Discussion topic for everybody’s favourite porter, Kitagawa! Please use your own discretion on [spoiler] tags, keeping significant story spoilers tagged.
His birthday is the 18th of April.
Sunohara-β is a fairly cool guy.
Ultimately tho, that’s really all his character has, there simply isn’t any depth given to him.
Kitagawa is totally awesome in MasaKaga after. I swear, he went from side-character to total badass bro thanks to that!
Kidding aside, he was kind of a throwaway character, yeah. I guess I shipped him with Kaori for some reason.
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At least he’s actually using his brain.
Because he’s her porter.
I guess that does give him shit taste in girls at least.
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Even in the anime, I didn’t find Kitagawa that interesting a character.
I could see the Sunohara comparisons, since I had watched CLANNAD beforehand, but it seems his only purpose in Kanon is to serve as the ‘best friend’ character, and nothing more. He has very little plot importance overall and none of his dialogue gives him any sort of personality.
The anime gives him a bit more relevance, such as pairing him up with Kaori (even though she isn’t interested in him to begin with), and making him part of the birthday party scene during Shiori’s arc, but that’s basically it. He’s a ‘Sunohara-lite’ at best.
Perhaps the best thing about him is that Tomokazu Seki voices him. 
Going by VNs, isn’t this guy, like, the least relevant character with a sprite in all of Key? I realize this isn’t a nice way to put it, but I really wish he would’ve been… more… of an actual character in the VN. At least the anime did it more or less right, by not being true to the source material…
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Eh, more relevent than Shi…
Shi…maiko?
Little Girl, Rewrite.
The only personality Kitagawa really has is “nice guy,” which is far too generic. He shines a bit more brightly in the (2006) anime though. Not by too much, but at least he’s slightly more interesting there.
I’m guessing that he was originally supposed to have more substance in the VN, but then “things happened” and that didn’t pan out.
Anyway, I suppose he’s the type of guy you’d go hang out with when there’s nothing to do… might turn out to be a bro. In the anime he does have some bro-like elements, such as when he helps Yuichi at Shiori’s birthday. The VN has one bro-like thing, iirc, too: (Ayu) when he helps you look for the thing Ayu lost.
It’s Shimako.
Let’s see…
Role: check
Purpose: check
Personality: check
Background: check
Helpfulness: check
plenty of interaction with MC: check
heart-warming performance in the last scene of the route: check
heck, even Potato and Botan were more of a character in their respective VNs…
See, Jun is the stereotypical insert-character “best friend” that you see in . They provide no personality, and exist only to give “meaningful advice” when a route becomes impossible for the main character. Otherwise, he remains personality-less for the rest of the game.
Key changed the whole game with AIR, by removing that sort of character (they changed a whole lot of things with the stereotypical eroge format with AIR). They returned it with Sunohara, and I guess people weren’t expecting much, until they gave him a goddamn route.
I just love the way Key breaks the boundaries of stereotypes 
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Kitahara is practically non-existent in the VN. The only good thing about him I remember in the VN was that he (Kanon spoiler) found the doll Ayu buried. He has no character, he only has one sprite, even!
In the anime they made him having personality, in this particular case he’s trying to court the girl who is not one of the heroines. Kitagawa anime: okay. Kitagawa VN: wait who was that?
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This Kong…has a funny face!
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Didn’t we already have a Kitagawa discussion thread…? Or was that last year’s birthday post?
Well, I’ve mentioned it before. Kitagawa is a great guy, and a bro, but incredibly forgettable. He risks himself, gives up his time, and does some great things, all to help out his friends. I’d go so far as to say he’s the type of person who doesn’t pay attention to himself enough. He seemingly spends all his time helping others, even during events and for the council.
He has a personality. He has a bunch of important roles. He’s just forgettable, and that fits with his personality. He devotes himself to others, and his actions are there to enhance the actions of others, or make those events start in the first place. It’s easy to forget him and just see the resulting conclusions the main cast come up with, but he’s there, helping.
I don’t know though, maybe you just need to be a fan of the VN >.>
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That’s the anime Kitagawa and therein lies the problem. The anime Kitagawa is a picture-perfect example of a dependable wingman. He’s always there when he’s needed and he’s always doing a good job at backing people up.
But the VN Kitagawa does nothing except vaguely existing somewhere in school.
I watched the anime before reading the VN, so I was pretty disappointed in how huge the difference was between Anime Kitagawa and VN Kitagawa.
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Eh, maybe he was just more dynamic in the anime because he had a visual presence.
In both, he’d just kinda… pop up… but that probably feels more natural in an anime than a VN.
Ah well, just wait for the route specific discussion~ Kanon bookclub when? (cries a little, knowing the answer.)
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Believe it or not I actually think Kitagawa is a fascinating and nuanced supporting character, at least depending on the version of the character that is portrayed. While the one sprite wonder of the game is a completely unnotable filler boy, the anime adaptation went to a few lengths to show that Kitagawa is, at his core, a person of remarkable moral character, let me count the ways:
In near every route Kitagawa displays a compassion that is unrivaled in the series. Or rather, a passive and underplayed compassion. In Mai’s arc he takes the fall for Mai’s antics at the ball, effectively stopping the girl from being expelled by the student council. Furthermore, in Shiori’s arc he and Yuuichi do a lot to give a dying little girl a happy birthday. This all occurs without him even knowing that Shiori is Kaori’s little sister. Something to note is that Kitagawa has no real personal relationship with these people, in fact he doesn’t really know them at all. Even with Mai’s status as a dangerous delinquent, he is willing to help her because he trusts Yuuichi. This all comes to ahead in Ayu’s arc in which he stays up late into the depths of night digging holes with Yuuichi in search of Ayu’s angel.
All of this occurs without Kitagawa putting up airs or being an annoyance. The man is earnest.
Kanon is a story about coping with loss and dealing with feelings of regret. Furthermore it is a story about believing in miracles and the good of humanity. They are, after all, called miracles because they can indeed happen. The anime Kitagawa asks for nothing, not even an explanation, but follows his heart and is always willing to lend Yuuichi a hand when things are tough. He is a person who wants to spread happiness, even if he doesn’t want or need to be called a kind person. Even if Kaori will never notice him, his actions reverberate ideas of empathy and willingness to help that would grow to become vital to later Key works.
In short, while his role is underplayed and simple, Kitagawa’s overwhelming heart and earnest desire to help others is something that I’ve failed to see in many other side characters of his like. He may be static, but that good nature is enough to move me and I certainly would miss him if he was gone.
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I can’t believe you’d necro a character so terrible as Kitagawa. Anime Kitagawa is truly great. I will agree with you there.
But VN Kitagawa exists solely so that Yuuichi isn’t the only guy in Kanon. Bread how could you betray me like this I thought we were FRIENDS
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What does this even say
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