Happy (belated) birthday, Yohane Tsushima!
You’re one of the coolest fallen angels that I know!
Before you, I hadn’t heard of the term “chuunibyou.” I was definitely intrigued by your character. You were constantly talking about Hell, and I loved both the irony of that fact when you and your peers supposedly attend a Catholic school and how dramatic you could be when talking about the intricacies of fallen angel life. It was never dull. After learning more about your characterization in the anime, I liked you even more than I initially did in SIF!
In the anime, you were introduced as Hanamaru’s childhood friend that was this whimsical girl from another world. You fell from a tree and went on about how despicable the mortals that lived on Earth were – a unique introduction for sure. Later on, we learn that you’ve enjoyed acting this way since you were young, and you haven’t had too many friends as a result.
During the start of high school, you tried to embrace your fallen angel side at first, but when you felt that you were going too far, you tried to tune in to your “Yoshiko” side more and start fresh as a normal girl without any quirks. Eventually, Chika and friends encouraged you that you were fine the way that you were, and you were able to just be Yohane without any regrets.
It’s a very relatable struggle for many – wanting to be one way openly, but being afraid of what others will think of you and acting another way to fit in. Whenever this struggle pops up in School Idol Project and the outcome is a bunch of friends loving each other for who they are, it’s really heartwarming. I honestly wish I could’ve had more friends like that during high school whenever I felt alone, but I digress.
I love your zaniness, your powerful voice (Deep Resonance blows me away every time, and Guilty Kiss was my favorite Aqours subunit for the longest), and your boke/tsukkomi kind of thing you have going on with Maru. Tatehoko Tsubasa is a nice song because the lyrics imply that you’ve made it to a point where you’re content with both sides of yourself. I love that you’ve shown so much growth, but I do wish that you weren’t always treated as the butt-monkey of the group. Regarding the whole preferred name thing, I wish that your friends were a bit more empathetic the way they were in this side story more often.
Never stop being the wonderful geeky fallen angel that you are! Yohane, shoukan!
