ShinigamiName:Tanaka Kano
Nickname(s): The Red Beast
Age: 1027
Visual Age:37
Gender:Male
Division: 7th
Rank:Captain
Sexual Orientation:Straight
Height:7'0"
Weight:290 lbs
Body Frame:Large, muscular
Blood Type: A
Sound of Voice: He has a voice that is deep and rumbles, like some sort of animal growling. While it is generally in a light and happy mood, given the natural tone that it takes, tends to intimidate on accident anyways when combined with his girth.
Appearance:- Spoiler:
Standing tall and broad shouldered, Kano is quite the large man. His arms are large and muscular, like the rest of his upper body. His neck is also very thick and muscular, and each of his movements seems to carry with them a great amount of power and purpose.
His hair is a bright red, wavy and spiked up, around a couple inches long. His sideburns run down the side of his face to make a beard that matches the color of the hair on his head, and his eyebrows, thick and bushy, consist of the same color red. His nose is blocky and rigid, as if reflecting what his overall body looks like, and his eyes, a deep brown, seem to be able to pierce through you and view your true intentions.
His clothing is the same as what all captains are required to wear, but over his uniform he wears a large red cloak. The cloak appears quite regal, with a large fur lining on top, with a smaller fur trim on the bottom. On the cloak is golden flame designs. The cloak has no armholes and ends around mid-shin on Kano. The cloak, while large and heavy, is purely for aesthetic reasons.
Introvert/Extrovert:Extrovert. Kano enjoys people and having a good time, and finds himself very much depressed should he be without company for too long.
Hobbies: Drinking, any sort of sport, dueling, construction.
Likes and Dislikes:Likes-
Working with his hands, Kano is a very physical man and loves to pour his sweat into any project he does. He likes to see the project progress before his eyes and loves the sense of accomplishment he gets when he sees the finished product.
Competition drives Kano to become better in all aspects of his life. To him, competition and how you fare against others decides your worth as a man. While this generally ends up in physical tests or feats, he also is easily pulled into other challenges, such as eating, drinking, etc.
When he's alone, Kano will go to any lengths to fill in the void that a lack of company creates. So he will often turn to nature to provide him with company. Despite his size and appearance, he suddenly becomes quite gentle and soft spoken, and can almost always coax any animal he comes across to come to him. However, he keeps this part of himself hidden as much as possible, not wanting people to think him as soft.
Drinking is his favorite way to unwind, and can easily handle his own in sake or whatever the beverage is for the night. He often drinks until nearly incoherent, and then promptly passes out, often waking up in places he doesn't remember how he got to. Despite this, he continues to do it as a means to grow close with his division.
Camaraderie is a theme that Kano tries to teach to his division, saying that trust in one another is key to future success, and that while one should take pride in one's personal achievements and strengths, that by trusting in others you can also rid yourself of any weaknesses as well.
Dislikes-
One of the characteristics that Kano dislikes the most are the sly and sneaky types. He heavily frowns on backstabbing attacks, finding them cowardly and deceptive and feels that if you have a problem with someone, you take it up front with them, rather than talking behind their back.
Given his love of camaraderie, it makes sense that Kano hates tyrants and those who abuse their underlings to achieve their own goals and desires. He detests the idea of slavery and feels that those who abuse their power to force others to do their bidding are not worthy of it.
While he will never tell you this, and will attempt to kill you should you tell others, Kano has a massive fear of insects. The creepy crawlies give him the heebie jeebies and will do whatever he can to avoid them. Even the hell butterflies make him uneasy, and hates using them.
Kano is a hard working many and dislikes those that are lazy or slothful. One shouldn't wait for opportunity to come to them, rather they should make their own opportunities in life and push themselves to grow and become better every day.
Personality:Kano is a man's man, lover of drinking, women, and feats of physical strength and prowess. He loves to be in the center of a crowd and treats all those that he meets with respect, refusing to judge someone until he gets to know them. He is loud, boisterous, and especially when he's drunk, can come across as obnoxious.
He is also quite blunt, his tongue about as smooth as sandpaper, often saying things that he thinks with little to no consideration as to what effect it might have. This is especially true for those he finds less than favorable, and he will, albeit unwittingly, let you know that he does. While rude, he does have a kind heart and means no serious harm, though is unaware of any hurt feelings that he may cause.
While generally competitive and happy go lucky, his protection over his allies and friends is fierce and to mess with one of them is to mess directly with him. His mood turns quite sour upon finding someone hurting one of his comrades, and will go to any length to make sure retribution is carried out.
Kano is also very loyal to the other captains and the mere thought of betraying any of them makes him sick. Even those who are on the shadier side of things Kano would never dream of backstabbing, and only until their treason is outright will he ever step in the path of a fellow captain.
Defining Characteristics:His overall trust in his companions, as well as his outgoing-ness and bluntness. His overall stature is also quite defining as well.
Specialties:Being able to make anyone feel welcome, working with items such as wood, brick, etc to build a structure, and the ability to always stay optimistic in the face of adversity.
Fighting type:Power House
History/Background:During his life on earth, Kano lived a relatively short life, only to the age of 33 before he passed away. Being the first born son of a samurai, since he could walk he was put on that same path. While his father wasn't a very good samurai, it was mainly his grandfather that taught him the ways and forms of the samurai. His grandfather, Tanaka Akihira, was a very skilled and respected samurai and, while old, was still able to teach Kano much throughout his childhood and adolescent years.
Kano looked up towards his grandfather very much, and he is his role model to this day, though he has long since passed away. He respected him so much so that his own zanpakutou takes on many similar qualities as his grandfather, though the two are indeed separate beings and have their differences.
Upon becoming of age, Kano enlisted with the guard of the capital of Japan in Kyoto. Normally someone of his green years wouldn't be allowed in, but his grandfather, pulling some strings, got him in. It was in this time that he met his next mentor and the man responsible for his personality.
Merely going as Raikou, he was the current captain at the time. Loud and obnoxious, he brought the young Kano under his wing and took him as his protogé. While Kano had originally been quiet like his grandfather had taught him, Raikou showed him how life could be when you were in the center of attention and the life of the party. Kano leeched onto this lifestyle, to the disapproval of his grandfather, and soon was joking right along with Raikou.
However Raikou was an older man and soon, when Emperor Suzaku was replaced with Emperor Murakami, Raikou not only stepped down but recommended Kano, since he knew that he could trust that he would do a good job. While this surprised some, since he was only 28 years old at the time, Raikou felt he was ready to take this role of leadership.
Upon hearing his words of recommendation, Emperor Murakami agreed, trusting the words of the long lived guard captain, and promoted Kano to the role of captain. While some disagreed with this decision, Kano was largely accepted by the rest of the guards. Kano soon began to run things very similar to Raikou, and any complaints were discarded as they found that Raikou had been correct about the youth, and that he was indeed ready for the role of captain.
However, something happened while Kano was captain, something that neither his grandfather nor Raikou could have seen coming. As Kano got accustomed to his role of power, he began to look at his fellow guards and a dark distrust grew within him. While it wasn't immediately obvious, since Kano still treated everyone like a good buddy, always joking and laughing with them, deep down he glared at them with contempt, viewing everyone as just another person reaching for the power that he had.
The first time this showed through was with the demotion of Ryoku. This took many by surprise and even angered some, as Ryoku had been much like Kano: a promising youth rising quickly through the ranks. Soon, more cases of this began to occur, and Kano soon found that just as he didn't trust his guards, they didn't trust him.
All of this formed a climax 5 years later, when the emperor came under attack. The enemy, of whom Kano didn't recognize, used flaming arrows covered in tar, and soon the palace was in flames. During the fighting, a support beam cracked and fell, pinning Kano to the ground while flames roared around him.
Kano saw a few of his guards run past and he called out to them in agony, his flesh searing from the head as the beam held him down. They turned upon hearing him, but when they saw who it was, when they saw that it was Kano, the man who trusted no one, they turned away and ran off, leaving him to die. Kano died with no friends, alone while the world burned around him.
When he next woke up, Kano found himself in a new world, the Spirit World to be exact. He was now one of the many members of Rukongai and immediately he found himself welcomed into a family of people of whom he had never met before. Despite this, Kano quickly got used to his new surroundings and his new family.
The people he lived with were nice enough. There was Myani, who played the motherly role, as well as Tarasi, who was the father figure merely on the fact that he had lived in soul society longer than the rest of them. But for the most part they lived separate lives, all having come from different lifestyles and really not having much in common.
This time was probably the darkest for Kano, who spent many a year reflecting on his past life. He looked at his past actions and, at first, was angry at the other guards for not saving him when they easily could have. But upon further reflection, it dawned on him that the reason they didn't was because of his past actions, of the lack of trust that he had put in them.
Kano realized that his suspicion of everyone around him led him to become isolated in his position, despite him loving to be the life of the party. He soon saw the signs that he didn't back then, the forced laughs, the averted eyes. All these things should have told him something was wrong, but back then all he thought about was who was trying to take away his power, regardless if that's what their intent was or not.
So Kano swore that no more would he distrust all those around him. He realized now that, for the good of him as well as the good of those around him, a high level of trust was necessary. Suspicion of your allies only makes you and them weaker and that's not something that him or anyone else needs.
Revitalized, his outlook on life considerably brightened and within his district he was known as a man who would trust just about anyone, always happy and rowdy, and overall a good soul. The community loved him just like he loved the community.
It was then brought to his attention that he should try to get into the Academy and try to become a shinigami. While Kano was initially against it, having finally settled down into his community, he was eventually persuaded to try out. They figured that it would do them good to know that they were being represented by him within Seireitei.
So Kano took the Trial Exam and, while he passed, was put into one of the lower classes within the Academy. But rather than letting that get him down, he remained positive and bonded quickly with all of his classmates. He quickly rose to the head of his class and even the most competitive among them couldn't feel anything but happiness for Kano. He never once rubbed it in their faces or acted as if he were superior but instead treated himself just as an equal, having fun among them and treating them no differently than before.
Despite being head of class, it still took Kano the 6 years to graduate, though whether this was because he wasn't able to graduate earlier or he chose not to to stay among his friends is unknown. However, when he did graduate, due to the physical and punishing nature of his zanpakutou, he was quickly picked up by the 11th division.
While there was a certain brotherhood and belonging that the 11th division had, it was more focused on their collective battle and blood lust rather than any sense of community, with people beating each other up one moment to hugging and drinking the next. This environment was ill suited for Kano, who only wanted the community feeling without all the violence that surrounded it.
So he was transferred to the 7th division, where he first met his captain Yoshito Adachi. While his captain wasn't as lively as Kano would have liked, his calm attitude no matter the situation inspired Kano, and devoted his services towards his new captain.
One could say that Kano was the opposite of his captain, but while Kano was and probably will always be more outgoing and loud, they both are to the point in what they say, with little regard to social niceties. It is on this level that they relate on, and find that while others may think they are opposites, they share more than others realize.
Soon, after showing his worth by bringing the division closer than ever before, Kano was promoted to Lieutenant. Unlike when Kano was promoted to captain of the guard, there were no complaints, all feeling he was worthy of the position. Under his new authority, some people feared he might not be as social to them or demand that people respect him as a higher authority, but instead Kano acted as if nothing had ever changed.
Sometime after this, Kano, with the help of his captain, unlocked his bankai. Though neither have spoken about it since he unlocked it, rumors have circled that Kano achieved it, mainly because that's really the only reason they would sneak off to train for. While the bankai is still imperfect, Kano trains and continues to make progress on it, though he finally is at the point where Adachi no longer needs to assist him.
Kano finally feels that he is where he belongs, loving every moment of his time in Seireitei. He loves his fellow shinigami, and the role he has in assisting them to better themselves as well as how he continues to learn new things from them and that the amount of trust between them all continues to grow. He wouldn't change anything about it and, for the moment, is content to keep things exactly as they are.
Recently, however, Lucky has been called away on a mission. While Kano is unaware of the details, having not been told and not caring enough to bother asking, Lucky entrusted him with the welfare of the division. Kano gladly accepted the task, and has since stepped up as interim captain. The division seems to not be bothered by this change at all, both Lucky and Kano being loved equally within the division.
Role-play Sample: Link User name is Kamikaze_Sensei, character name is Mammon.
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