Kaere Kimura is a student who appears in the second season of the anime Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei. She is a tall, blonde girl with blue eyes and hair that reaches her waist, and she is typically seen wearing a private school uniform that contrasts with the standard attire of her classmates. Her background is defined by her status as a returnee, having spent time studying in an unspecified foreign country before returning to Japan. This experience has left her with a deep cultural identity confusion, which manifests as a form of dissociative identity disorder, causing her to shift between two primary personalities: the foreign, assertive Kaere and the more traditionally Japanese Kaede.

Her very name reflects her role and personality, as "Kaere" is derived from the Japanese imperative form of the verb "to return or go back," a fitting moniker for a character constantly critiquing her home country from an outsider's perspective. Personality-wise, Kaere is belligerent, assertive, and unafraid to speak her mind. She constantly nitpicks various aspects of Japanese culture, unfavorably comparing them to the often outlandish and apocryphal customs and rituals she claims to have learned while living overseas. Her most defining motivational trait is her enthusiastic litigiousness; she is extremely quick to threaten legal action over perceived slights or harassment, to the point where her catchphrase becomes a threat to sue.

Within the story, Kaere's primary role is as a source of conflict and satire, challenging the already cynical worldview of her teacher, Nozomu Itoshiki. In her debut, she transfers into the class, immediately leading to a confrontation with Nozomu. After he prevents her from an apparent suicide attempt but inadvertently sees her underwear, she responds by threatening him with a lawsuit, causing him to flee and go into hiding. This incident sets the tone for their relationship, which is adversarial and fueled by culture clashes and legal threats. Her key relationships also involve her interactions with other students, who often find themselves bewildered by her actions, and with the hyper-observant Chiri Kitsu, whose investigation into the class roster indirectly leads to other discoveries.

As a character, Kaere shows little traditional development, instead serving as a consistent comedic device representing the "culturally confused returnee" archetype. Her noted abilities are not physical but social and psychological; she possesses a hyper-awareness of legal loopholes and social etiquette, which she weaponizes into constant threats of lawsuits. Her sharp tongue and ability to dismantle cultural norms with aggressive comparisons make her a formidable and disruptive presence in the classroom, ensuring that her arrival always brings chaos and a fresh wave of despair for her teacher.