Professor Kokonoe

Kokonoe is a heroine from BlazBlue, who is a scientist at Sector Seven, as well as an important supporting character. She's also the daughter of Jūbei and Konoe A. Mercury. In Continuum Shift, Kokonoe hosts her own omake series alongside Litchi's, called Help Me, Professor Kokonoe!. She is set to be a playable character in Chronophantasma's console version.

Appearance

Kokonoe appears as a fairly young adult catgirl with a slim build. Her eyes are a golden-amber with visible bags under them, due to working overtime in her lab. She has pink hair which she keeps tied in a specialized style consisting of a long ponytail backing up longer tufts resembling large cat ears, which tend to overshadow her actual animal-like ears, which fade into white at the tip, these ears are bent forward slightly. Her attire consists of an altered, scientist version of the usual Kaka jacket with a white coloration. A hole at the lower base provides room for her twin, cat-like tails. She also wears a pair of small spectacles, and is never without her trademark lollipop.

The oversized sleeves are cut at the sides to make it easier for her arms to slide in and out of them. She wears a pair of red capri pants lowered enough to reveal black underwear, with a black belt adorned by a large cat bell. The attire is completed with a pair of white mules with heels similar to the boots the Kaka tribe wears, but with no vamp, allowing her to take them off almost reflexively as her story mode render shows her barefoot in one of her feet.

In BlazBlue: Alter Memory during Episode 8, she also wears a white high-neck sports bra underneath her Kaka jacket after the oversized sleeves of her jacket got spilled with her own coffee.

When she was young, she had short hair and kept it in a pigtail, and wore the same yellow ribbon that she wears as an adult. She also did not wear spectacles. In terms of clothing, she wore a jacket similar to Taokaka’s except with the hood down, and with a black collar.

Personality

Kokonoe is a rather serious and cynical woman with no regard for emotions, and always strives for Tager to complete his missions without fail; however, she can on rare occasions be quite personable, mostly around her creations. She is displayed and perceived as cranky and foul-mouthed most of the time. She and Taokaka possess a few similar personality traits, something that most note as “more in common than they realize”, due to their impatient nature and short attention span. She has some traits of her father and her mother, even though she tends to be bitter at both of them deep down for them not being a part of her early life. She also displays signs of being aware of the racism displayed to her heritage as a half-beastman; believing that people will show prejudice against her, it’s for this reason that even her potential new students and apprentices aren’t aware of her species, as displayed by Litchi in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma.

However, as Celica points out, Kokonoe is a good person at heart. Without Litchi’s knowledge, she became Arakune’s Observer despite the risks entailed to prevent the Boundary from consuming him and is trying to figure out an effective solution for his depraved state. Also, she repeatedly shows that she will only resort to mass destruction in a worst-case scenario, preferring to minimize the casualties caused by her war against Terumi or not have any at all. She was also willing to use an alternative method to activating the Lynchpin where Celica wasn’t sacrificed despite her being merely a clone and even took the initiative to create the Ex Machina: Minerva so she could defend herself.

Tager has described Kokonoe as being selfish, foul-mouthed, having an addiction to Silvervine candy and having the belief that the entire world focuses on her and her alone. Overall, Tager gives a very negative outlook on her when first describing Kokonoe to Noel Vermillion; however, at the end of his “frank opinions” on his superior, he states that she is actually a very kind and good person, something that Makoto Nanaya immediately calls out on, calling it contradictory to his previous sentiments. Her anti-social behavior and lack of outdoor activity implies that Kokonoe is a hikikomori.

Lotte Carmine also introduces his opinions about Kokonoe to Litchi Faye Ling when they first met. Despite his numerous complaints about her lack of ability to congratulate people, he points out how she possesses the trait of not paying much attention to detail; but compliments her abilities as a scientist.

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