Kentou Kanami

About
Kanami is a loyal ninja serving directly under Lia, who saved her life when she was little. While seemingly apathetic from the outside, Kanami is actually very concerned with her ability as a ninja. It's implied that she is always training by herself to hone her skills. She longs to be a normal girl, but that's an impossible dream. Lia ordered her to keep tabs on Rance, a job that she hates since she hates him.

She is originally from Edo, JAPAN, and once belonged to Fuuma ninja unit that serves the Houjou family. She got lost during their trip to the continent, and that's just when Lia found her.

Kanami is one of thirteen girls who is fated for Rance. Although Kanami seems to hate Rance to the core, it appears that she is actually hoping and trying her best so that Rance can admit her strength as a reliable ninja, in which Rance usually makes fun of.

Personality and Appearance
She is starting to long for a life as a "normal" girl, and that desire is getting stronger as the series progress. She's very loyal to Lia and follows her every order, even if she completely hates whatever mission she is given to perform. As a professional Ninja, she will at times perform cruel tasks under the order of the queen, with little remorse. She's proud of her abilities as a ninja but Rance kills all her self-confidence most of the time and she's an expert in failing at almost everything she does. She lost her confidence in JAPAN after seeing expert ninjas like Suzume and almost left the country depressed, since she considered herself useless. The situations she goes through make her have a very low opinion of herself but she can't hide her happiness in the rare instances where she's praised.

She doesn't have the strongest mental fortitude since she often tries to not reveal information when captured but will mindbreak and spill all out if she's punished just a bit. She also panics and loses her cool very easily. She's not very bright either since she apparently had quite some difficulties while attending school.



She is one of the thirteen girls proclaimed to be "Fated for Rance" by a god in the Calculator Cube dungeon, although she does not want to admit it. She vocally states her dislike for Rance, as all kinds of misfortune befalls her because of him. However, Lia continues to order her to missions relating to Rance, and she finds herself stuck with having to deal with Rance every time. Rance likes her since he considers her constant failures cute and loves to tease her and bully her all the time, which obviously angers Kanami greatly.

When she's not in a mission as a ninja, Kanami acts like a very normal girl. She likes stuff that is common between girls of her age and is pretty immature at times. She likes frogs because she thinks they are cute and wears frog themed panties as well(all the time actually) and she also likes writing on a diary.

She's good friends with the second-in command of the Leazas Red Army, Menad Shisei, and they often eat lunch together. Similar to Shizuka with Maria, Kanami is worried of her friend who developed romantic feelings for Rance.

Abilities
Her Ninja skills are not too impressive. There are not very many Ninjas serving in the main continent, so her skills seem adequate there. However, in JAPAN, the land of Ninja, she is terribly outclassed by the top Ninja characters there such as Suzume. Also, while the rare ninjas are useful in The Continent, her skills are not quite on par with the situations she's forced to deal with, taking part in Rance's parties when fighting Dark Lords, Toushin or taking down governments. These situations are way beyond her abilities. She's still managed to survive all these dangerous adventures though, which is quite an achievement actually.

She is adept enough to be a Ninja Lv1. She's a decent bodyguard and is accustomed to sleeping on the rooftops guarding Rance or Lia efficiently enough. She's shown great constancy and endurance, being able to spend a night without sleeping and watching over. She (unwillingly) follows Rance most of the time under Lia's orders.

Ninja Master Inukai states that, if she tries hard, she can get to Middle Class Ninja level, but that would be her limit. Over the course of the series she's constantly training to become stronger and so that Rance recognizes her skills (since he always makes fun of her). By Sengoku Rance she's improved quite a bit. Her eyesight is 2.5 and can jump long distances of up to 7 meters. While she's average or mediocre in most areas, she's actually incredibly fast and only the fastest humans in the world can catch her(mostly top tier ninjas). One time when she had to wait until her limit to go to the bathroom, she gained enough dashing power to set a new world record. In Rance IX she was fast enough to dodge Rance with ease and to escape from Helman's assassin's squad.

Despite having only a Lv1 ninja skill she has a unique skill called Fire Bowl Jutsu, a fire technique that deals fire damage to all enemies around her. Apparently she invented this jutsu by accident when Lia gave her a scroll with Ninja techniques and telling her to “use this for your ninja studies”. She managed to work out the scroll on her own somehow but it became an original Kanami technique after she completely misinterpreted “Fire Bomb.”

After a trip to the Calculator Cube, Kanami gained a Decapitation Blade, which increased her ninja abilities but she would constantly lose the blade.

In-Game
For more in depth gameplay information of each game refer to:
 * Rance 03
 * Rance IV
 * Rance VI
 * Sengoku Rance
 * Rance Quest
 * Rance IX

Personal history
Kanami was born in the year GI1001 in Edo in the country of JAPAN in a normal middle class household. She's a second-daughter, which means she has an unknown older sister. In the year GI1007, when she was 6 years old, she goes hiking in the mountains with her family but was separated from them after getting lost while chasing a dragonfly.



Children disappearing from spirits or monsters is a daily occurrence in JAPAN, so her family only looked for her for a short while before giving up. Since JAPANese families have a lot of kids, losing one is not a big deal(despite how cold it sounds).

Kanami, who was alone in the mountains, is found by the Fuuma ninjas right before she starves to death. She's taken to their village and starts receiving a ninja training. She didn't get the kunoichi course. Three years later she takes the Genin Exam to become a low-ranked ninja and fails splendidly. She challenges the exam again in the following year and manages to pass. She receives her ninja name Kentou, although she's still called Kanami by everyone around her. Her Kentou name is later mistaken as her surname and sticks as her official name.



In the year GI1012 she gets lost(again) on a training trip with the Fuuma Ninjas to the main Continent. She tries to find her group but she eventually collapses and is found right before she starves to death(again) by the princess of Leazas, Lia Parapara Leazas. The princess is excited to see a ninja, since they are very rare outside of JAPAN, and takes her to the Leazas Castle. She becomes a direct subordinate of her and becomes the Personal ninja of the Leazas Royal Family.



In the year GI1015 she starts taking missions from Lia to kidnap innocent girls to become Lia's playthings to satisfy her sadism. She's aware it's not the right thing to do but she doesn't go against her master's orders. She gets to meet a town guard named Menad Shisei and they become friends. Menad is actually chasing the kidnapper, but she doesn't know that it's Kanami.

The following year LP0001, the one in which Gi dies and Little Princess becomes the Demon King, she continues kidnapping girls under Lia's orders. On her usual mission she kidnaps a young noble lady called Hikari Mi Blanc, whose disappearance made her father ask for a rescue mission to the Keith Guild, which caught Rance's attention. Not long after the events of Rance 01 take place in the beginning of the series.

Rance I / Rance 01


Her task in here is to kidnap the girls as Lia ordered her to.

Kanami first appeared as a nameless troubled girl who is asking for Rance to help find her wallet. While Rance is not looking, she stole his wallet and threatened him to not investigate the issue any further before disappearing.

She once again appears when Rance found Hikari, tying him with a chain to assassinate him. Fortunately, Sill barged in and successfully knocked her away, saving Rance in the process.

In the pursuit of Lia, Rance is again confronted by Kanami, who seems to be more prepared for a battle. After she is defeated, she keeps insisting that she won't tell Rance about Lia's escape route. Though it doesn't last long since Rance just keep 'assault'-ing her till she points to the secret door and the direction Lia went during her escape.

Rance 02
Kanami only appears in the last part of story, more precisely in a scene with Lia and Maris. However, it's not possible to interact with her.

Rance III / Rance 03
Upon witnessing Helman's invasion, Lia entrusted the Holy Shield to Kanami in order to bring it to the Man, and pass on that she awaited his rescue. Kanami goes to Rance to get him to save the country, and as part of his compensation, she loses her virginity. Along the way, she has to serve Rance at night, she gets molested by Return Devils in order to pass through the Devils Passage, who send her into illusionary dimensions where she's bullied by Rance.

At Lia’s coronation ceremony, some nobles plan to use a Leazas-made guardian to commit a coup d'état, but Kanami, Menad, and some others work together to take down the ringleader and prevent it.

Rance IV
Kanami went to the Floating City, Ylapu, along with Maria, Shizuka, Rick, Leila, and Julia as the "Rance Rescue Party" in order to find and save Rance, who’s been transported to the floating city Ylapu, while personally carrying a secret mission from Lia to assassinate Sill. There, she gets swallowed by a giant puryo, gets trapped inside Atlanta’s mirror. She tried to assassinate Sill but turned back in the last minute because she couldn't bring herself to kill Sill. She was punished by Rance after that.

She later takes a mission from Lia to observe Rance’s actions periodically.

Travels the world after being ordered to find the missing Rance. At the time, Rance had wandered into Genbu Castle in another dimension. (Rance 5D Extra Delicious Foods of the World: Ninja Traveler’s Journal)

Kichikuou Rance
She is the first spy Rance can use in battle to see the number of enemies. Abused by the enemy if captured during a mission. She will also randomly inflict damage on enemy troop leaders if Menad is participating in the battle.

Rance VI
She got caught by Zeth officers for crossing the border illegally and was rescued by Rance when he breaks into the female prison just to rescue girls from being mistreated. After a trip to the Calculator Cube, she gained a Decapitation Blade and was later revealed to be one of Rance's fated girls and she objected to such.

Mamanyonyo
She was being summoned to Mamanyonyo as one of heroines.

Sengoku Rance


She came to help Rance as a foreign ally from Leazas, commanding a ninja unit.

In one of her events, she told Rance about her past as part of Fuuma clan before serving Lia. She is afraid to return to her clan due to her status as a runaway-ninja, it's considered a serious crime with death penalty as its punishment. In order to avoid it, she asked Rance to not send her to places like Edo or Kazusa, in which Rance gladly accepts under one 'condition' that Kanami refused in an instant.

While scouting either Edo or Kazusa, she got caught and brought to Fuuma's headquarter to be tortured and executed. In her despair, she murmured Rance's name several times unconsciously, asking for his help. Suddenly, Rance appears along with Suzume to save Kanami. Rance stated that he and Suzume were actually planning to investigate Fuuma Organization by sneaking in since the very start. That this was all for Kanami, to get rid of her fear.

Kanami is very provoked when Rance compared her with Suzume. To prove her worth, Kanami challenged Suzume to a duel, in which she lost miserably, causing her to lose her confidence and pride as a ninja. Feeling inferior to Suzume and JAPAN's ninjas, Kanami decided to return to Leazas to end her constant embarrassment as a hindrance. Fortunately, Rance stopped her, asking for her to stay since he needs her, and on top of that, he doesn't want to let go of such an amusing (and weak) ninja. Feeling annoyed, Kanami vowed that she will be the strongest, strong enough to assassinate Rance once and for all, though Rance doesn't seem to take it seriously, much to Kanami's anger.

She later receives training from Inukai that left her exhausted and near-death but improved her skills greatly.

Rance Quest
She is instructed by Lia to be Rance's bodyguard, and as such, the rooftop of wherever Rance is living becomes her regular habitat. It stays this way for the entirety of the game, however throughout the course of the game she is trained by Suzume to get her basic ninja skills stronger, and regains her lost Beheading Sword. Typical of her character, various bizarre misfortunes befall her along the way including suffering a curse that made her say her thoughts out loud.

Rance IX
She is following Rance under Lia's orders and is forced to join him in the Helman Revolution after reading a letter from Lia.

Later in the game she finally accepts her feelings towards Rance. She's given a new subordinate, Freya, a helman assassin leader of a renown group of assassins. Thanks to Suzume's training she can tell from first sight that Freya is way stronger than her, which troubles her a lot. Still, it is pointed out that despite still being weaker than Freya, she's improved her ninja skills a lot.

Rance X
She aids in the fight against the monster army. At one point, she is transformed into a giant by Miracle. She gives birth to Rance's daughter Uzume.

Trivia

 * She's one of the most prominent characters in the series, appearing in every game with the exception of Rance 5D.
 * She's the first ninja and JAPANese person to make appearance in the series, as early as Rance I.
 * One of her interests is shojo manga.
 * Her original technique the Fire Bowl Jutsu was a technique originally called "火遁", which could be translated as fire release. It never was meant to be fire bowl, but Kanami mistakenly writes it as 火丼, probably because it was written in kana rather than kanji in the scroll that Lia gave her.
 * In one special ending in Rance IX Kanami bears Rance's child and lives with him in Rance's castle, being no longer under Queen Lia's command. Lia has also given birth to Rance's child as well in this ending. This is obviously considered non-canon though.
 * Interestingly, Kanami and Lia would give birth to Rance's children in the next game.
 * She shares some similarities with Shizuka Masou in that both are fated to Rance but are completely unfond of his character, and also have a close friend that is in love with him yet not fated to him. They both actively express their disapproval to their friend's feelings as well. Though Kanami ended up falling for Rance eventually.
 * In the popularity polls she got: 2nd(Rance III) >>> 3rd(Kichikuou Rance) >>> 5th(Rance VI) >>> 13th(Sengoku Rance) >>> 3rd(Rance Quest) >>> 2nd(Rance 01) >>> 4th(Rance IX) >>> 2nd(Rance 03).
 * Despite appearing in almost every game in the series and being one of the most consistently popular, she never got the 1st place except in the pitiably adorable category of the Rance Quest Popularity Poll.
 * A fan poll made by a western fanbase concluded that most people would pick a "Bullying Kanami ticket" over a "Kanami sex ticket".