What makes a great leader is that they lead by example, and Kanata has proved that on numerous occasions from the very beginning. When he’s first introduced, he went out of his way to catch a thief who stole a young lady’s purse. That young lady is Aries, who is in the same group as Kanata. Another instance of when he puts his life at risk to help his crew is when everyone is initially on board the Astra, they have yet to recover Aries, who’s still stranded outside and is too far to reach. Kanata again immediately volunteers to save her despite the risks he may be lost, too. One last example to share is when he helps Funicia by jumping across high terrain flora and fauna in order to rescue her knowing one small mistake can cost him his own life!

What also makes Kanata a great character that contributes to his leadership by example personality is that he’s motivated to make his dreams come true. The source of this motivation is how he lost his teacher in a camping trip when he was a child. Him and his teacher went out of their way to help another student who was hanging off the edge of a cliff and upon rescuing that child, the ground beneath the teacher collapsed and fell to his unfortunate doom. Due to how he feels that he failed his teacher, Kanata uses that as fuel to not only put himself at risk, but to make his dreams of going into space come true.

If there’s another solid reason as to why Kanata is the captain of the Astra, it’s because he has the most experience in terms of surviving out in the wild. As a child, he took survival courses and camping trips. Not only that, after the loss of his teacher, him and the rest of his camping group were still lost for a few days and managed to survive. Due to Kanata’s prior experience in being lost without adult supervision and with his education, he knows to stay calm, improvise, adapt, and overcome!

In addition to being trained and experienced in survival, under his father’s tutelage, Kanata was also an accomplished track athlete during his pre-teen years. While Kanata has given up on being a track athlete prior to the start of the series, his training and accomplishments have been of great benefit on their journey! When he first retrieves Aries’ bags, it was thanks to his training as a track athlete that gave him the speed and agility to catch the thief! And when he had to save Funicia by running and jumping across mushroom/trees as tall as skyscrapers, it was thanks to his background that he could make the jumps!

If there’s anyone that helped make Kanata a believable leader, it’s thanks to the performance of Yoshimasa Hosoya, who has also played teenagers in roles of leadership. Such roles include Orga from Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans and Sekizan from All-Out have helped Hosoya find Kanata’s voice. As Kanata, Hosoya not only makes him believable as a charismatic leader, but as a hormone driven teenager who is out to prove his manhood in both an external and internal definition, and exhibit firm and fairness to his fellow teens.