Kenji Yanagimoto (柳本 ケンジ Yanagimoto Kenji) is the director of the movie club who is first introduced as a friend/classmate of Takatoshi Tsuda and Mutsumi Mitsuba where he also becomes classmates of Suzu Hagimura and Chiri Nakazato in the second year.
Appearance[]
Kenji has short grey-black spiky hair, he wears a pair of half-rimmed glasses that hides his eye color and he is roughly Takatoshi Tsuda's height.
Personality[]
Unlike Takatoshi Tsuda, who chose to go to Ousai Private Academy because it was close to his house, Kenji is hinted as being one of the 'harem-seekers' Aria Shichijō mentions at the start of the series (i.e. boys who deliberately chose to go to Ousai because it had just become co-ed and so the boy-girl ratio was skewed heavily towards the girls). He was confident that due to this ratio, he could at least expect chocolates on Valentine's Day, but Takatoshi pointed out that just because he was one of the few boys, that didn't automatically mean girls would be interested in him.
Kenji was initially jealous of Takatoshi being chosen for the Student Council, since all the members (except for that one kid) were great beauties. He expressed his wish to take Takatoshi's place, but backtracked when Takatoshi offered to give his position to him. He knew the job would be difficult, and wanted no part of it. This irritated Takatoshi.
Despite his original harem-seeking objective, once settled Kenji is a normal teenager, especially compared to the more eccentric characters of the series.
Relationships[]
Takatoshi Tsuda[]
Kenji and Takatoshi chat in the canteen.
Kenji is likely Takatoshi's best friend outside of the Student Council members. The two of them are often seen having normal teenage boy conversations (such as discussing video games or how they haven't studied for tests). Takatoshi appreciates this, since the Student Council members are so brilliant those kinds of conversations are impossible.
Mutsumi Mitsuba[]
Mutsumi is Kenji's classmate/fellow supporting character who is noted as being able to get along with everyone and Kenji is no exception. For his part, Kenji is well aware of Mutsumi's abilities and so when Mutsumi weakly threw a ball (in an attempt to appear more 'girly') he (along with Takatoshi Tsuda and Chiri Nakazato) panicked and wondered if she was injured.
In the Japanese fandom, Kenji is often paired up with Chiri.
Locations associated with Kenji Yanagimoto[]
- Ousai Private Academy
- Class 2B
Etymology[]
- The name Kenji is written in katakana (ケンジ), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (健二, 研二, 賢二, 謙二 or 健司), it could possibly mean:
- 健二 - "healthy, strong" (健) (ken) and "two" (二) (ji).
- 研二 - "study, sharpen" (研) (ken) and "two" (二) (ji).
- 賢二 - "wise" (賢) (ken) and "two" (二) (ji).
- 謙二 - "humble/humility, modest" (謙) (ken) and "two" (二) (ji).
- 健司 - "healthy, strong" (健) (ken) and "officer, boss" (司) (ji).
- Kenji's surname Yanagimoto means "willow" (柳) (yanagi) and "base, root, origin, source" (本) (moto).
Trivia[]
- Although Kenji is one of the few male characters of the Seitokai Yakuindomo series, he makes few appearances (and even fewer speaking roles) compared to most of the other characters.
Kenji gels his hair for Valentine's Day.
- In the first season, Kenji gels his hair on Valentine's Day, hoping to get chocolates from girls. However, this did not happen. In the second season, he does the same thing with a depressingly similar results.
- In Chapter 140, Kenji finally gets a Valentine chocolate from Chiri Nakazato, which was given casually while she was talking with Mutsumi Mitsuba.
- While Kenji is often a boke, he is one of the few people who has delivered a tsukkomi to Takatoshi Tsuda, specifically retorting at how dense Takatoshi was when Suzu Hagimura, Mitsuba and Nene Todoroki fought over the chance to be his partner for tennis doubles.
- In the 2nd season OVA's first episode, a girl with glasses is teased for "liking Shiraishi" and since there is no noted character with this name, it could be a reference to Minoru Shiraishi (Kenji's VA).