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 child prodigy and actress, a friend of Aquamarine and Ruby Hoshino, and the lead idol of the renewed B-Komachi. Before this, she was a popular child actor in the entertainment industry, one who always stole the show with her talent. Due to her negligence of taking others' feelings into consideration along with being difficult to work with, she got fewer jobs. This made her change her acting style to be more adaptable to survive in the industry.

Despite her predicament, she never gave up on honing her talents and even diving into different fields in the entertainment industry, such as singing. Even if the jobs she was able to land were B-grade at best, or shooting embarrassing advertisements such as the Pepper Bell ad, she would still do what she could to regain what was once lost where people needed her. This gave her leeway to encounter Aqua and Ruby, which presented her with many opportunities to achieve success and amicable relationships.

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 a variety of 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 towards stardom, being a great actress is still her main goal.

Kana is described as a diligent, hardworking girl who is empathetic, cheerful, and confident, with an impressive sense of responsibility. She can be rude with her mouth at times due to her past. She continued honing her acting even when she could not find work, as is her ability to raise or lower her quality of acting to adapt and match her co-actors' level. 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, along with her natural tendency to shine as bright as the sun and attract the attention of the audience 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 someone extremely easy to work with. Her acting, which used to hog all the spotlight to herself, transformed into someone who acts for others.

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 - "fragrance, fragrant" (香) (ka) and "vegetables, greens" (菜) (na).
 * 香奈 - "fragrance, fragrant" (香) (ka) and "apple tree" (奈) (na).
 * 佳奈 - "good, beautiful" (佳) (ka) and "apple tree" (奈) (na).
 * 加奈 - "add, increase" (加) (ka) and "apple tree" (奈) (na).
 * 夏菜 - "summer" (夏) (ka) and "vegetables, greens" (菜) (na).
 * 花奈 - "flower, blossom" (花) (ka) and "apple tree" (奈) (na).
 * Kana's surname Arima means "exist" (有) (ari) and "horse" (馬) (ma).

Trivia

 * In an early flashforward, Kana refers to Aqua as "A-kun".
 * In the "Reality Dating Show" arc, it was revealed that many people have referred to Aqua as "A-kun".
 * Kana dislikes bell peppers.
 * Kana's backstory seems to have an analogy to that of former child actor Macaulay Culkin.
 * Kana's massive star power is seen in the 2.5D stage arc and producer Kaburagi mentions how Kana might just be the real deal.