Masazo Kinoto

"I hate it when people see my back!"

- Masazo Kinoto

Masazo Kinoto (乙 雅三) is a tertiary character featured in the fourth part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Diamond is Unbreakable, specifically in the "Cheap Trick" story arc.

Kinoto is an architect commissioned by Rohan Kishibe to evaluate the repair costs of his house. He was made an unwitting Stand user by Yoshihiro Kira, wielding the self-sabotaging Stand Cheap Trick.

Kinoto also appears in the TV Drama version of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan. Whilst still an architect, his role is altered to be an employee working for a resort company trying to persuade Rohan to sell Mutsu-kabe Hill to them. Rather than being a Stand user, he is possessed by a mysterious yokai.

Appearance
Masazo Kinoto is a scrawny man, having an undercut with two wild locks of hair, and cauliflower ears. He is seen wearing casual business attire: a collared shirt, khaki pants, and a large trench coat.

In the TV drama adaptation, Kinoto has a standard haircut. He has a two piece suit consisting in a pale blue shirt, with a jewelled brooch on the collar, a mauve coat and trousers with a handkerchief in the chest pocket, violet socks and black loafers. The coat has a meander wave pattern on the inside. He also wears suspenders.

Personality
Kinoto is a quiet and timid architect, but a little greedy. His Stand, Cheap Trick, constantly keeps him paranoid, subliminally warning Kinoto that he would die if anyone saw his back. Since obtaining the Stand, Kinoto is in constant danger of people seeing his back, causing him to behave erratically, and do bizarre acts to hide it, such as walking on the street with his back against somebody else's back, pushing himself against a wall to walk sideways, and even crawling up stairs upside down. As revealed by Heaven's Door, Kinoto frets over the fact he hasn't been able to find a girlfriend.

Stand
Kinoto possesses the Stand Cheap Trick who attaches itself to its user's back and kills him when someone else sees the back. It then reattaches to whoever saw the user's back. While hanging on the back, Cheap Trick remains invisible to everyone, even other Stand users, and has the power to make itself heard and understood by any person or animal.

Kinoto was too weak-willed to fully form his Stand and had no control over it, his power manifesting as an obsession over hiding his back. It was only when Rohan saw Kinoto's back that Cheap Trick fully materialized.

Background
Kinoto is one of the people shot by Yoshihiro Kira to defend his son, Yoshikage Kira. Lacking the power to control his Stand properly, Kinoto doesn't fully develop Cheap Trick, only a phobia of showing his back to anyone else derived from its intimidating whispers. He's eventually called by Rohan to evaluate his burned house and had to turn his back against someone else's and walk backwards to reach the house.

Diamond is Unbreakable
Kinoto is a first-class architect sent to evaluate the cost for repairing Rohan's burned home, planning to charge more than the necessary because Rohan was rich. Upon their meeting, Rohan immediately uses Heaven's Door to turn him into a book and read his bio. Rohan sees that Kinoto's a normal human (although he only think he is), and writes a safety lock, just to be sure. However, Rohan also learns of Kinoto's abnormal fear of having his back seen. Growing curious about Kinoto's attempts to hide his back, Rohan tricks Kinoto into falling into a hole on the floor, exposing his back. This enables his parasitic Stand Cheap Trick to drain Kinoto of his life and stick to Rohan's back instead.

Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan (TV Drama)
In the TV Drama adaptation, Masazo Kinoto's background is modified to fit the story. He is a corporate executive working for MS Resort corporation and the project leader for a project to build a resort on the Mutsu-kabe Hill. When Rohan Kishibe buys the mountain under the company's nose, both Kinoto and his boss are furious. Kinoto was on his way to meet the former owner to sign a contract, but when he learns about Rohan's purchase, he storms off, even keeping the high-price melon that he was planning to offer to the former proprietor. He got lost in the woods and was then possessed by a yokai, making him instinctively fear showing his back.

Later, Kinoto goes to meet Rohan Kishibe to persuade the manga artist to sell the land to his company. He dies in the exact same circumstances as the original manga, though his body doesn't shrivel and is merely evacuated from Rohan's house.

Gallery
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Trivia

 * With his appearance in From Behind, Masazo Kinoto is the first character from the manga (outside of TSKR) to appear in the TV Drama.