Seiji Katayama

Seiji Katayama is the deuteragonist of Fence, and the love interest of the protagonist. He is a fencing prodigy, member of the Kings Row fencing team, and a student at Kings Row Boys School, where he is the roommate of Nicholas Cox.

Appearance
Seiji has short, black, meticulously styled hair with a three-quarter hair part and dark eyes. He also has a beauty mark under his left eye. His eyebrows are notable, and are the most expressive part of his face. Seiji is generally regarded as attractive by his peers.

Personality
Seiji is blunt, honest to a fault, and literal-minded, which makes him unapproachable to most. Many students admire him for his talent in fencing, and many students are jealous and find him arrogant (Tanner, Terrence). Seiji demonstrates excellent self-control and dedication to his passions, which has led to his incredible technique and skill in fencing. He is shown to wake at 4am in the morning for fencing practice, and follows a strict athletic meal plan to maximise his performance. Seiji cares deeply about fencing, and is interested in it as a subject beyond just the practical sport, shown by his extensive collection of literature about fencing. Seiji has a highly competitive mindset, that discards losing as even an option. This leads to emotional meltdowns in the rare occasion he loses a match. When this happens, Seiji withdraws into himself and becomes irritable and distressed.

Seiji is an introvert, who finds social situations tricky, mostly due to his difficulty with understanding subtle social cues. He has always found it hard to make friends, as he often upsets people through his blunt honesty. Throughout his life, many people have told Seiji he is a very intense person, even saying he can be so intense it is ‘scary’. He appreciates tidiness and organization in his dorm room and life in general. Seiji’s mannerisms also reflect this, as he comes across as collected and aloof to those who first meet him. Seiji is a very independent person, who therefore struggles with understanding the point of teamwork in fencing. He is confident of his fencing ability, but otherwise has low self-esteem towards his worth as a son and someone’s friend.

Despite claiming he has no personality, Seiji is often an emotional person, who just finds it difficult to express feelings externally in the way his peers might. A lot of things make Seiji angry or annoyed, but he seldom lets his anger take full control of him. Seiji rarely smiles and has expressed how he finds humour difficult to understand. Nonetheless, Seiji feels great happiness and enjoyment while fencing. Seiji cares deeply about injustices around him and values fair play. He is also very tactical and logical, which helps with his fencing strategy.

History
Seiji is an only child, and was raised in Connecticut, USA, by his Mother and Father, who are happily married. Seiji comes from a wealthy family, as both his parents work in a Zaibatsu that specializes in automotive manufacture. His father is the CEO of this business conglomeration. From an early age, Seiji was very independent and unusually mature compared to other children. He didn’t have an interest in make-believe games or group activities, and therefore struggled to make friends with his peers. Jesse Coste, Seiji’s ex-fencing partner, was perhaps the closest thing Seiji had to a friend throughout his childhood, although they never officially called their relationship a friendship. Seiji was a very shy child, and his teachers noted that he kept a ‘distance from his peers’. Even to his parents, Seiji was apparently difficult to communicate with, since Seiji prefers to internalize his feelings rather than express them externally. Although Seiji’s parents provided every material possession Seiji needed, his childhood was emotionally neglectful.

Seiji discovered fencing when he was five years old. His parents made sure to provide the best coaches and equipment for Seiji to pursue this passion. Seiji was so naturally talented at fencing that he quickly progressed ahead of other fencers his age, resulting in Seiji fencing boys much older than him throughout his childhood. The only person his age who had the same level of skill was Jesse Coste, who Seiji met when they were both very young. Seiji’s continued dedication to fencing shaped his entire life growing up, his father remarking that it was the one thing that seemingly made Seiji happy. Seiji’s talent was so notable he was already mentioned as Olympic potential from a very young age.

When Seiji was in middle school, he went to train in France for a year, where he became a finalist in the Junior European championship. When Seiji returned to the USA, he had to progress through the nationals season starting from the regionals competition. His first match at regionals is where he first met Nicholas Cox, a match which Seiji won 15-0. In the same nationals season, Seiji fenced Jesse Coste in the finals, a match which Seiji lost. This devastating loss between him and his fencing partner, who Seiji was often considered the lesser-skilled mirror of, drove a wedge between them. Everyone had assumed that Seiji would choose to go to High school at Exton Boys Academy, the team that Jesse Coste was captain of. However, likely due to his bitterness over his defeat at nationals and Seiji’s desire to beat Jesse, he chose to attend Kings Row Boys School instead, where he is currently a freshman.

Plot
After winning against Nicholas in a regional tournament, Seiji meets him again at Kings Row, this time not as an opponent but as his roommate. They compete for a place in the schools fencing team.

In the tryout tournament for the fencing team, he started with a winning spree until his match against Aiden Kane. Aiden revealed that the reason Seiji chose Kings Row over Exton was his fear of facing Jesse again and was able to rile him up to the point that he lost his cool and, ultimately, lost. After cooling off in the bathroom and being interrupted by Nicholas, who rushes in to inform him of his win against Jay Jones, he regains his composure and continues a new winning spree.

Seiji decides to watch Nicholas' match against Kally, during which he notices the similarities between Nicholas' and Jesse's fencing styles, prompting him to confront Nicholas in a supply room after the match to talk about his connection with Jesse. As Nicholas is unwilling to reveal his relation to his half-brother and demands to be recognized as Seiji's rival in spite of Seiji's obsession with Jesse, the situation escalates and they brawl, only to be found by Aiden and Harvard.

Fencing Skills
Seiji has vastly superior fencing skills compared to his peers and no known weaknesses. His hits are extremely fast and so hard that they leave bruises on the bodies of his opponents. The only person he has lost to is Jesse Coste, who beat him during the semi-final at the nationals, the season before he entered Kings Row. He is, by far, the most skilled player on the Kings Row Fencing Team, his only known flaw being his inability to work on a team.

Dmytro Osharov
Coach Dmytro is Seiji’s personal fencing Coach. Seiji has trained under the coaching of Dmytro since a very young age. Despite having trained under many Coaches, Dmytro seems to be a reoccurring Coach in Seiji’s life. The two have a straightforward relationship, focused purely on fencing. Dmytro seems to share Seiji’s desire for rules and order, and they both appreciate efficiency. Dmytro teaches Seiji at his early morning practices, and is the one who created Seiji’s strict meal plan. Dmytro is confident of Seiji’s ability in fencing, and praises him after he wins matches.

Jesse Coste
Jesse is the current top ranked fencer and the only person Seiji has lost to at Nationals. Seiji developed a fixation on Jesse and is obsessed with finding a way to beat him. They have known each over since they were children and Jesse was one of the few opponents of Seiji's own age who could fence on the same level as him.

Nicholas Cox
His relationship to his roommate Nicholas Cox is shaped by lots of quarreling. They can not stand each other to the point that they divide the room in two with a shower curtain. Nicholas stubbornly tries to be acknowledged as Seiji's rival but is ignored - until Seiji sees him properly fencing for the first time ever since their first match against each other. Seiji instantly sees the similarities between Nicholas' and Jesse's fast fencing styles and is hellbent on finding the connection between them. As their relationship grows as roommates and teammates, Nicholas and Senji, (though reluctantly), begin to see themselves as friends, going so far to the point that Senji helps Nicholas with his aim in tennis ball hitting by touching and guiding his shoulders.

Behind the scenes
C.S. Pacat chose to make Seiji Japanese to honor the influence and inspiration that she gained from Japanese sports manga while living in Japan. Because of how much she gained artistically from her time there, Pacat said it felt appropriate to include and celebrate a Japanese protagonist in Fence.

Trivia

 * Seiji lives in dorm room 108
 * According to this tweet by author C.S. Pacat, the kanji for his name are 片山誠治.
 * Seiji's signature color is blue, as shown by his blue fencing shoes
 * Out of the cast, Seiji and Aiden spend the most time on their hair
 * According to his profile his favorite food is a triple fudge sundae with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles
 * He records his matches in a bullet journal
 * Out of the available sports uniform variations, Seiji prefers the zip up top