Jean Kirschtein (Junior High Anime)

Jean Kirschtein (ジャン・キルシュタイン) is a 1st year Titan Junior High School student and Eren's rival.

Appearance
Along with an arrogant smile plastered on his face, Jean has a two-toned undercut and wears the school's standard uniform.

Personality
Jean is in the same class as Eren and Mikasa. He gets into fights with Eren often, and has a crush on Mikasa. He sees himself as a genuine intellectual, and appears to be wealthy. Jean enjoys bragging to his peers about his popularity in elementary school. Jean clashes with mostly everyone in his class, as he believes that he is above most of them. He acts obnoxious towards girls, so some ― if not most ― find him repulsive.

Story
Eren's fourth crash victim, in which he calmly ignores and proceeds on hurrying to school. But as soon as Mikasa steps over him, he turns into fascination. Lagging along with the rest of the group chasing Eren, he ends up in the Titan's side of the school. As he proceeds to drag behind with Eren neglecting his suspicions, he is greeted with a shower of gigantic school supplies. Spotting a Titan behind them, he hurriedly rushes away. Much to his perverted thoughts of pulling down Christa's skirt, he ends up dragging down Conny's pants. Along with Sasha, Eren, and Conny, they go tumbling out the door. Luckily, they are found by Hannes who direct him and the others back to human's side of the school. Jean stirs up a fight after Eren introduces himself to the class. He notices Mikasa trying to break them up, dumbfounded by her beauty. Out of jealousy, Jean has another go at Eren but this time he is stopped by their homeroom teacher. Jean later attends the entrance ceremony.

Jean wonders why the person sitting next to Eren has been absent for a long period of time. That turns out to be Armin, who is properly introduced to him later. Jean follows his friends to find the Attack Junior High Scout Regiment, where he is accepted into said unauthorized club. The next day, his name is signed up for the Wall Cleanup Club by Mr. Keith, who assigned them to a random club because they did not send in their admission forms.

Jean takes part in his school dodgeball and is confident in his team's abilities - especially Mikasa's. To his dismay, Eren is late which causes Mikasa to lose energy and the will to play. His friends suggest Jean dress up as Eren to temporarily fool Mikasa in order to play against Annie's team, however their plan ends up failing. Luckily, Eren appears in time for the match. Jean watches in awe as Mikasa's performance is equal to Annie's, ensuring them a higher chance of victory. Dazzled by the match he forgets to dodge an incoming attack taking him out of the game.

Along with the gang, Jean is forced to clean the windows under the orders of the Wall Cleanup Club's captain, Rico Brzenska. Irritated by the passers by, Jean admits to himself that popularity is his sole goal and cleaning does not help to reach it either. He lunges out the window, remarking the others that he will choose to follow his goal. Upon landing, shock sends through Jean not noting that he jumped from the third level of the building. With an attempt to escape, Rico catches him and brings Jean down. Upon Rico's introduction of the omni-directional mobility gear, Jean thinks of many possible ways to use the device in order for him to get popular. Him and Eren fight over the gear as Rico notes the both of them as idiots. The captain forges a deal that if they finish the task assigned to them, she will teach them how to use the gear. With that said, Jean and the rest rush to get their job done.

While Eren struggles with his gear, Jean mocks him with his redundant determination to do such things. With the club's adviser, Hannes tries on Eren's busted gear and attempts to fly. Unfortunately, he crashes into Jean causing the two to tumble to the ground. Rico appoints the broken gear and the dismisses the activity. The next day, Jean and the rest are happy for Eren's success in using the gear. As Sasha senses a tremble on the ground, Jean and the group hides among trees. Jean witnesses the horrible scene of Titans vandalizing the Wall. He discovers the real reason behind the Wall Cleanup Club's main purpose.

The day of the test results, Jean mocks on Sasha for failing then go to the Scout Regiment club room with Eren and Mikasa. They are greeted by Petra and her classmates. Upon hearing Oruo's complaints about his grade, everyone show theirs to compare, much to Jean's annoyance. Later on, he helps Eren and Gunther restrain Hange who was starving and had attacked Oruo. When Hange introduces the first years the Titans she is taking care of, Jean is horrified and tells her bringing up Titans is not possible.

Jean and Marco walk into the school hallway and they come across Connie and Sasha, then Franz and Hanna. Jean calls the latters a stupid couple and gets upset at their reaction. He then sees Eren and Mikasa together, which angers him and he grabs Eren by his shirt, telling him how jealous he felt. After that, he complains about girls not noticing him and open his locker to find a love letter. The following day, Jean comes to school with a different hairstyle and perfume on him. He boasts off in front of his comrades and proudly shows them the letter. After having read it again, Jean begins to think the author of the letter must be a girl close to him. Looking at the girls around him, he then imagines Sasha, Christa, Ymir, Petra and Rico showing interest on being with him and even fight for it. He then looks up to Mikasa, at first assuming it would be unlikely then imagining her being in love with him. Jean is then approached by a blushing Annie who wants to talk to him. Mikasa and her begin to argue, which makes Jean assume they are fighting for him. As he proudly tries to calm them down, the two girls hit him. In her movement, Annie lets down a letter which looks exactly like the one Jean received earlier, which makes him believes she has feelings for him. Later on, Jean and the others see Annie putting something in his locker. Annie suddenly leaves and Jean goes to find letter which asks him to go to the park. Once he arrives there, he impatiently waits, then Annie comes with the others. Jean tells Annie he agrees to date her, which angers her. As a consequence she hits Jean before explaining she wrote the letters for a friend of hers. Annie then calls her friend and Jean learns that a Titan is in love with him. Annie explains the reason for her friend loving Jean, and Marco remembers a day when they were chased after by a Titan who stopped when Jean threw his bento in her mouth. Jean is at first shocked by the news but then tries to persuade himself that the Peering Titan is actually human and forces gestures of affection towards her. After Marco yells at him, he comes back to reality and admits he does not want to date a Titan. In response the Peering Titan cries, hits him and runs away. Jean is now feeling down so, in order to cheer him up, Sasha takes her white radish and her curry bread and makes them talk like they were two women fighting for Jean. This works, as Jean takes the food and imagines two women are fighting for him.

Relationships

 * Marco Bodt - Marco is surprisingly patient with Jean and is one of the first students who politely welcome him to class. Notably, the two are best friends and support each other wholly.
 * Eren Jaeger - Jean takes an immediate disliking to Eren the second he introduces himself to the class. Not only is Jean jealous of Eren's close relationship with Mikasa, he sees Eren as an imbecile with opinions that are the exact opposite to his.
 * Mikasa Ackermann - Jean has an obvious crush on Mikasa. He goes dreamy whenever fantasizing about her, but is mostly nervous whenever he wants to speak to her upfront. He admires her and compliments her, blindly supporting her in anything she does.
 * Peering Titan - Jean has a weird relationship with the Peering Titan as she fell in love with him when he threw his lunch at the Peering Titan's mouth.