Kei Narutani

Kei Narutani (鳴谷 慧, Narutani Kei) is the main male protagonist of the Girly Air Force series. He is a Chinese-Japanese teenager who was living in Shanghai with his childhood friend Minghua Song before it had to be evacuated due to a Zai attack. After witnessing Gripen fighting a pair of Zai fighters and then crashing into the sea, he impulsively comes to her aid, which creates an emotional bond between them. With his mother, an airshow pilot, killed in a Zai ambush attack, he decides to join the Japan Air Self-Defense Force to take revenge on them. After becoming privy to the Anima project, he becomes Gripen's weapon systems officer and emotional anchor.

Appearance
Kei has greenish-black hair that has bangs hanging on the right side and emerald-green eyes.

He is often depicted as wearing a dark blue undershirt with a lighter blue overshirt or in the cases when he flies with Gripen, green military-style overalls with a flight mask.

Etymology

 * The name Kei means "intelligent" (慧).
 * Kei's surname Narutani means "ringing" (鳴) (naru) and "valley" (谷) (tani).