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Kanami Etō (衛藤 可奈美, Etō Kanami) is the main protagonist of the original anime series Toji no Miko and a second-year student in the middle school division of Minoseki Academy.[1]

Appearance[]

Kanami is a 13-year-old girl with short brown hair and light-brown eyes. She ties a tuft of her hair into a short ponytail. As a student of Minoseki Academy, she is often seen wearing the school's uniform along with black thigh-highs and running shoes.

Personality[]

She is a cheerful and positive girl who has many friends. She is a kenjutsu enthusiast, to the point that her eyes sparkle when someone talks about it. She especially loves sword matches and seeing how opponents devise tactics.[1] On the other hand, her love for swordsmanship and sword fights makes her rather impulsive, often getting ahead of herself when she has the opportunity to have a good battle, facing a strong opponent.

Despite her impulsiveness, when it comes to sword fights, she has a great sense of morality, and is very kind-hearted and understanding even to her enemies.

She is brave, strong-willed and quite mature. She can realize and admit her mistakes. Under this cheerful and energetic personality, she is very smart, observant, and perceptive.

Background[]

Not much is known about Kanami's background aside from the fact that she has an unnamed living father, an unnamed living older brother and a deceased mother who was a very strong Toji. She joined Minoseki Academy in middle school, meeting Mai and became her friend at some point before the series started.

Chronology[]

Kanami and her best friend/classmate Mai Yanase became representatives of Minoseki Academy in the annual national swordsmanship tournament that was held within the estate of the Origami family that year, with Kanami defeating Mai on the decisive match. After staying within the estate as participants, she and Mai joined participants from the schools under The Five Traditions. During the tournament, Kanami defeated Sayaka Itomi from Renpu Girls' School and eventually triumphed again over Mai by defeating her in a single-elimination match.[2]

Kanami would later face Hiyori Juujou from Heijou Institute on the decisive match of the tournament. However, Hiyori would attack the head of the Origami family, Yukari Origami, as soon as the match begun, causing the Origami Family Elite Guards to turn against Hiyori. Wanting to continue the match against Hiyori, Kanami decided to help Hiyori escape the venue.[2]

The two Toji tried to elude their pursuers by traveling back to Tokyo by hitchhiking from Kamakura, and spent each day in different places to avoid being tracked down. However, a call by Kanami to Mai allowed the latter to use employees from the Yanase Group to locate their whereabouts. Although Kanami and Hiyori escaped before Mai could get to them, the three eventually reunited during an Aradama sighting in Tokyo. Here, Kanami revealed that she decided to accompany Hiyori after a first-hand sighting of an "Aradama hiding beneath Yukari Origami's hair". Although she was worried about Kanami's decision, Mai had decided to set Kanami and Hiyori free.[3] The two later spent the night at the apartment unit of Rui Onda, an alumna of Minoseki and President Ema Hashima's acquaintance, but the next evening they would be found by Sayaka Itomi, who came to apprehend them under the orders of Renpu Girls' School's president Yukina Takatsu. After a short skirmish, Kanami and Hiyori parted ways with Sayaka after confirming that she is no longer a threat. Rui would also separate with the two fugitives, leaving them a destination to head towards: Irozaki.[4]

In their journey to Irozaki, Kanami and Hiyori traveled to Ebisu. Hiyori abruptly separated with Kanami after realizing that Kanami is unfit to fulfill her mission of killing Yukari Origami, only to have second thoughts about this when Kanami was forced to fight Osafune Girls' Academy's Kaoru Mashiko and Ellen Kohagura alone. After helping Kanami, Hiyori would eventually join Kanami in their escape once again, which is when Kanami declared her resolve to aid Hiyori in her mission.[5]

After learning about the history of the Great Disaster of Sagami Bay and Yukari Origami's true identity from Hiyori, she and Kanami once more crossed paths with the two girls from Osafune. However, they revealed that they are affiliated with an anti-Origami organization called Mokusa, and the two girls allowed Kanami and Hiyori to join their group. They would later be ambushed by an Aradama swarm controlled by Elite Guard Yomi Satsuki, who led Kanami and Hiyori into a trap that would pit them against Elite Guards Maki Shidou and Suzuka Konohana. The fight between the two Elite Guards put Kanami and Hiyori at a disadvantage, with Kanami forced on a defensive by Suzuka's aggressive strikes, but a moment of teamwork between Kanami and Hiyori allowed them to perform a surprise attack on Maki before making a quick escape.[6]

With Kaoru advising them to focus on the meeting place, Kanami and Hiyori continued their way to Irozaki, only to be forced to return to Ebisu upon finding out that Kaoru's friend Ellen might have been captured by the authorities. On their return to Ebisu, they fought against Yomi, who used vials of Noro to empower herself, and barely held their ground. It was only when Yomi lost control of the noro in her body that Kanami and the others were able to make an escape. Ellen later contacted a Mokusa-affiliated submarine to bring them to safety.[7]

Combat Abilities[]

Master Swordsmanship: Kanami is extremely skilled in kenjutsu, enough to make her the Champion of Minoseki Academy, make her way to National Swordsmanship Tournament Final Match, and hold her own against Suzuka Konohana, who is a two time runner-up of National Swordsmanship Tournament and Origami Family's Elite Guard Second Seat. She can hold her own against Yume, a Toji prodigy. The second time she faces Suzuka, she can easily hold her ground and utilize Suzuka's kenjutsu secret technique against her. She can even perform her mother's superior sword skill that overwhelms Yukari Origami easily, albeit half-conscious, as she doesn't remember it. After training many times with her mother, she has become skilled enough to win against Hiyori, who possesses superior strength and speed, with pure sword skills.

  • Swordsmanship Style: Yagyu Shinkage-Ryu (柳生新陰流) - a swordsmanship style learned by future shoguns during the Edo period. The style focuses on "reading the opponent's movements and thoughts and attain victory", and excels in clashing power. A technique that "controls the enemy without using a sword" called "Bladeless Takedown" (無刀取り, Mutou-tori) is also learned by practitioners.[1]

Immense Speed: She is shown to be very fast, being able to keep up with Toji considered to be faster than ordinary Toji, like Sayaka and Yume. She can also perform Jin'i with infinite speed, capable of intercepting Hiyori, stopping her from falling into the netherworld.

Immense Stamina: She has a huge amount of stamina, as she is capable of continuously fighting many battles in a short amount of time.

Immense Willpower: She display an insane willpower when fighting Tagitsuhime to save Hiyori, allow her to continue fighting despite being short on stamina. Even Yukari Origami is suprise by Kanami's willpower, and that willpower allow Kanami to pressure Tagitsuhime just by sheer ferocity.

Superior Instinct: Countless times of training and fighting allow her to build up an instinctual and subconscious understanding of sword fighting, this also allows her to fight more efficiently without thinking too much. It closed the gap in between speed caused by the Great Aradama-fused Hiyori.

Insight: Kanami has shown the ability to identify a Toji's sword school by simply looking at the stance a Toji takes, and a Toji's swordsmanship style when fighting in the heat of battle.[2] She was able to, albeit barely, see Hiyori perform a powerful Jin'i that is said to slightly surpass supersonic speed, whereas Mai could only notice that Hiyori "disappeared".[2] She had even managed to take a glimpse of an aradama's eye under Yukari Origami's hair. She can see through Suzuka's technique after a short amount of time fighting, and use it against her. She even managed to predict Hiyori's lightning-speed strike. She also could deduce people's personality by just crossing sword with them.

Kenjutsu Knowledge: Being a kenjutsu enthusiast, Kanami knows a lot about different sword techniques, allowing her to identify different sword stances and sword styles with ease, allow her to deduce strength and weakness of each sword style in order to counter them. This also allows her to perform some of their skills.

Keen Intellect: She has shown the ability to adjust to her opponent's fighting style and strategy, and is able to come up with a counter to it. This was shown when she forces Suzuka to use a secret technique, and in doing so manages to use it against her. She can also stay calm during battle as to analyze the situation better, allowing her to counter Tagitsuhime's Future Predict ability. She has even lured her enemy into dismay or anger in order to make them lose their composure, as well as their concentration, much like she did to Hiyori in episode 21, increasing her chances of winning.

Utsushi Proficiency: Kanami, like Mai, is capable of maintaining Utsushi for the longest duration in her class in Minoseki. She also can reactivate it multiple times with ease.

Equipment[]

Okatana: Chidori (千鳥) - Kanami's Okatana is called Chidori, a rather short blade with a pronounced backward curve. The tsuba has a notched-in square shape (sumi iri kaku gata) with pink outlines, and the hilt is wrapped in white samekawa. When swung, the tip of the sword leaves a white trail as if the path of the blade is heated.[1] She is the current wielder of the blade.

Character Design[]

Kanami's character design concept was first drafted on April 24, 2014, where she still had the proposed first name of Kanako (可奈子). Her name became Kanami for the first time on her succeeding revision on May 9, 2014 while designing the uniform of Minoseki Academy. Kanami eventually acted as a "model" of sorts for the refinement of the new uniform designs until her designs were finalized along with that of Minoseki's uniform on December 9, 2016.

Etymology[]

  • The name Kanami means "passable" (可) (ka), "apple tree" (奈) (na) and "beautiful" (美) (mi).
  • Kanami's surname Etou means "defense, protection" (衛) (e) and "wisteria" (藤) (tou).

Trivia[]

  • Kanami is metaphorically called a bird alongside Hiyori Juujou due to the common bird theme in their okatana.
    • Kanami's okatana Chidori translates to "plover" in Japanese.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Profile on Kanami Etou, Toji no Miko official site, translated from Japanese.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Toji no Miko Episode 01, "The Point of a Sword".
  3. Toji no Miko Episode 02, "Distance Between the Two".
  4. Toji no Miko Episode 03, "Thoughtless Sword".
  5. Toji no Miko Episode 04, "Weight of Resolution".
  6. Toji no Miko Episode 05, "Night of the Mountain Hunt".
  7. Toji no Miko Episode 06, "The Gap Between Humans and Disgrace".
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