Dante

Dante (ダンテ, Dante) is a supporting character in BNA: Brand New Animal. He is the coach of the Bears Baseball Team. He is an aye-aye Beastman.

Appearance
His beastform is a gray aye-aye with a brown birthmark on his face and green eyes. As a child, Dante had a beige muzzle color that began to disappear with age. In the aye-aye form, it has long triangular drooping ears, a smooth-haired tail, a large mouth and a slightly elongated muzzle. Young Dante had smooth brown hair. Throughout the BNA events, he had pink spots on his face that appeared due to his alcoholism. He also has a bruise on his left eye. Dante wears a white "Henly" shirt with buttons on the collar, white trousers and beige flip-flops.

Personality
He initially appears as a lazy, apathetic coach; until it is revealed he is coerced into fixing the matches by the mafia. In his youth, he was a driven and passionate baseball player, only to have his hopes dashed by constant discrimination which resulted in him raging at his abusers. He became an alcoholic to cope with his traumatic past.

He rekindles his love for baseball during the baseball league finals, and gives Michiru a much-needed fiery boost of encouragement; not to mention quits his drinking.

Background
Dante had hopes of playing in the major leagues ever since he caught a baseball at a game during his childhood.

When he grew up, Dante joined the Odaibo team in the mainland. He was the first beastman to join a major league baseball team and made the papers. Dante is initially optimistic and joyful, but he faces discrimination everywhere, from fans and even teammates. Eventually, he explodes during a match, and in a fury, attacks the players on the field.

He later comes to Anima City and becomes a coach for the Bears Baseball Team.

Brand New Animal
During the course of the season, he is pressured to fix matches and to make the Bears lose. When Michiru joins the team and the Bears begin a winning streak, the mafia gets angry and threatens him to force the Bears to lose. During the finale, he sneaks into the mafia hideout and steals the gambling winnings. Shirou intercepts and takes the money from him while showing him a recording of Michiru's speech to the people in the stadium which brings him to tears of mirth and joy while also feeling a downpour of shame and regret. Dante later encourages Michiru and his team to win the game. The Bears still lose by a small margin, and the mafia boss tries handing Dante (thinking he kept his word) his pay, but he refuses while stating that gambling does not interest him anymore and that he now wants to play the sport.

Special Abilities

 * Stealth: Dante is able to crawl from ceilings, enter guarded spaces, and steal locked items undetected.

Trivia

 * Dante is likely a reference to Danpei Tange from Osamu Dezzaki's Ashita no Joe.

Etymology

 * Dante is a contracted form of the Italian name Durante which means "steadfast, enduring" from the Latin "durus" meaning "hard, firm".