Noto Kanazawa

Noto Kanazawa (金沢のと, Kanazawa Noto) is the main character of the series Advance! Kitakou Broadcasting Club, created by Hidekaz Himaruya (at the time credited as Kazuyoshi Himaruya). He was also the original mascot of the website Kitayume, which was named after the series. However, both Noto and Kitakou would later take a backseat to Barjona Bombers, and later to Himaruya's best-known series, Hetalia: Axis Powers.

Appearance

Noto is a petite young man, described as looking and sounding very feminine. This has caused him to be mistaken for a girl to comedic effect, further exploited when he is depicted crossdressing as a female in the series or in other pieces of official artwork. His neck-length hair is generally colored a dark or medium brown, while his eyes are green.

Classic Kitakou

His uniform in the classic Kitakou series consists of a short-sleeved white uniform shirt and dark blue slacks, later colored black.

When filming a movie project for the broadcasting club, he had to crossdress and wear a blue and white sailor-style uniform. In this guise, he also wore a red hair ribbon (attached to a detachable ponytail).

Kitakou Pure

In this parallel Kitakou work, Noto wears a different uniform, consisting of a brown vest worn over a a white dress shirt, burgundy slacks, and a red tie.

In the later period in which he snaps and becomes "Black Noto", he begins to wear the girls' uniform as well, which consists of a red sailor-style dress with a black necktie and trim. In addition to the dress, he wears the red ribbon and detachable ponytail. He originally wore a white lace petticoat underneath the dress, but it was done away with in later appearances.

Profile

Noto debuts at the start of the series as the new student at Kitakou High, having longed to enroll at the school ever since he was seven years old due to it having been first place in the broadcasting club competition, and him having won a broadcasting tournament in junior high. However, when he arrives at the school, he finds that the club has been abolished. Though he manages to convince the president of the student council to bring the club back, Noto soon discovers that running the broadcasting club is harder than it seems.

He is a first year student in the Chemical Engineering department, and his favorite food is Mamador, a type of bean paste snack food.

With the differences in both Kitakou series, there come to be two different types of Noto:

White Noto

This Noto is the one depicted in the original Kitakou series and early on in Kitakou Pure.

He is generally characterized as an easygoing, yet timid and pitiful character who finds himself unable to utilize his talents in the broadcasting club. He also winds up constantly bullied by the students around him, and forced into going along with what others think due to his meek nature.

The classic Noto crossdresses for the first time in Kitakou chapter 6, due to playing the lead in a drama that the club planned to film. However, this winds up gaining him many unexpected followers (combined with his already feminine appearance).

Black Noto

This Noto does not appear to exist in the original Kitakou series, though he it is vaguely alluded in Noto's profile that he might snap. This version debuts in Barjona after a certain incident caused his darker side to emerge and cause a complete change in personality. He proceeds to enact his revenge by stripping others and committing various indecent acts. Compared to the Noto of the old series and of earlier in Pure, he becomes much more arrogant and short-tempered, making sure to make his points known and taking advantage of others when he can. He is also initially drawn to look older and more masculine to emphasize his changed nature, but this stylistic effect soon wears off.

It is at this point in time that he starts to wear the red girls' school uniform and dub himself "Noto-sama". Though his appearances in Barjona and the Pure series have currently vanished from the site, this Noto is the better-known incarnation due to his appearances in the Noto-sama series of games.

In other series

Barjona Bombers

In a series of crossover comics between Kitakou Pure and this work, Noto debuts in his "Black Noto"/"Noto-sama" incarnation, going after Kalom, Sunki, and Homare as his victims and proceeding to perform various sexually-humiliating or violent acts on them.

Hetalia: Axis Powers

A feudal clan character modeled after Noto appears in a footnote to the unfinished Sengoku-era strip The World of 'War and the Fool of Owari'. He is referred to as Kanazawa-han and is said to be a moody and depressed type who would rather paint. It appears that he is more inspired by "White Noto".

"Black Noto" later shows up in the deleted aftermath to the 2007 Christmas Rampage story, having become angered at Christmas and vowing to get his revenge on it, taking Yamato along with him in his quest. The two strip Seychelles of her towel, harass Santa Claus, and proceed to storm a castle that the nations are staying at in an attempt to strip them (in revenge for stealing screentime). But the two find that the nations are already nude, and wind up stripped themselves. Though Noto becomes upset, France tells him that by next Christmas, he'll "be sure to have a smile on his face".

Noto's next appearance is a cameo in the 2008 April Fools event, where it is detailed in a hoax news report that he, Yamato, and Prussia wound up arrested for indecent conduct at the "World Academy W" campus (setting of the game Gakuen Hetalia). He later appears to wish the audience a happy April Fools, after France tricks Spain into stripping.

In the games

To come

Trivia

• Much like a good deal of the other Kitayume characters, his full name is an injoke referring to the prefecture he is modeled after: Kanazawa is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture (his hometown), which was formed from the merger of two historical provinces of Japan, Kaga and Noto. Ishikawa Prefecture is also home to a peninsula named after the Noto province. Furthermore, the Ishikawa Prefecture is situated between the prefectures of Toyama and Fukui, while the two characters modeled after those provinces are childhood friends of Noto (though Wakasa sees him as a rival in the way of her affections for the other boy).