| “ | Ho ho ho! Please, I am never late! Because all I have to do...is turn back time, and everything returns to its former state!
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” |
— Kako chides Akane for his remarks that he's always late, and then introducing himself to the other characters gathered, Chapter 27.
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Kako (カコ / 過去 Kako?) is a character who appears in Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun. He is a supernatural who controls the past as one of the three Clock Keepers, along with Mirai and Akane, thus they are members of the Seven Mysteries. He is also the oldest and most powerful among them, having also the power to change a whole timeline other than just the past.
This section contains heavy spoilers, open at your own risk!
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| “ |
Then one day, the clock appeared before a certain never-do-well. He was a skilled but coldhearted clockmaker. The clockmaker had a niece, the daughter of his younger brother who had died with his wife in an accident. He adopted the girl but not out of the kindness of his heart. An eccentric clockmaker naturally lacked the skills required to raise a child, and this particular man had never been kind to another soul in his life.
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” |
— Kako tells of the Clockmaker's origins, talking about his past life, as well as his niece, who becomes Mirai's basis.
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Kako was originally an elderly human male only known as the "Clockmaker" (
Appearance[]
Clock Keeper Appearance[]
Kako is an old man with a long braided beard (with a bead-like golden ornament near the end), mustache, and slicked-back white hair. When he removes the hood of his robe, it is seen that he has a rather short haircut, which resembles a modern-day man's haircut.
Kako has an asymmetrical owl-like mask with a long hooked nose, similar to Akane, which he does not take off. He uses a cane that resembles the hands of a clock in his right hand. Though Kako appears to be somewhat hunchbacked, he is taller than even Akane.
Similar to the other Clock Keepers, Kako has his Automaton Clock, though the clock face appears to be inversely colored compared to Akane's, with light lettering against a dark background. Kako typically holds this pocket watch in his left hand, sometimes storing it within his right sleeve, and holding it by the end of the chain like a pendulum instead of holding it directly.
Kako wears a long dark blue cloak with a hood, which is light-colored with a pattern of small triangles on the inside (presumably in similar colors to Akane's, though it has not been shown). On the front of the cloak, there is a golden braid between two tassels at the lapels; Kako's cloak is completely closed, unlike Akane's. Kako also appears to be wearing a dark collared shirt under his cloak, though it is not clearly shown. Once he removes his cloak, he is revealed to be wearing an outfit similar to Akane's own, with a beige vest over a dark brown undershirt, and a white tie.
When he is injured or even killed, clockwork-related items such as gears and screws come out from him. This is also the case with Mirai, and possibly the inhabitants of the town at the Heart of the Clock Keepers' Boundary.
Human Appearance[]
In his previous life as a human, Kako was an elderly man who worked as a cold and ruthless Clockmaker. He lived around the late 18th to early 19th Century. As such, his appearance resembles that of a man of the period wearing clothes that are the opposite of Kako's own, with a white tie and polo shirt under a brown-colored vest with plant designs, compared to Kako's black polo shirt and beige-white vest. Similarly to Kako, he also wears a short ponytail at the back of his head. He also has light brown eyes.
While working on the clocks, he wears an eyepatch that covers his right eye.
Personality[]
As a Supernatural[]
As the oldest among the Clock Keepers (And possibly the second-eldest among the Seven Mysteries, with Hakubo being much older), Kako acts as their de facto leader.
According to Akane, Kako is more reasonable than Mirai, but he still demands things from Akane, such as instructing him to recapture Mirai after her escape, cleaning the Clocks in their boundary, and then later on entrusting Akane to keep watch over the New Present in their absence. It is precisely because Kako is reasonable that in the New Present, Akane defended his and Mirai's actions from Teru after he claimed that they can abuse the timeline over and over again[1].
Perhaps due to his age or experience, Kako also serves as a de-facto leader to the Seven Mysteries as a whole, as he presided over a meeting of the Seven Mysteries following Shinigami-sama's plan to enact the Severance, as well as putting Hanako, who should be his superior as the Boss of the Seven Mysteries, on trial alongside Nene, Teru and Tsukasa and then later commanding him to deal with the imposter within Tsukasa after Hanako admitted that the Tsukasa he knew was an impostor.
Despite these, Kako can still be aloof at times, as he took too long to respond to Akane's issue with Mirai, and when chided for it, he retorted by telling him that he's never late because he has the power to reverse time, hence making himself not late to begin with.
As a Human[]
| “ |
This clock is too much for humans to handle! We are incapable of using it correctly. I must seal it away, it must be looked after. By something perfect...something beyond human! What we must value above all is...
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” |
— The Clockmaker in his workshop muttering to himself as he seals the Sand Clock.
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In his original human life as a Clockmaker, he is described as an eccentric and cold-hearted man whose relationships with people were often of the sour kind, as many of his servants left him only a few days after being hired at his workshop. Additionally, such personality means that he did not have the skills to raise up a child like his niece.
However, upon seeing how cheerful she was no matter how much work he gave her, his cold heart defrosted and he developed a desire to make his niece happy, going as far as to use the Sand Clock in order to save her parents from dying in that fateful accident. Unfortunately, this only resulted in her erasure from the timeline, and so he became a devastated person who made the conclusion that the Hourglass and Time itself is a power that no other human being should grasp. Such a decision would lead to the sealing of the Sand Clock and the creation of his machine body that through an essence transfer ritual, he would take over and eventually become Kako.
Abilities[]
Number 1's Powers[]
Kako governs the past as the first of the three Clock Keepers. Like the other Clock Keepers, a clock face appears above or below the target of Kako's powers when he turns their time backwards. Unlike Mirai, Kako does not need to directly move the hands on these clock faces to manipulate time; for example, Kako is able to turn Kou's time back just by touching him on the head.
Kako is able to turn back time on both small and large scales, reversing the entire school's time by almost an entire day. This is because Kako is the most powerful among the three Clock Keepers, with Mirai being the second most powerful and Aoi Akane being the weakest, as both can only manipulate time on a much smaller scale. In addition, Kako is the only Clock Keeper who can easily reverse his death through Time Manipulation, as Mirai lacked the power and had to be fixed up to normal following her sacrifice to protect Akane from Yugi Tsukasa's killing blow.
When Kako turns back time for an individual, the effect seems directly opposite to Mirai's powers and the individual retains their memories, but only in concert with Aoi Akane using his ability to stop time on said person at the same time that Kako reverses time.
On the other hand, Kako can also turn back time for the entire school, including all the people and objects within it. This reverses both the regular passage of time as well as changes caused by both Mirai and other supernaturals. As a result, the events that occurred during this time period are erased from almost everyone's memories, with the exceptions of supernaturals and humans with extremely high spiritual power. Interestingly, though Mirai's powers do not fully work on Kou due to his exorcist lineage, Kako says that Kou's memories would also be erased by the time reversal, which is only prevented by Akane using his powers on Kou. In addition, even after Kako reversed time, Nene still seems to remember the day's events until the point where she was knocked unconscious, although she is not a supernatural or a human with high spiritual power (like Akane and Teru respectively).
Presumably, Kako's powers also only work within the school, like Akane's. However, when done in cooperation with Mirai, Kako can rewind the entire timeline of their setting and change certain events along the way, so as to end up creating a whole new timeline from it that not only affects the school but also changes everything in it.
Mechanical Knowledge[]
Aside from his abilities as a Clock Keeper, Kako also demonstrated an understanding of gear machinery and analog technology, as he was able to fix Mirai up in his workshop at the Heart of their boundary after she sacrificed her life to stop Yugi Tsukasa from killing Aoi Akane. This is due to Kako being a clockmaker when he was human in the past, and thus, he would have professionally made clocks and fixed many kinds of broken machines for a living.
Essence Transfer[]
In an attempt to create a watcher that is "something beyond human", the Clockmaker created a mechnical body, and then fully transferred his whole being into it, thus revealing that he has the ability to transfer his essence into a body he made. That body would become his permanent body and then would later took on the identity of the supernatural only known as "Kako".
Trivia[]
- "Kako" is pronounced identically to "past" (過去) in Japanese, and is written either in kanji or katakana (カコ) during his various mentions/appearances.
- When Kou asked him if he was called "Kako" because he can turn back time, he said that a name doesn't matter much to supernaturals. In fact, it was Akane who gave him that name.
- It may also be a misnomer, as Kako is capable of manipulating time beyond just restoring the past, like resurrecting himself after being killed, or with Mirai, changing an entire timeline into a different one.
- Even when telling Yashiro Nene the story of his past life involving the Sand Clock, he never names his previous human self, only identifying him as a "never-do-well" and a "clockmaker".
- Aoi Akane's hairstyle as a Clock Keeper is inspired by Kako's own hairstyle. This is because Mirai wanted his hair to match with Kakos. Akane, while annoyed by it admitted that it has a "scholarly" feel to it, right after Mirai asked if he wanted his hair to match with hers instead.[2]
- Kako has a habit of abusing his power to force Akane into doing something for them, as when Akane attempted to leave Kako's house as he doesn't want to eat with supernaturals, Kako would keep on rewinding time over and over again until Akane was forced to give in.[3]
- Kako may be the only member of the Seven Mysteries to be a foreigner originally, as the rest of the Seven Mysteries are either people of Japanese descent (Akane, Mitsuba, Shijima, and Hanako), creatures of Japanese Myth (Yako, Number 3, Tsuchigomori, and Hakubo) or constructs without any national identity (Mirai).
- In particular, he in his original identity as The Clockmaker was possibly Swiss due to the Swiss' association with Clockwork construction.
References[]
- ↑ Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga: Chapter 117
- ↑ Volume 22 Bonus Comic 2
- ↑ Volume 22 Bonus Comic 3
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