Hinote Zao Fredonia

Hinote Zao Fredonia is a character in the Cute High Earth Defense Club series. He is Ryuu Zao's older brother, a fashion designer, and the eldest son of the Zao Family.

In Season 1 Episode 12 - Love Forever, it is revealed that he was a Battle Lover himself way before the 7 main protagonists became so. He was well known in the first CIDE battle as Maximum Hinoter and wielded dance ribbons.

Appearance
Hinote has pink colored eyes and a pink heart-shaped birthmark on his right shoulder. In his high school years he had neck-length brown hair held back by a black headband. He wore the 2nd year Binan High uniform.

As Maximum Hinoter, his outfit was pink and white, similar to Ryuu's, but with long pants and boots, a double-breasted trench coat, and a much more mature princely appearance. He also had a pink 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 grown a few inches and he now wears it in a french braid style.

Personality
As a teenager, his personality was very similar to Ryuu's. However, instead of girls, he was always dating boys and spent his free time designing clothes that would be comfortable for both males and females. Everyone in the club - including Kaiyo Yufuin himself - thought he was in love with Kaiyo, but he was either too proud or too cowardly to admit it and possibly knew about Kaiyo's feelings towards Kaname Kaidou, the eighth heir. He greatly valued ​​his friendship with the members of Maximum R and seemed to be on good terms with everyone due to his warmth and uncomplicated personality. After Kaname became a Loveless and disappeared, he is the first to volunteer for a search party to look for him, showing that even though he was jealous that Kaname had caught Kaiyo's eye first, he still cared about him deep down. He claims to be able to see spirits of deceased people, which could be the cause of Ryuu's fear of ghosts.

Now an adult, he seems to have grown out of his playboy phase and had settled down with Chantal Fredonia, the foreign exchange student and has become a famous fashion designer. When he finds out about Ryuu's "crush", he is ecstatic and starts bombarding him questions, which turns out to be Ryite's younger brother Io. After meeting Kaiyo again, he became afraid that his old feelings for Kaiyo would return and tried to stay away from him. This became the catalyst for the Beppu Brothers to turn Hinote into a Loveless from the combined stress of his feelings and truth of Ryuu being a second generation battle lover.

History
During his high school years, Hinote was a Battle Lover who defended Earth when Hireashi attempted to create an Earth-centric reality show called Can I Destroy Earth? However, their plans and show were thwarted by Maximum R, who defeated all the monsters Hireashi sent. Eventually this caused the show to lose 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 Earthlings as ignorant and stupid beings), they gained a good number of fans due to their persistent nature. So much so that the producers canceled the show when they saw that the audience loved the "antagonists" more than the monsters. Sometime after it was canceled, Hinote married Chantal Fredonia, a former Battle Lover and became a fashion designer and owner of his own brand Aurora Dimension.

Etymology

 * His last name, "Zao" (蔵 王), comes from a hot spring establishment located in Yamagata prefecture, Japan. It is one of Japan's most famous traditional ski and snowboard centers, as well as a popular hot spring resort site.

Trivia

 * His "talent" of seeing spirits could be a reference to many movies and anime with a character of that trait.
 * Like Gora, Hinote keeps his form after turning into a Loveless.
 * Attended Class 2-A alongside Ryite Naruko.