A First Year student at Ousai Academy, Toki Kaoru (addressed by most characters as Toki-san) is introduced as Kotomi Tsuda's very first friend. She makes her first appearance during the First Year orientation as someone sitting next to Kotomi, who introduces her to the Student Council. She also had a cameo in Episode 12 of the first season, sitting next to Kotomi before their interview for Ousai Academy.
While she initially seems off-putting and scary, she is actually a polite and kind girl. Her gruff and stoic demeanor is partially due to embarrassment at her occasional klutziness and terrible sense of direction. Because of her clumsiness and sense of direction, she's often referred to as a dojikko (i.e. clumsy girl) by other characters.
Appearance[]
Kaoru has long side swiped bangs that generally cover her right eye, and her dark shoulder length hair is usually pulled into a ponytail. She has sharp, light brown eyes and is usually seen with a hand in her skirt pocket. She was also the tallest girl in the series before the introduction of Eiryou's Hirose Yuu, being only a bit shorter than Takatoshi Tsuda (who is already noted as being quite tall). Her physique has been described as "boy-like", although this doesn't set off Igarashi's fear of males.
Toki towers over Kotomi and is only slightly shorter than Takatoshi
When seen in school, her uniform is always sloppy, with her shirt tucked out, her jacket unbuttoned and her tie loose. During summer months, she usually wears a dark coloured t-shirt under her uniform shirt, which she leaves unbuttoned.
When out of school, she generally prefers dark coloured t-shirts, along with jeans or baggy shorts.
Personality[]
Kaoru has a surly attitude and doesn't speak much. Combined with her deep voice, harsh/ boyish talking style and somewhat intimidating demeanor due to her sharp eyes and height, she has all the signs of being a delinquent, even without her sloppy appearance.
Despite her delinquent appearance and surly attitude, Kaoru demonstrates kindness and consideration on several occasions. In one case, when she casually threw an empty drink bottle at a rubbish bin and missed, she took the time to walk over at dispose of it properly. In another case, during a train ride to the Tsuda residence, she comments on how cute the dog across from her is and upon noticing an elderly man having trouble standing offers him her seat.
Kaoru has taken karate and is supremely confident in her ability, claiming she could easily face five opponents at once (which Kotomi naturally assumes means she could easily bed five boys at once, to Kaoru's horror). This skill leads her to being recruited by Mutsumi Mitsuba, Head of the Judo Club.
Mustumi attempts to recruit Kaoru
Kaoru herself generally seems apathetic, but after a match with Mutsumi and being forcibly recruited into the Judo Club, she notes she hadn't felt so fired up in a long time and decides being part of the club may not be so bad. In addition, she is a determined and hard working girl, even putting in extra effort with her studies when she needs to.
Her main personality trait besides being surly, however, is her clumsiness and terrible sense of direction. Among other misadventures, she has gotten lost while looking for the school canteen, lost while on a jog with the Judo Club and gotten off at the wrong train station while on the way to the Tsuda home. She is also prone to wearing clothes inside out, especially her school jacket. In fact, following her match with Mutsumi Kaoru is embarrassed when Mutsumi asks her not to wear her judo gi inside out next time. Her tendency to wear loose clothing and leave her uniform sloppy also stems from this, as a young girl she once tucked her shirt into her underwear, something she refers to as her trauma.
Relationships[]
Kotomi Tsuda
Kaoru is quiet and introverted, while Kotomi is a lively and popular girl. Nevertheless, the two are best friends and will normally be found together. Like Takatoshi, Toki does not hesitate to call Kotomi out on her perversions and is sometimes just as frustrated with her. Their interactions are a perfect example of a boke-and-tsukkomi, something Takatoshi and other characters point out.
Kotomi is very fond of teasing Kaoru over her dojikko tendencies such as wearing her jacket inside out or accidentally sitting on embarrassing things like half-eaten bread or chewing gum.
Mutsumi Mitsuba
During their match, Kaoru acknowledged Mutsumi's skill and realised she would have to go all out in order to win. Despite seeming to dominate the match at first and forcing Mutsumi on the defensive, Kaoru was eventually caught in a submission move and forced to give up. While not being interested in joining at first, Kaoru eventually decided it was not so bad to be part of a club. Kaoru is one of the few members of the Judo club who can keep up with Mutsumi and Mutsumi trusts her enough to put her in charge of the club while she and the other Judo club founders were away on their school trip.
Takatoshi Tsuda
Kaoru has a degree of respect for Takatoshi, considering him to be both intelligent and reliable, especially when compared to Kotomi. Kaoru is one of the small number of girls Takatoshi is able to have a normal conversation with, and she generally refers to him as 'Aniki' (literally older brother) as a sign of respect.
Takatoshi himself is somewhat fond of Kaoru (and grateful that someone is around to reign Kotomi in his stead), and is used enough to her terrible sense of direction and general clumsiness to no longer bat an eye when told she got lost during a jog with the other Judo Club members or that she accidentally does things like wear her jacket inside out or wears socks into the bath.
Chiri Nakazato
Chiri is well aware of Kaoru's klutziness, but finds it normal compared to the perversions of many of the other girls in the school (especially Shino and Aria). For her part, Kaoru is respectful of Chiri (and by extension the other seniors of the Judo Club), but isn't afraid to argue and disagree on matters like training.
Details[]
- Hates sweet things.
- Is skilled at drawing and martial arts.
- Has never actually referred to any other character by name or title (even Kotomi!), except for referring to Takatoshi as 'omae no aniki' (your big brother) when talking to Kotomi. She also properly addresses her seniors in the Judo Club as 'senpai'.
- It is sometimes hinted that Kaoru's attempts to look cool are a big reason she comes off as klutzy, like dramatically pulling her jacket on without checking to make sure it's the right way out or the time she tried to flip a coin and catch it in mid-air, but wound up punching it and sending it flying instead.
- The kanji for her last name translates to "Time / Hour" (時)(Toki)
- Her given name of Kaoru was revealed in the credits of the Seitokai Yakuindomo movie trailer. Appropriately for her, the name Kaoru is gender-neutral.