| Kanako Kurusu | |
 | |
| Name in Japanese | 来栖 加奈子 |
| Romaji Translation | Kurusu Kanako |
| Debut (Anime) | Season 01 Episode 02 |
| Debut (Light Novel) | Volume 02 (Chapter 01) |
| Debut (Manga) | Oreimo Volume 02 (Chapter 04) |
| Appears in | Light Novel, Manga, Anime |
| Voice Actor (Japanese) | Yukari Tamura |
| Personal Info | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 14-15 |
| Height | 148 cm |
| Weight | 39 kg |
| Measurements | 70/51/77 |
| Occupation | Student Performer/Singer |
| Family | Kanata Kurusu (Older Sister) Kyousuke Kousaka Husband (In the Visual Novel of Kanako's Route and Volume 17 of Light Novel) Kanami Kousaka Daughter (In the Visual of Kanako's Route) |
Kanako Kurusu (来栖 加奈子, Kurusu Kanako?) is Kirino and Ayase's fellow classmate and friend. She is really good at singing and dancing and wants to become an idol. She's mostly seen as a selfish and arrogant, and although she partly is, her attitude is more like "brutal honesty" than actual evilness. Her similarity to the anime character Meruru gave Ayase the idea to sign her up in a cosplay content which she won.
The agency behind that event hired her to become the official Meruru cosplayer at Stardust Witch Meruru events, despite that, and although her attitude becomes better through the series, she thinks poorly of otaku fans in general.
Appearance[]
Kanako's outfits through the series
Kanako has brown eyes and dyed red hair (her real hair color is black) set in twin tails tied with yellow ribbons. She also has an ahoge ("stupid hair"). She is the shortest in height of the main characters and that usally makes people think of her as a loli, although she is actually as old as Kirino and Ayase. Her casual outfits are a mix of comfortable clothes and fashion trends, although she's mostly seen wearing her school uniform and her Meruru costume during the show. She bears a startling resemblance to Meruru, but there is no direct proof that Meruru's design was inspired on Kanako.
Personality[]
Kanako is able to pose with a stuck-up attitude, but her real self can be very sweet and kind.
Nevertheless, when she likes someone, she is able to banter with them in good spirits, as seen when she happily gets along with Kyousuke Kousaka when he is posing as a manager.
She enters a lot of idol auditions and is a talented singer, and is able to memorize a song after hearing it only once; her dream is to become an idol. Since she goes to karaoke places frequently, she is capable of remembering any song she's heard at least once perfectly. On stage, she has a great deal of professionalism; despite hating the fact she was dressed up as an anime character, she got into the role and amazed the audience with her singing.
She generally finds anime childish and otaku disgusting, though she is on one occasion tricked into cosplaying as Meruru (Kirino Kousaka's favorite anime character) for a contest and wins. Despite winning the contest she is disgusted of what she had gone through, but likes the idea of being praised and the event even helps her career.
Though she finds the otaku hobby disgusting, she's willing to get along with otaku and doesn't seem to have much of a problem with them as she stayed friends with Kyousuke and Kirino. She also seemed pretty accepting of the idea of Kyousuke going out with his sister, only being disappointed that he wasn't available.
Kanako also tends to prove people wrong. When Kyousuke rejected her confession at the Meruru cosplaying event, she vowed to pursue her career as an idol to make Kyousuke regret his decision. In the PSP game, on her route she was persistent in proving her worth to Kyousuke despite competition between her, Ayase Aragaki and Kuroneko and the disapproval of Daisuke Kousaka.
Plot[]
Like Ayase Aragaki, Kanako is a part-time fashion model for a particular magazine and they are often seen together, with Ayase usually acting as the straight man, hitting Kanako when she says something stupid. During one instance when Ayase became desperate in giving a peace offering to Kirino Kousaka after a fight broke up between the two friends, Kanako becomes Ayase's unlikely accomplice, forced to wear the costume of Stardust Witch Meruru and becoming a participant in a Meruru cosplay contest. Although disgusted by what she did, her victory in the cosplay competition nonetheless launched Kanako's career as an idol singing for various Stardust Witch Meruru events.
As her career began to blossom, she started forming a bigger circle of friends: Kyousuke Kousaka, who once pretended to be her manager in one of her events, and Bridget Evans, whose first encounter with Kanako was a catastrophic one, eventually became friends with her. Ayase also continues to support Kanako in her own way.
Eventually, Kanako slowly developed feelings for Kyousuke in their many interactions together. She also motivated herself to mend her frayed ties with her parents by learning how to cook, and take care of Ayase's referral to Manami Tamura. Nonetheless, she was rejected by Kyousuke over Kirino Kousaka (Kyousuke's younger sister) during one of her public performances. Although heartbroken by this rejection, Kanako vows to work hard for her career.
Relationships[]
Kirino Kousaka[]
Kanako has a good relationship with Kirino. Kanako met Kirino through modeling, and then started hanging out with her at school. Soon they grew pretty close, and can be considered one of Kirino's main non-otaku friends. Even after she finds out about Kirino's hobby, she was still willing to be friends with her and didn't seem to have a problem with her, though she did consider Kirino gross. She thought that because she was Kirino's friend, it was okay to confess to Kyousuke even though Kirino was against it.
Ayase Aragaki[]
Ayase is one of Kanako's school friends, and they seem to get along together, though Ayase does occasionally punish Kanako. Ayase was the one who introduced Kanako to Manami. Ayase seems to deeply care for Kanako.
Kyousuke Kousaka[]
Although at first, she thought of him as a typical boy the first time they met, it wasn't until when he was posing as her manager that she started to like him. She considers him her first fan, and has made a point of reserving the first place for him should she ever get a fan club.
Although she started to learn how to cook in an attempt to help repair the relationship between her parents and herself, she brought her cooking to Kyousuke to test out it out. Although it was bad to eat, he still finished it all, which impressed Kanako. She got jealous when she saw Kyousuke eating food made by other girls and got into an argument with Kuroneko over it. She eventually confesses to Kyousuke, though she ultimately gets rejected.
Manami Tamura[]
Ayase referred Manami to Kanako as a cooking instructor because Kanako felt that she could mend her relationship with her parents if she learned how to cook. She respects Manami and calls her 'shishō' (master). While she respects Manami, she at the same time considers her to be a 'granny' and views her as a rival for Kyousuke. Even still, they trust each other and speak to each other about their feelings and how they plan on making Kyousuke theirs and their views on other matters.
Kanako's Parents[]
Kanako's relationship with her parents was so bad to the point that she ran away from home and lived with her sister. After her father becomes hospitalized, she hopes to repair her relationship by cooking in hopes of pleasing her parents.
Kanata Kurusu[]
Kanata is Kanako's older sister. Not much is known about their relationship, but when Kanako ran away from home, Kanata took her in. Considering they live together, they probably get along well. Kanako's relationship with Kanata was probably one of the reasons why Kanako was one of the few people who wasn't an otaku that was able to accept Kirino's hobbies without any trouble.
Trivia[]
- The name Kanako means "play music, complete" (奏) (kana) and "child" (子) (ko).
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