Type: Dou
Type: Katsujin Ken (Satsujin Ken while in Yomi)
Yomi Symbol: Moon
Martial Arts: Chinese Kenpo (Pī Guà Quán and Bā Jí Quán)
Tanimoto Natsu is best known as the former Sixth Fist of Ragnarok and one of Kenichi's biggest rivals. He's a disciple of Ma Sougetsu, holds the Moon Symbol in Yomi, and works as an unofficial captain for the Shinpaku Alliance—though "works with" might be generous given how grudging he is about the whole thing.
He's a tall guy with fair skin, dark blue eyes, and chin-length blond hair that's somehow both spiky and wavy. Pretty built, which he goes to great lengths to hide. His eyes are noticeably expressive—calm and large when he's being normal, but they narrow into these cat-like slits whenever he gets angry or steps into a fight. Fans often note that he's considered attractive by basically every girl around his age, for what it's worth.
At school, Tanimoto's the president of the drama club and the textbook definition of a "prince"—kind, soft-spoken, popular with everyone. He admits the whole thing's an act. He joined drama specifically to practice lying to people, and he's nice because he sees popularity as a tool for control. In reality, he's cold, bad-tempered, and arrogant as hell. He'll whack Kenichi or Nijima if they get too familiar with him, and don't even get him started on being called "Natsu-chan"—he'll snap every time.
His late sister Kaede asked him not to lose, and that request haunts him. It's driven him to keep fighting even when knocked unconscious, or stubbornly refuse to quit anything—like his ridiculous Othello matches with Honoka that he keeps losing, which just means she owns him now. He treats Honoka similarly to how he probably treated his sister, which suggests he might see her as a replacement of sorts.
Since losing to Kenichi, he's dropped the nice act around anyone who knows what he's really like. His whole personality has shifted; he's less hostile to people getting close, especially Honoka. Watching how much Kenichi believes in friendship and how it's made him stronger has actually made Tanimoto question his own path. He'll help Kenichi's crew when it matters, though he'll always claim it's just for revenge or his own reasons—he's not ready to admit they're friends.
The thing is, he's caught between two worlds now. He believes in Katsujin Ken—martial arts without killing—but he's official Yomi material, and Yomi is all about Satsujin Ken. That's a fundamental contradiction he's going to have to resolve eventually.
His outfit at school is pretty plain: a white-grey shirt with a red cross like some kind of crusader look. As Hermit, though, he switches to a dark hooded cloak with armbands and leather boots, leather gloves with pentagrams stitched in. Those gloves used to have the Roman numeral VI on them back when he was Sixth Fist, but he changed them to pentagrams after he left Ragnarok.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
