Kei Takanashi

Kei Takanashi (高梨 圭 Takanashi Kei) is a playable character in and the primary protagonist of Mind Zero. He is a 17 year old high school sophomore whose weapon is a dark silver Death Scythe with a wrap around the top of the blades staff and slightly below the blade, there is a 'x' wrapped around the actually blade. His MIND takes the form of a female demon with blades for arms and silvery-white hair flowing in tandem with her bandaged figure.

Kei is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita and Matthew Mercer in the Japanese and English versions respectively.

Characteristics
He has fair skin and black slightly messy looking hair that sticks up a bit on the side. He has blue eyes and is average height. Usually wears a serious emotionless expression, he has smiled but it's usually a very small one and does it every once in a while so it's not completely out of character for him to do so. Through-out the game he's only seen wearing his school uniform that consists of a dark grey-blue blazer, white button-up shirt, grey pants, black shoes, and dark grey-blue tie.

Personality
He has a very calm demeanor and slightly off-kilter perspective which have been known to cause social difficulties. He’s a kind person, though, and whilst usually donning his mask of sarcasm and laziness, he can’t ignore when others are in trouble. He tries to help those when he sees them in danger, like at the beginning of the game where he sees a young kid being attacked by a strange man. Surrounded by friends he can’t help but feel the need to look after, there truly seems to be no end in sight for his suffering.

Relationships
Shizuku Kamina: The two of them seem to be childhood friends as she has mentioned things that he has done when they were younger. He seems to be really close to her and worries for her and his worry only grows when she starts getting headaches, seeing things that no one else does, and after finding out what the MIND's really are. He's been shown to be very protective of her and tries to keep her out of harms way, often telling her to stay put somewhere while him and the others are doing something in the tunnels. She often drags him to little shopping trips and teases him every so often, like when she teased him about being her sidekick while out one day. She also worries about him and often talks to him when they return from the tunnels and calls him first when something has happened.

Leo Asahina: Kei and Leo are close and often joke around together (more Leo then Kei). They've been friends since middle school and Leo often thinks of them as best friends. Kei is usually sarcastic towards Leo, especially when Leo is showing him a new thing he bought online and tries to prove they work. He finds Leo's fascination for finding ghosts ridiculous but humors him when trying out a new item. Later on in the game (during side missions) they go into tunnels to test Leo's new products to see if they'll help them in anyway. Leo has Kei's back all the time and gives him advice later in the game but earlier on he seems to tease him much like Shizuku does.

Sana Chikage: A classmate of Kei's and a good friend. The two of them aren't as close but are still great friends. She shares his concern for his friends and understands how serious the MIND situation really is so she gets why he worries about the others. She shares his seriousness but keeps a cheerful personality to keep the tension down. They both seem to try to figure things out together when in certain situations (much like when they all were in the first tunnel at the beginning of the game after Leo gets his MIND). She tries to keep him calm and from making any bad decisions when things go wrong and causes him stress.

Kotone Shiragiku: The two of them aren't close and don't talk a lot. When they first meet he does help her realize what her MIND really is and why she shouldn't fear it, helping her get out of a tunnel that she had gotten lost in while trying to escape from it. During a side mission he walks her home and learns more about herself finding out that she has a strict family and why she's so shy. She seems really grateful that him and his friends helped her and decided to join with them and figure out what's been going on with the MIND's.

Yoichi Ogata: Kei originally wanted to find him after hearing about him from Sana and wanted to learn what he knew about MIND's. After seeing what they can do and explaining it to them he didn't want them involved but soon realized that they're were already too involved and offered them a job to work with them. He talks to him a bit throughout the game once mentioning that Kei reminded him of himself when he was younger.

Lina Albertine: Acquaintance, possible friend of his. They met when she had some information and a job for them and invited them to her house. She seems to tolerate him the most since, probably due to his calm serious nature from when they first met. She ends up working with them but doesn't talk often about personal stuff with any of them but will talk about what she knows about the MIND's with them. She does show concern for the others and him towards the end of the game.

Etymology

 * The name Kei means "gemstone" (圭).
 * Kei's surname Takanashi means "tall, high" (高) (taka) and "pear" (梨) (nashi).

Trivia

 * Kei is the first character we meet during the game and the first to get his MIND.
 * He was sucked into a tunnel to the Undertaker's shop when he was about to help out a kid
 * When told to pick a weapon he kept arguing and insisting for the Undertaker to tell him what was going on
 * While choosing his weapon he considered different ones but chose the Death Scythe after assuming that's where the voice in his head was telling him to
 * Kei doesn't seem to have a liking for school, he has said that he'd much rather be sleeping then getting up at seven in the morning just to attend. This shows us that he's rather lazy at times mainly towards his school-life
 * Shizuku Kamina has mentioned that Leo Asahina is 'like Kei's shadow' showing that he follows him where ever he goes since the day they met.
 * Kei tends to respond sarcastically to many things but mainly when Leo shows a new thing he bought or talks about ghosts