| Kimiko Morizumi | |
|---|---|
| Rōmaji | Kimiko Morizumi |
| Gender | Female |
| Status | |
| Status | Alive |
| Relatives | Jouji Morizumi (uncle) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Debut | |
| Manga | ACT.240 |
Kimiko Morizumi is an actress who auditioned for the role of Momiji and expected to participate in the second audition.
Personality
Kimiko doesn't seem to mind using familial connections to secure roles[1]. For almost every role she's been given, a family member has been in the staff somehow; this includes Purple Down II.[1] In fact she relies heavily on her connections to secure her a role and give her the upper hand. She was quite disgruntled that she had to go through the audition, she wanted the role of Momiji or Chidori even just handed to her. She does not seem to seek to upgrade her skills so that she may use these connections less and less or perhaps make it easier for her connections to sway others to use her because of her skill.
She doesn't mind resorting to extreme violence if she doesn't get the role she feels she deserves. Erika's servant suspects that she may be responsible for Erika's accident. Erika herself accidentally confirmed that it was indeed Kimiko who caused her injuries.
Kimiko feels justified yelling at and taking her anger out on high level figures in show biz such as Kuresaki when they either say or do something she does not like - Kuresaki tells her he thought Kyoko's stage combat perfomance was superior to hers when she asked him which he preferred. She does not seem concerned about any consequences that may come about from these actions.
Kimiko apparently excels in areas of recollection and memorization—the more complicated the better—which is probably why she is able to sustain a decent acting career. She has more trouble with on-the-spot improvisation and originality, and prefers to have a set routine. This is most likely why she failed the audition the first time around, as the reaction test may have thrown her. She barely passed the second reaction test and this was with prior knowledge and also with copying Erika's routine.
Kimiko seems to desire high results for minimal effort. Despite having prior knowledge on the reaction test and information on Erika's winning routine she did not seemed to have practiced at all to improve or ensure her passing. She seemed confident that having this knowledge would be enough with her connections as a safety net. Due to this she pulled off a crude imitation of Erika's and barely passed the reaction test as a whole.
Kimiko is also skilled at social manipulation and apparently thrives on the misunderstandings and conflicts she produces from her insinuations and innuendos. Apparently it's not that she lies for everything she states is technically true but its the way she says it that's the problem. The most obvious instance would be the White Day gift from Ren that she got when she was 15 years old. Kimiko blushes and halfheartedly denies it when Koga's points out the price and how romantic the gift of a ring is however these actions only making it look like there is something more to it. According to Yashiro it's a habit of hers, bad enough that she alienated the entire female cast and staff of Purple Down II with her carefully placed comments and jabs about her and Ren's 'supposed' relationship.
Appearance
Kimiko's new hairstyle
Kimiko has long shoulder length hair that has been stylishly cut to curve around her face. It falls onto her shoulders in slight waves and a little bit of a curl. She has a long fringe and is wearing light make-up. She seems to go for the cutesy girl image as her official photo has her holding a puppy and she's in a pretty yet simple camisole top. During the second audition for Momiji, she dyed her hair black and changed her hairstyle to follow the trend of Asian beauty.
Background
Kimiko has "show business in the blood," for a lot of her family are involved in it[1]. She previously co-starred with Ren Tsuruga in the second season of the TV series Purple Down, which her father produced. Despite her habit of using connections she seems to have decent enough acting skills, according to Yashiro[1].
It was revealed by her manager that both Kimiko and herself were bouncing back between America and Japan since the beginning of last year, and they base themselves mostly in America. This led them to be unaware of current hot topics of entertainment industry in Japan. This was the reason for Kimiko failing to know who Kyoko was, while other audition candidates were able to deduce who she was from her name and affiliation to L.M.E.
Plot
A Lotus in the Mud arc
Kimiko is suspected of sabotaging Erika for the role of Momiji in A Lotus in the Mud[2]. She is participating in the second audition of the role, thus competing with Kyoko for it. Erika's bodyguards fear it will be a rigged audition[2] for she knows someone on the production team which Kyoko confirms is true. There Jouji Morizumi is the director of A Lotus in the Mud, who is apparently Kimiko's uncle[1].
Erika accidentally confirms that Kimiko was behind her injuries as apparently she was unable to accept that she lost the audition.
Relationships
Kimiko's manager
Kimiko seems to have a good relationship with her manager. She doesn't pretend to be anything but who she is when she is with the woman who seems to know her true personality. For this to be the case there must be a certain level of trust between them.
Ren Tsuruga
Like the majority of the women in show-biz, Kimiko has a crush on Tsuruga. In her blog, she wrote how Ren was a gentlemen when he escorted her. She passionately described this moment in her blog. Even when she found that the dinner was to celebrate the success of Purple Down, she nevertheless enjoyed it. Apparently the whole time she was shooting Purple Down II Kimiko was hinting that she and Ren were 'together' and clinging to Ren a lot. The only reason the rumor never took was because she was 15 at the time and no one could see mature sensible Ren being interested in a minor.
Upon finding out that Kyoko like Ren, Kimiko suggests heavily that there is something more between her and Ren. Using her White Day gift as proof of the matter which is a rather expensive pinky ring.
Erika Koenji
Erika was Kimiko's competition for the role of Momiji for the drama A Lotus in the Mud. Although her uncle was the director of the drama, Erika succesfully won the role of Momiji. Although it isn't known what Kimiko was feeling at the time when Erika won the audition, her servants believed that she didn't take her defeat that well. Erika's servants suspected that Kimiko pushed Erika on the road on purpose in order to prevent her from acting; they also suspected that she did it out of revenge for Erika beating her in the audition.
Kimiko shamelessly reuses the information she has on Erika's winning audition as inspiration for her re-audition during the reaction test.
Kyoko Mogami
Although Kimiko didn't know who Kyoko was when she entered the room for the audition of Momiji, she was curious enough to wonder why Yashiro was acting as her manager. Combined with Kyoko's boldness in bursting in on the audition it also made Kimiko want to watch her audition. She believed Kyoko to be some no-name newbie who isn't famous. When she discovered by eavesdropping that Kyoko wasn't an actress but a Talent plus a Love-Me member, she didn't feel threatened by her presence despite her reaction test being on point. It wasn't until the other participants were discussing Kyoko's past jobs and the amazing rumours surrounding them that Kimiko started to become more concerned for she realised Kyoko was no rookie. She was worried enough to watch Kyokos stage combat performance, the test which she had the most confidence in due to her examplery memorisation skills.
Kimiko was thrilled to find out about Kyoko's crush on Ren for she used it to throw the other girl off with the use of few cleverly placed innuendos and insinuations.
Despite being outdone in the stage combat test Kimiko still believes that she will win via default. That no matter how well Kyoko does Kuresaki's prejudice will way against her and Kimiko will end up with the role.
Jouji Morizumi
Kimiko is often frustrated and displeased with her uncle for he is not giving her the assistance that she wants. She is annoyed that he is not smoothing her path through the audition more and is angry when he doesn't stand up for her when Kuresaki tells her off. She wants him to pull more stings for her as the Director, and has expressed her anger at having to audition for this role when he could have simply given it to her.
Yuki Kuresaki
Kimiko isn't happy with Kuresaki, especially when he allows Kyoko to stay on. She is especially outraged when he calls her performance inferior to Kyoko's. She doesn't like how he is drifting away from his morals but at the same time she is counting on them for she doesn't believe he will cast them aside enough to give Kyoko the role.