Kana Arima

"Nobody is looking my way. Mom and the manager abandoned me. Even my fans are fixated on my past glory. Please, somebody, look at me. I have been keeping this inside me for years. Tell me you need me, if you do, I'd work my fingers to the bone. Say that I am useful, and I'll work myself to death for you. Somebody just praising my efforts would keep me going forever. Someone. Anyone. Say it's okay for me to be here."

Kana Arima (かな) is a major supporting character in the Oshi no Ko manga series. She is a prodigious child actress and a childhood acquaintance of Aqua and Ruby, though her popularity has waned by the time of the main story. She is also the former center of the revived idol group B-Komachi.

Though talented, she eventually started getting fewer jobs due to being difficult to work with, causing her to develop severe self-esteem issues and even change her acting style to survive in the industry. However, after meeting Aqua and Ruby again and being recruited into B-Komachi as well as through her rivalry with fellow actress Akane Kurokawa, she steadily began to regain her former self-confidence and undo the shackles she placed on herself.

Appearance
Kana is described as a cute girl having an innocent face. She has pinkish-red hair and eyes and shoulder-length hair with blunt bangs. Due to her occupation and high cute fashion sense, she often wears various outfits and hats.

Personality
Initially introduced as a cocky child actress with a sharp tongue, she was moved to tears after witnessing Aqua's performance. However, since then, she has matured and grown into a much kinder person, although her gruff manner of speaking still surfaces when she experiences intense emotions. She has consistently strived to become a better version of herself. Though things have cooled down for Kana toward stardom, being a great actress is still her main goal. Kana's acting style, which was initially described as "selfish and self-centered" by Akane, also changed heavily into a more "adaptive" one as she slowly started losing job offers due to her standing out. To survive in this industry, she became more "easy to work with", and her acting became more adaptive towards her coworkers as she tends to work to put the spotlight on her peers.

Kana is described as a diligent, hardworking girl who is empathetic, cheerful, and confident, with an impressive sense of responsibility. She can also be rude and sharp-tongued at times due to her past. She continued honing her acting even when she could not find work, as mentioned above. She also puts the quality of the product above everything else, even willing to lower her acting level and risk her reputation as an actor.

When Kana was a child, people often praised her for her talents. Her ability to cry at a switch and her natural tendency to shine as bright as the sun and attract the audience's attention has led to her being called a genius actor. However, this got over her head and influenced her personality leading to her becoming pompous, imperious, and extremely difficult to work with.

Due to neglecting other people and being difficult to work with, she started losing jobs as her popularity began to decline. Her mother started to pressure her and take her frustration out on her. Kana became desperate and worked hard by trying different ways to get more jobs by diving into different fields other than acting, including singing. There was relative success, but it did not last long. After her realization, she started to fix herself and became extremely easy to work with. Her acting, which used to hog all the spotlight herself, transformed into someone who acts for others.

Even while in the new B-Komachi, Kana tends to put herself down. Despite being praised by others for her talents, she is not confident enough to be the center of attention. Even while the center was being decided, Kana decided to sit out and preferred to go to Karaoke alone. When Ruby and Memcho, who aren't good singers, check out Kana's other music videos, they are astonished at her good singing abilities. Her experience of losing work because of standing out too much seems to have impacted her self-confidence a bit too much.

Despite having low self-confidence, Aqua comments how she shines the brightest when she's the center of attention. Akane also respects her as an actor, and her career is impacted by Kana's acting, further solidifying her acting abilities. Even after being dejected, when Kana finds something that cheers her up even monetarily, she regains her composure and starts working even harder, as seen during her first performance in JIF. She also wishes for someone to be by her side and wish her the best. She also remarked that even for once, if someone said she was helpful, she would work hard for that person forever, reflecting how desperate she might be to get acknowledged for her talents. Her childhood neglect by the irresponsible adults around her affected her self-esteem. However, Kana has time and again proved herself of being worthy by being a hard worker and continuously aiming towards giving her best no matter what.

Kana also doesn't like to depend on others, as seen when the news about her coming out of the director's house was about to come out. She has a strong mentality and doesn't like to depend excessively on others. According to her, "online hate doesn't bother her as she is used to getting cursed at since she was 5".

Even though she might seem unbothered, Kana is also really soft-hearted. When Aqua distanced himself from her, Kana suddenly became very upset and even cried in the street. However, even if she might get emotional, she also composes herself pretty easily. She is also very strict about acting and even told off Akane not to baby Aqua. She also doesn't seem to hold grudges as she helped her fellow actor Melt (who previously was pretty bad at acting) with hiragana.

Etymology

 * The name Kana (1) is written in hiragana (かな), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (香菜, 香奈, 佳奈, 加奈, 夏菜 or 花奈), it could possibly mean:
 * 香菜 - "incense, perfume" (香) (ka) and "vegetables, green" (菜) (na).
 * 香奈 - "incense, perfume" (香) (ka) and "what, apple tree" (奈) (na).
 * 佳奈 - "excellent, beautiful" (佳) (ka) and "what, apple tree" (奈) (na).
 * 加奈 - "increase" (加) (ka) and "what, apple tree" (奈) (na).
 * 夏菜 - "summer" (夏) (ka) and "vegetables, green" (菜) (na).
 * 花奈 - "flower" (花) (ka) and "what, apple tree" (奈) (na).
 * Kana's surname Arima means "exist" (有) (ari) and "horse" (馬) (ma).

Film

 * That Was the Start
 * The Degraded Family
 * 15 Year Lie

Television

 * I'll Go With Sweet Today
 * Dig Deep! One Chance

Theater

 * Tokyo Blade

Solo

 * Bell Pepper Exercise
 * Full moon…!
 * Soothing Satellite (さわやかサテライト Sawayaka Sateraito)
 * Forever LOVE
 * Transit Forecast (転機予報 Tenki Yohou)
 * Secret Love (ヒミツの恋 Himitsu no Koi)
 * NowHere

B-Komachi

 * STAR☆T☆RAIN
 * Our Sign Is B
 * HEART's♡KISS
 * Pop in 2
 * 1 unknown song title

Trivia

 * Kana's career of child actor turned idol bears similarities to the careers of Yuko Oshima and Mion Mukaichi. Both started acting at a young age and joined the idol group AKB48 during their teenage years. The former in particular was the Center of the group at one point but has since graduated and moved on to acting in movies and TV dramas.
 * Kana's career as an actress has also drawn comparisons to the careers of Mana Ashida and Ineko Arima. The former is a former child actress with a short stint in music, whose mother has a negative reputation in the entertainment industry. The latter had an affair with a director who is both married and much older than her.
 * Kana is famous for being the genius child actor who can cry in 10 seconds (10秒で泣ける天才子役) but through Japanese wordplay, she is jokingly referred as the genius child actor who licks baking soda (重曹を舐める天才子役).
 * This moniker was used as a gag reference in the anime's official Twitter page newsletter for April Fools, advertising her as an up-and-coming poster girl for baking soda-based cleaning solvents. This later became reality in the official site where a new line of cleaning products with the name "Jūsō-Chan" will be made in partnership with the company Kaneyo.
 * Kana is in class 2-G during her second year at Yoto High School.
 * When Kana was a child, she released a song about bell peppers that became a hit on oricon charts, but she actually hates bell pepper.
 * Kana is a relatively good singer as mentioned by Ruby Hoshino and Mem-Cho and seen by her 97 score in Karaoke.
 * As Aqua Hoshino becomes famous, Kana starts referring to him as "A-kun" or "Ah-kun".
 * Kana's height is 150 cm, making her the shortest B-Komachi member (compared to Ruby's 158 cm and Mem-Cho's 155 cm).
 * Kana is on a low-carb diet.
 * Kana's glowstick idol colour is white.

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