| Information |
| “ | Aaaaoooooooouuugghh...ooooouuuuuggghhh... | ” |
—Yoshikazu Yanagihori, Corpse Party (PC) (EXCHAP 8) | ||
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Yoshikazu Yanagihori (柳堀 ヨシカズ Yanagihori Yoshikazu) (1941 - 1974) is a minor character introduced in Corpse Party (PC), a teacher of Heavenly Host Elementary School, and a recurring antagonist in the Heavenly Host Saga (excluding Corpse Party: Blood Drive.
He is the son of principal Takamine Yanagihori.
Design
Yoshikazu's design is very much like that of a zombie even though he is not one. He wears a brown jacket and a torn-up dark green shirt, both of which are stained with blood. He has black hair and red eyes. He usually speaks in long moans and groans. The Cursed Doll can be seen hanging from his jacket pocket.
Personality
In life, Yoshikazu was a sympathetic man who was an employee at Heavenly Host Elementary School. He was well acquainted with a fellow student named Yuki Kanno and was willing to hear out her problems with her mother.
After Yoshie Shinozaki cursed his entire bloodline, chipping away his mental stability and free will, he was forced to takes orders from her daughter, who made him kill those who enter the building of Heavenly Host Elementry School, through the Sachiko Ever After charm.
Even in death, Yoshikazu still serves Sachiko and as such can be found roaming the halls of Heavenly Host looking for people to kill. A number of the corpses found inside the school were killed by his weapon of choice, a large sledgehammer. Another method used by him to murder is knocking the victims unconscious with the sledgehammer and bringing them to the school basement, where he proceeds to drain the blood from the body. He is also known to take his victims dead, or possibly alive, to the dissection room in the school's basement and dissect them piece by piece putting their remains into buckets.
Only once did he disobey Sachiko's order to kill, but he followed through with it later after Sachiko threatened his safety.
Plot
Corpse Party
CHAPTER 2
Yoshikazu is first seen in at the end of CHAPTER 2 when he performs a sneak attack on Yoshiki Kishinuma knocking him unconscious before dragging him away.
CHAPTER 3
Yoshikazu is heard attacking Masato Fukuroi in the opening.
CHAPTER 4
Ayumi Shinozaki witnesses and experiences the murdering of three children - Ryou Yoshizawa, Tokiko Tsuji, and Yuki Kanno through Yuki's vision. Yoshikazu abducted these children (along with Sachiko who pretended to be kidnapped along) and tied them in Heavenly Host Elementary School basement. He then blindfolded the children, and while Sachiko killing these children one by one, Yoshikazu was trembling in fear.
CHAPTER 5
Yoshikazu is also responsible for the death of Yuuya Kizami, attacking him in a similar manner to that in which he attacked Yoshiki. Finally he is seen towards the end of CHAPTER 5 in the dissection room carrying Seiko Shinohara's body and seemingly draining it of blood before finding Shougo Taguchi in the cabinet, hammering him to death and running off with Seiko's body.
It was later learned that Yoshikazu was initially a kind-hearted gentleman who worked at Heavenly Host Elementary School and generally got on well with the students. Then Yoshikazu was afflicted with a curse by Yoshie (her diary mentions that she became so hateful of Takamine that she cursed him and all those of his entire bloodline), which slowly began to eat away at Yoshikazu's mentality and will and eventually reduced his ability to speak coherently to grunts and moans. Before long, he lost his humanity altogether and became Sachiko's puppet.
The authorities placed Yoshikazu in the grand stand of the event and as such was forever seen in the eyes of the public as a monster. Sometime later, he hung himself in the school's basement.
Near the end of the chapter, while traveling through the basement of Heavenly Host to find Sachiko's burial site, Satoshi Mochida and the others stumble across Yoshikazu's decayed corpse hanging from the wall of the room before Sachiko's grave.
EXCHAP 8
One day, while under Sachiko's influence, he abducted Ryou Yoshizawa, Tokiko Tsuji, and Yuki Kanno and took them to Heavenly Host's basement and proceeded to tie them up and blindfold them from there Sachiko gave him a reward before she proceeded to kill them in different ways while Yoshikazu sat in terror in the corner of the room.
Corpse Party: Book of Shadows
Episode #2; 『Demise』
Yoshikazu appears near the end of the chapter, dragging Nana Ogasawara away from Mayu Suzumoto.
Episode #4; 『Purgatory』
Yoshikazu walk into the dissection room carrying Nana on himself. He then puts her on the table, waking her up. She then screams as she lost her legs. Yoshikazu then proceeds to tear out her tongue, killing her. He then takes the bucket and walks away.
He appears in the end of the chapter, hammering Sayaka Ooue to death.
Episode #5; 『Shangri-La』
Yoshikazu appears in Masato's memory: Masato defends Mitsuki Yamamoto from him, only to end up being grievously wounded and left for dead.
Episode #6; 『Mire』
Yoshikazu appears inside the science lab and kills Yuuya. He then gets a command from Sachiko to kill Yuka Mochida, which for some reason, he initially declines and lets her run away. He then proceeds to follow Yuka around in hopes of killing her. He shows up once more at the end of the chapter, smashing the back of Yuka's head.
Corpse Party: Tortured Souls
Episode 2: Broken Hinges
Yoshikazu attacks Yui Shishido after she witnessed Mayu Suzumoto's death.
Episode 3: Unreachable Feelings
Yoshikazu kills Yoshiki Kishinuma after he saved Yuka Mochida from Yuuya Kizami.
Episode 4: Sorrowful Truth
Yoshikazu is seen dragging Seiko's corpse into the dissection room. Satoshi Mochida and Naomi Nakashima hide under the table before Yoshikazu sees them. However they clearly see what he did in there. They see Seiko Shinohara's corpse drop to the floor. He used a pair of sewing scissors to remove Seiko's tongue from her body. Naomi sees this and signs of the darkening taking her over are shown. After Yoshikazu leaves with Seiko's corpse, Naomi screams after her dead friend and runs after them, leaving Satoshi alone. This leads her to eventually finding a tape, revealing the cause of Seiko's death.Significant plot details end here.
Etymology
- The name Yoshikazu is written in katakana (ヨシカズ), which has no special meaning. However, when part of the names Yoshi (ヨシ) and Kazu (カズ) are written in kanji (吉, 義, 良, Yoshi) - (数, 和, 計, 知, 一, 二, 五, 佳寿, 嘉寿, 花寿, Kazu), it could possibly mean:
- Yoshi (吉, 義, 良)
- 吉 - "lucky, good".
- 義 - "righteous".
- 良 - "good, virtuous, respectable".
- Kazu (数, 和, 計, 知, 一, 二, 五, 佳寿, 嘉寿, 花寿)
- 数 - "number, strength, fate, law, figures".
- 和 - "harmony, peace".
- 計 - "total, plot, plan, scheme, measure".
- 知 - "knowledge".
- 一 - "one".
- 二 - "two".
- 五 - "five".
- 佳寿 - "good, beautiful" (佳) (ka) and "longevity, congratulations, one's natural life" (寿) (zu).
- 嘉寿 - "applaud, praise, esteem, happy, auspicious" (嘉) (ka) and "longevity, congratulations, one's natural life" (寿) (zu).
- 花寿 - "flower, blossom" (花) (ka) and "longevity, congratulations, one's natural life" (寿) (zu).
- Yoshi (吉, 義, 良)
- Yoshikazu's surname Yanagihori means "willow" (柳) (yanagi) and "moat, ditch, canal" (堀) (hori).
ヨシカズ
Trivia
- According to Naho Saenoki, the Cursed Doll was a memento from his late mother.
- Yoshikazu is the second heaviest character in the series at 85.2 kg (187 lb), second only to his own father, Takamine Yanagihori (92 kg, 202 lb).
- In the live action movie, Yoshikazu is a custodian instead of a teacher, though he is still the son of Takamine.
- He shares his birthday with Azusa Takai.
