Kimiko Morizumi

Kimiko Morizumi
Kanji	両角 公子
Rōmaji	Morizumi Kimiko
Gender	Female
Status
Status	Alive
Relatives	Jouji Morizumi (uncle)
Occupation	Actress
Debut
Manga	ACT.240

Kimiko Morizumi (両角 公子 Morizumi Kimiko) is an actress who auditioned for the role of Momiji and expected to participate in the second audition.

Personality

Kimiko doesn't seem to mind using familial connections to secure roles. For almost every role she's been given, a family member has been in the staff somehow; this includes Purple Down II. In fact, she relies heavily on her connections to give her the upper hand in any audition. She was quite disgruntled that she had to go through the audition process. She wanted the role of Momiji or Chidori to be handed to her. Kimiko does not seek to improve her skills so that she may rely less heavily on her connections, or to make it easier for said connections to persuade others on the basis of her talent.

She doesn't mind resorting to extreme violence if she doesn't get the role she feels she deserves. Erika's servants suspects that she may be responsible for Erika's "accident". Erika herself accidentally confirms that it was indeed Kimiko who injured her so severely that she was left in a wheelchair.

Kimiko feels justified yelling and taking her anger out on high-level figures in the industry, such as Kuresaki, when they say or do something she does not like - Kuresaki tells her he thought Kyoko's stage combat perfomance was superior to hers when she asked him which he preferred. She is seemingly unconcerned about any consequences that may come about from her actions.

Kimiko apparently excels in areas of recollection and memorization—the more complicated the better—which is probably why she is able to sustain a decent acting career. She has more trouble with on-the-spot improvisation and originality, and prefers to have a set routine. This is most likely why she failed the audition the first time around, as the reaction test may have thrown her. She barely passed the second reaction test and this was with prior knowledge and also copying Erika's routine.

Kimiko seems to desire high results for minimal effort. Despite having prior knowledge of the reaction test and information on Erika's winning routine, she did not seem to have practiced at all to ensure her passing. She seemed confident that having this knowledge would be enough, with her connections as a safety net. Due to this, she pulled off a crude imitation of Erika's routine and barely passed the reaction test.

Kimiko is also skilled at emotional manipulation and thrives on the misunderstandings and conflicts she creates from her insinuations and innuendos. It is not that she lies, for everything she says is technically true, but she is known to take bits and pieces from an occasion to create a story that fits her own needs. The most obvious instance would be the White Day gift she received from Ren when she was 15 years old. Kimiko blushes and halfheartedly denies it when Koga's points out the romantic insinuation of the giving a pricey ring to a girl. Kimiko's response only makes it look like there is something more going on between her and Ren. According to Yashiro, it's a habit of hers, bad enough that she alienated the entire female cast and staff of Purple Down II with her carefully placed comments about her and Ren's 'supposed' relationship.

Ren later clears up this misunderstanding, revealing that Kimiko had requesting Ren get her made-to-order shoes for White Day, not a ring. Kimiko wanted to go with Ren when the shoes were made to ensure they were the right size, but he refused. In a separate occurrence, Kimiko asked Ren to instil a ring she already owned with some of his power. He says that he played along with her childish request; this was when he put the ring on her pinky finger. While Kimiko did receive the ring on her fifteenth birthday, it was not from Ren. In the end, she had mixed about five stories to come up with the scenario she gave Kyoko.

Appearance

Kimiko's new hairstyle

Kimiko has long black hair with bangs that have been stylishly cut to frame her face. Her hair has a slight curl to it. She is typically seen wearing light make-up. She seems to go for the cutesy-girl image, as her official photo has her holding a puppy in a pretty yet simple camisole top. During the second audition for Momiji, she dyed her hair black and changed her hairstyle to follow the trend of Asian beauty.

Background

Kimiko has "show business in her blood," for a lot of her family are involved in the industry . She previously co-starred with Ren Tsuruga in the second season of the TV series Purple Down, which her father produced. Despite her habit of using connections, she seems to have decent enough acting skills, according to Yashiro.

It was revealed by her manager that both Kimiko and herself were bouncing back between America and Japan since the beginning of last year, and they base themselves mostly in America. This led them to be unaware of current hot topics in the Japanese entertainment industry. This was the reason Kimiko didn't know who Kyoko was, while other audition candidates were able to deduce who she was from her name and affiliation to L.M.E.

Erika's bodyguards reveal that everyone in show biz refers to Kimiko by the nickname 'Niko-chan' behind her back. It is a play on her name for she is a person without empathy or heart so therefore her name is 'Niko-chan'. For if one removes part of the kanji of Kimiko's name it turns into Niko and the part that is removed means 'human'. So basically they are saying she isn't human.

Plot

A Lotus in the Mud arc

Kimiko is suspected of sabotaging Erika for the role of Momiji in A Lotus in the Mud. She is participating in the second audition of the role, thus competing with Kyoko for it. Erika's bodyguards fear it will be a rigged audition for she knows someone on the production team which Kyoko confirms is true. There Jouji Morizumi is the director of A Lotus in the Mud, who is apparently Kimiko's uncle.

Erika accidentally confirms that Kimiko was behind her injuries as apparently she was unable to accept that she lost the audition.

Stage 1: Reaction Test

Unlike the rest of the participants in the audition Kimiko had prior knowledge of this test, having gone through it during the first audition and also being told by her Uncle what the winning audition looked like. With this information Kimiko feels confident that she will pass and attempts to replicate the winning routine (Erika's). It is blatantly obvious to the judges that she did not prepare beyond the basics when she pulls out a poor imitation of Erika's routine and she also barely scraps through the harsh reaction test. For Kuresaki demands a name from her she gives Momiji's alias however it is revealed later that Momiji hates that name so it would be very unlikely for her to say it. It is a passable answer not a great one which explains Kuresaki's dissatisfaction with her.

Kimiko is present when Kyoko comes bursting in demanding a second chance. She is outraged when Kyoko is granted one when she is just 'no-name newbie'. Furious she rushes to watch Kyoko's test, wondering what makes her so special that she has Yashiro managing her. She is taken aback at by the skills Kyoko shows but is glad when her Uncle points out that Kyoko is a Talent and delightedly laughs at the Love Me Sections name. She thinks its only a matter of time before Kyoko gets thrown out however Kuresaki seems torn so her Uncle makes a suggestion - another test. She corners her Uncle later demanding to know why he suggested it. He explains that Kuresaki was on the verge of overthrowing his prejudices so he made a compromise. Kimiko thought it was a rather crafty way of manipulating the man, and also suggesting a test that was right up her alley.

Stage 2 - Combat Test

The test Jouji suggested for Kyoko was a stage combat test that emphasised recollection, and memorisation - all things that Kimiko excels in. Although it was originally a test for Kyoko, Kimiko then all the other participants have decided to join in as they can't really afford not to. Kuresaki explains that they will have once chance to watch the stunt men play it through then they must replicate it as shown. Kimiko is again very confident that she can do this test due to it being one her specialities.

Kyoko is first up and Kimiko hears from the other participants that she wasn't watching the demonstration for at least half of it. Kimiko believes she gave up and smirks. However then she discovers from listening in on the other participants gossip that Kyoko isn't just a no-name newbie but an up and coming actress with some juicy rumors to her name. Suddenly uncertain she dashes up to watch Kyoko's test again followed by the other participants. They all look on as Kyoko changes the script mid-way from Momiji on the defensive to Momiji on the attack and looking more like the original character than ever.

Kimiko does her own stage combat routine which is a perfect copy of the demonstration. She asks Kuresaki which did he prefer hers or Kyoko's? She is outraged when he answers that he preferred Kyoko's. He tells her coldly that if she is irked at being defeated by a rival then to step up her game in the next stage of the audition.

Stage 3 - Chidori Test

Hearing about Kyoko's feelings towards Ren, Kimiko sees an opportunity to rock the boat and potentially make her opponent falter. She carefully manipulates the conversation in order to make it look like her and Ren have something romantic going on using her 2 year old White Day gift from him as proof. She knows it works for Kyoko wasn't listening the whole time during Kuresaki's instruction. She tells her manager that Kyoko is going to fail without her needing to do anything however Kyoko manages to get through with the help of Kanae which irritates her.

Kimiko decides to withdraw from the Momiji audition after seeing Kyoko's performance. Giving the reason that she 'lost the will to fight' after seeing Kyoko's performance to her manager. But it is obvious from the expression on her face after seeing Kyoko's performance that her feelings were the exact opposite to that. So why the withdrawal?

Relationships

Kimiko Morizumi's manager

Kimiko seems to have a good relationship with her manager. She doesn't pretend to be anything but who she is when she is with the woman who seems to know her true personality. For this to be the case there must be a certain level of trust between them.

Ren Tsuruga

Like the majority of the women in show-biz, Kimiko has a crush on Tsuruga. In her blog, she wrote how Ren was a gentlemen when he escorted her. She passionately described this moment in her blog. Even when she found that the dinner was to celebrate the success of Purple Down, she nevertheless enjoyed it. Apparently the whole time she was shooting Purple Down II Kimiko was hinting that she and Ren were 'together' and clinging to Ren a lot. The only reason the rumor never took was because she was 15 at the time and no one could see mature sensible Ren being interested in a minor.

Upon finding out that Kyoko like Ren, Kimiko suggests heavily that there is something more between her and Ren. Using her White Day gift as proof of the matter which is a rather expensive pinky ring.

Erika Koenji

Erika was Kimiko's competition for the role of Momiji for the drama A Lotus in the Mud. Although her uncle was the director of the drama, Erika succesfully won the role of Momiji. Although it isn't known what Kimiko was feeling at the time when Erika won the audition, her servants believed that she didn't take her defeat that well. Erika's servants suspected that Kimiko pushed Erika on the road on purpose in order to prevent her from acting; they also suspected that she did it out of revenge for Erika beating her in the audition.

Kimiko shamelessly reuses the information she has on Erika's winning audition as inspiration for her re-audition during the reaction test.

Kyoko Mogami

Although Kimiko didn't know who Kyoko was when she entered the room for the audition of Momiji, she was curious enough to wonder why Yashiro was acting as her manager. Combined with Kyoko's boldness in bursting in on the audition it also made Kimiko want to watch her audition. She believed Kyoko to be some no-name newbie who isn't famous. When she discovered by eavesdropping that Kyoko wasn't an actress but a Talent plus a Love-Me member, she didn't feel threatened by her presence despite her reaction test being on point. It wasn't until the other participants were discussing Kyoko's past jobs and the amazing rumours surrounding them that Kimiko started to become more concerned for she realized Kyoko was no rookie. She was worried enough to watch Kyokos stage combat performance, the test which she had the most confidence in due to her exemplary memorization skills.

Kimiko was thrilled to find out about Kyoko's crush on Ren for she used it to throw the other girl off with the use of few cleverly placed innuendos and insinuations.

Despite being outdone in the stage combat test Kimiko still believes that she will win via default. That no matter how well Kyoko does Kuresaki's prejudice will way against her and Kimiko will end up with the role.

Jouji Morizumi

Kimiko is often frustrated and displeased with her uncle for he is not giving her the assistance that she wants. She is annoyed that he is not smoothing her path through the audition more and is angry when he doesn't stand up for her when Kuresaki tells her off. She wants him to pull more stings for her as the Director, and has expressed her anger at having to audition for this role when he could have simply given it to her.

Yuki Kuresaki

Kimiko isn't happy with Kuresaki, especially when he allows Kyoko to stay on. She is especially outraged when he calls her performance inferior to Kyoko's. She doesn't like how he is drifting away from his morals but at the same time she is counting on them for she doesn't believe he will cast them aside enough to give Kyoko the role.