Exactly how much time do you have, bc OH BOY. I LOVE this character. So much.
I loved him in the anime (which is the first place I ever encountered him since I haven’t read the books.) I’m a very introverted person and I’ve always been attracted to people with outgoing personalities who are friendly and find human interaction in general easy.
Again and again, throughout different shows, I’ve been drawn to this type of personality. I love that Haru’s coldness and Sousuke’s annoyance with him don’t particularly deter him. I really admire the fact that he (at least outwardly) doesn’t let the little things bother him too much. I believe he’s good at reading people (I like to think he’s just familiar with Haru and knows Haru isn’t touchy feely, and that’s why Haru brushing him off all the time isn’t a big deal.)
I love what a caring friend and devoted big brother he is. Yeah, I get that he can be a little shit sometimes and stir people up (which is another quality I love about him) but underlying that, it’s clear that he really cares about people. When he saw Sousuke and later Makoto and Haru, he wasn’t at all shy about saying hello to them and starting a conversation even though he probably hadn’t seen them in a long time. He wanted to know how they were doing. He seems so friendly and fun and wonderful tbh. He falls back into old friendships like time hasn’t made a single goddamn difference ;_;
And then you get to look a little deeper. I also believe Kisumi isn’t quite as confident about himself as he makes it seem. As I’ve said, I haven’t read the novels but a friend did point out a section to me where Kisumi was talking about one of his friends and mentioned wishing he had the same type of courage/confidence to just be himself (or something? Maybe? Kinda? THIS IS SO LOOSELY PARAPHRASED, I CAN’T REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT THEY TOLD ME OR WHAT HE SAID OR WHAT CHARACTERS IT WAS ABOUT but whatever, it’s not particularly important to me.) Anyway, long before I ever even heard of this I always portrayed Kisumi as someone a lot less confident on the inside as he is on the outside. I don’t believe he’s the egotistical homewrecking diva so many facets of fandom portray him as. In fact, characterizations like this have turned me off of reading fics about him. (I get that we see so little of of him in the anime that he’s probably at least 90% OC in any writer’s eyes, and thus I can’t say characterizing him as such is wrong, it just isn’t my jam, fam.)
I think he sometimes acts before he thinks (like giving away Sousuke’s secret.)
Idk if he’s as devious as people think he is- I can’t see him calculating everything he does to fuck with people (or mess up their relationships- the one trope I just can’t fucking stand when it comes to Kisumi tbqh.) I think he’s very excitable and very flawed and he doesn’t think things through sometimes. I identify with that, honestly.
I guess the one moment I’ll never get out of my head is when he was talking about how Hayato almost drowned and he made THIS face:
(This mah fave screenie of him tbh.) He cares a lot more than most of fandom gives him credit for, imo. Ahhhhhhh and his relationship with Hayato just warms my heart. I have younger siblings too (much younger than me) and I remember taking care of them much like Kisumi takes care of Hayato. It’s a really important aspect of him I think a lot of Kisumi-related works gloss over? It’s clear he loves his brother very much and wants what is best for him. He’s responsible when it comes to taking care of him.
*screams for ten thousand years*
HAVE I MENTIONED YET HOW MUCH I FUCKING LOVE HIS CHARACTER DESIGN??? FUCK ME. He has pink floofy hair and gorgeous violet cat eyes and yet WHAT THE HELL HE’S SO TALL AND MUSCULAR AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IT’S JUST. Such a great design.
He’s beautiful. He’s stunning.
And he has connections with enough of the other boys that it’s pretty freaking easy for me to ship him with whoever I want
I haven’t even really gotten into my own personal hcs for him (some are steady and I keep them from fic to fic, others change based on what I’m writing, but nothing will ever keep him being from one of my absolute favourite characters to write. He’s beautiful and fun and gives me enough material to work with without having so many canon personality traits that I feel obligated to write him a certain way. I think, in a lot of ways, this kind of freedom has allowed me to put a lot of character traits I strongly identify with into my portrayal of him, which of course makes me love him even more.
do i like them: of course ٩(^ᴗ^)۶ 2 good qualities: 1.] cute bubbly personality without being that annoying character that always has you sighing internally whenever they come onto the screen. 2.] that hair. and those eyes. homeboy’s a very visually-pleasing arrangement of lines imo 2 bad qualities: 1.] he makes haru mad and i feel obligated to feel the same by proxy. (even though i don’t.) 2.] homewrecker extraordinaire favorite episode/etc: again, not an episode, but just these quick flashbacks of junior high kisumi x makoto that haru remembers when makoto mentions that he saw him:
fucking classic i love it. otp: oh man… i don’t actually solidly ship him with anyone. let’s say…yeah let’s pair him off with makoto so they can be tall visually-pleasing line arrangements together. brotp: him and sousuke. or him and makoto. ot3: kisumi x sousuke x rin. the sano crew. i feel like you can’t go wrong there. notp: no one really. i guess if he was paired with some random character he hasn’t interacted with… best quote:“What is it, water gun season?” or whatever the hell he says during the OVA after narrowly dodging his second attack. like…yeah, kis. it’s water gun season you’re right. headcanon: kisumi was going to try swimming with the guys once, but haru insisted he put a swimcap on so as not to “pollute the water”. turns out kisumi refused because he knew what kind of havoc that damn swimcap would have on his hair and he was just not ready for that level of commitment.