Hato is a first-year student who joined Genshiken late during Ogiue's recruitment drive. He's best known for being a fudanshi—the male equivalent of a fujoshi—meaning he loves yaoi and boys' love manga and doujinshi. Rather than just enjoying the genre quietly, Hato decided to embrace it by adopting a complete female persona, down to a convincing feminine voice, and only shows up to Genshiken meetings dressed as a girl. At classes and around campus otherwise, he presents as male.
Even after the club members found out his secret, Hato kept up the act, eventually leading Genshiken to rope in former member Madarame so Hato could change clothes at his apartment before meetings. His female appearance works almost too well—campus guys started noticing this mysterious girl who only appeared after school ended, trying to figure out who she was. Yajima was genuinely shocked when she finally saw proof he was actually male, particularly after getting drunk with him and Yoshitake at her place.
Hato doesn't buy into the idea that he looks particularly beautiful as a girl, though his disguise clearly convinces most people. Beyond the club, he works as one of Ogiue's paid manga assistants alongside Sue, Yoshitake, and Yajima. He's a solid artist, mainly handling background work for Ogiue's professional series.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
