Kozue Matsumoto

Kozue Matsumoto (松本 梢江, Matsumoto Kozue) is a fictional character from anime and manga series of Baki the Grappler. She is Baki Hanma's schoolmate and the daughter of Baki's landlady. In further part of the series, Kozue is also his girlfriend. She is Baki's girlfriend and her mother, Kinuyo Matsumoto, is Baki's landlord. Kozue is usually a quiet and quite shy girl. In the first anime season, she was presented in a similar way, but seemed to be a little bit more energetic. She cares deeply for Baki, but denies when asked. She is disillusioned by Baki's violent life as an Underground fighter and begs him several times to quit. Though she still disapproves, Kozue better understands Baki's resolve after visiting Emi Akezawa's grave site. After Baki's first tournament match, he reveals that he cares for Kozue. She became his love interest in the second series, and makes love with him just before his fight with Yanagi Ryuukou, allowing Baki to become a "full man". It should also be noted that Yujiro Hanma views her as an excellent woman for Baki. Yujiro also states: "that little bastard got the best woman in the world", after she helped Baki cure the poison left by Ryuukou Yanagi. For some time in the series, Kozue and Baki had an incredible emotional bond, but then it changed a bit. Probably because of Mohammad Alai Jr who started to mix up in their relationship in some point of the second manga series. Though she appears to have a passive and soft personality, she has no problem asserting herself. When Kaoru Hanayama approaches Baki while with Kozue and questions their relationship as an inhibiting factor of Baki's fighting progress and offering alternative situations for Baki to have sex outside of a committed relationship, Kozue firmly confronts Hanayama and scolds him for disrespecting their relationship. She criticizes how men overall prioritize fighting and competition so much that the women in their lives are entirely excluded from consideration as significant factors in their decisions or how they are affected by their dangerous way of life. She goes as far as lightly kicking his leg each time she makes a statement. Kozue is able to show great courage during various battles of Baki, wanting to motivate him or show her support. Moments before Baki fights Ryuukou Yanagi, she wants to help in the fighting. Despite not understanding the level of danger and skill Yanagi possessed, her supportive nature and her courage as his partner is constructive for Baki in the long term. She also steps between Baki and Yujiro while they were "flirting" during their fight, even scolding them for beating around the bush. Kozue notes that they continually stop and have chats during the fight. She calls them out on it, but it's because they are trying to make the fight last longer as they are fighting the one person on Earth who can bring out their full strength. Kozue is a pretty girl with brown eyes and hair. In the OVA version, her hair was black and glowed slightly in dark blue color. Kozue has quite long hair, which she often braids. At the beginning of the first series, she had a fringe pulled on her forehead. During the Maximum Tournament saga, she started to pull her fringes up two sides, emphasizing the middle parting in her hair. In the second manga series, Kozue decided to pull her fringe to the side, uncovering her forehead, although in anime she does not show as much forehead as in manga. She also stopped braiding her hair and started wearing a ponytail. In later chapters, she also started to wear her hair down more often. He usually dresses in ordinary clothes, without presenting some overtly striking style of clothing. She can be often seen wearing her school uniform. In the first two anime seasons, she was wearing a dark school uniform, but in the third season, she started to wearing a school uniform with a white t-shirt. Kozue is a girl with a pretty small physique, but also quite shapely. At first glance, she does not stand out especially among other Japanese teenagers. Her height is average. She is not much lower than Baki Hanma, who is less than 170 cm tall, so Kozue is certainly about 160 cm tall.