Gen Matsuda

Gen Matsuda is nine years old and lives in Tome, a city in the Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Despite her age, she is relatively tall, almost a half foot taller than most kids her age. She lives with both her parents, her father, a natural-born Japanese man named Kazuhiro Matsuda. He went to America for college, and her mother, a Black American woman named Sequita. They met each other in college. The two fell in love while in college, and after he graduated, he went through immigration to allow her mother to live with him, and they married shortly after, while Gen's mother was eight months pregnant with Gen. Gen Matsuda struggles to make friends because most of the other kids think she looks weird because of her darker skin color and being only half Japanese. She is often treated as a dumb foreigner, despite living in Japan all her life, and being fluent in Japanese is her first language. She also tends to be hot-headed and yells at other kids when they try to bully her, making most of the bullies scared to target her, as she has fought back. This has only made the other kids more scared of her. Gen loves her parents, as both have been her main support, and her mother has always been the first to defend Gen, even from other mothers and teachers. Even if her mother, Sequita, struggles to speak Japanese, her American accent is extreme. Gen also loves to braid and weave hair, as she wants a friend to help braid their hair. She also loves fish and likes to help her father care for their aquarium at home, with its five small goldfish. She loves to swim and is always the last to leave the pool. Her favorite color is Navy Blue. One day, while she was sulking alone, upset because some kids called her a gaijin, despite Gen being born in Japan. Two girls walked up to her, and she assumed they were going ot call her a Gaijin as well. But instead, they introduced themselves as Kintsugi and Oyuki, with Kintsugi wanting to be friends, because she thought Gens' skin looked interesting and cool. After agreeing to be friends, Gen now has two friends she plays and does homework with. She also loves to braid her new friend Oyuki's silky smooth, long, black hair.