Cherry Blossom

Kaoru Sakurayashiki, known in "S" as Cherry Blossom, is a character in the SK8 the Infinity anime series. He is a skilled skater and one of the founding member of "S" who uses his AI board to skate in a calculated and logical fashion.

Kaoru is a pale-skinned young man of reasonable height and stature who's often acknowledged for his beauty by the onlookers of "S" with long sakura-colored hair that he usually wears loosely tied back by a yellow string over his left shoulder with long bangs falling in waves over the right side of his face and golden eyes.

Outside of "S", his usual attire consists of a plain navy-blue kimono with a gray and yellow obi, white tabi socks with zori sandals on his feet and he wears what appears to be a simple purple band on his left wrist which he uses to communicate with Carla. He wears a pair of silver-framed glasses and he is often seen carrying a fan, which he tends to hold up close to his face whenever he's observing people or thinking.

While donning in his Cherry Blossom outfit, he ties his hair in a high ponytail and he removes his glasses. He wears a sleeveless white hakamashita kimono with thick purple cuffs around his shoulders, baggy hakama pants that he secures with a black and yellow belt while there is a red sash tied over it and a black armband on his left bicep that has the cherry blossom emblem on it. He wears bandaged wrist-guards with black accents that extend into gloves, a matching pair around his calves as well as a black balaclava over his lower face, giving him the look of a ninja. His shoes are, again, zori sandals with plain tabi socks, but they appear to be more reinforced and have thick purple soles. Whenever he is not skating, he usually wears a white robe over his hakama kimono that has cherry blossom printing designs on the left side/back and he doesn't wear his balaclava mask.

During his high school years, Kaoru had slightly shorter hair that he wore left down with a shorter section hanging over his right eye and he had a number of piercings on both his ears and a lip ring on the left side of his lip.

Kaoru is a calm intellectual who is well-known even outside of "S" as a famous and successful AI calligrapher. He's been shown to treat clients and strangers with polite respect, but he is often prickly towards those closest to him, most prominently his fellow "S" member and childhood friend Kojiro Nanjo. Kaoru often loses composure when dealing with Kojiro, perhaps due to their contrasting personalities, and the two usually end up bickering and calling each other names whenever they disagree on something.

Kaoru is also notably competitive when skateboarding, always wanting to beat Kojiro during races and beefs and even getting Carla to record his time during the tournament preliminaries to see how it measured up to Adam's.

Despite this prickly exterior, however, he does truly trust and care for those who he considers his friends. When Reki Kyan is worried about Langa Hasegawa's upcoming beef against Adam and seeks out Kaoru for advice, he's more than happy to help them despite the cold exterior he presents, even getting Kojiro to assist him. He also knows to rely on his friends when he needs to, and is seen inviting himself to Kojiro's restaurant on multiple occasions so the two can discuss their concerns, once even sneaking out of hospital to do so.

Kaoru doesn't like the idea of merging his "S" self with his outside self to the point that he gets pretty violent when someone slips up as seen when he angrily kicks Joe in the back after the latter uses his real name (Kaoru) while they are at "S" and when he slaps Reki for calling out to him using his "S" alias (Cherry) during one of his public calligraphy showcases before telling him off that "Cherry Blossom only exists on that mountain." (""Cherry blossom" is my name reserved just for that place!" in the English Sub) while outside the mine. This shows that he has a definitive streak of professionalism and doesn't like to openly admit his other side to either party, perhaps because of his status of fame both inside of "S" and out.

He's also shown himself to be very attentive and knowledgeable, identifying Langa's early moves as snowboarding tricks and immediately seeing his potential during his first beef against Shadow. He has a very good grasp on skateboarding and has a certain passion for what he does.

Cherry Blossom is one of the strongest skaters in "S". Since as early as his teenage years, he's been a skilled skater who responded to any challenge presented to him. Throughout the years, and likely as a consequence of the AI-related profession he went into, he's developed a calculated skating style that relies heavily on his custom AI skateboard, Carla.

Kaoru has been skateboarding ever since he was a teenager alongside Kojiro Nanjo, during which time he appeared to be much less polite and proper than he later becomes as an adult. He and Kojiro met Adam when Kaoru challenged Adam to a beef and the three soon became inseparable friends with Adam even telling the two that they were special and different to everyone else he knew. At some point, they formed "S" together. It was during his time with the pair that Adam began to spiral out of control, which concerned Kaoru as he and Kojiro kept stumbling across him injuring other skaters during beefs. Adam then suddenly left for America, abandoning Kaoru, which affected him and Kojiro a lot.

This is the reason for Kaoru's bad blood with Adam and the explanation for why he wants to beef against him so badly; he feels betrayed by his former friend and wants to prove that he is still worth as much as he was back when they were friends.

At some point, Kaoru grows up to become a professional AI calligrapher, but still dedicates a lot of his time to skating alongside Kojiro with his new AI skateboard Carla. He is among the top contestants of the "S" skateboarding race.

Other characters : Kojiro Nanjo, known in "S" as Joe, is a character in the SK8 the Infinity anime series. He is a skilled skater and one of the founding member of "S" who uses his unique build and stature to skate in an aggressive, movement-orientated fashion. Kojiro is a tall and muscular slightly tan-skinned man with wavy hair of a dark forest-green color that is short aside from a small section at the back of his head that reaches down past the base of his neck with bangs hanging down on the left side of his face, red eyes that slope gently outwards where he almost always bears an easygoing expression and he has a black sun-shaped abstract tattoo on his left shoulder. In "S", Joe seems to be a playboy who likes to charm and have fun with many women. This is shown at the beginning of Episode 1 when he kisses 2 girls simultaneously and he is seen flirting with countless girls episodes later. Joe is able to charm women easily and at least two women are often seen with him, much to the annoyance of Shadow and Reki Kyan. Despite his aura of hostility towards Cherry Blossom, they are good friends who have the utmost trust in each other and their abilities.

Miya Chinen is a character in the SK8 the Infinity anime series. He is an elite middle school student and a candidate for Japan's national team who has the ability to perform difficult tricks without difficulty. Miya is a young boy with black hair that has two long hair strands sticking upward in the back with two smaller strands of hair at the top of his head that sticks out and aquamarine/sea-green eyes. Miya was a carefree boy when he was younger, but he has grown into someone who can seem very cocky at times. However, this is likely part of a persona he adopted following the events shown in the flashback after his beef with Langa Hasegawa.

Langa Hasegawa, known in "S" as Snow, is the main deuteragonist of the SK8 the Infinity anime. He is a half-Japanese exchange student who has just returned from Canada to Okinawa where his mother Nanako Hasegawa grew up and he gets caught up in "S", an underground skateboard race, along with Reki Kyan, and the two are quick to become close friends. Unlike Reki, Langa has no skateboarding experience, but his knowledge in snowboarding helped him get a head start. Langa has medium-length sky-blue hair (described as "snow-like") that grows past his ears with bangs hanging on either side, aqua-blue eyes and he is above the average height where he is noticeably taller than Reki Kyan. Langa generally wears a neutral or sometimes even stoic expression and when speaking, he tends to use as few words as necessary. As early as his introduction to his classmates, his teacher needs to urge Langa to tell the class more about himself other than just his name, to which Langa adds that he's from Canada, much to the class' amusement.

Reki Kyan is the main protagonist of the SK8 the Infinity anime. He is a teenager in his second year of high school who loves skateboarding that he frequently attends the underground skateboarding race "S" and he is close friends with Langa Hasegawa, who got wrapped up in the race with him. Reki is a fair and slightly tanned skin young boy of average height with wild and spiky red hair where he often sports an Egyptian blue headband with white detailing and a red wrist sweatband, amber-colored eyes, he appears to have a lithe figure and his face is very expressional and easily read where he is usually sporting a smile or a silly face. Reki is a carefree high schooler. At first glance, it's easy to assume all he cares about is skateboarding, and while that's somewhat true, he's also shown to be interested in more creative things like drawing and even making skateboards from scratch.

Adam has a fair pale complexion, vivid azure-blue hair (slicked back by gel in normal wear, but he styles it spiky with a long fringe cascading down the right side of his face whenever he transfers to his skating outfit), narrowed bat winged dark-blue eyebrows right above ruby red irises and he holds a tall broad build with a relatively thin waist. While skating, Adam is very confident in his own skills and ruthless towards his opponents with no concern if he causes injuries indirectly or personally using physical violence. He is very flamboyant with his actions, creating an over-dramatized persona for the audience of "S". He views skating as a "ritual of love" which goes hand in hand with his theme and persona. He is prone to making grand entrances for himself such as rolling out a red carpet to skate down or parachuting out of a helicopter. Adam's racing style involves him getting up close to and physical with his opponents, locking their boards together to incite fear and crush the other's will to continue the race, all the while demonstrating mastery of difficult techniques such as the Casper Slide to further demoralize his opponent. He has no qualms with inflicting violence on his opponents, especially ones that he has a personal vendetta against, even to the point of possibly causing death.

Context : "S" is an intense skateboarding race where no rules exist except "come out on top." Major and minor injuries occur often due to the nature of "S". Complex track of downwards to a warehouse where the finish line is, any means can get them there such as going off the track or using extra tools seen in the first episode by Shadow towards Reki Kyan. Each skater has their own style and there is no limitations on what extra tools, moves, or boards they are allowed to use. There is a completive social ranking of riders, some want to beat the newbies down, and some want to earn their own spots. Some more well-known skaters have become fan favorites with special entrances.

The riders and spectators entering need to either have a pin or sticker approving them to go in. It's a private and illegal group; which the creator Adam pays the police out to prevent it from being leaked or found out. Once you hand in your pin or sticker, you will not be let back in even if you are a regular.

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