“It’s much harder to become a kind person than an important one”

“It’s much harder to become a kind person than an important one” is a saying Shimokawa attributes to his father, and the standard it sets becomes personal when Shimokawa uses it to tell Tooru Kamiya what he sees in him. The line distinguishes public importance from moral character: Tooru may believe he has little to offer, but his friend recognizes kindness as a difficult achievement, not a lesser substitute for status.

The saying and its meaning

Shimokawa introduces the thought while explaining why he considers Tooru admirable. His father’s comparison makes kindness the more difficult accomplishment: becoming an important person may bring recognition, but becoming kind requires resisting the ways hardship can deform someone. Shimokawa applies that distinction directly to Tooru, whose difficult life, he says, has not made him warped, servile, or mean.

The expression is therefore not abstract praise. Shimokawa grounds it in the contrast between what Tooru appears to lack and what he actually possesses. Tooru pretends he has nothing, Shimokawa tells him, yet he has the things that matter, including kindness. The saying supplies a measure of worth that does not depend on being a VIP or holding a conspicuous position.

The conversation between Shimokawa and Tooru

The words arrive in a strained conversation. The two friends try to speak normally, but the effort falters until Shimokawa breaks the silence by thanking Tooru for being his friend. His praise takes Tooru by surprise; he has never heard Shimokawa speak this way before. The saying lends conviction to a farewell-like moment, turning gratitude into an explicit recognition of Tooru’s character.

Shimokawa’s assessment is also attentive to adversity. He does not deny that Tooru has had a tough life; he argues that Tooru’s response to it is what makes him remarkable. In his father’s formulation, people who have suffered often become servile or mean. Tooru has not. The line thus names kindness not as innocence or ease, but as something maintained despite circumstances that might have produced bitterness.

An echo of Maori’s judgment

The expression gains a second resonance because Shimokawa’s words overlap with what Maori Hino told Tooru the day before they parted: that he really is a kind person. The two affirmations come from different relationships, but converge on the same quality. Shimokawa’s appeal to his father’s maxim gives a reasoned frame to the recognition Maori had already expressed more simply.

Tooru’s inward response shows how difficult that recognition is for him to accept. He thinks that he is kind only in a half-hearted, entirely unpraiseworthy way, and is about to say so. Instead, he does not voice the denial. The silence leaves the praise standing between the friends: the expression does not instantly change Tooru’s self-image, but it prevents him from dismissing the judgment aloud.

Role in the scene

The saying turns a moment of thanks into an exchange about what makes a person admirable. Tooru answers Shimokawa jokingly, wishing him well as someone important and admirable, though he means the encouragement sincerely. Shimokawa smiles, then admits that he is about to cry and says he will not forget Tooru. Their parting makes the maxim more than a definition of kindness: it becomes part of the recognition and gratitude they carry away from their friendship.