Hajime Tenga

Hajime Tenga (Japanese: 天河一, Romanized: Tenga Hajime) is a main character and one of the group of seven kiznaivers in the titular anime, manga, and novel series. His identification when he experiences pain is D-2. His modern-day sin is The Musclehead (Japanese: 脳筋ＤＱＮ, Romanized: Nōkin Dokyun, literally "Muscle-Brained Lowlife").

Character Outline
An "all brawn and no brain" character who always acts before thinking. While his behavior may be rude and obnoxious, he does have good leadership qualities. He is a very soft-hearted and honest person who never breaks his promises.

Despite being known around his neighborhood by the nickname "Mad Dog" (狂犬, Kyōken), it is revealed very early on that he suffers from cynophobia.

Appearance
Tenga has hazel eyes and spiky pink hair. He is very tall and muscular for his age, which helps reinforce his image and reputation. His skin is slightly tanned and there is a darkened lightning-bolt shaped marking on his hairline, which is possibly a scar. He wears lime green bottom-rimmed eyeglasses, and his eyes have a defined, yet gentle, down-turned shape. Whenever he appears in his school uniform, the fact that he is wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with a logo of a black bear on the chest instead of a white collared shirt, along with sporting shiny red and white dress shoes, sticks out like a sore thumb.

His street style is equally loud and adventurous, but it is noticeably more practical. He is often seen donning tank tops or any shirt that shows off his muscles, along with accessories and, at times, loud flowery or geometric patterns paired with bright colors, typically worn with flip-flops for the summer. Overall, he seems to wear whatever he wishes to as long as it's comfortable, and doesn't seem to adhere to any particular style. His signature accessory is a white beaded bracelet with two pale yellow beads surrounding a larger blue bead in the center.

He is noticeably taller than most characters in the series, appearing to stand at around 185 cm, about 6 feet. He is seen as intimidating and scary by many due to his reputation, but is described as handsome by Katsuhira Agata.

Personality
Of the Seven Deadly Sins of Modern-Day Japan, Tenga's sin is that of the "Musclehead Thug." However, while he is known among his peers as an unpredictable and intimidating delinquent, his true personality holds a deep-seated desire to help others.

In the proper spirit of the "Musclehead," Tenga is an incredibly energetic and physically strong person who many times acts on a whim in order to push through and keep events moving along. In spite of his image, however, he in many situations can display some of the highest practical intelligence and observational skills among the seven kiznaivers, easily able to glean the root of a problem without much effort.

Although his nature is typically thoughtful and concerned for others, when he is faced with strong negative emotions such as jealousy, Tenga is capable of displaying liberal amounts of selfishness to the point of extreme senseless violence. Still, even in such rare cases, he eventually comes to terms deep down that his actions were misguided.

Tenga is shown to be quite the pervert, as exhibited when he attempts to fondle Nico Niiyama's "boobies" as she explains the concept of the Sleep Fairy, earning a big slap from her that everyone connected through the system is forced to endure. His nature is also suggested when he initially talks of "violating" Noriko Sonozaki every time she annoys him.

Self Introduction Arc
In the first episode, Tenga's first appearance is from within an outdoor bathroom stall, where he hears Katsuhira Agata being bullied by a couple of kids who have been harassing Katsuhira and taking his allowance money for years. He grins, presumably at his luck for stumbling upon the situation at the right time. Within moments, Tenga is shown helping Katsuhira out by scaring the bullies away (after demanding a 20% commission for the service). After successfully running the bullies off, Tenga hears that from Katsuhira's point of view, the bullies were not actually hurting Katsuhira, because the boy cannot actually feel pain. He decides to test out the validity of Katsuhira's claims, but misreads the meaning of Katsuhira's words and ends up accidentally choking him out.

Noriko Sonozaki then appears, taking the two of them with her to perform a mysterious experiment that she is involved in. After waking up following the surgery that connects his wounds with those of his classmates, Tenga is shown to be very confused about the experiment itself as well as its purpose initially, as are the other five present — Chidori Takashiro, Tsuguhito Yuta, Honoka Maki, Nico Niiyama, and Katsuhira — and he attempts to leave the area with Yuta, Honoka, Nico, and Chidori. However, they are all trapped again until they act according to Sonozaki's terms, which is to "introduce themselves" to one another. During this time, Tenga makes a sexual advance on Nico while she claims to be searching for the Sleep Fairy which causes her to slap him in the face, resulting in the first instance of shared pain among the kiznaivers. As their glowing wounds appear, both events appear to help them understand their situation a bit better.

During the following "Self Introduction" phase of the experiment, the newly formed kiznaivers are encouraged with high ramification to go beyond the basic first interaction, and instead share their deepest secret with each other — specifically, the one thing they absolutely don't want anyone to know. Sonozaki instructs each of them to look "deep within their chests" for an answer, which causes Tenga to remark that it's "cruel" to tell Chidori to look deep within her chest since it appears to be flatter than average, which causes Chidori to slap Tenga similar in manner to Nico's in the previous episode. After much argument, Tenga's secret ends up coming out first, as Noriko sends several large barking black dogs conveniently crashing through a window, breaking free of their leashes and muzzles.

Tenga shrieks in terror and makes a bolt through the door, tripping and hurting himself over a flight of stairs as he attempts to flee from the loose animals. When the dogs (and the kiznaivers) inevitably catch up with him, they see him jump onto a hospital bed and throw a chair at the dogs, shouting at the dogs to "stay back" and "don't get any closer." Despite the kiznaivers' attempts at calming him down, Tenga remains hysterical. Finally he collapses in a corner, crying and shaking, and begins mentioning in a dreadful voice before screaming through tears that he "really hates dogs!" Immediately after he exclaims this, an approving sound effect goes off, indicating that Tenga's deepest secret is that he has a phobia of dogs. He confirms that he dedicated a lot of time and effort to making sure no one found out about his fear, and Chidori and Nico attempt to support him while Tsuguhito Yuta chuckles into his hand.

Despite the obvious complexity and depth of his own secret, Tenga is later shown making fun of Yuta without shame in regards to Yuta's own secret, which was that the latter used to be a "fatty" before he entered high school.

After all of the kiznaivers reveal their respective secrets to the best of their abilities and are released back into the public, Tenga starts hanging out excessively in Katsuhira's apartment. After Tenga literally spends the night, Katsuhira finally comments on the fact that Tenga is spending a lot of time in his living room as Katsuhira cooks breakfast for the two. Tenga responds that living with Katsuhira seems like the "logical" course of action since Tenga swore to protect Katsuhira from the bullies, which is all the more imperative now that he feels everything that happens to Katsuhira. Katsuhira dryly remarks that there is no one more unfit to use the word logical, but doesn't put up any protest against Tenga's idea. Tenga casually asks to borrow Katsuhira's smartphone to play a mobile game, and then after he has it in his hand, he lectures Katsuhira about lending his phone to strangers, an action which, in Tenga's eyes, allows room for "bad guys" to do "bad stuff" with Katsuhira's personal phone.

Before long, Tenga discovers that Katsuhira and Chidori Takashiro are next-door neighbors. In excitement over the classic setup (of childhood friends as next-door neighbors), he tries to jump over from the ledge of Katsuhira's balcony onto Chidori's balcony — he fails however by a slim margin, slipping backwards and crashing into the bushes below. The pain of the fall is distributed equally among all of the kiznaivers, and Chidori and Tenga cry out in pain.

When the kiznaivers find out about the existence of a seventh kiznaiver from their class, who is in fact discovered to be a truant by the name of Yoshiharu Hisomu, Tenga is very enthusiastic in aiding in the search for him, believing that the seventh should join together with the group in order to become a team.

Summer Training Camp Arc
At the training camp, Tenga helps Chidori out by becoming something of her wingman when he ends up shedding light on the fact that she still has feelings for her childhood crush, Katsuhira. He roots for her throughout the entire first half of the episode, however his efforts to help give her a boost all prove to be fruitless.

When the Kizna Committee, made up of Noriko, Mutsumi Urushibara, and Kazunao Yamada, decides to announce their intention to put the kiznaivers through a "Test of Courage," Tenga is the first to notice that Chidori has disappeared just seconds before. By the time horror-themed Gomorins bust through the door with chainsaws, Tenga is quite worried for Chidori's safety due to what Chidori's sudden injury and Kazunao's words have implied, and he demands to know what has happened to her. He attempts to attack Yamada, but Yamada swiftly quells the altercation and Yuta suggests that instead of remaining in such a dangerous environment to focus on things which have already happened, the group should try to get out of the area and find where Chidori currently is, to which Tenga and the others agree.

As they fight off Gomorins while cornered in the fake graveyard, Tenga instructs a compliant Katsuhira to go and find Chidori "no matter what," still attempting to play the wingman even in the midst of such a crisis situation. Eventually however, after the kiznaivers discover what would later be exposed as the sharing of each others' emotional pain, Tenga along with the rest of the group is shown instinctively going to locate the source of the unpleasant feeling, which ends up being Chidori, who had been passionately lecturing one of the bullies, Kamaishi, who had been taking Katsuhira's money for so long. Tenga is shown giving Kamaishi an intimidating look before Katsuhira himself speaks to the bully.

Save Honoka Maki Arc
Tenga, Katsuhira, Chidori, Hisomu, Nico, and Honoka are shown hanging out in Katsuhira's living room after returning from the training camp. After reminiscing on the negative experience, Tenga complains that Yuta has been ignoring his text messages. As Chidori serves iced noodles, Honoka soon appears to become annoyed with the group and leaves. After she leaves, Tenga once again brings up Yuta's apparent lack of loyalty, however this time contrasting it with the pain he feels coming from Honoka's heart. Tenga comes to believe that Honoka's cold behavior to be caused by having had her heart broken by someone in the past. He concludes that in spite of the way she acts toward others (emotionally unavailable and rude), she always shows up to hang out with the kiznaivers without fail and actually craves companionship deep down.

In the absence of Honoka, Yuta shows up to speak with the group, who have once again congregated in Katsuhira's living room. Yuta reveals that he had been thoroughly investigating Honoka after discovering the fact that she had published a girls-love manga in the past, and fills the kiznaivers in on the source of Honoka's heartache. As it turns out, she had co-written the manga with another girl named Ruru, who had died years before the experiment, shortly after the manga volume was published.

As the group discusses this revelation, Katsuhira receives a call from Noriko. She asks who is present and Katsuhira answers that everyone is present except for Honoka. Noriko informs them of their next mission, which is to locate Honoka Maki at Sugomori High School and "save" her. Tenga suddenly snatches the phone from Katsuhira's hand and begins to voice his growing annoyance with Sonozaki directly; however, the latter hangs up on him while he's speaking. He becomes irate with her, but quickly dismisses the notion in favor of excitedly suggesting that everyone head to the school so that they can complete the mission.

Once the six kids arrive at the school, Honoka is shown being harassed by a camera crew who plan to interview her on a movie deal for her manga without her consent.

Tenga wastes no time before getting physical with the crewman standing closest to Honoka and sticks up for the girl, calling her his "homie" in the process. He then turns on the cameraman, who begs him not to harm his camera. The kiznaivers are successful in running the men off, however, when Tenga makes a tactless remark about their supposed success in the mission to "save" Maki, the girl is hurt by the implication of the words and runs off. Nico is shown wanting to go after Honoka, but Yuta holds Nico back, advising her to let Maki have some time alone.

The kiznaivers decide that their next course of action should be to gather more information on the girl named Ruru in order to figure out a way that they can help Maki. They decide to start this immediately, although Katsuhira tells them to go ahead and that he would catch up later.

The kiznaivers are soon on the fast track to the home of Ruru's bereaved parents, and all but Maki are present as they sit down to speak with the couple and understand the situation better. Ruru's mother, stricken with grief, reveals that Maki and Ruru were extremely close while they worked on the manga together; however, when Ruru's death was all but imminent, Maki "abandoned" both Ruru and the manga, the weakening Ruru forced to complete its conclusion by herself before passing away.

Although Tenga and the others are largely quiet and considerate during this upset, the group are kicked out after Nico has an angry outburst defending Maki's right to the decision she made. The group retreats to a diner, where Tenga, along with Chidori, comforts a regretful and crestfallen Nico as she laments her actions and how badly they affected the situation. Eventually, with their new understanding of the traumatic events in Honoka's past, the group eventually decides to become friends with her and ease her burden at all costs.

The kiznaivers show up outside of Honoka's house with fireworks and call her phone to get her attention, but when the call is ignored the six opt instead to shout up at the girl's window: "Honoka — come outside and play!" Honoka then tells them over the phone to shut up and that they're being too loud. Nico then reveals to Honoka that they found out everything about her past with Ruru, and asks her why she would lie in her self-introduction about being the one to kill her friend when Ruru's death wasn't her fault to begin with. Once again hurt by tactless words, Honoka hangs up and right after the exchange it begins to rain. The kids — except for Yuta — put off befriending Maki until later, after the rain stops.

When the kids finally meet up at the beach, the sky is now overcast and Tenga and Chidori are seen arguing over the perceived dangers of shooting fireworks. Maki soon arrives and tells them all that the only way for her to be friends with them is for each of the six other kiznaivers to throw his or herself into the water. When Yuta passionately obeys the command, Tenga and the rest follow along and end up doing the same.

As the six of them play in the water for Honoka to see, they eventually start to feel a strong, bittersweet pain in their chests — which is Honoka releasing her pain. They rush to Honoka, whose Kizna mark is glowing yellow, and ask her if she is okay. She laughs and says that the six of them look ridiculous acting concerned while covered with seaweed. They begin frantically pulling the seaweed off of their bodies while Honoka tells them that they can't be friends. As a response to their saddened looks, she clarifies that they can't be friends because she already feels a connection to each of them deeper than that of a friend or a lover due to the time that they spent together as kiznaivers.

To christen their more-than-friendship bond, Nico proposes that everyone start calling each other by their given names. However, the group eventually agrees on calling only the girls (Honoka, Chidori, Nico) by their given names, without honorifics. To avoid confusion and awkwardness, the guys (Tenga, Yuta, Hisomu) are called by their family names without honorifics — excluding Katsuhira, whom everyone had already grown accustomed to calling by his given name.

Overall Tenga plays a supporting role in the arc, both with his consideration and deductive skills for cluing everyone in that Maki might be suffering from something in her past, and his support for her wellbeing to the best of his ability. By the conclusion of this arc, the seven kiznaivers have undoubtedly become much closer.

Katsuhira Agata
Tenga and Katsuhira are first introduced to each other in the first episode, when Tenga overhears Katsuhira being bullied and gets rid of the boys in exchange for a percentage of Katsuhira's money. Afterwards, when the two of them become kiznaivers, Tenga decides to live at Katsuhira's apartment and makes himself comfortable there. This is in order to do a better job at protecting Katsuhira since their bodies are now connected, according to Tenga.

Once Tenga figures out that Chidori still has romantic feelings for Katsuhira, however, Tenga's focus shifts from his and Katsuhira's budding brotherly relationship onto getting Katsuhira to become romantically interested in Chidori. He consistently tells Katsuhira to go after Chidori over anyone else whenever events go south, wanting Katsuhira to save her in order to get the two alone together and incite something lovey-dovey to happen. However, due to Katsuhira's dry reactions, this proves itself to be a challenge.

After Katsuhira's indifference and lack of concern ends up really hurting Chidori, Tenga becomes very angry and hits Katsuhira in front of all the other kiznaivers. He initially does this under the belief that he is defending Chidori against Katsuhira as a friend, but when Katsuhira expresses his confusion at the situation and says that he was just doing what Tenga and Chidori told him to do, Tenga's true feelings come to the surface and he beats Katsuhira brutally as he questions why someone like Katsuhira is Chidori's love interest and not him. This leads Tenga into being "pissed off" at Katsuhira for a while after the fact, and giving him the silent treatment.

He later empathizes with Katsuhira's hard time and realizes that he did not understand where Katsuhira was coming from previously, affirming that he cared about Katsuhira the whole time. In the final episode, he states that in spite of everything that happened between himself and Katsuhira, he can't just abandon him, showing that he strongly cares for him in spite of his own pride and interests. When he hears Chidori tell Noriko that Katsuhira forgives Noriko even after what she (and Tenga) put him through, Tenga knows deep down that he was being selfish and unfair, and regrets what he did to Katsuhira.

Katsuhira is the only kiznaiver that Tenga met before the experiments were performed. It is unclear whether he continues living in Katsuhira's apartment at all after the experiment concludes.

Chidori Takashiro
In the beginning, Tenga does not seem to show much of an interest in Chidori; he only starts to become attracted to her once he observes her actions closely and she reveals her "cute side." Once he confirms his suspicion that she still has a crush on Katsuhira, he tells her that he will help her win Katsuhira's heart, and on multiple occasions he makes supportive comments and advancements on her behalf. However, these all end in failure, and on at least one occasion results in Tenga looking interested in Chidori for himself.

During the storm in episode 8, it is shown on a love chart that Tenga is in fact romantically interested in Chidori, but that he ignores these feelings due to his knowledge of Chidori's feelings for Katsuhira. However, once Katsuhira breaks Chidori's heart by displaying utter indifference toward her feelings in favor of Noriko, Tenga becomes frustrated and enraged and later asks why Chidori likes Katsuhira more than him through the mental link, implying that he deeply believes that he is a better match for her than Katsuhira.

After the storm and the kiznaivers return home with their link severed, Tenga is fully aware that his feelings are out in the open. He confronts Chidori on the school rooftop and asks her if she would simply reject him straightforwardly. He explains that even more than wanting closure for himself, he wants to give her freedom to move on unfettered by the heavy feelings of someone else which she can't return. Chidori takes the implication of his words personally and snaps, yelling at Tenga that she can't understand that feeling because it isn't her own. Tenga is stunned into silence, but appears to understand where she's coming from and doesn't appear to push her any more after this.

Later on, in the series finale, Chidori and Tenga are shown standing together in the mall waiting for the others to arrive when Chidori brings up the topic of giving "a proper rejection." Tenga implies that he will still respect Chidori's sentiment on the issue, but she soon reveals that all she can think about lately is Tenga, which subtly implies that she has developed feelings for him. Tenga is overjoyed by her words and despite trying to appear "cool," he involuntarily breaks into a big smile.

Tsuguhito Yuta
Tenga tries to get friendly with Yuta initially, but once he is rejected by Yuta he seems to back off for a while.

When Yuta's secret is revealed in the second episode, Tenga wastes no time in making fun of Yuta and how different from his current self he used to look in the past. Before he is even fully aware that the child in the picture is Yuta, he calls the smiling kid a "fatso" and goes on to frequently throw around the phrase, "Show us your fatty potential!" when trying to get Yuta to eat for whatever reason, much to Yuta's embarrassment and disapproval. Tenga's making fun of Yuta may or may not be because Yuta embarrassed him before by rejecting his friendly advances. But, in spite of his joking behavior, Tenga is likely to actually care about Yuta's wellbeing to some degree, genuinely encouraging him to eat more "real food" instead of taking pills as a meal replacement while at the training camp.

In any case, the two seem to understand each other by the end of the series in some ways, and Tenga is subtly shown throughout the series to see merit in both Yuta's opinion and his sense of logic.

Honoka Maki
Even though the two don't experience much one-on-one communication, Tenga is the first to independently understand that Honoka's bristly behavior is likely due to having had her heart broken by someone close to her in the past. He believes that in spite of that pain, the reason she continues to show up and hang around with the rest of the kiznaivers for extended periods of time is because she has in fact grown tired of bearing the pain that constantly isolating herself has created.

Once he comes to this conclusion, Tenga throws his entire being into defending Honoka when he sees her being harassed by a camera crew. Tenga grows to care for Honoka in his own way, regarding her as his "homie," even though he doesn't know how to approach her of his own accord due to her situation's complexity. Still, once Honoka fully warms up to the kiznaivers, she seems to have grown fond of Tenga as well.

Nico Niiyama
For the most part, Tenga sees Nico as a cute, weird, and somewhat troublesome girl. Early on, Tenga insinuates that he sees Nico and Hisomu as being very close contenders in weirdness. As with the rest of the kiznaivers, eventually Tenga and Nico grow closer and Tenga is even seen trying to comfort her on at least one occasion, implying a certain extent of older brother feelings on his part.

According to the love chart, Nico is romantically interested in Tenga. However, Tenga is left completely unaware of these feelings until Noriko reveals to everyone that Nico is in love with him without Nico's consent. Completely shocked and oblivious, Tenga blushes and watches Nico run out of the gym in embarrassment. Although he doesn't want to confront her about her feelings, because he knows that he would end up rejecting them, Tenga is quickly convinced by Yuta that he has to seek out Nico just like he keeps pushing Katsuhira to go after Chidori.

Tenga himself has actually shown physical attraction to Nico more than once: in the second episode he jokes about groping her breasts (much to Nico's embarrassment), and in episode 8 he blushes and turns his face away when he realizes that he can see Nico's bra through her wet shirt; he also tells her she looks cute when he sees her wearing the plain gym jacket as opposed to her regular clothing. However, it is implied that he is only romantically interested in Chidori.

Despite the admonishment from Yuta and what he himself says to Chidori about rejecting a person on the rooftop in episode 10, his proper address toward Nico's feelings for him is never explicitly shown in the series. Either way, the two seem to have their own understanding of the other and are able to continue on as good friends in the end.

Yoshiharu Hisomu
At Hisomu's first appearance, Tenga seems to take on the challenge of tracking him down and capturing him more eagerly than the others did, even taking advantage of the pain bond to get Hisomu to climax loudly, thus cluing the seven in to his location. When Hisomu finally introduces himself, Tenga uncomfortably listens to him talk, and then wonders aloud if Hisomu is "into guys" in addition to being a masochist, when he interprets the mood in the room as Hisomu flirting with Katsuhira. Hisomu clarifies for Tenga that his addiction to pain is nothing "psychological" like that, and that it wouldn't matter if the pain was coming from a human or a sea creature.

Overall, Tenga sees Hisomu as an extremely outlandish individual and Hisomu seems to view him in the same way he views the rest of the kiznaivers, sans Katsuhira. It is shown that Hisomu quickly decides to move into Katsuhira's apartment just like Tenga did, meaning that the two lived for most of the summer as roommates with Katsuhira.

Noriko Sonozaki
Tenga openly and greatly despises Noriko, perhaps bearing the largest grudge out of all of the kiznaivers since day one due to his and her clash in personality and ideals.

He is very rude toward her and will never turn down even the smallest opportunity to speak poorly of her. Noriko even asks him at one point to refrain from speaking so rudely about her, even though she is all the more guilty of doing the same thing toward him as well as the rest. Tenga is often seen either mocking Noriko or threatening her with various acts of violence, and at the culmination of his frustrations toward her he even blurts out that because of the way she does things she is "no girl" in his opinion and he views her as "the enemy."

Overall, Tenga can't stand Noriko's ignorant and out-of-touch puppet master attitude, and doesn't approve of her unpleasant and inconsiderate treatment of others. By the ending of the final episode, his negative opinion of her has not changed much — however, he seems to have released it to an appropriate degree. Rather than showing bitterness, he smiles along with the rest of the kiznaivers when she compliments the friendship of the seven and how close they all have gotten.

Kazunao Yamada
He possibly despises Yamada equally if not more so than Noriko, due to what seems to be the teacher's gleefully inhumane treatment of others combined with his tendency to easily counteract Tenga's attempts at resistance or rebellion. His hatred for Yamada only intensifies when he hears the full story from him as to his involvement in the tragic first run of the Kizna Experiment — Tenga responds that he can't stand people who "mess with kids and pigeons" most of all, the former of which Yamada is extremely guilty of.

Yamada seems to dislike Tenga to some degree as well, even going so far as tripping the latter onto his face when he attempted to leave the room after the former joked publicly at the kiznaivers' expense — although it could be argued that Kazunao displays this outward lack of respect toward everyone. The root of Tenga's problem with Kazunao could be that Tenga can't understand his personality, or that he can't come to terms with the motivation behind it.

Mutsumi Urushibara
He seems neutral to her, but doesn't appear to view her as harshly as he does the other Committee members, ironically due to both her more subdued and mature personality, and her tendency to work quietly in the background. He expresses bewilderment when he hears of her cutesy nickname, "Urushii," most likely because of the dissonance with her adult-like and collected outward appearance. Mutsumi seems to genuinely view Tenga, as well as the other six kiznaivers, very fondly by the end of the series and is proud of their progress as individuals.

Abilities

 * Physical Strength: Tenga is shown to be very physically strong, being able to send the bullies that are harassing Katsuhira flying away with one swing from his fist. He is aware of his own strength and shows absolutely no reserve, making use of his entire body during a fight — including his glutes and his chest. He is shown to enjoy fighting and punching things (but mostly people), and goes on to show this physical strength on many separate occasions.
 * Intelligence & Reasoning: Despite his delinquent qualities, he is shown to be very deductive. This is displayed when he comes to the conclusion that the different numbers following the letter D (for "Damage") that appear on their wrists when they share pain must represent each one of them, thereby identifying the source of the pain. Additionally, when everyone else is stumped as to the cause for Maki's harsh and icy behavior, he is the one to deduce that Maki must be suffering from a broken heart; he shows these observational skills on more than one occasion.

Quotes

 * "Jiggly-jiggly... Hip... Summer!" (Episode 1)
 * "I'm talking about all of the money you've taken from him. Bring back every last yen." (to Katsuhira's bullies, Episode 1)
 * "It is a big deal! It's so lame that I wanna die! Even going to and from school, I've researched which houses have dogs, and the routes and times those dogs go on walks... All my life, I've done everything I could to ensure no one found out!" (Tenga on his fear of dogs, Episode 2)
 * "Don't be stupid! Letting someone else use your smartphone is unthinkable! What would you do if I were some bad guy using your phone to do bad stuff?" (Episode 3)
 * "I'm a man that always follows through!" (Episode 4)
 * "You can't give up just because you were rejected once or twice! Even if they hate you or think you're annoying, 'friend' is an honorable title you earn by going in for the attack over and over until you win!" (Episode 6)
 * "I can't stand people who mess with kids and pigeons the most!" (Episode 8)
 * "I'm against violence!" (shouted as he attacks the Gomorins attacking Hisomu, Episode 8)
 * "I've never done anything like this before. Like, liking someone, or having someone like me. So, after thinking about stuff, I thought... For me, rather than someone not being able to answer my feelings, it’s way harder to not be able to respond to someone else's feelings." (Episode 10)

Trivia

 * Tenga's birthday is on September 18th, making his zodiac sun sign Virgo.
 * According to him, his hobbies are "fishing for crawfish" and "raking guys who are twisted over the coals." He is shown using a rod to fish in the river in the manga series.
 * His blood type is O.
 * It is revealed in episode 2 that Tenga is afraid of dogs, to the extent that he goes to great lengths to avoid coming into contact with them at all so that others don't see the way he reacts to them. He regards this to the point that he feels the desire to die at the thought of how afraid he is, since he knows that the fear of dogs in itself is irrational. The medical term for such an intense and paralyzing fear is cynophobia, and it is typically caused by some traumatic experience involving dogs occurring in early childhood.
 * In the prologue of the Kiznaiver novel "That Day's Wounds, The Future's Bonds," Katsuhira claims through narration that Tenga is getting over his fear of dogs "little by little through an earnest effort," which implies that Tenga is undergoing exposure therapy with the help of one or more of the other kiznaivers (something which is shown statistically to have a high success rate if carried out at the proper pace for the individual).
 * In the gag manga series Mini! Kiznaiver Theater, a chibi-fied Tenga mentions in one panel that he owns a pet turtle.
 * Even though it is never explicitly stated in the series, the classical Deadly Sin that Tenga actually embodies is the sin of Wrath (ira). As if to poke fun at this, the symbol on the front of Tenga's yellow t-shirt includes a bear, which is a well known historical symbol linked to the sin. With that in mind, the symbol printed on Tenga's t-shirt (a roaring bear contained within a caution/danger sign) would read "Beware the Wrath!"
 * The Heavenly Virtue that Tenga achieves by the end of the series is Patience (patientia).
 * Although Tenga was one of the first characters to be confirmed for the show's cast, he underwent many different character designs before the final one was settled on.
 * Tenga's design not only bears obvious similarities to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann 's Kamina, but can also be linked to another character, Badou Nails, created by Kiznaiver's character designer Shirow Miwa and featured in his 2005 manga series Dogs: Bullets & Carnage.