| “ | Butei Charter, Article 1: Trust your friends and help when they need it. I put my trust in you, Aria. Now it's time for you to put your trust in me for a change. | „ |
| ~ Kinji to Aria |
Kinji Tohyama is the main male protagonist, anti-hero and narrator of the light novel and anime series Aria the Scarlet Ammo. He is an E Rank Butei who comes from a family of legendary heroes. However, Kinji wants nothing to do with his family's legacy, and has desired to live a normal life since the death of his brother. One day, however, he is saved by a girl named Aria H. Kanzaki, a descendant of Sherlock Holmes himself, and reluctantly becomes her partner shortly afterwards.
He is voiced by Junji Majima in the Japanese version of the anime, and by Todd Haberkorn in the English version of the anime.
Appearance
Kinji is a young man of average height with wavy black hair and brown eyes. He has been described as handsome and gloomy. Throughout most of the series, he wears his Butei High School uniform.
Personality
| “ | All I ever wanted was to have an ordinary life. I didn't want to be noticed or even talk to anyone for that matter. I wanted to get out of my psycho school. Just because my last name, Tohyama, is famous doesn't mean my life has to be special. | „ |
| ~ Kinji expressing his desire to be normal |
Due to the apparent death of his older brother, Kinichi, as well as the ridicule he suffered afterwards, Kinji is a very bitter, cynical and sarcastic boy who rarely has a good word to say about anybody. Before meeting Aria, he wanted nothing more than to quit his life as a Butei and live a normal life, believing his life doesn't have to be special just because he comes from a famous family. However, Aria accuses him of simply running away and being scared of his true potential, and he eventually agrees to become her partner, albeit reluctantly. Kinji has also shown an inferiority complex throughout the series, believing he is unworthy to be the partner of a "winner" like Aria, something that doesn't go away even after embracing Butei life. He almost never smiles, and when he does it's usually his way of acting like nothing suspicious is going on, and therefore hardly ever sincere.
On the outside, Kinji appears to be highly anti-social to most people and especially cold to women, even borderline misogynistic due to trauma with girls during middle school, where he was taken advantage of and being ganged up when trying to stand up for himself. To his classmates, he's often thought as a loser, shut-in, womaniser, and a waste of talent because of his indifferent attitude to the point of feeling isolated among the student body. He's even believed to be homosexual since he shows little to no interest in women. Kinji can also be downright cruel at times; when he and Aria are watching over Shirayuki, Kinji, being convinced that Durandal isn't real, tries to convince Aria that she's deluded herself into thinking he's real out of desperation to clear her mother's name, and when Aria begs him to trust her intuition, he tells her to go and 'cool off', though he later comes to regret this when it's revealed that Durandal really does exist, after which he has the sense to admit he should have given Aria the benefit of the doubt.
While under the influence of Hysteria Savant Syndrome, Kinji's personality undergoes a very drastic change. He becomes very smug and smooth-talking, and feels compelled to protect the girl in front of him no matter what, with seemingly no regard for his own life. His personality while in this state is overpowering, to the point that it has caused women to become seduced and sometimes even faint. However, when he is under the influence of Hysteria Berserk, all of his bottled up feelings including rage are released and set free. Kinji is able to remember everything he said while in Hysteria Mode, and gets really embarrassed whenever he looks back on it, saying he feels like a complete idiot.
Despite his snarky, pessimistic attitude, deep down Kinji is a kind and caring person with a strong sense of justice as a Tohyama, even though he hates it. He believes the powerful should not harass those without power and will follow the rules of law even if his life is at risk for the sake of order. Kinji, to the dismay of Aria, prefers a non-violent approach when facing the enemy before attacking. Also, as noted by Aria, Kinji will show world-class bravery in the face of great danger. Kinji also doesn't believe in holding grudges against people for past actions, as he considers it to be a waste of time, and has even shown reluctance towards killing animals such as wolves.
Kinji's desire to be normal is challenged frequently, especially by the Cao Cao sisters, who outright tell him that he'll never be able to live among "normal" people due to Hysteria Mode. Indeed, after Kinji finally transfers out of Butei High and experiences how unfulfilling civilian life is, he comes back and embraces being a Butei as it was the only thing he was good at to a certain extent. However, he still wishes to be a normal Butei, which he has found impossible after becoming known to the U.S. military, Intergovernmental Armed Detective Alliance (IADA), and other governments and groups based his battles since meeting Aria.
Arms & Abilities
Armaments
- Butterfly Knife: A memento from his brother, Kinichi Tohyama, when he went missing (and later resurfaced). It was damaged during his first semester against Vlad but repaired soon after.
- Beretta 92FS Inox: known as the "Kinji Model," it is illegally modified and capable of firing in three round bursts or fully automatic.
- Excalibur or Ragnarok/Scramasax: A long sword left by Sherlock Holmes following his defeat.
- Desert Eagle Mark XIX: A momento from his late father, capable of firing in three round bursts or fully automatic.
- Orochi: A modified open-finger bulletproof glove. Used to perform Slash.
- Manage Knife: A knife given to Kinji, by Kou, which contains the previous pieces to his Scramasax (which was broken during his battle with her) its a folding knife which Kinji "fell in love with at first sight".
Powers & Abilities
- Firearm Usage: Tohyama Kinji is very knowledgeable and skilled in the usage of guns due to his education in Butei High. His skill with firearms is enhanced thirty-fold when under the influence of Hysteria Mode.
- CQC (Close Quarters Combat): Kinji's hand-to-hand skills are fair, and only most formidable when under the influence of Hysteria Mode.
- Hysteria Savant Syndrome: The secret weapon of the Tohyama bloodline, and the source of their fame, the Hysteria Mode is a special genetic condition passed down to Kinji. Triggered by sexual arousal, the result is his brain and nerves get thirty times more efficient at everything it does. In short, Kinji's strength becomes thirty times that of his own as well as his reflexes, speed and intelligence. Hysteria Mode has allowed Kinji to perform inhuman feats of strength, speed and logic, such as deflecting bullets using his own bullets, performing a quick draw with his Beretta invisible to the naked eye, deflecting bullets with his fingers and performing an attack at supersonic speed. Also, Hysteria Mode's prerequisites allow him to seduce women with relative ease. His mannerisms and words are capable of flustering others of the opposite gender far too easily for his own good. His ace in the hole is not without its flaws - Hysteria mode prevents him from directly harming a woman, something that almost cost him his life against the Cao Cao triplets.
- Intellect: Despite his aloof and apathetic demeanor, Kinji is always watching and always listening to his surroundings. As a result, he can play the part of an apathetic bystander but is extremely clever and can easily exploit gaps in his opponents defenses. His calm personality also allows him to think under pressure, often allowing him to out think his opponent than outfight. To put it bluntly, Kinji was smart and sane enough to transfer to Inquesta, were he can slip out of the butei life to normal easily, learn more deductive traits and skills, and not get killed and harassed as much as he was in Assault. He must have subconsciously chosen the division that would not only make him stronger as a person and very clever, but also one that provides him more options for a normal life and meeting more people. Sadly, because of his apathy, people say that he should transfer back to Assault(Aria), and Sayonaki (a.k.a. Vlad), made a fool out of him because of it. However, this is another trick, as if people underestimate him, he can sucker-punch them easily and come out unsheathed as seen when he fought Jeanne, Vlad, KoKo, Hilda, and Watson. Watson also implied that he was difficult to fight because the information on Kinji was scarce, or unreliable. Meaning Kinji is capable of hiding long secrets, or his data is closely protected by the higher ups.
- Quadra Proficiency: Out of all of the Quadras introduced in the story, Kinji only has the title of Quadra when under the effects of Hysteria Mode. Because of this, he is easily one of the strongest Quadras because of his heightened abilities and has earned him the title of "Quadra of Mimicry."
Techniques
- Split: This move was first used against Riko Mine, this move allows Kinji to cut a bullet in half using his butterfly knife.
- Edge Catching Peak: This move was first used against Durandel (Jeanne), this move allows Kinji to catch and stop a large blade with only his middle and pointer finger.
- Billard: This move was first used against Vlad, this move allows Kinji to fire a bullet into another person's bullet causing it to move off its course.
- Cannon
- Patriot
- Invisible: This move was first invented by Kinji's brother Kinichi, it allows a person to draw their gun at such a high speed that they can fire a bullet and holster the gun so fast that the enemy doesn't even see it, while this technique is best suited for a revolver Kinji has been able to learn and adapt the move in order to best suit his Beretta.
- Mirror: Kinji first used this move against Kinichi, Similar to Billiard, this move allows Kinji to fire a bullet directly into another person's shot causing it to stop, then firing a second bullet Kinji uses the enemy's bullet to fire right back into their own gun.
- Bite: Kinji first used this move against Patra, this move allows Kinji to catch a bullet between his teeth however after using this move it renders Kinji unconscious for a while.
- Ouka: This move was first used against Sherlock Holmes, this move allows Kinji to accelerate his body to the point of being able to move at the speed of sound, he can use this technique with or without his knife/sword, but the drawback is that Kinji will take self damage due to the immense speed.
- Slash: This move was first used against the Koko sisters, this move allows Kinji to advert a bullets trajectory without the use of a knife by using his fingers.
Trivia
- Kinji's desire to be a normal Butei can be compared to Harry Potter's desire to be a normal wizard i.e. not 'normal' in the traditional sense, but not the centre of attention either.
- Kinji is also very similar to Tooru Kokonoe:
- Both have a very tragic past involving the death of a sibling, which is the catalyst for their present-day motives.
- Both are quite weak on their own but have a unique ability to make up for it (Kinji has Hysteria Savant Syndrome while Tor has Mjolnir).
- Both are seriously lacking in confidence.
- Both form a partnership with a highly-skilled student (Aria H. Kanzaki and Julie Sigtuna, respectively) and discover they have a past with a connection to their own.
- In an interesting contrast, however, while the death of Kinji's older brother is what convinced him to quit being a Butei, the death of Tor's younger sister is what convinced him to enroll at Kohryu Academy.
Gallery
