A blunt, sarcastic young man working at the same kindergarten as Kobato. He is also Kobato's neighbor, living in the same complex under the ownership of Chitose. He has known Sayaka for many years and appears to have strong feelings for her, showing much concern over and being fiercely defensive of her. Upon first meeting Kobato, he is rather suspicious of the unusual girl, as he does not want Sayaka to be hurt by another person. He often pokes fun at and teases Kobato, which is unusual as he generally ignores people he does not like; as a result, Sayaka interprets his actions toward the girl as affection. Regardless of his initial distrust of Kobato, he has shown signs of warming up to her and now seems to care about her well being, demonstrated when once she pretended to have a cold to cover up for Ioryogi, and Fujimoto in response discreetly passed on a bag of cough drops to her. Kobato notes that he appears to be hiding some emotional pain of his own.   ~!As a child, Fujimoto was an orphan taken in by Sayaka's father and did not get along with his peers. He had been studying to become a lawyer, but stopped going to his college classes when it became apparent Sayaka's need for help had become increasingly desperate. He works at various part-time jobs throughout the day in order to help support the kindergarten, as he is attached to Sayaka and feels indebted to her family for taking care of him in his youth. !~

Sweet and na&iuml;ve Hanato Kobato came to Earth on a mission to collect and fill a bottle with 'konpeito,' which appear after healing a person's heart that is suffering. Kobato collects these because it is her wish to go to a certain place. Despite her strangeness, Kobato turns out to be well-suited for this mission as her heartfelt sincerity in helping others earns her the love and admiration of everyone she meets. However, she is not allowed to fall in love with anyone whose heart she heals.<br><br>
[Written by MAL Rewrite]

__Agency:__ Arts Vision

**[Profile](https://www.artsvision.co.jp/talent/526/) | [Wiki (en)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomoaki_Maeno) | [Wiki (jp)](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%89%8D%E9%87%8E%E6%99%BA%E6%98%AD) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Tomoaki___Maeno)**

Married fellow voice actor [Mikako Komatsu](https://anilist.co/staff/105071/Mikako-Komatsu) on May 12, 2020.

**Non anime roles:**
- [Zhongli](https://anilist.co/character/209686/) - Genshin Impact (Video Game)
- Luke Sullivan - Street Fighter (Video Game)
- Lif - Fire Emblem Heroes (Video Game)

Meet Kobato Hanato, a sweet and rather simple young girl on a quest to have her single, dearest wish granted. But first, she must learn the ways of the world from Ioryogi-san, a gruff blue dog whose bark is just as bad as his bite! Under his “tutelage” (read: constant verbal abuse), Kobato puts her efforts into passing various trials of common sense so that she may obtain the key to getting her wish—a magic bottle which must be filled with the suffering of wounded hearts that Kobato herself has healed. But with Kobato’s common sense sorely lacking, she keeps flunking Ioryogi-san’s trials left and right! It looks like the road that lies ahead of Kobato will be a long one indeed! <br><br>
(Source: Yen Press)

16P epilogue to Kobato. included in the Illustrations &amp; Memories Artbook.

Kiyokazu Fujimoto