Shoujo Kakumei Utena
Who the Heck is Kaido?
You might be wondering - validly - who the heck Kaido is and
why in the world I'm writing about him. The answer is simple:
he's Utena's best friend from BEFORE she went to Ohtori.
Kaido, as much as I love him, did not make an appearance in the
anime; the only place he can be found is in the manga, which is
why I've scanned some translated pages (from Viz
LLC, all rights reserved, etc., buy it here,
don't steal, and so forth) for you - all the ones containing him,
as a matter of fact.
There are a total of 26 pages below. I've done my best to give
you clues as to what they all are; if you follow along, you'll
know as much about Kaido as anyone.
My apologies if they take a while to dowload. Making them small
enough to be feasible while large enough to actually READ was
a bit of a challenge. If any of them aren't legible, just let
me know
NOTE: These are chronological, but not exactly collated; when
there were pages that had nothing to do with Kaido, I didn't scan
them. So there. ~_^
Introduction
- Kaido meets with Utena in school and proclaims that, in
spite of the school's policy, her uniform looks quite cool.
Kaido is forced
to scramble over a wall to follow Utena.
"If you don't
want danger, don't fall for me," says Utena, which
statement Kaido takes a moment to 'get;' and then, the first
of the Rose Seal letters.
And after her little
comment to Kaido about falling for her and getting him to
think about it in the first place, Utena drops a load of
bricks on Kaido's head. So to speak.
Explaining about
the letters - and of course, a comment on Kaido following
her. (What else was he going to do?)
More rose-letter
explanations; and a small explosion from Kaido, because,
dontcha know, such a romantic story has to be a dream.
MORE freaking about
this story-that-must-be-a-dream - and a near-miss that almost
was a kiss.
Kaido takes the
letters to do some research. (You can see some of his character
traits surfacing here; he's utterly the skeptical researcher.)
Ah, ha - deceit!
Kaido researches the letters, figures out the puzzle - and
proceeds to find an entirely un-mysterious pragmatic explanation
instead. Gee, you think maybe he doesn't want Utena to go?
:p
Kaido makes his
(fairly convincing) case.
"What kind
of guy wears a ring and carries roses? A WEIRDO!" Excuse
me while I laugh. >:)
Utena's moving
to AMSTERDAM? Mou; Kaido doesn't look terribly happy about
that.
...oops. Guess
that's not the prince. -_-;
Kaido goes on the
defensive for his injured best friend. KaPOW, baby.
Begins the chase.
Looking... looking...
And what do you
know: he guessed right.
Enter: prince.
Cue: the crack in Kaido's skeptical shield.
Clean your glasses,
kiddo. You don't want to miss this.
The briefest of
contact with Dios himself (or Akio in prince-form. Who knows
with this guy... -_- ).
Hard question;
hard answer.
Kaido's impression
of the prince; "... a mysterious feeling... like he
was different from ordinary people... like a quiet dream."
The truth finally
begins to come out.
More truth - and
more proof of Kaido's investigative skills. He's thorough,
isn't he?
Poor Kaido. Losing
one's best friend like this can't be easy.
Yes, she's licking
away his tears. It's a Japanese thing. And yes - she says
clearly, "because you're the friend I love the most."
I promise you it's returned.
"This is a
prologue to tomorrow." I know this page has no Kaido
on it; but as the end of the prologue, I felt it appropriate
to the beginning of this story. |
Conclusions: Kaido is an interesting character. Studious, a little
conceited, definitely a bookworm; selfish enough to lie to try
to keep his friend to himself - but soft enough not to be able
to maintain that lie for very long. Skeptical of the mysterious;
incredibly loyal to his friend.
And innocent. Innocent in a very dangerous way, considering where
it is he's going.
Altogether, Kaido is more than a fascinating character, and I
hope through this fic, you come to like him as much as I do.
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