Kazuki Shimada

Kazuki Shimada (島田 一旗, Shimada Kazuki) is a supporting character and later a minor antagonist in the Koe no Katachi series. He was Shōya Ishida's best friend in elementary school whom he helped in the bullying of Shōko Nishimiya, but he never admitted to participating in it and Kazuki started bullying Shōya after helping pin the blame on him for Shōko being bullied.

Biography
On the night that Shoya fell from a third story balcony, and fell into a pond of cold water, bleeding profusely, Shimada was one of the two boys who fished Shoya out of the water and got him medical attention.

Personality
Although Kazuki's face comes off as someone who is zoned out and uninterested, he is actually quite the opposite. He was always the first involved in all of Shōya Ishida's plans, whether that be bullying or the Daily Daredevil Contest.

During his time in elementary school, he appears to be a hard working student. He appears to be a member of the Boy Scouts, indicated by the text on the flag he carries around, and even goes to cram school after school. This appears to be what initially sparked Shōya's battle against boredom, as both of his friends begin to mature and stop playing such dangerous games.

When the principal comes in on behalf of the Nishimiya family to talk to the students about bullying, Miki Kawai says that none of the girls participated and pinned the blame on Shōya, Kazuki stood up and said the same about the boys. He pushes Shōya into a fountain later that afternoon and tells him that he hopes they can be friends again starting tomorrow. Instead, Kazuki, along with Keisuke Hirose continue to bully Shōya by beating him up, stealing his shoes, writing "die" on his desk, and throwing his things in the fountain. After graduating to middle school, Kazuki no longer bullied Shōya directly, but he did spread it around that Shōya had bullied a girl into transferring to another school. Shōya did attempt to become friends again with Kazuki in middle school, but Kazuki wanted no part of it.

On the night of the fireworks festival, Kazuki and Keisuke followed Shōya back to Shoko's apartment the night she tried to kill herself - in a text message to Naoka Ueno, Keisuke explains that they followed him because they thought it would be funny - however, in the end they are the ones to pull Shōya out of the river after he fell in. Kazuki then tells Ueno not to mention it to Shōya.

In the manga, during the time when the main group were writing their movie, Ueno mentions to the group that she knows someone who can make the music. She's referring to Kazuki and Keisuke, and they end up writing the music for the group. It's unknown whether they know it's for Shōya's sake, however during the film premiere, when the judge critiques their movie as bad, Kazuki asks Shōya if he really wants to be acknowledged by someone like that. He's not seen again until the end of the manga, however it's likely that he attended the coming of age ceremony, as Shōya asks Tomohiro Nagatsuka if he still has Kazuki's contact details, explaining that he wants to finally talk to him again (or could possibly be the wife seen in chapter 62, but nothing has been confirmed).

Physical appearance
Kazuki is a pale-skinned (that he maintains as he grows) boy with short, messy blonde hair and emotionless blue eyes.

As a child, he is always seen in a t-shirt with an unbuttoned dress shirt over top and pants, which is a style he seems to maintain as a teenager as well. He is briefly seen in an all-black uniform in middle school during Chapter 05.

Hobbies

 * Piano
 * Music

Volume 01

 * Chapter 01 — "Shōya Ishida"
 * Chapter 02 — "Just One of Those Things"
 * Chapter 03 — "Hahahahaha"
 * Chapter 04 — "Nishimiya, You Piece of Shit"
 * Chapter 58 — "Results"
 * Chapter 62 (possibly) — “Final Chapter”

Friends

 * Keisuke Hirose: Former high school friend, could possibly be their husband as seen in Chapter 62 as the appearance of the supposed wife to Hirose shows similarities to Kazuki.


 * Naoka Ueno:


 * Shōya Ishida (previous):

Etymology

 * The name Kazuki means "one" (一) (kazu) and "flag" (旗) (ki).
 * Kazuki's surname Shimada means "island" (島) (shima) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta/da).