Don Harumage

Name: Don Harumage

Gender: Male

Age: 20 (at first appearance)

Year of Birth: 1964 (exact birthdate unknown)

Blood Type: O

Height: 170 cm

Weight: 58 kg

Family:

Father: Don Harumage Senior

Mother: Donko Harumage

Pet: Paruko (parrot)

Nickname: “Yabu-Nirami” (a reference to his perpetually glaring eyes)

Voice Actor (1985 anime): Toru Furuya

Voice Actor (2026 anime): Kosuke Toriumi

Don Harumage is Rei Ichidou’s oldest acquaintance, making him the most long-standing friend and rival in Rei’s life.

The two acknowledge each other as “authentic perverts,” locked in an eternal rivalry that began in elementary school.

Although technically a side character, Don functions as a major supporting presence thanks to his deep backstory and emotional connection with Rei.

He is portrayed as a “bit player” who often steals scenes through his uniquely tragic yet comedic personality.

Within the cast of High School! Kimengumi, Don stands out as a “misfitting pervert,” someone whose quirks make it hard for him to blend into normal society.

Unlike the Kimengumi members, who actively rebel against social norms, Don simply struggles to fit in at all.

Childhood and First Meeting with Rei

Don Harumage was a classmate of Rei Ichidou in elementary school, and their fateful first day set the tone for their lifelong rivalry.

During the entrance ceremony, while the principal was giving a speech, Rei accidentally wet himself and only announced he needed the toilet after the fact, freezing the entire schoolyard.

Immediately after that, Don followed this up by loudly confessing he had already soiled himself, a “post-fact” announcement that caused everyone except Rei to flee the grounds in panic.

This bizarre double-disaster became the starting point of their strange, competitive relationship, where Don felt compelled to match or surpass Rei in sheer outrageousness.

As time went on, Don met Kazuyoshi Hitoihi (One Good Deed), a boy one year older, through the more sociable Rei.

The three of them formed a small group of playmates and spent their childhood playing and causing mild chaos together.

Final Elementary School Year and Separation

In sixth grade, Don’s relationship with Rei intensified into fierce competition while their contact with Kazuyoshi faded after Kazuyoshi moved on to junior high.

Everyday life became a constant challenge to outdo Rei, especially in the area of “perverted” behavior and absurd stunts.

However, Don’s father’s work forced the family to move, and it was decided that they would leave their town the day after graduation.

Unwilling to part without settling things, Don challenged Rei to a decisive final showdown right after the graduation ceremony.

Despite his determination, Don was utterly defeated by Rei in this last duel.

The two then swore a solemn promise to meet again someday and parted ways as Don left town with his family.

Middle School Years and Repeated Failures

After moving, Don enrolled in a new middle school, but his life there did not go smoothly.

Because of his developmental speech issues, severe shyness, and extremely low academic performance, he was held back an astonishing four times in middle school.

This meant he remained in middle school far longer than normal, effectively becoming an older student surrounded by much younger classmates.

Despite compulsory education standards, his academic struggles and social issues repeatedly prevented him from advancing on schedule.

Return to Town and High School Enrollment

Eight years after leaving, Don’s father’s job once again required the family to move, bringing them back to their old town.

By a twist of fate, the Harumage family ended up living next door to the Ichidou family, allowing Don to unexpectedly reunite with Rei.

Because Don had repeated middle school four times, he entered high school not as a second-year, but as a first-year transfer student despite being 20 years old at his first appearance.

He enrolled in Ichiou High School, becoming Rei’s junior in school year but not in age, deepening the comedic contrast between them.

In the original manga continuity, Don is four years behind, making him Rei’s one-year junior when Rei is in the second year of high school.

In the 1985 anime, the 2026 anime, and the remake Flash! Kimengumi, this was simplified so that Don is the same school year as Rei, although his class number changes by version (Class 10 in the 1985 anime, Class 8 in Flash!, and Class 6 in the 2026 anime).

The details of Don’s life after the graduation of the Kimengumi and their various classmates are not clearly shown.

His later career, adult life, and where he eventually ends up remain unknown, adding a bit of mystery to his character.

Don Harumage is fundamentally quiet, reserved, and intensely shy, especially around people he does not know well.

He suffers from a developmental speech problem that makes his pronunciation resemble that of a three-year-old child.

Specifically, in everyday conversation he tends to pronounce “ka” as “kya,” “na” as “nya,” “re” as “ri,” and “so” as “sho,” creating an odd and childish speech pattern.

This speech issue, combined with his extreme introversion, causes major difficulties in communicating with people outside his trusted circle.

Academically, Don’s abilities are extremely poor, as evidenced by his four middle-school retentions.

He is also extremely clumsy in physical activities, making him notably bad at most sports.

Because he barely talks to people he does not trust and tends to avoid social situations, many classmates see him as “taciturn and antisocial.”

This misunderstanding isolates him further and contributes to his image as a strange, hard-to-approach student.

However, with people he has opened his heart to—such as Rei, the Kimengumi members, and Hisako Otonari—Don speaks much more freely.

Around these close friends, he stops worrying about how his speech sounds and can be surprisingly expressive, talkative, and even bold.

He is not a rebellious weirdo who rejects society’s values like the core Kimengumi members.

Instead, he is a misfitting person whose quirks, developmental issues, and shyness simply make it hard for him to blend into ordinary life, giving his comedy a slightly tragic touch.

Rei Ichidou

Rei Ichidou is Don’s oldest friend, rival, and the person who understands him the most.

Their relationship began with the double-toilet-disaster on the first day of elementary school and evolved into a lifelong rivalry in “perverted” behavior.

They recognize each other as “true perverts” with exceptional potential for bizarre antics, and this mutual recognition forms the core of their bond.

Although they often compete, their interactions also reveal a deep sense of respect and attachment.

In elementary school they constantly tried to outdo each other in nonsense and weirdness.

In high school, direct head-to-head “pervert contests” occur less often, but they frequently cooperate and synchronize their bizarre abilities for maximum impact.

Kazuyoshi Hitoihi (One Good Deed)

Kazuyoshi Hitoihi is a boy one year older whom Don met through Rei’s social connections.

Together, they formed a trio of childhood playmates, spending time as a group before drifting apart when Kazuyoshi went on to middle school.

By the time Don reached sixth grade, his competition with Rei had intensified while his contact with Kazuyoshi had largely faded.

Kazuyoshi remains an important figure in Don’s origin story as part of his earliest circle of friends.

Other Classmates and Friends

In high school, Don’s classmates are mostly much younger than he is because of his repeated retentions.

Among the boys, he tends to be treated as a target of light teasing due to his awkwardness and passivity.

The girls, on the other hand, often call him “Don-chan,” a somewhat affectionate nickname that reflects a mix of fondness and frustration.

They may be irritated by how he lets himself be pushed around by the boys but generally do not dislike him.

Outside of his connections to the Kimengumi and Hisako Otonari, Don has very few friends.

His limited social circle reflects both others’ misunderstandings of his personality and his own difficulties in speaking to new people.

Don does not possess the superhuman or exaggerated comedic abilities commonly found among the core members of the Kimengumi.

Despite this, his potential as a “pervert” is considered to be on par with Rei’s, making him one of the strongest in that very strange field.

In earlier years, particularly in elementary school, he frequently competed directly with Rei in bizarre behavior and outlandish stunts.

In the high school era, he tends less to duel Rei and more to work alongside him, showing his true power in cooperative “perversion combos.”

One of Don’s defining flaws is that he always acts one beat slower than everyone around him.

This delayed reaction time is a major reason for his extreme clumsiness and poor performance in physical activities.

Interestingly, soccer is the one sport that seems to escape this curse.

In soccer-related situations, his timing issues do not hold him back as much, allowing him to perform better than expected.

Intellectually, Don lacks academic knowledge and does poorly in conventional studies.

However, he possesses a surprising wealth of unconventional insight and flashes of bizarre, original ideas.

His thinking is not methodical, but he can suddenly come up with unexpected solutions or off-the-wall ideas that no one else would ever imagine.

This makes him a kind of “idiot savant” of weird inspiration rather than book smarts.

Communication-wise, Don is handicapped by his speech impediment and shyness, but he has a hidden advantage.

He is shown to possess a form of mental remote sensitivity or telepathic ability, allowing him to connect with others mind-to-mind in certain circumstances.

This telepathic side further underlines how starkly divided his strengths and weaknesses are.

In Don’s case, his talents and shortcomings are extremely polarized: when he is bad at something, he is truly terrible; when he has a knack for something, it can border on the supernatural.

Don’s speech is one of his most defining traits, sounding like that of a toddler due to his persistent mispronunciations.

This makes him stand out immediately in any conversation, even when he is trying to be inconspicuous.

His shyness makes him reluctant to take initiative in social interactions, especially with strangers or authority figures.

He often appears aloof or uninterested, when in reality he is anxious and unsure how to express himself.

Despite his odd behavior, Don has a gentle and kind-hearted core.

He rarely shows malice and does not seek to hurt others, even when he gets caught up in weird schemes or competitions.

He is easily overwhelmed in situations where he is the center of attention, often freezing or reacting a beat too late.

This delay becomes a running gag, underscoring both his comedic timing and his inability to keep up with faster-paced people.

In the eyes of students who do not know him well, Don comes across as a gloomy, quiet guy who is bad at socializing.

Those who get closer to him, however, discover a quirky, unexpectedly warm and loyal friend.

One of Don’s most endearing traits is his kindness toward animals and non-human beings.

He often shows more ease and emotional openness with animals than with people.

At one point, a strange creature that looks very much like a horseshoe crab wanders into his yard.

Don names it “Kabuto” (though its real name is Pochi) and takes care of it lovingly as if it were a pet.

He also once finds a kitten on his way to school and secretly brings it with him.

This act of smuggling a helpless animal into school highlights both his soft heart and his tendency to break rules for gentle reasons rather than mischief.

These episodes show that, beneath the awkward exterior and perverted comedic framing, Don is deeply compassionate.

His ability to connect with animals contrasts sharply with his difficulty connecting with most humans, adding a bittersweet charm to his character.

Within the broader cast of High School! Kimengumi, Don functions as a special kind of outsider.

He is not a core member of the Kimengumi group, but his personal history with Rei gives him a unique position close to the main characters.

While the Kimengumi embody flamboyant, deliberate rebellion against social norms, Don embodies unintentional misfit energy.

He is a pervert not by aggressive choice but by natural inclination and circumstance, which often makes his situations both funnier and more sympathetic.

Story-wise, he often acts as a catalyst for episodes involving childhood memories, rivalries, or misunderstandings.

His exaggerated setbacks—like repeated middle-school retentions and being older than his classmates—serve as comedic anchors that also carry emotional weight.

Because of his combination of weakness and hidden strengths, Don frequently functions as a scene-stealing “supporting ace.”

He might not lead the story, but whenever he appears, his peculiar presence and history with Rei enrich the emotional and comedic texture of the series.

Don Harumage’s name is derived from the term “Armageddon,” specifically inspired by the word “Harumageddon” as it appears in the work Genma Wars.

This naming choice reflects a sense of looming catastrophe wrapped in comedy, mirroring the chaotic effects Don often has on any scene he is in.

In the original manga, Don is portrayed as having repeated middle school four times, so that when Rei is a second-year in high school, Don is a first-year junior.

However, adaptations modify this detail to simplify his relationship to Rei and their classmates.

In the 1985 anime adaptation of High School! Kimengumi, as well as in the 2026 anime and the remake Flash! Kimengumi, Don is placed in the same school year as Rei.

The class number still varies: Class 10 in the 1985 version, Class 8 in Flash! Kimengumi, and Class 6 in the 2026 version.

His hair color also shifts between versions.

In the 1985 anime, his hair uses an original color scheme, with orange as the base and green bangs, and the stage adaptation follows this design.

In the 2026 anime version, his hair color is changed to match the original manga depiction more closely.

These differences highlight how Don’s visual design has been adjusted over time while retaining his core identity and personality.