-species marriages, presumably rendering the rule invalid. Ms. Smith introduces the interspecies marriage addendum. Unfortunately, this happens on the night of a full moon, which awakens a monster girl’s primal instincts, resulting in Kimihito spending the whole night trying to avoid them all.[18]
In Chapter 18, Kimihito receives a death threat that states that if he is to marry someone, he would die. At this point, the M.O.N. puts him under (sort of) covert protection. After various incidents involving subsequent suspicious characters who are found unrelated, Kimihito finds a second letter. Its message is not as direct as the first one, using colorful language to dance around the fact that it is implying a death threat. It is revealed that Doppel wrote the first letter as a prank. Kimihito begins to complement Doppel on her writing skill on the second letter, but someone else reveals that she only sent one letter. Lala the Dullahan appears, placing the blade of her scythe on Kimihito’s neck. After a few near-death experiences courtesy of his other girls, he promptly discredits the prophecy by dropping six death flags, only getting hit in the leg by an RC truck. Lala’s personality is that of a “huntress of death” in an overdramatic, chuunibyou-esque manner. Smith reveals this to Kimihito when she places the Dullahan into his care. Afterward, Lala becomes a recurring character, generally appearing after situations that may or may not have been lethal for her host.
In Chapter 56, after being informed of the debt incurred by the other members of the household for using certain services, Kimihito reluctantly takes up a job as a farmhand, working at a farm owned by Black Lily Advanced Materials Laboratory. The farm, staffed entirely by extraspecies girls, produces standard goods as well as goods only able to be procured by the particular girls themselves. Kimihito quickly becomes popular with the Minotaurs after they catch him milking Cathyl by hand.
Character Design
When questioned on why Kimihito’s actual name is rarely used in the series (as he is often referred to by a nickname), Okayado admits that he did this on purpose so that readers could connect more with the characters using Kimihito as an avatar, like in dating simulation games where the virtual girls don’t refer to the player by name, but call them “darling” or a similar nickname. He felt that it would make the reader feel more attached to the characters and to help him or her get more immersed into the story.
It is for this same reason that Kimihito’s eyes are seldom drawn beyond two white dots. The style was the result of a compromise Okayado made after initially not wanting to even draw the character’s face (so that the reader could project themselves in the character's place easier, just like in a dating simulation game).
Kimihito’s passive personality was developed based on the fact that a majority of the men in Japan at the time were said to possess a similar outlook. These men are known as “herbivore men”.
Trivia
- While it has been mentioned that he has/had a part-time job, it has thus far not been said exactly what that job is. Furthermore, due to his duties in taking care of his homestays, he has been unable to attend said job.
- A running gag throughout the series is that whenever the girls overuse their strength/powers, Kimihito ends up getting hurt (mostly by Miia).
- In an extra chapter, Kimihito reveals he has a leg fetish; however, this was presumably to avoid the question asked by the girls about his fetish, and therefore was not completely trustworthy, but it is revealed in Chapter 15 that he found Rachnera’s legs “charming”, and confirmed that he was a “leg man”.
- He mentions in Chapter 6 that he is still a virgin. However, when Rachnera asks him if he is one in Chapter 15, he unconvincingly tries to deny it.
- It's revealed in Chapter 16 that he still lives with his parents, who are currently abroad on business.
- All the girls besides Lala have a nickname for him.
- Miia: "Darling" (だぁりん, Dārin)
- Papi: “Boss” (ご主人, Goshujin) In the Chinese and scanlation versions, she calls Kimihito “husband”, “hubby”, and “master” from time to time)
- Cerea: “Master” or “Milord” (主殿, Aruji-dono) In the scanlations, she consistently refers to him as “Master”.
- Suu: “Master” (マスター, Masutā)
- Meroune: “Beloved” (だんな様, Danna-sama) In the scanlations, she refers to him as “Sir” or “Dear Sir”.
- Rachnera: “Honey” (ハニー, Hanī)
- Smith: “Darling” (だぁりんクン Dārin-kun), albeit because she finds it amusing, having heard Miia doing so not long after she moved in with him.
- Because of this, Smith’s subordinates also call him “Darling” or “Mr. Darling”, apparently under the impression that it’s his actual name.
- Tionishia: “Snookums” (彼氏ちゃん, Kareshi-chan) In the scanlations, she refers to him as “Sweetie”.
- Zombina: “Loverboy” (彼氏クン, Kareshi-kun) In the scanlations, she refers to him “Babe”.
- Manako: “Kurusu” (彼氏さん, Kareshi-san)
- Doppel: “Buddy” (彼氏ィ, Kareshii) In the scanlations, she refers to him as “Bae”.
- “Kareshi” means “Boyfriend” in Japanese.
- To date, Manako has been the only other character to refer to him by his true name (albeit only in the English translation).
- Mil: “Mr. Newhire”
- Kimihito knows of Miia’s fantasies about him, and remarks on them whenever she thinks of a new one.
- His eyes are usually drawn as featureless white circles. His actual eyes are rarely shown, except when shocked or serious.
- Ironically, his given name of Kimihito (公人) can be translated to “public figure”, as a reference to his role as the guinea pig for the addendum to the extraspecies law pertaining to interspecies marriages.
- The three kanji for Kurusu (来留主) mean “to come”, “to stay”, and “host”, or “master”, respectively, referencing to having a number of extraspecies girls living in his home under his care.
- To date, Kimihito’s name has only been mentioned once throughout the entire series (only in chapter 1), despite being the manga’s protagonist. He is usually mentioned by one of his nicknames listed above.
- At the end of Chapter 24, he has a nightmare about what he was like in his chuunibyou phase. His outfit appears to be inspired by Yuuta Togashi’s “Dark Flame Master” persona from Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!. He is also shown saying “El Psy Congroo” while using a cell phone, which was an action commonly done by Rintaro Okabe from Steins;Gate.
- During Chapter 24, some of the death flags he raises are directly taken from popular media.
- “Can I just go to the goal right now?”-Misuzu from AIR
- “You don't mind if I beat that thing, right?”-Archer from Fate/Stay Night
- “No problem, everything’s fine.”-Trailer for El Shaddai
- “I’m not afraid of anything anymore!”-Mami Tomoe from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
- Both Kimihito and Lala are Capricorns.
- Kimihito has taken each member of the M.O.N. on a date.
Notes