Mr. Popular, give me your life!

Week 2 - How to design characters?

Character's name: Ichi (Itchi) Bakagura.

This article includes:

·         Current character overview / Personality

·         Characteristics

·         Appearance

·         Background

·         Relationships

·         Problems

·         Likes

·         Dislikes

Current character overview / Personality:

Ichi Bakamura is a 16-year-old second-year high school student, who is known by everyone as "Itchi", a nickname his bullies gave him when they saw him scratch his wounded arm. Ichi has always suffered from a lot of different problems, from bullying to family issues and even economic and psychological traumas, though this last one is still unknown to him. However, he doesn’t really let all these facts to get to him, even if he’s bullied, he doesn’t really get depressed or helpless or pity himself because of the fact that he hasn’t done anything wrong, he firmly believes that if there’s something wrong about him, that would be the life he was born into. If not for it, none of these misfortunes would happen to him. So, he keeps this eccentric, energetic and really weird personality nevertheless, but he does hate his life, he’s always annoyed to have such a life. As far as he knows, there’s only two possible ways to go when one’s facing trouble: To escape or to fight. And he's definitely not one of those who would escape, he has the passionate soul of a warrior. He’s not very strong, though, so even if he tries to resist, he still gets beaten up and is constantly getting injured. He’s kinda talented in various things, but no one knows it. He’s rather naive and the phrase “Is it?” might very well be his catch phrase. He isn’t really a logical person and usually would just stick to the first idea that pops into his mind without giving it much thought. When he has to think of a solution for something, he, sort of in a stressed way, thinks of any idea that could pull it out and unless anyone refute it, he’ll just go for it as is, even if this idea is not logical or even doable. He’s kinda impatient, he’ll start acting as soon as he can, he can’t stay still, has no patience at all and even if he were to find some patience in him, his attention is almost inexistent, so he would just start thinking about something else. Simply said, he wants things done. Fast.

When he entered his first high school year, he for the first time saw Mitsuaki Yoshinobi, the most popular guy of the school, the one all the girls are after and everyone want to befriend. Even if he hadn’t actually met him, to Ichi’s eyes, Mitsuaki had the perfect life. Whenever Ichi saw Mistuaki during his first year, he was always thinking “God, now that IS a good life” and by the beginning of their second year, after hearing some random comment from some random passerby, he came up with the “perfect” idea which would greatly change his life.

Characteristics:

Noisy. Weird. Persistent. Exaggerated. Rather happy even though he isn’t satisfied inside. Gets excited when he has a plan of action. Energetic. Stubborn. Gets angry instead of getting sad, but he’s also weak in the inside if something triggers his feelings.

Appearance:

He is 1.65 meters tall, has brownish hair, clear skin and has blue eyes.  His school uniform consists of a white shirt, a blue tie, blue tailored trousers, an aquamarine blazer and black shoes. However, Ichi wears a somewhat different version of this uniform.  His parents didn’t buy him the school’s uniform he’s supposed to wear and just got different unmatching clothing from various places instead, so he wears a white shirt, a yellow tie, an oversized long-sleeved orange sweater, green plaid trousers and a pair of brown shoes. Additionally, some parts of his clothing, like a portion of the sleeves of his sweater and trousers, are ripped because he's constantly bearing injuries and doesn’t have enough money to buy proper bandages everytime, so he uses these pieces of clothes as bandages. Most of the time he also wears a band aid on his right cheek.

Background:

He was born into a family who didn’t want him, and thus, he was always treated badly by them. To their parents he was but a nuisance and a waste of money. They never cared about him at all, on the contrary, it was and it still currently is difficult for them to even give him the basics, like food or studies, and they wouldn’t ever think twice when it comes to hitting him mercilessly whenever they feel like it. His father has always been very unstable when it comes to having a job so it’s no surprise that Ichi was always very poor and suffered necessities. When he was 11, he decided he would get a job and gain his own money and so he started to search for a job. Since he was still too young no one wanted to employ him and it would have stayed that way if he hadn't met an opportunist man who owned a little shop. This man accepted to employ him but on the condition that he would only give him a salary that’s not even the minimal salary under the excuse that he was risking himself by employing a kid and couldn’t afford to pay him any more money. Like this, Ichi managed to get a little money for himself and his employer saved the money he would have had to pay to an adult. Also, if it was not enough to have a family like this, outside of his house the situation wasn’t all that different because due to his non-conventional and noisy personality and appearance, he was always the target of the bullies, pranks and everyone’s laughs and insults.  But even though he’s constantly being bullied, he’s not the type who would just helplessly accept to be mistreated by anyone, he can’t really go against his parents but he would fight anyone else because he knows he hasn’t done anything wrong to deserve such a treatment. Unfortunately, even if he tries to resist, he isn’t really very powerful, so he still ends up being beaten up.  Ichi firmly thinks that if it weren’t for this life he was destined to live, none of these things would happen to him. It’s all not his but his life’s fault, if only he could live a different life...

Relationships:

1.       An old lady who missed her grandson who never visited her. He pitied her and pretended to be her grandson. Over time he got close to her, just as if he were really her grandson, but he couldn’t help but think that she is nice to him just because he deceived her, he thinks she loves him just because he thinks he’s someone else and wouldn’t love him otherwise. He might confess before she dies.

2.       His boss, the owner of a small shop near the school were Ichi works part-time. He’s a very inconsiderate and avaricious man who doesn’t like to lose money and the only one Ichi had found who would employ him when he was 11. He intently refuses to give Ichi a rise, even though he definitely deserves it.

3.       The mysterious and serious Mitsuaki Yoshinobi, the most amazing and popular guy in the school. He becomes Ichi’s aid as the story goes on.

Problems:

1.  Bullying.

2.  Home violence.

3.  He lacks money and has to work for his own studies and life costs.

4.  His boss won’t ever give him a salary rise, even though he deserves it.

5.  He has no friends; he can’t count with his family and everyone thinks he’s a weirdo.

6.  He’s not loved by anyone for who he is so even if he’s not really aware of it, he craves for love.

7.  He’s constantly injured, be it by his parents or out of bullying, but since he’s poor, he’s also poorly bandaged. He merely uses little band aids or wraps a piece of cloth around his injuries.

8.  Psychological traumas he doesn’t even know he has.

Likes:

1.  Candies

2.  Hot chocolate with little marshmallows on top

Dislikes:

1.  Bugs and reptilians, especially lizards

2.  His life