「絢辻詞編 第一章 ハッケン」 (Ayatsuji Tsukasa-hen Dai Isshou – Hakken)
“Ayatsuji Tsukasa Chapter 1 – Discovery”

The start of arguably one of the most anticipated arcs, a full-length shot of Haruka winning the Miss Santa contest, the sight of Tsukasa, Kaoru, and Keiko in their swimsuits, and more “nishishishi” from Miya than you can shake a stick at. This episode had just about everything to make Tsukasa’s story seem like an ideal one, provided that you like two-faced class presidents who are nothing like they appear. If I had a choice, I would take Nazuka Kaori’s “manipulatively sophisticated” role as Sangou Shizuku in Kampfer over her Tsukasa one any day of the week, because at least I know what I’m getting with her. Tsukasa on the other hand is like Pandora’s Box, which Junichi didn’t even try opening yet had the unfortunate pleasure of doing so simply by stumbling upon her detailed notebook. I could even say she’s like a box of chocolates, because I really don’t know what the I’m going to get. All I can say is that all the ones up to this point were sweet, but this most recent one was really, really bitter. Granted, I was already wary of the girl who has a tendency to stare at people blankly before smiling it off after she’s made her analysis of them. It was only reaffirmed by reader comments that gave away the actual surprise too.

Regardless, it was pretty easy to sense that there was much more to Tsukasa than she’s been letting off, and nothing could really shake the feeling that she has all these thoughts about other people that she keeps to herself. What gets me the most about her character is that it’s almost impossible to tell what she’s actually thinking, given the nice and respectable facade she keeps up the entire time at school. No one’s going to suspect anything of the diligent class president after all, and that’s where the creepy and unsettling vibe comes from. In short, it’s the behavior one would either expect from a manipulative psychopath or a serial killer. Not exactly the kind of girl Junichi would want to date if he’s concerned about keeping that head of his on his shoulders. Of course, it looks like he’s going to hit it off with her anyway (or at least try to) and potentially learn the reason why Tsukasa keeps her true self concealed from public view, However, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen without a little bit of a whipping at her hands every step of the way. Let’s just hope that Junichi has a bit of masochism in him that just needs a little help “coming out”, because if these two do hit it off like I’m suspecting, he’s surely in store for one hell of an abusive ride in the bedroom. I’m willing to bet Tsukasa’s got nails and she’s more than willing to use them to dig into whatever she pleases whether Junichi would enjoy it or not.

Kinky bedroom stuff aside, it looks like the cause of Tsukasa’s behavior stems from stuff at home. The first real indication that there’s even another side was the annoyance she showed when she ran into her older sister Yukari (Igarashi Aiko), making just about everything at the make-up swimming class she was overseeing feel very, very fake. I generally hate girls who put up an act like Tsukasa does because of how superficial they are, but I’ll reserve judgement about her character until I find out the reasons why she does it. I still don’t really understand why she was quick to show Junichi that other side of her after he had taken a glance into the notebook she dropped, because I would’ve figured she could have easily determined if he read anything she didn’t want him to and kept up the “nice girl” act accordingly. After all, she’s proved to be pretty darn cunning all this time. It’s pretty clear in my mind that she doesn’t want anyone to know about that other side of her and any potential family-related problems she has though, so I guess the safest way was to just blackmail Junichi from now on for stumbling on her secret. It looks like he’s going to be her bitch from now on, which is probably way more than he bargained for when he volunteered to help out with the Founder’s Festival this year. But hey, being Tsukasa’s dog with benefits would technically mean he was successful in getting a girlfriend this year, so it can’t be all that bad as long as she’s not carrying a knife in that bag of hers at all times.

Anyway, I do like how dark Tsukasa looks in the new ending sequence, plus how it emphasizes that there’s two sides to her. The title of the song is “Angel of Lament” too, suggesting that she may be carrying a burden or simply troubled in some way. Either way, I’m completely fine with sacrificing Junichi to find out why that is. He can consider it as karma for taking advantage of voluptuous younger girls in an alternate reality. Nishishishi~

 

ED6 Sequence

ED6: 「嘆きの天使」 (Nageki no Tenshi) by 名塚佳織 (Nazuka Kaori)
Watch the 6th ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

102 Comments

    1. Well first of all, Junichi needs to be an asshole, and have banged all the other girls (WHICH HE HAS NOT, since this is an alternate reality. Plus, he did not take advantage of Koaru, and Rihochi). Then, Ayase must be completely jealous of the other girls, and then she can go yandere. I think you have mistaken the plot for some other show.

      Kelfistan
  1. Like I said in the shout box she seems like the type to just go crazy and start stabbing kids in the hall in a fit of rage. Not having read the manga I dont know how scary evil she is or it might even be a red herring and the is no where near as sinister as this first episode “appears” to make her out to be.

    Karmafan
  2. “Either way, I’m completely fine with sacrificing Junichi to find out why that is.”

    I consider it a karma for friendzoning a girl in her own arc.

    Btw, Nazuka Kaori seems to voice quite a number of class/school presidents lately. Thirst for power? 😀

    Tiresias
  3. *Glasses pull*

    Here we go…

    YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! (I decided to scratch the “Endless recursion of time” thing after the perceived trolling of Rihoko’s fans last week.)

    Hmm…Tsukasa can put up a rather convincing “dere” facade. Once she drops it though…oh crap… Of course, I can’t wait to see Tsukasa being honest-to-goodness “dere,” but that will have to wait until the last two episodes or so. Even though the Precious Diary manga gives a good idea of Tsukasa’s “dark side,” I can’t wait to see it portrayed in the anime.

    And is that her older sister? Oh eff yes! (I’ve been waiting for her to appear since reading the Precious Diary manga.) Oddly enough, in the manga, her name is given as Midori, but in the anime it’s Yukari — possibly an inconsistency between both mediums — unless Tsukasa really has two older sisters! *GASP!*

    Okay, kidding aside, a question for those who’ve played the actual Amagami dating sim: Is there no name given for Tsukasa’s older sister in the game?

    P.S.: Personally, I’d like to see seiyuu joke fanart of Tsukasa with Yui Kotegawa (To LOVE-Ru). Or Tsukasa going: “I will not allow shameless acts!” (with pointer finger).

    Incognito
  4. Remember a couple of episodes before in the last arc of Ai Nanasaki, Junichi thinks what Ai is planning to do and the yandere version of her wins me. Tsukasa might exceed that delusion one hundred more times.

    Her inner thoughts in the alternate arcs starts with Sae-chan, already implies she seems to be very dangerous.

    Goodluck to Junichi on how he would survive without his heart turned into a certain character in MM!!.

    As Divine mentioned, revenge at last for laying his hands upon Sae and Ai.

    pedobear
  5. Kare Kano character
    Maybe Tsukasa Ayatsuji’s mother is Yukino Miyazawa and her father is Soichiro Arima, that explains her personality combined with those two. (Probably Soichiro and Yukino get a divorced, so Tsukasa’s mother remariied) .She had two older sisters (twins) namely, Yukari and Midori.

    pedobear
  6. Tsukasa gives a rather deep insight into the two-faced needed in successful leadership. Let’s just say there’s a reason why this saying exist “It’s lonely at the top.”

    It’s strange, people want perfection in their leaders even though they are normal human beings. That scene where Juinchi was stuck in the middle of the class feuding for resources was a great example.

    Someone
  7. Ending reminded me of Bokura Ga Ita insert song. Not bad.

    I’m down with the class rep also; and while we can all poke fun at the ‘yandere’ archetype that she’s being pigeon holed into, considering the nature of this show she’s realistically just a jaded/introverted person. Junnichi could almost be considered the same, except hes kind of a naive/innocent guy, who still retains hope and has support from his bro friends, whereas Tsukasa’s ‘intellect’ tells her ‘the odds of things turning out good by now are slim’.

    interesting.

    Dawn
    1. How she is a yandere?

      I think you really should check what yandere means. So far Ayatsuji only showed us the appearance of the Type B tsundere (or as the commentator befor ecalled it dere-tsun-dere) rather than a yandere.

      If it follows Diary closely we will see her psycho mode too, but being a psycho is not a yandere only trait. Poeple keep forgetting that tsunderes can be psychos as well (Asuka Langley Sohryu from Evangelion).

      Darknemo2000
    2. Well even Tsukasa fans(myself included) are a little confused on what exact personality type she falls into. She has many faces, as we will soon find out. It’s her unpredictability that I enjoyed most about her.

      fragb85
  8. You can tell he is innocent. A more worldly person would have already figured out by now to avoid this girl like the plague. She is a timebomb waiting to go off. Question will be wether or not Junnichi can difuse this time bomb or not.

    Karmafan
  9. I yelled so loud at the end that I believe I woke up the neighbors. A cliffhanger like that tugs at the very structure at what keeps me in place.

    I can see how this arc will be truly amazing though, and gladly I didn’t play the actual game, or read anything about it, so I hope it lives up to the hype that I’m expecting.

    On a completely different note, remember the scene where Junichi and Haruka were talking in the pool? ok, that scene it shows her wearing socks, and then the next moment where she’s being dragged around by Hibiki she doesn’t have her socks on 😀 …. I found that to be funny … don’t judge me ><

  10. totally agree that I would choose Shizuku from Kampfer over this… too scary…
    though as people already said and shown from Rihoko’s arc, anything is possible from this point on… though I doubt fans will be happy if anything “unexpected” happens in the end… :()
    I really felt I was watching a different show from Amagami in this week’s episode… two-faced class rep is surely “interesting”

    jrj
  11. “It was only reaffirmed by reader comments that gave away the actual surprise too.”
    –> Honestly, I could have done without past comments by manga readers who gave away Tsukasa’s violent/evil girl character. Without those, the end of ep. 21 would have had more of an impact on me. Too bad. 🙁

    @CelestialEsence:

    Well apart from that scene you mentioned this episode had some quality issues with the chara design being off more than once. Hopefully the rest of the series will be back to the usual standard.

    boingman
  12. Really liking this arc animated, its so much better than reading the manga since the artwork is truer to the original.

    About the last scene though, I always found it kind of stupid that Tsukasa acted before taking a look at the situation. Its pretty obvious when you judge Junichi’s tone that he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but she’s probably paranoid anyway.

    On another note, poor Rihoko. They have to rub it into her face that she’s only a childhood friend

    Oh, and Haruka is still imo the cutest thing in this whole show. Respect to her for admitting that she’s a peeping tom while trying to train Junichi on how to do it properly.

    Saya
    1. I took her over-reaction to be from being forced from her comfort zone. Like when her sister shows up she has a time restraining herself. So assuming this isn’t a feint, or something that she’ll laugh off it might represent a kind of panicked reaction, to me it was normal for someone who values control. Anyhow Junichi seems to bring out the strongest reactions in females….Kaoru punched him out!

      Breedo
      1. I don’t dispute that its in character or believable why she’d react like that. I completely agree with Tsukasa being someone who values control…BUT when I look at in just generally… I feel if she had just analyzed the situation for a few seconds more she may have realized that Junichi knows nothing about her secret/that he didn’t really get far when “reading” her planner. Thus, she wouldn’t have needed to expose her ‘tsun’ side.

        I was only commenting on the very last scene btw and a more ideal way she could have acted if this was a real life situation for a girl trying to keep a ~secret~ I could potentially explain my reasoning better, but I don’t want to spoil nor can I be really stuffed with spoiler tags.

        Saya
      2. LOL opinions vary, above comments say its like a Type B tsundere, with extra layering :P. Personally she’s never crazy enough for me to associate her with the Yandere archtype(looking at the well known examples), even if she technically is one.

        Saya
      3. Show Spoiler ▼

        I really liked her manga chapters. After all, I still prefer the manga over the Omnibus format, you cannot get the real feeling of emotions with just 4 episodes. I think Amagami would have been better of with 6 seasons, containing 12-14 episodes each, so every girl gets her very own story told in the time needed to convey feelings and emotions properly.

        virox
  13. This clip from Tsukasa’s arc in the game cracks me up even though I don’t know Japanese. There’s not much spoiled in it unless you understand Japanese, but there’s a kiss and a nosebleed (not who you’d expect): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y7amgMmohs&feature=related

    Maybe someone who knows Japanese (*cough*Divine*cough*) could provide a brief summary of the dialogue after the kiss if he/she doesn’t mind a little spoiler? I’d love to know what was said between the two characters.

    Lee
  14. And the Lectro Volpi Award for best ending goes too… Oh my!

    “Kitto ashita Wa…” by Rina Satou *snif*

    Then “Koi wa Mizu-iro” by Yukana.

    You can see they like their little pet Tsukasa, in the manga she she was in her school uniform and here they gave her a swimsuit. Can this arc beat the seemingly invincible Haruka’s arc?

    Lectro Volpi
  15. Yukari looks like a cross between Tsukasa and Haruka.

    I had to read the manga after seeing this episode. Is it me or is Yukari unnaturally clueless about everything? She reminds me of Haruka in her playfulness and being aloof but Yukari exudes more childlike behavior like something may be wrong with her.

    While not my favorite arc, it’s definitely the most interesting. I can mirror with Tsukasa a bit. I’m pretty nice all around but if I need something from someone I’ll focus more attention onto that person to garner willingness. I don’t expect return favors (most of the time) but mentally scale what I’ve done for them against what they’ve done for me. If when I do expect a favor and it isn’t fulfilled, I can get a little frosty for a bit.

    It’s surprising how much leverage you have when everyone depends on you…or when you take on so much that you make them depend on you =.= Damn, Tsukasa rubbing off on me already…

    Avarice
    1. Hope they leave that in for the start of next weeks episode, like she continues to interrogate him. Because it’d be a shame if they missed out on all that skinship…especially when she’s in a friggin’ bathing suit. I assumed they made her wear it for that scene.

      Saya
  16. Finally Tsukasa’s arc is here – and by far the best opening episode on an arc by far. Right at the end I just found myself looking at the ED and saying “Oh Snap!”

    Cant wait for the rest of this arc.

    Thundershock81
  17. I still dont get how some poeple call her a ‘yandere’?

    She is nowhere close to a yandere or else you would have to call Asuka from evangelion a Yandere too, because let me remind you that in Sadamoto’s manga Asuka is a mirror image of Ayatsuji – she also has this good, genius girl mask yet her inner self is much darker and twisted. In fact she is more psycho than Ayatsuji because later in the series Asuka is willing to kill others and herself.

    Really, the poeple who call her a ‘yandere’ either need to realize what ‘yandere’ means or know the tsundere “Type B’ better so that they can compare the two types.

    So far Ayatsuji showed us nothing of a yandere type but showed bits of Type B tsundere.

    Darknemo2000
    1. We haven’t really seen much of (Dark) Tsukasa yet in this arc so it’s kind of hard to argue about her mental state without using info from the manga or the game. Thus any talk about this should be inside spoilers to save those who doesn’t want to know yet.

      Show Spoiler ▼

      Znail
    1. Yes, there is a reset and each arc starts over again with the same guy doing different things and thus ending up with a different girl each arc. We also get to see what the girls end up doing when they don’t get involved with the guy.

      Znail
  18. i wonder what the next episode will be seeing that scary face from a very helpful girl makes me very curios. will she be the same as Sangou Shizuku from Kampfer. hope not. i think i would expect a manipulative yet sweet girl style.

    ♛Croosboy♛
  19. If I had just watched the episode and not read the comments, I wouldn’t have picked up that she’s apparently crazy…

    As a girl I’m confused by the excitement this arc is generating. Am I to understand that guys like psycho-manipulating nice-but-not-but-actually-really-nice girls? :P?

    chloesong
    1. She isn’t crazy. It’s just that people go all-tilt when they see a threatening girl who has been rather kind and friendly before. All of a sudden they’re blabbering about the School Days “Nice Boat” massacre and whatnot.

      Mentar
    2. LOL.

      Well. 3 things.
      First, theres this thing called the Hot Vs Crazy scale 😀 look it up if you havent heard of it.
      Basically, guys like her cuz shes good looking

      Second,guys like to DOMINATE stuff. Lol. So in this case, Tsukasa thinks Junichi knows something she wants to keep a secret. So therefore Junichi is in a position of power, and even though hes gonna be her bitch it doesnt mean it wont be fun. (MM!)Guys also like to protect vunerable, innocent, cute girls :D, so we are anticipating how Tsukasa will turn out to have a nice exterior with a scary interior that actually harboring some trouble that Junichi can help her with :)and turn her nice again 😀 Just thought of this, Junichi will be the only one to know her secret..meaning he is the only one that can have such a deep bond w/ her, and guys like it when a girl is only hot for them.

      I forgot what I was gonna say here, but yeah.
      If you consider science. More girls for one guy = better chance of successful offspring!
      Thats why girls are so concerned about clothes..(well,subconsciously)..because they “trick” the guy into thinking that they are many girls (not really a trick, but ..subconsciously).
      Same thing with different sides/personalities to a girl, i guess?

      Sources:
      I’ma guy

      Rofl that was pretty fun, but yeah. Guys dont think through all that regularly..I just had to answer your question since it was so cute.

      Good luck getting your guy. >:)

    3. She isn’t psycho she just keeps a nice girl facade. It’s her unpredictably thats fascinating to me.

      Honestly, these “Nice Boat” comments are getting out of hand. Its getting annoying really, everyone seems to forget that School Days was an extreme circumstance. Really its a pretty weak show and its only worth remembering because of its ending.

      fragb85
  20. Well, this episode finally convinced me to play the game and I must say, the Tsukasa route was quite interesting. The game is a bit confusing at first, but I still do recommend it to anyone who can read Japanese to a reasonable extent.

    zempest
  21. I got to say, didn’t see this coming glad they saved her for last. Unfortunently, seems they want to add an arc with sister involved, its kinda creepy why ruin a good story.

    Kerry Le Blanc

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