More about Kaname[]
Appearance []
Mozunoto Kaname after being sent to the future
Originally sports a prim, proper image with short tidy combed-back hair, glasses and a frail build. Often seen wearing shirts and other semi-formal wear during the institute days.
His image drastically changes between the years after Summer A has been put to sleep and the beginning of the series. He appears to have grown taller, his build has increased and he has lost the frail fresh-student image that he once had.
Background and family[]
He is the grandson of the Prime Minister of Japan and one of the leaders of Project 7 Seeds.
His parents were forced to commit suicide when he was very young; no siblings were mentioned.
Personality[]
During the early institute days, he is portrayed as being a kind and understanding mentor to the Summer A institute students. Not being old enough to be a teacher himself, he instead spent most of his time watching over the students and drilling them on survival tips to help prepare them for the future. He was often shown to be milder than the other teachers, which is why the students would come to him for advice; this is particularly true of Ango, who appeared to be very fond of him, and vice versa.
Despite the way he presents himself to the Summer A candidates, he is capable of taking drastic measures to accomplish lofty ideals, even if it means having to allow abject cruelty and maltreatment of children and animals. He often betrays little emotion, maintaining a calm and/or pleasant demeanour despite the horrors surrounding him. Unlike his colleague, Unami, he is not shown to feel any pleasure over tormenting the candidates, and views it strictly as a means to an end. However, he later feels regret for the things he has done after realising that his methods may have failed.
In the new world, years after the institute ordeal, Kaname is depicted as being a strict, stoic and responsible member of his team. Botan, the guide of Team Summer B, often turns to Kaname for advice during times of trouble, and the two appear to have a mutual respect for one another. Kaname seems to prefer allowing others to take charge when being part of a team, but more often than not will wander off on his own to observe the other participants of the Project.
Possibly the biggest downfall of his personality is his apathy towards death, either of himself or of other human beings.
Special Characteristics[]
Kaname Mozunoto playing the trumpet
He is particularly skilled at a variety of instruments, most notably the trumpet which he often played during the Summer A institute days. Similar to Haru, his fondness of music leads to him building makeshift instruments out of whatever can be found in the new world. Unfortunately Summer A's trauma when it comes to music is mostly due to Kaname's love for it.
Past[]
When he was a child, his parents were forced to commit suicide before his eyes. He was then kidnapped for ransom and abandoned in the mountains, where he had to wander for two weeks on his own before finding civilization.
Kaname was one of the people responsible for the creation of Project 7 Seeds (particularly the research team that built the cyrogenic units) along with the selection of the Team Summer A members. His tragic past is one of the reasons why he originally believed that tasking the Summer A candidates with immensely gruelling challenges would build them into a perfect team for the future world. For an in-depth discussion on how his past influenced his psychology, check out this blog post on Foxymanga.
Takashi was his upperclassman in university, and they are depicted as being very good friends. So much so that Kaname was able to convince Takashi that his plans for Summer A were for the best, and also that Takashi allowed Kaname to help teach and train his young daughter to prepare her for the future.
Kaname was put to sleep later than Summer A, but before the other teams were chosen, so at the beginning of the series, he does not actually know any of the other participants besides those in Summer A.
Development throughout the story[]
(starting with the first appearance in the New World)
Kaname had his very first appearance in the series during the Island Chapter, Chapter 4 of the series, "Tender Beast", when he rescued Natsu and Arashi who were about to be killed by man-eating plants of Cat Island. He accompanied Team Summer B for a while until they settled down for the very first time. When Botan had recovered from her crocodile bite, he went off on his own to search for the other teams.
He came across Hana who had been infected with the Redskin Disease, and offered her to kill her if she wished to be relieved from her despair. But just when he was about to choke her to death, she discovered Arashi's carving on a wall of Cat Island and regained her will to live. Kaname backed off and left just as Haru and Aramaki arrived on the scene.
Later on, Kaname secretly witnessed Ango killing Izayoi. After that incident, he kept on being cautious and never showed himself to others except for Team Summer B. When he spotted their ship, he made a boat and paddled over to them. As Matsuri almost drowned during her attempt to reach the ship as well, Kaname rescued her just on time. Together with Arashi's group, he helped to save the rest of Team Summer B who were stuck in insect sap.
When Hibari went off on her own, he gave her a bag prepared by Hotaru and advised her on the direction to take, not telling her that she'd find Tsunomata on that route. Afterwards, he started to feel a lot of regret, seeing as the "losers'" Team Summer B were doing just fine and acted very confident and cheerful on contrary to his own "elite" pupils from Team Summer A. He started asking himself whether it would have been just as fine to not put the children through this cruel test back then, but also was worried whether Team Summer B's carelessness might be their downfall someday.
Because he just couldn't stay put at some point any longer, he left his team again to search for Summer A and found their base just as they had their big argument and exiled Ango and Ryou. He followed the two young men trying to find an opening to kill Ango secretly, but Ryou's vigilance prevented him from doing that. As they made contact with Team Summer B and sailed off, Kaname couldn't follow them secretly anymore and could only pray that they wouldn't harm Arashi's group.
Afterwards, he started searching for the other teams as well, discovered Ayu and Aramaki travelling and wondered why she, who had been 'elite', now wasted her time playing with dogs. But since she didn't seem to pose any danger for now, he left them alone and eventually found Hibari and Tsunomata travelling towards Sado.
When a forest fire broke out and destroyed Team Summer A's base, the mixed community was forced to move again. But they hadn't thought of preparing an appropriate travelling device for the advanced in pregnancy Kurumi and had to stop in their tracks. At that point, Kaname realized he couldn't hide any longer and walked in on the group, starting to bark out orders left and right as he used to in the past.
To his big surprise, Haru suddenly attacked him. Although none of his blows came through, the furious young musician, who had decided to protect everyone in place of Hana, made it very clear to Kaname that they were perfectly capable of thinking and acting for themselves, and the four left over members of Team Summer A for the very first time realized that "no" was an option as well. Kaname backed off a bit and offered his own backpack, modelled into a human carrier, to Kurumi. Carrying her, he guided the group towards the coast.
Further information[]
Takashi briefly insinuated that Kaname has had a long-standing crush on his wife, Miho, despite the fact that Kaname believes he has never experienced being in love.
He is the 'Death God' of Project 7 Seeds. This means he acts as a security measure who has been tasked with the job of taking care of business in the event that the world they wake up in is uninhabitable, the people are so wretched that they wish only to die, or one of the participants deliberately becomes an impediment or danger to the others.
Semimaru's "delinquent senses" discovered very early that Kaname was a very dangerous man and also some sort of teacher.
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