According to Dojima, the younger student broke up some biker gangs while in middle school, due to them keeping his mother up with their noise. His family runs a textile store, meaning that Yukiko knows of him and his family, but most know him as a delinquent and a dangerous person due to his joining/breaking up motorcycle gangs.
Unlike the other four in the team, Kanji is the first outside of the team that requires the others to try to figure him out. While Yukiko and her family knows his family, that doesn't make her or Kanji 'friends' in any real sense. Most of the times when Kanji meets up with the group for the next few days, the result is a lot of arguments or yelling, as well as the four racing off in the face of possible attack after saying something that is misunderstood by Kanji. Along with Kanji, a strange, slender young man appears as well, asking or observing things that the others don't, and causing Kanji to question some things.
[...he's interested in me...?]
Sexual Orientation, Identity, and Repressed Selves
As everyone has dealt with various repressed identities, but a lot of them revolve around a variety of things with focuses on one particular issue or thing. That ends up being central to what their Shadows go after and feed on.
In this case, just a few mutterings overheard from Kanji gives us a hint of the type of person he is - for all his bluster and anger, he's obviously insecure and lashes out at either misunderstandings or when confronted by the implication that he's 'odd' or 'different'. He goes after the four at least twice over misunderstandings, After Kanji's disappearance and his Shadow's appearance on the Midnight Channel, you once again run into the slender detective, who admits that Kanji seems to have issues with being called 'odd'.
A lot of this has to do with Kanji's gender and sexual identity, though most of it is focused on his sexual identity. Kanji is a tough guy - you don't beat up bikers while in middle school without having been a tough guy. However, there are certain things you see in the anime and game that give him away as having some non-masculine gender focuses - his family, and thus Kanji himself, work in a textile shop. Mostly, his mother sells the textiles, but Kanji has a lot of love for her and probably has done his best to learn the trade as well, despite his new ways of dealing with noise and the like (which is to say "beat it until it leaves"). In the anime, Kanji first meets the Protagonist when he drops a small, cute keychain that he created himself, and the group quickly learns that while Kanji presents an outwardly tough exterior, a lot of that is a defense against how he feels towards some others, and that he's not always sure how to approach girls or guys because of his outside-of-gender interests.
The main point, though, is that gender-wise, Kanji identifies as a male. Sexuality-wise, Kanji is very confused and dislikes talking about it. The 'guy' he is meeting with who's 'interested' in him is a slender, young man who appears to be have a very androgynous look to him. Around him, Kanji is very flustered and obviously has no idea what to say. He's hardly any better around Yosuke and Chie, despite being told they were in a relationship.
Based on what we see of Kanji, even before his Shadow appears, it's heavily implied he's not sure what he likes and seems concerned about how to deal with a guy being 'interested' in him. While it seems like Kanji could be gay, I'm going to say it's also possible he could be bisexual or from a possible combination of various romantic/sexual groupings. He might also be mostly romantic towards guys but bisexual in general - while he is very awkward with the slender man he talks to, he's quick to fall back on his normal annoyance and anger with Chie asking possibly similar questions.
Sexuality in Japan is complex, just from what I managed to look up briefly. LGBT+ culture is around in Japan, not only through yaoi and yuri, but also with many celebrities who have come out as homosexual. The overall thought with the military is "it's allowed, so long as it doesn't start fights", so a slightly more relaxed version of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" that the US had, and while in some cases it's accepted, homosexual couples are not completely given the same rights as heterosexual couples. However, it's only recently that areas of Japan have started to consider allowing same-sex marriage and giving equal rights, but it is not yet a country-wide thing.
But then again, Kanji is just starting high school, and with a reputation already. No matter what he does, he's bound to not get into areas that will make him less socially awkward, but actually more. Coupled with his confusion as to what he likes and possibly people making fun of him for his ability to sew and such, he has a few things to work through. When his Shadow does manifest after Kanji is thrown in, we have it becoming very stereotypical of homosexual men (in the English version, he has a lisp and talks in a way that most men who are coded homosexual talk like) and he's going into a "steamy bathhouse". Bathhouses have been associated with homosexual romances, especially homosexual males. Basically...he's one big bara stereotype (bara = muscular gay man...not quite a bear but some are close)
Personal Head Canon: Kanji
If I have to pin down a full label on Kanji, it would go like this - cis male, bisexual, possibly homo or biromantic. Again, I used the "Chasing Amy" reference because Kanji shows that he finds girls attractive, but he seems more inclined (due to how his Shadow acts) towards possibly going out with a guy and that is a main focus of his confusion. He is attracted (sexually) towards both sexes but he is probably more drawn towards guys as far as if he thinks about a long-term relationships. This doesn't mean he won't be able to find a girl attractive in both a sexual and a romantic way. I do think that is his main source of confusion.
In relation to Kanji doing 'girly' things, a lot of this seems to come from him working around people who sew and do such things all the time, meaning that until he got into school, he probably thought that was 'normal'. It's only upon interactions with others of his age that he finds it abnormal, and tries to do his best to hide it. I don't know why sewing is a 'girly' task, though...I've tried to sew, it's time-consuming and hard, depending on what you do. And textiles (i.e weaving and the like) were often masculine tasks until the early 19th centuries - the original Luddites were protesting their jobs being taken over by machines and women.
So now it's time to run in and save Kanji from the Shadows, and to see if he might give us any new information about the kidnapper and killer.
Next up: Steamy Bathhouse Analysis
In this case, just a few mutterings overheard from Kanji gives us a hint of the type of person he is - for all his bluster and anger, he's obviously insecure and lashes out at either misunderstandings or when confronted by the implication that he's 'odd' or 'different'. He goes after the four at least twice over misunderstandings, After Kanji's disappearance and his Shadow's appearance on the Midnight Channel, you once again run into the slender detective, who admits that Kanji seems to have issues with being called 'odd'.
A lot of this has to do with Kanji's gender and sexual identity, though most of it is focused on his sexual identity. Kanji is a tough guy - you don't beat up bikers while in middle school without having been a tough guy. However, there are certain things you see in the anime and game that give him away as having some non-masculine gender focuses - his family, and thus Kanji himself, work in a textile shop. Mostly, his mother sells the textiles, but Kanji has a lot of love for her and probably has done his best to learn the trade as well, despite his new ways of dealing with noise and the like (which is to say "beat it until it leaves"). In the anime, Kanji first meets the Protagonist when he drops a small, cute keychain that he created himself, and the group quickly learns that while Kanji presents an outwardly tough exterior, a lot of that is a defense against how he feels towards some others, and that he's not always sure how to approach girls or guys because of his outside-of-gender interests.
The main point, though, is that gender-wise, Kanji identifies as a male. Sexuality-wise, Kanji is very confused and dislikes talking about it. The 'guy' he is meeting with who's 'interested' in him is a slender, young man who appears to be have a very androgynous look to him. Around him, Kanji is very flustered and obviously has no idea what to say. He's hardly any better around Yosuke and Chie, despite being told they were in a relationship.
Based on what we see of Kanji, even before his Shadow appears, it's heavily implied he's not sure what he likes and seems concerned about how to deal with a guy being 'interested' in him. While it seems like Kanji could be gay, I'm going to say it's also possible he could be bisexual or from a possible combination of various romantic/sexual groupings. He might also be mostly romantic towards guys but bisexual in general - while he is very awkward with the slender man he talks to, he's quick to fall back on his normal annoyance and anger with Chie asking possibly similar questions.
Sexuality in Japan is complex, just from what I managed to look up briefly. LGBT+ culture is around in Japan, not only through yaoi and yuri, but also with many celebrities who have come out as homosexual. The overall thought with the military is "it's allowed, so long as it doesn't start fights", so a slightly more relaxed version of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" that the US had, and while in some cases it's accepted, homosexual couples are not completely given the same rights as heterosexual couples. However, it's only recently that areas of Japan have started to consider allowing same-sex marriage and giving equal rights, but it is not yet a country-wide thing.
But then again, Kanji is just starting high school, and with a reputation already. No matter what he does, he's bound to not get into areas that will make him less socially awkward, but actually more. Coupled with his confusion as to what he likes and possibly people making fun of him for his ability to sew and such, he has a few things to work through. When his Shadow does manifest after Kanji is thrown in, we have it becoming very stereotypical of homosexual men (in the English version, he has a lisp and talks in a way that most men who are coded homosexual talk like) and he's going into a "steamy bathhouse". Bathhouses have been associated with homosexual romances, especially homosexual males. Basically...he's one big bara stereotype (bara = muscular gay man...not quite a bear but some are close)
(No, he is not naked, but he's close. Yes, roses are a thing for him. Yes, I found every part in the anime where the Protagonist and Yosuke was nervous or overly "do not want" to be freakin' hilarious because of later stuff they pull. And despite his look, Shadow Kanji is one of the first major fights you have that ends up being hard no matter what.)
Personal Head Canon: Kanji
If I have to pin down a full label on Kanji, it would go like this - cis male, bisexual, possibly homo or biromantic. Again, I used the "Chasing Amy" reference because Kanji shows that he finds girls attractive, but he seems more inclined (due to how his Shadow acts) towards possibly going out with a guy and that is a main focus of his confusion. He is attracted (sexually) towards both sexes but he is probably more drawn towards guys as far as if he thinks about a long-term relationships. This doesn't mean he won't be able to find a girl attractive in both a sexual and a romantic way. I do think that is his main source of confusion.
In relation to Kanji doing 'girly' things, a lot of this seems to come from him working around people who sew and do such things all the time, meaning that until he got into school, he probably thought that was 'normal'. It's only upon interactions with others of his age that he finds it abnormal, and tries to do his best to hide it. I don't know why sewing is a 'girly' task, though...I've tried to sew, it's time-consuming and hard, depending on what you do. And textiles (i.e weaving and the like) were often masculine tasks until the early 19th centuries - the original Luddites were protesting their jobs being taken over by machines and women.
So now it's time to run in and save Kanji from the Shadows, and to see if he might give us any new information about the kidnapper and killer.
Next up: Steamy Bathhouse Analysis
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