Kiyotaka Ayanokōji

Kiyotaka Ayanokōji (綾小路 清隆) is the main protagonist of the Yōkoso series. He is a first-year student of Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School.

Following the selection test which he scored precisely 50 points in every subject, he was placed in D-Class. He is situated at the rear left corner of the class seated next to Suzune Horikita.

Appearance


Kiyotaka is a young man of average height with brown hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion. He is usually seen wearing the standard school uniform. When outside school, he wears a white hoodie covering a green shirt with an orange stripe along with brown pants.

He also has a well-built body which was pointed out by Suzune at the swimming pool. She noticed the muscular structure of his arms, particularly his lower arms and questioned if he did sports but he denies this.

Most of the time, he is shown to express a carefree and idle look, which suggests an unconcerned attitude. This can be interpreted as indifference or a relatively passive demeanor.

In contrast to the anime, where he has not been shown smiling. The light novel depicts Kiyotaka with more dynamic facial expressions, however to an extent.

Personality
Kiyotaka is an inconspicuous student, as while his grades are average, he possesses great insight for someone of his class and when he gets old test questions from a D-Class upperclassman by giving him 15,000 points. In fact, it is hinted by Manabu Horikita, Honami Ichinose and Sae Chabashira that Kiyotaka could have effortlessly gotten into the upper classes but conceals his intelligence from others.

He is somewhat socially awkward as he is very poor at communicating with other people and fails at properly associating with them. As a result, he speaks in a monotonous way and tends to isolate himself from his peers not getting involved with social activities. These traits tend to leave the impression on others that he is uncaring and carefree, while all the more contrarily connotating aloofness, latency, or generally an absence of enthusiasm for anything besides issues that specifically concern him. However, this appears to not truly be the case; he is shown to be capable of holding conversations, though in a somewhat dull and toneless way, as shown in his interactions with Kikyō Kushida and his other classmates. Kiyotaka also has no problem referring to himself as a friend to Honami Ichinose of B-Class when she reached out to him for help, though whether this was a ploy on his part to ease her or a genuine display of consideration for her is unknown. He appears to show this "caring" side again after sacrificing 50,000 points so Ken Sudō wouldn't be expelled after the latter was on the verge of being expelled from school due to his failure on the recent exams. He was also quick to intervene when Suzune was about to be attacked by her brother, though he had no reason for getting involved. Whether he is simply going with the flow or genuinely looking out for Suzune is unknown, as both patterns are definitely plausible. He quickly came to the aid of Airi Sakura when she was nearly assaulted by a crazed stalker and comforted her after the attack.

He does not want to extend his energy unnecessarily. This is shown when he refused to become a secretary of the student council despite a direct offer.

History
Kiyotaka's past is mysterious, but he is shown to be quite smart other than his claims of participating in after-school activities such as piano, calligraphy, and the tea ceremony, no known information regarding his history as an individual prior to the Entrance Exam for Kodo Ikusei currently exists. In Episode 6, it appears there was an event where stood idly by as a person suddenly collapsed and was in pain. This hints that he may have been apart some unknown organization in his younger years but how he left it is unknown.

It is presumed that there is more to Kiyotaka than he lets on as his encounter with Manabu, Suzune Horikita's older brother and the President of the Student Council of Kodo Ikusei, indicates; he displays the ability to evenly maneuver during a skirmish and evade strikes directed at him with an air of relative indifference. He displays some form of proficiency in some form or other of martial arts, a trait that the Student Council President detects; some level of dexterity on par with Manabu and a display of a grappling-based martial art hints at Kiyotaka's level of proficiency.

Trivia

 * In episode 2, he is shown to have excellent fighting skills but claims to have studied piano and calligraphy.
 * In Episode 6 where a glimpse of his past has been shown it is suggested he was part of an organization which may coincide with his skill at fighting.
 * Episode 4 marks the first time Kiyotaka referred to someone as his friend.
 * Episode 6 he refers to Suzune as a friend.
 * In both cases, it is unknown if he genuinely sees them as friends.