Souta Kinugawa

Souta Kinugawa is is a character in Cute High Earth Defense Club series. He is Atsushi Kinugawa's and Teara Kinugawa's older brother and the eldest son of the Kinugawa Family.

In Arc 1 Episode 12 - Love Forever, it is revealed that he was a Battle Lover himself way before the 8 main protagonists became so. He was well known in the first CIDE battle as Maximum Soutar and wielded a medieval mace weapon. He saved Phi da Rosa in Binan Land from monsters leading him to have a deep fascination, deep obsession, towards him, which is both friendly and somewhat romantic.

Appearance
Souta has dark green eyes and dark blue hair like his brother. In high school, his hair was longer and in a braid. He wore the Binan High 3rd year uniform in a very orderly fashion like his younger brother. As Maximum Soutar, his outfit was green and white, similar to Atsushi's, but with long pants and boots, a double-breasted trench coat, and a much more mature princely appearance. He also had a green Loveracelet which he still keeps around, despite saying that he wouldn't want to be a Battle Lover anymore.

As an adult, his hair has become shorter and he has scars on his hands. He is now mostly seen wearing

Personality
As a teenager, Souta was the combination of an "honors student" and a "star athlete". He is the complete opposite of Atsushi, who focused more on his grades, while he always found excuses to do anything sport related. He was also Kaiyo's only friend at the time, being able to see past the "delinquent" personality and figuring out his family situation. He always has a problem of always staying still, which leads him into getting into trouble with the school staff. When Gora and Shoebill (as a human) ask if he wanted to join the Battle Lovers, Souta at first declined the offer, not knowing at the time Kaiyo was with them. However, after his classmate Suyuku Muezini became a Loveless and Souta became Maximum Soutar, he decides to join Maximum R. As a Battle Lover, Souta was more interested in the fighting but still worried about the bystanders. He also seemed to be a good friend of Kaname Kaidou, the eighth heir. When Kaname had becomes a Loveless and disappeared, Souta is one of the people that volunteered for a search party for him. After the rift was formed, it was found out that Souta stopped talking to Kaiyo after they graduated, which could be the reason why his heart had become corrupted.

Ten years later, he has matured and has become an Olympic Athlete, winning both gold and silver medals in every event he has participated, making him an alumni of Binan High. He has been keeping his Loveracelet in an old music box that Kaname had made for him as a birthday gift. When he meets Atsushi's other friends while having some time off, he is very welcoming and shows them all his many trophies and medals. After finding out that Atsushi is a second generation Battle Lover, he is turned into the Tornado Loveless by the Beppu twins. As a Loveless, Souta is much more expressive with his negative emotions, saying that he would be the "eye of the storm" forever, revealing that he had continuously blamed himself for Kaname's disappearance. Atsushi manages to get through to Souta and uses the True Love Attack and True Love Fountain to bring him back to normal, leaving him feeling much better and refreshed. He apologizes to Atsushi and Teara about lying to them and decides to reconcile with Kaiyo, saying he was proud that Atsushi was becoming a responsible adult, and the Kinugawa siblings embrace while Souta's Loveracelet gains its bright green color back, signaling that Souta's heart had been changed. He's absolutely clueless that Phi adores him to the point of obsession.

Souta seems to be the only guardian of Atsushi and Teara and cares for them as a parent. When in Season 2 the Battle Lovers look at albums in Atsushi's home they do see Souta in a flower garden with a tiny Atsushi and Teara suggesting that he has pretty much raised his younger brother and sister on his own. On the other hand, playing sports and getting massages are consistently the only things Souta is shown doing. Training even in the night, as Phi hears the sounds and shows appreciation to his crush. He is kind and attentive, recognizing Phi though it has been years. Phi feels ashamed because Souta is seeing him when he is in his most pathetic state. However, Souta acknowledges him saying he is not pathetic but has become a good parent figure as he had hoped he would. This acknowledgment from Souta brings Phi to tears and he returns becoming normal and not so obsessive or rude. He even start respecting his role as a gentleman thief and respects his clients more. Souta is also reliable and trustworthy. It can be said that his supportive and loving nature of Atsushi and Teara has made them the people they are today.

History
During his high school years, Souta was a Battle Lover who defended Earth when Hireashi had attempted to create an Earth-centric reality show called Can I Destroy Earth? However, their plans and show were thwarted by the Battle Lovers known as Maximum R, who had always defeated all the monsters Hireashi sent. Eventually this caused the show to lose its popularity and it was eventually canceled, also causing Hireashi's downfall.

Although Maximum R were introduced as villains (such as modifying what they said and depicting the Earthlings as ignorant and stupid beings), they had gained a good number of fans due to their persistent nature. So much so that the producers had canceled the show when they saw that the audience loved the "antagonists" more than the Loveless themselves. Sometime after it was canceled, Souta became a successful Olympic athlete.

Relationships
Atsushi Kinugawa- Souta's younger brother and second sibling. Souta cares very much about Atsushi and is the complete opposite of him. Due to him being away for Olympic tours, he is sometimes never around for him but still tries to be there for him regardless.

Teara Kinugawa- Souta's younger sister and first sibling. While the two of them share a normal sibling relationship, Teara always nags at him about his constant need for sports activities and tries to get him into calmer things like meditation.

Kinshiro Kusatsu- Atsushi's childhood friend. Souta knew about him from Atsushi and was alright with the two of them being with each other. When Atsushi asks him why Kinshiro stopped being around him, Souta merely says to leave him alone for a while, not knowing what would happen in the future.

Kaiyo Yufuin- Both of them were in the same year and always referred to each others' names without any honorifics, showing a strong bond of trust between them.

Gora Hakone- Gora was Souta's junior at the time, so he always referred to him as "Souta-senpai". The two of them trusted each other as teammates and friends so they had a good relationship.

Ryite Naruko- Ryite was Souta's junior at the time, so he always referred to him as "Souta-senpai". The two of them trusted each other as teammates and friends so they had a good relationship.

Hinote Zaou- Hinote was Souta's junior at the time, so he always referred to him as "Souta-senpai". The two of them trusted each other as teammates and friends so they had a good relationship.

Chantal Fredonia- Chantal was Souta's junior at the time, so he always referred to him as "Souta-senpai". The two of them trusted each other as teammates and friends so they had a good relationship.

Kaname Kaidou- Both of them were in the same year and always referred to each others' names without any honorifics, showing a strong bond of trust between them.

Yumoto Hakone- Gora's younger brother.

Io Naruko- Ryite's younger brother.

En Yufuin- Kaiyo's younger brother. Souta had only met En a couple of times when he himself was a teenager and was surprised at how much En had grown in a physical sense.

Ryuu Zaou- Hinote's younger brother.

Nozomi Ghaunam- One of Atsushi's friends.

Seto Kaiba- One of Atsushi's friends. Souta at first questioned Seto about her relationship with Atsushi, implying that he was able to tell that Seto was actually a female, despite her Circumstision disease hiding it, but overall trusted her with his brother.

Uta- One of Atsushi's friends.

Kyiki Hashimoto- One of Atsushi's friends.

Wombat- The Earth Defense Club's "mascot". Souta merely saw Wombat as just Mr. Tawarayama's pet and was very friendly with him.

Shoebill

Phi da Rosa- The Beppu Twins maternal uncle and the famous gentleman thief known as the "Purple Phantom".

Etymology

 * His name Souta translates to "suddenly" or "smoothly", foreshadowing on how he was able to get through high school despite his grades but also his bad habits.

Trivia

 * Like Gora, Souta keeps his form after turning into a Loveless. This could mean that if any former or current Battle Lover becomes a Loveless, they still keep their normal body shapes.
 * He seems to have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or commonly known as ADHD.
 * This could be why he uses sports as a way to cope with it.
 * He regularly gets massages due to always straining his body.
 * It was stated and shown in both Season 2 and Season 1 of CHEDCMR that Souta won many physical strength and stamina competitions on his first day of school and without breaking a sweat, making him Binan High's "Athletic Star", as said by many students during the series.