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 it is vaguely alluded in Noto's profile that he might snap (providing a possibility that he may exist there). 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 committing various indecent acts, most notably stripping people of their clothing, though earlier comics and games depicted him doing more sexually-explicit forms of bullying and some instances of outright violence. 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.

Iriyoshi Toyama
Main article: Iriyoshi Toyama

Noto's childhood friend, often referred to as simply "Toyama-kun". He feels responsible for protecting Noto from harm (combined with his own deep feelings for him), whether it's from his fellow Yakuza members, Hinaji, or even their own creator in a fourth-wall breaking moment.

He is also the one able to momentarily break Noto out of his "Black Noto" phase with his very presence, as witnessed in a few comics and the first four Noto-sama games. But as stated in Noto-sama 5, Black Noto is not very fond of his "fun" being stopped by Toyama, and this frustration is what leads to him and Yamato deciding to go to New York for their next adventure.

Wakasa Fukui
Main article: Wakasa Fukui

Noto and Wakasa were friends as children, though in their teens they have become rivals due to both hanging around Toyama. Wakasa sees Noto as being in the way of her love, and does what she can to bully him and deter him from Toyama.

She does not show up much in Kitakou Pure, but one later Kitakou-centric comic depicts Noto as having taken revenge on her by forcing her to strip and play "the humiliation game" (much to her embarrassment and horror). Another comic that was removed by Himaruya further suggests that Noto and Wakasa's dynamics became reversed after Noto's change, with Noto becoming the more jealous one and considering the option of beating her up with a nail-spiked baseball bat for flirting with Toyama.

Hinaji Kasukabe
Main article: Hinaji Kasukabe

In both Kitakou series, Hinaji starts out with a crush on Noto, who he had initially believed to be a girl.

After Noto's personality change mid-Pure, Hinaji became his henchman and also one of his victims at the same time. He operated as a henchman in the first two Noto-sama games and a few comics, though he would later leave Noto behind when became Sanuki's boyfriend. Noto is shown to be somewhat bitter of Hinaji's relationship later on, though he declares that the two are only "wasting their lives".

Matsukage Choushuu
Main article: Matsukage Choushuu

Matsukage yearned for Noto to join the same high school as him, due to Noto having been a celebrity in the junior high broadcasting competition. But he wound up disappointed when he found that Noto had opted to go to Kitakou instead.

Yamato Nara
Main article: Yamato Nara

In the Noto-sama series telling of their first meeting (game 3), Noto bribed Yamato into becoming his new henchman with the promise of giving him pornographic magazines. The two then became inseparable and set out on their various misadventures to strip and humiliate their peers and anyone more popular than them.

A parallel telling of their first meeting happens in a comic strip featuring Youko Kotohira (of Deserted House fame): After Yamato and Youko decided to form an alliance, Noto joined them and they became a trio of "Kitayume heroes".

Sunki Udono
Main article: Sunki Udono

The best-known of Noto's victims, having been forced to act as his "dog" and even literally appearing in a dog form in various strips. He is the least resistant to Noto's harassment and puts up with it the best that he can, no matter how cruel Noto's acts are.

He was also the first victim in the Noto-sama game series, where in one infamous scene he was forced to suck on a fishstick (the photographs of this act were then manipulated to look like pornography).

Tsukomi Hoke (Tsuko)
Main article: Tsukomi Hoke

Tsuko briefly acted as a henchman for Noto, though he too wound up a victim, most notably in the fourth Noto-sama game.

Homare Aizu
Main article: Homare Aizu

Another victim of Noto after his turn to the dark side. In one instance, Homare wound up beaten with a mace by Noto and then threatened with the humiliating possibility of sexual assault. However, he managed to get the upper hand and punch Noto out.

He is the target of the third Noto-sama game.

Kalom Hikone
Main article: Kalom Hikone

Noto had also menaced Kalom, having stripped him and forced him into bondage. He also attempted to assault Kalom and take pictures of his nude body, but was stopped when a stray ball thrown by Nacchan hit him in the head and knocked him out.

Nishinomaru Hunai (Nomaru)
Main article: Nishinomaru Hunai

Nomaru was another target of Noto's, most notably in the second Noto-sama game.

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).