Hodaka Morishima

The protagonist of this work. A first-year student at Kozushima High School. In his third year, he was in class 3-3. At the beginning of the story, he runs away from home to Tokyo by ferry. The reason for his runaway is not explained in detail in the story. Unable to present identification due to being a runaway, he couldn't get a part-time job and spent his days staying at internet cafes. During this time, he found a handgun believed to have been discarded by a criminal named Shibata, who was arrested for possessing a large number of firearms. Later, he got into trouble with Kimura, who was trying to recruit Hina for a shady job, and impulsively fired the gun, but missed. He was hired by Keisuke, securing food and shelter, and was living a smooth life, but the moment he fired the gun was caught on a security camera, and his family filed a missing person report, leading to him being pursued by the police. In the novel version, there is a page that mentions "parents," but neither the novel nor the movie goes into detail about his mother. Additionally, when Detective Takai visited Hina's apartment with a policewoman, a photo of Hodaka's entrance ceremony was shown, featuring a man, but it is not mentioned whether he is his father. Characteristics/Personality He carried a novel titled "The Catcher in the Rye" (translated by Haruki Murakami, published by Hakusuisha), featuring a runaway boy protagonist of the same age, and used it as a weight for cooking Donbei or cup noodles. He likes to eat cup noodles in two minutes instead of waiting for three. He always wears a yellow sacoche when going out, and carried the found handgun in it. At the Jingu Gaien Fireworks Festival, he wore a blazer over a T-shirt, but his usual attire includes a V-neck shirt with cargo pants or a T-shirt with navy jeans. The Kozushima High School uniform is a stand-up collar student uniform. He assisted Keisuke with magazine editing using a MacBook and had enough IT skills to independently create a website for the "Sunshine Girl" service using Keisuke's iPad. He has a habit of immediately asking questions on Yahoo! Chiebukuro via smartphone when he doesn't understand something. He has a strong will, willing to work overnight if necessary, and made umbrellas with teru teru bozu and costumes resembling teru teru bozu for the "Sunshine Girl" service. While employed at Keisuke's office, he handled general chores such as meal preparation, cleaning, tidying, sorting mail, shopping, and transcribing interviews. The office paid for his mobile communication fees. Although he is usually conscientious, as seen when he refused beer offered by Keisuke and opted for juice, he becomes aggressive and disregards the law when Hina is involved. He even bit Keisuke's arm and fired a warning shot with the handgun. He seems inexperienced with women, as shown in scenes where he gets flustered when Natsumi accuses him of looking at her chest, or when Hina catches him staring and says, "What are you looking at!" He also mistakenly thought Natsumi was Keisuke's mistress, leading to comments like "That delusion is creepy" from Natsumi and "Hodaka, you're pervy" from Hina. After his high school graduation ceremony, he imagines a scene where he thinks, "Is this my first confession?" when facing two junior girls in a gazebo. Hina describes him as "still a child," while Natsumi calls him "forever the little brother type" and "similar to Keisuke." He is called "Hodaka" by Keisuke, Hina, and Nagi, "Hodaka-kun" by Natsumi, and "Morishima-senpai" by junior female students. Keisuke also refers to him as "boy" (and "young man" after high school graduation). He uses "ore" when speaking to others and "boku" in monologues, but says "bokutachi" when alone with Hina. Early Production Setting In the early planning stages of production, he was set to be a second-year middle school student. The runaway boy setting was already established at this stage.