HAZAMA KIRARA (狭間 綺羅々); E-18

Birthday: 6th May

Height: 157cm / 5’2

Weight: 40kg 

Blood type: A

Favourite subject: Japanese

Worst subject: P.E

Interests: Literature (reading, writing)

Past club: Literature club

Treasure: Her blythe doll that she’s modified herself

Favourite food: N/A (“Salt-cooked newt”, “human darkness”)

Family: Mother (Nutritionist); Father (Proofreader) 

Codename: Art of Darkness (given by Fuwa)

High school: Kamiizumi Gakuen Maihama High School

University: International Kirishitan University

As of 7 years later timeskip: Librarian at Kunugigaoka Central Library

Why did he transfer to E-Class?: Poor grades in maths

Voice actor: Saito Fuko (JPN); Terri Doty (ENG)

L.A portrayal: Okuma Ami

“"狭”: “narrow” / “prefix” + “間”: “between two things” / “to separate” / “relationship”

“綺羅々”: “glittering” / “sparkling” – a stereotypically cute name for girls

Hazama is cynical, analytical and a master of verbal attacks. She has a vested interest in the macabre and delights in scaring others, whether through the things she says or through her general appearance and presence. A lover of curses, dark literature, goth fashion and folklore – she uses these to her advantage in creating a heavy, uncomfortable atmosphere. Her words, spoken or written, are said to inflict damage comparable to physical blows. 

Hazama’s analytical abilities show in her ability to “read” people. She is skilled at unearthing someone’s deepest, darkest, most shameful secrets and exploiting them. It also allows her to keep calm in stressful situations as she takes in all that is happening around her and distils the smallest details. Additionally, it makes her a good match for Terasaka, one of her close friends, as she can tell when he’s becoming irate and knows how to defuse the situation. 

Hazama speaks sharply and precisely and does not soften her words. For example, she’ll casually talk about her erratic homelife, her conflict with her mother, and subjects like death and worst case scenarios with little care for others’ discomfort.

Nonconformity is important to her due to how she was raised. Because her mother wanted to push her own specific ideals onto Hazama, she grew to resent that and instead embraces her own interests and everything that makes her “different” or “unpalatable” in the eyes of her mother and wider society. She doesn’t succumb to external pressure to tone herself down.

For a long time she sought the company of her books rather than other people and was isolated from her peers due to her eccentric interests and behaviour. Combined with her homelife, this rendered her a shut-in. Upon meeting Terasaka, Yoshida and Muramatsu after running away from home she found a space to be unabashedly herself, something 3-E later became for her as well. While she generally keeps to herself in group situations, she doesn’t shy away from giving her input or making snide comments and is noticeably more vocal among her close friends. 

Other facts + trivia

• Hazama’s nicknames include “The Witch of 3-E”, “Miss Courage Tester: Japanese Representative” and “the witch librarian” (future)
• Her tagline for the manga popularity poll was “Hazama-san of the toilet” which references the Japanese urban legend of “Hanako-san of the toilet”
• She’s been scaring strangers on the street since she was a young child, hence her “courage tester” nickname
• When her hair gets wet, she’s said to become 50% scarier 
• In the selected comments for Hazama’s Graduation Album profile Terasaka, Yoshida and Muramatsu write her a collective message telling her they wouldn’t be anywhere without her
• Hazama delights in watching the schemes Terasaka, Yoshida and Muramatsu come up with, especially when they inevitably go wrong. She adds fuel to the fire with snide, subtly encouraging remarks 
• She refers to the Gang as a “circus” where she is the “trainer”
• Although she is generally logical and analytical, she will throw that away if the opportunity to sew unease, spur on her friends’ chaos, or fire venomous remarks arises 
• She’s the one out of her friends who throws out the suggestion of getting something to eat at Matsuraiken when it seems like Terasaka is getting worked up
• She’s the only one out of the Gang to wear her school uniform properly 
• Terasaka encourages her hobbies, including scaring people, with “as long as you’re having fun”
• In the anime version of Horibe Itona Time, when Hazama unloads her copies of the Count of Monte Cristo, Muramatsu is later shown carrying them for her
• An example of how comfortable she is with Terasaka in particular can be seen in s2ep21 where she is holding onto his arm and somewhat shielding herself during Korosensei’s photoshoots. Another is a card from the mobile game that shows them hanging out together while Hazama reads and Terasaka watches her
• During the test of courage Korosensei groups her, Terasaka and Muramatsu in a trio
• In the comic at the end of Korotan C, it’s shown that Terasaka would not trust her with his wallet, especially with how she insults him while asking for it
• The comic at the end of the Valentine’s chapter with her and Terasaka is a Death Note parody. It implies she has written Terasaka’s name in the Death Note and he has gone off to commit suicide, as it parallels a scene in Death Note where exactly that happens 
• Fuwa references Death Note in her comment on Hazama’s Graduation Album profile as she pitches the idea of Hazama writing a dark manga with her 
• Her animal motif is a tarantula, as shown during the civil war arc 
• She has a pet tarantula who unexpectedly gave birth, leading her to invite Kurahashi over to her house to help
• Due to Kurahashi being the “light”, Hazama’s “darkness” evaporates when she’s around her, leading her to “starve”
• In the selected comments in Kurahashi’s Graduation Album profile, Hazama admits that “the darkness is attracted to the light” and that she “doesn’t dislike” Kurahashi’s peppiness
• Okuda tells Hazama in the comments on her Graduation Album profile that she admires her way with words 
• The Japanese term for the goth subculture is used twice in relation to her – once in her Roll Book Time profile and again in the mobile game
• She is not good with kids and finds them difficult to handle
• Her bedroom is the only room with black walls in an otherwise white house
• She describes her mother as someone whose head is “full of fairytales” and who bursts into screaming fits when she doesn’t like something. Hazama cites this as a reason she came to resent her name “Kirara”
• Fuwa’s theory is that Hazama is descended from a family of magicians and Terasaka is a “golem” she summoned to serve her
• She gave Karma his codename “Semi-senioritis” / “Chuuniban” where in the original Japanese she is essentially calling him a half-assed Chuunibyou. Either way, she’s calling him half-assed, and in the English she’s suggesting he even half-asses being lazy
• Although she excels in shooting, the aura she exudes while wielding a knife is powerful 
• She excels in ambush shooting, trapping, and negotiation as far as assassination goes 
• When she becomes absorbed in her favourite books, she adopts a soft expression and stops noticing the world around her
• She goes on to major in French Literature at university and reaches a stage where she has read lots of foreign literature in their original languages - focusing on British, American and French
• Matsui’s original idea of a voice actor for her was Sanada Asami (Kurumi Tokisaki from Date a Bullet, Joshi from Code Geass)
• She gained an interest in home economics after studying to get 100% in the exam with Terasaka, Yoshida and Muramatsu and is described as gleefully looking like a witch at a cauldron while she cooks
• Korosensei personally ranks her as fourth for art out of the girls due to her skill in dark and morbid drawings 
• Hazama and Kanzaki tend to have conflicting interpretations if they read the same book, with Hazama viewing it through a much darker lens than Kanzaki
• However, the two of them are shown reading together in a flashback before Korosensei’s death
• She knows about and is amused by Yoshida’s crush on Kanzaki. She overall has a sharp grasp on the relationship framework of the classroom 
• She prefers snacks to bentos for lunch and is often shown blowing bubblegum
• For one of the events in the mobile game she dresses up as the Queen of Hearts from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
• From the Valentine’s event in the mobile game, the description of her card tells us that the dress she’s wearing is one her mother forced her into, because her insistence on fairytale perfection intensifies with the holiday
• In one of her cards from the mobile game she’s wearing the same waistcoat as Nagisa
• Hazama’s Korotan C lesson focuses on foreign books that had their titles changed when translated to Japanese
• Hazama’s Korotan D lesson focuses on classic Japanese literature
• Hazama’s Korosuu lesson focuses on “weird” numbers such as 3912657840 which features every number from 0-9 and has a wikipedia page
• In Nakamura’s Korosuu lesson on lucky and unlucky numbers around the world, Hazama gets a small section commenting on the number 13